Last UK Bomber Captured:
LONDON (AP) - Raids in London and Rome on Friday rounded up the last of the four suspected attackers from the failed July
21 transit bombings in Britain, officials and media reports said.
Two of the suspects were picked up in west London following raids by heavily armed police, the reports said. London police
did not confirm their identities.
Italian police in Rome arrested Osman Hussain, a naturalized British citizen from Somalia, as part of an ongoing investigation
in the bombings, said Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu. Hussain was ``the fourth attacker,'' he said.
Police raided two residences Friday in west London, arresting two men at one address and one at another, a Metropolitan
Police spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.
So far, about two dozen people have been arrested in connection with the attacks last week in which bombs in backpacks
failed to detonate fully on three subway trains and a double-decker bus. Those attacks caused no injuries, unlike the July
7 attacks in London that killed 56 people, including the four suicide bombers.
The police operation was carried out in at least two locations in Notting Hill about a quarter-mile apart.
Britain's Press Association said one of those arrested was believed to be Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, who allegedly tried
to blow himself up on a double-decker bus in east London.
Ibrahim, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, came to Britain in 1990 from Eritrea.
The second suspect arrested in London is believed to have been responsible for the attempted bombing near Oval Tube station,
Press Association said. Not yet identified by police, he was pictured running from the Oval Street subway station wearing
a ``New York'' sweatshirt.
Hussain is suspected of targeting a subway train near the Shepherd's Bush station. He was shown on closed-circuit TV footage
wearing a backpack in the Westbourne Park station.
An official at the British Embassy in Rome said the arrest was carried out as part of a joint investigation between Rome
and Scotland Yard. Embassy spokesman Geoffrey Watson said he could not comment further because the investigation was ongoing.
The first of the four suspects, Yasin Hassan Omar, was arrested during a dramatic raid Wednesday in Birmingham in central
England. The 24-year-old Omar, a Somali citizen with British residency, is suspected of attacking a train near the Warren
Street subway station.
In Friday's raids in west London, Sky News broadcast video of two men in light blue bodysuits designed to preserve evidence
leading away a man in a white bodysuit, shielding his face.
In addition, a witness told The Associated Press that a man wearing what appeared to be a bus driver's uniform was led
away by police in handcuffs.
The witness, Osama Ahmed Ali, saw a Somali man whom he recognized as a bus driver.
``He was in a purple-and-yellow bus driver uniform,'' said Ali, 16. ``I've been on a bus with him a couple of times.''
Police also arrested two women at the Liverpool Street train station in central London and evacuated the area. One woman
is believed to have been in a line for the Stansted Express, which goes to one of London's airports, when she was pushed to
the ground by police.
The women were arrested at 1:54 p.m., British Transport Police said. The police were searching a number of suspect packages
in the station.
During the earlier raids, police were involved in a standoff with at least one man in an apartment, pointing assault weapons
and pistols at the home, a witness said. Police wearing black balaclavas and body armor surrounded the building.
Sky News broadcast images of police surrounding a red-brick apartment block as they shouted instructions to a suspect
inside. Authorities screamed to a man named ``Mohammed'' to take off his clothes and exit the building, according to a witness
identified by Sky News as Lisa Davis.
Police went door to door in the chic neighborhood, famous for its weekend street market, and told people to evacuate.
``I heard six loud bangs, which I found out from a policeman were stun grenades I believe, and then I heard two shots,''
witness Patrick Ball said. ``The noise that I heard was an extremely loud bang.''
The area is near west London's Little Wormwood Scrubs park, where police on Saturday found a dark backpack containing
a fifth bomb connected to the July 21 attack.
Two small explosions in the area could be heard on video broadcast by Sky News. Helicopters buzzed overhead and police
cordoned off a number of streets, and said one person had been arrested. A witness told CNN she saw several people being taken
into custody.
Meanwhile, a police watchdog group investigated the killing of a Brazilian electrician by police, who believed he was
a suicide bomber.
Investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission appealed for witnesses who were at Stockwell subway station
in south London on July 22, when Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot eight times - including seven times to the head.
Menezes' funeral is being held Friday in Gonzaga, Brazil, where he was born. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, leader of
the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, will attend a Mass for Menezes at Westminster Cathedral in central London
Friday evening.
One of the Tube stations closed after the July 7 attacks reopened Friday. Several bouquets of flowers lay at the entrance
to the Edgware Road station in a tribute to the seven people killed there. But passenger numbers were visibly down - a sign
of nervousness among Londoners despite a huge police operation to catch the terrorists.
``I felt a bit nervous coming through the tunnel just then and this morning my mum gave me a look as though she was never
going to see me again,'' commuter Jasmine Chandhoke, 22, said. ``Everyone was being incredibly vigilant on the train, checking
each other's bags.''
Scotland Yard police headquarters declined to comment on the arrest in Zambia of a British man sought in connection with
the July 7 bombings.
British investigators reportedly believe Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, had been in telephone contact with some of the four
suicide attackers who carried out the July 7 attacks. Aswat told investigators he once was a personal guard for Osama bin
Laden, Zambian security officials said on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
The British Foreign Office said it was seeking access to a Briton reportedly detained in Zambia but would not identify
him.
Associated Press reporter Lewis Mwanangombe in Lusaka, Zambia, contributed to this report.
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On The Site:
The link for the message boards has been fixed. I know school is back in session and everyone is sort of busy but PLEASE
try and post on the message boards at least a little!
Well. We do have a new selection of music video's thank's
to Patrick, Meagan, Gabrielle, & Jennifer for giving the idea's. We are working up to having quite a large collection.
*Wink* This entire page is new actually, usually I just put news on the front page but now I'v given news a page to itself.
Fun huh? Well, of course new week so new Weekly Spotlight. Very Very fun. The first day of school is next Friday so keep that
in mind. School shopping should be done very quickly. The lizards on the Jim Morrison page have had the glitch fixed. Please
go to the message boards and check them out. If you noticed we do have an advertisement for Maketu on our front page. It's
a great site. Go there now! Mwuahaha
The fashion page for the fall of '05 has also been updated thanks to the great
article from Meagan. Again I appreciate your help for the site.
IMPORTANT ALERT: The site is in code Red. The disk
space usage is 19.8 out of 20 GB. The server is in danger of crashing. I'm having to readjust things right now to try and
take it down a little but we really need money if we want the site to keep running. I would appreciate anything you could
donate. There is a button on the front page if you want to donate through there, if you are an adult and have a credit card.
If you go to school with us I would be thankful for even a dollar if you could afford it. Thank you SOOO much.
Now
to news of the outside world:
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Honking Grandma Tasered:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A 67-year-old grandmother who was shocked with a Taser stun gun after she honked her car horn at a
police cruiser has been given a year's probation for sparking a quarrel with officers.
A charge of improper use of the horn against Louise Jones was dismissed Wednesday in Kansas City Municipal Court. Her
husband, Fred, 76, who became involved in the fray last year, also got one year of probation for the same charges - resisting
arrest and attempting to inflict injury on an officer.
The only condition of the probation is that the couple obey all laws.
The incident, which resulted in a change in department policy and the disciplining of two officers, happened in June 2004
as police were responding to a disturbance call across the street from the couple's home. Officers said they approached Louise
Jones after she honked her horn, thinking she had reported the disturbance or perhaps was in trouble. A defense witness testified
the honk was accidental.
``She immediately became hostile to us,'' Officer Ryan VanDeusen testified. He said that she continued the verbal assault
when the officers returned to their squad car.
``It was very loudy, it was antagonistic, it was very derogatory toward my partner and I,'' he testified.
Officer Cory LeMoine said he told Jones he could give her a ticket for honking the horn, and that a physical confrontation
began after she wouldn't show him her driver's license. He said he and his partner struggled with Jones both inside and outside
her house. The officers said that while VanDeusen was trying to handcuff her, Fred Jones came down the stairs and leveled
his shoulder into him.
VanDeusen said he used the Taser on Louise Jones when his partner couldn't get her under control.
The Jones disputed the officers' account. Louise Jones and other defense witnesses said she wasn't confrontational and
that the comments she made were directed to a friend, not to the officers.
``She says something to the neighbor across the street and the officer didn't like that,'' said defense attorney Basil
North. ``He decided he was going to teach her a lesson.''
Louise Jones said she pulled away from the police when one of the officers grabbed her arm, and her husband said one of
the officers had his knee on his wife's chest.
Municipal Judge Marcia K. Walsh told the couple they should fulfill their sentence easily, pointing out that Fred Jones'
criminal history was perfect except for a traffic ticket.
``Your record is even better,'' she told Louise Jones. ``You don't even have a ticket.''
The couple's attorney said they plan to appeal the decision. North moved for dismissal of the horn-honking charges on
grounds that the ordinance involved was worded vaguely, and the prosecutor agreed to drop it.
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