Boston bombing suspect's family struggles to find burial site

BOSTON (Reuters) - The body of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev remained in limbo on Monday as his family searched for a cemetery that would accept the remains.

Several Massachusetts cemeteries have refused to bury Tsarnaev, and protesters have staked out the Worcester funeral home holding the body. Despite a plea from the funeral home director, Governor Deval Patrick said on Monday he would not get involved.

The controversy marked a rare period of discord in a state that was largely united after the attacks on one of its marquee events.

Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gun battle with police on April 19, four days after bombs he is believed to have set with his younger brother Dzhokhar killed three people and injured another 264 near the finish line of the world-famous marathon.

Relatives have said they want him buried nearby. Under Islamic law, the body cannot be cremated, a procedure used for criminals including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

"The whole situation is unprecedented," said David Walkinshaw, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Funeral Directors Association. The state of Massachusetts does not own its own cemeteries, he said, and the federal government has only cemeteries for war veterans.

"The challenge here is that there's no way to demand a cemetery allow for a burial to take place," Walkinshaw said.

Some Massachusetts residents want the body sent back to Tsarnaev's native Russia. William Breault of Worcester told reporters on Monday he had set up a bank account to raise funds to ship the remains.

"I not only don't want to see him buried in Worcester, Massachusetts. ... I don't think he should be buried in the state," Breault told CNN.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said he was not aware that anyone from Russia or Massachusetts had contacted the department about it. "We're unaware of any efforts to coordinate sending his remains to Russia," he said.

Gabriel Gomez, a Massachusetts Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, suggested disposing of Tsarnaev's body in the ocean as was done after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.

"Bureaucrats worried about where to bury Boston Marathon terrorist #1. To me, it's simple: he should be buried at sea with Bin Laden," he wrote on his official Twitter account.

UNWILLING TO ACCEPT BODY

Tsarnaev's body was taken to Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester last week after spending more than a week at a medical examiner's office in Boston. Several cemeteries have said they would not accept Tsarnaev's body for burial.

Graham Putnam funeral home owner Peter Stefan, chairman of a board that oversees funeral services and embalming in Massachusetts, said he has an obligation to accept the remains.

Stefan has said he would seek help from state officials if he could not find a resting place soon. His work has drawn support from other funeral directors, including Morgan Mitchell, another member of the state board.

"There are funeral directors in Massachusetts who have buried people who have been murderers or child molesters. As professionals, we need to put these things to one side," Mitchell said.

Tsarnaev's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, said on Sunday that his nephew should be buried in Massachusetts, where he lived. Tsarnaev's parents, ethnic Chechens who returned to southern Russia several years ago, have suggested in various interviews and reports that their son should be buried in Cambridge or returned to Russia.

The Massachusetts governor declined on Monday to get involved.

"This is a family issue ... and the family needs to make some decisions. I understand they have some options. They need to exercise one soon," Patrick told reporters.

Cambridge officials urged the Tsarnaevs to look elsewhere.

"The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the City of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests and widespread media presence at such an interment," said Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy in a statement Sunday.

"The families of loved ones interred in the Cambridge Cemetery also deserve to have their deceased family members rest in peace."

By Ross Kerber and Aaron Pressman (Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Doina Chiacu and Philip Barbara)

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Suspects on trial over Morocco cafe bombing (AP)

RABAT, Morocco – Seven people went on trial in Morocco Thursday for the bombing of a Marrakech tourist cafe that killed 17, one of the worst terrorist acts to hit the North African kingdom.

The proceedings were postponed until Aug. 18 to allow lawyers for both the victims and the defense more time to prepare. Both sides pleaded their cases on Thursday's opening day.

The April 28 explosion tore through the Argana cafe in Marrakech's old town, a popular tourist destination. Several of those killed were foreigners.

Defense lawyers asked that the suspects be released pending the next court session, but the court refused.

The defense lawyers also complained about the conditions of detention, comparing them to the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo. The prosecutor responded angrily that the claim was exaggerated.

The chief suspect, Adel Othmani, appeared relaxed in the courtroom, and turned several times to wave and smile at family members. He was arrested three days after the explosion, and Moroccan police say he has loyalties to al-Qaida and tried to travel to Iraq and Chechnya.

Families of the suspects staged a protests in front of the court, complaining that they had not been able to visit their loved ones behind bars.

Among the charges facing the suspects are premeditated murder, explosives possession, and membership in a banned religious group, according to the state news agency MAP.

The dead included Moroccan, French, British, Swiss and Portuguese victims.

The attack shook relatively peaceful Morocco, a staunch U.S. ally that drew nearly 10 million tourists last year to its sandy beaches, desert and mountain landscapes, and historic sites.

The blast came several weeks after King Mohamed VI promised constitutional reforms to shepherd in more democracy amid a push across the Arab world. Moroccans vote in a referendum on the reforms Friday.

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At least 20 killed in suicide bombing in east Afghanistan (Reuters)

PULE ALAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed at least 20 people, and possibly as many as 35, in an attack at a hospital in a remote district of eastern Afghanistan on Saturday that damaged its maternity ward, officials said.

Estimates of the casualties, which included patients and medical staff, varied widely in chaotic scenes outside the hospital in the remote Azra district of eastern Logar province, which is just south of Kabul.

Dozens more were wounded in one of the worst attacks this year.

Deen Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the Logar provincial government, said as many as 35 people were killed, although Afghanistan's Interior Ministry put the death toll at 20.

"The exact target is still not clear," Interior minister deputy spokesman Najib Nikzad said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility and said the Islamist insurgents never attack hospitals.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in which he said "tens of civilians" were killed. The United Nations said the maternity ward was hit in the bombing.

"This is a despicable attack against civilians who were seeking medical care, as well as visiting family members and health workers," Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. chief in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Tensions have flared over civilian casualties, with insurgents and the Afghan government alike criticizing NATO-led forces for killing innocent Afghans while hunting for militants.

United Nations figures however show that insurgents are responsible for three-quarters of civilian deaths.

Military and civilian casualties hit record levels in 2010, the most violent year of the war since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.

This year is following a similar trend, with violence growing across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

U.S. commanders had already said they expected a rise in attacks as insurgents hit back after U.S. and NATO forces made gains during operations in the Taliban heartland in the south over the past 18 months.

The United Nations said two weeks ago that May had been the deadliest month for civilians since it began compiling statistics four years ago.

It said it had documented 368 "conflict-related" civilian deaths, 82 percent of them caused by insurgents.

The latest violence comes as seven areas across the country prepare to take over security responsibilities from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting an increasingly unpopular war that has dragged on for 10 years.

That will coincide with the start in July of a gradual drawdown of U.S. troops. U.S. and NATO troops plan to hand over security responsibility for all of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, although critics warn the handover date is premature.

While most of the ISAF gains have been in Taliban strongholds in the south, the insurgency in eastern provinces like Logar and Kunar near the border with Pakistan is much more fragmented.

Taliban fighters often slip across the border from safe havens in Pakistan's largely lawless northwest but other groups like the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network also operate extensively in the area.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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At least 15 killed in suicide bombing in east Afghanistan (Reuters)

PULE ALAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed at least 15 people, and possibly as many as 35, in an attack near a hospital in a remote district of eastern Afghanistan Saturday, government and security officials said.

Estimates of the casualties, which included women and children, varied widely in chaotic scenes outside the hospital in the remote Azra district of eastern Logar province. Dozens more were wounded.

Deen Mohammad Darwish, a spokesman for the Logar provincial government, said as many as 35 people were killed, although Afghanistan's Interior Ministry put the death toll at 15.

"The exact target is still not clear and the death toll is expected to rise," Interior minister deputy spokesman Najib Nikzad said.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in which he said "tens of civilians" were killed.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility and said the Islamist insurgents never attack hospitals.

Tensions have flared over civilian casualties, with insurgents and the Afghan government alike criticizing NATO-led forces for killing innocent Afghans while hunting for militants.

United Nations figures however show that insurgents are responsible for three-quarters of civilian deaths.

Military and civilian casualties hit record levels in 2010, the most violent year of the war since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001.

This year is following a similar trend, with violence growing across Afghanistan since the Taliban announced a spring offensive at the beginning of May.

U.S. commanders had already said they expected a rise in attacks as insurgents hit back after U.S. and NATO forces made gains during operations in the Taliban heartland in the south over the past 18 months.

The United Nations said two weeks ago that May had been the deadliest month for civilians since it began compiling statistics four years ago.

It said it had documented 368 "conflict-related" civilian deaths, 82 percent of them caused by insurgents.

The latest violence comes as seven areas across the country prepare to take over security responsibilities from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting an increasingly unpopular war that has dragged on for 10 years.

That will coincide with the start in July of a gradual drawdown of U.S. troops. U.S. and NATO troops plan to hand over security responsibility for all of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, although critics warn the handover date is premature.

While most of the ISAF gains have been in Taliban strongholds in the south, the insurgency in eastern provinces like Logar and Kunar near the border with Pakistan is much more fragmented.

Taliban fighters often slip across the border from safe havens in Pakistan's largely lawless northwest but other groups like the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network also operate extensively in the area.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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ATO's Libya Bombing Error Won't Help a Flagging War Effort (Time.com)

The reason there's a well-worn military euphemism - "collateral damage" - to describe incidents like Sunday morning's air strike in which NATO admits it may have inadvertently killed Libyan civilians in a residential area of Tripoli is that they're an inevitable consequence of waging war from the air. It happens so frequently in Afghanistan and Pakistan that the U.S.-allied governments in both places are forced into ritual denunciation of Western military action. And the embarrassment is that much more acute when the U.S. and its NATO allies claim to be at war to protect civilians - such as the dozens of Serb civilians killed by air strikes that struck buses, trains and residential areas in the course of the Kosovo bombing campaign - not to mention the Chinese embassy in Belgrade destroyed by cruise missiles, allegedly because of the use of an out of date map. Even in Libya, NATO has on at least three occasions mistakenly bombed rebel fighters.

But Sunday morning's debacle - caused, NATO believes, by a "weapons systems failure" that resulted in a bomb or missile missing its target - could not have come at a worse time for the Alliance, whose war effort was exhibiting signs of deep strain even before the strike that will amplify criticism from within and outside of NATO over a mission that has morphed from its U.N. mandate to protect civilians from being overrun by Gaddafi forces to a campaign of bombing the dictator out of power.

TIME's Complete Coverage: The Middle East in Revolt

The U.S. has sought to limit its involvement to a support role in a conflict that Defense Secretary Robert Gates made clear involves no vital U.S. national security interest - but that support role has included supplying much of the ammunition, after the European countries taking the lead began to run short in April. Even then, NATO's capabilities are being stretched the political limit: Only eight member states are making aircraft available for strike missions. And a key launch platform for such strikes, the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, is to be withdrawn from the theater when the second 90-day cycle of NATO operations concludes in September - with no obvious replacement.

Nobody in NATO appears to have expected that Gaddafi would survive as long as he has done, but right now it would be unwise to bet too heavily against the regime surviving beyond September when the Alliance will have to renew its mandate. Plainly, there are enough people on the ground willing to fight for Gaddafi to prevent any decisive tipping of the military balance towards the rebels.

And whereas Western leaders hope that time is working against the dictator, whose power had demonstrably shrunk and whose regime is expected to suffer more defections, it may also be working against his adversaries. The appetite of the European NATO members for the mission is already limited, and incidents like the bombing raid in the wee hours of Sunday are unlikely to help persuade European publics, who are in the grip of mounting social turmoil over economic austerity programs, that they ought to be beefing up their commitment to an expeditionary war in Libya. The political climate is even worse in Washington, where President Barack Obama last week found himself in trouble on Capitol Hill as he sought to circumvent the war powers act by suggesting that U.S. involvement in a campaign of bombing another nation's capital city in order to force the surrender of its regime was a level of "hostilities" that fell short of "war". Legislators may push back this week with legislation to limit funding for operations in Libya, supported by many Republicans and antiwar elements in the Democratic Party, reflecting a growing ambivalence in Washington toward further open-ended regime-change/nation-building entanglements in foreign countries.

See more international news in Global Spin

Oh, and the Libyan rebel leadership announced in Benghazi on Sunday night that it had run out of money, with donor nations failing to come through on pledges.

The Western powers and their regional allies can't allow themselves to lose in Libya, but they could lower the bar of what determines success: Short of a lucky "decapitation" strike that kills Gaddafi - and perhaps even then - the current level of NATO military commitments and the limited capabilities of the rebels point increasingly towards a stalemate in which neither the regime nor the rebels are able to deliver a knockout blow.

No surprise, then, that negotiations appear to be underway, with U.N. Secretary General reporting that he is encouraged by progress made by his envoy, former Jordanian foreign minister Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib, in brokering talks between the rebels and the regime aimed at achieving a political solution. Right now, the regime side is insisting that Gaddafi remain in power in some form, or at least remain in the country while one of his sons takes over the reins pending new elections. That's a formula that's unacceptable to the rebels - who insist that no such talks are even underway. And NATO countries are unlikely to accept Gaddafi remaining in power. But Sunday's meeting in Cairo between the U.N., the Arab League and the European Union affirmed the urgency of finding a political solution in Libya.

Dependent financially and militarily on the backing of foreign countries, the rebels have limited muscle to enforce their will if it differs from that of their Western backers. Less may depend on what Benghazi is willing to accept than on what London, Paris and Brussels are willing to accept by way of an outcome. And Western powers have already made clear to the rebels that they will be expected, as a means of ending the conflict, to share power with a significant segment of those currently in the regime's camp.

So even before Sunday's "collateral damage" incident, it was becoming increasingly clear that what remains of the war "hostilities" right - fierce as they could become in the weeks ahead - now may be largely a matter of determining the shape of that compromise agreement under which Gaddafi is eased out.

Photos: Libya's Roman Ruins

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Suspected suicide bombing kills 34 in Pakistan (Reuters)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – At least 34 people were killed in a suspected suicide bombing in the Pakistani city of Peshawar late Saturday, the latest attack since Osama bin Laden's killing last month.

The bombing took place near a building that houses several newspaper offices as well as apartments. The attack occurred when a large number of people were dining in the nearby restaurants.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Taliban militants have vowed to avenge the killing of al Qaeda chief bin Laden by U.S. SEALS in a secret raid in the northwestern town of Abbottabad on May 2.

A small blast preceded a big one, which senior police official Banaras Khan said police suspected was carried out by a suicide bomber.

"After the second blast, a fire broke out. Several charred bodies were lying on the ground while some wounded people were crawling away from the site," witness Naeem Ahmed told Reuters.

Television footage showed twisted window frames, shards of broken glasses and fallen electricity cables strewn on roads as rescue workers were loading wounded men on stretchers into ambulances.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of the northwestern Khyber Pukhtunkhuwa (KP) province, told reporters that doctors had said the death toll was 34, "but it may rise as many wounded people are in critical condition."

Peshawar is the capital of KP, which borders Afghanistan.

Hospital officials said 100 people were wounded, 21 of them seriously. Several journalists and policemen were among the wounded.

"As I arrived here, one of the wounded man cried 'please take me to hospital, I am alive'," another witness told Express television at the site of the attack.

Since bin Laden was killed, militants have attacked a heavily guarded naval base in Karachi; killed nearly 100 people in twin suicide bombings at the headquarters of a paramilitary force in the northwest; attacked U.S. consulate convoy in Peshawar and killed a Saudi diplomat in Karachi.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider; Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Clinton: Bombing of Gadhafi won't let up

Hillary Clinton in Rome: "As long as Gadhafi continues to attack his citizens, we will continue to strike his forces."NEW: Rebels claim they have retaken southern cityThe U.S. considers seizing Gadhafi funds to help Libya's peopleThe International Organization for Migration suspends ships after Misrata is shelledLibya's leader must stop attacking civilians, the secretary of state demands

Rome (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meeting with allies, kept up pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi Thursday, demanding that he "cease attacks and the threat of attacks" against rebels who oppose his rule.

Gadhafi must withdraw all forces from rebel cities they have entered, restore services to those cities, and allow humanitarian aid in, Clinton insisted.

U.S. and NATO bombing of his forces will continue until he meets the terms, she said.

"As long as Gadhafi continues to attack his citizens, we will continue to strike his forces," she said.

"It is time for the violence to end. It is time for Gadhafi to go. It is time for a democratic transition to begin," she said.

The United States is also looking into ways to help the rebels financially, including seizing Gadhafi assets and using them to aid Libya's people, and helping the Transitional National Council to sell oil, Clinton said.

Clinton was speaking in Rome, where international powers held their second high-level meeting on the Libyan crisis.

European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton said the meeting "underlined the international community's unity and determination to bring the Libyan crisis to a quick and satisfactory conclusion. With the humanitarian situation deteriorating, time is of the essence. Gadhafi must end his attacks against his own people and respect human rights."

Also Thursday, the International Organization for Migration said it was suspending its passenger ships between the two rebel towns of Benghazi and Misrata after Gadhafi forces shelled the port in Misrata Wednesday, killing at least five people.

IOM media director Jean Philippe Chauzy said operations would be suspended until the organization puts in place a "better evacuation plan."

The IOM never again wants to experience what happened on Wednesday, he said.

No one was injured on the IOM-chartered boat in Misrata at the time of the shelling, the agency said.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, the international medical humanitarian group (known as Doctors Without Borders in English), said a 22-member team is delivering surgical and medical care to the wounded at two hospitals and a clinic. The organization has donated more than 25 tons of medicine and medical equipment, it said in a statement Thursday.

Rebels, meanwhile, told CNN that they have taken the southern city of al-Koufra, with Gadhafi forces gone except for a small group on its western edge. The two sides have exchanged control over al-Koufra over the past two months. CNN could not independently verify the claim.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague ordered two Libyan diplomats to leave the country for "actions contrary to the interests of the UK," the Foreign Office announced Thursday.

He gave them a week to get out, starting Wednesday, the Foreign Office statement said.

The British Ministry of Defence and NATO said Thursday their forces had been engaging Gadhafi's troops over the past several days, destroying ammunition dumps, surface-to-air batteries, and other targets.

As for the Rome meeting, Hague said the international community is "resolved to continue to take action" on Libya, and "more countries took part and reiterated that Gadhafi should go." Participants also agreed to help the Transitional National Council with short term financial support with the establishment of the Temporary Financial Mechanism, which was suggested in the first meeting in Doha, Qatar, according to a statement released at the conclusion of the talks.

The diplomatic and military moves came soon after the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said in a report there are "reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed and continue being committed in Libya."

The report highlighted the alleged commission of rape by Gadhafi's government, as well as the deportation or forcible transfer of citizens during the civil war that continues to rage in that country.

It also noted war crimes, including intentionally directing attacks against civilians not participating in the fighting. ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo issued a statement saying he will soon request arrest warrants against three individuals who are "most responsible for the crimes committed." The individuals were not named.

It is not clear if he plans to file charges against anyone on the rebel side, though the report mentioned "alleged war crimes as well as other crimes against humanity" appear to have been committed by "different parties."

He warned when he opened the probe two months ago that the rebels are subject to international law just as Gadhafi's forces are.

This is the first time the International Criminal Court has begun investigating possible crimes against humanity as they were occurring in wartime, Moreno-Ocampo said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on a visit to Bulgaria, said, "I fully support the principle that whoever and whenever there is violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, those people should be accountable and go to justice."

NATO began bombing Libya on March 19, after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution authorizing any means necessary, short of invasion, to protect civilians demanding the end of Gadhafi's nearly 42-year rule.

CNN's Elise Labott, Amir Ahmed, Carol Jordan, Mitra Mobasherat and Atika Shubert contributed to this report.

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Suspect in attempted MLK Day bombing accused of hate crime

Kevin Harpham is charged with a hate crime in connection with the attempted bombing of an MLK Day parade. STORY HIGHLIGHTSWashington state man indicted by federal grand juryKevin Harpham is suspected in attempted bombing of MLK Jr. paradeHe pleaded not guilty to two previous chargesRELATED TOPICSHate CrimesSpokaneU.S. Department of Justice (CNN) -- A superseding indictment in the attempted bombing of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Washington state accuses the suspect of a hate crime, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.

Kevin Harpham, 36, of Colville, Washington, last month pleaded not guilty in federal court to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and for possessing an unregistered explosive device.

The new indictment has two additional charges, including an allegation he planted the improvised explosive device "because of actual or perceived race, color, and national origin" of march participants, the department said in a statement.

Federal authorities arrested Harpham March 9, nearly two months after the January 17 discovery of a backpack containing a bomb along the Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane, Washington. The device was disabled before the event began.

Officials called it an incident "of domestic terrorism" that could have resulted in "mass casualties," had the bomb gone off.

FBI: Bomb could have been "pretty lethal"

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups, Harpham frequently posted incendiary comments on white supremacist websites.

In 2004, according to the Poverty Law Center, Harpham allegedly stated, "I can't wait till the day I snap," in a posting on the white supremacist website the Vanguard News Network.

Harpham also allegedly wrote, "Those who say you can't win a war by bombing have never tried," according to the SPLC, which attributed more than a thousand postings to the accused would-be bomber on the Vanguard website.

Vanguard advertises itself on the site as "No Jews. Just Right."

Although the posts did not carry Harpham's name directly, Law Center officials said they had come to know him by his writing, and recognized his work as it appeared online.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann contributed to this report.

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Alleged mastermind of USS Cole bombing charged

ABC World News Tonight via AP

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri has been charged with planning and preparing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

EnlargeCloseABC World News Tonight via AP

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri has been charged with planning and preparing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was charged with the planning and preparation for the USS Cole attack that blew a hole in the warship, killing 17 sailors and wounding another 40.

The charges were referred to the Convening Authority for Military Commissions, which presides over the war crimes tribunals at the U.S. base in Cuba.

Al-Nashiri previously faced charges in the bombing, but the charges were dropped in 2009 as the administration revamped the military commission process.

Prosecutors also alleged that al-Nashiri was involved in the planning and preparation for an attack on the French civilian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Oct. 6, 2002, that killed a crewmember and caused the release of approximately 90,000 barrels of oil.

Before being transferred to the prison at Guantanamo Bay in September 2006 for the second time, Al-Nashiri spent nearly four years inside the CIA

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Pentagon Seeks Death Penalty Against USS Cole Bombing Suspect

Damage to USS Cole destroyer at port of Aden, Yemen, (AP)

The Defense Department announced Wednesday that it is seeking the death penalty against a Guantanamo Bay detainee in connection with the USS Cole bombing in Yemen more than a decade ago.

Military prosecutors have re-filed terrorism and murder charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, of Saudi Arabia, the first case to move forward since President Obama ordered military trials to resume at Guantanamo Bay. The charges allege that Al-Nashiri led the planning and preparation for the USS Cole attack that blew a hole in the ship, killing 17 sailors and wounding another 40. 

Al-Nashiri was first charged in 2008, but those charges were later withdrawn after President Obama took office, as his administration undertook a sweeping review of the Guantanamo Bay detention program. Al-Nashiri had been waterboarded during the Bush administration. 

The Defense Department said Wednesday that the suspect will now be charged with a number of severe counts, including murder in violation of the law of war, terrorism and attempted murder. 

The charges are referred to the Convening Authority for Military Commissions, which presides over the war crimes tribunals at the U.S. base in Cuba.

The USS Cole case had already been designated for a military trial by Attorney General Eric Holder in November 2009. But because the process stalled for political reasons, it took more than 17 months for the case to move forward.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will also be tried before a military commission. Holder had planned originally to try Mohammed in U.S. Federal Court in New York, but Congress intervened and made it illegal to bring suspected terrorist prisoners into the United States.

Fox News Catherine Herridge, Justin Fishel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Man arrested in Santa Monica synagogue bombing

FBI via AP

This video image allegedly shows Ron Hirsch attempting to board a bus April 7, the same day he is suspected of a connection to a synagogue explosion.

EnlargeCloseFBI via AP

This video image allegedly shows Ron Hirsch attempting to board a bus April 7, the same day he is suspected of a connection to a synagogue explosion.

The man is believed to be Ron Hirsch, 60, a transient known to spend time at synagogues and other Jewish community centers seeking charity, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller in Los Angeles. He was wanted on state charges of possession of a destructive device and unrelated local charges, and was arrested in suburban Cleveland Heights.

Investigators do not have a motive for the blast, and Jewish groups said they did not believe anti-Semitism was necessarily behind it.

The explosion Thursday near Chabad House Lubavitch of Santa Monica shattered windows and punched a hole in the synagogue, sending chunks of concrete and a heavy pipe crashing into the roof of a nearby house. Authorities said a child was sleeping almost underneath where the device landed.

Authorities initially believed the blast was an industrial accident, but they now say the device was deliberately constructed and items found at the scene were linked to Hirsch. The FBI said the confusion came from the device

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FBI: Man held in Ohio over California synagogue bombing

In a photo released by the FBI, a man believed connected to the bombing of a California synagogue is seen at a Denver bus station. STORY HIGHLIGHTSFBI: The manhunt ended in Cleveland suburbRon Hirsch has family in New York, the FBI saysConcerned citizen tips off the policeFor more on this story, see CNN affiliate KABC.com

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A man believed to be connected with last week's synagogue bombing in Southern California was in custody in Ohio overnight, the FBI said.

Law officers launched a manhunt for 60-year-old Ron Hirsch, wanted in a blast on Thursday at a Jewish house of worship in Santa Monica, California, and they think they found the man in a suburb of Cleveland.

"An individual believed to be Ron Hirsch, the man wanted in connection with the 4/7/11 explosion in Santa Monica, California, was taken into custody in Cleveland Heights, Ohio," the FBI said in a statement on Monday.

"The individual in custody was arrested following a call to law enforcement by a concerned citizen who had come into contact with a man believed to be Hirsch. This is a continuing investigation and additional details will be provided as they are developed."

Hirsch, described as "extremely dangerous," bought ticket for a bus that was expected to arrive in New York on Sunday, the agency said in a statement.

Surveillance cameras show Hirsch got off the bus in Denver and may have "further deviated from his original route," according to the agency's statement.

Hirsch is believed to have family in New York, the agency said.

The FBI said it appeared the explosion at the Chabad House synagogue was caused by a "deliberately constructed" device and that its investigation has linked Hirsch to items found around the crime scene. Authorities initially thought the explosion was the result of an industrial accident.

The agency said investigators don't know a motive for the explosion, which sent a 30-pound pipe flying into the roof of a house next door, CNN affiliate KABC reported.

"No known motive for a deliberate attack is known at this time," the FBI said.

The FBI described Hirsch as a "transient" known for asking money from people at synagogues. He is wanted on a state charge of possessing a destructive device and unrelated local charges, the FBI said.

The FBI says he is also known as Israel Fisher or J. Fisher.

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