Two more suspects have been charged in connection with the deadly Madrid commuter railroad bombings, authorities said. \nJudge Juan del Olmo jailed Rafa Zuher and Naima Oulad Akcha on charges of collaborating with a terrorist group after questioning them separately for more than six hours, court officials said on Wednesday. \nThe two suspects, both Moroccans, were arrested last weekend. They denied the charges and condemned the March 11 bombings, court officials said. \nSpanish authorities have arrested a total of 15 suspects in connection with the bombings -- 11 Moroccans, two Indians, one Algerian and a Spaniard. One of the Moroccans and the Algerian were released. Thirteen remain in custody, of whom 11 now have been charged. \nThe attacks killed 190 people and injured at least 1,800 others. \nFive suspects have been charged with mass murder and belonging to a terrorist group and six have been charged with collaboration. \nAll but the two Indian suspects are being held in solitary confinement without access to lawyers or family. With the exception of the Spaniard, all of the charged have denied any involvement in the attacks. \nThe charges stop short of a formal indictment but suggest that the court has strong evidence against them. They can be jailed up to two years while investigators gather more evidence. \nAkcha is the first woman arrested in the case. She is the sister of Khalid Oulad Akcha, who was jailed in a separate case but brought to Madrid under Del Olmo's orders. \nSuspicion in the attacks has focused on an alleged Morocco-based terrorist cell believed to have links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and on al-Qaeda itself. \nInvestigators have analyzed a videotape in which a man claiming to speak on behalf of al-Qaeda said the group carried out the Madrid attack in reprisal for Spain's backing of the US-led war in Iraq. \nThe prime suspect in the bombings is Jamal Zougam, an immigrant from Morocco. Spanish court documents have linked him to members of an al-Qaeda cell in Spain. \nUnconfirmed news reports on Wednesday said Spanish police had identified five of eight people they suspect carried out the attacks, including the alleged cell leader. \nThe Periodico de Catalunya daily newspaper said Zougam's fingerprints were found in a van that was discovered just hours after the bombings near a train station outside Madrid. Detonators and a cassette tape of verses from the Quran were found in the van. \nThe arrested Spaniard, Jose Emilio Suarez, has reportedly admitted having helped provide explosives to the Moroccans. \nThe Spanish royal family wept as they comforted row after row of mourners, clasping hands and kissing cheeks at Wednesday's state funeral for the 190 people killed in the attacks. \nOn a cold, overcast day, King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and the rest of the royal family joined French President Jacques Chirac, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prince Charles, US Secretary of State Colin Powell and more than a dozen other heads of state or government in the 19th century Almudena Cathedral. \n"We have cried, and we have cried together," Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela, clad in purple vestments, told the congregation of about 1,500. \nThe attacks traumatized Spain so deeply that the government took the extraordinary step of holding a state funeral for people outside the royal family. \nThe organist played the Spanish national anthem as the royal family entered the granite cathedral in Madrid's old quarter. Later, incense wafted through the air as a choir clad in blue gowns sang mournful hymns. \nThe royal family sat up front during the Mass, with the Spanish government and other politicians immediately behind, including Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his successor, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Foreign dignitaries sat on the left side of the aisle. \n"Great pain has filled your lives and those of your families since that black day in which brutal terrorist violence, planned and executed with unspeakable cruelty, ended the lives of your most beloved," Rouco Varela said. \n"From the very first moment -- that of the anguished search and the inevitable identification of your loved ones -- your pain became the pain of our dear city of Madrid, of Spain, and very quickly, of the whole world," he added. \nBefore the Mass began, one unidentified man in the congregation shouted, "Mr. Aznar, I hold you responsible for the death of my son!" \nNeither Aznar nor anyone in his government went to see grieving relatives at the funeral.
Pins hidden in her shoes, head forced down a toilet, kicked in the stomach: South Korean hairdresser Pyo Ye-rim suffered a litany of abuse from school bullies, but now she is speaking out. The 26-year-old is part of a phenomenon sweeping South Korea known as “Hakpok #MeToo,” where people who were bullied publicly name and shame the perpetrators of school violence — “hakpok” in Korean — decades after the alleged crimes. Made famous globally by Netflix’s gory revenge series The Glory, the movement has ensnared everyone from K-pop stars to baseball players and accusations — often anonymous — can be career-ending, with
One of Australia’s two active volcanoes on an island near Antarctica — known as Big Ben — has been spotted by satellite spewing lava. The lava flow on the uninhabited Heard Island, about 4,100km southwest of Perth and 1,500km north of Antarctica, is part of an ongoing eruption that was first noted more than a decade ago. The image was caught by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on Thursday, and is a composite of an optical picture and an infrared image. The lava is seen flowing down the side of Big Ben from near the summit, known as Mawson Peak.
TIME TO TALK: Among China’s grievances were economic and trade issues related to Taiwan, but both countries emphasized the need to maintain communication US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) on Friday raised complaints about China’s state-led economic policies during a meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤), who objected to US tariffs and trade policies, as well as issues related to Taiwan, their offices said. However, statements from the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce emphasized the need for Washington and Beijing to maintain communication on trade. “Ambassador Tai highlighted the need to address the critical imbalances caused by China’s state-led, non-market approach to the economy and trade policy,” the USTR said in a statement released after the
READY FOR ACTION: Military, police, firefighters and volunteers were standing by for search-and-rescue operations, with an official saying they ‘cannot afford not to prepare’ Philippine officials yesterday began evacuating thousands of people, shut down schools and offices and imposed a no-sail ban as Typhoon Mawar approached the country’s northern provinces a week after battering the US territory of Guam. The typhoon was packing maximum sustained winds of 155kpm and gusts of up to 190kph, but was forecast to spare the mountainous region a direct hit. Current projections show the typhoon veering northeast toward Taiwan or southern Japan. Although it is expected to slow down considerably, authorities warned of dangerous tidal surges, flash floods and landslides as it blows past the northernmost province of Batanes from today
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