U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | First lady’s plane, jet get too close
First lady’s plane, jet get too close
WASHINGTON
Air-traffic controllers directed a plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama to abort a landing at Andrews Air Force Base because it was too close to a military cargo jet, officials said Tuesday. A Boeing 737 belonging to the Air National Guard, one of several guard planes used by the White House, came within about three miles of a massive C-17 as the planes were approaching Andrews shortly after 5 p.m. Monday to land, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and Major Michelle Lai, a spokeswoman for Andrews.
‘Three Cups’ charity focus of inquiry
HELENA, Mont.
Montana’s attorney general launched an inquiry Tuesday into the charity run by “Three Cups of Tea” co-author Greg Mortenson after reports questioned whether Mortenson benefited from money donated to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Attorney General Steve Bullock’s statement Tuesday to The Associated Press follows investigations by “60 Minutes” and author Jon Krakauer into inaccuracies in the book and how money donated to the Bozeman, Mont.-based Central Asia Institute was spent.
Swarming bees kill elderly couple
HEBBRONVILLE, Texas
Officials say bees swarmed an elderly couple at their South Texas ranch, killing both and injuring their son.
Jim Hogg County sheriff’s deputies say 90-year-old William T. Steele was spraying insecticide on a bees’ nest Monday when the bees attacked him, his 92-year-old wife, Myrtle Steele, and their 67-year-old son, Richard Steele.
CIA declassifies WWI-era papers
WASHINGTON
The CIA lifted the lid on one corner of the cloak-and- dagger world of World War I, declassifying six of the oldest secret documents in the U.S. government archives, the agency announced Tuesday.
The documents show top techniques used by spies, generals and diplomats to send secret messages in a diplomatic war that raged long after the guns stopped. The records reveal how invisible ink was used to send word between allies, and spies learned to open letters to read each others’ secrets without leaving a trace.
WikiLeaks suspect being transferred
WASHINGTON
The Army private suspected of giving classified data to WikiLeaks is being moved to a state-of-the-art facility at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where Pentagon officials said more extensive mental, emotional and physical health care will be available.
Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer, said the move does not suggest that Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s treatment at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., was inappropriate.
But the transfer comes in the wake of international criticism about Manning’s treatment during his detention at the Marine Corps base at Quantico.
Student’s attack seen on webcam
TORONTO
Canadian police said Tuesday they still don’t know what caused the death of a student from Beijing who was last seen alive on a webcam by a friend who witnessed her struggling with a man before the camera was abruptly shut off.
Police said the body of 23-year-old York University student Qian Liu was found Friday in her apartment in Toronto a few hours after her friend in China witnessed the attack.
An autopsy failed to show the cause of death, and it could be weeks before the results of toxicology tests are known, Police Sgt. Frank Skubic said.
Associated Press