WASHINGTON — The State Department says U.S. officials have concluded that the American Embassy in Yemen was targeted by three mortar rounds that crashed into a nearby high school, killing a Yemeni security guard.
The attack happened Tuesday. U.S. officials said the attack was still under investigation.
In Yemen, the Interior Ministry said the shells fired by unidentified attackers also wounded five soldiers and 13 schoolgirls.
9/11 families have deal to buy land for memorial
PITTSBURGH — The Families of Flight 93 have reached an agreement with a coal mining company to buy 1.5 square miles of land for a national memorial to the people killed on one of the airliners hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, the organization said Tuesday.
Financial terms of the purchase from PBS Coals Inc. were not disclosed. The deal follows an agreement between PBS Coals and the state Department of Environmental Protection for the company to treat polluted drainage from a former surface mine at the site. The families group said proceeds from the sale will be placed into a trust fund to pay for continued operation and maintenance of the water treatment system.
After that, the National Park Service plans to buy the 932 acres — the largest single tract of land needed for the 2,200-acre memorial — from the families group.
Flight 93 was en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it was hijacked. It crashed as passengers rushed the cockpit. All 33 passengers and seven crew members died, including pilot Jason Dahl of Jefferson County.
White House has three days to respond on e-mails
WASHINGTON — A federal court has given White House officials three days to explain why they should not be required to make copies of all e-mails on computers in the Executive Office of the President.
In a three-page order Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola expresses concern that a large volume of electronic messages may be missing from White House computer servers. That’s the allegation made by two private groups that are suing the White House.
Facciola’s proposal would require the White House to make copies of all e-mails from the period of March 2003 to October 2005.
Stepdad convicted in death
NEW YORK — Jurors who heard weeks of gruesome testimony about the torture and killing of a 7-year-old girl convicted her stepfather of manslaughter Tuesday but decided against a murder count that could have sent him to prison for life.
Cesar Rodriguez faces up to 25 years in prison for the death of Nixzmary Brown, a tiny, malnourished girl whose case shocked the city and prompted child welfare reforms.
Prosecutors portrayed Rodriguez, 29, as a depraved disciplinarian who killed Nixzmary over some missing yogurt.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Schwartz — architect of a brazen strategy casting Nixzmary as a troublemaker and her mother as the real culprit — said his client was disappointed and would appeal.
Sentencing is set for April 3.
German chancellor vows to help Israel
JERUSALEM — In an emotional tribute to victims and survivors of the Holocaust, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that the Nazi genocide “fills us Germans with shame” and pledged to stand by Israel’s side against any threat, particularly from Iran.
“This historic responsibility is part of my country’s fundamental policy,” Merkel said in a speech a special session of the Israeli parliament. “It means that for me, as a German chancellor, Israel’s security is nonnegotiable.”
The address capped a three- day state visit in which the German leader marked the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding by formally upgrading an already warm relationship between the countries.
Somali group on U.S. terror list
WASHINGTON — The United States has added the military wing of the Somali Islamic extremist movement to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, the State Department said Tuesday.
Some members of al-Shabab, which means “the Youth,” are affiliated with al-Qaeda, the department said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice designated Shabab a terror organization on Feb. 29, the department said. It did not explain the delay in the announcement.
Loss of arctic ice noted
WASHINGTON — The amount of long-lasting sea ice in the arctic — thick enough to survive for up to a decade — declined sharply in the past year, even though the region had a cold winter and the thinner one-year ice cover grew substantially, federal officials said Tuesday.
Using new data from NASA’s ICESat satellite, researchers detected that the steepest yearly decline in “perennial” ice on record happened over the past year. As a result of melting and the southward movement of the thicker ice, the percentage of the Arctic Ocean with this stable ice cover has decreased from more than 50 percent in the mid-1980s to less than 30 percent as of last month.
“Because we had a cold winter, the public might think things have gotten better,” said Walter Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “In fact, the loss of the perennial ice makes clear that they’re not getting better at all.”
Zoo staff chided for doubting brothers
SAN FRANCISCO — A new report chides San Francisco Zoo workers for not believing two brothers who said a tiger was on the loose and had mauled their friend. But the report, released Tuesday by the organization that accredits the nation’s zoos, also calls the actions of the staff after early reports of the tiger escape “impressive.”
It criticizes the zoo’s security supervisor for initially doubting that a big cat had escaped. The 250-pound Siberian tiger killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. outside the enclosure on Christmas Day and attacked the brothers before police shot and killed it.
Busy I-95 closed for repair
PHILADELPHIA — A 3-mile stretch of Interstate 95 was shut down early Tuesday, backing up commuter traffic for miles, as workers began emergency repairs on a 6-foot crack in a concrete pillar supporting the major corridor through the Northeast.
The section of the interstate carries 190,000 vehicles a day.
