2 taken into custody in school shooting

2 taken into custody in school shooting

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.

Authorities say two teenagers have been taken into custody in the shooting of a 15-year-old North Carolina student who was wounded in the neck with what appeared to be a small-caliber bullet during a lunch period outside her high school.

Cumberland County Sheriff Earl “Moose” Butler said at a news conference Monday night that the two suspects were students at Cape Fear High School. He says they are being questioned and would be charged. He says the weapon used and shell casings have been recovered.

The sheriff also said both participated in the shooting.

Butler said Catilyn Abercrombie was in stable condition after surgery.

Judge blocks welfare drug-testing law

ORLANDO, Fla.

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Florida’s new law that requires welfare applicants to pass a drug test before receiving benefits, saying it may violate the Constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

Judge Mary Scriven ruled in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father who sought the benefits while finishing his college degree but refused to take the test. The judge said there was a good chance plaintiff Luis Lebron would succeed in his challenge to the law based on the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals from being unfairly searched.

The drug test can reveal a host of private medical facts about the individual, Scriven wrote, adding that she found it “troubling” that the drug tests are not kept confidential like medical records.

US ambassador pulled out of Syria

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration has pulled its ambassador home from Syria, arguing that his support for anti-Assad activists put him in grave danger — the most dramatic action so far by the United States as it struggles to counter a Mideast autocrat who is withstanding pressure that has toppled neighboring dictators.

Syria responded quickly Monday, ordering home its envoy from Washington.

American Ambassador Robert Ford temporarily was recalled Saturday after the U.S. received “credible threats against his personal safety in Syria,” the State Department said, pointing directly at President Bashar Assad’s government.

Grenade blasts rattle Nairobi

NAIROBI, Kenya

Grenade blasts at a blue-collar bar and a crowded bus stop rattled Nairobi on Monday as the country worried whether al-Qaida-linked militants from Somalia were carrying out their promise to launch reprisal attacks in Kenya’s capital.

The attacks came only two days after the U.S. warned of “imminent” terror attacks. The U.S. warning had implied that the Somali group al-Shabab would carry out reprisals in response to Kenyan troops’ invasion of Somalia in mid-October. The militants had promised to unleash terror attacks in Nairobi in retaliation for the offensive.

Assange: WikiLeaks soon may collapse

LONDON

WikiLeaks — whose spectacular publication of classified data shook world capitals and exposed the inner workings of international diplomacy — may be weeks away from collapse, the organization’s leader, Julian Assange, said Monday.

Although its attention-grabbing leaks spread outrage and embarrassment across military and diplomatic circles, WikiLeaks’ inability to overturn the block on donations imposed by American financial companies may prove its undoing.

Associated Press