A member of a group of Arab students in Hamburg who helped organise the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001 has been jailed for 15 years by a German court.

Mounir El Motassadeq is one of only two men convicted of involvement in the plot which resulted in the death of nearly 3,000 people.

It was the maximum sentence and in line with the demands of federal prosecutors.

As the verdict was read out at the court in Hamburg, Motassadeq cried out:
“I swear before God that I did not know that they were in America. I swear before God that I did not know what they were planning.”

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Three explosions have occurred in the south of Iran, an Iranian news agency reported.

The explosions were recorded on Thursday in Khorramshahr in the Iranian border province of Khuzestan.

“The three explosions were so strong that they shook windows of houses,” the semi-official Fars news agency said.

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A campaign to convince Iran’s 25,000 Jews to flee the country has stalled, with most opting to stay in their native homeland.

In recent months, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Israeli officials and some American Jewish communal leaders have urged Iranian Jews to leave. But so far, despite generally being allowed to travel to Israel and emigrate abroad, Iranian Jews have stayed put.

According to the statistics compiled by HIAS, 152 out of 25,000 Jews left Iran between October 2005 and September 2006 – down from 297 during the same period the previous year, and 183 the year before. Sources said that the majority of those who have left in recent years cited economic and family reasons as their main incentive for leaving, rather than political concerns.

Since the August 2005 election of Ahmadinejad, Washington and Jerusalem have tried to make the fate of Iranian Jewry become a part of a broader diplomatic game with Teheran.

Source

Deputy Governor General of Kerman province Abulghassem Nasrollahi told FNA that the crash which was followed by an explosion and a thick spiral of smoke has caused no casualties or damage to properties.

He further denied earlier reports that the explosion has been the result of a plane or chopper crash, reminding that all the passing aircrafts have been reported as sound and safe.

The official further stated that investigations are underway by police and other relevant authorities in this regard.

While other reports spoke of meteors, Nasrollahi said there were no conclusive witnesses in this regard but he did not dismiss the possibility that the crash has been caused by a meteor.

Eye-witnesses assure that the explosion has been caused as a result of the crash of a radiant unidentified flying object onto the ground.

Meantime, an informed source told FNA that the object has been on fire and there has been thick smoke coming out of it prior to the crash, concluding that the object couldn’t have been a meteor as meteors do not smoke.

The source also said that the crash has been witnessed by people in several cities, and mentioned that the rendezvous point is located 100 kilometers from the provincial capital city of Kerman.

He said that people in the city of Rafsanjan also reported to have witnessed a similar incident several days ago.

Similar crash incidents have been witnessed frequently during the last year all across Iran, and officials believe that the objects could be spy planes or a hi-tech espionage device.

Source

[No mention of the fact that it is immigrants committing most of the rapes-ed]

According to newspaper Dagbladet, police are searching for a man in a duffel coat and on Friday will release a sketch of what the suspect may look like.

“Of course people feel unsafe when things like this happen. Catching the assailant will have the most to say about how safe people feel,” said police commissioner Anstein Gjengedal.

Oslo City Council leader Erling Lae said that freedom of movement was a fundamental liberty, and that he realized the extent of the problem late one night in the city while walking home behind a woman.

“When I walked faster, she did too, and then I understood she was terrified. It is important to fight this basic insecurity,” Lae said, and believes the city can do its part.

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Imagine sending your kids off to school, but when they get to the bus they are told they can’t get on because they speak English.

That’s right, English.

It happened to a few children in St. Paul and now the school district is apologizing.

Rachel Armstrong sent her kids to pick up the bus as usual Monday, but after the driver let the kids on, he told them he would not pick them up again. He even said he wouldn’t take them home that afternoon.

Armstrong left work early Tuesday, forced to pick up her kids from Phalen Lake Elementary School.

Her twin girls, 10, and her son, 8, were kicked off their regular school bus. They were told by the bus driver the route is for non-English speaking students only.

“I was furious. I was at work and I was just mad.” Armstrong said. “I felt like we were being discriminated because we speak English. Just because they speak English, they can’t ride the school bus. I mean, this is America, right?”

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[I think this is an admission that Russian rocket scientists are better than American scientists. Take Note: Iran has many Russian scientists working on their missles programmes-ed]

NASA has agreed to the price and the delivery dates of the four spacecrafts from the Russian Federal Space Agency, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

NASA is to buy four Russian ships including two Soyuz and two Progress spacecrafts.

“NASA wishes to retire its Shuttles as soon as possible to ensure funds for the construction of their new craft,” the head of Russia’s manned flight programs Alexie Krasnov said. ’We are happy to help with the availability of our reliable vehicles.“

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President Alexander Lukashenko’s office said the compromise was reached in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A Kremlin official declined immediate comment.

“As a result of the discussion, a compromise was found which will make it possible to unblock this dead-end situation, including concerning the transit of Russian oil to European countries,” Lukashenko’s office said in a statement.

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Russia is to launch a special satellite this year in search for extraterrestrial civilisations in remote galaxies, the ITAR-TASS news agency reports.

The Spektr R (Spectrum-Roentgen) x-ray satellite to be launched later this will carry a 20-metre antenna for the study of galaxies and extraterrestrial civilisations.

“It would be arrogant of us to presume that human beings are the only life in the universe,” Georgy Polishchuk of the Lavochkin Research and Production Enterprise was quoted as saying by the agency.

Polishchuk, who heads the Moscow-based enterprise, said that Lavochkin was also working on interplanetary missions.

“In 2009 we plan a mission to Phobos, a satellite of Mars, which will include a landing and collection of rock samples,” he said.

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A Swedish-Moroccan businessman is appearing in court in Rabat on Wednesday accused of associating with terrorists.

The 54-year-old man was arrested on 26th December at his family home in the coastal town of Tetouan. The man’s family was informed on Tuesday afternoon that he would appear in court on Wednesday morning for a committal hearing, Dagens Nyheter reports.

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