Under emergency powers announced by President Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s Supreme Judicial Council has opened an investigation into striking court workers who refuse to return to work. Striking workers could face termination under the state of emergency. The court workers union… Read moreColombia: Uribe decrees emergency powers in judicial strike
Mexico’s powerful drug cartels are buying cocaine directly from Colombia’s main guerilla group, Colombian deputy defense minister Sergio Jaramillo charged Oct. 7 at an OAS anti-crime conference in Mexico City. Jaramillo said that Oliver Solarte, finance chief of the FARC‘s… Read moreColombian guerillas linked to Mexican cartels?
Bernardino Terracciano, the Naples man who played himself in the award-winning film Gomorra about the Neapolitan mob is among seven men arrested Oct. 12 on organized crime charges. Terracciano—the burly, menacing local boss “Zi’ Bernardino” (Uncle Bernardino) in Matteo Garrone’s… Read moreNaples crime war: life imitates art imitating life
Georgia has formally protested the continuing presence of Russian troops in South Ossetia’s Akhalgori district and Abkhazia’s Kodori Gorge, both areas held by Georgian forces until the August war. Under the ceasefire terms, Russia is to withdraw to positions it… Read moreGeorgia accuses Russia of ceasefire term violations
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is calling on India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into the ethnic violence that left 55 dead and more than 200,000 displaced in his state over the past week. “The culprits involved in… Read moreIndia: tribal peoples displaced in Assam clashes
Attacks in the Iraqi city of Mosul have forced nearly 1,000 Christians, or some 500 families, to flee their homes over the past week, the governor of the northern Ninawa (Nineveh) province reports. Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula Oct. 11 said most… Read moreIraq: Christians flee sectarian terror in Mosul
Pope Benedict XVI Oct. 9 backed the beatification of World War II-era pontiff Pius XII, defending his controversial legacy and asserting that he “often acted in secret and in silence” to defend Jews during the Holocaust. Celebrating a mass commemorating… Read moreBenedict backs Pius XII beatification, bestirring Judeo-backlash
Around 100 people are believed dead off the coast of Yemen after being forced overboard by smugglers in the Gulf of Aden. Some 47 survivors told the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that a smuggling boat carrying about 150… Read more100 Somalis dead in smuggler atrocity
Days after a US missile strike reportedly killed 20 in Pakistan’s northwest, Islamabad’s Foreign Ministry warned that such attacks are counter-productive. “We want them to realize that these attacks are destabilizing the situation, and they are not helping them or… Read morePakistan: US strikes are “helping the terrorists”
Afghan peace activists arrived in Kabul after trekking some 700 kilometers on foot to call for an end to Afghanistan's long internal war. The Helmand Peace Convoy reached the national capital after traveling for almost 40 days from Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold. It began with a group of nine men and picked up around 40 supporters during the journey. The arrival in Kabul followed a three-day ceasefire between the Taliban and government forces coinciding with the Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends the holy month of Ramadan. The Kabul government extended its ceasefire by 10 days, but the Taliban said that they would resume their attacks. ISIS meanwhile carried out two deadly suicide attacks in Jalalabad targeting public Eid celebrations. (Photo: RFE/RL,)
NATO is sending seven warships to Somalia’s coast, where pirates continue to hold the arms-laden Ukrainian ship Faina—already surrounded by six US warships from the Bahrain-based Sixth Fleet. The Russian Baltic Fleet’s frigate Neustrashimy (The Fearless) is also hurrying to… Read moreNATO sends warships against Somali pirates
