Sidelights

France arrests 2: French police on Tuesday arrested two men in the southern city of Toulouse in connection with Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah’s killing spree in March last year that claimed seven lives, a police source said.

The pair, aged 23 and 20, were being held in detention and questioned over their links to the self-proclaimed, al-Qaeda inspired shooter who killed a rabbi, three Jewish children and three French paratroopers in and around Toulouse.

They are suspected of providing “logistical help” to Merah, who was shot dead during a police siege. (AFP) Ex-Gitmo resettled: One of six Chinese nationals held by the US at its Guantanamo Bay prison and released to Palau in 2009 has resettled in Turkey, the tiny island republic’s former president confirmed Wednesday.

Johnson Toribiong, reached by phone from the US, said Adel Noori left Palau shortly before Toribiong’s term ended late last year. A US official familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified said Toribiong’s administration informed the US that Noori, 43, had made arrangements on his own to leave the country.

Noori and the five other men — all of them Uighurs, an ethnic minority that has clashed with China’s central government — were released to Palau after spending nearly eight years at Guantanamo Bay. (AP) Cleric’s trial begins: A federal jury began deliberating Tuesday in the case of an elderly Muslim cleric accused of funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taleban terrorist group.

The 12-person federal court jury must decide whether 77year-old Hafiz Khan, imam at a downtown Miami mosque, is guilty or innocent of conspiracy and providing material support to a foreign terrorist group. Prosecutors say Khan orchestrated sending of about $50,000 from 2008 through 2010 to the Taleban, which has attacked both US and Pakistani interests. (AP)