Brussels bomber identified ,....1990s WWE wrestling star Chyna dies....,

Brussels bomber identified

7 / 48

AFP

47 mins ago

© Provided by AFP Najim Laachraoui, one of the suicide bombers involved in the terrorist attacks at Brussels' Zaventem airport on March 22, in a photo obtained from the Interpol website Najim Laachraoui, one of the Brussels airport bombers, has been identified by several Frenchmen held hostage by Islamic State in Syria as one of their prison guards, sources close to the investigation said Friday.
According to one of the sources, four French journalists kidnapped and held in Syria from 2013 to 2014 had identified a guard known as "Abou Idriss".
One of the journalists, Nicolas Henin, "has formally identified" Abou Idriss as being Najim Laachraoui, his lawyer Marie-Laure Ingouf said, confirming reports in French newspapers.
Belgian prosecutors have said Laachraoui travelled to Syria in February 2013 to join up with IS forces.
There was no further trace of the Belgian national until he was registered under a false name at the border between Austria and Hungary in September 2015.
Laachraoui, 24, was one of the two suicide bombers who struck Brussels airport on March 22, while a third attacker blew himself up at on a metro train, with the two attacks killing 31 people.
Prosecutors have also linked him to November's attacks in Paris in which 130 people died, saying his DNA was found on a suicide vest and a piece of cloth at the Bataclan concert hall where 90 people were killed.
Police also found his DNA on explosives used at the Stade de France, leading investigators to believe he was the bomb maker in both the French and Belgian attacks.
The former French hostages have already identified two Frenchmen as being among their jailers when they were held in Syria.
One, Mehdi Nemmouche, is in custody accused of killing four people in an attack on the Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014.
The other is Salim Benghalem, who has been sentenced in absentia in France for recruiting for IS and is listed as a "foreign terrorist combatant" by the United States.

1990s WWE wrestling star Chyna dies

47 / 48

Associated Press

1 day ago

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REDONDO BEACH, Calif. — Chyna, the WWE star who in the 1990s became one of the best-known and most-popular female professional wrestlers in history, has died, authorities said.
Police in Southern California said they were responding to a 911 call from a friend of former WWE wrestler Chyna when they found her dead in her Redondo Beach apartment.
A friend had gone Wednesday to check on Chyna, whose real name is Joan Marie Laurer, after she had failed to answer her phone for a few days, Redondo Beach police said in a statement. The friend told the 911 operator that Laurer wasn't breathing.
The 46-year-old Laurer was dead when officers arrived, police said. Several media outlets report that she was 45.
Neither police nor coroner's officials have released any cause of death.

• 
  

  1/4 SLIDES © AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File

  
  

  FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2003 file photo, Joanie Laurer,
  former pro wrestler known as Chyna, flexes her bicep as
  she arrives at the 31st annual American Music Awards, in \
  Los Angeles. Chyna, the WWE star who became one of the
   best known and most popular female professional wrestlers in
   history in the late 1990s, has died at age 45. Los Angeles County coroner
  ’s Lt. Larry
   Dietz says Chyna, whose real name is Joan Marie Laurer, was
  found dead in Redondo
  Beach on Wednesday, April 20, 2016.
•  
   A coroner's investigator was still at the location with the body late Wednesday night,
   according to Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Larry Dietz. He said he had no further
   information on the death.
  The tall, muscle-bound, raven-haired Laurer billed herself as the "9th Wonder of the
  World" because her wrestling predecessor Andre the Giant had already called himself
   the eighth.
• 

She was a member of the wrestling squad that dubbed itself "D-Generation X," often wrestled 

 against men and at one point was the WWE women's champion.
On her official website a statement posted Wednesday night reads, "Today we lost a true icon, 

a real life superhero. Joanie Laurer aka Chyna, the 9th Wonder of the World has passed away. 

She will live forever in the memories of her millions of fans and all of us that loved her."
Laurer was a native of Rochester, New York and graduated from the University of Tampa in

 Florida before taking up wrestling.
She joins a long list of WWE professional wrestlers who have died relatively young,

 including Rick Rude, Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig, the Ultimate Warrior and Owen Hart.
After leaving the WWE in 2001, Laurer posed for Playboy and appeared in adult films

 and on reality TV, including the shows "The Surreal Life" and "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. 

 Drew."