National News

Obtained by ABC(OXNARD, Calif.) -- An eighth-grade science teacher, fired after her porn past was exposed, may see her pay and benefits revoked at a board of trustees meeting Wednesday, according to officials from the Oxnard School District. The planned vote comes one day after Stacie Halas, 32, lost an ... Read more!

Bloomberg via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Two U.S. officials tell ABC News that Americans are among the hostages held following the attack on a BP joint venture natural gas field in Algeria. One of those officials, a senior intelligence official, says that currently it appears three U.S. citizens are being held. ... Read more!

ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- Director Kathryn Bigelow is once again responding to the criticism leveled at her for the depiction of torture in her Oscar-nominated film, Zero Dark Thirty.In a piece she wrote for the Los Angeles Times, Bigelow defended her use of the torture scenes in the ... Read more!

Photodisc/Digital Vision/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- The FBI and police in and around New York City have arrested nearly three dozen suspected mobsters from several of New York's five crime families.Much of the illegal activity involved shakedowns in the trash hauling industry in suburban communities north of the city and in ... Read more!

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images(LAS VEGAS) -- Speaking to thousands of gun owners and industry professionals, the president of the firearms industry's trade association -- which is headquartered in Newtown, Connecticut -- for the first time addressed the massacre of schoolchildren in his group's hometown, saying it has left the arms industry ... Read more!

Comstock/Thinkstock(PORTLAND, Ore.) -- Oregon firefighters have rescued a woman who was trapped between a very narrow space created by the outside walls of two buildings. The unidentified woman fell between the parking garage of the Gretchen Kafoury Commons apartment building and the Joyce Furman building in Portland around 3:45 a.m. ... Read more!

Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office(NEW YORK) -- The psychiatrist who treated accused Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooter James Holmes is being sued by a woman whose husband was among the 12 audience members killed at last July's midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises.Chantel Blunk, the widow of Jonathan T. ... Read more!

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) -- As the White House prepares to unveil a sweeping plan aimed at curbing gun violence, the National Rifle Association has launched a preemptive, personal attack on President Obama, calling him an “elitist hypocrite” who, the group claims, is putting American children at ... Read more!

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Secret Service joined their law enforcement partners in the Washington, D.C. area to speak about the upcoming security plans for next week's 57th Presidential Inauguration. The Inauguration has been labeled a National Special Security Event which gives the U.S. Secret Service the overall lead ... Read more!

ABC News(PHOENIX) -- Jodi Arias was cornered, wearing an orange jumpsuit and crying, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her hands shaking, when she came up with one last lie, prosecutors say, to tell police about the killing of her ex-boyfriend.Intruders came in and murdered Travis ... Read more!