South Africa’s Somali refugee child stars fly to the Oscars

After narrowly winning a race against time to get extended refugee status, passports and visas, brothers Harun and Ali Mohammed are flying from Cape Town to Hollywood today for Sunday’s Academy Awards, where their film Asad will compete in the Best Short Film category.

The Somali refugee child stars will be accompanied by their father, Mahdi Hassan Mohamed, and will meet up in Los Angeles with Rafiq Samsodien, Asad’s South African producer, who’s had sleepless nights making the trip happen.

Speaking at Tuesday’s double screening of the Western Cape’s two Oscar-nominated films, Asad and the Rodriguez documentary Searching for Sugarman, Rafiq said, “I haven’t slept in 24 hours. I’ve been trying to get these guys extended refugee status documents, passports, and visas, which is not an easy task.

Arranging this trip has been the biggest production of my life: what we’ve managed to achieve in three weeks would normally take four years, so I need to thank Minister Naledi Pandor, The Department of Home Affairs and the American embassy for coming through for us.”

Written and directed by acclaimed American commercials director Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man, Asad is set in a war-torn fishing village in Somalia and follows a 12-year-old boy who must decide between falling into the pirate life and rising above it to become an honest fisherman.

Asad has scooped awards from 13 festivals around the world and has just received a glowing endorsement for Nobel Prize winner and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

Tutu says, “South Africa is a relatively young democracy only recently emerged from the shackles of tyranny and prejudice. We have much to learn and we also have much to teach. Asad is at once a painful reminder of the xenophobia that shamefully still exists in South Africa and a heartwarming tribute to our special ability as members of the human family to heal ourselves.”

The short film was sparked in part by a United Nations short documentary, No Autographs, which brought Buckley and his producer Mino Jarjoura to refugee camps in Kenya and Sudan in the summer of 2010.

Filming in Somalia would have been too dangerous, so the short was brought to Rafiq and The Asylum (now Egg Films Service) to shoot in Paternoster in the Western Cape.

Spoken in Somali with English subtitles, Asad stars an all-refugee cast, headed by Harun (14) and Ali (12). The brothers reside just outside Cape Town with their parents and 13 brothers and sisters. Before filming started, neither Harun nor Ali spoke English, so Buckley and Jarjoura had to deploy a translator. The boys had also never attended school, so they were illiterate and had to memorize their lines without a script or written point of reference.

“These two kids were diamonds in the rough,” Rafiq says. “But if you’ve seen the performances, they shine much brighter than any diamond I have ever seen in my entire life.”

Tutu agrees. “The young Somali actors Harun and Ali Mohamed are the stars of a compelling show. They are also real life stars in an inspirational South African story about hope and reconciliation. So are the filmmakers – South African Rafiq Samsodien and the US partners Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura. Before Asad the children had never attended school; now, thanks to the director, they have received catch-up private tuition and enrolled in a home school system. They are being equipped to contribute to our shared South African future. Their film has been nominated to receive an Oscar. They deserve two Oscars: one for the creative endeavor and the other for contributing to our collective understanding of our dependence on one another.”

All prize money Asad receives from festivals goes towards the boys’ school expenses. Since March 2012, the boys have progressed from illiteracy to excelling in the fourth grade, in English.

Rafiq thanked everyone who made the children’s trip to the Oscars possible, including Melanie Mahona at The Provincial Government of The Western Cape, Nils Flaatten at Wesgro, The City of Cape Town, Myatt International, Woolworths, Dr. Anwar Nagiah, Marcel Golding, Tahir Salie, Munier Parker and Oryx Media, and The National Film and Video Foundation, who are sponsoring the flights and accommodation, among other costs.

The Academy Awards take place on 24 February 2012 at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

For more information, visit http://www.asadfilm.com/.

You can watch and embed the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq6aJ7_8tcc.

UK : Met police will prosecute parents who send their girls abroad for FGM

People who book flights to send girls abroad for genital mutilation operations will face prosecution in a new Met attempt to bring offenders to justice. Scotland Yard chiefs say that parents, relatives and others who arrange transport and surgery will be targeted for criminal action as child abusers as detectives step up their efforts to combat the illegal practice.

Nimci Ali

The police move was revealed as a parliamentary hearing was warned that large numbers of girls aged as young as six are being sent from London to Africa  for genital surgery which leaves them with painful and life-changing injuries.

It came as the Met disclosed that it is close to bringing the first British prosecution for female genital mutilation after receiving nearly 150 reports of cases involving girls in the capital already “cut” or at risk of surgery.

Giving evidence to MPs, Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Niven, the head of Scotland Yard’s child abuse command, said “a number of difficulties” had prevented prosecutions so far, but warned that parents and others who organised mutilation would face criminal charges as the Met improved its evidence-gathering methods.

“The people that commit the crimes are people that perform the act and the people that arrange for that to take place,” he said.

“So the parents would be liable to criminal prosecution, as would the people who book the flights, as would the people that ensure the transition of that process.”

Mr Niven, who was appearing before the Commons international development select committee, said one person suspected of preparing to send a child abroad for a genital operation was arrested days ago, and “clear” evidence of a crime was found in another case over which his officers are now seeking to bring charges.

He added: “The child was in care and came forward and disclosed that the crime had taken place. We were able to go ahead, gain the evidence and the evidence has been very clear. The individual has now got concerns about taking that to the next stage and that’s about reassurance and about engagement with the Crown Prosecution Service which we are about to do. Prosecution will send a very clear message. It is child abuse.”

Female genital mutilation, or FGM, which is  practised in Africa and other parts of the world, involves the removal of parts or all of a girl’s clitoris and labia. It is illegal in Britain because of the lasting damage that it causes.

Efua Dorkenoo, a London director of the charity Equality Now, said some older girls were being “cut” to stop them becoming “too Westernised”.

But she warned that most victims  were of primary school age. “Most FGM is done to kids under the age of 10,” she told the MPs.

Mr Niven said the Met was now trying to win support from faith leaders and others within affected communities to stop the abuse. He said work was also being carried out with schools and health staff to identify those at risk and that further efforts were being made to give victims the confidence to alert police to their plight.

Flashbacks from smell of Dettol
Nimco Ali was taken to Somalia for female genital mutilation by her mother when she was seven. The procedure was performed in a hospital and to this day the smell of Dettol still gives Ms Ali flashbacks.

The civil servant, 29, from west London, said: “It’s bizarre because my mother is a feminist, believes women should be educated and independent.

“But she still thinks that female genital mutiliation (FGM) is part of what it is to be a woman, she did her best to legitimise the pain. I was told it was a normal thing that would help me to grow up.”

Ms Ali, a founder of the Daughters of Eve FGM campaign group, added: “London is now the capital of Europe where FGM is happening. It’s happening in people’s houses, clinics, with struck-off doctors.”

Mark Blunden

Evening Standard

Fugitive likely in Somalia

By Jennifer O'Brien, The London Free Press

A Toronto man who skipped town after a downtown London shooting spree is likely in Somalia, police say.

With all clues pointing to Africa, police have taken Ahmed Moalin-Mohamed from the Most Wanted section of their website — more than six years after the shocking shootout that sent four people to hospital and could have been much worse.


Investigators have reached out to international police forces, said London Police Const. Ken Steeves.


“We have reason to believe he is in Somalia,” he said. “We have contacted the UK., the U.S., Kenya, the Netherlands and Somalia, through Interpol” Steeves said.


Moalin-Mohamed, born in Somalia, faces 13 charges, including attempted murder in relation to the shooting just before 3 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2006. At that time, someone pulled a gun out and started shooting in what was then a parking lot at Richmond and Carling streets.


Jermaine Weeks, Doug Vaneau, Bryan Jones and Joseph Cosmo were hit.


Police arrested Moalin-Mohamed, then 23, and charged him with 13 offences, but he was released on bail to his parents custody shortly after. Moalin-Mohamed was a no-show for his next court appearance and hasn’t been seen in London since.

Somali robber sues UK

By CHRIS POLLARD - The Sun - AN asylum seeker with a string of criminal convictions is suing the Government — claiming its bid to deport him gave him NIGHTMARES.

Abdirahman Ajab

Somali Abdirahman Ajab wants £50,000 compensation for his “mental problems” after being held at an immigration centre for eight months while his case was considered.


Amazingly, despite Ajab, 30, having convictions for robbery and false imprisonment, a High Court judge let him stay.

He was jailed again for armed robbery but fought off another deportation bid last year and was given a flat in Tower Hamlets, East London.

When The Sun approached him at his home, he said: “The Government have been doing me bad for years. It’s giving me mental problems. It’s given me nightmares. They owe me, man.”

Ajab, who has lived in the UK since 1996, said he would use any compo to buy land in Somalia. He insists he wants to go back there but claims the Government is stopping him.

But a Home Office source said: “He’s more than welcome to leave.”

Xildhibaanadii Golaha Deegaanka Saylac iyo Lughaya ee Beesha Ciise oo is wada casilay

Warar Hordhac ah oo Waaheen ka soo gaadhaya Degmadda Saylac ayaa sheegaya toban Xildhibaan oo Golaha Deegaanka Saylac iyo Lughaya uga soo baxay beesha Ciise doorashadii muranka badan dhalisay inay is wada casileen.

Is casilaada Xildhibaanadan ayaa ka dhalatay kadib markii ay dhawaan qaar ka mid ah Xildhibaanadaasi shir wada tashi ah magaaladda Diridhaba kula soo yeesheen Ugaaska Beeshaasi oo fadhigiisu yahay Itoobiya.

Talaabadan ay qaadeen Xildhibaanadii Golaha Deegaanka Saylac iyo Lughaya oo Toddoba ka mid ahi ay ka soo baxeen Saylac, sadexda kalena ay ka soo baxeen Lughaya ayaa noqonaysa mid saamaynteeda leh iyada oo ay Beesha Ciise cabashooyin badan hore uga muujin jirtay inaanay Wakiilo ku lahayn Golayaasha Sharci dajinta gaar ahaana Golaha Wakiiladda oo ay beeshu doorashadii ka hadhay.

Ma cada talaabada xigta ee ay qaadi dooonaan Beesha Ciise hase yeeshee sida ay Ilo wareedyo u dhuun daloolaa sheegeen waxa la filayaa in ay Xilka ka tagi doonaan Xildhibaanada Golaha Guurtida kaga jira iyo Hal ka Xildhibaan ee kaga jira Golaha Wakiiladda.

Xukuumadda Somaliland ayaa xal u weyday xalinta khilaafka ka taagan Doorashadii Golaha Deegaanka Saylac, waxaanay taasi sababtay in ay go’aan qaadato Beesha Ciise

Short URL: http://waaheen.com/?p=60325

Genocide Trial Against Former Guatemala President General Ríos Montt to Start

The Center for Justice & Accountability will support the prosecution

On January 31, 2013, in a historic step, Guatemalan Judge Miguel Angel Galvez has decided to send to trial the case against former general Efrain Ríos Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Mayan people, specifically the Ixil indigenous people. In the next few days, the prosecutors and the lawyers for the victims will present to the court their evidence and full list of witnesses.  During a trial that could last as long as three months, more than 150 survivors of the genocide are expected to testify. Culminating the tremendous Guatemalan and international justice effort to date, the legal strategy on behalf of the victims will include all the Guatemalan and international expert witness testimony and other evidence prepared by the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) for the Guatemalan Genocide case before the Spanish National Court.  The trial will begin on January 31, 2013. 

In 2006 and after all the efforts in Guatemala to obtain justice for the victims failed, a pioneer effort led by CJA’s international attorney resulted in the creation of an international legal team that strategized and worked together on pleadings before both the Spanish and Guatemalan courts, and most importantly developed evidence with an eye on both, to sufficiently prove the genocide before the Spanish court and to serve future justice efforts in Guatemala. During more than five years, over 40 survivors testified in Spain; CJA’s team prepared at least 12 expert witness-testimony reports from both Guatemalan and international professionals. We are proud to state today that all the work done by CJA’s team was always aimed at one goal, to advance and support a trial for Genocide before the Guatemalan courts. We celebrate this news and congratulate the diligence and perseverance of the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office, as we prepare to work with our Guatemalan friends on everything they will need in the next few weeks.

About Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA):

CJA is a San Francisco-based human rights organization dedicated to deterring torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world and advancing the rights of survivors to seek truth, justice and redress.  CJA uses litigation to hold perpetrators individually accountable for human rights abuses, develop human rights law, and advance the rule of law in countries transitioning from periods of abuse.  For more information please visit www.cja.org.

Somaliland: 54 Terror Suspects Netted in Security Operation

Somaliland Security forces have conducted massive overnight raids for the past two nights arresting a few dozen people.

The security forces in the capital had last night imposed a curfew raid in which the Rapid Reaction unit popular known as the RRU by locals headed the search which was centered in Ahmed Dhagax suburb of Hargeisa.

Security Personnel blocked all major roads in the city stopping and randomly searching both civilians and motorist alike.

Security forces surrounded a Hotel were unspecified number of men suspected to be affiliated with Al shabaab militants were  staying, a firefight erupted when they realized that they were about to be detained.

Two suspects  affiliated to Al Shabaab were later arrested at the Hotel while a third believed to be armed and dangerous escaped in the ensuing firefight which is believed to have lasted more than half hours while others are still at large.

A policeman who agreed to talk to Somalilandpress on condition we won't reveal his identity, said more than 54 people suspected to have entered the country illegally from neighboring Somalia were netted in the last night operation.

Relatives of those arrested by security forces had gathered at the Hargeisa Central Police Headquarters to enquire about those detained.

Earlier this week Somaliland security forces arrested the son of prominent opposition leader in Las Anod and a woman after foreign secret services tipped off local police, the duo are suspected have links with two other suspects arrested also in Las Anod a fortnight ago and are believed to be involved in the cold blood killing of the grant Mufti of Garowe recently.

Ethiopia: another false prophet from the north?

Is it Abune Matias or Abune Samuel? (By Getahune Bekele, South Africa)

“The church is Noah’s ark and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood overwhelms all…”

(The Cappadocia fathers, 376 AD)


Abune Samuel of Tigray, still the main TPLF candidate as the 6^th patriarch?

One of the first Christian nations with more than 60 references in the bible, a refined and purified church made up of  people united to their priest and the flock that cleaves to its shepherd; with unique theology, traditions and customs in the land of Prester John- Ethiopia, where priestly dignity transcends  royal or political powers.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido church is no ordinary church but those which the apostles themselves established and governed from the ancient imperial city of Alexandria.
However, since the internal colonization of Ethiopia began in May 1991, the very same church was handed over blind folded and hand cuffed to a man called Aba Pawlos, the supreme ruler of darkness who was dethroned by untimely death in 2012.

After his death, an ungodly warlord known as Abbay Tsehaye (pictured) took over, cutting up and destroying the most revered doctrine developed in accordance with the tradition of the gospel.

Currently, Abbay is running the circus of electing new Patriarch at his pleasure and on his
authority. Either Abune Matias of Jerusalem or Abune Samuel (both Tigres) are expected to win with the ruling minority junta’s support.
  
But not a single soul in the land of Abyssinia accepts Aba Samuel or Abune Matias as disciples of the cross. To the faithful all Tigre bishops are symbols of long standing feuds in the criminal TPLF run synod of Addis Ababa which is tearing to shreds the seamless robe of the lord. Millions want them to be excommunicated and debarred from communion for dragging the undefiled and immortal spiritual mother’s name through the mud for 21 years along with other members of Abbay Teshaye’s unholy synod.

Aba Samuel is a Pernicious evil that already immersed himself in TPLF’s demonic business of wickedly disguised breach of faith, extremely arrogant and proud, he is considered the high priest of the semi- pagan Tigray kingdom who by perfidy, robbery and murder  continues to govern the church; striving to dominate Ethiopians with cupidity and intolerable presumption

In the past 21 years the clannish Tigre priesthood used banishment and death as main weapons to force absolute obedience out of the non- Tigre clergy and the laity, showing no clemency to those who defy them. Ethiopians will never forget how the incomparable religious scholar Aleka Ayalew Tamiru was made to suffer great hardship and die destitute in captivity. Moreover, the violent arrest and torture of Adebabaye Iesuse’s spiritual warrior, Aba Amha Eyesus is still fresh in our memory.


And when all these grave crimes were committed by Patriarch-cum-gunman the late Aba Pawlos, all these Tigray fathers, Aba Samuel, Aba Lukas and Abune Matias were there.
Born in Tigray republic’s Shire Endasilassie area as Tekestebirhan Wolde-Samuel (now Abune Samuel) some 50 years ago, a dear friend of the dead tyrant Meles Zenawi and a trusted ally of sadist Tigray republic president Abbay Woldu, the replica of the dead fake patriarch Aba Pawlos of Tigre; another false prophet is about to become the 6^th patriarch of the ancient faith against the most sacred laws of the fathers and the divine canon of the church.

Aba Samuel has already exposed himself to the assaults of the adversary through his unbounded lust for leadership. He suddenly began to rave in a kind of ecstatic trance, and to babble in a jargon, acting in a manner contrary to the custom of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church which had been handed down by tradition from the earliest times.
A well known backslider and compromiser who spearheaded the synod of scheming bishops to dismantle the historic Waldiba monastery, is Aba Samuel fit to lead the matured Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the oldest institution in the world at the age of just 50?
Some who heard his evil, demented, absurd and irresponsible utterances of saying “after five we say six, not four.” already rebuked him as devil incarcerate, remembering the lord’s warning to guard vigilantly against the coming of false prophets.
  
By saying “after five we say six”, the irreverent behemoth was suggesting that after the death of the fifth patriarch electing the sixth is the only way to go. “Not four” represents the stance of the minority junta that the legally elected fourth patriarch, his holiness Abune Merkoreyos who was forced into exile 21 years ago won’t be allowed to make a triumphant return to the throne of St Markos.

And if Abune Samuel or Abune Matias succeeds to become the 6^th patriarch, it means the wishes of those who were beseeching the fathers with tears to break the chains of the devil by wisely and sensitively restoring the church to unity will never come to fruition.

Carefully groomed for more than a decade by the lawless TPLF heathen, the throne vacated by the death of the late Aba Paulos has already been given to Abune Samuel or to Abune Matias. What is left for them to do is just go through sub-rosa election before the junta officially declares one of them ‘winner?’.

What then shall Ethiopia’s pious priesthood and the laity do when the canon of 318 holy fathers assembled at Nicaea and confirmed by 150 most esteemed bishops who in like manner met at Constantinople, being abused and violated by the minority junta for the second time in 21 years?

It is time to break the back bone of fear and confront the junta in the only language it understands.

The warlords and their fake clerics who vainly beguile themselves, not being at peace with God’s people, approach the church by stealth and by under hand means just to continue practicing their vile trade of slowly destroying both the historic nation and the historic faith must be smashed by popular uprising now.

If we Ethiopians still believe that our churches is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, then let’s stops grieving for eternity and remove the four-footed devil from its throne with utmost determination.

Our church is one and cannot be rent or sundered, but should assuredly be bound together and united by the glue of the clergy who are in great harmony with the almighty. Hence Ethiopians demand the return of the sole patriarch Abune Merkoreyos, a vigorous champion of Ethiopiawenet, to Addis Ababa.

Rise up Ethiopia!

Iran denies it captured a foreign 'enemy drone'

Iran's Revolutionary Guard denied Sunday that it had captured a foreign unmanned drone during a military exercise, despite Iranian media reports to the contrary.

Gen. Hamid Sarkheili told Iranian media that Guard experts took control of one unmanned aircraft's navigation system and brought it down near the city of Sirjan where the military drills began on Saturday.

"While probing signals in the area, we spotted foreign and enemy drones which attempted to enter the area of the war game," the official IRNA news agency quoted the general as saying. "We were able to get one enemy drone to land."

But a spokesman for the Guard, Yasin Hasanali, told The Associated Press that the drone was actually being used during the drill as a supposed enemy aircraft.

Iran has claimed to have captured several U.S. drones, including an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone in December 2011 and at least three ScanEagle aircraft.

Earlier this month, Iran said it had broadcast footage on state TV allegedly extracted from the Sentinel after it entered Iranian airspace near the border with Afghanistan.

After initially saying only that a drone had been lost near the Afghan-Iran border, American officials eventually confirmed the Sentinel had been monitoring Iran's military and nuclear facilities. Washington asked for it back but Iran refused, and instead released photos of Iranian officials studying the aircraft.

In November, Iran claimed that the U.S. drone had violated its airspace. The Pentagon said the aircraft, which came under fire but was not hit, was over international waters.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Afghan president orders US special forces to leave province over torture-related allegations

Feb 24, 2013: A security official stands guard the scene of a suicide car bomb attack which killed and injured several people at the National Directorate of Security in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (AP)

Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan –  Afghanistan's president on Sunday ordered all U.S. special forces to leave a strategically important eastern province within two weeks because of allegations that Afghans working with them are torturing and abusing other Afghans.

The decision seems to have caught the coalition and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, a separate command, by surprise. Americans have frequently drawn anger from the Afghan public over issues ranging from Qurans burned at a U.S. base to allegations of civilian killings.

"We take all allegations of misconduct seriously and go to great lengths to determine the facts surrounding them," the U.S. forces said in a statement.

Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said the decision to order the American special forces to leave Wardak province was taken during a meeting of the National Security Council because of the alleged actions of Afghans who are considered linked to the U.S. special forces.

He said all special forces operations were to cease immediately in the restive province next to Kabul, which is viewed as a gateway to the capital and has been the focus of counterinsurgency efforts in recent years.

The Taliban have staged numerous attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in the province. In August 2011, insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing 30 American troops, mostly elite Navy SEALs, in Wardak. The crash was the single deadliest loss for U.S. forces in the war.

Afghan forces have taken the lead in many such special operations, especially so-called night raids.

"Those Afghans in these armed groups who are working with the U.S. special forces, the defense minister asked for an explanation of who they are," Faizi said. "Those individuals should be handed over to the Afghan side so that we can further investigate."

A statement the security council issued in English said the armed individuals have allegedly been "harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people."

Ceasing all such operations could have a negative impact on the coalition's campaign to go after Taliban leaders and commanders, who are usually the target of such operations.

Faizi said the issue had already been brought up with the coalition.

The U.S. statement said only that the announcement was "an important issue that we intend to fully discuss with our Afghan counterparts. But until we have had a chance to speak with senior Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officials about this issue, we are not in a position to comment further."

Also Sunday, a series of attacks in eastern Afghanistan showed insurgents remain on the offensive even as U.S. and other international forces prepare to end their combat mission by the end of 2014.

Suicide bombers targeted Afghanistan's intelligence agency and other security forces in four coordinated attacks in the heart of Kabul and outlying areas in a bloody reminder of the insurgency's reach nearly 12 years into the war.

The brazen assaults, which occurred within a three-hour timespan, were the latest to strike Afghan forces, who have suffered higher casualties this year as U.S. and other foreign troops gradually take a back seat and shift responsibility for security to the government.

The deadliest attack occurred just after sunrise -- a suicide car bombing at the gate of the National Directorate of Security compound in Jalalabad, 78 miles east of Kabul.

Guards shot and killed the driver but he managed to detonate the explosives-packed vehicle, killing two intelligence agents and wounding three others, according to a statement by the intelligence agency. Provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai confirmed the casualty toll and said the building was damaged in the attack.

A guard also shot and killed a man in an SUV filled with dynamite that was targeting an NDS building on a busy street in Kabul, not far from NATO headquarters. The explosives in the back of the vehicle were defused. Blood stained the driver's seat and the ground where security forces dragged out the would-be attacker.

Shortly before the Jalalabad attack, a suicide attacker detonated a minivan full of explosives at a police checkpoint in Pul-i-Alam on the main highway between Kabul and Logar province. One policeman was killed and two others were wounded, along with a bystander, according to the NDS.

Also in Logar province, which is due south of Kabul, a man wearing a suicide vest was stopped by police as he tried to force his way into the police headquarters for Baraki Barak district, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, the provincial government spokesman. The attacker detonated his vest while being searched, wounding one policeman, according to Darwesh and the NDS.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the Jalalabad attack and two others in the eastern province of Logar in an email to reporters. He did not address the attempted assault in Kabul.

Somalis using fake passports on Turkish airline

By ABDI GULED — Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalis aided by human traffickers are using fake passports to board the Mogadishu-to-Istanbul flight as a way to flee to Europe, a Somali official and Turkish Airlines said.

Turkish Airline last year became the first international airline to fly direct to Mogadishu after two decades of conflict isolated the East African nation. Somalia's government said that Somali asylum seekers are using fake passports that belong to Somali-Europeans smuggling networks to get to Europe by flying out of the country on Turkish Airlines.

"After the city got some stability, human traffickers returned with scams," said Gen. Abdullahi Gafow Mohamud, Somalia's immigration and naturalization department chief. "The problem increased when Turkish Airlines started operating here. Somalis in Europe are increasingly using fake passports to smuggle people illegally into Europe."

Mohamud said Somali officials caught three people using fake passports last week. He accused Somalis in Europe of being part of the scam. Residents in Somalia pay thousands of dollars for the use of the false passports.

"They look for people with similar features, so that they give their passports to them to assist the person to get to Europe unnoticed. We can't ignore it anymore," he said.

Mohamud showed reporters bundles of fake passports he said were used by human traffickers.

Turkish Airlines confirmed that such scams are happening. Merve Oruc, a spokesman for the airline, said in an email that the airline is experiencing "some problems" with fake passports.

"And because of it, (the) visa department of our subsidiary, Turkish Ground Services, goes to Mogadishu for each flight and works together there with Immigration Office," Oruc wrote.

The Somali government is concerned the smuggling scams could lead to the stoppage of the Istanbul-Mogadishu flight. Oruc said the airline has no plans to discontinue the flight.

Since African Union forces ousted al-Shabab fighters from Mogadishu about 18 months ago, a relative peace has returned to the war-battered city, creating a new sense of hope and opportunity in the seaside city.

At the height of violence in Somalia thousands of Somalis fled across the Gulf of Aden into Yemen ever year and dozens perished at sea while trying to cross the Red Sea in rickety boats. Despite the new, relative peace, many Somalis are still trying to flee to Europe or North America.

Human traffickers are banking on the relatively weak Somali passport security to pass through the system unnoticed. World governments rarely grant visas to Somali passport holders, leading many Somalis to believe that an illegal human trafficking route is their only way to get to Europe.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/02/22/2462013/somalis-using-fake-passports-on.html#storylink=cpy

Four Somalis in U.S. found guilty of supporting terrorists back home

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

                                                  STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• San Diego jury convicts four Somalis after hearing recorded phone calls with terror leader

• Federal agents record dozens of calls over months

• Prosecutor: They talked about "bullets, bombings and Jihad"

• The defendants said the conversations were about charity for orphans

(CNN) -- A Somali terror leader implored his fellow countryman in California to send money 'to finance jihad," triggering a chain of events that ended with four convictions.

U.S. government agents recorded dozens of such calls a few years ago, according to the Department of Justice.

And on Friday, a jury found four Somali nationals guilty of supporting terrorism in their native country.

The verdict came after prosecutors played the recordings to jurors in a San Diego federal court during weeks of trial.

The four, who included an imam and a cab driver, had raised $10,000 and wired it to the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab, according to the original indictment.

Cab driver Basaaly Saeed Moalin had many phone conversations with former Al-Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayrow, before a U.S. missile strike ended the latter's life in May 2008.

Investigators from the FBI, Homeland Security and a San Diego anti-terror agency recorded dozens of them.

Federal prosecutors filed charges in November 2011. The group pleaded not guilty. But the recordings convinced the jurors otherwise.

Read the case file (pdf)

The money wasn't coming fast enough for Ayrow, who implored Moalin in at least one recorded call to hurry it up. "You are running late with the stuff," Ayrow told him. "Send some, and something will happen."

Ayrow pushed the cab driver to get his local imam to come up with some funds. Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud ran the City Heights mosque in San Diego, which many in the Somali community attended.

Together with a second cab driver, Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud, and an employee at a money transfer company, Issa Doreh, they raised the cash and wired it to Al-Shabaab , the Justice Department said.

It wasn't the only favor Moalin did for the terror group.

Moalin had kept a house in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, one of the world's most embattled cities at the time. He offered to let the terrorists use it, the Department of Justice said.

"After you bury your stuff deep in the ground, you would, then, plant trees on top," Moalin told Ayrow in a recorded conversation. Prosecutors argued he was "offering a place to hide weapons."

For months, they talked about "bullets, bombing and Jihad," said U. S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy. After hearing the recordings, the jury no longer bought the defendants' explanation that they "were actually conversations about their charitable efforts for orphans and schools," she said.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 16.

Al-Shabaab is one of about 50 groups that have been designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations.

The Islamist extremists have been waging a war against Somalia's government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or sharia.

In recent years, Somali and African Union troops, who have received funding from the U.S. government, have won many battles against the terror group, pushing it back to a handful of strongholds.

For more than 20 years, Somalia did not have a stable government, and fighting between the rebels and government troops added to the impoverished east African nation's humanitarian crisis.

In January, the United States granted official recognition to the Somali government in Mogadishu.

EXCITING NEWS: First Head of State Ever on Trial before the International Criminal Court

Laurent Gbagbo, former Ivorian leader

When former Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo stepped into court on Tuesday, he became the first former head of state ever to appear before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Gbagbo faces hearings on charges that include four counts of crimes against humanity, including responsibility for mass murder and rape, allegedly committed during post-electoral violence in the territory of Côte d’Ivoire in 2010 and 2011.

Click here to read Alpha Sesay, our legal officer in The Hague, who looks at the issue of the credibility of the International Criminal Court at this critical moment.

Against this background, it is extremely important for the court to get it right in the Gbagbo case.

As with the trial of Charles Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, credible proceedings in Gbagbo’s case will reaffirm that leaders, however powerful, can be brought to account if they are accused of being involved in the commission of serious crimes.

Gbagbo is only one of three former heads of state to become a subject of an ICC arrest warrant and proceedings (see our briefing paper on the background to the case here). The court issued arrest warrants for Sudan’s Omar Al-Bashir in 2009, and for Muammar Qaddafi, then president of Libya, in 2011. With Al-Bashir yet to be arrested and Qaddafi killed by a Libyan mob, Gbagbo became the first head of state to be brought into the court’s custody.

The proceedings against Gbagbo come at an important stage in the development of the ICC, which has now been in existence for 10 years, and which now has a new team of prosecutors, led by Fatou Bensouda. The court is also reviewing its performance during its first decade, which produced only two verdicts: one of them a conviction following a trial that was marked by missteps, the other an acquittal.

In its first case, that of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, judges threatened to release the accused on two different occasions. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to a 14-year jail term. Another Congolese warlord Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui was recently acquitted and released, after a trial that lasted three years.

Other prosecutions have also faced challenges. In early 2012, judges confirmed charges against only four out of six prominent Kenyans, including the country’s deputy prime minister and current presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta. Several challenges have delayed the commencement of trials for two warlords from Darfur; former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba’s trial is still in progress.

Against this background, it is extremely important for the court to get it right in the Gbagbo case, which brings with it its own challenges.

So far, only one faction in the Ivorian conflict (Gbagbo and his wife) have become subjects of ICC arrest warrants. However, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented massacres and atrocities carried out by the forces of current President Alassane Ouattara in March, 2011, in the campaign that eventually led to Gbagbo being pushed out of power with the assistance of the French military. These atrocities included a massacre in western town of Duékoué, where HRW says “pro-Ouattara forces committed horrific abuses, killing several hundred people.” These abuses have yet to be properly investigated or prosecuted in Ivory Coast.

The court’s previous prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, indicated publicly that his office was investigating all sides to the conflict, and that arrest warrants would be issued in a sequential order. This, he explained, meant going after different factions and individuals at different times. While there might be legitimate reasons for applying sequencing in the Ivory Coast situation, such an open-ended sequencing, coupled with a failure to effectively explain this process to affected communities in Ivory Coast, will create the perception that the court’s investigations are one-sided.

This criticism is one that the court must work to avoid.

The new prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has indicated on numerous occasions that she will only be led by the evidence. Beyond Laurent and Simone Gbagbo, if her investigations lead her to others who are alleged to have been involved in the commission of serious crimes, irrespective of the sides they took in the conflict, they must be made to account for their actions before a credible judicial process. The prosecutor should only be prevented in this regard if there are credible efforts to ensure there is accountability at the domestic level.

As with the trial of Charles Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, credible proceedings in Gbagbo’s case will reaffirm that leaders, however powerful, can be brought to account if they are accused of being involved in the commission of serious crimes.

Vatican blasts 'false' media reports ahead of pope election

The Vatican is lashing out at the media for what it says has been a run of defamatory and false reports -- which center around corruption within the Catholic Church -- before the conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI's successor.

Italian newspapers have been rife with unsourced reports in recent days about the contents of a secret dossier prepared for the pope by three cardinals who investigated the origins of the 2012 scandal over leaked Vatican documents.

The reports have suggested the revelations in the dossier, given to Benedict in December, were a factor in his decision to resign. The pope himself has said merely that he doesn't have the "strength of mind and body" to carry on and would resign Feb. 28.

La Repubblica, a top Italian newspaper, reported that Pope Benedict XVI decided to resign on Dec. 17 -- the day he received the dossier from the cardinals.

The cardinals investigating the leak questioned dozens of Vatican officials and concluded that those at the top of the church were corrupted by rival factions, the New York Post reports.

“Everything revolves around the non-observance of the Sixth and Seventh Commandments,” the report said, according to La Repubblica.

The reference to “Thou shall not steal” refers to alleged pilfering of the Vatican bank, while “Thou shall not commit adultery” refers to homosexuality, the New York Post reports, citing La Repubblica's report.

Italian news weekly Panorama claimed gay encounters involving one faction took place at a Roman sauna, the New York Post reports.

The Vatican says the reports are an attempt to influence the election.

On Saturday, a day before Benedict's final Sunday blessing in St. Peter's Square, the Vatican secretariat of state said the Catholic Church has for centuries insisted on the independence of its cardinals to freely elect their pope — a reference to episodes in the past when kings and emperors vetoed papal contenders or prevented cardinals from voting outright.

"If in the past, the so-called powers, i.e., States, exerted pressures on the election of the pope, today there is an attempt to do this through public opinion that is often based on judgments that do not typically capture the spiritual aspect of the moment that the church is living," the statement said.

"It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave ... that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions."

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi was asked how specifically the media was trying to influence the outcome; Lombardi didn't respond directly, saying only that the reports have tended to paint the Curia in a negative light "beyond the considerations and serene evaluations" of problems that cardinals might discuss before the conclave.

Some Vatican watchers have speculated that because the Vatican bureaucracy is heavily Italian, cardinals might be persuaded to elect a non-Italian, non-Vatican-based cardinal as pope to try to impose some reform on the Curia.

While Lombardi has said the reports "do not correspond to reality," the pope and some of his closest collaborators have recently denounced the dysfunction in the Apostolic Palace.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, for example, criticized the "divisions, dissent, careerism, jealousies" that afflict the Vatican bureaucracy. He made the comments Friday, the penultimate day of the Vatican's weeklong spiritual exercises that were attended by the pope and other officials. Ravasi, himself a papal contender, was chosen by Benedict to deliver daily meditations and on Saturday Benedict praised him for his "brilliant" work.

The divisions Ravasi spoke of were exposed by the documents taken from the pope's study by his butler and then leaked by a journalist. The documents revealed the petty wrangling, corruption and cronyism and even allegations of a gay plot at the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

The three cardinals who investigated the theft had wide-ranging powers to interview even cardinals to get to the bottom of the dynamics within the Curia that resulted in the gravest Vatican security breach in modern times.

Benedict too has made reference to the divisions in recent days, deploring in his final Mass as pope on Ash Wednesday how the church is often "defiled" by attacks and divisions from within. Last Sunday, he urged its members to overcome "pride and egoism."

On Saturday, in his final comments to the Curia, Benedict lamented the "evil, suffering and corruption" that have defaced God's creation. But he also thanked the Vatican bureaucrats for having helped him "bear the burden" of his ministry with their work, love and faith these past eight years.

The Vatican's attack on the media echoed its response to previous scandals, where it has tended not to address the underlying content of accusations, but has diverted attention away. During the 2010 explosion of sex abuse scandals, the Vatican accused the media of trying to attack the pope; during the 2012 leaks scandal, it accused the media of sensationalism without addressing the content of the leaked documents.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.