Security Forces

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

As the war on drugs has spread from Mexico to Central America, so has the U.S. role in Honduras. Pentagon contracts are helping to fund new military bases in remote regions of that country, and U.S. troops and special Drug Enforcement Administration agents have been deployed to train local security forces and assist in counter-narcotics operations. It's a delicate partnership, and one that is already causing controversy. Last week the Obama administration confirmed that DEA agents were with Honduran security forces aboard a U.S. helicopter during a botched May 11 operation.

NEW DELHI - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday urgedBangladesh's squabbling political factions to resolve their differences as she arrived in the country, which has been beset by weeks of general strikes, demonstrations and violence since an opposition politician disappeared last month. The government and the opposition declared a truce for Clinton's visit. Each side blames the other for the disappearance of Elias Ali, one of as many as 22 people, mostly politicians, who have gone missing this year, according to human rights groups.

KABUL, Afghanistan - In many ways, the two young soldiers were not so different from each other. Each was tough-minded and physically powerful. Each worked hard to win a place in an elite military unit, and spoke with pride of serving his country. They were 25 years old, these two: one newly married, the other planning a wedding this year. Their upbringings were as disparate as their homelands were distant, but religious faith was entwined with the family lives of both.

The question was direct. So too was the answer. "Where's your biggest threat area?" asked Marine Maj. Phillip Zeman. "Anywhere, everywhere, sir," answered Cpl. Phil Shy as their Humvee sped through what was left of Fallouja's commercial district Friday. Two months after Marines wrested control of the Sunni Triangle city from insurgents in a weeklong battle, some of the war-weary units involved in the fight are close to going home. But the U.S. job here is far from over.

CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Obama will highlight trade and business opportunities in Latin America at a regional summit in Colombia this weekend, but other leaders may upstage him by pushing to legalize marijuana and other illicit drugs in a bid to stem rampant trafficking. Obama, who opposes decriminalization, is expected to face a rocky reception in this Caribbean resort city, which otherwise forms a friendly backdrop for a U.S. president courting Latino voters in an election year.

Syrian state television claimed Monday that 120 members of the nation's security forces were killed by armed groups in recent days in a report that said the government was prepared to "deal firmly and sternly" with any such attacks against its rule. The broadcast cited no sources and offered no footage to verify the report of a "massacre" by gunmen at a police station in the restive northwest city of Jisr Shughur, the site of weeks of ongoing clashes between security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and pro-democracy protesters inspired by revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

Massive anti-government protests throughout Syria on Friday were met with violence by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, in defiance of increased Western pressure on the regime to radically reform. At least 12 people were reported killed by mid-afternoon, with human rights activists warning that the number of dead was sure to rise, despite a purported "dialogue" between Assad's deputies and some regime critics that finished just days ago. The protests followed a tense week between Syria and the West after provocative visits by U.S. Ambassador Robert S. Ford and French envoy Eric Chavallier to the restive city of Hama, which enraged Syrian authorities and prompted a series of increasingly testy exchanges between Western and Syrian officials.

Syrian security forces opened fire Saturday on thousands of angry mourners pouring into the streets in politically charged funeral marches for some of the scores of people shot dead at nationwide mass demonstrations a day earlier, according to witnesses and amateur video footage posted online. At least 107 people were killed in Friday's violence, according to a list of names compiled by a human rights activist. Mourners appeared somber but defiant, chanting, "The people want the overthrow of the regime" as they marched down narrow streets holding coffins aloft, some raising clenched fists, as shown on video footage uploaded to the Internet.

Security forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad met antigovernment protests throughout the country with violence Friday in defiance of increased Western pressure on the regime to radically reform. At least 27 people were reported killed, activists said, many of them in the suburbs of Damascus and areas around the capital. Protesters say security forces are cracking down hard there so the demonstrations don't spread to the heart of the capital. "The demonstration started out peacefully, and then after a while they started firing tear gas and live bullets," said an eyewitness in the Damascus suburb of Barzeh.

NEW DELHI - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday urgedBangladesh's squabbling political factions to resolve their differences as she arrived in the country, which has been beset by weeks of general strikes, demonstrations and violence since an opposition politician disappeared last month. The government and the opposition declared a truce for Clinton's visit. Each side blames the other for the disappearance of Elias Ali, one of as many as 22 people, mostly politicians, who have gone missing this year, according to human rights groups.

BEIRUT - The United States and European Union slapped Syria with additional sanctions Monday, as international pressure and a United Nations-backed peace plan have failed to quell the violence in a 13-month uprising. Despite the presence of U.N. monitors in the country, President Bashar Assad's forces have continued to shell cities and shoot at protesters, killing dozens of people Monday, activists said. A day after a small team of observers visited the city of Hama, tanks shelled neighborhoods while security forces and snipers opened fire in other areas where there were protesters.

CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Obama will highlight trade and business opportunities in Latin America at a regional summit in Colombia this weekend, but other leaders may upstage him by pushing to legalize marijuana and other illicit drugs in a bid to stem rampant trafficking. Obama, who opposes decriminalization, is expected to face a rocky reception in this Caribbean resort city, which otherwise forms a friendly backdrop for a U.S. president courting Latino voters in an election year.

In a playground of slides and swings, children dug in the sand next to a string of simple dirt mounds that covered the bodies of at least 40 people. The makeshift graves, which extended nearly from one end of the park to the other, held those killed in the last two weeks of government attacks on this capital of the northern Syrian province of Idlib. "This park used to be for recreation and play. Now it has been turned into a cemetery," a grandmother said, wiping her eyes as she walked along the park's fence.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, recently depicted the conflict in Syria as "civil war. " Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton added that there was "every possibility" of civil war breaking out in Syria. Both of these portrayals of the conflict were meant to ratchet up pressure on the international community to prevent further violence. But in fact, describing a conflict as a civil war achieves exactly the opposite effect. It is not a call to arms; it is a call to inaction.

Syrian authorities and antigovernment activists accused each other Tuesday of reprisal killings in the central city of Homs, where government forces recently overran rebel-held areas and continue to deny access to outside humanitarian aid and human rights observers. The Syrian army has said it is "cleansing" the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr of mines and booby traps left behind by "terrorists" when rebel fighters with the Free Syrian Army withdrew from the area last week. But activists and human rights groups said government troops in Baba Amr were carrying out revenge killings, which they say claimed an entire family, among others.

Protesters challenging the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad are increasingly turning nocturnal, taking their uprising to the streets after dark to wear down security forces and stay one step ahead of the law. It's a cat-and-mouse game that young protesters carry out with the help of other Syrians who oppose the regime. "Night demonstrations are mostly organized by young people as well as university students who have learned to manipulate security personnel," said Wissam Tarif, director of the Middle East human rights organization Insan.

Militants intensified their attacks against U.S.-backed Yemeni military forces on Sunday, killing at least 35 government soldiers in a lawless southern region that has become a battleground of suicide bombers, heavy weapons, assassinations and kidnappings. The clashes in Abyan province — more than 15 militants were also reported killed — were part of an escalation in violence by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its affiliates. The surge in bloodshed comes after newly elected President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi vowed to crush extremists who have exploited the nation's political and tribal chaos.

No money, no park Re "A park left vulnerable," Feb. 25 The one thing that will save Mitchell Caverns (and other shuttered state parks) is the one thing California probably will not do: The state should sell the park to someone who will take care of the place. Owners take far better care of their property. Sure, any buyers would want to make the park profitable, but what's wrong with that? With a little investment and promotion, Mitchell Caverns and other parks like it could become tourist attractions to an extent they never have been previously.