Panetta: US helping French with intel

Panetta: US helping French with intel

LISBON, Portugal

The U.S. already is providing intelligence-gathering assistance to the French in their assault on Islamist extremists in Mali, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, and officials would not rule out having American aircraft land in the West African nation as part of future efforts to lend airlift and logistical support.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Europe, Panetta said that although al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, also known as AQIM, and other affiliate groups in Mali may not pose an immediate threat to the United States, “ultimately that remains their objective.”

For that reason, he said, “we have to take steps now so that AQIM does not get that kind of traction.”

Service honors one of Tuskegee Airmen

DENVER

Family, friends and military members are paying final respects to one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first black pilots in the U.S. military.

Col. Fitzroy “Buck” Newsum died Jan. 5 at age 94. His funeral service Monday at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver included a flyover by vintage aircraft.

The Tuskegee Airmen were trained in Alabama at Tuskegee Institute as a segregated unit during World War II. Despite facing severe prejudice, they went on to become one of the war’s most respected fighter squadrons.

KUSA-TV in Denver reports Newsum’s survivors include his wife, Joan Carney Newsum, four children and four grandchildren.

Bush returns home

HOUSTON

Former President George H.W. Bush was released from a Houston hospital and went home Monday after spending nearly two months being treated for a bronchitis-related cough and other health issues, a family spokesman said.

Bush, 88, the nation’s oldest living former president, was admitted to Methodist Hospital on Nov. 23. His stay included a week in intensive care last month.

Teen charged as adult

FRESNO, Calif.

A 16-year-old student who was teased by his California high-school classmates for his red hair, social awkwardness and bookish appearance was charged as an adult for purportedly wounding a classmate with a shotgun and trying to target another.

Bryan Oliver pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of premeditated attempted murder and three counts of assault with a firearm in the attack Thursday at Taft Union High School that left another 16-year-old wounded.

Home of JFK killer razed in Dallas

DALLAS

A handful of history buffs and curious onlookers watched Monday as a bulldozer tore through the walls of a dilapidated apartment building where Lee Harvey Oswald lived a few months before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The uninhabited 10-unit, two-story apartment complex built in 1925 was one of several remaining places tied to Kennedy’s Nov. 22, 1963, assassination, which remains perhaps the most infamous moment in Dallas history. Oswald lived at the building at 600 Elsbeth St. with his wife, Marina, and young daughter from November 1962 to March 1963.

Associated Press