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Four cycling tourists, including two Americans, were killed in an attack in Tajikistan, authorities told ABC News. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a Twitter post Monday. A group of seven cyclists was heading north in Danghara district, about 55 miles southeast of the capital Dushanbe, when they were struck by a car with five armed people onboard on Sunday. Tajikistan’s interior minister said that, after striking the cyclists, the people in the car got out and attacked them with a firearm and a knife. The two Americans, a woman and a man, were killed along with a Swiss...

The head of Baghdad's Central Criminal Court sentenced the women on Sunday The court said the women were found guilty of 'joining and supporting ISIS' Six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also given life in prison Iraq on Sunday sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State group, the latest in a series of heavy verdicts against foreign women linked to the jihadists. The head of Baghdad's Central Criminal Court, which deals with terrorism cases, said the women were found guilty of 'joining and supporting IS', according to an AFP journalist...

Russia is becoming increasingly a Muslim country. Russia counts about 15 million people (in a total population of over 146 million, including two million in annexed Crimea) of Muslim background, or about 11 percent of its population. All are not fervent believers, and even fewer practice Islam routinely. Moscow has the largest Muslim community in Europe: about one million Muslim residents and up to 1.5 million Muslim migrant workers. Given demographic changes, Muslims will represent between one third (the most conservative estimate) and one half (the most generous estimate) of the Russian population by around 2050. Russia’s Muslims mostly belong...

Tajikistan legislators passed a law that effectively bans hijabs, joining a long list of countries that limit or ban Islamic dress. The new law requires citizens to “stick to traditional and national clothes,” which means either uncovered hair or a scarf tied behind the head, along with long dresses for women, according to Radio Free Europe. The law does not specifically outlaw the hijab, or variations of Islamic veils for women, but enforces a traditional Tajik dress code that a hijab would violate. “It’s really dangerous,” Tajik Minister of Culture Shamsiddin Orumbekzoda told RFE. “Everyone looks at them with concern,...

The United States on Tuesday offered a reward of up to $3 million for information about a former Tajik special operations colonel whom it trained in counter-terrorism before he joined the Islamic State militant group. The U.S. State Department announced the reward for Gulmurod Khalimov in a statement that made no mention of his training, which included attending five U.S.-funded courses in the United States and Tajikistan between 2003 and 2014....

Russian Taliban Suspect Sues United States Created: 28.06.2005 18:10 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:10 MSK, 6 hours 31 minutes ago Alexandra Zaitseva Gazeta.ru A former Guantanamo prisoner who is a Russian national filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government. This Tatarstan resident, Airat Vakhitov, issued a statement Tuesday that is capable of sparking a new wave of anti-American protests in Muslim countries. In his lawsuit, which is being examined in a U.S. civil court, Vakhitov not only demands that the authorities admit to inhumane treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo camp, but insists that they acknowledge that a majority of...

Green cards, or Lawful Permanent Residency, puts immigrants on the path to citizenship and allows for lifetime residency, federal benefits, and work authorization. Included in the totals are refugees, who are required to apply for a green card after one year of residency in the U.S. Unlike other types of immigrants, refugees are immediately eligible for welfare benefits including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, and Medicaid Green Card Totals, FY09-FY14: Pakistan (102K), Iraq (102K), Bangladesh (90K), Iran (85K), Egypt (56K), Somalia (37K), Uzbekistan (30K), Turkey (26K), Morocco (25K), Jordan (25K), Albania (24K), Afghanistan (21K), Lebanon (20K), Yemen...

Moscow and Tel Aviv are planning to sign a free trade agreement in the near future, Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergey Levin told journalists on Friday. "Such decisions aim at maximizing cooperation between Russia and Israel in terms of agriculture and new technologies; creation of joint ventures, as well as the prospects of a free trade zone agreement which the government expects to sign with Israel as soon as possible," Levin said following Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich's meeting with Israeli businessmen. Israel's Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel also expressed hopes the two countries would sign the agreement soon....

Brunei, Somalia and Tajikistan ban Christmas In yet another sign of increasing Islamist intolerance around the world, the celebration of Christmas has come under attack in at least three countries this year: Following in the footsteps of the English Puritans who banned Christmas in the Middle Ages, Brunei, Somalia and Tajikistan are now clamping down on the Christian festival. Now, the announcement from Somalia, which is struggling to get back on its feet after decades of civil war, is possibly the least surprising. The country is officially under sharia'h law; it has almost no native Christians; and Islamist militants still...

Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Tuesday urged the president of Tajikistan not to go overboard in its crackdown on political Islam and expressions of faith. In remarks after he met with Foreign Minister Sirodjidin Aslov and President Emomali Rahmon, Kerry acknowledged concerns that religious extremists could infiltrate over Tajikistan's long border with Afghanistan. "We talked about the difficulties and challenges of counterterrorism and fighting against violent extremism effectively, but also in a way that balances human rights and religious freedom," he said. Kerry struck a similar note Monday during a speech in Kazakhstan, where he said that repressive...

As I walked into the department this bright brisk morning, coffee cheerily in hand, the live global seismogram display in the atrium caught my eye with an alarming event that had just happened during my bike ride into work. *gasp* that looks bad *gasp* that looks bad BIG earthquake, somewhere in the vicinity of Central/Southern Asia. Indeed, an earthquake deep (>200 km) beneath the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan had shaken a huge swath of Central and South Asia. The great depth of the earthquake meant less extreme shaking at the epicenter (nobody lives closer than 212 km from the...

With the risk of falling rocks, blind potholes and even carbon monoxide poisoning, it's easy to see where this treacherous road earned its nickname. Dubbed the Tunnel Of Death, the three-mile route is not for the faint-hearted – or the intrepid, for that matter. It was built to provide a safer journey for drivers travelling between Tajikistan’s major cities who previously had to contend with avalanches. But the £2.6billion project, constructed by Iran, appears to have offered an even more hellish alternative instead.

Vladimir Putin has proposed setting up a NATO-style joint task force of post-Soviet states to secure the borders of Central Asia amid fears of Taliban “spillover” from Afghanistan. A fresh sign of the Russian president’s new military assertiveness, the deployment raises the possibility of Russian and allied troops being deployed along Tajikistan’s 800-mile border with Afghanistan, and Moscow tightening its influence of governments in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It comes a day after Barack Obama said American troops would stay in Afghanistan for at least two more years—itself a tacit admission that the Afghan government is unable to tackle the...

Russia may send border guards to Tajikistan to fend off ISIS - Defense Ministry Published time: 15 Oct, 2015 13:54 Edited time: 15 Oct, 2015 15:34 Russia’s deputy defense minister has told reporters that it’s possible the Russian military would fight terrorism by putting regular units on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. “Our political leaders will discuss this problem and make a decision. Everything is possible,” General Yuri Borisov said at a news conference in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. He was being asked if Russia could give military support to Tajikistan due to the growing terrorist threat in the region....

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to ask Tajikistan for the lease of a former Soviet airbase that was refurbished by India in 2007. Government sources told Mail Today that use of the Ayni airbase for the Indian Air Force, tops the agenda for discussion with Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon when the prime minister arrives on a state visit on July 12. Tajikistan marks the last leg of Prime Minister Modi's eight-day tour of the five Central Asian Republics and Russia. The Ayni airbase near Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe has long been key to expanding India's strategic footprint in Central Asia. India...

(Aug 2, 2012) POLISH officials have unveiled a statue of former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, honouring two men widely credited in this Eastern European country with helping to topple communism 23 years ago. The statue was unveiled in Gdansk, the birthplace of Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, in the presence of about 120 former Solidarity activists, many of whom were imprisoned in the 1980s for their roles in organising or taking part in strikes against the communist regime. The bronze statue, erected in the lush seaside President Ronald Reagan Park, is a slightly larger-than-life rendering of the...

Soviet Communism, the dark tyranny that controlled nearly 40 nations and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 100 million victims during the 20th century, suddenly collapsed 20 years ago without a shot being fired. In just two years--from 1989 to 1991--the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and Marxism- Leninism was dumped unceremoniously on the ash heap of history. There was dancing in the street and champagne toasts on top of the Brandenburg Gate. For 40 years, the United States and the West had been following a policy of containment, détente, accommodation. Ronald Reagan decided it was...

ALMATY (Reuters) - The U.S.-trained commander of Tajikistan's elite police force has defected to Islamic State, he said in a YouTube video, and his former unit will issue a statement condemning him, media said on Thursday. Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov commanded the Central Asian nation's special-purpose police known as OMON, used against criminals and militants. He disappeared in late April, prompting a search by Tajik police. He reappeared Wednesday, vowing to bring jihad to Russia and the Unites States as he brandished a cartridge belt and sniper rifle, in a professionally made, 10-minute video clip posted in social networks. "Listen, you...

Meet Gulmurod Khalimov, the US-trained and funded former commander of Tajikistan's special forces, who, as Reuters reports, has now gone to Syria to fight with ISIS. He has a message: "Listen, you American pigs, I’ve been three times to America, and I saw how you train fighters to kill Muslims...God willing, I will come with this weapon to your cities, your homes, and we will kill you." As Reuters reports: Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov commanded the Central Asian nation’s special-purpose police known as OMON, used against criminals and militants. He disappeared in late April, prompting a search by Tajik police. He...

Russia has deployed hundreds of troops for drills in Central Asia with its ex-Soviet allies in a show of force as anxiety grows over a surge in fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. Around 2,500 personnel from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) are taking part in joint exercises due to run to Wednesday in Tajikistan. The move is seen as re-enforcing Moscow's role as the main guarantor of the fragile region's security after US troops leave Afghanistan. The Russian deployment of about 500 troops for the drills started last week, bolstered by soldiers from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus....