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WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama administration officials say U.S. intelligence had spent years tracking an al-Qaida cell in Syria that was targeted in U.S. airstrikes in Syria overnight. President Barack Obama says the Khorasan Group was "a shadow of its former self." The attack happened as airstrikes were also being carried out by U.S. and Arab partner planes in Syria and Iraq.
LONDON (AP) — The wife of a British aid worker held hostage in Syria by the Islamic State group says she has received an audio message from him pleading for his life. Barbara Henning says she was also told that Alan Henning was acquitted of being a spy by a Sharia (shah-REE'-yuh) court. The taxi driver was kidnapped in December, shortly after crossing into the country from Turkey in an aid convoy.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian officials say two counterterrorism officers had no choice but to fatally shoot a suspected terrorist when he attacked them. It happened in Melbourne. Some experts say the attack may have been inspired by the Islamic State group's call to supporters to wage terror in their home countries. The man had gone to a police station in relation to a routine matter in an investigation. The shooting happened outside the station.
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities in central Florida are trying to determine if there is a connection between a shooting at a mall in Kissimmee and the deaths of two men found a short time later in a crashed vehicle. Police say two people at the mall suffered gunshot wounds that don't appear to be life-threatening.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prison officials in California say regulations prevent them from commenting on the health of music producer Phil Spector, who is serving time for the 2003 killing of actress Lana Clarkson. But the most recent photos of Spector show the toll of aging and imprisonment. One photo was taken when Spector was moved to a prison hospital that treats the state's sickest inmates.
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