Puntland President General Addeh Museh announced in a surprise move that his semiautonomous region in northeastern Somalia will adopt the rule of Islamic law

Undercover security personnel apparently infiltrated a chat room and recorded exiled Islamic cleric, Omar Barkri Muhammed allegedly making comments that supported terrorism in the United Kingdom and urging followers to carry out further attacks

Pakistan has denied that the US was involved in an air strike on a religious school, allegedly serving as a cover for an Al-Quaeda training camp. However, religious leaders have protested Islamabad?s alliance with the US and say that they blame the US for the death of up to 80 people in the strike ? many of which are thought to be militants.

Colonel Juancho Saban, of the armed forces of the Philippines, said American soldiers attached to Filipino Marine unit were not involved in actual combat against Islamists, but only there to provide valuable intelligence.

Enayet Ullah Jewel admitted to the illegal possessions in January of this year, and acting on his confession Bangladeshi police recovered seventeen types of arms and ammunition, as well as three kilos of explosives.

Recent polls of business leaders in the U.K.`s capital have revealed that three out of four do not believe that London?s transportation sector is any safer today than it was last year. Two-thirds of these business leaders also believe that another Islamic terrorist attack upon London is inevitable.

In a disturbing sign that Somalia may be once again going down a dark path, Muslim militias spread their tendrils further into the southern portion of the country as secular militias (favored and supported by the U.S.) there suffered a major blow with the fall of a key stronghold at Jowhar.

The forex currencies market world was abuzz recently when the government of Pakistan announced a goal of aiming to raise the country`s foreign exchange reserves beyond the $14bn mark by June, official sources said here yesterday. The foreign exchange reserves stand at $13bn now.

A decree by Egyptan President Hosni Mubarak that effectively postpones local elections by extending the terms of thousands of political allies of the president for two years drew an angry response this week from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt`s largest opposition group.

Still-partial results from Egypt show that President Hosni Mubarak`s National Democratic Party scooped up 314 seats in the 454-seat assembly, 90 fewer than in elections five years ago but still more than the two-thirds majority needed to pass constitutional changes. The Brotherhood, which is formally banned from politics, won 88 seats and became the leading voice of dissent against President Hosni Mubarak`s quarter-century rule.

The government generally tolerates the Muslim Bortherhood group, which renounced violence in the 1970s, but hundreds of members have been detained in recent months during a period of increased protests against President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt`s leader for 24 years.

Waning influence of Islamists, who have given way to secular and moderate parties, makes many believe the wave of fundamentalism could be forestalled effectively in the frontier province and at the polls in the next national elections in 2007.

Kurds and Shiites appear to be hardening positions as the clock ticks on finishing Iraq`s constitution. While Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish political leaders in Iraq have sought compromise on issues of national identity and federalism to meet the Aug. 15 deadline for the new constitution, there are indications that the majority Shiites may be hardening on one of the most contentious issues: the role of Islam in the government.