Bomb blast at Egypt security building wounds 19 as clashes over Morsi continue Bomb blast at Egypt security building wounds 19 as clashes over Morsi continue ADVERTISING CAIRO — A bomb blast outside the security headquarters in one of Egypt’s
Bomb blast at Egypt security building wounds 19 as clashes over Morsi continue
CAIRO — A bomb blast outside the security headquarters in one of Egypt’s Nile Delta cities wounded 19 people, security officials said early today, raising fears of deteriorating security after President Mohammed Morsi’s ouster.
Eleven people have been killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of the ousted president since Monday. Most were killed in pre-dawn street battles near a pro-Morsi protest camp as the country remained mired in turmoil three weeks after the military overthrew the Islamist leader.
A pro-Morsi group claimed Wednesday another two people were killed in a march in Cairo by assailants who fired on them from rooftops. Police and health officials could not immediately be reach for confirmation.
The bloodshed is widening the divisions between Morsi’s supporters and the military-backed administration and diminishing the chances of reconciliation.
The police force, widely hated for its brutality and widespread abuses over the years, has been the target of fierce attacks in Egypt’s volatile northern Sinai Peninsula. More than a dozen security officials have been killed there since Morsi’s ouster earlier this month. A minor explosion recently struck a police post between Cairo and northern Sinai.
White House, skeptical lawmakers square off over NSA authority to collect phone records
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration squared off with skeptical lawmakers Tuesday over efforts to terminate the government’s authority to collect phone records of millions of Americans, a proposition that exposed sharp divisions among members of Congress.
With a vote nearing on amendments to a $598.3 million bill to fund the military, the White House raised the alarm over a move to end the National Security Agency’s authority under the USA Patriot Act, preventing the secretive surveillance agency from collecting records unless an individual is under investigation.
And in an unusual, last-minute lobbying move, Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, traveled to Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to oppose the amendment in separate, closed-door sessions with Republicans and Democrats.
“We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counterterrorism tools,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a late-night statement. “This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open or deliberative process.”
Carney said President Barack Obama is still open to addressing privacy concerns in the wake of documents leaked last month by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden that revealed that the vast nature of the agency’s phone and Internet surveillance. But he said Obama wants an approach that properly weighs what intelligence tools best keep America safe.
Document: North Texas teenager’s DNA linked him to 6-year-old neighbor’s death; girl assaulted
SAGINAW, Texas — A teenager suspected of suffocating his 6-year-old neighbor with plastic bags, wrapping her body in a tarp and dumping it about a mile from her home was shot Tuesday in an exchange of gunfire with officers trying to serve arrest and search warrants.
A police detective who was seriously wounded was expected to recover. He was part of a major crimes task force that went to 17-year-old Tyler Holder’s home in the Fort Worth suburb of Saginaw to serve the warrants about 9 a.m. Tuesday. Holder was hospitalized, but authorities have not released his condition.
According to a capital murder arrest warrant affidavit, authorities suspect Holder suffocated Alanna Gallagher, who was found with plastic bags taped around her neck. Holder’s DNA matched evidence found on the girl’s body and on a belt wrapped around the tarp, according to the affidavit, which says the girl was sexually assaulted.
The revelations come about three weeks after two teenagers found Alanna’s naked body, which was stuffed in a large trash bag, wrapped in a tarp and dumped on a street.
Police also are trying to determine who set fire to a makeshift memorial for Alanna and torched a car owned by the girl’s family that was parked in their driveway. The damage was discovered early Friday.
