World Al-Qaeda targeted in Yemen amid global security alert

At least 12 al-Qaeda members were killed in drone attacks in one day in Yemen as The United States stepped up strikes against suspected militants behind a global security alert.

Washington yesterday also evacuated all non-emergency staff from its consulate in the Pakistani city of Lahore, citing "specific threats".

The Wall Street Journal cited an anonymous US official as saying the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap), Nasser al-Wuhayshi, masterminded the plot that sparked the global alert.

Previous reports said that Wuhayshi was ordered on the offensive by al-Qaeda's overall leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri (pic).

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Stop force-feeding Guantanamo prisoners, says US senator

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US Senator Dianne Feinstein urged the Pentagon yesterday to stop force-feeding hunger-striking prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and called the practice "out of step" with medical ethics and international norms.

Feinstein, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, sent a letter to Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, saying the Guantanamo force-feeding policy was also out of synch with policies in the civilian federal prisons.

"Hunger strikes are a long-known form of non-violent protest aimed at bringing attention to a cause, rather than an attempt of suicide," she wrote. "I believe that the current approach raises very important ethical questions and complicates the difficult situation regarding the continued indefinite detention at Guantanamo."

Speaking in Berlin yesterday, President Barack Obama said the United States would redouble efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo.

A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, said he would not respond to Feinstein's letter to Hagel via the press, but added that "we will continue to treat the detainees in our charge humanely and that we will not allow them to harm themselves."

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