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Entertainment system contributed to Swissair crash By ALISON AULD Swissair crash report, closure for victim's sister HALIFAX (CP) - Wiring that powered a controversial entertainment system combined with highly flammable insulation to feed a deadly fire that brought down Swissair Flight 111 off Nova Scotia in 1998, investigators said Thursday. In releasing its final report into the country's longest and costliest accident investigation, the Transportation Safety Board didn't identify the exact source of a fire that caused a massive electrical failure on the MD-11, but concluded it was linked to the improperly installed gaming system. The 338-page document outlined a...

Yemeni connection Arrests extend to Michigan in federal probe of money transfers By MICHAEL BEEBE and SANDRA TAN News Staff Reporters 12/19/2002 HARRY SCULL JR./Buffalo News Mohamed T. Albanna of Lackawanna leaves federal court in Buffalo after being freed from jail on $100,000 bond amid cheers and hugs from family and friends. HARRY SCULL JR./Buffalo News Defense lawyer Philip M. Marshall says the government is focusing on his client's lack of a license.(I don't know how to post photographs follow link to source to see these pictures.) The federal government continued its crackdown on illegal money transfers to Yemen on...

Man of the people - arrested By SANDRA TAN News Staff Reporter 12/18/2002 Mohamed T. Albanna, photographed in his Clinton Street store last July, is considered outspoken on issues crucial to Lackawanna. Business owner Andrea Haxton saw Mohamed T. Albanna several days a week. He was her main cigarette distributor and regularly dropped off boxes at her A&E Goods store on Ridge Road and Ingham Avenue on his way home from work. "He delivers them, we pay him, chit-chat, and he goes home," the Lackawanna business owner said. "We talk about politics all the time." Albanna came by Monday night...

Another Lackawanna arrest -Businessman will be charged with sending at least $3 million to Yemen By MICHAEL BEEBE and DAN HERBECK News Staff Reporters 12/17/2002 Federal authorities today are expected to arrest a Lackawanna businessman with ties to the Lackawanna Six on charges that he illegally sent at least $3 million to Yemen over the last several years. The investigation was conducted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Western New York, but sources said investigators have been unable to trace any of the money to terrorist activities. "These transfers have been made illegally and (are) unreported," a law enforcement...

THE GOLDEN BOUGH by JOHN VAILLANT Grant Hadwin got a chainsaw and did something terrible. Issue of 2002-11-04 Posted 2002-10-28 There was only one giant golden spruce in the world, and, until a man named Grant Hadwin took a chainsaw to it, in 1997, it had stood for more than three hundred years in a steadily shrinking patch of old-growth forest in Port Clements, on the banks of the Yakoun River, in the Queen Charlotte Islands. The Queen Charlottes, a blade-shaped archipelago that lies sixty miles off the northern coast of British Columbia and thirty miles south of the Alaskan...

Statement of Chechen commander Shamil Basayev Posted on Saturday, November 02 @ 03:44:37 ICT on Voice Of Taliban Auzu billahi mina sheytani rajim, Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Praise to Allah, the Lord of the worlds who have created us Muslims and blessed us with His Mercy Jihad in his straight path. Peace and Blessings to Muhammad, his family, his companions and to all those who follow him in straight path until the Dooms day. Reconnaissance - diversionary detachment of shaheeds «Riyadus-Salihin» conducted a successful operation in the very den of the enemy, in its very heart, in the city of Moscow....

ALERT Ummah!!!there is 90% chance that we will see the Jewish Dajjal in our lifetime! dear brethren and sisters, I draw your your attention to something very Important. We are living at the end of times. we are already experiencing the minor signs of judgement day that preceed the appearance of the Major signs. Once these minor signs finish--know that 95% of these signs have already come to pass-- we will be encountering the Major signs immediately. One of these first signs amongst the Major ones is appearance of the Jewish Anti Christ or the Masih ad-Dajjal. The affliction of...

A separate world More than 1,100 people of Yemeni descent live in Lackawanna. Their culture and their faith set them apart from others in the city - and co-existence has had its rough edges. By SUSAN SCHULMAN, LOU MICHEL and CHARITY VOGEL and JAY REY News Staff Reporters 9/23/2002 A crowd of men, probably a dozen or so, sits on the sidelines, and a few more sit nearby in their cars, rooting for the Lackawanna soccer team and its mostly Arab-American athletes. No soccer moms in this crowd. Just the guys watching what turns out to be a close game...

Mystery shrouds group's oldest member By JERRY ZREMSKI and LOU MICHEL News Staff Reporters 9/22/2002 Kamal Derwish isn't the only mystery man connected to al- Qaida's suspected "Buffalo cell." Like Derwish, the other alleged cell member who remains at large, 36-year-old Jaber A. Elbaneh, is believed to be on the run in Yemen. By far the oldest of the eight men involved in the group, Elbaneh was a longtime resident of Lackawanna's Yemeni neighborhood. And like the seven other purported members of the cell, he is a registered Democrat. Public records list three addresses for him: two on Wilkesbarre Avenue...

Sought-after al-Qaida suspect leaves traces in Lackawanna By LOU MICHEL and JERRY ZREMSKI News Staff Reporters 9/22/2002 Kamal Derwish cut a mysterious figure on his travels through Lackawanna. People remember little about the plump, pious visitor from the Middle East who prayed with young people in the local mosque. And he's more mysterious than ever, now that he's believed to be on the run in Yemen, a fugitive from U.S. justice and alleged to be the ringleader of what federal officials describe as al-Qaida's "Buffalo cell." Derwish, a 29-year-old Buffalo native of Yemeni descent, served as the link between the...

Judge will rule by Oct. 3 on bail for terror suspects By MICHAEL BEEBE News Staff Reporter 9/21/2002 Six Lackawanna men charged with providing support to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network will remain jailed at least for another two weeks, until a federal magistrate judge rules after conducting one of the longest bail hearings on record here. Both sides will submit written briefs on their argument to the judge, who said he will issue a written decision by Oct. 3. Government prosecutors offered little new evidence in their rebuttal Friday to defense claims that the accused pose no danger to...

With arrests will come a test of terror laws As the story of the Lackawanna suspects grows, attention is being paid to the legal grounds that will determine their fate. By JERRY ZREMSKI News Washington Bureau 9/20/2002 WASHINGTON - The law aimed at stopping another Timothy McVeigh instead ensnared six Yemeni-Americans from Lackawanna - even though it appears they never did anything so immediately dangerous as filling a Ryder truck with explosives. The men stand accused of violating the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Congress' response to McVeigh's 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. If...

Two of 6 men admit being at terror camp By DAN HERBECK News Staff Reporter 9/20/2002 One of the Lackawanna sleeper cell suspects now admits that he trained with al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan, but insists that he left their camp in fear and disgust over the "crazy radical mentality" that he witnessed there. Sahim Alwan, 29, said he pleaded several times with al-Qaida leaders to allow him to leave the camp last year, and was allowed to leave only after faking an ankle injury. He also maintains that he never heard any "specific threats" of terrorism aimed at the United...

E-mail hinted at new attack U.S. prosecutors lay out evidence at bail hearing for six suspects By DAN HERBECK and MICHAEL BEEBE News Staff Reporters 9/19/2002 Federal prosecutors believe a Lackawanna man was writing about an impending terrorist attack on Americans when he sent an e-mail titled "The Big Meal" to a local friend two months ago. "The next meal will be very huge," Mukhtar al-Bakri wrote in the July 18 computer message. "No one will be able to withstand it, except those with faith." Prosecutor William J. Hochul Jr. said investigators believe the e-mail "related to a large explosion...

Overviews of Al-Bakri offer sharp contrast By CHARITY VOGEL and DAN HERBECK News Staff Reporters 9/17/2002 Those who know Mukhtar al-Bakri say he is a man who was turning his life around. The 22-year-old Yemenite-American, a former Lackawanna High School student, had no money and no steady job for more than a year, but he traveled to the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain to meet and marry a Muslim woman in an arranged wedding, his family members said Monday. Federal agents, however, have a grimmer view of what al-Bakri was up to in Bahrain. Based on a phone call from...

Worldwide manhunt Former Lackawanna man is suspected of recruiting for sleeper cell By DAN HERBECK, MICHAEL BEEBE and JERRY ZREMSKI News Staff Reporters 9/17/2002 A worldwide manhunt is on for a former Lackawanna resident who is the suspected organizer and ringleader of the alleged al-Qaida "sleeper cell" that was broken up over the weekend. The Buffalo News has learned that authorities have identified Kamal Derwish, 29, as a prime suspect in the ongoing investigation. Derwish is a former resident of Holland Avenue, where one of the other "Buffalo Cell" defendants also lived. Allegations of terrorist-related activities against the former Lackawanna...

Thais warned over deadly pet octopus The blue-ring octopus can kill in minutes The Thai authorities have reportedly called on owners of the deadly blue-ring octopus to surrender the animals over safety fears. Local media say that the beautiful octopus, which features in the James Bond film Octopussy, has become one of the most popular purchases at Bangkok's main pet market. It seems that buyers were not deterred by the warning that there is no antidote for their new pet's lethal venom. It is just the latest exotic pet to captivate the country. A ban was imposed last week on...

GM soya 'eliminates allergies' The GM soya is currently growing in Hawaii The allergy inducing ingredients of soya have been successfully removed by scientists through genetic modification. They have hailed the move as an example of how GM technology can make food safer for people. Soya allergy mostly affects children under the age of five. However, a small proportion of adults are also affected. About two-thirds of all manufactured food contains derivatives or ingredients made from soya. These include chocolate, breakfast cereals, ice cream, sweets and margarine. Any allergy mostly shows up as a hives, itchy skin and diarrhoea. However,...

He would gaze out of his hospital window every morning across the New York City skyline. Doug Goodwin was trying to soak up everything while he could. His heart had been failing for ten years, and he knew, slowly, he was dying. He would stare far away, across the Hudson River, and think about the world around him. Goodwin became fixated on the World Trade Center. It wasn't every now and then but daily, morning and night. It was the anchor of American capitalism, but to him stood two towers of strength constructed in his prime. He worked as a...