Permawar: Afghanistan is investigating reports that Mullah Muhammad Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Taliban, is dead. Omar has not been seen in public since before the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001. A breakaway group of the Taliban claims Omar died and was buried in Zabul Province, but it’s not the first time the elusive Omar has been reported to be dead.

Africa from an American: President Obama bluntly scolded African leaders yesterday during a speech at the African Union, telling national leaders that financial and political corruption are holding them back. “Nobody should be president for life,” Obama said. “Your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas.” While Africa has had some big democratic successes lately, the continent has at least four leaders who have been in office 25 to 35 years, showing no intent to leave.

Obama joked that he thought that if he ran for a third term he could win. “But the law is the law and no person is above the law, not even the president.”  

Nation: American citizen Jonathan Pollard, who was sentenced to life in prison for passing secrets to Israel, has been approved for release on parole in November after 30 years in prison. Pollard was up for mandatory parole but could have been held longer if the Obama administration had objected. Israel apologized for spying on its most important ally and has been urging Pollard’s release for years.

>Jumping into the national gunfight, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to ban ownership of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 bullets. California already bans the manufacture and sale of large capacity magazines, but doesn’t go so far as to ban possession of them. Councilman Paul Krekorian said in front of a cheering crowd outside City Hall, “If the NRA wants to sue us over this, bring it on.”

>The sewing shop employee who helped two prisoners escape from a New York maximum-security prison pleaded guilty yesterday. Joyce Mitchell, 51, faces up to seven years in prison. She gave tools to Richard Matt and David Sweat, helping them escape from the Clinton Correctional Facility on June 6, resulting in a massive manhunt and Matt’s death when he was shot by a police officer.

The Sports Page: New England quarterback Tom Brady had his cellphone destroyed last March, according to the NFL, convincing league officers that he was covering up having played with underinflated balls in a playoff game last season.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell yesterday upheld the decision to suspend Brady from the first four games of next season, based partly on Brady telling one of his assistants to destroy the cellphone he had used before and after the game in which he was accused of intentionally using underinflated footballs. Brady admits replacing his phone but denies it was to hide evidence.

The Patriots issued a statement saying that the scientific evidence debunks the underinflated ball theory and, “It is incomprehensible as to why the league is attempting to destroy the reputation of one of its greatest players and representatives.”

The Obit Page: Crime writer Ann Rule, who wrote a bestseller about her former co-worker who turned out to be the serial killer Ted Bundy, has died at age 83. Her book “The Stranger Beside Me” describes how she came to grips with accepting that the man who once worked next to her at a Seattle suicide hotline was a vicious killer of young women.

Sporting News: A trophy-hunting Minnesota dentist is now a target of sorts himself after being identified as the hunter who killed Cecil the lion, one of the more popular creatures in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. Cecil was a photogenic lion with a flowing black mane.

Walter Palmer, who’s one of those guys who proudly poses with a beautiful dead animal, claims he was misled by guides who told him it was a legal kill outside the boundary of the park.

Palmer is a bow hunter and authorities say Cecil died a long and painful death. The dentist is now receiving hate messages and worldwide condemnation. He has apologized but not explained why he thinks it’s fun to kill beautiful animals.

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