Florida - A convicted sex offender awaiting execution for kidnapping, raping and burying 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford alive in 2005, died of natural causes  in Florida. John Evander Couey, 51, had been ill for some time and died in a Jacksonville hospital where he had been since Aug. 12, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.  More…

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China - Everyone in the mountain commune in Kunming, southern China, must be under 4ft 3 inches tall and they run their own police force and fire brigade from their 120 residents. Now the group has turned itself into a tourist attraction by building mushroom houses and living and dressing like fairy tale characters.  Here there aren’t any big people and everything we do is for us,” said spokesman Fu Tien.  More…

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California -  Whoopi Goldberg is facing a fierce backlash after saying that film director Roman Polanski didn’t commit “rape-rape” when he had unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. More than 100 film industry figures have now signed a petition calling for the release of Polanski, the acclaimed director of Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and The Pianist. They include leading Hollywood figures Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci. One celebrity supporter, the actress Debra Winger, said it was a “three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by him.  More… 

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Muncie, Indiana - A small plane crashed outside Muncie, Indiana, as military F-16s trailed it after its pilot failed to respond to radio calls, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. The plane crashed into a farm field in Randolph County, Indiana, officials said. There were no reports that anyone on the ground was hurt. The pilot was the only one on board the single-propeller, four-seater plane. The incident was not believed to be terrorism-related and may be a medical situation, officials said.  More…

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Washington DC - Setting the stage for a dramatic battle over gun rights, the Supreme Court  accepted an appeal challenging the ability of state and local governments to enforce strict limits on handguns and other weapons. At issue is whether the constitutional “right of the people to keep and bear arms” applies to local gun control ordinances, or only to federal restrictions. The appeal was filed by a community activist in Chicago who sought a handgun for protection from gangs.  More…

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Washington DC - One floor below where congress works in the  U.S. Capitol is  an elaborate Navy medical clinic — described by those who have seen it as something akin to a modern community hospital — will be standing by, on-call and ready to provide Congress with some of the country’s best and most efficient government-run health care. Members pay a flat, annual fee of $503 for all the care they receive. The rest of the cost of their care is subsidized by taxpayers. More…

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Dallas, Texas - In an age when smoking has been outlawed in most public places - government buildings, bars and pool halls - a person’s home is one of the few places you can puff in peace. Until now. A Dallas woman has filed a lawsuit seeking six figures from a former neighbor and landlord for damage she says was caused by cigarette smoke wafting through adjoining walls of her high-end townhome.  More…

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TUCSON, Arizona  - The University of Arizona says it will no longer cite students for criminal damage for using chalk to mark on sidewalks. The policy shift was prompted by the arrests of two university students who used chalk during a rally protesting cuts to public education last week. The arrests sparked more protests across campus, with students distributing thousands of chalk sticks in a show of solidarity.  More…

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