Libyan operative charged in 1988 lockerbie Bombing is in FBI custody
A Libyan intelligence operative charged in the 1988 bombing of an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, was arrested by the FBI and is being extradited to the United States to face prosecution for one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in U.S. history, officials said Sunday. The arrest of the operative, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud, was the culmination of a decadeslong effort by the Justice Department to prosecute him. In 2020, Attorney General William Barr announced criminal charges against Mas’ud, accusing him of building the explosive device used in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 passengers, including 190 Americans.
New Los Angeles mayor to declare homelessness a crisis
Karen Bass was sworn in as the first female mayor of Los Angeles on Sunday and vowed to build consensus among elected leaders as Angelenos contend with racial tensions, surging homelessness and a new rise in coronavirus cases. Vice President Kamala Harris swore in Bass in a ceremony that celebrated her historic win but also underscored the obstacles she will face. Bass said her first act as mayor on Monday would be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness. Bass, a former Democratic congresswoman, won election against Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer, in a hard-fought race.
Ukraine faces more outages and strikes Russian-controlled Melitopol
Russian drone strikes on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa plunged more than 1.5 million people in the region into darkness over the weekend, while 220 miles to the east, the Ukrainians struck the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, an attack that opened another front in the fiercely contested battle for territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country’s forces had shot down 10 of 15 drones that Russia deployed over Odesa. But he said the strikes by Russia, part of a nationwide assault on Ukraine’s energy grid, had left the region in a “very difficult” situation, warning that it would take “days,” not “hours,” to restore power to civilians.
US commandos kill two Islamic State officials in Syria
U.S. Special Operations forces carried out a helicopter raid against the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria early Sunday, killing two operatives, including one official who the military said was involved in plotting and enabling terrorist attacks. The Pentagon’s Central Command, which oversees U.S. troops in Syria, said Sunday that the main target of the mission, an Islamic State Syria provincial official known by the nom de guerre Anas, was killed in the raid that took place at 2:57 a.m. in an undisclosed part of eastern Syria. U.S. commandos had planned the mission for weeks, but bad weather had delayed the operation, U.S. officials said.
3 bald eagles die, 10 sick after eating euthanized animals
At least 13 bald eagles were likely poisoned by scavenging the carcasses of euthanized animals that were improperly disposed of at a Minnesota landfill and three of the majestic birds have died. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that state and federal wildlife officials are investigating after the eagles were found this month near the Pine Bend Landfill in the Minneapolis suburb of Inver Grove Heights. Ten of the birds are now in intensive care at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center. The center’s executive director Victoria Hall says she’s optimistic those eagles will recover.
