U.S. aid worker murdered in Jordan remembered

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Laurence M. Foley, the U.S. aid worker killed in a possible terrorist attack in Jordan, was remembered Saturday as a big, boisterous man whose humor and mischievous charm won him and his country countless friends.

About 250 people attended a memorial service at a Unitarian Universalist church outside Washington that was marked by more laughter than tears and more talk of his zest for life than his violent death.

Foley, 60, was shot at close range Monday in front of his home in Amman. The gunman escaped. No arrests have been made, but Islamic extremists are suspected.

Before his Jordan assignment, Foley had postings in the Philippines, Bolivia, Peru and Zimbabwe for the U.S. Agency for International Development and, previously, for the Peace Corps.

Jury recommends death penalty in barrel case

OLATHE, Kan. -- Jurors recommended the death penalty Saturday for a man convicted of killing three women, including two whose bodies were found in barrels on his rural property.

John Robinson Sr. was convicted Tuesday of two counts of capital murder in the deaths of the two women -- with whom prosecutors say he had sadomasochistic sexual relationships -- and one count of first-degree murder in the case of a woman whose body was never found.

Robinson sat rocking in his chair with his hand on his face but showed little emotion as the verdict was read.

Judge John Anderson III will formally sentence Robinson in a few months.

Canadian writer cancels tour, cites racial profiling

SALT LAKE CITY -- One of Canada's most celebrated writers canceled a book tour after complaining of racial profiling at U.S. airports.

Novelist Rohinton Mistry, a native of India living in Canada, canceled midway through his U.S. book tour, citing the "unbearable" humiliation of being searched at U.S. airports.

Mistry canceled stops in Salt Lake City, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Iowa City, Iowa, and Madison, Wis., according to a Saturday report in The Globe and Mail, one of Canada's two national daily papers.

"As a person of color he was stopped repeatedly and rudely at each airport along the way -- to the point where the humiliation to him and his wife (with whom he has been traveling) has become unbearable," said a statement from Mistry's publicist.

Sharpton calls for release of Haitian migrants

MIAMI -- The Rev. Al Sharpton called the treatment of more than 200 Haitian migrants detained in South Florida a "moral outrage" Saturday, and pledged to organize rallies and marches to demand their release.

A boat carrying over 200 Haitians reached Florida shores last week. Dozens of men, women and children on board the wooden freighter plunged into shallow waters and scrambled onto a major highway.

"We are here because we think it is a moral outrage, what occurred off the shore of Miami last week," Sharpton said. "This is a human rights issue, not an immigration issue."

L.A. needs downsizing, say initiative backers

LOS ANGELES -- It sprawls across a geographic mass 10 times the size of San Francisco, with nearly five times the population.

Some residents say Los Angeles has become too big and unmanageable. On Tuesday, they'll try to break the nation's second most populous city apart using ballot initiatives that ask voters to turn Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley into independent cities.

If successful, the efforts would drop Los Angeles to No. 3 in population behind New York and Chicago and make the valley a rival to Phoenix as the nation's sixth-largest metropolis.

--From wire reports