17 minutes ago
Sen. Gillibrand: Sex Assaults Undermine Military
Democratic New York Sen. Kristen Gillibrand comments on recent reports of sexual assaults in the military.
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26 minutes ago
U.K. Mom Confronts Blood-Soaked Man After Murder
A woman who talked to a blood-soaked, knife-carrying man accused of murdering a British soldier in the southeast London neighborhood of Woolwich on Wednesday, said she did so to protect the crowd that was beginning to gather, NBC News reported. Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, jumped off the bus she was riding when she saw a man slumped on the sidewalk next to a crashed car. Assuming it was a road accident she decided to offer first-aid, but as she got closer, she saw a man covered in blood and carrying a butcher’s knife. She also saw a handgun. “He was obviously a bit excited and the thing was to talk to him,” said Loyau-Kennett, a mother of two. Photos of the scene show her, hands in pockets, speaking apparently calmly to the man. A second alleged attacker, his hands covered in blood and holding a meat cleaver, was captured on video telling passers-by "By Allah we swear by the almighty Allah and we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone."
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2 hours ago
Okla. at Risk of More Tornadoes as Storms Threaten Much of U.S.
AP
More bad weather – thunderstorms bringing large hail and the chance of “a tornado or two” – was in the forecast for southwestern and central Oklahoma and northwestern Texas on Thursday, NBC News reported. The risk of severe thunderstorms extended from Texas and Florida to New England and the Great Lakes and from Texas up to Montana and Washington. “The activity is expected to be far less significant than the outbreak earlier this week, but hail could be particularly large in northwest Texas and western Oklahoma,” the National Weather Service said. In the Northeast, the weather service said “storms may undergo a gradual intensification” with a chance of “mainly isolated damaging wind.” “Any severe threat should diminish by early evening,” it said.
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2 hours ago
Funeral for "Ladybug," 9, Is First for School Tornado Victims
AP
The first funeral for a child killed when a tornado struck the Plaza Towers elementary school in Oklahoma will likely be held Thursday.
Antonia Candelaria, 9, who died along with six other children when Monday’s massive EF-5 twister tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, was due to be buried at a local church. She was nicknamed "Ladybug" and was “specially gifted in art as well as music” and “loved to draw, paint, color and make crafts, according to an obituary published in The Oklahoman. “She was a beautiful young lady on the inside and out,” the obituary said. In total, 24 people were killed and as many as 13,000 homes damaged or destroyed.
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3 hours ago
What’s at Stake in Boy Scouts Vote on Gay Membership
NBC 5 News
After years of emotional debate, the Boy Scouts of America is considering a proposal at its annual meeting to allow gay youths to openly participate in the organization, NBC News reported.
Thirteen years ago the Supreme Court ruled that as a private membership organization the Boy Scouts was free to decide whom it would admit. The exclusion of gay Scouts has been the subject of much squabbling and soul searching in the century-old organization — from local troops and councils to online petitions to national board meetings. But many questions — for example: Under the proposal, what would happen to an Eagle Scout who is gay and wants to volunteer as an adult? — still persist. For answers and analysis, click through.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 6:51 PM
Washington State Man Arrested Over Ricin Letters
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A man was arrested on Wednesday after two letters containing the deadly poison ricin were discovered in Washington state last week, The Associated Press reported. A grand jury issued an indictment for 37-year-old Matthew Ryan Buquet that accuses him of sending threatening communication to U.S District Judge Fred Van Sickle at the federal courthouse on May 14. FBI agents arrested Buquet on Wednesday afternoon and he appeared in federal court in Spokane. He pleaded not guilty. If convicted of mailing the threatening letters, he could face up to 10 years in prison.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 7:00 PM
NASA Funds Project to Make Space Meals with 3-D Printer
NASA is paying out $125,000 to study the use of 3-D printing technology for food preparation in space, NBC News reported. "We will be building the components for a prototype" over the grant's six-month period, David Irwin, principal investigator for the project at Texas-based Systems and Materials Research Consultancy, told NBC News. Generic mixes of starch, protein and fat can be transformed into food elements that result in food items like warm pizza with fake cheese, sauce and pepperoni, according to NBC News. The contract was signed on Wednesday and the project is part of NASA's efforts to widen the menu options for future space travelers on Mars and asteroid missions. Astronauts are currently eating pre-packaged, pre-processed foods.
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30 minutes ago
Drone Strikes Killed 4 Americans Since 2009: Holder
The Obama administration publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that drone strikes have killed four Americans overseas since 2009, NBC News reported. One of those killed, Anwar Al-Awlaki, was targeted in Yemen for plotting terrorist attacks in the United States. The other three killed were Awlaki's teenage son Abd al-Rahmn Anwar al-Awlaki; Samir Khan, the American who ran al Qaeda’s web-based propaganda magazine Inspire and Jude Kenan Mohammed of Raleigh, N.C., whose name had still been on the FBI's "most wanted" list for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Attorney General Eric Holder said the older Awlaki was the only American citizen targeted, but the other three were not "specifically targeted" and were killed in circumstances that the administration did not explain. The revelation came in a letter from Holder to congressional leaders and on the eve of a major address by President Barack Obama on his counterterrorism policy.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 9:36 PM
Costa Concordia Captain Charged with Manslaughter
AP
The captain of the Costa Concordia -- the cruise ship that ran aground in Italy in January 2012 -- will be tried for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship while the vessel's 4,200 passengers and crew were still on board, NBC News reported. Captain Francesco Schettino will be the only defendant in the trial, which is scheduled to begin on July 9 in the Tuscan city of Grosseto. Schettino's lawyers tried to convince the judge to drop the charge of abandonment of ship, but the judge ruled that there was enough evidence to suggest the captain left the ship voluntarily hours before the last passenger was rescued, rather than falling off the ship like he originally claimed. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
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26 minutes ago
West Point Sergeant Charged with Secretly Filming Female Cadets
A staff member at West Point is accused of hiding cameras in the women’s shower and locker room. Army Sgt. 1st Class, Michael McClendon was relieved of his duties at West Point and has been charged with four counts of indecent acts, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment and violations of good order and discipline, according to The New York Times.
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5 minutes ago
"Leave Our Lands": Soldier Killed in Suspected London Terror Attack
AP
A British soldier was killed by knife-wielding assailants on a London street Wednesday, and a bloodstained suspect at the scene holding a meat cleaver was captured on video telling passers-by, "We swear by the almighty Allah."
Eyewitnesses said the two attackers were later shot by officers, and described the victim as being chopped like a "piece of meat," NBC News reported. Those two men were taken to a hospital where they were later arrested. NBC News understands that the two men had been the subject of British security service investigations in the past.
The London police later confirmed that the victim is a serving soldier.
In the video from the scene, obtained exclusively by NBC's UK news partner, ITV News, one of the attackers also said, "Leave our lands and we can all live in peace, that's all I have to say." Prime Minister David Cameron, on a trip to Paris that he cut short to return to London and chair an emergency national security meeting, said, "It is the most appalling crime."
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 12:12 PM
Youngest Victims of Tornado Were 4 and 7 Months Old
AP
The youngest victims of the tornado that leveled Moore, Oklahoma, on Monday were two infant girls, four-month-old Case Futrell and seven-month-old Sydnee Vargys, according to the Oklahoma medical examiner’s report. Both children died of blunt force trauma to the head. Case's mother, Megan Futrell, 29, died along with her son when a 7-Eleven, where they sought shelter, collapsed under the force of tornado winds. Karrina Vargyas, 4, was on the list of victims, but it was not immediately clear what her relationship to Sydnee was. Ten of the 24 people on the medical examiner's victims' list were children, seven of whom were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore. Six of the children were listed as 9 years old, and one was 8 years old. Among them was third-grader Ja'Nae Hornsbyand. Five of the eight- and nine-year-olds died of "mechanical asphyxia," which Okla. Gov. Mary Fallin's office said referred to "suffocation ... not drowning," despite previous reports that the seven children who died at the school had drowned in the building.
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27 minutes ago
Up to 13,000 Homes Damaged as Okla. Turns to Recovery
The tornado that zeroed in on Moore, Okla., decimating two elementary schools and the local hospital also destroyed or damaged 12,000 to 13,000 homes, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. The cleanup of debris was beginning Wednesday as rescue teams wound up their search, NBC News reported. Cornett said 33,000 people were affected by the twister and he put the monetary damage estimate at between $1.5 billion to $2 billion. President Obama vowed to help victims get needed assistance "right away" and is scheduled to travel to Moore on Sunday to survey the damage. Authorities said 24 people were killed by the twister, nine of them children. Six people, all adults, remained unaccounted for, said Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management Director Albert Ashwood. They might have just "walked off" their properties or could still be in the rubble, he said.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 9:15 AM
Tornado Victims Face Wreckage as Cleanup Gets Underway
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 12:43 PM
IRS Official: "I've Done Nothing Wrong"
AP
Members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday expressed anger and bewilderment that IRS leaders had not told Congress sooner that the tax agency had improperly singled out conservatives groups seeking tax-exempt status, NBC News reported. The lawmakers voiced outrage that Douglas Shulman, the commissioner of the IRS during much of the abuses, did not tell lawmakers that an internal agency investigation had suggested improper action. "You misled Congress. Make no question about it … When you learned there was a list, you did nothing," said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. Earlier in the day, the committee dismissed the IRS official in charge of the division accused of wrongdoing, after she invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify. Lois Lerner refused to answer lawmakers’ questions but denied having done anything wrong before invoking her rights, NBC News reported. “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations,” she said at the hearing.
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- Amid the rubble, laughter and tears for one family devastated by tornado
- UK mom calms man with blood-soaked knife after suspected deadly terror attack
- Tornado birth: Mom endures labor as twister destroys hospital
- Man with ties to Boston bombing suspect admits role in 2011 murders; shot during FBI questioning
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