Portuguese police have recaptured a convict who had escaped in 1993 and had been hiding in the caves in the mountains for 16 years receiving help from villagers nearby, local media said on Thursday.
The 54-year-old former shepherd, thin and heavily bearded but healthy, was arrested on Wednesday in the north of the country in a police operation dubbed "Cro-Magnon" in reference to Europe's early humans who lived in caves thousands of years ago, Diario de Noticias daily said.
He had been convicted and sentenced to a 10-year term for accidentally killing a neighbor in a discussion over a sheep flock, but escaped after about 2 years in prison.
Local residents were quoted as saying the man, who only had a dog for company during his hiding, never harmed anyone while on the run. A local mayor said the village would hire a lawyer to try to alleviate his sentence.
Police were quoted as saying many locals had been helping the fugitive by giving him food, money or offering odd jobs, but would not tell the police about his whereabouts when questioned. Police say he would have to serve at least the remaining eight years of his sentence.
Jornal de Noticias daily said the man was very worried about the fate of his pet and, when arrested, pleaded to give it to a villager he knew.
hot info
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Islamist sect leader in Nigeria killed in custody
The leader of the Islamist sect blamed for days of violence in northern Nigeria has been shot and killed while in police custody, officials said Thursday.
The police commander of Borno state announced on state radio that Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the sect some call the Nigerian Taliban, has "died in police custody."
He gave no further explanation, but the state governor's spokesman Usman Ciroma told The Associated Press: "I saw his body at police headquarters. I believe he was shot while he was trying to escape."
Yusuf's death could provoke more violence, though his followers in the Boko Haram sect may be in disarray after troops shelled his compound in the northern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday. Yusuf, 39, managed to escape with about 300 followers, some of them armed. His deputy, Bukar Shekau, was killed in the attack, according to Army commander Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina.
Troops killed about 100 militants by an AP reporter's count, half of them inside the sect's mosque. Soldiers then launched a manhunt, and Yusuf was reportedly found in a goat's pen at the home of his in-laws.
Human Rights Watch called reports of Yusuf's killing "extremely worrying."
"The Nigerian authorities must act immediately to investigate and hold to account all those responsible for this unlawful killing and any others associated with the recent violence in northern Nigeria," said Corinne Dufka, the group's senior West Africa researcher.
"The local commissioner of police should be immediately removed pending an investigation into Mr. Yusuf's killing," she said in a statement.
Seeking to impose Islamic Shariah law throughout this multi-religious country, the militants attacked police stations, churches, prisons and government buildings in a wave of violence that began Sunday in Borno and quickly spread to three other northern states.
But, leading Nigerian rights groups accuse security forces of killing bystanders and other civilians. A military spokesman denied the charge and said it was impossible for rights workers to tell who was a civilian and who was a member of Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language.
The government warned people to evacuate the area before the attack on the compound Wednesday, then shelled the compound and stormed the group's mosque inside, setting off a raging firefight with retreating militants armed with homemade hunting rifles and firebombs, bows and arrows, machetes and scimitars.
An AP reporter saw soldiers shoot their way into the mosque under fire and then raked those inside with gunshots.
The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, on Thursday morning as the army pursued the manhunt on the outskirts of the city. Police said most of the dead were fighters with Boko Haram. Army Col. Ben Anahotu said three police officers were killed.
Officials said at least 4,000 people have been forced from their homes by Wednesday afternoon, but it was not known how many have been killed, wounded and arrested.
President Umaru Yar'Adua said that security agents had been ordered to attack when the movement started gathering fighters from nearby states at its sprawling Maiduguri compound in preparation for "the holy war."
The militants are also known as Al-Sunna wal Jamma, or "Followers of Mohammed's Teachings," and some Nigerian officials have referred to them as Taliban. Analyst Nnamdi K. Obasi of the International Crisis Group said a few have fought with that radical movement in Afghanistan.
League for Human Rights director Shamaki Gad Peter said that after the siege rights workers saw the bodies of up to 20 people who were unarmed and appeared to have been shot from behind, possibly trying to escape the mayhem, he said.
Military spokesman Col. Mohammed Yerima initially denied allegations that the military intentionally killed civilians but said that the militants were indistinguishable from civilians.
"All the civilians that were living in that place were evacuated, to our knowledge," he said. "And those that remained in that enclave are loyalists and members of the group. So the issue of whether we have killed innocent civilians is not true."
He added, "The issue of identifying who is the Taliban or not, the human rights groups are not fair to security agencies because they don't have any marks on their faces. There is no way to know if this is Taliban or this is not."
Maiduguri resident Linda Dukwa said she had seen police execute two men Monday, frightening her and her family so badly that they did not venture out of their house, even for food, for days afterward.
The men "were dressed in white robes," she said, indicating they were sect members. "They were held by policemen. Then they shot their feet. After they fell on the ground, they (police) shot their heads."
National police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu denied such allegations of executions.
"We respect the rules of combat," he said.
Nigeria's 140 million people are roughly divided between Christians in the south and northern-based Muslims. Shariah was implemented in 12 northern states after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 following years of oppressive military regimes. More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence since then.
Dire poverty is at the heart of the violence, which analysts say reflects decades-old grievances of Nigerians whose governments are so corrupt and ineffective they do not deliver even basic services like running water and electricity.
Boko Haram members are particularly angry that full Shariah has not been implemented, especially the law's demand for a social welfare system helping poor people.
In recent months, police have been raiding Boko Haram hideouts and finding explosives and arms. The house at the compound in Maiduguri included a laboratory the military said was used to make bombs.
The police commander of Borno state announced on state radio that Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the sect some call the Nigerian Taliban, has "died in police custody."
He gave no further explanation, but the state governor's spokesman Usman Ciroma told The Associated Press: "I saw his body at police headquarters. I believe he was shot while he was trying to escape."
Yusuf's death could provoke more violence, though his followers in the Boko Haram sect may be in disarray after troops shelled his compound in the northern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday. Yusuf, 39, managed to escape with about 300 followers, some of them armed. His deputy, Bukar Shekau, was killed in the attack, according to Army commander Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina.
Troops killed about 100 militants by an AP reporter's count, half of them inside the sect's mosque. Soldiers then launched a manhunt, and Yusuf was reportedly found in a goat's pen at the home of his in-laws.
Human Rights Watch called reports of Yusuf's killing "extremely worrying."
"The Nigerian authorities must act immediately to investigate and hold to account all those responsible for this unlawful killing and any others associated with the recent violence in northern Nigeria," said Corinne Dufka, the group's senior West Africa researcher.
"The local commissioner of police should be immediately removed pending an investigation into Mr. Yusuf's killing," she said in a statement.
Seeking to impose Islamic Shariah law throughout this multi-religious country, the militants attacked police stations, churches, prisons and government buildings in a wave of violence that began Sunday in Borno and quickly spread to three other northern states.
But, leading Nigerian rights groups accuse security forces of killing bystanders and other civilians. A military spokesman denied the charge and said it was impossible for rights workers to tell who was a civilian and who was a member of Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language.
The government warned people to evacuate the area before the attack on the compound Wednesday, then shelled the compound and stormed the group's mosque inside, setting off a raging firefight with retreating militants armed with homemade hunting rifles and firebombs, bows and arrows, machetes and scimitars.
An AP reporter saw soldiers shoot their way into the mosque under fire and then raked those inside with gunshots.
The bodies of barefoot young men littered the streets of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, on Thursday morning as the army pursued the manhunt on the outskirts of the city. Police said most of the dead were fighters with Boko Haram. Army Col. Ben Anahotu said three police officers were killed.
Officials said at least 4,000 people have been forced from their homes by Wednesday afternoon, but it was not known how many have been killed, wounded and arrested.
President Umaru Yar'Adua said that security agents had been ordered to attack when the movement started gathering fighters from nearby states at its sprawling Maiduguri compound in preparation for "the holy war."
The militants are also known as Al-Sunna wal Jamma, or "Followers of Mohammed's Teachings," and some Nigerian officials have referred to them as Taliban. Analyst Nnamdi K. Obasi of the International Crisis Group said a few have fought with that radical movement in Afghanistan.
League for Human Rights director Shamaki Gad Peter said that after the siege rights workers saw the bodies of up to 20 people who were unarmed and appeared to have been shot from behind, possibly trying to escape the mayhem, he said.
Military spokesman Col. Mohammed Yerima initially denied allegations that the military intentionally killed civilians but said that the militants were indistinguishable from civilians.
"All the civilians that were living in that place were evacuated, to our knowledge," he said. "And those that remained in that enclave are loyalists and members of the group. So the issue of whether we have killed innocent civilians is not true."
He added, "The issue of identifying who is the Taliban or not, the human rights groups are not fair to security agencies because they don't have any marks on their faces. There is no way to know if this is Taliban or this is not."
Maiduguri resident Linda Dukwa said she had seen police execute two men Monday, frightening her and her family so badly that they did not venture out of their house, even for food, for days afterward.
The men "were dressed in white robes," she said, indicating they were sect members. "They were held by policemen. Then they shot their feet. After they fell on the ground, they (police) shot their heads."
National police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu denied such allegations of executions.
"We respect the rules of combat," he said.
Nigeria's 140 million people are roughly divided between Christians in the south and northern-based Muslims. Shariah was implemented in 12 northern states after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 following years of oppressive military regimes. More than 10,000 Nigerians have died in sectarian violence since then.
Dire poverty is at the heart of the violence, which analysts say reflects decades-old grievances of Nigerians whose governments are so corrupt and ineffective they do not deliver even basic services like running water and electricity.
Boko Haram members are particularly angry that full Shariah has not been implemented, especially the law's demand for a social welfare system helping poor people.
In recent months, police have been raiding Boko Haram hideouts and finding explosives and arms. The house at the compound in Maiduguri included a laboratory the military said was used to make bombs.
an claims he found a rodent inside Diet Pepsi can
The Food and Drug Administration is testing a Diet Pepsi can that a central Florida man claims had the remains of a possible rodent inside. Fred Denegri of Ormond Beach took a few sips from the can on July 23, only later to discover what was inside. He said the rodent was big enough that it wouldn't come out of the can.
Pepsi officials said Wednesday they traced the can back to the manufacturing plant in Orlando and didn't find anything wrong with the company's quality controls and soda sampling. Spokesman Jeff Dahncke said it's unlikely that something like this could happen during production.
Denegri called poison control after the discovery, but he didn't become sick. The 55-year-old says he's a Pepsi fan and will keep drinking it.
Pepsi officials said Wednesday they traced the can back to the manufacturing plant in Orlando and didn't find anything wrong with the company's quality controls and soda sampling. Spokesman Jeff Dahncke said it's unlikely that something like this could happen during production.
Denegri called poison control after the discovery, but he didn't become sick. The 55-year-old says he's a Pepsi fan and will keep drinking it.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Taliban trained teens as suicide bombers, Pakistan authorities say
Pakistan — As normalcy returns to Pakistan's scenic Swat valley after a major army operation to oust Taliban extremists, local parents are coming forward with a chilling revelation: The Pakistani Taliban abducted around 100 children to be trained as suicide bombers.
According to the Pakistani army, the children, who were often forcibly taken from their homes, have been brought in by their families or arrested by security forces. The army paraded a half-dozen boys, who appeared to be between 13 and 16 years old, in front of the local media on Sunday. One unnamed boy, crying, pleaded: "You should feel for us as you do for your own children."
"We're finding a lot of children who have been trained, brainwashed, told even that if your parents get in the way, you must finish them," said Brigadier Tahir Hameed , the operational commander for the Mingora area, speaking at army headquarters in the city, which the Taliban besieged for a month.
Videos that were being sold in Mingora when the Taliban were in control showed many teenage boys being trained for suicide attacks. The videos would climax by showing them embrace their adult tutors before climbing into vehicles, which were then filmed driving into their targets — often military checkpoints — and detonating, all to a sound track of hypnotic jihadist songs.
The army is setting up a rehabilitation center for the children and is planning to provide a course for them at a fort in the region.
Lt. Col. Aktar Abbas said the length of the rehabilitation course would vary for each child, depending on "how far that boy has gone." The army will fund the residential program and provide accommodations, educational facilities and psychologists, he said.
"They (the children) have been through great trauma. They were picked up from their homes by the Taliban ," said Abbas. "Some found their way back to their parents, some were found and arrested during the operation."
Other residents of Swat, just 100 miles north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad , are finding the way home choked with traffic. Old cars, brightly colored buses and trucks form long lines daily to get into the city.
They're loaded with people and their possessions — beds, electric fans and tents tied on the roofs with rope — with women and children often perched precariously on top. It's a bittersweet homecoming for many residents, who find their homes and shops looted, and especially for laborers, who're uncertain they can find employment again.
People in the Swat valley are daring to play music again, but many remain concerned that the Taliban will make a comeback. The headless body of a police officer, discovered Tuesday in an area where government security forces are present, confirmed that the militants remain a threat.
Some 2 million people fled Swat and the adjacent districts of Buner and Dir at the start of May, as the army took on the Taliban in a U.S.-backed offensive. The government started a vast return program on July 13 . By Monday, 81,901 families — some 575,000 individuals — had returned.
"We saw banners saying that the people of Swat will go back to heaven, but when we got here, we found the door closed," said Khan Rehman, a 50-year-old who was squatting in an empty office building with several hundred others on the outskirts of Mingora.
Rehman said that local officials had ordered his family to leave the school where they were living in Swabi, a town southeast of Swat, because it had to be cleaned for the next semester. Rehman's home in Kanju, however, is still off-limits because the army is still "mopping up" Taliban and de-mining the area.
Residents of Kanju, just across the river from Mingora, are now occupying empty buildings in the Nowakilla neighborhood without running water, food or government assistance. Many have been there for 10 days.
In another corner of Nowakilla, though, young men gathered in a "batek," a traditional room for men to socialize, where they were playing cards, listening to a music cassette, joking with each other and preparing fishing equipment for a trip to the nearby river.
Sahibzada, a 20-year-old who goes by only one name, pointed out the bullet marks on the wall of the batek. He said the Taliban had banned them from using the room, as they considered such leisure activities un-Islamic.
"Let alone being able to play music, we couldn't even talk freely (under the Taliban )," said Sahibzada. "The Taliban even said that fishing was a sin. Now, normalcy is coming back quickly."
In a further sign of normalcy, schools are due to re-open next week, and the students at the 200 schools blown up by the Taliban will attend class in tents or temporary buildings.
In Mingora's Green Square , dubbed " Bloody Square ," the crossroads in the middle of the city where the Taliban used to behead people — government employees, those living "immoral" lives, anyone who criticized the extremists — a music stall is back in business.
"When the Taliban were here, I used to sell Islamic tapes," said music stall owner Shaukat Iqbal , 40, whose shelves are filled with the Indian film music and songs in the regional Pashto language. "If the Taliban come again, I will go back to the Islamic tapes. There's no guarantee that they won't come back."
At his shoe shop in Green Square , surrounded by buildings that were badly damaged in the military operation, Abdul Jameel , 31, said that business was roughly doubling each day as more people returned.
"There is zero presence of Taliban in Mingora, but still people are afraid. They just come quickly to buy what's essential," said Jameel, whose home was looted of everything down to children's toys. "People fear that, if the army goes, it will be the turn of the Taliban again. It's a circle."
The Taliban leadership in Swat, including its chief Mullah Fazlullah, remain at large. His blood-curdling voice has returned to his radio station in recent days, when he promised a resurgence. The army said it captured two Toyota trucks that Fazullah uses but just missed him in the darkness a few nights ago.
In Mingora, the army, paramilitary and police maintain a huge presence on street corners, on patrol in armored personnel carriers and in sandbagged positions on rooftops. Authorities have begun relaxing the curfew over the city, but still impose it at 6 p.m. each evening until the next morning.
The people of Swat are profoundly cynical about the army after two previous half-hearted operations that left the Taliban in control. This time, the scale of the offensive appeared to have convinced most that this time the army was serious.
"This area was 100 percent under Taliban control," said Ikram Qadir , 23, walking around his neighborhood of Landikas in the middle of the city. "Now in Mingora, one leaf cannot move without the army's permission."
Still, there are rumors, which the army denies, that yet another deal could be done with Fazlullah.
"No dialogue, no truce, only elimination," said Ziauddin Yusufzai , a school principal in Mingora. "We will not accept any kind of peace deal. If they (the army) do it this time, they'll lose this country."
The army commander Hameed told McClatchy that the Taliban remain in "small pockets" and the operation would go on "while terrorism continues." He said that progress now depends on the willingness of returning residents to tell the authorities about the presence of Taliban remnants in their area. In the past, people have been too terrified of reprisals to inform.
"If people co-operate, I think this will finish soon," Hameed said. "It depends on society standing on its own feet."
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
According to the Pakistani army, the children, who were often forcibly taken from their homes, have been brought in by their families or arrested by security forces. The army paraded a half-dozen boys, who appeared to be between 13 and 16 years old, in front of the local media on Sunday. One unnamed boy, crying, pleaded: "You should feel for us as you do for your own children."
"We're finding a lot of children who have been trained, brainwashed, told even that if your parents get in the way, you must finish them," said Brigadier Tahir Hameed , the operational commander for the Mingora area, speaking at army headquarters in the city, which the Taliban besieged for a month.
Videos that were being sold in Mingora when the Taliban were in control showed many teenage boys being trained for suicide attacks. The videos would climax by showing them embrace their adult tutors before climbing into vehicles, which were then filmed driving into their targets — often military checkpoints — and detonating, all to a sound track of hypnotic jihadist songs.
The army is setting up a rehabilitation center for the children and is planning to provide a course for them at a fort in the region.
Lt. Col. Aktar Abbas said the length of the rehabilitation course would vary for each child, depending on "how far that boy has gone." The army will fund the residential program and provide accommodations, educational facilities and psychologists, he said.
"They (the children) have been through great trauma. They were picked up from their homes by the Taliban ," said Abbas. "Some found their way back to their parents, some were found and arrested during the operation."
Other residents of Swat, just 100 miles north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad , are finding the way home choked with traffic. Old cars, brightly colored buses and trucks form long lines daily to get into the city.
They're loaded with people and their possessions — beds, electric fans and tents tied on the roofs with rope — with women and children often perched precariously on top. It's a bittersweet homecoming for many residents, who find their homes and shops looted, and especially for laborers, who're uncertain they can find employment again.
People in the Swat valley are daring to play music again, but many remain concerned that the Taliban will make a comeback. The headless body of a police officer, discovered Tuesday in an area where government security forces are present, confirmed that the militants remain a threat.
Some 2 million people fled Swat and the adjacent districts of Buner and Dir at the start of May, as the army took on the Taliban in a U.S.-backed offensive. The government started a vast return program on July 13 . By Monday, 81,901 families — some 575,000 individuals — had returned.
"We saw banners saying that the people of Swat will go back to heaven, but when we got here, we found the door closed," said Khan Rehman, a 50-year-old who was squatting in an empty office building with several hundred others on the outskirts of Mingora.
Rehman said that local officials had ordered his family to leave the school where they were living in Swabi, a town southeast of Swat, because it had to be cleaned for the next semester. Rehman's home in Kanju, however, is still off-limits because the army is still "mopping up" Taliban and de-mining the area.
Residents of Kanju, just across the river from Mingora, are now occupying empty buildings in the Nowakilla neighborhood without running water, food or government assistance. Many have been there for 10 days.
In another corner of Nowakilla, though, young men gathered in a "batek," a traditional room for men to socialize, where they were playing cards, listening to a music cassette, joking with each other and preparing fishing equipment for a trip to the nearby river.
Sahibzada, a 20-year-old who goes by only one name, pointed out the bullet marks on the wall of the batek. He said the Taliban had banned them from using the room, as they considered such leisure activities un-Islamic.
"Let alone being able to play music, we couldn't even talk freely (under the Taliban )," said Sahibzada. "The Taliban even said that fishing was a sin. Now, normalcy is coming back quickly."
In a further sign of normalcy, schools are due to re-open next week, and the students at the 200 schools blown up by the Taliban will attend class in tents or temporary buildings.
In Mingora's Green Square , dubbed " Bloody Square ," the crossroads in the middle of the city where the Taliban used to behead people — government employees, those living "immoral" lives, anyone who criticized the extremists — a music stall is back in business.
"When the Taliban were here, I used to sell Islamic tapes," said music stall owner Shaukat Iqbal , 40, whose shelves are filled with the Indian film music and songs in the regional Pashto language. "If the Taliban come again, I will go back to the Islamic tapes. There's no guarantee that they won't come back."
At his shoe shop in Green Square , surrounded by buildings that were badly damaged in the military operation, Abdul Jameel , 31, said that business was roughly doubling each day as more people returned.
"There is zero presence of Taliban in Mingora, but still people are afraid. They just come quickly to buy what's essential," said Jameel, whose home was looted of everything down to children's toys. "People fear that, if the army goes, it will be the turn of the Taliban again. It's a circle."
The Taliban leadership in Swat, including its chief Mullah Fazlullah, remain at large. His blood-curdling voice has returned to his radio station in recent days, when he promised a resurgence. The army said it captured two Toyota trucks that Fazullah uses but just missed him in the darkness a few nights ago.
In Mingora, the army, paramilitary and police maintain a huge presence on street corners, on patrol in armored personnel carriers and in sandbagged positions on rooftops. Authorities have begun relaxing the curfew over the city, but still impose it at 6 p.m. each evening until the next morning.
The people of Swat are profoundly cynical about the army after two previous half-hearted operations that left the Taliban in control. This time, the scale of the offensive appeared to have convinced most that this time the army was serious.
"This area was 100 percent under Taliban control," said Ikram Qadir , 23, walking around his neighborhood of Landikas in the middle of the city. "Now in Mingora, one leaf cannot move without the army's permission."
Still, there are rumors, which the army denies, that yet another deal could be done with Fazlullah.
"No dialogue, no truce, only elimination," said Ziauddin Yusufzai , a school principal in Mingora. "We will not accept any kind of peace deal. If they (the army) do it this time, they'll lose this country."
The army commander Hameed told McClatchy that the Taliban remain in "small pockets" and the operation would go on "while terrorism continues." He said that progress now depends on the willingness of returning residents to tell the authorities about the presence of Taliban remnants in their area. In the past, people have been too terrified of reprisals to inform.
"If people co-operate, I think this will finish soon," Hameed said. "It depends on society standing on its own feet."
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Yahoo Search
