Pakistan: Officials question suspect’s claim of reporter’s death

A British-born militant with a history of kidnapping Westerners confessed Thursday to the abduction of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and, in a chilling declaration, told a Pakistani court he believes the journalist is dead.

But President Pervez Musharraf and Karachi police questioned his claim, and the Journal said it is confident Pearl is still alive.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh appeared in court for the first time Thursday. He gave no details on where or when the 38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter was allegedly killed. Just a day earlier, police said he had told them Pearl was still alive.

Grim-faced and looking weary, Saeed told the court, “Right or wrong, I had my reasons. I think that our country shouldn’t be catering to America’s needs.”

Saeed is believed linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a radical group banned last month by Musharraf.

Washington: 6 Yemenis taken off terror list

The FBI Thursday removed six men from a list of 17 suspected terrorists identified in an extraordinary terrorism alert Monday after officials confirmed that the six were being held in Yemeni jails.

Five of the six men were shown in photographs distributed to law enforcement agencies and media worldwide as part of a warning that a suspected al-Qaida operative and his associates may have been planning attacks in the United States or Yemen. The warning said the men “should be considered extremely dangerous.”

FBI officials said they did not learn until Thursday that the six are apparently the same as those listed in Monday’s global alert, a law enforcement official said.

The five whose photographs were removed from the list were Issam Ahmad Dibwan Al-Makhlafi, Ahmad al-Akhader Nasser Albidani, Bashir Ali Nasser al-Sharari, Abdulaziz Muhammad Saleh bin Otash and Shuhour Abdullah Mukbil al-Sabri.

Iran: 150 foreigners arrested

Authorities arrested some 150 people, including European, Arab and African nationals, who entered Iran from Pakistan and are questioning them about any links to the Taliban or al-Qaida, the state news agency said Thursday.

So far in the questioning, none of the detainees has been connected to Afghanistan’s former ruling militia or Osama bin Laden’s terror network, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing an unidentified source.

The Bush administration has accused Iran of arming and financing fighters being sent into Afghanistan to destabilize the government of interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.

Tehran also has been charged by Washington with not doing enough to stop or round up suspected Taliban or al-Qaida members fleeing into Iran as U.S. forces scour Afghanistan for the fugitives.

Relations between the United States and Iran soured further when President Bush lumped Iran together with Iraq and North Korea as an “axis of evil.”