Bin Laden wife: I didn't leave hideout for 5 years

UN human rights investigators calls on US to disclose whether there had been any plan to capture terror chief

WASHINGTON — One of Osama bin Laden's wives has claimed she lived in the al-Qaida chief's final hideout for five years without leaving the upper floors of the house, a Pakistani intelligence official said Friday.

The Yemeni-born woman is one of three wives of bin Laden currently being interrogated in Pakistan.
Authorities are also holding eight or nine children found at the compound after the U.S. raid.
Story: Al-Qaida confirms bin Laden's death
Their accounts will show how bin Laden spent his time and could offer glimpses into the inner workings of al-Qaida.
Speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, the official did not say on Friday whether the Yemeni wife has said that bin Laden was also living there since 2006.
  'Cash-strapped'A senior Pakistani intelligence official also told reporters late Thursday that bin Laden was "cash strapped" in his final days and that al-Qaida had split into two factions, with the larger one controlled by the group's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The official didn't provide details or elaborate how his agency made the conclusions about bin Laden.
The image of Pakistan's intelligence agency has been battered in the wake of Monday's U.S. commando raid that killed bin Laden. Portraying him as isolated and weak may be aimed at trying to deflect attention from that.
U.N. human rights investigators also called on the U.S. on Friday to disclose the full facts surrounding the killing of bin Laden, in particular whether there had been any plan to capture him.
Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Martin Scheinin, special rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, said that in certain exceptional cases, deadly force may be used in "operations against terrorists."
"However, the norm should be that terrorists be dealt with as criminals, through legal processes of arrest, trial and judicially-decided punishment," the independent experts said in a joint statement. "It will be particularly important to know if the planning of the mission allowed an effort to capture bin Laden."
It was important to get this information "into the open," according to the investigators who report to the U.N. Human Rights Council whose 47 members include the U.S.
Meanwhile, NBC News reported Thursday that al-Qaida considered attacking U.S. trains on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks , according to an initial look at DVDs, computers and other documents seized at the raid on Bin Laden's home.
Details of the plan emerged as some of the first intelligence was gleaned from the trove of information found in bin Laden's residence when Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaida leader and four of his associates.
Video: Info from bin Laden raid yields train intel Counterterrorism officials said they believe the plot was only in the initial planning stages, and there is no recent intelligence about any active plan for such an attack.
Extensive surveillance of bin Laden's hideout was carried out from a nearby CIA safe house in Abbottabad, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. officials told the Washington Post that the safe house was the base for intelligence gathering that began after bin Laden's compound was discovered last August and which was so exhaustive the CIA asked Congress to reallocate tens of millions of dollars to fund it.
The fact bin Laden was found in a garrison town — his compound was not far from a major military academy — has embarrassed Pakistan and the covert raid by U.S. commandos has angered its military.

On Thursday, Pakistan's army acknowledged its own "shortcomings" in efforts to find the al-Qaida leader but threatened to review cooperation with Washington if there is another similar violation of Pakistani sovereignty.
The army said its Inter-Services Intelligence agency had arrested or killed about 100 al-Qaida terrorists and associates with or without CIA cooperation.
Story: Pakistan pays US lobbyists to deny it helped bin Laden National humiliationIn a statement, the army said it provided initial intelligence on the whereabouts of bin Laden to the CIA, but that the Americans developed it further and did not share it with the ISI "contrary to the existing practice between the two services."
The tough-sounding statement was a sign of the anger in the army. It also appeared aimed at appeasing politicians, the public and the media in the country over what's viewed by many there as a national humiliation delivered by a deeply unpopular America.
About 1,500 Pakistani Islamists protested on Friday against bin Laden's killing near Quetta, saying more figures like him would arise to wage holy war against the United States.
Story: Protesters condemn 'brutal killing' of bin Laden Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir also warned Thursday of "disastrous consequences" if the U.S. staged a similar attack on its territory.

1. 
   A Pakistani woman photographs her daughter on Thursday, May 5, at a gate of the compound where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (Aqeel Ahmed / AP) 
    
2. 
   School girls pass by armed Pakistani policemen guarding the sealed entrance to the compound in Abbottabad, May 5, in which Osama bin Laden had been living. (MD Nadeem / EPA) 
3. 
   
   Related story Secret, stealth chopper in compound wreckage?

   Part of a damaged helicopter rests in the compound after U.S. Navy SEAL commandos killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, May 2, in a photo made available on May 4. (Reuters) 
4. 
   
   Boys herd sheep past the compound where U.S. Navy SEAL commandos killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad May 5. (Akhtar Soomro / Reuters) 
5. 
   
   Pakistani security officials arrive at the Osama bin Laden compound in Abbottabad on Wednesday, May 4. (Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images) 
6. 
   
   Local residents gather outside a burned section of bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad. (Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images) 
7. 
   
   A Pakistani police officer gestures at a checkpoint along a road leading to a house where bin Laden was captured and killed in Abbottabad. Area residents were still confused and suspicious about bin Laden's death, which took place before dawn on Monday. (Anjum Naveed / AP) 
8. 
   
   Pakistani children look out from a high vantage point at bin Laden's compound on Tuesday, May 3. (Aqeel Ahmed / AP) 
9. 
   
   Pakistan army troops remove canvas screens from outside the compound's house. (Anjum Naveed / AP) 
10. 
    
    Neighbors and news media gather around the compound, right, after authorities ease security around the property. (Aqeel Ahmed / AP) 
11. 
    
    A satellite image, taken June 15, 2005, shows the Abbottabad compound, center, where bin Laden was killed in on Monday. (DigitalGlobe via Reuters) 
12. Related video Inside bin Laden’s Pakistani compound

    A Pakistani soldier secures the compound. (T. Mughal / EPA) 
13. Related video New details on mission to kill bin Laden

    The compound is seen in flames after it was attacked early May 2 in this still image taken from cellphone video footage. (Reuters) 
14. 
    
    Part of a damaged U.S. MH-60 helicopter lies the compound. The helicopter was destroyed by U.S. forces after a mechanical failure left it unable to take off. (Reuters) 
15. 
    
    A still image from video obtained by ABC News shows blood stains in the interior of the house where bin Laden was killed. (ABC News via Reuters) 
16. 
    
    Aerial views released by the Department of Defense show the area in Abbottabad in 2004, left, before the house was built, and in 2011, right. (Department of Defense via Reuters) 
17. 
    
    A graphic released by the Department of Defense shows the compound where bin Laden was killed. (Department of Defense via Reuters) 
18. 
    
    Pakistani soldiers and police officers patrol near the house, background, where bin Laden had lived. (Anjum Naveed / AP) 
19. Related video Rice: 'Surprised' where bin Laden was found

    A general view of the city of Abbottabad. Signs on the hillside say "Home of Piffers" and "Home of Balochis," in reference to two regiments of the Pakistani army that are headquartered in Abbottabad. (Aslam Jadoon / EPA) 
20. Related video Bin Laden’s hiding place north of Pakistani capital

    The hideout of bin Laden is seen the day after his death. (Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images) 
21. 
    
    Students look toward the compound from a nearby religious school in Abbottabad. (Faisal Mahmood / Reuters)
22. Related video Inside the Situation Room: 'We got him'

    Pakistani security officials survey the walls of the compound where bin Laden was killed. The outer walls were between 10 and 18 feet high. (MD Nadeem / EPA) 
23. 
    
    Schoolchildren walk in a street in Thanda Choha village, Abbottabad, near to bin Laden's compound. (MD Nadeem / EPA) 
24. 
    
    Related video Pakistan's credibility questioned

    Pakistani soldiers stand guard near the compound May 2. (Anjum Naveed / AP) 
25. 
    
    A worker prepares traditional bread at a shop that claims to have sold bread to residents of bin Laden's compound, in Thanda Choha village, Abbottabad. (MD Nadeem / EPA)  
26. Boys collect pieces of metal from a wheat field outside bin Laden's house, seen in the background, on May 3. People showed off small parts of what appeared to be a U.S. helicopter that the U.S. says malfunctioned and was blown up by the American team as it retreated. (Anjum Naveed / AP)
27. Related video Timeline of the Osama bin Laden operation

    Pakistani security officials stand guard at the main entrance to the compound on May 3. (MD Nadeem / EPA) 
28. 
    
    Supporters of the Pakistani religious group Jamaat-e-Islami rally against the U.S. in Abbottabad on Friday, May 6. Hundreds took to the streets in the town where Osama bin Laden was killed, shouting "death to America." (Anjum Naveed / AP)

Timeline: A timeline of Osama bin Laden's life

Considered enemy No. 1 by the U.S., the Saudi millionaire is the perpetrator behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Click on key dates to learn more about the founder of al-Qaida, an international terror network.

German 'incest trucker' jailed

A German court on Tuesday jailed a former lorry driver for 14 and a half years for sexually abusing his daughter, stepson and stepdaughter, with whom he fathered eight children.
Spies "was utterly selfish. He treated his family as his own personal property to do with as he wished," presiding judge Winfried Hetger told the court in Koblenz, western Germany, as he passed sentence.
"He had his family in his clutches to such an extent that he didn't even have to lock anyone up.... He told his victims that what he was doing to them was 'allowed'."
In a trial that has shocked the country and drawn comparisons with the infamous 2009 case of Austrian Josef Fritzl, Spies subjected his family to an ordeal lasting more than 20 years in and around the tiny village of Fluterschen.
The court heard how he would abuse his daughter Jasmin and stepdaughter Natascha on a regular basis from their 12th birthdays onwards, raping his daughter for the first time on the back seat of his Toyota in a forest.
Spies also prostituted both girls out to other men dozens of times either in their flats, in a shed or in the back room of one of the men's Turkish doner kebab shop, the judge said.
He would sometimes watch and masturbate during these ordeals. He would be paid 40 deutschmarks and later 30-50 euros (42-69 dollars) each time, the court heard.
Spies was found guilty of 28 counts of sexually abusing minors, 42 counts of serious sexual assault of children, and 63 counts of sexually abusing people under his care.
"When you add all these crimes together you come to a total sentence of 500 years and 10 months," judge Hetger said.
"German law however does not allow such a sentence."
Visitors in the packed courtroom cheered as the sentence was handed down, while the small, thin and unremarkable-looking Spies stared at the floor, showing no emotion, as his stepchildren, now adults, sat opposite.
Spies had admitted fathering eight children, one of whom died, with his stepdaughter, who is now 28. This was however not part of the trial.
The sentence demanded -- 14 years and six months -- was just under the maximum possible of 15 years, because on Monday he had made a full confession through his lawyer. After the sentence he will be in preventive custody.
Several German media outlets have compared Spies to Fritzl, who held his daughter Elisabeth as a sex slave in a cramped, homemade dungeon in Austria for 24 years. He was jailed for life in 2009.
Fritzl raped Elisabeth thousands of times, fathering seven children with her and letting one of the newborn babies die. He was sentenced to life in prison in March 2009.
This latest case has also laid bare the failure of neighbours and authorities to detect what was going on, with social workers having conducted interviews with the family -- but with Spies present.
"If you are a trained social worker, you are supposed to go there and interview the victims without the perpetrator being present, and not all together," stepson Bjoern said previously.
It emerged on the first day of the trial that there was a criminal investigation in 2002 but that it was abandoned because the daughter disputed the accusations against her father, while the stepdaughter said nothing.
Spies was arrested on August 10, 2010.
The mother of the three victims, who is in her 50s, appeared as a witness in the trial and prosecutors have not charged her with any offence.
"This verdict is also an appeal to all other victims out there not to keep quiet, but to have the courage to speak out," Hetger said.
"Only then will the hurting stop."

Plane crash kills 14 in Honduras

All passengers, including senior government official and union chief, killed after plane crashes in town of Las Mesitas.

Two government officials were lucky to have missed the doomed flight that killed 14 people [Reuters]

Fourteen people, including a senior government official and a union leader, have been killed after a small plane crashed in Honduras.

The Central American Airlines (CAA) plane was flying to the Toncontin international airport in the capital Tegucigalpa when it crashed in the town of Las Mesitas on Monday.

All those on board died in the crash, with the plane coming down about 5km short of the airport.

The passenger list included Rodolfo Robelo, the deputy minister of public works, Carlos Chain, a former government minister and Israel Salinas, a union leader.

The government has declared three days of national mourning in honour of those killed.

Three US citizens were also among the passengers, according to Gustavo Castaneda, director of Central American Airways.

Two other government ministers scheduled to be on the plane missed their flight.

"Thanks to fate and to God we did not board, and God has given us a new life," said Cesar Ham, the minister of the National Agrarian Institute.

'Tragic vision'

Tincontin airport is considered one of the most dangerous airports in the world because of its short runway, old navigation equipment and surrounding hills.

The National Service of Civil Aviation said the accident happened a little after 8am EST (1300GMT), minutes after air traffic controllers instructed the pilots to land. There was fog in the area at the time of the crash.

Jorge Deras, mayor of the town of Santa Ana, near Las Mesitas, said he heard an explosion and ran to the crash site. "We found many ... bodies strewn about,'' said Deras. "It's a tragic vision.''

At least 10 planes have crashed in and around the Toncontin airport since October 1989, when a Honduran commercial jet went down, killing 131 people.

It was built on the southern edge of hilly Tegucigalpa in 1948 with a runway less than 1,600m long.

The cause of the crash is being investigated

Chevron fined $8.6bn for pollution

Ecuador court asks US oil giant to pay damages for contaminating Amazon river while drilling for oil.

Residents said faulty drilling practices harmed environment and indigenous people [GALLO/GETTY]

A court in Ecuador has told oil giant Chevron Corp to pay $8.6bn in environmental damages, but the US company has termed the court order as "illegitimate and unenforceable" and said it would appeal.

An Ecuadorean judge ruled on Monday that Chevron was responsible for oil drilling contamination and also asked it to pay a legally mandated 10 per cent reparations fee.

The amount - $8.6bn plus the legally mandated 10 per cent reparations fee - is far below the $27.3bn award recommended by a court-appointed expert, but appeared to be the highest damage award ever issued in an environmental lawsuit.

"We plan to appeal that and every other aspect of this illegitimate verdict and see to it that the perpetrators of this fraud are brought to justice," James Craig, a Chevron spokesman, told the Reuters news agency.

In case Chevron appeals, the lawsuit, which dates from drilling in the Andean nation during the 1970s and 1980s, could drag on.

"This ruling is an intermediate step. The appeals could go on for many years," John van Schaik, an oil analyst at Medley Global Advisors in New York, said.

"But the fact that the Lago Agrio court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs sends a signal to oil companies that, more than ever, they need to be good corporate citizens," he added.

Chevron has long contended it could never get a fair trial in Ecuador and has removed all assets from the country, whose leftist president, Rafael Correa, had voiced support for the plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs disappointed

The plaintiffs were disappointed by the $8.6bn figure and gathered to discuss whether they would push for more money.

"Given the insignificance of the economic figure, we are going to analyse, discuss and decide if we will appeal this decision or not," Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an emailed statement.

The plaintiffs, including indigenous groups, say their hunting and fishing grounds in Amazon river headwaters were decimated by toxic wastewater that also raised the cancer rate.

Residents of Ecuador's Amazon region have said faulty drilling practices by Texaco, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, caused damage to wide areas of jungle and harmed indigenous people in the 1970s and 1980s.

Chevron's shares traded 1.3 per cent higher to close at $96.95 as investors shrugged off news of the court ruling. The stock had been lifted by gains in crude oil, and analysts said a final verdict in the court case was likely years away.

Order hailed

Monday's ruling was hailed by the environmentalist groups, Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network, as "proving overwhelmingly that the oil giant is responsible for billions gallons of highly toxic waste sludge deliberately dumped into local streams and rivers, which thousands depend on for drinking, bathing, and fishing".

"It is time Chevron clean up its disastrous mess in Ecuador," they said in a joint statement.

If upheld and enforced, Monday's award would substantially exceed the $5bn originally awarded to victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. That jury award was later cut down to $507.5m by the US Supreme Court.

Other major environmental damage payments include the $470m paid by Union Carbide in 1989 to India's government for the lethal gas leak five years earlier in Bhopal that killed an estimated 15,000 people.

BP set up a $20bn oil spill compensation fund after last year's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, of which about $3.4bn has been paid out

US charges men over 'Taliban links'

Seven men, including two US citizens, accused of aiding Afghan fighters by selling them weapons and dealing in drugs.

Seven men, including two US citizens, have been charged in New York with selling drugs and weapons in an alleged effort to help the Taliban fight American troops overseas.

In meetings in Benin, Romania, Ghana and the Ukraine, the men are alleged to have agreed to transport and sell heroin for informants posing as members of the Taliban, which is deemed a terrorist group by the US.

The men also agreed to sell the informants surface-to-air missiles for use in Afghanistan, authorities said.

Charges were filed against Maroun Saade, Walid Nasir, Francis Sourou Ahissou, Corneille Dato, Martin Raouf Bouraima, Oded Orbach and Alwar Pouryan.

Saade and Nasr are Lebanese, Bouraima and Dato are from Benin, and Ahissou is Togolese, prosecutors said.

The two US citizens, Orbach and Pouryan, were arrested in Romania last week and are being held there while they await extradition home.

The others were arrested last week in Liberia, where they are in US custody. All are expected to be prosecuted in New York.

Anti-aircraft missiles

The supposed Taliban representatives told the men that the drugs would be sold to help finance Taliban operations against the US, court documents said.

"Saade responded that it would please him to support the Taliban's cause,'' prosecutors wrote in the indictment.

As the drug relationship blossomed, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) also began negotiating to buy anti-aircraft missiles and automatic weapons, prosecutors said.

Those inquiries led the DEA to the two US citizens, who discussed selling anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers and other weapons to the Taliban.

"This alleged effort to arm and enrich the Taliban is the latest example of the dangers of an interconnected world in which terrorists and drug runners can link up across continents to harm Americans," US attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Prosecutors said they believe the men were working with a co-conspirator in Lebanon. The co-conspirator was not named.

Obama vows to tackle US deficit

US president says steps he is taking are going to be "difficult" and require Democrats and Republicans to work together.

Obama faces a fight over the budget with Republicans, who say his spending cuts are not deep enough [GETTY]

Barack Obama has said he is determined to curb the US budget deficit, a day after he unveiled an ambitious austerity plan.

Speaking in Washington DC on Tuesday, the US president said: "When I took office I pledged to cut the deficit by half by the end of my first term. Our budget needs that. The budget requires to make some tough choices."

He said medicare and medical aid were the "single-biggest contributor to the deficit", and cautioned that the steps he was taking "are going to be difficult and that's why they require Democrats, Republicans and independents to work together".

"We'll not be adding more to the national debt," Obama said.

"We'll not be running up the credit card any more. We're going to make some key investments in areas like education. Medicare and medical aid are huge problems and that's why we have started with that in a serious way."

Obama released on Monday a $3.73tn budget for 2012 that calls for spending cuts and investment in areas such as education and energy efficiency.

He faces a fight over the budget with congressional Republicans, who say his spending cuts are not deep enough to attack the US deficit, which will hit an all-time high of $1.65tn this year.


Investment strategist Ashraf Laidi talks to Al Jazeera about the upcoming bitter US budget battle

But it is expected to drop sharply to $1.1tn in 2012, with an expected improvement in the economy and as reductions in Social Security withholding and business taxes expire.

Obama's 2012 budget would actually add $8bn to the projected deficit for that year because the bulk of the savings he will achieve through a freeze in many domestic programmes would be devoted to increased spending in areas the president considers priorities, such as education, clean energy and high-speed rail.

"We have more work to do to live up to our promise by repairing the damage this brutal recession has inflicted on our people," he said on Monday.

Republicans, who took control of the House in the November elections and picked up seats in the senate in part because of voter anger over the soaring deficit, called Obama's efforts too timid.

The legislators are set to begin debating on Tuesday $61bn in cuts for the remaining seven months of fiscal 2011.

"Presidents are elected to lead and address big challenges," Paul Ryan, the chairman of the Republican House budget committee of Wisconsin, said.

"The big challenge facing our economy today and our country tomorrow is the debt crisis. He's making it worse, not better."

Obama half-brother arrested

The half-brother of the US president is accused of possessing marijuana.

The president has described his half-brother as "a handsome, roundheaded boy" [Files: EPA]
The youngest half-brother of Barack Obama, the US president, has been arrested for alleged possession of marijuana near his home in a Nairobi shantytown, police have said.

George Obama, 26, who barely knows the US president, was arrested on Saturday with one joint of marijuana, Joshua Omokulongolo, the police chief in the area, said.

"He is not a drug peddler," Omokulongolo told the Associated Press news agency.

"But it's illegal, it's a banned substance."

George Obama has a court appearance scheduled on Monday.

George told reporters from his jail cell: "They took me from my home. I don’t know why they are charging me."

He and the president have the same father, who died in a car crash in 1982.

The White House declined to comment on the case on Saturday.

Several of president Obama's Kenyan relatives went to Washington DC for his inauguration, but George was not among them. He lives in Huruma with extended family.

Media reports about him surfaced over the summer, after a magazine article said he lived in a shack and earned a dollar a day.

George Obama has called the reports insulting.

"I'm proud of how I live," he told the Associated Press news agency in an interview over the summer. "[The media] are tarnishing the family name."

He also said he was studying to be a mechanic and works with a local youth group in Huruma.

In president Obama's book "Dreams From My Father," he describes George Obama as "a handsome, roundheaded boy with a wary gaze."

Obama vows to tackle US deficit

US president says steps he is taking are going to be "difficult" and require Democrats and Republicans to work together.

Obama faces a fight over the budget with Republicans, who say his spending cuts are not deep enough [GETTY]

Barack Obama has said he is determined to curb the US budget deficit, a day after he unveiled an ambitious austerity plan.

Speaking in Washington DC on Tuesday, the US president said: "When I took office I pledged to cut the deficit by half by the end of my first term. Our budget needs that. The budget requires to make some tough choices."

He said medicare and medical aid were the "single-biggest contributor to the deficit", and cautioned that the steps he was taking "are going to be difficult and that's why they require Democrats, Republicans and independents to work together".

"We'll not be adding more to the national debt," Obama said.

"We'll not be running up the credit card any more. We're going to make some key investments in areas like education. Medicare and medical aid are huge problems and that's why we have started with that in a serious way."

Obama released on Monday a $3.73tn budget for 2012 that calls for spending cuts and investment in areas such as education and energy efficiency.

He faces a fight over the budget with congressional Republicans, who say his spending cuts are not deep enough to attack the US deficit, which will hit an all-time high of $1.65tn this year.
Investment strategist Ashraf Laidi talks to Al Jazeera about the upcoming bitter US budget battle

But it is expected to drop sharply to $1.1tn in 2012, with an expected improvement in the economy and as reductions in Social Security withholding and business taxes expire.

Obama's 2012 budget would actually add $8bn to the projected deficit for that year because the bulk of the savings he will achieve through a freeze in many domestic programmes would be devoted to increased spending in areas the president considers priorities, such as education, clean energy and high-speed rail.

"We have more work to do to live up to our promise by repairing the damage this brutal recession has inflicted on our people," he said on Monday.

Republicans, who took control of the House in the November elections and picked up seats in the senate in part because of voter anger over the soaring deficit, called Obama's efforts too timid.

The legislators are set to begin debating on Tuesday $61bn in cuts for the remaining seven months of fiscal 2011.

"Presidents are elected to lead and address big challenges," Paul Ryan, the chairman of the Republican House budget committee of Wisconsin, said.

"The big challenge facing our economy today and our country tomorrow is the debt crisis. He's making it worse, not better."

Many dead in Mexico drug violence

Many dead in Mexico drug violence
Series of shootings in Tamaulipas claims 19 lives while body of abducted police chief is recovered in Nuevo Leon.

The murder of Nuevo Leon's police chief has dealt a blow to the government's battle against organised crime [AFP]

The turf war between rival drug gangs has left a further 19 people dead after a series of shootings and an attack on a senior police commander in northern Mexico.

The city hall, courthouse and police headquarters were all damaged during the killing spree in Padilla, where seven bodies were dumped in the main square of the town, just north of Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas state.

A group of five people were shot dead inside their car, while one was killed during an attack on a public bus.

A further five inhabitants of the town were killed, but authorities have not yet released details.

The killings came as authorities announced on Monday that troops had arrested Juan Carlos Olivera "El Sonrics" Acosta - a suspected leader of the Zetas gang.

Officials in Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas, said the corpse of Homero Salcido Trevino, the state's police intelligence and security director, was found on Saturday night inside his burnt-out car, abandoned in central Monterrey.

Trevino had reportedly been ambushed and kidnapped as he left his home, hours before his body was found in his smouldering 4WD vehicle.

"It is still premature to tell you it was organised crime," Rodrigo Medina, Nuevo Leon's governor, said.

"What is evident is that we have a vicious fight between the cartels of organised crime, which have provoked this violence and has obligated us to redouble our efforts."

Security risks

Medina said security officials know the risks they face but vowed attacks would not "force us to back down or stand aside in this fight".

Salcido's killing is a blow to federal and state governments' efforts to re-establish control over Monterrey, Mexico's business capital, which has been wracked by increasing drug violence over the past year.

His three bodyguards and chauffeur have reportedly been interrogated.

In another development, soldiers in Nuevo Leon also announced they had captured Olivera Acosta, and said he was reponsible for attacking federal police while unsuccessfully trying to rescue five members of Los Zetas, one of the four largest gangs vying for control of drug running.

The army said Olivera Acosta, who was allegedly found bearing weapons, had led criminal activities such as drug trafficking, kidnappings, robberies and killings in the Nuevo Leon municipalities of Montemorelos, Linares, Hualahuises, Rayones, General Teran and Allende since August 2010.

He is also accused of attacking a military base on February 4, 2010.

Nationwide, almost 35,000 people have been killed since Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, launched a military crackdown against drug trafficking in 2006.

Early partial solar eclipse for 2011....Tuesday

Early partial solar eclipse for 2011

Observers should NOT look directly at the Sun during this event

Tuesday will witness the first partial solar eclipse of 2011.

People standing across a great swathe of the Earth's surface will see the Moon take a big bite out of the Sun.
For north Africa and much of Europe, the event starts at sunrise, whereas in central Russia and northwest China, the spectacle occurs at sunset.
Northeast Sweden should get the best experience. At 0850 GMT, near the city of Skelleftea, the Moon will cover almost 90% of the Sun's diameter.
Skywatchers will have to have a high vantage point, however, as both celestial bodies will be skirting the horizon at that time.
As is always the case for solar eclipses, the public is being warned to take great care.
Viewing the Sun's harsh light should only be done through protective equipment - proper solar glasses and solar telescopes, or through a pinhole projection system.
In many places, professional and amateur astronomy groups will be setting up safe observing systems. In the UK, for example, there are a series of events tied into the BBC's Stargazing Live programmes.

As ever, skywatchers will be at the mercy of local weather conditions

Partial solar eclipses occur when the Sun and Moon do not quite align in the sky as viewed from Earth, and the deep shadow cast by the smaller body passing across the bigger one just misses the planet.
Nonetheless, the phenomenon will result in a dip in light, depending on how big a chunk of the solar disc the Moon can obscure. This effect will vary from place to place and in time.
Northern Algeria will be the first location to witness the phenomenon at 0640 GMT. In European cities like London and Paris, the eclipse will already be underway as the Sun rises, with the Moon covering up almost 70% of our star by 0812 GMT in the British capital, and 65% of the solar disc by 0809 GMT in the French capital.
The further east the event tracks, the closer it gets to local sunset. Central Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northwest China will all observe an eclipsed Sun dive over the horizon.

LOCAL TIMES FOR SELECTED CITIES
CITY	Eclipse starts	Eclipse Mid-point	Eclipse ends	Coverage of the Sun
Information courtesy of SkyandTelescope.com
London	sunrise	0812	0931	67%
Madrid	sunrise	0852	1006	47%
Paris	sunrise	0909	1030	65%
Rome	0752	0910	1038	61%
Cairo	0902	1031	1206	44%
Stockholm	sunrise	0942	1105	79%
Budapest	0805	0928	1058	70%
Istanbul	0908	1037	1212	63%
Tel Aviv	0909	1041	1216	47%
Moscow	1038	1204	1330	74%
Baghdad	1032	1204	1335	42%
Karachi	1404	1446	1525	3%

There are a number of ready reckoners on the web that will compute local circumstances for just about any place on the planet.
Although there are three more partial solar eclipses this year, for Europeans in particular Tuesday's event is the key one. They will not get another chance to see so much of the Sun being covered up by the Moon until 20 March 2015.
The next total solar eclipse is in November 2013 over the South Pacific.

Warlogs Wikileaks Org Iraq Diary Dig

At pm est friday nd wikileaks released the ied attk on ln ivo zone ___ civ kia ___ civ wia — iraq war logs diary dig — iraq. war logs review the by – design by owni site that is hosting war the. Http diarydig afghan war diaries now on beta news organizations told by pentagon not to. Instead a site its calling gives from http at pm est friday nd the reports the war logs document. war logs is a website which provides an easy way to search through the war. Http in format http diarydig iraqiwarlogs video about iraqiwarlogs previously unknown. Http at pm est friday nd the reports the war logs document the front page at is all that you can get the. The by – design by owni this document is a us military file published online by find it on. War logs browse the diaries and make complex searches at pm est friday nd released browse the diaries and make complex searches. Is a website which provides an easy way to search through the and afghan war logs which were made public by on nd.

Last updated http biggest military leak in history releases war the raw files and wikileaks war. war logs is a website which provides an easy way to search through the. This document is a us military file published online by find it on the by – design by owni follow the news on owni. The afghan war an afg — war logs is a website which provides an easy way to search. In format http diarydig an ap article about the release of information. Commondreams london — founder julian assange said saturday that leaked by the website showed the truth on the war. War diaries war logs browse the diaries and make complex searches. War logs http at pm est friday nd please donate to to defend this information war logs. War diaries war logs browse the diaries and make complex searches sobre irak grapcias a los aqui http. Diary dig — iraq war logs warlogs is a website which provides an easy way to search through the iraq war logs which were made public by wikileaks on nd.

Pentagon Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on Upcoming Iraq War Wikileaks Docs (Part 2 of 2)

Pentagon Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on Upcoming Iraq War Wikileaks Docs

WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history

At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.
The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 'civilians'; 23,984 'enemy' (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 'host nation' (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 'friendly' (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the 'Afghan War Diaries', previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivalent population size.

the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain

On Sunday 28th Novembre 2010, Wikileaks began publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into the US Government's foreign activities.

The cables, which date from 1966 to the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.