Philly police, FBI say cop shooter still possible threat
Two days after a Philadelphia police officer was shot by a man who said he had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State, the city’s police and the FBI are investigating a tip that the man was part of a group with radical beliefs and still poses a threat.
According to a statement from the Philadelphia Police Department published Sunday, a citizen stopped a Philadelphia police officer on the street on Saturday night to warn that the suspected gunman, Edward Archer, was part of a larger group.
ABC News reported that the unnamed tipster was a woman. She told the police that the man involved in Thursday’s shooting (Archer is not mentioned by name) is not the most radical of his group of four people, and that the threat to police is not over.
Authorities in Philadelphia say that Archer shot Officer Jesse Hartnett multiple times in an assassination attempt in West Philadelphia late Thursday night. Hartnett, who is now in the hospital in stable condition, was able to return fire and injure his attacker.
Militants mount deadly mall attack in Baghdad
BAGHDAD - Militants wearing suicide vests stormed a busy mall in the Iraqi capital Monday as part of apparently coordinated attacks that killed at least 13 people and brought an end to a relative lull in Baghdad’s violence, authorities said.
The assault, which also included a car-bomb blast at the mall’s entrance, was the first major bloodshed in central Baghdad in weeks. It suggested that the Islamic State was seeking to strike back after facing recent losses.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry placed the death toll at 13. Some news agencies, including The Associated Press, had counts as high as 18, citing police and hospital sources.
Zuckerberg vaccinates baby, anti-vaxxers go nuts
Since the Facebook CEO’s daughter Max was born in December, his profile page has also been a record of baby milestones. The latest was a trip to the doctor’s office on Friday.
Many of Zuckerberg’s 47 million-some followers saw the post as a not-so-subtle expression of support for vaccinations, the public health matter at the center of an ongoing debate around modern science and civil liberties.
The nearly 70,000 comments on Zuckerberg’s post run the gamut of pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine arguments. On the one hand, users have pointed out, scientists credit vaccines with eliminating formerly widespread diseases such as smallpox, and severe allergic reactions to vaccinations are rare. Yet, many Americans, doubt the medical efficacy of vaccines.
Former Gitmo prisoner demands closing facility
LONDON - Just over two months after Shaker Aamer was freed from the U.S. prison facility at Guantanamo Bay and flown by chartered aircraft back to his home in the United Kingdom, he used an appearance outside the U.S. Embassy here on Monday to demand that President Barack Obama make good on a campaign promise and close the prison.
“They can do it. They can do it overnight,” said Aamer.
Aamer spoke alongside four other British citizens or residents who were also former Guantanamo Bay detainees.
“Hostages,” Aamer said, using his preferred term.
The appearance, coming on the 14th anniversary of the opening of the detention facility, was coordinated with a protest outside the White House where campaigners planned to display a giant, inflatable version of Aamer.
Washington Post
