Sheriff: Knife attack at Texas college was random

American Taliban lawyers want prison in contempt

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Lawyers for American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh asked a federal judge Wednesday to find the Federal Bureau of Prisons in contempt for not allowing Muslim inmatesin a high-security Indiana prison unit to pray together five times a day, as required by their faith.

The prisons agency has said inmates of all religions housed in the Terre Haute federal prison'sCommunications Management Unit have been allowed to pray together three times daily after a federal judge ruled in Lindh's favor in a lawsuit seeking the prayers.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana argues in its contempt motion filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis that three times a day isn't what Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson's Jan. 11 ruling required. Magnus-Stinson said Lindh, 32, sincerely believes Islam mandates Muslims pray together five times a day and federal law requires the prison to accommodate his beliefs.

The motion also said prayer times set by the prison make only two daily prayers possible at some times during the year or make prayers impossible to perform at proper times.

The prison has "knowingly and intentionally established a procedure and schedule for prayers that prevents John Lindh and other Muslim prisoners within the CMU from engaging in congregate prayer during all times that they are released from their cells," the motion said.

Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, said it was "immensely disappointing that the federal government feels it can avoid complying with the judge's order."

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Christ Burke said the agency would have no comment on the motion because the legal action was pending.

Lindh's father, Frank Lindh, told The Associated Press that he had told his son to be patient.

"It's regrettable it had to go that far. The judge's order was very clear," he said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.

Those housed in Lindh's unit are considered extreme security risks and their interactions are closely monitored. Until last month, inmates housed in the unit were only allowed to pray together once per week or during Ramadan or on other significant religious holidays. At other times, inmates had to pray alone in their cells and hope to hear each other through the walls.

Magnus-Stinson found the policy violated a 1993 law banning the government from curtailing religious speech without showing a compelling interest, and the government chose not to appeal her ruling.

Prison officials said during the trial on Lindh's lawsuit that allowing group prayers every day would pose a security risk and that inmates had used religion as cover for gang-like activity, but the judge dismissed those arguments as insubstantial.

The government chose not to appeal the ruling.

The lawsuit originally was filed in 2009 by two Muslim inmates in the unit. Lindh joined the lawsuit in 2010, and the case drew far more attention. The other plaintiffs dropped out as they were released from prison or transferred to other units.

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Uruguay approves gay marriage, second in region to do so

By Malena Castaldi and Felipe Llambias

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Uruguay's Congress passed a bill on Wednesday to allow same-sex marriages, making it the second country in predominantly Roman Catholic Latin America to do so.

Seventy-one of 92 lawmakers in the lower house of Congress voted in favor of the proposal, one week after the Senate passed it by a wide majority. Leftist President Jose Mujica, a former guerrilla fighter, is expected to sign the bill into law.

"I agree that family is the basis of society but I also believe that love is the basis of family. And love is neither homosexual nor heterosexual," said opposition lawmaker Fernando Amado of the center-right Colorado Party.

Uruguay is the 12th country to pass a law of this kind, according to Human Rights Watch. In Latin America, Argentina also has approved gay marriage and it is allowed in Mexico City and some parts of Brazil.

Roughly half a million people marched through Paris in January to protest the legalization of same-sex marriage, underscoring opposition to the measure in the heart of Western Europe.

In Uruguay, a nation of about 3.3 million people sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil, critics of the bill included the Catholic Church and other Christian organizations, which said it would endanger the institution of the family.

"We are opposed to this bill because we understand it distorts and changes the nature of the institution of marriage," said opposition lawmaker Gerardo Amarilla.

Damian Diaz, a 25-year-old teacher who is in a committed relationship with a man, said he was heartened by the move.

"We're definitely going to feel now that we live in a place where we're recognized for who we are, where we get more respect and more acceptance," he told Reuters Television.

(Additional reporting by Diego Perez; Writing by Hilary Burke; Editing by Bill Trott)

Teen faces 7 felony DUIs in fatal Nevada crash

Associated Press/Nevada Highway Patrol - FILE - This file photo provided by the Nevada Highway Patrol shows Jean Soriano, 18, who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in a southern Nevada crash that killed five members of a California family and injured the suspect and three other people. Soriano escaped from a juvenile facility on March 1, and it's unclear whether anyone ever went looking for him, an Orange County supervisor said Thursday, April 4, 2013 (AP Photo/Nevada Highway Patrol)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A California juvenile detention escapee had a blood-alcohol percentage of 0.12 — well above the Nevada legal limit of 0.08 percent — after a freeway crash that killed fiveSouthern California family members and injured two others, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Jean Ervin Soriano, 18, was charged Wednesday with seven felony charges of driving under the influence causing death or substantial injury in the early March 30 wreck on Interstate 15 about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

He also faces two misdemeanor charges of failure to decrease speed and driving without a license.

Moapa Justice of the Peace Ruth Kolhoss scheduled a May 15 evidence hearing.

Soriano wasn't asked to enter a plea, but his attorney, Frank Cofer, said his client plans to plead not guilty when the time comes.

"He's a young kid, very scared, distraught," Cofer said following the brief court appearance with Soriano, who was shackled for a 60-mile trip in a jail van from Las Vegas to a rural courtroom 60 miles away.

Soriano, who previously told the judge he used to live in California but moved to St. George, Utah, is being held on $3.5 million bail in isolated protective custody at the Clark County jail. Cofer said he has been praying for the family members killed and injured.

The attorney asked the judge on Wednesday to order the preservation as evidence of the SUV involved in the crash so that defense investigators can collect blood and tissue samples to determine if Soriano was actually driving.

Cofer said he also plans to order independent blood-alcohol tests on samples drawn from Soriano after the crash.

The Nevada Highway Patrol said Soriano and a 23-year-old passenger in a Dodge Durango were hurt when their vehicle rear-ended a Chevrolet van carrying a trio of brothers and four other family members back to the Los Angeles area for Easter after visiting a sick relative in Denver.

Troopers said Soriano later admitted that he was driving. Investigators found several beer bottles in the vehicle, troopers said.

The van overturned in the desert, killing Genaro Fernandez, 41, of Norwalk; Raudel Fernandez-Avila, 49, and Belen Fernandez, 53, both of Lynwood; and Angela Sandoval, 13, and Leonardo Fernandez-Avila, 45, both of Los Angeles.

The driver of the van, Maria Rosario Cardanas, 40, and a 15-year-old passenger, Eddie Sandoval, were the only survivors.

After Soriano's arrest, authorities in Orange County, Calif., said that he fled March 1 from a juvenile guidance center in Santa Ana that treats drug and alcohol abusers.

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Water, rats, outages: Japan nuke plant precarious

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Naomi Hirose speaks during a news conference in Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Wednesday, April 10, 2013. The crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant's operator said three of the seven underground tanks at the plant are leaking, but that the contaminated water is not believed to have reached the ocean. However, experts suspect that water has leaked steadily into the sea since early in the crisis, citing high radiation levels in fish in waters off the plant. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

TOKYO (AP) — A rat causing a power outage by short-circuiting a temporary switchboard. Another blackout occurring as workers install anti-rat nets. Holes in the linings of huge underground tanksleaking radioactive water.

Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has run into multiple problems recently that highlight its precarious state more than two years after its reactors melted down in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

A makeshift system of pipes, tanks and power cables meant to carry cooling water into the melted reactors and spent fuel pools inside shattered buildings remains highly vulnerable, Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka acknowledged Wednesday.

"Fukushima Dai-ichi is still in an extremely unstable condition, there is no mistake about that," Tanaka said at a weekly meeting of the regulatory body's leaders. "We cannot rule out the possibility that similar problems might occur again. Whenever a problem occurs, it halts the plant's operations and delays the primary goal of decommissioning the plant."

The problems have raised doubts about whether the plant can stay intact through a decommissioning process that could take 40 years, prompting officials to compile risk-reduction measures and revise decommissioning plans. The regulatory watchdog said Wednesday that it was increasing the number of inspectors from eight to nine to better oversee the plant.

Just over the past three weeks, there have been at least eight accidents or problems at the plant, the nuclear watchdog said.

The first was March 18, when a rat sneaked into an outdoor switchboard — which was sitting on a pickup truck — powering the jury-rigged cooling system and several other key parts of the plant, causing a short-circuit and blackout that lasted 30 hours in some areas of the plant. Four storage pools for fuel rods lost cooling during the outage, causing Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, to acknowledge that it had added backup power only to the reactors, despite repeated concerns raised over a pool meltdown.

The cause of the outage wasn't clear at the time, but TEPCO later released a photo of the electrocuted rat, which had fallen on the bottom of the switchboard outhouse. The most extensive outage since the crisis started after the March 2011 disasters caused some Fukushima residents to even consider evacuation.

Two weeks later, a new water processing machine designed to remove most radioactive elements temporarily stopped after a worker pushed a wrong button. The next day, one of the fuel storage pools lost power again for several hours when part of a wire short-circuited a switchboard while an operator installed anti-rat nets. TEPCO reported three other minor glitches on the same day, including overheating of equipment related to boron injection to the melted reactors.

Regulatory officials acknowledge that rats and snakes are abundant at the plant, and TEPCO has started to take steps to protect pipes and cables from rat gnawing. Replacement of parts and equipment to those of higher quality and long-term use is in progress.

In the latest development, three of the plant's seven underground tanks are leaking. TEPCO reported the first leak early Saturday, hours after the plant's second power outage. Within days, the damage spread to three tanks, paralyzing the plant's storage plans for contaminated water.

TEPCO says none of the about 120 tons of radioactive water that leaked was believed to have reached the nearby Pacific Ocean. Experts suspect the radioactive water has been leaking since early in the crisis, citing high contamination in fish caught in waters just off the plant.

The contaminated water is by far the most serious of the recent problems because of its potential impact on water management and the environment.

The tanks are crucial to the management of contaminated water used to cool melted fuel rods at the plant's wrecked reactors. The reactors are stable, but the melted fuel they contain must be kept cool with water, which leaks out of the reactors' holes and ruptures and flows into basement areas.

"The contaminated water situation is on the verge of collapse," Tanaka said. But he said there was no choice but to keep adding water, while trying to seek ways to minimize the leaks and their risks.

To address local outrage over the recent problems and TEPCO's failure to detect problems earlier, company president Naomi Hirose traveled to Fukushima and apologized Wednesday for the problems. He promised to expedite the construction of steel containers and move all the water there from the underground tanks, at the request of Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

The underground tanks, all built by Maeda Corp., come in different sizes, including one the size of an Olympic-size swimming pool and similar to an industrial waste dump. They are dug into the ground and protected by two layers of polyethylene linings inside the outermost clay-based lining, with a felt padding in between each layer.

Regulators suspect a design problem with the underground tanks, which TEPCO allegedly chose over steel tanks as a cheaper option.

"The nuclear crisis is far from over," the nationwide Mainichi newspaper said in a recent editorial. "There is a limit to what the patchwork operation can do on a jury-rigged system."