Saudi interior ministry spokesman speaks about possibilities of continued recruitment to al-Qaeda

Beirut: Terrorist cell on trial for planning bombings, diplomat kidnapping

Algeria: Name-and-picture list for terrorists planning terrorist attacks

Morocco: 23-member terrorist cell dismantled

Spain: Interior minister confirms ETA schemes to carry out assassinations, bombing attacks

The deliberations of the First Forum of the Jeddah-based branch of the International Society for Industrial Security will be opened next Monday at Saudi Aramco's Club in the port city.

More than 500 specialists, experts, and workers in the security field in city of Jeddah from the public and private sectors, will attend the Forum's works.

The official spokesman of the Interior Ministry Major General Mansour bin Sultan Al-Turki, a special guest for the Forum, will deliver a key-note address on a topic entitled "The intellectual Security in Saudi Community."

The Higher Vice President of the International Society for Industrial Security in the Middle East, Eng. Sameer bin Saeed Raslan, who is also the Director General of the Industrial Security operations in Saudi Aramco, said the Society's Jeddah branch has invited Major General Al-Turki to speak to members of the Society and specialists in the field of security on the subject of intellectual security and security sense of the citizens and expatriates of Saudi Arabia, as a part of the Society's branch efforts to improve workers in the field of security in the region and develop their knowledge and expertise in everything related to security and professional aspects.

On behalf of him and the International Society for Industrial Security in the Middle East, Raslan sincerely thanked and expressed gratitude to Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Assistant Interior Minister for Security Affairs for his support to the International Society for Industrial Security and its members and its various activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

First Military Investigative Magistrate Rashid Mezher issued an arrest warrant for 56 persons accused of belonging to Al-Qaeda, Fatah al-Islam and Al-Ansar, an offspring of a Salafist jihadist group in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Eighteen people have been detained, and nine were detained in absentia.

They are accused of "forming a gang dedicated to committing monetary crimes and crimes against people, undermining the authority of the state, violating its institutions, incitement to murder, the forgery and illegal use of official documents and the acquisition, possession and transfer of explosive materials in order to carry out terrorist acts."

In Riyadh, Interpol arrested an individual in Lebanon wanted in Saudi Arabia on charges of fraud, deception and breach of trust.

The individual who is yet to be named by Saudi authorities or Interpol has been revealed to be an Arab national who is wanted in the Kingdom for defrauding a number of Saudi Businessman in an investment scam worth an estimated ten million Saudi Riyals, before fleeing to Lebanon.

The Director of Saudi Interpol Major General Ali bin Abdullah Al-Ubaishi said that the individual was handed over to Riyadh police is currently being questioned. "We are presently interested in knowing where he went with these funds that he got from Saudi businessmen in Riyadh." He added.

In Yemen, A Yemeni police official denied on Tuesday reports that security forces foiled a terrorist attack on German tourists in the south-east of the Arab country.

The official told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) that a group of German tourists were "verbally insulted" by unknown men as they were touring the historical city of Shibam in the south-eastern province of Hadhramout.

Several local newspapers and electronic news portals said on Tuesday that security forces had foiled a "terrorist" attack on German tourists in Hadhramout, some 900 kilometers south-east of the capital Sana'a.

"There was no attack plot and the offenders were not armed," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. He added that "several suspects were arrested and are being interrogated."

The official said authorities tightened up security in the area and provided the group with extra escort vehicles after the group's tour guide reported the incident to a nearby police checkpoint.

Two female Belgian tourists and three Yemeni drivers were killed after gunmen opened fire on their convoy near a historical site in Hadhramout on January 18.

Authorities have blamed the attack on the al-Qaeda terrorist network, which reportedly claimed responsibility.

Iraqi security forces have been ordered to detain beggars and mentally ill people found on Baghdad's streets who could be exploited by militants.

The Iraqi interior ministry confirmed the order went into effect and that a handful of such people had been picked up from the streets so far.

Those detained will be sent to mental institutions or back to their families.

The policy follows allegations that two recent suicide bombings were carried out by mentally ill women.

The simultaneous attacks on two Baghdad animal markets on 1 February killed at least 98 people, the deadliest blasts for months in the capital.

Iraqi forces detained an administrator at the Rashad psychiatric hospital in city in connection with the bombings.

The US military said the man was suspected of supplying information about patients to al-Qaeda in Iraq and exploiting the mentally impaired.

Iraqi interior ministry spokesman Maj. Gen Abdul Karim Khalaf confirmed police had been ordered to begin detaining people living on the streets as they might be vulnerable to exploitation by militant groups.

These groups are either luring those who desperate for money to help them in their attacks or making use of their poor mental condition to use them as suicide bombers.

"Militant groups, like al-Qaeda in Iraq, have started exploiting these people in a very bad manner to kill innocents as they do not raise suspicions," he told the Associated Press.

"These groups are either luring those who are desperate for money to help them in their attacks or making use of their poor mental condition to use them as suicide bombers," he added.

Mentally ill and disabled people picked up by the police will be sent to mental institutions, while the authorities will try to locate the families of beggars or street children and make them responsible for keeping them off the streets.

The actions are being taken under laws prevailing at the time of the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein.

A spokesman for the US military, Admiral Gregory Smith, later confirmed it was aware of the interior ministry's efforts "to try and protect homeless and mentally impaired citizens from becoming the unwitting victims of al-Qaeda in Iraq".

Admiral Smith said the two women who had carried out the twin suicide bombings in Baghdad earlier this month had undergone psychiatric treatment for depression and schizophrenia, but stressed there was no indication they had Down's syndrome.

"The two that were involved in the pet market bombings most certainly had a history of psychiatric treatment," he told reporters in Baghdad.

"We are completely informed of their case files. We know precisely who the women are. We do have certain proof that these women had been treated extensively for psychiatric issues."

The use of the women in the suicide bombings prompted the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to describe al-Qaeda in Iraq "the most brutal and bankrupt of movements".

In Tunis, A Tunisian appeals court has upheld a death sentence and rejected another against two suspected Islamic militants convicted in connection with deadly clashes with security officials.

Overall, convictions were held up against 30 people in the marathon appeals hearing over two days, following a lower court verdict in December.

Other sentences ranged from life behind bars to three years in prison on lesser charges, including possessing explosives.

The defendants could appeal again to the Court of Cassation, Tunisia's highest court, because of the severity of the sentences.

They were arrested following an attack on the group in Soliman, some 25 miles south of the capital. A total of 14 people _ 12 group members, a soldier and a police officer _ died in the confrontation.

The group is thought to have links with al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, an Algerian insurgent group that declared an alliance with the global terror network earlier this year and has since claimed responsibility for several major terror attacks in the country.

Spain went on maximum terror alert ahead of the start of official campaigning for what is shaping up to be the most fiercely contested legislative election in decades.

The interior ministry said the alert would provide for a "total mobilization of forces and state security corps" to monitor and protect party headquarters, election meetings, public transport, shopping centers and sporting events.

Campaigning for the March 9 general election was set to kick off at midnight.

Spain, which has three security levels, had previously been on level two "medium" alert, over fears of a possible attack by the armed separatist group ETA which called off a 15-month ceasefire in June 2006.

"We believe ETA will try to kill before the elections," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told public television TVE.

Spanish authorities have detained scores of suspected ETA members and say they have foiled a series of attacks by the outfit in recent months.

Morocco has banned the Al Badil Al Hadari party after the authorities linked its leader to a "terrorist network," the prime minister's office said.

Mustapha Moastassim, the party's leader, was among 32 people arrested by police earlier this week suspected of involvement in planning attacks against Moroccan targets.

Abbas El Fassi's office said in statement that there were "serious indications of the involvement of the party's main leaders" in the alleged network.

Al Badil Al Hadari is a religious party that contested national elections last September but failed to win a seat in the national assembly.

Police said the network was headed by Abdelkader Belliraj, a Moroccan who lived in Belgium.

"The prime minister decreed the dismantling of al Badil al Hadari within the framework of the break-up of the Belliraj terrorist network and in the light of the proven links between this network and the creation of this party," the statement said.

The Philippine military says it has found what it believes to be the body of Dulmatin, an Indonesian militant wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people.

The military says the body was found on the southern island of Tawi Tawi after an informant led authorities to a remote jungle grave. Dulmatin was reportedly injured after a clash with the Philippine Marines on January 31, when they raided his hideout on the island.

Dulmatin is accused of being a member of the Indonesian Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah. He is wanted for the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed more than 200 people - Asia's worst terrorist attack. The United States has offered a $10 million reward for his capture.

He fled in 2003 to the southern Philippines, where authorities say he has been working with Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine militant group.

Dulmatin is believed to have trained Filipino militants in bomb making. Marine General Nelson Allaga, of the Western Mindanao Command, says closing his case would be a major victory. "It's a good accomplishment for the armed forces if indeed it turns out that it's Dulmatin," said Allaga.

Tests to identify the body are under way, but could take at least a month. Authorities are using genetic samples taken from Dulmatin's children, who were found in a rebel hideout in the southern Philippines last year. Their mother was found earlier in the region. All have since been sent back to Indonesia.

U.S. and British officials disclosed Thursday that two U.S. "extraordinary rendition" flights carrying terrorism suspects refueled on U.K. territory in the Indian Ocean in 2002, despite repeated denials by both governments that clandestine CIA flights had ever used British airspace or territory. Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed "disappointment" that the United States notified the British government of the flights just last week and called it a "very serious issue." Officials from both governments said the flights came to light after a recent review of records by U.S. officials.

British officials have long denied any involvement in the CIA's rendition program, in which terror suspects have been secretly flown for interrogation to countries where torture is often used by government security services.

Although Britain has been a close ally of the United States in Iraq and in the wider "war on terror," Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair, have distanced themselves from a CIA program that has been broadly criticized in Europe.

Foreign Minister David Miliband first disclosed the flights in Parliament, saying he was "very sorry indeed" to have to correct previous denials by Blair and other top British officials.

Miliband said Britain learned that two flights, each carrying a single terror suspect, had landed at Diego Garcia, a British atoll in the Indian Ocean that British and U.S. forces use for military operations. Human rights activists have long suspected that Diego Garcia hosted one of the CIA's secret prisons for terror suspects.

Miliband said neither of the two suspects was a British citizen or resident. He also said that one was now being held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that the other had been released.

Miliband said he believed U.S. officials had acted in "good faith" and had not intentionally misled Britain. He said he discussed the matter with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"We both agree that the mistakes made in these two cases are not acceptable, and she shares my deep regret that this information has only just come to light," he said.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed that Rice telephoned Miliband to express U.S. regret over the "administrative error."

"We came up with fresh information that in short order we shared with the British government," he told reporters. "We regret that there was an error in providing initially that inaccurate information to a good friend and ally."

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden issued a statement saying that information supplied to Britain "in good faith" had "turned out to be wrong."

"That we found this mistake ourselves, and that we brought it to the attention of the British Government, in no way changes or excuses the reality that we were in the wrong," he said.

Hayden said neither terror suspect was a part of the CIA's "high-value terrorist interrogation program."

"These were rendition operations, nothing more," Hayden said. "There has been speculation in the press over the years that CIA had a holding facility on Diego Garcia. That is false. There have also been allegations that we transport detainees for the purpose of torture. That, too, is false."

Miliband said his staff would compile a list of flights that human rights groups suspect were used for rendition, then forward it to officials in Washington "seeking their specific assurance that none of these flights were used" for rendition.

Opposition politicians in Britain said the case undermined the credibility of the Blair and Brown governments, as well as the United States. Menzies Campbell, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, called the incident "a gross embarrassment" for the British government.

Andrew Tyrie, a Conservative Party politician who leads the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, said in a statement that the matter "will leave the British public unwilling to trust other assurances we have received from the U.S."

The British Government faces fresh accusations of spin in the Iraq war, after releasing the first draft of the notorious dossier that it used to justify the Iraq invasion.

In its final form in 2002, the so-called "dodgy dossier" made the unsubstantiated claim that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. The BBC later accused a government media adviser of inventing the claim.

The Government released the draft, after a three-year freedom-of-information campaign by opposition MPs.

The draft was edited by John Williams, a former Foreign Office press secretary. Although it does not include the WMD statement, it is very similar to the final document produced by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). Both documents made explicit claims about Saddam's capabilities and falsely said Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

The Government has long asserted that Mr. Williams edited the document of his own volition and that his changes had no bearing on the final JIC dossier.

In his 2002 draft, Mr. Williams wrote that Iraq was "covertly attempting to acquire technology and materials for use in nuclear weapons". The final JIC document, written days later," said Iraq was trying "covertly to acquire technology and materials which could be used in the production of nuclear weapons".

The JIC dossier was central to a dispute between the Government and the BBC. The broadcaster accused Alistair Campbell, Downing Street's former communications director, of "sexing up" the document with inclusions such as the 45-minute claim to justify the war. The furore culminated in the suicide of weapons inspector David Kelly, who was revealed as the source of the BBC report.

A later inquiry ruled that the Government had not made the 45-minute claim against the wishes of the intelligence community.

Opposition parties seized the draft. Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the similarities proved the Government had "spun" its case for war. "This is yet further evidence that spin doctors, not intelligence analysts, were leading from the first in deciding what the British people were told about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," he said, before calling for a full inquiry into the Iraq war.

Mr. Williams' draft also accused Iraq of having government-run "rape squads" to intimidate the population. "Rape is a standard method of intimidation by the regime. The government personnel card produced here (picture) identifies its holder, Aziz Saleh Ahmed, as a 'fighter in the popular army' whose activity is 'violation of women's honor': in other words, he is a professional rapist."

A margin note adds: "Any more on these people? This is the ghastly single image of oppression we must get into people's minds."