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NSA phone collection bill clears Senate hurdle
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate sped toward passage Tuesday of legislation to end the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ calling records while preserving other surveillance authorities. But House leaders warned their Senate counterparts not to proceed with planned changes to a House version.
Report tells of rapid capsize on China cruise ship
Tour guide Zhang Hui “had 30 seconds to grab a life jacket,” before the ship overturned in China’s mighty Yangtze river during a storm Monday night, the Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday. The 43-year old and a colleague “grabbed everything they could reach and kept their heads above water” as the ship sank, Xinhua said. More than a dozen people have been been saved from the Dongfangzhixing, or “Eastern Star,”
Exclusive: Detainee alleges CIA sexual abuse, torture beyond Senate findings
By David Rohde NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency used a wider array of sexual abuse and other forms of torture than was disclosed in a Senate report last year, according to a Guantanamo Bay detainee turned government cooperating witness. Majid Khan said interrogators poured ice water on his genitals, twice videotaped him naked and repeatedly touched his “private parts” – none of which was described in
Friend of Boston bomber sentenced to six years for obstruction
By Elizabeth Barber and Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) – A friend of the Boston Marathon bomber, who admitted to obstructing the investigation of the deadly 2013 blast, apologized on Tuesday for his actions at a hearing where he was sentenced to six years in prison. Kazakhstan national Dias Kadyrbayev was one of three friends of bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to face federal charges for removing a backpack containing fireworks from Tsarnaev’s
U.S. investigators don't know if warning device worked in Amtrak crash: NTSB
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Investigators probing the May 12 derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia do not yet know whether an electronic warning device was operating or activated before the disaster, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart told the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. In prepared testimony to a House of Representatives committee, Hart also said several U.S. rail carriers will not meet an end-of-year deadline for installing a more
Graham's personal history frames campaign launch
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced himself to the nation here Monday by capitalizing on one of his most valuable political assets: his powerful up-from-nothing personal story.
2015 hurricane season: Forecasters predict ‘below-average’ activity
Ten years after the record-setting hurricane season that produced Katrina and other destructive storms, forecasters are calling for a quiet year in the Atlantic.
Men brace for 'beard patrols' in Iraq's IS-held Mosul
The jihadist group has handed out leaflets in their stronghold of Mosul in recent weeks announcing that full beards become compulsory on June 1 and explaining why shaving is punishable. “I’m scared because they deal ruthlessly with anyone who opposes or ignores their instructions,” he told AFP from Mosul, the de facto Iraqi capital of IS’s self-proclaimed caliphate. Mosul is Iraq’s second city and used to have a population of
Defense hawk Graham enters Republican race for White House
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a defense hawk, entered the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Monday, putting criticism of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy at the forefront of his White House bid.