Cologne Terror Plot
(Aired on NPR Newscasts, 26Sep2008)
Police arrested a 23-year-old Somali man and a 24-year-old German citizen born in the Somali capital of Mogadishu after storming a KLM airliner bound for Amsterdam.
German police said in a published report there was no indication the two men were about to launch an attack, and the plane continued its flight to the Netherlands after an hour delay.
A police spokeswoman told the Associated Press that the authorities did not think the men planned to hijack that specific flight, but would not say whether the men were armed. Reports in Germany say the two men were observation by police for months, and that a suicide note was found in the suspects’ apartment saying the men wanted to die for the “jihad” or “holy war.”
For NPR News, I’m Tony Ganzer in Bonn, Germany.
Phoenix Immigration Protests
(Aired on NPR Newscasts, 09Feb2007)
Nats at protest: “Si se puede, si se puede”
Officials estimate more than 10-thousand people waved Mexican and US flags protesting a Congressional proposal that would make illegal immigration a felony.
The demonstrators marched to Senator Jon Kyl’s Phoenix office–Kyl has been at the forefront of federal immigration reform and has pushed for tougher immigration legislation. Demonstrators from the Border Action Network are demanding more humane immigration legislation. Southern Arizona is the nation’s number one entry point for illegal immigrants.
President Bush has proposed a guest worker program which would allow migrants to work seasonal jobs in the US and then return to their home countries.
For NPR News, I’m Tony Ganzer in Phoenix.