Foreign Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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German Court Convicts Man in 9/11 Attacks

Germany’s highest criminal court found Mounir el-Motassadeq guilty of abetting the murder of more than 200 people in the September 11, 2001, attacks in America, overturning part of a lower court’s decision. The Federal Court of Justice yesterday upheld the lower court’s ruling that Motassadeq, a 32-year-old Moroccan, was guilty of being a member of the Hamburg terror cell that participated in the attacks. Motassadeq’s seven-year jail sentence will be reassessed by the Hamburg Higher Regional Court. The maximum penalty he faces is 15 years in prison. “By assuming organizational tasks, he supported the attacks and made it easier for them to be carried out,” Judge Klaus Tolksdorf said in delivering the judgment in Karlsruhe. “He knew that one or more planes would be hijacked and crashed” and understood that people would be killed, the judge said.

— Bloomberg News

Iran Influence Is Expected To Surge In Palestinian Arab Areas

Iranian influence in the West Bank an Gaza is expected to surge after it was announced that Tehran has become the largest backer of the Palestinian Arab government, donating more than $118 million this year. Mahmoud Zahar, the foreign minister in the Hamas government, ending a visit to Tehran, said: “They have told us that they will provide more financial help.” It is feared the funds are part of a ploy byTehran to eliminate any possible chance of a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian Arab settlement.

— The Daily Telegraph

Iraqi Minister Says 80 Victims Are in Captivity

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq’s higher education minister said yesterday that as many as 80 victims from a mass kidnapping earlier this week remain in captivity, and that some of the 70 who have been freed were tortured. On Tuesday, gunmen disguised in the blue camouflage uniforms of police commandos raided the Higher Education Ministry in Karradah, a primarily Shiite area of downtown Baghdad, handcuffed scores of people and took them away in about 20 pickup trucks. Government officials have given varying numbers on how many people were abducted, ranging from a high of about 150 to a low of 40 to 50. They also have conflicted on how many captives have been freed, raising skepticism about the scope of the abduction as well as how the victims were treated.

— Associated Press

Pakistan Test-Fires Nuclear-Capable Missile

Pakistan successfully tested a nuclear capable ballistic missile yesterday, the second firing of such a weapon this year, the army said. The Ghauri missile, or HATF-5, has the capability of carrying warheads as far as 813 miles, the army said in a statement from the capital, Islamabad. “Pakistan believes in peace that comes from a position of strength and operational readiness,” Prime Minister Aziz, who watched the missile test, said. “Pakistan can be justifiably proud of its defense capability and the reliability of its nuclear deterrence.” Pakistan and India, both nuclear powers, have tested a series of missiles since 2002 when the two countries came close to a fourth war. Their foreign ministers Wednesday completed two days of talks as part of efforts since April 2003 to improve ties. The south Asian neighbors have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

— Bloomberg News

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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