Sector Report for Thursday, 8 December 2011: World Report

This report contains the following stories.

Plus 7 additional stories

Kenyan police arrest bombing suspect

Late Tuesday night, Kenyan police arrested a suspected terrorist involved in Monday’s grenade attacks; on Monday unknown attackers threw hand grenades at a bus stop and a downtown bar in Nairobi killing one and injuring twenty; the arrested man was captured along with a stockpile of weapons that included thirteen hand grenades, two submachine guns and four pistols; so far no group has claimed responsibility, but the terrorist organization al Shabaab in Somalia had sworn that it would retaliate for Kenya’s cross-border military actions; Kenyan forces have crossed into southern Somalia and are carrying out airstrikes and are advancing on al Shabaab held towns

Secretary Clinton demands Libya return Lockerbie bomber to prison

Now that the fighting in Libya has drawn to a close with the death of Muammar Qaddafi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is pressing the new Libyan government to return the only individual convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103; Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al Megrahi, was convicted and jailed in Scotland for the Lockerbie bombing which killed 259 people, mostly Americans; in 2009 Scotland released him on the grounds that he had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and only had three months to live; al Megrahi returned to Libya where he has been living since; over the weekend Clinton said, “We want to see him returned to prison, preferably in Scotland, where he was serving the sentence”

Pakistani judge who sentenced Taseer's assassin sent to Saudi Arabia for protection

The Pakistani government has sent the judge who issued the death sentence to the assassin who killed Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer to Saudi Arabia to protect his life; Judge Pervez Ali Shah, sentenced Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, Taseer’s self-confessed assassin, on 1 October; Shah went on leave after his courtroom was ransacked and several hardline religious groups offered a reward for anyone who killed him; Shah and his family have been provided with security and safe lodging in Saudi Arabia; religious and hardline groups are actively appealing the government to remove Shah from his post for his decision to sentence Qadri to death

Local Indian CT force severely short-staffed

In the state of Maharashtra, India, counterterrorism forces are struggling with severe staffing shortages particularly in its lower and middle ranked officers, the core of its investigative staff; 89 percent of the agency’s sub-inspector posts were vacant as of September 1, and overall, 238 out of the squad’s 732 posts were unfilled; the state government said that it is working to quickly fill vacant positions and address the problem; “We are aware of the staff shortage. The problem should be resolved by March next year,” said additional chief secretary Umesh Chandra Sarangi

U.K. introduces harsher sentences for serious crimes

Kenneth Clarke, the U.K.’s justice secretary, is introducing harsh new prison sentences for individuals convicted of serious crimes as part of a broader shift to stricter penalties; changes include a new mandatory life sentence for individuals convicted on their second serious sexual or violent crime; a mandatory minimum four-month prison sentence for juveniles convicted of aggravated knife offenses; the move signals a shift to a harsher U.S.-style of law with minimum mandatory sentences; the decision was reportedly highly controversial and resulted in fierce internal disputes with home secretary Theresa May