“Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don’t want to ruin it by saying hello to all of you sons-of-bitches.”

Over a year later in June 2010, Carlos Almonte and his friend Mohamed Alessa were arrested by the federal authorities at the JFK International Airport, who allegedly sought to fly to Somalia and join an Islamist insurgent group.

Standing waist-deep in one of the many gravel pits that surround the city of Kenema, and struggling to fight off the harsh African sun, local diamond miner Muwomba D’akari was deeply saddened Monday to learn of Linda Hines and David Meyer’s recently canceled wedding engagement.

Thomas Bruso’s already unpredictable life took an abrupt detour. It was the day he ceased being Thomas Bruso and became Epic Beard Man, Internet sensation.

The fees, the latest introduced by American Airlines in a continuing effort to combat its financial woes, will take effect on Monday. According to company officials, these charges will include a $25 tax on citizens traveling with any other airline, as well as a mandatory $30 surcharge for passengers who decide to just stay home for the holidays instead.

“I went to my parents and said, ‘What the hell’? Imagine, I was a neo-Nazi and heard this news? I couldn’t look in the mirror for weeks,” he said. “My parents were the typical offspring of Jewish survivors of the war, who decided to conceal their Jewish identity to try and protect their family.”

France made serious errors in judgment over the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and wants to ensure that all those responsible for the slaughter are caught and punished, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday.

“I am fool.” That self-assessment comes from Oh Kil-nam, a South Korean economist who moved to North Korea a quarter-century ago, dragging along his unhappy wife and two teenage daughters. He then defected to the West, leaving his family stranded in a country his wife had called “a living hell.”

The practice of secretly assassinating purported enemies of the state — an age-old tool of foreign policy — has run up against steadily improving international police collaboration and the global proliferation of surveillance technologies that make it harder for anyone anywhere to surreptitiously conduct a high-profile killing on foreign soil.

The questions come as the Justice Department last month launched its appeal of a scathing opinion by the well-respected judge, who ruled that the conduct of Kohl and other prosecutors was so egregious that it “requires dismissal of the indictment against all the defendants.” The guards had been accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians and wounding 20 others in an eruption of gunfire and grenade explosions in a busy Baghdad square on a sunny afternoon in 2007.

Afghanistan’s president appealed to Taliban fighters Sunday to lay down their weapons and accept Afghan laws, as the government and its international allies push a program to entice militants away from the insurgency.

“After they shot him, they didn’t stop, they just kept driving,” said Baryalai, a 45-year-old day laborer who was at the scene. At least eight bullet holes were visible in the passenger side of Yunis’ vehicle. His neighbors said they counted four gunshot wounds in his torso. Windows on that side of the car were shattered, and broken glass was sprinkled on the seats and floor. “Why are these Americans killing innocent people? What was his crime?” asked Arif Khan, 30, a shopkeeper who attends the mosque. “He has so many children, his brother has already passed away, he is taking care of his brothers’ children, too. Who will take care of them now?”

At one point during the attack, which took place late Friday, only a reinforced bathroom door protected the artist, Kurt Westergaard, 74, who was shielding his 5-year-old granddaughter as the attacker — armed with an ax and a knife and shouting “Revenge!” and “Blood!” — tried to smash through the door, according to an account the artist gave to the newspaper that employs him, Jyllands-Posten.