Free Republic

A New York man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he unwittingly funded a Connecticut man's attempt to bomb Times Square on May 1 by providing unlicensed banking services, an arrest that continues an effort by federal authorities to reduce the illegal flow of money that can finance terrorism. Mohammad Younis, 44, was accused in an indictment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan of engaging in hawala activities, an informal banking system which relies on wire transfers, couriers and overnight mail. He was arrested at his Long Island home and brought to the courthouse, where he was expected to make...

Times Square Is Evacuated in Bomb Scare The scene at Times Square on Saturday night after police found a suspicious package inside a Pathfinder on West 45th Street. RAY RIVERA and KARIN HENRY May 1, 2010 A bomb in Times Square led to the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening, the police said. There was no explosion. “It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. The device, he said, contained “explosive...

Afghan authorities have arrested and handed over to US forces a Taliban official suspected of orchestrating raids in which two dozen people, including aid workers, have died, officials said on Sunday. Mohammad Younis, former chief of the ousted Taliban's customs department at Kabul airport, was captured from his home in Nawzad district in the southern province of Helmand during a raid on Saturday, they said. "We then handed him over to the Americans who had requested it," Helmand's intelligence chief, Dad Mohammad Khan, said. "We suspect that Younis has been leading the attacks in various parts of Helmand. But we...