Lebanon ( Lebanese troops have arrested the leader of the Al-Qaeda group ) That bombed Iranian Embassy

BEIRUT: Lebanese troops have arrested the leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked group that claimed a double suicide bombing at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut in November, the defense minister told AFP Wednesday.
Majid Al-Majid, the “emir” of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, “was arrested by the intelligence services of the Lebanese Army in Beirut,” Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn said, without specifying when the arrest took place.


“He was wanted by the Lebanese authorities and is currently being interrogated in secret,” the minister added. Majid was on a list of 85 suspects wanted by the kingdom.
The Azzam Brigades was designated in the United States as a “terrorist organization” in 2012, and has in the past claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon.
The group was formed in 2009 and is believed to have branches in both Lebanon and the Arabian Peninsula. According to the group's sites, Majid was revealed to be the leader of the Brigades in 2012.
On Wednesday, a Twitter account belonging to Sirajeddin Zreikat, a member of the Sunni Muslim extremist group, appeared to have been suspended.
Zreikat had claimed responsibility in the group’s name for the double bombing at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut that killed 25 people

Palestinian ambassador Dies ( Booby-trapped " Safe " kills ambassador )

PRAGUE: The Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic died Wednesday in an explosion that occurred when he opened an old safe that had been left untouched for more than 20 years, officials said.

Ambassador Jamal al-Jamal, 56, was at home with his family at the time of the explosion, according to Palestinian Embassy spokesman Nabil El-Fahel. Al-Jamal was seriously injured and rushed to a hospital where he died, according to police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said no foul play was suspected, noting that the safe had been left untouched for more than 20 years.

It also appeared that the door of the safe had been booby-trapped, according to Zoulova. It was unclear how al-Jamal tried to open it or what type of safe it was.

The safe was recently moved from the old embassy building, but it had come from a building that used to house the Palestinian Liberation Organization's offices in the 1980s, Malki said.

"The ambassador decided to open it. After he opened it, apparently something happened inside (the safe) and went off," Malki told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear how Malki knew the safe had been untouched for more than 20 years or why and when the safe would have been booby-trapped.

During the 1980s — before the fall of the Soviet Union — the PLO had close ties with the Eastern bloc countries. In recent years, relations have been tense and the Czech government was seen as largely taking Israel's side in the Mideast conflict, said Nabil Shaath, a foreign affairs veteran and leading official in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.

"The safe was sitting neglected in one of the areas of the old embassy. It was in one of the corners. No one had touched it for 20 to 25 years," Malki said.

BEIRUT ( A large car bomb killed five people and wounded at least 20 )

BEIRUT: A large car bomb killed five people and wounded at least 20 in a Hezbollah bastion in south Beirut on Thursday, a health ministry source told AFP.
“According to an initial toll, five people have been killed and more than 20 injured,” the source said on condition of anonymity.


Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television said: “The terrorist explosion targeted a densely populated residential area, just 150 to 200 meters (yards) away from Hezbollah’s political bureau.”
The official National News Agency reported that the explosion was caused by an explosives-packed four-wheel-drive vehicle in the Haret Hreik neighborhood.
The district is a symbolic one for Hezbollah, which once based many of its leadership institutions in the area.
Much of the neighborhood was reduced to rubble during the massive Israeli air bombing that accompanied its 2006 war with Hezbollah, but it has since been rebuilt

Iran ( Student Activist " Maryam Shafipour " transferred to prison infirmary after falling unconscious )

December 2013

 

Keywords : Political Prisoners

فارسى

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Sources have reported that the health of jailed activist Maryam Shafipour – held behind bars in the women’s ward of Evin prison - continues to deteriorate. In the past week her high blood pressure reached dangerous levels rendering her unconscious and she was transferred to the prison’s infirmary.

According to CHRR despite the recommendation by the prison physician that Shafipour immediately receive an MRI, the prison authorities did not comply. In addition during the past weeks Maryam Shafipour has been suffering from extreme toothache but she has not been seen by a dentist nor been allowed to receive medical attention for her teeth.

Maryam Shafipour, detained since August 5, 2013 had her first court session on October 21, 2013 and her second court date has been set for January 1, 2014 at Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided by Judge Salavati. According to her father, Maryam Shafipour is accused of “conspiracy against national security.” A source close to the family has said that the charges brought against the student activist are “baseless” and “unfounded.” The source emphasized that there has been no proof or evidence substantiating any of the charges brought against Shafipour, and that the investigators seem to be holding a personal vendetta against her. In an earlier interview with the Kaleme website, Maryam Shafipour’s father said, “The type of charges brought against Maryam and her treatment are reminiscent of the manner in which intelligence officials conducted themselves in 2009 [during the unrest following the contested presidential election results.] The way they have dealt with her is as if this case has been left behind from those days.”

A source close to the family said regarding Maryam Shafipour’s physical condition, “even though she has lost a lot of weight and is in poor health, she is in very good spirits and denies all charges brought against her.”

Maryam Shafipour is a former agricultural engineering student from Qazvin International University who was suspended after 2 semesters and was expelled from university on her eighth semester due to her student activities and her weblog. In 2009 she served in the presidential election campaign of Mehdi Karroubi who has been under house arrest. Shafipour was first detained in 2010 and was handed a one-year suspended prison term by the Qazvin Revolutionary Court.

Shafipour was handed a summons to appear at the Prosecutor’s office in mid July of this year. She appeared at Branch 2 of Evin prison’s Shahid Moghoddas Court on August 5th per the summons order and was subsequently detained and transferred behind bars in Evin prison. She remains behind bars in the women’s ward despite her ailing health and need for medical care.

Maldives ( A dead body washed up by resort where " David Beckham " is taking a hideaway for Christmas )

MALE, Maldives: A dead body has washed up at an exclusive island resort in the Maldives where English football star David Beckham is taking a hideaway Christmas holiday with his family, police said Monday.
Investigations were underway to establish the cause of death of the man, whose body was found floating near a jetty on Sunday at the One and Only Reethi Rah resort near the capital island Male, police said.


“The body was removed to a morgue and investigations are underway,” police spokesman Hassan Haneef told AFP by telephone.
In a second incident, a stock of fireworks brought in for New Year’s Eve exploded on the island Sunday, shattering the calm for guests who pay up to $12,700 a night for a room.
Police said the dead man, identified as a Sri Lankan national, was not a guest or an employee of the upmarket resort where Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich was also reportedly staying.
Beckham, his wife Victoria and their four children remained at the de luxe resort despite the problems on Sunday, tourism sources said.
The couple visited the Maldives a year ago and stayed at the same resort, but that holiday was dampened by incessant rain.
Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb told reporters last week that several international celebrities were spending their Christmas holidays in the nation of more than 1,000 coral-fringed islands scattered across the equator.
The Maldives is known for its secluded resorts with pristine beaches and privacy and is also a popular destination for well-heeled honeymooners. It attracted nearly a million foreign holidaymakers last year.
Tourism has suffered setbacks in recent years due to political unrest following the resignation of former President Mohamed Nasheed in February 2012 in what he later alleged was a coup.

Yemen ( A suicide car bombing at the security headquarters in Yemen kills 3 )

ADEN: A suicide car bombing at the security headquarters in Yemen’s southern city of Aden killed at least three soldiers Tuesday in what appeared to be an Al-Qaeda attack, police said.
The car exploded as it rammed into the front gate of the Aden security offices at dawn, a police official said. Several other soldiers were wounded in the blast.
Another police source said that two other attackers in an explosives-laden car attempted to ram through the gate after the first bombing, but were stopped by security forces.
The two “terrorist elements” are being questioned, he said.
Two police centers in different parts of the city simultaneously came under attack with rockets, a third source said, adding that there were no casualties.
The attack bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which earlier this month launched a similar complex assault on the defense ministry complex in the capital Sanaa, killing 56 people, including foreign medical staff.
AQAP took advantage of the weakening of the central government in Sanaa during a 2011 uprising inspired by the Arab Spring, seizing swathes of territory in the south before being driven back in June 2012.


The group is still active in southern and eastern Yemen, and stages frequent attacks on security forces despite Yemeni military operations and US drone strikes against the militants.
The group’s military chief Qassem Al-Rimi apologized for the civilian death toll in the Sanaa attack, saying one of the assailants had disobeyed orders to avoid the medical center of the complex.
Elsewhere in the country, two explosions late Monday struck an oil pipeline that pumps around 10,000 barrels per day from the Ayadh fields, in the southern province of Shabwa, to the Nushaima terminal on the Gulf of Aden, a government official said.
The two bombs, planted under the pipeline in different locations, took the conduit out of service, the official added.
Attacks on oil and gas pipelines in Yemen are frequent, and Oil Minister Ahmad Dares said earlier this month that sabotage had cost the country $4.75 billion (3.5 billion euros) between March 2011 and March 2013.

MANILA ( 8 killed 600 others were injured from firecracker blasts and gunfire )

MANILA: At least eight people were killed and more than 600 others were injured in bombings, firecrackers blasts and gunfire as the Philippines celebrated the coming of the new year Tuesday and early Wednesday, officials said.


 The military and police said six of the dead were killed when a homemade bomb exploded at a kiosk in the southern town of Sumisip in Basilan island province during a New Year’s party late Tuesday.
Ten others wounded, said Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala.
Zagala said the motive was still unknown.
Hours earlier in Cotabato province’s Carmen township also in the south, a motorcycle-riding assailant hurled a grenade outside a Protestant church wounding a mother, her three children and another girl, police said. Police said three men on two motorcycles were seen speeding away.
Capt. Antonio Bulao, a local army spokesman, said the assailants may have planned to attack a local police outpost but decided to throw the grenade at a weaker target.
At least two others who were reported killed during the revelry were from the northern part of the country.
In northern province of Cagayan, a fireworks fountain display packed with firecrackers exploded and killed a 19-year-old man, while an infant boy was killed by a bullet that went through the roof of the family’s house in Ilocos Sur province