The Allmendinger Chronicles

via CNN.com

Berlin, Germany (CNN) — U.S. officials extended a travel alert in Germany and urged Americans to remain wary after terrorist organization al Qaeda posted messages in recent months threatening attacks in the country.

The alert issued Thursday will remain in effect until February 10. It replaces one issued in September that expired Wednesday, a news statement said.

It urged Americans in Germany to keep up with news reports and to consider the security procedures in place when they visit hotels, restaurants, and other entertainment and recreation venues.

“Over the past few months, al Qaeda has released videos threatening to conduct terrorist attacks against German interests,” the statement said. “While these threats initially mentioned the German federal elections in September, al Qaeda continues to threaten Germany.”

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GENEVA (BNO NEWS) – A person working on the Large Hadron Collider beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland has been arrested on suspicion of links to terrorist organizations, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) said on Friday.

The suspect was arrested in Vienne, France on Thursday, according to CERN, who said he was arrested on suspicion of having links to terrorist organizations. The suspect is a physicist who was working on analysis projects with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN since 2003.

“He was not a CERN employee and performed his research under a contract with an outside institute. His work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism: CERN is a particle physics research laboratory whose research addresses fundamental questions about the universe,” a statement from the organization said.

CERN is currently preparing the Large Hadron Collider for a restart later in 2009 after it was forced to shut down last year due to technical problems. It is also known as the Big Bang Experiment as it seeks to simulate the Big Bang. Some people fear that such an experiment could potentially destroy Earth, but scientists have assured the project is safe.

“None of our research has potential for military application, and all our results are published openly in the public domain. CERN is providing the support requested by the French police in this enquiry,” the organization concluded.

Further details were not immediately available.

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From HuffingtonPost.com

CAIRO — Osama bin Laden demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afghanistan in a new audiotape Friday, warning of “retaliation” against them for their alliance with the United States in the war.

An image made from video with an audio-message, provided by IntelCenter on Friday, Sept 25. 2009, al-Qaeda’s as-Sahab released a 4′47″ video featuring an audio statement from Osama bin Laden entitled, “A Message from Sheikh Osama bin Laden to the People of Europe”. Osama bin Laden demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afganistan in a new audiotape Friday, warning of “retaliation” against them for their alliance with the United States in the war. The message is in Arabic and was released in both an English and German subtitled version. On-screen text reads, �Say to those who disbelieve: if they desist, that which has passed will be forgiven them; but if they return [to their misdeeds], then the example of previous peoples has already passed before them. (AP Photo/IntelCenter)

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Al-Qaeda’s recent attempt on the life of a Saudi royal suggests a change in tactics for an organization which has suffered substantial losses in the past few years. 23-year-old Abdullah Hassan Tali Asiri, a would-be suicide bomber listed on Saudi security’s list of most-wanted jihadis, called his target, Prince Muhammad bin Nayif, beforehand to say he wanted to return from Yemen to surrender (Saudi Press Agency, August 31). Bin Nayif is the Deputy Minister of the Interior for Security Affairs and has been in charge of the Saudi counterterrorism campaign since clashes between authorities and Saudi jihadis began in 2003.

Asiri called the prince to say that he and some of his colleagues wanted to turn themselves in, as the prince is well-known for his support of efforts to rehabilitate former jihadis. Bin Nayif has previously coordinated with influential Saudi shaykhs, such as Safar al-Hawali, who helped arrange the surrender of a number of wanted Saudi jihadis.

Asiri is believed to have been recruited to al-Qaeda by his brother Ibrahim, who is known by the alias “Abu Saleh” and also appears on the most wanted list (Saudi Gazette, August 31). In the evening of August 27, Asiri detonated his explosives moments after he reached the prince’s residence, where the prince was receiving guests at the end of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (a Saudi custom). Asiri was killed by the bomb but bin Nayef, sitting just a meter away, suffered only superficial injury. Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack (al-Fajr Media Center, August 29). Saudi and other Arab media questioned how the assassin, who was supposedly searched four times before the detonation, managed to carry out the attack. Bin Nayif, who is known to have welcomed penitent militants into his home before, reportedly said afterwards that he had ordered his men not to search his would-be assassin in the belief that humaneness and magnanimity were key in reforming ex-terrorists (Al-Quds al-Arabi, September 2; Al-Sharq al-Awsat, August 31).

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LONDON, England (CNN) — British Transport Police said Saturday they are investigating after a man left a bag containing a corrosive substance at a train station outside London.

The man left the bag in the booking hall of Kingston train station Friday afternoon, said a police spokesman, who could not be named in line with policy.

A black liquid leaked from the bag and had a “corrosive effect on the soles of somebody’s shoes” as they walked by, the spokesman said.

The man who left the bag ran off when he was told it was leaking, according to the spokesman.

Authorities have since identified the liquid as a cleaning fluid, the spokesman said.

The incident briefly shut down the train station along the Thames River just southwest of London. The station reopened hours later, the spokesman said.

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