Man charged with planning to bomb NYC to help IS

Man charged with planning to bomb NYC to help IS

NEWARK, N.J.

A New Jersey man arrested after stabbing the family dog had plans to construct and use a pressure-cooker bomb in New York City and, if necessary, become a martyr in support of the Islamic State group, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Gregory Lepsky, 20, of Point Pleasant, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Investigators say he had praised the Islamic State group’s leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, in online messages.

He was arrested in February after investigators said he stabbed and threatened to kill the dog. After police arrived, investigators said Lepsky threatened to kill his mother and told police that he had “pledged his allegiance to ‘Allah.’”

US military member killed in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia

A U.S. service member has been killed in Somalia during an operation against the extremist group al-Shabab – the first U.S. combat death there in more than two decades – as the United States steps up its fight against the al-Qaida-linked organization in a country that remains largely chaotic.

“We do not believe there has been a case where a U.S. service member has been killed in combat action in Somalia since the incident there in 1993,” U.S. Africa Command spokesman Patrick Barnes said Friday.

Almost 3,000 migrants rescued in Mediterranean

ROME

Almost 3,000 people have been rescued in a large-scale operation in the central Mediterranean after the discovery of more than 20 boats carrying migrants, a spokesman for the Italian coast guard said late Friday.

At least seven deaths had been reported by NGOs operating in the area, with the bodies arriving in Italy by boat.

Earlier Friday, SOS Mediterranee, a Franco-German-Italian nongovernmental organization, wrote on Twitter that one of its boats had intercepted 20 migrant vessels. Such boats usually carry about 100 passengers each.

Rape charges against Hispanic teens dropped

ROCKVILLE, Md.

Prosecutors are dropping charges against two Hispanic teens accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in a restroom at a suburban Washington high school, a case cited by the White House as an example of why the president wants to crack down on illegal immigration.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said at a Friday news conference that the rape and sex offense charges were being dropped after a “painstaking investigation” of the girl’s claim that the two teens raped her in the bathroom at Rockville High School.

French candidate’s team says it is victim of cyber attack

PARIS

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s team said it has been the victim of a “massive” cyber attack and that its documents have been distributed via social networks.

Macron’s team said in a statement that hackers have mixed fake documents with real ones stolen from the personal and professional email accounts of campaign staff. The campaign said the activities shown by its documents are completely legal.

Centrist independent Macron was leading his nationalist rival Marine Le Pen by a wide margin when campaigning officially ended at midnight Friday.

Combined dispatches