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APA-Mogadishu-(Somalia) Islamist militants of the Hezbal Islam rebel group have killed two football fans and arrested ten others after attacking a house where fans were watching the World Cup game between Argentina and Nigeria in the Huruwaa neighborhood north-east of the capital Mogadishu on Saturday. Residents say that heavily armed militants stormed a house where football fans were secretly watching the match, which has been prohibited in the Islamist-controlled regions in Somalia. “Two young men who tried to jump over the wall were shot and killed while ten others including my husband and my teenage son were taken to Islamist...

Representatives of two immigrant minorities believed to have been involved in Sunday’s group fight at Linnanmäki have sharply condemned the melee. The incident has highlighted tensions that sometimes emerge between Somalis and Kurds in Finland. Some Somalis have taken issue with the dress and habits of Kurds, who are often fairly relaxed in their interpretation of Islam. Dozens of young people with immigrant backgrounds took part in Sunday’s melee – mainly Somalis and Kurds. Kurds have said that there have been tensions between the groups before, because some of the Somalis, many of whom are devout Muslims, have been known...

SNIPPET: "An Aeromexico plane flying to Mexico City from Paris had to land late Sunday afternoon at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal to remove a passenger whose name is on the U.S. no-fly list, Radio-Canada reported. The man was escorted out of the plane and taken into custody by the RCMP."

Note: Video included at link. SNIPPET: "Now, law enforcement officials appear increasingly concerned Al-Shabaab members are trying to come back to America. But these members aren't disenchanted young men like Hassan, seeking to escape the terrorists' hold. Rather, the concern is that they are returning either to recruit more members or perhaps to plot attacks here." SNIPPET: "Al-Shabaab represents a "threat to the whole nation, all of the world," Ahmed told the IPT. "Everywhere they could recruit somebody they will try – Europe, North America, Australia, Africa…And they want to disrupt world peace." Ahmed warned that Al-Shabaab's main focus in...

The flow of immigrants to Minnesota is quietly reaching record highs amid signs of what could prove to be a profound and lasting shift in their continents of origin. For the first time ever, African nations are supplying more than half the state's legal immigrants. Four countries from that continent now stand atop the list. Arrivals are doubling and quadrupling from countries such as Kenya and Liberia even as numbers are tapering off, for a variety of reasons, from past immigrant taproots such as India, Thailand and Russia, federal data show.

Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch sent us the latest revelations about something we predicted last year in an NER article, “Foot Soldiers of Islam": FBI and local counter terrorism authorities need to step up monitoring of the radical Somali émigré communities In the US. This is a vital necessity to prevent swarming attack threats from returning American Somali Al Shabaab fighters who evade capture by US immigration and counter terrorism authorities. According to an article in WorldNet Daily, the FBI has launched such an effort beginning with the Washington, DC metro area. We need a comprehensive counter terrorism strategy....

Note: This is a 4 page article. Read it all. Page 2: SNIPPET: "Gang history in Maine Portland Police Chief James Craig said publicly last month that one of his primary goals for 2010 is to dismantle two established gangs in Maine's biggest city - one made up primarily of young Somali men and the other composed of young Asians. Similarly, Lewiston has seen gang activity recently from a group of young Somali men. The crimes have been petty thefts and strong- arm robberies, but the attacks appear to be at least somewhat organized and often involve sticks or rocks...

SNIPPET: "An al-Qaeda-linked extremist group in Somalia has recruited more than 20 young people from Sweden to fight in the war-torn African country, the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) fears. Somali Islamic insurgency group Harakat al-Shabab Mujahideen ("Movement of Warrior Youth"), better known as Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, is thought to have recruited dozens of Swedish youth to engage in terrorist acts, according to Göteborgs-Tidningen." SNIPPET: "Gothenburg was identified by several sources as the largest recruitment base in the country, the report said. Sweden is also a fundraising hub for the group, according to Svenska Dagbladet editorial writer Per...

SNIPPET: "NAIROBI, Kenya, May 5 (CDN) -- Islamic militants yesterday killed another leader of the underground church movement in Somalia, sources said. Before he was fatally shot on Tuesday (May 4) in Xarardheere, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Jowhar, 57-year-old Yusuf Ali Nur had been on a list of people the Islamic extremist al Shabaab suspected of being Christian, sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told Compass. Al Shabaab, said to have links with al Qaeda, has vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity." SNIPPET: "Nur is survived by his wife, whose name was withheld for security reasons, and...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Eleven Somalis accused of attacking two navy ships off the coast of Africa appeared in Virginia federal court Friday shortly after being indicted on charges of piracy.

Federal authorities say they're certain nearly 300 Somalis allegedly smuggled into the United States by a Virginia man who admitted contacts with an Islamic terrorist group are in the country, but they can't find them despite a worldwide search for leads. The search, first reported by the Washington Examiner, started in early February after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Anthony Joseph Tracy on charges that he helped smuggle the Somalis into the United States from Kenya. The 35-year-old has since been indicted on charges of conspiring with Cuban Embassy officials in Kenya to help the Somalis illegally enter the...

The St. Patrick’s Day festivities meant something much different for the couple in their 80s from Minneapolis than for the other revelers at the local American Legion Post... Within days the couple would be returning home to a Minnesota suburb now changed forever by the huge influx of Somali immigrants whose behavior had forced them to move... “They are taught how to flush,” Marie (not her real name) said. She began to describe how the émigrés are taught how to use and flush a toilet, how to turn on kitchen faucets to get hot and cold water and how to...

NAIROBI, April 9 — For centuries, Somalis used poetry and songs to pass protest messages to powerful rulers they were too afraid to confront directly. Now, some young Somalis are using rap to speak out against Islamists who they say are using religion to wage war in their country. The 11-member Waayaha Cusub band, currently in exile in neighbouring Kenya, wants its rap lyrics to encourage fellow Somalis to stand up to Islamist rebels known as al Shabaab. They have handed out at least 7,000 free copies of their newly-released album titled “No To Al Shabaab” to residents in Nairobi’s...

Rochester, N.Y. -- Awes Mohammed, 29, of Troup Street is charged with assault after stabbing his wife multiple times. The wounds his wife, Nurto Mohammed, 23, suffered -- included large slashes to her face. The two moved into the Rochester area from Somalia.

SNIPPET: "Somalis with ties to a terrorist organization are believed to be plotting to illegally enter the United States after being mistakenly released from custody in Mexico, a confidential federal law enforcement report said." SNIPPET: "Included in the group is Mohamed Osman Noor, 35, of Somalia, who U.S. officials suspect has strong ties to Al-Shabaab Mujahideen, an Islamist insurgency group in the ongoing war in Somalia with ties to al Qaeda. The report was written by an intelligence official with the Laredo Sector Border Intelligence Center, a joint federal task force under the Department of Homeland Security that operates on...

Federal officials have dismissed a complaint that the Minnesota Department of Education discriminated against black and Somali students at a metro-area charter school. The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights said there was not enough evidence of discrimination against students at Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) based on their race or national origin. The school serves about 500 K-8 students, including many from immigrant families, at campuses in Inver Grove Heights and Blaine. Federal officials conducted the probe in response to a complaint filed last fall by Nathaniel Khaliq, president of the St. Paul chapter of the National Association...

Somali refugees have resettled in America to escape the chaos of their homeland. But the transition isn't going smoothly in one town.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIYYd476H1k&feature=player_embedded

Terrorism & Security "Somali pirates hijack eight ships in three days" "Somali pirates hijacked a cargo ship with 24 crew Monday, on the heels of capturing another seven vessels in the Indian Ocean over the weekend." Photo Gallery Somali pirates SNIPPET: "Pirates captured a Panama-flagged cargo ship just 10 miles from its port on Monday. The ship was last reported being sailed through the Gulf of Aden toward Somalia. The attack comes after seven ships were hijacked in the Indian Ocean this weekend and underscores the persistence of pirates even in the face of increased international patroling and private security...

More than two dozen Muslims and their supporters rallied across from Apollo High School in St. Cloud in support of students who attend St. Cloud schools. The St. Cloud Times reports Monday the group claims that school staff members are not doing enough to keep Muslim students from being harassed and sometimes contribute to it. The rally crowd Monday was mostly adults. They chanted and held signs that said "Discrimination is intolerable" or "St. Cloud school district must integrate" among other things.

… the remarkable reach of the global-terror network A little-noticed investigation by Swiss federal police has uncovered the existence of an apparent terror-support network with ties to the upper levels of Al Qaeda — including an operative believed to have played a role in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the May 2003 bombing of a housing complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The discovery of a largely invisible Al Qaeda network in the peaceful alpine nation has gotten virtually no public attention outside of Switzerland. But criminal charges outlined in a July 30 Swiss prosecutor’s report —...