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• Grand jury indicts North Carolina man in killings of Muslims
• Europe scrambles to reassure Jews after Copenhagen attacks
• Washington Monument shrinks slightly with new measurement
• Icy storm encases central U.S., heads for nation's capital
• Boko Haram insurgents attack Cameroon army base
• Police: 2 arrested in connection with Copenhagen attacks
• Heavy shelling as rebels keep pressure on Ukraine's Debaltseve
• Egypt strikes IS group in Libya after video of mass killing
• Hackers cause one of history's biggest banking breaches, security co. says
• Kayla Mueller's boyfriend describes effort to free her
• Draft U.S. rules on commercial drones keep some limits
• New Jersey woman found frozen to death near her home
• Scorpion stings Alaska Airlines passenger, delaying flight
• Video purports to show IS militants beheading hostages
• Poet laureate Philip Levine dies at age 87
• Shooting suspect slams religion while defending liberty

Grand jury indicts North Carolina man in killings of Muslims Posted: 16 Feb 2015 12:47 PM PST (Reuters) - A grand jury indicted a North Carolina man on Monday for the shooting deaths of a newlywed Muslim couple and the wife's sister last week, a court official said. Craig Hicks, 46, of Chapel Hill, was charged by a grand jury with three counts of first-degree murder and one of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling, said Angela Kelly, an assistant clerk of the Durham County Superior Court.

Europe scrambles to reassure Jews after Copenhagen attacks Posted: 16 Feb 2015 10:02 AM PST European nations scrambled on Monday to reassure their Jewish communities after deadly attacks in Copenhagen that heightened fears of a new surge in anti-Semitic violence. Flags were flying at half-mast across Denmark after the weekend shootings on a synagogue and a cultural centre that stunned one of the world's most peaceful nations. Two men were charged on Monday with aiding the gunman, named by the media as Omar El-Hussein, in his lone rampage in the Danish capital that left two people dead and five policemen wounded. France, which was rocked by Islamist attacks last month that killed 17 people including four Jews, appealed for national unity to combat "Islamo-facism".

Washington Monument shrinks slightly with new measurement Posted: 16 Feb 2015 09:46 AM PST The Washington Monument, one of the landmarks of the U.S. capital, is officially 10 inches shorter under a new measurement announced on Monday's Presidents Day holiday. The obelisk on Washington's National Mall is 554 feet, 7 and 11/32 inches tall, smaller than its historical height of 555 feet, 5 and 1/8 inches, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement. The new measurement by NOAA's National Geodetic Survey is based on standards of the international Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats and was completed in December, the statement said. "Today's elevation reflects the international standards for measurement of a building's height as well as considerable technological improvements," said Dru Smith, NOAA's chief geodesist.

Icy storm encases central U.S., heads for nation's capital Posted: 16 Feb 2015 08:53 AM PST (Reuters) - Record-breaking cold gripped the Eastern United States on Monday as an icy winter storm crippled the nation's central states before it was expected to barrel toward the mid-Atlantic in time to snarl Tuesday's morning commute. Heavy snowfall and ice moving from the Southern Plains eastward pounded Missouri, Arkansas, southern Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, the National Weather Service said. Freezing rain encased Nashville in ice, cancelling flights and closing Interstate 24, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Cars skidded off roads near Louisville, Kentucky, where there were six times the usual number of accidents and a fleet of more than 1,000 snow plows tried to clear slick roads, officials said.

Boko Haram insurgents attack Cameroon army base Posted: 16 Feb 2015 05:29 AM PST Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents attacked a Cameroon military camp near the town of Waza in the north of the country on Monday, wounding several soldiers, an army spokesman said. Chad, Niger and Cameroon have begun a joint offensive against Boko Haram militants who have killed thousands of people in a bid to carve out an Islamist emirate in northern Nigeria, and have increasingly staged raids across nearby borders.

Police: 2 arrested in connection with Copenhagen attacks Posted: 16 Feb 2015 01:52 AM PST COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish police said Monday that they have arrested two men suspected of helping the gunman who carried out two deadly shooting attacks over the weekend in Copenhagen.

Heavy shelling as rebels keep pressure on Ukraine's Debaltseve Posted: 16 Feb 2015 12:44 AM PST Separatists are keeping up attacks on the strategic railway junction of Debaltseve despite a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, a Kiev military spokesman said on Monday, and witnesses reported heavy shelling in the area. "The illegal armed groups are not supporting the ceasefire," military spokesman Anatoly Stelmakh told reporters, adding that the Russian-backed rebels were using Grad rockets and tanks to attack government forces holding the town. "The number of attacks on Debaltseve has even increased in comparison to previous days and they are using all types of weapons," he said. "The terrorists have been given the order to take Debaltseve at all cost." A Reuters correspondent at Vuhlehirsk, about 10 km (some six miles) to the west of Debaltseve, reported heavy shelling from the direction of the town, with blasts around every 10 seconds.

Egypt strikes IS group in Libya after video of mass killing Posted: 15 Feb 2015 11:17 PM PST The airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Libya are in retaliation for the beheading of several Coptic Christians.

Hackers cause one of history's biggest banking breaches, security co. says Posted: 15 Feb 2015 09:56 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — A hacking ring has stolen up to $1 billion from banks around the world in what would be one of the biggest banking breaches known, a cybersecurity firm says in a report scheduled to be delivered Monday.

Kayla Mueller's boyfriend describes effort to free her Posted: 15 Feb 2015 07:16 PM PST PHOENIX (AP) — Kayla Mueller was in a detention cell in Syria, face to face with her boyfriend who was posing as her husband. Had she told her captors she was married to Omar Alkhani, she might have been freed from the hands of Islamic State militants, he said. Instead, she denied being his wife.

Draft U.S. rules on commercial drones keep some limits Posted: 15 Feb 2015 06:43 PM PST By Alwyn Scott NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. aviation regulator proposed rules on Sunday for commercial drone flights that would lift some restrictions but would still bar activities such as the delivery of packages and inspection of pipelines that have been eyed by companies as a potentially breakthrough use of the technology. The long-awaited draft rules from the Federal Aviation Administration would require unmanned aircraft pilots to obtain special pilot certificates, stay away from bystanders and fly only during the day. The rules also say pilots must remain in the line of sight of its radio-control drone, which could limit inspection of pipelines, crops, and electrical towers that are one of the major uses envisioned by companies. "This rule does not deal with beyond line of sight, but does allow for the use of a visual observer to augment line of sight by the operator of the unmanned aircraft," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a conference call with reporters on Sunday.

New Jersey woman found frozen to death near her home Posted: 15 Feb 2015 04:01 PM PST (Reuters) - A New Jersey woman was found frozen to death in the snow near her home on Sunday morning, authorities said. Olivia Benito, 66, had stopped by a neighbor's house for drinks after they left a benefit event at an Elks Club in Lakewood, New Jersey, Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County prosecutor's office, said in a news release. The neighbor told police that Benito had some alcoholic beverages during the course of the evening, Della Fave said. The neighbor said she discovered Benito face down in snow when she went out to clear her car of snow at about 7 a.m. on Sunday, Della Fave said.

Scorpion stings Alaska Airlines passenger, delaying flight Posted: 15 Feb 2015 03:44 PM PST A scorpion stung a passenger on an Alaska Airlines flight to Portland, Oregon, delaying a flight that originated in Mexico, the carrier said on Sunday. Flight 567, which originated in Los Cabos, Mexico, was taxiing for takeoff on Saturday at Los Angeles International Airport when the woman was stung, airline spokesman Cole Cosgrove said. The plane returned to the gate, where medics treated the woman and offered additional medical treatment, which she declined, Cosgrove said. "We don't know exactly how the scorpion made it on the plane, but the flight did originate in Los Cabos, Mexico, where scorpions are known to live," Cosgrove said.

Video purports to show IS militants beheading hostages Posted: 15 Feb 2015 03:12 PM PST The mass killing of Coptic Christian hostages has been released by militants in Libya.

Poet laureate Philip Levine dies at age 87 Posted: 15 Feb 2015 02:39 PM PST FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Philip Levine, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose intimate portraits of blue-collar life were grounded in personal experience and political conscience, died Saturday. Levine was 87.

Shooting suspect slams religion while defending liberty Posted: 15 Feb 2015 02:07 PM PST If his Facebook page is any indication, Craig Hicks doesn't hate Muslims. An avowed atheist, his online posts instead depict a man who despises religion itself, but nevertheless seems to support an individual's right to his own beliefs.

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