Germany shuts mosque in Hamburg....[ 1602 ]

Germany shuts 9/11 plotters' mosque in Hamburg

 

Police raided the mosque on Monday and hunted for evidence of jihadist activities

BBC 9 August 2010 Last updated at 10:40 GMT

German police have shut down the Hamburg mosque where the 9/11 hijackers met before their suicide attacks on the US in 2001.

Police said they believed the Taiba mosque was again being used as a meeting point for extremists.

The cultural association that runs the mosque has also been banned.

A German intelligence report last year said radical Muslims had travelled to military training camps in Uzbekistan after associating at the mosque.

"We have closed the mosque because it was a recruiting and meeting point for Islamic radicals who wanted to participate in so-called jihad or holy war," said Frank Reschreiter, a spokesman for Hamburg's state interior ministry.

He said 20 police officers had been searching the building and had confiscated material, including several computers, the Associated Press reported.

There was no announcement of any arrests.

'Major hub'

The mosque, formerly called the al-Quds Mosque, in Hamburg's St Georg district has been under surveillance since the 2001 attacks.

A recent intelligence report described the mosque as "a major hub for the jihadist scene in Hamburg", which it said included 45 radical Islamists.

US investigators say an al-Qaeda cell based in Hamburg masterminded the 9/11 attacks, in which hijackers crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon in Washington, and one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

About 3,000 people died in the attacks - the worst acts of terror carried out on US soil in modern times.

The ..girl took huge diamond from Charles Taylor'..[ 1601 ]

Mia Farrow: Naomi Campbell boasted of 'huge diamond from Charles Taylor'

The London Evening Standard, 9/8/2010 

Giving evidence to the Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Netherlands last week, Campbell, 40, said she was given some "dirty-looking pebbles" after a dinner hosted by former South African president Nelson Mandela in 1997.

But she said she did not know who the gift was from.

However, Farrow told the court today that when Campbell came down for breakfast the next morning she began speaking even before she sat down.

She said: "What I remember is Naomi Campbell joined us at the table but before she even sat down she recounted an event of that evening.

"And she said that in the night she had been awakened, some men were knocking at the door. They had been sent by Charles Taylor and they were giving a huge diamond.

"And she said that she intended to give the diamond to Nelson Mandela's children's charity."

Giving evidence last week, Campbell said she was woken in the night by two men knocking at her door.

She said she was given a pouch of "dirty-looking pebbles" but was not told who they were from.

Taylor, the former president of Liberia, is accused of war crimes during Sierra Leone's civil war, including using diamonds to fund rebels.

He denies 11 charges, including murder, rape, sexual slavery and recruiting child soldiers.

Campbell told the court one of the other guests at breakfast made the suggestion the gift must have been from Taylor and the "dirty looking pebbles" must have been diamonds.

But asked about where the suggestion came from that the stones were in fact diamonds, Farrow said: "Miss Campbell. Miss Campbell entered the room. She was quite excited and said in effect, 'Oh my God, in the middle of the night I was awoken by knocking at the door and it was men sent by Charles Taylor and he sent me a huge diamond."'

Asked who said the gift came from Taylor, Farrow said: "Naomi Campbell."

Farrow was asked again if she was the one at the breakfast table who said the gift came from Taylor.

She said: "Absolutely not."

She was asked who did make the suggestion.

She said: "Naomi Campbell said they came from Charles Taylor."

Farrow said when she arrived at the party, Taylor was already there.

Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, told her: "'No, no, you don't want to be photographed with this man. This is the president of Liberia. He's not supposed to be here' or 'he should have left by now.'

"She moved the children and me to another area."

Asked about what she knew at that time of Taylor, she said: "I didn't know anything other than Graca Machel's reaction."

Japan: major ports it will invest..[ 1600 ]

Gov't designates major ports it will invest in as it aims to create shipping hubs

A bird's-eye view of freight containers at Yokohama Port's Honmoku Pier. (Mainichi)

(Mainichi Japan) August 8, 2010

The government has designated two mega-ports as "International Freight Strategic Ports," which are to receive high-priority in budget allocations in an attempt to transform them into powerful international shipping hubs.

Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Seiji Maehara announced Aug. 6 that "Hanshin Port" (consisting of Osaka and Kobe Ports) and "Keihin Port" (Tokyo, Kawasaki and Yokohama Ports) have been chosen as the strategic ports.

The designation is part of the financially-squeezed ministry's efforts to shift from a strategy of investing in ports equally to focusing resources on a few particular ports.

Four ports -- Hanshin, Keihin, Ise Bay (Nagoya and Yokkaichi Ports) and Hokubu-Kyushu (Hakata and Kitakyushu Ports) -- had applied for the new project, and the ministry's review committee scored each port's suggestions for how it would develop using the money on a 1,000-point scale. Hanshin and Keihin were the top two, scoring 769 and 729 points, respectively, while Ise Bay and Hokubu Kyushu settled for 553 and 277, respectively. Based on the scores, the ministry opted for Hanshin and Keihin.

"We will restore Japan's status as a seafaring nation," Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Maehara said at the Aug. 6 press conference, showing a strong desire to make the two ports major Asian hubs.

Among ports around the world, Singapore currently handles the largest volume of freight, followed by Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen (China), and Busan (South Korea). Kobe in Japan was ranked fourth in 1980, but as of 2008, was in 44th place. With even the combined transaction volume of freight at Keihin and Hanshin Ports coming to less than half that of Singapore Port, Japan is "two laps behind," says Maehara.

This lag may be explainable by differences between Japan and these other countries in how they have viewed port development. Even after its steep economic growth had ended, Japan continued to invest in its ports equally, calling for balanced development of the national territory. China and South Korea, meanwhile, concentrated their investment on improvement of specific ports, foreseeing an expansion of the Asian market.

In 2004, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry designated Tokyo, Kobe and four other ports as "Super Central Ports," in a bid to end the balanced strategy and instead prioritize budget allocations on those ports, but the plan failed to close the gap in freight volume with the leading Asian countries. The latest move comes as an attempt by the ministry to focus its port investments into yet a smaller number of ports.

Click here for the original Japanese story

Chavez warns Colobian rebels to put down arms..[ 1599 ]

UPDATE 1-Chavez urges Colombian rebels to put down arms

Hugo Chavez said he was ending his support for Colombia's Marxist guerillas, robbing them of their most public and powerful ally.

By Jeremy McDermott in Medellin
Published: 10:23PM BST 09 Jun 2008

Farc rebels on patrol. Such displays of strength may be a thing of the past after their main ally, Hugo Chavez, withdrew his support Photo: REUTERS

Sun Aug 8, 2010 3:14pm EDT

By Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged rebels in neighboring Colombia to lay down arms on Sunday and warned the new government of President Juan Manuel Santos to avoid accusations Venezuela helps the leftist guerrillas.

Though ideologically opposed, socialist firebrand Chavez and U.S. ally Santos want a new start in relations for the sake of peace in the volatile Andean region and the restoration of their annual $7 billion bilateral trade. [ID:nN07219451]

Chavez wants to meet directly with Santos, who took office on Saturday, but warned any repetition of his predecessor President Alvaro Uribe's claims that Caracas shelters Colombian "terrorists" would torpedo the reconciliation efforts.

"Let's be clear. If Venezuela is respected, there will be progress. If there's lack of respect to Venezuela, nothing new or good will be possible," Chavez wrote in a weekly column.

Venezuela broke ties with Colombia last month in the latest swing in their on-again, off-again relationship.

Despite the aggressive words from both Caracas and Bogota in recent weeks, few thought the spat would spiral into war and markets shrugged off the dispute as largely rhetoric.

The concrete issue at root -- is Venezuela supporting Colombian guerrillas and allowing them to hide on its soil? -- remains unresolved however.

Seeking to demonstrate his peace credentials and deflect the accusations that he has been quietly helping Colombia's rebels, Chavez called on them to give up their decades-old armed struggle and seek a negotiated solution.

"The guerrillas should come out in favor of peace. They should release all their hostages," he said on his Sunday TV program "Alo Presidente." "They have no future by staying armed," added Chavez, repeating similar past pleas.

"Furthermore they have become an excuse for the (U.S.) empire to intervene in Colombia and threaten Venezuela from there," Chavez said, a reference to the U.S. military presence in Colombia which so irks him.

MINISTERS MEET

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, who went to Bogota for Santos' inauguration, was meeting his Colombian counterpart Maria Angela Holguin on Sunday to work out when their bosses could meet to restore relations.

Chavez said Maduro had reported a very positive reception in Colombia. "We are very hopeful that we can start to rebuild what the outgoing Colombian government destroyed and pulverized: trust," the Venezuelan president said on TV.

Before meeting Maduro, Holguin also held talks with Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino in an effort to smooth over another of Colombia's messy confrontations.

Ecuador, whose left-wing government is an ally of Chavez, and Colombia are hoping to restore full relations after a controversial 2008 bombing raid against Colombian rebels across the Ecuadorean border.

The two ministers discussed re-establishing relations and cooperation on issues such as frontier development and energy.

"For us, our relations with Ecuador are very important and we want to keep on this path toward normalization," Holguin said.
-

(Additional reporting by Pat Markey in Bogota; Editing by Eric Beech)

Afghanistan, the bodies of 10 medical workers recovered.[ 1598 ]

Official: Aid worker slayings 'a deplorable and cowardly act'; all bodies recovered

Gallery

Photo timeline: The war in Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan began on Oct. 7, 2001, as the U.S. military launched an operation in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. The war continues today.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

By Joshua Partlow

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 8, 2010; 11:57 AM

KABUL --
The bodies of 10 medical workers from a Christian aid group who were killed this week by insurgents in the mountains of northern Afghanistan were flown to Kabul on Sunday, and the U.S. Embassy confirmed that six Americans were among the dead.

This Story

The British government said that Karen Woo, a British surgeon, had been killed in the attack, the first official confirmation that the massacred aid workers were from the International Assistance Mission, a Christian group which had sent a 12-person team to provide eye care in the remote Nurestan province.

The organization's Kabul office had lost contact with the medical team Wednesday, and their bodies were found in southern Badakhshan province two days later.
"This is a deplorable and cowardly act which is against the interests of the people of Afghanistan who depended on the services she was bravely helping to provide," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this tragic time."
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the families of the six slain Americans had been notified, but "out of respect for them, we will not be releasing the names at this time."

One American known to be killed was Tom Little, an optometrist from New York and the team's leader, who had worked in Afghanistan for decades. Thomas Grams, 51, a Colorado dentist who worked giving free dental care to children in Nepal and Afghanistan, was also among the dead, the Associated Press reported.

Afghan helicopters could not retrieve the bodies Saturday because of poor weather, according to Dirk Frans, director of the IAM, but a second attempt Sunday succeeded. By mid-day, the bodies had arrived at a military compound in downtown Kabul. Along with them came the lone survivor of the attack, an Afghan driver for the team named Safiullah, who was taken to the Interior Ministry for questioning.
Investigators, as well as IAM officials, are eager to speak with Safiullah to learn more about the circumstances of the attack and how he survived.

The medical team had driven from Kabul in three Land Rovers, then left the vehicles to hike for days over a towering mountain pass and into the Parun Valley in Nurestan. They'd crossed back over the pass and had either reached their vehicles or had almost done so when they were set upon by about 10 gunmen. The gunmen lined them up and shot them, according to police.

According to an Afghan reporter who interviewed Safiullah by satellite phone Saturday and provided his notes to The Washington Post, Safiullah said that the medical team was accompanied by a small group of local security guards and a Nurestani guide while on their hike. At the border with Badakhshan, Safiullah said, the local guards and the guide said they could go no further, which worried him.

Not far from the border, the 10 gunmen appeared. Their bearded faces were covered, they carried Kalashnikov rifles and they said very little, communicating with hand gestures, Safiullah told the reporter. They lined up the frightened team and began to execute them as members of the group screamed and cried for mercy, he said.

When it was his turn, Safiullah said he fell to his knees, shouted "God is great" and recited a verse from the Koran--"there is no God but God and Mohammad is the messenger of God"--and pleaded to be spared.