The U.S. military has killed a senior al-Qaeda-aligned leader in Syria in a drone strike, says CENTCOM. The strike targeted Abu-'Abd al-Rahman al-Makki, a senior Islamist leader responsible for overseeing terrorist activities from Syria.

His group, the Hurras al-Din, is a Syria-based force aligned with al-Qaeda that shares the terror group’s objective of attacking American and Western interests. Al-Makki was riding a motorcycle when the precision strike hit, ending his long-standing role in the region’s jihadist networks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Read the full story here›

Research shows that a disconnect between the brain and gut can contribute to obesity. Fortunately, there are ways to reunite them. Our colleague Dr. Yuhong Dong reports that our perceptions about what we eat affect how our bodies respond to food.

For instance, when we eat a low-calorie snack but think that the food contains many calories, our bodies may respond in a manner similar to eating higher-caloric foods. Such is the power of the mind. These and other perceptions can change our metabolism. Read the full story here›

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