Police in Windsor, Ont., say they have arrested a suspected war criminal. Dejan Demirovic is suspected of participating in the killing of 19 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. He has been on trial in absentia in Serbia for slayings in northern Kosovo in March 1999. Windsor police say Citizenship and Immigration Canada issued Tuesday’s arrest warrant.…

Some of Greece’s richest men are believed to have paid large sums to be kept off the hit-list of the terrorist group November 17. They are said to include the family of Gianna Angelopoulos, organiser of the 2004 Athens Olympics, and Yiannis Latsis, the shipowner friend of Prince Charles. The blackmail came to light when…

The German government refuses to turn over statements by a key al-Qaida suspect in the Sept. 11 plot as evidence in the Hamburg trial of a man accused of aiding the suicide pilots, citing a secrecy agreement with the CIA, according to letters presented in court Wednesday. Defense lawyers sought the evidence in the first…

Chechen rebels kept up their daily attacks on Russian outposts and military convoys in this separatist republic, killing four servicemen and wounding 11 in the past 24 hours, an official said Tuesday. Meanwhile, the envoy who reports on Chechnya (news – web sites) to Europe’s oldest human rights body began meetings in Russia to evaluate…

A Pakistani judge has ruled that the trial of a doctor alleged to have harboured al-Qaeda suspects must go ahead – despite a government plea for a postponement. Dr Ahmed Javed Khawaja and his brother, Ahmed Naveed Khawaja, are accused of sheltering wanted al-Qaeda men in a residential compound near Lahore. The prosecution had applied…

Pakistani security forces found rockets and land mines in an abandoned compound while they were looking for suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives in two villages in a remote tribal region that borders Afghanistan, villagers said Tuesday. No one was apparently detained in the operation that occurred before dawn Monday in Qarabagh and Pashkheena villages of…

Police accused Islamic separatists in Indian Kashmir Tuesday of giving Muslim women an ultimatum to quit the police force, but the rebels denied the charge. Police said threatening posters had been put up by the pro-Pakistan Harkat-e-Jehad-e-Islami, one of several groups fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan region. The posters did not say what would…

Indonesian police have recommended that prosecutors charge Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, the suspected spiritual leader of a regional militant group, with treason and a series of bomb attacks. Police said Mr Ba’asyir plotted to assassinate Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri while she was deputy leader, and masterminded a spate of bomb attacks on churches across the archipelago…

One of Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorism suspects, an Indonesian cleric known as Hambali, helped initiate and finance the devastating Oct. 12 Bali bombing, the chief investigator said Monday. Police Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, who heads the Bali probe, said Hambali helped fund the attack on two nightclubs on the island by passing $35,500…

A militant Indonesian Muslim who has confessed to involvement in October’s bombings on Bali island said there was a “strong possibility” money from Osama bin Laden was used for the attacks, Time Magazine reported. Indonesian police have previously insisted — and reiterated again Tuesday — that they had not found any evidence linking bin Laden…

A visiting U.S. pastor, attacked by suspected Hindu activists in southern India last week, has been told to leave the country for preaching while on a tourist visa, police said Tuesday. Protestant missionary Joseph Cooper, 67, and an Indian colleague were attacked with swords and iron bars by a suspected gang of Hindu hard-liners as…

A U.S.-based dissident was put on trial in southern China Wednesday for “organizing and leading a terrorist group” and espionage, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Wang Bingzhang was suspected of committing crimes related to state secrets, the news agency said. The court did not deliver an immediate verdict after the trial which was closed…

The U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan was attacked by rocket and small arms fire early Wednesday and one attacker was thought to have been wounded in a return of fire, the U.S. military said. A statement from Bagram air base north of Kabul said a 107 mm rocket landed near the southwest perimeter of the…

Amnesty International has backed off its highly publicized demands that United States and Guatemalan authorities investigate allegations that Guatemalan death squads had threatened and attacked one of its researchers in her hometown of Forks, Wash. The reversal comes after the rights group received a report from a private detective it hired to conduct a four-month…

A leading Zimbabwean opposition MP has sought sanctuary in London after three of his colleagues were tortured by police in Harare last week. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said Tafadzwa Musekiwa, MP for the impoverished Harare district of Zengeza, would not be returning home until the volatile political atmosphere in Zimbabwe had calmed down.…

Attackers have thrown petrol bombs at a ruling party office in a suburb of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. One person died and seven people were hurt, several seriously, say police. Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said about 50 young men drove into Harare’s western Kuwadzana township on Monday night, smashing property and assaulting pedestrians before throwing…

South African police were yesterday hunting the killers of eight men in a gay massage parlour in Cape Town. The men were shot through the back of the head in a house in Sea Point, a suburb of Cape Town known for its nightlife and illicit drug trade. Most also had their throats cut, and…

A Kenyan businessman who was working with police to arrest a Rwandan national suspected of genocide, has been found dead. William Mwaura Munuhe, 27, was discovered when police forced open the door of his Nairobi flat after he failed to answer his phone. He had been shot dead. Mr Munuhe was killed last week, 24…

Liberia claimed Monday it repelled a cross-border, rocket-supported attack by hundreds of Liberian fighters from Ivory Coast, heightening worries that the Ivory Coast’s 4-month-old civil war was expanding. Ivory Coast’s military said it had no knowledge of Sunday’s alleged cross-border raid, which Liberia said killed two Liberian security force members. News of the alleged attack…

Landmark talks between a broad range of Palestinian factions were expected to go ahead in Egypt Thursday, a day later than planned, after a last minute dispute over who would attend. The talks, which will discuss an Egyptian proposal for stopping attacks inside Israel, looked threatened when two key Islamic militant groups, Hamas and Islamic…

The Bush administration’s 2004 IT budget request will put the majority of funding increases into homeland defense and cybersecurity, a senior administration official said. Mark Forman today said homeland security, the war on terrorism and other modernization increases, and cybersecurity would account for more than $9.6 billion in the 2004 request. In all, the administration’s…

Sen. John Edwards has introduced a bill that would require agencies to identify vulnerabilities in their systems and set up timetables for eliminating them. The North Carolina Democrat’s National Cyber Security Leadership Act of 2003 would also mandate the use of IT security standards and guidelines established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.…

The National Communications System (NCS) is in the midst of moving to the new Homeland Security Department, but that hasn’t stopped the agency from continuing programs focused on the government’s communications needs for national security and emergency preparedness. Brenton Greene, NCS’ deputy manager, said the continued rollout of the Wireless Priority Service (WPS), which makes…

The U.S. Pacific Command later this year will open the doors to its new Nimitz-MacArthur Pacific Command Center, housed in one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the Navy. The $85 million project, called Headquarters 21, at Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, is scheduled for completion in the summer and will offer the Pacific Command…

Courts split on whether such bans should be allowed in the first place. Kevin Mitnick, one of the world’s most notorious hackers, is allowed to use the internet again from today. Mitnick served five years in jail for breaking into computer networks. Although he was released in January 2000, he was banned from using a…

If a person goes to prison for using a computer and the Internet to commit a crime, can he be barred from using the Internet after the sentence is served? Courts are increasingly facing the question as the Internet age gives rise to an explosion of cybercrime. But appellate courts in different parts of the…

Remember the neutron bomb, the radiation-rich atomic weapon of the 1980s designed to kill people while leaving buildings intact? Well now we have a weapon suited for 21st century war – designed to fry electronics while leaving people, mostly, unharmed. Allegedly. High-Power microwave bombs are “man-made lightning bolts crammed into cruise missiles”, Time (somewhat breathlessly…

Every war has its wonder weapon. In Afghanistan, it was the Predator, the unmanned drone that would loiter, invisibly, over the battlefield before unleashing a Hellfire missile on an unsuspecting target. The Gulf War marked the debut of precision-guided munitions, and in Vietnam helicopters came of age. World War II gave us the horror of…

INTERNET Information Server (IIS) don’t get no respect. Microsoft’s Web server software suffered a heavy blow to its reputation when the Code Red and Nimda worms exploited weaknesses in millions of IIS installations in the summer of 2001. Wags said the IIS acronym really stood for “It Isn’t Secure.” Research group Gartner published a widely…

While various agencies are working to protect against “dirty” bombs, biological or chemical assaults and cyber attacks — some of the national security dangers brought into focus since Sept. 11, 2001 — the federal government has recently issued a guide to tell individual citizens how to prepare for disaster. The safety guide by the Federal…

Greg Mortenson is waging a personal war against terrorism halfway around the world from a basement in Montana. But he doesn’t use guns or bombs; his tools are pencils. It’s 4 a.m. and Mr. Mortenson is sitting in his dimly lit office, surrounded by books on Asian history, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda. Soon a…

A second Saudi Arabian businessman with apparent ties to an organization alleged to have funded terrorism is listed in corporate filings as a director of a key early investor in Ptech, the Quincy software company searched by federal investigators last month. Ptech came under scrutiny chiefly because of the role of an early financial backer,…

Two airlines and several airport security firms have asked a federal court to dismiss claims stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying they were not liable for damage or casualties on the ground in New York or at the Pentagon. In the request filed Friday in Manhattan, the companies claim they had no legal…

NFL officials said today that they have had discussions with representatives of the Bush administration about security at the Super Bowl here on Sunday, but have had no conversations with the federal government about developing a contingency plan for whether the game would be played as scheduled if the United States has launched an attack…

Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a doom-laden warning Tuesday — terror groups like al Qaeda will attempt an attack on Britain. “I believe it is inevitable that they will try in some form or other,” Blair told senior parliamentarians in a lengthy evidence session that focused on terror and on possible military action against Iraq.…

The criminal case against accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui is nearing a crossroad, with decisions in the upcoming weeks that could determine whether he will remain in the federal court system or be turned over to the U.S. military as an enemy combatant. The government’s case has been complicated by Moussaoui’s interest in calling…

A militant Indonesian Muslim who has confessed to involvement in October’s bombings on Bali island said there was a “strong possibility” money from Osama bin Laden was used for the attacks, Time Magazine reported. Indonesian police have previously insisted — and reiterated again Tuesday — that they had not found any evidence linking bin Laden…

An early morning anti-terrorism raid on a notorious Finsbury Park mosque here Monday showed how the rules of the game have changed in Britain’s struggle with Islamic extremism. Illuminated by two police helicopters, about 150 officers in riot gear stormed the mosque at 2 a.m. using battering rams and ladders. They arrested seven suspects in…

A special meeting of the United Nations Security Council has adopted a declaration calling on member states to intensify their efforts against international terrorism. The 14-point document – adopted unanimously – demands “urgent action to prevent and suppress all active and passive support to terrorism”. Thirteen foreign ministers took part in the special meeting, held…

A stun gun, blank-firing replica firearm and CS gas canister were among the items seized in a raid on a London mosque, police have said. Seven people were held by anti-terrorist officers after the night operation at the mosque in Finsbury Park, north London. Scotland Yard said the “intelligence-led” raid was linked to the discovery…

Abu Hamza, the controversial Muslim cleric threatened with expulsion from the north London mosque where he preaches, last night responded to charges that his extremist views were inciting religious hatred and Islamist terrorism. Criticised by the Charity Commission for “inflammatory and highly political” speeches during prayers, Mr Hamza protested that if the Archbishop of Canterbury…

State officials acknowledge missing two deadlines to submit proposals to use $418 million in available funding to increase the New York City area’s preparedness for a terrorist attack. The Federal Emergency Management Agency pledged $8.8 billion to help the city rebuild after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. A minimum of $418 million was set…

Three networks of suspected Islamic terrorists were being hunted by police and intelligence services last night amid fears that they are planning a strike on Britain with biological weapons. Convinced that an attack in Britain is inevitable, senior security sources revealed to The Observer that the groups are being sought following raids in London and…

Federal prosecutors released two videos Friday showing the destruction that could have been caused aboard a trans-Atlantic flight if Richard Reid had succeeded in igniting explosives in his shoe. Reid, 29, a British citizen, pleaded guilty in October to attempting to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001.…

To his neighbors up and down the street, the 23-year-old Algerian who rented a second-floor apartment at No. 4 Crumpsall Lane, posing as a student, was just another anonymous tenant of the hotels and short-stay rentals that dot the area. The authorities knew a little more about him. He had first come to their attention…

Police today stormed a London mosque widely depicted as a recruiting ground for violence-prone radical Islam and arrested seven people on charges related to the discovery of traces of the deadly poison ricin in a London house earlier this month. Acting a day after the government promised a toughening of its anti-terror policy in light…

Spying is a pursuit as old as civilization and a craft long practiced by the most skilled and treacherous of strategists. In the wake of 9/11 and amid looming showdowns with Iraq and North Korea, intelligence gathering is at the center of a debate over the rights of the individual and the needs of national…

Foreign ministers in the U.N. Security Council Monday unanimously approved a resolution calling on all nations to move urgently against terrorism while in adjacent hallways, talk about Iraq underscored the British-U.S. rush vs. the “give-the-inspectors-more-time” stance of nearly all others. The ministerial-level meeting of the 15-member panel — only two foreign ministers failed to show…

Secretary of State Colin Powell indicated Monday that Pakistan will remain on the list of the countries whose citizens are considered a security threat in the United States. Pakistan was placed on the list on Dec. 18, 2002. Longtime Pakistani visitors and non-permanent residents in the United States are required to register with the Immigration…

Indian authorities have ordered an American missionary to leave the country a week after suspected Hindu zealots attacked him for preaching religion. Evangelist Joseph W. Cooper of the New Jerusalem church in Pennsylvania is charged with violating a visa rule that prohibits visitors from preaching at religious meetings. Cooper, who is recuperating from stab wounds…

An American was shot dead and another wounded Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy confirmed. Both men were civilian contractors for the U.S. military. The director of security for Kuwait City, Brig. Mahmud al-Dusayri, told the Kuwait News Agency the wounded American was being treated at Al-Razi Hospital. The Americans were attacked by a person armed with…

A major U.S. human rights group called Friday for the immediate arrest and prosecution of Iraqi Gen. Hassan al-Majid, the alleged architect of the notorious 1988 ‘Anfal’ campaign against Iraqi Kurds, who is currently on a diplomatic tour of neighboring Arab states. Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has collected some 18 tons of documents relating…

Two Islamic militant Palestinian groups which have claimed scores of suicide bombings in Israel, said Tuesday they will not attend a meeting in Cairo to discuss ending attacks on Israeli civilians, a move which threatens to torpedo Egyptian cease-fire efforts. Egyptian officials have said they were hopeful Palestinian factions invited for talks here this week…

Fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrilla group have shelled Israeli positions across the border. Lebanese security officials said two civilians were wounded when Israel responded with artillery fire and air strikes. The clash, in the disputed Shebaa Farms area, is the first such incident in several months. The Israeli army said it had suffered no casualties…

With U.S. forces closing in on him during the battle of Tora Bora in late 2001, Osama bin Laden employed a simple feint against sophisticated U.S. spy technology to vanish into the mountains that led to Pakistan and sanctuary, according to senior Moroccan officials. A Moroccan who was one of bin Laden’s longtime bodyguards took…

A militant Indonesian Muslim who has confessed to involvement in October’s bombings on Bali island said there was a “strong possibility” money from Osama bin Laden was used for the attacks, Time Magazine reported. Indonesian police have previously insisted — and reiterated again Tuesday — that they had not found any evidence linking bin Laden…

A new statement attributed to the al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been released, urging Muslims to join together in fighting their “external enemy”. Extracts from the document, published in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, call on Muslims around the world to stop internal squabbles and unite against the “crusader coalition”. “When will they [Muslims]…

US and Pakistani intelligence agents hunting al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan are focusing on several doctors they believe treated Osama bin Laden’s fighters. Their change of direction has angered colleagues who argue that treating injured or sick al-Qaida members is not a crime. Last month FBI agents working with Pakistani intelligence officers and police raided a…

The appeal court of Casablanca decided on Friday to resume on Jan.24 the trial of a group of persons accused of belonging to a dormant cell of Al-Qaeda group. During Friday’s hearing, the defense attorneys complained about flaws in the arrest procedure, the preliminary investigation, the minutes writing and the preventive detention period. They also…

Security authorities have received more evidence that points out who were the perpetrators of a series of blasts that have occurred in Riyadh and Alkhobar over the last two years, Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmed announced yesterday. “Things have now become clearer as there is more evidence pointing to those who were behind the blasts,”…