Spain announced May 28 it has arrested 16 suspected of recruiting Islamist fighters for Iraq and North Africa. The 14 Moroccans and two Algerians were alleged to have indoctrinated others with radical Islamic teachings and about "jihad." Thirteen were arrested in Barcelona and nearby towns; two in Aranjuez, 50 kilometers south of Madrid, and one in the resort city of Malaga. Police have now arrested more than 100 Islamist suspects since deadly train bombings in Madrid in 2004, including some in an alleged plot to blow up Madrid's high court. Spain is home to some 570,000 Moroccans—the country's largest immigrant group. (Reuters, May 28)

Estonia, one of the most wired societies in Europe, has been subject in recent weeks to massive and coordinated cyber-attacks on government, banking and telecommunications wesbites, Internet service providers and news organizations. Computer security specialists call it an unprecedented assault on the electronic infrastructure of a state—and say the attacks re originating in Russia. Moscow is angry over Estonia's recent relocation of a Soviet war memorial, but Russian officials deny any government involvement in the cyber-attacks.

Thirteen of the 19 suspects on trial for the 2004 Madrid rail bombings that killed 191 have gone on hunger strike in protest of what they call unfounded accusations against them. Javier Gómez Bermúdez, the presiding justice, warned the men that if they continued the strike they could be expelled from court proceedings and force-fed. "The trial will continue in their absence," he said. (The Guardian, May 17)

With all the paranoia about al-Qaeda and ETA, it seems the latest bomb scare in Spain may be the work of radical urban preservationists. Police say they deactivated an explosive device May 15 found outside an industrial warehouse in Lugo, in the remote and usually peaceful northern region of Galicia. A police spokesman said the device—a pressure cooker loaded with shrapnel and armed with a detonator—could have caused a "massacre" if it had gone off. Two local newspapers received warnings by e-mail, which accused the construction company of being responsible for "urban destruction" in Lugo. (TypicallySpanish, May 15)

A statement by supposed al-Qaeda affiliate in Europe, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, pledged to launch attacks in Paris in response to the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president. "As you have chosen the crusader and Zionist Sarkozy as a leader...we in the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades warn you that the coming days will see a bloody jihadist campaign...in the heart of Sarkozy's capital," the group's "Europe division" said in an Internet statement addressed to the French people. The statement said Sarkozy was "thirsty for the blood of Muslim children, women and old people and eager to carry out the mission set by his masters in the Black [US White] House."

A terrorism warning issued by US military authorities in Germany last month could involve plans by an the Kurdish Islamist militant organization Ansar al-Islam, anonymous officials said in a report on the ABC News website. Howeve, other anonymous officials denied to Reuters that Ansar is suspected in the supposed plot. In the April 20 warning, the US embassy in Germany encouraged Americans in the country to increase their vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their personal security. ABC News quoted German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble as saying, "The danger level is high. We are part of the global threat by Islamist terrorism." But an official with US European Command told Reuters there was no new intelligence strong enough to warrant heightened security at military facilities in Germany. "We're unaware of anything new. We have not changed our force posture," the source said. (Reuters, May 11)

The coordinated May 9 raids of anti-globalization protest leaders across Germany brought more than 5,000 to the streets of Hamburg, Berlin, Kiel and other cities. Violent clashes with the police were reported in Hamburg, where police used water canons and protesters responded with firecrackers, bottles and stones. Four people were injured and eight arrested. Four were also arrested at the 3,000-strong march in Berlin. Police now say there were no arrests in the raids in six of Germany's federal states, but that 21 suspects in the the supposed plot to disrupt the upcoming G8 summit remain at large. Federal prosecutors claim they had indications that a "terrorist association" was forming to carry out arson and other attacks during the summit to be held at the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, June 6-8. The anti-globalization network Attac—which was not targeted in the raids—called the charges an effort "to criminalize the entire spectrum of G8 opponents." (DPA, May 10)

Some 900 German federal police troops raided 40 sites in Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, in a move against 21 anti-globalization militants allegedly suspected of setting up an organization to launch arson attacks at the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm next month. Arrests were made, but authorities would not say how many. (FT, Reuters, Xinhua, May 10)