International News Update - April 6, 2010

• Mexico (Fox News): Deadly Magnitude 7.2 Earthquake Shakes U.S, Mexico
• The Sunday afternoon earthquake centered south of the U.S. border near Mexicali, and was followed by 20 aftershocks
• The quake caused 2 deaths, over 100 injuries, some building collapse and extensive blackouts in the Mexican region
• In Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Diego minor power outages and shattered windows attested to the effects of the quake
• DR Congo (BBC): DR Congo Attack Kills Two UN Workers
• On Sunday, armed rebels attacked the town of Mbandaka and overran the airport killing peacekeepers and several African civilians; the Congolese army has yet to recapture the airport
• The rebels consist of two rival ethnic groups fighting for fishing rights in the area, who have also been battling with the Congolese army for months
• The mandate of the UN’s biggest peacekeeping operation, located in DR Congo, is due to expire in May but this fighting may postpone the withdrawal
• Iran (Middle East News & World Report): Major retaliation for those responsible of the Iranian terrorist act
• Ahamdinejad promises retaliation for those involved in attacks against the Iranian people on Sunday, when over 39 people were killed in a suicide bombing
• The White House condemned the terrorist act, and rejected Iranian claims that the U.S. was behind the attack.
• Afghanistan (CNN): NATO admits killing Afghan civilians in February raid
• NATO acknowledged its troops killed five Afghans in a botched nighttime raid on February 12^th
• “International forces were responsible for the deaths of three women who were in the same compound where two men were killed by the joint Afghan-international patrol searching for a Taliban insurgent," NATO stated
• Such incidents are straining the relationship between Afghanistan and the Western nations comprising the International Security Assistance Force
• China (South China Morning Post): 115 rescued alive in mine 'miracle'
• Over 115 miners were pulled out alive on Monday after being trapped for over a week in the flooded Wangjialing coal mine in Shanxi province
• Some ate sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts’ walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept
• Nearly 3,000 rescuers have been helping to pump water from the mine, and by Sunday water levels in the pit had dropped 30 feet
• Pakistan (W. Post): U.S. Consulate attacked in Pakistan, Taliban claims responsibility
• Disguised attackers assaulted the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar (North-West Frontier Province) on Monday, killing three Pakistanis and injuring a dozen
• This violence followed the attacks of a suicide bomber, only hours earlier, on a political party that strongly opposes the radical Islamist Taliban movement
• Pakistani Taliban, suffering recently from missile strikes from remotely piloted U.S. drones and by Pakistani military offensives, asserted responsibility for the consulate attack.