Newlywed bride among 5 killed in limousine fire on California bridge; 4 others escaped

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When one of the nine women in his limousine complained about smoke, Orville Brown pulled to the side of a San Francisco Bay bridge to check. As he got out, the back of the vehicle became engulfed in flames.

A newlywed bride and eight of her friends were still inside, but passersby quickly pulled three from the burning Lincoln Town Car late Saturday night. And one woman managed to reach safety by squeezing through the partition from the passenger section to the driver's compartment, Brown told authorities.

But five others, including the bride whose marriage they were celebrating on a girls' night out, became trapped.

The five were found dead as firefighters doused the vehicle — all huddled near the partition, apparently unable to squeeze through.

"My guess would be they were trying to get away from the fire and use that window opening as an escape route," said San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault, who also relayed some of the comments the driver made to investigators.

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Israeli PM visits China, signaling 'business as usual' after twin airstrikes in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel signaled a return to "business as usual" on Monday, a day after its aircraft struck targets in Syria for the second time in 48 hours in an unprecedented escalation of Israeli involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel after a meeting of his security Cabinet and arrived in China for a scheduled visit on Monday, a possible indication that Israel does not expect an immediate retaliation.

Syria and its patron Iran have hinted at possible retribution for the strikes, though the rhetoric in official statements has been relatively muted.

Still, the back-to-back airstrikes, though not officially acknowledged by the Israeli government, raised new concerns about a regional war.

Israeli officials have indicated they will keep trying to block what they see as an effort by Iran to send sophisticated weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia ahead of a possible collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

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Senate to pass online sales tax bill in victory for national retailers; House fate uncertain

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attention online shoppers: The days of tax-free shopping on the Internet may soon end for many of you.

The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on a bill that would empower states to collect sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The measure is expected to pass because it has already survived three procedural votes. But it faces opposition in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase. A broad coalition of retailers is lobbying in favor of it.

Under current law, states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state.

That means big retailers with stores all over the country like Walmart, Best Buy and Target collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet. But online retailers like eBay and Amazon don't have to collect sales taxes, except in states where they have offices or distribution centers.

As a result, many online sales are tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

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Jurors deliberate in Jodi Arias murder trial amid media spectacle attracting fans nationwide

PHOENIX (AP) — It has become a real-life soap opera watched by people around the world and dozens of fanatics who camp out on a Phoenix sidewalk in the middle of the night to get into the show. One seat even sold for $200.

A cable network has set up a stage nearby for daily broadcasts, and the spectacle is routinely among the most heavily trending topics on Twitter. Fans have traveled from all over the U.S. to be close to the action, often seeking out autographs from the key people involved in the case, namely one of the main attractions, prosecutor Juan Martinez.

The star is none other than a small-town waitress and aspiring photographer from Northern California who killed her lover by stabbing him nearly 30 times and shooting him in the head. Jodi Arias has been on trial for first-degree murder since January, and her case has developed an enormous following with its tales of sex, violence and double-crossing.

The jury on Friday began deliberating whether the 32-year-old Arias should be convicted of first-degree murder in the June 4, 2008, death of her on-again-off-again boyfriend Travis Alexander, a motivational speaker and salesman for a legal services company. Prosecutors say Arias showed up at Alexander's house unannounced in the middle of the night, had sex with him on multiple occasions then killed him in his bedroom, slitting his throat from ear to ear and jabbing a knife in his heart before shooting him in the forehead.

Prosecutors have argued throughout the case that Arias was a stalker who killed him because he wanted to end the relationship and was about to take a trip to Mexico with another woman. Arias contends it was self-defense after Alexander lost his temper and body-slammed her to the floor when she dropped his prized new camera. She and her defense lawyers have sought to portray him as an abusive womanizer and sexual deviant.

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Funeral director faces dilemma: cemeteries don't want body of Boston Marathon bomb suspect

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A funeral director trying to find a cemetery to take the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is going next to the city where Tsarnaev lived, but will run into another obstacle: It doesn't want him.

Worcester funeral director Peter Stefan said he plans to ask the city of Cambridge to provide a plot because he hasn't been able to find a cemetery in Massachusetts willing to accept Tsarnaev's remains. He said if Cambridge turns him down, he will seek help from state officials.

Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy said in a statement Sunday that he is urging the funeral director and Tsarnaev's family not to request a burial permit for the city-owned cemetery.

"The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the City of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests, and wide spread media presence at such an interment," Healy said.

The dilemma over where to bury the 26-year-old suspect comes as a friend of his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev heads to court Monday for a bail hearing on charges that he lied to federal investigators after the bombings.

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Adjusting to a new country often more difficult for teens — a factor in the Boston bombings?

CHICAGO (AP) — Anna Tabakh didn't know a word of English. At age 5, a stranger in a strange land, she was en route with her parents from the Soviet Union to a new home in Kansas City, Mo. But she understood the intent when security guards at a New York City airport suspiciously eyed her stuffed animal, a rather rotund plush toy pig.

"They thought we were smuggling diamonds in my stuffed animal friend," Tabakh, now 27, says, recalling how her mom, pleading in broken English, persuaded the guards not to tear apart the toy to search its contents.

Tabakh still has the pig in her New York apartment, "to remind me how far I've come since those first days." The beginning was traumatic, she says, but the transition to American life was relatively smooth — a result that some social scientists would say was partly due to her age.

There is, in fact, a term researchers use to describe young people who, like Tabakh, were born in other countries but came to the U.S. between the ages of 5 and 12 and have a foot in two worlds. They call them "Generation 1.5."

They remember the places they came from but come of age in their new home — and research shows that, while they may struggle at first, many end up adapting better than immigrants who arrive as teenagers.

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So far immigration bill hasn't generated major opposition. Opponents say that will change.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a Senate committee prepares to begin voting this week on far-reaching immigration legislation, advocates are watching warily to see whether opposition, thus far subdued, builds into the same kind of fierce backlash that shut down Congress' last attempt to remake the nation's immigration system.

That time around, in 2007, angry calls overwhelmed the Senate switchboard and lawmakers endured raging town hall meetings and threats from incensed constituents. The legislation ultimately collapsed on the Senate floor.

"I've been through this battle, and it's ugly," said former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who supported the bill. "My phones were jammed for three weeks and I got three death threats, one of which I turned over to the FBI. So it's rough business."

Supporters of the immigration bill, released last month by a group of four Republican and four Democratic senators, have been cautiously optimistic about their prospects because of factors including public support for giving citizenship to immigrants, a large and diverse coalition in support of the bill, and a growing sentiment among Republican leaders that immigration must be dealt with if they are to regain the backing of Hispanic voters. Backers have been working hard to build alliances and strategies aimed at avoiding the mistakes of 2007, when critics largely defined the bill and some supporters ended up turning against it.

Opponents acknowledge that supporters started out better organized and mobilized than last time around, and they also anticipate that outside groups pushing the legislation — including efforts headed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg — will outspend them. Supporters include large and influential groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO and the Catholic Church, while opponents include lesser-known think tanks or advocacy organizations such as NumbersUSA, the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Center for Immigration Studies. Both sides have already begun running ads.

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Murder investigation opens against owner as death toll from Bangladesh accident surpasses 640

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladeshi police are investigating possible murder charges against the owner of a shoddily built factory that collapsed nearly two weeks ago after the wife of a garment worker crushed in the accident filed a complaint.

The legal development comes as officials said Monday that the death toll from the country's worst industrial disaster had reached 645.

Sheuli Akter, the wife of Jahangir Alam, filed the complaint with Dhaka magistrate Wasim Sheikh, saying her husband and other workers were "pushed toward death" by building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana and two others.

Alam was employed in New Wave Styles Ltd., one of the five garment factories housed in the eight-story Rana Plaza that collapsed April 24 as workers started their morning shift even though cracks had developed in the building.

New Wave Styles owner Bazlul Adnan and local government engineer Imtemam Hossain were the two others accused in the case.

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Malaysia's governing coalition wins 13th straight national elections, extending 56-year rule

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's long-governing coalition won national elections with a weakened majority to extend its unbroken, 56-year rule, fending off the strongest opposition it has ever faced but exposing vulnerabilities in the process.

The Election Commission reported that Prime Minister Najib Razak's National Front coalition captured 133 of Malaysia's 222 parliamentary seats Sunday, down slightly from the 135 it held before Parliament was dissolved.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's three-party alliance seized the remaining 89 seats. It even edged the National Front in the popular vote by more than 200,000 of at least 10.5 million ballots cast, according to several initial independent estimates. Opposition activists have long complained of gerrymandering.

It was the National Front's 13th consecutive victory in general elections since independence from Britain in 1957. It faced its most unified challenge ever from an opposition that hoped to capitalize on allegations of arrogance, abuse of public funds and racial discrimination against the government.

Najib urged all Malaysians to accept his coalition's victory. "We have to show to the world that we are a mature democracy," he said.

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Testament to tenacity: NY man nearly finished handwriting King James Bible after 4 years

PHILMONT, N.Y. (AP) — In the beginning, Phillip Patterson decided to write out every word in the Bible.

On empty pages, he wrote of Adam, an ark, locusts, loaves, fishes and the resurrection in his neat, looping cursive. Four years of work begat more than 2,400 pages and left a multitude of pens in its wake. Now, as he copies the last words of the last book, Patterson sees all that he has created.

And it is good.

"I hadn't counted on the fact that it would end up being beautiful," Patterson said. "Or that it would be so exhilarating. And so long."

Patterson, 63, might seem like an unlikely scribe for the King James version of the Bible. Tall and bald with a hearty laugh, the retired interior designer is neither monkish nor zealous. He goes to church but has never been particularly religious. Health issues — including AIDS and anemia — have sent him to the hospital and slowed the work. He relies on two canes and will lean on walls and furniture to get around his apartment near the Massachusetts border.