U.S. Says It Believes It Killed Islamic State’s Second-in-Command

WASHINGTON – The United States believes it has killed the Islamic State’s second-in-command, Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at a press conference Friday morning, confirming earlier media reports.

“We are systematically eliminating ISIL’s Cabinet. Indeed, the U.S. military killed several key terrorists this week, including, we believe Haji Imam,” Carter said, using al-Qaduli’s nom de guerre and the U.S. government’s acronym for the jihadist outfit.

He added that the terrorist suspect had served as IS’s finance minister and was responsible for its external affairs.

Asked about the significance of killing al-Qaduli, Carter said “as you know leaders can be replaced. These leaders have been around for a long time – they are senior and experienced and eliminating them is an important objective and result.”

The attack was carried out Thursday by U.S. special forces in Syria, CNN reported earlier, saying the United States had been tracking the IS leader’s movements for some time.

But neither Carter nor Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided further details of the operation.

Al-Qaduli was one of four “key” IS leaders identified by the United States, which in May 2015 had offered an award of up to $7 million for information leading to his capture or death.

The State Department described him then as “a senior ISIL official who rejoined ISIL following his release from prison in early 2012. He traveled to Syria where he has worked with an ISIL network.”

Al-Qaduli originally joined Al Qaeda in Iraq, a precursor of IS, in 2004 and served as AQI leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s deputy and as AQI emir of Mosul, Iraq, according to the State Department.

The U.S. Treasury Department named al-Qaduli as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2014, it added.

The announcement of al-Qaduli’s death comes 11 days after the United States confirmed that senior IS commander Abu Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, had died in a U.S. airstrike in Syria 10 days earlier.

Cruz Says Trump behind ‘Garbage’ Tabloid Article about His 5 Alleged Affairs

Cruz Says Trump behind ‘Garbage’ Tabloid Article about His Alleged Affairs

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz accused Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, of being behind a tabloid news article that alleges he has been unfaithful to his wife.

“Let me be clear. This National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear and it has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen,” the visibly angry Texas senator said Friday after a campaign event in Wisconsin, referring to the article published in the American supermarket tabloid National Enquirer.

The tabloid story said Cruz had five secret lovers, citing a former Trump adviser who remains close to the real-estate mogul, Roger Stone.

“These stories have been swirling around Ted for some time. I believe where there is smoke there is fire. I have to believe this will hurt him with his evangelical Christian supporters,” Stone is quoted as saying.

The alleged mistresses are not named, but blurred images of them appear with black bars across the eyes. Two of the women identified based on the photos have denied the report, according to U.S. media.

Cruz said the Stone quote was proof that Trump and his team had orchestrated the report, saying the ex-adviser to the business magnate had engaged in “50 years of dirty tricks.”

Trump, for his part, issued a statement saying he had not read the Enquirer story and had “absolutely nothing to do with” it.

“Cruz’s problem with the National Enquirer is his and his alone, and while they were right about O.J. Simpson, John Edwards and many others, I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin’ Ted Cruz.”

The latest controversy marks an escalation in personal attacks between the two candidates.

Trump accused Cruz earlier this week of being behind a Facebook advertisement that shows the business magnate’s wife posing nude for a magazine shoot, tweeting “be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!”

Cruz hit back, saying his campaign was not behind the ad and that Trump was “more of a coward than I thought” if he tried to attack his wife, Heidi.

Cruz also was angry at Trump for retweeting an unflattering image of his wife alongside a glamour photo of Melania Trump, telling reporters in Wisconsin on Thursday that his opponent was a “sniveling coward” and warning him to “leave Heidi the hell alone.”

Trump leads the GOP race with 739 delegates to Cruz’s 465, but he still faces a tough battle ahead to win the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination.

The Republican establishment has started to close ranks around Cruz in hopes he can prevent the controversial Trump from capturing the delegates required to win the nomination outright and avoid a brokered Republican National Convention in July.

Four Slain at Mexican Beach Resort as Wave of Violence Soars

MEXICO CITY – Two people were gunned down at a nightclub in Acapulco and the mutilated bodies of two men were found on the city’s outskirts as the wave of violence continued in this beach resort in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.

A man and a woman were killed during the attack at Acapulco’s Majesty night spot this Thursday, just a short distance from the heavily policed Avenida Costera thoroughfare, local media said.

The victims were a waiter and a dancer, whose names have not been revealed.

Meanwhile two men and two women, between workers at the club and customers, were wounded in the nightclub shooting and were taken in critical condition to various hospitals in the area.

According to a Federal Police report, the assailants were two young men who entered the establishment bearing arms and opened fire indiscriminately on the crowd, then left without being caught.

The street where the club is located and which has about 10 night spots, bars and restaurants, has been the scene of several attacks by gunmen in recent months.

Then as dawn approached Friday morning, the bodies of two men were found on the outskirts of the city, one of them decapitated and the other with his arms cut off and left a short distance away.

The head of the first victim was found some 3 kilometers (2 miles) away, along with a threatening message, the press reported.

So far this year in Acapulco, 221 people have been murdered, presumably the work of organized crime, according to an article in the daily El Sur.

Though Acapulco is one of the busiest Mexican resorts during Holy Week, the crowds of tourists have not been sufficient to halt the scourge of violence in this Pacific Coast municipality, which is in stark contrast to the image publicized by the authorities.

According to the Guerrero Tourism Secretariat, the hotel occupancy rate this Friday reached some 90 percent in Acapulco, where the homicide rate stands at 104 for every 100,000 inhabitants.

Acapulco has become, according to a recent study by the NGO Citizen’s Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, the third most violent city in the world.

Federal Police Commissioner Enrique Galindo said this Friday that during the Holy Week vacations, the tourist destinations in the country are guarded by more than 8,000 officers.

The commissioner said the close watch being kept by Federal Police on Acapulco has been boosted by an additional 1,400 men in uniform.

How Daddy Does His Daughter's Hair ??

Shirtless Bro Interrupts TV Interview to Challenge Nate Robinson to a 1-on-1

U.S. Denies “Specific, Credible” Threat of Brussels-Like Attacks

WASHINGTON – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Tuesday that there is – at present – no evidence of “specific, credible” terrorist threats similar to the recent terrorist attacks in Belgium which left at least 34 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

“At present, we have no specific, credible intelligence of any plot to conduct similar attacks here in the United States,” the U.S. security chief said in a communique.

“That said, we remain very focused on the threat posed by lone terrorist actors who may lack direct connection to a foreign terrorist organization; we are concerned that such radicalized individuals or small groups could carry out an attack in the Homeland with little warning,” he added.

Johnson said that Washington remains committed to identifying and disrupting the plans of foreign terrorists who could travel to or from the United States.

The DHS chief said that his department, along with other law enforcement and intelligence authorities, is undertaking a series of actions to “monitor events in Brussels, work with the authorities there” and continue to increase U.S. security.

Johnson said that the United States has increased the exchange of information with Belgian and French authorities since the attacks last November in Paris, and it has procedures to “identify and prevent” suspicious individuals from traveling to the United States from Belgium.

In addition, among other things the Transportation Safety Administration has strengthened security at airports in the largest U.S. cities as a precaution.

As President Barack Obama did earlier on Tuesday, Johnson expressed his solidarity with the Belgian people and condemned the terrorist attacks.

The secretary also offered U.S. support to Belgian authorities to do everything possible to bring to justice those responsible for the attacks, for which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

Ecuadorian Navy Seizes 1.9 Tons of Drugs near Galapagos

QUITO – The Ecuadorian navy seized 1.9 tons of drugs in an operation conducted over the past few days near the Galapagos Islands, but no suspects were arrested, prosecutors said.

The navy conducted the anti-drug operation on Thursday and Friday about 200 nautical miles from San Cristobal, in the Galapagos, the Attorney General’s Office said in a Twitter post.

The AG’s office, however, did not provide details on the types of drugs seized.

The drugs handed over to the AG’s office were found floating in the sea in sealed bales, prosecutors said.

“The bales had buoys with a satellite tracking system and the drugs, presumably, were bound for Central America,” the AG’s office said.

AG’s office personnel and drug enforcement agents put the drugs in safekeeping.

The Galapagos Islands are located about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) west of the coast of continental Ecuador and were declared a World Natural Heritage Site in 1978.

Some 95 percent of the territory’s 8,000 sq. kilometers (a little over 3,000 sq. miles) constitutes a protected area that is home to more than 50 species of animals and birds found nowhere else on the planet.

The islands were made famous by 19th-century British naturalist Charles Darwin, whose observations of life on the islands contributed greatly to his theory of the evolution of species.