Army psychiatrist

convicted in Fort Hood shooting

FORT HOOD, Texas - A military jury on Friday convicted Maj. Nidal Hasan in the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, making the Army psychiatrist eligible for the death penalty in the shocking assault against American troops by one of their own on home soil.

There was never any doubt that Hasan was the gunman. He acknowledged to the jury that he was the one who pulled the trigger on fellow soldiers as they prepared to deploy overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan. And he barely defended himself during a three-week trial.

The unanimous decision on all 13 counts of premeditated murder made Hasan eligible for execution in the sentencing phase that begins Monday.

Afghans

dissatisfied with Bales' sentence

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - The U.S. soldier who massacred 16 Afghan civilians last year in one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was sentenced Friday to life in prison with no chance of parole - the most severe sentence possible, but one that left surviving victims and relatives of the dead deeply unsatisfied.

"We wanted this murderer to be executed," said Hajji Mohammad Wazir, who lost 11 family members in the attack by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. "We were brought all the way from Afghanistan to see if justice would be served. Not our way - justice was served the American way."

Bales, 40, pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty for his March 11, 2012, raids near his remote outpost in Kandahar province, when he stalked through mud-walled compounds and shot 22 people - 17 of them women and children. Some screamed for mercy, while others didn't even have a chance to get out of bed.

The only possible sentences were life in prison without parole, or life with the possibility of release after 20 years. The soldier showed no emotion as the six jurors chose the former after deliberating for less than two hours.

His mother, sitting in the front row of the court, bowed her head, rocked in her seat, and wept.

Obama plays down intervening in Syria

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Friday played down the prospect of speedy U.S. intervention in Syria, stressing the difficulty of ordering military action against the Assad government without a strong international coalition and a legal mandate from the United Nations.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Obama has asked the Pentagon to provide military options in light of reports that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians. While Hagel declined to discuss any specific force movements, U.S. defense officials said the Navy moved a fourth warship into the region. Each can launch ballistic missiles.

"The Defense Department has a responsibility to provide the president with options for contingencies, and that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options - whatever options the president might choose," Hagel told reporters traveling with him to Asia.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner agrees to resign

SAN DIEGO - Mayor Bob Filner agreed Friday to resign in return for the city's help defending him against claims he groped, kissed and made lewd comments to women, allegations that shook and embarrassed the city and turned the former 10-term congressman into a national punch line.

Filner was regretful and defiant during a City Council meeting as he explained "the toughest decision of my life." He apologized to his accusers but insisted he was innocent of sexual harassment and said he was the victim of a "lynch mob."

- Associated Press

"The city should not have to go through this, and my own personal failures were responsible and I apologize to the city," Filner said after the council voted 7-0 on a deal that ended a political stalemate after 17 women publicly accused him of harassment.

"To all the women that I offended, I had no intention to be offensive, to violate any physical or emotional space," he said. "I was trying to establish personal relationships but the combination of awkwardness and hubris I think led to behavior that many found offensive."

The city will pay Filner's legal fees in a joint defense of a lawsuit filed by the mayor's former communications director and pay for any settlement costs assessed against the mayor except for punitive damages, said City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. The city would also pay up to $98,000 if Filner wants to hire his own attorney.

Hagel suggests US moving naval forces closer to Syria in case Obama orders military strike

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT OVER THE PACIFIC (AP) - The Pentagon is moving naval forces closer to Syria in preparation for a possible decision by President Barack Obama to order military strikes, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel suggested on Friday.

Hagel declined to describe any specific movements of U.S. forces. He said Obama asked that the Pentagon to prepare military options for Syria and that some of those options "requires positioning our forces."

U.S. Navy ships are capable of a variety of military action, including launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, as they did against Libya in 2011 as part of an international action that led to the overthrow of the Libyan government.

"The Defense Department has a responsibility to provide the president with options for contingencies, and that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options - whatever options the president might choose," Hagel said.

He said the U.S. is coordinating with the international community to determine "what exactly did happen" in the reported use by the Syrian government of chemical weapons against civilians earlier this week.

Bridges closed in Arkansas capital's downtown because they may have been struck by barges

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas State Police have closed two of the three bridges that span the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock because a towboat operator reported that his barges may have struck the spans.

State police say the two barges the tugboat was pushing Friday night may be adrift and floating downstream.

Troopers initially closed all three spans in the state capital's downtown section but they reopened four of the six traffic lanes on the biggest bridge, which carries Interstate 30.

A Highway Department spokesman says state police have called in bridge inspectors to examine the spans.

There have been no reported injuries.

Fiery battle among inmates in Bolivian prison leaves 30 dead, including child

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - A battle among rival gangs in a prison in Bolivia's eastern lowlands Friday left 30 people dead, many burned to death, as witnesses said inmates used propane gas tanks as flamethrowers. Among the dead was an 18-month-old infant.

The carnage in Palmasola maximum-security prison outside the regional capital of Santa Cruz also left 60 people injured, as inmates in one cell block attacked a neighboring cell block with knives, machetes and canisters of gas, said Interior Minister Carlos Romero.

Romero said the fight was over leadership and space in the prison. Inmates in one cell block knocked a hole in the wall separating the two groups, and opened the valves on the gas tanks, using them as flamethrowers, he said. The straw mattresses used by the inmates caught fire and the flames spread.

"The victims were trapped in the fire," Romero said. Palmasola is Bolivia's largest prison and officials are calling it the country's worst episode of prison violence.

Police and guards took several hours to put out the flames and control the violence, which took place in the prison wing that holds some of the prison's most dangerous prisoners. Most of the dead were on the second floor of the two-story block, Romero said.

Rallies for Egypt's deposed president smaller after arrests of Muslim Brotherhood leaders

CAIRO (AP) - Supporters of Egypt's deposed president, who once overwhelmed cities in the hundreds of thousands, changed tactics Friday by demonstrating in scattered, small rallies that avoided confronting a heavy military deployment waiting for them across the country.

The low turnout signaled the strain on ousted leader Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, as it has trouble drawing large numbers of supporters and faces an increasingly skeptical Egyptian public wary of more bloodshed like that which followed the July 3 military coup that overthrew him. Meanwhile, an intense security crackdown by the military-backed interim government has rounded up much of its leadership.

The Brotherhood has "committed a strategic error last week by mixing peaceful protests with armed clashes with civilians," said Abdullah el-Sinawi, an Egyptian newspaper columnist and analyst. "Many supporters are now staying away fearing that new civilian-on-civilian clashes will erupt."

Morsi supporters dubbed the day the "Friday of Martyrs," in reference to the several hundred people that died in clashes with Egypt's military during raids on street camps this month. Last Friday, vigilantes at neighborhood checkpoints battled Morsi supporters across the capital in unprecedented clashes between residents that killed more than 170 people, including dozens of police officers.

Ahead of the protests, soldiers in armored personnel carriers and tanks deployed early Friday across the country on major roads and plazas to stop demonstrators from gathering. But after Friday prayers, Cairo and the rest of Egypt did not see massive crowds on the streets. Instead, small groups of Islamists in the hundreds chanted against the military and held up posters of Morsi on side streets and outside neighborhood mosques.

Actor Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria give birth to daughter, Carmen Gabriela, in NY

NEW YORK (AP) - Actor Alec Baldwin and his wife have given birth to a baby girl in New York.

Hilaria Baldwin tweeted the news from her verified Twitter account Friday night. She says that the family is overjoyed and that Carmen Gabriela "is absolutely perfect."

Publicist Matthew Hiltzik also confirmed the child's birth Friday night.

The former "30 Rock" star already is the father of a 17-year-old daughter, Ireland, from his previous marriage to actress Kim Basinger (BAY'-sing-ur).

Hilaria Baldwin is a special correspondent for the TV show "Extra." The couple wed last June after a three-month engagement.

Brewers embrace Ryan Braun's admission that he took performance-enhancing drugs

CINCINNATI (AP) - Ryan Braun's acknowledgement that he used performance-enhancing drugs was welcomed in the Milwaukee Brewers' clubhouse, where players hope it helps to heal some of the pain caused by his actions and a resulting 65-game suspension.

"I thought it was a good first step on the road to redemption, I guess you could say," catcher Jonathan Lucroy said Friday before the start of a series against the Cincinnati Reds.

Braun released a statement Thursday night acknowledging for the first time that he used a cream and a lozenge containing banned substances while recovering from an injury in 2011, when he won the National League's MVP award.

Several Brewers, including Lucroy, have stayed in touch with Braun by phone since he agreed to Major League Baseball's suspension on June 22. Lucroy expects Braun to have a news conference at some point to answer questions.

For now, the statement sufficed.