The Canada Border Services Agency Agents found the drugs concealed in a shipment of rugs from Pakistan. The CBSA stated nearly 11 kilograms of heroin was hidden within the hand-knotted woollen fibres of the rugs.

Yahya al-Hindi, a former member of the Islamic Jihad terror organization who is responsible for having built a global jihad network in Gaza that functions as a regional “exporter of terrorism” is also known as Abu Kathada al-Shami. His 11-man jihad team included Moroccans from Casablanca, Azilal (in the Atlas Mountains) and Oujda (in the eastern part of the country).

In 2006, al-Hindi’s group named “The Unity of Allah and Jihad in the Land of Ribat” took responsibility for multiple rocket attacks fired at Jewish communities in the western Negev. According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), the land of the ribat, “frontier” in Arabic is the term for the outskirts of Muslim territory where battles are fought with the infidels to defend Islamic lands. The term is used to refer to “Palestine” which is considered “occupied” (by Israel).

Arabic media reported that al-Hindi traveled the following year to Afghanistan for training with al-Qaeda terrorist operatives and others at Taliban camps who taught him how to prepare explosive devices and a variety of military techniques. He spent the next three years staying in touch with the group via jihadist internet web sites.

This past May 2010, al-Hindi traveled to Morocco hunting for a site in which he could organize and train his terrorist network – but entered the country under the pretext of preparing to marry a young Moroccan woman. Officials had previously denied him entry four times before, but he was allowed to pass through for marriage. Barely a month later, Moroccan security forces realized al-Hindi’s terrorist cell was operating in the country and moved quickly to capture the group.

Prosecutor Ali al-Buainain’s statement says all print, radio, TV, Internet and other media may not “publish or broadcast anything related to” detained activists Abdul Jalil al-Sengace and others held since mid-August.

The August 27, 2010 announcement was published in all Bahraini newspapers. It states the investigations “require secrecy in order to uncover the truth and preserve public order” and warns offenders could face a year’s imprisonment under the law.

The report also says Rwanda’s rebel allies, tied to the current Congolese president, helped kill tens of thousands of Hutus, the majority of whom were women, children, the sick and the elderly.

“Upon entering a locality, they ordered the people to gather together. Once they were assembled, the civilians were bound and killed by blows of hammers or hoes to the head.”

The systematic and widespread attacks “could be classified as crimes of genocide” by a competent court, the draft stated.

The leaked report is a major embarrassment to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, an ally of the United States and Britain and whose government long has claimed the moral high ground for ending the 1994 genocide of Tutsis that included the killings of some moderate Hutus.

Le Monde, the French newspaper that first leaked the report, stated Kagame is threatening to withdraw Rwandan troops in the U.N.-African peacekeeping force in Darfur, Sudan, if the genocide allegations are officially published.

Congo’s President Joseph Kabila was also a commander of the Congolese rebels named in the report at the time of the attacks. Congo’s government denied the accusations and derided the report as partisan, incomplete and unjustifiable.

“The deeds are presented as if it is the Congolese who are the assassins, the genociders, when it is totally the opposite,” it said in a 50-page response to the U.N.

Rwanda’s government stated the report was “dangerous and irresponsible,” risked creating more instability in the region, and suggested it was leaked to divert attention from U.N. peackeepers’ failure to protect civilians in a recent mass rape atrocity in the Congo.

“It is immoral and unacceptable that the United Nations, an organization that failed outright to prevent genocide in Rwanda and the subsequent refugees crisis, a direct cause for so much suffering in Congo and Rwanda, now accuses the army that stopped the genocide of committing atrocities” in Congo, stated spokesman Ben Rutsinga.

He said the investigators did not meet with Rwandan officials though they found time for 200 nongovernment organizations and that their report was “based on questionable methodology, sourcing and shockingly low standard of proof.”

Investigators, stated they required two independent sources for each of the 600 incidents documented in their 545-page report.

In Geneva, spokesman Rupert Colville stated he was disappointed that the draft from the High Commissioner for Human Rights was leaked. He stated changes were still being finalized, but declined to say if they included the use of the word “genocide.”

The report, whose publication has been delayed for a year, stated Hutus in Congo, both Rwandan refugees and Congolese were clearly targeted.

Witnesses stated the soldiers “displayed a clear desire for revenge in their massacres of the (Congolese) Hutu Banyarwanda, targeting villages where Tutsis had been persecuted in the past.”

At least 350 civilians were slain in a massacre in eastern Rutshuru town in October 1996, the report stated. In the days leading up the massacres, soldiers appealed to people who had fled the area to return home.

“In the afternoon, the soldiers began to compile a register and asked people of Nande ethnic origin to return home. They then separated the men and women. The women were taken to the Maison de la Poste, where they were executed. The men were bound and led in pairs to a sand quarry. All of them were then executed with blows of hammers.”

“The numerous deaths cannot be attributed to the hazards of war or seen as equating to collateral damage,” it stated.

The leaked report notes that Rwanda permitted Hutus to return home in large numbers, but states that does not “rule out the intention of destroying part of an ethnic group as such and thus committing a crime of genocide.”

Kagame’s fighters also have been accused of massacring Hutu civilians in Rwanda during fighting to end the genocide; charges his government strenuously denies.

More than 1 million Hutus fled to neighbouring Congo in the aftermath of Rwanda’s genocide. The refugees included perpetrators of the genocide who used refugee camps as bases to attack Rwandan and Congolese Tutsis in Congo and launch attacks into Rwanda.

Jason Stearns, the chief investigator of a U.N. panel on Congo’s arms embargo, stated the draft report is the first systematic investigation of atrocities over that period, especially massacres of Hutu refugees.

“I think this report has rocked the Rwandan government … It’s going to be incredibly damaging to Rwanda’s international reputation,” stated Stearns, who is also writing a book, “Dancing in the Glory of Monsters,” that covers the 1993-2003 period investigated in the report.

The U.N. secretary general commissioned the report after mass graves were discovered in 2005 and investigators went to Congo in 2008. The identities of alleged perpetrators are being held in a confidential database.

Rwanda’s 1994 genocide was sparked when a plane carrying then-President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down as it approached Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. The slaughter ended when Kagame now Rwanda’s president led a group of Tutsi rebels to overthrow the Hutu government.

In 1996, Rwanda invaded Congo, stating it was going after those who committed the genocide. A second invasion two years later exploded into a regional war involving eight countries.

The U.N. report, which should be published at the end of August 2010, describes atrocities committed by the many Congolese rebel factions as well as by troops from Uganda, Burundi, Zimbabwe and Angola.

But the most egregious cases involving the largest numbers of victims involve Rwandan troops fighting with Congolese rebel forces to kill Hutus.

The report calls for justice, urging prosecutions of “those who bear the greatest responsibility.” But it noted a lack of political will to pursue war crimes in Congo and a general impunity, both charges the Congolese government denied.

Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheik’s office stated he had summoned al-Ahmed and ordered the cleric to refrain from issuing unauthorized fatwas. The office stated it “received a pledge from al-Ahmed not to issue any fatwas” without approval.

The move is the first public reprimand of a prominent cleric following a royal decree that limits the issuance of fatwas to the country’s most senior group of clerics. Fatwas are religious edicts that provide guidance in matters of everyday life to pious Muslims.

Sheik Youssef al-Ahmed had urged people not to shop at Panda Supermarket because women there work in jobs that allow for the mingling of the sexes, which the cleric stated was a violation of Islamic law.

Saudi media reported that al-Ahmed’s fatwa forced the supermarket management to reassign 11 of its women employees to other positions.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam and religious leaders have strong influence over policy making and social mores. Sexes are segregated in schools and public places. Women are not allowed to drive or vote, and physical education classes are banned in state-run girls’ schools.

Saudi King Abdullah has been trying to clamp down on ultraconservative ideology, including allowing women to take up commercial jobs.

Earlier in August, Abdullah decreed that only the powerful government-sanctioned Council of Senior Islamic Scholars could issue fatwas. And last year, the king dismissed a hard-line cleric who criticized a newly inaugurated university for allowing men and women to take classes together.

But reining in the fatwas or any learned scholar from providing them may prove difficult as they are a way of life for observant Muslims who freely seek guidance from their local clerics.

In a call-in TV show on satellite channel al-Usra, which is Arabic for The Family, al-Ahmed defended his edict. The fatwa has fueled campaigns on the Internet and through social networking groups. A group on Facebook had nearly 1,500 members supporting al-Ahmed.

Al-Ahmad stated having women work as cashiers was a step “toward adopting a Westernized project.” “This is a project of the hypocrites that must be stopped, it’s a violation of the country’s laws.”

In another example of the clash between fatwas and state policy, a senior cleric recently stated women should not participate in international or local equestrian competitions because it violates rules of modesty and causes them to “mingle with men.”

The edict went against the kingdom’s decision to send young female competitor Dalma Malhas to the Youth Olympics in Singapore. Malhas, 18, won a bronze metal on Tuesday in the first ever Saudi female participation in international sports events, according to the English language Arab News daily.

Sheik Saud al-Funiasan claimed in comments on a Saudi website that women in equestrian events are “defiant public violators” of Islamic law. “Authorities must prevent that. Only an impertinent would accept or praise such an act,” said al-Funiasan, according to the Ijaz website.

Abuelazam is an Arab Israeli citizen who is living in the US with a green card. However, most media outlets in the US who reported the story mentioned that Abuelazam is an Israeli but did not mention that he is an Arab Israeli, from Ramla.

Most of the men who were attacked were black. US police stated that they believe the suspect chose victims based on the color of their skin. Police suspect Abuelazam is behind the attacks that have taken place over the last two-and-a-half months in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia. It is alleged that his method of operation was to approach a lone man on a city street late at night, ask for directions or help with his car, and then to attack the person viciously, usually with a knife.
The first attack was in late May in Flint, Michigan, when a 31-year-old black man was stabbed. Over the next two months, 13 more men were attacked by the serial stabber in and around Flint. Five of them died. In early August, three attacks were reported in Leesburg, Virginia, and one in Toledo, Ohio. Flint residents hope the arrest ends their summer of fear. Roughly every four days since late May on average, the killer approached men on lonely roads at night, asking for directions or help with a broken-down car. Then he’d pull out a knife, plunge it into his victim and speed away; in one case he used a hammer. The youngest victim was 15; the oldest 67. All died before Aug. 4, when Michigan authorities concluded the attacks were the work of one serial killer.

Police added that Abuelazam had a previous criminal record and had been arrested in 2007 for illegal gun possession, though the charges against him had been dropped. The Flint Journal reported that he has had several brushes with the law in the past, including having his drivers licence suspended, giving alcohol to a minor and simple assault.

In Michigan, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said authorities don’t know the motive for the stabbings. Abuelazam was identified to be the suspect of the stabbings through fingerprints. The investigation continues and police are also searching for possible connections with other stabbing incidents. A tip late Tuesday which was one of more than 500 received in the stabbings led police to a market near Flint where Abuelazam worked. Leyton said investigators talked to employees, and a store video showed that he matched the description of the man wanted by authorities.

Abuelazam was living in Flint, where his uncle owned two adjacent homes. Leyton said police searched them and removed evidence but he declined to describe it.Leyton said Abuelazam’s uncle bought him the plane ticket, which cost about $3,000, and is now co-operating with police.

Leyton stated Arlington police found a knife and a hammer in Abuelazam’s 1996 green and gold Chevrolet Blazer, which police returned to Abuelazam after briefly impounding it. The vehicle matched one described by some stabbing victims, and a hammer was used in one later attack in Virginia, on a 19-year-old man in a parking lot. Two other attacks — one in Leesburg and the one in Toledo — also occurred after the traffic stop.

Antwione Marshall, the victim of the July 27 stabbing in which Abuelazam has been charged, told The Associated Press that he identified Abuelazam as his assailant when the FBI visited him to show him a photograph of the suspect. Marshall, 26, of Flint, stated he was going into his apartment building when the assailant approached and asked for help fixing his car. He was stabbed twice when he opened the hood, and now has a long scar from his chest to his pelvic area. A judge in Flint signed a warrant Thursday charging Abuelazam with assault with intent to murder in connection with the stabbing of Marshall. Authorities suspect him of stabbing a total of 14 men in Flint.

A few dozen people who heard about the arrest gathered outside Abuelazam’s former workplace, Kingwater Market in Mount Morris Township. One yelled that the owner should have been suspicious. Police cleared the parking lot. Store manager Abdulla Farrah said Abuelazam worked there for about a month before leaving Aug. 1. He stated, “I hope if he’s the one that did this I hope they hang him, I hope he gets the death penalty.” Sam Peters, 30, recalled seeing Abuelazam with a bandage on his right hand and cuts on his fingers when he went into the store.

Abuelazam has ties to Leesburg, Virginia, the site of three similar attacks last week, Leesburg police Officer Chris Jones said. Authorities in Toledo, Ohio, say a stabbing in that city Saturday appears to be linked to the violent spree. The trail to Abuelazam began last week, when he was arrested in Arlington, Virginia, during a routine traffic stop. Arlington Detective Crystal L. Nosal said police realized he was wanted on a simple assault warrant in Leesburg, about 30 miles away, but a magistrate released him on personal recognizance.

Abuelazam’s mother, Iyam al-Azzam, talked to her son by phone before he was supposed to board. The family lives in Ramla, a mixed Israeli Arab Muslim/Christian working class town between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is under Palestinian Authority control. Neighbors, who refused to give their names, stated the family is Christian, which is questionable, but told reporters little else.

On Saturday, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux referred to Hebbadj before announcing plans to include polygamy and female genital mutilation on a list of practices that could lead to revocation of French citizenship from immigrants. He went beyond President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to strip the French nationality of foreign-born people who endanger police. Hortefeux stated he would formally submit the plan, by the end of the month.

The Jordanian was detained for questioning and searches of the area continued.

In 2003, the Muslim Brotherhood boycotted elections after a government crackdown on the group.

Islamic Action Front chief Ali Abu-Sukar stated the Muslim Brotherhood, the party’s sponsor, ordered the boycott to protest a new law reducing seats for lawmakers in urban areas, where it has influence.

Abu-Sukar stated that the Front, which is the Brotherhood’s political arm, will neither field candidates nor cast ballots in the polls.

The May legislation of new electoral law increased seats in rural regions, dominated by pro-government Bedouin tribes.

Din, the cousin and brother- in-law of Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bomb in Damascus in February 2008, was also reportedly responsible for planning the attempted assassination of the ruler of Kuwait in 1985, among other operations.

US President Barack Obama stressed the importance of implementing UN resolutions that call to disarm Hizbullah and preventing the transfer of weapons to the group, during a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Obama also underscored the importance of ensuring that Iran comply with its nonproliferation obligations, a major focus of the UN Security Council, which Lebanon currently heads.

The message was repeated in several meetings with top US officials during Hariri’s two-day visit here, his first official trip as premier. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman put out a statement following their meeting mentioning “the need for full implementation of all relevant Security Council Resolutions” among US priorities for Lebanon.

Hariri’s pro-Western faction has increasingly made statements supportive of Hizbullah which wields veto power within his government coalition and reached out to Syria as part of a complicated political struggle in the country. Though the US values its ties with Hariri and wants to encourage his pro-West movement, it eyes these overtures with concern. Obama “expressed his determination to continue US efforts to support and strengthen Lebanese institutions such as the Lebanese Armed Forces” during his meeting with Hariri, according to a White House statement. But the Lebanese prime minister was expected to face a tougher reception Tuesday on Capitol Hill, which holds the purse-strings for the military aid.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, stated that members of his group would be among those indicted by the tribunal.

From a report in Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad told Saudi King Abdullah during their meeting in Damascus July 30, 2010 that the UN tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri must be closed to protect Lebanon’s stability.

Assad asserted to Abdullah, a key supporter of the faction of Sa’ad Hariri, son of the former premier and current prime minister; that Syria would find any attempt to hold Hizbullah accountable for the elder Hariri’s death as unacceptable.

Many in Lebanon are concerned that if the tribunal implicates Hizbullah, it could lead to another round of clashes between Lebanon’s Shi’ite and Sunni communities, like the bloody conflict that convulsed Beirut in 2008.