UPI NewsTrack TopNews - July 4, 2007
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Wed, 04 Jul 2007 02:10:01 GMT |
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Hamas reports BBC reporter's release
GAZA, July 3 The group holding BBC reporter Alan Johnston released him to Hamas early Wednesday, the British network reported.
Video footage on Hamas Television showed Johnston, accompanied by armed men, getting into a car.
Johnson, at the time the only European reporter based in Gaza, was kidnapped almost four months ago by a group using the name Army of Islam. The group is led by Mumtaz Dogmush, head of a powerful clan in Gaza that opposes Hamas.
Hamas leaders, who have controlled Gaza since driving out the Fatah Party, had refused to negotiate with the group and threatened it with destruction if Johnston was harmed. The Army of Islam, which recently offered to submit the kidnapping and other abductions on both sides to a Shariah law committee, threatened to kill Johnston if any effort was made to release him by force.
Journalists around the world protested the kidnapping, including many in the Palestinian Authority.
Standoff at Red Mosque turns violent
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 3 At least nine people died Tuesday in fighting between Pakistani police and radical students who have taken over an Islamabad mosque.
Abdur Rashid Ghazi, an administrator at the religious school attached to the Lal Mosque or Red Mosque, told The New York Times the violence was provoked by police placing barbed wire around the school. Police Superintendent Zafar Iqbal said the wire was a precaution.
The students "created a situation, and we are in it," he told the Times.
The BBC, which gave the death toll as nine, said those killed included two students, a soldier and a journalist.
The army and police declared a curfew in the area around the mosque, cut off power to the complex, which includes schools for men and women, and ordered students to surrender their weapons.
The standoff at the mosque has lasted for months. Students have kidnapped a number of people, releasing them unharmed after holding them for a few hours.
Hamas officials arrested in the West Bank
NABLUS, West Bank, July 3 Two top Hamas officials have been arrested in the West Bank by security forces working for Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.
Alalam Satellite TV reported Tuesday that Ahmed Alhaj Ali, a lawmaker in the Palestinian Legislative Council, and Ahmed Doleh, assistant to the interior minister, were being held in Nablus. Ali and Doleh were members of the Hamas-led government Abbas ousted last month.
Abbas then formed his own emergency administration in the West Bank after Hamas routed Fatah forces in Gaza, Alalam noted.
"In Hamas, we condemn such an action and we hold leaders of the security services responsible for this crime and we call for the immediate release of leaders of the movement," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Palestinian spokesman for Hamas.
Czech Republic OKs U.S. radar plan
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, July 3 The Czech Republic has tentatively granted the United States permission to install missile-defense radar 50 miles from Prague, it was reported Tuesday.
The United States plans to set up 10 interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic to protect itself and its European allies from potential attacks, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.
"The Security Council agreed with the Defense Ministry's proposals," said Tomas Klvana, a Security Council spokesman.
Before a final decision can be made by the Czech Parliament, Klvana said, the site, which is near a military base 1.2 miles from Misov, would have to be carefully inspected and a nationwide referendum held.
Not everyone is supportive of this plan, however. Russian President Vladimir Putin last month proposed the United States share a powerful radar station his country leases from the Caucasus state to watch out for possible attacks from Iran and North Korea, instead of installing new systems, a move Russia views as a threat to its own security.
The topic of sharing radar and early warning systems came up again during Putin's informal chats with U.S. President George Bush Monday.
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