PASADENA, Calif. – The international Cassini spacecraft has beamed back to Earth never-before-seen angles of Saturn from high above and below its majestic rings. The planet is fully surrounded by the rings in images released Thursday by NASA. “Finally, here are the views that we’ve waited years for,” said Cassini scientist Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. The $3.3 billion Cassini mission was launched in 1997. The images are available online at: tinyurl.com/2uj6m.
D.C.: CIA leak trial deliberations
Jurors in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby still have work to do and expect to deliberate into next week. Attorneys in the case were summoned to a 4:30 p.m. hearing Thursday with U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton after jurors asked Walton to leave early today for the weekend. “We the jury respectfully request to be excused at 2 p.m. on Friday, March 2 to attend to personal, professional and medical obligations that can’t be addressed during our weekend,” jurors wrote. Walton granted the request.
South Carolina: School-sex charges
A middle-school teacher accused of having sex with at least five boys was fired and remained in jail Thursday after she refused to speak with police about the charges, authorities said. Police began investigating Allenna Williams Ward, 23, after school officials in Clinton recovered a note containing inappropriate messages, police said. Ward, who is married, had sexual encounters in the past three months with the 14- and 15-year-old boys at the school, at a motel, in a park and behind a restaurant, according to arrest warrants.
New York: More restaurants close
A major owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell franchises saw a majority of its New York City restaurants shut down Thursday as the fallout continued from a video showing rats overrunning one of its Manhattan eateries. The city’s health department revealed that three more restaurants owned by the ADF Cos., of Fairfield, N.J., were closed by inspectors this week because of unsanitary conditions. Two, both in Queens, were found to be infested with mice. The decade-old company owns more than 350 fast-food restaurants in several states.
North Dakota: Living-in-sin law
Unmarried couples who live together in North Dakota will no longer be considered criminals after the House agreed Thursday to repeal the law that has been on books since statehood. The legislation was headed to the governor, who was expected to sign it, his spokesman said. Representatives voted 48-41 to get rid of the law that lists a man and woman living together without being married as a sex crime, along with rape, incest and adultery. Attempts to get rid of the law failed in the past two legislative sessions.
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