CounterVortex

Mexico

Mexico: farmers block roads to protest fuel prices

Farmers in Mexico’s Chihuahua state blocked roads and occupied the offices of the Agriculture Secretariat to demand the government reduce the price of diesel fuel.

Mexico

Mexico: human “stew-maker” busted, more severed heads appear

A man arrested by Mexican federal police in Tijuana says he disposed of 300 bodies for a narco gang by dissolving them in chemicals. Meanwhile, more severed heads were discovered in Guanajuato and Juárez.

Africa

Sudanese forces bomb Darfur town as pressure mounts on Bashir

Government forces reportedly again bombed a village in Darfur, as Sudan’s foremost Islamist opposition leader Hassan Turabi called for President Omar al-Bashir to turn himself in to the UN Criminal Court.

North Africa

Mali pledges all-out war against Tuareg rebels

President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali vowed a harsh crackdown on the Tuareg guerillas, vowing that “all the operational means will be mobilized” against the desert insurgency.

The Caucasus

Heroine journalist buried in Moscow

Hundreds in Moscow attended the funeral of Anastasia Baburova, the 25-year-old journalist killed defending human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov as he was assassinated by masked gunmen.

The Caucasus

Human Rights Watch blasts both sides in Georgia war

Both Russia and Georgia share blame for an “indiscriminate and disproportionate” use of force that violated humanitarian law during their August 2008 war, Human Rights Watch announced.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: US air-strike sparks protests —again

Village elders in Afghanistan’s Mehtar Lam district say 22 noncombatants were killed in a US air-raid—the fist controversy over civilian casualties since Barack Obama took office.

Afghanistan

Pakistan: pro-government leader, family wiped out in US air-strike

Reports from Pakistan indicate that pro-government tribal elder Malik Deen Faraz, his three sons and a grandson were killed in Friday’s US drone strikes in the South Waziristan border region.

North Africa

Obama’s State Department to Mauritania: restore “constitutional order”

In one of its first statements since Barack Obama took office, the US State Department called for “the immediate return to constitutional order” in Mauritania, where a military coup cut short a democratic opening.

Watching the Shadows

Gitmo alum heads Yemen Qaeda franchise?

Fox News is having a field day with reports that a Saudi man who was released from Guantánamo Bay after a six-year stint is now the number-two man in al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen.

Africa

Congo rebel leader Laurent Nkunda arrested in Rwanda

Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested by Rwandan forces in an apparent deal for a joint Congo-Rwanda crackdown on Hutu militias said to have been involved in the 1994 genocide.

Palestine