PORTLAND, Maine – A two-time “American Idol” contestant from Maine is facing a domestic abuse charge after a police officer saw her hit her husband.
A police report says 25-year-old Jessica Candage of Yarmouth was spotted Sunday evening by a Portland officer who said it appeared she was preventing her husband from walking toward him. The officer then saw Candage punch her husband, Craig, in the face several times.
Craig Candage told the Portland Press Herald the incident was his fault and his wife shouldn’t have been charged.
Jessica Candage competed on “American Idol” under the stage name Jessica Cunningham. She twice made it to the final 24. When last voted off the show, she responded to the judges’ rejection by delivering a two-fisted, obscene gesture.
She’s due in court June 30.
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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

In April, I crossed into remote central Sudan’s Nuba Mountains and found a land back on the brink of a forgotten war. Since then, the war has returned, and reports from the ground indicate mass atrocities repeating themselves. With the world preoccupied with dividing Sudan into two new countries next month following South Sudan’s January referendum for independence, international leaders are understandably reluctant to become involved in yet another crisis in Sudan. But the world might not have much of a choice.

Unlike the Darfur conflict of the past eight years, which targeted rebellious Muslim non-Arabs in the western portion of the country, those in the crosshairs this time are the Nuba people, a religiously-diverse group of African tribes that dot the bouldered slopes of central Sudan’s Nuba Mountain range with mud hut villages. Roaming the surrounding plains are their longtime neighbors, Arab cattle herders. Normally, these two groups could co-exist peacefully. But in north Sudan’s political cauldron, this arrangement has proven toxic. (See photos of Sudan going to the polls.)

The Sudanese government’s Arabist policies and conservative political Islam serve as potent tools for keeping power in the hands of a small few tribes. But marginalized non-Arab groups in north Sudan – the Fur and Zaghawa in Darfur, the Funj and Uduk in Blue Nile, and Beja in the East, and the Nuba in South Kordofan – have fought back. After the loss of the south’s oil reserves, the stability of President Omar al-Bashir’s regime and its grip on power could be severely weakened. If the past week is any indication, the end result could be an implosion of north Sudan from the edges.

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LIMA (Reuters) – Left-wing former army commander Ollanta Humala was leading the right-wing daughter of a jailed ex-president in Peru’s presidential election, exit polls showed on Sunday after a bitter campaign to lead the surging economy.

Humala was ahead by between 2.6 and 3 percentage points, three polling firms said after counting samples of official ballots. Their exit polls earlier showed him with a lead of at least 5 percentage points over lawmaker Keiko Fujimori.

Analysts said it was still too early to rule out a vote recount with the election too close to call, although Humala’s followers were already celebrating.

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ORLANDO, Fla. – Strikingly different portrayals of what type of mother a woman accused of killing her daughter was are emerging at her murder trial in central Florida.

Two-year-old Caylee Anthony was last seen June 16, 2008. Prosecutors said Caylee died from three pieces of duct tape being placed over her mouth and nose, while the attorney for the mother, 25-year-old Casey Anthony, has claimed the toddler accidentally drowned in her grandparents’ pool.

Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death. She has pleaded not guilty.

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ORLANDO (Reuters) – On the day her 2-year-old daughter died in June 2008, Casey Anthony moved in with her boyfriend and gave no indication that anything was wrong, the now-former boyfriend testified on Wednesday.

Tony Lazzaro, 24, said they went to a video store that evening, where a surveillance camera caught them browsing with their arms wrapped around each other. The next day, Lazzaro skipped school and said he and Casey “stayed in my bedroom.”

Prosecutor Frank George asked Lazzaro how Casey seemed.

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