At tornado-hit Okla. school, 'a lot of tears'
MOORE, Okla. - Students from a suburban Oklahoma City elementary school destroyed by this week's tornado reunited with their teachers yesterday and collected whatever could be salvaged from the ruins.
MOORE, Okla.
- Students from a suburban Oklahoma City elementary school destroyed by this week's tornado reunited with their teachers yesterday and collected whatever could be salvaged from the ruins.
Meanwhile, family and friends attended the funeral of a 9-year-old girl who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Monday's storm, which killed 24 people.
Back at the school, Cheryle Dixon, grandmother of first-grader Crisily Dixon, talked about how hard it was for the little girl. "A lot of tears, a lot of worry about her gym teacher, a lot of worry about a lot of the teachers that she knew, so she just can't believe it," Dixon said.
Obama: Drone strikes legal, but not 'cure-all'
WASHINGTON
- President Obama yesterday defended America's controversial drone attacks as legal, effective and a necessary linchpin in an evolving U.S. counterterrorism policy. But he acknowledged the targeted strikes are no "cure-all" and said he is haunted by the civilians unintentionally killed.
The president also announced a renewed push to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, including lifting a moratorium on prisoner transfers to Yemen. However, shutting the prison will still require help from Republicans reluctant to back Obama's call to move some detainees to U.S. prisons and try them in civilian courts.
Obama framed his address as an attempt to redefine the nature and scope of terror threats facing the U.S., noting the weakening of al Qaeda and the impending end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
IRS replaces official in tea-party scandal
WASHINGTON
- A day after she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, Lois Lerner was replaced as director of the Internal Revenue Service division that oversaw agents who targeted tea-party groups.
Danny Werfel, the agency's new acting commissioner, told IRS employees in an email yesterday that he has selected a new acting head of the division.
Ken Corbin will be the acting director of the agency's exempt organizations division. Corbin is currently deputy director of submission processing in the wage and investment division.
Muslim hard-liners ID London attack suspect
LONDON
- A man seen with bloody hands wielding a butcher knife after the killing of a British soldier on the streets of London was described as a convert to Islam who took part in demonstrations with a banned radical group, two Muslim hard-liners said yesterday.
Police raided houses in connection with the brazen slaying of the off-duty soldier, identified as Lee Rigby, of the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who served in Afghanistan. In addition to the two suspects who were hospitalized after being shot by police, authorities said they had arrested a man and a woman, both 29, on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
Police would not say whether it appeared Rigby had been targeted specifically because of his military service. Authorities have not identified either of the two wounded suspects and have not said when they would do so.
- Daily News wire services