COATS CONFIRMED AS HEAD OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The Senate has confirmed President Trump’s choice for national intelligence director.
Senators voted 85-12 Wednesday to approve the nomination of former Indiana senator Dan Coats, making him the fifth person to hold the post created after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Coats replaces James Clapper, who retired at the end of the Obama administration.
As the Trump administration’s top intelligence official, Coats will oversee 16 other intelligence agencies that have been harshly criticized at times by Trump for past failures and their assessment that the Kremlin interfered in the election to help him win.
2 DETROIT POLICE OFFICERS SHOT; MANHUNT ENSUES
A Detroit police officer was shot in the ankle Wednesday night and a second officer shot in the neck, police said.Their conditions were unknown.
The officers were taken to Detroit Receiving hospital.
Police swarmed Detroit’s west side late Wednesday, apparently searching for the gunman.
Officers with long guns drawn and wearing heavy gear searched a neighborhood near 23rd and Ash, shining flashlights into the burned-out rubble of homes and taking a police dog. Ash was closed off.
The suspect’s picture was posted on Facebook by police. He was wearing tan pants and a tan shirt.
Above, a helicopter shone a spotlight on the search area.
Several dozen Detroit Police cars and several Michigan State Police cruisers were on the scene and several streets were blocked off.
BOMBINGS STRIKE SYRIAN JUSTICE BUILDING, CAFE
A pair of suicide bombers attacked the main judicial building in the Syrian capital of Damascus and a restaurant on the outskirts of town Wednesday, killing at least 30 people and injuring scores, according to Syrian state media.
Damascus police chief Mohammad Kheir Ismail told Syrian state TV that the attacker at the Justice Palace was wearing a military uniform and carrying a shotgun and grenades.
In the second attack, the Syrian state-owned SANA news agency reported three “terrorists” were being chased by authorities, when one ran into a restaurant in the al-Raboah district and set off an explosive vest. The other two attackers were arrested, the agency said.