Indonesia seeks 10 years for terror suspect

Asian Defense News: JAKARTA (AFP) - – Indonesian prosecutors sought 10 years' jail Wednesday for a man accused of sheltering late terror mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top.

Syaifudin Zuhri, 39, is on trial for his alleged involvement in hiding and abetting Noordin as he planned twin suicide attacks on luxury hotels in Jakarta last year which killed seven people.

Indonesia seeks 10 years for terror suspect

"We seek 10 years' prison for Syaifudin Zuhri. He has been proven legally and convincingly guilty of hiding and assisting terrorist Noordin M. Top," prosecutor Totok Bambang told the South Jakarta district court.

Malaysian-born Noordin led a splinter group of Southeast Asian Islamist network Jemaah Islamiyah, and was one of the region's most wanted men until he was killed by Indonesian police in September.

Zuhri was a close friend as well as accomplice of Noordin's, and stood as a witness at the terror leader's third marriage in 2006, Bambang said.

He was arrested in Central Java province a month before the hotel attacks.

The trial resumes on March 24.

Key Al-Qaeda figure believed killed in Pakistan

Asian Defense News: WASHINGTON (AFP) - – An Al-Qaeda figure who helped plan a deadly attack on the CIA in Afghanistan is believed to have been killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan, a US counterterrorism official said.

"We have indications that Hussein al-Yemeni -- an important al-Qaeda planner and facilitator based in the tribal areas of Pakistan -- was killed last week," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Key Al-Qaeda figure believed killed in Pakistan

Yemeni's specialty was in "bombs and suicide operations" and he was suspected of playing "a key role" in the December attack at a CIA post in eastern Afghanistan that killed seven Americans, the official said in an email.

The Al-Qaeda operative was apparently killed in a US drone strike in the Pakistani city of Miranshah in North Waziristan, in the country's northwest tribal belt.

Washington has stepped up drone raids in Pakistan against Islamist militants in the past year, as President Barack Obama has put Pakistan at the center of his fight against Al-Qaeda.

The account of Yemeni's death came as the CIA director, Leon Panetta, told the Washington Post that aggressive attacks against Al-Qaeda had forced the leadership deeper into hiding and hampered its ability to plan operations.

He stopped short of explicitly acknowledging the US bombing raids against militants by unmanned aircraft in Pakistan, a campaign that has become an open secret.

But he said the spy agency's battle against Al-Qaeda in Pakistan was "the most aggressive operation that CIA has been involved in in our history."

While declining to comment on the strike against Yemeni, Panetta appeared to confirm the Al-Qaeda operative had been killed.

He said the death of the Al-Qaeda figure sent a "very important signal that they are not going to be able to hide in urban areas."

Yemeni is suspected of helping plan the December 30 assault on the CIA post in Khost, the deadliest attack against the Central Intelligence Agency since 1983.

The bombing was carried out by a Jordanian who was recruited to spy on Al-Qaeda but who blew himself up at the US base near the Pakistani border.

The counterterrorism official said "the strike that appears to have gotten him" in Miranshah was "a clean, precise action that shows these killers cannot hide even in relatively built-up places."

Yemeni's death "would be the latest victory in a systematic campaign that has pounded al-Qaeda and its allies, depriving them of leaders, plotters and fighters," the official said.

Yemeni was believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s and had forged links to Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, the Haqqani network and the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban, the official said.

"He was a conduit in Pakistan for funds, messages, and recruits, but his real specialty was bombs and suicide operations," the official added.

Panetta, meanwhile, touted recent operations in Pakistan as "seriously disrupting Al-Qaeda."

"It's pretty clear from all the intelligence we are getting that they are having a very difficult time putting together any kind of command and control, that they are scrambling. And that we really do have them on the run."

Citing an intercepted message, the CIA chief said Al-Qaeda was in such disarray that one of its deputies had even pleaded to Osama bin Laden -- believed to be hiding along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan -- to come forward to provide some leadership.

Recent arrests of Taliban leaders were a sign of better cooperation with Pakistan's intelligence service, according to Panetta, who added: "They have been much more tolerant of the operations we have there."

He said the CIA had access to Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban commander recently in Pakistan, and that "we're getting intelligence" from the interrogation.

Despite increased pressure on its sanctuaries, Al-Qaeda was seeking recruits without criminal records or known ties to extremists, he said.

Panetta has previously defended the spy agency against criticism that security procedures were botched when the CIA post was attacked in Afghanistan.

Intelligence agencies have also come under fire for failing to uncover a plot to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

Study shows Aussie dingo may be world's oldest dog

Asian Defense News: SYDNEY (AFP) - – Australia's iconic dingo may be the world's oldest breed of dog, according a major new DNA study that is likely to boost conservation efforts.

The international study has found the dingo and its close relation, the rare New Guinea singing dog, bear the closest genetic similarity to wolves of all breeds tested.

Australia's iconic dingo (pictured) may be the world's oldest breed of dog, according a major new DNA study that is likely to boost conservation efforts.

The research, published in science journal Nature, appears to confirm widely held theories about the dingo's history. It involved testing nearly 1,000 dogs of 85 different breeds as well as hundreds of wolves.

"This gives us a huge weight of evidence supporting the theory that the dingo is quite distinct from all modern dog breeds," said joint author Alan Wilton, of Sydney's University of New South Wales.

"It's a bit of information that could be important to the conservation issue. If it's distinct from domestic dogs there may be scientific reasons for conserving the dingo."

Dingoes and the singing dog, named for its distinctive multi-pitched howl, have developed in isolation from other breeds for thousands of years. Dingoes were introduced to Australia from Indonesia about 5,000 years ago.

Dingoes have come under threat from rampant inter-breeding, prompting calls to maintain their genetic purity. Wilton said 80 percent of dingoes on Australia's east coast were thought to be mixed-breed.