Controversial execution in

Ohio

Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire appeared to gasp and convulse for roughly 10 minutes before he died Thursday by lethal injection using a new combination of drugs. McGuire was

convicted in 1994 of the rape and murder of 22-year-old Joy Stewart, who was seven months pregnant. Her relatives were at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville to witness his death. the whole execution process took 24 minutes, and

that McGuire appeared to be gasping for air for 10 to 13 minutes. The convicted murderer was pronounced dead at

10:53 a.m. ET. The execution generated controversy because, like many states, Ohio has been forced to find new drug

protocols after European-based manufacturers banned U.S. prisons from using their drugs in executions -- among them, Danish-based Lundbeck, which manufactures pentobarbital.

In response to that shortage, the Ohio amended its execution policy to allow for the use of midazolam and hydromorphone.

Both the length of time it took for McGuire to die and his gasping are apparently not typical for an execution,

In Other NewsIn Other News Corey Knowlton was outed over social media as the winner of the Dallas Safari Club's auction for a black

rhino hunting permit from the Namibian government last weekend. It didn't take long for the threats and vitriol to start pouring in. In the auction he spent $350,000 for the chance to hunt a black rhinoceros in the southern African nation of Namibia. Despite the backlash, Knowlton has decided to engage in the debate over how to protect an endangered species, such as the black rhino, by putting down his own money to help save the species and raise awareness about wildlife conservation. Knowlton, 35, is a Dallas-based hunting consultant for The Hunting Consortium, an international guide service. He's also the co-host of a hunting show on The Outdoor Channel called "Jim Shockey's The Professionals." The overall argument can be summed up in the following manner: An organization such as the Humane Society suggests that the first rule of protecting the rarest animals in the world is to protect each living member of that species; where as Knowlton says the Namibian government has identified a handful of black rhinos that can be hunted. These are animals that are old, no longer capable of breeding and are considered a dangerous threat to other younger animals. So Knowlton argues, why not let a hunter pay a massive amount of money to take out a threat to the rest of the species. The Dallas Safari Club says the $350,000 paid by Knowlton will be donated to the Namibian government's black rhino conservation efforts. Knowlton wants to preserve the black rhino's hide and then donate the rhino meat to needy communities in Namibia.

President Barack Obama on Friday will announce the end of the controversial NSA (National Security Agency) telephone metadata collection program "as it currently exists.“ Obama will say that he is ordering a transition of the current intelligence-gathering program to one that addresses concerns of privacy and civil liberties. It is part of the changes that Obama is expected to announce to sweeping U.S. surveillance efforts exposed by intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, whose blockbuster disclosures have raised questions about government overreach in fighting terror. The NSA and its supporters believe data collection authority is crucial to discovering potential terrorists who haven't yet come to the attention of national security officials.

Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who refused to stop fighting World War II until the 1970s, has died in Tokyo at the age of 91. During the war, Onoda was sent to the small island of Lubang in the western Philippines to spy on U.S. forces in the area. He ended up remaining there, eking out a life in the jungle, until 1974, nearly three decades after Japan surrendered. Allied forces defeated the Japanese imperial army in the Philippines in 1944, but Onoda evaded capture and stayed on. Believed to be a staunch imperial soldier, he refused to accept that Japan had lost the war. He was eventually persuaded to come out of hiding in the jungle in 1974 after his former commanding officer traveled to Lubang to see him and tell him he was released from his military duties. He returned to Japan, where he received a hero's welcome, a figure from a different era emerging into post-war modernity. The Philippines government pardoned him. But when he returned to Lubang in 1996, relatives of people he was accused of killing gathered to demand compensation.

Michelle Obama turns 50 today.