BEIRUT (AP) -- Mortars raineddown on a crowded marketplace in aPalestinian refugee camp in the Syriancapital, killing at least 20 people asregime forces and rebels fought nearby,activists said.

The attack on Yarmouk camp maywell have been connected to a two-daylong skirmish in the nearby Tadamonneighborhood, which has been repeated-ly shelled by government troops. OnFriday smoke could be seen pouringfrom the neighborhood.

Many residents from Tadamon andother nearby districts wracked by fight-ing have taken refuge in Yarmouk campand are staying in schools or in people'shouses, said camp resident Sami, whoonly gave his first name out of fear ofreprisals.

"The Palestinians think that the reason they werebombed is because they shelter those refugees," Sami said."Their situation is very hard. They came with nothing - someleft in their night clothes. Some of the children are barefoot.Families have been separated from one another."

The U.N. agency running Palestinian camps confirmedthat at least 20 people had died in the shelling of Yarmouk.The Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights,which first reported the deaths, said the mortars hit as shop-pers were buying food for the evening meal. The groupdeclined to speculate over who had fired the mortars.

The state news agency blamed the bombardment on"terrorist mercenaries" - a term the government uses forrebel fighters - and said they had been chased away by secu-rity forces.

The incident highlights the precarious situation of notjust Palestinian refugees but all civilians in Syria who areincreasingly getting caught in the crossfire of this bloodyuprising that has claimed 19,000 lives since it erupted inMarch 2011. Every day hundreds of civilians are uprootedby the violence, according to the U.N., which estimates that1.5 million people have been forced to abandon their homesbut remain in the country.

An online video of the immediate aftermath of theYarmouk attack showed bleeding and burnt bodies with peo-ple rushing about amid the smoke and sounds of screaming.

Government troops have in the past attacked the camp,home to nearly 150,000 Palestinians and their descendantsdriven from their homes by the war surrounding Israel's 1948creation. Palestinian refugees in Syria have tried to stay outof the uprising, but with Yarmouk nestled among neighbor-hoods sympathetic to the rebels, its residents were eventual-ly drawn into the fighting.

The camp's younger inhabitants have also been movedby the Arab Spring's calls for greater freedoms and havejoined protests against President Bashar Assad's regime- andhave died during demonstrations when Syrian troops fired onthem.

The situation of the Palestinian refugees is particularlysensitive because Syria has long cast itself as the principalchampion in the Arab world of the Palestinian struggleagainst Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whosegovernment has a strict policy of neutrality regarding theSyrian conflict, condemned the Yarmouk attack.

"The presidency demands an immediate end to all mur-der and destruction in the refugee camps, and protection toits inhabitants," Abbas' office said in a statement carried on

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the official Palestinian news agency.

The militant Palestinian group Hamas also called thekilling a "crime," and condemned the involvement ofPalestinians in the Syrian conflict. "We emphasize the needto refrain from pushing the sons of our Palestinian peopleand the refugee camps into the Syrian crisis," said a state-ment from the Hamas movement.

After the mortar attack, camp residents demonstratedagainst the government, chanting slogans against Assad andpraising the opposition Free Syrian Army, according toonline videos. The content of the videos could not be inde-pendently verified.

With the civil war in Syria getting increasingly vicious,chances for a diplomatic solution to the conflict were fadingafter the resignation Thursday of Kofi Annan, the U.N.-ArabLeague envoy to Syria. Annan cited divisions within theSecurity Council preventing a united approach to stop thefighting.

Syria's ally Iran, blamed the U.S. and its allies forAnnan's resignation, saying it was their insistence on Assad'sremoval from power that had undermined the six point U.N.peace plan, which was never implemented.

"Annan's six-point plan was accepted by Syria," saidForeign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi Friday. "It was Westerncountries and some regional states that didn't want Annanplan to succeed." He also accused the U.S. and its allies inthe region of contributing to the instability, saying they weresupplying the Syrian rebels with weapons and equipment.

The U.N. General Assembly was preparing to voteFriday on a new Arab-sponsored resolution condemningSyria's use of heavy weapons to crush the uprising that haskilled an estimated 19,000 people since it began on March2011.

The resolution - which like all General Assembly reso-lutions is unenforceable - is expected to denounce Syria forunleashing tanks, artillery, helicopters and warplanes on thepeople of Aleppo and Damascus, and demand that the Assadregime keep its chemical and biological weapons ware-housed and under strict control.

U.N. observers had confirmed Wednesday that they wit-nessed Syrian warplanes firing rockets and machine guns.

Syria's civil war, which had spread across much of thecountry, only came to the capital and northeastern city ofAleppo, Syria's main commercial hub, in July.

A rebel assault and revolt in Damascus two weeks ago

MORTARS KILL AT LEAST20 IN DAMASCUSREFUGEE CAMP

Mortars rained down on a crowded market-place in a Palestinian refugee camp in theSyrian capital, killing at least 20 people. Page 1

SPAIN NABS 3 AL-QAIDASUSPECTS, EUROPE

PLOT FEAREDPolice have arrested three suspected membersof al-Qaida who had amassed explosives andmay have been plotting attacks in Spain or else-where in Europe. Page 2

CONGRESS BREAKS FOR 5WEEKS, BUT MUCH

WORK UNDONE

Lawmakers headed home for a five-week breakwith a lengthy list of uncompleted work.

Page 3

FLORIDA ACCIDENTSTATISTICS

Accident Statistics from Florida Departmentof Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Page 4

FLORIDA ACCIDENTREPORTS

This Weeks Accident Reports from Variouscountys in Florida. Page 5

SYRIA REBEL VIDEOCLAIMS TO SHOW

ABDUCTED IRANIANS

Armed men in the video identify themselves asmembers of the rebel "Baraa Brigades" and saythat at least one of the 48 captives was an offi-cer. Page 6

LOUGHNER WOULD GETLIFE IN SHOOTING

A possible plea deal in the deadly Tucson shoot-ings that wounded then-U.S. Rep. GabrielleGiffords. Page 7

EBOLA OUTBREAKIN UGANDA

Doctors were slow to respond to an outbreak ofEbola in Uganda. Page 7

GAS DRILLING RESEARCHSURFACE PITTSBURGH

Is gas drilling ruining the air, polluting water

and making people sick? The evidence is

sketchy and inconclusive

Page 8

Continued on page 7

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MADRID (AP) -- Police have arrested threesuspected members of al-Qaida who hadamassed explosives and may have been plottingattacks in Spain or elsewhere in Europe, Spain'sinterior minister said Thursday. Two of themhad practiced flying light aircraft.

The three - a Russian, a Russian of Chechendescent, and a Turk, according to Spanish police- were detained Wednesday. The Turk wasarrested in the southern city of La Linea border-ing the British colony of Gibraltar, while theother two were picked up near the central city ofCiudad Real as they traveled toward a northernSpanish town near the border with France.

Enough explosive material was found in thehouse in La Linea where the Turk lived to blowup a bus, and the material could be especially

dangerous if combined with shrapnel, InteriorMinister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said.

Investigators found no indications that thethree were targeting Gibraltar, he said, decliningto offer specifics on possible targets, except that"there are clear indications they could have beenplanning an attack in Spain and/or anothercountry."

"This is one of the most important opera-tions carried out against al-Qaida," FernandezDiaz told reporters. He said the operationinvolved close collaboration with intelligenceservices from "Spain's allies," without identify-ing any of the countries.

The arrests came as the Summer Olympicswere being held in Britain under tight securityagainst possible terrorist attacks, including mil-itary aircraft and ground-to-air missiles.

Spanish authorities had been watching thesuspects for "some time," the minister said anddecided to arrest them after the Russian and theRussian of Chechen descent took a bus towardFrance.

The two arrested in the bus were travelingfrom southern Cadiz to the northern town ofIrun, possibly intending to cross into France, theminister said. The pair had been in Spain forabout two months. Cadiz is near the large U.S.military base in Rota alongside theMediterranean.

"Police moved to arrest them when itbecame known that they planned to leaveSpain," he said.

Fernandez Diaz did not disclose the sus-pects' names, but said two were suspected al-Qaida operatives while the Turk was a facilita-tor. Pictures of the suspects were released by

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In this undated photo released by the Spanish InteriorMinistry on Thursday Aug.2, 2012, an al-Qaida suspect onlyidentified by the initials M.A. is seen in this hand out photo.Spanish police arrested three suspected members of al-Qaida who they believe were planning to carry out attacks inSpain and possibly other European countries, Interior MinisterJorge Fernandez Diaz said Thursday. He said the three menwere detained Wednesday. Two of the detainees are fromcountries of the former Soviet Union and were arrested in thecentral town of Ciudad Real. The third, a Turkish man wasdetained in the southern town of La Linea. (AP Photo/SpanishInterior Ministry)

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even that, demanding instead a full five-yearfarm bill with 80 percent of it, or about $400 bil-lion, devoted to food stamps.

More broadly, just 151 laws have beenenacted in 19 months; more than two dozen ofthem were to rename post offices and court-houses, or add individuals to the Smithsonianboard. By comparison, the previous Congressenacted 383 laws with President Barack Obamain the White House and Democrats controllingCapitol Hill.

Even in 2007-08, when Republican Bushwas president and Democrats ran Congress, 460laws were enacted.

"They think compromise is a dirty wordwhen compromise is necessary to get thingsdone in the era of divided government," saidRep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

A poll last month by CBS News and TheNew York Times found Congress with a 12 per-cent approval rating and 79 percent disapprovalscore.

Lawmakers will return in September forwhat promises to be an abbreviated pre-electionsession with two main items of business.

Most important is a six-month spending billto keep the government running through Marchand prevent any possibility of a politicallyexplosive government shutdown before theelection. Not one of the 13 must-pass spendingbills has been completed and the new budgetyear begins Oct. 1.

The warring sides also need to find somesolution on farm subsidies and food stampsbefore the programs expire Sept. 30. The Senategave bipartisan approval to its farm bill in Junebut the House has been unable to pass it or aversion of its own.

"The House is pretty well divided. You'vegot the left concerned about reductions in thefood stamp program, you've got the right whodon't think the cuts go far enough in the food

__________________________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, August 6, 2012 3

C O N G R E S S B R E A K S F O R 5 W E E K S ,

B U T M U C H W O R K U N D O N Estamp program,"Boehner said. "Andfrankly, I haven't seen218 votes in the middleto pass a farm bill."

A leading optionwould be to punt theissue into the future, asCongress has done withso much else.

Even what passesfor accomplishmentoften simply extendscurrent policy. Therewere the recent exten-sions of transportationfunding and studentloan subsidies, alongwith earlier action toextend Obama's payrolltax cuts and his demandfor additional joblessbenefits for the long-time unemployed.

"That's just sort of continuing the statusquo," Van Hollen said. "But in terms of tacklingbig issues, this Congress has been out of com-mission."

Defense hawks hope political pressure inAugust will force Congress to address the auto-matic cuts. The reductions were the default thatObama and congressional Republicans agreedto last year as part of a deficit-cutting plan thatalso raised the nation's borrowing limit.

Republicans accuse Obama of jeopardizingnational security. Democrats counter that spar-ing the military will require Republicans to con-cede on raising taxes on high-wage earners.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and PattyMurray, D-Wash., eagerly talked about trying towork out a compromise in August, but otherRepublicans and Democrats have shown littleinterest, content to use the issue as a politicalclub.

"I don't know how we get out of debt if wedon't have bipartisanship," Graham said.

Republican presidential candidate MittRomney suggested that Congress put off theissue, delaying the cuts for at least one year.Whether Congress can resolve the issue in thepostelection session or wait until next yeardepends on the outcome of the presidential andcongressional races.

The possibility of Romney being sworn inJan. 21 and Republicans taking control of theSenate and House makes a delay more likely.

The real concern ahead is the debt limit.

The Treasury Department has said the gov-ernment's borrowing limit will be reached nearthe end of 2012, but it has the ability to shiftmoney to buy a few months reprieve to give thenext Congress time to act. That puts the likelydeadline for the borrowing authority on a colli-sion course with the expiration of the temporaryspending bill to keep the government operatingthrough March.

WASHINGTON (AP) —Congress' performance matches itsapproval rating — abysmal.

Lawmakers headed home for afive-week break with a lengthy listof uncompleted work and little toshow for the past year and a halfexcept an eye-popping amount ofdissatisfaction: Nearly 80 percent ofAmericans are unhappy with them.The Republican-controlled Houseand Democratic-led Senate have setrecord lows for production andrecord highs for dysfunction.

Partisanship and election-yearpolitics have left a drought-strickennation wondering if new help willever come and the U.S. PostalService uncertain about its solvency.Some $110 billion in automatic,across-the-board cuts are due to hitmilitary and domestic programs onJan. 2, yet no bipartisan solution isin sight or even under discussion bythose who really matter.

At the same time, PresidentGeorge W. Bush-era tax cuts for all Americansexpire, threatening to send a sluggish economyright back into recession.

The standoff is what happens when a bitter-ly divided government mixes with election-yearpolitics to throw sand in the gears of officialWashington. The tea party-dominated Houseand a Senate controlled by Democrats strug-gling to keep their narrow majority inNovember view each other with a palpable dis-dain.

House Speaker John Boehner, who came toWashington in 1991, bluntly described thedivide that has made consensus a rare commod-ity.

"The American people are probably morepolarized now than any time since I've beenhere," the Ohio Republican told reporters. "Andas a result we see that polarization reflected herein the halls of Congress. And even though bothsides have some sharply different views andideologies, our job is still to find the commonground."

But common ground is scarce. This is aCongress that can't do the big stuff while eventhe small stuff, such as a one-year extension ofstudent loan subsidies that passed in June,makes them sweat.

Congress stumbled out of Washington for afive-week vacation one day early on Thursdayon a typical note: a GOP filibuster in the Senateof a bipartisan cybersecurity bill and theHouse's abandonment of a one-year extension,as Republican leaders had planned, of food andfarm policy.

Senate Republicans were unhappy aboutbeing denied a chance to amend the cybersecu-rity bill. House Republicans were unable to findparty unity on food stamps and farm subsidies

The House settled for a paltry restoration ofexpired disaster programs for livestock produc-ers and tree farmers. The Senate wouldn't do

FILE - In this July 12, 2012 file photo, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, talks toreporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Lawmakers headed home for a five-week breakwith a laundry list of uncompleted work and little to show for the past year and a halfexcept an eye-popping amount of dissatisfaction _ nearly 80 percent of Americans areunhappy with them. The Republican-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate haveset record lows for production and record highs for dysfunction

4 Legal Street News Monday August 13, 2012

F L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C SF L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C SData From the Official Website of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. www.flhsmv.gov

__________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, August 6, 2012 5

A U T O A C C I D E N T S I N S O U T H F L O R I D ATHIS WEEK

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Jacksonville man criticallyinjured when hit by Jeep in

Orlando

A Jacksonville man was critically injured Sundaywhen he was hit while standing at a traffic accidentscene in Orlando.Ken Samsudean Jr., 25, was standing at the acci-dent scene after his car struck another vehicleabout 2 a.m. when a third car hit him and two oth-ers, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.Investigators said Samsudean struck a car frombehind on Colonial Drive at Constantine Avenue.He and the other driver, Christopherr Lacasse, 25,of Winter Springs and a third driver who stopped,Ronald Dorsey, 32, of Orlando, were standing atthe scene when they were hit by a Jeep drivenby Eric Anderson, 28, of Orlando.The others received only minor injuries.Samsudean was taken to Orlando RegionalMedical Center, the Highway Patrol said.

August 2, 2012

A crash that closed all northbound lanes ofInterstate 95 in Jupiter for more than an hour hasbeen cleared, Florida Highway Patrol reports.

The driver in the wreck had to be cut out of hisvehicle, but did not suffer life-threatening injuries,Palm Beach County Fire Rescue spokesman Capt.Albert Borroto said. He was flown by Trauma Hawkto St. Mary’s Medical Center.

The wreck just north of Indiantown Road hap-pened in the wake of an earlier traffic backup,according to FHP spokesman Lt. Tim Frith. Thatback up began around 10 a.m. when drivers calledin reports of a disabled vehicle on the roadside witha person, possibly a homeless person, underneath.Troopers stopped there to tell the person to move,Frith said.

About 10:15 a.m., as traffic was slowed north ofthat incident, a small vehicle ran into the back of aparked truck in the northbound lanes just north ofIndiantown, Borroto said. The patient had to be cutout of the vehicle due to heavy damage.

August 2, 2012

Crash clears; Interstate 95re-opened in Jupiter

August 4, 2012

August 4, 2012

Earlier crashes slow I-95near Broward Boulevard

Serious crash blocks I-4east in Lake Mary

Florida motorcycle crash

August 3,2012

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. --- A former Waterloo residentdied following a motorcycle crash in Florida whereshe had been living.According to the Florida Highway Patrol, LuHaddeman, 72 and recently of Largo, Fla., was apassenger on a BMW motorcycle that was involvedin an accident with a car Sunday evening.Paramedics took Haddeman to Bayonet PointHospital, where she died. The man who was drivingthe motorcycle, 75-year-old George Tacott ofClearwater, was also treated at the hospital for seri-ous injuries.

August 3, 2012

Delays were easing on both sides of Interstate95 near Broward Boulevard following crashes earli-er Tuesday morning that delayed traffic in both thenorth and southbound directions.

By 8:40 a.m., vehicles involved in the earliercrashes were cleared from the travel lanes but resid-ual and volume-related delays were persisting.

Other crashes and incidents being reported onarea roadways on Tuesday by the Florida HighwayPatrol and Florida Department of Transportationinclude:

8:38 a.m., hit-and-run crash on southbound I-95near Broward Boulevard;

8:34 a.m., crash on northbound I-95 approach-ing Sample Road causing delays back to SampleRoad;

7:57 a.m., crash on southbound I-95 nearBroward Boulevard, blocking a right lane.

Traffic caused by construction and debris in theroad may delay Monday morning commuters inMiami-Dade and Broward counties.

In Miami-Dade:• A crash on the southbound Interstate 95 expresslane flyover is now clear.• A crash on Northwest 57th Avenue andNorthwest 202nd Street is causing a roadblock atthe intersection.• A crash on Southwest 40th Street and Southwest57th Avenue is causing no roadblock.• Roadway debris on westbound State Road 836and southbound State Road 826 is blocking thecenter lane.• A crash with injuries on eastbound State Road836 and Northwest 57th Avenue is blocking the leftlane.A crash on southbound Interstate 95 and theRickenbacker Causeway is causing no roadblock.• A crash on westbound Bird Road and Southwest97th Avenue is blocking the right lane.

In Broward:• A large tarp on northbound Interstate 95 andOakland Park Boulevard is blocking the left lane.

Traffic alert: Crashes,debris in Miami-Dade,

Broward may slow drivers

On Interstate 4, a medical chopper blocked theeastbound lanes after a serious crash near the StateRoad 417 exit ramp in Lake Mary. Further details onthe crash were not immediately available.

Wet roads make for a slip-pery South Florida

commute

Delray Beach Fire-Rescue sent along this image ofa rollover crash during which a black pickup trucklanded on its roof.

Two occupants were removed from the truck andtaken to Delray Medical Center with injuries thatwere not life-threatening, agency spokesman Capt.Curtis Jepsen said.

Boca Raton Fire-Rescue also responded to thecrash that happened on a rainy morning on thesouthbound lanes of I-95 north of the CongressAvenue exit.

Pedestrian dies whilecrossing I-95 in Fort

Lauderdale

I-95 in Delray Beach,Wednesday, 8 a.m.

FORT LAUDERDALE—The Florida Highway Patrol is attempting to notifyrelatives of a pedestrian who died in an early morn-ing crash Wednesday on I-95 in Fort Lauderdale.

The male victim was struck when he tried to crossthe northbound lanes of the Interstate near DavieBoulevard at around 3 a.m. and died at the scene,Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Wysocky saidThursday.

August 4, 2012

Rain showers passing over South Florida have leftarea roadways wet and slippery. A series of pre-dawn crashes have already been cleared. Amongthem, according to the Florida Highway Patrol,was a pedestrian fatality reported shortly after 3:15a.m. along I-95 through Fort Lauderdale.

Other crashes and incidents being reported by FHPand Florida's Department of Transportation,include:

Crash westbound I-595 west of University Drive inDavie, partially blocking a right lane.

Crash on eastbound I-595 near University Drive inDavie, no travel lanes blocked;

8:06 a.m., crash southbound I-95 after YamatoRoad in Boca Raton, no travel lanes blocked;

8:04 a.m., injury crash southbound I-95 afterCongress Avenue in Boca Raton, blocking a leftlane with southbound traffic backed up until AtlanticAvenue.

August 5, 2012

August 5, 2012

BEIRUT (AP) -- A pan-Arab television sta-tion aired a video Sunday purporting to showSyrian rebels guarding a group of Iraniansabducted a day earlier and promising moreattacks on Iranian targets.

Armed men in the video identify themselvesas members of the rebel "Baraa Brigades" andsay that at least one of the 48 captives was anofficer of Iran's powerful RevolutionaryGuards. They claim the Iranians were on a"reconnaissance mission" in the capitalDamascus at the time they were abducted. Iransays they are pilgrims who were visiting ashrine.

"We promise Iran and all those who supportthis regime ... we will strike at all (Iranian) tar-gets in Syria," one of the rebels says in thevideo. "The fate of all Iranians who operate inSyria will be the same as those we have here,either captive or killed, God willing."

The abductions threaten to pull Syria's closeally Iran deeper into the country's civil war.They also raised questions about the extent towhich President Bashar Assad's regime can con-trol the center of its power in the capital.

Last month, rebels and Syrian regime forcesfought intense battles for a week in Damascus,the opposition fighters' biggest challenge so farin the capital.

The government claimed Saturday it wasnow in full control of all districts in Damascusafter purging Tadamon, one of the last rebel-held areas. But several residents reported hear-ing loud explosions and gunfire echoing fromseveral districts of the capital throughout thenight and early Sunday.

Activists and residents said there wereclashes in the central districts of Rukneddine,Salhiyeh and al-Muhajireen on the foothills ofMount Qassioun. And in a rare acknowledge-ment of an attack in the heart of Damascus,state-run news agency SANA said a Syrian waskilled and several others were wounded when"terrorist groups" fired mortar shells behind theAbbassiyyin hospital, a few hundred meters(yards) from Abbassiyyin Square, a majorroundabout in Damascus.

Syrian authorities regularly use the word"terrorists" to refer to the rebels seeking to top-ple the regime.

Khaled al-Shami, an activist in Damascus,said official reports that troops had purgedDamascus from rebels were "nonsense."

"The Free Syrian Army does not seek tohold territory in Damascus but rather stage hitand run attacks that drain the regime. The rebels

6 Legal Street News Monday August 13, 2012___________________________________________________________

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are present and strong there," he said.

Gunmen snatched 48 Iranian pilgrims justoutside Damascus on Saturday in a brazenattack. The pilgrims were on a bus taking themfrom the suburb of Sayeda Zeinab, about 16kilometers (10 miles) south of Damascus, to theairport to return home when they were kid-napped, according to the Iranian state newsagency, IRNA.

Mainly Shiite Iran is a close ally of thebeleaguered Syrian government, which is dom-inated by the minority Alawite sect, an offshootof Shiite Islam. Syria has long welcomedIranian pilgrims visiting the ornate, gold-domedshrine of Sayeda Zeinab, the ProphetMuhammad's granddaughter.

But the rebels in the video claimed therewas an officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guardamong the group and showed what was purport-edly his ID and a permit to carry weapons.

IRNA said Sunday that Iranian ForeignMinister Ali Akbar Salehi had spoken by phonewith his Turkish and Qatari counterparts anddemanded their intervention to help release theIranians. Turkey and Qatar have supported theoverwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels in Syria.

The Turkish and Qatari foreign ministerspromised to make efforts for the release ofIranian pilgrims, IRNA reported Sunday.

In Tehran, a senior member of an influentialparliamentary committee advised Iraniansagainst traveling to Syria, state-run Press TVreported, in a high-ranking acknowledgmentthat Syrian rebels have expanded their hold overkey roads and other areas once firmly underAssad's control. The comment by Kazem Jalali,a member of Iran's Committee on Security andForeign Policy, does not represent an officialIranian discouraging travel to Syria, but theviews of the parliament group often shape poli-cies.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton will visit Istanbul later this week fortalks with Turkish officials over the worseningcrisis in Syria, the State Department saidSunday. Turkey, which has taken in tens ofthousands of Syrian refugees, has beefed up its

military presence along the border.

The main battle in the civil war has nowshifted to Syria's largest city, the commercialhub of Aleppo, some 350 kilometers (215 miles)north of Damascus. Rebels seized severalneighborhoods there two weeks ago and theregime has struggled to dislodge them eversince in a stark demonstration of the rebels'growing strength and organization and theregime's loosening grip on the country

On Sunday, Syrian opposition groups andactivists said fierce clashes were still ongoing asrebels tried to expand their hold and inch closerto the historic city center.

Local activist Mohammad Saeed said thereis fighting only a few hundred meters (yards)from the medieval citadel overlooking the citycenter. Heavily armed government troops havebeen steadily shelling rebel-controlled districts,mainly in the southwestern part of the city, forthe past two weeks.

Saeed and the British-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rights reported heavyshelling and clashes Sunday mainly in the dis-tricts of Salaheddine, al-Sukkari and Hananou.They said troops were using fighter jets to tryand crush the rebels, mostly strafing but alsobombing.

"Fighter jets to us are now as common asbirds in the sky," Saeed said.

Activists have been saying for a week thatthe government is gearing up for an all-outoffensive to clear Aleppo from rebels, and thepro-government Al Watan newspaper saidSunday that the Syrian army is bracing itself forthe "decisive battle." But expectations of animminent assault have not yet materialized.

Turkey's state-run agency said Syria's firstman in space has fled to Turkey and joinedopposition forces fighting Assad's regime. TheAnadolu Agency said Mohammed Ahmed Fariscrossed into Turkey after reaching Aleppo anddeclaring his solidarity with the Free SyrianArmy.

Anadolu said it was Faris' fourth attempt todefect. The agency gave no other details on hisescape and provided no source for the report.

Anadolu said Faris, who was born in Aleppoin 1951, was part of a three-man crew of aSoviet space mission in 1987.

6 Legal Street News Monday August 13, 2012___________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, August 13, 2012

was vigorously crushed by government forces, but pocketsof resistance and sympathetic neighborhoods remain.

Clashes and shelling also continue in Aleppo, especial-ly the opposition bastion of Salaheddine as rebels and gov-ernment forces hold different parts of that city. On Thursday,the rebels even deployed a captured tank against the regimeand briefly shelled an air force base outside Aleppo.

In a briefing on Friday, the U.N. refugee agency said"terror is gripping the population and humanitarian aid isdesperately needed." It sighted the Syrian Red Crescent assaying that 45 schools and six dormitories in the city arehosting 7,200 refugees, with an unknown number shelteringin mosques.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous warned ofa major government assault on Aleppo in the coming days toretake the rebel-held neighborhoods.

"The focus is now on Aleppo, where there has been aconsiderable buildup of military means, and where we havereason to believe that the main battle is about to start," hetold reporters in New York late Thursday after briefing theSecurity Council on his trip to Syria.

Continued from page 1

L O U G H N E R W O U L D G E T

L I F E I N S H O O T I N GTimes reported earlier Saturday thatLoughner was set to change his plea.

Bill Solomon, a spokesman for the U.S.attorney's office, said he could not com-ment on Loughner's case and the possibili-ty of a guilty plea.

The Pima County attorney's office,which has said it could also pursue stateprosecution of Loughner, declined to com-ment, said spokeswoman Isabel BurruelSmutzer.

Loughner had pleaded not guilty to 49federal charges stemming from the Jan. 8,2011, shooting outside a Tucson supermar-ket where Giffords was holding a meet-and-greet with constituents.

Authorities said he shot Giffords,opened fire on the crowd and was subduedby bystanders. Giffords was shot in thehead and subsequently left Congress todevote her time to rehabilitation.

Giffords and her husband were travelingin Europe, and spokeswoman HayleyZachary said Saturday she had no informa-tion on developments in Loughner's case.

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, a Democrat whowas elected in June to replace Giffords inCongress after she resigned, also waswounded in the shooting. A spokesman forBarber did not immediately respond torequests for comment

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns ruledpreviously that Loughner isn't psychologi-cally fit to stand trial, but that he could even-tually be made ready for trial after treat-ment.

An Arizona college that Loughnerattended released numerous emails abouthim that painted a picture of a strugglingstudent with emotional problems who dis-turbed others with his strange behavior.

Experts have concluded that Loughnersuffers from schizophrenia, and prison offi-cials in Missouri, where Loughner has beenheld, have forcibly medicated him with psy-chotropic drugs.

Even though psychologists have saidLoughner's condition is improving, hislawyers have vigorously fought the govern-ment's efforts to medicate him.

At one point, a federal appeals courthalted the forced medication, but resumedit once mental health experts at the prisonconcluded that Loughner's condition wasdeteriorating further.

Loughner has demonstrated bizarrebehavior since his arrest.

He was removed from a May 25, 2011,court hearing when he lowered his head towithin inches of the courtroom table, thenlifted his head and began a loud and angryrant.

His psychologist has said that sinceLoughner has been forcibly medicated, hiscondition has improved. He sat still andexpressionless for seven hours at a hearingin September 2011.

PHOENIX (AP) -- A possible plea deal inthe deadly Tucson shootings that woundedthen-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wouldsend Jared Lee Loughner to prison for therest of his life, according to a person famil-iar with the case.

A court-appointed psychiatrist will testifyTuesday that Loughner is competent toenter a plea in the shooting rampage thatkilled six people and injured 13, includingGiffords, said the person, who was notauthorized to discuss the case publicly andspoke on condition of anonymity.

A status conference in the federal casehad already been scheduled for Tuesday inTucson.

The person, speaking Saturday aboutupcoming events in the case, said the planis for Loughner to enter a guilty plea in themurders and attempted murders. The planis contingent on the judge in the case allow-ing Loughner to enter the plea.

The Los Angeles

D A M A S C U S

This photo released Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, by the U.S.Marshal's Service shows Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect inthe Tucson shooting rampage that killed six people and left sev-eral others wounded, including then-U.S. Rep. GabrielleGiffords.

E B O L A

OUTBREAK

IN UGANDA

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) -- Doctorswere slow to respond to an outbreak ofEbola in Uganda because symptomsweren't always typical, but a World HealthOrganization official said Friday that author-ities are halting the spread of the deadlydisease.

Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representa-tive in Uganda, told reporters in the capitalKampala that everyone known to have hadcontact with Ebola victims has been isolat-ed. Ugandan health officials have createdan "Ebola contact list" with names of peoplewho had even the slightest contact withthose who contracted Ebola. The list nowbears 176 names.

"The structure put in place is more thanadequate," Saweka said. "We are isolatingthe suspected or confirmed cases."

Ebola was confirmed in Uganda on July28, several days after villagers were dyingin a remote corner of western Uganda.Ugandan officials were slow to investigatepossible Ebola because the victims did notshow the usual symptoms, such as cough-ing blood. At least 16 Ugandans have diedof the disease.

Delays in confirming Ebola allowed thedisease to spread to more villages deep inthe western district of Kibaale, UgandanPresident Yoweri Museveni said.

"The doctors in Kibaale say the symp-toms were a bit atypical of Ebola,"Museveni said in a national addressMonday. "They were not clearly like Ebolasymptoms. Because of that delay, the sick-ness spread to another village."

Saweka said that organizations such asDoctors Without Borders and the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Preventionare helping Ugandan officials to control thespread of Ebola.

This is the fourth outbreak of Ebola inUganda since 2000, when the diseasekilled 224 people and left hundreds moretraumatized in northern Uganda.

Ebola is highly infectious and kills quick-ly. The disease was first reported in 1976 inCongo and is named for the river where itwas recognized, according to the CDC.

The aid group Doctors Without Borderssaid in a statement on Wednesday that thefirst victim of the Ebola outbreak was a 3-month-old girl and that of the 65 peoplewho attended her funeral, 15 later contract-ed the deadly disease.

Funerals in Uganda are typically elabo-rate affairs that draw huge crowds. Healthofficials have now taken on the task of safe-ly burying the bodies of Ebola victims,Saweka said.

G A S D R I L L I N G R E S E A R C H

S U R F A C E P I T T S B U R G HPITTSBURGH (AP) -- Is gas drilling ruining the air,

polluting water and making people sick? The evidence issketchy and inconclusive, but a lack of serious funding isdelaying efforts to resolve those pressing questions and cre-ating a vacuum that could lead to a crush of lawsuits, someexperts say.

A House committee in June turned down an Obamaadministration request to fund $4.25 million in research onhow drilling may affect water quality. In the spring,Pennsylvania stripped $2 million of funding that included astatewide health registry to track respiratory problems, skinconditions, stomach ailments and other illnesses potential-ly related to gas drilling.

"It's almost as if it's a secret, that they don't want toknow about people who are affected," said Janet McIntyre,who lives near a drilling area about 30 miles north ofPittsburgh. "There's a lot of people in my neighborhood thathave rashes and little red spots."

State officials say the air and water in the communityis safe, and doctors haven't confirmed that drilling causedillnesses. But without a full-scale medical review or otherresearch in such cases, the worries remain.

"Right now, the kind of comprehensive research that'sneeded just hasn't started," said Bernard Goldstein, profes-sor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh School ofPublic Health.

The drilling boom has come about because ofadvances in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that havemade enormous reserves of gas accessible, leading to morejobs and profits and lower energy costs. But there are alsoconcerns about pollution. The gas is pulled from the groundthrough a process in which large volumes of water, plussand and chemicals, are injected deep underground to breakrock apart and free the gas.

Environmentalists claim that the fluids associated withdrilling could rise and pollute shallow drinking wateraquifers, and that methane leaks cause serious air pollution.The industry and many government officials say the prac-tice is safe when done properly, and many communitieswelcome the jobs and the royalty payments landownersreceive. But there have also been cases in which faultywells did pollute water.

Scientists, residents and even some energy companiesagree on one thing: Without credible answers, the fears andlawsuits over possible public health and environmentalimpacts are likely to grow.

Disputes over possible effects on drinking water havealready led to lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Texas and otherstates. In June, Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energyagreed to a $1.6 million settlement with Pennsylvania fam-ilies who say their wells were ruined, though the companydidn't acknowledge any fault.

One national law firm has created a "fracking-law-suit.com" website to attract clients, while another has"frackinginjurylaw.com."

The federal Environmental Protection Agency hasdrafted new rules to better control air pollution from gasdrilling, and officials in Pennsylvania and other states havetightened regulations on well construction and relatedissues. But critics say public health effects are being over-looked.

"There's literally hundreds of millions of dollars beingspent on environmental health and human health research

every year," Goldstein said, yet virtually none of that isgoing to gas drilling research.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said inJanuary that research into fracking "should include all theways people can be exposed" to fumes or tainted water. Yetmore than half a year later, "we don't have any new initia-tives" regarding shale gas and public health, saidBernadette Burden, a CDC spokeswoman.

With a lack of government funding, there are someembryonic attempts to fill the gap. For example, the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund has said, without elab-orating, that it is partnering with major universities andeight natural gas companies on ways to address environ-mental and health concerns.

Critics also say the industry isn't doing much to helpthe situation, especially given the enormous amounts ofmoney shale gas is producing.

New shale gas fields generated more than $20 billionin gross revenues in 2011, according to an Associated Pressanalysis of federal energy data. That figure is projected togrow steadily over the next 10 years, even with wholesaleprices that are near historic lows.

Reid Porter, a spokesman for the American PetroleumInstitute, the leading industry lobbying group, said he was-n't aware of any API donations to public health research.

Goldstein, who has more than 40 years' experienceworking in public health, predicted that ignoring healthconcerns could ultimately be used by trial lawyers seekingbig payments from a deep-pocketed industry.

"If somebody in your community tells you that they'resure that they're sick, that their kids are sick, and at thesame time the industry is saying, `It ain't us,' who are you

going to believe?" Goldsteinsaid.

Energy companies can lookat to at least one successfulmodel for industry-supportedresearch.

The Health Effects Institute,founded in 1980, is a Boston-based partnership between theEPA and the auto industry. Eachcontributes half of the yearly $10million budget, said director DanGreenbaum, but the industry hasno say on what research projectsget chosen.

The research done byHealth Effects has "been instru-mental in our learning aboutexhaust emissions and possiblehealth effects" and supportedtechnology that has led to reduc-tions in vehicle and engine pol-lution, said John Wall, chief

technical officer for Cummins Inc., an Indiana engine man-ufacturer.

Health Effects is "exploring the possibility" of helpingshale gas drilling research, but ultimately that wouldrequire contributions from the gas drilling industry,Greenbaum said.

Some industry groups say they're ready to considernew approaches. Patrick Creighton, a spokesman for theMarcellus Shale Coalition, said it has partnered with a num-ber of institutions to advance original research. He didn'tprovide details.

Some recent research, though, has been tainted byindustry money.

The University of Texas at Austin recently said itwould create a group of outside experts to review theschool's Energy Institute, which issued a report on environ-mental effects from gas this year without disclosing that thelead researcher was also being paid hundreds of thousandsof dollars by an energy company.

In May, a report from New York's University atBuffalo generated similar controversy because of theresearcher's ties to the gas industry.

The oil and gas companies and researchers who don'tdisclose their industry ties "just don't get" that a loss ofcredibility can cost more in lawsuits than funding tough,nonpartisan research, Goldstein said.

"Human nature," he said, "will not trust industry."

8 Legal Street News Monday, August 13, 2012

3 A L - Q A I D AS U S P E C T S

Magnus Ranstorp, a terror expert at the SwedishNational Defence College.

"What jumps out is that they have had air-craft training," he said. "It's always a worry thatsomeone could get a hold of a private plane andtry to do a (terror) operation against an event,"Ranstorp said.

But getting to Britain during the Olympicsprobably would have been a challenge for thethree, even if they had not been under surveil-lance.

Passport-free ground travel in much of the27-nation European Union meant they couldhave gone to countries on the continent withoutfacing document checks, but getting to Britainis more difficult because passport checks forvisitors are mandatory.

Britain "has the tougher border control.They are almost like the United States in somesense. They triple check your name in databas-es," Ranstorp said.

The three will appear soon before an inves-tigating magistrate at the National Court inMadrid and remain under detention while ajudge studies the case and decides on possiblecharges. That process could take anywhere fromdays to months, and authorities are not likely torelease more details about the case until thejudge finishes that work.

In this photo from June 25, 2012, a crew works on a gas drilling rig at a well sitefor shale based natural gas in Zelienople, Pa. Some experts say the evidence surround-ing questions that gas drilling could be ruining the air and polluting water and makingpeople sick is sketchy and inconclusive, but a lack of serious funding is delaying effortsto resolve those pressing questions and creating a vacuum that could lead to a crush oflawsuits. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Spanish authorities, but they were identifiedonly by their initials: C.Y. for the Turk andA.A.A. and M.A. for the other two.

The mug shots showed three men whoappeared to be in their 30s, two with crew cutsand one with hair down to his shoulders.

The minister described one operative as akey member of the terror network, and said bothoperatives had practiced flying in light aircraft,without saying where or whether authoritiessuspect they might have been plotting an attackusing aircraft. One was also an expert in explo-sives and poisonous substances, said FernandezDiaz.

Spanish police have arrested dozens of al-Qaida suspects since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacksin the United States, and more after the 2004train bombings in Madrid.

Most Islamic-based terror arrests in Spainover the last several years have been of lower-level players and people trying to recruitjihadists, but the detention of the Russians andthe Turk was significant because of their appar-ent high level of training and capability, said

Continued from page 2

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Former AlabamaGov. Don Siegelman is headed back to federal court for anew sentencing hearing for his conviction on bribery andother charges.

Federal Judge Mark Fuller will decide Siegelman'snew sentence in Montgomery on Friday and could orderhim to immediately return to federal prison after morethan four years of freedom.

Siegelman and former HealthSouth chief RichardScrushy were convicted in 2006. Prosecutors say theyarranged $500,000 in contributions to Siegelman's cam-paign for a lottery in exchange for the governor appoint-ing Scrushy to a hospital regulatory board.

The 66-year-old former governor was originally sen-tenced to more than seven years in prison. He servedabout nine months before being released pending hisappeals. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear hiscase.

E X - A L A G O V E R N O RFACES NEW BRIBERYS E N T E N C I N G