On July 14 former US Congress member James “Jim” Courter (R-NJ, 1979-1991) resigned from the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in which he was one of 20 national finance co-chairpeople. The resignation followed a July 9 decision by… Read moreFCC probe of Haiti telcom deal hits McCain backer
On July 25 a jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted right-wing paramilitary leader Emmanuel (“Toto”) Constant of mortgage fraud. He faces a 5-to-15 prison sentence in New York, followed by deportation to Haiti. “The trial proved there is rampant fraud… Read moreHaitian death squad leader convicted in New York —of mortgage fraud
Suicide bombers struck Shi’ite pilgrims in Baghdad and a Kurdish rally in Kirkuk July 28, killing at least 57 people and wounding nearly 300, police said. Three female bombers detonated their explosive vests in the middle of a group of… Read moreIraq: more Shi’ite pilgrims killed; more terror in Kirkuk
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) denied involvement in two bombs that exploded in a busy Istanbul suburb on July 27, killing 17 people. “The PKK has nothing to do with this event,” the group’s leader, Zubeyir Aydar, said in a… Read morePKK denies Istanbul terror blasts
Ahmedabad, capital of the Indian state of Gujarat, was hit by 17 blasts in a space of 70 minutes July 26, killing at least 45 and leaving some 150 injured—one day after eight near-simultaneous explosions rocked the southern city of… Read more“Indian Mujahedeen” claim Ahmedabad blasts
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced July 24 that it had received eight of ten persons detained by the FARC guerillas July 17 when their boat was stopped on the Río Atrato in Chocó departament. The captives,… Read moreColombia: FARC releases eight hostages
A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up and injured 13 Algerian troops in an attack on an army convoy in Lakhdaria July 23. On June 8 a French engineer and his Algerian driver were killed in a bomb… Read moreAlgeria: jihadis attack army —and villagers
Misha Glenny writes for the New Statesman, July 24: Looking a little like God in a Cecil B DeMille film, Radovan Karadzic was genuinely unrecognisable when he was arrested on a Belgrade bus last Monday evening. Yet even more astonishing… Read moreRadovan Karadzic: Sensitive New Age Guy
In the third incident this month at a French nuclear plant, 100 employees were “slightly contaminated” July 23 at the Tricastin plant in the southern Vaucluse region, according to the EDF power company. EDF insisted the exposure was well below… Read moreFrench nuclear industry shaken by string of accidents
From the Uyghur American Association, July 21: Bus Blasts Kill Two in Southwestern China BEIJING — Two public buses exploded during the Monday morning rush hour in the city of Kunming, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others… Read moreChina: Kunming blasts signal growing unrest in countdown to Olympics
The 4th Circuit US Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA, issued a 5-4 ruling July 15 finding that if the government’s allegations against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri are true, the president is empowered by Congress to hold al-Marri in a… Read more4th Circuit upholds indefinite detention of “enemy combatants”
On July 16, ICE agents arrested 18 immigrant workers at Colorado Precast Concrete Inc. in Loveland, Colo., after executing an administrative search warrant at the plant. The workers were arrested on administrative immigration charges. One is from El Salvador; the… Read moreICE raids Colorado concrete company
