Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned on Monday the Argentine charge d'affaires in Tehran, Mario Enrique Quinteros, to "protest strongly" against Buenos Aires over its criticism of the nomination of Iran's new defense minister, the official IRNA news agency reported. Iran's Foreign Ministry official told Quinteros that the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of Argentina on the issue is a "clear interference in Iran's internal affairs and is strongly condemned." ...

The finding by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of widespread abuses in Honduras should compel the international community to take firm action, such as targeted sanctions, to resolve the country's ongoing crisis, Human Rights Watch said today. The commission released a on August 21, 2009, showing a pattern of serious violations under the de facto government, including excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, and attacks on the media, as well as several...

The Venezuelan Ambassador to Iran David Velasquez says his country's president will visit Iran in the "first week of September". Velasquez said that President Hugo Chavez's two-day visit to Iran will be part of a regional tour, which will also take him to Russia, Syria and Libya, ISNA reported. The Venezuelan envoy noted that Chavez will discuss the "inappropriate military conditions in Latin America" during his talks with Iranian officials. Washington's plans...

As of 18 August 2009, Amnesty International considers Jacinta Francisco Marcial a prisoner of conscience. This appointment recognizes the innocence of Jacinta while declaring her a person imprisoned only for being an indigenous women with limited access to justice. Thus, the world’s largest movement for the defense and protection of human rights calls on the Mexican authorities to free Jacinta immediately and without conditions. Jacinta, from the Otomi...

El Siglo de Torreon, a newspaper in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, said Tuesday that its offices were the target of a shooting attack that left no casualties. “According to preliminary reports, it was close to 1:00 a.m. in the morning when a burst of gunfire from large-caliber weapons was heard,” the newspaper said on its Web site. The newspaper has its main offices in Torreon, capital of Coahuila. “Broken windows, walls riddled with bullets and damaged...

Senior Israeli political official: Nasrallah established major terrorist base in Venezuela under Chavez sponsorship. Hezbollah members collect intelligence from continent, including Brazil, Argentina, and Peru with objective of carrying out a low-profile revenge attack for assassination of Imad Mughniyeh Venezuela has become Hezbollah 's major terrorist outpost in South America. The Venezuelan regime reportedly provides aid for the terrorist organization that has taken root in its territory,...

A group of Venezuelan journalists who who were protesting peacefully in a crowded street in Caracas were attacked by people supporting the Chavez government. 12 Journalists from "Grupo Editorial Cadena Capriles" were wounded. Source:

Colombia's Farc rebels are open to negotiations with the government if they get guarantees for safe conditions for talks, the top guerrilla commander said in an interview. Alfonso Cano, who took over the Farc leadership more than a year ago, told the local Cambio magazine the rebels were open to negotiating to end the four-decade-old conflict, but gave no details on what guarantees he wanted. President Alvaro Uribe's US-backed security campaign has battered the Farc to its weakest in years....

Venezuela's president has criticised as a threat of war a deal between the US and Colombia allowing more US troops to operate on Colombian soil, during a summit of South American leaders in Ecuador. "The winds of war are beginning to blow… I am not going to allow them to do to Venezuela what they did to Ecuador," Hugo Chavez said on Monday at the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) talks in Quito, referring to a 2008 Colombian raid on a guerrilla camp in Ecuador. "We...

El Salvador's attorney general should conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation of the murder of the community leader and environmental advocate Gustavo Marcelo Rivera Moreno, as well as subsequent threats against journalists and human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today. According to news reports, Rivera, director of the Association of Friends of San Isidro Cabañas (Asociación Amigos de San Isidro Cabañas, ASIC), disappeared in Ilobasco,...