THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012
PAGE 3
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
AFRICA
Gunman attacks Nigerian prison, 118 inmates escape
LAGOS, Nigeria — Attackers stormed a federal prison in Nigeria with heavy gunfire and explosives, killing one guard and freeing 118 inmates in a new assault demonstrating the continued instability in the nation, an official said Thursday.
The attack on the prison happened at Koton-Karifi, a town in Kogi state just south of Nigeria's central capital Abuja. The gunmen attacked just after 7 p.m. Wednesday, fighting through the prison gate and killing
one guard in the process, said Nigeria Prisons Service spokesman Kayode Odeyemi.
Those inside the prison escaped in the fighting, with 118 inmates known to be missing Thursday afternoon, Odeyemi said. However, local prison official Hadijha Aminu said guards still hadn't completed a head count and didn't know how many prisoners actually were inside the prison at the time of the attack. The government said an investigation into the attack
had begun.
"One does not really know why" the gunmen attacked, Odeyemi said. "It might be that some of the armed robbers are trying to free the armed robbers there awaiting trial."
The prison held armed robbers and kidnappers, Odeyemi said. He said he did not know if the prison held any members of a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which has been plaguing the country with violence over the last year.
Unauthorized protests in Senegal lead to police force
AFRICA
DAKAR, Senegal — Police opened fire with tear gas on protesters who had gone ahead with a sleep-in Thursday at a downtown square, even though the government had banned the demonstration being held one week before the country's presidential election.
It's the second day that protesters have continued their demonstrations despite the government's refusal to authorize the gathering. Senegalese police are allowed to use force to break up crowds at unauthorized protests, as they did on Wednesday to stop marchers who got within 500 yards of the presidential palace.
The country's opposition is calling for the departure of 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police use tear gas on demonstrators who did not have permission to protest. The government claims they denied the protestors' request because it is too close to next week's presidential election.
CENTRAL AMERICA
Honduran prisoners trapped during fire, 358 dead
COMAYAGUA, Honduras — The prisoners whose scorched bodies were carried out piece by piece Thursday morning from a charred Honduran prison had been locked inside an overcrowded penitentiary where most inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted, according to an internal Honduran government report obtained by The Associated Press.
The Honduran government report, which was sent to the United Nations this month, said 57 percent of some 800 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison north of the Central American country's capital were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members.
The remains of Honduran prisoners were collected after the fatal fire killed more than 358 people Thursday. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASIA
Suspects of Israeli diplomat car bombings detained
BANKGOK — Three iranians detained after accidentally settling off explosives in Bangkok were planning to attack Israeli diplomats. Thailand's top policeman said Thursday in the first confirmation by local officials that the group was plotting attacks in Thailand.
Israel has strongly accused Iran of being behind the botched plot, a bombing in India and an attempted bombing in the former Soviet republic of Georgia this week, which Iran has denied.
Citing the similarity of bombs used in New Delhi and Tbilisi, national police chief Gen. Prewpan Dhamapong said that Thai authorities now "know for certain that (the target) was Israeli diplomats."
"This issue was about individuals and the targets were specific," he said. "This was something personal."
Israel has accused Iran of waging a covert campaign of state terror and has threatened military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran has blamed the Jewish state for the recent killings of Iranian atomic scientists and has denied responsibility for all three
bomb plots. The explosion Monday in New Delhi tore through an Israeli diplomatic vehicle, wounding the driver and a diplomat's wife, and an attempt was foiled the same day in Georgia.
"This campaign bears the unmistakable fingerprints of the Iranian regime and the highest echelons of the Hezbollah leadership." Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor said in a letter. "Their actions constitute a clear threat to the security and stability of Lebanon, to the Middle East, and to the many countries that have been targeted."
CAPITOL
Police: security threats at Capitol unrelated
LUKE RANKER
Iranker@kansan.com
Topeka Capitol Police arrested two men Wednesday for unrelated security threats against the Kansas Capitol.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Kansas Highway Patrol car keeps watch on a pickup found in a parking lot near the Kansas Statehouse, Wednesday.
The first arrest was made after authorities discovered homemade explosives in a truck parked in a restricted lot of the Kansas Judiciary building. On Wednesday, Capitol Police Captain Marc McCurel said police arrested the owner of the vehicle in a state office building, which is linked to the Capitol by an underground tunnel.
According to the Associated Press on Thursday, the suspect will not face federal charges and was released from custody late Wednesday. Capitol Police spokesman Patrick Saleh told the Associated Press that the Kansas Highway Patrol will speak with the Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor about possible charges early next week; he will discuss the case with federal, state and local law enforcementments
Friday morning. The suspect is not considered a flight risk.
In a second incident, McCure said Gov. Sam Brownback's office received a series of threatening phone calls. The calls began Tuesday and continued until police arrested a man Wednesday morning at a Topeka motel. The Associated Press reported that police arrested a 37-year-old man in connections to the case, but no criminal charges have been filed. District Judge Steven Ebberts set bail for the man at $25,000.
"We had two separate and independent events that just ironically happened on the same day," McCure said.
"The legislature was in no immediate danger," Russell said.
Jeffery Russell, director of Legislative Administrative Services said he didn't become aware of the situation until he received an "all clear" alert.
Despite both threats to the Statehouse, legislative procedures remained uninterrupted Wednesday.
McCure said the Capitol Police sent out a notification regarding the discovery of explosives through a free mass-communication system it uses to alert subscribers to security issues. Capitol Police also alerted the Governor's office, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He said additional Capitol Police forces were called in to heighten security along with the assistance of FBI, ATF and Topeka police officers.
"The Topeka city police were very helpful," he said.
McCure said the arrests were not in relation to a Wednesday afternoon rally of Brownback-op-
McCure said the Topeka Police Department's bomb squad removed approximately 12 explosives from the truck. The explosives were found after an officer began investigating the truck for being parked illegally in the restricted lot. The officer saw suspicious items like an empty gun case in plane sight.
posing protesters on the Capitol's southern steps. The authorities determined the area to be safe before the rally began.
- Edited by Corinne Westeman
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Nigerian man is arrested for bringing bomb on plane
CRIME
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has said he was on a suicide mission for al-Qaida, was the same defiant man who four months ago pleaded guilty to all charges related to Northwest Airlines flight 253. He seemed to relish his mandatory sentence and defended his actions as rooted in the Muslim holy book, the Quran.
DETROIT — A federal judge ordered life in prison Thursday for a young Nigerian man who turned away from a privileged life and tried to blow up a packed international flight with a bomb concealed in his underwear.
"Mujahideen are proud to kill in the name of God. And that is exactly what God told us to do in the Quran," he said. "Today is a day of victory."
Life in prison is a "just punishment for what he has done," the judge said. "The
Earlier, four passengers and a crew member who were aboard the plane told U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds that the event changed their lives.
Abdulmutallab "has never expressed doubt or regret or remorse about his mission," Edmunds said. "In contrast, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing mission."
Anthony Chambers, an attorney assigned to help Abdulmutallab, said a mandatory life sentence was cruel and unconstitutional punishment for a crime that didn't physically hurt anyone except Abdulmutallab. In reply, the government said plenty of harm had been done.
"Unsuccessful terrorist attacks still engender fear in the broader public, which, after all, is one of their main objectives," prosecutors said in a court filing before sentencing.
The case also had lasting implications for security screening at American airports.
Associated Press
defendant poses a significant ongoing threat to the safety of American citizens everywhere."
Abdulmutallab, the 25-year-old, European-educated son of a wealthy banker, told the government that he trained in Yemen under the eye of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and one of the best-known al-Qaida figures.
He chose to detonate a bomb on the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight but the device failed and badly burned him. He quickly confessed after he was hauled off the plane.
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