Suspect asked for advice on going to fight Muslims

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer

FORT HOOD, Texas – The Army psychiatrist suspected of going on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood recently asked for advice on what he should tell fellow soldiers concerned about fighting Muslims in Iraq or Afghanistan, a local Muslim leader said Saturday.

Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, said he spoke with the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, after two services in late summer. During the conversations, Danquah said Hasan never expressed anger toward the Army or indicated any plans for violence.

But during their second conversation, Hasan seemed almost incoherent, Danquah said.

"But what if a person gets in and feels that it's just not right?" Danquah recalled Hasan asking him.

"I told him, `There's something wrong with you,'" Danquah told The Associated Press during an interview at Fort Hood on Saturday. "I didn't get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn't seem right."

But Danquah was sufficiently troubled that he recommended the center reject Hasan's request to become a lay Muslim leader at Fort Hood.

Authorities have accused Hasan of opening fire on fellow soldiers on Thursday at Fort Hood, in a stream of gunfire that left 13 people dead and more than two dozen wounded in the worst mass shooting on a military facility in the U.S. At the start of the attack, Hasan reportedly jumped up on a desk and shouted "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great!" Hasan was seriously wounded by police and is being treated in a military hospital.

The military has said he was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, but family members suggested he was trying avoid serving overseas.

Hasan's relatives who live in the Palestinian territories have said they had heard from family members that Hasan felt mistreated in the Army as a Muslim.

"He told (them) that as a Muslim committed to his prayers he was discriminated against and not treated as is fitting for an officer and American," said Mohammed Malik Hasan, 24, a cousin, told the AP from his home on the outskirts of Ramallah, a Palestinian city north of Jerusalem. "He hired a lawyer to get him a discharge."

Danquah said his conversations with Hasan occurred following two religious services sometime before Ramadan, the Islamic holy month that started in late August. He said the soldier, who transferred to Fort Hood from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in July, regularly attended services at the Killeen, Texas, community center in his uniform.

During his talks with Hasan, Danquah said he told him that Muslims were fighting each other in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories and that American soldiers with objections to serving overseas had recourse to voice such concerns.

Danquah said Hasan had also asked questions about community center members but he didn't think Hasan was looking for accomplices.

It was not immediately clear if Danquah had informed the Army about his concerns.

"As a Muslim, you come into a community and the way you integrate normally — I didn't see that kind of integration," he said.

Anti-government rally held in Georgia

About 500 demonstrators have taken to the streets of Tbilisi to commemorate the anniversary of a police attack on opposition supporters in Georgia.

In November 2007, riot police used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse thousands of protesters, who were demanding President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation.

"Two years ago Saakashvili showed the whole world his real face and that we are dealing with authoritarianism," said opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze on Saturday.

In 2007, authorities forcefully shut down a pro-opposition television channel, AFP reported.

Last spring, opposition supporters held daily rallies to demand the resignation of the president's, whom they accused of being autocratic and of mishandling last year's Georgia-Russia war.

However, the protests fizzled after several weeks and Saakashvili vowed to stay in office until the end of his second term in 2013.

Azeri Religious committee bans call to prayer

Azerbaijani police have reportedly shut down the Islamic call to prayer at the overwhelmingly-Muslim country's mosques on claims that the religious rite "disturbed the peace."

The police have started to collect the speakers from the mosques and threatened to close the religious sites if the daily proclamations (the Azan) were broadcast.

The crackdown was launched on the orders of the Azeri Committee of Religious Affairs. The governmental committee's head, Hedayat Oruj has claimed that the ritual upset the public peace.

Haji Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, an imam and the head of the Centre for Protection of Freedom of Conscience and Faith, likened the claim to the excuses sought by the capital, Baku's municipal authorities to prevent public protests. He said the committee had to safeguard the religious freedom and facilitate rites like the Azan.

Ibrahimoglu said the ritual was a representative Islamic practice, which Muslims freely followed even in many Western countries. Muslims comprise 98 percent of the ex-Soviet state.

Baku, hailed as a Capital of Islamic Culture, however, has witnessed a series of mosque closures and fresh requirements for registration of religious organizations this year, the Central Asia and the Caucasus news outlet, Eurasianet had reported earlier in the year.

Police in May shut down or demolished mosques in various Baku neighborhoods for reasons ranging from electricity repairs to alleged construction irregularities, the website had said.

Israeli tank fire hits house in Gaza Strip

Israeli tanks have shelled a house in the east of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, leaving at least two people wounded.

The attack, which came on late Friday, caused panic among Palestinian families living in the vicinity, a Press TV correspondent reported.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the attack, saying "a suspicious figure was spotted by our forces" near the barrier separating Gaza from the occupied West Bank, AFP said.

In January, the Israeli army launched a massive military offensive against the populated coastal sliver, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and many thousands more wounded.

Many Italian physicians reject swine flu vaccine

Italian family physicians refuse to prescribe the A/H1N1 vaccine for their patients, claiming that the risks of the vaccine outweigh its benefits.

Latest figures revealed that swine flu has infected more than 540,000 individuals, claiming the lives of 30 in Italy.

The country has ordered some 48 million doses of the A/H1N1 vaccine, enough to immunize 24 million of its population, and plans to start a mass vaccination program in the coming weeks.

Italian media outlets have, however, claimed that many of these vaccines would be useless as the majority of Italians including the Deputy Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio and the Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno have decided against vaccination.

According to a recent survey conducted, six out of every ten Italian family physicians do not prescribe the A/H1N1 vaccine for their patients particularly those with heart diseases.

A member of the European Association for Quality in General Medicine(EQUIP), Gianluigi Passerini told L'espresso that he would not advise vaccination for his patients, adding, "This virus is not aggressive and there is no reason to force individuals to get immunized against the virus."

Mario Nejrotti, the director of torinomedica.com, similarly, stressed that healthcare workers should only be urged to get vaccinated based on the severity and spread of the virus.

He added that a similar vaccine manufactured in the US in 1976 had contributed to a considerable number of cases with a severe neurological disease known as Guillain-Barré syndrome.

AFP reporter freed in Iran

An Iranian national reporting for the Agence France-Presse, who was taken into custody during the rallies outside the former US Embassy in Tehran, has been released.

Farhad Pouladi was arrested during the 30th anniversary of the US Embassy takeover on Wednesday.

Tehran's judiciary said Saturday that Pouladi has been released, Fars news agency reported.

Earlier, Brigadier General Azizollah Rajabzadeh, Tehran's police chief, was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) as saying that 109 people were arrested during the rallies.

Forty-seven of the detainees have been released and the cases of the rest have been forwarded to judiciary officials, General Rajabzadeh said.

Swine flu vaccines hijacked in Milwaukee

A refrigerated truck carrying 930 doses swine flu vaccines has been recovered, after being stolen in Milwaukee, Michigan.

Authorities say that the truck was delivering the doses to Milwaukee's main storage facility on Thursday. The driver(s) left the truck out of sight only for a short period of time when it was taken.

Police found the truck about 40 minutes later with the vaccines seemingly untouched and possibly even unnoticed by the thieves.

Police conclude the criminal action was inspired because of convenience and easy access to the vehicle than by the cargo of A(H1N1) vaccine inside.

Even though, like every US city, people in Milwaukee need the vaccine, the doses were sent back to the manufacturers. "Given that it was out of our chain of custody, we cannot validate the integrity of that vaccine supply," said Bevan K. Baker, the city health commissioner.

Police say they have a suspect in the case and prosecutors are considering charges against him.

According to Mr. Baker the department will no longer employ the transport company involved, and trucks carrying the A(H1N1) doses will be escorted by a police squad car from now on.

Baker said the vaccines will be trashed since he can't be sure they weren't tampered with.