Algeria Hostage Crisis Death Toll Hits 80, Could Rise Further

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Algerian troops found 25 bodies of hostages at a bomb-littered gas plant deep in the Sahara desert on Sunday, a day after ending a four-day siege, a security source said, raising the death toll of militants and their captives to at least 80.

Around 30 foreigners – including American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian and Romanian citizens – are among those missing or confirmed dead after the siege, one of the worst international hostage crises in decades.

Algeria had given a preliminary death toll of 55 people killed – 23 hostages and 32 militants – on Saturday and said it would rise as more bodies were found.

The security source said that toll did not include the 25 bodies found on Sunday, which meant the total number of hostages killed – foreign and local – was at least 48. The search was not over, and more could yet be found, he said.

He also said six militants were captured alive, including two found hiding on Sunday. Troops were still searching for others. Earlier, the authorities had said all the fighters had been killed.

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Hostages Dead in Bloody Climax to Siege in Algeria

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BAMAKO, Mali — The four-day hostage crisis in the Sahara reached a bloody conclusion on Saturday as the Algerian Army carried out a final assault on the gas field taken over by Islamist militants, killing most of the remaining kidnappers and raising the total of hostages killed to at least 23, Algerian officials said.

Although the government declared an end to the militants’ siege, the authorities believed that a handful of jihadists were most likely hiding somewhere in the sprawling complex and said that troops were hunting for them.

The details of the desert standoff and the final battle for the plant remained murky on Saturday night — as did information about which hostages died and how — with even the White House suggesting that it was unclear what had happened. In a brief statement released early Saturday night the president said his administration would “remain in close touch with the government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place.”

The British defense minister, Philip Hammond, called the loss of life “appalling and unacceptable” after reports that up to seven hostages were killed in the final hours of the hostage crisis, and he said that the leaders of the attack would be tracked down. The Algerian government said that 32 militants had been killed since Wednesday, although it cautioned that its casualty counts were provisional.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who appeared with Mr. Hammond at a news conference in London, said he did not yet have reliable information about the fate of the Americans at the facility, although a senior Algerian official said two had been found “safe and sound.”

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Egyptian Court Sentences Christian Family to 15 Years for Converting From Islam

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The 15-year prison sentence given to a woman and her seven children by an Egyptian court for converting to Christianity is a sign of things to come, according to alarmed human rights advocates who say the nation’s Islamist government is bad news for Christians in the North African country.

A criminal court in the central Egyptian city of Beni Suef meted out the shocking sentence last week, according to the Arabic-language Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm. Nadia Mohamed Ali, who was raised a Christian, converted to Islam when she married Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab Mustafa, a Muslim, 23 years ago. He later died, and his widow planned to convert her family back to Christianity in order to obtain an inheritance from her family. She sought the help of others in the registration office to process new identity cards between 2004 and 2006. When the conversion came to light under the new regime, Nadia, her children and even the clerks who processed the identity cards were all sentenced to prison.

Samuel Tadros, a research fellow at Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, said conversions like Nadia’s have been common in the past, but said Egypt’s new Sharia-based constitution “is a real disaster in terms of religion freedom.”

“The cases will increase in the future,” Tadros said. “It will be much harder for people to return to Christianity.”

President Mohamed Morsi, who was elected last June and succeeded the secular reign of Hosni Mubarak, who is now in prison, pushed the new constitution through last year.

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Thirty Hostages Reported Killed in Algeria Assault, Fate of Americans Unknown

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(Reuters) – Thirty hostages and at least 11 Islamist militants were killed on Thursday when Algerian forces stormed a desert gas plant in a bid to free many dozens of Western and local captives, an Algerian security source said.

Details remained scant – including for Western governments, some of which did little to disguise irritation at being kept in the dark by Algeria before the raid and its bloody outcome.

Two Japanese, two Britons and a French national were among at least seven foreigners killed, the source told Reuters. Eight of the dead hostages were Algerian. The nationalities of the rest, as well as of perhaps dozens more who escaped, were unclear.

Americans, Norwegians, Romanians and an Austrian have also been mentioned by their governments as having been captured.

Underlining the view of African and Western leaders that they face a multinational, al Qaeda-linked insurgency across the Sahara – a conflict that prompted France to send troops to neighboring Mali last week – the official source said only two of the 11 dead militants were Algerian, including their leader.

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Iran Warns: Terrorism to Spread to Washington DC

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In a story carried by Iran’s FARS News Agency, a senior Iranian religious cleric warned that Washington, D.C. should prepare for terrorist attacks in the future.

This warning followed a brutal attack on Shiites in Pakistan that Iran blames on the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The FARS media outlet, effectively controlled by the Iranian government, said that Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi – a senior Iranian religious leader – condemned

the massacre of Shiite Muslims in a terrorist attack in Pakistan which he said has been financed by the US and Saudi Arabia, and warned that the terrorism that these countries support will one day backfire and target Washington, London and Riyadh.

“A horrible crime has happened in Pakistan and a number of predator animals who are called Wahhabi Takfiris have detonated bombs in a Shiite convention and martyred 120 people and injured hundreds,” Makarem Shirazi said in the Central city of Qom on Wednesday.

He blamed the US and Saudi officials for financing such crimes against the Shiite Muslims, and said, “Today this crime was committed in Quetta, Pakistan, and tomorrow it will be Washington’s, London’s, Egypt’s and even Saudi Arabia’s turn.”

Makarem Shirazi also blasted the Pakistani government for it loose security measures in protection of the Shiite community in the country.

A total of 129 people were killed and 280 wounded in three bomb attacks across Pakistan on Thursday.

Ninety-two people were killed and 200 others wounded in a twin bombing that targeted Shiite Muslims in a crowded billiards hall in the western city of Quetta. Earlier in the day, 12 security forces were also killed in a bomb explosion at a security check point in the city.

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Are We on the Verge of a Currency War?

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Despite global finance ministers promising in 2010 that they wouldn’t engage in “competitive devaluation,” it looks like the world is on the brink of a major currency war, or so says Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, according to Bloomberg.

“Japan is weakening the yen and other countries may follow,” Ulyukayev warned today at a conference in Moscow, adding later that the world is headed for a “currency war.”

Unfortunately, Ulyukayev isn’t the only one with currency concerns. Others have weighed in on the issue :
•Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker recently noted the “dangerously high” value of the euro.
•Norway and Sweden have expressed concern over currencies exchange-rates.
•The Bank of Korea has threatened “an active response” to current rates.
•Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said he’s “a little disturbed” by Japan’s actions and the risk of so-called “beggar-thy-neighbor” policies.
•Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said last week that he is worried “we’ll see the growth of actively managed exchange rates.”

In short, there’s a “degree of disquiet in the global policy-making community,” as Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens puts it, and some think it could evolve into something far more dangerous for the world economy.

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Islamic Terrorists With Believed Al Qaeda Links Take U.S. Hostages in Algeria (+video)

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Militants with possible links to al Qaeda seized about 40 foreign hostages, including several Americans, at a natural-gas field in Algeria, posing a new level of threat to nations trying to blunt the growing influence of Islamist extremists in Africa.

As security officials in the U.S. and Europe assessed options to reach the captives from distant bases, Algerian security forces failed in an attempt late Wednesday to storm the facility.

A French effort to drive Islamist militants from neighboring Mali that began with airstrikes last week expanded on Wednesday with the first sustained fighting on the ground. France’s top target, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, claimed responsibility for the Algeria kidnappings, calling it retaliation. The claim couldn’t be verified, although AQIM has its origins in Algeria and operates across a swath of Africa.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. would take “necessary and proper steps” in the hostage situation, and didn’t rule out military action. He said the Algeria attack could represent a spillover from Mali.

U.S. and European officials said Wednesday that they received reports that three Americans had been kidnapped, out of a total of nine U.S. staff working at the site, a gas field in east-central Algeria, along the Libyan border operated by BP BP.LN -0.41%PLC, Norway’s Statoil ASA STL.OS -0.56%and Algerian energy company Sonatrach.

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Video Emerges of Egyptian Leader Morsi Blasting Jews, Zionists in 2010

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As Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi claims he will uphold a peace treaty with Israel, a video has emerged of 2010 speech in which he lashes out at Jews and Zionists.

According to The New York Times, Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, spoke at a rally against the Israeli blockade of Gaza, telling Egyptians to “never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews.”

Morsi went on to say Palestine would be freed through resistance, and called President Obama a liar.

The speech was first shown Friday on Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef’s television show, according to the paper, and was made after a flareup in 2010 between Israel and Gaza.

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Syria Bombs Damascus Suburbs to Keep Rebels Out

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BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government bombed areas around Damascus on Monday as part of its push to keep rebel fighters out of the capital, leaving many children among the dozens killed, anti-regime activists said.

An international aid organization cited such raids, along with rape and widespread destruction, as key factors in the exodus of more than a half-million Syrians to neighboring countries since the conflict began in March 2011.

The International Rescue Committee said it could be “months, if not years” before the refugees can return home, and the organization warned that Syria’s civil war could inflame tensions in the Middle East.

After nearly two years of violence, it appears unlikely the war will end soon. Although rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad have made gains in the country’s north and east and outside Damascus, they have yet to seriously challenge his hold on the capital or other parts of the country.

Earlier this month, Mr. Assad dismissed calls from the U.S. and others that he step down and vowed to keep fighting until the country is free of “terrorists” — his government’s shorthand for rebels.

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North Korea Says It Is Bolstering Its War Defenses

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PYONGYANG, North Korea – North Korea vowed Monday to strengthen its defenses amid concerns the country may conduct a nuclear test as a follow-up to last month’s long-range rocket launch.

Citing U.S. hostility, Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said in a memorandum that North Korea will “continue to strengthen its deterrence against all forms of war.”

The memorandum carried by state media did not say what action North Korea would take to defend itself. However, North Korea has claimed the right to build atomic weapons to protect itself from the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea.

North Korea sent a satellite into space on Dec. 12 aboard a long-range rocket, a launch that the U.S. and its allies have criticized as a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

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