Security tightened in Thai district
Thai security forces have strengthened their presence in the restive southern province of Songhkla. Separatist violence in the mainly Muslim south of the country has claimed thousands of lives, particularly in the neighbouring provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani. Militants have often targeted marketplaces and other crowded public spaces.
A bomb exploded outside a grocery store in Narathiwat, killing one person and injuring six.
Hizbut Tahrir in Indonesia call for sharia law
To receive our daily security briefings, click hereOver 80,000 supporters of the caliphist political organization Hizbut Tahrir rallied in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, calling for sharia Islamic law in the country and the return of a transnational Islamic caliphate. Participants at the march claimed that Indonesia's secular system had kept them in poverty, but many scholars have been critical of a so-called "sharia by-law" that they fear will be detrimental to Indonesia's development.
Full offensive against Philippine rebels
Fighting has intensified between the Philippine army and separatist and Islamist forces in the Sulu archipelago in the south of the Philippines. Over fifty people have been killed in recent violence.
Troops to Ingushetia
Hundreds of federal police soldiers have poured into the Russian republic of Ingushetia after militants stepped up activities in recent weeks. Ingushetia has long harboured anti-Russian insurgents, many of them affiliated with the Chechen cause.
A trackside bomb derailed a passenger train between Moscow and St. Petersburg, injuring scores of passengers.
Secular pledge
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, has pledged that if elected president by the parliament, he would uphold the country's traditional secularism. Opposition parties organized mass rallies against the ruling AK party when Gul was proposed as a candidate for the presidency in May.
Neighbours in Afghanistan
While touring Kabul, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vehemently denied US accusations that Iran was supplying Taliban fighters with weapons.
The American right-of-centre Counterterrorism blog lays into Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, also visiting Afghanistan, for encouraging negotiations with the Taliban. What's next, asks the blog, "mainstreaming al-Qaida"?
Israel warns Europe away Palestinian reconciliation
With Palestinian politics bitterly divided between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank, Israel has warned off European states from seeking to heal the divide between the two factions. Tel Aviv insists that with Hamas isolated, negotiations can finally take place with the remaining Palestinian government.
Chad reconciliation
Chad's government agreed a peace deal with opposition parties, ending a civil war that had destabilized the region. Elections have been scheduled to take place in two years.
Magazine attacked by chauvinists
The offices of Outlook India, a left-of-centre Indian news magazine, were ravaged by chauvinist gundas, affiliated with the Hindu nationalist party Shiv Sena. Outlook satirized Shiv Sena's leader Bal Thackeray in their latest issue, comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
Former Islamist leader attacked
Mustapha Kertali, founder of the Algerian Islamist party the Salvation Islamic Front (FIS), was seriously wounded when suspected militants blew up a car he was travelling in. Kertali had accepted an Algerian government amnesty. FIS are thought to have won elections in the early 1990s, at which point the secular Algerian army intervened, triggering a civil war that left tens of thousands of people dead.
