Four Somali immigrants convicted of supporting militants

(Reuters) - Four Somali immigrants, including a popular imam at a San Diego-area mosque, were convicted by a U.S. federal jury on Friday of conspiring to provide material support to an al Qaeda-linked Islamist militia in the Horn of Africa nation.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California said that the men - the imam, two cab drivers and an employee at a money transmitting business - had conspired to raise and send money to Somali al Shabaab rebels.

Al Shabaab militants want to impose a strict version of Islamic law in war-ravaged Somalia, but have lost significant territory in the southern and central parts of the country in the face of an offensive by African Union troops.

According to the evidence presented at trial, the men conspired to transfer funds from San Diego to Somalia through the Shidaal Express, a now-defunct money transmitting business in San Diego.

The U.S. Attorney's office said the jury had listened to intercepted phone conversations between one of the men, San Diego cab driver Basaaly Saeed Moalin, and an al Shabaab leader who was later killed in a U.S. airstrike.

Aden Hashi Ayro implored the cab driver in those calls to send money to al Shabaab, telling him it was "time to finance the Jihad."

"You are running late with the stuff. Send some and something will happen," Ayro told Moalin. He also repeatedly asked him to reach out to Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud - an imam at the City Heights mosque - to obtain funds for the group.

U.S. warplanes killed Ayro, the Afghan-trained then-leader of al Shabaab who was said to be al Qaeda's top man in the country, in 2008. Under Ayro, al Shabaab had adopted Iraq-style tactics, including assassinations, roadside bombs and suicide bombings.

Prosecutors also presented a recorded telephone conversation in which Moalin gave the rebels permission to use his house in the capital Mogadishu. Prosecutors argued he was offering the home as a place to hide weapons.

U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said the prosecution was the result of a lengthy investigation by the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"This case proves that our efforts to detect and disrupt terrorist financing - and prevent the violence that goes along with it - has paid off," Duffy said in a statement.

"The jury clearly did not accept defense claims that months of intercepted conversations about bullets, bombings and Jihad were actually conversations about their charitable efforts for orphans and schools," she added.

Convicted alongside Mohamud and Moalin were 37-year-old Anaheim cab driver Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud and 56-year-old Issa Doreh, who worked at a money transmitting business.

The four men are due to be sentenced on May 16 on various conspiracy and money laundering charges, which each carry maximum penalties of 15 to 20 years in jail and combined fines of up to $1 million.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/four-somali-immigrants-us-convicted-supporting-militants-083214144.html

one direction tulsa news scalloped potatoes the ten commandments charlton heston moses tulsa shooting

Pistorius' brother facing charge in traffic death

Carl Pistorius, brother of Olympian athlete, Oscar Pistorius, arrives at home, Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, where his brother has been staying in Pretoria, South Africa, since being granted bail Friday for the Valentine's Day shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Reports emerged Sunday that Carl Pistorius is facing charges of culpable homicide for the death of a woman biker who was knocked down in 2010. (AP Photo)

Carl Pistorius, brother of Olympian athlete, Oscar Pistorius, arrives at home, Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, where his brother has been staying in Pretoria, South Africa, since being granted bail Friday for the Valentine's Day shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Reports emerged Sunday that Carl Pistorius is facing charges of culpable homicide for the death of a woman biker who was knocked down in 2010. (AP Photo)

FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2013 file photo, Carl Pistorius, right, and Henke Pistorius, the brother and father of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend attend Oscar's bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa. A report by a local television station on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, revealed that Carl Pistorius is facing a charge of culpable homicide for the death of a woman knocked down on her motorbike in 2010. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius' father Henke Pistorius, right, with his son Carl watch as Oscar Pistorius walks in during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Olympian Oscar Pistorius, foreground, stands following his bail hearing, as his brother Carl, left, and father Henke, second from left, look on in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Pistorius fired into the door of a small bathroom where his girlfriend was cowering after a shouting match on Valentine's Day, hitting her three times, a South African prosecutor said Tuesday as he charged the sports icon with premeditated murder. The magistrate ruled that Pistorius faces the harshest bail requirements available in South African law. (AP Photo)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius's brother Carl Pistorius looks on after his bail application appearance at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. Pistorius was formally charged at Pretoria Magistrate?s Court with one count of murder after his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a model and budding reality TV show participant, was shot multiple times and killed at Pistorius' upmarket home in the predawn hours of Thursday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? The murder case involving Olympic star Oscar Pistorius took another unexpected turn Sunday with the news that his older brother, Carl, is himself facing charges for the death of a woman in a traffic accident.

Carl Pistorius faces a charge of unlawful, negligent killing for a 2008 road death, "in which a woman motorcyclist sadly lost her life," Kenneth Oldwage, the Pistorius family lawyer said on Sunday. The accident happened in Vanderbijlpark, south of Johannesburg. The charge of "culpable homicide" was dropped and then reinstated and will be challenged in court, the lawyer told The Associated Press.

It is the second time someone associated with the Pistorius case has been found to face a serious charge that has been dropped and then reinstated. It was revealed that the chief police investigator in the case is facing charges of seven counts of attempted murder for shooting at a vehicle with seven passengers. Following the revelations, Hilton Botha was removed from the Pistorius investigation and a new chief detective was appointed on Thursday.

To drop and then reinstate charges is "not uncommon in South African criminal law. The law specifically makes provision to allow charges to be dropped and then to be reinstated as a result of further investigations," said Jacob van Garderen, director of Lawyers for Human Rights. "It is a practical procedure, a process that is there to assist both sides."

In another twist this weekend, model Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot to death by Oscar Pistorius on Valentine's Day was on television again in a new episode of the reality show "Tropika Island of Treasure 5" even though she was buried last Tuesday.

On Monday, Oscar Pistorius must report to the police station in Brooklyn, a suburb of the nation's capital Pretoria, and sign in, a twice-weekly procedure which is part of his bail conditions.

Pistorius was released on bail Friday and stayed at the home of his uncle Arnold in Waterkloof, an affluent suburb of Pretoria, where Oscar is now staying. His brother, Carl, came to visit the house Sunday.

The problem confronting his older brother Carl is the latest complication in a case that has transfixed South Africa and much of the world.

"It's also doubly sad because it's involved with Oscar and his brother and all the family ? so they have double sort of trouble," said Johannesburg resident Jim Plester.

Lawyer Oldwage said that "Carl deeply regrets the accident" and that a blood test showed he was not drunk at the time. He said the charges had initially been dropped, only to be reinstated later.

Oscar Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder, but the athlete says he killed his girlfriend accidentally, opening fire after mistaking her for an intruder in his home.

The character of Pistorius also continued to take center stage. For many, it mirrors his public appearances as an articulate, well-spoken advocate for Paralympic athletes facing hardship. Witness statements describing Pistorius as a down-to-earth guy were presented at the hearing.

Others have described him as a reckless risk taker who has been in trouble before, such as a boating accident in 2009 which put him into a hospital intensive care unit.

But in a report on Sunday, a South African man who said Steenkamp had stayed at his home since September, described Pistorius as moody and impatient. Cecil Myers, whose daughter was close friends with Steenkamp, said in an interview in the City Press newspaper, that Pistorius will have the killing of Steenkamp on his conscience. "I hope he gets a long sentence. Gets what he deserves," said Myers.

Pistorius appeared "very nice and charming to us when they started dating," said Myers. Myers said Pistorius initially used to come into the house but later just dropped Steenkamp off and picked her up when they began to date steadily, and he described the change as a lack of respect.

Myers recalled their first date and told the newspaper: "After that he wouldn't leave her alone. He kept pestering her, phoning and phoning and phoning her."

According to Myers, Steenkamp "told me he pushed her a bit into a corner. She felt caged in."

Myers said he told Pistorius "not to force himself on her. Back off." He said that after initially agreeing with him, it appeared that Pistorius soon took no heed.

Myers declined to respond to a request for more information from Associated Press.

In the bail hearing, a character reference for Pistorius, acknowledged that "the only issue in the relationship that I was made aware of was that Reeva sometimes thought Oscar was moving a little fast."

Pistorius was born without fibula bones due to a congenital defect and his legs were amputated when he was 11 months old. He has run on carbon-fiber blades and was originally banned from competing against able-bodied peers because many argued that his blades gave him an unfair advantage. He was later cleared to compete. He is a multiple Paralympic medalist, and won a silver medal at the 2011 Daegu world championships with South Africa's 4x400 relay team. But he failed to win a medal at the London Olympics, where he ran in the 400 meter race and the 4x400 relay race.

___

AP Sports Writers Gerald Imray contributed from Centurion and John Leicester from Johannesburg. AP Writers Christopher Torchia and Andrew Meldrum contributed from Johannesburg.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-24-OLY-Pistorius-Shooting/id-65a11f6f660746aeb261c4bc5aa940d7

juan pablo montoya free pancakes at ihop martina navratilova high school shooting ohio school shooting sean young arrested matt kenseth

POLITICS: Averting the sequester is 'not rocket science,' LaHood tells former GOP colleagues