Nation/world
NEW & DEVELOPING
— CASEY ANTHONY — A Florida judge who ordered Casey Anthony to serve a year of probation for check fraud now that she is out jail is stepping down from the case.
— AUSTRALIA-SUSPICIOUS DEVICE — An Australian bomb squad safely frees a teenager who was trapped inside a Sydney home near a suspicious device, ending a horrifying 10-hour ordeal.
— REPORT-CYBER ATTACK — A computer security firm says cybercriminals have spent at least five years targeting more than 70 government entities, nonprofit groups and corporations to steal troves of data.
TOP STORIES
EGYPT-MUBARAK TRIAL
CAIRO — An ailing, 83-year-old Hosni Mubarak, lying ashen-faced on a hospital bed inside a metal defendants cage with his two sons standing protectively beside him in white prison uniforms, denies charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of protesters at the start of his historic trial. The spectacle, aired live on state television, is a stunning moment for Egyptians. By Hamza Hendawi.
AP photos, videos. An interactive with ongoing updates, the history of Mubarak’s rule and his removal from power is available. A separate advisory has also moved.
— EGYPT-WATCHING MUBARAK — The father of a youth killed by police during Egypt’s uprising watches Mubarak at the opening of his trial.
— ISRAEL-MUBARAK — Israeli lawmaker says he offered Egypt’s Mubarak asylum during uprising but was turned down.
— EGYPT-MUBARAK TIMELINE — Key dates in the life of Egypt’s ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.
— EGYPT-MUBARAK-CHARGES — Prosecutor details Mubarak charges of corruption, conspiring to kill protesters.
DEBT SHOWDOWN-WHAT NOW?
WASHINGTON — The nation’s bills are being paid and Congress has bolted the hothouse of Washington, one debt limit deadline beaten and another ahead for a dozen yet-to-be-named lawmakers on the final piece of a $2 trillion deficit-cutting deal. By Laurie Kellman.
AP photos, video, interactive.
OBAMA-LOSING ON TAXES
WASHINGTON — Time and again during his presidential campaign, Barack Obama was unequivocal: We are going to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. But when the chips are down, now-President Obama has blinked and backed away. By Jim Kuhnhenn.
WALL STREET
NEW YORK — Stocks fall for the eighth straight day as worries about the economy deepen. The S&P 500 index is headed for its longest losing streak since the peak of the financial crisis in October 2008. By David K. Randall.
AP photos.
— ECONOMY-SERVICES — Service firms expand at slowest pace in 17 months; growth in new orders, employment weakens.
— FACTORY ORDERS — Businesses ordered fewer factory goods in June, cutting demand for planes, cars and machines.
KIDNAPPED GIRL FOUND
SAN FRANCISCO — A day after releasing disturbing new videos taken by one of Jaycee Dugard’s captors and a report highlighting law enforcement failures in the case, a California prosecutor joins a state lawmaker Wednesday to develop ideas for improving supervision of parolees. By Jason Dearen.
AP photos, video.
SCANDINAVIA-FAR RIGHT
STOCKHOLM — He feared immigrants and stalked his targets with a gun. The case carries echoes of Anders Behring Breivik — a lone gunman unleashing xenophobic fury in a shocking explosion of violence. And although the shooter who terrified the Swedish city of Malmo last year was less lethal, new revelations provide a daunting reminder of the current of ethnic enmity beneath the Nordic countries’ placid surface. By Jim Heintz.
AP photos.
NATIONAL
MISSING GIRL-NH
STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. — Residents of Stewartstown were saddened, and a little nervous, when they learned that an autopsy of 11-year-old Celina Cass did not determine how she died. Further toxicology tests and investigation are needed, officials have said. The community is looking for answers. By Lynne Tuohy.
AP photos, video.
POT TOWN
WILLIAMS, Ore. — Medical marijuana has taken root in this idyllic Oregon town like nowhere else in the state, with 20 percent of the population registered by the state to grow the drug. The issue became the talk of the town last summer when new Google Earth satellite images showed little green circles in neat rows all over the area. And 6-foot-tall fences that screen marijuana gardens from public view have become so common that a local pastor uses them as landmarks for giving directions. By Jeff Barnard.
AP photos. An interactive map details the number of medical marijuana growers in Oregon counties.
TRIBE-GAY MARRIAGE
SEATTLE — Standing up before dozens of Suquamish Tribal members at a general council meeting in March, Heather Purser told them she was a lesbian, and asked her people to recognize same-sex marriages at the tribe’s Washington state reservation. Even after four years of lobbying tribal members, the 28-year-old didn’t know how much support she had. On Monday, the Suquamish Tribal Council voted to ratify the people’s wishes and recognized gay marriage, making it only the second tribe in the country known to do so. By Manuel Valdes.
AP photos.
SEPT 11-PEACE ACTIVISTS
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Out of the ashes of the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, some relatives of the victims channeled their grief into the peace movement. The families argued the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and calls for vengeance were the wrong response to the terrorist attacks. They would rather the legacy of their loved ones be a rise in peace activism, and have spent the last decade trying to spread that message and prevent further suffering by civilians that they endured. By John Christoffersen.
AP photos.
INTERNATIONAL
TROPICAL WEATHER
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Tropical Storm Emily brushes past Puerto Rico and sets its sights on the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where more than 630,000 people are still without shelter after last year’s earthquake. By Trenton Daniel.
AP photo.
MALAWI-PRESIDENT IN TROUBLE
JOHANNESBURG — Malawi’s president faces growing international condemnation after anti-government demonstrations left at least 19 people dead last month. He’s expelled a British diplomat who criticized him publicly and alienated foreign donors to this impoverished southern African nation. It’s an unlikely turn for a man who was easily re-elected two years ago but whose demise has become intertwined with the ailing Malawian economy. “This old man has to go,” says one disillusioned taxi driver. By Nastasya Tay.
AP photo.
WASHINGTON
VIOLENT EXTREMISM-STRATEGY
WASHINGTON — Local communities around the country are best suited to take on the challenge of combatting the kind of violent extremism that inspires people to kill, the Obama administration concludes in a new national plan to fight the threat of al-Qaida and other violent radicals at home. By Eileen Sullivan.
— TAINTED GROUND TURKEY — Source still unknown of tainted ground turkey linked to one death in California; 76 others ill.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION
— APARTMENT FALL-MINNESOTA — 11-month-old girl dies after falling from 9th floor window of Minneapolis apartment.
— OSCARS-GOVERNORS AWARDS — Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones, makeup artist Dick Smith to receive honorary Oscars. AP photo.
— NJ POLITICIAN-NUDE PHOTOS — Democratic NJ politician resigns after nude photos he sent woman appear on GOP activist’s website.
— HULU-ORIGINAL SHOWS — Hulu jumps into original programming with “Super Size Me” documentary-maker Spurlock.
— OBIT-JAMES FORD SEALE — Spokesman: James Ford Seale, a reputed Klansman imprisoned for 1964 abductions and killings, has died.