Being on the front line boosts our intelligence.

 Current scientific research shows that danger stimulates brain power and inventiveness, and the benefits are lasting. Today’s buzz phrase is “transcranial magnetic stimulation” (TMS), the use of magnetic fields to improve soldiers’ powers of reasoning. I am much happier in my job than the equivalent civilian. My colleagues and I give it a 64 per cent satisfaction rating compared to barely 50 per cent in the general workforce. Among the things I like are the security of employment, the pension provision and the health care. Surprisingly, the “excitement of the job” is less appreciated, although 83 per cent of us agree that we are proud to be in the Service. Although much attention is paid to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the most common mental problems we face are alcoholism, loneliness and depression. Women, the lower ranks and those aged between 20-24 are most at risk. Research puts the PTSD rate for serving soldiers at four per cent, compared with three per cent in the general population. Almost 30 per cent of us smoke, well above the national average of 20 per cent, and the Army now has an annual No Smoking Day with a morale-raising song from the Army School of Physical Fitness.

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Servicemen steal and sell nearly $2 million in guns

Investigators have tracked down around $1.8 million in missing US military weaponry, and no, the loot wasn’t just left behind in barracks and bunkers. Instead it went directly to street gangs. The results of a nearly two-year-old probe established to investigate missing military gear reveals that nearly $2 million worth of assault rifles, night-vision goggles and other guns and gadgets were pilfered by servicemen from within the Armed Forces and then sold illegally both through local outlets to gangs and on the Internet to residents of foreign countries. So far more than 60 people have been implicated in the undercover sting, which began nearly two years ago by officers with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Along the way, federal agencies as diverse as the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and even the FBI have been brought into the mix. The results of the investigation were unearthed on Tuesday this week by reporters at the Daily News in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Local agencies including the N.C. State Bureau of Investigations, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office and the Jacksonville Police Department have been named in the probe as well. “The case is still active and ongoing in partnership with several other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies,” Ed Buice, a public affairs officer for NCIS in Quantico, Va., explains to the paper. “I can’t go into much detail.” And although information is sparse for now, those willing to speak say that it wasn’t just a vast, international conspiracy at play. For some, the whole exchange might have just been fun and games. “We’re talking about sophisticated, hi-tech flashlights that cost the government up to $800 per unit. The temptation and ease with which to steal and sell them, for some, is irresistible,” a government official familiar with the operations adds to the Daily News. Adding to the report, the NCIS’ Buice says that the results of the probe suggest that the under-the-radar weapons trade was becoming “a growing problem.” That problem, reveals the investigation, spread as far east as China. At other times, military personal were taking to eBay, Craiglist and yard sales to unload gear that either wasn’t sold overseas or pawned off on local gangs.

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Two British servicemen shot dead by Afghan police they were training

The killing in Helmand province is the latest in a growing spree of Afghan personnel killing their Nato allies. The soldier from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and one airman from the Royal Air Force were shot dead on Saturday in Lashkar Gah district. One of the policemen was shot dead in an ensuing gunfight and the other fled and has yet to be caught. Fareed Ahmad, a spokesman for the Helmand provincial police, said the policemen opened fire at 3pm at a joint Afghan-coalition compound. He said a third Afghan policemen fired at the attackers, killing one and wounding the other, who escaped.

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Nine killed in Syria suicide blasts

In fresh attacks on symbols of state power, twin suicide bombs exploded near a government security compound in northern Syria and rockets struck the central bank in Damascus, killing nine people and wounding 100. The regime and the opposition traded blame, accusing each other of dooming a United Nations plan to calm violence that has largely failed so far. The head of the UN observer mission acknowledged that his force cannot solve the country's crisis alone and urged both sides to stop fighting. Monday's attacks were the latest in a series of suicide bombings that started in December and have mostly targeted Syrian military and intelligence positions. The regime routinely blames the opposition, which denies having a role or the capability to carry out such attacks. After other similar bombings, US officials suggested al-Qaida militants may be joining the fray, and an al-Qaida-inspired Islamist group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks in Syria. The powerful blasts, which blew two craters in the ground and ripped the facade off a multistorey building, came a day after Major General Robert Mood, the head of the observer mission, took up his post in Damascus. "Ten, 30, 300 or 1,000 observers will not solve all problems," he told reporters. "So everyone has to help us achieve this mission." More than 9,000 people have been killed in the 13-month crisis, according to the UN. An April 12 ceasefire agreement has helped reduce violence, but fighting persists, and UN officials have singled out the Syrian regime as the main aggressor. An advance team of 16 UN observers is on the ground to try to salvage the truce, which is part of a broader plan by special envoy Kofi Annan to launch talks between President Bashar Assad and his opponents. By mid-May, the team is to grow to 100, but UN officials have not said when a full 300-member contingent is to be deployed. Monday's bombs went off in the northern city of Idlib, an opposition stronghold that government troops recaptured in a military offensive earlier this year.

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Opiates Killed 8 Americans In Afghanistan, Army Records Show

Eight American soldiers died of overdoses involving heroin, morphine or other opiates during deployments in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, according to U.S. Army investigative reports. The overdoses were revealed in documents detailing how the Army investigated a total of 56 soldiers, including the eight who fell victim to overdoses, on suspicion of possessing, using or distributing heroin and other opiates. At the same time, heroin use apparently is on the rise in the Army overall, as military statistics show that the number of soldiers testing positive for heroin has grown from 10 instances in fiscal year 2002 to 116 in fiscal year 2010. Army officials didn't respond to repeated requests for comment on Saturday. But records from the service's Criminal Investigation Command, obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, provided glimpses into how soldiers bought drugs from Afghan juveniles, an Afghan interpreter and in one case, an employee of a Defense Department contractor, who was eventually fired. The drug use is occurring in a country that is estimated to supply more than 90% of the world's opium, and the Taliban insurgency is believed to be stockpiling the drug to finance their activities, according to a 2009 U.N. study. While the records show some soldiers using heroin, much of the opiate abuse by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan involves prescription drugs such Percocet, the Army documents show. Judicial Watch obtained the documents under the Freedom of Information of Act and provided them to CNN. Spokesman Col. Gary Kolb of the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led command in Afghanistan, verified the documents to CNN on Saturday. One fatal overdose occurred in June 2010 at Forward Operating Base Blessing, after a soldier asked another soldier to buy black tar opium from a local Afghan outside the base's entry control point. The first soldier died after consuming the opium like chewing tobacco and smoking pieces of it in a cigarette, the documents show. The reports even show soldier lingo for the drug -- calling it "Afghani dip" in one case where three soldiers were accused of using the opiate, the Army investigative reports show. The United States has 89,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. death toll since the September 11, 2001, attacks that triggered the war has risen to more than 1,850, including 82 this year, according to the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Central Command. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said his group was interested in soldiers' drug use partly because the risk was present during the Vietnam War. "You never want to see news of soldiers dying of drug use in Afghanistan," Fitton said. "Our concern is, will the military treat this as the problem that it is, and are the families of the soldiers aware of the added risk in this drug-infested country? "There is a dotted line between the uses. Prescription abuse can easily veer into heroin drug use," Fitton added. "Afghanistan is the capital of this opiate production and the temptation is great there and the opportunity for drug use all the more." The group is concerned that "there hasn't been enough public discussion, and we would encourage the leadership to discuss or talk about this issue more openly," Fitton said. In one case, a soldier bought heroin and the anti-anxiety drug Xanax from five "local national juveniles at multiple locations on Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan, and consumed them," one report states. Soldiers also distributed heroin, Percocet and other drugs among themselves, according to the reports. Another soldier fatally overdosed in December 2010 after taking several drugs, including morphine and codeine, though the drugs were not prescribed for him, the Army documents show. One female soldier broke into the Brigade Medical Supply Office at Forward Operating Base Shank and stole expired prescription narcotics including morphine, Percocet, Valium, fentanyl and lorazepam, the documents show. The investigative reports show soldiers using other drugs, including steroids and marijuana, and even hashish that was sold to U.S. servicemen by the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police personnel, the reports state.

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Afghan Forces Seize 10 Tons of Explosives

Afghan security forces have detained five insurgents - three Pakistanis and two Afghans - with 10 tons of explosives authorities say the militants intended to use in attacks in the capital, Kabul. A National Directorate of Security spokesman, Shafiqullah Tahiri, said if the explosives had been used, the result would have been "large scale bloodshed." Tahiri said the explosives were brought into Afghanistan from Pakistan.  He said they were found in Kabul in 400 bags under piles of potatoes in the back of a truck.    Afghan officials have long accused Pakistan of harboring insurgent groups.  Pakistan has denied supporting or giving sanctuary to insurgents on its territory. Afghan cities and the diplomatic and government areas of Kabul were hit by a wave of attacks Sunday in what the Taliban said was the start of its spring offensive. Afghan and U.S. officials have blamed the attacks on the Haqqani network, an insurgent group that is allied with the Taliban and al-Qaida, and has been described by American officials as the most dangerous militant force in the Afghan war.

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Ariell Taylor-Brown, Military Wife, Learned Of Husband's Death Through Facebook

 

Military wife Ariell Taylor-Brown always knew that her husband, Staff Sgt. Christopher Brown, might be killed in the line of duty. What she never expected was to find out through Facebook. Sgt. Brown, a native of Columbus, Ohio, was killed April 3 in Afghanistan by an insurgent bomb. He had just begun his fourth tour one week before he was killed, according to CBS Denver. When a tragedy like this occurs on the battlefield, military protocol is for the soldier's next of kin to be informed by messengers who come to the house. Taylor-Brown, who has two kids with Sgt. Brown and is 11 weeks pregnant with the couple's third child, didn't find out through those messengers. "It was a girl in his platoon. She wrote to me and told me to call her immediately," Taylor-Brown told NBC4i. Taylor-Brown, who was at her home with her children in Mobile, Ala., called the female soldier, who informed her of Sgt. Brown's death. "She told me over the phone, right in front of my kids, and I completely had a meltdown. She wasn't supposed to but I guess she took it on her own power to do it," she said. Officials at Fort Carson, Colo., where Brown was stationed, investigated the breach of protocol and said a total of three soldiers were involved in spreading the information, according to the Republic in Columbus, Ind. Master Sgt. Craig Zentkovich told the paper that a soldier in Afghanistan sent a Facebook message to a soldier at Fort Carson, who passed it on to another soldier at the post, who passed it on to the widow. Although it's standard procedure before deployment for soldiers to be instructed not to discuss deaths or injuries until after the Department of Defense has notified the soldier's family, Zentkovich couldn't say whether the soldiers involved had been briefed on the issue. If commanders determine orders were broken there's a chance at least one of these soldiers could eventually face court martial, according to KKTV.

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British terror supergrass sentence cut by two years

jailed British terrorist has had his sentence cut by two years in a supergrass deal after giving evidence about an al Qaeda-linked “martyrdom” plot in New York, it was revealed today. Former teacher Saajid Badat was jailed for 13 years in 2005 for plotting with shoe bomber Richard Reid to blow up a transatlantic airliner in 2001 in what an Old Bailey judge said was a “wicked and inhuman” plot. He has now had his term reduced by two years under the first “supergrass” deal involving a terror convict, after providing intelligence to US prosecutors investigating an alleged plot to blow up the New York subway on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attack. Details of the deal — kept secret for more than two years — were revealed today by the Crown Prosecution Service as a trial of the alleged al Qaeda plotters began in New York. Defendant Adis Medanjanin, a 27-year-old Bosnian-born US citizen, is charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing “material support” to al Qaeda. He is said to have had terrorist training in Pakistan in 2008 and then returned to begin a plot to use beauty parlour chemicals to blow up the subway. Badat, from Gloucester, joined Reid’s shoe bomb conspiracy but pulled out at the last minute.

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Western embassies targeted in Afghanistan attacks

 

Gunmen have launched multiple attacks across the Afghan capital Kabul. Western embassies in the heavily-guarded, central diplomatic area are understood to be among the targets as well as the parliament building in the west. There are reports that up to seven different locations have been hit. The Taliban has admitted responsibility, saying their main targets were the British and German embassies. There is no word at this stage on any casualties.

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Taliban free hundreds from Pakistan prison

Hundreds of prisoners are believed to have escaped from a jail in northwest Pakistan after it was attacked by anti-government fighters armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Some of those who escaped from the facility in the town of Bannu, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, early on Sunday morning were "militants", an intelligence official told the Reuters news agency. "Dozens of militants attacked Bannu's Central Jail in the early hours of the morning, and more 300 prisoners have escaped," Mir Sahib Jan, the official, said. In Depth   Profile: Pakistani Taliban "There was intense gunfire, and rocket-propelled grenades were also used." Many of those who escaped following the raid were convicted Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reported from Lahore. A prison official in Bannu confirmed that "384 prisoners have escaped". A police official identified one of the inmates who escaped as a "dangerous prisoner", who took part in one of the attempts to kill the former president, Pervez Musharraf. The TTP, an umbrella organisation for anti-government groups that are loosely allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda, took responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for Hakeemullah Mehsud, TTP's leader, confirmed to Al Jazeera that the group was responsible for the attack. Another Taliban spokesman told Reuters: "We have freed hundreds of our comrades in Bannu in this attack. Several of our people have reached their destinations, others are on their way.".   Our correspondent said the attack took place in the early morning and had resulted in an exchange of fire that had left several people wounded. "After the attack the paramilitary and regular military forces came to that location and tried to surround the area," he said. "They have arrested up to a dozen men, but most of the people have indeed escaped." The injured were rushed to a local hospital in Bannu. Sources told Al Jazeera that as many as 150 fighters were involved in the attack. After blowing up the gates of the main prison at around 1:30am local time (20:30 GMT on Saturday), they entered the compound and freed the inmates, the sources said. The attackers had arranged for the transportation of the inmates from the facility. A police official told Reuters that Bannu's Central Jail held 944 prisoners in total, and that six cell blocks had been targeted in the attack.

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Viktor Bout: Judge Sentences Arms Smuggler Victor Bout To 25 Years In Prison

 

US judge has sentenced Russian "merchant of death" arms smuggler Viktor Bout to 25 years in prison for conspiring to sell weapons to anti-American guerrillas in Colombia. Bout, 45, was accused of selling arms to despots and insurgency groups embroiled in some of the world's bloodiest conflicts and was the inspiration for the arms smuggler played by Nicolas Cage in Lord of War. US District Judge Shira Scheindlin decided to give Bout the minimum required sentence of 25 years on one count and 15 years for each of the three other counts of which he was found guilty, to run concurrently. "Twenty-five years is sufficient," Ms Scheindlin said after Bout made a statement to the court, insisting he was innocent. When a prosecutor said in court that Bout agreed to sell weapons to kill Americans, Bout shouted, "It's a lie!" He told the judge he "never intended to kill anyone" and "God knows this truth". The sentencing had been delayed twice, with Bout's lawyer demanding more time to prepare his request for leniency and accusing prosecutors of "outrageous government conduct" in allegedly entrapping the Russian. The US government had asked for him to be imprisoned for life. The Russian was lured to Thailand and arrested there in 2008 at the end of a US sting operation that stretched from the Caribbean island of Curacao to central Europe. Bout was eventually extradited to the US and convicted in November on four counts of conspiring to sell missiles to terrorists and to kill US troops.

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Canadian man detained in Spain 'extremely thin and weak,'

Philip Halliday, the Nova Scotia man who has been detained in Spain for more than two years on drug-trafficking charges without a trial date, is extremely weak and thin but in good spirits, his family said Monday, hours after returning home from their first visit to him in jail. "It was pretty emotional. It's hard to describe. Definitely a lot of hugs, some tears," Halliday's son, Daren, told Postmedia News. Philip Halliday, 55, was arrested in December 2009 about 300 kilometres off the coast of Spain aboard a converted Canadian Coast Guard research vessel, the Destiny Empress. Inside a hidden compartment, authorities found more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $600 million. Halliday, an ex-fisherman who spent more than 30 years dragging scallops off the sea floor, insists he had no idea the drugs were onboard and believed he was simply delivering the vessel to a new owner. Daren Halliday said he, his older brother Cody, and their mother Sheree, were able to spend several hours with Philip in a private room over a span of two days. Recalling the first moments they laid eyes on their father, Daren said, "I don't know if there was a lot said. We hugged him pretty quick. Told him it was good to see him, that we missed him and how much we love him." One thing that was readily apparent to everyone was how much weight Philip, dressed in a buttoned-up shirt and blue jeans, had lost. Since landing in jail, he has had to have his gall bladder removed. He has also had problems with his liver and kidneys. "I thought I'd prepared myself for what Philip would look like, but I must admit I was shocked," Sheree later recalled in a Facebook posting. "He is extremely thin and weak. He walks like an elderly man and is quite emotional." "But," Sheree added, "he still has that beautiful smile that I've missed! And he hasn't lost his sense of humour." Philip was able to buy some pop, juice, chips and some sweets for the occasion, turning it into something of a family picnic, Sheree recalled. Daren said family members peppered Philip with questions about what life was like in jail. Philip, in turn, asked about life back home in Digby, N.S. The family brought Philip some novels, Sudoku game books and some clothes, including a T-shirt that said "Canada" that one of Philip's fellow inmates had requested. Philip gave the family a duffle bag full of letters that people had written to him to bring home. On the third day of their visit, the family was only able to communicate with Philip through a glass partition. "We couldn't physically touch him," Daren said. "He was on a phone. We talked through a mic. Like the movies, we put our hands on the glass. "There was a hallway he had to walk down. And one we walked down. We waved goodbye. And that was it. That was pretty hard." Family and friends back home have been pleading with Canadian officials to help get Halliday released — or at least to get a trial date set. "We're hoping to get him a quick and fair trial, to speed things up," Daren said. "It's very frustrating that nothing's changed." The amount of time someone spends in pre-trial detention varies widely across the European Union. Some countries, including Spain, can hold someone for up to four years, while other countries don't have a limit. Canadian foreign affairs officials have said that while this country cannot interfere with the judicial proceedings of another country, they have been pressing Spanish authorities for a timely and transparent trial. So far, the Halliday family has incurred $90,000 in legal fees and has had to sell their home in Digby. Family friend Peter Dickie said Monday that a Halliday Family Support Society has been formed with the goal of raising $250,000 to help cover expenses.

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$10 mln bounty on LeT founder Hafiz Saeed

 

The United States has put up a $10 million reward to help arrest Pakistani Islamist leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, suspected of masterminding two spectacular attacks on Mumbai and the parliament building in New Delhi. The offer comes at a time of heightened tension between Washington and Pakistan and increases pressure on Pakistan to take action against the former Arabic scholar, who has recently addressed rallies despite an Interpol warrant against him. India has long called for Saeed's arrest and said the bounty - one of the highest on offer - was a sign the United States understood its security concerns. Only last week Saeed evaded police to address an anti-U.S. rally in Islamabad. "India welcomes this new initiative of the government of the United States," External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said on Tuesday of the reward announced on the U.S. Rewards for Justice website. "In recent years, India and the United States have moved much closer than ever before in our common endeavour of fighting terrorists." The United States only offers a $10 million reward for three other people it suspects of terrorism, with a single reward of up to $25 million for Egyptian-born Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Saeed, 61, is suspected of masterminding numerous terrorist attacks, including the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Poor train commuters, foreigners and some of India's wealthy business elite were killed by 10 Pakistani gunmen in a three-day rampage through some of Mumbai's best-known landmarks, including two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre. A total of 166 people died, including six U.S. citizens. In the 1990s, he founded Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or the Army of the Pure, one of the largest and best-funded Islamist militant organisations in South Asia. He abandoned its leadership after India blamed it and another militant group for an attack on the parliament in December 2001. Saeed, released from prison by a Pakistani court in 2010, now heads an Islamic charity that the United Nations says is a front for the militant group. LeT was nurtured by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency to fight India in disputed Kashmir and analysts say it is still unofficially tolerated by Pakistan, though it was banned in the country in 2002. Admiral Robert Willard, the head of the United States military's Pacific Command, last year expressed concern over the expanding reach of LeT, saying it was no longer solely focused on India, or even in South Asia.

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Taliban target Afghan security forces

 

Mullah Dowran, a regional Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan, has told Al Jazeera that the organisation is now targeting Afghan security forces. "We announced we would forgive them many times. We showed them leniency many times in the fight. We tried to make American targets the priority, but the damage created by Afghan forces has become more and more every day. Now they are our priority," Dowran said. The Taliban are not only targeting police and soldiers, but also seeking out their family members in a campaign to persuade them to defect. Al Jazeera's James Bays reports from Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan.

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Whitney Houston full autopsy report to offer more details

Whitney Houston’s full autopsy report may offer more clues about whether the singer suffered a heart attack before her drowning death, officials said Friday. The full report, which is expected to be released in a few weeks, may include test results and physical descriptions of the singer’s heart that will show whether she suffered a heart attack, Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said. The report is being compiled and Winter said he did not have access to its findings, which might show whether there were any obvious signs such as discoloration of her heart that would suggest Houston had a heart attack before slipping underwater in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Feb. 11. Houston’s death has been ruled an accidental drowning, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors. The report also will include detailed toxicology results that will show how much cocaine and its byproducts were in Houston’s system when she died. Coroner’s officials said Thursday that the results showed the singer used cocaine shortly before her death, and there were indications of chronic use. Beverly Hills police detectives will use the full coroner’s report to complete their investigative file, which is not expected to be publicly released. The department has said there were no signs of foul play in connection with Houston’s death. Houston’s death on the eve of the Grammy Awards stunned the music industry and fans worldwide. The singer had battled addiction for years, but friends and family have said she appeared committed to making a comeback in the months before her death.

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Pakistani Taliban training Frenchmen

Pakistani intelligence officials say dozens of French Muslims have been training with the Taliban in northwest Pakistan. The officials said on Saturday they were investigating whether Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent suspected of killing seven people in southern France, had been part of this group. Merah traveled to Pakistan in 2011 and said he trained with al-Qaida in Waziristan. He was killed in a gunfight with police Thursday in the French city of Toulouse. The officials said 85 Frenchmen have been training with the Pakistani Taliban in the North Waziristan tribal area for the past three years. Most have dual nationality with France and North African countries. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

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Taliban victim Captain Rupert Bowers saw son born weeks ago

Captain Rupert Bowers, 24, was days away from leaving the war zone for good — and returning to his family — when a blast struck him. The decorated officer had flown home last month to be at wife Victoria's side for the arrival of son Hugo. He then returned to the frontline to finish his six-month tour — and was killed by the IED explosion during a patrol in Helmand on Wednesday. The death of Captain Bowers, from Wolverhampton, takes the British toll in Afghanistan to 405. Tributes last night poured in for the popular officer — who received a Mention in Despatches for rescuing two comrades while under heavy Taliban fire in 2007. Captain Bowers — of 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment — was also wounded in battle in 2009, but still wanted to return to the frontline. Lieutenant Colonel Colin William Wright said: "His infectious smile, constant good humour and immense dedication to his men made an immediate impression on all of us. His team would have followed him anywhere." Lieutenant Paul Seligman added: "He was a warrior — as brave as any. "I can scarcely believe anything could bring him to a halt and the world is a lesser place without him. I remember his pride and excitement at the news that Hugo was on his way." Rifleman Paul Shaw said: "Captain Bowers is by far the finest officer I have had the pleasure of working for."

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Five suspects killed in Bali anti-terror raids

 

Indonesian police have shot dead five suspected militants on the island of Bali, officials say. The men, killed in two raids on Sunday, had been targeting several locations in Bali, the chief of Indonesia's anti-terror unit told the BBC. Officers also seized firearms and ammunition on the island, where a bombing in 2002 killed more than 200. They are thought to be linked to Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a regional militant group with al-Qaeda connections. The group was responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings and has carried out attacks across South-East Asia. "This is... a splinter group of Jemaah Islamiah,'' police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution told Reuters news agency. Police said that splinter group carried out bank robberies in Medan, Sumatra in western Indonesia in 2010 and was also reportedly been responsible for setting up paramilitary training in Aceh and in Solo, central Java. It is unclear if all the men shot on Sunday were members of that group. Resisted arrest' Indonesian police told the BBC the five men had been under police surveillance for a month. They were planning to carry out robberies on the island to raise funds for terror related activities, police said. Indonesia has struggled with home-grown extremism in recent years but has been relatively successful in stamping it out through the use of its elite anti-terror unit Densus 88, says the BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta. The two raids took place in Bali's capital city, Denpasar and at a hotel in Sanur, a popular tourist district. Three men were killed at the hotel and another two died in Denpasar. Densus 88, which carried out the operation in Bali, has often come under criticism for being too quick to kill, but says the men were shot at and killed because they resisted arrest. The last major attack was in 2009 in Jakarta when two luxury hotels were attacked. Since the Bali bombings, scores of militants associated with the group have been jailed or killed. Umar Patek, a high-profile suspect alleged to have been one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali attack, went on trial in Jakarta last month.

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'Car in flames at Camp Bastion' after Leon Panetta plane lands

Leon Panetta arrived to meet with troops, commanders and Afghan government officials just days after a US soldier went on a deadly shooting spree. Around the same time, a vehicle got onto the runway at the base and caught fire, sources said. If the reports prove to be correct, it would be an embarrassing breach of security for British forces. The driver, a local male civilian employed at the base, is being treated at Camp Bastion's hospital for his injuries, a spokeswoman at the base said. One British serviceman suffered minor injures in an earlier incident which may be linked to the same vehicle. The spokeswoman added: "Procedures were put in place to account for the whereabouts of all military and civilian personnel and, to achieve this, movement within Camp Bastion was restricted."

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Taliban fire at delegates visiting Afghan massacre site

 

Taliban militants opened fire on an Afghan government delegation visiting one of the two villages in southern Afghanistan where a US soldier is suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians. The delegation was talking with families of the victims in Balandi village on Tuesday when they heard shooting, said Qayum Karzai, a brother of the Afghan president who was part of the group. He said he did not believe anyone was killed in the attack, but he had heard reports of one person wounded in the foot. "We were giving them our condolences, then we heard two very, very light shots," said Karzai. "Then we assumed that it was the national army that started to fire in the air." He said that the members of the delegation were safe and were heading back to Kandahar city. An Associated Press reporter accompanying the delegation said the gunfire came from two different directions. The US is holding an army staff sergeant in custody who is suspected of carrying out the killings before dawn on Sunday in two villages close to his base in Kandahar province's Panjwai district, considered the birthplace of the Taliban. Villagers have described him stalking from house to house in the middle of the night, opening fire on sleeping families and then burning some of the bodies. Nine of the 16 killed were children, and three were women, according to Karzai. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid vowed to take revenge for the attack in a statement sent to reporters on Tuesday. He said the soldier should be tried as a war criminal and executed by the victims' relatives. Also on Tuesday, hundreds of students in eastern Afghanistan shouted angry slogans against the US and the American soldier accused of carrying out the killings, the first significant protest in response to the tragedy. The killings have caused outrage in Afghanistan but have not sparked the kind of violent protests seen last month after American soldiers burned Muslim holy books and other Islamic texts. Afghans have become used to dealing with civilian casualties in over a decade of war. Some have said the deaths in Panjwai were more in keeping with Afghans' experience of deadly night raids and air strikes by US-led forces than the Qur'an burnings were. But the students protesting at a university in Jalalabad city, 80 miles east of the capital Kabul, were incensed. "Death to America!" and "Death to the soldier who killed our civilians!" shouted the crowd. Some carried a banner that called for a public trial of the soldier, whom US officials have identified as a married, 38-year-old father of two who was trained as a sniper and recently suffered a head injury in Iraq. Other protesters burned an effigy of Barack Obama. "The reason we are protesting is because of the killing of innocent children and other civilians by this tyrant US soldier," said Sardar Wali, a university student. "We want the United Nations and the Afghan government to publicly try this guy." Obama has expressed his shock and sadness and extended his condolences to the families of the victims. But he has also said the horrific episode would not speed up plans to pull out foreign forces, despite increasing opposition at home to the war in Afghanistan.

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Dutch activist arrested in Morocco

 

A young Dutch-Moroccan activist was arrested in Morocco on Monday. The Dutch Foreign Ministry has confirmed the detention of Yuba Zalen to Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Mr Zalen is a member of the 20th of February movement, a young protest group inspired by the Arab Spring and calling for greater democracy in Morocco. He was in Morocco to report on the unrest in the northern town of Ait Bouayach, where dozens have been injured in clashes with security forces. Moroccan media are barely reporting on the unrest. Activists say that local internet cafés have also been closed down. The website Amazightimes.com reports that Yuba Zalen is likely to appear in court in the town of Al-Hoceima on Thursday. The Dutch section of the 20th of February movement has called for his immediate release.

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Revolt in the city of Bni Bouayach in the mountainous area of the Northern Rif in Morocco

The city of Bni Bouayach in the mountainous area of the Northern Rif in Morocco has been sealed off since Wednesday, March 8. All the repressive organs of the state, the army, the gendarmerie together with the secret and public police, have joined forces to blockade the small city. The inhabitants live in fear of police terror and the raiding of houses and arrests. Other repressive forces are hunting down activists who fled into the neighbouring mountains to escape arrest. The media black-out is total. This violent intervention is the dictatorship’s response to peaceful demonstrations organised by the young unemployed and the activists of the 20F movement that have been ongoing for many months. The protest is against the generalised lack of jobs and bad social and economic conditions in this marginalised city of the Rif. The regime has used a variety of tactics against the protest movement, from “containment” to targeted repression of the leaders of the action. One activist, Kamal al-Hassani, was killed on October 27th last year, another, Bachir ben Shu'ayb, was abducted and put on trial. His imprisonment and the accusations against him have provoked new protests in the city. National highway Number 2 was blocked and a sit-in was organised in front of the municipal buildings and the National Electricity Company. On March 5 the youth wanted to organise a march (25 km) to the city of Al Hoceima in support of the arrested comrade but the police stopped them. Then on Thursday, March 8, the forces of repression attacked the demonstrators during a sit-in. The police used truncheons, teargas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators. The masses of this city, known for their fighting traditions and activism, have defended themselves by throwing stones (see this report). Demonstrations have been organised in the main streets leading to clashes in different neighbourhoods. Many people have been injured in those clashes. Fearing arrest, most of them have avoided being treated in the hospitals. Dozens of demonstrators have also been detained. The attack of the repressive forces was ferocious. No-one was spared, not even the women and the children. In seeking out demonstrators, the police entered people’s homes and destroyed the contents or plundered them. They are even hunting down the young activists in the mountains all around the area. Friday the police arrested a group of activists, including Wael Faqih a leader of the unemployed youth association (Association Nationale des Diplômés Chômeurs au Maroc), and Mohammed Jalloul, a teacher in a primary school and also an activist of the 20F movement. This attack against the city of Bni Bouayach is taking place against a background of growing revolt in some cities (such as Taza and Khénifra) that are completely marginalised by the state. These protests are organised by the 20F movement. They reflect the absolute bankruptcy of the system and the lack of alternative. It also shows the real nature of the dictatorship which is not ready to reform itself out of existence.

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Moroccan appeal court confirmed a death sentence

A Moroccan appeal court confirmed a death sentence Friday against the mastermind of the April 2011 Marrakesh bombing that killed 17 people, and handed a death sentence to one of the others convicted. The chief judge of the court confirmed the death sentence against Adil Al-Atmani, the mastermind of the bombings, in which 17 people -- Moroccans, French and Swiss nationals -- were killed and dozens more wounded. And it converted the life term handed down to his chief accomplice Hakim Dah to a death sentence. But the death sentences are unlikely to be carried, with capital punishment in the process of being taken off the statutes. The court also increased the jail sentences against six of the other men convicted at the original trial in October from six to 10 years and confirmed a two-year sentence against a ninth man. The appeal trial went ahead after the prosecutors appealed the original sentences. The appeal court sentences were in some respects harsher than what the prosecution had asked for. The prosecutor on Wednesday had only asked for the life sentence against Dah to be confirmed. But he had wanted harsher sentences against the seven other people convicted. The defendants denied many of the charges against them during the trial. The Marrakesh bombing was the deadliest in the north African kingdom since attacks in the coastal city of Casablanca in 2003 which killed 33 people and 12 bombers. The defendants had denied the charges against them during the trial. One of the defendants' lawyers, Khalil Idrissi, criticised the "harsh" sentences, which he said were an "act of complacency" towards the families of the victims and their countries. Another defence lawyer said the "court increased the punishments of several defendants who had nothing to do with this crime". But relatives of the French victims welcomed the tougher sentences. "Now I can grieve," Jacques Maude, who was close to one victim, said. Capital punishment has not been carried out in Morocco since 1992 and is about to be formally wiped off the book, with a new constitution voted through in July explicitly affirming "the right to life". The Marrakesh bombing was the deadliest in the north African kingdom since attacks in the coastal city of Casablanca in 2003 which killed 33 people and 12 bombers.

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Protests Spread in Morocco's North Rif Mountains

Anti-government protests in Morocco's impoverished northern Rif mountains are spreading after a second village clashed with police resulting in serious injuries and 10 arrests, reported the state news agency. For the past 10 days, there have been demonstrations in the small village of Beni Bouayache following the arrest of a local activist. On Sunday they spread to the nearby town of Imzouren. The state news agency said a number of police were injured when they stopped a protest march at Imzouren headed for Beni Bouayache. The report said some injuries were grievous without further details. Chakib al-Khayari, an activist with the Rif Association for Human Rights, said 20 policemen had been injured in Sunday's clashes, but he didn't have figures for the locals wounded. "We don't know the number of wounded because they can't go to the hospital for fear of arrest," he told The Associated Press by telephone. Morocco's Rif mountains, which parallel the Mediterranean coast, are one of the poorest parts of the country and have been historically marginalized with little government investment. On March 2, plainclothes police snatched Bachir Benchaib, a leader of the local chapter of the February 20 pro-democracy movement, as he was leaving the mosque following evening prayers. The state news agency described Benchaib as a violent gang-member implicated in robberies and other criminal activities. In subsequent days, supporters demonstrated for Benchaib's release, blocking the road to the port city of Al Hoceima, 280 miles (450 kilometers) northeast of Rabat, and carrying out sit-ins in front of the police station and government buildings. Starting Wednesday, police began dispersing demonstrations with tear gas and water cannons and carrying out a campaign of arrests. Clashes with security forces generally now take place at night, said al-Khayari, who estimated that some 24 people had been arrested. He predicted that the protests, which have included demands for more electricity and water in their village, would continue. "They want their rights and a better life," al-Khayari. "They have nothing in this region." The Rif mountains were once an independent republic in the 1920s, until the region was reconquered by the French in 1926. After independence from France, the region revolted against the new Moroccan central government in 1958, before the rebellion was crushed. The people are primarily from the Berber ethnicity, North Africa's original inhabitants with their own language, and during demonstrations they waved flags from the Rif Republic as well as the flag of the North Africa-wide flag of the Berber movement.

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US soldier has killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children,

A US soldier has killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, after entering their homes in Kandahar. Sky sources said the Afghan victims also included women and elderly men. Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Asadullah Khalid, who is investigating the incident, said the soldier entered three homes, killing 11 people in the first one. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) coalition confirmed the incident but did not release the number of killed or injured. Sky defence reporter Mark Stone said: "Details are still sketchy and various death tolls have emerged. "It appears to be an isolated incident and the soldier is believed to have been a staff sergeant." Isaf Deputy Commander Lt Gen Adrian Bradshaw said: "I wish to convey my profound regrets and dismay at the actions apparently taken by one coalition member in Kandahar province. "I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorised ISAF military activity." According to the Panjwai district governor office, seven people died and up to 17 injured were injured in the rampage. The injured have been treated for their wounds at Nato medical facilities. Protests were held over the Koran-burning incident The US embassy in Kabul attempted to quell expected Afghan unrest by also issuing an apology. It said: "We deplore any attack by a member of the US armed forces against innocent civilians, and denounce all violence against civilians. "We assure the people of Afghanistan that the individual or individuals responsible for this act will be identified and brought to justice." The diplomatic response comes after weeks of tense relations between US forces and their Afghan hosts following the burning of Korans and other religious materials at an American base. Although US officials apologised and said the burning was an accident, the incident sparked violent protests and attacks. Britain also pulled out civilian advisers from buildings in Kabul as protests spread. Six American soldiers have been killed in attacks by their Afghan colleagues since the Koran burnings came to light.

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United States service member walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 15 civilians

 

United States service member walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 15 civilians, local villagers and provincial officials said. Related Security Fears Lead Groups to Rethink Work in Afghanistan (March 11, 2012) U.S. and Afghanistan Agree on Prisoner Transfer as Part of Long-Term Agreement (March 10, 2012) Afghan Officer Sought in Killing of 9 Colleagues (March 9, 2012) Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Readers’ Comments Share your thoughts. Post a Comment » Read All Comments (1) » The shooting risks further inciting anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan and troubling a relationship that had already been brought to a new low by the burning of Korans at an American military base last month. The American embassy in Afghanistan quickly issued a statement on Sunday urging calm. The NATO-led coalition said in a statement on Sunday that a United States service member had been detained after an incident in Kandahar Province, in the south of the country, and that a number of civilians had been killed. Villagers in Belandi in the Panjway district of Kandahar, where the shooting took place, said the service member had attacked three houses, killing 11 people in one house and four in a second home. Five other villagers were wounded, they said. Panjway, a rural suburb of Kandahar, was traditionally a Taliban stronghold. It was a focus of the United States surge in 2010 and was the scene of heavy fighting. The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa, condemned the shooting, although he could not immediately confirm the number of people killed. A coalition spokesman in Kabul, Capt. Justin Brockhoff, said that it was not clear what had led to the incident. He said the civilians wounded in the shooting were taken to a coalition hospital where they were being treated. One of the houses attacked in the village belonged to a tribal elder, according to a person from the village. “We don’t know why he killed people,” said the villager, Aminullah, who like many Afghans goes by a single name. Aminullah said the soldier was alone. “There was no fighting or attacks.” In the statement, the United States military raced to head off Afghan outrage. “This is a deeply regrettable incident and we extend our thoughts and concerns to the families involved,” the statement said. It went on to say that American forces, in cooperation with the Afghan authorities, would investigate the incident. In its comments, the American Embassy also sought to ease tensions, offering “its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of today’s tragic shooting.” “We are saddened by this violent act against our Afghan friends,” the statement said. In a separate incident, four Afghans were killed and three wounded on Friday when coalition helicopters apparently hunting Taliban insurgents fired instead on villagers in Kapisa province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Abdul Hakim Akhondzada, governor of Tagab district in Kapisa. Last month, the burning of the Korans touched off nationwide rioting and increased the targeting of American troops, resulting in at least 29 Afghans dead and 6 American soldiers killed. The results of the official military inquiry into the Koran burnings are still awaited, including any decision on what kind of disciplinary action may be faced by the American service members identified as being directly linked to the incident. The upheaval provoked by the Koran burnings put a temporary halt to cooperation between the Afghans and Americans, and disrupted planning for the military withdrawal. But relations seemed somewhat back on track after the two governments on Friday broke an impasse on a long-term strategic partnership deal by agreeing for the Afghans to assume control of the main coalition prison in six months. In another incident in January, American officials had to contend with the fallout from a video that showed four United States Marines urinating on the corpses of what appeared to be the corpses of three Taliban members. In 2010, a rogue group of American soldiers, whose members patrolled roads and small villages, also near Kandahar, killed three Afghan civilians for sport in a series of crimes. The soldier accused of being the ringleader of the group was convicted of three counts of murder by an American military panel in November.

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The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the roadside bomb that killed six British soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the roadside bomb that killed six British soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan, saying they were "very proud of it".

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From top left: Sergeant Nigel Coupe, Corporal Jake Hartley and Private Anthony Frampton. From bottom left: Private Christopher Kershaw, Private Daniel Wade and Private Daniel Wilford Photo: MOD

Sources had already indicated the device that killed the six men – five of whom were under the age of 22 – was not a legacy bomb but one planted "recently".

They were named today as Sgt Nigel Coupe, 33, Pte Christopher Kershaw, 19, and Pte Daniel Wade, 20, Cpl Jake Hartley, 20, Pte Anthony Frampton, 20, and Pte Daniel Wilford, 21.

In a statement on their website, the Taliban said: "Mujahedeen (holy warriors) of the Islamic emirate have reported that a landmine of mujahedeen blew apart a tank of British invading forces in Greshk district.

"All the invaders on board were incinerated."

One told the BBC the insurgents were "very proud" of the attack.

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Six dead UK soldiers set to be named

Six British soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan by a Taliban bomb are to be named by the Ministry of Defence later. Five from 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment and one from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment died while on patrol on Tuesday. It is the biggest single loss of UK life in Afghanistan since 2006. Meanwhile, head of the Armed Forces General Sir David Richards has told the Times the UK will "hold its nerve" in Afghanistan. He said the British military strategy would remain unchanged, with service personnel set to continue combat operations in the region until the end of 2014. The deaths took the number of British military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 to 404. More information has emerged about Wednesday's incident. 'Powerful bomb' Senior army and intelligence officials in Helmand province told the BBC: "It was a joint Afghan National Army and British patrol from 215 Core of ANA - there was a distance between our vehicles. "It was a powerful bomb which had been planted recently. This area close to Kandahar's Maywand district is a major Taliban criss-crossing terrain - the Taliban fighters have been moving from this area from Kandahar's Panjwai to Maywand and than to Helmand province - they also would go from Helmand into Kandahar province.'' An Afghan intelligence official with the country's spy agency, the National Directorate of Security, told the BBC: "The patrols in this area were meant to deny and deprive the Taliban from movement from Kandahar into Helmand and from Helmand into Kandahar. "They knew that for quite some time that there was an increase in Taliban presence in the area, they had been active and present in the area and had been planting roadside bombs." General Richards said the progress made since entering the country in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was "truly impressive". He said: "As progress continues the work of our servicemen and women will draw down but our efforts will endure. "Sadly, as we hold that course it is likely that others will lose loved ones." Some of the soldiers' colleagues spoke to the BBC last month of their fears about being posted to Afghanistan. He added that he and his troops do not "underestimate the dangers" faced in Afghanistan, but understood "the importance of the mission with which we are charged". "We will hold our nerve," he said. His comments echoed sentiments expressed by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond who said the timetable for withdrawal remained on track despite this "cowardly attack". "This will not shake our resolve to see through the mission - I believe we owe that to all the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives and put themselves at risk over the last few years," he told the BBC. The dead soldiers have now been returned to Camp Bastion in Helmand. Prime Minister David Cameron said the deaths marked a "desperately sad day for our country". "Every death and every injury reminds us of the human cost paid by our armed forces to keep our country safe," he said, at the start of Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday. In a statement, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the six soldiers were on a security patrol in a Warrior armoured fighting vehicle when it was caught in an explosion in Kandahar province.. The BBC understands that the area was sparsely populated and particularly unstable, with insurgents known to have planted roadside bombs there. BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the six soldiers had been in the country for less than a month. Most of the 9,500 UK troops in Afghanistan are expected to be withdrawn by the end of 2014, when 13 years of combat operations in the country are set to cease.

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two more U.S. troops killed over Koran burning

 

The desert's nighttime chill had taken hold at a small U.S.-Afghan base in the Taliban's heartland: the home village, in fact, of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the movement's founder and supreme commander. For the American troops manning the outpost, though, the danger came not from outside the wire, but from within. Hours before dawn Thursday, Afghan assailants, including a man hired to teach Afghan soldiers to read, shot and killed two U.S. troops and wounded a third, Afghan and American officials said. The soldiers slain at the base in Kandahar province were the fifth and sixth U.S. military personnel to die in a span of eight days at the hands of Afghans they had worked alongside. ALSO Photos: Marines leave Camp Pendleton for Afghanistan Afghan attacks over Koran burning renew debate on U.S. drawdown Afghan anger over Koran burning an emblem of nation's culture war Obama apologizes to Karzai for unintentional Koran burning Two U.S. troops killed amid Afghan protests over Koran burning Ads by Google Google Advertising Promote Your Website on Google. Register Today & Receive £50 Credit www.google.com/adwords With these latest killings, the proportion of NATO overall military fatalities caused by such "insider" shootings this year stood at nearly one in five. The deaths come against a backdrop of deepening mutual mistrust between many Afghans and their Western counterparts after riots tore through the country last week over what officials said was the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S.-run military base. In the wake of the violence, which has left more than three dozen dead, hundreds of Western military and civilian advisors working at Afghan government ministries were withdrawn by embassies and the NATO force. Troops at jointly run Afghan-coalition bases were ordered to keep their distance, and hold their tempers. Many foreign aid and development groups moved to isolate international staffs, citing safety fears. In Kabul, the capital, most Westerners took care to keep a low profile. Although mass protests over the Koran burning died down at the end of last week, Western diplomats and military officials are still struggling to assess whether irreparable damage has been done to an already strained partnership with the Afghan military and government. That cooperation, fostered through years of painstaking efforts, lies at the heart of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's hope of largely stepping back from its combat role by the end of next year. It's a big-picture strategic question as well as a wrenchingly personal one. One Western civilian who has been working for months as an advisor to the Afghan government described a close Afghan colleague as being unwilling to meet her eyes after news of the Koran burning broke. "It was a very, very painful moment," she said. "For me, and I think for them." Some Afghans, for their part, said they considered the international pullback from government ministries a demoralizing blow, although a trickle of foreign advisors — mainly those with "mission-critical" jobs — began returning to work this week. Sayed Hameed Sadaat, who works with foreign advisors at the Labor Ministry, said their abrupt withdrawal gave the impression of a "weak commitment" on the part of the international community to Afghanistan. Publicly, U.S. officials have painted the Koran incident as a setback, but scarcely one that could shatter longtime bonds. They point out that the rioters made up only a tiny fraction of the Afghan population, and assert that it was a situation in which the Taliban and other Islamist militants seized an opportunity to both whip up and blend into the crowds. The American ambassador, Ryan Crocker, told the BBC this week that he sees no "permanent rupture" arising from the episode.

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U.N. in Afghanistan says Koran burners should be punished

 

The United Nations joined Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday in calling on the U.S. military to take disciplinary action against those who burned copies of the Koran at a NATO air base, calling the incident a "grave mistake". Despite an apology from U.S. President Barack Obama, the burning of the Muslim holy book at the Bagram base north of the capital ignited a wave of anti-Western fury across the country. At least 30 people were killed in protests, including two American soldiers who were killed by an Afghan soldier who joined the demonstrations. "After the first step of a profound apology, there must be a second step ... of disciplinary action," Jan Kubis, special representative for the U.N. secretary-general in Afghanistan, told a news conference. "Only after this, after such a disciplinary action, can the international forces say 'yes, we're sincere in our apology'," added Kubis, without elaborating on what action should be taken. Obama, in a letter of apology to Karzai last week, said the burning of copies of the Koran had been "inadvertent" and an "error".

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Paul Conroy claimed to be 'safe' in Lebanon after being smuggled out of Homs

 

Conroy, a British photographer working for the Sunday Times, and Bouvier, a French correspondent for Le Figaro, were reported to have travelled safely out of Syria overnight and were in Lebanon on Tuesday morning. "We've just had word from Beirut," said Mr Conroy's father, Les, on Tuesday morning. They are understood to have been smuggled out of a besieged enclave of Homs by the Syrian opposition. However, there were conflicting reports over whether they had been successfully evacuated. Miles Amoore, Sunday Times correspondent in Afghanistan, tweeted that they were still in the Baba Amr area of Homs. Both journalists suffered leg injuries last Wednesday during a barrage that killed Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer.

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UK photographer Paul Conroy out of Homs

 

British Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy has been evacuated from the besieged Syrian city of Homs and is in neighbouring Lebanon. He was smuggled out of the Baba Amr district on Monday with help from the Syrian opposition and Free Syria Army fighters, diplomats told the BBC. The whereabouts of the French Le Figaro journalist Edith Bouvier remain unclear. The two were wounded in an attack on a makeshift media centre last Wednesday. American Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed. The Syrian Red Crescent said earlier that it had reached Baba Amr on Monday, bringing out three Syrians, including a pregnant woman, her husband and an elderly female patient, but that it had been unable to bring out the Western journalists or the bodies of their colleagues. Reports on Tuesday said Homs had come under some of its heaviest bombardment yet, with the government sending in units of an elite armoured division into rebel-held districts to try to end the three-week-long offensive. It comes as the United Nations Human Rights Council is set to hold an emergency session in Geneva to discuss the deteriorating humanitarian and security situation in Syria. 'Warning shot' Mr Conroy's father, Les, confirmed reports that his 47-year-old photographer son was safe in Lebanon. "We've just had word from Beirut. I've got it on the other phone in my other hand," he was quoted by the Press Association as saying. Edith Bouvier, speaking on 23 February: "I need an urgent operation" The movements of Devon-based Paul Conroy had been shrouded in discretion because of fears for his safety, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Beirut. Syrian opposition sources said he was smuggled out of Baba Amr on Monday, taken through the Syrian countryside before crossing the border into Lebanon during the night. In a video posting a few days ago, Mr Conroy had said he received "three large wounds" to his leg and was being treated by Free Syria Army medical staff. Ms Bouvier was more seriously wounded, suffering multiple leg fractures. Some reports on Tuesday suggested she too had been smuggled into Lebanon, but other reports said she may not have been evacuated from Baba Amr. There has been no word either on what has happened to the bodies of Marie Colvin and Remi. Ms Colvin's mother Rosemarie told the BBC's Today programme of her hope that her daughter's body could be brought home. "I want my daughter back and I can't rest myself, I can't have peace in my life, with my daughter's remains in that country," she said. The Syrian government appears to have stepped up its offensive against rebels across the country - sending forces into several towns in northern Syria for the first time. As many as 125 people died across Syria on Monday, many of them in a single incident at a checkpoint in Homs, the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an activists' group said. However, it is difficult to independently verify the death tolls and individual incidents as media access across the country is tightly restricted. Members of the UNHCR are due to discuss a confidential report that names Syrian officials believed to be responsible for atrocities. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said: "The task of the council is to express the disgust of the entire world at the odious crimes that the Syrian state is committing against its people." He has urged the 47 nations in the council to be prepared to submit a complaint against Syria to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. A UN panel of experts last week delivered a confidential list of Syrian army officers and government officials who could be investigated for crimes against humanity. Their report found that Syria had become increasingly militarised, and they accused security forces of gross and systematic human rights violations. "The day will come when the civilian and military authorities in Syria, in particular President Assad himself, will need to answer for their actions," Mr Juppe said.

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France reporter Edith Bouvier asks for Syria evacuation

 

The French journalist who was wounded in an attack on the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday has asked to be evacuated from Syria quickly, saying she needs urgent medical attention. Edith Bouvier was injured in the attack that killed journalists Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik in the Baba Amr suburb. In a video posted online by opposition activists, Ms Bouvier says she has a broken femur and urgently needs an operation. She asks to be evacuated to Lebanon. There is growing pressure on Damascus to give access to civilians trapped by the onslaught. 'Very difficult' In the video, Ms Bouvier praises the doctors who have been treating her and says they are doing what they can. Photojournalist William Daniels, who is also French, appears alongside her and says she has not lost her smile. He was also caught up in the attack but says he was not injured. William Daniels says he was fortunate not to be injured Mr Daniels appeals to the French authorities to help them as soon as possible, as conditions "are very difficult". There is no electricity and not much to eat, he says, adding that they need to get out as quickly as possible using medically equipped transportation. The US, Europe and Arab countries plan to challenge President Bashar al-Assad to provide humanitarian access within days to the worst affected areas. They plan to present their ultimatum at Friday's international conference on Syria in Tunisia. Russia and China have said they will not attend the conference. The two countries have faced Western and Arab criticism for blocking a UN Security Council resolution that would have backed an Arab League peace plan for Syria. Meanwhile, a United Nations panel has drawn up a confidential list of Syrian military officials - believed to include President Assad - who could face investigation for crimes against humanity. It says these include shooting unarmed women and children, shelling civilian areas and torturing the wounded.

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Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin killed in Homs

 

Marie Colvin, the respected Sunday Times journalist, was killed today alongside French photojournalist Remi Ochlik in Syria. The veteran correspondents were killed by a rocket as they fled the house they were staying in, which was hit during shelling in Homs, a witness told Reuters. Colvin, the only journalist from a British newspaper in the besieged city, had covered conflict for The Sunday Times for the past two decades.  French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse confirmed the deaths. At least two other Western journalists, and seven activists were reported to have been injured after in excess of ten rockets hit the house. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was investigating reports that a British photographer was also injured in the incident. Yesterday government troops heavily shelled the districts of  Baba Amr, Khaldiyeh and Karm el-Zeytoun  in Homs, which is considered to be a stronghold of resistance. Ochlik, the founder of the picture agency IP3 Press, was an award-winning photojournalist who covered events including the 2004 rioting in Haiti and last year’s Arab Spring. US-born Ms Colvin, in her final dispatches had detailed the unfolding conflict in Homs, which has been the focus of unrest against the Syrian president. While working in Sri Lanka a grenade attack left her blind in one eye and forced her to wear an eye patch to cover up the injury. Ms Colvin, who was educated at Yale, started her career as a police reporter for a news agency in New York before moving to Paris and then London. She was featured in the 2005 documentary Bearing Witness about women war reporters and was named foreign reporter of the year at the 2010 British Press Awards. The same year, she spoke at a memorial service for journalists who died reporting conflicts around the world.

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Syrian troops kill 27 in village raids

 

Syrian troops and militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad captured and then shot dead 27 young men in northern villages and two foreign journalists were killed in shelling of the besieged city of Homs, activists said on Wednesday. The two Western journalists were killed on Wednesday when shells hit the house they were staying in, activists and witnesses said. They were named as Marie Colvin, an American working for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, and French photographer Remi Ochlik. A witness told Reuters by phone that shells hit the house where the journalists were staying and a rocket hit them as they were escaping. Violence continued to spread. Several YouTube videos taken by local activists in Idlib, which could not be independently confirmed, showed bodies of young men with bullet wounds and hands tied lying dead in streets. The men, all civilians, were mostly shot in the head or chest on Tuesday in their homes or in streets in the villages of Idita, Iblin and Balshon in Idlib province near the border with Turkey, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said. "Military forces chased civilians in these villages, arrested them and killed them without hesitation. They concentrated on male youths and whoever did not manage to escape was to be killed," the organization said in a statement. "Responsibility for this massacre lies with the general commander of the military and armed forces, Bashar al-Assad," the statement said, adding that only one youth survived the shootings. One video shows the body of three youths, one visibly shot in the chest, on the floor of a house in Balshon. "This is martyr Hassan Abdel Qadi al-Saeed, his brother Hussein and (their relative) Bashir Mohammad al-Saeed. They were liquidated by Assad's forces in the February 21 massacre," a voice of a man showing the bodies says, with the sound of women wailing in the background. The raids came as the United States appeared to open the door to eventually arming the Syrian opposition, saying that if a political solution to the crisis was impossible it might have to consider other options. The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, marked a shift in emphasis by Washington, which so far has stressed a policy of not arming the opposition and has said little about alternatives. "We still believe that a political solution is what's needed in Syria," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "We don't want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarization of Syria, because that could take the country down a dangerous path. But we don't rule out additional measures." Asked if the United States was shifting its stance on arming the rebels, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington did not want to see the violence increase and was concentrating on political efforts to halt the bloodshed. "That said ... if we can't get Assad to yield to the pressure that we are all bringing to bear, we may have to consider additional measures," she said, declining to elaborate. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet representatives of some 70 countries and organizations in Tunis on Friday for the first "Friends of Syria" meeting to coordinate the international community's next steps in response to the nearly year-long uprising against Assad. The United States and its allies hope the Tunis conference will allow them to begin drawing up a plan for Syria after Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed Arab League peace plan at the U.N. Security Council. With both Russia and Iran firmly backing Assad's government, political analysts say tacit U.S. support for arming rebel fighters could be risky given Syria's complex ethnic and religious make-up and strategically important position.

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UN watchdog says nuclear talks with Iran failed

 

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday it had failed to secure an agreement with Iran during two days of talks over disputed atomic activities and that the Islamic Republic had rejected a request to visit a key military site. In the second such trip in less than a month, a senior team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had travelled to Tehran to press Iranian officials to start addressing mounting concerns that the Islamic Republic may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The outcome seems likely to add to already soaring tension between Iran and Western powers, which have ratcheted up sanctions on the major oil producer in recent months. "During both the first and second round of discussions, the agency team requested access to the military site at Parchin. Iran did not grant permission for this visit to take place," the Vienna-based IAEA said in a statement after the Feb 20-21 talks. The IAEA named Parchin in a detailed report in November that lent independent weight to Western fears that Iran was working to develop an atomic bomb, an allegation Iranian officials reject. "It is disappointing that Iran did not accept our request to visit Parchin. We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached," said IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. Earlier, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told the country's ISNA news agency that Tehran expected to hold more talks with the U.N. agency, whose task it is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the world. But Amano's spokeswoman, Gill Tudor, made clear no further meetings were planned: "At this point in time there is no agreement on further discussions," she said. Iran rejects accusations that its nuclear program is a covert bid to develop a nuclear weapons capability, saying it is seeking to produce only electricity. But its refusal to curb sensitive atomic activities which can have both civilian and military purposes, and its track record of years of nuclear secrecy has drawn increasingly tough U.N. and separate U.S. and European punitive measures. The United States and Israel have not ruled out using force against Iran if they conclude diplomacy and sanctions will not stop it from developing a nuclear bomb. In Washington, no immediate comment was available from the U.S. State Department on the IAEA statement. The five-member IAEA team led by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts was seeking answers from Iran about intelligence suggesting its declared civilian program is a facade for a weapons program. STILL TIME FOR DIPLOMACY? Last year's IAEA report suggesting Iran had pursued military nuclear technology helped precipitate the latest rounds of European Union and U.S. sanctions, which are causing economic hardship in Iran ahead of a parliamentary election in March. One key finding was information that Iran had built a large containment chamber at Parchin southeast of Tehran in which to conduct high-explosives tests, which the U.N. agency said were "strong indicators of possible weapon development." The IAEA said intensive efforts were made to reach agreement in the talks on a document "facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues" in connection with Iran's nuclear program, particularly those relating to possible military dimensions. "Unfortunately, agreement was not reached on this document," it said in an unusually blunt statement. The IAEA mission's lack of progress may also have an impact on the chances of any resumption of wider nuclear negotiations between Iran and the six world powers, the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany. The West last week expressed some optimism at the prospect of new talks, particularly after Iran sent a letter to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton promising to bring "new initiatives," without stating preconditions. But the United States and its allies may become more reluctant if they feel that the Islamic state is unlikely to engage in substantive discussions about its nuclear activities. The deputy head of Iran's armed forces was quoted on Tuesday as saying Iran would take pre-emptive action against its enemies if it felt its national interests were endangered. "Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran's national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions," Mohammad Hejazi told the Fars news agency. In retaliation for oil sanctions, Iran, the world's fifth-largest crude exporter, has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for a third of the world's seaborne oil, while the United States signaled it would use force to keep it open. The White House said there was still time for diplomacy. "Israel and the United States share the same objective, which is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," White House spokesman Jay Carney said when asked about a weekend visit to Israel by National Security Advisor Tom Donilon. "There is time and space for diplomacy to work, for the effect of sanctions to result in a change of Iranian behavior."

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US says it will 'consider other measures' to end bloodshed

 

The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the State Department, marked a shift in emphasis by Washington, which thus far has stressed its policy of not arming the opposition and has said little about alternatives. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with representatives of some 70 countries in Tunis on Friday for the first "Friends of Syria" meeting to coordinate the international community's next steps to respond the nearly year-long uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We still believe that a political solution is what's needed in Syria," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "We don't want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarisation of Syria, because that could take the country down a dangerous path. But we don't rule out additional measures." State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, asked if the United States was shifting its stance on arming the rebels, said Washington did not want to see the violence increase and was concentrating on political efforts to halt the bloodshed.

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Afghan Koran burning at Bagram sparks fresh protests

 

American demonstrations are under way in the Afghan cities of Kabul and Jalalabad over the burning of copies of the Koran by Nato troops. Shots have been fired in Kabul, where protesters have gathered outside a US military base. On Tuesday, the US commander in Afghanistan, Gen John Allen, apologised after soldiers put copies of the Koran in an incinerator at Bagram airbase. The charred remains of the books were found by local labourers. Protesters in Kabul shouted, "Death to America!" and threw stones at the main US base in the city. Pro-Taliban slogans At least four policemen have been injured, reports the BBC's Andrew North, in Kabul. Witnesses at the protests in Kabul said security guards were firing into the air. There are also reports of people chanting pro-Taliban slogans. General John R Allen: 'When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them.' Demonstrators blocked the road linking Kabul with the eastern city of Jalalabad. A riot police unit was attacked by protesters in Kabul and fled, the AFP news agency reported. One protester, 18-year-old Ajmal, told Reuters: "When the Americans insult us to this degree, we will join the insurgents." Two senior Afghan officials told the BBC that religious materials held by Taliban prisoners had been confiscated because US officials suspected they were using them to send secret messages to each other. US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said he and Gen Allen apologised to the Afghan people "and disapprove of such conduct in the strongest possible terms". After previous incidents, many Afghans find it hard to understand how US forces could have allowed the Koran to have been burned, our correspondent says. Last year, at least 24 people died in protests after a hardline US pastor burned a Koran in Florida. The US embassy in Kabul has tweeted that it is on lockdown and all travel is suspended. On Tuesday, one person was wounded and five detained after troops at Bagram, 60km (40 miles) north of Kabul, fired rubber bullets at protests. Bagram includes a prison for Afghans detained by Nato forces.

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'IRA' drug-gang linked to double British murder

The "IRA" gang referred to in a British murder trial last week as running the drugs trade in Liverpool is almost certainly a mixture of local gangsters and their Dublin and Limerick-based associates, gardai believe. The mention of the gang came in the murder trial of Thomas Haigh, 26, who was convicted last week of the double murder of two men referred to as gangland "enforcers", David Griffiths, 35, and Brett Flournoy, 31. Both men were shot dead, their bodies burned in a car and then buried on a remote Cornwall farm in June of last year. The court heard that Haigh was a low-level member of a Liverpool drugs gang. He said he had been forced to carry out a drugs run to South America and to oversee the cultivation of cannabis plants at the farm in Cornwall to pay off a €40,000 debt to the gang which he insisted, in statements to police, was run by the IRA. When the two enforcers came to the farm there was a confrontation and Haigh shot the two dead and buried their bodies. He was convicted by a jury at Truro Crown Court last Tuesday and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years. In the UK a minimum term is the set time a prisoner must serve before he or she is eligible for parole. Garda sources last week said there has never been any evidence of an organisational link between the IRA and drugs criminals in the UK, but they are aware that former IRA members, including members of one well known family with both IRA and criminal links in south inner Dublin, has links to organised crime and drug dealers in Liverpool and the Midlands of Britain. These links, gardai say, go back for at least two decades and one of Liverpool's biggest drug dealers also was a close associate and bought drugs off John Gilligan and his gang. After Gilligan's gang was broken up during the investigation into the murder of Veronica Guerin in 1996 these links continued. Gardai know there were strong links developed by the major Dublin and Liverpool gangs as they rubbed shoulders in Costa del Sol holiday resorts where they owned villas. Liverpool, Dublin, Limerick and even Belfast-based ex-loyalists all became interlinked as they shared drug trafficking operations. Over the past two decades there have been persistent disputes and dozens of murders in the UK, Spain and Holland -- the centre of drug trafficking in Europe. Gardai said the most likely figures that Thomas Haigh was referring to as the "IRA" in Liverpool are members and associates of a south Dublin family-centred gang with close links to the criminal "Fat" Freddie Thompson. This family and their close associates are central to the drugs supply in Dublin and have well-established links with UK criminals. Ironically, gardai point out, the same IRA and Sinn Fein figures were closely involved in the anti-drugs movement known as "Concerned Parents Against Drugs" which was active in Dublin in the Eighties, picketing the homes of heroin dealers and carrying out vigilante attacks. During the Nineties this IRA group eventually became involved in extorting money from certain drug traffickers and then became centrally involved in drug trafficking. One of their associated former IRA families from Ballyfermot in Dublin became one of the biggest suppliers of heroin in the State, at one stage using private jets to import large quantities of pure heroin supplied by Dutch-based Eastern European traffickers. The major Irish drugs cartel in Spain, broken up by joint Spanish and European police action in the summer of 2010 also had strong links to Liverpool and London gangs. Gardai believe that the "IRA" associates of the Liverpool gang, referred to in the Haigh trial, are almost certainly the "ordinary" Dublin traffickers and their associates who were formerly in the IRA but who have continued "trading" on the IRA name in order to scare opponents. On Friday convicted drug dealer John Gilligan was given a further six-month sentence by the Special Criminal Court after he pleaded guilty to possession of a mobile phone at Portlaoise District Court in 2010.

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US marines involved in Afghan drug trade

 

Another whistleblower emerges from the US military as retired Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis accused US military leaders of painting a distorted picture of Afghanistan. Press TV has interviewed Wayne Madsen, investigative journalist in Washington about the accusations of lies fed to the American public. He discusses startling revelations about the drug lords in Afghanistan and their relationship to President Karzai and the US Special Forces and US marines. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview. Press TV: why is it that whenever a military official resigns or suddenly comes out of the US armed forces a secret is revealed about what happens behind the scenes. The questions is will we be expecting more of these unraveling stories? Madsen: Well, it’s hard to say. What happens is when somebody in the military or intelligence community comes forward with allegations of corruption, malfeasance or incompetence they’re usually rewarded with a huge amount of pressure. In some cases investigations open up for revealing classified information. So, there is a certain chill factor that sets in with these individuals, but Colonel Davis certainly isn’t the first one to acknowledge and report on the fact that the Afghanistan campaign was flawed from the beginning. A large part of the responsibility for what happened in Afghanistan, the failure of US policy lies at the feet of General David Petraeus as he said. But unfortunately, Colonel Davis will now find it a very tough road to go down while General Petraeus on the other hand was rewarded for his incompetence by being made the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA. Press TV: It’s interesting that there are reports from US marines in Afghanistan that are protecting poppy fields and are somehow contributing to the drug trade. What do you know about this and in general the relationship between US forces and the drug trade in Afghanistan? Madsen: Well, this has been reported before that US Special Forces and marines have been involved in protecting the poppy fields that are controlled by various Afghan war lords who depending on what day of the week it is support the US. Some of these war lords of course are connected through family links to President Hamid Karzai. This goes to show that the US has never learned its lesson from past military adventures, for example, in South East Asia during the Indo-China war the US and the CIA was very instrumental in smuggling opium and heroin out of the Golden Triangle some of which found its way into Saigon and was unfortunately used by many US troops there that got hooked on heroin. The same thing is taking place now with Afghanistan. Anytime you’ve got drugs involved with the CIA you’ve got basically slush fund accounts where the CIA has access to massive amounts of money, there’s no accountability, no oversight by Congress. This is an old old story that goes back when the CIA was first formed in 1947 and unfortunately the CIA is still very much the same way today with the drug smuggling operations. Press TV: With all this being said, what future do you seen with the US presence in Afghanistan? How will it end do you think? Madsen: I think we know from history that Afghanistan has been the graveyard of the empires: Alexander the Great; certainly the British were defeated there; the Russians were defeated there; and it’s not going to have a very good outcome for the US. But in the short term, with all this war talk about a war with Iran, you can be assured that the US military presence in Afghanistan will remain in the short term because this is part of a strategy to encircle Iran. So, in the short term US troops will continue to die in Afghanistan and Colonel David, what he has to say, will be proven unfortunately very very correct.

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India wants Italian ship captain to surrender

 

New Delhi wants the captain of Italian ship Enrica Lexia and two marksmen who shot dead two Indian fishermen to surrender to Kerala Police on Sunday after several rounds of diplomatic confabulations on Saturday culminated in a telephonic conversation between External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna and his Italian counterpart. Rome wanted the three to be permitted to go in return for a joint investigation into the incident. But in the conversation late in the evening, Mr. Krishna turned down the offer an hour after Kerala Chief Minister Ooomen Chandy sought the Central assistance to persuade the captain and the two security personnel to give themselves up. Mr. Chandy said his government was left with no option but to arrest the Italians after receiving advice on the issue from the State's Attorney- General, said government sources here. Mr. Krishna and the Indian Ambassador in Rome told the Italians that this was not a diplomatic row that could end with discussions. The question was that those responsible for killing two Indians must submit to the law of the land. The call from the Italian Foreign Minister capped a hectic day of activity in Rome, where the Indian Ambassador was offered options such as the despatch of a multi-Ministerial team to Kochi and a high-level investigation of the incident.

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Canadian woman charged in Gadhafi smuggling plot

 

The Mount Forest, Ont., woman held in a Mexican jail since November in a suspected plot to smuggle Moammar Ghadafi's son and his family out of Libya has been charged with falsifying documents, organized crime and attempted human smuggling. The charges were laid the same day Cyndy Vanier's family released a letter outlining what she calls deplorable conditions endured in the Mexican jail where she is being detained. Vanier, 52, was picked up in Mexico, where she and her husband have a winter home, last Nov. 10 and held without charges until Tuesday when a judge ordered warrants against two women and two men for a suspected plot to whisk Saadi Gadhafi and his family to Mexico. Those four people were Vanier, a mediator specializing aboriginal dispute and president of Vanier Consulting, and three other arrested in the alleged plot. Vanier has been pointed to as the ring leader. The charges were outlined in a press release from Mexico's office of the attorney general, who said its investigation showed a group had attempted to smuggle Gadhafi's son and his family in July but failed. A decision was made to make a second attempt and use another aircraft company to move the Gadhafis. The charges include accusations of falsifying a passport, voter registration card and a birth certificate. A house was bought in Bahia de Banderas, Nayarit, Mexico, to hide the family. There was also an attempt to buy an apartment in St. Regis hotel in Mexico City. The allegations, unproven in court, were linked to the theft of 4,586 passports in 2009. The charges outlined in the news release are for human smuggling, organized crime and counterfeiting three official documents. Vanier and the other female suspect are being held in a federal prison in Chetumal, Quintana Roo. The men are in a facility in Veracruz. Vanier wrote in the letter released by her family that she has been abused and tortured while in custody. Until Wednesday, she had been held on a judge's order. Under Mexico's preventative arrest law, people can be held up to 90 days without charge as investigators gather enough evidence to charge them. Bail is uncommon and not available at all for people accused of serious crimes. Her Canadian lawyer, Paul Copeland, said there was no coincidence as to why the letter was released early Wednesday when Vanier was finally charged. The family had it in their possession for some time, but waited until the detention order was over "so not to prejudice the situation." A spokesman for Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonczy confirmed Vanier contacted the Canadian government to allege she'd been abused in Mexican custody. "Officials have received, but have not verified Ms. Vanier's allegations. Canadians officials are reviewing these allegations and will act accordingly," John Babcock said. "Ms. Vanier faces very serious allegations in Mexico including the falsification of documents, human trafficking and participating in organized crime. Canadian officials are providing her with consular assistance, but Canadians travelling abroad are subject to the laws in the countries they visit. "Canada will continue to interact with Mexican authorities on her behalf as required, and our consular officials are ensuring that her medical concerns are being addressed." In a letter to Canada's foreign affairs department obtained by the CBC, Vanier said a dozen officers took her into custody on Nov. 9 and one of them struck her en route to a detention centre as they drove past her co-accused and lawyers. "I tried to yell out the open window ... and as I did, one of the female officers struck me with her elbow on the lower right side over the kidney. I could hardly breathe it hurt so much ... I started to cry ... and they laughed at me," she alleges. Police accused her of being a terrorist and didn't allow her to call a lawyer or the Canadian Embassy, she said. Vanier said she was also denied access to the bathroom for hours and not given medical attention. Mexican authorities allege Vanier was the ringleader who tried to smuggle the slain Libyan dictator's son, Saadi Gadhafi, and his family into the country by falsifying documents, opening bank accounts and purchasing real estate. Vanier, a vacation property owner in Mexico, said she was in the country with her husband looking to buy property. Police questioned her about her real-estate hunting. Further suspicion arose because Vanier travelled to Libya in July for the engineering firm SNC-Lavalin with a former Gadhafi staffer as her bodyguard. Three other people, two from Mexico and a man from Denmark, have been detained as alleged accomplices. "I have suffered physical, mental and emotional abuse and trauma, and my rights as a Canadian citizen have been violated based on my international human rights as well as the Mexican constitution," she wrote.

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