National: President Obama jumped into the debate about the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case saying, “There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.”  The President said, “You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago.” He said that Americans need to do some “soul searching” on the matter of racism.

• The San Francisco medical examiner confirms that one of three people who died as a result of the Asiana air crash was run over and killed by a fire truck. Sixteen-year-old Ye Meng Yuan got away from the plane but then was covered by firefighting foam and run over. The fire chief said, “There’s not a lot of words to describe how badly we feel, how sorry we feel.”

Spy Vs. Spy: The former Milan station chief of the CIA is on his way to the US after being detained in Panama, according US authorities. He’s a wanted man in Italy. In 2009 Robert Lady was convicted in absentia by an Italian court, along with 22 other Americans, for the abduction of an Egyptian cleric in 2003. Abu Omar the subject of “extraordinary rendition”, was kidnapped and sent back to Egypt where he is believed to have been tortured. The Italians want to put Lady in prison, but they don’t have an extradition treaty with Panama.

World: Israel announced it will release some Palestinian prisoners as a measure of good faith to re-start peace talks. Some have been held for decades. Israel refused to stop building settlements as a condition for talks.

Better Late: DNA has confirmed that long time Boston Strangler suspect Albert DeSalvo was in fact the killer of one of the 11 strangler victims. DNA from DeSalvo’s exhumed body matches DNA found on the strangler’s last victim, Mary Sullivan, who was raped and murdered in 1964.

Fatal Ride: A woman riding the Texas Giant roller coaster last night fell to her death. Witnesses at the Six Flags amusement park in Arlington said the woman’s safety bar popped open when the ride took a steep drop.

Released: Proving that the Russian justice system might be crazier than Florida’s, an appeals court ruled that dissident Alexei Navalny should be released because holding him in prison denies him the right to continue as a candidate for mayor of Moscow. Navalany was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday on what many consider to be trumped up charges of embezzlement.

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