Former Al-Qaeda aide appears in UK interview on ‘mentoring children’

Adel Abdel Bary, a former aide to Osama bin Laden, wants to teach British Muslim children ‘skills’ and a ‘vision’. Above, Muslim children at the Little Harwood Community Centre in Blackburn, northwest England on Oct. 13, 2006. (AP file photo)
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Updated 30 June 2024
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Former Al-Qaeda aide appears in UK interview on ‘mentoring children’

  • Adel Abdel Bary spent decades in US prison over role in deadly 1998 embassy bombings
  • He was released in late 2020 and returned to the UK to ‘live quietly’

LONDON: A former aide to Osama bin Laden who played a role in terror attacks on US embassies in Africa that killed 224 people wants to give British Muslim children “skills” and a “vision,” he has said in an interview.

Adel Abdel Bary, 64, spent more than 20 years in US prison for his links to the 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, The Times reported.

In his first public interview since being released, Abdel Bary, who has been described as Al-Qaeda’s press officer in London, said he is keen to guide Muslim youth in Britain. One of his sons had earlier joined Daesh in Syria.

Images of the interview published online show Abdel Bary at a youth center in Birmingham, sitting behind a desk next to a whiteboard.

There are no restrictions that would automatically prevent Abdel Bary from teaching children, despite a ruling by a High Court judge in 2022 that his “past involvement at the most senior levels of global terrorism are powerful and enduring baseline indicators of risk.”

The 64-year-old has six children of his own and lives with family in northwest London, in a council flat valued at more than £1 million ($1.26 million).

Abdel Bary, a former lawyer, first arrived in Britain from Egypt in 1991 on an asylum claim. He had been imprisoned and tortured over his membership in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and links to the assassination of Anwar Sadat, the country’s former president.

After being granted refugee status, Abdel Bary reportedly helped run Al-Qaeda’s “media information office” in the English capital.

The deadly August 1998 bombings, however, led to his arrest after he had promoted Al-Qaeda’s claims of responsibility to contacts around the world. Abdel Bary was arrested at the request of the US and held in London’s Belmarsh prison.

He fought a 13-year legal battle against extradition but was eventually transferred to the US in 2012, being handed a reduced sentence of 25 years on account of his time served at Belmarsh.

Abdel Bary was released early on compassionate grounds in late 2022 due to poor health. He returned to the UK to “live quietly” with his wife, Ragaa, a UK citizen.

But the interview, published on the Islam21c website, marks Abdel Bary’s return to the public eye in an attempt to “educate and inspire” Muslims in the UK.

He was quoted as saying: “The best things for our world now are the basics … go play with the children, give them skills, give them a vision.”

The youth center Abdel Bary visited for the interview is a volunteer-led organization that previously hosted lectures by former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg.

Abdel Bary’s interviewer said: “Adel’s energy and zest for community is unabated. He wants to work with the youth. He wants to go into mentoring and give them something productive to work on.”

The 64-year-old’s son fled to Turkiye and later Spain following the collapse of Daesh. He was arrested and detained while awaiting trial for terror offenses and died last year, aged 32, while awaiting the verdict of his trial.

In response to Abdel Bary’s public interview, a spokesman for Counter Terrorism Policing said that managing convicted terror offenders was a “high priority.”

He added: “We work closely with partners to try and reduce the risk of reoffending. To do this we have strong intelligence sharing processes in place to help quickly identify and manage any potential risks of reoffending by individuals.”


Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains in India’s northeast kill at least 16 people

Updated 4 sec ago
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Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains in India’s northeast kill at least 16 people

GUWAHATI, India: Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 16 people over the last two weeks in India’s northeast, where more than 300,000 have been displaced from their submerged homes, authorities said on Tuesday.
The Indian army and air force have been assisting with rescue efforts in Assam, one of the worst-hit states, where a military helicopter flew early Tuesday morning 13 fishermen to safety after being stranded for four days on a small island on the Brahmaputra, one of Asia’s largest rivers, officials said.
The Brahmaputra River, which flows 1,280 kilometers (800 miles) across Assam state before running through Bangladesh, overflows annually. However, this year, increased rainfall has made the river — already known for its powerful, unpredictable flow — even more dangerous to live near or on one of the more than 2,000 island villages in the middle of it.
In neighboring Arunachal Pradesh state, which borders China, landslides have wiped out several roads. Army troopers there rescued 70 students and teachers from a flooded school in Changlang district, police said. Similarly, heavy flooding in the states of Sikkim, Manipur and Meghalaya swept away roads and collapsed bridges.
So far, more than 80 people across six northeastern states have died since the end of May due to floods and mudslides brought on by the rains, according to official figures.
Back in Assam, animals at the famed Kaziranga National Park, home to some 2,500 one-horned Rhinos, are moving to higher ground to escape the floods. Park rangers are monitoring their movements to ensure their safety, the state’s chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in the country’s northeast region during the June-September monsoon season. India, and Assam state in particular, is seen as one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change because of more intense rain and floods, according to a 2021 report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a New Delhi-based climate think tank.


Halving food waste can reduce hunger for 153 mn people: report

Updated 35 min 32 sec ago
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Halving food waste can reduce hunger for 153 mn people: report

  • UN nations have committed to cutting per capita food waste by 50 percent by 2030

PARIS: Halving food waste could cut climate-warming emissions and end undernourishment for 153 million people globally, the OECD and the UN’s food agency said in a joint report Tuesday.
Around a third of food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted globally, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization — resulting in useless emissions and less available food for those who need it.
By 2033, the number of calories lost and wasted between produce leaving farms and reaching shops and households could be more than twice the number of calories currently consumed in low-income countries in a year, the report warned.
Cutting in two the amount of food lost and wasted along the journey from farm to fork “has the potential to reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by four percent and the number of undernourished people by 153 million by the year 2030,” according to the report.
“This target is a highly ambitious upper bound and would require substantial changes by both consumers and producer side,” they added.
Agriculture, forestry and other land use account for around one-fifth of global human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
UN nations have committed to cutting per capita food waste by 50 percent by 2030 as part of sustainable development goals but there is no global target for reducing food loss along the production supply chain.
Between 2021 and 2023, fruit and vegetables accounted for more than half of the lost and wasted food given their extremely perishable nature and relatively short shelf life, according to the report.
Cereals followed, accounting for over a quarter of lost and wasted food.
The FAO estimates that approximately 600 million people will be facing hunger in 2030.
“Measures to reduce food loss and waste could significantly increase food intake worldwide as more food becomes available and prices fall, ensuring greater access to food for low-income populations,” the report said.
Halving food loss and waste by 2030 could result in increased food intake by 10 percent for low-income countries, six percent in lower middle-income nations and four percent in upper middle-income ones, it added.


Indonesian police probe arson accusation in death of reporter

Updated 40 min 9 sec ago
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Indonesian police probe arson accusation in death of reporter

  • Southeast Asian nation ranks 111th among 180 countries on the 2024 press freedom index
  • Journalist Rico Sempurna Pasaribu reported on illegal gambling involving local officials

JAKARTA: Indonesian police are investigating an accusation by a journalists’ group that arson was behind a fire that killed a reporter and three of his family, an official said on Tuesday, a rare incident that has prompted concern over media freedom.
The Southeast Asian nation ranks 111th among 180 countries on the 2024 press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which has said journalists investigating corruption there are often subjected to intimidation and violence by authorities.
Indonesia’s association of independent journalists (AJI) blamed arson for a June 27 blaze in the North Sumatra home of a reporter, Rico Sempurna Pasaribu, after he reported on illegal gambling involving local officials.
The Kompas newspaper said the journalist died along with his wife, one of his children and a grandchild, citing his daughter.
District police official Oloan Siahaan told Reuters that police were investigating the cause, adding that it was still unclear whether the fire had been set intentionally.
The case drew condemnation from journalists’ groups. In a statement on Tuesday, AJI called it “a severe violation of press freedom in Indonesia” that set a dangerous precedent.
Indonesia’s presidential palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the statement.
In the statement, Anthony Bellanger, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, urged authorities to take immediate and decisive action to ensure justice for the reporter and his family.


Riot police patrol Nairobi as Kenyan activists call for more protests

Updated 02 July 2024
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Riot police patrol Nairobi as Kenyan activists call for more protests

  • Members of the protest movement have rejected appeals from President William Ruto for dialogue
  • Protests started as an online outpouring of anger over nearly $2.7 billion of tax hikes in a proposed finance bill

NAIROBI: Riot police patrolled Kenya’s capital Nairobi on Tuesday morning as young activists called for more protests following last week’s deadly clashes.
Members of the protest movement, which has no official leaders and largely organizes via social media, have rejected appeals from President William Ruto for dialogue, even after he abandoned proposed tax hikes.
Infuriated by the deaths last week — at least 39 according to the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHCR) — many are now demanding that Ruto step down.
“We are determined to push for the president’s resignation,” Ojango Omondi, an activist in Nairobi, said. “We hope for a peaceful protest and minimal casualties, if any.”
The protests that started as an online outpouring of anger over nearly $2.7 billion of tax hikes in a proposed finance bill have grown into a nationwide movement against corruption and misgovernance, and become the most serious crisis of Ruto’s nearly two-year-old presidency.
He has been caught between the competing demands of lenders such as the International Monetary Fund, which are urging the heavily-indebted government to cut deficits, and a hard-pressed population reeling from the soaring cost of living.
Ruto has directed the treasury to come up with ways to cut spending to fill the budget gap caused by the bill’s withdrawal, and also said more borrowing will be required.
The protests, which began in mid-June, were mostly peaceful until last Tuesday, when police clashed with demonstrators. Some protesters briefly stormed parliament and set part of it ablaze. The police opened fire, killing many, human rights group said.
The KNHCR said on Monday that 39 people have been killed and 361 people injured since the first protest on June 18.
Ruto has defended the police’s actions, saying they were doing their best under difficult circumstances. He blamed violence on “criminals” who he said had hijacked the demonstrations.
“It’s a beautiful day to choose patriotism. A beautiful day to choose peace, order and the sanctity of our nationhood,” State House communications director Gerald Bitok wrote on X on Tuesday morning, adding in Swahili: “Violence is not patriotism.”
It was not clear to what extent people would respond to the new calls for protests. There were no reports of demonstrations early in the morning.
Shops were opening as usual in downtown Nairobi, the site of the most intense protests last week. Police had erected roadblocks leading to the president’s official residence.
“I think it’s not going to be maandamano (protest) because maybe people are afraid, because some people have been shot,” said Kennedy Otwal, who was walking through downtown.


Russia says it destroys five Ukraine’s SU-27 jet fighters at Myrhorod airfield

Updated 02 July 2024
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Russia says it destroys five Ukraine’s SU-27 jet fighters at Myrhorod airfield

  • Russia is targeting Ukrainian airfields just as Kyiv prepares to receive the first US-designed F-16s which Moscow has vowed to destroy

MOSCOW: Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that it had destroyed five Ukrainian SU-27 fighter jets and damaged two more at the Myrhorod airfield in Ukraine’s Poltava region with Iskander-M missiles.
The ministry published footage of the attack which showed smoke and flames rising from an airfield.
“As a result of the Russian strike, five active SU-27 multi-purpose fighters were destroyed and two were damaged,” the ministry said.
Russia is targeting Ukrainian airfields just as Kyiv prepares to receive the first US-designed F-16s which Moscow has vowed to destroy.