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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co's program to develop a new refueling tanker is proceeding well, but an aggressive test schedule and Boeing's plan to close the Wichita, Kansas, plant still pose some risks, said the Air Force general in charge of the program. Major General Christopher Bogdan, who runs the $51.7 billion program for the Air Force, said on Thursday he was cautiously optimistic after the program passed a first critical milestone earlier this month, but that there is more hard work ahead. ...

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Debbie and George Sevilis were supposed to get married on Saturday, May 19. Everything was booked. They had saved the date. Then last August they heard that the NATO summit was coming to Chicago, bringing in dozens of political leaders and their entourages including U.S. President Barack Obama. There would be added security, street closures and protests. It was not what the couple had in mind for their big day. Many of their 100 or so guests would be traveling from out of town, and they wanted them to be able to enjoy the city. ...

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TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - Authorities in Mississippi are checking an April incident they say may be related to two highway murders this month that have raised alarms about a killer possibly posing as a police officer. The April 2 incident - which involved a woman being pulled over by an unmarked car and did not end violently - is one of hundreds of leads that officials are following in rural northern Mississippi as they investigate the killings. ...

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Postal Service will proceed with a plan this summer to shut mail-processing facilities as part of its cost-cutting effort but will spread out the closings to maintain overnight delivery of local mail. The agency said on Thursday it would consolidate processing at 140 of its 461 sites by February 2013, moving processing from small facilities to larger ones, and shrink the area where customers can expect mail to be delivered the next day. ...

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A House of Representatives committee voted on Thursday to cut off economic aid to any country that hosts Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes. The provision is not yet law, and could change as foreign aid legislation moves through Congress this year. It was approved by the House Appropriations Committee as part of that legislation, which would slash spending on the U.S. State Department and foreign assistance by some 9 percent. ...

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A cancer-stricken judge in New York has become an unlikely voice in support of legalizing the use of medical marijuana with the admission that he smokes pot to ease the side-effects of his treatments. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach, who is being treated for pancreatic cancer, wrote in a New York Times article on Thursday that he had been using marijuana provided by friends at "great personal risk" to help him cope with the nausea, sleeplessness and loss of appetite from chemotherapy treatments. ...

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PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The prosecution rested its case on Thursday against Philadelphia Archdiocese Monsignor William Lynn, the most senior U.S. clergyman to go to trial in the Roman Catholic Church's pedophilia scandal. During nearly eight weeks of startling testimony about the lurid lives of predatory priests, Lynn, a former secretary of the clergy, has sat stoically in his clerical garb as the case unfolded in an often-packed courtroom. ...

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(Reuters) - Florida teenage shooting victim Trayvon Martin had traces of marijuana in his system when he was killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, according to case documents released on Thursday. The medical examiner's report was among hundreds of pages released in connection with the February 26 shooting that triggered civil rights protests as well as a debate over guns, self-defense laws and race relations in America. The report showed traces of THC - an ingredient found in marijuana - in Martin's blood plus a positive test for cannabinoids in his urine. ...

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - The FBI said on Thursday there was "absolutely no indication" of a terror attack threat in Chicago, although the city was considered a potential target even before President Barack Obama and other leaders meet for this weekend's NATO summit. FBI agent Ross Rice said the agency will be on heightened alert in Chicago, with extra agents brought in to react if its intelligence network sniffs out a plot. The FBI has agents in 70 countries, gathering intelligence. "Several international terrorist groups have elevated Chicago in their mind to their No. ...

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CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - A new mother of twins in Greenville, South Carolina, is the latest victim of a rare and potentially fatal flesh-eating bacterial infection, health officials said on Thursday. Lana Kuykendall, 36, was in critical but stable condition at Greenville Memorial Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Sandy Dees said. Kuykendall, who gave birth to twins this month at a Georgia hospital, came home to South Carolina and had severe pain in her leg, her husband, Darren Kuykendall, told a local television station. ...

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