SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

France – Commuters walloped by strikes in France, London

Nigeria – Suspected Islamists kill officer, wound five in Nigeria

India – Curfew imposed as civilians are shot dead in Kashmir

Somalia – 3 Somalis killed in fighting in Mogadishu

Mozambique – Mozambican police deploy in capital to stamp out protests

France

Public transit ground to a halt across France and on the London Tube on Tuesday, with tourists and commuters bearing the brunt of a wave of discontent over government austerity measures. French unions challenged unpopular President Nicolas Sarkozy with a major nationwide strike over plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62, shutting down trains, planes, buses, subways, post offices and schools. Across the English Channel, millions struggled to get to work as a strike by London Underground workers closed much of the city’s subway system. It was the first of several such 24-hour strikes planned for this fall. The strikes came as European Union finance ministers met in Brussels amid worries that the government debt crises that alarmed markets worldwide earlier this year could flare up again. The ministers are discussing introducing a levy on banks and whether a tax on financial transactions can deal with another banking crisis.

Ref: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100907/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_strikes

Nigeria

Suspected members of an Islamist sect that launched an uprising last year have killed a retired police officer and wounded five other people, the latest of such attacks in Nigeria’s north, police said Monday. Motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire on the victims in three separate incidents on Sunday in and around the northern city of Maiduguri, the centre of the 2009 uprising, said Borno state police commissioner Ibrahim Abdu. “We had three incidents in Borno state yesterday, which suggests that Boko Haram is on the attack,” Abdu told AFP, referring to the sect also known as the Nigerian Taliban. “We strongly suspect they are responsible for the spate of hit-and-run attacks we have been witnessing in the last few weeks.” Police in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north said recently that they suspected the sect was behind at least seven other similar killings that have occurred in recent months.

Ref: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100906/wl_africa_afp/nigeriareligionunrest

India

Srinagar has seen numerous demonstrations in the last few months A curfew has been imposed in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, after four civilians were shot dead on Monday. Unofficial curfews have also been imposed in three other towns. The city remains tense following the shootings in Pattan, 27km (16.7 miles) north of the capital despite the impending Muslin Eid holiday. Sixty-nine people have now been killed during anti-India protests over the last three months.  All but four of them have either been shot or beaten to death by the police and Indian paramilitaries. A police officer confirming the latest deaths told the BBC that guards of a provincial police chief opened fire after protesters pelted his motorcade with stones. The Kashmir valley has witnessed widespread anti-India demonstrations since mid-June.

Ref: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11211146

Somalia

An emergency official says three civilians were killed in Somalia’s capital as fighting between militants and government forces entered its third week. Ambulance service director Ali Muse said Tuesday 23 people were also wounded as 500 shells pounded northern and southern parts of the capital. The continuous fighting started Aug. 23 after militant group al-Shabab threatened a “massive” war against government forces, who are backed by African Union peacekeepers. The U.N. says some 230 people were killed, 400 wounded and at least 23,000 displaced since fighting began. Militants are trying to overthrow Somalia’s weak, U.N.-backed government and install a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Somalia has not had an effective government for 19 years.

Ref: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100907/ap_on_re_af/af_somalia

Mozambique

Mozambican police Monday deployed across poor neighbourhoods in the capital Maputo to prevent fresh protests over food prices, as the death toll from three days of rioting last week rose to 13. Over the weekend, text messages circulated through the city urging Mozambicans to return to the streets on Monday, prompting police to fan out through Maputo as businesses cautiously opened their doors. Police patrolled the city centre, while trucks transported officers to outlying areas that saw some of the worst violence last week, when police fired rubber bullets and live ammunition to break up crowds who looted shops and blocked major roads with burning tyres. In the central town of Tete, gunfire was heard as police quickly dispersed a small group of protesters near the main market, but no one was injured, according to local Red Cross official Tiago Mandere. Three more people died as a result of the rioting last week, health minister Ivo Garrido told a news conference Monday.

Ref: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100906/wl_africa_afp/mozambiquepoliticsprotest

SEPTEMBER 06, 2010

QATAR (reported from) Iran – Israeli attack would mean its own demise

BAHRAIN – Bahrain steps up pressure on Shiite ‘plotters’

SPAIN – Spain dismisses Basque separatist group’s truce

EGYPT –  Mubarak concerned over ‘new dangers’ in the Gulf

MOZAMBIQUE –  Mozambique police on alert amid calls for new riots

QATAR (reported from)

Iran’s president said Sunday that any Israeli attack against his nation would mean the destruction of the Jewish state. The two nations have exchanged numerous threats and warnings in the confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel, the United States and other countries believe is aimed at developing weapons, despite Tehran’s denials.

“Any offensive against Iran means the annihilation of the Zionist entity,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a visit to the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. “Iran does not care much about this entity because it is on its way to decay.” He said he doubted Israel or the U.S. would dare to stage such an attack because “they know that Iran is ready and has the potential for a decisive and wide-scale response.”

news.yahoo.com

BAHRAIN

What began last month with the arrest of an opposition leader in Bahrain has mushroomed into a full-blown political offensive in the tiny Gulf nation with big fault lines: U.S.-allied Sunni rulers against members of a Shiite majority being cast as coup plotters who could open the door to Iranian influence. On Sunday, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa gave a national address to decry “strife, aggression and terrorism” and announce plans for greater government monitoring of “religious forums” — an apparent reference to Shiite clerics and others who seek to challenge the Sunni-led system. “We hope and expect that everyone will stand firm to protect this nation from strife and evils in the face of violence and terrorism in all its forms,” he said.

news.yahoo.com

SPAIN

Spain’s interior minister has dismissed a cease-fire announcement by the Basque separatist group ETA and says police will be as tough as ever against the armed militants.

Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba says ETA’s statement on Sunday falls short of what Basque society and other Spaniards demand from the militant group, which is that it renounce violence for good.

The minister told Spanish National Television Monday he is convinced ETA will continue with other illegal activities like trying to amass weapons.

Rubalcaba says the militant group has declared the truce because it is so weak it cannot stage attacks. Its last deadly attack in Spain was in July of last year, when it killed two policemen with a car bomb. Nearly 240 of its members have been arrested since 2008.

news.yahoo.com

EGYPT

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Sunday he was concerned about “new dangers” in the Gulf, in an apparent allusion to Iran, whose nuclear ambitions concern numerous Arab countries. In a speech to mark the Night of Destiny during the holy month of Ramadan, Mubarak said “our celebration comes as our Arab and Muslim world faces difficult times.” In addition to the problems in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and Somalia, Mubarak warned of “new dangers that are emerging in the Gulf region and threaten its stability.” Western countries and Israel suspect Iran is using its civilian nuclear programme to hide efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, a prospect that also worries Arab nations. Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia, are also concerned about Shiite Iran’s support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. Egypt, which has been deeply involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, postponed last week a visit to Cairo by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki over comments criticising the role of some Arab leaders in facilitating the talks.

news.yahoo.com

MOZAMBIQUE

Mozambique police were on alert on Sunday after days of riots over food prices, as calls for renewed protests were circulated via mobile phone text messages. While calm prevailed in capital Maputo after the recent unrest, the anonymous messages urged people to resume demonstrations on Monday. “We are prepared, in terms of the force that is on the ground to control the situation. We will continue to monitor the situation,” said Silvia Mahumane, a Maputo police spokeswoman. “The situation is calm now. There were no incidents reported in connection with the unrest,” Mahumane said. On Wednesday, riots erupted in Maputo and surrounding areas as people blocked the roads with burning tires, in protest at high fuel and food prices. Rioting spread to several towns in central parts of the country, resulting is deadly clashes with the police. Ten people were left dead and over 400 injured before an uneasy calm returned on Saturday. “Tomorrow we will take preventative measures so that we are not taken by surprise if violence starts again,” said Americo Ubisse, who heads the Red Cross.

news.yahoo.com

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

Turkey  - Six U.S. army post office personnel have been quarantined

Mexico – Soldiers killed at least 25 suspected cartel members Thursday

Gaza –  Militants vow new Israel attacks after peace talks.

Colombia – 14 cops killed in Colombia ambush, rebels blamed

El Salvador –  Salvador bans gang membership after bus massacre

Venezuela – Election official: Chavez breaking campaign rules

Turkey

The U.S. Embassy in Turkey says six U.S. army post office personnel have been quarantined after handling a package containing a powdery substance at Istanbul’s main airport .U.S. Embassy Spokeswoman Deborah Guido says Friday the six were quarantined pending laboratory results to determine whether the powder is a dangerous substance, such as anthrax. The results are expected Saturday. Guido said a health team has decontaminated the area and the six are being administered antibiotics as a precaution at a hospital in Istanbul. The personnel deliver U.S. diplomatic mail in Turkey.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

Soldiers killed at least 25 suspected cartel members Thursday in a raid and gun battle in a Mexican state near the U.S. border that has become one of the most dangerous battlegrounds in the country’s drug war. A military aircraft flying over Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state spotted several gunmen in front of a building, according to a statement from Mexico’s Defense Department. When ground troops moved in, gunmen opened fire, starting a gun battle in which 25 suspected cartel members died, according to the military. The statement said two soldiers were wounded. Authorities rescued three people believed to be kidnap victims in the raid, according to the statement. The military said troops seized 25 rifles, four grenades, 4,200 rounds of ammunition and 23 vehicles.

news.yahoo.com

Gaza

Militants in Gaza have vowed to step up attacks against Israel, following the first direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since 2008. A Hamas spokesman said that 13 groups had joined forces to launch “more effective attacks”. In Israel, right-wing activists also condemned the talks in Washington. The US Middle East envoy earlier said the talks, between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, had been “constructive”. The talks at the US state department – the first such negotiations in 20 months – had been initiated by US President Barack Obama, who gave both sides a one-year deadline to reach a solution. The Israeli and Palestinian delegations agreed to meet again in the Middle East in two weeks.

bbc.co.uk

Colombia

Suspected leftist rebels killed 14 police officers and wounded seven in an ambush of a five-truck convoy in southern Colombia, a police commander said Thursday. Elsewhere in the country, two separate mine blasts on Wednesday and Thursday killed four soldiers and wounded six more, authorities reported. The police casualties were among 45 caribiniers — all in their 20s — who were on patrol on Wednesday evening when attackers detonated roadside bombs then opened fire, police Gen. Santiago Parra told The Associated Press by telephone from the nearby provincial capital of Florencia. Police had initially reported five dead but Parra said a rescue mission found nine more bodies later Thursday.

news.yahoo.com

El Salvador

El Salvador has made it illegal to belong to a street gang in the wake of an attack on a passenger bus that killed 17 people. The new law, approved by lawmakers Thursday, makes gang membership punishable by four to six years in prison. Gang leaders face up to 10 years. President Mauricio Funes introduced the measure in July, a month after suspected members of the Mara 18 gang opened fire on the bus and set it afire. Gangsters arrested for specific crimes already fill El Salvador’s jails, but it previously was not a crime simply to belong. An estimated 20,000 Salvadorans belong to street gangs that deal drugs and extort businesses.

news.yahoo.com

Venezuela

An electoral official accused President Hugo Chavez and his allies of breaking campaign laws by using state-run media to berate rivals and praise friends ahead of this month’s legislative elections. Vicente Diaz, one of the National Election Council’s five directors, said Chavez is violating legislation prohibiting elected officials from using their posts to promote candidacies. Chavez has ignored the law, which also bans the use of state media and public funds for campaigning purposes, Diaz said.”We must investigate because (the president) is insulting other candidates … through the use of state media,” Diaz told a news conference. Chavez denied breaking the law and suggested he intends to keep backing his allies’ campaigns: “I’m a political leader,” he said. He also said Diaz could face criminal charges for allegedly making false accusations; he did not elaborate.

news.yahoo.com

SEPTEMBER 2, 2010

Mozambique – Gunfire continues in Mozambique; police say 4 dead

South Africa - S. Africa state workers march after rejecting offer

Armenia/Azerbaijan – Several killed in Nagorno-Karabakh clash

Russia - Russian mafia taking over French Riviera

Colombia – Five Colombian police killed by suspected Farc bomb

Mozambique

Sporadic gunfire could be heard in Mozambique’s capital Thursday, the morning after at least four people died in clashes between police and rioters angered by high prices. Pedro Cossa, a spokesman for the police ministry, told The Associated Press Thursday two of his officers were beaten by mobs the day before. He said the death toll was four, including two protesters shot by police, and 26 people were injured. Mozambique state TV, citing hospital reports, said seven people were killed, including two children caught in the violence as they went home from school. The protesters, most of them young men, had rioted Wednesday over the rising cost of food, fuel and water. They threw stones and looted shops in Maputo, the capital. Cell phone messages late Wednesday and early Thursday called for more protests Thursday and Friday. Early Thursday, gunshots could be heard in some Maputo neighborhoods. People were staying home, both out of fear of renewed violence and because, with debris from the rioting making roads impassable, buses and taxi vans were not running.

news.yahoo.com

South Africa

Striking South African state workers plan a protest march on Thursday and their leaders will meet government negotiators a day after rejecting a revised wage offer aimed at ending their three-week strike. The majority of unions, most of which are in the largest labor federation COSATU, voted against the offer on Wednesday, prolonging a strike by 1.3 million state workers that a prominent economist said was costing about $150 million a day. The strike has shut schools, led to bodies piling up in state morgues and thrown cold water on the national euphoria over hosting the June-July football World Cup. It also has dampened investor sentiment for Africa’s biggest economy. “There are behind-the-scenes political discussions going on. I cannot give more details but leaders will continue to work for a solution,” COSATU Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi told Reuters. A formal bargaining session between the unions and government officials was planned for Thursday.

news.yahoo.com

Armenia/Azerbaijan

Clashes between the forces of Azerbaijan and Armenian-backed Nagorno-Karabakh have left several soldiers dead, with both sides blaming the other for the violence. Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said three Armenians and two Azeris were killed following an Armenian attack. Armenian reports said one Armenian was wounded repelling Azeri forces, and up to seven Azeris were wounded or killed. Recent attempts to solve the “frozen conflict” have failed to gather steam.

There have been a number of skirmishes in recent months across the ceasefire line dating to the 1990s. Fighting broke out in the late 1980s as the Soviet Union headed towards collapse, with ethnic Armenians taking control of Nagorno-Karabakh and a land corridor linking it to Armenia.

Negotiations between the two countries, under a fresh peace drive backed by the US and Russia, took place last year but have since stalled.

bbc.co.uk

Russia

Their grip on the region is now so tight that Riviera detectives expect an eastern connection to almost every crime. “Everything from burglary and money laundering to vice is controlled by the Mob from former Communist countries,” said one police officer, who was involved in the arrest of 69 members of a Georgian syndicate in March. Lover accused of killing banker during sadomasochistic sexAlthough most of the arrests of members have been in Spain, the gang’s nerve centre, many of the bosses now have luxury villas on France’s Mediterranean coast, and foot soldiers work for them, flying out for set period before returning home with their profits. “They’re into everything, from the Russian prostitute rings in resorts like Cannes and St Tropez to gassing tourists in their villa and stealing everything they’ve got,” said the police officer. “Bosses are now based here permanently, with foot soldiers working for them, often flying in for set periods before returning home with their profits in cash. The numbers really are unprecedented at the moment.”

telegraph.co.uk

Colombia

Five police officers have been killed and three injured by a roadside bomb in the Colombian state of Caqueta, acting Governor Edilberto Endo said. The policemen were driving along a highway when a bomb exploded and set their car on fire. Mr Endo blamed the attack on the Farc rebel group. If confirmed as having been carried out by the rebels it would be the worst Farc attack since President Juan Manuel Santos came to power last month. The Farc, Colombia’s largest left-wing rebel group, has been putting up fierce resistance against an offensive by government troops in Caqueta. Farc leaders issued a call for dialogue before Mr Santos was inaugurated.

bbc.co.uk

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

Israel – Palestinian kills 4 Israelis on eve of peace talks

Mexico – Mexico, US open joint office to combat drug gangs

Mozambique – Angry over prices, protesters march in Mozambique

Indonesia – Indonesian police kill five in riot

Russia – Russian police turn to crime

Thailand – Grenade hits Thai state TV station; no wounded

Israel

Palestinian gunmen opened fire Tuesday on an Israeli car in the West Bank and killed four passengers on the eve of a new round of Mideast peace talks in Washington. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility. Assailants firing from a passing car riddled the vehicle with bullets as it traveled near Hebron — a volatile city that has been a flash point of violence in the past. Some 500 ultranationalist Jewish settlers live in heavily fortified enclaves in the city amid more than 100,000 Palestinians. One of the victims was pregnant, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Israel’s national rescue service said the victims were two men and two women and Israeli media said everyone in the car was killed. Video broadcast live on Israel TV late Tuesday showed a white Subaru station wagon standing at an angle at the side of a road, its windows shot out and its doors dotted with bullet holes. The car was flanked by army and police vehicles and dozens of soldiers.

news.yahoo.com

Mexico

Mexican and U.S. officials opened a first joint office to manage the distribution of more than 1.3 billion dollars in US security aid to help fight brutal drug gangs. The office will oversee transfers of equipment and training under the so-called Merida Initiative, a 1.6-billion-dollar three-year plan for Central America and mainly Mexico which the US is seeking to extend, a Mexican foreign ministry statement said. It will allow permanent contact between the two neighbors, the ministry said, as escalating drug violence, which has seen more than 28,000 deaths since 2006, raises increasing concern on both sides of the border. It “reflects the level of confidence, strength and depth that bilateral relations have reached in the combat against transnational organized crime,” the ministry said, after both countries hailed their cooperation in the arrest of top drug kingpin Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias “the Barbie”. US officials in the new office would not carry out intelligence or operations work, in compliance with Mexican law, the statement added.

news.yahoo.com

Mozambique

Protesters angry with rising prices in impoverished Mozambique threw stones, burned tires and ransacked shops in the capital Wednesday, and police responded by firing shots into the air. Police had declared the marches illegal, saying no group had sought permission despite days of rumors there would be demonstrations. Thousands of protesters, most of them young men, lined the streets of Bagamoyo, a crowded, impoverished neighborhood just north of downtown Maputo. As they moved into the city center, they looted shops and warehouses. There were no immediate reports of injuries. People in other areas around Maputo also reported protests. Police appealed for calm on state radio and TV and said they had made an unspecified number of arrests. Mozambicans have seen the price of a loaf of bread rise by 25 percent, from four to five meticais (from about 11 cents to about 13 U.S. cents) in the past year. Fuel and water prices also have risen.

news.yahoo.com

Indonesia

Indonesian police opened fire and killed five people when an angry mob attacked their station with firebombs in a protest over the death of a man in custody, police said Wednesday. More than 20 people including several police were injured during the violent clash late Tuesday in the town of Buol, Central Sulawesi province, local deputy police chief Dewa Parsana said. “A big number of residents encircled the police station and threw Molotov bombs,” he said. “We had no choice but to open fire towards the protesters because they were very angry and were burning motorcycles parked outside… Five people were killed by the shooting.” Anger over the death Monday of a local man in custody at the station triggered the riot, he said.

news.yahoo.com

Russia

Scandals involving police crime are becoming more and more frequent in Russia — kidnapping, murder, torture and corruption among them — casting doubts on President Dmitry Medvedev’s ability to reform the tainted force. 67 percent of Russians say they fear the police, according to a survey carried out by …More Enlarge photo Scandals involving police crime are becoming more and more frequent in Russia Enlarge photo An officer of an elite anti-riot force in Moscow talks to the media about serial …More Enlarge photo .In the latest incident, four Moscow policemen were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a businessman and driving off with him in the trunk of their car. The man’s wife told police that her husband had been kidnapped from outside their house by camouflaged attackers. The case was not unprecedented: three Moscow police officers had kidnapped two women in February, demanding 50,000 euros and threatening that the families would be framed in drugs cases if they failed to pay up. Police often use heavy-handed tactics and are swift to pull the trigger. In January, a journalist was beaten to death by a policeman in Omsk, while in Moscow a lieutenant-colonel fired a fatal shot at the driver of a snow plough that had grazed his car.

uk.news.yahoo.com

Thailand

A grenade exploded in the compound of Thailand’s state-run broadcaster Tuesday, damaging several vehicles but causing no injuries in the latest in a spate of unclaimed attacks in the capital. The grenade was deflected by trees before landing and detonating in the outdoor parking lot of the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand, known as NBT, just after lunchtime, said Bangkok police chief Lt. Gen. Santan Chaiyanont. The attack was the fourth grenade explosion in five weeks in the Thai capital, which is still rife with political divisions and under emergency rule. The earlier attacks left one person dead and a dozen wounded. No one has claimed responsibility for any of the explosions, but the government says the recent attacks justify keeping Bangkok under a state of emergency that was imposed during anti-government protests and riots in April and May in which 91 people were killed and 1,400 wounded. NBT has been criticized by anti-government Red Shirt protesters for reporting that favors the government. Santan, the police chief, and a Cabinet minister inspected the site after the attack, along with a bomb squad. Santan said initial theories that the grenade was fired from an expressway overlooking the compound were unlikely since police were on the expressway at the time of the attack.

news.yahoo.com

August 31, 2010

Lebanon – Armed militias: a quandary for Lebanon, US

Nigeria – Killings, violence come as election looms

Netherlands – Dutch police question two men on trans-Atlantic flight

Russia – Rebels attack Chechen leader’s home

Algeria – Algeria killings cast light on Qaeda extortion racket

South Africa – South Africa’s Zuma under pressure as strike widens

Lebanon

It started with a dispute over a parking space and erupted into a four-hour street war between Hezbollah and a rival militia, with masked snipers running through alleyways and rocket-propelled grenades exploding in the middle of a Beirut neighborhood. Last week’s bloodshed, which killed three people, was nothing close to the worst this city has seen. But it has refocused attention on the bane of Lebanon’s existence: the dozens of private armies that grew out of the country’s 15-year civil war and still flourish 20 years after the conflict ended. “People still in this country have RPGs in their homes,” Nadim Houry, the Beirut director at Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press after the Aug. 24 clashes. “And they’re still in good shape, as you can see.” The fighting led the Western-backed prime minister, Saad Hariri, to call yet again for the militias to disarm. But the biggest militia of all, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, is part of his government, wielding virtual veto power, and long-running talks on disarmament have gone nowhere.

news.yahoo.com

Nigeria

Violence targeting politicians and their aides appears to be increasing in northern Nigeria as next year’s elections draw closer in Africa’s most populous nation. Unknown gunmen on Saturday shot and killed a personal assistant to Bauchi state Gov. Malam Isa Yuguda, the son-in-law to the late Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua. Meanwhile, a police guard for Yuguda was shot and seriously injured. The Bauchi state government on Sunday issued a statement describing the attacks as an “ugly development” as the nation nears local and federal elections that may come as soon as January. However, the attacks mark the beginning of what could be a violent electoral cycle as the nation’s highest office remains in play. In August alone, there have been five attacks on politicians in Bauchi state, a rural state in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north. Most recently, gunmen ambushed Jamilu Bauchin Bauchi, the governor’s personal political assistant. Bauchin Bauchi “was attacked by the gunmen on his way to Maiduguri to purchase horses that they will ride … after the Ramadan fast,” said Sanusi Mohammad, the governor’s spokesman. The police guard was shot about more than half a mile (a kilometer) away from government headquarters in Bauchi on the same night, Mohammad said.

news.yahoo.com

Netherlands

Dutch police have questioned two men who arrived at Amsterdam airport from Chicago, after US authorities spotted “suspicious items” in their luggage. One man’s bags contained a mobile phone strapped to a medicine bottle, knives and watches, said US officials. However, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Homeland Security said none of the items were dangerous “in and of themselves”. But the information was passed to the Dutch authorities, who held the men. It is likely that they will appear in court later before a judge, who will decide whether they should be released or remanded into custody pending possible charges of preparing a terrorist attack, says the BBC’s Geraldine Coughlan in the Netherlands.

bbc.co.uk

Russia

At least 19 people have been killed after anti-government fighters launched an attack on the house of Chechnya’s president, local media sources say. The exchange of fire between Ramzan Kadyroz’s personal security guards and suspected separatists occured in the president’s home village of Tsentoroi on Sunday morning. The clashes left 12 fighters and two officers dead, Alvi Karimov, a government spokesman, told the AP news agency.  Five civilians were also killed in the crossfire, according to local TV reports. But Kadyrov, who was in the village at the time of the ambush and directed the counter-offensive operation, has denied the reported civilian deaths. He told local reporters that some civilians were injured but that none were killed. An AP reporter at the scene claimed to have seen numerous fire-ravaged and bullet-ridden homes that suffered collateral damage, with body parts amid the rubble. Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region sees daily attacks by separatist fighters seeking independence from Russia. Kadyrov had previously fought on the side of the rebels in a war with Russia in the early 1990s, but switched sides in 1999 to become an ally of the country. He was then installed by Moscow as the leader of Chechnya in 2007.

english.aljazeera.net

Algeria

A series of murders in the mountains east of Algiers this month is a demonstration of force by al Qaeda’s north Africa arm to ensure danger money from local farmers keeps flowing into its coffers, residents say. Algeria’s government has said repeatedly the militants, the remnant of a far bigger Islamist insurgency in the 1990s, are on the back foot as security forces step up raids on their strongholds as close as 50 kilometers (31 miles) to the capital. Residents of the small town of Baghlia say rebels of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb assassinated its mayor on August 6. A few days later, they killed three soldiers and injured two in a bomb blast. Then on August 22 a former rebel was gunned down in a cafe. Local farmers say the killings are designed to show the state still cannot protect those who refuse to pay a portion of their income to al Qaeda. “If we pay, we become accomplices to terrorists. If we don’t pay, we may end up killed,” a farmer who said he stopped paying the danger money told Reuters. He refused to be identified, fearing reprisals from the security services. Baghlia used to be an insurgent stronghold. At the height of the violence in the 1990s, the militants killed tens of people there every week, often beheading them.

news.yahoo.com

South Africa

A powerful South African labor leader threatened at the weekend to withdraw support for President Jacob Zuma’s African National Congress, ending a long- standing alliance strained by a nearly three-week-old strike. Adding to the pressure on the government, a union representing Tire makers announced a strike for higher wages from Monday. Thousands of armed forces unionized members are also thinking of striking. The government and unions have opened a new round of wage negotiations to end the dispute that has shut schools and prevented treatment of the sick, broadcaster eNews reported unnamed sources as saying. This month’s strike by about 1.3 million state workers, including teachers, nurses, customs officers and government clerks has presented Zuma with one of his most serious challenges since taking office more than a year ago. Unions are trying to link the labor action to Zuma’s political future. “We will not make a mistake again of voting into power our worst political butchers,” COSATU Secretary-General Zwelinzima Vavi said at a rally on Saturday in comments broadcast nationwide on Sunday.

news.yahoo.com

August 30, 2010

Sudan – Sudan says 2 Russian pilot kidnapped in Darfur

Yemen – Yemen says al-Qaida is government’s main challenge

Slovakia – Gunman kills 6, injures others in Slovakia

Mexico – Mayor in violent Mexican border state killed

Israel – Israel rabbi calls for ‘plague’ on Mahmoud Abbas

India – India Maoists kill four policemen in battle in Bihar

Sudan

Gunmen in Darfur kidnapped two Russian pilots working for a company transporting food for international peacekeepers, Sudanese media reported Monday. Sudanese military spokesman Sawarmy Khaled said the pilots were kidnapped on Sunday in Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur province, and the army had surrounded the neighborhood where they are believed to be held. The kidnapping comes just a month after another Russian helicopter pilot was abducted by janjaweed militiamen in Darfur after his helicopter was forced to land. The pilot, who also worked for the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeepers, was eventually recovered.

In its account of Sunday’s kidnapping, the Sudanese daily al-Sahafa said three pilots were kidnapped as they left the Nyala airport heading for downtown.

news.yahoo.com

Yemen

Yemen’s president said intensifying al-Qaida attacks are his government’s biggest challenge, though his military leaders refused Sunday to accept the intervention of foreign troops.

Al-Qaida attacks have hammered Yemeni security forces in the country’s mountainous south, where powerful tribes sympathetic to the militants and wary of the government have given them shelter. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose government has little control outside the capital, compared the recent attacks to the violence against government forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In an address at a mosque on Saturday, he appealed for religious clerics and Yemen’s people to back him in the fight. “Our people should foil this plot,” he said. “The citizens should stand by the side of the state. These terrorists are harming the nation’s and the citizens’ interests.” Hours earlier, al-Qaida gunmen struck a security patrol in the southern city of Jaar, killing eight soldiers and setting their bodies on fire, Deputy Governor Ahmed Ghalib el-Rawi said on Sunday. Al-Qaida attacks have killed dozens of Yemeni soldiers in recent months.

news.yahoo.com

Slovakia

A gunman has killed six people and injured at least 14 others in suburban Bratislava, the Slovak news agency reported Monday. TASR said the shooting happened on the streets of Devinska Nova Ves, on the outskirts of the Slovak capital, in the middle of the morning. It said the man, who has not been identified, opened fire on passers-by and shot through windows into buildings.

TASR said the dead are four women and two men and quoted Dana Kamenicka, a Bratislava hospital spokeswoman, as saying that a 3-year-old child is among the injured. The Slovak newspaper Pravda put the number of injured at 19 but did not cite any official sources.

Emergency crews are on the scene and authorities are urging people to stay indoors. The fate of the gunman is unclear. Further details were not immediately available. Police have made no comment.

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Mexico

Gunmen killed the mayor of a town in the drug-plagued Mexican border state of Tamaulipas on Sunday in a region where suspected cartel hitmen recently massacred 72 migrants, the government said. Hidalgo Mayor Marco Antonio Leal Garcia was the second mayor to be assassinated in the past two weeks in the area, which has become a battleground between the Gulf and Zetas cartels. President Felipe Calderon condemned the attack on Leal Garcia, which left the mayor’s daughter wounded. “This cowardly crime, and the reprehensible violent acts that occurred recently in this state, strengthen the commitment of the Mexican government to continue fighting the criminal gangs that seek to intimidate the families of Tamaulipas,” Calderon’s office said in a statement. Leal Garcia’s rural town, Hidalgo, has about 25,000 inhabitants. It lies southwest of a part of Tamaulipas where a massacre survivor said Zetas gunmen killed 72 Central and South American migrants last week.

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Israel

A senior rabbi from a party within Israel’s coalition government has called for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to “vanish from our world”. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of Shas, spoke out as Middle East talks are poised to begin in Washington. The United States condemned the remarks as “deeply offensive”. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments with a statement saying that his government wanted peace with the Palestinians.

The attack on Mr Abbas, delivered in the rabbi’s weekly sermon, also prompted chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat to condemn the remarks as “an incitement to genocide”.

Mr Erakat urged the Israeli government “to do more about peace and stop spreading hatred”, the AFP news agency reported.

bbc.co.uk

India

At least four policemen have been killed during a prolonged gunbattle with Maoist rebels in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, police say.  The battle is reported to have raged for more than 12 hours after the rebels attacked a security patrol in a forest.  On Sunday, five policemen were also killed in a shoot-out in the central state of Chhattisgarh.  More then 200 security personnel have been killed by the insurgents in the first six months of this year. Scores of rebels battled with the police, who were on patrol in forests in Lakhisarai district, about 150km (95 miles) from the state capital, Patna, late on Sunday. Police say they are looking for 10 policemen still missing after the battle. The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the poor and the landless. Last year, the Indian government launched a major offensive against the Maoists in several states. The insurgency is seen as the country’s biggest internal security challenge.

bbc.co.uk

August 27, 2010

Israel –  Palestinians riot in east Jerusalem neighborhood

Mexico – Grenade explosion inures 16 at Mexican bar

Thailand – Bomb at Bangkok King Power store injures one

South Africa – South Africa unions ‘to widen strike’

India/China – India cancels China defense exchanges after visa row

Israel

Palestinian residents in east Jerusalem threw rocks at police and settlers and set cars on fire in an ongoing dispute over a contested neighborhood Thursday. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the early morning clashes in Silwan neighborhood erupted due to a disagreement over a pathway claimed by both Jewish and Arab families. He said an Israeli court ruled in 2000 that the pathway belongs to a Jewish family. Palestinian residents, however, say the clash erupted after settlers were seen trying to break into a local mosque. About 50,000 Palestinians and 70 Jewish families live in Silwan and tensions are high in the neighborhood over a municipal plan that includes the slated demolition of Palestinian homes. There have been recent clashes.

The pathway leads to an ancient underground spring that some Jews use as a ritual bath to cleanse themselves before morning prayers. There is a mosque near the spring’s entrance.

Silwan resident Ahmed Qaraein told The Associated Press that residents saw four settlers trying to enter the mosque compound. He said he yelled at the settlers and they ran to a nearby house.

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Mexico

Mexican authorities say at least 16 people have been injured by a grenade that exploded at a bar in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta. Jalisco state prosecutors say five of the injured have been detained as part of the investigation. Four of those detained each lost a leg in the explosion before dawn Thursday. Prosecutors say they are investigating whether one of the injured was carrying the grenade when it exploded. Jalisco state has seen a wave of drug violence in recent months and the bloodshed has intensified since drug kingpin Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel was killed by soldiers earlier this month. Coronel, whose base was in Jalisco, was the No. 3 of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

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Thailand

A bomb has exploded in the centre of the Thai capital, Bangkok, seriously wounding a security guard. The blast, at a duty-free store, was just metres from the site of a recent grenade attack.

It is the third such incident within the past month, despite heightened security.  Bangkok has been under emergency rule since anti-government protests were broken up by troops three months ago. The target of the attack was the King Power duty-free store. The company holds the lucrative monopoly on duty-free sales in Thailand, and hit the headlines recently over its bid to buy Leicester City football club in the UK. The company is also politically very well connected, says the BBC’s South East Asia correspondent, Rachel Harvey. The owner of King Power is closely associated with the leader of one of the key parties holding the current coalition government together. Our correspondent says one possible explanation for the recent attacks is that King Power has become a symbolic target for anti-government activists. A grenade exploded and seriously injured one man on 30 July in Bangkok, five days after a fatal blast at a bus stop in central Bangkok.

bbc.co.uk

South Africa

South African labor unions have said that they will cut ties with the ruling party, and widen a national public sector strike, unless their pay demands are met. There were no signs of a resolution on Friday, nearly two weeks after more than one million public sector workers walked off the job, shutting down many hospitals and schools. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it filed seven-day strike notices on Thursday so that all its two million members could join the state workers strike, which they said would also target the mining and manufacturing sectors. The labor unions were key supporters of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and Jacob Zuma, the country’s president, helping him win the last election.

“We cannot sustain the status quo. We cannot allow the situation that nobody does anything about the current situation within the alliance…” Sdumo Dlamini, president of Cosatu, said. The latest comments by union leaders were some of the strongest signals to date that organized labor may be ready to cut, or change, its relationship with the ANC that was forged in the struggle to end apartheid. The unions have set a deadline of September 2 for the government to provide a 8.6 per cent rise in salaries and a 1,000 rand ($138) monthly housing allowance.

The government is offering a seven per cent pay hike and 630 rand for housing, saying that it cannot afford the workers’ demands.

english.aljazeera.net

India/China

India has cancelled defence exchanges with China after China refused a visa to a Kashmir-based general. The Indian government said that China had to be sensitive to India’s concerns, one of which is the disputed area of Kashmir. As well as India and Pakistan, China also claims part of Kashmir. Defence ties between China and India have remained tentative due to long-standing disputes and a lack of trust; the two fought a short war in 1962. Indian Lt Gen BS Jaswal is responsible for Indian army operations in the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir.

He had hoped to travel to Beijing in August as part of a high-level exchange, but was denied a visa. “While we value our exchanges with China, there must be sensitivity to each others’ concerns. Our dialogue with China on these issues is ongoing,” India’s foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement. The Times of India said the row had blocked the visit of Indian generals to China and another planned visit of Chinese generals to India. The Indian foreign ministry noted that defence exchanges with China in recent years had proven “useful”.

China and India fought a short border war in 1962. China is strongly critical of India for granting residence to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. It is also close to India’s traditional foe, Pakistan, with whom it is cooperating on military and missile development, cross-border infrastructure, and a deep-water port.

bbc.co.uk

August 26, 2010

Iran – Iran says it’s ready to sell arms to Lebanon

Venezuela – Chavez’s popularity down in Venezuela, polls finds

South Africa – South African workers hold mass protest

Argentina – Bomb damages Spanish bank in Argentina

Yemen – Yemen kills ‘al-Qaeda fighters’

Iran

Iran is prepared to sell weapons to Lebanon if Beirut asks for help in equipping its military, Iran’s defense minister said Wednesday. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi’s comments come a day after the leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, called on the Lebanese government to formally seek military assistance from Iran. “Lebanon is our friend,” Vahidi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. “If there is a demand in this respect, we are ready to help that country and conduct weapons transactions with it.” In a televised speech on Tuesday, Nasrallahvowed that his Iranian-backed group could help secure the aid for Lebanon’s poorly equipped army. The Hezbollah leader made his suggestion after a U.S. congressman suspended $100 million of American military aid to Lebanon earlier this month over concerns the weapons could be used against Israel and that Hezbollah may have influence over the Lebanese army. Lebanon’s government has since opened an account at the central bank to receive donations to help it purchase weapons for the military.

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Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez’s allies launched their campaigns Wednesday for crucial congressional elections that come just as recession, crime and inflation have pushed the socialist leader’s popularity to a seven-year low. A survey by the Venezuelan polling firm Consultores 21 indicates just 36 percent of Venezuelans approve of Chavez’s performance, the lowest figure since 2003, when Chavez survived an opposition-led strike that devastated the economy, pollster Saul Cabrera said. The results suggest Chavez allies could face a difficult struggle to keep control of the National Assembly in the Sept. 26 election. The survey of 1,500 people nationwide in late June and early July had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, said Cabrera, who is vice president of the polling firm. He said the poll was financed by a group of private businesses, which he declined to identify.Chavez’s popularity has suffered a decline of 12 percentage points over the past year and a half, Cabrera told The Associated Press.

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South Africa

Thousands of striking public service workers gathered for rallies in major cities across South Africa on Thursday to press their claims for higher wages on the ninth day of a crippling strike.

Marches in more than 20 cities and towns were scheduled as unions representing over a million workers, who began an indefinite strike on August 18, threatened to broaden their action into a total industrial shutdown. “We are expecting thousands and thousands of people,” South African Democratic Teachers Union general secretary Mugwena Maluleke in Johannesburg where workers planned to march through the city centre. The marches were a message to the government to bring a revised wage offer to unions, said Maluleke, who estimated that nearly 800,000 workers had joined the strike. “If the government does not do that, this strike will continue. The unions are not willing to back down,” Maluleke told AFP. The country’s largest trade union federation Cosatu has called on all of its affiliates — which include unions in key mining and manufacturing sectors — to strike in solidarity with public servants if their demands are not met.

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Argentina

BUENOS AIRES – A bomb exploded at a branch of BBVA-Banco Frances, a unit of Spanish banking giant BBVA, in the northern section of Buenos Aires, causing damage but no injuries, Argentine police said Wednesday. The bombing, which destroyed an ATM and shattered the bank branch’s windows, is the second this month against Spanish banks in Argentina. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, police said. A bomb exploded in early August outside a branch of Santander Rio, a subsidiary of Grupo Santander, in the capital, causing damage to the structure. The attack was apparently carried out by an anarchist group calling itself the Andrea Salsedo Revolutionary Brigade Cells, which has claimed responsibility for similar bombings.
The group claimed it carried out the bombing in July of a BBVA-Banco Frances branch that destroyed an ATM and wounded a woman. Other domestic and foreign banks have been bombed in Buenos Aires in the past few months, but no one has been killed in the attacks. The bombings are under investigation by federal judges.

laht.com

Yemen

Yemeni officials say the country’s army has killed 12 anti-government fighters and retaken control of a southern town after several days of fighting. Lieutenant-General Saleh Hussein al-Zouari, the deputy interior minister, said late on Tuesday the army began its assault on the town of Loder after 11 soldiers were killed in an ambush on Friday. “Security authorities have done their job efficiently and professionally,” al-Zouari, who described the men killed in clashes as members of al-Qaeda, said in a statement carried by the Saba state news agency. He said that security forces had “stormed the dens of the terrorists” in Loder, in the province of Abyan, and were “chasing the runaway elements”. “Security forces have taught the terrorists of al-Qaeda a hard lesson and inflicted painful hits on them, forcing those terrorist elements that tried to hide, to flee after dozens were killed and wounded,” al-Zouari said.

english.aljazeera.net

August 25, 2010

Mexico - Marines find 72 bodies in northern Mexico

Mauritania – Attacker attempts to blow up Mauritania barracks

Somalia – Third day of fighting in Somalia’s capital kills 8

UK – Tube unions plan weekly strikes over threat to 800 jobs

Lebanon – Two die in Beirut clashes sparked by ‘personal dispute’

Colombia – Death threats on Facebook spur panic in Colombian town

Korea – Former US president in N. Korea on rescue mission

Mexico

Mexican marines found the dumped bodies of 72 people at a rural location in northern Mexico following a shootout with suspected drug cartel gunmen that left one marine and three suspects dead, the Navy reported late Tuesday. The cadavers of 58 men and 14 women were found at a spot near the Gulf coast south of the border city of Matamoros. It appears to be the largest drug-cartel body dumping ground found in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug trafficking in late 2006. “The federal government categorically condemns the barbarous acts committed by criminal organizations,” The Navy said in a statement. “Society as a whole should condemn these type of acts, which illustrate the absolute necessity to continue fighting crime with all rigor.” Mexican drug cartels often use vacant lots, ranches or mine shafts to dump the bodies of executed rivals or kidnap victims. The Navy did not give details on the victims’ identities, on who had killed them or whether the bodies had been buried. The discovery of bodies came about when Marines manning a checkpoint on a highway in northern Tamaulipas state were approached by a wounded man who said he had been attacked by cartel gunmen at a nearby ranch. The man was placed under the protection of federal authorities.

Ref: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

Mauritania

A suicide bomber attempted to drive a truck loaded with explosives into an army barracks but was shot and killed when he refused to stop the car before dawn on Wednesday, an army official said.

The high-ranking officer, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the truck exploded just outside the barracks, damaging several buildings in the town of Nema, located 680 miles (1,100 kilometers) east of Nouakchott. The attack came two days after terror group al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, released two Spanish aid workers who had been kidnapped while delivering supplies in Mauritania last November. In a recording sent to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the al-Qaida offshoot said the Spanish hostages were released because a part of their demands had been met, suggesting that the Spanish government had paid a ransom. A Frenchman kidnapped in April by the al-Qaida affiliate was executed in July after a joint operation led by Mauritanian and French commandos attacked one of the terror group’s camps in Mali.

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Somalia

Fighting in Somalia’s capital flared for a third straight day Wednesday, killing eight people and pushing the week’s death toll past 80 as insurgents tried to force government troops back toward the presidential palace, officials said. Mortar and rocket fire forced residents to flee and closed businesses. Fighting between al-Shabab militants and government and African Union forces has been fierce ever since the al-Qaida-linked militant group declared a new “massive” war against African Union troops on Monday. “They attacked us last night in large numbers with RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and mortars, trying to run over us and seize the Mecca-Almukara strategic road,” said Sheikh Osman, a militia commander allied with the government. “For military tactics we initially retreated overnight, and this morning as we received reinforcements we repulsed them.” The fighting has forced hundreds of people from their homes. Women, children and the elderly could be seen fleeing the warfare Wednesday. African Union tanks were in the streets to support the government soldiers.

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UK

Union leaders are expected to announce a series of 24-hour strikes by tube workers in a row over jobs, threatening travel chaos for passengers next month. The walkouts, by members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, are set to start in the week beginning 6 September, the day the House of Commons resumes after the summer recess.

The RMT leader, Bob Crow, and the TSSA general secretary, Gerry Doherty, will give details of the strikes timetable at a joint meeting of their union representatives this evening. Sources said 24-hour stoppages are planned to be held on a weekly basis until the London mayor, Boris Johnson, withdraws plans to axe 800 jobs while cutting back on ticket office opening hours at 250 stations across the tube network. Members of both unions have voted in favor of a campaign of industrial action. Howard Collins, London Underground’s chief operating officer, said: “It is simply not possible to go on with a situation where some ticket offices sell fewer than 10 tickets an hour. It is clear that passengers can be better served by getting staff out from behind the windows of under-used ticket offices.

guardian.co.uk

Lebanon

Two men have been killed in clashes in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, between supporters of the Shia Islamist group, Hezbollah, and a rival Sunni faction. The violence erupted in Burj Abu Haidar following a fight outside a mosque.  The Lebanese army was later forced to intervene after the fighting spread to neighbouring parts of the city. Leaders of Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian conservative al-Ahbash faction later met and issued a joint statement expressing regret for the violence. Sectarian tensions have raised recently in Lebanon, amid reports that a UN tribunal could soon implicate members of Hezbollah in the assassination in 2005 of the then Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. Hezbollah’s leader has dismissed the tribunal as an “Israeli project”.

Ref: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11079550

Colombia

The appearance on Facebook of death threats against some 90 teens and young adults in the southwestern Colombian town of Puerto Asis has prompted several families to flee, the Putumayo provincial government said Tuesday. The first death list appeared after the Aug. 15 murders of two of the young people threatened, provincial official Andres Gerardo Verdugo told RCN radio.
Two more lists have followed, he said, with the latest appearing Monday. “The worried parents have begun to take their children out of the municipality,” he said, adding that authorities have boosted security in Puerto Asis and are investigating the threats. Besides the deaths lists posted on Facebook, flyers threatening members of the municipal police force began circulating last Saturday, Verdugo said. Colombia’s national ombud, Volmar Perez, spoke out last weekend against the death lists and speculated the threats could be coming from the Los Rastrojos drug gang, made up largely of former rightist militiamen, or from leftist rebels. The national police have launched “a great operation to give protection” to the targets of the threats, Gen. Oscar Naranjo said Tuesday. The threats are part of a strategy by new drug trafficking to gain control of key territories, the unnamed prosecutors told El Tiempo. “It’s the same pattern” used by right-wing militias in the 1990s, one source said. “A social cleansing to justify their presence in the urban areas and capture the economy.”

laht.com

Korea

Carter, on a rare trip by a Western dignitary, was greeted at an official ceremony at Pyongyang airport by North Korean vice foreign minister and nuclear envoy Kim Kye-Gwan, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The Nobel peace laureate may leave Pyongyang on Thursday with Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an African-American who was jailed in April for illegally crossing into the North from China, the South’s Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported. He may attend a dinner hosted by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il on Wednesday night, the South’s Yonhap news agency said. Washington has neither confirmed nor denied reports of Carter’s mission, which comes at a time of high tensions on the peninsula following the sinking of a South Korean warship in March with the loss of 46 lives. Carter, now 86, made a landmark visit to Pyongyang in 1994 when the United States came close to war with North Korea over its nuclear program. He helped defuse the crisis through talks with then-leader Kim Il-Sung. “This visit will help defuse tensions and create an atmosphere conducive to resuming dialogue between the North and the United States,” Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

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