World Terrorism: News, History and Research Of A Changing World #9 Security Watch

Bangladesh curfew restores calm
Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, and five other cities are quiet following a curfew that was imposed after violent clashes between police and students.

Shops and most offices are shut and the roads are empty apart from army checkpoints and patrols.

At least one person died and several hundred were hurt as rioting by students demanding an end to emergency rule spread across the country.

Universities and colleges remain closed as part of the indefinite curfew.

Mobile phone service has been restored after it was shut down overnight.

For now the measures seems to have brought the situation under control, says the BBC’s John Sudworth, in Dhaka.

Clashes broke out in the capital on Monday, and spread to other parts of the country, including Sylhet in the north and the port of Chittagong in the south.

The violence poses the most serious challenge to the emergency government since it took power six months ago, says our correspondent.

‘Evil forces’

The curfew started at 2000 on Wednesday (1400 GMT).

Dhaka, normally choked with traffic, is very quiet, our correspondent says.

Some people are being allowed to travel through the checkpoints, mostly on foot or bicycle rickshaw, but the roads, still patrolled by the army, are empty.

We request channels to stop televising footage of violence until further notice because this might instigate further violence
Government adviser Mainul Husein

Late on Wednesday, the head of the caretaker government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, addressed the nation.

He said “evil forces” and opportunists were trying to foment anarchy, but he promised the curfews were only a temporary measure.

The government declared Thursday a public holiday and ordered universities and colleges in the six cities to close and told all students to leave their campuses.

Television stations have been ordered to stop broadcasting footage of the violence.

Correspondents say the protests appear to be growing more violent, and are turning into a popular movement demanding the immediate restoration of democracy.

Slum dwellers, shop keepers, rickshaw pullers and businessmen joined stone-throwing students in violent and bloody demonstrations in Dhaka. They confronted police who baton charged them and fired tear gas.

The first casualty of the unrest was a rickshaw puller killed during rioting in the north-western town of Rajshahi, officials said.

Police are accused of using tear gas indiscriminately, at one point on Tuesday even firing it into a female students’ dormitory at Dhaka University to prevent them from joining the protests.

Apology sought

Monday’s clashes began when students in Dhaka said they had been “manhandled” by soldiers during a football match.

Violence continued even though a student demand that troops be withdrawn from the Dhaka campus was met early on Wednesday.

The students have also demanded a public apology from the army chief, Gen Moeen U Ahmed, and want soldiers who have beaten up students to be punished.

The violence is in contrast to widespread popular support for the interim government when it came to power in January promising to stamp out corruption and to hold elections by the end of 2008.

But discontent has been rising in recent months, most notably over the increasing cost of living.

Two other military governments in the past - that of Ziaur Rahman and Muhammad Ershad - were both brought down in protests that were started by students.

Keeping the peace will now be the major test of this government’s authority, our correspondent says.

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Published: 2007/08/23 07:45:08 GMT

Terror accused was ‘model pupil’
A student on trial accused of terror offences has been described as a “model pupil” by a former teacher.

Mohammed Atif Siddique, from Alva in Clackmannanshire, is facing a total of five charges, which he denies.

Former deputy head teacher at Alva Academy, Alexander Donoghue, said the 21-year-old had an excellent attendance record and was respectful to staff.

The charges against him include possessing articles useful to a person preparing for an act of terrorism.

‘Quiet boy’

The jury at the High Court in Glasgow heard Mr Siddique was a pupil at the secondary school between August 1997 and March 2002, where he had gained seven Standard Grade qualifications.

Mr Donoghue had taught him in computing and social education.

He said: “He was a very quiet boy, always very well turned out, very respectful, but not a very high academic achiever.”

I would say that he was above average in terms of attitude, always wore his uniform, very polite and courteous to staff
Alexander Donoghue

Mr Donoghue said that Mr Siddique had not come to anyone’s attention during his time at the school.

He added: “I would say that he was above average in terms of attitude, always wore his uniform, very polite and courteous to staff.”

Mr Donoghue also told the court Mr Siddique had grown a beard by the next time they met in 2006, but agreed it was not unusual for former pupils to change their appearance after leaving the school.

Mr Siddique was arrested in Alva on 13 April last year.

He has been charged with three offences under the Terrorism Act of 2000, one under the 2006 act and a breach of the peace.

They include possessing articles useful to a person preparing for an act of terrorism, such as instructions on bomb-making and guerrilla tactics.

He has also been accused of putting details on websites to encourage terrorism.

Internet sites

The first charge claims that between 1 March, 2003, and 13 April, 2006, he had articles “in circumstances which gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that they were connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism”.

He allegedly committed this offence at his Alva home, at Ibrox public library, Glasgow Metropolitan College and Glasgow Airport.

The second charge alleges that he collected material and recorded information which could have been used in terrorism.

The third charge relates to allegations that he committed a breach of the peace between 1 September, 2003, and 30 September, 2005.

Mr Siddique has been accused of showing students at Glasgow Metropolitan College images of suicide bombers and beheadings by terrorists.

He also allegedly threatened to become a suicide bomber and carry out acts of terrorism in Glasgow or elsewhere and claimed to be a member of al-Qaeda.

The fourth charge alleges that between 1 September, 2003, and 13 April, 2006, he provided instruction on using or making firearms and explosives on three internet websites he owned.

The fifth and final charge alleges that Mr Siddique distributed terrorist publications on the sites to encourage acts of terrorism on 13 April, 2006.

Mr Siddique is being defended by Donald Findlay QC, with Scotland’s senior advocate depute, Brian McConnachie QC, leading the prosecution.

The trial, before Lord Carloway, continues.
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Published: 2007/08/22 16:22:04 GMT

[photos]

Meat con gang boss tracked by BBC
A businessman who sold unfit meat to hospitals, schools and supermarkets has been jailed for six years after spending four years on the run.

Peter Roberts, 72, known as “Maggot Pete”, was convicted in 2003 of fraud but fled the country after the start of the 12-week trial.

A BBC Inside Out investigation tracked him to Northern Cyprus and presented evidence to local authorities.

Roberts was deported and appeared at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday.

He will now serve the six-year prison sentence that was imposed in 2003 for his role in leading a gang which made at least £1m selling diseased chicken carcasses.

The scam involved selling the contaminated meat from a plant in Denby, Derbyshire, to meat wholesalers.

It ended up in major supermarkets across the UK and was even sold to hospitals and schools, the court heard.

Roberts was convicted at Nottingham Crown Court in September 2003 of conspiracy to defraud and failing to surrender to custody.

The investigation into Denby Poultry Products began in December 2000.

The multi-agency operation involved more than 100 police officers as well as around 50 local authority environmental health officers and Meat Hygiene Service staff.

Denby Poultry Products was a pet food processing plant registered to receive waste from poultry slaughterhouses for use in pet food.

But the business became involved in a chain of supply that stretched to businesses in Northampton, Milton Keynes and Bury.

Anonymous tip-off

The gang was based at premises described as rat-infested and sewage-ridden, where they butchered one million unfit chickens and turkeys before selling the meat.

Police raided the company’s premises in March 2001 after an investigation lasting more than 30 months triggered by an anonymous tip-off.

A Food Standards Agency spokesman said: “Since that investigation much has been done to ensure that as far as possible such criminal activities are prevented.

“Last year the agency set up an independent Food Fraud Task Force, charged with reviewing current controls with a particular focus on meat.

“The expert group have supported the initiatives already undertaken and makes its final report next month.”

The full BBC Inside Out East Midlands investigation into Maggot Pete will be aired on 19 September.
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Published: 2007/08/22 16:08:43 GMT

Record number of people leave UK
More people left the UK last year than in any year since current records began in 1991, statistics show.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that some 385,000 people left the UK for the long term in the year to mid-2006.

Many of those leaving were “long-term migrants” and not British citizens.

Long-term migration into the UK, meanwhile, was 574,000. The figures show the UK population grew to 60,587,000 - an increase of 349,000.

‘Turnover population’

Of those who left the UK last year, 196,000 were British citizens while 189,000 were “long-term migrants” who had been living in the UK for more than a year.

And according to the Migration Research Unit at University College London, it is the number of non-Britons, or the “turnover population”, that has pushed up the figures for those leaving.

“The majority of those are people who came in from Eastern European countries in May 2004 - what we call the A8 countries - and I think what the figures suggest is that, maybe we’re now capturing more of those people going home [in the statistics],” Professor John Salt told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme.

The latest figures available from the ONS for the most popular places among emigrating Britons show that [from January 2004 to December 2005] Australia was the number one choice.

TOP TEN EMIGRATION COUNTRIES FOR UK CITIZENS - 2004 & 2005
Australia - 71,000
Spain - 58,000
France - 42,000
New Zealand - 30,000
USA - 25,000
Canada - 17,000
Netherlands - 8,000
UAE - 7,000
Germany - 6,000
South Africa - 6,000
Source of estimates: ONS

Those figures - published in April - suggest that, over that two year period, 71,000 British citizens started new lives in Australia compared with 58,000 in Spain and 42,000 in France.

Dean Morgan, of the website workpermit.com, said the bad summer weather had led to a large number of inquiries about emigration.

“Normally in July and August time its quite quiet but this year we’ve been inundated,” he told BBC News.

“Perception of crime is another of the main reasons for people wanting to leave,” he said.

“Also, people are worried about their children and they worry about their jobs and their future here and possibly the economy as well.”

Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa seemed to be the most popular destinations for emigration, Mr Morgan added.

Figures questioned

Meanwhile, the figures also indicated that during the same period, 74,000 people arrived in the UK from the eastern European countries that joined the European Union in 2004, while 16,000 people from those countries left.

However, according to Home Office statistics, around 200,000 people from the same countries registered for work in the UK during that time.

Campaign group Migrationwatch said the figures did not add up.

“This once again highlights that the government has no real grip of immigration or any meaningful idea of the true number coming to and leaving the UK which makes planning for these large population increases extremely difficult,” said chairman Sir Andrew Green.

There is a pull on the heart strings for people to go back [home]
Dr Jan Mokrzycki Federation of Poles in Great Britain

But the Home Office said that while the ONS figures only included those staying in the UK for more than a year, its statistics featured all short-term applications for work, as well as applications from those who may never arrive in the country.

Dr Jan Mokrzycki, of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, said that although the wage levels were better in the UK than in Poland, the costs of living were also high and many Polish people had realised they were just as well off at home.

“It works out just about even and, of course, there is also a pull on the heart strings for people to go back,” he added.

The ONS figures released on Wednesday also revealed that one in four babies born in the UK had a mother or father born overseas.

The proportion of babies born to a foreign parent rose from 20% in 2001 to 25%.

“That reflects the cumulative effect of immigration over the last 40 years,” a spokesman for the ONS said.

Overall, the UK saw an increase in births to 734,000 in the year compared with 663,000 four years earlier.

Ageing population

In addition, the figures suggested that the number of people aged 85 or over grew by 6% to 1,243,000 while the number of people of retirement age increased by 1% to 11,344,000.

The largest population growth by district (during 2001-2006) was 14% in Westminster, followed by Camden and South Northamptonshire - both 12%.

The greatest reductions at 2% were in Rushmoor, Middlesbrough, Sefton and Burnley.

The average age was 39 compared with just over 34 in 1971.

The method by which migration statistics are compiled changed in 1991, making some comparisons with earlier figures difficult.

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Published: 2007/08/22 17:42:09 GMT

Pakistan’s ‘extraordinary prisoner’
By Syed Shoaib Hasan
BBC News, Islamabad

News of Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan’s release from custody in Pakistan has attracted a great deal of attention.

But then Mr Khan was no ordinary prisoner.

At the time of his arrest three years ago, he was accused of being a key link between al-Qaeda leaders and militants.

“But now any charges against him are gone with the wind,” said his lawyer, Babar Awan, after his client was released for lack of evidence.

All this is a far cry from July 2004, when Mr Khan was arrested amid much fanfare and widely labelled as the “information technology chief of al-Qaeda in Pakistan”.

That same description was apparently used by none other than President Pervez Musharraf in his autobiography.

While the president never used Mr Khan’s name, his choice of words tally with all that is known about Mr Khan.

The book says he was born in Karachi and graduated from a local engineering university with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering.

It goes on to say he was recruited into al-Qaeda by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, ran al-Qaeda’s information technology wing after Mohammed’s arrest, and was himself arrested in Lahore on 21 July, 2004.

‘Vital breakthrough’

The arrest was hailed as a “vital breakthrough in the war against terror” at the time.

And it is true to say that today, questions still remain as to what exactly were Mr Khan’s connections with al-Qaeda, if indeed he had any.

Intelligence officials are in no doubt. They say that a laptop recovered from Mr Khan at the time of his arrest contained information about several terror plots.

They say it also contained details of targets such as financial buildings, railway networks and airports in the UK and US.

Along with other information gleaned from the suspect’s interrogations, security agencies said it helped them foil several terror plots.

They say the information also led them to arrest several alleged al-Qaeda operatives, including Ahmed Khalfan Gailani.

Mr Gailani, chief suspect in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in East Africa, was arrested in Gujarat in north-eastern Pakistan.

There has always been a cloud of controversy over his exact status

Information provided by Mr Khan also reputedly led to the arrests of 13 al-Qaeda suspects in the UK, in July 2004.

President Musharraf said in his autobiography that the arrest was one of the major hidden successes of the “war on terror”.

With this background, it seemed that Mr Khan was destined to spend the rest of his life in a Pakistani or American secret prison.

At best, it seemed likely he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

But there has always been a cloud of controversy over his exact status.

The press has been full of conspiracy theories alleging Mr Khan’s connections with foreign and domestic intelligence agencies.

Amid the flurry of speculation, no-one is sure where he is now.

While the news of his release was made public on Monday, he was actually freed at least a month earlier, in mid-July.

Among the various theories about his whereabouts, the most popular is that he has moved abroad.

Some analysts say that Mr Khan’s release confirms that he was co-operating with Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and was kept in custody for his own safety.

‘Pivotal role’

They say the old al-Qaeda network has now been all but broken in Sindh and Punjab provinces.

“In Karachi especially, the last major al-Qaeda operatives left were arrested in 2005,” says an ex-intelligence official.

“In this regard many believe Mr Khan played a pivotal role.

But most analysts agree that there is now a new wave of militants, largely unknown to security agencies.

“It’s a murky tale in which there are no clear answers to any of the key questions,” said the official.
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Published: 2007/08/21 18:41:58 GMT

Rome halts mosque conversion plan
By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

Authorities in Rome have refused to allow a building next to a Catholic church to be converted into a mosque.

The planned mosque, in a densely populated and multi-ethnic quarter in the centre of the Italian capital, was supposed to open next month.

Municipal police said the community of Bengali Muslims who were carrying out the building works did not have the necessary permit.

Local right-wing politicians have applauded the police action.

Biggest mosque

The mosque was scheduled to open in Esquiline hill, one of the seven hills of ancient Rome.

The quarter houses people of widely different ethnic origins.

They are already served by seven Catholic churches, a Buddhist temple, a synagogue, a Zain prayer centre and a Chinese Evangelical church.

Rome also boasts the biggest mosque in Europe, built with Saudi money outside the city centre, about 3km (2 miles) from St Peter’s Basilica.

There are another three mosques and three Islamic prayer centres in the city, frequented by the growing number of Muslim residents.

A Rome city official in charge of ethnic policies has supported the opening of the new mosque but says authorities already had previous applications dating back nine years for the opening of new centres of worship from Buddhists, Hindus and Romanian Orthodox believers.

So the new mosque may have to wait its turn.
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Published: 2007/08/22 10:57:46 GMT

German hostage appeals for help
A German engineer held hostage by the Taleban has appealed for help in a video broadcast on a private Afghan television channel, reports said.

Rudolf Blechschmidt was seen lying on a sheet on the ground, clutching his chest and coughing on the video.

He was seized on 18 July in Wardak province in south Afghanistan.

Another German engineer, who was kidnapped with him, died of a heart attack. Last month, the Taleban claimed that they had killed both the hostages.

The Afghan foreign ministry had contested the claims, they said they believed one of the engineers to be alive.

Call for help

“I live in the mountains with the Taleban 3,000 metres high and the Taleban try to negotiate with the Afghan government, but the government [will] not talk with the Taleban and the Taleban tried to get in connection with the embassy to release us, but if the time is over they want [to] kill us,” news agency Reuters quoted him as saying in the video.

“We live in the mountains, very high in a very bad condition, please help us,” he added.

The agency said the video was aired on private Afghan channel Tolo TV and that the hostage spoke in English.

Last month, a Taleban spokesman said they had killed the two engineers as Germany had ignored a demand to withdraw its 3,000 troops.

The Germans, whose identity has not been revealed, were seized with six Afghan colleagues on Wednesday in Wardak province where they had been working on a dam project.

Last month, a Taleban spokesman said they had killed the two engineers as Germany had ignored a demand to withdraw its 3,000 troops.

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Published: 2007/08/23 05:52:23 GMT

Poland fights for Gdansk shipyard
The future of Poland’s iconic Gdansk shipyard remains in doubt as a key European Union (EU) deadline approaches for the site to reduce its capacity.

Brussels has given Poland until the end of Tuesday to either close two of Gdansk’s three slipways or else repay 51m euros ($69m; £35m) of European aid.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is now studying Poland’s calls to keep open two slipways at Gdansk.

The shipyard is the birth place of the celebrated Solidarity trade union.

Solidarity founder Lech Walesa said he would consider it a “personal failure” if the Gdansk shipyard was not saved.

Anti-communist vanguard

Back in 1980, a strike by 17,000 ship builders at Gdansk saw Solidarity recognised as the first non-communist trade union in the then Soviet Eastern Bloc.

The move was one of the first successful steps that led to the eventual collapse of communism, not just in Poland but Eastern Europe as a whole.

Under communism Gdansk could count on regular work from the Soviet Union, but it has struggled to compete in the post-communist free market and now employs 3,000 people.

The historical importance of the Gdansk shipyard is a central reason why the Polish government is loath to see its capacity cut too deeply.

The government argues that leaving Gdansk with just one slipway would turn it into “a tiny company instead of a shipyard”.

However, under EU rules, state aid for struggling shipyards can only be granted if it is accompanied by extensive cost-cutting aimed at restoring long-term viability.

Another condition is that private investors must be brought on board.

Without such moves, the EU insists that the aid paid to Gdansk is illegal and therefore needs to be repaid.

Reports suggest that Ukrainian company Donbas, Italian shipbuilder FVH, and Middle Eastern investors are interested in taking over the Gdansk site.
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Published: 2007/08/21 11:43:25 GMT

Copies of Nazi files transferred
The keepers of a vast archive of Nazi documents on the Holocaust have transferred copies of millions of files to museums in Israel and the US.

The electronic transfer is part of an agreement to open up the Bad Arolsen archive, overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The files, kept in Germany, were found in concentration camps and other Nazi prisons at the end of World War II.

Several countries have not yet ratified the agreement, delaying full access.

The archive will only be fully opened to the public when the 2006 protocol is ratified by Italy, France and Greece. That is expected later this year.

The ICRC says the archive has now transferred many documents from the archive to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the US and to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Centre in Israel.

Chilling details

The 47 million files stored in the spa town of Bad Arolsen hold meticulously recorded information on forced labourers, concentration camp victims and political prisoners. They take up 26km (16 miles) of shelving.

Historians believe many more details about the Nazis’ murder and brutal exploitation of millions of Jews, Roma (Gypsies) and other victims will be revealed.

“After a long political process, we can now give researchers and the public access to the files,” said Reto Meister, director of the ICRC’s International Tracing Service (ITS).

So far, 12 million documents have been digitised for electronic transfer, the ICRC says.

In grey, bureaucratic language the Nazis kept records on the smallest details - from the number of lice on a prisoner’s head to the exact moment of their execution.

The archive has been used to help people trace their relatives. But access has been restricted to protect victims’ privacy.

The archive is controlled by an 11-nation treaty signed in 1955 and amended by the 2006 protocol. The countries are: Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and the US.
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Published: 2007/08/21 13:21:08 GMT

Ex-kidnap girl attracts media glare
By Tristana Moore
BBC News, Berlin

One year on from her terrible ordeal, Natascha Kampusch is trying to lead a normal life.

She has been on holiday to Barcelona, along with her sister and an Austrian journalist, and she agreed to take part in a new documentary.

The 19-year-old seems relaxed and at ease with herself as she is filmed wandering around Barcelona, reading passages from her guidebook, and relaxing on a beach.

“I’ve lost my shyness towards other people,” Natascha said.

“In the past, when I heard a loud noise, I used to feel unwell. I feel better now over time, but I still get scared very easily.

“It will take a while before I can trust people again.”

Since she emerged from captivity, Natascha has been swamped by offers for her story.

Overnight she has become a media celebrity, but today she insists that she expects her privacy to be respected.

“The cameras follow me all the time,” she said. “I wish people would be more sensitive.”

“I am not a celebrity, I don’t give autographs, they want to make me into a superstar, a kind of Paris Hilton.”

Controversial relationship

Natascha spent eight-and-a-half years locked up in a tiny cellar in a house on the outskirts of Vienna, held prisoner by Wolfgang Priklopil.

All I can say is that I feel more and more sorry for him - he’s a poor soul
Natascha Kampusch on her kidnapper

She was aged 10 when she was kidnapped on her way to school in March 1998.

Last year, on 23 August, she finally managed to escape while her captor was distracted by a phone call.

Hours later, her captor, a 44-year-old telecoms technician, committed suicide by throwing himself under a train.

Natascha admitted on Austrian television that she felt some pity for him.

“I feel more and more sorry for him. He’s a poor soul,” she said.

Natascha said she still wore some of the clothes which she was given during her captivity.

“The clothes remind me of the past,” the teenager said.

“Somehow these old socks and T-shirts kept me warm. I still have to keep them,” she said in the documentary, her voice breaking.

She has also indicated that she would like to meet Priklopil’s mother one day, but so far, she has not.

Family rows

While Natascha is determined to live as normal a life as possible, she seems to be constantly in the public eye.

Her mother, Brigitte Sirny-Kampusch, has now written a book, called Desperate Years - My Life Without Natascha, which is a bestseller.

Natascha told Austrian television that she felt disappointed that some intimate details of her life had been revealed.

In the book, the mother claims that her daughter carries a photo of Priklopil’s coffin in her handbag.

“I thought that I could trust her. I thought she was not going to tell anyone else. I showed my mother something which is on my mobile phone,” said Natascha.

“In the book, my mother said that it was a photograph. That’s not true.

“I admit, I said goodbye to him, why not? It was important. The last time I saw him alive was when he turned his back to me, and I ran away from him, I said goodbye to his coffin.

“I never wanted that to be published.”

The mother describes Natascha’s father, Ludwig Koch, in an unflattering light in the book.

He is reported to be planning to sue Natascha’s mother.

TV fees

Apart from her parents’ dispute, there is also a row over the millions Natascha has made from her various media appearances.

I am not a victim, just because other people say I am
Natascha Kampusch

Some people have raised questions about why Natascha has failed to set up a charitable foundation which she said that she would organise, to help abused women.

Natascha made a public appeal for donations last year, and according to reports, the fund only has 50,000 Euros (£33,950) in its account and allegedly has not made any grants yet.

“Nothing has happened up until now,” Natascha confessed in the interview with Austria’s state ORF television.

“I have to look after this myself, but my intention is still to help other people.

“Money has come from different donors, my lawyers have looked after this, but as soon as I feel better, I shall take care of this.”

Public scrutiny

Natascha is now living alone in an apartment in Vienna.

She is visited by her social worker, and she has regular therapy sessions.

It is impossible to describe accurately in words what torture or suffering is
Natascha Kampusch

But she is determined to show that she is standing on her own two feet.

“I am not a victim, just because other people say I am,” she said.

The Austrian documentary shows Natascha taking driving lessons and learning archery.

She is also receiving private tuition to catch up with her school exams.

“I want to be taken seriously,” she said. “I don’t want the events of my case to be swept under the carpet.

“I am not claiming that nobody can understand what happened. Yet it is impossible to describe accurately in words what torture or suffering is.”

But while Natascha tries to get on with her life and deal with her traumatic past, it is clear that she will continue to be the subject of intense public scrutiny for some time to come.

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Published: 2007/08/23 02:41:20 GMT

New recall of Chinese toys in US
Two more US firms have recalled Chinese-made toys, saying they include paint with dangerous levels of lead.

The items include SpongeBob SquarePants spiral address books and diaries, Thomas the Tank Engine spinning tops and some toy buckets sold in the US.

The recall of about 300,000 toys comes a week after US firm Mattel recalled 18.5 million toys.

That prompted a US senator to call for all toys imported into the country from China to be inspected.

Ohio toy firm Martin Designs and Schyllings Associates of Massachusetts issued the recall through the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

About 250,000 of the books were sold between June 2006 and July 2007, while the spinning tops and buckets were in shops between 2001 and 2002.

Parents are being told to take the items away from children.

Beijing concerns

China has not commented on the latest recall but it earlier pointed out that of the billions of goods it produces every year, only a fraction are found to be faulty.

Recalls are not uncommon for toys and children’s products - they’re not uncommon with products across the board
Christopher Byrne
Toy analyst

Beijing was quick to act after the first Mattel recall, revoking the licence to manufacture goods of a firm in Guangdong province.

Analysts say that it recognises the importance of consumers and overseas firms keeping faith in the Made in China label.

The latest recall would further undermine confidence in product safety, but showed that checks to keep dangerous products off the shelves was effective, said toy consultant Christopher Byrne.

“Recalls are not uncommon for toys and children’s products. They’re not uncommon with products across the board,” he said.

The Mattel recall included Chinese-made Sarge die-cast toys from the Pixar film Cars, as well as some toys including Polly Pocket, which contained small magnets that can come loose.

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Published: 2007/08/22 22:34:15 GMT

US to shut anti-terror database
The Pentagon has said it will shut down a controversial anti-terror database.

US officials said the Talon programme would end on 17 September because the amount and quality of information gathered had declined.

The database was used to compile information on potential threats to US military facilities and personnel.

A Pentagon review found that it had included reports on peaceful protesters and anti-war demonstrations which should have been deleted.

However, the report by the defence department’s inspector general said the Pentagon had acted legally in collecting information on US citizens because the reports were gathered for law enforcement rather than intelligence purposes.

Military and defence personnel will still report suspicious activities around military bases, but that information will go onto an FBI database, the Pentagon said.

‘Not needed’

The Pentagon said public criticism was not behind the decision to close the database.

“The analytical value of [the database] was pretty slim,” spokesman Col Gary Keck told reporters.

“The Talon database was a perfectly legal system, nobody ever said it wasn’t, but it was just not meeting our needs any more,” he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which had criticised the database, welcomed the decision to abandon it.

“There should be no place in a free democratic society for the military to be accumulating secret data on peaceful demonstrators,” ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said.

The Talon reporting system was run by a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (Cifa), whose size and budget are classified.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6958791.stm

Published: 2007/08/22 14:05:01 GMT

[another on fire plane]

Taiwan jet in emergency landing
A Taiwanese China Airlines plane has been forced to make an emergency landing at an airport in Japan, airport officials say.

The jet was on its way from Taipei to Nagoya when its pilots requested a landing at Kansai, in western Japan.

There were no reports of injuries to passengers or crew.

The incident comes two days after a China Airlines plane exploded in a fireball shortly after landing on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa.

A spokesman for China Airlines, Johnson Sun, told the BBC News website that the main reason the plane had to make an unscheduled stop at Kansai airport was that it had been told that the runway at Nagoya had been closed.

He said the plane waited until the pilots were told that the runway was open and then continued on to Nagoya.

Earlier reports said the plane had been forced to land because it had run out of fuel.

In Monday’s incident at Naha airport all 165 people on board survived, with some escaping just seconds before the plane exploded.

Aviation officials from the US and Taiwan have been examining the wreckage for clues as to why the plane burst into flames, and are reported to be focusing on the possibility of a fuel leak from one of the engines.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6958944.stm

Published: 2007/08/22 15:41:23 GMT

The secret history of the Nazi mascot
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Melbourne

Alex Kurzem came to Australia in 1949 carrying just a small brown briefcase, but weighed down by some harrowing psychological and emotional baggage.

Tucked away in his briefcase were the secrets of his past - fragments of his life that he kept hidden for decades.

In 1997, after raising a family in Melbourne with his Australian bride, he finally revealed himself. He told how, at the age of five, he had been adopted by the SS and became a Nazi mascot.

His personal history, one of the most remarkable stories to emerge from World War II, was published recently in a book entitled The Mascot.

“They gave me a uniform, a little gun and little pistol,” Alex told the BBC.

“They gave me little jobs to do - to polish shoes, carry water or light a fire. But my main job was to entertain the soldiers. To make them feel a bit happier.”

Painful memories

In newsreels, he was paraded as ‘the Reich’s youngest Nazi’ and he witnessed some unspeakable atrocities.

But his SS masters never discovered the most essential detail about his life: their little Nazi mascot was Jewish.

“They didn’t know that I was a Jewish boy who had escaped a Nazi death squad. They thought I was a Russian orphan.”

His story starts where his childhood memories begin - in a village in Belarus on 20 October 1941, the day it was invaded by the German army.

When the shooting stopped I had no idea where to go so I went to live in the forests, because I couldn’t go back. I was the only one left

“I remember the German army invading the village, lining up all the men in the city square and shooting them. My mother told me that my father had been killed, and that we would all be killed.”

“I didn’t want to die, so in the middle of the night I tried to escape. I went to kiss my mother goodbye, and ran up into the hill overlooking the village until the morning came.”

That was the day his family was massacred - his mother, his brother, his sister.

“I was very traumatised. I remember biting my hand so I couldn’t cry out loud, because if I did they would have seen me hiding in the forest. I can’t remember exactly what happened. I think I must have passed out a few times. It was terrible.”

False identity

“When the shooting stopped I had no idea where to go so I went to live in the forests, because I couldn’t go back. I was the only one left. I must have been five or six.”

“I went into the forest but no-one wanted me. I knocked on peoples’ doors and they gave me bits of bread but they told me to move on. Nobody took me in.”

He survived by scavenging clothes from the bodies of dead soldiers.

After about nine months in the forest, a local man handed him over to the Latvian police brigade, which later became incorporated in the Nazi SS.

That very day, people were being lined up for execution, and Alex thought he, too, was about to die.

“There was a soldier near me and I said, ‘Before you kill me, can you give me a bit of bread?’ He looked at me, and took me around the back of the school. He examined me and saw that I was Jewish. “No good, no good,” he said. ‘Look I don’t want to kill, but I can’t leave you here because you will perish.

“’I’ll take you with me, give you a new name and tell the other soldiers that you are a Russian orphan.’”

Joining the circus

To this day, Alex Kurzem has no idea why Sergeant Jekabs Kulis took pity on him. Whatever his motives, it certainly helped that Alex had Aryan looks. And together, they kept the secret.

“Every moment I had to remind myself not to let my guard down, because if ever anyone found out, I was dead. I was scared of the Russians shooting me and the Germans discovering I was Jewish. I had no-one to turn to.”

Young Alex saw action on the Russian front, and was even used by the SS to lure Jewish people to their deaths.

Outside the cattle trains which carried victims to the concentration camps, he handed out chocolate bars to tempt them in.

Then, in 1944, with the Nazis facing almost certain defeat, the commander of the SS unit sent him to live with a Latvian family.

Five years later, he managed to reach Australia. For a time, he worked in a circus and eventually became a television repair man in Melbourne.

All the time, he kept his past life to himself, not even telling his Australian wife, Patricia.

“When I left Europe I said ‘forget about your past. You are going to a new country and a new life. Switch off and don’t even think about it.’

“I managed to do it. I told people I lost my parents in the war, but I didn’t go into detail. I kept the secret and never told anyone.”

It was not until 1997 that he finally told his family, and along with his son, Mark, set about discovering more about his past life.

After visiting the village where he was born, they found out his real name was Ilya Galperin, and even uncovered a film in a Latvian archive of Alex in full SS regalia.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6945847.stm

Published: 2007/08/21 00:19:05 GMT

[When I saw this, I thought of all the U.K. stores closed not that long ago, for some kind of bomb scare, several of them for several days.......the links to that are in the side bar of the second article, but take a look at how this went down...granny]

E-coli cases source narrowed down
Experts probing an outbreak of E.coli in Paisley have narrowed the possible source to single supermarket branch.

NHS Greater Glasgow said all the cases now had a link to a branch of Morrisons on the town’s Falside Road.

Earlier suggestions that the company’s Lonend branch was connected with the outbreak, which claimed the life of a 66-year-old woman, have been ruled out.

Meanwhile, there has been no new confirmed cases of E.coli O157, with the number remaining at nine.

Investigators have been continuing attempts to identify the most likely cause of the outbreak linked with the Falside Road store.

Home recovery

Dr Syed Ahmed, who is chairing the team, said: “As part of initial investigations and interviews with those affected, the outbreak control team found evidence linking those involved to the purchase of cold cooked meat from the delicatessen counters of both the Lonend and Falside stores in Paisley.

“Further subsequent investigations have now ruled out the link with the Lonend store, leaving us to concentrate on a possible single source for this outbreak.”

Dr Ahmed said Morrisons had been making “every effort” to support the investigation, adding that there was still no conclusive evidence.

NHS Greater Glasgow said a 72-year-old man was in a serious but stable condition in hospital and a 70-year-old Paisley woman was in a stable condition in a hospital in the Republic of Ireland, in connection with the outbreak.

The other six people have been recovering at home.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6959101.stm

Published: 2007/08/22 16:18:29 GMT

http://www.talkingretail.com/news/6161/Man-in-court-over-threat-to-Mo.ehtml

Man in court over threat to Morrisons branch

15 Aug 2007

A 53-year-old man is appearing in court today, charged with placing contaminated goods in a Morrisons supermarket in KingÂ’s Lynn.

Morrisons: contamination threat

Shane Ward, of Saddlebow Road, was arrested on Monday after a weekend operation led by Norfolk Constabulary and involving partner agencies, including the Food Standards Agency.

He is appearing before King’s Lynn Magistrates today charged with an offence under the Public Order Act 1986. The charge relates to a threat made to Morrisons on Friday.

Ward is alleged to have placed contaminated, unspecified products in the supermarket.

Liz McNulty, head of the incident branch at the FSA, said: “As soon as we were alerted we arranged to carry out a full risk assessment. It was important to quickly establish both the nature and the scale of any potential threat.

“Working closely with the police, we were able to establish there is no reason to believe that any contaminated products have been sold or offered for sale to the public.”

Chief Superintendent Charlie Hall said: “Our priority at all times was the safety of the public. Our actions were a careful balance between finding the person or people responsible and not causing unnecessary widespread alarm.”

The charge made against Ward is that: “On 10.8.08 at King’s Lynn with intent to cause economic loss to any person by reason of the goods being shunned by members of the public claimed that you had placed goods, namely unspecified products, sold by Morrisons which had been contaminated or interfered with in a place where goods of that description are consumed, used or sold or otherwise supplied.”

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Story from Talking Retail:
http://www.talkingretail.com/6161

http://www.talkingretail.com/news/5916/Man-charged-in-connection-with.ehtml

Man charged in connection with Tesco blackmail inquiry

26 Jul 2007

A man has been charged in connection with a series of bomb threats at Tesco stores.

Philip McHugh, aged 51 of Milton Avenue, Clitheroe, has been charged with two counts of blackmail and bomb hoaxing and is due to appear before Stevenage Magistrates today (26 July) at 10am.

He was arrested on Monday July 23 in Clitheroe, Lancashire, and was questioned at a police station in Hertfordshire, where he was later charged.

Hertfordshire police, who led the inquiry, said: “Throughout the investigation Hertfordshire Constabulary has worked closely with Tesco and other agencies, including the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the Food Standards Agency. The arrest and local inquiries in Clitheroe were made with the support of Lancashire Constabulary.”

Police are not seeking anyone else in connection with these offences.

Although financial demands were made against Tesco, at no point did the company pay out any money.

Tesco’s Retail and Logistics Director, David Potts said: “Throughout this series of events, the safety of the public and our staff was always our top priority and we worked closely with the police to respond quickly and responsibly.

“These were of course worrying threats and I am pleased that an individual has been arrested and charged.”

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Story from Talking Retail:
http://www.talkingretail.com/5916

Thursday, 23, August, 2007 (09, Sha`ban, 1428)

Taleban Renew Death Threats Against Hostages
Agence France Presse —

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, 23 August 2007 — Taleban militants who have been holding 19 South Koreans for more than a month renewed a threat yesterday to kill them if their demands are not met.

A purported rebel spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said some of the captives were sick and they were also suffering from lack of proper food.

“If the demands of the Taleban are not met the Korean hostages face death,” Mujahid told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location.

“Although we want this crisis to be solved through negotiations, it seems the US authorities are creating problems.” He did not, however, set any deadline and it was impossible to verify his comments independently.

The Korean aid workers were seized while traveling in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan on July 19, a day after a German engineer was kidnapped nearby. The militant group has demanded the release of some of its jailed fighters in exchange for the hostages — a demand the US-backed government in Kabul has so far rejected.

Mujahid said weather conditions and lack of “proper food” in the southern Ghazni province meant life for the hostages was increasingly harsh. “Their health condition is not good. The weather conditions and a lack of proper food have made conditions for them very hard. Most of them are sick.” Negotiations between Taleban captors and a South Korean delegation to free the captives have failed.

Mujahid, however, said telephone contacts between he two sides were continuing. “We’ve been in phone contact with the Korean delegation. So far, there has not been any decision for face-to-face talks,” he said.

A South Korean Embassy official here, under cover of anonymity, confirmed contact was being maintained. The spokesman said the Taleban wanted 10 of its prisoners freed in exchange for the German engineer, who was also sick, and four Afghan colleagues.

The kidnappings are among a series of incidents blamed on the Taleban, who are waging a bloody insurgency against the Kabul government and its coalition allies that has spiraled in intensity over the past year.

A female German aid worker was kidnapped in the capital at the weekend, but she was later freed in a police raid and authorities said her abduction was a criminal act motivated by money.

Meanwhile, a top Taleban commander said Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden is alive and well, according to US-based analysts monitoring extremist publications. “All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active,” the commander Mansour Dadullah said in a video interview, according to a transcript of the video’s English subtitled translation, released Tuesday by the analyst IntelCenter.

Dadullah, whose brother Mullah Dadullah was also a top commander in the Afghanistan-based militants and was killed this year, said Bin Laden had contacted him, the man blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

“I received a message from him in which he advised me I must follow Mullah Dadullah and continue the same activities so that the mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) may not weaken,” he said, according to the transcript. The video is dated June 15, 2007, IntelCenter said.

After the attacks the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taleban regime allied with Al-Qaeda and believed Bin Laden was hiding there. But after pounding the mountains where his den was thought to be, US-led forces failed to find him.

In the recording, which was accompanied by an online text, the terror network chief said Zacarias Moussaoui, a 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan origin and the only man convicted in the 9/11 attacks, had nothing to do with the operation.

The recording surfaced on May 23, 2006, about two weeks after Moussaoui was sentenced at a court in Alexandria, Virginia to life imprisonment.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=100322&d=23&m=8&y=2007

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=100318&d=23&m=8&y=2007

Thursday, 23, August, 2007 (09, Sha`ban, 1428)

US Sees Limits, ‘Manipulation’ in Iran-IAEA Deal
Agencies —

VIENNA/TEHRAN, 23 August 2007 — A nuclear cooperation pact Iran struck with the International Atomic Energy Agency has “real limitations” and Tehran should stop trying to manipulate the IAEA to dodge harsher UN sanctions, a senior US envoy said.

Washington was not impressed by Iran’s transparency promise — hailed as a “milestone” by the IAEA on Tuesday — to allay suspicions it is secretly seeking atomic bombs, and would still pursue talks on more UN sanctions against Tehran, the US envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog, Gregory Schulte, said.

The IAEA declined comment on Schulte’s criticism. A diplomat close to the agency said Schulte’s remarks “shows a deliberate campaign to derail this process.” Schulte said Washington welcomed any progress in resolving troubling questions about Iran’s nuclear activities.

“But we understand there are real limitations with the plan, including Iran’s continued refusal to implement the IAEA’s Additional Protocol,” he told reporters by conference call.

He was citing a measure allowing inspectors to conduct spot checks at sites not declared to be nuclear but regarded as important to resolving four-year-old IAEA investigations into the scope and nature of Iran’s atomic program.

Tuesday’s agreement, which has an undisclosed timetable, is meant to resolve IAEA concerns about intelligence indicating possible illicit military involvement in Iran’s declared drive for peaceful nuclear energy and to improve access for UN inspectors to its underground uranium enrichment plant.

Western diplomats believe Iran is making a display of cooperation to split key world powers over the need for stiffer sanctions — Russia and China are reluctant — and wants to buy time so it can master enrichment capability. Schulte said Iran’s suggestion it would not implement the transparency plan unless the UN Security Council shelved steps to intensify the mild sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over its refusal to stop enrichment was unacceptable.

Meanwhile, Iranian-American academic Haleh Esfandiari was yesterday enjoying a first day out of custody after her sudden release from three months in jail but is still unable to leave Iran until her passport is returned.

Esfandiari, 67, was released on Tuesday afternoon on bail of three billion rials ($320,000) from Tehran’s Evin Prison, where she had been detained since early May on accusations of links to a US drive to topple Iran’s rulers.

The move was welcomed as “encouraging news” by the White House, which had repeatedly called for the release of Esfandiari and three other American-Iranians held by Tehran. The future of her case was not immediately clear, with Tehran prosecutors emphasizing that it had not been closed. Moreover, she is still without her passport, which was stolen when she was about to leave Iran in December.

“Technically speaking she can leave the country as the purpose of the bail is that she can leave and return when she wants,” said Esfandiari’s lawyer Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights activist. “But as you know her passport has been taken,” she told AFP.

Iranian television late on Tuesday showed pictures of Esfandiari as she left Evin Prison in northern Tehran, saying she was happy to be released and that conditions in jail had been good. “They treated me very well in the section. I had a room, it was very big, it had a window. I could have air whenever I wanted. The food was very good.”

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