Grinch steals 50-plus Christmas trees from Florida lot

PENSACOLA, FLA. –  Deputies are investigating after the Grinch stole more than 50 Fraser fir trees from a Pensacola lot.

The Pensacola News Journal reports Suzanne Eaton received a shipment of 300 trees on Monday at her tree lot in front of Tate High School. When she arrived at the lot on Wednesday, she noticed the Fraser firs that she sells for up to $120 each were gone.

Eaton called the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.

She says it's the first time in her 27 years of selling Christmas trees that she's had a large number of trees stolen. She estimates the missing trees are worth about $5,000.

Eaton says a portion her tree sales benefits the high school's baseball team. She asks that anyone with information contact the sheriff's office.

eligion Scandals Regions China sends fighters to investigate US, Japanese flights over East China Sea

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  FILE Oct. 2011: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's P-3C Orion surveillance plane flies over the disputed islands in the East China Sea, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. (AP)

China launched two fighter planes Friday to investigate flights by a dozen U.S. and Japanese reconnaissance and military planes in its newly established maritime air defense zone over the East China Sea, state media said.

The state-run China News quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Shen Jinke as saying the Chinese fighter jets identified and monitored the two U.S. and 10 Japanese aircraft during their flights through the zone early Friday, but made no mention of any further action.

China announced last week that all aircraft entering the zone -- a maritime area between China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan --must notify Chinese authorities beforehand, and that it would take unspecified defensive measures against those that don't comply. Neighboring countries and the U.S. have said they will not honor the new zone and have criticized the move, saying it unnecessarily raises tensions.

It was the first time China said it sent military planes into the zone on the same day as foreign military flights since proclaiming the zone on Nov. 23.

The United States and other countries have warned that the new zone could boost chances for miscalculations, accidents and conflicts, though analysts believe Beijing's move is not intended to spark any aerial confrontations but rather a long-term strategy to solidify claims to disputed territory by simply marking the area as its own.

The zone is seen primarily as China's latest bid to bolster its claim over a string of uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Beijing has been ratcheting up its sovereignty claims since Tokyo's nationalization of the islands last year.

There are questions whether China has the technical ability to fully enforce the zone due to a shortage of early warning radar aircraft and in-flight refueling capability.

llergies Nutrition & Fitness New aggressive strain of HIV discovered

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  Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1 budding from cultured lymphocyte. The multiple round bumps on cell surface represent sites of assembly and budding of virions. (CDC.GOV)

Researchers have discovered a new, more aggressive strain of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that develops into AIDS much more quickly than other strains, Medical News Today reported.

In a new study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, scientists detailed the new strain as a “recombinant” virus – a hybrid of two virus strains. Called A3/02 – a cross between the 02AG and A3 viruses – the strain can develop into AIDS in just five years after first infection – one of the shortest time periods for HIV-1 types.

"Recombinants seem to be more vigorous and more aggressive than the strains from which they developed,” said first author Angelica Palm, a doctoral candidate at Lund University in Sweden.

So far, the A3/02 strain has only been seen in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, but other studies have shown that recombinants are spreading more quickly across the globe.

"HIV is an extremely dynamic and variable virus. New subtypes and recombinant forms of HIV-1 have been introduced to our part of the world, and it is highly likely that there are a large number of circulating recombinants of which we know little or nothing,” said senior author Patrik Medstran, professor of clinical virology at Lund University. “We therefore need to be aware of how the HIV-1 epidemic changes over time."

North Korea says detained American committed 'hostile acts' against country

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA –  North Korea state media said Saturday that an elderly U.S. tourist detained for more than a month has apologized for alleged crimes during the Korean War and for "hostile acts" against the state during a recent trip.

There was no direct word from 85-year-old Merrill Newman, and his alleged apology, which was dated Nov. 9, couldn't be independently confirmed. Pyongyang has been accused of previously coercing statements from detainees.

North Korean authorities released video showing Newman reading the apology.

The statement, carried in the North's official Korean Central News Agency, said the war veteran allegedly attempted to meet with any surviving soldiers he had trained during the Korean War to fight North Korea, and that he admitted to killing civilians and brought an e-book criticizing North Korea.

It wasn't clear what would happen to Newman now. But the statement alleges that Newman says if he goes back to the U.S. he will tell the truth about the country -- a possible indication that Newman could be released.

The apology can be seen as Pyongyang taking steps needed to release Newman, said Yoo Ho-Yeol, a professor of North Korea studies at Korea University in Seoul. North Korea likely issued the confession in the form of an apology to resolve Newman's case quickly without starting legal proceedings, Yoo said.

North Korea is extremely sensitive about any criticism and regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of seeking to overthrow its authoritarian system through various means -- claims the U.S. and South Korea dismiss. The State Department has repeatedly warned Americans about traveling to the country, citing the risk of arbitrary detention.

Newman, an avid traveler and retired finance executive, was taken off a plane Oct. 26 by North Korean authorities while preparing to leave the country after a 10-day tour. His traveling companion seated next to him, neighbor and former Stanford University professor Bob Hamrdla, was allowed to depart.

Newman's son, Jeffrey Newman, said his father wanted to return to the country where he spent three years during the Korean War.

North Korea has detained at least six Americans since 2009, including two journalists accused of trespassing and several Americans, some of whom are of Korean ancestry, accused of spreading Christianity. Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary and tour operator, has been detained for more than a year. North Korea sees missionary work as a Western threat to its authoritarian government.

Restoration road map: How Kansas’ Capitol project doubled in cost

About a month and a half from now, state officials will be swapping smiles, handshakes and grandiose praise beneath the shiny new gleam of the Kansas Capitol’s newly copper-clad dome.

But there’s likely to be one fact that doesn’t get much play when state lawmakers celebrate the conclusion of Kansas’ epic restoration of the Capitol building: The price tag.

Originally slated to take five to eight years and cost $90 to $120 million, the restoration of the Capitol has essentially doubled in both time and cost since its inception in 2001.

However, Rep. Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg,  said that technically isn’t the case. While the final cost is roughly $320 million, he said original estimates anticipated that costs could — or would — change over the duration of the project. Initial figures were never set in stone, he added.

Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, has served on the Capitol Restoration Commission from the start. Hensley said the significant price increase was largely a result of construction crews discovering unknown issues throughout the process.

The building was in poor condition, Emler said, because it had largely gone without major maintenance and care for the better part of 80 years.

Additions in recent years, like a new roof , were added to ensure money spent on work already completed wouldn’t go to waste, Emler noted.

“It probably wouldn’t have been in the best interest of the taxpayers to let all that restoration work go down the tubes,” Emler said.

Hensley told Kansas Watchdog he regrets the final cost of the project.

“We can’t be satisfied with the final cost of the restoration due to its size, but I believe the people of Kansas will be very satisfied with the end results,” Hensley said.

Emler said at times he’s torn on the cost to taxpayers, but said it would have had to happen eventually if the state ever wanted to save the historic building.

“When I think about waiting lists and that sort of thing, yea (the funds) probably would have been well used on those kinds of things,” Emler said. “But the other part of it is we have a treasure in the state of Kansas. I know not everybody looks at it that way, but I’ve visited a lot of other state capitols.”

Restoration Road Map

• September 2000 – State project manager estimates $108.5 million construction cost. This is later revised in working with Treanor Architects to $132.5 million.

• September 2001 – Plans revised to include underground parking and a visitor’s center, though visitors center funding was not added at this time. Cost revised up to$144.9 million.

• November 2002 – Capitol Restoration Commission accepts new lower cost estimate of $135 million.

• December 2005 – Total construction cost estimate increased to $162 million.

• December 2006 – Costs continue to rise, the new total has now been increased to$172.5 million.

• December 2007 – Construction crews discover issues with exterior masonry, project additions raise cost estimate to $211.3 million.

• Early 2011 – Total cost levels out at nearly $320 million with the addition of a new roof, replacing the Capitol dome, new AC chillers, and finishing the north and south wings.

Helicopter crashes into Scotland pub; numerous injuries reported

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  Nov. 29, 2013: Picture taken with permission from Jan Hollands Twitter feed @Janney_h of the helicopter crash at the Clutha Bar in Glasgow. (AP/JAN HOLLANDS)

A police helicopter crashed into a bustling pub in Glasgow, Scotland late Friday night, causing numerous casualties as emergency crews desperately raced to remove an unknown number of people trapped inside the shaky building.

Glasgow Asst. Chief Officer Lewis Ramsay said rescuers have made contact with some people still in the pub and are working hard to stabilize the building and "get people out."

There were no immediate reports of any fatalities, and the fate of the two police officers and civilian pilot onboard the Eurocopter EC135 T2 that plunged into the building was not immediately clear. 

"Given an incident of this scale, we must all prepare ourselves for the likelihood of fatalities," said Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party and first minister of Scotland.

Photos taken at the scene on Stockwell Street, located near the banks of the River Clyde, showed a helicopter smashed into the roof of The Clutha pub. The crash, which occurred around 10:30 p.m., appeared to cave in parts of the bar's roof.

Witnesses described a noisy, dusty scene inside the popular bar, where about 120 people were listening to a band.

Labour party spokesman Jim Murphy, who was present at the scene, helped pull people out of the pub.

"I just saw dozens and dozens of people coming out of the pub," he told Sky News. "It is a horrible, horrible scene."

He added that people had formed a human chain to help pass unconscious people out of the pub so that "inch by inch, we could get the people out."

Fraser Gibson, 34, who was inside the pub, described to the BBC what he said sounded like "a giant explosion."

"Part of the room was covered in dust. We didn't know what had happened. We froze for a second; there was panic and then people trying to get out the door."

He estimated that there were perhaps 120 people inside the bar at the time of the crash.

"There was no fireball and I did not hear an explosion," said Gordon Smart, editor of the Scottish edition of the Sun newspaper. "It fell like a stone. The engine seemed to be spluttering."

Claire Morris, who lives near the Clutha bar, told BBC News: "We heard this bang. We didn't really know what had happened and then we heard people coming out and screaming.

"I wasn't sure whether there had been an explosion. My daughter said to me it was a helicopter that had hit the roof.

"Police are everywhere. We are just very shaken."

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "My thoughts are with everyone affected by the helicopter crash in Glasgow — and the emergency services working tonight."

Russia eyeing post-Assad future, allies say; moderate rebels losing ground

AP

European allies of the United States say Russia has belatedly begun preparing for a post-Assad future in Syria, with Moscow looking for new ways to establish the transitional government in Damascus that Western countries agree is needed to bring an end to the nearly three-year civil war there.

“The Russians say they are not married to Assad,” a European diplomat told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. “They are looking for true alternatives to Assad.”

As part of that search, Western officials said, the United States and its European allies – notably France and Great Britain – are hoping Moscow will persuade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to announce that he will not seek another presidential term next year and agree to remain in power only in a ceremonial chairman-like role.

At the same time, Western diplomats acknowledged the difficulty the Russians will face in getting Assad to agree to such a scenario. “It’s not his style,” quipped one European official.

A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington declined to comment on “vague” statements by unnamed European diplomats, adding only: “The Russian position is that the destiny of the Syrian people should be decided by the Syrians themselves.”

An agreement hammered out in Geneva last year, known in diplomatic parlance as “Geneva I,” called for the formation of a transitional government in Syria that could discharge executive authority in the war-torn country while plans are laid for a new constitution, free elections, and other mechanisms designed to ensure that Syria in the future becomes a democratic, inclusive country. Russia signed on to Geneva I but has generally been reluctant to use its leverage over Assad to nudge him to step down or otherwise facilitate the creation of a transitional government.

Secretary of State John Kerry has struggled with his foreign counterparts to establish a date for “Geneva II,” where progress could be made on the implementation of last year’s agreement. But the United Nations’ special envoy for the Syrian crisis, Lakhdar Brahimi, announced this week that efforts to hold Geneva II in mid-November have failed, and that the conference may not even take place this year.

Asked if the transitional government envisioned in Geneva I could conceivably include Assad himself as a participant, a senior U.S. official expressed strong doubt that the fractured Syrian opposition would ever agree to such a scenario. 

At the same time, the official suggested that the Assad government would not be entirely shut out of such a transitional governing body. 

“I think that if there are people in the Syrian government, Syrian institutions who do not directly have blood on their hands, this is not a situation where anyone is looking for something like occurred in Iraq with the de-Baathification,” the official said during a briefing with reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

Western leaders are especially keen to progress to Geneva II because they see Assad’s military position strengthening over recent months. A European diplomat told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that the moderate forces within the Syrian opposition are weakening over time. 

This contradicted the testimony of Kerry before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September, when the secretary of state, in response to questions by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., maintained that the opposition was growing more moderate over time.

It was this assertion by Kerry that prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to brand the secretary of state “a liar.”

Report claims Miami Dolphins GM suggested Martin confront Incognito physically

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  November 6, 2013: Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland, left, stands with head trainer Kevin O'Neill, right, during the NFL football team's practice in Davie, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
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  FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2012 file photo, Miami Dolphins tackle Jonathan Martin (71) watches from the sidelines during the second half of an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, in Miami. In the stadium program sold at the Dolphins' game on Halloween, Richie Incognito was asked who's the easiest teammate to scare. His answer: Jonathan Martin. (AP Photo)

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A new report late Wednesday claims that Miami Dolphins General Manager Jeff Ireland was made aware of the alleged bullying involving offensive linemen Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito, and suggested that Martin try to resolve the matter by confronting his teammate physically. 

The report, on the website ProFootballTalk.com, cited multiple NFL sources in saying that Martin's agent, Rick Smith, called Ireland sometime before Martin left the Dolphins October 28 to complain about the way Incognito was treating his teammate. Ireland reportedly responded to Smith's complaint by telling him that Martin should stand up to Incognito physically and specifically suggested punching the latter man. The Dolphins organization has not commented on any aspect of the case since announcing Incognito's indefinite suspension for conduct detrimental to the team late Sunday. 

Earlier Wednesday, the Associated Press, citing two people familiar with the situation, reported that before Martin left the Dolphins, he told multiple people that he was considering quitting football.

One of the people said Martin considered giving up the sport because he was mistreated by other offensive linemen. That person said Martin, who sought counseling for emotional issues, now plans to continue playing. Both people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the organization has said little about Martin's departure.

After practice Wednesday, several players questioned why Martin left and supported Incognito.

"I don't know why he's doing this," offensive tackle Tyson Clabo said. "And the only person who knows why, his name is Jonathan Martin."

Last week, Smith said the second-year player from Stanford was harassed almost daily by teammates in his rookie year and the hazing continued into this season. That prompted an NFL investigation, and the Dolphins suspended Incognito, who sources said sent Martin threatening and racist messages during the offseason.

Commissioner Roger Goodell appointed a New York lawyer with experience in sports cases to investigate the case.

The controversy attracted more than 100 reporters and cameramen to the Dolphins' complex Wednesday, and when the throng entered the locker room after practice, a player pushed the button on a boom box sitting at Incognito's stall.

Circus music began to play.

Then the Dolphins, clearly weary of the circus atmosphere, opened up. They passionately defended Incognito and insisted they didn't see the blowup coming. Most said Martin and Incognito were friends.

"The whole thing, it's kind of mind-blowing to me," quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. "It's kind of mind-blowing to most of the guys on our team right now."

The 24-year-old Martin was briefly hospitalized after he left the team and is now with his family in California.

Tannehill said he was shocked when Martin departed.

"It's tough for me, because you can't help a situation that you didn't know existed -- that no one on this team knew existed," Tannehill said. "We have a bunch of good guys in this locker room. To be put in a situation where everyone's attacking the locker room saying it's such a bad place, such a bad culture, no leadership to stand up and stop the situation -- no one knew there was a situation to be stopped."

Several players said Martin and Incognito were close.

"If you had asked Jon Martin a week before who his best friend on the team was, he would have said Richie Incognito," Tannehill said. "The first guy to stand up for Jonathan when anything went down on the field, any kind of tussle, Richie was the first guy there. When they wanted to hang out outside of football, who was together? Richie and Jonathan."

Guard John Jerry said he never heard Incognito use the racist term included in one voicemail and wouldn't have objected anyway.

"I would have just laughed it off," Jerry said. "I know the type of person he is, and I know he doesn't mean it that way. Everybody's got friends that when you're out, they say those type of things. It's never made a big deal."

The 30-year-old Incognito was kicked off his team at Nebraska, and has long had a reputation as one of the NFL's dirtiest players. But he has been universally praised by his teammates this week.

"Does he like to give guys a hard time? Yes. Does he like to pester guys and have fun? Yes," Tannehill said. "But he brought a lot of laughter to this locker room, he brought a lot of cohesiveness to this locker room and he was the best teammate that I could ask for."

For Martin, the final straw was a lunchroom prank at the team complex, and he then left the squad. Tannehill and Jerry said the same prank has been pulled on many other players.

Hijinks are especially common among the offensive linemen, Clabo said.

"We have a system of basically it's just a big joke, basically," he said. It helps camaraderie. It keeps things light in the room. Everyone participates. No one is exempt and so I don't see how ... we would all be guilty of bullying."

San Francisco sheriff admits errors made in search for woman found dead in hospital stairwell

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  This photo shows Lynne Spalding, 57, a native of England who was found dead in a rarely used stairwell at San Francisco General Hospital last month. (AP/DAVID PERRY & ASSOCIATES)

SAN FRANCISCO –  San Francisco sheriff's deputies did not conduct a campus-wide search for a missing hospital patient whose body was eventually found in a locked emergency stairwell until nine days after the woman disappeared from her room, the city's sheriff said Wednesday.

Breaking a monthlong silence about his department's handling of 57-year-old Lynne Spalding Ford's disappearance and eventual death, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi also revealed that his officers never searched about half of the stairwells at San Francisco General Hospital even after a supervisor ordered the stairwells checked.

"She could have been anyone's loved one, which is why the gravity of the situation is not lost on any of us," he said. "What happened to Miss Spalding Ford should not have happened to anyone."

The details arose from the department's internal investigation and chronology of its employees' actions from the time Spalding Ford went missing on Sept. 21 -- two days after she was admitted for treatment of a urinary tract infection -- and when a hospital engineer found her body on Oct. 8. The sheriff's department provides security at San Francisco General, the city's largest public hospital.

The investigation also details that there was early confusion over what the missing patient looked like. At first, Spalding Ford was reported as a black woman, and later a sheriff's department worker wrote that she was Asian. Spalding Ford was white.

Mirkarimi did not comment on the findings, saying he does not want to offer opinions on the case because it still is under investigation by San Francisco police, an independent auditor hired by the city and the California Department of Public Health, among others. At a news conference where he unveiled the chronology, the sheriff nonetheless apologized to Spalding Ford's family, which includes two adult children.

Although sheriff's deputies at the hospital did a "perimeter search" of San Francisco General's 24-acre campus within an hour after Spalding Ford disappeared, it was not until Sept. 30 that they attempted a more thorough search of the grounds, Mirkarimi said. A request for a broader search came at a meeting a sheriff's supervisor had with hospital staff members who included representatives of the "risk management" department, he said.

The next day, after it became clear that not all the stairwells used as fire exits had been searched, a supervisor ordered the stairwell searches to continue, yet "only about half the stairwells" ever were, he said.

Then, on Oct. 4, a hospital staff member told the sheriff's department that someone had reported seeing a body in a locked stairwell of the building where Spalding had been a patient. A sheriff's dispatcher told hospital officials the department would respond, but "there is no indication that any one was dispatched to that stairwell."

Haig Harris, a lawyer for Spalding Ford's family, attended the news conference and said afterward the timeline revealed "extraordinary indifference" to the missing patient and her safety.

"I asked (Mirkarimi) specifically if the stairwell where they found Lynne's body was searched and it seems to me that the answer to that is no," Harris said.

The sheriff's department's chronology also revealed that miscommunication hampered the search for Spalding Ford from the beginning. The hospital staff member who first contacted the sheriff's department about 40 minutes after the patient went missing described her as being black and wearing a hospital grown.

That night, a sheriff's department employee made a notation in the security unit's log book indicating that Spalding Ford was Asian. She actually was white and when she was found, she was wearing her own clothes.

The sheriff's account indicated there was also confusion at the beginning over whether the hospital considered Spalding Ford to be in any danger.

Mirkarimi says her doctor initially told the sheriff's department that she had been planning to discharge Spalding Ford when the patient went missing. During the same conversation, however, the doctor said Spalding Ford was "very confused and not safe to be out on her own."

Hospital spokeswoman Rachael Kagan confirmed that the person who first contacted the sheriff's department mischaracterized Spalding Ford's race.

"We don't know why, it is a puzzle," Kagan said. She added that the mistake was corrected the same day during later conversations between hospital workers and the sheriff's department.

Harris said he didn't know which was most disturbing -- that hospital employees provided an inaccurate description of Spalding Ford or that sheriff's department employees missed so many opportunities to find her.

"This is our public hospital. This puts our entire public at risk, if this is what happens if you go to the hospital in San Francisco," Harris said.

Authorities have ruled out foul play in Spalding Ford's disappearance. The San Francisco Medical Examiner has not yet released a cause of death or estimated how long she had been dead when her body was found.

Woman decides to grow out mustache and beard for Movember

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While Movember is usually an event dominated by hairy men, one British woman has decided to join in on the competition.

Sarah O’Neill from East Riding in England has a condition known as polycystic ovary syndrome, which causes her to grow unwanted facial hair.  Normally, she uses a doctor prescribed facial cream to get rid of the hair, but for the month of November, she has decided to ditch her medicine in order to grow out a mustache and beard, the Daily Star reported.

O’Neill said she participating in Movember in order to raise awareness about her syndrome.

“I had to accept that it was a medical condition that was just part of me,” O’Neill said. “I now realize it's nothing to be ashamed of. I want people to understand I'm not trying to be a man and that my facial hair is something that can't be helped."

A mash up of “mustache” and “November,” Movember is an international charity event that lasts throughout  November.  During the month, men ditch their razors and grow out their mustaches to raise awareness for men’s health issues.

Supreme Court wrestling with prayer at NY town's meetings

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  FILE - This Oct. 7, 2013 file photo shows people wait in line to enter the Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court asks God for help before every public session. Now the justices will settle a dispute over prayers in the halls of government. The case before the court involves prayers said at the start of town council meetings in Greece, N.Y., outside of Rochester. It is the court's first legislative prayer case since 1983, when the justices said that an opening prayer is part of the nation's fabric and not a violation of the First Amendment. The federal appeals court in New York held that the town violated the Constitution by opening nearly every meeting over an 11-year span with prayers that stressed Christianity. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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The Supreme Court is wrestling with the appropriate role for religion in government in a case involving prayers at the start of a New York town's council meetings.

The justices engaged in a lively give-and-take Wednesday that highlighted the sensitive nature of offering religious invocations in public proceedings that don't appeal to everyone and of governments' efforts to police the practice.

The court is weighing a federal appeals court ruling that said the Rochester suburb of Greece, N.Y., violated the Constitution because nearly every prayer in an 11-year span was overtly Christian.

The tenor of the argument indicated the justices would not agree with the appellate ruling. But it was not clear what decision they might come to instead.

Justice Elena Kagan summed up the difficult task before the court when she noted that some people believe that "every time the court gets involved, things get worse instead of better."

Greece is being backed by the Obama administration and many social and religious conservative groups in arguing that the court settled this issue 30 years ago when it held that an opening prayer is part of the nation's fabric and not a violation of the First Amendment. Some of those groups want the court to go further and get rid of legal rules that tend to rein in religious expression in the public sphere.

On the other side are the two town residents who sued over the prayers and the liberal interest groups that support them. Greece residents Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens say they and others who attend the meetings are a captive audience and should not be subjected to sectarian prayers.

At its broadest, the outcome could extend well beyond prayer and also affect holiday displays, aid to religious schools, Ten Commandments markers and memorial crosses. More narrowly, the case could serve as a test of the viability of the decision in Marsh v. Chambers, the 1983 case that said prayer in the Nebraska Legislature did not violate the First Amendment's clause barring laws "respecting an establishment of religion," known as the Establishment Clause.

The potentially decisive vote in the case belongs to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who did not seem satisfied with arguments made by lawyers for Greece and the administration on one side and for the Greece residents on the other.

On the one hand, Kennedy said he did not like the thought that government officials or judges would examine the content of the prayers to make sure they are not sectarian. "That involves the state very heavily in the censorship of prayers," Kennedy said.

On the other hand, he objected to the reliance by the town and the administration on the decision in Marsh.

All the while, Justice Stephen Breyer was trying out potential outcomes that recognized both the tradition of prayer and the rights of religious minorities and non-believers. "If all that was left in the case were questions of making a good-faith effort to include others, would you object to doing it?" Breyer asked Thomas Hungar, the Washington, D.C., lawyer who is representing the town.

Hungar said he did not know, but asserted that the town already has engaged in the outreach Breyer described.

In Greece, every meeting was opened with a Christian-oriented invocation from 1999 through 2007, and again from January 2009 through June 2010. In 2008, after Galloway and Stephens complained, four of 12 meetings were opened by non-Christians, including a Jewish layman, a Wiccan priestess and the chairman of the local Baha'i congregation.

The two residents filed suit and a trial court ruled in the town's favor, finding that the town did not intentionally exclude non-Christians. It also said that the content of the prayer was not an issue because there was no desire to proselytize or demean other faiths.

But a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that even with the high court's 1983 ruling, the practice of having one Christian prayer after another amounted to the town's endorsement of Christianity.

A decision is expected by late June

Russians send Olympic torch into space ahead of Sochi games

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  November 7, 2013: The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11M space ship carrying new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

MOSCOW –  A rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.

NASA Live TV showed the rocket, emblazoned with the pale blue Sochi 2014 logo, launching from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome on a clear morning in Kazakhstan.

The torch will make its way to the International Space Station before being taken into space itself -- making it the Olympic flame's first spacewalk in history.

Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan beamed at the crowd as they carried the lit torch aboard the Soyuz rocket.

For safety reasons, the torch will not burn when it's onboard the space outpost. Lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The crew will carry the unlit torch around the station's numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk.

The Olympic torch has flown into space once before -- in 1996 aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for the Atlanta Summer Olympics -- but will be taken outside the spacecraft for the first time in history.

"It's a great pleasure and responsibility getting to work with this symbol of peace," Tyurin told journalists on Wednesday ahead of the launch.

The torch will remain in space for five days. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy, who are currently manning the International Space Station, will take the flame for a spacewalk on Saturday, before it is returned to earth by three astronauts on Monday.

The four-month Sochi torch relay, which started in Moscow on Oct. 7, is the longest in the history of the Olympics. For most of the 65,000-kilometer (39,000-mile) route, the flame will travel by plane, train, car and even reindeer sleigh, but 14,000 torch bearers are taking part in the relay that stops at more than 130 cities and towns.

Last month, the Olympic flame traveled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker. Later this month it will sink to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, and in February it will reach the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) the highest mountain in Russia and Europe.

The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame at Sochi's stadium on Feb. 7, marking the start of the 2014 Winter Games that run until Feb. 23.

Mysteries remain after suspect charged in deaths of 3 Miss. family members

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  Nov. 6, 2013: Timothy Lydell Burns, center, the man investigators say they suspect in the deaths of three family members, leaves the Copiah County Justice Court building in Hazlehurst, Miss. (AP)

A man suspected in the slaying of three family members from Mississippi was charged Wednesday with arson and two counts of murder.

Authorities found the family's wrecked and burned vehicle Saturday in a remote area southwest of Jackson. After questioning Timothy Lydell Burns, he led them to the bodies of 7-year-old Jaidon Hill, 30-year-old Atira Hughes-Smith and 34-year-old Laterry Smith, authorities said. They were in an abandoned house about a mile from the vehicle.

Hill was Hughes-Smith's son. Family members said Hughes-Smith had recently married Smith. All three victims had gunshot wounds.

Burns, 42, was ordered held without bond by Copiah Justice Court Judge Lillie McKenzie, who appointed attorney M.A. Bass to represent Burns. Bass could not immediately be reached for comment, and Burns did not respond to questions from reporters after his appearance.

Burns appeared at the hearing in shackles and wearing a bulletproof vest. He answered the judge's questions in a voice barely audible to courtroom spectators.

A third murder charge will likely be brought in neighboring Hinds County. Authorities believe Laterry Smith, the boy's stepfather, was killed in that county in a house on a busy south Jackson street, said Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith did not return calls seeking comment.

Strain said authorities believe Burns abducted the mother and son and took them to Copiah County. The district attorney there, Alexander Martin, said it was still too early to discuss the case.

It also remains unclear whether the victims were in the vehicle when it crashed. Copiah County Sheriff Harold Jones has said he believes Burns was driving at the time of the wreck and then tried to burn the vehicle.

Strain said investigators continue to gather evidence. The autopsies are complete but reports are still being compiled, he said. Authorities still won't say how Burns was connected to the three or what motive he had to kill any of them.

"We have theories, but the investigation will ferret out the facts," Strain said.

Records show Burns was convicted in 1992 and 2008 in Hinds County for cocaine possession. In 2008, he was also convicted for vehicle theft and grand larceny in Claiborne County.

On Monday, police recovered items linked to the family in a trash bin at a gas station in south Jackson, including clothing and Hughes-Smith's work identification card from the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Strain wouldn't say how investigators determined Burns was a suspect. Authorities began watching him at a south Jackson motel Monday and arrested him around 11:30 that night when he went to a gas station.

Strain said Burns was questioned at MBI headquarters in Jackson and he took authorities to the bodies before dawn Tuesday.