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Al Jazeera 18/01/2010
The Yemen-based affiliate of al-Qaeda has denied Yemeni government reports that six of its leaders were killed in an air raid, saying the men only suffered mild injuries.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula made the counter-claim in a statement posted on Monday on the internet, the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors websites used by such groups, said.
"The Yemeni government has been making many false claims ... against the Mujahideen leaders in the Arabian Peninsula," the statement said.
"We assure our Muslim nation that none of the Mujahideen were killed in that strike, but some have suffered mild injuries."
The government claimed on Saturday that the air raid, which took place on Friday, killed Qasim al-Raymi, the Yemeni al-Qaeda wing's military chief, as well as Ayed al-Shabwani, who is accused of sheltering al-Qaeda fighters at his farm in the eastern province of Maarib.
It identified the other men as Ammar al-Waili, Saleh al-Tais, Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh al-Banna. The sixth person was unidentified.
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BBC 18/01/2010
Egypt's outlawed opposition Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, has named a conservative figure, Mohammed Badi, as its new leader.
Mr Badi, a 66-year-old veterinary professor at Beni Suef University, will be the eighth general guide since 1928.
His election by senior members of the group follows internal elections last year in which conservatives did well and prominent reformists were defeated.
He succeeds Mohammed Mahdi Akif, who became the first leader to step down.
The Brotherhood has influenced Islamist movements around the world with its model of political activism combined with charity work.
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BBC 18/01/2010
Israeli police investigating an arson attack on a West Bank mosque have arrested 10 men from a Jewish seminary.
About 100 policemen raided the Yitzhar settlement, near the Palestinian town of Yasuf where the mosque was attacked last month.
Police said some of the people arrested were students at the seminary, four of them minors who will soon be released.
The floor of the mosque and a stand holding copies of the Quran were burned in the December attack.
The Israeli police forced their way into the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva on Sunday, witnesses told local media.
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The Times (UK) 18/01/2010
A leading Muslim organisation in Britain has issued a fatwa against suicide bombings and terrorism, declaring them un-Islamic.
Minhaj-ul-Quran, a Sufi organisation based in East London which advises the Government on how to combat radicalisation of Muslim youth, will launch the 600-page religious verdict tomorrow. It condemns the perpetrators of terrorist explosions and suicide bombings.
The document, written by Dr Muhammed Tahir-ul-Qadri, a former minister of Pakistan and friend of Benazir Bhutto, declares suicide bombings and terrorism as "totally un-Islamic". It is one of the most detailed and comprehensive documents of its kind to be published in Britain.
The fatwa, which was released in Pakistan last month, uses texts from the Koran and other Islamic writings to argue that attacks against innocent citizens are "absolutely against the teachings of Islam and that Islam does not permit such acts on any excuse, reason or pretext".
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Reuters 15/01/2010
TIMBUKTU, Mali (Reuters) - In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called "the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11."
The document warned that a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air route, it said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are some of West Africa's most unstable countries.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and the problem has since escalated into what security officials in several countries describe as a global security threat.
The clandestine fleet has grown to include twin-engine turboprops, executive jets and retired Boeing 727s that are flying multi-ton loads of cocaine and possibly weapons to an area in Africa where factions of al Qaeda are believed to be facilitating the smuggling of drugs to Europe, the officials say.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been held responsible for car and suicide bombings in Algeria and Mauritania. Gunmen and bandits linked to the group have also stepped up kidnappings of Europeans, who are then passed on to AQIM factions seeking ransom payments.
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