From the AP, April 1: Washington – The government requested and won approval for a record number of special warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies, 75 percent more than in 2000, the Bush… Read moreWiretaps up under Patriot Act
Writes the NY Post: April 8, 2005 — Two teenage New York girls are in prison as illegal aliens after stumbling into a federal probe of recruiters trying to sign up homicide [suicide] bombers, The Post has learned. The unidentified… Read moreFear in New York City
Scores are dead in Yemen, where security forces are battling Islamist forces led by Badruddin Al-Houthi in and around the northwestern town of Saada. A group of opposition parties is calling for the nation’s pariliament to immediately launch an investigation… Read moreCounter-insurgency in Yemen
The April 7 nail-bomb attack on a bazaar jammed with foreign tourists in Cairo left three dead, including a French national and a U.S. citizen. A previously unknown group, the Islamic Brigades of Pride, has claimed responsibility. (Al-Jazeera, April 9)… Read moreTerror re-emerges in Egypt
"Middle East Peace Finally Reached," reads the April 4 headline in the quasi-satirical Swift Report. Leaders of the world’s three major faith groups—Christianity, Judaism and Islam—have agreed to call a cease fire in a dispute that dates back thousands of… Read moreBigotry unites monotheistic faiths
The opposition is threatening a new wave of protests in Lebanon, with the country still in political deadlock. Parliament has refused to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami (which had been a key victory of the protests), and… Read moreLebanon deadlocked, closer to brink
Reports the Chinese news agency Xinhua April 6: Saudi Arabia might increase its crude reserves by 200 billion barrels, Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali bin Ibrahim al-Nuaimi was quoted by the SPA news agency as saying on Tuesday. "There… Read moreSaudi petro-producers still can’t get it down
By any objective standard, the wave of deadly gunplay in Saudi Arabia in recent days is an internecine dispute between rival Wahhabi fundamentalist factions—although that is not how it is being portrayed in the media. Today’s claims by Saudi authorities… Read moreInternecine Wahhabi violence in Saudi Arabia
Last week I spent three days traveling in Turkish Kurdistan, in southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border. I spent time in four towns, Diyarbakir, Marden, Sanliurfa, and Harran. Like everywhere in Turkey, huge signs in Turkish adorn the hillsides. From… Read moreKurdistan travelogue
A new party in Ukraine allegedly aligned with US-based neo-Nazi, former Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard and Louisiana state representative David Duke has Ukrainian Jews concerned. The Ukranian Conservative Party was registered with the country’s Justice Ministry last month and… Read moreNew party aligned with David Duke has Ukrainian Jews concerned
More attacks are reported in Thailand as the country braces for the first anniversary of the April 28, 2004 massacre of 32 Islamic militants by security forces at Krue Se mosque in the restive south of the country. An all-too-typical… Read moreMore Terror in Thailand
As Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution is being consolidated, with a modicum of order returning to Bishkek, the capital, ousted president Askar Akayev has emerged in Moscow, and formally resigned–after having pledged from hiding that he wouldn’t. He said that he hopes… Read moreKyrgyzstan: pawn in the new Great Game?
