Al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch claimed yesterday it is holding hostage a senior UN peace envoy, his aide and four tourists kidnapped in the Sahara Desert. United Nations special envoy for Niger, Robert Fowler, and his aide Louis Guay, both Canadian diplomats, were kidnapped Dec. 14 in the southern Sahara country. Four tourists, including two Swiss,…
Ahead of the third anniversary of the 7/7 London attacks in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people, an Islamic website ‘muslimyouth.net’ backing suicide bombers has reportedly received a 35,000-pound grant from the British Government. The website carries dozens of hate messages by fanatics on its ‘support group” site. One of the members wrote of…
More than a month after their disappearance, the fate of two Austrian hostages who were captured while touring the Tunisian desert remains shrouded in uncertainty. But the case has been seen to expose the difficulty of controlling the vast expanses of the Sahara as al-Qaeda’s North Africa affiliate seeks to make its presence felt across…
Salvatore Stefio, a former hostage in Iraq, plans to run in Italy’s upcoming elections on April 13th and 14th under the right wing La Destra party to defend Christian Identity. Stefio was one of four Italians abducted near Baghdad in 2004 while working as a security guard. “I am with La Destra to reaffirm the…
ROME – The leaders of Muslim communities in Italy endorsed on Monday statements by pope Benedict XVI who warned that Africa and Asia feel threatened by the West’s materialism and secularism. “We agree with the pope,” said Roberto Piccardo, the spokesman of Italy’s largest Muslim group UCOII. “It is true that Muslims are puzzled by…
