Shooting at Fort Hood army base kills four, shooter’s motives not clear
Ivan Lovez in full combat gear.FORT HOOD, Texas - The soldier suspected of shooting dead three people before killing himself at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas was under psychiatric care but showed no signs of violence or suicidal tendencies, a U.S. official said on Thursday.No motive was given for the rampage, which also left 16...Washington mudslide kills 29 people, dozens still missing
WASHINGTON — Efforts to recover bodies following a Washington state mudslide that killed at least 29 people could be hampered in the coming weeks if melting snow runs into a clogged river at the disaster site, officials said.Over the past few days, workers at the mud pile in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, northeast of Seattle,...CIA misled public on interrogation program
McLean, Virginia — The Central Intelligence Agency misled the U.S. government and public for years about aspects of its brutal interrogation program, concealing details about harsh treatment of detainees and other issues, according to a report in the Washington Post.U.S. officials who have seen a Senate Intelligence Committee report on...Jury convicts bin Laden son-in-law on terrorism charges
NEW YORK — Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was found guilty of terrorism-related charges on Wednesday following a three-week trial that offered an unusually intimate portrait of al Qaeda's former leader in the days after the September 11, 2001 attacks.Abu Ghaith, 48, a Kuwait-born teacher, faces life in prison...CNN journalists arrested trying to sneak into World Trade Center
NEW YORK — Two CNN journalists were arrested for trying to sneak past security at the World Trade Center in New York City on Tuesday in an attempt to report on recent security lapses at the site, police said.Yon Pomrenze, 35, and Connor Fieldman Boals, 26, first tried to talk their way in through the main gate to the center in...Agents protecting Obama abroad sent home for disciplinary reasons
WASHINGTON — Three members of the U.S. Secret Service detail that protects President Barack Obama were sent home from Amsterdam for disciplinary reasons, a Secret Service spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.The spokesman, Brian Leary, declined to provide further details.The agents were disciplined after going out for a night of...Five charged for smuggling 115 immigrants in “stash house”
HOUSTON — Five men suspected of being part of a human smuggling ring that held more than 100 people captive in a derelict Houston area home were charged with hostage-taking and firearms crimes at a federal court on Tuesday.Jose Aviles-Villa, Jonathan Solorzano-Tavila, Antonio Barruquet-Hildiberta, Jose Cesmas-Borja, and...Russia warned U.S. about Boston Marathon bomb suspect Tsarnaev
WASHINGTON — Russian authorities warned the FBI in 2011 about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two Chechen brothers accused of carrying out last year's Boston Marathon bombings, but U.S. authorities missed chances to detain him, NBC News reported on Tuesday.Citing a congressional report it said could be released by the House of...Muslim couple sue Empire State Building owners for discrimination
NEW YORK - A Muslim couple filed a $5 million lawsuit against the owners of the New York's famed Empire State Building, claiming they were forced to leave as they prayed.Fahad Tirmizi, 32, and his wife Amina, 30, of Long Island, said security guards interrupted their prayers July 2, 2013, and forced them to leave the building, the New...Class action lawsuit filed against GM after massive recall
DETROIT — General Motors Co was hit with a lawsuit on Wednesday demanding that the company be held liable for allegedly concealing ignition problems before its 2009 bankruptcy.The ignition switch problems led to the recall of 1.6 million vehicles last month.GM is a different legal entity than the one that filed the 2009...Toyota settles $1.2 billion over concealing defects
NEW YORK — A U.S. judge signed off on Toyota Motor Corp's $1.2 billion settlement of criminal charges that it concealed safety problems in its vehicles, an accord that could serve as a model for a similar probe into General Motors Co.U.S. District Judge William Pauley approved the Japanese automaker's deferred prosecution agreement at...California man arrested near U.S.-Canada border on terrorism charge
SEATTLE — A California man who prosecutors say was on his way to Syria to join an al Qaeda splinter group was arrested on Monday near the U.S.-Canada border in Washington state on a terrorism charge, federal officials said.The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that 20-year-old Nicholas Teausant, an American-born convert...UN questions U.S. on it’s widespread practice of imprisoning children with adults
GENEVA – Last week, the UN Human Rights Committee concluded review and questioning of the U.S. Government on its human rights record in Geneva. During the two day review, the Committee repeatedly expressed concern over the US’ practice of imprisoning children in adult correctional facilities and asked what measures would be...NSA records all calls in targeted foreign nation
WASHINGTON — The U.S. National Security Agency has created a surveillance system that is recording all the phone calls in an undisclosed foreign country, allowing it to play back any conversation up to 30 days later, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.The newspaper cited unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the system as well...Reid: CIA appears to have been snooping on Senate investigation
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has asked the sergeant at arms to determine if the CIA snooped on an Intelligence Committee investigation.Reid requested that Terrance W. Gainer, the chief of law enforcement for the Senate, review the computers used by committee staffers reviewing CIA interrogations, the......
llinois Supreme Court overturns state’s eavesdropping law
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Illinois' eavesdropping law is too broad, barring the recording of conversations that could not be considered private, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.The law, the strictest in the United States, requires anyone who is recorded to have given consent. The court said people could be prosecuted for recording fans...
CIA accused of spying on U.S. Senate intelligence committee
March 14th, 20140 WASHINGTON - A bitter dispute between the CIA and the U.S. Senate committee that oversees it burst into the open on Tuesday when the committee chairwoman accused the agency of spying on Congress and possibly breaking the law.Veteran Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said the CIA had searched computers used by committee staffers......
Rescuers seek survivors of NY building collapse, seven dead
NEW YORK - Search crews picked through still-smoldering rubble on Thursday, looking for survivors of a gas explosion that caused the collapse of two New York apartment buildings a day earlier, killing seven people and injuring about 60.Facing thick smoke and bitter cold, dozens of firefighters, police officers and a team from the...U.S. border agents told to be less aggressive against stone-throwers
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Border Patrol told its agents on Friday that when they confront suspected illegal immigrants crossing the frontier who throw rocks at them, they should try to take cover or move away rather than immediately open fire.Michael J. Fischer, head of the Border Patrol, said in a conference call with reporters that...Immigrant detainees on hunger strike in Washington state
OLYMPIA - Hundreds of detainees at an immigration holding center in Tacoma have gone on hunger strike to demand better conditions at the facility and an end to U.S. deportations, their attorney said on Saturday.While advocates for the strikers put their numbers at 1,200, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement...Bin Laden son-in-law goes on trial in U.S. on terrorism charges
NEW YORK — Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, went on trial in New York on Monday, becoming one of the highest-profile defendants to face terrorism charges in the United States.Prosecutors have accused the Kuwaiti-born Abu Ghaith, 48, of recording videos in Afghanistan on behalf of al Qaeda immediately following the......
New federal budget includes $1.5 billion for Syria and neighbors
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama proposed spending $1.5 billion next year for the Middle East and North Africa, largely to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Syria as Washington steps up efforts to deal with three-year-long civil war.Besides funding for Syria, the $1.5 billion is intended to promote reforms and...Los Angeles moves to ban e-cigarettes, joining NY, Chicago
Los Angeles — The Los Angeles City Council voted this week to ban the use of electronic cigarettes, also known as "vaping," from restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other public spaces in the nation's second-largest city. Los Angeles will join a growing list of cities, including New York, Boston and Chicago, that restrict the use of......
U.S. Supreme Court declines immigration cases
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected attempts by towns in Texas and Pennsylvania to revive local laws that cracked down on illegal immigration.The court decided against hearing appeals filed by the towns of Farmers Branch, Texas, and Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which were seeking to overturn appeals court rulings that...U.S. Senate Democrats block Obama’s nominee for civil rights lawyer
WASHINGTON — Seven Democrats in the U.S. Senate broke ranks on Wednesday, March 6, and joined Republicans to block President Barack Obama's nominee to a top Justice Department job after complaints that the lawyer, Debo Adegbile, had helped represent a "cop killer."The seven voted with 44 Republicans to sustain a procedural......
