The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY “The time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us.To put aside the divisiveness and the recriminations.” Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney Article, 1AMontana fires threatening 150 homes

BILLINGS, Mont. - Rapidly expanding wildfires across a broad swath of southern Montana have caused injuries and burned homes, other buildings and vehicles, authorities said Thursday, as firefighters struggled to contain the flames amid hazardous conditions.

The precise toll of the latest spate of fires to hit the state remained uncertain. But at least three evacuation orders were in place, and well more than 150 homes were threatened by blazes that in some cases burned unchecked.

High temperatures and erratic winds were forecast to make the fight more difficult. And with at least nine large fires burning in Montana, officials said there was increasing competition for adequate equipment and personnel.

“Everybody’s competing for resources around here. We hope for everything but take what we can get,” said Karen Tuscano of the U.S. Forest Service.

Bearded Hasan again held in contempt

FORT HOOD, Texas - The Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage told a judge Thursday that he grew a beard because his Muslim faith requires it, not as a show of disrespect.

Speaking in court for the first time since showing up with a beard in violation of Army regulations in June, Maj. Nidal Hasan responded to Col. Gregory Gross when the judge asked why he had the beard.

“In the name of almighty Allah, I am a Muslim,” Hasan said. “I believe my religion requires me to wear a beard.”

The pretrial hearing was the first since a military appeals court stopped proceedings Aug. 15 to consider the dispute over Hasan’s beard less than a week before his court-martial was to begin. Gross held Hasan in contempt of court fined him $1,000 for a sixth time Thursday, and again sent him to a nearby room to watch the rest of the proceedings on closedcircuit television.

Hasan faces the death penalty if convicted in the November 2009 attack that killed 13 and wounded more than two dozen others on the Texas Army post.

Gross, who has said he would order Hasan to be forcibly shaved before the trial if he did not get rid of the beard himself, said Thursday that he will order a forcible shaving next week.

Ex-SEAL warned on bin Laden book

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon formally warned a former Navy SEAL who has written a first-person account of the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden that he has violated his signed agreement not to divulge classified information, and threatened him with legal action.

“In the judgment of the Department of Defense, you are in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements you signed,” Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson said Thursday in a letter addressed to Mark Owen, the pen name of author Matt Bissonnette.

The letter says the Pentagon is considering “all legal remedies available to us.” Officials said they could include a lawsuit aimed at claiming profits from Bissonnette’s book, No Easy Day. Due to be released next week, it is already on best-seller lists.

Bissonnette did not submit the book to the Pentagon to undergo a review for classified information, even though the requirement to do so was contained in a nondisclosure agreement he signed in 2007, Johnson said in the letter.

Harvard investigating student cheating

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Dozens of Harvard University students are being investigated for cheating after school officials discovered that they may have shared answers or plagiarized on a final exam.

Harvard officials aren’t releasing the name of the class, the students’ names or the exact number being investigated.

The undergraduate class had a minimum of 250 students, and possible cheating was discovered in roughly half of the take-home exams, university officials said Thursday.

“These allegations, if proven, represent totally unacceptable behavior that betrays the trust upon which intellectual inquiry at Harvard depends,” President Drew Faust said.

Each student whose work is in question has been called to appear before a subcommittee of the Harvard College Administrative Board, which reviews issues of academic integrity, said Jay M. Harris, dean of undergraduate education. He emphasized that none of the allegations have been proven and said there’s no evidence of widespread cheating at Harvard.

The spring course included undergraduates at all class levels, Harris said.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 08/31/2012

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