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8 Killed In New Bombing In Southern Philippines Monday, September 01, 2008 04:11:12 PM DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 1, 2008) – A homemade bomb explosion Monday ripped through a commuter bus, killing at least 8 people in the southern Philippines, where security forces are battling Moro rebels, officials said. Officials said the bombing targeted the bus owned by Metro Shuttle in Digos City in Davao del Sur province. At least seven people were seriously wounded in the attack. The bombing occurred at a bus depot shortly before 3 p.m., according to Army Col. Roland Bautista, of the...

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 27, 2008) – The Philippine Army on Wednesday confirmed government reports that Muslim rebels and have forged an alliance with communist insurgents in Mindanao, where security forces are battling the guerillas. Colonel Daniel Lucero, commander of the Army’s Civil-Military Operations, said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the outlawed New People’s Army have forged a formal alliance as early as in 1999. “In fact, an informal agreement has been in existence since the late 1980’s. The formal link between the NDF, represented by the Mindanao Commission, and the MILF was forged in 1999. The...

Islamic separatists kill 28 in Philippines rampage International Herald Tribune, France By Carlos H. Conde MANILA: Islamic separatists attacked several towns and villages Monday in the troubled southern Philippine region of Mindanao, ...http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/18/asia/phils.php

MANILA - The Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on Monday halting a territorial deal between the government and Muslim separatists, the latest setback for peace in the nation's volatile south. The agreement between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim rebel group, was set to be signed in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday after more than 10 years of stop-start talks. The government, whose commitment to a permanent political solution for the south has sometimes been questioned, said it welcomed the court's move. "I feel this is a relief," said Jesus Dureza, President Gloria...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

MANILA, July 17 (Reuters) - The Philippines will hold a plebiscite early next year in more than 700 southern villages to set up an ancestral homeland for Muslims, part of a deal with the country's biggest rebel group, officials said on Thursday. Hermogenes Esperon, the president's peace adviser, told reporters the proposed Muslim homeland would also be empowered to collect about 75 percent of taxes from oil, mines and fisheries in the area. He was speaking in Manila a day after government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) negotiators hammered out a deal in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital. "The...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

In Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth, the militant members of the Keepers of the Eternal and Victorious Islamic Nation (KEVIN) claim they have an “acronym problem”. Not compared to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front! MILF has an acronym problem. And its real. But names are the least of this Philippine radical group’s concerns. What they don’t have is food. At least they didn’t until Wednesday, when they picked up their guns and took over the coastal village of Sangay. Three hundred armed jihadists forced more than a thousand (mostly Christian) villagers off their land after demanding food and confiscating recently-harvested...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has forced about 1,200 Christian farmers to flee from a village in the southern province of Mindanao. This is confirmed by the local police, who withdrew from the area in order to avoid an armed conflict with the rebels. This situation deteriorated last week, when Malaysia withdrew its mediators from the province, the stronghold of the Muslim Filipinos. Garcia, a local farmer, recounts: "The Islamic Front arrived suddenly and claimed their forefathers owned the land we are farming, and at gunpoint told us to leave. Police were not allowed entry, so they backed off to...

Muslim rebels have forced hundreds of mainly Christian families off their farms in the southern Philippines, escalating tensions in the region ahead of the withdrawal of Malaysian peace monitors next week. Rolando Garcia, mayor of Kalamansig town on the troubled southern island of Mindanao, said that heavily-armed members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) claimed the farmers' land belonged to the Muslim minority. "We have about 1,200 people in our temporary shelter areas...afraid to return to their farms," Garcia told reporters, adding rice was about to be harvested when the rebels came late on Wednesday. The 11,000-strong MILF is...

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front blamed Tuesday the Philippine government for the current crisis affecting peace negotiations between the GRP and MILF panels. In a statement, MILF Chaiman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim said the government should adhere to the consensus points and a draft proposal on the issue of ancestral domain. He added that such moves could avert the possible disintegration of the peace process and may spark another round of talks.

THE Singapore Government disclosed on Thursday that the Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) had plans to mount terrorist attacks on Singapore targets, including key water pipelines and the defence ministry headquarters in Bukit Gombak. Other sites surveyed by members of the group included Jurong Island and Changi Airport. Jurong Island, off the south-western coast of Singapore, is home to several chemical factories. Along with some details of these plans, a Government statement unveiled the identities of the 21 Singaporeans detained under the Internal Security Act on Aug 16. The Government believes that with these 21 now under custody, the Singapore...

A county emergency management official takes a leave of absence just days after police pick up his wife in a high-profile sex sting. Sources tell Fox Philadelphia that Edward Atkins, the director of emergency services in Chester County, took a leave of absence until his wife's legal matters can be worked out. 49-year-old Theresa Atkins was one of five women picked up by Philadelphia police at a high-end Center City hotel after allegedly offering to perform sex acts in exchange for cash. Sources say she told undercover cops she was turning tricks to put her kids through college. On her...

MANILA (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines met the leader of the country's largest Muslim rebel group on Tuesday in an effort to defuse tensions over U.S. soldiers entering Muslim areas in the south. Earlier this week, thousands of people protested against the U.S. military's plans to hold humanitarian missions in areas controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as part of annual training exercises with Philippine troops. "The U.S. ambassador assured us the U.S. soldiers would not be involved in any combat activities," Mohaqher Iqbal, head of the MILF peace panel with the government, told Reuters....

The Philippine government is drafting a constitutional amendment that would authorize the establishment of a federal homeland for Muslims in the south of the country. The proposed amendment is part of a complex peace process between the government and a major Muslim rebel group. Douglas Bakshian reports from Manila. Last November, an important agreement was reached between the Philippine government and the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The two sides agreed on the size of a proposed homeland for the country's Muslims in the south of the country. This definition of what is called "the territory" is part of...

Five crop-duster planes have crashed on the terror-plagued island of Mindanao in a short period of time. Annie Jacobsen says that while it may feel like Mindanao is half a world away, the island’s plantations are linked to the international food supply chain. Is it time to start worrying about what’s being sprayed on your bananas? Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers by Annie Jacobsen There have been five crop-duster plane crashes on the terrorist-plagued island of Mindanao in the Philippines in a 90-day period. The most recent incident happened on December 6. Three of the five crashes occurred on...

TAMPA - Executives with the online encyclopedia Wikipedia are trying to solve a mystery within their ranks: How did they promote a person to chief operating officer without knowing she has criminal records in three states, including incidents of theft, drunken driving and a shooting? The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the massively popular Wikipedia.com, has attorneys and staff combing through records of Carolyn Doran, 45, who worked at the St. Petersburg offices as COO from January to July this year. Doran resigned from her position this summer, and the foundation is restructuring its top ranks and seeking a new operational...

Ok is it just me or does O'Reilly seem to sometimes seem a bit creepy and unbelievable? What is exceptionally non-credible here is his ignorance on the slang term to copulate with someone else's maternal unit. NO ONE on the planet thinks O'Reilly honestly didn't KNOW what the term was. What is sad here is that MKH is brought on to be O'Reilly's Internet Cop - and the MILF story BARELY qualifies as internet news in any shape or fashion. I mean I don't think the kiddies are out there surfing an airline's price page for naughty air travel deals...