D Thursday, September 17, 2009 METRO 11 METROWorld Belgian milk producers pour three million litres of milk on a field near Ciney, in protest over low prices, yesterday. European dairy farmers gave out milk for free, blocked deliveries and threw away millions of litres of milk this week in protests Picture: Reuters AFGHANISTAN: A senior al- Qaeda official has called on the Taliban to kidnap foreign civilians to force US- led forces to negotiate prisoner exchanges, a former Australian counter- terrorism analyst has claimed. The directive has been issued by veteran al- Qaeda adviser Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al Masri, and stems from the US detentions in Guantanamo Bay, Leah Farrall said. Ms Farrall said she had found the al-Qaeda document, written in late July, on the internet. The document argues the capture of a US soldier earlier this year should serve as a precedent in a campaign of abducting Western civilians to negotiate the release of prisoners. ISrAel: The government yesterday rejected a UN report recommendation calling for it to appoint an independent inquiry into its conduct in the Gaza Strip war. The report said Israel used disproportionate firepower and disregarded the likelihood of civilian deaths in the offensive, which killed hundreds of civilians. Officials said the inquiry was ordered by a UN body with a clear anti-Israeli bias. The team, headed by war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, concluded that both Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, after Israel launched the three-week war in late December to quash Palestinian militants in Gaza. AmerIcA: The execution of an Ohio inmate has been halted for a week after technicians could not find a vein strong enough to deliver the three-drug lethal injection. Romell Brooms lawyer contacted a Supreme Court judge an hour into Tuesdays execution attempt asking him to end the procedure and saying continuing the effort would violate Ohio law that requires lethal injection to be quick and painless. Broom (pictured), 53, was sentenced to die for the rape and slaying of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in September 1984. cHINA: Doctors left three needles inside seamstress Qin Jiang for more than 20 years. Qin, 44, had rolled over on a pocketful of needles when she was sewing and went to hospital to have them removed. But when she went back to hospital with a fever recently, surgeons in Shenqiu found three needles were still piercing her heart muscles and she had them removed. JApAN: Opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama was elected prime minister yesterday, promising to reinvigorate the countrys economy after more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule by conservatives. Mr Hatoyama (pictured) has promised to cut government waste, rein in the national bureaucracy and restart the economy by freezing planned tax hikes, removing highway tolls and focusing policies on consumers, not big business. He has also pledged to improve Tokyos ties with its neighbours and forge a foreign policy that is more independent from Washington. AmerIcA: Police and FBI agents searched the home of a Yale University animal research technician as part of an investigation into the murder of graduate student Annie Le. Raymond Clark III, 24, from Connecticut, who worked in the same laboratory as Ms Le, was taken into custody while police searched for DNA and other evidence. Mr Clark was described by a police official as a person of interest, not a suspect, in the death of Ms Le, whose body was found stuffed behind a wall in a campus research building on Sunday, the day she was to be married. The building has about 75 surveillance cameras monitoring doorways which has helped police narrow down suspects. BurmA: The ruling junta has barred pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from attending an appeal on Friday against her conviction for breaking the terms of her house arrest. The 64- year-old was convicted on August 11 and sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour after an American intruder stayed at her home. The sentence was later commuted to 18 months of house arrest by junta chief, Senior Gen Than Shwe. The Nobel Peace laureate (pictured) has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years for her nonviolent political activities. mexIco: Firefighters found six bodies inside a burning car in Tijuana four inside and two in the boot. In Ciudad Juarez, 15 people were killed in three separate shootings while the bullet-ridden bodies of eight men suspected to be drug traffickers were found in a Guatemalan border town. Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is the countrys deadliest city with more than 1,300 killings so far this year. The city is on a major route for drugs and has recently seen a wave of violence between warring drug trafficking gangs. The bodies in Guatemala were found in the San Marcos region, which has become a major transit point for drug smugglers. Robot looks for Mafia toxic shipBy PATRICK GILMOREITALIAN authorities have dis- patched a robot submarine with a video camera to a shipwreck off the Calabrian coast to see if it is carry- ing radioactive waste dumped by the Mafia in a lucrative disposal racket. Prosecutor Bruno Giordano has said that until the contents of con- tainers on the sunken ship are known, he cant say if allegations by a mob turncoat about the ship are true. The robot sub began filming at the weekend, but by Tuesday, it was still unclear what the cargo held, or even if the ship was the Cunsky cargo vessel that former mobster Frances- co Fonti has spoken about. Mr Giordano said Mr Fonti, from the Calabria-based Ndrangheta crime syndicate, has claimed the mob sank hundreds of barrels of illegally disposed of waste. Mr Fonti claims mobsters made millions of euros illegally dumping radioactive and other toxic wastes for Italian businesses. He said he himself was involved in the sinking of three vessels, including the ship the robotic diver is now filming. Mr Fonti, who is under state pro- tection, claims he used explosives to sink the ship which was carrying 120 barrels of radioactive waste off the Calabrian coast in 1992. Investigators have previously looked into claims that southern- based crime syndicates, including the Naples-area Camorra and the Ndrangheta, ran illegal rackets dis- posing of toxic wastes. A man gets a haircut featuring Tiananmen Gate at a barbershop, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, in Zhengzhou, Henan province. China will celebrate the anniversary on October 1 Picture: Reuters i only asked foR a shoRt back and sides Carter: Obama heckle racist Disturbing trend: Carter FORMER US President Jimmy Carter said that a congressmans outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act based on racism and rooted in fears of a black president. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African- American should not be president, the Georgia Democrat said, adding that the outburst was a part of a disturbing trend directed at the president that has included demonstrators equating Mr Obama to Nazi leaders. Republican Joe Wilson was formally rebuked in a House vote for shouting You lie after the president said that illegal aliens would be ineligible for federal subsidies to buy health insurance. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html