CNN Exclusive: Lockerbie bomber comatose, near death, family says!

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Nic Robertson, CNN Senior Intl. Correspondent / August 28, 2011 - Updated 2332 GMT (0732 HKT).

Lockerbie mastermind near death.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) - Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi is comatose, near death and likely to take secrets of the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 to his grave.

CNN found al-Megrahi under the care of his family in his palatial Tripoli villa Sunday, surviving on oxygen and an intravenous drip. The cancer-stricken former Libyan intelligence officer may be the last man alive who knows precisely who in the Libya government authorized the bombing, which killed 270 people.

"We just give him oxygen. Nobody gives us any advice," his son, Khaled al-Megrahi, told CNN.

Al-Megrahi was freed from a prison in Scotland in 2009 after serving eight years of a life sentence for blowing up the Pan Am jet, killing all 259 on board and 11 in the town of Lockerbie below. Doctors who had been treating him for prostate cancer gave him just three months to live, and he was released on compassionate grounds.

He received a hero's welcome in Tripoli, enraging many in the United States and Britain. And with the recent overthrow of longtime Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have called for al-Megrahi to be sent back to prison.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/28/libya.lockerbie.bomber/index.html

      

AFGHAN BOILER: Bomb kills 11 at police Headquarters in southern Afghanistan!

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AP / The Hindu / KANDAHAR, July 31, 2011.

A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday at the gate of the police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. Photo: AP.

A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday at the main gate of a provincial police headquarters in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 11 people in a city where Afghans have recently taken control of security.

The blast in Lashkar Gah was the latest in a string of attacks in the south in recent weeks that have included assassinations of high-level government officials in neighbouring Kandahar and a coordinated attack against government buildings in Uruzgan province that killed 19 people last week.

The high-profile attacks have provoked a growing sense of insecurity in the very region where international military commanders say security has improved since the surge of U.S. troops last year. Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, in particular has been touted as a success story from the offensive by international forces - one reason it was one of seven areas handed over to Afghan forces earlier this month.

The attack early Sunday, which ripped a gaping hole in the station compound’s wall, killed 10 police officers and a child, and wounded as least 12 people, said Helmand provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi.

People at the site said a police vehicle was on fire at the gate. Ahmadi said a suicide bomber apparently drove a car between two police vehicles at the entrance and then detonated the explosives.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack.

It has been less than two weeks since Lashkar Gah was formally handed over to Afghan control in the first stage of a plan to have all of Afghanistan under the oversight of Afghan security forces by the end of 2014. It is the capital city of a province that has been a stronghold for the insurgency and where U.S. Marines have massed over the past year to try to turn back the Taliban.

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http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2311076.ece?homepage=true

AFGHAN BOILER: Suicide Bomber Kills Kandahar Mayor in Afghanistan!

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By DEB RIECHMANN and MIRWAIS KHAN Associated Press / KANDAHAR, Afghanistan July 27, 2011 (AP).

Kandahar Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi addresses a press conference in Kandahar south of Kabul, Afghanistan in this undated file photo. (Provincial Media Center/AP Photo).

A suicide bomber hiding explosives in his turban assassinated the mayor of Kandahar on Wednesday, just two weeks after President Hamid Karzai's powerful half brother was slain in the southern province that is critical to the U.S.-led war effort.

Mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi, 65, was the third powerbroker from southern Afghanistan to be killed in just over two weeks, underlining fears of a surge in violence in the wake of the slaying of the president's half brother. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for all three attacks, yet the area is rife with tribal rivalries and criminals and it is not yet certain who is behind the trio of killings.

Ahmed Wali Karzai was gunned down in his home in Kandahar by a close associate on July 12, leaving a power vacuum in Kandahar and dealing a blow to the strength of the president's support as well as the stability of the south where the Taliban hold the most sway.

Five days later, Karzai's inner circle suffered another hit when gunmen killed Jan Mohammad Khan, an adviser to the president on tribal issues and a former governor of Uruzgan province, also in southern Afghanistan. A member of parliament also was killed in the July 17 attack at Khan's home in Kabul.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press that they killed the Kandahar mayor because he had ordered the destruction of homes that city officials claimed had been illegally constructed. Ahmadi said the mayor was killed to avenge the deaths of two children who were killed during the demolition work.

Kandahar Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said the two children were accidentally killed by a bulldozer knocking down the homes.

During his four years as mayor, Hamidi became the enemy of the Taliban as well as others involved in criminal activities.

Full Story at,

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=14167103

AFGHAN BOILER: Bomber targets prayer ceremony for Karzai brother!

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AP / The Hindu / KANDAHAR, July 14, 2011.

Mourners offer prayers at the grave of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the slain half-brother of Afghan President in his family's ancestral village in Kandahar province on Wednesday. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque on Thursday during prayers for Wali Karzai - AP.

A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Thursday during prayers for the President’s assassinated half brother, killing four people, the government said.

Among those killed in the explosion in Kandahar city was Hekmatullah Hekmat, the head of the clerical council for the province and a young child, the Interior Ministry said. At least 15 people were wounded.

The Kandahar provincial government said all other high-ranking officials at the ceremony were safe and had been taken to a secure location.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Sarra Jamai mosque in the southwest of the city had been filled with relatives and friends of the Afghan President’s younger brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was killed earlier this week. They were offering their condolences to the family of the provincial leader.

Wali Karzai was shot at close range by a confidant on Tuesday, leaving President Hamid Karzai without a powerful ally in Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold and the site of recent military offensives by the U.S.-led military coalition.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, which has threatened to create a power vacuum in the south.

Wali Karzai was regarded as the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan. He was head of the provincial council, the influential Populzai tribe, and the Afghan president’s confidant and emissary.

Thursday’s attack appeared to give credence to assertions that Wali Karzai’s death was likely to further destabilise an already violent region.

Afghan civilian death toll up 15 per cent: U.N.

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