Daily Headlines 03/5/2011

US judge delays Michael Jackson doctor trial

LOS ANGELES, (AFP) - A judge Monday postponed the trial of Michael Jackson's personal doctor on manslaughter charges until September, days before it was due to start in Los Angeles.
The decision came after lawyers for Conrad Murray requested a new delay in his trial over the pop icon's 2009 death to give them time to prepare for new prosecution witnesses and evidence.
The trial had been due to start next Monday, but LA Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said he would dismiss all the prospective jurors who have already filled out questionnaires in preparation for the long-awaited trial.
It was in the "interests of justice ... that the parties be fully prepared," he said, adding that he regretted having to start the jury selection process from scratch.
"I don't like the idea of re-starting jury selection .. The court is very mindful of judicial efficiency and the expense that has occurred. But first and foremost is justice," he said.
Prosecutors allege that Murray "abandoned his patient" after administering the powerful sedative propofol to help Jackson sleep, and then tried to cover it up after the singer's death on June 25, 2009.
Murray acknowledged that he had used propofol, but denied involuntary manslaughter, saying that on the day of the 50-year-old singer's death he administered only a small amount of the drug.
After preliminary hearings in January the trial was initially set for March 28, but was then pushed back with opening statements due May 9. There have already been some jury selection sessions, and more had been planned this week.
Murray's lawyers asked on Friday for a two-week delay, but the judge decided on a longer postponement to ensure everything would be ready. Murray was in court for the decision Monday.
The doctor, 58, has asked for a speedy trial, but accepted the ruling, saying: "I believe it's in the interests of all parties."
A new batch of potential jurors will be summoned to court on or around September 8, the judge said. "I would like to have this case on a relatively short leash," he said, while calling another pre-trial hearing for June 3.
Murray's main lawyer Edward Chernoff had sought to prevent the prosecution from calling the two new expert witnesses, claiming they would promote "new theories" not discussed during the six days of hearings in January.
Prosecutor David Walgren said last Friday that the pair, including a top anesthesiologist expected to testify that Jackson could not have ingested propofol, would merely clarify already established arguments.
Earlier in April the judge ruled that the prosecution will be allowed to show footage of his final days and autopsy photos it says show he was not suicidal.
Prosecutors say the footage of Jackson rehearsing before his "This is it" tour show him creatively engaged and the autopsy photos show he was in good health.
The defense, which has said Jackson took an extra dose of the powerful sedative propofol without Murray's knowledge, argued against showing the images, saying they would inflame emotions.

Major attacks linked to Al-Qaeda

SLAMABAD, (AFP) - As US President Barack Obama announces Osama bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan, here is a list of major attacks carried out or inspired by bin Laden's al-Qaeda group since 1993.
February 26, 1993: An explosion in the basement of the World Trade Center towers in New York kills six people and injures around 1,000. The blast causes major damage to the buildings' foundations; some 55,000 people are working in the towers at the time.
November 13, 1995: A car bomb explodes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in front of a building of the Saudi National Guard where US military advisers work. Five US soldiers and two Indian nationals are killed.
June 25, 1996: A truck bomb at a US military base in Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia, kills 19 US nationals and wounds 386.
August 7, 1998: Near-simultaneous bomb attacks against US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam kill 224 people, most of them Africans, and injure over 5,000.
October 12, 2000: A suicide attack on the destroyer USS Cole, one of the most modern ships in the United States' arsenal, kills 17 US Marines and injures 38 in the Yemeni port of Aden.
September 11, 2001: Two hijacked US airliners crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, which burn and collapse shortly afterwards. A third hijacked plane crashes into the Pentagon outside Washington, while a fourth comes down in rural Pennsylvania. The attacks kill around 3,000 people in all.
April 11, 2002: A suicide truck bombing at a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba kills 21 people, including 14 Germans.
October 12, 2002: Bombings on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali kill 202 people, many of them Australians. The attacks are carried out by Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian extremist group inspired by Al-Qaeda.
May 12, 2003: A triple suicide attack on a residential complex in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia kills 35 people, amongst them nine Americans.
May 16, 2003: Five almost simultaneous bombs explode in restaurants and hotels frequented by foreigners in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, killing more than 30 people.
November 15 and 20, 2003: A Turkish cell of Al-Qaeda sets off truck bombs at two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul, killing 63 people, including the British consul, and leaving hundreds injured.
March 2, 2004: Around 180 people are killed in a series of attacks on pilgrims in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Karbala.
March 11, 2004: Four commuter trains in and around Madrid are hit by explosions that kill 191 people and injure around 2,000 during morning rush hour in an attack authorities said was inspired by Al-Qaeda.
July 7, 2005: Four British Muslim suicide bombers detonate devices on London's public transport system, killing 56 people as they destroy underground trains and a double-decker bus.
July 23, 2005: A series of suicide bombings hit the Egyptian tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing 68 people.
November 9, 2005: Three suicide attacks on hotels in the Jordanian capital of Amman claim 60 lives.
April 24, 2006: Twenty people are killed and 90 injured as suicide bombers hit the Egyptian coastal resort of Dahab.
August 14, 2007: More than 400 people are killed when four truck bombs explode in northern Iraq in an attack US authorities link to Al-Qaeda.
December 11, 2007: Two suicide blasts in Algiers kill at least 41 people, including 18 UN staffers, three of them foreign nationals. The attacks are claimed by the Maghreb branch of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
September 17, 2008: An attack on the US embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, kills 16 people.
September 20, 2008: A huge explosion brings down a large section of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing at least 60 people.
December 25, 2008: A Nigerian man is arrested after a failed attempt to detonate a bomb on board a flight between Amsterdam and Detroit.
November 24, 2010: A suicide car bomber kills 23 Shiites at a religious procession in Yemen, an attack linked to Al-Qaeda.

Timeline of the 9/11, 2001 attacks

(CHRONO) - NEW YORK, (AFP) - The announcement of the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden revives bitter memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Here is the timeline of the events on that fateful day which reshaped the course of US history:
8:45 am (1245 GMT) - An American Airlines Boeing 767 with 92 people on board including five hijackers smashes into one of the towers of the 110-floor World Trade Center in New York, leaving a giant hole in the building's facade. Thick smoke trails into the sky from the tower's upper floors.
9:05 am (1305 GMT) - A United Airlines Boeing 767 with 65 people on board including five hijackers hits the second of the two World Trade Center towers, sparking a massive explosion.
9:30 am (1330 GMT) - Then US president George W. Bush, in Sarasota, Florida, calls the blasts "an apparent terrorist attack". He orders "a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed these acts" and says he will immediately return to Washington.
9:39 am (1339 GMT) - An American Airlines Boeing 757 with 64 people on board including five terrorist smashes into the Pentagon in suburban Washington, setting off two explosions.
9:40 am (1330 GMT) - The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) orders the cancellation of all commercial flights in the United States.
9:45 am (1345 GMT) - In Washington, the White House is evacuated.
9:53 am (1353 GMT) - The State Department is evacuated.
10:05 am (1405 GMT) - One of the World Trade Center's two towers collapses in a huge cloud of smoke and dust.
10:10 am (1410 GMT) - A United Airlines Boeing 757 travelling from Newark to San Francisco with 44 people on board including four terrorists crashes into a field in western Pennsylvania, after passanegers and crew apparently fought with the hijackers.
10:28 am (1428 GMT) - The second tower of the World Trade Center collapses. A huge cloud of dust blankets lower Manhattan.
11:02 am (1502 GMT) - New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani asks all New Yorkers to evacuate the southern tip of Manhattan.
13:04 pm (1704 GMT) - Bush, who has travelled to Louisiana from Florida, says US armed forces are on maximum alert and vows to "hunt down and punish" those responsible.
13:50 pm (1750 GMT) - The mayor of Washington, Anthony Williams, declares an indefinite state of emergency in the federal capital.
14:00 pm (1800 GMT) - The Securities and Exchange Commission announces that financial markets will remain closed for the rest of the day.
15:35 pm (1935 GMT) - A top US official, who asks not to be named, says that the alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is suspected of being behind the attacks.
16:54 pm (2054 GMT) - Mayor Guiliani says the death toll of the attacks on the World Trade Center will not be known for at least a day, but that it will be "more than any of us can bear."
17:25 pm (2125 GMT) - A third building attached to the World Trade Center, 47 floors high, collapses in the wake of the disaster.
20:30 pm (0030 GMT Wednesday) - President Bush, in a televised address, says thousands have died in the terrorist attacks and that Washington will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them.

Pakistan under fire on bin Laden, but Obama mum

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - Pakistan faced intense scrutiny in Washington Monday after US forces killed Osama bin Laden near Islamabad, but President Barack Obama stopped short of public criticism that could further escalate tensions.
US lawmakers demanded to know how the world's most wanted man could have resided -- apparently for years -- in a comfortable home in Abbottabad, a hillside retreat close to Islamabad popular with retired Pakistani generals.
Pakistan will need to "prove to us that they didn't know that bin Laden was there," said Senator Joe Lieberman, the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, predicting "real pressure" on Islamabad.
Senator Susan Collins, the top Republican on the same committee, called for "more strings attached" to the billions of dollars which the United States offers Pakistan in military assistance.
"I think that this tells us once again that, unfortunately, Pakistan at times is playing a double game and that is very troubling to me," she said.
But the Obama administration carefully avoided criticizing Pakistan. Announcing bin Laden's death late Sunday, Obama said that "our counter-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden."
"Going forward, it is essential that Pakistan continue to join us in the fight against al Qaeda and its affiliates," Obama said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that bin Laden had also "declared war on Pakistan" through violence that has killed civilians.
"In Pakistan, we are committed to supporting the people and government as they defend their own democracy from violent extremism," she told reporters.
John Brennan, Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, said the United States acknowledged differences with Pakistan but said the country has captured or killed more extremists than any others and was "critically important in breaking the back of Al-Qaeda."
Brennan said that the United States would look into Islamabad's role but that Pakistani officials "seemed as surprised as we were initially that bin Laden was holding out in that area."
Analysts said the Obama administration saw no advantage in publicly chastising Pakistan as the United States needed to maintain access to the country as its decade-long war in Afghanistan moves to a denouement.
Besides, experts said, the Bin Laden case speaks for itself.
"What this does is strengthen the Obama administration's hand in Pakistan," said Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.
"It finally puts to rest all the statements that various people have been making in Pakistan that Osama bin Laden was not in Pakistan and that this was all a Western conspiracy theory," she said.
"If you see Pakistan digging in its heels and talking about violations of Pakistani sovereignty, I think then you can expect a severe deterioration in relations," she said.
Relations between Washington and Islamabad have long been rocky. Pakistan has protested US drone attacks against suspected extremists on its territory -- mostly in lawless tribal areas and not near Islamabad -- and tensions soared earlier this year when a CIA agent with diplomatic immunity gunned down two Pakistanis.
Pakistan helped create Afghanistan's Taliban regime. Then military ruler Pervez Musharraf switched sides overnight following the September 11, 2001 attacks, but the United States remains unpopular with most of the public.
The Obama administration has put a focus on bolstering the weak civilian government and easing anti-Americanism through development aid. In 2009, Congress authorized a five-year, $7.5 billion package to build schools, infrastructure and democratic institutions.
Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council, said that both the United States and Pakistan had reason to keep cooperation, despite the difficult questions raised over bin Laden.
"Pakistan needs support to continue the fight internally and the United States needs Pakistan's assistance in transforming from a purely military access to reconciliation or some other orderly exit from Afghanistan," he said.
"The common interests don't change and Pakistan's strategic location won't change," he said.

Osama bin Laden in his own words

ISLAMABAD, (AFP) - Selected quotes attributed to Osama bin Laden, whose death was announced by US President Barack Obama on Sunday.
"America has been hit by Allah at its most vulnerable point, destroying, thank God, its most prestigious buildings."
-- October 7, 2001, after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"Acquiring weapons for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty... If I seek to acquire these weapons, I am carrying out a duty."
-- December 1998, when asked by an interviewer for Time magazine whether he had acquired chemical or nuclear weapons.
"The war is between us and the Jews. Any country that steps into the same trench as the Jews has only itself to blame."
-- May 2002, from a video released to several news organisations.
"Free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike Sweden, for example.
-- October 2004, in a videotape broadcast on Arabic TV channel Al-Jazeera, referring to then US president George W. Bush.
"Those who want to solve our problems at the UN are hypocrites... Those who claim to be Arab leaders and whose countries are UN members are infidels."
-- November 2001, from a videotape obtained by Al-Jazeera.
"We stress the importance of martyrdom operations against the enemy, these attacks that have scared Americans and Israelis like never before."
-- February 2003, from an audiotape obtained by Al-Jazeera.
"We reserve the right to retaliate... against all countries that take part in this unjust war, namely Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan and Italy."
-- October 2003, from another audiotape obtained by Al-Jazeera, referring to the war in Iraq.
"I present a reconciliation initiative... whose essence is our commitment to stop operations against all (European) countries if they promise not to be aggressive towards Muslims or interfere in their affairs."
-- April 2004, from an audio message obtained by the Al-Arabiya TV channel.
"Their rejection of Hamas after it had won the election... confirms that there is a Crusader-Zionist war against Muslims."
-- April 2006, from an audiotape obtained by Al-Jazeera, referring to the reactions of Israel and Western states after Palestinian elections.
"These operations are being prepared and you will see them in your heartland when they are ready."
-- January 2006, from an audio message threatening new attacks on the United States, obtained by Al-Jazeera.
"Jihad will continue even if I am not around."
-- Late September 2001, in an interview with a Pakistani newspaper.