Free Republic

CONCORD — State officials on Wednesday identified the prisoner who died at the medium security state prison in Berlin following a fight as James Dale, who was convicted of the rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Hopkinton in 1997. Dale, 65, was involved in a “resident-on-resident” assault on Monday in the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility, according to a statement issued by Attorney General John Formella and Corrections Commissioner Helen Hanks. The statement said New Hampshire State Police and Attorney General’s Office prosecutors are investigating the circumstances of Dale’s death. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.

A man whom the U.S. described as a key figure in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula accidentally blew himself up, U.S. military officials told Fox News. The officials say Nayif Al-Qahtani was "messing with a bomb" when it went off. U.S. officials had been watching him, but Fox News' sources insist the U.S. had nothing to do with his death. Al-Qahtani was "a vibrant guy linked to ongoing operations planning, and his death will have an impact," one official told Fox News. An Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula newsletter was the first to announce his death a week...