Obama Calls British, Saudi Leaders About Bomb Plot

Published October 30, 2010

| Associated Press

President Obama has called British Prime Minister David Cameron and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to discuss the thwarted mail bomb attacks.

White House spokesman Bill Burton says the president also received a briefing Saturday from his national security adviser, John Brennan.

Yemeni authorities are checking more packages in the search for terrorists who tried to mail bombs to Chicago-area synagogues. The plot has raised fears of a new al-Qaida terror attack.

Obama is campaigning Saturday in Bridgeport, Conn., Philadelphia and Chicago.

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Somali Govt Asks Pirates to Release British Couple

Published October 22, 2010

| Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's government is calling for the release of a British couple kidnapped by pirates, as the one-year anniversary of their capture approaches.

Minister of Information Abdirahman Omar Osman says the continued captivity of Paul and Rachel Chandler is "inhuman and un-Islamic."

The retired British couple have been in pirate custody since their yacht was hijacked off the Seychelles on Oct. 23 last year.

Osman also called on the international community to put more into the struggling government, which he says is incapable of fighting piracy on its own off the coast of the lawless East African country.

Somalia has been a failed state for nearly 20 years, and piracy is one of few opportunities to make money.

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