Testimony

ANTAKYA, Turkey - Across Syria and in neighboring Turkey, a small group of lawyers is quietly collecting testimony from Syrians victimized by the vast network of intelligence services that the government has used against the rebellion. They have relayed accusations to rebel-established courts in three Syrian provinces that have issued more than 140 arrest warrants, most for war-related crimes. The lawyers hope the written accusations eventually will be used against senior government officials in an international court, and they say the outstanding warrants include one for President Bashar al-Assad.

CHICAGO - Chicago mobster Frank Calabrese Sr., a hit man who strangled victims and then slashed their throats to be sure they were dead, has died in a federal prison in North Carolina, authorities said. Calabrese, 75, died Tuesday at the Butner Federal Medical Center, said Ed Ross, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Ross had no information on the cause of death, though Calabrese claimed at his sentencing in 2009 that he suffered from a host of ailments, including an enlarged heart.

A Montgomery County jury Wednesday found a Norristown man guilty of killing his 16-year-old girlfriend. After about three hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Brandon Pierce, 20, of first-degree murder and other offenses in connection with the death of 16-year-old Dominique Devlin in July, said Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Nathan Schadler. According to testimony during the trial, which began Nov. 5 before Judge Thomas C. Branca, Devlin was involved in arranging a robbery of Pierce's home.

Testimony wrapped up Friday in the trial of a Colwyn police officer charged with improperly arresting and Tasering a 16-year-old detainee. Cpl. Trevor Parham is accused of using a stun gun on Da'Qwan Jackson on April 23 while the teen was handcuffed and shackled in a holding cell. Parham testified Friday in his defense. Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Kevin R. Kelly, who presided over the nonjury trial, said he would announce his verdict Wednesday. On Thursday, Jackson testified that he was cuffed by Parham and told, "You're being uncooperative.

WASHINGTON - Here's a look at some of the claims made by Vice President Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan during their debate Thursday night: The attack in Libya Biden, on whether the United States should have beefed up security at the U.S. Consulate in Libya before the deadly terrorist attack there: "We weren't told they wanted more security there. " Ryan: "There were requests for more security. " The facts: Ryan is right, judging by testimony from Obama administration officials at a congressional hearing this week.

STATE COLLEGE - The street in front of the tidy courthouse in Bellefonte, about 10 miles from here, is again littered with television satellite trucks and the mechanisms of mass communications. Police survey the scene as night falls, perhaps collecting overtime. Credentials for media members are handed out in an annex building across the street, entitling them to a seat at the Tuesday hearing when Jerry Sandusky will be sentenced. Those hoping for closure are the dreamers. This is not over.

THE DEBRIS FIELD created by the collision of a city police officer on a motorcycle and a drunk driver who been going the wrong way on July 8 "looked like a bomb had gone off on I-95," a state trooper said in court Wednesday. The carnage described by Trooper Charles Burckhardt and video of the scene where Highway Patrol Officer Brian Lorenzo, 48, died instantly were too much for the officer's widow, Linda, who sobbed while being escorted from the preliminary hearing at the Criminal Justice Center.

Kristen Snow remembered how the dew from the grass felt on her skin, how the intense pain in her body forced her into a fetal position, and how the man standing above her pointing a gun at her head wore bifocals. "It felt like forever," the 24-year-old Ridley Township woman told a Delaware County Court jury as she dabbed at her eyes with tissues. James Dellavecchia, 73, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his neighbor Scott Robins, 42, who was shot six times as he left for work on an October morning last year.

The Philadelphia judge who is hearing condemned killer Terrance Williams' bid to stay his Oct. 3 execution has ordered lawyers to argue their positions Tuesday. The decision by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina followed four hours of testimony Monday by Marc Draper, Williams' admitted accomplice in the 1984 murder of Amos Norwood. Draper, who is serving a life term after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against Williams at trial in 1986, told Sarmina that police pressured him to say Norwood's killing happened during a robbery and not because Williams' rage at Norwood for sexual abuse since he was 13. In another development Monday, the state Board of Pardons announced it would vote Thursday on whether to reconsider Williams' plea to commute his death sentence to life without parole.