WASHINGTON, D.C.
E-mails offer details on Bin Laden burial Internal e-mails among U.S. military officers indicate that no sailors watched Osama bin Laden's burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed. The e-mails are heavily blacked out, but are the first public disclosure of government information about the Al-Qaida leader's death on May 1, 2011. "Traditional procedures for Islamic burial was followed," an e-mail on May 2 from Rear Adm. Charles Gaouette said. "The deceased's body was washed (ablution) then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body slid into the sea."
CALIFORNIA
Family flees after tires slashed, racial taunts A black police officer and his family said they fled their upscale Orange County community after rocks were thrown through their windows, their tires were slashed and racial taunts were shouted by passing motorists. The family said they moved from Yorba Linda to Corona.
NATIONWIDE
Drought grew worse with no relief in sight The drought that's shriveled crops, reduced livestock herds and crimped river barge traffic grew worse last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor said. More than 60 percent of the contiguous 48 states are gripped by some level of drought, erasing two weeks of improvement, the Drought Monitor said.
LIBYA
Benghazi security director assassinated A senior Libyan security official was assassinated outside his home in the eastern city of Benghazi. His death was the latest in a series of mysterious killings that have raised fears about the country's precarious postwar security. Faraj Mohammed al-Drissi, who had held the post of Benghazi's security director for only a few weeks, was shot to death.
AFGHANISTAN
Suicide bomber kills 3 near U.S. Embassy A suicide bomber made his way into a heavily guarded side street in the main diplomatic neighborhood of the capital of Kabul and detonated an explosive vest when Afghan security guards demanded his identification. The blast killed three security guards and wounded two civilians, police said.
CONGO
M23 rebels vow to take control Pressing ahead with their seizure of cities in mineral-rich eastern Congo, the M23 rebels said they are fighting to control all of the sprawling country and to topple President Joseph Kabila's government. Following their capture of the strategic city of Goma a day earlier, the rebels took the nearby town of Sake.
BRITAIN
Crisis in church after rejection of women In a sign of deepening crisis in the Church of England after it rejected the appointment of women as bishops, its spiritual leader -- the archbishop of Canterbury, the Rev. Rowan Williams -- said the church had "undoubtedly lost a measure of credibility."
NEWS SERVICES
