Woman falls, dies in Yosemite

A hiker from San Ramon, Calif., fell hundreds of feet to her death while descending Yosemite's Half Dome, officials say.

The emergency communications center at the park received a 911 call about noon PDT Sunday, informing them a climber slipped from the cables leading up to Half Dome, San Ramon Express News reported.

When National Park Rangers arrived on the scene, they found Hayley LaFlamme, 26, dead.

Yosemite Park Ranger Kari Cobb said it appeared LaFlamme fell while climbing down a 400-foot cable system that allows hikers to reach the top of Half Dome, a nearly 5,000-foot summit, without using personal rock-climbing gear. She then fell off a cliff, landing about 600 feet below.

Rangers were still investigating the fall, but noted there had been a severe thunderstorm earlier in the day, the newspaper said.

Wet weather can make trails in the park quite dangerous, particularly the granite slope along the cable route, Cobb said, adding there are numerous signs alerting visitors to this issue throughout the park and on the permit required for hikers to access Half Dome, which LaFlamme had.

LaFlamme is the 14th person to die within the park this year, nearly triple the average in recent years, KABC-TV, Los Angeles, reported.

Mounties hunt suspect in brutal assault

Mounties in British Columbia are working with police forces nationwide on a manhunt for a man suspected of a brutal assault, officials say.

David Wesley Bobbitt, 35, is charged with the attempted murder of a 22-year-old woman who was found Sunday morning, tied up and savagely beaten inside of Bobbitt's second-hand store, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. The woman's 2-year-old child was discovered nearby, unharmed.

Police say the woman entered the Penticton, British Columbia, store sometime Saturday morning and was forced into confinement until she was discovered at 3 a.m. Sunday. Bobbitt had fled the scene.

British Columbia mounted police were working with police agencies across Canada in case Bobbitt attempts to leave British Columbia.

"With national attention on this case, given its brutality, it's going to be pretty difficult for Mr. David Wesley Bobbitt to move anywhere, and certainly we're making every effort to locate this man," said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.

Police said they were interested in talking to anyone who may have been in Bobbitt's store, Dave's Second Hand Store, Saturday.

"We might even have had customers that may have been into the store prior to this woman entering, so we're looking at establishing a timeline as to what exactly occurred on Saturday," Moskaluk said.

The woman was hospitalized with serious injuries but was expected to recover, the report said.

U.N. Security Council may meet on Syria

Germany and Italy called for a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday to discuss Syria's escalating crackdown on the four-month uprising against the Assad regime.

The call followed a harsh denunciation by the United States, European Union and United Nations -- and an appeal from Lebanon for the Arab world to end its "silence" on the crackdown -- following Syria's brutal military and security-force assault on Hama and other restive cities Sunday that residents and activists said killed at least 140 people.

The dawn-to-dusk assault the day before the holy month of Ramadan, when activists vowed to hold nightly anti-regime protests, was condemned as the broadest and fiercest crackdown yet by President Bashar Assad's government.

Activists described a massacre after armored units, ending a monthlong siege, smashed through makeshift barricades around Hama and other cities.

They said the massacre was carried out by troops and security agents accompanied by busloads of irregular militiamen known as Shabiha, or "Ghosts," who are part of the same Alawite Shiite minority group as the Assad family.

Human-rights groups said the death toll in Hama alone could reach 150, the English-language Daily Star of Beirut, Lebanon, reported.

More than 1,000 people were reported injured in the simultaneous raids on several Syrian cities, and the lives of people being treated at Hama's al-Horani Hospital were feared in danger as security forces stormed the hospital, the Coordination Committee of Syrian Peaceful Revolution told Dubai's Gulf News.

International media are still largely banned from Syria, but video clips posed on YouTube by Sham, a Web site sympathetic to the protesters, showed unarmed civilians taking cover from shelling and heavy machine-gun fire as hospitals struggled to cope with mounting casualties.

Bodies lay scattered on the streets, residents said.

"They started shooting with heavy machine guns at civilians, at the young men protecting the barricades," activist Omar Habal told Britain's The Guardian.

Sham said some soldiers in Hama and the northeastern city of Deir al-Zour on the Euphrates Rive deserted from the forces assaulting the cities.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency said two security-force members were killed in Hama and three in Deir al-Zour.

President Barack Obama described the government bloodshed as "horrifying," demonstrating "the true character of the Syrian regime."

He said Assad showed he was "completely incapable and unwilling to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people."

"In the days ahead, the United States will continue to increase our pressure on the Syrian regime, and work with others around the world to isolate the Assad government and stand with the Syrian people," Obama said in a statement that did not demand Assad step down, as he has with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

EU foreign affairs and security policy chief Catherine Ashton said the brutal attacks were "even more unacceptable coming on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan."

"The Syrian army and security forces have the duty to protect citizens, not to massacre them indiscriminately," she said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the violence, urged Assad to heed Syrians' aspirations and reminded "Syrian authorities that they are accountable under international human rights law for all acts of violence perpetrated by them against the civilian population."

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri "condemned" the Ramadan eve "massacre" and urged other Arab leaders to end their "silence" on the crackdown by refusing to condemn Syria's "bloody" onslaught.

The Syrian people deserve "to define their choices freely and within their humanitarian rights," Hariri said in a statement.

Syria, which borders Lebanon to the north and east, occupied Lebanon from 1976 through April 2005.

Lebanon, a current non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, did not immediately respond to the German and Italian calls for an emergency closed-door council session likely to take place Monday afternoon.

Western European countries proposed a resolution condemning Syria's crackdown June 8, but China and Russia, both Syrian allies, threatened to veto

Federal judge Matthew J. Perry dies

U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Perry, known for his civil rights work, died at his home in Columbia, S.C., officials said. He was 89.

Perry, who would have turned 90 this week, was found dead Sunday, apparently of natural causes, The State of Columbia, S.C., reported Monday.

His body was found by a family member who each Sunday went to the judge's home to prepare a meal for Perry and his wife Hallie, who is in poor health, said Richland County Coroner Gary Watts.

Perry was at work Friday at the courthouse that bears his name and he regularly worked a full schedule.

"He was a shining example of unflinching courage and leadership," said Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. "Simply put, he was a giant and this world will be a lesser place without him."

Flags in Columbia will be flown at half-staff in the coming days, Benjamin said.

"Matthew Perry -- an iron fist in a velvet glove -- courteous, polite, even jocular … but unshakably determined," said S.C. historian Walter Edgar.

Perry was one of the first black men from the South appointed to a federal court. He was still as a senior U.S. District Court judge for South Carolina at the time of his death.

"I would like to see an improved quality of life for citizens around the state," Perry said last week. "I am very much concerned about those who remain uneducated and who are impoverished, living at the edge of society. "

Girl, 13, dies; her warning saved friends

A 13-year-old girl killed by a vehicle that crashed into her home warned other children to get out of the way before she was struck, New York City police said.

Investigators were still trying to determine the sequence of events that left Kira Goddard and the driver of the sport utility vehicle dead Saturday in the borough of Brooklyn, The New York Times reported.

Police said Kira and a group of friends were hanging out about 10 p.m. in front of the four-story building where they lived when a Range Rover sideswiped a row of double-parked cars. The driver, Sean Lewis, then put the vehicle in reverse and it overturned, crashing into the building where the children were playing.

"She said, 'It's reversing back -- run, run!'" said Alexia Joseph, 12, one of the children with Kira when the accident occurred. "That's when we ran back inside [the building], but she didn't because she was shocked."

Kira was crushed when the vehicle pinned her against the building, police said.

When police arrived, they discovered that Lewis had been stabbed and was apparently driving himself to a hospital when the accident occurred, the New York Daily News reported. Police were trying to find out the circumstances surrounding Lewis' injury.

Lewis, who was dead on arrival at Brookdale Hospital, had a string of petty-crime arrests, the New York Post reported. Lewis reportedly had an argument with someone over a debt a short time before the accident.

"[They] had been arguing over money the past couple of weeks," one neighbor said.

Mo'Nique's talk show gets the ax

U.S. cable network BET has canceled "The Mo'Nique Show," starring Oscar-winning actress Mo'Nique, after two seasons, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said.

"'The Mo'Nique Show' will be on production hiatus beginning in the fall," a BET representative told the newspaper Thursday. "Mo'Nique Hicks and 'The Mo'Nique Show' are important to the BET Networks family and we look forward to continuing our relationship our with her."

No reason for the hiatus was given.

The chat show was taped at Turner Studios in Atlanta.

Mo'Nique won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar last year for her portrayal of an abusive mother in "Precious."

Molly Parker lands role on 'The Firm'

Canadian actress Molly Parker has joined the ensemble of the upcoming legal drama series "The Firm," it was announced Friday.

NBC, Entertainment One, Sony Pictures Television Networks and Global Television confirmed the casting news Friday.

Parker is to play Abby McDeere in the network's small-screen adaptation of John Grisham's best-selling novel, which is being executive-produced by Grisham and Lukas Reiter.

"Ten years ago, Abby helped her husband Mitchell McDeere bring down a Memphis law firm that was a front for the Chicago mob. Her life was never the same," NBC said in a synopsis. "Abby's a true partner to Mitch -- a smart, resourceful woman who after a tumultuous decade is excited to start a new life in Washington, D.C., as a school teacher."

Parker, who is known for her work in TV's "Deadwood" and "Swingtown," joins a previously announced cast including Josh Lucas as Mitch; Juliette Lewis as Tammy, who is now Mitch's receptionist; and Callum Keith Rennie as Ray McDeere, Mitch's charming yet volatile older brother, NBC said.