In brief: Attacks in France could delay Boston terror trial

Attorneys for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have asked a federal judge to delay jury selection in the Boston Marathon bombing trial in light of the attacks in Paris last week.

In a six-page motion filed Tuesday, the attorneys noted comparisons some news reports have made between the Kouachi brothers, who are accused of orchestrating the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices, and the Tsarnaev brothers’ role in the marathon bombings in April 2013.

“These parallels so widely expressed cannot be lost on potential jurors,” the motion reads. “Even though the panels have been instructed not to read media reports about this case, the probability of exposure to reports of the Paris events, which began before all of the jurors were instructed, is exceedingly high.”

The motion cited several comments made by Boston-area law enforcement officials, including quotes from a terrorism consultant who is expected to serve as a government witness at Tsarnaev’s trial.

It was not clear when a ruling would be made on the motion.

U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. has denied repeated motions to move the trial out of Boston.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to 30 felony charges, including 17 that carry the death penalty.

Mother of teen criticizes Islamic State

CHICAGO – The suburban Chicago mother of a 19-year-old American facing a terrorist charge for trying to join Islamic State militants accused the group on Tuesday of brainwashing youths into joining their ranks via social media. And she declared, “Leave our children alone!”

Mohammed Hamzah Khan’s mother cried softly as she read her statement in a federal courthouse lobby in Chicago. Minutes earlier, her son appeared in orange jail garb in an upstairs courtroom to plead not guilty to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group.

Zarine Khan, flanked by her husband, Shafi, said her family felt compelled to speak out in the wake of “unspeakable acts of horror” in Paris last week that killed 17.

“The venom spewed by these groups and the violence committed by them … are completely at odds with our Islamic faith,” the 41-year-old said.

About a dozen Americans were believed to be fighting in Syria, while more than 100 have either been arrested on their way to Syria or went and came back, FBI Director James Comey said last fall.

Mohammed Khan, who lived with his parents in a middle-class Bolingbrook neighborhood, was arrested in October as he sought to board an international flight in Chicago on the first leg of a plan to sneak into Syria to join Islamic State militants, court documents allege.

Weeks later, prosecutors revealed that Khan’s 17-year-old sister and 16-year-old brother were in on the plot and had been detained at the airport with Khan. The younger siblings haven’t been charged.

$340 million awarded for conservation

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Projects designed to cut down on fertilizer runoff, expand bird nesting areas and restore native grasslands are among those selected for funding under a new initiative that encourages conservation partnerships between government and private organizations, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

The federal agency has approved 115 proposals in an initial round of funding under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which was authorized under national farm legislation that Congress enacted last year.

“This is a new approach to conservation,” Vilsack told the Associated Press ahead of an announcement scheduled for today. “We’re giving private companies, local communities and other non-government partners a way to invest in a new era in conservation that ultimately benefits us all.”

The projects will share $340 million in federal funds, which will be matched by an estimated $400 million from participating groups. Over five years, the USDA expects to spend $1.2 billion and raise at least that much from participants such as businesses, universities, nonprofits, local governments and Native American tribes.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Just a day after a district attorney announced murder charges against two Albuquerque police officers, authorities said another city police officer shot and killed a man Tuesday night.

Police said the latest shooting happened just before 5 p.m. after officers were dispatched to a busy eastern Albuquerque street after a report of suspicious criminal activity.

The officers arrived and took one man into custody, but another man fled on foot, police said.

Albuquerque police spokeswoman Celina Espinoza said the fleeing man later fired shots at the officers, and at least one officer returned fire, killing the suspect. The man was wearing body armor, and his weapon was found near his body, Espinoza said.

The man’s name was not released. The name of officer who fired shots also was not released.

Albuquerque Deputy Chief Robert Huntsman told reporters that no officers were seriously injured.

Tuesday’s shooting marks the department’s third this year – first fatal one – and comes a day after Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg announced that she was seeking murder charges against two officers for the March shooting of James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man who authorities said suffered from mental illness.