Army: AWOL soldier admits to Fort Hood attack plan (AP)

KILLEEN, Texas – An AWOL infantry soldier caught with weapons and a bomb inside a backpack admitted planning what would have been Fort Hood's second terrorist attack in less than two years, the Army said Thursday. He might have succeeded at carrying it out, police said, if a gun-store clerk hadn't alerted them to the man's suspicious activity.

"We would probably be here today, giving you a different briefing, had he not been stopped," Killeen Police Chief Dennis Baldwin said, calling the plan a "terror plot."

The 21-year-old suspect, Pfc. Naser Abdo, was arrested Wednesday at a motel about three miles from Fort Hood's main gate. He had spoken out against the 2009 Fort Hood shootings last year as he made a public plea to be granted conscientious objector status to avoid serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Like the soldier charged with killing 13 people in the shootings, Abdo is Muslim, but he said in an essay obtained by The Associated Press the attacks ran against his beliefs and were "an act of aggression by a man and not by Islam."

Abdo was approved as a conscientious objector this year, but that status was put on hold after he was charged with possessing child pornography. He went absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., during the July 4 weekend.

On July 3, he tried to purchase a gun at a store near the Kentucky post, according to the company that owns the store. Abdo told an AP reporter a week later that he was concerned about his safety and had considered purchasing a gun for protection, but had not yet done so.

Police in Killeen said their break in the case came from Guns Galore LLC — the same gun store where Maj. Nidal Hasan bought a pistol used in the 2009 attack. Store clerk Greg Ebert said the man arrived by taxi Tuesday and bought 6 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, three boxes of shotgun ammunition and a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol.

Ebert said he called authorities because he and his co-workers "felt uncomfortable with his overall demeanor and the fact he didn't know what the hell he was buying."

According to an Army alert sent via email and obtained by The Associated Press, Killeen police learned from the taxi company that Abdo had been picked up from a local motel and had also visited an Army surplus store where he paid cash for a uniform bearing Fort Hood unit patches.

Agents found firearms and "items that could be identified as bomb-making components, including gunpowder," in Abdo's motel room, FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said.

The Army alert said Abdo "was in possession of a large quantity of ammunition, weapons and a bomb inside a backpack," and upon questioning admitted planning an attack on Fort Hood. Officials have not offered details about a possible motive.

Baldwin, the police chief, said Abdo "was taken down rather quickly without incident."

Vasys said the FBI would charge Abdo with possessing bomb-making components and he would be transferred from Killeen police into federal custody. Vasys said there was nothing to indicate Abdo was working with others.

An Oklahoma attorney who has represented Abdo said Thursday he hadn't heard from Abdo in weeks.

"I've been quite anxious to get in touch with him," said attorney James Branum.

The AP was among the media outlets to interview Abdo in the past year when reporting on his request for objector status. On Tuesday, July 12, Abdo contacted an AP reporter with whom he had spoken previously, said he had gone AWOL and considered purchasing a gun for personal protection. Abdo said he had not yet done so, because he knew he would have to give his name and other information to the gun dealer.

Abdo said he had received critical emails about his conscientious objector case and was worried about his safety as an increasing number of soldiers were returning to Fort Campbell from Afghanistan.

The AP described the contents of this conversation that Thursday to a civilian Army spokesman. The next day, when contacted by Army investigators, the AP said it did not know Abdo's location and provided the telephone number from which he made his original call.

An Article 32 military hearing last month had recommended that Abdo be court-martialed over military charges that 34 images of child pornography were found on a computer he used.

In addition, the military's criminal investigation division, along with the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, investigated Abdo earlier after he was flagged for making unspecified anti-American comments while taking a language class, according to a U.S. official briefed on the investigation.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said neither the military nor the task force discovered anything at the time to indicate Abdo was planning an attack, the official said.

FBI, police and military officials have said little about whether or how they were tracking Abdo since he left Fort Campbell. Patrick J. Connor, special agent in charge with Army Criminal Investigation Command at Fort Hood, said efforts had been made to locate him after an arrest warrant was issued but he would not elaborate.

Abdo grew up in Garland, a Dallas suburb about 170 miles from Fort Hood. In his essay, which he sent to the AP last year as he made his conscientious-objector plea, he said his mother is Christian and his father is Muslim, and that he decided to follow Islam when he was 17.

"Little did I know that when I first became a Muslim that I was going to learn what Islam meant to me and what I was willing to sacrifice for it," he wrote.

He wrote that he joined the Army believing he could serve in the military and honor his religion, but he ended up having to endure insults and threats from fellow soldiers over his religion during basic and advanced training. He said life was better after he arrived at his first duty station, but that he studied Islam more closely as he neared deployment to learn "whether going to war was the right thing to do Islamically."

"I began to understand and believe that only God can give legitimacy to war and not humankind," he wrote. "That's when I realized my conscience would not allow me to deploy."

His application was filed in June 2010. The Army's Conscientious Objector Review board denied his request, but the deputy assistant secretary of the Army Review Boards Agency recommended he be separated from the Army as a conscientious objector. The discharge was delayed when he was charged with possession of child pornography on May 13.

Fort Campbell civilian spokesman Bob Jenkins said Abdo had been aware of the child pornography investigation since November.

Abdo lived for about five years with his mother and sister in a corner duplex in Garland, according to a neighbor, Yawonna Wilson. Wilson said the family moved out about a year ago.

Shakira Doss, a neighbor who went to the same Dallas-area high school as Abdo and was good friends with his sister, said she wasn't surprised by news of the alleged plot because the suspect seemed "weird." When she visited Abdo's duplex, Doss said he would spend most of the time in his room.

Abdo's sister "had all the friends," said Doss, a 17-year-old high school senior. "Her brother just didn't fit in."

Abdo attempted to purchase a gun July 3 from Quantico Tactical, a store near Fort Campbell in Oak Grove, Ky., said David Hensley, president of the seven-store chain.

Hensley said Abdo went into the store twice that day. The first time, after asking questions, he left. The second time, he attempted to buy a handgun, Hensley said.

"He exhibited behavior that alerted our staff and our staff refused to, based upon that behavior, sell him a firearm," he said.

Hensley said normally when someone buys a weapon, federal paperwork is filled out and there is an instant background check by the FBI, but the attempted purchase didn't get to that stage.

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Associated Press writers Diana Heidgerd in Dallas; Danny Robbins in Garland; Pauline Jelinek, Eileen Sullivan and Robert Burns in Washington; Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tenn.; and Bruce Schreiner and Janet Cappiello in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.

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Norway terror attack exposes deeper anger over immigration (The Christian Science Monitor)

Oslo, Norway – Last week's Oslo terrorist attacks are raising delicate questions of immigration and integration here after the admitted attacker cited anti-Muslim views as motivating the assaults.

A country of less than 5 million people, Norway has seen its once homogeneous population change in recent years with new arrivals from Africa and the Middle East. This transformation, in part, drove Anders Behring Breivik, charged with Friday's car bombing and shooting spree that killed at least 76 people in the span of a few hours.

Now, even as this country still grieves for its victims, many say how Norway responds to the attacks could define immigration policy in the future.

RECOMMENDED: Norway attacks put spotlight on Europe's right-wing parties. Who are they?

While Mr. Breivik's views, revealed in his 1,500-page tirade against Muslims and multiculturalism, are extreme and his attack reviled by Norwegians of all political leanings, Breivik fed on an undercurrent of prejudice and hatred that exists in some areas of Norwegian society, where being Norwegian is still very much determined by one’s fair skin and light hair.

“We have to find out what kind of country Norway is. That’s where the struggle is going to be in the coming years,” says Thomas Eriksen, a professor of anthropology at the University of Oslo. “And we are going to have to deal with that.”

He says many immigrants still face an uphill battle in terms of integration and acceptance from their fellow Norwegians. “They can acquire our civilization but never our culture,” he says, offering up a common opinion. “In other words, they won’t be ‘us’ they’ll always be the ‘other’.”

Indeed, experts on immigration and integration point to a growing skepticism across Norway that now surrounds most Muslim immigrants. Though Breivik’s thinking is condemned, many of his views aren’t new.

“Some of his ideas are more commonplace than we’d like them to be,” says Rune Berglund Steen, communication manager for the Norwegian Center Against Racism. "This skepticism of Muslims has become a fairly central topic in Norwegian politics.”

Norway’s second-largest political party in parliament, the Progress Party, has been accused of backing xenophobic positions and Breivik was on the party’s member registry until 2006. The party quickly denounced the attacks and Breivik’s beliefs.

Mr. Steen says most Norwegians have a positive view toward immigrants. For example, he said a recent poll found that about 8 out of 10 Norwegians found it favorable if a child attends a school with mixed ethnicities.

But for Breivik and his ilk, Muslim newcomers here represent a "takeover."

“The problem can only be solved if we completely remove those who follow Islam. In order to do this all Muslims must ‘submit’ and convert to Christianity,” he wrote in his manifesto. “If they refuse to do this voluntarily prior to Jan. 1, 2020, they will be removed from European soil and deported back to the Islamic world.”

Most Norwegians, however, reject Breivik’s anti-Islamic views, preferring to see themselves as a tolerant, peaceful people and Breivik as a backwards extremist.

“It’s the fact that he attacked our multiculturalism,” says Alexander Roine, waiting outside the courthouse where Breivik appeared Monday.

Mr. Roine, an Oslo native whose father came from Tunisia, says Norway is rightly famous for its peaceful, tolerant attitude but conceded older generations are still adjusting to the country’s brisk demographic shift.

“We would think a guy with these views would be like 50 or 60 years old,” he says of Breivik. “This guy was born in a Norway that was already multicultural. He attacked everything this country stands for to the last detail.”

Norway has experienced a steady rise in immigration, like many European countries, with the number of its immigrants doubling since 1995.Most came for the robust economy, political stability and generous welfare state, settling in dense pockets in Norway’s largest cities. It’s estimated that 11 percent of Norwegians are immigrants or the children of immigrants and about 2 percent of the population practices Islam.

RECOMMENDED: Norway attacks put spotlight on Europe's right-wing parties. Who are they?

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Another Fort Hood terror plot? Army Pfc. Naser Abdo arrested. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Details about a Muslim-American US Army soldier arrested with guns and explosives near Fort Hood, Texas, remain sketchy.

But initial reports suggest that Army Private 1st Class Naser Abdo has confessed to a plot similar to the attack that hit Fort Hood in 2009 – an individual acting alone, based on religious beliefs as well as a personal grudge, intending to do harm on a wide scale. It’s the kind of “lone wolf” scenario US law enforcement officials – and those in Europe, witness Norway massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik – have been focusing on as a likely source of domestic terrorism.

Here’s what’s known so far: Abdo was arrested Wednesday in a motel room in Killeen, Texas. He had been absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., since the July Fourth weekend.

IN PICTURES: American Jihadis

Tipped off by a gunshop owner in Killeen who became suspicious when Abdo asked about making explosives, agents found firearms and "items that could be identified as bombmaking components, including gunpowder," according to FBI spokesman Erik Vasys.

The “Guns Galore” shop where Abdo made his purchases was the same one where US Army Maj. Nidal Hasan bought the weapons he allegedly used to kill 13 people and wound 32 others at Fort Hood in November 2009. Abdo also went to a military surplus store where he bought uniform items with Fort Hood patches.

"Suffice it to say we're looking into all aspects of Mr. Abdo's life to determine his motivations and intentions,” Mr. Vasys told the Associated Press.

Abdo, who had served about a year on active duty, was an infantry soldier in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, about 800 miles from Fort Hood.

Although he once believed that by joining the US Army he could help protect the free practice of Islam in Iraq and Afghanistan, he eventually changed his mind. Based on his religion, Abdo applied for and had been granted conscientious objector (CO) status.

"A Muslim is not allowed to participate in an Islamicly unjust war," he told ABC News last August. "Any Muslim who knows his religion or maybe takes into account what his religion says can find out very clearly why he should not participate in the US military."

Although his request to become a CO had been approved by the secretary of the Army, his separation from the military was delayed when he was arrested in May and charged with having child pornography on his computer. A military Article 32 hearing under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (the equivalent of a civilian grand jury finding) recommended that he be court martialed on those charges. That was when he disappeared from Fort Campbell.

ABC News is reporting that Abdo allegedly planned to bomb a restaurant popular with Fort Hood soldiers then shoot the survivors with a pistol. (Based on information from a defense department official, CNN describes this potential arsenal as “gunpowder, shotgun shells, 18 pounds of sugar, a pressure cooker, four magazines, and ammunition.)

Given the heightened security at Fort Hood since the 2009 rampage in which Hasan is charged, it might have been much more difficult for Abdo to enter the base.

According to the FBI's Vasys, the initial investigation indicates that Abdo was acting alone. "I would emphasize that any threat that Abdo posed is now over," he said.

Many plots involving small groups of conspirators or a lone-wolf individual have been thwarted in recent years, often through the work of paid informants.

But officials increasingly see attacks like the one at Fort Hood – carried out by a single individual driven by ideology and perhaps mental or emotional instability, rather than by a group involved in a conspiracy, as was the case with 9/11 – as the greatest threat to domestic security.

“Our review of attempted attacks during the past two years suggests that lone offenders currently present the greatest threat,” concluded a recent assessment by federal agencies, marked “for official use only” and obtained last month by the AP.

That includes threats against US military installations. Eight such attacks have been planned or carried out in the past two years.

Abdo is expected to be charged under federal law.

IN PICTURES: American Jihadis

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A week later, Norway mourns 77 victims of massacre (AP)

By IAN MacDOUGALL and BJOERN H. AMLAND, Associated Press Ian Macdougall And Bjoern H. Amland, Associated Press – Fri Jul 29, 2:16 pm ET

OSLO, Norway – Norway began burying the dead on Friday, a week after an anti-Muslim extremist killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage. Mourners of all ages vowed they would not let the massacre threaten their nation's openness and democracy.

An 18-year-old Muslim girl was the first victim to be laid to rest since the gunman opened fire at a political youth camp and bombed the government headquarters in Oslo.

After a funeral service in the Nesodden church outside the capital, Bano Rashid, a Kurdish immigrant from Iraq, was buried in a Muslim rite. Sobbing youth accompanied her coffin, which was draped in a Kurdish flag.

The attack will "not destroy Norway's commitment to democracy, tolerance and fighting racism," Labor Party youth-wing leader Eskil Pedersen said at a memorial service in Oslo.

Pedersen, who was on the island retreat of Utoya when the gunman's attack began, said: "Long before he stands before a court we can say: he has lost."

Pedersen said the youth organization would return to Utoya next year for its annual summer gathering, a tradition that stretches back decades.

Police raised the death toll to 77, from 76, and said all those killed in the July 22 terror attacks in Oslo and on Utoya have now been identified and those reported missing have been accounted for.

Norway's Police Security Service said the threat from right-wing extremists remains unchanged after Anders Behring Breivik's attack. It said the 32-year-old Norwegian's actions lack parallels in Europe or elsewhere, his views differ from the ideology of most racist and neo-Nazi groups, and very few people in Norway are capable of replicating what he did.

Since the massacre, questions have persisted about whether authorities had underestimated extremist dangers in Norway.

At Friday's memorial service in Oslo at the assembly hall of the "People's House," a community center for Norway's labor movement, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said: "Today it is one week since Norway was hit by evil."

The bullets struck dozens of members of the youth faction of his Labor Party, but they were aimed at the entire nation, Stoltenberg said, on a stage adorned with red roses, the symbol of his party.

"I think July 22 will be a very strong symbol of the Norwegian people's wish to be united in our fight against violence, and will be a symbol of how the nation can answer with love," he told reporters after the ceremony.

Members of the audience raised bouquets of flowers as each speaker took the stage, and some of them fought back tears as they spoke.

Later, Stoltenberg spoke at a Muslim memorial service in Gronland, an immigrant neighborhood in Oslo. The prime minister called for unity across ethnic and religious lines, a message he has repeated many times since the attacks.

Breivik, a vehement anti-Muslim, was questioned by police Friday for the second time since surrendering to an anti-terror squad on Utoya, where his victims lay strewn across the shore and in the water. Many were teens who were gunned down as they tried to flee the onslaught.

In a 1,500-page manifesto released just before the attacks, Breivik ranted about Europe being overrun by Muslim immigrants and blamed left-wing political forces for making the continent multicultural.

Police attorney Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said the Breivik remained calm and cooperative during the questioning session, in which investigators reviewed with him his statements from an earlier session on Saturday. Investigators believe Breivik acted alone, after years of meticulous planning, and haven't found anything to support his claims that he's part of an anti-Muslim militant network plotting a series of coups d'etat across Europe.

Police also said they have identified all of the victims, 68 of whom were killed on the island and eight who died after a car bomb exploded in downtown Oslo. Breivik has confessed to both attacks but denies criminal guilt because he believes he's in a state of war, his lawyer and police have said.

Police have charged Breivik with terrorism, which carries a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison. However, it's possible the charge will change during the investigation to crimes against humanity, which carries a 30-year prison term, Norway's top prosecutor Tor-Aksel Busch told The Associated Press.

"Such charges will be considered when the entire police investigation has been finalized," he said. "It is an extensive investigation. We will charge Breivik for each individual killing."

Prosecutors can also seek a special kind of sentence that would enable the court to keep Breivik in prison indefinitely. A formal indictment isn't expected until next year, Busch said.

A weapons supplier in Norway confirmed his company sold device that enables quick loading of magazines for a rifle and four 30-round clips for a Glock 17 pistol to Breivik, who ordered the equipment online in November and December last year.

Flemming Mark Pedersen, owner of Capsicum Solutions AS, said the purchase was legal and there was no indication of what Breivik was up to.

"But just like the police officer who approved his (gun) license, the company that provided him with fertilizer and the firm that sold him diesel, we feel guilty to a certain level and wonder whether this could have been prevented in some way," Pedersen told The Associated Press.

Since the attacks, immigrants and ethnic Norwegians have come together in grief for the victims, and with disdain for the attacker and his motives. A sometimes divisive debate about immigration has been put aside.

So many roses have been placed at makeshift memorials around Oslo and other Norwegian cities that domestic suppliers cannot keep up with demand. The government has suspended a tax on foreign roses to allow for more imports between July 26 and Aug. 2, Norwegian news agency NTB reported.

___

Associated Press Television News producer David Mac Dougall in Oslo and AP writer Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm contributed to this report.

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Fighting Terrorism with Democracy: How Norway's Prime Minister Plans to Heal His Country (Time.com)

Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister, is sitting in a garden chair on a sun-drenched terrace in a comfortable, but not exceedingly luxurious house. A gardener plies a hole in the black loam with his spade, and then plants a small bush of purple Aster in full bloom as a garden waterfall bubbles tranquilly nearby.

Since July 22, when twin attacks by a right-wing extremist destroyed Stoltenberg's office, left 76 dead, and rocked Norway, Stoltenberg's bucolic home-office has doubled as his command center. In one room, a group of aides are huddled over laptops. In another, two security guards seem to be trying hard to remain invisible and pass the time. The furniture is modern, but not extravagant. If Norway were a house, it might resemble the prime minister's residence: modern, functional, wealthy, but a home that would fit a dentist or a lawyer just as easily as the head of government. (See "Viewpoint: Defending the Open Future of Scandinavia.")

"This house says a lot about Norway," says Stoltenberg, a fit 50-something, sporting dark athletic sunglasses, in an interview with TIME. "One of our qualities is that the distance between political leaders and the people is smaller than in many other countries. Our challenge now is to try to remain a society where people can still be close to their political leaders."

That is Stoltenberg's mantra. Since Friday's bombing and shooting of dozens of teenage members of his left-leaning Labor Party by a right-wing extremist named Anders Behring Breivik, Stoltenberg has stayed on message at every occasion, whether in press conferences, or memorial services in Oslo, or facing a barrage of television cameras. He insists that Norway will not change.

Stoltenberg works the message, perhaps to calm Norwegians' fear of change and uncertainty, but also to keep the political realities clear. Asked what his first thought was when he learned that the attacker was a white Norwegian and not a dark-skinned Muslim, he said: "The first thing I thought is that this will create a completely different debate than if it was a foreigner." (See TIME's photos: "Explosion and Shooting Rock Norway.")

A white home-grown right-wing attacker turns the debate in Stoltenberg's favor. Instead of getting grilled by a resurgent right charging the government with being soft on terrorists, Breivik has put right-wing politics on the defensive in Norway. And Stoltenberg and his Labor Party are clearly benefiting.

As he worked his way up the Labor Party ranks, Stoltenberg - a former journalist - was a regular visitor at the annual retreats in Utoya, a place, he says, where young Norwegians and government ministers would hang out and discuss politics. He has at times been a controversial figure in Norway. In his youth, he hung out in radical left circles and was active in anti-American protests in Oslo that decried the Vietnam War. Stoltenberg has admitted to smoking marijuana in his teenage years. In the 1990s, he served in various government posts, including Ministry of Industry in the Third Brundtland Cabinet, a Labor-led minority government. Stoltenberg previously served as prime minister from 2000 to 2001; his current term began in 2005.

See "Norway Attacks: How a Once Moderate Region Became a Haven for the Far Right."

In a culture where private emotions are usually kept private, Stoltenberg has given impassioned speeches over the past few days, often appearing close to tears, and hugged Oslo citizens. His spirited defense of Norway's democratic tradition in the face of the July 22 attacks has also won him sympathy from voters. In a public opinion poll published this week by the Oslo-based newspaper VG, 94% of Norwegians polled said Stoltenberg was doing his job "well" or "extremely well," scoring even higher than Norway's King Harald, who scored 76% approval. "It's seldom that anyone gets results that are as unambiguous as this," Anders Todal Jenssen, political scientist at Norway's technical university NTNU in Trondheim, told Norway's NRK television. Norwegian media are also reporting this week that all of the country's main political parties have seen a surge in membership. (See TIME's photos: "Inside the World's Most Humane Prison.")

Stoltenberg's popularity will allow him to retain control of the debate as it moves back to the policy arena in the coming weeks. Already he is preparing to propose heightened security measures. But there will be nothing that even resembles a U.S.-style Patriot Act or some of the anti-terror measures seen in the United Kingdom, Germany or France. Stoltenberg has created an independent commission to investigate the official response to the attacks and draw conclusions for security policy. Does that mean that Norwegian police will routinely carry firearms or that metal detectors will be installed in all public buildings? Not likely.

"Even if we had armed police, it wouldn't have changed a thing at Utoya or downtown Oslo," he says. "No society will ever be able to have security measures which gives you 100% security against violence, and especially not against what we believe was a one-man, lone wolf act of violence."

Stoltenberg is not the only Nordic politician who has fought the corsets of security commonly imposed on holders of public office in Western Europe and the United States. But that freedom has often carried a heavy price. In 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme was gunned down in the streets of Stockholm as he walked home from the movies with his wife and no bodyguards. In 2003, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death while shopping in a department store. (See More on Anders Breivik.)

Still, with the threat of Islamic terror growing and the arrests in Norway last year of three suspected terrorists, the country is imposing more security measures on its political leaders than ever before. The area where Breivik planted his car bomb, for example, was due to be sealed off to public traffic. "We were just in the process of closing this street because it goes between two government buildings," says Stoltenberg. "When I was prime minister in 2000 and 2001, there was hardly any security at all. I could just walk around Oslo without any body guards. Now I have security."

This security dilemma is hardly unique to Norway. Many countries today are faced with the question of how to hold firmly to democratic principles, civil liberties and freedom of movement even as those characteristics of societies make citizens more vulnerable to madmen. But Stoltenberg insists that you cannot compare Norway's experience with that of the United States in the aftermath of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. "We are a tiny country," he says. And yet, who could argue when he says that the "response to violence is more democracy, more openness, and greater political participation."

See "A Killer in Paradise: Inside the Norway Attacks."

See "How Serious Is the Terror Threat in Europe?"

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NJ residents frustrated over 9/11 victims fund (AP)

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – The head of a fund for people injured in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center explained Thursday how they could be eligible for compensation but got an earful from those who said the limitations are too restrictive and seem engineered by detached lawmakers in Washington.

Sheila Birnbaum, the New York attorney charged with administering the fund, addressed about 50 first responders and others at a town hall meeting in City Hall two days after a federal review found insufficient evidence linking cancer to Sept. 11 to warrant adding cancer to the list of conditions covered.

The swelling debate over whether cancer and other illnesses should merit compensation from the fund underscores the delicate and emotionally charged issue of how victims prove their injuries were caused by the 2001 attacks.

Birnbaum, the fund's special master, said she was "representing the victims" at the town hall meeting in Jersey City, across the Hudson River from ground zero.

"If you have a problem, you can take it up with Congress," she said. "That's what we have to deal with it."

Congress originally established a fund in December 2001, doling out $1 billion to the injured and $6 billion to the families of victims. But that program closed in 2003, leaving those whose injuries materialized years later without the ability to benefit.

Last year, Congress authorized the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which reopened the program and allocated almost $2.8 billion to fund it. A draft version of the new rules was released in June and will be finalized in the fall before the program starts accepting applications.

As outlined, the fund extends the time period when a victim had to have been in the area to be eligible to May 2002, eight months after the attacks. It includes a list of conditions presumptively assumed to be linked to the aftermath of the attacks, including lung disease, asthma and carpel tunnel syndrome. It also widens the geographic area a claimant had to be in.

But that area is still confined to a portion of Manhattan, meaning those who say toxic dust from the destroyed twin towers traveled from ground zero over the Hudson River to Jersey City and other communities will not be eligible.

Birnbaum said there simply wasn't the scientific evidence to prove injuries sustained outside New York City were caused by the attacks.

"We can't say it did, we can't say it didn't," Birnbaum said — the same rationale used to explain why cancer was not being included.

That may disqualify Joann Sullivan, a 40-year-old who was working at a Jersey City bar in September 2001 and said she aided survivors as they returned from the World Trade Center to New Jersey, picking up contamination as she doled out water and food to those in crisis.

"I felt that it was my job as an American to do what we had to do," she said.

Sullivan said she later developed an inflammatory lung condition called pulmonary sarcoidosis, rashes and a fever — all of which she attributes to 9/11. She said she lost two jobs because of the dozens of legions that visibly marked her body.

Anyone is free to file a claim, but those who don't fall within the restrictions may be denied, Birnbaum said. She also noted that the funds provided by Congress are limited and no provision exists to augment them. And only $875 million can be paid out in the first five years of the program, expected to run until 2016 or 2017.

Thursday's town hall was one of a series Birnbaum has scheduled, but it's the only one in New Jersey, which lost almost 700 residents among the nearly 3,000 people who perished in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. On Wednesday, Birnbaum addressed participants in New York, who expressed similar frustration over the exclusion of cancer from the list of covered illnesses. A third town hall will be held Tuesday in Melville, N.Y.

___

Reach Josh Lederman at http://www.twitter.com/joshledermanAP.

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Top US officials debate drone strikes in Pakistan (AP)

By KIMBERLY DOZIER, AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier, Ap Intelligence Writer – Fri Jul 29, 8:51 pm ET

ASPEN, Colo. – The White House's top adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan said Friday that taking out three to five key al-Qaida leaders could amount to a "knockout punch" against the group.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, retired Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said now is the time to keep up U.S. counterterrorist actions in Pakistan, even if they upset the Pakistani government.

Lute said killing al-Qaida successor Ayman al-Zawahri and four of his lieutenants in the next six months could "significantly jeopardize al-Qaida's capacity to regenerate."

His comments came in response to former U.S. intelligence chief Dennis Blair, who said that the U.S. should stop its drone campaign in Pakistan. The CIA's unmanned aircraft operation aimed at al-Qaida is backfiring by damaging the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, he said.

The program, which targets Pakistani-based al-Qaida and other militants, has jumped from fewer than 50 in the Bush administration, to more than 200 strikes in Pakistan's ungoverned tribal areas since President Barack Obama took office. Strikes are carried out with tacit Pakistani assent, by drones that fly from Afghanistan.

Publicly, Pakistani officials decry the hits. That tension grew worse after the U.S. unilateral raid into Pakistan on May 2 to kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and an earlier incident, in January, when a CIA contractor was held for killing two Pakistani men in Lahore whom he said were trying to rob him.

Pakistan's ambassador Husain Haqqani acknowledged the drone strikes, but said his government was pushing for a reduction because they'd begun to fray public support.

"Part of the agreement is neither side is going to talk too much about the drone strikes," he said. "They've taken out many people who needed to be taken out... but if the cost is if support for the overall war starts to decline, you have to take that into account."

Blair suggested that now is the time to give Pakistan more say in what gets hit by drone strikes and when, despite Pakistan's record of tipping off militants when it gets advance word of U.S. action.

"We should offer the Pakistanis to put two hands on the trigger," he said, as well as encourage them to send more troops to the ungoverned areas, to challenge the militants.

Blair said the continuing drone strikes are more of a nuisance than a real threat to al-Qaida, and that only a ground campaign by Pakistan would truly threaten it and other militant organizations. The U.S. had been training forces for that purpose until the program was canceled by Pakistan in retaliation for the raid to kill bin Laden.

Al-Qaida "can sustain its level of resistance to an air-only campaign," Blair said. "I just see us with that strategy walking out on a thinner and thinner ledge and if even we get to the far end of it, we are not going to lower the fundamental threat to the U.S. any lower than we have it now."

Lute countered: "This is a period of turbulence in an organization which is our arch enemy. This is a period, therefore, that all military doctrine suggests you need to go for the knockout punch."

Other conference speakers agreed, including Bush administration veteran Fran Townsend, the former chief counterterrorism adviser in the White House.

"This has been the key tool in degrading the al-Qaida leadership," Townsend said. Without it, she said, al-Qaida would be a far greater threat to the U.S.

Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser to President George W. Bush, said the Pakistani government in the past had assented to the strikes, if they were used against major targets.

"The line they drew ... was boots on the ground, special (operations) forces in Pakistan," Hadley said. "We did a limited cross-border operation and it caused a huge outcry to the point where we said we're not going to do that anymore" unless it was to get bin Laden or his then-deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, "knowing you're going to pay in Pakistan public opinion. And we did" after bin Laden was killed.

Blair, who was forced to resign by the Obama administration, says the White House undermined his authority as director of national intelligence by siding with the CIA, instead of telling it to listen to him.

"They sided enough with the CIA in ways that were public enough that it undercut my position," he said.

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Norway Attacks: The Worrying Rise of the Lone-Wolf Terrorist (Time.com)

As investigators dig deeper into Anders Behring Breivik's twisted world, they are coming to the conclusion that the Norwegian right-wing extremist most likely acted alone. To many, it may come as a relief that Breivik's claims of being just one of several killer cells in some wider conspiracy for global domination turns out to be nothing but a web of deception spun by a brutal killer. But investigators and counterterrorism officials are not relieved. They fear that Breivik represents a new, potentially deadly paradigm shift in the world of extremist violence.

Over the past year or so, counterterrorism officials have been warning of a new trend, the so-called solo terrorist, a fighter trained by organizations like al-Qaeda but then sent off to act on his own, with little or no further correspondence with the group. This tactic reduces the amount of "chatter" - discussions on cell phones and over the Internet - that counterterrorism officials routinely pick up when a terrorist plot is in the offing. But Breivik is no solo terrorist. He has taken the concept a step further and appears to have no real connection to any organized group, say investigators. "Breivik represents a new paradigm," says Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway's domestic intelligence, the Police Security Service. "He's not a solo terrorist. He's a lone wolf who has been very intent on staying under the radar of the security services by leading a lawful life." (See TIME's photos: "Explosion and Shooting Rock Norway.")

Kristiansen, whose organization operates about 26 field offices charged with the task of keeping tabs on extremist activities in Norway, is not willing yet to categorically rule out a possible conspiracy that resulted in the July 22 Oslo bomb blast and mass shootings on Utoya island. But evidence so far indicates that Breivik acted alone and is using claims of a wider network as a tool to manipulate the media and keep himself in the headlines. "At this moment in time we do not have any indication that he had any help from accomplices or other cells," she says. "He is manipulating us all in the sense that he is keeping us all uncertain."

Right now, Norwegian investigators are combing through Breivik's 1,500-word manifesto for leads, putting his claims to the test of rigorous investigation to separate fact from fantasy and deception. The Norwegians have requested the assistance of Europol, and senior Norwegian intelligence officials were in Brussels on July 27 to discuss the investigation with European Union officials. Norway is not a member of the E.U., but European officials are particularly concerned about Breivik's claims to have links with cells outside Norway and are investigating any potential contacts he may have had with right-wing extremists in other European countries. Breivik claims to have had extensive contact with the English Defence League (EDL), for example. Kristiansen declined to comment in detail on the EDL but confirmed that the U.K.-based organization does have a connection to its Norwegian counterpart, the Norwegian Defense League (NDL). The NDL, however, has been a nonstarter in Norway, unable to garner any broad support. It is also unclear if Breivik had any contact with the NDL. (See "Fighting Terrorism with Democracy: How Norway's Prime Minister Plans to Heal His Country.")

Norwegian officials attribute the weakness of Norway's extreme-right scene to a dearth of charismatic leaders and Norway's tradition of antifascism. Norway was occupied by the Nazis during World War II, sparking a massive resistance movement. In fact, even Breivik uses the Norwegian resistance to Hitler as an argument for why he is not a neo-Nazi.

Norway has also been proactive in keeping neo-Nazi groups in check. In 2004 the country's domestic intelligence moved in on a right-wing extremist group called Vigrid, whose leader, Tore Tvedt, had built up a network of about 200 people and drew them in with a mix of neo-Nazi teachings, Odinism and ideas borrowed from Timothy McVeigh, the 1995 Okalahoma City bomber, according to an intelligence official who asked to remain anonymous. Fearing Vigrid could evolve into a terrorist network, the agency launched a campaign to disrupt the group by sending agents to visit everyone involved except its top leaders. One day in 2004, agents from all 26 field offices paid personal visits to each of Vigrid's members, many of whom were teenagers living with their parents. The investigators continued this tactic for several months, until about 60% of Vigrid quit the group voluntarily. (See TIME's photos: "Inside the World's Most Humane Prison.")

Despite Breivik's atrocities, Kristiansen still believes that Islamic terrorism poses a greater threat to security in Norway than the right wing. "The most dangerous groups are the Islamic extremists. That hasn't changed in the 10 years since 9/11," she says. And now adding to that threat is the rise of the lone wolf, the disconnected terrorist. "It is one of our biggest worries," she says. "You can't track down terrorists if they don't talk to each other on the Internet."

See More on Anders Breivik.

See "A Killer in Paradise: Inside the Norway Attacks."

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Mystery surrounds loss of records, art on 9/11 (AP)

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR and RANDY HERSCHAFT, Associated Press Cristian Salazar And Randy Herschaft, Associated Press – Sat Jul 30, 4:48 pm ET

NEW YORK – Letters written by Helen Keller. Forty-thousand photographic negatives of John F. Kennedy taken by the president's personal cameraman. Sculptures by Alexander Calder and Auguste Rodin. The 1921 agreement that created the agency that built the World Trade Center.

Besides ending nearly 3,000 lives, destroying planes and reducing buildings to tons of rubble and ash, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks destroyed tens of thousands of records, irreplaceable historical documents and art.

In some cases, the inventories were destroyed along with the records. And the loss of human life at the time overshadowed the search for lost paper. A decade later, dozens of agencies and archivists say they're still not completely sure what they lost or found, leaving them without much of a guide to piece together missing history.

"You can't get the picture back, because critical pieces are missing," said Kathleen D. Roe, operations director at the New York State Archives and co-chairwoman of the World Trade Center Documentation Project. "And so you can't know what the whole picture looks like."

The picture starts in the seven-building trade center complex. Hijackers flew jetliners into the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, which collapsed onto the rest of the complex, which included three smaller office buildings, a Marriott hotel and U.S. Customs. 7 World Trade Center, a skyscraper just north of the twin towers, collapsed that afternoon.

The trade center was home to more than 430 companies, including law firms, manufacturers and financial institutions. Twenty-one libraries were destroyed, including that of The Journal of Commerce. Dozens of federal, state and local government agencies were at the site, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Central Intelligence Agency had a clandestine office on the 25th floor of 7 World Trade Center, which also housed the city's emergency command center and an outpost of the U.S. Secret Service.

The first tangible losses beyond death were obvious, and massive.

The Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage, where more than 650 employees were killed, owned a trove of drawings and sculptures that included a cast of Rodin's "The Thinker" — which resurfaced briefly after the attacks before mysteriously disappearing again. Fragments of other sculptures also were recovered.

The Ferdinand Gallozzi Library of U.S. Customs Service in 6 World Trade Center held a collection of documents related to U.S. trade dating back to at least the 1840s. And in the same building were nearly 900,000 objects excavated from the Five Points neighborhood of lower Manhattan, a famous working-class slum of the 19th century.

The Kennedy negatives, by photographer Jacques Lowe, had been stowed away in a fireproof vault at 5 World Trade Center, a nine-story building in the complex. Helen Keller International, whose offices burned up when its building, a block from the trade center, was struck by debris, lost a modest archive. Only two books and a bust of Keller survived.

Classified and confidential documents also disappeared at the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into it on 9/11.

A private disaster response company, BMS CAT, was hired to help recover materials in the library, where the jet plane's nose came to rest. The company claimed it saved all but 100 volumes. But the recovery limited access to information related to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, as the U.S. prepared to launch an attack a month later.

In New York, CIA and Secret Service personnel sifted through debris carted from the trade center to a Staten Island landfill for lost documents, hard drives with classified information and intelligence reports.

Two weeks after the attacks, archivists and librarians gathered at New York University to discuss how to document what was lost, forming the World Trade Center Documentation Task Force. But they received only a handful of responses to survey questions about damaged or destroyed records.

"The current atmosphere of litigation, politics and overall distrust surrounding the 9/11 attacks has made information sharing and compilation a complex task," said the final 2005 report of the project.

Federal agencies are required by law to report the destruction of records to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration — but none did. Federal archivists called the failure understandable, given the greater disaster.

After Sept. 11, "agencies did not do precisely what was required vis-a-vis records loss," said David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, in an email to The Associated Press. "Appropriately, agencies were more concerned with loss of life and rebuilding operations — not managing or preserving records."

He said off-site storage and redundant electronic systems backed up some records; but the attacks spurred the archives agency to emphasize the need for disaster planning to federal records managers.

Said Steven Aftergood, the director of the project on government secrecy at the watchdog group the Federation of American Scientists: "Under extreme circumstances, like those of 9/11, ordinary record keeping procedures will fail. Routine archival practices were never intended to deal with the destruction of entire offices or buildings."

Only the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District formally requested help from federal archivists after discovering stored case files kept had been damaged by mold and water.

The EEOC had to reconstruct 1,500 discrimination case files, said Elizabeth Grossman, supervisory trial attorney for the agency in 2001 at the time of the attacks. Cases were delayed for months. Computers had been backed up only as of Aug. 31, 2001. Witness interviews had to be conducted all over again.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the region's airports, bridges and the World Trade Center, had much of its archives and the contents of its library — which had closed in 1995 as a cost-cutting measure — in the building.

But a decade later, it only has "a general idea" of what documents were destroyed, Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said, including most of its video and photo archives, board meeting minutes and the compact that created the bi-state agency. It was kept on the 67th floor of the north tower.

"We do not have a detailed list" of the missing records, Coleman said in an email. The agency meticulously stores thousands of tons of steel from the building and other wreckage of the trade center in a hangar at Kennedy Airport.

A meeting had been scheduled — on Sept. 11, 2001 — between the agency and a group of libraries that had wanted to claim parts of the Port Authority collection, stored in the north tower. The meeting had been postponed at the last minute, said Ronald Becker, the head of special collections at Rutgers University Libraries, who was supposed to attend.

Not everything was lost. Copies of inventories had been sent out to the libraries that had sought to take parts of the collection, and as workers sifted through the rubble at ground zero, they found remnants of a photographic collection kept by the agency. Tens of thousands images were restored from what had been a collection of one million before the attacks.

One photo contact sheet — a picture of the Port Authority's aviation director — was discovered by a recovery worker two days after the attacks. It was given to the Sept. 11 museum, along with office IDs, letters and other bits of paper that were recovered in the rubble in the days and weeks afterward.

Jan Ramirez, the curator of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, said there was no historical consciousness surrounding the site before it was destroyed.

"It was modern, it was dynamic. It was not in peril. It was not something that needed to be preserved," she said.

"Now we know better."

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Follow Cristian Salazar at twitter.com/crsalazarAP and Randy Herschaft at twitter.com/HerschaftAP.

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Study: Terror cult's persistence key to WMD attack (AP)

WASHINGTON – Experts argue over how hard it is for terrorists to make weapons of mass destruction, but a new study of the doomsday cult that carried out the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack says that even seemingly marginal groups can succeed with persistence and luck.

A report on the Aum Shinrikyo cult by ex-Navy Secretary Richard Danzig and colleagues at the Center for a New Security describes the cult's often bumbling efforts to make biological and chemical weapons in the 1980s and 1990s.

But the report says that the cult's persistence was key to its success in making sarin nerve agent, which it used in its deadly 1995 attack on Tokyo commuters that killed 13 and injured more than 6,000.

"Terrorists need time; time will be used for trial and error ...; trial and error entail risk and, in this case, provoked disruption; but Aum found paths to WMD, and other terrorists are likely to do the same," said the report.

Japanese authorities granted Danzig and his co-authors rare access to senior cult members being held in a Tokyo prison during a series of interviews that began in 2008.

Danzig told terrorism experts and others gathered to discuss the report Thursday that experts needed to understand the cult's quest for WMD in order to learn how to prevent others from doing the same thing.

Terror groups can seem "almost laughable" when they fail, Danzig said, and Aum Shinrikyo had many failures and setbacks. He cited one case where a cult devotee fell into a fermenting tank full of the bacterium that produces the botulinum toxin and nearly drowned. He was unharmed.

There was of course nothing funny about the group's successes, which included the subway attack and an earlier effort to use sarin gas to kill the judges in a commercial dispute involving the cult. The judges survived but eight people died in a nearby apartment building when the wind shifted.

Danzig compared the situation to Russian roulette. Terror groups trying to make WMD can keep shooting blanks, he said, "and then one of the chambers turns out to be loaded."

Danzig said the miniaturization of chemical equipment and the new synthetic biology, capable of producing disease-causing organisms, have only raised the risk that small groups can manufacture weapons capable of killing thousands.

But the report also said that the cult was never able to devise a way of disseminating its chemical and biological arsenal with any precision. Producing large quantities of these materials probably also remains a challenge.

The authors reported that the group struggled to make bioweapons, and it still isn't clear if it succeeded in producing deadly forms of anthrax or other pathogens. As a result, they concluded that it is probably much harder for terrorists to make biological arms than chemical weapons.

"As a rule of thumb, we think that conventional bomb makers who manufacture their weapons need days, chemists need weeks, biologists need months and nuclear terrorists need years," the study said.

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Report: UK seeks to question Guantanamo detainees (AP)

LONDON – British police are seeking to interview Guantanamo Bay detainees as part of an investigation into allegations that one of the country's intelligence officials was complicit in the mistreatment of a terrorism suspect, a television station reported Friday.

Britain's ITV News reported Friday that London's Scotland Yard had requested access to detainees being held at the prison camp in Cuba to discuss claims that an officer from MI6, the U.K.'s overseas intelligence agency, witnessed abuse of suspects by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Police have been investigating allegations that the MI6 officer was complicit in the mistreatment of a non-British citizen since Sept. 2009, when the agency reported the official to the government's chief legal adviser. She ruled that detectives should begin an inquiry.

Both Scotland Yard and Britain's Foreign Office declined to comment on the report that police officers were seeking access to Guantanamo detainees.

"We are not providing a running commentary on this investigation, and we are not prepared to discuss further," police said in an emailed statement.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry on the subject.

In November, prosecutors confirmed they would not bring charges against an officer from domestic spy agency MI5 who was investigated by police in an unrelated case over the alleged involvement in the mistreatment of ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed.

Last year, Britain paid out settlements to a number of former Guantanamo Bay detainees who alleged U.K. complicity in their harsh treatment overseas, though the government did not admit any liability.

Britain's government has announced a sweeping inquiry into the country's role in the "war on terror," which Foreign Secretary William Hague said was necessary to "clear the stain from our reputation as a country." The investigation, which won't seek evidence from the U.S. or other foreign allies, will begin once police conclude their inquiry into the actions of the MI6 officer.

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Bomb blast hits oil pipeline in western Syria (AP)

BEIRUT – A bomb blast struck a major oil pipeline in western Syria on Friday, causing oil to spill into a nearby lake. State television said the explosion was a "terrorist" attack by a group of "saboteurs."

It was the second incident involving an oil pipeline in a month, and the second time this week that authorities accused saboteurs of striking installations.

Syrian authorities have unleashed a brutal crackdown in an effort to crush the revolt against President Bashar Assad, and activists say more than 1,600 civilians have died since the protests erupted in mid-March. The government blames the unrest on terrorists and foreign extremists, not true reform-seekers.

The pipeline blast came as activists said security forces killed at least five people during overnight raids in Deir el-Zour province and suburbs of the capital, Damascus.

Authorities said the pipeline carries crude from the oil fields in the oil-rich eastern Deir el-Zour to one of Syria's two oil refineries in the coastal town of Banias, the main point of export for Syrian oil. The second oil refinery is in the central city of Homs.

State TV said the blast hit near the western town of Talkalakh between Homs and Tartous, near the Tal Hosh dam, and left a 33 feet (10 meter) deep crater. The TV said the "terrorist attack sought to cause oil to leak into the dam's waters in order to damage agricultural crops in the area."

Oil Minister Sifian Allaw said 1,500 barrels of crude oil leaked from the struck pipeline into the water behind the dam. He told The Associated Press that the pumping of oil was transferred to another pipeline without interruption in the flow.

The oil that gushed into the dam's waters caused a large spill, turning parts of the surface to black.

Numeir Makhlouf, chairman of the state-owned Syrian Company for Oil Transport, told state-run SANA news agency that the oil had leaked into a main lake that supplies the vast agricultural western area with irrigation water.

Homs governor Ghassan Abdel Al called the explosion a "first-class terrorist" act.

The regime has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted coverage of the uprising, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events on the ground.

The area of Friday's blast, Talkalakh, is an opposition stronghold near the border with Lebanon that was overrun by army tank units, security forces and pro-regime gunmen in May after weeks of protests calling for the president's ouster.

Rights activists say around 35 people died in the deadly crackdown and siege of Talkalakh, which is about 31 miles (50 kilometers) from Homs, a hub of anti-government protesters and scene of a brutal government crackdown in recent weeks.

Syria's oil exports are among the main earners of foreign currency for the government, especially now that the uprising has hit the tourism industry. Last year, tourism accounted for roughly 12 percent of GDP and brought in $8 billion in hard currency.

Syria produces about 350,000 barrels of oil per day as well as natural gas.

On July 13, a blast and a fire struck a natural gas pipeline in eastern Syria. Some rights groups said it was an attack but the Oil Ministry denied any explosion and said a fire erupted on a pipeline that was under maintenance.

And last Saturday, authorities said saboteurs tied to the country's uprising caused a passenger train to derail in central Syria, but opposition figures dismissed the accusation.

Meanwhile, Syrians are preparing for massive protests following Friday prayers in what has become a weekly ritual of demonstrations and a brutal crackdown by security forces.

Opposition groups have dubbed Friday's protests "Your silence is killing us," in an attempt to mobilize large sections of the population that have not yet joined the protests, as well as Arab leaders who have remained silent on the crackdown in Syria.

Activists said security forces killed at least five people overnight.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces shot dead three civilians and wounded 12 in Deir el-Zour province late Thursday, after residents tried to keep the troops away by placing roadblocks and stones in their path.

Last week, Assad had sacked and replaced the governor of Deir el-Zour following massive anti-government demonstrations in the area.

The Observatory also said two people were killed during raids by security forces in a Damascus suburb, near the town of Zabadani.

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Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram

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Bridge honors Mass., RI couple killed on 9/11 (AP)

ATTLEBORO, Mass. – Before the politicians and the cameras showed up, Ellen and Bill Goodchild took an unhurried stroll on the bridge that now bears their daughter's name. There were no tears; just smiles for the child they lost on 9/11.

Lynn Goodchild and her boyfriend, both 25, died in the attack on the World Trade Center towers.

"If they named a mailbox after my daughter I'd be happy," Ellen Goodchild, of Attleboro, told The Associated Press. "She would be like, `They're naming a bridge after me? We were just a couple of kids!' For them to be remembered 10 years later, and for total strangers to come up with the idea, it's just wonderful."

Lynn Goodchild was heading to Hawaii for a vacation with boyfriend Shawn Nassaney when their United Airlines Flight was hijacked and flown into the South Tower. On Thursday, the Goodchilds joined the Nassaneys to dedicate the rebuilt and renamed "Lynn Goodchild Shawn Nassaney 9/11 Remembrance Memorial Bridge."

The bridge arches over a rail line and connects Attleboro and Pawtucket, R.I. It also connected Goodchild and Nassaney during their relationship.

"She lived in Attleboro, he lived in Pawtucket," said Patrick Nassaney, Shawn Nassaney's father. "I'm sure they came over this bridge a thousand times."

The 9/11 attacks ended what by all accounts was a promising future for Goodchild and Nassaney. They met while attending Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. Nassaney worked in sales at American Power Conversion in Rhode Island. Goodchild was an administrator at Putnam Investments in Massachusetts. Both were working on their MBAs at Providence College and planned to marry once they graduated.

Both were hardworking, athletic and fun-loving, their parents said. He was a runner and she was president of the college martial arts club. They loved to travel.

In the nearly 10 years since 9/11 the Goodchilds and Nassaneys have stayed in close contact, connected by shared tragedy. Goodchild's family created a memorial foundation in her name. Nassaney's family set up a scholarship in his name and holds an annual charity golf tournament and a 5k run.

"It really doesn't heal," Patrick Nassaney said of his grief. "There's no such thing as closure. As you go on, it's like dust. It builds up a veneer."

What helps is knowing that your child isn't forgotten, he said. That's why he was delighted when the Goodchilds called four days ago and told them that city leaders had asked that the County Street Bridge be renamed in honor of Goodchild and Nassaney.

"He would have said, `I have a bridge? Cool! Let's put a toll on it," Patrick Nassaney said.

More than 100 residents turned out for Thursday's dedication ceremony on the bridge. The mayors of Attleboro and Pawtucket spoke. So did Massachusetts state Rep. George Ross, R-Attleboro, who choked up when he mentioned the young couple. "We must keep their memories alive," he told the crowd.

The two families together pulled down the cover that had hidden the new name of the bridge. The crowd cheered.

"It's a good bridge," Ellen Goodchild said, all smiles.

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US accuses Iran of 'secret deal' with al-Qaida (AP)

By MATTHEW LEE and BRADLEY KLAPPER, Associated Press Matthew Lee And Bradley Klapper, Associated Press – Thu Jul 28, 6:21 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration accused Iran on Thursday of entering into a "secret deal" with an al-Qaida offshoot that provides money and recruits for attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Treasury Department designated six members of the unit as terrorists subject to U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. intelligence community has in the past disagreed about the extent of direct links between the Iranian government and al-Qaida. Thursday's allegations went further than what most analysts had previously said was a murky relationship with limited cooperation.

David S. Cohen, Treasury's point man for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Iran entered a "secret deal with al-Qaida allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory." He didn't provide any details of that agreement, but said the sanctions seek to disrupt al-Qaida's work in Iraq and deny the terrorist group's leadership much-needed support.

"Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world today," Cohen said in a statement. "We are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran's unmatched support for terrorism."

Treasury said the exposure of the clandestine agreement would disrupt al-Qaida operations by shedding light on Iran's role as a "critical transit point" for money and extremists reaching Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"This network serves as the core pipeline through which al-Qaida moves money, facilitators and operatives from across the Middle East to South Asia," it said..

Treasury said a branch headed by Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil was operating in Iran with the Tehran government's blessing, funneling funds collected from across the Arab world to al-Qaida's senior leaders in Pakistan. Khalil, the department said, has operated within Iran's borders for six years.

Also targeted by the sanctions is Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, appointed by Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida's envoy in Iran after serving as a commander in Pakistan's tribal areas. As an emissary, al-Rahman is allowed to travel in and out of Iran with the permission of government officials, the statement claimed.

The sanctions block any assets the individuals might have held in the United States, and bans Americans from doing any business with them.

No Iranian officials were cited for complicity in terrorism. The others targeted were Umid Muhammadi, described as a key planner for al-Qaida in Iraq's attacks; Salim Hasan Khalifa Rashid al-Kuwari and Abdallah Ghanim Mafuz Muslim al-Khawar, Qatar-based financial supporters who've allegedly helped extremists travel across the region; and Ali Hassan Ali al-Ajmi, a Kuwait-based fundraiser for al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The action comes a day after the top U.S. commander for special operations forces said al-Qaida is bloodied and "nearing its end," even as he warned that the next generation of militants could keep special operations fighting for a decade to come.

Navy SEAL Adm. Eric T. Olson said bin Laden's killing on May 2 was a near-fatal blow for the organization created by bin Laden and led from his Pakistan hide out. He said the group already had lost steam because of the revolts of the Arab Spring, which proved the Muslim world did not need terrorism to bring down governments, from Tunisia to Egypt.

Treasury's public allegations against Iran may reflect part of a strategy to expand the pressure on smaller, less well-established offshoots of al-Qaida as the weakening of the group's leadership threatens to make its activities more disparate. Washington already has re-focused much attention on al-Qaida's Yemen-based branch, which has attempted to bomb a U.S.-bound jetliner and cargo planes in recent years.

But the exact nature of Iran's relationship with al-Qaida remains disputed in Washington, with different branches of the intelligence community disagreeing about whether Iran is supporting al-Qaida as a matter of policy, according to one U.S. official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Some hardline militants backing al-Qaida, members of Islam's majority Sunnis, see the Shiite Islam dominant in Iran as heretical, and they view Tehran's regional ambitions as a greater threat than the West. Sunni insurgents in Iraq have used car bombs and suicide attacks against Shiite targets, killing thousands since 2003, as well as targeting Shiite militias allied to Iran.

Since 2001, Iran has appeared a somewhat reluctant host for senior al-Qaida operatives who fled there after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, keeping them under tight restrictions. After an initial period of cooperation with the West, Iran now seems to be a more comfortable haven even if it remains on the edge of al-Qaida's orbit.

Western officials point to the release earlier this year of an Iranian diplomat who was held for 15 months after being kidnapped by gunmen in Pakistan.

In negotiations for the diplomat's freedom, they say Iran promised better conditions for dozens of people close to Osama bin Laden who were being held under tight security. These included some of the terror chief's children and the network's most senior military strategist, Saif al-Adel.

Still, the life of the al-Qaida-linked exiles in Iran continues to be very much a blind spot for Western intelligence agencies. Few firm details have emerged, such as how much Iran limits their movements and contacts.

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91 dead in island massacre, bombing in Norway (AP)

By BJOERN H. AMLAND and LOUISE NORDSTROM, Associated Press Bjoern H. Amland And Louise Nordstrom, Associated Press – 4 mins ago

OSLO, Norway – A Norwegian gunman disguised as a police officer beckoned his victims closer before shooting them one by one, claiming at least 84 lives, in a horrific killing spree on an idyllic island teeming with youths that has left this peaceful Nordic nation in mourning.

The island tragedy Friday unfolded hours after a massive explosion ripped through a high-rise building housing the prime minister's office, killing seven people in a scene some likened to the aftermath of 9/11.

The same man — a blonde-blue eyed Norwegian with reported Christian fundamentalist, anti-Muslim views — is suspected in both attacks. He has been preliminarily charged with acts of terrorism.

On the island of Utoya, panicked teens attending a Labour Party youth wing summer camp plunged into the water or played dead to avoid the assailant in the assault that may have lasted 30 minutes before a SWAT team arrived, police said.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said the twin attacks made Friday peacetime Norway's deadliest day.

"This is beyond comprehension. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends," Stoltenberg told reporters Saturday. He said he would meet victims later in the day on Utoya.

The toll in both attacks reached 91 Saturday, and police said that could still rise as they search the waters around the island for more bodies. Acting Police Chief Roger Andresen said he did not how many people were still missing. The Oslo University hospital said it has so far received 11 wounded from the bombing and 16 people from the camp shooting.

The carnage began Friday afternoon in Oslo, when a bomb rocked the heart of Norway. About two hours later, the shootings began at a retreat for ruling Labour Party's youth-wing, according to a police official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police. The gunman used both automatic weapons and handguns, he said. It was not clear Saturday whether experts had succeeded in disarming a bomb that the official said had been left unexploded.

The blast in Oslo, Norway's capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings.

The dust-clogged scene after the blast reminded one visitor from New York of Sept. 11. People were "just covered in rubble," walking through "a fog of debris," said Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel.

While survivors evacuated the buildings, including ones that house other government offices and Norway's leading newspaper, word came that someone had opened fire on an island about 20 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of Oslo.

Stoltenberg told reporters that he had spent many summers on Utoya — "my childhood paradise that yesterday was transformed into hell."

A SWAT team that had been put on alert after the bombing was dispatched to the island once the shooting began. Police official Johan Fredriksen said that means they may have taken 30 minutes to reach the island.

Survivors described a scene there of terror. Several people fled into the water to escape the rampage, and police said they were still searching the lake for bodies.

A 15-year-old camper named Elise who was on Utoya said she heard gunshots, but then saw a police officer and thought she was safe. Then he started shooting people right before her eyes.

"I saw many dead people," said Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn't want her to disclose her last name. "He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water."

Elise said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. "I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock," she said.

She said it was impossible to say how many minutes passed while she was waiting for him to stop.

At a hotel in the village of Sundvollen, where survivors of the shooting were taken, 21-year-old Dana Berzingi wore pants stained with blood. He said the fake police officer ordered people to come closer, then pulled weapons and ammunition from a bag and started shooting.

Several victims "had pretended they were dead to survive," Berzingi said. But after shooting the victims with one gun, the gunman shot them again in the head with a shotgun, he said.

"I lost several friends," said Berzingi, who used the cell phone of one of those friends to call police.

Police arrested only one suspect and have said he is linked to both the shootings and the Oslo explosion. Though police did not release his name, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK identified him as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight. NRK and other Norwegian media posted pictures of the blond, blue-eyed Norwegian. Faiq Barzingi, whose children survived the massacre, said his kids have identified the photo in media as the gunman.

Police said they were still searching the suspect's Oslo apartment Saturday. An AP reporter said officers were keeping a close watch outside while technicians worked inside. About a dozen people, including journalists and neighbors, were hovering outside, but were not allowed to get close to the building.

Andresen, the acting police chief, said the suspect was talking to police.

"He is clear on the point that he wants to explain himself," he told reporters at a news conference.

An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center." Domestic terrorists carried out the 1995 attack on a federal building in Oklahoma City, while foreign terrorists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Though the prime minister cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the gunman's motives, both attacks were in areas connected to the left-leaning Labour Party, which leads a coalition government. The youth camp, about 20 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of Oslo, is organized by the party's youth wing, and the prime minister had been scheduled to speak there Saturday.

Sponheim said a man was arrested in the shooting, and the suspect had been observed in Oslo before the explosion there. But he refused to confirm the suspect's identity as reported by Norwegian media.

Sponheim said the camp shooter "wore a sweater with a police sign on it. I can confirm that he wasn't a police employee and never has been."

Aerial images broadcast by Norway's TV2 showed members of a SWAT team dressed in black arriving at the island in boats and running up the dock. People who had stripped down to their underwear moved in the opposite direction, swimming away from the island toward the mainland, some using flotation devices.

The United States, European Union, NATO and the U.K., all quickly condemned the bombing, which Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called "horrific" and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen deemed a "heinous act."

"It's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring," President Barack Obama said.

Obama extended his condolences to Norway's people and offered U.S. assistance with the investigation. He said he remembered how warmly Norwegians treated him in Oslo when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said the United States knew of no links to terrorist groups and early indications were the attack was domestic. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was being handled by Norway.

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Nordstrom reported from Stockholm. Associated Press reporters Nils Myklebost Oslo, Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Matthew Lee and Rita Foley in Washington, Paisley Dodds in London, and Paul Schemm in Tripoli, Libya, contributed to this report.

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Clinton condemns terrorism regardless of source (AP)

BALI, Indonesia – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the United States strongly condemns terrorism no matter who perpetuates it or where it comes from.

Clinton adds that the explosion and shootings in Norway that so far have claimed more than 90 lives "strikes right at the heart and soul of a peaceful people."

Clinton points out that Norway is well-known for conflict resolution and bringing people together.

Speaking in Bali to a meeting of Indonesian entrepreneurs, Clinton said that American hearts go out to the victims' families and to the Norwegian people and government. She added that the tragic event is a reminder of how precious the gift of life is.

A suspect in custody is being questioned for both assaults and is cooperating with the investigators.

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US warns of 'terror attack' on utility plants (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Department of Homeland Security has warned thousands of US utility plants that they could be the targets of "violent extremists," according to a report from ABC News.

On Tuesday the Department of Homeland Security sent out a terror alert titled "Insider Threat to Utilities" that said "violent extremists have, in fact, obtained insider positions" and might use those positions to wage physical and cyber attacks on behalf of Al-Qaeda, according to the news report.

The report warns that an insider at a major utility facility, such as a chemical or oil refinery, could help Al-Qaeda wage a major attack near the anniversary date of the September 11 attacks.

Officials found evidence among materials recovered during the May US military operation in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden, which lead officials to believe that the extremist leader sought to repeat the carnage of the September 11 attacks on or around its ten year anniversary.

"The only way you can actually kill the large scale number of Americans that [bin Laden] literally was calculating was through the use of this critical infrastructure," former DHS chief of staff Chad Sweet told ABC News.

"Based on the reliable reporting of previous incidents, we have high confidence in our judgment that insiders and their actions pose a significant threat to the infrastructure and information systems of US facilities," the bulletin said.

Last year US officials arrested an alleged Al-Qaeda recruit, and the American man had worked at five US nuclear power plants in the Pennsylvania area after passing federal background checks.

According to ABC News, Homeland Security officials were not aware of a specific threat to any particular utility.

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Obama extends condolences to Norway over bombing (AP)

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Friday that a lethal bomb blast in Norway's capital of Oslo is a reminder that the world has a stake in stopping acts of terrorism.

The president also extended his condolences to Norway's people.

Addressing reporters after an Oval Office meeting with New Zealand's prime minister, Obama said he remembered how warmly Norwegians treated him when he traveled to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

He said "our hearts" go out to the Norwegian people. He also offered U.S. assistance with the investigation.

"It's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring," Obama said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also offered words of support and sympathy while attending a meeting of Southeast Asian nations gathering in Indonesia.

"We stand with the people of Norway in this moment of sorrow and offer our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those injured and killed," Clinton said.

"We remain ready to support the Norwegian government as it seeks to bring the perpetrators of this violence to justice," she said.

Norwegian authorities say the blast ripped open buildings, including the prime minister's office, and was followed by a shooting at a youth camp that left scores dead.

It was the peaceful nation's worst violence since World War II.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was working at home at the time.

Later Friday, a man dressed as a police officer opened fire at the youth camp near the capital. Police had a suspect in custody in the shootings and say the incidents are linked.

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Obama urges anti-terror cooperation after Norway attack (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama offered condolences to Norway after deadly twin attacks and urged countries around the world to step up cooperation to combat terror.

Speaking during a meeting with New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key, Obama called the attacks "a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring."

"We have to work cooperatively together on intelligence and in terms of prevention of these kinds of horrible attacks," the president said.

Obama, who visited Oslo in 2009 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, fondly recalled his welcome in the NATO ally and said he "wanted to personally extend my condolences to the people of Norway."

"Our hearts go out to them and we will provide any support we can to them," said Obama, who earlier received a briefing on the attacks from his top anti-terrorism adviser John Brennan.

A blast tore through government buildings and a gunman opened fire at a youth meeting of the ruling party, leaving at least 80 people reported dead.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States "strongly condemns today's attacks in Oslo and Utoya Island.

"We stand with the people of Norway in this moment of sorrow and offer our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those injured and killed," said Clinton

State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke Fulton called the attacks "despicable" and said the embassy in Oslo has urged all US citizens to avoid the center of the Norwegian capital.

"The US has reached out to the Norwegian authorities to offer assistance, but there have been no specific requests from the Norwegians thus far," Fulton told AFP.

New Zealand's prime minister, in his meeting with Obama, also voiced his "sympathies and concerns" over the attacks in Norway.

"If it is an act of global terrorism, then I think that what it shows is no country, large or small, is immune from that risk," Key said.

"And that's why New Zealand plays its part in Afghanistan as we try and join others like the United States in making the world a safer place," he said.

New Zealand has sent 70 elite special force troops and 140 reconstruction personnel to Afghanistan.

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Giuliani warns against rushed News Corp. judgment (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Observers shouldn't rush to judgment in the growing investigation of the media conglomerate News Corp, the New York City mayor at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks said late Thursday.

"Give people the presumption of innocence," Rudy Giuliani said before an evening meeting with New Hampshire voters. "I think just how high up it goes is a big question, and it's one we shouldn't be jumping to conclusions about."

But Giuliani was making more than a casual observation. He and New Corp's chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, have shared a political and personal relationship for nearly two decades.

Murdoch endorsed Giuliani in his 1993 mayoral race and was a guest at the mayor's 2003 wedding. Giuliani acknowledged the close relationship Thursday.

"I'll probably see him some point in the next couple of days — or a week — I see him all the time, at various functions," he said during the taping of an interview for CNN at Manchester Harley Davidson as dozens of supporters and reporters watched.

Giuliani said he has confidence in Murdoch despite allegations that one of Murdoch's companies may have tapped into the voicemail of 9/11 victims.

"He's a very, honorable, honest man. This can't be something that he would have anything to do with," Giuliani said.

The FBI has begun a preliminary inquiry into the hacking allegations.

Giuliani's comments came during the final stop on the first day of this week's New Hampshire tour. The 2008 presidential candidate is exploring a second run for the White House, but says he won't make a decision until the end of the summer.

His relationship with Murdoch and his media companies is well documented.

As mayor, Giuliani advocated for Fox News in a New York cable dispute. And once he left elected office, his law and lobbying clients included Murdoch's News Corp. Further, Fox News Channel Chairman Roger Ailes was Giuliani's media consultant in his unsuccessful 1989 mayoral bid, and the two have maintained close ties over the years.

Giuliani, the former U.S. Attorney for the district that includes New York City, noted Thursday that there's already an active investigation of News Corp.

He offered some advice to the American people: "I think what they shouldn't do, as we've learned recently with a bunch of criminal cases of different kinds — don't rush to judgment."

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Pakistani accused in terror attack freed on bail (AP)

By BABAR DOGAR and ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Babar Dogar And Ashraf Khan, Associated Press – Thu Jul 14, 10:38 am ET

LAHORE, Pakistan – An Islamist militant accused in dozens of killings and a 2009 attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team was freed on bail Thursday after 14 years in custody because the Supreme Court decided there was not enough evidence to keep holding him, his lawyer said.

The release of Malik Ishaq, a leader of the banned Sunni Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, underscores the difficulty Pakistani prosecutors have convicting suspects in a justice system that lacks resources, is plagued by corruption and is rife with tales of witness intimidation.

Members of extremist groups have routinely escaped justice in Pakistan because of the legal system's perceived ineptitude.

Also Thursday, Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, reeled from fresh political violence that killed at least 14 people and added to the nation's instability.

Ishaq was arrested in 1997, and has been accused of a slew of crimes, including attacks on minority Shiite Muslims. In 2009, he also was blamed for orchestrating the attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. Six security officers and a driver died in that assault.

Although he's been implicated in some 44 cases, he was convicted in just two minor ones, and has already served the time for those, said his lawyer, Qazi Misbah. But prosecutors have tried to keep Ishaq behind bars, even as they've struggled to prove other cases and persuade frightened witnesses to testify.

The Supreme Court on Monday decided that there was not enough evidence to prevent Ishaq from being granted bail. After posting bonds worth $11,600 (1 million rupees), Ishaq walked free Thursday, Misbah said. TV footage showed hundreds of Ishaq's supporters greeting him as he left the jail in Kot Lakhpat, a town on the outskirts of Lahore.

Ishaq told Pakistan's private Geo TV channel that he had been falsely accused and that he would do whatever possible to ensure peace in Pakistan.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the affiliated Sipah-e-Sahaba are among the most notorious extremist groups in Pakistan. Jhangvi, in particular, is suspected of ties to al-Qaida and roles in a variety of terrorist attacks, including the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

Criminal conviction rates hover between 5 and 10 percent in Pakistan, according to a report by the International Crisis Group, a respected think tank. Terrorism convictions are rare, even in major cases, and convictions in lower courts are frequently overturned by appeals courts. Part of the problem is that police are ill-trained in the art of gathering evidence, while witnesses are often afraid to testify.

Prosecutors could not immediately be reached for comment in the Ishaq case Thursday.

In Karachi, meanwhile, residents were dealing with another round of violence that has brought the death toll in two weeks to more than 100.

Late Wednesday, Zulfiqar Mirza, a senior member of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, called Altaf Hussain, chief of the city's powerful Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a murderer and an extortionist. He also maligned the city's Urdu-speaking community that makes up the MQM party's main base.

Karachi echoed with gunfire soon after a local TV channel aired Mirza's comments. Angry mobs also torched more than a dozen vehicles. Fourteen people were killed in the fighting, said Manzoor Wasan, home minister in Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital.

Karachi has a long history of political, ethnic and sectarian violence, and much of the fighting is blamed on gangs allegedly affiliated with political parties. Last week, dozens were killed in violence believed to be linked to the MQM's decision to leave the federal ruling coalition and join the opposition.

Mirza apologized for his comments Thursday, calling members of the Urdu-speaking community his "brothers." His mea culpa came as thousands of people rallied in the center of the city to condemn him and burn his effigies.

Hussain, who lives in self-imposed exile in London, appealed to his supporters to call off protests, which seemed to help calm the situation by Thursday evening.

A large number of MQM's supporters are Urdu-speaking descendants of people who came to Karachi from India soon after the birth of Pakistan in 1947. The party dominates politics in urban areas of Sindh, including Karachi, but over time it has seen challenges to its power from the People's Party and the Awami National Party, a Pashtun nationalist party.

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Khan reported from Karachi.

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Big, busy India finds terrorism hard to prevent (AP)

India has been wracked by terror attacks by a variety of assailants since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

Its population of 1.2 billion is comprised of numerous — and in some cases competing — ethnicities, and the divide between the rising middle class and those still mired deep in poverty has added to tensions.

The South Asia Terrorism Portal, which tracks terror attacks in the region, lists more than 170 terror, extremist or insurgent groups in the country.

India has also fought three wars with archrival Pakistan and accuses its neighbor of actively supporting terror attacks by Pakistani-based militants on Indian soil.

Though India made significant investments in its security forces after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, its police forces remain poorly trained, undersupplied and tainted by corruption.

Mumbai, India's commercial and entertainment hub, is crowded with 18 million people, billionaire businessmen and Bollywood superstars and has repeatedly been targeted by terror groups seeking to reap maximum exposure from their attacks.

The 2008 attacks by 10 Pakistan-based militants targeted India's busiest train station, a Jewish center and two luxury hotels in the city and left 166 people dead.

Since then, the city had escaped further attack, until three coordinated bombings Wednesday night killed 17 people.

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Judge questions proof in Fla. terror finance case (AP)

MIAMI – A federal judge is raising questions about the strength of the U.S. case against two suspects in a Florida terrorism financing case.

U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan said Friday the evidence so far is less than compelling against two brothers charged with helping their father funnel cash to the Pakistani Taliban terror group. Both 37-year-old Irfan Khan and 24-year-old Izhar Khan claim the evidence against them is too weak to keep them jailed until trial.

Prosecutors say they have revealed only partial evidence. Jordan ordered a hearing next week to consider more proof before deciding on bail.

Jordan previously denied bail for the men's father, 76-year-old Hafiz Khan.

All three Khans plus three other people in Pakistan face four terror support charges. Each carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

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