akistani officials announced the capture of an Uzbek militant who claimed al-Qaeda plotted the March suicide bombing that killed a US diplomat and four others in Karachi days before US President George W. Bush visited Pakistan.
The Uzbek, who was not identified, was arrested last month after militants attacked a security post near Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal region, which borders Afghanistan, an intelligence official said on Wednesday. The Uzbek was wounded in the fight.
Al-qaeda plot
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the Uzbek told interrogators that he belonged to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network and was among planners of the March 2 bombing near the US consulate in the southern city of Karachi.
The detained militant said the attack was launched to coincide with a visit two days later by Bush. Despite the bombing, Bush went ahead with his trip to Pakistan for talks with the country's president, an ally in the US war on terror, General Pervez Musharraf.
Another official said the Uzbek claimed that al-Qaeda organized Pakistani militants to carry out the attack. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his work, provided no details on the local militants.
Jundallah member?
But days after the attack took place, investigators accused a Pakistani militant organization called Jundallah, or Allah's Brigade, of being behind it. That group has been blamed for attacks on other US and Christian targets in Pakistan.
It was not immediately clear if the Pakistanis mentioned by the Uzbek were members of Jundallah. It was also unclear why word of his capture took a month to surface.
The bombing happened just meters from the gate of the US consulate in one of Karachi's most heavily guarded neighborhoods. Guards tried to stop the bomber's car at a checkpoint, but the attacker sped off and rammed into the diplomat's sports utility vehicle, killing the envoy and his Pakistani driver. A guard and woman nearby also died, and 52 people were wounded.
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
RSS