Testimony in R. Kelly case

Testimony in R. Kelly case

CHICAGO — A childhood friend of the alleged victim in the R. Kelly child pornography case testified Wednesday that she recognizes her longtime friend as the one in the explicit video at the center of the trial.

The R B superstar is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl as young as 13. His attorneys have said Kelly’s not on the tape and the alleged victim, who is now 23, also denies she’s the person in the video.

Earlier Wednesday, John Kelly, a retired investigator with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, testified that a room in a Chicago home once owned by the singer strongly resembles the distinctive room in the video.

Polar bear ruling challenge

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says the state will sue to challenge the listing of polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Palin on Wednesday said there is insufficient evidence to support the decision U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made last week.

Kempthorne says the best available science indicates that the bears’ primary habitat, sea ice, was shrinking and likely to further recede.

Plea to Myanmar leaders

BANGKOK, Thailand — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon heads to Myanmar today for the diplomatic challenge of a lifetime — persuading the ruling generals to let in a torrent of foreign assistance for cyclone victims.

He urged the junta Wednesday to focus on saving lives, not on politics, after it refused an American proposal for U.S. warships to deliver relief supplies.

By the junta’s own count, at least 134,000 people are dead or missing from the May 2-3 cyclone. The U.N. says up to 2.5 million survivors are hungry and homeless and there are worries about disease outbreaks in the Irrawaddy River delta.

“The issues of assistance and aid in Myanmar should not be politicized. Our focus now is on saving lives,” Ban said.

Bridge-collapse report

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Transportation officials’ concerns that fixing or replacing a Minneapolis bridge would be a “budget buster” may have led to bad maintenance decisions before its deadly collapse last August, a report released Wednesday concluded.

The report, commissioned by the Legislature, also criticized the Minnesota Department of Transportation for bridge inspections that were mishandled or not acted upon over the years, even when they called for immediate repairs.

The department has come under sharp criticism for its upkeep of the 40-year-old Interstate 35W bridge, even as an ongoing federal investigation has highlighted a design flaw and the weight of construction materials on the bridge, rather than maintenance, as critical factors in the collapse that killed 13 people.

Ban on body-dissolving

CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire’s governor is considering a bill that would outlaw dissolving human remains as an alternative to cremation but provide for studies to allow it again eventually.

The state Senate voted Wednesday to send Gov. John Lynch a bill to reverse a two-year-old law that allows alkaline hydrolysis — a process now used on human cadavers only at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Alkaline hydrolysis is legal in New Hampshire and Minnesota under cremation statutes. Though the bill would outlaw the process in New Hampshire, it would also establish a committee to study how to regulate it. The panel would have to report back to lawmakers by November.

Mexican drug violence

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s drug violence has claimed another top police official: the second-in-command in the central state of Morelos.

The body of Victor Enrique Payan was found with a second, unidentified Morelos state police officer late Tuesday in the trunk of a car south of Mexico City, city police official Miguel Amelio Gomez said Wednesday.

Attached to their bodies was a message warning against joining the Sinaloa drug cartel, based in the northwestern state of the same name. Authorities could not immediately explain the message but were investigating to see if the officials had any ties to drug traffickers.

Mexican police have a history of corruption, and a number of police and soldiers sent to fight the cartels have ended up joining them.

Mexico’s president has sent more than 24,000 soldiers nationwide to fight drug gangs. The traffickers have responded with unprecedented violence, beheading police and killing soldiers.

Associated Press