A smoking ban in San Francisco could soon mean cleaner skies over The City by the Bay, but only a portion of the people that light up in Northern California will be affected. Lawmakers want to ban outdoor smoking - but not for medical pot patients.

San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar is asking the city's Board to wrap their brains around a ban that would prohibit people from smoking cigarettes at outdoor events held on city property, such as street fairs, festivals and other open-air events that require permits. If the proposal is passed in its current form, though, those wanting to take a match to marijuana joints won't be pressed with penalties.

Mar says that the proposal is necessary to nix the dangerous toll that comes from inhaling secondhand cigarette smoking. As far as marijuana goes - which is legal for medicinal purposes in parts of the US, such as San Francisco - the supervisor doesn't see a problem.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has spoken out against the verdict handed to controversial punk band Pussy Riot, saying he believed the time they spent behind bars before and during the trial was punishment enough.

"I feel that extending the prison time [for the band members] in this case is counterproductive," Medvedev said at a United Russia Party meeting in the Russian city of Penza. "In my opinion, probation would have been sufficient punishment, considering all the time they've already spent behind bars."

Last month, a Moscow court sentenced three members of the feminist punk band to two years each in a medium-security prison on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and enmity.

The controversial film Innocence of Muslims, which portrays the prophet Muhammad as a child molester, has outraged Muslims worldwide. But offensive passages were dubbed in after filming, and the crew says the producer lied about his objectives.

The now-notorious movie essentially claims Muhammad was a fraud, portraying Islam's holiest figure as a womanizer who approved of pedophilia, among other things.

But a statement purportedly written on behalf of the film's crew says its producer "took advantage" of the team.

"The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," the statement, published by CNN, reads. "We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."

An actress who played a role in the movie told Gawker she was given no signs as to the true end product of the film, which had the working title Desert Warriors and was supposed to be set thousands of years before Muhammad lived.

"It wasn't based on anything to do with religion, it was just on how things were run in Egypt," Cindy Lee Garcia said. "There wasn't anything about Muhammad or Muslims or anything."

The name Muhammad was dubbed into the film's audio track during post-production, along with just about every other reference to Islam, offensive or not.

New York - A 73-year-old woman who told police she was raped in Central Park says the man asked her if she remembered him before the attack.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the woman told police she thinks her assailant may have been a man she photographed exposing himself in the park days earlier.

She told police she was attacked at about 11 a.m. Wednesday in a wooded area near the park's tranquil Strawberry Fields that serves as a memorial to John Lennon.

After sexually assaulting her, the man made off with her backpack that contained a camera, police said.

Eric Ozawa, a college professor and birdwatcher, found the woman and called 911.

Authorities released surveillance images of the suspect, wearing black pants, a black T-shirt and white sneakers.

Source: The Associated Press

New York - A New York federal judge shot down part of a controversial anti-terror law Wednesday that journalists and scholars worry could see them locked up indefinitely for speaking their minds.

Judge Katherine Forrest issued a ruling that permanently blocked a section of the National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Barack Obama at the end of last year authorizing the detention of US citizens accused of supporting terror groups.

The suit was brought by activists, including former New York Times journalist Chris Hedges and outspoken academic Noam Chomsky, who said the law was vague and could be used to curtail reporters' and other civilian citizens' right to free speech guaranteed under the US Constitution's First Amendment.

It was a typical day at one of the hospitals here in Aleppo, a typical three hours, to be even more specific. Children seemed to be everywhere, on hospital beds, in the hospital lobby and waiting with listless faces outside the clinic. Blood seemed to seep through every piece of clothing they had. Some, as young as three, composed themselves as needles pierced their skin to stitch up deep wounds.

Mohamed, 13, tried hard not to cry as he lay on a hospital bed, wincing in pain from the injury he'd sustained after a shell landed near the breadline where he had waited for hours. No one knew he'd been hurt yet and his cousin arrived only thirty minutes later to transfer him to another hospital.

More civilians flooded in, and those who were conscious had a resigned look of acceptance - this was just what happened now these days.

New York - Three people were injured in a stabbing on the escalator of a subway station in Queens Wednesday morning.

Earlier reports indicated as many as 7 people stabbed.

An MTA spokesman said that Dina Saint-Fleur, 25, slashed at least two people after getting into a dispute on a J Train around 8:45 a.m.

The argument continued while they were riding the escalator on the way up to the street.

Princess Llsop, 24, Antione Roddy, 34, and Andres Nova, 42, were injured in the attack. Llsop and Roddy are a couple, an MTA spokesman said, and were arguing with Saint-Fleur on the train. Nova fell during the incident on the escalator, and his injuries may have come as a result of the fall.

Zanesville, Ohio - A woman charged in the gruesome killing of another woman found covered in burns and wailing in agony by the side of a rural road has admitted she had a part in the death and says she wants "to be a human being again."

Katrina Marie Culberson, who pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the killing, spoke to The Zanesville Times Recorder in a jailhouse interview over the weekend, admitting to having a role in the death of her friend Celeste Fronsman.

A driver found Fronsman, 29, on a road near Zanesville in eastern Ohio on Aug. 26. She had been raped and burned and had a strap around her neck. She died two days later at a Columbus hospital.

A coroner ruled Fronsman's death a homicide, but the exact cause of death could take more than a month to determine because of severe burns to 80 percent of her body.

Culberson, 20, and two others have been charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping and aggravated arson. Monica Jean Washington, 24, also pleaded not guilty to the charges in Muskingum County Common Pleas Court.

Another suspect, 33-year-old LaFonse Darney Dixon, was indicted Wednesday on those same charges and two additional conspiracy charges alleging that he planned or helped plan the crime. His first court hearing is set for next week.

Karachi, Pakistan - Fire ravaged a textile factory complex in the commercial hub of Karachi early Wednesday, killing almost 300 workers trapped behind locked doors and raising questions about the woeful lack of regulation in a vital sector of Pakistan's faltering economy.

It was Pakistan's worst industrial accident on record, officials said, and it came just hours after another fire, at a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore, had killed at least 25.

Flames and acrid smoke swept quickly through the cramped textile factory in Baldia Town, a northwestern industrial suburb, creating panic among the hundreds of poorly paid workers who had been making undergarments and plastic tools.

They had few options of escape - every exit but one had been locked, officials said, and the windows were mostly barred. In desperation, some flung themselves from the top floors of the four-story building, sustaining serious injuries or worse, witnesses said. But many others failed to make it that far, trapped by an inferno that advanced mercilessly through a building that officials later described as a death trap.

Rescue workers said most of the victims died of smoke inhalation, and many of the survivors sustained third-degree burns. As firefighters advanced into the wreckage during the day, battling back flames, they found dozens of bodies clumped together in the lower floors.

One survivor, Muhammad Aslam, said he heard two loud blasts before the factory filled first with smoke, then with the desperate screams of his fellow workers. "Only one entrance was open. All the others were closed," he said at a hospital, describing scenes of panic and chaos.

Mr. Aslam, who was being treated for a broken leg, said he saved himself by leaping from a third-floor window.

Hundreds of anguished relatives gathered at the site, many of them sobbing and shouting as they desperately sought news. Some impeded the rescue operation, and baton-wielding police officers tried to disperse the crowd but failed.

There are hundreds of television channels out there, but in one Bucks County community, there could soon be another. People may soon be able to watch a video feed of a police security camera - from their couch.

"I personally don't like being viewed as I'm coming out my door," said Bashean Baxter of Bristol Borough.

Police surveillance cameras are constantly watching you.

"Doesn't bother me one way or the other," said Mary Ann Smoyer.

But what if you had access to what police are viewing?