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WORLD / Europe
Historic handshake in Northern Ireland
(AP)
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WORLD / America
Purported new bin Laden video appears -?CNN
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-11 15:47
A new video purportedly featuring Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden appeared
on the Internet Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the September 11
attacks on the United States, CNN reported.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden speaks in a video released on a web site
September 7, 2007. [Reuters]
The video shows a still image of Bin Laden with a voice identified as his
praising September 11 hijacker Walid al-Shehri, who was aboard American
Airlines Flight 11 which crashed into the World Trade Center, it said.
The authenticity of the video was not immediately confirmed, the
television network said, adding that the video did not appear to show any
moving images of Bin Laden.
Bin Laden appeared on a video on Friday, his first since October 2004,
when he threatened new attacks against the United States in a video just
days before the US presidential election.
Al-Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab, had said Monday that it would release a
second video of the group's leader.
In an interview with CNN, terrorism expert Laura Mansfield said the
47-minute long tape was "geared as a commemorative tape praising one of
the hijackers of the 9/11 attacks."
"The first 14 to 15 minutes of the tape are bin Laden," Mansfield said.
"The remainder of the tape is Waleed al-Shehri, one of hijackers on 9/11."
CNN said the video released Tuesday appeared to be purely a eulogy of
Shehri, who like Bin Laden hails from Saudi Arabia. There is also no
indication of when it was recorded, the US news network said.
But questions over the elusive Saudi extremist's beard cropped up at a
Congressional hearing Monday featuring top US security experts, including
Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell.
"First, is this his beard?" Republican Senator Norm Coleman asked the spy
chief. "Do we expect that -- is it a signal?"
McConnell swiftly rejected any possibility that the hair in his chin was
intended to send any signal to his Al-Qaeda members.
"So far, we do not think there's been a signal. He's done this
periodically, as has (Ayman al-) Zawahiri (the group's
second-in-command), and there has not been a correlation necessarily
between one of these tapes or a public statement and a particular event,"
McConnell said.
But he wondered whether Bin Laden's beard was genuine.
"The big question in the community this morning, 'Is that beard real,'
because as you know, just a few years ago, the last time he appeared, it
was very different," he said.
"So we don't know if it's dyed and trimmed or real, but that's one of the
things we're looking at. But no specific message."
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Updated: 2007-09-11 15:14
DUBLIN, Ireland -- Northern Ireland leader Ian Paisley and the head of
state of the Irish Republic, President Mary McAleese, shook hands Monday
for the first time - another symbolic milestone on Ireland's road to
reconciliation.
Northern Ireland First Minister Dr Ian Paisley, left, meets Irish
President Mary McAleese for the first time, at Somme Heritage Center,
which honors the sacrifices of British soldiers from Ireland in World War
I, at Conlig in Northern Ireland, Monday, Sept. 10, 2007. [AP]
Paisley, 81, for decades rejected any role for the Irish Republic in
Northern Ireland, a predominantly Protestant part of the United Kingdom.
Last year, he accused McAleese of being a deceitful politician who talked
nicely in public but privately loathed Northern Ireland's Protestant
majority.
Since taking the helm of a new Catholic-Protestant administration in
Belfast four months ago, First Minister Paisley has demonstrated a sudden
zeal for cooperating with the predominantly Roman Catholic south.
A battery of photographers captured the moment when Paisley shook hands
with McAleese, a Belfast-born Catholic, at a World War I heritage center
east of Belfast. The two held hands and offered beaming smiles for
several seconds as the cameras flashed.
McAleese, 56, who has made all-Ireland cooperation a major plank of her
presidency since 1997, said the rise of Catholic-Protestant cooperation
meant Northern Ireland was enjoying "a fresh and energizing new spirit of
hope."
Paisley and McAleese met at the Somme Heritage Center, which honors the
sacrifices of British soldiers from Ireland in World War I, particularly
during the disastrous Somme offensive of 1916. The leaders jointly
launched an exhibition on the 16th Irish Division, which was recruited
largely from the Catholic south.
Paisley previously broke the ice at symbolic events with Irish Prime
Minister Bertie Ahern but until Monday had avoided McAleese, the
country's most high-profile diplomat.
Paisley refused to answer questions about tensions within the Free
Presbyterian Church of Ulster, the hard-line Protestant denomination he
founded in 1951. On Saturday, his office announced he would step down in
January as leader of the Free Presbyterians but gave no reason. Paisley
has yet to explain why he was ending his term.
His critics within the church - which rejects ecumenical contact with
Catholics - have demanded he go because of his newfound willingness to
share power with Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army-linked party that
represents most Catholics in Northern Ireland.
Protestants and Catholics fought together in British uniform in World War
I, although most Protestant troops joined the 36th Ulster Division. Many
demobilized Catholic soldiers joined the outlawed IRA upon their return
to Ireland, where a two-year guerrilla war led to Ireland's partition and
independence for the mostly Catholic south in 1922.
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