British Foreign Office warns UK citizens about threat of terrorism in Azerbaijan

February 8, 2011 – 15:15 AMT 11:15 GMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – British Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues to remind UK citizens on the undesirability of visits to certain regions of the world; however, the travel advice is updated rarely, with the last upgrade dating back several years.

As the press office of the British embassy in Yerevan told PanARMENIAN.Net new announcement posted on Baku’s British embassy’s website warns about threats of terrorism in Azerbaijan. “Attacks on civilians are possible at cites visited by foreigners,” the message stresses.

Egypt: Why it is too early to be optimistic

Friday, February 4, 2011 – A Word on the National Interest by Benjamin Ra

PARIS — February 3, 2011 – Shock waves are being felt throughout the Middle East as the troubles which began in Egypt and Tunisia have spread as far as Jordan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.

Are we witnessing the democratic revival of the region? The New York Times believes so. David Brooks believes it to be “a great time to be alive… the world will be far safer when more of the world is normal, meaning mostly open and democratic.”

Anti-government protestors react in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Feb. 4, 2011. (Photo: Associated Press)

Such outright optimism from a sophisticated observer shows the extent to which the current conflagration in the Middle East has taken a hold on the imagination of Americans.

Al Qaeda kidnaps Italian tourist in Algeria

Image via Wikipedia

5 February 2011

ALGIERS – An Italian woman on a tourist trip to the Sahara desert in Algeria has been kidnapped by al Qaeda insurgents, Algeria’s official news agency and a government security source said on Friday.

Insurgents operating as al Qaeda’s north African wing have been active in the Sahara desert and have kidnapped several foreigners, but until now most of their activities have been in areas of the desert south of Algeria’s borders.

“It seems that this is a group which was freed from prison a few months ago and which then joined al Qaeda and has now kidnapped this Italian woman,” the Algerian security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

LTTE exporting terrorism for profit

Why Bruce Fein has come forward to deproscribe LTTE in the US? – Hemantha Warnakulasuriya:

A letter written by Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, a President’s Counsel has posed pertinent questions to Bruce Fein, the US Attorney said to be representing the Tamils For Justice. Given below is the final part of the letter sent by Hemantha Warnakulasuriya to Bruce

F ein, I would like to remind you, in case this information has not been given to you by your friends of TFJ, that in the last Presidential election there were two candidates: one was Mahinda Rajapaksa, presented by the LTTE as racist and supported by the racist parties and the other was Ranil Wickremesinghe, the darling of Tamils, who had with the help of Norway brought about the Peace Accord, which allowed Prabhakaran to replenish his depleted war tools, arms and ammunition. Ranil Wickremesinge thought that with the help of Prabhakaran, he would win the elections.

Hemantha Warnakulasuriya PC

He in fact proposed a federal state with full powers to the Tigers. In fact, he thought that by these remarks he would win the Presidential election with ease, as the voters in the South were equally divided and an overwhelming majority in the Northeast would vote for Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Britain’s foreign policy needs to be made clear on Egypt

William Hague has not actually said that “Her Majesty’s Government really doesn’t know what to make of all this”. But he might as well have.

By Telegraph View 7:18PM GMT 04 Feb 2011

The sudden unravelling of the Egyptian political establishment has produced feelings of exhilaration and anxiety in the West. It has also exposed what looks dangerously like a hole in the middle of British foreign policy. William Hague has not actually emerged from his office to announce that “Her Majesty’s Government really doesn’t know what to make of all this”. But he might as well have. And that is worrying, at a time when Iran is hailing the vast demonstrations in Egypt as an “Islamic uprising”.

David Cameron talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso prior to a working session of the EU summit

This may be wishful thinking from Tehran; then again, the crisis may indeed be the prelude to the transformation of the Arab world‘s most populous country into an Islamist regime. There are many possible outcomes to this drama. We can rank their likelihood, but when crowds of huge size and uncertain allegiance are milling through Cairo, it is a brave man who predicts who will be running the place next week, let alone next month.

Impending Trial Puts a Melting-Pot Neighborhood to the Test

Image via Wikipedia

February 3, 2011

By KARI LYDERSEN

Devon Avenue is one of Chicago’s richest melting pots, where Indian stores sell colorful saris next to Pakistani halal butcher shops and Islamic bookstores. Farther west are Orthodox synagogues, Jewish bakeries and Russian gift shops. So residents were shocked when two local men were arrested in 2009 on accusations that they had helped plot the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, and a never-realized assault on a Danish newspaper that had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Federal prosecutors allege that Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 49, a Pakistani immigrant who owns an immigration-law office and a butcher shop on Devon Avenue, knew about the Mumbai attacks in advance and helped David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American, scout locations. In March, Mr. Headley, 50, pleaded guilty to charges that could carry a life sentence. Mr. Rana’s trial, which was scheduled to begin Feb. 14, was recently delayed until May 16.

Mubarak v. The Brotherhood

February 3, 2011

Andrew McCarthy

It is simply delirious to suggest that we can work with the Muslim Brotherhood, that the Brotherhood has renounced violence, or that a Brotherhood-led government will ultimately be better for the United States or, for that matter, for Egyptians.

We have two principal interests in the region: peace and anti-terrorism. Say what you will about Mubarak, who has committed abominable abuses and stunted the growth of civil society — albeit in the face of a non-stop terrorist threat that is more immediate and existential than anything we face in the U.S. Mubarak has also kept the peace with Israel, and he has been a real ally against terrorists (as opposed to “allies” who profess allegiance with us but do more to abet than defeat jihadism).