Top LTTE leader apologizes to India for Rajiv's killing

NEW DELHI: A top LTTE leader Kumaran Pathmanathan has apologised to India for V Prabhakaran's "mistake" of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

He said Rajiv's assassination was "well planned and done actually with Prabhakaran and (LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman). Everyone knows the truth".

In an interview to CNN-IBN Firstpost, Pathmanathan, who was Treasurer of LTTE and its chief arms procurer, said "I want to say to the Indian people and especially to the Gandhi family...I want to apologise for Prabhakaran's mistake. Please forgive us. We beg you....Sorry for all this. We know the feelings of the son (Rahul) of Rajiv Gandhi....How father and daughter are attached (reference to Rajiv's daughter Priyanka)".

He said Tamils in Sri Lanka should be helped to live as humans as "we have already paid a high price. We don't have anything to lose".

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India in touch with other nations over selection of IMF chief

NEW DELHI: As the race for the next IMF chief hots up, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he was in touch with his counterparts from developed and emerging economies on the issue and was keeping a close watch on the developments.

"Our executive directors (in IMF) are meeting and exchanging views. And I am regularly being informed what is happening. I am also in touch with other Finance Ministers (of other IMF member nations)", he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

The post of the IMF managing director fell vacant following the exit of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is being tried for charges of sexual assault.

Although the chorus is growing that the next chief should be from an emerging nation, several leaders from European countries have extended their support to Christine Lagarde, Finance Minister of France.

When asked about the possibility of new chief from a developing country, Mukherjee said, "there are set procedures. We did not face this type of problem earlier. Normally, we decide through the process of consensus building and we have the consensus.

"But at the same time, we shall have to keep in mind that it (IMF) is a financial institution. Shareholding and voting power are relevant factors", he added.

Besides Lagarde, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown figure in the list of probables for the top IMF job.

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Implicating ISI in terror, Headley says hatred of India after 1971 war drove him to LeT

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON: Hatred of India arising from Pakistan's defeat in the 1971 war drove him to the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, David Coleman Headley, the Pakistani expatriate who involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack told a Chicago court on Monday while implicating Pakistan's spy agency ISI in nurturing terrorism.

Headley, who took the stand as a prosecution witness on the opening day of the trial of his once close buddy Tahawwur Hussain Rana, told the court that he disliked Indians for "dismembering" Pakistan and was haunted by memories of his junior school being bombed. He and Rana shared room at a military boarding school where he said India and Indians were frequently discussed. He also mentioned that in the early speeches about Jihad, he heard it mentioned that, "one second conducting Jihad was equal to one hundred years of praying."

Headley was still being questioned sequentially about his involvement in terror and the nexus between the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba when the court broke for lunch, but his initial answers appeared to implicate ISI in planning and fostering terrorism.

He chronologically mentioned his handlers in LET, including the others charged along with Rana, in a recent second superceding indictment, including Pasha, Kashmiri, Saajid and Major Iqbal. He also related various types of camps he attended in different regions of Pakistan, ranging from essential espionage, to arms training, surveillance training and hand to hand combat.

"These groups operate under the umbrella of the ISI... They coordinate with each other," Headley told the court, recalling that one time, when he suggested that LeT sue the U.S government for designating it as a terrorist organization, LeT leader Zaki-ur Rehman said "he would have to consult the ISI."

Headley also related how his LeT handler Ali took his phone number and told him that a "Major Iqbal" would be calling him about an operation in India. The prosecution case mentions a "Major Iqbal," believed to be a serving ISI officer, who is alleged to have coordinated the Mumbai attacks.

Much of what Headley said is related in the prosecution's chargesheet but his elaboration under oath from the witness box puts Pakistan's terrorism sponsorship under the arclights. At many points during his testimony, Headley provided graphic details of his interactions with ISI and LeT personnel and their close ties.

Headley spoke of attending LeT lunches with the organization's supremo Hafiz Saeed, currently under state protection, and operations commander "Zaki," presumably Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, currently under arrest. He said he told them he wanted to fight in Kashmir but "I was told they (LET) would find something better and more suitable for me." That assignment turned out to be scouting Mumbai for the 2008 terrorist attack.

Wearing a casual grey jacket over a grey T-shirt, Headley began testifying after both the prosecution and the defense completed opening arguments that each lasted 45 minutes. In appearance, he looked more Caucasian than Pakistani, a fact that he himself remarked about when he spoke of the circumstances under which he changed his name.

Headley said when he was arrested in 2005 near Peshawar, the Pakistanis did not believe him when he said he was one of them. "They thought I was a foreigner." Subsequently, prior to the Mumbai attack, he said he changed his name, under "Zaki's advice," so that "nobody would be able to tell I was a Muslim or a Pakistani."

Earlier, maintaining that "not every player carries a weapon" in the terror game and supporters are equally as critical, the prosecution portrayed the defendant Rana as a maniacal plotter who was heard saying after the Mumbai carnage that the dead terrorists "should get Pakistan's highest military honor."

But the defense responded with a picture of Rana as a model student who went on to medical school and served as a doctor in the army, even as Headley, previously known as Daood Gilani, went astray. "David Headley is a master manipulator who made a fool of Doctor Rana," defense attorney Charlie Swift maintained.

Swift described Rana as "a master manipulator, manipulating three different organizations, the LeT, the ISI and the DEA (American Drug Enforcement Authority) all at the same time, while also manipulating several relationships and wives." Finally he sought to manipulate the government to secure his own life in return for 'betraying' Rana, he said, adding "Headley now needed a home run or a touchdown, so he changed his story and said Rana knew everything.

The courtroom drama aside, disclosure of ISI-LeT nexus and their involvement in the Mumbai attack comes at a time Pakistan's role in terrorism is under worldwide scrutiny, particularly after the US elimination of Osama bin Laden, even as the country itself is under attack from terrorists it has allegedly fostered. Headley's initial testimony, as widely expected, is seen to have exposed Pakistan as a state perpetrator of terrorism, even though its people are also victims of the same menace.

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Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn wins bail, indicted on all sex charges

NEW YORK: Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was granted bail by a New York court shortly after he was formally indicted on all sexual assault charges.

The court agreed to free Strauss-Kahn from a New York City jail on bail terms of $1 million in cash and also on the condition that he would remain under house arrest in a Manhattan apartment under the watch of armed guards.

Strauss-Kahn is allowed to stay with his wife in the apartment.

On June 6, the court will hold an arraignment hearing in which the exact charges will be revealed.

The former IMF chief, who was indicted on all seven counts, is accused of groping and mauling a Guinean maid in his room at Sofitel hotel in Times Square and forcibly tried to have oral sex with her.

Since, prosecutors have argued that he is at flight risk, Strauss-Kahn has to wear an electronic monitoring device and he will be monitored by armed guards--at his own expense.

Strauss-Kahn, however, has to spend one more night at the Rikers Island prison where he being held since Monday. He also has to provide $5 million as collateral and turn over all his travel documents.

62-year-old Strauss-Kahn looked tired as he sat in court wearing a blue shirt and gray jacket without a tie. His wife, Anne Sinclair, a French TV journalist, was present in court along with their daughter.

Prosecutors had cited the example of film director Roman Polanski, who fled from the US in 1977 after admitting to engage in unlawful sex with a minor. Strauss-Kahn, however, has given up his extradition rights, which he is granted as a French citizen.

On Saturday, he was pulled off a Paris-bound flight minutes before take-off and was taken into custody at New York's JFK airport.

Strauss-Kahn denied wrongdoing and is expected to plead not guilty. His lawyers have also said that the sex was consensual.

Yesterday, Strauss-Kahn resigned from the IMF. Strauss-Kahn, a socialist politician, was seen as a possible contender in the 2012 presidential elections in French.

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IMF chief denied bail in sex assault case

NEW YORK: IMF chief Dominique Strauss- Kahn was on Monday denied bail on charges of attempted rape and criminal assault of a hotel maid here in a case that has ravaged his reputation and sent tremors in French politics.

Appearing in the court presided over by Judge Melissa Jackson for the first time after his arrest on Sunday, the 62-year-old IMF chief refuted the charges levelled by the 32-year-old chambermaid of New York Sofitel Hotel.

The IMF chief pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempted rape, sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment.

Strauss Kahn's lawyers sought his release on bail for $1 million and also offered to surrender all his travel documents, but the judge was not convinced.

The judge said Strauss-Kahn is a "flight risk" and remanded him in judicial custody till May 20 when the matter will come up for hearing.

If convicted, Strauss-Kahn, father of four children, could face a prison term of 15 to 20 years.

A grim-looking Strauss-Kahn appeared drained out during the court proceedings.

His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said the IMF chief would be exonerated as there was no wrong doing on his part.

Strauss-Kahn, a likely French presidential candidate for 2012, was picked up out of a police lineup last night by the chambermaid, who has accused him of molesting her.

The IMF chief, who was handcuffed and looked shaken, has agreed for a medical examination over charges of serious sexual assault.

Billed as the man who could hand out a poll defeat to French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Strauss-Kahn was made to deboard a Paris-bound flight and arrested yesterday by the New York police which said he had no diplomatic immunity.

New York Times reported that his DNA evidence has been taken from his $3000 a day hotel suite.

The French financial wizard's arraignment was put off for a day after he agreed to forensic testing requested by the police as his attorney Brafman vowed that his client proposed to fight charges of sexual assault.

"Our client has willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination," his other lawyer William W Taylor III said.

Wearing a black overcoat over a blue shirt and black trousers, Strauss-Kahn avoided looking at the cameras as he walked to a police car.

The maid, who has not been named by the police, said she had entered the spacious Sofitel hotel suite thinking it was unoccupied when Strauss-Kahn sprang on her naked from the bathroom, ran after her and dragged her into his bedroom before assaulting her.

He then dragged her into the bathroom where he forced himself on her again before she broke free, the maid told the police.

New York Police alleged that following the assault in the Manhattan hotel, Strauss-Kahn quickly headed off to New York airport to board a Paris-bound flight but left his cellphone behind.

The IMF chief called the hotel from the airport, inquiring about the phone, and this helped police track him to the first class section of the Paris-bound flight.


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Saudi diplomat shot dead in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A Saudi Arabian diplomat was shot and killed by unidentified attackers in Karachi on Monday, just five days after explosives devices were lobbed at the Saudi consulate in the southern Pakistani port city.

The Saudi diplomat, identified in media reports as Hasan M M Al-Kahtani, was attacked by four gunmen riding two motorcycles while he was driving to work.

The attack occurred a short distance from the Bahrain consulate.

The Saudi Embassy in Islamabad confirmed that the victim was a diplomat.

Police officials said the gunmen intercepted the car and fired over a dozen bullets at the victim.

He was declared dead on arrival at the Jinnah Hospital.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. On May 11, two men riding a motorcycle lobbed two low intensity explosive devices at the Saudi consulate in Karachi though no one was injured in the attack.

Saudi officials said the blasts caused minor damage to buildings within the consulate compound.

The attacks came in the wake of the May 2 raid by US special forces in the garrison city of Abbottabad that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Saudi assistant foreign minister Prince Khaled bin Saud had urged Pakistani authorities to ensure the protection of the kingdom's diplomatic missions in the country.

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Donald Trump backs out of 2012 prez race

BOSTON: Billionaire real estate magnate Donald Trump said on Monday that he will not run for the White House in 2012. The host of NBC-TV's "Celebrity Apprentice" said the decision came after "considerable deliberation and reflection" after weeks of an unofficial campaign.

"I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election," Trump said. He said that he has been unofficially campaigning for the past few months, but has decided that politics is not his top priority. "Business is my passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector," he said.

He said he will continue to express his opinions and support the candidate "who is the most qualified to help us tackle our country's most important issues".

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WikiLeaks' Assange awarded top Sydney peace prize

SYDNEY: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was Wednesday awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's top honour for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights", joining the likes of Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

Assange, an Australian former computer hacker who is fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, was praised and rewarded with the Sydney Peace Prize's Gold Medal.

Although the Peace Prize is awarded annually by the foundation only three other people in its 14-year history have been awarded the gold award for courage in pursuit of human rights -- the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda.

The foundation paid tribute to Assange's determination to seek greater transparency and accountability from governments around the world, having challenged "centuries old practices of government secrecy".

"By championing people's right to know, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have created the potential for a new order in journalism and in the free flow of information," said foundation director Stuart Rees.

Assange is the founder of the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website that has published thousands of cables in which US diplomats give their often candid views on world leaders, to Washington's acute embarrassment.

It has also leaked countless secret documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Assange, who was arrested in London at Sweden's request in December, remains on bail pending his challenge in July to a British judge's decision to extradite him over allegations of sexual assault.

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Osama bin Laden's Yemeni widow to be repatriated: Pak diplomat

DUBAI: Slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's detained relatives, including his 29-year-old Yemeni widow, will be repatriated back to their home countries after their initial interrogations are completed, a Pakistani diplomat has said.

Bin Laden's Yemeni widow Amal Ahmed Abdul Fattah was with her husband in a bedroom when US special forces stormed the house. She was shot in the leg while attempting to defend her husband and is currently being detained in a hospital in Pakistan.

"They (bin Laden's relatives) are in safe hands and when initial questions are completed, they will be sent to their home countries," Pakistan's Deputy Ambassador to Yemen Diyar Khan was quoted as saying by the Yemen Times newspaper.

Fattah is from a Yemeni family living in the Al-Sayyani district of Ibb governorate, 193 km south the capital Sana'a. She was married to bin Laden in 2000 at the age of 18. She was the fifth and youngest wife of bin Laden.

The US has also asked Pakistan to provide it access to all non combatants, including bin Laden's three wives, detained by the Pakistani authorities.

"We need to work with them (Pakistan) on assessing all the evidence out of that compound and all of the evidence associated with Osama bin Laden's presence there for six years. They have in their custody all the noncombatants from the compound, including three wives of Osama bin Laden. We've asked for access to those folks," White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon has said.

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UAE job seekers to undergo TB tests at home

DUBAI: In order to stop the spreading of infectious diseases in the county, UAE is planning to bar job-seekers from Asian countries infected with pulmonary Tuberculosis ( TB) from working here.

As a result, it will be mandatory for people seeking to move to UAE for a job or residency, to undergo screening for infectious diseases in their home countries, under new plans unveiled by the country's ministry of health (MoH).

According to a statement from the ministry released on the UAE's official news agency WAM, the rule will only apply to workers from certain countries, without specifying which nationalities would be affected by the new rule.

Immigrants will undergo a second compulsory screening on their arrival in UAE, the statement said, adding those testing positive for contagious diseases will be barred from the country.

Dr Mahmoud Fikri, assistant undersecretary of the MoH, said the move was in response to an increase in the number of migrants from some countries testing positive for infectious diseases.

"It has been noticed that the rates of contagious diseases increased among some categories coming from some countries in which there are higher rates of these contagious diseases," he said.

According to MoH data, 21 per cent of immigrants screened from Asian countries in 2009 tested positive for tuberculosis.

The ministry would "take new preventive measures to curb the increase of such cases," Dr Fikri said, adding the programme has "so far kept the UAE intact from spread of the contagious diseases that pose danger to the community".

Under existing laws, expatriates are required to undergo medical checks before securing a residency visa in the UAE.

Contractor who built Osama's house taken into custody

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities on Wednesday arrested the contractor who built the three-storey mansion in Pakistan's northern city of Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was residing, intelligence sources said.

Gul Madah, aged between 45-50, a native of Battagram town, about 35 km north of Abbottabad, constructed the house in 2005. He was picked by intelligence agencies from Abbotabad's Jharian locality and shifted to undisclosed location, sources said.

Bin Laden's hideout in a six-kanal compound close to Pakistan's military facilities has led to widespread speculation that the former al-Qaida leader's whereabouts had been known to the Pakistani government.

According to CIA director Leon Panetta, bin Laden had been living there for about five years.

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Americans erupt in joy at Bin Laden death

WASHINGTON: Americans erupted in joyous celebration in Washington, New York and across the country early on Monday following the death of Osama bin Laden.

Crowds descended on the White House waving Stars and Stripes flags even before the al-Qaida's killing was announced by President Barack Obama, chanting "USA, USA" and punching the air.

By the time he confirmed details in a hurriedly-organized TV address hundreds of people had gathered in a party atmosphere in Lafayette Park, singing The Star Spangled Banner,

In New York, where some 3,000 people died when al-Qaida hijackers crashed two commercial airliners into the the Twin Towers, tourists and New Yorkers descended on Times Square as well as at Ground Zero.

"Its a miracle," said New Yorker Monica King, 22. "The attacks changed New York and now ten years later we had our last word," she added, saying: "Now we want to celebrate."

Gary Talafuse, visiting from Texas, said Americans "feel a lot of national pride."

"This may not change anything in al-Qaida tactics, but after billions of dollars invested, this is a big loss for al-Qaida, and that brings some degree of reward to our efforts," said the 32-year-old.

Even the New York Police Department, usually low key, parked a car in the middle of Times Square and stared talking to people, laughing and posing for photos.

In Los Angeles, where the news was confirmed shortly before 9:00 pm, a roar of applause could be heard from bars with TV screens on the Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hoolywood,

"After so much time trying to get Bin Laden this is a big surprise and amazing news. Terrorism is down, and Obama's speech was great!" said Mick Pleasnt, 26, at the Cabo Cantina bar.

"I'm really happy that this guy is dead because he killed so many people around the world. I'm glad that our nation is save because of this," said Cesar Guellory, 25.

Carol Morrinson, 35, said she had voted for Obama. "He's showing us how strong he can be ... Today we can say that we are safe. I'm proud of United States," she said.

The Internet, including the Twitter and Facebook social networking websites, were also deluged with reaction to the al-Qaida leaders death, killed by US forces in Pakistan.

"Finally! I can now sleep tonight knowing this. He was hiding for years and was finally caught and killed. I am so happy right now," said Stewie, on one Yahoo message board.

Kenneth Specht, a New York fireighter on 9/11, said he was "proud to be an American -- and paid tribute to the victims of the attacks in New York and Washington.

"Tonight they are first and foremost in our minds," he told CNN.

A massive house with no telephone or internet connection led to bin Laden

Washington: A large mansion in a massive compound with 12 feet to 18 feet tall walls topped with barbed wire. No telephone or internet connection to the house. And seldom seen residents who burnt their trash rather than dispose it as other neighbors did.

These were the slender leads that eventually took US spooks and seals to the world's most wanted fugitive. Osama bin Laden lived not in a cave in some frontier mountain redoubt, but in a suburban neighborhood in a million-strong city just an hour's drive from Islamabad, right under the eyes of the Pakistani military.

No one is particularly surprised about this. In fact, going by the track record of major Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives captured so far, it would seem that images of them hiding in caves are overblown. Most of them have been captured in Pakistani cities -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi, Mullah Biradhar in Karachi, and other operatives in places like Faisalabad and Multan. It would seem the terrorists like their comfort -- or at least they are kept in comfort.

Details of how the US homed in on bin Laden are still sketchy, but this much is known based on what President Obama himself said and background briefing by officials.

Right from the moment he took office, Obama resolved to hunt down bin Laden, a goal that his predecessor Bush (who once suggested he did not want to personalize the bin Laden hunt) appeared to have taken his eyes off from. The new President called in the CIA chief and told him to devote whatever resources were needed to nail bin Laden, even as he shifted the focus from the war on Iraq to the Af-Pak theater.

Last August or September, the CIA team tasked with the bin Laden hunt succeeded in developing leads obtained from a Guantanamo detainee four years ago about two brothers who had acted as couriers for bin Laden. It took several months to establish their identity and then their coordinates. U.S officials said this was because of ''extensive operational security on their part,'' but added that ''the fact that they were being so careful reinforced our belief that we were on the right track.''

In August 2010, the U.S team got to know with some degree of certainty that they were in Abbottabad, a military cantonment 60 kms north of Islamabad, where they had built a house in an ''extraordinarily unique compound.'' The design of the compound and the mansion, and the activities surrounding it, indicated it held someone important.

"Intelligence analysts concluded that this compound was custom built to hide someone of significance. We soon learned that more people were living at the compound than the two brothers and their families,'' one U.S official explained. ''Our best assessment, based on a large body of reporting from multiple sources, was that bin Laden was living there with several family members, including his youngest wife.''

"Everything we saw -- the extremely elaborate operational security, the brothers' background and their behavior, and the location and the design of the compound itself was perfectly consistent with what our experts expected bin Laden's hideout to look like,'' the official added.

Between March 14 and April 28, President Obama held five national security meetings with his top aides to decide on how to approach the problem at a time ties with Pakistan were at all all-time low because of the Raymond Davis episode. The incident made it all the more dicey to employ American forces for an airborne attack, particularly given past U.S experience in Iran and Somalia, and the Pakistani military's virulent response to any suggestion of U.S ground action inside Pakistan, much less at the doors of a military cantonment.

Still, Obama gave the go-ahead for the operation over the weekend. Three US choppers carrying elite Navy Seals were deployed on Saturday night/Sunday early a.m. No Pakistani personnel were involved.

Although the operation lasted just 40 minutes, U.S officials acknowledged the team ran into resistance. Bin Laden, who was living in the compound with his eldest son and his youngest wife, himself fought before being shot in the head in the firefight. The two couriers who were also with him also died, as did his son and another woman who was used as a human shield. Two other women in the compound, which also had children, were wounded. It is not clear if his wife survived.

There were other mishaps. A U.S chopper involved in the attack developed a malfunction at some point and crashed in the neighborhood. This was reported in the Pakistani media several hours before news of bin Laden's death emerged, with no mention of American involvement or the hunt for bin Laden. Pakistani officials had shut down the area and kept out the media on orders from the U.S.

Only in the morning in Pakistan, when the wreckage from the chopper (which the U.S reportedly destroyed) was cleared, did the story emerge that the smoldering house in the Abbotabad suburb had hosted Osama bin Laden. He has been shot and killed by U.S forces, who had even taken away his body from Pakistan.

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Osama bin Laden dead, Obama says justice is done

WASHINGTON: Osama bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was killed in an operation led by the United States, President Barack Obama said on Sunday.

"Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaida, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children," Obama said in a surprise late night White House address.

The world's most wanted man had been killed in a Pakistani compound in an operation on Sunday, which had been carried after cooperation from Islamabad, the US leader said.

Obama said in the historic address from the White House that he had directed the US armed forces to launch an attack against a compound in Pakistan on Sunday acting on a lead that first emerged last August.

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties."
A jubilant crowd gathered outside the White House as word spread of bin Laden's death after a global manhunt that lasted nearly a decade.

"Justice has been done," the president said.

The development comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people.

The attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.

Al-Qaida organization was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.

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Dollar rises on reports Osama bin Laden is dead

TOKYO: The US dollar rose against the euro and the yen after reports on Monday that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had been killed nearly 10 years after the September 11 attacks.

The dollar rose against the euro, which fetched 1.4764 dollars from 1.4864 in earlier trade. The dollar was at 81.66 yen from 81.19 earlier.

Investors unwound short dollar positions on falls in crude oil prices on the news that bin Laden is dead, Tomohiro Nishida, senior dealer at Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking, told Dow Jones Newswires.

US President Barack Obama said in a dramatic televised address that bin Laden had been killed in an operation in Pakistan.

US armed forces have been hunting bin Laden for years, an effort that was redoubled following the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, which killed 3,000 people in 2001.

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US warns of al-Qaida reprisals over bin Laden

WASHINGTON: The State Department is putting US embassies on alert and is warning Americans abroad of possible reprisal attacks from al-Qaida and its affiliates around the world after the killing of the group's leader Osama bin Laden by American forces in Pakistan.

In a worldwide travel alert released shortly after President Barack Obama late on Sunday announced bin Laden's death in a military operation, the department said there was an "enhanced potential for anti-American violence given recent counterterrorism activity in Pakistan."

It said Americans living or traveling abroad, particularly in areas that have been hit by anti-American violence in the past should limit travel outside their homes and avoid large gatherings.

The alert said US embassy operations would continue "to the extent possible under the constraints of any evolving security situation."


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Bin Laden Dead, President Obama Says

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan on Sunday, President Obama announced.

In a dramatic late-night appearance in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Obama declared that “justice has been done” as he disclosed that American military and C.I.A. operatives had finally cornered the Al Qaeda leader who had eluded them for nearly a decade and shot him to death at a compound in Pakistan.

“For over two decades, Bin Laden has been Al Qaeda’s leader and symbol,” the president said in a statement carried on television around the world. “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat Al Qaeda. But his death does not mark the end of our effort.” He added: “We must and we will remain vigilant at home and abroad.”

The death of Mr. Bin Laden is a defining moment in the American-led war on terrorism. What remains to be seen is whether the death of the leader of Al Qaeda galvanizes his followers by turning him into a martyr, or whether it serves as a turning of the page in the war in Afghanistan and gives further impetus to the Obama administration to bring American troops home.

The death of Mr. bin Laden came nearly 10 years after Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four American passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington and the countryside of Pennsylvania. Late Sunday night, as the president was speaking, cheering crowds gathered outside the gates of the White House shortly before midnight as word of his death began trickling out, waving United States flags, shouting in happiness and chanting “USA! USA!”

“This is important news for us, and for the world,” said Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93, the airliner that crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers fought with hijackers. “It cannot ease our pain, or bring back our loved ones. It does bring a measure of comfort that the mastermind of the September 11th tragedy and the face of global terror can no longer spread his evil.”

Mr. bin Laden escaped from American troops in the mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, back in 2001 and although he was widely believed to be in Pakistan, American intelligence had largely lost his trail for most of the years that followed until picking up a fresh trail last August. Mr. Obama said in his national address on Sunday night that it took months to firm up that information and last week he determined it was clear enough to authorize a secret operation in Pakistan.

The forces attacked the compound in what Mr. Obama called a “targeted operation” that left Mr. bin Laden dead. “No Americans were harmed,” Mr. Obama said. “They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”

President Obama noted that the operation that killed Mr. Bin Laden was launched with the cooperation of Pakistani officials, but the fact that Mr. Bin Laden killed in an deep inside Pakistan was bound once again to raise questions about just how much Pakistan is willing to work with the United States, since Pakistani officials denied for years that Mr. Bin Laden was in their country.

The capture of Mr. Bin Laden comes as relations between the United States and Pakistan have fallen to their lowest point in memory as differences over how to fight al Qaeda linked militants became clearer.

The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, publicly criticized the Pakistani military two weeks ago for failing to act against extremists allied to al Qaeda who shelter in the Pakistani tribal areas of North Waziristan.

The United States has supported the Pakistani military with nearly $20 billion since 9/11 for counter terrorism campaigns but American officials have complained that the Pakistanis were unable to quell the militancy.

Last week, the head of the Pakistani army, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani told a Pakistanis that Pakistan had broken the back of terrorism in Pakistan, a statement that was received with high skepticism by American officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html

Osama bin Laden is dead, Obama announces

Osama 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 were killed. Pakistani cooperation "helped to lead us to him" he said.

Osama's body is in possession of the US, according to the first leaks of reporting 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, around 11.30pm eastern time.

The news comes eight years to the day that President George Bush declared "Mission accomplished" in Iraq. As president, Bush declared he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive" – but it is now the unlikely figure of Barack Obama who announces the final triumph as the US commander in chief.

This is a turning point in the global "war on terrorism" that has been waged since 9/11 – and the news will reverberate around the world.

The news comes as an unparalleled boost for US foreign policy, the key aim of which since 2001 has been the disarming and dismemberment of al-Qaida, and coincidentally probably insures the re-election of Obama in the 2012 presidential contest.

As a candidate, during the 2008 election campaign Obama repeatedly vowed: "We will kill Osama bin Laden." And so it proved.

The Obama statement was originally scheduled for 10.30pm, but the need to inform US congressional leaders caused the delay.

In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, one western diplomat described the news as a "game changer" – not just for al Qaida, but also for US foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a region embroiled in turmoil and violence since 2001.

"I'm overjoyed," said the diplomat. "But what this exactly means is really not clear."

Some analysts fear bin Laden's death could spark a precipitous US withdrawal from the region, with the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan still unresolved.

It will likely also reconfigure relations with Pakistan, where the CIA is engaged in an controversial assassination campaign against senior al Qaida figures using Predator and Reaper drones.

"He's dead," said an official with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, declining to give another other details other than to say that it was "highly sensitive intelligence operation."

The official said he was "not at liberty" to give more details on the killing, including on reports that Pakistani intelligence was involved in the operation. "We'll release more information later this morning," he said.

Abbottabad is about a two hour drive north of Islamabad, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is not part of the tribal belt, where the CIA drone strike campaign has been concentrated, but is home to the Pakistan military's main training institution, the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul.

The fact that bin Laden was killed outside the tribal belt in Pakistan will raise questions about how the six-foot-four fugitive, one of the most famous faces in the world, managed to escape justice for so long.

Pakistan's intelligence services have largely cooperated with the US in capturing al Qaida fugitives - some of the most notorious figures captured since 2001 were caught in Pakistan's cities such as the 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Muhammad.

But in recent months US military and intelligence officials have publicly complained that the ISI has been assisting the Haqqani network, an al Qaida-linked militant network that straddles the Paksitan-Afghanistan border.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-dead-obama

Osama bin Laden killed, says Obama

Washington, May 2 (IBNS): The world's most sought after terrorist and the chief of militant organisation al Qaeda Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan and U.S. authorities had recovered his body, U.S. President Barack Obama said.

The terror chief who has been at the centre of U.S. counterterrorism activities since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pengatagon, was killed in Abbottabad, about 150 km from Pakistani capital Islamabad.

Reports said that Saudi-born bin Laden was killed not in a drone attack but a ground operation and U.S. authorities have recovered his body.

President Barack Obama announced the death of the bin Laden, a major accomplishment for his administration for having completed the goal set out by his predecessor George W Bush.

"Justice has been done," said Obama, adding that Osama was not an Muslim leader.

Jubilation broke out in the United States after the news trickled in. But apprehension over the fallout from bin Laden's death are also doing rounds as days ago, his group al Qaeda had promised a "nuclear hell" if the terror chief was killed.

Osama bin Laden killed in Pakistan, says Obama

WASHINGTON: Osama bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was killed in an operation led by the United States, President Barack Obama said on Sunday. ( Read: Osama: 9/11 author who defied Bush, Obama )

"Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaida, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children," Obama said in a surprise late night White House address.

The world's most wanted man had been killed in a Pakistani compound in an operation on Sunday, which had been carried after cooperation from Islamabad, the US leader said.

Obama said in the historic address from the White House that he had directed the US armed forces to launch an attack against a compound in Pakistan on Sunday acting on a lead that first emerged last August.

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties."
A jubilant crowd gathered outside the White House as word spread of bin Laden's death after a global manhunt that lasted nearly a decade.

"Justice has been done," the president said.

The development comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people.

The attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.

Al-Qaida organization was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.

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Stocks rise after Bin Laden report; oil slides

SYDNEY: Asian stocks rose on Monday and US stock index futures extended gains on the back of media reports that Osama bin Laden was dead.

US crude slid more than 1 per cent to $112.51 a barrel after CNN reported that Al Qaeda's elusive leader Osama bin Laden was dead and his body has been recovered by US authorities.

US stock index futures rose 0.9 percent and MSCI's gauge of Asian stocks excluding Japan.

US Treasuries fell, pushing yields higher across the curve. The 10-year yield climbed 2.4 basis points to 3.314 percent.

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President Obama confirms death of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden

WASHINGTON: Osama bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was killed in an operation led by the United States, President Barack Obama said on Sunday. ( Read: Osama: 9/11 author who defied Bush, Obama )

"Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaida, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children," Obama said in a surprise late night White House address.

The world's most wanted man had been killed in a Pakistani compound in an operation on Sunday, which had been carried after cooperation from Islamabad, the US leader said.

Obama said in the historic address from the White House that he had directed the US armed forces to launch an attack against a compound in Pakistan on Sunday acting on a lead that first emerged last August.

"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties."
A jubilant crowd gathered outside the White House as word spread of bin Laden's death after a global manhunt that lasted nearly a decade.

"Justice has been done," the president said.

The development comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people.

The attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home.

Al-Qaida organization was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.

toi