■UNITED STATES
Woman to get fourth star
Lieutenant General Ann Dunwoody on Monday became the first woman to be nominated to the highest rank in the US Army, four-star general. “This is an historic occasion for the Department of Defense and I am proud to nominate Lieutenant General Ann Dunwoody for a fourth star,” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in a statement. Dunwoody’s nomination has to be approved by the US Senate. The 33-year veteran would take over as commander of Army Materiel Command, which provides logistics support to tens of thousands of US soldiers stationed around the world. Army spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Anne Edgecomb said nomination of Dunwoody to the rank of four-star general was “important, considering that there are about 11 four-star generals in the Army.”
■UNITED STATES
Terror plotter given 22 years
A California man who pleaded guilty in December to joining an Islamic terror cell with plans to wage war against the US government was sentenced on Monday to 22 years in federal prison. Levar Washington, 30, was one of four men — members of a radical Islamic group formed in a California prison — who were indicted in 2005 for plotting attacks on US military installations as well as synagogues and the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles. Washington and the group’s ringleader, Kevin James, were taken into custody in 2005 after a robbery intended to pay for their operations, and prosecutors said at the time that the group, known as Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh had been on the verge of launching its first attack. James and a third member of the cell, Gregory Patterson, have also pleaded guilty in the case and are still awaiting sentencing. The fourth defendant, Hammad Samana, was been found mentally unfit to stand trial and is receiving psychiatric treatment at a federal prison.
■BRAZIL
Nap was bad idea for thief
A thief caught napping in the house he was burglarizing for the second time is under arrest in the southern city of Canoas. Police spokeswoman Giovana Schafer said 20-year-old Maicon Seggiaro Kovalski broke into a middle-class home before daybreak on Monday. He walked away with a TV set and other household goods, which she said “he quickly exchanged for crack cocaine.” After smoking some of the crack, Kovalski decided to return to the house to steal more, but he feel asleep on the couch, where he was found by the owners, Schafer said. She said Kovalski had confessed to the burglary.
■UNITED STATES
Sex show trial postponed
A judge in Tyler, Texas, has postponed the trial of a man accused of helping to run a swingers club where children allegedly performed sex shows for adults. Attorneys for Patrick Kelly said a judge on Monday granted their request to push back the trial so that new allegations against the children’s foster father can be investigated. The foster father was charged in California last week with sexually assaulting a foster child in 1990, but he and his wife are potential witnesses in Kelly’s trial.
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