World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #5

Four bombs explode on railway line linking Pakistan with Iran

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/29/asia/AS_GEN_Pakistan_Bomb_Blasts.php

Four bombs explode on railway line linking Pakistan with Iran; no
casualties

The Associated Press

Four bombs exploded minutes apart on a railway line linking Pakistan
with
neighboring Iran, but there were no casualties, police and a railway
official said Wednesday.

The attack happened late Tuesday in Naushki, a town about 200
kilometers
(120 miles) west of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan
province, said Maqbool Ahmed, an official with state-run Pakistan
Railways.

No train was scheduled to pass at the time of the explosions. Engineers
were
dispatched to repair the damaged track, he said.

Local police official Yasin Shah confirmed the blasts, but refused to
speculate who might have been responsible.

Similar attacks in the past have been blamed by police on ethnic-Baluch
tribesmen, who have waged a guerrilla campaign to force the government
to
increase royalties from resources extracted from the province, such as
natural gas.

The rebels are also blamed for firing rockets at gas fields and
attacking
security forces.

In the 4th stage of narcosis, there is severe respiratory depression, which leads to its cessation, and the patient's death.<<<

Didn't Svni say her daughters lungs were crushed, when they threw all the men on top of her in the bus??

Is the above clip what really happened to the child?

Interesting article.

Fentanyl, isn't that the laughing gas or truth serum?

Bill had several teeth pullled, about 1964, and I almost didn't get him home, he would throw up, then want to get out of the car and play marbles, thought he was a kid again for about 24 hours.

For what does the bell toll? What was Anya writing about?

She wrote that evil, which is hushed up, gives rise to even greater evil. She wrote that a crime that goes unpunished is doomed to be repeated.
She wrote that there were real persons behind the tragedy at Dubrovka, and that they had names, titles, and ranks, which must be made known.
She wrote about the personal responsibility of those whose duty it was to protect, not to kill.
She wrote that only an independent investigation of the Russian leadership's culpability for 'Nord-Ost', and a judicial process against the executioners, could protect people from the crimes of today's authorities, or from the possible crimes of tomorrow's, from new 'Nord-Osts' and Beslans.<<<

How many are dead now that were connected to Anna, I have lost count.

At first I thought the Man in England, would turn out to be a mob hit or some other type of murder.

From all that I have read, he is just one of many.

Were Putin and Clinton close friends?

You saw the article that says even the airplanes had radiation?

That should mean the person who gave the poison, is also going to get very sick, as if it was spreading radiation, then he must have gotten a big dose also.

Powerful writing and one hell of a message to all of us.

I can see what is happening, but not how to stop it.

Struwwelpeter has posted 2 reports in 4019 and 4020, they are 'must read' articles.

Re: Nord Ost and Anna's murder.

Laughing gas is Nitrous Oxide, which I haven't had much experience with. It doesn't seem to work on animals, though you can mix it with another gas in order to use less of that gas.

I'm pretty sure that Sasha was just suffocated under a pile of adults in one of the buses that were used to transport casaulties from the theater to the hospital.

This anesthesiologist is not as smart as he makes out to be, I caught (and fixed) several mistakes in his article, but I've come to expect that from "experts".

I've used Halothane lots of times, but it's a very antiquated anesthetic, and has some side effects in a small number of people (and a lot of pigs). It's also very very short-acting, you shut it off and the patient is jumping, not something that was seen in Nord-Ost victims. They went down slow and stayed down and out.

In Germany we had other machines, but I can still see that dusty old copper-kettle device we had in the storeroom. Everyone hated going in there - our Wuerzburg clinic was in a building used by the Germany army in WW II as the hospital morgue. Everyone kept seeing ghosts ;-)

Maybe it was the Halothane leaking?

I've used a drug on dogs called Innovar Vet (Droperidol with Fentanyl), but it was nothing special to write home about. It kept the patient down until you poked it with Naloxone (tradename Narcan).

Most of the papers and documentaries are fairly certain that the 'gas' was type of Fentanyl (which is synthetic morphine), either Sufentanyl, or Carfentanyl, which are pretty rare and exotic drugs, used mostly in tranquilizer darts (being 10,000 time as powerful as morphine, they weren't safe in animals smaller than a ton).

IMO, the doc in this article is just a crank, but I'm just trying to keep the archives up to date. See svni's page (http://www.geocities.com/svetlana.gubareva) for a complete listing of articles on the subject.

Panic as officials forget to inform pilots and passengers of hijacking exercise

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=419389&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=419389&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

Panic as officials forget to inform pilots and passengers of hijacking
exercise

Last updated at 11:42am on 29th November 2006

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/11/airbus_228x171.jpg

The security exercise took place on a MIAT airliner

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/news/thenews.html?in_page_id=1770

An anti-hijacking exercise on board a civilian aircraft in Mongolia's
capital backfired after officials forgot to warn the pilots and
passengers
ahead of time.

The heavy-handed security exercise carried out by the Mongolian Central
Intelligence Agency upset passengers and ended up being broadcast live
on a
local television channel.

The exercise started after a jetliner operated by MIAT, the national
airline, landed after a flight from the southern part of the country
and
four male passengers jumped up and said the plane was being hijacked.

"These hooligans went up to pilot's cabin and tied up the pilots and
threatened four passengers and kept them in the plane. They hit one
woman,"
said Tuvshinbayar, a sports official who was on the plane. Like many
Mongolians, he goes by one name. The woman was not seriously hurt.

It was not known how many passengers were on board the aircraft when
the
exercise began.

"Ordinary citizens should not be intimidated due to a security
exercise,"
said B. Munkhutya, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party.

He said security and aviation agencies did not give clear answers when
asked
if there was a hijacking.

"If this really was a civil defense exercise, this should not have
happened.
These hijackers acted violently," he said.

Another Democratic Party lawmaker, D. Baterdene, said if it was a
security
exercise "the passengers and pilots should have been told."

S. Jargalsaikhan, vice chairman of the Mongolian Central Intelligence
Agency, defended the exercise, and told reporters that it exposed holes
in
security at the airport in Ulan Bator, Mongolia's capital.

"This was a preplanned test operation of the Mongolian CIA. Through
this
test we found out that under current conditions people with explosives
and
guns can enter the airport and planes without detection."

Dorlig, a newspaper editor who was on the flight, said MIAT should
apologise
to the passengers, who were kept for nearly 90 minutes without knowing
the
hijacking was not real.

A local television station broadcast pictures of the Russian-built
Antonov
AN-26 plane on the tarmac with a police van beside it.

Over the years, Russia has had thousands of scientists looking for the perfect weapon, so it could be something un-heard of.

I was rather sure it was a new invention, the way they took it on the chin, by refusing to tell what it was, or to treat it, in a manner that would have allowed the world to find out what they had invented.

How is Svni doing, is she checking in?

I do not really want to live with a new cold war, but then the other one was never over, was it?

Did we simply call a truce as the muslims do and give them a chance to reload?

They had enough communists in our gov. to make sure we did not reload and got rid of what we had, including the factory to make the planes and weapons.

Boy ohh boy, is America in for a shock, the next go round.

Jaish terrorists planned to attack Delhi

http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_1855925,000600010001.htm

'Arrested Jaish terrorists planned to attack Delhi'

http://hindustantimes.com/on/img/0.gif

Press Trust of India

http://hindustantimes.com/on/img/0.gif

New Delhi, November 29, 2006

http://hindustantimes.com/on/img/0.gif

The two Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, arrested in New Delhi two days
ago,
were planning to carry out attacks in the Capital with the help of
their
associates and had procured two kilograms of RDX from Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, police said on Wednesday.

After keeping the details of the duo under wraps, police revealed their
whereabouts and identified them as Mushtaq Ahmed Kallo and Mohd Iqbal,
residents of Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir. Iqbal runs a gas agency in
Bandipora in Jammu and Kashmir.

"They were here to deliver the consignment of explosives to their
associates
for carrying out terrorist attacks in Delhi. They had collected two
kilogram
of RDX from Deoband," a senior police official said in New Delhi.

The two were arrested with explosives and Rs 5 lakh from outside the
Old
Delhi railway station as they were waiting for someone after arriving
by the
Kalka Delhi Mail from Saharanpur in UP.

Police said they had received specific information in the first week of
this
month that a Kashmiri youth, code-named Faisal, would visit Delhi to
set up
a Jaish base for bringing in arms and explosives.

They were to meet one of their associates near Kaudiapul to deliver the
consignment when they were nabbed.

According to police, Mushtaq had joined the Al-Jihad terror outfit in
1990
along with his cousin Ghulam Gilani and went to Pakistan to receive
arms
training. He has been involved in several terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

He later joined Hizbul Mujahideen in 1993 and took part in an attack on
an
Army camp in Sopore. He surrendered before BSF in 1996 but remained in
contact with terrorists and later joined Jaish-e-Mohammad.

29 November 2006
US hearts and minds cash goes to Taliban

Funds distributed by US forces to civilians in a southern province find their way to the Taliban.

By Mirwais Atal in Ghazni for IWPR (29/11/06)

When US troops in the southern province of Ghazni handed out cash to village elders, they must have thought they were winning friends. The money, intended for bridges, wells, drinking water, irrigation systems and other infrastructure projects, was supposed to convince the local Afghans that the foreign presence would benefit their country in general and themselves in particular.

After distributing the funds to villagers in Ghazni’s Andar district in early October, the US soldiers departed, having done their best to get the district on side.

Their hearts and minds campaign is part of a major anti-Taliban offensive codenamed Operation Mountain Fury, which US-led coalition forces launched in mid-September in conjunction with the Afghan National Army, ANA.

But the resources intended to combat Taliban influence ended up doing just the opposite. Local people in several parts of Andar district told IWPR that almost as soon as the coalition forces left their villages, the money found its way into Taliban coffers to finance the jihad against the foreigners.

“American money is haram [unlawful in Islam],” said Abdul Jalil, an elder in one village. “We could not use it to improve our lives. So we decided to give it to the Taliban. The most important thing we could do with this money was help the Taliban to pursue the jihad.”

At a gathering in the local mosque, mullahs exhorted the faithful to reject foreign blandishments and contribute to the insurgency, said Jalil. The elders agreed, so the Taliban were summoned and the money handed over.

An elder in another village called Lashko, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told IWPR that the villagers were well aware that they could not use the funds without Taliban consent.

“It’s the Taliban who are with us in the night-time,” he said. “They are powerful: they can enforce their rules and punish those who violate them. One day, the US troops gave us 50,000 afghani (US$1,000) for a construction project, but the Taliban came to us that evening and asked us what we were going to do with it. We told them it was their decision. They took the money and left.”

According to this man, US troops arrived a few days later to see what had been accomplished with their donation. At a loss to reply, villagers told them that the Taliban had taken the money by force.

“The soldiers were angry and threatened that they would not help us against the Taliban,” he said.

Cash disbursements and distribution of goods were part of a special drive carried out in the course of military operations in areas where support for the Taliban has been strong. The fact that the aid was distributed by soldiers from an “occupying force” seems to have particularly angered the militants.

Other reconstruction projects administered by donors and carried out by contractors have had more success, although in places like Ghazni, implementing partners are becoming increasingly scarce, leaving assistance money and projects vulnerable to pressure from insurgents.

Asked about the military’s cash handouts, Larry Falkenhausen, a spokesman for the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Ghazni, acknowledged there had been problems, but said such incidents were few and far between.

“The Andar district chief told us it happened in one village,” he told IWPR.

District chief Muhammad Rahim Disiwal, however, suggested that a number of villages were involved, though he suggested the aid money was extorted from the civilian population rather than given freely.

“We have received such reports from some villages,” he said. “The Taliban have used force to take aid materials distributed to villagers, which shows how they are robbing poor people and that they won’t even let other people help them.”

IWPR has received varying reports as to the level of force used by the Taliban to confiscate the aid. According to villagers, a combination of intimidation and persuasion seems to have been employed to get the residents of Andar district to refuse to cooperate with the coalition forces.

Ghazni had turned into a hub from which militants would spread into other areas, and Andar found itself at the centre of Operation Mountain Fury, designed to combat the increased “Talibanisation” of southern Afghan provinces.

Government officials in Andar were unable to venture beyond their district centre, and police were afraid to turn off the main highways. The fighters, who had developed a well-organised intelligence network with the help of local residents, would mine secondary roads and target any government convoys traveling along them.

More worrying still, sympathy for the insurgency has been growing among villagers frustrated with the slow pace of reconstruction as well as by government corruption and the deteriorating security situation.

The Taliban have made inroads in the province over the past several months, and now are beginning to bring back their own form of justice.

Ghazni has suffered a spate of armed robberies, and crime has been rife. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for eliminating one prominent bandit, Bismillah Khan, who was shot along with several others on the main Kabul-Kandahar road.

During the summer, the Taliban distributed so-called “night letters” in villages prohibiting residents from taking their legal problems to government courts. Instead, they set up Taliban courts to hear disputes, and villagers in Andar say the results have been welcomed by locals.

Organizing a shura or council in a mosque or home, a Taliban judge settles disputes according to Sharia law. Villagers see the process as quick, fair, free of corruption and enforceable, since the Taliban have armed men all over the area.

Operation Mountain Fury was supposed to rid the region of the Taliban, but in some cases it only made things worse, say Ghazni residents.

Some people complain that ANA troops deployed to protect them robbed their homes when they came to their villages. Reports of brutality against local residents by ANA men increased sympathy for the Taliban and hostility towards the coalition forces who were seen to be in league with the Afghan government military.

Maulavi Abdul Hakim, an influential religious scholar in Andar district, delivered a blistering sermon on the Eid holiday in November condemning those who had accepted cash and goods from the coalition forces.

“Giving this aid to our people is intended to win our support and justify their invasion,” he told a crowd of villagers, after turning off the loudspeakers so that his lecture could not be heard from the road. “Those who help them are criminals whom God will not forgive.”

While it is impossible to gauge with certainty the level of support enjoyed by the Taliban, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is considerable. During the hour or more that an IWPR reporter spent with a mid-level Taliban commander, the conversation was interrupted numerous times by phone calls, which the commander said were from ordinary people sharing intelligence.

When coalition forces enter a village, said the commander, local residents alert the Taliban by cell phone. The Taliban then have time to stage an ambush or mine the road leading away from the village.

Andar residents told IWPR that while the American forces were visiting villages to distribute aid, the Taliban were conducting a shadow campaign to discourage people from accepting anything from the foreigners.

Nasrullah Khan, a resident of the village of Bakhshi, said that the Taliban came into the mosque to warn the community that if they accepted money and goods from the soldiers, it would be their own fault if the militants conducted suicide attacks against the coalition forces in the village.

According to Nasrullah, a group of Taliban would go to every village right after the US troops left, confiscating and burning any materials that had been given to the villagers and not yet divided up among people. They would make a public bonfire and destroy everything, he said.

“No one could object or stop them,” he said.

Mullah Nasir Kakar, the Taliban's representative in one Ghazni district, with dozens of combatants under his command, said his men were harbored by villagers, and insisted that the cooperation was voluntary.

“We burn things that the foreign soldiers have distributed to try and win people’s sympathy. We also take the money given to them. This is by order of our leadership,” he told IWPR.

Mullah Naseer said that the money was used to buy supplies such as weapons, explosives, motorcycles and mobile phones.

“We are not allowed to keep a penny of that money for ourselves,” he said.

Operation Mountain Fury is now over in Andar, and the Taliban boast that they have come through largely unscathed. Many of them simply left the province at the height of the offensive. Since Ghazni is flat, without forests or mountains, they prefer to plant mines and stage hit-and-run attacks rather than face a well-equipped enemy head on.

But according to residents, the situation is now “normalizing” – meaning that once again, the Taliban are regaining control.

This article originally appeared in Afghan Recovery Report, produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=16980
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004

30 November 2006
CIS summit embroiled in media scandal

The Commonwealth of Independent States summit 28 November in Minsk turned out to be a public relations headache for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Not only did the participants fail to agree on any significant multilateral initiative, but the summit itself was sullied by a media scandal.

By Sergei Blagov for Eurasianet (30/11/06)

Putin attempted to put a positive spin on events, telling journalists that the meeting was "productive and business-like." Other leaders weren’t so generous in their assessments. Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev hinted that the CIS was caught up in an infinite loop of discussions in which ideas were proposed and never acted on. He noted that the same concepts seem to be debated at every CIS gathering. "From Kazan we moved to Moscow, from Moscow to Minsk, and now we are set to move discussions again, to Dushanbe," Nazarbayev said.

Prior to the start of the Minsk summit, Nazarbayev aired an idea of transforming the CIS into a grouping more along the lines of the European Union (EU). He also expressed a desire for the Minsk summiteers to discuss migration, transport and communication, instead of sticking to the usual agenda items: economic cooperation and anti-terrorism. Russian officials, including MP Konstantin Zatulin, downplayed Nazarbayev’s CIS proposal, indicating that it wasn’t practical.

The Minsk gathering will likely be remembered for action taken by the summit’s Belarusian hosts to restrict media coverage. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, authorities barred three Russian journalists from entering the summit venue because they had written articles that had disparaged Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. Western officials have depicted Belarus as Europe’s last dictatorship.

"One of the reasons for denying access was the offense to the Belarussian head of state and the systematic offense to Belarus," said presidential aide Pavel Lekhky. Two of the banned journalists were affiliated with the tabloid newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets and the other worked for the business daily Kommersant.

The Belarusian government’s action prompted a boycott of the event by other Russian journalists. Lekhky later claimed that many Russian journalists did not attend the post-summit news conference because Putin decided not to make himself available for questions. Putin later quoted Lukashenko as telling him that the incident had been a "misunderstanding – a procedural mistake."

While Putin may well want to quickly forget the whole Minsk event, the summit was perhaps more productive for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. On 29 November, the Georgian president said that on the summit’s sidelines he struck a deal in principle with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, on natural gas supplies this winter, the website Civil Georgia reported. In connection with a variety of political disputes involving Moscow and Tbilisi, the Russian energy giant Gazprom imposed a massive price hike for gas exports to Georgia. Georgian leaders have been scrambling since the Gazprom announcement to secure alternative sources of gas.

Azerbaijan had seemed reluctant to get caught in the middle of the Georgian-Russian dispute, but Saakashvili indicated that Aliyev’s administration had made up its mind to assist Tbilisi. "I think this winter will become a historic example of brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia," Civil Georgia quoted Saakashvili as saying. A Georgian government delegation, headed by Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli, was scheduled to make a one-day trip to Baku on 30 November to finalize energy supply arrangements.

Saakashvili made little progress in easing Georgia’s tense relations with Russia. He had sought a private meeting with Putin, but had to settle for a brief encounter during the summit. In reflecting on the conversation, Saakashvili sounded upbeat. "We had a useful conversation," he said in comments aired by Georgian television. "We should have a constant dialogue with Russia."

Commenting on the Saakashvili-Putin encounter, Kazakhstani President Nazarbayev said the two "had a good exchange of views in our presence."

Putin, however, was far from sanguine when discussing his dialogue with Saakashvili. "I spoke with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, and had a more detailed conversation with the Moldovan leader [President Vladimir Voronin]," RIA Novosti quoted Putin as saying.

To emphasize the Kremlin’s profound hostility toward Georgia, Russian officials announced that they were lifting an import ban on Moldovan wine and meat products, while keeping a similar embargo against Georgian commodities in place.

EurasiaNet provides information and analysis about political, economic, environmental, and social developments in the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in Russia, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia. The website presents a variety of perspectives on contemporary developments, utilizing a network of correspondents based both in the West and in the region. The aim of EurasiaNet is to promote informed decision making among policy makers, as well as broadening interest in the region among the general public. EurasiaNet is operated by the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute.

Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=16984
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004

30 November 2006
Iraqi president says country needs Iran's help

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is in the Iranian capital for a two-day visit that is expected to focus on security as violence continues to plague his own country.

By Golnaz Esfandiari for RFE/RL (30/11/06)

Talabani was forced to delay the trip for two days as Baghdad, under curfew, mourned attacks that killed more than 200 people.

But the Iraqi president arrived on 27 November and has since met with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

After his meeting with Ahmadinejad, Iranian state television quoted Talabani as saying his country is in dire need of Tehran's help to establish security and stability in Iraq.

Ahmadinejad said Iran will stand beside Iraq and provide any help it can to end the escalating violence in Iraq

"We believe a secure, advanced, and powerful Iraq will be in line with the interests of the Iraqi nation - and also in the interests of the Iranian nation and the whole region," Ahmadinejad said.
Senior contact

Talabani's visit is just the latest high-level contact between the Iranian and Iraqi governments, whose countries fought a bloody war in 1980-88.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited Tehran in September, highlighting the mending and expansion of mutual ties.

RFE/RL regional analyst Bill Samii says that expanding cooperation and healthy relations necessitate high-level official visits.

"Iran has shown a great interest in the reconstruction of Iraq and pilgrimage trade to Shi'a shrines in Iraq, and for Iraqi Shi'ites to come to Iran," Samii says. "Then they're [also] connecting the Iraqi electricity grid with the Iranian [power grid]. There is talk of the provision of natural gas and oil to Iraq. I think it's significant that the Iraqi president is visiting Iran. But this is not the first time he's done so, and I suspect it will not be the last time."
Washington watches

Talabani's visit comes as some are calling on the United States to engage Iran and Syria to try and stop the bloodshed in Iraq.

US national security adviser Stephen Hadley is being quoted today as saying that Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki is likely to bring up the Iran-Syria issue during his meeting with President Bush in Jordan on 29 November.

Beyond the high-profile nuclear standoff over Iran's nuclear activities, Washington has accused Iran of influencing Shi'ite groups in Iraq and encouraging the insurgency.

But Iranian officials have repeatedly denied meddling in Iraq's internal affairs.

Analysts quoted in today's "The New York Times" suggested that Talabani is in Iran to urge officials there to speak directly with the United States about Iraqi security.

On 26 November, President Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to help the United States in Iraq - but only if Washington pledged to change its attitude and withdraw its troops.

President Bush reiterated today that Washington's conditions for talks with Tehran remain unchanged - Iran must first suspend its nuclear-fuel enrichment activities. Bush also said it is up to Iraq to decide whether neighbors Iran and Syria should be more involved in helping to reestablish security there.
Regional influence

There are suggestions among observers that Iran might try to use talks with Talabani to assert its regional role and influence. Iranian officials were said to have invited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to join this visit with the Iraqi president, but al-Assad does not appear to have responded.

Some Iraqi officials claim that Tehran's latest initiative signals increasing concern over escalating violence across Iran's 1,500-kilometer border with Iraq.

Alex Vatanka, an analyst and editor of "Jane's Sentinal Security Assessment," tells Radio Farda that Iran's ability to stem violence in Iraq could be limited.

"The American side, mainly for PR purposes, has exaggerated Iran's influence over some of the more extreme Shi'a elements in Iraq," Vatanka says. "I just don't think the Iranians and the Syrians have that much control over the destiny of Iraq, and I don't think these two countries are feeding the sectarianism that you see to that extent. I think both Iran and Syria like to be seen as players that can turn things this way or that way in Iraq, but they exaggerate for their own purposes. Because clearly they see themselves as negotiating with the US on a grand bargain that everybody's looking for."

Talks with Tehran and Damascus are reportedly among the recommendations that might emerge from the Iraq Study Group, which was established to assess the situation in Iraq and advise US policymakers.

On 27 November, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that Iraq has nearly descended into civil war - or soon could, unless urgent steps are taken. The White House acknowledged afterward that sectarian violence in Iraq has entered what it called "a new phase." But a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, rejected the label "civil war" for the situation.

Today in Tehran, Supreme Leader Khamenei told Talabani that the first step toward restoring security in Iraq is the departure of US forces.

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036. Funded by the US Congress.

Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=16985
Online version provided by the International Relations and Security Network
A public service run by the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich © 1996-2004

3 sentenced for terrorist activities in Indonesia

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-11/29/content_5409720.htm

3 sentenced for terrorist activities in Indonesia

www.chinaview.cn 2006-11-29 23:09:25

JAKARTA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- A local court in Semarang, Indonesia, on
Wednesday sentenced Joko Suroso and Wawan Supriyantoto 10 years each in
prison and Aditya Tiryoga to six years for abetting terrorism.

Chief judge Budi Hartono in his verdict said Joko Suroso alias Pak
Man
bin Danu K was proven guilty of giving assistance to Noordin M Top who
is on
the police's wanted list.

Among the things that had aggravated Joko's guilt was that he had
expressed no remorse over his actions, the Antara news agency quoted
the
chief judge as saying.

In a separate court session, chief judge Sudaryanto sentenced Wawan
Supriyatin alias Muchlis alias Heri Prasetyo also to 10 years in prison
for
his role in a terrorist crime.

Sudaryanto said the defendant had also taken part in a robbery at a
cell
phone counter in Pekalongan, Central Java, in his effort to collect
money to
finance a terrorist crime.

In another trial session, chief judge Sri Sutatiek sentenced Aditya
Prayoga alias Suryo alias Cahyo to six years in prison for involvement
in a
terrorist crime

http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?fr=yalerts-keyword&c=&p=bomb+found+at+school&ei=utf-8

# Teen accused of making bomb threat at Starmont school Open this result in new window
Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier - 2 hours, 3 minutes ago
ARLINGTON --- A teenager from Strawberry Point is accused of making bomb threats at Starmont High School. School officials found the threatening letters in the building Monday, and Fayette County sheriff's deputies were called to investigate at about 5:15 p.m.
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# Student Charged in Bomb Threat at NW Ohio School Open this result in new window
WTOL 11 Toledo - 1 hour, 5 minutes ago
A high school student accused of writing a bomb threat on a bathroom counter at school was charged with inducing panic.
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# Bomb threat forces school evacuation at Markesan Open this result in new window
Fond du Lac Reporter - Nov 28 1:17 PM
MARKESAN Markesan students were back in school today after a bomb threat at the middle school forced an evacuation late Monday morning. Superintendent Susan Alexander said a note indicating there was a bomb inside the school was found at about 10 a.m. on a table in the middle school cafeteria. After determining that the threat was credible, school officials evacuated more than 430 students from
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# Bomb threat forces school evacuation at Markesan Open this result in new window
Fond du Lac Reporter - Nov 29 6:47 AM
MARKESAN Markesan students were back in school Tuesday after a bomb threat at the middle school forced an evacuation late Monday morning.
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# Student charged in bomb threat at northern Ohio school Open this result in new window
Middletown Journal - Nov 29 8:55 AM
PORT CLINTON, Ohio — A high school student accused of writing a bomb threat on a bathroom counter at school was charged with inducing panic.
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# Students charged with having bomb at school Open this result in new window
The Florida Times-Union - Nov 29 3:29 AM
SAVANNAH - Two former Savannah Country Day School freshmen have been charged with possessing a bomb at school earlier this month.
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# Student charged in bomb threat at northern Ohio school Open this result in new window
FOX 45 Dayton - Nov 29 7:48 AM
PORT CLINTON, Ohio (AP) -- A high school student in northern Ohio accused of writing a bomb threat is now charged withinducing panic.
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# Suspected Bottle Bomb Discovered At School Open this result in new window
Eyewitness News 3 Hartford - Nov 29 9:08 AM
Authorities investigate a soda bottle containing a suspicious liquid found outside a school late Wednesday morning.
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# Bomb suspect spoke of school attacks Open this result in new window
The Daily Sentinel - Nov 28 8:40 PM
An SFA student placed under psychiatric care by police spoke of plans to shoot high school students and place a bomb at Nacogdoches High School, according to a university police report.
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# Student causes panic with bomb threat Open this result in new window
The Plain Dealer - 2 hours, 19 minutes ago
Port Clinton, Ohio - A high school student accused of writing a bomb threat on a bathroom counter at school was charged with inducing panic. The student, a sophomore at Port Clinton High School, also was charged with criminal damaging, said the Ottawa County Prosecutor's office.

Islam Documentary: "What The West Needs To Know"

http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/article_21251667.shtml

Islam Documentary: "What The West Needs To Know"

By J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Nov 27, 2006

"What the West Needs to Know" is a documentary consisting of original
interviews, citations from Islamic texts, Islamic artwork,
computer-animated
maps, footage of Western leaders, and Islamic TV broadcasts.

The tone of the presentation is sober, methodical and compelling.

The focus is on Islam as being violent, the major threat against the
non-Muslim world.

The producers state: "Virtually every major Western leader has over the
past
several years expressed the view that Islam is a peaceful religion and
that
those who commit violence in its name are fanatics who misinterpret its
tenets.

This claim, while widely circulated, rarely attracts serious public
examination.

"Relying primarily on Islam's own sources, this documentary
demonstrates
that Islam is a violent, expansionary ideology that seeks the
destruction or
subjugation of other faiths, cultures, and systems of government."

Islam, in other words, is a killing cult. It's so-called holy book, the
Koran, is replete with killing and maiming passages. The Koran's deity,
Allah, dictates that his disciples eradicate from the planet all
non-Muslims, thereby yielding the Islam world rule.

Presently that is the ambition of every Muslim in the world. Even the
so-called benign Muslims are truly aligned with the same Koran as the
Islamic murderers advocate. If Muslims are cowardly in the face of
slaying
non-Muslims, those Muslim renegades will be slain as well.

In other words, all Muslims must be true to Allah's intention of wiping
out
infidels from the planet. There is no other choice. That is the prime
aim of
that cult.

The documentary writers state: "We hear from prominent Western leaders
that
Islam is peaceful and that those who commit violence in its name are
heterodox fanatics."

In answer to that, the presentation offers the following critical
information:

Part 1: 'There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet'

"Our interviewees affirm their belief that Islamic violence is entirely
orthodox behavior for Muslims and stems directly from the teachings and
example of the Prophet Muhammad and the commands of the Koran. We learn
that
the example of Muhammad is one of a violent warlord who killed numerous
people. The Koran - the verbatim words of Allah - prescribes violence
against non-Muslims and Muhammad is the perfect example of the Koran in
action.

Part 2: The Struggle

"We learn that jihad, while literally meaning 'struggle', in fact
denotes
war fought against non-Muslims in order to bring the rule of Islamic
law to
the world. Violent death in jihad is, according to the Koran, the only
assurance of salvation. One of our interviewees tells of his personal
involvement in terrorism and of his conversion to Christianity.

Part 3: Expansion

"Following the death of Muhammad, his 'rightly-guided' successors
carried
his wars to three continents, fighting, enslaving, and massacring
countless
Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. Islam did not spread through
evangelism
or through its natural appeal, but through aggressive wars of conquest.
The
Crusades were largely a belated response on the part of Christian
Europe to
rescue Christians in the Holy Land suffering under Muslim oppression.
The
Muslim world today, while no longer the unified empire of the Caliphs,
is
exceptional for being responsible for the vast majority of conflicts
around
the world and for almost all of international terrorism.

Part 4: 'War is Deceit'

"A great problem with Western efforts to understand Islam is due to the
Islamic principle of 'religious deception', which enjoins Muslims to
deceive
non-Muslims in order to advance the cause of Islam. Muslim groups today
in
the West employ deception and omission to give the impression that
'Islam is
a religion of peace', an utter fiction.

Part 5: More than a Religion

"The most important characteristic of Islam not understood by the West
is
that it is more a system of government than a personal religion. Unlike
Christianity, Islam has never recognized a distinction between the
religious
and the secular/political. Islamic law governs every aspect of
religious,
political, and personal action, which amounts to a form of
totalitarianism
that is divinely enjoined to dominate the world, analogous in many ways
to
Communism.

Part 6: The House of War

"Islamic theology divides the world into two spheres locked in
perpetual
combat, dar al-Islam (House of Islam - where Islamic law predominates),
and
dar al-harb (House of War - the rest of the world). It is incumbent on
dar
al-Islam to fight and conquer dar al-harb and permanently assimilate
it.
Muslims in Western nations are called to subvert the secular regimes in
which they now live in accordance with Allah's command. Due to
political
correctness and general government and media irresponsibility, the
danger
posed by observant Muslims in the West remains largely unappreciated."

Iran bans woman writer`s bestseller

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=338471&ssid=43&sid=ENT

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=338471&ssid=43&sid=ENT

Iran bans woman writer`s bestseller

Tehran, Nov 27: Iran's conservative cultural body has banned a female
writer's award-winning bestseller, which deals with a married woman's
secret
and unrequited love for another man, a press report said on Monday.

"The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has prohibited
publication of
'I will turn out the lights' by Zoya Pirzad," the Kargozaran paper
quoted
publisher Alireza Ramezani as saying.

"We have not been informed of the reasons for the ban," he said, adding
the
vetting officials had refused to renew the publication permit for the
book,
which has sold more than 200,000 copies in 23 editions since 2001.

Pirzad's novel, which has bagged four prestigious literary awards in
Iran,
tells the story of a bored Armenian housewife who falls in love with a
melancholic widower in early 1960s in the oil-city of Abadan.

Production of music, films and books is subject to supervision by the
Ministry of Culture, which has introduced a new initiative requiring
publishers to renew permits for new editions of the same book.

The Ministry has held up the publication of hundreds of new titles and
reprints over the past months, publishers say.

Among the books banned are Persian translations of Tracy Chevalier's
bestseller "girl with a pearl earring", which had reached a sixth
edition,
and Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code".

Widely-acclaimed Iranian classic, the "Blind Owl", written in 1930s by
Sadegh Hedayat has also been banned.

Iranian press and publication enjoyed some freedom under the reformist
presidency of Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to 2005, with scores of women
joining the Iranian literati and sweeping awards.

World Bank says $1 billion more needed for bird flu

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1766112006

World Bank says $1 billion more needed for bird flu

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As much as $1.3 billion (667 million pounds)
more is
needed to fight bird flu, with more than $500 million of that going to
Africa, World Bank and U.N. experts said on Tuesday.

This is on top of the $1.9 billion pledged at a World Bank conference
in
Beijing last January, said World Bank Economic Adviser Olga Jonas, who
will
present her official estimates to a meeting of bird flu experts that
begins
next Wednesday in Bamako, Mali.

"We foresaw only a very small amount that would be needed in Africa,"
Jonas
said in an interview.

But since January, H5N1 avian influenza has spread out of Asia, across
Europe and into Africa. Now more than 50 countries have battled the
virus,
which mostly affects birds but which has infected 258 people and killed
153
since 2003.

Among them are some of the poorest countries in Africa -- Uganda,
Niger,
Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Djibouti, as well as Egypt.

U.N. bird flu coordinator Dr. David Nabarro said the money pledged
worldwide
in January was being spent rapidly but said much more needs to be done
to
prepare for a pandemic, or to try to prevent one.

Jonas said globally, between $980 million and $1.3 billion is needed
over
the next two to three years to fight bird flu. The money would go for
everything from rubber gloves and disinfectants to cash compensation to
people whose birds are culled if H5N1 is detected.

Some money has gone to African countries, but $566 million more is
needed,
she said, quoting figures prepared for the 4th International Conference
on
Avian Influenza, sponsored by the European Union, European Commission
and
the African Union.

UNFORESEEN SEVERITY

Indonesia is now the nation worst hit by H5N1, with 30 of its 33
provinces
affected. Out of 74 reported human cases of infection in Indonesia, 57
have
died.

"In Indonesia, the problem is just very, very severe and the programs
to
deal with it are also going to require more resources than we foresaw,"
Jonas said.

Not only does the virus threaten poultry -- more than 200 million fowl
have
been slaughtered or died -- but experts fear it could cause a human
pandemic.

Just a few genetic mutations could make H5N1 spread easily from person
to
person, sparking a global epidemic that might kill millions and ruin
economies.

Jonas said more than $720 million of the $1.9 billion pledged in
January has
been disbursed. Nabarro has been trying to keep tabs on it.

"I am upbeat because I have seen fantastic work being done, but I
remain
personally quite scared because I have seen the way in which this virus
is
still knocking around and not going away," Nabarro said.

Nabarro said new veterinarians were being hired and trained, better
transport systems being set up for animals and he had seen more
effective
reporting of outbreaks in people and animals in several countries.

"There have been massive communications programs underway to inform
people
about the dangers associated with close contact with sick birds,"
Nabarro
added.

The United Nations, the World Health Organisation and other groups have
said
every country must step up efforts to prevent more bird flu outbreaks
by
watching birds and other animals more closely, moving quickly to cull
infected birds, vaccinating animals and developing plans to deal with a
human pandemic.

DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE Newsletter

English Service News
29.11.06, 17:00 Uhr UTC

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Today's highlight on DW-WORLD:

EU Commission Suggests Halting Part of Turkish Accession Talks

The European Commission on Wednesday called for a partial suspension
of Turkey's negotiations towards European Union membership after
Ankara refused to open its harbors and airports to Greek Cypriot
ships and planes.

To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the
internet address below:

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NATO wraps up summit in Latvia

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has welcomed a decision
by some alliance members to relax restrictions on deployment in
Afghanistan, saying this made the NATO-led force there more
flexible. Speaking at the end of the NATO summit in Latvia, Scheffer
however admitted that gaps remain. Germany, France, Spain and Italy
have now said they will help in trouble zones outside their areas,
but only in emergencies. Afghanistan is experiencing its worst
violence since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001. At the summit,
NATO also declared its rapid-response force to be fully operational.
The 25,000-strong force can be deployed swiftly for combat missions,
disaster relief or counter-terrorism work. In other issues, NATO
agreed to admit Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina to its
Partnership for Peace programme, a decade after the wars which
ripped the Balkans apart.

EU to seek partial freeze in Turkey talks

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described as
"unacceptable" a European Commission recommendation to partially
suspend Turkey's negotiations to join the European Union. Turkish
television said Erdogan made the comments in Riga on the sidelines
of the NATO summit. The Commission took the decision after Turkey
failed to open its ports to EU-member Cyprus. EU foreign ministers
will decide whether to act on the recommendation at a meeting on
December 11. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she welcomed
the EU's pressure on Turkey. Also speaking in Riga, Merkel called it
"correct" to suspend part of the membership negotiations with Turkey
unless it opens the ports.

Turkey praises Pope's friendly tone

Turkey has praised Pope Benedict XVI's friendly tone during his
visit to the predominantly Muslim country and his apparent support
for Ankara's bid to join the European Union. Celebrating mass in
southwestern Turkey where the Virgin Mary is said to have lived out
her last days, Benedict stressed that a common devotion to Mary
links Christians and Muslims. The Koran describes Mary as the Virgin
Mother of Jesus, whom Muslims consider the greatest prophet after
Mohammed. The Pope is on his second day of a four-day visit to
Turkey, and is due in Istanbul under tight security for a meeting
with Patriarch Bartholomew I, head of the Greek Orthodox Church. The
pontiff aims to ease tensions between the Catholic Church and the
Muslim world, and improve relations with Orthodox churches.

Iraqi PM arrives in Jordan for talks

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has arrived in Jordan for talks
with US President George W. Bush. Bush is due to arrive later in the
day following a NATO summit in Latvia. The talks are to address
security in Iraq. In protest at the meeting, the political bloc
loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has suspended its
participation in the Iraqi government. Sadr officials have however
stressed that the move was not a permanent boycott. Al-Maliki has
already met with Jordan's King Abdullah II. A court statement said
the king told Al-Maliki that the crisis in Iraq could only be solved
by a political process. Earlier, the United Nations Security Council
approved a new mandate to allow US-led multinational forces to
remain in Iraq for another 12 months while Iraq builds up its own
forces.

Ireland rejects CIA prisoner rendition

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern has criticised a European
parliamentary enquiry that claims the US Central Intelligence Agency
transported prisoners through Ireland's airports. Ahern said he and
his government had already gone on record rejecting extraordinary
rendition of prisoners. The report expresses "serious concern" at
what it says were over 140 stop-overs by CIA-operated aircraft at
Irish airports. Poland's former intelligence service has likewise
reiterated that his country never hosted secret CIA prisons. The
European Parliament report accused Poland and ten other EU countries
of being aware of the running of CIA secret prisons in Europe.

EU demands cuts to CO2 emission quotas

The European Commission has demanded that 10 member states slash the
number of pollution permits they planned to issue to industries as
part of the EU's emissions trading scheme. The trading system, which
allows industrial polluters to buy and sell emissions quotas, is
supposed to be the cornerstone of European Union efforts to cut
greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Germany, Europe's
industrial powerhouse, was told to significantly cut carbon dioxide
emission quotas. Some scientists say that emissions, which are
blamed for global warming, have increased dramatically in recent
years.

UN chiefs urge special session on Darfur

Germany, France and Canada are asking for a special session of the
United Nations Human Rights Council on the crisis in the Sudanese
region of Darfur. The German ambassador in Geneva, Michael Steiner,
said the situation in Darfur was worsening and called on the United
Nations to take action. Thirteen more countries on the Human Rights
Council would need to support the proposal for a special session to
be held. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has also spoken out in
favour of a special session, saying the Council's reputation was at
stake. At least 200,000 people have died from the combined effects
of war and famine since the conflict in Darfur erupted in 2003.
More than two million have fled their homes.

German court drops trial of Deutsche Bank CEO and others

A German court has dropped proceedings against Deutsche Bank CEO
Josef Ackermann and five others over a 2000 takeover battle. The
decision Wednesday ends a lengthy legal saga that had weighed on the
future of Germany's most prominent banker. The Duesseldorf state
court approved a proposal by prosecutors that will see the
defendants make a payment totaling 5.8 million euros in return for
charges being dropped. Prosecutors say the payment is not a fine and
"the presumption of innocence remains valid." The six went on trial
for a second time in late October over disputed bonuses paid to
bosses at German phone company Mannesmann when it was acquired by
Vodafone.

Australian soldier dies in crash off Fiji

Near the Pacific island of Fiji, one Australian soldier has died and
another is missing after an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into
the South Pacific. The aircraft was trying to land on an Australian
ship stationed south of Fiji to evacuate Australian civilians. There
are fears that a coup could occur as tensions mount between Fiji's
government and military rivals.

Earthquake rattles northern Moluccas

The northern part of Indonesia's Molucca islands have been jolted by
an earthquake, measuring 6.2. Local officials say numerous houses
were destroyed in three villages, but there's no word on casualties.
Indonesia's state meteorological agency said a tsunami had not
happened. The largest city near the epicentre is Manado.

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DW website also has information about DW-RADIO and DW-TV programmes:
topics, broadcast times and frequencies.
You can even listen to all programmes as audio-on-demand.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/63671.aspx

The Radicalization of Turkey

By George Thomas

CBN News

November 28, 2006

CBNNews.com -- ISTANBUL, Turkey - Pope Benedict XVI's visit comes at a
time
of growing worries in the West that the largely Muslim country of
Turkey is
becoming more radicalized in its embrace of Islam.

"After 9/11, Iraq, Palestine, this conflict of religions, people are
becoming more conservative," said Mehmet Ali Birand, a Turkish
political
commentator.

TESEV, Turkey's leading think-tank, released the findings of a new
survey
showing religiosity on the rise. The study's author also said that the
percentage of people who consider themselves "Muslims first" rather
than
"Turkish first" has risen as well.

"When you ask questions about their identity and their commitment to
the
religion, they are religious people," said Can Paker, president of
TESEV.

Turkey is geographically and politically caught between two worlds,
with
Europe to the West and the Islamic world to the East. The Bosporus
Strait
literally divides the country in half. In fact, Istanbul is the only
city in
the world that straddles two continents."

"Turkey has been incredibly successful and part of this is because it
has
been a democracy and because they've achieved a balance between mosque
and
state between religion and state," said Michael Rubin of the American
Enterprise Institute.

But there are signs that the balance is tipping. Robert Spencer, an
expert
on Islam, said the forces of political Islam are steadily gaining
ground.

"There is nation-wide re-assertion of a more virulent form of Islam
that
does not accept Turkish secularism and wishes to subjugate non-Muslims
under
the rule of Islamic law," said Spencer.

Some point the finger at Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A
devout Muslim, Erdogan has been accused of pursuing a hidden agenda.

Birand said, "The hidden agenda is to make Turkey a country like Iran,
like
Saudi Arabia."

Since taking power four years ago, Erdogan has tried to replace
traditional
secular education with strict Islamic schools. State-run radio and
television stations are being Islamized. Dozens of imams are placed in
top
government positions. He has also lowered the minimum retirement age
for
those working in Turkish courts.

"What this allows him to do is replace 4,000 out of Turkey's 9,000
judges,"
said Rubin. "Now imagine the battles we have in the United States over
a
single Supreme Court justice and imagine one prime minister being able
to
appoint nearly half the judges in any country."

In recent weeks, Erdogan has also used world events to undercut the War
on
Terror. He labeled Israel "a terrorist state" following its war against
Hezbollah. He refers to the insurgents killed in Iraq as "martyrs".

Erdogan is also taking advantage of growing anti-Americanism in Turkey
and
throughout much of the region.

A Turkish film called, "Valley of the Wolves" hit theatres across the
country earlier this year. It depicted American soldiers in Iraq as
blood-thirsty war criminals. It was a box-office hit.

"What happens in Iraq is quite influential for us. Stories that we see
each
day on TV are already affecting us anyway. This makes the movie a
propaganda
film on the basis of popular culture," said Sukran Kuyucak Esen of
Marmara
University.

Some Turks have been openly saying that it is time to abandon ties with
the
West.

"Turkey should be wise and turn to our Arab brothers," said one Turk.

The drift away from the West is what worries many Turkish watchers the
most.
Turkey has been a long-time U.S. ally in the region. And if its bid to
join
the EU is rejected, it could go looking elsewhere for relations--
perhaps
with Damascus or Tehran.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061130/ap_on_re_eu/britain_poisoned_spy

12 sites in U.K. show radioactive traces

By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago

LONDON - Traces of radiation have been found at a dozen sites in Britain and five jets were being investigated for possible contamination as authorities widened their investigation into the poisoning of a former Russian spy, the country's top law enforcement official told Parliament on Thursday.

A coroner formally opened an inquest into the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, who died on Nov. 23 after falling ill more than three weeks earlier. It was quickly adjourned so police could continue their investigation, but three pathologists were expected to participate in an autopsy Friday at Royal London Hospital.

High doses of polonium-210 — a rare radioactive element usually made in specialized nuclear facilities — were found in Litvinenko's body after his death. Investigators are now checking places visited by the former KGB agent and others who had contact with him in the weeks before he fell ill on Nov. 1.

Home Secretary John Reid told Parliament that "around 24 venues" have been or are being monitored as part of the investigation, and that experts had confirmed traces of radioactive contamination at "around 12 of these venues." He did not say whether the radioactivity found at the sites was polonium-210.

Reid told lawmakers that officials believed the risk to public health to be low. He said 1,700 calls had been made to the National Health Service, and 69 people were referred to the Health Protection Agency. Of those, 18 who may have been exposed to polonium-210 have been referred to specialist clinics, but all urine tests so far have been negative, he said.

Litvinenko also said before he died that a group of Russian contacts who met with him on Nov. 1 had traveled to London from Moscow, prompting the searches of planes.

Three British Airways planes — two at Heathrow Airport and one in Moscow — are being investigated, and Reid said that a Boeing 737, leased by the Russian airline Transaero, was also "of interest."

Besides that, "there is one other Russian plane that we know of that we think we may be interested in," Reid added.

He said early tests of two of the three British Airways planes showed low levels of a radioactive substance. The third BA plane remains on the ground in Moscow, and has not yet been tested. BA will make a decision whether to bring the plane back from Moscow, he said.

The Transaero jet arrived at Heathrow from Moscow on Thursday, and airline officials said no radioactivity was discovered aboard.

"Local security did not find on Transaero planes any toxic substance," said Irena Borodulina, a spokeswoman for Transaero.

Reid did not give details of the fifth aircraft, except to say that it is Russian.

The three British planes were on the London-Moscow route, but also made stops in Barcelona, Frankfurt and Athens over a period of three weeks. Thousands of passengers aboard some 200 flights have been asked to report any symptoms of radiation poisoning.

It was not immediately clear whether the traces found onboard could have come from passengers who may have come into contact with Litvinenko, or whether a radioactive substance could have been smuggled on board. Authorities refused to specify whether the substance found was polonium-210.

Around 33,000 passengers and 3,000 crew and airport personnel had contact with the 221 flights on the three British planes, said airline spokeswoman Kate Gay. She said the government contacted the airline but would not say what aroused its suspicions.

continued...............

BA passengers 'not getting help'
Travellers on British Airways flights affected by a radiation alert say they are not being given enough help.

BA is trying to contact 33,000 people after radioactive traces were found on two planes, and has told passengers on named flights to contact NHS Direct.

But passengers who have rung NHS Direct say nurses have told them they do not know what symptoms to look out for.

Britons calling the helpline from abroad say they were told no advice can be given to people outside the UK.

NHS Direct has not yet commented on the matter. The health risk is thought to be low.

'Very worried'

Nora Kaissi, from north London, told the BBC News website she was very worried about the potential danger to her health, but could get no information on what to do.

They are saying low risk - but there's a big difference between that and no risk
Nora Kaissi

She and her partner flew from London to Athens on 28 November on one of the 221 affected flights listed on BA's website.

A BA adviser told her to ring NHS Direct. But on getting through she was told that guidance could not legally be given to people not currently in the UK and that no details of symptoms could be provided.

Ms Kaissi, 32, also phoned the British Embassy in Athens but was told staff had no information to give.

"I am very worried," she said. "We just don't know what the risks are. They are saying low risk - but there's a big difference between that and no risk.

"I just wish someone would give us a helpline where we could put our minds at rest."

Ms Kaissi has called for BA to set up helplines in each of the destination countries for the affected flights to help passengers who are still abroad.

Frustrated

Fellow Briton Simon Long, who flew with his wife and two young children from Moscow to London on 26 October, returning to Russia two weeks later, was also told by NHS Direct that no advice could be given because he was abroad.

EXPOSURE RISK
Contact with carrier's sweat or urine could lead to exposure
But polonium-210 must be ingested to cause damage
Radiation has very short range and cannot pass through skin
Washing eliminates traces

"It would be nice to be tested just to make sure - especially having children and when you have concerned relatives e-mailing all the time," he said.

"We are not worried - it's just to be able to know there's nothing to worry about. When the information you get [about calling NHS Direct] is wrong, you do worry about what else is right."

Barbara Cooper, in Southend-on-Sea, rang NHS Direct on behalf of her son William, who flew from Moscow to London on 7 November, but was frustrated about the lack of information provided.

"NHS Direct advised me that they know nothing about it and have no advice to give anyone," she told the BBC News website.

'Hope for best'

Michael Burke, who flew to Istanbul on 2 November, said he had been advised by BA not to call NHS Direct because they could not handle the volume of calls.

He was told to "just keep watching the news", he told the BBC.

Colin Millard, from Oakhanger in the UK, flew from Athens on 24 November. He said NHS Direct had asked him if he had any symptoms, but had not told him what to look out for.

He had effectively been told "we just have to hope for the best", he said.

A member of British Airways cabin crew told the BBC she was upset the company had failed to let staff know about the radiation alert before it became public knowledge.

A BA spokesman said staff had been informed by e-mail at the same time as details of the radiation contamination had been released to the media.

"The risk is low to customers and to staff," he added.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/6159363.stm

Published: 2006/11/30 12:56:36 GMT

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