hDedication for bridge

hDedication for bridge
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A U.S. Air Force C-17 from Charleston Air Force Base flies over at the end of the dedication ceremonies for the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in Charleston, S.C. Hundreds attended Saturday's event. The $632 million bridge is the longest cable-stayed span in North America. Ravenel is a former state senator and U.S. congressman.
KKK leader: Someonein the crowd fired first
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A Ku Klux Klan leader who was at a workers' rally more than 25 years ago where five people died and 10 others were injured gave defiant testimony to a commission Saturday, saying "maybe God guided the bullets." Virgil L. Griffin of Mount Holly, imperial wizard of the Cleveland Knights of the KKK, said someone in the crowd of Communist Workers Party marchers fired first and hit a van driven by a Klansman. Griffin spoke before the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an effort modeled on similar commissions in South Africa and Peru. The commission is investigating the deaths at the march organized by the Communist Workers Party that ended when members of the Klan and the American Nazi Party opened fire.
Police: Suicidal womancaused crash that killed 3
SKOKIE, Ill. -- A woman who said she "wanted to end it all" is accused of deliberately causing a high-speed crash that killed three Chicago rock musicians, authorities said. Jeannette Sliwinski, 23, was charged with first-degree murder and was being held under guard at a hospital after she was denied bond Friday. Sliwinski, of Morton Grove, reportedly told investigators that she had been in a fight with her mother before the crash and wanted to take her own life. "She said she wanted to end it all when she ran into the back of the car," said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Colleen Daly, adding that prosecutors might seek the death penalty. Police said Sliwinski was driving at least 70 mph and had run three red lights when her car rammed the musicians' car at an intersection in this northern Chicago suburb Thursday. The victims were identified as Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35, and Douglas Meis, 29, all of Chicago.
Crowd gathers to markbomb's 60th anniversary
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. -- Thousands of people gathered at Trinity Site on Saturday in a restricted area of the White Sands Missile Range for the 60th anniversary of the dawn of the nuclear age. The Manhattan Project resulted in the two atomic bombs that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Japan in August 1945, essentially stunning Japan into surrender and ending World War II. The depression created by the blast at ground zero on what is now the White Sands Missile Range is marked by an obelisk with a simple inscription: "Trinity Site, Where the World's First Nuclear Device Was Exploded on July 16, 1945."
Court convicts womanin $242M fraud case
LAGOS, Nigeria -- A court convicted a Nigerian woman of helping defraud a Brazilian bank of $242 million in the West African country's biggest international fraud case. Amaka Anajemba was convicted Friday, sentenced to 21/2 years in prison and ordered to give up $25.5 million in cash and assets -- including houses in Nigeria, the United States, Britain and Switzerland -- to help repay the bank. According to court papers, Anajemba helped her late husband in a fraud ring that tricked a top employee of the Brazilian bank into siphoning millions to overseas accounts on the promise of $13.4 million kickback from a bogus Nigerian airport contract. Four men have pleaded innocent in the case.
Coat of arms for Camilla
LONDON -- Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will get a coat of arms today to coincide with her 58th birthday. The blue, red, gold and green crest features a boar taken from the crest of her father, Maj. Bruce Shand and a lion copied from her husband Prince Charles' arms, Charles' office said. Queen Elizabeth II took a "keen interest" in its creation, Clarence House added. The duchess' coat of arms also has a crown -- the Coronet of the Heir Apparent -- copied from Charles' design.
Associated Press