Free Republic

SAN VALENTIN, Mexico - Laws barring the killing of protected sea turtles and the sale of their eggs have been as effective as anti-drug trafficking programs: driving the practice underground but failing to stop it. The latest threat is a horseback-riding gang whose members wield Kalashnikov rifles to drive away police and unarmed environmental activists. Centuries-old traditions make the turtles, and especially their eggs, highly prized in Mexico, where officials have spent decades trying to protect the sea creatures. Turtle eggs can still be found at rural markets and restaurants in many parts of southern Mexico, though they are sometimes...

BANGKOK - Violent attacks in the Muslim-majority south of Thailand have some observers worried - not for the first time - that the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is in denial about the scope of the terrorist threat in the area. Just one day after attackers killed four Thai soldiers, set fire to schools and police checkposts and stole weapons near the Malaysian border, explosions killed at least three police in the south on Monday. The violence occurred despite massive security in the troublesome region, and martial law has been declared in three provinces. Yet some authorities continued to...

Oct. 10, 2003, 9:18PM Mexican army deserters join violent border gangs By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- Members of an elite Mexican army unit have deserted and formed a drug gang, using their military training to launch a violent battle for control of this border city, Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor said in an interview with the Associated Press. The war for Nuevo Laredo is unlike other recent drug conflicts -- it's a turf war involving most of Mexico's major cartels in broad alliances not seen in a decade. It has the Mexican army fighting an organized unit...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - A team of house burglars dubbed the "Underwear Gang" by Malaysian police has struck for the fifth time this year, local media reported. The three-man gang, armed with bolt-cutters and screwdrivers but wearing only T-shirts and underpants, broke into a house in Malacca by prising open a sliding door, police spokesman Gemon Ishak told the New Straits Times. The owner of the house, a 29-year-old woman, was awakened by the noise and went to investigate, surprising the scantily-clad burglars who bundled her and two maids into a room before fleeing with 30,000 ringgit (7,895 dollars) in...

WASHINGTON, March 29 (KUNA) -- Banditry and lawlessness appear to be spreading through some parts of southern Iraq as British troops sweep the countryside for remnants of Iraqi forces and remain at a stalemate with fighters in Basra, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Villagers in the area near Basra International Airport told the Post that roving bands of armed men steal tractors, hijack trucks, loot factories and terrorize residents with near impunity. In Mushirij, villagers told the Post on Friday that while British troops confiscate weapons from ordinary villagers, the thieves, many of whom are deserters from Iraqi...