CONFLICT & TERR0R 11/16

U.S. military says kills 25 insurgents in Iraq
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:08am
U.S. forces backed by aircraft killed 25 suspected insurgents in operations targeting al Qaeda near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday. Full Story

UK court agrees radical cleric's U.S. extradition
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:10am
A British court ruled on Thursday that radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri could be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges including trying to set up an al Qaeda training camp in Oregon. Full Story

Israel braces for Iran bomb despite vow to prevent
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:11am
Israel is quietly preparing for the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran despite public pledges to deny its arch-foe the means to pose an "existential threat", Israeli political and defense sources said on Thursday. Full Story

Philippines in 'separatist deal'
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:12am
The Philippines government says it has reached an agreement with an Islamist separatist group on boundaries for a Muslim homeland. Full Story

Taliban fighters escalate attacks
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:31am
Taliban militants have staged more roadside bomb and suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, raising concerns that the insurgents are gaining strength and countering U.S. and NATO tactics. Full Story

Philippine police rule out terrorism in congress bomb investigations
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 9:01am
Philippine police have ruled out terrorism in a deadly blast outside the legislature. Investigators said initial evidence gathered suggests a Muslim lawmaker was the apparent target of the remotely detonated crude bomb. Full Story

Iran atomic report unlikely to satisfy U.S., Britain and France
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 9:01am
The United States, Britain and France are asking dozens of tough questions about Iran's uranium enrichment program that an International Atomic Energy Agency report due Thursday probably will not be able to answer, setting the stage for a push for new UN sanctions on Tehran. Full Story

LAPD shelves Muslim mapping planPosted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 9:08amA police plan to map out Muslim communities, a proposal that civil rights groups sharply criticized as racial and religious profiling, has been shelved, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday. Full Story

Bangladesh: Return of the bird flu threat
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 10:15am
Avian flu has re-emerged in Bangladesh after four months, with five reported new outbreaks in poultry farms across the country since October. The contagious viral disease was first detected in Bangladesh in March 2007. Since then there have been 55 outbreaks in 19 of the country's 64 districts. Full Story

Storm lashes Bangladesh coast, thousands evacuated
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 10:47am
A super cyclone was bearing down rapidly on Bangladesh's southwest coastline, ripping off tin roofs from houses and uprooting trees, as hundreds of thousands were evacuated to safer ground. London-based Tropical Storm Risk said Cyclone Sidr was a Category 4 storm, packing winds of 135 knots, and was heading due north on a course that would take it over the heavily populated southern coast and then towards the capital, Dhaka. Full Story

Powerful Sunni group condemns the seizure of headquarters, saying it is politically motivated
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 11:38am
Iraq's most influential Sunni clerical group Thursday condemned the takeover of its headquarters in Baghdad by Iraqi authorities, saying the move was "politically motivated." Full Story

Panel says Chinese spying is tech threat
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 11:46am
Chinese spying in America represents the greatest threat to U.S. technology, according to a congressional advisory panel report Thursday that recommended lawmakers consider financing counterintelligence efforts meant to stop China from stealing U.S. manufacturing expertise. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to Congress that small- and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers, which represent more than half the manufacturing jobs in America, "face the full brunt of China's unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation and illegal subsidies for Chinese exports." Full Story
New de-Baathification law ready for Iraq parliament
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 12:35pm
Iraq's cabinet has approved a redraft of a law that would allow lower ranking members of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath party to return to public office, a government official said Thursday. Full Story

No Al-Qaeda in Nigeria, says Sultan
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 2:22pm
Sultan of Sokoto, Sa'ad Abubakar, has declared that there is no Taliban movement or Al-Qaeda cells in Nigeria or the northern part of Nigeria. Full Story

Explosion in Moscow Injures Woman
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 2:23pm
An explosion near a Moscow market popular with foreign tourists injured a woman on Thursday, police said. Police did not say whether the blast was a bomb or not, although the RIA Novosti news agency later quoted a security source saying it had been a 50-gram bomb. Full Story

US sanctions alleged Tiger rebel fund raising group
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 2:53pm
The United States moved Thursday to freeze assets of a Sri Lankan group which it alleged provides financial support to the Tamil Tiger rebels, the US embassy said here. The US Treasury designated the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation a group that raises money for the rebels which the United States has deemed a terrorist organisation since October 1997, the embassy said. Full Story

Virulent form of cold virus worries experts
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:25pm
A new and virulent strain of adenovirus, which frequently causes the common cold, killed 10 people in parts of the United States earlier this year and put dozens into hospitals, U.S. health officials said on Thursday. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report detailed cases of people ill in May of 2006 and from March to June of 2007 with a strain of the virus called adenovirus 14 in New York, Oregon, Washington state and Texas. Full Story

Pakistan lifts Bhutto house arrest order
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:26pm
Pakistan freed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from house arrest early on Friday, hours after a caretaker prime minister was appointed in a first step towards a national election. Jail officials left the residence in the eastern city of Lahore where Bhutto has been held to prevent her from leading a pro-democracy rally against President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. Full Story

20 suicide bombers in Colombo to kill Lankan president
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:27pm
A group of 20 Tamil Tiger suicide bombers have infiltrated Sri Lanka's capital and are planning to murder the president and senior government officials, an MP warned Thursday. Mahinda Ratnatillake said the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were also plotting to strike ports and airports on the island just weeks after losing their number two in a government air raid. Full Story

Koreas to launch regular train service
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 9:13pm
North and South Korea agreed Friday to launch cross-border rail service for the first time in more than half a century, the latest sign of improving relations between the two sides. The rail's Dec. 11 opening will also mark one of the first tangible results of a summit last month between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. Full Story

Nigeria hit by new oil pipeline attack
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 12:20am
Attackers blew up a Nigerian crude oil pipeline on Thursday, extending a month-old resurgence of violence against Africa's top oil producer and dashing hopes for a government peace drive. The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility for the attack at Royal Dutch Shell's Forcados oil terminal. Full Story

Powerful quake on Peru-Ecuador border
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 12:23am
A powerful earthquake shook the border region of Ecuador and Peru late Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage. Local media said the magnitude 6.7 quake was felt strongly in the Ecuadorean cities of Guayaquil and Manta. Full Story

Bangladesh cyclone leaves 41 dead
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 12:24am
A cyclone packing 150 mph winds slammed Bangladesh's southeast coast late Thursday, killing at least 41 people and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes, officials said. Cyclone Sidr leveled numerous homes as it sent driving rains and high waves across the lowland coastal areas before weakening to a tropical storm by Friday morning, according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. Full Story

Indonesian troops 'deliberately' killed journalists
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 12:37am
Indonesian soldiers could face war crimes charges for deliberately killing five Australian-based journalists to prevent them exposing the 1975 invasion of East Timor following an inquest here Friday. The coroner said there was evidence that war crimes had been committed in the deaths of the British, Australian and New Zealand journalists and the case would be referred to Australia's attorney general for possible prosecution. Full Story

Militants Gain Despite Decree by Musharraf
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 12:38am
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, says he instituted emergency rule for the extra powers it would give him to push back the militants who have carved out a mini-state in Pakistan's tribal areas. But in the last several days, the militants have extended their reach, capturing more territory in Pakistans settled areas and chasing away frightened policemen, local government officials said. Full Story

Norwegian deep-freeze preparing to protect world's seeds against global catastrophe
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 12:40am
Refrigeration units on Friday begin cooling a new doomsday vault dug into an already frigid Arctic mountainside to protect the world's seeds in case of a global catastrophe. Norway blasted the Svalbard Global Seed Vault deep into the permafrost of a remote Arctic archipelago to protect as many as 4.5 million of the world's agricultural seeds from climate change, plant epidemics, natural disasters or war. It is due to open Feb. 26. Full Story

Troops thwart LTTE infiltration bid at Welioya FDL
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 2:12am
Sri Lanka army soldiers deployed in Welioya front of the Wanni Forward Defence Line (FDL) have confronted with a group of LTTE terrorists at Bisokotuwa, South of Kambiliwewa this morning (November 16). Full Story

Courtesy of Terrorism Research Center, Inc.