U.S. Embassy attack foiled in Jordan
AMMAN, Jordan, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Eleven Jordanians were held in an alleged al-Qaida-linked plot to attack civilian and government targets in Amman, including the U.S. Embassy, officials said.
"These 11 terrorists were Jordanian nationals with clear ties to al-Qaida targeting the security and stability of Jordan," Samih Maaytah, minister of state for media affairs and communications, told a news conference in Amman, The Jordan Times reported Monday.
Maaytah said the suspects are believed to have consulted with al-Qaida weapons experts in Iraq on the Internet and to have traveled to Syria where they obtained explosives and rockets to be used in attacks, the newspaper said.
The alleged two-pronged plot -- which officials said could have killed hundreds of citizens and foreigners -- called first for coordinated suicide bombings of shopping malls and cafes in the Jordanian capital as a diversionary tactic to draw police and security attention, the Jordan news agency Petra reported.
The simultaneous attacks would be followed by the plotters' main target -- government buildings and embassies in southern Amman's affluent Abdoun district, the report said.
Those buildings would be barraged with mortar shells and militia-style guerrilla tactics, it said, citing a government statement.
A Western official briefed on details of the plot told The Washington Post the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy was among the targets.
The State Department had no immediate comment on the plot and declined to confirm or deny accounts the embassy had been on the list.
Clashes follow Lebanon intel chief's death
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Lebanon's army raided suspected hideouts of militants after clashes that killed at least three people and wounded 23 in Tripoli and Beirut, officials said.
The violence erupted Sunday, two days after the country's former intelligence chief and seven others were killed in a Beirut car bombing. The bombing caused injuries to more than 80 people, authorities said.
In the subsequent clashes, at least three people died and 17 were wounded in Tripoli and six people were hurt in Beirut, officials said.
Gunbattles broke out Beirut neighborhoods during the raids in the city, The Daily Star said.
Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, the former intelligence chief, was killed Friday, the Lebanese newspaper said. His funeral was Sunday.
Spanish voters give Rajoy mixed result
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Spain's ruling party kept control in Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Galicia home region, but separatists won the neighboring Basque region, results indicated.
In Galicia, an autonomous community in northwest Spain, the conservative Popular Party won 41 of the 75 seats in the regional Parliament, near-complete results of Sunday elections indicated.
This marked a gain of three seats over the Spanish Socialist Workers Party and two smaller rivals.
In the Basque region, the Basque Nationalist Party -- known regionally as the Basque Party of Supporters of God and Old Laws -- won the largest bloc of seats, 27 out of 75, while the more radical separatist Euskal Herria Bildu political coalition came in second with 21, the results indicated.
This gives separatists 48 of 75 votes in the regional Parliament.
The Popular Party and the incumbent Spanish Socialist Workers Party fell to 26 combined seats in the 75-seat Basque Parliament from 38, the available returns showed.
The elections were widely seen as a referendum on Rajoy's management of Spain's debt crisis and his program of economic-austerity measures to resolve it in the face of popular protests.
Fatah has disappointing election results
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Rebel candidates won in local elections in three West Bank cities, a disappointing showing for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, observers said.
The elections Saturday -- boycotted by the rival Hamas organization, which called them illegal -- were the first in the West Bank since 2006.
Candidates who had been kicked out of the Fatah movement for running against the party's official Fatah candidates were elected to municipal offices in Jenin, Ramallah and Nablus, Palestinian media reports said.
Official Fatah candidates won in Hebron, Jericho, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and al-Bireh, the Israeli daily Haaretz said.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization but not a member of Fatah, said voters chose some independent candidates to punish Fatah. He said the results showed a divide between rural and urban areas.
Mustafa al-Barghouti, a Palestinian member of Parliament, told Ma'an the elections were long overdue and said the results showed the Palestinian people do not trust their current leadership.
The Palestinian Central Elections Committee said about 54 percent of eligible voters participated in the elections .
Final results are expected to be released Tuesday.
