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OF THERoman police tracked down the
“uncatchable” graffiti-spraying
“Geco,” sometimes called the
Banksy of Rome.
For years, Geco’s block-letter
tags popped up around Rome,
most famously across the roof of a
city food market. But the under-
ground artist eluded authorities.
Rome’s mayor posted on Face-
book that Geco was identified,
and “hundreds of spray-paint
cans, thousands of stickers,” and
other items were found in his
apartment. If Geco is arrested, he
faces two years in prison.
Mexico may soon become the
world’s largest legal weed market.
The country known for its long-
running and violent drug wars is
working on laws that would legal-
ize marijuana two years after the
nation’s Supreme Court said rec-
reational use should be permitted.
Killer whales have attacked
again, marking more than 40 such
incidents in the waters off Spain
and Portugal this year.
David Smith was sailing in a 45-
foot yacht off the coast of Portugal
in October when his boat was
rammed by an ornery pod of orcas.
“I don’t frighten easily and this
was terrifying,” Smith said.
A Google Earth user has spotted
something odd in Antarctica.
The self-proclaimed “Earth
watchman,” known as “Mr.
MBB333” on YouTube, claims he
has spotted an air vent on top of a
“metallic shield” in a no-fly zone
area in the icy South Pole continent.
He posted a video describing
the pitch-black “opening” with a
metal-like “shield,” proclaiming it
a “thermal vent” and prompting
some of the 1,000 comments to
declare it a sign of aliens at work.
The grandson of a Nazi who
helped seize a Jewish family’s
store in 1938 in Germany tracked
down the descendants of the vic-
tims so he could apologize.
Thomas Edelmann, 49, never
met his grandfather, Wilhelm Edel-
mann, but learned of the heinous
act through genealogy records that
showed Edelmann had “bought” a
hardware store owned by Benja-
min Heidelberger at a time when
anti-Semitic laws forced Jews to
sell their businesses.
Eileen AJ Connelly, Wires
The grandson of a Nazi whoGErmANy
Roman police tracked down theA Google Earth user has spottedMexico may soon become theKiller whales have attackedEgyptian antiquities officials on
Saturday announced the discovery
of at least 100 ancient coffins, some
with mummies inside, and around
40 gilded statues in a vast Phara-
onic necropolis south of Cairo.
Colorful, sealed sarcophagi and
statues that were buried more
than 2,500 years ago were dis-
played in a makeshift exhibit (left)
at the feet of the famed Step Pyra-
mid of Djoser at Saqqara.
Archaeologists opened a coffinwith a well-preserved mummy
wrapped in cloth inside. They also
carried out X-raying, which visu-
alizes the structures of the ancient
mummy, showing how the body
has been preserved.
Tourism and Antiquities Minis-
ter Khaled el-Anany told a news
conference that the discovered
items date back to the Ptolemaic
dynasty that ruled Egypt for some
300 years — from around 320 B.C.
to about 30 B.C. APMajestic new mummies
By EilEEn AJ ConnEllyIran on Saturday denied re-
ports that an al Qaeda com-
mander who masterminded the
1998 US embassy bombings was
gunned down within its borders.
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah,
also known as Abu Muhammad
al-Masri, was allegedly killed on
Aug. 7 by Israeli operatives
working on behalf of the United
States, according to reports.
Iran has claimed that no
al Qaeda “terrorists” were living
in its country.
“From time to time, Washing-
ton and Tel Aviv try to tie Iran to
such groups by lying and leaking
false information to the media in
order to avoid responsibility forthe criminal activities of this
group and other terrorist groups
in the region,” Iran’s Foreign
Ministry said in a statement Sat-
urday.
The nearly simultaneous 1998
bombings in Kenya and Tanzania
orchestrated by al-Masri killed
224 people, including 12 Ameri-
cans, and injured more than
4,500.
On the 22nd anniversary of the
Africa attacks, al-Masri and his
daughter were reportedly shot
dead in an upscale neighborhood
by two men who fled on a motor-
cycle, intelligence officials told
The New York Times.
His death was covered up by
Iranian officials, according to
CNN, which reported that al-Masri and his daughter were
originally identified as a Leba-
nese professor and his daughter.
But those two people do not ex-
ist.
Al-Masri was seen as a likely
successor to al Qaeda’s current
leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who
is reportedly in poor health.
It’s not clear if the United States
had any direct role in the alleged
death of the terrorist leader. US
authorities had been tracking al-
Masri and other al Qaeda opera-
tives in Iran for years, but have
not confirmed the report.
Shi’ite Iran and al Qaeda, a
Sunni Muslim militant organiza-
tion, are typically seen as ene-
mies. Al-Masri had been in Iran’s
“custody” since 2003, but hadbeen living openly in an upscale
suburb of Tehran since 2015, the
Times reported, citing unnamed
US intelligence officials. US
counterterrorism officials be-
lieve Iran may have let him live
there to conduct operations
against US targets.
Al Qaeda has not acknowl-
edged al-Masri’s death.
Al-Masri was one of al Qaeda’s
founding leaders, along with
Osama bin Laden, who orches-
trated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
and was then killed in an Ameri-
can raid in Pakistan in 2011.
Al-Masri still appears on the
FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list,
where a $10 million reward is of-
fered for information leading to
his arrest. With WiresASSASSINATED? Al Qaeda commander Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah (inset), who masterminded the 1998
US embassy bombings in Kenya (above) and Tanzania, was reportedly gunned down in Iran on Aug. 7.Tehran
denies
terrorist
died
EPA