Police cancelled leave for top officers and were tightening surveillance of airports and ports to prevent suspects from leaving the country, as new checkpoints were set up across the nation.
The birds — most of which were dead — were found within a one-mile area of Beebe, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said. The blackbirds fell over about a one-mile area, the commission said in a statement.
As of Saturday, between 4,000 and 5,000 blackbirds had been found dead, said Keith Stephens with the commission.
Watch the unfortunate event below...
[FoxNews.com] Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said the he birds showed physical trauma, and she speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."
The commission said that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.
Robby King, a wildlife officer for the agency, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Wisconsin.
Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results "usually were inconclusive." She said she doubted the birds were poisoned.
Chairman of SCTA Prince Sultan bin Salman said the magazine, which took five years to prepare, is an opportunity to educate people. “My dream is for all those living in the Kingdom to see what I see in it in terms of the much undiscovered history, places of interest and culture,” he said.
Speaking about the prize, Abdullah Al-Jehani, vice president for SCTA’s marketing and media, said that incentives always lead to progress, pointing out that such prizes create honest competition between various sectors to enhance tourism services.
Al-Jehani said the magazine has been launched to bridge the existing gap in English brochures and periodicals that focus on Saudi tourism. He added that the magazine presents its foreign readers with a variety of tourist destinations in the Kingdom, and those involved in the tourist industry with cultural and historical information about the Kingdom.
“Voyager has been established to address an English-speaking audience and those interested in the tourism industry,” said the magazine’s consultant-editor Barry Gray. He added that the Kingdom holds a lot of potential with regard to tourism and hospitality, and that the magazine has been launched to highlight this.
“I myself came to the Kingdom in 1983 and visited many remote areas and interesting places, including taking the train to Dammam, which I believe many Saudis have not yet done,” said Gray, adding that tourism in the Kingdom is promising, yet the lack of awareness is what holds people back and this will be one of the magazine's missions.
“We will influence both ends of the spectrum — on one side there are English- or Arabic-speaking residents and on the other, there are those involved in the tourism industry who will find a market here,” he said.
The magazine has been published by SCTA in cooperation with Alef Publishing & Media International. The magazine will be distributed at embassies, hotels and other points of sales.
Meanwhile, 588,363 Saudi travelers left the Kingdom during the Eid Al-Adha holidays spending a total SR3.14 billion (an average SR5,339 per tourist), a 5 percent increase to last year. The number of tourists coming to the Kingdom exceeded 715,282 visitors spending a total SR1.6 billion (an average SR2,264 per tourist).
According to a report by Tourism Research and Information at SCTA, Bahrain was the top destination for Saudi tourists, followed by Kuwait, Jordan, the UAE, Yemen, Qatar, Egypt and Lebanon. The majority of tourists coming into the Kingdom were from Bahrain, followed by Kuwait, the UAE, Yemen and Qatar.
The Sharm el Sheikh is high quality resort featuring hotels, restaurants, and of course a beach that has year round sunshine and goes toe-and-toe with the best in the world. It is no wonder that the Sharm el Sheikh, which is located along the Red Sea and famous for scuba diving and snorkling, is one of Egypt's top holiday destinations.
Among activities detailed in the documents was the extensive, and increasingly successful, push by the U.S. for an international consensus to confront Iran's nuclear program. Five newspapers obtained early access to the documents, which had been gathered by the website WikiLeaks.
The cables showed how some Arab leaders were largely in sync with Israel to support greater financial penalties, if not military operations, against Iran unless it abandons its nuclear ambitions. Regarding Iran, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was portrayed in an April 2008 memo as having told the U.S. "to cut off the head of the snake."
In what appeared to be one of the most serious border incidents since the 1950-53 war, South Korean troops fired back with cannon, the government convened in an underground war room and “multiple” air force jets scrambled.
North Korea’s official media, however, accused South Korea of firing first.
The man in charge of the rescue operation, Superintendent Gary Knowles, said that he was at the mine when the blast occurred, and it was horrific.
"Unfortunately I have to inform the public of New Zealand that at 2.37pm [12.37pm AEDT] today there was another massive explosion underground and, based on that explosion, no one survived," Superintendent Knowles said.
Although there is no specific law forbidding women to drive in Saudi Arabia, traditionalists believe allowing women to drive would break modesty laws because they would have to remove their abaya robe to have a clear view of the road.
This hasn't stopped some women from trying though.
10 women in their 20's defied the kingdom-wide ban on driving and it cost the lives of the lady-driver and three of her friends when their car crashed into a barrier then overturned in Thumamah, Riyadh Sunday. The remaining six women were taken to a nearby hospital in northeastern Riyadh to treat their injures.
The accident took place in an area frequented by young men to race cars.
In what is a world first, a long-haired Chihuahua named 'Momo' has passed exams to become a police dog in the western Japanese prefecture of Nara.
The brown-and-white dog was one of 32 successful candidates out of 70 dogs, passing a search and rescue test by finding a person in five minutes after merely sniffing their cap.
'Any breed of dog can be entered to become a police dog in the search and rescue division,' said a Nara police spokesman.
But he admitted that news a Chihuahua had been entered may still come as a surprise to many.
'It's quite unusual,' he said.
Television footage showed the seven-year-old Momo bounding across grass or sitting proudly, long hair blowing in the breeze.
Momo will be used for rescue operations in case of disasters such as earthquakes, in the hope that she may be able to squeeze her tiny frame into places too narrow for more usual rescue dogs, which tend to be German Shepherds.
The public response to the news of Momo's selection took police by surprise, the spokesman said, adding: 'The phone's been ringing all afternoon.'
'It's quite rare for us to have a chihuahua work as a police dog,' the spokeswoman said.
Chihuahuas, named after a Mexican state, are the smallest breed of dog.
'We would like it to work hard by taking advantage of its small size,' a Nara police department official told the Sankei Shimbun daily.
Click HERE for Pacquiao-Margarito Picture Gallery
Credit also goes to Freddie Roach. Now I understand the 'flaw' he was talking about. Antonio Margarito prepared his mind and body. He even showed it off during the official weigh-in and people started to doubt if Manny Pacquiao could beat the bigger and strong Antonio Margarito.
Except, when fight time came, Manny Pacquiao disregarded going after the body and instead followed Freddie Roach's strategy to go after the 'flaw.' Antonio Margarito failed to protect his face and he paid the price terribly. Round after round, Manny Pacquiao systematically pounded Antonio Margarito's face 'til all he could see were blurry punches striking from every angle. The once smiling and proud face promptly disappeared.
With that, Freddie Roach said he’s moving forward and concentrating on the big fight at hand between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito.
Margarito, his trainer Robert Garcia and upcoming Brandon Rios, who is fighting in the undercard, had earlier extended their sincere apology to Roach, whose Parkinson’s disease was the subject of their mockery caught in a video posted on the internet by FanHouse.com. a few weeks ago (scroll down for the video clip).
“I was mad, but now I am not,” admitted Roach, who was personally reached by Garcia over the phone to say his piece on the controversy. “Robert seemed to be really sincere in what he said to me this morning on the phone, so I accepted his apology.”
Margarito and Rios were both repentant during the undercard press conference Thursday at the Gaylord Texan Hotel here, where the 32-year-old Mexican was not really part of the proceedings.
“I want you to know I would never make fun of Freddie Roach or anyone with that disease,” said Pacquiao’s opponent, stressing even someone in his family has Parkinson’s disease. “If he really wants an apology, I have no problem with that because I know I’m not laughing at his disease. I can look him straight in the eyes and tell him….`I’m not laughing at you. I respect you.’”
Added Rios, “I take responsibility for what I did. I’m man about it. It was wrong and I’m sorry.”
The gentleman that he is, Roach said he’s putting the incident behind him now, although admitting he didn’t sleep well the night before and had to double his medicine intake for his disease.
“I would shake (Margarito’s) hand to end this. I think they realize what they did was maybe a little bit too much, they went overboard,” he added.
“Let’s just move on with the fight now,” said Roach, who said he extended Garcia the best of luck for this weekend’s bout.
Apparently, Roach predicted Margarito was going down in eight. It's now down to three. Yeah Right! Apology accepted.
In his keynote speech at Microsoft OpenDoor--the largest Microsoft technical event in Saudi Arabia--Steve Ballmer said that, "As a global technology leader, we are committed to the Middle East region. Having been here for 20 years, we believe we can play an important role to drive regional growth and development by helping governments, societies and individuals realize their full potential."
No specific Windows Phone 7 models were announced during the Microsft OpenDoor conference commence tomorrow in Jeddah.
[CNN] The death toll from recent eruptions at Indonesia's Mount Merapi continues to rise as the volcano spewed hot ash clouds and gas on Sunday.
At least 156 people have died since Merapi started erupting on October 26, said Sigit, a doctor at Sardjito Hospital in Yogyakarta. Many Indonesians go by one name.
Ash columns reached as high as 6 kilometers (3.7 miles), according to the Indonesian Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Merapi's rumblings could be heard as far as 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away, and the agency expanded the danger zone to 20 kilometers after Friday's deadly eruptions.
Data from the Indonesian Volcanology Technology Development and Assessment Agency indicated that a hot ash cloud that had hit a village near the crater was around 450-600 degrees Celsius (842-1,112 degrees Fahrenheit).
The volcano's wrath has reached villages in areas many thought were safe from Merapi's eruptions. Some of the victims who died lived 10 to 20 kilometers away from the volcano, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Relief agencies such as Plan Indonesia estimate about 200,000 people have been displaced.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was in Yogyakarta on Sunday with several of his ministers to oversee relief efforts.
The president has announced that residents will receive compensation for livelihoods and animals lost to the eruptions. Yudhoyono said the government will buy endangered cows on the volcano. Many of those who live on its slopes raise cattle and risked their lives by staying or returning to feed their cows.
The 3,000-meter (9,800-foot) Merapi, in Central Java, is famously unpredictable. An eruption killed two people in 2006 and another killed more than 60 villagers in 1994. About 1,300 people died when Merapi erupted in 1930.
In addition, last week a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's coast, triggering a tsunami and killing at least 449 people. Hundreds more were injured.
[FoxNews.com] PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Panicked residents fled a coastal city that has been slammed twice already this decade by killer floods as an intensifying Hurricane Tomas moved up Haiti's northwestern coast. Hurricane Tomas spared most earthquake-refugee camps in the capital but battered a seaside town to the west that was nearly destroyed by January's earthquake.
Coming ashore at Haiti's far southwestern edge, the Category 1 storm slammed the coastline with 85-mph winds and killed at least four people with storm surge and rains.
Hurricane Tomas then flooded camps harboring earthquake refugees, turning some into squalid islands in Leogane, a town west of the capital that lost 90 percent of its buildings and thousands of people in the Jan. 12 quake. Two people were missing in the city.
Coming ashore at Haiti's far southwestern edge, the Category 1 storm slammed the coastline with 85-mph winds and killed at least four people with storm surge and rains.
Hurricane Tomas then flooded camps harboring earthquake refugees, turning some into squalid islands in Leogane, a town west of the capital that lost 90 percent of its buildings and thousands of people in the Jan. 12 quake. Two people were missing in the city.
In the air, the smoke spewed out of Mount Merapi in Indonesia produced spectacular images which hid the terrifying situation on the ground.
Mount Merapi claimed four more lives as it continued to spew deadly molten rocks into the air and covering Indonesians with as up to 20 miles away.
With the death toll climbing, soldiers and rescuers helped thousands of frightened of villagers flee the devastation that is Mount Merapi.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire,' a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific.
Mount Merapi is Indonesia's most active volcano and one of the most active in the world. Although Mount Merapi has erupted many times in the last century, but according to Surano, a geologist monitoring the Mount Merapi situation, fears the worst may yet to come. "It's never acted like this before. It looks like we may be entering an even worse stage," Surano said.
[Yahoo!] Climbers at the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, will now be able to make video calls and surf the Internet on their mobile phones, a Nepalese telecom group claims.
Ncell, a subsidiary of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera, says it has set up a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base station at an altitude of 5,200 metres (17,000 feet) near Gorakshep village in the Everest region.
"Today we made the (world's) highest video call from Mount Everest base camp successfully," Ncell Nepal chief Pasi Koistinen told reporters in Kathmandu on Thursday.
"The coverage of the network will reach up to the peak of the Everest," he added.
Climbers who reached Everest's 8,848-metre peak previously depended on expensive and erratic satellite phone coverage and a voice-only network set up by China Mobile in 2007 on the Chinese side of the mountain.
The installation will also help tens of thousands of tourists and trekkers who visit the Everest region every year.
"This is a great milestone for mobile communications as the 3G high speed internet will bring faster, more affordable telecommunication services from the world?s tallest mountain," said Lars Nyberg, chief executive of TeliaSonera, which owns 80 percent of Ncell.
The 3G services will be fast enough to make video calls and use the Internet, said the company, which also claims the world's lowest 3G base at 1,400 metres (4,595 feet) below sea level in a mine in Europe.
A total of eight base stations, four of which will run on solar power, have been installed in the Everest region with the lowest at 2,870 metres (9,400 feet) at Lukla, where the airport for the area is situated.
Company engineers braved low temperatures and winds to set up the infrastructure.
Mountaineers hailed the launch as ambitious and helpful.
"The erratic and expensive satellite connection that many times does not work for days will be replaced with this service, making it possible for all climbers to keep in touch with their organisers and family," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, a member of the International Mountain Protection Commission.
"This will also be helpful, possibly, when there is an accident or an expedition mishap," he added
Despite the installation in Everest, telecom services cover less than one-third of the 28 million people of Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.
TeliaSonera said it planned to invest 100 million dollars in the next year to ensure that mobile coverage increases to more than 90 percent of the Himalayan nation's population.
The 3G network on Everest puts TeliaSonera ahead of state-controlled Nepal Telecom, Indian-owned United Telecom and China Mobile.
Around 3,000 people have climbed to the Everest summit since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the peak in 1953.
[Image courtesy: Engadget]
Ncell, a subsidiary of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera, says it has set up a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base station at an altitude of 5,200 metres (17,000 feet) near Gorakshep village in the Everest region.
"Today we made the (world's) highest video call from Mount Everest base camp successfully," Ncell Nepal chief Pasi Koistinen told reporters in Kathmandu on Thursday.
"The coverage of the network will reach up to the peak of the Everest," he added.
Climbers who reached Everest's 8,848-metre peak previously depended on expensive and erratic satellite phone coverage and a voice-only network set up by China Mobile in 2007 on the Chinese side of the mountain.
The installation will also help tens of thousands of tourists and trekkers who visit the Everest region every year.
"This is a great milestone for mobile communications as the 3G high speed internet will bring faster, more affordable telecommunication services from the world?s tallest mountain," said Lars Nyberg, chief executive of TeliaSonera, which owns 80 percent of Ncell.
The 3G services will be fast enough to make video calls and use the Internet, said the company, which also claims the world's lowest 3G base at 1,400 metres (4,595 feet) below sea level in a mine in Europe.
A total of eight base stations, four of which will run on solar power, have been installed in the Everest region with the lowest at 2,870 metres (9,400 feet) at Lukla, where the airport for the area is situated.
Company engineers braved low temperatures and winds to set up the infrastructure.
Mountaineers hailed the launch as ambitious and helpful.
"The erratic and expensive satellite connection that many times does not work for days will be replaced with this service, making it possible for all climbers to keep in touch with their organisers and family," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, a member of the International Mountain Protection Commission.
"This will also be helpful, possibly, when there is an accident or an expedition mishap," he added
Despite the installation in Everest, telecom services cover less than one-third of the 28 million people of Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.
TeliaSonera said it planned to invest 100 million dollars in the next year to ensure that mobile coverage increases to more than 90 percent of the Himalayan nation's population.
The 3G network on Everest puts TeliaSonera ahead of state-controlled Nepal Telecom, Indian-owned United Telecom and China Mobile.
Around 3,000 people have climbed to the Everest summit since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the peak in 1953.
[Image courtesy: Engadget]
Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al-Saud, the grandson of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, was ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years in prison by a judge at London's Central Criminal court on Wednesday.
"It is very unusual for a Saudi prince to be in the dock on a murder charge. No one in this country is above the law," David Bean, the judge, told Saud as he handed down the sentence.
On Tuesday the court convicted 34-year-old al Saud of beating and strangling Bandar Abdullah Abdulaziz to death at London's Landmark hotel in February this year.
The prosecution had argued that the 34-year-old Saudi prince was murdered following a lengthy campaign of violence against him.
Jonathan Laidlaw, the prosecutor, said the Saudi prince had abused his aide in the past, showing jurors a video shot in the Landmark's elevator which appears to show the Saudi prince battering the man.
He added that photographs of Abdulaziz stored on a mobile phone "plainly proved" that there was a "sexual element" to the abuse.
Abdulaziz was found to have suffered bleeding in the brain, a fractured larynx and bruising in the abdomen. Pathologists said the extent of injuries meant they could not say for certain what caused his death.
The jury had heard that the Saudi prince bit his victim hard on both cheeks during his murderous attack at their suite.
The suggestion of a sexual element in the murder could mean al Saud faces the possibility of execution if he returns to Saudi Arabia, where being gay is a capital offence.
Al-Saud had attempted to claim diplomatic immunity when he was first arrested earlier this year.
Hundreds were still missing after Monday’s 10—foot (3—meter) wave spawned by a massive quake struck the remote Mentawi islands off western Sumatra, where rescue officials, kept away for days because of stormy seas and bad weather, started arriving at the scene to chart the scope of the devastation.Some wore face masks as they wrapped swollen corpses littering roads and beaches in black body bags. Huge swaths of land were underwater and houses lay crumpled with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.
At least 311 people died as the tsunami washed away hundreds of wooden and bamboo homes in 20 villages, displacing more than 20,000 people, said Ade Edward, a government disaster official.
About 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the east in central Java, the Mount Merapi volcano was mostly quiet but still a threat after Tuesday’s eruption that sent searing ash clouds into the air, killing at least 33 people and injuring 17, said Agustinus, a doctor at the local health department who like many Indonesians goes by one name. A mass burial was planned for later on Thursday.
Among the dead was a revered elder who had refused to leave his ceremonial post as caretaker of the mountain’s spirits.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rushed home from a state visit to Vietnam to deal with the catastrophes, which struck within 24 hours along different points of the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a series of fault lines prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.
The first cargo plane loaded with tents, medicine, food and clothes landed on Wednesday in the tsunami—hit area, Mr. Edward said.
Vice-President Boediono toured devastated villages on hardest hit Pagai Utara island and met with survivors and local officials, his office said. At one point, he paused solemnly in front of several corpses in body bags.
The charity SurfAid International is getting “grim news” from village contacts, said Andrew Judge, head of the group founded by surfers who have been helping deliver aid. He said he is hearing of “more death, large numbers of deaths in some villages.”
With the arrival of help, Mr. Edward said officials “finally ... have a chance now to look for more than 400 still missing.”
The islands lie close to the epicentre of the 7.7—magnitude quake that struck late Monday beneath the ocean floor. The fault line on Sumatra island’s coast is the same one that caused the 2004 quake and tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean.
After that monster wave, many countries set up early warning systems in their waters hoping to give people time to flee to higher ground before a tsunami, which can travel hundreds of miles, crashed ashore.
Indonesia’s version, completed in 2008 with German aid, has since fallen into such disrepair that it effectively stopped working about a month ago, according to the head of the Meteorology and Geophysic Agency.
The system, which uses buoys to electronically detect sudden changes in water level, worked when it was completed, but by 2009 routine tests of it were showing problems, said the agency chief, who uses the single name Fauzi. By last month, he said, the entire system was broken because of inexperienced operators.
“We do not have the expertise to monitor the buoys to function as intended,” he said.
As a result, he said, not a single siren sounded after Monday’s quake. It was unclear if any sirens could have made a difference, since the islands worst affected were so close to the epicentre that the tsunami would have reached them within minutes.
The group that set up the system, the Germany—Indonesia agency Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS), could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but the questions Mr. Fauzi raised highlighted the difficulty for a poor country such as Indonesia in disaster prevention and response.
On the ash—covered slopes of Mount Merapi, authorities continued a search for more victims.
The eruption sent thousands streaming into makeshift emergency shelters, although the ash did not disrupt flights over Indonesia. About 36,000 people have been evacuated, according to the Indonesian Red Cross.
Some defied authorities and returned home to check on crops and possessions left behind. More than 11,000 people live on Merapi’s fertile slopes.
Tuesday’s blast eased pressure that had been building behind a lava dome on the crater. Experts warned that the dome could still collapse, causing an avalanche of the blistering gas and debris trapped beneath it.
The volcano, whose name means “Fire Mountain,” has erupted many times in the last 200 years. In 1994, 60 people were killed, while in 1930 more than a dozen villages were incinerated, leaving up to 1,300 dead.
Among the dead from Tuesday’s eruption was an 83—year—old man named Maridjan, who was entrusted by a late king from the nearby city of Yogyakarta to watch over the mountain’s unpredictable spirits. He had refused to leave his house high on its slopes.
The discovery Wednesday of his ash—covered body, reportedly found in a position of Islamic prayer, kneeling face—down on the floor, rattled residents who for years joined his ceremonies to appease the rumbling giant by throwing rice, clothes and chickens into the crater.
Many Indonesians paid tribute to Maridjan on Facebook and Twitter.
“I’m more afraid than ever,” said Prapto Wiyono, a 60—year—old farmer from the mountain village of Pangukrejo. “Who’s going to tell us what’s going on with Merapi?”
In the tape obtained by satellite television station Al Jazeera and then posted on its website on Wednesday, bin Laden said France was aiding the Americans in the killing of Muslim women and children in an apparent reference to the war in Afghanistan. He said the kidnapping of five French citizens in the African nation of Niger last month was a reaction to what he called France's oppression of Muslims.
"How can it be right that you participate in the occupation of our lands, support the Americans in the killing of our women and children and yet want to live in peace and security?" said bin Laden, addressing the French.
"It is a simple and clear equation: As you kill, you will be killed. As you capture, you will be captured. And as you threaten our security, your security will be threatened. The way to safeguard your security is to cease your oppression and its impact on our nation, most importantly your withdrawal from the ill-fated Bush war in Afghanistan."
The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified but the voice resembled that of the terror group leader on previous tapes determined to be genuine. France's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tapes by bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri, have recently been posted on Al Jazeera's website rather than on sites run by militant Muslims as has been done for years. The shift appears to reflect the unexplained technical difficulties or closures experienced by the militant sites in recent months.
France has about 4,000 troops deployed in and near Afghanistan.
The country passed a law this month that will ban the wearing of face-covering burqa-style Muslim veils in public starting in April. Many Muslims have expressed fears the law would stigmatize them.
"If you deemed it your right to ban [Muslim] women from wearing the hijab, then should not it be our right to expel your invading men by striking their necks?" bin Laden said.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an offshoot of bin Laden's group, has claimed responsibility for the abductions of five French citizens in Niger and is believed to have taken them to neighboring Mali. The French hostages, as well as a Togolese and a Madagascar national were kidnapped on Sept. 16 while they were sleeping in their villas in the uranium mining town of Arlit.
"The kidnapping of your experts in the Niger is a reaction to your oppression of Muslims," said bin Laden.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has increasingly been targeting French interests.
In July, the group said it executed a 78-year-old French aid worker it had taken hostage three months before. It said the killing was retaliation for the deaths of six al Qaeda members in a French-backed military operation against the group.
A series of warnings has put France and other European countries on high alert in recent weeks, prompting the State Department to advise U.S. citizens living or traveling in Europe to take more precautions.
Jeffrey Landrigan, convicted of the murder of Chester Dean Dyer in 1989, was pronounced dead at 10:26 p.m. local time (0526 GMT on Wednesday) at a state prison in Florence, southeast of Phoenix, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections said.
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution, which had been due to take place Tuesday morning.
A federal judge previously granted a stay and asked to know where the dose of sodium thiopental came from. The drug is used to render a condemned prisoner unconscious.
Arizona has no stock of the drug. The state's attorney general, Terry Goddard, sparked controversy Monday when he said it had been imported from Britain, although he declined to name the supplier.
Britain outlawed the death penalty, and has not carried out an execution since 1964.
A columnist at The Guardian newspaper had questioned whether it was criminal for a British firm to profit from the supply of drugs used in an execution.
Sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, is the first of a sequence of three drugs administered in lethal injection that paralyze breathing and stop the heart.
Lawyers for Landrigan argued the drug might not meet U.S. drug standards if it was obtained abroad, and risked causing serious pain and suffering in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Landrigan, 50, was sentenced to death in 1990 for strangling Dyer, who was found dead by a co-worker on December 15, 1989, after he failed to show up for work.
He was the 24th person executed in Arizona since the state resumed capital punishment in 1992. There are 132 inmates on the state's death row.