He is accused of conspiring with others to murder Mrs Dewani on 13 November.
He is due to appear in custody at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The businessman faces being extradited to South Africa after prosecutors there claimed he had offered to pay £1,300 to have his wife murdered on their honeymoon.
Mr Dewani, 30, allegedly offered a taxi driver £1,400 to arrange for his new wife Anni, 28, to be shot dead in a staged carjacking in a township, according to claims outlined by a prosecutor.
Mr Dewani, who owns a chain of care homes, dismissed the accusations as “ludicrous”.
Mr Dewani, from Bristol, and his Swedish-born bride were honeymooning in South Africa, following a “fairy tale” wedding in India, when the attack happened on Nov 13.
They were travelling through Gugulethu, a township, when they were ambushed by two men who appeared to threaten their driver, Zola Tongo, and order him out of the car before also ejecting Mr Dewani.
Mrs Dewani was found shot dead in the back of the car several hours later.
On Tuesday, in a dramatic twist in the case, prosecutors publicly accepted a signed confession from Tongo that was agreed as part of a plea bargain deal in which he admitted murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
August 23, 2010 Filed under Ahen
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — When American and Pakistani agents captured Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s operational commander, in the chaotic port city of Karachi last January, both countries hailed the arrest as a breakthrough in their often difficult partnership in fighting terrorism.
But the arrest of Mr. Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader after Mullah Muhammad Omar, came with a beguiling twist: both American and Pakistani officials claimed that Mr. Baradar’s capture had been a lucky break. It was only days later, the officials said, that they finally figured out who they had.
Now, seven months later, Pakistani officials are telling a very different story. They say they set out to capture Mr. Baradar, and used the C.I.A. to help them do it, because they wanted to shut down secret peace talks that Mr. Baradar had been conducting with the Afghan government that excluded Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime backer.
In the weeks after Mr. Baradar’s capture, Pakistani security officials detained as many as 23 Taliban leaders, many of whom had been enjoying the protection of the Pakistani government for years. The talks came to an end.
The events surrounding Mr. Baradar’s arrest have been the subject of debate inside military and intelligence circles for months. Some details are still murky — and others vigorously denied by some American intelligence officials in Washington. But the account offered in Islamabad highlights Pakistan’s policy in Afghanistan: retaining decisive influence over the Taliban, thwarting archenemy India, and putting Pakistan in a position to shape Afghanistan’s postwar political order.
“We picked up Baradar and the others because they were trying to make a deal without us,” said a Pakistani security official, who, like numerous people interviewed about the operation, spoke anonymously because of the delicacy of relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. “We protect the Taliban. They are dependent on us. We are not going to allow them to make a deal with Karzai and the Indians.”
Some American officials still insist that Pakistan-American cooperation is improving, and deny a central Pakistani role in Mr. Baradar’s arrest. They say the Pakistanis may now be trying to rewrite history to make themselves appear more influential.
“These are self-serving fairy tales,” an American official said. “The people involved in the operation on the ground didn’t know exactly who would be there when they themselves arrived. But it certainly became clear, to Pakistanis and Americans alike, who we’d gotten.”
Other American officials suspect the C.I.A. may have been unwittingly used by the Pakistanis for the larger aims of slowing the pace of any peace talks.
At a minimum, the arrest of Mr. Baradar offers a glimpse of the multilayered challenges the United States faces as it tries to prevail in Afghanistan. It is battling a resilient insurgency, supporting a weak central government and trying to manage Pakistan’s leaders, who simultaneously support the Taliban and accept billions in American aid.
A senior NATO officer in Kabul said that in arresting Mr. Baradar and the other Taliban leaders, the Pakistanis may have been trying to buy time to see if President Obama’s strategy begins to prevail. If it does, the Pakistanis may eventually decide to let the Taliban make a deal. But if the Americans fail — and if they begin to pull out — then the Pakistanis may decide to retain the Taliban as their allies.
“We have been played before,” a senior NATO official said. “That the Pakistanis picked up Baradar to control the tempo of the negotiations is absolutely plausible.”
As for Mr. Baradar, he is now living comfortably in a safe house of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Pakistani official said. “He’s relaxing,” the official said.
Many of the other Taliban leaders, after receiving lectures against freelancing peace deals, have been released to fight again.
Exactly why the Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, became so alarmed at the Afghan peace talks is unclear. In retrospect, paranoia seems to have figured as much as national self-interest.
A senior Afghan official said that beginning late last year, his government had reached out to a number of Taliban leaders to explore the prospect of a deal. Among them were Mr. Baradar and another Taliban leader named Tayyib Agha. The Afghan official declined to say who met the Taliban leaders, but reports of such meetings have since surfaced. Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s brother, reportedly met Mr. Baradar in January, according to a former Afghan official and a former NATO official. Mr. Karzai’s brother denies it.
In another overture, Engineer Ibrahim, then the deputy chief of the Afghan intelligence service, met with a group of Taliban leaders in Dubai, according to a prominent Afghan with knowledge of the meeting. Mr. Ibrahim, now with the National Security Council, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
A Pakistani spiritual leader close to the Taliban leadership said that, earlier this year, he had received a message through an intermediary that Mr. Karzai wanted to talk peace. “We rejected it,” he said.
The discussions with Mr. Baradar and the other Taliban were in their early phases, but they seemed promising, the Afghan official said. Their aim was to establish conditions under which formal talks could begin.
“It was the beginning of a negotiation, so both sides staked out extreme positions,” the Afghan official said. “But we sensed a readiness for peace.”
A man believed to be Abdul Ghani Baradar in a 1998 photo that was provided by a former photographer for the Taliban.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — When American and Pakistani agents captured Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s operational commander, in the chaotic port city of Karachi last January, both countries hailed the arrest as a breakthrough in their often difficult partnership in fighting terrorism.
But the arrest of Mr. Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader after Mullah Muhammad Omar, came with a beguiling twist: both American and Pakistani officials claimed that Mr. Baradar’s capture had been a lucky break. It was only days later, the officials said, that they finally figured out who they had.
Now, seven months later, Pakistani officials are telling a very different story. They say they set out to capture Mr. Baradar, and used the C.I.A. to help them do it, because they wanted to shut down secret peace talks that Mr. Baradar had been conducting with the Afghan government that excluded Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime backer.
In the weeks after Mr. Baradar’s capture, Pakistani security officials detained as many as 23 Taliban leaders, many of whom had been enjoying the protection of the Pakistani government for years. The talks came to an end.
The events surrounding Mr. Baradar’s arrest have been the subject of debate inside military and intelligence circles for months. Some details are still murky — and others vigorously denied by some American intelligence officials in Washington. But the account offered in Islamabad highlights Pakistan’s policy in Afghanistan: retaining decisive influence over the Taliban, thwarting archenemy India, and putting Pakistan in a position to shape Afghanistan’s postwar political order.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/asia/23taliban.html?_r=1&hp
August 3, 2010 Filed under Ahen
NOGALES, Ariz. — Undocumented immigrants who decide to leave the United States because of increasing enforcement and decreasing job prospects now face one more obstacle: the threat of arrest and deportation by border officers inspecting outbound traffic.
Bonnie Arellano, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that when illegal immigrants are detected trying to leave the country, they are not just ushered across the line. Instead, they are processed and formally removed.
The consequences of an arrest can be harsh: Those deported for unauthorized presence in the U.S. may be barred for 10 years from seeking legal immigrant papers. In addition, a later arrest for illegal entry may be prosecuted criminally.
Although the scrutiny was designed to catch smugglers delivering currency and firearms to Mexican cartels, immigrants with otherwise clean records sometimes get caught in that net, said Guadalupe Ramirez, director at the Nogales port. Port inspectors use discretion in deciding whether a person should be allowed to accept voluntary removal, he said.
“The whole idea is there are going to be consequences now for people who come into the United States with the sole purpose of doing illegal activity,” Ramirez said. “Our job tells us if we find somebody at a port coming or going that is in violation of our laws, we are going to document it.”
Arizona’s immigration law would have required police to question the immigration status of anyone stopped for another suspected offense if there was a “reasonable suspicion” the person was in the U.S. illegally. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled last week that key portions of the law could not go into effect.
For the past year, border officials have conducted round-the-clock screening of southbound traffic out of the USA. Some advocates for immigrants say the policy deters illegal immigrants from leaving, even though that’s the government’s goal.
“It demonstrates the inconsistency and contradictions within our laws,” said Isabel Garcia, co-chairwoman of Derechos Humanos, an immigrant rights group in Tucson. “Instead of permitting people who want to leave, we punish them in this fashion.”
Even some groups dedicated to border security and immigration controls are critical of the policy. William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, last week called on the government to adopt a “safe passage” program. “We are asking the Obama administration to designate border checkpoints … illegal immigrants can use to leave the U.S. without fear.”
The Obama administration — in an effort to intercept weapons and cartel money — set up the full-time southbound checkpoints.
“On a weekly basis, we make multiple seizures and pick up people who have warrants for rape, child molestation and murder,” Ramirez said.
Customs and Border Patrol officer Ozorio-Quiroz (cq wouldn't give first name) stops a woman leaving Arizona for Mexico in Nogales, AZ August 2, 2010.
NOGALES, Ariz. — Undocumented immigrants who decide to leave the United States because of increasing enforcement and decreasing job prospects now face one more obstacle: the threat of arrest and deportation by border officers inspecting outbound traffic.
Bonnie Arellano, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that when illegal immigrants are detected trying to leave the country, they are not just ushered across the line. Instead, they are processed and formally removed.
The consequences of an arrest can be harsh: Those deported for unauthorized presence in the U.S. may be barred for 10 years from seeking legal immigrant papers. In addition, a later arrest for illegal entry may be prosecuted criminally.
Although the scrutiny was designed to catch smugglers delivering currency and firearms to Mexican cartels, immigrants with otherwise clean records sometimes get caught in that net, said Guadalupe Ramirez, director at the Nogales port. Port inspectors use discretion in deciding whether a person should be allowed to accept voluntary removal, he said.
“The whole idea is there are going to be consequences now for people who come into the United States with the sole purpose of doing illegal activity,” Ramirez said. “Our job tells us if we find somebody at a port coming or going that is in violation of our laws, we are going to document it.”
Arizona’s immigration law would have required police to question the immigration status of anyone stopped for another suspected offense if there was a “reasonable suspicion” the person was in the U.S. illegally. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled last week that key portions of the law could not go into effect.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-03-immigration03_ST_N.htm
July 30, 2010 Filed under Ahen
BEIJING — Police have arrested four people in connection with a chemical pipeline explosion that rocked a city in eastern China, state media said Thursday, as the death toll rose to 13.
More than 300 others were injured in the blast on Wednesday, which occurred on the grounds of an abandoned plastics factory in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, as workers were demolishing the facility.
The explosion reportedly occurred when a pipeline carrying ethylene gas was damaged while workers using diggers were dismantling buildings and retrieving parts that could be resold, Xinhua news agency reported.
The leaking gas was ignited when a nearby motorist started their car engine, according to the local work safety administration.
Police have arrested three construction contractors and a factory official responsible for work safety at the site, Xinhua said.
The powerful blast levelled or heavily damaged buildings within 100 metres (yards) and blew out windows or caused other damage to businesses and residences up to 300 metres away.
People more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) away evacuated their buildings, thinking an earthquake had struck, reports said.
Injury counts have varied widely in the state media reports, with the China News Service saying as many as 300 people were rushed to local hospitals for treatment, including 52 with serious injuries.
Xinhua said 120 people remained in hospital, 14 of them in critical condition.
Many hospitals had almost exhausted their blood stocks and local residents were rushing to mobile collection vehicles to donate blood, Xinhua said Wednesday.
Power, water and gas supplies have been restored to thousands of homes in the area following the blast, Xinhua said.
Deadly industrial accidents are routine in China, where basic safety provisions are often ignored.
Two weeks ago, an oil pipeline exploded in the northeastern port city of Dalian, triggering a spectacular blaze that burned for an entire weekend and spilled about 1,500 tonnes of oil into the Yellow Sea off Liaoning province.
The incident was one of China’s worst-ever oil spills.
Firefighters inspect an explosion at a plastics factory in Nanjing. AFP Photo
BEIJING — Police have arrested four people in connection with a chemical pipeline explosion that rocked a city in eastern China, state media said Thursday, as the death toll rose to 13.
More than 300 others were injured in the blast on Wednesday, which occurred on the grounds of an abandoned plastics factory in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, as workers were demolishing the facility.
The explosion reportedly occurred when a pipeline carrying ethylene gas was damaged while workers using diggers were dismantling buildings and retrieving parts that could be resold, Xinhua news agency reported.
The leaking gas was ignited when a nearby motorist started their car engine, according to the local work safety administration.
Police have arrested three construction contractors and a factory official responsible for work safety at the site, Xinhua said.
The powerful blast levelled or heavily damaged buildings within 100 metres (yards) and blew out windows or caused other damage to businesses and residences up to 300 metres away.
People more than two kilometres (1.2 miles) away evacuated their buildings, thinking an earthquake had struck, reports said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hD9ZButKdGa2mflAWMD125ZjvuKA
Forsenic policemen arrive at a house in Villers-au-Tertre, northern France.
(AFP) – French authorities said a couple have been arrested after the bodies of eight newborn babies were found in a northern village, in what could be the country’s biggest infanticide case.
Police with sniffer dogs searched two houses in Villers-au-Tertre near the northern city of Lille after detaining the pair, both aged in their mid-40s, on Tuesday.
A local councillor said the new owners of a house in the village had called in police on Saturday after finding the bones of infants in the garden of their new home as they were digging there.
The house previously belonged to the parents of the arrested woman.
Police have found two bodies at that site, the councillor said.
Their inquiries led them to the couple’s home in the village around a kilometre (less than a mile) away, where six more babies’ bodies were found, the councillor said.
A judicial source said the case could turn out to be the deadliest infanticide incident ever known in France.
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The lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who faced death by stoning, now faces re-arrest and his wife and brother-in-law have also been held by Iran's authorities. Photograph: AP
(Guardian)-Authorities in Iran have issued an arrest warrant for an acclaimed Iranian lawyer and arrested his wife and brother-in-law over his involvement in the case of a woman sentenced to death by stoning.
Lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s office in Tehran was ransacked, and he was interrogated in Evin prison for four hours on Saturday over his human rights activities and involvement in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother of two who was convicted of adultery and whose plight in Iran has drawn international attention since her children launched a campaign for her release almost a month ago.
Mostafaei called Sakineh’s stoning sentence “a bogus conviction” and “absolutely illegal” in an interview with the Guardian earlier this month.
He was released, then called back for further questioning before being set free. Authorities then issued an arrest warrant.
When they were unable to find him the authorities arrested his wife, Fereshteh Halimi and her brother Farhad Halimi to try to force him to surrender. However, it is still unclear whether Mostafaei has been arrested or he has managed to evade officials.
“It is ridiculous that they [officials] have taken Mostafaei’s family as ransom, they have somehow taken them hostage. This confirms what Sakineh’s son wrote in his public letter, that there’s no justice in Iran,” said Mina Ahadi, a human rights activist for Iran Committee against Stoning (ICAS), based in Germany who spoke to Mostafaei after he was interrogated.
“Mohammadi Ashtiani’s sentence is not Mostafaei’s first stoning case, he has defended many others against execution by stoning but it was Sakineh’s story which took world attention and made the Iranian authorities angry,” she said.
Mostafaei initially wrote an open letter about Sakineh’s death by stoning after her sentence was handed down. He then tried to publicise her case by giving interviews to international media and helping her children launch the campaign for their mother’s release.
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