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WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Secret Service says officers are allowed to use "lethal force" to stop someone from getting into the White House. Testifying to a House panel today, Julia Pierson was not clear about whether the Secret Service is authorized to shoot people trying to jump over the White House fence. She says they can shoot if there is an imminent threat to themselves or others. Pierson says agents showed restraint when they did not shoot Omar Gonzalez as he jumped the fence and ran across the front lawn into the executive mansion on Sept. 19. But she also says the security plan wasn't executed properly that day.
LONDON (AP) — The wife of a British aid worker held hostage in Syria by the Islamic State group has made a televised plea asking his captors to free him. Barbara Henning said "Please release him. We need him back home." Alan Henning, a 47-year-old former taxi driver, was kidnapped in December after crossing from Turkey into Syria in an aid convoy. In recent weeks, the militants have released online videos showing the beheading of two American journalists and a British aid worker, and threatened to kill Henning next.
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The man accused of beheading a co-worker at an Oklahoma food processing plant last week could face the death penalty. Alton Nolen was charged today with first-degree murder in the attack, which also wounded a second woman. A prosecutor says Nolen had been suspended from his job, and that he carried out the attack as he sought revenge.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Federal biologists say the marijuana industry in Northern California and southern Oregon is a significant threat to salmon in danger of extinction. They've issued a recovery plan for coho salmon in the region. It calls for getting a better handle on the amount of water that pot growers illegally withdraw from creeks where young fish struggle to survive.
BALTIMORE (AP) — Authorities say Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has been arrested on a DUI charge in Maryland. Transit police say they stopped Phelps at the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore around 1:40 a.m. today. They say Phelps was going 84 in a 45-mile-an-hour zone. Phelps has been charged with driving under the influence and excessive speed. He was released after his arrest. Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 Olympic medals.
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