Mexican federal police announced the capture of “El Papirrin,” leader of “La Resistencia”—an alliance of cartels formed to resist the drive by Los Zetas to dominate Mexico’s narco networks.
Tunisia’s interim prime minister resigned amid continuing street clashes, with deadly repression also reported from Oman. In Bahrain, 18 MPs resigned in protest of the killings of demonstrators.
The UN Security Council ordered a travel ban and asset freeze on Moammar Qaddafi’s regime, as Muhammad as-Sanussi, Libya’s exiled crown prince, said the country is unified against the dictator.
The push to tweak the 14th Amendment ominously coincides with a mainstreaming of pro-Confederacy revisionism—pointing to the emergence of a homegrown American fascism.
Hugo Chávez Tweeted to his followers: “Long live Libya and its independence! Qaddafi is facing a civil war!” Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega also expressed solidarity with the embattled Libyan dictator.
Fighting in Libya spread to towns near Tripoli, as eastern cities organized interim governments. France called for Moammar Qaddafi to step down, and Italy is preparing a “rescue mission.”
Israeli forces fired rubber-coated bullets at protesters in the West Bank city of Hebron, leaving at least nine injured. Protesters demanded a withdrawal of Israeli army troops from the city.
Several deaths are reported after security forces fired on protesters in Mosul and Haweija, as thousands marched across Iraq in a national “day of rage.”
Tens of thousands took to the streets in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain to demand political reforms. The march in Tunis was the largest since the fall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
As his regime totters, Col. Qaddafi calls the insurrection an al-Qaeda conspiracy. But will it be enough to assure the good graces of his one-time advisor Richard “Prince of Darkness” Perle?
More than 100 people have died in suicide attacks in Afghanistan in the last three weeks—as the New Yorker reports that the US has entered into exploratory talks with the Taliban.
Was Raymond Davis, the CIA operative held by Pakistan in connection with a shooting incident last month, supplying nuclear and biological warfare materials to al-Qaeda?
