TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) – Accused Tucson shooter Jared Loughner will face several more charges after he is tried in federal court for the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabriel Giffords and attempted murder of two of her aides, prosecutors said on Friday.

The 22-year-old college dropout is accused of opening fire on a crowd of bystanders outside a Giffords event at a grocery store on January 8, killing six people and wounding 13.

On January 24, he pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempting to assassinate Giffords and attempting to murder two of her staff members in the shooting spree that occurred in Arizona's Pima County, which surrounds Tucson.

In a joint statement released on Friday, U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke and Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall said that they could not proceed with state and local charges against Loughner until the federal case is complete.

"As required by the statute, once those charges have been fully prosecuted through the federal court system, Arizona state charges will be prosecuted by the Pima County Attorney's Office," the statement said.

"These cases will be tried in sequence and will ensure that all rights of the victims and their families are vindicated," it added.

In addition to the charges for the attempted murder of Giffords and her aides, federal charges are expected to be filed for the murders of federal judge John Roll and Giffords' aide Gabe Zimmerman.

After that, Loughren could be charged by Pima County with all six murders -- even if he has been convicted already of murdering Roll and Zimmerman -- as well as for aggravated assault, attempted murder and endangerment, Lawall said.

"There could be considerable delay and that makes me distraught for the victims who are going to have to wait for justice," Lawall told Reuters.

Giffords was shot through the head but survived, and is currently undergoing intensive rehabilitation in Texas.

The shooting rampage reignited a national debate about gun control and triggered soul searching about whether vitriol in U.S. politics had encouraged violence against elected officials -- although motives for the attack remain unclear.

In a separate development, prosecutors asked Judge Larry Burns to order Loughner to submit hand-writing samples for possible evidence at the trial.

The samples are sought to see if they match "handwritten references to the Member of Congress the defendant is accused of attempting to assassinate, as well as references to guns and bullets" found at his home, prosecutors said in documents lodged at the court.

Investigators have said they found an envelope at Loughner's home with hand-written phrases that said "I planned ahead" and "My assassination." The name "Giffords" also was found and what appeared to be Loughner's signature.

Additional notebooks with Loughner's handwriting also were found, prosecutors said.

Loughner could face up to life in prison for trying to kill the lawmaker and the other two attempted murder charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor and David Schwartz; editing by Greg McCune)

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban prosecutors will seek a 20-year prison sentence for U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross, accused of crimes against the state, Communist Party newspaper Granma said on Friday, in a case that has stalled progress in U.S.-Cuba relations.

A government statement posted on the paper's website said Gross was accused of "Acts Against the Independence and Territorial Integrity of the State" and that a trial date for him would be set soon.

Gross, 61, has been detained since he was arrested at his Havana hotel in December 2009.

Cuban authorities have accused him in the past of illegally importing satellite communications equipment and possibly spying.

The government statement gave no details about the charge, but the Cuban law it referred to said that someone "who in the interest of a foreign state" commits an act detrimental to the independence of the Cuban state or its "territorial integrity" faces a jail sentence of 10 to 20 years or the death penalty.

The United States has said Gross was only providing satellite communications equipment and Internet access for Jewish groups in Cuba and was not a spy.

The Obama administration said in a statement that "instead of releasing Mr. Gross so he can come home to his wife and family, today's decision by Cuban authorities compounds the injustice suffered by a man helping to increase the free flow of information, to, from, and among the Cuban people."

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Florida Republican who chairs the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the news was "yet another wakeup call that the United States cannot negotiate with ruthless dictators."

Gross was working in a U.S. program begun by the Bush administration aimed at promoting political change in Cuba, which the Cuban government views as part of a long-standing U.S. attempt to topple the communist-led island's leaders.

Gross' attorney, Peter Kahn, in Washington said it was a "positive development" the case was moving forward, but the charges were the product of U.S.-Cuba hostility that dates to Cuba's 1959 revolution.

They "demonstrate once again that Alan is caught in the middle of a long-standing political dispute between the United States and Cuba," he said in a statement.

"Each time Alan traveled to Havana he declared everything that was required by Cuban customs authorities. Never did the Cuban authorities raise concerns about what he brought with him," Kahn said.

"Neither his presence nor actions in Cuba were ever meant to, or in fact did, pose any threat to the Cuban government," he said, calling on the two governments to resolve the case through diplomatic channels.

HURDLE TO CLOSER TIES

The United States has previously demanded his release and said there would be no major initiatives in U.S.-Cuba relations until he was free.

His detention has become a serious obstacle between the two nations, stalling steps by the governments of U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro to improve ties.

Ros-Lehtinen repeated criticism of Obama administration moves last month that further relaxed restrictions on U.S. travel and remittances to Cuba.

"This Administration's insistence on continually reaching out to the Cuban tyranny and seeking to ease restrictions is rewarding the despotic Castro brothers while at the same time undermining U.S. interests and security," she said in her statement.

Friday's announcement followed some recent positive signals the Gross case may be coming to some kind of resolution.

Last month, a senior U.S. State Department official expressed cautious optimism that Gross would be tried and freed once formal charges had been pressed.

A Western diplomat in Havana said at the time the trial would likely take place in a few weeks and that Gross was expected to plead guilty, then be sent back to the United States.

It was possible, said Cuba expert Arturo Lopez Levy of the University of Denver, that the charges would set the stage for a "humanitarian gesture" by Cuba.

Gross' wife, Judy, visited her husband last summer and told Reuters in October she had written a letter to Raul Castro expressing the couple's remorse for his work in Cuba.

She has pleaded with Cuba to release Gross because their daughter is being treated for breast cancer, but there has been no public reply by the government.

Gross, who is being held in a cell at a military hospital, is said to have lost 90 pounds (41 kg) in jail and suffers from health problems.

(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel; Editing by Eric Beech)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Upscale burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc faces a wider probe of its hiring by immigration officials, after the company came under scrutiny in Minnesota and had to fire workers.

Chipotle has received U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "notices of inspection" for restaurants in Washington, D.C., and Virginia, co-Chief Executive Monty Moran told Reuters on Friday.

The new notices follow ICE inspections of the restaurant chain's Minnesota employees. Labor leaders say as many as 700 Chipotle workers were subsequently fired after their eligibility for legal employment in the United States could not be verified.

The company, which operates more than 1,000 restaurants, mostly in the United States, declined to say how many Minnesota workers were fired.

"Because this is an ongoing issue with ICE, we are not disclosing details like that," Moran told Reuters in an email.

"We have always taken this issue very seriously, and over the last five years we have done a great deal to improve our systems and our document review capabilities and procedures," Moran said.

"Certainly this incident has been eye-opening for us and caused us to redouble our efforts to make sure we are doing all we can short of running afoul of the mandate of the Department of Justice."

Chipotle, a Wall Street darling whose shares have gone from under $40 to over $240 in just over two years, is one of the highest-profile companies to come under ICE scrutiny in what experts call a crackdown on employers.

Under President Barack Obama, immigration enforcement strategy has shifted to finding evidence to criminally charge or fine employers. ICE previously conducted large-scale raids that netted large numbers of employees, many from Mexico and Central America.

Chipotle is one of just a handful of publicly traded restaurant companies that own and operate all of their outlets. Rivals like McDonald's Corp and KFC and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands Inc are highly franchised, and responsibility for hiring often falls to independent restaurant operators.

ICE spokeswoman Gillian Brigham told Reuters in an interview earlier this week: "Our inspections are not random. All of our work site cases and ... audits are based on leads and intelligence. So we are not picking businesses out of a hat."

Obama backs sweeping immigration reform, and his reelection might depend on Hispanic voters who give great importance to overhauling policy to deal with some 12 million undocumented immigrants.

Shares in Chipotle, which plans to open as many as 145 restaurants in 2011, rose 3 percent, or $7.09, to close at $246.31 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard in Dallas; editing by John Wallace, Gary Hill)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The 20-year-old son of former Enron President Jeffrey Skilling has been found dead of unknown causes at his apartment in Southern California, police said on Thursday.

John Tyler Skilling, a student at Chapman College, was found dead on Tuesday night by paramedics who broke into his apartment after friends became concerned, Santa Ana Police Corporal Anthony Bertagna said.

"They were supposed to meet him for dinner and he didn't show up and they knew he was despondent over a recent break-up with a girlfriend," Bertagna told Reuters.

"They looked in the window and they could see him lying on the bed."

Bertagna said an autopsy turned up no signs of trauma or foul play, meaning a cause of death would have to await the results of toxicology tests in four to six weeks.

He said there were bottles of prescription medications found next to the body, but no suicide note.

"We don't know yet if it's a possible accidental overdose or suicide," he said.

Skilling's father Jeffrey was convicted of conspiracy, insider trading and securities fraud in 2006 and is serving a 24-year prison term.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is considering his latest appeal after hearing arguments last year.

"JT was a wonderful young man," Skilling's attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, said in a brief written statement. "Jeff and his family are heartbroken."

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

GOODWATER, Alabama (Reuters) – An Alabama police officer shot and wounded a defendant in a small town courtroom after he tried to grab a gun and attack a judge, authorities said on Thursday.

But three witnesses gave a different version of events at the municipal court in Goodwater, a town of around 1,500 in central Alabama, northeast of state capital Montgomery.

They said the officer used unnecessary force in twice shooting a defendant they said became unruly but did not attempt to get a gun and was anyway on crutches with a broken hip sustained in a car accident.

The second shot fired by the officer was unnecessary because the defendant lay prone, they said.

After the first shot the defendant "slid down real slow. The officer took two or three more steps and shot him again," William Allen, 20, who was in the courtroom's third row, said in an interview.

The Alabama Bureau of Investigation said the defendant: "attacked the Municipal Court judge and attempted to forcibly obtain a firearm when he was shot by a Goodwater police officer who was providing courtroom security."

The bureau, which did not name the defendant, based its statement on a preliminary investigation of an incident it said took place at around 9.39 a.m. local time. Witnesses said the defendant was local resident Brian Ford.

The wounded man was taken by ambulance to Sylacauga and transferred by helicopter to University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital, the bureau said.

Ford was in surgery at the hospital on Thursday afternoon, said hospital spokeswoman Nicole Wyatt.

Sara Williams, 69, a retired ambulance driver and fire fighter from Goodwater, witnessed the scene from the courtroom's front row.

The defendant shouted at the judge after he was sentenced, swung his crutches and "got real disorderly", provoking a melee but posed little threat because he was on crutches, she said.

People screamed when the first shot was fired and shouted at the officer not to shoot again but he told them to clear the court, "stood over him on the ground and shot him again," she said in a version similar to that of other witnesses.

"It was senseless to shoot him twice. I could have knocked him down," she said.

Police in Goodwater and the Coosa County sheriff's office declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Peggy Gargis in Birmingham; Writing by Matthew Bigg; Editing by Jerry Norton)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal authorities ignored warnings that could have prevented a 2009 massacre at an Army base, two U.S. senators said in a report on Thursday that outlined intelligence failures similar to those in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan -- an Army psychiatrist who had been dubbed by two colleagues as "a ticking time bomb" -- was charged with murder in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas that killed 13 and wounded 32.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, and Susan Collins, the panel's top Republican, said in the probe that authorities had information indicating that Hasan, a Muslim born in the United States to immigrant parents, was a threat before the November 5, 2009, shootings.

"Although neither DoD (the Department of Defense) nor the FBI had specific information concerning the time, place or nature of the attack, they collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan's radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it," they wrote.

The Army has received an assessment from experts on Hasan's mental health and is considering whether he should face court martial and potentially the death penalty.

Intelligence agencies learned that Hasan had contacts with an Islamist sympathetic to al Qaeda and relayed the information to law enforcement, but no action was taken, the report noted.

The report identified the Islamist only as "Suspected Terrorist" and several portions of the report were redacted.

U.S. officials have said Hasan had exchanged e-mails with Anwar al-Awlaki, an al Qaeda figure based in Yemen.

OBSESSION 'SANITIZED'

The report said evidence of Hasan's "radicalization to violent Islamist extremism" was on display to his colleagues during his military medical training and he was referred to as a "ticking time bomb" by two of them.

"Not only was no action taken to discharge him, but also his Officer Evaluation Reports sanitized his obsession with violent Islamist extremism into praiseworthy research on counterterrorism," the report said.

The senators' investigation found specific and systemic failures in the government's handling of the case, and they recommended a number of corrective steps.

The FBI, in a statement, said it "recognizes the value of congressional oversight and agrees with much in the report and many of its recommendations."

The senators said their investigation shows that despite improvements over the past decade, U.S. authorities still need to do a better in sharing and acting on information regarding possible terrorists.

"A lot of progress has been made in connecting the dots," Lieberman, an independent, told a Capitol Hill news conference. "But this case, the Hasan case, shows the work is unfinished."

Intelligence failures were blamed, in part, for the September 11 hijacked plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Investigations uncovered a number of instances when U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies inadequately shared information.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, a crush of federal actions were taken to better track suspected terrorists, including creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Deborah Charles and Cynthia Osterman)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The fierce blizzard engulfing the Midwest on Wednesday struck so quickly and with such force that hundreds of motorists ended up stranded for hours in cars and trucks that littered the region's highways.

State police in Illinois received more than 2,300 calls for help from disabled motorists statewide on Tuesday night and Wednesday, said Captain Scott Compton in Illinois.

Most of those, he said were from drivers trapped in their vehicles when weather-related accidents, drifting snow or blinding winds brought their journeys to an abrupt halt.

Master Sergeant Isaiah Vega said about 900 strandings were reported in the Chicago area alone.

No serious injuries among the marooned were reported, but one Illinois motorist was killed in a storm-related accident, Compton said. He had no further details.

About 500 National Guard troops statewide were activated to help Illinois state troopers search for and rescue stranded motorists.

Assigned to interstate rest areas throughout the state and carrying water, snack bars and other provisions, the Guard troops plied snow-clogged highways in Humvees and other military vehicles.

In some cases, motorists were ferried to a warm safe place. in others, officers stayed with idled drivers until tow trucks could arrive, Compton said.

Similar situations played out in other states, including Iowa, whose state police reported receiving over 3,000 calls for help since Monday.

In southeastern Iowa, a state trooper sent to assist a tow truck ended up stuck in his own patrol car for about 11 hours overnight, until about 8 a.m. on Wednesday, near Iowa City after running into drifting snow, spokeswoman Jessica Lown said.

As it turned out, the trooper had adequate fuel and was never in any peril, she said, adding that no deaths or serious injuries were reported on Iowa highways on Wednesday.

(Writing and reporting by Steve Gorman; additional reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Peter Bohan)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chicago, a city that usually sneers at winter, was brought to a near standstill on Wednesday by a blizzard packing the third highest snowfall in the city's history.

Chicago public schools, which hadn't closed since 1999, were shut on Wednesday and will be closed again Thursday. Courts were closed. Five suburban commuter rail lines were down.

Lake Shore Drive, the city's main north-south thoroughfare, was closed and still littered with over 100 abandoned cars late Wednesday afternoon. Many side streets were impassable, and even plowed arterial streets and highways were eerily empty.

"This is pretty unbelievable," said John Paczesny, 48, a maintenance worker at a Chicago church. He was out with a snowblower clearing a path Wednesday morning, snow clinging to his mustache and eyebrows.

"I was around in '67 but this is really crazy," he said.

The highest snowfall on record in Chicago was in January 1967, with 23 inches, followed by January 1999 with 21.6 inches. The 2011 blizzard's total was 20.2 inches at O'Hare Airport, according to the National Weather Service. The blizzard is expected to be followed by bitter cold, with wind chill temperatures forecast to plunge to 20 to 30 below zero Wednesday night.

Paczesny, who is also a suburban firefighter, helped emergency workers deliver a baby in an ambulance Tuesday night -- a snow plow had to lead the ambulance to the hospital.

On northbound Lake Shore Drive Tuesday night, accidents involving a Chicago Transit Authority bus and other cars stopped traffic on the northbound lanes, stranding about 900 cars on their way home.

STRANDED

Rescue efforts were hampered by blowing snow and waist-high drifts. Some people were in their cars until early this morning, though no serious injuries were reported.

Some of those stranded complained that help did not come fast enough. Asked why the city did not close Lake Shore Drive in anticipation of the storm, Mayor Richard M. Daley's chief of staff, Ray Orozco, said it was necessary to allow commuters a way home to keep thousands of cars off city streets.

"I believe it was the right decision to make," Orozco said.

Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff who is the front-runner in the race to be the next Chicago mayor, criticized the city's response and said a "comprehensive review" was needed

"We need to get to the bottom of what happened last night on Lake Shore Drive -- with hundreds of passengers stranded for hours, it's clear that there were mistakes made that we can never let happen again," said Emanuel.

A picture on his campaign web site shows Emanuel helping to push a police car out of the snow. The election is February 22.

One man apparently walking along the lakefront drowned when he was either blown or fell into the lake, according to fire officials.

Some residents saw the snow as an opportunity. Gonzalo Mejia, 57, was out with two friends shoveling sidewalks for $40 a house. "There's crisis -- there's no jobs," Mejia said. "You've got to get out into the street and get some work."

The city's airports stayed open, but airlines canceled a total of 2,600 flights at O'Hare and Midway Wednesday, said city department of aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride.

Bruce Yeager, 44, an architect who planned to work from home Wednesday, was shoveling two-foot drifts off his sidewalk.

"The part that's going to be great is when it gets really cold and it (the snow) turns to rock," Yeager said, with a resigned grin.

Paczesny predicted the city would not be back to normal for two or three days, because of the difficulty of moving snow.

"You've got to have a place to put it," Paczesny said. "We already have seven to eight-foot piles in the parking lot."

(Editing by Jerry Norton and Greg McCune)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A monster winter storm stretching from New Mexico to Maine laid down a sheet of ice on the Plains and lower Midwest on Tuesday, turning to snow as it crept north, and forecasters said the worst was yet to come.

"We're looking at heavy snow from the Rockies to New England," said Pat Slattery, National Weather Service spokesman.

The storm was expected to affect as much as a third of the U.S. population, from severe thunderstorms in the Southeast and ice-coated roads in Texas to blizzard conditions and up to 2 feet of snow in Chicago. Several regions were experiencing bitter cold, including Denver, where mid-afternoon readings fell to six degrees below zero.

In Oklahoma City, more accustomed to tornadoes than blizzards, homeowner Debra Thomas, 53, said the entire town was largely snowbound as gale-force wind gusts and a foot of snowfall created white-out conditions and large drifts.

"I'm looking out my door here, and I've got at least 4 feet, maybe 5 feet, up against the windows of our house," she told Reuters by telephone. "It's very pretty, but not the kind of thing you go out in."

The Dallas-Fort Worth international airport closed for 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday just as thousands of football fans began arriving in the city for the Super Bowl game on Sunday. And the storm forced postponement of a National Hockey League game in St. Louis between the Blues and the Colorado Avalanche.

About 200 National Guard troops were called out to assist local law enforcement in the St. Louis area.

Major U.S. airlines said they had canceled more than 5,400 flights ahead of the storm. More than 1,200 of those flights were in and out of Chicago-area airports, major airline hubs.

One of the hardest-hit cities on Tuesday was Kansas City, where a municipal state of emergency was declared and snow plows were pulled from runways at the international airport in late afternoon due to blowing snow and low visibility.

Statewide emergencies were declared in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Wisconsin. White-out conditions were reported on Interstate 44 between Oklahoma and Missouri, closing part of that highway, as well as Interstate 70 in central Missouri.

"Everyone should stay inside today and not drive," Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said on local television.

Weather Service meteorologist David Gaede said: "There's not much traffic moving in Missouri tonight."

"Black ice" conditions prompted Nebraska state police to shut down Interstate 80 and I-680 in Omaha at the start of the evening rush hour.

Storm-related outages knocked out power to more than 100,000 homes and businesses in at least eight states, including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

Once the snow lets up Wednesday, affected areas will remain stuck in a deep freeze through the end of the week, with single digit temperatures in the daytime and "really dangerous wind chills," Slattery said.

Schools were closed all along the storm's path, from Denver through Ohio. Chicago public schools, famous for staying open no matter the weather, stayed open Tuesday but were ordered closed on Wednesday.

The snow began coming down hard in Chicago by 2:30 p.m. In the morning, residents were already setting out lawn chairs and plastic buckets to stake out parking spots in advance of the storm. The city readied all 274 of its snow plows for service, along with 120 garbage trucks fitted with plow attachments.

The National Weather Service said Chicago could get its biggest blizzard in more than 40 years, accompanied by winds of more than 40 miles per hour and plunging temperatures.

At the CME Group's downtown trading floor in Chicago, many traders who buy and sell agricultural commodities, financial contracts and options were planning to stay downtown overnight, storing suitcases in the coat room. But trading was not expected to be affected.

Bob Margherio, owner of Mac Do It Best Hardware in Webster Groves, Missouri, said he had run out of ice-melt spread, snow blowers, generators, and flashlights and had nearly exhausted his inventory of batteries.

In New York City, forecasters said the wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain would last into Wednesday as the storm moved in from the Midwest.

"It's far from a picturesque scene. It's an icy, wet mess," said meteorologist John Davitt of local NY1 television.

The storm was expected to wreak havoc on farm operations in the Plains states, threatening the dormant winter wheat crop, cattle herds, and grain deliveries.

(Additional reporting by Corrie MacLaggan, Carey Gillam, Doris Frankel, Bob Burgdorfer, Steve Gorman, David Hendee, Ann Saphir, Bruce Olson, Wendell Marsh, Lauren Keiper, Ben Fenwick, Ellen Wulfhorst and Keith Coffman; Editing by Steve Gorman and Jerry Norton)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A classified U.S. document obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks shows three previously undisclosed participants in the September 11, 2001 plot, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The three Qatari men arrived in the United States on August 15, 2001, conducted surveillance of targets and left the country on the eve of the September 11 attacks, according to the leaked U.S. diplomatic cable.

The three men "visited the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and various areas in Virginia" before flying on to Los Angeles, according to the leaked document.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the three Qataris were "looked at" within days of the attacks and that investigators concluded they could not be charged, The Washington Post reported.

"There is no manhunt," the official was quoted as saying. "There is no active case. They were looked at, but it washed out," he was quoted as saying, downplaying a report by Britain's The Daily Telegraph, which said the FBI has launched a manhunt for the previously unknown team of men suspected to be part of the attacks.

The CIA and the FBI declined to comment on the cable, the Post said.

The report said the three Qataris were part of a 2002 FBI list of people whom authorities wanted to interview about the September 11 attacks.

After the men left the East Coast, they stayed at a hotel near the Los Angeles airport. Hotel staff later told investigators the men had "pilot-type" uniforms and computer printouts listing pilot names, airlines, flight numbers and flight times, the cable said.

The men were scheduled to fly to Washington on September 10, 2001, on the plane that was hijacked the next day and flown into the Pentagon. Instead, they flew to London and then on to Qatar on September 13, according to the report.

The three Qataris were part of a 2002 FBI list of people whom authorities wanted to interview about the September 11 attacks, the Post said .

The leaked cable was sent on February 11, 2010, from the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar to various agencies in Washington, recommending that a man identified as Mohamed al-Mansoori be added to a government watch list, the Post.

"He is suspected of aiding people who entered the U.S. before the attacks to conduct surveillance of possible targets and providing other support to the hijackers," the cable said.

Mansoori, from the United Arab Emirates, lived in Long Beach, California in September 2001, the Post said.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen, editing by Christopher Wilson)

CHICAGO/ATLANTA (Reuters) – Airlines canceled thousands of flights on Tuesday ahead of a blizzard that has promised near-record snowfall in the U.S. Plains and the central Midwest.

The storm was expected to stretch across 2,000 miles -- dumping up to 2 feet of snow in the central and upper Midwest, as well as ice and sleet in the southern Midwest.

The largest U.S. airlines -- United Continental, Delta Air Lines, AMR Corp's American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and US Airways Group -- had scrapped about 5,400 flights by Tuesday afternoon.

"We are currently looking at approximately 1,900 flights canceled system wide," American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said. "That's about 55 percent of our total operations."

United Continental, formed from a merger of United and Continental airlines, had canceled 1,450 flights; Delta had canceled 625 flights, US Airways said it had scratched about 690 flights, and Southwest said it eliminated 700 flights through Wednesday afternoon.

"We are proactively reaching out to customers to advise them of rebooking options, and hundreds of additional agents have been on duty in reservations since Sunday," said United spokesman Charles Hobart.

In Dallas, icy conditions that are part of the same weather system briefly closed Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, a hub for American Airlines, on Tuesday morning. The city's Love Field Airport, which is primarily served by Southwest, was also closed while crews cleared snow and ice and was expected to reopen later in the day, assistant director Kenneth Gwyn said.

David Magana, public affairs manager at DFW Airport, said one runway was reopened at the airport on Tuesday, and ice was being cleared from six others.

Magana said Dallas-Fort Worth Airport had 300 departures canceled so far for the day; the airport normally has about 850 daily departures.

"We've been plowing runways and treating them," Magana said. "Roadways around the airport are still fairly icy as well."

Unpredictable winter weather is a yearly nuisance for airlines and can result in a hit to quarterly earnings. But early flight cancellations can help airlines avoid stranding their passengers at airports and on grounded planes.

"Airlines will proactively cancel flights in order to minimize the impact on customers and employees, and ensure that their operations can return to normal as quickly as possible following weather events," the Air Transport Association industry group said in a statement.

In recent years, both JetBlue Airways and American Airlines suffered public relations nightmares when harsh weather forced last-minute cancellations and left passengers stuck at airports.

Last year, the U.S. Transportation Department approved an airline fine of up to $27,500 per passenger for tarmac delays that exceed three hours. Passengers could be let off a plane, if they made that request.

"They're canceling ahead of time," said Terry Trippler, owner of travel website Airlinerulestoknow.com. "They can lose the revenue without going further in the hole.

"They're getting smart. They've figured it out," he said.

Airline shares were broadly higher in afternoon trading with the Arca airline index up 1.4 percent, roughly in line with broad gains for stocks as measured by the S&P 500 index.

AMR shares were up 1.7 percent to $7.17 on the New York Stock Exchange and Delta stock rose 1.5 percent to $11.85.

United Continental shares were down 0.3 percent to $25.32, but Southwest was 0.3 percent higher at $11.89.

(Additional reporting by Christine Stebbins in Chicago, editing by Maureen Bavdek and Tim Dobbyn)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Governor Jerry Brown pressed California lawmakers in his state-of-the-state address on Monday to let voters decide on his budget plan, saying any attempt to block a special election would be irresponsible in light of protests in Egypt and Tunisia.

California, the most populous U.S. state, faces a $25 billion deficit caused by the combined effects of recession, high unemployment and turmoil in financial and housing markets. Its deficit is the largest of any of the 50 U.S. states in absolute dollar terms.

Weak U.S. state finances are a growing concern in Washington, with some in Congress mulling legislation that would allow states to declare bankruptcy, adding to the turmoil in the U.S. municipal debt market.

Brown, a Democrat, wants to fill the gap with a split of $12.5 billion in spending cuts and $12 billion in tax hikes that voters would need to approve, a compromise that neither Democrats nor Republicans legislators like -- which might make it politically palatable.

He urged lawmakers to help him prepare a ballot measure for a special election in June, in order to ask voters to extend tax increases scheduled to expire this year and back the cuts.

"The only way forward is to go back to the people and seek their guidance. It's time for a legislative check-in," Brown said in a 14-minute speech.

The governor also said California had a duty to let the people vote in light of struggles in Egypt and Tunisia, where crowds have taken to the street to force political change.

"It would be irresponsible for us to exclude the people from this process" in California, he said.

Republicans immediately rejected the idea of tax increases and said voters had already spoken in previous elections.

STRUCTURAL REFORM

"I do not support a special election," State Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway told reporters after the speech. But she signaled room for compromise and said Republicans were talking to Brown, who lingered after the speech to talk to legislators.

"Maybe the dance has just begun," she said, indicating that pension reform was a key Republican goal. "If we can do some actual structural reform it makes the dialogue on the other items people hope to accomplish maybe a little easier."

Brown signaled a willingness to work on easing regulations and reforming pensions, saying public employees' retirement plans must be fair to workers and taxpayers alike.

"Those are two very big bones to toss Republicans to get them off the porch," said Bill Whalen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and former aide to former Republican Governor Pete Wilson.

Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat who has thrown his support behind Brown, predicted that legislators would meet the governor's target for a budget framework and would back the special election for June.

"We will not miss the timetable," he said.

Recent attempts to raise taxes have been soundly defeated but a poll of voters last week showed support for Brown and his budget proposal.

Under Brown's plan, revenue from the tax extensions, proposed spending cuts and other measures would help balance the state budget in the near term and bolster the state government's finances in future years.

Without the revenue, lawmakers and the governor would have to find another $12 billion in spending to cut.

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Bill Trott)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Midwest braced for a massive and potentially dangerous winter storm on Monday with forecasts of up to 2 feet of snow and strong winds that could make travel virtually impossible.

The Rockies got an early blast from an ice storm that glazed the Denver metropolitan area on Monday, snarling traffic and forcing delays at Denver International Airport, followed by snowfall and plunging temperatures.

Denver's high for Tuesday was forecast at 1 degree below zero Fahrenheit, with a low of minus 17 degrees and wind-chill values at 30 below predicted for overnight Tuesday.

But the nation's midsection was expected to bear the brunt of the latest winter storm.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning and hazardous weather outlook for the Chicago area, calling for frigid temperatures, wind gusts as high as 50 miles per hour and heavy snow on Tuesday.

The storm could be the biggest since a 1967 blizzard paralyzed the city, Chicago officials said.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn issued a state disaster declaration on Monday ahead of the storm, and at least two other states, Oklahoma and Missouri, declared emergencies in advance.

In Kansas, where icy roads were blamed for one traffic death on Monday and numerous other accidents, the governor said state offices would be closed on Tuesday due to weather.

Officials were making similar preparations as far East as Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Office of Personnel Management urged federal employees to consider working from home on Tuesday and Wednesday.

United and Continental Airlines were allowing travelers affected by the weather in the Midwest and Northeast to change flights without fees from January 31 through February 3.

The weather system was expected to bring ice storms Monday night through early Wednesday to a region stretching from the Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas across the Midwest and Ohio Valley and into New York, according to weather.com.

Snow and fierce winds were forecast to hit the southern Plains on Monday night and push northward into the Great Lakes on Tuesday.

In the South, severe thunderstorms with damaging wind gusts will race eastward from eastern Texas to Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to weather.com.

"When everything is said and done, the storm may well impact a third of the population of the United States; approximately 100 million people," meteorologist Tim Ballisty wrote on weather.com.

Officials urged residents to stock up on food and medicine in advance of the storm in Chicago, which faced the possibility of flooding from 25-foot waves expected on Lake Michigan.

Chicago snowfall totals of over 18 inches are possible Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon, especially near Lake Michigan, according to the National Weather Service, and city officials cited forecasts of as much as 2 feet. The Weather Service called the storm "dangerous, multifaceted and potentially life-threatening."

"Conditions will rapidly deteriorate from north to south across the region Tuesday afternoon with travel likely becoming virtually impossible at times Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning," the Weather Service warned.

The city of Chicago planned to deploy its entire fleet of 274 snow plows and to fit garbage trucks with extra plows.

In Kansas Monday afternoon, icy roads were cited as a factor in numerous car accidents, including one in which a 61-year-old woman died when she lost control of her vehicle near the town of Kensington, the highway patrol said.

An Arctic air mass moving into the Rockies was expected to push wind chills to 20 below zero and lower across central and eastern Idaho Monday night and Tuesday.

Ranching communities in the Upper Snake River Plain and Snake Highlands on the Montana border braced for wind chills of 45 degrees below zero. The National Weather Service advises that livestock could be exposed to life-threatening conditions if left outside. That region has large cattle operations.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Additional reporting by Laura Zuckerman, Keith Coffman and Kevin Murphy, Editing by Steve Gorman and Greg McCune)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Twenty-four people, including two members of the New York City Council, were arrested on Monday at a protest over plans to close two dozen city schools, authorities said.

Charles Barron and Jumaane Williams, City Council members from Brooklyn, were arrested along with 22 other adults after the group formed a human chain across Chambers St. in downtown Manhattan outside the city's Department of Education headquarters.

The group, some of whom wore signs saying "Fix schools, don't close them," was protesting plans to close 25 schools ahead of this week's meetings of the Panel for Educational Policy.

"It's not our fault that John F. Kennedy (school) is below standard. It's the Department of Education's fault," said one student, who claimed that the school was "set up" to be closed years ago when officials started "dumping" low performing and special needs students there.

The arrested protesters were being held on charges of disorderly conduct pending issuance of summonses or court appearances, police said.

The acts of civil disobedience followed an earlier rally by students of schools targeted for closing, along with parents and education activists.

The demonstration was the latest of a series of protests in recent weeks over the proposed school closings, which unions say are the most ever in New York City.

The Panel for Educational Policy is an oversight group with a majority of members appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose offices assumed control of the school system in 2002.

Critics of the plan to shut what the city calls failing schools say it masks a move to usher in more charter schools.

Such schools receive public money but are exempt from certain rules that apply to other public schools due to higher accountability in standards set by their charters. The schools often have long waiting lists.

Deputy schools chancellor Marc Sternberg defended the planned closings last week, telling a city council member: "When we feel the supports we've given to a school are not getting the job done ... we are going to consider every intervention possible."

MIAMI (Reuters) – A Florida judge could on Monday become the second judge to declare President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law unconstitutional, in the biggest legal challenge yet to federal authority to enact the law.

The judge, Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Florida, was expected to rule on a lawsuit brought by governors and attorneys general from 26 U.S. states, almost all of whom are Republicans. Obama is a Democrat.

The plaintiffs represent more than half the U.S. states, so the Pensacola case has more prominence than some two dozen lawsuits filed in federal courts over the healthcare law.

No specific time has been given for Vinson's ruling, which was unlikely to end the legal wrangling over the contentious reform law, which could well reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

But an aide said he was determined to issue his opinion in the course of Monday on the suit filed on March 23, 2010, just hours after Obama signed the reform into law.

The healthcare overhaul, a cornerstone of Obama's presidency, aims to expand health insurance to cover millions of uninsured Americans while also curbing costs. Administration officials insist it is constitutional and needed to stem huge projected increases in healthcare costs.

Two other district court judges have rejected challenges to the "individual mandate," the law's requirement that Americans start buying health insurance in 2014 or pay a penalty.

But a federal district judge in Richmond, Virginia, last month struck down that central provision of the law in a case in that state, saying it invited an "unbridled exercise of federal police powers."

The provision is key to the law's mission of covering more than 30 million uninsured. Officials argue it is only by requiring healthy people to purchase policies that they can help pay for reforms, including a mandate that individuals with pre-existing medical conditions cannot be refused coverage.

'WITHOUT PRIOR PRECEDENT'

Vinson has suggested strongly that he too will rule the individual mandate oversteps constitutional limits on federal authority. He may also move to invalidate the entire law, by granting the plaintiff states' request for an injunction to halt its implementation.

"The power that the individual mandate seeks to harness is simply without prior precedent," Vinson wrote in an earlier opinion in October.

Speaking during another hearing last month, he added that it would be "a giant leap" for the courts to encroach on the freedom of citizens to buy or not buy a commercial product.

The 70-year-old appointee of President Ronald Reagan even noted that he himself had been uninsured, paying out of pocket when the first of his five children was born.

Vinson's comments did not necessarily conclusively signal how he might rule on the full merits of the case.

He has also shown little sympathy for the plaintiffs' secondary argument for striking down the reform law, on the grounds that it violates state sovereignty by imposing a vast expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides healthcare for the poor and disabled.

But his ruling on the individual mandate could mark a major setback for Obama on an issue that will likely end up at the Supreme Court, the highest U.S. legal authority.

If Vinson orders an injunction, the government would almost certainly appeal and seek an immediate stay of the ruling.

Vinson's ruling will come after the U.S. House of Representatives voted earlier this month to repeal the healthcare reform law. The repeal is unlikely to go any further as the Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to drop it.

Since a full legislative repeal seems like a non-starter in the current Congress, legal experts all agree the real battle over reform is destined for the Supreme Court.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Todd Eastham)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A massive storm system bringing heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain could potentially impact 100 million people as it slams the Rockies, Plains, and Midwest regions early this week before traveling to the eastern seaboard Wednesday, according to forecasts on Sunday.

Freezing rain is expected to develop Sunday night and continue through Monday, producing a light grazing of ice that could lead to dangerous travel conditions in the central states, the National Weather Service said, but the primary storm system will hit early Tuesday and continue through Tuesday night.

The storm's "stripe of snow" will move eastward across the central plains and into the Ohio Valley and touch parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, according to a mapped forecast of the storm's February 1 movements on Weather.com.

"This storm will produce significant impacts across a large portion of the central United States," the National Weather Service said, and some areas could experience snowfall of more than six inches, according to Weather.com

Then, after slamming the Plains and Midwest, the storm will move into the Appalachians, Mid-Atlantic, and New England regions early Wednesday morning, Groundhog Day, with conditions improving early Thursday.

The heaviest snow is expected across the interior northeast from Pennsylvania into upstate New York and New England, according to mid-week forecasts on Weather.com.

As the storm builds on Monday, though, the band of heaviest snowfall is expected in parts of southwest and northeast Missouri, including central sections of the state, which will receive between six inches and a foot of snowfall and winds between 20 and 30 m.p.h., according to the National Weather service.

(Reporting by Eric Johnson; Editing by Jerry Norton)

HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) – The astronaut husband of a U.S. congresswoman seriously wounded when she was shot in head will decide by mid-February whether to join the last NASA shuttle launch as scheduled, the space agency said Sunday.

Mark Kelly, the commander of April's Endeavour mission, has been on leave to tend to his wife, Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, since the January 8 attack in Tucson which killed six and wounded 13.

"I believe Mark is planning to decide in the next few weeks whether he can resume training and of course he will be candid with the space shuttle crew," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said.

"It is an important thing to them as a family, but they have to balance their priorities," Garver said during a visit to Israel's Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies.

"So I think we'll be having that decision in mid-February."

Giffords was transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Houston, Texas on Jan 21 after undergoing hospital treatment.

NASA has a backup crew member in training for Endeavour, currently scheduled to be the last shuttle flight. But NASA is hoping for funding to fly an additional shuttle to deliver a year's worth of supplies to the International Space Station.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Matthew Jones)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The family of the youngest and lowest-ranking U.S. Army soldier ordered to face court martial for war atrocities against Afghan civilians said on Saturday they were disappointed in the decision and worried that their son will not get a fair trial.

Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti has ordered the Army to proceed with trial of Private First Class Andrew Holmes, 20, on charges of murdering an Afghan civilian, conspiring to harm Afghans and using drugs during his deployment with the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Holmes, of Boise, Idaho, faces life imprisonment if convicted. A trial date has not yet been set.

"In spite of an acknowledged lack of any physical evidence, eye witness testimony exonerating Andy, and an extraordinary writ filed with the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the Investigating Officer chose to file his report recommending a trial by court martial," Holmes' father, Forest, said in a written statement released to Reuters.

"We have grave concerns that Andy's rights as a serving member of the Armed Forces, and US citizen, will continue to be ignored by the government," Forest Holmes, 52, said, adding that the family was also concerned about his ability to get a fair trial.

While several of the dozen soldiers accused in the Stryker Brigade cases have signed plea agreements to testify against alleged 'kill team' ringleader Calvin Gibbs, 26, of Billings, Montana, Forest Holmes said his son "is not interested in a plea agreement. He's interested in clearing his name."

A ruling is still pending before the nation's highest military court on whether thousands of grisly Stryker Brigade war-related photos that currently remain under seal at Joint Base Lewis-McChord's Criminal Investigation Division near Tacoma, Washington can be made public.

A civilian attorney for Holmes, Dan Conway, wants to have the photos analyzed forensically by celebrity forensic expert Dr. Michael Baden, saying they could prove that Holmes didn't commit murder.

A lower court, the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, denied Conway's petition for extraordinary relief to unseal the photos on January 7. That denial also lifted a stay or halting of Holmes' preliminary court hearing.

One photo shows Holmes kneeling beside a body while lifting the victim's hair several inches off the ground, according to court documents.

"I'm troubled this case is moving forward while an appellate court is deciding whether the Army violated the constitutional rights of client," Conway said. "American soldiers deserve better."

Conway learned about Scaparrotti's court-martial order, announced late Friday afternoon, through a reporter.

"The Army didn't even have enough respect to notify our attorney, much less Andy or his family," Dana Holmes, Andrew's mother, told Reuters.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Three Mexican men wanted for murdering a U.S. teenager turned themselves in at an Arizona border crossing point on Saturday, U.S. border officials said.

Orel Vasquez, 20, Christian Vasquez, 26, and Juan Leon, 29, approached a border crossing point at Nogales, Arizona and told U.S. officers they were wanted for arrest in the U.S. and were turning themselves in.

U.S. officials checked their crime database and confirmed that the men were wanted for a 2009 murder in Tucson. They were taken into custody, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said.

According to America's Most Wanted website, the three men were wanted for the murder of 15-year-old Brenda Arenas, who was shot in the head during a botched carjacking in Tucson on August 5, 2009. She died in her mother's arms soon after the attack. Her 3-year-old sister watched the crime from the backseat of the car, the website said.

None of the men had papers to legally enter the United States. A U.S. official said it is rare for people to turn themselves in at a border point. It was not immediately clear why the three men did so.

(Writing by Greg McCune, Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Tim Gaynor)