■ UNITED STATES
Shooting plan foiled
Pennsylvania officials said on Thursday that a 14-year-old boy was arrested after police found weapons at his home and that a high school said may have been targeted for a Columbine-style school shooting. Police seized a semi-automatic rifle and several air-powered guns at the home of the teenager, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said. The teenager's identity was not disclosed. "The BB guns are not illegal and can be bought anywhere ... the rifle ... the information we have [is] that his mother bought it from a gun show," the official said, adding that charges were being considered against the mother and other members of the household.
■ UNITED STATES
CIA critic under review
CIA Director Michael Hayden has ordered an internal review of his inspector general, who has issued a series of highly critical reports on the agency's conduct before and after the Sept. 11 attacks, media reports said. The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, citing unidentified officials, said the highly unusual move has raised concerns that Hayden is trying to squelch the work of Inspector General John Helgerson, who has criticized senior figures including former director George Tenet and officers involved in the CIA's detention of terrorist suspects. The CIA sought to play down the reports, with an agency spokesman saying on Thursday that Hayden firmly believed in the work of the inspector general.
■ UNITED STATES
Man convicted of hate crime
A man who tried to fend off gay bashing charges by telling a jury that he himself is gay was found guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime on Thursday for his role in a fatal attack at a remote New York City beach. Jurors deliberated several days before convicting Anthony Fortunato in the death of Michael Sandy, a gay man who was beaten and then chased into the path of a moving car on Brooklyn's Belt Parkway on Oct. 8 last year. The jury acquitted Fortunato of murder, which could have put him behind bars for life. At his sentencing, he will face a jail term of five to 25 years.
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