QUOTE OF THE DAY
“He said ‘space
for trading.’ So apparently we are
not talking about negotiation, we’re talking about some
trading space.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who said President Barack Obama signaled in talks that he could be flexible in reaching a deal to end the government shutdown and extend the nation’s borrowing authority Article, 1AU.S. citizen denies terrorism charges
SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Muslim convert who had been licensed to work as a security guard pleaded innocent Friday to charges of attempting to join al-Qaida and lying on a U.S. passport application to aid international terrorism.
Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, 24, of Garden Grove was arrested earlier in the day in Santa Ana while waiting to board a bus to Mexico, the FBI said.
Nguyen, a U.S. citizen, was ordered detained on the grounds of danger and risk of flight during a brief federal court appearance in Orange County.
Nguyen, who is also known as Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum, attempted to work under the direction of al-Qaida, according to an indictment returned Friday.
The four-page document provided no details about the purported terrorism act.
The Orange County Register reported that Nguyen went to Syria in December after hearing about the civil war there.
Trucker dies; 23 hurt on train he hit
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The driver of a loaded log truck that collided Friday with a sightseeing train carrying 63 passengers and four crew members on a scenic leaf-peeping circuit in West Virginia’s mountains was the lone fatality in an accident that injured 23 others, authorities said.
At least six of the injured were hospitalized in serious condition after the accident, which came at the height of fall foliage season in the state’s rugged Appalachian region about 160 miles east of Charleston, officials added.
Randolph County Sheriff Mark Brady said two of the train’s passenger cars flipped on their sides after impact at a rail crossing with a mountain highway. The log truck was rendered a “total loss,” and the truck driver was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.
The truck driver was not immediately identified.
Gay-union bid goes to N.J.’s high court
TRENTON, N.J. - The state’s highest court on Friday agreed to hear a case on whether gay marriage should be legal and whether same-sex weddings can be performed while it decides.
A lower-court judge ruled last month that the state must legalize same-sex marriage starting Oct. 21, but Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s administration said in a court filing Friday that a single judge should not be able to force New Jersey to do so.
The argument was included in a brief the state submitted in support of its emergency appeal of the overall ruling and Judge Mary Jacobson’s decision on Thursday not to delay the due date.
The state Supreme Court accepted the case Friday, skipping the normal course of letting an appeals court hear it first. Oral arguments were scheduled for January.
Thirteen states, including most in the Northeast, already allow gay couples to marry. New Jersey offers gay couples civil unions but not marriage.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 10/12/2013