Probe leads to detainees’ hotel
Police seize items owned by Americans held in Pakistan
KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistani police Monday seized luggage and a cell phone from a hotel where three of five Americans arrested on suspicion of militant links stayed, while a court ruled the men cannot be deported until judges review the case.
Police allege the young Americans intended to join militants in the northwest tribal areas and then travel to Afghanistan before their arrest last week. The case has fanned fears that Americans and other Westerners are heading to Pakistan to link up with al-Qaida and other militant groups.
Police searched the midrange Saddam Hotel in the southern city of Karachi, the country’s commercial hub, where some of the men stayed Nov. 30 after their arrival in the country. They found five travel bags containing clothes, a cell phone and a book, police official Abdullah Sheikh said.
Hotel manager Mohammed Farooq Khan said the three left the hotel without informing management.
The book was “The Pact,” the best-selling true story of three young men from broken homes who pledged to support each other as they pursue academic dreams.
The detainees are accused of trying to connect with extremist groups in Pakistan and are said to have established contact with a Taliban recruiter. They have not been charged with any crime.
The court order Monday was aimed at preventing any deportation before the judiciary gets a chance to review the case, court registrar Tahir Pervez said.
The court issued the order in response to a petition from Khalid Khawaja, a civil rights activist who has often filed court cases on behalf of suspected militants and people believed to have disappeared at the hands of Pakistan’s security apparatus.
Thousands celebrate founding of Hamas
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas mobilized tens of thousands of supporters on Monday for the organization’s 22nd anniversary rally meant to show the Islamic militant group has not lost support despite Israel’s devastating military assault on Gaza a year ago. The crowd responded with chants of “We won’t recognize Israel” to a fiery speech by Hamas’ prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, who said the movement scored a “divine victory” against the Jewish state and will not lay down its arms.
WORLD
Destination of N. Korean arms baffles Thai officials
BANGKOK — Thai authorities on Monday sought to unravel the mystery of the ultimate destination of a plane that landed in Bangkok with a huge cache of weapons from North Korea, exported in defiance of a U.N. embargo on arms from the communist state.
Military analysts said the arms were likely destined for African rebel groups or a rogue regime like Myanmar.
Thai officials impounded the transport plane Saturday and discovered what they said was 35 tons of explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, components for surface-to-air missiles and other armaments.
The plane’s manifest had described the cargo as oil-drilling equipment, and the crew said the plane was supposed to deliver its cargo to Sri Lanka.
The United States, which is particularly concerned about North Korea selling weapons and nuclear technology in the Middle East, reportedly tipped off Thai authorities to the illicit cargo, according to Thai media reports that the government and U.S. Embassy declined to comment on.
Japan base plan delay TOKYO — Media reports Tuesday said Japan has delayed until next year a decision on the relocation of a major U.S. military base on the island of Okinawa.
Kyodo News Agency said Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had put off a decision on the future of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, attributing unnamed government sources, while the mass circulation newspaper Asahi Shimbun said the decision had been postponed until May.
Spokesmen from the prime minister’s office, Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry could not confirm the reports.
The dispute over Futenma has strained ties between the two allies and trading partners, and the U.S. had hoped for a decision by year-end.
NATION
22 million e-mails from Bush White House found
WASHINGTON — Computer technicians have found 22 million missing White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush, and the Obama administration is searching for dozens more days’ worth of potentially lost e-mail from the Bush years, according to two groups that filed suit in 2007 over the failure by the Bush White House to install an electronic record keeping system.
The two private groups are Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.
It will be years before the public sees any of the recovered e-mails because they will now go through the National Archives’ process for releasing presidential and agency records.
Two federal laws require the White House to preserve its records.
Removal of wild horses
CARSON CITY, Nev. — The Bureau of Land Management approved the removal of 2,500 wild horses from the range near Reno on Monday as opposition grows to what would be one of the largest mustang roundups in Nevada in recent years.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., is to hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed to block the roundup planned for later this month. The gather is part of the BLM’s overall strategy to remove thousands of mustangs from public lands around the West and ship them to pastures in the East.
The BLM estimates about half of the 36,600 wild mustangs live in Nevada. It wants to reduce the overall population to what it considers an “appropriate management level” of 26,600.
Blue gems on display
WASHINGTON — Two of the world’s most famed blue diamonds will be on display together starting in January.
The 31.06-carat Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond will join the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on Jan. 28, the museum announced Monday.
It’s the first time in more than a half-century that the Wittelsbach gem has been on public display, and it will remain at the museum until Aug. 1.
Both diamonds first became known in the 17th century and scientists plan tests in hopes of learning if they came from the same mine in India where the Hope is known to have originated.
THE NUMBER: $154,380
The bid that secured an iron 40-step section of the Eiffel Tower’s original staircase Monday during an auction of Paris memorabilia. Organizers of the sale say the famed landmark’s designer, Gustave Eiffel, climbed the stairs during the 1889 inauguration of the monument to plant the French flag atop the tower.
