Al-Qaida deputy criticizes Obama
WASHINGTON, June 2 (UPI) -- An audio message attributed to al-Qaida's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and released Tuesday called U.S. President Barack Obama a criminal.
The 10-minute recording posted on a Web site linked to the terrorist organization, which had yet to be verified as being from al-Zawahiri, came the day before Obama heads to Egypt for a key speech on U.S.-Middle East relations.
The BBC reported al-Zawahiri called Obama "that criminal who came seeking, with deception, to obtain what he failed to achieve on the ground after the mujaheddin ruined the project of the Crusader America in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia."
He also lashed out at Egyptian officials who will greet Obama, labeling them "slaves" who have turned Egypt into an "international station of torture in America's war on Islam."
The U.S. network CNN reported al-Zawahiri as saying the American leader showed himself to be an enemy of Muslims by his recent visit to Israel.
"His bloody messages were received and they are still coming and they will not be obstructed either by the public relations campaigns, the shenanigan visits or the articulate words," al-Zawahiri said.
Man charged in abortion doctor slaying
WICHITA, Kan., June 2 (UPI) -- Scott Roeder, the man suspected of killing a Wichita, Kan., abortion doctor, made his first court appearance Tuesday from jail via closed-circuit TV.
Roeder, 51, was charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault in the Sunday slaying of Dr. George Tiller, The Wichita Eagle reported.
The suspect, who wore a red jail jumpsuit and shackles during his appearance, also is to have no contact with two men he allegedly pointed a gun at after shooting Tiller while he was at church, Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess ordered.
Roeder requested a lawyer and will be assigned a public defender, the newspaper said. His next court appearance is set for June 16 when a preliminary hearing will be held.
Roeder's ex-wife says he spent an unusual amount of time with his grown son before the shooting.
"In hindsight, my son said, 'He was saying goodbye to me,'" the Kansas City Star reported Lindsey Roeder as saying about her former husband.
She said it was very unusual for Roeder to break his Old Testament Christian beliefs of keeping the Sabbath from Friday night through Saturday. But last weekend he made an exception to be with his 22-year-old son, taking him to see the movie "Star Trek" and seemingly wanting to linger with him.
Police say they used a license plate number provided by witnesses to track down the man suspected of shooting Tiller in the face while the doctor served as an usher during a Lutheran church service, arresting Roeder about four hours later, the newspaper said.
Lindsey Roeder said her ex-husband began to change in the early 1990s after "someone told him that paying income taxes isn't constitutional. ... From there, things just started like a snowball."
Air France wreckage spotted in Atlantic
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 2 (UPI) -- Brazilian officials confirmed Tuesday that debris spotted in the Atlantic Ocean is wreckage from missing Air France Flight 447.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said no survivors were found, CNN reported.
The Airbus A330 was headed from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 216 passengers and 12 crew members on board when it encountered heavy turbulence and disappeared from radar early Monday. Floating objects, including an airplane seat and an orange life vest were spotted Tuesday about 400 miles northeast of the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha.
A French commercial vessel arrived on the scene Tuesday and confirmed the wreckage. CNN said a Brazilian Navy ship is expected to arrive Wednesday.
While the majority of the passengers were from Brazil, France and Germany, 29 other countries were represented on the passenger list -- including two passengers from the United States, CNN said.
Among the passengers was Prince Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, 26, a member of Brazil's non-reigning royal family, and two executives of French tire company Michelin. A Michelin spokeswoman identified the officials as Luiz Roberto Anastacio, president of Michelin Latin America, and Antonio Gueiros, director of informatics.
Search crews will try to locate the cockpit voice and data recorders to determine the cause of the crash.The Airbus A33O's automatic system initiated a series of messages with the company's maintenance computer just before it disappeared Monday, indicating several pieces of aircraft equipment had broken down, Air France Chief Executive Officer Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told CNN.
U.S.-based AccuWeather.com said updrafts from thunderstorms near Fernando De Noronha may have reached up to 100 mph, which would lead to severe turbulence for the aircraft. Meteorologists said the stormy conditions could have played a role in the plane's structural or electrical failure.
Gitmo detainee's death said to be suicide
MIAMI, June 2 (UPI) -- U.S. military officials said Tuesday a prisoner at the detention center for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appeared to have committed suicide.
The detainee was identified in a statement by the Pentagon's Southern Command in Miami as Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, 31, of Yemen, The New York Times reported.
Salih, who also went by the name Al Hanashi, apparently killed himself late Monday, but military officials didn't reveal the means. Guards conducting a routine check "found the detainee unresponsive and not breathing," the statement said. Extensive efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, the military said.
Salih, who had been held at Guantanamo since 2002, was the first inmate death at the prison since President Barack Obama took office in January and the sixth overall, the Times said. Obama has said he intends to shut down the facility in January.
An investigation into the death was being conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, a spokeswoman for the detention facility told the newspaper.
