Man held for plotting to join Taliban
NEWYORK — Federal authorities yanked a Bronx man off an airplane bound for the Middle East on Friday after learning the suspected terrorist sympathizer was going to join the Taliban, officials said.
Delowar Mohammad Hossain, originally from Bangladesh but now a U.S. citizen, was pulled off a Qatar Airways plane at JFK Airport just before it was about to take off, sources with knowledge of the case said. Federal investigators and Port Authority police made the grab, the sources said.
No charges were immediately filed against Mr. Hossain, who was brought to Manhattan federal court, sources said.
Mr. Hossain had been flagged as a possible terrorist sympathizer who had plans to join the Taliban. Federal officials brought him in for questioning after he decided to fly to the Middle East.
Shooting motive sought
LOSANGELES — One day after a shooting rampage in the San Fernando Valley left four dead and three injured, authorities are trying to sort out what prompted the string of violence.
Los Angeles police say Gerry Dean Zaragoza, 26, first shot his father, mother and brother at their home in Canoga Park in the middle of the night, then shot a woman he reportedly knew a few miles away.
After that, the rampage appears to have turned random, authorities said.
LAPD Deputy Chief Kris Pitcher, who oversees detectives, said authorities have not identified a motive in the shootings.
Georgia election fraud
ATLANTA — In a federal court filing, lawyers for election integrity advocates accuse Georgia election officials of intentionally destroying evidence that could show unauthorized access to the state election system and potential manipulation of election results.
Election integrity advocates and individual Georgia voters sued election officials in 2017 alleging that the touchscreen voting machines Georgia has used since 2002 are unsecure and vulnerable to hacking. In a court filing, they said state officials began destroying evidence within days of the lawsuit’s filing and continued to do so as the case moved forward.
“The evidence strongly suggests that the State’s amateurish protection of critical election infrastructure placed Georgia’s election system at risk, and the State Defendants now appear to be desperate to cover up the effects of their misfeasance —to the point of destroying evidence,” the filing said.
Defamation suit tossed
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A judge ruled that a Northern Kentucky high school student who drew national attention after an incident involving a Native American in Washington, D.C., does not have legal grounds to sue The Washington Post.
Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann’s defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post was dismissed Friday.
Videos that went viral afterthe incident in January showed Mr. Sandmann and Nathan Phillips, a Native American man, standing faceto face in close proximity to one another as Mr. Phillips beat a drum and sanga traditional song while Mr. Sandmann smiled. A groupof young men around them laughed and danced.
Mr. Sandmann was part of a group of Covington Catholic students who had attended the March for Life that day, while Mr. Phillips had attended the Indigenous Peoples March.