Feds yank clearances over terror warnings
Security clearances were taken away from two federal anti- terrorism employees as investigators look into allegations that they warned family and friends about the threat against the New York City subway system three days ahead of the official announcement.
The workers were identified after government security officials began looking into the source for e-mails alluding to the threat that began circulating before Mayor Michael Bloomberg went public Oct. 6. The e-mails apparently started with a relative of one worker and a friend of another.
Salazar, EU nominee end their impasse
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., agreed Tuesday to lift the block he had placed on confirmation of President Bush’s nominee for ambassador to the European Union, C. Boyden Gray, after he and Gray agreed that “the faith of a person should not be a consideration on their nomination or confirmation for any judicial position in the United States.”
Salazar had blocked the nomination because of Gray’s ties to a Republican activist group that had run advertisements implying senators were discriminating against a judicial nominee because he was Catholic. Salazar, a Catholic, objected to the ads.
Jurors reject lawsuit over prison rapes
Jurors rejected a gay convict’s federal lawsuit Tuesday, deciding that six prison officials did not violate his civil rights by ignoring his pleas for protection from inmate rapes.
Roderick Keith Johnson, 37, had sought unspecified damages against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials at the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls, where he was housed for 18 months for burglary.
Johnson testified that prison gangs forced him to be their sex slave and that officials failed to investigate his reports of abuse or move him to a safer area for vulnerable inmates.
Cabinet extends state of emergency in south
Thailand’s Cabinet announced Tuesday that it was extending a state of emergency in three southern provinces to cope with an escalating Muslim insurgency.
Under Thai law, the government can declare states of emergency for up to three months in designated areas.
The state of emergency was due to expire Thursday. It allows the government to impose curfews, ban public gatherings, limit travel, censor and ban publications, and detain suspects without charge.
20 held as authorities seek culprits in blasts
More than 20 suspects have been detained for bombings in southwestern Iran over the weekend that killed six people, state- run radio reported Tuesday.
Government officials have said the explosions were guided from abroad, and hard-line newspapers called for downgrading relations with Britain for what they said was London’s role in the explosions.
