WESTERN EUROPE

REPORTS: BRITISH THWART 9/11-STYLE TERROR ATTACKS LONDON – British security services thwarted planned September 11-style terror attacks on Heathrow Airport and skyscrapers in Canary Wharf, a financial district of London, according to two press reports. But the stories, which cited unidentified sources, did not say when or where the plots were uncovered, or how close they came to being carried out. The plans to crash planes into the two targets were among four or five attacks planned by terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, ITV News said last night and the Daily Mail newspaper reported in today’s editions. ITV News also said that British authorities had disrupted training programs for suicide pilots.

Officials at Britain’s Home Office and Metropolitan Police in London refused to comment. A spokesman at Prime Minister Blair’s Downing Street office said: “We never comment on security matters.” A year-and-a-half ago, British troops in armored vehicles surrounded Heathrow Airport. Mr. Blair’s government said that the action came in response to specific intelligence. Last summer, Pakistan gave British officials intelligence suggesting that Al Qaeda had plotted to attack Heathrow Airport. The information was found on the computers of two accused members of Osama bin Laden’s terror network arrested in Pakistan. The computers held images of Heathrow.

– Associated Press

ANGER AT ‘JFK ASSASSINATION’ GAME A computer game based on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in which the player simulates the actions of his killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, has outraged the late president’s family.

JFK Reloaded, created by Traffic Games, a Glasgow-based firm, was released yesterday to coincide with the 41st anniversary of the Dallas shooting. The company described it as an educational game designed to undermine conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination.

David Smith, a spokesman for Senator Kennedy, the late president’s brother, described the game as “despicable” but refused to say if any legal action was planned. Players aim to fire three shots at Kennedy’s motorcade from Oswald’s sixth-floor perch in the Texas School Book Depository. Points are awarded or subtracted according to how accurately the shots match the official version of events documented by the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination. Players can choose to see the results of their actions by pressing a “blood effects” option.

Traffic is offering a cash prize to the player who most closely replicates the scenario. Traffic’s managing director, Kirk Ewing, said, “We believe that the only thing we’re exploiting is new technology.” He said he sent Mr. Kennedy a letter before the game’s release and insisted his team had nothing but respect for the family.

– The Daily Telegraph

CENTRAL AFRICA

U.N. PROBES ALLEGED SEX ABUSE BY PEACEKEEPERS IN CONGO The United Nations is investigating 150 allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Congo, a disturbing sign that efforts to rid the so-called “blue helmets” of such misconduct in recent years haven’t worked, officials said yesterday.

The allegations include pedophilia, rape, and soliciting prostitutes, all claims that have been made against peacekeepers working under the U.N. mandate in the past, said the assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Jane Holl Lute. “It important that those missions be above reproach and adhere to a standard of condition which not only we have a right to expect, but the people in these circumstances themselves have a right to expect,” Ms. Holl Lute said.

The allegations in Congo started coming to light in the spring, and there is enough evidence in many of the cases for formal investigations, she said. Investigators are now checking the 15 other U.N. missions around the world to see how widespread the problem is. In recent years, the United Nations has tried to put more emphasis on training peacekeepers beforehand and re-emphasizing codes of conduct. But Ms. Holl Lute said those changes have not kept pace with the massive growth in peacekeeping missions, and their complexity – where soldiers often are deployed in highly volatile, lawless areas rather than manning clearly delineated truce lines.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

OFFICIALS: HOSTAGES IN AFGHANISTAN FREED KABUL, Afghanistan – Three U.N. workers kidnapped in Afghanistan have been released unharmed after more than three weeks in captivity, Afghan officials said today. The hostages were released late yesterday and are in good condition, three Afghan officials said on condition of anonymity. Armed men seized Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, British-Irish citizen Annetta Flanigan, and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo in Kabul on October 28, the first such abduction in the Afghan capital since the Taliban fell three years ago. Afghan officials earlier said they believed a criminal gang carried out the abductions, and that negotiations centered on a ransom demand.

News of the release came hours after American and Afghan forces raided two houses in downtown Kabul yesterday and detained 10 people in connection with the abductions. Most of the detainees were released after being questioned, an Afghan intelligence official said.

Afghan officials believe a criminal gang carried out the abductions, and that negotiations have centered on a ransom demand. But it remains unclear if the kidnappers are working for a Taliban-linked group that has claimed responsibility and demanded that Afghan and American authorities free jailed comrades.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

TURK TESTIFIES ABOUT BIN LADEN MEETING ISTANBUL, Turkey – An alleged Turkish Al Qaeda terrorist told a court yesterday that he met with Osama bin Laden and a top aide who proposed an attack in Turkey, but denied any involvement in last year’s suicide bombings in Istanbul. Baki Yigit told an Istanbul court that he and the suspected mastermind of the suicide bombings, Habib Akdas, met with Mr. bin Laden’s lieutenant, Abu Hafs al-Masri in Kandahar, Afghanistan, prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The trio discussed a variety of options for terrorist strikes in Turkey, Mr. Yigit testified. Yet when Mr. al-Masri first broached the idea of a possible attack in Turkey, Mr. Yigit said he and Mr. Akdas were opposed, saying they preferred to wage jihad like insurgents in Chechnya. He said Mr. al-Masri then suggested an attack on an Israeli ship at a port in the southern Mediterranean town of Alanya. Mr. Yigit said the two men considered the idea, but “no decision for an attack was taken as a result of this meeting.” He said he and Mr. Akdas also discussed the possibility of an attack against a prominent Turkish business group, but this was just a “conversation over tea.”

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN