March 24:
The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan is holding its first-ever democratic election. The run-off represents a major transition for Bhutan; the country, a monarchy for more than a century, is becoming a "democratic constitutional monarchy," officials in the capital, Thimphu, say. According to the Voice of America, the election pits candidates from Bhutan's two main parties, the People's Democratic Party and the Druk Phuengsum Tshogpa, against one another in a bid to occupy the country's top elected post of prime minister - an office previously filled by monarchical mandate.
March 26:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a six-month counter-intelligence training program in the southern Philippines for 35 Filipino police and military personnel. The program's aim is to sharpen intelligence skills of the Filipino forces in their continued hunt for Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah militants, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim told Agence France-Presse. Small numbers of US troops have been training and providing intelligence to the Filipino security forces in the south of the country for years. The cooperation is understood to have yielded significant gains, not least in the death or capture of many top Abu Sayyaf militants.
India and Vietnam have signed a bilateral security pact intended to help fight transnational crimes such as terrorism, bank fraud, cybercrime, and illicit drug trafficking, United Press International reports. As part of the deal India will enhance its training of Vietnamese officers (New Delhi has already conducted two such courses) and will continue its efforts to set up a cyber forensic laboratory in Vietnam. Guidelines for tracking and seizing illicit transfers are also covered under the new pact. Interior Minister Shivraj Patil and Gen. Le Hong Anh, Vietnam's minister for public security, signed the agreement in India along with a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
March 28:
The Japanese government acknowledged that North Korea had test-fired several short-range missiles from its western coast into the Yellow Sea. "We're aware of the report... But we haven't changed the deployment of the Self-Defence Forces specially," Defense Ministry spokesman Katashi Toyota said in comments carried by Japan’s Kyodo News Service.
April 1:
CIA chief General Michael Hayden has warned that the situation along Pakistan-Afghan border presents clear danger to the two nations and the United States. The Press Trust of India reports on Hayden’s description of the 2006 peace deal between Pakistan government and the pro-Taliban North Waziristan region as "absolutely disastrous." "It's very clear to us that al-Qaida has been able, over the past 18 months or so, to establish a safe haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area that they have not enjoyed before, that they are bringing operatives into that region for training,” Hayden revealed in an appearance on “Meet The Press.”
April 3:
The terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is now regrouping with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is funding JI’s efforts to strengthen its forces in Southeast Asia, says Maj. Gen. Thawip Netniyom, director of the Royal Thai Army Office for Policy and Plans. "Without Osama bin Laden, the JI would not have any other source of funds," he stressed in comments carried by The Philippine Star.
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