London bombers wanted tourist attractions
LONDON, April 6 (UPI) -- British authorities allege the July 2005 subway bombers wanted to attack popular tourist attractions in London including Big Ben and the London Eye.
Word of the threat came as three men from Leeds were charged with helping the four suicide bombers plan the subway attack that killed 52 people, The Telegraph reported Friday.
Thursday's charges against the trio followed nearly two years of investigation by Scotland Yard's Counter-terrorism Command.
Detectives pieced together hundreds of hours of footage from closed circuit television cameras showing the suicide bombers and their alleged accomplices conducting reconnaissance of London landmarks and the Underground system.
The bombers are thought to have changed their plans at the last minute.
"I firmly believe that there are other people who have knowledge of what lay behind the attacks in July 2005," Peter Clarke, head of the police
counter-terrorism command, said. "We need to know more about their movements, meetings and travel."
War crimes investigated in Somalia
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 6 (UPI) -- A European mission in Kenya is investigating whether Somali and Ethiopian troops committed war crimes in last week's bloody fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia.
The government-backed troops were fighting insurgents that oppose the transitional Somali government, and the European Commission has received complaints concerning the more than 300 civilians killed, Eric van der Linden, the chief of the European Commission's delegation to Kenya, told The New York Times.
"These are hefty accusations," van der Linden told the Times. "We are examining them very prudently."
The newspaper said many residents of Somalia's capital city have complained to human rights groups, saying the government forces used excessive force and shelled neighborhoods indiscriminately.
Western sources told the Times a war crimes case would likely never reach the International Criminal Court for diplomatic reasons.
Saudi police kill wanted militant
MEDINA, Saudi Arabia, April 6 (UPI) -- A suspect identified as one of the most wanted Islamist militants in Saudi Arabia was killed in a police shootout.
Waleed bin Mutliq al-Radadi had been sought in the Feb. 26 slaying of four French citizens, the official Saudi Press Agency told the BBC.
Security forces went to arrest the suspect at a residential building in Medina when they were reportedly fired upon, an Interior Ministry source said. A policeman was killed and two were wounded in the exchange of gunfire.
The four French citizens were visiting northwest Saudi Arabia when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle.
Police have arrested several people and said they were seeking two other suspects.
Afghan bomb kills 6, Taliban take foothold
KABUL, Afghanistan, April 6 (UPI) -- A suicide bomber killed six people in an attack near the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul Friday.
Police told the BBC the bomber blew himself up in his car when approached by officers. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack but the Taliban said earlier it had hundreds of fighters prepared to carry out suicide attacks.
Also, Taliban fighters seized local government offices in the southeastern province of Zabul but were reported chased out of the town of Sangin in Helmand province by NATO and Afghan troops. NATO airlifted hundred of troops into the area earlier this week as part of Operation Achilles.
