In brief: Judge won’t halt force-feeding

WASHINGTON – A federal judge has turned down a bid by three Guantanamo Bay detainees on a hunger strike to stop the government from force-feeding them.

Judge Rosemary M. Collyer ruled Tuesday that the court doesn’t have jurisdiction in the case because Congress has removed Guantanamo detainees’ treatment and conditions of confinement from the purview of federal courts.

Collyer wrote that even if she did have jurisdiction, she would deny the detainees’ motion for an injunction. She said the United States cannot allow a person in custody to die of self-inflicted starvation.

Commander of first nuclear sub dies

GROTON, Conn. – The Naval Submarine Base in Connecticut says the first commanding officer of the Navy’s first nuclear-powered submarine has died. Retired Vice Adm. Eugene P. Wilkinson was 94. He died in Del Mar, Calif., last week.

Wilkinson received his commission in 1940 and reported to the heavy cruiser USS Louisville for his first tour of duty.

Wilkinson commanded the Nautilus, which was commissioned in 1954 as the world’s first nuclear-powered ship. On Jan. 17, 1955, he ordered all lines cast off and signaled the message, “Underway on nuclear power.”

Scores of cats die, owner saved in fire

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Nearly 100 cats died in a San Jose house fire that also nearly killed the woman who lived there.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that firefighters early Tuesday had to cut through metal netting to save the woman.