A man accused of involvement in an alleged al-Qaeda plot to bomb Britain told a jury on Friday he had talked of blowing up the House of Commons and killing all the MPs, including the prime minister. But Omar Khyam, 24, said he had been joking with friends as they sat watching prime minister's questions on television.
Khyam and six other men are on trial in London, accused of a terrorist plot to construct and explode bombs made from fertilizer. Taking the stand for the second day, Khyam denied claims by US supergrass Mohammed Junaid Babar that he discussed launching a bombing campaign in Britain. He told the court that he and three associates would watch the TV news, get frustrated and make comments about exploding bombs.
Khyam told the jury of one such episode: "I remember I was watching on a Wednesday, the prime minister's questions, and we just made a comment, `Can you imagine if you dropped a bomb right there and then? You would take out all the MPs.'"
Asked by his barrister, Joel Bennathan, who had made that comment, Khyam said it had been him. He said the others in the room had laughed. Asked by his barrister, "Was that a serious proposition," Khyam said, "No."
Asked: "Was it a plan you were working on," he gave the same answer. When asked, "Did you have any intention of carrying it out," he again said, "No."
Khyam said he talked "every day" about hitting the enemy in Afghanistan, and in Palestine, but that this was "just talk." He was "working for the cause in Afghanistan", and during a trip there had "probably" met people from al-Qaeda.
Khyam denied he had gone to a Pakistani terrorism training camp. He said aluminum powder found near a garden shed at his family home, which the prosecution allege was to be used in a bomb, was to be used for decorating.
He brought the powder back from Pakistan for his uncle, who has requested it. During a visit to a tribal area in Pakistan near the Afghan border, he visited a town where shops were full of cheap weapons, he said.
Khyam and six other men were arrested in 2004 after half a tonne of explosive fertilizer was found in a lock-up in west London.
The prosecution alleges they had al-Qaeda links and had discussed attacking utilities, the Ministry of Sound nightclub, in London, and the Bluewater shopping center, in Kent.
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
RSS