The attack on Hutu Rwandan Genocide Could Considered

Johannesburg – A draft report from the UN reveal that if the army of Rwanda and its Congolese rebel groups who become allies, considered to have been a massacre of Hutu refugees in Congo Tribe.Events that took place during the 1990s can be regarded as an act of Genocide.Hearing this accusation, the President of Rwanda Paul Kagame threatened to withdraw their forces joined in the UN peacekeeping forces if such allegations are issued.

Approximately one million ethnic Hutus, including residents who survived the events of the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 to flee to Congo. But the country’s military continues to hunt them down and slaughtered thousands of them in refugee camps built the United Nations. Thus the Associated Press reported on Friday (27/08/2010).Draft report released by UN Human Rights Council states, systematic attacks that took place at the same time spreading out may be causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Hutus.They were killed by various military units deployed by the Rwanda.(AP)

Mexican soldier said that a U.S. citizen attacked an army convoy and was killed when troops shot him in self-defense outside the resort city of Acapulco

ACAPULCO, Mexico  A Mexican soldier said that a U.S. citizen attacked an army convoy and was killed when troops shot him in self-defense outside the resort city of Acapulco, a police official said. The man’s father said Monday that he found it hard to believe.An army lieutenant told police that Joseph Proctor opened fire on a military convoy with an AR-15 rifle, forcing the soldiers to shoot back, said Domingo Olea, a police investigator in the western state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located.

Olea provided no further details on Proctor, who was found dead in his car early Sunday.A Defense Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the army was investigating the lieutenant’s claim. The official said Proctor might have been a passenger in the car, although nobody else was found with him at the scene.Proctor’s father, William Proctor, said he did not know of his son being involved in any illegal activity and did not believe he would have owned a gun or attacked soldiers.”I doubt that. Joseph had a temper but he didn’t use guns,” Proctor said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his home in Auburn, New York.

William Proctor said Joseph, 32, had lived off and on in Mexico for at least six years. He said his son had been in the process of divorcing his wife in Georgia and lived with a girlfriend and their young son in Mexico. He said he had little contact with his son and was unsure what Joseph did in Mexico but that he had worked in landscaping in the U.S.He said Joseph had sometimes complained about being pulled over by Mexican security forces looking for bribes.”He would get mad when the police pulled him over looking for payoffs,” Proctor said.Olea said the Mexican girlfriend, Liliana Gil Vargas, identified Proctor’s body. She gave Mexican authorities identification papers that listed Proctor as a resident of Georgia.

In brief comments to Mexican reporters, Gil said she last saw Proctor on Saturday night when he went out to run an errand at a convenience store in Barra de Coyuca, a community outside of Acapulco.Gil said the couple had been living in the central state of Puebla, near Mexico City, but had moved to Barra de Coyuca four months ago.Joseph Proctor’s mother, Donna Proctor, declined to speak to the AP when reached by telephone at her home in Hicksville, N.Y.

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said consular officials in Acapulco had been in contact with Proctor’s family and were providing assistance to repatriate his body. The spokeswoman declined to be named, in line with Embassy policy.Soldiers frequently come under attack from drug-trafficking gangs in the Acapulco area and there have been cases across Mexico of innocent bystanders dying in the crossfire between soldiers and drug gangs, or of soldiers opening fire on civilians who failed to stop at checkpoints.The military has faced mounting allegations of human-rights abuses since President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers in 2006 to fight drug traffickers in their strongholds.

In November 2009, American Lizbeth Marin was shot to death in the Mexican border city of Matamoros. Mexican newspapers reported that Marin was hit by a stray bullet fired by a soldier participating in a raid.More recently, two Mexican university students were killed in March in the crossfire of a shootout between gunmen and soldiers outside the gates of their campus in the northern city of Monterrey.(AP)

Iran Starts Production of Warship Missile Launchers

TEHRAN – Iran on Monday said the two warships began producing high-speed missile launchers  along the coastline and surrounding sea routes vital Strait Hrmuz. Inauguration of rapid production of ships and Zolfaqar Seraj a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated an unmanned bomber aircraft produced in the country, which he referred to would send a “death” to Iran’s enemies. IRNA official news agency announces Seraj (Lights) and Zolfaqar will be produced at the industrial complex naval defense ministry.Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was inaugurated, said the ships will help strengthen the defense forces of Iran, IRNA said.

“Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s defense industries rely on the army and junk (Revolutionary Guards) is strong and the military, with their full strength, can guarantee security in the Persian Gulf, Oman Sea and the Strait of Hormuz,” said Vahidi.IRNA Zolfaqar is preaching a new generation of ship missile launcher that can be used for patrol and attack operations.

The ship was designed for rapid strikes against ships and equipped with two missile launchers, two machine guns and a computer system for controlling the missiles, “says the news.Fars news agency quoted the statement as saying Zolfaqar Vahidi is equipped with a cruise missile Nasr (Victory) “which has a tremendous destructive power.Iran has previously said Nasr missile can destroy targets up to 3000 tons.

IRNA preach, Seraj, specially designed for tropical climates, also serves as a vessel of war for use in the Caspian Sea, the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and can fire rockets and also used in violent seas,The launch of the productions were done to coincide with the annual activities of a “government week”, a period when the country is usually announced the successful ituh latest technology.

Ahmadinejad, on Sunday inaugurated a small unmanned bomber, a period when the country was generally indicates the success of new technology.Ahmadinejad, on Sunday inaugurated an unmanned bomber aircraft with a cruising range of up to 1.000km he called “the ambassador of death.” State media said the bomber, stable (Striker), can carry four rudat stealth cruise, two bombs each weighing 115kilogram or a sophisticated missile weighing 230 tons.

Tehran claims its military began on Friday when it fired a ground-to-surface missile, named Qiam (Resurrection), and there will be some more announcements in the next few days.The Islamic Republic is also expected to test the third generation missile Fateh (Conqueror) 110, after the exhibit’s version of the missile has a range of 150 to 200kilometer shoot.

Iran recently held four mini-Ghadir submarine built in the DSLAM country, a ship “invisible”, designed to be operated in such shallow peairan Bay.”The latest military activity coincided with warnings against any attack on Iranian territory.

Implacable foe, the United States and Israel, not military action involving Iran’s controversial nuclear program it.Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, where about 40 percent of the oil tanker through those waters in case of a military attack.(AFP)

Zimbabwe auctioned 900,000 carats of rough gems Wednesday from a diamond

JOHANNESBURG Zimbabwe auctioned 900,000 carats of rough gems Wednesday from a diamond field where human rights groups say soldiers killed 200 people, raped women and enslaved children.It was the first public sale of diamonds from the notorious Marange field in eastern Zimbabwe since international regulators imposed a ban in November under rules designed to screen out conflict gems.The sale happened to coincide with the “blood diamonds” phase of the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president. Taylor’s case and the Zimbabwe sale are unrelated, but both point to the successes and difficulties facing the campaign to regulate the trade in diamonds that has helped finance wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo and now Ivory Coast.

The auction in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, went ahead after the gems were certified as conflict-free by Abbey Chikane, a monitor for the Kimberley Process that oversees trade in the diamonds. Chikane had established that soldiers were gone from two fenced-off commercial mines producing the diamonds, and that the mines were operating according to “minimum international standards.”

In the rest of the field, where Zimbabwe’s military still holds sway and abuses reportedly continue, a ban on diamonds remains in place. But there is no guarantee its product won’t infiltrate into the legitimately mined stones.The arrangement so angered American gem trader Martin Rapaport that in February he quit as president of the World Diamond Council. “The tragedy of Zimbabwe is that the Kimberley Process has started legitimizing, legalizing, kosherizing blood diamonds,” he said in a telephone interview from Israel as the auction got under way.

He said it made Kimberley participants “liars who are telling the world that these diamonds are legitimate.”The Kimberley Process was set up in 2002. Its members are 75 diamond-producing and diamond-trading countries, along with industry agencies and civic and human rights bodies such as London-based Global Witness.

Stephane Chardon, chairman of the Kimberley monitoring group, said it deserved credit for the original ban on Marange diamonds and for ensuring that the two fenced-off mines were being properly run.He noted that the Kimberley rules apply only to blood diamonds mined and sold by rebel movements or their allies to finance armed conflicts aimed at toppling legitimate governments. It has no provision for punishing governments.Chardon said the system has helped. “In quite a few countries it has contributed to changing conflict diamonds into development diamonds, in the sense that the revenues are going to the government and are used for development purposes and not for conflict.”

The Marange field was discovered in 2006 and is believed to be the biggest found in the world since the 19th century. It triggered a chaotic diamond rush until police and then the army moved in.Human Rights Watch says the Zimbabwe government still has not kept its word to withdraw soldiers completely from the Marange fields, and that it found conditions there “quite appalling” as recently as May.

“We found that people were still being forced to mine, to dig for diamonds at gunpoint by the army, by soldiers,” said senior researcher Tiseke Kasambala of the area outside the two fenced off mines. “We found children as young as 11 still working in these mines.”Buyers from Belgium, Russia, India, Israel, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates flew into Harare on private aircraft to inspect the stones and present bids in sealed envelopes. They refused to speak to reporters.

“Buyers were extremely interested and the pricing was satisfactory,” said David Castle, director of Mbada Diamonds and chairman of the South African New Reclamation Group that offered the diamonds for sale.Global Witness campaigner Elly Harrowell said that instead of expelling Zimbabwe from the Kimberley process as recommended last year by Kimberley Process investigators who were sent to Marange, “What we have instead is a weak compromise.”

She said that unless Zimbabwe kept its promise to withdraw all troops and fulfill other promised improvements, the Kimberley Process should “act very, very quickly” to prevent Marange gems from being exported.The compromise was reached after a Zimbabwe court released human rights activist Farai Maguwu, who was jailed for more than a month after publicizing abuses at the diamond fields.

Human rights groups say the deal also helped avert a crisis in the international diamond market, since President Robert Mugabe was threatening to sell stones without certification.Zimbabwe’s mines minister, Obert Mpofu, said Wednesday the country has 4.5 million Marange diamonds in stock, valued at up to $1.9 billion – one third of the national debt of a country whose economy has been ruined by corruption, mismanagement and Mugabe’s campaign against the country’s white-minority farmers.(AP)

defense minister says torpedo blast likely sank warship near sea border with NKorea

SEOUL, South Korea  An explosion caused by a torpedo likely tore apart and sank a South Korean warship near the North Korean border, Seoul’s defense minister said Sunday, while declining to assign blame for the blast as suspicion increasingly falls on Pyongyang.Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said an underwater explosion appeared to have ripped apart the vessel, and a torpedo blast seemed the most likely cause. Investigators who examined salvaged wreckage separately announced Sunday that a close-range, external explosion likely sank it.

“Basically, I think the bubble jet effect caused by a heavy torpedo is the most likely” cause, Kim told reporters. The bubble jet effect refers to the rapidly expanding bubble an underwater blast creates and the subsequent destructive column of water unleashed.Kim, however, did not speculate on who may have fired the weapon and said an investigation was ongoing and it’s still too early to determine the cause.

Soon after the disaster, Kim told lawmakers that a North Korean torpedo was one of the likely scenarios, but the government has been careful not to blame the North outright, and Pyongyang has denied its involvement.As investigations have pointed to an external explosion as the cause of the sinking, however, suspicion of the North has grown, given the country’s history of provocation and attacks on the South.

The Cheonan was on a routine patrol on March 26 when the unexplained explosion split it in two in one of South Korea’s worst naval disasters. Forty bodies have been recovered so far, but six crew members are still unaccounted for and are presumed dead.
The site of the sinking is near where the rival Koreas fought three times since 1999, most recently a November clash that left one North Korean soldier dead and three others wounded. The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Also Sunday, investigators said a preliminary investigation of the front part of the 1,200-ton ship – retrieved the day before – pointed to an external explosion.Chief investigator Yoon Duk-yong told reporters that an inspection of the hull pointed to an underwater explosion. He appeared to support the bubble jet effect theory, saying, “It is highly likely that a non-contact explosion was the case rather than a contact explosion.”

But he, too, said it was too early to determine what caused the explosion.Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said South Korea will take “stern” action against whoever was behind the explosion as the country started a five-day funeral for the 46 dead and missing sailors. Makeshift alters were set up in Seoul and other major cities to allow citizens to pay their respect.

“We will remember all of you in the name of the Republic of Korea to let you keep alive in our hearts,” said Chung, clad in a black suit and tie. The 46 sailors will be promoted by one rank and awarded posthumous medals, he said.In Pyongyang, the North marked the 78th anniversary of the founding of the country’s military Sunday with a vow to “mercilessly” punish any hostile moves by “the imperialist enemies,” a term it uses when referring to the U.S.

Pyongyang routinely accuses the U.S. of plotting to invade the North, despite the repeated denials by Washington.”If the imperialist enemies intrude into” the North’s territory, “its army will beat them back at a stroke by mercilessly showering bombs and shells on them,” the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. It didn’t mention the ship sinking.(AP)

45 civilians were killed in an airstrike in the Khyber tribal region

Pakistan acknowledged yesterday that at least 45 civilians were killed in an airstrike in the Khyber tribal region, an admission that could undermine the military’s anti-Taleban campaign in the country’s northwest region. Hundreds of tribesmen demonstrated against the attack in Sera Vela village, which was hit by air force jets at the weekend, causing the worst civilian casualties in a single incident in Pakistan’s war against Islamic militants. Tribal elders said that up to 71 people were killed in the strike, denying there any militants in the area.

A senior military official told The Times that civilians were among dozens of people killed in airstrikes aimed at insurgent hideouts along the Afghan border. He said that the attack also killed 30 militants.

The military rarely admits civilian deaths, which, according to some reports, have mounted in recent months as Pakistan intensifies its offensive against al-Qaeda backed militants in the lawless tribal region. The military had earlier denied that there were any civilian casualties in the weekend attack.

The military official insisted the military had received credible intelligence that militants had been hiding in the area. Security officials said that a large numbers of Taleban fleeing the military operation in South Waziristan had moved to the Khyber tribal region.

Tribal elders and residents disputed the military’s account, saying that there was no militant sanctuary in the area. Many of those killed in the attack belonged to the Kookikhel tribe which has a history of co-operating with the military in the anti-Taleban campaign. Most families in the village have sons in the security forces and many retired army and paramilitary soldiers were among the dead and injured.

Kashmalo Khan, 63, a retired paramilitary soldier whose right leg was fractured, said that he lost 11 family members in the attack. “The bombing continued as people were busy in relief work,” said Mr Khan, who was being treated in a Peshawar hospital. “There is not a single Taleban in our area. The military was given wrong information.”

Another resident said the house that was initially bombed belonged to Hamid Khan, whose two sons were serving in the Frontier Corps. “They had nothing to do with the Taleban,” said Hazar Gul, a resident of Sera Vela.

Sera Vella is a small border village in Khyber, one of the seven semi autonomous tribal regions where the Pakistani army has been conducting operations against Islamic militants. Analysts said that such a large number of civilian deaths could undermine the military’s efforts to mobilise public support for its anti-Taleban campaign. The incident has provided a strong propaganda tool for militants.

“The attack has killed the people most directly affected by the Taleban savagery. It may now turn these people against the military,“ said Rifaat Hussain, professor of Security Studies at Quai-e-Azam University in Islamabad. “The family members of the victims could become easy recruits for the militants.”

Tension ran high in the area, where hundreds of tribesmen joined an anti-Government rally demanding an apology from the military. They also demanded compensation for the family of the victims.

Thousands of Pakistan troops have been involved in the biggest ever offensive against militants in the tribal regions which had become a haven for the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

Pakistan’s military effort to clear the borderland of insurgents who have also been involved in the attacks on Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan has earned praise from Britain and the US administration. The offensive is seen as being critical to the success of the new US Afghan war strategy.

The army, backed by the air force, has recently expanded its operation to Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions after driving out insurgents from South Waziristan, which was also the headquarters of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the militant group responsible for most of the recent terrorist attacks inside the country.

About 200,000 have fled the Orakzai and Khyber regions, swelling the total number of displaced people. According to the United Nations 1.3 million people fleeing from the conflict zone have taken refuge in neighboring towns in the North West Frontier Province.

350,000 people still displaced by war in northern Yemen

Sanaa  – About 350,000 people still displaced by war in northern Yemen, or 100,000 of the estimated number of United Nations before the February ceasefire between the government and the rebel Shia, a minister said Thursday. “The last thing we have is 350,000 refugees, or about 50,000 families, which is listed,” said Ahmed al-Kahlani, ministers of state who deal with the problem of refugees in the country, at a press conference in Sanaa, as quoted by AFP. United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says some 250,000 people displaced during the six-round war between the army and Shia rebels in the north. The last round ended on February 12 after six months of fighting.

Kahlani said the end of the war had made tens of thousands of people can come and register at the ministry. He added that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) have difficulty to provide assistance to the penungsi in poor areas, and only five to 10 percent of them have returned home.

“We can not force refugees to return home because we know their villages were destroyed, especially those in border lines with the (Arabic) Arabia where a number of villages were destroyed completely,” he said. Deputy UNHCR in Yemen, Claire Bouregois, told the same press conference, the situation in the rebel region in Saada “fragile” despite a ceasefire has been enforced.

A press conference was also attended by foreign envoys of Saudi Arabia, Zouheir Idrissi, which means the country’s promising aid to refugees in northern Yemen.

Northern rebels and the government has approved a ceasefire to end the war in the region. Several previous truce failed to be enforced.

The truce which came into force Friday (12 / 2) it is the government’s latest effort to end the rebellion in the north that has killed thousands of people and caused 250,000 people to flee.

Zaidi or Houthi rebel group, the name of their deceased leader, based in the mountains on the border of Saudi Arabia, where they engaged in battle with Yemeni and Saudi forces.

Government forces engaged in sporadic battles with Shiite groups since 2004.

Violence in southern Yemen has also increased in recent time was when separatist protesting against the administration of President Ali Abdullah Saleh who clashed with security forces killed three policemen and five protestors.

Tensions rose in southern Yemen after a protester was shot dead the police on February 13. The incident sparked riots in which the separatists set fire to shops owned by people north and attempted to blockade a main road. Authorities conduct security operations and arrested about 180 people in the southern provinces. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has urged people not to listen to calls for secession, which he said the same as treason.

North Yemen and South Yemen formally united to form the Republic of Yemen in 1990 but many in the southern region, which is where most of the oil in Yemen, said that the unification of the north uses it to control the natural resources and their discriminating.

Western countries and Saudi Arabia, Yemen neighbors, worried that the country will fail and Al-Qaeda used the turmoil to strengthen their grip on the impoverished Arab country and turn it into a place to launch further attacks.

Yemen into the world spotlight when the regional wing of Al-Qaeda of masterminding a bomb attack AQAP states fail against U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day.

AQAP declared in late December, they gave Nigerians suspect “means that technically sophisticated” and told Americans that more attacks would be carried out. Analysts fear that Yemen will collapse under Shia rebellion in the northern region, the separatist movement in the southern region and the attacks of Al-Qaeda. Poor country that borders Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporting country.

Sanaa said that Yemeni forces kill dozens of al-Qaeda members in two attacks in December. British Embassy in Sanaa also become targets of suicide attacks planned Al-Qaeda Yemeni security forces foiled in mid-December. An Al Qaeda cell that was destroyed in Arhab, 35 kilometers north of the Yemeni capital, “aims to infiltrate and blow up targets including the British Embassy, government buildings and foreign interests”, according to a statement posted on the site 26Sep.net letter news of the defense ministry. Besides the rebellion, Yemen was hit by kidnappings of foreigners in recent years.(AFP)

bomb that is controlled remotely detonated near a family who was traveling in southern Afghanistan

Kandahar, Afghanistan A bomb that is controlled remotely detonated near a family who was traveling in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding about 40, said some NATO officials and Afghanistan. Previous reports from the area, said that a suicide bomb attack on foot sparked an explosion near a group of local officials who are distributing seedlings to villagers as part of a program to persuade people not to plant opium.

A NATO officials and a spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand said 13 people were killed and 40-45 people were injured in the blast. NATO officials said, a military helicopter flew the Afghans are injured from the scene, some of them died later of their wounds. He added that the incident happened in a district of Helmand province – the Nahr-e-Saraj or Gereshk.

In the past, the Taliban claimed responsibility for attacks in Afghanistan, where they led a rebellion against the government of Afghanistan and foreign troops. Last year, according to the UN, a large number of civilians were killed in that war, mostly due to guerrilla attacks.

The NATO commander has warned Western countries that are ready to face falling victim because they’re implementing a strategy to end the eight-year war in that country. U.S. Marines currently heads the 15,000 U.S. soldiers, NATO and Afghanistan in Operation Mushtarak which aims to quell the militants, which was launched before dawn Saturday (13 / 2) to pave the way for the Afghan government to control more areas of Helmand producer of opium.

Offensive was reportedly getting fierce resistance from the Taleban, who launched the attacks from behind human shields and put bombs on roads, buildings and trees. President Hamid Karzai has warned that the army had to take all steps necessary to protect civilians.

Currently there are more than 120,000 soldiers internationally, especially from the United States, which deployed to Afghanistan to assist the administration of President Hamid Karzai to overcome rebellion fought by the remnants of the Taliban. Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan since 1996, fomenting rebellion since ousted from power in that country by US-led invasion in 2001 because it refused to hand over leaders of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, accused of being responsible for attacks on American soil that killed about 3,000 people at 11 September 2001.

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led NATO force of more than 84,000 soldiers from 43 countries, which aims to restore democracy, security and rebuilding Afghanistan, but is still trying to quell the Taliban and its allies. The violence in Afghanistan reached its highest level in the war for more than eight years with Taliban insurgents, who broadened the rebellion from the south and east of the country to the capital and the regions that previously peaceful.

Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban of power in Afghanistan, more than 40 countries preparing to increase the number of soldiers in Afghanistan until it reaches approximately 150,000 people within a period of 18 months, in a new effort to combat the guerrillas.

Approximately 520 soldiers foreigners were killed during 2009, which made that year as the year the deadliest for international troops since the US-led invasion in 2001 and create public support for the West against the war slump. Taliban insurgents rely heavily on the use of roadside bombs and suicide attacks against Afghan government and foreign troops stationed in that country. Homemade bombs known as an IED (improvised explosive) resulted in 70-80 percent casualties among foreign troops in Afghanistan, according to the military.(Reuters)

general who led the army to victory in Sri Lanka's civil war and then was roundly defeated in his bid for the presidency appeared before a court-martial

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka  The general who led the army to victory in Sri Lanka’s civil war and then was roundly defeated in his bid for the presidency appeared before a court-martial Tuesday on allegations of sedition, the military said.Military spokesman Major General Prasad Samarasinghe said Sarath Fonseka and his lawyer appeared before a three-member panel for the hearing at the country’s navy headquarters.

Samarasinghe said Fonseka faces charges that he prepared the groundwork for his presidential campaign while still in military uniform.A second charge that Fonseka violated regulations in purchasing military ware will be taken up Wednesday, he said.The military proceeding against former army chief has been condemned by the opposition and human rights groups, who accuse the government of retaliating against a man who dared challenge President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his re-election bid.

“Sarath Fonseka’s arrest continues the Rajapaksa government’s postelection crackdown on political opposition,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.Police used tear gas and batons to disperse a protest in support of Fonseka and arrested 14 people, according to a member of Fonseka’s party, the Democratic National Alliance.

The proceedings against Fonseka were shrouded in secrecy. Reporters were barred from the event, and the military did not release details of the proceedings.Fonseka’s wife, Anoma, said she opted not to attend the hearing because the charges against her husband were “a joke.”Soon after Fonseka’s arrest on Feb. 8, government officials went public with various allegations against him including a plot to assassinate Rajapaksa and capture power. But they are not among the official charges.Fonseka’s supporters have denied the charges brought against him, saying the government is punishing the retired general for challenging Rajapaksa and is attempting to cow the opposition before April 8 parliamentary elections.

Police used tear gas to disperse a protest against the court-martial in the town of Panadura, south of the capital, Colombo, according to Democratic National Alliance party member Nalindra Jayatissa.He said 14 protesters were arrested and two others were hospitalized after being beaten by police.Police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said he would not comment until he receives a report from local police.

Rajapaksa and Fonseka were once strong allies in their campaign to defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels and end their 25-year armed campaign for an independent state.After routing the rebels last May, both were hailed as heroes by the country’s Sinhalese majority. But they quickly turned on each other. Fonseka quit the army, challenged Rajapaksa in the Jan. 26 election and lost by 18 percent.His arrest has raised concerns that Rajapaksa’s government is using all the levers of power to quash any opposition to its rule.

New York The abrupt transformation of Colleen R. LaRose from bored middle-aged matron to "JihadJane," her Internet alias

New York The abrupt transformation of Colleen R. LaRose from bored middle-aged matron to “JihadJane,” her Internet alias, was unique in many ways, but a common thread ties the alleged Islamic militant to other recent cases of homegrown terrorism: the Internet.

From charismatic clerics who spout hate online, to thousands of extremist websites, chat rooms and social networking pages that raise money and spread radical propaganda, the Internet has become a crucial front in the ever-shifting war on terrorism.”LaRose showed that you can become a terrorist in the comfort of your own bedroom,” said Bruce Hoffman, professor of security studies at Georgetown University. “You couldn’t do that 10 years ago.”

“The new militancy is driven by the Web,” agreed Fawaz A. Gerges, a terrorism expert at the London School of Economics. “The terror training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan are being replaced by virtual camps on the Web.”

From their side, law enforcement and intelligence agencies are scrambling to monitor the Internet and penetrate radical websites to track suspects, set up sting operations or unravel plots before they are carried out.

The FBI arrested LaRose in October after she had spent months using e-mail, YouTube, MySpace and electronic message boards to recruit radicals in Europe and South Asia to “wage violent jihad,” according to a federal indictment unsealed this week.That put the strawberry-haired Pennsylvania resident in league with many of the 12 domestic terrorism cases involving Muslims that the FBI disclosed last year, the most in any year since 2001. The Internet was cited as a recruiting or radicalizing tool in nearly every case.

“Basically, Al Qaeda isn’t coming to them,” Gerges said. “They are using the Web to go to Al Qaeda.”

In December, for example, five young men from northern Virginia were arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of seeking to join anti-American militants in Afghanistan.A Taliban recruiter made contact with the group after one of the five, Ahmed Abdullah Minni, posted comments on YouTube praising videos of attacks on U.S. troops, officials said. To avoid detection, they communicated by leaving draft e-mail messages at a shared Yahoo e-mail address.

Hosam Smadi, a Jordanian, was arrested in September and accused of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction after he allegedly tried to blow up a 60-story office tower in downtown Dallas. The FBI began surveillance of Smadi after seeing his anti-American postings on an extremist website.And Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed, two middle-class kids barely out of high school near Atlanta, secretly took up violent jihad after meeting at a mosque.

“They started spending hours online — chatting with each other, watching terrorist recruitment videos, and meeting like-minded extremists,” the FBI said in a statement after the pair were convicted of terrorism charges in December.

Prosecutors alleged that the pair traveled to Washington and made more than 60 short surveillance videos of the Capitol, the Pentagon and other sensitive facilities, and e-mailed them to an Al Qaeda webmaster and propagandist.

U.S. authorities also closely monitor several fiery Internet imans who use English to preach jihad and, in some cases, to help funnel recruits to Al Qaeda and other radical causes.The best known is Anwar al Awlaki, an American-born imam who is believed to be living in Yemen. U.S. officials say more than 10% of visitors to his website are in the U.S.

Among those who traded e-mails with Awlaki were Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with shooting and killing 13 people in November at Ft. Hood, Texas, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit on Christmas Day.

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the MAS Freedom Foundation, part of the Muslim American Society, noted that many extremist websites featured fiery images, loud music and fast-moving videos of violence and death.”They use video games and hip-hop to bring young people in, sometimes in very benign ways,” he said. “Then they make this transition by showing all the horrific things” and by then, some would-be recruits are hooked.

Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said his group had struggled to compete with the instant attention that grisly videos of beheadings, roadside bombs or masked men with weapons draw on the Internet.”They get the backdrop of the Afghani mountains or the battlefields of Somalia,” he said. “We’re speaking from conference centers and quiet halls. Somehow, we have to figure out a way to make our message more newsworthy. We’ve issued YouTube videos, and it barely gets a couple of hundred hits.”