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SENIOR AL QAEDA COMMANDER ABU SAEED AL-MASRI KILLED IN PAKISTAN - SECURITY OFFICIAL

Medellin Execute For Rape, Murder of Houston Teens Link Only

This afternoon, Al-Qaida's As-Sahab Media Foundation has released the second audio recording of Usama Bin Laden in the space of only three days--this time, openly addressed "to the Islamic nation." But, perhaps what is most interesting about Bin Laden's latest set of audio recordings is not what they contain--but rather, what they inexplicably lack: the English-language subtitles and matching transcript that have, until recently, been a customary feature of professional-quality As-Sahab videos. An analysis of the history of As-Sahab recordings and their evolution over time would seem to indicate that the responsibility for creating these English-language products fell largely on...

Excerpt - DUBAI, May 16 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape marking Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations to continue the fight against the Jewish state and its allies and not give up an inch of Palestinian land. "We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on earth," the al Qaeda leader said in the tape posted on an Islamist website on Friday. Bin Laden said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was at the heart of...

HAVANA - Fidel Castro looked frail but alert and even playful in a series of official photographs taken during a meeting with Brazil's president on Tuesday, the first images of the ailing Cuban leader released in about three months. Wearing a tracksuit and tennis shoes that have become his trademark since he fell ill, Castro is seen seated and grinning, his beard well-trimmed and his hair combed as he talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In some images, Castro is seen pretending to snap pictures with a camera. The pictures were given to reporters as Brazil's leader left...

LEFTIST leaders and sympathisers marked the 40th anniversary of the death of revolutionary icon Ernesto Che Guevara today in Cuba, where he is buried, and Bolivia, where he was killed in 1967. Cuba's Acting President, Raul Castro, led the main event under a giant bronze statue of the guerrilla fighter in the town of Santa Clara, some 300 kilometres (186 miles) east of Havana. Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, 81, was absent, but a homage he penned was read in public. The Argentine-born doctor-turned-guerrilla was "a flower torn up prematurely by the stem. I bow my head to pay tribute...

Krawetz says the inner frame of bin Laden was resaved at least twice, and not at the same time. The images show fine horizontal stripes on bin Laden and a background indicating these came from interlaced video sources. In contrast, the text elements, such as the As-Sahab logo, appear to be from non-interlaced sources. The September 7 video shows bin Laden dressed in a white hat, white shirt and yellow sweater. Krawetz notes "this is the same clothing he wore in the 2004-10-29 video. In 2004 he had it unzipped, but in 2007 he zipped up the bottom half. Besides...

(CNN) -- A new video purportedly featuring an introduction from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appeared on the Internet Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. In the video's introduction, a voice identified as bin Laden's praises 9/11 hijacker Waleed al-Shehri, from Saudi Arabia. He sat in seat 2B on American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into World Trade Center's north tower.

Osama Bin Laden's widely reported video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 36 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary...

(CBS) "People of America," he says, "lend me your ears." So says the most wanted man in the world, Osama bin Laden, appearing in a new videotape which has surfaced nearly six years after the attacks of September 11, 2001. In it, he rails against Western corporations, neoconservatives, and Democrats in Congress, telling Americans they had voted for Democrats to stop the war, but in his words, the majority party hasn’t made a move worth mentioning. CBS News consultant Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst and author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror" and...

Egypt (AP) - Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden plans a new video addressing the American people regarding the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, terror monitoring groups said Thursday. SITE Intelligence Group said an Internet announcement of the plan included a photo of the al-Qaida leader from the upcoming video—his beard, which in previous messages had been streaked with gray, was entirely dark.

Just reported on FOX News TV

My cellphone has not stopped ringing for the past ten minutes. Various sources inform that an announcement will come within the next few minutes from the Cuban government on Cuban TV and media. Stay tuned and we'll see if we've been manipulated once again or if today is the birth date of Cuba's liberty. Update: Here's the deal and what I know up to now, as of 1500 hours, August 24, 2007: First, South Florida Law Enforcement is on alert. An EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has been set-up and manned somewhere in Homestead. Im also told Local and State government...

Tehran, 30 April (AKI) - The culture committee of the Iranian parliament approved on Monday a bill sentencing to death producers of 'pornography', videos and films deemed vulgar by the country's censorship. The draft law will now go to parliament where it is expected to be approved by an ample majority. Amateur porn films have a properous market in Iran and can fetch up to 30 euros each. The market, tolerated for a long time, became a nationwide issue earlier this year after a porn film of popular television actress, Zohre Mir Ebrahimi, having sex with her partner, was released.

Sayyaf chief dies while in Navy’s custody An alleged Abu Sayyaf leader reportedly died while in the custody of naval personnel in Zamboanga City, where he was brought for interrogation, a military officer said Saturday. The officer, who requested not to be named, said Tandico Saddae reportedly succumbed in a hospital in Zamboanga, where he was brought after complaining of chest pains Friday night. Saddae reportedly tried to escape by jumping from a Navy ship while being brought to Zamboanga from Tawi-Tawi, where he was arrested.“He jumped after asking his guard to [untie] him so could pray. He tried to...

A new statement by al Qaeda's No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, will be posted on the Internet soon, according to a banner on a militant Islamist Web site. It will be Zawahri's third statement this year alone, in sharp contrast to the fact that nothing has been heard from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden since an audiotape released last July. "It raises speculation that bin Laden may be dead or incapacitated," Middle East political analyst Salameh Nematt told ABC News. The statement is entitled "Lessons, Examples and Great Events in the Year 1427" (the Islamic year that ended...

THE United States believes Osama bin Laden is still alive, but intelligence on the al-Qaeda mastermind has gone "cold". The former comander of US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry told CNN: "Our working assumption is that Osama bin Laden is alive." But asked whether he knew where bin Laden was located, Lt. Eikenberry said: "The intelligence has gone cold on Osama bin Laden." "The search for Bin Laden will continue because this man has committed mass crimes and atrocities against the American people," he said. "Our military will not rest until that man is found, captured or killed,"...

His poem "Woman In The Window" is set to music and will be released as a single in April. Rock legend Jim Morrison is helping the fight against global warming from beyond the grave, with the release of a song he wrote. Environmental campaigners have taken a poem, "Woman In The Window," written by Morrison shortly before he died in 1971, and set it to music, with the help of New Order and former Jane's Addiction star Perry Farrell. The track was given to Farrell by the Jim Morrison estate. It will be released as a single in April. Dan...

Late Doors frontman Jim Morrison is to make an unlikely comeback - an unreleased song featuring the rocker has been found. "Woman in the Window" will be featured on a forthcoming album by rockers Satellite Party. The new song will feature both Morrison and vocals from Satellite Party. An industry insider says, "To hear Morrison performing on a new track is obviously going to be a dream come true for fans. It's being tipped as a massive hit." The icon died of heart failure in 1971, at age 27.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro has long prided himself on Cuba's doctors and free public health care system, but that system seems to have let him down after he fell ill in July , U.S.-based doctors said on Tuesday. Based on a report in Tuesday's edition of Spain's El Pais newspaper, the doctors -- who have no first-hand knowledge of Castro's condition -- said Castro had received questionable or even botched care at the hands of health experts on his communist-ruled island. "It's not a good story. Too bad they didn't send him to Miami for surgery," said...

Nothing follows ... No mention on any other major news sites.

SADDAM HANGS Just in time for Eid, the Iraqis decided Saddam Hussein was one old acquaintance who really should be forgot. Despite The New York Times’ protests that it’s all been too rushed, it’s three years since the mass murderer was pulled from his spider hole. Here’s what I wrote in The Spectator in December 2003, outlining the possible approaches to the trial: In a nutshell: A courtroom in Baghdad: good. A courtroom in The Hague: bad. Iraqi and coalition judges: good. International jet-set judges: bad. Swift execution: good. Playing Scrabble with Slobo in the prison library for the next...

<p>The Drop Broke Saddam's neck killing him instantly. At the executions following the Nuremberg Trials others were not so lucky.</p> <p>"..The executions, in a brightly lighted prison gymnasium where three looming black wooden gallows had been erected, were witnessed by a handful of Allied military officers and eight journalists, one of whom, Kingsbury Smith of International News Service, wrote a famous newspaper article, "The Execution of Nazi War Criminals, 16 October 1946," based on his eyewitness observations. Although Smith discreetly omitted mentioning it, the experienced Army hangman, Master Sgt. John C. Woods, botched the executions. A number of the hanged Nazis died, not quickly from a broken neck as intended, but agonizingly from slow strangulation. Ribbentrop and Sauckel each took 14 minutes to choke to death, while Keitel, whose death was the most painful, struggled for 24 minutes at the end of the rope before expiring..."</p>

Since it now seems very imminent, I decided that it was an appropriate time to start this up. Links to information and pictures (if we get them) can be posted here.

MANILA (AP) -- Remains believed to be those of the chief of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, one of the objectives of a long U.S.-backed manhunt, have been found in the southern Philippines, the military said today. Khaddafy Janjalani is on a U.S. list of wanted terrorists with a $5 million bounty on his head for a series of beheadings, bombings and mass abductions. He has proved elusive in the dense jungles and mangroves that have become home for Janjalani and his men.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro was not present as a military parade marking his 80th birthday began on Saturday in Havana's main square. The event, expected to last perhaps 1 1/2 hours, is being closely watched to see if Castro is well enough to appear in public for the first time since he had intestinal surgery in late July and temporarily turned over power to his brother, defence minister Raul Castro. Castro's health and questions about his future have overshadowed the military display that experts say is a show of muscle to anyone who thinks communist Cuba...

"The fact that he's dead is unfortunate but looking back on his life it's a very pleasant thought."The father of late The Doors singer Jim Morrison has branded the death of his estranged son "unfortunate," despite the rocker often singing about his family's imagined demise. George Morrison, a retired Navy admiral, insists memories of his rocker son are "pleasant" - even though he once joked his parents were dead and used Oedipal rant "The End" to imagine killing his dad and sleeping with his mother. However, in a new memoir of the band, George remains positive about his child. Contributing...

If you are the kind of person who worries about the future, this might not make happy reading.Scientists have found that on average mammal species enjoy only 2.5 million years of life before being wiped out because of the Earth's "wobble." They say when the tilt and orbit reach key points it can spark dramatic global cooling - and the last time this happened was 2.6 million years ago. This suggests we are overdue a wave of extinction. However, before you panic, scientists say our planet has changed beyond all recognition in the last 3 million years. The new research...

LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A leaked intelligence report of Osama bin Laden's death has met scepticism from Western and Muslim governments but may increase a clamour from his followers to show himself on video for the first time in nearly two years. One theory surrounding the mysterious French leak is that it was designed precisely to flush the al Qaeda leader into the open, prompting him to release a new tape that might give a clue to his whereabouts and state of health.

Fugitive al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is suffering from a serious illness, but his death has not yet been pronounced, according to a senior Saudi intelligence source, CNN reported Saturday. This conflicted with the report earlier Saturday that a French secret service report said Saudi Arabia was convinced the al-Qaeda leader died of typhoid in Pakistan la

PARIS (AP) - The head of terrorist network al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, has died, according to information from the Saudi police, transmitted by the Directorate-General of External Services (DGSE), and reported on the Lorraine daily newspaper L'Est republicain in its Saturday edition. "According to a commonly reliable source, the Saudi police believes that Osama Bin Laden has died," said a September 21st confidential note from the DGSE classified as "defense." L'Est republicain will publish it in its Saturday edition. The note, specified the daily newspaper, would be re-printed "un-edited." According to the note to be published by the L'Est...

HANOI (Reuters) - A Vietnamese man who once appeared on national television to demonstrate his ability to resist electric shocks has been electrocuted while repairing a generator, an official said on Tuesday. Nguyen Van Hung, aged in his early 40s, was killed in Tay Ninh province near the Cambodian border while repairing the generator without first cutting the power supply, a local official said. "When alive, he used to demonstrate at our office how he would insert two fingers into the electrical plughole without problems," the official said. Hung, nicknamed "Hung Electric," had appeared on television's "Strange Stories of Vietnam."

Let me go on record as saying I like Hyundai. For the record, I personally own a Sonata, and it's a great car. That said, will someone from Hyundai's advertising department kindly explain what you were thinking when you authorized the latest commercial for the 2006 Sonata? "Rethink Everything" involves the concept of the Hyundai Sonata turning the world upside down. You can access the commercial online with this URL: http://www.studiodaily.com/filmandvideo/projects/f/commercials/6702.html The spot starts out innocuously enough: a rather cliche scene of a Sonata cruising along a city street. Quickly the spot kicks into high gear: An office located in...

Chavez endorses Fidel's tummy bug recipeFrom correspondents in Caracas August 12, 2006 04:46am THE stomach condition of Cuban leader Fidel Castro is a classified secret, but his close ally Hugo Chavez openly suggests the communist try a dose of his own medicine for his intestinal woes. The Venezuelan president is known to offer graphic details on live television of his digestive troubles, and how Fidel has helped cure them. During a broadcast overnight to inaugurate new health clinics partly staffed by Cuban doctors, Mr Chavez described the recipe for Fidel's home-grown stomach cure-all known as "tsunami." "Fidel has a formula...

At long last, Fidel Castro's 47-year reign as dictator of Cuba may be coming to an end. The 79-year-old Communist revolutionary transferred power to his brother Raul, 75, after emergency stomach surgery earlier this month. No one knows just how sick the onetime guerrilla fighter really is, since, in keeping with Castro's totalitarian regime, his condition is classed as a state secret. Yet it is hard to imagine a man of Castro's age - he will soon be 80 - recovering fully and retaking the reins of government. Castro's illness spurred hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles and their families...

HAVANA - It was supposed to be the ultimate tribute, several days of parties and concerts to mark Fidel Castro's 80th birthday. But instead of listening to folk music and attending conferences on his legacy, Castro is expected to spend his birthday Sunday in bed, recovering from surgery for intestinal bleeding. Cubans have cultivated a myth over the last half-century that Castro is invincible, but now confront the fact that he is an octogenarian — and frail like other elderly mortals. A few Cubans say it won't be long before Castro is giving five-hour speeches once again, but many believe...

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that Fidel Castro is in a "great battle for life," but added that he's been given reason by the Cuban leader's aides to be optimistic about a quick recovery.

Surgeons fought for hours to save Castro's life By Phil Hart in Havana (Filed: 06/08/2006) Doctors at the exclusive Cimeq hospital in western Havana are accustomed to handling the delicate health problems of Cuba's communist elite. It was here last weekend, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt, that they battled for several hours to save the life of the regime's most important patient, Fidel Castro. Unable to stem intestinal bleeding with drugs, the country's top surgeons performed an emergency operation on the veteran leader. To all but a handful of trusted doctors and his closest lieutenants, President Castro's medical condition has...

MEXICO CITY - The Cuban government has provided no details on Fidel Castro's health and released no pictures of the leader since it announced Monday night that he was having surgery and handing power to his brother. Cubans were told in a statement attributed to Castro that most details of his health would be kept "a state secret" to prevent the island's enemies from taking advantage of his condition. Most Cubans have insisted that they are sure Castro will recover and that the government will function fine until then. But others have privately expressed worries that their leader may be...

Cuba's communist government provided no new information on Fidel Castro's condition Thursday but sought to reassure Cubans that nothing would change. "The revolution will continue" was the mantra chanted on state-run television and displayed in government newspapers three days after Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul while recovering from surgery.

UNANIMOUSLY and firmly workers from the National Assembly of People’s Power backed the President Fidel Castro’s Proclamation to the Cuban people. “We are rising up to meet the stature of this young man of 80 years who, convalescing from a complicated operation, still made the effort to adopt measures to assure that we are capable of confronting any aggression,” affirmed Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, president of the Assembly. Alarcón commented that on July 31 he was with Fidel, who transmitted “his confidence and certainty that all of us united will be capable of fulfilling the tasks of today and those...

Reported in the minute-by-minute sidebar on El nacional (Venezualan Newspaper) Internacionales Agencia internacional desmintió información de supuesta muerte de Fidel Castro La agencia internacional de noticias EFE desmintió haber divulgado información relacionada con la supuesta muerte del presidente de Cuba Fidel Castro. En horas de la mañana una emisora de noticias venezolana dijo citando a la agencia que el mandatario había fallecido. Es por ello, que EFE informó que en ningún momento ha difundido ese hecho. La agencia dijo haber presentado su reclamo a la emisora que reconoció publicamente su error. **** google translate. International agency denied information of supposed...

How do you know Ken Lay is really dead?

An Iraqi soldier flashes a victory sign as he celebrates the death of Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Kerbala, June 8, 2006. (Mushtaq Mohammed/Reuters) Iraqi soldiers hold up their weapons as they celebrate the death of al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in Najaf, June 8, 2006. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz # Iraqi children chant "No to Zarqawi" and "No to Terrorism" during a small demonstration in Baghdad's poor neighborhood of Sadr City. Iraqi and US authorities have vowed to hunt down insurgency leaders after capturing a "treasure trove" of intelligence in the attack that...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is warning Americans not to get too excited over the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, saying in a statement issued by her office Thursday that it really won't do much to improve the situation in Iraq. After briefly noting that she was "proud of our troops for their tireless work," the top House Democrat wasted no time in throwing cold water on the good news. "[Zarqawi's] death does not alter the fact that our brave men and women in uniform are fighting a war of choice in which the President sent our troops into...

If you are looking for the legacy of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, do not look in the concrete rubble of so-called safe house in Baqubah that became his final resting place. Instead, look less than 10 miles to the west, on the side of the road in the desert town of Hadid, for a pile of cardboard banana boxes. Inside those boxes were nine human heads. Some of the heads still had their blindfolds on. Iraqi police are still attempting to identify the murdered men. Days earlier, in Baquba, Iraqi police found another eight severed heads. One of those heads...

BAGHDAD, June 8 (KUNA) -- Iraqi citizens took to the streets celebrating Abu Musaab Zarqawi's death on Thursday. Joy filled Baghdad's hot streets, as gun shots sounded through the air, and cars packed with overjoyed Iraqi's roamed the streets. Iraqis were sharing sweets with people outside their homes. Civil organizations paraded as they condemned violence chanting "death to Zarqawi and Saddamites." Thursday's celebrations could be compared to the jubilation in Baghdad's streets the day Saddam Hussein was captured. Iraqis hope Zarqawi's death would bring an end to the series of terrorist operations on Iraqi streets. Iraqi MP, Mahmoud Othman, said...

World leaders, including Prime Minister John Howard, are hailing the killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as a significant breakthrough for Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced that Zarqawi "has been eliminated" in an airstrike on a safe house in Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad. "What happened ... is the result of collaboration from people who facilitated the operation conducted by Iraqi police and multinational forces," Mr Maliki said. "This is a message to those who choose the path of violence to change their direction before it is too late. "I thank our forces, our police...