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Former professional women's basketball player and Olympic gold medal winner Chamique Holdsclaw will have to take anger management classes after pleading guilty to charges that she shot into a player's car and smashed the windows with a baseball bat, prosecutors said on Saturday. Holdsclaw, 35, pleaded guilty on Friday to aggravated assault, criminal damage and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, prosecutors said. She will be on probation for the next three years.   The charges stem from a November 13 incident involving Holdsclaw and Jennifer Lacy, a player for the Tulsa Shock Women's National Basketball Association team. Lacy, who said Holdsclaw was her former girlfriend, was driving on a busy Atlanta street when she spotted Holdsclaw in a car behind her, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office said. When Lacy stopped her car, Holdsclaw, allegedly began striking the vehicle with a bat and shattered several windows. Holdsclaw then fired

One worker remained hospitalized on Saturday following an explosion at a Donaldsonville, Louisiana, nitrogen production plant on Friday that killed one worker and injured seven. CF Industries said one company employee is in stable condition at a local hospital while the other injured people, including CF workers and employees of the company's contractors, were released after being treated.   Killed in the incident was 56-year-old Ronald "Rocky" Morris Jr., who had worked at the company for 34 years. The accident occurred at about 6 p.m. on Friday in a section of the plant that had been shut down for maintenance activity, Frey said. A piece of equipment called a nitrogen distribution header ruptured during the off-loading of nitrogen from a truck. The company said the accident produced no fire or chemical release and did not pose any threat or hazard to the surrounding area. Donaldsonville is a small city on the Mississippi River about 60 miles northwest of New Orlea

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck on Saturday off the Pacific coast of the central American nation of Nicaragua, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage. _0"> "Thank God, so far we haven't heard of any damage," government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo told local television and radio stations. The quake, which was initially reported by the USGS as being magnitude 6.6, was felt as far away as El Salvador, according to a Reuters witness. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a tsunami warning but said there was no need for action. "Based on all available data a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii," it said. The USGS reported the quake's location at about 31 miles west of the Nicaraguan beach town of Masachapa.   (Reporting by Ivan Castro in Managua and Will Dunham in Washington; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Eric Walsh)

Crews battling a deadly wildfire that is the most destructive on record in Colorado have contained almost half of the 15,000-acre (6,070-hectare) blaze that has incinerated nearly 500 homes outside Colorado Springs, authorities said on Saturday. Cooler temperatures, calmer winds and a rainstorm that moved over the burn area on Friday allowed fire managers to increase the containment of the fire to 45 percent from 30 percent the day before.   "Last night, there was no growth and no more structures lost," incident commander Rich Harvey of the U.S. Forest Service told a news conference. But the number of homes confirmed destroyed by the so-called Black Forest Fire jumped to 473 overnight as assessment crews combed through areas that have cooled, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said. Maketa said the bulk of the homes were lost in the first 24 hours of the blaze, and voiced optimism the threat from the fire was diminishing. "I think we're getting the upper hand

Colombian police early on Saturday rescued two Spanish tourists held captive by a criminal gang for nearly a month in northern Colombia, finding them sleeping in hammocks, and two men collecting a ransom were arrested in Spain , police officials said. Maria Concepcion Marlaska, 43, and Angel Fernandez, 49, were seized on May 17 while traveling by car to the popular tourist destination of Cabo de la Vela on Colombia's northern peninsula. "They are free and in good health," Colonel Elber Velasco, commander of La Guajira province police, told reporters. "It was a lightning rescue that required very important intelligence, an operation that did not require the use of weapons." As part of a coordinated effort with Spanish authorities, a ransom worth 500,000 euros ($667,000) was paid in Madrid, General Humberto Guatibonza, head of Colombia's anti-kidnapping police, told reporters.   Spanish police later arrested the two bag-men, one Spanish and one from Syri

President Barack Obama does not believe the recently disclosed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance of phone records and Internet data has violated Americans' privacy rights, his chief of staff said on Sunday. _0"> Denis McDonough, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, also said he did not know the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who said he was the source of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post about the agency's monitoring of phone and Internet data at big companies such as Verizon Communications Inc, Google Inc and Facebook Inc.   The administration has said the top-secret collection of massive amounts of "metadata" from phone calls - raw information that does not identify individual telephone subscribers, was legal and authorized by Congress in the interests of thwarting militant attacks. It has said the agencies did not monitor calls. Asked whether Obama feels h

A fire at a sprawling downtown Indianapolis recycling plant, fueled by propane tanks and a massive stockpile of rubber tires, forced the evacuation of homes and businesses within a five-block radius on Saturday, officials said. The fire started Saturday afternoon at the two-story, three-block-long brick warehouse that houses Nationwide OTR Recyclers, police and fire officials said. The blaze caused more than half the building to collapse, said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Christopher Wilburn.   The building has a number of businesses, including the recycling plant, which houses 85,000 square feet (7,900 square meters) of rubber tires and 60,000 square feet (5,570 square meters) of wood palettes, as well a 500-gallon (1,900-liter) propane tank and a number of smaller tanks, Wilburn said. By Saturday night, the fire was contained to the south side of the building, and firefighters were working to keep the large propane tank cool so it would not explode, Indi

Two volcanoes are erupting on the Alaska Peninsula in the southwestern part of the state's mainland but the sputtering emissions of ash and lava at the different sites are unrelated, scientists said. Pavlof Volcano, an 8,261-foot (2,518-metre) peak located about 590 miles southwest of Anchorage, has been erupting sporadically since May 13. On Thursday, it was joined by 8,225-foot (2,507-metre) Veniaminof Volcano when that peak, about 100 miles to the northwest of Pavlof, began to erupt, according to a geologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Veniaminof, which is 485 miles southwest of Anchorage, has been spurting steam, ash and lava on a sporadic basis, according to the observatory. An ash plume was spotted at 12,000 feet on Thursday night, geologist Game McGimsey said on Saturday. The eruptions of the two volcanoes are coincidental, said McGimsey. Pavlof's eruptions, which at one point sent ash as high as 22,000 feet, forced cancellation of some regional flights lat

Now that Detroit's emergency manager has laid out a tough road that could include a bankruptcy filing for the city, the bondholders, pension managers and others with a stake in the outcome are left to assess his next steps while seeking to minimize any possible losses. Kevyn Orr faces a difficult task, for he must either coerce the financially troubled city's creditors into cutting a deal that would leave many with just pennies on the dollar, or file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, where his powers would be greater but the likelihood of long, costly litigation far higher. Rather than a corporate setting, the city's emergency manager is acting in a political realm where the interests of Detroit's citizens and even credit ratings throughout the state of Michigan may hang in the balance. There was a forceful start to negotiations with debtholders at a Detroit hotel on Friday, with the city represented by Orr saying it would stop making payments on some of its $18.5 billion

Republican Senator Marco Rubio said on Sunday he still supports a bill to overhaul the U.S. immigration, but reiterated that he wants its stipulations on border security to be tightened in order for the legislation to win approval from Congress. _0"> Rubio, one of the so-called Gang of Eight Republican and Democratic senators steering the bill, has been criticized by Conservative Republicans as being too soft and there have been concerns he could walk way from the legislation.   The lawmaker from Florida said on ABC's "This Week" program that the bill was about 96 percent ready but should include strong measures on border security to ensure there would not be another wave of illegal immigration in the future. "If we do that, this bill will have strong bipartisan support," Rubio said. Rubio said he did not believe the Senate would try to push the legislation through without toughening the language on border security. "If we fail, we're goi

Bulgaria's Socialist-led government said on Saturday it would reverse its appointment of a powerful media figure as head of state security just a day after rushing it through parliament, bowing to public outrage two weeks after taking power. _0"> About 8,000 people rallied in downtown Sofia for a second day, chanting "Mafia!" and "Resignation!". Legislators from the ruling Socialists and the allied ethnic Turkish MRF party had endorsed Delyan Peevski, also an MRF deputy, for the security chief post by a simple majority without debate on Friday. "We backed Peevski with the clear idea that we need a strong and decisive person who was able to open a front on organized crime and corruption ... But we hear the voice of the people and we will comply," the Socialist party said in a statement.   Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, whose alliance has a fragile position in parliament, said he would make a new nomination once legislators had reversed

A mortar attack on an Iranian dissident camp killed three people in Baghdad on Saturday, police sources said, and the Mujahidin-e-Khalq (MEK) group said Iran was probably to blame, with Iraqi complicity. _0"> MEK said two of the camp's residents were killed and 40 wounded in the attack. An Iraqi died when a stray mortar round hit a residential complex for Baghdad airport employees nearby.   A similar attack on the camp in February killed at least five members of the MEK, which was removed from the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations last year. MEK calls for the overthrow of Iran's clerical leaders and fought on Iraq's side during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. It is seeking to recast itself as a mainstream Iranian opposition force, but is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi'ite-led government that came to power after U.S.-led forces invaded and toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is close to Sh

Coalition partners of Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said they were considering whether they could stay in government with him on Saturday after a court ordered the detention of his close aide on corruption charges. A court in the eastern city of Ostrava ruled that Jana Nagyova, who had been in charge of Necas's office for years, be remanded in custody. Prosecutors allege she bribed politicians and illegally ordered intelligence agents to spy on people in whom she had a personal interest. After the court ruling, an official with TOP09, the bigger of two parties in coalition with Necas, said party leaders would meet on Saturday evening to decide what to do about staying in the coalition. Karolina Peake, leader of the second junior partner in the coalition, the small liberal party called LIDEM, told Reuters: "The situation is becoming more serious from hour to hour." Necas's office issued a statement saying Nagyova could no longer carry on in her job. But he said

The United States said on Saturday it would keep F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles in Jordan at Amman's request, and Russia bristled at the possibility they could be used to enforce a no-fly zone inside Syria. Washington, which has long called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, pledged military support to Syrian rebels this week, citing what it said was the Syrian military's use of chemical weapons - an allegation Damascus has denied.   Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved a Jordanian request for American F-16s and Patriot missiles to remain in the Western-backed kingdom after a joint military exercise there next week, a Pentagon spokesman said. Western diplomats said on Friday Washington was considering a limited no-fly zone over parts of Syria , but the White House noted later that it would be far harder and costlier to set one up there than it was in Libya, saying the United States had no national interest in pursuing that option. Russia, an ally of Da

Turkish riot police stormed an Istanbul park at the heart of two weeks of protest against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday, firing tear gas and water cannon and sending hundreds scurrying into surrounding streets. Lines of police backed by armored vehicles sealed off Taksim Square in the center of the city as officers stormed the adjoining Gezi Park, where protesters had been living in a ramshackle tent camp.   Erdogan had warned hours earlier that security forces would clear the square, the center of more than two weeks of fierce anti-government protests that spread to cities across Turkey , unless the demonstrators withdrew before a ruling party rally in Istanbul on Sunday. "We have our Istanbul rally tomorrow. I say it clearly: Taksim Square must be evacuated, otherwise this country's security forces know how to evacuate it," he told tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters at a rally in Ankara. A main public-sector union confederation, KESK, which ha

Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran's presidential election on Saturday with a resounding defeat of conservative hardliners, calling it a victory of moderation over extremism and pledging a new tone of respect in international affairs. Though thousands of jubilant Iranians poured onto the streets in celebration of the victory, the outcome will not soon transform Iran's tense relations with the West, resolve the row over its nuclear program or lessen its support of Syria's president in the civil war there - matters of national security that remain the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.   But the president runs the economy and wields broad influence in decision-making in other spheres. Rohani's resounding mandate could provide latitude for a diplomatic thaw with the West and more social freedoms at home after eight years of belligerence and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was legally barred from seeking a third consecutive term. &

President Barack Obama does not believe the recently disclosed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance of phone records and Internet data has violated Americans' privacy rights, his chief of staff said on Sunday. _0"> Denis McDonough, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, also said he did not know the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who said he was the source of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post about the agency's monitoring of phone and Internet data at big companies such as Verizon Communications Inc, Google Inc and Facebook Inc.   The administration has said the top-secret collection of massive amounts of "metadata" from phone calls - raw information that does not identify individual telephone subscribers, was legal and authorized by Congress in the interests of thwarting militant attacks. It has said the agencies did not monitor calls. Asked whether Obama feels h

When do you take the addict off the methadone? That's essentially the dilemma facing the U.S. Federal Reserve's 19 policy makers when they meet in Washington this week.   Since the height of the financial crisis in 2008, the U.S. economy and everyone with a stake in it have become hooked on the massive amounts of stimulus injected by the U.S. central bank. Now, though, consensus is building among policy makers that the time is nearing to adjust their $85 billion-a-month asset purchase program, dubbed quantitative easing, but divisions remain over just when to start reducing the dosage. In recent weeks, even the program's most ardent supporters, including Chairman Ben Bernanke, have begun signaling a willingness to dial back the pace of bond buying before too much longer. Meanwhile, those who have never liked it insist the moment has arrived and worry the Fed's grip on markets is weakening the longer the program remains in full force. "We haven't taken st

Kuwait's top court ordered the dissolution of parliament on Sunday and called for fresh elections, a ruling likely to herald fresh political volatility in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state. The Constitutional Court made its ruling after throwing out opposition challenges to changes to the electoral system decreed by the emir, hereditary ruler of the oil-exporting country, head judge Youssef al-Mutawa told reporters. Political stability in Kuwait, owner of more than six percent of global oil reserves, has traditionally depended on cooperation between the government and parliament, the oldest and most powerful legislature in the Gulf Arab states. The development is a blow to opposition politicians who boycotted a parliamentary election in December in protest at the electoral rules. The election was the fifth since 2006 and political upheaval has held up economic development and reforms.   "This verdict today is the worst decision," former opposition MP Waleed Tabtabie w

President Robert Mugabe accused political rivals of seeking to delay elections in Zimbabwe because they fear defeat, after regional leaders urged his ruling coalition to ask the courts to extend a July 31 deadline for holding the vote. His rivals said reforms to restrictive media and security laws were essential for any fair election to be held and that it was Mugabe's party that was not ready to go the polls.   Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader at 89, last week used a presidential decree to bypass parliament and fast-track changes to election laws and declare the voting date, drawing a sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. In a clear sign that Mugabe's ZANU-PF party would not give ground on reforms, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa denied any need for either media or security reforms demanded by the MDC party of Tsvangirai, the president's arch-rival. Tsvangirai has previously said Mugabe should approach the courts to extend the election deadline. Mu

Swiss President Ueli Maurer said on Sunday he doubted Edward Snowden's claims about his activities as a CIA man in Geneva and would back a criminal investigation into the secrets leaker if Swiss prosecutors called for one. _0"> Ex-CIA operative Snowden broke cover in spectacular fashion earlier this month, unmasking himself as the source of leaks about U.S. government surveillance programs.   He had previously worked in the U.S. mission to the United Nations in Geneva between 2007 and 2009. He told the Guardian newspaper that he had a "formative" experience in the Swiss city when the CIA deliberately got a Swiss banker drunk and encouraged him to drive home. When he was arrested, a CIA operative offered to intervene and later recruited the banker. "It does not seem to me that it is likely that this incident played out as it has been described by Snowden and by the media," Maurer was quoted as saying in the Der Sonntag and SonntagsBlick newspapers.