- The Washington Times - Sunday, September 19, 2010

NETHERLANDS

British terror suspect arrested at airport

AMSTERDAM | Dutch police on Sunday arrested a British man of Somali ancestry at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport for possible links to a terrorist group, a spokesman for the Dutch prosecutors said.

The man was arrested after flying in from Liverpool, England, and before he flew out to Uganda, prosecutors’ spokesman Evert Boerstra said, without specifying what terror group was involved. His name and age have not been released.

“He was arrested on the tip-off from British authorities,” Mr. Boerstra told the Associated Press.

Dutch state broadcaster NOS reported that the suspect is allegedly linked to Somalia’s most dangerous militant group, al-Shabab, which has claimed responsibility for suicide bombing attacks at U.N. facilities and other targets, including July attacks in Uganda’s capital during the World Cup final that killed 76 people.

Al-Shabab said those blasts were in retaliation for civilian deaths caused by African Union troops in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and the group has called for Uganda to withdraw its peacekeeping forces from Somalia.

BRITAIN

Pope beatifies convert at end of British visit

BIRMINGHAM, England | Pope Benedict XVI beatified a 19th-century Catholic convert on Sunday in the finale of his historic visit to Britain.

The pope told 55,000 pilgrims gathered in a park in Birmingham, central England, that Cardinal John Henry Newman was a man of “outstanding holiness” whose teachings were as relevant today as they were more than a century ago.

The beatification Mass - elevating the cardinal toward sainthood - was the crowning moment of a four-day trip that the Vatican hailed as a “spiritual success”.

In a recurrent theme of the visit, the pope on Sunday again condemned the abuse of children by Catholic priests, telling a meeting of British bishops it “seriously undermines the moral credibility of Church leaders.”

On Saturday, he expressed shame at the “unspeakable crimes” committed by pedophile priests and said in a homily at Westminster Cathedral they had brought “shame and humiliation” on the Church and caused “immense suffering.”

He also met with five victims of sexual abuse and told them of his “shame” and “deep sorrow.”

The pope also has used his visit to warn of “aggressive secularism” in an increasingly multicultural Britain, prompting Prime Minister David Cameron to thank him in a farewell address for making people “sit up and think.”

FRANCE

U.S. vet returns French war flag

PARIS | On the day Paris was liberated from the Nazis in 1944, a young American soldier nabbed a souvenir of epic proportions: He took home the French flag that hung from the Arc de Triomphe, a symbol of the end of four years of struggle and shame.

Six and a half decades later, the aging veteran has given the flag back to the city of Paris.

Officials from Paris City Hall took possession of the 13-yard tricolor flag Saturday in a ceremony in southern France, a step in its unusual journey from New York state back home to Paris. The American veteran remains anonymous, too ashamed to come forward.

French officials have no intention of scolding him: They have only thanks and kind words for him, pointing out that he once risked his life for France.

“I’m infinitely grateful,” Catherine Vieu-Charier, deputy to the mayor of Paris, told the Associated Press.

French historian Christine Levisse-Touze insisted his act couldn’t be considered a theft. “If an American GI wanted to take home a souvenir, I’d say there was nothing reprehensible about that, it’s an act you can easily understand,” said Ms. Levisse-Touze, director of a Paris museum with exhibits on the city’s liberation.

Ms. Levisse-Touze is studying the flag to verify its authenticity, but she said it appears to be the real thing, based on comparisons with archive footage and on the straps used to tie it to the monument. The cotton flag is still in excellent condition and has been carefully preserved.

Paris firefighters in the Resistance hung the flag on the Arc de Triomphe on Aug. 25, 1944. After Gen. Philippe Leclerc’s 2nd Armored Division, backed by the Americans, rolled into Paris, the occupiers surrendered, ignoring Hitler’s order to demolish much of the city.

The flag quickly disappeared, and its absence was barely noticed during the tumult. Ms. Levisse-Touze believes a different, larger French flag was hanging under the Arc de Triomphe the next day, when Gen. Charles de Gaulle led a victory parade down the Champs-Elysees.

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