Suspect passed through Dutch airport

Luggage is transported at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands,
Saturday Dec. 26, 2009.(AP Photo/Evert Elzinga)



Dutch authorities said on Saturday that the man who tried to blow up the intercontinental flight had passed through airport security in Lagos, Nigeria, before boarding a connecting route from the Netherlands.

The Dutch counter-terrorism agency says the suspect, Abdul Mutallab, first got on a KLM plane from Lagos to Amsterdam. He then connected with Northwest Flight 253, owned by Delta Airlines, to Detroit.

In Amsterdam, the would be bomber went through a security checkpoint at Schiphol Airport without a hitch.

The agency says it can't completely rule out the potential for dangerous items to be brought on board. Some objects remain difficult to detect with current security technology, such as metal detectors.

Source:cctv

Iraqi Kurd poison gas victims sue for damages

A court in the Netherlands is hearing a case by Kurdish victims of poison gas attacks in northern Iraq in the 1980s.

They want compensation from a Dutch businessman, who sold chemicals - which were used against the Kurds - to Saddam Hussein's government.

Frans van Anraat, 67, was convicted in the Netherlands in 2005 of war crimes and sentenced to 16-and-a-half years in jail.

Other courts have refused to award damages to the 16 victims.

The courts have said that it would be too difficult to get the money from Van Anraat, who says he spent all his cash fleeing from country to country after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

More than 5,000 people were killed in March 1988 when Saddam Hussein ordered an attack on the Kurdish Iraqi town of Halabja, as part of a campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion.

Some of the survivors were left permanently disabled, suffering lung damage, blindness and skin diseases.

Van Anraat was convicted of complicity in war crimes, but cleared of genocide at his trial four years ago.

Source:bbc.co.uk