'Head of Mexico's Zetas drug cartel' captured

Police catch the alleged leader of the Zetas drug gang amid more drug-fuelled violence in northern Nuevo Leon region.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon's has led an aggressive army-led crackdown on drug cartels [Reuters]

Mexican forces have captured the alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel gang after a shoot-out which had left at least nine people dead.

The suspected leader, known as "El Chabelo", was arrested with ten other alleged gang members after several days of co-ordinated police and military operations.

El Chabelo is believed to have been in charge of several cities in the northern Nuevo Leon region.

In a separate development, the Mexican military has freed 61 men being held captive and forced to work for a drug gang in a violent northern border city.

The army said on Sunday that the men were found in a safe house in Piedras Negras on Saturday.

Soldiers made the discovery during a security sweep in the area that also turned up an abandoned truck filled with 6 tons of marijuana.

A statement said one of the captive men is from Honduras, while the others are from various parts of Mexico.

Piedras Negras sits across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, which has been the scene of ongoing battles between drug gangs.

Last week the army arrested a major figure from the Zetas drug cartel there.

The rescue mission comes a day after more violence hit Mexican prisons.

Twenty prisoners died and 12 others were injured on Saturday in a prison on the Mexican-US border town of Matamoros, after a dispute between two inmates turned into a melee that lasted almost three hours.

President criticises opposition

Meanwhile, Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, said on Sunday that politicians in the main opposition party may consider deals with criminals, opening an inflammatory new front in the nation's presidential election campaign.

Calderon's blunt remarks about the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which is favored to win the July 1, 2012 election, are unusual in a country where the president is expected to stay largely aloof from party politics.

Centering on the policy that has dominated his presidency - an aggressive army-led crackdown on drug cartels - his comments risk polarizing opinion on how to restore stability to Mexico, where the drug war has killed 44,000 in five years.

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Renewed clashes in Syria leave many dead

At least 20 people have been killed in renewed clashes across Syria, as the European Union decided on a new set of sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's government. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that 10 civilians were killed in the town of Banash in the northern province of Idlib when soldiers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed the town of Binish and fought battles with gunmen and army deserters. "The Syrian army backed by tanks and armoured troop carriers launched an assault this morning on the town of Banash and clashes took place with armed men who were apparently dissidents," the rights group said. The group said that the army also launched an attack on Taum village, in the province's east. "Several houses were partly destroyed and people were wounded... while the noise of heavy machineguns and explosions could be heard in several parts of the town and ambulances seen racing through the streets." In the southern province of Deraa, where the six-month wave of protests against Assad first erupted, the group said that six soldiers and two army deserters were killed in a clash in the town of Haara, alongside one civilian. Another soldier was killed in the central city of Homs. Continue reading...

Ex-fund tycoon Rajaratnam set to hear sentence

By Grant McCool

(Reuters) - One-time hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam, convicted in the biggest Wall Street insider-trading case in decades, hears his punishment in court on Thursday with all signs pointing to a lengthy prison term.

Rajaratnam, 54, whose Galleon Group managed $7 billion at its peak, could face almost 25 years in prison. His lawyers are asking for a shorter term, arguing he is in poor health and does not deserve a two-decade prison term akin to what a violent offender would receive.

A sentence of 15 years for Rajaratnam may suit the crime and send a warning to others on Wall Street, said St. John's University business professor Anthony Sabino. "The court has to balance he is a first offender, that this is stock fraud, not murder," Sabino said.

A Sri Lankan-born U.S. citizen, Rajaratnam is the central figure in a sweeping insider trading case that touched some of America's top companies, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Intel Corp, IBM and the elite McKinsey & Co consultancy. It is the biggest insider trading case since the 1980s-era prosecutions of speculator Ivan Boesky and junk-bond financier Michael Milken.

The Galleon founder was arrested in October 2009 after an investigation marked by the most extensive use of secret FBI phone taps in a white collar case. Such tactics usually are reserved for Mafia and drug trafficking investigations.

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Amnesty calls on Canada to arrest George Bush

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was reportedly waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 [Reuters] Amnesty International has called on Canadian authorities to arrest and prosecute George W Bush, saying the former US president authorised torture in the course of the United States' "war on terror". Bush is expected to attend an economic summit in Surrey in Canada's westernmost British Columbia province on October 20. The human rights organisation said in a statement released on Wednesday that the Canadian government has "international obligations ... given [Bush's] responsibility for crimes under international law including torture". The London-based group also released a 27-page memorandum that it had submitted in September to Canada's attorney general laying out its legal case. "As the US authorities have, so far, failed to bring former president Bush to justice, the international community must step in," said Susan Lee, Amnesty's Americas director, in the statement. "A failure by Canada to take action during his visit would violate the UN Convention against Torture and demonstrate contempt for fundamental human rights." A spokesman for the Canadian government was not immediately available for comment. Bush cancelled a visit to Switzerland in February after facing similar public calls for his arrest. Continue reading...

Libyan NTC claims capture of Gaddafi's son

Mutassim Gaddafi, one of ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi's sons, has been arrested in Sirte, according to officials in Libya's National Transitional Council.

He is currently being held in Benghazi, the NTC's eastern power base, after being arrested on Wednesday, NTC officials told the Reuters news agency.

"He was arrested today in Sirte," Colonel Abdullah Naker of the Tripoli Revolutionary Council told Reuters.

Fighters in Sirte were reportedly celebrating the news of his arrest on Wednesday night, while citizens in the capital Tripoli took the streets to sound their car horns and fire guns into the sky.

James Bays, reporting from Tripoli, said he had spoken with several high-level NTC officials who had heard the news but could not confirm it. A spokesman for the military said he had not spoken with anyone who had seen Mutassim in custody.

The NTC claimed in August to have captured Gaddafi's highest-profile son, Saif al-Islam, during the final battle for the capital, but that claim turned out to be false, and Saif appeared in public hours later.

If Mutassim was captured, the NTC will be eager to question him regarding the whereabouts of his father and brothers, who are thought to have fled Tripoli as it fell into opposition hands in late August.

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Putin in China to boost bilateral ties

Vladimr Putin, the Russian prime minister, has arrived in Beijing for a two-day visit expected to focus on energy and trade.

Putin's visit from Tuesday will be his first foreign trip since revealing plans to reclaim Russia's presidency.

Russian officials have said the two sides plan to sign several agreements worth some $7bn and plans for a 30-year deal to supply Russian gas to China are expected to top talks between the two sides.

However, no deal is expected to be signed as the two sides have failed so far to agree on a price for the gas.

Moscow is also unhappy with China's illegal copying of Russian fighter jets and other military hardware, and recently publicised the arrest of a Chinese man accused of seeking to buy military secrets.

On the political front, Putin and Chinese leaders are expected to discuss the situation in Syria.

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Suicide bombers, attacks hit Baghdad police, 23 dead

BAGHDAD | Wed Oct 12, 2011 5:24am EDT

(Reuters) - Suicide bombers and roadside blasts targeted police in a wave of attacks across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens on the second day of serial bombings in the Iraqi capital in less than a week.

One bomber rammed an explosives-filled vehicle into a police station in central Alwiya district, killing 13, and another blew up his car at a police building in northwestern Hurriya, killing 4 people and wounding 40, officials said.

"A car approached and... the driver smashed through the checkpoint and exploded the car when he hit a concrete barrier," Police Lt. Nadeer Adel told Reuters. "Smoke was everywhere, we all took cover. Minutes later we found a crater and some of our police were dead."

The Hurriya blast burned out police vehicles and damaged the station's blue protective blast walls next to the large crater in the road. In other districts blasts blew out windows from nearby homes and shops, scattering streets with debris.

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Hurricane Jova strikes Mexico coast

The most recent advisory says winds are travelling at 160km per hour, hitting Mexico's west coast [AFP]

Hurricane Jova has struck Mexico's Pacific coast, according to the national weather service, causing heavy rains and threatening devastating mudslides.

The US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) had earlier predicted that Jova would weaken after hitting land but warned of heavy rains and life-threatening mudslides.

"Jova is landing on the coast of Jalisco, 45 kilometres southeast of Punta Farallon," Marco Antonio Lugo, a meterologist, said on Tuesday.

He said it was a category two storm on the five-point Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

The port city of Manzanillo had been bracing for the storm's arrival, as Mexico issued hurricane alerts for large swaths of the Pacific coast and placed four southern coastal states on high alert.

A zone of about 500km could be affected by the storm, stretching from the port of Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan state to the popular tourist area of Cabo Corrientes in Jalisco state.

The Miami-based NHC said in its most recent advisory, at 03:00 GMT, that the storm was bearing down on the coast with maximum sustained winds of 160km per hour.

"Hurricane conditions are likely beginning to spread over the coast of Mexico within the hurricane warning area," it said.

"A dangerous storm surge is expected to produce significant coastal flooding near and to the east of where the center makes landfall. Near the coast ... the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves."

It said the storm would move across western Mexico throughout Wednesday, dumping as much as 50 centimeters of rain in some places, which "could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides over steep terrain."

Several major storms or hurricanes have buffeted Mexico's Pacific coast in recent months but most have remained offshore.

The season's first named storm, Arlene, left at least 16 people dead and drenched much of the country in July.

Tropical storms and hurricanes last year caused flooding and mudslides in Mexico that killed 125 people, left hundreds of thousands homeless and caused more than $4 bn in damage.

Authorities are keeping their fingers crossed that any damage caused by the storm will not affect the 16th Pan American Games, one of the major events on the international sports calendar.

The games are to be held from October 14-30 in Jalisco and other cities, including Ciudad Guzman, Puerto Vallarta, Lagos de Moreno and Tapalpa, with up to 6,000 athletes from 42 nations expected to participate.

Egyptian cabinet to meet over violence that kills 24

(Reuters) - Christians clashed with military police, leaving at least 24 people dead in Cairo, and the cabinet called an emergency meeting for Monday, vowing the violence would not derail Egypt's first election since Hosni Mubarak was toppled.

Christians protesting about an attack on a church set cars on fire, burned army vehicles and hurled rocks at military police who they said used heavy-handed tactics against them. It was some of the worst violence since the February uprising.

The violence casts a shadow over the imminent parliamentary election. Voting starts on November 28 with candidates due to begin registering during the week starting Wednesday.

The clashes also added to growing frustration among activists with the army who many Egyptians suspect wants to keep hold of the reins of power from behind the scenes even as it hands over day-to-day government. The army denies this.

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'Occupy' protests continue in Washington

"Occupy DC" protesters comprise various groups and have split up to protest and meet later in the square [Reuters] Protesters have scuffled with security guards at a Washington museum and marched through New York City in the latest popular demonstrations in the US inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar, reporting from Washington, said Saturday's protests were organised to oppose the use of drones by the US military. "Protesters walked to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and tried to go in with a banner against the use of drones," our correspondent said. Hundreds of people and groups, including anti-war activists, joined the Occupy DC protests in opposition to the use of unmanned aircraft by the US military, she said. The protest coincided with the 10th anniversary of the start of the Afghanistan war, where drones have frequently been used. A museum spokesperson said one person was arrested as up to 200 protesters attempted to enter the museum, blocked by six guards. "There was a lot of shoving going on," Isabel Lara said, adding that one of the guards was surrounded and used pepper spray before the demonstrators were moved outside. The shoving match broke out in the entrance after guards told the protesters they could not enter with signs, Lara said. She said she was not aware of any injuries. Continue reading...