[ADN Kronos] A powerful suicide blast struck the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding another 20. In the attack a suicide-bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a western military food convoy, although most of the casualties were civilians, police said.
Eye witnesses said the blast targeted a British military vehicle in the Hodkhil area on the Kabul-Jalalabad road, eight kilometres from the Presidential Palace.
It was the second attack to strike Kabul on Tuesday, in a mounting wave of suspected Taliban attacks aimed at disrupting Thursday's crucial presidential and provincial elections.
Two rockets fired by militants struck the presidential palace grounds and a police station in Kabul, with no casualties. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Presidential incumbent Hamid Karzai is the frontrunner in Thursday's poll, in which he is seeking re-election for another four-year term.
Taliban fighters have vowed to derail Thursday's polls with attacks on polling stations and reprisals against voters.
They have in recent weeks staged increasingly bold attacks on government and other sensitive targets in Afghanistan.
A deadly suicide car bomb in front of NATO's headquarters in Kabul last Saturday killed seven civilians dead and injured over 90 others.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Afghan security forces have killed three gunmen, who stormed a bank in Kabul, and are searching for more attackers who might have hidden inside the bank.
Explosions and gunfire could be heard from the building, just a few hundreds of meters from the presidential palace compound.
The area is close to a bazaar and about 1.5 kilometers (one mile) south of the city center, which was quiet with many businesses closed for a public holiday.
The attack comes as Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt the August 21 presidential election, which comes against a big increase in violence by the group ousted after the US invasion in 2001.
According to a Taliban spokesman, gunmen launched an attack on central Kabul on the eve of presidential elections. Police, however, said they were ordinary criminals escaping arrests.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahed, claimed that four of the militants were in the building in a standoff with police that had left several dead.
"We do not know who they are. They could be criminals or terrorists," Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told Reuters. "Our operation is under way and we are trying to capture them alive."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Forty-four al-Qaeda suspects have been arrested in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's interior ministry told al-Ekhbariya state TV channel on Wednesday.
The ministry said the alleged suspects were planning to carry out attacks and weapons using remote electronic detonators and were attempting to recruit youths to finance their activities through charitable donations. "These people have links to the original al-Qaeda organization," interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki told AFP. "These people, I would describe them like a base, they actually work in the area, recruiting young people, giving young people the ideology of al-Qaeda, and financing terrorism in the kingdom," he added.
In a statement carried by the state news agency SPA, Turki said the group "includes a number of the theorists and believers of the deviant ideology and supporters of its criminal acts." Seventeen Kalashnikov rifles, 50 machineguns and 96 remote electronic detonators were seized, the ministry said. Out of the 44 arrested, 43 of them were Saudi nationals.
Saudi Arabia has battled Islamists who launched a violent campaign to destabilize the country. The violence has subsided since 2006 after nearly 200 people, including foreign residents, security forces and militants, were killed.
The Saudi government has arrested hundreds of suspects during the past year. In February, it issued a list of 85 wanted Islamists believed to be overseas.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe start by looking at your anti western education/Religious authority for answers!
[Bangla Daily Star] Pirates looted 22 fishing trawlers and abducted 40 fishermen along the Barguna coast of the Bay of Bengal in the dead of night on Tuesday.
The Somalis are ranging widely, it seems. ;-)
At least 25 fishermen were injured as they came under attack of the band of pirates in Khochikhali area of Sundarban.
Golam Mostafa Chowdhury, president of the Patharghata Fish Warehouse Association, quoting bullet-hit Abdul Jalil of Tangra under Patharghata upazila told The Daily Star the fishermen took shelter at Khochikhali after fishing in the Bay due to gusty wind.
Pirates swooped on them at about 2:30am and looted fish, nets, money, engine and other valuables from the trawlers, beat them up and opened fire on them, he added.
The pirates also took away three trawlers along with 40 fishermen. They demanded Tk 20 lakh as ransom for their release and gave an address to other fishermen for the payment, said fishermen who returned to Pathargata Wednesday afternoon.
The abducted fishermen include Ali Akbar, Joinal Mazi, Abdul Barek, Dulal Hossain, Yunus Ali, Mansur Ali and Abdul Latif. They all hail from Patharghat upazila of Barguna.
Injured fishermen Abdul Jalil told local journalists that the pirates threatened to kill the fishermen if the ransom is not paid within a week.
Yasin Ali, coastguard officer of Patharghata, told The Daily Star that they were trying to rescue the fishermen and track down the pirates.
Nurul Amin, officer-in-charge of the Patharghata Police Station, said a case was filed with the police station in this connection. The injured fishermen were admitted to the Patharghata Upazila Health Complex, the OC added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] In separate "gunfights" with law enforcers, two criminals were killed and three sustained injuries in the city's Agargaon and Mohammadpur and in Satkhira yesterday. The deceased were identified as Rafiqul Islam alias Panku, 30, and Lutfor Rahman, 35, of Shahpur village of Tala upazila in Satkhira.
ASP Talebur Rahman of Rab-2 said members of the elite force arrested Rafiqul Islam at Banasree, Rampura on Tuesday night as he was wanted in twelve systems seven cases, including two of murders, filed with Gulshan Police Station. According to the ASP, they took Rafiqul to Agargaon to recover firearms. No sooner had they got to Music College, Rafiqul's associates opened fire at the team prompting them to retaliate. They had firearms at the Music College?
Why did you think the movies always show gangsters carrying violin cases?
"Rafiqul died on spot as he was caught in the line of the shooting during an attempt to flee," said the ASP, adding that all the associates of the deceased managed to get away. Don't they always?
Rab recovered a pistol and two bullets from the scene. Meager haul ...
In Mohammadpur, three criminals sustained bullet wounds in their legs in a shoot-out with another Rab-2 team at Aurangzeb Road around 3:30am yesterday. The wounded were Mohammad Ukil, 32, Akkas, 23, and Abdul Malek, 22.
Rab sources said a gang of four to five criminals in a yellow cab attacked the elite force team as they intercepted the vehicle. Was it a Checker cab or just a beat-up Chevy Caprice?
At one stage Rab was compelled to open fire in which three of them got wounded. However, rest of the gang managed to escape. The injured were admitted to Pongu Hospital, added the sources. Rab personnel recovered three machetes from the scene. They opened fire with machetes?
And violins. Mustn't forget the violins.
In another incident in Satkhira, Lutfor Rahman, divisional commander of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-ML Janajuddho faction) was killed in a gunfight between his cohorts and law enforcers at Chhoygharia in sadar upazila yesterday. Purbo Banglar commies have factions? I thought only the Biplobi commies had factions ...
Perhaps in the distant past they were the Purbo Biplobis, but the species had pre-evolved Splittist tendencies, so time and evolution did its thing. Each evolved to best fit the environment within which it found itself, and each local Rab evolved best to hunt it. Science is a beautiful thing.
Police said informed of a secret meeting of the outlawed group, a police team cordoned off the area around 3:00am. Sensing company, Lutfor's cohorts opened fire at the law enforcers and the police retaliated. Lutfor received bullets during the shootout and died on the spot, said police. "Which spot?"
"THAT spot!"
Bang!Bang! Redbud........
Contacted, Officer-in-Charge Kamruzzaman of Sadar Police Station said Lutfor was wanted on in 12 systems cases, including three of murders, filed with Tala, Dumuria, Kalaroa and Sadar police stations.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Why did you think the movies always show gangsters carrying violin cases?
LOL. You got me on that one ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/20/2009 9:23 Comments ||
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#2
I have actualy seen a Thompson .45 with drum and stik magazine in a custom "Violin Case" at a gunshow.
They DO exist. Not just in movies.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/20/2009 12:38 Comments ||
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PORT BLAIR, India - A North Korean ship intercepted in Indian waters off the Andaman Islands is being moved to the Indian mainland where investigations will continue, the coast guard said Thursday.
The ship was intercepted last week after dropping anchor in Indian territorial waters without permission and failing to respond to signals, coast guard officials said earlier.
Government officials have directed authorities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to shift the cargo ship to the port of Kakinada in the eastern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Our coast guard vessel will be escorting the North Korean vessel up to Kakinada, the commander of the Andaman and Nicobar coast guard region, K.R. Nautiyal, told AFP, adding that the ship set sail on Wednesday.
Preliminary investigations have not found anything suspicious onboard the ship, which is loaded with sugar and has 39 crew members.
A source involved in the investigation said the cargo might be unloaded in the larger port of Kakinada and searched more thoroughly something that could not have be done in the Andaman islands.
The interception came days after a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, quoting Myanmar defectors, said Pyongyang was helping Myanmar build a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant for an atomic bomb.
Pyongyang is seen as a proliferator of nuclear and missile technology with countries like Iran and Syria named by senior US officials as buyers.
Two nuclear scientists from the Bhava Atomic Research Centre (BARC), who have also conducted a preliminary investigation of the ship, have said it does not contain any trace of nuclear components, the investigation source said.
The ship set sail from Thailand on July 27 bound for Iraq and had halted en route in Singapore on July 30, the coast guard previously said.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/20/2009 09:18 ||
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#1
Indian authorities plan to continue checking a North Korean cargo ship for any signs that it had carried WMD material, the Press Trust of India reported today (see GSN, Aug. 18).
The freighter MV Mu San was detained after its crew moored in Indian waters without permission and then tried to flee the coast guard (see GSN, Aug. 14). Suspicions arose that the vessel might have been heading to or coming from Myanmar, which has been suspected of developing a nuclear program with aid from North Korea (see GSN, Aug. 18).
So far, the only cargo found on the ship is sugar apparently bound for Iraq. Nonetheless, the coast guard is escorting the ship to the port at Kakinada, where it will be searched by nuclear scientists and security personnel. They will be looking for any signs of biological, chemical, nuclear or radioactive materials, PTI reported.
A North Korean official and the 38 other members of the ship's crew are expected to be questioned (Press Trust of India/Indian Express, Aug. 19).
Posted by: john frum ||
08/20/2009 9:26 Comments ||
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#6
I bet the Indian boarding party had so many radiation badges under their clothes that it wasn't even funny. And not a damn one of them turned black, so they know it isn't nukes.
Security forces said on Wednesday they had killed five Taliban in Bajaur and arrested 29 others from various areas of Swat. "Taliban fired at a security convoy near Kuz Chamarkand ... troops retaliated and killed five Taliban," said the ISPR. The arrests were made during search operations in Pathaney village, Tanki Top, Doghlai, Dagai, Charbagh, Manglour, Zarakhela and Ghakhe Banda.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The Peshawar High Court (PHC) Tuesday directed the district coordination officer (DCO) of Peshawar to submit record of the arrest of three sons of the banned Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad.
Presiding over a single bench of the PHC, Justice Dost Muhammad Khan directed the DCO Peshawar to submit the record before the next hearing fixed for August 20. The judge was taking up a petition filed by Sufi Muhammad's three sons -- Rizwanullah, Hayatullah and Ziaullah -- through Bakht Wahid, one of their close relatives.
The petitioners stated that on July 22 the personnel of Paharipura Police Station took them into custody from their house in Sethi Town, Haji Camp Peshawar and put them in "illegal" confinement at different police station including CID Centre in Peshawar. They said it came to their knowledge that DCO Peshawar later charged them under Section 3(1) of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).
The petitioners' counsel, Muhammad Atlas Khan, argued that his clients were law-abiding citizens and their father, Maulana Sufi Muhammad, was a religious personality and well-known for his views in the NWFP and the country.
Rizwanullah, he said, had settled in Saudi Arabia for the last 13/14 years, while Hayatullah was a PTC teacher in a government-run school in Maidan in Dir Lower and Ziaullah was doing his post-graduation in Islamiyat from Malakand University.
The counsel asserted that his clients never indulged in any political or criminal activity and this fact could be confirmed from record of all the police stations of the Frontier province. He said the DCO Peshawar arrested them under Section 3(1) of the MPO and handed them down one-month imprisonment. The petitioners prayed to the court to set aside the DCO order and release them from Central Prison, Peshawar.
The NWFP home and tribal affairs secretary, DCO Peshawar, senior superintendent of police (operation) Peshawar and Paharipura Police Station in-charge were made respondents in the petition.
Sufi Mohammad was initially arrested under 3 MPO like his three sons for 30 days and sent to the jail. Subsequently, a sedition case was filed against him in a police station in Mingora on the basis of a speech that he made at a public meeting at the Grassy Ground in the city on April 19, 2009 in which he declared the superior courts of the country un-Islamic and demanded enforcement of Shariah in Malakand division. His sons were not charged in the sedition case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Unidentified men killed three government officials in Khar tehsil of Bajaur Agency, while a Jirga between Tarkhani and Amtan Khel tribes announced action will be taken if tribes do not follow the peace deal. According to sources, unidentified men killed three government officials, including an official of Bajaur Levies, near Babagai check post in Khar tehsil. Meanwhile, a Jirga was held between Tarkhani and Amtan tribes in Khar. Addressing the Jirga, Commissioner Malakand Division Fazal Karim Khatak said stern measures will be adopted if tribes of Bajaur Agency do not follow the peace deals made with the administration. He said government is fully disposed to pay off the damages in Bajaur Agency due to the ongoing operation there. He said, Â"security forces operations put an end to the control of the extremists in Malakand Agency, while both the tribes have announced to cooperate with the government.Â"
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, a central leader of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), was remanded to judicial custody till September 1 by Judicial Magistrate Central Muhammad Sohail here on Wednesday. He was arrested by the New Karachi police over the charge of planning riots in Karachi after the assassination of Allama Ali Sher Hyderi in Khairpur in an alleged suicide attack. According to remand papers, a joint police and Rangers party raided a mosque at Nagin Chowrangi. He managed to escape while some 13 activists were arrested from the spot. However, he was later apprehended from his house.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, a top Taliban commander, said on Wednesday he had taken over as acting head of the group in Pakistan, but denied reports that his boss Baitullah Mehsud had been killed. "No, no! Certainly not!"
Faqir said the Taliban held a meeting of elders, and named him as their leader. "I have taken over the leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Two days ago our shura held a meeting in which my leadership was endorsed," Faqir told AFP over the telephone from an undisclosed location. "Baitullah Mehsud is alive, but he is seriously ill. In his absence, I announce, as vice president of the TTP, the takeover of his leadership."
He said two other senior Taliban leaders reportedly vying for the top post -- Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman -- had endorsed his leadership.
Faqir also said recently arrested Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omer was being replaced by Muslim Khan, who was until now the group's spokesman for Swat. An intelligence official said Tuesday that Omer had acknowledged that Mehsud was dead.
This article starring:
Baitullah Mehsud
TTP
Hakimullah Mehsud
TTP
Maulvi Faqir Muhammad
TTP
Maulvi Omer
TTP
Muslim Khan
TTP
Waliur Rehman
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
so, what do you think is Maulvi Faqir's current life expectency? Less than it was.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/20/2009 1:52 Comments ||
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#2
More importantly, it seems the key to the executive washroom disappeared in one or another of the hellfire missile explosions. We simply cannot ask Taliban executives to tinkle in the bushes like the peons they were only days ago.
#3
Since the "executive washroom" was a tree behind the house, I don't see a big problem. Of course, now that the house AND the tree are gone, someone may have to walk cross-legged for awhile.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/20/2009 12:58 Comments ||
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(CNN) -- A series of bombings rocked Iraq's capital within one hour Wednesday, killing at least 95 people and wounding 563 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. The six explosions marked the country's deadliest day since the United States pulled its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns nearly two months ago and left security in the hands of the Iraqis.
In one attack, a truck bomb exploded outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The blast blew through the front of the building, sending some vehicles flying and leaving others in mangled twists of metal in the area, which is just outside the restricted International Zone, also known as the Green Zone. Nearby, Iraqi security forces stood with shocked expressions as ambulances screamed past.
Another truck bomb went off outside the Ministry of Finance building. In central Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded on Kifa Street, and another bomb exploded in the Salhiya neighborhood, where on Tuesday security forces had avoided injuries by successfully defusing a truck bomb. Wednesday's other two bombs exploded in eastern Baghdad's Beirut Square, officials said.
"The terrorism attacks that took place today require, without a doubt, the re-evaluation of our plans and our security mechanisms to face the challenges of terrorism," Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a written statement.
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill and Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, issued a joint statement condemning the bombings. "The horrific injuries and loss of life witnessed in Baghdad today are terrorist attacks that serve no legitimate purpose," they said.
The attacks "will not deter Iraqis from continuing their efforts to build a peaceful and prosperous society and engage the international community, nor will they weaken our resolve to help them in their efforts," they added.
Two people believed to be connected to the bombings have been arrested, an official with the Iraqi army told CNN. The two suspects were driving in a car rigged with explosives before they were arrested by Iraqi Security Forces, the official said. The two suspects were believed to be al Qaeda in Iraq senior leaders, the official said.
The United States pulled its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns on June 30, leaving security responsibilities to the Iraqis. The U.S. military remains in a training and advisory capacity in those areas and continues to conduct combat operations outside cities and towns. Since then, al-Maliki has ordered his government to remove the concrete blast walls that line Baghdad's streets and surround whole neighborhoods. The order does not cover the Green Zone -- which houses Iraqi government buildings and the U.S. Embassy -- or military installations, government institutions, hotels and some private companies.
The government has also removed some checkpoints, including one on the road where the bombing near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs occurred. That checkpoint had contained bomb-detection equipment.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
The Iraqis are clearly failing in their mission to provide security for their people. I wonder how many years it would take to create a real Arab army worth a damn.
Ma'an -- Palestinian Authority's security services detained three Hamas supporters in the West Bank on Tuesday, a statement from the party said. The statement explained that the detainees were from districts of Ramallah in the central West Bank, Tulkarem in the north, and Jericho in the east.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an - A Jordanian Court sentenced two of its nationals to 12 years in prison for their involvement in a conspiracy to kill an Israeli businessman in the northern Jordanian city of Irbid.
The men, 37-year-old Luai Shahadeh and 36-year-old Muhammad Awda Allah were accused of planning an attack earlier this year, the Israeli daily Haaretz said, quoting AP. According to the indictment the two met in 2007 and bonded over Allah's 2003 attempt to fight against the United States in Iraq. They stayed in touch and planned an attack against what they say as an American proxy in the region: a Jewish factory owner in the north of the country.
The men planned their attack for 3 January but postponed it after being met on the road by local police, and were arrested by Jordanian intelligence in the 6th of the month.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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A Thai Army ranger was shot dead in a market in the southern border province of Narathiwat on Wednesday as army Chief visiting the troubled region.
Police said ranger Amnuay Nookaew was buying food in a market fair in the provincial seat while a gunman mingled with shoppers and shot him at point blank range in his head and chest. The attacker escaped from the crime scene shortly with an accomplice waiting on a motorbike at the market.
The latest violence took place as Army commander-in-chief Gen Anupong Paochinda was visiting neighbouring Pattani province. The Army chief ordered security forces to step up security measures during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which began August 11 until September 8 this year. Gen Anupong said curfew has been lifted in some areas and insurgents might use this opportunity to launch brutal attacks.
Fourth Army Area Commander earlier ordered a temporary suspension of the curfew imposed under the martial law in Yalas Yaha and Bannang Sata districts, aimed at facilitating Muslims to perform their religious rituals at night during the fasting period. The Army chief added that security personnel are also assigned to visit and facilitate local residents during holy fasting month in an attempt to create better relationship between authorities and villagers.
Philippine troops have clashed with about 30 gunmen who took over a remote islet near resorts popular with foreign tourists, killing at least seven and capturing two others, officials said on Wednesday. The gunmen were believed to be Muslim separatists from the Moro National Liberation Front.
A man wanted on charges of illegal possession of firearms led the group that seized a mosque on Mantangule islet in the southern part of Palawan Island at the weekend, taking hostages and extorting money from terrified residents, said navy spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo.
The gunmen refused to surrender during talks over the past few days, and marines aboard navy vessels landed on shore early Wednesday, triggering clashes with the gunmen, Arevalo said.
Seven gunmen were killed, two were captured and a marine was wounded, he said.
About 2,000 residents had fled since Saturday to Balabac Island in the strait that separates the Philippines from Malaysia.
"We've entered the villages they occupied but fighting is still going on," Arevalo said. "We've taken over their positions and they're running away."
The area is frequented by smugglers and there are occasional clashes with pirates. None of the resorts was under immediate threat from the military operation.
Navy ships were patrolling nearby to prevent the gunmen from escaping, Arevalo said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/20/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Afghan security forces have killed three gunmen, who stormed a bank in Kabul, and are searching for more attackers who might have hidden inside the bank. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] Forty-four al-Qaeda suspects have been arrested in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's interior ministry told al-Ekhbariya state TV channel on Wednesday. 
[Bangla Daily Star] In separate "gunfights" with law enforcers, two criminals were killed and three sustained injuries in the city's Agargaon and Mohammadpur and in Satkhira yesterday. The deceased were identified as Rafiqul Islam alias Panku, 30, and Lutfor Rahman, 35, of Shahpur village of Tala upazila in Satkhira. 
Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, a central leader of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), was remanded to judicial custody till September 1 by Judicial Magistrate Central Muhammad Sohail here on Wednesday. He was arrested by the New Karachi police over the charge of planning riots in Karachi after the assassination of Allama Ali Sher Hyderi in Khairpur in an alleged suicide attack. According to remand papers, a joint police and Rangers party raided a mosque at Nagin Chowrangi. He managed to escape while some 13 activists were arrested from the spot. However, he was later apprehended from his house.
(CNN) -- A series of bombings rocked Iraq's capital within one hour Wednesday, killing at least 95 people and wounding 563 others, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. The six explosions marked the country's deadliest day since the United States pulled its combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns nearly two months ago and left security in the hands of the Iraqis.
