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LOS ANGELES -- A desperate, drug-addicted insomniac racked with anxiety about his coming concert series: that is how a defense lawyer portrayed Michael Jackson in his last days during opening statements on Tuesday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of the singer's personal doctor. Ed Chernoff, the defense lawyer, suggested that Jackson was most responsible for his own death and had, against his doctor's orders, ingested or injected himself with the prescription drugs that killed him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Iraq moved to force Blackwater Worldwide out of the country, the State Department asked two other American companies how quickly they could take over the company's contract to provide personal security for American diplomats in Baghdad, several American officials said Thursday. Iraqi government officials announced this week that they had refused to give a license to operate to Blackwater, whose guards were involved in shootings that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead in Baghdad in September 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the arrest of four Southern California men including Sohiel Omar Kabir, Ralph Kenneth Deleon, and Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales who are accused of trying to join the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It states that they travel to Afghanistan to engage in violent acts and kill American troops. It adds that the group had been penetrated by a confidential source for the Federal Investigation as they spoke to group leader Kabir in Afghanistan through Skype.

State officials on Thursday prevented the widow of the man the police say set free dozens of exotic animals from the family's wildlife preserve from retrieving the six surviving animals. At about the time the woman, Marian Thompson, was scheduled to pick up the animals, the State Department of Agriculture ordered them quarantined, directing that the animals remain at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, where they had been held since Oct. 18, when Terry Thompson uncaged 56 exotic animals before shooting himself. Forty-nine animals were hunted down and killed by law enforcement officers who said they feared the animals, which included lions and tigers, might attack people. A snow monkey was never found, and is believed to have been eaten by one of the big cats. State officials said the quarantine was ordered because the animals might be infected with a dangerous, contagious disease related to the squalid conditions under which they were kept at the Zanesville, Ohio, preserve. The three leopards, two Celebes macaques and a grizzly bear are to remain quarantined indefinitely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A federal judge on Thursday declined to halt a Kansas law that limits the availability of insurance coverage for abortions. The American Civil Liberties Union had requested a temporary injunction against the law, which was approved by the Legislature this year, while the group fights the law in court. Judge Wesley Brown of Federal District Court said the A.C.L.U. of Kansas and Western Missouri had failed to prove its contention that the Legislature had approved the law to make it more difficult to receive abortions in the state. The law, which took effect in July, bars insurers from offering coverage for abortions as part of basic health plans. Exceptions are made if a woman's life is at risk. A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled to be held next month. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

LOS ANGELES -- One of Michael Jackson's staff members testified on Thursday that on the day of the singer's death, he saw Jackson lying on a bed while his personal physician gave him chest compressions with one hand. He also said the doctor had asked him to put various medical supplies in a bag before calling 911. Alberto Alvarez, Jackson's director of logistics, said he had gone into Jackson's bedroom in his rented Holmby Hills mansion once Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, realized that the singer was incapacitated after the doctor had injected him with a potent medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

LOS ANGELES -- Prosecution witnesses testified Wednesday at the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's personal physician, that Dr. Murray had insisted that the singer was in ''perfect health'' in the days before Mr. Jackson's death and had originally sought $5 million for his services during a series of concerts. Kathy Jorrie, a lawyer for the entertainment group producing the ''This Is It'' concerts that Mr. Jackson was rehearsing for when he died in June 2009, testified that despite Dr. Murray's assurances, his contract included a provision for a CPR machine in case Mr. Jackson needed to be resuscitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kelley Williams-Bolar, 41, a single mother from Akron, Ohio, was convicted of two felony crimes in January and jailed for nine days after she falsified documents so she could enroll her daughters -- one a third grader, the other in junior high -- in a neighboring, higher performing school district. This month, Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio reduced the convictions, which were for records tampering, to misdemeanors. He said the original punishment had been too harsh. Ms. Williams-Bolar, who works as a teacher's aide in an Akron public school, is pursuing a degree in family child development. A criminal felony would have hindered her chance of getting a teacher's license. Though the case focused attention on the disparity in the academic quality of school systems, Ms. Williams-Bolar said she did not do it to gain an educational advantage. She explains: QUESTION You registered your daughters in a school district that didn't serve your neighborhood. Why? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Shoshana Hebshi, 35, a freelance writer and stay-at-home mother of 6-year-old twins from a suburb of Toledo, Ohio, was on a plane flying from Denver to Detroit when something she -- or another passenger in her row of seats -- had done caused the government to scramble F-16 fighter planes and escort Frontier Airlines Flight 623 until it landed safely. The plane was taken to a remote part of the airport, and armed federal authorities handcuffed Ms. Hebshi and her seatmates and took them off the plane. She was placed in a jail cell, strip-searched and interrogated by the F.B.I. before eventually being released. The two men in her row were also allowed to go. Ms. Hebshi says she believes she was detained because she is ''dark-skinned'' -- she is half Arab, half Jewish. She described her seatmates as Indian. The F.B.I. says it was responding to reports that Ms. Hebshi and the men were behaving suspiciously. But Ms. Hebshi said she was never told what about her behavior, or that of her seatmates, had been alarming to others on the plane. Ms. Hebshi discusses: QUESTION Do you remember having done anything on the plane that might have appeared to be ''suspicious'' to someone? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday against a prominent Baltimore medical institute, accusing it of knowingly exposing black children as young as a year old to lead poisoning in the 1990s as part of a study exploring the hazards of lead paint. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that more than 100 children were endangered by high levels of lead dust in their homes despite assurances from the Kennedy Krieger Institute that the houses were ''lead safe.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks passed without major incident, but jitters about terrorism that led to alerts across the country on the ground and in the skies were still being felt on Monday. Federal authorities said last week that they had received credible but uncorroborated information about a car bomb plot in New York or Washington on the anniversary of the attacks. Cities around the nation responded with increased law enforcement measures, including searching cars and monitoring bridges. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hurricane Irene will most likely prove to be one of the 10 costliest catastrophes in the nation's history, and analysts said that much of the damage might not be covered by insurance because it was caused not by winds but by flooding, which is excluded from many standard policies. Industry estimates put the cost of the storm at $7 billion to $10 billion, largely because the hurricane pummeled an unusually wide area of the East Coast. Beyond deadly flooding that caused havoc in upstate New York and Vermont, the hurricane flooded cotton and tobacco crops in North Carolina, temporarily halted shellfish harvesting in Chesapeake Bay, sapped power and kept commuters from their jobs in the New York metropolitan area and pushed tourists off Atlantic beaches in the peak of summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For nearly five years, the accuracy of drunken driven tests administered with a breath testing device used by Minnesota law enforcement agencies has been in question. About 4,000 people in 69 Minnesota counties have challenged the results based on what they believe to be the device's faulty readings of blood-alcohol levels. The state has maintained that the breath test results are accurate and that those found to have been driving with alcohol levels above the legal limit should be punished. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Department of Education recently released the results of its national geography survey of students in grades 4, 8 and 12. The good news is that students did not do all that poorly: Fifty-six percent of high school seniors knew, for instance, that glaciation formed the Great Lakes. The bad news is that students have not shown much improvement from previous exams and that only about one in four fourth graders was able to identify all seven continents correctly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- American military units fired on insurgents while supporting Iraqi troops northeast of the capital on Sunday, Iraqi officials said. It was the second such episode since the United States declared an end to its combat operations in Iraq less than two weeks ago. There were no American casualties in the fighting in Hudaidy, a village about 50 miles from Baghdad that has long harbored members of the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A series of bombings rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 100, and there were two separate attacks on American military convoys in Baghdad in which at least three people were killed. The violence was the worst to hit the Iraqi capital since American combat troops withdrew on June 30, providing another test of Iraq's ability to defend itself as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki left for talks with President Obama in Washington. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Iraqi government stumbled once again on Tuesday in its frequently delayed effort to award development rights to its most valuable oil fields. In a public auction it largely failed to attract the lucrative offers it sought from dozens of international oil companies invited to the bidding. After the daylong event, which was broadcast live on national television, the government came away with just a single deal struck from among the six giant oil fields and two gas fields it had put up for bid. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Her twin sisters were killed trying to flee Falluja in 2004. Then her husband was killed by a car bomb in Baghdad just after she had become pregnant. When her own twins were 5 months old, one was killed by an explosive planted in a Baghdad market. Now, Nacham Jaleel Kadim, 23, lives with her remaining daughter in a trailer park for war widows and their families in one of the poorest parts of Iraq's capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and several secular parties appeared to score significant gains in Iraq's provincial elections on Saturday, preliminary reports showed Sunday. If the early returns prove accurate, the prime minister could be strengthened in dealings with Parliament before national elections to be held by next year. Mr. Maliki's Dawa Party drew strong support in Basra and Baghdad, two of Iraq's largest and most politically important provinces, according to political parties and election officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss preliminary tallies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Iraqis voted on Saturday for local representatives, on an almost violence-free election day aimed at creating provincial councils that more closely represent Iraq's ethnic, sectarian and tribal balance. By nightfall, there were no confirmed deaths, and children played soccer on closed-off streets in a generally joyous atmosphere. Security was extraordinary. Driving was banned in most of the country to prevent suicide bombers from attacking any of the more than 6,000 polling places and security checkpoints, often spaced just yards apart. The tight security, coupled with confusion over where voters should cast their ballots, appeared to have reduced turnout in many districts across the country. Senior members of several political parties were complaining publicly even before the polls closed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Khalid Shakar al-Dulaimi, a former volleyball player for the Iraqi national team, is part of a new wave of secular candidates seeking to turn public disenchantment with the religious parties that dominate politics here into a seat on Baghdad's Provincial Council. But Mr. Dulaimi, 44, who is counting on getting overwhelming support in his home district of Adhamiya, is just one candidate among 2,455 seeking a seat on the 57-member council. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Four years ago, Iraq had its purple finger moment, when voters proudly displayed their ink-stained index fingers as proof that they had participated in the nation's first free elections in decades. On Saturday Iraqis were going to the polls again, to choose provincial representatives in what many here believe will be a fairer and more widely contested election. The results are expected to mirror more closely the relative numbers and strengths of Iraq's many ethnic and sectarian groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Thousands of soldiers, police officers, hospital patients and prisoners cast ballots on Wednesday as part of early voting in Iraq's provincial elections. At least one act of violence accompanied the voting. Two police officers guarding a polling center south of Kirkuk were killed by gunmen who fired at them from a passing car, according to an official from the Ministry of Interior who spoke on condition of anonymity. The gunmen escaped, the official said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The annual Shiite pilgrimage to Karbala, the burial place of Imam Hussein, one of the sect's most important figures, has run into a scheduling conflict of a contemporary sort: Saturday's provincial elections. Every year, Shiite pilgrims travel hundreds of miles, sometimes on foot, to honor Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Concerned that the marchers might not make it home in time to vote, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, has instructed his followers to delay the start of their processions until after the balloting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

American soldiers fatally shot an Iraqi couple in their home near Kirkuk early Saturday after the wife reached for a pistol hidden under a mattress, American and Iraqi officials said. The couple's 8-year-old daughter was wounded. United States troops, using helicopters, raided the family's house in Hawija, a town in northern Iraq, around 2 a.m. in search of members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi police and witnesses said. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is a homegrown militant group that American intelligence officials say is led by foreigners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ryan C. Crocker, the departing American ambassador to Iraq, warned on Thursday against a rapid withdrawal of troops from the country, saying Iraq was not yet capable of handling its own security. ''I think Iraqi security forces have made enormous progress during my time here, both quantitatively and, more important, qualitatively,'' Mr. Crocker told reporters at the new American Embassy in the Green Zone in Baghdad. ''There is still a ways to go. And clearly, still a continuing need for our security support.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An attempt by the prime minister to replace a police chief in southern Iraq boiled over into accusations of political manipulation and improper campaigning on Saturday, two weeks ahead of provincial elections scheduled across the country. A day after Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ordered the police chief in Wasit Province, Maj. Gen. Abdul Haneen al-Amara, to be replaced for failing to enforce election laws, the local provincial council rejected Mr. Maliki's new choice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

More than a month has passed since an Iraqi television reporter threw his shoes at President Bush during a Baghdad news conference held to highlight what Mr. Bush called a successful American military effort to pacify Iraq. The journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 29, who was immediately arrested, has been allowed only two visitors -- and none since Dec. 21, according to those close to him. His family and his lawyer say that they do not know where he is being held and that they are gravely concerned about his well-being because they have not been allowed to speak with him by telephone. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A series of bombings around Baghdad killed eight people and wounded at least 29 others on Monday morning, a few hours before Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived in the Iraqi capital for an unannounced visit. Mr. Biden met with the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, according to Iraqi state television, but there were no announcements regarding what they had discussed. Mr. Biden, who is still the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, visited Pakistan on Friday and Afghanistan on Saturday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Eight Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were killed Thursday in three separate attacks in which insurgents used roadside bombs to target the Iraqi Army. In Diyala Province, which has been one of Iraq's most violent areas in recent years, two roadside bombs exploded simultaneously as an Iraqi Army convoy was on its way to help a local police station that had come under mortar fire, said a security official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It was a cool winter morning in Baghdad on Monday, just a few miles from the Shiite mosque where a suicide bomber killed or wounded 112 people the day before. But Abdul Kareem, 50, a real estate developer and independent Shiite candidate, was on the street hustling for votes anyway, passing out campaign cards and gluing his posters to walls. ''If you think I'm a good man, campaign for me,'' Mr. Kareem told an elderly man, handing him a stack of laminated cards. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At least 24 tribal leaders who were meeting at the house of an influential Sunni sheik to discuss national reconciliation efforts were killed and as many as 42 others were wounded Friday after a member of the tribe detonated an explosive vest among the guests, government officials said. Reports of fatalities among the approximately 1,000 members of the Qaraghul tribe gathered for the meeting have ranged as high as 30 killed and 110 wounded, but those numbers could not be confirmed by Friday evening. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Falluja, a town that rises abruptly out of the vast Syrian Desert an hour west of Baghdad, nearly every building left standing has some sort of hole in it. Mosques are without their minarets. Apartment walls have been peeled away by artillery shells. A family's kitchen is full of tiny holes made by a fragmentary grenade. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Six police officers and seven prisoners suspected of being members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia were killed early Friday during a brazen jailbreak by militants at a police station in western Iraq, officials said. Three of the militants, including a man whom the Iraqi police described as a local leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, escaped after a fierce gunfight and remained at large, the authorities said. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is a homegrown Sunni extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners. The leader who escaped is suspected of having killed several police officers and civilians in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Calling someone the ''son of a shoe'' is one of the worst insults in Iraq. But the lowly shoe and the Iraqi who threw both of his at President Bush, with widely admired aim, were embraced around the Arab world on Monday as symbols of rage at a still unpopular war. In Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported that a man had offered $10 million to buy just one of what has almost certainly become the world's most famous pair of black dress shoes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Iraq's central criminal court, the country's chief judicial institution, has fallen short of international and Iraqi constitutional standards of due process and has failed to provide ''basic assurances of fairness,'' according to a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch. The report portrays a system under which defendants are often abused in custody and held for months or even years before being referred to a judge. When cases are heard, the defendants are often left without adequate defense counsel to answer charges, which are frequently based on secret informants, coerced confessions and flimsy evidence, the report found. Juveniles are often held with adults, it found, despite an Iraqi law requiring they be held separately. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BOSTON -- A judge granted a temporary order on Wednesday requiring the city to refrain from any police action to evict the Occupy Boston demonstrators from Dewey Square, where a small city of about 150 tents has functioned for a month and a half. Judge Frances A. McIntyre, citing the protesters' right to free speech in her decision, said the city would need a court order in order to evict protesters, unless there are emergent circumstances like a fire, medical emergency or outbreak of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]