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Terror-related arrests in England, Wales and Scotland reached record levels last year, when 338 people were held, Scotland Yard has said. More than half of those arrests were related to Syria, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley added. Police said more than 700 potential terror suspects are now thought to have travelled to Syria. About half of those people - said to be of "significant concern" - are believed to have returned to the UK.

In 1948, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years.

Investigators did not speculate why an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia Tuesday night, but they did say that the train was traveling at over twice the speed limit going into the curve where it derailed. The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that the Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia late Tuesday night was traveling at 106 miles per hour into a sharp curve, more than twice the designated speed limit, causing it to derail, killing at least seven people and injuring 200 more. Full “engineer induced braking” occurred at that speed, and within seconds the train had derailed, according...

Matthew Apperson is under investigation over a shot fired into Zimmerman's car earlier this week  Apperson, 35, was said by neighbors to be 'irrational and unstable' in days leading up to Zimmerman confrontationOne neighbor called police when she found a squirrel killed with a BB gun and told officer she feared it was 'a sign' from AppersonPolice documents show he has also been investigated after telling phone canvasser he was planning to kill a trespasser with his Magnum .357Decision due within days on whether Apperson will be charged over shot fired at Zimmerman which he says was self-defense     

(WNS)–The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan human trafficking bill on April 22, scoring a significant victory for Republicans who fought to ensure taxpayer funding wouldn’t go to pay for abortions. “Help is finally on the way for the thousands of enslaved victims who suffer unspeakable abuse in the shadows,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act boosts law enforcement’s ability to pursue perpetrators, strengthens penalties, and establishes a domestic fund to help trafficking victims. The legislation was widely popular, but it only passed after an unexpected month-long stalemate between Republicans and Democrats....

I’m quite happy being who I am, and I assume you are too. But if you had to be someone else, even for a day, you couldn’t do much better than being a Clinton. Being a Clinton is something we mere mortals can barely imagine. It has to be akin to the way virgins were treated thousands of years ago, up until the point they were sacrificed, that is. Clintons are the non-virgins who are never sacrificed, never damaged, never held accountable. They’re like all the awful kids who toured Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with Charlie – only they didn’t...

The death toll from Tuesday’s earthquake in Nepal has crossed 100 with more than 2,500 people injured, authorities said Thursday. The 7.3-magnitude quake hit the region less than three weeks after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed over 8,000 people. Rescue operations continued Thursday even as bodies buried under rubble were being recovered with the use of heavy machinery. Tuesday's earthquake also claimed the lives of at least 17 people in neighboring India and one person in China. On Thursday, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala visited Charikot, one of the hardest-hit villages by the latest earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. "After the first...

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera Tuesday sent a letter to McDonald’s Corp. warning of potential legal action due to ongoing problems with drug sales and other public nuisances at the Haight Street McDonald’s restaurant. [Snip] According to the city attorney’s office, police responded to 641 calls for service at the restaurant between Jan. 1, 2014 and April 22, 2015 and nearly 1,100 since January 2012, a number that far exceeds those seen at other properties in the area. [Snip] Police have arrested people on drug-related charges on or in front of the property on at least 11 different occasions...

FBI documents obtained by the Guardian and Earth Island Journal show the bureau colluded with an oil company and illegally spied on environmental activists in Houston. The Guardian reports the FBI’s Houston division closely monitored groups that oppose the Keystone-XL pipeline, cultivated informants in activist groups, and shared intelligence with TransCanada, the company building the pipeline. Furthermore, the investigations violated FBI policy because agents failed to get prior legal approval to begin monitoring the activists. In an interview with the Guardian, the bureau admitted the error. The documents, about 80 pages obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show...

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of “Word for the Day”. CynosureNoun 1. An object that serves as a focal point of attention and admiration. 2. Something that serves to guide. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-) Practice makes perfect.....post on.... Review Threads: Review Thread One: Word For The Day, Thursday 11/14/02: Raffish...

Martin O’Malley plans to announce his presidential intentions on May 30 in Baltimore, a move that could present another Democratic challenger to Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former Maryland governor will hold a conference call with top supporters on Thursday night to discuss his plans for the announcement in his adopted hometown, where he served as mayor, an O’Malley aide said Thursday. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning and was not authorized to speak publicly. O’Malley, who completed his second term as governor earlier this year, has been considering a potential challenge to Clinton, the leading...

The Twin Cities have long been considered one of the best places in the country to live when it comes to health, happiness and job opportunities, but the disparities for racial minorities are striking. A new report looks at yet another area where the experiences of whites and non-whites generally diverge: commute times. The 12-page study finds that black and Asian transit users in the Twin Cities spend 138 and 146 more hours each year, respectively, getting to and from work than white drivers do. For Latinos, the "transit time penalty" increased to 173 hours -- the equivalent of losing...

RENO, Nev. — “Your brother created ISIS,” the young woman told Jeb Bush. And with that, Ivy Ziedrich, a 19-year-old college student, created the kind of confrontational moment here on Wednesday morning that presidential candidates dread. Mr. Bush, the former governor of Florida, had just concluded a town-hall-style meeting when Ms. Ziedrich demanded to be heard. “Governor Bush,” she shouted as audience members asked him for his autograph. “Would you take a student question?” Mr. Bush whirled around and looked at Ms. Ziedrich, who identified herself as a political science major and a college Democrat at the University of Nevada....

For one thing, we still don’t know what caused the derailment. First responders had not finished combing the wreckage of Tuesday night’s Amtrak derailment for bodies when the liberal outlet Vox posted: Alarming headline, exploitative disaster photo. The only thing missing is a picture of a grinning Ted Cruz. The response to last night’s deadly Amtrak wreck in Philadelphia prompts two observations. First — and this seems important — we don’t yet know what caused the derailment. An investigation is under way. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that the train was traveling more than 100 mph — more than...

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has appointed U.S. Republican Senator John McCain as an adviser. Ukraine's pro-Western authorities are putting together an advisory council to help conduct reforms and build global support for Ukraine. A decree released by the Ukrainian presidency on May 14 says that pending his agreement, McCain will become a member of the council, along with former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt. The Advisory International Council of Reforms is to be headed by Mikheil Saakashvili, the fiercely pro-Western former president of Georgia, and will also include Elmar Brok, a member of the European Parliament, and economist Anders Aslund....

Is Jesus a Bernie Sanders fan? Could be, if you believe Howard Dean. On today's Morning Joe, Dean claimed that "if you look at the red-letter version of the Bible, Jesus was probably to the left of the Democratic party." Dean's declaration came in the context of a discussion of yesterday's forum on poverty in which President Obama and AEI President Arthur Brooks participated. Question: is Dean confusing the establishment of faceless government bureaucracies that can entrap people in dependency with the kind of personal caring for the downtrodden that Christ commanded? View the video here.

"The truth is that both major parties are now just commercial organisations, who raise money wherever they can get it to buy their way into office through unscrupulous election campaigns. They then presumably reward their donors once they are in office. The electorate are a constitutional necessity for this process, but otherwise their fears, hopes and desires are largely irrelevant." Peter Hitchens blog post of May 8, 2015 on British politics, but equally applicable to this country It doesn't surprise me that Leftist New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio was in Washington the other day to promote a "Progressive" agenda. The...

The attorney for the engineer who was at the controls when an Amtrak train crashed in Philadelphia says his client has no recollection of a crash that killed at least seven people. Attorney Robert Goggin says Brandon Bostian remembers attempting to reduce speed as the train entered a curve before he was knocked out and sustained a concussion. Goggin says Bostian told him the last thing he recalls is coming to, looking for his bag, retrieving his cellphone and calling 911 for help. The lawyer says his client's memory could likely return as the head injury subsides.

Odessa, Ukraine--Military expert Sergiy Zgurets says that with the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine lost two-thirds of its navy. All the most important ships by class and capability are now stuck in the occupied territory and that represents a big problem for Ukraine, he says. "We need a huge amount of effort and expenditure to create a new fleet from scratch," Zgurets says. "There is nothing left of it". The flagship Getman Sagaidachniy moored now in Odessa, was only saved from the occupation by pure chance. When Russian special forces soldiers without insignia started seizing strategic locations around Crimea, the frigate...

Yesterday, as John noted, President Obama took a swing at Fox News during a conference on poverty. Obama said: Sadly, I think there’s been an effort to either make folks mad at folks at the top or to make folks mad at folks at the bottom. And I think the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leeches, who don’t want to work, lazy, undeserving, got traction. And look, it’s still being propagated. I have to say that if you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant menu, they will [present] folks who make me...