Trial of Khmer Rouge prison chief resumes

The trial of a former prison chief with the Khmer Rouge movement resumed inside a packed Cambodian courtroom Monday, with prosecutors painting a grim picture of inmates who were electrocuted, whipped and beaten to death.

Kaing Guek Eav, a former math teacher and a born-again Christian, displayed no emotion as the U.N.-backed tribunal accused him not just of overseeing the torture and killing of more than 15,000 men, women and children three decades ago — but of actively taking part in some of them.

The trial of the 66-year-old man, better known as Duch, resumed Monday just outside the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Filed under: Asia, Aid, Cambodia, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, United Nations, War, War Crimes, World

Yemen’s three terror fronts

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took credit in an internet statement Friday for a pair of suicide attacks that targeted South Koreans in Yemen.

A teen-aged suicide bomber killed four South Korean tourists in Shibam, Hadramout on March 15. A second terror attack three days later in Sana’a targeted a convoy of family members and South Korean investigators. The motorcade had left a military camp and was traveling along a highway when a suicide bomber detonated his device between two of the cars. There were no injuries to the passengers.

Filed under: Analysis, Aid, Civil war, Foreign affairs, International, Islam, Islamic law, Jihad, Korea, Militants, Muslim, Sharia, South Korea, Terror, Terrorism, Terrorists, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, World, Yemen

Fighting kills at least 14 in Somalia

Fighting between Somali police and Islamist gunmen killed eight people in Mogadishu on Monday, witnesses said, raising the stakes as a new president tries to bring stability to the failed Horn of Africa state.

Clashes between hardline Islamists from the al Shabaab group and a rival militia also killed six people in the central Bay region, but officials from all factions declined to comment.

Residents said the latest battles in the capital broke out on the road linking the strategic K4 junction with the hilltop presidential palace, Villa Somalia.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Civil war, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, Somalia, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, United Nations, War, War Crimes, World

Iraq battle after militia arrest

Two passers-by have died in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, after clashes between security forces and one of the militias which are backed by US forces.

The gun battle in the Fadil district of the city erupted shortly after the leader of the local Awakening group, Adil Mashadani, was arrested.

One account says US troops helped with the arrest alongside the Iraqi army.

Fadil was run by al-Qaeda in Iraq for most of 2006 and 2007, but they were driven out by the Awakening movement.

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Sudan leader in Qatar for summit

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has arrived in Qatar for an Arab summit due to discuss an indictment against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He has already visited Egypt, Eritrea and Libya over the past week to drum up support from his neighbours.

Qatar has not signed the ICC charter, which obliges member states to arrest indictees on their territory, but clerics have urged Mr Bashir not to go.

Libya’s leader earlier said the ICC was a “new form of world terrorism”.

Filed under: Africa, African Union, Aid, Barack Obama, Civil war, Darfur, Foreign affairs, Genocide, International, International Criminal Court, Justice, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, The Terror Journal, U.N, U.S.A, United Nations, United States, War, War Crimes, World

Bloody clash in south Philippines

Muslim rebels and the army have fought an eight-hour battle in the southern Philippines, leaving 20 insurgents and seven soldiers dead, the military says.

Lt Col Jonathan Ponce said the army attacked rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to stop them from ransacking nearby villages.

The MILF blamed the army for the battle, on Mindanao island.

Hundreds have died and many thousands have been displaced on Mindanao since August, when peace talks foundered.

Filed under: Asia, E.U, European Union, Foreign affairs, Human Rights, International, Islam, Islamic law, Islamist, Islamists, Muslim, Muslims, NATO, Philippines, Sharia, Terrorism, Terrorists, The Terror Journal, U.A.E, U.N, U.S.A, UK, United Kingdom, United States, War, World

Islamist threat to Turkey’s secular system

Turkish secularism on the ropes. Sharia is advancing in what is always held out to be that exemplary beacon of democracy in the Islamic world, Turkey. The reasons why Sharia supremacists are advancing there have not — unsurprisingly — been sufficiently explored by Western analysts, who of course dismiss out of hand the appeal of a call to restore Islamic authenticity.

“Erdogan Set for Election Win That May Revive Tension Over Islam,” by Ben Holland for Bloomberg, March 27

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to win a fresh mandate from voters that may embolden his challenge to the country’s military and courts, which see him as an Islamist threat to Turkey’s secular system.

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UNSC urges Sudan rethink on aid

The United Nations Security Council has called on Sudan to reconsider its decision to expel foreign aid agencies from the troubled Darfur region.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir gave the order after an international arrest warrant was issued against him.

Correspondents say the council’s move is significant as they had previously been unable to agree on a statement.

Sudan has said the humanitarian situation is under control and its decision is irreversible.

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Turk Arrested Over Kurds’ Killings in ’90s

A Turkish officer was arrested Wednesday in connection with suspected extrajudicial killings in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast in the 1990s.

A court in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, issued the arrest warrant for the officer, Col. Cemal Temizoz, pending a trial.

Colonel Temizoz served near the town of Cizre, about 40 miles from the Iraqi border in Turkey’s southeast, between 1993 and 1996, when hundreds of Kurdish civilians and activists were said to have been killed by security forces with links to the military.

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Blast rips through Baghdad crowd

A car bomb blast which ripped through a crowd of shoppers near a bus stop in northern Baghdad has killed at least 20 people and injured more than 35.

The bomb went off near a busy market in the capital’s Shaab district, a mainly Shia area, officials say.

Iraqi police believe it was a deliberate attempt to kill the maximum number of civilians possible.

Violence has declined in Iraq recently but on Monday, a suicide bomber killed 25 people in the north of the country.

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