MADRID, Spain
Eight indicted in Spanish terror case
A Spanish judge indicted eight people on terrorism charges yesterday, saying they provided logistical help and false documents for suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The indictment was released by Spain’s leading terror investigator, Judge Baltasar Garzon.
It said the eight had provided logistics and counterfeit documents for suspects including Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged would-be Sept. 11 hijacker who has been in U.S. custody since his 2002 capture in Pakistan. He is believed to have been the main contact between a group of Sept. 11 attackers in Hamburg, Germany and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
Binalshibh, who could not get into the United States to participate in the attacks but served as a key money man, reportedly is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“The group in question provided logistical support to Ramzi Binalshibh and other members of al-Qaida linked to the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 in the United States,” Garzon said in the indictment.
GALLE, Sri Lanka
Tsunami recovery fast despite terror threat
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said yesterday that Sri Lanka is moving swiftly from relief to reconstruction three weeks after a devastating tsunami and that help from U.S. military engineers will not be needed much longer.
In Indonesia, the United Nations banned its staff from traveling between the hard-hit provincial capital of Banda Aceh to the east Sumatran city of Medan because of reported fighting between the military and separatist rebels in the tsunami-battered area, a U.N. spokesman said.
Also yesterday, the Indonesian military and the top U.N. official in Aceh province said they had no information of a specific threat to aid workers in Indonesia, despite a warning yesterday from Denmark of an “imminent terror attack.”
An insurgent commander told The Associated Press that rebels will not attack foreign aid workers because the groups have been helping disaster victims.
After visiting a battered area on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, Wolfowitz said he was “impressed by how resilient people are” and then met the country’s leaders to see what more America can do.
WASHINGTON
Americans positive about Bush, doubt Iraq
A majority of Americans say they feel hopeful about President Bush’s second term and have a generally positive view of him personally, but they also express continued doubts about Iraq.
People were most likely to identify Iraq as the top priority for Bush, an Associated Press poll found. But more than half wondered whether a stable government can be established there. After winning re-election, Bush is preparing to pursue an ambitious agenda that includes efforts to change Social Security, federal tax laws and medical malpractice awards.
Ahead of Bush’s inauguration on Thursday, six in 10 people said they felt hopeful about his second term.
JERSEY CITY, N.J.
Religious tensions f lare at slain family’s funeral
A funeral for an Egyptian Christian couple and their two daughters slain last week devolved into a melee after the services yesterday, with mourners shoving and punching each other as many blamed Muslims for the killings.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that Hossam Armanious, 47, his 37-year-old wife, Amal Garas, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8, were slain by a Muslim angered over postings that the father wrote in an Internet chat room.
The family is part of the Coptic Orthodox Church, whose members make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population. Copts generally live in peace with Muslims, but violence has flared in Egypt recently, including protests last month.
— Compiled from Daily wire reports