Here are some of the top stories we're following Thursday at NBC News:
Somalia: We need weapons to fight terror
Somalia’s defense minister said that his country’s embattled government doesn’t have the weapons and cash it needs to fight the terrorist group that attacked a Kenyan mall, leaving at least 72 people dead. Minister Abdulhakim Haji Faqi warned that the terrorist organization al Shabaab, based in Somalia, now constitutes a “global problem.” Read more at NBC News.
Iran’s Rouhani says Holocaust ‘cannot be denied’
Rebutting denials made by his predecessor, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the Nazis “committed a crime against the Jews” – but that historians should be left to judge the “scale” of the atrocities. “The Nazis carried out a massacre that cannot be denied, especially against the Jewish people,” Rouhani told reporters, one week after hedging when pressed by NBC News’ Ann Curry to respond to former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated denials. Read more at NBC News.
Newtown police to release 911 tapes
The Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission ruled that the Newtown Police Department must release the 911 tapes from the massacre last December at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Investigators had argued that a state law prohibited the release of materials related to ongoing investigations, but the hearing officer noted that the law does not cover 911 calls. Read more at NBC News.
More kids, and grandkids, moving in with grandma
It’s not just 20-somethings in the basement anymore. More young adults, sometimes with children of their own, are moving back home in a weak economy. About 7.7 million children were living with a grandparent in the U.S. in 2011, according to the Pew Research Center, and in eight of 10 cases a parent also lived with them. Read more at TODAY.
Cheating penalty almost sank Team USA’s America’s Cup win
Team USA had to overcome a self-inflicted handicap to win the 2013 America’s Cup after being docked two wins for making illegal modifications to its practice boats during warm-up runs in 2012. Members of the team put bags of lead shot in two of their practice boats and extended the main strut, the America’s Cup jury found. These were not the boats that the team sailed in San Francisco during the Cup match. Read more at NBC News.
‘Big Bang Theory’s’ real-life science guy keeps facts straight
Ever wonder how the writers on “The Big Bang Theory” make Sheldon and the gang seem so smart? Look no further than Dr. David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California who fills in the gaps when the show’s science plotlines demand some specialized knowledge. “It’s a lot of fun,” Saltzberg says, “though I live in fear of someone finding a mistake that gets through.” Read more at TODAY.
Scientists debut mind-controlled bionic leg
Researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago unveiled the first thought-controlled bionic leg in the New England Journal of Medicine. Lead author Levi Hargrove called the mind-activated limb a “groundbreaking development.” Up to now, scientists had only perfected thought-controlled bionic arms. Read more at NBC News Health.