U.S. Embassy Islamabad released the following Warden Message on August 5, 2010:
This Warden Notice is to notify American citizens that access to the Serena Hotel in Islamabad has been temporarily halted while security officials investigate a non-specific telephonic threat. The Embassy has no further details at this time, but has advised personnel to avoid the area around the Serena Hotel for the next few hours.
The Embassy reiterates its advice to all Americans to take measures for their safety and security at all times. These measures include maintaining good situational awareness, avoiding crowds and demonstrations and keeping a low profile. Americans should avoid setting patterns by varying times and routes for all required travel. Americans should ensure that their travel documents and visas are valid at all times.
For the latest security information, Americans living and traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website at http://travel.state.gov/, where the current Worldwide Caution, Travel Warning for Pakistan, and Country-Specific Information for Pakistan can be found.
Pakistan has arrested several suspects in connection with the failed bombing in New York City, officials say. One of the arrested is the co-owner of a prominent catering firm used by the US embassy in Islamabad, Pakistani officials told news agencies.
It is not clear when the arrests were made. They follow a visit to Pakistan by two senior US security officials.
The main suspect, Pakistan-born US citizen Faisal Shahzad, was arrested two days after the failed attempt.
via BBC News – Pakistan arrests over Times Square bomb plot.
A Libyan Afriqiyah Airways plane with 104 people on board crashed Wednesday on approach to Tripoli’s airport, killing at least 96 people. A 10-year-old Dutch boy was the only known survivor, Libya’s transport minister said.
Libyan state television showed a large field scattered with small and large pieces of plane debris and dozens of police and rescue workers with surgical masks and gloves, some of them carrying at least one body away. They gathered small personal items such as wallets and cell phones from the wreckage.
Source.
Islamist militants have been blamed for a bomb blast in the Philippines today which killed at least five people and wounded dozens more.
The bomb exploded outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato city, 545 miles (880 kilometers) south of Manila, as church-goers celebrated Mass.
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A videotape of a heinous torture session is delaying the ratification of a civil nuclear deal between the United Arab Emirates and the United States, senior U.S. officials familiar with the case said.
In the tape, an Afghan grain dealer is seen being tortured by a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi, one of the UAE’s seven emirates.
