Jury starts deliberating in Zimmerman trial
SANFORD, Fla. – With police and civic leaders urging calm, a jury began deliberating George Zimmerman’s fate Friday after hearing dueling portraits of the neighborhood watch captain: a cop wannabe who took the law into his own hands or a well-meaning volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin because he feared for his life.
As the jury got the murder case, police in this Orlando suburb went on national television to plead for peace in Sanford and across the country, no matter what the verdict.
“There is no party in this case who wants to see any violence,” Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said. “We have an expectation upon this announcement that our community will continue to act peacefully.”
During closing arguments, Zimmerman’s lawyers put a concrete slab and two life-size cardboard cutouts in front of the jury box in one last attempt to convince the panel Zimmerman shot the unarmed black 17-year-old in self-defense while his head was being slammed against the pavement.
Attorney Mark O’Mara used the slab to make the point that it could serve as a weapon. He showed the cutouts of Zimmerman and Martin to demonstrate that the teenager was considerably taller. And he displayed a computer-animated depiction of the fight based on Zimmerman’s account.
Police unclear if truck killed Asiana passenger
SAN FRANCISCO – One of the two Chinese teenagers killed in the Asiana Airlines disaster was hit by a fire truck while covered with firefighting foam, authorities said Friday, revealing a startling detail that suggested she could have survived the crash only to die in its chaotic aftermath.
However, it wasn’t clear whether Ye Meng Yuan, 16, was already dead when the collision occurred or whether the truck killed her moments after Friday’s crash.
“The first truck did go over the victim at least one time. Now the other question is what was the cause of death?” police spokesman Albie Esparza said. “That’s what we are trying to determine right now.”
The other victim, 16-year-old Wang Linjia, was dead when airport staff found her, authorities said Friday. Her body was near three flight attendants who were flung from the back of the plane when it broke open. They all survived.
San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said the results of his initial inquiry into the deaths would likely be released sometime next week. The coroner said both bodies arrived directly from the airport. He would not comment on the police investigation.
Al-Qaida-linked gunmen kill Syrian commander
BEIRUT – Al-Qaida-linked gunmen killed a rebel commander in Syria aligned with the Western-backed militias fighting against Bashar Assad’s regime, the highest-profile casualty of growing tensions between moderate and jihadi fighters among rebel forces.
Observers worried Friday that the commander’s death will increase distrust and suspicion between forces already at odds over territory and leadership as the nearly three-year civil war continues in Syria.
Loay AlMikdad, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, said Friday that members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – a group reportedly made up of al-Qaida’s branches in Iraq and Syria – were behind the killing of Kamal Hamami. Hamami, known as Abu Basir, served in the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, a group headed by a secular-minded moderate that has the support of Western powers.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said gunmen shot Hamami dead late Thursday after militants tried to remove a checkpoint he set up in the Jabal al-Turkoman mountain in the coastal province of Latakia. The observatory said two of his men were seriously wounded in the shooting.
AlMikdad told Al-Arabiya TV that Hamami “was assassinated at the hands of the forces of evil and crime at one of the checkpoints.” He added that the group that killed Hamami “should hand over those who carried out this act to stand trial.”
Islamists demand reinstatement of Morsi
CAIRO – Tens of thousands of Islamists rallied Friday in cities across Egypt, vowing to sustain for months their campaign to restore deposed President Mohammed Morsi to power.
Ten days after the military coup that toppled him, however, Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and its allies appear to have failed to bring a significantly wider segment of Egyptian society into the streets on their side.
The new military-backed administration of interim President Mansour Adly, along with the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the most prominent Sunni Muslim institution, floated offers for “national reconciliation.” Newly appointed Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi is reportedly promising to finish assembling his Cabinet by next week, a government official told Egypt’s state news agency. A presidential spokesman has said the Muslim Brotherhood will be offered posts.
The Brotherhood remains steadfast in its opposition, saying its supporters will stay in the streets for as long as it takes to force the reinstatement of Morsi, who was overthrown July 3 after four days of massive protests demanding his ouster.
At the main Islamist rally in Cairo, the crowd poured into a large boulevard in front of the Rabaah al-Adawiya Mosque, where Morsi supporters have been camped for two weeks.
Associated Press
