Strong explosion kills 14 in Egypt

Strong explosion kills 14 in Egypt

CAIRO

A powerful explosion believed to be caused by a car bomb rocked a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city north of Cairo early today, killing at least 14 people and injuring scores, according to the state news agency and a security official.

The interim government accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attack, branding it a “terrorist organization.”

UK pardons 1950s computer pioneer

LONDON

His code-breaking prowess helped the Allies outfox the Nazis, his theories laid the foundation for the computer age, and his work on artificial intelligence still informs the debate over whether machines can think.

But Alan Turing was gay, and 1950s Britain punished the mathematician’s sexuality with a criminal conviction, intrusive surveillance and hormone treatment meant to extinguish his sex drive.

Now, nearly half a century after the war hero’s suicide, Queen Elizabeth II has finally granted Turing a pardon.

“Turing was an exceptional man with a brilliant mind,” Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said in a prepared statement released today. Describing Turing’s treatment as unjust, Grayling said the code breaker “deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science.”

Weather to strain travelers, utilities

AUGUSTA, Maine

Parts of the country socked by a wild weekend storm will be covered with ice and without power through Christmas and beyond thanks to a steady diet of freezing rain and cold temperatures.

The first full day of winter, Sunday, brought a mix including snow in the Midwest and balmy temperatures along the Mid-Atlantic. Rain and melting snow led to swelling creeks and streams, closed roads and flooded underpasses in Indiana, Ohio and other Great Lakes states.

More than 390,000 homes and businesses were without power Monday in Michigan, upstate New York and northern New England, down from Sunday’s peak of more than half a million.

Snowden: Mission is accomplished

WASHINGTON

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden says his “mission’s already accomplished” after leaking NSA secrets that have caused a reassessment of U.S. surveillance policies. Snowden told The Washington Post in a story published online Monday night he has “already won” because journalists have been able to tell the story of the government’s collection of bulk Internet and phone records.

Snowden says he didn’t want to change society but he wanted people “to have a say in how they are governed.”

Judge tells hospital to keep treating teen

OAKLAND, Calif.

With a family fighting a hospital to keep their daughter who has been declared brain dead on life support, a California judge on Monday ordered the hospital to keep treating 13-year-old Jahi McMath for another week as a second medical evaluation is conducted.

Jahi experienced complications after a tonsillectomy at Children’s Hospital in Oakland.

As her family sat stone-faced in the front row of the courtroom, an Alameda County judge called for Jahi to be independently examined by Paul Graham Fisher, the chief of child neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The judge also ordered the hospital to keep Jahi on a ventilator until Dec. 30, or until further order from the court.

The examination was expected to occur later on Monday, and early today.

Associated Press