US calls siege of Benghazi consulate a 'terrorist attack’

The White House said Thursday that an attack last week on the US consulate in Benghazi that left four US diplomats dead, including ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, was a "terrorist attack" and appointed a panel to investigate the incident.

The Obama administration on Thursday described last week’s assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as a “terrorist attack” and announced a panel to investigate the events that took the lives of the ambassador and three other Americans.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave lawmakers a classified briefing as more questions were raised in Congress about whether sufficient security was in place before the Sept. 11 attack in which the Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, died.
Clinton said the investigating panel would be chaired by Thomas Pickering, a retired diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, Nigeria, El Salvador, Jordan and at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
The White House said it agreed with an assessment made a day earlier by a senior counterterrorism official that the violence in Benghazi was an act of terrorism.
“It is self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama. Carney did not go any further in clarifying whether the administration believed the attack was planned.
Some Republicans said they saw a shift in emphasis from the White House’s earlier presentation of the violence as a protest outside the Benghazi consulate that got out of control.
Debate over whether militant groups planned the assault or whether the violence resulted from protests against a film insulting to Islam has become U.S. election-year fodder.
“The story now has been changed. There was a planned, premeditated attack,” Republican Representative Howard McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
The investigative panel, whose creation is generally required by law when someone is killed or seriously injured at a U.S. mission abroad, is made up of four people chosen by the secretary of state and the U.S. intelligence community. It is expected to write a report on whether security systems and procedures were adequate, and could recommend improvements.
Its work is separate from an FBI probe of the Benghazi attack, which happened on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
U.S. authorities are investigating possible collusion between the militants who launched the attack and locally hired Libyan personnel guarding the facility, three U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity. So far there is no proof of this, they said.

Terror suspect Abu Hamza to be extradited to US

One of Britain’s most notorious extremists, radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri (pictured), is to be deported from the UK to the US to face terrorism charges after losing an appeal against extradition, officials said Monday.

Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has lost a court appeal to be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges, including allegedly trying to set up an al-Qaida training camp in rural Oregon, officials said Monday.

The cleric, considered one of Britain’s most notorious extremists, will be extradited to the U.S. as soon as possible, Britain’s Home Office said.
In April, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the cleric’s rights would not be violated if extradited to stand trial in the U.S. Al-Masri lodged an appeal to that ruling, but the Strasbourg, France-based, court said Monday it has rejected it.
“Today the Grand Chamber Panel decided to reject the request,” the court said in a statement. It did not give a reason for refusing the appeal.
Al-Masri, who is blind in one eye and wears a hook for a hand, is known for his fiery anti-Western and anti-Semitic outbursts. He claims he has lost his Egyptian nationality, but Britain considers him an Egyptian citizen.
He is currently serving a seven-year prison term in Britain for inciting hatred.
Al-Masri has also been linked to the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998, and to preaching jihad - holy war - in Afghanistan.
-Chasity M.

US orders embassy staff to leave Sudan and Tunisia

The US State Department ordered the departure of all family members and non-essential personnel from its embassies in Sudan and Tunisia on Saturday and warned American citizens against any travel to the two countriesamid escalating violence.   

The United States ordered non-essential staff to leave its embassies in Tunisia and Sudan on Saturday after both diplomatic posts were attacked and Khartoum rejected a U.S. request to send a platoon of Marines to bolster security at its mission there.
“Given the security situation in Tunis and Khartoum, the U.S. State Department has ordered the departure of all family members and non-emergency personnel from both posts, and issued parallel travel warnings to American citizens,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
The U.S. embassies in Tunis and Khartoum were attacked on Friday by protesters infuriated by a widely disseminated anti-Islamic film, made in the United States, that insults the Prophet Mohammad and has provoked a violent reaction across the Muslim world.

Google refuses to remove controversial film By FRANCE 24

Four people were killed and 46 injured in the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, according to a hospital official in the city.
In Khartoum, around 5,000 people protesting against the film stormed the German embassy before breaking into the U.S. mission on Friday. They also attacked the British embassy and at least two people were killed in clashes with police, according to state media.
A U.S. official told Reuters on Friday that Washington would send Marines to Sudan to improve security at the embassy, which is located outside Khartoum for security reasons.
But Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti told the state news agency SUNA, “Sudan is able to protect the diplomatic missions in Khartoum and the state is committed to protecting its guests in the diplomatic corps.”
The top security body in the Khartoum region said that “the surveillance and protection of embassy, mission and foreign residential buildings has been stepped up to prevent any dangers,” said the state-linked Sudanese Media Center.
Sudanese and U.S. officials said on Saturday that the Marines had already set off for Khartoum but had been called back pending further discussions with Sudan.

'TUNISIANS BLAME US GOVT FOR ALLOWING FILM' By Mischa BENOIT-LAVELLE in Tunis

The United States had “requested additional security precautions as a result of yesterday’s damage to our embassy,” said Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman. “We are continuing to monitor the situation closely to ensure we have what we need to protect our people and facility.”
A riot police truck was parked in front of the deserted German embassy, which protesters had set on fire. But an Islamic flag raised by the crowd was still flying.
More than 20 police officers were sitting in front of the U.S. embassy.
Sudan has also criticised Germany for allowing a protest last month by right-wing activists carrying caricatures of Mohammad, and for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s award in 2010 to a Danish cartoonist who had depicted the prophet, triggering unrest across the Islamic world.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has been under pressure from Islamists who feel the government has given up the religious values of his 1989 Islamist coup.
The Sudanese government had called for protests against the film, but peaceful ones. U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration said it had nothing to do with the movie, which is little more than an amateurish video clip and appears to have been made in California.
-Chasity M.

Former junta leaders sentenced over baby thefts

By News Wires the 06/07/2012 - 06:58

Two Argentinian former junta leaders, Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone (pictured), on Thursday received heavy prison sentences for a systematic programme to steal babies from political prisoners during Argentina’s “Dirty War”.

Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla was convicted and sentenced to 50 years Thursday for a systematic program to steal babies from prisoners who were kidnapped, tortured and killed during the military junta’s war on leftist dissidents three decades ago.
Argentina’s last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, also was convicted and got 15 years. Both men already were in prison for other human rights abuses.
“This is an historic day. Today legal justice has been made real - never again the justice of one’s own hands, which the repressors were known for,” prominent rights activist Tati Almeida said outside the courthouse, where a jubilant crowd watched on a big screen and cheered each sentence.

updated 1:13 PM EDT, Thu September 13, 2012

CNN.com

Alleged Gulf drug cartel leader Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez is presented to the press in Mexico City, on September 13, 2012.

(CNN) -- Mexico's military has notched an important success for President Felipe Calderon with the arrest of Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, the reputed boss of the powerful Gulf drug cartel.

Costilla, nicknamed "El Coss," was captured without a fight in the coastal city of Tampico, in the border state of Tamaulipas, Navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara said Thursday.

Wednesday's arrest -- together with the seizure of weapons, vehicles and jewels -- is a much needed achievement for Calderon, whose offensive against drug cartels has done little to stem drug-related violence or the volume of drugs transported through Mexico.

The mustachioed Costilla, handcuffed and wearing a checkered long-sleeve shirt under a bulletproof vest, was presented before reporters.

129 inmates escape Mexican prison near U.S. border

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updated 7:45 PM EDT, Tue September 18, 2012

CNN.com

U.S. border agents are shown on the U.S. side of the border between Piedras Negras and Texas in 2006.

(CNN) -- Authorities in northern Mexico detained a prison director and two other officials after 129 inmates escaped from the facility through a tunnel, officials said.

The three prison leaders will be detained for 30 days during an investigation, Coahuila State Attorney General Homero Ramos told CNN en Español.

Local and federal authorities were searching for the inmates and U.S. officers were on alert after the prison break, which occurred Monday in Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, and about 150 miles from San Antonio.

 

By News Wires the 27/08/2012 - 21:57

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Monday that his administration has opened “exploratory conversations” with Colombia's FARC rebel group, in a bid to end a bloody five decades of conflict with the leftist revolutionaries.

REUTERS – Colombia’s government is seeking peace with the country’s biggest rebel group, the FARC, and could consider also holding talks with a second guerrilla movement to end five decades of war, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday.
In a televised address from the presidential palace, Santos said his government would learn from the mistakes of so many previous leaders who tried but failed to clinch a lasting ceasefire with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
“Since the first day of my government I have completed my constitutional obligation to find peace. With that aim, we have had exploratory conversations with the FARC to seek an end to the conflict,” he said, confirming weeks of swirling rumors that his government had started behind-the-scenes discussions.

He added that the military would continue its operations “throughout every centimeter” of Colombia while talks continued.

Scores of activists arrested at funeral of dissident Paya

By News Wires the 25/07/2012 - 07:51

Cuban police arrested some 50 dissidents Tuesday at the funeral of longtime opposition activist Oswaldo Paya, who died in a car accident on Sunday. Fellow activists and Paya's family members have called for an inquiry into his death.

 Cuban police arrested dozens of dissidents Tuesday at the funeral of political activist Oswaldo Paya, after his daughter's vow to seek justice over his sudden death in a road accident.
Those arrested included Guillermo Farinas, a leading rights activist, who was held for questioning by plainclothes police deployed outside the Havana church where Paya's funeral was held.
Farinas, known for hunger strikes that drew attention to the plight of political prisoners in Cuba, and about 50 others were stopped by police after emerging from the funeral mass shouting slogans against the government.
They were forced onto two buses that the church had provided to take people to the cemetery where Paya was to be buried.
In a dramatic standoff that turned into a shoving match, dissidents started chanting "Freedom! Freedom!" before they were drowned out by about 100 pro-government activists roaring: "Long live the Revolution" and "Long live Fidel."
Authorities said Paya, 60, died on Sunday along with another dissident, Harold Cepero Escalante, when their rental car went off the road and struck a tree in southeastern Cuba.
Paya's daughter, 23-year-old Rosa Maria Paya, sharply questioned that account in an impassioned statement delivered at the funeral before an audience that included leaders of Cuba's Roman Catholic church.

Mexico court declares Pena Nieto presidential winner

Mexico's electoral tribunal on Friday formally declared Enrique Pena Nieto (pictured) to be the legitimate winner of the country's presidential election in July, after rejecting accusations of fraud brought forth by his left-wing challenger.

AP - Mexico’s highest electoral authority declared Friday that Enrique Pena Nieto was the legitimate winner of the country’s July 1 presidential election, formally opening the transition to a new government despite continuing claims of fraud by the second-place candidate of the left.
The Federal Electoral Tribunal said leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had failed to prove claims that vote-buying had affected the results of the vote returning Mexico’s former autocratic ruling party to the country’s highest office after a 12-year absence.
Lopez Obrador told reporters Friday morning that he refused to recognize the results of the election and was calling for a peaceful protest that he described as “civil disobedience” on Sept. 9 in the Zocalo, the historic plaza in the heart of downtown Mexico City. He launched street demonstrations that paralyzed central Mexico City after he lost the 2006 vote, but widespread protests appear far less likely this time.

Lopez Obrador said the electoral tribunal made an illegitimate ruling Thursday evening when it rejected the leftist’s allegations of vote-buying and other campaign violations in favor of Pena Nieto, the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The seven electoral magistrates are nominated by Mexico’s Supreme Court and confirmed by Congress and are widely seen as credible and non-partisan, although Lopez Obrador has alleged that several members were based in favor of the PRI.

Buenos Aires metro strike ends after 10 days

By News Wires the 14/08/2012 - 09:12

Transport workers in Buenos Aires on Monday said they would temporarily suspend a metro strike that has left one million daily commuters stranded without subways for the last ten days.

 Buenos Aires metro workers announced Monday a temporary end to a strike that left one million commuters daily stranded without subways for ten days.

"We have reached an interim agreement" with metro directors, union official Roberto Pianelli announced at a press conference.

The strike -- the longest in the nearly 100 year history of the Buenos Aires subway system -- had dragged on because the federal government and the city each insist the other is responsible for the underground rail network.

The union representing the Argentine capital's metro workers originally demanded a 28 percent pay increase for its roughly 2,500 workers. Metro employees have received a 23 percent raise in addition to several other demands.

The nation's annual inflation is up at around 25 percent, according to independent economists.

"The problem does not end here, because the issue of our salaries has not been solved," Pianelli said, explaining that the union has suspended the strike "in a gesture to metro riders and workers."

Buenos Aires has three million inhabitants, but on weekdays, some three million more living in surrounding suburbs come to the city to work.

The metro strike at one point threatened to break out into a political battle between Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner.

Last week, a judge ordered Macri -- an opposition politician expected to run for president in 2015 -- to negotiate with the subway workers and with private subway operator Metrovias.

Argentina's federal government said in January it was turning over the management of the metro to the city. But Macri has insisted federal authorities first turn over the funds necessary to improve the system.

He accuses the federal government of encouraging the strike, adding sarcastically that the problem would go away if "I should say I'm not a candidate in 2015."

Argentina's transportation minister countered "the problem is the incompetence of the city government."

The Buenos Aires metro, the oldest in Latin America, spans 56.7 kilometers (35 miles).

(Sam F.)

Guatemalan volcano prompts evacuation

Authorities in Guatemala have ordered more than 33,000 people to evacuate communities at the foot of the Volcan del Fuego, or Volcano of Fire, which has begun spewing lava and ash. The volcano lies 16 kilometres southwest of Antigua.

Villagers and farmers living at the foot of a Guatemalan volcano say they were awoken by a massive roar when the long-simmering Volcan del Fuego exploded with a series of eruptions that darkened the skies and covered the surrounding sugar cane fields with ash.
“It thundered and then it got dark as the ash began falling,” said Miriam Curumaco, a 28-year-old homemaker from the village of Morelia who was evacuated along with 16 family members to a makeshift shelter at a nearby elementary school. “It sounded like a pressure cooker that wouldn’t stop.”

As the Volcan del Fuego, or Volcano of Fire, spewed rivers of bright orange lava down its flanks on Thursday, authorities ordered more than 33,000 people in 17 nearby communities evacuated. Many of those near the volcano are indigenous Kakchikeles people who live in relatively poor and isolated communities.

Hundreds of cars, trucks and buses, blanketed with charcoal grey cash, drove away from the volcano, which sits about six miles (16 kilometers) southwest of the colonial city of Antigua, toward the Guatemala city. Thick clouds of ash reduced visibility to less than 10 feet in the area of sugar cane fields surrounding the volcano. The elderly, women and children were evacuated in old school buses and ambulances.
But many people refused to leave their homes, said Jose Martinez, who volunteered the bus he uses as a shuttle at the nearby Grupo Pantaleon sugar cane plantation to move people away from the volcano.
“Some people think that this will pass and others think their things won’t be there when they go back,” Martinez said.

Dozens of Lula-era officials go on trial in Brazil

By News Wires the 03/08/2012 - 10:01

A landmark bribery trial starts Thursday in Brazil that could mar the legacy of popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, or "Lula" (right). Thirty-eight former ministers, lawmakers and businessmen are charged with buying votes in Congress.

 Brazil's biggest ever bribery trial began Thursday with dozens of former officials facing vote-buying charges in a case that could tarnish the legacy of popular ex-leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
In what the media has dubbed "the trial of the century," 38 former ministers, lawmakers, businessmen and bankers face prosecution before the Supreme Court over alleged vote-buying in Congress between 2002 and 2005.
Supreme Court Justice Carlos Ayres Britto opened proceedings by naming each defendant and detailing the charges, which range from embezzlement and money laundering to corruption and fraud. Those found guilty face up to 45 years in prison.

Ecuador considers new constitution

On Sunday Ecuador will hold a national referendum to adopt or reject a new constitution. In a country familiar with political instability, the outcome of the vote could have sweeping implications for the government of President Rafael Correa.

A referendum vote on Sunday will decide if Ecuador adopts a new constitution—crafted by the left-leaning government of President Rafael Correa—or preserves the existing one.  But in a country where presidents have fallen out of favor, and power, with relative ease, there is much more at stake in the vote than the text under consideration.

The likely victory of the ‘Yes’ campaign, and approval of the new constitution, would bring to fruition a prolonged national political project—an uncommon event in Ecuador.  The small, South American country has become notorious for being ungovernable. The standing constitution is only 10 years old, and during that time, five different presidents have held office.

President Rafael Correa, ideologically positioned somewhere between the left of Venezuela’s Chavez and Chile’s Bachelet, is poised to succeed in his promise to bring about profound yet peaceful changes to the country. But the ‘No’ campaign has made significant gains, and a small margin of victory is now expected.

Rival gangs spark deadly prison riot in Venezuela

By News Wires the 20/08/2012 - 15:54

More than 20 prisoners and a visitor have been killed in clashes between rival gangs in a prison near Caracas. The fight erupted on Sunday night.

The watchdog group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory says 560 people were killed in Venezuelan prisons last year. It also says the pace of the violence increased during the first half of this year, with at least 304 inmates killed.

 More than 20 people were killed in a prison riot as two groups of inmates battled for control of the penitentiary, Venezuelan officials said Monday.

The violence erupted on Sunday night at Yare I prison south of Caracas, and one of those slain was a relative of an inmate, said Iris Varela, the government’s prisons minister.

Varela told state television that more than 20 were killed but did not give a precise death toll or explain how the riot broke out.

She said that as of Monday morning the situation at the prison was under control.

Varela didn’t provide details about how the inmate’s relative died. She said that prisoners who were behind the killings “are going to have to answer for this.”

Prison unrest and crowding have become major problems for President Hugo Chavez’s government. Violence is common inside Venezuela’s prisons, where inmates often manage to obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards.

(Chasity M.)

Chavez criticised over deadly refinery blast

By News Wires the 28/08/2012 - 16:02

All fires have been extinguished at Venezuela's biggest oil refinery after blazing for more than three days, officials said Tuesday, but President Hugo Chavez's government has been criticised over its response to the incident.

AP - All fires have been extinguished at Venezuela’s biggest oil refinery after raging for more than three days following a deadly explosion, officials said Tuesday.

State television reported that the flames had been put out in the three fuel tanks that had been ablaze, and showed images of one tank smoldering. The smoke rising from the Amuay refinery had diminished markedly by dawn on Tuesday.
An official of the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA said firefighters were working to cool down one of the tanks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Mexico drugs: Acapulco 'cartel leader' Juan Diego seized

Juan Diego was taken to Mexico City after his arrest in Guerrero state

Mexican police have arrested one of the alleged leaders of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, Jose Quiroz Perez - known as Juan Diego - accused of killing at least 18 people this year.

Authorities say the drugs cartel is behind a spate of kidnaps and armed attacks in public areas, causing panic in a major tourist destination.
The cartel is also accused of extortion against businessmen and shop owners.
Eleven other suspected members of the drug cartel were also arrested.
Juan Diego and his group are accused of dumping the mutilated bodies of kidnapped rival gang members in some of the beach resort's central areas.
Messages with threats to rival gangs were left alongside the bodies.
Ramon Pequeno, head of the Federal Police's Anti-Drugs department, said Juan Diego began recruiting members from a rival gang - La Barredora - after the arrest of its leader in 2010.
In less than two years, Juan Diego's group managed to take control of most criminal operations in Acapulco - in Mexico's southern Pacific coast - and the nearby cities of Costa Chica and Guerrero, Mr Pequeno said.
The 12 suspects were arrested on Thursday with guns, vehicles and 150 bags of a white powder the police believe to be cocaine.
They were paraded before the media at the Federal Police headquarters in Mexico City

(Jose A.)

Colombia rules out ceasefire with FARC

President says military will intensify operation against rebels ahead of peace talks in October. Last Modified: 07 Sep 2012 07:10

Colombia's president has rejected a proposal from the country's main leftist rebel movement to observe a ceasefire during peace talks that are due to begin next month in Norway. Leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said during a news conference in Cuba on Thursday that the first item on their negotiators' agenda would be to propose a truce in the decades-long conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. Hours later, however, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that would not happen. He said the Colombian military and police had been instructed to intensify offensive actions against the rebels.