Iran says it posted video from U.S. drone
TEHRAN, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Iranian officials say they deciphered video from a U.S. drone it downed more than a year ago and posted the footage on YouTube.
The footage Iran claims was from a RQ-170 spy plane was broadcast by Iranian news agencies before it was posted to YouTube, CNN reported Thursday.
The footage is narrated by a man identified as Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
"This aircraft has carried out many operations in the countries around Iran," the voiceover said, explaining that some of the footage shows the drone near Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan.
CNN said it could not authenticate the video independently. It said it could not immediately contact the Pentagon for comment.
Iran said it downed the drone Dec. 4, 2011, near Kashmar, about 140 miles from the country's border with Afghanistan. At the time, U.S. officials said the drone was missing and President Obama asked Iran to return it.
Iran's claim comes as the U.S. drone program is being debated in Washington. John Brennan, Obama's nominee to lead the CIA, was an architect of drone operations against al-Qaida and its allies during the last four years.
Majority say standard of living improving
PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A majority of Americans say their standard of living is improving but slightly more than a quarter said their standard of living was worsening, Gallup said.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans said their standard of living was getting better, results released Thursday of Gallup Daily tracking for a three-day period ending Monday indicated.
Gallup said the percentage tied the highest three-day reading since it began asking the question in January 2008.
Twenty-seven percent say their standard of living was getting worse and 15 percent said it was the same, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.
Sixty-one percent of Democrats and independents who lean Democratic said their standard of living is improving, compared with 39 percent of Republicans and those leaning Republican saying the same, Gallup said.
Forty-one percent of Republicans and those leaning Republican said their standard of living was worsening, while 22 percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic said the same.
Eight in 10 young adults in the 18-to-29 age group expressed optimism about their standard of living, Gallup said. The polling agency said standard-of-living optimism fell with age -- 56 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds said their standard of living was improving, a view expressed by 41 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds and 28 percent of people 65 years or older.
Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,536 adults conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking Friday through Monday. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
U.S. asks judge to decide Bulger immunity
BOSTON, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Gangster James "Whitey" Bulger's claims he paid FBI agents for information but was never an informant prove he doesn't have immunity, say federal prosecutors.
Whether Bulger has immunity is a crucial question as he awaits trial in June on charges he participated in 19 murders, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
In a filing in federal court late Wednesday, prosecutors revealed a jailhouse telephone conversation Bulger had with his brother John in September 2012.
"I bought [expletive] information, I didn't sell it," the 83-year-old Bulger said. "I never gave them [expletive] information. Nothin'. Nothin.'"
Prosecutors want a judge to rule on Bulger's claim he was granted immunity for all his crimes by a former federal prosecutor who died in 2009. Bulger wants a jury to determine his immunity during his trial.
The jailhouse conversation proves Bulger didn't have immunity, prosecutors argue, because if he did he wouldn't have had to pay off FBI agents.
Bulger was captured in Santa Monica in June 2011 after being on the run for more than 16 years.
He fled just before being indicted in 1995 after being tipped off by a now-imprisoned former FBI agent, John J. Connolly, Jr.
Search on for ex-cop suspected in 3 deaths
IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A manhunt was under way Thursday for a former Los Angeles police officer suspected of shooting three police officers, one fatally, officials said.
The suspect, Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, published a manifesto online, in which he threatened to harm police officials and their families, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The former officer also is a suspect in the weekend slayings of a couple in Irvine.
Officials said Dorner, a 6-foot African-American weighing about 270 pounds, is considered armed and dangerous.
Sources told the Times police deployed security personnel at the homes of LAPD officials named in the manifesto and said they believe Dorner has numerous weapons.
The three shootings Thursday occurred in Riverside County, law enforcement officials said.
Officials said one LAPD officer was wounded in the Corona area. Two Riverside police officers were shot in Riverside, one fatally, law enforcement sources said.
In the online manifesto, Dorner named the father of Monica Quan, the California State University-Fullerton assistant basketball coach found dead Sunday, along with her fiance, Keith Lawrence.
Her father, retired LAPD Capt. Randy Quan, was part of the review that led to Dorner's dismissal in 2009 for allegedly lying about his training officer.
