10 things you need to know today: March 23, 2012

Rick Santorum is set to have a good weekend as Louisiana Republicans take to the polls Saturday during the state&#039;s primary.

(Image credit: Fang Zhe/Xinhua Press/Corbis)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. BALES TO BE CHARGED WITH 17 AFGHAN MURDERS

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will face 17 counts of murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder when he is charged Friday for the March 11 massacre in an Afghan village. According to most reports, 16 people — nine of them children — were killed, and it's unclear why the number is now 17. Officials say the discrepancy will be clarified when charges are filed. Bales is currently being held in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. His lawyer, John Henry Browne, claims the case will be "extremely difficult for the prosecution," saying "they have no murder scene, no forensics… I'm going to make them prove every claim." [CNN]

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. signed new guidelines Thursday easing restrictions on how counterterrorism experts retrieve and use data on Americans with no clear terrorist connections. The National Counterterrorism Center will now be able to retain private information on U.S. citizens with no suspected terrorist ties for five years. Previously it was only able to do so for 180 days. The relaxed restrictions are intended to help analysts better identify terrorism suspects, but privacy advocates are concerned. [New York Times]

According to Public Policy Polling, a substantial victory is in the cards for Rick Santorum in Saturday's Louisiana presidential primary. Polls show him leading GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, 42 to 28 percent. Santorum, campaigning Thursday in Texas, implied Obama was preferable to Mitt Romney, saying "we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch-A-Sketch candidate for the future." [Politico]

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has defended the police's handling of Mohammed Merah, the suspected motorcycle gunman who was shot dead by special forces on Thursday after a more than 30-hour standoff. Fillon told a French radio station on Friday that authorities would have had no ground on which to arrest Merah prior to his string of lethal attacks, and that the French domestic intelligence service had done its duty "perfectly well." [CNN]

Whitney Houston's autopsy findings show the late singer had cocaine in her system when she drowned last month and that she was a chronic user. "We are saddened to learn of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure," Patricia Houston, the pop star's manager and sister-in-law, said. Marijuana, Xanax, the muscle relaxant Flexeril, and the allergy medication Benadryl were also found in Houston's system. [Associated Press]

Kroger Co., the largest supermarket retailer in the country, announced Thursday that it would drop the beef product known as "pink slime" from its fresh meat section. Pink slime is a filler made from scraps of meat treated with an ammonia-based microbe killer. Federal regulators and the meat industry insist it is safe, but a number of supermarket chains have recently stopped selling meat containing the product amid growing national attention and consumer concern. [Los Angeles Times]

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox