Finding the motivation
In the first of a series of investigative pieces on violence in Iraq, the Sunday Times meets with three Iraqi, Jordanian and Syrian men who plan to sacrifice their lives for the insurgency against US troops. With over 1,300 suicide bombings in Iraq since 2003, the country has experienced more of such violence than all other countries combined in the last twenty years. The article suggests that many of the bombers are "violent intellectuals", well-educated and from middle class backgrounds.
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British prime minister Gordon Brown has promised to slash UK troop levels in Iraq from 5,000 to 2,500 by the spring of 2008, marking a clear retreat from the days of willing engagement under former prime minister Tony Blair.
Ankara ready to act
With fifteen of its soldiers killed in the last two days by Kurdish rebel fighters - the worst loss of military life since 1995 in Ankara's struggle against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - Turkey is more seriously considering an attack on PKK positions in northern Iraq.
A bomb exploded at a ferry station in the outskirts of Istanbul, injuring several people. Similar blasts last week struck the port town of Izmir.
Azerbaijan on board
Political analysts in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, suspect that a recent visit by a top CIA official was part of a wider White House strategy targeting Iran, the country's neighbour to the south.
All in the family
Mario Uribe, the cousin of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, has resigned from the senate in order to avoid an inquiry into whether he had ties with right-wing paramilitaries. Colombian politics have been shaken this year by revelations that many top-ranking politicians and businessmen struck deals with the United Self-defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), a group branded as a "terrorist" organisation by the State Department. Recently, the American fruit company Chiquita was found guilty of paying protection money to AUC.
Neighbours and friends
With Myanmar's junta still largely intact, international scrutiny has fallen on the country's major allies and neighbours, including India. Foreign ministry spokesmen in New Delhi issued messages of support for confined opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but refrained from sternly rebuking the conduct of Myanmar's military as it cracks down on dissent.
Hattab turns himself in
Hassan Hattab, founder of the Algerian Islamist militant organisation the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has officially turned himself over to Algerian authorities. Analysts doubt that his surrender will have any effect on curbing terrorist violence in the country, with Hattab already long-since distanced from the current generation of Islamists pitted against Algiers.
Peace in Chad?
In talks mediated by Libyan officials in Tripoli, Chad's government reached a provisional deal with several rebel groups in the central African country.
Buenos Aires-Tehran spat
Iran has hit back at Argentinian accusations of failing to cooperate in investigations into the 1994 bombing of two Israeli centres in Buenos Aires that left eighty-five people dead. Tehran has blamed the stumbling investigation on inadequacies in Argentina's political and judicial apparatus.
Exit from Gitmo
US authorities released a Mauritanian man from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility last week. Around 330 people remain in the facility.
JI's fragmented threat
Even though Indonesian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah has been gutted by local security forces, its mutation into several splinter groups poses a grave threat to Indonesia and Australia.
Basques jailed
Seventeen members of the Basque political party Batasuna have been jailed in Spain for their alleged association with terrorist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna. Thousands protested their arrests as tantamount to a declaration of war.
