Tuesday 31 January 2012

16 troops and 50 insurgents killed in Kurram since last week
At least 10 gunned down in separate attacks in Karachi

Fighting between soldiers and Taliban militants over a strategic mountaintop in north-western Pakistan has killed more than 60 people, according to a government official.

The battle started a week ago, when government troops seized the top of Jogi mountain in the Kurram tribal area from militants, sparking clashes that killed six soldiers and 20 insurgents, Wajid Khan, a local government administrator, said on Tuesday.

The militants retaliated by attacking the soldiers who were trying to hold the location, sparking another round of fighting that killed 10 troops and more than 30 insurgents, said Khan. The area is home to militants loyal to Pakistani Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud.

The military launched an offensive in Kurram in July 2011 and declared victory about a month later, but violence has continued.

A similar process has taken place throughout Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal region along the Afghan border. The military has launched a series of operations against the Pakistani Taliban in the past few years, and has often declared victory only to see fighting flare up again.

The Pakistani Taliban have killed thousands of people throughout the country in suicide bombings and other attacks. The group aims to topple the Pakistani government, partly because of its alliance with the US.

The militants are allied with the Afghan Taliban, but the latter group has focused its attacks on Nato and Afghan forces inside Afghanistan.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, at least 10 people have been gunned down in the past 24 hours in the southern city of Karachi, said Sharfuddin Memon, a security adviser for the government of Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital.

Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city and has a long history of political, ethnic and sectarian violence.

The most recent deaths included two granddaughters of Akbar Bugti, a nationalist leader in south-western Baluchistan province, who was killed during a military operation in 2006 ordered by former president Pervez Musharraf. His death has helped fuel a violent insurgency in Baluchistan against the government.

By Patrick Donahue

Jan 30, 2012

European Union leaders gather for their first summit of 2012 as a deteriorating economy and the struggle to complete a Greek debt writeoff risk sidetracking efforts to stamp out the financial crisis.

EU chiefs arrived in Brussels today to put the finishing touches on a German-led deficit-control treaty and to endorse the statutes of a 500 billion-euro ($656 billion) rescue fund to be set up this year. European finance officials yesterday discussed a deal that Greece and its private creditors expect to complete in the coming days after bondholders signaled they would accept government demands for a bigger cut in their debt holdings.

Efforts to hold the 17-nation euro area together with bolstered fiscal rules and a stronger firewall are colliding with stalled progress in Greece, where the crisis began in 2009. To prevent a financial collapse, Greek bondholders have been pushed to cede more ground after agreeing in October to take a 50 percent cut in the face value of more than 200 billion euros of debt.

“The fact we’re still at the beginning of 2012 talking about Greece is a sign this problem hasn’t been dealt with,” U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

No Longer Enough

The summit follows warnings at the gathering that ended yesterday in Davos that it’s time to end the region’s debt crisis and that measures aimed at simply containing the turmoil are no longer enough. The euro economy is set to contract by 0.5 percent this year, according to the median of 19 economist forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.

The European Central Bank’s unlimited three-year loans to banks have helped buoy sentiment among investors in the euro area. Italian 10-year bonds gained for a third week, while Spanish two-year yields dropped to the lowest since November 2010. The euro gained against the U.S. dollar every day last week, climbing 2.2 percent on the week. The European currency was down 0.7 percent at $1.3123 at 12:26 p.m. in Brussels.

“We can say — with caution — that we see elements of financial stability in France, in Europe and in the world,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a nationally televised interview in Paris yesterday. “Europe is no longer at the edge of the cliff.”

Debt Sales

That optimism will be tested this week as European nations including Italy, Belgium and Spain sell about 22 billion euros of debt securities. Italian borrowing costs fell as the nation sold 7.5 billion euros of debt today, near the maximum for the auction. Belgium sells as much as 3 billion euros of bills tomorrow, with Spain, Portugal, Germany and France issuing 13 different maturities during the week.

A draft of the summit statement showed that EU leaders will pledge to retarget unspent subsidies and consider boosting the lending of the bloc’s project-financing arm. No figures are given in the draft, which was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Attention before the Brussels summit turned to negotiations between the interim government of Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and creditors. The two sides were “close” to an agreement outlined by Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the Institute of International Finance, negotiating on behalf of private creditors, said in a Jan. 28 statement after three days of talks in Athens.

Creditors are prepared to accept an average coupon of as low as 3.6 percent on new 30-year bonds, said a person familiar with the talks, who declined to be identified because a final deal hasn’t been struck yet. As recently as Jan. 23, creditors wanted an average coupon of about 4.25 percent, two people familiar with the talks said then. That offer equated to a loss of about 69 percent on the net-present value of Greek debt.

‘Last Minute’

The initial debt-swap agreement with creditors three months ago sought to scale back Greece’s debt to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020. The anticipated agreement on private sector involvement, or PSI, will open the way to a 130 billion- euro second bailout from Greece’s European partners and the International Monetary Fund for the country, which faces a 14.5 billion-euro bond payment on March 20.

“A deal on PSI will be reached at the last minute,” Niall Ferguson, a professor of economic history at Harvard University, said in a Davos interview. “The trouble for Europe is the crisis won’t be over as the Greek position remains unsustainable. Any PSI deal will bring only temporary respite.”

Greece now requires 145 billion euros for the second bailout, 15 billion euros more than was agreed in October, Der Spiegel reported Jan. 28, citing an unidentified official from the troika in Greece.

As a possible condition of the bailout, European policy makers are discussing plans to directly intervene in Greek budget decisions as the country struggles to cut its deficit, according to two euro-region government officials. Leaders are mulling responses to states that are “off-track,” German Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Kotthaus said in Berlin today.

U.K. Refusal

Patience with Greece “is really coming close to the limit,” Philipp Roesler, chief of Germany’s Free Democratic Party, the junior coalition partner, told Bild newspaper. “Time is running out. There can only be additional help if the Greek government carries out the necessary reforms.”

Another objective at the summit will be to complete a fiscal compact, which was negotiated in December in talks that exposed a rift in the EU after the U.K. refused to participate. The rules aim to provide stricter sanctions and closer cooperation on national budgets.

The latest draft, dated Jan. 27 and obtained by Bloomberg, requires governments to set up a “correction mechanism” to be triggered “automatically” when deficits stray from targets. The treaty caps structural deficits at 0.5 of GDP, allowing deviations in case of “exceptional circumstances” such as a “severe economic downturn,” according to the draft.

A call by Poland, the biggest country with aspirations to join the single currency, to take part in euro-area decision- making looms as the main obstacle to the deal, two officials said. Poland’s plea to take part in euro summits is opposed by a group led by France, which aims to turn the 17-nation monetary union into an exclusive policymaking club.

Future Action

“We will not express an acceptance of the present form in which the compact has been drafted, a compact that excludes or endangers the community-based method,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters in Brussels today.

Over the weekend, senior officials worked to clear away lesser snags to the treaty, including the role of national parliaments and the ratification threshold. A draft last week foresaw the treaty taking effect after ratification by 12 of the 17 euro countries.

EU leaders plan to endorse the statutes of the permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, to be signed in early February and sent to national parliaments to ratify. The ESM is scheduled to go into operation this year.

Leaders are unlikely to address mounting pressure to raise the ceiling on rescue lending from 500 billion euros once the permanent fund goes on line, the officials said.

Sunday 29 January 2012

Al-Qaida chief’s location in Abbottabad was established with help from Shakil Afridi, says US defence secretary Leon Panetta.

A senior US official has admitted that a Pakistani doctor played a key role in tracking Osama bin Laden to his hideout in northern Pakistan and called for his release from jail.

The comments by US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, were the first public confirmation of a part of the Bin Laden operation revealed by the Guardian in July last year, which detailed how the CIA used Dr Shakil Afridi to establish whether the al-Qaida leader was living in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Afridi has been in Pakistani custody since the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) discovered the secret task performed by the doctor, who set up a fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad in a bid to gain DNA samples from those staying at the suspect compound.

The CIA was never certain that Bin Laden was present in the house. Afridi worked for the intelligence agency in the weeks leading up to the US special forces raid on 2 May, setting up a scheme that supposedly involved going house-to-house to vaccinate residents in Abbottabad.

Panetta, speaking to the US television network CBS in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday night, also voiced his belief that elements within Pakistan must have known that Bin Laden, or at least someone significant, was present inside the compound.

“I am very concerned about what the Pakistanis did with this individual [Afridi]. This was an individual who, in fact, helped provide intelligence that was very helpful with regard to this operation,” he said.

The Guardian investigation discovered that Afridi was arrested in late May and was subsequently tortured. It is believed that he remains in ISI custody but has not been charged formally with any crime. The fate of the doctor has become another source of tension between Islamabad and Washington, with American officials pressing Pakistan to free him so he and his family can be resettled in the US.

Pakistan’s official commission investigating Bin Laden’s presence in the country last year recommended that Afridi be tried for treason. The military, which will decide what ultimately happens to Afridi, was furious that the CIA was recruiting Pakistani citizens for clandestine operations inside the country, and officials point out privately that it is a crime to work for a foreign intelligence agency.

The doctor has turned into a bargaining chip within the failing US-Pakistan alliance. It is believed that Pakistan might be prepared to let him go after public attention to the case wanes and it extracts something in return from the US.

“He was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan. He was not in any way doing anything that would have undermined Pakistan,” said Panetta.

“Pakistan and the US have a common cause here against terrorism,” he continued. “And for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think it is a real mistake on their part.”

The US defence secretary, who was in charge of the CIA at the time of the Bin Laden raid, also said that while there was no actual evidence of Pakistani complicity in the al-Qaida leader’s presence in Pakistan, suspicions must have been raised about his hideout.

“I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what – what was happening at this compound. Don’t forget, this compound had 18ft walls … It was the largest compound in the area,” said Panetta.

“So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question: ‘What the hell’s going on there?’”

Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012

British police searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers Saturday after arresting a police officer and three other men as part of an investigation into police bribery by journalists.

London’s Metropolitan Police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London.

The fourth, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.

The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World.

Police said Saturday’s arrests were made as a result of information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch’s News Corp.

Officers were searching the homes of the four men and the east London headquarters of the media mogul’s British newspapers for evidence.

The company had no immediate comment.

A dozen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged.

They include former Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Mr. Murdoch’s News International, ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson — who is also Prime Minister David Cameron’s former communications chief — and journalists from the News of the World and its sister paper, The Sun.

Two of the London police force’s top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cellphone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.

Mr. Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.

An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, but News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.

Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.

Barefoot Bandit gets 6-1/2 years, says remorse is ‘heartfelt’

By Mike Carter and Christine Clarridge

January 27, 2012

Colton Harris-Moore was sentenced Friday to 6-1/2 years in prison and 3 years of probation.

The exploits of Colton Harris-Moore, the gangly Barefoot Bandit who as a wily thief and self-taught pilot eluded police with aplomb from Washington to the Bahamas for two years, ended Friday in a federal courtroom in Seattle, where a judge sentenced him to 6 ½ years in prison and three years of probation.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Harris-Moore, 20, apologized for his actions, saying that “every word and every sentence” of his expressed remorse was “heartfelt.”

His attorneys have asked that he be allowed to serve his sentence — which will run concurrently with a 7 ½-year state sentence — in Washington’s Monroe Correctional Complex.

Speaking clearly from a written text for about six minutes, a pale and khaki-clad Harris-Moore said he was humbled as he came to understand how deeply and how widely his actions had hurt others.

“What I did could be called daring, but it is no stretch of the imagination to say that I’m lucky to be alive,” he said when asked by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones what advice he would give to young people who admire him.

Harris-Moore also said it was not as if he “just jumped in a plane barefoot and started flying around.”

He said his experiences were terrifying and dangerous.

Further, being in court and being scrutinized by the media, he said, “has been the worst experience of my life.”

Harris-Moore has pleaded guilty to 40 felonies, has cooperated with authorities since his arrest in July 2010, and promised the proceeds of a movie deal to pay for nearly $1.4 million in restitution.

Still, in the past days, his sincerity has been tarnished by the release of a series of recorded emails and phone calls from prison in which he has disparaged law enforcement and bragged about his feats.

While acknowledging he has expressed “a loathing opinion of very few county officials,” Harris-Moore told the court the correspondence had been misconstrued “to show what has sensationally been called an unedited version of Colton Harris-Moore.”

“My ill-thought emails inadvertently caused embarrassment to myself and outrage in the community,” he said. “I regret having said what I did and I apologize to those who were both offended by my words and angered.”

He promised residents of Orcas and Camano islands, where many of his crimes occurred, that he would make things right.

The sentence imposed was the one asked for by federal prosecutors and recommended by U.S. probation officers, even though it was at the high end of the range agreed to in the plea bargain. Assistant U.S. Attorney Darwin Roberts argued that “even if the court finds Mr. Harris-Moore is entirely sincere and apologetic, this is still the right sentence.”

Defense attorney John Henry Browne had asked for a five-year, 10-month sentence.

Browne says that, with credit for time served, Harris-Moore could be out of prison in under five years.

Prosecutors had asked that Harris-Moore not be given credit for the 18 months he’s been in custody, saying that time should go toward a three-year juvenile sentence he was serving when he escaped in 2008. Jones, however, ruled that Harris-Moore was in federal custody, and directed that he should get credit toward his federal sentence.

The sentencing marked the end of nearly a year of legal wrangling over the proper punishment for Harris-Moore, who has now pleaded guilty to 33 state and seven federal felony charges stemming from his career as a fugitive. In that time, prosecutors allege he committed at least 67 crimes, including eight burglaries and the thefts of nine cars and three airplanes.

He mocked police and played Robin Hood, sketching in chalk his trademark “barefoot” footprints at some scenes, and leaving money to care for animals at a veterinary hospital.

The sentencing also marked the end of what Harris-Moore’s attorneys say is a tragic tale of a child who was abused and neglected by an alcoholic mother, and who has pleaded guilty and taken responsibility for his actions.

Jones found that Harris-Moore was the “product of alcoholism and neglect.” But these mitigating factors were “somewhat diminished” by Harris-Moore’s long history of criminal conduct. He noted that Harris-Moore has stood before a judge for sentencing nine times in the past.

Jones warned that it would be different this time. Harris-Moore will be under federal supervision for three years after his release from prison, and Jones said he’ll be sent back to prison if he returns to a life of crime.

Fleeing — and flying

Harris-Moore’s crime spree began in Island County shortly after he escaped in April 2008 from a Renton halfway house, where he was serving time for burglarizing homes on Camano Island.

For more than two years, he evaded capture while committing a string of break-ins and thefts, according to law-enforcement officials. He hid out in the forests of Orcas Island in the San Juans and squatted in the attic of a plane hangar at the island’s airport.

The Internet made Harris-Moore a cult hero, and at one time he had nearly 50,000 followers on his Facebook page, where he would occasionally leave a post written on a stolen laptop.

He eluded a massive manhunt, and police warned that he was dangerous. Among his crimes were the thefts and interstate transportation of at least two stolen handguns, and police say he took an assault rifle from a police car. Harris-Moore taught himself how to fly using flight manuals and a computer flight simulator, according to court documents.

While he was able to get the three planes off the ground and pilot them, sometimes in bad weather, he had a harder time with the landings: Harris-Moore crashed all three of them, acknowledging in defense documents that he very nearly died in a September 2009 crash of a stolen Cessna that went down near Granite Falls in Snohomish County.

At his sentencing, Harris-Moore told Jones his dream of flying was the only thing that saved him from the nightmare of his childhood. The defense suggested — and Jones agreed — that many of his early crimes were likely committed for survival.

But Jones said most of the federal charges were committed “for one specific reason and that was to fulfill your passion for flying at all costs and consequences — a passion that you were willing to risk your life and the lives and property of others,” the judge said. “I hope that you can dedicate that same degree of passion to pursuing your dreams in a legal and productive manner.”

His rap sheet

The federal charges stem from the following crimes:

• Bank burglary, from the Sept. 5, 2009, break-in at Islanders Bank in Eastsound, Orcas Island.

• Interstate transportation of a stolen aircraft, from the Sept. 29, 2009, theft of a Cessna from Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He crashed the plane near Granite Falls.

• Interstate and foreign transportation of a stolen firearm, stemming from the theft of a .32-caliber pistol in Canada. Harris-Moore took the handgun into Idaho, then on the plane he crashed near Granite Falls.

• Fugitive in possession of a firearm, after Harris-Moore carried a .22-caliber pistol between Oct. 1, 2009, and May 6, 2010.

• Piloting an aircraft without a valid airman’s certificate, from his theft of an airplane from Anacortes, which he flew to Eastsound, Orcas Island, on Feb. 10, 2010.

• Interstate transportation of a stolen vessel, involving his theft of a 34-foot boat from Ilwaco, Pacific County. He piloted the boat to Oregon on May 31, 2010.

• Interstate transportation of a stolen aircraft, stemming from the theft of an airplane July 4, 2010, from Bloomington, Ind. He flew that plane to the Bahamas, where he was ultimately captured.

Fri, Jan 27, 2012

The US economy grew at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years in the fourth quarter, but a strong rebuilding of stocks by businesses and weak spending on capital goods hinted at slower growth in early 2012.

US gross domestic product expanded at a 2.8% annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, a sharp acceleration from the 1.8% clip of the prior three months and the quickest pace since the second quarter of 2010.

It was, however, a touch below economists expectations for a 3.0% rate.

“The economy ended 2011 on a fairly positive note, but the composition of growth in the last quarter is not favorable for growth early this year,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Sweet made the comments before the report was released. For the whole of 2011, the economy grew 1.7% after expanding 3% the prior year.

Growth in the fourth quarter got a temporary boost from the rebuilding of business inventories, which was the fastest since the third quarter of 2010, after they declined in the third-quarter for the first time since late 2009.

Inventories increased USD 56.0 billion, adding 1.94 percentage points to GDP growth. Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a tepid 0.8% rate, a sharp step-down from the prior period’s 3.2% pace.

The robust stock accumulation suggest the recovery will lose a step in early 2012.

Also pointing to slower growth, business spending on capital goods was the slowest since 2009, a sign the debt crisis in Europe was starting to take its toll.

Expectations of soft growth led the Federal Reserve on Wednesday to say it expected to keep interest rates at rock bottom levels at least through late 2014.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank, which forecast growth this year in a 2.2% to 2.7% range, was mulling further asset purchases to speed up the recovery.

The Fed warned the economy still faced big risks, a suggestion the euro zone debt crisis could still hit hard.

“The Fed is attempting to shield the economy from a potentially more severe recession in Europe,” said Sweet. “Even though the economy improved last quarter there are a number of headwinds and a lot of uncertainty surrounding Europe, emerging markets and also US fiscal policy.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the World Economic Forum in Davos the US economy still faced big challenges.

By KEVIN DOLAK and SHARDE MILLER

Jan. 26, 2011

A friend of an aid worker rescued by Navy SEALs in Somalia said that it was important to keep the woman’s three-month captivity quiet so her captors would not ask for more money and put her at further risk.

Jessica Buchanan, 32, and 60-year-old Dutch colleague Poul Hagen Thisted were rescued early Wednesday by SEAL Team 6 — the same group involved in the mission to kill Osama bin Laden last spring — in a daring mission at a remote encampment deep in northern Somalia.

Christina Scolforo, a close friend of Buchanan, says that her abduction was intentionally kept from the media.

“We didn’t want them to get media hype that would cause them to think that she was worth more, and they would want more of a ransom, and then it would prolong the time that she was captive, so a lot of it was hush,” Scolforo said.

Bachanan’s immediate family is now meeting with her at a U.S. military base in Sicily, Italy, members of the woman’s extended family told ABC News.

“She says she feels safe for the first time in 93 days. The men that risked their lives … I just can’t say enough so I really, really appreciate it,” Dave Buchanan, Jessica’s uncle said.

Buchanan and Thisted, who worked with the Danish Refugee Council’s Danish Demining Group, were abducted Oct. 25, 2011 by a group of Somali bandits and held for ransom.

“We are very grateful that Jessica has been rescued,” Buchanan’s family said in a statement Wednesday. “This has been just an unbelievable answer to prayers and we are so grateful for the work of the president, the Navy SEALs and the State Department and we knew that God would set our sister free.”

At approximately 1:40 a.m. Wednesday local time — 5:40 p.m. Tuesday eastern time — SEAL Team 6 was aboard a specially equipped C-130 moving rapidly toward the target — a remote encampment deep in northern Somalia.

One by one the SEALs hurled themselves out of the plane at high altitude, parachuting silently to within a few miles of the hideout, then hiking to the enemy grounds, which were pitch black, with armed pirates everywhere.

Within minutes of arriving at the encampment gunfire erupted from the kidnappers, but the SEALs quickly killed all nine of the heavily armed kidnappers. By approximately 2:30 a.m. local time the hostages — now in U.S. hands — were moved on board black hawk helicopters and headed for Djibouti.

In a statement released by the White House, President Obama said he had authorized a rescue mission Monday.

“Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our Special Operations Forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home. As commander-in-chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts,” Obama said in the statement.

The president said he spoke with Buchanan’s father Monday night, “and told him that all Americans have Jessica in our thoughts and prayers, and give thanks that she will soon be reunited with her family.

In Somalia Buchanan served as a regional education adviser at the Danish Demining Group, a division of the Danish Refugee Council, according to her LinkedIn profile.

“She loves kids and she loves to help people and that’s the reason she was over there. Just to help,” Dave Buchanan said.

Over the three months of her captivity, concern grew about Buchanan’s deteriorating health, which was described as possibly “life-threatening” and a “window of opportunity for mission success” presented itself, according to Pentagon spokesperson George Little.

ABDI GULED and KATHARINE HOURELD

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012

U.S. Special Forces troops flew into Somalia on a nighttime helicopter raid early Wednesday, freed an American and a Danish hostage and killed nine of the kidnappers in a mission that President Barack Obama said he personally authorized.

The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, were freed and “are on their way to be reunited with their families.”

The raiders came in very quickly, catching the guards as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening, a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told The Associated Press by phone. Hussein said he was not present at the site but had spoken with other pirates who were, and that they told him nine pirates had been killed in the raid and three were missing.

A second pirate who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi said two helicopters attacked at about 2 a.m. about 20 kilometres north of the Somali town of Adado where the hostages were being held.

Ms. Buchanan, 32, and Mr. Thisted, 60, were working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.

The U.S. military’s Africa Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, confirmed that nine kidnappers were killed.

“Last night’s mission, boldly conducted by some of our nation’s most courageous, competent, and committed special operations forces, exemplifies United States Africa Command’s mission to protect Americans and American interests in Africa,” said Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command.

Mr. Obama seemed to refer to the mission before his State of the Union address in Washington Tuesday night. By then it was already Wednesday morning in Somalia. As he entered the House chamber in the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Obama pointed at Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the crowd and said, “Good job tonight.”

“As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts,” Mr. Obama said in a statement released by the White House Wednesday. He said he had authorized the rescue mission on Monday.

“Jessica Buchanan was selflessly serving her fellow human beings when she was taken hostage by criminals and pirates who showed no regard for her health and well-being,” Mr. Obama said. “The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice.”

A Western official said the helicopters and the hostages flew to a U.S. military base called Camp Lemonnier in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti after the raid. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been released publicly.

The timing of the raid may have been made more urgent by a medical condition. The Danish Refugee Council had been trying to work with Somali elders to win the hostages’ freedom but had found little success.

“One of the hostages has a disease that was very serious and that had to be solved,” Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal told Denmark’s TV2 channel. Mr. Soevndal did not provide any more details.

Mr. Soevndal congratulated the Americans for the raid and said he had been informed of the action.

Mr. Panetta visited Camp Lemonnier just over a month ago. A key U.S. ally in this region, Djibouti has the only U.S. base in sub-Saharan Africa. It hosts the military’s Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

The Danish Refugee Council said both freed hostages are unharmed “and at a safe location.” The group said in a separate statement that the two “are on their way to be reunited with their families.”

Ann Mary Olsen, head of the Danish Refugee Council’s international department, was the one who informed the family of Hagen Thisted of the successful military operation.

“They (the family) were very happy and incredibly relieved that it is over,” she said.

The two aid workers appear to have been kidnapped by criminals — sometimes referred to as pirates — and not by Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab. As large ships at sea have increased their defenses against pirate attacks, gangs have looked for other money making opportunities like land-based kidnappings.

The Danish Refugee Council had earlier enlisted traditional Somali elders and members of civil society to seek the release of the two hostages.

“We are really happy with the successful release of the innocents kidnapped by evildoers,” said Mohamud Sahal, an elder in Galkayo town, by phone. “They were guests who were treated brutally. That was against Islam and our culture … These men (pirates) have spoiled our good customs and culture, so Somalis should fight back.”

Ms. Buchanan and Mr.Thisted were seized in October from the portion of Galkayo town under the control of a government-allied clan militia. The aid agency has said that Somalis held demonstrations demanding the pair’s quick release.

Their Somali colleague was detained by police on suspicion of being involved in their kidnapping.

The two hostages were working in northern Somalia for the Danish Demining Group, whose experts have been clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Several hostages are still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighboring Kenya, and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.

By Nick Squires

24 Jan 2012

Divers have recovered the body of an elderly woman on the third deck of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, bringing the number of bodies recovered to 16.

At least 16 more people are missing on the vessel, which lies half-submerged on its side just outside the tiny Italian island port of Giglio. Nine victims have been identified and the identities of seven others are so far unknown.

The discovery came as an operation to pump more than half a million gallons of oil out of the crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship got under way, more than 10 days after the liner ran aground.

A barge loaded with drills, pipes and other heavy equipment moved out of the tiny harbour on Giglio island and moored alongside the 1,000ft longship, which lies in about 60ft of water.

On board were salvage specialists and engineers from Smit, a Dutch firm best known for raising the wreck of the Kursk Russian nuclear submarine.

The Russian nuclear submarine sank, with the loss of its 118 crew, in August 2000 after an explosion in its bow section.

It went down around 90 miles off Murmansk in northern Russia and sank to a depth of 108 metres.

Smit was involved in an international team that raised the 9,000 tonne sub from the seabed.

The five-month operation set a new world record for the heaviest object recovered from such depths.

The bow section, which suffered massive damage from the explosion, was sliced off with a giant wire saw and left on the seabed.

The company’s divers will conduct an inspection of the stricken ship’s hull – a task which is expected to take one or two days.

The Rotterdam-based firm says it hopes to start pumping out the 2,400 tonnes of fuel by the weekend.

It will take four to six weeks to safely empty the ship’s massive fuel tanks, a company representative said as he watched the barge head towards the Costa Concordia – a distance of just a few hundred yards.

The gleaming white wreck of the 114,500-tonne, 17-deck luxury liner is clearly visible from Giglio’s port and lies just yards from its rocky shore.

Smit has a team of 40 men on the island and faces a race against time to avert an environmental disaster before bad weather starts to close in.

They will drill holes in the hull of the liner and use huge pumps and pipes to suck the fuel out. It will then be siphoned into a large tanker.

The Concordia rammed into rocks off Giglio on the night of Jan 13 when its captain apparently misjudged a ‘salute’ to the island.

Capt Francesco Schettino is under house arrest at his house in Meta di Sorrento near Naples and faces charges of abandoning ship, causing a shipwreck and multiple counts of manslaughter.

The death toll from the disaster reached 15, after two more bodies were recovered by divers on Monday.

Around 20 people are still missing, including Americans, French and Italians.

Navy and coast guard divers and rescue specialists from the Italian fire service face a range of dangers when they work on the ship, both underwater and in the non-submerged sections.

The risks involved were underlined when a fireman working on the hull broke his leg and had to be evacuated to Grosseto hospital in Tuscany on Monday.

By BOB CHRISTIE
January 23, 2012
The race to replace Rep. Gabrielle Giffords begins in earnest Monday as the Arizona congresswoman’s planned resignation sets up a free-for-all in a competitive district.
The three-term Democrat announced Sunday that she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from a gunshot wound to the head just over a year ago in an assassination attempt that shook the country.
Giffords could have stayed in office for another year even without seeking re-election, but her decision to resign scrambles the political landscape. Arizona must hold a special primary and general election to find someone to finish out her term, as well as hold the regular primary and general election later this year.
Giffords would have been heavily favored to win re-election, since she gained immense public support as she recovered from the shooting. She was elected to her third term just two months before she was shot, winning by only about 1 percent over a tea party Republican.
Several Republicans and Democrats have been mentioned as possible candidates for her seat, with some in the GOP already forming official exploratory committees. Republicans who have expressed interest include state Sen. Frank Antenori and sports broadcaster Dave Sitton, among others.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, left, accompanied by her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, reacts after leading the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of a memorial vigil, in Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 2, 2012.
Democratic state lawmakers have been mentioned as possible candidates, as has the name of Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, although he has publically quashed such speculation.
“That’s the great ‘mentioner’ out there, and there are going to be a lot of people mentioned,” said Arizona Democratic Party chairman Andrei Cherny. “I think the best rule in situations like this is, ‘The folks who are talking don’t know, and the folks who know aren’t talking.’”
Giffords’ office said she will complete the meet-and-greet political event in Tucson on Monday that erupted in the shooting last year. Among those attending the private event will be some of the wounded, those who helped them and those who subdued the gunman. She will also visit a food bank set up after she was shot, and event billed as her final act as a congresswoman in her district.
“I don’t remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice,” she said on a video announcing her decision.
Interspersed with photos, the video showed a close-up of Giffords gazing directly at the camera and speaking in a voice that is both firm and halting.
“I have more work to do on my recovery,” the congresswoman said at the end of the two-minute-long “A Message from Gabby,” appearing to strain with all of her will to communicate. “So to do what’s best for Arizona, I will step down this week.”
Giffords was shot in the head in January 2011 as she was meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz. Six people died and Giffords and 12 others were injured. Her progress had seemed remarkable, to the point that she was able to walk into the House chamber last August to cast a vote.
Gov. Jan Brewer will call the special primary election for the 8th Congressional District likely in April, followed by a general election in June. Before the cycle begins for the regular election, the district will be remapped and renumbered as the 2nd Congressional District.
The regular primary for the new district, which will cover most of the current district’s territory, was scheduled for August.

The Republican governor acknowledged that the twin election cycles were going to create a mess, especially for potential candidates.
“I think that it’s putting a lot of pressure on a lot of people awfully quick, given the fact that they’re going to be filling that continuing seat that expires this year, and then we have elections coming (along) new congressional lines,” Brewer said. “So there’s going to be a lot of confusion in that congressional district.”
Those who decide to throw their hat into the ring will face yet another quirk in the race: the deadline to turn in nominating signatures for the general election comes before the special general election.
“I’m sure both parties and candidates of all stripes will in the days to come be thinking wide and hard about this district, and I’m sure there’s going to be a very vigorous contest,” Arizona Democratic Party chairman Andrei Cherny said Sunday. “But today’s about thinking about a member of Congress who’s going to be irreplaceable no matter who wins that seat.”
Giffords planned to attend President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. And her political career may not be over, said a state Democratic party official who was among a group that met with her Sunday.
Jim Woodbrey, a senior vice chairman of the state party, said at the meeting, Giffords strongly implied she would run again for office someday. He said the decision to resign came after much thought.
“It was Gabby’s individual decision, and she was not in any condition to make that decision five months ago,” he said. “So I think waiting so that she could make an informed decision on her own was the right thing to do.”