In the Nation

CARMEL, N.Y. - The suburban New York home where an intense early-morning blaze killed a police captain, his wife, and daughters on Tuesday had multiple smoke detectors, but none sent any alarm to a monitoring station, an official said.

Carmel Police Chief Michael Johnson said investigators don't yet know a cause for the fire that gutted the home of Larchmont Police Capt. Thomas Sullivan, turning it into a pile of black rubble and burning bodies to the point where testing will be needed to make final identifications.

Officials were able to find Sullivan's body on the rear deck, where Johnson said he apparently landed after jumping from the second floor. Two other bodies have been recovered but not identified, and the fourth has possibly been located by a cadaver-sniffing dog.

The other victims are believed to be Sullivan's wife, Donna, and his two daughters, 18-year-old Meaghan and 13-year-old Mairead. His son, 20-year-old Thomas Sullivan Jr., escaped by crawling down the stairs and out of the garage after being woken up by his father, Johnson said.

- AP

TOLEDO, Ohio - A charity accused by the United States of having ties to the extremist Islamic group Hamas settled its lawsuit against the federal government and will be removed from the government's list of terrorist organizations.

Both sides acknowledged no wrongdoing in the settlement, released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the charity in its lawsuit. The agreement comes six years after the Treasury Department essentially closed the charity's operation by ordering U.S. banks to freeze the group's assets. It accused the group of funneling money to terrorist-affiliated organizations.

The leaders of KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development in Toledo denied being connected to any terrorist group and sued the government after it refused to say why the charity's money had been frozen. The charity said in January that it had shut down and the settlement says it will remain closed.

- AP

WASHINGTON - A House committee chairman said that the Secret Service was poring over interviews with 10 of 12 women involved in the Colombia prostitution scandal and so far there's no indication that any posed a national security threat.

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Tuesday that the Secret Service was still translating the interviews. The information was part of a letter from the Secret Service responding to King's questions about the incident.

King said the document revealed that Director Mark Sullivan asked for an independent probe before the scandal became public, indicating Sullivan was not attempting a cover-up. The incident last month implicated a dozen members of the service and 12 military members before President Obama's arrival at the Summit of the Americas.

- AP