Obama orders flags at half-staff

Standing in a chilly but sun-splashed Rose Garden, President Barack Obama ordered the flags that fly at federal buildings to half-staff Friday in what he called a "modest tribute" to those killed in Thursday's shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas.

Obama said the tribute is for both 13 killed at Ft. Hood and to honor U.S. servicemen and women who have fallen around the world, as the "whole nation is grieving."

The president is leaving the order standing until Veterans Day next week. Reporters standing in the White House Rose Garden could watch as Obama's order was heeded, and the American flags that fly over the Eisenhower Executive Office Building were lowered shortly before the president emerged from the Oval Office.

Obama said he met earlier Friday with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other "relevant agencies," but he said he and offiicals do not have all the answers as to what happened when 39-year-old Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan "turned his gun on fellow service men and women."

The president cautioned against "jumping to conclusions" as investigators work to find those answers, but he promised Americans that his administration would provide updates.

---