White House: Drones have killed 4 Americans

WASHINGTON

- The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time yesterday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in Pakistan and Yemen. The disclosure to Congress comes on the eve of a major national-security speech by President Obama.

In conducting U.S. counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda and its associated forces, the government has targeted and killed one American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, and is aware of the killing by U.S. drones of three others, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy.

The three others killed, who were not targeted, are Samir Khan, killed in the same drone strike as al-Awlaki; al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, a native of Denver; and Jude Kenan Mohammed, who was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan.

LONDON - In a brutal daylight attack raising fears that terrorism had returned to London, two men with butcher knives hacked another man to death near a military barracks yesterday before police wounded them in a shootout.

In a shocking video broadcast on British TV, one man gestured with bloodied hands, waving a butcher knife in the air and shouting political statements against the British government as pedestrians milled about a body lying motionless on the street.

British officials said the attack appeared to be an act of terrorism, possibly motivated by Islam.

ORLANDO, Fla. - A Chechen immigrant was shot to death by authorities early yesterday after he turned violent while being questioned about his ties to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, officials said.

Ibragim Todashev, 27, a mixed-martial-arts fighter, was gunned down at his Orlando townhouse during a meeting with an FBI agent and two Massachusetts state troopers, authorities said. The agent was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't life-threatening.

Three law-enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Todashev had lunged at the FBI agent with a knife. However, two of those officials said later in the day it was no longer clear what happened. The third official had not received any new information. The FBI gave no details on why it was interested in Todashev.

PHOENIX - Jurors in the Jodi Arias murder trial told the judge yesterday that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether the convicted murderer should be sentenced to life in prison or death for killing her onetime boyfriend, prompting the judge to instruct them to continue deliberations and try to work through their differences.

The jury reported its impasse after only about 2 1/2 of deliberations that began Tuesday afternoon.

Under Arizona law, a hung jury in the death-penalty phase of a trial requires a new jury to be seated to decide the punishment. If the second jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, the judge would then sentence Arias to spend her entire life in prison or be eligible for release after 25 years.

VIENNA - The U.N. atomic agency yesterday detailed rapid Iranian progress in two programs that the West fears are geared toward making nuclear weapons, saying Tehran has upgraded its uranium-enrichment facilities and advanced in building a plutonium-producing reactor.

In its reprot, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran had installed nearly 700 high-tech centrifuges used for uranium enrichment, which can produce the core of nuclear weapons. It also said Tehran had added hundreds of older-generation machines at its main enrichment site to bring the total number to more than 13,000.

Iran denies that either its enrichment program or the reactor will be used to make nuclear arms.

-Daily News wire services