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A 27-year-old man has been charged with murder after the landlord of his Brooklyn building was found nearly decapitated in the basement Tuesday, police say. Rasel Siddiquee was arrested early Wednesday in connection with the death of Mahuddin Mahmud, a 57-year-old businessman and father of three who was found with his head nearly cut off and his face burned in the basement of a building he owned, according to the NYPD. Police found Mahmud's body after getting a 911 call about an assault at the building on McDonald Avenue in Kensington. Siddiquee lived in the basement, police say. Family and...

RAMALLAH (West Bank): Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has been invited to Washington in May for talks with US President Barack Obama, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Sunday. The invitation was delivered by Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, who met Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

August 11, 2009 MEANWHILE, IN TAJIKISTAN Interfax reports on the recent conviction of five members of the Tablighi Jamaat "for making public calls for a forcible change of the constitutional system of Tajikistan, a crime enshrined by Article 304 of the Tajik Criminal Code." The individuals sentenced were identified as Tajiks Khidoyatullo Alimov, Zielukhak Khakdodov and Saidakram Khakdodov, and two Russian nationals, Nasriddin Murodov and Mahmud Makhmadzhodzhayev. Reuters and Interfax both report on the death of an alleged IMU activist outside of Dushanbe named Lutfullo Tursunov, while RFE/RL casts doubt on that report, instead saying that one Shavkat Yusufov was...

by Michael RubinTýždeň January 2, 2006 This is an English version of an essay first published in Slovak. On December 14, 2005, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad delivered a televised speech in which he called the Nazi murder of six million Jews a fabrication. "They have created a myth in the name of the Holocaust and consider it above God, religion, and the prophets. If someone were to deny the existence of God... they would not bother him. However, if someone were to deny the myth of the Jews' massacre, all the Zionist mouthpieces and the governments subservient to the...

NEW YORK (AP) - A Maryland man was charged with conspiring to help a terrorist organization after describing the time he spent at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan as "one of the better decisions in my life," prosecutors said Thursday. Mahmud Faruq Brent, of Gwynn Oak, Md., allegedly boasted that he had agreed to provide whatever assistance was necessary. Authorities began investigating Brent after they found an address book with telephone numbers for him when they arrested Tarik Shah, 42, of New York. Shah pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges earlier this summer. Brent was charged in a criminal...

Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS Moscow, 25 June: Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message of congratulations to Mahmud Ahmadinezhad, who has won the presidential election in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Russian president's press service said today. "I am confident that now that you have been elected [president] as a result of the Iranian people expressing their will, continuity in the development of long-term multi-faceted partnership and cooperation between our states will be secured," the message says. "These relations have been developing vigorously of late. The volume of trade has for the first time...

PLO meets as Arafat awaits results From Lamia Radi in Ramallah October 31, 2004 FORMER Palestinian premier Mahmud Abbas urged Palestinian forces to unite overnight, pledging loyalty to Yasser Arafat, as he moved to the political centre stage with the strongman sick in hospital. Mr Abbas spoke after chairing the first Palestine Liberation Organisation executive meeting without Mr Arafat, amid speculation that the Palestinian leadership could fall into chaos should the veteran leader never return. "We call on all our people and factions to unite and work together in responsible fashion to protect our destiny and homeland," said Mr Abbas,...

Intelligence reveals dry runs of new threat to blow up airliners Jason Burke, chief reporter Sunday February 8, 2004 The Observer Islamic militants have conducteddry runs of a devastating new style of bombing on aircraft flying to Europe, intelligence sources believe. The tactics, which aim to evade aviation security systems by placing only components of explosive devices on passenger jets, allowing militants to assemble them in the air, have been tried out on planes flying between the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, security sources say. Concerns that militants might assemble a bomb or another weapon on board were...

Police in the Malawi city of Blantyre have fired tear gas at Muslims protesting against the arrest and deportation of five suspected al-Qaeda members. The al-Qaeda suspects are now in US custody The Muslims, coming from Jumm'ah, or obligatory Friday prayers, chanted slogans against the government and their own association, the Muslim Association of Malawi (Mam). They accused the government of losing sovereignty by secretly handing the suspects over to American CIA agents, despite a High Court ruling ordering the government to charge or release the men. They also accused their association of failing to protect fellow Muslims, despite the...

Holding up an American soldier's multi-coloured shorts that he had taken from the wreckage of the helicopter, the dancing Iraqi could scarcely contain his jubilation."Tonight we will have a double feast," shouted Mohammed Saleh, an unshaven, well-built man in his 40s, as he hopped from foot to foot in front of 100 joyous villagers."The first feast will be when we will break our fast for Ramadan. The second will be in praise of those who struck down our American enemies," he told the crowd.Behind them, among the fields and palm trees, lay the twisted, blackened debris of the Chinook along...

U.S. Seeks WMD Data in Seized Iraq Papers By JIM KRANEAssociated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. soldiers, acting on a tip, seized code equipment and piles of top secret Iraqi intelligence documents in a raid Saturday on a community center. The find, including references to a nuclear program, is being sent to senior intelligence analysts to look for information on Iraq's banned weapons programs.Americans also are mounting a "very aggressive effort" to follow up on information from a captured top aide to Saddam Hussein that the former Iraqi president is alive, said Sen. Pat Roberts, chairman of...

June 20, 2003, 8:12PM Captured aide says Saddam, sons fled to Syria Copyright 2003 New York Times News Service WASHINGTON -- A top lieutenant to Saddam Hussein has told U.S. interrogators that the Iraqi leader and his two sons survived the U.S.-led war in Iraq and that he himself had fled to Syria with the sons after the conflict, Defense Department officials said today. The officials said they had not yet assessed the accuracy of the claims by the aide, Abid Hamad Mahmud al-Tikriti, who was arrested in Iraq earlier this week. But they said the United States regarded the...

...The night before his arrest, Mahmud, who once shuttled among presidential palaces, had slept on the floor in the living room. He was reduced to eating lumpy yogurt to calm his stomach, and complained of asthma, Awad said. "He just gave up when the Americans came," she added. U.S. military officers said that Mahmud, the fourth most sought member of the former government after Hussein and his two sons, appeared stressed and alone, reduced to asking favors of locals, such as a bed for the night. He did not have his own transportation, money or weapons "of any significance," according...

NEWSMAKER-Saddam's right-hand man faces tough questioning BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The latest prisoner of the United States in Iraq may not be Saddam Hussein or one of his sons, but he's the next best thing. Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti could often be seen by Saddam's side. When he wasn't, he was likely to be running the president's office, vetting who got access to him, protecting his boss or organising Iraq's repressive security apparatus. Mahmud was number four on the U.S. military's target list behind Saddam and sons Qusay and Uday. But some analysts say his place in the related U.S. "most...

<p>June 19, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. forces have captured Saddam Hussein's second-in-command and were moving quickly last night to get him to spill the beans on what happened to the ex-dictator.</p> <p>In the most significant capture of the 55 wanted regime monsters since the war, U.S. Central Command announced the arrest of Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam's powerful personal secretary.</p>

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Captured Iraqi May Know Fate of Saddam By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - U.S. forces have captured Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s top aide and presidential secretary, a man who American officials believe knows the fate of the deposed Iraqi leader and has information about banned weapons. Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti was No. 4 on the U.S. most-wanted list of Iraqi leaders, behind only Saddam and sons Qusai and Odai. Mahmud has detailed knowledge of Saddam's personal security arrangements and Iraq (news - web sites)'s alleged chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs, U.S. officials said. He...

American forces have captured Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s presidential secretary and No. 4 on the U.S. most-wanted list of Iraqi leaders, the U.S. military said Wednesday. AP Photo Latest news: · U.S. Captures No. 4 Iraqi Official AP - 12 minutes ago · Blair Insists Saddam Hussein Was a Threat AP - 21 minutes ago · General: Troops Making Progress in Iraq AP - 37 minutes ago Special Coverage U.S. forces captured Mahmud on Monday in Iraq (news - web sites), a statement from U.S. Central Command said. It did not say where in...

WASHINGTON - U.S. forces have captured Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s top aide and presidential secretary, a man who American officials believe knows the fate of the deposed Iraqi leader and has information about banned weapons. Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti was No. 4 on the U.S. most-wanted list of Iraqi leaders, behind only Saddam and sons Qusai and Odai. Mahmud has detailed knowledge of Saddam's personal security arrangements and Iraq (news - web sites)'s alleged chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs, U.S. officials said. He was ranked third in authority, they said, with more power than Odai, Saddam's erratic...