A smart anti-terror force for Mumbai now

Meena Menon

It takes Force One 15 minutes to get ready and respond to a strike

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

Mock drill: Force One commandos demonstrate their skills during the Passing Out Parade of the first batch of 216 in Mumbai on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: The serenity of the sylvan State Reserve Police Force grounds in Goregaon is shattered by furious gunshots. Commandos clad in midnight blue and armed with MP5 submachine guns take positions behind a mock room.

Suddenly a youth with a backpack comes out of one of these “rooms,” screaming ‘surrender.’ As the commandos close in on him, he takes out a knife, but is overpowered.

Terror threat pushes Timbuktu on to UK travel blacklist

The threat of al-Qa’eda-linked terror attacks is now too great for British tourists to visit Timbuktu, the Foreign Office has warned.

By Mike Pflanz, West Africa Correspondent

Published: 10:42PM GMT 23 Nov 2009

The new travel advisory raised the threat in and around Mali’s oft-quoted oasis town to “high” Photo: REUTERS

The new travel advisory raised the threat in and around Mali’s oft-quoted oasis town to “high” after a surge in kidnappings of Westerners by al-Qa’eda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), a growing terror cell inspired by Osama bin Laden which is widening its reach across the unpoliced Sahara desert.

War crime tribunal weighs up next move as Karadzic refuses to appear

Published Date: 01 November 2009

By Nicholas Christian

RADOVAN Karadzic will be told this week whether or not his war crimes trial will proceed without him.

The former Bosnian Serb leader looks set to continue refusing to attend proceedings of the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague tomorrow.

That will force Judge O-Gon Kwon to schedule a special session on Tuesday to make

up his mind on whether to press ahead with prosecution in the absence of the lone accused.

Reports: Hadron Collider physicist arrested on terrorism charges

October 10, 2009 11:10 AM PDT

by Chris Matyszczyk

A 32-year-old nuclear physicist, part of the Large Hadron Collider project on the Swiss-French border, has been arrested by French police on suspicion of involvement with al-Qaeda.

According to The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hadron-lab-scientist-held-on-terrorism-charges-1800647.html), the arrest was made after anti-terrorist police had followed his movements for more than a year. Le Figaro newspaper (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2009/10/09/01016-20091009ARTFIG00471-isere-l-un-des-terroristes-arrete-etait-chercheur-au-cern-.php) suggested that the man’s name had originally come to light in connection with the “Afghan network” of terrorist groups based in Europe.

(Credit: CC Ethan Hein/Flickr

Of Algerian origin, he was arrested together with his brother, who was not working on the Collider.

Pakistan blocks TV channels for covering attack on army HQ

DPA

October 10th, 2009

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani government Saturday blocked the transmissions of four private news channels as they were covering a stand-off at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi where six soldiers died and two militants were believed to be holding a number of officers hostage.

Italy: Libyan bomber ‘prayed with us’ says Muslim leader

Milan, 12 October (AKI) – The Libyan who detonated a bomb at the ‘Santa Barbara’ military barracks on Monday, Mohammed Game, prayed at Milan’s Viale Jenner Mosque, said the head of the Islamic Institute in Milan.
“He is a Libyan who hung out everywhere and who even prayed with us, just like thousands of others do, but we did not know him very well,” said the institute’s president Abdel Hamid Shaari in an interview with Adnkronos.

Angel, or FARC in disguise?

Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba evokes strong reactions from supporters and detractors alike.

By Nadja Drost

BOGOTA, Colombia — She’s been described as an angel. A brave woman who makes Herculean efforts to gain the freedom of others. A devil in disguise who promotes the causes of rebel groups. A traitor who hurls critiques of the government.

Piedad Cordoba, a Colombian opposition senator, is one of the country’s most polemic figures. Predicated by many to be this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, her nomination both inspired hope among her supporters for renewed prospects for peace and triggered venomous reactions, bringing to light the deep divisions over how to find peace here.