The Philippines has officially adopted a strategy to prevent and counter violent extremism as officials seek to avoid a repeat of one of the country's most prominent acts of terrorism in recent history, the May 2017 siege of Marawi City by pro-Islamic State fighters. Philippine ...
European privacy laws may be hampering fight against terrorism
When U.S., European and Canadian law enforcement officials claimed success last year in largely obliterating militant group Islamic State's online propaganda network following a two-year operation, it was a public database of domain names that partly helped. In an effort to crack down on websites, ...
Taliban car bomb kills at least 14 as group holds peace talks in Qatar
A Taliban attack on a government security compound in central Afghanistan on Sunday killed at least 14 people and wounded more than 180, including scores of children, hours before a meeting in Qatar aimed at preparing the ground for peace talks. Islamist Taliban fighters detonated ...
Wahhabism confronted: Sri Lanka curbs Saudi influence after bombings
Sri Lanka is moving to curtail Saudi Arabian influence, after some politicians and Buddhist monks blamed the spread of the kingdom's ultraconservative Wahhabi school of Islam for planting the seeds of militancy that culminated in deadly Easter bomb attacks. On April 21, nine Sri Lankans ...
One year after 13 Aum Shinrikyo executions, scant debate over the death penalty in Japan
One year after the founder and 12 former senior members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult were executed for crimes including the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system, the debate over the death penalty remains a muted affair in Japan despite ...
Man, 31, referred to prosecutors over attempt to join Islamic State while at Hokkaido University
A 31-year-old man was referred to prosecutors Wednesday for allegedly preparing to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State militant group in 2014 while he was a student at Hokkaido University, Tokyo police and other sources said. The police also sent investigative papers to ...
SoftBank Vision Fund weighs backing Vaak's crime-busting tech
Vaak Inc., a Japanese start-up backed by SoftBank Group Corp., said that it is lining up a ¥2 billion ($18 million) cash injection in August and that the Vision Fund could provide further funding, as the company takes its violent crime prevention software global. Tokyo-based ...
Sniffing out potential threats: Police dogs to patrol Osaka G20 summit venues
As world leaders descend upon Osaka for the two-day Group of 20 summit, human security personnel won't be the only ones on patrol to sniff out potential threats. Specially trained bomb-sniffing police dogs introduced last year by the Osaka Prefectural Police are patrolling venues where ...
In world first, Facebook to share data on hate speech suspects with French courts
In a world first, Facebook Inc. has agreed to hand over the identification data of French users suspected of hate speech on its platform to judges, France's minister for digital affairs Cedric O said on Tuesday. O is one of French President Emmanuel Macron's earliest ...
Mike Pompeo visits Kabul, hoping for a peace deal before Sept. 1
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during an unannounced visit to Kabul on Tuesday to discuss ongoing peace talks with the Taliban and the security situation ahead of Afghan presidential polls in September. Pompeo stopped over on his way to ...
Mauritania's government-backed candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani won the presidential election on Sunday, cementing the power of a ruling party that has positioned itself as an ally of the West against Islamist militants. The electoral commission declared Ghazouani winner late on Saturday with 52 percent of ...
Indonesia plans to tighten vetting of senior public servants amid fears that hard-line Islamist ideology has permeated high levels of government, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and a senior official involved in the plan. Indonesia is officially secular, but there has been a rise ...
