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Daredevil Nik Wallenda completed a historic high-wire walk on a 2-inch (5-cm) steel cable over the Grand Canyon on Sunday and was greeted by wild cheers after his hair-raising stunt. Wallenda, the self-described "King of the High Wire," took 22 minutes and 54 seconds to walk 1,400 feet across the crimson-hued canyon with just a distant ribbon of the Little Colorado River beneath him. The event was broadcast live around the world.   Wallenda, the first person to cross the canyon, made the walk without a tether or safety net. Wallenda could be heard praying almost constantly during the walk, murmuring "Thank you, Jesus." He kissed the ground when he reached the other side. "It took every bit of me to stay focused that entire time," Wallenda said. "My arms are aching like you wouldn't believe." He said he stopped and crouched down twice, first because of the wind, the second because the cable had picked up an unsettling rhythm. He spat o

The jury in the murder and racketeering trial of accused mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger will hear on Monday from a former FBI supervisor who admitted he and another agent used to swap secrets with the notorious Winter Hill Gang. John Morris, who supervised the Federal Bureau of Investigation's local organized crime squad during the Winter Hill's bloody rampage in Boston in the 1970s and '80s, helped its members elude arrest and silence so-called rats, threatening to implicate them in crimes.   Prosecutors will now call him to testify against Bulger, 83, who is accused of killing or ordering the murders of 19 people while at the helm of the gang as it ran extortion and gambling rings, and settled scores. The accused gangster's story has captured Boston's imagination for decades and inspired the Academy Award-winning 2006 film "The Departed." On Friday, jurors got their first inside glimpse of the FBI's reported double-dealings with membe

Neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin simply because "he wanted to," because he was an armed vigilante, and because he viewed the 17-year-old whom he'd never met as just another "punk," a prosecutor said in opening statements to the jury in a trial that promises to raise thorny issues of race and gun rights. In a case that centers on a shooting that occurred without a clear eyewitness on a rainy, dark night more than a year ago, prosecutor John Guy sought to cut through doubts surrounding the incident in a fiery 30-minute opening statement that branded Zimmerman as the aggressor for the six jurors who will decide the case. As the second-degree murder trial opened in earnest after two weeks of jury selection and evidentiary rulings, the prosecutor began by bluntly quoting from Zimmerman's call to a police dispatcher after first spotting the unarmed, black teen. "'Fucking punks. These assholes, they always get away',&quo

The United States on Monday increased pressure on Russia to hand over Edward Snowden, the American charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, and said it believed he was still in Moscow despite reports he was leaving for Cuba . Earlier Snowden, until recently a contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency, had been expected to fly to Havana from Moscow, perhaps on the way to Ecuador, but he was not seen on the plane and Russian officials declined to say where he was.   The U.S. State Department said diplomats and Justice Department officials were engaged in discussions with Russia , suggesting they were looking for a deal to secure his return. "Given our intensified cooperation working with Russia on law enforcement matters ... we hope that the Russian government will look at all available options to return Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged," spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters. Snowden flew t

A Colorado school district discriminated against a 6-year-old transgender girl when it barred her from using the girls' lavatory, according to a report by the state's civil rights division released by the family's attorney on Sunday. Coy Mathis, who was born male but has identified as a female since an early age, attended Eagleside Elementary School, south of Colorado Springs, as a girl since kindergarten.   She was allowed to use the girls' restroom until late 2012, when the principal informed the parents that Coy would have to use the boys' restroom or a gender-neutral staff lavatory. Her parents withdrew Coy from the school. In February, they filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division. The division's report, signed by its director, Steven Chavez, said the Fountain-Fort Carson School District violated a state law that extends protections to transgender people. "Given the evolving research into the development of transgender persons,

The United States said on Saturday it wants Hong Kong to extradite Edward Snowden and urged it to act quickly, paving the way for what could be a lengthy legal battle to prosecute the former National Security Agency contractor on espionage charges. Legal sources say Snowden, who is believed to be hiding in Hong Kong, has sought legal representation from human rights lawyers since leaking details about secret U.S. surveillance activities to news media.   "If Hong Kong doesn't act soon, it will complicate our bilateral relations and raise questions about Hong Kong's commitment to the rule of law," a senior Obama administration official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told CBS News the United States had a "good case" to bring Snowden back to America to face trial and expected Hong Kong to comply with its extradition treaty. "We have gone to the Hong Kong authorities seeking extradition of S

The governor of Egypt's Luxor province, controversially appointed despite belonging to a hardline Islamist group that massacred 58 tourists in Luxor in 1997, will step down on Sunday "for the sake of Egypt", the group said. President Mohamed Mursi of the moderate Islamist Muslim Brotherhood infuriated many last Monday with his appointment of Adel Mohamed al-Khayat, reaching out for a political alliance with the more radical al-Gamaa al-Islamiya ahead of a big wave of opposition-led protests expected to start on June 30.   But al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, which has renounced violence, appeared to want to show that it could put Egypt's needs first - especially the tourist industry, a mainstay of the economy that has suffered badly in two years of unrest. Safwat Abdel Ghani, one of the group's leaders, was quoted by the state-owned Al-Ahram news website as saying the governor would announce his resignation on Sunday. Sources in the cabinet and the presidency said they