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LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has refused to grant a new trial to a former Texas Tech University student convicted in a failed bomb plot.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari (KAH'-lihd ah-lee-EHM' al-duh-SAHR'-ee) asked for a new trial in July, a month after his conviction in Lubbock of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Aldawsari accused prosecutors of misrepresenting his intentions for coming to America. Prosecutor Denise Williams accused Aldawsari in June of "marching down that road" to an attack since he was 11.

U.S. District Judge Donald Walter cited Aldawsari's journals as evidence to dismiss his claim. Walter also denied Aldawsari's other claims about supposed prosecution misstatements.

The 22-year-old Saudi native was arrested in February 2011.

Aldawsari faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced Oct. 9.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — For the past two months, the military judge presiding over the high-profile case of the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage has said he wanted to avoid disruptions in court.

So after Maj. Nidal Hasan showed up for a June pretrial hearing wearing a beard, a violation of Army regulations, Col. Gregory Gross banned him from the courtroom until he shaves.

Now Hasan's facial hair has become a bigger disruption than anyone might have foreseen. All hearings and the murder trial, set to start next week, were put on hold Wednesday while an appeals court considers Hasan's objections to being forcibly shaved.

The delay is frustrating for many involved in the case, although some victims' relatives say they have grown accustomed to waiting for the trial to start. It's been almost three years since the shooting rampage left 13 dead and more than two dozen wounded on the Texas Army post.

"I stopped holding my breath a long time ago as far as expecting to get any closure regarding the trial," said Leila Hunt Willingham, whose brother Jason Dean "J.D." Hunt was among those killed Nov. 5, 2009.

Gross has not allowed Hasan to stay in the courtroom, saying the beard is a disruption. However, in late July Gross said he wanted Hasan in the room during the court-martial to prevent a possible appeal on the issue if he is convicted. He said Hasan would be forcibly shaved before the trial if he didn't shave the beard himself.

Hasan, an American-born Muslim, won't shave because the beard is an expression of his faith, defense attorneys have said. Hasan also has had a premonition that his death is imminent, his attorneys said.

"He does not wish to die without a beard as he believes not having a beard is a sin," one of Hasan's attorneys wrote in his appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Hasan faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted. No military death-row inmates have been executed since 1961.

Prosecutors have said Hasan grew the beard so trial witnesses would have a hard time identifying him. They have said they doubt religion is his motive, noting he was clean-shaven at the time of the shootings.

Gross told defense attorneys at a June hearing that he disagreed with their argument that Hasan's beard didn't take away from the dignity of the proceedings.

"This is a choice that Major Hasan is making," Gross said at a June hearing.

At the start of Wednesday's hearing, Gross once again found Hasan in contempt of court and fined him $1,000 for disobeying orders to shave. Hasan then was taken to a nearby room to watch the proceedings on a closed-circuit television.

Hasan had been scheduled to enter a plea Wednesday, but the court proceedings were put on hold before he could do that.

Hasan indicated he wanted to plead guilty for religious reasons, according to a defense motion. But in ruling on the motion, Gross said he would not be able to accept a guilty plea on the 13 charges of premeditated murder because the charges carry a possible death penalty, which the government is pursuing the death penalty in Hasan's case.

Hasan, 41, also is charged with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

The court-martial, scheduled to start Monday with jury selection, will be on hold until the appeals court rules on Hasan's appeal to the judge's order to being shaved. Wednesday's court order that halted the proceedings gives the judge a week to respond.

Some military law experts not involved in the case said this seems to be a defense strategy.

"The defense is trying everything to delay this case, and it's frustrating that the beard issue has gone this far," said Jeffrey Addicott, a retired military attorney who is now director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law.

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston-area man has been sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for passing almost $500,000 in fake cash.

A federal judge in Houston on Wednesday sentenced 35-year-old Synaca Thomas of Cypress.

Thomas in January pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make and possess counterfeit currency, plus illegal possession of a firearm by a felon.

Investigators say Thomas and his wife would take genuine $5 bills and reprint them to appear to be $100 bills.

Brittany Jordan earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make counterfeit currency and passing counterfeit currency. The 26-year-woman is free on bond pending sentencing.

Prosecutors say the husband's punishment was enhanced because he attempted to smuggle contraband, which was disguised as candy, into a facility where he was being held.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A fire at a San Antonio group home for the mentally disabled has left three male residents dead and one critically hurt.

Arson investigators were at the scene Thursday in an attempt to determine what started the house fire.

San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove (BOHV) says a neighbor called 911 Wednesday night after seeing smoke and flames. Bove says the group caretaker and nine residents escaped unharmed.

Bove says the four victims were located on the second floor of the house. One man was dead at the scene, while two others were dead on arrival at a hospital.

Bove had no other details on the critically injured man, who remains hospitalized.

Names of the victims have not been released.

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — A South Texas man must serve life in prison without parole for killing his common-law wife and her 12-year-old sister in a fight over his drug use.

A judge in Edinburg on Wednesday accepted the guilty plea from 24-year-old Raul Garza of Weslaco.

Garza pleaded guilty to capital murder of multiple persons in the May attack. The plea deal means Garza avoids a possible death penalty.

The victims were Veronica Serrano Rivera and her little sister, Elisa Rivera. The girl allegedly was raped during the deadly attack.

Deputies on May 6 found the bodies at Garza's home after his 5- and 6-year-old daughters were wandering nearby and one told a passer-by: "My mother is dead."

Authorities have said the argument that led to the killings was over Garza's cocaine abuse.