Public Intelligence

Photos taken from Flickr.

Photos by blackhalos and Verani Federico.

The Alaska National Guard, in coordination with nearly 50 organizations and more than 4,000 participants, conducted their state’s portion of the annual Vigilant Guard exercise from April 26 – May 1, 2010. Local governments, the State of Alaska, Alaska National Guard and Joint Task Force Alaska conducted a state-wide exercise that was designed to “increase emergency response capabilities” to earthquakes and natural disasters. The exercise scenario involved an earthquake affecting South Central Alaska and combined the state’s Alaska Shield exercise, National Guard’s Vigilant Guard exercise, and Joint Task Force Alaska’s Arctic Edge exercise. A major component of the exercise involved the expertise of the National Guard CBRNE Enhanced Response Force Package, which deals with chemical, biological, and radiological disaster response.

Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect was reportedly killed during a 16-hour siege on a suspected militant hide-out that ended Saturday when police stormed the house. Local TV stations reported militant chief Noordin Mohammad Top, who is blamed for last month’s attacks on two American hotels in the capital Jakarta, was killed in the bathroom of the house in a rice-growing village in central Java province following a lengthy bomb and gun battle.

Iran’s human rights activists say they live in dread of the midnight knock on the door or the car that pulls up next to them on the street, fearing that at any moment they might be arrested in the government’s post-election clampdown.

The Chinese state news agency reported Monday that at least 140 people were killed and 816 injured when rioters clashed with the police in a regional capital in westernChina after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese. The casualty toll, if confirmed, would make this the deadliest outbreak of violence in China in many years.

An influential Iranian cleric on Friday urged “ruthless” punishment, possibly including execution, for leaders of protests against a disputed presidential election, while President Obama intensified his criticism of a crackdown on the Iranian opposition and rejected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s demand for an apology.

Hundreds of baton-wielding police on Sunday dispersed protesters and cordoned off a city hotel in central China after a young man’s mysterious death sparked unrest, a local official and a witness said. More than 200 people were injured in the clashes between police and residents outside the hotel in Hubei province’s Shishou city, according to a Hong Kong-based rights group, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.