UPI NewsTrack TopNews

John Allen Muhammad, D.C. sniper, dies

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- John Allen Muhammad, the so-called D.C. Sniper, died by lethal injection at a Virginia prison at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday, a prison official said.

Larry Traylor, a spokesman for Greensville Correctional Center, said Muhammad made no final statement and that he did not hear him say anything during the execution process, USA Today reported.

A few hours earlier, Gov. Tim Kaine had said he would not intervene, clearing the way for the execution. Kaine opposes the death penalty but has allowed executions to be carried out during his tenure.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused a stay of execution Monday.

Muhammad, 48, was sentenced to death for the killing of Dean Meyers, who was shot down at a gas station near Manassas. The shooting was one of 10 Muhammad, a veteran of the first Gulf War, and his teenage disciple, Lee Boyd Malvo, carried out around Washington.

"Muhammad's trial, verdict and sentence have been reviewed by state and federal courts," Kaine said in a statement posted on his Web site. "Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts."

Relatives of some of the victims were scheduled to witness Muhammad's death.

-0-

Report: Defense not told of Hasan e-mails

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The Pentagon says intelligence agencies disclosed intercepted e-mails between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and a radical imam only after the Fort Hood rampage.

For months, a Pentagon official told The Wall Street Journal, intelligence officials had intercepted e-mails between Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood shootings, and Anwar al-Aulaqi, who knew three of the Sept. 11 hijackers and praised Hasan as a "hero" after Thursday's massacre.

"Based on what we know now, neither the United States Army nor any other organization within the Department of Defense knew of Major Hasan's contacts with any Muslim extremists" before the shootings, the official said.

The Journal said the Pentagon's disclosure that it had not been told of the intercepted e-mails earlier heightened debate about whether Hasan should have been the focus of more investigation before he opened fire at a soldier-readiness center on the sprawling Texas base. The shooting killed 13 people and wounded 38. Hasan remained hospitalized under guard in San Antonio.

Federal investigators are examining e-mails between Hasan and Aulaqi, who now lives in Yemen, for any indications of a wider relationship between the alleged shooter and overseas Islamic extremists, the Journal said. Thus far, none has been found among 10-20 e-mails, investigators said.

Hasan and some of his relatives had attended a Virginia mosque when it was led by Aulaqi.

-0-

U.S. soldier's body found in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A military dive team found the body of one of two U.S. soldiers who disappeared last week in northwest Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said Wednesday.

The two men went missing while trying to recover supplies that fell into a river in Badghis province Nov. 4, The New York Times reported.

Taliban attacks hampered rescue efforts by a joint Afghan-U.S. rescue mission, several media outlets reported.

The Afghan Defense Ministry reported a U.S.-called airstrike Friday killed at least seven Afghan soldiers and police and one civilian. NATO officials did not confirm whether an airstrike was responsible for the deaths but said it is investigating.

After the airstrike, local elders said the Taliban promised not to attack the search party, the Times said.

Also on Wednesday, a suicide bomber riding on a motorcycle targeted a NATO convoy as it moved through a bazaar in Shahjuy, a town on a main route between Kandahar and Kabul, killing a woman and injuring three civilians and two NATO soldiers, said Gulab Shah Alikhail, deputy governor of Zabul province.

-0-

Obama, Biden to honor veterans

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden honor U.S. veterans Wednesday, participating in a remembrance service at Arlington National Cemetery.

Obama was to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns then deliver remarks at the Memorial Amphitheater at the cemetery, the White House said.

First lady Michelle Obama and the vice president's wife, Jill Biden, also plan to attend the services.

The Bidens were scheduled to host a luncheon at the Naval Observatory for veterans and active-duty military personnel and their families.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki also was to attend the ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery and the lunch at the Naval Observatory. Shinseki and Biden planned to deliver remarks during the luncheon event.

-0-

Brazil outage blamed on line problems

BRASILIA, Brazil, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Brazilian officials blame weather for a massive blackout that affected an estimated 50 million people in Brazil and neighboring Paraguay.

Electricity was restored to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo Tuesday night after a major hydroelectric plant was somehow disconnected from the grid that supplied one fifth of Brazil's electricity and nearly all of Paraguay's power.

Energy Minister Edison Lobao said in Brasilia "atmospheric problems," possibly heavy thunderstorms, disrupted the flow of power from the Itaipu hydroelectric plant.

Dow Jones Newswires described Itaipu as the second-largest hydroelectric plant in the world with a generating capacity of 14,000 megawatts.

A statement from the plant said the turbines continued to run during the outage and it appeared the problem was caused by disruptions at one or more points along the grid.