WASHINGTON (CNN) - After more than 18 years on the nation's highest court, Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring, a source close to Souter told CNN Thursday.

Souter will leave after the current court term recesses in June, the source said.

Filling Souter's seat would be President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court appointment - and the first since George W. Bush's picks of Samuel Alito in 2006 and Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005.

Souter, 69, was tapped for the court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, but disappointed many conservatives when he turned out to be a typical old-fashioned Yankee Republican - a moderate, with an independent, even quirky streak.

Souter's departure will leave the two oldest justices - and the most liberal - still on the bench. Retirements for John Paul Stevens, 89, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 76, have been rumored for years, with many expecting that one or the other would be the first to give a new Democratic president a Supreme Court vacancy.

Souter's decision came as something of a surprise, although he has long been known to prefer the quiet of his New Hampshire farmhouse to the bustle of the nation's capital.

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) - A pediatrician is among 13 people that public health authorities say have "probable" cases of swine flu in Washington state.

Officials said all the cases are consistent with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, but they are waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm that the 13 have the new strain of influenza.

The pediatrician, who works at the Everett Clinic near Seattle and who was not identified out of privacy concerns, may have inadvertently exposed some of her patients to her illness, authorities said.

At a news conference Thursday, Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, the medical director of the Everett Clinic, said the pediatrician saw 22 patients and their parents Monday, the only day she is believed to have practiced while possibly contagious.

The Everett Clinic is contacting the patients and their families that the pediatrician had appointments with Monday to determine if they might have been exposed to the doctor's illness and require treatment. A spokesman for the Washington state health department said that none of the patients examined by the pediatrician have so far been found to be suffering from flu symptoms.

Authorities said the doctor is recovering, as are her husband and their two children, who also became ill.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) - Redmond O'Neal, son of actors Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett, will get another chance to kick his drug addiction before facing more jail time.

A Los Angeles judge placed O'Neal, 24, in an "intensive drug rehabilitation program that includes in-custody treatment at Wayside Honor Ranch," a court spokeswoman said Thursday. If he fails to complete the program, which will last at least a year, he could face up to four years in prison, said L.A. County Deputy District Attorney Tony Estradas.

Redmond O'Neal and his father were arrested last September when deputies found methamphetamine during a probation search at the Malibu home of 67-year-old Ryan O'Neal.

From Terry Frieden
CNN Justice Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Ali al-Marri, once the only designated "enemy combatant" on U.S. soil, has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Al-Marri, who was the subject of an intense battle over the legal status of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, was ordered by the Obama administration to be taken from military custody in South Carolina and flown to Peoria, Illinois, to face criminal charges of aiding al Qaeda.

Al-Marri made the surprise plea during a two-hour hearing in a federal courtroom in Peoria.

By Rich Phillips
CNN

(CNN) - Authorities do not plan to file charges against a Florida orange grove owner who fatally shot a 21-year-old woman, saying he is protected under the state's controversial "no retreat" law.

But the woman's boyfriend faces second-degree murder charges in her death, because the Tuesday morning shooting occurred during an alleged vehicle theft. Tony Curtis Phillips, 29, didn't fire a shot and didn't know his girlfriend, Nikki McCormick, was dead until police showed him an online news story.

Police said Phillips was accompanied by McCormick as he attempted to steal an SUV from a barn in an orange grove near Wahneta, Florida, before daylight Tuesday. Grove owner Ladon "Jamie" Jones opened fire as the SUV approached him, according to an affidavit released by the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Phillips fled; McCormick was hit and killed.

Authorities said Jones is protected by Florida's "no retreat" law, which gives him the right to use lethal force if he reasonably believes his life is in danger. Phillips, however, faces charges because police allege he was committing felony grand theft auto at the time of McCormick's death.

"Because his conduct caused her death, he gets charged with a felony," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

By Dana Bash
CNN Congressional Correspondent
WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Republican leader John Boehner released a Web video Thursday suggesting Democrats aren't keeping Americans safe - part of what Republican sources tell CNN is a renewed effort to push a historically winning issue for Republicans.

"We're quite happy to be talking about national security," said a House Republican leadership aide who requested anonymity to speak freely about internal strategy.

The aide insisted that Republicans have substantive, serious policy differences with President Barack Obama on national security - especially with his approach to dealing with detained terror suspects. But the Republican aide also conceded party members believe those differences have a political upside for them.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley, said scare tactics are scaring voters away from the Republican Party.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Richard Phillips, the cargo-ship captain whose capture by pirates triggered a dramatic Naval rescue off the coast of Africa, called on the federal government Thursday to provide military escorts for international shipping vessels.

But Phillips conceded that there may not be sufficient resources to do that.

He also said that arming vessels' crews could possibly provide an effective deterrent - but only under certain limited circumstances.

Phillips was in charge of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama when it was boarded by pirates off the coast of Somalia on April 8.

Phillips told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would not be opposed to having private security forces on a vessel, but "very clear protocols would have to be established and followed. ... In the heat of an attack, there can be only one final decision-maker."

From Elise Labott
CNN State Department Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Terror attacks have spiked dramatically in Afghanistan and Pakistan as extremists in both countries strengthen their power and expand operations, according to a State Department report being released Thursday.

But the State Department annual terrorism report notes an overall decline in attacks worldwide and fewer attacks in Iraq.

The attacks worldwide have decreased by 20 percent, with 30 percent fewer fatalities, said Russell Travers of the National Counterterrorism Center.

But the report says al Qaeda and its extremist supporters have moved across the Afghan border "to the remote areas of the Pakistani frontier, where they have used this terrain as a safe haven to hide, train terrorists, communicate with the followers, plot attacks and send fighters to support the insurgency in Afghanistan."

From Mike Mount
CNN Senior Pentagon Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that a military strike on Iran's nuclear program would not stop that country from pursuing the development of a nuclear weapon.

Gates told a Senate panel that a military option would only delay Iran's nuclear ambitions and would further drive it underground, making it more difficult to monitor.

Gates said the better option would be for the U.S. and its allies to convince Iran that building a nuclear program would start an arms race that would leave Iran less secure.

"Their security interests are actually badly served by trying to have nuclear weapons," Gates said. "They will start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and they will be less secure at the end than they are now."

From Elise Labott
CNN State Department Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Obama administration is sending two senior U.S. envoys to Syria next week, another sign of warming ties between the two countries, according to U.S. and Syrian officials briefed on the talks.

Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Feltman, the top State Department official on the Middle East, and National Security Council official Daniel Shapiro will be will be making their second trip to Damascus in less than two months as the United States seeks to upgrade relations with Syria.

Since his last trip to Damascus in March, Feltman and Imad Moustapha, Syria's ambassador to Washington, have held several meetings aimed at nailing down areas of cooperation. The meetings have been the start of more regular contacts between Washington and Damascus through normal diplomatic channels.

Syrian officials said the meetings in Damascus and Washington have helped the two sides develop common strategies that they now hope to put into action.