July 30, 2010

Israel – Rocket from Gaza hits Israeli city, no injuries

Syria – Saudi king in Syria amid regional tensions

Mexico – Troops kill senior ‘capo’ of mighty Mexico cartel

Mexico – US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez closes for security

India – Soldiers fire on protesters in Kashmir, 2 wounded

Myanmar – US ‘carefully watching’ Myanmar-NKorea talks

Bangladesh – Garment workers riot over wages

Israel

Gaza militants fired a rocket into the Israeli city of Ashkelon early Friday, the military said, a rare strike in a period of relative quiet. The Israeli military said the rocket caused damage but no injuries. None of the Palestinian militant groups in Gaza immediately took responsibility for the attack. The city of 120,000, located 11 miles (18 kilometers) to the north of Gaza and a short drive from Israel’s main population center in Tel Aviv, was a regular target for Palestinian militants before Israel’s Gaza offensive ended early last year. Militants have kept up limited rocket and mortar fire closer to the Israel-Gaza border, but the cities and towns of Israel’s south have largely been quiet since the fighting ended. “A Grad rocket hit in a yard next to buildings, in a heavily populated area,” the city’s mayor, Benny Vaknin, told Israel Radio, saying it was a “miracle” that no one was hurt. Vaknin said a warning siren that went off before the rocket hit gave residents time to take cover. AP Television News footage showed blown-out windows in an Ashkelon apartment building. Israel sees the strike as “very serious,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. There was no immediate retaliation by Israel’s military.

news.yahoo.com

Syria

Syria on Thursday warned the United States to stop trying to interfere as Arab leaders try to defuse heightened tensions in the Middle East. Saudi King Abdullah, who arrived in Syria on Thursday, was expected to travel with the Syrian president to Beirut on Friday to help calm concerns over pending indictments in the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister. U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington this week that he hoped Syrian President Bashar Assad would “listen very attentively” to Abdullah, a U.S. ally. Washington has urged Syria to move away from its alliance with Iran. Syria responded that the U.S. “has no right to determine our relationships with regional states or interfere in the content of the talks.” Syria and Saudi Arabia have long been on opposite sides of a deep rift in the Arab world. The kingdom is a U.S. ally, along with Jordan and Egypt, while Syria backs militant groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas. Syria also is Iran’s strongest ally in the Arab world — a major sticking point with the U.S. Relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia have begun to thaw in recent years, and Thursday’s visit by the Saudi monarch is a sign the countries are trying to show a united front as tempers mount in the region, including those in Lebanon over the investigation into who killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

Soldiers killed a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel in a raid on his posh hideout, dealing the biggest blow yet to Mexico’s most powerful drug gang since President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against organized crime in 2006. Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, a reputed founder of Mexico’s methamphetamine trade, was gunned down trying to escape soldiers in the western city of Guadalajara. Mexican authorities says he fired on soldiers as helicopters hovered overhead and troops closed in. Coronel was a close associate of Mexico’s most wanted man, Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and was No. 3 in the organization after Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. “Nacho Coronel tried to escape, and fired on military personnel, killing one soldier and wounding another,” Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas said at a news conference in Mexico City. “Responding to the attack, this ‘capo’ died.” The raid “significantly affects the operational capacity and drug distribution of the organization run by Guzman,” he added. Coronel’s downfall came amid persistent allegations that Calderon’s administration appeared to be favoring the Sinaloa cartel, or not hitting it as hard as other drug gangs. Those allegations have drawn angry denials from the president and his top law enforcement officials, who point to the 2009 arrest of Vicente “El Vicentillo” Zambada — the son of Ismael Zambada — as proof they were going after the gang.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

The U.S. closed its consulate in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez on Thursday pending a security review, an unexpected decision that comes months after drug gangs killed three people tied to the consulate. The U.S. Embassy announced the consulate will “remain closed until the security review is completed” and said it would reschedule appointments for visa applications. The embassy did not say what prompted the review, and a spokesman said there would be no comment beyond the statement. A U.S. employee of the consulate, her husband and a Mexican tied to the consulate were killed March 13 when drug gang fired on their cars as they left a children’s party in the city across from El Paso, Texas. The U.S. State Department has taken several measures over the past months to protect consulate employees and their families from surging violence along Mexico’s border with the United States. It has authorized the departure of relatives of U.S. government employees in six northern Mexican cities. And starting July 15, U.S. government employees working away from the border were barred from crossing anywhere along Texas’ border because of safety concerns. Two weeks ago, the consulate in the border city of Nuevo Laredo warned U.S. citizens there to remain indoors as drug gangs fought gunbattles and blocked streets with hijacked vehicles. The closing of the Ciudad Juarez consulate is the most drastic security measure yet. The consulate is the only place where Mexicans applying for U.S. residency can go.

news.yahoo.com

India

Clashes erupted again in Indian Kashmir’s main city Friday after two men were wounded when paramilitary forces opened fire on a group of anti-India protesters. Paramilitary soldiers in an armored vehicle shot at rock-throwing demonstrators, wounding two young men in the Chanapora neighborhood in Srinagar, the disputed region’s main city, said a police officer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. One of the wounded was in critical condition in a hospital. The officer said the protesters began marching on the main road in Chanapora on Friday morning after separatists called for a protest march to Srinagar’s central Maisuma district. Local residents, however, said the injured men were not part of the demonstration, and soldiers shot them near their homes. As the news of shooting spread, thousands of residents in the city took to the streets chanting, “Go, India! Go back” and “We want freedom!” Police and paramilitary soldiers fired tear gas to quell the protests, prompting further clashes, the officer said. The mostly Muslim region, where resistance to rule by predominantly Hindu India is strong, has been under curfew for most part of the last six weeks as anti-India street demonstrations and clashes surged. Residents say government forces have killed at least 17 people in that period, and local authorities asked two retired judges to investigate the deaths.

news.yahoo.com

Myanmar

The U.S. said it is carefully watching the budding secretive relationship between Myanmar and North Korea for signs of nuclear cooperation, as official talks between the authoritarian regimes entered a second day Friday. North Korea’s Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun’s four-day visit to Myanmar is shrouded in secrecy. Myanmar has not officially announced that the visit is taking place and few details have leaked out about the nature of the trip, which is Pak’s first since the two countries resumed diplomatic ties in 2007. Asked to comment on the visit, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley urged Myanmar to adhere to U.N. sanctions on North Korea that include restrictions on arms transactions. “North Korea is a serial proliferator. North Korea is engaged in significant illicit activity. Burma, like other countries around the world, has obligations, and we expect Burma to live up to those obligations,” he told reporters Thursday in Washington. He said the lack of transparency surrounding their ties makes it difficult to assess if North Korea is indulging in nuclear proliferation with Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

“It is something that is of concern to us, given North Korea’s historical record. And it is something that we continue to watch very carefully,” Crowley said.

news.yahoo.com

Bangladesh

Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers who stitch clothes for top Western brands blocked highways, attacked factories and looted shops in Dhaka on Friday, after rejecting a government wage hike. Violent protests — including widespread looting and arson — broke out in multiple locations across the capital, police said, forcing factories to close as riot police struggled to disperse crowds with baton charges and tear gas. In the central district of Mohokhali around 3,000 workers attacked police, stoned factories and blocked a flyover, said local police chief Abdur Rob. “We have the situation under control, but there are still protests erupting in other parts of the city,” Rob said, adding that several factories in his area had been seriously damaged. On Tuesday, the government said it would raise the minimum monthly wage for garment workers from 1,662 taka — the lowest industry salary worldwide — to 3,000 taka (43 dollars). Some unions had demanded 5,000 taka. Thousands of workers also blocked the city’s main Tejgaon link road. They pulled down steel gates protecting nearby factories, smashed windows and machinery and vandalised cars, police said. At least 5,000 protestors rampaged through Dhaka’s up-market Gulshan area, where many embassies and foreign aid groups have their offices. Gulshan police chief Nural Alam said the protesters had targetted the area’s high-end shops, looting the contents and then setting fire to the buildings.

news.yahoo.com

July 29, 2010

Mexico – Four shot dead in Mexico City pizzeria

South Africa – Nearly 1 million South Africa public workers set to strike

Greece – No letup in truck strike

Turkey – Police warn AK Party of possible PKK attacks

Kenya – Fatal shootout hits Kenyan national park

Colombia – University Official Murdered in Colombia

Bolivia – Morales: Drug Cartels Better Equipped Than Bolivian Army

Mexico

Three men and a woman were gunned down late Wednesday at a pizzeria in Mexico City, according to authorities who said the shootings bore the hallmarks of an organized crime hit. The victims, between the ages of 25 and 30, were eating at the restaurant when gunmen entered and opened fire without warning, according to a report filed by local prosecutors. A prosecution source told local media that the shooting appeared to be linked to organized crime. Some 25,000 people have been killed in Mexico since December 2006, most of whom appeared to have been victims of assassinations at the hands of the country’s drug cartels after President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime. The latest killings came one day after eight human heads were found in four separate places near roadsides outside the northern Mexico city of Durango.

news.yahoo.com

South Africa

As many as 900,000 South African public sector workers are likely to strike in a week to push for higher wages, a group of unions said on Wednesday. “Every government department will be affected,” said Fikile Majola, head of the NEHAWU public sector union, reading a statement on behalf of a coalition of eight worker organizations. State workers including nurses, teachers, police, customs officials and immigration officers rejected a 6.5 percent government wage offer last week, demanding an 8.6 percent increase and a 1,000 rand ($130) monthly housing allowance. The walkout could slow down trade and tourism for Africa’s largest economy. Their demands are more than twice the annual rate of inflation, which slowed to 4.2 percent in June, according to official data released on Wednesday. Industrial action had initially been planned for Thursday, but unions said they would only serve formal notice of their plan to strike on Wednesday, giving the government seven days to come up with a better offer. “We are not going to announce a date now until the end of the seven date notice period,” Majola said. Workers at state power utility Eskom won a 9 percent pay increase early this month after threatening to strike during the June 11-July 11 soccer World Cup.

news.yahoo.com

Greece

There seemed no hope yesterday of an imminent breakthrough in the standoff between the government and thousands of striking truck drivers over the liberalization of the road haulage sector, which has led to gas stations around Greece running out of fuel. The Transport Ministry showed no signs of giving in to pressure from the truck drivers, whose main objection is the government’s plan to allow anyone who wants to enter their sector to be able to do so for virtually no charge as of 2013. Truckers say that because they operate in a closed profession, they have paid thousands of Euros for their licenses, which will be worthless when the sector is liberalized. Hundreds of trucks remained parked yesterday at the sides of national and country roads as well as outside oil refineries. The impact of the strike became evident in most parts of Greece, as few gas stations had any fuel to sell to drivers and traders warned that there would soon be a shortage of fresh produce if the action continues. Drivers formed queues of 30 to 40 cars at the few gas stations in Athens that still had fuel. It is estimated that only two in 10 were in a position to fill up customers’ tanks. In Thessaloniki, 70 percent of stations reported that they had completely run out of gasoline.

ekathimerini.com

Turkey

The National Police Department has warned the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is likely to target AK Party buildings, their administrators and their families. In a report sent to 81 provincial police departments nationwide, the Security General Directorate warned of possible attacks by the PKK, which has increased its activities prior to the Sept. 12 referendum to amend the Constitution. The PKK stepped up its attacks after accusing the government of a lack of seriousness in extending more cultural rights to the country’s Kurds. In previous warnings the Security General Directorate had stated that the PKK was planning attacks targeting all political parties, military and police, but the ruling party was singled out in its latest report. AK Party administrators and their families in 81 provinces have been under enhanced protection since the warning.

todayszaman.com

Kenya

Armed raiders have killed one man and injured two in an unprecedented raid on the fringes of Kenya’s famous Masai Mara national park, Kenyan police said on Wednesday. Police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe said the group of Kenyans, celebrating the birthday of one of their party, had set up camp on the Western edge of the park, which backs onto Tanzania’s Serengeti national park, when they came under fire on Monday. “The robbers took some things … and there was a shootout,” he told the German Press Agency dpa. “Two were injured and unfortunately John (the man celebrating his 60th birthday) was shot and killed.” Incidences of banditry are common in the north and east of Kenya, but this was the first such raid in the tourist area of the Masai Mara. Kiraithe said there was a suspicion the raiders may have come across the border from Tanzania, as witnesses said they were not speaking Kiswahili with a Kenyan accent. Security has now been beefed up to prevent any further incidents. “The security was already there, but we have become more cautious now,” Kiraithe said. “In the future we won’t allow people to go without security, especially those who are camping in open places.”

iol.co.za

Colombia

The dean of the school of economics at the University of Santiago in the southwestern Colombian city of Cali was gunned down in front of his students, eyewitnesses said. Ever Mosquera was shot at least three times and killed Tuesday while eating lunch in the university’s cafeteria. At least two young men went up to Mosquera, a former member of the city council in the nearby city of Florida, and opened fire, the eyewitnesses said. Mosquera’s bodyguards managed to detain one of the killers, but two others got away on a motorcycle. “Everybody was eating, everything was quiet … and these two dudes arrived. One of them pulled up his shirt and grabbed a really small pistol, like the ones used with video games … and he fired the first shot, but nobody reacted,” a student told the online edition of Cali’s El Pais newspaper. One of the suspected killers, a 17-year-old boy, was detained by the dean’s bodyguards. Mosquera’s killing occurred as civilian, police and military officials gathered in Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca province, to discuss ways of dealing with a surge of violence in the city.

laht.com

Bolivia

President Evo Morales confirmed Tuesday that drug traffickers have more technology and modern equipment than Bolivia’s police and armed forces, and he asked for help from the international community to address that deficiency. “By now, I have taken note that … drug trafficking has more technology than the national police, more modern equipment than the armed forces,” he said in a speech at the foreign ministry. Morales, who remains leader of the country’s largest union of coca growers, spoke about the matter at the presentation of the delegate for Bolivia from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Cesar Guedes of Peru. The Bolivian leader demanded that the U.N. coordinate international action in the fight against drug trafficking to cooperate with Bolivia, for example by providing radar and secure-communications equipment.

laht.com

July 28, 2010

France – Al-Qaida No. 2 slams France’s ban on Islamic veils

France – French detectives put on leave after death threats

Brazil – Plane robbed on runway before take off in Brazil

Mexico – AP Impact: Mexico justice means catch and release

Mexico – 4 journalists reported missing in northern Mexico

Mexico – Police find 8 severed heads in northern Mexico

Puerto Rico – Violent nationalist group leader welcomed in PR

France

Al-Qaida’s No. 2 has slammed France’s push to ban the Islamic full-face veil and urged Muslim women in a new audio message on the Internet to defend their headdress in a holy war against the “secular Western crusade.” Ayman al-Zawahri says the drive by France and some other European nations is a discrimination against Muslim women. In the 47-minute recording released on militant websites on Wednesday, al-Qaida’s deputy leader also eulogized the terror network’s reputed No. 3 official, who was killed with his family in a U.S. strike in Pakistan in May. Al-Zawahri praises Mustafa al-Yazid’s sacrifice and goes on to claim that although killed al-Qaida militants in Iraq outnumber U.S. soldiers 100-to-1, the U.S. will still withdraw from Iraq in defeat.

news.yahoo.com

France

Almost an entire detective squad in the French city of Grenoble has been put on leave after officers received death threats from underworld figures. Three officers involved in the fatal shooting of a local man earlier this month have been moved out of the unit. nother 20 were told to spend time with their families after the threats. French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to wage war on the criminals after the threats, which follow rioting in the city over the shooting. In the past week there have been running battles in Grenoble between police and rioters, following the fatal shooting earlier this month of 27-year-old Karim Boudouda.

bbc.co.uk

Brazil

Brazilian authorities say gunmen used a pickup truck to block an air taxi from taking off at a small airport and stole money and documents it was carrying for the country’s federation of banks. Federal police say about eight men broke through security at the airfield in the northeastern city of Caruaru late Monday and rammed the truck into one of the small plane’s wings as it taxied on the runway. The men fired warning shots and ordered the pilots to turn over the money and documents. The police statement issued Tuesday does not say how much cash was stolen. It says the pickup truck was found abandoned near the airport. No arrests have been made.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

It’s practically a daily ritual: Accused drug traffickers and assassins, shackled and bruised from beatings, are paraded before the news media to show that Mexico is winning its drug war. Once the television lights dim, however, about three-quarters of them are let go. Even as President Felipe Calderon’s government touts its arrest record, cases built by prosecutors and police under huge pressure to make swift captures unravel from lack of evidence. Innocent people are tortured into confessing. The guilty are set free, only to be hauled in again for other crimes. Sometimes, the drug cartels decide who gets arrested. Records obtained by The Associated Press showed that the government arrested 226,667 drug suspects between December 2006 and September 2009, the most recent numbers available. Less than a quarter of that number was charged. Only 15 percent saw a verdict, and the Mexican attorney general’s office won’t say how many of those were guilty.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission called on the government Tuesday to find four Mexican journalists reported missing in or near the violence-wracked northern state of Durango. The journalists include two cameramen from the Televisa network, a reporter for Multimedios television and a reporter for the newspaper El Vespertino. “The lack of investigation into attacks on journalists has made them more vulnerable in doing their work,” the government’s rights commission said in a statement. The four disappeared Monday in the Laguna region, which includes Durango and areas of the neighboring state of Coahuila. The commission said three of them were “picked up” — a tactic frequently used by drug gangs in which victims are forced into waiting vehicles — around noon Monday, and the fourth was snatched that night. The area has been wracked by drug gang violence. Prosecutors say officials at a prison in Gomez Palacio — the Durango city where some of the journalists are based — allowed drug cartel gunmen to leave the penitentiary temporarily and provided them guns and vehicles to carry out executions.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

The severed heads of eight men were found left in pairs along highways in the northern Mexico state of Durango, state prosecutors said Tuesday. The bodies had not yet been located, but the victims appeared to have been between 25 and 30 years old, officials said. Durango has been the scene of brutal turf battles between drug gangs. Prosecutors said over the weekend that officials at a Durango prison let drug cartel gunmen to leave penitentiary and lent them guns and vehicles to carry out executions. Also Tuesday, prosecutors in the central state of Puebla reported that three federal police agents were shot to death on a highway in a confrontation with gunmen. The assailants escaped. In the northern border state of Chihuahua, prosecutors said a second cousin of Gov.-elect Cesar Duarte was shot to death by attackers in the city of Parral. The victim, lawyer Alberto Porras Duarte, was slain while waiting in a vehicle outside his office.

news.yahoo.com

Puerto Rico

Throngs of supporters greeted a Puerto Rican nationalist leader Tuesday as he returned from nearly 30 years in prison for participating in a group that used violence against U.S. control of the island. Carlos Alberto Torres, 57, pushed through hundreds of people who waved Puerto Rican flags and promised they would keep fighting for the Caribbean territory’s independence. Among the supporters was Torres’ stepmother, who received clemency in 1999 while serving a similar sentence for conspiring against the U.S. government. “This has to be the best day of my life. After 30 years, after many struggles, to come back home,” Carlos Alberto Torres told the crowd in a brief statement before leaving the airport. Torres was paroled Monday from a federal prison in Illinois on charges of seditious conspiracy and carrying a firearm. He expects to resume painting and making pottery, said Eduardo Villanueva, spokesman for the Puerto Rican Committee for Human Rights. He had been excluded in 1999 when President Bill Clinton offered clemency to 16 members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, a group that authorities linked to bombings of U.S. civilian and military targets from 1974 to 1983. The attacks killed at least six people and wounded dozens.

news.yahoo.com

July 27, 2010

Yemen – Yemen’s army battles rebels in north; dozens dead

Mexico – Mexican police investigate possible new drug gang

Turkey – Turks, Kurds clash after deadly attack on police

Iran – Iran nuclear sanctions by EU unacceptable, says Russia

Venezuela – Chavez reinforces Colombia border

Yemen

Yemeni soldiers battled Shiite rebels a short distance from the capital on Monday in clashes that killed dozens, a tribal leader said. A cease-fire unraveled in June, re-igniting a six-year conflict that spilled across the border last year by drawing in the Saudi military. The new fighting threatens to siphon Yemeni military resources away from a separate battle against the country’s al-Qaida offshoot. The U.S. and other countries have pressured Yemen to resolve the rebellion so that it can concentrate on fighting the al-Qaida franchise, which is suspected of masterminding the failed attempt to bomb an airliner in the U.S. on Christmas Day. Fighting in Yemen’s northern provinces killed at least 53 people last week and rebels have seized several towns. Monday’s battles took place in the town of al-Zalaa, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of the capital. The tribal leader described a heavy deployment of government troops, tanks and armored vehicles but said they failed to push the rebels back. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

Mexican authorities are investigating the possible emergence of a new drug gang that appeared to take credit for six killings through a message left with the bodies Monday, officials said. The six men were found inside a car in the southwestern city of Chilpancingo, Guerrero state police said in a statement. Next to them lay a message reading: “This will happen to all rapists, extortionists and kidnappers. Attentively, the New Cartel of the Sierra.” Authorities are investigating the authenticity of the gang, said an official with the state prosecutors office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The official said authorities had no previous knowledge of such an organized crime group. The car was reported stolen hours before the bodies were found, according to the police statement. The owner told police that armed men intercepted him on a highway and forced him out of the car.

news.yahoo.com

Turkey

Police fired tear gas to break up clashes between Turkish and Kurdish protesters in southern Turkey Tuesday after a deadly attack on police in the area fueled ethnic tensions.

The fighting followed similar ethnic clashes in northwest Turkey a day earlier. The interior minister blamed provocateurs for the violence as Turkey prepares for a September referendum on constitutional reform and a parliamentary election next year. Monday evening gunmen in a van shot four Turkish police officers, opening fire on their vehicle in the town of Dortyol in the southern province of Hatay. While the identity of the gunmen was unclear, local suspicions appeared to be directed at Kurdish militants — the shooting triggered clashes between Turks and Kurds. State-run Anatolian news agency said some of the protesters chanted slogans in Kurdish in support of the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrilla group, which has recently stepped up attacks against security forces. Turkish protesters subsequently attacked and set fire to the local offices of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy party (BDP) and Kurdish workplaces in Dortyol, broadcaster NTV reported.

news.yahoo.coms

Iran

Russia has branded EU sanctions against Iran as “unacceptable”, saying they undermine international efforts to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The European Union on Monday adopted new sanctions targeting Iran’s foreign trade, banking and energy sectors. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman has condemned the “deeply regrettable” sanctions and vowed to continue its uranium enrichment work. The EU measures go beyond the fourth set of UN sanctions adopted on 9 June. They include a ban on dealing with Iranian banks and insurance companies, as well as steps to prevent investment in Tehran’s oil and gas sector. Russia, one of six world powers negotiating with Iran, supported the UN sanctions last month, but has objected to extra unilateral measures imposed by the US and EU since then.

bbc.co.uk

Venezuela

Venezuela has sent more troops to its border with Colombia amid an escalating row over Bogota’s claims that guerrilla fighters are holed up inside its neighbour’s territory. About 1,000 Venezuelan National Guard soldiers arrived in the border region over the weekend and were reinforcing posts along the 2,200km frontier, Franklin Marquez, a regional commander for the Guard, said on Monday. Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia after the allegations that it hosted the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). He called the charges a “hoax” and an excuse for Colombia to launch a US-backed invasion he says would start a “100-year war”. But Colombia presented photograph, videos and maps of what it said were Farc camps inside Venezuela.

english.aljazeera.net

July 26, 2010

Yemen – Al-Qaida kills 6 Yemeni soldiers

Egypt (Report from) – Al-Qaida in N. Africa says French hostage killed

Iran – Iran says it has 100 vessels for each US warship

Mexico – Prison guards let killers out, lent guns

Algeria – One killed in attack on Algeria security forces: residents

Uganda – Ugandan security on high alert for African summit

Yemen

Al-Qaida militants ambushed a Yemeni army patrol killing six soldiers in the second major attack on local security forces in a restive southern province this week, a security official. Al-Qaida militants attacked the patrol in the southern town of Aqla in Shabwa province with rocket propelled grenades and sprayed it with bullets late on Sunday, the official said. Many foreign oil companies are located in the same area. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. On Thursday a similar ambush killed five soldiers in the same province. Shabwa is believed to be a hideout for al-Qaida militants including the U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was part of a failed terrorist Christmas Day attack on an airline. U.S officials worry al-Qaida’s offshoot in Yemen has found refuge in the country’s remote, lawless areas and could be plotting attacks against American and other Western targets.

news.yahoo.com

Egypt (Report from)

The leader of al-Qaida’s offshoot in North Africa said in a message broadcast Sunday that the group has killed a French engineer taken hostage in Niger in April. In an audio message broadcast on Al-Jazeera, Abdelmalek Droukdel said the group killed the 78-year-old French hostage in retaliation for the killing of six al-Qaida members in a recent raid by Mauritanian forces aided by the French military. The hostage, Michel Germaneau, was abducted April 22 in Niger and officials believed he was subsequently taken to Mali. Al-Qaida demanded in several Internet messages addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France help negotiate the release of the group’s prisoners in countries in the region. “Sarkozy has (not only) failed to free his compatriot in this failed operation, but he opened the doors of hell for himself and his people,” Droukdel said. “As a quick response to the despicable French act, we confirm that we have killed hostage Germaneau in revenge for our six brothers who were killed in the treacherous operation,” he said. French government officials would not immediately comment on Sunday’s audio message. The precise circumstances of the recent military raid in northwest Africa remain a mystery. In announcing the operation on Friday, the French Defense Ministry would not say when or where the raid took place.

news.yahoo.com

Iran

The former naval chief for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the country has set aside 100 military vessels to confront each warship from the U.S. or any other foreign power that might pose a threat, an Iranian newspaper reported Saturday. Such a military confrontation in the vital oil lanes of the Persian Gulf would be of major global concern. The warning builds on earlier threats by Iran to seal off the Gulf’s strategic Strait of Hormuz — through which 40 percent of the world’s oil passes — in response to any military attack. “We have set aside 100 military vessels for each (U.S.) warship to attack at the time of necessity,” Gen. Morteza Saffari was quoted as saying by the conservative weekly Panjereh. The U.S. and Israel have said military force could be used if diplomacy fails to stop what they suspect is an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Iran denies any aim to develop such weapons and says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes like power generation. The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters is based just across the Gulf from Iran in Bahrain. Saffari said more than 100 foreign warships were currently in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, adding that their sailors were “morsels” for Iran’s military to target, the newspaper reported.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico allegedly let inmates out, lent them guns and sent them off in official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said Sunday. After carrying out the killings the inmates would return to their cells, the Attorney General’s Office said in a revelation that was shocking even for a country wearied by years of drug violence and corruption. “According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director  to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards’ weapons for executions,” office spokesman Ricardo Najera said at a news conference. The director of the prison in Gomez Palacio in Durango state and three other officials were placed under a form of house arrest pending further investigation. No charges have yet been filed. Prosecutors said the prison-based hit squad is suspected in three mass shootings, including the July 18 attack on a party in the city of Torreon, which is near Gomez Palacio. In that incident, gunmen fired indiscriminately into a crowd of mainly young people in a rented hall, killing 17 people, including women.

news.yahoo.com

Algeria

A suicide bomber killed at least one person in Algeria’s eastern Kabylie region Sunday by driving a car rigged with explosives into a building used by security forces, local residents said. The attack occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning and targeted a brigade of gendarmes at a village near the city of Tizi Ouzou about 110 kilometres (70 miles) east of the capital. Official sources did not confirm that an attack occurred. The attack killed the night watchman at the village’s town hall, directly adjacent to the gendarmes building, local residents said. Eight gendarmes were also injured in the attack. Other residents said that the attack was not carried out with a rigged car but a bomb planted near the gendarmes’ building. The Sahara region has in recent years seen a dramatic increase in the activities of smugglers and militants linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has claimed several attacks on foreigners. In June AQIM claimed responsibility for killing 11 Algerian paramilitary police in the deadliest Islamist attack in the oil-rich state for a year.

news.yahoo.com

Uganda

Ugandan forces imposed tight security in the capital on Saturday as more than 30 heads of state began converging on Kampala for an African Union summit barely two weeks after deadly suicide attacks. Police and military deployments in Kampala are regularly enhanced during international conferences, but after the July 11 bombings that left 76 dead, security is such that entering a shopping mall is similar to boarding a plane. “Following the recent attack in Uganda, we have stepped up our security measures to a level that has never been seen,” Deputy Foreign Minister Okello Oryem told AFP. “Unfortunately, I think it has infringed on people’s freedom to enjoy themselves,” he added. Kampala was chosen to host the 15th African Union heads of state summit, which opens on Sunday, long before the region’s deadliest attacks in 12 years gave the venue extra significance. It is an AU force that Uganda has led in Mogadishu since 2007 to support the fragile Somali transition government. That role was the reason the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab group claimed responsibility for the Kampala attacks in a bid to force Uganda to withdraw from Somalia.

news.yahoo.com

July 23, 2010

Venezuela – Venezuela breaks ties with US-allied Colombia

Mexico – 8 suspects killed in clash with Mexican soldiers

Kenya – (Reported from) Survey: Burundi most corrupt East African country

France – France targets ‘al-Qaeda militants’ in Mauritania

North Korea – North Korea vows ‘physical response’ to US exercise

India – Ten Indian rebels from rival factions die in gunfight

Vietnam (Reported from) – Clinton warns Myanmar against nuclear cooperation with NKorea, rips regime on rights abuses

Venezuela

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has broken diplomatic relations with neighboring Colombia, accusing the close U.S. ally of fabricating reports that Colombian rebels find safe haven inside Venezuela. Souring already poor relations even more, Chavez said Thursday that he was forced to sever ties because Colombian officials insist he has failed to move against leftist rebels who allegedly have taken shelter on Venezuelan territory. At a meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington, Colombian Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos presented photos, videos; witness testimony and maps of what he said were rebel camps inside Venezuela and challenged Venezuelan officials to let independent observers visit them. Chavez responded within hours, suggesting that his conservative Colombian counterpart, outgoing President Alvaro Uribe, could be attempting to provoke a war. Neither Chavez nor his OAS ambassador directly responded to the Colombian challenge to let people visit the alleged camps. But Chavez insisted Venezuela does everything possible to prevent members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army from crossing into Venezuelan territory.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

Eight suspected drug gang gunmen died in a battle with Mexican soldiers in the remote mountains of northern Chihuahua state, the federal Public Safety Department said Thursday. The department cited an internal army report saying the clash occurred near the rural town of Madera, about 145 miles (230 kilometers) south of the U.S. border. The gunmen apparently opened fire on an army patrol, but the Defense Department did not offer any information on the attack or the identity of the attackers. The area is frequently used by gangs to produce and traffic drugs. Also Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department added two companies owned by daughters of drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to the list of sanctioned companies under the Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

news.yahoo.com

Kenya

A survey by an anti-corruption watchdog says Burundi is the most corrupt country in East Africa. Transparency International released findings Thursday about bribery in public and private institutions. Rwanda was found to be the least corrupt among the five countries in the region. Kenya was the most corrupt country in last year’s survey, but that survey did not include Burundi and Rwanda. The group interviewed almost 10,500 people across Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda between January and March. Those interviewed were asked whether they had encountered institutions where bribes were demanded for services, if they paid and whether they received the services sought after payment.

news.yahoo.com

France

France has confirmed it took part in a raid against alleged al-Qaeda militants alongside Mauritanian troops. France said it had provided “technical and logistical” support in the raid, in which several suspected militants were reportedly killed. The group targeted has refused to negotiate over a French hostage kidnapped in the region in April, the French defence ministry said. It said the raid was aimed at stopping an attack against Mauritania. Spanish reports said a raid to free the hostage, Michel Germaneau, had failed. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had threatened to kill Mr Germaneau. It was not immediately clear where the raid had taken place, though Reuters news agency cited Malian officials saying that military aircraft had been coming and going and shots had been fired in the north of Mali.

bbc.co.uk

North Korea

North Korea has promised a “physical response” to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend. The comments came as Asian foreign ministers met in Vietnam for a regional security forum. The forum has been dominated by the crisis resulting from North Korea’s alleged sinking of a South Korean warship in March. The US has accused Pyongyang of engaging in “provocative” behaviour and has announced new sanctions against it. North Korea’s delegation spokesman at the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi said the military exercises – which begin on Sunday – were an example of 19th Century “gunboat diplomacy” and went against the sovereignty and security of his country.

bbc.co.uk

India

Ten fighters from two rival Indian rebel factions have died in a gunfight in a remote part of India’s north-eastern state of Manipur, say police. Four others were injured in the battle in the Seijiang hill region of Senapati district. The combatants were from two Kuki tribal militias who are in a ceasefire with the government and military. Since the truce, their turf war for control of territory and the drug trade out of next-door Burma has intensified.  The Kuki Liberation Army and the Kuki National Front-Presidium, who both claim to fight for a separate Kuki homeland, have been waging their rebellion for two decades. Under a 2008 deal, the factions agreed to refrain from attacking security forces, but their internecine turf war has since mushroomed. Wednesday night’s gun battle lasted for several hours, according to Manipur police chief Joykumar Singh. Kukis, one of the major tribes in Manipur, have previously clashed with other Indian separatist groups from the Naga tribe over homeland demands.

bbc.co.uk

Vietnam (reported from)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling on the countries of Southeast Asia to press Myanmar’s military rulers to abandon any nuclear weapons cooperation it may have with North Korea. At a regional security forum in Vietnam on Friday, Clinton said that “recent events” had called into question Myanmar’s pledges to abide by U.N. sanctions on North Korea that include restrictions on arms transaction. She did not elaborate but there have been reports of North Korean ships with military hardware docking in Myanmar. Clinton is also criticizing the junta for human rights abuses and is urging it to ensure that elections set for later this year are free and fair.

foxnews.com

July 22, 2010

Yemen –  Al-Qaida kills 5 soldiers in Yemen patrol

Russia –  Moscow accuses US of kidnapping pilot

Argentina – Rights group criticizes new Venezuela info office

US/Mexico – US to send National Guard to Mexican border in August

Haiti – Haiti union calls for anti-government strike

North Korea – North Korea anger at US-South Korea war games

Yemen

Al-Qaida militants killed five soldiers in an ambush southern Yemen on Thursday, a Yemeni security official said. Meanwhile, rebels in the north fought with army units and government-allied tribes killing at least 20 people in the latest series of clashes there. A security official said the slain soldiers in the south were on a routine patrol in the city al-Aatik, in Shabwa province. The province of Shabwa is believed to be a hideout for al-Qaida militants including the U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who played a key part in the failed terrorist Christmas Day attempt to take down a Detroit-bound passenger jet. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. In addition to elements of al-Qaida holed up in its remote hinterland, Yemen is also contending with a rebellion by Shiite tribesmen in the north, along the border with Saudi Arabia. Heavy fighting, including rockets and artillery has killed at least 53 people over the past week in the northern province of Amran.

news.yahoo.com

Russia

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. on Wednesday of “kidnapping” a Russian pilot in the West African country of Liberia several weeks ago for alleged drug smuggling.

Konstantin Yaroshenko, 41, was arrested in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, in late May — by U.S. agents, Russian officials said — and then extradited to New York. He was charged with smuggling “thousand-kilogram quantities of cocaine” throughout South America, Africa and Europe, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement Wednesday. DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden said Yaroshenko was apprehended May 28 by Liberian authorities, who turned him over to the DEA two days later under an arrest warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. “While he was in DEA custody, the DEA followed the rules of law and the Geneva Convention regulations regarding treatment of a defendant,” the DEA’s statement said. Russia’s Foreign Ministry sharply condemned Yaroshenko’s arrest and extradition. “We’re talking about a kidnapping of a Russian national from a third country,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday in a statement on its website. “The actions of U.S. special services in the forcible and secret relocation of our national from Monrovia to New York could only been seen as lawlessness.”

news.yahoo.com

Argentina

Human Rights Watch expressed concern Wednesday about an office recently created by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that will monitor and restrict information released by government agencies. The group warned in a statement that it believes the Center for Situational Studies of the Nation — will have “broad powers to limit public dissemination” of information it deems confidential. Government opponents have expressed similar concerns. Details of the new agency, a division of the Justice Ministry, are still vague. According to a June 1 decree creating it, the office will “compile process and analyze” information on any subject “of national interest.” Its appointed chief will have the authority to declare information “reserved, classified or of limited release.” But officials have not elaborated on precisely what powers the office will have, or when it will begin operating. Jose Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, said Chavez could use it to control public debate.

news.yahoo.com

US/Mexico

US National Guard troops will begin deploying along the US-Mexico border from 1 August, officials say. The 1,200 troops, ordered to the border by President Barack Obama, form part of efforts to tackle illegal immigration and drug-trafficking. They will be in the four border states, with Arizona getting the largest share. A controversial new state law is due to come into effect in Arizona on 29 July making it a crime to be in the state without without immigration papers. Several lawsuits, including one by the federal government, have been filed challenging the legislation. The National Guard troops would be fully operational by September, Alan Bersin, the commission of Customs and Border Protection, told a news conference on Monday. “The border is more secure and more resourced than it has ever been, but there is more to be done,” he said.

bbc.co.uk

Haiti

Opponents of Haiti’s president hope to halt traffic and shut down businesses in the capital to press for a postponement of Nov. 28 elections. Transport union leader Miguel St. Louis says a general strike is planned for Thursday. Protesters will demand that a new electoral council be formed before the election. Opponents of President Rene Preval say the councilors are corrupt. The stakes will be high for the next president, with billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts coming into Haiti. Though few Haitians have formal jobs, calls for a general strike can often result in paralyzing protests. Frustrations are high over the slow pace of reconstruction. Some residents stocked up on gas and water Wednesday.

news.yahoo.com

North Korea

The US and South Korea’s plans to hold joint military exercises pose a major danger to the region, North Korea says. Some 20 ships and submarines and 100 aircraft are to take part in four days of manoeuvres in the Sea of Japan from Sunday. North Korea has also said new US sanctions against it will violate a UN statement issued after the sinking of a South Korean warship in March. The North Korean comments came at a regional security conference. The Asean summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, brings together foreign ministers from the US and South-East Asian nations, including China and North and South Korea. It is set to issue a statement on Friday about the sinking of the Cheonan – with the loss of 46 lives – in March. A multinational investigation team found the ship had been torpedoed by North Korea – a conclusion that Pyongyang rejects.

bbc.co.uk

July 21, 2010

Mexico – Graffiti message in Juarez warns of another car bomb

Guatemala – How Guatemala’s fragile democracy nearly went `narco’

France – Strike to cause major disruption in Paris airports: official

Guinea – Guinea Authorities Uncover Plot to Destablize Election

Russia – Police: 2 killed in attack on Russian hydropower station

Peru – U.S. Offers $10 Million in Rewards for Peruvian Rebel Chiefs

Mexico

A graffiti message found Sunday night in Juárez warned U.S. law enforcement that another car bombing will occur if they do not arrest corrupt federal police agents. The unsigned message told the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate authorities that support the Sinaloa drug cartel. Otherwise, there will be another car bomb placed in Juárez to kill federal police, the threat stated. “If in 15 days, there is no response with detention of corrupt federales, we will put a car with 100 kilos of C4,” the message read. Composite 4, or C-4, was the plastic explosive used for an attack that killed three people Thursday in Downtown Juárez, according to military officials in Juárez. FBI officials in El Paso said they will not investigate the nature of the message because it is in a foreign country.

elpasotimes.com

Guatemala

For a 17-day period that ended last month, Guatemala seemed to be falling under the direct control of suspected mobsters. A lawyer leading a posse of unsavory characters became the attorney general and started dismantling the state’s legal apparatus. Central America’s most populous country teetered on the edge of “going narco.”  Although the appointment of Conrado Reyes as attorney general has now been annulled and Guatemala’s fragile democracy survived the ordeal, it’s still on a tightrope, advocates for democracy and human rights say.  A rugged coffee-growing nation of 13.5 million people, 40 percent of them disenfranchised Mayan Indians, Guatemala has largely been off the world’s radar screen. But as U.S. anti-narcotics aid poured into Mexico and Colombia, bad guys flooded the region in between. Guatemala became a prime destination. While institutions of state appear to function, corruption is rampant, and narcotics are pervasive. Some 275 to 385 tons of South American cocaine transits Guatemala each year, almost enough to satisfy all U.S. demand, according to a March estimate by the State Department. Syndicates from neighboring Mexico brought violence to the steps of power. Cartel enforcers demanding an end to a crackdown on organized crime dumped four decapitated human heads on the steps of Congress and other downtown Guatemala City sites on June 10.

miamiherald.com

France

An air traffic controller strike due Wednesday will force the cancellation of one in five flights from the main Paris hub Roissy and half of all flights from the smaller Orly airport, officials said. France’s DGAC civil aviation authority also warned in a statement that stormy weather forecast for the day of the strike was likely to add to the travel disruption and advised potential travellers to contact their airlines. French unions have called on air traffic controllers to go on strike from Tuesday evening until Thursday morning to protest plans to integrate French air traffic control into a European system.

eubusiness.com

Guinea

Guinean authorities say they have uncovered a plot to destabilize the second round of voting in the presidential election meant to return the country to civilian government. Guinea Prime Minister Jean Marie Dore said Saturday that authorities had uncovered what they suspect was an armed plot to disrupt the second round of voting in country’s landmark presidential election. Addressing the army, Colonel Nouhou Thiam said those responsible have been arrested and are talking to authorities about their plans to disrupt the second round of voting. He says they were young. He says they are being held in good conditions. Colonel Thiam says the winner of the elections will emerge democratically. He says if you are in the army and want to engage in politics, abandon your uniform because the army must remain neutral. The presidential poll is intended to return the country to civilian government, after a military coup in December 2008. Members of the military and the transitional government organizing the elections were barred from running.

voanews.com

Russia

Two carloads of assailants attacked a hydroelectric station in southern Russia early Wednesday, killing two workers and setting off bombs. The attack took place in Kabardino-Balkariya, one of the republics in Russia’s restive Caucasus region where clashes with insurgents are frequent. A spokesman for the republic’s police, Adlan Kakakuyev, said two cars carrying a half-dozen assailants attacked the Baksan plant at about 4:30 a.m., killing two guards and wounding three others in gunfire. The attackers then set off explosives in several parts of the 25-megawatt plant and detonated them before fleeing. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack. The explosions and subsequent fire destroyed two of the plant’s three power units, but there was no danger of flooding downriver, the state news agency ITAR-Tass cited power company RusGidro as saying. The dam and plant are on the Baksan River, a waterway that flows into the Terek, a major regional river.

foxnews.com

Peru

The United States is offering rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the capture of two leaders of the remnants of Peru’s Shining Path guerrilla group. Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala, known as “Comrade Artemio,” and Victor Quispe Palomino, alias “Comrade Jose,” command Shining Path contingents in the Upper Huallaga Valley and in the Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers, or VRAE, region, respectively. The State Department has added the two Peruvians to the U.S. list of most-wanted drug traffickers, joining the leaders of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, as well as the chiefs of Colombia’s leftist FARC rebel group. Quispe “is the current leader of the Sendero remnants based in the VRAE, and oversees all of its illicit activities. These activities include extortion, murder, and drug trafficking,” the State Department said. “The drug trafficking activities of this faction of Sendero include taxes/extortion payments charged to local drug traffickers in exchange for security of cocaine labs and cocaine shipments made throughout the VRAE. Furthermore, currently Sendero owns several coca plots and cocaine base laboratories in the VRAE,” the State Department said.

laht.com

July 20, 2010

Yemen – Al-Qaida cleric: Yemen to be Obama’s Afghanistan

Mexico – US official: Mexican car bomb likely used Tovex

South Korea – US, S Korea to conduct military drills next week

Thailand – Emergency ruled ended in three Thai provinces

Ireland – Dissident Irish republicans armed with new ‘heavy’ weapons

Uganda – Security alert issued for Americans traveling in Uganda

Yemen

A U.S.-born, al-Qaida-linked cleric warned the American people that President Barack Obama will mire U.S. forces in Yemen just as Afghanistan, in a message appearing Monday on militant websites. The 13-minute audio message, in English, comes just days after the U.S. Treasury department put Anwar al-Awlaki on its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. “If George W. Bush is remembered as being the president who got America stuck in Afghanistan and Iraq, it’s looking like Obama wants to be remembered as the president who got America stuck in Yemen,” he said. In another message released separately, al-Qaida’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri vowed that the American troops would leave both Afghanistan and Iraq in “defeat.” U.S officials worry al-Qaida’s offshoot in Yemen has found refuge in the country’s remote, lawless areas and could be plotting attacks against American and other Western targets. Critics, meanwhile, have warned that imposing a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq could provide the terror network a propaganda tool.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

A drug gang that carried out the first successful car bombing against Mexican security forces likely used an industrial explosive that organized crime gangs in the past have stolen from private companies, a U.S. official said Monday. The assailants apparently used Tovex, a water gel explosive commonly used as a replacement for dynamite in mining and other industrial activities, said the U.S. official, who is familiar with the investigation but spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the Mexican-led investigation. The U.S. official had no other details on how the bomb was constructed, and Mexican officials declined to comment. The car bomb killed three people — including a federal police officer — Thursday in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, and introduced a new threat in Mexico’s drug war. Mexican authorities say the assailants lured police and paramedics to the scene through an elaborate ruse seemingly taken out of an Al-Qaida playbook.

news.yahoo.com

South Korea

The U.S. and South Korean defense chiefs say they will hold military exercises starting Sunday as part of efforts to sharpen their readiness against North Korean aggression. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and South Korea’s Kim Tae-young made the announcement after holding talks in Seoul on Tuesday. The two said the drills to be held July 25-28 are designed to send a “clear message to North Korea that its aggressive behavior must stop” in the wake of the March sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on Pyongyang. Gates arrived in South Korea late Monday for a series of high-profile security talks with South Korean officials. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joins a conference with Gates and their South Korean counterparts on Wednesday.

news.yahoo.com

Thailand

Thai authorities have lifted a state of emergency in three northern provinces, two months after crushing weeks of anti-government protests in Bangkok. An official said emergency rule would end in Lampang, Roi Et and Sakon Nakhon because there was no unrest there. But he said the laws would remain in Bangkok and in 15 other provinces. The laws ban public gatherings of more than five people and give security forces the right to detain suspects for 30 days without charge. Emergency rule was introduced during anti-government protests in Bangkok earlier this year which left 90 people dead. It was lifted in five provinces on 6 July but extended elsewhere for another three months.  Rights groups and foreign diplomats have urged the Thai government to end emergency rule as soon as possible, while critics say authorities are using the laws to clamp down on the protest movement. But the government has argued it needs the laws in place to prevent further violence.

bbc.co.uk

Ireland

Senior security sources on both sides of the border believe that dissident republicans have succeeded in buying “heavy” weapons from terrorist army-dealing mobsters in south east Europe. A tip-off, in the wake of a report circulated by Europol to police forces throughout the EU at the weekend, has led to fears by the PSNI that rockets and assault rifles may be used shortly in attacks on police officers in Northern Ireland. It is understood gardai have also been made aware of the latest terror threat. It is understood a major review of patrolling schedules is now currently under way in some flashpoint areas, including Belfast, Tyrone and south Armagh, where failed bomb attacks have been mounted by dissidents in recent weeks. It was also reported yesterday that the PSNI has warned officers to stay out of Ardoyne at night in soft-skinned patrol cars after intelligence revealed dissidents have got their hands on a heavy calibre sniper’s rifle.

belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Uganda

The U.S. State Department has issued a warning to American citizens traveling or residing in Uganda to maintain a high level of vigilance as a major African Union summit gets underway Monday. The security warning comes a week after a trio of bombings killed 74 people in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, during the World Cup final. Many of those killed and injured had gathered to watch the match. A Somali Islamist militant movement claimed responsibility for the July 11 bombings at two venues. “All U.S. citizens should consider the possibility of similar terrorist attacks occurring in conjunction with the African Union Summit,” officials said in a statement released Friday. The summit, which will focus heavily on maternal and child health, began Sunday and continues through July 27, according to the African Union website. Officials are encouraging Americans to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness in large public gatherings, which they say can be vulnerable targets for extremist or terrorist groups. The travel alert expires August 15.

cnn.com

July 19, 2010

Iran- Ahmadinejad accuses US forces for bombings in Iran

Mexico – Officials say gunmen kill 17 at party in Mexico

Puerto Rico – Puerto Rico on alert after drug fugitive’s arrest

Venezuela – Chavez warns Colombia he could break off relations

Central Africa – Army, rebels clash in Central Africa town: military

Somalia – 5 Somalis killed in Mogadishu battle

Iran

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday accused US forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan of backing the bombings such as the two suicide attacks which killed at least 28 people in southeast Iran. “If (US President Barack) Obama is unaware of actions of American forces, then we tell him that American forces based in Afghanistan and Pakistan back such actions,” he told a cabinet meeting, referring to Thursday’s bombings in the restive city of Zahedan. NATO and US forces back “terrorists” with equipment and funds to launch such attacks in Iran, he said, quoted by the state news agency IRNA. “Despite this support, the US president sends a message of sympathy.” The hardliner said Islamabad must also be held “accountable” for such actions. “We are friends of Pakistan and we are by its side, but at any rate the government of that country should be accountable,” Ahmadinejad said. On Thursday, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Shiite mosque in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bombings killed at least 28 people and wounded hundreds more, according to an updated casualty toll.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

The gunmen did not say a word as they jumped from their cars and stormed the private party. They simply opened fire. When they were done, 17 people lay dead and 18 wounded.

Sunday’s massacre in the city of Torreon was ghastly, but no longer unprecedented in northern Mexico, a region that is slammed day after day by gruesome slayings that authorities attribute to an increasingly brutal battle between drug gangs feuding over territory. Investigators had no suspects or information on a possible motive in the attack, but Coahuila, where Torreon is located, is among several northern Mexican states that have seen a spike in drug-related violence as the Gulf cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas, fight for control of drug-trafficking routes. The attack on the party came just three days after a car bomb killed several people in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez — and a little more than a month after assailants raided a drug-rehab center in the northern city of Chihuahua, killing 19 people in cold blood. Television footage showed the patio of the house in Torreon streaked with bloodstains and white plastic chairs overturned beneath a party tent decorated with pictures of snowmen.

news.yahoo.com

Puerto Rico

With the Caribbean’s biggest reputed drug lord back behind bars, law enforcement authorities in the region are on alert for potential bloody feuds among rivals and lieutenants trying to take his place. The Saturday capture of Jose Figueroa Agosto in Puerto Rico’s capital after a decade-long hunt was a big break, but it also means that members of his violent group may try to wrest control of his share of the illegal trade, said Javier F. Pena, special agent in charge of the Caribbean division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. This guy was truly the leader of his organization,” Pena told The Associated Press on Sunday. “And anytime the top guy is taken down, his people can start to fight one another to assume control. There is always concern that people will be jockeying for position, so it’s a matter of time to see if there will be bloodshed.” Authorities have painted Figueroa as the Caribbean’s version of Pablo Escobar, the late notorious Colombian drug kingpin of the 1980s. For 10 years, the 45-year-old Puerto Rican fed his underworld mystique by pulling off narrow escapes and taunting police in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that is attractive to traffickers as America’s southernmost border.

news.yahoo.com

Venezuela

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday he won’t attend the inauguration of Colombia’s president-elect, and warned he could break off ties if the country’s outgoing leader persists in accusations that Colombian rebel leaders are taking refuge in Venezuela. Chavez called the accusations “madness” and said in a televised speech he won’t attend the inauguration of President-elect Juan Manuel Santos. Chavez denied the allegations by outgoing President Alvaro Uribe’s government, saying, “We don’t hide anyone here.” He said if those in Uribe’s government “continue with their madness, I’m going to break relations with Colombia in the coming hours.” He also said, however, that the situation poses a test for Santos and that “if there is respect,” Venezuela will be willing to take up positive relations again. Chavez called his ambassador home from Bogota for consultations in protest.

news.yahoo.com

Central Africa

Clashes erupted between Central African Republic troops and rebels in the main northern town of Birao Monday, with the military and the rebels both claiming to have control. “We took the town of Birao around 4:30 am this morning (0330 GMT). Fighting began around 4:00 am,” the leader of the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) Abdoulaye Hissène told AFP. A Centrafrican military source from Bangui confirmed that there was fighting in Vakaga, near the borders with Chad and Sudan. “We are involved in an attack since the early hours of this morning. The attackers, who we have not yet identified, directly hit the base of the Centrafrican armed forces in Birao,” the source said.

news.yahoo.com

Somalia

An emergency official in Somalia’s capital says at least five people have died during a battle between Islamist militants and government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers. Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu’s ambulance service, said Monday that the dead bodies of four men and one woman were found in their homes in the capital, Mogadishu. Muse said 23 civilians were also injured in Sunday’s five-hour fight. Quranic teacher Moalin Ali Mohamud says among the injured were 10 children hurt when a mortar slammed into their school. Al-Shabab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab said his group launched the attacks and captured new territory. But government commanders said they repelled the attacks.

news.yahoo.com