Participants produced a ground shaking map of the Dead Sea region and training courses in PSHA, HAZUS, David Boore's Ground Shaking and other software have been given.

UNESCO: Indigenous Peoples

Three imams have been shot dead in the region since March, the Russian news website utro.ru reports.

BBC: Russia Caucasus: Imam shot dead in Derbent, Dagestan

As record numbers of Syrian refugees have poured into Turkey in recent days, fleeing attacks from pro-government forces ahead of Tuesday's United Nations-backed cease-fire deadline, the spectre of sectarian tensions also has stoked fears that this border city could see a replay of the violence that left hundreds dead in the region in the aftermath of a 1980 military coup.

WSJ: Turkey's Shiites Fear Contagion

The death toll was revised downward Thursday as authorities reviewed discrepancies in the reported number of dead in the Maule region.

CNN: Telethon raises money for Chile earthquake victims

"They were shot dead during an ambush in the Idlib region and the army found them with maps of military positions, " Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the monitoring group, told the AFP news agency.

BBC: US woman Nicole Mansfield killed fighting in Syria

In 2010, the region's top Muslim cleric was shot dead, in an attack blamed on militants, and in February 2011 suspected Islamists attacked ski resorts in what Russia saw as preparations for assaults on the 2014 Winter Olympics in nearby Sochi.

BBC: Kabardino-Balkaria profile

Attackers have shot dead an imam and two of his male relations, as they drove to a mosque in the Russian North Caucasus region of Dagestan.

BBC: Russia Caucasus: Imam shot dead in Derbent, Dagestan