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Supreme Court hears arguments on gun ownership

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday took up gun control, hearing arguments concerning a District of Columbia ban on handguns more than two centuries after the Second Amendment gave Americans the right to keep and bear arms.

Lawyers for both sides tried to strike a moderate tone before the court, arguing that there was an individual right to own a weapon, but that governments could impose reasonable gun-control legislation.

Alan Gura, arguing against the ban on Tuesday before the court said the city simply doesn’t trust the people to protect themselves in their homes.

But Walter Dellinger, a lawyer for the District of Columbia, said there should be a a reasonable standard to allow cities to pass gun-control legislation.

More than 100 people stood in line outside the court for a chance at one of the few seats to hear the arguments in person.

Jason McCrory and his friends were the first in line, having arrived Sunday. Watch both sides make their cases outside the court

He said he supports the right of people to keep and bear arms… to protect themselves against the dangers they are presented with.

But Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pennsylvania, said before the hearing that the government had the right to limit gun ownership.

There should be reasonable control for access to guns and particularly handguns, he said. Even if [the Supreme Court finds] that people have the right to bear arms, governments have a right to reasonable controls on firearms — where and under what circumstances people have a right to have them.

The issue has polarized judges, politicians and the public for decades: do the Second Amendment’s 27 words bestow gun ownership as an individual right, or a collective one — aimed at the civic responsibilities of state militias — and therefore subject perhaps to strict government regulation.

City leaders had urged the high court to intervene, saying refusal to do so could prove dire.

The District of Columbia — a densely populated urban locality where the violence caused by handguns is well documented — will be unable to enforce a law that its elected officials have sensibly concluded saves lives, wrote lawyers for the city.

A federal appeals court in March had ruled the handgun ban to be unconstitutional.

The city’s 31-year-old law has prevented most private citizens from owning and keeping handguns in their homes.

Among major U.S. cities, only Chicago, Illinois, and the District of Columbia have such sweeping firearm bans. Courts have generally upheld other cities’ restrictions on semi-automatic weapons and sawed-off shotguns.

The District of Columbia reported 143 gun-related murders last year. In 1976, when the handgun ban was enacted, the district’s medical examiner said 135 homicides were firearm-related.

The March ruling that overturned the ban was the first time a federal appeals court had found a gun law unconstitutional on Second Amendment grounds.

That provision states, A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The Supreme Court has steered clear of settling whether the right is individual or collective, and it last examined the issue in 1939 without fully delving into the broader constitutional questions. The issue has remained essentially unresolved since the Bill of Rights were enacted in 1791.

Several District of Columbia citizens first challenged the handgun law, some saying they wanted to do something about being constant victims of crime.

Recent polling finds gun control, remains an important political issue with voters. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey of Americans in December showed 65 percent believe the Constitution guarantees each person the right to own a gun, while 31 percent said no.

The conservative high court majority has been generally supportive in recent years, letting states and cities craft gun-control laws. Watch what’s behind two women’s opposing opinions

Similar weapon control laws could now be in jeopardy, and local and state jurisdictions such as Maryland, Massachusetts, Chicago, and San Francisco, California, filed briefs supporting the District.

Thirty-one states, along with groups like the National Rifle Association support the gun owners, but both sides have privately expressed concern over how the justices will decide the issue, since the legal and political implications could be sweeping in scope.

It is unclear whether the Supreme Court’s ruling will be broad in scope and apply to nearly all state and local firearm restrictions.

In all, some 64 different briefs were filed, from more than 80 groups and individuals. Among those supporting the gun rights plaintiffs were the NRA, Disabled Veterans for Self-Defense, and the transgender group Pink Pistols.

Groups supporting the city include the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

The case is District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290). A ruling is expected in late June.
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Stepfather guilty in horrific death of girl, 7

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury has convicted a man of manslaughter in the death of his 7-year-old stepdaughter after a trial that detailed years of horrific abuse and cast a spotlight on New York City’s troubled child welfare agency.

Brooklyn jurors deliberated four days before finding Cesar Rodriguez guilty Tuesday of lesser charges in the death of Nixzmary Brown.

The tiny, malnourished girl who was severely punished after she was caught stealing yogurt.

Prosecutors, who alleged the girl was the victim of years of abuse and neglect comparable to torture, had sought to convict Rodriguez of murder.

The evidence in the case included grim crime scene photos from the room where Nixzmary Brown was bound to a chair, starved and forced to urinate in a litter box.

More than once, court officers passed out tissues so weeping jurors could dry their eyes.
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Death toll rises to 50 in Iraq bombing

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Three people died and 11 were hurt in two roadside bombings in northeastern Baghdad Tuesday, while the death toll in a Monday suicide bombing in Karbala rose to 50, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

A roadside bomb blast killed three people, including two traffic police officers, and wounded seven others along a road in the mixed Sunni-Shiite Binook neighborhood just before 11 a.m. Tuesday, a ministry official said.

Four were hurt by a roadside bomb on Commercial Street in the Shabb Shiite neighborhood at 11 a.m., the official said.

The Karbala attack, in which a female suicide bomber apparently targeted Shiite worshippers just before evening prayer services Monday on a busy street, killed 50 and hurt 74 others, the official said.

Karbala is a Shiite holy city, southwest of the capital city of Baghdad. It’s the site of the Imam Hussein shrine, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest locations. The shrine marks the burial spot of Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was killed in battle nearby in 680.

Earlier Monday, in Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol, killing one officer and wounding another, the Interior Ministry told CNN.

A short time later, another roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, wounding four bystanders, a ministry official said.

The first attack took place about 8:30 a.m. in the upscale Mansour neighborhood, where law enforcement officials have come under frequent attacks in recent weeks.

Also Monday, two American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, officials said.

The incident occurred about 12:20 p.m. as the soldiers were conducting a route-clearance combat operation north of Baghdad, according to a news release. The names of the soldiers were not immediately released.

Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in the Iraqi capital Monday on an unannounced visit.

Cheney told reporters that the five years in Iraq since the war’s start has been well worth the effort.

He said he met with top Iraqi officials. He appeared at a news conference with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to the country.

Cheney began a trip to the Middle East on Sunday with an official itinerary that listed stops in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and the West Bank, according to the White House.
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Chinese premier attacks Dalai Lama over protests in Tibet

BEIJING, China (CNN) — Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Tuesday blamed supporters of the Dalai Lama for recent violence in Tibet, and said Chinese forces exercised restraint in confronting unrest there.

There is ample fact and we also have plenty of evidence proving that this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique, Wen said in a televised news conference.

The Chinese premier also dismissed the Dalai Lama’s claim that China is causing cultural genocide of his people in Tibet as lies.

The United States has urged Chinese restraint after days of violent protests in Tibet, even as a deadline passed for anti-Chinese protesters to surrender.

Death tolls from the violence vary. Exiled Tibetan independence campaigners say at least 80 people died while Chinese authorities put the figure lower.

There are 13 common people who died in the beating, burning and smashing in the riots, said Champa Phuntsok, the head of Tibet’s regional government.

They died of fire, asphyxiation and beating. Some of them were set on fire by rioters and died in the burning.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the United States is very concerned about the Chinese crackdown on Tibetan protesters.

We continue to urge restraint on the part of the Chinese government in terms of how it responds to these protesters.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, according to wire service reports from Moscow, said: We have really urged the Chinese over several years to find a way to talk with the Dalai Lama, who is a figure of authority, who is not a separatist, and to find a way to engage him and bring his moral weight to a more sustainable and better solution of the Tibet issue.

In a news conference in Beijing on Monday, Champa Phuntsok blamed the violence on a small group of separatists and criminals who take their lead from exiled followers of Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

On Sunday, the exiled Dalai Lama condemned China’s action in his homeland, accusing Beijing of cultural genocide.

Shops, schools and businesses were open Monday in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, but tensions remained high throughout the territory and three neighboring provinces after days of deadly clashes.

Xinhua reported Monday that 160 locations in Lhasa were burned by rioters, including banks, a press establishment, shops, schools and hospitals. Watch Chinese police on the streets

The state-run news agency quoted police in Tibet giving protesters a deadline of midnight Monday to stop their criminal activities and offering leniency to those who surrender themselves.

Those who surrender and provide information on other lawbreakers will be exempt from punishment, Xinhua quoted a police notice as saying.

James Miles, a reporter for The Economist who arrived in Lhasa just before the violence began last week and has been allowed to stay, told CNN Monday that Lhasa was now quiet but damage was evident throughout the city.

The number of people killed Friday — and which side they were on — remained in dispute, but Miles said it appeared the dead included Tibetans as well as Han Chinese who operated businesses there.

Chinese security forces maintained a strong presence, checking identification papers of people on the streets, Miles said.

Phuntsok said the protesters wanted to destabilize Tibet at the critical and sensitive time that we are preparing for the Olympics.

There are 13 common people who died in the beating, burning and smashing in the riots, said Phuntsok. They died of fire, asphyxiation and beating. Some of them were set on fire by rioters and died in the burning.

He said Chinese police did not fire their guns or use anti-personnel weapons against the Tibetans despite 61 police officers being injured, six seriously. Watch riot police search homes

Tibetan exiles described a much more violent response by police.

A Xinhua story published Monday said the protesters had indisputable links to peace-preaching Dalai Lama.

Tibet is officially an autonomous region of China, but the Dalai Lama said that Tibetans are treated by the Chinese as second-class citizens in their own land. He said they need full autonomy to protect their cultural heritage.

Since Tibet fell under Communist Chinese control in the 1950s, Han Chinese have moved into the province to participate in the government and operate businesses.

Miles reported seeing incidents Friday of Tibetan crowds attacking Han Chinese residents with stones. He said many of the businesses burned by protesters belonged to Han Chinese.

Violent protests were reported at or near Tibetan monasteries outside of Lhasa and in three other nearby Chinese provinces on Friday and in the days since. Watch the generational divide among independence activists

Tibetan monks at the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, Gansu province — 750 miles from Lhasa — apparently staged a protest Friday and Saturday that Chinese security forces acted quickly to stop.

Spence Palermo, a American who was filming a documentary at the monastery, said Chinese officials banned his crew from returning to the monastery Friday. They were suddenly rushed from their hotel Saturday as a seemingly endless convoy of Chinese troops headed toward the monastery, he said.

Newsweek magazine reported Monday that as many as 4,000 monks and lay persons clashed with police near the monastery Friday and Saturday.

Tibet Watch, a group based in Dharamsala, India, told CNN that 34 people have died in the Nwaga County area of Sichuan province in western China. The dead include women and children, the group said in an e-mail, adding they were killed by Chinese police attempting to stop the protests.

Eight bodies — including the bodies of two monks — were brought to the Nagaba Kirti monastery, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamsala told CNN.

Tibet Watch said another protest took place in Machu County in northwestern China Sunday. It was started by some Tibetan students distributing fliers. They were later joined by monks and laypeople. During the demonstration, several shops and a security headquarters were burned, the group said. An estimated 2,000 Tibetans were using firecrackers in the streets, the group said.

Chinese authorities have denied CNN permission to enter Tibet to report on the current situation.
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U.S. bank crisis unnerves world markets

LONDON, England (CNN) — Markets across Asia and Europe suffered heavy losses as the fallout from the shock sale of Bear Sterns continued — but Wall Street recovered most of its losses on a dramatic Monday.

Banking stocks made steep losses after Bear Sterns — one of Wall Street’s most venerable names — was acquired for a pittance.

Engineered by the U.S. Federal Reserve, JP Morgan bought the investment bank for $2 a share, valuing the bank at $236 million — compared to nearly $70 per share last week and a high last year of $159 per share.

The sale was rushed through to beat the opening bells in Asia but it didn’t stop stocks from plummeting in Asia or Europe.

In Europe Monday, the FTSE 100 fell by 3.86 percent to 5,414 and the French CAC 40 fell to 4,431, losing 3.51 percent. The German Dax suffered most, dropping 4.18 percent to 6,182.

The European banking sector was particularly hard hit, with UBS — whose stock has dipped 62 per cent in the last year — down 13.9 percent, AP reported, while Credit Suisse fell 8.6 percent and Deutsche Bank dropped 4.3.

Sound off: What do you think about the market situation?

In Asia Japan’s Nikkei closed 454.09 down at 11788, losing 3.7 percent, while the Hang Seng fell 1,152.5 to 21085, a fall of 5.18 per cent.

In early trading Monday, the Dow dropped 103.72 to 11847, a fall of 0.87 percent, but managed to just claw into positive territory by the end of the day — by 21.16 points or (0.18 percent).

Despite those figures, more stocks fell in price Monday than rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Nasdaq fell 1.6 percent to 2177, losing 35.48.

The jitters followed the announcement Sunday that Bear Stearns had been bought by rival JP Morgan.

JP Morgan and the U.S. Federal Reserve bailed out Bear Stearns on Friday after it finally succumbed to the credit crunch, suffering major cash flow problems.

Also Sunday the U.S. Federal Reserve took the unusual decision to slash its discount rate — which determines the rate at which it borrows funds to financial bodies — by 0.25 percent to 3.5 percent, ahead of markets opening for the new week.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Sunday that the decision to rescue Bear Stearns had been the right one and that the U.S. government would do similar again to stabilize markets.

But the action failed to avert sharp drops from Sydney to London — and the fear among many traders around the world is just who or what will next be hit. We are worried about what comes next, said Shim Jae-youb, a strategist at Meritz Securities in Seoul, in comments reported by The Associated Press. Alan Greenspan, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, writing for The Financial Times on Monday, said that market conditions were the most wrenching since the end of the second world war.

Meanwhile gold — which at times of crisis is regarded by investors as a safe haven — continued its record gains of last week, pushing on to a bid price of $$1,023.50 an ounce in London and $1,021.55 an ounce in Zurich, AP reported.

Gold has risen 20 percent in the past year, helped by the fact that it is traded in dollars — something which traders in other currencies hold much of thanks to the greenback’s recent nosedive.

The dollar continued its fall in Asia Monday, plunging to its lowest for 12 and a half years against the yen at at 95.72. It also suffered against the euro, trading at one dollar to 0.629

Oil which rose dollar by dollar last week, again passed another record during Asian trading, with light, sweet crude spiking at $111.80 per barrel, according to AP, before falling back to $104.94 then settling at $105.68.

Alan Greenspan, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, writing for The Financial Times, said that market conditions were the most wrenching since the end of the second world war

CNN International’s Financial Editor Todd Benjamin said: People are afraid that Bear Stearns may not be the last financial institution to get into trouble. They are waiting for the other shoe to drop. Read Todd’s blog Confidence is in short supply right now, and there’s a growing unease that neither aggressive easing by the Fed, or keeping a major Wall Street securities firm afloat, will end the crisis. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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