Has Osama bin Laden been sighted? A report with the Government of India says Al-Qaeda's top leadership was recently spotted near Darkot, a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan's Wakhan corridor.
Sources say the report was made less than a fortnight ago.
Till now, Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were thought to be in the rugged mountains of Pakistan, along Afghanistan's southeast border.
There is now the possibility that they have shifted to the Wakhan corridor. Sticking out of northeastern Afghanistan, the corridor (a strip of land) is wedged between Tajikistan, Pakistan and the part of PoK known as Northern Areas.
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1772087,0008.htm
Singapore Tourist Guides To Be Trained In Handling Terror Attacks
17 August
A total 800 tourist guides in Singapore will over the next three months be trained on how to react to chemical and other kinds of terrorist attacks. The one-day course, taught in Chinese and English, is designed to create a 'frontline' force of guides to handle such emergencies. Singapore, perceived as a staunch supporter of United States president George W. Bush's war against terror, sees it itself as a prime terror target. And the authorities consider tourist sites and the tour groups that visit them to be particularly at risk.
In a previous experiment in October 2004, the city-state, adjacent to the Muslim countries of Malaysia and Indonesia, trained 40,000 taxi-drivers as anti-terror monitoring agents. They were given the task of noting any strange behaviour, such as nervous passengers, or people leaving their luggage inside the taxi.
Singapore is within the area eyed by local terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) for the creation of a new Islamic caliphate in southeast Asia. Security forces in Singapore foiled planned attacks against United States and Western targets, due to take place in December 2001, January 2002 and April-May 2002, according to the government
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.331352937&par=0
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah handed out bundles of cash on Friday to people whose homes were wrecked by Israeli bombing, consolidating the Iranian-backed group's support among Lebanon's Shi'ites and embarrassing the Beirut government.
"People already had faith in Hizbollah, this will strengthen their faith," said Ayman Jaber, 27, with a wad of $12,000 (6,378 pounds) in banknotes Hizbollah had given him.
Israeli and U.S. officials have voiced concern that Hizbollah will entrench its popularity by moving fast -- with Iranian money -- to help people whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the 34-day conflict with Israel.
Hizbollah has not said where the funds are coming from to compensate people for an estimated 15,000 destroyed homes. The scheme appears likely to cost at least $150 million. The Lebanese government has yet to launch anything similar.
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Iran Suspected of Attempts to Rearm Hezbollah Since Cease-Fire
Thursday, August 17, 2006
WASHINGTON — Iran has been attempting to rearm the Lebanon-based terror network Hezbollah since the U.N.-backed cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel took hold earlier this week, two U.S. officials told FOX News on Thursday.
A U.S. arms control official said it appears that Iran is using Syrian channels in its effort to give Hezbollah weapons it has used in the past, including Chinese-built C-802 radar-guided anti-ship missiles. Military observers said a C-802 was used successfully on an Israeli naval vessel off the coast of Tyre on July 14. The arms control officer and a senior American counterterrorism officer both said the U.S. government is "very concerned" about the "ongoing" effort.
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