Authorities probe murder of 3 Muslim students in U.S.

　　WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Justice Department and theFBI on Friday started inquiries to determine whether the murder ofthree Muslim students in North Carolina earlier this week was ahate crime.

　　President Barack Obama described the case as "brutal andoutrageous," after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan criticized himfor his initial silence about the incident.

　　"No one in the United States of America should ever be targetedbecause of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship,"Obama said in a statement on Friday.

　　Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and hersister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were found dead in their home onTuesday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. One of their neighbors, amiddle-aged white man, was later arrested and charged with threecounts of first-degree murder.

　　Police said preliminary inquiries indicated that the murder wasprobably motivated by a neighbor dispute over parking place.However, the victims' families insisted it was a hate crime andcalled on an FBI inquiry into the case.

　　Meanwhile, a fire broke out in a vacant building in an Islamiccenter early Friday in southeast Houston. Investigators said theywere still determining whether it was an arson attack. Enditem