WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who served as al Qaeda’s spokesman has been arrested and detained in Jordan in an operation led by Jordanian authorities and the FBI, U.S. government sources said on Thursday.

The sources said Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a militant who had appeared in videos representing al Qaeda after the September 11, attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, had initially been picked up in Turkey.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Kentucky Republican Rand Paul took the floor of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday and spoke for nearly 13 hours in an attempt to block the confirmation of John Brennan as President Barack Obama’s next CIA director in a protest of the administration’s policy of using drones in targeted killings.

Paul began shortly before noon in a rare old-fashioned filibuster – in which a senator speaks until he can continue no longer – yielding the floor shortly before 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT) on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Kentucky Republican Rand Paul took to the floor of the Senate on Wednesday and kept talking for hours in an attempt to block the confirmation of President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, as director of the CIA.

Paul began shortly before noon, and talked into the evening in a rare old-fashioned filibuster – in which a senator speaks until he can continue no longer – to prevent a vote on Brennan over the U.S. use of unmanned aircraft to kill opponents.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Increased use of English in videos by Islamic extremists and a rising flow of recruits from Europe to fight in Syria and on other battlegrounds is disturbing U.S. officials who fear some could return to Europe or come to the United States to plot attacks.

Only last week, a man who spoke English and Arabic and called himself Abu Ahmed al-Amriki (Arabic for ‘the American’) starred in a new video message posted on jihadist websites and produced by al Shabaab, the Islamic militant group based in Somalia.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans took to the floor of the Senate on Wednesday and kept talking for hours in an attempt to block the confirmation of President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, as director of the CIA.

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, began shortly before noon, and talked for more than three hours in an old-fashioned filibuster – in which a senator speaks until he can continue no longer – to prevent a vote on Brennan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate Intelligence Committee voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve John Brennan as President Barack Obama’s new CIA director, after the committee resolved a dispute with the White House over access to classified legal opinions on the targeted killings of U.S. citizens overseas.

The vote clears a major hurdle for Brennan, currently Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser. While he seems likely to ultimately win confirmation by the full Senate, his nomination still could face further delays from Republican lawmakers.

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – The Senate Intelligence
Committee voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve John
Brennan as President Barack Obama’s new CIA director, after the
committee resolved a dispute with the White House over access to
classified legal opinions on the targeted killings of U.S.
citizens overseas.

The vote clears a major hurdle for Brennan, currently
Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser. While he seems likely to
ultimately win confirmation by the full Senate, his nomination
still could face further delays from Republican lawmakers.

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – One day after “Zero Dark
Thirty” failed to win major awards at the Oscars, a
congressional aide said on Monday the Senate Intelligence
Committee has closed its inquiry into the filmmakers’ contacts
with the Central Intelligence Agency.

The intelligence committee gathered more information from
the CIA, film director Kathryn Bigelow, and screenwriter Mark
Boal and will not take further action, according to the aide,
who requested anonymity.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic leaders are hoping for a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee vote next week on the confirmation of John Brennan to become Central Intelligence Agency director, although the White House and committee are still feuding over the disclosure of politically sensitive documents.

Under pressure from Senate Republicans, the White House in recent days has reluctantly agreed to allow Congress access to documents and emails related to the attacks by militants last September 11 on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, congressional officials said.

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) – U.S. and allied spy agencies have found no traces of telltale nuclear-related particles from North Korea’s February 12 nuclear bomb test, leaving unresolved basic questions about the device’s design, according to officials in the United States, Europe and South Korea.

This lack of scientific evidence suggests that key questions may remain unanswered about the type of fissile material used in the test, which was detected by seismic sensors. It also leaves unaddressed questions about how far the North has advanced in its bomb design.