Terrorism Watch

Supporters of Nepali Congress Party cheer as Constituent Assembly Election scores are displayed on a screen in Kathmandu, Nov. 21, 2013. Nepal's Maoist leader says they will not accept the results of the recent election in which his party trails in vote counting. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, demanded authorities immediately stop counting ballots cast in Tuesday's election, which reportedly saw the former rebel leader lose one of the two seats he was contesting. In a press conference Thursday, the Maoist leader said the party had reports of ballot boxes being taken, hidden away and switched. Nepal's election commission has rejected the request saying counting will resume, despite the allegations. Preliminary results are expected Friday, but the full counting is expected to take weeks. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who is in Nepal to monitor the polls, said he was disappointed to hear of the Maoists rejection. He says he hopes the Maoists will react peacefull

He had made public statements praising self-immolators for resisting Chinese rule. A court in western China’s Sichuan province has ordered a Tibetan monk jailed for four and a half years for seeking independence for Tibet and supporting self-immolation protests against Chinese rule, sources said. Hortsang Tamdrin, a monk at Jonang monastery in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture’s Dzamthang (Rangthang) county, was sentenced by the prefecture’s Intermediate People’s Court after being held for almost a month following his detention on Oct. 24, a Tibetan living in India told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Thursday. “He was sentenced for having committed actions aimed at ‘splitting the nation’ and for calling for the independence of Tibet,” Tsangyang Gyatso told RFA, citing contacts in the region. “He was also accused of making public statements of support for self-immolation protesters and for promoting special recognition for self-immolators,” Gyatso said. “Now he has been jailed for more than

11/23/2013 11:32 AM MANILA -- Five members of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) have been released after almost a month of being held captive by the New People's Army (NPA). The victims were abducted in Barangay Sabud, Loreto, Agusan del Sur last October 25. They were freed in Sitio Cabiga-Biga, Barangay Datu Davao, Melale in Compostela Valley at around 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Authorities said Josefina Bajade of the Provincial Peace Process in Agusan del Sur was the one who negotiated with the NPA rebels for the freedom of the victims. They were identified as Lito Lope Andalique, newly-elected chairman of Barangay Sabud; barangay officials Marvin Bantuasan, Balaba Andalique and Reynaldo Teodos; and Pepe Subla, member of a civilian volunteer organization. According to Andalique, they were treated well by their captors in their 28 days in captivity. -- Report from Darlene dela Cruz, ABS-CBN News Southern Mindanao Source  http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/11/23/

ORMOC, the Philippines — Clouds of steam surge from fissures in the earth along the beds of mountain streams here that splash down slopes carpeted with coconut palm forests, hints of the enormous source of renewable energy that lies underground. Engineers have drilled a series of boreholes a mile down into hot volcanic rocks, tapping into superheated water under enormous pressure. The water surges to the surface, expands into steam and then cools, spinning a series of turbines that produce five times as much electricity as all of Leyte Island, with 1.5 million people, can consume. The rest of the electricity is sold to other islands in the Philippines. Or at least that is the way it is supposed to work. When  Typhoon Haiyan  barreled across Leyte Island almost two weeks ago with a tsunami-like storm surge and  nearly tornado-strength winds , killing thousands of people and effortlessly tearing the roofs off homes, it also damaged the crucial geothermal operations here. For many in the

The New People’s Army has reportedly claimed responsibility for the foiled attempt to kill a newly-elected barangay chairman Monday in Brgy. Minautok, Calatrava, based on a handwritten note left by the two assailants at the scene, Senior Inspector Robert Mansueto, town police chief, yesterday said. Mansueto, however, said they are still validating the claims, hand-written on a piece of elementary pad paper, and left at the crime scene by the two gunmen, after shooting the victim, identified as Minautok barangay chairman Fidel Aninon, 60. Aninon, who had also served as a barangay kagawad of Minautok, sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the leg and lower abdomen. He, however, survived the attempt on his life by the two suspects, who carried 45 caliber pistols, Mansueto said. Quoting witnesses, Mansueto said the two suspects were described to be between 18 to 19 years old, and was strangers in the area. The shooting took place while the distribution of relief goods to typhoon victims was

Havana, Nov 22 (Prensa Latina) The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People''s Army (FARC-EP) described as urgent and a necessary task the arrangement of a campaign in all Latin America and Caribbean countries against U.S. military bases. In a statement of its International Commission dated in this capital, the guerrilla group stated that, to face the progress of unity in the region and the strengthening of mechanisms, such as the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, "the empire (the United States) continues without pause the military occupation."  The document referred that there are currently 36 military bases scattered throughout the continent, occupying strategic positions in the region, under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking and terrorism. "The first ones in suffering humiliation were Puerto Rico and Cuba, the latter with the naval base in Guantanamo, which is nowadays used as a jail for the p

Much has been said and written about Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani’s visit to Turkey last weekend. The pro-peace Turks described his meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “historic,” while those opposed to it called it “treason.” The Kurds were divided into two camps as well. Those who support Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were more optimistic than the Turks and generously praised the event. But supporters of the Kurd istan Workers Party (PKK) -- namely the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) -- downplayed the importance of the event and boycotted it. Kurdish politicians who have to some extent distanced themselves from the BDP – such as Ahmet Turk, Leyla Zana and other MPs -- came to welcome Erdogan and Barzani during the closing moments of the event. What drew my attention most in this meeting was not Erdogan’s use of the term “Kurdistan,” nor his introduction of Barzani as president of the Kurdistan Region. It was his likening of

DENİZ ZEYREK  ANKARA – Radika The imprisoned leader of the outlawed  Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, is set to be visited by lawyers, journalists and a delegation of “wise people,” but it is very unlikely that senior  PKK members from Kandil will meet with Öcalan at İmralı Island prison in the near future.  A delegation from Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) is continuing to meet with Öcalan as part of the ongoing process to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue, and the Justice Ministry is allowing for an increase in the number of relatives’ visits to Öcalan and five other convicts on İmralı Island.  Prime Minister  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had previously said “time will tell” whether it would be possible for a “wise people” delegation to visit Öcalan, adding that such a development was not on the government’s agenda at that time.  The issue was recently discussed by the MİT and then came onto the agenda at the National Security Board meeting, wher

As Russia plays war games on imaginary NATO targets and Putin pumps billions into the army, the country’s Eastern bloc neighbors are growing increasingly concerned about the return of Kremlin’s military muscle. Last Good Friday, two Russian Tu-22M3 bombers, escorted by four Su-27 fighter aircraft,  simulated  an aerial assault on two military targets in Sweden— the first near the capital Stockholm and the second in a southern part of the country. This was then followed in September by  Zapad-13  (“Zapad” means “West”), Russia’s biannual military exercise, which this year was jointly held with Belarusian forces variously in Belarus, along the borders of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and in Kaliningrad, Russia’s non-contiguous seaport territory that lies between Poland and Lithuania. Russian President Vladimir Putin carrying a hunting rifle in the Republic of Tuva. (AFP/Getty) Though initially billed as a counterterrorism operation targeting “illegal armed groups,”  Zapad-13  was very clearl

November 8, 2013: Russians are losing patience with the ethnic and separatist violence in the Caucasus. Opinion surveys show declining support for spending any more money, or lives, to keep the peace and support the population there. A growing (almost half) percentage of Russians no longer consider the Caucasus part of Russia. Worse, while 44 percent would consider other Slavs (like Ukrainians or Byelorussians) capable of becoming “Russians” if they lived in Russia for a few years and switched their loyalty to Russia, only 8 percent thought peoples from the Caucasus were capable of that. This xenophobia (fear of outsiders) is nothing new for Russia. For 70 years the communists sought to eliminate this trait but only managed to suppress it. This is a common pattern in communist countries and throughout East Europe. Xenophobia returned in the 1990s with the collapse of the communist governments there after 1989. It was worst in the Balkans, where civil war erupted as the communist police

Globaltimes.cn Seven Taliban militants were killed as their explosive device went off prematurely in the eastern Nangarhar province on Friday night, Interior Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. "Seven Taliban terrorists were busy in making mines inside a mosque in Shirzad district of the eastern Nangarhar province last night to plant on the roads and target security personnel but their device exploded accidentally killing all the seven on the spot," the statement released here added. Taliban militants fighting the government and largely relying on suicide and roadside bombings have yet to make comment. Source  http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/827111.shtml#.UpCi63kayc1

A group of ethnic Uyghur youths shot dead while storming a police station in China’s restive northwestern Xinjiang region last week had wanted to hoist a flag symbolizing regional independence in a possible suicide mission at the facility, according to police. The attack by the nine youths, in their late teens and early twenties, on the Siriqbuya (in Chinese, Selibuya) police station in Kashgar prefecture’s Maralbeshi (Bachu) county was believed prompted by the arrest of two men linked to the assailants, police said   The nine youths, who were armed with knives and sickles, had killed three policemen in the Nov. 16 raid, which the authorities have called a “terrorist” attack. Deputy Siriqbuya police station chief Mahmut Dawut told RFA’s Uyghur Service that the youths had carried the blue and white flag that represented two short-lived independent republics set up within China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region some seven to eight decades ago. He said they were trying to take control o

The letter was given to police by an acquaintance of the suspect, Abdelhakim Dekhar , Molins said. "He attacks capitalism and the dehumanization of the suburbs," the prosecutor added. Dekhar, who was born in 1965 and had lived in London for several years, was arrested Wednesday night after the acquaintance identified him as the man whose picture had been circulated by police as the suspect in the shooting on Monday of a 23-year-old photographer's assistant at the daily newspaper Liberation in Paris. The assistant, who was shot twice in the chest, was recovering Thursday in a hospital, Molins said. The acquaintance, who met Dekhar 13 years ago in a London restaurant where they both worked, told police that he had accompanied Dekhar early Wednesday to an underground parking garage in the northwest suburb of Bois Colombes, and that Dekhar had told him he wanted to kill himself, Molins said. That evening, investigators found the man inside the garage -- "half-conscious&q

In the wake of Croatia's 2-0 win over Iceland in a playoff match Tuesday to seal their passage to Brazil, Simunic grabbed a microphone and addressed the crowd at the Maksimir stadium in Zagreb. He said loudly "za dom" -- translated from Croatian as "for the homeland" -- four times, gaining an immediate response from fans, who chanted "spremni", meaning "ready". The chants have been associated with the feared pro-Nazi Utashas regime, which controlled Croatia during World War II. According to reports in Croatia, the 35-year-old Simunic has been fined 25,000 kunas ($4,400) by prosecutors in Zagreb for inciting racial unrest. World governing body FIFA has also felt compelled to act. "We can confirm that disciplinary proceedings have been opened concerning the case," it said in a statement. Read: Final European spots for World Cup finals filled Dinamo Zagreb captain Simunic has denied any political intent behind his impromptu celebration

What makes this particular case stand out is the length of time these women are said to have been held captive - over 30 years. Although this is an extreme example, this type of slavery is  not uncommon in London. Figures from the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre and Serious Organised Crime Agency for this year show that there were 389 potential victims of trafficking in the capital. Although the women in this case are not believed to have been trafficked, the case shows that hidden slavery is taking place around us, within our everyday environments, whether it be on construction sites, mobile soup runs for the homeless, at cheap takeaways, in nail bars and in domestic homes in our neighborhoods. Read more: How to recover after decades of slavery? It's not necessarily organized by criminal gangs - it can involve informal arrangements, carried out by so-called ordinary and even respected people in the community. I recently published a report called "Shadow City -- Exposi

BAGHDAD: Attacks mostly targeting Sunni-majority areas of   Iraq   killed 20 people today as the minority community shuttered countless mosques nationwide, complaining that security forces were failing to provide adequate protection.   The move follows a months-long surge in bloodshed, with the latest wave of violence leaving around 200 people dead in the past week alone, that has forced  Baghdad  to appeal for international help in combatting militancy just months before its first general election in four years.  Officials have also voiced concern over a resurgent  Al-Qaeda emboldened by the civil war in neighbouring  Syria  which has provided the jihadist network's front groups with increased room to plan operations in Iraq.  Today's attacks struck Sunni-majority areas in and around Baghdad, the restive province of Diyala, and the main northern city of  Mosul , leaving at least 20 dead and dozens of others wounded, security and medical officials said.  Five separate shootings

The Times of India CAIRO: Clashes erupted Friday as thousands of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood around Egypt held protests marking the passage of 100 days since the start of a bloody crackdown against them in the wake of the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. The violence left two dead including a 10-year-old boy. The marches in multiple districts of Cairo and other cities were commemorating the Aug. 14 storming by security forces on two pro-Morsi protest camps in the capital that killed hundreds of Islamists.  In one of Friday's marches, protesters attempted to enter Rabaah al-Adawiya Square, which was the site of the biggest sit-in camp, in an eastern neighborhood of Cairo. Security forces, who had sealed off the square with barbed wire and armored vehicles, drove the protesters off with volleys of tear gas. The biggest march in Cairo brought out several thousand protests, who tried to block a main road, then clashed with Morsi opponents in exchanges of stone-thro