Pedro Aranguren, the defense attorney of journalist Leocenis García, was advised that the 20th Trial Judge Jesús Jiménez issued a walking paper. In a telephone conversation with El Universal, Leocenis García's sister María Lucía awaited for the delivery of the prison release documents from the 20th Trial Court to go to the Tocuyito jail. Aranguren said he had no details about the judge's decision, "but the walking paper has been...

According to Mexican newspaper reports confirmed by SEDENA (Mexico’s National Defense Ministry) and the U.S. military, the U.S. Northern Command is training the Mexican military in counterinsurgency tactics used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, is the military command responsible for homeland defense efforts. NORTHCOM has an area of responsibility that includes the continental...

Mexico foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to establish a network in South America, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Tuesday. Hezbollah operatives employed Mexicans nationals with family ties to Lebanon to set up the network, designed to target Israel and the West, the Al-Seyassah daily said. According to the report, Mexican police mounted a surveillance operation on the group's leader, Jameel Nasr, who traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hezbollah...

The number of political prisoners in Cuba continued a notable decline in the first half of 2010, the island's top human rights monitor said Monday, meaning their ranks have dropped by nearly half since Raul Castro took power in 2006. The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation said the government is using less long-term imprisonment and turning more to a strategy of quick arrests and releases to intimidate those who openly oppose its communist system. It classed 167...

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina held a luncheon in honor of President al-Assad in the presence of members of the two official delegations, where the two presidents delivered two speeches. President al-Assad underlined in a speech during the lincheon that Syria seeks to develop cooperation with many countries in the world, whether the distant or near countries. "What makes Syria cooperate with a far continent is this independence in the political decision in...

"From this moment, I start an indefinite hunger strike until Judge 20, Jesús Jiménez, refrains from hearing my case," Venezuelan journalist Leocenis García said in a SMS. Last week, defense attorney Pedro Aranguren sought to disqualify Judge 20, but Judge Jiménez dismissed the case. According to Aranguren, the decision on Jiménez was absurd, because the Court of the Appeals, a higher court, should be the institution that can declare null or...

President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday held a session of talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil on bilateral relations and means to develop them in addition to the latest regional and international developments. The two Presidents underlined the importance of intensifying work by both countries' governments to boost up bilateral relations in all domains, particularly on the economic level to match up with the political relations. They called for encouraging trade and...

Amnesty International has accused the Honduran authorities of failing to address serious human rights violations that followed the coup d’etat of 28 June 2009, when ex-President Manuel Zelaya was forced from power. Since new president Porfirio Lobo took office in January, police and military officers responsible for mass arrests, beatings and torture in the wake of the coup have not been brought to justice. Meanwhile, concerns about freedom of expression increased, as seven...

The Syrian community in Venezuelan described President Bashar al-Assad's visit to the Latin America as a "historic" not only because it is the first for a Syrian president to the continent, but because it opens wide doors for cooperation between Syria and countries of the continent and extends bridges of rapprochement between the Syrian community in the countries of immigration and their motherland. Member of Venezuelan Parliament of Syrian origin Joel Jabbour said the visit...

President Bashar Assad of Syria sat down with Cuban leader Raul Castro on Monday as part of his first tour of Latin America, a trip that is taking him to meetings with many of the region’s left-leaning governments. A four-star army general, Raul Castro exchanged his traditional olive-green fatigues for a dark suit to host Assad at the stately Palace of the Revolution. There was no word on what they discussed, but Cuban state media have said Assad was coming to promote cooperation...