Terror Insurance Booms Before Conventions

Insurance brokers in Boston and New York are in the midst of a small business boom due to fears of terrorism at this summer's Democratic and Republican national conventions.

Brokers report that more property owners are adding to their liability coverage to insure against losses from a terror attack - an increasingly popular form of insurance in other parts of the country as well, thanks to the federal government's financial backing of such policies

The upcoming Democratic convention in Boston and Republican convention in New York are an opportunity for brokers in those citites to make pitches to new customers and to urge existing clients to add terrorism coverage to their policies.

"We said to them, your policy is coming up for renewal, the convention is coming up, and now is the time to buy terrorism insurance," said Mike Chapman, chief sales officer for Hub New England, the regional office for insurer Hub International. "I only had one client come back to me who elected not to get the coverage."

Of the firm's 25 clients owning at least $25 million in property near the FleetCenter, the site of the Democratic National Convention, 17 have elected to buy terrorism insurance.

Nine of those 17 - banks, hotels and office buildings - are near the FleetCenter and added the coverage at the start of the year, Chapman said. The Democratic convention runs July 26-29.

Italian Intelligence Takes al Qaida Seriously

(AGI) - Rome, Italy, July 17 - Italian intelligence is taking recent Al Qaeda threats addressed against Italy extremely seriously. Intelligence reports a rise in activity concerning websites connected with the July 15 deadline set by Bin Laden for Westerners to leave Iraq. Based on prior analysis of the Saudi sheik's behavioural patterns intelligence believe the message is a go-ahead for jihad factions to act. The aim is hence to create expectation which translates into generalised panic and a high onus on security forces. The threat according to intelligence is real and has to be taken seriously. There is no clean cut idea as to what the threats refer to, intelligence are merely aware of a general Al Qaeda threat of a grand attack against the infidels. Targets are mush the same as they have always been: European capitals - including Rome, especially after the fall of what many considered as being the Vatican's "protective shield", ill spent as a result of the meeting between the Pope and George Bush -, soldiers in Iraq, Western concerns worldwide as well as Islamic countries with high western tourist influx. Bin Laden has always targeted moderate Arab or Islamic countries in an attempt to swell the tide of fundamentalist unrest. (AGI)

Zarqawi Places Bounty on Iraqi P.M.'s Head

DUBAI, July 17 (AFP) - Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the fugitive Jordanian Islamist who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, offered a reward of his own for anyone who kills Iraq's pro-US prime minister, in a statement posted on an Islamist website Sunday.

"The Khalid ibn Al-Walid Brigade announces to the Iraqi people a reward of 200,000 Jordanian dinars (285,000 dollars) for the one who cuts the head of (Iyad) Allawi," said the statement.

It was signed in the name of the "military wing" of Zarqawi's Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group.

"In the unit of candidates for martyrs, we promise before God to kill you ... and those of your clique wanted by Sheikh Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi," said the statement posted at http://www.ansarnet.ws/vb/showthread.php?t=11781.

Its authenticity could not be verified.

Militants Sack, Burn Palestinian Offices

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Militants sacked and burned Palestinian government offices Sunday, the latest sign of growing anger over Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s decision to reach into his old guard and choose a loyalist relative as his new security chief.

A confrontation was brewing between Arafat — reluctant to yield significant power — and Palestinian militants, including some of Arafat's own officers. They are demanding deep reforms and new faces, Palestinian analysts said.

The divide between the two sides centered on the appointment of Moussa Arafat, Arafat's cousin, as the new head of Palestinian security. Many Palestinians rejected him as a symbol of corruption and cronyism, propelling long-held dissatisfaction into the open.

Dozens of masked gunmen marched through the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza after sundown Sunday, chanting, "No to Moussa Arafat, yes to reform."

In the Rafah refugee camp, gunmen exchanged fire with guards at preventive security headquarters and attempted to break into the complex with a bulldozer. The guards wounded three attackers, but there were no casualties to the security forces, personnel at the building said.

A Palestinian freelance reporter on assignment for Reuters was shot in the leg during the Rafah firefight and was in stable condition at a hospital, a Reuters staffer said.