Russian security forces have killed 49 militants in an operation across the North Caucasus region, where rebels are fighting to carve out an Islamic state, Russia's top anti-terrorism body has said.
The agency, which serves as a mouthpiece for law enforcement agencies operating in the region, gave no time period for the operation, which was launched days after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, led a meeting of the country's security council.
PARIS - President Francois Hollande is pushing hard for military action against al Qaeda-linked militants in northern Mali to quash what he believes is a growing risk of them launching an attack on French soil.
By Rosa Brooks, ForeignPolicy.com, October 18, 2012
[....] It doesn't have to be this way. If Obama wants to fix his broken foreign policy machine, he can do it -- but conversations with numerous insiders, as well as my own government experiences, suggest that he needs to focus on strategy, structure, process, management, and personnel as much as on new policy initiatives.
WASHINGTON: The United States posted a reward of up to $12 million on Thursday for help in tracking down two Iran-based al Qaeda financial backers, accused of funneling money to extremists in Syria.
The State Department named the men as Muhsin al-Fadhli and his deputy Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi, saying both “facilitate the movement of funds and operatives through Iran on behalf of the al Qaeda terrorist network.”
By Scott Shane, New York Times, October 19/20, 2012
Home page lede:
A Biker, a Blonde, a Jihadist and Piles of C.I.A. Cash: A man says he arranged a marriage for the Qaeda affiliate leader Anwar al-Awlaki as part of efforts by Danish and American intelligence officials to hunt him down.
By Naureen Kahn, National Journal, October 17, 2012
If there was any doubt that the tidal wave of enthusiasm among young voters that fueled President Obama’s 2008 run has long since receded, a new poll on the millennial generation’s political leanings in the upcoming election cements it.
World-famous Turkish pianist Fazil Say has appeared in court in Istanbul charged with inciting hatred and insulting the values of Muslims.
He is being prosecuted over tweets he wrote mocking radical Muslims, in a case which has rekindled concern about religious influence in the country. Mr Say, who denies the charges, said recently he was "amazed" at having to appear before judges.
Rejecting an acquittal call, the court adjourned the case until 18 February [....]
KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on Islamabad on Thursday to join him in an “honest” fight against extremism, which he said was threatening both neighbouring nations equally.
By Darren Dahl, New York Times/Small Business, October 17/18, 2012
[....] “AdWords can bleed many a small business dry,” said Sharon Geltner, an analyst at the Small Business Development Center at Palm Beach State College in Boca Raton, Fla. [....]
By Moise Secret and William K. Rashbaum, New York Times, October 17/18, 2012
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged a 21-year-old Bangladeshi man with conspiring to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, saying he tried to remotely detonate what he believed was a 1,000-pound bomb in a van he parked outside the building in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday.
By Jeremy W. Peters, The Caucus @ nytimes.com, October 16, 2012, 9:55 pm
Mitt Romney’s campaign, in an effort to appeal to women who hold more moderate views on reproductive issues, is releasing a new commercial that highlights his support for contraception and abortion in limited circumstances.
Recently the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee took a meat-ax to Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, and its little brother ZTE in a 60-page report on national-security issues posed by the two companies.
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani, Asia Times Online via IPS, October 17, 2012
Home page lede: Predictions that the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi in Egypt would herald a new era for relations with Iran have faltered due to the objections of powerful Salafist elements and divergent positions on the Syrian crisis. Egypt is also loathe to risk ties with Gulf countries, international finance bodies and the US that could prove crucial for economic revival. -
Billionaire former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot announced his support of Mitt Romney Tuesday, saying voters are faced with "a serious choice."
"We can't afford four more years in which national debt mushrooms out of control, our government grows, and our military is weakened," Perot wrote in an op-ed in the Des Moines Register. [....]
