The attack happened in the northern city of Kidal, with civilians believed to be among the injured. It is not clear how many suicide bombers struck – one humanitarian worker said that there appeared to be two.

http://www.dw.de/suicide-bombing-in-mali-kills-chad-soldiers/a-16741309

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At least 20 people have been killed in a series of bomb and gun attacks in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

More than 16 people are believed to have died after gunmen stormed the city’s main court buildings, shooting and setting off explosions.

The Islamist militant group al-Shabab is suspected of carrying it out, reports the BBC.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/14th-apr-2013-deadly-attack-on-somali-courthouse/144907/ 

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http://youtu.be/1aVvumd5rCg

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Indonesian police said Tuesday they had arrested a man suspected of being the bomb maker in a terror group accused of robbing a jewelry store to fund militant activities.

Fajar Sidik, 29, was detained on Thursday in Semarang city, central Java province, national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/58502/indonesia-arrests-suspected-terror-group-bomb-maker

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MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Two al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf commanders, including one on the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists, survived a Philippine military offensive that killed eight militants and led to the seizure of their jungle lair and bomb materials in the southern Philippines, the military said Tuesday.

The assault by more than 100 army troops early Monday targeted Abu Sayyaf commanders Isnilon Hapilon and Puruji Indama in the outskirts of Tipo Tipo town on Basilan Island, but the two managed to escape and were still being hunted by government forces, army brigade commander Col. Carlito Galvez said.

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AL QASR, Lebanon (AP) — Masked men in camouflage toting Kalashnikov rifles fan out through a dusty olive grove, part of a group of Hezbollah-backed fighters from Lebanon who are patrolling both sides of a porous border stretch with Syria.

The gunmen on the edge of the border village of al-Qasr say their mission is to protect Shiites on the Syrian side who claim their homes, villages and families have come under attack from Sunni rebels.

http://news.yahoo.com/hezbollah-backed-lebanese-shiites-fight-syria-195826789.html

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NC Counter-Terror Statistics for lst Quarter 2013

NORTH CAUCASUS – In the first quarter of 2013, 124 people have been killed and a minimum of 75 were wounded in the NC armed conflict. According to Kavkazskiy Uzel’s calculations, of the 124 dead, 82 were NVF members, 21 were policemen and 21 were civilians. Of the 75 wounded, 45 were law enforcers, 25 were civilians, and five were NVF members.

http://www.retwa.com/

A perhaps explanatory note from Wikipedia: ” In 2005, then-Chechen rebel leaderAbdul-Khalim Saydullayev decreed the formation of a Caucasus Front against Russia among Islamic believers in the North Caucasus, in an attempt to widen Chechnya’s conflict with Russia. After his death, his successor, Doku Umarov, declared continuing jihad to establish an Islamic fundamentalist Caucasus Emirate in the North Caucasus and beyond.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_the_North_Caucasus

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Boston?

Pfft.

By way of comparison with Muslim-majority states in April 2013.

I fudged on Lebanon — Hezbollah’s only patrolling, so reads the news — but there’s a larger point to be made here.

There well may be “no compulsion in religion” but there may be something compulsory and useful about becoming globally attentive and comprehending.

The development of a liberal and industrialized west plus an international trading system equal to its demands and benefits seemed to have presumed that state leaders elsewhere would contain and shepherd their own.

(Reuters) – When Saudi King Abdullah arrived home last week, he came bearing gifts: handouts worth $37 billion, apparently intended to placate Saudis of modest means and insulate the world’s biggest oil exporter from the wave of protest sweeping the Arab world.

But some of the biggest handouts over the past two decades have gone to his own extended family, according to unpublished American diplomatic cables dating back to 1996.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/28/us-wiki-saudi-money-idUSTRE71R2SA20110228

By scapegoating the Jews, pointing blame at others, dealing themselves exceptional privilege (those reductions in airport travel scrutiny keep popping up), the royals (everywhere) may have screwed themselves by, essentially, maintaining vast systems of discrimination and patronage.  In the pools of blood swelling around their feet but not sullying their robes, the poor have always religion, and so they are out in the deserts and mountains fighting for a phantom, committing murder and calling hell to themselves, unaware of how they have been played.

No one armed with a computer and the English language (plus a few others) has cause for remaining parochial.  The “I-C-U” of the infant PC era has grown up into a fully fledged “I see you” in this one.

Indeed, I can see you, whether you are in Boston or Bahrain, and here is a good time for weighing anchors side by side.