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Brown's photo 'on al-Qaida disks' Seized computers included chancellor's image among information on potential US attacks David Teather in New York and Patrick Barkham Monday August 9, 2004 The Guardian Details emerged yesterday of potential terrorist targets found on captured al-Qaida computers, including a downloaded picture of Gordon Brown, and possible plans to use helicopters to attack New York. Information gleaned from the three laptops and 51 computer disks seized in Pakistan led to the specific warnings issued last week about possible attacks on five financial institutions in the US. US officials have hailed as a breakthrough the arrests and...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - A parliamentary committee approved proposals for same-sex marriages in South Africa on Thursday, clearing the way for the passage of legislation that would be unique on a deeply conservative continent. The compromise, reached after heated public debate, upset religious groups, traditionalists and even some members of the governing African National Congress while gay rights activists said it didn't go far enough. "It's been a very difficult time. It was a major challenge," said Patrick Chauke, chairman of the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee, which spent weeks touring the country to gauge public opinion and received nearly...

DAMASCUS, Syria - Thousands of Syrians enraged by caricatures of Islam's revered prophet torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday — the most violent in days of furious protests by Muslims in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In Gaza, Palestinians marched through the streets, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags. Protesters smashed the windows of the German cultural center and threw stones at the European Commission building, police said. Iraqis rallying by the hundreds demanded an apology from the European Union, and the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas called the cartoons "an...

Murders foreshadow South African land war By Roger Graef (Filed: 03/07/2005) This is the tale of three South Africans, all worried by the same thing. It won't be on the G8 agenda at Gleneagles this week, and has gone largely unreported. Yet it may hold the key to South Africa's future wellbeing. Two are farmers - one white and one black. The other is a white policeman who is struggling to keep the peace. All are fearful and angry at the growing threat of a war over land. Police captain Manie Van Zyl has just eight men and two cars...

Inquiry on Food-for-Oil Plan Cites U.N. Diplomat for Conflict By JUDITH MILLER and WARREN HOGE n interim report by a commission investigating the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq said the former head of the program had violated the United Nations Charter by helping a company owned by a friend to obtain valuable contracts to sell Iraqi oil. The conduct of Benon V. Sevan, a Cypriot official who ran the program between 1997 until its demise in 2003, was a "grave and continuing conflict of interest" and had "seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations," the report concludes. The...

A South African businessman has been charged with trafficking nuclear material that was reportedly destined for Asian countries, notably Pakistan. Johan Meyer, 53, appeared in court a day after his arrest on charges of being in possession of nuclear-related material and of illegally importing and exporting nuclear material. "He was arrested on charges that he was building a nuclear weapon," Meyer's lawyer Heinrich Badenhorst said. Press reports said that Meyer was a member of an international ring involved in the smuggling of nuclear components to Asian countries, Pakistan in particular. According to the charge sheet, Meyer is accused of acquiring...

The QE2 liner was among the targets selected by two South Africans -- captured in Pakistan along with a senior al-Qaida terrorist -- who were plotting attacks on tourist sites in their home country. Raja Munawar Hussain, the chief of police in Gujrat, the eastern Pakistani city where they were arrested, said several maps of South African cities among the items seized after the raid, which also netted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian with a A£13.7 million bounty on his head for the 1998 twin East Africa embassy bombings. "They were all very well trained terrorists because of the way...

WASHINGTON - Two former presidents, a group of vets and Sen. John F. Kerry's family won coveted prime-time speaking slots at the Democratic convention yesterday, as party leaders try to define Kerry by playing up his public service and military experience. But several key Democrats did not make the initial list of speakers, including Kerry's former primary rivals Howard Dean [related, bio] and Al Sharpton. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Boston Mayor Thomas Menino - who feuded publicly with Kerry in recent weeks - and the Bay State's last presidential nominee, Michael Dukakis, also did not make the list. Even Barack...

POLICE were interrogating a South African-born Muslim man last night after 14 bombs and Islamic literature were found in a dramatic raid on his western Sydney home. Police revealed the devices were packed with ammonium nitrate, nails and metal and had enormous lethal power. Ammonium nitrate is the same chemical used in the Oklahoma city bombing. The terror scare, which centred on the house of Gill Daniels – described by neighbours as a committed Muslim – occurred only by chance. Daniels, 36, now an Australian citizen, had not paid rent on his apartment in Nagle St, Liverpool, for two months...