Friday,  Jan. 31, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 199 • 31 of 38

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AP News in Brief
AP Exclusive: Doctors described gunman before shootings as 'clear and focused,' denied stress

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The gunman who killed 12 people in last year's rampage at Washington's Navy Yard lied so convincingly to Veterans Affairs doctors before the shootings that they concluded he had no mental health issues despite serious problems and encounters with police during the same period, according to a review by The Associated Press of his confidential medical files.
• Just weeks before the shootings, a doctor treating him for insomnia noted that the patient worked for the Defense Department but wrote hauntingly "no problem there."
• The AP obtained more than 100 pages of treatment and disability claims evaluation records for Aaron Alexis, spanning more than two years. They show Alexis complaining of minor physical ailments, including foot and knee injuries, slight hearing loss and later insomnia, but resolutely denying any mental health issues. He directly denied having suicidal or homicidal thoughts when government doctors asked him about it just three weeks before the shootings.
• In a bizarre incident in Newport, R.I., Alexis told police on Aug. 7 that disembodied voices were harassing him at his hotel using a microwave machine to prevent him from sleeping. After police reported the incident to the Navy, his employer, a defense contracting company, pulled his access to classified material for two days after his mental health problems became evident but restored it quickly and never told Navy officials it had done so.
• Just 16 days later, after Alexis told a VA emergency room doctor in Providence that he couldn't sleep, the doctor wrote that his speech and thoughts seemed "clear and focused" and noted that he "denies flashbacks, denies recent stress."
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Police find Knox's ex-boyfriend in hotel near border with Slovenia, Austria; take passport

• FLORENCE, Italy (AP) -- Police have found Amanda Knox's ex-boyfriend near Italy's border with Slovenia and Austria after he and the American student were convicted for a second time in the death of British student Meredith Kercher.

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