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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...
Sunday, 25 March 2012
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 med...
Friday, 23 March 2012
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...
Monday, 19 March 2012
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...
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
'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 restricte...
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
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...
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 relea...
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...
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...
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...
Sunday, 11 March 2012
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...
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...
Thursday, 8 March 2012
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".Image 1 of 4From 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: MODSources 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,...
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...
Friday, 2 March 2012
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...
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...
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