NATION NEWS BRIEFS
WEST VIRGINIA / Ex-mine official convicted
The former security chief at a mine where 29 miners died last year was convicted of two felonies Wednesday, the U.S. attorney's office said. Hughie Elbert Stover, 60, of Clear Fork, was convicted by a federal jury of making false statements to federal agents and obstructing a federal investigation. Stover was charged in February with giving false statements to FBI and federal mine safety officials, and with obstructing a federal investigation into the cause of the Upper Big Branch disaster. An explosion at the mine killed 29 miners in April 2010. Sentencing is set for February.
WASHINGTON / NSA to aid bank security
The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of financial sabotage. Aid from the agency that conducts electronic spying overseas is part of an effort by American banks and other financial firms to get help from the U.S. military and private contractors to fend off cyber attacks, according to U.S. officials, security experts and defense industry executives. While security sources are reluctant to discuss specific lines of investigations, they paint worst-case scenarios of hackers ensconcing themselves inside a bank's network to disable trading systems for stocks, bonds and currencies, trigger flash crashes, initiate large transfers of funds or turn off ATMs.
MISSOURI / Baby's siblings scrutinized
Kansas City police plan to re-interview the two older brothers of a missing Kansas City baby Friday as part of the investigation into her disappearance three weeks ago. A specialist trained in interviewing children will talk to 10-month-old Lisa Irwin's brothers, The Kansas City Star reported Wednesday. Capt. Steve Young said police also planned to collect DNA from the boys to compare to unknown DNA found during the investigation and possibly eliminate some as evidence. Such samples can be obtained using a cotton swab inside the mouth. Police had said they hadn't been able to talk to the boys since Oct. 4, when parents Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin reported Lisa missing.
