Some interesting developments:
story.news.yahoo.com/news...mi_ea/iraq
Militant Group Abducts Egyptian Diplomat
By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants in Iraq (news - web sites) took an Egyptian diplomat hostage Friday and demanded his country forsake any plans it had to send security experts here, according to a video broadcast Friday on the Al-Jazeera television station.
The station also showed a separate videotape from another militant group which abducted seven foreign truck drivers, who issued new demands for the company to compensate the families of those killed in battles with U.S. forces in Fallujah. The company was given 48 hours to comply.
An Egyptian diplomat in Baghdad, who declined to be identified, confirmed that Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb was abducted Friday. The diplomat said Qutb was taken while leaving a mosque.
The videotape show Qutb sitting in front of six masked kidnappers. They were clad in black hoods and robes, with white headbands. One was holding an assault rifle and another had a pistol on his hip.
The group, which called itself the "Lions of Allah Brigade," said it abducted Qutb because the Egyptian government said it was prepared to deploy security experts to help the interim government in Iraq.
The video was inaudible, but the Al-Jazeera newscaster paraphrased it. No specific threat against Qutb, who was wearing a pale, open-necked shirt, was mentioned.
Qutb, who said he was being treated well, added that the Egyptian mission in Baghdad was not cooperating with the U.S.-led multinational force and was only trying to help rebuild Iraq, the newscaster said.
Egypt has offered to train Iraqi police and security personnel in Egypt, but it has declined to deploy military forces in Iraq.
Egypt has a diplomatic mission and a charge d'affairs in Baghdad. It has not yet restored relations with Iraq at the ambassadorial level.
At Al-Jazeera's head office in Qatar, a producer said the station received the tape Friday from its Baghdad bureau.
On the second videotape, the militant group calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners" also demanded the release of Iraqi detainees in Kuwaiti and U.S. prisons.
In an announcement Wednesday, the group said it would behead one captive every 72 hours beginning Saturday night if the Kuwaiti trucking company they work for did not stop doing business in Iraq and their countries did not pull their citizens out of the country.
In the new tape, a masked man stood behind the seven hostages — an Egyptian, three Kenyans and three Indians — and read a statement, with a black banner bearing Quranic verses and the name of the group on the wall behind him.
CHICOMS GETTING EVEN MORE BRAZEN
20 July 2004 1615 hrs
Chinese hackers attack Taiwan military news agency ahead of drill
TAIPEI :
Suspected Chinese hackers have launched an offensive against the website of Taiwan's Military News Agency ahead of practice freeway landings by fighter jets on the island, the defense ministry said.
The attack took place on Monday night and the agency affiliated with the ministry was forced to close down its website, the ministry said.
The hackers replaced the agency's homepage with a slogan that said 'Reunification with Taiwan in 2021', it said.
An identical attack occurred a month ago when suspected Chinese hackers attacked the site of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.
Hong Kong's pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po daily last week quoted Chinese military sources as warning Taiwan must re-enter the Chinese fold or face military action within the next 20 years.
In response to Taiwan's recent "pro-independence provocation," Beijing gave what was believed to be the first ultimatum to reclaim sovereignty over the island, it said.
Unnamed military sources were quoted as saying former Chinese president and Central Military Commission chairman Jiang Zemin had recently discussed a timetable regarding using force to achieve Taiwan's reunification in a speech at a military conference in Beijing.
The fresh Internet attack came two days before Taiwanese air force is due to practice emergency landings on a freeway as part of measures against an attack by China, the defense ministry said.
Two French-made Mirage 2000-5s are set to land, refuel and load ammunition on the road in Tainan, southern Taiwan.
The exercise is designed to "review the air force's capability in using freeways for emergency landings and logistic support in case of war," defense ministry spokesman Huang Suey-sheng told reporters.
Since Chen's re-election in March, China has ratcheted up its rhetoric, reiterating its long-standing vow to take Taiwan by force should Chen move the island towards formal independence.
Beijing has considered Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949.
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