US: Cousins planned terrorist attack

US: Cousins planned terrorist attack

CHICAGO

An Illinois Army National Guard soldier vowed to bring “the flames of war to the heart” of America if he was unable to get to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group, and his cousin bragged he could kill up to 150 people in a terrorist attack in the U.S., federal prosecutors said Thursday in announcing the men’s arrests. Both also are accused of hatching a plot to attack a U.S. military facility.

Hasan R. Edmonds, the 22-year-old guardsman, was arrested Wednesday evening at Chicago Midway International Airport trying to board a plane on the first leg of a journey to Egypt. Jonas M. Edmonds, 29, was detained a few hours later at home, the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago said. Both men are U.S. citizens from suburban Aurora.

Jury recommends life for grandmother

GADSDEN, Ala.

A jury recommended life without parole Thursday for an Alabama woman convicted of running her granddaughter to death.

Jurors rejected prosecutors’ pleas for a death sentence for Joyce Hardin Garrard in the February 2012 death of 9-year-old Savannah Hardin. The decision came on a split vote: seven for life, five for death. It also came on Garrard’s 50th birthday.

Under Alabama law, a vote of at least 10 of 12 jurors was required for the panel to recommend death. A simple majority could recommend life.

N. Korea detains two on charges of spying

SEOUL, South Korea

North Korea said it detained two South Korean men on charges of spying. A South Korean government official confirmed today that the two are South Korean citizens but could not immediately explain how they entered the North and were detained.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that the two were detained last year after collecting confidential information about the North’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, state organizations and the military.

Teen: Mom killed kids found in freezer

DETROIT

A teenager told authorities that her mother killed two siblings and forced her to put one of the bodies in the freezer of their Detroit home where both were found by an eviction crew.

Details of death and extreme abuse emerged Thursday as Mitchelle Blair appeared in court, two days after the bodies of a 9-year-old son, Stephen Berry, and 13-year-old daughter, Stoni Blair, were discovered.

Blair, 35, is charged with child abuse, but she could face murder charges when the bodies thaw and autopsies are performed, prosecutors said. Bond was set at $1 million. An attorney hasn’t been assigned.

Soda consumption in US keeps falling

NEW YORK

Americans bought less soda for the 10th-straight year in 2014, with diet sodas shrinking more than their sugary counterparts, according to a report released Thursday.

An annual report by the industry tracker Beverage Digest found that overall soda volume slipped 0.9 percent last year, moderating from the decline of 3 percent the previous year.

And the poor performance of diet sodas in particular led to a shake-up in the top 10 U.S. soda rankings; even though people bought less Pepsi, it managed to regain the No. 2 spot from Diet Coke, which suffered an even steeper decline. Diet Coke had knocked Pepsi off the No. 2 spot in 2010.

Coke remained by far the most popular soda in the U.S., selling about twice as much as No. 2 Pepsi.

Associated Press