Aruba

Suspects can be held in missing teen case

A judge ruled Wednesday there was sufficient cause to keep holding two former hotel security guards in connection with the disappearance of an Alabama high school student.

The decision means authorities may hold Nick John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, for nearly four months while prosecutors investigate possible murder and kidnapping charges in the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, defense attorneys said.

Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., vanished May 30 while on a five-day trip with 124 classmates celebrating their high school graduation on this Dutch Caribbean island.

Police and the FBI kept up their search for Holloway but said a lack of any solid leads was hindering progress.

California

Father, son arrested in al-Qaida probe

A terrorism investigation in this quiet farming town has led to the arrests of a father and son who said he trained at an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan for potential attacks on U.S. hospitals and supermarkets, authorities said.

Federal investigators believe a number of people committed to al-Qaida have been operating in and around Lodi, a wine-growing region about 30 miles south of Sacramento, FBI Agent Keith Slotter said Wednesday. He would not elaborate.

Slotter added that investigators did not have information about any specific plans for an attack, and the father and son were charged only with lying to federal agents about the son’s training at the al-Qaida camp.

Hayat said photos of President Bush and other American political figures were pasted onto targets during weapons training, the affidavit said.

Washington, D.C.

Bush unclear on closing Guantanamo

President Bush on Wednesday left open the possibility that the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be shut down following mounting criticism from former President Carter and others.

“We’re exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America,” Bush said when asked in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto if he would close the detention center.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, however, said he did not know of anyone in the administration who was considering closing Guantanamo. He defended the military’s operation of the camp.

The military provides “a stable and secure and safe environment,” he told reporters traveling with him in Norway.