World busy fighting terrorism, terrorists

French FM calls to develop war on terror

British Home Secretary warns of possible terror threats

Combating terrorism necessity for realizing stability, development – Turkish PM

Al-Qaeda leader arrested in Basra

Non-essential US embassy staffers in Sanaa started leaving the country after two attacks targeting the US embassy and a residential complex in which Americans are living in Yemen.

According to US embassy sources, the US administration has given instructions to non-essential embassy staffers and their families to leave the country for security reasons.

The sources, in a released statement, indicated that FBI Director Robert Mueller, during a recent visit to Yemen asked Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over the mastermind of an attack against the US destroyer USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden in 2000.

The attack left 17 marines dead and 33 others wounded.

Sanaa, meanwhile turned down the request.

Armed clashes had erupted between Yemeni forces and gunmen in southern Yemen.

Witnesses said the clashes flared up in the province of Abyan.

The clashes erupted after the gunmen seized the building of a financial institution in the city, claiming that the building had been set up on a plot of land of their own.

Meanwhile, a Yemeni Foreign Ministry source has denied reports alleging that the United States has cancelled the visit which Foreign Minister Abu Bakar Qirbi was to pay to Washington in the middle of April.

The source told the September 25 newspaper that the visit was postponed at a request by Yemen and another date for the visit will be set later.

Mauritanian police arrested a third suspect in the killings last December of four French tourists, after an officer saw through his disguise of a women's veil, said security sources.

Maarouf Ould Haiba was on the point of taking a taxi in central Nouakchott wearing a "malahfa", the veil worn by Mauritanian women, when an officer was alerted by the masculine way he walked, said a police source.

"A police officer who noticed his very masculine gait approached him as he was getting into (the car), overpowered him and took away a weapon from him that he had under his veil," said the source.

On being arrested, he shouted: "'Allahu Akbar (God is great), it's me, Ould Haiba. I really did kill the French infidels,'" the source added.

Police had been hunting for Ould Haiba since the December 24 killings of the four French tourists in the southwest of the country, which had been considered a safe part of the vast mainly desert nation.

The other two suspects, Sidi Ould Sidna and Ould Sidi Chabarnou, were arrested early January in Guinea-Bissau and quickly extradited to Mauritania.

Both suspects had previously been arrested in connection with the extremist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which in January 2007 declared allegiance to Al-Qaeda and called itself Al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb.

But Ould Sidna, managed to escape from the court house in Nouakchott on April 2 and police are still searching for him.

Commenting on Thursday's arrest, a security source said: "We think this arrest will help with the arrest of other wanted terrorists."

Ould Haiba, a former soldier, was already known to police for a series of crimes, before he was allegedly recruited by Islamic militants.

Police said he was probably one of the three militants who escaped from a house just north of the capital after a gun battle with police, in which one militant and a police officer were killed and nine people wounded.

Police said they thought a seriously wounded man they found in an abandoned getaway car after the gun battle was Abou Mouadh, an explosives expert trained by the GSPC.

Later Wednesday however, Commissioner Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Taleb Abdei said the police had opened an inquiry into a botched raid on two houses in the capital in which officers killed one civilian and wounded another.

The state attorney's department warned the public not to give assistance or shelter to Ould Sina, saying he had "rejoined a gang of armed terrorists still on the run and being hunted down."

A 13,000-euro (20,500-dollar) reward has been offered to anyone providing information leading to the fugitives' arrest.

The public prosecutor's office in Nouakchott said: "The hunt is still on for the members of the gang and there is a good chance that they are still in the city of Nouakchott."

Of the four French tourists killed last December, three were members of the same family. A fifth man, Francois Tollet, who was wounded in the attack but survived, was another member of the family.

The eighth edition of Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade began with a call for maintaining political stability and peace for unswerving growth and development.

Opening the high-profile three-day event, the Emir HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said democracy was the means for achieving decent living standards ‘befitting human ambition and values’.

"Stability is the frame that protects the economic development process and strengthens the links with its time. Therefore, it is essential to provide a stable climate to support the development process, encourage investment, attract capital, provide new job opportunities and increase the flow of trade," the Emir said in his opening address.

HH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned and the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani, and a number of world leaders and officials attended the opening ceremony.

As the Doha Forum enters its eighth edition, the Emir said, the past seven years have confirmed the fact that "we are firmly on the right stand in our time which is challenging us in many ways; and one of the major challenges is nothing but democracy."

"Democracy is the means for achieving decent living standards befitting human ambitions. It is our means to progress and development and without it we could not find ourselves a place in our time. We need to prepare the suitable environment for innovation and modernization, which could only be realized by means of popular participation and respect of human rights," the Emir said.

When talking about democracy, we must not miss the fact that the planet is raging with unprecedented conflicts and contradictions. "This is a cause of major concern. Our countries are geographically located very close to these conflict zones. When we speak about democracy, development and free trade, we must not forget this reality", he said.

The President of European Parliament HANS-Gert Hermann Pottering and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also addressed the Forum. The opening day witnessed a panel discussion on ‘Visions on the present and the future’.

In Iraq, the Iraqi defense ministry said an Iraqi army force arrested al-Qaeda leader in the southern Iraq province of Basra. "A force from the 50th Brigade's 14th Division of the Iraqi army captured the man known as Abu Huzhayfa, the leader of the al-Qaeda Organization in the area of Abu al-Khasib, Basra province, (590 km south of Baghdad) upon intelligence tips that led to his hideout," Maj. General Muhammad al-Aaskari, the ministry's defense advisor, said.

"Abu Huzhyfa, who is under investigative custody, confessed to having led the al-Qaeda network's operations of killings and forced relocations of Basra residents and Iraqi security forces," said Aaskari.

"The army forces in Basra had information on his location and moves and they are about to capture his aides and followers," he noted.

Aaskari said the defense ministry would announce further information about Abu Huzhayfa, not giving more details about his original name.

An official security source in Anbar province, western Iraq, had said that senior al-Qaeda leader was arrested along with two of his companions near Iraqi-Jordanian borders.

In Lebanon, Lebanese Police Chief Gen. Ashraf Rifi has ruled out the possibility of a new civil war due to the political crisis, local Naharnet news website reported.

"We don't have signs that any side wants" civil war, Rifi was quoted as saying after meeting Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, adding the government's top priority is to prevent a civil war.

But he did not rule out new assassinations in Lebanon, saying that "There is always a possibility."

Lebanon is currently facing the most serious political deadlock since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. For the first time in its history, the presidential seat has been vacant since Nov. 24, 2007 when former President Emile Lahoud stepped down.

A long-awaited parliamentary session to elect a new president has been postponed for 17 times to April 22.

The presidency deadlock deepened the Lebanese political crisis as fears are mounting that failure in reaching a deal on the presidential candidate could result in more violence in the country.

In Afghanistan, Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner made a joint visit to the NATO air base in southern Kandahar, where both countries have troops deployed to help Kabul fight Taliban rebels.

Kouchner said that Taliban violence in Afghanistan could only be stopped with the aid of Pakistan, where rebels operate in lawless border areas.

"Further military means are needed in order for the process of securing Afghanistan to proceed... but there must also be a regional view, particularly with regards to neighboring Pakistan," Kouchner told AFP.

He said he had discussed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai efforts to step up security along the common border, which is 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) long, runs through difficult terrain and is difficult to patrol.

Ties between Kabul and Islamabad have been fragile, with each accusing the other of not doing enough to tackle Islamic extremists behind a wave of deadly suicide blasts and other bombings on both sides of the porous border.

"This is an Afghan-Pakistan problem, but this incredible looseness which allows all sorts of trafficking cannot be allowed to continue," Kouchner said.

"This border problem needs to be resolved, and if we can take part in that process, that would be great," he added, saying he had plans to meet with Pakistan's new leadership, without providing details.

Kouchner and Bernier had traveled to Kandahar -- birthplace of the Taliban movement -- earlier in separate planes, to wrap up their two-day joint visit to Afghanistan.

They visited the French air force contingent serving with both the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and a separate US-led coalition.

Canada has around 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan, 82 of whom have been killed since 2002.

France earlier this month pledged to nearly double the number of its forces in Afghanistan to 3,000. It currently has about 1,600 soldiers based in the Kabul region, and 160 troops at Kandahar air base.

A total of about 70,000 foreign soldiers, most of them under NATO command, are still locked down in Afghanistan battling the Taliban insurgency, launched shortly after they were ousted from power in late 2001.

Kouchner said that international forces would not stay in Afghanistan for ever and Afghans had to take over more responsibilities.

"We're not going to leave tomorrow, and we're not going to stay for ever," he told French and other international troops at Camp Warehouse, a major base for NATO-led forces outside Kabul.

"Between the two, we for our part will take account of the responsibilities of the Afghans while they, on their side, assume their responsibilities.

Meanwhile, at least 20 people were killed and dozens injured in overnight clashes between tribesmen and followers of a radical cleric in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, media reports said. The fighting between the militiamen of Lashkar Islami, or the Army of Islam, and the tribesmen began late Wednesday and continued Thursday morning in the Khyber Agency.

The groups targeted one another's positions in the mountains with rockets and mortar shells, Geo news channel reported.

Lashkar Islami is lead by firebrand cleric Mangal Bagh, who follows the puritanical Deobandi form of Sunni Islam. The leadership of Afghanistan and Pakistan's Taliban movement belongs to the same sect.

He has tried to enforce strict Taliban-style Islam in the region, provoking the tribesmen.

The highway between Pakistan and Afghanistan was closed because of the fighting, leaving the supply route for NATO forces cut off.

Pakistan's tribal areas are safe havens for numerous armed Islamic groups as well as al-Qaeda militants and Taliban fighters who have launched cross-border attacks on international forces in Afghanistan.

In France, pirates off the coast of Somalia have released 30 hostages who were seized aboard a French yacht a week ago, President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

The hostages including 22 French crew aboard Le Ponant were freed "without incident," said the president in a statement, without providing details.

A French military source said the hostages were freed following negotiations and that there was no army operation to win their release.

The 32-cabin vessel, which was hijacked on April 4, was anchored off Puntland, a breakaway northern region of Somalia.

"The president of the republic announces the release of the 30 hostages, including 22 French nationals, of the Le Ponant sailboat, off the Somali coast," said the Elysee statement.

Sarkozy expressed "his deep gratitude to the French army forces and all the state services who helped bring about a quick end, without incident, to this hostage taking."

Details of the release operation were expected to be made public following a meeting between Sarkozy and the hostages' families later in the day.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner welcomed the release and said preparations were under way to return the freed hostages to France as soon as possible.

He urged the international community to take action to fight piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast and said talks were under way at the United Nations on the issue.

Kouchner said contacts were under way with the pirates to secure the release of the hostages, but he did not provide details on the negotiations which were thought to involve a ransom payment.

"We are hoping for an outcome which does not involve the spilling of blood," Kouchner said.

A French naval warship maintained close surveillance with troops from the French gendarmerie's elite counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit stationed in nearby Djibouti.

At least 25,000 people protested in Pakistan's largest demonstration yet against an anti-Quran film made by a Dutch lawmaker, urging their government to expel the ambassadors of the Netherlands and Denmark.

The 15-minute film by Geert Wilders, which sets verses from the Muslim holy book against a background of violent images from terror attacks, was released in March. It has prompted weekly protests in Pakistan, usually drawing hundreds of people after prayers on Friday, the Muslim holy day.

Police officer Syed Suleiman estimated Sunday's crowd at 25,000, while organizers claimed more than 100,000 people turned out.

In London, British police and security agencies are currently monitoring 30 terrorism plots, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in extracts of a newspaper interview released.

"We now face a threat level that is severe. It's not getting any less, it's actually growing," she said in an interview to be published in Sunday's News of the World.

"We task the police and the security agencies with protecting us ... There are 2,000 individuals they are monitoring. There are 200 networks. There are 30 active plots," she said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labor government is seeking to extend pre-charge detention of terrorism suspects to 42 days from the current 28-day limit.

But Smith faces a tough task steering the controversial provisions through parliament.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have both said they will vote against extended detention. Labor backbenchers are also threatening to rebel and vote down the clause in the Counter-Terrorism Bill.

"We can't wait for an attack to succeed and then rush in new powers," Smith said. "We've got to stay ahead.

"Because we now understand the scale of what is being plotted, the police have to step in earlier, which means they need more time to put evidence together."

Britain has seen a marked increase in militant Islamist plots since it joined the United States in invading Iraq in 2003.

In 2005 four British suicide bombers killed 52 people in London. Other attempts have been thwarted by police or failed when devices did not detonate.

"Since the beginning of 2007, 57 people have been convicted on terrorist plots," said Smith.

"Nearly half of those pleaded guilty so this is not some figment of the imagination. It is a real risk and a real issue we need to respond to."

In Milan, Italian police arrested a former extreme-left wing terrorist in connection with a string of arson and other attacks on Islamic targets in northern Italy, news reports said. Roberto Sandalo was taken into custody following an arrest warrant issued against him by Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli, the ANSA news agency reported.

The arrest stems from an investigation on attacks against several cultural centres and places of worship used by Muslim in Italy's northern Lombardy region. No one was hurt in the attacks.

Sandalo was first arrested in 1980 as a member of the Prima Linea (Front Line) Marxist group which carried out several politically motivated murders during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He was sentenced to 11 years in jail on terrorism-related charges, but only served two years after turning police informer.

In September 2007 Sandalo participated in an anti-Islamic fundamentalism demonstration in Milan.

In Iran, Twelve people were killed and 202 injured in an explosion at a local mosque in Iran's southern city of Shiraz, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

The cause of the explosion, which took place at the city's Shohada mosque yesterday at 9:15 p.m. local time, is still unknown, state media reported. The blast occurred during a weekly address by a local cleric.

Iranian officials have called the explosion an accident and played down the possibility of an attack on the mosque.

"This may be the result of negligence," Ali Mohayedi, police chief commander for the Fars province, told the news agency. "There had been an exhibition on the Iran-Iraq war in this location. Munitions left may have led to the explosion."

"An investigation is under way," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying today by Fars. "Prejudging the cause of the explosion must be avoided."

Meanwhile, a member of the security detail of Germany's top soldier was involved in the secret training of police in Libya, said sources in the German armed forces.

The sergeant and 30 members of an elite German police squad conducted seminars in Libya between 2005 and 2007 while moonlighting for a private security firm in their free time.

The sources said the soldier, serving with a unit of mountain troops, was part of a group responsible for the security of armed forces Inspector-General Wolfgang Schneiderhan.

Germany's defence ministry declined to comment, but said that a sergeant was under suspension pending an inquiry into his alleged role in the controversial training program.

The mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag newspaper said Germany agreed to the secret training as a favor after Libya helped secure the release of a German family held hostage in the Philippines in 2000.

It said the matter was discussed in 2004 after then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the North African nation. A spokesperson for Schroeder called the claim "far- fetched nonsense".

Diplomatic sources also dismissed the newspaper's allegation that the German embassy in Tripoli was informally briefed on the training seminars.

The issue had caused a stir in Germany amid fears that secrets about police training methods might have been divulged to the Libyans. It was expected to be raised in parliament.

Eight policemen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia had been disciplined for their involvement, including one facing a criminal investigation relating to the misuse of official documents.

Germany's foreign intelligence service BND denied any involvement in the training program, which reportedly included instruction on how to storm buildings, abseil from helicopters and board ships.

The Germans were hired by a security firm called BDB Protection founded by a former police commando. The now insolvent company reportedly received 1.6 million euros ($2.4m) from the Libyans, paying each of the men about 15 000 euros for their services.

They carried out the training without the knowledge of their superiors while on holiday or after taking unpaid leave, according to press reports.

Once a backer of terrorists, Libya had taken a more pro-Western course in recent years, although it still came under fire from rights groups over its human rights record.

A Libyan mediator helped obtain the release of the German Wallert family who were among a group of 22 foreigners kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf rebel group at a diving school on the Philippine island of Jolo.

Renate Wallert was freed after 86 days in captivity, her husband Werner after 127 days on August 27. Their son, Marc, was released nearly two weeks later as the final hostage in the group.

In Colombia, Two people carrying 138 grenades in a passenger bus have been arrested in Cimitarra town in Colombia, Spain's EFE news agency reported.

A police official said the bus, carrying 25 people, was stopped for a routine check.