Briefly World

Australia on Tuesday announced stricter security checks,including fingerprinting and face-scanning,for visitors from 10 high-risk countries to counter terrorism.

Australia plans face-scans of visitors from 10 countries

MELBOURNE: Australia on Tuesday announced stricter security checks,including fingerprinting and face-scanning,for visitors from 10 high-risk countries to counter terrorism. Unveiling a new counter terrorism white paper that targetted 10 unnamed nations,Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also said Australia faces a rising threat of home-grown terrorism. Rudd said Somalia and Yemen had been identified as two countries where the threat of Islamic extremism was growing.

Yemen Qaeda head warns US of attacks

DUBAI: A top member of al-Qaedas Yemen wing threatened to carry out attacks in the US. Yemen declared war on al-Qaeda after the groups off-shoot claimed responsibility for the December 25 failed plane bomb attack. You have attacked us in the middle of our household,so wait for what will befall you, Qasim al-Raymi,the wings military commander,said in a web post this month.

McChrystal says sorry to Afghans

KABUL: The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan took his apology for a weekend airstrike that killed civilians directly to the Afghan people on Tuesday,with a video in which he pledged to work to regain their trust. In the video,translated into Dari and Pashto on a NATO website,General Stanley McChrystal apologised for the strike in central Uruzgan province that Afghan officials say killed at least 21 people.

Dalai Lama: Dont want separate Tibet

WASHINGTON/BEIJING: Dalai Lama on Tuesday said he did not want separation from China but religious and environment freedom for his people as Beijing demanded US undo the damage done by a meeting between President Barack Obama and the Tibetan spiritual leader. We do not want separation from China because Tibet is a landlocked country needs material benefits, he said.

Zazi pleads guilty to terror charge

NEW YORK: A 25-year-old Afghan origin shuttle driver,accused of procuring beauty products to turn them into bombs,pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn court of an operation for al-Qaeda to attack Manhattans subway system. Najibullah Zazi said he was recruited by Qaeda in Afghanistan to be a suicide bomber.