At some point, you may have heard someone call the government a "gang of thieves writ large," which is a generalization of a quote attributed to libertarian thinker Murray Rothbard. However, if you're not familiar with the philosophy behind that quote, you might mistakenly believe that it is nothing more than a clever observation on the wasteful and corrupt nature of government. That's because you may not be aware of the meaning of "writ large." It's synonymous with "clearly" or "obviously." In reality, Rothbard wasn't trying to make a clever statement. He was quite literally calling the government a gang.

Most people would have trouble wrapping their minds around that notion. Clearly there are differences between governments and gangs right? Agents of the state don't lie, extort money, murder rivals, train and initiate uniformed enforcers, go to war with their neighbors, protect the integrity of their borders, enforce protection rackets, or conduct any other activities that aren't permitted in their legal codes.

An engine explosion has been identified as a main lead in the investigation into the cause of the crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, following preliminary analysis of the aircraft's black box recorders, local media reported on Wednesday.

According to the Egyptian Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, citing a source close to the investigation, the probable cause was initially suggested by experts working at the crash site in their analysis of plane debris.

On Saturday, an Airbus A321 passenger jet crashed en route from Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg killing all 224 people on board. The event is the worst civil aviation disaster in Russian history.

Preparation of a report based on data recovered from the crashed Russian Kogalymavia A321's flight data recorders will take from between one and four weeks, a spokesman for the Egyptian government said Tuesday.

Unseemly jostling for luxury apartments, unmonitored spending, and secret slush funds have been uncovered in two new books on the Vatican compiled from apparent inside information that may have led to the arrest of two prominent officials last weekend.

"Holy Father, There is a complete absence of transparency in the bookkeeping both of the Holy See and the Governorate. Costs are out of control," says a confidential letter sent to newly-elected Pope Francis by a team of international auditors in June 2013.

The quote comes from Merchants at the Temple, by Gianluigi Nuzzi, which was obtained by AP and an Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, two days ahead of its publication set for Thursday.

All available Chattanooga police are responding to two reports of shots fired, one of which indicated that there had been a shooting at the U.S. Naval and Marine Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway, the site where Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on July 16, killing five U.S. servicemembers.

Despite the calls, police have yet to find evidence of a shooter or find anyone who has seen a shooter, and Chief Fred Fletcher says he believes there is no threat to the public. Still, police have responded out of an "abundance of caution," he said.

Both 911 calls were placed around 10:25 a.m. The other call indicated that at least one shot was fired at the nearby Chattanooga State Community College, which is now on lockdown.

Officers also responded to the Lee Highway recruitment officer where Abdulazeez began his deadly shooting spree this summer, though there are no reports of shots fired at that location.

There are about 30 officers on scene at the naval center at Amnicola Highway and more than a dozen squad cars. Police are armed with automatic rifles. Police say the building is secure and are conducing a search there at this time.

Police have also responded to other "at-risk" locations that Fletcher said he is not willing to disclose.

False reports of shootings are not uncommon. During the July 16 shootings, officers responded to a report of a shooting at Bradley Square Mall that turned out to be false.

There have also been reports of a SWAT on Frazier Avenue, but that incident is unrelated, Fletcher said.

E-commerce powerhouse Amazon has spent over 20 years building up its profile as the largest online-based retailer in the US while helping shutter bookstores from coast to coast. Yet Tuesday, the company opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Amazon Books opened in Seattle's University Village, with both traditional books available as well as e-reading devices such as Kindles, Fire TV, and the Echo. To decide which books will be in stock, the store will rely on Amazon.com customer ratings, sales data, and its popularity on Goodreads.

What officials say caused Abdul Akbar to collapse and die in Wayne County Jail is nothing but a "cover up" according to Akbar's daughter, who is suing the county and two sheriff's sergeants for $25 million in a wrongful death case.

Nine days before his sudden death, a confrontation with guards left 59-year-old, mentally-ill Abdul Akbar hospitalized for two nights. Malikah Akbar and her lawyer David Robinson say that altercation was the true cause, but investigations by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, and the Detroit Police Homicide Unit all found no criminal wrongdoing by the guards.

Wayne County Medical Examiner Dr. Carl Schmidt's autopsy report made it official: Natural causes related to heart disease were the culprit.Robinson and Akbar will make the case that a brain injury induced by guards is what ended Abdul Akbar's life.

Abdul was less than a month into his nine-month sentence for breaking and entering when, on October 23, 2014, he caused a scene that led guards to use physical force to restrain him. Reportedly, he was upset that he had woken up late and missed breakfast, and before a clerk could arrange for food to be brought to him, he grabbed her desktop computer and monitor and smashed them to the ground. When Abdul climbed on a dining table, the jail clerk buzzed for emergency help and guards pulled him down to handcuff him.

That encounter, which took place at about 5 o'clock in the morning, and the immediate aftermath may or may not be on video. Robinson suspects there is video that hasn't been released, but for now what is available is video of a languid Abdul Akbar being dragged by his arms face down along a 107-foot hallway into an elevator."No, I know it is not" the correct way to move prisoners, a commanding officer quoted as Captain Seegars said in the jail's Internal Affairs report.

According to information from the girl's mother, with whom she appealed to mass media, on August 8 Grekov detained them at a checkpoint when the two of them fled by car from shelled Lugansk. The reason for detention was the participation of the former husband of the woman and the father of the child in combat operations on the side of the LPR.

Open-carry is legal in Colorado, so a 911 call about a gun-toting man doesn't automatically warrant an emergency response. As it was Halloween when a woman called it in, the situation was deemed less of a threat. Moments later, tragedy struck.

Naomi Bettis called 911 a second time when a man with a long, black rifle shot and killed a man riding a bike.

"I don't think [the police] probably thought it was an emergency until I made the second call, and that's when I said, 'That guy I just called you about, he just shot somebody,'" Bettis told The Washington Post.

One man is dead and another is accused of fatally stabbing him — all over a piece of chicken.

Reinaldo Cardoso Rivera, 38, of Houston was charged late last week with murder in connection with the Friday death of Darwin Perez Gonzalez, 34, of Houston.

Five men had been making dinner and drinking in an apartment in western Houston. But police said Rivera became angry when Gonzalez took the last piece of chicken.

An argument escalated into a fist fight that was taken out into the parking lot of the complex. Rivera then stabbed Gonzalez and fled the scene with the knife, police said.

Rivera later returned to the scene and admitted to police that he had stabbed Gonzalez. Rivera, whose case file says he is not a U.S. citizen, was arrested, charged and is being held in Harris County jail on $200,000 bond.

His next court date is Dec. 16.

"I just felt that a human life taken over a piece of chicken is ridiculous," neighbor John McDonald told KPRC-TV, Houston.

Hundreds of protesters are expected to flood the streets of central London on Wednesday as Egyptian president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi arrives at Downing Street to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron.

The meeting will go ahead despite mounting criticism of Egyptian human rights abuses and mass death sentences.

Since Sisi's visit was first announced in June, a day after an Egyptian court handed the deposed president, Mohammed Morsi, a death sentence, critics have questioned why Cameron would invite a "blood-soaked dictator" to the UK.