Suspect pleads not guilty in planning Cyprus attackOctober 5, 2012 - 14:39 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - A Swedish-Lebanese man has pleaded not guilty to charges he was planning an attack against Israeli citizens on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, AP reports. The eight charges read out in a Limassol court on Friday, Oct 5 against 24-year-old Hossam Taleb Yaacoub include conspiracy and consent to commit a criminal offense and participation in a criminal organization by "carrying out missions in any part of the world, including the Cyprus Republic, against Israeli citizens." Yaacoub originally faced 17 "terrorism and terrorism-related" charges according to police, but prosecutors last month dropped terrorism from the new charges. Israel's prime minister has said that Yaacoub was a Hezbollah operative who used the same "modus operandi" as a suicide bomber who killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver in Burgas, Bulgaria, in July. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |