3,500-year-old cypress tree killed by fire in Florida

LONGWOOD, Fla. — One of the world’s oldest cypress trees was destroyed by a fire of unknown origin Monday morning, but an investigator is convinced it was not the work of an arsonist.

An investigator with the state Division of Forestry has listed the cause of the fire as “undetermined,” but has ruled out arson as the cause, said Cliff Frazier, a spokesman for that agency.

Frazier said he could not speculate on a cause and said the investigation is ongoing.

The county parks department says ring samples showed the tree was roughly 3,500 years old.

Firefighters responded to the park about 5:50 a.m. and had to run more than 800 feet of hoses through the woods to reach the fire.

At about 7:45 a.m., a 20-foot section of the top of the tree fell off, Seminole County Fire Rescue spokesman Steve Wright said. By 8:15 a.m., more of the tree had collapsed.

“It’s a nightmare,” he said.

Later, a sheriff’s helicopter was used to dump water on the smoldering tree.

The tree, which was hollow, burned for several hours from the inside out, Wright said.

Arson was initially suspected. There was no lightning in the area Monday morning and there is no electrical wiring in the area of the tree.

The tree was officially named “The Senator,” most in Central Florida simply called it “The Big Tree.”

US attorney general vows to enforce Voting Rights Act

LOS ANGELES — U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday pledged to use the full force of the Justice Department to defend the Voting Rights Act, one of the keystones of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Speaking in Columbia, S.C., on the federal holiday honoring the birth of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Holder defended the goals of the Voting Rights Act. The law prohibited practices that prevented African-Americans from going to the polls, and it gave federal agencies new powers to ensure that voting was more accessible. It went into effect in 1965 and has be en extended four times, most recently in 2006.

“Protecting the right to vote, ensuring meaningful access, and combating discrimination must be viewed, not only as a legal issue, but as a moral imperative,” Holder said, according to prepared remarks distributed by the Justice Department. “And ensuring that every eligible citizen has the right to vote must become our common cause.

“Let me assure you, for today’s Department of Justice, our commitment to strengthening — and to fulfilling — our nation’s promise of equal opportunity and equal justice has never been stronger, “ he said later.

Holder spoke at a rally protesting South Carolina’s voter identification law, which the Justice Department has blocked, arguing that it violates the Voting Rights Act. He spoke just days before Saturday’s South Carolina GOP presidential primary.

Study: Babies try lip-reading in learning to talk

WASHINGTON — New research suggests babies don’t learn to talk just from hearing sounds — they’re lip-readers, too.

It happens during that magical stage when a baby’s babbling gradually changes from gibberish into syllables and eventually into that first “mama” or “dada.”

Florida scientists discovered that starting around age 6 months, babies begin shifting from the intent eye gaze of early infancy to studying mouths when people talk to them. Once they master the lip movements, they apparently shift back to look you in the eye again.

The research offers more evidence that quality face-time with your tot is very important for speech development — more than, say, turning on the latest baby DVD.

It appears in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Signatures gathered to force Wis. governor recall election

MADISON, Wis. — Supporters of a push to oust Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker from office are prepared to declare victory in their effort to force the Republican into a recall election. But a problem looms for Democrats: They still don’t know who would run against him.

Recall organizers say they have gathered far more than the 540,208 signatures required to force the election against both Walker and GOP Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and will submit their petitions Tuesday.

Walker has meanwhile dominated the state’s airwaves with ads defending his agenda, including the law enacted last year that ended nearly all collective bargaining rights for most public workers and spurred the recall effort in the first place.

He’s also crisscrossed the country raising millions of dollars, taking full advantage of both the conservative rock star persona built as he put Wisconsin at the center of the national labor rights debate and a quirk in state law allowing those targeted for recall to ignore normal contribution limits until an election date is set.

Al-Qaida in Yemen captures town south of capital

SANAA, Yemen — A band of al-Qaida militants took full control on Monday of a town 100 miles south of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, overrunning army positions, storming the local prison and freeing at least 150 inmates.

The capture of the town of Radda expanded already significant territorial conquests by the militants, who have taken advantage of the weak central government and political turmoil roiling the nation for the past year during an anti-regime uprising inspired by Arab Spring revolts.

Authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently agreed to step down after months of resisting the protests against his 33-year rule. But he remains a powerful force within the country and a spark for ongoing unrest.

Al-Qaida in Yemen had previously taken control of a string of towns in the mostly lawless south. But its capture of Radda is particularly important because it gives the militants a territorial foothold closer than ever before to the capital, where many sleeper cells of the terror network are thought to be located.