Kennedy out of brain tumor surgery
DURHAM, N.C., June 2 (UPI) -- Doctors at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina have completed brain surgery on U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, medical officials said Monday.
"I am pleased to report that Senator Kennedy's surgery was successful and accomplished our goals," Dr. Allen Friedman, who led the surgical team, said on the medical center's Web site. "Senator Kennedy was awake during the resection, and should therefore experience no permanent neurological effects from the surgery."
The surgery lasted about 3 1/2 hours "and is just the first step in Senator Kennedy's treatment plan," the surgeon said.
Kennedy's office earlier Monday said the senator would undergo the surgery at the Durham, N.C., facility, known as a leader in brain tumor surgery. He is expected to be hospitalized for about a week, then return to Massachusetts for radiation and chemotherapy treatments at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"After completing treatment, I look forward to returning to the United States Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect (Sen.) Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as our next president," Kennedy said in a statement issued before the surgery.
Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May after he was hospitalized following a seizure.
Human rights group: U.S. used prison ships
LONDON, June 2 (UPI) -- Human rights activists say the United States has established a system of "floating prisons" on military ships to secretly hold terrorism suspects.
The human rights group Reprieve also says there have been 200 new cases of "extraordinary rendition," or the abduction of terror suspects to secret prisons, since 2006 when President George Bush said the practice had ended, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Monday.
The United States has used as many as 17 ships to house terror suspects away from the view of the rest of the world, where they are interrogated and often then taken to other undisclosed locations, Reprieve charges in a report set to published this year, the newspaper said.
The human rights group reportedly gathered its information from statements made by the U.S. military, the Council of Europe, other European parliamentary bodies and prison testimonies.
Reprieve contends men thought to be with the FBI or CIA last year conducted a "systematic" rendition program against alleged al-Qaida operatives, assisted by Kenyan, Somali and Ethiopian forces, that involved the USS Ashland, which was stationed off Somalia at the time.
U.S. intensifies search for 'traitor'
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 2 (UPI) -- U.S. officials say they are ramping up efforts to track down a top al-Qaida lieutenant, from Orange County, Calif., who has been charged with treason.
Known as Azzam the American, Adam Gadahn is the first U.S. citizen since World War II to be charged with treason, and the State Department has initiated a publicity campaign in Afghanistan offering a $1 million reward for information that leads to his capture, ABC reported Monday.
The network said Gadahn, a former heavy metal music fan who converted to Islam as a teenager, is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan and serving as a top aide to Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's second-in-command to Osama bin Laden. U.S. officials say Gadahn is one of the terror network's top propagandists and frequently appears in videos issuing threats to America.
Radio advertisements publicizing the big reward have begun airing in the country and printed materials including matchbooks and posters are being readied for distribution throughout Afghanistan in hopes of generating leads as to Gadahn's whereabouts, ABC reported.
Court narrows money laundering charge
WASHINGTON, June 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday in a Texas case that just hiding money in transport does not violate a section of the U.S. money laundering law.
Humberto Regalado Cuellar was driving toward the Mexican border in south Texas when he was stopped for driving erratically. A police officer asked for and got permission to search the car when the driver produced a wad of money from his shirt that smelled of marijuana, court records say.
Police found nearly $81,000 in plastic bags covered with animal hair in a secret compartment under the rear floorboard. Regalado Cuellar was charged with trying to take funds outside the United States knowing the funds represented the proceeds of unlawful activity, and that the transport was designed to conceal the nature and source of the funds.
A federal appeals court upheld his conviction, but the Supreme Court reversed.
Writing for the court, Justice Clarence Thomas said the evidence did not show Regalado Cuellar had tried to disguise the nature and origin of the money.
Bush awards Medal of Honor posthumously
WASHINGTON, June 2 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush Monday awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to a soldier who died in Iraq trying to save his comrades from a grenade.
"The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest military distinction; it is given for valor beyond anything that duty could require or a superior could command," Bush said, before presenting the medal to Army hero Spc. Ross A. McGinnis' father and mother during the ceremony.
McGinnis was 19 years old when he died Dec. 4, 2006, in northeastern Baghdad. While traveling in a Humvee, McGinnis used his body to absorb the effects of a grenade tossed into the vehicle. Four other soldiers were saved.
"In that split-second decision, Pvt. McGinnis lost his own life and he saved his comrades," Bush said.
McGinnis enlisted at age 17 June 14, 2004. When he died, McGinnis was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, in Schweinfurt, Germany. He was promoted to specialist posthumously.
McGinnis' family received their son's Silver Star and Purple Heart medals in December 2006 at a memorial service in their hometown of Knox, Pa., about 60 miles from of Pittsburgh.
