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DAHAB, Egypt (AP) April 25 – Egyptian authorities, already struggling with elusive terror cells in the rugged Sinai Peninsula, moved quickly Tuesday arresting 30 men in the triple bombings that ripped apart a crowded resort town, killing 24 on a tranquil holiday evening. Radical Muslim groups moved just as rapidly to distance themselves from the Dahab attacks. The leader of Egypt's banned Muslim brotherhood condemned them as "aggression on human souls created by God." The militant Palestinian Hamas organization called them a "criminal attack which is against all human values."

Many frightened tourists fled Sinai coastal resorts where two previous bomb attacks like the Dahab blasts bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida-linked groups that appear to have a free hand to continue operations in the barren, backward and extremely rugged Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian authorities despite massive sweeps by thousands of troops and hundreds of arrests after each previous Sinai attack appeared increasingly frustrated by the ease with which terrorists continue to hit the country's vital tourism industry. It brought in $6.4 billion in 2005 and is the top source of foreign exchange. [More>>abcnews.go. com]

4.24.06 Three blasts rock Egyptian resort city

CAIRO (AP) April 24 – Three explosions Monday night rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab and there were at least 100 dead and wounded, according to the doctor who runs Egypt's Sinai Peninsula rescue squad. Dr. Said Essa said he was headed to the scene of the blasts, one of which hit the el-Mashrabiyah Hotel. Dahab is located on the Gulf of Aqaba on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. Police officials said more than 20 ambulances and police cars were rushing to the el-Masbat section of the city. [sfgate.com (S.F Chronicle)]

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4.24.06 California becomes second state to introduce Bush impeachment

April 24 – David Swanson of afterdowningstreet.org reports: Joining Illinois, California has become the second state in which a proposal to impeach President Bush has been introduced in the state legislature. And this one includes Cheney as well. California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles (where the LA Times has now called for Cheney's resignation) has submitted amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. The amendments reference Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature.

The resolution, in the words of Koretz's press release, "bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial."

Koretz submitted amendments gutting AJR No. 39, a resolution unrelated to impeachment, to the Assembly Rules Committee. The Rules Committee may take up the bill this week for referral, allowing him to formally introduce the amended resolution. AJR 39 is a bill introduced in January by Koretz calling for a moratorium on depleted uranium:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ajr_39_bill_20060104_introduced.html

"At both the state and national levels," Koretz said, "we will be paying for the Bush Administration's illegal actions and terrible lack of judgment and competence for decades – not only in the billions of dollars wasted on the war and welfare for the rich, but in the worldwide loss of respect for America and Americans. Bush and Cheney must be impeached and removed from office before they undertake even deadlier misdeeds, such as the use of nuclear weapons. There are no bounds to their willingness to ignore the Constitution and world opinion – we can't afford to wait for the next disaster and hope that we can survive it."

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4.24.06 Escaped Yemeni Al-Qaeda convict surrenders

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) April 24 – A Yemeni member of al-Qaeda, one of 23 who escaped from a prison here earlier this year, has surrendered to authorities, security officials said Sunday. Khaled Mohammed Abdullah al-Batati turned himself in during the past two days, a security source said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Al-Batati was the eighth to turn himself in from the group that broke out of a heavily guarded Yemeni prison in February.

Arrested in a crackdown last year, Al-Batati was sentenced by a Yemeni court to three years in prison in May 2005 for plotting to attack the British and Italian embassies and the French cultural center in the capital, San'a. The prisoners escaped on February 3 through a 180-yard tunnel that ended inside a mosque. Among those at large is a militant convicted in the 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Aden's harbor. [More>>guardian.co.uk]

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4.24.06 Al Qaeda mystery man described in documents

WASHINGTON, April 24 – When Mohamedou Ould Slahi's name appeared on the list released last week of Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Pentagon was officially confirming that one of Al Qaeda's most mysterious figures had been in custody since late 2001. And recently declassified documents show that Slahi has been talking to interrogators the whole time. But the documents also show that the puzzle of a man US terrorism experts believe was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks and the millennium plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport seems only to grow deeper.

Slahi has maintained his innocence and said he's such a valuable intelligence asset that his captors should set him free to live in the United States — with the government providing security.

"Slahi was always a mystery man within the Al Qaeda hierarchy," said Roger W. Cressey, a senior White House counter-terrorism official from 1999 to 2001 who investigated Al Qaeda plots.

"We could never prove he was the one who activated the Montreal [millennium] cell, but he had enough ties and relationship and dealings with known Al Qaeda operatives that would lead one to question his claims of innocence." US officials say they think Slahi was a major conduit between Al Qaeda cells in Europe and Canada and its home base in Afghanistan. And there is evidence suggesting that he established small businesses to camouflage movement of money and militants.

As such, authorities believe Slahi, 34, holds valuable clues to how Al Qaeda operates. They say he might prove extremely helpful in unraveling tendrils of the terrorist network that still exist. And authorities say he may know the identities and whereabouts of others involved in the Sept. 11 attacks and the plot to bomb LAX around New Year's Eve in 1999. [More>>latimes.com]

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4.24.06 Iranian president says Israel cannot continue to exist

(AP) April 24 – In wide-ranging remarks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that Israel was an artificial state that could not continue to exist. "Some 60 years has passed since the end of World War II, why should the people of Germany and Palestine pay now for a war in which the current generation was not involved," Ahmadinejad told a press conference. "We say that this fake regime cannot not logically continue to live," he said.

The Iranian president has long campaigned against Israel, saying last October that Israel should be "wiped off the map." He has said Europe should find a home for Israelis, who should not live on Palestinian land.

"Open the doors [of Europe] and let the Jews go back to their own countries," the president said Monday. He added that Europeans should jettison their "anti-Semitism" to enable Israelis to "return" to their continent, and "allow Palestinians to decide their own fate and live freely." [More>>haaretzdaily.com ; See also iranfocus.com, April 24, "Iran says Jews must go back to Europe."]

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4.24.06 Abbas gets tough with Hamas

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) April 24 – Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview aired Monday that he has the authority to remove the newly elected Hamas government from power, and warned the government that it had little choice but to negotiate with Israel. "The constitution gives me clear and definite authority to remove a government from power, but I don't want to use this authority. Everyone should know that by law this power is in my hands," Abbas said in an interview with CNN-Turk that was recorded before he arrived in Turkey on Sunday. [More>>Jerusalem Post]

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4.24.06 Iran president vows not to abandon nuclear enrichment

TEHRAN, Iran, April 24 – Iranıs hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected on Monday a demand by the Untied Nations Security Council for the Islamic Republic to suspend its uranium enrichment activities by April 28. "Iran must have its own nuclear fuel," Ahmadinejad told reporters at a press conference. He called on the West not to stand up to Iran over its sensitive nuclear work. "Iran is a nuclear country," Ahmadinejad said.

Asked whether Tehran would heed the call by the Security to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, the hard-line president said, "The UN Security Council must operate in a legal framework." Tehran would not accept "bullying" demands even if they came from the Security Council, Ahmadinejad said, adding that by making such a demand the international body was "loosing credibility."

"We want our rights," he said, adding that the era in which Tehran would be willing to make concessions was over. Asked whether Iran was willing to consider a Russian proposal aimed at averting an international crisis whereby Iran would enrich uranium exclusively on Russian soil, Ahmadinejad said, "Which proposal? Russia has enrichment and we have enrichment Š six months have passed since [Russiaıs] proposal." [iranfocus.com ; See related story, rian.ru, April 24, "Russia opposed to Iran becoming nuclear power – Kremlin source."]

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4.24.06 Seven car bombs rock Baghdad as US steps up pressure

BAGHDAD (AFP) April 24 – Car bombings and shootings in Baghdad left 15 dead and 100 wounded as Washington stepped up pressure for Shiite premier designate Jawad al-Maliki to form a government and halt Iraq's slide into a civil war. Insurgents set off seven car bombs, including a double car bombing at a Baghdad university, security officials said. Five people died in the coordinated attack on the Mustansiriya University that also wounded 25. In another car bomb attack three people died and another 25 were wounded in the capital's northern Bab al-Muhaddam neighborhood, while 15 people were wounded in a yet another car bombing on Baghdad's central Tahrir Square.

Two car bombs also went off within minutes of each other in eastern Baghdad, wounding nine. A seventh car bomb exploded in the upscale Mansur neighborhood, wounding seven. Six people also died in a series of shootings in south Baghdad's restive Al-Dura district, while one civilian was killed near the restive city of Baquba.

The latest wave of violence came as US President George W. Bush stepped up pressure on Maliki to quickly form a national unity government, with the US military facing one of its bloodiest periods in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

About 60 US servicemen have been killed in Iraq in April, taking the military's death toll since the invasion to 2,392, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. [More>>turkishpress.com]

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4.24.06 Hamas rejects bin Laden message

April 24 – Hamas and a Sudanese rebel group have distanced themselves from a statement from Osama bin Laden condemning the West for its actions in both countries. In an audiotape message broadcast by Aljazeera on Sunday, the al-Qaeda leader said the decision by Western governments to halt aid to the Hamas-led government and impose other sanctions proved the West was in a "crusader war" with Islam. Commenting on bin Laden's message shortly afterwards, Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, said the group's ideology was "totally different" from that of bin Laden and al-Qaeda. "What Osama bin Laden said is his opinion, but Hamas has its own positions which are different to the ones expressed by bin Laden," he said. However, he said that what he called the "international siege on the Palestinian people" would inevitably lead to tensions in the Arab and Islamic world. [More>>aljazeera.net]

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4.24.06 Sixteen-year-old Pak girl raped, jailed in Saudi Arabia

KARACHI (AFP) April 24 – Isma Mahmood's world has come crumbling down, her hopes dashed to the ground. And all for no specific fault of her own. Isma, 16, was deported to Pakistan last month after having served six months in shackles and handcuffs in a prison in Saudi Arabia. Her crime – being raped by a Saudi man. "It's difficult for me to talk about what happened to me, from rape to prison and from prison to deportation," Isma said, in the office of a rescue trust in Karachi where she sat with her sister Muna, 18, who was also deported.

Isma's parents, originally from the central Pakistani city of Multan, were trafficked to Saudi Arabia around 20 years ago. "Though both of us were born there, we are Pakistanis," Isma said.

Human rights groups say hundreds of people, particularly young women, are still trafficked from South Asia every year, with many going on to face a life blighted by physical and often sexual abuse. In Isma's case, being born in Saudi Arabia was no help when she was raped last year in the holy city of Madinah. "I was the victim, I was raped and molested but I was named as the accused, and the man who committed the crime was not touched," she said, hiding her face with both hands in shame.

"He first kidnapped me, dragged me into his car," Isma said. "At first he asked me to sleep with him and offered good money. When I refused and tried to resist, he warned me of dire consequences and raped me in the car." [More>>khaleejtimes.com ; See related stories 4.24.06 Human trafficking is 'slavery that shames world' and 4.21.06 India Supreme Court: India is secular, behave and bbc.co.uk, July 1, 2006, "Protest against India rape fatwa" : A ruling by a Muslim seminary in India that a woman allegedly raped by her father-in law must separate from her husband has been met with protests. The religious edict or fatwa was issued by the Darul-Uloom Deoband, a powerful Islamic school which was established more than 150 years ago. The Deoband school promote a radical brand of Islam which is said to have inspired the Taleban in Afghanistan...

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4.24.06 Sudan Islamist branded apostate for pro-women views

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) April 23 – A Sudanese Islamist leader who once protected Al Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden was branded an apostate by the country's Muslim scholars on Sunday for taking a liberal stand on women's rights. The clerics proposed trying Hassan Al Turabi for apostasy following recent declarations by the Popular Congress Party leader that women were equal to men, had the right to marry a Christian or a Jew and could even lead prayers.

"Turabi should declare repentance or face the Sharia Hadd for heresy," said the statement by the Muslim Scholars Committee, which has the support of the government and controls many of the country's mosques. Hadd is a word in Islamic law that applies to punishments inflicted for some of the most serious offenses. The traditional punishment for heresy or apostasy in Sharia law is the death penalty. [More>>metimes.com ; See related story, khaleejtimes.com, (AFP) April 24, "Iranian women allowed into stadiums, breaking long taboo." : TEHERAN – Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Monday that Iranian women can go to stadiums to watch sporting events, putting an end to a ban imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution. "It should be planned in a way that women are respected and are given the best places to watch national and important games," the president was quoted as saying by state television...

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4.24.06 Intellectuals warn of mob rule, disintegration of nation

JAKARTA, April 24 – Painting an ominous picture of religious intolerance and national disintegration, a group of activists and intellectuals warned Saturday that Muslim hard-liners threatened to hijack the country's hard-won unity. Speaking at a one-day seminar here, they said that sharia-based ordinances being adopted by an increasing number of local administrations and the controversial pornography bill represented a danger to national unity. The seminar featured young intellectuals from the Indonesian Youth Circle, which brings together pro-democracy activists from the country's two largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, as well as from civil society NGOs and academia.

Speakers said Muslim hard-liners were increasingly gaining sway over mainstream society, as they took advantage of an administration in Jakarta disoriented by newfound democracy and human rights issues. Weak government, combined with ineffective law enforcement, has allowed mobs to take the law into their own hands with no intervention by the state, the activists said in a joint statement. [More>>thejakartapost.com]

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4.24.06 Human trafficking is 'slavery that shames world'

April 24 – Almost every country in the world is affected by the scourge of human trafficking, a UN report will reveal today. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has compiled the first such study from open sources, there are 127 countries of origin, mainly developing countries, and 137 destination countries, mainly in the industrialized world. The report also highlights 98 transit countries. "The fact that slavery – in the form of human trafficking – still exists in the 21st century shames us all," said UNODC's chief, Antonio Maria Costa.

The report, to be presented to the UN crime commission meeting in Vienna, calls for the protection of victims, particularly women and children, and for the systematic prosecution of offenders. "Traffickers are evil brokers of oppressed people whom they deliver in the hands of exploiters," Mr. Costa said. "They capitalize on weak law enforcement and poor international cooperation. I am disappointed by the low rates of convictions for the perpetrators of human trafficking."

Germany, Greece and France are among about a dozen countries identified as having a "high" incidence of acting as transit countries. Ten countries are named as the top destinations for trafficking victims: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and the US. Britain is on the "high" index of destination countries. [More>>independent.co.uk ; See related story, Maravot News 7.11.05, "Asian workers in 'intolerable conditions' in Austria"]

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4.24.06 Bird flu cases multiply around Pakistani capital

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) April 24 – Pakistan reported mounting cases of the deadly H5NI bird flu virus in poultry on Monday after discovering more infected farms near the capital. "Now, we have total nine poultry farms (near Islamabad) where H5N1 virus has been confirmed," Mohammad Afzal, the ministryıs livestock commissioner, told Reuters. He said more than 40,000 chickens had been culled after new outbreaks were discovered in the past week at eight farms located in Tarlai and Sihala, two areas near Islamabad where poultry farms are concentrated. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

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4.23.06 Official: Slain Syrian had ties to al-Qaeda leadership

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) April 23 – A Syrian terrorist killed in northwestern Pakistan was a close aide of al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, a top minister said Sunday. Marwan Hadid al-Suri, 38, was killed Thursday in a shootout in Bajur, a tribal region along the Afghan border. Al-Suri ran al-Qaeda operations there and was behind attacks on Afghan and coalition forces in Afghanistan, officials have said. Al-Suri was "an important man" in al-Qaeda believed to have run a financial network for the terror group, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Sunday. [More>>msnbc.msn.com ; See also thenews.com.pk] and related al-Qaeda story, aljazeera.net, April 23, "Turkey arrests 'al-Qaeda' suspects." : Turkish police have arrested six suspected al-Qaeda members they say were planning a series of attacks. The six, five Turks and a foreign national, were detained in the southeastern city of Gaziantep in a raid on a house, the Anatolia news agency reported...]

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4.23.06 Bin Laden : West waging a crusade

April 23 – Al Jazeera television has received an audiotape apparently from Osama bin Laden accusing the West of waging a "crusader war" against Islam. In the recording, aired on Sunday, the al-Qaeda leader said the boycott and cutting off of aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government reaffirmed the West's "crusader war on Islam."

He also accused the West of supporting what he called a "Zionist crusader war against Muslims," spoke about the situation in Iraq and, for the first time, the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. He called on Muslims to go to Sudan to foil what he calls Western efforts to divide the country.

Dhia Rashwan, an expert on Islamic groups at the Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies in Cairo, told Al Jazeera the tape showed bin Laden returning as leader after a long absence and calling on his soldiers to go to the battlefield. The al Qaeda leader also called on Muslims to expand their boycott resulting from the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers. [More>>aljazeera.net]

Editorial note: I think the headline for this story should be, "Bin Laden calls arms to Sudan to continue ethnic cleansing." His links to the Sudan do not need to be listed; that he makes a call to arms through aljazeera.net (Bin Laden's historical propaganda outlet) makes one wonder about the intelligence in the West, who have not yet discovered the similarity between Streicher and aljazeera.net.

Mel Copeland

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4.23.06 Despite US ire, Iran-India gas link deal close

Dhoha, India (Reuters) April 23 – Iran, India and Pakistan are close to signing a gas pipeline deal, the Iranian and Pakistani oil ministers told Reuters on Saturday, defying US opposition to the project. The plan to pump Iranian gas to India through Pakistan was first proposed more than a decade ago, but progress has been slow because of hostility between India and Pakistan and, more recently, US opposition to Iran because of its nuclear programme. Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri said he had an understanding with India and Pakistan and was unconcerned by US opposition. "We have a very good understanding," Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri told Reuters. "They are willing and Iran is ready." [More>>expressindia.com]

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4.22.06 'CIA warned Bush of no WMD in Iraq'

WASHINGTON (AFP) April 22 – The Central Intelligence Agency warned US President George W. Bush before the Iraq war that it had reliable information the government of Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, a retired CIA operative disclosed. But the operative, Tyler Drumheller, said top White House officials simply brushed off the warning, saying they were ³no longer interested² in intelligence and that the policy toward Iraq had been already set.

The disclosure, made in an interview with CBSıs "60 Minutes" program due to be broadcast late Sunday, adds to earlier accusations that the Bush administration used intelligence selectively as it built its case for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddamıs regime.

The administration claimed in the run-up to the war that Baghdad had extensive stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was working clandestinely to build a nuclear arsenal, therefore, presenting a threat to the world. An extensive CIA-led probe undertaken after the US military took control of Iraq failed to turn up any such weapons. But Bush and other members of his administration have blamed the fiasco on a massive intelligence failure and vehemently denied manipulating information they had been provided. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

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4.22.06 Illinois legislators introduce bill for Bush impeachment

April 22 – David Swanson of afterdowningstreet.org reports: Three members of the Illinois General Assembly have introduced a bill that urges the General Assembly to submit charges to the US House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States, George W. Bush, for willfully violating his Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and if found guilty urges his removal from office and disqualification to hold any other office in the United States.

The Jefferson Manual of rules for the US House of Representatives makes clear that impeachment proceedings can be initiated by a state legislature submitting charges. The state of Illinois is on its way toward forcing on the House what not a single one of its members has yet had the courage to propose: Articles of Impeachment.

The text of the Illinois bill and information on its status are available here:
http://tinyurl.com/nhs3r

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4.22.06 Dollar too unstable to be reliable – Russian minister

WASHINGTON(RIA Novosti) April 21 – Russia cannot consider the dollar as a reliable reserve currency because of its instability, the finance minister said Friday. "This currency has devalued by 40% against the euro in recent years," Alexei Kudrin told a news conference in Washington on the occasion of the opening spring session of the International Monetary Fund. According to the Central Bank of Russia, the dollar accounted for 70% of Russia's gold and currency reserves, euro for 25% and other assets for 5% in late 2005. As of April 14, 2006, the reserves were $212 billion. [rian.ru]

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4.22.06 Brazil nearing nuclear enrichment

RESENDE, Brazil (AP) April 22 – As Iran faces international pressure over developing the raw material for nuclear weapons, Brazil is quietly preparing to open its own uranium-enrichment center, capable of producing exactly the same fuel. Brazil – like Iran – has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and Brazil's constitution bans the military use of nuclear energy. Also like Iran, Brazil has cloaked key aspects of its nuclear technology in secrecy while insisting the program is for peaceful purposes, claims nuclear weapons experts have debunked.

While Brazil is more cooperative than Iran on international inspections, some worry its new enrichment capability – which eventually will create more fuel than is needed for its two nuclear plants – suggests that South America's biggest nation may be rethinking its commitment to nonproliferation. "Brazil is following a path very similar to Iran, but Iran is getting all the attention," said Marshall Eakin, a Brazil expert at Vanderbilt University. "In effect, Brazil is benefiting from Iran's problems." [More>>Jerusalem Post]

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4.22.06 Israel to target 'terrorists' in Hamas-led government

JERUSALEM, April 22 – Israel has threatened to target any Hamas minister or official it believed was involved in violence against the Jewish state. A senior military commander also disclosed that his troops were making contingency plans to reoccupy the Gaza Strip if Palestinian militants continued firing rockets across the border.

"Beware all those who are ministers in the Hamas government and are involved in terrorist activity against Israel. We will punish them," said Ra'anan Gissin, a spokesman for Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister-designate. "They will have no immunity just because they are members of the government or hold a position under it. They will be treated just like any other terrorist." [More>>independent.co.uk]

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4.22.06 Russian bombers flew undetected across Arctic – AF commander

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) April 22 – Russian military planes flew undetected through the US zone of the Arctic Ocean to Canada during recent military exercises, a senior Air Force commander said Saturday. The commander of the country's long-range strategic bombers, Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, said the US Air Force is now investigating why its military was unable to detect the Russian bombers. "They were unable to detect the planes either with radars or visually," he said. [More>>rian.ru]

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4.21.06 Al-Qaeda to 'move fight' to Saudi Arabia

PARIS (AFP) April 22 – A suspected senior Al-Qaeda operative who escaped from a US airbase in Afghanistan last July called on members overnight in a video statement to move to fight in Saudi Arabia, predicting they would soon overcome US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"You must have a precise programme in mind: we will soon conquer America (the United States) in Afghanistan and Iraq. We must then head directly towards the peninsula of Mahomet (Saudi Arabia)," Saudi Mohammad al-Qahtani, said in the video statement released on the internet. "We will have acquired great military experience...We call on our brothers who are fighting at the moment in the peninsula of Mahomet to continue their fight. We will soon be there," he said.

Al-Qahtani was one of four Al-Qaeda members who escaped from the US Bagram airbase last July. The escape of the four men, described by the US army as "dangerous combatants," is a source of embarrassment at the main US base in Afghanistan. [theaustralian.news.com.au]

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4.21.06 CIA fires employee for media leak

WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) April 21 – The CIA has fired an employee for leaking classified information to the news media, including details about secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, officials said Friday. A federal criminal investigation has also been opened. As best as the CIA can determine, this is the first time it has ever fired one of its officers for unauthorized contacts with reporters, CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart reports. Officials would only identify the fired officer as a female who had "acknowledged a pattern of discussions ... with more than one reporter," Stewart adds.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said an officer had been fired for having unauthorized contacts with the media and disclosing classified information to reporters, including details about intelligence operations.

"The officer has acknowledged unauthorized discussions with the media and the unauthorized sharing of classified information," Gimigliano said. "That is a violation of the secrecy agreement that everyone signs as a condition of employment with the CIA." [More>>cbsnews.com]

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4.21.06 FBI says 2 US citizens plotted terrorist attacks

ATLANTA, April 21 – A 21-year-old Georgia Tech student and another man traveled to Canada to meet with Islamic extremists to discuss ³strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike,² according to an affidavit made public Friday. Both men are charged in the case in an indictment returned under seal on March 23 and unsealed by the court Thursday.

Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both U.S. citizens who grew up in the Atlanta area, met with at least three other targets of ongoing FBI terrorism investigations during a trip to Canada in March 2005, the FBI agentıs affidavit said. The affidavit said the men discussed attacks against oil refineries and military bases and planned to travel to Pakistan to get military training at a terrorist camp, which authorities said Ahmed then tried to do. The FBI said Ahmed did go to Pakistan, but there is no indication he successfully received training, NBC News reported. [More>>msnbc.msn.com]

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4.21.06 Olmert accuses Syria and Iran for Tel Aviv suicide bombing

April 21 – Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday accused the Syrian and Iranian governments of involvement in the Tel Aviv suicide bombing that took place Monday. "The order for the Tel Aviv suicide bombing came from Damascus and when the operation was complete the report went back to Damascus," Olmert told a visiting group of U.S. senators, according to his office. Olmert also said Iran, which provides funding to Islamic Jihad, and the new Hamas-led government bear responsibility for the attack. "There is a channel of communication between Iran, Syria and the Palestinian Authority," he said. The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed nine people. The group is headquartered in Damascus. [haaretzdaily.com ; See more details, Jerusalem Post]

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4.21.06 Israel threatens to retake Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM (AP) April 21 – Israel Preparing to Retake Gaza; Lawmaker Says Palestinian Cabinet Could Be Assassination Target. In a growing barrage of Israeli pressure against Hamas, a senior military commander said Israel is actively preparing to reoccupy the Gaza Strip and a powerful lawmaker said the entire Palestinian Cabinet could be targeted for assassination after the appointment of a wanted militant to head a new security force.

Officials said there were no immediate plans to strike at the Hamas-led government. But the comments reflected rising Israeli impatience with the Islamic militant group, which has refused to renounce violence, defended a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv this week and failed to halt militant rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. [More>>abcnews.go.com]

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4.21.06 Al-Qaeda suspect killed in Pakistan

April 21 – A foreign militant who is thought to have strong links with the al-Qaeda leadership has been killed in northwestern Pakistan, security officials say. The suspect, thought to be Saudi-born Abu Marwan al-Suri, was killed on Thursday close to the Afghan border. Major-General Shaukat Sultan, the Pakistan army spokesman, said al-Suri was in a vehicle on the outskirts of Khar, a town near the Bajur tribal region. Al-Suri opened fire when he was asked to stop his vehicle at a roadblock. He killed a Pakistani security official and wounded two others before he himself was killed. [More>>aljazeera.net]

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4.21.06 Nepal's King bows to protests and restores democracy

April 21 – Nepal's embattled King Gyanendra today caved in to growing pressure for a return to democratic government in a last-gasp attempt to end two weeks of strikes and bloody civil unrest. The King finally bowed to demands from protesters on the streets and the international community to hand control of the Himalayan kingdom back to the people. This evening, in a televised address, he called on the seven opposition parties who have co-ordinated 16 days of strikes and demonstrations to nominate candidates for a new prime minister. The King sacked the previous prime minister and dismissed parliament 14 months ago, ostensibly because politicians had failed to suppress a Maoist insurgency. [More>>timesonline.co.uk]

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4.21.06 Jordan says Hamas weapons cache came from Syria

AMMAN, Jordan, April 20 – A Hamas weapons cache that Jordan said was discovered on its territory likely came into the country through Syria, a lawmaker quoted the prime minister as saying on Thursday. Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit said "the seized weapons traveled through Syria," according to Islamist MP Azzam Al Huneidi. "The people who brought in the weapons have relations with Hamas," Bakhit reportedly said, adding that an investigation was continuing. [More>>metimes.com]

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4.21.06 Iran shells Kurd positions in Iraq – Kurd official

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) April 21 – Iranian forces shelled Iranian Kurdish guerrilla positions inside mountainous northern Iraq early Friday morning to repel an attack, an Iraqi Kurdish official said. "This morning Iranian Kurdish fighters infiltrated the border into the Iranian side and the Iranian army bombed the area and repelled them. The shelling hit Iraqi land at Sidakan," said Saadi Pira, an official in the leading PUK Kurdish party. There was no word on casualties in the shelling of the Iranian Kurdish rebels of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Sidakan is about 80 km (50 miles) north of the northern Iraqi city of Arbil and about 10 km (6 miles) inside Iraq from the Iranian border.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have previously clashed with PJAK separatists in Iran's restive western borderlands. Security experts say PJAK is an Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) whose separatist struggle regained momentum in southeastern Turkey after it called off a unilateral cease fire in the summer of 2004. [iranfocus.com]

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4.21.06 Russia toughens opposition to UN sanctions on Iran

TEHRAN (AFP) April 21 – Hardening its opposition to sanctions against Iran, Russia said on Friday only proof that the Islamic Republic was seeking atom bombs could justify consideration of such measures by the UN Security Council. The council is awaiting a report on April 28 from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on whether Tehran is meeting its demands for a halt to uranium enrichment and answers to queries about its nuclear programme. The United States, Britain and France want the Security Council to weigh sanctions if, as widely expected, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei concludes Iran has not met UN demands. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

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4.21.06 Saudi Arabia, Iran among world's top executors

LONDON (AFP) April 21 – China carried out 80 percent of the world's 2,148 known executions last year, while Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States accounted for most of the rest, Amnesty International said Thursday. The London-based human rights group said in a statement that these countries bucked a steady two-decade trend toward the abolition of the death penalty throughout the world, with Mexico and Liberia the most recent examples.

"It is a glaring anomaly that China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US stand out for their extreme use of this form of punishment as the 'top' executors in the world," Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan said. Amnesty said at least 2,148 prisoners were executed in 22 countries in the 12 months to December 2005. [More>>dailystar.com.lb]

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4.21.06 India Supreme Court: India is secular, behave

NEW DELHI, India (PTI) April 20 – India's Supreme Court on Friday directed the Orissa government to provide police protection to a Muslim couple who were forced to separate after local clerics issued a fatwa that they were divorced even though they wanted to live together. The husband of petitioner Nazma Biwi had pronounced triple talaq in an inebriated condition in 2004 but later realizing his mistake, he decided to live with his wife and three children. However, local clerics at Bhadrak issued a fatwa that they were divorced and hence could not live together. Thereafter the couple was forced to live separately by the community.

"No one can force them to live separately. This is a secular country. All communities – Hindus or Muslims should behave in civilized manner," a bench of Justice Ruma Pal, Justice C. K. Thakker and Justice Markandey Katju observed...The clerics had said that if Nazma wanted to live with her husband, she must perform 'halala' (she must marry another man and the marriage must be consummated, after which she can get a divorce and then re-marry her first husband)...[Full story>>expressindia.com]

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4.21.06 Four bird flu deaths in Egypt

April 21 – The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed today that there have been 12 human cases of bird flu in Egypt, four of them fatal. This took the global total to 113 deaths out of 204 cases since 2003, the United Nations agency said. Egyptian officials had previously announced all 12 cases, including the fourth fatality, an 18-year-old girl from a province north of Cairo who died a week ago. The WHO said one of its collaborating laboratories in Britain had now "fully validated" the test results obtained in Egypt. [More>>theaustralian.news.com.au ; See related story, chinadaily.com.cn, April 20, "China confirms 12th human bird flu death."]

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4.21.06 Bush, Hu produce summit of symbols