ISIS Plotting Subway Attacks in New York City and Paris, Iraqi PM Says

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Photo Credit: Peter Foley—Bloomberg / Getty By Sam Frizell.

Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) plan to attack the subway systems in New York and Paris, Iraq’s prime minister said Thursday, but U.S. security officials said they had no evidence to back up the claim.

Haider al-Abadi told reporters at the United Nations General Assembly that information obtained from militants captured in Iraq yielded “credible” intelligence that the Islamist group is plotting attacks in New York and Paris, Reuters reports. “They plan to have attacks in the metros of Paris and the U.S.,” Abadi said. “I asked for more credible information. I asked for names. I asked for details, for cities, you know, dates. And from the details I have received, yes, it looks credible.”

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As U.S. takes on the Islamic State, al-Qaeda remains degraded but not defeated

By Greg Miller and Kevin Sieff.

As the United States mobilized against new Islamist enemies this month, the voice of an aging adversary echoed in the distance.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of al-Qaeda’s founders and its leader for the past three years, released a video announcing the formation of a new affiliate in India and lamenting the turmoil being caused by the rival Islamic State in Syria.

“Oh mujahideen, unite and reject differences and discord,” he said in a pleading tone that seemed to underscore the declining relevance of al-Qaeda’s core, the Pakistan-based group that orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But Zawahiri was silent on a far more sensitive project — the creation of a cell in Syria dedicated to plots against the United States — that once again made predictions of the demise of al-Qaeda’s core seem premature.

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Photo Credit: EPAFBI says it has identified ‘Jihadi John’ seen in ISIS execution videos but will not reveal his identity or nationality

By JILL REILLY FOR MAILONLINE.

The FBI has identified the ISIS executioner who appears in the beheading videos of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker John Haines.

Agency director James Comey told reporters today that he knew who the militant was but would not be releasing his identity or nationality to the media.

The executioner, who has a British accent and has been dubbed Jihadi John, is one of four British jihadis known as the ‘Beatles’ holding hostages in Syria.

He appears in the group’s execution videos wielding a knife – and taunts President Obama before carrying out the killings

Today British officials would not say if the identity had been shared with the authorities on London, and would not be drawn on whether any arrests are imminent.

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HealthCare.gov Actually Cost Over $2.1 Billion — And Counting (+video)

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HealthCare.gov alone has cost federal taxpayers $2.1 billion so far, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis — and the feds still aren’t finished building it.

The Obama administration’s most recent estimate on spending related to HealthCare.gov was just $834 million through February 2014. Health and Human Services secretary Sylvia Burwell projected in May that through fiscal year 2015, additional costs would bring HealthCare.gov’s grand total to just above $1 billion. (RELATED: HealthCare.gov Will Cost OVer $1 Billion To Build)

“The way in which Obamacare has been rolled out has been very messy,” Peter Gosselin, the study author, told Bloomberg News. “One of the reasons it has been implemented in the way it has been, financially, is precisely to deny opponents of the law a clear target.”

Federal officials intentionally spread out HealthCare.gov spending across “dozens of contracts,” according to the report, in a concerted effort to prevent transparency on the health-care website’s true cost.

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Baby Dies Whose Parents Wanted to Stop Life Support Just Because He Was Disabled

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsA disabled baby has died after a major battle in France pitted the parents of a disabled prematurely-born baby against doctors — as the parents wanted doctors to stop life support for their son because he is severely disabled.

The baby boy, named Titouan was born on August 31, four months before he was slated to be born. The baby weighed two pounds at birth and suffered from an intracerebral haemorrhage. Doctors at University Hospital Center of Poitiers said he has brain damage and they were unable to determine the extent of it. The baby’s parents, Mélanie and Aurélien, said doctors had informed them that their son will be severely disabled and paralyzed on one side of his body.

Doctors were asking the parents to hold off on taking their son off life support so they can more thoroughly evaluate his medical condition.

Now, Titouan has passed away — dying late Friday.

Before he passed away, doctors said his parents should not rush to take him off life support.

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Woman Punched on Film by California Highway Patrol Officer Reaches $1.5M Settlement

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Photo Credit: APBy Fox News.

A woman who was punched repeatedly by a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer in an incident caught on film earlier this year will receive $1.5M as part of a settlement reached Wednesday.

CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow announced the settlement in an emailed statement and an attorney for 51-year-old Marlene Pinnock confirmed the deal to the Associated Press. The agreement was reached after nine hours of mediation in Los Angeles.

As part of the agreement, the officer who struck Pinnock, Daniel Andrew, will resign. Andrew, who joined the CHP in 2012 and had been on paid administrative leave, could still be charged criminally in the case. The CHP forwarded the results of its investigation of the incident to Los Angeles County prosecutors last month, saying he could face serious charges but none have been filed yet.

“When this incident occurred, I promised that I would look into it and vowed a swift resolution,” Farrow’s statement said. “Today, we have worked constructively to reach a settlement agreement that is satisfactory to all parties involved.”

Pinnock’s attorney, Caree Harper, says they wanted to make sure the woman could have financial stability for the rest of her life and wanted to make sure that Andrew would not be an officer any longer.

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Photo Credit: ShutterstockNYPD Slams Pregnant Woman Onto the Street in Latest Rough Arrest Video

By Joe Coscarelli.

The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the 72nd Precinct in Brooklyn for the second time in two weeks — the first was for this uncalled-for kick — after a tough-to-watch video surfaced on Facebook of an officer throwing a pregnant woman onto the ground and holding her stomach-down. Sandra Amezquita, five-foot-four and visibly five months pregnant, attempted to intervene in the arrest of her 17-year-old son for possession of a knife when she was manhandled. A friend who ran up to check on her was sent flying down the street with a two-handed shove.

“The first thing I thought was they killed my baby and they’re going to kill my wife,” Ronel Lemos, the baby’s father, told the Daily News.

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Wood Bison, North America’s Largest Animal, to Be Reintroduced Into Alaska

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Photo Credit: Alan and Elaine Wilson via Wikimedia CommonsWood bison, the largest animal in the Americas, once roamed throughout present-day Alaska and western Canada. But unregulated hunting in the 1800s nearly wiped them out, and by the middle of the 20th century some thought the animals were extinct. But then, in 1957, a small herd was found in a remote part of Alberta by the crew of a plane flying overhead.

Since then, their numbers have rebounded to around 11,000 in Canada, as governmental organizations have helped breed and repatriate them to a few parts of their former range. But they have never been released back in the Alaskan wilds, where they once provided food, clothing and shelter for indigenous peoples for thousands of years.

But that’s about to change. In March 2015, officials will release 50 to 100 wood bison to the wild in western Alaska, said Doug Vincent-Lang, with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Currently, staff at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center outside Anchorage are facilitating the breeding of the bison, says operations director Tom Yeager.

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Three New York Firefighters Die of 9/11-Related Illnesses, FDNY Says

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Photo Credit: APThree retired New York firefighters who worked at Ground Zero in the days after the World Trade Center attack died on the same day this week of illnesses possibly connected to toxic dust released on 9/11, fire officials said.

Lieutenant Howard Bischoff and firefighters Robert Leaver and Daniel Heglund died on Monday.

“Losing three firefighters on the same day to WTC-related illnesses is a painful reminder that, 13 years later, we continue to pay a terrible price for the Department’s heroic efforts,” FDNY commissioner Daniel Nigro said in a statement.

Leaver, a 20-year veteran, and Bischoff, a 19-year veteran, grew up in Brooklyn and were childhood friends. Heglund served 21 years with the department and died just a day before his 59th birthday.

One of the firefighters died of leukemia, another of esophageal cancer and the third of colon cancer.

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“Your Future Is Very Dark”

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Photo Credit: Bettman / Corbis
America was riding high in June 1951, and so was John T. Downey, a 21-year-old English major and football star, as he stood in the courtyard of Yale’s old campus one Monday morning beside his beaming mother. Downey had graduated from one of America’s most elite institutions, just as the Korean War turned 1 year old, with U.S. forces then pushing back a Communist offensive by the North Koreans and the Chinese. Armistice talks would begin as a result. The United States might soon be bringing its boys home.

But such hopes were premature. Two long, bloody years would pass before the war ended, and by that time John Downey would find himself shackled in a Chinese prison cell, confessing his status as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, which, along with the rest of the U.S. government, now presumed him dead. He would remain there for more than 20 years, making him the longest held captive of war in American history.

John Downey’s story has been told in bits and pieces since his release. In December 1978, five years after returning to the U.S. and then 48 years old, Downey gave his first major interview, to People, but relinquished only a few brief facts about his time in prison. Thirty years later, he entrusted more details to CIA historians for an internal CIA documentary on the mission that led to his imprisonment. Otherwise, Downey has largely kept his story to himself, abiding by his “self-imposed silence,” as the reporter for People described it in 1978, refusing in-depth interviews, book offers, and other chances at the limelight.

I first met Downey in the spring of 2013, in the chambers of a New Haven, Connecticut, courthouse. Having just finished my second year of law school, I had heard about the man who spent more than two decades in a Chinese prison; had been a CIA spy in the early days of the agency’s existence; and was now, improbably, working as a judge. At first, I just wanted to meet the man. But as I got to know him better, and began meeting with him more frequently, discussing, among other topics, my experience as a law student and my own professional ambitions, I asked him if he might share the details of his life and career with me, and allow me to recount his story for publication. It took some persuading, but Downey eventually agreed.

What follows is based on a year and a half of interviews between John Downey and myself, much of it recounted from the living room of his home. It marks the first time he’s sat down with a reporter to tell his story in full.

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Bureaucrat SMACKED DOWN After Warning Homeschooling Parents They ‘Must Follow’ Common Core

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Photo Credit: Reuters The Home School Legal Defense Association says it has successfully intervened in the case of two New Jersey parents who decided to homeschool their child instead of utilizing the Westfield, N.J. public school system.

According to the homeschooling advocacy group, the trouble began earlier this school year when the assistant superintendent of the Westfield Public Schools sent a letter to the parents warning them that they have no choice but to abide by New Jersey’s Common Core standards.

The letter ordered the parents to present a “letter of intent” to school district officials and an outline of their proposed curriculum. Then, the letter reportedly said, the parents had to hope the superintendent would accept their curriculum and allow them to continue homeschooling their own child.

The parents responded by contacting the Home School Legal Defense Association. In a letter of his own, Scott A. Woodruff, an attorney for the organization, schooled the assistant superintendent on New Jersey homeschooling law.

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WATCH: Veteran Rescheduled MN VA Appointment from the Grave

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Photo Credit: APCould the death of Jordan Buisman been prevented with immediate care? KARE-11 follows up on their earlier exposé on the Minneapolis VA with this heartbreaking story of a young Marine who died while waiting 70 days to get to an appointment that might have otherwise saved his life. Medical attention after his conditioned worsened might have gotten him past the acute crisis in his seizure disorder, but not only did the VA not expedite his request for a follow-up, his appointment got pushed out even further, supposedly at his own request … four days after he died:

Jordan Buisman’s family believes his medical records were falsified to hide serious delays in patient care at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center.

“It really makes me angry,” says Lisa Riley, Jordan’s mother.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘The World Is United,’ Obama Tells 5 Arab Partners Who Joined Attack on ISIS

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Photo Credit: AP / Pablo Martinez MonsivaisBy Patrick Goodenough.

President Obama on Tuesday thanked representatives of the five Arab nations that took part in Monday night’s U.S.-led airstrikes against terrorists in Syria “for their participation and commitment to rolling back the violent extremism that has so disrupted Iraq and Syria and threatens the region as a whole.”

“Because of the almost unprecedented effort of this coalition,” he said, “I think we now have an opportunity to send a very clear message that the world is united; that all of us are committed to making sure that we degrade and ultimately destroy not only ISIL, but also the kinds of extremist ideologies that would lead to so much bloodshed.”

Obama was speaking in New York during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah, officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar, joined by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

“This is not going to be something that is quick, and it is not something that is going to be easy,” he said. “It will take time, and it’s not only a military effort.”

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PM Cameron: Defeating ALL Extremism Means “Banning Preachers of Hate and Intolerance”

By Greg Hengler.

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