Senate approves attorney general
WASHINGTON – Loretta Lynch won confirmation as the nation’s first black female attorney general Thursday from a Senate that forced her to wait more than five months for the title and remained divided to the end.
The 56-43 vote installs Lynch, now U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, at the Justice Department to replace Eric Holder. Holder has served in the job throughout the Obama administration, becoming a lightning rod for conservatives who perceived him as overly political and liberal and even getting held in contempt of Congress.
Lynch, 55, is seen as a no-nonsense prosecutor and has wide law enforcement support. The issue that tore into her support with Republicans was immigration.
Ex-CIA director gets probated sentence
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Former CIA Director David Petraeus, whose career was destroyed by an extramarital affair with his biographer, was sentenced Thursday to two years’ probation and fined $100,000 for giving her classified material while she was working on the book.
The sentencing came two months after he agreed to plead guilty to a federal misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material.
The plea agreement carried a possible sentence of up to a year in prison. In court papers, prosecutors recommended two years’ probation and a $40,000 fine. But Judge David Keesler increased the fine to “reflect seriousness of the offense.” He said Petraeus committed a “grave and uncharacteristic error in judgment.”
Pentagon outlines cyber-warfare plans
PALO ALTO, Calif. – A new Pentagon cyber-security strategy lays out for the first time publicly that the U.S. military plans to use cyber-warfare as an option in conflicts with enemies.
The 33-page strategy says the Defense Department “should be able to use cyber operations to disrupt an adversary’s command and control networks, military-related critical infrastructure and weapons capabilities.”
And on Thursday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed for the first time that the Pentagon uncovered a breach by Russian hackers into an unclassified defense computer network earlier this year.
EU raising funds to assist migrants
BRUSSELS – European Union leaders Thursday started committing new resources to save lives in the Mediterranean at an emergency summit convened after hundreds of migrants drowned in the space of a few days and were discussing laying the ground for military action against traffickers.
Officials said the 28 nations were close to doubling the finances for the EU’s border operation that patrols the Mediterranean and could be called on for emergency rescues. It currently stands at $3.1 million a month.
Associated Press
