Word: thursday
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...German government held high-level talks with top security and intelligence chiefs in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the growing threat posed by Islamic extremists and to coordinate counterterrorism measures. Intelligence officials are alarmed by the rising number of videos posted online by militant Islamists who say they are specifically targeting Germany. Up to 13 videos are reported to have appeared on the Web since January, many of them referring to the deployment of German troops in Afghanistan. (See pictures of U.S. Marines opening a new offensive in Afghanistan...
...just concerned about the video messages," Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning told reporters after Thursday's meeting. "They're part of a wider strategy to take action against Germany." He stressed that authorities are taking the video threats seriously. "Germany and German citizens have for some time been a special focus for Islamist terrorists," he said. "We have to prepare for the fact there could be attacks against German installations abroad or here in Germany...
...Thursday's meeting was part of a series of talks the government is holding regularly with different intelligence agencies. Another meeting, with federal Interior Ministry officials, is planned for July 9, aimed at coming up with a new national-security concept. While the government insists it has no knowledge of any concrete plans for a terrorist attack in Germany, it's clear the authorities are concerned that Islamic-extremist activity is intensifying. Germany's security forces have been on high alert since the beginning of the year, and government authorities believe that intelligence chatter about a possible terrorist attack...
...this summer. Usually the cheap folding tables, set up in a double row outside the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church, are surrounded by tourists snapping up the iconic egg-shaped souvenirs, made of smaller and smaller wooden dolls hidden one within the other. But on a recent Thursday afternoon, there were only about a dozen people looking to buy. At one table, Olga Isakova waited on her first customers of the day, a man and his son who examined a bright blue-and-white nesting doll with curly blond hair and a heart-shaped mouth before putting...
...because the Taliban, having declined to go toe-to-toe with the Marines and instead having melted into the civilian population, will probably resort to asymmetrical warfare tactics like using improvised explosive devices (IEDs). On Saturday, an IED strike killed two U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, while another on Thursday killed two British troops elsewhere in Helmand. Stationing Marines among the local population will increase the risk of such attacks, until U.S. forces are able to win over residents through providing development aid and security. To do so, they will have to overcome deeply entrenched suspicions of American aims...