Brazilian police arrested 10 heavily armed men and rescued 35 people who had been held hostage for almost two hours at a five-star hotel in one of Rio de Janeiro's

Brazilian police on Saturday arrested 10 heavily armed men and rescued 35 people who had been held hostage for almost two hours at a five-star hotel in one of Rio de Janeiro’s richest neighborhoods.The gunmen, armed with automatic weapons and grenades, were driving in several cars on a scenic road along the ocean when they met with police patrols.

A shootout followed in Rio’s Sao Conrado neighborhood and the hooded suspects escaped into the Intercontinental Hotel, which last year hosted the World Economic Forum on Latin America. A woman bystander was killed and two police officers were hurt in the exchange of gunfire, police said.”I have never seen so many criminals together. All of them were wearing the same outfit, like uniforms, and were on the streets shooting into the open air,” a resident who witnessed the event and asked not to be named told Reuters. “It was a war zone.”TV images showed suspects wearing black bullet-proof vests and hiding behind a garbage truck during the shootout with police, before running into the hotel.

Colonel Lima Castro, a spokesman for Rio’s military police, said the 35 hostages were freed without harm. Police swept the entire hotel and arrested 10 people.Violent crime is a major concern in Rio, where heavily armed drug gangs control its many slums. The sprawling city is Brazil’s biggest tourist destination and will host the 2016 Olympic games, as well as be a venue for the 2014 World Cup.(Reuters)

Departing US troops pack millions of items in Iraq

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges is being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq. U.S. military bases that once resembled small towns have transformed into a cross between giant post offices and Office Depots.Soldiers who battled through insurgents and roadside bombs are now doing inventory and accounting. Their task: reverse over the course of months a U.S. military presence that built up over seven years of war.”We’re moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we’ve seen in decades,” President Barack Obama said in a speech Monday hailing this month’s planned withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

The orderly withdrawal is a far cry from the testosterone-fueled push across the berm separating Kuwait and Iraq, when American Marines and soldiers pushed north in the 2003 invasion, battling Saddam Hussein’s army while sleeping on the hoods of their vehicles and eating prepackaged meals.”I think it’s probably more challenging leaving, responsibly drawing down, than it is getting here, because you just have to figure out where everything is and getting it out of here. Are there enough airplanes, ships, containers, and do we have enough time to do that and meet the president’s mandate?” said Col. David F. Demartino, who is responsible for infrastructure and support services at Balad, which is home to 25,000 troops and civilians.

In essence the drawdown has been happening since late 2008. That’s when the U.S. started to reduce its numbers following the surge, which raised the American presence to about 170,000. Now the U.S. has just under 65,000 troops in the country, and the withdrawal is reaching a more furious pace as the August deadline approaches.Only 50,000 U.S. service personnel will remain after August. All troops are supposed to leave and all bases close by the end of next year, unless Iraq asks the U.S. to renegotiate their agreement to allow a continued American presence.In mid-July, JSS Mahmoudiya – once a U.S. position just south of Baghdad in one of Iraq’s most dangerous areas – was a ghost town. Tents were abandoned, covered with foam to retard fire, and the white-walled cafeteria was barren except for a few refrigerators holding drinks. The joint operations command was stripped of almost everything, including the big-screen TVs on which military personnel once watched operations.

The next day, it was handed over to the Iraqi government to become an army facility.Each handover involves a painstaking process of inventorying everything on the base that the soldiers aren’t taking with them. Every item is assessed to see if it can be moved and if so, whether it is needed anywhere else in the country. Many of the materials – water tanks, generators, and furniture – are eventually donated to the Iraqi government. As of July 27, $98.6 million worth of equipment has been handed over, most to the Iraqi army and Interior Ministry.More than 400 bases are being closed down or handed over to the Iraqi military. By September, the American military will have fewer than 100 bases in the country, down from a high of 505 in January 2008.

Some of these bases look somewhat like small towns with elaborate dining facilities serving tacos and crab legs and gyms with rows of treadmills.About half the vehicles – what the military describes as “rolling stock” – that have left Iraq have gone to Afghanistan. More than 180,000 items like weapons or communications equipment have also been sent to Afghanistan over the past year.In the past, when troops rotated into Iraq they brought some weapons and other equipment with them. But they inherited most of their equipment – including Humvees and other armored vehicles – from the unit they replaced.But now as troops aren’t being replaced, the last guys out must leave their equipment at the door to be redistributed, whether back to the U.S., other units in Iraq or to Afghanistan.

That makes places like the Central Receiving and Shipping Point at Balad “the center of the universe,” as one visiting officer nicknamed it. Equipment such as howitzers and helicopter blades or shipping containers and pallets arrives for redistribution.Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Latch runs the CRSP. He spent his first tour in Iraq with the infantry kicking down doors and hunting down members of Saddam’s regime. The only time he really thought about logistics was to wonder when his ammo and food would arrive.Now he’s at the center of the logistical version of a major offensive, helping ensure that the equipment goes south to Kuwait, the main exit point. Most material is driven down the heavily guarded main highway from Baghdad to the border, a more than 300-mile route. So far there have been no reports of significant attacks on any convoys.

Latch said when he started his deployment last summer, they moved an average of about 2,500 items a month. Now he’s moving almost six times that amount, and it’s mostly going south.And people want it faster. It used to be something could sit in the CRSP yard for 45 days before heading to Kuwait, Latch said. But now if it’s there for five days, people start calling and want to know why.”We have a very, very aggressive attitude,” Latch said. “Everybody knows the stuff is going south. It’s going to move no matter what. You can either fight the current or you can just push as hard as you can to get that stuff down there fast.”The drawdown has not been without hiccups. The military was embarrassed by a report in the Times of London that contractors did not properly dispose of environmental waste removed from U.S. military bases.But U.S. commanders say they are addressing problems and are confident they will be able to meet the president’s deadline.

Demartino said that while going through shipping containers, buildings and offices at Joint Base Balad, soldiers have been stunned at the materials hoarded over the years in nooks and crannies all over the base.The biggest surprise was the thousands of printer cartridges tucked away by soldiers worried they would one day run out.”I walked through a few of these buildings, and I was thinking this is like Office Depot, and it’s just people going ‘I don’t want to run out. Let’s get them!'” he said. “I think it’s the mindset of ‘We’re never going to leave.'”(AP)

Thieves steal cash at Greece team at 2010 World Cup

Thieves stole large amounts of cash from Greece World Cup hotel base in South Africa, police and a team spokesman said on Thursday.Although the team has declined to press charges the team spokesman confirmed that around 1,500 euros in cash had been taken from players’ rooms at the hotel in Umhlanga, north of Durban.A police spokesman said that the theft had taken place two days ago and that officers had tried to persuade the team to file a formal report so that they could launch an investigation.

“They refused to open a case but we have sent a high-level delegation of detectives to interview them and try to pursue an investigation,” Colonel Vish Naidoo told the SAPA news agency.News of the theft comes on the eve of the tournament and a fortnight after the Colombian team, which was not one of the World Cup qualifiers, also had a similar amount of cash stolen while staying in a hotel in Johannesburg.(AFP)

Niger's military plans to run the uranium-exporting country until politicians agree on a new constitution

NIAMEY Niger’s military plans to run the uranium-exporting country until politicians agree on a new constitution and are ready for fresh elections, West Africa’s regional mediator said after meeting the junta on Sunday.No timeframe has been set for the transition back to civilian rule but a spokesman for the junta said on Sunday that elections would be held “as soon as possible” and the situation was similar to a coup in 1999 that led to transparent elections.

Niger’s military ousted President Mamadou Tandja in a swift coup last week, putting an end to months of political wrangling between him and the opposition.The seizure was formally condemned but it is also widely seen at home and abroad as a chance to end a political impasse.”They have assured us there will be an opening for everyone here in Niger, for an inter-Nigerien dialogue,” Mohamed Ibn Chambas, president of the ECOWAS Commission, told reporters after meeting the military junta.

“It is this process that will lead to a new constitution and credible elections,” Chambas added. “They said they want a short transition that ends as soon as possible, but it is also the political dialogue that will define the timetable.”Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Niamey on Saturday to show support for the army, but also to call for elections to be organized.Tandja and his rivals were locked in a dispute over the president’s extension and deepening of his powers last year, a move that drew criticism and sanctions from abroad.

Although he held a successful referendum that officially gave him three more years in power after his mandate ran out in December, the row divided the nation. The military ended it by blasting their way into Tandja’s palace to arrest him.The junta says it had to act to end tensions.”We were encouraged by the fact that the authorities themselves are mindful that this is not their normal function and they are eager to finish this task and go back to their normal military and security duties,” Chambas said.

COUP-HAPPY ARMY?

It was the third coup in West Africa in the last 18 months, in what some observers say is an alarming shift away from democracy in a region seeking stability and investment.But a spokesman for the military junta, known as the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, said the 1999 coup, when the army ousted the president but held elections soon afterwards, should allay concerns about the military’s plans.”If you want proof, in 1999 we had a similar situation and we handed back power and we had 10 years of stability. We are going to do the same thing,” Colonel Djibril Hamidou Hima said.Hamidou Hima also rejected accusations that the army, which has ousted four of Niger’s presidents, was too eager to step in.

“This is not the case. We left the political actors to try and find a solution. This did not happen. Social tensions got worse. We didn’t launch a coup we just re-imposed legitimacy, because this had already disappeared,” he said.Hamidou Hima said Tandja was being held in a villa in Niamey. The prime minister, interior minister and finance minister are also under house arrest.Despite a flurry of international criticism and Niger’s suspension from the African Union, many in Niger and diplomatic circles say the ousting of Tandja has unblocked a political stalemate that months of ECOWAS-run talks failed to resolve. (Reuters)

Karzai orders investigation into cousin's slaying

Hamid Karzai

KABUL  Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that he has asked the Interior Ministry to investigate the slaying of a young relative in a possible revenge killing connected to a family feud.The October killing of 18-year-old Waheed Karzai in southern Afghanistan had apparently attracted little attention in Afghanistan before it was reported this week by the New York Times, but Karzai was asked about it during a news conference with the visiting NATO chief. The report raised questions about whether Karzai’s administration was trying to downplay the killing and whether powerful families could escape investigation, a sensitive issue amid rising concerns about corruption and impunity in Karzai’s government.

Waheed Karzai was shot to death in October in Karz, the president’s hometown in Kandahar province. He was the son of the president’s cousin, Yar Mohammad Karzai. The Times quoted relatives as saying they believed another cousin, Hashmat Karzai, shot the teenager as vengeance for a so-called honor killing allegedly committed three decades ago.

The report cites relatives as saying that Yar Mohommad Karzai had killed the father of Hashmat Karzai who was also one of the president’s cousins. Hashmat Karzai, in turn, reportedly denies any role in the October shooting of Waheed Karzai and suggests it was committed by drug dealers who targeted the teenager by mistake.

“Anything can be possible, so we will have to wait and investigate if the truth is this, that an accident occurred … or there is something else going on that’s more conspiratorial. We don’t know,” the Afghan leader said.”Both sides have contacted me within the family,” he said. “The Ministry of Interior is also investigating the issue. At this point that is all I can say.”

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Zemeri Bashary, said Karzai ordered the ministry to begin investigating the killing three days ago, the same day the newspaper report was published. He said counterterrorism police and criminal investigators were assisting local officials, who began looking into the killing earlier.

Hashmat Karzai heads the Afghanistan-based Asia Security Group, which provides security for five U.S. military bases in the country.Col. Wayne Shanks, a U.S. military spokesman, declined to comment on the feud allegations. He said Asia Security Group got the contracts because “it was judged to have the best service for the best cost.”

On Tuesday, NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged that operations in Afghanistan will show “new momentum” in 2010 as more troops bolster the international force.”We will focus much more on protecting the population, protecting the roads and protecting development projects. We will train more Afghan army and Afghan police, and starting next year, they will start to take the lead where and when they are ready,” he said.The United States plans to send some 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and another 7,000 are expected from other countries.

Fogh Rasmussen pledged that foreign troops would protect the Afghan people until the country’s own security forces are able to prevent the Taliban from regaining control of the country and to root out al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.”We know that the price of inaction, the price of leaving too early would be far higher,” he said. “So we will stay the course. It is as simple as that.”

NATO, meanwhile, is seeking additional help in Afghanistan from Russia, which already has allowed supply routes from the north to supplement the main route through the Khyber Pass that had increasingly been targeted by militants. Fogh Rasmussen said that during a visit to Moscow last week, he made concrete proposals including Russian equipment for the Afghan army – most particularly helicopters – and training for pilots, police and anti-narcotics officers.”We did not conclude those discussions, and the Russians did not make any pledges during my visit,” Fogh Rasmussen said. The Soviet Union fought a disastrous 10-year war in Afghanistan before withdrawing in 1989.

Karzai reiterated his call urging the Taliban to enter negotiations, saying that foreign troops would not be needed in the country if there were peace.The Taliban has so far rejected proposals for talks, while resentment of the presence of international forces in Afghanistan appears to be rising and fueling support for the militants.

Also Tuesday, NATO reported that several militants had been killed in operations in two parts of the country. In a statement, it said several were killed Monday in Ghazni province as a joint Afghan-international force searched compounds where insurgent activity had been reported and that a joint force pursuing a Taliban commander in Kandahar province on Tuesday killed some militants. The statement did not give specific numbers or other details.

Karzai’s office said that he and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown held a telephone conversation about preparations for the international conference on Afghan security, governance and civilian engagement that is to be held in London on Jan. 28.

35 tons of war weaponry from North Korea and the arrest of five foreigners

35 tons of war weaponry

BANGKOK The seizure in Thailand of some 35 tons of war weaponry from North Korea and the arrest of five foreigners charged with illegal possession of arms may prove a blow to efforts by the United States to negotiate a halt to Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, observers said Sunday.Thai authorities, reportedly acting on a tip from their American counterparts, impounded an Ilyushin 76 transport plane, carrying explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air missiles, during a refueling stop at Bangkok’s Don Muang airport Saturday. Four men from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus were detained.Thai authorities took the action because of a United Nations resolution banning the transport of certain weapons from or to North Korea, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said.

The latest sanctions were imposed in June after the reclusive communist regime conducted a nuclear test and test-fired missiles. The sanctions were aimed at derailing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, but also banned the North’s sale of any conventional arms.

The seizure came just days after President Barack Obama’s special envoy made a rare three-day trip to North Korea on a mission to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. Envoy Stephen Bosworth said the two sides had reached common understandings on the need to restart the talks.

“There is a possibility that the incident could have a negative effect on moves to get the North to rejoin the six-party talks and a U.S.-North Korea dialogue mood,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies.Thai Air Force spokesman Capt. Montol Suchookorn said the chartered cargo plane originated in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, and requested to land at Don Muang airport to refuel.

There were differing local media reports about the plane’s destination, with some saying it was headed to Sri Lanka and others saying Pakistan.”I cannot disclose the destination of their plane because this involves national security. The government will provide more details on this,” Supisarn said.

North Korea has been widely accused of violating United Nations sanctions by selling weapons to nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said Thailand made the seizure because of the U.N. sanctions.

“Once further details have been finalized, and all the proper checks have been made we will report all details to the United Nations sanctions committee,” he said.Police Col. Supisarn Pakdinarunart said the five men detained denied the arms possession charges and were refused bail. They will appear in court Monday.

Local press reports said Thai authorities were tipped off by their American counterparts about the cargo aboard the aircraft. U.S. Embassy spokesman Michael Turner said the embassy would not comment on the incident.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said it would take several days to obtain details on the incident, which would be reported to the United Nations, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

“People should not be alarmed because the government will ensure that the investigation will be carried out transparently. The government will be able to explain the situation to foreign countries,” Suthep said.

Thai authorities said the weapons were moved by trucks amid high security Saturday night from the airport to a military base in the nearby province of Nakhon Sawan.

Baek Seung-joo of the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said the seizure demonstrated a U.S. intention to continue to enforce sanctions on the North while also engaging in dialogue.

Arms sales are a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North. Baek said the North is believed to have earned hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries like Iran, Syria and Myanmar.

In August, the United Arab Emirates seized a Bahamas-flagged cargo ship bound for Iran with a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from North Korea, the first seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up.

Israel allows passage to top business people and a limited number of Gazans seeking treatment for serious illnesses

,GAZA CITY ,Gaza Strip  A healthy man in blockaded Gaza faked cancer, hoping the deadly disease would be his ticket out of the territory that has become an open-air prison for its 1.4 million residents.

His ploy failed, but several thousand others succeeded in fleeing this shabby sliver of land this year using bribes and fake medical reports, a sign of Gazans’ desperation over growing poverty and misery under the strict border closure enforced by Egypt and Israel since Hamas militants overran Gaza in June 2007.

The blockade has few loopholes. Israel allows passage to top business people and a limited number of Gazans seeking treatment for serious illnesses. Egypt sporadically opens its border for university students and those with residency abroad.

Everyone else is stuck, even as Palestinian polls suggest nearly half the population would like to leave if they could. Deepening the Gazans’ sense of imprisonment, they must now also obtain permission from the Hamas government before attempting to leave, further complicating an obstacle-ridden path to freedom.

Those trying to bribe their way out usually approach middlemen who put them in touch with local doctors, Palestinian health officials or Egyptian bureaucrats and military officials.

Akram Ghneim, 31, an unemployed father of six living off food handouts, told The Associated Press he promised $260 to a Palestinian middleman, who obtained for him a bogus medical report saying he had cancer. Ghneim said he hoped he’d get a rare spot on the list of Gaza patients with life-threatening illnesses who are allowed to enter Israel for treatment.

Once in Israel, he planned to disappear and work illegally. But Israeli intelligence officials, who review applications, rejected him last summer, saying his cancer report was forged.

“This is what the blockade does,” said Ran Yaron, of the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which helps bring Gazans into Israel for treatment by lobbing Israeli defense officials.

“Most are frustrated and devastated people.”

Yaron said fakers are a minority, but clog up the system for real patients who have to go through longer checks as a result.

Of more than 7,000 Gazans who crossed into Israel this year to seek medical treatment, some 500 haven’t returned, said Col. Moshe Levi, an Israeli defense official.

Some stay in Israel, while others move to the West Bank, a territory controlled by Israel but partly administered by Palestinians loyal to Fatah, bitter rivals of Hamas.

One Fatah loyalist, a healthy 30-year-old woman, said she was desperate to leave Gaza after being harassed by Hamas officials.

She bribed a Gaza doctor with $100 to certify she had “whatever cancer could only be treated in Israel.” The doctor then paid off a physician serving on a Palestinian committee that certifies medical reports for Israeli military officials, the woman said. She eventually succeed in reaching the West Bank and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being sent back to Gaza by the Israeli authorities.

Israeli intelligence officials investigate Gazans applying to enter Israel to ensure they are not militants and to check whether medical certificates are genuine, but tend to rely on the Palestinian committee to confirm that the patient is actually sick.

The head of the Palestinian committee, Bassam Badri, denied members accept bribes. Omar Masri of the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said the issue was “too stupid for a response.”

But Palestinians who have successfully used bogus transfers said some health officials accept payments, anything from $100 to $500. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the illicit system.

Others pay bribes to get out through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, said a senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to alienate Egyptian authorities.

Payments range from $400 to $5,000, according to Rafah residents familiar with the system, known among Gazans as “Egyptian coordination.”

An Egyptian security official at the border denied Egyptian officers take bribes to allow crossings. He said that three months ago, two Palestinian officials posted on the Egyptian side were removed on suspicion of taking bribes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Depending on the sum, the middleman’s talents and luck, bribe-paying Gazans can sometimes leave immediately through the crossing, with Egyptian officials stamping them through, even when it’s closed, Rafah residents said. Otherwise, bribe-payers wait for one of the official border openings by Egypt, usually lasting for around three days every month or two.

About 2,000 Gazans get through each time the border opens. Only half are on the official list and the rest are handled directly by the Egyptian authorities, said Ehab Ghussein, the Interior Ministry spokesman in Gaza.

Thousands more have applied to leave but don’t make the list, he said.

Numerous tunnels run under the Gaza-Egypt borders in a thriving smuggling trade bringing goods into the territory. But few Gazans use them to sneak into Egypt, because once on the other side they would have no official status and be more vulnerable to Egyptian police.

But even paying bribes isn’t a guaranteed exit strategy.

Hazem Riyashi, 27, says he paid a middleman $1,000 in July to cross through Egypt, hoping to reach the Gulf emirate of Dubai, where his family lives. But the middleman disappeared and has not returned his calls. Riyashi hasn’t given up, and is looking for someone else to pay off.

“I think everybody should leave Gaza,” he said. “Even the air smells cleaner abroad.”

a fatal Afghan airstrike ordered by German forces

Former German Defense Minister and current Labor Minister Franz Josef Jung has resigned over a fatal Afghan airstrike ordered by German forces, the Labor Ministry said Friday.It comes the day after the head of the German army stepped down over the same incident.The resignation of Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the army’s chief of staff, came after Germany’s Bild newspaper reported he knew civilians could be killed when the Sept. 4 airstrike was ordered.The attack in the northern province of Kunduz killed at least 90 people, according to reports at the time. Bild said 142 people were killed. Local Afghan officials said at least half of the dead were civilians, and NATO acknowledged soon afterward that civilians had been killed.

NATO said the death toll is contained in a classified report about the incident that is now in the hands of German authorities.The German commander in the area called in the strike after Afghans tried to siphon fuel from two tankers hijacked by the Taliban a day earlier. The fuel had been earmarked for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).Bild said it had access to confidential documents and it posted a video of the airstrike on its Web site. It said German Col. Georg Klein was not able to rule out the possibility of civilian victims before he ordered the strike.

The newspaper said a report dated Sept. 6 — two days after the strike — made clear that it was impossible for Klein to verify information his informant had provided before he called in the airstrike.Jung said Friday he was taking responsibility for miscommunication following the incident.Bild reported that for days after the incident, Jung — who was then defense minister — repeated that there had been no civilian victims. That was despite Jung having videos and documents that proved the defense ministry knew about civilian victims and also had insufficient information before the strike was ordered, Bild said.

“Although this information painted a completely different picture of events, Minister Jung repeated in newspaper interviews and before Parliament, again and again, that ‘terrorist Taliban exclusively’ had been hit, and that the local commander had had ‘clear information’ that the people by the tankers were exclusively insurgents,” Bild reported.