Arms Sales

Efforts by Mexico and the United States to stem the skyrocketing border drug and weapons trade are failing, and both countries are to blame for the rise of violent cartels responsible for more than 6,000 deaths in Mexico last year, lawmakers and experts said in a Senate hearing Tuesday. For years, elected officials in Washington portrayed Mexico as being largely responsible for the problems spawned by the increasingly powerful crime syndicates -- and for fixing them.

The director of the anti-gang organization No Guns, which the city of Los Angeles once paid $1.5 million to steer Latino youths away from a life of crime, pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally selling assault weapons to federal undercover officers. Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin, 51, was sentenced to eight years in prison, said Eric Harmon, the Los Angeles County prosecutor in the case. Marroquin's accomplice and girlfriend, Sylvia Arellano, 26, pleaded guilty to illegal weapons sales.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that the U.S. was still willing to sell Indonesia new weaponry, particularly for its navy and air force. But he cautioned that democracies must have firm civilian control of their militaries, which must be disciplined for human rights abuses. Gates praised Jakarta for moving to professionalize its military, which for decades under former President Suharto ruled the archipelago with an iron fist until the dictator was deposed a decade ago.

The long hunt for a man regarded as one of the world's most notorious arms dealers climaxed Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand, where an eight-month sting operation by a team of U.S. agents led to the capture and arrest of Russian businessman Viktor Bout during an alleged attempt to supply Colombian rebels with weapons and explosives. Bout was taken into custody by Thai police at a luxury hotel in Bangkok, where, U.S.

It was sunset, and a pair of Iraqi soldiers were sitting in a roofless house by the Iranian border, awaiting orders. Suddenly, Abu Baqr recalls, his friend let out a gasp and fell silent, a sniper's bullet in his forehead. Abu Baqr couldn't help him, couldn't move for fear of being shot. He lay beside his friend's corpse until morning. "How would you feel after that?" Abu Baqr asked. "You come out of that, you only come out bad."

A State Department envoy assigned to reduce the worldwide supply of shoulder-fired missiles said Tuesday that missiles traded on the black market remain a potential threat to civilian aircraft. In his first public comments since beginning the effort six months ago, Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr. said that there is a total of about 500,000 missiles of the type that have been used to shoot down 28 civilian planes since the 1970s, killing 600 to 800 people. Even though the U.S.

Israel wants to buy 25 fighter jets equipped with the latest military technology from the United States with an option to purchase an additional 50 in a deal worth more than $15 billion, officials said. The sale of the F-35, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, would be the first to a country outside of the U.S. and eight partner nations collaborating on the airplane, officials said.

China has canceled a senior military visit to Washington and shelved other military and diplomatic contacts to protest an announced $6.5-billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, Pentagon and State Department officials said Monday. "The Chinese reaction is unfortunate and results in missed opportunities," said Marine Corps Maj. Stewart Upton, a Defense Department spokesman, in a statement.

Russia reacted angrily Friday to U.S. sanctions leveled this week against an arms trading company, calling them an "arrogant application" of American laws abroad. Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov said the U.S. move to ban government agencies from dealing with Rosoboronexport, a state-owned company managed by a close friend of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was "absolutely incompatible with the new realities in the current world structure." In addition to the Russian firm, the U.S.

The United States and Zimbabwe united briefly Friday against the world to oppose creating a treaty that would control international sales of arms. In a United Nations General Assembly vote, 147 of its 192 members voted in favor of creating a global treaty that would impose rules on the import, export and transfer of weapons among nations. Only the U.S., long an opponent of such a treaty, and Zimbabwe voted against the idea.