LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“There is now an
operating room for
the militaries of all
the liberated cities and they are trying to
convince the others
to join them. They are trying to help the
people in Tripoli to
capture Gadhafi.”
Lt. Col. Omar Hamza,
a Libyan army officer who
had allied with the rebels Article 1AU.S. agent’s death tied to gang error
MEXICO CITY - A suspect in the killing of a U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent told soldiers Wednesday that the attack was carried out by a group of Zetas drug gang gunmen who mistook the agent’s sport utility vehicle for a vehicle used by a rival gang, the army said.
Julian Zapata Espinoza was captured along with five other suspected Zetas members during an army raid Wednesday on gang safe houses in the northern city of San Luis Potosi, near where agent Jaime Zapata was shot to death and fellow agent Victor Avila was wounded Feb. 15.
“That event [the shooting] occurred because of the characteristics of the vehicle, given that they [the suspects] thought it was being used by members of a rival criminal group,” an army spokesman, Col. Ricardo Trevilla, said.
The two agents were traveling in a Chevrolet Suburban.
Trevilla said military intelligence officers had identified Zapata Espinoza as the head of a cell of Zeta gang members in San Luis Potosi since early December, when raids in the area turned up other purported gang members.
Zimbabwe charges
45 with treason
JOHANNESBURG - Forty-five Zimbabwean activists who attended a meeting to discuss the successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia were charged Wednesday with treason, which could result in the death penalty, and subverting an elected government.
Attorneys for the defendants were informed of the treason charges only 10 minutes before Wednesday’s court hearing, and had no chance to discuss the charges with their clients, lawyer Marufu Mandevere said.
After the hearing, the defendants were led out in leg irons and handcuffs, and prison authorities again denied lawyers access to their clients, Mandevere said.
The arrests marked the latest crackdown by the forces of autocratic longtime President Robert Mugabe, who has remained in power since disputed elections in 2008 that saw widespread violence by people associated with his ruling ZANU-PF party.
Paraded bodies of 5, Somalis say
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali militants said Wednesday that they had paraded the bodies of five African Union peacekeepers killed in fighting and also were holding a soldier from Burundi captive after intense battles in the capital.
The fighting appeared to come amid a major push in Mogadishu by Somali troops and African Union peacekeepers against the militants.
Heavy fighting had broken out over the weekend after African Union troops discovered a trench used by militants to move supplies and fighters in the capital.
The violence started Wednesday after African peacekeepers and Somali troops launched a dawn attack on rebel positions, seizing the former Somalia Ministry of Defense building, which had been serving as the militants’ base.
An al-Shabab spokesman, Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, said that militants had killed five peacekeepers and captured one alive. He said the militants had paraded the bodies of the five men.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/24/2011