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(10/02/06 2:29am)
LONDON -- Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, smiles and jokes with another hijacker before the two turn serious and speak intently to a camera in a video posted Sunday on a British newspaper's Web site.\nThe Sunday Times said the video, which was dated Jan. 18, 2000 -- about a year and a half before the attacks against the United States -- was made in Afghanistan for release after the men's deaths.\nFor more than 30 minutes, the video shows Atta, who flew one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, and Ziad Jarrah, who piloted United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed into a Pennsylvania field, both alone and together.\nThe newspaper said the hour-long video was made at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. It includes images of Osama bin Laden speaking to supporters in Kandahar, Afghanistan. A time stamp indicated that the footage of the leader was shot Jan. 8, 2000.\nIt has no sound, and the newspaper quoted a "U.S. source" who was not identified as saying that lip readers had been unable to decipher what the men were saying.\nAt times in the video, the two men look relaxed, laughing and chatting together before they grow serious and speak directly into the camera. At one point, they lean over a document the newspaper identifies as a will, studying it intently and sometimes pointing to specific sections and commenting to one another.\nThe Sunday Times said it had obtained the video "through a previously tested channel" but gave no further details.\nIt shows Atta and Jarrah sitting on the floor and alternates between tight shots, including only their faces, and wider images showing what appears to be a gun propped up on the wall next to them. Both men have full, dark beards.\nAtta wears a dark sweater or sweat shirt with a zipped-up collar and light stripes on the arms. He tries on a traditional Afghan cap at one point, then tosses it aside. Jarrah is in a long white robe and wire-frame glasses, which he later removes.\nBen Venzke, head of the Virginia-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said the video was probably raw footage which al-Qaida had intended to edit into a package similar to one released last month showing the last testament of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Wail al-Shehri and Hamza al-Ghamdi.\nBin Laden said a few years ago that he was saving Atta's last testament to release for a special occasion, Venzke said.\n"It is highly unlikely that al-Qaida wanted the material to be released in this manner, and it is not consistent with any previous release," he said.\nThe Sunday Times said the footage of bin Laden appeared to have been made at Tarnak Farm, once the base for the leader's family in the Afghan desert near Kandahar's airport.\nIt shows about 75 men, many in turbans or caps, sitting on the ground as bin Laden arrives to address them. A few children are also in the crowd. The man who appears to be bin Laden stands in front of an expanse of bare dirt dotted with a few trees and windowless, one-story mud-colored buildings, some of them partly in ruins.\nHe appears calm, with a long beard and a tan cloak over a white robe that covers his head. He speaks for more than 10 minutes, although the camera frequently cuts away from him and onto the audience. He often keeps his hands on the lectern and gesticulates occasionally.\nThe Sunday Times said those shown listening to bin Laden included Ramzi Binalshibh, who allegedly helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks and is now being held in the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.\nAlso reportedly present was Nasir Ahmad Nasir al Bahri, a security guard who the Sunday Times said has claimed he was authorized to shoot bin Laden in the head if the leader was in danger of being captured.
(09/08/06 5:14am)
LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair reluctantly promised Thursday to resign within a year, hoping that revealing a general time frame for his departure will appease critics, who are calling for him to step down.\n"I would have preferred to do this in my own way," Blair said. He refused to set a specific departure date but said the annual Labour Party conference this month would be his last. The next conference is scheduled for September 2007.\n"The precise timetable has to be left to me and has to be done in the proper way," he said.\nBlair, who took office in 1997 and once commanded Labour with an unassailable authority, now appears to be at the mercy of demands from its restive lawmakers. It was not immediately clear whether his new exit strategy will be detailed and speedy enough to satisfy them.\nLabour loyalists urging Blair to leave office soon -- or at least announce a departure date -- have grown more vocal in recent weeks. Their protests have been fueled by widespread anger at his handling of the recent fighting in the Middle East and anxiety over Labour's slide in the polls.\nEight junior officials quit Wednesday to insist on Blair's resignation, and news reports said Blair and Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who is considered likely to be the next prime minister, had a shouting argument in Blair's office about a handover date. The two might have ultimately reached an understanding.\nBrown, opening a children's sports tournament in Glasgow, Scotland, said shortly before the prime minister's announcement that while he like others had questions about Blair's plans, he would support his decisions.\n"When I met the prime minister yesterday I said to him ... it is for him to make the decision," said Brown, looking relaxed and cheerful. "I will support him in the decisions he makes.\n"This cannot and should not be about private arrangements but of what is in the best interests of our party ... and the best interests of our country." \nMany within Labour were furious at Blair's refusal to break ranks with President Bush and call for an early cease-fire in Lebanon last month. It revived bitter memories of Blair's decision to join the Iraq war despite intense opposition in Britain.\nWhite House spokesman Tony Snow said Blair and Bush still had a lot of work to do together.\n"He's a valued ally," Snow said. "He is somebody whose counsel the president much values and cooperation the president depends upon. And at this point, we're not sitting around writing encomia for Tony Blair. We're instead busy working with him."\nThe prime minister led Labour to its third straight election win last year and has long said he would not seek a fourth term. Before Thursday, his most specific comment about quitting was a promise to give his successor time to settle into office before the next elections, expected in 2009.\nHis close cabinet allies tried to quiet the clamor in the party with increasingly explicit suggestions this week that next year would be Blair's last in office.\nBut eight junior officials quit Wednesday rather than remove their names from a letter demanding that Blair step aside. A total of 15 Labour lawmakers wrote that while they supported the centrist direction in which Blair had taken the party, he was no longer the right man to lead it.
(01/17/06 6:14am)
LONDON -- Russia and China agreed with the United States and its European allies Monday that Iran must fully suspend its nuclear program, but the countries stopped short of demanding referral to the U.N. Security Council, Britain's Foreign Office said.\nIran's ambassador to Moscow praised a Russian proposal to move the Iranian uranium enrichment program to its territory.\nRussian President Vladimir Putin also urged caution in dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue, saying that Tehran might still agree to the Russian offer and warning "it's necessary to work carefully and avoid any sharp, erroneous moves."\nBritain, France and Germany, backed by Washington, want Iran to be referred to the Security Council, which can impose sanctions.\nRussia and China have resisted such a move in the past and could stymie efforts against Tehran as veto-wielding members of the U.N. body.\nThe British Foreign Office said all five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- and Germany had shown "serious concern over Iranian moves to restart uranium enrichment activities."\nThey agreed on the need for Iran to "return to full suspension," according to the statement.\nDiplomats from Britain, France and Germany also informed officials from Russia, China and the United States that they plan to call for an emergency board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency next month. The 35-nation IAEA board, which could refer the issue to the Security Council, will discuss what action to take against Iran.\nRepresentatives of the six countries held a daylong meeting in London in a bid to reach consensus regarding what action to take after Iran removed U.N. seals from its main uranium enrichment facility last week and resumed research on nuclear fuel, including small-scale enrichment, after a 2 1/2-year freeze.\nThe move alarmed the West, which fears Iran intends to build an atomic bomb. Iran claims its program is peaceful, intended only to produce electricity and it has threatened to end cooperation the U.N. nuclear watchdog if it is brought before the Security Council.\nThe Russian proposal would ensure oversight so that uranium would be enriched only as much as is needed for use in nuclear power plants and not to the higher level required for weapons.\n"As far as Russia's proposal is concerned, we consider it constructive and are carefully studying it. This is a good initiative to resolve the situation. We believe that Iran and Russia should find a way out of this jointly," Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Gholamreza Ansari, said in comments translated into Russian and shown on state Channel One television.\nPutin, speaking in Moscow after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Moscow's position is "very close" to that of the United States and the European Union. He added "it's necessary to work carefully and avoid any sharp, erroneous moves."\nEuropean diplomats have said in recent days there are signs that Russia, which is deeply involved in building Iranian reactors for power generation, is leaning toward referral. Putin's comments, though, seemed to suggest he was still looking for other alternatives.\nChina has warned that hauling Iran before the Security Council would escalate the situation.\nThe Foreign Ministry in Beijing took a cautious tone.\n"China believes that under the current situation, all relevant sides should remain restrained and stick to solving the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiations," the ministry said in a statement.\nSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the vote on referral "ought to be as soon as possible."\n"We've got to finally demonstrate to Iran that it can't with impunity just cast aside the just demands of the international community," Rice said Sunday during a trip to Africa.\nSpeaking before Monday's talks in London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the "onus is on Iran" to prove its program is peaceful. He said the international community's confidence had been "sorely undermined by a history of concealment and deception" by Iran.\nStraw said the dialogue with Russia and China was of "crucial importance."\nBritish Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said the London talks signaled "growing international concern at the behavior of the Iranian government and at ... the words of the Iranian president," who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and said the Nazi Holocaust a "myth"
(07/28/05 3:30am)
BIRMINGHAM, England -- Police pursuing suspects in the failed July 21 terror bombings in London raided four homes across Britain on Wednesday and detained four people, including a Somali man believed to be one of the fugitive bombers, media reports and a witness said.\nThe man was subdued with a stun gun when officers stormed a home in Birmingham before dawn. Members of the bomb squad, some dressed in armored suits, were seen entering the home after police evacuated 100 nearby residences in a quiet, ethnically mixed neighborhood of Britain's second-largest city.\nPrime Minister Tony Blair, without commenting on the man's identity, described the arrest as "an important development."\nThree more men were arrested in a pre-dawn raid at another home about two miles away in this city 120 miles northwest of London. The raids were carried out by 50 officers from London's Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch and West Midlands Police. No shots were fired.\nIn London, police said they raided two homes at 6 a.m. in the northern neighborhoods of Finchley and Enfield. No arrests were made, but forensic examinations were under way at the residences, a spokeswoman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. She declined further comment.\nAuthorities said the four raids involved the investigation into the July 21 attack, during which bombs planted on three London subway trains and a bus failed to detonate fully. The attack came two weeks after four suicide bombers staged a similar assault that killed 52 other people.\nMeanwhile, police arrested a man at Luton airport near London under anti-terrorism laws as he prepared to leave on a flight for France, authorities said. Police did not say why he was detained or if the arrest was connected with the London attacks.\nTwo men also were arrested late Tuesday on suspicion of terrorism while traveling on a train in the Midlands region. Police said the train, which was on its way to London's King's Cross station from Newcastle, was stopped at Grantham and the men were taken off. It was not immediately clear if the arrests were linked to the investigation into the London bombings.\nAuthorities would not confirm BBC and Sky News reports that the Tasered man was Yasin Hassan Omar, a 24-year-old Somali suspected of trying to blow up a subway train near Warren Street station.\nAt least one witness said the man resembled Omar.\n"I looked out of the window and the road was full of armed police and they had got the road closed off," said electrician Andy Wilkinson, who lives nearby.\nHe said the suspect looked like Omar but could not confirm it was him.\n"After 10 or 15 minutes, they brought a guy out. He looked like the darkest-skinned one in the photos of the four suspects released by the police -- the one with the curly hair," Wilkinson said. "They had him dressed in one of those white suits. He had plastic cuffs on the front."\nSuch suits are used by police to preserve any physical evidence that may be on a suspect.\n"I think it is an important development," Blair, in London, said of the arrest. "Obviously we are greatly heartened by the operations today. The police have been working extraordinarily hard on this and have shown a tremendous amount of commitment and dedication to the task in hand."\nPolice launched a manhunt after releasing images of four men thought responsible for planting the July 21 bombs. The pictures have been plastered over much of London's transit and railway system while police have for more than a week released various details about the attackers.\nOn Monday, they released the names of two of the suspects, Omar and Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said. Both came to Britain as the children of refugees, the government said.\nOmar arrived from Somalia in 1992 at age 11 and has British residency, the Home Office said. Said came in 1990 from Eritrea, his family said, and officials said he was granted residency in 1992 and British citizenship in September 2004\nPolice have been trying to determine whether the failed July 21 bombings were connected to the deadly July 7 attacks.\nThe Birmingham arrests would bring the number of people that police have said are being held in connection with the July 21 bombings to nine.
(04/11/05 5:22am)
WINDSOR, England -- Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles wed in a modest town hall ceremony Saturday with the blessing of the queen and the Church of England, sealing a tangled love affair ignited at a polo match more than 30 years ago.\nOnce married, the royals knelt beneath the towering Gothic arches of St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, nervously pledging their undying love and confessing their "sins and wickedness" -- a phrase from the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer -- as their vows were blessed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.\nDespite years of public and media criticism, even ridicule, Charles and Camilla's shared affection appeared to finally to have won them a measure of acceptance from the British public, many of whom blamed their relationship for poisoning Charles' marriage to Britain's beloved Princess Diana.\n"He did a bit of a dirty job on Diana," said Tina Quinney, 59, one of the thousands of people lining the streets of this royal town. "But the past is the past."\nThe ceremonies went off flawlessly on a bright, sunny day despite sinister omens: A change of location for the civil wedding vows, unsubstantiated reports of the queen's "fury" that the couple would wed at all, and a one-day postponement for Pope John Paul II's funeral.\nCamilla is now officially the Princess of Wales, though she will be known as the Duchess of Cornwall in deference to enduring public affection for Diana. When Charles is crowned, she will be queen -- but the prince's office says she will use the title Princess Consort.\nIt remains to be seen, however, whether the bride will ever be known as Queen Camilla.\nThroughout the day, the couple suffered from jitters and displayed tenderness, even playfulness. Their hands knocked against one another several times before they found a comfortable clasp during the church blessing. Outside, Camilla clutched her hat awkwardly in a blustery wind as she waved to well-wishers with her bouquet of spring flowers.\nBut the affection between the couple, who first met and fell in love in the early 1970s, was apparent. Charles, 56, reached over to help his new wife, 57, find her place in her prayer book as they stood before the archbishop. He gently touched her arm as a signal when it was time to kneel.\nCamilla appeared emotional at times during the service; he was fidgety and somber. Even the normally reserved queen -- whose views about her son's wedding have been the subject of endless media speculation -- beamed as she emerged from the chapel.\nThe couple sped away for their honeymoon on the prince's Balmoral estate in Scotland in a car festooned with red, blue and white balloons and the words "Just Married" scrawled on the back window.\nThe wedding, the second for both Charles and Camilla, was far simpler than his spectacular 1981 nuptials with 20-year-old Diana. Saturday, the local registrar, Clair Williams, conducted the 25-minute civil ceremony at Windsor's 17th-century Guildhall, or town hall, before fewer than 30 guests -- mostly relatives of the bride and groom.\nElizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, stayed away out of respect for their son's wish that the ceremony be "low key." But they were very much a presence at the religious blessing afterward, being the last to arrive in their sleek, maroon and black Rolls-Royce.\nThe blessing ceremony, conducted by Archbishop Rowan Williams, was broadcast live and drew about 800 guests, including Prime Minister Tony Blair and Camilla's ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles.\nCharles and Camilla chose a civil wedding because the Church of England, which Charles will one day symbolically head as king, frowns on divorcees remarrying. But the religious blessing led by the Archbishop of Canterbury demonstrated the Anglican hierarchy's approval of the union.\n"Heavenly father, we offer thee our souls and bodies, our thoughts and words and deeds, our love for one another," bride and groom said while kneeling before Williams. "Unite our wills in thy will, that we may grow together in love and peace all the days of our life."\nFeelings about Camilla and her new royal role were mixed among the 15,000 people who crowded the streets of Windsor. Most of those interviewed said the couple deserved happiness, though some couldn't shake the memories of Charles' infidelity during his marriage to Diana.\n"This time Charles gets to make his choice," said Irene Bellamy, 59, of Manitoba, Canada, standing across from the Guildhall. "Much as we loved Diana, this is his choice ... a love match."\nCharles has admitted an adulterous relationship with Camilla after his first marriage had "irretrievably broken down"; Diana also acknowledged that she had been unfaithful. Camilla was married to Andrew Parker Bowles until 1995, and the couple had two children. He attended the Windsor Castle ceremony, smiling and chatting with other guests.
(01/21/05 4:32am)
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- The U.S. military -- the largest group helping tsunami survivors -- will immediately start withdrawing troops from the relief efforts to feed and house more than 1 million refugees, the U.S. Pacific commander said Thursday.\nThe withdrawal of foreign forces comes as the official death toll continues to climb. Almost four weeks after the disaster, reported deaths by government agencies in the affected countries range from nearly 158,000 to more than 221,000.\nAid organizations responded to the announcement by Adm. Thomas Fargo by pledging to shoulder a greater share of the burden to aid tsunami survivors.\nU.S. warships and helicopters "played a crucial role ... they're still playing that role," said Rob Holden, who heads a health assessment team. "What we're trying to do ... is civilianize the humanitarian operations because we're aware that we won't have military assets forever."\nSpeaking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Fargo said the U.S. military "will start right now transferring functions to the appropriate host nations and international organizations."\nFargo noted that the humanitarian missions in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries affected by the Dec. 26 tsunami have moved from the "immediate relief phase ... toward rehabilitation and reconstruction."\nThe admiral suggested the withdrawal of the 15,000 American troops would be completed within 60 days, apparently meeting requests by Indonesian officials that foreign troops leave Aceh province on Sumatra island by the end of March.\nMalaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak said Fargo told him the United States would scale down its Aceh relief operations by the end of February.\nAt a news conference, Fargo said the U.S. military would "respond to specific requests of host nations," adding that Washington "is committed to what clearly will be a long-term recovery effort."\nAbout 1,000 Singaporean soldiers dispatched for relief efforts will begin pulling out Friday, a Singaporean military official said.\nThe U.S. Navy and Marines have delivered nearly 3.5 million pounds of aid supplies -- about 150,000 pounds a day -- since starting operations Jan. 1.\nThe U.N. World Food Program has distributed 5,600 tons of food to about 400,000 people in Aceh alone, said its Asia director, Tony Banbury. After visiting the obliterated coastal town of Meulaboh, Banbury said all tsunami survivors would be fed.\n"We will get food aid to everyone who needs it," he said.\nBut worries over security in Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra -- where government forces and separatists rebels have fought for nearly three decades -- threatened to complicate relief efforts.\nAlthough the sides called a temporary cease-fire to facilitate the relief effort, a barrage of automatic gunfire was heard in the hills near the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, prompting residents of one refugee camp to run for cover.\nIt was unclear who fired the shots, but a local military commander acknowledged that an operation was under way in the area to counter rebel activity. No one was hurt, and the shooting did not appear to target refugees.\nThe Indonesian military had no comment on the incident. The state-run news agency quoted the army's chief of staff, Ryamizard Ryacudu, as saying the military had killed at least 120 rebels in the past two weeks.
(11/18/04 4:21am)
LONDON -- Britain's government on Tuesday proposed banning smoking in most public places, setting off debate over what one smoker decried as the brainchild of a busybody "nanny state."\nThe ban, which would be phased in over four years, would affect offices, restaurants and any pub or bar that serves food -- about 80 percent of England's drinking establishments.\nThe 20 percent of bars and pubs that serve no food would be free to restrict smoking if they chose, Health Secretary John Reid told the House of Commons.\n"This is a sensible solution, I believe, which balances the protection of the majority with the personal freedom of the minority in England," Reid said, outlining the legislation he envisions. The proposal must be approved by Parliament.\nSmokers and pub-goers were divided about the plan. One in four adult Britons smoke.\n"I think it's good because smoking in pubs is probably why I started in the first place," said Tammy Foot, a student having a cigarette in central London.\nHer friend, Kayligh Flynn, agreed. "This will probaably help me quit," she said. "And you can always go outside, can't you?"\nAt the Lamb and Flag pub in the Covent Garden neighborhood, smoker Steven Thomas predicted many voters would be angry at the government.\n"I think a lot of people are sick of the nanny state ... changing everything," he said.\nThe ban would apply only in England, which along with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland makes up Great Britain. Scotland's government announced last week that it would seek to ban smoking in all enclosed public places by 2006.\nIreland's implementation earlier this year of a ban on smoking in all enclosed workplaces helped bring the smoking issue to the forefront in Britain.\nReid said that as part of the effort to further reduce the number of smokers in Britain, he wants "hard-hitting" picture warnings on cigarette packs and new restrictions on tobacco advertising.\nHe also promised to crack down on smuggling of tobacco products and on shops that sell cigarettes to minors, and to boost funding for National Health Service programs that help smokers to quit.\nReid said the smoking ban, if approved, would come into force gradually: in government departments in 2006, other workplaces in 2007 and affected pubs and bars by the end of 2008.\nAndrew Lansley, the opposition Conservative Party spokesman on health, dismissed Reid's proposals as "gimmicks and a nanny state" and said they could prompt smokers to light up more frequently at home, endangering their children's health.\nHe said voluntary anti-smoking measures by restaurant and pub owners would have been more effective than a government ban.\n"The government's approach simply risks delaying progress," he said.
(08/05/04 1:10am)
LONDON -- Police conducted anti-terrorism raids in London and several towns Tuesday, arresting 13 people believed involved in preparing terrorist acts.\nLondon's Metropolitan Police said the afternoon and evening arrests were "part of a pre-planned, ongoing intelligence-led operation."\nThe men were detained "on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," the police statement said, without elaborating.\nThe arrests did not appear to be linked to information Pakistani authorities recently said they had uncovered about threats to Britain and America.\nThe police said the arrests were in northwest London, suburban Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and in Lancashire, northwestern England. The Lancashire raid was in the town of Blackburn and the Hertfordshire arrests were in Luton, police said.\nDetectives were searching homes in all those places in operations expected to take time to finish, police said.\nThe suspects, who are all in their 20s and 30s, will be brought to a central London police station for questioning by anti-terrorism officers, police said. They declined to specify the men's nationalities, but the British Broadcasting Corp. said they were all of South Asian descent and some were thought to be British citizens.\n"Today's operation is part of continuing and extensive inquiries by police and the security service into alleged international terrorism," the police statement said.\nPolice suggested the raids were not linked to the terror threats disclosed by American authorities Sunday to financial industry buildings in New York, Washington D.C., and Newark, N.J.\nPakistan's information minister said Monday his country found plans for new attacks against the United States and Britain on a computer seized during the arrest last month of a senior al-Qaida suspect wanted for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa.\nAsked whether the Tuesday raids were linked to the recent Pakistani discovery, police declined to answer directly, but noted that the investigation leading to the arrests had been underway for some time.\nWhile British authorities say the threat from terrorism remains high, they have not warned of any specific threat like that announced in the United States. The intelligence behind the latest U.S. terror warnings was as much as four years old, and law enforcement officials are trying to determine whether the plot was current, with terrorists still trying to organize such an attack.\nPolice will have up to two weeks to hold the men before deciding whether to charge them, but courts grant that permission only a few days at a time.\nSuspects arrested in previous anti-terrorism raids have often been released without charge before the two weeks expire.\nCritics say that indicates police have been too quick to make arrests, a charge they deny.\nThe Metropolitan Police said in April that more than half the 572 people who had by then been arrested in anti-terror raids since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks had been released without charge.\nFewer than one in five had been charged with terrorism-related offenses; the others were accused of lesser crimes, often immigration violations.\nMassoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said he was "extremely concerned" that Tuesday's arrests came so soon after the American alert and just before a Parliamentary group is expected to release its report on the Terrorism Act.\n"The timing is very worrying and it is extremely annoying, especially when it actually affects the lives of ordinary people and they are suffering," he said. "It is increasing Islamophobia"
(03/10/04 4:20am)
NORTHOLT, England -- Police arrested four Britons and detained a fifth as they returned to England late Tuesday from more than two years in U.S. military detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.\nThe five were among nine Britons whose captivity at the U.S. military prison had proved a sticking point between the warm allies for more than two years.\nA Metropolitan Police official said four of the group were arrested under provisions of the Terrorism Act. The fifth was detained by immigration authorities.\nThe Royal Air Force C17 landed Tuesday night at Northolt Royal Air Force Base west of London. Armored police vans awaited the flight and took the prisoners away.\nU.S. disputes over the captives had risen to President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose ties throughout the Iraq War, despite intense international criticism of both leaders, were unshakeable.\nWith the release of the five, negotiations will continue over the remaining four British detainees still at Guantanamo.\nBritain had demanded its nine nationals, some of whom had been held for more than two years without charge or access to lawyers, either be given fair trials or returned home.\nSome legal experts doubt there will be enough evidence to try the men because the conditions at Guantanamo could mean information gleaned there would be inadmissible in court. It is also unclear whether British courts have jurisdiction over alleged criminal acts in Afghanistan, unless crimes of terrorism or treason could be proved, the experts said.\nThat could create an awkward situation for Blair, who has emphasized that those held at Guantanamo had to be handled carefully because they might pose a danger to Britain's national security.\nHe has had to balance such concerns with anger from some Britons over the men's long-lasting detention without the normal rights afforded to defendants. One British judge said at a 2002 court hearing the Guantanamo camp was like a "legal black hole."\nAbout 640 prisoners are held at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime or the al Qaeda terror network.\nThe United States says the suspects are "enemy combatants" subject to different legal rules than prisoners of war. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments whether they should be allowed to challenge their detention in American courts.\nHome Secretary David Blunkett said Monday the five would "go through the normal process of being interviewed by the (police) counterterrorism branch in London. And the material that has been provided will be evaluated."\nGreg Powell, a lawyer representing detainee Rhuhel Ahmed, said his client would be taken to the high-security Paddington Green police station in London for interrogation.\nThe government announced last month that five of the Britons held at Guantanamo would be released. They have been identified as Ahmed, 23; Jamal al-Harith, 35; Tarek Dergoul, 24; Asif Iqbal, 20; and Shafiq Rasul, 25.\nFamilies and lawyers of the five returned men have insisted they are innocent.\nLawyers say the five are most likely to be investigated under the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows prosecution for membership of a banned organization, fund-raising, recruiting of others or terrorist acts committed in Britain or overseas.\nThe future of the four still at Guantanamo -- Moazzam Begg, 36; Feroz Abbasi, 23; Richard Belmar, 23; and Martin Mubanga, 29 -- remains uncertain.\nBegg and Abbasi had been listed as some of the first detainees likely to face a military commission, a possibility Britain has criticized.\nBlair's official spokesman said Tuesday the Britons should only be tried in the United States if they had access to legal representation and rights of appeal, which he said was not the case now.
(01/14/04 3:47am)
LONDON -- The once-respected family doctor who became Britain's worst serial killer was found hanged in his prison cell Tuesday, cheating his victims' relatives of the one consolation they had hoped for -- an explanation of his 23-year murder spree.\nOfficials are investigating why there was no suicide watch on Dr. Harold Shipman, who was convicted in 2000 of killing 15 patients and later was found to have murdered at least 200 more, mostly by lethal injection. He always maintained his innocence.\nGuards found him hanging from bedsheets attached to the window bars of his cell at Wakefield Prison in northern England at 6:20 a.m., the Prison Service said. He was pronounced dead about two hours later, a day before his 58th birthday.\nThea Morgan, whose mother, Dorothea Renwick, 90, was among Shipman's suspected victims, said she hoped the inquiry into his death would look at "why he was allowed to get away with doing this to himself."\n"I want to see the end of him, but I think he should have stayed in his cell and rotted," she said.\nMany believe Shipman, labeled "Dr. Death" by tabloid newspapers, killed because he enjoyed the feeling of control it gave him. Some of his victims' survivors said committing suicide allowed him to maintain that power.\n"He has controlled us all the way through, and he has controlled the last step and I hate him for it," said Jayne Gaskill, whose mother, Bertha Moss, 68, was thought to have been killed by the doctor. "He has won again. He has taken the easy way out."\nIn a statement announcing an investigation of Shipman's death, Prisons Minister Paul Goggins did not say whether officials believed someone else could have harmed the doctor.\nStephen Shaw, the new prison's ombudsman named to head the inquiry, focused on suicide as the likely cause of death.\nHe said it was unrealistic to expect all Britain's 70,000 inmates to be constantly monitored.\n"That isn't possible, it isn't desirable, it isn't humane," he told BBC radio. "What I will need to investigate is whether there were any warning signs at Wakefield in the case of Shipman, whether there were any slip-ups in terms of proper procedures."\nGiovanni di Stefano, one of Shipman's lawyers, told Sky News he was stunned, since he had been seeking to appeal Shipman's conviction.\n"It is extremely strange, to put it mildly," di Stefano said. "Something is not really quite right there."\nTwo years after Shipman's conviction for the 15 murders, High Court Judge Janet Smith, appointed to determine the true number of victims, reported that he had murdered at least 200 more between 1975 to 1998, when he was a trusted and beloved physician in West Yorkshire and then in Hyde, outside Manchester.\nSmith said there were also 45 deaths for which a "real suspicion" fell on Shipman, and a further 38 lacking insufficient evidence to form any conclusion. Prosecutors had ruled out further trials.\nSmith's count makes Shipman the worst serial killer in British history.\nBritain's most famous serial killer is Jack the Ripper, who in 1888 roamed the smog-clouded streets of London's East End by night, killing and mutilating at least five prostitutes. He was never caught or identified.\nThe motivation behind Shipman's murder spree has never been determined, and remains one of British criminology's biggest mysteries.\nIn all but one case there was no evidence he killed for money, and "no suggestion of any form of sexual depravity," Smith reported. One victim made Shipman the beneficiary of her will.\nThe doctor's death is deeply frustrating for the families, said retired Detective Supt. Bernard Postles, who led the investigation into the murders.\n"For the last four years, they have held out some hope he would tell them the reasoning behind these offenses," Postles said. "Unfortunately, that never came to pass and he's now dead and taken the secrets to his grave."\nPostles said he believed Shipman might eventually have confessed to the killings had he lived.\n"I am not sorry he has gone, but it brings it all back and it stirs it all up for us again," said Kathleen Wood, whose 83-year-old mother, Elizabeth Baddeley, was murdered by Shipman in 1997.\nIn the small town of Hyde, where many once looked up to Shipman, someone scrawled the word "Justice" on the doctor's shuttered former office.\nShipman's activities only aroused suspicion in March 1998, when another doctor, whom he had asked to co-sign some cremation certificates, expressed concern at the number of deaths. Police concluded there wasn't enough evidence to pursue charges.\nThe investigation was reopened months later after a woman discovered that her 81-year-old mother apparently had changed her will before she died, leaving everything to Shipman. That led to exhumations and to Shipman's arrest.
(09/12/01 5:46am)
LONDON -- Governments around the world offered condolences to an America that looked more vulnerable than ever after Tuesday's terror attacks, but thousands of Palestinians celebrated in the West Bank and in Lebanese refugee camps. \nPeople on every continent watched in horror as astonishing images of terror in the United States filled their television screens. But in the West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinians cheered and distributed candy to passers-by, and Iraqi television played a patriotic song that began "Down with America!" as it showed the World Trade Center towers collapsing. \nPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat offered his sympathy to Americans and said he was horrified by the devastating attacks, which also hit the Pentagon. \nLeaders around the world, including most in the Middle East, offered messages of support. \nAfghanistan's Taliban rulers condemned the attacks and rejected suggestions that suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, who has been given asylum in Afghanistan, could be behind them. \n"It is premature to level allegations against a person who is not in a position to carry out such attacks," said Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador in Pakistan. "It was a well-organized plan and Osama has no such facilities." \nKey indexes sank on world stock markets and many European and Asian airlines canceled flights to the United States and recalled planes already in the air. \nBritain and Belgium banned commercial flights over their capitals, and Britain warned its citizens traveling in the United States to beware of possible further attacks. Israel closed its airspace to foreign flights and evacuated staff from diplomatic missions and Jewish institutions around the world. \nIn the West Bank town of Nablus, about 3,000 people poured into the streets shortly after the attacks began, chanting "God is Great" and handing out candy in a traditional gesture of celebration. \nThere were no reports of celebrations elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza. \nSheik Ahmed Yassin, whose Islamic militant Hamas group has carried out a series of suicide bombings in Israel, said he was not interested in exporting such attacks to the United States. \n"We are not ready to move our struggle outside the occupied Palestinian land. We are not prepared to open international fronts, however much we criticize the unfair American position," Yassin told reporters in Gaza City. \nIn Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest refugee camp, where about 75,000 Palestinians live, revelers fired weapons in the air, witnesses said. Similar celebratory gunfire was heard at the Rashidiyeh camp near the southern city of Tyre. \nMany countries beefed up security at American embassies, and U.S. armed forces in Europe and Asia were put on high alert. \nOrdinary citizens offered condolences at American embassies around the world, Norwegians left bouquets of flowers in a park near the U.S. Embassy, Russians placed flowers near the Moscow mission and in Budapest, there were dozens of candles. \nNATO called an emergency meeting of its governing council and urged an intensified war against international terrorism. "Our message to those who perpetrated these unspeakable crimes is clear: you will not get away with it," it said. \nIn New York, the U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks and urged all nations to work to bring the perpetrators to justice. \n"It is impossible to fully comprehend the evil that would have conjured up such a cowardly and depraved assault," said Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. \nRussian President Vladimir Putin called the attacks "terrible tragedies." \n"This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life." \nQueen Elizabeth II said she was watching developments in "growing disbelief and total shock." \nPope John Paul II condemned the "unspeakable horror" and said he was praying for the victims' souls and for their families. \nWhile Iraqi TV appeared to salute the attacks, Modhafar Bashir, a 35-year-old poet watching the news in a Baghdad coffee shop, said he condemned such violence. "The problem is that America has created so many enemies inside and abroad," Bashir said. \nChina said it was "horrified" and Chinese President Jiang Zemin expressed "grave concern for the safety of Chinese in the U.S." \n"This outrageous and vicious act of violence against the United States is unforgivable," said Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. \nArafat offered his condolences to the American people and government. "We are completely shocked. It's unbelievable," he said. \nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said "there can be no doubt that these attacks are deliberate acts of terrorism, carefully planned and coordinated. ... I condemn them utterly." \nEgyptian President Hosni Mubarak called the attacks "horrible and unimaginable." In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder described them as "a declaration of war." \nMalaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir expressed sadness, but urged the U.S. government not to seek revenge. \n"Retaliation will lead to the deaths of many people and will be followed by more counter-strikes," he was quoted as saying. \nIn the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico, people scrambled for news of relatives and friends in New York, where an estimated 2 million Puerto Ricans live. \nGroups gathered on the corners of cobble-stoned streets in San Juan, clinging to strangers in search of more details. \n"Dios mio, have mercy!" exclaimed a whited-haired man, making the sign of the cross as he watched the second tower explode on TV. \nBroadcasters around the world broke into programming to show images of the disasters. \n"This portends the end of the world," said Ekima Ibass, a civil servant in Congo's capital, Kinshasa. "It could be the beginning of a new world war," Ibass added.