Intelligence

December 30, 2007

2007 in review | The Times

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Twelve vivid months, seen through the lenses of the world’s news photographers. It was a year of conflict, tragedy and natural disaster – leavened by extraordinary glimpses of optimism, seemingly superhuman endeavour, and odd moments of humour

January
1

Crowds celebrated the new year in Bucharest and Sofia as Romania and Bulgaria
officially became members of the European Union. The two countries, which
had applied to join as far back as 1995, became the EU’s 26th and 27th
member states

January
7

The United States carried out air strikes on targets in southern Somalia,
claiming it had intelligence indicating that senior Al-Qaeda members were
operating in the country. The attack was the first overt military action by
the US in Somalia since 1994

January
12

Comet McNaught, the brightest comet seen from Earth in over 40 years, was
visible during daylight hours in the skies over the southern hemisphere.

The comet was discovered by the British-Australian astronomer Robert H
McNaught only last year

January
12

American police officers discovered two kidnapped boys alive and well in an
apartment in suburban Kirkwood, Missouri. One of them was Shawn Hornbeck, a
15-year-old who had been missing for 41/2 years. A man was charged with
abduction

January
15

Two of Saddam Hussein’s top aides, including his 55-year-old half-brother,
Barzan al-Tikriti, were hanged in Baghdad having been convicted over the
killing of 148 Shi’ites during the 1980s. The hanging caused al-Tikriti to
be decapitated

January 20

Senator Hillary Clinton stated she would stand in the 2008 election for
president of the USA, to the delight of her supporters. If she succeeds she
will be the first woman – and the first spouse of a former president – to
take office in America

February
2

A detailed international report on climate change made bleak reading. Compiled
by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), it predicted that
world temperatures would probably rise by 1.8C to 4C before this century was
out

February
11

The Dixie Chicks won five Grammy awards at a ceremony in LA. The band had
previously been demonised by right-wing Americans after their lead singer,
Natalie Maines, criticised George W Bush at a concert in London before the
invasion of Iraq

February
13

At talks in Beijing, it was announced that North Korea had agreed to
permanently dismantle its nuclear programme and freeze its main reactor, in
return for a package of aid – including food and fuel – from the US, China,
Russia and South Korea

February
18

A midnight bomb exploded on a train from India to Pakistan – the Friendship
Express – causing a fire in which 60 people died. An Indian government
minister said the act was ‘an attempt to derail the improving relationship’
between the two countries

February
21

Romano Prodi resigned as prime minister of Italy after his government was
defeated in parliament over foreign policy. Opponents had halted plans to
keep Italian troops in Afghanistan and expand a US military base in
northeastern Italy

February
26

Titanic’s director, James Cameron, announced the subject of his controversial
new documentary. A tomb in suburban Jerusalem, he said, had housed ossuaries
(bone boxes) that may have held the remains of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and
their son, Judah. Critics scoffed

March
8

An American astronaut at the apex of a ‘space love triangle’ was fired by
Nasa. Lisa Nowak, 43, had allegedly driven 1,000 miles from Texas to
Florida, armed and in disguise, to confront her rival for the affections of
a pilot, William Oefelein

March 20

A survey revealed that 28% of Israeli Arabs did not believe that the Holocaust
really happened. The survey, by a sociologist at the University of Haifa,
found that the figure was even more alarming – 33% – among high-school and
college graduates

March 30

A controversial New York exhibition for Holy Week – entitled My Sweet Lord and
featuring an anatomically detailed 6ft nude sculpture of Jesus Christ made
out of 200lb of chocolate – was cancelled after a Catholic group, among
others, complained bitterly

April
2

More than 50 people were killed and thousands made homeless when a tsunami hit
the Solomon Islands, destroying over a dozen villages. The deadly waves were
triggered by an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale, near the
island of Ghizo

April
3

A French TGV (train à grande vitesse) broke the world rail-speed record when
it topped 357mph. The test run for the V150, a modified version with two
engines and three double-decker cars, took place on track between Paris and
the eastern city of Strasbourg

April 6

A Greek cruise ship, the Sea Diamond, sank the day after it struck a volcanic
reef near the island of Santorini. More than 1,500 passengers were
evacuated, and the ship’s captain and other officers were later charged with
negligence

April 10

A ring of fire destroyed the former home of the late country star Johnny Cash.
The blaze at the lakeside house in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where Cash had
lived for three decades, occurred during renovation work by its current
owner, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees

April
16

Thirty-two people were shot dead at Virginia Tech, and many others injured, in
the worst school shooting in US history. The murderer – Seung-Hui Cho, a
23-year-old student at the research university in Blacksburg, Virginia –
shot himself after the rampage

April
18

In the biggest bombing by insurgents in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, a car
bomb in the district of Sadriya in Baghdad killed at least 140 people and
injured scores more. Other explosions in Baghdad on the same day included a
suicide car bomb in Sadr City

April
23

Archbishop Angelo Amato, a Vatican official, declared that gay marriage was
evil. He criticised ‘so-called civilised nations’ for approving same-sex
marriages, and condemned abortion clinics, which he called ‘slaughterhouses
of human beings’

April
24

The legislative assembly of Mexico City voted 46 to 19 to legalise abortion in
the city – despite vehement protests by Catholics, and against the wishes of
Pope Benedict XVI himself, who had written to Mexican bishops urging them to
resist the measure

May
6

Nicolas Sarkozy, 52, won the French presidential election for the right,
beating his female rival, the socialist S�golène Royal. ‘Sarko’, the son of
a Hungarian immigrant, is the first French president born after the second
world war

May
7

An Israeli archeologist declared he had found the tomb of King Herod. Ehud
Netzer made the discovery in the appropriately named Herodium, south of
Jerusalem. The remains of the notorious biblical child-killer and king of
Judea were not found inside

May
12

Serbia won the Eurovision Song Contest at its first attempt, after becoming an
independent country last year. The singer was Marija Serifovic and the song
was Molitva (Prayer). The UK entry didn’t have a prayer: it tied a dismal
22nd out of 24 entries

May
17

Paul Wolfowitz, the 53-year-old former US deputy defence secretary, gave in to
mounting pressure to resign as president of the World Bank, after he was
censured for giving a tax-free $50,000-per-annum pay rise to his girlfriend,
Shaha Riza

May
28

Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 62, Japan’s agriculture minister, hanged himself after
being implicated in a cash-for-forestry-contracts scandal. Another man
associated with the scandal, the businessman Shinichi Yamakazi, 76, leapt to
his death the following day

June
1

Despite widespread protest, the makers of a ‘tasteless’ Dutch TV programme
went ahead with the broadcast. The Big Donor Show asked a terminally ill
woman to choose a contestant to receive her kidneys after her death. The
makers then admitted it was all a hoax

June
28

The Republic of Ireland elected its first black mayor. Rotimi Adebari, 43,
arrived from Nigeria as an asylum-seeker fleeing religious persecution in
2000. He was elected first citizen of Portlaoise, a commuter town near
Dublin, with all-party support

July
2

The disgraced White House aide Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby was saved from going to
jail for 21/2 years when President Bush ruled the sentence ‘excessive’.
Libby had been found guilty of perjury in a case that involved revealing the
identity of a CIA officer

July
7

Live Earth rocked the world while beseeching us to save it. Crusading concerts
were held in cities on seven continents, from Sydney to London, from Rio to
Shanghai. More than 150 acts performed, Madonna, KT Tunstall and Crowded
House among them

July
7

Seven new ‘wonders of the world’ were named at a ceremony in Lisbon after
millions had voted for contenders on the internet. The winners included the
Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu. Stonehenge, though shortlisted, failed to earn
‘wonder’ status

July
16

Osama Bin Laden appeared in a video on a militant Islamic website. In a clip
lasting less than a minute, wearing army fatigues, he praised those who die
in the name of jihad, saying that even the Prophet Muhammad ‘had been
wishing to be a martyr’

July
18

About 200 people died when an airliner burst into flames while landing at an
airport in Sao Paulo. The TAM Airbus A320 skidded on the wet runway, crossed
a busy road and ploughed into an airport building. It was Brazil’s worst
ever air disaster

July
22

A coach carrying Polish pilgrims plummeted from a bridge in the French Alps,
killing at least 26 people. The pilgrims had been visiting the shrine of
Notre Dame de la Salette, where in 1846 the Virgin Mary is said to have
appeared to two children

August
1

The 40-year-old I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed and fell into the
Mississippi during the evening rush hour, hurling about 50 vehicles and tons
of concrete into the river, killing 13 people and crushing a freight train
passing underneath

August
4

Nasa launched its Phoenix robotic spacecraft to the Martian North Pole.
Scheduled to land on Mars in May 2008, Phoenix has been designed to use a
robotic arm to dig into the terrain of the north polar region in a search
for microbial life

August
13

A new 328-metre bridge on the Tuojiang river in China’s Hunan province
collapsed as workers removed scaffolding; 64 people died. Poor workmanship
was blamed, and China has ordered the trials of 24 citizens suspected of
negligence

August
21

After skirting Jamaica’s south coast, Hurricane Dean moved on to batter the
Caribbean coast of Mexico, where it brought winds of 160mph and felled trees
and power lines on the Yucatan peninsula. The next day, it struck Veracruz
in eastern Mexico

September
3

The American adventurer Steve Fossett – the first person to fly solo round the
world nonstop in a balloon – disappeared in a single-engined aircraft over
the Nevada desert. He was scouting for locations for an attempt on the world
land-speed record

September
3

President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq with the US secretary of state,
Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates. They visited
Anbar province, greeted US troops at an air base, and met the Iraqi prime
minister, Nouri al-Maliki

September
12

The Japanese prime minister, 52-year-old Shinzo Abe, resigned. The country’s
youngest post-second-world-war leader had been plagued by financial scandals
and low poll ratings. He was soon in hospital, suffering from stress and
exhaustion

September 15

A meteorite crashes to Earth near the town of Carancas in southern Peru,
creating a huge crater in the ground. Hundreds of people fell ill after
visiting the site; health officials blamed toxic fumes emanating from the
crater

September
27

In the anti-government protests in Burma, the Japanese photojournalist Kenji
Nagai was shot as security forces opened fire on protesters in Yangon’s city
centre; the 50-year-old continued taking pictures while lying injured in the
road, but later died

October
12

Al Gore shared the Nobel peace prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. Gore and the IPCC were praised by the Nobel committee for
‘their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made
climate change’

October
17

The Turkish parliament voted to deploy troops in northern Iraq to tackle
Kurdish rebels responsible for a series of cross-border bomb attacks. But
President Bush and Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq, called on
Turkey to show restraint

Cctober
25

The Airbus A380, the world’s biggest passenger plane, completed its first
commercial flight.

The 73-metre-long double-decker, nicknamed ‘superjumbo’, flew from Singapore
to Sydney with 455 passengers on board. It has a capacity of 850

October
25

The Vatican finally published Trial Against the Templars, a 14th-century
manuscript revealing that the Knights Templar had been absolved of heresy by
the Catholic Church. But the church stopped short of an apology for
torturing and executing many knights

October
29

Argentina gained a woman president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the wife
of the outgoing president, Nestor Kirchner. Cristina, 54, is Argentina’s
second female president, after Eva Peron, but the first to be elected by the
people

October
29

Long live the King: the highest-earning dead celebrity of the year, said
Forbes magazine, was Elvis Presley, whose estate had generated $49m over the
past 12 months. Next came John Lennon and the cartoonist Charles Schulz

November
15

A devastating storm, Cyclone Sidr, struck the coast of Bangladesh, killing
thousands of people and destroying more than 270,000 homes. The cyclone also
wiped out thousands of acres of crops just before the harvest season

November 20

Researchers in Germany announced they had found the remains of the planet’s
largest-known arthropod. An 18in-long claw, found in a quarry, was from a
sea scorpion that could have been 8ft long and would have roamed the sea bed
390m years ago

November 20

Italian archeologists claimed to have discovered the legendary Lupercal, the
underground cave where, according to ancient Roman mythology, a she-wolf
suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god Mars, who co-founded
Rome in 753BC

November
24

Kevin Rudd became the new prime minister of Australia, in an election win that
scuttled 68-year-old John Howard’s hopes of winning a fifth term in office.
Rudd, the 50-year-old leader of the centre-left Labor party, vowed to work
‘for all Australians’

November
28

OJ Simpson was pleading ‘not guilty’ in court again, this time in a case that
involved armed robbery and the theft of sports memorabilia in September. The
former American football star is due to stand trial with two other men next
year

December
1

Zhang Zilin, 23, beat contestants from over 100 nations to become China’s
first Miss World. Crowned at the 57th Miss World event, held in the Chinese
resort of Sanya, she said she would ‘use the power and beauty of Miss World
to support those in need’

December
4

Jodie Foster ‘came out’ by publicly referring to her girlfriend for the first
time. Accepting an award at the Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast
in Los Angeles, the 45-year-old actress thanked ‘my beautiful Cydney’ – the
film producer Cydney Bernard

December
10

An Australian judge caused an outcry by letting nine young Aboriginal men walk
free after they admitted gang-raping a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl in
Queensland in 2005. She had ‘probably agreed to have sex’ with them, said
the judge, Sarah Bradley

December
11

Two bombs exploded in Algiers, killing dozens. One went off near the supreme
court, the other by the United Nations’ offices. The Algerian government
said two car bombs had been involved. Al-Qaeda’s North African wing claimed
responsibility

December
13

A choir sang Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in Lisbon as EU leaders signed a new
treaty to replace the European constitution. Gordon Brown missed the
ceremony and signed his name later – because of a clashing appointment with
a House of Commons committee

December
13

US researchers said they believed they had found the remains of a treasure
ship captured by Captain Kidd. They had identified a wreck off Catalina
Island in the Dominican Republic as the Quedah Merchant, seized by the
Scottish buccaneer in 1698

December
17

Russia announced that it had delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to a
reactor it is helping Iran to build in the southern port of Bushehr. Some
Western countries fear Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Tehran
insists its programme is peaceful

December
17

Fidel Castro, 81, Cuba’s leader since 1959, said in a letter read on TV that
he did not intend to cling to power for ever. He is in frail health and has
not been seen in public since having emergency surgery in 2006. His brother
Raul, 76, is acting president

December
27

Benazir Bhutto, 54, was assassinated after a PPP rally in Rawalpindi. The
former Pakistani prime minister's cavalcade had been struck by suicide
bombers in Karachi in October in am unsuccessful attack. She had returning
to Pakistan after eight years of exile in Dubai and London, and was
campaigning ahead of elections in January 2008

OBITUARIES

Farewell? to those twin staples of the wireless age Alan Coren and Ned
Sherrin, to Ian Smith — vindicated in death, he would argue, by the chaos of
Mugabe’s Zimbabwe — and Ingmar Bergman. Last orders, too, for Boris Yeltsin,
George Melly and that pugnacious beast of American letters, Norman Mailer.

John Inman became free at last from the shackles of Mr Humphries; Marcel
Marceau remained silent, this time in perpetuity. Jane Tomlinson lost her
courageous battle against cancer, along the way inspiring hundreds to fight
the disease with determination. Lives troubled in other ways came to an
unexpected end: celebrated It girl Isabella Blow and Playboy model Anna
Nicole Smith died within a few months of each other. Football “as it used to
be” was dealt a double blow with the passing of Alan Ball and Derek Dougan.
We have also lost Magnus Magnusson — and never again will we hear the
comforting tones of Professor Anthony Clare

STORIES OF THE YEAR

A selection of some of the original news stories from Times Online that
inspired the iconic pictures of the year - which appear in the print edition
of the Sunday Times Magazine

SILENT PROTEST

A demonstrator in a Guantanamo Bay-style jumpsuit kneels before riot police in
Bogota, Colombia, protesting against George W Bush’s visit in March

BOLD TURKEY

Muslim women, some wearing specially designed head-to-heel swimsuits, soak up
the sun alongside bikini-clad holiday-makers in Alanya, Turkey

WHEN IN ROME

A man, later described by the Vatican as ‘clearly deranged’, is caught by
bodyguards as he tries to jump onto Pope Benedict’s Jeep in St Peter’s
Square, Rome, in June

THE
MIGHTY FALLEN

Being knocked out of the Rugby World Cup by England was a bitter blow for
France’s S�bastien Chabal, the tournament’s most talked-about player. He
returned empty-handed — to England, where he plays for Sale Sharks

TAKING FLIGHT

Passengers escape from a China Airlines Boeing 737-800 after it burst into
flames in Japan in August

THAI TRAGEDY

The remains of a One-Two-Go Airlines plane, which crashed on Phuket in
September, killing 90 people

COLLISION COURSE

Two aeroplanes from the Zelazny aerobatics team collide head-on at the Radom
air show in Warsaw in September. Both pilots died

UNMADE IN CHINA

Clouds of smoke and dust billow out from the collapsing Wulihe Stadium in
Shenyang, northeast China, in February. The controlled explosion brought the
18-year-old stadium — once regarded as a “lucky” arena for China’s national
football team — to the ground in little more than six seconds

THE
FINAL ACT

Luciano Pavarotti’s coffin is placed in the hearse after his funeral at the
Duomo in Modena, Italy, in September. Thousands of people had gathered
outside the cathedral to say farewell to the tenor, who died at 71 after a
career that spanned five decades. He once said: “I think a life in music is
a life beautifully spent”

MURDER IN CONGO

Conservation rangers work with local people to evacuate the body of a
silverback gorilla from Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. This male and three females were found shot dead in the park in July.
The reason for the killings is not certain. Some have speculated that they
were carried out by rebel militia operating in the area, others that they
were part of an ongoing clash between people running an illegal charcoal
industry in the park and rangers trying to protect the mountain gorillas.
There are only 700 of these apes left in the world

CAT AMONG THE PIGLETS

A tigress plays with piglets in tiger-striped coats at Sriracha zoo in
Thailand in January. The zoo has been accused of using stunts — such as
teaching domestic and wild animals to live together — to attract publicity

CROCODILE
FEARS

The severed arm of the vet Chang Po-yu hangs from the jaws of a crocodile at
Shoushan zoo in Taiwan in April. The grisly incident occurred when Chang
tried to remove a tranquilliser dart from the reptile’s body. His arm was
later reattached

CHEEKY BOY

George Clooney gets to grips with fellow actor Matt Damon at the Amfar world
Aids gala in Cannes in May

GIRLS CORRUPTED

Paris Hilton is taken back to court in handcuffs in June, after serving just
three days of a 45-day sentence for violating a drink-driving ban; Britney
Spears shaves her head at a tattoo parlour in LA in February, after checking
out of rehab; a night's hard partying takes its toll on the actress Lindsay
Lohan in Hollywood in May

WATCH THIS SPACESHIP

With Earth as a backdrop, the Discovery space shuttle approaches the
International Space Station (ISS) in October. This mission marked the first
meeting of two women commanders in space: the Discovery flight commander,
Pamela Melroy, was received at the ISS by Peggy Whitson and her Expedition
16 crew

URBAN BLACK HOLE

In Guatemala City, a giant sinkhole 330ft deep swallows a dozen homes and
kills three in February. Rainstorms and a broken sewage main are blamed

RESCUE MISSION

Peruvian police recover a statue of Christ after an earthquake devastates
parts of the coast south of Lima in August. At least 510 people died in the
quake, measuring 8 on the Richter scale

AN ILL WIND

The aftermath of a tornado that swept through the town of Greensburg, in
southwest Kansas, in May. Most of the town was flattened, nine people were
reported to have died and more than 60 were injured. Thirty tornadoes were
recorded that night, affecting the neighbouring states of Oklahoma and
Colorado, as well as South Dakota

SCORCHED EARTH

A farmer walks across a dried-up pond on the outskirts of Baokang, in the
Hubei province of central China, in June, during a prolonged heat wave
affecting 12 provinces and regions and severely disrupting the lives of more
than 90m people

DANGER ZONE

A helicopter gets close to the action as the volcano Piton de la Fournaise
erupts on the Indian Ocean island of R�union in April

FLAMES OF FURY

A man on the bank of the Los Angeles river watches as wildfires burn in the
hills of LA’s Griffith Park area in May. Three hundred acres went up in
flames and the city’s zoo had to be evacuated

FLOODS OF TEARS

Maria Jeronima Campos cries for help when her son Gabriel falls into a well
flooded by rain in Brazil in January. They were later both rescued after she
jumped in to save him herself

GREEK TRAGEDY

Fires rage so violently across Greece in August — some set by arsonists,
others spreading in the gale-force winds and arid conditions — that they can
be seen from space. By the end of summer, at least 68 had died, mainly in
the ravaged Peloponnese

MOTHER COURAGE

A Palestinian woman, Najat al-Nadi, comforts her 17-year-old son, Raed, after
he is detained in May by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, accused of
possessing pipe bombs and a mortar shell

FIGHTING TALK

Hamas fighters relax in the meeting hall of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian
president, after taking control of the presidential compound following
fierce battles in the Gaza Strip in June

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

A woman photographs US marines staging a mock assault at the
McDonald’s-sponsored Air & Sea Show in Fort Lauderdale in May. The
event is part of the National Salute to America’s Heroes

SHIELDS OF HONOUR

Female members of the Basij, Iran’s paramilitary force, in combat training in
Tehran in August. The Basij, made up of millions of volunteers, is under the
command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards

WAR GAMES

A four-year-old boy cries as he is subjected to a mock execution in Baghdad in
July — a stark reminder that the ongoing violence in Iraq is influencing all
aspects of civilian life

PIPE
DREAMS

A girl walks along a water pipe in Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in
Mumbai. Home to up to 1m people, the area is unique among slums in that it
sits on prime real estate and is scheduled for extensive redevelopment. The
water in the pipe is headed for the more affluent southern districts of the
Indian city

NO IFS OR MAYBES, JUST BUTTS

Two brothers were impaled simultaneously during the Pamplona bull run in Spain
during July. Lawrence Lenahan, 26, was gored in the buttocks; his brother,
Michael, 23, injured his leg. “I remember looking back and thinking I was in
trouble,” Lawrence recalled, adding: “We will definitely be back”

BY FAIR MEANS OR FOULS

The 2007 Fifa Women’s World Cup, held in China in September, proved every bit
as competitive as the men’s tournament. Despite some wild tackling from the hosts,
Norway carved out a 1-0 victory in the quarterfinals — but lost to Germany,
the eventual winners, in the semifinals

BARE-FACED CHEEK

The Swiss tennis player Emmanuelle Gagliardi makes a lasting impression on the
crowd at Wimbledon in June. Unfortunately few will remember her for her
tennis — she lost in straight sets in the first round to Tatiana Perebiynis,
of Ukraine. But when Gagliardi reached for a new ball she had been keeping
in her knickers, the cameras clicked and tabloid infamy was guaranteed

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

Italy’s Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali take a tumble in January during the
European Figure Skating Championships in Warsaw

THE DOMINO EFFECT

Cyclists are caught in a multiple pile-up during the 11th stage of the Giro
d’Italia race in May. The competition was eventually won by Danilo Di Luca —
from Italy

SHAKE,
RATTLE AND POLL

Bill and Hillary Clinton draw a crowd when they stop for milkshakes at the
Dairy Treat in Nashua, Iowa, on July 4. The senator ordered an extra-thick
raspberry malt and her husband opted for strawberry. A Hillary Clinton
nutcracker, voted one of the most idiotic presents to give someone this
Christmas on the aptly named website www.stupid.com

A WINK TO THE FUTURE

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, winks during a meeting at the G8 summit
in Germany in June. Perhaps he was foreseeing his landslide victory in the
recent elections, which may mean he retains political power, possibly as PM,
after his term ends next May

STATE UNDER FIRE

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, watches a fire burning from
the window of a helicopter during the spate of deadly wildfires that ravaged
the state in October. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee
their homes. At least two of the fires were started intentionally, and the
governor vowed he would “hunt down” the perpetrators

BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH

George W Bush dances with performers from the KanKouran West African Dance
Company in April. The president had been sitting watching the show in the
Rose Garden of the White House during an event for Malaria Awareness Day
when the group of dancers asked him to join them. He looked surprised at
first, but then took to the stage with gay abandon

DEATH OF A PRESIDENT

Boris Yeltsin’s body lies in state in Moscow in April. People filed past the
former Russian president’s coffin to pay their respects to the man who
played a key role in the reformation of Russia. Yeltsin, whose popularity
declined in his later years owing to problems in the economy and rumours of
heavy drinking, died of heart failure at 76

WHAT IS SHE THINKING?

Nellie, an eight-month-old girl, seems unfazed by the 128 electrodes attached
to her head by scientists monitoring her brain activity. The photograph was
taken in April inside the Babylab at Uppsala University in Sweden. The
centre conducts research into children’s sensory, motor and cognitive
development. With the parents close by, the scientists work to gain a better
understanding of how infants develop their abilities to perceive, act and
reflect on the world around them. One of their objectives is to gain a
better understanding of disorders such as autism

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December 28, 2007

Named: the al-Qaeda chief who ‘masterminded murder’

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Military’s spokesman sparks row over what caused Bhutto’s death Baitullah Mehsud Martin Fletcher

A notorious al-Qaeda leader named Baitullah Mehsud was named by Pakistan’s
Government last night as the mastermind behind Benazir Bhutto’s
assassination.

The security services intercepted a call from Mehsud yesterday morning in
which he “congratulated his people for carrying out this cowardly act,”
Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, the Interior Ministry’s spokesman, announced.

In a transcript of the call released by the Government an interlocutor named
Maulvi Sahib tells Mehsud that three men were involved in the attack and two
— Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah — actually carried it out. Mehsud tells
Maulvi Sahib not to tell the men’s families yet and adds: “It was a
spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.”

But Brigadier Cheema also deepened the confusion surrounding Ms Bhutto’s death
by insisting that she had been killed not by her assassin’s bullets or by
shrapnel from his suicide bomb, but from a fractured skull caused by her
head smashing into the lever of her vehicle’s sunroof following the blast.

This directly contradicted accounts given by doctors and security officials on
Thursday who said that she had died from bullet wounds to her head and
spinal cord.

A senior Bhutto aide last night called the Government’s explanation a “pack of
lies”. “Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head,” said
Farook Naik, her top lawyer and a senior official in her Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP).

“Bhutto’s personal secretary, Naheed Khan, and party official Makhdoom Amin
Fahim were in the car and they saw what happened. It is an irreparable loss
and they are turning it into a joke with such claims. The country is heading
towards civil war.”

Brigadier Cheema was speaking at a packed press conference in Islamabad that
seemed designed to allay suspicion that the Government had colluded in the
assassination, or failed to protect Ms Bhutto.

He argued that the PPP leader had ignored the Government’s security advice,
and seemed to suggest that she would have survived had she followed it. The
vehicle was bomb-proof and bullet-proof.

“If she had not come out of the vehicle she would have been unhurt, as all the
other occupants of the vehicle did not receive any injuries,” he said,
adding: “It pains me, I say with a lot of anguish, that we wish she had not
come out of that vehicle to wave to the people.”

Mr Naik also questioned the Government’s claim that Mehsud ordered the
assassination. “The Government is now claiming that Baitullah Mehsud is
responsible. What is the evidence?” he asked.

Hillary Clinton, the US senator and Democratic presidential contender, waded
into the row last night, calling for an independent, international
investigation of Ms Bhutto's death.

“I don’t think the Pakistani Government at this time under President Musharraf
has any credibility at all,” she said. “They have disbanded an independent
judiciary, they oppressed a free press.”

The Interior Ministry released the transcript of its intelligence intercept,
and said that there was “irrefutable evidence that al-Qaeda, its networks
and cohorts are trying to destabilise Pakistan”.

Brigadier Cheema described Mehsud as an al-Qaeda leader who was also behind
the attack on Ms Bhutto’s homecoming parade in Karachi on October 18, which
killed 140 people, and claimed that he was “responsible for most of the
attacks that have taken place in the country”. Other targets had included
President Musharraf, senior government officials and army and intelligence
officers.

Mehsud is thought to be based in the lawless tribal area of South Waziristan,
near the Afghan border, where Pakistani troops have been fighting Islamist
rebels for several years. He has ties to the Taleban as well as to al-Qaeda,
and was quoted in a Pakistan newspaper last autumn as saying that he would
greet Ms Bhutto’s return from exile with suicide bombers.

Not a lot else is known about the man. He reportedly has close ties to Mullar
Omar, the Taleban leader in Afghanistan. He is said to run a “parallel
government” with a private army of 20,000 that imposes strict Islamic law in
Waziristan. Before he kills proGovernment tribal leaders he allegedly sends
them a 1,000 rupee note, a thread and a needle with instructions that the
recipient should buy himself a shroud.

Asked why Pakistan’s security services could intercept Mehsud’s calls but not
track him down, Brigadier Cheema said that he moved fast and went to ground
very quickly after contacting followers and was therefore hard to pick up.

The Interior Ministry released a grainy video taken of Ms Bhutto just moments
before she was shot as she left a rally in a park in Rawalpindi on Thursday
afternoon.

It shows her standing up through the sunroof of her stationary sports utility
vehicle and confidently waving to supporters. The film ends abruptly as
shots ring out. One, possibly two, guns can be seen above the heads of the
crowd behind the vehicle. Given the crush around the vehicle it seems
impossible that the assailant — or assailants — were on a motorbike as some
early reports claimed.

Brigadier Cheema said that all three shots fired by the attacker missed Ms
Bhutto. She was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle and
shock waves from the suicide bomb rammed her head into a lever attached to
the sunroof, he said.

“The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull . . . There was
no bullet or metal shrapnel found in the injury.”

Brigadier Cheema said that Ms Bhutto’s husband had refused to permit a
post-mortem examination on her body — Islam discourages desecration of dead
bodies. But he said X-rays and an external investigation showed that “there
was no bullet that hit her . . . there was no splinter that hit her”.

Pakistan’s Government is facing considerable public anger for failing to
protect Ms Bhutto. Brigadier Cheema sought to deflect that anger by
insisting the Government had done everything in its power to protect her.

He said that everybody at the rally in Rawalpindi had been searched, Ms
Bhutto’s rostrum had been bullet-proof, and “all possible security
arrangements were made within the resources of the Government of Pakistan”.
He insisted that “no political leader in this country has been provided with
as much security”.

Brigadier Cheema announced two inquiries into the assassination — one by a
high court judge and the other by the security services. He also said that
several other prominent Pakistani politicians were under threat from Islamic
militants, and named Nawaz Sharif, leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim
League, as one of them.

The 20 other people who died in the assassination included Tauqee Akram, 35,
the husband of a British woman and active member of Ms Bhutto’s PPP. His
widow, Lubna Akram, lives in Halliwell, Bolton, and the couple have two
children.

‘Congratulations’

This is a translation of the alleged telephone conversation yesterday between
Baitullah Mehsud, a senior al-Qaeda leader, and Maulvi Sahib, another
militant, which the Pakistan Interior Ministry said had been intercepted
after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto:

Maulvi Sahib (MS) Asalaam Aleikum (Peace be with you)

Baitullah Mehsud (BM) Waleikum Asalam (And also with you)

MS Chief, how are you?

BM I am fine

MS Congratulations, I just got back during the night

BM Congratulations to you, were they our men?

MS Yes they were ours

BM Who were they?

MS There was Saeed, there was Bilal from Badar and Ikramullah

BM The three of them did it?

MS Ikramullah and Bilal did it

BM Then congratulations

MS Where are you? I want to meet you

BM I am at Makeen [town in South Waziristan tribal region], come over, I am at
Anwar Shah’s house

MS OK, I’ll come

BM Don’t inform their house for the time being

MS OK

BM It was a tremendous effort. They were really brave boys who killed her

MS Mashallah (Thank God). When I come I will give you all the details

BM I will wait for you. Congratulations, once again congratulations

MS Congratulations to you

BM Anything I can do for you?

MS Thank you very much.

BM Asalaam Aleikum

MS Waaleikum Asalaam

December 28, 2007 at 09:14 PM in Al Qaeda, Current Terrorism, Espionage - general | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Authorities point the finger at militant pro-Taliban leader

Authorities point the finger at militant pro-Taliban leader | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Rory McCarthy Saturday December 29, 2007 The Guardian Pakistani officials said last night they already had evidence from "intelligence intercepts" linking a pro-Taliban militant commander to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and several other suicide bombings.

On the intercept the commander, named
as Baitullah Mehsud, was recorded congratulating his men for the attack
on Bhutto, said Javed Iqbal Cheema, Pakistan's interior ministry
spokesman.

He described Mehsud as an "al-Qaida leader". Mehsud,
who is one of Pakistan's most wanted militants, is known to be a
pro-Taliban commander based in the violent tribal region of South
Waziristan. Before Bhutto flew back to Pakistan in October he was
reported as threatening a wave of suicide attacks against her, but he
later denied making the threat.

Pakistani officials said they believed Mehsud was also behind the
suicide bomb attack on the day of Bhutto's return which left 130 of her
supporters dead. Mehsud was "behind most of the recent terrorist
attacks that have taken place in Pakistan," Cheema said.

The
announcement came as police began the gruesome task of trying to
identify the suicide bomber behind the assassination at the start of a
fraught and difficult investigation.

The bomber's badly burned
head was recovered from the scene of the blast. Saud Aziz, the city's
police chief, said investigators would reconstruct the head and take
DNA samples from other body parts found nearby in the hope that they
could quickly identify the killer.

However, there is already deep
mistrust in Pakistan among many, not just Bhutto's supporters, who
doubt that a small cell of extremists alone was responsible for her
death. At the heart of these fears lies the long and dangerous
association of the Pakistani government and its military with Islamic
militants, in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

Bhutto herself warned
before her death that there were powerful figures in Pakistan plotting
to kill her. Yesterday disturbing new evidence emerged of concerns that
Bhutto voiced two months ago.

On October 26, a week after her
return to Pakistan was marred by a first suicide bombing which killed
138 of her supporters, she sent an email to her spokesman in the United
States saying she was anxious that she was not being given enough
security. The email was passed to Wolf Blitzer, a CNN presenter, to be
published if she was killed. In the email Bhutto said if she was killed
it would be the responsibility of Pervez Musharraf, the general who
seized power in a coup and became Pakistan's president.

"Nothing
will, God willing happen. Just wanted u to know if it does in addition
to my names in my letter to Musharaf of Oct 16nth, I wld hold Musharaf
responsible," the email said. "I have been made to feel insecure by his
minions and there is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me
from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or
four police mobiles to cover all sides cld happen without him. B."

Two
days before her return, Bhutto sent Musharraf a letter, giving names
and telephone numbers of several men she believed were plotting against
her. Reports in the Pakistani press said the men included an official
in the Pakistani intelligence agencies, a member of the National
Accountability Bureau, which has long investigated corruption cases
against her, and a former provincial government official. Then after
the first attack on the day of her return, Bhutto asked for
international investigators to be assigned to the case. Her request was
rejected.

Al-Qaida, or militants allied to the group, might have
had a lot to lose if Bhutto had as expected, won next month's
elections. She had spoken repeatedly of her plans to take on the tide
of militancy sweeping Pakistan. Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No 2,
spoke out against Bhutto's return in a video this month and called for
attacks on all candidates in next month's election.

Bruce Riedel,
a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former senior director
for south Asia on the national security council, said al-Qaida had been
trying to kill Bhutto for many years. "If it's not them, it's certainly
one of the groups that are sympathetic with them," he said. "They all
work together and share a common antipathy to Bhutto because she's a
woman, an advocate of secularism, a supporter of democracy and
everything they stand against."

Others say it may be more
complex. "It's going to be very difficult to establish the truth of who
was behind this," said MJ Gohel, the executive director of the
Asia-Pacific Foundation, a security and intelligence thinktank in
London.

"As well as the Taliban and al-Qaida elements, there are
many other candidates - there are elements within the military and
elements within the intelligence services, which never had a good
relationship with Bhutto."

The transcript

A
transcript released by the Pakistani government yesterday of a
purported conversation between militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is
referred to as Emir Sahib, and another man identified as a Maulvi
Sahib, or Mr Cleric. The government alleges the intercepted
conversation proves al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir
Bhutto

Maulvi Sahib Peace be on you.

Mehsud Peace be on you, too.

MS How are you Emir Sahib?

Mehsud Fine.

MS Congratulations. I arrived now tonight.

Mehsud Congratulations to you, too.

MS They were our men there.

Mehsud Who were they?

MS There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah was also there.

Mehsud The three did it?

MS Ikramullah and Bilal did it.

Mehsud Then congratulations to you again.

MS Where are you? I want to meet with you?

Mehsud I am in Makin. Come I am at Anwar Shah's home.

MS OK I will come.

Mehsud Do not inform their family presently.

MS Right.

Mehsud It was a spectacular job. They were very brave boys who killed her.

MS Praise be to God. I will give you more details when I come.

Mehsud I will wait for you. Congratulation once again.

MS Congratulations to you as well.

Mehsud: Any service?

MS Thank you very much?

Mehsud Peace be on you.

MS Same to you.

December 28, 2007 at 09:07 PM in Al Qaeda, Current Terrorism, Espionage - general | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Two senior diplomats expelled from Afghanistan

Two senior diplomats expelled from Afghanistan | csmonitor.com

The UN is working for their return, after the government accused the men of talking with the Taliban. By Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar

Technorati Tags: afghanistan

December 28, 2007 at 04:14 PM in Middle East, Muslim background | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home

Bhutto's death rocks Pakistan

Bhutto's death rocks Pakistan | csmonitor.com

The assassination of the former prime minister raises questions about the Musharraf government's security measures. By Shahan Mufti | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor and Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN; AND NEW DELHI The assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto by a suicide bomber Thursday threatens to bring to a halt Pakistan's stuttering steps toward democracy.

It is the starkest evidence yet that the forces aligned against law and order, once contained to the remote border region
with Afghanistan, are now spilling into the heart of Pakistan, disrupting the country's ability to function.

The
death of Ms. Bhutto, one of Pakistan's most beloved leaders and head of
its largest political party, is an emotional event for many. Rioting
broke out in several cities late Thursday night. The unrest could lead
to the declaration of martial law, experts say, and the postponement of
parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, 2008.

It is the sort of instability that Western
nations had sought to avoid by persuading President Pervez Musharraf to
allow Bhutto back into the country – hoping her vows to tackle
terrorism would help in the fight against Taliban militants and put
Pakistan on a more moderate path. Now, they appear to have made her a
target. Her death marks a moment of decision for Pakistan's leaders and
lays bare the terrorists' capabilities.

"Her death in such a manner – when the
government had taken responsibility for her security – tells a lot
about the situation in Pakistan," says Hassan Abbas, a Pakistan expert
at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. "What is evident is a
complete lack of command and control."

It brings a close to a year drawn in
persistent, violent turmoil. Details of Bhutto's death – the Muslim
world's first female prime minister – were not yet confirmed at press
time, but reports suggest she was shot before a suicide bomber blew
himself up. The attack took place minutes after she had finished her
address at a large rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the
capital, Islamabad.

The killing of Bhutto leaves a question
mark over whether elections can go forward. A political field without
her will profoundly affect the larger political dynamic that Mr.
Musharraf has been carefully crafting to remain in power. But more
immediately, the death of one of Pakistan's most prominent political
leaders has shaken the country. "The country has been pushed into
another dark period of uncertainty," says Rasul Baksh Rais, a political
scientist at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Riots erupted in Rawalpindi soon after the
news of her death was confirmed. The city has been the site of several
suicide bombings in past months, though most have targeted security
forces. Private television channels also reported riots in major towns
across the country, especially in Sindh, Bhutto's home province.

The magnitude of Bhutto's death obscured another act of political violence Thursday. Four supporters of Bhutto's opposition,
the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N), were shot dead at a political rally in Islamabad.

"I
think the elections will be canceled," says Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani
security analyst and author of "Taliban." "We can't have elections when
the country is in this state of violence. We may see the imposition ...
of extraordinary measures like martial law or a state of emergency."

In an interview with the BBC, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif also hinted that elections could be postponed: "None of us is inclined
to think about the election."

It is unclear who was responsible for the attack, but initial anger turned against Musharraf's government.

Supporters outside the hospital where Bhutto's body was taken chanted "dog, Musharraf, dog," the Associated Press reported.

It
is an instinctive reaction born of generations of mutual mistrust
between Bhutto and the Army, which Musharraf led until last month.
Bhutto's father, also a prime minister, was hanged after being deposed
by one of Pakistan's previous military rulers, Zia ul-Haq.

Certainly, the threat was not unforeseen.
When Bhutto returned from exile in October in a triumphant procession
through Karachi, she narrowly escaped a suicide bombing that left 150
dead. Moreover, Baitullah Mesud, a Taliban commander in Waziristan, had
several times openly threatened her life.

The circumstances of Bhutto's death, and
the failure of security, will be a subject of immense scrutiny. "There
are going to be very big questions asked," says Najmuddin Shaikh, who
served as foreign minister during one of Bhutto's terms as prime
minister.

Bhutto was the only major political figure
whose campaign included a strong stance against extremism. "Benazir
Bhutto may have been killed by terrorists, but the terrorists must not
be allowed to kill democracy in Pakistan," British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown said Thursday. But Dr. Abbas at Harvard predicts "fewer
people will challenge extremism openly."

Bhutto's life and career followed a trail
of tragedy in her political family comparable to that of the Kennedys,
or Gandhis of India. Bhutto died just a few miles from where her father
was hanged. One brother died from poisoning, and another was killed in
a police shootout. Her two tenures as prime minister (1988 and 1993),
neither of which she could complete, were marred by charges of
corruption and fraud. She went into exile after Musharraf came into
power in 1999 before returning in October.

Bhutto declared herself lifetime chairman of the party she inherited from her father. Observers are unsure who might take
over the reins of the party now.

"It may take months for the party to decide their new leader," says Hassan Aksari Rizvi, an independent political scientist
in Lahore. "I don't see how they can contest an election scheduled in a few days without a coherent leadership."

December 28, 2007 at 04:12 PM in Middle East | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home