Iran & the Middle East

• Egypt is backing Palestinian Fatah leader Abu Abbas in telling Hamas to refrain from armed public displays before the January elections.

• Various Palestinian militant organizations are also now blaming Hamas for the violence and unrest in the Gaza strip. A day later, eight Palestinian militant groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al Aqs Martyr Brigade all declared unity, saying "an attack on any one of us is an attack on all."

• Iran is now threatening to halt inspections unless the IAEA reverses an earlier resolution that refered Iran to the U.N. Security Council over failure to provide transparency and unanswered questions surrounding their nuclear program.

• Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians trying to infiltrate Israeli territory near Kissufim Crossing in the Gaza strip.

• The Iranian media is up in arms over Britian's accusations of Iranian involvement in the death of British soldiers in southern Iraq.

• Muataz Abu Zaarur, a member of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was killed by Israeli Defense Forces in the West Bank after a shootout.

• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to meet this week, but there remains some doubt. The latest reports indicate some progress is being made between the two leaders on the issue of the Gaza-Egypt border, but that Abbas will press Sharon on withdrawal from the West Bank.

• The Straight of Hormuz and the Iranian threat.

• Some Arab media outlets are calling on Arab governments to pursue the normalization of relations with Israel. The Kuwaiti based Arab Times editorializes that "after a long time, we have finally decided to leave the Palestinian cause to Palestinians, because it is they who are really concerned with this issue."

America Domestic Security & the America's

• The White House offered more details from President Bush's recent speech, and his reference to "10 serious al Qaeda terror plots" that had been foiled.

• The United States is scheduled to hand over five Kuwaiti's currently detained at Guantanamo Bay to Kuwaiti authorities, where they will be tried in a court. Officials of the two nations are negotiating the future of six other Kuwaiti's also held.

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human services has awared the University of New Mexico a $ 1.4 million grant towards training health care professionals and students in bioterrorism attack response.

Russia & South/Central Asia

• Russian security forces battled militants for two hours in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, in fighting that left two police officers and four militants dead.

• Chechen warlord Ruslan Nasipov has been killed in southern Grozny by Chechen counterterrorism and security squads. Guerilla commander Bekhkan Katsayev was also killed along with him.

• As NATO's presence in Afghanistan grows in coming months and their area of operations expands to places like Kandahar, the U.S. is pushing for a change in the rules of engagement to compensate for the increased danger in the new mission.

• General Hans-Christoph Ammon believes that the German Army will have to remain in Afghanistan for the next ten years. Currently, German troops are helping provide security in Kabul, as well as in Kunduz and Faizabad. In coming months, they may also be deployed to Mazar-i-Sharif.

• Twelve Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed in Jharkhand in a mine blast with authorities blaming the attack on the Communist Party of India Maoist.

• Sectarian violence continued this week in Pakistan, where eight people were killed in Mandi Bahauddin as they attended prayers.

• Police and protesters clashed in Azerbaijan, four weeks ahead of elections that could bring additional violence.

• Tough challenges remain in the future for women's rights in the Middle East. In Afghanistan, there is plenty of hard work ahead.

Far East & Southeast Asia

• Indonesian authorities continue the manhunt for Noordin Mohammad Top and Azahari Husin, Jemaah Islamiyah leaders and prime suspects in the recent Bali bombings. On Friday, authorities narrowly missed capturing Top in Java.

• Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra toured the Muslim-majority southern provinces of Thailand, where insurgents have killed about 950 people over the last 22 months.

• Japan's Plutonium Reprocessing Dilemma

• The Australian takes a closer look at the Al-Islam boarding school in Indonesia, formerly attended by many of the 2002 Bali bombers.

• Communist insurgents exploded two homemade bombs near the village of Betibot in the southern Philippines, killing five Filipino soldiers and three civilians.

• The Washington Post ran an article titled "In Indonesia, Songs Against Terrorism" that discusses how a "struggle for the soul of Islam" is transpiring in Indonesia. (Hat tip: libforall.org)

Europe

• Romania, a nation with 860 troops in Iraq and 700 more in Afghanistan, recently deported five al Qaeda linked students from Iasi. The group was accused of trying to recruit terrorists from among Romania's 140,000 Muslim population.

• Spain has expelled another group of migrants from the enclave of Melilla in North Africa. Spanish authorities have plans to upgrade the existing security fence around both Melilla and Ceuta.

• British security sources have revealed details of a 2003 al Qaeda plot that called for hijacking an eastern european airliner and crashing it into the terminal at Heathrow airport in London.

• Terrorists in Europe are finding a base in Belgium, which "over the past decade...has become a support center for terrorists in Europe, offering safe haven, false documents and financing."

• As part of a deal to begin paving the road towards greater EU inclusion, Serb leaders have finally agreed to scale down to a single police force in Bosnia. There are currently 17 different police forces in the Balkan nation of fewer than 4 million.

Africa

• Sixteen American airmen are helping Rwandan troops in providing security for aircraft being used for humanitarian aid lifts into the Darfur region of Sudan. Among their responsibilities include access control, gate escort and other force protection measures.

• Uganda has named the top five most-wanted commanders from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) that are being sought by the International Criminal Court. The LRA is accused of widespread murder and torture in their twenty year fight against the Ugandan Army.

• A week after the African Union accused the Sudanese government of coordinating offensives in Darfur with Janjaweed Arab militias, an African Union peacekeeping patrol was ambushed near Kourabishi in southern Darfur. Two peacekeepers and two civilian contractors were killed.

• In a growing pattern of hostility, rebels in Sudan have kidnapped 19 African Union peacekeepers in western Darfur. Some have since been released, but it remains unclear if an American advisor was among them.

• Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members, jailed in Libya for belonging to an outlawed political party, have been granted new trials.

• Piracy along the east African coast continues to worry ship owners.

The Global War

• Are we currently engaged in a "clash of civilizations?" Yes and No.

• Al-Manar, a global satellite channel run by Hezbollah that regularly features "videos encouraging children to become suicide bombers, calls for terrorists to attack coalition soldiers in Iraq, and promises that "martyrs" will be rewarded in the afterlife," is still airing advertisements from a host of western corporations.

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