WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department has unsealed criminal terrorism charges against an American woman they say used the name “Jihad Jane” on the Internet. She is accused of plotting with terrorists to kill someone in Sweden as well as wanting to take part in a so-called global jihad against the west. 
Federal prosecutors disclosed the […]

NEW YORK - An Afghan immigrant accused of conspiring to attack New York City with bombs has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization.  Najibullah Zazi entered the plea Monday in […]

LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson’s personal physician has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the pop singer’s death.
Prosecutors announced the charges Monday in California against Dr. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist who was with Jackson when he died suddenly last year at the age of 50.
The coroner’s office earlier ruled Jackson’s death a homicide. 
Murray is expected […]

WASHINGTON - The lone suspect in the failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday .
U.S. prosecutors say Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab will hear the charges against him during a brief hearing in the U.S. city of Detroit.
The 23-year-old Nigerian has been charged with six […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. authorities have charged a Nigerian man with trying to blow up a plane on its descent into the city of Detroit on Friday.  The man, who comes from a prominent Nigerian family, was read the charges in a hospital Saturday, where he is being treated for burns. 
U.S. District Judge Paul Borman read […]

WASHINGTON - Last month, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, and four other suspects would face civilian trial in New York rather than military tribunals at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The decision drew protests from some family […]

PARIS - What will likely be Germany’s last Nazi-era war crimes trial is underway in Munich.  On the dock is 89-year-old John Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. auto worker who is accused of participating in the killing of thousands of Jews at a concentration camp in Poland.
John Demjanjuk arrived at the Munich courthouse in an ambulance.  […]

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors continued legal action on Friday to seize properties, including several mosques, owned by a non-profit Muslim organization with alleged ties to the Iranian government.
Federal Marshals delivered notices initiating possible seizure proceedings against the Islamic Education Center in Potomac, Maryland just outside Washington.
Authorities are moving against properties linked to the New York […]

NEW YORK - An Obama administration official says the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, will be tried in a civilian court in New York, along with four co-defendants.
The official said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will announce the decision Friday.
Speaking in Tokyo, U.S. President Barack Obama did not […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Army officials say the alleged gunman in last week’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood — Major Nidal Malik Hasan — has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder.
Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army’s criminal investigation division, announced the charges Thursday at Fort Hood.  
Grey said it is possible that additional […]

WASHINGTON - The mastermind behind a string of deadly sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C. area seven years ago is scheduled to be executed Tuesday night (9:00 pm EST).
John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection in the eastern state of Virginia for killing a man at a gas […]

AUSTIN - U.S. officials say the army psychiatrist who allegedly killed 13 people at a U.S. military base last week had reached out to communicate with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen.
U.S. media reports citing unnamed officials Monday said intelligence agencies, including the FBI, intercepted electronic messages written by Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan to […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army’s Chief of Staff says he is concerned about speculation regarding the Muslim faith of the man who allegedly killed 13 people and wounded 30 others at a U.S. military base.
General George Casey said in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union that focusing on the Islamic faith of […]

AUSTIN - U.S. military officials say gunmen have opened fire at an army base in central Texas, killing at least 12 people and wounding as many as 31.

Lieutenant General Bob Cone, an official at the base, said the incident started Thursday afternoon at Fort Hood, Texas, in the Soldier Readiness Center, which prepares troops for deployment.

Cone […]

WASHINGTON - Accused al-Qaida sleeper agent Ali al-Marri has been sentenced to more than eight years in a civilian prison. The Qatar native was labeled an “enemy combatant and held for years in isolation at a military prison in South Carolina. Al-Marri’s sentence ends years of legal limbo and provides insight into how future cases of […]

PARIS - The French chapter of the Church of Scientology has been convicted of fraud and fined nearly $1 million. Its top members have also been handed suspended prison sentences. The verdict by a French court stops short of dissolving the church, as the prosecution requested.
A Paris area court fined the Church of Scientology and […]

WASHINGTON - The United States has asked Switzerland to extradite film director Roman Polanski, so he can face court sentencing in California for having sex with a child in 1977.
The Swiss justice office said authorities in Zurich will hold a hearing to decide whether Polanski should be sent back to the United States. The justice […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. law enforcement officials say they have launched the largest single strike ever at a notorious Mexican drug cartel operating inside the United States. The crackdown resulted in the arrest of more than 300 people in 19 states.
The target of the combined federal, state and local law enforcement effort is the notorious Mexican […]

WASHINGTON - Federal law enforcement officials have charged a Massachusetts man with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Prosecutors allege the arrested man sought terror training overseas and discussed a plot to launch a shooting attack on a U.S. shopping mall
Tarek Mehanna, 27, was arrested at his home in a suburb of Boston.
Acting U.S. […]

WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Miami handed down the sentence to 48-year-old Diego Montoya, two months after he pleaded guilty to murder, drug trafficking and racketeering charges. At the proceedings, Montoya apologized for his past actions, saying he hoped his sentence would bring a measure of relief to victims and their families.
Montoya was charged […]

LOS ANGELES - Charges have been filed in California against three people for allegedly providing addictive prescription drugs to former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, including the late model’s lawyer-boyfriend.
State Attorney General Jerry Brown announced Thursday his office has filed 11 felony charges against Howard K. Stern and two doctors, Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich. […]

LAS VEGAS - Former sports star O. J. Simpson has been sentenced to at least 15 years in prison for charges that include armed robbery and kidnapping. Simpson was earlier at the center of one of the biggest U.S. murder cases of the 1990s.
Simpson, a former star of American football and one-time Hollywood actor, is […]

HOUSTON - More than three years after Hurricane Katrina caused massive damage in New Orleans, the city has less than half its pre-hurricane population and a crime rate higher than any other city in the nation. But, citizens’ groups see signs of progress in the fight against crime. 
According to an analysis of FBI crime data […]

WASHINGTON - A military jury at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has convicted an al-Qaida operative on charges of conspiracy, soliciting murder and material support for terrorism.
Authorities announced the jury’s decision Monday in the case of Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, who was convicted Friday. Bahlul, a Yemeni national, could face life in prison for […]