White House Press Secretary: Closing Guantanamo Will Increase U.S. Security

The closing of Guantanamo Bay detention center and using the Army Field Manual as the basis for all interrogation is aimed at protecting Americans, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.

In his first press conference since President Obama was inaugurated, Gibbs said the orders “made America safer, made America stronger.”

VaTech Grad Student Knew Suspected Killer

Police and officials gather outside the lobby of the Donaldson Brown Graduate Life Center at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Last night. Xin Yang, a 22-year-old female student, was stabbed to death on Virginia Tech’s campus, the first killing at the school since a deadly mass shooting there in 2007.

Alone and in a new country, graduate student Xin Yang reached out to other Chinese students at Virginia Tech when she arrived two weeks ago, trying to establish her life on campus.She went to social events with international students, got in touch with the campus center that works to help them adjust and appeared to be making friends as she settled into her accounting program, those who had met her said.

But one of the friendships may have led to her death: Police say she was decapitated with a kitchen knife while having coffee with a Chinese doctoral student in a campus cafe Wednesday night.

Right to Life Movement Rallied by Freedom of Choice Legislation

The Freedom of Choice Act is umbrella legislation designed to lift barriers to access, including parental notification laws.

WASHINGTON – Activists on both sides of the abortion question will congregate Thursday at the annual March for Life protest in Washington to debate the possible passage of the Freedom of Choice Act.

President Obama, speaking to Planned Parenthood while a candidate, said he would sign the legislation should it pass Congress, and his vow has energized all sides of the issue this year.

The FOCA as introduced to Congress in 2007, is umbrella legislation that aims to protect women’s health and their right to “to begin, prevent or continue a pregnancy.”