US Domestic News Roundup: Mexico's drug wars, John Lennon's killer, California wildfire

NiSource lapses led to deadly Massachusetts blast: federal agency

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday that utility company NiSource Inc failed to adequately draft and oversee natural gas pipeline work orders and those lapses led to deadly blasts in three Massachusetts communities in September. The federal regulator said in a review of how Columbia Gas Co of Massachusetts, a subsidiary of NiSource, handled pipeline repair work that better construction orders could have prevented the disaster.

Jurors in 'El Chapo' trial told of Mexico's drug wars, corruption

A key prosecution witness in the U.S. trial of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on Thursday told jurors that there were "a lot of deaths" as the accused Mexican drug lord and his associates built the Sinaloa Cartel in the 1990s through bloody conflict with rival drug traffickers. Jesus Zambada told the jury that his brother, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, and Guzman used armies of sicarios, or assassins, to kill their enemies. Zambada, who has pleaded guilty to U.S. criminal charges, was testifying for the second day in Brooklyn federal court under an agreement to cooperate with prosecutors.

Captain says U.S. military does not view Central American migrants as 'enemies'

A captain with the U.S. forces deployed in San Diego to fortify the southern border said he does not view the migrants from a Central American caravan amassing in Mexico as "enemies" after President Donald Trump described them as an "invasion." "I don't consider them a military enemy, nor does the United States military doing this job. They're simply migrants in a caravan moving towards the United States to seek a better way of life and asylum," Army Captain Guster Cunningham III told Reuters on Thursday.

John Lennon's killer recalls inner 'tug of war' before the murder

Before he pulled the trigger that ended the life of rock icon John Lennon nearly 38 years ago, his killer remembers being in a "tug of war" with himself over what he was about to do, and even praying for a way out of carrying out his plan. In the end, the compulsion to gain notoriety by killing one of the most famous people in the world proved too powerful, a remorseful Mark David Chapman told parole officials at an Aug. 22 hearing that ended in a decision not to release him.

Labour unions file pension lawsuit against Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico violated a law meant to safeguard the pensions of its public-sector workers who have been unable to invest the more than $300 million they contributed to a new retirement plan, according to a lawsuit filed against the U.S. commonwealth's government and others by two labour unions on Thursday. The litigation, filed in U.S. District Court in San Juan, joins a long list of adversary cases in a form of bankruptcy Puerto Rico's federally created oversight board initiated in May 2017 to restructure the island's $120 billion of debt and pension obligations.

A wildfire that destroyed California town leaves 63 dead and 630 missing

Rescue workers searched on Friday for 630 people reported missing in a northern California town reduced to ashes by the deadliest wildfire in state history. At least 63 people were killed in and around Paradise by the Camp Fire that erupted a week ago in the Sierra foothills 175 miles (280 km) north of San Francisco. The fire is among the most lethal U.S. wildfires since 2000.

North Korea to deport U.S. citizen held since October: state media

North Korea will deport a U.S. citizen detained since October after he entered illegally from China and told his captors he was manipulated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the North Korean state news agency reported on Friday. The KCNA news agency identified the American as Bruce Byron Lowrance and said he was detained on Oct. 16 as he crossed the border.

Pentagon fails its first-ever audit, official says

The Pentagon has failed what is being called its first-ever comprehensive audit, a senior official said on Thursday, finding U.S. Defense Department accounting discrepancies that could take years to resolve. Results of the inspection - conducted by some 1,200 auditors and examining financial accounting on a wide range of spending including on weapons systems, military personnel and property - were expected to be completed later in the day.

After 2,000 miles they crossed the U.S. border; then tragedy struck

The 911 emergency call came into the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson station around midnight. Joselino Gomez Esteban's voice crackled through an older cell phone from somewhere in Arizona's the Sonoran Desert, the final stretch of a 2,000-mile (3,218 km) migration from Guatemala.

Hand recount ordered in Florida's divisive U.S. Senate race

Florida election officials on Thursday ordered a hand recount of ballots in the closely fought U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson and his Republican challenger, Governor Rick Scott after a machine recount showed them divided by a razor-thin margin. But in another tight contest, Republican Ron DeSantis appeared to secure the Florida governor's seat against Democrat Andrew Gillum when the electronic recount showed DeSantis with a 0.41 percentage point lead, outside the threshold to trigger the further recount.

(With inputs from Reuters)

(With inputs from agencies.)