Border

The July 9 editorial "Border insecurity" claims that illegal alien workers are necessary to our economy. The basis for that contention is that there is a demand for their labor. What you are implying, however, is that it is up to employers, rather than society, to set labor standards in our country. With that philosophy, you should also oppose minimum-wage and child-labor laws. It is my contention that your position on illegal immigration is reactionary. LANCE B. SJOGREN San Pedro As an independent thinker with liberal leanings, I have to side with securing the borders from the flood of illegals pouring across as a top priority.

BEIRUT - As fighting continuing for a fifth day in the Syrian capital, rebels on Thursday stormed major crossings along the Turkish and Iraqi borders that could serve as strategic links for supplies and personnel in the battle to oust President Bashar Assad. Opposition activists said rebels took control of the Turkish border crossing of Bab Hawa, along the main road to Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city. Rebels also reportedly seized several border posts along the Iraqi frontier, including the Abu Kamal gate near the Iraqi town of Qaim, a major transit point into Syria.

WE Angelenos can skip across the border to Mexico almost as easily as we can drive from L.A. to Orange County. After all, when the traffic gods are smiling, you get to the border in three hours or so for the chance to bargain for silver jewelry in Tijuana, relax at a Baja resort or stretch out on the shoreline sands. But even though Mexico is our next-door playground, we have plenty of health hazards to consider when traveling there. For instance, you face a higher risk of contracting hepatitis A, malaria, rabies, typhoid fever and, now, a re-emerging brain disorder caused by a parasitic tapeworm found in pork.

WASHINGTON - Mathematician William Binney worked for the National Security Agency for four decades, and in the late 1990s he helped design a system to sort through the digital data the agency was sucking up in the exploding universe of bits and bytes. When the agency picked a rival technology, he became disillusioned. He retired a month after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001, and later went public with his concerns. Binney and several other former NSA employees said that the cyber-spying agency had created a massive digital dragnet to secretly track communications of Americans.

Deposed President Manuel Zelaya returned to the Honduran border Saturday and announced that he would set up camp there, even as foreign leaders urged him not to force a confrontation with the de facto government that ousted him in a coup last month. Zelaya arrived at a rural frontier crossing and immediately grabbed a megaphone, addressing a crowd of 150 supporters and about as many journalists. He said he would wait near the border and demanded that his family be allowed to meet him.

Prospects for a cease-fire in Syria further dimmed Monday when fighting spilled over the border into Turkey and Lebanon, leaving at least three people dead, opposition activists said. An additional 160 people were killed within Syria, activists said, as forces loyal to embattled President Bashar Assad continued to shell buildings and shoot at residents of rebellious cities on the eve of a proposed halt to the hostilities. Government troops and tanks were due to be withdrawn Tuesday from cities and towns, but that seemed increasingly unlikely as the violence has only escalated in the last week and on Sunday the Assad government demanded written guarantees from all opposition groups, a proposal that the rebel Free Syrian Army dismissed.

Some people go to South America and bring back T-shirts and big hats. Not Oliver Stone. A modern version of the traditional big game hunter, Stone went south and bagged interviews with the left-leaning leaders of seven countries for his new documentary, "South of the Border." This is not the first time Stone has gone the interview-the-ruler route, having previously directed "Comandante" and "Looking for Fidel," both about the loquacious Cuban leader. Though Fidel's brother Raul makes a brief appearance here, "South of the Border" shows Stone expanding his horizons beyond Havana to include Venezuela's Hugo Chavez (the film's main focus)

For decades, India and Bangladesh have shared a long border, a passionate love of cricket and a deep mistrust of each other. Among the many victims of this mutual suspicion were the residents of 162 "enclaves," Indian communities surrounded by Bangladesh and vice versa, the result of arbitrary map-drawing as the British Empire fell in the late 1940s. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two-day visit to Bangladesh starting Tuesday could end the suffering of the 50,000 or so enclave inhabitants under a series of agreements aimed at addressing long-simmering trade, transit and border problems.

CAIRO - Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip remained closed Sunday as the families and colleagues of seven Egyptian soldiers who were kidnapped in the northern Sinai Peninsula last week continued a sit-in. A video was briefly posted on YouTube showing seven men identified as the abductees, imploring the government to secure their release. "Rescue us, Mr. President. We can't take it. Rescue us, people," the men plead, according to an Associated Press account. It was unclear who posted the video.

Greece has reopened its side of the main Ipsala border crossing with Turkey, closed since last Thursday apparently because of a strike by customs officials, the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency said Monday.