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   FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — A judge was to decide today whether to delay the Fort Hood shooting suspect's trial three months so he can have more time to prepare.

   Maj. Nidal Hasan requested the delay after the judge ruled that he can represent himself. But Col. Tara Osborn, the judge, scolded him Monday, reminding him that he previously said he wouldn't need extra time. Jury selection is still set for Wednesday.

   Hasan faces the death penalty or life without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the 2009 attack on the Texas Army post.

   Some wounded soldiers say they're angry that Hasan will be allowed to approach and question them.

   Retired Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning says testifying will be more difficult but he's prepared.

Published in National News

   BOISE, Idaho (AP) - An Uzbekistan national living in Idaho is expected to appear in federal court Friday on charges he conspired with a terrorist group on a scheme to use a weapon of mass destruction.

   Federal agents raided the Boise apartment of 30 year old Fazliddin Kurbanov Thursday after a grand jury issued a three-count indictment accusing him of federal terrorism charges.

   The indictment alleges Kurbanov gave money, computer software and other resources to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan - a designated foreign terrorist group.

   He's also charged with helping prepare for the use of a weapon of mass destruction.

   Federal prosecutors say any potential threat has been contained by his arrest.

   A separate federal grand jury indictment accuses him of taking part in terrorist activity in Utah earlier this year.

 
Published in National News

   ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani officials say gunmen have attacked an election rally in the southern Punjab province and abducted the son of former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

   A police official, Abdul Rehman, says gunmen stormed the rally in the town of Multan, opened fire and seized Ali Haider Gilani on Thursday.

   A Punjab government official, Rao Iftikhar Ahmad, says one of Gilani's guards was killed and five people were wounded in the attack.

   Thursday is the last day of campaigning for Pakistan's election scheduled this Saturday.

   But the race has been marred by a string of violent attacks against candidates and election events.

Published in National News

BOSTON - AP - Three men who attended college with the Boston Marathon suspect have been charged in connection with the case.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev are charged with conspiring to obstruct justice. A third man, Robel Phillipos, is charged with making false statements to federal investigators.

An FBI affidavit says the three men removed bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s backpack from his dorm room at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth three days after the bombing.

The affidavit says Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev agreed to get rid of it after concluding from news reports that Tsarnaev was one of the bombers.

A court appearance for the three is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Published in National News

   Attorneys for a former SIU Edwardsville student are asking the Illinois Supreme Court to uphold a lower court's decision to toss out their client's conviction of attempting to make a terroristic threat.  The filing on behalf of Olutosin Oduwole comes more than a month after he was ordered freed by a state appellate court.  

   Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is appealing the overthrown conviction on behalf of Madison County prosecutors.  

   Oduwole's attorneys now argue there's no compelling reason for the state's high court to hear the case, and their client's six-year ordeal constitutes an abuse of prosecutorial power and a waste of judicial resources.

Published in Local News

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack.

Rep. Michael McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack — shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs — and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training.

Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen once published an online manual on how to make one.

McCaul also tells "Fox News Sunday" that he thinks the suspects' mother played "a very strong role" in her sons' radicalization process and that if she were to return to the United States from Russia, she'd be held for questioning.

Published in National News

   KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A bus collided on Friday with the wreckage of a truck that was attacked by Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing 30 people aboard the bus in a fiery crash, officials said.

   The battered truck was left in the middle of a narrow road on the border of Helmand and Kandahar provinces for several days after insurgents opened fire on it. Police considered the area too dangerous to enter, the officials said.

   Before sunrise Friday, the bus smashed into the truck and both vehicles burst into flames, badly burning many of the bus passengers, said Abdul Razaq, the provincial police chief of Kandahar.

   Razaq said eight passengers were injured. Omar Zawak, the governor's spokesman in Helmand province, put the injury total at 11. Both said the casualties included men, women and children.

   The bus began its journey in the capital of Helmand province and was scheduled to stop in Kandahar city, then travel north to Kabul, the Afghan capital, Razaq said.

   

Published in National News

   BOSTON (AP) - The next step in the legal process against the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect is likely to be an indictment, in which federal prosecutors could add new charges to existing ones that could carry the death penalty.

   Still unable to speak because of wounds, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev answered questions in writing yesterday and was officially charged in the bombing.

   U.S. officials say Tsarnaev  and his brother appear to have been motivated by their religious views, not any connection to any Muslim terrorist groups. The officials made the assessment after Tsarnaev was interrogated in his hospital room, where he's being treated for severe wounds allegedly suffered during violent encounters with law enforcement following the Boston Marathon bombings.

   He was charged Monday with federal crimes that could bring the death penalty, including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill.

   The brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the U.S. for about a decade, practiced Islam.

Published in National News

BOSTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union and the public defender's office have raised concerns about investigators' plans to interrogate the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect without reading him his Miranda rights.

The Massachusetts Federal Public Defender's office says it will take the case of 19-year-old bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-KHAR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv). Public defender Miriam Conrad says there are "serious issues" regarding the interrogation.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero says the legal exception applies only when there is a continued threat and is not open-ended.

It's not clear when Tsarnaev will be able to answer questions. He's hospitalized in serious condition and under heavy guard after being arrested Friday night following a daylong manhunt punctuated by gunfire.

Published in National News

   WATERTOWN, Mass. (AP) - Police say one of two suspects in the shooting of an MIT police officer is dead and a massive manhunt is underway for another, who is tied to the Boston Marathon bombing.

   Shortly after the MIT officer was shot Thursday night, police got a report of a carjacking in Cambridge, just outside Boston.

   Police say of the at-large suspect, "We believe this to be a terrorist."

   The FBI is investigating whether the fatal shooting of a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and gunfire and explosions in a nearby town are related to the Boston Marathon bombings.

   A Massachusetts State Police spokesman said early Friday that one person suspected in the gunfire and explosions has been accounted for and one is at large.

   The FBI said it is working with local authorities to determine what happened.

   The MIT shooting on the Cambridge campus Thursday night was followed by reports of violence in nearby Watertown, about 10 miles west of Boston.

   State police spokesman David Procopio said there is a "strong possibility" the incidents are related.

   The MIT officer had been responding to report of a disturbance Thursday night when he was shot multiple times, according to a statement from the Middlesex district attorney's office and Cambridge police. It said there were no other victims.

   In Watertown, witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots and explosions at about 1 a.m. Friday. Dozens of police officers and FBI agents were in the neighborhood and a helicopter circled overhead.

   State police spokesman David Procopio said, "The incident in Watertown did involve what we believe to be explosive devices possibly, potentially, being used against the police officers."

   Boston cab driver Imran Sais said he was standing on a street corner at a police barricade across from a diner when he heard an explosion.

   "I heard a loud boom and then a rapid succession of pop, pop, pop," he said. "It sounded like automatic weapons. And then I heard the second explosion."

   He said he could smell something burning and advanced to check it out but area residents at their windows yelled at him, "Hey, it's gunfire! Don't go that way!"

   MIT said right after the 10:30 p.m. shooting that police were sweeping the campus in Cambridge and urged people to remain indoors. They urged people urged to stay away from the Stata Building, a mixed-use building with faculty offices, classrooms and a common area.

   Hours later, MIT, which has about 11,000 students, said the campus was clear but the shooter was still on the loose.

   

Published in National News
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