Washington, DC, United States (4E) – A U.S. Federal Appeals Court for the District of Columbia anonymously ruled that photos of the corpse of al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden can continued to be kept as classified, rejecting Judicial Watch’s lawsuit to release them for public.

Judicial Watch, a watchdog group demanded the release of 52 bin Laden photos after Navy SEALs killed him in Pakistani town of Abottabad two years ago – a call the intelligence agency had out rightly rejected.

The CIA argued that the photos were classified top secret, but an unconvinced watchdog filed a lawsuit against the CIA.

In his decision, the court, however, said that the “CIA’s declarations give reason to believe that releasing images of American military personnel burying the founder and leader of al Qaeda could cause exceptionally grave harm.”

“It is undisputed that the government is withholding the images not to shield wrongdoing or avoid embarrassment, but rather to prevent the killing of Americans and violence against American interests,” the court wrote in its decision.

Washington, United States (4E) – The United States Department of Treasury on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on 20 Iranian individuals and entities over the Islamic state’s continued defiance over its weapon and nuclear programs.

In a written statement, the Department slammed the individuals and enterprises for providing essential services and supplies to the country’s nuclear and weapons programs.

Among the sanctioned individuals are Seifollah Jashnsaz, Chairman of Naftiran Intertrade Company and Director of Hong Kong Intertrade Company and Petro Suisse Intertrade Company SA.

Five more individuals holding leadership positions in the energy sector have also been targeted.

The sanctions means no Americans will be allowed to any kind of trading with these individuals and entities.

Dallas, TX, United States (4E) – Majority of members of Boy Scouts of America (BSA) voted on Thursday to allow gay youths to join the organization but kept its ban on openly gay scout leaders.

More than 60 percent of 1,400 members of the BSA national council supported by secret voting a resolution “to remove the restriction denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone” during their annual assembly at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine. The new policy takes effect in January 2014.

The BSA issued a statement saying it won’t let the issue on gay members to affect its mission to serve young people and help them grow into good and strong citizens.

Supporters of the lifting of the ban on gay scouts cheered the new policy while opponents threatened to bolt from the group. The Mormon church, National Jewish Committee on Scouting, the Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist Association and Metropolitan Community Church had urged the repeal of the gay ban. Opposed to the lifting of the gay ban are Assemblies of God; 19,000 former Scouts, leaders and parents; and the Family Research Council.

Some are not fully satisfied with the new policy. Self-confessed lesbian Jennifer Tyrrell said it will take some time for the ban of scout leaders to also be lifted. The mother of an 8-year-old cub scout was ousted as den leader in April 2012 over her sexual orientation. Tyrrell said she will not allow her son to rejoin the BSA to prevent him from being exposed to the organization’s message that same-sex families are not normal.

Former Eagle Scout James Dale, who sued BSA to lift the gay ban, said discrimination will continue as gay members will no longer be welcomed when they turn 18. Like Tyrrel, Dale, 42, was fired as an assistant scoutmaster for coming out of the closet in college.

New York, NY, United States (4E) – Sears Holdings Corp. reported a loss in its fiscal first quarter as the company posted weak revenue and margins and due to huge gain on asset sales in the comparable period last year.

Sears Holdings Corp., controlled by hedge-fund titan Edward Lampert, recorded a quarterly loss of $279mn, dragged down by costs linked to discontinued store operations and severance costs.

The cold weather and the 2 percent rise in the payroll tax hurt sales in the latest quarter, according to Chief Financial Officer Robert Schriesheim in a conference call on Thursday. Sears chain saw same-store sales drop by 2.4 percent while discount store Kmart fell 4.6 percent.

The company’s three-year-old rewards program, which has contributed to 60 per cent of revenue at Sears and Kmart, is becoming an important part of the company’s strategy to boost sales, which have dropped for 25 consecutive quarterly periods.

In 2011, Sears announced plans to close more than 100 stores and sell a handful of others in a bid to end years of declining same-store sales.

Weakness in the domestic economy has hit demand for the retailer in recent quarters. Total U.S. same-store sales fell 3.6 percent as the nation had a cooler spring in the latest period than last year, according to the company’s statement.

Cleveland, OH, United States (4E) – Several Ohio restaurants and one in Pennsylvania is offering free burger for life to Charles Ramsey, the man who helped a kidnapped woman and her daughter escape from a Cleveland home, where two other women missing for 10 years were also found.

The offer was in tribute to Ramsey’s heroics that ended the 10-year ordeal of Amanda Berry, Gina De Jesus and Michelle Knight as sex slaves of their alleged abductor, Ariel Castro.

He apparently cut short his burger meal upon hearing the cries of help from Berry inside Castro’s home and broke the door open on May 6. Berry then called 911 to report the kidnapping and police later rescued de Jesus and Knight from the house.

Castro has been jailed and charged with kidnapping the women from the time they were still teenagers and for raping them over the years.

Among the restaurants that reportedly offered the lifetime burger reward to Ramsey were AMP 150 at the Marriott Cleveland Airport; Washington Place Bistro and Inn in Little Italy; Fahrenheit in Tremont; Market Garden Brewery, Bier Markt, Bar Cento and Nano Brew in Ohio City; Welshfield Inn in Troy Township; Hodges and Pura Vida in downtown Cleveland; 87 West at Crocker Park in Westlake; Orchard House restaurant in Brunswick; Flour restaurant in Moreland Hills; and Allegheny Grille in Foxburg, Pennsylvania.

Hodges, where Ramsey works as a dishwasher, first honored Ramsey by creating and adding a Ramsey Burger in its menu, according to the restaurant’s chef-co-owner Chris Hodgson. Hodgson’s partner, Scott Kuhn of Driftwood Restaurant Group, then thought of a bigger tribute for Ramsey: he’ll be given a “Chuck Card” which he can show at the said restaurants anytime to get a free burger meal.

Chicago, IL, United States (4E) – An Illinois non-profit group’s delivery via courier DHL Express of 30,000 pizza to American troops in Afghanistan last summer has been recognized as a world record.

Pizza 4 Patriots sent the 12-inch Great Kitchens pizzas to service members in Kandahar, Bagram and Camp Bastion in celebration of Independence Day. The delivery was started June 21 and arrived on July 4, 2012. The U.S. Armed Forces distributed the pizza to the bases in Afghanistan.

Pizza 4 Patriots founder, retired Air Force master sergeant Mark Evans, said the Guinness Book of World Records officially recognized the delivery in April and notified him this month. But he said the record is secondary to the group’s goal of taking care of soldiers.

The pizza delivery was funded through donations to Pizza 4 Patriots.

For this year, the group sent 21,000 pizzas to soldiers serving abroad during the Super Bowl.

Evans said they are raising enough money to send 125,000 pizzas to troops across the world for July’s Independence Day.

Washington, DC, United States (4E) – Sales of new homes jumped in April, while prices climb to record high, a signal that spring selling season is underway amid signs of a more robust housing market.

A new home’s median price has reached a record-high $271,600 in April, while a new home’s average price hit $330,800, which is also a record high, according to the report by the Commerce Department released on Thursday.

Data from the National Association of Realtors shows home re-sales or existing homes have a median price of $192,800 in April, which is the highest level since August 2008, although 16.3 percent below its peak in 2006.

The number of new homes listed for sale last month was 156,000, adjusted for seasonal factors, the biggest figure since October 2011. At current rate of sales, that supply would last 4.1 months.

The rise in price comes amid a spring selling season, which is traditionally the biggest time of the year for builders, as home buyers rush in to buy before the start of the next school year. The latest home sales report shows that builders are on target in April to sell 454,000 homes in 2013.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress that the housing market has gained strength over the past year, boosted by low mortgage rates and improved consumer confidence.

Orlando, FL, United States (4E) – A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent on Wednesday shot and killed a man linked to Boston bomb suspect during an interrogation in the US state of Florida.

The FBI said that the man under interrogation started a “violent confrontation” in which the agent suffered “non-life threatening injuries” during his questioning in Orlando, Florida.

The FBI did not formally reveal the man’s identity but a local Orlando Sentinel newspaper said that he was 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev.

Todashev reportedly knew Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a police clash, days after the deadly blasts. He apparently shared common hobby of mixed martial-arts fighting with Tamerlan.

Washington, DC, United States (4E) – The number of Americans applying for new unemployment benefits dropped last week by more than expected, an indication that the labor market is slowly improving.

In the week ended May 18, jobless claims fell by 23,000 to 340,000, according to data from the Labor Department released Thursday in Washington. This is lower than the median estimate of 345,000 by 50 economists in a survey by Bloomberg News. A spokesman for the Labor Department said that there was nothing special in the data and there were no estimates for the states.

Falling dismissals also resulted for the broader measure of layoffs to hit its lowest level in five years. The four-week moving average of claims, which excludes the volatility of the week-to-week reading, fell by 500 to 339,500 from the revised figure of 340,000 in the previous week.

The decline in claims could lay the groundwork for the acceleration in hiring should the economy hurdle the automatic federal budget cuts that are seen to slow down growth. On Wednesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said there was still weakness in the labor market, which means policy makers will likely keep the Fed’s asset purchase program aimed to keep borrowing costs low and boost growth.

For the week ended May 11, claims were revised upward from 360,000 to 363,000. Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 per cent in April, the lowest rate since 2008.

San Francisco, CA, United States (4E) – After officially announcing the purchase of blog content website Tumblr, Yahoo continued its shopping spree. The online giant purchased gaming arena PlayerScale. The details of the purchase are still being finalized, but PlayerScale CEO Jesper Jensen officially announced the merger on the company’s website.

“Our goal has always been to help developers build the best possible games, without having to worry about building and scaling the infrastructure required to operate today’s biggest successes. In working with the folks at Yahoo, it has become clear that we share this passion,” he said.

PlayerScale was founded in 2011 and it now serves 150 million users in the world. An estimated 400, 000 new users sign up daily.

Jensen believes that Yahoo will provide its products instant search and visibility online.

“With Yahoo’s backing, we can crank out awesome products and improvements to our platform faster than ever before. We will continue to support our existing product and deliver new services to help you grow and manage your success in cross-platform gaming — whether it’s casual, social or mobile,” PlayerScale’s CEO Jensen added.

Aside from acquiring Tumblr and PlayerScale, Yahoo chief executive officer Marissa Mayer also bought news-summarizing app Summly, Stamped, and OnTheAir.