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Wednesday 5 June 2013

London mosque burns down, arson feared over discovery of EDL ‘stamp’


A two-story Islamic centre (Al-Rahma Islamic Centre) burned down overnight in north London in an incident being treated as possible arson. Rescuers found ‘EDL’ scrawled on the building’s remains, fueling fears of a racially motivated revenge for the bloody Woolwich execution.

The fire broke out at around 3:15am local time at a mosque in Muswell Hill, north London, an area which also contains the Al-Rahma Islamic Centre and the Bravanese Centre. All had existed undisturbed for at least 20 years.

“The place has been absolutely destroyed. The community is shocked and very distressed because they have been here in peace for the past 20 years,” Mohamed Ali of Somali charity BritSom told local newspaper the Evening Standard. He said that he was certain the event was linked to the Woolwich attack.

Some 35 firefighters in six different fire engines were called out to battle the blaze, with locals also reporting the presence of helicopters. Police and fire officials said that it took around an hour and a half to bring the blaze under control.


“There were several fire engines and I think even a helicopter. It was terrible. This will really shake the community up,” one witness identified as ‘Nurein’ told the Evening Standard.

A statement released by the local metropolitan police commander said “We are at the very early stages of investigating what happened in the matter,” and reiterated the importance of the Bravanese Centre in the local Somali community.

No injuries were reported as a result of the blaze, although one woman suffered from shock.

Anti-Islamic hatred has spiked in London since the brutal killing and beheading of Lee Rigby, 25, by two men who said the murder was motivated by the UK’s involvement in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The UK saw Islamophobic sentiment intensify in the wake of the killing, with the English Defense League (EDL) arranging thousand-strong marches and religious campaign group Faith Matters reporting an explosion in calls related to incidents of anti-Islamic violence.

Two men have already been arrested for firebombing a mosque in an Islamic district of the northeastern seaport of Grimsby on May 27, fueling fears that a divide between Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK’s cities is deepening.

Courtesy: Russian Times

Another Hezbollah-linked arms and ammunition found in Nigeria

Security operatives in Kano have discovered another Hezbollah-linked cache of arms and ammunition in the same location as they were unearthed last week.

Military spokesman Captain Ikedichi Iweha said the new cache involves a bunker beneath the master bedroom.  Three Lebanese nationals have been arrested.

The new discovery was made yesterday at the 3 Gaya Road, Bompai address where, last week, a large quantity of arms and ammunition was found in a warehouse, and four foreigners were arrested.

“After painstaking search of the whole premises, the search team uncovered an underground bunker in the master bed room where a large quantity of assorted weapons of different types and caliber and ammunition which were properly wrapped was recovered.

Report has it that the owner of the warehouse, a Lebanese national is under interrogation over the discovery.  The property was later found out to belong to one Abdul Hassan Taher Fadlalla, a Lebanese national, but that he is currently out of the country.

“On further search of the property, a cooler was recovered buried under the wardrobe which had in it, 80 indicators, 5 PPK pistols, 334 rds of 7.62mm special, 9 magazines, 4 pistol silencers, 18 36 hand grenades caps, 4 explosive fuses and 2 explosive devices.”

He recalled that on 28 May 2013, a combined team of the DSS and 3 Brigade Nigerian Army conducted a thorough search of a house at No 3 Gaya Road off Bompai Road Kano after a tip-off by the Israelis as revealed by the Israeli ambassador to Nigeria.

Lebanese consul denied a Lebanese owned the building housing the previously discovered weapons. He claimed it belonged to a Sierra Leonean.

Newly elected Pakistani PM, Sharif demands end to US drone strikes

Nawaz Sharif after his swearing in faced the most contentious issue in Pakistan, noticeable in its political campaigns and other facets of its society; activities of US drones on its soil. The US drones have allegedly killed more innocent civilians than militants. Upon the return of Pervez Musharraf to Pakistan, he was booed and looked askance at because he instituted and signed the drone menace.

Pakistan’s parliament elected Nawaz Sharif as prime minister Wednesday. He received 244 votes in the 342-seat parliament, returning him to the Prime Minister’s office for an unprecedented third term. In his first address since taking office, Sharif called on the US to end its campaign of drone attacks in the country’s tribal northwest.

“We respect the sovereignty of others and they should also respect our sovereignty and independence. This campaign should come to an end,” AFP quoted him as saying. Sharif, who was deposed in a military coup in 1999, won the May 11 elections as part of his Pakistan Muslim League-N party.

Yemen launches army operation against Al-Qaeda in East

Recently, United States drone attacks killed top al Qaeda chiefs in Yemen as well as in Pakistan. Days after, al Qaeda appointed other commanders to prove the war must go on.

This definitely was a perfect signal for both the United States and Yemen cum Pakistan that it is battle galore. Yemen understood the message, hence, it is launching an assault.

Yemeni troops backed by tanks and helicopters assaulted an Eastern city on Wednesday to drive out Al-Qaeda-linked militants. Clashes involving dozens of soldiers began early in the morning.

Three soldiers and several militants were killed in fighting at Ghail Bawazeer, north of the Hadramout provincial capital of al-Mukalla, Reuters said. Islamist militants in Hadramout have distributed leaflets in Ghail Bawazeer, the province’s fourth-largest city, saying they planned to establish an Islamist emirate there.

Obama to appoint Susan Rice as top Security Adviser

United States ambassador to the United Nations who was once tipped to be the Secretary of State but lost out to John Kerry based on the Benghazi attack and her presumed 'incoherent' role, Susan Rice to be appointed to a new position by President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama reportedly plans to appoint Susan Rice as his national security adviser, replacing Tom Donilon, who is resigning. Obama plans to make the appointment later on Wednesday, Reuters said.

The White House confirmed a New York Times report on the major change to the foreign policy team. The president will also nominate Samantha Power, a former White House aide and Harvard professor, to replace Rice as US ambassador to the UN, a White House official said.

China discovered to be involved in a string of Cyber Espionage Activities -Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab has discovered a years-long cyber-espionage operation that victimized hundreds of high-profile targets in 40 countries. The malware, known as NetTraveler, was used for covert computer surveillance and appears to have originated in China.

The Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Lab best known for exposing Flame and Stuxnet - sophisticated spywares launched by the US government - has uncovered a global cyber-espionage network targeting the world's diplomatic, government and military agencies.

In a report published on June 4 the malware that especially targeted Asian countries was identified as an “advanced persistent threat” similar to the Red October unveiled in January.

“Based on the collected intelligence, we estimate the [controlling] group side to about 50 individuals, most of which speak Chinese natively and have working knowledge of the English language,” the report said.

However, nowhere in the Kaspersky report is the Chinese government accused of any wrongdoing and only speculation links China to the infection software.

According to the report, NetTraveler was designed to "steal sensitive data as well as log keystrokes, and retrieve file system listings and various Office or PDF documents.”

The amount of stolen data discovered on the malware’s command-and-control servers exceeded 22 gigabytes, with that being a small fraction of the total data stolen since the rest of it was previously downloaded by the attackers and deleted from the servers.


The countries most frequently targeted by NetTraveler – Russia, India, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan – all border China. The first evidence of NetTraveler appeared in 2004, but the report said the most attacks came between 2010 and 2013.

Diplomats were targeted most often, followed by government workers, and high-level private officials then international military contractors. Tibetan/Uyghur activists and oil industry companies also ranked among the favourite targets.

The hackers did not use any advanced vulnerabilities and relied on phishing attacks, which often distribute infected links via email or social media.

“NetTraveler victims get infected through spear-phishing attacks using Office documents which exploit two publicly known vulnerabilities,” the report states with analysts surprised that such unsophisticated attacks can still be successful with high profile targets. “Although these vulnerabilities have been patched by Microsoft, they remain effective and are among the most exploited in targeted attacks.”

The researchers discovered that at least six NetTraveler targets – a Russian military contractor, a government organization in Tajikistan, and embassies in Belgium, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Belarus – were previously hacked by the Red October campaign that was likely launched from Eastern Europe. Kurt Baumgartner, a senior security researcher for the Americas on the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky, told DarkReading.com the attempts from separate phishing schemes indicates those locations are highly valued.

“Threat actors infiltrate victims simultaneously and may or may not be concerned about victim overlap,” he said. “Most likely, with these two groups in particular, the operators have a specific set of tasks at the victim organizations. If they happen to see another piece of malware on the target network, and it doesn’t interrupt their operation, they just go back to completing their assignments.”

Courtesy: Russian Times

Syrian Government announced it has taken over Qusayr; rebels confirmed withdrawal

For weeks, the battle for who controls the strategic town of Qusayr ranges on. Hezbollah was pounding the rebels from the Lebanese side while government forces with superior firepower were attacking from within Syria.


Syrian rebels said they withdrew from the Syrian town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border overnight Wednesday after an onslaught by the Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters.

“In face of this huge arsenal and lack supplies and the blatant intervention of Hezbollah… tens of fighters stayed behind and ensured the withdrawal of their comrades along with the civilians,” a statement sent to Reuters said.


The Syrian government later announced it has captured the key border town of Qusayr after battling for weeks to control the region on state TV. Qusayr is located near the Lebanese border, about 18 miles (29km) southwest of Homs.

It is seen as a key city for both sides, as it links the Syrian capital of Damascus with government strongholds on the Mediterranean coast and is a passageway for rebel supplies and fighters from Lebanon. The Syrian conflict has continued for more than two years, with the UN estimating that over 80,000 have died from the violence so far.