Daily World Wide News

Burn Note lets you send self-destructing emails

2012-01-31T17:36:00.000-08:00

Fictional spies aren't the only ones who can send and receive self-destructing messages. A new web service called Burn Note can do just that, and you don't even have to deal with exploding electronics once the countdown is over.

Burn Note lets you send password-locked messages that automatically get deleted after a few seconds. Its creator, Jacob Robbins, told AllThingsD that the service doesn't even keep backup copies of your messages. Since it's not exactly an email service in and of itself, you still need an email address to use it.

After you've registered for an account and can start sending notes, you'll notice that you can change a few settings at the bottom. This includes the amount of time you want to give the recipient before the message disappears forever.

Robbins sees potential use for Burn Note as a plug-in for online banking facilities. But as U.S. law requires financial institutions to keep all types of records, he admits that those who have legal obligations to preserve data can't use the service.

Train Kills Pedestrian At Level Crossing

2012-01-31T17:33:00.000-08:00

A man has been killed after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Stoke-on-Trent, British Transport Police said.

The pedestrian was hit by a cross-country service on a crossing near Wedgwood station in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

A spokeswoman said: "Officers from British Transport Police and Staffordshire Police attended the incident, which was reported to police at 6.01pm and is currently being treated as non-suspicious."

Ambulance crews also attended but nothing could be done for the man, who has not been named, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The train involved was the 1.45pm service from Bournemouth to Manchester Piccadilly.

Egypt sent back U.S. request to lift travel

2012-01-31T17:32:00.000-08:00

Egypt's justice minister said on Tuesday he had sent back a letter from the U.S. ambassador that asked for an end to a travel ban on Americans being investigated for alleged illegal funding of pro-democracy groups.

U.S. officials have warned the escalating dispute could imperil some $1.3 billion in annual U.S. aid to Egypt's military, and Republican Senator John McCain said on Tuesday he planned to raise the issue with a visiting Egyptian delegation.

In Cairo, Justice Minister Adel Abdelhamid Abdallah said he returned the U.S. embassy letter, highlighting strains between Washington and its long-standing Arab ally since the overthrow last year of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising.

Washington said several U.S. citizens working for civil society groups were banned from leaving Egypt and took refuge at its embassy in Cairo after the non-governmental organizations were raided by the military-led Egyptian authorities.

Abdallah said U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson's written request to lift the travel ban was sent to his home and he returned it to the U.S. embassy because it should have been sent to the investigating judges.

"In it were the names of the people banned from travel and it was asking for a cancellation of this decision to be considered, as their constitutional right," he said.

"I spoke to the embassy and I returned this letter and told them that this letter should be sent to the investigating judges and not to the minister of justice," he said.

Abdallah said only those concerned by the travel ban or their representatives were entitled to send such a letter.

In Washington, the State Department confirmed that Patterson sent the letter, describing it as one of a number of attempts to raise the travel ban issue with Egyptian authorities.

"It was the justice minister's prerogative to send this letter back. We're going to continue to engage on this," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a news briefing.

Toner said Washington would continue to press Egypt to allow the NGO staffers to leave.

"We believe that it's important that they be allowed to travel freely and that the conditions that have been placed on them are unfair," Toner said.

ACCUSATION OF "INTERFERENCE"
Parliament speaker Mohamed Saad al-Katatni, a leading figure in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood which now dominates the assembly's lower house, said Patterson's request was "interference by the American embassy that we do not accept."

The U.S. embassy in Cairo had no comment.

U.S. officials said they will raise the NGO issue when a senior Egyptian military delegation visits Washington this week.

The delegation of generals is expected to meet with officials at the State Department and Pentagon. McCain said he planned to meet the Egyptian delegation as well; an aide to McCain said this meeting would take place next week.

Asked whether U.S. military aid to Egypt - which must be approved by Congress - was in jeopardy, McCain said that would be a subject of the discussion.

"I'm saying that it's certainly a topic that's on the table, that they've put on the table," he told reporters outside the Senate.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in a weekend call to the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, urged the Egyptians to lift the travel ban and expressed concern over restrictions placed on NGOs.

President Barack Obama also discussed the NGO issue with Tantawi in a phone call earlier this month.
Egypt's government says the number of NGOs violating the law on funding political activities had grown since the uprising against Mubarak.

Groups including the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute were raided in late December by judicial police, who took documents and equipment before sealing their offices shut.

Civil society groups said the military council had ordered the raids to defame and stigmatize activists, rights groups and others who were at the forefront of the anti-Mubarak revolt and are now demanding the army hand power immediately to civilians.

Among those prevented from leaving Egypt was the IRI's Egypt country director Sam LaHood, who is the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

(This version corrects paragraph 16 where McCain aide says senator's meeting next week, not Wednesday)

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Florida highway pileup kills at least 10 people

2012-01-29T18:20:00.000-08:00

A long line of cars and trucks collided one after another early Sunday on a dark Florida highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were instantly blinded. At least 10 people were killed.
When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile, police said.

Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup south of Gainesville on Interstate 75, which had been closed for a time before the accidents because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. At least a dozen cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flames.

Steven R. Camps of Gainesville said he and some friends were driving home several hours before dawn when they were drawn into the pileup.

"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," he said. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of the world."

Photographs of the scene taken hours later revealed an aftermath that resembled a Hollywood disaster movie. Twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage.

Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.

Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.

Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and warned Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area just south of Gainesville.

A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes.

"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.

Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to them when another vehicle hit the man's car.

The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.
"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."

Authorities had not released the names of victims Sunday evening, but said one passenger car had four fatalities and a "tour bus-like" vehicle also was involved in the pileup.
At least 18 people were taken to a hospital.

All six lanes of the interstate — which runs virtually the entire length of Florida — were closed most of Sunday afternoon as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters put out the last of the flames.
The northbound lanes of I-75 were reopened around 5:30 p.m. EST, but the southbound lanes remained closed.

"Our standard operating procedure is to get the road open as quickly as possible but let's not forget we have 10 people who are not with us today," said Lt. Patrick Riordan, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. "So we are going to take our time assessing the situation."

It was not clear when the highway would fully reopen because part of the road melted, police said.
At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of the fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved.

Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

Traffic was being diverted much of Sunday onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, Riordan said.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service, Ludie Bond, said the fire began Saturday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.

Bond also said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. A similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. No homes are threatened.

Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.

In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.

Sarkozy details measures for growth, jobs

2012-01-29T18:18:00.000-08:00

President Nicolas Sarkozy used a primetime television interview on Sunday to flesh out a flurry of measures to boost employment and competitiveness which he hopes to rush through France's parliament before a presidential election in April.

Sarkozy, who is running far behind Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls for the election, said he would raise the VAT rate to 21.2 percent from 19.6 percent from October to fund a reduction in social charges on companies.

The move, which Sarkozy first alluded to in a New Year's speech, is aimed at narrowing a competitiveness gap with Germany that is weighing on French growth, but it risks angering voters.
Among other measures, Sarkozy said he would set up an industrial investment bank in February with a billion euros in capital that will lend to small and medium-sized businesses struggling to obtain financing in today's climate.

He also said companies with more than 250 employees would be obliged to take on interns to the level of 5 percent of total staff, as a way of helping reduce chronic youth unemployment.
Sarkozy said he had a duty as president to hold off announcing his re-election bid until as late as possible.

Yet his interview, broadcast live across eight TV channels, seemed timed to respond to a series of TV appearances and speeches last week by Hollande, who is campaigning at full throttle for the two-round election on April 22 and May 6.

"We have to protect employment, we have to defend it, value it," said Sarkozy, who has thrown his focus onto growth and jobs since it became clear late last year that his deficit-cutting efforts could not save France from a credit rating downgrade.

"I am convinced this decision will save jobs and that it's the only credible way to stop outsourcing," he said of his so-called "Social VAT" plan to ease firms' social contributions.

Sarkozy, who turned 57 on Saturday, said a financial transaction tax he is planning for August would set a tax of 0.1 percent on transactions in French securities.

He gave no detail on the tax, which France wants to be adopted across the European Union, but a government source later said it would target shares, not bonds, and could raise a billion euros annually.
Separately, Sarkozy announced a rise in taxes on individuals' financial income such as interest and dividends.

UPS AND DOWNS

Sarkozy has worked hard in recent months to present a more austere and presidential demeanor following criticism of his informal and sometimes brash manner, and he stuck to a highly technical discourse on Sunday. He referred frequently to Germany as an economic model that France should be copying.

Setting the stage for what aides say will be an "honest" campaign that admits past mistakes yet seeks to show he is the safest pair of hands to steer France out of economic gloom, Sarkozy sounded a note of humility about his years in office.

"I accept the criticism," he said, adding that there had been "ups and downs" and things he regretted.
Opinion polls show Sarkozy could lose a runoff against Hollande by 10 percentage points, and some in his UMP party believe he is suffering from his decision to leave launching his campaign until close to a March 16 deadline.

Hollande put in an able performance last week in a TV debate against Alain Juppe, Sarkozy's foreign minister and one of the most talented politicians in his team, and he also unveiled a weighty and fiscally responsible economic plan.

In an attempt at one-upmanship, Sarkozy said France's public deficit for 2011 could come in as low as 5.4 or 5.3 percent of gross domestic product, well below a target of 5.7 percent.

Yet illustrating the economic challenge ahead, the source said that the government will soon revise down its 1.0 percent forecast for 2012 growth.

Both Hollande and Sarkozy are seizing on the euro zone crisis and what many fear is a descent into recession in France as their key focus for the 2012 election.

While Hollande blames France's woes on more than a decade of conservative leadership, Sarkozy is playing on his experience next to a man who has never been a government minister.

An Ifop poll published on Sunday showed, however, that many see Hollande as the best candidate to tackle debt reduction and unemployment, which is running at a more than 12-year high.

The poll found 46 percent of respondents trusted Hollande most to fight unemployment, versus 22 percent for Sarkozy, and 34 percent chose Hollande as the best to handle the public debt, versus 32 percent for Sarkozy.

Underlining a belief that Hollande could defeat Sarkozy, Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party said on Saturday that the German Chancellor plans to actively back Sarkozy in his campaign by making joint appearances with him.

Canadian Lego Man Goes to Space

2012-01-29T18:13:00.000-08:00

The Geo Quiz is going into space – by way of Toronto.

Two Canadian teenagers in Toronto made big headlines this week.

That’s because they successfully launched a man into space.

A man made of Lego blocks, that is.

This Lego man was attached to a homemade contraption, equipped with video camera, and tethered to a weather balloon.

After the two teenagers launched it, the balloon rose some 80,000 ft.

That’s within the layer of Earth’s atmosphere we want you to name.

It’s not as high as the thermosphere where the International Space Station orbits.

Nor is it as low as troposphere.

If you were standing on the summit of Mount Everest, for example, you’d be breathing the thin air of the troposphere.

The answer is the stratosphere. Lisa Mullins talks with Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammed about their science project.

Visualize tweets for this story: Click on the image below to see tweets

Republican Candidates Court Miami’s Cuban Vote

2012-01-29T18:12:00.000-08:00

There’s a political truism in Miami: Cuban Americans always vote Republican.

But four years ago, that voting bloc started to fray. Candidate Obama captured about a third of the Cuban vote in Miami.

Now the right-wing Miami Cuban establishment has a warning for their community: President Obama is soft on the Castro brothers.

Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen spoke in Miami this week at a Mitt Romney campaign event. Switching between Spanish and English, Ros-Lehtinen said every time President Obama mentions Cuba it’s to explain why he’s giving further economic concessions to the Castro regime.

Ros-Lehtinen is referring to the Obama administration’s easing of travel restrictions and remittances to Cuba. Critics call the policies an economic boon for the Castros.

“So what you have now is an emboldened regime that feels that they can do whatever they want because they’re not facing any consequences,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, director of the US-Cuba Democracy PAC.

“There has to be consequences to certain bad actions: taking an American hostage, huge waves of repression. If they think they can do it, and they’re going to get this inflow of hard currency, then they’re going to increase the repression and continue doing so.”

Mauricio Claver-Carone introducing Mitt Romney in Miami (Photo: Jason Margolis)

The Republican presidential candidates are seizing on this. Mitt Romney spoke in downtown Miami this week.

“Negotiations are not a matter of giving and hope, they’re a matter of giving and getting in return. This president has done something which is characteristic of his presidency and that is he turns and gives. And says that everybody in the world has the same interest and so people will give back to us. He’s wrong.”

But polls suggest a majority of Cuban Americans actually favor the Obama administration policies toward Cuba.

Uva de Aragón likes the policies and visits the island. She was born in Cuba and left as a young girl. De Aragón recently retired as the associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

“I think the more open Cuba is, the more people who travel to Cuba, the more money you send to Cubans: the more you empower them, the more they’re knowledgeable. The people who travel and who bring magazines or stories, or whatever are an important source of information. So I’m very favorable to anything that opens up the island.”

De Aragón sees a contradiction between what many Cuban-Americans say and what they do. For instance, she said when you ask them about remittances, they respond this way: “Yes, of course I’m in favor of the embargo.”

But De Aragón said when you ask the same people if they send their family money back in Cuba, they’ll say, “Of course, he’s my brother!”

Cuban American Joe Garcia doesn’t mince words about the hardliners on Cuban policy and the Republican candidates courting them.

“What you have going on here is a clown show and the audience is filled with clowns.”

Garcia ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008 and 2010 as a Democrat. He says the president’s Cuba policies have been very effective assisting dissidents and expanding civil society. He said the hard-line hasn’t worked. Garcia called the rightwing position toward Cuba a religion, not a rational policy.

“Part of the problem is that we’re engaged in revenge politics, which of course feels very nice, right? There’s a warmth and a heat that is driven by the absolute loathing of the Castro regime, which I share in. But later in the week someone will call for the 82nd Airborne to invade Cuba and I’m sure Gingrich will up the ante by calling for a nuking of the Havana suburbs just to teach Fidel a lesson.”

That hasn’t happened. But Newt Gingrich did call this week for American support for a “Cuban Spring.”

David Cardenas, left, and Giancarlo Sopo, right (Photo: Jason Margolis)

Some in the under-30 crowd here say all the bad blood and bickering over travel restrictions and remittances is a distraction.

I met David Cardenas and Giancarlo Sopo for dinner in downtown Miami. Cardenas is active in the Republican party; Sopo is with the Democrats. They have small disagreements about travel restrictions, but they say it’s not worth arguing about.

“I think on the big issues relating to Cuba, in the final analysis, Cubans overwhelming agree with one and other,” said Sopo.

“I completely agree with that,” said Cardena. “I think Cubans are united as a community, united in their policy positions toward Cuba.”

The trade embargo has overwhelming bipartisan support here. And in Congress and the White House.

Cardenas and Sopo are able to break bread together, perhaps because Cuba is not the focus of their lives.

“I would say that Cuban Americans of our generation are not single-issue voters, much in the same way our grandparents and some of our parents are,” said Cardenas.

“I would agree with what David is saying,” said Cardenas. “Cuba was much closer to their lives. They had just left the country, many of them still had hopes of going back. I think David and I, we see Miami as our home.”

And that’s where their real disagreement begins: What domestic economic policies are best for their home?

White House stands by Medal of Honor award

2011-12-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama is standing by his award of the Medal of Honor to a Marine in the Afghanistan war despite a published report charging exaggerations and untruths in the official account of his bravery.

Obama presented the award to Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer on Sept. 15, calling him the "best of a generation" that joined the military after 9/11. He described the day in 2009 when Meyer braved enemy fire in eastern Afghanistan to save U.S. and Afghan comrades.

But McClatchy Newspapers said its review of documents turned up numerous assertions that are "untrue, unsubstantiated or exaggerated."

Press Secretary Jay Carney said Thursday the award was based on sworn testimony, reviewed by the Marine Corps, and Obama "remains very proud" of Meyer and his "remarkable acts of bravery."

The Marine Corps also said it stands by the process that determined Meyer deserved the medal.

"The rigorous award investigation process focuses on source information from direct eyewitnesses and other contemporaneously or near-contemporaneously recorded information," said the statement from Marine headquarters at the Pentagon.

The Marines acknowledged that the process was not flawless.

"Because of the nature of the events supporting awards for valor, it is normal for minor discrepancies to appear when reviewing the source information and collecting eyewitness statements," it said.
The Marines also acknowledged that the public narrative of Meyer's actions on the battlefield, as it appeared on the Marine Corps website, was his "personal account" of what happened. "We supported this communication method in large part because of Sgt. Meyer's personal desire to not retell with each interview, and thereby relive, what he calls the 'worst day of his life.'"

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Second Smallest Preemie in the U.S. Could Be Going Home by New Years

2011-12-15T20:50:00.000-08:00

Haydee Ibarra, left, holds her 14-week-old daughter, Melinda Star Guido. (Photo: AP/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES (The Blaze/AP) — Today is Haydee Ibarra due date. But she isn’t visiting the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center to give birth. She has actually been visiting the hospital nearly every day to visit her daughter Melinda Star Guido who was born 22 weeks pre-mature and is believed to be the second smallest baby to survive in the U.S. and third in the world.

At birth, Melinda was so tiny she could fit into the palm of her doctor’s hand. When she was born in August, she weighed just 9 1/2 ounces — less than a can of soda. While most infants her size don’t survive, there are some growing up into healthy children and adults to this day, maintaining the debate among doctors of what age and weight is viable for an infant to survive.

Melinda spent the early months cocooned in an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit in Southern California, with her 22-year-old mother sits at her bedside almost every day and stays overnight whenever she can. Doctors hope to send Melinda home with her mother by New Years Day.
Ibarra caressed Melinda through the portholes of the incubator where nurses pinned up a homemade sign bearing her name. Now weighing four pounds, Melinda gripped Ibarra’s pinky finger and yawned.

Melinda Star Guido

14-week-old Melinda Star Guido holds her mother's little finger. (Photo: AP/Jae C. Hong)
“Melinda, Melinda,” she cooed at her daughter dressed in a polka dot onesie. “You’re awake today.”
During her pregnancy, Ibarra suffered from high blood pressure, which can be dangerous for both mother and fetus. She was transferred from a hospital near her San Fernando Valley home to the county’s flagship hospital, which was better equipped to handle high-risk pregnancies.

There was a problem with the placenta, the organ that nourishes the developing fetus. The fetus, however, was not getting proper nutrition, blood and oxygen. Doctors knew Melinda would weigh less than a pound, but they were surprised at how small and fragile she was.

“The first few weeks, it was touch and go. None of us thought the baby was going to make it,” said Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan, who oversees premature infants.

Even if she survived, doctors told Ibarra and her husband Yovani Guido, children born this extremely premature can have developmental delays and impairments such as blindness, deafness or cerebral palsy.

Ibarra, who previously had a stillborn, told doctors to do whatever necessary to help her baby.
“They said, `We’ll take the chance. Please try.’ So we said. `OK we’ll try,’” Ramanathan recalled.

Melinda Star_Haydee Ibarra AP
Melinda Star in an incubator and her mother's three fingers. (Photo: AP/Haydee Ibarra)
Melinda was delivered by cesarean section at 24 weeks and was immediately transferred to the NICU where a team of doctors and nurses kept watch around the clock. Infants born before 37 weeks are considered premature.

Melinda was kept insulated in an incubator and was hooked up to a machine to aid her breathing. She got nutrition through a feeding tube. Her mother said her skin felt like plastic because it was so thin.
“It takes a lot of good care and a lot of good luck. Most of them don’t survive,” said pediatrician Dr. Edward Bell of the University of Iowa who keeps an online database of the world’s smallest surviving babies who were less than a pound at birth.

The list currently contains 126 babies dating back to 1936. Since submission is voluntary, it does not represent all survivors.

Ten babies weighing less than a pound were born last year and survived. Melinda joins three other tiny survivors delivered this year in Berkeley; Seoul, South Korea; and Iowa City, Iowa. All are bigger than Melinda, who is not eligible to be listed until she gets discharged.

Most tiny babies who survive tend to be female. That’s because female fetuses mature faster than males of the same gestational age. Having more developed lungs and other vital organs increases odds of survival.

Bell published a study last year that found many survivors struggle with health and learning problems. For those for whom growth data are available, many are short and underweight for their age.
There are some success stories.

The smallest surviving baby born weighing 9.2 ounces is now a healthy 7-year-old and another who weighed 9.9 ounces at birth is an honors college student studying psychology. Their progress was detailed in a study published this week in the journal Pediatrics by doctors at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois where the girls were born.

In the past three years, Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center treated two other babies with extremely low birth weight who survived, but Melinda holds the record at the hospital.

A month after she was born, she was treated for an eye disorder that’s common in premature babies. She faced her biggest test last month when she underwent surgery to close an artery that usually seals after birth.

Ybarra held Melinda for the first time after the surgery. Before that, she could only touch her through the incubator. The next challenge is learning to bottle feed before discharge. Ramanathan predicted at least another two-week stay, dashing her parents’ hopes of taking her home by Christmas.

Ramanathan said it’s too early to know how Melinda will fare when she grows up. Since she did not have major complications such as bleeding in the brain, he held out hope.

Melinda can breathe by herself, but still uses an oxygen tube as a precaution. On Wednesday, an ophthalmologist checked out her eyes and said everything looked good.

After the checkup, Ibarra lifted Melinda out of the incubator and sat in a rocking chair, cradling her.

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13 eunuchs killed in fire in India

2011-11-20T19:59:00.000-08:00

A fire tore through a makeshift tent at a gathering of thousands of eunuchs in the Indian capital on Sunday, killing 13 people and injuring at least 33 others, police said.

Emergency workers said the blaze was most likely caused by an electrical short and quickly spread through the tent, which was about 100 feet (30 meters) long.

The tragedy struck during a gathering of about 5,000 eunuchs for a prayer ceremony and feast held once every five years, said Shapo, an organizer of the event at a fairground in the Nandnagary neighborhood of east Delhi. Shapo, like many eunuchs, uses only one name.
Sunday was the first day of the 20-day event, said Ratna, an attendee.

One witness, Angelie, said there was a loud short, then flames suddenly erupted and a gas cylinder exploded. Crowds of people ran to the exit from the fairground, Angelie said.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that local residents raced to the area to pull the injured from the blaze before police and fire fighters arrived. Police official Sanjay Jain said the fire killed 13 people and injured 33 others. It was not clear if all were killed by the fire or if some were trampled in the race to escape the flames.

India's estimated 700,000 eunuchs traditionally survive by begging, dancing at weddings, or blessing newborn babies, and frequently are subjected to discrimination.

Police burn protest tents to clear Cairo's Tahrir

2011-11-20T19:58:00.000-08:00

Egyptian soldiers and police set fire to protest tents in Cairo's Tahrir Square and fired tear gas and rubber bullets in a major assault Sunday to drive out thousands demanding that the military rulers quickly transfer power to a civilian government. At least 11 protesters were killed and hundreds were injured.

It was the second day of clashes marking a sharp escalation of tensions on Egypt's streets a week before the first elections since the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in February. The military took over the country, promising a swift transition to civilian rule. But the pro-democracy protesters who led the uprising have grown increasingly angry with the ruling generals, and suspect they are trying to cling to power even after an elected parliament is seated and a new president is voted in.
Street battles continued throughout the day and long into the night, spreading to side streets and sending a wave of injuries to makeshift clinics on the streets.

The military-backed Cabinet said in a statement that elections set to begin on Nov. 28 would take place on time and thanked the police for their "restraint," language that is likely to enrage the protesters even more.

"We're not going anywhere," protester Mohammed Radwan said after security forces tried unsuccessfully to push the crowds out of Tahrir, the epicenter of the uprising. "The mood is good now and people are chanting again," he added after many of the demonstrators returned.
The two days of clashes were some of the worst since the uprising ended on Feb. 11.

They were also one of only a few violent confrontations to involve the police since the uprising. The black-clad police were a hated symbol of Mubarak's regime and after the uprising, they have largely stayed in the background while the military took charge of security.

The military, which took over from Mubarak, has repeatedly pledged to hand power to an elected civilian government, but has yet to set a specific date. The protests over the past two days have demanded a specific date be set.

According to one timetable floated by the army, the handover will happen after presidential elections late next year or early in 2013. The protesters say this is too long and accuse the military of dragging its feet. They want a handover immediately after the end of the staggered parliamentary elections, which begin on Nov. 28 and end in March.

The protesters' suspicions about the military were fed by a proposal issued by the military-appointed Cabinet last week. It would shield the armed forces from any civilian oversight and give the generals veto power over legislation dealing with military affairs.

But other concerns are also feeding the tensions on the street. Many Egyptians are anxious about what the impending elections will bring. Specifically they worry that stalwarts of Mubarak's ruling party could win a significant number of seats in the next parliament because the military did not ban them from running for public office as requested by activists.

The military's failure to issue such a ban has fed widely held suspicion that the generals are reluctant to dismantle the old regime, partly out of loyalty to Mubarak, their longtime mentor.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a statement expressing "regret for the events."
The council doesn't intend "to extend the transitional period and will not permit by any means hindering the process of democratic transition," it said a statement read out on state TV.

The violence began Saturday when security forces stormed a sit-in at Tahrir Square staged by protesters wounded in clashes during the 18-day uprising in January and February and frustrated by the slow pace of bringing those responsible to justice.

The wounded, some on crutches, ran away when police attacked, but some fell down and were beaten by police.

One of those injured on Saturday was dentist Ahmed Hararah, who lost the sight in his right eye on Jan. 28 and now thinks he lost the sight in his left eye despite treatment at an eye hospital in Cairo.

The violence resumed Sunday, when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to try to clear about 5,000 protesters still in Tahrir. Many chanted "freedom, freedom" as they pelted police with rocks and a white cloud of tear gas hung in the air.

"We have a single demand: The marshal must step down and be replaced by a civilian council," said protester Ahmed Hani, referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling military council and Mubarak's longtime defense minister. "The violence yesterday showed us that Mubarak is still in power," said Hani, who was wounded in the forehead by a rubber bullet.

Many of the protesters had red eyes and coughed incessantly. Some wore surgical masks to ward off the tear gas. A few fainted, overwhelmed by the gas.

Around sundown, an Associated Press reporter in Tahrir said police and troops briefly chased the protesters out of most of the square. They set at least a dozen of the protesters' tents, along with blankets and banners, ablaze after nightfall and a pall of black smoke rose over the square as the sound of gunshots rang out.

"This is what they (the military) will do if they rule the country," one protester screamed while running away from the approaching security forces.

Protesters initially ran away in panic while being chased by army soldiers and police hitting them with clubs. But they later regrouped at the southern entrance of the square next to the famed Egyptian museum and began to walk back to the square. Hundreds made their way back, waving the red, white and black Egyptian flags and chanting "Allahu akbar," or God is great.

Both sides then began pelting each other with rocks.

Security forces pulled back to the outskirts of the square, where clashes continued into the night.

A video posted on social networking sites showed a soldier dragging the motionless body of a protester along the street and leaving him in a garbage-strewn section of Tahrir Square.

A medical official at Cairo's main morgue said at least 11 protesters were killed on Sunday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Doctors at two field hospitals in the square said that among the dead was one man killed by a blow to his head and another by gunshots.

Rocks, shattered glass and trash covered Tahrir Square and the side streets around it. The windows of the main campus of the American University in Cairo, which overlooks the square, were shattered and stores were shuttered.

"The marshal is Mubarak's dog," read freshly scrawled graffiti in the square.

An Interior Ministry statement said some of the protesters were using firearms, firebombs and knifes to attack security forces.

Clashes also took place in the city of Suez east of Cairo, the coastal city of el-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, the city of Alexandria and Assiut in southern Egypt.

Libya says Gadhafi son to be tried at home

2011-11-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

Libya's new leaders said Sunday they will try Moammar Gadhafi's son at home and not hand him over to the International Criminal Court where he's charged with crimes against humanity. The government also announced the capture of the toppled regime's intelligence minister, who is also wanted by the court.

In one of several emerging complications, however, the former rebel faction that captured Seif al-Islam Gadhafi a day earlier is refusing to deliver him to national authorities in Tripoli, raising concern over whether he will get a proper trial and demonstrating the interim leaders' weak hold over their fractured nation.

In the capital, Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said ex-Intelligence Minister Abdullah al-Senoussi was captured alive on Sunday by revolutionary fighters from a southern region called Fazan, not far from where Gadhafi's son was seized on Saturday while trying to flee to neighboring Niger.

Fighters tracking al-Senoussi for two days caught up with him at his sister's house in Deerat al-Shati, about 40 miles (70 kilometers) south of the desert city of Sebha, said fighter Abdullah al-Sughayer. There were few other immediate details on his capture, and it was not clear whether his captors would also resist turning him over to Tripoli.

Though they are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Libya will likely seek to try both men at home.

Speaking earlier in the day, before al-Senoussi's capture, the information minister said Seif al-Islam, the ousted Libyan leader's one-time heir apparent, must be tried in Libya even though the country's new leaders have yet to establish a court system.

"It is only fair for the Libyan people that he is tried here. ... Seif al-Islam committed crimes against the Libyan people," Shammam told The Associated Press.

"The ICC is just a secondary court, and the people of Libya will not allow Seif al-Islam to be tried outside," Shammam said.

The ICC indicted the two men along with Gadhafi in June for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture to suppress the uprising against the Gadhafi regime that broke out in mid-February.

Al-Senoussi, Gadhafi's brother-in-law, was also one of six Libyans convicted in absentia and sentenced to life in prison in France for the 1989 bombing of a French passenger over Niger that killed all 170 people on board.

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said Sunday that Libya would have to convincingly lay out its arguments in what is called a "challenge of admissibility" if it wanted to try the two men at home instead of sending them to The Hague court.
"The issue is that there is already a case before the (ICC) court," he said. "Now Libya has a legal obligation under international law to present a challenge to say: 'We have this suspect and he will be dealt with under our national laws.'"
"... They will need to show that they have a serious, genuine legal system capable of functioning fairly in this case," he said.

Seif al-Islam, who was once the face of reform in Libya and who led his father's drive to emerge from pariah status over the last decade, was captured by fighters from the small western mountain town of Zintan who had tracked him to the desert in the south of the country.

He was then flown to Zintan, 85 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Tripoli, where he remains in a secret location.

On Sunday, the fighters holding Seif al-Islam posted a video on YouTube of him saying an injury to his hand was the result of a NATO airstrike a month ago that struck his convoy in Wadi Zamzam, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. He said 26 people were killed in the strike.

Photos of him with three fingers of his right hand in bandages had raised questions about whether he was mistreated by his captors.
"The agreement is that I receive medical treatment here in Zintan because there is a medical team and they have the necessary anesthesia for an operation," he said.

In the video, he appeared in good health and was dressed in brown robes and a turban in the style of ethnic Tuaregs.

He seemed confident, even referring to those holding him prisoner as "brothers and family."
"There is no problem. We are talking and dialoguing and we have much to talk about," he said.

The faction of rebel fighters from the western mountains formed one of the key forces against Gadhafi's regime during the six-month civil war.
Even after Gadhafi's fall in August and after his capture and killing in October, Libya's numerous and sometime competing rebel factions have refused to disarm, raising fears of new violence and instability.

"We have priority over Seif al-Islam — we caught him, and we were the forefront leaders in this revolution," said Tahir al-Turki, head of the small town's local council, explaining why he would not be sent to the capital.

"He will be safer with us in Zintan. We don't know who will take him or deal with him in Tripoli," he said.

That position shows how powerful regional factions backed by bands of armed fighters are able to act autonomously, even on issues of the highest national interest.

Shammam, the information minister, played down suggestions that a power struggle was brewing over the high-value prisoner or that the position of local officials was undermining the authority of the national leadership.

He said the national leadership had no objection to keeping Seif al-Islam in Zintan until a trial can be organized, but that the small town was not capable of organizing and holding the trial itself.

"If you catch a criminal in Texas, you're not going to bring him to Washington, are you?" Shammam told the AP.

Authorities in the National Transitional Council would also likely face challenges in organizing a trial.

Libya, under the elder Gadhafi's 42-year rule, had intentionally weak state institutions and a government that barely existed. Gadhafi, who held no title, had ultimate authority and did not want the development of any other power centers that might challenge him.

As a result, a capable court system, like other state bodies, must be built from scratch.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told the AP Saturday that he will travel to Libya on Monday for talks with the NTC on where the trial will take place.

Ocampo said that while national governments have the first right to try their own citizens for war crimes, his primary goal was to ensure Seif al-Islam has a fair trial.

International human rights groups have called for Seif al-Islam to be quickly sent to the court in The Hague, Netherlands, citing the apparent killings in custody of his father and brother Muatassim on Oct. 20 as "particular cause for concern."

Meanwhile, new details emerged about Seif al-Islam's capture in which fighters swarmed a two-car convoy in the south of the country that some officials said was on its way to neighboring Niger. The car carrying him got stuck in the sand while trying to escape.

Al-Ajami al-Etery, who led the operation, said Seif al-Islam tried to hide his features by throwing sand on his face when he stepped out of his car.

"He said his name was Abdel-Salam and he pretended to be a shepherd, but we found him out and arrested him," he told the AP.

Manhattan man arrested in bomb plot

2011-11-20T19:51:00.001-08:00

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday an "al-Qaida sympathizer" who plotted to bomb police and post offices in New York City and U.S. troops returning home has been arrested on numerous terrorism-related charges.

Bloomberg announced the Saturday arrest of 27-year-old Jose Pimentel of Manhattan, a U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic.

The mayor said Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad." But there was no evidence that he was working with anyone else, the mayor said.

"He appears to be a total lone wolf," Bloomberg said at a news conference.

Pimentel was motivated by his resentement of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, fueled by al-Qaida propaganda, the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."

Pimentel is accused of having an explosive substance that he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public. The charges include conspiracy, first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act. He was to be arraigned later Sunday.

"This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city ... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on," Bloomberg said.

The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady.

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Died Today

2011-10-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia was King Abdullah's half-brother and first in line to the Saudi throne. He was also minister of defense and aviation.

He was in his eighties and was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2004. He is thought to have died at a New York hospital.

Prince Sultan had been on a visit to the US for medical tests, and he had an operation in New York in July.

The royal court confirmed the death in a statement carried by SPA, the state news agency:

"With deep sorrow and sadness the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz mourns the death of his brother and his Crown Prince Sultan... who died at dawn this morning Saturday outside the kingdom following an illness."

Source

Ghadaffi captured?Killed??

2011-10-20T05:19:00.001-07:00

Muammar Gaddafi has been captured by revolutionary forces in Libya, it has been claimed today.
The former Libyan dictator was reportedly found cowering in a hole in the ground at the centre of Sirte after rebels moved in on the city for a final account.

Fighter Mohammed Al Bibi told reporters that the toppled tyrant had pleaded 'Don't shoot, don't shoot' and surrendered.

However it is unclear whether Gaddafi is now dead or alive. There were multiple reports in the Arab press that he died after suffering wounds to the legs.

It is understood that he has been taken to hospital in the city of Misrata.
Rebels said he had been armed with a golden pistol when he was found and was wearing a khaki uniform.
Gaddafi and his family have been on the run since Nato and rebel forces started closing the net on Tripoli in mid-August.
The reports of Gaddafi's capture came on the same day that revolutionary forces said that they had taken control of Sirte - the leader's home town.
Initial reports from CNN and the National Transitional Council (NTC) said Gaddafi was in custody, while Al Jazeera reported that a ‘big fish’ had been caught but did not provide a name.
Al Jazeera later joined Al-Arabiya in saying that Gaddafi was dead.
Sky News reported that Gaddafi had been wounded in both legs prior to his capture. He was wearing a military-style uniform.

A military official told Reuters via telephone: 'He's captured. He's wounded in both legs ... He's been taken away by ambulance.

Libya's transitional government forces have taken full control of the city - the last stronghold of Gaddafi loyalists. Gaddafi's presence there would explain why fighting had been so intense in the past few weeks.

Police shot tear gas as protesters riot in Italy

2011-10-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

Italian police fired tear gas and water cannons Saturday in Rome as violent protesters turned a demonstration against corporate greed into a riot, smashing shop and bank windows, torching cars and hurling bottles.
The protest in the Italian capital, which left dozens injured, was part of the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations against capitalism and austerity measures that went global Saturday.

Tens of thousands nicknamed "the indignant" marched in major cities across Europe, as protests that began in New York linked up with long-running demonstrations against government cost-cutting and failed financial policies in Europe.

Heavy smoke billowed into the air in downtown Rome as a small group broke away from the main demonstration and wreaked havoc in streets close to the Colosseum.

Clad in black with their faces covered, protesters threw rocks, bottles and incendiary devices at banks and Rome police in riot gear. Some protesters had clubs, others had hammers. They destroyed bank ATMs, set trash bins on fire and assaulted at least two news crews from Sky Italia.

TV footage showed police in riot gear charging the protesters and firing water cannons at them. Several police forces and protesters were injured, including one man trying to stop the protesters from throwing bottles. TV footage showed a young woman with blood covering her face, while the ANSA news agency said one man had lost two fingers when a firecracker exploded.

In the city's St. John in Lateran square, police vans came under attack, with protesters hurling rocks and cobblestones and smashing the vehicles. One police van was set ablaze, but the two people inside were able to abandon the vehicle. Peaceful demonstrators who could not leave the square climbed up the staircase outside the Basilica, one of the oldest in Rome.

Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno blamed the violence on "a few thousand thugs from all over Italy, and possibly from all over Europe." He said some Rome museums were forced to close down because of the violence.
Some protesters also trashed offices of the Defense Ministry and set them on fire, causing the roof to collapse, reports said.

Police were out in force as up to 100,000 protesters had been expected a day after Premier Silvio Berlusconi barely survived a confidence vote in Parliament. Italy, which has a national debt ratio second only to Greece in the 17-nation eurozone, is rapidly becoming a focus of concern in Europe's debt crisis.

"People of Europe: Rise Up!" read one banner in Rome. Some peaceful demonstrators turned against the violent group and tried to stop them, hurling bottles, Sky Italia and ANSA said. Others fled, scared by the raw violence.

ANSA said four people from an anarchist group were arrested early Saturday morning, with police seizing helmets, anti-gas masks, clubs and hundreds of bottles from their car.

Elsewhere, bright autumn sunshine and a social media campaign brought out thousands across Europe.
In Frankfurt, continental Europe's financial hub, some 5,000 people protested at the European Central Bank, and some were setting up a tent camp aiming at permanently occupying the green space in front of the ECB building.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange spoke to about 500 demonstrators outside St. Paul's cathedral in London, calling the international banking system a "recipient of corrupt money."

U.K. police contained most London demonstrators in the streets around the cathedral, near the city's financial district. Protesters erected tents and asked supporters to bring them blankets, food and water as they settled down for the evening.

Several hundreds more marched in the German cities of Berlin, Cologne and Munich and the Austrian capital of Vienna, while protesters in Zurich, Switzerland's financial hub, carried banners reading "We won't bail you out yet again" and "We are the 99 percent."
In Brussels, thousands of marched through the downtown area chanting "Criminal bankers caused this crisis!" They pelted the stock exchange building with old shoes then marched on to the European Union sector.
Protesters also accused NATO, which has its headquarters in Brussels, of wasting taxpayer money on the wars in Libya and Afghanistan, saying that one European soldier deployed to Afghanistan costs the equivalent of 11 high school teachers.

In Helsinki, around 300 activists held a peaceful, creative rally with homemade signs and stalls full of art and food.

In Spain, the Indignant Movement established the first around-the-clock "occupation" protest camps in cities and towns across the country beginning in May and lasting for weeks. Six marches were converging Saturday on Madrid's Puerta del Sol plaza just before dusk.

Portuguese angry at their government's handling of the economic crisis were protesting in downtown Lisbon later. Portugal is one of three European nations — the others being Greece and Ireland — that have already needed an international bailout.

Across the Atlantic, hundreds gathered in Toronto's financial district, converging close to the Toronto Stock Exchange and the headquarters major Canadian banks to decry what they called government-abetted corporate greed. Protests were also being held in Montreal and Vancouver.

In New York, protesters marched on a Chase bank to protest the role banks played in the financial crisis, and demonstrations were culminating in an "Occupation Party" in Times Square.

Support for the anti-capitalist protest movement was light in Asia, where the global economy is booming. In Sydney, around 300 people turned out, while another 200 people in Tokyo chanted anti-nuclear slogans outside the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
In the Philippines, some 100 people marched on the U.S. Embassy in Manila to support the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Yemen forces kill 12

2011-10-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

Security forces shot dead at least 12 people protesting against the rule of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital Sanaa Saturday and al Qaeda insurgents blew up a pipeline, halting the nation's gas exports.

Yemeni officials said the attack on France's Total gas pipeline was in retaliation for the killing of the head of the media department of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in an air raid on militant outposts in Yemen.
In Sanaa, security forces shot dead at least 12 demonstrators as Yemenis waited for the U.N. Security Council to agree to a resolution expected to urge Saleh to hand over power under a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) peace plan.

The death of Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian described by Yemeni officials as high on their wanted list, and 23 other people late Friday is a fresh blow to the Islamist group regarded by Washington as the most serious threat to the United States, following the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki last month.

But the destruction of the Total pipeline, which transports gas from the central Maarib province to Belhaf port on the Arabian Sea, deals a severe blow to the Yemeni economy, already reeling from months of protests.
The Yemeni Defense Ministry said its air force targeted militant hideouts near the town of Azzan in the southern Shabwa province. Residents said the attack also killed the oldest son and a cousin of U.S.-born cleric Awlaki, long sought by Washington for links to al Qaeda.

But local residents and officials said they believed the aircraft that launched at least three strikes in the area were foreign, flying at high altitude and smaller than the Soviet-made Yemeni air force planes.
"There were planes flying high. I could hear the sounds of their engines but I could not make them out," one witness who declined to be identified, told Reuters. "All of a sudden, the area was shaken by successive explosions," he added.

A senior U.S. official said Washington continues to work closely with Yemeni forces against al Qaeda.
"While our counterterrorism cooperation with Yemen remains strong, we continue to call upon the government in Sanaa to implement the ... proposal that calls upon President Saleh to transfer power and to initiate a peaceful political transition," the official told Reuters.

A Yemeni official described al-Banna as a "dangerous" militant and one of the most wanted people internationally.

Witnesses said militants were seen removing several mutilated bodies as well as an unknown number of injured people from the scene early Saturday.

Last month, a drone killed Awlaki, identified by intelligence as "chief of external operations" for al Qaeda's Yemen branch and a Web-savvy propagandist for the Islamist cause, officials said.

Awlaki relatives said the cleric's son and cousin were due to return home Saturday. "Instead of that, we received them as mutilated corpses," Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Awlaki said by telephone.

Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda captured large swathes of southern Abyan province, including the provincial capital Zinjibar, earlier this year.
The Yemeni army last month drove the militants out of Zinjibar, which lies east of a strategic shipping strait through which some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.
GAS PIPELINE
Residents and officials said the 200 mile pipeline, which links gas fields in Maarib, east of Sanaa, to a $4.5 billion Total-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, was attacked soon after the raids.

Sources at Total told Reuters the pipeline was blown up in two places, stopping the supplies that feed the Belhaf LNG plant. Witnesses said flames were visible from several kilometers away.

The company evacuated nearly half its foreign staff to neighboring Djibouti, and sent some local and French engineers to start repairing the pipeline.

Three South Korean companies also hold stakes in the plant, Yemen's largest industrial project, which opened in 2009.

Yemen's only liquefied natural gas producer, Yemen LNG, warned customers in March of potential supply curtailments as violence spread.

Yemen has the capacity to supply up to 6.7 million tons of LNG per year. Last year Yemen LNG, the 16th largest seller of the gas, shipped more than half its supplies to Asia, the rest going to the Americas and Europe.

The project delivers LNG under long term contracts to GDF Suez (GSZ.PA), Total and Korea Gas Corp (036460.KS).

SANAA HEATS UP
In Sanaa, heavy violence broke a lull as Yemenis awaited deliberations in the U.N. Security Council aimed at pressuring Saleh to comply with a Gulf Arab initiative to hand over power to his deputy as part of a plan to end months of protests.

Witnesses and medics said Yemeni security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators trying to march toward state buildings, such as the presidential palace.

They said dozens of people were wounded and taken to a field hospital in Sixty Street, where thousands have camped out for months demanding that Saleh steps down. A Yemeni government soldier also died in the clashes, government sources said.

Witnesses said troops initially used tear gas and water cannon against the demonstrators, who responded by hurling stones at security forces.

Tareq Noman, head of the field hospital, told Al Jazeera television that his facility had received the bodies of 10 people and that hundreds were wounded. The deputy information minister, Abdu al-Janadi, said the death toll was lower.

In a separate incident, witnesses said government forces fought heavy battles with gunmen loyal to powerful tribal leader Sadeq al-Ahmar, who supports opposition demands for an end to Saleh's 33-year grip on power.

They said the fighting was concentrated in the Hasaba neighborhood of Sanaa, where al-Ahmar lives, and near the airport, which was closed by the fighting.

Opposition sources said four tribal fighters were killed in the clashes.

In the southern city of Aden, a security official said gunmen on a motorcycle ambushed and killed an intelligence officer in the Arabian Sea city of al-Mukalla. The government has previously blamed other similar incidents on al Qaeda.

Syrians protest as army and defectors clash, Friday News

2011-09-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

Syrian security forces shot dead three protesters calling for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad and clashes continued in the center of the country between insurgents and loyalist forces, activists said.
Government troops have been battling opponents including army defectors and gunmen in the town of Rastan in the first prolonged armed confrontation since protests erupted against Assad six months ago.

The state news agency said seven soldiers and police were killed in the operation against "terrorists" in Rastan and another 32 were wounded, adding that the army had "inflicted big losses on the armed terrorist groups."
Activists reported attacks on army roadblocks in the nearby town of Talbiseh and said clashes continued in Rastan, prompting defiant calls at demonstrations where tens of thousands of people marched against Assad.
"Rastan is the bastion of free men, despite you, Bashar," proclaimed a sign carried by protesters in the northern province of Idlib. "Bashar get off our backs, Syria wants freedom," demonstrators shouted in Homs.
The United Nations says 2,700 people have been killed in Assad's crackdown on mostly peaceful protests, one of the highest death tolls in the wave of revolts which has toppled three Arab leaders this year.

Western powers have responded with sanctions on Syria's oil exports, forcing Assad's government to curb imports to protect its foreign reserves and adding to economic pressures after the collapse of tourism revenues and a slump in trade.

Assad retains control over most of the military and security forces but army deserters, many of whom are reported to have defected because they refused to shoot at protesters, have formed rebel units in areas around Rastan, a town of 40,000 people which lies 180 km (110 miles) north of Damascus.

One army defector operating in the province of Idlib, northwest of Rastan, said the defectors in the town were using guerrilla tactics against the heavily-armed loyalist forces.

"Rastan has been churning out army officers for decades and there is a lot of experience among the defecting soldiers. Assad is mistaken if he thinks that he can wrap up the attack quickly," he said, adding that the agricultural terrain made it difficult for the regular army to seal off the area.

The area around Rastan was a recruiting ground for Sunni conscripts who provide most of the manpower in an army dominated by officers from Assad's minority Alawite sect. Residents say at least 1,000 deserters and armed villagers have been fighting loyalist forces, who are backed by tanks and helicopters.

One activist said army defectors formed only a small part of the armed resistance. "There are at least 100 army defectors in Rastan and 600 gunmen," he said.

Syria says more than 700 soldiers and police have been killed in the uprising, which it blames on armed groups backed by foreign powers.

In Rastan, troops and security police "were continuing to chase members of these terrorist groups to restore security and stability to Rastan and its citizens," the news agency said.

It said gunmen killed three civilians and wounded several security force members in the province of Hama, and another three members of the security forces were killed in an ambush near Tel Kelakh on the Lebanese border.

U.S. CONVOY PELTED
Relations with Washington hit a new low on Thursday when Assad supporters threw stones and tomatoes at U.S. ambassador Robert Ford's convoy as he visited an opposition figure in Damascus.

Ford and his party were uninjured, the U.S. State Department said, but several embassy vehicles were damaged and the ambassador had to lock himself in an office to await help from Syrian security.
Syria, irked by Ford's meetings with opposition figures, accused Washington of inciting violence and meddling in its affairs. Washington demanded that Syria take steps to protect U.S. diplomats.

"We condemn this unwarranted attack in the strongest possible terms. Ambassador Ford and his aides were conducting normal embassy business and this attempt to intimidate our diplomats through violence is wholly unjustified," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The Syrian government said that once it had been alerted to the confrontation, authorities "took all necessary procedures to protect the ambassador and his team and secure their return to their place of work."
At the United Nations, European members of the Security Council softened a draft resolution condemning Syria's crackdown but Russia said it could still not support the new text.

The latest version of the resolution showed that drafters Britain, France, Germany and Portugal had deleted a reference to U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay's recommendation that the council consider referring the Syrian government's crackdown to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The United States is expected to support it, envoys said, despite its disappointment about compromises made in an attempt to woo Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa.

In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero expressed French frustration over the lack of agreement. "How many victims will we need to have before the UN Security Council faces up to its responsibilities?" he said.

US strike kills American al-Qaida cleric in Yemen, Friday News

2011-09-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.

The strike was the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But it raises questions that other strikes did not: Al-Awlaki was an American citizen who has not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki was for years an influential mouthpiece for al-Qaida's ideology of holy war, and his English-language sermons urging attacks on the United States were widely circulated among militants in the West.

But U.S. officials say he moved into a direct operational role in organizing such attacks as he hid alongside al-Qaida militants in the rugged mountains of Yemen. Most notably, they believe he was involved in recruiting and preparing a young Nigerian who on Christmas Day 2009 tried to blow up a U.S. airliner heading to Detroit, failing only because he botched the detonation of explosives sewn into his underpants.

Yemen's Defense Ministry said another American militant was killed in the same strike alongside al-Awlaki — Samir Khan, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani heritage who produced "Inspire," an English-language al-Qaida Web magazine that spread the word on ways to carry out attacks inside the United States. U.S. officials said they believed Khan was in the convoy carrying al-Awlaki that was struck but that they were still trying to confirm his death. U.S. and Yemeni officials said two other militants were also killed in the strike but did not immediately identify them.

Washington has called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch in Yemen is called, the most direct threat to the United States after it plotted that attack and a foiled attempt to mail explosives to synagogues in Chicago.

In July, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said al-Awlaki was a priority target alongside Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the terror network's leader.

The Yemeni-American had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by President Barack Obama in April 2010 — making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list. At least twice, airstrikes were called in on locations in Yemen where al-Awlaki was suspected of being, but he wasn't harmed.

Friday's success was the result of counterterrorism cooperation between Yemen and the U.S. that has dramatically increased in recent weeks — ironically, even as Yemen has plunged deeper into turmoil as protesters try to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh, U.S. officials said.

Apparently trying to cling to power by holding his American allies closer, Saleh has opened the taps in cooperation against al-Qaida. U.S. officials said the Yemenis have also allowed the U.S. to gather more intelligence on al-Awlaki's movements and to fly more armed drone and aircraft missions over its territory than ever before.

The operation that killed al-Awlaki was run by the U.S. military's elite counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command — the same unit that got bin Laden.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces targeted a convoy in which al-Awlaki was traveling with a drone and jet attack and believe he's been killed. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Yemeni government announced that al-Awlaki was "targeted and killed" around 9:55 a.m outside the town of Khashef in mountainous Jawf province, 87 miles (140 kilometers) east of the capital Sanaa. It gave no further details.

Local tribal and security officials said al-Awlaki was traveling in a two-car convoy with two other al-Qaida operatives from Jawf to neighboring Marib province when they were hit by an airstrike. They said the other two operatives were also believed dead. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, began as a mosque preacher as he conducted his university studies in the United States, and he was not seen by his congregations as radical. While preaching in San Diego, he came to know two of the men who would eventually become suicide-hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The FBI questioned al-Awlaki at the time but found no cause to detain him.

In 2004, al-Awlaki returned to Yemen, and in the years that followed, his English-language sermons — distributed on the Internet — increasingly turned to denunciations of the United States and calls for jihad, or holy war. The sermons turned up in the possession of a number of militants in the U.S. and Europe arrested for plotting attacks.

Al-Awlaki exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

Al-Awlaki has said he didn't tell Hasan to carry out the shootings, but he later praised Hasan as a "hero" on his Web site for killing American soldiers who would be heading for Afghanistan or Iraq to fight Muslims.
In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

After the Fort Hood attack, al-Awlaki moved from Yemen's capital, Sanaa, into the mountains where his Awalik tribe is based and — it appears — grew to build direct ties with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, if he had not developed them already. The branch is led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi.
Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other al-Qaida leaders, in al-Qaida strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.

Al-Awlaki has said Abdulmutallab was his "student" but said he never told him to carry out the airline attack.
The cleric is also believed to have been an important middleman between al-Qaida militants and the multiple tribes that dominate large parts of Yemen, particular in the mountains of Jawf, Marib and Shabwa province where the terror group's fighters are believed to be holed up.

Last month, al-Awlaki was seen attending a funeral of a senior tribal chief in Shabwa, witnesses said, adding that security officials were also among those attending. Other witnesses said al-Awlaki was involved in negotiations with a local tribe in Yemen's Mudiya region, which was preventing al-Qaida fighters from traveling from their strongholds to the southern city of Zinjibar, which was taken over recently by Islamic militants. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals and their accounts could not be independently confirmed.

Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished nation, has become a haven for hundreds of al-Qaida militants. The country has also been torn by political turmoil as President Saleh struggles to stay in power in the face of seven months of protests. In recent months, Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida have exploited the chaos to seize control of several cities in Yemen's south, including Zinjibar.

A previous attack against al-Awlaki on May 5, shortly after the May raid that killed Osama bin Laden, was carried out by a combination of U.S. drones and jets.

Top U.S. counterterrorism adviser John Brennan has said cooperation with Yemen has improved since the political unrest there. Brennan said the Yemenis have been more willing to share information about the location of al-Qaida targets, as a way to fight the Yemeni branch challenging them for power.

Yemeni security officials said the U.S. was conducting multiple airstrikes a day in the south since May and that U.S. officials were finally allowed to interrogate al-Qaida suspects, something Saleh had long resisted, and still does so in public. The officials spokes on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.

Renewed violence 9 killed in Yemeni

2011-09-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

Renewed violence in the Yemeni capital killed at least nine people on Thursday as street battles broke out between forces loyal to the regime and its opponents, medical and security officials said.

The officials said six people died in central Sanaa when government forces shelled thousands gathered for a protest there with mortars and rocket propelled grenades. Snipers on rooftops also targeted the protesters at Change Square, the epicenter of Yemen's seven-month-old uprising, and adjacent streets.

Three bystanders were killed by a mortar shell in Sanaa's northern Hassaba district, the officials also said. The district is home to several of the tribal chiefs who switched sides in March to join the opposition against the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The latest deaths took to about a 100 the number of people killed in Sanaa and elsewhere in Yemen since Sunday, in the worst bout of bloodshed in months. The deaths also shattered hope that a cease-fire negotiated on Tuesday could be restored and significantly diminished the chances for a proposal by Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbors to end the crisis.

The Gulf plan, backed by the United States, provides for Saleh to step down in exchange for immunity and for the vice president to take the reins of power until elections are held.

Yemen's turmoil began in February as the unrest spreading throughout the Arab world set off largely peaceful protests in the deeply impoverished and unstable corner of the Arabian Peninsula that is also home to an al-Qaida offshoot blamed for several nearly successful attempts to attack the United States.

Saleh's government responded with a heavy crackdown, with hundreds killed and thousands wounded so far.
The officials who gave Thursday's casualty toll spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. They said that scores of homes and stores across central Sanaa were damaged or caught fire as a result of random shelling blamed on government forces.

The shelling also ruptured many water tanks traditionally stored on rooftops of Yemeni homes, inundating the streets below. Sanaa has for weeks suffered from acute water and power shortages, forcing residents to rely on power generators and buy water extracted from wells and sold on a thriving black market.

Street battles broke out between armed tribesmen opposed to Saleh and their rivals in several locations across Sanaa on Thursday but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

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Enjoys family reunions Americans freed from Iran

2011-09-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

Two Americans released from an Iranian prison spent their first full day of freedom Thursday in seclusion, enjoying a joyous reunion with their families in the Gulf State of Oman after being held for more than two years accused as spies.

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer arrived late Wednesday night in Oman under a $1 million bail-for-freedom deal and were embraced by relatives.

"Everybody is really happy to be together right now," Bauer's brother-in-law Nate Lindstrom told CBS in an interview. Lindstrom was not in Oman with the families but said he had spoken to his wife, Bauer's sister Nicole, from there on Thursday morning. He said his wife had not spoken to her brother in two years and was relieved to finally be with him again, enjoying catching up. There was no word on when the two would return to the U.S.

The families were on the tarmac to greet the two when they arrived Wednesday at a royal airfield near the main international airport in Oman's capital, Muscat. At about 20 minutes before midnight Wednesday, Fattal and Bauer — wearing jeans and casual shirts — bounded down the steps from the blue-and-white plane. The men appeared very thin and pale, but in good health.

"We're so happy we are free," Fattal told reporters in a brief statement before leaving the airport.
"Two years in prison is too long," Bauer said, adding he hoped their release from prison will also bring "freedom for political prisoners in America and Iran."

Iran's Foreign Ministry said that the pair's release was a gesture of Islamic mercy and a response to calls for their freedom by world leaders such as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Oman's ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

The release capped complicated diplomatic maneuvers over a week of confusing signals by Iran's leadership. Although the fate of Fattal and Bauer gripped America, it was on the periphery of the larger showdowns between Washington and Tehran that include Iran's nuclear program and its ambitions to widen military and political influence in the Middle East and beyond.

The release came on the eve of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's previously scheduled address Thursday to the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting.

The two, along with American Sarah Shourd, were detained in July 2009 along the Iran-Iraq border. They always maintained their innocence, saying they were only hiking in Iraq's relatively peaceful Kurdish region and might have accidentally wandered into Iran. While in prison, Bauer proposed to Shourd. She was released a year ago under similar terms and was with the families in Oman to greet the two.

Last month, Fattal and Bauer were sentenced to eight years in prison each for illegal entry into Iran and espionage.
American and Omani officials did not disclose details about the Americans' plans and when they may head home. After Shourd was freed last September, she stayed for days in Oman before she flew to United States.
"Today can only be described as the best day of our lives," said a Wednesday statement from their families. "We have waited for nearly 26 months for this moment and the joy and relief we feel at Shane and Josh's long-awaited freedom knows no bounds."

"We now all want nothing more than to wrap Shane and Josh in our arms, catch up on two lost years and make a new beginning, for them and for all of us," the statement added.

Obama called it "wonderful, wonderful news about the hikers, we are thrilled ... It's a wonderful day for them and for us."

In many ways, the release was a mirror image of the scene last year when Shourd was freed on $500,000 bail. That deal, too, was mediated by Oman, an Arabian peninsula sultanate with close ties to both Tehran and Washington. A statement from Oman said it hoped the release would lead to better ties between Iran and the U.S.

The first hint of change in the case came last week when Ahmadinejad said Fattal and Bauer could be released within days. But then came the voice of the hard-line ruling clerics, who have waged a stinging campaign against the president and his allies in recent months as part of power struggle.

The clerics made it clear: Only they have the authority to set the timing and ground rules to release the men. After several days of halting progress, their Iranian defense attorney Masoud Shafiei secured on Wednesday the necessary judicial approval for the bail — $500,000 for each man.

Hours later, the gates of Tehran's Evin prison opened and the Americans headed in a convoy with Swiss and Omani diplomats to Tehran's aging Mehrabad airport. Switzerland represents U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran because the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Until their release, the last previous direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May 2010, when their mothers were permitted a short visit in Tehran, which Iranian officials used for high-profile propaganda.

More recently, Iran used the men's pending release to draw attention to Iranians in U.S. prisons and difficulties faced by their families such as securing visas for visits.

Since her release last year, Shourd has lived in Oakland, California. Bauer, a freelance journalist, grew up in Onamia, Minnesota. and Fattal, an environmental activist, is from suburban Philadelphia.

Shourd and Bauer had been living together in Damascus, Syria, where Bauer was working as a freelance journalist and Shourd as an English teacher. Fattal went to visit them in July 2009 shortly before their trip to northern Iraq.

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Two Americans Spies jailed in Iran has been released

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Killing of Afghan leader endangers peace process

2011-09-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Afghanistan's former president Burhanuddin Rabbani smiles during an interview with …

The suicide bomber who killed the head of an Afghan peace council struggling to start meaningful negotiations with the Taliban delivered a potentially fatal blow to the efforts to find a political settlement in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials on Wednesday mourned the death of former President Berhanuddin Rabbani, who headed the High Peace Council. His assassin had claimed he was a Taliban leader seeking to reconcile with the government and had waited for days in Kabul on the pretext of wanting to talk to Rabbani about peace.

The assassination sapped hope for reconciling with the Taliban and raised fears about deteriorating security in Afghanistan just as foreign combat troops are starting to pull out. Some U.S. and Canadian troops have left in recent months and all foreign combat forces are to go home or move into support roles by the end of 2014 when Afghan forces are to be in charge of protecting and defending the nation.

Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar, the international relations adviser for the peace council, said the bomber, identified as Esmatullah, had approached several council officials, telling them that he was an important figure in the Taliban insurgency and would only speak directly with Rabbani.

"He wanted to talk about peace with Professor Rabbani," Qasemyar said.

The appeal was passed up to President Hamid Karzai, who called Rabbani and encouraged him to meet with Esmatullah, said Ahmad Wali Masood, the brother of Ahmed Shah Masood, the resistance leader who was killed by al-Qaida in 2001. It's unclear if Esmatullah was the attacker's real name.

The bomber stayed for days at a house used for guests of the peace council while waiting for Rabbani to return from a trip to Iran, Qasemyar said.

On Tuesday, the two met and the attacker went to shake hands with Rabbani at his home, bowing his head near the former president's chest and detonating a bomb hidden in his turban, Qasemyar said.
The U.S.-led coalition said another attacker was also involved, but that could not be confirmed by Afghan officials. The Interior Ministry said one person had been detained in connection with Rabbani's death — the driver of the car that took the bomber to Rabbani's house. The driver was found with incriminating documents, said Atta Mohammad Noor, the governor of Balkh province. He did not reveal his source or provide further details.

Rabbani was seen as a unifying force who brought together different ethnic factions, many of whom disagreed about whether the government should even be seeking negotiations with the insurgency.

Rabbani had been a leader of the Northern Alliance resistance movement, and his involvement in the peace council silenced many in that group that didn't want to sit around a table with Taliban militants.

It was unclear who — if anyone — among Afghan powerbrokers might be able to fill that role now.

Waheed Muzhda, a Kabul-based analyst and former foreign ministry official under the Taliban regime that was toppled in late 2001, said it was hard to foresee a future for the year-old peace council.

"It is clear for Afghan people, and even for the international community, that the Taliban do not agree with what the Afghan government is suggesting," Muzhda said. "Nobody thinks that any positive development regarding the peace process through the High Peace Council is possible."

Sarajuddin Sirat, who is active in the council and headed Rabbani's political party in northern Baghlan province, said the former president's death will make it very difficult for peace negotiators to move safely around the country to talk with Taliban figures.

"How can we feel safe?" he asked. "Look what happened to Rabbani."

The street where Rabbani lived was under tight security Wednesday and those gathered outside feared another suicide attack because so many dignitaries were there paying their respects. Karzai cut short a trip to the U.S. on hearing of Rabbani's death and landed in Kabul late Wednesday. He visited those wounded in the attack in the hospital and paid his respects at Rabbani's house.

A black cloth, a symbol of mourning, was draped over a wall of Rabbani's house. Throughout the day, top clerics, tribal leaders, government officials, former jihadi commanders and members of Rabbani's party streamed in and out of the house as a loudspeaker broadcast readings of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
The dignitaries included Vice President Gen. Mohammed Qasim Fahim; Abdullah Abdullah, a top opposition leader who ran against Karzai in the last election; Ismail Khan, a former warlord and current minister of water and power; and Atta Mohammed Noor, a powerful governor of Balkh province in the north. Local citizens denounced the Taliban, saying it was shameful for insurgents to kill an old man working for peace.

Neyamatullah Shahrani, a religious adviser to Karzai, said it will be difficult to replace Rabbani.

"He belonged to all Afghans. He was serving all the Afghan people. It's too early to say how it will affect the peace efforts, but it is very difficult to replace Rabbani. He had relations with all these tribes in Afghanistan."
The Pakistani government and leaders across the world condemned the killing. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Afghan President Hamid Karzai as he rushed back to Kabul from the United States.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi, police chief in Kabul, said the Taliban were behind it.

When contacted by The Associated Press, Taliban spokesmen declined to discuss the killing and spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said they were still investigating the killing.

"We are still gathering information on this. Right now our position is that we cannot say anything about this incident," Mujahid said in a statement posted Wednesday on a Taliban website.

In Washington, John Kerry, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Rabbani's assassination a "great setback" for the cause of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.

"Former President Rabbani was a historic figure who fought the Taliban in the 1990s and who continued to work for peace and stability as the head of the High Peace Council," Kerry said in a statement. "Afghanistan's enemies want to use his death along with other previous attacks to destabilize the region. We cannot let that happen. Too much is at stake for the people of Afghanistan and the country's future."

Afghans at Rabbani's home blamed the Haqqani network, a militant organization based in Pakistan and affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida that has conducted several attacks in the capital.

And some criticized the government for failing to provide security while standing just steps away from its top officials.

"They are continuing to kill our leaders," said Rashuddin, who was a close associate of Rabbani. "How can the bombers get into Kabul? How can they get into the house close to Rabbani? There should be tight security. The Americans are saying they are for peace and security while our leaders are dying in front of our eyes."

Rabbani, whose death came just days after insurgents attacked the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, was the latest high-ranking official close to Karzai to be killed by militants in recent months. Outnumbered on the battlefield, insurgents are conducting targeted attacks against officials aligned with the Afghan government and U.S.-led coalition, lowering hopes that Afghan forces can secure the country.

"Every day they are killing," said Mirza Mohammad, a 50-year-old former Afghan Army officer from Parwan province. "The killing of Rabbani has brought chaos to Afghanistan."

Mohammad, who was among those paying respects Wednesday at Rabbani's home in Kabul, called for a national uprising. "We will soon get revenge," he said. "Pakistan is behind this attack."

Meanwhile, in the Waghaz district of eastern Ghazni province, nine Afghan policemen were killed Tuesday evening while they were trying to defuse a roadside bomb, said Gen. Zirawer Zahid, provincial police chief.
And in the south, two NATO service members were killed in an insurgent attack, the alliance said in a statement Wednesday. NATO did not provide further details.

Including the latest deaths, at least 28 international troops have been killed so far this month in Afghanistan.

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Two Americans Spies jailed in Iran has been released

2011-09-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

Two Americans jailed in Iran as spies have been released from Tehran's prison after more than two years in custody.

Associated Press reporters saw a convoy of vehicles with Swiss and Omani diplomats leaving Evin prison Wednesday with the freed Americans inside. They headed to Tehran international airport.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were freed after their Iranian lawyer obtained signatures of two judges on a bail-for-freedom deal. A $1 million bail — $500,000 for each one — was posted.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

The lawyer for two Americans jailed as spies in Iran said they will be released Wednesday after more than two years in custody following a court approval of a $1 million bail deal.

The Iranian attorney Masoud Shafiei said he planned to go to Tehran's Evin prison to begin the procedure for the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.

"The case is over," Shafiei said. "The court has ordered that they be freed on bail."

The two were arrested along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 and sentenced last month to eight years each in prison. A third American arrested with them, Sarah Shourd, was freed last year on bail.

Shafiei said he would meet the two Americans at 3 p.m. local time at Tehran's Evin prison. Swiss and Omani diplomats were standing by at the prison, waiting to pick up the two Americans. Switzerland represents American interests in Iran because the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Tehran and the prisoners are expected to be taken to Oman after their release.

The case of Bauer and Fattal, who were convicted of spying for the United States, has deepened strains in the already fraught relationship between Washington and Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was first to mention last week that the Americans' could be released, is in the United States and is scheduled to speak at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

Shafiei said the bail of $500,000 for each of the men was posted after some last-minute bank problems were resolved. He did not say who put up the money.

"There is no obstacle to their freedom now," the lawyer said. "It's only a matter of time before they are out of jail," he added. "They can go to the U.S. the way Sarah did."

The release of the pair will likely follow the pattern of Shourd's release last September after a $500,000 bails was posted. She was then flown on a private plane to the Omani capital Muscat. Last week, Oman dispatched a plane belonging to the Gulf country's ruler to fetch the two Americans if the freedom-for-bail was reached.

Omani officials declined to comment on the ongoing proceedings for the Americans' release. They only said the private plane, sent from Muscat to the Iranian capital last Wednesday, was still in Tehran.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Oman has close ties with both Tehran and Washington and plays a strategic role in the region by sharing control with Iran of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, which is the route for 40 percent of the world's oil tanker traffic.

The three Americans — friends from their days at the University of California at Berkeley — have maintained their innocence and denied the espionage charges against them.

Their families and the U.S. government say they were just hiking in northern Iraq's scenic and relatively peaceful Kurdish region when they may have accidentally strayed over the unmarked border with Iran.
Since her release last year, Shourd has lived in Oakland, Calif. Bauer, a freelance journalist, grew up in Onamia, Minn., and Fattal, an environmental activist, is from suburban Philadelphia.
Bauer proposed marriage to Shourd while in prison.

Phone messages left for Fattal's mother and brother in Philadelphia were not immediately returned Wednesday.

It was not clear where the two men will be reunited with their families after their release. The last direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May 2010 when their mothers were permitted a short visit in Tehran.

Angelina Jolie Handcuffs Purse to Wrist in Toronto

2011-09-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

Once a wild child, always a wild child!

Angelina Jolie carried a unique fashion accessory to Brad Pitt's Moneyball premiere Friday night in Toronto: a gold clutch that was actually handcuffed to her wrist!

The actress, 36, carried the Louis Vuitton Lockit PM Devotion clutch. She paired the shiny gold bag with a sleek black dress.

Dad thanks suspect for Kienan's return

2011-09-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

With the resilience of a three year-old, Kienan Hebert is back to playing with his brothers and sisters, happily running around as police continue their search for a suspect who snatched the boy from his Sparwood, B.C., home and mysteriously returned him there unharmed five days later.

His weeping parents appeared before the media Sunday to thank all who supported them during the gruelling hours and days following their son's abduction last Wednesday, including police and community volunteers.
But the boy's father, Paul Hebert, had a special thank you for "the person" who brought his little boy home Sunday morning. Police allege that person was the abductor _ convicted sex offender Randall Hopley.

"To the person who returned Kienan to our family I'd like to say thank you," Paul Hebert sobbed. "It was the right thing to do. I thank God that Kienan was returned unharmed."

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said medical personnel assessed the boy and found him unhurt, in good spirits and happy to be reunited with his family.

Moskaluk's announcement generated a loud cheer from several of the volunteers who had searched for Kienan and had packed the tiny tent where the news conference was taking place.

Paul Hebert — who appeared almost stoic before the media over the five days since his child vanished — had difficulty speaking.

"Thank you, thank you," he managed to say before breaking down in tears. His wife, Tammy, sat beside him, tears running down her face.

Police received an anonymous call around 3 a.m. local time Sunday morning telling them where to find the boy.

Moskaluk said the most troubling thing was that the caller told police they could find Kienan in his own home.
"Taking the child undetected and then placing him back undetected certainly is a chilling prospect," Moskaluk admitted.

The family wasn't home at the time and were staying with a neighbour. The house, which had been surrounded by yellow police tape since the boy's disappearance, had been thoroughly searched by investigators.
After the boy's return, the police tape was placed around the entire block. Later in the day investigators were scouring the house once again for more forensic evidence.

No one saw Kienan taken some time last Wednesday morning and no one witness his return.
"This young boy was returned by an abductor. In 26 years of policing I have never seen this," said an emotional Moskaluk. "The little guy appears to be in good health. Little guys like this are very resilient.
"To the rest of the world 9-11 means New York. 9-11 to me means Kienan Hebert."
Moskaluk also had a message for Hopley.

"Randall, if you're listening, you need to reach out to the police," he said.

"We're not going to put any other children at risk. We want this to be completed."

Roadblocks were set up on the highways in and around Sparwood. RCMP officers stopped hundreds of vehicles, checking in back seats and ordering drivers to pop their trunks to make sure that Hopley was not catching a ride.

Word of Kienan's return spread quickly throughout Sparwood, a coal mining town of about 4,000 surrounded on all sides by mountains and trees. The community had mustered hundreds of volunteers to search the area around the Hebert home.

"I'm rather ecstatic right now. When we heard the news first thing this morning we were already up planning for today's operations. In this case, a little boy being brought back — man, it's excellent," said search and rescue spokesman Jeff Smedley.

Sparwood's acting mayor Sharon Fraser paid the Hebert family a visit early Sunday morning.

"I've never heard of this happening. I've never heard of a child being abducted and then returned right back to the home. So to me it's nothing short of a big miracle," said Fraser. "It just scares the heck out of you period."
Former Sparwood mayor David Wilks, now the Conservative MP for the area, worked as an RCMP officer in Sparwood before entering politics.

Wilks, who attends church with the Hebert's, said he remembers dealing with Hopley in his policing days and admits the circumstances are disturbing.

"Is there another child next? He's still out there," shrugged Wilks.

"He has the uncanny ability to get into a house and back out with everyone in it and not only take a child but deliver the child back," he added.

But Wilks had been optimistic that Kienan would be delivered home safely.

"I felt that he would not harm him but for whatever reason he wanted him to be with him."
The boy's father called his pastor shortly after Kienan was found Sunday morning.

Pastor Ron Rutley of the Sparwood Fellowship Baptist Church gave thanks for Kienan's safe return in his Sunday morning sermon.

"It's just like a dream. Lord we thank you that Kienan is home safe. We pray for him right now," said Rutley.
"Lord we come before you with bittersweet hearts. Sweet for you have heard our prayers and answered them and bitter because we struggle to understand why those prayers had to be uttered at all."

On Saturday, the boy's parents brushed away tears as Moskaluk confirmed that their son was kidnapped from his home in this scenic close-knit mountain community. The boy has a history of sleepwalking, and many were hoping he had perhaps just wandered away.

Clasping his wife's hand tightly under the table, Paul Hebert had a message for Kienan's suspected captor saying they only wanted their son returned unharmed.

Police said a second abduction attempt happened at another home on the evening Hebert went missing. A suspect tried unsuccessfully to lure another child out of the home.

Hopley, 46, was convicted of sexual assault in the mid-1980s and was given a two-year federal prison sentence.

An incident in November 2007 led to charges of break and enter, unlawful confinement and attempted abduction, and the indictment for the case indicated the victim was under 16 years old.
B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch has confirmed Hopley pleaded guilty to break and enter and was sentenced to 18 months in jail, while the other charges were stayed.

Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie said Hopley admitted at trial that he attempted to abduct a 10-year-old boy, who was in foster care at the time. Hopley claimed he was acting on behalf of the child's parents.