Case of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles,Despite his dark history, Posada remains free to roam Miami's sunny streets and happily lives at home with his family. His rap sheet is long and deadly. A convicted terrorist in two countries - he escaped Venezuela and was pardoned in Panama - Posada is considered the mastermind behind the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Fight 455, which killed the 73 passengers on board, including the Cuban national fencing team. He is believed responsible for a string of hotel bombings in Cuba, resulting in the death of Italian tourist Fabio diCelmo. But these are only two examples of his treachery.
Posada later boasted about the diCelmo killing in a New York Times interview, which should give everybody a clear idea of what kind of person this man is. Inexplicably, the Justice Department has refused to classify the former CIA operative as a terrorist. The reason may have to be found in Posada's long and extensive ties with the CIA and several other nation's intelligence agencies. Even with the war on terror grinding on, the Bush administration has refused to bring Posada to justice for his terrorist acts. But the symbolic tribunal will make the case against him and against the outrage of allowing this dangerous character to remain free on the streets of the U.S. The distinguished panel is composed of Jane Franklin, a historian and expert on Cuba; Wayne Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana under President Jimmy Carter, and Brian Becker, the director of the Act Now to Stop War & End Racism Coalition The moderator will be Danny Meyers, President of the New York University chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, organizers of the event.
"We want to highlight the hypocrisy of the Bush administration," said Heidi Boghasian, of the guild. The event begins at 6 p.m. in room 216 of New York University Law School's Furman Hall, 245 Sullivan St. In another Cuba-related issue, an absurd law approved by the Florida legislature curtailing even more the slim chances Cuban-Americans have of traveling to their homeland, was suspended by U.S. District Judge Alan Gold on Wednesday. Travel agencies that sell trips to Cuba had promised to fight the law in court when the bill was first introduced in April.
The law, the brainchild of Rep. David Rivera (R. Fla.), a New York-born Cuban-American, would have required travel agents who book trips to Cuba to post a $250,000 state bond on top of an existing $25,000 federal bond. Gold said that the law, which took effect July 1, could violate the Constitution since the federal government, not the states, is only responsible for dictating American foreign policy. A new trial will have to be held to determine the law's constitutionality before it can be applied, but no date has been set.

Tens of thousands of Turks in cities across Turkey attended the funerals on Sunday of 15 soldiers slain in a clash with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party .One soldier was buried near the southeastern city of Diyarbakır, his coffin carried by fellow soldiers and family members.
Turkey has vowed to wage an all-out fight against the terrorists following the killing Friday of the 15 soldiers in a raid on a military unit near the Iraqi border. Twenty soldiers were wounded and two more were missing, the government said.
The military planned a news conference Sunday about military countermeasures taken since the attack.Dozens of flag-waving protesters gathered outside the Parliament building early Sunday, chanting: "Down with the PKK." The protesters also denounced members of a pro-Kurdish party which is facing closure on charges of ties to the terrorist organization."PKK get out of Parliament," they shouted.Turkish troops have killed at least 23 terrorists since the attack in clashes in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq in the deadliest battle in eight months. The terrorists belonged to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast since 1984. Turkey's civilian leaders vowed to respond to the terrorists harshly."Whatever the cost, the fight will go on full force," President Abdullah Gül said in televised address Saturday.The military did not say whether Turkish soldiers crossed into Iraq on Friday, but said terrorists attacked the soldiers near a military outpost in Aktütün, Turkey, close to the Iraqi border, and Turkish warplanes, helicopters and artillery units pounded the PKK positions in northern Iraq.Next week, Turkey's Parliament is scheduled to vote on whether to extend for another year a mandate authorizing the military to carry out cross-border operations against the PKK bases in northern Iraq. The current authority expires Oct. 17.

Mauritanian tourist season will be seriously affected this year by the Tourine (north) terrorist attack that killed 11 soldiers and their civilian guide, with the French operator ’Point d’Afrique’ who has been in the area for 12 years, announcing it would cancel its flights to the Atar city (550km north of Nouakchott) due to "insecurity in the country".In a letter to its customers, Maurice Freund, the head of the agency said his decision was prompted « by the barbaric act blamed on Al Qaeda and the new uncertainty prevailing after the 6 August 2006 putsch".
Reacting to this unexpected decision, the chairman of the Mauritanian tourism federation in the northern part of the country, Salem Ould Souleymane, said this attitude by Maurice Freund was a "betrayal to a people that have always welcomed it and provided all facilities particularly tax reduction".For him, the authorities are concerned by the security of the tourists who have nothing to fear.
Ould Selmane believes that the withdrawal by Point d’Afrique is caused by the participation in this season of the TRASAVIA airline under Air France which is offering much cheaper fares than those proposed by Point d’Afrique.The Mauritanian Service and Tourism Company (SOMASERT) said it was planning to organize flights throughout the season with TRANSAVIA.In 2007 the Mauritania leg of the Paris-Dakar Rally was cancelled following the murder of four French tourists in a terrorist attack in December of the same year.

Troops managed to take control of a line of bunkers at Pandiveddikulam in Kilinochchi. 24 terrorists perished and 47 were seriously wounded in the attacks. The Media Centre for National Security said troops continued targeting attacks yesterday on terrorists retreating from Muhamalai in Jaffna, Chamalankulam, Palamuddai North and Vedemakulam in Vavuniya, Akkarayankulam and Vannerikulam in Kilinochchi and Aandankulam in Mullaitivu. 58 anti personnel mines, 150 rounds of T-56 ammunition, four modified bombs and explosives were recovered in follow up search operations. The debilitated terrorists are engaged in an untiring effort to protect their forward defence lines at Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu placing various obstacles. But the Media Centre said troops of the 55th , 56th , 57th , 58th , 59th and 62nd Divisions are continuing their operations with support from the Navy and the Air Force.

mysterious death of an Egyptian billionaire whose body was found below his Mayfair, London, flat just weeks after accusations that he had spied for Mossad is being investigated by a new team of murder detectives following complaints from family members that key evidence had disappeared.Scotland Yard’s elite Specialist Crime Directorate is now overseeing Ashraf Marwan’s alleged murder, after it emerged that shoes worn when he fell five floors to his death could not be found by a previous inquiry team.The development will only deepen speculation over his death. Israeli commentators say Egyptian intelligence officers murdered him for being the Jewish state’s most important agent in the run-up to the Yom Kippur war in 1973. Egyptian commentators say Mossad murdered him as he prepared to expose Israel’s secrets in an explosive book.A police source said that the case has been transferred from detectives in Westminster, central London, following fevered international speculation over Marwan’s death and the admission that key evidence could not be found.“It was decided to move this because of the intricate and public nature of the case. We need to be seen to get this right from here on in,” the source said.A family member claimed that a new set of detectives has taken over the case because of criticism over lost evidence.“Scotland Yard should have changed their tactics much earlier,” he said.Marwan, 62, a businessman and son-in-law of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and a former political and security adviser to former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, died on June 27 last year after falling from his luxury flat in Carlton House Terrace.Historians have described him as the “most infamous spy in the Middle East,” who had worked closely with security agencies including the UK’s MI6, the CIA and the KGB.His family say that the only known copy of his nearly finished memoirs — which he had been researching for several years — disappeared from his house on the day he died.One witness has told police that in the moments after Marwan’s death two men of “Mediterranean appearance,” both wearing suits, were seen peering over a balcony at his body as it lay sprawled in a private garden.The witness, who asked not to be identified, said last week: “I saw two men standing on a balcony. They were doing nothing, just looking down. Their calmness struck me as unusual. A lady was screaming in the garden. People were rushing around trying to help or call. But these two men were just standing there.”