NAIROBI - Kenyan police on Thursday interrogated two al Qaeda suspects' wives caught fleeing Somalia, as mystery remained over whether their husbands survived a U.S. air strike.
The United States on Monday hit a village in southern Somalia in an attempt to take out an al Qaeda cell accused of bombing two U.S. embassies and an Israeli-owned hotel. U.S. ally Ethiopia continued air attacks in Somalia on Tuesday and Wednesday in pursuit of fleeing Islamist fighters, but the Pentagon denied it had mounted more strikes. The success of the attacks remains unclear although Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said eight "terrorists" were killed in the U.S. strike.
A Kenyan counter-terrorism source said the wives and three children of two al Qaeda suspects, wanted for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and a 2002 hotel blast on the Kenyan coast, had been arrested. Unconfirmed reports say one of three al Qaeda suspects -- Comorian Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Sudanese Abu Talha al-Sudani and Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan -- was killed. But it was not known which one.
Mohammed and Nabhan's wives and children were caught trying to cross into Kenya from Ras Kamboni, on Somalia's southern tip, long thought by Western and east African intelligence agencies to be the site of a militant training camp. "They were arrested on Monday at Kiunga. They headed for Nairobi today in a police chopper for questioning," the counter-terrorism source told Reuters.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070111/wl_nm/somalia_conflict_dc_105
Al Qaeda's leaders are in Pakistan, U.S. says
1/11/07 2 hours, 50 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda's leaders are holed up in a secure hide-out in Pakistan, from which they are revitalizing their bruised but resilient network, U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte said on Thursday.
In an unusually direct statement on the whereabouts of the militant group's top echelon, Negroponte told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Pakistan is the center of a web of al Qaeda connections that stretches across the globe into Europe.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070112/ts_nm/security_usa_threats_qaeda_dc_1
Bangladesh president declares state of emergency
January 11, 2007
DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh's president on Thursday declared a state of emergency following weeks of violent protests and threats by a political alliance to disrupt coming general elections, his press secretary said.
President Iajuddin Ahmed was expected to address the nation shortly on television and radio to explain the step, Press Secretary Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury said.
An indefinite nighttime curfew has been imposed for the capital Dhaka and more than 60 other cities and towns beginning Thursday night, state-run TV station reported. The curfew will remain in force each night for six hours starting from 11 p.m. (1700 GMT) until dawn, the station reported quoting an announcement from the president's office.
In proclaiming the emergency the president said proclaimed "grave emergency exists in the country threatening public security and its economy," Chowdhury said.
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