US Military Deaths in Afghanistan Hit 2,000

U.S. military deaths in the Afghan war have reached 2,000, a cold reminder of the human cost of an 11-year-old conflict that now garners little public interest at home as the United States prepares to withdraw most of its combat forces by the end of 2014.

The toll has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of attacks by Afghan army and police ' supposed allies ' against American and NATO troops. That has raised troubling questions about whether countries in the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan will achieve their aim of helping the government in Kabul and its forces stand on their own after most foreign troops depart in little more than two years.

On Sunday, a U.S. official confirmed the latest death, saying that an international service member killed in an apparent insider attack by Afghan forces in the east of the country late Saturday was American. A civilian contractor with NATO and at least two Afghan soldiers also died in the attack, according to a coalition statement and Afghan provincial officials. The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity because the nationality of those killed had not been formally released. Names of the dead are usually released after their families or next-of-kin are notified, a process that can take several days. The nationality of the civilian was also not disclosed.

In addition to the 2,000 Americans killed since the Afghan war began on Oct. 7, 2001, at least 1,190 more coalition troops from other countries have also died, according to iCasualties.org, an independent organization that tracks the deaths.

According to the Afghanistan index kept by the Washington-based research center Brookings Institution, about 40 percent of the American deaths were caused by improvised explosive devices. The majority of those were after 2009, when President Barack Obama ordered a surge that sent in 33,000 additional troops to combat heightened Taliban activity. The surge brought the total number of American troops to 101,000, the peak for the entire war.

According to Brookings, hostile fire was the second most common cause of death, accounting for nearly 31 percent of Americans killed.

Tracking deaths of Afghan civilians is much more difficult. According to the U.N., 13,431 civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict between 2007, when the U.N. began keeping statistics, and the end of August. Going back to the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, most estimates put the number of Afghan civilian deaths in the war at more than 20,000.

The number of American dead reflects an Associated Press count of those members of the armed services killed inside Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion began. Some other news organizations use a count that also includes those killed outside Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, the global anti-terror campaign led by then-President George W. Bush.

The 2001 invasion targeted al-Qaida and its Taliban allies shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives.

Victory in Afghanistan seemed to come quickly. Kabul fell within weeks, and the hardline Taliban regime was toppled with few U.S. casualties.

But the Bush administration's shift toward war with Iraq left the Western powers without enough resources on the ground, so by 2006 the Taliban had regrouped into a serious military threat.

Teen Charged With Killing Newborn Son

A 14-year-old Florida girl is facing murder charges after police said she admitted to strangling her newborn son and stuffing his body in a shoe box.

The girl gave birth to a gave birth to a 9.5-pound baby boy in the bathroom at her Lakeland, Fla., home on Sept. 19, police said.

The teen, who is 5-foot-3 and weighs 100 pounds, had been wearing baggy clothing to conceal her pregnancy from her family, police said.

When she realized she was giving birth, the girl turned on the bathroom faucet, police said she told them, and placed a towel in her mouth to mute her cries of pain as she delivered the baby.

As the agony of labor increased, police said the girl used scissors to pry the baby into the toilet.

She "lifted the moving infant from the toilet, felt for a pulse, found one, then placed her hands on the infant's neck and squeezed until he wasn't moving or breathing any longer," the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Friday.

The 14-year-old then cleaned up the bathroom and bathed herself and the corpse of her baby before placing him in in a shoe box, along with clothes and towels that were soiled during the birth, police said.

Later that day, the girl sought treatmentat the Lakeland Regional Medical Center for what doctors believed was an apparent miscarriage. Officials at the hospital alerted police and the Department of Children and Families about the situation, police said.

Three days later, the teen's mother noticed an odor and discovered the dead baby while collecting dirty lauindry from her daughter's room, police said. She alerted authorities.

The girl was arrested on Thursday and is being held at the Polk County Juvenile Detention Facility.

Detectives said the teen's mother had been in denial about her daughter's pregnancy, claiming two home pregnancy tests her daughter took in private did not show a positive result.

At a news conference on Friday, Sheriff Grady Judd said it is possible the teen's mother could faces charges for neglect, ABC News affiliate WFTS-TV reported.

Investigators are also searching for the baby's father, Judd said.

Pee Wee Football Bounty Claims Investigated

 

                                                                                             (Image Credit: Getty Images)

The president of the Tustin, Calif., Pop Warner football league and the coach of an elite team there have been suspended while the national organization investigates allegations that 10 and 11-year-old  players were offered cash incentives as high as $50 to intentionally injure their opponents.

'We take this matter very seriously and have asked Tustin Pop Warner head coach Darren Crawford and Tustin President Pat  Galentine to step down until this situation is 'nalized,' executive director of Pop Warner, Jon Butler, said in a statement.

With a 12-1 record last season and and an appearance at the Pop Warner Super Bowl, the Cobras were formidable opponents.

But according to allegations from some players and parents, the team was playing dirty.

Although an investigation by the Orange Empire Conference, where the complaint was initially filed, found no wrongdoing, National Pop Warner officials decided to reopen the case 'in light of new information and players coming forward,' Butler said.

A local designee not affiliated with the program has been asked to spearhead an investigation that is expected to last several weeks, according to Pop Warner officials.

Parents claimed that Crawford and former assistant coach Richard Bowman paid players when they took out their opponents in playoff games.

In one instance, a Cobras player was allegedly paid after a running back from Santa Margarita suffered a mild concussion and had to leave the field, the Orange County Register reported.

Crawford and Galentine have denied the allegations of a bounty program at Tustin Pop Warner.

Interim president Mark Gutierrez said he was 'deeply saddened by claims of an alleged bounty program at our league' in a letter to parents.

'It is important that our children have the opportunity to play football in the most supportive environment possible,' he said.

Earlier this year, an NFL investigation found the New Orleans Saints operated on a pay-for-pain system from the 2009 season, when they won the Super Bowl, until 2011.

Four players were suspended for their leadership roles in the system, however they were reinstated after they appealed.

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire season after an investigation found he had knowledge of the bounty program, ESPN reported.

Controversial Iranian Group Dropped From US Terror List

A controversial Iranian group that the U.S. declared a terrorist organization nearly 15 years ago has been taken off the terror list in the wake of a high-profile political campaign aimed at Washington, D.C. decision-makers.

The State Department released a statement today saying the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a group of dissident Iranian nationals based in Iraq, has been removed from the official list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, meaning that the group is no longer subject to financial and material restrictions by the U.S. government.

The MEK was added to the list in 1997 after the American government accused them of being behind the murders of several U.S. servicemen and civilians in Iran during the 1970s. The group also reportedly allied itself with Saddam Hussein's regime in opposition to Iran in the 1980s and 1990s and, most recently, Iranian officials have accused the MEK of being linked to the assassinations of nuclear scientists there. The group has said that it renounced violence a decade ago but still pushes for the overthrow of the Iranian government.

"With today's actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEK's past acts of terrorism," the State Department said. "The Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members. The Secretary's decision today took into account the MEK's public renunciation of violence, the absence of confirmed acts of terrorism by the MEK for more than a decade, and their cooperation in the peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, their historic paramilitary base."

The MEK has lived for the past quarter century at Camp Ashraf, a refugee camp in Iraq, and have recently been in the process of giving up their weapons and moving from the camp -- which the State Department said the MEK had historically used as a paramilitary base -- to a former U.S. base, Camp Hurriya, before being re-settled in a third country.

The decision to de-list the group, first reported by The Associated Press last week, comes in the wake of a dogged campaign in support of the dissident group that featured prominent American former military men, security officials and politicians from both parties including the first Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former presidential candidate Howard Dean. Two former CIA directors, James Woolsey and Porter Goss, also threw their support behind the group.

"The United States should not just be on your side," Giuliani told MEK supporters at a conference in Paris in 2010. "It should be enthusiastically on your side. You want the same things we want."

In an editorial for Fox News in January, Ridge said that the previous failure to de-list MEK "continues to stymie prospects for democratic change in Iran" and said the group has provided the U.S. with "valuable intelligence" about Iran's controversial nuclear program.

However, a senior State Department official said that the new decision was "not made to appease any group of lobbyists, no matter how famous they are."

"The United States government is not going to take anyone off the list if it genuinely believes that they pose an imminent threat, that they're going to commit terrorist acts or that they are somehow wedded to violence that is the key desideratum," he said. "That's how we do this."

"I should add that the United States Government has not claimed that the MEK was involved in the assassination of scientists in Iran," the official said.

Carjacking Chase Ends With Suicide

An Arizona carjacker who shot at police and at a TV news helicopter during a high speed chase ended the pursuit by getting out of the car and shooting himself in the head, which was broadcast live on Fox News Channel.

Police pursued the suspect, identified only as an adult male, who stole a red SUV in Phoenix after getting into an accident with another car he had been driving.

Cops were alerted to both incidents and realized the suspect in both cases shared a description. When cops began to pursue the suspect, he started shooting at police cars, said Phoenix Police spokesman Tommy Thompson.

Police then fell back and followed the car from a distance. The suspect, however, shot at the Fox News chopper that covered the chase along I-10 outside about 75 miles from the California border.

Initial reports indicated that a victim may have remained in the stolen car, but Thompson said only the suspect was involved.

Chopper video showed the vehicle zooming along Arizona's wide open highway, flashing past cars and trucks, switching lanes as it weaved through traffic, at times speeding along the shoulder of the road.

The camera from the chopper captured the moment the chase ended with the man stumbling out of a red SUV into a grassy area. He reached into his waistband and pulled a handgun. He then shot himself in the head.

Police said the suspect died at the scene. No civilians or police were wounded in the pursuit.

Fox cut away from the shot soon after the man shot himself and went to commercial break.

Following the break anchor Shepard Smith apologized for airing the shooting. He said the feed was on a five second delay, but they failed to cut it off in time.

"We really messed up and we're all very sorry," he said. "That didn't belong on TV... I personally apologize to you that it happened."

"It's insensitive and it's wrong," he said of airing the shooting.

Fox later issued a statement, which read: "We took every precaution to avoid any such live incident by putting the helicopter pictures on a five second delay. Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severe human error and we apologize for what viewers ultimately saw on the screen."

Office Shooter Spared Some, Shot Others

The man who shot up a Minneapolis sign-making business selected his targets carefully, walking past some employees while shooting others, police said today.

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan detailed Andrew Engeldinger's shooting rampage today as a fifth victim died from wounds. Engeldinger shot himself in the head, bringing the total of Thursday's carnage to six.

Engeldinger, 36, shot up Accent Signage Systems Thursday afternoon just hours after he was fired from the company.

"It was a case he was terminated that day. He did come back about 4:25 to that location, parked his car and walked in the loading dock area and immediately started shooting people at that location," Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said during a news conference today, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The chief said Engeldinger did not fire indiscriminately at people, but picked out his targets.

"It's clear he did walk by some people, he did walk by people to get to certain other members of the business," Dolan said.

The chief said Engeldinger used a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol he had owned for about a year. Police who searched Engeldinger's home early today found another gun, Dolan said. He said that Engeldinger had purchased the guns a year ago and had been practicing shooting them. They found packaging for 10,000 rounds of ammunition in the house, he said.

"He's obviously been practicing in how to use that gun," Dolan said.

The bodies of the four victims were found shortly after police arrived at the scene while evacuating other employees, according to a police statement.

Minneapolis Police Deputy Chief Kristine Arneson said Engeldinger died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The company's owner, Reuven Rahamim, was killed in the shooting as well as United Parcel Service driver Keith Basinski. The other three victims' names were not released.

Two people also injured in Thursday's shooting remained at Hennepin County Medical Center Friday. One was in serious condition and the other remained critical.

Joe Engeldinger, who lived with the gunman shortly after he graduated high school, told the Associated Press that his nephew's immediate family was having a "horrible time."

"I can only assume there was some kind of mental break there," Joe Engeldinger said. "He wasn't a monster. He wasn't. He was a real good kid, a real good person. He had a real good heart. I don't know what made all this transpire. Hopefully the truth will come out, and won't get twisted into some demented thing."

Barbara Haynes was driving home from her teaching job when she got stuck in traffic near the scene.

"I've never seen that many police vehicles on the scene and SWAT teams, uniforms, the guns ... pretty heavy artillery," Haynes told ABC News.

Marques Jones, 18, of Minneapolis, said he was outside a building down the street having his high school senior pictures taken when he and his photographer heard gunfire that sounded close.

"We heard about four to five gunshots," Jones said. "We were shocked at what happened and we just looked at each other. We all just took off running to our vehicles."

Accent Signage Systems' website says the company makes interior signage and listed its founder as Rahamim.

Anti-Islam Filmmaker Arrested on Probation Violation

The Southern California man who wrote and produced the controversial anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims" was ordered detained without bail by a federal judge for allegedly violating the terms of his probation.

Citing a "lengthy pattern of deception," Judge Suzanne Segal said that the court had a "lack of trust" in Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and believed him to be a flight risk who posed "some danger to the community."

Nakoula, 55, appeared at the U.S. District Court preliminary hearing in Los Angeles. He had been asked to report to an office of the U.S. Probation Office, where U.S. Marshals officially arrested him.

Authorities have been investigating whether he violated the terms of his supervised release from a 2010 conviction in a bank fraud case.

Nakoula had met with federal probation officers on Sept. 14 about whether his involvement in the film violated the terms of his probation, which barred him from accessing the internet without prior approval and from using any name other than his legal name.

Role in Anti-Islam Film

The inflammatory film has been blamed for violent protests across the Middle East, including in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans died, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, when militants attacked U.S. diplomatic facilities there on Sept. 11.

Nakoula admitted his role in the film and sought help from law enforcement in dealing with death threats he had received since the film's release, saying he was "scared to death" about the safety of himself and his family, authorities told ABC News.

Nakoula had originally used the pseudonym Sam Bacile, telling reporters he was an "Israeli Jew" and that the film had cost about $5,000,000, which came from wealthy Jewish friends.

But Nakoula, who is actually an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian, later told authorities that he and his son, Abanob Basseley, 21, were responsible for producing the movie. He reportedly said the film cost between $50,000 and $60,000 and was shot in a little over 12 days. Authorities say he claimed the money for the movie came from his wife's family in Egypt.

Family in Hiding

Last week, Nakoula's family members fled their home to join the filmmaker in hiding. Nakoula has not returned to his Cerritos, California home since being interviewed Sept. 14 by federal probation officers about his role in the creation of the film.

Shortly before 4 a.m. on Sept. 17, officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department escorted members of Nakoula's family, who had their faces covered, out of the house and into police vehicles so they could rejoin Nakoula at an undisclosed location.

"They decided they would be safer where they could move about and live a normal life," said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department. "All we did was pick them up and reunite them with Mr. Nakoula."

Whitmore said the family's current whereabouts are unknown to him, and it was his understanding that they won't ever return to their Cerritos house, though that decision was "entirely up to the family."

"What we do know and what they told me is that for the time now and for the immediate future, for the weeks and months to come, they will not be returning to this address," Whitmore said.

ABC News' Frank Elaridi, Randy Kreider, Jason Ryan, Alex Stone and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Body of Missing Northwestern Student Found in Harbor

The body of missing Northwestern University student Harsha Maddula has been found, university officials say.

A fisherman found the body floating near some boats at a harbor in Wilmette, Ill., Thursday night, according to ABC News affiliate WLS-TV.

Maddula's wallet, Northwestern ID card and his cellphone were found on the body, according to Northwestern University spokesman Alan Cubbage.

"Wilmette Police investigators on the scene said there were no signs of foul play on the body," Cubbage said in a news conference Thursday night.

The cause of death is under investigation.

"On behalf of Northwestern University, I extend our deepest sympathies to Harsha's family and to his many friends at Northwestern," university president Morton Schapiro said in a statement. "Our hearts and thoughts are with them. The loss of one member of the Northwestern community deeply affects us all."

Maddula, 18, disappeared Saturday after he left a party near Northwestern's campus around 12:30 a.m., according to school officials. His cellphone last pinged a cell tower near Wilmette Harbor around 1 a.m.

Divers searched the Lake Michigan harbor for hours Wednesday, but found no signs of Maddula, according to a statement from the university early Thursday.

The family of the sophomore pre-med student flew from their home in Long Island, N.Y., to assist with the search, and put up a $25,000 reward for information on his whereabouts. They described Maddula as a bookworm not prone to adventures or partying.

"We really have no idea, no clue what could have happened to him," his cousin, Srinu Maddula, told ABC News early Thursday. "It's just out of his character. He's just a good kid, he just likes to study. He really enjoys school and education and work. He doesn't smoke, or drink, or do drugs because of his diabetic condition."

Srinu Maddula said the family has little information about the party that his cousin was attending or what friends he was with on the night of his disappearance.

Police: Minn. Office Shooter Kills 4, Then Self

A man who apparently lost his job at a Minnesota sign-making business returned to the company and allegedly killed four people before fatally shooting himself.

The shooting took place at Accent Signage Systems in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood in Minneapolis at about 4:35 p.m. Thursday, according to a statement released this morning by the Minneapolis Police Department.

The suspected shooter has been identified as 36-year-old Andrew Engeldinger, a former employee who recently lost his job at Accent Signage Systems, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

Police wearing body armor began searching Engeldinger's home early this morning.

The bodies of the four victims were found shortly after police arrived at the scene while evacuating other employees, according to the police statement. Police have not officially named the gunman or the victims. Minneapolis Police Deputy Chief Kristine Arneson would only confirm that the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The company's owner, Reuven Rahamim, was killed in the shooting, according to the newspaper.

Four others who were hurt in the shooting were transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. Three of the victims are listed in critical condition with gunshot wounds. The fourth victim had minor injuries, according to police.

"We received three patients who came to the hospital and they are in critical condition and they continue to be in critical condition this evening. They are three adult males," Christine Hill, the hospital's Media Relations Specialist, told ABC News Thursday evening.

Director of Operations John Souter and production manager Eric Rivers were among the four that were taken to the hospital, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The other two victims in the hospital have not been identified.

Police originally reported that at least two people were killed Thursday afternoon, but later would only say that "several" bodies had been found inside the business.

Barbara Haynes was driving home from her teaching job when she got stuck in traffic near the scene.

"I've never seen that many police vehicles on the scene and SWAT teams, uniforms, the guns ... pretty heavy artillery," Haynes told ABC News.

Marques Jones, 18, of Minneapolis, said he was outside a building down the street having his high school senior pictures taken when he and his photographer heard gunfire that sounded close.

"We heard about four to five gunshots," Jones said. "We were shocked at what happened and we just looked at each other. We all just took off running to our vehicles."

Accent Signage Systems' website says the company makes interior signage and listed its founder as Rahamim.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said employees who were working when the shootings occurred were together and being cared for Thursday evening.

"We are deeply sorry about what has happened here," he said, calling the shootings "a horrible tragedy."

ABC News Radio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lawyer: Driver Coerced to Buy Drugs

A woman in a small Texas town is alleging that police who pulled her over for a traffic ticket coerced her into making undercover drug buys to avoid paying the traffic fine, and threatened to reveal her role when she tried to back out of the arrangement.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous because she fears retribution from dealers, was pulled over for making an illegal lane change in the town Friendswood on Aug. 22, her attorney Dane Johnson told ABC News.

The officer who pulled her over found a glass pipe and the prescription medication Suboxone, which Johnson says she has a prescription for. She was given tickets for an out of date registration and for not having proof of insurance with her, records show.

She was then arrested, taken to the police station and strip searched, her attorney alleges.

"The police seemed to think she was a drug dealer, and threatened to call Child Protective Services if she didn't cooperate," Johnson said. "This is a single mother with no criminal record, and they wouldn't let her call anyone to go look after her child for the four hours she was at the station."

While being held police offered her a deal: perform three controlled drug buys instead of paying the fines, the lawyer said. Her attorney told ABC News she had never bought drugs before, but agreed to do it to get out of the citations.

"I had two choices. They were either going to arrest me, or I could agree to do some controlled buys," she told ABC affiliate KTRK.

The Police Department wouldn't comment to ABC News on the story. County Manager Nick Haby said, "Because it is a pending criminal investigation it is our policy not to discuss it with the media at this time." He would not say what was under investigation.

County prosecutors in two adjoining counties said they were unaware of the case.

But the woman's lawyer provided copies of text messages to ABC News supporting her claim that she was made to make a drug buy and was threatened with having her role revealed when she became afraid to make any more purchases.

Text messages that appear to be between the woman and a Friendswood detective show the planning in advance of the drug deal.

"Call her if you can, if she's out, maybe she can meet with you," one alleged message from the detective reads. When asked for specifics about the plan, the detective allegedly replied, "my money, this afternoon. I'll call you. Don't set a solid time yet."

Before the woman met with the dealer, she asked the detective for reassurance.

"Can u plz text me nothing will happen to me? I'm really freaking out," she wrote.

"You're ok, don't worry," he responded, telling her they would meet somewhere safe after the deal goes through.

The woman bought $100 worth of meth on Aug. 23, the day after her traffic ticket, KTRK reports. Her attorney said officers were insistent she go through with the deal the evening of her arrest, but eventually agreed to wait until the next day.

"She was terrified. They sent her in with money, no support and no protection, to buy drugs at their request," Johnson told ABC News. "She saw a gun while she was there and feared for her life."

After the first of what was supposed to be three controlled drug purchases, the woman contacted an attorney, hoping to get out of the deal with the police department, Johnson said.

Several days later, she received a text message from the detective informing her she would need to write a letter to the police if she wanted to withdraw from the deal.

Student Loans Soar, Other Debt Falls

Morning Business Memo:

Are you making progress in cutting back on debt? For most Americans the answer is yes when it comes to mortgages, car loans and credit cards. But student loans are a huge exception. The Pew Research Center says nearly one in five US households ' 22.4 million ' had college debt in 2010. That was double the share just over 20 years before in 1989. Student loan debt has been rising fast in the past few years ' driven by higher tuition costs and rising college enrollment during the economic downturn. More well-off families are digging deeper into their pockets to pay for expensive private colleges, while lower-income Americans in search of better jobs are enrolling in community colleges, public universities and other schools to boost their skills. As a share of household income, the debt burden was the greatest for the poorest 20 percent of households. 40 percent of households headed by someone younger than age 35 owed college debt, the highest share of any age group.

Many Americans are doing repeat re-fis: reducing the cost of their mortgages through refinancing. Thanks to the Federal Reserve's aggressive policy of quantitative easing, home loan rates are even lower than they were last year. Many homeowners who've refinanced several times in recent years have cut their debt levels, while others reduced monthly payments, giving them more money to spend. According to USA Today, Freddie Mac data shows that in the 2nd quarter of this year, 23 percent of homeowners who refinanced reduced their principal balance, and 59 percent maintained the same loan amount.

Two more big banks ' PNC and US Bank ' are reporting problems with their websites. This comes after a financial services security group warned of possible cyber attacks on banks. US Bank says some customers have experienced delays. There were problems at JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America's websites last week. Wells Fargo had a glitch on Tuesday. Last week, the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center raised its cyber threat level to 'high' from 'elevated' because of potential cyber attacks.

The fiscal cliff sounds scary and it is. In a new report today, Fitch Ratings Service says the fiscal cliff represents the single biggest near-term threat to a global economic recovery. Unless Congress acts to stop the projected rise in taxes at the end of this year, Fitch says 'the dramatic fiscal tightening implied by the fiscal cliff could tip the US and possibly the global economy into recession. At the very least it would be likely to halve the rate of global growth in 2013.'  Under current law, tax increases and spending cuts worth $600 billion will take effect in January. 'The scale and speed of this fiscal tightening would be likely to push the US economy into an unnecessary and avoidable recession,' warns Fitch.

The cloud over Europe has been a negative for the stock market. Economic confidence in the 17 euro zone nations has now fallen to its lowest level since 2009, according to the European Commission. Overseas markets rose this morning thanks to a hint from China that it may be getting ready to stimulate its economy, adding to recent action by the Federal Reserve, The European Central Bank, and The Bank of Japan.

Richard Davies Business Correspondent ABC NEWS Radio ABCNews.com twitter.com/daviesabc

NFL, Refs Reach Deal to End Lockout

The NFL and the NFL Referees Association have reached a tentative agreement ending a three-month lockout.

The deal was reached late Wednesday night and the two sides will finalize the paperwork later this morning, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. Regular union referees will be on the field in Baltimore tonight when the Ravens face the Cleveland Browns.

"Our officials will be back on the field starting tomorrow night," commissioner Roger Goodell said in a joint statement released by the NFL and NFLRA. "We appreciate the commitment of the NFLRA in working through the issues to reach this important agreement."

The new collective bargaining agreement between the two sides would be for eight years, according to ESPN. The deal must be ratified by 51 percent of the union's 121 members, according to The Associated Press. They plan to vote Friday and Saturday in Dallas.

"Our Board of Directors has unanimously approved taking this proposed CBA to the membership for a ratification vote," said Scott Green, president of the NFLRA. "We are glad to be getting back on the field for this week's games."

Replacement referees worked the first three weeks of the regular season, and were under intense scrutiny from players, fans and coaches. The controversy reached its apex during "Monday Night Football" this week after a blown call on the final play of the fourth quarter cost the Green Bay Packers a win against the Seattle Seahawks.

Packers safety M.D. Jennings had both hands on the ball in the end zone, and when he fell to the ground in a scrum, both Jennings and Seahawks receiver Golden Tate had their arms on the ball. The closest official to the play, at the back of the end zone, signaled for the clock to stop, while another official at the sideline ran in and then signaled touchdown.

The NFL said Tuesday that the touchdown pass should not have been overturned, but acknowledged that Tate should have been called for offensive pass interference before the catch.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was fined $50,000 for grabbing a replacement referee's arm Sunday when he asked for an explanation on a call after his team lost to the Ravens in Baltimore. Belichick later apologized for his actions.

The fury over the replacement refs made it all the way to the White House, with President Obama tweeting earlier this week, "NFL fans on both sides of the aisle hope the refs' lockout is settled soon."

The NFLRA were seeking improved salaries and retirement benefits in their negotiations with the NFL during the lockout.

Retirement benefits would be provided for new hires, and for all officials beginning in 2017, through a defined contribution arrangement, according to the joint statement released by the NFL and NFLRA Wednesday night. An annual league contribution would be made on behalf of each game official that will begin with an average of more than $18,000 per official and increase to more than $23,000 per official in 2019, and there would be a partial match on any additional contribution that an official makes to his 401(k) account.

Apart from their benefit package, the game officials' compensation would increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Housing Now a Plus For The Economy

 

Morning Business Memo:

The housing market is climbing out of the basement, leaving fewer homeowners underwater on their mortgages. This positive trend could provide a new boost to consumer confidence, which has been showing recent signs of improvement. Home prices are rising again in almost all parts of the country after a long and steep fall. The Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller index reports an average 6 percent price gain since the beginning of this year. Construction is showing signs of life. Homebuilders' share prices have soared this year. This week Lennar's (NYSE: LEN) fiscal third-quarter earnings quadrupled from a year earlier.

USA Today reports home improvement sales are going through the roof. 'It's a trend that's also driving sales in brick-and-mortar home improvement stores from mom-and-pop hardware shops to Home Depot (NYSE: HD), which hammered out its highest quarterly earnings report last month in five years at $1.5 billion,' says the newspaper.

The latest round of the tablet wars' Barnes and Noble rolls out two new versions of the Nook in an increasingly crowded market. They're said to feature a sharper high definition screen. The new Nooks come in two sizes, one with a 7-inch screen ($199) and the other with a 9-inch diagonal screen is called the Nook HD+ ($269). The lightweight slim tablets are low price competitors to Apple's much more expensive iPad. ABC News Technology Editor Joanna Stern has the lowdown on the launch.

Less turbulence ahead for American Airlines? There could be progress in breaking the standoff between American and its pilots, blamed for a spike in canceled and delayed flights. The airline formally asked the pilots' union to resume negotiations on a new labor contract. A spokesman says the union board will meet today to decide on the next step. Pilots and management at American have been at odds for years, but the conflict came to a head this month when a federal bankruptcy judge allowed the airline to break its contract with pilots. American set new pay and work rules that could lead to outsourcing more flying to other airlines. Almost immediately, delays and cancelations rose sharply. American canceled more than 300 flights last week, and there were many more problems for passengers yesterday.

Controversial comments by the president of the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve may have sparked Wall Street's biggest stock sell-off in three months. Charles Plosser said the latest Fed effort to boost the economy will fall short of its goals and may hurt the central bank's credibility. Plosser ' unlike most fed officials ' is a critic of quantitative easing.  The Dow Jones index is down about 1 percent since hitting a five-year high last week.

Anger in the streets of Europe' A general strike is on in Greece today to protest austerity measures demanded by European and international creditors. It's the first general strike since Greece's coalition government was formed in June. In Spain police say 38 people were arrested and 64 people injured when officers clashed with protesters demonstrating against austerity cutbacks and tax hikes.

Richard Davies Business Correspondent ABC NEWS Radio ABCNews.com twitter.com/daviesabc

Hungry Kids Protest Healthy School Lunch Program

Two baked fish nuggets, a cup of vegetables, half a cup of mashed potatoes, one whole grain roll and 8 ounces of fat free milk. That's the fuel that American high school students are federally mandated to receive in their school lunches this year as healthier food regulations take effect.

But for a grumbling crowd of students, those 750 to 850 calories aren't cutting it.

"We hear them complaining around 1:30 or 2:00 that they are already hungry," said Linda O'Connor, a high school English teacher at Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kansas. "It's all the students, literally all the students... you can set your watch to it."

O'Connor teamed up with her hungry students and fellow teacher Brenda Kirkham to create a ballad to the growling stomachs that are now pestering her classroom. The YouTube song and dance video "We Are Hungry," set to the tune of Fun's "We Are Young," now has more than 108,000 hits.

"Give me some seconds, I, I need to get some food today," 16-year-old Wallace County High School football player Callahan Grund sings in the video. "My friends are at the corner store getting junk so they don't waste away."

Across the state at St. Mark's Charter School in Colwich, Kansas, middle school students are protesting the new regulations, which limit their calories to between 600 and 700 per meal, by bringing their lunches from home.

St. Mark's Principal Craig Idacavage said more than half of his 330-student school are opting for sack lunches because "they feel they are not able to get full" on the school offerings.

"I think they have a valid point and you can only hope that people will listen to them," Idacavage said.

The new school lunch regulations, which first lady Michelle Obama championed and a Democrat-led Congress passed in 2010, set a maximum calorie limit for high school lunches at between 750 and 850 calories. Under the old rules, cafeterias served a minimum of 825 calories per lunch.

Elementary students' lunches pack between 550 and 650 calories as opposed to the 633 calories allotted under the old rules.

For Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, that "scant diet" is a "rude awakening" for schoolchildren across the country. King and Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, introduced the "No Kids Hungry Act" this month to repeal the new lunch menu standards and prohibit the calorie limits.

"Kids are of varying sizes, activity levels and metabolism rates," King wrote in a Des Moines Register op-ed. "How can we expect each child to flourish and grow on subsistence diets? This all because some are overweight."

But while students complain of growling stomachs, the new nutritional requirements should actually be making them feel fuller, said Kristi King, a registered pediatric dietician at Texas Children's Hospital and a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The new rules double the amount of fruit and vegetables that are served and mandate that half of all bread products are whole grain. All three of those food types are chock full of fiber, which takes longer to digest, King said.

"It should be making kids fuller if they are actually consuming the whole product," King said. "If children are not picking the entire meal available to them they are obviously going to be hungry."

In Jackson, Miss., the state with the highest obesity rate, school cafeterias have been easing kids into the healthy food regulations.

Mary Hill, the executive director of food services at Jackson Public School District said her school district has been phasing in more fruit and vegetable options over the past few years to prepare for the regulations and while the new rules are an "adjustment" for the students, she said she has not heard any complaints.

"To me, if you hear that grumbling it's that typical grumbling with children," Hill said. "You know children will be children."

Ahmadinejad Pushes New World Order

After an hour of fielding questions about Syria, sanctions and nuclear weapons, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had enough. Now, he said, it was his turn to choose the topic ' his "new order" which will inevitably replace the current era of what he called U.S. bullying.

Continuing his hectic pace of media appearances and diplomatic meetings, Ahmadinejad presented an air of boredom when it came to the hot topic on everyone's mind ' Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of impending war. Whether it was feigned or sincere, he said he would much rather be talking about his vision of what the next world order might be.

Conveniently, it would be an order in which the U.S. and the traditional powers play a smaller role and every country has equal standing (though the state of Israel, he often predicts, will soon become a historical footnote).

"God willing, a new order will come and will do away with ... everything that distances us," Ahmadinejad told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday, speaking through a translator. "All of the animosity, all of the lack of sincerity will come to an end. It will institute fairness and justice."

He said the world was losing patience with the current state of affairs.

"Now even elementary school kids throughout the world have understood that the United States government is following an international policy of bullying," he said. "I do believe the system of empires has reached the end of the road. The world can no longer see an emperor commanding it."

The interview was held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly ' Ahmadinejad's last as president of Iran. He was to address the assembly Wednesday morning.

He also discussed solutions for the Syrian civil war, dismissed the question of Iran's nuclear ambition and claimed that despite Western sanctions his country is better off than it was when he took office in 2005.

Earlier Tuesday, President Barack Obama warned Iran that time is running out to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program. In a speech to the General Assembly, Obama said the United States could not tolerate an Iran with atomic weapons.

Ahmadinejad would not respond directly to the president's remarks, saying he did not want to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.

But he argued that the international outcry over Iran's nuclear enrichment program was just an excuse by the West to dominate his country. He claimed that the United States has never accepted Iran's choice of government after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Everyone is aware the nuclear issue is the imposition of the will of the United States," he said. "I see the nuclear issue as a non-issue. It has become a form of one-upmanship."

Ahmadinejad said he favored more dialogue, even though negotiations with world powers remain stalled after three rounds of high-level meetings since April.

He said some world leaders have suggested to him that Iran would be better off holding nuclear talks only with the United States.

"Of course I am not dismissing such talks," he said, asked if he were open to discussions with the winner of the American presidential election.

Romney 'Reset': Campaign Revives Past Promises, Again

Mitt Romney is human, after all.

Employing what must be the most potent "humanization" tactic available, the Romney campaign released a bundle of medical records last week, confirming the candidate's status as not only a man, but a "vigorous" one with a resting heart rate (40 beats per minute) many of his fellow humans would envy.

Making the public certain of Romney's carbon-based existence had been of particular concern to partisans ahead of the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., last month. It wasn't enough, they said, for the candidate to bank on a popular rejection of the Obama economic record; he needed to make a psychic connection with other American humans.

But first impressions ' many of them authored by the Obama campaign's relentless criticism of Romney's Bain Capital days and a trying GOP primary race ' can be hard to shake. Republicans left Tampa talking as much about Clint Eastwood's interrogation of an invisible man as Romney's appearance as an empathetic one. Poll numbers released the following week only underlined their anxiety.

So the campaign responded, eventually, with the promise of another "reset," this time pledging to deliver more detailed policy proposals and "More Mitt."

"We need to lay out the vision and lay out the specifics as we are doing, but more clearly and more consistently on a daily basis," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Ed Gillespie, a former RNC leader, made a similar point six days earlier, telling reporters on a conference call, "There are a lot of Americans out there who are just now really starting to lock in and starting to look for more information and new information, and now is the time for us to provide that for them."

Hours later, secretly recorded video of the candidate's controversial remarks to fundraisers in Florida began to flood the internet. The resulting clean-up effort wiped out another precious "news cycle."

Today, with just 42 days until voters ' the patient ones who haven't filed early ballots ' go to polls, the "reset" is back on.

"I'm going to make sure that people understand that this is a different direction for the nation," Romney told ABC News.

If voters want "real and positive change," he said, "that's what I represent."

This latest recalibration is more in line with that the campaign promised in early August, when after months of deliberation Romney picked Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to be his running mate.

With Ryan ' celebrated in conservative circles for his "Roadmap" for reforming the welfare state ' on board, the Republican ticket was openly girding itself for what promised, surely, to be three months of real talk about "big ideas" and an honest "conversation" about the candidates' fundamentally different paths forward.

But just three days later, Romney, responding to what he perceived to be unfair attacks on Ryan's record, launched a memorable verbal assault on the president's "intellectually exhausted" campaign, one now dedicated, he said, to "diversions and distractions, to demagoguing and defaming others.

"It's an old game in politics; what's different this year is that the president is taking things to a new low."

Three months, it turned out, had been an optimistic figure.

Discover Gives Customers $200 Million Refund

Discover Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced Discover will make a $200 million consumer refund for "deceptive marketing" to more than 3.5 million credit card customers.

The agencies conducted a year-long investigation into telemarketing and sales tactics that they said "misled" consumers into paying for credit card "add-on products." The agencies said Discover implied that the products were free.

The services included credit score tracking and identity theft, wallet and payment protection.

Customers who are eligible for a refund were charged for one or more of the products between Dec. 1, 2007 and Aug. 31, 2011. The agencies said customers will receive a notice from Discover Bank, which is a subsidiary of Discover Financial Services (stock symbol: DFS), based in Riverwoods, Ill.

Those customers will receive varying refund amounts depending on the products they purchased and how long they held them, the two government agencies announced.

All consumers will receive at least 90 days' worth of fees paid, minus any refunds they have already received. About 2 million consumers will receive full refunds of all of the fees they paid.

"We have worked hard to earn the loyalty of our cardmembers, and we are committed to marketing our products responsibly," said David Nelms, chairman and chief executive officer of Discover, in a statement. "As always, we will continue to strive to deliver the highest standards of customer service and satisfaction."

The company is not admitting wrongdoing by agreeing to the settlement. A spokesman for Discover declined to comment further.

In addition to the $200 million refund to consumers, Discover has agreed to pay a $14 million civil penalty, which will be split evenly between the U.S. Treasury and the CFPB's Civil Penalty Fund.

The FDIC said it became aware of concerns about the sale and marketing of the add-on products in 2010.

Discover announced in its quarterly filing for the second quarter of 2011 that it was under investigation by the FDIC. The investigation later merged with the one by the CFPB.

This is the second major action announced by the CFPB this year. On July 18 it announced a $210 million settlement with Capitol One after charging that it deceived customers into buying payment protection and credit monitoring.

ABC News' Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.

Iran Test-Fires Missiles Designed to Hit Warships

A senior Revolutionary Guard commander says Iran has deployed a domestic-built reconnaissance drone that can stay aloft for 24 hours.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Guard's aerospace division, says the drone named Shahed-129, or Witness-129, has a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles). That covers much of the Middle East including Israel and nearly doubles the range of previous Iranian drones.

Hajizadeh spoke during an interview Tuesday on Iran's state TV. He claims Iranian scientists designed and developed the drone.

Iran has said it also seeks to develop a drone with attack capabilities.

Iran says it is fighting an intelligence battle with the U.S. and Israel, which accuse Tehran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charges.

JFK Tapes: New Insight Into Cuban Missile Crisis

In the heat of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy thought the nation was so close to war with the Soviet Union that he game-planned how American naval vessels would fire on Soviet ships, making plans for firing warning shots, and even the confiscation of cameras aboard American boats to prevent pictures from making their way into the press.

In a phone call to Assistant Defense Secretary Roswell Gilpatric ' secretly recorded by the president on Oct. 23, 1962 ' Kennedy ordered that U.S. service members on board ships that would engage the Soviets be forced to turn in their cameras.

He also walked Gilpatric through an intricate series of steps he wanted taken in case Soviet forces defied the American quarantine of Cuba, moves designed to try to minimize confrontations he knew could lead to World War III.

"I was wondering whether the instructions on how that's to be done, or where they're to be shot at, and so on, to cause the minimum of damage," Kennedy said. "And in addition, if they're boarded, it's very possible the Russians will fire at them as they board, and we'd have to fire back and have quite a slaughter."

The recordings are published in a new book and accompanying CDs: "Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy," on sale Sept. 25, 2012.

Tune in to "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline" on Monday Sept. 24, 2012 to see Diane Sawyer's exclusive interview with Caroline Kennedy

Much of the material is compiled in book form for the first time, though most of it had been previously released. Portions of the recordings, touching on sensitive national security issues, were declassified as recently as this year.

The records offer a trove of first-hand material for historians focused on some of the most turbulent days of the Kennedy presidency. Starting in July 1962, Kennedy had a sophisticated taping system installed in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room at the White House, presumably to record history for future use in memoirs.

The resulting 248 hours of meetings, plus 17-plus hours of phone conversations and private presidential reflections, were probably never listened to by Kennedy himself before his assassination in November 1963.

The recordings reveal a pressure-cooker atmosphere inside the White House at odds with popular perceptions of Camelot. They offer an unfiltered, sometimes profane glimpse of real-time crisis decision-making in critical episodes of the Civil Rights Movement and the Cuban Missile Crisis, among dozens of other hot moments.

"To be able to be a fly on the wall and listen to things unfolding when we know how they turned out, but the -- the people talking didn't, that's what's so amazing," Caroline Kennedy, the former president's daughter, told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview. "I think that this is a whole different insight into really work being done -- and, really, his commitment to politics as a way of solving problems."

Foxconn Closes Factory After Brawl

Foxconn Technology Group, owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., suspended production at one of its largest factories in northern China on Monday following a violent incident involving 2,000 workers.

Foxconn, a major supplier of electronic components to large US companies including Apple and Microsoft, made a statement on the closing on Sunday night:

'A personal dispute between several employees escalated into an incident involving 2,000 workers at approximately 11pm last night in a privately managed dormitory near our manufacturing facility in Taiyuan in Shanxi province.'

Unconfirmed video online shows crowds several hundred strong in the streets, overturned cars and smashed windows. China's Xinhua News Agency reported that 5,000 police were dispatched to control the crowd; the video shows large buses broadcasting via loudspeaker what appear to be messages to control the rioters.

Foxconn reported that at least 40 employees were sent to the hospital and a 'number' of individuals were arrested after police arrived on the scene. Social media postings suggest some members of the crowd may have inadvertently been critically injured when the crowd got out of control.

The Taiyuan factory employs approximately 79,000 workers. It was recently the subject of an undercover report by the Chinese publication China Story. According to the article, the facility produces a part of the casing for the iPhone 5 and employees are told they should feel 'honor' for doing so.

But the same factory has come under criticism for poor labor practices, low wages and compulsory overtime. Hong Kong media reported a similar incident of protest during a strike over a pay dispute last March.

After a string of suicides by Foxconn employees last year, the company has made an effort to improve working conditions.  Apple has been working in conjunction with Foxconn to achieve that.

Aurora Cinema May Open by New Year

                                               (Image Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

The site of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history could reopen as soon as the New Year.

The Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo., has been shut down since July 20, when a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' killing 12 people and leaving 58 wounded. In August, the City of Aurora launched an online survey asking what should be done about the theater.

The  majority of people who responded said they supported re-opening the theater. Those results were passed along to Cinemark, the owner of the theater, with a letter from Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan.

'We believe that we are hearing, and indeed have heard for some time, a collective wish and desire for the theater to re-open,' Hogan said. He added that he had consulted with victims, victims advocates and community members about the decision.

Hogan asked for special provisions, including victim and survivor visitation, memorials and a possible change to the exterior appearance of the building to be considered.

Tim Warner, CEO of Cinemark, responded, saying the company would work with the city to determine the best way to re-open the theater.

'We pledge to reconfigure the space and make the theater better than ever,' he said. 'We hope the theater will be ready by the beginning of the New Year.'

BofA Branch Closures a Sign of Times

It may not be a happy holiday holiday season for thousands of Bank of America employees. The bank could be cutting 16,000 jobs by the end of December, accelerating the 30,000 layoffs it had previously said would take a "few years."

The Wall Street Journal reported a document provided to top management that described the details of the 16,000 job cuts, which would leave 260,000 in the remaining headcount, the lowest number since 2008.

After closing 178 bank branches last year, the bank is also planning to close 200 branches this year, a person familiar with the matter told the Journal.

Last September, Bank of America announced a cost-cutting plan that would include reducing 30,000 jobs, the biggest layoff announcement last year by a company, according to outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.

"As the decisions are implemented, employment levels in the areas under review during Phase I are expected to be reduced by approximately 30,000 jobs over the next few years," the bank said in a statement at the time.

Jerome Dubrowski, a spokesman for Bank of America, declined to comment on published reports about the company's cost-cutting plans and the number of jobs the company has reduced so far.

Shares of the company closed down 0.82 percent to $9.11 on Friday.

If the bank is accelerating its planned job cuts or slimming down operations, that would actually reflect a healthy business move as opposed to a sign of a troubled company, said Anthony Polini, an analyst for investment firm Raymond James.

Even with the possible job cuts and branch closures, the bank will still be considered the largest retail bank, Polini said, with a strong presence coast-to-coast.

"The company is doing great," Polini said. "It's in another phase of expense control."

Polini said the environment of low-interest rates (the Federal Reserve has committed to keeping the federal funds rate near zero at least until 2015), has negatively affected banking profitability.

Regulatory issues have also affected banks' costs, Polini said. The capital requirement burden, with banks required to have higher capital ratios as a result of the financial crisis, has also been a "burden" for banks, he said.

Polini said the closure of bank branches is likely to persist in the industry as more customers bank online and on smartphones.

"There is no country more overbanked than the U.S.," Polini said. "I don't know what you see more of in New York City: Starbucks or bank branches."

Man Mauled by Tiger Charged With Trespassing

A New York who was mauled by a tiger he wanted to be "one with" has been charged with trespassing for jumping into the 400-pound cat's Bronx Zoo enclosure.

On Friday, David Villalobos, 25, jumped 17 feet off an electric monorail ride and over an electric fence into the tiger den, suffering bite wounds on his arms, legs shoulders and back, as well as a broken ankle and arm after the tiger mauled him.

"He told NYPD detectives today that he voluntarily jumped yesterday from the monorail into the tiger preserve at the Bronx Zoo and that his leap was definitely not a suicide attempt, but a desire to be 'one with the tiger,'" Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne told ABC News.

"When an NYPD sergeant asked Villalobos yesterday why had jumped into the tiger preserve, he replied that 'everyone in life makes choices,'"

Villalobos said today that he incurred most of his injuries in landing on all fours in the jump from the monorail. He recalled being dragged by the tiger by the foot, and afterwards being able to pet the tiger.

"No surprise he landed on all fours considering his passion for cats," Browne said.

Perhaps there was one consolation for Villalobos -- Browne said he told police that he did get to pet the tiger -- after the animal had dragged him by the ankle.

Villalobos, recovering from his injuries in Jacobi Medical Center, was issued a desk appearance ticket on a charge of criminal trespassing, requiring his presence in court at a later date, Browne said.

A former class mate told ABC News Villalobos had been displaying bizarre behavior.

"Recently I saw some of his stuff on Facebook and it just seemed a little strange," the class mate said.

Quick thinking rescuers at the zoo likely saved Villalobos' life. They used powerful fire hoses to distract Bachuta, an approximately 11-year-old, 400-pound, male Siberian tiger, and pull Villalobos to safety.

"Our emergency response staff immediately went to the site and used a CO2 fire extinguisher to move the tiger away from the person," the zoo said in a statement released Friday. "Once the tiger backed off, the man was instructed to roll under a hot wire to safety. The keepers were able to call the tiger into its off-exhibit holding area and safely secured the animal."

As of last night, Villalobos' condition has been upgraded to stable condition, according to officials from Jacobi Medical Center, where he is being treated.

Zoo director Jim Breheny told reporters Friday Villalobos was in the tiger area exposed to the tiger for approximately 10 minutes. He remained conscious and in the area receiving first aid after the tiger was secured.

"I think it's safe to say that if the tiger really wanted to do harm to this individual, he certainly would have had the time to do that," Breheny said. "We honestly think that we're providing a safe experience and this is just an extraordinary event. He made a deliberate effort to get over the fence. It's not by accident that this happened."

Asked if the man was emotionally disturbed, a police official said, "It certainly appears that way."

"The tiger was minding his own business," New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said, "up until the man cleared two sets of fences to get into the enclosure."

The tiger will remain on exhibit at the zoo. "This is the first incident of its kind. ... When someone is determined to do something harmful to themselves, it is very difficult to stop them," Brehny said.

ABC News' Courtney Condron and Michael S. James contributed to this report.

Zoo Tiger Bites Man After Leap Into Pen

A man was hospitalized after apparently jumping off an electric monorail ride and over an electric fence into the tiger den at New York's Bronx Zoo this afternoon.

The victim, who zoo officials said was approximately 25 years old, suffered multiple wounds, including tiger bites and fractures, according to Emergency Medical Services and police. Among the injuries were a deep wound to the back, a tiger bite to the right ankle that possibly caused a fracture and a right knee injury.

Earlier, police said the man had to have a foot amputated, but officials later said that was not the case.

Sources told WABC-TV in New York that the man was David Villalobos, 25, of Mahopac, N.Y., which is in Putnam County, north of New York City.

His condition at Jacobi Medical Center was upgraded from critical to stable late Friday, a Jacobi spokeswoman told WABC, without elaborating on his injuries.

The zoo released a statement today saying the man jumped off the Wild Asia Monorail ride he was on at approximately 3 p.m., cleared the tiger exhibit's perimeter fence, and ended up in the tiger habitat.

"Our emergency response staff immediately went to the site and used a CO2 fire extinguisher to move the tiger away from the person," the statement read. "Once the tiger backed off, the man was instructed to roll under a hot wire to safety. The keepers were able to call the tiger into its off-exhibit holding area and safely secured the animal."

Zoo director Jim Breheny told reporters the man was in the tiger area exposed to the tiger for approximately 10 minutes. He remained in the area receiving first aid after the tiger was secured.

"I think it's safe to say that if the tiger really wanted to do harm to this individual, he certainly would have had the time to do that," Breheny said.

The man was conscious and able to talk, the zoo's initial statement said, but was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

"We honestly think that we're providing a safe experience and this is just an extraordinary event," Breheny said. "He made a deliberate effort to get over the fence. It's not by accident that this happened."

Asked if the man was emotionally disturbed, a police official said, "It certainly appears that way."

"The tiger was minding his own business," New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said, "up until the man cleared two sets of fences to get into the enclosure."

Breheny identified the tiger involved as Bachuta, an approximately 11-year-old, 400-pound, male Siberian tiger.

"The tiger did nothing wrong in this episode," Breheny said, adding that the tiger would remain on exhibit at the zoo.

"We did not have to use deadly force, but we were prepared to do so if we had to," Breheny said. "This is the first incident of its kind. ... When someone is determined to do something harmful to themselves, it is very difficult to stop them."

ABC News' Courtney Condron and Michael S. James contributed to this report.

S.C. Lawyer Indicted for Extorting $1M From Clients in Fake Cases

 

                                                                                                    Image credit: Lawyer.com

Richard J. Breibart, an attorney in Lexington, S.C., for 33 years, specialized in litigating high-profile criminal and civil cases. A once prominent member of the community,  he was known for throwing lavish Christmas parties for hundreds of people,  according to The State newspaper.

But now, Breibart faces a 10-count federal indictment for extortion and fraud, and  a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.

The saga has been a bizarre one, especially for an attorney who once presided over a 14,000-square-foot office and employed about two dozen lawyers.

But in recent years, according to the federal indictment, Breibart started using his formidable legal talents to get  people to pay him enormous sums of money so he could make charges or investigations against them go away. But the twist? There never were any charges or investigations against these people. The cases were fake.

According to The State, in late May Breibart told his staff via email that they wouldn't be getting their paychecks on the fifth day of the month, as they usually did.

 'The finances of the firm are such that we will not be able to cover payroll at this time,' Breibart told his staff of lawyers, paralegals and secretaries, according to The State.

Breibart subsequently shut down his office and website without telling his employees why. On June 1, the state Supreme Court placed Breibart, 61, on an interim suspension, and also appointed a trustee, Mark Barrow, to take charge of Breibart's mail, files, client accounts and bank accounts.

'The trustee does not take over cases, he just makes sure people get their files back,' Lee Coggiola, the executive director of the Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel, told ABC News.  'That can obviously be very difficult, depending on how many open files there are. There could be people who are incarcerated. They might have to get new counsel.'

Coggiola would not say why Breibart was suspended, but she confirmed that she had received several complaints about his conduct. 'We are investigating all the complaints that came in against Mr. Breibart,' she said.

So is the FBI.

On Sept. 19, Breibart was arrested and charged with five counts of extortion, four counts of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud. The indictment lists three different people who allegedly wiped out their savings,  investment and retirement accounts  to pay Breibart. According to the indictment, between November 2010 and June, 2012, Breibart devised and intended to defraud clients and to obtain money and property from them by means of 'false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.'

He told clients that they faced IRS penalties and possible criminal charges, but that he would handle the cases himself and keep the matters private and sealed if they paid him specified amounts of money.

In one instance, Breibart told a man that he owed the IRS $368,000, but that if he paid the full amount, along with a $50,000 'attorney's fee,' Breibart would take care of the matter. The man transferred the money, even though there was no IRS investigation. Breibart, in turn, 'converted those funds to pay for expenses and obligations ' to his law firm, to him personally and to other clients.'

In another instance, Breibart told a woman whom he had helped with her divorce  that her 'estranged husband was being investigated by the IRS and that her assets were vulnerable.'  Breibart told her to liquidate and transfer money to him to be held in his trust account.  The woman sent Breibart's  firm a $500,000 check from her investment accounts. But there had never been any IRS investigation.

Breibart even asked a couple to send him $218,000 because he said their son,  whom he had once represented on state criminal charges, might be targeted by the FBI.  But if they gave him  hundreds of thousands of dollars, Breibart  would keep the FBI at bay. The couple did, but there had never been any investigation against their son, according to the indictment.

Unable to make a $100,000 bond, Breibart, who has pleaded not guilty, spent Wednesday in custody, according to court records. ABC News  could not  reach Breibart for comment.   His lawyer, public defender John Herman Hare, did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment.

Ann Romney's Plane Makes Emergency Landing

(@andreamsaul/Twitter)

LAS VEGAS ' Ann Romney's plane made an emergency landing today in Colorado after smoke filled the cabin because of an apparent electrical fire.

Romney, wife of the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, was not harmed in the incident, spokeswoman Sarah Haley said.

Haley tweeted following the incident, 'Don't need any caffeine to wake me up now! #adventure '

'A HUGE thank you to the crew and first responders for keeping us safe today!' she wrote.

The flight was heading from Omaha, Neb., where Mrs. Romney had attended fundraisers this afternoon, to Santa Monica, Calif.

In a recorded conversation between the plane and Denver International Airport's flight tower, a man's voice could be heard saying, 'We have an electrical issue here and we're going to declare an emergency.'

'We'll probably need assistance here,' he said. 'We got smoke in the cabin.'

Haley said the plane, a Canadair Challenger 600 regional jet, was surrounded by fire trucks when it landed at the Denver International Airport.

No media travels with Ann Romney on her flights, but she was accompanied by four staffers, including Haley, two U.S. Secret Service agents, and three crew members.

Romney and the other passengers were instructed to put their seat belts on during the emergency landing.

The FAA said in a statement said that a Canadair regional jet charter flight operated by World Wide Jet diverted to Denver today at about 2:40 p.m. MDT after the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit.

The aircraft landed safely on runway 35L and passengers exited the aircraft via stairs on a taxiway, according to the FAA.

The flight was at 40,000 feet when it turned around to make the emergency landing, according to Flight Aware.

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul tweeted a photo from the scene, showing firefighters storming onto the plane after it landed.

Saul said that Mitt Romney spoke with his wife as soon as she was safely on the ground in Denver.

The Denver Fire Department, the Denver Police Department and Airport Operations responded to the call.

ABC News' Lisa Stark and Matt Hosford contributed to this report.

Fight Ends for Colo. Suspect's Notebook

Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo

ABC News' Clayton Sandell and Carol McKinley report:

CENTENNIAL, Colo.  ' Prosecutors in the Aurora theater massacre case changed legal course today, dropping their effort to see a notebook that James Holmes mailed to his psychiatrist Lynne Fenton the day before he allegedly opened fire, killing 12 and injuring 58.

Holmes, 24, appeared clean cut in court, with short, closely- cropped brown hair. The infamous orange hair and long sideburns are now gone. Holmes seemed to sometimes pay attention to today's proceedings, occasionally staring wide-eyed around the courtroom. Arapahoe County Sheriff officials also released a new mugshot of Holmes today.

Prosecutors had argued that they should be allowed to see the notebook, arguing that Holmes' relationship with Dr. Fenton ended on June 11. Holmes' defense team, however, said in a previous hearing that Holmes tried to reach Fenton nine minutes before the July 20 massacre, suggesting he may not have considered their relationship over.

Prosecutor Rich Orman said that even if they did win the argument that the notebook was not protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, that would likely result in a long delay in an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court.

'We are in uncharted legal waters,' Orman said.

Orman also told Judge William Sylvester that the issue of privilege will likely become moot because if Holmes pursues an expected insanity defense, he will automatically waive privilege, giving prosecutors access to the notebook.

'Any privilege that exists with the notebook will be waived in the future,' said Orman.

Defense attorneys will soon be granted access to the notebook, where they will be able to read and photograph whatever is inside.

Defense attorneys have said in previous court hearings that Holmes is mentally ill.

'I am surprised at this development, because this district attorney usually fights for everything.  But I'm also not surprised, because other district attorneys have seen this fight as being a waste of time,' said David Kaplan, a criminal defense attorney and former head of the Colorado Public Defenders Office.

Holmes' defense attorneys also asked the judge to level sanctions on prosecutors for making false and misleading statements about the case.

In previous hearings and in court documents, prosecutors have alleged that Holmes threatened a professor and was banned from the University of Colorado campus where he was a neuroscience graduate student.  Public defender Daniel King said none of that was true.

'There was no iota of evidence to support allegations that Mr. Holmes threatened anyone or was banned for campus,' King said.

King asked the judge to allow the defense team to release a statement to the media to correct information he called 'flagrant and untrue.'

The judge did not immediately issue a ruling on the statement or possible sanctions.

 

 

 

Guilty Verdict in Amish Beard Attacks

The leader of an Amish splinter sect and his followers were found guilty today of violating federal hate crime laws for conducting a series of bizarre attacks in which they shaved the hair and beards of other Amish whose religious beliefs they disagreed with.

A jury found Samuel Mullet Sr. and 15 members of his church guilty of the attacks that rocked the picturesque Amish communities of eastern Ohio.

Prosecutors said the attacks were hate crimes because the victims were targeted for their religious beliefs and because the attacks were focused on the victim's hair and beards, which the Amish believe they are spiritually obligated to keep long.

Mullet, 66, was not personally accused of shaving anyone, but prosecutors said he was considered the group's leader and bishop, and instructed his followers, including four of his children, to conduct the attacks.

Mullet and the other members never denied the cuttings, but said they were not hate crimes. Mullet insisted they were a response to other Amish leaders criticizing him for being too strict.

Members of Mullet's settlement testified that the bishop had ordered men to serve out punishments in chicken coops, and women were subjected to sexual "counseling."

Mullet's followers committed five attacks, including one on a neighboring bishop, cutting his chest length beard back to his chin.

Each of the convicted sect members faces up to 10 years in prison.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Mag Prints Lewd Cartoons of Prophet

Michel Euler/AP Photo

PARIS ' The  cartoons try hard to offend. One glance at them and you can see they do. Images of the Prophet Mohammed are forbidden in Islam, but in the French satirical weekly newspaper 'Charlie Hebdo' he is not only shown, he is depicted in lewd and deliberately provocative sexual positions.

The French government, fearing that these incendiary sketches will ignite yet more violence in the Arab world, has announced that it will close more than 20 embassies as well as consulates and French schools, and it has put French citizens in Arab countries on alert.

It's easy to understand the sensitivity after what happened last week when an amateur video mocking Mohammed that was made in California surfaced on YouTube. Muslims around the world were inflamed, attacking U.S. embassies and leaving more than two dozen people dead. It is still not clear what if any role the film had in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya that left the ambassador and three other Americans dead.

What is clear is that Charlie Hebdo is intentionally wading into sensitivities that can easily spin out of control. France has more than 3 million Muslims and a French Muslim group issued a statement expressing 'deep concern' about the caricatures and warning that 'in a very tense context, it risks exacerbating tensions and provoking reactions.'

The 16-page weekly magazine has been hard to find in Paris. A news vendor near the Arc de Triomphe opened his morning deliveries and within seconds all of the copies he had in stock were snapped up.

France's Foreign Minister said this morning he believes in free speech, but he worries that the cartoons are 'adding oil to fire.' He said the appropriate place to challenge the cartoons is in the French courts.

Muslims here note that on Tuesday the French courts sided with the Duchess of Cambridge in banning further distribution of photos of her sunbathing topless while on a private vacation. They say if those images are illegal, then the offensive cartoons should be, too.

But the editor of 'Charlie Hebdo' is unrepentant, saying the images will 'shock those who will want to be shocked.'

'Freedom of the press, is that a provocation?' he said.

The newspaper has courted controversy before. Last November it called one issue 'Sharia Hebdo' and claimed the Prophet Mohammed was its guest editor. The newspaper's offices were firebombed the day of publication.

Today French riot police are stationed in front of the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

Holder Cleared in 'Fast and Furious'

Operation "Fast and Furious," the controversial undercover operation that allowed U.S. guns to be walked into Mexico, was a "risky strategy" that did not "adequately take into account the significant danger to public safety that it created."

That was the conclusion today from the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice, after an investigation that spanned more than a year and a half.

The OIG investigation found that Attorney General Eric Holder was not aware of the strategy and tactics used in "Fast and Furious," and turned up no evidence that Holder tried to cover up the operation, or mislead Congress about it. Holder was held in contempt of Congress earlier this year for allegedly withholding documents about DOJ's "Fast and Furious" investigation from congressional investigators.

In a statement today, Holder said, "It is unfortunate that some were so quick to make baseless accusations before they possessed the facts about these operations -- accusations that turned out to be without foundation and that have caused a great deal of unnecessary harm and confusion."

The IG report did find that a misleading letter that the DOJ sent to Congress was "troubling" because senior officials who were involved in drafting it knew, or should have known, that reckless behavior had occurred.

The political combat triggered by the flawed undercover operation played out in a series of contentious hearings on Capitol Hill in the past year. Behind the battles, the OIG found, was an undercover operation to catch gun-runners on the Southwest border that quickly turned bad.

Some of the 2,000 guns that made their way into Mexico as a result of "Operation Fast and Furious" were later recovered at crime scenes, including two found at the scene of the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

The "Fast and Furious" strategy called for agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to conduct surveillance and review phone and financial records to track guns they believed to be going to Mexican drug lords, who could then be arrested. But ATF lost track of most of the guns, few arrests were made, and yet "the purchasing activity by Operation Fast and Furious subjects continued unabated, individuals who had engaged in serious and dangerous criminal conduct remained at large, and the public was put in harm's way."

The OIG investigation "revealed a series of misguided strategies, tactics, errors in judgment and management failures that permeated ATF Headquarters and the Phoenix Field Division, as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona and at the Headquarters of the Department of Justice."

The report also details serious mistakes in DOJ's response to congressional inquiries about "Fast and Furious."

The Inspector General's review has recommended 14 Justice Department and ATF officials for disciplinary and administrative review, including the head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.

Report Warns of Arsenic in Rice

A major consumer magazine is warning Americans to limit how much rice they eat because of concerns over arsenic.

According to a sobering report released to "Good Morning America" by Consumer Reports magazine this morning, rice eaten just once a day can drive arsenic levels in the human body up 44 percent. Rice eaten twice a day can lead to a 70 percent increase in arsenic.

"We think that consumers ought to take steps to moderate their consumption," said Urvashi Rangan, director of consumer safety and sustainability at Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports tested many forms of rice for arsenic, from cereal for babies and adults, to brown and white whole grain, pasta and drinks. More than 60 rice and rice products were tested overall, including name brands.

Many contained what the magazine calls "worrisome levels of arsenic"' some products had up to five times higher levels than the arsenic found in oatmeal and one and a half times more than EPA's legal standard for drinking water.

The researchers also found geographical distinctions in arsenic levels, with white rice grown in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, containing higher levels than rice samples from other parts of the country. Those four states account for 76 percent of domestic rice produced.

Inorganic arsenic is considered a level one carcinogen, linked to lung and bladder cancer. Today, the FDA will announce it has concerns about rice and arsenic and is studying the issue, but in the meantime recommends a varied diet. Consumer Reports calls for more.

"Foods really shouldn't be any different and as we look at the levels we're finding in these products there needs to be a standard set for these foods already," Rangan said. "We called for that on apple juice in January, we're calling for that again in rice products today" referring to a January investigation of data released by the FDA of arsenic levels in apple and grape juice.

Surprisingly, when it comes to arsenic the less nutritional white rice is better than brown. The carcinogen is most prevalent in the outer layers of the grain and white rice is polished removing some of those layers.

Consumer Reports suggests rice eaters limit themselves to one serving a day, especially for babies. Rinsing and then boiling rice in a 6 to 1 water ratio removes about 30 percent of its arsenic. They also caution that children under the age of 5 should not be given rice drinks as part of their daily diet.

"We're not saying never do that," Michael Hansen, senior scientist on the Consumer Reports study said. "We're saying it should be very infrequent."

France Ups Embassy Security After Prophet Cartoons

France stepped up security at some of its embassies on Wednesday after a satirical Parisian weekly published crude caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The prime minister said he would block a demonstration by people angry over a movie insulting to Islam as the country plunged into a fierce debate about free speech.

The government defended the right of magazine Charlie Hebdo to publish the cartoons, which played off of the U.S.-produced film "The Innocence of Muslims," and riot police took up positions outside the offices of the magazine, which was firebombed last year after it released an edition that mocked radical Islam.

The amateurish movie, which portrays the prophet as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester, has set off violence in seven countries that has killed at least 28 people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

The French Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning Wednesday urging French people in the Muslim world to exercise "the greatest vigilance," avoiding all public gatherings and "sensitive buildings" such as those representing the West or religious sites.

Government authorities and Muslim leaders urged calm in France, which has western Europe's largest Muslim population.

"This is a disgraceful and hateful, useless and stupid provocation," Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Paris Mosque, told The Associated Press. "We are not like animals of Pavlov to react at each insult."

CFCM, an umbrella group for French Muslims, issued a statement French Muslims to "not cede to provocation and ... express their indignation in peace via legal means."

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said organizers of a demonstration planned for Saturday against "Innocence of Muslims" won't receive police authorization.

"There's no reason for us to let a conflict that doesn't concern France come into our country," Ayrault told French radio RTL.

Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation into an unauthorized protest last Saturday around the U.S. Embassy that drew about 150 people and led to scores of arrests.

The tensions surrounding the film are provoking debate in France about the limits of free speech.

The small-circulation weekly Charlie Hebdo often draws attention for ridiculing sensitivity around the Prophet Muhammad, and an investigation into the firebombing of its offices last year is still open. The magazine's website was down Wednesday for reasons that were unclear.

One of the cartoonists, who goes by the name of Tignous, defended the drawings in an interview Wednesday with the AP at the weekly's offices, on the northeast edge of Paris amid a cluster of housing projects.

"It's just a drawing," he said. "It's not a provocation."

The prime minister said freedom of expression is guaranteed in France, but cautioned that it "should be exercised with responsibility and respect."

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius defended freedom of expression, but warned that Charlie Hebdo could be throwing "oil on the fire" and said it's up to courts to decide whether the magazine went too far.

"Freedom of expression can be limited by court decisions. If there is a case of overstepping, it's up to individuals or groups to bring it to the courts, which will say whether the law ... was respected," he said after a Cabinet meeting.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Heads West

Space shuttle Endeavour embarked on its new life as a museum piece Wednesday, leaving behind its NASA home and heading west on the last ferry flight of its kind.

Bolted to the top of a jumbo jet, NASA's youngest shuttle departed Kennedy Space Center at sunrise on the first leg of its flight to California.

Hundreds of people ' astronauts, space center workers, tourists and journalists ' gathered at the runway to bid Endeavour farewell following two days of rain delays. Crowds also lined the nearby beaches as the shuttle swooped in and out of low clouds in one final show.

Onlookers waved, saluted, blew kisses and cheered as Endeavour made one last swoop over its old landing strip, and then aimed for the Gulf of Mexico.

"You know what? I am feeling a tremendous amount of pride," said astronaut Kay Hire, who flew aboard Endeavour two years ago.

Endeavour will make it as far as Houston on Wednesday. That's home to Mission Control and all the astronauts. Along the way, low flyovers were planned over Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where external fuel tanks were built during the 30-year shuttle program.

The shuttle is due to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday. In mid-October, it will be transported down city streets to the California Science Center.

If Endeavour couldn't remain anchored at the International Space Station, its main destination in recent years, then the science center is an ideal final stop, said astronaut Gregory Chamitoff. He will be on hand for Endeavour's arrival in Los Angeles.

Chamitoff grew up in California and flew to the space station in spring 2011 on Endeavour's final trip to orbit.

"I guess I didn't really know how I would feel until I woke up, and I think this is more exciting than it is sad for me," he said.

This is the last flight for a space shuttle. Atlantis will remain at Kennedy for display. Discovery is already at the Smithsonian Institution, parked at a hangar in Virginia since April.

Endeavour ' the replacement for the destroyed Challenger shuttle ' made its debut in 1992 and flew 25 times in space before retiring. It logged 123 million miles in space and circled Earth nearly 4,700 times.

The back-to-back delays in the ferry flight resulted in one day being cut from the Houston visit. The city was one of the bidders for a permanent shuttle exhibit, but had to settle for a mock-up from Kennedy. It lost out to New York City for the Enterprise, the shuttle prototype that was housed for years at the Smithsonian.

NASA retired its shuttle fleet last summer, under the direction of the White House, to spend more time and money on reaching destinations beyond low-Earth orbit. Asteroids and the planet Mars are on the space agency's radar for crewed missions.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission'pages/shuttle/main/index.html