DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — After years of trying to discipline him, the leaders of al-Qaida's North African branch sent one final letter to their most difficult employee. In page after scathing page, they described how he didn't answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in his expense reports, ignored meetings and refused time and again to carry out orders.

Most of all, they claimed he had failed to carry out a single spectacular operation, despite the resources at his disposal.

The employee, international terrorist Moktar Belmoktar, responded the way talented employees with bruised egos have in corporations the world over: He quit and formed his own competing group. And within months, he carried out two lethal operations that killed 101 people in all: one of the largest hostage-takings in history at a BP-operated gas plant in Algeria in January, and simultaneous bombings at a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger just last week.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-exclusive-rise-al-qaida-saharan-terrorist

Gnome Sweet Gnome: Woman accused of striking man with garden ornament

A domestic feud esculated last Sunday when Lisa Danielle Buckley, 47, allegedly clonked a man on the head with a garden gnome, said Gulfport cops, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

A New Orleans Saints garden gnome, that is.

Buckley then fled the scene and later sent text messages to the man trying to convince him to drop the charges, according to the report.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-05-24/news/sfl-flduh-garden-gnome-20130523_1_gnome-sweet-gnome-garden-text-messages

Spelling out his nickname in cocaine, this boastful photograph helped expose a drug smuggler as being part of a huge international criminal gang uncovered by police.

Wayne Braund, 31, was snorting the drug with friends when he used his bank card to line up the white powder to say ‘Braundy’ for the camera, in a picture found on his mobile phone by officers.

The 10-man team operating out of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, had imported £4.5million worth of ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine and cannabis into Britain disguised as tinned fruit and tomatoes

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331155/Drug-smuggler-spelt-nickname-cocaine-10-man-British-gang-jailed-total-92-years.html#ixzz2UdR5gkpH

A teen's $54K bar tab on his dad's credit card is making news around the globe. On May 29, News.com reported that a 16-year-old kid from Japan and his friend took his dad's credit card and bought some pretty expensive booze back in 2010. Perhaps the craziest part is that a judge just ruled that the teen doesn't have to pay any of the money back.
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"The 16-year-old and his friend took his father's platinum American Express card around luxury nightspots in the ancient capital of Kyoto, quaffing whisky and sparkling wine at up to 380,000 yen ($3,700) per bottle, Japanese media said" (via News.com).

The teen's $54K bar tab included alcohol and entrance into "swanky clubs" where he and his friend were surrounded by "attractive women." A judge placed the blame on the bar/club owners and the credit card company so the majority of the money spent is just going to be eaten by American Express apparently.

http://www.examiner.com/article/teen-s-54k-bar-tab-16-year-old-not-required-to-pay-it-back

Earlier this month, before the first game of the Canadian Hockey League's Memorial Cup, singer Alexis Normand joined a long list of people who have brutalized the U.S. national anthem in front of a large, tense crowd.
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Singer Of National Anthem Forgets Words, Powers Ahead Anyhow

Listening to this instantly immortal rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," I'm reminded of Kevin Kline's character in "A… Read…

Normand, who's Canadian, tripped up on "through the perilous fight." She's not the first. Is this a particularly tricky part of the anthem? Where do singers generally go off the rails?

To throw some science at this, we watched a bunch of YouTube videos (n=26) to find the exact lyric where unfortunate singers first fucked up the song. (You can find those videos in the annotations to the top image.) While the actual tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is famously difficult to carry–it covers an octave and a half–we focused on true flubs, so the terrible but lyrically accurate renditions of Carl Lewis, Kat Deluna, Roseanne Barr, and others got a pass.

As it turns out, pretty much anything in the first half of the anthem is fuckupable, although only one poor guy (in the very worst rendition we could find) screwed up the first line. If you made it to "And the rockets' red glare" you were in great shape, and if you got as far as "That our flag was still there" you were in the clear (with another horrible exception, shown above). The danger zone seems to be a pair of lines in the middle: O'er the ramparts we watched / Were so gallantly streaming?

http://deadspin.com/where-do-singers-screw-up-the-national-anthem-509908829

Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz has annoyed a lot of people in the Slurpee capital of the world, but his latest transgression may be his most audacious.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports that sometime in mid-May, a Winnipeg woman saw the mayor take a piece of chewing gum out of his mouth and casually toss it onto the grass, showing a cavalier disregard for the city he governs and its grass lawns.

Marilynn Kullman and her six-month old son were in the parking lot of the Fort Rouge Leisure Centre when they spotted the three-term mayor get out of his van and break the city bylaw against littering.

“Excuse me sir, would you mind picking up the gum that you dropped,” Kullman told Katz, likely expecting the chief magistrate to redden with shame and embarrassment.

http://o.canada.com/2013/05/27/winnipegs-mayor-caught-in-chewing-gum-scandal/

JCPenney Billboard Promotes Tea Kettle That Looks Like Hitler

A JCPenney billboard promoting an exclusive Michael Graves-designed tea kettle has been turning the heads of motorists driving along the 405 near Culver City.

Not so much for the teapot's "cool-touch handle" or its "space-saving design" but for its uncanny resemblance to Adolf Hitler.

The odd coincidence was first noticed by Reddit, where users were quick to wonder if this was truly just an odd coincidence.

http://gawker.com/jcpenney-billboard-promotes-tea-kettle-that-looks-like-510086791?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, punched a constituent in the face after being called the Portuguese equivalent of “excrement” in a dispute before stunned diners at a Japanese restaurant. Mr. Paes issued a written apology to the city after the episode, which unfolded Sunday night when he went outside to smoke a cigarette during a meal with his wife and several others. But he qualified the apology by stating that it was unacceptable to face such insults during private moments with his wife. The constituent, Bernardo Botkay, a writer and a singer in a rock band, said he had directed his scorn at Mr. Paes because he believed that the mayor’s policies were benefiting a select group of real estate speculators and contributing to gentrification ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, both of which will be held in Rio. “I think it is noteworthy to be physically attacked by the mayor,” Mr. Botkay said. “It clearly shows that he does not have what it takes to run the city.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/world/americas/brazil-mayor-punches-resident-in-face.html?_r=0

The British man, identified only as Graham, woke up nine years ago utterly convinced that he was no longer alive even though he was still breathing.

Doctors diagnosed him with Cotard’s Syndrome, which is also known as ‘Walking Corpse Syndrome’ because it makes people think they have turned into zombies.

Graham did not believe them, however, and insisted that his brain was dead.

The unusual condition emerged after Graham, who suffered from severe depression, tried to commit suicide by taking an electrical appliance with him into the bath.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10081702/Man-with-Walking-Corpse-Syndrome-believes-he-is-dead.html

There's a point Ervin Mears Jr. wants people to understand, and it's the reason he filed a federal lawsuit when his son was ousted from the high school track team:

"Children have rights," Mears, 68, said, "just like any adult."

In this case, he said, it's the right to run.

On May 6, Mawusimensah Mears, a sophomore at Sterling Regional High School in Camden County, was kicked off the team, the suit says.

Eleven days later, his father sued in Camden, naming the coach, athletic director, principal, superintendent, and school board.

The suit says his son was subjected to bullying and harassment. It seeks $40 million plus 2012 and 2013 varsity letters and championship jackets.

http://articles.philly.com/2013-05-27/news/39559504_1_son-catholic-school-track