Ex-QB's son, 2, drowns in hot tub

Fox Sports

Former NFL star Randall Cunningham’s 2-year-old son was found dead after apparently drowning in a backyard hot tub at his Las Vegas home, authorities said.


The Las Vegas Review Journal reported the news late Tuesday.

The child was discovered at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday by a woman and several children at Cunningham’s house.

The woman removed the boy from the water and attempted to perform CPR, Las Vegas police Lt. Dennis Flynn said.

The death was being investigated by abuse and neglect detectives, but Flynn said the drowning appeared to be an accident.

Cunningham, 47, played for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings before retiring in 2002.

Flying Car a Step Closer to Reality

by Mike Krumboltz

Weird-looking cars are a dime a dozen. Far less common are weird-looking cars that can also fly AND have approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Indeed, as far as we know, there's only one of those babies: The Terrafugia Transition.


The private aircraft/funky-looking car has been in the news before. But the recent announcement that it's going into production sparked mega-searches on the Web. Almost immediately, online lookups for "terrafugia transition" and "terrafugia transition pictures" both, well, took off.

A popular article from the UK's Daily Telegraph explains that the FAA's special exemption allows the vehicle to function as both a "light aircraft" and a car. Normally, for a plane to meet the "light aircraft" designation, it can weigh no more than 1,200 pounds. The Terrafugia Transition weighs 1,320, due primarily to the number of car-related safety features, like airbags and crumple zones. The "light aircraft" designation is key, because licenses for planes with that label require only 20 hours of flying time. Fewer hoops to jump through means more potential sales.

So, how does the plane/car work? Check out the flying car's official video below. So far, 70 people have placed a deposit. The total retail cost: $194,000. Expensive, but really, can you put a price on skipping commercial flights?

@ Yahoo! Video

Russian 'spies' were no James Bonds

By Paul Reynolds

World affairs correspondent, BBC News website

The funniest aspect of the careers of the 10 alleged Russian "agents" arrested in the US is how inept they were - and how apparently unsuccessful.


They have not even been charged with espionage, only with not registering as agents, or representatives, of a foreign government and with money laundering.

The most worrying aspect, for Western governments, is that the Russian intelligence agency should be engaged in this kind of endeavour, as if the US were still an enemy.

The old KGB clan, symbolised by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, still seems to exercise influence. It must have been fun for them, a reminder of the "good old days" perhaps, to nurture this network, though surely some smart people in Moscow must have begun to wonder when there would be some results.

But this does not compare with those Cold War "good old days", when agents such as Colonel Abel and Peter and Helen Kroger were also "illegals" living in the West and handing on nuclear secrets.

Indeed, if this is the best the Russians can come up with, it does not say much about their level of penetration of the US government. These supposed agents did not even dare to work for the US government itself, afraid that their cover stories would not stand up.

Some of them had been living incognito in the US since the 1990s and seem to have hardly done anything. In fact, several were settling in rather too comfortably.

In one case, the major issue for the couple concerned - "Richard and Cynthia Murphy", known as the "New Jersey Conspirators", was why they could not buy the house they were living in.

The fact that the FBI gained access to these encrypted messages shows how thoroughly compromised they were

Paul Reynolds

They pointed out correctly to "Moscow Centre" that the US was a society "that values home ownership" and that when in Rome "do as the Romans do".

It was a neat argument, but Moscow suspected that they were taking advantage. They hotly protested that they had not "deviated" from their mission.

Another couple, "Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley", the "Boston Conspirators", also seem to have been doing rather too well. Their accounting of $64,000 (£42,500) given to them reads like the expenses of a British MP - "meals and gifts $1,250"; "education $3,600"; "business (cover) $4,900" etc.

The fact that the FBI gained access to these encrypted messages shows how thoroughly compromised they were. Their e-mails must have been read, as the word "roumors" (sic) is used at one point and the deta

ils of the investigation show how incompetent they were.

The FBI was bugging and burgling them for years. In a clandestine raid on the home of "Richard and Cynthia Murphy", the FBI found the 27-letter password to a computer disc. This gave access to a programme in which a message could be stored in an image on a website and decoded at the other end.

The incident shows a lack of long-term trust among the Russians It is sophisticated but it fell foul of the old failing, human weakness. Who can actually remember a 27-letter password? So they wrote it down.

It reminds one of the times when the British decoders at Bletchley during World War II were helped when lazy German operators did not change the settings on their Enigma machines.

Some of the other evidence shows how little these agents had in fact integrated into US society. They had to be given large bags of cash, in one case allegedly by a Russian diplomat at the UN.

And their achievements seem minimal. They were asked for quite high-level stuff - US tactics in advance of a visit by President Barack Obama in 2009, US nuclear weapons policy, US policy towards Iran.

"Donald Heathfield" of the Boston couple does seem to have talked to some well-connected Americans, but that is not hard to do, and claimed to have spoken to an expert on nuclear "bunker-busting" bombs.

But you do not know if this was an exaggeration - and reminiscent of the hapless non-agent Jim Wormold in Graham Greene's novel Our Man in Havana, who made up agents and information and passed off drawings of the vacuum cleaners he sold as secret weapons.

In one conversation, a couple is heard complaining that Moscow was demanding sources for their information. In fact, Moscow seemed desperate enough to ask in one message for "tidbits".

Diplomatically, this is damaging. It shows a lack of long-term trust among the Russians. The Americans have tried to minimise this and held off on the arrests until President Dmitry Medvedev left after his recent visit.

But it will leave a sour taste in President Obama's mouth, even though it is something he must know goes on.

Update: a reader points out that the US must be spying on Russia, too, a point I accept of course. Some British agents were caught communicating through an "electronic rock" in Moscow not long ago. But this concept of the long-term mole does seem very Cold War.

There is one diplomatic footnote which might be followed up by the British and Irish governments. They were angered recently by the use by Israelis of fake British and Irish passports in the killing of a Hamas official in Dubai.

These new documents indicate the Russians use the same ploy.

Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Africa's cannibal despot Charles Taylor

By Andrew Malone

Dressed in an expensive, impeccably tailored suit and a pair of designer sunglasses, Charles Taylor could pass for a diplomat or businessman discreetly attending to his affairs in The Hague, the Dutch administrative capital. And yet Taylor is an alleged cannibal with a penchant for eating the hearts and livers of his enemies.

He stands accused of masterminding one of the most macabre, blood-spattered episodes in African history.

Helped by his teenage son 'Chuckie', Taylor allegedly orchestrated the slaughter of up to 250,000 people, many of whom were tortured and raped before being cooked and eaten by Taylor's troops.

In a wave of terror that horrified the world, Taylor also left tens of thousands of people maimed for life after ordering his drug-crazed fighters to hack off the arms and legs of civilians with machetes.

Rape was widespread. Thousands of women were kept as sex slaves, after the tendons in their feet were slashed so they were unable to run away.

The atrocities defy belief. Pregnant women, normally revered in Africa, had their stomachs slashed open and their unborn children hacked from the womb. In one case, a boy was captured and told he was 'too tall': a soldier sliced off the boy's feet with a machete, as his comrades laughed.

But now, in a move that will send tremors through the palatial homes of

Africa's remaining despots, the former Liberian president's barbaric past has finally caught up with him as he appears before the international criminal court in The Hague.

The first African leader ever to be tried for war crimes, Taylor, 61, oozed arrogance yesterday as he ridiculed charges of murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscripting child soldiers

 during the war he staged in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Announcing he was fed up with being treated 'like some common street thug', Taylor was indignant at suggestions that he was a cannibal.

'People have me eating human beings!' he exclaimed. 'How can people be so low as to think that of me?

Have these people had their pound of flesh yet?'

He also attacked as 'Lies! Lies! Lies!' suggestions that he was to blame for the slaughter.

'I am not guilty,' he said. 'I am a father of 14 children with love for humanity, and have fought all my life to do what I thought was right. The charges are false, malicious.'

But according to Taylor's victims, thousands of whom last night watched proceedings on giant television screens back in West Africa, there is just one problem with the former president's defence: it is complete nonsense. To them, Taylor is a butcher. Indeed, investigators claim he even made carnage a matter of government policy.

Dubbed Operation No Living Thing, one of his madcap plans was to slaughter the entire civilian population of Sierra Leone, the former British colony, enabling him to make billions from exploiting the richest diamond fields in the world.

One close associate and former confidant has also confirmed longstanding rumours that Taylor had a fondness for eating the flesh of his victims.

Joe 'D. Zigzag' Marzah, a former diamond trader with close links to the former president, claims he knows all of Taylor's secrets 'because we ate human beings together and so he trusted me'.

Recalling a dinner at Taylor's palace in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, following the capture of two enemies, Marzah added: 'We ate these people's livers. This woman cooked the liver and Taylor shared it with me.

A member of the Poro Society, an ancient West African cult of demon-worshippers, Taylor believed that eating the organs of his enemies gave him their strength. He encouraged his soldiers to eat all enemies they captured.

 Born in a remote Liberian village in 1948, there was no sign at first that Taylor would become a monster. He excelled at school in the tiny West African country.

Liberia was not a nation state until liberated slaves from America colonised it in 1847. They modelled their government on that of the U.S. and named their capital Monrovia, after the fifth U.S. President, James Monroe.

A promising student, he earned a university place in the U.S. After gaining an economics degree at Boston University, Taylor then returned to take a government job in Liberia - only to flee back to the U.S. after embezzling more than £1million from Liberian state coffers.

It was a short-lived flight from justice. On his arrival in the U.S., he was arrested for crimes committed in Liberia and jailed pending trial.

But Taylor escaped again, this time using a knotted sheet to clamber out of his cell window. He climbed over the prison's outer fence - and was picked up in a waiting car by his Liberian wife, Enid, whom he had married in the States.

Vanishing from the U.S., he was later reported to be undergoing guerilla warfare training in Libya. There were even rumours that U.S. Intelligence had let him escape, hoping he would overthrow Samuel Doe, the then Liberian leader, who was reputedly losing his mind.

Returning to Liberia, Taylor forged the National Patriotic Front of Liberia - in reality an army of gangsters who raped and pillaged while waging a bush war against Doe. This continued for most of the Nineties until, another warlord rival captured and killed Doe.

But Taylor saw his chance to seize control out of the chaos in 1997 and staged rigged elections. Taylor, a Baptist preacher, campaigned with the slogan: 'I killed your pa, I killed your ma, now vote for me.'

But victory for Taylor did not bring peace. Instead, it brought only more death and destruction.

After marching into Monrovia - using soldiers rounded up from tribal villages and fed cocaine and amphetamines to make them believe they had magic protection against bullets - Taylor promptly declared himself president-for-life.

He installed his American-born son, Charles 'Chuckie' Taylor Jr, as head of the elite Anti-Terrorist Unit - his secret police - and got down to the real business of being an African dictator: killing opponents, gorging himself at state banquets and diverting the country's money to his private bank accounts.

'Chuckie', meanwhile, took to his job with relish. He buried victims alive. He tortured others with red-hot irons and electric shocks. He mutilated the genitals of prisoners and dripped hot oil in their eyes. Many, he simply shot through the head.

But both father and son knew that the real prize lay across the border in Sierra Leone, where the horrifying civil war, fought over the country's gems, would later inspire the Hollywood film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Taylor had an abiding hatred for Sierra Leone's government, after they fought alongside the Liberian government during his battle for power, and vowed in a radio broadcast that Sierra Leone 'would taste the bitterness of war'.

He kept his promise. Dazzled by stories of his neighbour's spectacular new diamond fields, Taylor backed an erratic former photographer called Foday Sankoh to launch a rebellion there.

He then sent troops and arms to help Foday's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rag-tag collection of rebels and child soldiers recruited at gunpoint from rural areas and plied with drugs so they could murder and rape without emotion.

Children as young as seven were forced into this army. They were taught how to use AK-47 assault rifles and how to terrorise villagers. Those too small to lift a gun were ordered to carry bullets.

In what Time Magazine branded Africa's new 'Heart Of Darkness', Sierra Leone descended into mayhem as Taylor's forces, many of whom dressed in women's clothes in the belief they would protect them from enemy bullets, rampaged through the country.

In harrowing testimony collected at rehabilitation camps set up after Taylor was driven from power, child soldiers have told how they were forced to rape old women at gunpoint and torture anyone suspected of collaborating with government forces.

The aim was to drive everyone away from the diamond fields. In accounts from former child soldiers, fathers were ordered to rape their own children, while village women were mutilated with broken bottles.

The stumps of both arms still wrapped in bandages, Alusine, who testified in court, was one of hundreds of thousands to lose limbs. His hands were hacked off when Taylorbacked rebels poured into Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

The 59-year-old told how rebels cut off his left hand with an axe as his wife and four-year-old son watched in horror. When the child started crying, the rebels held him down and prepared to hack off his hands, too.

'I said I would rather you cut off my second hand,' Alusine told the court, wincing as he recalled the trauma. 'I placed my hand [on a slab] and they hacked it twice. It was gone.'

As Liberia and Sierra Leone descended into anarchy, British forces intervened. Members of the SAS and the Special Boat Squadron were sent in after a group of British soldiers was captured in 2000 by one of the many rebel gangs.

After freeing the captured soldiers, and killing huge numbers of the enemy, British intervention signalled the beginning of the end of the war.

Rebel fighters, who had been told that Taylor's blessing made them impervious to bullets, deserted after hearing about the 'powerful magic' of the British. The RUF started to collapse and a United Nations peace deal followed in 2004.

A rebellion against Taylor also erupted in Liberia, forcing him from power. And after frantically trying to hide millions of pounds in bank accounts overseas, Taylor fled into exile in Nigeria. He was later arrested and in 2006 was sent to The Hague, where he has been held in a special prison ever since.

Earlier this year, 'Chuckie' was sentenced to 97 years imprisonment by a Miami court for torturing people when he led his father's terror unit. He was arrested under

 a new law which makes it illegal for anyone involved in war crimes to enter or live in the U.S.

Now his father faces life behind bars. Hague prosecutors insist Charles Taylor is a pathological killer and liar. According to the indictment, Taylor 'supported and encouraged all actions of the RUF'. The UN has already frozen his many bank accounts, containing millions from the trade in blood diamonds.

Taylor admits that atrocities took place, but insists he was trying to broker peace in Sierra Leone.

Asked in court whether he ever received diamonds in exchange for assisting the RUF rebels, Taylor replied: 'Never, ever did I receive, whether it is in mayonnaise or coffee or whatever jar, any diamonds. It is all a lie, a diabolical lie.'

In Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the scars are slowly healing, his victims can only hope that truth and justice will prevail.

USA's World Cup run is over: Ghana goal in extra-time breaks fans' hearts

BY Vinnie Rotondaro, Matthew Lysiak, Corinne Lestch, Jake Pearson and Rich Schapiro

DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Their cup has run dry.

The U.S. soccer team crashed out of the World Cup Saturday with a heartbreaking overtime loss to Ghana that reduced the city to tears.

"I feel empty," said Mike Blanka, 45, of Queens, after watching the game at Down the Hatch in the West Village. "I don't know if I should go watch the Yanks or cry."

His head buried in his hands, Brian Kenny sat alone on the steps outside the W. Fourth St. bar and choked up as he lamented the crushing loss.

"It's terrible, man," grunted Kenny, of Chatham, N.J. "We shouldn't have lost this."

Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan stuck a dagger in the heart of the American team in the 94th minute, sending a left-footed missile into the goal to give the Black Stars the 2-1 victory.

Exasperated American supporters hung their heads as they trudged out of Nevada Smith's in the East Village.

It was a different scene in the Bronx's Morris Heights, where hundreds of ecstatic Ghanaians danced in the streets, waved flags and banged on drums.

"We are the champions! We are going to get that cup!" roared Dan Adulak as he bounded along Sheridan St.

The Americans got off to an atrocious start as Ghana scored in just the fifth minute of the game.

The Ghanaian team, carrying the hope of an entire continent on their shoulders, pressed the U.S. defense in the half's later stages. But they couldn't extend their lead.

At halftime, jubilant Ghanian supporters spilled out onto the streets of Morris Heights, dancing and celebrating.

"We've already won. Count it," exclaimed Emanual Boateng, 52.

A rejuvenated American squad dominated the opening minutes of the second half.

They finally tied the game in the 62nd minute after midfielder Clint Dempsey was fouled in the penalty box.

Landon Donovan cracked the resulting penalty kick off the inside of the right post and into the net, triggering bedlam in the city.

Sweat-drenched fans jumped on barstools and tables at Brooklyn's Angry Wade on Smith St., pumping their fists and chanting "U-S-A!"

"That was freaking awesome," yelled superfan Corbett Stovall, 26, who was wearing a USA jersey, soccer cleats and shinguards.

Hundreds of ecstatic fans hugged and high-fived inside Red Bull Arena in Hoboken.

"Yet again, Donovan does it for us," said Joe Lukshis, 50, an IT worker from Hoboken. "All the pressure, the whole world watching. Donovan's the man."

The game went into extra time tied 1-1. After the Ghanaian goal, the Americans couldn't equalize.

The loss cut short what had been a magical run for the unheralded U.S. squad.

The Americans pulled off a shocker in their first game by tying mighty England. In a heartstopping match with Slovenia, the U.S. clawed back from a 2-0 halftime deficit to earn a draw.

And then, in what was a must-win game against Algeria, Donovan scored in the match's dying minutes, guaranteeing the team's spot in the round of 16.

The dream ended there as the comeback kids failed to muster one last comeback.

"I'm proud of our guys," said Diego Romero, 27, a Marine from Harlem, as he left Nevada Smith's. "We made it farther than anybody thought this year."

rschapiro@nydailynews.com

Tropical Storm Alex to Weaken, Then Regain Its Strength

Image via Wikipedia

Paul Yeager

(June 26) -- Tropical Storm Alex will weaken Saturday night and Sunday, before intensifying again early next week over the open waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico. Alex, which might strengthen enough to become the first hurricane of the season, is unlikely to have a direct impact on the oil spill or containment efforts.


The tropical storm approached hurricane strength by late Saturday afternoon, with a sustained wind of 65 mph, just 9 mph below hurricane levels. However, Alex's greatest threat is flash flooding associated with torrential rain as it crosses through northern Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula from Saturday evening through Sunday. Heavy rain has already fallen in a broad area of Central America, the Yucatan, and islands in the western Caribbean. Additional tropical downpours are expected Sunday.

Rainfall totals greater than 10 inches are possible, especially in mountainous locations.

This computer model shows the National Hurricane Center's forecast track for Tropical Storm Alex as of late Saturday afternoon:

Once the storm returns to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday afternoon, most likely as a tropical depression, it will the re-intensify and move northwest toward the Mexican coast, away from the area in the Gulf of Mexico affected by the ongoing oil spill.

While there were some earlier indications that the storm could have tracked toward the Gulf Coast of the United States, computer models are now showing that the storm will not be pulled in that direction. The National Hurricane Center, according to its 5 p.m. CDT discussion, is confident in this forecast because most of the computer models have come into agreement that the storm will take the more southern track.

Though not likely to directly affect the oil spill, Alex will be a dangerous storm, and perhaps the first hurricane of the season. While it will take it will most likely take the storm close to 24 hours to regain tropical storm strength, the unusually warm water and favorable upper-level atmospheric conditions will allow the storm to intensify during the first part of the week.

Alex will most likely slow its move northwest early in the week as it enters a region with a light steering flow, which will keep the storm over open water for a couple of days over before it approaches land once again. This is another reason that it seems likely that the storm will become the first hurricane of the season.

Alex's second landfall, quite possibly as Hurricane Alex, will most likely come along the Mexico coast on Wednesday.

This is a few days away, however, and just a slight change in the weak steering flow around the system could direct the system farther to the north -- toward southern Texas -- so those in the western Gulf of Mexico will need to monitor the storm in the coming days.

Filed Under: Surge Desk

Tagged: gulf of mexico weather, gulf oil spill, GulfOfMexicoWeather, GulfOilSpill, tropical storm alex, TropicalStormAlex

Obama's Gulf tour reaches Pensacola Beach

From staff and wire reports

President Obama prepared to address the nation Tuesday night with an "I'm in charge" message as the blown-out BP well deep in the Gulf of Mexico gushed crude oil for the 57th day, creating an unprecedented environmental and economic disaster.

In his first address from the Oval Office, Obama will discuss the catastrophic oil spill and his vision for the nation's energy future.

Obama visited Florida's Pensacola Beach on Tuesday, the second day of a tour of Gulf states affected by the massive BP oil spill.

He strolled the beach with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who oversees the government's response to the environmental disaster.

Obama walked to the edge of the emerald green water seemingly clear of tar balls, then went to a snack shop. Down the beach, swimmers were in the water.

As he walked away, a crowd of people behind ropes began chanting, "Save our beach, save our beach." It wasn't clear whether the president heard them.

The president arrived at the beach shortly before 9 a.m. Boom was visible in the waterways as the motorcade drove over the Pensacola Bay bridge.

In Gulf Breeze, spectators lined the route to wave and take pictures. Several onlookers held signs showing support — such as "Thanks for your support, Mr. President. You still have mine."

Waiting at Pensacola Beach on Tuesday morning, Greg Simonds hoped for some kind of progress in the oil spill.

"We just want some resolution," the 27-year-old Pensacola man said. "Everybody says they are doing something. It doesn't seem like they are."

Simonds said the spill canceled a fishing tournament he and his son planned to participate in. "We've lived here all our lives,"he said. "It's going to be destroyed."

Heather Shimp and her 12-year-old daughter, Lily, were at the beach early this morning to wait for the president. "I don't know exactly what he's going to accomplish," said Shimp, a Pensacola resident. "I think a lot of it is show, but I guess I am glad he is here. It's just a tough situation. It's hard to even wrap your mind around what it happening."

Obama spoke to military personnel at the Pensacola Naval Air Techical Training Center before returning to Washington.

Speaking to thousands of students, Obama called the oil spill the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history and said military units would be used to respond.

"This is an assault on our shores, and we're going to fight back with everything we've got," he said. "People have a right to be angry. And everybody is bracing for more."

Pensacola and the Gulf Coast will recover and thrive again, he stressed.

In his speech Tuesday night, the president is likely to detail the administration's effort to respond to what he's seen on his trip to the Gulf, his fourth visit to the region since the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew April 20. He'll probably renew his push for comprehensive energy legislation designed to move the nation away from fossil fuels.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that the government was wresting the claims-handling process from the British petroleum giant to make economically distressed individuals and businesses "whole."

On the matter of the disputed damage payments, Gibbs said, "We have to get an independent claims process. I think everyone agrees that we have to get BP out of the claims processes and, as I said, make sure that fishermen, hotel owners have a fast, efficient and transparent claims process so that they're getting their livelihoods replaced."

Monday, Obama moved to activate his campaign network on the issue. In an e-mail, he asked supporters to push for Senate passage of an energy bill sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

"This is an issue that Washington has long ignored in favor of protecting the status quo," the president wrote. "If we refuse to heed the warnings from the disaster in the Gulf, we will have missed our best chance to seize the clean-energy future we know America needs to thrive in the years and decades to come."

BP said a fire possibly caused by lightning shut down a system capturing oil from the gushing well in the Gulf. The fire, spotted at midmorning on the drill ship Discover Enterprise, was quickly extinguished.

BP said there were no injuries. As a precaution, a system siphoning oil from a containment cap above the well was shut down but resumed later Tuesday.

• BP won permission to start burning oil and gas piped up from the seafloor well as part of a pledge to more than triple how much crude it stops from spewing into the Gulf.

Federal authorities gave permission late Monday for BP to use a new method that involves pumping oil from the broken wellhead to a special ship on the surface, where it would be burned off rather than collected. The British oil giant announced Monday that it hopes to trap as much as 2.2 million gallons of oil daily by the end of June as it deploys additional containment equipment, including the flaring system.

• The chief executive of ExxonMobil told Congress that the spill wouldn't have happened if BP had properly designed its deep-water well, followed procedures, trained its employees and conducted adequate tests.

Exxon's Rex Tillerson testified Tuesday on Capitol Hill with other oil company executives before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He told lawmakers the Exxon Valdez tanker spill in 1989 changed the way his company operated. In prepared testimony, Tillerson wrote that Exxon doesn't go ahead with operations "if we cannot do so safely."

• Internal documents released Monday show BP acted to cut costs in the weeks before the catastrophic blowout in the Gulf as it dealt with one problem after another on the doomed rig. The activity prompted BP engineer Brian Morel to describe the Deepwater Horizon as a "nightmare well" in an e-mail April 14, six days before the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 people.

• BP spokesman Bill Salvin said the company has contracted with actor Kevin Costner and Ocean Therapy Solutions to use 32 of their centrifuge machines designed to separate oil from water.

"We recognized they had potential and put them through testing, and that testing was done in shallow water and in very deep water, and we were very pleased by the results," Salvin said.

Contributing:Kathy Kiely in Washingon; Pensacola News Journal; Carolyn Pesce in McLean, Va.; Associated Press

Vick 'of no interest' to cops in shooting

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

ESPN.com news services

A co-defendant in Michael Vick's dogfighting case whom the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback was barred from associating with was shot late Thursday night outside a club that had been hosting a birthday party for

Vick, who turns 30 on Saturday, was neither involved nor present at a Virginia Beach, Va., nightclub when Quanis Phillips was shot, Larry Woodward, an attorney for Vick, said Friday, according to The Associated Press.

Vick was prohibited from associating with Phillips as a condition of his release on probation stemming from a dogfighting conviction and resulting 18-month federal prison sentence.

"We are aware of the incident that occurred in Virginia early this morning and are in the process of gathering all of the facts," the Eagles said in a statement. "Until then, we will not have any comment on this matter."

The Virginia Beach police said Vick is "of no interest to us" as police investigate, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.


According to spokesman Adam Bernstein, the Virginia Beach police received a 911 call from a cell phone at 2:11 a.m. ET. An unnamed person reported hearing a verbal dispute and a subsequent gunshot in Virginia Beach's Town Center section.

Officers responded to the scene at the 4600 block of Columbus Street, according to the Daily News, and were told a shooting victim was being driven to the hospital in a car the police later stopped.

The officers reported the victim and other witnesses as "very uncooperative," but they did describe the shooter as a black man in a white Cadillac Escalade.

Bernstein said a man sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the shooting at around 2 a.m. outside the club Guadalajara.

Phillips, who was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the dogfighting operation, was admitted to Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital overnight, health system spokesman Dale Gauding said. He was discharged early Friday afternoon. Gauding said he was not able to discuss the nature of Phillips' injuries because of privacy laws.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league is looking into the shooting.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated Vick after he was suspended for two years last July and said at the time that Vick's margin for error would be "extremely limited."

Vick played sparingly last season but was expected to take on a larger role this year after the team traded starter Donovan McNabb in the offseason. The team picked up an option and is to pay Vick $5.2 million this year.

Vick is also still on three years' probation in the federal case and on a three-year suspended sentence for a state dogfighting conviction. He is not allowed to associate with anyone convicted of a felony unless granted permission to do so by his probation officer.

It is unclear whether Phillips was invited to the party, which was hyped on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as "Michael Vick's ALL WHITE 30th Birthday Bash."

Tickets cost $50, and the party was advertised as beginning at 9 p.m and ending at 2 a.m while promising a guest list that included NBA star Allen Iverson and Washington Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall, both natives of the area, and a host of B-list celebrities.

Hall said via his Twitter feed on Friday that he was not at the party.

Vick, who is holding a football camp at Hampton University this week, was on the field working with campers Friday afternoon, along with former Atlanta teammate Roddy White.

White said he and Vick had already left the party when the shooting took place.

At the football camp, Vick was asked by a reporter Friday afternoon whether he had any comment on the incident.

"Watch what you do. Pick and choose your friends carefully. You just can't put yourself in vulnerable situations," Vick said.

On Thursday, Vick told reporters that he tells campers the truth when they ask about his previous troubles "because I don't want them to follow in my footsteps. ... I want them to walk a straight path, do all the things right, and just live a good life, and be happy."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

World's biggest gold coin fetches over 3 million euros

By Alexandra Zawadil Alexandra Zawadil – Fri Jun 25, 9:39 am ET

VIENNA (Reuters Life!) – A Spanish precious metals trading company bought the world's largest gold coin for 3.27 million euros ($4.02 million), its exact material worth, from the estate of an insolvent investment firm at a rare auction in Vienna on Friday.

The 100 kg (220.5 lb) piece, one of only five Canadian $1,000,000 Maple Leaf coins the Royal Canadian Mint has ever produced, was snapped up immediately in a written bid from ORO direct, a gold trading company based in Madrid.

There were no counter offers in an auction room packed with more journalists than potential buyers. It sold for the catalog sum, the coin's pure gold value based on Friday's market price. This was four times its face value.

The auction was ordered by the administrator of Austrian investment group AvW Invest, which filed for insolvency in May after its owner and chief executive was arrested on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust and other charges.

AvW had acquired the coin in 2007, joining an exclusive club of owners including Queen Elizabeth, who is also displayed on one side of the coin, two unidentified investors in Dubai and one who is so reclusive even his or her residence is unknown.

AvW had lent its coin, 53 cm (21 inches) in diameter and 3 cm thick, to Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum where it had been on display as part of its coin collection.

Its purity is 99.999 percent, the purest type in the market.

The Royal Canadian Mint launched the coin in 2007 to showcase its production facilities and steal the entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's biggest gold coin.

That title had previously been held by the Austrian mint, who in 2004 produced fifteen 100,000-euro coins weighing 1,000 troy ounces (31.1 kg) to celebrate the 15th anniversary of its best-selling Philharmonics coin.

(Addtional reporting by Boris Groendahl, editing by Paul Casciato)

2010 NBA DRAFT

ESPN.com

NEW YORK -- John Wall is heading to Washington, and a record number of Kentucky teammates are following him to the NBA.

Wall went to the Wizards with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft Thursday and four more Wildcats were among the top 30 selections, making them the first school ever to put five players in the first round.

2010 NBA Lottery Picks

With the No. 1 pick in the draft, the Wizards selected guard John Wall -- one of three Kentucky Wildcats taken among the first 14 picks.

Pk Tm Player Position/Schl

1 Wizards John Wall G, Kentucky


2 76ers Evan Turner G, Ohio State

3 Nets Derrick Favors F, Ga. Tech

4 Wolves Wesley Johnson F, Syracuse

5 Kings DeMarcus Cousins C, Kentucky

6 Warriors Ekpe Udoh F, Baylor

7 Pistons Greg Monroe F, G'town

8 Clippers Al-Farouq Aminu F, Wake Forest

9 Jazz Gordon Hayward F, Butler

10 Pacers Paul George F, Fresno St.

11 Hornets Cole Aldrich C, Kansas

12 Grizzlies Xavier Henry G, Kansas


13 Raptors Ed Davis F, North Carolina

14 Rockets Patrick Patterson F, Kentucky

Pick by pick, 1 through 60

After falling short of the Final Four even with all that talent around him, Wall is ready to help Washington bounce back from a season that was embarrassing on the court and in the locker room.

"I feel like I had pressure since I became No. 1 in high school and was one of the top players," Wall said. "I always got there hungry wanting to fight hard and compete in every game, so when I step on the court I'm going to take on any challenge there."

The SEC player of the year is the first Kentucky player to be chosen first overall. He goes to a team still reeling from Gilbert Arenas' season-ending suspension for bringing guns into the team locker room.

Wall could replace Arenas as the Wizards' point guard, or perhaps play alongside him in a potential high-scoring backcourt. He'll try to become the third straight freshman point guard to win Rookie of the Year honors after Chicago's Derrick Rose and Sacramento's Tyreke Evans -- who like Wall also played for John Calipari.

The pick came shortly after a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press that the Chicago Bulls had agreed to trade veteran guard Kirk Hinrich and the 17th pick in the draft, Kevin Seraphin, to the Wizards. Hinrich is a solid veteran defensive guard who could help with Wall's transition to the NBA.

After his name was announced to begin the draft, Wall hugged family members and donned a blue Wizards cap before climbing onto the stage to shake commissioner David Stern's hand.

Predicted to finish in the top half of the Eastern Conference last season, the Wizards' season quickly spiraled out of control, reaching its low point on New Year's Day when news broke of the altercation involving guns between Arenas and fellow guard Javaris Crittenton, who also was suspended for the year. Washington eventually traded fellow stars Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler in a dismal 26-56 finish.

Arenas is eligible to return, but Wall is ready to take charge of the team.

"I was always a leader by example being the first in the gym and the last in the gym," Wall said. "But I'm a leader that doesn't mind speaking up to the older guys."

Kentucky landed a second top-five pick when DeMarcus Cousins was taken by Sacramento at No. 5, then put two more players in the top 18 when the Houston Rockets chose Patrick Patterson at No. 14 and Oklahoma City took guard Eric Bledsoe -- whose rights were later sent to the Clippers -- four spots later. Daniel Orton then went to Orlando with the 29th pick, breaking the previous record of four first-round picks from one school.

"It's a big day and they are all behind us right now and they won't stop texting and tweeting and calling me, so this will be a big day," Cousins said.

The Philadelphia 76ers took national player of the year Evan Turner from Ohio State at No. 2. The notoriously tough Philadelphia fans at Madison Square Garden liked the choice, loudly cheering and chanting "Evan Turner! Evan Turner!"

"I don't have any pressure. I have a lot of demands of myself," Turner said. "If Philly expects me to be great, then we have a mutual understanding."

Derrick Favors became the second freshman taken in the first three picks when the New Jersey Nets chose the Georgia Tech forward.

"I pretty much knew John was going to 1 and Evan was going 2, but I had no idea I was going to the Nets, and when they called me I was just excited," Favors said.

The Minnesota Timberwolves then grabbed Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson, whom the Nets also had considered. Stern seemed impressed by the Christmas-colored slacks worn by Johnson, who held up his leg to show them off.

Baylor's Ekpe Udoh also is headed to Northern California, chosen by Golden State at No. 6. Detroit kept up the run of big men by selecting Georgetown center Greg Monroe with the seventh pick, before the Los Angeles Clippers went for Wake Forest's Al-Farouq Aminu.

Butler's Gordon Hayward went ninth to Utah, one spot before the Indiana Pacers would've faced pressure to pick the hometown star. Instead, they chose Fresno State forward Paul George before Kansas teammates Cole Aldrich (New Orleans) and Xavier Henry (Memphis) went with back-to-back picks.

Aldrich's rights were later sent to Oklahoma City along with veteran swingman Morris Peterson for the rights to the Thunder's Nos. 21 and 26 picks, which became Iowa State forward Craig Brackins and Washington guard Quincy Pondexter.


The draft hadn't even started and already the buzz was on free agency, which opens in exactly a week with LeBron James leading perhaps the deepest class ever. There were even a few chants for the league's MVP, whom the Knicks are expected to make a run at.

Moves were made with July 1 in mind, such as the Bulls' deal with Washington that opened additional salary cap space for perhaps a second top player. Toronto drafted North Carolina's Ed Davis at No. 13, a potential replacement if the Raptors lose Chris Bosh in free agency.

"I know they have big free agents coming up with Chris Bosh and people are saying he's not going to be there, but right now I'm just going to try to work hard and earn the starting job," Davis said.

There were a flurry of trades near the bottom of the first round, including a deal that sent forward Martell Webster from Portland to Minnesota for Ryan Gomes and the rights to the No. 16 pick, Luke Babbitt.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press