Kerry makes case for military strike in Syria

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday outlined the clearest justification yet for U.S. military action in Syria, saying there was "undeniable" evidence of a large-scale chemical weapons attack, with intelligence strongly signaling that Bashar Assad's regime was responsible.

Kerry told reporters at the State Department that last week's attack "should shock the conscience" of the world.

"The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable and - despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured - it is undeniable," said Kerry, the highest-ranking U.S. official to confirm the attack in the Damascus suburbs that activists say killed hundreds of people.

"This international norm cannot be violated without consequences," he added.

Wildfire ash falls on San Francisco's chief water source

TUOLUMNE CITY, Calif. - A raging wildfire in Yosemite National Park rained ash on the reservoir that is the chief source of San Francisco's famously pure drinking water, and utility officials Monday scrambled to send more water toward the metropolitan area before it becomes tainted.

Nearly 3,700 firefighters battled the approximately 230-square-mile blaze, the biggest wildfire on record in California's Sierra Nevada. They reported modest progress, saying the fire was 15 percent contained.

"We're not there yet, but we're starting to get a little bit of a handle on this thing," said Lee Bentley, fire spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. "It's been a real tiger. He's been going around trying to bite its own tail, and it won't let go but we'll get there."

Utility officials monitored the clarity of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and used a massive new $4.6 billion gravity-operated pipeline system to move water quickly to reservoirs closer to the big city. The Hetch Hetchy supplies water to 2.6 million people in the San Francisco Bay area, 150 miles away.

Jury considers death for Fort Hood gunman

FORT HOOD, Texas - A soldier left for dead after being shot in the head. A widow whose two sons won't have their father to take them fishing or teach them how to be gentlemen. A grieving father who includes himself and his unborn grandson in the death toll of the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

Survivors of the attack and relatives of those killed testified Monday during the final phase of Maj. Nidal Hasan's trial. Prosecutors hope the emotional testimony - from sobbing widows, distraught parents and paralyzed soldiers - helps convince jurors to impose a rare military death sentence on Hasan, who was convicted last week of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others at the Texas military base.

The sentencing phase also will be Hasan's last chance to tell jurors what he's spent the last four years telling the military, judges and journalists: that the killing of unarmed American soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan was necessary to protect Muslim insurgents. But whether he plans to address jurors remains unclear.

Manning's wish for a sex change discussed

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who was previously known as Bradley Manning, decided to announce that she wanted to live as a woman the day after sentencing because a military prison said publicly it would not provide hormone treatment, her attorney said Monday.

Attorney David Coombs told The Associated Press that Manning had known for a long time she would make such a statement, but "she wanted, essentially, for the media surrounding the trial to dissipate."

Manning did not want people to think the statement was insincere.

"People might think it was an effort to get further attention," said Coombs, who lives in Providence, R.I.

Atlantic City's casinos look to strippers to help

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - What if, after seven years of plunging casino revenues and fleeing customers, Atlantic City's real problem was this: People are wearing too much clothing?

Scores, the famous New York strip club, will open a satellite establishment inside the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort next month - the first strip club inside an Atlantic City casino in the 35 years of legal gambling here.

It will be the most audacious adult offering in an Atlantic City casino, though it's not the first: Revel has offered the Royal Jelly burlesque show since it opened, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa hosts a burlesque show every Thursday night, and dancers in bras and panties are common on gambling floors, including at the Tropicana Casino and Resort and the Showboat Casino Hotel.

"We feel this is the third leg of the Atlantic City triangle: gambling, alcohol and adult entertainment," said Bob Gans, the club's managing partner. "It's a natural."

- The Associated Press