World/Nation Briefs August 6, 2013
Intercepted message caused embassy closures
WASHINGTON - An intercepted secret message between al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri and his deputy in Yemen about plans for a major terror attack was the trigger that set off the current shutdown of many U.S. embassies, two officials told The Associated Press on Monday.
A U.S. intelligence official and a Mideast diplomat said al-Zawahri's message was picked up several weeks ago and appeared to initially target Yemeni interests. The threat was expanded to include American or other Western sites abroad, officials said, indicating the target could be a single embassy, a number of posts or some other site. Lawmakers have said it was a massive plot in the final stages, but they have offered no specifics.
The intelligence official said the message was sent to Nasser al-Wahishi, the head of the terror network's organization, based in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos buying Washington Post
LOS ANGELES - Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com founder who helped bring books into the digital age, is going after another pillar of "old media:" The Washington Post.
Bezos, 49, struck a deal announced Monday to buy the venerable Washington broadsheet and other newspapers for $250 million. It was a startling demonstration of how the Internet has created winners and losers and transformed the media landscape.
Bezos pioneered online shopping, first by selling books out of his Seattle garage in 1995, then with just about everything else. In doing so, he has amassed a $25 billion personal fortune, based on the most recent estimates by Forbes magazine.
Meanwhile The Washington Post, like most newspapers, has been losing readers and advertisers to the Internet while watching its value plummet.
The newspaper, celebrated a generation ago for breaking the Watergate scandal, has been forced in recent years to scale back its ambitions, cut its newsroom staff repeatedly and close several bureaus.
3 people shot dead at municipal building meeting
A gunman blasted shots through the wall of a Pennsylvania municipal building during a meeting on Monday and then barged into the meeting room and continued firing, killing three people, before he was tackled by a local official and shot with his own gun, a witness said.
The shooting, which also injured some people, happened shortly before 7:30 p.m. during Ross Township's monthly meeting, Monroe County emergency management director Guy Miller said. The gunman, who appeared to be "shooting randomly," was captured and was treated at a hospital, which was placed on lockdown, he said. The shooter later was released into police custody, said the hospital, which was treating two shooting victims.
State police in Lehighton confirmed the gunman had been captured but didn't immediately have details on the arrest.
The Pocono Record said one of its reporters was in the township building and a gunman armed with a pistol with a scope shot through a wall into the meeting, in a rural area of northeastern Pennsylvania about 85 miles north of Philadelphia.
University of Iowa named top U.S. party school
IOWA CITY, Iowa - College students consider the University of Iowa the nation's best party school, even though Iowa City has tried to make its famous bar scene less hospitable to underage drinkers.
The Princeton Review bestowed Iowa with the top ranking Monday on a list determined by 126,000 students in a nationwide survey. Rounding out the Top 5 are: University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; West Virginia University and Syracuse University.
The organization also released its "stone-cold sober schools" list - led again this year by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah; and followed by Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.
Officials in Iowa City aren't celebrating the ranking, which comes after they've made recent strides in the battle against binge drinking on campus and downtown.
- The Associated Press