Cheney defends Israeli ground operation…U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday Israel did not consult the United States before invading Gaza.

Cheney: Financial Crisis ‘Developed’ Only ‘Over The Last Six Months’…CHENEY: That there’s no question about what the new administration, President Obama, are going to have their hands full with the new set of problems, if [...]

UK: Drug Resistance Superflu
…The potent virus, which is more likely to trigger serious complications in patients, is a strain of the previously known H1N1 influenza virus, but cannot be treated with the most common flu drug, Tamiflu.

New Russian law ends jury trials for ‘crimes against state’…President Dmitry Medvedev signs the controversial measure with little publicity. [...]

Ukraine plans conversion of Russian base…Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has commissioned a panel to plan for civilian uses for the naval base at Sevastopol when the Russian lease ends in 2017.

Abduction Illuminates Criminality In Mexico: U.S. Expert’s Case An Embarrassment…They ordered the goat. That’s what the kitchen is famous for at the upscale La Principal [...]

In Arizona, sheriff turns county meetings into an exercise in fascism…how would you like to live in a place where law enforcement actually arrests you for applauding briefly at a public county council meeting? Where they threaten and intimidate you just for showing up in the first place?

Biden not ‘ruling out’ Bush prosecution…US Vice President-elect [...]

http://www.washingtonpost.com…
Well-Coordinated Cartel Hits Show Greater Sophistication
By William Booth
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 12, 2008; A16
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The hit was fast, bold, lethal. Jesús Huerta Yedra, a top federal prosecutor here, was gunned down last week in a busy intersection 100 yards from the U.S. border in a murder of precise choreography.

http://www.lemonde.fr…
h/t: truthout
Thursday 11 December 2008
by: Joëlle Stolz, Le Monde
Raise the alarm for Mexican corn’s biosecurity: a molecular study conducted by Mexican, American and Dutch researchers demonstrates the presence of genes from genetically modified organisms (GMO) among the varieties of traditional corn cultivated in the remote regions [...]

Posted by Bill Conroy - December 6, 2008 at 8:30 pm
America’s drug war has made murder a growth industry in Juarez, a sprawling Mexican border town of some 1.2 million people located a stone’s throw from the Texas city of El Paso.
The growth of this industry is measured in corpses and coffins. Some say the [...]

http://www.fwweekly.com…
By PETER GORMAN
The sun is shining on the low rolling hills covered in Texas short grass and dotted with cattle along the southern end of I-35, the road that stretches from Duluth, Minn., to the Texas-Mexico border at Laredo. Little interrupts the bucolic scene for miles in any direction except for electric towers strung together [...]

FBI agents stage sting to snare corrupt Ill. cops…Duffel bags stuffed with cocaine were delivered by plane to an out-of-the-way suburban airport while two sheriff’s officers provided security. A police officer stood by to guard the cash and keep out the riffraff at a poker game where $100,000 changed hands. And a drug dealer was [...]

Posted by Kristin Bricker - November 29, 2008 at 8:07 pm
A Mexican police trainer fired for hitting a female cadet has been hired by another police force in Guanajuato
La Jornada has revealed that some of the trainers responsible for the torture classes given to Leon, Guanajuato, Special Tactics police are San Diego, California, police officers [...]