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Fort Hood suspect-imam link investigated

FORT HOOD, Texas, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Investigators were looking into a possible tie between the accused Fort Hood, Texas, gunman and an imam authorities suspect backs al-Qaida, officials said.

Federal investigators said Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan attended the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., in 2001 when its spiritual leader, Anwar al-Aulaqi, reportedly crossed paths with al-Qaida figures, including two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Since Aulaqi left the northern Virginia mosque in 2002 for Yemen, his lectures promoting strategies of an al-Qaida military leader were found in computer files of suspects in terrorism cases in the United States, Canada and Britain, officials said. It is not clear whether Hasan knew the imam well then or only later through his Internet-based lectures.

A federal law enforcement official told the Post investigators' operating theory was that Hasan acted alone and without influence when he opened fire, killing 13 people and injuring 30 others Thursday. New leads were being pursued based on information collected from Hasan's computer and e-mail accounts, including visits to Web sites championing radical Islamic ideas, a senior official said.

Shaker Elsayed, senior imam at Dar al-Hijrah, said Hasan worshipped at the religious facility since 2008, but could not confirm whether Hasan ever met Aulaqi.

"There's a massive effort here to look at the Web sites he visited," the law enforcement official told the Post. "That's part of what's ongoing: what you learn from it, then you've got to figure out what it means."

"The important thing is," the official said, "the jury's still out on motivation."

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Hurricane Ida heads to U.S. Gulf coast

MIAMI, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A weakened Hurricane Ida slogged across the Gulf of Mexico Monday, as hurricane warnings were posted from Mississippi to Florida, weather officials said.

Ida, now a category one hurricane, was expected to move across the Gulf of Mexico Monday, making landfall along the northern Gulf Coast overnight, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Sunday, saying Hurricane Ida "threatens the safety and security of those citizens" along the state's southeastern coastline, CNN reported Monday. Residents in Florida were asked to have disaster plans in place by Florida's Division of Emergency Management.

A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch were in effect from Grand Isle, La., to Pascagoula, Miss., including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain, the hurricane center said.

Early Monday, Hurricane Ida's center was about 235 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 330 miles southwest of Pensacola, Fla., the hurricane center said. Ida was trekking northwest at 16 mph, and was expected to pick up forward speed during the next 24 hours before veering northeast Tuesday.

Rains were forecast to increase along the central and eastern Gulf Coast, with 3- to 6 inches of rain expected, the center said.

The center warned a dangerous storm surge could raise water levels by as much as 4- to 6 feet above ground level along the coast near Ida's expected landfall.

Ida soaked Nicaragua after making landfall last week, then weakened to a tropical storm before resuming strength, CNN said.

Government officials in El Salvador said at least 91 people died in flooding and mudslides, but a low-pressure system from the Pacific Ocean triggered the disaster, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.

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Militants kill three more in Peshawar area

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Militants struck Pakistan's Peshawar area again Monday when a suicide bomb attack at a police checkpoint killed at least three people, police said.

In a similar attack Sunday in the city area, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber killed 12 people in Mattani village. One of the victims was Abdul Malik, the village mayor.

Monday's attack at a police checkpoint on Peshawar's Ring Road also wounded another five people, Dawn newspaper reported. Police said the attacker was riding in a rickshaw.

Geo News reported the injured included a child.

Malik had publicly opposed the Taliban, The New York Times reported. Police said Malik's death was a blow to government's efforts to fight the militants.

The Pakistani military has been involved in a major operation against terror groups in South Waziristan since Oct. 17.

Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, has been the scene of much militant violence. In the worst such attack on the city in two years, a suicide car bomb attack Oct. 28 in a crowded market area of the city killed more than 100 people, most of them women and children.

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Czechs probe troops wearing Nazi symbols

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Czech Republic authorities say they're investigating evidence that elite troops deployed in Afghanistan had Nazi swastikas on their uniforms.

Defense Minister Martin Bartak has ordered Army Chief of Staff Vlastimil Picek to immediately investigate the case and promised severe punishments if a media report about the display of Nazi symbols is found to be true, the Czech news agency CTK reported Monday.

"This cannot be tolerated," he said, adding that the reputation of Czech military units in foreign missions could be adversely affected by such incidents.

Elite troopers Jan Cermak and Hynek Matonoha, both from the Czech Republic's 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade, have been accused of wearing Nazi symbols on their uniforms. The daily newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes Monday published a photo of Cermak wearing the symbol of the Nazi SS Dirlewanger brigade on his helmet, CTK said.

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Berlin Wall's fall 20 years old

BERLIN, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Germans celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall Monday, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Berlin.

Celebrations began at the Gethsemane Church, east of Berlin and a center of protests in the months before the opening of the Berlin Wall, the BBC reported.

World leaders also were expected to walk across the East German border crossing that opened in 1989. Guests, including ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, were to join Merkel walking across the Bornholmer Bridge.

The main events marking the anniversary in the city will be at the Brandenburg Gate, considered a symbol of German reunification, the BBC said.

Hundreds of giant foam dominoes painted by artists around the world with messages of freedom were placed along the former path of the Berlin Wall, the BBC reported. They will be toppled to demonstrate symbolically how Communist governments across Eastern Europe fell.

Communist East Germany built the 96-mile barricade in 1961 to prevent people from fleeing. More than 100 people are believed to have been killed trying to escape, the BBC said.