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Al-Qaeda chief urges jihadist unity
Source: news.com.au
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/9f3aca1c7aaffab06d7377a041b7abcc
May 9, 2016
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has urged rival jihadist fighters in Syria to unite or risk death but again decried fellow Sunni Muslim militants Islamic State as "extremists" in an audio recording posted online.
As successor to Osama bin Laden, Zawahri has the allegiance of al-Qaeda branches in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. But the group's dominance is being challenged by Islamic State, which controls territory in Syria and Iraq and has followings in Libya and Yemen.
In Syria, al-Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front and Islamic State are the two most powerful groups fighting government forces.
Once a single group, they split in 2013, largely due to a power struggle among leaders.
"We have to want the unity of the Mujahideen in Sham (Syria) so it will be liberated from the Russians and Western crusaders. My brothers ... the matter of unity is a matter of life or death for you," Zawahri said in the online post on Sunday.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/alqaeda-chief-urges-jihadist-unity/news-story/1176225c4c0c2e3e0b065fdf43e9e916
Note: The authenticity of the recording could not be immediately verified, but it has the hallmarks of previous Zawahri tapes.
Ex-FBI agent to plead guilty to perjury during Bulger trial
Source: The Associated Press
May. 9, 2016 12:26 AM EDT
BOSTON (AP) — A former FBI agent accused of lying during Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger's trial is expected to plead guilty to perjury charges.
Robert Fitzpatrick is slated to appear Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Boston for a change-of-plea hearing.
The now-76-year-old is accused of lying to jurors and overstating his professional accomplishments during Bulger's 2013 racketeering trial.
Fitzpatrick, who had been second-in-command of the FBI's Boston division during Bulger's bloody reign in Boston, was the first witness Bulger's lawyers called during the high-profile trial.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0eab8dc6a78b41de9d44bbac328b6006/ex-fbi-agent-plead-guilty-perjury-during-bulger-trial
Mike Barnicle is still on Morning Joe.
Once unthinkable in US, drug shoot-up rooms get serious look
Source: The Associated Press
By DAVID KLEPPER
May. 8, 2016 9:46 PM EDT
Across the United States, heroin users have died in alleys behind convenience stores, on city sidewalks and in the bathrooms of fast-food joints — because no one was around to save them when they overdosed.
An alarming 47,000 American overdose deaths in 2014 — 60 percent from heroin and related painkillers like fentanyl — has pushed elected leaders from coast to coast to consider what was once unthinkable: government-sanctioned sites where users can shoot up under the supervision of a doctor or nurse who can administer an antidote if necessary.
"Things are getting out of control. We have to find things we can do for people who are addicted now," said New York state Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who is working on legislation to allow supervised injection sites that would also include space for treatment services. "The idea shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. I don't see anyone else coming up with anything new and innovative."
Critics of the war on drugs have long talked about the need for a new approach to addiction, but the idea of allowing supervised injection sites is now coming from state lawmakers in New York, Maryland and California, along with city officials in Seattle, San Francisco and Ithaca, New York, who note that syringe exchanges were once controversial but now operate in 33 states.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/93726b5c81394e0ab787fcb92ceb3124/once-unthinkable-us-drug-shoot-rooms-get-serious-look
See, now us white folks are dying, so it has become a Significant Problem.
Six Months From Tonight: What'll It Be?
Purity or Victory: as Democrats, we really will decide the election between Trump and Clinton!
(Mods, this is a General Election---not Primary---post.!
North Korea will not use nuclear weapons first, says Kim Jong-un
Source: The Guardian (United Kingdom)
Saturday 7 May 2016 23.09 EDT
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong -un, has said his country will not use nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is infringed on by others with nuclear arms, and that it is willing to normalise ties with “hostile” states, state media reported.
The north would faithfully fulfil its obligation for nuclear non-proliferation and strive to end nuclear buildup in the world, Kim said in a report to a congress of its ruling Workers’ party (WPK) which opened on Friday, the KCNA news agency said.
The first congress in 36 years began with much fanfare amid anticipation by the South Korean government and experts that the young leader would try to use it to further consolidate power in the state he took over in 2011 after his father’s sudden death.
“As a responsible nuclear weapons state, our republic will not use a nuclear weapon unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by any aggressive hostile forces with nukes,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying. “And it will faithfully fulfil its obligation for non-proliferation and strive for the global denuclearisation.”
“The WPK and the DPRK government will improve and normalise the relations with those countries which respect the sovereignty of the DPRK and are friendly towards it, though they had been hostile toward it in the past.”
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/08/north-korea-will-only-use-nuclear-weapons-if-sovereignty-is-threatened
Translation: "We got nothing! Our missiles don't work! Please send more food before my fat ass becomes food!"
Ever hear a song you didn't like but couldn't get out of your head???
The recent tragedy of Prince's death reminded me of this; there were MANY Prince tunes that I liked, but this wasn't one of them!
Nevertheless, I found myself inadvertently humming it throughout the summer of 1985, when it hit the airwaves.
Have you ever had the same experience? If so, what was the song?
‘A wall of fire and heat’: Maine fire chief arrested, accused of starting 42-acre blaze
Source: The Washington Post
By Niraj Chokshi May 7 at 1:32 PM
It took more than 100 firefighters to fight back the flames that consumed more than 40 acres of grass and marsh in Maine last month. Now officials say it was one of their own who started it.
Around 2 a.m. Saturday, authorities took Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief Ricky Plummer into custody on an arson charge in connection to the April 15 fire, the Associated Press reported. His arrest comes just one day after roughly a dozen investigators from the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Maine Forest Service seized computers at Plummer’s fire station and in his official vehicle.
The mid-April blaze tore through 42 acres at the Jones Creek Marsh in the southern Maine coastal town of about 8,600, where Plummer worked. At the time, he described the fire to the Portland Press Herald, noting that its flames came within 100 feet of a nearby condominium complex.
“Flames were 20 to 30 feet high, just a wall of fire and heat,” he said in April. The assembled firefighters put out the four-alarm fire with no damage to the complex and no injuries, the paper reported.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/05/07/a-wall-of-fire-and-heat-maine-fire-chief-arrested-for-starting-42-acre-blaze/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_pn-firechief-144pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Between this and LePage, I think Thomas Frank needs to write another book!
Profile Information
Name: FredGender: Male
Hometown: Upstate New York
Home country: United States of Vespucci
Current location: Earth
Member since: Thu Apr 21, 2016, 05:02 PM
Number of posts: 271
