Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has purportedly issued a new terror threat to the United States in an audio message posted to jihadist websites. If the US executes the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other militants on trial in the US , Al Qaeda will kill any American citizens it has taken hostage, the message states.
“The day America takes this decision, it will have made a decision to execute whoever is taken captive by us,” said the brief 90-second message, which has not been authenticated.
The message accuses US President Barack Obama of escalating the hawkish foreign policy of his conservative predecessor George W. Bush, backing Israel against the Palestinians, and “oppressing” the wider Arab and Muslim world. “Your friend in the White House is continuing to behave badly on many important questions,” the message states in an apparent address to the American people.
“He has stepped up military operations in Afghanistan and continued to keep our prisoners in its prisons such as our hero Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.” “If the US executes him, we will kill our American prisoner,” the message said.
***
Barcelona plans ban on burqa
Madrid, June 15: Barcelona plans to be the first large city in Spain to ban the use of the full-face Islamic veil in public buildings, its mayor announced on Tuesday. Jordi Hereu said he will sign a decree which will apply in all public spaces such as the city hall and municipal covered markets and creches.
“It should not be possible that someone enters into a place without being identified,” the Socialist mayor said. He said the measure is not aimed at “any particular religious group” and would also apply to people wearing crash helmets and balaclavas. Two other towns in the northeastern region of Catalonia, Lerida and El Venrell, have recently imposed bans on the use of the Islamic veil in public buildings. Two more, Tarragona and Gerona, are considering similar measures, as is Coin in the southern region of Andalucia. —AFP