World/Nation Briefs July 3, 2013

Bolivian leader's flight rerouted; no Snowden aboard

VIENNA - The plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was rerouted to Austria after France and Portugal refused to let it cross their airspace because of suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board, Bolivian officials said Tuesday.

Officials in both Austria and Bolivia said that Snowden was not on the plane, which was taking Morales home from a summit in Russia, where he had suggested that his government would be willing to consider granting asylum to the American.

A furious Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said France and Portugal would have to explain why they canceled authorization for the plane, claiming that the decision had put the president's life at risk.

"We don't know who invented this lie" that Snowden was traveling with Morales, Choquehuanca said in La Paz. "We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales."

He said that after France and Portugal canceled authorization for the flight, Spain's government allowed the plane to be refueled in its territory. From there the plane flew on to Vienna.

Egypt's president defiantly says he won't step down

CAIRO - His fate hanging in the balance, embattled President Mohammed Morsi vowed not to resign Tuesday, hours before a deadline to yield to the demands of millions of protesters or see the military suspend the constitution, disband parliament and install a new leadership.

The Islamist leader demanded that the powerful armed forces withdraw their ultimatum, saying he rejected all "dictates" - from home or abroad. Outside on the streets, the sense that both sides are ready to fight to the end sharpened, with clashes between his supporters and opponents that left at least 23 dead, most of them in a single incident of fighting outside Cairo University.

In an emotional speech aired live to the nation, Morsi, who a year ago was inaugurated as Egypt's first freely elected president, pledged to protect his "constitutional legitimacy" with his life. He accused loyalists of his ousted autocratic predecessor Hosni Mubarak of exploiting the wave of protests to topple his regime and thwart democracy.

Morsi's defiant statement showed that he and his Muslim Brotherhood are prepared to run the risk of challenging the army. It also entrenches the lines of confrontation between his Islamist supporters and Egyptians angry over what they see as his efforts to impose control by his Muslim Brotherhood and his failures to deal with the country's multiple problems.

Investigators to examine why 19 men died in fire

PRESCOTT, Ariz. - Shortly before flames engulfed his comrades, the Hotshot firefighters' lookout radioed his team that the blaze had shifted direction with the wind and that he was fleeing for safety.

The harrowing experience of the elite crew's lone survivor was detailed Tuesday by a Prescott fire official, who also defended his department's actions in the tragedy that killed 19 firefighters.

The deaths raised questions over whether the crew should have been pulled out much earlier and if standard precautions would have made any difference in the face of triple-digit temperatures, erratic winds and tinderbox conditions. Investigators who arrived from around the U.S. will examine what caused the nation's biggest loss of firefighters since 9/11.

Violent wind gusts Sunday turned what was believed to be a relatively manageable lightning-ignited forest fire in the tiny town of Yarnell into a death trap that left no escape for the team.

Statement tossed as Zimmerman trial continues

SANFORD, Fla. - A judge tossed out a Florida police detective's statement that he found George Zimmerman credible in his description of fighting with Trayvon Martin, a decision that could benefit prosecutors who are trying to discredit the defendant's self-defense claims.

Other efforts by prosecutors to attack Zimmerman's version of events on Tuesday included the cross examination of a friend he called after shooting Martin and the testimony of a doctor who found the defendant's injuries to be insignificant. They also sought to introduce school records that indicate the neighborhood watch volunteer had studied the state's self-defense law, in another swipe at his truthfulness.

Prosecutors took the unusual step of trying to pick apart the statements of a Sanford, Fla., police investigator they had called as a prosecution witness because some of what he said appeared to help the defense. Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda asked the judge to strike Detective Chris Serino's statement that he thought Zimmerman was credible when he described how he got into a fight with Martin. Serino was the lead investigator on the case.

The initial lack of an arrest by the Sanford police following the death of Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in February 2012 led to protests across the nation and spurred a debate about race and the laws of self-defense. Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is from Peru. Sanford's police chief was fired months later, and a Florida special prosecutor charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder.

- The Associated Press