Burundi takes 17 people involved in failed coup to high court

Jihadists advance on ancient Palmyra as US kills top IS leader

US special forces killed a senior Islamic State group leader in a raid in eastern Syria, the White House said Saturday, as jihadists closed in on Syria’s ancient Palmyra and Ramadi in Iraq. President Barack Obama ordered the raid on Al-Omar in east Syria on Friday night to capture senior IS leader Abu Sayyaf and his wife Umm Sayyaf, US officials said.

US commandos kill IS commander in rare Syria raid

US Army special forces killed an Islamic State commander in a daring night raid, the White House said Saturday, in the first publicly confirmed American ground operation targeting jihadists in Syria. US commandos have entered Syria before, for example last year on a failed bid to rescue Western hostages, but this week’s operation appeared to mark a departure in missions targeting the militants. On orders from President Barack Obama, elite

Burundi accused of crackdown after failed coup

Burundi’s government was Saturday accused of launching a campaign of repression against independent media, the day after loyalist troops defeated an attempted coup against the central African nation’s president. Rights activist Innocent Muhozi said journalists were being subjected to threats of arrest and even death, and that the head of the prominent independent radio station RPA had been forced to flee the country. On Friday President Pierre Nkurunziza thanked loyalist

Boston Marathon bomber Tsarnaev sentenced to death for 2013 attack

By Scott Malone and Elizabeth Barber BOSTON (Reuters) – Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death by a U.S. jury on Friday for helping carry out the 2013 attack that killed three people and wounded 264 others in the crowds at the race’s finish line. After deliberating for 15 hours, the federal jury chose death by lethal injection for Tsarnaev, 21, over its only other option: life in

Philadelphia train may have been hit by projectile before wreck

By Jarrett Renshaw PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia and a separate commuter train in the vicinity may have been hit by projectiles of some kind shortly before the wreck, a U.S. transportation official said on Friday, after investigators interviewed members of the Amtrak crew. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was called in to examine a remnant of the Amtrak locomotive’s shattered windshield with a