The drug violence that has left nearly 4,000 people dead this year in Mexico is spreading deep into the United States, leaving a trail of slayings, kidnappings and other crimes in at least 195 cities as far afield as Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Honolulu, according to federal authorities.
The involvement of the top four Mexican drug-trafficking [...]

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China and Russia are challenging the US for dominance in Latin America by pursuing trade and military deals
During a visit to Beijing in November, Correa said China could turn the Manta base into a transit port from which to exploit the riches of the Amazon. China, which is engaged in a headlong rush for timber, [...]

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“At present, Russia does not have sufficient resources, either material or human, to deploy its military bases in this country [Venezuela],” Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, told RIA Novosti.
Read More…

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He was the brains behind ‘Charlie Wilson’s War.’ Now his tactics are hot, from Pakistan to Colombia.
Strange things are happening in the jungles of Colombia. After years of fighting a fierce, conventional war against the leftist guerrilla group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s military accomplished a major feat earlier [...]

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The phone call begins with the cries of an anguished child calling for a parent: “Mama! Papa!” The youngster’s sobs are quickly replaced by a husky male voice that means business.
“We’ve got your child,” he says in rapid-fire Spanish, usually adding an expletive for effect and then rattling off a list of demands that might [...]

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Mexico finds tons of cocaine in submarine
Reuters - 4 hours ago
… which they say would do more to weaken the cartels. Some 1700 people have been killed in drug gang violence in Mexico so far this year, and Calderon’s …

Mexico infiltrated
ISN, Switzerland - Jul 17, 2008
With a fast increase of police, will the government prevent [...]

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The protagonists sound like the leads in a Hollywood thriller. There’s the world’s most-wanted Nazi war criminal, a bloodthirsty concentration-camp doctor whose whereabouts have been unknown since he vanished 46 years ago. And there’s the Brooklyn-bred Jew who has dedicated his life to the global quest for World war II-era mass murderers. The Nazi-hunter, now [...]

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Attracted by the climate, favorable tax policy and laid-back lifestyle, home buyers and investors are flocking here from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Europe and the United States.
The skyline increasingly resembles a mini-Sao Paulo, a dense forest of steel and concrete towers that includes dozens of new high-rise condominiums and apartment buildings. (Not enough of the buildings [...]

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The January 2008 article, “Civil rights war in Canada” (pp. 11-16), quoted from REAL Women’s magazine Reality (Mar/April 2007) in saying that “adoptions, social services such as nursing homes, religious-based schools, marriages, employment conduct, etc., carried out by religious organizations will be held to secular standards, not religious ones.” One reason for this development, it [...]

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The creation of a South American Security Council, which would include oil-rich Venezuela, Chile and Argentina, was proposed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at a meeting of 11 Latin American countries held in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, in May.
The security council would be part of an even larger effort led by Brazil to [...]

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They called him “Angel.” He was the highest-ranking outside contact for the Colombian guerilla organization FARC. More and more details are now emerging that demonstrate the close relationship between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the jungle terrorists. By Jens Glüsing more…

The FARC Computer: German Left Wing May Have Ties to Colombian Extremists
No Ideology, Just Money [...]

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Speak fraternally but carry a stick. Is there a new arms race—or just overdue retooling of armies?
Even as its leaders talk, Latin America is re-arming—or rather some South American countries are. In the broader region, including Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, total defence spending shot up to $38 billion in 2007 from $25 billion [...]

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It’s an issue the Liberal govenrment of Ontario, led by Premier Dalton McGuinty, doesn’t want to deal with — polygamy in the Muslim community. Last week the Toronto Star told the story of Safa Rigby, a 35-year-old mother of five children who recently learned her husband of 14 years had two other wives. Ms. Rigby’s [...]

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Russia’s Arctic neighbours saw the exploit as a blatant land grab, an attempt to pre-empt any new agreement on sharing the undersea resources among the littoral powers. They have already begun moves to stake their claims: Norway and Denmark are carrying out surveys and the US is organising an expedition ostensibly “in search of hydrothermal [...]

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Output is tanking, but there’s fierce opposition to a plan that could reward Big Oil for helping find new reserves
Reform is urgent: Oil output in Mexico, the world’s No. 6 producer of crude, is plummeting. At the Cantarell field, the country’s main source of oil, production is declining 15% annually. Pemex pumped 2.85 million barrels [...]

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When the Colombian military made its controversial incursion into neighboring Ecuador two months ago, it may well have removed more than just a camp full of leftist Colombian guerrillas. The raid may wind up taking out a $70 million U.S. Air Force base as well. On Monday, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said he’s “convinced” the [...]

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Edgar Millan Gomez was shot dead in his own home in Mexico City on May 8. Millan Gomez was the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in Mexico, responsible for overseeing most of Mexico’s counternarcotics efforts. He orchestrated the January arrest of one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, Alfredo Beltran Leyva. (Several Sinaloa members have [...]

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Monday a 30-billion-dollar plan to re-equip Canada’s military, to boost its recruiting and to bolster Canada’s defense industry over the next 20 years. The initiative will include major combat fleet replacements of surface combat ships, maritime patrol craft, fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft, fighter aircraft, and land combat vehicles [...]

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 62, talks to SPIEGEL about why Brazil wants to join OPEC, his country’s biofuels program and Europe’s fear of Latin America’s shift to the left. more…

Photo Gallery: Brazil’s Popular President
A New Energy Leader: Brazil Wants to Join OPEC
Brazil’s Rainforests: Is Cheap Meat Bigger Threat to Amazon than Biofuels?
From [...]

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Left-wing governments in Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia have all become allies of Iran in recent years, and other countries in Latin America have diplomatic ties with the Islamic republic.
Shannon said Iran wants to ease its international isolation by showing it is able to win friends in Latin America, which has been historically in the [...]

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The Pentagon is going to resuscitate its Fourth Fleet, with the mission of patrolling Latin American and Caribbean waters.
…
The plan to install a military base in Paraguay, close to Bolivian gas fields, was denounced by Brazil and Argentina. Ecuador has made it known that the American military base installed in Manta until 2009 will not [...]

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