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.......Among the 53 dead on Tuesday were Moalim Farhan, commander of the militant group that attacked the convoy, and Abdullahi Ali Farah, also known as Sheikh Aspro, a spokesman for the insurgents told Reuters.
The Rest @ Report On Arrakis
Thursday, July 03, 2008
35 Al qaeda Recruits Captured in Morocco
Police in Morocco have arrested 35 members of a network, which is sending its members to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq on behalf on Al-Qa’ida or to join Islamists in neighboring Algeria, the state news agency MAP reported on Wednesday.
According to the report the arrests were carried out in several cities across the country.
Ever since a string of suicide bombings in the country’s economic capital killed 45 people, the government, which is considered key ally of the U.S. in the war on terror, has launched a crackdown on local Islamists and is currently holding some 1,000 people in jail on terror-related charges.
The suspects heading for Algeria were to take part in the fight against the government as members of Al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is the official branch of Al-Qa’ida in North Africa.
Since its entry into the region AQIM, which is made up of a mix of local Islamists and veterans from Afghanistan, has introduced methods previously unseen in the region, such as suicide bombings.
Members of AQIM are also suspected of trying to set up cells in Mauritania. The West African country was, until the arrival of AQIM, considered a quiet and stable country, but in the last couple of months the country has experienced jailbreaks and shootouts with police in residential neighborhoods.
The Rest @ The Media Line
According to the report the arrests were carried out in several cities across the country.
Ever since a string of suicide bombings in the country’s economic capital killed 45 people, the government, which is considered key ally of the U.S. in the war on terror, has launched a crackdown on local Islamists and is currently holding some 1,000 people in jail on terror-related charges.
The suspects heading for Algeria were to take part in the fight against the government as members of Al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is the official branch of Al-Qa’ida in North Africa.
Since its entry into the region AQIM, which is made up of a mix of local Islamists and veterans from Afghanistan, has introduced methods previously unseen in the region, such as suicide bombings.
Members of AQIM are also suspected of trying to set up cells in Mauritania. The West African country was, until the arrival of AQIM, considered a quiet and stable country, but in the last couple of months the country has experienced jailbreaks and shootouts with police in residential neighborhoods.
The Rest @ The Media Line
MNJ repots Battle At TEZIRZAÏT, MI 24 Helicopters Downed
The MNJ claim that Captain Asharif Mohamed Almocatr, a MNJ leader and 3 others were Captured by the Niger Armed Forces in a battle in TEZIRZAÏT. They aledge the Military poisoned the well there and then left in the direction of IFEROUANE,
They warn that the wells there may be poisoned as well.
On Friday, June 27, 2008, they claim that 2 new MI 24 helicopters acquired by the army were destroyed at ARLI, between the city and the mining area.
They Claim the helicopter wreckage is located TAMART IN-IBLISS between GOUGARAM and ARLIT.
-Shimron
Check it out
They warn that the wells there may be poisoned as well.
On Friday, June 27, 2008, they claim that 2 new MI 24 helicopters acquired by the army were destroyed at ARLI, between the city and the mining area.
They Claim the helicopter wreckage is located TAMART IN-IBLISS between GOUGARAM and ARLIT.
-Shimron
Check it out
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Guinea -Bissau gets Policer Equipment Upgrade from UN
BISSAU, June 19 (Reuters) -By Alberto Dabo The United Nations and European Union are to help set up an elite police anti-narcotics unit in Guinea-Bissau to combat trafficking by Colombian cocaine cartels, a U.N. official said on Thursday.
Police in the small West African country, one of the world's poorest states, have been fighting an unequal battle against powerful drug-smuggling gangs who have been using the former Portuguese colony as a transit hub to ship cocaine to Europe.
While the cartels have deployed planes, boats and off-road vehicles to carry the drugs across Guinea-Bissau, the country's judicial police have often lacked cars, petrol, computers and even handcuffs with which to investigate and pursue them.
Antonio Mazzitelli, West Africa representative for the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the European Union was providing $2 million euros ($3 million) to finance setting up the anti-drugs unit within Guinea-Bissau's judicial police.
"The programme will provide for strengthening the operational capability with equipment, as well as training," Mazzitelli told Reuters in Bissau, where the agreement was signed on Wednesday with Guinea-Bissau's judicial police.
The UNODC plan would provide the police with basic equipment like vehicles, communications gear, fuel, bullet-proof vests and even generators to allow vital police work to continue in a country where power blackouts are frequent.
The funds would also cover training and the modernisation of offices for the judicial police, who had been working out of a ramshackle building in downtown Bissau.
This would include the creation of a secure temporary detention centre for suspects. Several suspected Colombian drug traffickers arrested by Guinea-Bissau police over the last two years have walked free, released by compliant local magistrates.
UNODC experts say administrative and judicial corruption is a problem in Guinea-Bissau and they are also working on an system of incentives for the judicial police to prevent graft.
In April, Judicial Police Director Lucinda Ahukharie threatened to quit after rival policemen shot dead one of her counternarcotics officers in a revenge killing.
Mazzitelli said the 2 million euros from the EU was part of around $5 million dollars of international funding the UNODC had managed to secure to strengthen Guinea-Bissau's fight against the drug-traffickers.
The Rest @ Alertnent
Police in the small West African country, one of the world's poorest states, have been fighting an unequal battle against powerful drug-smuggling gangs who have been using the former Portuguese colony as a transit hub to ship cocaine to Europe.
While the cartels have deployed planes, boats and off-road vehicles to carry the drugs across Guinea-Bissau, the country's judicial police have often lacked cars, petrol, computers and even handcuffs with which to investigate and pursue them.
Antonio Mazzitelli, West Africa representative for the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the European Union was providing $2 million euros ($3 million) to finance setting up the anti-drugs unit within Guinea-Bissau's judicial police.
"The programme will provide for strengthening the operational capability with equipment, as well as training," Mazzitelli told Reuters in Bissau, where the agreement was signed on Wednesday with Guinea-Bissau's judicial police.
The UNODC plan would provide the police with basic equipment like vehicles, communications gear, fuel, bullet-proof vests and even generators to allow vital police work to continue in a country where power blackouts are frequent.
The funds would also cover training and the modernisation of offices for the judicial police, who had been working out of a ramshackle building in downtown Bissau.
This would include the creation of a secure temporary detention centre for suspects. Several suspected Colombian drug traffickers arrested by Guinea-Bissau police over the last two years have walked free, released by compliant local magistrates.
UNODC experts say administrative and judicial corruption is a problem in Guinea-Bissau and they are also working on an system of incentives for the judicial police to prevent graft.
In April, Judicial Police Director Lucinda Ahukharie threatened to quit after rival policemen shot dead one of her counternarcotics officers in a revenge killing.
Mazzitelli said the 2 million euros from the EU was part of around $5 million dollars of international funding the UNODC had managed to secure to strengthen Guinea-Bissau's fight against the drug-traffickers.
The Rest @ Alertnent
Sunday, June 29, 2008
AQIM Fighters Cornered in Aftis NEar Jijel
Saturdeay, 28/6 Paris - Six police officers and soldiers have been killed and 14 people injured in clashes with terrorists belonging to the al- Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group, Algerian media reported Saturday, citing security sources. The clashes took place over the Muslim weekend, or Thursday and Friday, the reports said.
In the spa resort of Aftis near Jijel, a group of 30 AQIM fighters who had been cornered by the military split into three commandos and tried to fight their way out of the area.
Four members of the security forces were killed when the first commando attacked their vehicles.
The second commando attacked a sentry, while the third attacked police officers called as reinforcements.
Two soldiers were killed and 11 injured in attacks on the Kabylian coast.
the Rest @ EarthTimes
In the spa resort of Aftis near Jijel, a group of 30 AQIM fighters who had been cornered by the military split into three commandos and tried to fight their way out of the area.
Four members of the security forces were killed when the first commando attacked their vehicles.
The second commando attacked a sentry, while the third attacked police officers called as reinforcements.
Two soldiers were killed and 11 injured in attacks on the Kabylian coast.
the Rest @ EarthTimes
ONGC’s Indian Owned Oil Company Comes Under Attack for Sudan Deals
Hyderabad: International activists are turning the heat on India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) over its operations in the civil war-ravaged African nation Sudan following similar campaigns against Chinese and Malaysian oil firms.
Amnesty International, Genocide Intervention Network (GIN) and Investors Against Genocide have launched targeted campaigns after GIN’s Sudan Divestment Task Force report identified ONGC as among the top four “highest offenders” indirectly contributing to the ongoing conflict in Sudan. While estimates vary, the conflict, which started in 2003, is believed to have killed nearly 300,000 people and displaced at least two million Sudanese from their homes.
ONGC has invested nearly $1 billion (Rs4,288 crore) in Sudanese oilfields and is one of the top three players in the oil sector in that country. Activists claim that ONGC is stonewalling efforts by both activists as well as investors to engage the company on its operations in Sudan.
“We have regularly written to and called ONGC but, have not yet been able to secure a meeting or phone call to discuss their operations in Sudan. To our knowledge, investors have not yet been able to effectively engage with ONGC either,” said GIN International coordinator Scott Wisor.
Trade data shows Sudan’s oil exports stood at $4.8 bn in 2006 and may touch $7 bn in 2007
Asked about the human rights issues involved in the company’s Sudan operations, ONGC spokesperson M. Selva Pandian said the company acknowledged the “ethical question” involved and the “big dilemma” that it poses.
“However, we are a 74% state-owned company and a purely commercial entity. It is not really in our hands, we follow the directions given by the Indian government,” the spokesperson added. Joining ONGC on the shortlist in the report, released on 31 May, are China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec).
As per International Trade Center (ITC) data, Sudan’s oil export, which constitutes nearly 90% of total exports, stood at $4.8 billion in 2006 and are expected to touch $7 billion in 2007.
Amnesty claims that close to 70% of this oil revenue is used by the Sudanese government for military expenditure. The campaign by the human rights activists is channelled through mutual fund houses and institutional investors who will have a better chance of influencing companies they have invested in.
“Ultimately, the goal is to get big oil companies, like Petronas or ONGC, to engage the Sudanese government to end the violence in Sudan,” wrote Amy O’Meara, Amnesty International USA human rights and business director, in an email response to Mint’s questions. “We are talking to major investors in the US who have holdings in ONGC as well as the other major oil companies operating in Sudan, in the hopes that they will raise these concerns with the company.”
Amnesty International, Genocide Intervention Network (GIN) and Investors Against Genocide have launched targeted campaigns after GIN’s Sudan Divestment Task Force report identified ONGC as among the top four “highest offenders” indirectly contributing to the ongoing conflict in Sudan. While estimates vary, the conflict, which started in 2003, is believed to have killed nearly 300,000 people and displaced at least two million Sudanese from their homes.
ONGC has invested nearly $1 billion (Rs4,288 crore) in Sudanese oilfields and is one of the top three players in the oil sector in that country. Activists claim that ONGC is stonewalling efforts by both activists as well as investors to engage the company on its operations in Sudan.
“We have regularly written to and called ONGC but, have not yet been able to secure a meeting or phone call to discuss their operations in Sudan. To our knowledge, investors have not yet been able to effectively engage with ONGC either,” said GIN International coordinator Scott Wisor.
Trade data shows Sudan’s oil exports stood at $4.8 bn in 2006 and may touch $7 bn in 2007
Asked about the human rights issues involved in the company’s Sudan operations, ONGC spokesperson M. Selva Pandian said the company acknowledged the “ethical question” involved and the “big dilemma” that it poses.
“However, we are a 74% state-owned company and a purely commercial entity. It is not really in our hands, we follow the directions given by the Indian government,” the spokesperson added. Joining ONGC on the shortlist in the report, released on 31 May, are China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec).
As per International Trade Center (ITC) data, Sudan’s oil export, which constitutes nearly 90% of total exports, stood at $4.8 billion in 2006 and are expected to touch $7 billion in 2007.
Amnesty claims that close to 70% of this oil revenue is used by the Sudanese government for military expenditure. The campaign by the human rights activists is channelled through mutual fund houses and institutional investors who will have a better chance of influencing companies they have invested in.
“Ultimately, the goal is to get big oil companies, like Petronas or ONGC, to engage the Sudanese government to end the violence in Sudan,” wrote Amy O’Meara, Amnesty International USA human rights and business director, in an email response to Mint’s questions. “We are talking to major investors in the US who have holdings in ONGC as well as the other major oil companies operating in Sudan, in the hopes that they will raise these concerns with the company.”
- Violent conflict started in Sudan in February 2003. A month later, ONGC started operating in Sudan through the wholly owned subsidiary ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL)
- by acquiring a 25% stake in Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. from Canada’s Talisman Inc. for $720 million, as per the data available on the company website.
- Expanding its operations in May 2004, OVL acquired a 24.125% stake in Block 5A and a 23.5% stake in Block 5B operated by the White Nile Petroleum Operating Co. Ltd from Austria’s OMV Aktiengesellschaft for $134 million.
- According to shareholding data available with the Bombay Stock Exchange, as on 31 March, foreign institutional investors, or FIIs, held nearly 8% stake in ONGC.
- At current market price, the entire FII holding is valued at around $560 million. American Funds is the single largest FII investor in ONGC, holding 46,016,142 shares or a 2.14% stake.
- Campaigners have made headway with some large fund houses such as American Funds (handles $900 billion globally), Fidelity International Ltd ($279 billion), Berkshire Hathaway and T Rowe Price ($376 billion). Berkshire, Fidelity and T Rowe Price have reduced their holdings in Chinese oil companies linked to Sudan since the Sudan Divestment Campaign started two years ago.
“We are not trying to get anybody to sell their stake in ONGC, and we are not demanding that they stop operating in Sudan. Rather, we want the company to understand the impact that oil revenues are having in Sudan, how they are being used by the Sudanese government to fund military campaigns in Darfur,” O’Meara said. In an effort to maintain sustained pressure on ONGC at its home front, Amnesty International and GIN are looking to partner with Indian organizations who can lead the campaign in India. Wisor who travelled to India last month as part of this effort, says that there is a severe lack of awareness in India about ONGC’s operations in Sudan and the firm’s potential to make a difference in the civil war-ravaged African nation.
Indeed, even R.K. Pachauri —a member of the ONGC board of directors and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize—told Mint in a telephone interview that he was not aware of the issue. He declined additional comment on the issue saying that any comment he made would be “uninformed”. “
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Two More UN Aid workers Kidnapped in Somalia
Nairobi/Mogadishu - Gunmen have abducted two people working for the United Nations' mine action programme in Somalia, the BBC said Saturday.
Reports said that gunmen seized the two, believed to be Scandinavian, and a Somali aid worker after temporarily gaining control of a town in southern Somalia.
Nobody from the UN's mine programme in Somali or its coordinating office in neighbouring Kenya was available to confirm the reports.
Many aid workers have been abducted since the man believed to be al-Qaeda's top operative in the country, Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed in a US air strike on May 1.
The head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR's Mogadishu programme was kidnapped last weekend and is still being held.
Several other aid workers have been in the hands of gunmen for months and the World Food Programme has seen three of its drivers killed.
The Rest
Reports said that gunmen seized the two, believed to be Scandinavian, and a Somali aid worker after temporarily gaining control of a town in southern Somalia.
Nobody from the UN's mine programme in Somali or its coordinating office in neighbouring Kenya was available to confirm the reports.
Many aid workers have been abducted since the man believed to be al-Qaeda's top operative in the country, Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed in a US air strike on May 1.
The head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR's Mogadishu programme was kidnapped last weekend and is still being held.
Several other aid workers have been in the hands of gunmen for months and the World Food Programme has seen three of its drivers killed.
The Rest
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