Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Alleged bin Laden warning on video

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities arrested a suspected al-Qaida operative and seized a video cassette purportedly of Osama bin Laden warning of attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia, intelligence officials said Friday.

The Egyptian national was arrested Wednesday in a raid on a house in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, said two intelligence officials.

Found at the home were three video cassettes, including one reportedly of bin Laden warning of attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia, according to one of the two intelligence officials, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Officials say the man, identified as Haris bin Asim, apparently wanted to deliver the cassettes to the Arab station Al-Jazeera.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - British and U.S. officials seized nearly 4 tons of cocaine from a ship in the Caribbean and arrested 17 crew members, British authorities said Friday.

The British navy frigate HMS Iron Duke intercepted the Panamanian-registered ship Wednesday about 400 miles west of St. Lucia, the authorities said.

U.S. Coast Guard officials aboard the British frigate boarded the MV Yalta and arrested 17 crew members from Lithuania, Estonia and Colombia.

TOKYO - The United States and Japan appeared at odds Friday over whether to complete an international nuclear power project in North Korea, with the U.S. ambassador warning it could be scrapped if the North continues pursuing atomic weapons.

But Tokyo suggested it wanted to push on, despite the deepening standoff with the North.

The $4.6-billion project would build two reactors for energy-starved North Korea as part of a 1994 deal. It has been in limbo since the Pyongyang government admitted last year it had a secret nuclear program.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The Netherlands on Friday opened the first of two "deportation centers," where hundreds of illegal immigrants and rejected asylum seekers - including women and children - will be detained pending expulsion.

The deportation centers are fiercely contested by human rights groups and refugee organizations who say they will be little different from prisons.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A former Bosnian Serb leader sentenced to 11 years in prison for promoting a campaign of murder, rape and torture against non-Serbs will serve her time in Sweden, the Justice Ministry said Friday.

Biljana Plavsic, 72, was convicted by a war crimes tribunal in February of persecution against Bosnian Croats and Muslims in the Bosnian war.

Plavsic likely will serve her time in Hinseberg women's prison, a high-security facility, which has a sauna and riding stables.