U.S. officials on Tuesday revised their description of the circumstances surrounding the killing of al-Qaida terror leader Osama bin Laden, as more details became available. As The new narrative says bin Laden resisted U.S. forces and was unarmed.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gave reporters a revised narrative of Sunday's events, supplied by the U.S. Defense Department.
In this version, U.S. forces were engaged in a firefight throughout the nearly 40-minute operation.
"On the first floor of bin Laden's building, two al-Qaida couriers were killed, along with a woman who was killed in crossfire," said Carney. "Bin Laden and his family were found on the second and third floor of the building."
Carney said bin Laden resisted the invading U.S. forces, but was unarmed, contrary to earlier reports.
The information from the Pentagon backed away from earlier suggestions that bin Laden and others had used women as human shields during the fighting.
"Bin Laden and his family were found on the second and third floor of the building," he said. "There was concern that bin Laden would oppose the capture operation, and indeed, he did resist. In the room with bin Laden, a woman, bin Laden's wife, rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg, but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed."
Carney did not explain what form bin Laden's resistance took.
At Tuesday's briefing, the president's spokesman said officials are discussing whether to release a photograph of bin Laden after his death from bullet wounds to the chest and face. Carney called the photo "gruesome," and said the image could be inflammatory.
"Well, I will be candid in that there are sensitivities here, in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photographs of Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of this firefight," said the White House press secretary. "And we are making an evaluation about the need to do that."
When asked about Pakistan's commitment to fighting terror, Carney said the United States and Pakistan have disagreements. But he praised the Islamabad government for its help.
"It is a complicated, but important relationship," said Jay Carney. "Pakistan is a partner, a key partner in the fight against al-Qaida and terrorism. They have been extremely helpful. And we look forward to cooperating into the future."
Earlier Tuesday, CIA Director Leon Panetta told Time magazine that the intelligence agency had ruled out working with Pakistan on the bin Laden operation. Officials were concerned that Pakistan might have jeopardized the mission by warning the terrorists.
Carney said Pakistan is a big country and that White House officials do not know who in the government might have known that bin Laden was in the compound.
The press secretary said the Obama administration hopes that information obtained from the compound will yield evidence of any planned attacks, information that will lead to other high-value targets or other terror networks, and information about how bin Laden was able to live in the suburban compound as long as he did.
Raw footage of the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed:
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The Pakistani government has reacted sharply to the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, warning that countries should not think that they have free reign to come and go through Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities on Tuesday allowed journalists to approach the outer walls of the compound where U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden, but no further.
Pakistan is coming under increasing pressure to explain how the world's most dangerous man could hide in a conspicuously built mansion in a town that is close to the country's capital and has a large military presence - including an elite military academy. Just last week, the head of the Pakistani military attended the academy's graduation ceremony and addressed the cadets and the nation.
"We in Pakistan's army are fully aware of the internal and external threats to our country. The back of the terrorists has been broken," said Army General Ashfaq Kayani.
Osama bin Laden's hiding place was just three kilometers away from where General Kayani spoke.
The government of President Asif Ali Zardari is eager to explain what it knew about bin Laden's presence and defend its counterterrorism efforts.
Writing Tuesday in the Washington Post newspaper, Mr. Zardari, denied suggestions that Pakistani authorities had protected bin Laden.
Contradicting earlier statements, the Pakistani government said Tuesday that its intelligence agency had been aware of the suspicious compound for years, and provided key intelligence about it to the CIA.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Pakistani cooperation had helped lead U.S. forces to bin Laden.
But the Pakistani Foreign Ministry expressed deep concerns and reservations about the manner in which the mission was carried out.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Salman Bashir met Tuesday with the U.S. special envoy to the region, Marc Grossman, and Afghanistan's foreign minister. Grossman said regardless of who knew about the mission ahead of time, the focus should be on its success.
"He's dead, it's good. We still have to fight extremism. And as Foreign Secretary Bashir has said, 'Do not, please, lose sight of the fact that we have had here a trilateral meeting about peace in Afghanistan,'" Grossman said.
Still, there are growing questions about how Osama bin Laden could have found refuge here, and growing calls in the U.S. for an investigation.
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When American commandos left the compound where Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, they took what a senior U.S. intelligence official calls "a robust collection of materials" that is expected to yield a trove of information about the al-Qaida terrorist network. While U.S. military Special Forces troops systematically worked their way through the compound, finding and killing bin Laden and his associates, other members of the team were collecting everything they could that might contain useful information.
President Barack Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan talked about that part of the operation at a White House briefing on Monday.
"The people who were on the compound took advantage of their time there to make sure that we were able to acquire whatever material we thought was appropriate and what was needed. And we are in the process right now of looking at whatever might have been picked up," Brennan said.
Raw footage of the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed:
A senior intelligence official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the Central Intelligence Agency has set up a team to analyze the material in the hope it will lead to other al-Qaida members.
A former top U.S. counterintelligence official, Marion Bowman, knows what he would have been looking for if he had been on the team.
"I'd be looking for pocket litter. I'd be looking for anything which would have DNA on it. I'd be looking for any scraps of paper which would indicate how he is communicating, basically, information that would indicate who he is in communication with, who has been there to get an idea of what kind of network he is still managing or a part of," Bowman said.
Bowman was a U.S. Navy intelligence officer and a Federal Bureau of Investigation official before becoming former President George W. Bush's number two counterintelligence adviser in 2006. He has some insight into what kind of team the CIA has likely put together to look at the bin Laden material
"Well, at the very least you're going to have forensic specialists in computer technology. But in addition to that you're probably going to have what law enforcement would call 'evidence response teams,' people who are going to be looking for the little bits and pieces that might be around," he said.
And Bowman adds that the team will need translators, perhaps for several languages, and also people who know the Arab, Afghan and Pakistani cultures, to be sure they don't miss any subtle clues about bin Laden's activities and contacts.
Officials will not say exactly what the commando team collected, but several news organizations are reporting the material includes a large number of computers, hard disc drives and various other computer memory devices.
Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan says when it comes to this kind of material "it's not necessarily quantity, frequently it's quality" that is important. Officials hope the quality of the information from Osama bin Laden's home will prove to be high. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney discussed what they hope to learn.
"First of all and most importantly, in any case, is any evidence of planned attacks. Second, would be information that could lead to other high value targets or other networks that exist that we don't know about, or that we only know a little about. And then third, more broadly, on the al-Qaida network itself and then the sustaining network for bin Laden in Pakistan, what allowed him to live in that compound for as long as he did," Carney said.
Carney says President Obama's goal remains to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" al-Qaida. And the president's counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Monday's operation will not end that effort, but rather the information gathered from the compound will be an important part of continuing it.
"We feel as though this is a very important time to continue to prosecute this effort against al Qaeda, take advantage of the success of yesterday and to continue to work to break the back of al Qaeda," he said.
This phase of the effort will involve the same type of what Brennan called "exceptionally tedious and painstaking" analysis work, over several years, that led officials to one of bin Laden's couriers and eventually to the terrorist leader himself.
"Over time we were able to piece together additional information, get the name he was known by, his nom de guerre, associate that then eventually with his real name, associate that then with other things that that real name was associated with, and track it until we got to the compound in Abbottabad," he said.
Former Bush administration official Marion Bowman says the information gathered Monday could shorten the investigation process for some al-Qaida operatives, but he says it will also likely spark new and lengthy lines of inquiry.
"I'd like to be able to say that it may shorten the process. But I think I'd be more comfortable saying that it's going to start a process of finding people that they're not sure of [exactly who they are], or where they've been living," Bowman said.
Officials hope the information will provide solid leads that help them hit hard at al-Qaida's network. But Bowman acknowledges that bin Laden's contacts are likely already on the run and working hard to cover their tracks, meaning that what one official called the "relentless" work that netted the world's most wanted terrorist will continue for some time to come.
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Refugee groups say a backlog of asylum claims continues to foment unrest in Australia's immigration detention centers. Earlier this year the federal government said intelligence agencies would speed up security checks of asylum seekers whose claims for refugee status have been approved. However, hundreds of refugees are still being held in detention while they wait for their security clearance.
The Australian government promised earlier this year that all asylum seekers granted refugee status would have their cases finalized by the intelligence agencies by the end of April.
That has not happened and while 70 percent of the backlog has now been cleared, the delay has left about 900 detainees still locked up in immigration facilities while security checks are carried out. Most of those detained are from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq.
Refugee groups say that their frustrations are in part responsible for a wave of unrest inside Australia's detention centers in recent weeks, including the camp at Villawood in suburban Sydney, where several buildings were torched by protesters. Last week there were two attempted suicides by inmates at a facility in the northern city of Darwin, which campaigners say are further examples of a system in crisis.
Among those still being detained despite being granted a refugee visa by Australia four months ago is a 17-year old Hazara from Afghanistan.
He has asked that his identity not be disclosed and says that his feelings of despair grow with each passing day.
"I do not like to talk about my past life because it make me crazy, makes me sad. A lot of bad happened. And since I came to Australia for now I miss my family. Every night I have bad dreams about them," he said. " I would like to study law because I want to be [a] lawyer and when I be lawyer I want to [offer] help to some people like myself."
Australia's immigration department says some security checks take longer than others and that such investigations must be thorough. Officials say the process usually takes about two months to complete, almost twice as long as it did two years ago.
Australia's automatically detains most asylum seekers while their refugee claims are processed. This system of mandatory detention has been a key part of the country's immigration policy since the early 1990's and has bipartisan support in the national parliament in Canberra.
A steady flow of asylum seekers arriving in Australian waters by boat in recent months has put the issue of border protection at the top of the political agenda. A surge in unauthorized arrivals has put pressure on the network of detention camps, including the largest at Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. Overcrowding there has forced the government to send detainees to the mainland.
However, most asylum seekers who ask Australia for protection arrive by air.
Each year Australia grants visas to about 13,000 refugees under various humanitarian resettlement programs.
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The Syrian government, which initially proposed reforms, has mounted a security sweep that it acknowledges included nearly 500 arrests on Sunday in Daraa alone.
State Department Acting Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner told reporters that U.S. officials are "very disturbed" about credible reports of military operations in Daraa that include tanks.
"We've seen reports the Syrian government is conducting a widespread campaign of arbitrary arrests that target young men in Daraa," said Toner. "It's also our understanding that electricity, communications and other public services have been cut off for several days, and that the humanitarian situation there is quite grave. These are, quite frankly, barbaric measures, and they amount to the collective punishment of innocent civilians."
Syria embracing a democratic future would be "enormous," says Robert Powell of The Economist Intelligence Unit in an interview with Susan Yackee:
Late last week, the Obama administration tightened long-standing sanctions against Syria, imposing economic curbs on intelligence and security officials, including a brother of President Assad who commands an army division operating in Daraa.
Asked whether the Syrian president might become a target of U.S. sanctions, spokesman Toner said options for further U.S. action "remain on the table."
Amnesty International said Tuesday that it has received first-hand reports of torture and other ill-treatment of Syrian detainees as a wave of arrests of anti-government protesters intensified last weekend.
Amnesty's international advocacy director, T. Kumar, says the tactics suggest that the Assad government has embarked on a "full blown crackdown" to crush the protest movement.
"What we have found recently is that on top of mass killings, using heavy weapons on civilian protesters, we also learned that those who have been arrested for peacefully demonstrating have been beaten up, tortured," said Kumar. "They also experienced harsh detention conditions."
An Amnesty International statement says protesters who have been swept up in the arrest wave in recent days are being held at unknown locations without access to visits from lawyers or family members, adding to fear for their safety.
The human rights monitoring group says it has obtained the names of 54 Syrians who were killed last Friday, bringing to 542 the number of protesters, bystanders and others who have been killed in six weeks of unrest.
Last week, the U.N. Human Rights Council condemned human rights violations in Syria and called for a U.N. fact-finding mission to investigate.
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New York City is increasing already tight security as a precaution against possible terrorist reprisals for the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Additional safeguards are in place ahead of President Barack Obama's visit Thursday to Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center destroyed by al-Qaida on September 11, 2001.
New York officials say there are currently no specific threats against the city. But authorities are taking no chances. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said on Monday that security has been increased since bin Laden's killing, although not all measures are visible to the public.
"We're working closely, our counter-terrorism bureau and our intelligence division, working closely with our federal partners both at home and abroad to see if there's any indication of, perhaps, retaliatory acts," he said.
Extra precautions are in place at what Kelly referred to as "iconic sites." These include Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and various houses of worship. The commissioner said additional resources have been devoted to transportation infrastructure. Subway and rail passengers are subject to random bag searches. On the waters surrounding New York, close attention is being paid to ferries, harbor taxis and bridges.
There is an unmistakable police presence around Ground Zero, which President Obama plans to visit on Thursday. According to Kelly, there are police department linguists behind the scenes monitoring online chat rooms, and liaison officers stationed overseas to gather intelligence.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers are going about their daily routines. Rob Walsh works for the New York City emergency medical service. He says the security is reassuring, but notes it is a relatively new feature in American life. "It's the new normal. You've just gotten used to it. You know, some days you don't want to read the newspaper in fear of seeing that there is an attack. But the past almost 10 years, it's what you've come to get used to," he said.
Walsh adds that his 7-year-old son never knew a time when city residents never had to think about precautions against possible terrorism.
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Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday sharply criticized the U.S. operation that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in the the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
The criticism came as Pakistan's president denied allegations that his country is not actively pursuing terrorists.
A foreign ministry statement said the operation was carried out without the knowledge or authorization of Islamabad. The statement also said the country's intelligence service, the ISI, had been sharing information about bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and "other friendly intelligence agencies" since 2009.
Writing in the Washington Post newspaper on Tuesday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari defended his government's record fighting terrorists, saying that while the killing of al-Qaida leader was not a joint operation between the United States and Pakistan, Pakistan helped to identify the al-Qaida courier whose trail led U.S. intelligence officials to bin Laden's hideout.
Raw footage of the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed:
There is growing criticism of Pakistan in the U.S. Congress, with calls for an investigation into how the world's most wanted terrorist was able to go unnoticed in Abbottabad, a city that has a large military presence and is home to Pakistan's military academy.
Questions are also being raised in Pakistan concerning what the government knew about the mission to kill bin Laden. Opposition politician Haroon Akhtar says Mr. Zardari's government is keeping quiet because of fears of retaliation by extremists.
"There is no way that I can believe that in this country four helicopters can come and jam our radar and we do not know about it then President Obama calls our President and says 'thank you very much we came in and we killed so many people"' That has not happened. It is the repercussions which we are afraid of and that is why we are quiet. That is why we don't want to bore into the details," Akhtar said.
Many Pakistani's are angry and embarrassed over what they consider a violation of their sovereignty, and tensions are high across Pakistan following the raid. On Tuesday the U.S. reopened its embassy in Islamabad and its consulate in Karachi, but consulates in Peshawar and Lahore remain closed due to security concerns.
Photos of world reaction to bin Laden's death
The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, who was in Islamabad as part of previously scheduled tri-lateral talks between the U.S., Pakistan and Afghanistan, said the death of bin Laden benefits all three countries.
"The three countries that are here share the commitment to an end to violent extremism and the three countries that are represented here consider that the end of Osama bin Laden on Monday was a shared achievement of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States," Grossman said.
But now that Osama bin Laden has been killed some Pakistanis are calling for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying the reason for U.S. involvement there has been eliminated. U.S. officials dismiss the suggestion, saying U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan to assist the Afghan government until it can stand on its own to defeat the Taliban. But Ibrahim Khan, a member of the Pakistani parliament, is adamant that the time has come for the U.S. to quit Afghanistan.
"The America has achieved its target, the elimination of Osama bin Laden was the target placed by America for itself. And after achieving this target now is the time for America to quit Afghanistan. There is no justification for America to stay in Afghanistan anymore," Khan said.
The conduct of the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan is extremely unpopular in Pakistan, especially the use of drone strikes to kill militants across the border in Pakistan. And there is concern here that terrorists will take revenge against Pakistanis for bin Laden's death.
In his piece for the Washington Post, President Zadari noted that the Taliban issued threats against him and his government shortly after the killing of Osama bin Laden. He said Pakistan will not be "intimidated" and declared that "the war on terrorism is as much Pakistan's war as it is America's."
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In 2004, Spain suffered Europe's worst act of Islamic terrorism when bombs blamed on al-Qaida killed 191 people at a Madrid train station.
In the wake of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's death, Spain is reinforcing security and remembering its dead. Terror in Madrid, March 11, 2004
After Sept. 11, 2001, the single most deadly al-Qaida-linked attack on the West happened at Madrid's Atocha train station. On March 11, 2004, 191 people died and more than 1,800 were wounded by bombs planted on four commuter trains.
Jesus and Gloria Seron lost a close relative, 37-year-old Federico Sierra Seron. A military officer, he was survived by his wife and three-year-old son.
Jesus Seron says considering what their family has been through, bin Laden's death is the best possible outcome.
But his wife says she's not so sure.
Gloria Seron says bin Laden's death represents neither a success, nor a failure. She says she appreciates that the al-Qaida leader is gone, but shrugs her shoulders when asked if Spain -- and the world -- are safer without him. She quotes an old proverb, saying "he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."
The 2004 Atocha bombings -- which struck three days before Spain's general election that year -- had a profound affect on Spanish politics. At first, the center-right government blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the attacks, and is thought to have lost the election because of that mistake. Investigators quickly revealed that Islamic militants inspired by al-Qaida had planted the bombs, in part because of Spain's participation in the Iraq war. Less than two months later, Spain's new Socialist government withdrew troops from Iraq.
More than two dozen suspects of Moroccan, Algerian and Syrian descent were charged in the Atocha bombings. Two are currently serving life sentences. Future threats
In life, bin Laden inspired terrorists like those who killed 191 people here in Madrid. But Gloria Seron said she fears that in death, bin Laden could still do the same.
Seron says she's worried bin Laden could become a hero for other militants, and that his death could prompt more violence, by people trying to defend his name.
Spain's interior minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcahba, echoed Gloria's feelings at a news conference in Madrid. He said he's relieved bin Laden is dead, but that it's not time for Spain to lower its guard.
Rubalcaba says without a doubt, bin Laden's death is a blow to al-Qaida. But he says we can't rule out reprisal attacks. And he notes that Spain is well within striking distance of al-Qaida's North African branch, which is being investigated in a recent bombing at a tourist cafe in Morocco.
Spain is currently on terror alert level two, on a four-point scale. Rubalcaba said government ministers are meeting Tuesday to discuss new security measures, but that the terror alert level won't be raised. He wouldn't comment on security specifics.
Security barriers erected in 2004 remain outside Madrid's Atocha train station. On hearing news of bin Laden's death, Gloria and Jesus Seron passed through those barriers and stopped to gaze at a memorial built near the site where their relative and 190 others were killed.
Gloria Seron says nothing can bring her loved one back. She says the only thing that remains is to prevent such attacks from ever happening again.
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Few places have seen Osama bin Laden's ideology take root as strongly as Yemen, the impoverished Arab nation that is the late al-Qaida leader's ancestral home.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is one of the most active groups inspired by bin Laden. In recent years, it has been implicated in plots to bring down a U.S. airliner, send bombs via cargo planes, attack embassies and kill foreign nationals.
There are direct links to the main al-Qaida group, which claimed responsibility for the bombing of the American ship, USS Cole, in Yemen in 2000.
And according to Yemeni writer and political analyst Nasser Arrabyee, the local franchise may have even overtaken its predecessor.
"They have the same thought, the same goals, the same methods. And maybe Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is even more dangerous because of the Yemeni-American leader now - Anwar al Awlaki."
No shortage of fresh blood
The American-born Awlaki is seen as the face of a new generation of terrorists. The articulate English-speaker, considered an operational mastermind by the United States, is an Internet sensation, with his blog, YouTube videos and Facebook page attracting a loyal following worldwide.
That ease with social media was seen among other Yemeni extremists, who created Facebook pages honoring bin Laden just hours after his death was announced. For a while bin Laden had little to do with the local group, but he remains a powerful symbol.
Some in Yemen consider bin Laden a liberator, who lived and died a hero. The that the al-Qaida leader is also thought as someone who stood against the unjust.
Lack of instability compounds problem
Right now, the unjust for al-Qaida supporters is the Yemeni government. And this is where, like many things in Yemen, the situation gets complicated.
The anti-government demonstrations that have roiled the country for months are for the most part a call for democracy and greater freedom. But they also offer al-Qaida an opening in a fragile state torn by tribal allegiances, a rebellion in the north and a secessionist movement in the south. Political analyst Arrabiyee says extremists are only waiting for the right moment.
"Al-Qaida can only make a big victory when Yemen collapses into chaos and this is what al Qaida is waiting [for] now. Al-Qaida has reduced a lot of its operations in order not to help President Saleh politically. So they are waiting for chaos, for a collapse in Yemen to grow more and more and to recruit more and more."
Western countries face dilemma
That puts Western countries, especially the United States, in a bind, as they try to balance popular demands against the Yemeni government's stated commitment to anti-terrorism.
Washington has made President Ali Abdullah Saleh a partner in fighting al-Qaida, and supports his government with military and financial aid. Saleh's detractors claim he overstates the terror threat - and his role in fighting it - to keep the backing of his foreign allies. Najeeb Ghanem is a member of the opposition in Yemen's parliament.
"We think that al-Qaida threat might be implemented by the Saleh regime to make some sort of intimidation of others, and using this for abusing of the heads of opposition and a lot of forces in Yemen."
Only "one way out," some believe
Ghanem believes the best way out is to take the risk of political change.
"We think that the stabilizing system which is going to be alive after the success of the revolution will be able to deal with this challenge in Yemen. So we do not think we are going to face that dangerous threat by al-Qaida."
Ghanem is a rare optimist in a country facing threats from so many sides.
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China is praising the death of Osama bin Laden and defending its ally Pakistan against accusations that it did little to find the al Qaida leader. But the reaction among local residents was mixed.
The Chinese government early Tuesday issued a statement calling Osama bin Laden's death a major event and a positive development in the international struggle against terrorism.
At the Chinese Foreign Ministry's regular briefing, spokeswoman Jiang Yu called terrorism the public enemy of the international community.
She said China has always been against any form of terrorism and actively participates in global anti-terrorist efforts.
Jiang told reporters China also has been the victim of numerous terrorist activities, although she gave no details. The Chinese government in recent years has justified crackdowns in its Muslim-majority western Xinjiang region by saying they were aimed at countering terrorist networks.
Jiang Tuesday did not directly answer a question about whether Beijing sees a greater terrorist threat coming from inside or outside of the country.
The foreign ministry spokeswoman also said China stands firmly behind Pakistan.
Jiang said China believes Pakistan's government is firmly resolved and strongly active in its fight against terrorism and has made important contributions to international anti-terrorist efforts.
In Beijing, Chinese people had mixed feelings about bin Laden's death. Some, like this man who refused to give his name, welcomed the news.
He said he thinks it is a good thing, because if there are fewer terrorists, then there will be more peace. And he said peace is what ordinary people like him want.
Mr. Li, a businessman, had a different opinion. He said that in his Chinese way of thinking, no one is absolutely right or wrong - including bin Laden and the United States.
He said if the United States sets itself up as the world's policeman, it is only natural that people in other countries will want to target the United States.
Chinese activists outside of the country were skeptical of the government's positive reaction to bin Laden's death. Bob Fu is with ChinaAid, a group that monitors the treatment of Christians in China.
"I don't think the Chinese government really cares about whether bin Laden [is] dead or alive," Fu noted. "Actually, I would think the Chinese top leaders' mentality is they want to see him alive, so that the U.S. could be busy handling al Qaida and bin Laden's group and not to put so much focus on the Chinese."
Fu said he thinks the Chinese government is worried more about domestic stability, rather than external terrorist threats.
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Hundreds of Syrian refugees have fled across the border into Turkey to escape the ongoing crackdown on anti-government protests. The influx has added to growing Turkish concerns that the deepening crisis in Syria could lead to the country facing a refugee crisis.
Nearly 250 Syrians recently crossed into Turkey seeking refuge.
Some belong to Syria's Turkish minority, like this woman:
"My husband and I came because of the situation there," she said. "Four people were killed in front of his eyes. So we ran away. All our lives are in danger."
The refugees were housed in an indoor sports stadium, while a tent village was constructed by the Red Crescent Society.
With the crisis in Syria continuing to deepen, Turkish authorities are bracing themselves for more arrivals.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul, speaking on Monday, said Turkey is preparing to deal with a possible influx of refugees, saying authorities are taking measures to be ready for the worst-case scenario.
There are no entry restrictions on Syrians entering Turkey, following last year's lifting of visa requirements by both countries.
Senior Turkish diplomat Selim Yenel says despite the crisis, there are no plans to suspend the agreement, at least for now.
"No, No, No, we hope this will not be the case, we are not in that situation right now," said Yenel. "We do hope things will go on peacefully. That we are in close contact with Damascus. We are talking with them. And we are following things very closel, and therefore such a thing to happen."
But its not only a potential refugee crisis that is causing increasing concern in Ankara. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced his fear of a potential break up of Syria.
"Turkey definitely does not want a separation of Syria, said Prime Minister Erdogan. "And Syria should not allow any attempts that could pave the way for separation."
Syria, like Turkey, has a restive Kurdish minority. Since 1984, the Turkish-based Kurdish rebel group, the PKK, has been fighting the Turkish state for greater cultural and political rights. According to international relations expert and columnist for a Turkish daily, Soli Ozel, the chaos in Syria offers the PKK a powerful impetus, especially as it has close ties with Syria's own large Kurdish minority.
"Now a third of the fighters of PKK happened to be from Syria," said Ozel. "If the country divides along sectarian or ethnic lines, possibility of a Kurdish desire for an independence in the north of Syria obviously is going to throw Turkey off balance."
Turkey's 800-kilometer border with Syria runs along its predominantly Kurdish southeast. And most of Syria's Kurdish minority lives just on the other side of it.
According to analysts, Syrian President Bashir al-Assad has controlled his own Kurdish population with an iron fist. He is widely believed to be playing on Turkish fears that if that fist were relaxed, the Kurds would secede. But Syrian opposition groups are keen to stress that is just scaremongering.
Anas Abdah is head of the international branch of Damascus Declaration, an opposition umbrella group.
"Think this is very important for the Turkish people and Turkish leadership to understand, the fact that the Kurdish element in Syria, which is around 2 million, or about 9 percent of the population is not going to react in a way, which will mean a secession of Syrian land or any kind of problems with the neighbor, either Turkey or Iraq," said Anas Abdah.
Political scientist Nuray Mert is suspicious of such assurances. She thinks that spreading regional turmoil may offer Kurds across the whole region a unique opportunity.
"Syrian Kurds are against the existing regime, the Iranian Kurds are against Ahmadinejad regime, and they may have some role in regime changes in the region," said Nuray Mert. "And it empowers the PKK movement and Turkish Kurds' political movement. Because anyway we have huge problems concerning Kurdish problem in Turkey."
Observers warn that the prospect of Kurds in neighboring Iran and Syria, freed from oppressive regimes and joining their Iraqi counterparts, who already have substantial autonomy, could rekindle the dream for many Turkish Kurds of an independent state. For Ankara, that would be a nightmare.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, long called the last dictator of Europe, is cracking down even harder on freedoms of speech, assembly and representation.
Struggling with an economic crisis, Lukashenko seems to be taking his country back to its totalitarian past - as a Soviet socialist republic.
Last week, he closed the last two opposition newspapers in the country. An editor of one, Narodnaya Volna, vowed to keep printing, either in exile or underground, echoing the samizdat [clandestine dissident] printing of the Soviet Union.
Then, Andrei Sannikov, a leading democratic politician, went on trial, standing with other democracy activists in a barred cage in a Minsk courtroom. His mother whispered to a foreign reporter that her son was going through a "show trial."
Stifling dissension
On Tuesday, the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, KGB agents greeted people attending an unofficial rally. Agents searched and photographed each participant.
For Natalia Koliada, a theater director who fled Belarus after last December's post-election crackdown, the trials and newspaper closings make clear the increasingly totalitarian nature of the country's long-running dictatorship.
Speaking from New York, she said, "Finally the world understood that after 17 years of Lukashenko's existence in power, that he is the last dictator in Europe."
President Lukashenko's fear of free speech and assembly comes as anecdotal reports indicate many people believe that government agents were behind the April 11 Minsk metro bombing that killed 14 people and wounded 200. The president portrays the suspects as apolitical young men fascinated with explosives.
Sowing suspicion
Jana Kobzova, Belarus expert for the European Council on Foreign Relations, sees great skepticism on the Belarus Internet.
"It's a lack of trust to the government. And I think if I were Lukashenko, I would be totally alarmed," said Kobzova. "Because basically he didn't manage to sell well what he offered as an explanation, which means there are people who just don't believe him any more."
Last week, a former Belarus KGB colonel, Vladimir Borodach, told Russia's NTV television that the two suspects "were used as mules who simply carried the bags."
Speaking from exile in Germany, he charged that the men were asked by the KGB to carry out the strike in a bid to deflect attention from the nation's mounting economic problems. On Friday, the two men, still not publicly identified, were formally charged with terrorism - charges that can carry the death penalty.
Koliada agrees with this theory, saying, "I do believe it happened only because authorities wanted to take away attention of people of Belarus from economic problems."
Economic woes
Lukashenko clearly is feeling pressure. Last week, when asked by reporters why he did not attend a Chernobyl memorial ceremony in neighboring Ukraine, he lashed out, using locker room vulgarities to describe foreign political leaders.
As he spoke, the value of the Belarusian ruble fell, losing about half of its purchasing power in two days. With only enough hard currency to pay for two months of imports, Belarusians are seeing imported goods vanish from store shelves.
More importantly, factories are shutting down because managers are unable to buy imported parts. The state statistics office reports that the import shortages forced Belarusian companies last week to lay off 600,000 people -13 percent of the nation's total work force.
UBS bank economist Jonathan Anderson said Belarus currently has the world's fastest credit growth - and the fastest growing external deficit.
"This is patently and even rabidly unsustainable the way the numbers are shaping out now and you can't just run an economy like this too long before you actually hit the abyss," said Anderson.
Moscow intervention
Moscow says that it will probably extend a $3-billion loan to Belarus this month - eight months after Minsk first made the request. Russia seems to be moving slowly in hopes of buying Belarus state assets on the cheap. Russia wants to buy Belarus' oil refinery and its energy export pipelines.
Moscow is talking about extending the Russian ruble zone to include Belarus. But Anderson, speaking from Hong Kong, said Moscow's planned loan would only buy Belarus six months before it is broke again.
"We have got a pretty fast moving train, right? And the tracks seem to end up ahead. That is the worry we have," said Anderson.
No help is expected from the West.
Last January, the U.S. and the European Union imposed travel restrictions on President Lukashenko and 158 aides.
Additional sanctions possible
Next week, the European Union is to debate matching American sanctions on two state companies that provide Belarus with most of its hard currency earnings [from sales of potash - a substance used in fertilizers - and petroleum products].
Kobzova talked last week with Belarus experts in Brussels. "EU will press hard with the economic sanctions if the political trials continue. That is the clear message that comes these days, and they are ready to do it."
At present, 12 political activists are on trial in Belarus. A second group goes on trial this week. At the same time, the main opposition party - the Belarusian People's Front - is losing its headquarters, one of the last remaining venues in the capital for opposition events.
With an economic crisis bound to increase social tensions in the coming months, Lukashenko seems to be regressing to a political atmosphere familiar from his youth - creating a Soviet Belarus. He has ordered Belarus police to speed up completion of a project to fingerprint all adult men in the nation.
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Human Rights Watch is urging the Thai government to prosecute those responsible for killings during last year's anti-government demonstrations.
The rights organization also said the government is responsible for an ongoing crackdown targeting political opponents as the country heads towards nationwide elections.
It accuses the Thai government of failing to fully investigate last year's political violence, which it blamed on both the military and opposition protesters.
Last year thousands of anti-government protesters, known as the Red Shirts, occupied Bangkok streets demanding a new election. After a months-long standoff from March to May, the government ordered the military to end the demonstrations. The clashes that followed killed 90 people, most of them civilians.
Brad Adams, the Asia Chief for Human Rights Watch, told a news conference in Bangkok that military snipers appear to have targeted civilians.
"The government cannot simply say that in the heat of attempts to clear demonstrators from the streets of Bangkok, some soldiers may have exceeded their orders," Adams said. "The government provided these orders and the army put these snipers in place and people died."
Adams said the military's historic impunity is holding back Thailand's rule of law and democracy.
He added a government appointed truth and reconciliation commission has been ignored by the military and not given enough resources to fully investigate the violence.
Thani Thongphakdi, a spokesman for Thailand's Foreign Ministry, defended the government's actions.
"The events that occurred were very chaotic," he said. "And, there were a number of cases where it is unclear, both from witnesses account as well as from forensic evidence, as to the people behind the various deaths and injuries. Let me just reiterate that the investigation has not yet closed. It is still ongoing. And, we hope that a conclusion could soon be found," said Thongphakdi.
The Human Rights Watch report also criticized some Red Shirt leaders for the violence. The rights group says some of the leaders publicly welcomed armed elements known as Black Shirts who fought with Thai soldiers.
And, as the military moved in to end the demonstration, Human Rights Watch says some Red Shirt leaders encouraged looting and arson that burned tens of businesses and buildings in downtown Bangkok.
Brad Adams also criticized a government campaign of censoring opponents using laws meant to protect the monarchy from defamation, or Lese Majeste.
"The crackdown on dissent has been ongoing," said Adams. "The government has used any laws at its disposal to stifle speech, it has used the Lese Majeste law in a politically motivated manner, it has targeted one side. We have very large numbers of the Reds who have been arrested for what happened during the protests and we have no one on the government side who has been held accountable," he said.
Thani defended the government's closing down of hundreds of Red Shirt publications, radio stations, and websites since the protest, saying it was done under the rule of law.
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As the world watches space shuttle Endeavour's final mission to deliver equipment and science experiments to the International Space Station, a research team from Northwestern University is following the mission with special interest. It built one of the experiments - to analyze the effects of radiation and the harsh space environment on certain materials. Many scientists and researchers are worried that the end of the space shuttle program could threaten future space-based research.
Northwestern University Material Science and Engineering Professor Mark Hersam has more than just a passing interest in the final Endeavour mission. Six small pieces of his research were on board.
"These samples are thin films of carbon-based nano-materials including carbon nano-tubes and graphite," said Hersam. "These materials are being explored in our lab to offer next-generation electronic technology and also for solar cell technology."
Hersam said the samples, delivered to the International Space Station, could help advance technology used in satellites and other equipment destined for space. "We're interested to see if they are also stable under the harsh conditions of outer space in particular the radiation they are exposed to."
Hersam said there was great uncertainty about how, when, or even if the samples would ever get into space. But several years ago, one of Hersam's former students, now an employee of the aerospace giant, Boeing, was able to help him secure the small amount of cargo space needed to get the samples into orbit. The next step was waiting.
"We prepared the samples over 18 months ago, and we've been waiting, in the queue, and as the Space Shuttle [program] is coming to an end, we were actually nervous that we may never get up there. But fortunately, we made it."
Hersam knows how his experiment got into space. But with the last-ever space shuttle flight scheduled just two months from now, he's not sure how he's going to get the samples back to Earth.
"There still will be most likely Russian spacecraft, which will be shuttling samples back and forth, so hopefully we will be able to catch a return flight that way, but it's not finalized yet how that will occur," said Hersam.
Professor Peter Voorhees, Hersam's colleague at Northwestern University, said, "The challenge isn't so much getting them up, because you have these unmanned transport vehicles that will take things up. It's getting the samples back. So the down mass really becomes an issue."
Vorhees has successfully completed three experiments carried aboard the space shuttle. His concern is that whatever craft eventually replaces the shuttle might not be able to carry as much cargo into orbit.
"NASA, to their credit, is extraordinarily careful about what they take up and how they pack the shuttle, but it just had so much space to start with, that there was space to transport samples up and back in a reasonably timely manner," he said.
When President Barack Obama outlined his vision for the future of the U.S. space program last April, he signaled a desire to allow private companies to develop spacecraft that will fill the void left by the retiring space shuttle program. Hersam is worried that plan could push projects like his aside.
"My concern is that the motivation behind the experiments will presumably be commercial in nature, which will be a different type of research than we are doing now. I suspect that the level of discovery and serendipity will reduce if it's being drive by bottom-line [profit] considerations. I'm worried that it's not going to be as productive as it is now, where fundamental research can be performed," said Hersam.
Endeavour's final mission into space is the 25th journey into orbit for the 22-year-old vehicle. It is expected to return to Earth on May 13, completing the penultimate mission of NASA's 30 old Space Shuttle program. Atlantis is tentatively set to make the final shuttle journey into space at the end of June.
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South Korea says its forces conducted live-fire artillery exercises on two islands near its sea border with North Korea Tuesday, including one that came under attack from the North during a similar drill last year.
Officials said the exercises were staged on Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong islands and lasted about two hours. They said the drills were aimed at increasing military readiness and were purely defensive in nature.
The exercises were completed without incident or any comment from North Korea, which opened fire with more than 100 artillery shells during a South Korean exercise on Yeonpyeong island in November. The shelling killed four people and brought tensions between the two Koreas to one of the highest levels since the Korean war ended in 1953.
North Korea, which claims the waters around Yeonpyeong, had threatened a "catastrophic" response to another South Korean artillery drill on the island in December, but said after the exercise that it was "not worth reacting" to. Former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson was in Pyongyang on a peace-making mission at the time.
Tensions between the two Koreas have eased since then, but efforts to open bilateral talks have stalled over South Korean demands that Pyongyang apologize for the Yeonpyeong shelling and admit responsibility for sinking a South Korean warship in March 2010.
Canada has re-elected the conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Conservative Party won 167 seats in Canada's House of Commons. The New Democratic Party secures official opposition status with 102.
The results of the five-week election campaign brought the biggest surprise in recent Canadian memory.
The opposition Liberal Party was decimated, landing in third spot behind the New Democratic Party. The Liberals have never had such a disastrous result since the founding of Canada.
Since the start of the campaign, Harper, who has previously only won two minority governments, finally has a full majority. Canada has seen four elections in the last seven years. The Conservative majority now most likely means four more years until another election.
Despite his victory, the Conservatives did not win most of the popular vote. Speaking to his supporters in Calgary, Conservative leader and Prime Minister Stephen Harper says his party must now take its majority to parliament, but not alienate those who did not vote for him.
"Canadians made this critically important decision today friends. They chose hope, hope, unity of purpose and a strong Canada. And, because Canadians chose hope, we can now begin to come together again. As we must, as Canadians, as fellow citizens, friends and neighbors, for our part, we are intensely aware, that we are and must be the government of all Canadians, including those who did not vote for us," said Harper.
Despite not winning government, New Democratic Party (NDP) supporters are jubilant. They have nearly tripled the previous number of members in Canada's House of Commons and are now the Official Opposition.
New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton says he will meet with Harper in the next few days with hopes to bring more respect to debate in the Canadian parliament.
"We're committed to making progress carefully and prudently, a practical step at a time -- just as we have every time our party has assumed office in this country," said Layton.
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff even lost his own seat in a Toronto area race, but says he will remain the party's leader.
Bloc Quebecois party, which is dedicated to Quebec separating from Canada, is now eliminated from official status in Canada's House of Commons.
The Green Party made a major breakthrough, with the win of leader Elizabeth May. The environmentally minded party put nearly all its resources in getting May elected in her race on Vancouver Island, despite running candidates in all of Canada's 308 constituencies.
Discussion now moves to the possible merger of the Liberals and New Democrats. More than 60 percent of Canadians did not vote for Harper or his Conservative Party, splitting the vote in many races between the Liberals and NDP.
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Police in South Korea have raided local offices of Google Incorporated in what they say is a search for evidence that Google's mobile advertising arm has been illegally collecting private data.
Police said members of their cyber unit conducted the raid Tuesday. They carried away hard drives and other equipment related to Google's AdMob unit, which is suspected of collecting personal location information without authority or permission.
The probe is not directly related to a previous investigation of Google in South Korea. That probe concerned the incidental collection of personal data while Google cars were cruising through neighborhoods and taking photographs for the company's Street View service.
Google officials say they are cooperating with the latest investigation, which comes amid rising concern that Apple and other mobile telephone producers are saving data on users' personal movements for advertising purposes.
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U.S. officials say President Barack Obama weighed several options before ordering the military assault that killed Osama bin Laden, and that the president's advisors were divided on which course to pursue.
The president opted against bombing the compound north of Islamabad where the al-Qaida leader had been hiding. Officials said that plan would have been less risky to U.S. military personnel but would have made it difficult to confirm if bin Laden was present and killed.
U.S. officials say Obama also considered continuing to wait and monitor the site in order to be more certain of intelligence that strongly suggested the man at the compound was indeed bin Laden. Obama ultimately authorized the military operation on Friday morning, saying "it's a go."
Details emerge
At a White House briefing on Monday, the Obama administration's counterterror chief, John Brennan, released details of the sophisticated airborne assault carried out by an elite U.S. military unit. A group of Navy SEALs slid down ropes from helicopters into the compound in the city of Abbottabad early Monday. After making their way into the main building they shot bin Laden in the head during a firefight.
Brennan said there had been plans to take bin Laden alive.
Anxiety-filled
He called the 40 minutes that it took to complete the operation the "most anxiety-filled periods of time" for administration officials, including Mr. Obama, who was monitoring from the White House Situation Room. "Minutes," he said, "passed like days."
No American lives were lost in the operation.
Obama announced bin Laden's death in televised remarks at the White House late Sunday.
A U.S. counterterrorism official says the elite military unit confiscated hard drives, DVDs and documents following the raid.
Pakistan out of the loop
The Pakistan government was not informed of the mission until the helicopters were out of Pakistani air space, for fear they might be intercepted.
Brennan suggested that bin Laden had benefited from some sort of support system in Pakistan because his compound was in Abbottabad, a military garrison town some 60 kilometers from Islamabad. There had been persistent reports that bin Laden had sought refuge in Pakistan's lawless western border region.
Buried at sea, DNA proof
U.S. military officials said bin Laden was buried at sea after he was given traditional Muslim funeral rites, with his body washed and placed in a white sheet.
The officials said DNA testing showed nearly 100 percent certainty that the dead man was the al-Qaida leader.
Brennan revealed that President Obama, on word that the mission was successfully accomplished, said, "We got him."
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