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The homepage for Twitter.

 

Twitter users send out 200 million tweets each day, according to 2011 statsfrom the social networking service.

During the first half of the year, 1 billion updates hit the site every five days.

For some perspective, Twitter notes on its blog that "the world writes the equivalent of a 10 million-page book in Tweets or 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace."

What are users tweeting about? Here are this year's top trending topics, according to Twitter, grouped by World Events/News and Pop Culture.

World Events/News

1. AH1N1 - Swine Flu

2. Mubarak - former Egyptian president

3. Easter - Christian holiday

4. Cairo - capital of Egypt

5. #prayforjapan - sentiment following the March earthquake and tsunami

6. Chernobyl - site of nuclear disaster in 1986

7. Libia/Libya - site of an ongoing civil war

8. Fukushima - Japanese nuclear power plant

9. William & Kate - Newly named duke and duchess of Cambridge

10. Gadhafi - Libyan political leader

Pop culture

1. Rebecca Black - pop singer

2. Femme Fatale - newly released Britney Spears album

3. Charlie Sheen - actor

4. #tigerblood - hashtag popularized by Charlie Sheen

5. Nate Dogg - rapper

6. Anderson Silva - Brazilian mixed martial artist

7. Tom & Jerry - famous cartoon

8. Mumford & Sons - British rock band

9. Bieber alert - referring to artist Justin Bieber

10. Queen Gaga - referring to artist Lady Gaga

Marine Cpl. Ashley Vice says she and two others have been charged with conspiracy, making false official statements, fraud and adultery for allegedly marrying to collect thousands in financial assistance offered by the military to heterosexual married couples.

"The bottom line is that every Marine knows if they violate the law, they will be held accountable for their actions," 1st Lt. Maureen Dooley, a Marine spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, told CNN.

"Regardless of sexual preference, we will hold all Marines accountable to the same standards."

Dooley would not release details about the case, saying the "investigation is ongoing."

Vice told CNN affiliate KGTV in San Diego that she wanted to live off base with her girlfriend, Jaime Murphy, as a couple. Murphy is a civilian.

But on her salary, she couldn't afford it.

So she says she found a Marine, Jeremiah Griffin, who agreed to marry her so she could receive the $1,200 per month living stipend the Marine Corps gives to married couples living off base.

A year and a half later, Murphy did the same thing and married Marine Joseph Garner, Vice and Murphy told KGTV, according to footage that aired Thursday.

Vice said she was questioned by the Marine Corps about the living arrangements.

"I honestly didn't even try to hide it," she said. "I just said this is what's going on. They asked me who Jaime is ... I told them."

The three Marines are accused of pocketing about $75,000.

"There's no conspiracy here," Murphy told KGTV. "There's no trying to steal from anybody. We just wanted to be together and she wanted to serve her country."

Vice and the two others face up to a year in prison if convicted on all counts. They also face the possibility of a dishonorable discharge, a reduction in rank and forfeiture of all pay.

Retired cop arrested in 1957 slaying of child

Authorities say an unstamped train ticket found among an ex-girlfriend's belongings unraveled a half-century-old alibi and led to the arrest of a Seattle man in connection with the slaying of a 7-year-old Illinois girl in 1957.

Christine Clarridge and Mike Carter

Seattle Times staff reporters

Jack Daniels McCullough, 71, is being held in King County Jail in lieu of $3 million bail and is awaiting extradition to Illinois, according to a statement by the Dekalb County State's Attorney Clay Campbell. He has been charged with murder in the death of Maria Ridulph in Sycamore, Ill.

McCullough, who changed his name from John Tessier in 1994, is a longtime Washington state resident who served as a police officer in Lacey and Milton, according to a document of probable cause. When he was arrested this week, he was working as the night watchman at The Four Freedoms House of Seattle, a 300-unit retirement home in North Seattle, where he lived with his wife.

The disappearance of Maria Ridulph in December 1957 terrorized the community of Sycamore, about 70 miles west of Chicago, and shocked the nation. Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Dwight D. Eisenhower both took an active interest in the case, according to reports.

Maria's 8-year-old friend said the two girls had been playing in a neighbor's front yard when a man named "Johnny" came up and asked to give them a piggyback ride. The friend went inside for a moment, and when she returned, Maria was gone.

Maria's decomposed body was found five months later about 100 miles from her home.

McCullough, who was 18 at the time, was an early suspect but had an alibi, claiming he had been in Chicago when Maria was abducted. The case went cold after he joined the military.

The investigation was reopened last year, according to court documents filed in King County District Court, when police re-interviewed a woman who dated McCullough at the time of the abduction.

The document of probable cause revealed that when investigators last year asked McCullough's ex-girlfriend to look for pictures and other items from their time together, she found an unused and unstamped train ticket from Rockford, Ill., to Chicago.

McCullough had claimed he'd taken the train from Rockford to Chicago on the day of the abduction to enlist in the military, according to the document, which was mistakenly left unsealed and reviewed by a Seattle Times reporter who was not allowed to make a copy.

The unused ticket, dated on the day the girl went missing, poked holes in McCullough's alibi, according to court documents, and refocused attention on McCullough.

"He had been a very good suspect in the beginning. He lived about a block and half away from the victim, he fit the description and his clothes matched, but he had an alibi that he was someplace else," said Donald Thomas, chief of the Sycamore Police Department. "Once his alibi crumbled, we found about a dozen other facts that helped us build our case."

Court documents say investigators discovered that a collect phone call purportedly made by McCullough to his ex-girlfriend from Chicago was actually made from his own home in Sycamore on the day of the girl's abduction. They also discovered he had given a ride to a family member at a time when he should have been on the train, court documents say.

After McCullough got out of the military, he became an officer at the police departments in Lacey and Milton, according to the court documents.

According to the document of probable cause, McCullough was dismissed from the Milton Police Department after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl. It wasn't immediately clear whether he was ever prosecuted. No one could be reached at the Milton Police Department to confirm his employment.

Dawn Gothro, spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems, said McCullough, using the name John Tessier, had withdrawn from Washington state's police pension system in April 1976.

News of his arrest was met with shock and disbelief among residents at The Four Freedoms House of Seattle.

Gaylee Shelton, 73, said McCullough and his wife were well-known throughout the community. He was a "nice guy" who held a disaster-preparedness seminar for residents after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

"In all my life, I never would have guessed," said Rena Rooney, 88, looking over a copy of a brief news article detailing the charges in Illinois. "It's such a shame. He was so good to us."

An 11-year-old Morgan County boy on Friday became the youngest person to face a murder charge in Indiana in about 90 years.

Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega charged the boy with murder and criminal recklessness in the fatal shooting of his 6-year-old brother at a home south of Martinsville.

Initial reports from the Morgan County sheriff's office indicated the shooting may have been accidental, but Sonnega said investigators sometimes discover evidence that leads to an unexpected outcome.

"You always have to keep an open mind, especially with the death of a child," he said. "This is very sad, very tragic, but we've got a job to do, and we have to be objective."

A Morgan Superior Court judge ordered that the circumstances surrounding the shooting be kept confidential, but Sonnega said details might be revealed Wednesday when the boy appears for an initial hearing in juvenile court. The boy was being held in a juvenile detention facility Friday, he said.

The Indianapolis Star does not typically release the names of juveniles charged with crimes unless they are charged in adult court.

The boys were alone when the 6-year-old was shot in the head in a home in the 1800 block of Oliver Court, south of Martinsville, police said.

The 11-year-old called 911 to report the shooting about 6:15 p.m. Thursday.

Officers arrived and found the 6-year-old on a bed in a bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head. The boy was taken to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where he died at 8:03 p.m. Thursday, police said. Judge Christopher Burnham's order after a probable cause hearing Friday barred Sonnega from disclosing details of the case, he said.

The boys were cared for by their mother and her boyfriend, but Sonnega declined to say where the adults were at the time of the shooting. The adults arrived at the hospital before the boy died, police said.

Prosecutors and police were investigating possible neglect charges against the adults, Sonnega said.

"Obviously this is a very tragic time for them. We'll address that issue down the road."

Sonnega said he could not disclose whether the boy was shot with a handgun, rifle or shotgun. He also declined to say if the 11-year-old cooperated with investigators.

Sonnega said the murder and criminal recklessness charges might change as new evidence is discovered.

"There's a lot of things we need to find out," he said. "We've got to err on the side of safety, and we have to act appropriately.

"Murder can be knowingly or intentionally," Sonnega said. "There is a slight difference. Knowingly means when you engage in conduct you know there is a high probability of the outcome."

The prosecutor also asked the question many in the community are wondering: "What is it we're not doing as responsible adults in not teaching gun safety to our children?"

Sonnega said he was disturbed that the community had been rocked by two shootings involving children in about three months. The suspect in a March 25 school shooting, Michael Phelps, waived his right to a jury trial Friday. The victim in that shooting is still recuperating.

Neighbors of the brothers in Thursday's shooting reacted with sadness.

"He (the 6-year-old) was a good kid," neighbor Jessica Purgason said. "He was quiet. He just wanted to play. That's all he was about."

The 11-year-old boy is one of the youngest defendants ever charged with murder in Indiana. In the early 1920s, an 11-year-old was charged with murder and was tried as an adult in Starke County. But he was not convicted.

If Morgan County prosecutors seek to try the boy as an adult in this case, they would have to convince the county's juvenile court judge that there is strong evidence against him, that he can't likely be rehabilitated in the juvenile system, and that waiving him to adult court is in the best interest of the safety and welfare of the community.

Vineland police looking for polite burglar who offered to fix damaged screen door

Press of AtlanticCity