Bitolja. Three Bulgarian drivers, whom the Macedonian police arrested on December 14, 2006 after finding a consignment of army weapons allegedly being smuggled to Bulgaria, were released, FOCUS News Agency’s special correspondent, Denka Katsarska reported. The Bulgarians are currently in the Bulgarian embassy in Skopje. They will not spend the New Year’s holiday under arrest.
On December 14, the Macedonian police seized three trucks loaded with undocumented weapons and arrested three drivers and a representative of the firm Miroslava-Svetoslav Gotsov, which employed them.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n102255
Pakistan to mine Afghan frontier
12/27/2006 p>Pakistan is to fence and mine parts of its long, rugged frontier with Afghanistan to prevent cross-border raids by Taliban and al Qaeda militants, and stave off criticism that it is doing little to stop the bloody insurgency.
The announcement came amid deteriorating relations between Pakistan and its neighbour over Afghan and Nato accusations that resurgent militants are operating from sanctuaries in Pakistan.
Pakistan will also deploy additional troops at the frontier, Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan told reporters. There are already about 80,000 troops in its north-western tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
Afghanistan quickly rejected the border plan, although Khan said Pakistan would be acting on its own soil, and didn't need Afghan consent. "Fencing or mining the border is neither helpful nor practical. That's why we are against it. The border is not where the problem lies," said Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
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http://www.e-ariana.com/ariana/eariana.nsf/allDocs/53083A8C61B998598725725100104B41?OpenDocument
British envoy summoned by Iran Foreign Ministry
Wed. 27 Dec 2006
Tehran, Iran, Dec. 27 – Britain's ambassador in Tehran was summoned by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, state media reported.
Ambassador Geoffrey Adams was summoned by the director of the Foreign Ministry's Western European Affairs Ibrahim Rahim-Pour to receive an official complaint by the Islamic Republic over recent remarks by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in which he described Iran as a "strategic threat".
Rahim-Pour told Adams to convey Tehran's message to London that the British government "learn a lesson" from the mistakes of its predecessors.
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http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9650
Astrakhan lies in the south of Russia, in the Volga delta, close to where the river empties into the Caspian Sea. It is about 250 miles from Chechnya. Today, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, a successor to the KGB) announced that six individuals have been arrested in the city. Burned by Tamurlane in the 13th century, about half of the population is Muslim.
They are said to belong to a group called Jamaat of Muwahids (company of Mujahideen), which is assumed to follow the strict outlook of Wahhabism. The six men, aged between 22 and 24, are claimed by the FSB of plotting a terror attack on New Year's Eve. Details of this attack have not been given.
Searches conducted at the homes of the suspects have recovered a home-made bomb, a sawn-off hunting rifle, ammunition, and a hand grenade. Additionally large amounts of extremist propaganda has been found, including printed matter, CDs and audio and video tapes.
The searches and arrests took place after tip-offs that the men were raising funds and had extremist literature. This is the first such case to be recorded from Astrakhan and its surrounding region.
http://www.westernresistance.com/
Australia doubles its spy numbers since 2001
28 December 2006
An influx of Chinese spies has forced Australia's home espionage agency into a recruiting drive to counter the threat as well as that posed by Muslim extremists, a newspaper report said on Thursday.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has doubled the number of foreign-language speakers in its ranks since 2004, with most newcomers fluent in Chinese, the Australian daily reported, citing unnamed sources.
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http://www.peterboroughnow.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=1946895&SectionID=5055