Britain warns of specific security threat in Somalia

Britain's Foreign Office gave no details of the threat in the Horn of Africa state, but highlighted in a statement the ongoing danger of "kidnapping for financial or political gain, motivated by criminality or terrorism".

"We are now aware of a specific threat to Westerners in Somaliland, and urge any British nationals who remain there against our advice to leave immediately," the statement said.

Ireland has issued the same alert to its citizens, a spokesman at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin said.

It follows a warning from European countries on Thursday of a "specific and imminent" threat to foreigners in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Britain spoke earlier this month of a growing militant threat in North Africa, which Prime Minister David Cameron has called a "magnet for jihadists".

The warnings came after at least 38 hostages were killed in an Islamist militant attack on Algeria's In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border, along with the start of French military operations against jihadi rebels in Mali.

Britain already advises against all travel to Somalia and Somaliland due to the "high threat from terrorism" and kidnapping.

Somalia has suffered two decades of civil war that deepened poverty and lawlessness and led to a rise in piracy in the busy shipping lanes off its coast.

There have been threats against foreigners in Somalia since U.S. forces killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in 2011, the Foreign Office says. Islamist militants have attacked overseas workers in the past and they continue to pose a risk.

A Foreign Office spokesman said there were relatively few Britons working in Somalia, mainly charity workers and diplomats. However, there is a higher number of Britons with a Somalia background who visit relatives in the region.

Britain has one of the oldest and largest Somali communities in Europe, with an estimated population of up to 100,000.

The Foreign Office, citing security reasons, said it would not release more details about the threat or comment on the source of their information.

It said the threat centers on Somaliland, a former British colony that has not won international recognition as a state since it declared independence from Somalia in 1991.

Somaliland has enjoyed relative stability compared to the rest of Somalia and has held a series of peaceful elections.

(Additional reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Al Qaeda targets Germans, Britons in Libya: Spiegel

BERLIN (Reuters) - Al Qaeda is plotting to kidnap German and British citizens in Libya, the Spiegel weekly magazine quoted German intelligence sources as saying.

Germany and Britain were among several Western countries to urge their nationals to leave the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Thursday, days after a deadly attack by Islamist militants in neighboring Algeria.

Britain cited a "specific and imminent" threat to Westerners in Libya's second largest city, but officials declined to give any details.

Spiegel, citing sources in the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), said on Sunday al Qaeda and other militant Islamist groups were specifically preparing attacks on British and German citizens in the area.

It gave no further details and the BND declined to comment.

On Thursday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle described the situation in Benghazi, cradle of the uprising that ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, as "serious and delicate" but also declined to provide any details.

The call to leave Benghazi irked Libyans, keen to win foreign investment to rebuild their fractured infrastructure and boost the oil industry after the revolution against Gaddafi.

Few Westerners are believed to be in Benghazi, which has experienced a wave of violence against diplomats as well as military and police officers, including an attack in September that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

At least 38 hostages were killed in an attack on Algeria's In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border earlier this month. The launch of France's military operations in Mali has also cranked up tensions in North Africa.

(Reporting by Gareth Jones; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Israeli official warns of Syrian chemical weapons

Russia's Medvedev says Assad's chances to keep power fading

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chances of retaining power are getting "smaller and smaller" every day, according to the transcript of an interview with CNN released by Medvedev's office on Sunday.

His remarks were the most vocal Russian statement that Assad's days could be numbered. But he reiterated calls for talks between the government and its foes and repeated Moscow's position that Assad must not be pushed out by external forces.

"I think that with every day, every week and every month the chances of his preservation are getting smaller and smaller," Medvedev was quoted as saying. "But I repeat, again, this must be decided by the Syrian people. Not Russia, not the United States, not any other country.

"The task for the United States, the Europeans and regional powers ... is to sit the parties down for negotiations, and not just demand that Assad go and then be executed like (the late former Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi or be carried to court sessions on a stretcher like (Egypt's) Hosni Mubarak."

Russia has been Assad's most important ally throughout the 22-month-old Syrian conflict, which began with peaceful street protests and evolved into an armed uprising against his rule.

Moscow has blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pushing him out or pressuring him to end the bloodshed, which has killed more than 60,000 people. But Russia has also distanced itself from Assad by saying it is not trying to prop him up and will not offer him asylum.

Medvedev made some of Russia's harshest criticism of Assad to date, placing equal blame for the escalation into a civil war on "the leadership of the country and the irreconcilable opposition". He also said Assad was far too slow to implement promised political reforms.

FATAL MISTAKE

"He should have done everything much faster, attracting part of the moderate opposition, which was ready to sit at the table with him, to his side," Medvedev was quoted as saying. "This was his significant mistake, and possibly a fatal one."

The wording of the interview suggested it was not just Assad's grip on power that was under threat, but his life. Medvedev's remark about the chances of his "preservation" diminishing came when he was asked whether Assad could survive.

Russia has repeatedly called on Western and Arab nations to put more pressure on Assad's foes to seek a negotiated solution, but Medvedev acknowledged that Moscow's influence on the Syrian president is limited.

"I have personally called Assad several times and said: conduct reforms, hold negotiations," said Medvedev, who was Russia's president until last May. "In my view, unfortunately, the Syrian leadership is not ready for this.

"But on the other hand, by no means should a situation be allowed in which the current political elite is swept away by armed actions, because then the civil war will last for decades," he said.

Russia has given frequent indications it is preparing for Assad's possible exit, while continuing to insist he must not be forced out by foreign powers.

Russia sells arms to Syria and uses a naval facility on the Mediterranean coast that is its only military base outside the former Soviet Union.

But analysts say its policy is driven mainly by President Vladimir Putin's desire to prevent the United States from using military force or support from the U.N. Security Council to bring down governments it opposes.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

UAE charges 94 in alleged Islamist coup plot

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates says 94 people face charges for allegedly trying to overthrow the state as part of widening crackdowns on Islamist groups with suspected links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sunday's statement by the official news agency WAM did not name the Emirati suspects, but authorities have been waging systematic arrests against perceived dissidents for months.

The crackdowns have brought complaints from rights groups and raised tensions with Egypt, which is led by Muslim Brotherhood member President Mohammed Morsi.

The statement quotes UAE Attorney General Salem Saeed Kubaish as alleging that the suspects built a secret network to plot the coup and raised money through real estate and other deals. It also claims the suspects had links to the Muslim Brotherhood and others for expertise and financial support.