Written By Unknown on Jumat, 17 April 2015 | 20.24
Police tried to communicate with the family - thought to be from Morocco - in Arabic with a megaphone
An hours-long standoff with police in Phoenix, Arizona, has ended with police finding five bodies inside a home.
Police believed the shooting deaths late on Thursday stemmed from a dispute about a family business.
The three male victims were brothers from Morocco and the fourth victim was their mother. The final victim was the wife of one of the men, police said.
Four other people fled the home during the standoff, police said.
Police used a megaphone to try to communicate with the occupants of the home, addressing the family in Arabic.
The Arizona Republic reported that one neighbour said the family owned a transportation service, but another referred to them as "invisible" until Thursday.
The victims were not identified by name but were from the same family
The standoff in the residential neighbourhood was shown live on TV with SWAT teams and other police agencies converging on the area.
"Our dispatcher could hear shots fired in the background while that call was coming in,'' police spokesman Sgt Trent Crump said. "A caller had been able to escape the home at that point, get out and start to give us information."
Fans have been given a first glimpse of Han Solo in the new trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
Harrison Ford, who plays space smuggler Solo, last appeared in a Star Wars film more than 30 years ago when Return of the Jedi was released in 1983.
The footage from the new film was included in a trailer shown at an official fan convention in California.
The Force Awakens is set for release on 18 December and is the first in a new series of the sci-fi franchise.
The event was also streamed live on the internet.
Ford, 72, is still recovering after crashing his plane onto a golf course and was unable to attend the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim.
Original trilogy actors Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, who also return after three decades as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia in The Force Awakens, were on stage to answer fans' questions.
Hamill paid tribute to the franchise's supporters. "Over the years, all my entire life, I've felt such love from you," he told the thousands in the audience.
"You're more than just fans. You're family."
John Boyega plays Finn, one of the leading characters in The Force Awakens The trailer also shows the film's villain Kylo Ren There was more footage in the new trailer, including close-ups of new characters The Millennium Falcon made another appearance in the new trailer - after it was shown in the first teaser trailer
Hamill and Fisher were joined by other cast members, including the two young British actors who play central roles in the film, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.
The relatively unknown Ridley, speaking for the first time about her role in Star Wars as a scavenger called Rey, described her as "very solitary until she meets another character and an adventure begins".
She added: "[I] cannot wait to show you guys what we've done."
John Boyega said he was excited but also nervous. "I was scared to tell my parents that I'd got the part of Finn", he admitted.
He added he had only told them once the official casting announcement had been made.
The film's director JJ Abrams was also on the special panel which launched the four-day Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim.
He said he had had a lot of fun making the movie as well as feeling a huge amount of pressure in "honouring the legacy" of the Star Wars series.
"Though there are moments of sheer horror, the opportunity far outweighs the risk," Abrams said.
Disney bought Lucasfilm, the company behind the Star Wars films, in 2012.
The first teaser trailer for the The Force Awakens was released in November.
The film was shot last year at Pinewood Studios near London.
De Niro created the festival to help regenerate downtown New York following the 2001 terror attacks
New York's Tribeca Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with the world premiere of a documentary about Saturday Night Live.
Live in New York! explores 40 years of the comedy sketch show and its impact on US culture.
The festival, founded by actor Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, has now been running for 14 years.
It closes on 26 April with a remastered print of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, marking the film's 25th anniversary.
De Niro, who starred in the original 1990 film, will be joined by fellow cast members at the screening.
Other festival highlights include a screening of Harold Lloyd's New York-set silent classic Speedy, with a live soundtrack provided by DJ Z-Trip; Arnold Schwarzenegger in the premiere of zombie drama Maggie - described by the Terminator star as "the most human role you've ever seen me take on"; and Britain's Simon Pegg in the screwball romantic comedy Man Up.
There will also be documentaries on the National Lampoon films (Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon) and the international premiere of Michael Winterbottom's The Emperor's New Clothes, made in conjunction with Russell Brand.
Jane Rosenthal and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels attend the festival's opening night
There will also be talks with filmmakers including George Lucas, Christopher Nolan and Bennett Miller.
On Thursday, Mary J Blige will follow the screening of music documentary The London Sessions with a live performance.
"You're always nervous. It's putting on a show; it's having all these people into your house. We work for a year on it," Rosenthal told the Hollywood Reporter at Vanity Fair's annual Tribeca Film Festival party.
"I think being a little nervous is always good. You can never be too confident about anything."
Rosenthal said she was most looking forward to Monty Python's 40th anniversary celebration, which will see screenings of classic Python films and bring together, once again, the five surviving members of the comedy troupe.
"I'm actually really excited about seeing all the Pythons together, having just loved those movies," said Rosenthal. "So I'm excited to see what they're going to do after their film."
For his part, De Niro told reporters he just had fun..."showing up".
The campaign hit its fund-raising target in less than a week
Sam Griner has gone from success kid to success kidney.
As a toddler, Sam was snapped on a beach with a determined expression and one fist clenched - an image that spawned the well-known "success kid" meme.
The image has been used widely online by people seeking to celebrate happy moments, small victories and good days.
Now eight, Sam's net fame is being used to raise cash for a kidney transplant for his father.
Sam's father Justin fell ill in 2006 and suffered total kidney failure in 2009. He has been on dialysis ever since. Mr Griner's mother died from the same disease.
In a week, the fund-raising campaign has won pledges of more than $93,000 (£63,000) - far more than the $75,000 needed to pay for the medical procedure.
Health insurance is covering some of the costs of Mr Griner's treatment but the family needs extra cash to pay for the operation and care to help him recover afterwards.
The Griner family are also using the fund-raising page to look for people who are a good tissue match and willing to donate a kidney.
In an interview with the Daily Dot, Sam's mother said a transplant was the only way to save her husband's life.
Ms Griner said she was initially sceptical about using her son's internet fame to raise money but realised it could be a good way to highlight the cause.
"We're the parents of 'Success Kid' for goodness' sake," Ms Griner told the news site. "If anyone understands the power, the mass, and goodwill of the internet, it's those of us lucky to experience it daily."
Other net famous people have also used their appearance in memes to raise cash for good causes. Laina Morris, better known as the face of the overly-attached girlfriend meme, has used her YouTube channel to highlight charities needing cash.
The US paratroopers arrived in Lviv (pic: US Army website)
About 300 US paratroopers have come to western Ukraine to train with Ukrainian national guard units, the US Army says.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that the move "could seriously destabilise the situation" in Ukraine.
He said the US military presence "is a long way from helping towards a settlement of the conflict", Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The US and its Nato allies accuse Russia of sending soldiers and weapons to the separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin again dismissed the Western charges on Thursday, telling millions of Russians that "there are no Russian troops in Ukraine".
The rebels in the east signed a ceasefire agreement with the Ukrainian government in February, but recently the number of violations has escalated.
There has been further shelling on the outskirts of rebel-held Donetsk and in the village of Shyrokyne, near the southern port city of Mariupol.
Ukraine's national guard has been involved in the fighting. It includes various volunteer units who are now being integrated with the Ukrainian regular army.
The US Army said the US paratroopers were part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
The training will take place at Yavoriv, near Lviv in western Ukraine. The US forces will begin training three battalions of Ukrainian troops over the next six months, the statement said.
The brigade trained with Ukrainian forces in international exercises in Ukraine last September.
Pope Francis met with members of the LCWR on Thursday
The Vatican has ended its controversial control of the main organisation representing US nuns.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious was under close supervision from Rome after being accused of undermining Catholic teaching.
The Vatican said the group's focus was now Christ and faithful teaching.
The sisters were accused of promoting "radical feminist themes", but they argued that they were simply trying to do their work with the poor.
After a meeting with Pope Francis, a delegation from the group said it was deeply heartened by his appreciation of the sisters' lives and ministry.
"Our conversation allowed us to personally thank Pope Francis for providing leadership and a vision that has captivated our hearts," they said.
LCWR building in Maryland
The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith took over the LCWR in 2012, before Pope Francis's papacy.
The group was accused of taking positions that subverted Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality.
Many US conservatives believed it was not focusing enough on issues such as euthanasia and abortion.
The Vatican called for a five-year overhaul that sought to fix a "grave" doctrinal crisis, and Rome appointed a bishop to supervise the rewriting of the LCWR's statutes. A final report on the overhaul was accepted by the Vatican on Thursday.
In a final joint report, the congregation and the LCWR said that the new statutes demonstrate the sisters' focus on Jesus Christ and being faithful to Church teaching.
The report also said an advisory committee would be established to ensure the LCWR's publications were in line with church doctrine.
The takeover as well as a separate Vatican investigation into the quality of life of US nuns, has deeply wounded the US sisters.
The investigation concluded in December, and was sweeping in its praise of the sisters' work.
"Anything coming out of the Vatican this morning is nothing other than a fig leaf because they can't say 'oops' in Latin," Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University, said.
About 80% of the 57,000 Roman Catholic nuns in the US are represented by the LCWR.
A caption below this illustration reads: "New York Slave Market about 1730."
The New York City Council has approved a monument recognising the contributions of slaves to the city's founding and economy.
The marker will be placed in the Wall Street area, about a block from where the city's first slave market stood.
When the council approved the market in 1711, almost 1,000 of the city's 6,400 people were black, according to Columbia University.
The monument is expected to be unveiled this summer, officials told the BBC.
The new marker will join 38 other markers - mostly commemorating success in the financial and construction industries - in lower Manhattan, WNYC reported.
Officials told the local radio station that the sign memorialising the contributions of slaves would be revealed on 19 June, a day known as "Juneteenth", which marks the anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in the confederate south.
But an official with Councillor Jumaane Williams' office told the BBC the timing for unveiling and the exact location have not been confirmed.
One factor that may push the unveiling later into the summer is that the sign's text has not been approved, the official said.
He also said that the exact location for the sign had yet to be settled, and that there were concerns about a large amount of scaffolding in the area obscuring the memorial's prominence.
Councillor Williams, who has championed the memorial for several years, is "so excited about this and has been working on it for years," according to the spokesman.
An African Burial Ground memorial already exists in Manhattan
In the early 18th Century, slaves in New York worked in households, farms, and as a traders and dockworkers.
The New York City Council passed a law on 13 December 1711 requiring all slaves "be hired at the Market house at the Wall Street Slip".
A National Museum of African American History and Culture is being built in Washington but campaigners have long argued there should be a national memorial to slavery also.
Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud was arrested by local officials in February
A man who travelled to Syria to fight with an al-Qaeda affiliate has been charged over alleged plans to carry out a terror attack on the US military.
Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 23, allegedly gained training with al-Nusra Front and was instructed by a radical cleric to carry out an attack in the US.
He is accused of telling another man he wanted to kill American soldiers "execution-style" at a military base.
He faces charges of material support of terrorism and making false statements.
"Identifying and neutralising the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters who return to the United States is one of the National Security Division's highest priorities," Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said in a statement.
It is the latest example of US officials bringing charges against those allegedly helping Islamic State (IS) and other militant groups.
Mr Mohamud, from Ohio, left the US in April 2014 shortly after becoming a naturalised citizen, travelling to Syria after a flight to Istanbul, according to prosecutors.
The Nusra Front is widely seen as one of the most effective rebel groups operating in Syria
His brother, Aden, had been killed while fighting with the group in Syria.
Mr Mohamud allegedly told two unnamed people when he returned to the US in June 2014 he wanted to attack a military base or prison, killing three or four people "execution style".
He told one person he had received weapons, explosives and hand-to-hand combat training, and the other he had gone through physical fitness and guarded a camp at night, according to the indictment.
He sent videos of himself in Syria to an unnamed person. In one video, he pointed to a gun in a holster on his hip and in another, he stood in front of a white house with a black flag on it.
Mr Mohamud was initially arrested in February in Columbus by local law enforcement and transferred into federal custody on Thursday after charges were brought by a grand jury.
Wikileaks has published hundreds of thousands of emails and documents from a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment last year.
The archive apparently includes Sony conversations with Downing Street and with Hollywood figures.
In November, the entertainment company suffered a cyber-attack weeks before releasing The Interview, a film criticised by the North Korean regime.
Sony said it "strongly condemns" the Wikileaks release.
"We vehemently disagree with WikiLeaks' assertion that this material belongs in the public domain,'' the company said in a statement.
The Wikileaks dump includes more than 170,000 emails and over 20,000 documents.
After November's hack, an unknown organisation published the documents online, but it was not in an easily-searchable form.
Julian Assange, the founder of the website, justified the publication by saying the documents show the inner functioning of a multinational company and are "at the centre of a geo-political conflict".
The attack came just weeks before Sony was set to release the film about a fictional American plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea denied involvement in the attack but praised it as a "righteous deed".
Julian Assange is holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
In December, a group calling itself the "Guardians of Peace" threatened 9/11-type attacks on cinemas showing the movie, spurring Sony to cancel the film's release.
Days later, amidst growing public pressure to show the film, Sony bosses appeared to change their minds and said they would give it a limited Christmas Day release.
In January, the US imposed new sanctions on North Korea in response to the attack. And, in April, President Obama ordered the creation of a programme that would allow the US government to sanction foreign hackers.
Mr Assange is currently seeking refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after two women in Sweden accused him of rape and sexual assault.
Tickets to swimming pools and water parks have been added to list of items Kansans on welfare cannot buy
The US state of Kansas has tightened its rules out how welfare recipients can spend their aid, banning the purchase of concert tickets, lingerie and dozens of other leisure items.
US Governor Sam Brownback signed the law on Thursday, saying it would encourage people to get back to work.
Other states prevent welfare recipients from buying alcohol and cigarettes with government aid.
But the revised Kansas list appears to be the most extensive in the US.
Senate Minority Leader Democrat Anthony Hensley called it "a punitive and highly judgmental piece of legislation" while national commentators such as The Daily Show's Jon Stewart have ridiculed the law.
But other critics question whether such restrictions can be enforced.
Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of the advocacy group Kansas Action for Children, said the list had attracted national attention because "it feels mean-spirited."
"It really seems to make a statement about how we feel about the poor," she said.
A white officer who killed a black man after apparently mistakenly grabbing his gun instead of his Taser has turned himself in to police.
Robert Bates, 73, has been charged with manslaughter for killing Eric Harris, 44, during a sting operation over gun sales in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
His lawyer said the charges were "unwarranted" as he and Mr Bates left the police station.
His client was released on a $25,000 (£16,900) bond.
Mr Bates served as a reserve deputy in Tulsa County Sheriff's office, a volunteer position, since 2008.
He is also chief executive of an insurance firm and a major donor to the Sheriff's office.
Police accused Mr Harris (left) of illegal gun sales
The manslaughter charge carries a prison sentence of up to four years if Mr Bates is convicted.
A video of the 2 April incident, released at the request of the victim's family, shows Mr Harris being chased and brought to ground before he is shot.
A gunshot is heard and a man says, "Oh, I shot him. I'm sorry."
Mr Harris is heard calling out "He shot me, oh my God!"
He later died in hospital.
It was the second time in a week a videotaped fatal shooting of a black man has provoked an outcry.
Last week Walter Scott, an unarmed 50-year-old, was shot in the back and killed in South Carolina.
The protests that followed that incident continued months of demonstrations about police use of force, ever since a black unarmed teenager was shot dead in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer.
impossible to say, with no official figures covering the nation's 17,000 law enforcement agencies
lots of cases making the news but possibly due to increased media attention
government report in March estimated average of 928 deaths a year
126 police officers died in 2014 while in line of duty, about 50 from firearms
Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund
Colleagues say the former Hot Lotto security boss was "obsessed" by rootkits
The former security boss of a lottery in the US has been charged with fraud after allegedly hacking the computer that picks the winning numbers.
Eddie Raymond Tipton was the security director for the Multi-State Lottery Association when he was arrested in January by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations.
Prosecutors said he had been caught on CCTV buying the winning ticket. The $14.3m (£9.5m) prize was never claimed.
Mr Tipton denies the charges.
It is alleged the security camera in the lottery room stopped recording
Citing court papers filed by prosecutors in the case, the Des Moines Register said the 51-year-old "may have inserted a thumb drive into a highly locked-down computer that's supposed to generate the random numbers used to determine lottery winners".
The offline computer is housed in a glass room and in theory can only be accessed by two people at the same time. It is also constantly monitored by a video camera.
It is alleged Mr Tipton used his position as security director to change the video camera settings and record only one second in every minute. This would have given him enough time to enter the room and plug a thumb drive into the computer.
On that drive, according to the prosecution, was a rootkit: a stealthy computer program designed to do a specific task and, in this case, then erase itself.
That task was to predetermine the winning lottery numbers for the draw that Mr Tipton was to later buy the winning ticket for.
Mike McLaughlin, senior analyst at computer security company First Base, said the allegation might sound farfetched but was plausible.
He told the BBC: "It is entirely possible to code a rootkit on a USB drive which could interfere with software on a computer then delete itself.
"It would only take a second to run once plugged in.
"However, this can leave traces on the infected machine if you know where to look."
As a member of staff, Mr Tipton was not allowed to win the lottery himself.
The court filings suggest there was an attempt to claim the prize just hours before it was scheduled to expire by a company incorporated in Belize.
If found guilty of the two charges of fraud, Mr Tipton faces up to five years in jail and a fine of up to $7,500.
Hillary Clinton made her first stop on the Iowa-Illnois border at a coffee shop
Hillary Clinton has begun campaigning in Iowa, as the former secretary of state looks to win over voters in the first primary season contest.
Mrs Clinton plans to visit a community college as well as hold a round-table discussion with students and teachers in Monticello.
Her first stop after a road trip from her home in New York was in a coffee shop in the town of Le Claire.
Mrs Clinton came third in the state's 2008 caucus.
Her campaign has said she will stick to small gatherings in Iowa to better connect with voters ahead of a more formal rally.
In a fundraising email on Monday, Mrs Clinton, who was considered a frontrunner before she announced, told supporters she would "work my heart out to earn every single vote".
At the scene - Gary O'Donoghue, BBC News, Monticello, Iowa
"It's great!" was Mrs Clinton's response to a reporter who shouted "what's it like to be back in the game?" as she emerged from a more than hour-long chat with a half dozen students and teachers at a small community college in Iowa.
Talking to small groups like this is the big idea of the Clinton campaign - getting as close as she can to what her aides call "everyday Americans".
On Wednesday she will continue her "listening tour" across Iowa.
We will have to wait until May for anything bigger, when reporters might hear more than two shouted words.
Republican candidates are already focusing on Mrs Clinton.
Announcing his own 2016 campaign on Monday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio attacked Mrs Clinton as "a leader from yesterday who wants to take us back to yesterday".
Among those Mrs Clinton spoke to at the Jones Street Java House was Le Claire Mayor Bob Scannell, an independent.
"I always vote for the person who I think will do best for the country, and she has my vote," Mr Scannell said.
Mrs Clinton announced she was running for president on Sunday in a video on her website, then left in a 1,000-mile (1609-km) road trip to Iowa, in a van nicknamed "Scooby" after the cartoon show Scooby-Doo.
Posters - of an unclear source - appeared near the Clinton campaign headquarters on Sunday
Her campaign advisers have set a goal of raising $100m (£68m) for the primary campaign, initially from smaller donors.
Iowan will vote to nominate candidates for each party in January 2016, nine months from now, but Mrs Clinton and three major Republican candidates have already declared they will be running.
SpaceX has narrowly failed in its latest bid to retrieve a rocket booster intact, after a successful launch.
The US rocket made it back to an ocean platform but landed "too hard" to survive, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted.
The capsule borne by the rocket is heading to the International Space Station (ISS), carrying groceries - including an Italian espresso maker.
By retrieving rockets and recycling them, Nasa contractor SpaceX hopes to slash the cost of space travel.
A later tweet by Mr Musk said the rocket had apparently "landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing".
Images accompanying the tweet appeared to show the rocket toppling over on the platform.
Despite this, the company will be hugely encouraged. The experimental work is making progress.
The firm hopes a successful landing would demonstrate that normally disposable rockets can be refurbished and reused.
It could also point to new ways of bringing spacecraft back down to Earth in general.
The booster finds the platform and is vertical and slowing on approach The Falcon first-stage very nearly pulls it off "Excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing" The platform, 300km north-east of the Cape, was slightly damaged in a previous landing attempt
In January, the first attempt to land the leftover rocket on the ocean platform ended in a fiery explosion when the booster again hit the platform too hard.
Another attempt, in February, was called off because of choppy waters - but the rocket did practise its manoeuvres by slowing itself to a hover over the ocean.
The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the capsule nicknamed Dragon, launched from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida on Tuesday afternoon.
The supply ship, carrying more than 4,000 lbs (1,800 kg) of groceries and equipment for the orbiting laboratory, is expected to reach its destination on Friday.
SpaceX was hired by US space agency Nasa to supply the ISS after the retirement of the space shuttle.
Salvage crews managed to retrieve many of the remains from the USS Oklahoma
The remains of nearly 400 US servicemen killed at Pearl Harbor are to be exhumed so they may be identified and given individual burials, the US says.
The sailors and Marines were aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma when it was struck by Japanese torpedoes in 1941.
Their remains were buried together in Hawaii. The identification effort will use advances in forensic and DNA testing, US defence officials said.
Japan's attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor drew the US into World War Two.
The Oklahoma was one of several warships targeted by Japanese submarines and aircraft in the surprise assault on 7 December 1941. More than 2,400 people were killed.
US department of defence officials said the identification effort would be aided by advances in forensic science and technology, as well as by genealogical help from family members.
Survivors of the attack return to a new memorial in Hawaii
"While not all families will receive an individual identification, we will strive to provide resolution to as many families as possible," Deputy Secretary of Defence Robert Work said in a statement.
Only the remains of 35 of the 429 sailors and Marines killed aboard the USS Oklahoma have been identified so far.
The rest of the remains - retrieved during salvage operations from 1942 to 1944 - have been buried in caskets, marked as "unknown", at a national cemetery in Hawaii.
Tom Gray told the Associated Press news agency that his family had waited more than 70 years to give a proper burial to the remains of his cousin, Edwin Hopkins, who was killed aboard the Oklahoma.
While it was an honour for his cousin to have been buried at a national cemetery, he said: "I also think a boy gives up his life at 19 years old and ends up in a comingled grave marked as 'unknown' isn't proper."
The Pearl Harbor attack drew the US into World War Two
A former Blackwater guard has been sentenced to life in prison and three others to 30 years over the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
Nicholas Slatten and three others were convicted last year for the killings in Baghdad's crowded Nisoor Square.
A further 17 Iraqis were injured as the private contractors opened fire to clear the way for a US convoy.
The shootings sparked international outrage and a debate over the role of defence contractors in warfare.
Slatten faced a charge of murder, while the other men faced multiple counts of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and using firearms while committing a felony.
An Iraqi policeman stands beside the car of two women shot dead by the guards in 2007 A woman whose husband was killed sits with her children to hear the evidence in 2008 A victim holds up a picture of himself with injuries at the same meeting with US prosecutors in 2008 A poster showing the locations of victims is taken to the court on Monday
In a court in Washington DC, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were all sentenced to 30 years in prison for their involvement in the killings.
The men had claimed that they were under fire from insurgents but prosecutors successfully argued what happened was an unprovoked ambush against civilians.
Dozens of victims and witness were flown from Iraq to the US for the trial.
Video monitors in the courtroom showed photos of the dead and wounded, and images of cars shot at and blown up with grenade launchers fired by the guards.
Mohammad Kinani Al-Razzaq's nine-year-old son Ali was killed in the attack.
A picture of the boy smiling was shown on court monitors as Mr Razzaq said: "What's the difference between these criminals and terrorists?''
The sentences were announced following a day-long hearing in which the defendants reaffirmed their innocence and their lawyers unsuccessfully argued for leniency.
Prosecutors argued that the sentences be made even harsher because the ex-guards had never expressed any remorse.
But US District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected both requests.
"Based on the seriousness of the crimes, I find the penalty is not excessive," Judge Lamberth told the court.
Responding to this, Slatten said: "The verdict is wrong, you know that I am innocent, sir."
Meanwhile, Slough's wife, Kirsten, told the BBC her husband made "reasonable judgements based on extensive training and experience".
"He certainly wished things happened differently... But he has not once told me that he thinks he made a wrong decision," she added.
US soul singer Percy Sledge, famed for his song When a Man Loves a Woman, has died aged 74.
Steve Green from talent agency Artists International Management Inc confirmed to the BBC that he died at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday.
"He was one of my first acts, he was a terrific person and you don't find that in this business very often," said Green. "He was truly a standout."
Sledge had surgery for liver cancer in January 2014 but soon resumed touring.
Percy Sledge died at home in Baton Rouge
Sledge's debut single When a Man Loves a Woman reached the top 10 twice in the UK and topped the US Billboard chart for two weeks in 1966, when it also got to number four in the UK chart.
During an interview for the the 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals, he recalled his first recording of it.
"When I came into the studio, I was shaking like a leaf. I was scared," he said, adding that it was the "same melody that I sang when I was out in the fields. I just wailed out in the woods and let the echo come back to me".
'Signed away the rights'
He told BBC Radio 6 Music's Craig Charles in a 2011 interview that he came up with the melody for When A Man Loves A Woman, but signed away the rights of the song to Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, because "I didn't know any better".
"I had the melody in my mind so I gave that song to them," he said, adding they then created the lyrics.
Sledge did not contest the agreement, saying: "I felt like if God fixed it in my mouth to give it to them I won't change anything about it.
"I'm satisfied with what I wrote but I cut my kids out of so much because I gave it to someone else - I just wasn't thinking."
Music producer David Gest was among those paying tribute to the singer.
"I am so saddened by the death of my good friend Percy Sledge. I was fortunate enough to have him perform on three of my legends of soul tours and he was absolutely amazing to watch, be it singing When A Man Loves A Woman or Dark End Of The Street," Gest told BBC News.
"Percy was one of the great performers and a man that knew the true meaning of the word 'soul'. Sleep well my friend."
BBC Radio 2 DJ Tony Blackburn added his feelings to those paying tribute on Twitter, and said: "Sad to hear that Percy Sledge has died. I wonder how many times I've played When A Man Loves A Woman. RIP."
Musician Bootsy Collins paid tribute on his Facebook page with the words: "Just lost another legend funkateers, Mr Percy Sledge."
Sledge performed at his induction into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in March 2010
Paul Gambacini told the BBC that When a Man Loves a Woman was "one of the all time classic songs".
"This was the essence of soul, dripping with feeling. It never had a time, it was in a world of its own, so it was timeless," he added.
The track reached number two when it was re-released in the UK in 1987 after appearing in Oliver Stone's film Platoon, and was featured in several other films such as The Big Chill, The Crying Game and a 1994 Meg Ryan drama named after the song itself. It was also the soundtrack to a Levis advert in 1987.
'Transcendent moment'
It was the first US number one recorded at Alabama's Muscle Shoals studio, where Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones would later record.
The track also scored a first gold disc for Atlantic Records, whose executive Jerry Wexler called the song "a transcendent moment" and "a holy love hymn."
It remained Sledge's biggest hit and helped sustain a long touring career in the US, Europe and South Africa, averaging 100 performances a year. His other chart successes included Warm and Tender Love, It Tears Me Up and Take Time to Know Her.
The song found new life in 1991 when Michael Bolton's cover of the song topped the Billboard chart.
Before his music career, Sledge worked in the cotton fields around his hometown of Leighton in northwest Alabama, before taking a job as a hospital nurse in the early 1960s.
A patient heard him singing while he worked and recommended him to record producer Quin Ivy.
The singer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and was a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
President Obama says the Iraqi forces are now better trained and equipped than they were
US President Barack Obama has offered Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi $200m (£135m) in humanitarian aid on his first official visit to Washington.
Mr Abadi had been expected to ask for more arms to fight Islamic State militants but made no request.
The humanitarian aid is to help Iraqis displaced by the militants.
President Obama said Iraqi troops, backed by the US-led coalition, had now recovered about one-quarter of the territory in Iraq seized by the group.
Iraqi forces are getting better equipped and trained since President Abadi was elected to power seven months ago, Mr Obama added.
Mr Abadi said that the US-led air strikes, increased arms and training had helped to push back Islamic State (IS) forces.
But, he added, "we want to see more". The Iraqi leader was expected to seek Mr Obama's help to acquire billions of dollars of advanced US weaponry, including unarmed surveillance drones, attack helicopters and ammunition.
Shia militia have played a prominent role in the Iraqi government's attempts to regain territory
The two leaders also discussed Iran's involvement in battling IS, with President Obama stressing the importance of coordinating activities "through Iraq".
Shia militias believed to be backed by Iran have been playing a major role, but US officials have reportedly demanded their withdrawal from Anbar, Iraq's biggest province, where fierce fighting is currently taking place.
Last week, Mr Abadi launched a campaign to drive IS out of Anbar. The militants responded with a renewed onslaught on the provincial capital, Ramadi.
Mr Abadi's visit to Washington is his first since he took over from Nouri al-Maliki after elections last year.
Nine school officials in Atlanta, Georgia, have been sentenced to prison following convictions for participating in an exam cheating scandal.
Judge Jerry Baxter called the case "the sickest thing that's ever happened in this town".
Three of those convicted received 20-year sentences, far harsher than the penalties asked for by the state.
Evidence of cheating was uncovered at 44 schools with nearly 180 officials involved.
The state-led investigation shocked the city when it discovered that officials at the city-run schools had encouraged teachers to change students' answers in order to demonstrate educational progress.
Thos convicted of 20-year sentences will serve seven years behind bars and 13 years on probation.
A former assistant principal is led away in handcuffs Sharon Davis Williams listens to her sentencing
Several more received five-year sentences, but will spend only one or two years in prison.
Two others received weekend jail time and home confinement.
Some were also ordered to return the bonuses that they had been given based on the improved test results.
Prosecutors had argued that the plot was a "cleverly disguised conspiracy" to manipulate test scores.
There were several outbursts from the defendants and their lawyers during sentencing.
"You sit down or I'm gonna put you in jail," said Judge Baxter to one of the dozen lawyers in court.
"You keep yelling at me, Judge," the lawyer responded.
Many Cubans hope their country will benefit from more foreign investment
Cuba has welcomed as "fair" a US decision to remove it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying it should never have been on the list in the first place.
The move comes amid a normalisation of ties between the US and Cuba.
The Caribbean country's presence on the list alongside Syria, Iran and Sudan was a sticking point for Cuba during talks to reopen embassies.
A US trade embargo against Cuba remains and can only be ended by Congress.
Mr Obama met Cuban President Raul Castro at the Summit of the Americas in Panama last week, four months after he announced a historic thaw in ties with the communist island nation.
The US president said on Tuesday that the government of Cuba had "not provided any support for international terrorism" over the past six months.
Handshakes and optimism in Panama City
Presidents Castro and Obama exchanged handshakes at the Americas summit in Panama Images of Cuba's communist leaders can be found everywhere in Havana
He added that it had "provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future".
A statement from Josefina Vidal, Cuba's top diplomat responsible for dealing with the US, said: "The Cuban government recognised the fair decision made by the president of the United States to eliminate Cuba from a list that it never should have been included on, especially considering our country has been the victim of hundreds of acts of terrorism that have cost 3,478 lives and maimed 2,099 citizens."
Analysis - Thomas Sparrow, BBC Mundo, Washington
This decision is the most concrete step to date taken by the US government to try to dismantle the structures that prevented a normal relationship between both countries for decades.
And it carries a lot of weight too, because it officially changes the way the US government has viewed Cuba since 1982.
The White House now believes Cuba does not support rebel groups such as Farc or ETA and - more importantly - it thinks the government will not do so in the future.
This is a significant message of confidence by the Obama administration towards the Cuban government.
In Havana, ordinary Cubans welcomed the move. Erlinda Geroncelle told Associated Press: "We are not terrorists, just the opposite. We are supporters of peace and tranquillity, and good things for all."
Sara Pino told Reuters: "It's time that Obama realised that Cuba is not what they say the world over. It's time to re-establish ties between Cuba and the United States."
Cuba was first placed on the state department list in 1982, for what the US called efforts "to promote armed revolution by organisations that used terrorism".
The US believes Cuba had long provided a safe haven for members of the Basque separatist group ETA and Colombia's Farc guerrilla group, according to its 2013 Report on Terrorism.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the US still had differences with Cuban policies and actions, but they were not "relevant" to the terror list.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a candidate for the US presidency, condemned the White House decision, saying Cuba remained a state sponsor of terrorism.
Key moments in US-Cuban relations since Cuba's 1959 revolution
Cuban President Fidel Castro (left) with US Vice-President Richard Nixon during a press reception in Washington in 1959
1960: US breaks off diplomatic relations and imposes trade embargo
1961: US backs failed Bay of Pigs invasion; Fidel Castro proclaims Cuba a communist state and begins to ally with USSR
1962: Fearing US invasion, Castro allows USSR to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba. Crisis takes the two superpowers to brink of nuclear war
1980: Around 125,000 Cubans, many of them released convicts, flee to the US when Castro temporarily lifts restrictions
1993: US tightens embargo, which introduces some market reforms amid economic woe following collapse of the Soviet Union
1999: Cuban child Elian Gonzalez picked up in refugee boat off Florida coast and placed with relatives in Florida, against wishes of father in Cuba. After numerous court decisions, US federal agents seize him to return to father
2002: US Under-Secretary of State John Bolton adds Cuba to "axis of evil"
2014: President Obama announces moves to normalise diplomatic and economic ties in a "new chapter" of US-Cuba relations
