Four terror suspects including Pakistani held in London
LONDON: British police were questioning four men on suspicion of terrorism after a string of arrests that included armed officers shooting out the tyres of a car near the Tower of London.
Reports in British media said the men had been arrested in coordinated raids across London on Sunday night that were aimed at preventing an alleged terror plot involving the use of guns.
Police said they were still searching six premises and two vehicles on Monday.
Armed officers arrested two 25-year-old men — one a British national of Turkish origin and the other a Briton of Algerian origin — in a street in east London.
A 28-year-old British national of Azerbaijani origin was arrested at a house in Notting Hill, west London, and a 29-year-old Briton of Pakistani origin was arrested in a street in Peckham, southeast London.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said so-called Hatton rounds — special shotgun ammunition used to breach doors and tyres — were “specifically used to disable a car” in the arrests in east London.
“They were used to shoot at tyres. No one was injured,” the spokesman told AFP.
The arrest took place in a street about 200 metres from the Tower of London, one of London’s busiest tourist attractions.
Armed officers were involved in all of the arrests.
All four men were being held at a police station in south London on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Under British counter-terror laws the suspects can be held for 48 hours and police can then apply for warrants to hold them for up to 14 days from the time of arrest.
Police said the raids were the result of a “pre-planned intelligence operation” and added that “public safety remains our overriding concern”.
The BBC quoted government officials as saying that a decision to act was taken on Sunday to dismantle the “potentially very serious” plot, although it was not on the scale of previous large-scale bomb plots.
A witness to the arrest in Notting Hill, in an upmarket street lined with boutiques and restaurants, said the arrested man “didn’t look like a terrorist”.
Ramin Massodi, a worker at a Persian restaurant, said specialist officers in several cars pushed the suspect up against the glass of the restaurant.
“I heard shouting then I looked outside and saw four cars… and they grabbed him,” he said.
AFP
Terror plan foiled in Karachi as CID police kill 6 terrorists
KARACHI: Law enforcing agencies foiled a potentially massive sabotage activity as Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Sindh Police seized a huge cache of firearms and explosives from terrorists following an armed encounter with them, media reported Wednesday.
According to incharge CID Chaudhry Aslam, a sting operation was conducted on a tip-off regarding smuggling of weapons near Lucky Pahari, Hub River Road. Finding themselves trapped, the saboteurs opened gunfire at the police party, injuring two personnel.
In prompt retaliation by the police, six terrorists were killed.
Chaudhry Aslam said slain terrorists were members of the banned Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Mohmand Group, adding the cache of firearms and gunpowder was being smuggled to Karachi from Balochistan.
He further said the saboteurs were involved in several bombings in the metropolis, adding at least 200 kilograms of explosives were recovered from the possession of the miscreants.
Over 400 killed in 10-day air offensive in Sryia's Aleppo: NGO
BEIRUT (AFP) - A 10-day air offensive by Syria s regime against rebel areas of divided Aleppo city and nearby villages has killed more than 400 people, including 117 children, a monitor said Wednesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that by Tuesday night the toll since December 15 from air strikes and a bombing campaign using barrels packed with TNT stood at 410. Also among the dead were 34 women, 30 rebel fighters and nine jihadists.
The Britain-based group said that the air force pressed its assault into an 11th day on Wednesday, with fresh raids on the opposition-held districts of Sakhur and Jabal Badro in eastern Aleppo city.
However it had no immediate information on further casualties.
Aleppo has been divided into regime and rebel-held enclaves since the opposition launched a massive offensive in July last year.
Rights groups have blasted the regime s relentless air raids against Aleppo and its dropping of massively destructive barrel bombs in civilian areas.
Human Rights Watch has described the use of such weapons as "indiscriminate and therefore unlawful".
The United States too has condemned the regime s aerial assault on civilian areas of Aleppo, accusing the military of using barrel bombs and SCUD missiles "indiscriminately".
On Wednesday, the Arab League and the European Union joined the chorus of criticism against the regime s offensive.
"The High Representative (Catherine Ashton) is deeply concerned with reports of an escalating bombing campaign in the city of Aleppo," the EU said in a statement.
"She condemns the unabated use of air strikes by the Syrian government on civilian areas."
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi meanwhile called on "the Syrian army to stop the air bombings" on Aleppo, condemning the killing of "hundreds of innocent civilians, especially women and children."
Arabi also called on the UN Security Council "to take responsibility" to end the conflict raging in Syria.
The opposition National Coalition has said it will boycott peace talks slated for January if the bombing of Aleppo does not cease.
A security source in Damascus on Tuesday defended the military s operations as necessary to "save Aleppo".
"We do not target any area unless we are 100 percent sure that the ones there are terrorists," the source said, using the regime s term for the rebels.
"The bodies you see on television are the bodies of terrorists and mercenaries, most of whom travelled into Syria from abroad."
Syria hit back at the US on Tuesday, describing it as a "one-eyed pirate" for condemning the aerial assault but "ignoring the crimes committed by the terrorists".
Meanwhile, fighting raged on Wednesday in the Aleppo province area of Naqarin, pitting rebels and jihadists on one side against the army backed by Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters and the paramilitary National Defence Force.
The regime s ground forces were backed by helicopters. which dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas, the Observatory said.
Bomb blasts target Shia community in Pakistan
Pakistan Bomb Blast Kills 47 People, Injures 200
Mexico shatters crime ring that preyed on Asian migrants
Prosecutor said they detained seven Mexicans and three Bangladeshis accused of moving the migrants to Mexico s northern border with the United States at a huge cost and in grim conditions. The migrants came from places like India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, as well as Iran and Somalia, officials said. The ring was based in Mexico City and the Caribbeancoastal satate of Quintana Roo, prosecutor said.
In a raid police found 13 people -- two from India, five from Bangladesh and six from Nepal -- held in unhealthy conditions waiting to be moved by traffickers.
It was not immediately known how many people were trafficked over what time period.
At least 140,000 people enter Mexico every year trying to reach the United States, according to official estimates.
Zambia arrests two with ivory from around 16 elephants
The ivory is thought to have been poached over a period of one to two years from around 16 elephants and is worth about $150,000 (110,000 euros).
The suspects names were withheld but they were said to be a 52-year-old businesswoman from a Lusaka slum and a 37-year-old taxi driver from a farming area west of city
US drones sabotaged process of peace talks: Imran
Says stern reaction must have been shown to the US but the public seemed divided.PTI chief Imran Khan has said that a stern reaction should have been shown over the US drone strike but the nation seemed divided.
He said the peace process could not move forward until an end to US drone strike.
Speaking on the floor of National Assembly, Imran Khan said that Pakistan was spending Rs 90 billion on war against terrorism.
He said that this money could be used for the health and education.
Imran said that he was expecting strong reaction over US drone strikes but he was disappointed over the statements of political parties.
The PTI chief said that the process of peace talks was going to start after 9 years but the drone attack on Hakeemullah Mehsud sabotaged this process.
He said that the PM should have expressed strong protest with the US over the drone strikes.
Imran Khan said that process of talks with Taliban was a difficult task however; he never supported military operation.
He said that allegations were leveled against him and the PTI but his party would face any criticism for the sake of restoration of peace in the country.
Missouri executes serial killer
Franklin was put to death for killing Gerald Gordon in St. Louis, Missouri in 1977.WASHINGTON, Nov 20, 2013 (AFP) - A US white supremacist serial killer who also admitted to shooting porn mogul Larry Flynt was put to death in Missouri early Wednesday by lethal injection, news reports said.
Joseph Paul Franklin -- who was blamed for a string of killings between 1977 and 1980 he apparently committed in a bid to start a race war -- was declared dead at 1217 GMT in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
A judge had issued a stay temporarily halting the 63-year-old Franklin s execution, but that order was lifted a short time later, allowing it to proceed.
Franklin, who was put to death for killing Gerald Gordon outside a synagogue in St. Louis, Missouri in 1977, was serving several life sentences following his three-year-long killing spree.
But he is perhaps most infamous for shooting Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, in an apparent assassination attempt that left him in a wheelchair.
The media mogul wrote last month that he would like to "inflict damage" on Franklin but did not wish to see him die.
Flynt said he had been targeted by Franklin "because of a photo spread I ran in Hustler magazine featuring a black man and a white woman. He had bombed several synagogues... He hated blacks, he hated Jews."
"As I see it, the sole motivating factor behind the death penalty is vengeance, not justice, and I firmly believe that a government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself," Flynt wrote in The Hollywood Reporter.
In a recent interview with CNN, Franklin blamed his hatred on a poor upbringing and a family that abused him and stunted his mental development.
He said his goal had been to "get a race war started" and that his targets were Jews, blacks and interracial couples.
"I felt like I was at war. The survival of the white race was at stake," Franklin said.
"I consider it my mission, my three-year mission. Same length of time Jesus was on his mission, from the time he was 30 to 33," Franklin told CNN from behind a glass partition at the Missouri prison.
Franklin had been granted a stay after filing an appeal over the use of pentobarbital for a lethal injection, which his attorneys argued carried a high risk of unnecessary pain beyond what was needed to achieve death.
Early Wednesday the Eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Franklin s lawyers had not provided enough evidence, and overturned that ruling.
The execution was the first in Missouri in nearly three years, and the 35th in the United States this year.
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