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Brussels, Belgium (AHN) – Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on Tuesday said her government will investigate allegations that the Baltic country unknowingly hosted a secret CIA prison for terror suspects.

Grybauskaite said that like the international community, she suspects that the prison was located in the capital Vilnius and was closed in 2005 as claimed in a report by U.S. media outfit ABC. The report cited unnamed ex-CIA officials as the source of the claims.

The same ABC report revealed similar CIA facilities in Romania and Poland, but the two countries’ governments denied hosting such facilities.

If the investigation proves the secret prison existed, Grybauskaite said Lithuania has to issue an international apology to prevent the country from being targeted by terrorists in retaliation.

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Boston, MA (AHN) – A 27-year-old man from Massachusetts has been charged with plotting terror attacks in shopping malls and against Americans serving in Iraq.

Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury was charged in federal court on Wednesday with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. He allegedly worked from 2001 through 2008 with Ahmad Abousamra and others on plans to”participate in violent jihad.”

He traveled to the Middle East in 2004 for training at a terrorist camp that would equip him to attack Americans in Iraq. He also watched and distributed jihadi videos, and had abandoned a plan to randomly shoot people in a shopping mall.

Prosecutors say Mehanna and his co-conspirators repeatedly discussed how to obtain automatic weapons so they can randomly shoot people in a mall, as well as how to attack first responders. They dropped the plan because they were unable to get weapons they thought would effectively carry out the attack.

A Boston Herald profile of Mehanna reveals him as a polite man who received a doctorate in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston last year.

Mehanna, who was arrested in January for lying to federal terror investigators, faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he is convicted.

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Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The U.S. economy is leveling off, but some sectors are still stumbling, the Federal Reserve said in a Beige Book report today.

The summary of economic activity in the Fed’s 12 districts said there were indications of “either stabilization or modest improvements in many sectors, albeit often from depressed levels.”

While the optimistic signs of economic activity outnumber the pessimistic, the report noted that “virtually every reference to improvement was qualified as either small or scattered.”

Positive markers were seen in residential real estate and manufacturing, while commercial real estate was among the weakest areas.

Consumer spending was described as still “weak,” although some improvement was noted.

Manufacturing was viewed as generally stronger than the previous period, while agricultural activity was mixed.

Little or no increase was detected in pressures to raise prices or wages, the report said.

Districts reported weak or declining demand for loans, although some areas reported “further erosion of credit quality.”

The Beige Book is released two weeks prior to the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. The next meeting of the group is scheduled for Nov. 3-4.

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Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The Obama administration has decided to sharply limit the salaries of top executives of companies that have received federal bailout funds, according to media reports relying on an official close to the plan.

The plan is due to be announced in the next few days by Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury Department’s special master for compensation. It will cause total compensation for 175 executives to drop about 50 percent. Salaries would be cut an average of 90 percent.

The affected companies are Citigroup, Bank of America, American International Group, General Motors and Chrysler, as well as the financing divisions of the two automakers.

Any executive receiving special perks exceeding $25,000 would have to get permission from the government.

The proposal will especially impact the financial products unit of AIG. Pay there would be limited to no more than $200,000. The company previously committed to drastically cut the $198 million in bonuses promised to employees in that division.

Feinberg also is expected to demand governance changes that would split the positions of chairman and chief executive officer. In addition, boards of directors would have to create a committee to evaluate risk. Staggered boards would be eliminated.

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A sad resolution has likely come to distraught family members in the disappearance of Somer Thompson.

Somer, 7, was ostensibly snatched on while walking home from school with her siblings. Police have not confirmed that the body is definitely Somer’s, but it sounds as if they’re almost positive the body found is that of the missing girl. The body is reported to have been located in a landfill just over the state line in Georgia, in a search instigated by following sanitation trucks from the area in which Somer disappeared. The landfill, in Flokston, GA, is the end of the route for trucks collecting trash in Somer’s hometown of Orange Park, FL.

As law enforcement officers indicated that the case will now switch gears to a homicide investigation, Florida Governor Charlie Crist commented on the sad discovery:

It is “not conclusive yet this is Somer, but all indications sort of point in that direction.”

“We all need to say a prayer for Somer’s family,” Crist said.

There is currently a $30,000 reward for anyone who provides information leading to Somer’s killer.

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7-year-old Somer Thompson has “disappeared off the face of the earth,” Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler has admitted in a case that has “baffled” investigators.

Somer’s mom Diena tearfully plead for the girl’s return, telling viewers that Somer’s twin brother was “lost” without her, but investigators have so far found no clues in the girl’s disappearance. Somer was walking home from her school near Jacksonville, FL, with her twin brother and 10-year-old sister when the children had a disagreement. Somer ran ahead of her siblings, disappearing from view, and has not been seen since. As no one witnessed an abduction, an Amber Alert was not issued until the following morning.

Authorities report having interviewed around 60 of the 94 sex offenders living in a three mile radius, and that they plan to expand their scope after turning up no leads in Somer’s disappearance. Beseler urged anyone with information to come forward in hopes of turning up information about Somer’s whereabouts:

“This case is very troubling in that we just don’t have a lot of information,” Beseler said, asking the public for tips. “We really believe that … Somer has been removed from the area.”

Beseler also said:

“We desperately need someone to give us a call,” he said. “All we need is one phone call, one phone call to bring Somer home.”

One of the sadder aspects of this case, in contrast with last week’s “balloon boy” waste of time, is Somer’s mother’s words to her daughter at a press conference. Diena Thompson, whose child is genuinely missing and endangered, tearfully told Somer through reporters that if she is afraid or apprehensive, that’s she’s not in trouble and to please come home. It’s heartbreaking, and really puts the Heene’s actions into a more callous light, driving home the human impact of diverting law enforcement resources and media coverage.

[ABC]

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13 passengers were injured, 7 of whom were sent to hospitals, when a rush-hour Path train crashed upon arrival at the 33rd street Path station in Midtown this morning.

The 7:59 out of Hoboken pulled into the station and crashed into a “bumping block” at a slow speed at 8:14. Police say that the injuries are all very minor, mostly reported as neck and back pain. 600 passengers were on the train at the time of the crash, and investigators are currently trying to determine the cause of the incident.

The stretch of Sixth Avenue at 33rd street where the station was located was closed off during the investigation, but service was not disrupted. The Path train serves Jersey City, Hoboken, Harrison, and Newark out of points in Manhattan below 34th street.

[WPIX]

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Vatican City, Rome (AHN) – The Vatican on Tuesday said it has found a way for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church while retaining their liturgical customs. The Anglican Church was on the brink of a schism last year and currently faces widespread discontent from traditionalists who oppose ordaining homosexual bishops and women priests.

The Holy See said it has developed an Apostolic Constitution that allows Anglicans worldwide “who wish to enter into full visible communion” with the Catholic Church to do so. It explained that it had received “many requests from groups of Anglican faithful,” and that the constitution “provides a reasonable and even necessary response to a world-wide phenomenon.”

The constitution will permit married Anglican clergy to be serve as Catholic priests, but prohibit married Anglican bishops from being ordained. “Historical and ecumenical reasons preclude the ordination of married men as bishops in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Constitution therefore stipulates that the Ordinary can be either a priest or an unmarried bishop,” the Vatican said.

The Anglican Church welcomed the decision, declaring in a statement “an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church.”

“It will now be up to those who have made requests to the Holy See to respond to the Apostolic Constitution,” it added.

The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Church, in July opened the door to allow gays to be ordained.

The Anglican Church was on the brink of a schism as recently as last year over the ordination of V. Gene Robinson, who was ordained as its first openly gay bishop wearing a bullet-proof vest in 2003. It issued a resolution in 2006, that called on bishops worldwide “to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.”

The controversy continued during the Church’s 2008 Lambeth Conference in England, which was boycotted by a quarter of the world’s Anglican bishops, who wanted Robinson to resign.

The Episcopal Church ordains women to the priesthood and has over 2 million members, while the Anglican Church consists of 80 million members in more than 160 nations.

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Charlottesville, VA (AHN) – A Virginia Tech junior education student who left her friends at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville Saturday remain missing and her worried parents pleaded for her safe return.

Police continue searching for Morgan Dana Harrington, 20, of Roanoke County on Monday. Her roommate Amy Melvin, who was with her at the concert at the John Paul Jones Arena, told police she did not know why Harrington left.

Harrington’s purse, cellphone and car were found at the stadium.

Meanwhile, friends of the missing student created a Facebook group account of Harrington to help in her search.

The group named “Help find Morgan Dana Harrington” is spreading the word that Harrington is missing.

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You may remember former NYC Police Commissioner and Giuliani BFF Bernard Kerik for his national prominence after the attacks of September 11th.

Once a candidate to head the 9/11-inspired Department of Homeland Security, Kerik is now in hot water due to corruption charges, including an allegation of collusion with mafia construction outfits who allegedly renovated Kerik’s apartment for free. And today bought more bad news for NYC’s former top cop, as a judge revoked Kerik’s bail for attempted jury contamination via a blog post which has since been pulled from a site promoting Kerik’s defense. (An AP article posted on the site can still be viewed.)

U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Robinson ruled that Kerik’s decision to post confidential documents on the website indicates that he has no intention of complying with a court order barring such disclosure. Robinson said:

“My fear is that he has a toxic combination of self-minded focus and arrogance, and I fear that combination leads him to believe that his ends justify his means,” Robinson said. “The failure of Mr. Kerik to abide by the direct order of this court … must be appropriately addressed.

“He sees the court’s rulings as an inconvenience, something to be ignored, and an obstacle to be circumvented.”

Kerik was stripped of his belt, shoelaces and tie. He will likely be sent to the Metropolitan Corrections Center, just adjacent to One Police Plaza- the site of his former office as Police Commissioner.

[Image: Gothamist]

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