| Was Amtrak train hit by a flying object? Posted: 15 May 2015 04:45 PM PDT  The Amtrak train that derailed along the nation's busiest tracks may have been struck by an object in the moments before it crashed, investigators said Friday, raising new questions about the deadly accident.
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| Jury sentences Boston Marathon bomber to death Posted: 15 May 2015 12:39 PM PDT  More than two years after the deadly 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, admitted bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to the death penalty.
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| Mark Everson ran the IRS. Now he wants to be president. Posted: 15 May 2015 09:17 AM PDT  There comes a moment in the career of many government bureaucrats when they sit across the table from a high-ranking elected official — the president, even—and think, You know, I'm just as smart as these guys. "You understand they're just another person," says Mark Everson, who served in the Reagan administration and as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service under George W. Bush. "You ask yourself, Do you like this? Do you think you qualify?" The answers he arrived at — yes and yes — led him, after a long period of soul-searching, to the Lincoln Dinner of the Linn County (Iowa) Republican Committee on May 1, where he shared a dais with the only other presidential candidate who showed up, an Indiana contractor named Mike Petyo. Because the hard truth about presidential politics is that while you may be just as smart as the guys who win, you almost certainly aren't as famous, charismatic or rich.
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| House panel to hold Amtrak hearing; Schumer blasts Boehner Posted: 15 May 2015 03:11 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. House committee announced Friday it would hold a hearing on the deadly Amtrak crash while U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer launched another push to get Congress to pay for train safety technology and infrastructure improvements in the wake of the derailment.
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| Boston Marathon bomber Tsarnaev sentenced to death for 2013 attack Posted: 15 May 2015 04:14 PM PDT  By Scott Malone and Elizabeth Barber BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death by a U.S. jury on Friday for helping carry out the 2013 attack that killed three people and wounded 264 others in the crowds at the race's finish line. After deliberating for 15 hours, the federal jury chose death by lethal injection for Tsarnaev, 21, over its only other option: life in prison without possibility of release. The same jury found Tsarnaev guilty last month of placing a pair of homemade pressure-cooker bombs on April 15, 2013, as well as fatally shooting a policeman. William Richard, the father of bombing victim Martin Richard, described the decision to leave his 8-year-old son to die of his wounds so that he could save the life of his daughter, Jane, who lost a leg but survived.
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| Philadelphia train may have been hit by projectile before wreck Posted: 15 May 2015 04:53 PM PDT  By Jarrett Renshaw PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia and a separate commuter train in the vicinity may have been hit by projectiles of some kind shortly before the wreck, a U.S. transportation safety official said on Friday, after investigators interviewed members of the Amtrak crew. An assistant conductor told NTSB investigators on Friday that she heard the engineer, 32-year-old Brandon Bostian, talking by radio with the driver of another train from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).
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| Saudi man gets life in U.S. prison for ties to Africa embassy bombings Posted: 15 May 2015 09:08 AM PDT  By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Saudi man whom U.S. authorities described as a top Osama bin Laden deputy was sentenced to life in prison on Friday in connection with the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Khalid al-Fawwaz was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan after being convicted of four conspiracy counts in New York in February. Instead, prosecutors said he was bin Laden's "bridge to the West" in London, disseminating the al Qaeda leader's violent messages to media outlets and sending supplies to the group's members in Africa. "I worship the same God you say you do," said Ellen Karas, an embassy worker left permanently blind by the August 7, 1998, bombing in Nairobi.
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| Bin Laden top aide sentenced to life in embassy bombing plot Posted: 15 May 2015 10:29 AM PDT  Khaled al-Fawwaz was convicted of conspiring in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
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| What Marco Rubio's stumble on immigration says about his ability to lead Posted:  No one doubts Rubio's raw talent. But there are doubts about his readiness for the presidency.
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| Blues legend B.B. King dies at age 89 Posted: 15 May 2015 10:26 AM PDT  He was not only the undisputed king of the blues but a mentor to scores of guitarists.
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| IS seizes government HQ in Iraq's Ramadi Posted: 15 May 2015 01:41 PM PDT  Islamic State fighters seized the government compound in the city of Ramadi on Friday and edged closer to what would be their biggest victory in Iraq this year, officials said. The loss of the capital of Anbar province, which Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said would be the next target of government forces after wresting back Tikrit last month, would be a major setback. The government stressed that Ramadi had not fallen yet and announced that a major counter-offensive was under way as Abadi held an emergency meeting with top security officials. IS has threatened to take control of Ramadi for months, and the breakthrough came after a wide offensive on multiple fronts in the province, including an assault using several suicide car bombs in Ramadi on Thursday.
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| Nepal rescuers find 3 bodies near crashed US Marine chopper Posted: 15 May 2015 09:09 AM PDT  KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepalese rescuers on Friday found three bodies near the wreckage of a U.S. Marine helicopter that disappeared this week during a relief mission in the earthquake-hit Himalayan nation, and officials said it was unlikely there were any survivors from the crash.
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