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Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison for corruption during the critical years of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. A jury in February found Nagin, a Democrat, guilty on charges including bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and tax evasion. Nagin, 58, stirred national controversy with his erratic behavior after Katrina breached floodwalls and inundated New Orleans in 2005, killing at least 1,500 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. Citing Nagin's devotion to family and commitment to helping New Orleans, U.S. District Judge Helen Ginger Berrigan said a shorter prison term than that recommended under federal sentencing guidelines was warranted. She ordered Nagin to turn himself in to begin serving his sentence by Sept. 8. With good behavior, and barring any appeals, Nagin could get out of prison after about 8-1/2 years. Berrigan also ordered Nagin, who prosecutors say ac

Israeli air strikes shook Gaza every few minutes on Wednesday, and militants kept up rocket fire at Israel's heartland in intensifying warfare that Palestinian officials said has killed at least 53 people in the Hamas-dominated enclave. Missiles from Israel's Iron Dome defense system shot into the sky to intercept rockets launched, for the second straight day, at Tel Aviv, the country's commercial capital. Some were also aimed at Israel's Dimona nuclear plant, 80 km (50 miles) from Gaza, but were either shot down or landed in open country. With cries of "Allahu akbar" (God is Greatest), Palestinians in the Gaza Strip cheered as rockets streaked overhead toward Israel, in attacks that could provide a popularity boost for Islamist Hamas, whose rift with neighboring Egypt's military-backed government has deepened economic hardship. Dimona, desert site of a nuclear reactor and widely assumed to have a role in atomic weaponry, was targeted by locally made

San Francisco-based 137 Ventures said it raised $137 million for its second fund, underscoring the eagerness of investors to buy shares in start-ups before they hold initial public offerings. _0"> The firm, which buys private-company shares from company founders, early employees, and other investors, counts companies such as data-analytics business Palantir, space-exploration firm SpaceX and blog site Tumblr among its portfolio. Tumblr sold to Yahoo! Inc last year for $1.1 billion. With start-ups staying private longer than a decade ago, many investors believe they are missing out on big gains they could have once captured through public shares. In the past, the opportunity to invest in start-ups went largely to venture capitalists. But increasingly, start-up companies are allowing early shareholders to cash out through tightly controlled sales to approved buyers such as 137 Ventures or other outlets such as SecondMarket. Investors in 137 Ventures tend to be institution

Wealth management firms are trying to get millennials excited about investing and hope to win their trust - and the sizeable wealth they are expected to control in the future. Those now 21 to 31 years old will control $9 trillion in assets by 2018, and that will continue to grow, Deloitte estimated. Millennials also stand to inherit some $36 trillion by 2061, according to Boston College's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. "We have a huge generational shift in wealth coming up," Tom Nally, TD Ameritrade Institutional's president, told Reuters recently. "We want to make sure our advisers are ready to serve next-generation investors." But it could be a tough sell: Millennials tend to leave their parents' advisers when they inherit money, and they are leery of stocks. They "are the most conservative generation since the Great Depression," reported a January UBS Wealth Management study, which found millennials keeping 52 percent of their savin

Investors who want to put money behind the idea that female leadership helps companies excel will have a new way to invest on Thursday when Barclays Bank PLC launches the Barclays Women in Leadership Total Return Index and exchange-traded notes. The new index will be composed of companies with a female chief executive officer or women making up at least one-fourth of the board of directors, Barclays said on Wednesday in a statement. In addition to these requirements, companies will have to meet specific market capitalization and trading volume thresholds to be included, the London-based bank said. The Barclays ETNs will track the index and trade under the ticker symbol "WIL" on the NYSE Arca Exchange. In connection with the launch, Barclays executives will ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. The ETNs are senior unsecured unsubordinated debt. Barbara Byrne, vice chairman in investment banking at Barclays, said she believes the ETNs will ser

The battleground between Argentina and its holdout creditors shifted from U.S. courts to the court of public opinion as both sides took out full-page advertisements to argue their cases in the world's major newspapers. Just what can be gained from the ads, which appeared worldwide, remains to be seen given Argentina lost its legal case on June 16 when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an Argentine appeal, letting stand a lower court's order that it pay holdout creditors $1.33 billion plus accrued interest. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps over $1 million combined from both sides, has been spent on ads in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Washington Post in the last three weeks. Both sides have met with a court-appointed mediator in hopes of structuring a deal before a July 30 deadline, but they have not met face-to-face. Argentina's Economy Minister Axel Kicillof has made speeches at the United Nations and in Washi

Aereo, the video streaming service which sought to provide an alternative to traditional television broadcasters, said it believes it can still operate despite a crippling U.S. Supreme Court ruling that caused the company to suspend service, according to a court filing on Wednesday. _0"> The Supreme Court last month said Aereo violated copyright law by using tiny antennas to broadcast TV content online to paying subscribers. The decision was a victory for traditional broadcasters, such as CBS Corp, Comcast Corp's NBC, Walt Disney Co's ABC, and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's Fox. After the ruling, Aereo announced that it was suspending service, and litigation in a related case involving the company resumed in a Manhattan federal court. CBS argued in a joint filing on Wednesday that the case should be dismissed in light of the Supreme Court ruling, but Aereo disagreed. "Although Aereo has temporarily suspended operations, Aereo believes that it can still o

Apple Inc acknowledged on Wednesday it needs to address manufacturing partners' carbon emissions and its own rising water consumption, though the iPhone maker said it had cut back sharply on greenhouse gas output. _0"> Apple last year hired former Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson to push cleaner initiatives, amid past criticism over its emissions and use of toxic materials. Observers say it has improved its practices and earned better scores from groups such as Greenpeace. On Wednesday, Apple released its 2014 environmental responsibility report, saying investments in renewable energy helped slash its carbon footprint from energy use by 31 percent from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2013. That's despite power consumption soaring 44 percent over the same period. ( here ) But the company, which is building its future main campus not far from its current base in Silicon Valley, said water usage had spiked as a result of general construction and expansion. It

Apple Inc acknowledged on Wednesday it needs to address manufacturing partners' carbon emissions and its own rising water consumption, though the iPhone maker said it had cut back sharply on greenhouse gas output. _0"> Apple last year hired former Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson to push cleaner initiatives, amid past criticism over its emissions and use of toxic materials. Observers say it has improved its practices and earned better scores from groups such as Greenpeace. On Wednesday, Apple released its 2014 environmental responsibility report, saying investments in renewable energy helped slash its carbon footprint from energy use by 31 percent from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2013. That's despite power consumption soaring 44 percent over the same period. ( here ) But the company, which is building its future main campus not far from its current base in Silicon Valley, said water usage had spiked as a result of general construction and expansion. It

The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. _0"> * With countries in the European Union obliged to reduce their debt as a percentage of their economies, the quantifying of vice is expected to make growth rates look rosier. ( nyti.ms/1ol0Twa ) * Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials. They appeared to be targeting the files on tens of thousands of employees who have applied for top-secret security clearances. ( nyti.ms/1mL8sRb ) * A growing category in health care promises an alternative to the hospital emergency room and perhaps the family practitioner, with low fees and extended hours. Once derided as "Doc in a Box" medicine, urgent care has mushroomed into an estimated $14.5 billion business. ( n

The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. _0"> * Federal Reserve officials agreed at June's policy meeting to end their bond-buying program in October, putting an explicit end date on the experiment for the first time. Most officials at the June meeting also indicated that they expect an interest rate hike to come next year. ( on.wsj.com/VLc1vo ) * IBM on Wednesday pledged to spend $3 billion over five years on semiconductor research. The money will be directed toward two major tasks: tackling technical obstacles to the miniaturization of circuitry on conventional silicon chips and developing alternative materials and technologies to keep boosting computing speed while consuming less energy. ( on.wsj.com/1nffCfJ ) * The Education Department says it was unaware of the dire state of Corinthian Colleges Inc's finances before it moved June 12 to restrict access to fede

Silent Circle, a company known for mobile apps designed to thwart government surveillance, is introducing a fixed price, secrecy-cloaking service on Thursday that lets customers make and receive private phone calls. The secure voice-and-data calling plan works on Apple iOS and Android smartphones and, eventually, on Windows Mobile systems, the company said. Callers can reach 79 countries, including China, Russia, most of Europe and the Americas. Large parts of the Middle East and Africa are not covered. The service aims to challenge not just traditional phone carriers - who still by and large charge steep roaming fees to international travelers - but also to newer, voice-over-Internet services that have sprung up over the past decade. For while Silent Circle undercuts major competitors' roaming costs in many countries, the service's basic attraction lies in its security features. "What Silent Circle is offering is an augmented level of security beyond what normal pho

U.S. security software maker Symantec Corp said it is holding discussions with authorities in Beijing after a state-controlled Chinese newspaper reported that the Ministry of Public Security had banned the use of one of its products. _0"> The China Daily reported on July 4 that the ministry had issued an order to branches across the nation telling them to uninstall Symantec's data loss prevention, or DLP, products from their systems, saying the software "could pose information risks." The newspaper also said Chinese news site Sohu.com had reported that the public security bureau had banned Symantec's DLP products from future procurement projects. ( bit.ly/1okVF3v ) Symantec spokeswoman Colleen Lacter told Reuters that her company was in discussions with the Chinese government about the matter, though she declined to confirm or deny the newspaper's account of what had happened. "The discussions are ongoing and it's premature to go into detail

Lee Brian Schrager's passion for fried chicken led him to travel around the United States and convince celebrity and local chefs to share their recipes in his new cookbook "Fried & True." In the book co-written with Adeena Sussman, Schrager shares more than 50 recipes for fried chicken from his contributors including double fried chicken and another with Asian-inspired ingredients. The 55-year-old founder of the Food Network South Beach and New York City Wine & Food Festivals spoke to Reuters about what makes the best fried chicken and sharing recipes. Q: What is the secret to making great fried chicken? A: The right temperature with the frying oil. If the oil is too hot, it’s going to be burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. If it’s too cold, it will get too greasy. Starting the oil at 370 degree Fahrenheit (188 degree Celsius) is the key. Q: What do you look for in fried chicken? A: Very, very crunchy on the outside and still juicy on the inside.

Cupcakes still lined the counter of an empty and unlit Crumbs Bake Shop on 42nd Street in New York City on Tuesday afternoon, the day after the largest U.S. cupcake retailer announced it was closing. Crumbs, which specializes in oversized cupcakes and went public in 2011, shuttered its nearly 50 locations in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Gina Mackey and Raquel Baquero of Queens stopped by the store after they heard the news that it would be closing. “I don’t do too much cupcake stuff because I don’t find them to be very moist. But this was a moist cupcake and I did enjoy it, so it’s a shame it went out of business,” said Mackey. “Had I known it was going to go out of business, I would have come and gotten my last Crumbs cupcake.” “And I would have gotten my first,” said Baquero, her daughter. “When my friend posted the story they were closing, I was like, ‘Well, I just blew it,’” Baquero said. “I just walked by to confirm that they were really closed.” The news follow

Hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse and the ACLU filed legal papers on Tuesday seeking to stop federal law enforcement authorities from categorizing their face-painted fan base known as the "Juggalos" as a criminal gang. The duo and the American Civil Liberties Union intend to ask the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the decision of a lower court in late June that blocked them from challenging the FBI's designation of the Juggalos as a gang with criminal intent. "The only way to remedy this injustice for all innocent Juggalos is to start with the root of the problem – the FBI’s arbitrary and erroneous branding of hundreds of thousands of music fans as gang members," said Michael Steinberg, an ACLU lawyer. The Justice Department was not immediately available for comment. The Michigan-based Insane Clown Posse paint their faces to look like clowns and are known for rebellious and provocative music that includes songs such "My Axe" and "

All Zack Danger Brown wanted to do was make potato salad and find a few dollars for ingredients. He has amassed 4,000 supporters, and at one point on Tuesday, about $50,000 in financial support from a campaign on Internet fundraiser Kickstarter. "Basically I'm just making potato salad. I haven't decided what kind yet," the 31-year-old Ohio man wrote on the campaign page. He was initially asking for $10 to make the picnic side dish but word quickly spread about his endeavor, which became a global sensation. "The thing people are responding to is the opportunity to come together around something equal parts absurd and mundane. Potato salad isn't controversial, but it seems to unite us all," Brown wrote on an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. The financial support numbers have wavered with donors signing up or pulling out as the campaign has garnered more attention. User comments have asked Brown to donate the excess amount of cash to a charity, but

The United Nations' gender equality body UN Women on Tuesday appointed British actress Emma Watson, best known for her role as Hermione in the "Harry Potter" film series, as a goodwill ambassador to advocate for the empowerment of young women. _0"> "Being asked to serve as UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador is truly humbling," Watson, 24, said in a statement. "Women's rights are something so inextricably linked with who I am, so deeply personal and rooted in my life, that I can't imagine an opportunity more exciting," she said. Watson's films have grossed more than $5.4 billion worldwide over the past decade, according to the Internet Movie Database. She graduated from Brown University in May with a bachelor's degree in English literature. Other UN Women goodwill ambassadors include Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman and Thailand's Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol. (Reporting by Mirjam Donath , editing by G Crosse)

Eager customers lined up before dawn on Tuesday as Washington became the second U.S. state to allow the sale of marijuana for recreational use, although shortages and high prices were likely to accompany any euphoria. Store employees clapped and cheered at Top Shelf Cannabis in the northern city of Bellingham as its first buds were sold to a 29-year-old from Kansas, Cale Holdsworth. "I'm happy to be a part of history," said Holdsworth, who was on vacation visiting family and took his place at the front of the line at about 4 a.m. A handful of shops opened a day after 25 outlets were issued licenses under a heavily regulated and taxed system approved by voters in November 2012. The nation, and the federal government, are watching Washington's rollout as a broader trend of liberalization and pro-pot activism takes hold in the United States. More than 100 people were outside Top Shelf Cannabis, in an industrial office park, when the doors opened at 8 a.m. Aft

A man shouted "get that man a beer" and sure enough, President Barack Obama soon had a cold pint in his hand and prepared to play billiards with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. This Tuesday night out on the town in Denver, which included slices of pizza with a group of people who had written to him, was Obama's way of escaping the confines of Washington, where partisan gridlock reigns supreme. It was a case of "the bear is loose," the president's own description of the times when he is able to break free of the trappings of Washington and experience what everyday Americans see. Of course that's nearly impossible with the crowds that are attracted to his every move and his security detail. Shaking hands with dozens of bystanders along a Denver street, the "bear" came face-to-face with a person wearing a horse's head mask, in honor of the Denver Broncos NFL football team. Inside Wynkoop Brewing Company, a local brewery that prides

Mountain-climbers have made a grisly discovery in the Mont Blanc range of the Alps - the body of a young climber preserved in ice for 32 years. _0"> The body of Patrice Hyvert, who had been training to be a guide, was found last Thursday by two mountain-climbers, local newspaper Dauphine Libere and other media reported. Hyvert was last seen alive on March 1, 1982, when aged 23, he took off on a solitary climb up the western side of the "Aiguille Verte" mountain, part of the Mont Blanc massif that straddles the French-Italian border, before bad weather set in in the afternoon. Another climber was evacuated from the same mountain two days later, but Hyvert was never found. Local police confirmed to newspapers that the frozen body was that of the missing climber, finding his identity card still in his wallet. The discovery came as a shock to Hyvert's 82-year-old father, Gerard. "I'm a mountain man, and I would have preferred him to stay up there,&qu

China must separate the conflicting promotion and prevention roles of its state tobacco monopoly to reduce smoking-related deaths, which number as much as 1 million a year, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. With more than 300 million smokers, China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco. The government has pledged to curb smoking but its efforts have had little success. The country's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration controls the world's single largest manufacturer of tobacco products, China National Tobacco Corporation, but also wields power over policymaking on tobacco control and enforcement. Anti-smoking campaigners say this dynamic has long undermined their efforts to curb the habit. WHO's director-general, Dr Margaret Chan, said she had advised China's tobacco monopoly to separate the government agency functions from the state tobacco firm, and expected the Chinese government would take her advice.

A Beijing court has ruled against Apple Inc by upholding the validity of a patent held by a Chinese company, clearing the way for the Chinese company to continue its own case against Apple for infringing intellectual property rights. _0"> Apple had taken Shanghai-based Zhizhen Internet Technology and China's State Intellectual Property Office to court to seek a ruling that Zhizhen's patent rights to a speech recognition technology were invalid. But the Beijing First Intermediate Court on Tuesday decided in Zhizhen's favor, the People's Daily state newspaper reported on Wednesday. After the verdict, Apple said it intended to take the case to the Beijing Higher People's Court, according to the People's Daily. "Unfortunately, we were not aware of Zhizhen's patent before we introduced Siri (speech recognition technology) and we do not believe we are using this patent," said a Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman in an emailed statement to Reut

More immigrants from the European Union entered Switzerland than ever before in 2013, the year before Swiss voters put their country at odds with Brussels by backing a cap on immigration from the bloc. _0"> A net 66,200 EU citizens emigrated to Switzerland last year, the highest number since a free movement of people pact came into force in 2002, the State Secretariat for Economics (SECO) said in its annual report which examines the effect of the agreement on the Swiss economy. The SECO figures pre-date February's surprise vote in favour of imposing tighter immigration controls following a campaign which tapped into fears that Swiss culture is being eroded by foreigners, who account for nearly a quarter of the population. Switzerland said last month it would introduce immigration quotas for EU citizens from 2017, sparking a sharp reaction from the European Union which dismissed the plans as incompatible with the pact that guarantees the free movement of workers. The S

On stage and off, you don't want to tangle with Joyce DiDonato - American soprano extraordinaire and practiced kickboxer too. The 45-year-old diva has been leaving audiences at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden roaring for her singing and performing of the hugely demanding bel canto (beautiful singing) role of the doomed Queen Maria Stuarda - Mary Queen of Scots - in the second of Donizetti's three Tudor operas. There's hardly a more gripping and dramatic scene in opera than the one at the end of Act Two when DiDonato as Maria has a knock-down, drag-out confrontation with Queen Elizabeth I, sung by the up-and-coming Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio. They spit insults at each other, DiDonato hurls "vil bastarda" (evil bastard) at her rival and pulls the tablecloth from under Elizabeth's picnic lunch, sweeping all the food and dishes to the floor - all this in the full knowledge that it will ensure she has her head chopped off. "I feel complet

Rio's iconic Christ statue will be lit up on the eve of Sunday's World Cup final in the colors of each of the finalists' flags with Twitter users to determine which is displayed the longest. Starting on Wednesday, Twitter Inc users around the world can participate by tweeting the hashtag #ArmsWideOpen followed by the abbreviation of the finalist nations – Germany (GER) and the winner of the match to be played Wednesday between Argentina (ARG) and the Netherlands (NED). And on Saturday at 7 pm local time (2200 GMT) the imposing statue overlooking Brazil's most famous city will light up with the flag colors for a period of time proportional to votes received. The final will take place at Rio's Maracanã stadium. "We will capture the opinions of fans around the world and project them over Rio's Christ," Carlos Moreira Jr, Twitter's director of marking development for Latin America, told Reuters. The contest is a joint initiative between Twitter

In April this year, a pregnant woman asked Professor Bogdan Chazan, director of Warsaw's Holy Family Hospital, for an abortion because her own physician had diagnosed her unborn child with grave health problems. Chazan sent the woman a letter saying he could not agree to an abortion in his hospital because of a "conflict of conscience," and instead gave the woman the address of a hospice where, he said, the child could get palliative care once born. The baby was born at a different hospital with, according to a doctor there, severe head and facial deformities and a brain that was not viable, conditions which the doctor said would result in the child's death within a month or two. The event has stirred a new battle in a long-running war in staunchly Catholic Poland between conservatives and liberals over abortion, which along with homosexuality, contraception, and in vitro fertilization, is defined by the church as sinful. On Wednesday, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, t

An American who co-wrote a book called "Fiesta: How To Survive The Bulls Of Pamplona" was badly gored on Wednesday in the morning bull run at Pamplona's San Fermin festival. A Spanish man was also gored in the "encierro", when runners in red scarves and white outfits dash through the Spanish town's streets pursued by the huge animals. Chicago resident Bill Hillmann, 32, tripped and fell when a bull gored him in his right thigh, according to festival website sanfermin.com. The Spaniard, a 35-year-old man from Valencia, was gored in the chest and taken to hospital in a semi-conscious state, officials said. The two men are in a serious condition, the regional government said. A further three, all Spanish, were taken to hospital with lesser injuries from the chaotic stampede through the narrow streets of Pamplona's old town, authorities said. All the injured were men. Few women take part in the run. Authorities did not give the names of the injured men

For some people, a couple of caipirinhas, the powerful Brazilian cocktail, are just what is needed to take the edge off the stress of a hard day's work. But for others, including more than a few visitors to this year's soccer World Cup, even a single caipirinha (pronounced kai-per-REEN-ya) will leave them with a monster hangover. Luiz Otavio Goncalves, 72, wants to change that. Goncalves is one of the country's boutique producers of "cachaça" – the powerful sugar-cane liquor that is the main ingredient - some would say "poison" - in a caipirinha. A mix of crushed lime and sugar, ice and cachaça (pronounced ka-SHA-sah), the caipirinha has been spreading beyond Brazil to bars around the world. But the cocktail's popularity, Goncalves says, has encouraged cachaça producers to churn out cheap, impure cachaças and for bartenders to mix them into their drinks, increasing the chance of a hangover. In Brazil, the world's top sugarcane producer,

A prominent writer who has angered China by advocating Tibetan rights said she and her husband were placed under house arrest during a visit to Beijing by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Tsering Woeser told Reuters that state security officers had prevented her and her spouse, author Wang Lixiong, from leaving their home since they returned from a trip to the north of China on Tuesday. Woeser, who has written several books on Tibet and last year was given a U.S. State Department "International Women of Courage Award," said she was detained after a U.S. Embassy staffer telephoned to invite her to meet a U.S. official for dinner. Kerry is currently in Beijing along with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew for annual talks with Chinese officials on political and economic issues. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman said the United States was "concerned" that Woeser and another recipient of the International Women of Courage Award had been placed under house arres

The cost to produce a BLT, America's favorite summer sandwich, hit a record high of $1.65 in May and will continue to take a bigger bite out of wallets in the coming months, given a pig virus that has ramped up bacon prices and drought-stricken salad crops in California. But price increases may be limited as farmers breed bigger pigs and processors tap stocks built up in expectation of tight supplies as the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) killed millions of piglets in the past year. PEDv deaths helped push bacon to a record $6.05 per pound in May when the price to make bacon, lettuce and tomato (BLT) sandwiches also peaked. Bunny Leyva, owner of Bunny's Cafe in Stockton, California, stocked up by doubling her order of pre-cooked bacon as prices recently jumped to $14.49 per pack from $12.99 within a two-week period. "I know it's going to start climbing, so I buy two of whatever I usually get," she said. However, prices for pork bellies, used to make

Utah's attorney general will appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court over last month's ruling by a federal appeals court that backed gay marriage in the conservative, heavily Mormon state, his office said on Wednesday. An appeal by Utah was widely expected after the June 25 decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver that the state could not prohibit same-sex couples from marrying. That ruling was put on hold pending Utah's appeal. The office of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said he would petition the Supreme Court in the coming week, and that the state's measure banning gay marriage was presumed to be constitutional "unless the highest courts deem otherwise." Utah had the option of asking the entire 10th Circuit appeals court to review the ruling or taking the case directly to the nation's top court. The June 25 decision was the first time a regional federal appeals court had made such a ruling in

Kush the cat was quarantined in central Florida after her owner called 911 over the weekend for help, saying the ferocious feline had her trapped in her home. "I can’t get out. She’s got us trapped in our bedroom,” Teresa Gregory, 50, told the emergency police dispatcher, according to the record of the call. 'She’s just sitting outside my bedroom door right now. We don’t know what to do.” Gregory told the dispatcher that Kush, a 4-year-old Russian Blue, began behaving badly earlier in the day so her husband James locked the cat in the bathroom for a while. Gregory said she might have accidentally stepped on the cat, sparking the aggressive behavior. When the cat was released, “she freaked out on us,” hissing, scratching and scaring them, Gregory said. Gregory said both she and her husband were bleeding from scratches to their arms and legs but both later declined treatment. "I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I love this cat to death,” Gregory told the dispatche

For the German photographer who chose a picture of a Jewish child as the ideal Aryan for Nazi propagandists, it was a sly joke. For the child's family, it became a terrifying ordeal. Hessy Taft was 6 months old in 1935 when her portrait by the well-known German photographer Hans Ballin was chosen by Nazis and reprinted on the cover of a family magazine, on postcards and on shop placards urging customers to "buy beautiful clothes for your beautiful baby." When Taft's mother demanded an explanation from Ballin and reminded him that her family was Jewish, the photographer told her: "I wanted to allow myself the pleasure of this joke." After keeping her story a secret for decades, Taft - whose maiden name is Levinsons and who now lives in the United States and is a chemistry professor - has begun to talk about her ordeal. On Wednesday, she spoke to Reuters. Taft said she bears no ill will toward the photographer. "Yes, I thank him for having the cour

A state judge struck down Colorado's gay marriage ban on Wednesday, saying the prohibition violated constitutional rights, but put his ruling on hold pending appeal. It was the latest of several decisions by state and federal judges to strike down state bans on same-sex nuptials and then stay their rulings pending challenges to higher courts. Adams County District Court Judge C. Scott Crabtree said in his decision that Colorado's prohibition, approved by voters in 2006, conflicted with the fundamental right to marry. "The Court rejects the State's attempt to too narrowly describe the marital right at issue to the right to marry a person of the same sex," Crabtree wrote. There are 19 states, plus the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriage is now legal. Several other same-sex marriage lawsuits are moving toward the U.S. Supreme Court. Two other lawsuits, testing bans in Oklahoma and Virginia, have already been heard by appeals courts. The attorney gen