World/Nation

Zimmerman involved inanother shooting

LAKE MARY, Fla. - George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who has had a series of run-ins with girlfriends, his ex-wife and random strangers since killing an unarmed black teenager, narrowly missed getting shot Monday after a mysterious dispute.

The dispute this time was with the same man that authorities said was involved in a road rage incident with Zimmerman last year. A bullet missed his head, spraying glass from the vehicle's windshield, said his attorney, Don West. He said the bullet lodged somewhere in the vehicle. He was treated at a hospital and released.

No charges were immediately filed against either man.

Lake Mary Police Officer Bianca Gillett said during a news conference Monday that Matthew Apperson called 911 to report the shooting shortly after Zimmerman flagged down an officer to say someone had shot at him. Both Zimmerman and Apperson have yet to be interviewed formally by investigators, she said.

"We have not determined how or why the incident or altercation began," Gillett said.

Kerry makes first Russia visit since Ukraine crisis

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State John Kerry departed Monday for Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin, on his first visit to the country since relations between Washington and Moscow plummeted to post-Cold War lows amid disagreements over Ukraine and Syria.

The State Department said Kerry would meet Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. But in a sign of the considerable strains, the Kremlin said Putin's attendance had yet to be confirmed and the Russian Foreign Ministry previewed the talks by blaming Washington for the breakdown in relations.

"The Obama administration chose the path of scaling back bilateral relations, proclaimed a course of isolating Russia on the international arena and demanded that those states that traditionally follow the lead of Washington support its confrontational steps," it said in a statement.

Ukraine's crisis, it said, "was largely provoked by the United States itself."

The rhetoric hardly augured well for a breakthrough on any of the many issues dividing the U.S. and Russia. Nevertheless, both sides stressed the importance of trying to work through some of the rancor that buried President Barack Obama's first-term effort to "reset" ties with Moscow.

Mother: Accused police shooter had drug problem

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Marvin Banks' drug use and drinking had worsened in recent years and he was hearing voices in his head.

His mother said she had hoped he would get help. He didn't, and now he is charged with capital murder in the deaths of two police officers in Mississippi. His girlfriend and brother are charged as accessories and a friend faces an obstruction charge.

Banks' mother, Mary Smith, said when she saw the booking photos of her 26-year-old son, she knew something was off.

"He was sick and out of his head and I tried to get him some help," she said on the steps of the Forrest County Courthouse, where she had gone to find out more information about her sons' arrest.

Marvin Banks had been smoking synthetic marijuana, known as spice, every day.

UN experts say Paraguay failed to protect girl

ASUNCION, Paraguay - Paraguay's government has failed to protect a 10-year-old rape victim who is being denied an abortion, United Nations human rights experts said on Monday.

In a statement released in Geneva, the four experts said Paraguay has refused to provide treatment to save the life of the girl, who is five months pregnant, "including safe and therapeutic abortion in a timely manner."

The case has set off a national debate in Paraguay where abortion is banned in all cases - even rape - except when the mother's life is in danger.

"The Paraguayan authorities' decision results in grave violations of the rights to life, to health, and to the physical and mental integrity of the girl as well as her right to education, jeopardizing her economic and social opportunities," the experts said.

The World Health Organization said such child pregnancies can be dangerous, potentially leading to complications and death.

Super PACs fill void in 2016 presidential race

WASHINGTON - When Hillary Rodham Clinton takes the stage at fundraisers thrown by a group that wants to elect her president, she's not presented as a White House candidate. She's a "special guest."

When Jeb Bush raises money for a group preparing to run major parts of his all-but-certain presidential campaign, he doesn't ask for the cash himself.

And the hundreds of millions these groups will raise? They have to spend it without talking strategy with the candidates and campaigns they support.

The groups are called super PACs, and their influence in selecting the next president will be without precedent. Born out of two Supreme Court decisions in 2010, they are governed by rules some see as a game of winks and nods, enforced by an agency bedeviled by partisan gridlock.

As with most things in Washington, there's not even agreement on whether they are a problem to solve, or are a solution to celebrate.

- The Associated Press