Ex-guerrillas halt political campaign
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Former combatants with Colombia's once largest rebel group are suspending their political campaign activities amid mounting security concerns.
Flanked by armed police officers, leaders with the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force political party announced Friday that they will halt campaign events until their safety can be sufficiently assured.
"We call on the government to ensure the right to political participation," said former guerrilla leader Jorge Torres, known by his alias Pablo Catatumbo.
Since beginning their campaigns less than two weeks ago, the ex-combatants have encountered angry mobs and protests, underscoring the challenges of reconciliation that remain in Colombia after the signing of a 2016 peace agreement to end Latin America's longest-running conflict.
The five-decade-long conflict between leftist rebels, paramilitary groups and government troops left at least 250,000 people dead, another 60,000 missing and 7 million displaced.
Drug cartel leader arrested in Mexico
MEXICO CITY -- Authorities said Friday that they have arrested dual U.S.-Mexican citizen Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, the alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel.
Mexican National Security Commissioner Renato Sales identified the suspect only as "Jose Maria," but a federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name confirmed Guizar Valencia's last name.
Guizar Valencia is known by his Zetas code name, "Z 43."
The United States had offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.
Sales said Guizar Valencia was arrested Thursday in Mexico City's Roma neighborhood, which is known for its restaurants and cafes.
The commissioner said the leader was one of the main generators of violence and had directed Zetas' drug trafficking and other activities in southern Mexico.
Under a "Wanted" page online, the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said Guizar Valencia is "responsible for the importation of thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States on a yearly basis" and faces separate U.S. drug trafficking indictments in Texas and Virginia.
Egypt starts operation against militants
EL-ARISH, Egypt -- Egypt began a security operation Friday involving land, sea and air forces in areas including the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, the epicenter of an insurgency spearheaded by an affiliate of the Islamic State militant group.
The operation, announced in a televised statement by army spokesman Col. Tamer el-Rifaai, began early Friday and covers central Sinai and areas in Egypt's Nile Delta and Western Desert. He said the operation is targeting "terrorist and criminal elements and organizations." There was no indication how long the operation would last.
Security officials said the forces killed at least 20 militants in the north Sinai town of Bir al-Abd. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
French party founder gets mixed ruling
PARIS -- A French appeals court on Friday upheld the far-right National Front's decision to expel party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen over anti-Semitic remarks, but also confirmed a lower court's ruling that maintains his status as honorary party president for life.
The decision of the Versailles appeals court, both a stinging defeat and a partial victory for the 89-year-old Le Pen, portends a new showdown with his daughter, former French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
The father and daughter have waged a bitter power struggle over National Front's image since he named her to succeed him in 2011. The elder Le Pen, who has been convicted multiple times for racism and anti-Semitism, now bemoans fundamental decisions she made.
The enmity could worsen with the approach of the anti-immigration party's congress in March. Members will be asked to vote on doing away with the rank of honorary president-for-life, a strategy to bypass the courts and to make Jean-Marie Le Pen's removal definitive.
Marine Le Pen and party decision-makers expelled the elder Le Pen in 2015 for a series of remarks considered a liability to the party's image, including repeating a remark that Nazi gas chambers were a "detail" in World War II history. Jean-Marie Le Pen sued over the decision.
A Section on 02/10/2018