Federal Reserve Bomb Plotter Jailed For 30 Years

A 22-year-old man who admitted plotting to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, from Bangladesh, begged for leniency during his sentencing, having pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in February.

"I'm ashamed. I'm lost. I tried to do a terrible thing. I alone am responsible for what I've done. Please forgive me," he told Manhattan federal court, as he apologised to the judge, the United States, New York City and his parents.

The defendant said in a five-page typed letter to Judge Carol Bagley Amon that he no longer believed in radical Islam.

"My actions are inexcusable and cowardly," he wrote.

The Federal Reserve Bank Of New York

"After giving a deep thought I truly hate my actions and I know that I will never pursue such behaviour again that is not only un-Islamic, but also destroyed my family and my life."

He was charged in October 2012 with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda.

The court heard that Nafis became radicalised at his university in Bangladesh and came to the US with aspirations of jihad.

Authorities said Nafis adopted increasingly more radical views once in the US and began using Facebook and other social media to seek support for a terror attack.

One of his contacts turned out to be a government informant who notified authorities.

While under investigation, Nafis spoke of his admiration for Osama bin Laden and talked of writing an article about his plot for an al Qaeda affiliated magazine.

He also talked about wanting to kill President Barack Obama and bomb the New York Stock Exchange, officials said.

As the plot progressed, Nafis selected his target, drove a van loaded with dummy explosives to the door of the bank and tried to set off the bomb from a hotel room using a cell phone he thought had been rigged as a detonator, authorities said.

No one was ever actually in danger because the explosives were fakes provided by the government.

"Nafis's goals of martyrdom and carnage were thwarted by the vigilance of law enforcement," said US district attorney Loretta Lynch after the sentencing.

"He will now spend the next 30 years where his own actions have landed him -- in a federal prison cell," she said.

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Zimbabwe's Opposition Appeals Mugabe Poll Win

Zimbabwe's main opposition party has gone to the country's top court to challenge the result of last month's election which gave President Robert Mugabe another five years in power.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims the poll on July 31 was a "farce" riddled with fraud and voters were allegedly intimidated by Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.

Lawyers for the MDC have lodged papers with the constitutional court in the capital Harare arguing the result was rigged, should be annulled and a new election held.

Zimbabwe's electoral commission had declared veteran politician Mr Mugabe the winner with 61% of the votes in the presidential election, against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai with 34%.

"We want a fresh election within 60 days. The prayer that we also seek is to declare the election null and void," MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora told journalists outside the court.

Morgan Tsvangirai served as Mr Mugabe's PM in a fractious unity government

Zimbabwe's constitution says the court must rule on the case within 14 days.

Most analysts believe the MDC's legal challenge to Mr Mugabe's victory will not be successful given ZANU-PF's dominance over the judiciary and state institutions in the country.

Mr Mugabe, who has been president since 1987, will be sworn in only after the case is decided.

ZANU-PF has denied any vote-rigging in the election, which Mr Tsvangirai, who has served as Mugabe's prime minister in a fractious unity government, has called a "coup by ballot".

Election observers from the African Union and the Southern African Development Community broadly approved the presidential and parliamentary elections as orderly and free.

But the vote result has been questioned by the West.

The United States, which maintains sanctions against Mr Mugabe, has said it does not believe his re-election was credible.

The European Union, which has been looking at easing sanctions, has also expressed concerns over alleged serious flaws in the vote.

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Olympic Boycott Urged Over Russia Gay Rights

By Katie Stallard, Russia Correspondent

Calls are growing for a boycott of next year's Winter Olympics in Russia in protest at what campaigners have called its "barbaric" new homophobic laws.

Broadcaster Stephen Fry has appealed directly to David Cameron and members of the International Olympic Committee [IOC] to stop the games being held in Russia, comparing Vladimir Putin's treatment of gay people to Adolf Hitler's treatment of Jews.

He said allowing the games to go ahead in Putin's Russia would be comparable to the decision to hold the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.

Four-time Olympic champion diver Greg Louganis yesterday delivered a 320,000 signature petition to IOC headquarters in Switzerland, urging it to condemn Russia's "anti-gay laws".

Stephen Fry has compared Russia's actions to the Nazis

US President Barack Obama said earlier this week: "I think they [Putin and Russia] understand that for most of the countries that participate in the Olympics, we wouldn't tolerate gays and lesbians being treated differently." 

Asked by TV host Jay Leno whether this was "like Germany: let's round up the Jews, let's round up the gays," President Obama replied: "I have no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in a way that intimidate them or are harmful to them."

The White House later cancelled a planned meeting with President Putin in Moscow, primarily over Russia's decision to grant whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum, but also citing a lack of progress on human rights among a number of issues of concern.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a new bill into law in June banning "homosexual propaganda" - making it illegal to give anyone under 18 information about homosexuality.

Anyone deemed to be promoting gay rights, or "non-traditional relationships" to young people in Russia could now be arrested and fined, or in the case of foreigners, detained and deported.

Protesters gathered outside the Russian consulate in New York

Critics say the law is intentionally vaguely-worded and part of a broader crackdown on gay rights in Russia.

The country's sports minister has said the law will apply to athletes and spectators at the Sochi games, due to be held in the Russian Black Sea resort in February 2014.

In an open letter to the British Prime Minister and IOC, Stephen Fry said: "The IOC absolutely must take a firm stance on behalf of the shared humanity it is supposed to represent against the barbaric, fascist law that Putin has pushed through the Duma.

"An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential.

"Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillyhammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.

"He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it."

Leading Russian LGBT rights campaigner Nikolai Alexeyev, head of the organisation Gay Russia, told Sky News it had seen an increase in homophobic violence since the introduction of the law.

He said: "The situation is deteriorating in the last months due to the very big discussions around the law banning homosexual propaganda.

Scuffles broke out outside parliament when the new law was debated in June

"Of course this law gave a sort of carte blanche top to the anti-gay people - anti-gay activists - to further attack LGBT people.

"We saw in recent months a rise in homophobic crimes, we saw that several people were killed on the basis of hatred towards LGBT people.

"The situation is very tense now due to this law and the forthcoming Olympic Games, which is now very much linked to this gay topic due to the outrage from the international community."

The controversial law has also prompted a campaign to boycott Russian vodka in the United States, as well as criticism from pop stars including Madonna and Lady Gaga.

In a message on her Twitter account earlier this week, Lady Gaga called the Russian government "criminal".

She added: "Why didn't you arrest me when you had the chance, Russia? Because you didn't want answer to the world?""

"Oppression will be met with revolution. Russian LGBTs you are not alone. We will fight for your freedom."

An IOC spokeswoman confirmed it had received a petition from activists and said it had "engaged in an open and constructive discussion" with them.

Campaigners want protests and publicity during next year's winter games

Speaking in Sochi on Wednesday, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said the law would not "infringe on rights of people based on sexual orientation, either at the Olympics, or before or after" - as long as children were not involved.

He said gay athletes could "get on with their private life, including telling adults about its advantages and attractiveness, but not involve children".

LGBT campaigner Nikolai Alexeyev said a boycott would not be fair to the sportsmen and women who have trained towards the games.

The Sochi Olympics should instead to be used to draw attention to the current situation in Russia, said Mr Alexeyev.

"I think it's not very just to these athletes to deny them this opportunity to compete and I think that it would be much more practical to express outrage against these homophobic laws in Russia by showing some kind of support during the Olympic Games, during the press conference, during the TV reports from the games, during any Olympic competitions."

He added: "To wear the rainbow pins, wear the rainbow flags, to do something during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics … to try to do the gay pride in Sochi like we want to do on the day of the opening of the games.

"I think this will attract more publicity around the world because the eyes of the world will be on Sochi during the games in February next year."

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Malaria Jab a Step Closer After Vaccine Trial

Tests on a new malaria vaccine have raised hopes the battle is being won against the disease which kills hundreds of thousands of people every year.

The experimental drug, which is known as PfSPZ and is made from living Plasmodium falciparum parasites, has proved highly effective in early-stage clinical trials.

Although the "proof of concept" trial was small - involving 40 adults - it could pave the way for the first vaccine offering 100% protection.

Manufacturing the vaccine was itself an achievement for researchers.

2010: 90% of all malaria deaths occurred in the poorest parts of Africa

Scientists first exposed sterile mosquitoes to malaria-infected blood before irradiating them to weaken the malaria parasites. Then the mosquitoes had to be carefully dissected to extract the parasites to make the serum.

"This was something that everybody said was not possible; and here it is," said Navy Captain Judith Epstein, one of the researchers from research company Sanaria, in Rockville, Maryland.

"We're in the first stages now of really being able to have a completely effective vaccine," she said, adding she hoped to see licensing of the vaccine within three to five years.

Early results of the vaccine are promising though not yet a breakthrough

Malaria infected 219 million people in 2010 and killed an estimated 660,000, according to the World Health Organisation - the equivalent of one child in Africa dying every minute.

"It's an important proof of concept," said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of America's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, adding that the results were the most promising yet of any experimental vaccine, though he resisted calling the trial a breakthrough.

"There are several more steps before you can feel comfortable that you have something that might be ready for prime time," he said.

"So we're really not there yet, but it's encouraging to see these very favourable results."

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Obama Cancels Putin Talks Amid Snowden Row

Putin Snub Shows Obama's Fury

Updated: 9:36pm UK, Wednesday 07 August 2013

By Greg Milam, US Correspondent

They sandwiched it in between a late-night chat show appearance and a web live-chat about the housing market.

But make no mistake, what the White House delivered to Moscow from sunny California was nothing but cold, hard fury.

The Obama administration has been pondering the cancellation of its planned summit with Vladimir Putin for weeks.

One cannot overestimate the anger felt in Washington over the decision to grant temporary asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The US had lobbied hard against it and thought they were getting somewhere. When it turned out they weren't, they were livid.

The statement issued in cancelling the Putin summit, listing the damning catalogue of relationship failures, was a remarkable public rebuke to Moscow: missile defence, arms control, trade relations, human rights, civil society and, biggest of all, "global security issues".

For that, read "Syria".

"Given the lack of progress ...," it read.

In effect, it said that if there is nothing the two sides can agree on, there appears to be nothing to talk about.

Mr Obama had already used his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to lambaste Mr Putin for "slipping into Cold War thinking".

Leaving aside why Mr Obama chose a comedy show to address (for the first time in the case of the worldwide terror alert) the big issues facing America, it was a calculated show of strength from the Commander-in-Chief.

He has been under pressure to show Moscow that the US would not take its Snowden decision lightly.

For that reason, if he had not cancelled the summit, and had handed Mr Putin the courtesy of a bilateral meeting, he would have appeared weak in the eyes of his critics.

Remember this is a president who signalled a reset on relations with Russia under its then leader Dmitry Medvedev.

Those days, of muttered promises from a Mr Obama unaware the microphone was still on, seem long distant now.

The difference, White House officials will tell you, is all about the man now in the Kremlin and his unwillingness to do business.

"A troubled relationship" is how deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes describes it.

Who can see it getting better? Snowden has ripped the wound wide open again but Syria is the long-running and ever-deepening malaise between the two.

And that is even before we get to the issue of gay rights and calls for a boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Mr Obama chose to chide Mr Putin about that too - on The Tonight Show, of course.

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Canada Snake Attack: Boys Died Of Asphyxiation

Police have confirmed that brothers Connor and Noah Barthe died of asphyxiation after they were strangled to death by a 13-foot-long African rock python in Canada.

Post-mortem examinations on the children's bodies have confirmed the cause of death as a police investigation into the deaths continues.

The children - aged six and four - were found dead on Monday morning in an apartment above a pet shop in the town of Campbellton, New Brunswick.

The pair had been at a sleep-over with a friend, the son of shop owner Jean-Claude Savoie. Mr Savoie tended to a private menagerie of exotic animals, including the python.

Officials say Mr Savoie did not have a permit to keep the 100-pound snake.

(L-R) Noah, Mandy Trecartin, Connor (Pic: Facebook / Mandy Trecartin)

"We were informed that a number of exotic animals were discovered while police were investigating the tragic deaths of the two boys believed killed by an African rock python," said Anne Bull, a spokeswoman for New Brunswick's Department of Natural Resources.

"That species of snake is not permitted in New Brunswick. According to our records, we have never had any involvement with this snake."

Police are treating the apartment as a crime scene and an investigation has been launched into how children became exposed to the predator.

Stuffed animals at a makeshift memorial near the pet store in Campbellton

The children's deaths have triggered a wave of emotion in New Brunswick and local people have held a candle-light vigil later in memory of the boys.

Mr Savoie found the young victims dead on Monday morning and alerted the authorities. Veterinary officials seized the snake and euthanised it.

Animal experts have expressed surprise at the tragedy, many of them noting that, while an African rock python is a dangerous animal capable killing large prey, it would not normally attack humans.

The deaths have also led to a debate about Canada's laws relating to exotic pets, with overlapping federal, provincial and local regulations leading to confusion over ownership and safety rules.

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Iraq Bombs: Dozens Killed In Car Blasts

At least 51 people have been killed by a series of car bombs that ripped through busy markets and shopping streets in and around Baghdad.

More than 100 were wounded in the blasts as Iraq battles with its worst surge of sectarian violence in five years.

More than 1,000 were killed in the country in July - the highest monthly death toll since 2008, the United Nations said.

The Interior Ministry ramped up security in the capital this week by closing roads and deploying additional police and helicopters.

Bombs went off in northern, eastern and southern districts of the capital late on Tuesday, in areas crowded with shoppers and worshippers near a mosque.

Wreckage at the scene of a blast in Baghdad's Karrada district

One of the attacks hit a square in central Baghdad, where a parked car bomb killed five and wounded 18.

In a mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood to the south, another car bomb exploded close to a shop selling ice cream after the evening breaking of the Ramadan fast.

In Nahrawan, 30km (20 miles) southeast of Baghdad, militants targeted a crowded commercial street with a car bomb.

On the northern outskirts of the capital, a bomb exploded near a packed market.

Co-ordinated strikes that kill scores of people have become more common in Iraq in recent months.

Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining momentum in their insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government since the start of the year and have been emboldened by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, which has stoked sectarian tensions across the Middle East.

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Kenya Airport Fire: Flights Diverted

Kenya's main international airport has been closed as firefighters tackle a large blaze in the arrivals area.

Inbound flights have been rerouted to other Kenyan airports while the fire continues to burn at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.

More follows...

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US Embassy Security Closures Are Extended

The US is extending the closure of some of its embassies in the Middle East and Africa through to August 10 over security fears.

The State Department said a small number of additional posts would also be closed, while certain others would reopen on Monday.

The Obama administration announced on Friday that 22 posts would be closed over the weekend.

The State Department also announced a global travel alert, warning that al Qaeda or its allies might target either US government or private American interests.

On the extension, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement: "This is not an indication of a new threat stream, merely an indication of our commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect our employees including local employees and visitors to our facilities."

The Department of State building in New York

It said diplomatic posts in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antanarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali, and Port Louis would be closed from Monday through to Saturday of the coming week.

Those reopening for normal operations on Monday include Dhaka, Algiers, Nouakchott, Kabul, Herat, Mazar el Sharif, Baghdad, Basrah, and Erbil.

The extension came as security forces closed roads, put up extra blast walls and increased patrols on Sunday near some of the 22 diplomatic missions ordered to close.

In recent days, US officials have said they have received significant and detailed intelligence suggesting a possible attack, with some clues pointing to the al Qaeda terror network.

The US embassy compound in Yemen was stormed last year

The State Department said the potential for terrorism was particularly acute in the Middle East and North Africa with a possible attack occurring on or coming from the Arabian Peninsula.

"The threat was specific as to how enormous it was going to be and also that certain dates were given," Representative Pete King, who chairs a House panel on counter-terrorism and intelligence, told ABC on Sunday.

Mr King said he believes al Qaeda "is in many ways stronger than it was before 9/11 because it has mutated and it's spread in dramatically different locations."

The terror network's Yemen branch, known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, "is the most deadly of all the al-Qaeda affiliates," Mr King said.

In Yemen's capital, Sanaa, security was beefed up on Sunday around the embassy building and the nearby Sheraton Hotel where US marines stay.

In the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, troops set up new blast barriers last week to block several streets leading into the city's already heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the sprawling US embassy and Iraqi government offices.

In the Jordanian capital of Amman, a Jordanian security officer said bomb squads searched the perimeter of the US embassy while additional security vehicles were deployed in the area, including troop carriers with special forces trained in counter-terrorism.

Security also was tightened around the homes of US diplomats in Amman, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

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Syria: Assad Vows To Stamp Out 'Terror'

Syria's President Bashar al Assad has said that the country's crisis will only be solved by stamping out "terror", referring to the rebels fighting his regime.

In a speech on Syrian state television, Mr Assad also dismissed the political opposition to his regime as a "failure" that could play no role in solving the country's civil war.

"No solution can be reached with terror except by striking it with an iron fist," Mr Assad said.

"I don't think that any sane human being would think that terrorism can be dealt with via politics," he added.

"There may be a role for politics in dealing with terrorism pre-emptively," said Mr Assad, adding that as soon as "terrorism" has arisen, it can only be struck out.

Assad: Syria's economic woes 'are linked to the security situation'

In March 2011 a widespread protest movement calling for political change in Syria broke out.

In response, the regime unleashed a crackdown against dissent, while systematically labelling dissidents and rebels as "terrorists" and refusing to recognise the existence of a popular revolt.

The movement later morphed into an increasingly radical insurgency and more than 100,000 people have since been killed, the UN says.

The war has also forced millions to flee their homes, while plunging Syria into an unprecedented economic crisis.

Destruction in the war-torn Syrian city of Homs

In his latest speech, Mr Assad also said Syria's economic woes "are linked to the security situation, and they can only be solved by striking terror".

Mr Assad's speech comes a week after the army, backed by pro-regime paramilitary troops and Lebanon's Shiite Hizbollah movement, reclaimed a strategic district of the central city of Homs, after a suffocating siege on rebels that lasted more than a year.

"In this kind of fight, we as Syrians either win together or lose together," he said.

Mr Assad also said that the army, untrained for guerrilla warfare, "has achieved the impossible".

"There is only one kind of war that is bigger than guerrilla warfare, and that is a people's war, one that is fought by the army alongside the citizens," he said, adding that "the hand of God is with those who stand together".

In an Army Day message carried by state media on August 1, Mr Assad said he was "sure of victory" in the bloody conflict.

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