Blast injures 50 at wedding for nephew of Fatah leader

Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan, the uncle of the groom, did not attend the wedding, according to witnesses. The cause of the explosion, which occurred at 11:10 p.m. in Khan Younis, was not known. Dahlan is the Palestinian Authority's national security adviser.

Details of Tuesday's explosion were not immediately clear. Dahlan's associates in recent years have been targeted by Hamas as tensions between the militant group and rival Fatah -- the Palestine Liberation Organization's largest faction -- escalated.

In January 2007, Hamas gunmen tried to kill Dahlan's bodyguard. Dahlan was not present at the time of the attack. In that month alone, Fatah and Hamas militants abducted more than 50 members of their rival groups -- most of them in the West Bank town of Nablus -- according to Palestinian security sources.

Dahlan is particularly disliked by Hamas because during his leadership of the Preventive Security Forces in the 1990s, Hamas members were apprehended and tortured. After a series of suicide bombings in Israel in 1996, Dahlan took a major part in the Palestinian Authority's effort to crack down on Hamas.

Solar eclipse excitement sweeps Asia

"This eclipse has the potential to be observed by more people than any eclipse in all of history," said MIT astronomer Richard Binzel, who will be in Shanghai leading an expedition of observers and a group of eclipse chasers.
Skywatchers are gathering from parking lots in western India to music festivals on remote Japanese islands to witness what NASA describes as an "exceptionally long" total solar eclipse that will cross half the planet on Wednesday.
"Essentially, every inhabitant of all of India and China will be able to see at least part of the sun covered throughout the day," he said. The path of the total eclipse will stretch across the heart of Asia -- from India's Bay of Cambay, over the Himalayas and across China and the southern islands of Japan.

Total eclipses happen about once a year or a little less often somewhere on the Earth's surface and are visible in a narrow band, Benzil said.

"This band starts at sunrise in India and ends at sunset over the Pacific, just east of Hawaii about four hours later. The shadow path of the moon is sweeping across the surface of the Earth at about 3,000 kilometers per hour," he said. "The partial eclipse is also visible throughout Thailand and Vietnam, as far south at the top tip of Australia and as far north as Siberia."

44 hurt after rail cars collide in San Francisco

The cars are part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, commonly called Muni.

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Initial reports indicated a one-car train traveling at low speed collided with a stopped one-car train, Muni spokesman Judson True said in a written statement. The accident occurred on the outbound platform of West Portal Station, he said.

As of 2:57 p.m. (5:57 p.m. ET), all Muni Metro light rail service that travels through West Portal Station in either direction was halted, he said
As of 2:57 p.m. (5:57 p.m. ET), all Muni Metro light rail service that travels through West Portal Station in either direction was halted.
Two light rail transit cars collided Saturday in San Francisco, causing multiple injuries, but none appeared life-threatening, a rail system spokesman said.

"Apparently the conductor for one of the trains miscalculated a turn. It's still under investigation right now," a police officer told CNN. He would not provide his name.

At least 44 people were injured, a fire official said.

None of the injuries was extremely serious, said Leslie Dubbin, administrator for operations at San Francisco General Hospital.

"There were no fatalities and everybody looks good."

Suspect arrested after six slayings in two states

Some of the five victims are related, and the people were killed either Friday night or early Saturday, said Kristin Helm of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities have arrested a 30-year-old Tennessee man in connection with the killing of six people -- five in Tennessee and one in neighboring Alabama.

Jacob Shaffer of Fayetteville was arrested Saturday after three people were found dead at a house in the town, 90 miles south of Nashville. Two other victims were found in another residence on the same street, South Lincoln Road, officials said.

About 30 miles away in Huntsville, Alabama, a sixth person was found dead at a business, authorities said.

Shaffer was in one of the Fayetteville residences when Lincoln County sheriff's deputies arrived.

Among the victims were two juveniles, authorities said. Investigators have not released the names of any of the victims and are working to first notify family members.

Without naming Shaffer, Allen said Tennessee authorities told him a man confessed to a slaying in his town and to five other killings in Fayetteville.

4 Baghdad churches bombed in 24 hours

Three bombs exploded outside churches Sunday afternoon, wounding the civilians, an Interior Ministry official said. The bombs detonated within a 15-minute span, between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m.

Four Baghdad churches were bombed in less than 24 hours and eight civilians were wounded, officials said Sunday.
Two of the churches are in central Baghdad's al-Karrada district, and the third is in al-Ghadeer in eastern Baghdad.

The churches were damaged in the bombings, the official said.Saturday night, a church in western Baghdad sustained damage in a double bombing, the official said. The two bombs placed inside St. Joseph's church detonated at around 10 p.m. local time. There was no one in the church at the time of the attack.

Using guns with silencers, the assailants opened fire on Rizko Aziz Nissan outside his home in central Kirkuk at 8:15 a.m.

Nissan was an Iraqi Christian, but the motives behind his killing were not immediately clear. Kirkuk is 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Baghdad

Senator: Cheney and alleged secret CIA program 'a problem'

CIA Director Leon Panetta testified to a congressional committee that he was told former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the intelligence agency to withhold information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday.

"I think this is a problem, obviously," Feinstein said, adding that the law requires full disclosure of such operations to Congress.

"It's not agency practice to discuss what may or may not have been said in a classified briefing," Gimigliano said. "When a CIA unit brought this matter to Director Panetta's attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared with Congress. That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect."

The disclosures follow a May spat between the spy agency and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who accused the CIA of misleading Congress during a secret 2002 briefing on harsh interrogation techniques being used on terrorism suspects. The CIA responded that Pelosi was told about the harsh techniques, including waterboarding, at the briefing.

Women die as boat capsizes in western India

At least 13 women died and 18 were missing after two boats capsized in western India, police said Sunday.

They were returning home from the fields when their vessels overturned Saturday evening in a river at Maharashtra state's Bhandara district, said Chandrashekhar Bahadur, assistant police inspector.

The two boats were carrying 35 women, mostly farm laborers, he said. Four were able to swim ashore.

Rescuers have found 13 bodies so far and the search for others is on, said Bahadur. He said possible flooding in the river could have led to the capsizing.

"It rained heavily here on Saturday,

Investigators: Strong winds probable cause of Fossett crash

Nearly two years after the disappearance of adventurer Steve Fossett, investigators on Thursday determined that strong winds probably downed his plane.
The board's findings are in line with witness testimony revealed in the agency's March report: Fossett's single-engine craft was fighting headwinds.

Fossett took off from the airport of the Flying M Ranch outside Minden, Nevada, on September 3, 2007, for what his wife described as "a Sunday drive," according to the report.

Fossett, a daring adventurer, in 2002 became the first person to circle the globe solo in a balloon, and three years later was the first to fly a plane around the world solo without refueling. He also set world records in round-the-world sailing and cross-country skiing.

Bone fragments recovered at the crash site could not be "definitively identified as human," the report said, but authorities confirmed through DNA tests that skeletal fragments were those of Fossett.

L.A. braces for massive Michael Jackson memorial

They poured in to Los Angeles from places far-flung, an army of Michael Jackson fans hoping to collectively mourn their idol in a massive ceremony at the Staples Center downtown Tuesday.
Parking lots in the area raised their prices, some as high as $30. Airports in Southern California saw a spike in bookings. And several movie theaters in the area announced special screenings of the event, which will also be carried live by some television networks and Web sites.
Several carloads of people, Michael Jackson's sister La Toya among them, came and went from the heavily secured cemetery after sunset Monday. But it was not immediately clear whether they were there for a private viewing.

Executors of Jackson's will get control of his assets

Also Monday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted control of Jackson's assets to the executors of his will.

The executors -- John Branca, Jackson's longtime personal attorney, and John McClain, a music industry executive and longtime friend -- had sought immediate control of the entertainer's assets at a hearing before Judge Mitchell Beckloff.

Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey set for Jackson memorial

The Michael Jackson memorial service at the Staples Center on Tuesday will be a star-studded affair, with singers Mariah Carey, Usher and Stevie Wonder among the participants, according to an announcement released on behalf of the Jackson family.

"I'm honored to have been asked to play at MJ's memorial service. I will be representing all of us who can't be there," Mayer tweeted. "Going to say goodbye from all us kids."

Ken Ehrlich, known for producing the Grammy Awards, is producing the memorial show, his company said. Kenny Ortega, who was to have co-directed Jackson's series of concerts in London, England, this summer, will direct it.

Mayer posted on Twitter on Monday afternoon saying "I'm going not to 'perform' but to contribute."

"Although Debbie had originally planned to attend tomorrow's Staples Center memorial service, we have concluded with Debbie that she will not be attending," a statement from Almli said. "The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy. Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael's memory privately."

Ayatollah: Western 'lies' depict Iranians as 'rioters'

Iran's supreme leader blamed enemies and outsiders on Monday for the turmoil that followed last month's presidential elections, according to an Iranian news agency.

He warned that meddling from presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers would hurt those nations' relations with Iran, according to Fars.

He said Iranians would see through the "lies" of Western governments and "know that your objective is to create doubt amongst them and propagate hate against the system of the Islamic Republic.

Despite any internal differences, Iranians would come together against their "enemy," he said, referring to outsiders.

"When it comes to confronting the enemy, even with various differences and viewpoints, [Iranians] will become united and be as one punch against them,"

Oldest known Bible goes online

The world's oldest known Christian Bible goes online Monday -- but the 1,600-year-old text doesn't match the one you'll find in churches today.

The New Testament books are in a different order, and include numerous handwritten corrections -- some made as much as 800 years after the texts were written, according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bible online. The changes range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences.

Discovered in a monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago, the handwritten Codex Sinaiticus includes two books that are not part of the official New Testament and at least seven books that are not in the Old Testament.

"There are certainly theological questions linked to this," he said. "Everybody should be encouraged to investigate for themselves."

That portion includes books not found in the Hebrew Bible and regarded in the Protestant tradition as apocryphal, such as 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach.

The New Testament portion includes the Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas.

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of parchment -- prepared animal skin -- each of which measures 15 inches by 13.6 inches

Palin takes to Web for hints of political future

After staying out of the public eye for most of Saturday, a day after abruptly announcing she would soon give up her job as governor, Palin indicated on a social networking site that she would take on a larger, national role, citing a "higher calling" to unite the country along conservative lines.

Palin instead cast herself as a victim and blasted the media, calling the response to her announcement "predictable" and out of touch.
"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country," the statement said. "And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make."

Palin shocked even her closest friends on Friday when she announced she would resign July 26, more than a year before her first term ends. But the controversial hockey mom has not revealed many details of bigger plans and national agenda.

Iraqis want educational, scientific assistance, says VP Biden

Iraqis "want us want us to be engaged with them in helping them realize their potential," said Vice President Joe Biden after leaving Baghdad on Saturday.

"If the Iraqi government needs any assistance from the U.S. government, the American government is ready to provide the support and assistance. But the prime minister said these are internal issues that Iraqis will handle," he said. "Involvement of non-Iraqi parties in these issues will complicate things and create problems we can live without."
"They're very concerned, very anxious that we pursue a strategic agreement with them, which has nothing to do with the military. They want scientific knowledge, they want educational assistance, they want economic assistance in terms of advice and connecting them, giving them advice on how to deal with the international business community," Biden said Saturday in an interview aboard Air Force Two before flying out of Iraq, according to pool reports.

2 killed in fireworks truck blast in North Carolina

Two people were killed and three others were in critical condition Saturday when a truck carrying fireworks on North Carolina's Outer Banks exploded, officials said.
Jamie Tunnell, Hyde County spokeswoman, said the fireworks were to be used for the annual Fourth of July show on Ocracoke Island, and the five people were members of the crew setting up the display.

Emergency crews and firefighters arrived. Tunnell said two volunteer firefighters were being treated for smoke inhalation and exhaustion.

Joseph Chestnut, 16, was working at the Ride the Wind kayak-rental stand in Ocracoke when he heard the explosion across the harbor. He thought a home under construction had collapsed

The truck exploded at the Ocracoke Island docks.

Obama's Housing Rescue Expands: 6 Things to Know

In a move that suggests its initial rescue plan was insufficient, the Obama administration yesterday announced plans to widen the eligibility parameters of a key housing initiative.
he mortgage refinancing program is part of the president's two-pronged plan to pull the nation out of its worst housing slump since the Great Depression.

1. Fannie/Freddie only: Despite the higher loan-to-value ceiling, the original framework of the program remains in tact. For example, only borrowers with loans owned or guaranteed by government-controlled housing finance giants Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac can participate. At the same time, borrowers need 2. Falling prices, less equity: The expansion of the qualification parameters comes as the real estate market continues to erode. Home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas fell by more than 18 percent in April from a year earlier, according the Case-Shiller home price index. Among other things, sliding home prices suck equity out of homes. Because of plunging values, more than a fifth of American homeowners were considered "underwater"--meaning they owe more on their mortgages than the property is worth--in the first quarter of this year, according to Zillow.to be current on their mortgage to zillow.

SC serial killer conjures memory of 60s murderer

GAFFNEY, S.C. – A terrified rural South Carolina community hunkered down over the Fourth of July after the sheriff said a serial killer was on the loose, and longtime residents were reminded of a murderer who terrorized the town in the 1960s.

The town of Gaffney, about 50 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., is located in a county that had just six homicides in all of 2008, and half that the year before. The last time the town was this threatened like this was when the "Gaffney Strangler" killed four women over 10 days in 1968 and vowed to kill more. The town banded together, despite racial prejudice, to find the man who was killing both white and black women.

Memories of the "Gaffney Strangler" were reignited this week after authorities said a new serial killer gunned down four people during three separate incidents over several days.
The strangler, Lee Roy Martin, called the editor of a local newspaper on Feb. 8, 1968, and told him where to find the bodies of two women he'd dumped in the woods. He threatened to kill even more women until he was "shot down like the dog I am."

"If he killed once, he'll kill again," she said sitting on the front porch with her friends. "Tonight, I'm going to stay inside and pray, pray a little harder that he gets caught."

The latest shootings happened less than a half-mile from the sheriff's office, where at least 30 investigators were already working on the case. Blanton said a profiler has suggested Tyler and his daughter might have been shot to taunt investigators, but he said his only concern is solving the case.

"We had a 15-year-old girl shot; he killed an 83-year-old woman," Blanton said. "The good people of this community don't deserve that."

Myanmar denies U.N. chief a visit with Suu Kyi

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon was denied permission to see Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, reporters traveling with the secretary-general said Saturday.

Officials in Myanmar delayed the resumption of the trial of Suu Kyi Friday. The delay is the latest in a string of postponements and came as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the Asian nation for talks with government officials.

Suu Kyi -- the face of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement -- is on trial on allegations of subversion. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and two of her maids have been charged in a May 3 incident in which an American, John William Yettaw, 53, swam across a lake to her house and stayed for at least a night.

It was during her house arrest that she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Suu Kyi married a British man, who died in 1999, and they have two sons. Myanmar's government now says citizens who have borne children with foreigners cannot run for office.

Ban's visit to Myanmar is his first since May 2008. That followed Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 150,000 people

Ex-Iranian president seeks to free detainees

Iranians worried about their loved ones detained in the protests that followed the presidential election got the ear of a former president, who wants the detainees released, an Iranian reformist party newspaper reported on Thursday.

The government crackdown on protests came after a hotly contested June 12 election. Thousands flooded the streets of Tehran for weeks after incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner by a margin of about 2-to-1 over his nearest rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, who said the results were rigged.

Former reformist President Mohammad Khatami met with families of some of the people detained and said that if the courts uphold the civil rights of the detainees, the court would order them freed, reported presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi's party newspaper.

Families of the imprisoned plan to later meet with another former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani, a key cleric, is chairman of Iran's Assembly of Experts, which is responsible for appointing or removing the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Rafsanjani's daughter was briefly detained in the chaos that followed the elections

Fans face long odds for Jackson memorial tickets

Fans continued to register by the thousands early Saturday, hoping to be among the 8,750 people who will be randomly picked to attend the memorial service for singer Michael Jackson next week.

The overwhelming response prompted organizers to open up the lottery to non-U.S. residents as well, he said.

"When you grow up with Michael Jackson's music pretty much your whole life, you feel like you lost a family member and you have to go to the funeral," said Add Seymour of Atlanta, Georgia
Ken Ehrlich, known for producing the Grammy Awards, is producing the memorial show, his company said. Kenny Ortega, who was to have co-directed Jackson's series of concerts in London, England, this summer, will direct it.

"We are treating all unnamed sources as rumors. And, as we have stated before, we will not be responding to rumors or innuendo," said lawyers for Jackson's cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Murray, on Friday. "We are awaiting the facts to come out and we will respond at that time."

"You know for anything that has to do with drugs, the DEA are the experts on that," said Jim McDonnell, assistant police chief. "And if you're looking at the prescription issues, where else would you go?"

Thrown pig leads to religious riots in India

NEW DELHI, India
Widespread violence broke out in Mysore Thursday after somebody threw a dead pig into the compound of an under-construction mosque, city police commissioner Sunil Agarwal.

Three people have been killed in religious rioting in southern India between Muslims and Hindus, police said Friday.

More than a dozen people were injured in the clashes, he said.

Police fired tear gas and used bamboo sticks to break up the rioting, according to Agarwal.

Authorities have, for now, banned assembly of five or more people on the streets of the troubled area, according to the police.

Mysore is a city in Karnataka, India's only southern state governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party

Jackson's chimp Bubbles enjoys life out of public eye

Bubbles gained fame over two decades ago as Michael Jackson's simian companion. Now at age 26, Bubbles has retired to the Center for Great Apes outside Wauchula, Florida.

Patti Ragan, director for the Center for Great Apes, explained how Bubbles and 41 other chimpanzees and orangutans spend their day:
"They relax. They take naps together. They might go up in the top of the cupola," she said. "They go out in the chutes and lie under a tree in the tunnel system.
When Bubbles was 5 years old, he and Jackson toured Japan, where the chimp moonwalked for the media. Bubbles' new home has many places for him to hide from the limelight. The nonprofit's tropical forest setting covers more than 100 acres.
The public might not recognize Bubbles. He's aged since his moonwalking days. But he is alive and well, feasting on cucumbers and bananas at the sanctuary, where the care for each animal costs about $17,000. Bubbles might be out of the public eye, but Ragan doesn't want his fans to forget him.
Those days of appearing before the camera were long gone, until today. Bubbles still likes making faces for the camera, faces that Jackson might have recognized, had he visited the sanctuary. Bubbles might have recognized Jackson, too.

'Miracle' plane crash survivor back in France

The teenage girl who is the only known survivor of this week's airliner crash in the Comoros Islands arrived back in France on Thursday.
The Airbus A310 went down early Tuesday with 142 passengers and 11 crew members on board a flight that originated in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.

Bahia Bakari arrived at Paris' Le Bourget airport early on Thursday morning on a French government plane and was met by her father.

Bahia, said by her father to be 13 despite different ages being reported by other outlets, was transferred to an unnamed hospital suffering from shock and a broken collar bone.

Another rescuer told France's Europe 1 radio the girl was spotted in the rough sea among bodies and plane debris in darkness about two hours after the crash.

Bahia's father Kassim Bakari said he did not believe he would see his wife or daughter again after learning of the crash. He described how his daughter was ejected from the plane into the Indian Ocean.

U.S. soldier sold to Afghan militant clan, official says

The Haqqanis -- who operate on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and are well known to the U.S. military -- are assembling shuras, or local councils of leaders, to talk and try to "legitimize" what they have done, the official said.
U.S., Afghan and Pakistani troops are sealing off the area and also are talking to tribal chiefs, village elders and leaders.
The American soldier abducted in southeastern Afghanistan is now being held by a notorious militant clan, a senior U.S. military official said.
This soldier and three Afghan soldiers were captured by low-level militants and then quickly "sold" to the clan and network led by warlord Siraj Haqqani -- believed to be deeply involved in the action.

The soldier, missing since Tuesday, did apparently leave his small outpost on his own with no apparent means of defending himself, and the U.S. military believes a video of him is forthcoming.

The U.S. soldier visited a military post in the Yousaf Khel district in the Paktika province and got drunk, Sangeen said. He was ambushed while returning to his car and was taken to a safe place, Sangeen said.

CNN could not independently verify Sangeen's claims.

NKorea test-fires 2 short-range missiles

The missiles were fired from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan on Thursday afternoon, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity citing department policy. He did not say what types of missiles were launched, but Yonhap news agency said they were ground-to-ship missiles.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles Thursday, South Korea's Defense Ministry said, a move that aggravates the already high tensions following Pyongyang's recent nuclear test and U.N. sanctions imposed as punishment.

"We had expected that they will fire short-range missiles at any time," South Korea's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told The Associated Press at a reception held at the US ambassador's residence to mark the US Independence Day, which falls this weekend. "It's not a good sign because they are demonstrating their military power."

The North has also threatened to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile. Last month, a Japanese newspaper reported that the North could test-fire a long-range missile toward Hawaii as early as around July 4. The U.S. has increased defenses around Hawaii.

But Seoul's YTN television news network said Thursday there are no signs of an imminent long-range missile launch.

Family: Michael Jackson viewing won't happen at Neverland

Michael Jackson's family will not hold a public or private viewing of his body at the Neverland Ranch, a spokesman for the family said Wednesday.

Jackson placed his entire estate, which he estimated to be worth at least $500 million, in the Michael Jackson Family Trust, which was described in another document not filed in court.

"Plans are under way regarding a public memorial for Michael Jackson, and we will announce those plans shortly," Ken Sunshine said in a written statement.

Jackson's will, which was filed in court Wednesday and dated July 7, 2002, did not specify where he wished to be buried.

The pop star died Thursday at age 50. While it will be up to a court to decide who gets custody of Jackson's three children, the singer chose his mother, Katherine Jackson, as their guardian. If Katherine Jackson, 79, is not living, Jackson said, "I nominate Diana Ross as guardian."

The children -- ages 7, 11 and 12 -- have been placed under his mother's temporary guardianship.

Michael Jackson purchased Neverland Ranch -- named for the fictional world in J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" -- in 1987 and filled it with animals and amusement rides.

Teen plane crash survivor 'didn't feel a thing'

(CNN) -- The father of a teenage girl who remarkably survived a plane crash off the Comoros has described how his daughter was ejected from the plane into the Indian Ocean.
"She said she was ejected from the plane," Bakari said, according to Agence France-Presse.
"She didn't feel a thing. She found herself in water," Paris-based Kassim Bakari told French radio RTL after speaking to his 13-year-old daughter Bahia who was recovering Wednesday in hospital in Moroni.

A local surgeon said Bahia was doing well in hospital. "Her health is not in danger. She is very calm given the shock she suffered," Ben Imani told Reuters.com at Moroni's El Marouf hospital. The girl is expected to be flown home to France on a ministerial plane, AFP reports.

The head of the rescue team in the Comoros also told RTL the teenager survived astonishing odds. "It is truly, truly, miraculous," said Ibrahim Abdoulazeb. "The young girl can barely swim."

BlackBerry Tour lands at Verizon on July 12; $199.99

RIM’s BlackBerry Tour, the world phone that looks and feels equal parts BlackBerry Bold and Storm, is officially landing at Verizon Wireless stores on July 12.

The Tour (pictured above, right) is being released later this summer, and will be offered through Verizon and Sprint. The Curve 8900 (pictured above, left) was recently released for T-Mobile. The Tour is a tiny bit larger than the 8900, with only a 20 gram difference in weight.

The Tour and Curve 8900 do differ in the keyboard. It’s really a matter of preference which type of keyboard you find easiest to type on, but I thought the Tour was a little more fluid. The typing was smooth and natural. The Tour has the same keyboard as the BlackBerry Bold. As you can see in the above photo, the Tour’s keys aren’t separated like they are on the 8900. They have a little groove on each key, which makes it so your finger doesn’t slip off onto the adjacent key.
You can expect it towards the end of the summer, although there’s no official release date right now.