Tensions easing near China-Myanmar border

Some of the tens of thousands of refugees who fled to China to escape fighting in Myanmar are beginning to return home as tensions have eased, police said. An estimated 37,000 people were displaced by the fighting, Meng Sutie, police chief in southern China’s Yunnan Province, told China’s state-run Xinhua news agency Sunday.

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Mexican Drug Cartels Find a Lucrative New Home in California State Parks

The damage they do to society is well-known, but drug traffickers, it turns out, also aren’t the most environmentally-minded campers. Law enforcement officials say that a wildfire now raging in Santa Barbara’s Los Padres National park, burning more than 136 square miles, was sparked by a cooking fire started by the hirelings of a Mexican drug cartel which was growing thousands of marijuana plants in the remote canyons. Far from an isolated incident, the Los Padres fire, according to law enforcement agents, highlights an alarming trend: the invasion of California wilderness and parklands by armed Mexican drug cartels

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Koreas must hold talks before border reopens, Seoul says

South Korea responded positively, but cautiously, to a joint agreement announced Monday between North Korea and the South’s Hyundai Group to resume cross-border tourism, ease border controls and facilitate cross-border family reunions. “The government views Hyundai Group’s joint statement with North Korea in a positive way, but it is at the nongovernmental level,” Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said

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Mexican police arrest 34 drug cartel suspects

Mexican federal police say they arrested 34 men suspected of belonging to a ruthless drug cartel blamed for a rash of violence that left at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers dead since July 11. Officials said the suspects belong to La Familia Michoacana drug gang, which drew national attention when it was accused of torturing and killing 12 off-duty federal agents three weeks ago. The bodies of the 11 men and one woman were found dumped on a road.

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Global terror warning as Somali militants flex muscles

An Al Qaeda-linked militant group waging war against Somalia’s fragile government is becoming an increasing threat to Western ally Kenya and could potentially destabilize the region with dire consequences for global security, officials and analysts warn. Al-Shabaab, one of the strongest Islamic militias battling for control of Mogadishu, has gained ground in recent weeks, according to officials, and has started to flex its muscles beyond Somalia’s border with terror strikes, kidnappings and recruitment drives.

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Report: Suspects in border agent’s killing arrested in Mexico

Mexican authorities on Saturday arrested four men in connection with last week’s shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in San Diego County, California, Mexico’s state-run news agency Notimex reported. Mexican federal police identified the men as human smugglers, and said they were in the act of transporting 21 immigrants when they were detained in the northwest state of Baja California, Notimex said

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