The Middle East Times
Egypt links Sharm and Taba bombings, clears Pakistanis
Lamia Radi
AFP
July 27, 2005
SEARCH: Forensic and rescue experts sort out rubble in the remains of the Ghazala Gardens hotel on July 26. The Egyptian government on Tuesday dismissed speculation that a group of missing Pakistanis helped in bombings that killed at least 67 people in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.
(REUTERS)
CAIRO -- Egyptian investigators have found connections between the deadly bombings in Sharm El Sheikh and another wave of attacks last October on Sinai resorts further north, security sources said on Wednesday.
A senior security official also ruled out any involvement in the triple attacks of six Pakistanis who had been suspected after reports that their forged passports were found in a hotel.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050727-060712-7088r
Police on alert for crime don as daughter to wed in Dubai
AFP
July 22, 2005
BEST LIKENESS? A crowd burns an effigy of India's infamous underworld don Dawood Ibrahim during a protest against a betting scandal in Calcutta in May. The elusive, shadowy crime leader is known to have taken on several identities and nationalities.
(REUTERS)
NEW DELHI -- With even the wedding invitations being investigated by police, few will admit they're on the guest list let alone boast they're planning to attend the marriage in Dubai this weekend of an Indian crime don's daughter.
A mobile phone message invitation - "Your presence is solicited for the auspicious wedding of Mahrukh. For travel arrangements, contact Noorabhai. Regards, from D" - has been sent to top politicians, officials, film and media personalities in Mumbai, according to police and journalists.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050722-092558-1078r
Police arrest four in London terror hunt
Lachlan Carmichael
AFP
July 27, 2005
QUESTIONS: British police officers talk to local residents in North London on July 26 as police close roads near to a vehicle that they seized in connection with the attempted bombings on July 21.
(REUTERS)
LONDON -- Police arrested four men on Wednesday in pre-dawn swoops in the English city of Birmingham as they gained ground in a massive terror hunt after last week's botched attempt to blow up three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus in London.
Britain's Press Association said that one of the men, who was overpowered by police using an electrical stun gun and then taken to London, was believed to be among the bombers behind the July 21 blasts.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050727-050819-4223r
US-Afghan forces kill dozens of Taliban
July 26, 2005
Kandahar, AFGHANISTAN -- Dealing a major blow to Taliban forces, US and Afghan troops killed dozens of militants in an attack on an insurgent hideout in south-central Afghanistan, a local official said on Tuesday.
Coalition forces had killed 40 to 50 enemy fighters in the Uruzgan province raid, said Governor Jan Mohammed Khan, although it was unclear whether this included 11 insurgent deaths from a clash in the area the previous day.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050726-092845-1121r
Iraqi law to be 'based on Islam' as Sunni Arabs end boycott
Jay Deshmukh
July 26, 2005
THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE: Saad Jassim Ghazi, owner of Barno gun store, looks at an old flintlock rifle in his Baghdad shop. As the capital city seethes with insecurity most Iraqis have pistols or a gun to defend themselves, but they are forbidden to carry pistols and assault rifles on the streets without government authorization.
(REUTERS)
BAGHDAD -- Sunni Arabs on Tuesday ended their boycott of a panel drafting Iraq's constitution as a Baghdad newspaper published an early draft of the charter suggesting that Islam will play a key role in the country's basic law.
Meanwhile, the group of Al Qaeda frontman in Iraq said in an Internet statement that it would execute two Algerian diplomats kidnapped in Iraq.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050726-094615-4378r
Afghan warlord-pizza man gets 20 years jail in UK
Deborah Haynes
AFP
July 20, 2005
LANDMARK CONVICTION: An undated handout picture released by London's Scotland Yard shows former Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad who has been convicted in Britain of torture in his homeland.
LONDON -- Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a London court on July 19 for torture and hostage-taking in Afghanistan in a landmark case for international law.
Zardad, 42, who lived in south London, had denied the charges, which included keeping a "human dog" to savage his victims.
The ruling came as Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai met Prime Minister Tony Blair during a brief trip to London.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050720-033648-3285r
Uzbek court jails six women on extremism charges
AFP
July 20, 2005
TASHKENT -- A court in the Uzbek capital Tashkent sentenced six women to between five and eight years in jail on July 20 for belonging to a banned Islamic organisation that threatened the constitutional order, a human rights group and defendants' relatives said.
The defendants were found guilty of belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, a London-based group that aims to create an Islamic state in the Central Asian former Soviet republics, but has rejected the use of violence, said Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group of Human Rights Defenders of Uzbekistan.
The women had distributed leaflets on behalf of Hizb-ut Tahrir that threatened public order, the court found.
A seventh defendant, a 65-year-old woman, was released in the courtroom after receiving a three-year suspended sentence. But her daughter-in-law, also on trial, was one of those jailed, Ikramov said.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050720-095534-8541r
'Women only' village raided in Kenya
UPI
July 18, 2005
UMOJA -- A group of women in Kenya who had fled the beatings of their husbands to form a "women's only" village say their new home is being attacked by men.
Fifteen women, many with children, established the Umoja village in 1990 as a refuge after fleeing their homes. They made tribal bead necklaces that have become popular with tourists, but nearby unemployed men are preventing tour buses from stopping at Umoja, reported the Daily Telegraph on July 16.
Gangs of young men have raided the village, chasing the women into the bush, beating them with clubs and threatening to burn their homes, the Telegraph said.
"We do not have peace in the village now," said Rebecca Lolosoli, Umoja's de facto chief and one of its founders. "These men are so angry because we have money and we do not give them any.
"We ran away first because we were being beaten and now we are trying to change our lives, we are being beaten again because of how we are doing well."
The women vow not to run again.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050718-043738-7423r
Saudi body rejects women's concerns
UPI
July 18, 2005
RIYADH -- A majority of Saudi Arabia's consultative Shura (Consultative) council members have declined to debate the issue of women and driving last weekend.
According to the London-based Arabic language newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, the topic was initially considered for discussion in the council's Sunday and Monday session among seven others for debate.
The Shura council did agree, however, that before going into a six-week summer recess it would debate a number of political, social and economic matters.
In addressing a controversy that erupted following Mohammed Al Zulfa's announcement on women and driving, Juwair said the proposals would not be included in the Shura council's final session as the majority of members declined to consider it.
Women are not allowed to drive in the kingdom.
Juwair said that there were no immediate plans to create a permanent female consultative committee, although the government's position on the issue might change in the future.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050718-050232-6827r
Opinion: Break the vicious circle
Bouthaina Shaaban
July 27, 2005
Damascus -- I mourned with millions of people the victims of the London bombings at a time when I was still grieving the death of 100 Iraqi children in a suicide bombing in Baghdad.
In spite of the ugliness of the tragedy Tony Blair's speech was one of a real statesman. He emphasized, "extremism is not a religious but a mental state", and that he "will work with the Muslim community to make the world hear the voice of real and moderate Islam as it should be heard". Later scores of articles were written calling upon Muslims in the world to eradicate hatred and bitterness from their midst.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050727-075758-6364r
New York Times
4 Major Unions Plan to Boycott A.F.L.-C.I.O. Event
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: July 25, 2005
CHICAGO, July 24 - Leaders of four of the country's largest labor unions announced on Sunday that they would boycott this week's A.F.L.-C.I.O. convention, and officials from two of those unions, the service employees and the Teamsters, said the action was a prelude to their full withdrawal from the federation on Monday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/national/25labor.html?ei=5094&en=65218275939e11e4&hp=&ex=1122350400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1122289489-QgKNxrEDKI7lUVaIKB2Ebg
Deadly Heat Wave Sends Temperatures Above 100°
By SHADI RAHIMI
Published: July 26, 2005
Clusters of states across the nation were enduring another stifling day in a deadly heat wave that broke record highs in some cities and had temperatures soaring above 100 degrees in others.
Keith Srakocic/Associated Press
Sam Okabayashi, 7, played in the fountains at the water feature at PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Penn., while temperatures there rose over 90 degrees.
The National Weather Service posted excessive heat warnings stretching from Illinois to Tennessee and from North Carolina up to New Jersey, where the heat was blamed for at least one death.
Records highs were recorded today in Alaska, Florida and Colorado by the National Climatic Data Center. Many areas in the east were expected to cool slightly by this afternoon, while the temperature in some cities was expected to remain above 80 overnight, rising again to above 100 on Wednesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/national/26cnd-heat.html?hp&ex=1122436800&en=d3736b25a8090bbc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
British Police Arrest 4 Men in Connection With Failed Attacks
By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 27, 2005
LONDON, July 27 - In what could a major breakthrough in the London bombing investigation, British police arrested four men in Birmingham early today, bringing one to London for questioning in connection with attempted bombings of subways and a bus here on July 21.
Police in Birmingham raided a house at 4:30 a.m., arresting a man after shooting him with a stun gun. Officials said he was wearing a rucksack and tussled with police, the BBC reported. They also found a suspicious package, which was being scrutinized by explosives experts.
Three other men were arrested later in another house in Birmingham, 120 miles north of London, and are being held there. Police evacuated about 100 houses on the tree-lined street where the first man was arrested, and were preparing to conduct a controlled explosion, the BBC reported.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/international/27cnd-london.html?ei=5094&en=3981b9663c3f84c7&hp=&ex=1122523200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1122467069-bv6h8hFBINcHuVAKMevshA
Iraq Wants Quick Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 27, 2005
Filed at 8:04 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's transitional prime minister called Wednesday for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops and the top U.S. commander here said he believed a ''fairly substantial'' pullout could begin next spring and summer.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
During an unannounced visit to Iraq by Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Army General George Casey said a U.S. troop withdrawal could begin by spring 2006.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said at a joint news conference with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the time has arrived to plan a coordinated transition from American to Iraqi military control throughout the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Rumsfeld.html?hp
Files From 80's Lay Out Stances of Bush Nominee
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM
Published: July 27, 2005
COLLEGE PARK, Md., July 26 - As a young lawyer in the Justice Department at the beginning of Ronald Reagan's presidency, John G. Roberts advocated judicial restraint on the issues of the day, many of which are still topical, documents released Tuesday by the National Archives show.
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Senator Arlen Specter, second from left, accompanied Judge John G. Roberts's records on Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Timing of Hearings and Vote Stalls Confirmation Talks (July 27, 2005)
In Reagan's White House, a Clever, Sometimes Cocky John Roberts (July 27, 2005)
He defended, for instance, the constitutionality of proposed legislation to restrict the ability of federal courts to order busing to desegregate schools.
On other civil rights issues, he encouraged a cautious approach by courts and federal agencies in enforcing laws against discrimination.
Judge Roberts, now on the federal court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, also argued that Congress had the constitutional power "to divest the lower federal courts of jurisdiction over school prayer cases."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/politics/politicsspecial1/27records.html?hp&ex=1122523200&en=a633c7d56bd72cad&ei=5094&partner=homepage
I.R.A. to Renounce Violence in Favor of Political Struggle
By JIM DWYER and BRIAN LAVERY
Published: July 27, 2005
The Irish Republican Army has given up its armed struggle for a united Ireland, agreeing to turn solely to political methods, an American businessman said yesterday after being briefed on a statement expected from the guerrilla group later this week.
The agreement, if borne out, would be a historic turning point in the violent history of Ireland and Northern Ireland. But there is still widespread official skepticism about I.R.A. promises, particularly when it comes to the issue of disarmament.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/international/europe/27irish.html?hp&ex=1122523200&en=6f9a4a9a4dde843d&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Maine May Consider, for a Third Time, a Gay Bias Question
By KATIE ZEZIMA
Published: July 27, 2005
AUGUSTA, Me. - After saying no twice before, voters in Maine may be going to the polls again to decide whether to add sexual orientation to the state's human rights act, which prohibits discrimination based on age, sex, race, color, marital status, religion, ancestry or national origin.
Paul Madore head of the conservative Grass Roots Coalition, led the petition drive to repeal Maine's new antidiscrimination law
Robert Spencer for The New York Times
Adam Flanders, 18, of Belfast, Me., says he faced gay bias at his high school.
Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, introduced legislation to add sexual orientation to the act earlier this year and signed it into law on March 31 after it easily passed the Legislature. But opponents undertook a drive to place a referendum on the November ballot seeking to repeal the law and now say they have collected more than enough signatures.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/national/27maine.html
THEY WERE DRESSED FUNNY. This is to be expected?
How the Fear of Terror Itself Fueled a Tour Bus False Alarm
Charles Blass
On Sunday, the police ordered tourists aboard a Gray Line bus to put their hands in the air before they were taken off and the bus was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs. Five men were handcuffed and later released.
By KAREEM FAHIM and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: July 27, 2005
The concerns over a possible terror attack on a New York city tour bus emerged just before noon on Sunday, when a supervisor with Gray Line, the bus company, approached a police captain in Midtown Manhattan to tell him that five suspicious men had just boarded one of the company's famous red double-decker buses, No. 320.
The captain had been in the area - at Broadway and 51st Street - investigating one of the hundreds of suspicious-package calls that the police have received since the bombings in London on July 7. On that call, the police found a discarded computer box they eventually discovered was filled with rocks. Dozens of officers, some of them wearing heavy body armor and holding automatic weapons, had arrived, and cordoned off part of Broadway.
According to the police, the Gray Line supervisor told the captain that the five men had aroused the concerns of a Gray Line ticket agent at the Waldorf-Astoria, where the men had boarded bus 320. The ticket agent, the police said, had told the supervisor that the men had purchased their tickets in advance; that they carried backpacks; and that they wore something else - perhaps fanny packs - that caused bulges to appear around their waists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/nyregion/27bus.html
The New Zealand Herald
Golf star Campbell arrives home
Michael Campbell at a press conference after his arrival in Auckland today. Picture / Richard Robinson
27.07.05 UPDATED at 4.05pm
New Zealand golfer Michael Campbell has arrived home to a hero's welcome following his US Open victory.
Between two and three hundred people were at Auckland International Airport to greet the new golfing legend.
They broke into cheers and clapping as Campbell emerged.
He held the US Open trophy aloft for the benefit of the crowd, while trying to shake as many hands as possible.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10337862
US military dog handlers face Abu Ghraib hearing
27.07.05 1.00pm
FORT MEADE, Maryland - US Army dog handlers in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison used unmuzzled dogs to threaten naked prisoners and competed to see who could make inmates urinate on themselves, according to testimony at a military hearing today.
Sergeant Santos Cardona, 31, and Sergeant Michael Smith, 24, are accused of maltreating detainees at the infamous Baghdad prison between November 2003 and January 2004.
Today's legal proceedings for the dog handlers at Fort Meade military base outside Washington were part of an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a pretrial hearing that determines whether the two sergeants face courts-martial.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337845
Quake shakes Hawke's Bay
27.07.05 4.25pm
A deep earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale shook Hawke's Bay at 3.17pm today.
Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) reported the quake was 50km deep and centred 50km west of Hastings. It was likely to have been felt in Hawke's Bay.
Only four minutes earlier a 3.9 magnitude quake had hit near the coast 20km northeast of Gisborne.
It had been at a depth of 30km and was likely to have been felt in the Gisborne region.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10337864
British police arrest four men in London bomb hunt
27.07.05 7.25pm UPDATE
LONDON - British police arrested four men in central Britain on Wednesday in their hunt for the suspected bombers in last Thursday's failed attacks on London's transport network.
Police declined comment on a BBC report they may have caught one of the suspected bombers.
One of the four -- all arrested in the city of Birmingham -- was brought to the British capital for questioning at a high security detention centre. Police sources told Reuters that man was the most significant arrest.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337882
Britain insists UN council focus on Zimbabwe
27.07.05 1.00pm
NEW YORK - Britain has challenged the UN Security Council to openly address Zimbabwe's bulldozing of slums, threatening a rare public clash between council members like China, that back Zimbabwe, and the African state's critics.
British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry was opposed by China, Russia and Algeria when he asked, behind closed doors, for a public briefing by UN official Anna Tibaijuka on a report in which she accused Zimbabwe of demolishing shantytowns in a campaign that was unjustified and indifferent to human suffering.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337815
Man claims to be Ernest Hemingway's illegitimate son
27.07.05
KEY WEST - The annual festivities to celebrate the life of Ernest Hemingway have taken an unusual turn.
The highlight is meant to be the lookalike contest. But the winner this year, Florida postman Bob Doughty, was upstaged by an unexpected illegitimate son.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337761
Weak Palestinian forces may hurt Gaza pullout
27.07.05 1.00pm
JERUSALEM - Palestinian security forces are in such disarray they may not be able to fill a vacuum left by Israel after it withdraws from the occupied Gaza Strip this year, an independent report released said today.
The survey by a Washington-based think tank advising US security coordinator Lt.-Gen. William Ward said Palestinian security services were over-staffed, poorly armed and undermined by corruption and rivalry between security chiefs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337821
Gunmen kill 17 in Baghdad bus ambush
27.07.05 9.30am
BAGHDAD - About 10 gunmen fired their automatic rifles into a bus carrying Iraqi workers from a factory west of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing up to 17 people, police and hospital sources said.
Police said 12 people had died in the attack on the bus, but a source at one hospital said it had received 17 bodies.
"We were on the bus going home. Two cars with about 10 insurgents opened fire on us. We don't know why: we are just workers," said Adil Zamal, being treated for multiple gunshot wounds to the back at the An Noor hospital, which received about 20 wounded patients from the attack.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337825
Mysterious disease kills 17 in southwest China
25.07.05 3.30pm
BEIJING - Authorities in southwest China are investigating a mysterious disease that has killed 17 farm workers and left 41 others ill after they handled sick or dead livestock, state media said today.
The government of Sichuan province has dismissed speculation that the deaths were caused by bird flu or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), an assessment affirmed by the World Health Organisation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337524
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