British police have released another man who was detained in connection with the failed July 21 bomb attacks on London's transit system.
London's Metropolitan Police said yesterday that officers were continuing to question 16 suspects. Of the 37 people detained over the attempt to set off bombs on three subway trains and a double-decker bus, 21 are no longer being held in connection with the investigation.
The man police released on Tuesday was let go without charge.
British authorities say those still in custody include three of the failed bombers. They are trying to extradite the fourth suspected attacker, Hamdi Issac, from Italy, but his lawyer said Italian investigations could delay any extradition to Britain.
Police say all four bombers who carried out the first series of attacks on July 7 in London died in the blasts that killed 52 other people on three subway trains and a bus. Officers are not holding any suspects in connection with those bombings.
Britons were stunned to learn that three of the alleged July 7 suicide attackers were young Pakistani Britons; the third moved from Jamaica as a child. Most of the men alleged to have carried out failed attacks two weeks later, taking no lives, were immigrants from East Africa.
The apparent willingness of men born and raised in Britain to turn to militancy has prompted soul-searching in a nation proud of its diversity and tolerance.
There are some 1.8 million Muslims in Britain and the overwhelming majority are moderate in their views.
Nevertheless, police figures released on Tuesday showed that crimes motivated by religious hatred had increased by nearly 600 percent since the July 7 bombings.
Many Muslims fear officers are using racial profiling in their search for terror suspects. The Mail on Sunday newspaper quoted Ian Johnston, chief constable of the British Transport Police, as suggesting race would be a factor in police searches. "We should not waste time searching old white ladies," he reportedly said.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
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