Indonesian prisons: radical workshops
Despite the Indonesian government's wide-ranging efforts to combat Islamist militancy in the country, the state of Indonesian prisons threatens to undermine anti-radicalisation initiatives. Many social programs to combat radicalism hope to use ex-prisoners as a vanguard for change in their communities. Yet thanks to corruption and lax controls within prisons, jihadi inmates have managed to communicate with comrades outside and fan the flames of militancy within the prisons themselves.
Islamism in the Maldives Keep up to date with the latest developments and sharpest perspectives in a world of strife and struggle.
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In the wake of the first ever Islamist terrorist attack in the Maldives, a video discovered in a mosque in one of the archipelago nation's more remote islands has led to concerns that al-Qaida is moving in on the tourist paradise.
Aishath Velezinee in Himal Southasian argues that we only have the country's leader, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, to blame for rising Islamism in the Maldives.
Carnage in Afghanistan
A suicide attack outside the office of the governor of a southwestern province of Afghanistan has claimed at least seven lives, including that of the governor's sons. The strike - linked to Taliban insurgents - took place in Zaranj in Nimorz province, a relatively peaceful part of the strife-torn country.
Many of the sixty-one children killed in the 7 November attack in Baghlan - the worst suicide bombing in Afghanistan's history - were actually killed when bodyguards of Afghan politicians indiscriminately fired into the crowd after the blast.
Negroponte leaves little impression in Islamabad
John Negroponte, the US deputy secretary of state, concluded his visit to Pakistan with indications that he failed to turn Islamabad away from emergency rule. Pakistani officials claim that there was "nothing new" on offer in talks with Negroponte, and that Islamabad had offered no guarantees to Washington.
Sectarian clashes in Kurram
Sunni and Shia Pashtuns in the tribal border region of Kurram, in the west of Pakistan, have clashed in fighting that has left at least a dozen people dead. Sectarian violence has recurred in Kurram since the 1980s. The Frontier Post asks: where is the government?
Anbar to Waziristan?
American military offices have submitted a classified proposal to Islamabad urging the funding and equipping of tribal groups in the west of the country to combat Taliban and foreign al-Qaida elements. The plan echoes a similar strategy at work in Anbar province in Iraq, which US officials claim to be successful. Its critics argue that empowering tribal groups so and equipping paramilitaries only sows the seeds of future violence.
Thaw in the Mediterranean
Turkish and Greek leaders shook hands at the opening of a new gas pipeline that will bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, lowering European dependance on Russian supplies. The old foes agreed that a quarter of the gas pumped through will remain in Greece, with the rest being exported.
Independent Kosovo: Balkan disaster
Serbian officials have prophesised that granting independence to the Albanian-majority enclave of Kosovo will "not be the final stage of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, but the first stage of new disintegration and secession in the Balkans".
