Official says strike killed top terrorists

Islamabad, Pakistan A Pakistani security official today said at least three top al-Qaida operatives were believed killed in a U.S. missile strike last week, including an explosives expert on the U.S. most-wanted list and a close relative of the terrorist network’s No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

A security official said Egyptian Midhat Mursi was among the three top al-Qaida figures who were present in Damadola village at the time of the attack and whose bodies were believed to have been taken away by sympathizers of the group.

The U.S. Justice Department names Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, as an explosives expert and poisons trainer in Afghanistan.

The official named two other foreigners as suspected killed in the missile strike: Abu Ubaida, whom he said was the main operations chief for al-Qaida in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province; and Abdul Rehman al-Misri, an Egyptian and close relative of al-Zawahri, possibly his son-in-law.

Politicians, activists arrested before rally

Katmandu, Nepal Nepal’s government detained at least 52 senior politicians and activists and cut off phone and Internet services today in an apparent attempt to foil an anti-government rally planned for the following day in the capital.

A top government official in Katmandu said the politicians and student leaders were detained in raids overnight and in the morning. The politicians are members of the central committees from the seven largest political parties which oppose the royal government, the official said.

Government plan allows 2 prostitutes per house

London Prostitutes will be allowed to work two to a house, aided by a receptionist, under a new government plan that critics have condemned as official endorsement of “mini-brothels.”

Until now, it has been legal in Britain for one prostitute to work at a residence but any greater number would be deemed a brothel and barred by law. In a move aimed at making work safer for prostitutes, the government has decided it is better for them to pair up and have a “maid” or receptionist.

The new policy, part of the biggest overhaul in British prostitution laws in 50 years, also comes down harder on so-called “curb crawlers,” drivers who solicit sex from streetwalkers and drive off with them. Police will be directed to aggressively confiscate their driver’s licenses and “name and shame” them, passing their names to the local news media.