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Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is believed to be behind a string of attacks and abductions. Algeria is to host an international summit to discuss ways of tackling crime and Islamist militancy in the Sahara desert region. The moves comes after ministers from Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Algeria met in the Malian capital Bamako... The al-Qaeda branch has been blamed for several high profile kidnappings and attacks in the region in recent years. Al-Qaeda in the Islamist Maghreb is most active in Algeria, but loose border controls and disagreements between the countries mean it has spread right across the Sahara...

Two men from East Elmhurst, Queens have been arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was joined by top city law enforcement officials at City Hall earlier today in announcing the arrests of Ahmed Ferhani, 26, and Mohamed Mamdouh, 20. Ferhani, who is from Algeria, and Mamdouh, was is from Morocco, are both charged with engaging in terrorism, weapons possession and hate crimes. An arraignment is expected later today. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says the men told undercover officers that they hated Jews and wanted to kill them. He also says they had...

We Islamaphobes are truly a loathsome lot – sowing dissention and hatred wherever we go. But Peter Burr, M.D., recently elected chair of the Williamson County, TN. Democratic Party, is on our case. Last week, Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament and a trenchant critic of Islam, spoke at two events in Nashville. In a commentary in the Tennessean (“Outside Agitators Should Not Define American Values”) Burr excoriated Wilders in language Democrats usually reserve for the Tea Parties and the Boy Scouts of America. Anyway, I thought “outside agitators” became passé with Spiro Agnew’s departure from the national...

Two Americans have been arrested by New York City police for allegedly plotting to attack a synagogue in the New York area, Fox News has learned. One source described the case as the latest example of “homegrown” radicalization. The two men were identified as Mohammad Mamdouh, of Moroccan descent, and Ahmed Serhani, of Algerian descent. Serhani allegedly made a general statement about wanting to attack a synagogue –- though no specific synagogue was mentioned, according to initial information obtained by Fox News. With a history of drug dealing, Serhani was hoping to make enough money to purchase weapons and possibly...

Army chiefs from Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria are on alert as the crisis in nearby Libya deteriorates, placing the entire region at risk, a military source said on Saturday. Speaking after a meeting Friday between the four army heads, a Malian officer who attended said: "The situation in Libya is of great concern. There is a risk of destabilising the entire region." The meeting was to reinforce the fight against insecurity in a region threatened by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). "Moreover, because of the Libyan crisis, the security situation in the Sahel has deteriorated, so it is...

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Algerian researcher Abu Ahmad 'Amer , which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 5, 2011: Abu Ahmad 'Amer: First, after what has happened in Egypt, and after its liberation from the great Pharaoh, and the downfall of some of his lackey priests, I would like to ask: Who wants to go to Gaza? Who wants to go to Jerusalem? Oh young men and women of the National Front for Change: The borders are now open. Who wants to play an active role in the liberation of Palestine? The winds of change...

The Obama administration could face potential political upheaval with yet another ally in the Arab world, this time in Algeria. Documents given to members of Congress and obtained by Fox News show that Algeria's largest minority group, the Kabyles, who number up to 10 million, will demand on Wednesday that their government hold a referendum on autonomy. This will be followed by planned demonstrations, which some analysts fear could lead to a brutal conflict and possible uprising -- if the U.S. doesn't act to bring the sides together and work on a mutually acceptable agreement. What makes this dilemma particularly...

It’s billed as a “Birther Conference.” Republican presidential hopeful Andy Martin will convene the “Third National Conference on President Barack Obama’s Missing Birth Certificate and College Records” this weekend at the Capital Hilton, just blocks from the White House. Naturally, Mr. Martin has asked Donald Trump — some call him a “birther,” some a “proofer” — to speak at the conference, which begins Friday.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- "Of Gods and Men," the Cannes Film Festival grand prize-winning feature now debuting across the country, had a "monastic adviser" on the set to help faithfully depict the lives of the French monks whose story is at the heart of the movie. Henry Quinson, who lived for six years at a Cistercian monastery in France, knew two of the monks portrayed in the film. The subject matter is not typical for a movie: the lives of seven Trappist monks in turmoil-ridden Algeria in the mid-1990s. All seven were kidnapped in 1996 and ultimately beheaded. "It's very...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- In a major concession to Algeria's opposition groups, the government on Tuesday adopted a measure that would lift a 19-year state of emergency that has constrained civil liberties and human rights in the North African oil exporter. A draft law approved by the Cabinet would repeal the emergency law as soon as it is published in the government's official journal, the official Algerie Presse Service reported. An opposition leader last week said he had been assured that the state of emergency would be lifted by the end of February. The emergency measures, long lambasted by...

Islamofascism, the Internet, and the liberty contagion‎ Richmond Times Dispatch [...] Islamofascism is our century's Soviet communism. It seeks worldwide rule (a global caliphate) achieved and sustained through terror. In Iran, during the Carter administration, the shah fell. Freedom was thick in the air. Then Khomeini took over. Today freedom lies crushed, al-Qaida and the Taliban have sprouted, and Iran has satellized first Gaza (through Hamas) and now Lebanon (through Hezbollah). Syria remains in Iran's orbit, and Turkey nudges seemingly ever closer. Now in Egypt, during an Obama administration boasting a foreign policy no less befuddled, ideological, and incompetent than...

Serbia Asks Lawmakers to Approve Algeria Arms Export Guarantees

JERUSALEM – An international "crisis management" group led by billionaire George Soros long has petitioned for the Algerian government to cease "excessive" military activities against al-Qaida-linked groups and to allow organizations seeking to create an Islamic state to participate in the Algerian government. The organization, the International Crisis Group, also is tied strongly to the Egyptian opposition movement whose protests led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

Algeria shuts down internet and Facebook as protest mounts Internet providers were shut down and Facebook accounts deleted across Algeria on Saturday as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested in violent street demonstrations. By Nabila Ramdani 7:25PM GMT 12 Feb 2011 Plastic bullets and tear gas were used to try and disperse large crowds in major cities and towns, with 30,000 riot police taking to the streets in Algiers alone. There were also reports of journalists being targeted by state-sponsored thugs to stop reports of the disturbances being broadcast to the outside world. But it was the government attack on...

Victor Davis Hanson reminds us about the last time we saw this kind of "revolutionary" fever...not in Egypt but in Iran: So let us reflect for a moment on the revolutionary era in Iran to remind us that the end of freedom there was not instantaneous, but insidious. Massive demonstrations broke out against the Shah of Iran in January 1978 — similarly characterized by the prominent role of the middle and upper urbanized and Westernized classes. He was forced to flee Iran almost a year later, on January 16, 1979. The Ayatollah Khomeini arrived in Tehran shortly afterward, on...

Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of the Algerian capital Algiers on Saturday, defying a ban on demonstrations and calling for political reform in the North African country, one of the world's largest oil producers. The protest followed on the heels of Friday's resignation by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Estimates of the size of the crowd, which started filling Algiers' central May 1st Square, also called Concord Square, in the morning, varied. Organizers said as many as 30,000 showed up. Thousands of state security officials and police had fanned out across the capital ahead of the protests, called by a...

The discovery of the decapitated heads of seven French Trappist monks in Algeria in May 1996 shocked France and provoked a great outpouring of public emotion. Over 10,000 people gathered in Paris’s Place du Trocadéro to show their solidarity with the murdered monks. Earlier that year, in March, the monks had been abducted from the Tibhirine monastery in the Atlas mountains by a group of 20 armed men. For many, their decapitation also marked the climax of Algeria’s civil war between Islamist rebel groups and the Algerian government. The monks’ bodies were never found, which raised questions about who had...

Decades of autocratic government and a lack of free elections are, of course, the main drivers of the political upheaval in Egypt. But did the sinking dollar and skyrocketing food prices trigger the massive unrest now occurring in Egypt — or the greater Arab world for that matter? In addition to Egypt, the people have taken to the streets to varying degrees in Algeria, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Yemen. Local food riots have even broken out in rural China and other Asian locales. While the mainstream media focus on the political aspects of this turmoil, they are overlooking the impact...

Check out the Drudge Report. It appears that while our media is focused on Egypt, unrest is breaking out in other Moslem countries. Drudge has articles on three separate countries - Yemen, Albania, and Jordan - where protests are occurring right now.

“An earthquake has shaken the region.” The above headline from an Israeli newspaper describes with unfailing accuracy the pivotal events now taking place in the Middle East. In Egypt, the Arab world’s largest and most populous country of more than 80 million, massive demonstrations involving tens of thousands of people began on Tuesday in what was billed as a “Day of Anger” and are continuing despite a ban by a very rattled government. Smaller protests are likewise occurring in Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Algeria. The domino effect so feared by Middle Eastern strongmen after Tunisian protesters chased their president from...