National & International News
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NBCNews.com
2 hours ago

FBI Kills Man Linked to Boston Bombing Suspect


A Florida man linked to the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed while being questioned by the FBI in Orlando, Fla., early Wednesday morning, NBC News reported. Ibragim Todashev, 27, allegedly attacked an agent with a knife, who shot and killed him, investigators said. The agent sustained non-life threatening injuries, the FBI said in a statement. Todashev was not suspected of being involved in the bombing, but he did confess to being involved in a brutal slaying in 2011 in which three men were murdered in an apartment in Waltham, Mass., investigators said. Law enforcement officials said Todashev was being questioned as part of the FBI’s effort to find and talk to anyone who had any links to Tsarnaev. Todashev, officials said, had spent some time in the Boston area, where he was a mixed martial arts fighter, and knew Tsarnaev there. He had been interviewed about his connections to the bombing suspects before by the FBI and started out cooperative. Officials said he became violent as he was about to sign a written statement based on his confession. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
20 minutes ago

Man Killed in London Street in Possible Terror Attack

Getty Images A man reported to be a British soldier was killed and two suspected attackers wounded Wednesday after police responded to reports of a machete attack in southeast London, NBC News reported. Eyewitnesses told local media that the man was attacked with knives or a meat cleaver in broad daylight by two people who were later shot by officers. Local lawmaker Nick Raynsford said the dead man was a soldier serving at a nearby barracks, NBC News reported. Police are investigating the incident as a possible terror attack or politically-motivated killing, NBC News reported. Prime Minister David Cameron called the killing "truly shocking" and convened the government's emergency committee. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
2 minutes ago

Rescue Turns to Recovery as Search Nears End in Okla.

Getty Images The task of clearing debris from areas devastated by the massive tornado in Oklahoma was expected to start Wednesday as the search and rescue teams wound up their search, NBC News reported. President Barack Obama vowed to help victims get needed assistance "right away" after the category EF-5 tornado tore through the suburbs of Oklahoma City on Monday leaving a 17-mile path of destruction. Authorities said 24 people were confirmed killed by the twister, nine of them children. Officials were still not certain how many homes were destroyed or how many families had been displaced. A state official told The Associated Press that preliminary estimates put damage from the tornado at more than $2 billion. Severe thunderstorms were forecast for an area stretching from the lower Great Lakes to the Tennessee Valley on Wednesday. The National Weather Service said that the “primary threats” would be damaging winds and large hail, but added “isolated tornadoes will also be possible.” Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
3 hours ago

IRS Official: "I've Done Nothing Wrong"

AP A House committee dismissed the IRS official in charge of overseeing the division that took action to target conservative groups seeking tax exempt status after she invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify during an appearance before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, NBC News reported. Lois Lerner refused to answer lawmakers’ questions but denied having done anything wrong before invoking her rights. “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations,” she said in a brief appearance on Capitol Hill. The committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., dismissed Lerner, but warned that his panel might again seek her testimony in the future. Lerner’s appearance marked a dramatic opening to a House hearing into the IRS abuses that was expected to feature abundant political fireworks. Get More at NBC News

LA Mayor
30 minutes ago

LA Selects Garcetti as Next Mayor

LA Selects Garcetti as Next Mayor AP
Los Angeles Councilman Eric Garcetti defeated City Controller Wendy Greuel in a mayoral election that set spending records and saw both candidates rack up high-profile endorsements on the way to Tuesday's runoff. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Garcetti garnered 54 percent of the vote and Greuel 46 percent. "Thank you Los Angeles--the hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years. Let's make this a great city again," Garcetti, 42, wrote on Twitter early Wednesday. Garcetti becomes the first Jewish candidate to be elected to the mayor's office. In 1878, Bernard Cohn was a member of the city's council when he was appointed acting mayor to fill a vacancy. He served for less than one month. Garcetti will inherit a city still struggling to pull itself from an extended fiscal slump. Greuel would have become the city's first female mayor, if elected. She called Garcetti early Wednesday to concede, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing a Greuel campaign source. Read »
NBCNews.com
2 hours ago

Youngest Victims of Tornado Were 4 and 7 Months Old

AP The youngest victims of the tornado that leveled the Oklahoma City suburbs on Monday were two infant girls, four-month-old Case Futrell and seven-month-old Sydnee Vargys, according to the Okla. medical examiner’s report. Both children died of blunt force trauma to the head. A total of ten children, up from a previous figure of nine, were among the 24 people killed in the twister which ravaged the suburb of Moore, according to the medical examiner. By Wednesday morning, authorities had named seven victims, including at least four believed to be children. Among them were a third-grader Ja'Nae Hornsbyand and a 65-year-old man separated from his wife when the tornado struck. Meantime, rescuers were increasingly confident that they had accounted for everyone killed or trapped by the tornado, which weather officials said packed wind stronger than 200 mph. Get More at NBC News

anthony weiner running for mayor
3 hours ago

Weiner Launches Mayoral Bid, Asks for "Second Chance"

Weiner Launches Mayoral Bid, Asks for YouTube.com/AnthonyWeiner4Mayor
Anthony Weiner has announced his candidacy for New York City mayor with a campaign video posted to YouTube, NBC 4 New York reported. "I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down. But I've also learned some tough lessons," Weiner says in the two-minute, 16-second video posted late Tuesday night, acknowledging the sexting scandal that forced him to resign his congressional seat two years ago. "I'm running for mayor because I've been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life," he continues. "And I hope I get a second chance to work for you." The video, which opens with a shot of Weiner, his wife, Huma Abedin, and their toddler son in their home, highlights Weiner's upbringing in Brooklyn and his parents' backgrounds as a public school teacher and lawyer. Read »
NBCNews.com
2 hours ago

Tornado Victims Face Wreckage as Cleanup Gets Underway

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3 hours ago
 

I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations.  

— IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner Refusing to answer lawmakers' questions during her appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
NBCNews.com
4 hours ago

Jodi Arias: Death Penalty Would Be "Revenge"


As an Arizona jury resumes deliberating Wednesday about whether she deserves the death penalty for the murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, Jodi Arias is now asking jurors to spare her life after initially saying she preferred to die. “What I receive will be what I deserve, I believe,’’ Arias said in interview which aired on the "Today" show Wednesday. Arias said she deserves life in prison instead of the death penalty because she still has a lot to contribute to society. She also said she feels betrayed by the jury’s verdict, which her attorneys plan to appeal. On Tuesday she begged jurors to spare her life on behalf of her family. “I’m asking you, please, please don’t do that to them,” she said. “I want everyone’s pain to stop.” Asked in the "Today" interview about people who feel that the only way for Travis Alexander to get justice is for Arias to get the death penalty, the former waitress replied, "That's not justice. That's revenge." Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
5 hours ago

Courage Amid Chaos as Tornado Destroys School


The powerful tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., on Monday hit hard Plaza Towers Elementary School, where children sheltered inside from the roaring gusts, even as the building began to come apart around them. The winds and flying debris from the mile-wide tornado claimed at least two dozen lives, the Oklahoma medical examiner said on Tuesday, according to NBC News. Nine of those victims were children. The seven students who were killed at Plaza Towers, a single-story cinder block building that was leveled in the storm, were found dead in a pool of water, authorities said. Another student died at Briarwood Elementary, less than two miles away. School officials had long planned for a tornado, but they were not ready for such such a devastating one, with EF-5 category winds that topped 200 mph. Get More at NBC News

bear
2 hours ago

Wandering Bear Surprises Horses in Corral

Wandering Bear Surprises Horses in Corral
A bear wandered through a neighborhood north of Los Angeles for more than an hour Wednesday morning with squad cars and a helicopter on its tail as it scaled fences and surprised several horses in their corrals. The bear was first seen in the Shadow Hills area, about 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Police in squad cars were following the bear, which was first spotted along Clybourn Avenue at about 6:30 a.m. Officers and at least one California Department of Fish and Wildlife agent -- armed with a tranquilizer gun -- cornered the bear under trees along Wentworth Street. Aerial video showed agents loading the tranquilized bear into the bed of a pickup. Read »
NBCNews.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 2:49 AM

Immigration Bill Approved by Senate Committee

AP The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-5 Tuesday night on a sweeping bill to overhaul the nation's immigration system, NBC News reported. Three Republicans -- Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Orrin Hatch of Utah -- joined the panel's 10 Democrats to vote in favor of the bill. Flake and Graham are both members of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" that originally drafted the 844-page immigration legislation. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Sessions of Alabama voted against the legislation. In an emotional moment shortly before the final passage of the bill, committee chairman Patrick Leahy announced that he would withhold a vote on an amendment that would give the spouses of LGBT individuals the same standing as heterosexual couples. The measure will now head to the Senate floor. Get More at NBC News

cancer hats
3 hours ago

Cancer Hats Get Sisters Booted From Mall

Cancer Hats Get Sisters Booted From MallGetty Images
Three sisters say they were kicked out of a popular Pennsylvania mall after refusing to remove profanity-laden hats expressing their hatred of breast cancer. Zakia Clark, 29, and Tasha Clark, 27, had been at the King of Prussia Mall on Sunday shopping for funeral dresses with a third sister, Makia Underwood. Their mother, Jackie Underwood, died last week after battling the disease. Zakia and Tasha Clark were wearing hats that had a one-word profanity, the F-word -- with a pink ribbon substituting for the third letter -- before the word cancer. Zakia Clark says it's the only word strong enough to defeat the word “cancer.” Security asked them to remove the hats. They were ejected after refusing. Read »
Sandy
2 hours ago

N.J. Shore Town Destroyed by Sandy Confronts an Uncertain Future

N.J. Shore Town Destroyed by Sandy Confronts an Uncertain FutureGetty Images
It’s hard to relax in Highlands, a small but proud middle-class town at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore. The borough of 28,000, at the junction of the Shrewsbury River and Sandy Hook Bay, is undergoing a profound transformation that won’t end with the physical rebuilding. The unprecedented damage wrought by Sandy—up to eight feet of water inundated downtown—has prompted what might best be described as an existential crisis, with residents, business owners and public officials confronting daunting questions about the kind of place Highlands will be for those who remain, and how it will survive. Read »
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