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Fresh clashes erupted Saturday between groups of Hindus and Muslims in the Indian portion of Kashmir, wounding three people, police said. The rival groups also burned some homes in Paddar, a village about 50 kilometers (40 miles) north of the town of Kishtwar, where clashes between Muslims and Hindus during Muslim holiday celebrations Friday killed at least two people and injured 24. Police rushed to Paddar on Saturday to control the situation, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. …

ISLAMABAD — At least 24 people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives during a funeral service for a police official in southwestern Pakistan on Thursday, officials said.

War On Terror: Al-Qaida's destabilization of Iraq snowballs, the Taliban plots its return to power in Afghanistan, and U.S. diplomats now flee Pakistan and other outposts in the region. Behold America in retreat. 'Leading from behind" is the Obama administration catchphrase used to camouflage American global decline. Think of a baseball team's PR flack telling you, "Never mind we're not even playing .400 ball; these boys are going to the World Series!" As described by the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, to whom an Obama aide coined the term in 2011, "it comes from two unspoken beliefs: that the relative power...

The State Department has evacuated non-emergency U.S. government personnel from the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, and has warned Americans to defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan due to 'specific threats' to that mission, a U.S. official said. In the travel warning issued Thursday night, the State Department advised Americans to defer all nonessential travel to Pakistan. “The presence of several foreign and indigenous terrorist groups poses a potential danger to U.S. citizens throughout Pakistan,” the statement read. “The Government of Pakistan maintains heightened security measures, particularly in the major cities. Threat reporting indicates terrorist groups continue to seek opportunities...

Washington (CNN) -- The State Department has evacuated most of its diplomats from Lahore, Pakistan in response to a terrorist threat against the U.S. consulate, senior State Department and other senior U.S. officials told CNN. "We have picked up what we regard as a threat worthy of taking this action," one senior U.S. official told CNN. The State Department issued an "orderged departure" for all of its diplomats in Lahore Thursday, except for a handful of emergency personnel. The diplomats were moved to Islamabad, the nation's capital, officials said. A travel warning issued by the State Department said the department...

Just days after issuing a sweeping terror alert that broadly warned Americans against global travel and temporarily closing embassies across the Middle East, President Obama returned to pressing his longtime narrative that al-Qaeda is on the run. Obama told Marines at Camp Pendleton this afternoon that he was there to mark the war in Afghanistan entering “the final chapter.” “More of our troops are coming home. We’ll be down to 34,000 this winter. By the end of next year, in just 17 months, the transition will be complete, Afghans will take full responsibility for their security, and our war in...

A suicide bombing at a funeral for a policeman in south-western Pakistan has killed at least 28 people including a senior police officer, police say. They say that the blast in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, also wounded at least 50 people. Quetta police chief Mir Zubair Mehmood told the AP news agency that the bomber detonated his explosives just before the funeral service was about to start. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack. However suspicion is likely to fall on the Taliban who have in the past carried out numerous suicide bombings in Balochistan.

The ‘Syria problem' is playing out in other post-Arab Spring countries, from Libya to Tunisia and Egypt, where the space vacated by despotic regimes has been taken over by Islamic militants. Terror organisations have a ready platform In May, US President Barack Obama said that he was hoping to “refine and repeal” the mandate that he got from the Congress to fight the war on terror against Al Qaeda and its affiliates, as the core group was on the “path to defeat” and “this war, like all wars, must end”. Less than three months later, he has evacuated the US...

t wasn’t just any terrorist message that triggered U.S. terror alerts and embassy closures—but a conference call of more than 20 far-flung al Qaeda operatives, Eli Lake and Josh Rogin report. The crucial intercept that prompted the U.S. government to close embassies in 22 countries was a conference call between al Qaeda’s senior leaders and representatives of several of the group’s affiliates throughout the region. snip Several news outlets reported Monday on an intercepted communication last week between Zawahiri and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the leader of al Qaeda’s affiliate based in Yemen. But The Daily Beast has learned that the discussion...

This, and only this, do we know for a fact: early this month, Zafran Ghulam Sarwar, Wajid Akbar, Mohammad Wajid Akbar and Mohammad Faisal left their homes on the Pakistani side of the control in the Neelam valley, and never came back. Pakistan claims they were innocent herb collectors, who were kidnapped by an Indian special forces engaged in an offensive counter-terrorism operation across the Line of Control. India says it has no idea what happened to the men. Not long after they disappeared, though, five still-unidentified men were shot dead by Indian troops in the same area, 500 metres...

Paul and Chriss will interview the parents of one of the Navy SEALs who was killed in the shootdown of the helicopter he was on a few weeks after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Links below. Click on the "Listen Live" button.

Five Indian soldiers have been shot dead in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, the chief minister of the disputed region says. India's army accused Pakistan over the incident, saying troops had "entered the Indian area and ambushed" an army patrol in the Poonch area. A Pakistani military official told the BBC that "no fire took place" from their side. Claimed by both countries, Kashmir has been a flashpoint for over 60 years. In January, several deadly cross-border attacks plunged the neighbours into the worst crisis in relations in years. The latest incident comes as the two sides are preparing for peace...

Maulana Asim Umar, from a video by As Sahab. His face is intentionally blotted. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. As Sahab, al Qaeda's propaganda arm, has released a video featuring Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Maulana Asim Umar, who calls on Indian Muslims to participate in the "global jihad to give a final push to the collapsing edifice of America." The video, titled "Why is There No Storm in Your Ocean?," was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. It was produced in May, but posted on jihadist forums on July 23. Asim Umar tells the Muslims of India that...

Remember when, two years ago, unnamed US counterterrorism and intelligence officials claimed that there are only two top al Qaeda leaders left in Pakistan? We do. Now, it seems that US Secretary of State John Kerry actually believes this, and told a Pakistani news channel that the US drone strikes could end "very, very soon" as "we have eliminated most of the threat." From The New York Times: Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the United States had made significant headway in its drone campaign and that he hoped the strikes in Pakistan could end shortly. "I...

Editor's note: Below is Thomas Joscelyn's testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, on al Qaeda, the nature of the group's central command and its relationship with its affiliates, and the future challenges the West faces in battling the terror organization. Chairman Poe, Ranking Member Sherman and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the threat posed by al Qaeda. We have been asked to "examine the nature of global al Qaeda today." In particular, you asked us to answer the following questions: "What is [al...

Peshawar/New Delhi - Suicide bombers today detonated explosives-packed vehicle near the Indian Consulate in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city, bordering Pakistan, killing at least eight children and wounding 21 others. Confirming the blast by suicide bombers in front of the consulate, official sources in New Delhi said, "all Indians are safe and there was no major damage to the consulate." "The situation is still very fluid," sources told PTI. Nangarhar province Police Chief Gen Sharif Amin said the car bomb was set off near a mosque leading to the Indian consulate in the provincial capital Jalalabad. "Most of the victims were children...

France and Germany are closing their embassies in Yemen on Sunday and Monday, which follows in the wake of the United States, which issued a global travel alert yesterday citing an al-Qaeda threat. That alert also caused the State Department to announce it would close its embassies this Sunday around the Muslim world. Interpol, meanwhile, issued a global security alert Saturday in connection with suspected al-Qaeda involvement in several recent prison escapes including those in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan. The alert calls on Interpol's 190 member countries to help determine whether these events are co-ordinated or linked.

Iran’s outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said 5,000 new centrifuges are ready to start operating at the country’s nuclear facilities. These are in addition to the 12,000 centrifuges already in operation. “12,000 centrifuge machines are now running in our nuclear sites and 5,000 new centrifuges are ready to start operation,” the hardline president told the country’s IRIB1 TV. … The West fears Iran is making steady progress towards nuclear weapons while the country insists its uranium enrichment was only for peaceful purposes. Meanwhile, a US think tank has noted that Iran may be able to achieve weapons-grade uranium by mid-2014....

The Afghan Taliban denied involvement in the attack. Citing intelligence inputs and preliminary investigation reports, sources in New Delhi indicated that the bombers were Pakistani nationals and had stayed in adjacent Kunar province for seven days before driving to the consulate on Saturday.

CAIRO (AFP) – Supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi urged fresh rallies on Friday, raising fears of renewed violence as police prepared to disperse them amid international appeals for restraint. The call came as US Secretary of State John Kerry said the military's removal in July of Morsi -- Egypt's first democratically elected president -- had been requested by millions. In comments that will be seen in Egypt as supportive of the interim rulers, Kerry told Pakistan's Geo television: "The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of a descendance...

The recent series of prison breaks is not coincidental. In less than a week, we have 500 senior Al Qaeda leaders escape during two assaults on prisons in Iraq, more than 1,000 in a prison assault in Libya, and another 250 in a particularly nasty Taliban assault on a Pakistani prison.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry backed away Friday from his candid comments that seemed to signal American support for the Egyptian military coup and the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. The U.S. has tried hard not to appear as if it is taking sides in the crisis. But when Kerry said Thursday in Pakistan that the Egyptian military was “restoring democracy” in leading the July 3 coup, it left the impression that the U.S. backed the military action. Kerry moved quickly to defuse the flap, saying on Friday that all parties—the military as well as pro-Morsi demonstrators—needed to work...

New Delhi: With the United States all set to withdraw from Afghanistan, alarm bells have begun to ring in New Delhi as reports indicate that a lot of arms being used by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could end up with the Pakistani military. The last time Pakistan received advanced weapons from the Americans in the 1980s, it led to the eruption of a terrorism movement in Kashmir. It is understood that New Delhi’s concerns have been communicated to US vice president Joe Biden who was on a state visit here last month. India’s security establishment has been receiving...

Takfiri Deobandi terrorist has killed his brother for converting to Shia Islam in Khanpur distirct of Punjab provience in Pakistan, on Tuesday 30 July 2013. Master Aijaz Khan, who was a school teacher at Mianwali High School was killed after his brother opened fires on him. ... Prior to his murder, martyr had told his friends several times that his family members were threatening him. He also informed several times that they (family members) might kill him.

Plumbing new depths in the battle for television ratings, abandoned babies are being given away on a controversial prime-time game show in Pakistan. TV host Aamir Liaquat Hussain presented baby girls to two unsuspecting couples during his show, which is broadcast live for seven hours a day during the month of Ramadan. … The baby girls given away on the show were found by an NGO, the Chhipa Welfare Association, which says it receives up to 15 abandoned babies a month. … “Pakistan wake up,” Shamim Mahmood wrote on the NGO’s Facebook page. “Babies are not trophies to be handed...

If you haven’t heard of Extortion 17 it’s understandable. For some reason the obama regime has been working real hard to suppress any information regarding this incident and to keep it from getting into the Mainstream Reality TV media. Thankfully, their efforts to cover their involvement in both the incident and the cover up have blown up in their faces. The usual spin, stonewalling, deception and manipulation of events that is a hallmark of the obama regime has fallen short. Congressional hearings are on the way. A fabricated outrage of synthetic racism can generate only a finite amount of distraction...

Pakistani lawmakers elected a textile businessman who briefly served as the governor of southern Sindh province as the country’s next president Tuesday, the election commission chief said, a result that was widely expected. The election of Mamnoon Hussain, nominated by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party, followed a late night attack by 150 Taliban militants on a prison, illustrating one of the major challenges facing the new president. The fighters freed more than 250 prisoners, including 38 suspected militants, and killed 14 people, including guards and Shiite Muslim prisoners, officials said. … Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will remain the most...

PESHAWAR — More than 200 prisoners escaped following a massive attack on one of the main prisons in northwestern Pakistan on Monday night, a senior security official said. Authorities imposed a curfew in the city of Dera Ismail Khan, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, following an overnight attack on the 100-year-old central prison there, which housed more than 500 prisoners. All roads leading to neighboring restive tribal regions of North and South Waziristan were blocked off and a search operation has been launched, officials said, requesting they not be named. “The attackers have melted away in the population,” one official acknolwledged. More...

Without an official announcement or any publicity, the Obama administration released five members of the Taliban from Gitmo in order to open peace talks in Afghanistan. Ynetnews.com reports that "a top U.S. official said the prisoners were released under the condition that they will not engage in any violent activity." The terror activity of those released is not in question. Rather, their release is intended as a gesture to get peace talks rolling between the U.S., Afghanistan, and the Taliban. Although this release is a stark departure from the standing U.S. policy of "zero tolerance [of] negotiations with terrorists and...

Without an official announcement or any publicity, the Obama administration released five members of the Taliban from Gitmo in order to open peace talks in Afghanistan. "a top U.S. official said the prisoners were released under the condition that they will not engage in any violent activity."  The terror activity of those released is not in question. Rather, their release is intended as a gesture to get peace talks rolling between the U.S., Afghanistan, and the Taliban. Although this release is a stark departure from the standing U.S. policy of zero tolerance [of] negotiations with terrorists and releasing of prisoners....

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban disguised as policemen attacked a prison in the country's northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan, freeing more than 300 prisoners late on Monday. Malik Qasim Khattak, advisor to the ministry of prisons, said that around 50 to 60 gunmen attacked the jail with bombs and guns before entering into the detention facility. "They detonated about 60 bombs inside the facility which caused the collapse of prison wall. The assailants succeeded in freeing more than 300 prisoners," Khattak said, adding that the militants blew up two electricity transformers which created complete darkness.

Dr. Shakil Afridi, who was arrested by Pakistan’s spy agency for helping Americans identify Osama bin Laden’s compound, may get out of his 33-year prison sentence early. Via Fox News: Pakistan is preparing a proposal to swap the doctor who helped the CIA pinpoint Usama bin Laden for a notorious female neuroscientist and suspected Al Qaeda operative being held at a federal prison in Texas, FoxNews.com has learned.The exchange would involve Dr. Shakil Afridi, the pro-America doctor whose vaccination ruse helped establish the terror kingpin’s presence in an Abbottabad compound prior to the Navy SEAL raid that killed him, and...

Two spectacular al Qaeda prison breaks in Iraq, freeing over 500 of its members in two separate prisons simultaneously this week, demonstrate the group is back with a vengeance. Al Qaeda’s Iraq branch is also the moving force behind the jihadist success in Syria. The resurgence of al Qaeda in Iraq has sobering implications for what is likely to follow the drawdown of NATO forces in Afghanistan for the al Qaeda mother ship in Pakistan. The double jailbreaks at Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons were massive attacks. Suicide bombers, teams of attackers using mortars and small arms, and two dozen...

The Muslims of the Americas (MOA), a Pakistan-linked Islamist group that runs 22 “villages” across the U.S., is waging a litigation jihad against Martin Mawyer, President of the Christian Action Network. His offense, for which MOA demands $30 million, is exposing the group’s extremism in a new book with the help of inside information from a former MOA leader. Readers of Twilight in America get an inside look at MOA, a cultish Sufi Islamist group that follows Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani as a representative of Allah. Gilani also leads Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a Pakistani “Islamic sect that seeks to...

US officials are claiming that an internal Pakistani assessment of civilian deaths from US drone strikes - obtained and published in full by the Bureau - is 'far from authoratative.' The secret document was obtained by the Bureau from three independent sources... CIA Drone Strikes In Pakistan 2004-2013 Total US Strikes: 370 Obama strikes: 319 Total reported killed: 2,509-3,576 Civilians reported killed: 410-928 Children reported killed: 164-195 Total reported killed: 1,109-1,489 ...

Washington - BJP has cautioned the United States against any peace talks with the Taliban arguing the terrorist outfit is unlikely to change its behaviour and as reconciliation effort would be a futile exercise. "The eagerness to engage with elements that want to return Afghanistan to the status of 'Islamic Emirates' in the hope that they would deliver, and in the process humiliating and weakening the democratic leadership, doesn't behove well for the region," the BJP President Rajnath Singh said yesterday. He was speaking at a conference on Afghanistan at the Capitol Hill jointly organised by the Foundation for India...

Why isn't Obama outraged about a drone war based on profiling?President Barack Obama surprised the White House press corps on Friday when he preempted the normal daily briefing to offer his unscripted ideas on the Trayvon Martin case. Obama departed from his usual reluctance to talk publicly about his personal experience with racial bias, reminding viewers that African-American men -- including him, before he became a senator -- experience prejudice based only on their appearance, not their personality or behavior. He added that the African-American community was interpreting the outcome of the case through a "set of experiences and a...

Aafia Siddiqui is a MIT-trained neuroscientist who married a top Al Qaeda operative who intended to blow up gas stations or poison water reservoirs in the United States. She is known as “Lady Al Qaeda,” and was convicted of attempting to murder Americans in Afghanistan after she was found with plans for a “mass casualty attack” in the United States, along with a list of New York landmarks. Aafia Siddiqui named Farha Ahmed as her legal counsel in a handwritten letter in October of 2010. Farha Ahmed was running for office in Texas. Farha Ahmed was the leader of the...

Under the rule of the Kushans, northwest India and adjoining regions participated both in seagoing trade and in commerce along the Silk Road to China. The name Kushan derives from the Chinese term Guishang, used in historical writings to describe one branch of the Yuezhi—a loose confederation of Indo-European people who had been living in northwestern China until they were driven west by another group, the Xiongnu, in 176–160 B.C. The Yuezhi reached Bactria (northwest Afghanistan and Tajikistan) around 135 B.C. Kujula Kadphises united the disparate tribes in the first century B.C. Gradually wresting control of the area from the...

NEW DELHI: Iran has asked India to settle all oil trade including $1.53 billion owed to Tehran in the partly convertible rupee as the sanctions-hit nation cannot find an alternative payment channel, industry and government sources in Delhi said. India has been paying for 45 per cent of its Iranian oil imports in rupees, which has limited international acceptability, and was settling the remainder in euros through Turkey's Halkbank, but this was halted in February under pressure from tighter western sanctions. The US and European Union slapped sanctions on Iran to block oil revenues over its disputed nuclear programme, which...

Last week, the Iranian rial continued its historic slide, falling to a record low against the U.S. dollar. Over the course of the week, the price of one dollar in Tehran rose from 34,200 rials to 37,500 -- a 10% drop in the rial's value. In fact, the currency has lost 75% of its value in one year. In late 2011, the price of the dollar was 13,000 rials. The latest slide in the value of the rial may well have been expected given recent trends, but the severity and speed of the drop surprised many... prices in Iran have...

On Thursday, the European Union (EU) ordered the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to block Iranian banks currently subjected to EU sanctions from using their service. SWIFT is a financial transaction company used by almost every bank around the world to send payment messages to each other. Since global financial transactions are virtually impossible to implement without SWIFT, the move represents the EU’s most determined effort to date to convince Iran that its pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable. SWIFT announced it would comply with the order by Saturday. The decision is no doubt being met with high...

For anyone wondering how the abandonment of the dollar reserve status would look like we have a Hollow Men reference: not with a bang, but a whimper... Or in this case a whole series of bilateral agreements that quietly seeks to remove the US currency as an intermediate. Such as these: "World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", and now this: "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar...

Iran's crude oil exports to India have increased 37.5% in January. India has increased oil imports from Iran to become the Islamic Republic's largest customer last month, ignoring recent sanctions imposed by US and EU on importing Iran’s oil. According to The Wall Street Journal Iranian crude exports to India rose to 550,000 barrels a day in January, up 37.5 percent from December 2011. The development, the report said, has partly offset a 50 percent cut in crude exports to China as a result of pricing dispute. China now imports around 250,000 barrels a day from Iran. The news comes...

Press Trust of India has quoted Pentagon spokesperson Commander Leslie Hullryde confirming that, contrary to press reports, the United States has not made available Lockheed Martin's advanced, fifth generation fighter jet F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters to India. However, it was noted that should India express an interest, the United States would submit technical information and initiate a discussion. "Should India indicate interest in purchasing the JSF, the United States would be prepared to provide information on the JSF and its requirements (infrastructure, security, etc) to support India's future planning" The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family...

India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, debkafile's intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively. Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran's total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets. By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank's assets and the oil embargo which the European Union's foreign ministers agreed to impose Monday, Jan....

(BRUSSELS) - The EU agreed an embargo on Iran's oil exports Monday as well as financial sanctions as the West ramped up pressure on Tehran's suspect nuclear drive to press it to return to the negotiating table. "This is an important decision. It will be a major strengthening of the sanctions applied on Iran," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "It is absolutely right to do this in view of Iran's continued breach of UN Security Council resolutions and refusal to come to meaningful negotiations on the nuclear programme," he added. After weeks of tough talks on the timing and...

China is increasingly giving signs that a hard landing could be in the cards, as the government cracks down on financial excesses and overheating markets amid a global slowdown. If the world’s second largest economy were to slow down dramatically, it would have a substantial effect on commodity prices, given China’s outsized influence in those markets. Under an extreme scenario, oil prices could drop to around $70 per barrel while copper prices would collapse 60%. On the flip side, gold would potentially benefit from a steep sell-off in renminbi-denominated assets, according to Barclays BCS +0.28%’ economics research team. After several...

U.S. crude-oil production grew by more than one million barrels a day last year, the largest increase in the world and the largest in U.S. history.

U.S. Government Investigation Of Gold Price Manipulation Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013March 15, 2013 - 04:16 PM GMT By: Midas Letter Yesterday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator who ostensibly regulates the banks and major financial institutions who participate in the futures and commodities trading business, announced they were going to examine whether prices are being manipulated in the “world’s largest gold market”, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal. For long time observers of the gold price and the fundamental and not-so-fundamental influences on its price movements, the announcement might have elicited a gasp of...