Sunday, August 28, 2011
Saturday, October 30, 2010
DNA barcoding aims to protect species, food
Every species, from extinct to thriving, is set to get its own DNA barcode in an attempt to better track the ones that are endangered, as well as those being shipped across international borders as food or consumer products.
Researchers hope handheld mobile devices will be able to one day read these digital strips of rainbow-colored barcodes -- much like supermarket scanners -- to identify different species by testing tissue samples on site and comparing them with a digital database.
The International Barcode of Life Project (iBOL), which says it is the world's first reference library of DNA barcodes and the world's largest biodiversity genomics project, is being built by scientists using fragments of DNA to create a database of all life forms.
"What we're trying to do is to create this global library of DNA barcodes -- snippets, little chunks of DNA -- that permit us to identify species," Alex Smith, assistant professor of molecular ecology at the University of Guelph's Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, about 90 km (56 miles) west of Toronto.
So far DNA barcoding has helped identify the type of birds that forced last year's emergency landing of a flight on the Hudson River in New York. The researchers also discovered nearly one in four fish fillets are mislabeled in North America after referring to the library, which has 7,000 species of fish DNA barcodes, allowing the scientists to identify fillets that have been stripped of scales, skins and heads.
To get the barcodes, scientists use a short section of DNA extracted from a standardized region of tissue. Once the barcode is created, it's filed in the iBOL library.
Within a week, the barcode can be viewed publicly, online, by signing up for a free account at www.boldsystems.org, the site for Barcode of Life Datasystems (BOLD). Smith describes it as being like a label on a filing cabinet.
Just as the barcode scanner at a grocery store can identify lettuce, milk or steak, the DNA barcode sequence can be used to identify different species so that anyone who isn't a specialist -- from an elementary school student to a border patrol inspector -- can identify the species, once technology to read the library is available.
The library has more than 87,000 formally described species with barcodes filed and more than 1 million total barcoded specimens.
Smith said humans live among at least 1.9 million named species, with total diversity within all those species adding up to millions more. Scientists estimate iBOL will have barcodes for all 10 million species of multicellular life within the next 20 years.
While the library is based in Canada, which led the early stages of DNA barcoding, 25 other countries are also involved.
"Most of life on the planet is not polar bears and Siberian tigers -- most of life on the planet weighs less than a gram, is less than a centimeter long, and isn't visual. It experiences the world through taste and smell and we're not aware of its existence," Smith said.
Aside from saving polar bears or tigers from extinction, the library is meant to help with more routine aspects of the global economy. That includes jobs such as ensuring the salmon or trout in markets and restaurants is accurately identified, or determining whether foods or other animal products crossing international borders are what they are claimed to be.
Smith said the barcodes will dramatically cut the time food shipments are held up at borders if technology to read the barcodes is available to determine whether a suspected pest on board is harmful.
Bob Hanner, associate director of the International Barcode of Life project, said the DNA barcode library will also help prevent the illegal exploitation of animals.
"Obviously trade in endangered species, in terms of the black market, is second only to narcotics right now," Hanner said. "So it's a big deal to be able to identify if something is farmed alligator skin or endangered Cuban crocodile when it is involved in international commerce, and once it's tanned into a leather, these things can be very challenging."
Both Smith and Hanner see handheld wireless devices and computer applications technology being developed to read the DNA barcode library out in the field.
"The time horizon for bringing in these kinds of new platforms for detection really depends on how quickly the public sector can motivate to complete the reference sequence library," Hanner said.
Monday, October 25, 2010
South Sudan chooses 'freedom' anthem
— Hundreds of cheering southern Sudanese packed a concert hall in the regional capital Juba to watch contestants battle it out to provide the music for a "national" anthem, less than 80 days before a planned referendum on independence."This is a historic moment," said Mido Samuel, one of three entrants who made the final shortlist after an initial field of 36 was whittled down in the competition which climaxed late on Sunday.
"Having a national anthem for me means that I am declaring to everybody that I am now free," he said.
South Sudan is still recovering from decades of war with the north during which about two million people died in a conflict fuelled by religion, ethnicity, ideology and resources, including oil.
Excitement is rising as the south prepares to vote on January 9 in an independence referendum that was the centrepiece of a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.
Most analysts expect the south to vote to break away and split Africa's largest nation in two.
"This is about the spirit of the people of southern Sudan, who have never accepted to be enslaved without resistance," said Pagan Amum, secretary general of the south?s ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), speaking before the music began.
"Southerners are united by a common aspiration to be free," said Amum, who later danced in front of the audience alongside southern army chief James Hoth.
"On January 9, we will be free, and we will extend our hands in friendship to all the people of the world, particularly to the people of northern Sudan, whose elites have ruled us in a bad way."
The final shortlist will now be put to senior officials of the south's autonomous regional government and army who will make the final choice, said Joseph Abuk, chairman of the technical committee overseeing the anthem.
"This is part of our search for identity," said Abuk. "That is why national anthems are so very important."
The words for the anthem have already been chosen by a committee including government and military representatives.
"Sing songs of freedom with joy," the lyrics run. "For peace, liberty and justice shall forever reign."
Tensions remain high between the mainly Muslim north and the grossly underdeveloped south, most of whose inhabitants are Christian or follow traditional beliefs.
"Oh black warriors! Let?s stand up in silence and respect, saluting millions of martyrs whose blood cemented our national foundation," another verse runs.
North and south remain deadlocked over who should be eligible to take part in a separate vote in the contested oil-producing district of Abyei on whether it should remain part of the north or join an autonomous or independent south.
The vote is supposed to take place on same day as the wider independence referendum in the south but preparations have been overshadowed by the row over the electoral register.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Zlio.com
It’s a weird name for a cool service which I’ve started to use, which allows you to create your own shop in less than five minutes! Yes Sir - all in five minutes, and no need to know HTML or even to deal with the usual headaches of creating a website!
And now, I have my own online shop which I can personalize as much as I want and on which I can sell products which I’ve selected from a database of over three million - the only really tough thing was to think of a good name for the shop!
All I really need to do, now, is to advertise my shop to other people and let them now about it, because I get a very cool commission (2% to 15%) every time someone buys something from me! But of course, I never need to handle the items myself - all of that’s dealt with for me!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Qaeda gunmen kill three Yemeni soldiers: security official
gunmen ambushed a military convoy and killed three soldiers in south Yemen on Saturday, a security official said, two days after a similar ambush killed five soldiers in the same region."Three soldiers were killed and at least two were wounded when Al-Qaeda ambushed a military convoy ... heading east from Zinjibar (capital of Abyan province) toward the town of Mudia," the official told AFP.
The attackers set off roadside bombs and destroyed two military vehicles, he said.
The defence ministry's website, 26sep.net, reported that two alleged Al-Qaeda suicide bombers were killed when they blew up their car during the attack.
Clashes between the army and "terrorist elements involved in the ambush" left several dead and wounded among the attackers, it said, without giving figures or referring to the army casualties.
The air force responded by carrying out strikes on the attackers to give the convoy cover to continue to Mudia, the official added.
A similar ambush on Thursday killed five people including an officer and wounded eight others near Mudia.
Southern Yemen has seen a growing number of attacks by suspected Al-Qaeda militants, who have taken advantage of popular opposition to the central government.
Meanwhile, Yemeni security services arrested 33-year-old Saleh al-Rimi, "accused of financing al-Qaeda in Yemen," the interior ministry announced on Saturday.
The Yemeni man wanted for allegedly financing Al-Qaeda "resides permanently in Saudi Arabia" was arrested at Sanaa airport upon his arrival from the kingdom on Friday, it said.
The ministry said security services at Sanaa airport on Thursday also arrested Khaled al-Obaidi, who it said was involved in the kidnapping of a Japanese citizen last November.
The Japanese engineer, Takeo Mashimo, was freed on November 24 after being held hostage for nine days by tribesmen near Sanaa.
Tribes in Yemen, an impoverished country awash with weapons and gripped by domestic unrest, often kidnap foreigners to put pressure on local authorities.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Cuban hunger striker hospitalized and in critical condition
dissident hunger striker Guillermo Farinas was in critical condition Thursday after losing consciousness in his third week of fasting, said a spokeswoman for the hospital where he was being treated."Guillermo Farinas is in critical condition in the intensive care unit," the spokeswoman for the Arnaldo Milian regional hospital told AFP by telephone.
Farinas' personal doctor, Ismel Iglesias, said the 48-year-old psychologist and journalist went into a "hypoglycemic shock" and lost consciousness around 2:00 pm (1900) GMT.
"He was immediately taken by car to the hospital in the company of his wife and mother. He was put on a dextrose solution," and other medication, he said by telephone.
Iglesias said state physicians examined Farinas before he went into shock, found him "very weak" and ordered urine samples.
"They were very worried because (Farinas) had lost some vision and spoke in a halting manner," he added.
Until he passed out, Farinas had steadfastly refused to be hospitalized.
The 1.83-meter (six-foot) journalist's weight has dropped 13 kilos (28 pounds) to 58 kilos (128 pounds) since he went on hunger strike to seek the release of 26 political prisoners who are in need of medical treatment.
He has vowed to press ahead "to the end" with his protest fast, which he began February 24, the day after political prisoner Orlando Zapata died on the 85th day of his own hunger strike.
Meanwhile, former political prisoner Felix Bonne, 70, who has been a member of the dissident "Democratic Cuban Alliance," said he would start his own hunger strike if Farinas dies.
The Cuban government earlier has rejected the demands for the release of the prisoners while calling the hunger strike "blackmail," according to the official Communist Party newspaper Granma.
Government officials argue that Farinas and other dissidents are being manipulated by opponents of Cuba including the US government.
On Wednesday, Farinas, appearing emaciated and weak, spoke to AFP and explained the reasons for continuing his hunger strike.
"We're asking (the government) for a gesture of goodwill toward 26 political prisoners who are dying in prisons," Farinas told AFP in an interview this week in his home in Santa Clara, around 280 kilometers (175 miles) east of Havana.
"We are not asking that Raul Castro hand over power," he added, in the small room of his modest home in the "La Pastora" neighborhood.
Emaciated and visibly weak, Farinas has been receiving journalists, diplomats and fellow opposition leaders, but has been unable to win over his own mother.
"I do not approve of this strike and I do not share his ideas," said Alicia Hernandez, 75, who has been unable to persuade his son to end the hunger strike.
"But we cannot abandon him."
Monday, January 18, 2010
Iran rejects protest resignation of consul in Oslo
Mohammed Reza "Heydari has resigned but it has not been accepted and he must continue his work either there or in the ministry, and he has been informed of this decision," Mottaki told reporters in Tehran.
On January 7, Heydari said he had quit his job in protest at Tehran's violent suppression of opposition demonstrations on 27 December, adding that he would not return to Iran for fear of repercussions.
The Iranian embassy denied he had resigned, insisting the consul's term had simply come to an end about a month ago.
In reaction to Mottaki's comments Monday, Heydari stood his ground and excluded returning to Tehran for fear of reprisals.
"I am a diplomat and everyone knows what happens to a diplomat if he turns his back on a regime such as the one in place in Iran," he told AFP in Oslo.
"Returning to Tehran would be putting my life and my family's at risk," he said through an interpreter.
Heydari said he would only return to Iran if the opposition prevailed in his country.
"If not, I will continue fighting, in exile, for human rights alongside groups that defend freedom," he said.
"I have worked with Mr. Mottaki and have respect for him. But my message to him is clear: he has to look around him and become aware of what is happening. He has to resign and fight alongside his people, not against his people," he added.
The opposition protests on December 27, coinciding with the Shiite holy day of Ashura, left at least eight people dead and hundreds of others either injured or imprisoned.
The diplomat, a married father of two whose family lives with him in Norway, has been stationed in Oslo for just over two years. He was unsure when asked if he planned to seek political asylum in Norway.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Vancouver cop charged with assault with a weapon, assigned to desk duty
The charge against Sgt. Darcy Taylor stems from an incident last August when he responded to a fight in progress.
Insp. Mario Giardini, head of the police department's Professional Standards Section, says that about a month later, a man complained to the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner that he was struck with a baton and knocked to the ground.
Giardini says the complainant, in his mid-20's, wasn't injured by the blow and wasn't part of the fight that broke out.
He said the complainant is not known to police. He didn't know if the man had a relationship with anyone involved in the fight which brought Taylor to the scene in the first place.
Giardini says the department began its own investigation, which determined there were "reasonable and probable grounds" that an offence had been committed.
"If you read the Criminal Code section on assault ... it doesn't take much action to commit an assault," Giardini told a press conference Monday.
Taylor, who is in his mid-40s, has been assigned to desk duty.
"This is very, very rare. This happens so infrequently," Giardini said of the charge. "It's very tough for everyone in the department."
Vancouver police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton said the police will co-operate fully in the investigation.
More than 40 die in India's cold wave: officials
India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh has recorded 30 cold-related deaths since Saturday, police spokesman Soren Srivastava said in the state capital Lucknow.
Uttar Pradesh chief bureaucrat Arun Kumar Gupta said all schools and colleges were shut for four days until Thursday as a health precaution.
Gupta said state authorities on Monday also decided to spend 100 million rupees (2.17 million dollars) to hand out free blankets and much-needed firewood to the needy in freezing Uttar Pradesh which borders Nepal.
He said most of the victims were homeless people.
Night temperatures across northern India currently range between minus 3.8 degrees Celsius and nine degrees Celsius (25 and 48 degrees Fahrenheit), according to weather reports.
Uttar Pradesh government spokesman Diwakar Tripathy meanwhile said an exercise was underway to move the homeless into state-run night shelters.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency earlier had reported 33 dead in Uttar Pradesh, quoting official sources.
In adjoining Bihar, India's second most populous state, a spokesman from its disaster management unit reported 11 cold related deaths since Sunday and added all local schools were shut for three days from Monday.
Private welfare agencies however estimate more than 30 people may have succumbed to the cold in Bihar, one of India's most impoverished states, since last month.
PTI on Monday reported a cold-related death in hilly Uttarakhand state.
Over the weekend, airline and railway schedules were severely affected due to fog blanketing north India, with poor visibility causing three train accidents that claimed 10 lives.
New Delhi airport spokesman Anirudh Chatterjee told AFP that 150 passenger flights were delayed, 50 cancelled and 25 others rescheduled over the weekend due to bad weather.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Poland earmarks more money for Auschwitz security
Police found the sign Sunday, cut into three pieces and hidden beneath a layer of snow in the woods. Five men have been arrested, and police say the thieves were not driven by ideology but were likely commissioned by someone from abroad.
Polish news agency PAP, citing unnamed sources close to the investigation, reported that the thieves were to receive a commission of between 120,000 and 125,000 Swedish krona ($16,400 to $17,100). Polish media over the past two days have reported that someone in Sweden — either an intermediary or the final customer — commissioned the theft. Investigators, however, have refused to deny or confirm a possible Swedish connection.
PAP said that the fact that the commission price named in Swedish krona is not precise indicates that it could have been converted from yet another currency, an indication that the final destination planned for the stolen sign was a country other than Sweden.
On Wednesday, Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski said he has earmarked 400,000 zlotys ($137,000) for improving external security at the memorial site in southern Poland. It is made up of two camps, Auschwitz and Birkenau — also known as Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II — and sprawls nearly 500 acres (200 hectares).
He also said that guards who failed to prevent the theft last week have been suspended and other museum employees could also face consequences.
Museum spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfelt said the money could buy more than 10 high-quality surveillance cameras.
The museum is constantly upgrading its security system, he said, especially inside buildings that house documents and belongings of the more that 1 million victims of the camp, including tons of hair, glasses or suitcases.
Prosecutors investigating the early Friday theft said that security at the museum was insufficient. But Mensfelt disagreed, saying that more than 50 of the museum's 250 employees were in charge of security, and that police experts were regularly consulted on security matters.
The annual budget of 10 million zlotys ($3.3 million) comes from the Polish state coffers and another 10 million zlotys it earns from guided tours, historic publications and a parking lot.
Mensfelt said management was reviewing scores of offers of funding from Poland and abroad.
Police were analyzing the damaged sign and it was not immediately clear when it could be returned to the museum. For now, a replica of the sign hangs in its place.
After occupying Poland in 1939, the Nazis established the Auschwitz I camp for German political prisoners and Polish prisoners. The sign was made in 1940 and placed above the main gate there.
Two years later, hundreds of thousands of Jews began arriving by train in cattle cars to the wooden barracks of nearby Birkenau, also called Auschwitz II, where they were systematically killed in gas chambers.
The camp was liberated on Jan. 27, 1945, by the Soviet army. The museum plans ceremonies next month marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation.
(This version CORRECTS spelling of spokesman to Mensfelt sted Mensfeldt.)
Friday, December 18, 2009
RIM 3Q profit up 59 pct on record BlackBerry sales
TORONTO — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. surprised Wall Street on Thursday as it reported a 59 percent increase in third-quarter income, boosted by new subscribers and record sales of its smart phones.
More than 80 percent of the Canadian company's new subscribers were non-corporate customers, a sign of the BlackBerry's popularity among consumers amid intense competition from devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Palm Inc.'s Pre and Motorola Inc.'s Droid.
Shares surged more than 12 percent in after-hours trading.
After initially focusing on corporate customers, RIM has expanded its reach into the consumer market in recent years with such touch-screen models as the BlackBerry Storm. Two years ago, half of RIM's new subscribers were business customers. In the third quarter, they made up less than a fifth.
"The consumer side is growing real fast," co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said on a conference call with analysts. "It's not like this isn't a competitive space with big companies trying to do well and yet we're No. 1."
RIM sold more than 10 million BlackBerry phones during the third quarter, beating the previous record of 8.3 million, set during the second quarter. By contrast, Apple shipped 7.4 million iPhones in the most recent quarter.
"This shows that RIM is as popular a device as it's ever been, selling more units than its largest competitor," said Duncan Stewart, director of research and analysis at DSam Consulting.
RIM is known for its popular messaging phones that some can't live without. Before he took office, President Barack Obama lobbied successfully to keep his BlackBerry despite security concerns.
But among investors there has been fears about RIM's future in recent months as the stock dropped more than 25 percent after its last earnings report. The BlackBerry's Web browser and phone apps are perceived to be less stellar than the iPhone's. Apple's stock has soared in recent months.
Verizon, a U.S. carrier estimated to represent about 28 percent of RIM revenue last quarter, recently launched a massive marketing campaign for Motorola's Droid smartphone. Verizon has historically heavily marketed the Blackberry device.
Balsillie acknowledged Verizon is an important strategic partner.
"You can't force love," he said. "Some carriers are feeling quite concerned about how they maintain their relevance. We like to be an agent of that relevance for them."
Balsillie said RIM had its strongest quarter ever for growth outside of North America with 37 percent of revenue coming from overseas and approximately 35 percent of the BlackBerry subscriber base now located outside of North America.
He announced a partnership with China Telecom, a week after reaching a similar deal with China Mobile. He said RIM is considering China for manufacturing and research and development opportunities.
Balsillie reiterated that 100 percent of the handhelds sold one day will be smartphones.
IDC Canada analyst Kevin Restivo said RIM's results underscore the shift from cell phones to smartphones.
"The worldwide smartphone opportunity remains huge — RIM continues to capitalize on it," Restivo said.
RIM's better-than-expected report comes as BlackBerry users in North America faced delays in receiving e-mail on their devices Thursday. RIM said that technicians isolated and resolved the issue and that it is investigating the cause.
Users were still able to make phone calls, browse the Internet and send and receive text messages. RIM didn't say how many users were affected or how long the outage lasted. RIM said some customers may still experience delays as e-mail queues are processed.
RIM, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, said Thursday that it earned $628.4 million, or $1.10 per share, in the quarter that ended Nov. 28. That compares with $396.3 million, or 69 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue was up 41 percent to $3.92 billion from $2.78 billion last year.
The company's performance surpassed the expectation of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who were expecting net income of $1.04 per share and revenue of $3.78 billion.
Peter Misek, an analyst with Canaccord Adams, said RIM exceeded expectations throughout, and worries among media and analysts were unfounded.
"It continues to execute strongly," Misek said. "They significantly exceeded all metrics."
RIM said fourth-quarter revenue is expected to be in the range of $4.2 billion and $4.4 billion, beating analysts' expectation of $4.1 billion. The company also said gross margin is expected to be at 43.5 percent and earnings per share in the range of $1.23 to $1.31 per share.
Shares jumped $7.75 to $71.21 in after-hours trading Thursday. Before the release of results, shares dropped $1.21, or 1.9 percent, to close at $63.46.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
AP sources: FBI questions students, eyes charges
WASHINGTON — FBI agents have questioned some of the young Americans arrested in Pakistan as U.S. investigators gather evidence that could lead to a conspiracy charge against them, an American official and another person familiar with the case said Friday.
Agents are working to see if there is enough evidence to charge any of the five Muslim students with conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, the two people said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
Officials in both countries expect the five, who are from the Washington, D.C., area, to be deported back home. But Pakistan may hold them long enough for U.S. prosecutors to prepare charges, and there was no immediate indication how long that might take.
Intelligence officials in Pakistan said Saturday the five have been taken to a facility for terror suspects in the eastern city of Lahore, a major base for Pakistani military and intelligence where they face further questioning.
A police official in the Pakistani town of Sargodha, Tahir Gujar, confirmed Saturday the men were no longer there. Two intelligence officials said they were taken to Lahore. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
While Pakistani officials have said the men admitted trying to connect with militant groups, an FBI note sent to American lawmakers Thursday evening said the bureau had "no information linking them to terrorist organizations." That FBI note did not address whether the students attempted to join some terrorist group.
The other possible charge — and one that could be more difficult to bring — would be conspiracy to maim or kill people overseas.
"If they had reached an agreement amongst themselves and were pursuing an opportunity to train or fight with what they knew to be a foreign terrorist organization, then that would be a crime," said Pat Rowan, the former head of the Justice Department's national security division.
Making that case would depend greatly on what the men say to FBI agents — and whether any evidence or incriminating statements gathered by Pakistani police would meet U.S. legal standards.
"Where one needs to be at least a little skeptical is that that will translate into the sort of evidence that can be used in an American courtroom," said Rowan.
Statements made by Americans to police overseas can be used against them in a U.S. trial, as long as the statements weren't coerced. Another key source of evidence could be the men's computers, on which Pakistani police say they found maps of areas where terrorists operate.
Across the United States, there has been a flurry of cases against alleged homegrown terror threats, but so far the situation of the five young men who went to Pakistan is most similar to a case in Boston, where investigators say two young men repeatedly tried and failed to join terror groups overseas.
In that case, the men were rejected by both the Taliban and Lashkar e Tayyiba in Pakistan, and later efforts to sign up with groups in Yemen and Iraq also failed, according to prosecutors. The charges against those two include conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
In both that case and the new one, the men apparently were drawn to militant messages on the Internet.
On Friday, local Muslim leaders gathered at the mosque where the five young men prayed in Alexandria, Va., just across the Potomac River from Washington. The five participated in youth activities at the small mosque that operates out of a converted single-family home in a residential neighborhood.
Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, accused militants of manipulating young men through online videos and writings.
"We are determined not to let religious extremists exploit the vulnerability of the emotions of our children through slick, destructive propaganda," said Bray.
Pakistan authorities say the five young men used the social networking site Facebook and the Internet video site YouTube to try to connect with extremist groups in Pakistan. When they arrived in Pakistan, they allegedly took that effort to the street.
They were reported missing by their families more than a week ago after one of them left behind a farewell video showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.
Pakistani police detained them this week — along with one of their fathers — in Sargodha, a town in the eastern province of Punjab.
The case has fanned fears that Americans and other Westerners — especially those of Pakistani descent — are traveling to Pakistan to join up with al-Qaida and other militant groups. It comes on the heels of charges against a Chicago man of Pakistani origin who is accused of surveying targets for the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.
One of the men being held is identified as an Egyptian American named Ramy Zamzam, a dental student at Howard University in Washington.
The others were identified as Waqar Hussain, Aman Yemer, Ahmad Minni, Umar Farooq and his father, Khalid Farooq. Investigators are still trying to establish what role — if any — the father played in the men's alleged activities, officials said.
Pakistani officials have given various spellings of their names. The FBI note said two of the young men are of Ethiopian descent, and two are of Pakistani descent. The note was provided by a congressional official on condition of anonymity because it was not a public document.
In Sargodha, regional police chief Javed Islam said Thursday the five men wanted to join militants in Pakistan's tribal areas before crossing into Afghanistan. He said they met representatives from the al-Qaida-linked Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group in the southeastern city of Hyderabad and from a related group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, in Lahore, but were turned away because they were not trusted.
Pakistan has many militant groups based on its territory, and the U.S. has been pressing the government to crack down on extremism. Al-Qaida and Taliban militants are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal belt near the Afghan border.
Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad, Chris Brummitt and Asif Shahzad and in Islamabad, Babar Dogar in Lahore, Pamela Hess in Washington and Matt Barakat in Alexandria, Va., contributed to this report.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Pakistan mourns officers, civilians slain in mosque attack
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Funerals were held Saturday for civilians, officers and servicemen of Pakistan's army killed in a devastating militant attack on a mosque in Rawalpindi that left 40 people dead.
Nine officers including a major general, a brigadier, two lieutenant colonels and two majors were killed in Friday's attack, in which assailants unleashed gunfire, grenades and suicide blasts inside a mosque during prayers.
The "highly tragic incident" left 17 children and 10 other civilians dead among the overall toll, according to a military statement.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and other top military officials attended the funerals of Major General Umer Bilal and two civilians, including the son of a top military commander.
Rawalpindi is home to the Pakistani military's headquarters and is a frequent target of Taliban insurgents, who have staged a wave of attacks in recent months to avenge military offensives against them across the northwest.
A smartly turned out army contingent provided an honour guard as the coffin of the major general arrived for funeral prayers held on the lawns of a heavily guarded military building, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Army soldiers stood guard on the lawns and on a nearby rooftop during the funeral prayers.
"Bodies of other army officials who embraced martyrdom in yesterday's attack have been taken to their respective native towns for the last rites," a military official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
A top army commander, Lieutenant General Masood Aslam, who lost his son in the attack, stood composed as officials commiserated with him over his son's death after the prayers.
Aslam supervises military operations in the restive northwest and tribal regions at the centre of recent military offensives.
"It is God's will," he told AFP after the prayers.
The head of the army, General Kayani, also met family members of some of the deceased officers. "The nation, including the army, stands united in sharing their grief," a military statement quoted him as saying.
"Pakistan is our motherland. It is the bastion of Islam and we live for the glory of Islam and Pakistan.
"Our faith, resolve and pride in our religion and in our country is an asset, which is further reinforced after each terrorist incident," Kayani said, reiterating the army's commitment to "defend and protect Pakistan at all costs".
Pakistan is in the grip of a fierce Islamist insurgency, with more than 2,600 people killed in attacks in the last two-and-a-half years. Taliban fighters frequently target security forces and military installations.
The military is engaged in offensives against Islamist militants across much of the northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a region branded the most dangerous place on Earth by Washington.
About 30,000 troops backed by helicopter gunships and fighter jets poured into South Waziristan in October to try to dismantle Taliban strongholds.
The mosque attack was condemned earlier by the United States, which has backed Pakistan's military campaign against militants, in an often tense alliance.
"These attacks highlight the vicious and inhuman nature of this enemy whose true target is the democratically elected government of Pakistan and the security of all Pakistanis," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
Such attacks underscore the "need for us to support the government of Pakistan as they fight this... common enemy and this common challenge," he added.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Australian PM heads for key US talks
PORT OF SPAIN — Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was heading to Washington Sunday for key talks with US President Barack Obama to be dominated by climate change and the conflict in Afghanistan.
Rudd will arrive fresh from a Commonwealth summit in Trinidad where he helped steer a landmark declaration backing moves to draw up a legally binding pact to fight global warming at climate talks in Copenhagen.
Obama will host the Australian prime minister, whose country is a key member of the coalition fighting in Afghanistan, at the White House on Monday.
"Obviously a primary preoccupation of both the president and myself is the Copenhagen conference and our respective efforts to deliver a strong, robust Copenhagen agreement," Rudd told journalists in Trinidad.
But the two men will also discuss Afghanistan on the eve of a nationwide address by Obama to lay out a new strategy for the conflict including deploying more than 30,000 extra troops.
During a surprise visit to Australian forces fighting in southern Afghanistan two weeks ago, Rudd gave assurances his troops were in for the long haul.
But he indicated Sunday that he would refuse any request to send more soldiers to the conflict.
Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan, making it the ninth biggest contributor of international forces fighting the hardline Islamists who were forced from power in 2001.
"Earlier this year... Australia increased its troop commitment to Afghanistan by about 40 percent," Rudd said Sunday.
"As I have said consistently since then, we believe our troop commitment is about right and my view on that hasn't changed."
The United States has some 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, bearing by far the largest share of the burden of the fight against the Taliban and remnants of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
NATO allies, whose 42,000-strong contribution swells the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan to about 110,000, are due to consider sending more troops at gatherings of the military alliance December 3-4 and on December 7.
The White House said Friday: "Australia is an important ally of and partner with the United States in addressing the many common regional and global challenges we face."
Monday, November 23, 2009
MSNBC to take over breaking news Twitter account
U.S. cable news station MSNBC will take over @BreakingNews, a news service based in the microblogging service Twitter, BNO News said Monday.
BNO News says msnbc.com will be the first client of its new service, BNO News Wire, and will take over the Twitter account starting in early December.
"With the launch of the subscription-based news wire service, BNO News will shift attention away from @BreakingNews to focus on building and delivering this new enhanced service to media companies and publishers," BNO News said in a statement.
The @BreakingNews account on Twitter has 1.4 million followers, and is ranked No. 78 on the list of the most followed Twitter accounts.
CNN's breaking news account on Twitter, @cnnbrk, has 2.8 million followers.
BNO News also has a popular subscription-based iPhone app for breaking news alerts.
BNO News was founded by Michael von Poppel of the Netherlands and Rodrigo Javier Aguiar of Mexico. Von Poppel will turn 20 in December.