The British government has moved to designate the Pakistani Taliban as a terrorist group, a move that would make membership in and fundraising for the organization illegal in Britain.

British Home Secretary Theresa May introduced the order Tuesday, saying it was a tough, but necessary step in the fight against terrorism. She said the move is not a course of action the British government takes lightly.

May said the order means membership in the Tehrik-e-Taliban group would be a criminal offense, and that the group cannot operate lawfully in the country.

A senior member of Sudan’s governing National Congress Party (NCP) said his party expects the outcome of the just-ended referendum to be “secession.”

Rabie Abdelati Obeid told VOA the commitment shown by the NCP towards the referendum should send, in his words, a strong signal to President Barack Obama’s administration to keep to its promises, including normalizing relations with the government in Khartoum, as well as removing Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

President Obama described the southern Sudan referendum as an inspiration to the world.

Several insurgents were killed by Afghan national security forces and International Security Assistance Force during separate clearing operations in southern Afghanistan over the past 24 hours.

In Helmand province, during an ISAF patrol, coalition forces were engaged by an unknown number of insurgents with small arms fire in Sangin District. Coalition forces called for air support. After gaining positive identification, the air weapons team supporting ground forces engaged the enemy position, killing one insurgent.

Coalition forces conducted a precision air strike on a Taliban command and control enemy fighting position after receiving heavy machine gun fire during an operation in Faryab province early today.

The joint security force was conducting a deliberate clearing operation in Qaisar district when they received effective heavy machine gun fire from fighting positions within a building located on the outskirts of Kwaji Kinti village.

It was early morning and the moon still lit the sky. A frigid winter breeze lashed the Marines as they trudged across frost-covered farmland, quietly making their way to the landing zone. In the cover of darkness, they crouched in an empty canal and awaited their flight.

It is the classic NIMBY response from residents along the Sultan Basin Road in Snohomish County, where a proposed gun range is now in the political and legal crosshairs.

The president of a nearby nudist resort, the Lake Bronson Club, tells the Seattle Times that his group is not opposed to a gun range, essentially so long as it is somewhere else.

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/nobody-opposed-to-sultan-g...

Article by Dave Workman

Video by U.S. Forces Iraq

Funerals have been held in France for two Frenchmen kidnapped in Niger this month and later found dead following a failed rescue attempt by French and Nigerien military forces. The terrorist group, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. Security analysts say the kidnappings are evidence of the group's expanding operations in the Sahel.

Analysts say the kidnappings of the two Frenchmen from a busy restaurant in Niger's capital on January 7 was a bold move by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Officials at former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's Peacekeeping Training Center say the threat of a West-Africa-led invasion of Ivory Coast is unlikely to materialize and would mostly aggravate the power crisis that has seized the country since the November 28 elections.

"The use of legitimate force," to quote the agreement signed by 15 West African leaders, was supposed to be the last resort the West African bloc would turn to if Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo did not concede the elections that the African Union says he lost.