Terrorism Watch

PTI Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:46 Taking strong exception to Turkey seeking "clemency" for those accused of the 1971 war crimes, Bangladesh has asked it to explain why it is interfering in the ongoing trial of these suspects, most of whom belonged to the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami party. "The Turkish move surprised us," a Foreign Ministry official saod, noting that Dhaka-Ankara ties have otherwise been "excellent" and witnessed exchange of high-level visits in recent years. The official's remarks came days after right-wing Turkish President Abdullah Gul sent letters to his Bangladesh counterpart Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina calling for "clemency" for those accused of war crimes. A visit by a 14-member Turkish political delegation to Dhaka to witness the trial process has worsened the matter. The Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry official said the Turkish envoy here was also asked to explain his country's interference in the ongo

The government of the Central African Republic government and the rebel coalition Seleka have agreed to talks without pre-conditions, Guy-Pierre Garcia, the deputy secretary general of the Economic Community of Central African States, said Friday. "No one asked for conditions," said Garcia, noting the talks would start in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, "without delay", though no date was immediately set. France sends 150 extra troops to Bangui The French defence ministry said late Friday that 150 troops had arrived in Bangui from Libreville as a "precautionary measure" to protect French and European nationals. Source: AFP Foreign ministers in the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) were due to discuss the crisis at a meeting in the Gabonese capital Libreville, which is seen as a potential venue for peace talks. But the same day as the Central African Republic's neighbours announced the new step to tackle the crisis in th

The biggest news story of the year was hidden beneath the headlines. Racism seeped from the pages of Britain's papers as the mainstream media crossed the rivers of blood buoyant on anti-immigration fever that gripped the country since September 11 2001. For example, when nine men appeared in court in November over the alleged sexual exploitation of a girl in Rochdale, the debate was framed in the mainstream media as an ethnically driven violation of innocent white girls. The fact that the majority of those convicted of these types of crimes are Asian men transformed child sexual exploitation into the rape of "Britishness." The scandal created a point of convergence between race, identity and sexuality that provided the far-right with an emotive platform during local and parliamentary elections throughout 2012. The Guardian tweeted a BNP hate leaflet and interviewed EDL representatives. Ukip cleaned up in the polls, winning over Eurosceptic coalition voters and

The fragmentation of the far right could spark a new wave of political violence and Anders Breivik-style lone-wolf acts of terrorism, according to the head of the UK’s first research centre into contemporary fascism. The warning comes as new figures reveal that there have been nearly 500 anti-Islamic attacks since March, with more than half linked to supporters of far-right groups. Professor Nigel Copsey told The Independent that the electoral decline of the British National Party (BNP) and the splintering of street-based protest organisations such as the English Defence League (EDL) had created a potentially dangerous political vacuum on the far right. He said the relative success of right-wing groups in recent years had radicalised thousands of people online who could seek new and more violent ways to express their opposition to Islam, immigration and economic stagnation. “We have disturbing levels of hate crime in this country which gets under-reported, and we need to know mor

- Yemen Post English Newspaper Online Yemen's Marib oil pipeline was bombed again on Friday few hours after the authorities completed the repairs to it following a bombing in the Habab area this month, state media reported. The bombing by unidentified gunmen took place in Kilo 107, about 5 kilos from the area where the pipe was repaired after the previous attack in Kilo 102. The Yemeni army has launched offensives against tribesmen and militants accused of attacking the pipeline, mainly in the Wadi Abida district where two successive attacks halted pumping through the pipe in early November. The authorities have also reached agreements with tribes to allow the teams in to fix the damages at the explosion sites. Several suspects have been killed and the authorities plan to take action after the fresh bombing. The 272-mile pipeline carries about 110.000 b/d from Marib and Shabwa to the Ras Isa terminal on the Red Sea. It is still down since November 11. Yemen's oil and g

ADEN, Yemen | Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:13pm IST (Reuters) - Two suspected al Qaeda-linked insurgents were killed in a drone strike in Yemen's eastern region of Hadramout on Friday, a local security official said. The two men were riding a motorcycle west of the coastal town of al-Sheher when the pilotless aircraft fired at them, the official told Reuters, declining to be named. He gave no further details of the identity of those killed. On Monday, at least five people were killed in two drone strikes in Yemen, one of them also in Hadramout, the first such attacks in several weeks. The United States has escalated its use of drones against al Qaeda in Yemen. The Islamist group exploited mass anti-government unrest last year to seize swathes of territory in the south before being driven out by a military offensive in June. Improving stability and security in Yemen is a priority for the United States and its Gulf Arab allies because of its strategic position next to the world'

Story Highlights The largest protests yet in a week of demonstrations Some protesters waived Hussein-era flags The protests follow last week's arrest of Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi's bodyguards FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — Tens of thousands of Iraqi Sunnis angry over perceived second-class treatment by the Shiite-led government massed along a major western highway and elsewhere in the country Friday for the largest protests yet in a week of demonstrations. The well-organized rallies, which took place after traditional Friday prayers, underscore the strength of a tenacious protest movement that appears to be gathering support among Sunnis, whose sense of grievance has been increased by arrests and prosecutions that they feel underscore Shiite political dominance. The biggest of Friday's demonstrations took place on a main road to Jordan and Syria that runs through the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in the Sunni-dominated desert province of Anbar, west of Baghdad. Sev

Chinese authorities have confiscated 3,000 televisions from monasteries in a heavily Tibetan part of the west of the country and dismantled satellite equipment that broadcast "anti-China" programmes, prompted by Tibetan self-immolations in the region. Some 94 Tibetans, including 81 this year, have set themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule. Five self-immolations occurred in Tibetan-dominated Huangnan prefecture in Qinghai province, the state-run Qinghai news agency said on Thursday. The government in Huangnan said its approach in tackling self-immolations comprised of "guiding public opinion on the Dalai issue", increasing patrols and "blocking outside harmful information", according to the news agency, which is managed by the Qinghai government. "At this critical moment for maintaining social stability in Huangnan prefecture ... (we must) strengthen measures and fully fight the special battle against self-immolations," the art

December 20, 2012 Cambodia’s deportation of Uyghur refugees to China on 19 December 2009 remains a severe violation of international law and human rights. Below is an article published by World Uyghur Congress: Three years ago today [19 December 2012], 20 Uyghur refugees were deported to the People's Republic of China (PRC) from Cambodia amidst widespread condemnation after repeated calls of concern for their safety resulting from past evidence of mistreatment of returned refugees and general human rights concerns went unmet. Those fears were proved to have been warranted as 17 remain detained and sentenced to harsh terms of imprisonment following closed trials lacking any due process, nor meeting accepted international legal norms. In extraditing these Uyghur refugees whilst their cases were still under review by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), Cambodia contravened established international legal norms on the protection of refugees, including the 1951 R

Ellis now an elected Dail member hits back at Fine Gael call for Truth Commission JAMES O'SHEA, IrishCentral.com Saturday, December 29, 2012, The revelation that British intelligence documents suggested that current Sinn Fein member of the Irish parliament Dessie Ellis was responsible for 50 murders during the IRA campaign has led to a major stand-off between Sinn Fein and Fine Gael, the main party in government. Ellis has hit back hard at a statement made by Fine Gael's party chairman Charlie Flanagan, that if an Independent Truth Commission were to be set up, Ellis should be the first person called. Flanagan stated “These matters can no longer be treated by Sinn Féin in a routine way. We cannot simply forget the past and sweep the issues which strike at the very heart of the democratic process under the carpet to suit Sinn Féin" Ellis hit back saying “It is interesting that Fine Gael's Charlie Flanagan places such importance on the unsubstantiated claims

The city of Donosita-San Sebastian and the Diputacion (provincial government) of Guipuzkoa want to exhume the bodies of around 100 gudaris, or Basque fighters, who were killed in the Spanish province of Asturias in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The plan, presented by the mayor of Donostia-San Sebastian Karlos Izagirre and Guipuzkoa provincial deputy Martin Garitano, both from the pro-independence coalition Bildu, is part of a 50,000 euro project to remember Basque victims of the Spanish Civil war 1936-1939. Historians says tens of thousands of victims of the Civil War and the repression under General Francisco Franco that followed still lie unidentified in mass graves around Spain. The matter of exhumations is still controversial in Spain more 70 years after the Civil War. The project unveiled by Izagirre and Garitano includes the exhumation of fighters of a Basque brigade killed by Franco´s troops while they fought under the orders of Candido Saseta, whose remains were fou

ISTANBUL Turkish F-16 warplanes struck targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq overnight in a new air force operation, according to Doğan news agency. Turkish Air Force F-16 warplanes took off around 11:45 p.m. yesterday night, bombing PKK camps and targets around the Kandil and Zap regions of northern Iraq. The operations were launched following unmanned air vehicle data that showed PKK members approaching previously bombed destinations with the aim of resettling. A number of PKK shelters were hit overnight as well, Doğan news agency reported. Source http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-f-16-planes-hit-pkk-targets-in-northern-iraq-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=37760&NewsCatID=341

Saturday 29 Dec, 2012 07:35 PM EDT KATHMANDU: Ruling UCPN-Maoist has said that a national unity government was not formed due to opposition political parties' stances. At a weekly regular press meet at the party headquarters in Paris Danda on Saturday, UCPN-Maoist spokesperson Agni Prasad Sapkota said the national unity government was not formed due to various stances of the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML. Sapkota said, "National consensus in not only for one or two political parties. Consensus among major political forces can be truly a national consensus. For this, the UCPN-Maoist has urged the opposition parties to join the current government even for a single day. But, the opposition parties are stubborn to this end." He also said that the coalition parties floated the proposal for reviving the dissolved constituent assembly (CA) after seeing no chance of political consensus in any of the alternatives. Sapkota said that the UCPN-Maoist was committed to holding the

, 29 December 2012 Saturday 10:27 A senior Iranian foreign ministry official expressed "deep surprise" by the recent comments made by a Turkish minister over te use of Iranian territory by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Fars reported. "Turkish officials are aware of the point that we are also against this terrorist group. We support Turkey in its fight against the PKK," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a meeting with Recep Kizilcik, the governor of the Turkish province of Trabzon, on Thursday. He further reaffirmed the Islamic Republic's support for Turkey in the country's fight against the terrorist group. Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said Monday in an interview with the Today's Zaman newspaper that PKK uses Iran's poorly protected borders for logistic purposes. As regards bilateral ties, the Iranian spokesperson further said that as two strong countries in the region, Iran and Turkey sho

Srinagar, Dec 28, 2012, DHNS Two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants, including its district commander, were killed and two army officers and a policeman injured in a fierce gun-battle in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, 50 km from here, early on Friday. Police sources said that on a specific tip-off a joint team of Army’s 55 Rashtriya Rifles, CRPF’s 18 Battalion and Special Operations Group (SOG) of the police laid a siege around Bubgam, Pulwama. “As security forces launched search operations, the militants resorted to indiscriminate firing which was retaliated, triggering an encounter in which the militants were killed. One army major, a captain and a policeman were also injured,” a senior police official told Deccan Herald. He identified the militants as Imtiyaz Ahmed Teli alias Fahadullah Kashmiri of Pulwama and Mohammad Aamir Bhat alias Khalid alias Khursheed of Shopian. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Range S M Sahai said that Fahadullah was a local militant and

Even as the Andhra Pradesh government hiked the bounty for information on the whereabouts of Maoist leaders from Rs 12 lakhs to 25 lakhs, it is learnt that many ultras are sick and are getting treated at undisclosed hospitals across the state. The state police went for the whopping hike in prize money to root out the lingering threat of Maoists in eight border districts flanked by neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Jharkhand states where the CPI (Maoists) are active. “The bounty ranges from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 25 lakhs on the heads of various Maoist leaders. Many Maoists are suffering from health-related problems and will surrender if they were given an assurance about their future,” said DGP V Dinesh Reddy who recommended the doubling of the rewards on each of the top guns for the first time. According to the latest orders, Maoists who are members of the Central Committee and the Politburo would each get Rs 25 lakhs as one time payment if they surrender with their

IANS Dec 27, 2012, BHUBANESWAR: A member of the special operation group (SOG) was hurt when a landmine planted by Maoists exploded on Thursday in a forest in Odisha's Rayagada district, police said. The landmine exploded as a group of the elite anti-Maoist force was walking in the forest in Kalyansinghpur area as part of routine combing operations, district Superintendent of Police Rajesh Pandit told IANS. "It was a low intensity blast. One SOG jawan sustained minor injuries," he said. Maoists are active in more than half the state's 30 districts. Rayagada district, about 400 km from here, is considered one of their strongholds. Source http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-27/india/36020984_1_landmine-blast-kalyansinghpur-rayagada-district

Since the BKI's activities within India [ Images ] have tapered down, the outfit is trying to re-group by looking for sympathisers and donors outside India, says Vicky Nanjappa In a bid to bust the rising network of the Babbar Khalsa International, the National Investigation Agency has decided to target the organisations that financially support the activities of the outfit. The NIA has found that the BKI has strong financial links with sources in London [ Images ]. The agency has now sought the help of local authorities to curb the activities of the BKI. According to a NIA official, intelligence inputs from India and the United Kingdom indicate that the BKI receives its funds indirectly from some NGOs. The agency has now drawn up a list of donors to these NGOs and is likely to take action against them. Since the BKI's activities within India have tapered down, the outfit is trying to re-group by looking for sympathisers and donors outside India. The BKI had sought

After spreading their tentacles to the troubled northeastern state of Manipur around the year 2008 with the help and cooperation from the outlawed People's Liberation Army, Maoists have made further inroads into the region by setting up active cells in different parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Security sources informed that Maoists have already set up a network in five districts of Assam; namely: Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Golaghat. Several Maoists cadres were killed in encounter with security forces in Sadiya area of eastern Assam's Tinsukia district last year when surveillance against Maoists activities was mounted in Assam following intelligence inputs. The National Investigation Agency registered a case in July 2001 and started investigation into Maoists activities in the northeast in view of increasing activities of Maoists in the region. The NIA filed the first chargesheet in the special court in Guwahati on May 21, 2012 and an additional char

Call for the death penalty ... schoolgirls in Ahmadabad hold placards during a prayer ceremony to mourn the death of the rape victim. Six men arrested over the brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus a fortnight ago have had the charges against them upgraded to murder after the woman died in hospital. Tens of thousands held a peaceful protest outside police barricades at Jantar Mantar, near the centre of Delhi on Saturday. At the same time, students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, in the city's south, led a silent march through Delhi's streets. Thousands of police were stationed across central Delhi, blocking streets leading to Rajpath and Raisina Hill, the epicentre of protests last week. Ten Metro stations were closed, and the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, called for calm. Ready for further protests ... police with shields gather near India Gate in Delhi. Photo: Reuters The President, Pranab Mukherjee, said: ''I request everyone to maintain p

Genuine ceasefire? ... Pakistan Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud has made a video statement calling for a peace deal. Photo: Reuters The Taliban in Pakistan have said they want to negotiate a ceasefire, in a video statement by their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud. The video, delivered to Reuters in Pakistan on Friday, is the latest in a recent series of statements claiming that the group wants a peace deal, though it refuses to disarm. Military and civilian authorities in Pakistan have repeatedly reached agreements with militants, most of which were shortlived. Experts dismissed the latest statements as ''posturing''. Imtiaz Gul, an Islamabad-based author and expert, said the Taliban were mounting an ''orchestrated campaign to improve [their] image'' following three high-profile attacks in Peshawar. This month several suicide bombers struck at the northern city's airport, a senior provincial politician was killed in a bombing, and on Thursday

LONDON: A private investigator is claiming that pop diva Whitney Houston was murdered by drug dealers over unpaid debt. Paul Huebl says he has turned over evidence to the FBI that shows the 48-year-old singer was killed over a drug debt in February 2012, reported Daily Mail. Huebl claims that Houston drowned in her bathtub at the Beverley Hilton hotel after taking a cocktail of cocaine, marijuana and several legal drugs. He believes that she was targeted by "high powered drug dealers who sent thugs to collect a huge debt she owed for drugs". The singer reportedly owed $1.5million to dealers. He said that Houston had previously been subjected to harassment by dealers trying to collect on her debt and he obtained surveillance video that shows two unknown men who repeatedly went to the Beverly Hilton and integrated themselves into Houston's entourage. He claims these are the men who slipped into Houston's hotel room and killed her. "Whitney's body shows

TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday hanged an Afghan drug trafficker and four Iranians, three of them convicted of rape, local media reported. The 27-year-old Afghan from Herat, identified only by his initials MM, was sent to the gallows in the northern city of Damghan after being convicted of selling around two kilos (four pounds) of crack cocaine. Three Iranian men convicted of rape and another of smuggling heroin and opium, were hanged in the central city of Yazd. The Islamic republic, where murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are punishable by death, has one of the highest annual execution counts in the world, alongside China, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has condemned the executions, but Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and that it is enforced only after exhaustive judicial proceedings. Source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Tehran-hangs-Afghan-Iranian-

MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA: Witnesses say at least 15 people were killed when gunmen suspected to belong to a radical Islamist sect attacked a village in northeastern Nigeria. The attack happened early Friday morning in the village of Musari on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the city where the sect known as Boko Haram launched its violent campaign against western education. Mshelia Inusa, a primary school teacher in the village, said he heard gunmen call out for people to be slaughtered. Inusa said he later saw dead bodies with their throats slit and their hands tied behind their back. A guard at a Maiduguri hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he feared reprisals from the sect and the government, said he saw at least 15 bodies deposited in the morgue after the assault. Source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/At-least-15-killed-in-sect-attack-in-north-Nigeria/articleshow/17809353.cms

ISLAMABAD: At least five persons were killed and nearly 50 others injured when a powerful explosion ripped through a bus outside a railway station in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi today, witnesses and officials said. Witnesses said the incident occurred at a spot located less than a kilometre from Army House, the official residence of the Pakistan army chief when he visits Karachi. The bus had just left a terminal near the Cantonment Railway Station when the blast went off. Witnesses told TV news channels that they had seen body parts lying at the site. One man told reporters a young boy was torn in two by the explosion. Five persons were killed, said Sagheer Ahmed, the health minister of Sindh province. Officials at Jinnah Hospital said they had received 48 injured people and eight of them were serious. Women and children were among the injured. The explosion hit several nearby shops, buildings, motorcycles and cars. A fire erupted in the bus, which was

VISITOR AT THE CAMP. Davao City vice-mayor Rodrigo Duterte during a visit to an NPA camp in Compostela Valley during the anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Photo by Karlos Manlupig. COMPOSTELA VALLEY, Philippines - On Wednesday, December 26, residents and guerilla fighters of the New People’s Army cheered as a white chopper started to descend at a basketball court inside a guerilla zone somewhere in Compostela Valley. The chopper was occupied by Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who chose to visit during the guerilla camp anniversary of the re-establishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Duterte is running for Mayor of Davao City to replace his daughter, Sara, who announced earlier that she is giving way to her father. During the visit, Duterte gave the NPA unit an unspecified amount of money and delivered a speech blaming abnormal weather disturbances and climate change on environmental destruction brought about by first world countries.

2012-12-22 Rahma, a humanitarian organisation based in Anbar province, on Saturday (December 22nd) launched a campaign to counter extremism and religious intolerance in cities in Anbar province. Rahma chairman Jamal al-Fahdawi said that 70 activists and clerics are taking part in the campaign, which targets residents of remote villages and rural areas as well as nomadic Bedouins. It explains the dangers of extremism in religion and tribal beliefs, and the dangers of religious intolerance, which often leads to violence and extremism, he said. "All that we are going to do is to provide a simple explanation of our religion that rewards people for smiling and gives them a great reward for forgiving and pardoning, as our Prophet (PBUH) told us," he said. According to al-Fahdawi, "the campaign will feature religious lectures, posters and books. As for those who do not read or write, there will be illustrations. In addition, we will try to remove extremist books al-Q

DW: Mr. Saunders, prominent public figures such as Thilo Sarrazin in Germany and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands have indicated they believe that the West is being overrun with Muslims - at least demographically. Is that true? The visual impression that they're swamping us with children - I think the facts contradict that. I hired a research team, people who are not partisans and weren't activists, but who are good scholars, who know demographics, who know radicalism, who know the history of integration. I've spent a lot of time in the largest Muslim countries, in Iran, in Bangladesh, in Pakistan, doing various forms of journalism and research into migration and urbanization. And first of all, we know that they have the fastest falling reproduction rates in the world. Bangladesh now has a population growth rate falling very quickly toward a European level very quickly. Turkey is very similar. In Europe and North America, Muslims are not the largest group of immigran

An Indian man in Bonn claims to have been attacked and had his tongue lacerated by Islamists. He told police that a pair of perpetrators demanded that he convert to Islam before the assault. Police believe his story to be credible. Police in Bonn are investigating a possible attack on a 24-year-old Indian man who claims to have been the victim of an assault by two Islamists on Christmas Eve. The man, a university student had to be treated at a local hospital for a lacerated tongue following the attack. According to the victim, he was approached by two men who asked him what his religion was before demanding that he convert to Islam. Otherwise, the men said, he was an infidel and his tongue would have to be cut out. Then, as the man tried to walk away, the two assailants attacked him from behind, the victim told police. A passerby happened across the bleeding victim and called an ambulance. He was treated at the hospital and then released. Police investigators believe the man's

The murder of eight polio vaccination workers during 48 hours in Pakistan had all the hallmarks of a Taliban operation: coordinated, ruthless and monstrous. The attacks succeeded in shutting down an anti-polio campaign in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi and other areas. It could hardly come at a worse time in the global effort against the disease. Polio was one of the most feared diagnoses of the 20th century. The virus attacks the brain and spinal cord, swiftly destroying the cells that control muscles. As late as the 1950s, 20,000 Americans were paralyzed each year. But following the development and distribution of the polio vaccine, America saw its last naturally occurring case in 1979. Over the last few decades, this outcome has been nearly duplicated on a global scale. More than 99 percent of infections have been eliminated. The United Nations and U.S. health authorities, with support from private groups such as the Gates Foundation and Rotary International,

Pakistani authorities have asked tribal elders to help rescue 23 policemen who were kidnapped by the Taliban. The tribal policemen went missing Thursday after militants attacked two posts in Pakistan's northwest tribal region. Two policemen were killed. Authorities will meet with tribal elders in the two villages in the Darra Adam Khel tribal region, government administrator Naveed Akbar Khan said Friday. The elders could be punished for attacks that occurred in their areas, according to a tribal law. Security forces have launched an operation to recover the policemen. Source http://rt.com/news/line/2012-12-28/#id42479

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov tells RT that Western powers' habit of dividing terrorists between "bad and acceptable" could have lasting consequences for the whole world. Syria’s chemical arsenal has become a central point of international concern since the country’s civil conflict flared up in March 2011. Syria is reportedly in possession of nerve agents including mustard gas, while NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has already accused the country’s government of deploying the Scud missiles needed to deliver it. The worst-case scenario, as acknowledged by many governments including the US, would be for the weapons to fall into the hands of Syria’s various opposition groups – some of whom are affiliated with al-Qaeda. But to date Syria’s chemical arsenal is secure, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RT in an exclusive interview. “Every time we hear rumors, or pieces of information come to the surface that the Syrians are doing something with the chemical