Pope Benedict XVI has approved the first-ever Catholic-Muslim forum which will hold its first meeting at the Vatican in November 2008. The decision follows three days of meetings with Vatican officials and a Muslim delegation representing 138 Muslim scholars. Inspired by Prince Ghazi bin Muhammed bin Talal of Jordan, these scholars wrote an open letter…
On Thursday, the Netherlands raised its national risk level of a terrorist attack to substantial, ahead of the launch of a film by right-wing politician Geert Wilders. In a report to the Dutch parliament, he Dutch counter-terrorism agency said that the assessment was also influenced by increased arrests and threats of individuals and groups suspected…
Spain has dropped the extradition of two British residents formerly held as terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay. High Court judge Baltasar Garzon shelved the case of two inmates in after medical reports from British authorities declared them to be unfit to stand trial after suffering years of abuse and torture, according to their lawyers. The…
Court proceedings in the trial against the alleged producers of an al-Qaeda-promoting threat video, billed Austria’s first case of Islamist terrorism, were adjourned on Thursday until March 12. Two defendants, Mohamed M. and his wife Mona S., aged 22 and 21, face charges of membership in a terrorist organization, having allegedly planned bomb attacks in…
Last November, Gilles de Kerchove, the European Union’s anti-terror chief, said that al-Qaeda was the biggest threat to Europe. To confirm this, Western intelligence services have recently established operational links between al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda in The Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) whose goals include striking at the heart of Europe. Al-Qaeda has not made any…
