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Note: The following text is a quote: October 28, 2009 ICE agents arrest Albanian national wanted for murder in Italy The Albanian national also faces criminal visa-fraud charges NEW YORK - An Albanian national, who was convicted in absentia for a murder in Italy, was arrested on Wednesday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Ferdinand Marku, also known as Edmond Voli, faces visa-fraud charges for knowingly and intentionally making false statements on a federal immigration application. Marku, 39, was convicted in absentia, in Rome, Italy, for the November 2000 fatal stabbing of a victim near a subway station...

A 70-year-old Albanian man kept his two daughters chained for 22 years, saying they were mentally ill and aggressive, local media reported Tuesday. 'They were both ill, and I kept them in chains to keep them from running away,' the man told local media. 'I have fed them and washed them, but I had no time to go and look for them if they ran away,' he said. The two women, aged 38 and 47, were living in a small room with only a blanket on the floor. Media reported that the older sister had her left foot chained, while...

SNIPPET: "Arabic language schools in Nasr City are doing well and many Salafists come to Egypt in to learn the language of the Koran. Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?" SNIPPET: "In addition to language lessons, they usually follow courses in Islamic law offered by teachers ranging from the renowned Al-Azhar University to clandestine imams without permits. "Religious fanatics want to be taken seriously," says Walid al-Gohari, founder and director of the Al-Fajr institute,...

A man from Kosovo wanted in a New York City slaying awaits extradition from South Texas. The Border Patrol said Wednesday that Arber Mustafaj, 35, was detained with two other men from the former Yugoslavia, including his brother, just before midnight Monday.....

PARIS (AFP) – Kosovo's former prime minister Agim Ceku, who is wanted in Serbia on war crimes charges, confirmed he had been expelled from Colombia and could not return, in comments to AFP Thursday.

Want someone murdered? Albanian hitmen are touting for business in London, apparently without any fear of the law are we living in Chicago or a scene of the "Goodfellas" News Desk The London Daily News has discovered that professional Albanian assassins are "touting" for business in the capital claiming to be able to "take out" targets for as little as £5,000. In an under cover investigation into criminal gangs operating in north London Albanians who fought in the KLA during the bloody Balkans conflict against Serbia, now have now established themselves as formidable figures in the London's underworld. Experienced users...

The fate of the 14th-century abbey, one of the best-preserved medieval churches in the Balkans, has been darkened by ethnic violence. Time stands still within the Visoki Decani Monastery, nestled among chestnut groves at the foot of the Prokletije Mountains in western Kosovo. Declared a World Heritage Site in 2004, Unesco cited the 14th-century abbey as an irreplaceable treasure, a place where "traditions of Romanesque architecture meet artistic patterns of the Byzantine world." The Serbian Orthodox monastery represents, according to art historian Bratislav Pantelic, author of a book on Decani's architecture, "the largest and best-preserved medieval church in the entire...

BRUSSELS -- Kosovo's unilateral independence declaration turned into a debacle and a bad precedent, European Voice writes. In her column for this independent Brussels-based publication, Ilana Bet-El criticizes the EU for what she describes as "disarray over Kosovo, starting from the unilateral declaration of independence in February". "It was an ill-conceived, amateurishly handled move, lacking consensus in the EU and in the international arena. Regardless of whether Kosovo deserved independence or not, the reasoning behind it was contorted at the best of times, laying open the deep global divisions over international law and its application," Bet-El says. "From a narrowly...

30 December 2008 | 18:04 -> 21:05 | Source: B92, Beta, Tanjug KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- After two Albanians stabbed a 16-year-old Serb with a knife in Kosovska Mitrovica this afternoon and incidents that ensued, the situation is now calm. Automatic gunfire was heard as an Albanian-owned store was set on fire near the bridge on the Ibar River which divides Kosovska Mitrovica into its northern, predominantly Serb, and southern, Albanian part. The victim, Nikola Božović, was taken to hospital with a 10-centimeter stab wound apparently in the lumbar area of his back. Doctor Traj�e Bogeski said that the boy was...

26 November 2008, 13:52 CET (BELGRADE) - Serbian police have arrested seven people after dismantling several networks for trafficking would-be immigrants to western Europe, a Belgrade daily reported Wednesday. The seven, who included a policeman and hotel owner in the northern town of Subotica, were suspected of having attempted to smuggle some 280 people across the nearby border with Hungary, said the newspaper Politika. The would-be immigrants, who were to be transported along several channels using vans, were ethnic Albanians mostly from the breakaway southern Serbian province of Kosovo, but also from Albania and Macedonia. The former Yugoslav republic of...

BELGRADE -- An group calling itself the Army of the Republic of Kosovo has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the International Civilian Office (ICO) in Priština (on November 14th). Three German nationals were arrested on November 14 over the incident, but will probably be released due to a lack of evidence. The Albanian group sent a message via a personal e-mail account, threatening the Kosovo government, media and international organizations in the province. “As long as the UN plan is in force, we will attack with full might and there will be no security for Serbs that live in...

BELGRADE -- Lufti Dervishi, a urologist from Kosovo, has been arrested on suspicion of performing illegal kidney transplants, daily Blic writes. One witness in the investigation into the trafficking of organs of Serb prisoners from Kosovo in 1998, mentioned the doctor’s name in regards to the case, according to Blic. “The witness told Serbian war crimes prosecutors that he saw Doctor Ljutvi Dervishi at locations where it was suspected that organs had been extracted from civilian prisoners and sold later,” Blic’s source stated. “He was now arrested with a scalpel in his hand, and it's obvious that they have continued...

PRIŠTINA -- Several hundred Serbs driven out of Priština yesterday visited the graves of their loved ones, some for the first time since 1999. The Kosovo Serbs forced out of Decani Djakovica and Pec; also went to the graveyards in these Metohija towns, to mark the Orthodox Christian holiday of Zadušnice (All Souls' Day). In addition to desecrated tombstones, reports say that local Albanians subjected the Serbs to verbal threats and provocation, that included bottles thrown at them. Those who visited the Orthodox cemetery in southern Kosovska Mitrovica also found that some 80 percent of the graves there were vandalized,...

BELLINZONA, Switzerland – Two brothers from Kosovo were convicted Thursday of running a massive drug smuggling ring that prosecutors said supplied Western Europe with up to half of its heroin. Ragip and Kemal Shabani channeled 1.5 tons of heroin through Europe from the mid-1990s until 2003, when they were shut down, prosecutors said. They used a small town in Kosovo as their base with branches in Macedonia, Albania, Spain and the Czech Republic, according to the Federal Criminal Court. The trial — considered one of Switzerland's largest-ever drug cases — was held under high security in the southern town of...

An American analyst believes that the Balkans, with the exception of Kosovo, will hardly feature among the new U.S. administration's foreign policy priorities. Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs in New York Jonathan Clarke explained that Kosovo will be an exception because of the implications it may have on the Transcaucasus. "I think that the Balkans will be at the bottom of the list of our priorities," Tanjug quoted him as saying. But, he continued, since Russia will be one of the top priorities - because of the Russian gas, Moscow's relations Brussels and Russia's...

Albania's government said on Friday it was looking into the sudden death of an arms industry figure who was helping prosecutors investigate a weapons sale to the United States and an explosion that killed 26 people. Television pictures showed businessman Kosta Trebicka, his head covered in blood, sprawled on his back on a dirt road in a remote area of eastern Albania, where he had been hunting. His off-road car was nearby, and appeared to be damaged.

Podgorica, 5 August (AKI) - A court in the small Balkan country of Montenegro on Tuesday convicted 12 ethnic Albanians, including four US citizens, of plotting a rebellion when the republic became independent of Serbia in 2006. Judge Ivica Stankovic also convicted five other members of the group from Montenegro's Albanian minority of possessing illegal weapons. He sentenced the 17 defendants to prison terms ranging from three months to six and a half years for planning a rebellion and the Americans received some of the toughest sentences. The ethnic Albanians were arrested on terrorism charges in September 2006, but the...

Skopje, Macedonia - Nine people were wounded, several of them critically, in a gangland-style shootout in renewed violence in Macedonia, authorities in Skopje confirmed Friday. The drive-by attack from two cars, involving automatic weapons and shotguns, happened late Thursday in Radusa, a village in a tense section of Macedonia dominated by ethnic Albanians. The details remain sketchy and police said it was still investigating. One of the wounded men was Besfor Haliti, son of three-time lawmaker Rafiz Haliti, a prominent member of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). In a telephone interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, the elder Haliti said...

Pristina, 21 May (AKI) – Kosovo Albanian journalist Baton Hadziju has been arrested and faces charges for contempt of the United Nations' Hague-based Yugoslav war crimes tribunal after he allegedly identified a secret witness in a trial. Hadziju, until recently the editor of the leading Albanian language daily Koha ditore and currently director of another daily Ekspres, was arrested in Pristina on Tuesday and has been transferred to The Hague (photo), Kosovo police said. Prosecutors at the tribunal allege that Baton Haxhiu, the editor of a newspaper, last year obtained information about a witness with a protected identity and then...

Country Reports on Terrorism 2007 - Kosovo The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) continued to monitor suspected terrorist activity with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG). Officials believed that a few of the more than 400 NGOs operating in Kosovo were involved in suspicious activities, and sought to prevent extremists from using NGOs to gain a foothold in Kosovo. Consequently, municipalities authorized NGO use of public facilities for religious gatherings only if the relevant religious community consented. The Kosovo Police Service (KPS) and UNMIK Police Counterterrorism Units (CTUs) were primarily responsible for Kosovo's counterterrorism efforts, but were small and...

Just a few hours after I explained on Jihad Watch what was wrong with Michael Totten’s pro-Albanian-supremacist post on Commentary magazine’s website, the following item was posted on the site. It concerns an article that came out in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle last week on the one-year anniversary of the Ft. Dix arrests of four Albanians, the significance of which becomes clear if you notice that the woman’s name is Albanian. Introductory comment by JW director Robert Spencer: "She says she’s just being singled out because she is a Muslim. And I’m sure that’s true. I’m sure there are...

Hundreds of ethnic Albanians in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, have protested against Serbia's plans to hold elections in Kosovo on Sunday. The protesters said the United Nations' interim Kosovo mission (Unmik) and the Kosovo government were responsible for failing to use their powers to prevent the elections from going ahead. During Friday's protest, the demonstrators dumped rubbish in front of the UN mission and government buildings. Albin Kurti, leader of the Self-determination Youth Movement, said the rubbish symbolised what the protesters thought of the Unmik and government decision to ignore the polls. The Serbian government, which staunchly opposes Kosovo's move, is...

The new situation arising from the unilateral Kosovo declaration of independence shapes a new reality that will have multitude and mostly negative consequences for countless nations across the globe. It is important also to illuminate around the existence of the Kosovo issue as a demographic one, shaped by the expansion of one group of people (Albanian Muslims) versus the other one (Serbian Christians). Moreover the existence of facts on the ground as resulting from the population growth of the former, signify a real precedent for other regions in the world. In 1913 when Kosovo & Metojia became a part of...

Croatia’s recognition of Kosovo has more to do with a desire to please Washington than responsible regional politics, writes Marinko Čulić. In less than the two months since Kosovo became independent, Croatia has been flooded with so many wrong conclusions and theses that they have already started to create a false parallel reality. This is not to say that unforgettable political statements have not been made before, especially during Tudjman’s time, when, for example, the thesis of Croatia as the ‘bulwark of Christianity’ shook the western part of ex-Yugoslavia, and almost the country itself. We thought we had left this...

CAMDEN, New Jersey-A man who admitted letting a group of accused terror-plotters shoot his guns at a firing range was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Monday. Judge Robert Kugler said Agron Abdullahu, who is originally from Kosovo, deserved more than the 10 to 16 months that sentencing guidelines call for because he knew the men who were talking about violence against Americans. "I am convinced that he is not as innocent as he'd like us to believe," Kugler said before handing down his sentence. "This is not a common, ordinary, technical violation of the law." However, the sentence...

Last month, the Serbian province of Kosovo declared its independence. This week, Canada became the 31st country to recognize it. Foreign affairs critic Bob Rae wondered what took our government so long. Well — perhaps we hesitated recognizing what we went to war for because we recognized that we should have hesitated going to war for it. Wait a minute, someone might say. Canada didn’t go to war in 1999 as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to help Kosovo secede from Serbia. That would have been like Germany dismantling Czechoslovakia in 1938 to liberate the Sudetenland....

The international community is deploying a new mission to Kosova [Kosovo] with a more acceptable name than the previous one. But, the powers of the new mission remain the same as the old one's. EULEX will have the power to replace the president, prime minister, and other more junior officials. It will have the power to appoint key officials, annul laws, and arrest us - each and everyone of us - indefinitely and without justification. These are the "executive powers" of EULEX, which have been described as "softer," "less severe," and "more humane" than those that UNMIK [UN Interim Administration...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Regional UNMIK chief Gerard Gallucci has resigned, but the UN HQ has not accepted his resignation. The U.S. diplomat in charge of the UN operations in Kosovska Mitrovica was asked to withdraw his resignation. This is what an anonymous diplomatic source told Beta news agency tonight, adding that Gallucci was "currently on vacation, and will resume his duties once he returns". Earlier today, KIM Radio reported that Gallucci, who is currently abroad, opted for this move because of the differences he has with Priština. KIM's sources with the UN mission in the province's capital confirmed this. "Gallucci...

Over 1,300 Kosovo Serbs, in addition to those for whom we know they have been killed and whose remains were handed over to their families by the UNMIK during the past 8 years, are still listed as missing. In some cases the entire families were kidnapped by the KLA/UCK at some point during the 1998-1999 war and after UN/NATO took over the administration and security of the southern Serbian province. These people were taken away in an unknown direction and, for all we know, disappeared from the face of the earth. Over the years, we have learned that a number...

....(Albanian) Women used to be relegated to restrictive lives at home, guarded behind the high-walled compounds that traditionally housed extended ethnic Albanian families, or clans. It wasn't freedom, but it was out of the reach of outside exploitation. Traffickers brought women from elsewhere, such as Moldova and Romania, initially to be shuttled to Italy or other parts of Europe and, after the war, to remain in Kosovo to "service" a growing international population..... ...After a brutal crackdown by Slobodan Milosevic in 1999, Kosovo came under the stewardship of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations. During the years...

The West will live to regret its betrayal of the Serbs An independent Kosovo offers a European foothold for jihadists, argues Hermann Kelly Gordon Brown's support for Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence should surprise and disappoint people in equal measure. Surprise because, as Prime Minister, he failed to discuss the matter in any depth in the Parliament before he made this announcement. And disappoint because this ill-thought-out move breaks international law, creates a dangerous precedent and gives succour and hope to every crackpot secessionist group in the world. This latest Government move has sent out the message that if secessionists...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, PRIŠTINA, -- Kosovo Serbs yesterday marked Zadušnice, a religious holiday dedicated to the souls of the dead. Orthodox Christian Serbs observe four such days each year, when families visit cemeteries to light candles and say prayers at the graves of their loved ones. For many Serbs in Kosovo, especially those whose relatives were buried in cemeteries that are now located in ethnic Albanian communities, observing the holiday has since 1999 been a practice that endangered their personal safety, but also brought with it a particular heartbreak – that of finding the grave of a loved one desecrated. Serb...

It is expected that early on in 2008, probably February, the United Nations-supervised Albanian Muslim Administration of the Serbian province of Kosovo will make a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI). The United States has said it is prepared to recognize Kosovo, despite the objections of the Serbian government and more importantly, despite the fact that Russia, a key ally of Serbia, does not want Kosovo independence. While unclear, it is likely a number of European countries starting with the United Kingdom, France and Germany will follow Washington's lead. Several other countries, notably Spain, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia and Greece say they...

Kosovo-Metohija is the very heart and soul of the Serbian nation. Kosovo province is to Serbs what Westminster Abbey is to Britons, Paris is to the French or Jerusalem is to the three world religions. It is not something the Serbian nation is willing to surrender to NATO, Albanian Muslims or the US State Department, however mighty they might think they are, and however persistently they demand to steal it. The Serbian province of Kosovo, administered by NATO since June 1999, is the fourth region with the highest corruption rate in the world, right after Albania, according to a report...

Kosovo auf Deutsch 11/18/2007 (Balkanalysis.com) By David Binder Forget about status negotiations for a moment. The near-term outlook for Kosovo is unalterably grim: an economy stuck in misery; a bursting population of young people with “criminality as the sole career choice;” an insupportably high birthrate; a society imbued with corruption and a state dominated by organized crime figures. These are the conclusions of “Operationalizing of the Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans,” a 124-page investigation by the Institute for European Policy commissioned by the German Bundeswehr and issued last January. This month the text turned up on a weblog....

By JEFFREY GOLD – 6 hours ago CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — An anonymous jury will hear the case of six men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler rejected defense complaints that such a jury would be biased. He agreed with federal prosecutors that the trial presents an exceptional case and could create apprehensive jurors. Several factors led to his decision, including pretrial publicity, he said. The six were arrested in May and charged with planning to raid the New Jersey military installation, which is being used...

Forget about status negotiations for a moment. The near-term outlook for Kosovo is unalterably grim: An economy stuck in misery; a bursting population of young people with "criminality as the sole career choice;" an insupportably high birthrate; a society imbued with corruption and a state dominated by organized crime figures. These are the conclusions of "Operationalizing of the Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans," a 124-page investigation by the Institute for European Policy commissioned by the German Bundeswehr and issued in January. This month the text turned up on a Web log. It is labeled "solely for internal use."...

The United States on Wednesday slammed as "baseless" a Serbian minister's accusation that Washington wanted to create a "NATO state" in Kosovo. A plan drawn up by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari -- which envisaged a supervised independence for Kosovo -- has been backed by the United States, the European Union and most Western countries. "Calling the Ahtisaari plan for Kosovo a NATO state is quite a stretch," US State Department spokesman Gonzo Gallegos said, commenting on the reported remarks by Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic last week. "We do not consider this statement to represent the official view of the...

GRAČANICA -- Three unidentified persons kidnapped and raped a Serb girl in Gra�anica Monday evening, Tanjug reported. Another Serb, who was with her, was severely beaten and robbed, Kosovo Police Service (KPS) representatives told the agency Tuesday. KPS regional spokesman Agron Borovci said the incident occurred in Gra�anica at around 9 p.m. yesterday, and that police were in active search of the perpetrators. “An Opel Vectra automobile blocked the road ahead of the victims and then three persons dragged the young man out of his vehicle, beat him up and closed him in the trunk, from where he was released...

The younger brother of the slain 11-year-old Pantelija Dakic was carrying the cross to mark his brother’s grave at the funeral. August 13, 2003, Gorazdevac, Kosovo-Metohija, Serbia.Four Years Later: Massacre of Serbian Children Unpunished Monday August 13 marks the four year anniversary since the brutal massacre of two Serbian children and wounding of four more in the Bistrica River, in the village of Gorazdevac, close to Pec in Kosovo province. The memorial service held each year for the slain boys was held today in the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God in Gorazdevac. Out of six Serbian boys...

While few businesses seem willing to invest in ‘risky’ Kosovo, some wealthy New York Albanians hope to combine their patriotic instincts with their wish to make a profit. By Andi Balla in New York With its nondescript offices in Brooklyn, Triangle General Contractors could be a typical small American business aspiring to expand its niche market - roofing and construction in New York City. But its owner, Florin Krasniqi, has other plans. Against the advice of many, he bets that Triangle can flourish by investing in his native Kosovo. When the company won an international bid to reconstruct an 8.3...

VIENNA, Austria-Police said Saturday they arrested an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo after he allegedly stabbed a Serbian man during an argument at a hotel restaurant in eastern Austria. Authorities said the 52-year-old suspect, whose name was not released in line with Austrian privacy laws, stabbed the unidentified 33-year-old Serb with a hunting knife on Friday at the restaurant in Oberwart, in the easternmost province of Burgenland. Investigators said the victim was seated at the restaurant when the suspect and his 24-year-old son entered and approached him. They said the Serb was stabbed in the chest and face during the altercation,...

Washington/Belgrade, 23 July(AKI) – Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders were due to meet in Washington on US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice on Monday to try and clarify the diplomatic impasse over the breakaway province's independence from Serbia. The Kosovan leaders and Rice will try and chart a way forward on the province's future status after the United Nations Security Council last Friday withdrew a draft resolution granting Kosovo internationally supervised independence. After repeated efforts to push through a resolution based on the proposal by UN special negotiator Martti Ahtisaari, western powers, which favour independence, decided to shift the problem to...

Bexhet Pacoli, the richest Kosovo Albanian in the world from whose telephone, according to BND findings, a transaction in the amount of two million euros was arranged from a Swiss bank to one in Cyprus in the name of Kosovo special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, openly claims that he is paying 60 people just in Washington who are lobbying for the independence of Kosovo. "In Washington I am paying a team of 60 people who are lobbying for Kosovo in the administration of president George Bush and in the U.S. Senate and Congress," said Pacoli in a recently published interview. He...

After my article “The ‘Successful War’ we Lost in Kosovo” came out in this month’s American Legion Magazine, I received a letter from an American soldier who deployed there last year. He was stunned that anyone was talking about Kosovo, even more that someone was aware of the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Kosovo and of the jihadists passing through there freely. “With all the attention on Iraq,” he told me by phone, “everyone underestimates this region. No one understands that what happens here will play a key role in European security for the next 10 [or more] years.” Following...

U.S. State Department Unable to Deny Reports on Ahtisaari Corruption Excerpt From July 13 Press Briefing .... QUESTION: One more on the same issue. According to reports, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon already started an investigation about these payments, confirmed the existence by a report prepared for him by the German intelligence agency BND unit assigned to the UN mission in Kosovo. Any comment on it? MR. CASEY: Mr. Lambros, you’re free to go ask the UN what investigations it has or hasn’t started. [...] If you’d like to pursue shadows, feel free to talk to the UN about...

Last week’s summit between President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin resulted in no "grand bargain" that could pave the way for the birth of an independent Kosovo. The momentary frustration for U.S. diplomacy of leaving unresolved final status of the UN-administered province may, however, prove to be a blessing in disguise. While the shortcomings of the Ahtisaari Plan have been analyzed and the dangerous precedent which would be set by redrawing borders with or without UN Security Council approbation well-known, consideration must be given to the overwhelming impact on the international community that Kosovo’s statehood would have....

On July 8, 2007 the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army, Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) war veterans issued an announcement warning the international community and especially the United Nations (UN) not to interfere the process of recognizing Kosovo’s independence. The KLA announcement specifically said that the Albanian leaders of Kosovo should not accept more suspensions (delays) or new negotiations because these would lead to new hostilities. If their demands were not accepted, then the KLA veterans warned that they would have to take action as KLA soldiers and honor the oath of their national heroes. The announcement came while the...

President Bush, enthusiastically welcomed as the first U.S. president in this former communist nation, served notice Sunday he is running out of patience with Russia's objections to independence for neighboring Kosovo. "Sooner rather than later you've got to say 'Enough's enough - Kosovo is independent,'" Bush said, telling Albanians what they wanted to hear. He said independence was a certainty. Nearing the end of an eight-day trip, Bush got a hero's reception in this desperately poor country, still struggling to recover from being cut off from the rest of the world for four decades under the harsh rule of dictator...

US President George W. Bush, leaving behind thousands of anti-Bush protesters in Rome, got a hero's welcome in Albania on Sunday as he became the first American president to visit this tiny impoverished nation. When Mr. Bush arrived on his brief stop in Tirana, the hills overlooking the capital boomed as military cannons fired a 21-gun salute to the president. Thousands of people gathered in the downtown square on a brilliantly sunny day to see the president and first lady Laura Bush