In brief: Report puts 2012 climate on top 10 hottest list

Washington – Last year was one of the 10 hottest since global average temperatures have been recorded, according to an assessment of worldwide climate trends by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The State of the Climate in 2012,” released Tuesday, paints a sobering portrait of vast swaths of the planet transformed by rising temperatures. Arctic sea ice reached record lows during the summer thaw. Greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise. In early May, the ratio of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million in an average daily reading at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory, thought to be the highest concentration in millions of years.

The report is like “an annual check-up for the planet,” said Kathryn Sullivan, undersecretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA’s acting administrator. It documents “remarkable changes” in critical areas like Arctic ice, sea levels and greenhouse gas emissions, she said.

Driver charged with murder in Venice crash

Los Angeles – A lawyer for a Colorado man charged Tuesday with murder and assault for allegedly driving his car through a weekend throng on the Venice Beach boardwalk said it was an accident that has left his client devastated.

“I don’t believe he intentionally tried to hit anybody,” said public defender Philip Dube, who is representing Nathan Louis Campbell, 38.

“He’s profoundly sad, he is profoundly depressed, that he has potentially ended somebody’s life,” Dube said outside the courthouse, after Campbell entered a not guilty plea.

A felony complaint outlined 34 counts against Campbell, saying he acted willfully.

Italian newlywed Alice Gruppioni, 32, was killed, and 16 other people were injured.