President Obama laid a wreath Monday at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington.
The cemetery is the final resting place for many American war heroes.
The president rode by motorcade from the White House to the cemetery. The U.S. Marines stood at attention along the road that carried the president to tomb site. The headstones at the national cemetery were adorned with mini-American flags.
Appearing before a hushed crowd at the venerable cemetery, Obama strode with uniformed military officers to the site of the Tomb and set the wreath in place after the playing of the National Anthem.
The president was to give a speech following the wreath-laying.
Earlier Monday, the president and first lady Michelle Obama hosted a breakfast at the White House with "Gold Star" families of service members who have been killed.
Chicago authorities say at least six people have been killed in weekend violence and at least another 11 wounded.
Police are investigating the death of a 42-year-old man who was shot in the head early Sunday. The Cook County medical examiner says Charles Jones was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital around 3:30 a.m. The shooting stemmed from a crash and a woman was taken to the hospital.
Also killed Sunday was a man in his late 20s who was shot in the armpit and pronounced dead at a suburban hospital.
Two people were killed in shootings Saturday, including 18-year-old Fearro Denard and a 29-year-old man who was shot not far from President Barack Obama's South Side home.
On Friday, a 17-year-old and 22-year old were killed in separate shootings.
Footage shows Michael Adebolajo in court in Kenya in 2010
One of the suspects in the Woolwich murder case was arrested in Kenya in 2010, the Foreign Office has confirmed.
It said Michael Adebolajo was arrested there and it gave consular assistance "as normal" in the circumstances.
He was believed to have been preparing to fight with Somali militant group al-Shabab, a Kenyan government spokesman told the BBC, and was later deported.
Meanwhile, police investigating soldier Lee Rigby's murder have arrested a 22-year-old man in north London.
The arrest at Highbury Grove, on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, brings the total number made so far in the case to nine.
And separately, a demonstration is being held at the murder scene by members of the English Defence League.
CCTV footage
The Kenyan government had previously denied that Mr Adebolajo had ever visited the country, but spokesman Muthui Kariuki said there had been some confusion as he was arrested under a different name.
Mr Adebolajo was handed over to UK authorities when it emerged he was a British citizen, he added.
In video footage of his court appearance which emerged on Sunday, Mr Adebolajo is heard to say: "These people are mistreating us, we are innocent."
Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab is affiliated to al-Qaeda and is thought to have 7,000 to 9,000 fighters. It killed 76 people in a double bomb attack in Uganda as they watched the 2010 World Cup.
Mr Adebolajo, 28, and a second man, Michael Adebowale, 22, were arrested on suspicion of the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday.
They remain in custody in hospital in a stable condition after being shot and wounded by police at the scene after the killing.
The family of Drummer Lee Rigby, who was slain in Woolwich last week, visit the scene of his death
Three further men, aged 21, 24 and 28, were arrested in London on Saturday evening on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder - a Taser was used on two of them.
A 29-year-old man arrested earlier on suspicion of conspiracy to murder was released on bail on Saturday, while two women aged 29 and 31, arrested on Thursday, have been released without charge.
In an update on Sunday, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne said officers were examining CCTV footage, social media and forensic material as part of their investigation into Drummer Rigby's murder.
He appealed for any associates of Mr Adebolajo and Mr Adebowale who believed they might have useful information to come forward.
'Right procedures'
Earlier on Sunday, Home Secretary Theresa May told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme "500 officers and others" were working on the case, including counter-terrorism officers brought in from elsewhere in the country.
Senior Whitehall sources have previously confirmed to the BBC both suspects arrested at the scene of Drummer Rigby's killing were already known to security services.
Michael Adebowale was photographed brandishing a knife and speaking to a woman at the scene
A friend of Mr Adebolajo, Abu Nusaybah, told the BBC's Newsnight on Friday that MI5 tried to recruit Mr Adebolajo as an operative after he returned from a trip to Kenya in 2012 - a request he rejected.
Abu Nusaybah also told the BBC Mr Adebolajo was physically and sexually abused while in Kenyan custody, but government spokesman Muthui Kariuki denied the allegation.
When asked if there were mistakes made by the security services in dealing with this case, Mrs May said: "What we have is the right procedures which say when things like this happen we do need to look at whether there are any lessons to be learned."
She also said a new taskforce was being set up to look at whether new powers were needed to tackle extremism.
It will be chaired by the prime minister and include senior cabinet ministers and security chiefs.
In other developments:
Members of Mr Rigby's family have visited the scene of his murder, laying flowers at the Woolwich Barracks where the 25-year-old soldier with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was based
Prayers were said on Sunday at a service dedicated to Drummer Rigby at St Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, in Woolwich, at a service at the town's St Mary Magdalene Parish Church and in his local church in his home town of Middleton, Greater Manchester
French authorities are treating the stabbing of a soldier in a Paris suburb as terrorism and are investigating whether it was a copycat attack. Defence Minister Jean Yves Le Drian said Private First Class Cedric Cordier had been targeted by an unknown man because of his profession
Mrs May also said "thousands" of people were potentially at risk of radicalisation in the UK and the government had introduced a new programme to help those who could be sucked in
U.S. President Barack Obama waves as he walks to Marine One to depart for a day trip from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington May 26, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts
MOORE, Oklahoma | Sun May 26, 2013 11:33am EDT
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama was headed to Moore, Oklahoma, on Sunday to tour the town that was hammered last week by a powerful tornado that killed 24 people and injured hundreds.
Obama, who departed Washington on Sunday morning, is scheduled to witness the response effort in the storm-hit corridor and meet with members of affected families in a four-hour visit to the state.
The tornado, which rated the most powerful on the five-step scale used to measure the destructive power of twisters, ripped a 17-mile (27-km) long corridor of destruction through the suburb of Oklahoma City, flattening entire blocks of homes, two schools and a hospital in some 50 minutes on May 20.
It was the most powerful of a spate of 76 twisters that touched down in 10 states from May 18 through 20, causing an estimated $2 billion to $5 billion in insured losses, according to disaster modeling company Eqecat.
Some 377 people were injured by the Moore tornado, the deadliest such windstorm to hit the United States in two years.
(Reporting by Alice Mannette in Moore, Oklahoma and Jeff Mason in Washington; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Sandra Maler)
It may be months before the I-5 bridge over the Skagit River near Seattle is repaired. Until then, authorities are considering a temporary bridge of the type used in Europe during World War II.
Workers inspect a damaged beam on a section of bridge adjacent to a collapsed portion of the I-5 span at the Skagit River in Mount Vernon, Wash. A truck carrying an oversize load struck the four-lane bridge, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the river.
The I-5 bridge that got clipped by a truck and fell into the Skagit River in Washington State may have been old, its design officially "functionally obsolete." But the temporary fix to get traffic moving again along this busy highway corridor linking Seattle north to Canada may be of a type that's even older.
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Authorities are considering a "Bailey Bridge" like the ones used in World War II to get Allied tanks and other military vehicles across rivers in Germany and Italy after D-Day. Such bridges are designed to be portable and temporary, constructed quickly then taken apart to be used elsewhere.
The Washington State Department of Transportation built a 180-foot Bailey Bridge over the Chehalis River in 2007, after a flood washed out a county bridge, the Seattle Times reports.
For highway use, such bridges can clear spans up to 200 feet long, according to Bailey Bridges, Inc. in Fort Payne, Ala. The I-5 bridge over the Skagit River is 160 feet long, so the idea there is feasible.
For such a system to work, however, the existing concrete piers under the bridge's road surface would have to be sound.
That's just one of the things state and federal authorities need to investigate as they piece together what happened to send a portion of the bridge plummeting into the river Thursday evening, then figure out a permanent solution.
"Patience is going to be the watchword," Gov. Jay Inslee said at a press conference Friday.
Gov. Inslee, a former member of Congress who won the governorship last year, says it will cost $15 million to repair the bridge, which averages 71,000 vehicles a day. Meanwhile, other bridges crossing the Skagit have backed up traffic through residential and business areas.
What's known for sure so far is that a truck with a large load clipped one of the metal trusses that are part of the essential design holding up the bridge. That section of the bridge collapsed immediately, sending a pickup truck and an SUV into the river. No one was killed, and injuries to drivers and passengers were minor.
While the Federal Highway Administration lists the bridge as "functionally obsolete" because it's an old design, it had not been classified as structurally deficient.
The bridge has a maximum clearance of about 17 feet – higher than the truck's load in this case – but the clearance curves down to 14 feet 5 inches along the sides, where the collision occurred. The tractor-trailer was hauling drilling equipment southbound.
The truck's owner – Mullen Trucking in Alberta, Canada – had a permit to carry the oversize load on the Interstate 5 highway. The driver has not been cited for any infractions.
It's not rare for trucks to strike bridges in Washington State, the Associated Press reports. The state Department of Transportation lists 21 bridge-strikes involving trucks last year, 24 in 2011, and 14 in 2010.
Officials performed a special inspection six months ago on the bridge that collapsed because there were indications it had been struck by a different vehicle.
A report released Friday said the checkup was done due to "impact damage," and inspectors identified tears, deformations, and gouges on the northbound side of the bridge.
In that Nov. 29, 2012, impact, an overheight truck struck a metal overhead truss on the bridge. An inspection crew determined the bridge to be safe, with only minor repairs required. Those repairs were added to an existing list of bridge maintenance items to be completed at a future date.
The collapse of the bridge north of Seattle highlights recent calls by President Obama and state officials to repair the nation's infrastructure.
"Regardless of how this happened, the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge in Washington State is a timely reminder of our nation's need to invest in critical infrastructure upgrades," Ed Rendell, Co-Chair of Building America's Future and former Governor of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "Our nation's bridges, roads and highways are deteriorating before our eyes, and today's incident was a call to action,"
"According to our report 'Falling Apart and Falling Behind,' America currently has more than 69,000 structurally deficient bridges, many of which haven't been updated in decades," Mr. Rendell said. "If the US wants to remain competitive in the global economy and provide safe, efficient transportation systems for our nation, then I urge state and local officials to act now and find creative ways to fund these projects, so that future collapses and accidents can be avoided."
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the nation's newest Army officers on Saturday that they're now on the front lines of a new battle against the growing problem of sexual assault in the military.
Hagel drew applause at the graduation ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. when he told the crowd: "These crimes have no place - no place - in the greatest military on earth."
"Other threats to the health and the quality of the all-volunteer force are increasing – alcohol and drug abuse, suicide and mental illness, sexual harassment and sexual assault," Hagel said. "You will need to not just deal with these debilitating, insidious and destructive forces but rather be you must be the generation of leaders that stop it."
"This scourge must be stamped out," he said.
Hagel and his top leaders at the Pentagon have put the problem on the front burner, and members of Congress have offered up a slew of legislative proposals to help combat the problem. In 2010, there were an estimated 19,000 sexual assaults in the military. That number grew to about 26,000 last year, officials said.
The scandal has hit close to home for the West Point cadets Hagel addressed Saturday — the Army is investigating a sergeant previously stationed at the academy who allegedly made videos of female cadets in the showers. The man has been reassigned to Fort Drum, N.Y., while the Army pursues its case.
Hagel recently ordered the retraining and rescreening of all sexual assault prevention workers after several high-profile arrests in recent weeks involving the very troops entrusted to prevent the crime. He also ordered a "climate inspection" of military installations for any sexually inappropriate material and is meeting weekly with his top leaders on the issue.
President Barack Obama called the problem "dangerous to our national security," and summoned Hagel and his team to the White House last week to find a way to end the problem. Obama, speaking to graduates at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday, also urged them to help combat sexual assault, warning that it threatened the trust in which the public holds the military.
Hagel, who served in the Army during Vietnam, told the West Point graduates on Saturday that he can't do it alone.
"This will require your complete commitment to building a culture of respect and dignity for every member of the military and society. Sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military are a profound betrayal of sacred oaths and sacred trusts. This scourge must be stamped out. We are all accountable and responsible for ensuring that this happens. We cannot fail the Army or America. We cannot fail each other, and we cannot fail the men and women that we lead."
NEW YORK: US stocks closed flat Friday, reeling in early losses but showing caution following Japan's Thursday 7.3 per cent plunge and ahead of the three-day US Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 8.60 points (0.06 per cent) at 15,303.10.
The broad-based S&P 500 was down 0.91 (0.06 per cent) at 1,649.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.28 (0.01 per cent) to 3,459.14.
A slight 0.9 per cent rebound in Japan's Nikkei 225 index and modest further falls in Europe kept the mood on Wall Street cautious, with little reaction to data showing a rebound in US durable goods orders in April.
Orders gained 3.3 per cent, led by the volatile aircraft sector, after March's 5.9 per cent drop.
Procter & Gamble was the most heavily traded equity on the New York Stock Exchange, gaining 4.0 per cent after chief executive Bob McDonald stepped down late Thursday under pressure from disgruntled shareholders. McDonald will be replaced by his predecessor in the job, A.G. Lafley.
"McDonald was criticised primarily for not using P&G's old and powerful brands to lift revenue. Instead, he moved the company toward selling cheaper brands," said Douglas McIntyre of 24/7WallSt.
Computer maker Hewlett-Packard gave up 2.6 per cent after Thursday's 17 per cent jump on new optimism about the company's growth.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals surged 13.1 per cent on news that it was close to firming up a US$9 billion deal to buy eyecare firm Bausche & Lomb.
Retailer Sears Holdings lost 13.6 per cent after turning in a US$279 million loss for the first quarter, with a 3.6 per cent fall in comparable stores sales.
Hip youth clothing chain Abercrombie & Fitch sank 8.0 per cent as it turned in a smaller first-quarter loss but reported same-store sales fell 15 per cent, worse than what analysts had expected.
News Corp's board approved as expected the breakup of the media-entertainment conglomerate headed by Rupert Murdoch into two separate companies, effective June 28, sending its shares 0.7 per cent higher.
Murdoch will head both firms, including one company focused on news and publishing, to retain the News Corp name, and another on television and film, to be called 21st Century Fox. -- AFP
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. A truck hauling a too-tall load hit an overhead girder of a bridge on the major thoroughfare between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River below, though all three occupants suffered only minor injuries.
It happened about 7 p.m. Thursday on the north part of the four-lane Interstate 5 bridge near Mount Vernon, about 60 miles north of Seattle, and disrupted travel in both directions.
Initially, it wasn't clear if the bridge just gave way on its own. But at an overnight news conference, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste blamed it on a tractor-trailer carrying an oversize load that hit an upper part of the span. The vertical clearance from the roadway to the beam is 14.6 feet.
"For reasons unknown at this point in time, the semi struck the overhead of the bridge causing the collapse," Batiste said.
Motorist Dan Sligh saw it happen.
"He hit the bridge about 3 or 4 feet wider than the actual bridge was, and we went right off with the bridge as it collapsed," Sligh told reporters from a hospital.
The truck made it off the bridge and the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. Authorities have not yet said what the truck was carrying.
Two other vehicles went into the water about 25 feet below as the structure crumbled. Three people were rescued and were recovering Friday.
Drivers were told to expect delays. Detours have been set up to try to ease the congestion. Batiste urged drivers to avoid the area if possible, especially over the Memorial Day weekend. Traffic along the heavily travelled route could be affected for some time. The bridge is used by an average of 71,000 vehicles a day.
"The I-5 corridor is totally disrupted," said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who went to the scene Thursday night.
"Thanks to the rescuers and a little bit of luck, we had three Skagitonians who made it out of the Skagit River alive," Inslee said.
Last August, Barry LePatner, author of "Too Big to Fall: America's Failing Infrastructure and the Way Forward," told CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor on "CBS This Morning" that the next bridge disaster was much closer than anyone wants to believe.
"Since 1989," LePatner said, "we've had nearly 600 bridge failures in this country and, while they're not widely publicized ... a large number of bridges in every state are really a danger to the traveling public."
On Thursday, Sligh and his wife were in their pickup on Interstate 5 heading to a camping trip when a bridge before them disappeared in a "big puff of dust."
"I hit the brakes and we went off," Sligh said, adding he "saw the water approaching ... you hold on as tight as you can."
Sligh, his wife and another man in a different vehicle were dumped into the chilly waters of the Skagit River.
Sligh and his wife were taken to Skagit Valley Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The other man was reported in stable condition at United General Hospital in Sedro-Woolley, hospital CEO Greg Reed said.
Sligh said his shoulder was dislocated in the drop into the water, and he found himself "belly deep in water in the truck." He said he popped his shoulder back in and called out to his wife, who he described as being in shock initially as they waited for rescuers to arrive in boats.
The bridge was inspected twice last year and repairs were made, Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson said.
"It's an older bridge that needs a lot of work just like a good number of bridges around the state," she said.
Transportation officials are working on plans for either a temporary or permanent replacement, she said.
The National Transportation Safety Board was sending an investigative team.
Jeremiah Thomas, a volunteer firefighter, said he was driving nearby when he glimpsed something out of the corner of his eye and turned to look.
"The bridge just went down, it crashed through the water," he said. "It was really surreal."
Deyerin said the water depth was about 15 feet, and the vehicles half-visible in the water likely were resting on portions of the collapsed bridge.
Crowds of people lined the river to watch the scene unfold.
"It's not something you see every day," said Jimmy O'Connor, the owner of two local pizza restaurants who was driving on another bridge parallel to the one that collapsed. "People were starting to crawl out of their cars."
He said he and his girlfriend were about 400 yards away on the Burlington Bridge when they heard "just a loud bang."
"Then we looked over and saw the bridge was down in the water," he said.
He pulled over and saw three vehicles in the water, including the camping trailer that landed upside-down, he said.
The bridge was not classified as structurally deficient, but a Federal Highway Administration database listed it as being "functionally obsolete" — a category meaning that the design is outdated, such as having narrow shoulders and low clearance underneath.
The bridge, which was inspected last August and November, was built in 1955 and had a sufficiency rating of 47 out of 100 at its November 2012 inspection, Transportation Department spokesman Noel Brady said Friday. The state average is 80, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state's bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington's 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
The bridge was 1,112 feet long and 180 feet wide, with two lanes in each direction, Brady said. There are four spans, or sections, over the water supported by piers. The span on the north side is the one that collapsed. It's a steel truss bridge, meaning it has a boxy steel frame.
The mishap was reminiscent of the August 2007 collapse of an I-35W bridge in Minneapolis that killed 13 people and injured another 145 when it buckled and fell into the Mississippi River during rush-hour.
Sligh was thankful.
His wife was "doing OK" and he had "lots of cuts," he said. "You're kind of pinching yourself and realize you're lucky to be alive."
A Pakistan International Airlines is surrounded by emergency vehicles on the tarmac at Stansted Airport, southern England, May 24, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/ Paul Hackett
By Rhys Jones and Peter Griffiths
LONDON | Fri May 24, 2013 11:30am EDT
(Reuters) - British fighter jets escorted a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane to Stansted Airport near London on Friday, where police went on board and arrested two men on suspicion of endangering an aircraft.
Passengers were leaving the plane and no one was hurt in the incident, a spokesman for the airport said.
Flight PK709 from Lahore in Pakistan had been due to land at Manchester in northern England with 297 passengers on board, but was diverted shortly before arrival.
Britain is on high alert after a soldier was hacked to death on a London street on Wednesday in what the government are treating as a terrorist incident.
A security source said early indications were that the plane was not the target of a terrorist attack.
A passenger who had just got off the plane told the BBC the pilot had informed passengers after landing that he had diverted to Stansted because of threats. The passenger, named by the BBC as Mr Munsif, said two men had been handcuffed on board and removed.
"We landed safely and then he announced that they had some kind of threat from someone and that's why he landed the plane," the passenger said, speaking by telephone.
"Essex Police have boarded a passenger plane diverted to Stansted Airport and two men have been arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft. They have been removed from the plane," the police said in a statement. The force is responsible for the area where Stansted is located.
"The two men arrested on suspicion of endangerment of an aircraft are aged 30 and 41. They are being taken to a police station for interview by detectives," the police added.
Stansted is one of London's less busy airports, preferred as a location for handling airplane security incidents. A spokesman for the airport said the plane was being held in an isolated area and that the rest of the airport was operating as normal.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said 10 fire engines had been sent to the airport.
The Pakistani plane was a Boeing 777, according to the flight tracking website www.flightradar.com.
According to two tracking websites, the aircraft broke off from its descent about 60 miles east of Manchester.
It turned and followed a wide arc over northeast England and out to the North Sea before heading towards London.
Britain launches military planes to intercept unidentified aircraft when they cannot be identified by other means, for example when the aircraft is not talking to air traffic controllers.
(Additional reporting by Brenda Goh, Kate Holton, Tim Hepher; writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
NEW YORK: US stocks finished slightly lower Thursday, little-affected by a sharp selloff in Asian and European markets led by the 7.3 per cent plunge of Japan's Nikkei 225 index.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.67 (0.08 per cent) to 15,294.50. The Dow rallied after opening sharply lower and hitting an inter-session low of 15,180.
The broad-based S&P 500 followed a similar trajectory, losing 1.1 per cent in opening trade but closing at 1,650.51, off 4.84 (0.29 per cent).
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index ended 3.88 points lower (0.11 per cent) at 3,459.42.
The losses were far more modest than in France, Britain, Germany and Hong Kong, each of which fell more than 2 per cent, and the Nikkei's huge fall, sparked by data showing manufacturing activity in China contracted in May for the first time in seven months, another sign of the weakness of China's recovery.
Hugh Johnson of Hugh Johnson Advisors said investors concluded the US Federal Reserve will not cut back its stimulus measures "suddenly and all-together," after some concern about the Fed's direction following chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony Wednesday.
The comparatively strong performance of US equities also followed reports that showed surging sales of newly built homes and a drop in US jobless claims.
Boeing rose 1.9 per cent after Chinese regulators gave a green light to the Boeing 787, potentially opening up a huge market for the aerospace giant.
Merck added 1.3 per cent after a key Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended US approval of its suvorexant insomnia drug in moderate dosages. The company said it is now "one step closer" to winning approval for the medication.
Hewlett-Packard soared 17.1 per cent after reporting 87 cents per share earnings, above the 81 cents expected by analysts.
US clothing chain rue21 surged 23 per cent after announcing that it would be acquired by funds advised by private equity firm Apax Partners for US$1.1 billion. -- AFP
At the scene of Wednesday's killing in Woolwich, Ingrid Loyau-Kennet got off a bus and spoke to the two killers, seemingly concerned only to keep them calm and stop them hurting anybody else. In photographs taken by other witnesses, we see her standing just a few feet away from a man holding a huge knife. Later, in an interview, she said she wasn't scared because the men didn't seem to be drunk or on drugs, but appeared extremely normal. They wanted to speak, so she let them. When her bus started to move off, she asked if there was anything she could do before politely taking leave. She then calmed the people on the bus, some of whom had, understandably, become hysterical.
Loyau-Kennet's only formal preparation for this moment seems to have been a course in first aid for her work as a Brownie leader. Still, she was somehow instinctively able to perform the task of an experienced hostage negotiator, even delicately asking one of the killers if he wanted to give her "what he was holding in his hand"– phrased in less discreet terms, a blood-soaked cleaver. In those few minutes Loyau-Kennet showed something like a super-human fortitude and presence of mind. To many of us, what she did may seem unthinkable. She somehow managed to draw on huge inner reserves of courage, to pull together a lucid understanding of the situation, and to act accordingly. Although, in clinical work, one often hears of people's surprisingly equanimous reactions to catastrophe, Loyau-Kennet's behaviour is striking because of the way in which it may have influenced the unfolding of events.
One of the most extraordinary aspects of yesterday's attack was perhaps the behaviour of everyone involved. The two killers didn't run away from the scene but stayed to explain themselves to anyone who would listen. One of them even apologised for exposing passersby to such horror. Witnesses later spoke to news cameras with a kind of numbed perplexity. The murder was presented to them as the logical outcome of an unjust situation, not as a bloodthirsty attack. The witnesses themselves apparently weren't in any danger at the time – although the assault wasn't necessarily over. The two men let everyone know that they planned to kill police who arrived at the scene. If the onlookers had in any way seemed to side with the law, they may very well have found themselves in trouble. Loyau-Kennet knew better than to show allegiance with the dead or dying soldier by tending to his body. She simply continued to treat the killers as human beings, even showing them kindness.
Hollywood films are full of scenes of heroism in extreme circumstances. We are fed endless representations of brave people doing the right thing. But something about the events in Woolwich doesn't fit the Hollywood pattern. First, the murderers are too civil, too "normal", not nearly furtive enough. And secondly, the witnesses appear to be affected by this matter-of-factness. Instead of panicking and running away they stay to speak, listen and even make films.
Of course, it's impossible to know how one would respond to such an unprecedented situation, but it would seem that the normal reaction to a man holding a bloodied weapon is to escape at speed. This is precisely what didn't happen yesterday. This must be, in part, because of the highly unusual stance taken by the killers, but also perhaps because of the exceptional nature of some of the people who happened to be there at the time. Rather than the macho, hyper-trained, lean-jawed heroes relentlessly dished up by Hollywood, we saw an exceptionally humane middle-aged mother act in a way that may very well have prevented further tragedy.
In terms of dealing with conflict, and limiting catastrophe in real-time, perhaps Ingrid Loyau-Kennet's behaviour can teach us a great deal. By acting with phenomenal generosity, grace and understanding, she seems to have helped to contain a situation that may easily have spun out of control. If only politicians and military leaders the world over could be so intelligent and careful.
US military likely to now work within a new set of legal guidelines agreed by Obama this week. Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters
The White House was due to announce a series of measures aimed at moving the controversial US drone killings programme out of the "legal shadows" on Thursday.
In a major counter-terrorism speech billed as marking the end of an unfettered "war" on terror, Barack Obama was expected to reveal that he will move responsibility for future drone operations from the CIA to the Pentagon so they can be more closely monitored by Congress.
A more limited range of strikes in countries such as Yemen are likely to be carried out by the US military working within a new set of legal guidelines agreed by Obama this week, giving greater clarification on how and when officials can target suspected terrorists operating abroad.
Attorney general Eric Holder told congressional leaders in a letter on Wednesday that they would be briefed in private on whether future drone attacks on suspected terrorists passed the new legal threshold.
Both the White House and the CIA declined to comment on details of the policy ahead of the speech but government sources told the Guardian they would add to existing congressional oversight measures in place. Until recently the administration did not even publicly admit the existence of the drone programme.
Human rights campaigners have cautiously welcomed the attempt to bring US drone warfare policy into the open, but called on President Obama to publish the new legal tests that he was due to announce later on Thursday.
Dixon Osburn, a director at Human Rights First, said: "On its own, it is not clear that taking things away from the CIA makes a difference – the special operations command at the Pentagon is also secret – but at least the military are schooled in the rules of war."
"It looks like Obama is trying to return his counter-terrorism strategy to something that operates within the law. We want to know what that legal framework is though."
Earlier, the White House marked this new effort to draw a line under the controversial drone-strike policy by admitting for the first time that four American citizens were among those killed by its covert attacks in Yemen and Pakistan since 2009.
In a letter to congressional leaders sent on Wednesday, attorney general Eric Holder Holder claimed one of the US citizens killed, Anwar al-Awlaki, was chief of external operations for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap) and had been involved in plots to blow up aircraft over US soil.
However, Holder said three others killed by drones – Samir Khan, Abdul Rahman Anwar al-Awlaki and Jude Kenan – were not "specifically targeted". The second of these victims, Anwar al-Awlaki's son, is said by campaigners to have been 16 when he died in Yemen in 2011.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that between 240 and 347 people have been killed in total by confirmed US drone strikes in Yemen since 2002, with a further 2,541 to 3,533 killed by CIA drones in Pakistan.
"The president will soon be speaking publicly in greater detail about our counter-terrorism operations and the legal and policy framework," Holder told 22 senior members of Congress in Wednesday's letter.
"This week the president approved a document that institutionalises the administration's exacting standards and processes for reviewing and approving operations to capture or use lethal force against terrorist targets outside the United States and areas of active hostilities."
The attorney general said this document would remain classified, but relevant congressional committees would be briefed on its contents. No further details were given of other killings in the five-page letter.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama would also outline his renewed attempt to shut the Guantánamo Bay detention centre in the speech, and seek to explain why previous efforts had failed.
The White House said Thursday's speech will cover "broad counter-terrorism policy, including military, diplomatic, intelligence, and legal efforts".
"[Obama] will review the state of the threats that we face, particularly as the al-Qaida core has weakened but new dangers have emerged," it added. "He will discuss the policy and legal framework under which we take action against terrorist threats, including the use of drones.
"He will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. And he will frame the future of our efforts against al-Qaida, its affiliates and its adherents."
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