Supposed Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Jesús “El Rey” Zambada was among 16 arrested Oct. 22 after a street battle with police in which a grenade destroyed a car. Prosecutor General Eduardo Medina said Zambada’s son and nephew, two federal police officers… Read moreMexico: Sinaloa kingpin busted as Rice schmoozes top cops
Colombian authorities announced Oct. 21 they’ve broken up a drug and money laundering ring in an international operation that included the capture of three suspected of shipping funds to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. More than 100 suspects were arrested in… Read moreColombia: Hezbollah tie to drug gang claimed
At least five suspects linked to regional Islamist groups were arrested in raids around Jakarta, local authorities said Oct. 22. Weapons, bomb-making instructions and chemicals were reportedly found at one house raided near a state-owned oil storage center, prompting police… Read moreIndonesia: raids net terror suspects
Saudi authorities have indicted 991 suspected militants on charges that they participated in terrorist attacks carried out in the kingdom over the last five years, Interior Minister Prince Nayef said Oct. 21. “In the past few years, the kingdom has… Read moreSaudi Arabia charges nearly a thousand with terrorism
A Canadian government inquiry has found that officials of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canada Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) “indirectly contributed” to the torture of three citizens while in Syria between 2001 and 2004. The men, Ahmed… Read moreCanada officials complicit in Syrian torture: inquiry report
The death sentence of Afghan journalism student Sayad Parwaz Kambaksh was reduced Oct. 21 to 20 years imprisonment by an Afghan appeals court. Kambaksh was sentenced to death in January for distributing papers questioning gender roles under Islam. In May,… Read moreAfghan journalist gets 20 years for blasphemy
The US Department of Defense announced Oct. 23 that it has filed new war crimes charges against two Kuwaiti men held at Guantánamo Bay. Fouad Rabia, a US-educated aeronautical engineer suspected of running a supply depot at Tora Bora, and… Read moreNew charges filed against Gitmo detainees
High-profile Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic, publisher of the muckraking opposition weekly Nacional, was killed along with his marketing chief Niko Franjic in a bomb blast in central Zagreb Oct. 23. The bomb reportedly exploded under his car and was detonated… Read moreCroatia: terror blast kills journalist
Maria del Pilar Hurtado, director of Colombia’s DAS intelligence agency, resigned Oct. 23 following revelations her secret police had been spying on opposition Sen. Gustavo Petro, as part of a probe of his Polo Democrático party’s supposed links to the… Read moreColombia: secret police chief resigns in spy scandal
On Oct. 15 the Chilean Supreme Court sentenced the 88-year-old retired general Sergio Arellano Stark to six years in prison for the killing of four people shortly after a Sept. 11, 1973 coup that brought the late dictator Gen. Augusto… Read moreChile: Pinochet-era general sentenced
The public trial for the Argentine government’s clandestine sale of arms to Ecuador and Croatia from 1991 to 1995 in violation of international agreements began in Buenos Aires on Oct. 16. There are 18 defendants; the best known, former president… Read moreTrial opens in Argentine arms smuggling scandal
The main route for people trying to leave Cuba for the US is now through Mexico. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, 11,126 Cubans entered the US this way in 2007, while just 1,055 went directly to Florida…. Read moreMexico now main route for Cuban migrants
