3/25/2012

Militia storms hotel in Libya after guest told to pay overdue bill

(CNN) -- Armed members of a Libyan militia burst into a luxury hotel in the capital Tripoli on Saturday and opened fire after one of their members was told to pay an outstanding bill or vacate, sources and hotel officials said.

No casualties were reported, but the Rixos Hotel's general manager, Sukru Kocak, told CNN he was beaten and kidnapped. Kocak, who is Turkish, said he was released only after the Turkish Embassy and other officials contacted the Libyan government on his behalf. The luxury Rixos is owned by a Turkish company.

The incident began after hotel officials demanded that a guest, identified by sources as Ali Daw Zintani, pay six months' worth of overdue charges or be forced to leave the hotel. Zintani left the hotel and returned with dozens of armed men, who smashed through the front door and shot weapons into the air, witnesses said.

Kocak was taken to Zintani's office in the Fallah area of Tripoli where he said he was beaten, suffering injuries to his knees and a burst ear drum, causing him to lose hearing in his right ear. It's unclear if the damage to his hearing is permanent. Read More

Report: Iran planned to bomb Israeli ship in Suez Canal

Iran had planned to bomb an Israeli ship while it crossed the Suez Canal, the prosecution in Egypt's state security court said, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Saturday.

According to the report, two Egyptians were recently arrested and investigated for allegedly planning an attack on an Israeli ship in the Suez Canal.

The investigation of the two found that they had received their instructions from Iranian agents, and that the two asked a third person, by the name of Mohamed Zakri, to carry out the act in exchange for 50 million Egyptian pounds.

The two denied the accusations against them.

In the past, Hezbollah terror cells that planned terror attacks, including in the Suez Canal, were found in Egypt. Moreover, Israeli officials have recently warned that Iran is setting up terror infrastructure on Egyptian soil to ready the ground for an operation. more

Bomb in Afghanistan kills eight

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A roadside bomb exploded in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province as a joint NATO-Afghan security patrol arrived to defuse it, killing seven Afghans and one U.S. soldier, a district official said Sunday.

The explosion occurred Saturday in the village of Kuhak in Arghandab district, Shah Muhammad, the district chief administrator, said. The district has long been considered a Taliban stronghold, and it neighbors the Panjwai district where an Army staff sergeant allegedly went on a shooting rampage that left 17 people dead.

Six members of the Afghan police, a translator and a U.S. soldier were killed Sunday, Muhammad said. The district's police chief, Niaz Muhammad, confirmed the number of casualties.

"The police were told there is an IED. When they reached the area to defuse it, the bomb exploded," Muhammad said.

The bomb was possibly remotely detonated, he said. Read More

Obama confronts nuke threat on North Korea front line

OBSERVATION POST OUELLETTE, South Korea (AP) -- President Barack Obama made a symbolic visit to the world's most militarized border on Sunday, striding into the surreal Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea and telling U.S. forces stationed along the DMZ they serve on "freedom's frontier."

Obama shook hands and spoke briefly in the dining hall at a U.S. military camp just outside the 2.5-mile-wide zone, then walked into the heavily patrolled no-man's land to tour a small post where South Korean forces patrol just 100 meters (yards) from the demarcation line.

Obama, positioned behind bulletproof glass, peered through binoculars across the line that has bisected the Korean peninsula for 60 years. The president spent about 10 minutes at observation post, looking first toward North Korea, then back to the South.

It was an unmistakable show of force to communist North Korea and its new leader at a time of diplomatic standoff. Obama underscored the Cold War symbolism by making the tour his first order of business ahead of a gathering of world leaders pledged to keep nuclear materials safe. Nuclear-armed North Korea will not attend. Read More