Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released without bail today as prosecutors presented evidence that undermines the victim's credibility. Documents submitted by prosecutors show that she: admitted to lying to a grand jury about what she did immediately after the alleged sexual assault, lied about having been gang-raped in Guinea to seek political asylum, and falsely claimed someone else's child as her dependent on her tax forms. The charges currently stand.
"Twelve jurors and four alternates were picked Thursday to hear the case against five current or former police officers charged in the deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a bridge in Hurricane Katrina's chaotic aftermath.
Opening statements for the federal trial — the centerpiece of a sprawling Justice Department probe of alleged police misconduct in New Orleans — were scheduled to start Monday.
The jury of seven men and five women was selected from a pool of roughly 70 people after two days of questioning, mostly behind closed doors.
Five former officers already have pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up involving the fatal shootings of two people and wounding of four others on the Danziger Bridge after the 2005 storm's landfall.
Four other officers were indicted last year on charges stemming from the shootings, while two police investigators were charged in the alleged cover-up.
One officer is accused of fatally shooting a mentally disabled man, 40-year-old Ronald Madison, in the back on the west side of the bridge before a sergeant stomped on him. Prosecutors say the same sergeant, armed with an assault rifle, fired on wounded and unarmed people lying on the ground. Seventeen-year-old James Brissette was shot and killed on the east side of the bridge.
All of the officers on trial are accused of participating in a cover-up that allegedly included a plot to plant a gun, fabricate witnesses and falsify reports."
NBC Report including original NBC footage of event:
Over the past 14 years, I’ve graduated from high school and college and built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country. On the surface, I’ve created a good life. I’ve lived the American dream.
But I am still an undocumented immigrant. And that means living a different kind of reality. It means going about my day in fear of being found out. It means rarely trusting people, even those closest to me, with who I really am. It means keeping my family photos in a shoebox rather than displaying them on shelves in my home, so friends don’t ask about them. It means reluctantly, even painfully, doing things I know are wrong and unlawful. And it has meant relying on a sort of 21st-century underground railroad of supporters, people who took an interest in my future and took risks for me.
Last year I read about four students who walked from Miami to Washington to lobby for the Dream Act, a nearly decade-old immigration bill that would provide a path to legal permanent residency for young people who have been educated in this country. At the risk of deportation — the Obama administration has deported almost 800,000 people in the last two years — they are speaking out. Their courage has inspired me.
There are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. We’re not always who you think we are. Some pick your strawberries or care for your children. Some are in high school or college. And some, it turns out, write news articles you might read. I grew up here. This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own.
Citing recent victories against Al-Qaeda and a "position of strength" enjoyed by US forces in Afghanistan, US President Barack Obama announced that beginning in July, troops would begin withdrawing from Afghanistan.
He said that 10,000 US troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of this year, and 33,000 by the end of next summer, depleting Obama's 2009 "surge." Troops would continue to leave Afghanistan "steadily" until the completed transition to Afghan security forces would be complete by 2014.
Suspected drug cartel leader Jesus Mendez Vargas was arrested by Mexico federal authorities in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes. Vargas is believed to be the head of the notorious cartel La Familia, and is known by "El Chango" or "the monkey".
