Russia detains suspects for the Airport bombing...[ 2072 ]

Russia detains suspects in deadly airport blast linked with earlier bombing
Security services also reveal that bomber was under influence of mind-altering drugs

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, February 04, 2011

MOSCOW: Russia’s top security official said Thursday that several people with information on last month’s suicide bombing at the country’s biggest airport have been detained. They added that the bomber was under the influence of mind-altering drugs.

Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB federal security service, declared that relatives of a woman who was killed while allegedly preparing a New Year’s Eve suicide bombing in Moscow are suspected of providing assistance in the airport bombing.

It was not immediately clear if any of them were among those detained, but Bortnikov explained that some suspects are still being sought.

Investigators affirmed last week that the bomber was a 20-year-old man from the southern Caucasus region of Russia, which is gripped by an Islamic insurgency.
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The Jan. 24 bombing at Domodedovo airport killed 36 people and wounded 180.

The bomber’s name has not been released and officials have provided only vague details of the investigation. However, an autopsy revealed “a huge amount of highly potent narcotic and psychotropic substances in parts of the suicide bomber’s body,” Bortnikov reported in a televised meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev.
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The Investigative Committee, Russia’s main investigative body, last week claimed the bombing had been solved but Medvedev criticized the assessment as premature because the verdict of the court had not been delivered yet.
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“Neither the prosecution nor the Investigative Committee or other officials have the right to announce that a crime has been solved” until a perpetrator has been convicted and sentenced, Medvedev stated.

The Russian president said no one has “a right to make an announcement about the solution of this crime.”
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Asked, at a meeting with senior television executives, whether officials had any clues that could help them find those behind the bombing, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared: “Not clues. You can say that the case has on the whole been solved.”
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Some media reports have cited sources as saying the bomb was to have been set off by a cell phone and that it exploded inadvertently when the phone received a holiday greetings text message from the cell phone operator.

Violence attributed to Islamic separatists and to criminal gangs breaks out in Russia’s Caucasus almost every day. In Dagestan, where the bloodshed is most frequent, a small bomb exploded Thursday morning in the capital, Makhachkala, killing a city official involved in razing illegal structures, reported Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov.
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In another Caucasus republic, Kabardino-Balkariya, a traffic policeman died Thursday after being shot the night before, the republic’s Interior Mini

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=124517#ixzz1D1BJaxoe

(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

Egyptian Vice-President appeals for patience..[ 2071 ]

Egypt unrest: Omar Suleiman appeals for patience

Vice-President Omar Suleiman: "We have a plan that will start with dialogue"

BBC.,, 3 February 2011 Last updated at 19:37 GMT

Egyptian Vice-President Omar Suleiman has appealed for time to carry out political reforms 

before presidential elections in September.

He warned there would be a political vacuum if a proper period of transition was not allowed.

President Hosni Mubarak has agreed to step down in September, but protesters want him to leave power immediately.

The appeal follows a day of violence in central Cairo, with protesters pushing back Mr Mubarak's supporters.

Stones were thrown on both sides, and there has been some gunfire.

The army, which was trying to separate the two sides, appears to have failed to control the crowds.

Egypt's Health Minister Ahmed Samih Farid said that eight people had died in the fighting, which began on Wednesday, and 890 were injured, nine of them critically.

Another person was later reported killed in clashes on Abdel Monem Riyad Square, also in central Cairo. Many more were injured.

The BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab in Cairo says the shift in focus from Tahrir Square to Abdel Monem Riyad Square appears to indicate a strategic advance for the anti-Mubarak protesters, who have managed to hold their ground in Tahrir and move the clashes elsewhere.

Continue reading the main story

At the scene

Jim Muir BBC News, Cairo

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I'm in the middle of a pitched battle taking place just on the northern edge of Tahrir Square, just beyond the Egyptian museum.
There are two overpasses and I'm between the two. The protesters are pushing forward, trying to drive away the band of Mubarak supporters. They've been lobbing stones and rocks. There have been firebombs thrown from the other side.
There is a huge state of excitement. It is, quite frankly, very hard to believe you are standing in the middle of the heart of the Arab world's biggest capital - an area normally thronged with traffic - now a scene of complete anarchy.
There is a field of rubble here - everybody shouting and throwing stones, a complete confrontation.

Meanwhile US state department spokesman Philip Crowley has urged Mr Mubarak to move "farther and faster" with the transition.

'Political vacuum'

Mr Suleiman said it was essential to keep existing institutions in place until September.

"The youth were demanding the abolition of the [parliament]," he said in an interview broadcast on state TV.

"That means we would be unable to look into the issue of constitutional reforms. There has to be a parliament so that these reforms can be looked into and studied and discussed... The September date is a necessity. We have to commit, we have to adhere to it, otherwise we will have a political vacuum."

He also said that Mr Mubarak's son Gamal, like his father, would not stand for president in September.

But the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo says some parts of Mr Suleiman's interview were more sinister.

He said there had been a plot in Egypt and those responsible would be held accountable.

“Start Quote

People believe the assault was the police state fighting back using familiar dirty tactics - many now wear bandages on wounds they have sustained in fighting”

End Quote

Yolande Knell BBC News, Cairo

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• The battle for Tahrir Square

He said the popular Islamist opposition party the Muslim Brotherhood had been invited to talks.

"They're still hesitant to enter dialogue but I believe it's in their interests," he told state TV.

The party has previously rejected government calls for negotiations, saying Mr Mubarak must leave office first.

He pledged to investigate the violence, calling it a "disaster".

BBC correspondents in central Cairo say that fighting between supporters and opponents of Mr Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for 30 years, are continuing in the darkness.

Tension is also high in the second city, Alexandria, where one of the country's largest shopping malls has been ransacked by looters.

'Great destruction'

Separately, foreign journalists reporting for several organisations were attacked, with reports of Mubarak supporters said to have stormed a number of Cairo hotels.

Some journalists were beaten with sticks and had their equipment smashed.

The New York Times said that two reporters had been released after being detained overnight on Thursday.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Tahrir Square: "I'm in the middle of a pitched battle"

US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said the US condemned such actions, calling them part of "a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting".

And in a separate development, the public prosecutor issued a travel ban on three former ministers and a senior member of the ruling party, among them the unpopular former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly.

Correspondents say these legal measures against some of the most powerful people in the country are confirmation of a deep split within the ruling elite.

The public prosecutor's statement said other officials were covered by the ban, which would last "until national security is restored and the authorities and monitoring bodies have undergone their investigations".

Unrest has left about 300 people dead across the country over the past 10 days, according to UN estimates.

If Mr Mubarak does not step down, demonstrators have planned to march on the presidential palace on Friday.

Six jailed for shooting 'peacemaker'..[ 2070 ]

Gipsy Hill murder: Six jailed for shooting 'peacemaker'

 

Ezra Mills was described as an innocent victim who was trying to resolve a dispute involving a friend

BBC ,..Feb 3rd 2011m 15"48 GMT 

Five men and a teenage boy have been jailed for life for shooting dead a "peacemaker" in south London.

Ezra Mills, 22, was targeted in an alleyway in Gipsy Hill last March.

The Old Bailey heard he may have been shot after trying to smooth over trouble between a friend and some of the defendants after earlier gunfire.

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All six, who were found guilty of murder, were convicted on joint venture as it was not proved who fired the fatal shot.

'Intoxicated by guns'

Marcel Mason, 21, Trevelle Williams, 18, Dwayne Lock, 21, all from Gipsy Hill; Robert Saint, 20, of Camberwell; David Smith, 22, of Streatham, and Lavarne Forde-Morgan, 16, of Upper Norwood were all convicted of murder.

 

It was not proved who fired the fatal shot

• Mason, Williams and Lock were given minimum terms of 25 years and six months, 24 years and 21 years respectively
• Saint was jailed for 23 years
• Smith was given 24 years
• Forde-Morgan, whose anonymity was lifted by the judge, will be detained for at least 18 years

All except Lock were found guilty of having a firearm with intent to endanger life, while Williams and Forde-Morgan were also convicted of a second firearms offence.

Mr Mills had knocked on the door of one of the gang on the Central Hill estate to try to resolve a dispute between them and a friend, the court was told.

Witnesses praised

The "armed and dangerous group" then traced Mr Mills to an alleyway and "intoxicated by guns and high on adrenalin" they shot him, said prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC.

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The gang was described as being out of control

"They were, quite simply, out of control," he added.

Judge Jeremy Roberts said he was frustrated none of the six had admitted who fired the gun nor given evidence in court.

"Has not the time come for the person who pulled the trigger to stop this nonsense and save the others?" he asked.

Mr Mills' mother, Pamela, paid tribute to two women who did agree to testify, saying: "I can't imagine the fear you must have felt and I thank you for having the strength to come forward and speak out."

NASA Image of the Day, Feb 3rd..[ 2069 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

The Jets of Enceladus

On Jan. 31, 2011, NASA's Cassini spacecraft passed by several of Saturn's intriguing moons, snapping images along the way. 

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Cassini passed within about 37,282 miles of Enceladus and 17,398 miles of Helene.

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It also caught a glimpse of Mimas in front of Saturn's rings. In this image, Cassini snapped a picture of the famous jets erupting from the south polar terrain of Enceladus.

 

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

Πέμπτη, 3 Φεβρουάριος 2011 7:00:00 πμ

Egypt, Army tanks in Tahrir Square, Cairo...[ 2068 ]

Army tanks clear some pro-Mubarak forces in square

 AP - Pro-Mubarak demonstrators, bottom, clash with anti-government demonstrators, top right, as a palm tree burns from a firebomb, in Tahrir Square, Cairo.

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Associated Press.,, Feb. 3td ,2011

CAIRO –  Four army tanks have moved into positions protecting the anti-government protest camp in Cairo's Tahrir Square hours after automatic weapons fire pounded the demonstrators before dawn on Thursday.

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One tank moved onto a bridge overlooking the square and pushed out young men who had been throwing stones at the anti-government protesters. Four other tanks took up a position between the pro-Mubarak forces and the largest group of anti-government demonstrations at the north end of the square near the Egyptian Museum.

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It was not immediately clear if the moves were an isolated incident or part of a wider decision for the army to begin protecting the demonstrations. The military stood aside as they were attacked with stones, sticks and bottles Wednesday.