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Syrian rebels killed 78 soldiers on Thursday, about half of them in attacks on military checkpoints in the north just hours after a wave of bombings hit the Damascus area, activists said.
The unusually high toll for regime forces came after days of intense air bombardment of rebel positions around the country that killed hundreds more.
The Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) have agreed to begin political dialogue this coming month, according to KIO spokesman La Mai Gum Ja.
The announcement came following preliminary peace talks on October 30 in the Chinese town of Ruili where a delegation from Naypyidaw led by President’s Office Minister Aung Min met with KIO representatives headed by Kachin politician Sumlut Gam.
“We have agreed to continue political negotiations,” said Gum Ja. “Assuming our central committee agrees to the proposal, we will meet in November at a venue inside Burma.”
The European Union is considering sending about 200 troops to train Mali’s army to retake the Islamist-held north, but is not willing to deploy them in battle, EU officials said on Tuesday.
Fears are growing in Europe that the African country could turn into a platform for terrorist attacks, after Islamist fighters seized two-thirds of its territory earlier this year.
“There is a willingness among member states to put boots on the ground - but only on the parade ground,” one of the EU officials said. “I haven’t heard from member states a willingness to put people in the field.”
Syrian opposition backers say fighting and airstrikes across the country killed more than 120 people Tuesday, including a government air force general.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Syrian warplanes struck Maarat al-Numan, a strategic, rebel-held town on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.
At least six Colombian police officers have been killed and seven others injured in an attack by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), regional police sources say.
The attack was carried out on Monday afternoon in Padilla town in the Cauca state where armed rebels killed six motorcycle police officers, said country’s police director Gen. Jose Roberto Leon.
Those injured were rushed to a nearby hospital, he added.
The Color Red rocket alert system sounded in Gaza vicinity communities several times on Sunday night and Monday morning, as 20 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
Earlier, Israel Air Force jets bombs targets in the Strip in response to the firing of rockets at the city of Beersheba on Sunday.
All rockets landed in open areas without causing injuries or damage.
French police have arrested two wanted ETA members. Pro-independence Basque groups criticized theircapture, which takes to 24 the number of ETA members arrested in the past year. 16 arrests have been in France.
Izaskun Lesaka, leader of the banned Basque separatist group ETA, was arrested during a raid by an elite French police unit at a hotel in the town of Macon, near Lyon on Sunday.