Shuttle launch held because of weather
Low clouds forced NASA to delay the launch of space shuttle Discovery late Thursday, and a forecast for strong winds prompted the space agency to postpone another attempt by at least two days.
NASA managers waited until the end of the countdown before deciding to call off the launch scheduled for 9:35 p.m. It would have been the first nighttime launch in four years.
A new launch attempt was set for 8:47 p.m. Saturday, although weather forecasters gave the new time only a 30 percent chance of acceptable weather because of expected strong winds at the launch pad.
The best opportunity for launching over the next several days was Tuesday, shuttle weather forecaster Matt Timmermann said.
WASHINGTON
U.S.-bound cargo will be scanned
U.S.-bound cargo will be scanned for nuclear and radiological material at six foreign ports starting in February under an agreement with host governments announced by U.S. officials Thursday.
The Homeland Security and Energy departments next year will begin scanning all U.S.-bound containers from Puerto Cortes, Honduras; Qasim, Pakistan; and Southampton, England, officials said.
Limited scanning will also be done at Salalah, Oman; Singapore; and Busan, Korea, on a trial basis.
The Southampton facility is operated by Dubai Ports World, the United Arab Emirates company whose purchase of U.S. port operations was approved by the Bush administration, but which the company was pressured earlier this year to spin off by Congress.
PHOENIX
Baseline Killer suspect in jail
Police said Thursday they have caught the Baseline Killer, the gunman responsible for nine slayings that spread terror across the Phoenix area for nearly a year.
Police Chief Jack Harris said investigators are recommending that Mark Goudeau, a 42-year-old construction worker who has been in jail since September, be charged with 71 counts, including nine murders – most of them random shootings committed on the street at night.
Goudeau was arrested three months ago in two sexual assaults that were attributed to the Baseline Killer. But at the time, police stopped short of pronouncing him the Baseline Killer while they built a case against the ex-convict.
LOS ANGELES
LAPD arrests, suspends cop
A police officer suspected of assaulting a handcuffed 16-year-old boy in a partially videotaped attack at a police station was arrested Thursday, authorities said.
Sean Joseph Meade, 41, was arrested for investigation of assault under the color of authority, Police Chief William J. Bratton said. The boy was not injured and remained in custody, while police tried to find his guardians, Bratton said.
Bratton said Meade assaulted the youth after he was arrested about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday for a curfew violation. The teenager was in a holding cell with his hands cuffed behind his back and did not physically provoke the attack, the chief said.