Russia/Insurgency: 2 Russian security officials found beheaded in Kabardino Balkaria

Ria Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday the headless bodies of a court bailiff and a police officer have been found in the southern Russian republic of Kabardino Balkaria. “The bodies were found on Monday night in the town of Chegen,” an official said on condition of anonymity. "The beheaded bodies of the men, a district bailiff and a police officer, were found in the trunk of a Mercedes," the official said, adding they were 26 and 27 years old respectively. The official said the men had been shot with automatic weapons before being beheaded. He said police are looking into several theories behind the crime, including Islamist violence.

In a separate incident, one person was killed in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia on Monday when unknown gunmen opened fire on a car driven by a police officer. “The attack took place in the republic's largest city of Nazran around 8.50 a.m. (local time), when unknown assailants armed with automatic weapons attacked a VAZ-2115 car," a police spokesman said.

Sporadic attacks on police and other officials have been reported on almost daily as fighting has resurged in Chechnya, which saw two brutal separatist conflicts in the 1990s and early 2000s. Violence has also soared in neighboring regions of Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus.

France/Terrorism: Al-Qaeda suspect targeted ski commandos

Adlene Hicheur, the 32-year-old French nuclear engineer who was arrested on suspicion of having links with Al-Qaeda planned to attack an elite unit of mountain troops training for Afghanistan. "The 27th 'Chasseurs Alpins' Brigade, was one of the potential targets," an investigator said on condition of anonymity and confirming a report in the newspaper Le Dauphine Libere. Reportedly, Hicheur had worked on the Large Hadron Collider — the world's largest atom smasher — as well as at a technology institute in neighboring Switzerland before he was taken into custody at his home in Vienne, France, on October 8.

The Chasseurs Alpins (Alpine Hunters) are a light infantry unit that trains for operations in snow and at high altitude. Three companies from the brigade were deployed in Afghanistan last year. The unit is based in the French Alpine town of Annecy, a short drive from Geneva where Adlene Hicheur worked at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).

CERN has confirmed that Hicheur was contracted to an outside institute that used the Large Hadron Collider, but added that "his work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism". Hicheur remains in French custody awaiting trial on a charge of associating with a terrorist group. Investigators alleged he had exchanged messages over the Internet with Al-Qaeda's North African offshoot.

46 people were killed on Monday

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has announced this Tuesday that the southern provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat as well as Cotabato City had been placed under state of emergency. The decision has been taken after gunmen assassinated at least 46 people on Monday, including 15 new bodies which have been found this Tuesday morning. The national police chief Jesus Verzosa added that at least five people were still missing. The victims including journalists had been abducted when they were filing the nomination of a candidate who contested the governorship in elections next May.

"It is going to be a direct investigation of the crimes committed. We have some information about specific names, not just those who ordered this thing, but also those who committed it," said Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno

Spain/Terrorism: police detains 36 Basque separatists

Spanish police announced on Tuesday that in overnight raid they have detained at least 36 suspected supporters of the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). Reportedly, the suspected members of the illegal youth organization Segi were held in the northern Basque region and neighbouring Navarre. According to Spain National Radio police searched more than 30 locations in the Basque Country and Navarre (north of Spain) in connection with the operation against the Segi movement.

Segi is the youth section of the Basque pro-independence left-wing, succeeding previously banned organizations Jarrai and Haika. It was declared a terrorist organization in January 2007. Authorities often blame Segi members and other young Basque radicals for violent acts such as petrol bombings.

Spain has intensified their pressure on ETA, listed as a terrorist organistion. During its 41 years of violence against the Spanish government, ETA has killed more than 820 people. However, since the organisation has broken its truce in December 2006, several of its main leaders including Javier Lopez Pena and Garikoïtz Asiazu Rubina, aka "Txeroki", had been arrested.

Bangladesh/Security: LeT terror plot mastermind held in Dhaka

Bangladeshi officials said security forces on Sunday arrested a top operative of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who is suspect to be a mastermind in the terror plot targeting the Indian High Commission and US embassy in Dhaka. According to officials Mohammad Motalem alias Majnu, a suspected Bangladeshi operative of LeT, was arrested from the capital's Motijheel area. "We arrested Mohammad Motalem, alias Majnu, in line with the confessional statement of the three Pakistani LeT operatives," said Monirul Islam, the Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Detective Branch. "We suspect him to be a mastermind of a plot to carryout an attack on the Indian High Commission and US embassy in Dhaka," he said.

The Deputy Commissioner said Majnu, during initial interrogation, confessed that he was entrusted with the task to recruit LeT operatives in Bangladesh and arrange their passage to Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. "He confessed that he participated in the Afghan resistance against the Soviet forces in late 1980s," the police chief said.

Separately on Sunday, Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) denied having any link to two men arrested in Chicago on terrorism charges. "David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana have no connections with Lashkar-e-Taiba, linking them with our organisation was propaganda aimed at maligning Kashmir's freedom struggle," Abdullah Gaznavi, the spokesman for the group, told a news agency by telephone. "We strongly condemn it." "All our members are local Kashmiri Muslims and we have no network in America, or any other place," Gaznavi said. "We are only fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir."

Iraq/Turkey/Insurgency: Iraqi Turkmen politician killed in Mosul

Gunmen assassinated Yauz Ahmad Efend, a Turkmen leader at his home in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday. "Armed men opened fire at Yauz Ahmad Efendi before making their escape," a police official said. "His son answered the door and they asked to speak to his father. When he arrived at the door they opened fire," Turkmen MP Safaeddin Arkij said. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu phoned Turkmen community leaders to "offer the condolences of the Turkish people," the MP said. Efendi was a member of the executive committee of the Turkmen Front, Iraq's main Turkmen political party.

In a separate incident on Sunday, a child was killed and four other people were wounded when a grenade exploded as a police patrol passed through a Mosul market. Another person was killed in north Mosul, one of the last pockets of insurgency in Iraq.

Central Africa Republic/Kidnapping: 2 French aid workers kidnapped in Birao

Mahamat Salah Amadou, deputy-consul of the Central Africa Republic in Darfur has announced this Monday two French aid workers of the NGO Triangle had been kidnapped late on Sunday in the city of Birao. “They have kidnapped two men, two Frenchmen of Triangle at 22h00 (local time). They were about twenty and spoke Arabic. They fled in the direction of Sudan,” he said.  "They also tried to kidnap a midwife (from the NGO) Medical Assistance Committee (CAM) but God was with her and they gave up. They also took three cars and a motorcycle to the NGOs,” he added.

On November 9 and October 22, two aid workers of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) had been kidnapped in the same conditions in Chad and in Sudan. Birao is actually located near the Border between Central Africa, Chad and Sudan. The area is normally under the protection of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad.

Russia/Insurgency: suspected terrorist killed in Chechnya

RIA Novosti news agency reported on Monday that a suspected militant was killed in Chechnya when police encountered a group of over 10 gunmen in the Caucasus republic's Shali district. “The shootout occurred on Sunday in a mountainous wooded area,” a police official, who preferred not to be named told the news agency. "The gunmen opened fire, one of them was killed when police returned fire, the others fled," he said, adding that no police were injured in the attack. The gunman is being identified, the official said.

Sporadic attacks on police and other officials have been reported on almost daily as fighting has resurged in Chechnya, which saw two brutal separatist conflicts in the 1990s and early 2000s. Violence has also soared in neighboring regions of Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus.

Sudan/Insurgency: Khartoum sentenced children to die over rebel raid

A top United Nations official said on Sunday that Sudan sentenced six children to death for taking part in a Darfur rebel attack on Khartoum but has since promised not to execute them. "We have six from the attack on death row," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Secretary-General's special representative for children and armed conflict. "The government claims that a military panel has found that these were not children. But the assessment of the international agencies is that they are children." "I was assured today by the minister of justice that they will not be executed," she told reporters at the end of a trip to Sudan. She said UN staff had identified six nother children among the remaining convicts, but Sudan's government had said some of them were over 18 at the time of the attack. The United Nations defines a child as anyone under 18.

"According to that law, no child can be executed," foreign ministry spokesman Moawia Osman Khalid told reporters. "If a court handed out such a sentence, it would be overturned on appeal." No one was immediately available to comment on Sunday from Sudan's ministry of justice. However, a Sudanese government official said he could not comment on the case but added child executions were not allowed under the law.

Algeria/United States/Security:  court acquits two ex-Guantanamo detainees

(Andrew Lichtenstein/Polaris/Photo News)

Algeria's official APS news agency reported that two men who had been held for seven years in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of belonging to an extremist group were acquitted in an Algerian court on Sunday. The court in Algiers rejected prosecution arguments the two men, named as Faghoul Abdelli and Mohamed Terari, were members of a terrorist group and acquitted them, it said.

They were alleged to have left Algeria in the early 1990s for Germany, before travelling to Afghanistan, where they were arrested by Pakistani police following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. “Abdelli Faghoul and Terari Mohamed had admitted in court to links with the illegal drug underworld, but denied any connection to foreign terrorist groups,” defence lawyer Farid Abbache said. The two men were released from Guantanamo and handed over to Algerian authorities on August 15, 2008.

Israel/Palestinian Authority/Terrorism: IAF Strikes Back after Kassam Attack

The Israeli military announced that Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombed targets belonging to the Islamist organization Hamas overnight Saturday in response to a Kassam rocket attack over the weekend. “Two weapons-manufacturing facilities in the northern and central Gaza Strip, and one smuggling tunnel in the Rafah area, near Sinai, were hit in the IAF raids,” said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a statement.

Reportedly, IAF carried out four attacks during the night. Palestinian sources said six people were wounded in the strikes, which the IDF said was launched “in response to the firing of a Kassam rocket at the city of Sderot on Saturday morning.”

The IDF said it would not tolerate any attacks by terrorist organizations against Israel and its citizens, adding that nearly 270 rockets and mortar shells had been fired at the South since the end of Operation Cast Lead on January 18, in comparison to the more than 3,300 rockets and shells fired in the year before the offensive. The last month had seen approximately 15 rockets and mortar shells fired at Israel from Gaza, said the army.

Somalia/Insurgency: Al-Shabaab capture southern town

Somalia’s hardline insurgent group Al-Shabaab declared on Sunday it had captured the country's southern town of Afmadow from the rival Hizbul Islam insurgents after clashes that killed at least 12 fighters. “We are now in the town. We have killed more than 12 of those that fought us and captured others,” Al-Shabaab commander Mohamed Ali Shuqul told a news agency by telephone from Afmadow, which is close to the border with Kenya.

According to witnesses hundreds of the group's fighters marched into Afmadow town in the lower Jubba region on Sunday after heavy fighting that started the previous day. Residents said they saw dead bodies on the streets as they fled the tense town. “Al-Shabaab's strategy is to stop anyone who can have an influence on the people in the areas it controls. This fighting is mainly about who should control resources and Kismayu port,” said Ahmed Ali Noor, a Mogadishu-based political analyst.

Hizbul Islam and Al-shabaab have been fighting in the region for the last three months. There is no word from Hizbul Islam group about their withdrawal from Afmadow. “There could be renewed fighting because the Hizbul Islam fighters are regrouping to recapture the town,” A resident in Afmadow said.

Nigeria/Kidnapping: gunmen kidnap 2 children in Port Harcourt

Two children have been kidnapped this early Monday by unidentified gunmen as they were on their way to school in central Port Harcourt, the capital of the River state in southern Nigeria. "This morning we got a report that two kids were abducted while they were being driven to school. We are still investigating," said the police spokeswoman for Rivers state Rita Inoma-Abbey. No additional details were given about the children and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Violent crime have become more common in the Nigerian oil capital despite the negotiations between the main rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and the government, regarding the amnesty offered by President Umaru Yar’Adua. Indeed, rebels in the oil-producing Niger Delta kidnap foreigners or local workers and asked then a ransom. Several incidents have been reported each year in the country.

Pakistan/Terrorism: troops killed 22 Taleban

A senior Pakistani police official stated on Monday that government troops backed by tanks and artillery attacked Taleban positions in the northwest of the country and killed 22 terrorists. "There has been fierce fighting throughout the night. Militants fired rocket propelled grenades while troops responded with artillery and tank fire," local police official Fareed Khattak told reporters. "We have a figure of 22 militants dead and 14 arrested."

Reportedly, fighting erupted on Sunday night after an assault on militants in the village of Shahukhel, which borders the Taleban stronghold of Orakzai tribal region. Khattak said forces had entered the lawless Orakzai region where many Taleban insurgents had fled. "Now helicopter gunships are striking Taleban hideouts in the agency," he said.

Zia-ur-Rehman, a Taleban spokesman in Orakzai said both sides suffered heavy casualties in the clashes. According to the military, more than 500 Taleban have been killed in the South Waziristan assault while 70 soldiers have been killed. However, there has been no independent verification of casualties as reporters and other independent observers are not allowed into the conflict zone.

Philippines/Insurgency: gunmen kill 21 in Maguindanao

The Philippine military said at least 21 people among a group of local politicians and journalists were killed in Maguindanao, southern Philippine shortly after being abducted. "Our army troopers have reached the area where the vehicles and those held were taken... they were shot by the armed men," regional military chief Major General Alfredo Cayton said in a radio interview. "We have recovered 21 bodies. Our men are continuing to scour the area to find the others." Cayton said he could not yet confirm who carried out the killings.

Armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said earlier that gunmen linked to a powerful politician had seized 40 people, including his political rivals and 20 local journalists. "We believe more bodies are buried in the ground," Brawner said. "Unfortunately the killing happened before our troops got there." Among those taken were the wife of a mayor in Maguindanao province, Esmael Mangudadatu, his aides and supporters, according to Brawner. Major Randolf Cabangbang, Armed Forces of the Philippines-Eastern Mindanao Command spokesman, said they have yet to identify the group responsible for the killing."We have yet to verify if the bodies were found by our troops or civilians in the areas," the military spokesman said.

Meanwhile, presidential Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's office promised quick action. "We are shocked and in total outrage," Gabriel Claudio, the president's political adviser, said in a statement. "Justice will be served and the perpetrators punished whoever they are."

Israel/Terrorism: Hamas official newspaper said progress about Shalit case.

The Hamas official newspaper A-Risala has announced this Monday that an agreement about Gilad Shalit could be expected by the middle of next week adding that significant progress had been done during the negotiations. Salah al-Bardawil, an official member of the Hamas confirmed also on Sunday that a delegation from the terrorist group will go to Cairo to debate a list of 450 prisoners detained in Israel for an exchange. The list could also include terrorists with “blood on their hands”, that means who are involved in terrorist attacks in the Hebrew state. He added he hoped a deal would be concluded by the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha on Friday. Ayman Taha, another Hamas official, said on Sunday that a delegation in Cairo will meet with Egyptian intelligence officials and maybe the German mediator.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau declined for his part to comment on reports in the Arab media on the matter, but did not deny that there had been progress. Meanwhile, the parents of the abducted soldier will meet this Monday with the prime minister's special negotiator Hagai Hadas in Tel Aviv but it is not sure the family had received official notice. Noam and Yoel Shalit refused to comment when they arrived at the Ministry saying: “it is not the proper time to speak!”

On Sunday, Israeli President Shimon Peres had met his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. During a press conference that followed the meeting, Shimon Peres said that progress had been made on bringing Shalit home, adding "the details must be kept behind the scenes."

Gilad Shalit was captured on June 25, 2006 by Palestinian militants who tunnelled into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

India/Terrorism: 8 killed, 55 injured in two Assam

At least eight people have been killed and more than 55 others injured in two bicycle-bomb blasts in Nalbari town, about 70 km west of Assam's main city of Guwahati on Sunday morning. Reportedly, the first blast occurred just near the Nalbari Police Station around 10 a.m. (local time) injuring several people. As a huge crowd gathered to help the injured another powerful blast went off on a few feet away from the first blast site. Five people died on the spot in the second blast and over 50 were injured, several critically. Three people died later in hospital.

Police blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for the twin explosions. "This is definitely the handiwork of the ULFA. We had intelligence inputs, but then it is not always possible to prevent all their plans," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told. However, the ULFA denied carrying out the explosions. A caller, identifying himself as self-styled commander of the ULFA’s 709 Battalion Hira Sarania, told three local television news channels that the outfit was not involved in the blasts.

A senior police officer, who declined to be named said that whether the ULFA denied it or not, the police suspected the twin blasts to be the handiwork of the militant outfit. “Two improvised bicycle-bombs were triggered by the ULFA. In the past too, we had recovered similar bicycle-bombs of the ULFA. After triggering the blasts in a public place, the ULFA is in a denial mode, fearing public outcry against it,” he said. Meanwhile, security forces intensified its operations in the area with police, army, and paramilitary troopers, conducting specific raids.

Somalia/Greece/Piracy: pirates hijack Greek-owned bulk carrier

Andrew Mwangura, East Africa Coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP) announced on Sunday that pirates hijacked a Greek-owned bulk carrier on Thursday in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen. “The vessel was taken 36 nautical miles off the Yemeni port of Balhaf and news of the seizure only emerged on Saturday,” said Mwangura on Sunday. "Red Sea Spirit was taken by gunmen off the Yemeni coast last Thursday. She is flying the Panama flag," he said. "She is a Greek-owned bulk carrier."

However, the Greek coast guard command on Sunday clarified that a Greek-managed bulk carrier was attacked by armed pirates off the coast of Yemen on Nov. 16 although attempts to board the vessel were unsuccessful. It stated that the vessel, identified as the Red Sea Spirit, eluded two pirate speedboats after its skipper took evasive measures at sea. According to the shipping company Secure Hold, the Panamanian-flagged vessel is continuing its course for Karachi, Pakistan.

Meanwhile, pirates said they may release the Chinese De Xin Hai next week. The Chinese bulk vessel was hijacked mid-October with 76,000 tonnes of coal and 25 Chinese crew. It is owned by the Qingdao Ocean Shipping Co. "Negotiations between us and the owners to free the Chinese ship are going on now," a pirate named Mohamed told a news agency from the pirate stronghold of Haradheere. "We agreed on $3.5 million to free the ship."

United Kingdom/Ulster/Terrorism: IRA dissidents plant car bomb in Belfast

Northern Ireland's police announced on Sunday that Irish Republican Army dissidents left a 180-kilogram car bomb outside police reform headquarters in Belfast but the homemade device failed to detonate. Reportedly, the car crashed through barriers at Clarendon Dock in Belfast at about 7:10 p.m. (local time) Saturday night. It partially exploded, setting the car on fire, but no one was hurt, the police said.

Barry Gilligan, the chairman of the Policing Board, called it "an attack upon the entire community." He said the target was "not just an empty office building on a Saturday night," as a significant number of people who lived nearby were "put at risk." "Had this device functioned as the terrorists planned, there would have been widespread damage and destruction," an unnamed police spokesman said in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) statement.

In a separate incident, four men were arrested after a shot was fired in Garrison, County Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland, on Saturday night. "Police believe they foiled a planned terrorist attack," the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. Three of the men were arrested in Northern Ireland -- which is part of the United Kingdom -- and one was arrested across the border in the Republic of Ireland. "Those who are trying to create a climate of fear cannot be allowed to win," said Belfast Mayor Naomi Long. "The best way to combat these thugs is to make devolution (power-sharing) work and show everyone that it won't be destabilized by anything," he concluded.

Afghanistan/Terrorism: more than 20 killed in separate blasts

At least 22 people have been killed in two separate attacks in Afghanistan on Friday. In the first attack, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in a crowded area of Farah City, killing 17 people and wounding 29. “The target of the attack in the provincial capital Farah City was the police official, who was among those killed along with two of his police bodyguards,” Farah Province Police Chief Faqir Mohammad Askar, said.

Taleban spokesman Qari Yousuf telephoned a news agency from an undisclosed location and denied his group had carried out the Farah raid. However, the provincial governor of southwestern Farah province, Rohul Amin blamed the Taleban for the attack. "Whenever there are civilian casualties, the Taleban deny responsibility," said Amin. "This attack was definitely carried out by the Taleban."

In a separate incident, an Afghan parliamentarian and former mujahideen commander escaped a roadside bomb blast unhurt on the outskirts of Kabul on Friday, but five of his bodyguards were killed, said a police official who declined to be named. The latest attacks come a day after President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for his second five-year term.