Daniel Boyd: A Homegrown Terrorist?

To hear his neighbors tell it, Daniel Boyd is one of the most upstanding citizens of Willow Springs, North Carolina. “If he’s a terrorist, he’s the nicest terrorist I ever met in my life,” one resident told reporters after Boyd, a 39-year-old drywall contractor, was arrested on July 27 — along with six others, including his twenty-something sons, Dylan and Zakariya — for allegedly plotting “violent jihad” overseas. According to the indictment, Boyd has spent the past three years stockpiling weapons in his rural home, recruiting and training would-be suicide bombers and orchestrating trips to Gaza, Israel, Jordan and Kosovo to scout potential attack sites

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Deputy leader killed as Nigerian military raids Islamic sect

Nigeria’s military has claimed it raided the compound of a fundamentalist Islamic sect and killed one of its top leaders, as the battle intensified between government troops and Islamist forces in the country’s north Thursday. At least 400 rebels, civilians and troops have died since the fighting began Sunday, triggered by the arrest of some members of the sect, known as Boko Haram.

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Nigeria: Hundreds die during battles with militants

About 300 people have been killed in a spate of violence in northern Nigeria, the president of a human rights group said Tuesday. The violence has pitted Islamic militants against government police and troops in the north-central part of the nation, officials said. Attacks continued Tuesday in the suburbs of the northern city of Maiduguri, said Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, a human rights organization based in northern Nigeria.

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Nigeria: At least 40 die as police battle militants

At least 40 people were killed as Islamic militants battled Nigerian government police and troops Sunday and Monday in the north-central part of the nation, officials said. Police and troops were dispatched to the militants’ hideouts after militants began attacks on government establishments early Sunday, said Mohamed Maigari, spokesman for Nigeria’s Bauchi state

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Why the Uighurs Aren’t Part of China’s Boom

On the streets of the cities and towns of China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang you can hear complaints from the Uighur minority group about restrictions on the Islamic religion they practice, their Turkic language or their culture, which is most closely linked to the lands of Central Asia. But in interviews in Urumqi, the regional capital that exploded with ethnic rioting last week that left 184 dead, the single most common complaint of Uighur residents is that they feel excluded from economic opportunity

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4 Baghdad churches bombed in 24 hours

Four Baghdad churches were bombed in less than 24 hours and eight civilians were wounded, officials said Sunday. Three bombs exploded outside churches Sunday afternoon, wounding the civilians, an Interior Ministry official said. The bombs detonated within a 15-minute span, between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m.

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