Hezbollah Threatens Weapon Buildup

Hezbollah's leader said Monday that the Lebanese militant group will improve its weapons capabilities to face off any Israeli threat and that armed struggle was the only way to regain Arab lands captured by the Jewish state.

Hassan Nasrallah's remarks signaled the group has no intention of meeting a United Nations resolution requiring it to give up its weapons. That position that has generated division among the country's fractious political groups as well as concern in Israel, which says it is preparing to deploy a defense system to shoot down rockets from Lebanon.

Mr. Nasrallah gave no details on the weapons plans, but Hezbollah has said it has tens of thousands of rockets. Israel's military says that since its 2006 war with the group, Hezbollah has tripled its prewar arsenal to more than 40,000 rockets, some of which can strike virtually anywhere in Israel -- a dramatic change from the short-range missiles it fired in 2006.

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Update 1: Suspect in Washington Cop Killings Was Out on Street Despite Lengthy Rap Sheet, Sentences

As the suspect in the ambush execution of four police officers remains on the run, questions are swirling as to how and why Maurice Clemmons — an ex-con who at one time faced more than 100 years behind bars — was allowed to live free.

Clemmons, 37, of Tacoma, Wash., has an extensive, violent criminal history marked by volatile and unstable behavior, according to court records and news reports. His criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington, according to the Seattle Times. He had a lengthy prison sentence commuted in 2000 by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who cited Clemmons' youth.

"Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State," Huckabee said in a statement issued Sunday. The former governor, who ran for president in 2008 and has been a leading contender in polls for the 2012 Republican nomination, currently hosts a show on Fox News Channel.

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4 Police Officers Killed In Washington Ambush

One of four police officers killed in an ambush at a coffeehouse Sunday fought with the gunman and may have wounded him before the officer died just outside the doorway, a sheriff's spokesman said. Pierce County, Wash., sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told reporters that investigators were asking area medical providers to report any people wounded by gunshots.

Troyer said investigators believe two of the officers were shot dead while sitting in the shop, and a third was killed after standing up. The fourth apparently struggled with the gunman out the doorway and "gave up a good fight," getting off a few shots before he was either shot there or succumbed to earlier wounds.

"We believe there was a struggle, a commotion, a fight ... that he fought the guy all the way out the door," Troyer said. "We hope that he hit him."

The gunman burst into the coffeehouse Sunday morning and opened fire on the officers as they sat working on their laptops, killing the three men and one woman in what Troyer described as a targeted ambush.

Troyer said officers were looking for one male suspect who fled the scene and haven't ruled out an accomplice, possibly a getaway driver. Troyer said investigators determined that a hoax call from a person in nearby Tacoma led officers to believe the gunman was on foot and still near the coffee shop. A number of officers spent part of the afternoon carefully searching buildings close by.

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Russia says bomb caused deadly train crash

A bomb caused a Russian train crash that killed dozens of people and injured 100 more, officials said on Saturday, stoking fears of an upsurge in attacks in Russia's heartland. The 14-carriage Nevsky Express, with around 700 people on board, was jolted off the rails on Friday night on the main line between Moscow and Russia's second city, St Petersburg.

Three carriages of the luxury train, which is popular with officials and business executives, lay battered beside the rails after the blast. It was the worst Russian bomb attack outside the mainly Muslim North Caucasus since a spate of suicide attacks in 2004.

"A bomb equivalent to 7 kg (15.4 lb) of TNT was detonated," the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) domestic intelligence agency, Alexander Bortnikov, told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, citing the results of a preliminary investigation.

• "Chechen Terrorism", Council on Foreign Relations, 8/5/08.
• "Russian Train Derailed by bomb", BBC News 8/14/07.
  
• "The Chechen Separatist Movement", Council on Foreign Relations, 7/18/06.

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Inside the Fusion Center

When a tip arrived about a threat of violence at a southern Nevada high school football game, a Clark County School District police officer helped plan a response. When a Colorado man was arrested on terrorism charges, a Department of Homeland Security analyst probed whether he had Las Vegas ties. Though the two cases are very different, the officials who worked them were in the same cubicle-filled room at the Southern Nevada Counterterrorism Center.

Open for more than two years, the Las Vegas "fusion" center is battling terrorism and street crime, a dual mission that has affected how local and federal law enforcement agents view each other and their jobs. The fusion center concept, which was developed by the federal government after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is grounded in the idea that information flow between police agencies is the key to stopping terrorism.

In Las Vegas and elsewhere, the concept has evolved to include a broader "all crimes, all hazards" approach. A sign that federal law enforcement has embraced this strategy came last month when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Las Vegas and praised the local fusion center as a national model.

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Air cargo still vulnerable to terrorists

The Transportation Security Administration is failing to ensure the security of boxed cargo in passenger planes, leaving the airplanes at risk for a terrorist attack, according to a government report obtained by USA TODAY. "Air cargo is vulnerable," says a report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general.

The report, out today, cites repeated problems with the TSA's program to stop terrorists from sneaking a bomb into any of the tens of thousands of cargo packages carried each day in the bellies of passenger planes.

Investigators were able to slip into supposedly secure warehouses where cargo is stored before being loaded onto airplanes and walk around unchallenged, the report says. Inspector General Richard Skinner also found some workers who handle the cargo had not received required background checks or training.

The TSA "has not been effective" in making airlines and freight-handling companies comply with security rules for cargo, Skinner said in his report.

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Update 3: Politician charged over Philippines massacre

Authorities have filed murder charges against a politician over the massacre of 57 unarmed civilians in the Philippines, state-run media reported Thursday. Andal Ampatuan Jr, who is the mayor of the town of Datu Unsayalso and the son of a Philippines provincial governor, had voluntarily turned himself in for questioning Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how many murder charges Ampatuan would face in Monday's massacre in Maguindanao province, in the southern Philippines. Five other people believed to be connected to the massacre were also being prosecuted, the state-run Philippines News Agency reported. This group includes three police officers.

Suspicion had fallen on the Ampatuan family, key allies of the Arroyo administration in the Maguindanao region of southern Mindanao province. The massacre is the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history.

The man charged in the grisly killings of at least 57 people in the Philippines claimed his innocence from his jail cell, blaming instead the leader of a militant Islamic group. Andal Ampatuan Jr., mayor of Datu Unsay and son of the provincial governor of Maguindanao, was charged with seven counts of murder.

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Hezbollah cell smashed as FBI hits arms trade

The FBI has dismantled an alleged Hezbollah cell accused of arms dealing, depositing counterfeit money in a Canadian bank and selling a Canadian passport to support the Lebanese terrorist group.

Ten people from New York, New Jersey, Lebanon and Venezuela have been indicted and face up to 30 years in prison following an investigation that began in 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice announced yesterday.

The indictments link Hezbollah to a wide array of crimes, ranging from counterfeiting U.S. currency and money laundering to fencing stolen cars, cellular phones, laptops and Sony Play Station 2 systems.

The case also implicates Iran and Syria in Hezbollah's illicit arms network. The suspects allegedly tried to ship guns to Latakia, a Syrian port they said was controlled by Hezbollah. And Hezbollah officials in Iran were allegedly involved in the weapons purchase.

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Pakistan charges Mumbai attack suspects

A Pakistani court has indicted seven Pakistani suspects on terrorism charges in connection with last year's attack on the Indian city of Mumbai, a defence lawyer said. Pakistani security agencies have also detained a former army major for possible links with two men arrested in Chicago on terrorism charges, an army spokesman said.

According to US court documents, the Chicago pair discussed a planned attack on a Danish newspaper with members of the banned Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has been blamed for the Mumbai attack a year ago in which 166 people were killed.

Pakistan is under pressure from both India, which wants it to crack down on militants operating in disputed Kashmir, and from the United States, which wants it to root out Taliban fighters to help put down an insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan. A lawyer for one of the seven men charged with taking part in the Mumbai attack said they had pleaded not guilty. They are allegedly linked to LeT.

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Update 2: Philippine Police Name Massacre Suspect as More Bodies Recovered

Philippine authorities have found more bodies in a shallow grave on the southern island of Mindanao, bringing the total number of victims in a massacre there to at least 57, including 18 journalists. Police have named a suspect, a member of a powerful political family, but there are doubts that authorities will bring those responsible to justice. And there are wider concerns about democracy in the Philippines.

Philippine police on Wednesday said their investigation focuses on Andal Ampatuan, Jr., a member of the powerful Ampatuan family, which dominates politics in Maguindanao province. He is suspected of being behind one of the worst cases of election violence in the history of the Philippines and the most journalists murdered in a single attack.

The victims were in a convoy of vehicles Monday heading to register a candidate to challenge Ampatuan in next year's election for governor. Among the dead are the wife and sisters of the challenger, Ismael Mangudadatu.

Amina Rasul is the director of the Philippines Council for Islam and Democracy. She says despite the police investigation it will be difficult for authorities to enter Ampatuan territory, let alone arrest a member of the family.

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Italy police nab 'paralyzed' Mafia boss on the run

A convicted Mafia boss who got out of jail by faking paralysis and anorexia has been arrested at a restaurant after more than two months on the run, police in Sicily said Tuesday. Officers arrested Carmelo Di Stefano on Monday as he dined at a seaside village near the Sicilian city of Catania, which he had reached at the wheel of a sports car.

Police official Giovanni Signer said when officers asked him why he was not in a wheelchair, Di Stefano answered: "It's a miracle!" Di Stefano was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder, associating with the Mafia and drug trafficking, police in Catania said in a statement.

He had been allowed to serve the sentence at his wife's home in the northern city of Bologna after being hospitalized twice for anorexia and post-traumatic paraplegia. Di Stefano, 36, escaped house arrest in September. Signer said it was now clear that the boss had faked his condition, using "his willpower" to reach the weight of 84 pounds.

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Missing-Somali Case Gives Recruitment Clues To FBI

When federal authorities unsealed terrorism-related charges Monday against eight Minnesota men, they provided the first detailed account of how some two dozen young Somali-Americans were persuaded to leave the U.S. and join an Islamist insurgency in Somalia. While the recruitment methods are textbook and familiar — such as questioning the men's Muslim faith and dedication to Somalia — the effectiveness, and breadth, of the campaign has surprised intelligence officials.

"This is a unique case in the United States," the special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis office, Ralph Boelter, told NPR. "Folks in the United States traveled to a foreign country to attend a terrorist camp, run by al-Shabaab in this case. Some actually engaged in hostilities on behalf of al-Shabaab. We haven't seen anything quite like this before."

If the allegations are true, the FBI in Minneapolis has been investigating one of the largest alleged terrorist networks in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The numbers tell the story — some two dozen young men were recruited and at least 14 allegedly helped funnel the young men to the front lines in Somalia. The FBI is also investigating disappearances of young Somalis in San Diego, Boston and Ohio.

According to the charging documents, the recruitment effort in Minneapolis began back in 2007, a short time after Ethiopian troops had invaded Somalia. A cooperating witness allegedly told the FBI that he and other men met at various locations around the Twin Cities to talk politics. The conversation invariably turned to the Ethiopian invasion. The young men wanted to know what they could do to help.

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Update: Death toll of Philippines massacre reaches at least 46

A police official says 11 more bodies have been unearthed from a mass grave in the southern Philippines, bringing the death toll from a massacre of political supporters and journalists to 46. Police Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna says 11 bodies were recovered before sundown Tuesday from a hillside grave. Eleven other victims were discovered there earlier in the day.

Police said a convoy of about 40 people was going to register Ismael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan township, Monday to run for provincial governor when they were stopped by about 100 gunmen. Soldiers and police found 24 bullet-riddled bodies Monday including those of Mangudadatu's wife Genalyn and his two sisters.

Previously, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two southern provinces under a state of emergency. The emergency measures, including checkpoints and random searches by authorities, will remain in place until the president is confident that law and order have been restored in the region

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Gunmen Kill 21 In Philippines Over Political Rivalry

Philippine troops found 21 bodies in the country's restive south

after dozens of gunmen on Monday hijacked a convoy of politicians and supporters filing their nominations for next year's elections, officials said.

The victims, 13 women and eight men, were found in southern Ampatuan township, 3 miles from where they were taken hostage as they traveled in three vans earlier Monday, regional military commander Maj. Gen. Alfredo Cayton said. The identities of the gunmen were unclear but victims' relatives blamed political rivals.

Philippine elections are particularly violent in the south because of the presence of armed groups, including Muslim rebels fighting for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, and political warlords who maintain private armies.

The decades-long Muslim insurgency has killed about 120,000 people since the 1970s. But a presidential adviser, Jesus Dureza, said Monday's massacre was "unequaled in recent history."

• "Philippines Political Violence leaves 21 dead", BBC News, 11/23/09.
  
• "Terrorism Havens: Philippines", Council on Foreign Relations, 6/1/09.
• "Abu Sayyaf Group", Council on Foreign Relations, 5/27/09.
• "The Philippines: Running in Place in Mindanao", International Crisis Group, 2/16/09.
  
• "Treading Softly in the Philippines", The Weekly Standard, 1/5/09.
• "The Philippines: Counter-insurgency vs. Counter-terrorism in Mindanao", International Crisis Group, 5/14/08.
• "Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)", New York Times Topics Website.
  

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400-Pound Car Bomb Found In Belfast

Irish Republican Army dissidents left a 400-pound (180-kilogram) car bomb outside police reform headquarters in Belfast but the homemade device failed to detonate, Northern Ireland's police commander said Sunday. The explosives-laden car caught on fire but didn't explode and caused no damage to the Policing Board building, where a cross-community panel oversees police operations.

As politicians warned of a rising threat from IRA diehards, four other suspected IRA dissidents were arrested Sunday following a gun attack on police.

Chief Constable Matt Baggott said Saturday night's attempted bombing of the Northern Ireland Policing Board office in Belfast's docklands represented an attack on the province's entire peace process. That process has created a joint Catholic-Protestant government and growing support for law and order, achievements that the dissidents hope to undermine.

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Plot to bomb Colombo revealed

Sri Lankan police have uncovered a fresh plot by the Tamil Diaspora to carry out a massive bomb attack in the city. The recent arrest of Ananda Varnan, a hardcore LTTE terrorist, in Vavuniya by a special police team has revealed the planned attack.

The police had recovered a powerful bomb which was to be used in the attack, a senior police official told The Island adding that Varnan had received Rs. 30,000 from his masters based in Malaysia to carry out the operation.

According to him, the police had swooped down on the suspect after receiving information regarding a person looking for several detonators. Under interrogation, the suspect had led investigators to a 7 kg claymore mine and a remote controller in an LTTE hideout. The police said that the suspect had planned to trigger a claymore attack in the city in the next few days.

The suspect had admitted that he had obtained the remote controller from a shop in Vavuniya.suspect had escaped from an IDP facility in the Vavuniya area after he was brought to the Vavuniya Hospital to receive medical treatment. Investigators said that Varnan had been involved in a series of bomb attacks in the city and its suburbs over a period of time.

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The Domestic Terror Threat

It is still too early to tell what exactly motivated Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan to open fire on fellow American soldiers earlier this month, but the massacre came on the heels of a series of foiled terrorist plots involving Americans. In light of revelations that Anwar al-Awlaki, an extremist American cleric based in Yemen, had e-mailed with Hasan, it is worth asking whether America faces a growing threat from domestic terrorism, and to what degree those involved in terrorism are becoming radicalized not in some far-flung locale, but right here in the United States.

In the years after 9/11, Muslims in the United States were widely assumed to be less sympathetic to Islamist radicalism than their European counterparts. This has been attributed to the high skill level of many Muslim immigrants, their relative economic success, the peaceful form of Islam being preached in nearly all American mosques, the American principles of free speech and religious pluralism, and the melting-pot culture of the United States. And, indeed, the danger from homegrown terrorism in the years after 9/11 was less acute in the U.S. than in Europe, where many more serious plots were disrupted.

But recent events suggest that things may be changing. As Mitchell D. Silber, the director of intelligence analysis for the New York City Police Department, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday, "U.S. authorities have uncovered a significant and increasing number of radicalized clusters or individuals intent on committing violent jihad either in the U.S. or abroad," and that arrests during the last 12 months and intelligence gained by the U.S. government "indicate that radicalization to violence is taking place in the United States."

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Child firebugs 'often become adult crims'

Children who like setting fires are more likely to go on to commit serious crimes as adults, a study has found. Up to 200 young people identified as having worrying fire-related behaviours - and who subsequently went through a special education programme for fire setters - were looked at for the study.

Carried out by the New Zealand Fire Service over 10 years, the study showed that 2 per cent of the group went on to commit arsons in the years after being a part of the programme in 1999. Just over half of the group - 55 per cent - went on to commit other crimes which included serious assaults, intimidation threats, disorder, drugs offences, burglary and the more serious crimes including sexual attacks.

Clinical psychologist and lead researcher Dr Ian Lambie said the study made it clear that many fire setters were at high risk of committing crimes in the future. "It might be that some young people also grow out of fire setting and replace it with another criminal behaviour - or it could be a combination of the two," Dr Lambie said. "We need to do more research to find out.

• "An Outcome Evaluation of New Zealand Fire Service Fire Awareness and Intervention Programme”, University of Auckland, October 2009.
• "Sparking up an Old Flame: A Process Evaluation of the Fire Awareness and Intervention Programme (FAIP) in New Zealand. University of Auckland, September 2008.
  

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Crime Analysis Unit Helps Catch Armed Robber

A man suspected of being the “Red Striped Bandit” was arrested following a Monday armed robbery and is thought to be involved in a series of similar crimes stretching back to 2007, according to an affidavit released Tuesday by police in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Cedrick T. Beckwith, 26, of the 800 block of Georgia Avenue, faces a robbery with firearm charge in connection with the Monday evening incident at the Ramallah Food Market in the 3000 block of Orange Avenue.

The department’s crime analysis unit helped identify an apparent pattern of robberies and attempted robberies beginning in October 2007, Sgt. Dennis McWilliams said. The incidents occurred at either the same store or same type of store and at around the same time of evening in the fall or winter months. The suspect description also was generally consistent.

He wore a black jacket with red stripes, and police dubbed him the “Red Striped Bandit.” The pattern included four robberies and two attempted robberies.

About 7:30 p.m. Monday, a worker at the Ramallah market told police a man wearing a navy blue hooded sweater pointed a .38 caliber revolver at him and demanded money. The gunman hopped over the counter and took all the cash in the register, police said.

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FBI Suspects Terrorists Are Exploring Cyber Attacks

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking at people with suspected links to al Qaeda who have shown an interest in mounting an attack on computer systems that control critical U.S. infrastructure, a senior official told Congress Tuesday.

While there is no evidence that terrorist groups have developed sophisticated cyber-attack capabilities, a lack of security protections in U.S. computer software increases the likelihood that terrorists could execute attacks in the future, the official warned.

If terrorists were to amass such capabilities, they would be wielded with "destructive and deadly intent," Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division, told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

"The FBI is aware of and investigating individuals who are affiliated with or sympathetic to al Qaeda who have recognized and discussed the vulnerabilities of the U.S. infrastructure to cyber-attack," Mr. Chabinsky told the committee, without providing details. Such infrastructure could include power grids and transportation systems.

The control systems of U.S. infrastructure as well as money transfers are now connected directly or indirectly to the Internet. Hackers have been able to penetrate computer systems running components of the U.S. electric grid as well as divert bank transfers.

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Somali Pirates Attack Maersk Alabama Again

As piracy intensifies in the Indian Ocean, seaborne raiders tried again on Wednesday to commandeer the Maersk Alabama, the first American-flag ship seized by pirates last April. The United States Navy Central Command said four suspected pirates in a skiff came within 300 yards of the Maersk Alabama at 6.30 a.m. Wednesday about 600 miles off the northeast coast of Somalia as it headed for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

But a security team on board the Maersk Alabama responded with small-arms fire, long-range acoustical devices painful to the human ear and evasive maneuvers to thwart the attack. “Due to Maersk Alabama following maritime industry’s best practices such as embarking security teams, the ship was able to prevent being successfully attacked by pirates,” said Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, the commander of the Central Command. “This is a great example of how merchant mariners can take pro-active action to prevent being attacked.”

In a separate incident, the captain of a hijacked chemical tanker was reported to have died of gunshot wounds inflicted when pirates seized the MV Theresa with 28 North Korean crew members northwest of the Seychelles on Monday. The spate of attacks reflected the increasing boldness of pirates roaming far from their bases in Somalia to seize vessels and sailors to hold for ransom.

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Australia issues 'catastrophic' fire warning

Authorities are asking residents in some some parts of south Australia to evacuate their homes as an impending heat wave prompted the nation to issue its first "catastrophic" brush fire warning. The warning system was put in place to better alert residents after a devastating brush fire ravaged the southeastern state of Victoria in February, killing more than 170 people and destroying 2,000 homes. During that fire, many residents stayed to defend their property.

Though authorities still cannot mandate that people leave, the new warning system urges people to flee. The Code Red "Catastrophic" warning was issued for the Eastern Eyre Peninsula and West Coast districts in the state of South Australia. Such a rating means that even well-constructed and defended homes might not be safe from the blaze, the South Australian Fire Service said. In addition, three other districts -- Flinders, North West Pastoral and Lower Eyre Peninsula -- were placed under an "Extreme" watch. Such a rating means that even well-constructed and defended homes might not be safe from the blaze, the South Australian Fire Service said.

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SA woman survives carjack fall

South Africa police say a woman is lucky to be alive after she was pushed off a 60m bridge by car hijackers. Her near-death experience in the coastal city of Durban has left her with several fractured ribs, pelvis and lower spine injuries, police said. The 26-year-old woman was rescued by a passer-by who spotted her on the sand bank below the bridge.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world with fears of an increase before the festive season. In the last year there has been a 5% increase in car hijackings. The latest statistics show 14,915 incidents between April 2008 and March 2009. Durban is one of the cities to host the 2010 football World Cup, but officials insist that security will not be a problem.

Kavisha Seevnarain is recovering at a Durban hospital after three men threw her off a bridge before making off with her car. She told her parents that she was followed by a car on Friday evening between 2100 and 2200 local time.

When she stopped at an intersection, a man jumped out of the car, smashed her driver's door window and pulled her out. She was forced into their car at gunpoint and the robbers took her to various ATMs to make withdrawals from her bank cards, police said.

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Too close to home!

A Peterborough, Ontario, woman and her daughter will appear in court Wednesday morning accused of plotting to murder the man of their household – the woman's husband, and the daughter's father.The alleged plot came close to being carried out but was thwarted after an undercover police officer posed as a killer for hire, said Detective Staff Sergeant John Lyons of Peterborough police.

“It's not a common occurrence,” he said, declining to describe the alleged motive. The mum was certainly in the position of being [allegedly] willing to meet with a potential ... hit man and there's obviously enough evidence to support the charges. There was certainly the wherewithal to go through with it.”

Charged with conspiracy to commit murder and counselling to commit murder are Ashleigh Tinor, 47, and her daughter, Crystal Tinor, 23. They are accused of conspiring to kill Mario Tinor, 48, employed locally and a onetime Scouts Canada volunteer, who knew nothing of the alleged plot until police told him.

“It was a little sobering to say the least,” said Det. Staff Sgt. Lyons, who heads the force's Criminal Investigations Unit. “A bit jolting.”

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Terrorists smuggle fatwas out of secure prisons

SOME of Britain’s most dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders are promoting jihad from inside high-security prisons by smuggling out propaganda for the internet and finding recruits. In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a think tank funded by the Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping AlQaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”.

• Abu Qatada, described by MI5 as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has published fatwas — religious rulings — on the internet from Long Lartin prison, in Worcestershire, calling for holy war and the murder of moderate Muslims, it reveals.
• Abu Doha — said to be Al-Qaeda’s main recruiter in Europe — has taken courses in Belmarsh prison, south London, enabling him to mentor other inmates.
• Abu Hamza, jailed in 2006 for inciting murder, has preached radical sermons to followers using water pipes in his Belmarsh cell, and Rachid Ramda, the Algerian leader of the Paris Métro bomb plot, led Friday prayers in the same jail.

Like other jailed terrorist leaders, Qatada is meant to be cut off from his supporters outside. Yet it is said that last year, under the noses of warders, Qatada and Adel Abdel Bary, leader of the UK branch of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, were able to smuggle out a series of fatwas legitimising attacks by AlQaeda and endorsing the murder of moderate Muslims.

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Somali pirate suspects indicted in Spain

A Spanish judge indicted two Somali pirate suspects in Madrid, while pirates held a Spanish fishing boat and its crew off the Somali coast for the 46th day. The judge indicted the two on 36 counts of kidnapping -- one for each of the 36 crew members being held, and armed robbery. He ordered the two to appear at a hearing Tuesday, according to a court order.

Pirates seized the Spanish fishing boat, the Alakrana, last month. A day later, Spanish military monitoring the situation captured two pirate suspects as they left the fishing boat, and later brought them to Madrid. The ship's owner, Echebastar Fleet, and relatives of the crew members have pleaded with the court and the Spanish government to return the two suspects to Somalia, as pirate representatives have demanded in conversations with Spanish media.

In a document Saturday, the state prosecutor asked Judge Santiago Pedraz to quickly issue the indictment and conclude the judicial investigation to move the case toward a possible trial. The trial could be held within a few weeks, a spokesman for the state prosecutor's office told CNN. The two suspects, identified as Cabdullahi Cabduwily and Rageggesey Hassan Aji, could face sentences of more than 200 years in prison each.

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Suspect arrested in hunt for 'night stalker' rapist

Detectives hunting one of the most prolific sex offenders in British criminal history say they have made a "significant" arrest almost two decades after the serial rapist first struck.

A 52-year-old married man was arrested at his home in London in the early hours of Sunday morning and was being held at an undisclosed police station by Scotland Yard.

He will be questioned about attacks on more than 108 elderly people, aged between 68 and 88, which were carried out in south-east London and date back to the early 1990s.

The investigation into the series of attacks, which involved rapes and sexual assaults, is the largest operation in the Metropolitan police's recent past. It has involved thousands of police hours, specialist ancestral DNA analysis, and DNA tests on more than 2,000 individuals.

The attacker first struck in 1992 when an 84-year-old woman was raped after a break-in at the flat where she lived alone in the Shirley area of Croydon. A DNA sample was recovered, but no match existed on the then relatively small database. His DNA was recovered again five years later.

Detectives have said the attacker is positively linked through semen traces and crime pattern analysis to at least four rapes and his stalking ground is mainly in south-east London. Police working on Operation Minstead have used criminal profilers, taken voluntary DNA from up to 900 people and offered a reward of £40,000 for help in finding the Night Stalker.

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9/11 suspects face New York trial

The alleged 9/11 mastermind will be transferred from Guantanamo to New York for a trial in which the death penalty will be sought, the US has confirmed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others would be tried in a civilian court near Ground Zero, the attorney general Eric Holder said. Five other Guantanamo detainees would face military trials, The move is part of US President Barack Obama's efforts to close Guantanamo, but some relatives of 9/11 victims say they oppose a federal court trial.

"Today I am announcing that the Department of Justice will pursue prosecution in federal court of the five individuals accused of conspiring to commit the 9/11 attacks," Mr Holder told a news conference. “I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice, I fully expect to direct prosecutors to seek the death penalty against each of the alleged 9/11 conspirators."

Four men - the two Yemenis, a Saudi and a Pakistani-born Kuwaiti - will face trial alongside Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of helping finance and plan the attacks of 11 September 2001 in which nearly 3,000 people were killed. Responsibility for the case will go to the Southern District of New York, with proceedings taking place at a court not far from where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center fell.

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