USA
FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday he sees a rising threat from home-grown terrorists but cautioned that foreign groups are far from vanquished and still consume more bureau resources. The FBI antiterrorism agents are investigating thousands of people internationally through information-gathering efforts and criminal cases, and "certainly hundreds" of those are within the United States.
Chase Card Services, the credit card division of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said Thursday it mistakenly threw out computer tapes with the personal information of 2.6 million current and former Circuit City card account holders. The company has started notifying customers and is monitoring affected accounts.
Lun Lun, a 9-year-old giant panda, gave birth in Zoo Atlanta Wednesday, delivering the zoo's first panda cub. The cub is hairless and the size of a stick of butter. Its sex will not be known for weeks. Zookeepers plan to wait 100 days before naming the cub and presenting it to the public.
BP executives received stern warnings Thursday from members of Congress outraged at the company's admittedly deficient maintenance of leak-prone Alaskan oil pipelines. The executives apologized and pledged to fix operational lapses on the North Slope that led to the region's biggest oil spill last March and the partial shutdown of the country's largest oil field.
Author James Frey and Random House have agreed in principle to settle lawsuits filed by readers who said they were defrauded by fabrications in his bestselling memoir, "A Million Little Pieces." Readers who bought the book on or before Jan. 26, the day Frey acknowledged that he had made up parts of the book, will be eligible for a full refund.
Florida Marlins pitcher Anibal Sanchez threw the first no-hitter since May 2004, the longest stretch without a no-hitter in major league history. Wednesday's 2-0 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks was the rookie's 13th career start. The Marlins are keeping pace in the National League wild-card race, despite having baseball's youngest team and lowest payroll.
The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped by 9,000 from last week, the largest decline in seven weeks.
