Court Paper say John Booker told his friends that becoming a murderer for the self-declared Islamic State became his No.1 aspiration. The FBI says its agents watched Booker, who is 20 years old, purchase components for his bomb, record a propaganda video, and rent a storage locker. Justice Department officials say the public and the base at Fort Riley were never in any danger, and they made sure that Booker's alleged bomb, was inert. The Kansas case is the latest in a series of prosecutions of Americans who allegedly align themselves with violent extremists. In either travel overseas to fight or try to mount attacks on U.S. soil. National Security officials say they're working hard to identify and bring those people to justice. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

 

The World Health Organization says ebola continues to be an emergency, even as the number of cases drops dramatically. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports. The W.H.O. says the outbreak could still regain strength. 

 

W.H.O. officials meeting in Geneva say it's too soon to downgrade the ebola outbreak from emergency status. There were just 30 ebola cases reported last week in West Africa, compared to 82 of the week before and more than a 1,000 cases a week back in November.

"We believe this reflects real progress."

 

Bruce Aylward, heads of the U.N. Health Agencies responds to the outbreak. He adds however, that ten of the most recent ebola cases in Sierra Leone and Guinea were people who died at home. This poses a serious threat for the virus to spread. He says the outbreak should continue to be treated as emergency until the number of cases is all the way at zero. Jason Beaubien, NPR News.

 

At the National Rifle Association Candidate Forum today, CEO Wayne Lapierre says if Hillary Clinton runs for president, powerful gun lobby will "stand shoulder to shoulder to prevent her from winning." Today a parade of likely Republican candidates spoke, targeting at Clinton candidacy. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker told the crowd, Clinton measures success in government by how many people depend on it.

 

"We got a president, people like Hillary Clinton, who seemed to think that you measure success in government by how many people are dependent on the government. I think we should measure success, by just the opposite, by how many people are no longer dependent on the government."

 

Clinton plans to announce her bid for the Democratic nomination this weekend.

 

In the tornado-ravaged community of Fairdale, Illinois, emergency officials say they are confident everyone's been accounted for. The tornado hit overnight, killing two women and injuring about a dozen others. Dozens of homes have also been damaged, and the local fire chief says residents probably won't be able to return to their damaged houses until tomorrow. The states governor has declared both Ogle and DeKalb Counties, disaster areas. 

 

This is NPR.

 

A Swedish tobacco company had a setback today in its bid to claim, for the first time, that one of its products is safer than cigarettes. As NPR's Rob Stein reports, a federal advisory panel failed to endorse the company's request.

 

The product is called Snus. It's flavored tobacco that comes in little bags that looked kinda like small teabags. Users slip them between their upper lip and gum. A Swedish company wants to remove most of the health warnings on Snus, and claims Snus is safer than cigarettes. 

Because Snus doesn't involve any smoke. A panel of experts spend two days reviewing the company's request. In the end, the committee was divided by how much safer Snus may be than cigarettes. But the committee voted unanimously against the letting the company claim Snus is substantially safer than cigarettes. The F.D.A. does not have to follow the committee's recommendation, but the agency usually does. Rob Stein, NPR News.

 

Bird flu outbreaks have found at four additional turkey farms in Minnesota, and that brings to 13, the number of farms affected by the virus. State and federal officials say turkeys not killed by the virus will be euthanized to prevent the disease from spreading. Now since the outbreak was confirmed early last month, farms in Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas and Arkansa have been affected. 

 

Wall Street was higher by the closing bell today, the Dow have 98 points to end at 18,057, the NASDAQ up 21 points to end at 4995, the S&P 500 was up ten points to end at 2102.