ISIS CLAIMS ITS FIRST U.S. ATTACK
ISIS claimed responsibility today for the weekend attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest at a conference center near Dallas, Texas. Gunmen Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi were killed by a police officer after they opened fire and injured a security guard there, The Washington Post reports. This is believed to be the first ISIS terror attack on U.S. soil.
- Court documents reveal that federal agents had been monitoring Simpson since 2006. He was also convicted in 2011 for lying to the FBI about his desire to join violent jihadists in Somalia.
- Simpson and Soofi were roommates in Phoenix, Arizona, the documents say. FBI agents and police officers searched their apartment Monday.
- “We are sure many people in this country are curious to know if we had any idea of Elton’s plans. To that we say, without question, we did not,” a statement from Simpson’s family reads.
EXTRA!
Two days after finding out that “It’s a girl,” the world now knows what to call the second child of Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge: Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. The British tabloids had plenty of fodder interpreting the choice, with the Daily Mail declaring that the third name was what mattered most. “For The Mother He Lost,” was the daily’s headline, referring to Lady Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997. The naming showed Prince William’s commitment “to ensure the attempts by a ruthless Establishment to airbrush his mother from her place in royal history are not just stalled but halted in their tracks.” Read more in our Extra! feature.
THREE MORE DEAD IN BURUNDI
At least three people were killed and 45 were wounded as police in Burundi tried to control protesters who took to the streets against incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term, Al Jazeera reports. Eleven people, including two police officers and one soldier, have been killed since the protests began more than a week ago, Le Monde reports. Police have reportedly opened fire on the crowds throughout the capital Bujumbura. Nkurunziza’s opponents say his decision to run for a third term is unconstitutional given the Arusha agreement, signed in 2000, that ended a 10-year civil war between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. It also limited the number of presidential terms to two. Nkurunziza has been in power since August 2005 and was reelected in June 2010.
VERBATIM
“The full force of the Mexican state will be felt in the state of Jalisco,” Mexican national security commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said Monday of an all-out offensive against the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG), one of the newest drug-trafficking rings in the country. The CJNG killed six soldiers Friday when they launched a rocket-propelled grenade to bring down an army helicopter that was pursuing a cartel convoy in Jalisco. At least 15 other people were killed and 19 were injured in coordinated attacks by the cartel in recent days.
DAILY ATROCITIES IN ALEPPO
A new report Amnesty International report says civilians in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, are suffering “unthinkable atrocities” on a daily basis. What the human rights organization describes as “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” are committed both by government forces and rebel groups. In an effort to counter a rebel offensive in recent weeks, government forces have allegedly intensified their bombing of Aleppo with a growing use of barrel bombs.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
Spaghetti produced from the wheat of local farms is served in the restaurants of Ethiopia, which discovered pasta during Italian colonial rule but only now is developing an entire economy around it, La Stampa’s Emanuele Bompan reports. “‘Until recent times Ethiopia imported a large amount of grain from Turkey,’ explains Fabio Melloni, director of the technical office of the Italian aid group in Addis Ababa. ‘The country is experiencing a real cultural boom for pasta, a tradition inherited from the short and unsuccessful Italian colony.’ Pasta is easy to find in Addis Ababa, the capital, and consumption is spreading to smaller cities. It is served with tomato sauce or meat, as well as with typical dishes such as doro wot (chicken with berbere sauce) and tibs (meat and vegetables).”
Read the full article, From Wheat To Pasta: A Very Italian Solution To Ethiopian Poverty.
FORMER IRA COMMANDER KILLED
Gerard “Jock” Davison, a former Provisional IRA leader in Belfast, was shot and killed there this morning, The Belfast Telegraph reports. Davison was formerly a senior member of the organization and later became a supporter of Sinn Fein’s peace strategy.
CLEARING RUBBLE IN NEPAL
Photo: Taylor Weidman/ZUMA
Nepali soldiers clear rubble from the ruins of a temple in Patan, Nepal. The death toll after the devastating April 25 earthquake that struck the country has risen beyond 7,500.
YEMEN ATTACKS MAY HALT TO ALLOW AID
The Saudi-coalition against Houthi fighters in Yemen is considering temporarily halting its airstrike campaign to allow aid deliveries, Al Jazeera reports. The announcement came after deadly clashes in southern Yemen between Houthi fighters and militias allied with the exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It was also announced that Hadi launched a Yemeni Dialogue Conference to be held on May 17.
MY GRAND-PÈRE’S WORLD
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MILITIAS TO FREE AFRICAN CHILD SOLDIERS
Armed factions in the Central African Republic have agreed to free all child soldiers and other children who are being used as cooks, messengers or sexual slaves, UNICEF said today.
ISLAMISTS KILL THREE SOMALI POLICE
Somali al-Shabaab militants stormed a police station in the country’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland and killed three policemen last night, Reuters reports. Several militants from the Islamist terror group were also reportedly killed during the brief siege in Yalho village.
ON THIS DAY
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Did you know Chanel’s iconic perfume went on sale for the first time on this day in 1921? Time for your 57-second shot of history.
