Homeland Security News

Holding Puerto Rican flags and "Free Oscar Lopez Rivera" signs, dozens of community members and former revolutionaries on Tuesday filled a small Humboldt Park community theater.

The impromptu celebration on Chicago's West Side came just hours after President Barack Obama commuted Lopez's prison sentence for his role in an organization that in the 1970s and early '80s plotted bombings, prison escapes and armed robberies in an effort to secure independence for Puerto Rico, a territory of the U.S.

Read more: Chicago Tribune

Al Mourabitoun, an Islamist group linked to al Qaeda, claimed a suicide bomb attack on a military camp in northern Mali on Wednesday that killed at least 42 people and wounded more than 100 others, according to a Mauritanian news agency.

Al Mourabitoun, led by veteran jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed responsibility in a statement sent to the Mauritanian news agency Alakhbar, regularly used by militant groups to communicate publicly.

Al Mourabitoun is believed to have carried out a number of high-profile attacks across military and civilian targets in Mali and other West African nations.

Read more: New York Times

Manchester United say they are the first sports club in England to appoint a full-time counter-terrorism manager.  The post has been filled by a former inspector from Greater Manchester Police's specialist search unit.

The appointment, revealed at a recent club forum, comes amid significant additional security measures introduced at Old Trafford on matchdays.  Vehicles are now routinely checked as they enter car parks, and supporters are searched at turnstiles.

United's Premier League game against Bournemouth in May was postponed when the stadium was evacuated after what turned out to be a fake bomb was found in a toilet.

Read more: BBC News

Egyptian authorities have added one of the country's all-time greatest soccer players to a terror watch and no-fly list, over accusations he helped finance the Muslim Brotherhood, now banned as a terrorist organization, judicial officials said Wednesday.

Court officials said Wednesday that Mohamed Aboutrika, of Cairo's Al-Ahly club and the national team, was added last Thursday to a "terrorism list" that includes former president Mohamed Morsi as well as the Brotherhood's spiritual guide, Mohammed Badie and other leaders from the group.

Read more: AP News

At least 33 people were killed and several dozen injured after an explosives-laden vehicle targeted a camp housing armed groups in northern Mali, a local official said Wednesday.

The morning blast hit the Joint Operational Mechanism base in the city of Gao. The base houses hundreds of fighters including members of armed groups that signed Mali's 2015 peace agreement. The camp also houses Malian soldiers.

Witnesses said the car bearing explosives breached the camp at around 9 a.m., just as hundreds of fighters were gathering for a meeting.

Northern Mali remains insecure despite a French-led military intervention launched in 2013 to drive out Islamic extremists that had taken over the area.

Read more: ABC News