Nation and World

(MCT) AUSTIN, Texas—The cause of a fire that led to devastating explosions a month ago at a fertilizer plant in this small town north of Waco remains undetermined, state and federal investigators said at a news conference Thursday.

(MCT) WASHINGTON — Republicans think the Internal Revenue Service controversy is the magic weapon for beating up Democrats, because nothing resonates with the American public like potential IRS abuse.

LOS ANGELES—A pair of brothers were charged with attempting to murder 20 people during a shooting rampage at a parade on Mother’s Day in New Orleans, officials said Thursday. Four other people were arrested on suspicion of harboring the fugitives during an intense manhunt.

(MCT) GRANBURY, Texas — At least six people were killed and scores were injured in Hood County, Texas, Wednesday night when a tornado, one of 10 confirmed throughout North Texas, slammed into a half-mile-wide area east of Granbury, authorities said.

(MCT) LOS ANGELES — Planet-hunting scientists were dealt a major blow this week when NASA officials announced that a crucial wheel on the Kepler space telescope had ceased to function and that the craft had been placed in safe mode.

(MCT) WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama forced out the head of the IRS on Wednesday, seeking to restore the public’s faith in the tax agency while asserting a measure of control over a rapidly growing political problem.

(MCT) WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama succumbed to days of withering criticism Wednesday, releasing dozens of emails in an effort to demonstrate that the White House did not try to cover up information about the September 2012 attacks on diplomatic facilities in Libya that killed four Americans.

(MCT) CHICAGO—Angelina Jolie’s announcement Tuesday that she has a genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer that led her to undergo a preventive double mastectomy has raised awareness about the procedure and concerns among physicians and other experts.

(MCT) PHILADELPHIA — Cordial, smiling — and acknowledging he will never get out of prison — West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell on Tuesday agreed to waive his appeal rights to escape the chance of death by lethal injection.

(MCT) CAIRO — In the month before attackers stormed U.S. facilities in Benghazi and killed four Americans, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens twice turned down offers of security assistance made by the senior U.S. military official in the region in response to concerns that Stevens had raised in a still-secret memorandum, two government officials told McClatchy.

(MCT) SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. — For the past six months, it has come to define the post-Sandy world at the Jersey Shore — a steel skeleton sitting in the surf that was once the JetStar roller coaster.