NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) - A judge ordered Joshua Komisarjevsky to be executed this summer for the 2007 murders of a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in Connecticut, saying on Friday that he committed a crime of "unimaginable horror." Judge Jon Blue told Komisarjevsky, 31, that he alone was to blame for his new address on death row after the triple murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, and beating of husband and father Dr. William Petit Jr. ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday said it was expanding its main foreclosure prevention program and pushing to open it up to loans backed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a joint announcement, the U.S. Treasury and Housing and Urban Development departments proposed using money from the Home Affordable Modification Program to provide incentives for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce loan principal. Currently, the $50 billion HAMP program only covers costs for reducing principal on bank-held loans. ...
SEATTLE (Reuters) - A serial thief nicknamed the "Barefoot Bandit" was sentenced on Friday in Seattle to 6-1/2 years in prison for his guilty plea to federal charges stemming from a sensational, two-year crime spree as a sometimes-shoeless teenage runaway. The federal judge also ordered that Colton Harris-Moore, 20, who read a statement in court apologizing for his crimes with "acceptance, humility and remorse," serve his federal sentence concurrently with a state term he received in December of more than seven years. ...