Shuttle launch canceled
Shuttle launch canceled
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA called off the launch of space shuttle Discovery on Tuesday, the second day in a row the liftoff was scrubbed, this time because of a bad fuel valve.
Launch officials halted the countdown midway through the fueling process. The seven astronauts had not yet boarded the shuttle for the flight to the international space station scheduled for early today.
A new launch date was not immediately set. It was also unclear whether NASA would be able to meet the end-of-month deadline for sending Discovery on its way.
Confession in Iran trial
TEHRAN, Iran — One of Iran’s most prominent pro-reform figures admitted fomenting unrest and asked for the country’s forgiveness Tuesday during the mass trial of activists detained in the post-election crackdown in a confession that the opposition said was coerced.
The courtroom statement by Sae ed Hajjarian — who is considered one of the reform movement’s top architects and who was shot in the head in a 2000 assassination attempt — was the latest dramatic confession in the month-old trial that the opposition has compared to Josef Stalin’s “show trials” of opponents in the Soviet Union.
More than 100 defendants are on trial, accused of trying to overthrow Iran’s clerical leadership in a “velvet revolution” by fomenting huge protests over the disputed June 12 presidential election, which the opposition says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by fraud.
Taliban: Leader is dead
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Pakistani Taliban commanders acknowledged Tuesday that the militants’ top leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was dead, ending weeks of claims and counterclaims over his fate after a U.S. missile strike on his father-in-law’s home this month.
Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, two of Mehsud’s top aides and reportedly rivals to succeed him, called The Associated Press to say that their leader had died Sunday of injuries from the Aug. 5 strike in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border.
‘Fan Cans’ ads restricted
MILWAUKEE — Anheuser-Busch InBev is dropping its “Fan Cans” promotions from communities around the country where colleges have complained that the effort — which sells cans of Bud Light in school colors — promotes underage drinking and infringes on trademarks.
The Federal Trade Commission has discussed the issue with the brewer, both the agency and the St. Louis-based brewer said. Regulators are concerned that cans will be marketed to fans under the legal drinking age of 21, said Janet Evans, a senior attorney at the FTC responsible for alcohol marketing issues.
The industry’s regulations require at least 70 percent of an advertisement’s audience to be older than 21, and Evans said that doesn’t happen on college campuses.
CDC: Circumcision doesn’t protect gays from AIDS
ATLANTA — Circumcision, which has helped prevent AIDS among heterosexual men in Africa, doesn’t help protect gay men from the virus, according to the largest U.S. study to look at the question.
The research, presented at a conference Tuesday, is expected to influence the government’s first guidance on circumcision.
Circumcision “is not considered beneficial” in stopping the spread of HIV through gay sex, said Dr. Peter Kilmarx, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, the CDC is still considering recommending it for other groups, including baby boys and high-risk heterosexual men.
Charged in python death
OXFORD, Fla. — The mother of a 2-year-old Florida girl asphyxiated by a Burmese python and the woman’s live-in boyfriend were charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the death, officials said Monday.
Jaren Ashley Hare, 19, and Charles Jason Darnell, 32, also face child-abuse counts, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The charges come nearly two months after the July 1 death of little Shaiunna Hare, who was killed by the snake in her crib.
Jackie’s half brother charged in child-porn case
PORTLAND, Ore. — The half brother of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has been indicted on felony charges of possessing child pornography in Oregon.
James Auchincloss was indicted by a Jackson County grand jury in Medford on 25 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse resulting from the alleged duplication and possession of images of child pornography.
The Jackson County district attorney’s office says an arraignment has not yet been scheduled.
Combined dispatches