8 theSun | THURSDAY OCTOBER 29 2009

news without borders

Denmark expects more arrests in anti-terror plot

briefs
COPENHAGEN: Security services “We will continue to cooperate citizenship. Headley was charged with The men were arrested in Chicago,
in Denmark said on Tuesday further very closely with the FBI and with one count of conspiracy to commit Illinois, on Oct 3 and 18. Video tapes
anti-terror arrests could be made after security services in a number of fellow terrorist acts involving murder and showing the offices of the popular
US authorities charged two men over countries in order to crack the threat,” maiming outside the United States, daily Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen
Pakistan bomb kills 92 a plot to attack a Danish newspaper he added. and one count of conspiracy to pro- were among the objects found by
as Clinton visits that published controversial cartoons Officials in the US announced the vide material support to that overseas investigators – the newspaper trig-
of the Prophet Mohammed. arrest of two men on Tuesday. Scharf terrorism conspiracy. gered an outrage in the Muslim world
PESHAWAR: A huge car bomb ripped “We can’t rule out that more per- said they were involved in “very Rana was charged with one count by publishing 12 cartoons of Prophet
through a crowded market in Pakistan sons will be arrested and prosecuted serious planning of comprehensive of conspiracy to provide material Muhammad in 2005. According to the
yesterday killing 92 people and under- for the planning of terrorist attacks in attacks in Copenhagen and in Den- support “to a foreign terrorism con- Danish security services, who collabo-
scoring the gravity of the extremist Denmark,” Jakob Scharf, the head of mark.” The pair were identified as spiracy that involved Headley, and at rated with the FBI, the two suspects
threat destabilising the country. the Danish Security and Intelligence David Coleman Headley, 49, a US citi- least three other specific individuals visited Denmark twice, the last time in
The explosion brought down build- service, told reporters in Copenha- zen, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, in Pakistan,” the US Justice July 2009, to determine the targets of
ings in the northwestern city of Pesha- gen. a native of Pakistan with Canadian Department said. their attacks. – AFP
war just hours after US Secretary Hillary
Clinton arrived in Pakistan to bolster the
two countries’ troubled alliance against
Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.
“We have 92 dead bodies and 217
injured people. Nineteen of the dead
are women and 11 are children. All the
dead are civilians,” Dr Zafar Iqbal of
Lady Reading Hospital said.
“It was a car bomb. Some people
are still trapped,” bomb disposal official
Shafqat Malik told reporters. – AFP

Dog honoured for

saving owner’s life
SYDNEY: A dog who acted as a
canine defibrillator by repeatedly
jumping up and down on the chest
of a heart attack victim received an
Australian award yesterday for pet
bravery. Teka, a 3-year-old cattle
dog, is credited by the Royal Soci-
ety for the Prevention of Cruelty An injured
to Animals with helping save the man is carried
life of owner Jim Touzeau after he by police
collapsed two years ago. following
“My heart had definitely the attack
stopped,” the 71-year-old widower in Kabul
said at the Maryborough, Queens- yesterday.
land, awards ceremony. “I don’t
know if she actually kick-started my
heart, but the doctors said that if I
hadn’t come to and called for help
the chances are I would be dead.”
Doctors said the Teka treatment
was enough to give Touzeau con-
sciousness to phone for help. – dpa

People
Six UN staff killed in
smugglers jailed
SYDNEY: Two Indonesian fishermen
were jailed five years yesterday for
raid on Kabul hostel
AFPPIX

people-smuggling a boat full of Afghan

refugees which exploded, killing five,
after it was stopped by Australian
border officials. Mohamad Tahir and
Beny, both 19, told the Northern Ter-
ritory Supreme Court they came from
poor families and were struggling to
find work when they were offered
A$560 (RM1,756) each to bring the
boat to Australia.
Five asylum seekers died and
dozens more were injured when
the fishing boat carrying 49 people
exploded at Ashmore Reef, northwest
of Australia, on April 16. Police said a
fire on the boat was lit deliberately in
a bid to force Australian officials to
rescue those on board. – AFP
Posthumous praise for
MJ as fans flock to film
LONDON: Michael Jackson fans
poured out of cinemas around the
world yesterday applauding a new
movie about the singer which they
said proved he deserved the title
King of Pop.
Their excitement at the heavily
hyped release of This Is It was mixed
with sadness that one of music’s
biggest stars and most troubled ce-
lebrities died before he could bring
his live comeback to the stage.
This Is It was cut from 80 hours
of film of the singer’s rehearsals for
50 London concerts planned from
July which he envisaged both as a
return to the limelight after years
of life as a recluse and as a final
farewell to live performance.
“It’s great!” wrote Karen Portem
on the Facebook social networking
site. “But it’s so sad to think that
people ... aren’t able to see MJ
perform it live.” – Reuters
KABUL: Militant suicide gunmen stormed killed during the police operation, they neighbouring Pakistan, seeking to bolster
a UN hostel in Kabul yesterday, killing six were armed suicide bombers,” Bashary the nuclear-armed state on the frontlines
foreign staff in an assault the militia said said. of the struggle against Al Qaeda militants.
marked the start of a bloody countdown to UN spokesman Adrian Edwards con- After an exhaustive review of war strat-
new Afghan elections. firmed that six international UN staff were egy, President Barack Obama may pick a
At least nine UN staff were also injured killed. “We have nine injured, some of plan to secure 10 major Afghan population
as gunfire and explosions rang out across them seriously,” he added. centres rather than an all-out military push,
the city in a smart residential district near One police officer and one intelligence the New York Times reported yesterday.
Butcher Street, close to popular shopping officer had also been killed, an Afghan A police officer said that one of the gun-
streets favoured by Westerners. soldier at the site of the attack said. men involved in yesterday’s attack deto-
Afghan police said the gunmen entered Police confirmed a second attack in nated an explosives vest before the other
the UN-approved guesthouse in Kabul’s which militants fired rockets at the luxury attackers fled into the apartment building
Shar-e-Now district around dawn. Flames Serena Hotel, which is popular with diplo- in the crowded neighbourhood.
and heavy black smoke spewed into the mats and foreign businessmen. No casual- “We claim responsibility,” said Taliban
sky as the security services closed off roads ties were immediately reported. spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed by tel-
and surrounded the building. A telephone operator at the hotel said he ephone. “This is the first step, as we have
The three gunmen were shot dead had heard explosions, and that the lobby warned that we will disrupt the second
around 8.30am (noon in Malaysia), Afghan was deserted. The new bloodshed came round of the elections.”
interior ministry spokesman Zemarai with tensions rising in Afghanistan ahead Speaking from an undisclosed location,
Bashary said, about three hours after they of the scheduled presidential second-round he said three militants wearing suicide
launched the latest of a series of brazen election on Nov 7. vests packed with explosives and armed
raids in the heavily guarded capital city. It came also as US Secretary of State Hil- with automatic weapons were involved in
“Three suicide bombers have been lary Clinton kicked off a surprise visit to the raid. – AFP
Karzai’s brother said to be on CIA payroll
WASHINGTON: The brother of Afghan President that he cooperates with US civilian and military Critics see the relationship as complicating
Hamid Karzai has been getting regular payments officials but does not engage in the drug trade Washington’s increasingly tense relationship
from the Central Intelligence Agency, The New and does not receive payments from the CIA, the with Karzai, it said.
York Times reported on Tuesday, citing current Times said. The CIA’s practices also suggest the United
and former US officials. The CIA neither confirmed nor denied the States is not doing everything in its power to
Ahmed Wali Karzai is a suspected player in reported payments. stamp out the lucrative Afghan drug trade, a ma-
Afghanistan’s opium trade and has been paid by “No intelligence organisation worth the name jor source of revenue for the Taliban, the Times
the CIA over the past eight years for services that would ever entertain these kinds of allegations,” said.
included helping to recruit an Afghan paramili- said a CIA spokesman. In addition, some US officials argue that the
tary force that operates at the CIA’s direction in According to the Times, the agency’s finan- reliance on Ahmed Wali Karzai undermines the
and around the southern city of Kandahar, the cial ties to Ahmed Wali Karzai and its working push to develop an effective central government
newspaper reported. relations with him have created deep divisions that would eventually allow the United States to
Ahmed Wali Karzai said in an interview within the Obama administration. withdraw, the paper reported. – Reuters