(CNN) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned Friday the torching of a Monterrey casino that killed at least 52 people as "the most serious attack on civil society that the country has seen in a long time." Calderon said the burning of the Monterrey Casino Royale on Thursday was perpetrated by "terrorists" motivated by greed. Meanwhile, authorities in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, of which Monterrey is the capital, released a video showing how armed men...

Federal officials said Thursday they've taken down a drug and weapons trafficking ring involving members of San Diego's Iraqi community and a major Mexican drug cartel that was caught selling large amounts of drugs, guns and grenades. Police in El Cajon said more than 60 suspects linked to the Chaldean Organized Crime Syndicate were arrested. Smugglers were shipping drugs from El Cajon to Iraqis in Detroit, where the Chaldean syndicate is based, authorities said. El Cajon and federal police...

Mexico City authorities are reporting a package bomb exploded at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, State of Mexico campus injuring two. The package was addressed to robotics professor Alejandro Aceves Lopez and delivered to him via a local messenger service. When Lopez opened the package, it exploded, injuring him and another professor. The bomb appeared to be homemade and is said to be the first explosion of this kind to occur on a Mexican university campus. All classes were cancelled...

Mexico's rival crime gangs are in an arms race, and the latest sign of that are the homemade "Mad Max"-type heavily armored vehicles they deploy to withstand fierce clashes with each other. The army found two more "narco tanks" over the weekend in Ciudad Camargo in Tamaulipas state along the border with Texas. In earlier discoveries in April and May, armored vehicles found by authorities contained swiveling turrets, snipers' peepholes and gadgets to dump oil and scatter...

US Senator Richard Lugar, the highest-ranking Republican in the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, is afraid that sanctions on state-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) resulted from "Venezuela's unwillingness to break relations with terrorist organizations and with countries which sponsor them." The US Government on Tuesday imposed sanctions on seven foreign companies, including Pdvsa, for doing business with Iran. According to Washington, these firms...

SAN DIEGO - A terrorist organization whose home base is in the Middle East has established another home base across the border in Mexico. “They are recognized by many experts as the ‘A’ team of Muslim terrorist organizations,” a former U.S. intelligence agent told 10News. The former agent, referring to Shi’a Muslim terrorist group Hezbollah, added, “They certainly have had successes in big-ticket bombings.” Some of the group’s bombings include...

The largest ever haul of ETA explosives has been made by the Spanish police following the arrest of the brothers Aitor and Igor Esnaola. The two were arrested in the town of Legorreta, in the Tolosa area of Guipúzcoa, and it was in a local country house where the explosives have been found. Between 850 and 900 kilos of explosives has been recovered, most of it ammonium nitrate and PETN which is from the nitro-glycerine family. The two are now known to be members of an ETA logistical...

Here is an excerpt from Stewart Powell's article in The Houston Chronicle: "In a potentially sweeping and politically charged escalation of the U.S. offensive against Mexican drug cartels, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, introduced legislation in Congress Wednesday to designate six murderous Mexican drug cartels 'foreign terrorist organizations.' Such a designation by the State Department could expose Mexican drug traffickers and U.S. gunrunners to charges of supporting terrorism......

President Obama’s trip to South America has showcased promising partnerships in Brazil and elsewhere. His visit, however, should also focus attention in the region and within his administration on the fact that Iran and Venezuela are conspiring to sow Tehran’s brand of proxy terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. On Aug. 22, 2010, at Iran’s suggestion, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hosted senior leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in a secret...

In secret negotiations with Iran, Argentina has offered to "forget" the bombings of the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in 1992 and 1994, respectively, in exchange for improved relations between the two countries. According to the Argentine weekly Perfil, which broke the story yesterday, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman is personally involved in the talks. The Argentinean Foreign Ministry has so far declined comment. For his report, the veteran...