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WASHINGTON, Dec 24: The United States and Saudi Arabia have jointly moved to freeze the assets of two European offshoots of Muslim groups suspected of raising money for the Al Qaeda network, officials said on Wednesday. They designated the two groups as financiers of terrorism and asked for international sanctions against one of their managers. US and Saudi officials said the Bosnia-based Vazir and the Liechtenstein-based Hochburg AG have been fronting for entities already sanctioned by the international community. The ban on them has been imposed under a UN Security Council resolution that allows nations to act jointly to slap...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has frozen accounts of dozens of suspected Muslim militants and will comply with a new U.N. request to freeze assets of 20 people thought to be members of the Jemaah Islamiah network, officials said on Friday. The U.N. call to all members was requested by the United States, which put the same 20 names on its own asset freeze list last week. Most are Malaysian and Indonesian citizens. Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said Indonesian authorities had been ordered to investigate those on the list to find out if they had assets in the country. "First, they need...

WASHINGTON -- The United States announced on Friday it had ordered a freeze on the financial assets of 10 alleged members of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group. 'This designation is yet another important step in the ongoing effort by the international community to shut down JI terrorist opportunities in South-east Asia,' Treasury Secretary John Snow said. 'Today's action identifies 10 individuals at the heart of the network,' he said in a statement released here before giving a news conference on the action at an Asia-Pacific economic gathering in Phuket, Thailand. JI is blamed for a string of attacks...

GENEVA: Switzerland answered a U.S. request and ordered a freeze on any assets belonging to former Iraqi officials Wednesday, even though some Swiss officials complained that President George W. Bush is using the fight against terror to strengthen U.S. global "hegemony." The government said banks and financial institutions must report any funds linked to 55 Iraqi officials named on the U.S. most-wanted list, including former President Saddam Hussein and his two sons. The list was approved by the U.N. Sanctions Committee earlier this week. Switzerland had already ordered a precautionary freeze on Iraqi assets as a result of earlier U.N....

Mugabe gives nation's oil assets to Libya to secure fuel By Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent 27 June 2003 The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has mortgaged strategic oil assets to Libya in a desperate attempt to obtain fuel and overcome unprecedented shortages in his embattled country. The Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, has reportedly long wanted Zimbabwe's oil facilities as part of his plans to set up his own "imperial economic empire" in Africa. The assets, consisting of an oil pipeline that runs from Mozambique's port of Beira to Zimbabwe's eastern city of Mutare, and world-class oil blending and...

GENEVA - The global search for Saddam Hussein's riches is turning up Iraqi assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars in European and Middle Eastern banks, but little if anything has his name on it. "There's no way Saddam Hussein would have opened an account in his own name," said James Nason of the Swiss Bankers Association, whose members are required to report any suspicious accounts to the government of Switzerland. Lebanon, Britain and Switzerland have each found about half a billion dollars in Iraqi assets, but it is not clear to whom the money belongs beyond official Iraqi government...

August 22, 1998 Clinton's Letter to Congress on Freezing of bin Ladin Assets Text of letter from President Clinton to the leaders of Congress explaining why he ordered the freezing of all assets controlled by or affiliated with terrorist chieftain Usama bin Ladin. THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts) Dear Mr. Speaker: On January 23, 1995, in light of the threat posed by grave acts of violence committed by foreign terrorists that disrupt the Middle East peace process, using my authority under, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.),...

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department moved Friday to block the financial assets of Abdelghani Mzoudi, a suspected member of the al-Qaida cell in Germany that is believed to have planned the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Mzoudi is among the 17 new people — all foreigners — that the government added to its list of entities suspected of helping to bankroll Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. The action by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control means that U.S. banks must block any assets found in the United States that belong to these people. Treasury said the 17 names have...

British Chancellor (Treasury Secretary) Gordon Brown Thursday instructed UK financial institutions to freeze all assets belonging to the Al-Aqsa Foundation, after intelligence reports linked the organization with "terrorist activity," the British prime ministry said. The action has been taken after consultations with the United States and other international allies, it added. Commenting on the issue, Brown said: "Recent terrorist atrocities in Saudi Arabia and Morocco show that we must remain constantly vigilant and bear down strongly on terrorism and the people who fund it. Today's action, taken in coordination with our international allies, will ensure that no UK funds belonging...

<p>WASHINGTON -- It has been dubbed "Saddam Inc.," a mysterious, multibillion-dollar empire that is said to have allowed Saddam Hussein and his sons to methodically stash away stolen riches in secret bank accounts around the globe.</p> <p>Now, as the American military moves closer to toppling Saddam's regime in Baghdad, U.S. Treasury officials and intelligence agencies say they are scoring new successes in their effort to unravel and seize Saddam's hidden wealth.</p>

Three Iraqis who aided the CIA in the March 20 attempt by the United States to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were executed this week by Iraqi counterintelligence, former and serving U.S. officials told United Press International. A super-secret U.S. intelligence operation, working in Baghdad for weeks before the war, provided the crucial targeting data for the attack on Saddam and his sons, launched in an effort to pre-empt a full-scale war, these sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The war had been scheduled to start Friday, March 21, U.S. officials told UPI. But -- after getting intelligence that...

UK Royal Air Force (RAF) officials have announced the completion of its deployment of 100 fixed-wing aircraft and 27 support helicopters to aid a possible US-led invasion of Iraq. The strength of the UK build-up was underlined early last week, when RAF Harrier GR7 ground-attack aircraft were in action for the first time over Iraq’s southern ‘no-fly zone’, striking two targets that “threatened US and British aircraft”, according to service sources in the Middle East. UK air assets positioned at a spread of bases in the region include: • Tornado GR4 strike aircraft at Ali Al Salem, Kuwait • Harrier...

Fed up with NPR's biased coverage of Israel? Let NPR know. Join the San Francisco NPR protest! The info is as follows: When: Noon PT - Thursday, March 27, 2003 Where: 101 Market St., San Francisco Outside the business office of "Working Assets Radio" http://www.workingforchange.com/radio/contact_radio.cfm?CFID=5595796&CFTOKEN=96409108 Working Assets is a major underwriter of inaccurate and unbalanced Middle East programs on KALW 91.7 FM a San Francisco NPR affiliate. Working Assets also contributes funds to many Palestinian oriented organizations while contributing a much smaller share of funds to mainstream Israeli oriented organizations. Working Assets through its SF Diversions event list frequently promotes...

<p>Lake Tahoe sank so low before recent storms that many boat docks were left high and dry. Scientists say that historical droughts have caused Tahoe's vast shoreline to drop 20 feet, allowing forests to grow where there is now water.</p>

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has acted to freeze the assets of an organisation suspected of raising funds to help Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terror network build a nuclear bomb. Financial institutions were ordered to freeze funds belonging to the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF) at midnight. BIF's chief executive Enaam Araout was recently indicted in the USA for operating it as a racketeering enterprise and providing material support to organisations including al-Qa'eda. "Strong evidence" existed to link BIF with al-Qa'eda and bin Laden, said the Treasury. This includes personal contacts between senior BIF officials and al-Qa'eda operatives involved in the 1998...

Britain has ordered its financial institutions to freeze, with immediate efffect, any accounts belonging to Jemaah Islamiah, accused of involvement in the Bali bombing. "Jemaah Islamiah engages in terrorism. Its aim is to establish an extensive fundamentalist republic covering Malaysia, Singapore and parts of the Philippines, and it is prepared to bomb, shoot and kill to achieve that end," said Chancellor Gordon Brown, while announcing the asset freeze last night. "By freezing its assets we will undermine its future operations. If fanaticism is the heart of modern terrorism, then finance is its lifeblood. All countries must act to cut off...

<p>Women who have invested hours at the gym trying to shrink their bottom line are now booting up their "assets" at the plastic surgeon's office.</p> <p>They're sub-muscle silicone implants for the backside, and they are quickly becoming the breast implants of the new millennium.</p>