Monday, May 02, 2011
ARAB NEWS: DAMMAM: Prominent Riyadh-based Saudi journalist Jamal A. Khashoggi, who fought alongside Afghans and other Arabs including Osama Bin Laden in the war against the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1980s, described Bin Laden’s killing as no big news. “If you ask me, it is no news because I expected this to happen a long time ago,” he told Arab News in an exclusive interview.Khashoggi said the fact that Osama survived for this long after Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was the real story. “It was a big failure of US intelligence,” he said.
According to him it is a very peculiar thing to happen in a very peculiar year. “The news of his killing comes at a time when the Al-Qaeda ideology has been completely rejected by the Arab world. Al-Qaeda was in eclipse … to be very specific it was buried in January 2011 in Tahrir Square in Cairo,” he said, referring to the massive people’s movement that swept aside longtime Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak.
“In a sense it is the right ending for Osama because the recent development in the Arab world clearly indicated that there was no place for him or his ideology,” said Khashoggi. “The rise of the nonviolent movement in the Arab world was the complete rejection of the Al-Qaeda philosophy.”
Khashoggi said he felt sorry that Bin Laden chose the wrong path when he was at the crossroads of history. “He hijacked our religion and chose the path of violence. I remember how we were all in the grip of violence in the early and mid-2000s, here in Saudi Arabia, Algeria … there were suicide bombings, bomb blasts, killings. His ideology did not conform with my understanding of Islam,” he said. » | Siraj Wahab | Arab News | Monday, May 02, 2011
CNN MONEY: NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks are poised for a higher open, as investors cheer news that Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces Monday.
The founder and leader of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, was killed by U.S. forces in Abbottabad, north of Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
In an address to the nation Sunday night, President Barack Obama called bin Laden's death, "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda." » | CNNMoney staff | Monday, May 02, 2011
TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – CON COUGHLIN: Rejoice! It’s taken ten long, hard years, but the Americans have finally got their man. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, is dead. As Ronald Reagan once said of a former bunch of Islamist terrorists, you can run, but you can’t hide.Perhaps the most remarkable feature of bin Laden’s death is that he was found hiding in a modern complex outside one of Pakistan’s most prestigious military colleges.
I have always maintained that bin Laden, who has suffered from a severe kidney condition for many years, could not have survived on the run for so long without outside help and support. My personal hunch was that he was being protected by elements within Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency, which previously enjoyed a close relationship with bin Laden.
The fact that the American special forces that tracked bin Laden to his bolt-hole could not even tell the Pakistani authorities what they were up to tells you all you need to know about the level of Pakistani complicity in bin Laden’s survival for so many years after the worst terrorist attack in world history. Read on and comment » | Con Coughlin | Monday, May 02, 2011
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Der amerikanische Präsident Barack Obama hat in einer Fernsehansprache mitgeteilt, dass der Kopf des Terrornetzes Al Qaida bei einer Kommandoaktion der amerikanischen Streitkräfte getötet worden ist. Laut Fernsehberichten wurde der Leichnam Bin Ladins im Meer beigesetzt.Der Kopf des Terrornetzes Al Qaida, Usama bin Ladin, ist tot. Der amerikanische Präsident Barack Obama teilte in einer Fernsehansprache mit, dass Bin Ladin am Sonntag bei einer Kommandoaktion getötet worden sei: „Der Gerechtigkeit wurde Genüge getan.“ Pakistan habe die Vereinigten Staaten dabei unterstützt, Bin Ladin aufzuspüren.
Ein Vertreter der pakistanischen Sicherheitsbehörden bestätigte den Tod Bin Ladins, ohne Details seiner Tötung zu nennen. Usama bin Ladin galt als Drahtzieher der Terroranschläge im September 2001 in den Vereinigten Staaten, bei denen fast dreitausend Menschen um[s] Leben kamen. Die Vereinigten Staaten haben nach der Mitteilung vom Tod des Al-Qaida-Führers ihre im Ausland befindlichen Staatsangehörigen vor möglichen Vergeltungsmaßnahmen des Terrornetzes gewarnt und ihre Botschaften weltweit in Alarmbereitschaft versetzt. Jubel in Washington » | FAZ.NET mit dpa/AP/AFP/Reuters | Montag, 02 Mai 2011
THE TIMES: Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda terrorist network, has been killed in a US military assault in Pakistan. A decade after more than 3,000 people died in a series of co-ordinated attacks on September 11, 2001, the world’s most wanted fugitive is dead. President Obama made the announcement late last night during a live address from the White House. “This is a good and historic day,” he said. “We can say to those families who… (+ photos) » | Nico Hines, Washington | Monday, May 02, 2011 [£]
REUTERS: The body of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was taken to Afghanistan after he was killed in Pakistan and was later buried at sea, the New York Times reported on Monday. [Source: Reuters] | Reuters | WASHINGTON | Monday, May 02, 2011
LOS ANGELES TIMES: He used his great wealth to fund a terrorist campaign fueled by a puritanical vision of Islam and a hatred for the West.
Reporting from Islamabad— Osama bin Laden, a scion of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families, became the grim apostle of a strain of Islamic radicalism that exalted violence against non-believers, and the leader of a terrorist network that launched repeated attacks in the West, most spectacularly in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2011.
Born in 1957 to a life of privilege, Bin Laden was one of more than 50 offspring of a Saudi construction magnate. He spent his youth in mansions filled with crystal chandeliers, gold statues and Italian tapestries.
Yet he became a figure of worldwide influence as a supporter of Muslim freedom fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s and, later, as an organizer and financier of terrorist cells who concealed his whereabouts, living in safe houses, remote camps and even caves in Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The world's most wanted man was killed during a firefight Sunday with U.S. forces in Abbotabad, about 30 miles northeast of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. He had a $25-million bounty on his head set by the U.S.
Yossef Bodansky, a terrorism expert who wrote a biography of Bin Laden, labeled him "the man who declared war on America." For former President George W. Bush and countless Americans, he was simply "the evil one."
In 1994, Saudi Arabia stripped Bin Laden of his citizenship. Many members of his family, closely linked to the monarchy, had disavowed him long before. Hatred for America » | Monday, May 01, 2011
LA TIMES PHOTOGALLERY: The death of Osama bin Laden: Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda network that executed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was killed as the result of a U.S. military operation, President Obama has announced. The world’s most wanted terrorist was 54. »| Times Editors | Sunday, May 01, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind al-Qaida, is dead, President Obama announces from the White HouseOsama bin Laden, the criminal mastermind behind al-Qaida and the world's most sought-after terrorist since the attacks of 11 September 2001, has been killed by a US operation, President Barack Obama has announced.
In an address to the nation, President Obama said Bin Laden was killed in a "targeted operation" in Abbottabad, a highland town north of Islamabad, last night.
The operation started with an intelligence lead last August, and culminated in an operation involving a "small team of Americans". "After a firefight they killed bin Laden."
None of the Americans was killed. Pakistani co-operation "helped to lead us to him" he said.
Osama's body is in possession of the US, according to the first reports from the US television networks.
As the news spread, crowds gathered outside the gates of the White House in Washington DC, singing the national anthem and cheering.
President Obama made the highly unusual Sunday night live statement to announce the news at around 11.30pm eastern time. » | Richard Adams in Washington and Declan Walsh in Islamabad | Monday, May 02, 2011
Sunday, May 01, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: In response to intense pressure from France and Italy, European Commission to unveil new proposals on WednesdayBrussels said on Sunday that national passport controls might be reintroduced across Europe to allow the "temporary" re-erection of borders between 25 countries.
Responding to intense pressure from Italy and France to tighten the no-borders system known as the Schengen regime, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission, said he was looking at ways of satisfying the two countries' concerns. Paris and Rome are alarmed at an influx of migrants fleeing revolutionary north Africa.
In a letter to French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Barroso said that the commission would unveil new proposals on Wednesday on immigration policy, common European asylum procedures, and reform of the Schengen system.
The commission's proposals are to go to a summit of EU leaders next month, with France and Italy leading the charge for a partial renationalisation of border controls, a trend the commission would like to resist but looks too weak to counter.
The Franco-Italian push to place greater restrictions on the Schengen regime, launched last week after a furious row between Paris and Rome over refugees from Tunisia, has already won support from a handful of other EU countries, including Germany. » | Ian Traynor in Brussels | Sunday, May 01, 2011
BBC: The Libyan ambassador to the UK has been expelled following attacks on British embassy premises in Tripoli.Foreign missions in Libya's capital have been targeted by crowds angry at reports that a Nato air strike had killed a son of Col Muammar Gaddafi.
A BBC team there said the UK embassy building had been completely burnt out.
The foreign secretary said the Gaddafi regime had failed in its duty to protect it and that Omar Jelban had been given 24 hours to leave the UK.
Meanwhile, the United Nations announced it was withdrawing all its international staff from Tripoli after some of its facilities in the city were also attacked by angry crowds.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "The Vienna Convention requires the Gaddafi regime to protect diplomatic missions in Tripoli.
"By failing to do so that regime has once again breached its international responsibilities and obligations. I take the failure to protect such premises very seriously indeed."
The UK currently has no diplomats in the Libyan capital.
Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said official lines of communication with Col Gaddafi's government would remain open, as other Libyan officials would stay in its UK embassy after the ambassador's departure. (+ video) » | Sunday, May 01, 2011
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Es schien Benedikt XVI. leicht zu fallen, auf den Wunsch aus der Weltkirche einzugehen: die Seligsprechung von Johannes Paul II. Am Wochenende stellte er sich selbst in den Schatten seines Vorgängers - in einen Schatten also, der Weggefährten leuchten lässt.
Am Sonntag um 10.36 Uhr brachen mehr als eine Millionen Menschen auf dem Petersplatz und in der Umgebung in Jubel aus. Noch weiter entfernt liegende Straßen versanken in einem Meer von meist polnischen Fahnen. Der Beifall schreckte die Stare, Möwen und zwei Wildenten auf ihren Rastplätzen auf der Engelsburg auf und ließ sie in den Himmel über Rom entschwinden. Menschen brachen in Freudentränen aus und die Verbindungen der Mobiltelefone brachen zusammen. Selbst die Sonne sandte nach Tagen des Regens wärmende Strahlen herab. „Rom und der Weltkreis“ feierten: „Johannes Paul II. ist selig“. » | Von Jörg Bremer, Rom | Sonntag, 01. Mai 2011
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A star is born, but let's pray Kate's little sister is not the new Princess Margaret.
Kate Middleton may have won the nation's hearts on Friday, but as the day's celebrations drew to a close it was clear that her little sister, Pippa, had captured the eyes.
Arriving back at The Goring Hotel close to 3am in a slinky, long emerald gown, with diamanté embellishment, she retained the poise and serene sparkle that had bewitched onlookers all day.
From the moment Pippa arrived at Westminster Abbey, clad in an audaciously simple cowl-necked ivory sheath that skimmed like a glove over her slender yet shapely figure, the nation swooned; you could almost hear the collective male gasp every time she bent to straighten Kate's dress.
By the time Friday's royal wedding service was halfway through, Pippa's crepe-covered derrière was "trending" wildly on social media site Twitter, and by the day's end there were three separate Facebook pages dedicated to praise of her posterior – with the "Pippa Middleton *** Appreciation Society" leading the panting field. Many other admirers, however, had eyes only for the tantalising glimpses of cleavage afforded by her dress's teasing neckline.
What was interesting was that women were every bit as captivated as male onlookers.
While I was waiting in BBC Newsnight's green room on Friday night to discuss the day's great events with half a dozen pundits of varying royalist and republican tendencies, the talk was in perfect accord when it came to the impact of the younger Middleton sister: everyone thought she was utterly ravishing. » | Rowan Pelling | Sunday, May 01, 2011
THE OBSERVER: Mosque in Deraa comes under fire as groups opposing President Assad call for army to lead transition to democracyThe Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad sent fresh troops on Saturday to pound the besieged southern city of Deraa, as a new opposition group appealed to the army to help the transition to democracy.
Tanks and armoured personnel carriers entered the city and troops stormed the Omari mosque, a hub for protesters, killing four people as Syria's government continued to crush dissent in the city, which has been at the centre of the six-week uprising.
Activists said that houses in the Karak district of the city were damaged by shelling which started at 5am local time on Saturday, the sixth day of a sustained siege on the city.
"They are trying to break the will of the protesters and residents while also arresting any leaders," said Rami Nakhle, a Syrian cyber-activist based in Beirut.
The assault on the Omari mosque lasted 90 minutes, during which troops fired tank shells and heavy machine guns, resident Abdullah Abazeid told Associated Press. Three helicopters participated in the operation, dropping paratroopers on top of the mosque itself, he said.
Among the dead was the son of the mosque's imam, Ahmed al-Sayasna, residents said. Sayasna is in hiding, accused by the government of inciting protests. » | Katherine Marsh in Damascus | The Guardian | Saturday, April 30, 2011
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