On July 20 President Dmitry Medvedev signed into law amendments to Russian NGO legislation. The changes make it easier for the NGO's to register with the government, to report on their activities and limit government agencies' ability to perform regular checks on NGO's (www.kremlin.ru, July... MORE

After a relatively long period of calm, Islamist militancy in Bangladesh is showing new signs of life, even in the face of continuous crackdowns on terrorist infrastructure and activity by counterterrorism forces in the country. Security officials have long established that many of the outlawed... MORE

In September, three years will have passed since the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat - GSPC) joined al-Qaeda. A sharp rise in terrorist attacks has been noticeable since 2007, when the GSPC changed its name... MORE

Niger Delta militants in speedboats launched a devastating attack on Nigeria’s rapidly decaying energy infrastructure on July 13 by seizing and destroying a major oil distribution point in Lagos, a city of 16 million people. The assault was the first time militants from the Delta... MORE

Commenting on the recent controversial contacts between American diplomats and Iraqi Sunni insurgents in Turkey, Turkish government sources have confirmed that Ankara facilitated high-level talks, and maintains that the government in Baghdad was kept informed of these developments (Taraf, July 26). This highlights the Justice... MORE

Violence in Ingushetia continues unabated. The wreckage of a blown-up VAZ-2107 automobile with the remains of four unidentified people was discovered ten kilometers outside the city of Karabulak on July 26. A Karabulak police source said the owner of the car was a suspected rebel.... MORE

Kommersant reported today that the speaker of Chechnya's parliament, Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, has held two days of talks in Oslo with Akhmed Zakaev, the London-based prime minister of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI). According to the newspaper, yesterday's meeting between the two was closed... MORE

The Memorial human rights group, which has suspended its activities in Chechnya in the wake of the murder of Natalya Estemirova, who worked in its Grozny office, says that it nonetheless is continuing to receive reports about rights violations in the republic, both from law-enforcement... MORE

On July 18, the renowned human rights center Memorial announced the suspension of its activities in Chechnya, following the murder of its activist Natalya Estemirova on July 15. Estemirova was kidnapped in Grozny near her home and found dead in neighboring Ingushetia later on the... MORE

Despite the arrest on April 23 of a man identified by Iraqi authorities as Abu Omar al-Husayni al-Baghdadi, the elusive leader of the “Islamic State of Iraq” (ISI), audio messages keep emerging from an unseen individual who identifies himself as the authentic Abu Omar al-Husayni... MORE