A Massachusetts judge has finalized an inquest into the shooting death of the brother of Amy Bishop, the former Alabama university professor accused of killing three colleagues.

Authorities in Braintree, Massachusetts, ruled Seth Bishop's 1986 death an accident after interviewing his parents and older sister.

His death came under renewed scrutiny after Amy Bishop was arrested in February in a shooting rampage at a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, leading Norfolk District Attorney William Keating to call for the closed-door hearing.

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 "BP agreed to make the live feed of the top kill attempt available at the request of the President and the National Incident Center," an administration official told CNN. 

Preparations for the procedure are continuing with the expectation that it could be activated on the morning of Wednesday May 26, 2010, BP said in a statement Tuesday night. FULL POST

Several thousand barrels of crude oil spilled into a containment area along the Alaska pipeline Tuesday when an open valve at a pump station allowed oil to overflow a tank, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company said.

The five most popular CNN.com stories during the last 24 hours, according to Newspulse.

Wal-Mart slashes iPhone price to $97: Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, plans to slash the price of Apple's 16GB 3GS iPhone to $97 beginning Tuesday.

Stocks recover from plunge: Stocks erased most losses by the close Tuesday, with the Dow ending down 22 points after falling close to 300 points earlier in the session, as worries about the global economy were tempered.

Serious side effects investigated in Tylenol recall: The Food and Drug Administration is looking into reports of at least 775 serious side effects from drugs recalled by McNeil, a division of Johnson & Johnson, source says.

Planet-eating star discovered: The Hubble Space Telescope finds evidence of a sun-like star eating a planet (VIDEO).

Brittany Murphy's husband died waiting for surgery: The widower of actress Brittany Murphy, found dead in his home Sunday night, was scheduled to undergo heart bypass surgery this summer.

BP had three indications of trouble aboard the doomed drill rig Deepwater Horizon in the hour before the April 20 explosion that sank the offshore platform, congressional investigators reported Tuesday.

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Lori Berenson, a U.S. citizen jailed in Peru since 1995 for helping leftist rebels, has been granted conditional release, a judge announced Tuesday.

Berenson has served 15 years of a 20-year sentence for aiding Peruvian rebels in a 1995 plot to overthrow Peru's congress.

Judge Jessica Leon Yarango made the announcement in a televised court hearing after Berenson's lawyer made the request.

– Journalist Maria Elena Belaunde contributed to this story from Lima.

A look at highlights from the day's business news:

Stocks recover from plunge

Stocks erased most losses by the close Tuesday, with the Dow ending down just 22 points after having fallen close to 300 points earlier in the session, as worries about the global economy were tempered.

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"Top hats." "Top kills." Berms. Booms. As the attempts to plug the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico become more complex, so do the terms. We break down the jargon that you might come across as you follow the story.

1. Berms: A wall or barrier of sand usually used to protect against flooding along coasts, but now it's being considered to stop oil from washing up on Gulf Coast beaches.

Context: For nearly two weeks [Louisiana Gov. Bobby] Jindal has asked the [U.S. Army] Corps [of Engineers] to approve a plan to dredge sand berms off the coast in an attempt to keep oil from reaching inland marshes.

The Christian Science Monitor: BP oil spill pushes Louisiana to desperate, massive 'berm' plan

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President Barack Obama will deploy up to 1,200 more National Guard troops to the U.S. border with Mexico, an administration official told CNN on Tuesday.

In addition, Obama will request $500 million in supplemental funds to current spending for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities, the official said.

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President Barack Obama will travel to the Gulf Coast on Friday to review oil spill response efforts, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

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Four-time French Open winner Rafael Nadal is in action today.

The NBA playoffs have been full of sweeps and blowouts. But could we actually have a series on our hands? SI.com’s Chris Ballard says the Suns planted a seed of possibility in cutting the Lakers’ lead to 2-1 but can they pull out another win in Phoenix and even up the Western Conference finals (9 p.m., TNT)? It’s worth noting that only 14 teams in NBA history have come back from a 2-0 deficit to win the series.

The NBA playoffs, French Open, baseball and soccer are all on today’s sports docket. Here are a few can’t-miss events (all times Eastern).

French Open (5 a.m. to noon, Tennis Channel, noon-6:30 p.m., ESPN2). First-round play continues with Rafael Nadal, a four-time winner, Roland Garros and Andy Roddick in action on the men’s side, while Dinara Safina and Maria Sharapova both open up play on the women’s side.

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Twenty-seven people have been killed and 31 wounded in an assault on a suspected drug lord's compound in the Jamaican capital of Kingston, police said Tuesday.

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Federal inspectors overseeing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico accepted meals and tickets to sporting events from companies they monitored, according to a new report from the Interior Department's inspector general.

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Mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula reached a new level Tuesday as a North Korean agency announced that the communist nation is severing all ties with its neighbor to the south and will "abrogate the agreement on non-aggression."

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George Barishich, a local shrimper, expresses his concerns about the oil spill at an open meeting with a BP representative.

BP has tried several methods to stop or contain the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, but 36 days after it began, all attempts by the company to cap the spill have failed.

So, what's happening today?

The company discussed  its latest attempt to contain the oil, a maneuver called a "top kill" that it plans to implement Wednesday.

Oil rig owner Transocean plans to hold a memorial service today to honor 11 workers who have been missing since the rig exploded.

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Two Americans who were kidnapped in Yemen recently have been freed, said Mohammed Al-Basha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington.

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A top BP official said Tuesday that the oil company has equipment in place to begin diagnostic testing for a maneuver called a "top kill" that could be implemented as early as the following day to stop the gushing of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

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Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been sentenced to a maximum of five years behind bars for violating probation.

Wayne County, Michigan, Judge David Groner issued the order Tuesday after Kilpatrick was found guilty in April of violating his probation by failing to report assets that could be used to pay restitution.

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BP workers clean up oil Monday that washed ashore in Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

Gulf oil spill – Oil company BP is expected to brief reporters Tuesday morning about its next attempt to contain the gushing oil in the Gulf of Mexico – a maneuver called "top kill" that it plans to implement Wednesday.

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9:30 am ET - START accord hearing – Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia.

9:30 am ET - Kilpatrick sentencing – Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is scheduled to be sentenced on a probation violation.

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