News And Gossips From Around The World. JULY 2005

Canadian teen faces sentencing in U.S. on bomb charges fueled by his hatred for Americans By Beth Gordham

Photo: Travis Biehn enters court last month in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA.

Canadian teen Travis Biehn faces sentencing Wednesday on two bomb-related charges in a case that sparked emotional debate about whether he's a dangerous kid who hates Americans or the victim of a tough anti-terror climate. Biehn, 17, was convicted last month in a Pennsylvania juvenile court of threatening to blow up his school and gathering the material to do it. He faces a range of penalties from probation, community service or counselling to jail until he's 21 years old. Prosecutors say Biehn is clearly a threat to public safety. But defence lawyer Bill Goldman said he's confident two doctors who performed psychiatric evaluations on Biehn will recommend probation at the sentencing hearing in Doylestown. Goldman filed a motion with the judge last week to have the convictions overturned and the teen's record cleared, arguing prosecutors didn't prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. If that doesn't work, he said, the family will appeal to a higher court on the incendiary devices conviction, a felony that will dog Biehn for life. "The facts just weren't there to support what's happened to him," said Goldman, who accuses District Attorney Diane Gibbons of publicly trying the youth before his trial and stirring nationalistic sentiment in a bid to get re-elected. Biehn has been in custody in affluent Bucks County near Philadelphia since his arrest June 2, days after he reported a bomb threat had been scrawled on a school bathroom. Police raided his home, finding several kilograms of potassium nitrate, tubing, fuses, lighter fluid and other items. His family, originally from Newfoundland, says he and father Brant often used the materials to make harmless smoke bombs and fireworks for neighbourhood gatherings and burned a tree stump in the backyard to make way for a fish pond. The arguments were discounted by Judge Kenneth Biehn, who is no relation, at a one-day trial where supporters were stunned when the boy was led away in shackles. Others in the community said Biehn should get a hefty jail term and then be deported. Gibbons, who noted that Biehn wore an "I am Canadian" T-shirt to his first court appearance, told reporters he was an angry kid who would rather be living in Canada. "He's a pretty dangerous kid," Gibbons said after Biehn's conviction last month. "He's obviously an unhappy kid and he's obviously an angry kid. What made him angry enough to do this, I don't know." Sentencing, she said, would be up to the judge. Gibbons did not return phone calls this week. "I'm nervous about the hearing," said the teen's mother, Annette. "The ball is still in the judge's court and he can sentence him to prison. It would just be horrific. The child is innocent." She said she's furious that her son has waited more than a month for sentencing instead of the 20 days stipulated for incarcerated juveniles convicted of offences. At Biehn's trial, prosecutors admitted no one saw him write the bomb threat. But when a search of his bedroom in suburban Buckingham yielded boxes of material, they said no other conclusion was plausible than the boy's intent to make a bomb. Police witnesses and bomb experts said the teenager had most of the elements except a large quantity of something to ignite it. But the magnetite termite used to burn the stump in the Biehn's backyard couldn't have done the trick, said Goldman, who has marshalled chemistry professors to back him up. Some family supporters blamed "hysteria" generated by the Columbine school killings and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for such strong public reaction in the case. The Biehns moved to the United States in 1997, where Brant works as a marketing director for the giant pharmaceutical company Merck.

GERMANY: TOP COURT ORDERS RELEASE OF AL-QAEDA SUSPECT, MAMOUN DARKAZANLI

The four men were pictured entering Luton rail station at 0720 BST on Thursday 7 July on their way to London. The three explosions on London Tube trains and one on a bus killed at least 55 people, including the bombers. Authorities in Pakistan say they are placing Islamic religious schools under closer scrutiny, after reports that one of the bombers attended one last year. Police confirmed the names of all four bombers - Muhammad Sidique Khan, 30; Shehzad Tanweer, 22; Hasib Mir Hussain, 18 and Germaine Lindsay, 19 - for the first time on Saturday. The CCTV picture was released in an attempt to find out more about their final movements. Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, said: "The investigation continues on many fronts, but we have been very grateful for the contribution made by the public in response to our previous appeals. "However we still need to find out more about these four men and their movements, both on the morning of the bombings, and in the days and weeks beforehand." It is thought Hussain was responsible for the bus bombing, in which 13 people died, Khan the Edgware Road blast that killed six people; Tanweer for the Aldgate blast, which killed six, and Lindsay for the Russell Square explosion where 26 people were killed. The move to monitor Pakistan's religious schools - known as madrassas - came after reports Tanweer attended one of them last year. Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told the BBC far closer scrutiny would be given to madrassas preaching extremist views.

In other developments:

• The father of Germaine Lindsay was quoted on Jamaican radio saying he was surprised by his son's actions. Nigel Lindsay, 45, said he had recently resumed contact with his son after many years and that he was "quiet and calm
• Ten addresses in West Yorkshire and one in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, have been searched. Seven of the 10 West Yorkshire searches are still ongoing
• Police have extra time to question a man, arrested on 12 July on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism, and held at a central London police station
   
• Police have taken more than 800 witness statements and received 3,500 calls to the anti-terrorist hotline
   
• The wreckage of the bombed number 30 bus has been moved from Tavistock Square in central London for further forensic examination

On Saturday, Tony Blair said it was time to stand up to the "evil ideology" behind the London bombings and other attacks. He said such violence was not a response to any particular policy or injustice, but was a "fanaticism" that had to be confronted.

LONDON BOMBERS Germaine Lindsay (above): Jamaican-born man living in Buckinghamshire. Believed to have carried out King's Cross attack. Mohammad Sidique Khan: Aged 30, from Beeston, Leeds, recently moved to Dewsbury, married with baby. ID found at Edgware Road blast site. Hasib Mir Hussain: Aged 18, lived Holbeck, Leeds. Reported missing on day of bombings. Said to have turned very religious two years ago. ID found in No 30 bus. Shehzad Tanweer: Aged 22, born Bradford, lived Beeston, Leeds. Studied religion in Pakistan. Forensic evidence linking him to Aldgate blast.

The families of Khan, Hussain and Lindsay have all issued statements expressing their shock and sadness. Lindsay's wife Samantha Lewthwaite said: "I am trying to come to terms with the recent events. My whole world has fallen apart, and my thoughts are with the families of the victims of this incomprehensible devastation." The family of Hussain said: "Our thoughts are with all the bereaved families and we have to live ourselves with the loss of our son in these difficult circumstances." Khan's family said: "We are devastated our son may have been brainwashed into carrying out such an atrocity." Tanweer's uncle said the family had been "left shattered" by news of his involvement.

Arrest 'groundless': British police are now searching for those who may have helped the bombers carry out the attacks. One house being searched in Leeds is linked to Egyptian biochemist Magdi Mahmoud al-Nashar, 33, who was arrested in Cairo as part of the inquiry into the bombings. He has denied any involvement.

The bombed bus was moved from Tavistock Square on Saturday

Egypt's interior minister said press reports linking Mr al-Nashar to al-Qaeda were "groundless" and based on a hasty conclusion. Other properties being searched are the Holbeck home of Hussain, the Dewsbury home of Khan, and the Beeston home of Tanweer. Lindsay lived in the property being searched in Aylesbury. On Saturday police sealed off and searched a house in Tempest Road, Beeston, Leeds, not far from where Tanweer lived. On Sunday, public vigils will take place in Edinburgh and Glasgow to remember the victims of the bombings. The gatherings, organised by a groups including the Muslim Association of Britain, are also aimed at showing opposition to Islamophobic attacks since the explosions.

 

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to deport any Muslim cleric preaching violence.

Some 3,000 al-Qaida members have been detained, jailed or tried in Iran or deported from Iran.

TEHRAN, Iran - Some 3,000 al-Qaida members have been detained, jailed or tried in Iran or deported from the Persian state, Iran's intelligence minister told state-run TV on Saturday. Ali Yunesi, speaking to reporters in the capital Tehran, did not specify when the 3,000 members of the terrorist group were dealt with by Iran. But the number is the largest Iran has provided of members of Osama bin Laden's terror network being in this country. Iranian officials are normally tightlipped on security affairs and Yunesi's comments follow claims by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies that mounting evidence gathered over several years has them increasingly convinced that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran. State-run Iranian TV showed Yunesi's picture as an announcer quoted the minister announcing that Iranian courts had tried al-Qaida members and jailed and deported some. Others were apparently still in detention pending further legal action. None of the al-Qaida members were identified and no further details were provided by the television station. Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment. Iran has been under increasing pressure to curb its nuclear program, which the United States claims is aimed at building atomic bombs. Tehran denies such claims, stressing that its nuclear activities have peaceful purposes, including generating electricity. The minister's comments are the second by an Iranian official in less than two months revealing that Iran has been arresting and deporting al-Qaida operatives. Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, told reporters in Kuwait on June 6 that Iran had arrested nearly 500 al-Qaida operatives during the past three years and had handed them over to their home countries. Rowhani said the terror suspects had been hiding out in Iran, which had given the names of the detainees to the United Nations. Iran, however, denies U.S. claims that it has been actively harboring terrorists, saying it has been cooperating in combatting terrorism and received praise from international bodies. Iran first said in mid-2003 that it had detained and deported hundreds of al-Qaida suspects and kept some in custody. U.S. officials have said Iran refuses to identify the al-Qaida operatives that are still in its custody. In June, Iran denied reports that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader of the Iraqi insurgency, was in Iran after being wounded.

ANKARA, Turkey - A suicide bomber detonated himself Saturday aboard a minibus heading to popular beach in an Aegean Sea resort town

ANKARA, Turkey - A suicide bomber detonated himself Saturday aboard a minibus heading to popular beach in an Aegean Sea resort town, killing at least four people, private NTV television said. Three of the victims were foreign tourists, a doctor who treated the casualties said. Gov. Ali Baris of Kusadasi, 72 kilometres southeast of the port city of Izmir, said the blast killed at least four people and injured 14, including several who were in critical condition. Earlier reports had said five were killed. Three foreign tourists were among the dead and five foreign tourists were critically injured in the explosion, a doctor at Kusadasi State Hospital said. He spoke on condition of anonymity. The five injured tourists were transferred to Izmir for treatment, the doctor added. NTV television said a female suicide bomber carried out the attack on the bus, which was heading to a nearby beach. Kurdish rebels in the past have used female suicide bombers. The explosion ripped off the roof of the white minibus. Baris said the blast occurred on a minibus travelling through the town square, but could not confirm whether it was caused by a suicide bomber. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Kurdish rebels have recently carried out bomb attacks in Aegean resort towns. Earlier this month, a bomb hidden in a soda can wounded 21 people, including three foreign tourists, in the Aegean coastal town of Cesme. On April 30, a bomb in a cassette player killed a police officer and left four others wounded in Kusadasi. There were no reports of foreigners being killed or wounded in Saturday's blast. A Kurdish guerrilla group that called itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Organization or TAK claimed credit for both attacks and vowed to maintain attacks against tourist areas. Since 1984, the Turkish military has been battling rebels of the autonomy-seeking Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast, a conflict that has claimed some 37,000 lives. Fighting in the region tapered off after a rebel truce in 1999, which followed the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. But there has been a surge in violence since June 1, 2004, when the rebels declared an end to their cease-fire, saying Turkey had not responded in kind. TAK is believed to be linked to the PKK.

CSS LAUNCHES TURNSTILE: Progressive Blog Aims to Connect People to Change New York City

New York-The Community Service Society (CSS), one of New York City’s oldest not-for-profit organizations and a leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers, is ushering in a new era of civic discourse with the launch of Turnstile, a web Blog designed to connect community activists, policy advocates and the public. Like the transit system it emulates, Turnstile will be an online environment through which New Yorkers across economic, race, ethnic, gender and generational lines can meet; using the power of Internet technology to exchange ideas, critique public policy, and organize efforts to move the city in a progressive direction. The Turnstile Blog will officially launch on Monday July 18. David Jones, President and CEO of CSS, announced, “The longevity of CSS in this great city is attributable to the success we have had at adapting to our changing environment. Turnstile represents change; our acknowledgement of a new communications framework and embracing of the Internet as a dynamic tool to interact with the public, build community, and organize and mobilize New Yorkers on behalf of the working poor of our city.” The motivation for choosing Turnstile as the name of the Blog was the realization that in urban spaces the mass transit system is the one environment through which all types of people converge and cross paths. The turnstile itself is symbolic as the universal portal through which everyone, regardless of social status, must pass en route to a predetermined destination.  Each week on Turnstile a critical issue will be profiled and a group of contributors will be invited to respond, and have their comments and the issue at hand critiqued by the public. The Blog is designed to encourage discourse across areas of expertise, Membership, free to the public, will be required to post comments. All conversations will be archived and searchable on the website. Turnstile was conceived by Walter Fields, Vice President of Political Development at the Community Service Society, as part of a larger CSS Civic Participation Project. Fields notes, “It goes without question that we have moved beyond the notion of the Internet as a novelty. It is now providing a level of connectivity that just a few years ago did not seem plausible. Turnstile will be our online platform that will inform our efforts at the grassroots.” The Turnstile Blog will be accessible through the CSS web site at www.turnstile.cssny.org. For over 150 years, the Community Service Society, an independent, nonprofit organization, has tackled the complex issues of poverty by advocating for the poor and underserved; researching and shaping public policy affecting them; and providing direct services that improve their quality of life.

Distinguished staff members: David R. Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer. David R. Jones has been President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Service Society of New York since 1986. Prior to joining CSS, Mr. Jones served as Executive Director of the New York City Youth Bureau, and from 1979 to 1983, as Special Advisor to Mayor Koch. Mr. Jones was a member of the transition committee of New York's mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg. Mr. Jones received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Yale Law School. He clerked for Judge Constance Baker Motley of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York and was a member of the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he specialized in corporate antitrust cases and contract litigation. Steven L. Krause, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Office Steven L. Krause has been the Chief Operating Officer of the Community Service Society since 1986. Before coming to CSS, Mr. Krause served as Director of Finance and Management, Senior Financial Officer, and Deputy Executive Director of the New York City Youth Bureau. As Deputy Executive Director he was responsible for administration of the Finance and Management program operations, program planning, Management Information Services, and Intergovernmental Relations.

Diana portrait moved as Charles visits.

LONDON- Officials at a city hall in Wales avoided a potentially awkward situation, moving a portrait of Princess Diana from a wall just before a visit by Prince Charles. Charles was due to have passed the portrait after making an address in the council chamber Thursday, but the painting was rehung in a corridor the prince didn't pass through. Officials in the Welsh capital, Cardiff, denied that the painting -- which features a young Diana in three different poses -- had been moved from the main hall to avoid upsetting Charles and his new wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who accompanied him on the visit. The city council said the painting was moved to make room for the council's charters. A spokeswoman for Charles' Clarence House office said the decision wasn't taken to spare any blushes." It is not an issue; we are not trying to hide from it. There are pictures of Diana all over Wales, she was the Princess of Wales after all," the spokeswoman said on customary condition of anonymity. Charles and Camilla were making their annual visit to Charles' principality of Wales for the first time as a married couple. Charles and Diana were divorced in 1996, a year before she was killed in a Paris car crash.
Photo: A portrait of Princess Diana was moved from a wall at a city hall in Wales shortly before the visit by Prince Charles.

If Sheryl Crow wrote a song about Lance Armstrong, the title would be simple and to the point: "Make 'em suffer."

Photo: Six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong of Austin, Texas, right, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, looks at his girlfriend, singer Sheryl Crow, after the Discovery Channel cycling team won the fourth stage of the Tour de France cycling race.

MONTPELLIER, France- If Sheryl Crow wrote a song about Lance Armstrong, the title would be simple and to the point: "Make 'em suffer."  "His little boy (Luke) always says, `Make 'em suffer daddy,' so it definitely would incorporate that phrase," Crow said in an interview. The 43-year-old rocker is on her second Tour de France, and is relishing seeing boyfriend Armstrong power his way to what could be his seventh straight win. Heading into Friday's 13th stage of the 23-day event, Armstrong held a commanding lead over his main rivals. "It's one of the most inspiring events I've been involved in," said Crow, who is putting the finishing touches on her new album, "Wildflower." "When you see the spirit of these guys, it's crazy the lengths these riders go to. You know it's got to be painful, but their heart drives them to be great ... I love that seeking of greatness." Crow feels privileged to be able to peel back the curtains of the 102-year-old race. "I'm lucky, I'm one of the only women I know of in the history of the Tour that's got to spend time with the team," she said. "Breakfast with the team ... then I speak to people or go to the bus and spend time with Lance. In the evening, he goes to massage and I go to exercise with a run or on the bike ... and then we eat dinner with the team." Despite rising early, spending hours on empty highways, smiling sweetly for countless fans and posing patiently for endless photos, Crow has found time to work on "Wildflower," which is due for release in September. "I didn't bring my guitar, because I already have more stuff than all the riders," she joked. "I am working a lot during the day sequencing the record and picking mixes, videos. Now the busy work, it's not the creative fun stuff." Crow said the title is intended as a reminder that "in chaos there is beauty everywhere and it's important not to miss that." The Tour de France — which whirls clockwise around the country in a blur of bright colors, heaving crowds, monstrous mountains and eccentric people — is a form of chaos she prefers. "Cycling is like rock festivals like Glastonbury," Crow said. "A lot of bands and a lot of fans. They may be into one band but they'll stay and get into other bands. It's similar in bike racing, you have all these teams showing up and all these invested fans who are into the spirit of the event. A very community feeling experience." However, there is one drawback to being on the road with a professional cyclist. "He's better about shaving his legs than I am," Crow said. "The pressure's on me to keep my legs smooth."

Al-Qaida's wing in Iraq claimed responsibility in Internet statements for the attacks in Rustamiyah and Andalus Square.

Photo: Iraqi policeman Ramadan Aziiz, 38, is treated by doctors at a Baghdad, Iraq hospital after he was wounded in a car bomb attack targeting a U.S. military convoy in the area east of Baghdad, Iraq Friday.

BAGHDAD- Suicide car bombs and explosions rocked wide areas of the Iraqi capital Friday, targeting U.S. and Iraqi security forces and killing at least 30 people. Two U.S. marines died in a blast near the Jordanian border. At least 111 people, including seven American soldiers, were wounded in the bombings, at least seven of them suicide attacks. One of the suicide bombings occurred after sundown on a bridge over the Tigris River near the home of President Jalal Talabani. Four security guards were killed and nine people were wounded in that attack. Talabani was at home at the time, aides said, but the target may have been a U.S. convoy. The wave of attacks, which began at midmorning and persisted after nightfall, marked an escalation in car bombings in Baghdad after a six-week U.S.-Iraqi military offensive sharply reduced their numbers since May. They took place one day after a suicide attack on the Green Zone in which one would-be bomber was captured. A suicide blast near a U.S. convoy on Wednesday killed 27 people, including 18 children and one American soldier. "The terrorists continue to strike at the most innocent," U.S. Col. Joseph DiSalvo said of the civilian casualties. "There is no place in a civilized society for these murderers." In the deadliest attack Friday, a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army base in the Shaab neighbourhood of Baghdad, killing eight Iraqis, including civilians and security personnel, and wounding 20, Maj. Khazim al-Tamimi said. Another suicide car bomb Friday evening in western Baghdad targeted a police commando patrol, killing six policemen and wounding 45 people, including 38 civilians, police Capt. Taleb Thamer said. Two Iraqi soldiers died and seven people were wounded when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb near an Iraqi patrol in Andalus Square in central Baghdad, Col. Salman Abdul Karim said. A car bomb also exploded near a U.S. convoy in the Rustamiyah area of southeastern Baghdad, wounding two Americans, the U.S. military said. Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 14 people wounded in a suicide car bombing at the former Defence Ministry building in northern Baghdad, Iraqi officials said. Another car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, wounding six people, including a U.S. soldier, police said. Also Friday, a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. military patrol was passing near the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Amiriyah, police Lieut. Majed Zaki said. U.S. soldiers and Iraqi insurgents exchanged gunfire after the blast, he said. One Iraqi civilian was killed and eight people, including four U.S. soldiers, were wounded, officials said. Al-Qaida's wing in Iraq claimed responsibility in Internet statements for the attacks in Rustamiyah and Andalus Square, but the authenticity could not be confirmed.

Elsewhere, a suicide car bomb killed five Iraqi soldiers and one civilian and wounded 17 civilians in Haswa, 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, officials said. Gunmen killed three Iraqi policemen Friday at a checkpoint near Baqouba, 55 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, police said. In Kirkuk, a car packed with explosives detonated prematurely late Friday, killing the two men in the vehicle and a passerby, police said. The two U.S. marines died Thursday in a roadside bombing during combat operations near the border with Jordan, the U.S. military said in a statement Friday. At least 1,761 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,356 died as a result of hostile action. The figures include five military civilians. The explosions occurred on the Muslim day of prayer, ordinarily a relatively quiet period in the capital. During a Friday sermon at a mosque, a prominent Sunni cleric condemned the violence, especially the Wednesday suicide bombing that killed the 18 children. Sheik Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, a moderate member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, called the attack Wednesday a "crime" but added that the Americans and their international partners share some of the blame. "The (U.S.-led) occupation that has destroyed the country and turned things upside down is responsible for that," al-Samarrai said. Meanwhile, a U.S. commander said the level of violence in his sector, which includes the key cities of Tikrit, Kirkuk and Samarra, remains about where it was prior to the January election, a sign of the insurgency's resilience. "The suicide bomb, of course, is the weapon of choice now," Maj.-Gen. Joseph Taluto, commander of the 42nd Infantry Division, told reporters at the Pentagon via an audio link from Baghdad. He said the number of attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces by roadside bombs, mortars and small arms has declined substantially. But the number of suicide bomb attacks grew from a monthly average of five to eight prior to the January elections to 15 in May and June, Taluto said. He blamed religious extremists for the increase. Taluto said U.S. forces in his area were making progress in giving more responsibility to Iraqi forces, but he would not say how soon the Iraqis would be ready to assume full control. The transfer of security responsibility is key to withdrawing American forces from Iraq. Also Friday, the bodies of five men - handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head - were discovered by a farmer on the outskirts of Baghdad. Police Lt.-Col. Sabah Hamid said the bodies had no identity papers. Two days ago, the bodies of 10 men were found in the same area. It was not clear if the dead were Sunnis or Shiites. Sectarian tensions are on the rise and each group has accused the other of assassinations. By Basam Mourouweh.

London police arrested an Egyptian biochemist sought in the probe into the London bombings

ZOA CONDEMNS G8 NATIONS FOR $9 BILLION AID TO PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY ONE DAY AFTER LONDON MASSACRE

New York - The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) strongly condemned the G8 industrialized nations for agreeing to give $9 billion in aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) one day after the London massacre of over 50 people and 700 injured.  (The G8 is composed of the US, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, England, and Russia.)  This was decided during the recent summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. Uzi Arad, who was an advisor to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the allocation was really "protection money" to terrorists as a means to stop future attacks.  ZOA President Morton A. Klein said, "This aid will never stop future attacks but will only encourage more murder of Westerners and Israelis and more massacres.  Churchill said it best, 'those who appease the crocodile will simply be eaten last,' Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law Professor, said, 'this clearly sends a powerful message to terrorists and potential terrorists that terrorism works. There were no grants announced to the Tibetans, who have been brutally occupied for a very long time.  But the Tibetans have not resorted to terrorism.  The primary cause of terrorism is not occupation, assimilation or desperation. If it was, the Tibetans would be the greatest terrorists...Terrorism will continue as long as potential terrorists believe they will benefit from using that tactic." "We are appalled by the G8 plan to fund the PA, a regime that has refused to dismantle and disarm the terrorists, end incitement, or arrest terrorists; and they've also released from prison leaders of the KARINE A incident and the killer of an Israeli minister.  Only last week, the PA invited Hamas to be part of their regime and asked the Palestinian terror chiefs to move from Syria to Gaza after Israel leaves.  This is a mistaken policy.  All the nations of the world should stop rewarding any regime that supports or promotes terrorism and that includes the PA. The PA must be made to understand that there are consequences to enacting policies that promote radical Islamic terrorism."

Hundreds of North American Jews packed up their families, filled two airplanes and emigrated to Israel.

BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel - Hundreds of North American Jews packed up their families, filled two airplanes and emigrated to Israel, arriving Wednesday to hundreds of cheering Israelis and enthusiastic government officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The planes arrived from Canada and the U.S. a few minutes apart, pulling up to an airplane hangar for a welcoming ceremony. Joyful tears fell as relatives and friends embraced one another over steel barricades, while others walked around, looking a bit dazed but smiling. Eli Gherman, 32, moved to Israel with his wife and five children from Long Island, N.Y. "No other country in the world would bring all of these people out to greet us unless they're your family," Gherman said as the welcoming crowd waved blue-white Israeli flags. "And it's a family that needs us, wants us and cares about us." Sharon and other cabinet ministers welcomed the 660 North American immigrants at Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv. Marking only the second time Sharon has greeted arriving immigrants during his term, he told Israel's latest group of newcomers that they are necessary for the good of the country. "We've always needed you and we especially need you now," Sharon told the group of 480 Americans and 180 Canadians. The new arrivals received financial support from the American-based organization Nefesh B'Nefesh - Soul to Soul - with a goal of increasing the number of North Americans who move to Israel. Charley Levine, a spokesman for the organization, said that the amount of financial assistance given to eligible families ranged from $5,000 to $23,000 US per family. Nefesh B'Nefesh and the Jewish Agency for Israel, a quasi-governmental body that deals with immigration, pledged to help find jobs for about 3,200 North Americans expected to move here this year. Ira Robinson, a Jewish studies professor at Montreal's Concordia University, says Canadian Jews who identify with the idea of Israel and are committed to growing a homeland have been deeply affected by instability in the region since 2000. "The recent intefadeh (Palestinian uprising) has made people take stock of themselves, what they feel in their hearts and what their dreams are," said Robinson. Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz said nearly 4,000 Americans have opened immigrant files so far this year. If these figures hold, this year would see the largest number of immigrants from North America since 1983. Israel will be home to the world's largest Jewish population for the first time in 2006, surpassing the community in the United States, the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute said in a report Tuesday. About 5.6 million Jews live in Israel.  By Christian Steven

Muslim Rock star scholar sentenced for  violence against Americans

A prominent Islamic scholar with "rock star status" who influenced young members of a paintball club called the "Virginia Jihad Network" to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.  Ali al-Timimi was convicted in April of soliciting treason, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law. "I will not admit guilt nor seek the court's mercy. I do this simply because I am innocent," the Fairfax cleric said in a 10-minute address before sentencing. Lawyers Edward MacMahon and Alan Yamamoto argued al-Timimi was unfairly prejudiced at trial by inflammatory evidence of his religious beliefs - and accused prosecutors of misconduct for unfairly linking al-Timimi to Osama bin Laden. "We had to defend ourselves against Osama bin Laden in this trial," MacMahon said Wednesday. "Am I appalled by some of his views? Yes. But he is not a man of violence. He's not a criminal." Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg said al-Timimi "hates the United States" and has called for its destruction. "He's allowed to do that in this country," Kromberg said. "He's not allowed to solicit treason. He deserves every day he gets." U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said the evidence supported the mandatory life sentence. The judge had earlier left open the possibility she would toss out some of the counts. The case against al-Timimi had few precedents. When crafting jury instructions for certain counts, lawyers relied on the Aaron Burr treason case and the seditious conspiracy trial of blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted in 1996 of conspiring to destroy several New York landmarks. Al-Timini's wife was among about 50 supporters in court. She declined to comment. Prosecutors portrayed al-Timimi, a native U.S. citizen, has having "rock star" status among his followers, who frequently heard his lectures at a small mosque in Falls Church, Va. In particular, prosecutors said, the defendant wielded enormous influence among a group of young Muslim men in northern Virginia who played paintball games in 2000 and 2001. Authorities said they were a "Virginia jihad network" training for holy war around the globe. Nine members of the group have been convicted for their roles in the conspiracy, with prison terms ranging from three years to life. Al-Timimi's lawyers argued their client merely suggested Muslims may want to leave the United States after Sept. 11 because of the potential for a backlash against them. But he was accused of telling a group of young Muslim men just days after the attack an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and non-believers was at hand, and that Muslims were obligated to engage in holy war. He told the group defence of the Taliban was a requirement and U.S. troops were a legitimate target, according to court testimony. Several of the men who heard Al-Timimi's speech travelled days later to Pakistan and began training with a militant Islamic group, officials said. None made it to Afghanistan. By Mathew Barkat

LONDON BOMBINGS: THIS IS HOW IT STARTED. By Beth Gardner

Photo: Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clarke gestures while speaking during a media conference after a meeting of EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers at the EU Council building, Wednesday

LONDON- A phone call from an anguished mother searching for her teenage son after London's terror attacks gave investigators a key break in the case. The eventual answer to her query was even worse than she had dreaded: her son is suspected of being one of four bombers who hit three subway trains and a bus on July 7, killing at least 52 people. The woman's description of her missing son's clothes matched those on a body whose horrific injuries - including decapitation - suggested he could have been the suicide bomber who blew up a red double-decker bus, killing 13 people, The Times newspaper reported Wednesday. Detectives examining hundreds of hours of closed-circuit television tape reportedly were told to look for the man, identified in news reports as Hasib Hussain, 19. They found the crucial images of him and three others Monday night, and pounced early the next morning in a series of raids near Leeds, 300 kilometres north of London. Among homes targeted were three where the suspects had lived. At least three of the suspects were reportedly British citizens of Pakistani descent. Suspects' personal documents, found in the wreckage of three of the four bomb blasts, filled in another piece of the puzzle, said Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch. News reports identified the documents as credit cards and IDs. Police investigating the attacks felt they were racing against the clock, fearing before it became apparent the bombers had died that they could strike again. That pressure hasn't dissipated; authorities worry the attackers didn't act alone, and that their collaborators or leader are likely still at large. "We are looking very, very closely at the relationship between the people who may have committed the offences and the wider network around them," said Home Secretary Charles Clarke, Britain's top law enforcement official. Police said from the start that closed-circuit footage and forensic clues uncovered by detectives scouring the wreckage of the ruined trains and bus would be critical to their inquiry. Detectives on Saturday revised their initial timeline of events, ascertaining from a review of the subways' computer and electrical systems that the bombings on three Underground trains occurred within a minute of one another, at 8:50 a.m., not over a 26-minute span as initially thought. Along with the information from Hussain's mother, the new timeline helped them home in on the most relevant sections of the hundreds of hours of footage they'd collected. Cameras monitor much of central London; there are 1,800 of them in train stations and 6,000 in the Underground network. At about 8 p.m. Monday, investigators found the images they were looking for. Four young men carrying backpacks chatted casually in King's Cross station at about 8:30 a.m. - 20 minutes before the subway explosions - and then separated. At rush hour in the busy station, a major hub for north London, they would have attracted little notice.

Authorities initially thought Hussain might have been a victim of the attacks and sent family liaison officers to meet his parents, who had believed he was planning a day in London with his friends. Police likely obtained photos and other identifying details to help track the teen, pictures that later matched the closed-circuit TV images. Police reportedly found Hussain's driver's licence and bank card in the wreckage of the No. 30 bus that blew up at 9:47 a.m. in Tavistock Square, almost two kilometres from King's Cross. Some believe he may have intended to set off his bomb on the Northern Line, which also passes through the station, but hit a bus instead because a technical problem had disrupted trains on the line earlier that morning. Documents belonging to two of the other suspects were found at two of the subway scenes, police said. Those suspects were identified in the media as Shahzad Tanweer, 22, described as a cricket fan; and Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, a new father. The third subway bombing site, a Piccadilly Line train deep beneath London's streets, is more severely damaged and harder to reach, and searchers have not yet linked anything found there to the fourth bomber. Britain's Press Association news agency, citing police sources, said police have identified the fourth suspect but did not report a name. Prime Minister Tony Blair congratulated police and intelligence teams Wednesday for work he called "magnificent." But they now face another daunting task: finding any collaborators who worked with or directed the young men. "I just don't believe this would have been four young men acting on their own," said Paul Wilkinson of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland. "There would have been another person who primed and guided them and lured them into extremism." That mastermind could be part of a known terror network such as al-Qaida, possibly coming to Britain months ago to seek recruits and provide explosives for an attack. "It's very clear that there are established links between (extremists) outside and inside" Britain, said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the St. Andrews centre. The theory that the bombers were aided by a sophisticated outsider may be bolstered by police's reported discovery of a "bomb-making factory" at one of the homes they raided in Leeds. Police will surely seek clues to such connections as they question a man they arrested there. Press Association identified him as a relative of one of the suspects. Reports say the bombing suspects were "clean skins," or people previously unknown to intelligence services. Investigators believe they travelled from Leeds to London early on July 7. News reports say they drove a rented Nissan Micra to Luton, a town 50 kilometres north of London where police have found explosives in a car, and then took a commuter train to King's Cross. An employee of the rental car company showed up at one of the suspects' homes to reclaim the unreturned vehicle as police were searching the premises Tuesday.

SEARCH  IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE 4 SUICIDE BOMBERS LIVED . U.S. officials later confirmed the names of the three suspected bombers.

Two new militant Islamic groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings.

Photo: Police forensic officers continue to work at a house in Colwyn Road, Leeds, England, Wednesday

LEEDS, England - Police hunting for clues Wednesday in the investigation of the London suicide bombings examined material seized from homes in Muslim neighbourhoods where three of the four suspects lived. The International Herald Daily News and BBC, citing unidentified sources, reported that a fifth suspect was being sought. Police refused to comment. Computer files were among the potential evidence taken Tuesday from the homes when police raided six buildings in the inquiry into what were believed to be the first suicide bombings in Western Europe. They arrested a man who was identified by the British news agency Press Association as a relative of one of the suspected bombers. At least three Britons of Pakistani descent are suspected of carrying out the July 7 attacks that killed 52 and injured 700. Surveillance cameras captured the men as they arrived in the capital 20 minutes before the explosions began. News reports have identified three of the four as Shahzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old cricket-loving sports science graduate; Hasib Hussain, 19; and Mohammed Sidique Khan, the 30-year-old father of an 8-month-old baby. U.S. officials later confirmed the names of the three suspected bombers. The International Herald Daily News, citing police sources, said officers had identified the fourth suspect, but no name was reported. Police have not publicly confirmed any of the identities. Investigators will now have to determine whether the men acted alone or had help in planning the bombings.

Phopto: Pakistani Hasib Hussain, believed to be the mastermind and the principal  suicide bomber of the attacks on London.

Tanweer's uncle, Bashir Ahmed, said his nephew went to Pakistan for two months earlier this year to study religion, and the family believed he was attending "some religious function" on the day of the bombings. "It was total shock. I mean, it's unbelievable," Ahmed said. "Our lives have been shattered. It's impossible to describe it. We have had a very pleasant time here. I don't think we can continue here." Neighbours in Leeds' rows of Victorian-era red brick houses were apprehensive and hostile, walking quickly past reporters gathered at the cordons. One warehouse worker, who would only give his first name, Saj, said Tanweer was a "good lad" and athlete. "He was quiet," he said. "He was religious. He went to every mosque here. There are loads of mosques here." Prime Minister Tony Blair met with British Muslim legislators in London and pledged to open dialogue to tackle a "perverted and poisonous misinterpretation" of Islam. He also said his government would begin consultations on new anti-terrorism legislation. Home Secretary Charles Clarke told the BBC that the Muslim community must "stand out" against any ideology that promotes violence and bombings. "I think that is the clarion call to us, to us as politicians, as broadcasters, to faith leaders, to lawyers, to everybody, to say we have to fight for this society we have, rather than just coasting along and assuming it's all OK," he said. "That means standing out against, in a very strong way, anybody who preaches the kind of fundamentalism, as I say, that can lead four young men to blow themselves and others up on the Tube on a Thursday morning."

The International Herald Daily News  said the men drove a rental car to Luton, 50 kilometres north of London, and then boarded a commuter train to London's King's Cross station. Police closed Luton's train station Tuesday and carried out nine controlled explosions on a parked car, which the BBC reported contained explosives. Closed-circuit TV video showed all four men arriving at King's Cross by 8:30 a.m. on July 7, about 20 minutes before the blasts began, said Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch. U.S. intelligence agencies are checking the names of the men for any American connection, President George W. Bush said Tuesday. Two militant Islamic groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings. Peter Clarke said "strong forensic and other evidence" suggests one of the suspects was killed in a subway bombing, and property belonging to the three others was found at the sites of the other blasts. "The investigation quite early led us to have concerns about the movements and activities of four men, three of whom came from the West Yorkshire area," he said. The West Yorkshire region includes Leeds. Acting on six warrants, British soldiers blasted their way into an unoccupied Leeds row house. Streets were cordoned off and about 500 people were evacuated. Hours earlier, police searched five homes elsewhere in the city. Police still were not letting the evacuees return to their homes Wednesday. One of the suspects - identified in press reports as Hussain - had been reported missing by his family at 10 p.m. July 7, and some of his property was found on the double-decker bus in which 13 died. "We have now been able to establish that he was joined on his journey to London by three other men," Peter Clarke said. Investigators also found personal documents bearing the names of two of the other men near seats on the trains that exploded near the Aldgate and Edgware stations. Police did not identify the men. Leeds, about 300 kilometres north of London, has a population of about 715,000. About 15 per cent of residents are Muslim, and many come from a tight-knit Pakistani community. Forensics experts have said it could take weeks to identify the bodies, many of which were blown apart and would have to be identified through dental records or DNA analysis. Investigators say 11 bodies have been identified. The waiting seems interminable for families of the victims. "The police just won't tell us anything," said Elzbieta Suchocka, whose daughter, Monika, 23, moved from Poland to London to become an accountant. Suchocka's daughter was believed to be aboard the bus that was torn apart at Tavistock Square. British police arrived Wednesday to retrieve Suchocka's dental records, said her brother, Marcin. By Tomas Gadner

PM Ariel Sharon orders Israeli forces to target leaders of Islamic Jihad

LOD, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday he ordered his security forces to target the leaders of Islamic Jihad in the wake of a suicide bombing by the Palestinian militant group that killed three people in the Israeli seaside resort of Netanya. The bombing Tuesday came despite a shaky five-month-old truce that has greatly reduced violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Speaking to a group of new immigrants at Ben Gurion International Airport, Sharon expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and promised swift retaliation. "Yesterday I ordered the security forces to increase our actions and hit the leadership of the Islamic Jihad. We will not stop until they stop the terrorist murders," he said. Sharon also ordered the Gaza Strip settlements closed to all nonresidents on Wednesday to keep out protesters opposed to Israel's planned withdrawal from the communities, according to Israeli media and government officials.

Israeli troops reoccupy the West Bank.

Photo: Police inspects the body of a victim at the site of a suicide bomb attack in the Israeli coastal town of Natanya Tuesday.

TULKAREM, West Bank - Israeli troops reoccupied this West Bank city early Wednesday, shooting dead a Palestinian policeman in a firefight and arresting five Islamic Jihad activists after the militant group killed three Israelis in a suicide bombing at a shopping mall. Tuesday's bombing in the coastal city of Netanya rattled a five-month-old truce. However, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and most Palestinian militant groups appear to have a strong interest in preventing further escalation ahead of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements this summer. In response to the bombing, the army sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a routine measure after attacks, and troops entered the West Bank town of Tulkarem in search of the bombing's masterminds. Israel had handed Tulkarem to Palestinian control four months ago, as part of what was to have been a gradual Israeli withdrawal from West Bank cities. However, Israeli Cabinet ministers said Wednesday that the process has been frozen. Israel also demanded that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas - long reluctant to act against militants - finally crush Islamic Jihad, a small militant group that has repeatedly violated the ceasefire. The bomber was 18-year-old Sami Abu Khalil from the village of Atil near Tulkarem, just 13 kilometres east of Netanya. On Tuesday evening, Abu Khalil walked toward the Sharon Mall in Netanya, and detonated 10 kilograms of explosives he had strapped to his body. He killed two 16-year-old girls and a 31-year-old woman at a crossing near the mall. Abu Khalil, who was awarded his high school diploma earlier Tuesday, was not involved in militant activity in the past, Israeli officials said. The village near Tulkarem is under full Israeli control, and officials acknowledged a failure by intelligence to detect the plot. Palestinian security officials said the local Islamic Jihad cell that recruited Abu Khalil had also been responsible for a Feb. 25 suicide bombing that killed five Israelis outside a Tel Aviv nightclub. The security officials said the Iranian-backed Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah prodded the cell into action and apparently provided funding. Israel's police minister, Gideon Ezra, said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, widely known as Abu Mazen, should take immediate action and go after Islamic Jihad. "Abu Mazen has to understand that these things don't just hurt Israel . . . in the end it will bring down his government," Ezra told Israel Radio. "His job now is to catch the people. He has the opportunity and the police, and to say 'I can't' is not an excuse. He has to try and he has to do it." Israeli troops entered Tulkarem early Wednesday. They declared a curfew and conducted house-to-house searches. Palestinian police - whose presence had been prominent since the handover in March - disappeared from streets and checkpoints. Stores remained closed. The army's operation began early Wednesday when undercover troops stormed a Palestinian checkpoint, Palestinian security said. The police manning the roadblock did not recognize the armed men dressed in civilian clothes as Israeli soldiers and opened fire. The soldiers returned fire, killing one of the police officers and critically wounding a second. Minutes later, a large force flooded the town of Tulkarem and an adjacent refugee camp. "The specific goal of this operation is to destroy the Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure in Tulkarem and its surroundings," Golan told Israel's Army Radio. "If the Palestinian Authority doesn't deal with the terrorism . . . then we will be forced to do so." Until now, Abbas has chosen to co-opt the militants rather than confront them, fearing such a tactic would lead to internal fighting. Late Tuesday, Abbas used unusually strong language to denounce the bombing, calling the perpetrators "traitors." "There is no rational man who can do these things on the eve of the Israeli withdrawal from 22 settlements," Abbas said, referring to next month's pullout from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. But Israeli and international pressure on Abbas is growing. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the suicide bombing was aimed "against the aspirations of the Palestinian people" as well as Israel, and called on the Palestinian Authority to punish those responsible. "Now we must see actions that send a message that terror will not be tolerated," she said in a statement. Some 30 people were wounded in the bombing. Lying in the burn ward at Netanya's hospital, Betty Levy, 15, said the bomb exploded just behind her, scorching her back. She said she ran to find an ambulance. "Only after a while did it start to hurt," she said. "A woman next to me was on fire. I'll never forget that." A 55-year-old woman, her daughter, 26, and three-year-old granddaughter were all seriously injured and rushed to three different hospitals. Minutes before the Netanya blast, an Islamic Jihad militant attempted to drive a car bomb into a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, police said. The bomber was captured after the explosives detonated prematurely, police said, adding that the two attacks  were killed. By Ali Darghameh

Mohammed Bouyeri, a Muslim extremist confesses to the killing of filmmaker Van Gogh murder.  He would do it again, he said.

Photo: Mohammed Bouyeri, suspected killer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, is seen in this image from the Dutch television program Opsporing Verzocht. Bouyeri walked into court with a Qur'an under his arm at the start of his trial Monday and defied judges by refusing to defend himself

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands. The Muslim extremist on trial in the slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh confessed Tuesday, saying he was driven by religious conviction. "I don't feel your pain," he told the victim's mother in the courtroom. Mohammed Bouyeri stunned the court when, in the final minutes of his two-day trial he declared: "If I were released and would have the chance to do it again . . . I would do exactly the same thing." He said: "What moved me to do what I did was purely my faith . . . I was motivated by the law that commands me to cut off the head of anyone who insults Allah and his prophet." Bouyeri, 27, faces life imprisonment in the Nov. 2 killing of Van Gogh, who was shot, stabbed and nearly beheaded on an Amsterdam street. A verdict is to be handed down later this month. Bouyeri glanced at notes, paused between sentences and chose his words carefully. Some spectators rose to their feet as he spoke, visibly stunned by his comments. At one point, he addressed the victim's mother, Anneke, who was sitting in the public gallery. "I have to admit I don't have any sympathy for you," he said. "I can't feel for you because I think you're a non-believer." The killing is believed to have been an act of retribution for Van Gogh's film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women under Islam. The killer left a five-page note fixed to the filmmaker's body with a knife. Along with religious ramblings, the note threatened Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the screenplay for Van Gogh's film, and others he perceived as enemies of fundamentalist Islam. Lead prosecutor Frits van Straelen told the court Bouyeri would kill again unless he is locked up for life. "The accused preaches a message of hate and violence," Van Straelen said. "He preaches that anyone who thinks differently can be killed . . . He is and remains a danger to our society." He added: "The attacks in London last week make it clear that the problem of Islam-oriented terrorism continues, but I hope that the result from this case can help peace return." The killing of Van Gogh, a distant relative of the painter Vincent van Gogh, led to a wave of retaliatory attacks on mosques in a country once renowned for its tolerance. It also led to an intense national debate over the integration of Muslims, who make up six per cent of the Netherlands' 16 million people. Bouyeri was born in Amsterdam to Moroccan parents, and became increasingly radical in his beliefs in the two years leading up to the murder, according to prosecutors. His statement in court Tuesday was his first public comment since he was arrested in a shootout with police after the slaying. Bouyeri had not mounted a defence during the trial and ordered his lawyer not to speak. Bouyeri, allegedly a member of a terrorist cell known as the Hofstad Network, is said to have attended private prayer sessions with a Syrian spiritual leader, Redouan al-Issar, who disappeared shortly before the Van Gogh killing. Twelve other suspected group members are awaiting trial on separate terrorism charges. Bouyeri is also accused of threatening politicians, impeding democracy, illegal weapons possession and manslaughter for attacks on police and bystanders. Bouyeri was arrested by police after a shootout while holding the gun prosecutors say was used in the murder. Prosecutors say he is also tied to the crime by witnesses, blood spatters, ballistic evidence, a photo and DNA analysis. On Tuesday, Bouyeri addressed the police officers he is accused of firing on eight months ago, saying: "I shot to kill and to be killed. You cannot understand" Van Straelen said Bouyeri must have had financial help, but there were no other suspects in the case. "This shows how dangerous religious obsession is," Theodor Holman, who was a friend of Van Gogh's, said outside the courtroom. "All you have to do is insult Islam and (Bouyeri) feels it justifies brutally slaughtering you."

Iraq car bomb explosion  kills 24, 7 children, 1 U.S. soldier.

Photo: An Iraqi man grieves the death of a relative during a mass funeral in Al-Zaiden, Iraq, Tuesday. Iraqi families buried the bodies of 10 Sunni Muslims who the Association of Muslim Scholars have claimed were detained, tortured and killed by Iraqi government security forces.

BAGHDAD, Iraq. A suicide car bomber Wednesday drove up to a U.S. vehicle swarming with Iraqi children and detonated his vehicle, killing one American soldier and at least seven Iraqi children, the U.S. military said. Iraqi officials put the death toll as high as 24. Three American soldiers and "multiple Iraqi civilians" were wounded in the late morning blast, a statement from Task Force Baghdad said. The explosion also set a nearby house on fire, the statement added. "The Task Force Baghdad unit on the site reported that the vehicle, laden with explosives, drove up to a Humvee before detonating," the statement said. "Many Iraqi civilians, mostly children, were around the humvee at the time of the blast." Police have reports that 24 were killed and 18 wounded, police Lt. Mohammed al-Heiali said. Another police officer, Lt. Ali Abbas, said that 19 bodies, including 11 children. were brought to al-Kindi Hospital. The attack left the east Baghdad neighbourhood stunned. An elderly woman dressed in traditional black beat her chest in front of her house in grief. Abbas Ali Jassim, who lives in the area, said as a U.S. patrol entered the neighbourhood and "children started running behind it when the explosion occurred." "They (Americans) were not affected as much as the people. The explosion was mainly on the children," said Jassim. Charred remains of an engine block wrapped in barbed wire lay in the street. A child's bicycle laid crumpled in the street, which was splattered with pools of blood. Last September, 35 Iraqi children were killed in a string of bombs that exploded as American troops were handing out candy at a government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a sewage plant in west Baghdad. It was the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the start of the Iraq conflict. Many of the families of children killed in the September attack blamed the Americans for the tragedy because their presence attracted insurgents to the ceremony. In other violence Wednesday, gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier while he was driving his car in western Baghdad, police said. Separately, coalition forces in Baghdad have captured Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's top lieutenant in Baghdad, Abu Abd al-Aziz, Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Elsewhere, a senior official in Iraq's Interior Ministry acknowledged Wednesday that up to 10 Sunni Arabs suffocated in a police vehicle while in custody and said those responsible will stand trial. The incident has angered many Iraqis as tension between Sunnis and the Shiite-dominated government is rising. Their deaths are among many complaints of abusive treatment by Iraq's U.S.-trained security force. Nine or 10 Sunni men reportedly suffocated after being held for several hours in a vehicle that lacked oxygen following an attack against an Interior Ministry patrol Sunday in west Baghdad. Temperatures at the time soared to about 45 C. Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, the head of intelligence department at the Interior Ministry, said the men appear "to have died after the vehicle's engine was turned off stopping the air conditioning." Despite the ongoing violence, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Tuesday that security in many of Iraq's 18 provinces - notably in the Shiite south and the Kurdish-controlled north - has improved so that Iraqi forces could assume the burden of maintaining order in cities there. "We can begin with the process of withdrawing multinational forces from these cities to outside the city as a first step that encourages setting a timetable for the withdrawal process," al-Jaafari said at a news conference with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick. Iraqi troops are ready to take control of some cities as a first step toward sending home American and other foreign soldiers, al-Jaafari said. But he rejected any timetable for a pullout "at a time when we are not ready" to confront the insurgents. He did not specify which cities could be turned over to the Iraqis. The insurgency is focused in Baghdad and the Sunni Arab heartland of central and northern Iraq. Wide areas of the Shiite south and Kurdish north are relatively peaceful. Zoellick said Washington was committed to supporting the new Iraqi leadership and that U.S. troop strength "will be based on the conditions by which the Iraqi forces are able to meet the effort to deal with the counterinsurgency." The Defence Department wants to pull some troops out of Iraq next year, partly because the commitment is stretching the Army and Marine Corps, perilously thin as casualties mount. U.S. commanders believe the presence of a large U.S. force is generating tacit support for anti-American violence. By Bassam Merouwe

SUICIDE BOMBERS: 4 MUSLIMS IDENTIFIED AS THE LONDON'S SUICIDE BOMBERS

Photo: A policeman passes a bomb disposal robot on Alexandra road in the Burley district of Leeds northern England, Tuesday July 12, 2005, after raids were carried out in the area in connection with the recent terrorist bombings in London.

LEEDS, England -- Police are investigating whether four attackers -- possibly suicide bombers -- died in last week's London subway and bus explosions. Authorities have arrested one suspect after a series of raids Tuesday in Leeds, a northern city with a strong Muslim community.  At least three of the suspected bombers came from the West Yorkshire region, which includes Leeds, said Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch. Closed-circuit TV video showed that all four had arrived at King's Cross station by 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, about 20 minutes before the blasts began that killed at least 52 people, Clarke said. Meanwhile, the BBC reported that explosives were found in a car at a rail station in Luton, 50 kilometres north of London. Police said earlier they carried out a controlled explosion on a car that was parked at the station and believed linked to the attacks. Metropolitan Police officers from London examining the car carried out the controlled explosion, Bedfordshire police said. In London, police said a security alert was issued at the House of Commons, but didn't say why. No evacuation had been ordered, but people were not being allowed to exit or enter the building. In a Scotland Yard news conference, Clarke said police had "strong forensic and other evidence" that the man believed to have carried a bomb onto the subway train that exploded between the Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations died in the blast. Police were awaiting confirmation from the coroner, and trying to determine whether the other three also died in the explosions. Police, who had been saying there was no evidence of suicide bombings, indicated that there had been a breakthrough in their inquiry. "The investigation quite early led us to have concerns about the movements and activities of four men, three of whom came from the West Yorkshire area," Clarke said. "We are trying to establish their movements in the run-up to last week's attacks, and specifically to establish if they all died in the explosions." One of the suspects had been reported missing by his family at 10 p.m. Thursday, and some of his property was found on the double-decker bus in which 13 died, Clarke said. "We have now been able to establish that he was joined on his journey to London by three other men," he said.

Some witness accounts suggested the bus bomber may have blundered, blowing up the wrong target and accidentally killing himself. Media reports have quoted a witness who got off the crowded bus just before it exploded as saying he saw an agitated man in his 20s fiddling anxiously with something in his bag. "Everybody is standing face-to-face and this guy kept dipping into this bag," Richard Jones, 61, of Berkshire, told the BBC. One theory suggested the attacker may have intended to leave his bomb on the subway but was unable to board because his co-conspirators had already shut the system down. Investigators also found personal documents bearing the names of two of the other men three near seats on the Aldgate and Edgware lines. Acting on six warrants stemming from those developments, British soldiers blasted their way into a modest Leeds row house Tuesday to search for explosives and computers. Streets were cordoned off and about 500 people were evacuated. Hours earlier, police searched five residences elsewhere in the city. Leeds, about 300 kilometres north of London, has a population of about 715,000. About 15 per cent of the residents are Muslim, and many come from a tight-knit Pakistani community, mostly from Murpir, south of Islamabad. Other pockets of the community are mostly Arab, coming from a variety of countries including Syria and Saudi Arabia. The military, including a bomb squad, carried out the controlled explosion at the row house at 11:30 a.m. so detectives could enter the home in Burley, a neighbourhood where public signs in storefronts and even a Church of England community centre are printed in English and Arabic. There was no immediate word of arrests. No one was in the house at the time of the raid, police Insp. Miles Himsworth. Detectives were scouring it for explosives and other items, possibly computers, he said. Cordons kept bystanders about 100 metres away from the house in Burley and police helped arrange prayers scheduled at a nearby mosque to be moved to other mosques nearby, Himsworth said. Police warned that the death toll, which went to 52 from 49 on Monday, would rise. Some 700 were injured in the attacks; 56 of those remained hospitalized. Prime Minister Tony Blair went to City Hall on Tuesday and signed a condolence book for the victims. "With deep condolences for all those who lost their lives and for their families who mourn and with heartfelt admiration for London, the greatest capital city in the world," Blair wrote. The families of those missing since the bombings endured an agonizing wait for word of the fate of their loved ones. "I need to know, I want to protect him," said Marie Fatayi-Williams, who arrived from Nigeria to find out what happened to her immigrant son, Anthony, 26. "How many tears shall we cry? How many mothers' hearts must be maimed? My heart is maimed at this moment." So far, the names of four of the dead have been released. Forensics experts have said it could take days or weeks to identify the bodies, many of which were blown apart and would have to be identified through dental records or DNA analysis. By Tomas Wager