World/Nation

Two dead in shootout during anti-terror raid

VERVIERS, Belgium - With Europe dreading more terror, Belgian authorities moved swiftly to pre-empt what they called a major attack by as little as hours Thursday, killing two suspects in a firefight and arresting a third in a vast anti-terrorism sweep that stretched into the night.

The police raid on a former bakery in this provincial rustbelt town was another palpable sign that terror had seeped deep into Europe's heartland as security forces struck against returnees from Islamic holy war in Syria.

"As soon as I opened the window, you could smell the gunpowder," said neighbor Alexandre Massaux following a minutes-long firefight with automatic weapons and Kalashnikovs that was also punctuated by explosions.

Two suspects were killed and a third arrested and charged with belonging to a terrorist organization.

Parents of Ohio terror defendant saw change in him

CINCINNATI - Christopher Lee Cornell showed little direction in his life, spending hours playing video games in his bedroom in his parents' apartment, rarely going out or working, and voicing distrust of the government and the media. But in recent weeks, his parents say, they noticed a change in him.

They thought it was a change for the better: The 20-year-old suburban Cincinnati man was helping his mother around the house, cooking meals, sitting with his parents to watch movies, and talking about having become a Muslim.

"He said, 'I'm at peace with myself,'" his father, John Cornell, recalled Thursday - a day after his son was arrested in an FBI sting and charged with plotting to attack the U.S. Capitol with pipe bombs and guns and kill government officials.

Rice stunned to hear classified mission leaked

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told jurors Thursday she was stunned to learn that a classified mission to thwart Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions - now at the heart of a criminal leak trial - had been disclosed to a reporter.

Rice testified for the prosecution in U.S. District Court at the trial of ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, 47, of O'Fallon, Mo., who is charged with illegally disclosing details of the program to New York Times reporter James Risen. Sterling denies leaking any information to Risen.

While Rice's testimony helped establish the importance of the classified program in question, her testimony did not implicate Sterling in any way as the leaker. Prosecutors opted not to force Risen to testify about his sources after the reporter made clear he wouldn't divulge sources even under threat of a jail sentence for contempt of court. So they plan to introduce a package of circumstantial evidence to prove Sterling was the source, including evidence of phone calls and emails between the two.

CDC: Flu vaccine only 23 percent effective

NEW YORK - This year's flu vaccine is doing a pretty crummy job. It's only 23 percent effective, which is one of the worst performances in the last decade, according to a government study released Thursday.

The poor showing is primarily because the vaccine doesn't include the bug that is making most people sick, health officials say. In the last decade, flu vaccines at their best were 50 to 60 percent effective.

"This is an uncommon year," said Dr. Alicia Fry, a flu vaccine expert at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was involved in the study.

The findings are not surprising, though. In early December, CDC officials warned the vaccine probably wouldn't work very well because it isn't well matched to a strain that's been spreading widely.

Each year, the flu vaccine is reformulated, based on experts' best guess at which three or four strains will be the biggest problem.

- Associated Press