The American Spectator – Robert Stacy McCain

Kaitlyn Ashley Hunt, an 18-year old

In January, Rush Limbaugh warned that there was “an effort under way to normalize pedophilia,” and was ridiculed by liberals (including CNN’s Soledad O’Brien) for saying so. But now liberals have joined a crusade that, if successful, would effectively legalize sex with 14-year-olds in Florida.

The case involves Kaitlyn Ashley Hunt, an 18-year-old in Sebastian, Florida, who was arrested in February after admitting that she had a lesbian affair with a 14-year high-school freshman. (Click here to read the affidavit in Hunt’s arrest.) It is a felony in Florida to have sex with 14-year-olds. Hunt was expelled from Sebastian High School — where she and the younger girl had sex in a restroom stall — and charged with two counts of “felony lewd and lascivious battery on a child.” The charges could put Hunt in prison for up to 15 years. Prosecutors have offered Hunt a plea bargain that would spare her jail time, but her supporters have organized an online crusade to have her let off scot-free — in effect, nullifying Florida’s law, which sets the age of consent at 16. Read more »

White House Dossier – Keith Koffler

State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland

The  State Department spokeswoman who played a pivotal role in deleting portions of the Benghazi talking points has been tapped by President Obama for a plum new post, bagging a nomination to become assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

Nuland is a career foreign service officer who had held many high-level positions, including under George W. Bush. But her nomination to handle the European portfolio will likely be seen by Republicans as an example of the president flipping the bird their way.

Senate confirmation in the current environment would seem unlikely, at best. Read more »

BBC

Protesters carrying images of Sheikh Isa Qassem march in Diraz

Tens of thousands of Bahrainis have participated in a sit-in in protest at a raid on a senior Shia cleric’s home.

The sit-in was called by al-Wefaq, Bahrain’s largest opposition political society, after a late night raid on the home of Sheikh Isa Qassim.

Last week’s raid provoked anger in the Shia Muslim community.

Sheikh Qassim is the most senior Shia cleric in the Gulf island state. Bahrain has a majority Shia population rule by a Sunni Muslim royal family. Read more »

The Telegraph - Bruno Waterfield, Brussels and Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent

President Bashar al-Assad has made such significant military gains that arming rebels directly has become a matter of urgency, according to British sources.

BBC

An American accused of murdering his relatives in the Czech Republic has been arrested at Dulles airport near Washington DC, the FBI has said.

Kevin Dahlgren, 20, had been sought since four bodies were found at a house in the city of Brno on Wednesday.

He is accused of stabbing to death his uncle, aunt and two cousins before apparently setting fire to his victims.

Police in Brno said that he was detained in the US on Thursday night, having flown there from Vienna. Read more »

The Telegraph - Zubair Babakarkhail, Kabul and Dean Nelson, New Delhi

Taliban militants and Afghan police are locked in a fierce gunfight in the center of Kabul

A wounded Afghan policeman is helped away from the site of an explosion in Kabul on Friday

The Washington Times – Jeffrey T Kuhner

If he’s complicit, a big if, Obama’s offense would rival Nixon’s

Illustration by Alexander Hunter for The Washington Times

Did President Obama know about his administration’s enemies list? If he did — and it looks like he may have — then his presidency is in deep trouble. The burgeoning scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service may do to him what Watergate did to Richard M. Nixon.

IRS agents deliberately targeted numerous conservative and Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status. Their goal: to prevent Mr. Obama’s opposition from being able to organize and raise money — especially during the closely contested 2012 election cycle. The IRS was transformed into a partisan arm of the administration in order to persecute Mr. Obama’s critics. This was not only unethical, but also unconstitutional and illegal. The IRS engaged in massive, systemic abuse of power. Read more »

BBC

The men are now known as Michael Adebolajo, left, and Michael Adebowale

The government has defended security services against criticism they missed signs which might have helped prevent the murder of a soldier in London.

The UK’s security services face a Commons inquiry after it was confirmed the two men arrested over the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby were known to MI5.

But Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said it was impossible to control everyone all the time.

The suspects are known to be Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale. Read more »

CNN - Michael Pearson, Ben Brumfield and AnneClaire Stapleton

Dan Sligh could see it coming. An 18-wheeler carrying an oversize load had just struck part of the Interstate 5 bridge over Washington’s frigid Skagit River. And the pavement was giving way.

He slammed on the brakes, but the momentum of his truck and trailer carried Sligh and his wife off the bridge and into the water dozens of feet below, he told CNN affiliate KOMO Thursday, hours after the incident some 60 miles north of Seattle.

“You hold on as tight as you can,” Sligh said. Then, a “white flash and cold water.” Read more »

CNN - Michael Pearson and David Mattingly

New photo in Trayvon Martin case

Items taken from Trayvon Martin’s cell phone — including a text-message discussion of drug use and pictures of a gun and marijuana plants — are among new details released Thursday by attorneys for the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of killing him without provocation 14 months ago.

The evidence, George Zimmerman’s attorneys say, paints a different picture of the 17-year-old than the one portrayed by his family and supporters. Lead defense attorney Mark O’Mara says he will try to use the evidence if prosecutors attempt to attack Zimmerman’s character during his trial on second-degree murder charges, set to begin next month. Read more »

CNN - John D Sutter

Nancy E. Davis crouched alone in her white barn as a tornado tossed off the roof and peeled back the walls.

Maybe it was luck that saved her then, in 1999. Maybe it was fate.

But that memory, of a tornado that leveled her home 14 years ago, came rushing back this week when the 94-year-old learned that another twister barreled toward her. Her ears popped from the pressure change. A dark spiral descended from the clouds. Read more »

IRNUSA News – Sean Scott Ferguson

US Consulate in Benghazi

Over eight months since the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya left four Americans murdered, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, and the FBI is still unable to arrest the suspects – five of whom have been identified – because there isn’t enough proof to try them in a US civilian court, as the Obama administration wants to do.

As the FBI gathers evidence, the men move freely around Libya. And, it could be a while before there is much more progress, since the investigation has slowed due to a reduced US intelligence presence and the lack of ability of the post-Gadhafi Libyan government’s enforcement and intelligence agencies.

NBC News - Michael Isikoff

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.

The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.

“I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable,” Obama said. “Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs.” Read more »

The Hill - Bernie Becker and Peter Schroeder

Photo: Greg Nash

Congressional Republicans are skeptical the IRS’s treatment of conservative groups warrants a special prosecutor, fearing that step could limit their own investigation into the agency.

GOP lawmakers stress that – with just one inspector general’s report and three hearings in the rearview mirror – it’s too early to lean on a special counsel, and that calling for the Justice Department to act should be a last resort.

“When I can’t do my job because I lack the authority or cooperation, I’ll seek additional remedies,” House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told reporters on Thursday. Read more »

BBC – Dave Lee

A concept device has been created by the BBC team

A radio that is able to change a broadcast depending on where you are and what you are doing has been demonstrated by the BBC.

The Perceptive Radio, produced by the corporation’s Future Media North Lab, is thought to be a world first.

The team produced a computer-generated radio drama where the script altered depending on factors such as weather.

The device was shown off at the Thinking Digital Conference in Gateshead. Read more »

The Hill – Kevin Bogardus

Obamacare not looking as good to the unions

Labor unions are breaking with President Obama on ObamaCare.

Months after the president’s reelection, a variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. They warn that unless there are changes, the results could be catastrophic.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 million-member labor group that twice endorsed Obama for president — is very worried about how the reform law will affect its members’ healthcare plans.  Read more »

The Washington Times – Stephen Dinan

House Speaker John Boehner

House Speaker John A. Boehner on Thursday flatly ruled out chances of the House passing the Senate’s immigration bill, saying his chamber will debate its own bill instead.

Mr. Boehner and his top GOP lieutenants issued a joint statement that seemed designed to tamp down some of the momentum behind the Senaate bill, which emerged from a Senate committee on a bipartisan 13-5 vote earlier this week, and to stake out a House GOP position. Read more »

BREITBART – Elizabeth Sheld

On Wednesday, the Chicago School Board voted to close 49 elementary schools, “in what is believed to be the biggest single mass shutdown of schools in U.S. history”

Fifty-three schools were originally scheduled to be shut down.  The closures come as part of Chicago’s plan to deal with it’s massive $1B deficit. The schools were shut down for “failing to meet academic standards.” Read more »

BBC

The Ecuadorean space agency (EXA) is trying to pick up signals from its satellite after it crashed in space into debris from an old rocket.

The nano-satellite, called Pegasus, was launched from the Jiuquan spaceport in China less than a month ago.

It is Ecuador’s first and only satellite in orbit.

Experts said Pegasus had collided with debris from a Soviet rocket but was still in orbit. It is not yet clear if it has been damaged. Read more »

BBC

Carl Pistorius

The brother of athletics star Oscar Pistorius has been acquitted of culpable homicide over the death of a motorcyclist in South Africa.

A magistrate ruled that Carl Pistorius, 28, had not been negligent in the death of Marietjie Barnard in March 2008.

The prosecution admitted it had been unable to prove the charges and said it would take no further action.

The case had attracted attention as it came to court shortly after Oscar Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend. Read more »

A new Fox news poll Shows that 56% of all Americans say they want to return to the pre-Obama health care system. While only 3 out of 10 Democrats would go back to the old syatem nearly 85% of Republicans and 51% of Independents want an end to the Federal Government’s take over of the nation’s healthcare.

The Telegraph - Nick Allen, Los Angeles

The strange case of computer software tycoon John McAfee has taken a new twist after his home in Belize burned to the ground.

John McAfee, left, and his Belize home in flames. Photo: BLOOMBERG

The Telegraph – AFP

Islamist militants staged brazen twin car bomb attacks on an army base and a French-run uranium mine in Niger.

Fighters of the Islamist group Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa Photo: AFP

BBC

Czech police are looking for a US man from California suspected of killing a family of four in the southern city of Brno.

Officials warned the 20-year-old, named as Kevin Dahlgren, was “dangerous and possibly armed”.

The bodies of a couple and their two sons were discovered overnight after a blaze broke out in their home.

A local ukulele band told the AP news agency that two of its members were among the victims. Read more »

The Telegraph – Raf Sanchez

A Chechen man reportedly implicated the older Boston Marathon bomber in a 2011 triple murder moments before he lashed out at an FBI agent and was gunned down.

Mr Todashev, right, is believed to have been an associate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev Photo: Getty Images

BBC

The EU has dropped plans to ban restaurants from using refillable jugs and bowls of olive oil, after they drew consumer criticism and even ridicule.

The policy would have forced restaurants to only serve olive oil in tamper-proof packaging, labelled to EU standards, as of next year.

The move had been aimed at avoiding “consumers being tricked”, Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said.

But critics, including British PM David Cameron, accused the EU of meddling. Read more »

The Telegraph – AFP

France is to call for the military arm of Hezbollah to be added to an EU terror blacklist due to its backing of the Syrian regime, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

Photo: APTN

BBC

The US has now publicly acknowledged killing Anwar al-Awlaki and three other US citizens

US President Barack Obama is due to defend his administration’s use of drone strikes, in a major speech on counter-terrorism.

He is expected to offer some transparency over the strikes, amid reported moves to restrict their scope.

The speech comes a day after the US said publicly for the first time that drones had killed four US citizens.

In Thursday’s speech, Mr Obama will also address his aim of closing the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Read more »

The Telegraph

China has offered to send more than 500 troops to the UN force fighting Islamist militants in Mali, its biggest proposed contribution to UN peacekeeping ever.

Photo: AFP

CNN – Josh Levs

After the disaster, debris everywhere

Pounding rain soaked tornado-ravaged Moore, Oklahoma, on Thursday morning, and winds sent pieces of debris flying, hindering recovery efforts three days after the devastating tornado.

The number of injured rose as authorities announced that 353 people were hurt in Monday’s massive twister. Another 24 were killed — 10 of them children, including two infants, the state medical examiner’s office said.

As water gushed through the streets Thursday, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the Oklahoma City area, including Moore, and a severe thunderstorm warning as well. Read more »

BBC

Both suspects in the killing of a serving soldier in London were known to security services, senior Whitehall sources have confirmed to the BBC.

One of the suspects is understood to be 28-year-old Muslim convert Michael Adebolajo, according to sources.

He and another man are under arrest in hospital after being shot by police after Wednesday’s attack in Woolwich.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the UK will “never give in to terror or terrorism”. Read more »

BBC

Fourth night of riots in Sweden

A fourth night of unprecedented riots in Stockholm has seen unrest spread, with a restaurant and up to 40 cars burnt, police told the BBC.

Three police officers were hurt as rioters threw stones and directed laser pointers at emergency services.

The unrest began on Sunday in the deprived, largely immigrant suburb of Husby, to the north-west of the city.

Days earlier the police had shot dead an elderly man who had allegedly threatened to kill them with a machete. Read more »

The Hill - Amie Parnes and Justin Sink

Getty Images

The White House admitted Wednesday that its handling of information about three big simultaneous scandals has produced justifiable press frustration and suspicion.

After tense and combative press briefings on Monday and Tuesday, press secretary Jay Carney took a different tack Wednesday, acknowledging there were “legitimate criticisms about how we’re handling this.”

The admission crystallized a sense within the press that Team Obama, which has always focused laser-like on messaging, has suddenly lost its tight grip on the political agenda, and is now having to react to it rather than shape it. Read more »

By Cliff Kincaid

Republicans are getting tripped up by the media when challenged about evidence of President Obama’s personal involvement in the IRS scandal. Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, who chairs the House committee looking into the IRS, “admitted there was no evidence” linking Obama to the IRS scandal, as MSNBC described his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Camp said, “We don’t have anything to say that the President knew about it.” Michael O’Brien, a political reporter for NBC News, said both Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Dave Camp “admitted they lacked evidence that the targeting of conservatives was ordered by the White House.”

But a Democratic Administration or its president does not need to issue orders or directives or make telephone calls demanding that the IRS act against conservatives. History shows that it is simply how the federal bureaucracy operates. The “smoking gun” is liberal politics as usual, and it stretches back to the Kennedy Administration. Read more »

By Cliff Kincaid

Jeffrey Lord’s story in the American Spectator about a “smoking gun” in the IRS scandal has backfired. He implied that the head of the IRS union had personally met with President Obama to plot against the Tea Party when there is no evidence of such a meeting or such plotting. Instead, as the Daily Caller and U.S. News & World Report have reported, the union chief had been part of a “Workplace Flexibility Forum” in the Old Executive Office Building attended by 200 people and featuring Obama as a speaker.

Lord is a fine columnist, but Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel had previously pointed out that the smoking gun evidence of presidential wrongdoing has been right in front of us all along, in the form of various statements by the President and other administration officials attacking and demonizing the Tea Party, as well as demands from Democrats and their allies that conservative groups be scrutinized by the IRS. This was pressure from above that had its intended effect—to disable the Tea Party movement during the 2012 elections. Read more »