World briefs 7/9/06

U.S. envoy offers bilateral meeting with N. Korea

SEOUL, South Korea -- Time to talk. A U.S. envoy expressed support for China's proposal to hold informal six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear threat and offered to meet bilaterally with the North on the sidelines of those discussions. Assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill was in Seoul as part of a regional tour to coordinate the international response to the North's test-firing Wednesday of seven missiles.

Al-Qaida suspect arrested in Hamburg

BERLIN -- A German of Moroccan descent was arrested in Hamburg on suspicion that he is a member of the al-Qaida terrorist network with contacts to a man close to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, federal prosecutors said Saturday. The man, identified only as Redouane E. H., 36, was a resident of the northern city of Kiel and was arrested on suspicion of supporting a foreign terrorist organization, prosecutor's office spokeswoman Frauke Scheuten said. He is suspected of being in contact with Said Bahaji, who had close ties to the three Sept. 11 hijackers who lived and studied in Hamburg -- Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah -- but fled before the attacks and is believed to be in Pakistan.

Gitmo suicide probe finds evidence of broader plot

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- An investigation into three apparent suicides at the Guantanamo Bay prison has found that other detainees may have helped the men hang themselves or were planning to kill themselves too. Authorities who searched other detainees' cells after the three were found hanged discovered instructions on tying knots, along with several notes in Arabic that were "relevant" to an investigation of a possible broader plot, officials said in court papers filed late Friday in Washington. The detention center's commander, Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris, said in an affidavit that investigators believe "the suicides may have been part of a larger plan or pact for more suicides that day or in the immediate future."

-- From wire reports