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The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — SNIPPET: "Khaled Nawaya, a flight instructor, was arrested by Canada Border Services agents when they found $800,000 in gold coins and other currency in his car and pockets on Oct. 6, as he crossed into Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver." SNIPPET: "He'd been living in the U.S. since he was 17 and had gained approval for permanent residency in Canada. Besides the gold, Canadian agents found a ring bearing the insignia of Hezbollah, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002. They also seized 9/11 conspiracy theory-themed DVDs and a...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has demanded an urgent and immediate visit to suspected nuclear sites in Syria, Channel 10 cited foreign media reports on Monday night. According to the report, IAEA inspectors discovered enriched uranium in three sites besides Dir Azur, where IAF jets destroyed an alleged reactor in September 2007.

"The liquid bomb plot 'terror banker' still walking free in London as Yard chief accuses U.S. of rushing investigation" By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Last updated at 2:26 PM on 08th September 2009 SNIPPET: "And it also emerged today that a suspected key figure in the plot is still at large in Britain despite being pinpointed as an Al Qaeda financier with links both to the airline plan and the 21/7 bombers." SNIPPET: "Intelligence sources in the UK have indicated it was surveillance of Mohammed Al Ghabra, 29, who first led them to the airline plotters. He is suspected of being...

Ancient faith of their Middle East fathers Guardian Weekly reader Catherine Ann Lombard writes on a visit to Mor Ephrem, the Syrian Orthodox Monastery at the far eastern border of the Netherlands and meets 45 boys who are learning to read and chant in kthobonoyo, the litur gical language that only about 300 people in the world speak today Tuesday September 1st 2009 The morning is hot and sticky, but I have promised Dayrayto Shmuni to help in the monastery kitchen and put on my long-sleeved T-shirt. How the nun manages during the summer months in her long black habit...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

Imad Mustafa, the Syrian envoy to the US, said Monday that the Obama administration had lifted the ban imposed on exporting goods to the Syrian Aviation Industry, the Kuwait News Agency reported. Speaking on Syrian national television, Mustafa revealed that the US had also lifted the ban on exporting IT products, whether they were hardware or software, adding that US President Barack Obama was considering lifting more such restrictions.

The Italian police have arrested two men suspected of planning an attack on the Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris. They are also suspected of planning other attacks in France and Great Britain. The two are thought to play a leading role in the al-Qaeda network.

In a dramatic development, four generals jailed since 2005 for alleged involvement in the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri were on Wednesday released from the nation's Roumieh Prison. The release has emboldened Hezbollah, which has consistently supported the generals, and perhaps angered Rafik's son Saad al-Hariri and his supporters, who lobbied strongly for the generals' arrest in 2005. The release, which comes 40 days ahead of parliamentary elections, is a strong campaign boost for Hezbollah. It has consistently claimed innocence in al-Hariri's murder, and that the officials were arrested for political reasons - their links to then-president...

SNIPPET: "In recent days Egypt has been disclosing details about uncovering a major Hezbollah espionage ring on its soil. AP cites a cabinet minister saying 25 of its 49 members have been arrested so far. The arrests began back in November, but the disclosures have started only now. The leader of the espionage ring—who is among those detained—was a Hezbollah agent named Sami Shehab, and the group he recruited included Lebanese, Syrians, Sudanese, and Palestinians along with 12 Egyptian Shiites. Not surprisingly, they planned attacks on Israeli vacationers in the Sinai, apparently as revenge for the February 2008 killing of...

Monzer al-Kassar, 63, a longtime resident of Spain known as the "Prince of Marbella" for his lifestyle in the glitzy seaside town, was sentenced after being convicted in November of agreeing to sell millions of dollars of weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan is veiled as he walks in procession at his installation Mass at Our Lady of the Annunciation Syrian Catholic Church in Beirut, Lebanon, Feb. 15. He is immediately followed by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington. (CNS) BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Amid cheers and ululation, the former head of the Syrian Catholic diocese in the U.S. and Canada was installed as patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church. Saying that he will "serve, not for personal interests, but to win Christ," Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan was installed Feb. 15 at a...

We need your help in locating these four fugitives. Click on their names or photographs to see their wanted posters. It has been 10 years since a group known as “The Family” torched a ski resort in Vail, Colorado, causing $26 million in damage and drawing international attention to eco-terrorists—those who break the law in the name of the environment and animal rights. Since that time, we’ve joined our federal, local, and state law enforcement partners in establishing Operation Backfire to bring these criminals to justice. Our efforts have been successful, but four individuals under indictment remain at large. At...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has formally accepted the election of a new head of the Syrian Catholic Church. Bishop Joseph Younan, 64, who was appointed to head the Newark-based Syrian-rite diocese in the United States and Canada in 1995, was elected as the new patriarch of Antioch in a synod held in Rome Jan. 18-20. He took the name Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan. As is customary for the patriarchs of the Eastern churches in union with Rome, the newly elected head of the church requested communion with the pope, who granted it with a congratulatory letter,...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "A Federal Court judge ruled Friday that the final terrorism suspect being held in Canada on a national security certificate be released. Justice Richard Mosley ruled Hassan Almrei, who has been in custody since October 2001, can no longer justifiably be detained." SNIPPET: "Almrei, a Syrian, came to Canada in 1999 as a refugee claimant. He was arrested in Toronto in 2001 after the Canadian Security Intelligence Service alleged he was part of a Sunni extremist network. He initially denied the allegations against him, but later explained he had taken part in paramilitary activities in Afghanistan...

(IsraelNN.com) United Nations investigators have found traces of uranium contamination at the site of an Israeli air strike in Syria, diplomats told Reuters and German media sources on Monday. The report is the first sign of a “smoking gun” proving that Syria was in fact building a secret nuclear reactor on the site, as Israel and the United States have insisted. The diplomats said the traces of uranium were first found in June. What has been found so far is not conclusive evidence of nuclear activity, but “raises questions,” they said. Officials in the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...

Most politicians try to keep their financial backers un-indicted until after the election. But Obama’s biggest early sponsor, dual U.S.-Syrian citizen Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko, is already indicted by a federal grand jury. Now he is going to trial in a Chicago federal court. Rezko, along with co-defendants Ali Ata and Abdelhamid Chaib, face federal grand jury charges presented in October 2006 by the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, Patrick Fitzgerald. The case centers on allegations of fraud between 2000 and 2004 in the sale of 17 Papa Johns’ Pizza parlors in Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee. The case may begin with...

BUENOS AIRES — A prosecutor sought the arrest of former President Carlos Menem on Thursday, accusing him of covering up the involvement of a Syrian-Argentine businessman in the bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. Prosecutor Alberto Nisman also requested the arrests of five others, including Menem's brother, Munir. In his petition to Judge Ariel Lijo, the prosecutor claimed that Menem and his aides tried to cover up the possible involvement of Alberto Jacinto Kanoore Edul in the 1994 car-bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association. Eighty-five people were killed and about 200 injured. Argentina's Clarin newspaper...

TEL AVIV – Israel arrested a suspected Syrian militant operating on Israeli soil accused of preparing attacks against the Jewish state, WND has learned. The militant was arrested July 29, weeks before Israel's Sept. 6 air raid on a remote site in Syria that has been described by independent analysts and some U.S. politicians as a potential Syrian nuclear reactor. Security officials would not say whether the arrest was tied to the air strike. According to security sources, his activities were known to Israeli intelligence agencies for at least one year prior to his arrest

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Syrian man convicted of giving a false tip to a New York City anti-terrorism hotline, leading to five innocent men being investigated on suspicion of terrorism, was sentenced on Wednesday to six months in prison. Rimon Alkatri, 35, was convicted in November of calling a hotline to offer a tip about five fellow Syrians whom he accused of planning a suicide attack on New York City subways over the July 4 holiday weekend. City officials dispatched dozens of police, conducted round-the-clock surveillance and sought help from Israeli law enforcement, prosecutors told a jury at the...

Beirut - In the old days, many Lebanese used to associate Syrians with either dusty soldiers or wretched men coming for cheap labor. This is why the sight of spiffy young Syrian men and women in our Starbucks coffees browsing the web can seem odd to some (Except for Hamra residents who are used to seeing Syrian AUB students) As Mark Mackinnon writes in the Globe and Mail, many young cyber dissidents are settling in Beirut where "they feel free to express their opinions and continue their political activism." "It’s a safe place for us as Syrians. All the other...

JERUSALEM - Israel on Tuesday eased a strict news blackout on an airstrike in Syria last month, allowing the first publication of reports it struck an unspecified "military target" deep inside Syrian territory. Israel's military censor had imposed a total blackout on coverage of the Sept. 6 airstrike. But Tuesday, the office allowed preliminary details to be published after Syria's president, Bashar Assad, confirmed the airstrike in a televised interview. "Israeli air force planes attacked a military target deep inside Syria on Sept. 6, the military censor allowed for publication today," Israel's Army Radio reported. The headline on the Web...

Kuwaiti newspaper says Turkish intelligence provided Israel with information on targets Air Force allegedly attacked last week without Turkish government's authorization. Turkish intelligence provided Israel with information on the Syrian targets allegedly attacked by the Air Force last week without the Turkish government's authorization, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jareeda reported Thursday. Al-Jareeda quoted several sources as saying that Israel and senior Turkish military personnel coordinated Israel's invasion of Turkish airspace during the operation to send a message to the ruling Justice and Development party, or AKP. Senior military officials in Turkey, most of whom are secular, oppose the Islamist party's platform. According...

MINNEAPOLIS -- A woman was arrested after attempting to board a flight en route to Syria with more than $24,000 in cash hidden in her clothes, officials said Tuesday. Amneh Ahmad Abbas, 49, a Syrian citizen who lives in New Orleans, was charged Monday with trying to evade currency reporting requirements, the U.S. Attorney's office said. She was ordered held without bail. The U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment on whether Abbas, who has permanent resident status in the United States, is suspected of involvement in terrorist activity. However, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force was taking part in the...

(IsraelNN.com) Syria sees the next war with Israel as involving missile attacks on civilian infrastructure and front-line guerilla warfare, an anonymous senior official in the Syrian Ministry of Defense told Defense News Weekly, in an interview appearing Monday. Syria prefers to avoid a direct, "classic" confrontation with Israel, he said. Instead, the next war will involve Katyusha rocket and ballistic missiles that will target strategic points in Israel, especially civilian infrastructure. The official said that the war will not be limited to a single strike, but will be protracted in nature. "This will be a war of attrition, which the...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has arrested flamboyant Syrian-born arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar on U.S. charges of terrorism, Spain's National Police said on Friday. Al-Kassar has been charged by a Federal Court for the Southern District of New York with conspiring to kill Americans, supply terrorists, obtain anti-aircraft missiles and launder money, the police said. A long-time Spanish resident known as the "Prince of Marbella" for his opulent lifestyle, al-Kassar was arrested at Madrid airport and will appear before a judge in the capital later on Friday. Under Spanish law, the United States will have 40 days to provide documents in...

Syrian liberal author Nidhal Na'isa began his career in journalism as a teenager, at the government dailies Al-Thawra and Syria Times,(1) but today he is a vocal opponent of the Arab regimes and the pan-Arab ideology, as well as of Islamism and Islamist terrorism. He has written that due to the Islamist "tsunami," the Middle East could be declared an "intellectual disaster zone"; that if one were to try to sell pan-Arab identity to "the bushmen and the cannibals" they wouldn't buy it; and that the pan-Arab media is "a harbinger of ill, pain, and destruction." In contrast, he praises...

A Syrian court has sentenced a leading dissident to 12 years in prison on charges of undermining national security. The judge said he had encouraged foreign countries to attack Syria. Kamal Labwani was arrested in 2005 after he returned to Damascus from a visit to Europe and the United States, where he met with White House officials. Mr Labwani is founder of the Liberal Democratic Union, which works to promote democracy in Syria. Last month, human rights activists reported that he was being held underground in the dark and his health was deteriorating rapidly. The United States has appealed to...

DAMASCUS, Syria - President Bashar Assad said Thursday his country would not recognize a U.N.-mandated international tribunal on the assassination of the former prime minister of Lebanon if it infringes on Syrian sovereignty. The comments indicated Damascus would not cooperate with the court if it indicts Syrian citizens for the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — setting the stage for a possible confrontation with the U.N. if the tribunal is created. Assad made the comments in a speech to parliament, where his ruling Baath Party nominated him for a second seven-year term in office. In the speech, Assad...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The U.N. chief said Saturday that arms are reportedly still being smuggled over the border from Syria to Lebanon, and he urged all sides to fully comply with a United Nations resolution that ended the summer war between Hezbollah militants and Israel. The leading Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported Saturday that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Lebanese security chiefs that Israel had provided him with "evidence and pictures" of trucks crossing from Syria to Lebanon and unloading weapons. "There are intelligence reports that arms are smuggled. I am concerned by that kind of arms smuggling, which will destabilize...

DAMASCUS, Syria - President Bashar Assad on Thursday inaugurated the first stage of a joint Syrian-Iranian auto factory, test-driving one of the new cars and declaring that the project will boost cooperation between the allies. ADVERTISEMENT With Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoodi on hand for the ceremony at the Syrian-Iranian Company for Manufacturing Cars, Assad called the project a testament of their "historic" cooperation. "Our political relations are rooted, old and excellent," he said. "This project comes in the framework of boosting economic cooperation between the two countries. ... We are proud of this project." Marketing of the car —...

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court has sentenced a Saudi, a Syrian and a Sudanese to death after finding them guilty of Al-Qaeda related terrorist offences, the US-led coalition in Iraq said on Wednesday. The alleged foreign fighters were among 48 detainees convicted by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq between December 8 and 28 last year. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in March 2003, hundreds of Muslim volunteers have flooded into Iraq to fight against US forces and, increasingly, the Shiite-led government. The Syrian and the Saudi "were captured on June 19 in a targeted raid on Al-Qaeda members,"...

The Canadian edition of Time Magazine has chosen Syrian born Maher Arar as its Newsmaker of the Year. The Ottawa Ontario resident landed at JFK International Airport in New York in September 2002 after returning from Tunisia where his wife has family. The Canadian citizen was detained in New York and then shipped off to his native Syria where he was detained and tortured for over a year before being released. After returning to Canada, Arar chose not to blend into the woodwork but forced the Canadian government to hold an inquiry into his arrest and detention and to examine...

An ultra-radical Islamic ideology mixing zealot-like devotion and holy war creed is drawing more scrutiny in anti-terrorist probes from the Middle East to Europe — with increasing indications that its base on the fringes of Islamic extremism could be widening. In existence since the 1960s, al-Takfir wa al-Hijra has offered intellectual inspiration to al-Qaida and other militant groups. But authorities now worry about followers becoming more aggressive with recruitment and retaliation against perceived foes of Islam, such as Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Officials in the Netherlands say the Dutch-Moroccan suspect — accused of killing Van Gogh on a busy...

The man accused of killing Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh confessed to a Dutch court that he acted out of his religious beliefs, saying he would do "exactly the same" if he were ever set free. "I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion," 27-year-old Dutch-Moroccan national Mohammed Bouyeri told the court in Amsterdam on the final day of his trial. Prosecutor Frits van Straelen demanded a life sentence for Bouyeri for killing Van Gogh on an Amsterdam street on November 2, 2004. He recalled the particular brutality of the murder in...

First, take a look at mob scenes across the Muslim world this weekend, ostensibly--ostensibly--in response to the civilian deaths in Qana, Lebanon (via Yahoo! News). Angry Muslims from Beirut to Gaza to Lahore are setting fire to American and Israeli flags. Burning effigies of Western leaders. Raising their voices in death chants:(Tigerhawk has more shots.)It all seems so...so familiar, doesn't it? Didn't we go through this same routine, the same scripted jihad theatrics, barely sixth months ago over the Mohammed cartoons? From February:The truth about Muslim outrage over Qana is that it's not really about the tragic deaths at Qana--just...

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria's president ordered a major Cabinet shake-up Saturday, signaling he has no plans to cave under growing U.S. and international pressure over the assassination of a former Lebanese leader and alleged failure to stop militants from crossing into Iraq. President Bashar Assad named his hard-line Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa as vice president and replace him with his deputy, Walid Moallem, a former ambassador to the United States and United Nations. Al-Sharaa was also put in charge of implementing Syrian "foreign and information policies." The U.N. investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has...

Authority Over Demons O Christ, the praise and joy of those who love you: you are my life, my light, and my gladness! Despise not me, who am worthless; cast me who am vile not away, for the enemy will be exceedingly pleased if I am plunged into despair because of the fog of error which surrounds me. He will rejoice only when he sees that despair is beginning to make me his captive. Rather do you, according to your ardent love, shame his hopes, snatch me from his teeth, deliver me from his crafty schemes, from all that he...

Interview With Professor of Chaldean Liturgy VATICAN CITY, JAN. 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Chaldean Church, whose patriarch resides in Baghdad, Iraq, takes pride in its ancient liturgy which uses the same language Jesus used. In November, the Chaldean liturgy underwent a reform following a special synod in Rome. To assess the extent of the reform, ZENIT interviewed Monsignor Petrus Yousif, professor of Syro-Chaldean patrology and Chaldean liturgy at the Pontifical Oriental Institute and the Catholic Institute of Paris. He is also the parish priest of France's Chaldean community. In this interview, Monsignor Yousif, consultor of the Special Liturgy Commission for...

Two al-Qaida militants reported missing and suspected killed in Friday's U.S. missile attack in Pakistan are key regional commanders along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Afghan and Pakistani analysts said. Marwan As-Suri, believed to be in his 30s, is a Syrian who recently had been appointed to head al-Qaida operations in part of the Pakistani areas bordering Kunar, the Afghan said. According to the Afghan source, another important al-Qaida invitee to the dinner was Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi, who reportedly has served as a liaison between al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida-backed guerrilla leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

CAIRO, Egypt - Syrian President Bashar Assad denied threatening Lebanon's former prime minister but suggested in an interview published Saturday that he would not allow U.N. investigators to interview him about Rafik Hariri's killing. Syria's former vice president Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who defected to France, told The Associated Press on Friday that Assad had threatened Hariri during their last meeting. "I don't know what others meant by threatening," Assad was quoted as saying in the Egyptian opposition weekly al-Osboa. "This never happened and the aim was to connect the threat with the assassination. The game is clear. Nobody attended the last...

AL HILLAH, Iraq (Army News Service, Dec. 1, 2005) – Coalition instructors tested and certified the combat readiness of the 2nd Iraqi Army Brigade this week, and announced that the troops are ready to plan and conduct military operations independently in Babil Province, in south-central Iraq. Meanwhile along the Syrian border, Iraqi forces also assumed greater control of the area. A ceremony Nov. 30 in western Iraq symbolized the securing of the borders through cooperation of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of the Interior and Multi-National Force Iraq. Defense minister lauds `historic day’ “I won¹t forget this day,” said...

AR RAMADI, Iraq (Army News Service, Nov. 8, 2005) -- Iraqi and U.S. Soldiers are fighting alongside Marines near the Iraq-Syria border in Operation Steel Curtain, which began over the weekend. Thirty-six terrorists have been confirmed killed so far in the operation, near the town of Hasaybah. The objectives of Operation al Hajip Elfulathi (Steel Curtain) are to restore Iraqi sovereign control along the border and destroy the al Qaeda operating throughout the region, officials said. Terrorists masqueraded as women Iraqi troops killed three foreign fighters dressed in women’s clothing. The trio brandished weapons as they neared the checkpoint that...

SECURITY forces yesterday arrested a pro-Syrian militant alleged to have telephoned Lebanese President Emile Lahoud minutes before the country's former prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed by a car bomb in February. The arrest of Mahmoud Abdel-Al intensifies pressure on Mr Lahoud to resign in the face of a damning UN report that accuses Syrian and Lebanese officials aligned to him of conspiring to kill Hariri. Mr Lahoud, a staunchly pro-Syrian head of state, has denied receiving the call, and has appealed for calm across Lebanon in the wake of the report, which is set to reshape the political destinies...

ARAB RACISM & ISLAMIC JIHAD!!! Are Militant Muslims DECAPITATING Tourists in S. Philippines? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam attack Arab Kuwaiti 'brothers' tortured them horrifically? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam BUTCHER/GASSED/TORTURED HIS OWN PEOPLE? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Do Arab Muslim Militant Hamas/Islamic-Jihad/other 'Palestinian' Militants (& often Fatah - connected to the official 'Palestinian' authority) TARGET BABIES, (not as the West targets terrorists) Yes or no? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Arab Islamists attack French subways? (1985) IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM +...

UNITED NATIONS - The brother-in-law of Syria's president was implicated in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and Lebanese intelligence officials helped organize it, according to a U.N. inquiry officially linking Damascus to the slaying for the first time. The report into the Feb. 14 car bomb that killed the popular opposition leader and 20 others stopped short of directly blaming Syrian President Bashar Assad or his inner circle. But it accused the regime of failing to cooperate in the inquiry and alleged that Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa lied in a letter to investigators. It also...

Syrian - Iranian Bloody Hands in the region... Take a note at Syrian-Iranian tactics, the pattern: 1) Sending or "letting" terrorists to butcher Iraqis. 2) Sheltering Hamas to use kids as bombs or as shields and massacring in Israel. 3) Sending-helping Hezbollah assasins in Lebanon to ethnic cleanse the Christians.

A HIGH-profile reporter for the Arabic satellite news channel Al-Jazeera, who had been under house arrest in Spain for his alleged membership of al-Qaeda, was taken into custody again today. "He was arrested in Grenada (southern Spain) ... because of a risk he could flee," a judicial official said. Tayssir Alluni's wife also confirmed his arrest. The Spaniard of Syrian origin will appear before a Madrid judge on Monday, when he is expected to be formally placed under judicial detention. A court on September 26 is due to hand down a verdict in the trial of Alluni, one of 41...

A 17-year-old has died after explosives he appears to have been trying to make in his Oslo flat detonated. The blast blew out some windows in the block and left the victim's 19-year-old brother injured. Three other friends escaped unhurt. Norwegian police said internet instructions on how to make explosives and some powder were found at the flat. Police are questioning those present but are not reported to think they had links to any extremist groups. Other apartments in the three-storey block were evacuated after the blast. "At the scene we found written instructions on how to make explosives and...

A 17-year-old has died after explosives he appears to have been trying to make in his Oslo flat detonated. The blast blew out some windows in the block and left the victim's 19-year-old brother injured. Three other friends escaped unhurt. Norwegian police said internet instructions on how to make explosives and some powder were found at the flat. Police are questioning those present but are not reported to think they had links to any extremist groups. Other apartments in the three-storey block were evacuated after the blast. "At the scene we found written instructions on how to make explosives and...

A Turkish court on Thursday charged a Syrian national suspected of plotting to slam speedboats packed with explosives into cruise ships loaded with Israeli tourists, lawyers and police said. According to The AP, defense lawyer Ilhami Sayan said the suspect, identified in the Turkish media as Lu'ai Sakra, was charged with membership in an "illegal organization." He was arrested earlier this month. Police said Sakra was linked to al-Qaeda. "I have no regrets," Sakra shouted to journalists as he was led into the courthouse. "I was going to attack Israeli ships. If they come, my friends will attack them." "I...