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The U.S. government's growing acceptance of commercial military satellites is opening the $20 billion-a-year market to new companies and forcing big arms makers such as Lockheed Martin and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Boeing to change how they operate. U.S. officials are trying to boost security of U.S. military and intelligence satellites, with an eye on risks from space debris and the proliferation of space-faring countries that could target U.S. satellites in a war. Officials hope the booming commercial satellite market can help the government obtain simpler and cheaper satellites, lower the cost of launching and create more options in other areas. After years of talk, U.S. budget cuts and changes in technology have started to alter a market long dominated by big contractors like Lockheed. "The space market is changing dramatically," said Henry Obering, senior vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton and former Missile Defense Agency director. "T

The Colorado judge presiding over the case of James Holmes, the man charged with mass murder in the shooting deaths of 12 people in a movie theater, ruled on Friday it was premature to consider moving the trial to another jurisdiction. Last month, defense lawyers filed a motion seeking a change of venue, saying it would be impossible to seat an impartial jury locally due to pervasive media coverage of the shooting rampage, including evidence ruled inadmissible at trial. While acknowledging that "publicity surrounding this case has been ubiquitous," Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour said he would defer ruling on whether to move the trial until lawyers question potential jurors. Jury selection is set to begin in October for the trial of Holmes, 26, who is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the July 2012 shooting spree at a cinema in the Denver suburb of Aurora during a midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark

A small airplane crashed while making a landing approach on Friday outside the southwestern New Mexico town of Silver City, killing all four people aboard and sparking a grass fire that prompted the evacuation of a nearby mobile home park. _0"> Nobody on the ground was hurt in the accident, which occurred shortly before 4 p.m. at the Whiskey Creek Airport east of Silver City, home of Western New class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Mexico University, state police spokesman Sergeant Damyan Brown said. A propane tank adjacent to the airport exploded when the plane slammed into it, touching off the grass fire. Authorities evacuated the adjacent trailer park as a precaution, Brown said. The pilot and three other people aboard the plane all died, but their identities were not immediately available, he said. The cause of the crash was under investigation. (Reporting by Joe Kolb; Editing by Steve Gorman and Ron Popeski )

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he would not press during his term as Boy Scouts of America president for an end to the group's ban on gay adult leaders for fear of causing permanent damage to the century old organization. Gates, who helped end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that barred gays from serving openly in the U.S. military while he was defense secretary, said he strongly supported the Boy Scouts vote last year to lift its ban on gay youth members. He also said he personally supported going further, but would oppose efforts to reopen the issue in his two years as president. His selection had fueled speculation that Gates would seek to end the ban on gay adult scout leaders. "Given the strong feelings - the passion - involved on both sides of this matter, I believe strongly that to reopen the membership issue or try to take last year's decision to the next step would irreparably fracture and perhaps even provoke a fo

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, banned from the NBA for racist remarks, has handed controlling interest in his team to his wife, the co-owner, and she is negotiating with the league to sell the club, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Friday. National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver said this week he would prefer to let the Sterlings sell the team "on a reasonable timetable" rather than proceed with trying to forcibly terminate their ownership. Donald Sterling, controlling owner of the Clippers for 33 years, came under fire four weeks ago when TMZ.com posted an audio recording of him berating a female friend for publicly associating with black people, including NBA great Earvin "Magic" Johnson. His comments sparked widespread outrage from fans and NBA players and led several commercial sponsors to sever ties with the team. In response, Silver declared Sterling banned from the NBA for life and called on the 29 other tea

Flames engulfed a warehouse outside of Atlanta late on Friday, prompting an evacuation of nearby businesses, but firefighters kept the blaze from spreading to other structures, and no injuries were reported, emergency management officials said. _0"> The fire erupted at about 8:30 p.m. local time in the warehouse of Amrep, a chemical supply company in a small industrial park off Cobb Parkway in Marietta, about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta, the state capital. A dispatcher for Cobb County emergency communications said there were no homes close enough to be threatened by the blaze and that despite the presence of some chemicals stored in the warehouse, the fire posed no environmental hazard to the area. Neel Patel, the night desk manager at the Sun Inn, a small hotel a quarter-mile southwest of the fire, told Reuters he saw flames shooting about 40 feet into the air from the fire, the biggest he has seen in 20 years of working in the area. "There were several large fire

A California mother was charged on Friday with first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of her three daughters - all younger than 3 years of age - at their home in a working-class suburb of Los Angeles, prosecutors said. _0"> Carol Ann Coronado, 30, was arrested on Tuesday evening after police were called to the home by relatives who found her lying on a bed covered in blood beside the bodies of the three girls, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Coronado, who also was charged with attempted murder of her own mother, was taken to a hospital after her arrest to be treated for self-inflicted stab wounds, the sheriff's office said. Authorities have not said if Coronado's mother was actually injured by her daughter and have revealed few other details except to say that the three girls were killed with a knife, and that they ranged in age from about 2 months to 3 years old. The Los Angeles Times, citing accounts of relatives, has reported t