
Pamela Smart accepts responsibility in husband's 1990 murder for first time
CBSN
Pamela Smart, who is serving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for coordinating with her teenage student to have her husband killed in 1990, has accepted responsibility in his death for the first time.
In her latest plea for New Hampshire officials to reduce her sentence, Smart acknowledged that she previously "deflected blame" instead of recognizing her own part in the murder "because the truth of being so responsible was very difficult" for her, while giving a videotaped statement that was released Tuesday. The statement ended with a request for a meeting with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and the New Hampshire Executive Council, which advises the governor among other duties.
Smart, 56, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with a 15-year-old boy who later fatally shot her husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry, New Hampshire. The shooter was freed in 2015 after serving a 25-year sentence. Though Pamela Smart denied knowledge of the plot, she was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and other crimes and sentenced to life without parole.

A military dog is being hailed as a hero in Colombia after detecting a bomb planted by guerrilla fighters that exploded during a military operation, authorities said, adding that the wounded canine's actions saved the lives of dozens of soldiers and civilians. The incident was announced just two days after a bomb strapped to a donkey exploded in the same area, killing one soldier and wounding two others.

European markets mostly fell Monday as investors digested President Trump's latest trade war salvos, which saw him threaten to hit the European Union and Mexico with 30% tariffs starting on August 1. Mr. Trump's threat came after a series of announcements last week that included warnings of a possible 50% levy on all copper imports and all goods from Brazil, 35% levies on Canadian goods, and a possible 200% tariff on imported pharmaceuticals.

Emergency crews were forced to suspend search operations in Kerr County, Texas, on Sunday, as the area hit hardest by catastrophic flash flooding earlier this month faced a renewed flood threat. Officials in Texas' rural and flood-prone Hill Country have said at least 161 people from the area remain missing in the aftermath of destructive July 4 storms that caused the Guadalupe River to overflow, and efforts to find them are ongoing.

Barbara Rae-Venter, a 76-year-old patent attorney living in Marina, California, thought she'd spend her retirement leisurely playing tennis, traveling, and indulging in her favorite pastime: researching her ancestry and building a family tree. It didn't quite work out that way. For Rae-Venter, something she started as a hobby led to capturing one of the most notorious criminals in California.