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Pakistan remains opposed to drones after Obama speech

The Pakistan government Friday repeated its view that US drone strikes in its territory were illegal, after President Barack Obama laid out new guidelines for their use. The US president mounted a firm defence of his covert drone war as legal and just in a major speech on counterterrorism policy on Thursday but warned that undisciplined use of the tactic would invite abuses of power.

Obama seeks to redefine the US war on terror

President Barack Obama laid out new guidelines for drone strikes Thursday and launched a fresh bid to close Guantanamo, warning that a "perpetual" US war on terror would be self-defeating. Obama told Americans their country was at a crossroads, and must move on from the counterterrorism policies deployed after the September 11 attacks to confront a new era of diverse global threats and homegrown radicals. He argued that the idea of a "boundless" conflict everywhere radicalism took root, be it in Pakistan or Arab Spring nations or Somalia, was now obsolete.

Soldier's murder is attack on Britain, betrayal of Islam

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday the brutal murder of a soldier by two suspected Islamists on a London street was an attack on Britain and a betrayal of Islam. "This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country," he said in a statement outside his Downing Street office. ar/rjm/txw

Taliban claim bomb in southwest Pakistan that kills 13

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Thursday for a bomb that killed 11 security personnel and two civilians in the southwestern city of Quetta. Sixteen people were wounded in the attack in the capital of Baluchistan province, and the death toll could rise, police said. The bomb was planted in a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw and blew up as a truck carrying the security men passed by.

'British soldier' butchered in suspected Islamist attack

British counter-terrorism police were Thursday investigating the murder of a man thought to be a soldier, who was butchered and beheaded on a busy London street by two men shouting Islamist slogans. The attackers, wielding knives including a meat cleaver, carried out the attack a few hundred metres (yards) from the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London, then delivered an Islamist tirade to passers-by. Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the "appalling crime", adding: "There are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident."

Anti-Islamist protests flare following London attack

British police on Wednesday arrested two people as they tried to quell anti-Islamist disorder following the brutal murder in London of a man, believed to be a soldier. A 43-year-old man was arrested in Braintree, east of London, after reportedly walking into a mosque with a knife shortly after news broke of the London murder. Local lawmaker Brooks Newmark wrote on Twitter: "Local mosque in Braintree attacked by man with knives and incendiary device. Man arrested. No one injured."

Saudis get long jail terms for plotting for Al-Qaeda

A Saudi court sentenced eight citizens to jail terms of between 10 and 25 years on Wednesday after convicting them of plotting for Al-Qaeda, state news agency SPA reported. The eight were convicted of "forming a group to eliminate police officers, among them Colonel Mubarak al-Sawat" -- killed in 2005, SPA said. They were found guilty of "aiding Al-Qaeda" by searching for addresses of Saudi officers and sending threatening messages to them.

Tunisia Salafist spokesman released on bail

Ansar al-Sharia spokesman Seifeddine Rais, detained in the Tunisian city of Kairouan at the weekend as police enforced a government ban on its annual congress, was released on bail on Wednesday, the Salafist group said. "God be praised, our brother Seifeddine Rais has been freed," the group said on its Facebook page. Lawyer Anouar Ouled Ali told AFP his client still faces charges of spreading false information and incitement to violence during a press conference earlier this month. He has been summoned to appear in court on Friday.

British police arrest two more over London attack

By Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested two more people on Thursday in a hunt for accomplices of two British men of Nigerian descent accused of hacking a soldier to death on a London street in revenge for wars in Muslim countries. The two suspected killers, now under guard in hospitals, had been known to security services before Wednesday's daylight attack, security sources said. Another man and a woman, both aged 29, were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.

Tunisia Salafist group calls for Friday demo

Radical Salafist group Ansar al-Sharia, which Tunisian authorities have branded a terrorist organisation, has called for a protest in the city of Kairouan on Friday against the arrest of its spokesman. "Call to all Muslims to a protest in support of Ansar al-Sharia's spokesman Seifeddine Rais, in front of the headquarters of ruling Islamist party Ennahda near Bab Jalladine" in Kairouan, the group said on its Facebook page.
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