Nation in brief

Facebook overhauls user privacy controls

Facebook is overhauling its privacy controls over the next several weeks to simplify its users’ ability to control who sees the information they share. Privacy has been a central, often thorny issue for Facebook because so many people use it to share personal information with their friends and family and beyond. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said Wednesday that the new settings will give people greater control over what photos, updates and personal details they share with their friends, family and strangers on Facebook and, eventually, the wider Internet.

Transexual wins suit against government

The Obama administration is not fighting a nearly $500,000 judgment for a Library of Congress hiree who lost the job while undergoing a gender change from a man to a woman. The Justice Department let the deadline to appeal the decision pass Tuesday. Diane Schroer, of Alexandria, Va., had been offered a job at the Library of Congress when he was a man, David Schroer. The job was rescinded after Schroer told a library official he was having an operation to become a woman. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on Schroer’s behalf in 2005.

CIA interrogations report is delayed

The Justice Department is again delaying the release of an internal CIA report on the agency’s secret detention and interrogation program during the Bush administration. The report had been expected to be made public two weeks ago but was held back over censorship issues. Written in 2004, it questions the effectiveness of harsh interrogation methods, such as waterboarding.

Conservationists win battle at Valley Forge

A group that has been trying for years to build a Revolutionary War museum on private land within Valley Forge National Historical Park says it will instead build it in downtown Philadelphia. Conservation groups had opposed a museum at Valley Forge, saying it would diminish the place where Gen. George Washington’s soldiers endured the bleak winter of 1777-78.

Boyfriend’s pet python strangles 2-year-old girl

A 12-foot pet Burmese python broke out of an aquarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom Wednesday at a Sumter County home in central Florida. Shaunnia Hare was dead when paramedics arrived. The snake belonged to Charles Jason Darnell, 32, the boyfriend of Shaunnia’s mother, authorities said.