The UN General Assembly approved the first global arms treaty, designed to prevent any export of conventional arms that would violate arms embargoes; promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes; or could be used in attacks against civilians, schools, and hospitals. The treaty’s effectiveness will depend on its ratification and implementation.
Sri Lanka monks arrested over anti-Muslim attack
Is political Islam in Indonesia in decline?
Acehnese public seek approval of separatist flag
US accuses Egypt of stifling freedom of expression
Taliban in Karachi: the real story
What the Iraq war taught me about Syria
Secularists fear an Islamist takeover in Tunisia
Islam Europe’s reality: Turkey’s EU minister
Afghans Failing Security Test In Badakhshan
Libya security problems persist
Members of an Egyptian ultras group market a t-shirt featuring Osama bin Laden and other jihadist leaders on Facebook to their fellow soccer fans. These same fans fly a flag with bin Laden’s face on it before and after soccer games.
Abdullah Wakil was ISAF’s top priority target in the district, and he was responsible for a number of high profile attacks in Kandahar province.
Karzai Orders Jailed Mullahs to be Investigated
Obama image machine whirs as press access narrows
The US killed nine insurgents, including “Iranian and Arab” fighters, in an airstrike in Farah. An Afghan teenager stabbed and killed a US soldier in Nangarhar. A policeman gunned down a police chief in in Faryab.
An al Qaeda suicide bomber rammed a truck packed with explosives into a police station in Tikrit, killing nine Iraqis. Two policemen and a civilian were gunned down in Baghdad.
Protesters have gathered outside of the US Embassy in Sana’a to call for the release of more than 90 Yemenis being held at Guantanamo for links to al Qaeda. Switzerland has withdrawn all of its personnel after a Swiss hostage was freed.
Egypt hit by spate of mob killings
A former militant alleged that Ingushetia Prime Minister Musa Chiliyev pays $1 million per month to the Caucasus Emirate terrorist group so it will not to kill him. Ingushetia is currently embroiled in a border dispute with Chechnya as well internal political dissensions.
Imprisoned, Tortured, Killed: Human Trafficking Thrives on Sinai Peninsula
A senior assistant to Prime Minister Zeidan was kidnapped at a checkpoint outside Tripoli. Zeidan condemned an attack on the Justice Ministry, blamed the attack on the Tamarhind military airbase on cross-border smugglers, and dismissed reports of “large convoys” of smugglers. Unknown attackers bombed the courthouse in Derna; the judiciary suspended work there in December […]
Some 30,000 protesters in Rabat on yesterday called for the downfall of the government of Islamist prime minister Abdel Ilah bin Kiran. The protest was organized by two of the largest labor unions and focused on unemployment, the economy, and human rights.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb took credit for the weekend’s suicide attack in Timbuktu, stating on a Mauritanian website that the bomber was an Algerian from the Yusuf bin Tashfin brigade, formerly commanded by Abou Zeid. French and Malian forces, which are going door-to-door to root out remaining Islamist militants, have killed 11 militants […]
Police arrested four suspects for concealing or selling the deadly nerve agent sarin. A man and a woman were arrested outside Maastricht, and two men were arrested in nearby Heerlen. One of the suspects has dual Dutch-Turkish citizenship; the other three are Dutch citizens.
Lieutenant-General Nick Carter, the UK’s senior commander in Afghanistan, warned against British troops cuts that could endanger the progress made in the last three years. The massive airlift of military equipment back to the UK from Afghanistan has begun.
Top ISAF commander General Dunford said conditions in Afghanistan are not yet such that “al Qaeda and other international extremist groups will not be able to conduct attacks on the West.” Defense Secretary Hagel is expected to announce significant cuts to defense spending. The US deployed F-22 stealth bombers to take part in defensive military […]
Khyber Agency: LI threatens Bara tribesmen not to shelter Tirah IDPs
Pakistan – Prosecuting terrorists: Out of 559 cases in 2012, suspects acquitted in 414
The Taliban claimed credit for bombings in Bannu and Mardan that killed three people. A policemen was killed in a suicide attack in Mardan, while two people were killed in an IED attack at a political rally in Bannu.