Russia has dispatched the warship Neustrashimy to intercept a Ukrainian freighter, the Faina, carrying 33 Russian-built tanks and other war material seized by pirates off Somalia while en route to Kenya for an arms delivery. US naval ships are also… Read moreSomalia: pirate show-down overshadows refugee crisis
Three Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants hurled grenades in an hour-long battle and then blew themselves up after police raided their hideout in Karachi Sept. 26, with authorities saying preventing they prevented major attack in the country’s biggest city. “We have saved Karachi… Read morePakistan: terror in Karachi, Punjab
Pakistani soldiers fired at US OH-58 Kiowa reconnaissance helicopters that were escorting Afghan and US ground troops along the volatile border Sept. 25, sparking a five-minute ground battle between the countries’ military forces. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, in New… Read moreUS and Pakistan: is it war yet?
Kidnappers holding 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians moved from Sudan into Libya with their hostages Sept. 25, the Sudanese government said. Sudanese authorities said a day earlier they had them all surrounded at their encampment near Jebel Oweinat, a… Read moreKidnapped tourists held in ex-rogue state Libya
The Camorra, the Naples organized crime machine, has declared “war on the state,” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told the Italian Senate Sept. 24, one day after the government authorized sending 500 soldiers to the Campania region in response to the… Read moreItaly: Camorra declares “war on the state”
China and Venezuela signed 12 energy agreements in Beijing Sept. 25, calling for the South American country to export half a million barrels of oil a day to the Asian giant starting next year. The deal was signed on the… Read moreChávez in oil deal with China, arms deal with Russia
Latin American currencies rose dramatically on Sept. 19 after the US government proposed an unprecedented $700 billion bailout of US financial companies holding bad debt. The Brazilian real went up 3.5% to 1.8298 to the US dollar, its biggest gain… Read moreLatin America: markets react to financial crisis
On Sept. 15, at least 12,000 Colombian sugar cane cutters went on strike to protest the systematic violation of their labor rights and human rights. The workers cut sugar cane for 16 sugar mills in the Cauca river valley, primarily… Read moreColombia: striking cane-cutters attacked
On Sept. 5 the Haitian Senate voted 16-0 with one abstention to approve a cabinet proposed by incoming prime minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis. This ended a five-month period in which the country was governed by a caretaker cabinet. (AlterPresse, Sept…. Read moreHaiti: new PM faces storm aftermath
Royal Dutch Shell formally signed a joint venture with an Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Company to recapture gas that now goes to waste during oil extraction in the Basra fields. The deal is estimated to be worth $4 billion. Under… Read moreShell Oil back in Iraq
Palestinian medics in the Gaza Strip Sept. 23 recovered the bodies of four Strip residents who were killed in an explosion in a tunnel at the Egyptian border. At least one was wounded and hospitalized in Rafah. The explosion took… Read moreFour killed as Egypt blows up Gaza tunnel
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sept. 23 the Pentagon could send thousands more combat troops to Afghanistan starting next spring—but also warned: “I think we need to think about how heavy a… Read moreGates: more troops for Afghanistan —with caveats
