Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

World in brief

Pakistan calls al-Qaida 'broken'

By wire services
Published February 27, 2005

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistan has "broken the back" of al-Qaida by dismantling its network and arresting hundreds of suspects, a top government official said Saturday.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the remnants of Osama bin Laden's terror network were on the run.

"Their network is no more in tact. They are scattered and not in a position to even plan attacks," Sherpao said. "The al-Qaida leadership is no more effective."

His comments came two days after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Pakistani security forces had destroyed al-Qaida-linked militants' "sanctuaries and communication systems" along the border with Afghanistan. However, Musharraf said Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terrorism, still had no clue about bin Laden's whereabouts.

SAN'A, Yemen - A Yemeni appeals court on Saturday upheld the death sentence against a militant convicted in the 2000 al-Qaida bombing of the USS Cole and reduced a death sentence to prison time for another defendant.

The death sentence was upheld against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of being an associate of Osama bin Laden.

The court overturned a death sentence against Yemeni militant Jamal al-Badawi, sentencing him instead to 15 years in prison.

Nashiri, who was believed to have masterminded the Cole attack and thought to have directed the 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was tried in absentia. He is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.

SEOUL, South Korea - A U.S. Army pilot was killed and another seriously injured Saturday when their Apache helicopter crashed on a training mission.

The helicopter, belonging to the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division, went down near Paju, a South Korean town close to the border with communist North Korea, said Kim Yong Kyu, a spokesman at the U.S. military command.

The accident took place just before noon, Kim said.

U.S. military authorities were investigating the cause of the crash, and the pilots' identities were being withheld until their families were informed.

TANEGASHIMA, Japan - Fifteen months after a liftoff ended in a spectacular fireball, a Japanese rocket roared off its launchpad and placed a satellite in orbit Saturday, putting Japan back in the race with China to become Asia's leading space power.

Domestically designed and built, the 174-foot-tall H-2A rocket is the centerpiece of Japan's space program, and Saturday's liftoff into a cloudy sunset was a major breakthrough for the relatively low-budget program.

LOME, Togo - West African leaders lifted sanctions against Togo after its military-installed president stepped down, but the African Union warned the government Saturday it must ensure that upcoming presidential elections are fair and transparent.

President Faure Gnassingbe, 39, announced his resignation late Friday after being installed by the military Feb. 5 when his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, died in office after ruling the country for 38 years.

[Last modified February 27, 2005, 00:14:06]