Residents: Syrian forces in border city

Lebanese and Syrian anti-Assad demonstrators protest in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday.Zabadani residents had held protests calling for Assad's ousterResident: Troops round up people indiscriminatelyOn Saturday, hundreds of Syrian exiles gathered in Turkey to show unityHillary Clinton expresses support for the opposition

(CNN) -- Syrian forces moved into a city near the Lebanese border Sunday, detaining dozens of people, residents said.

Tanks rumbled in before dawn into Zabadani, about 25 miles north of Damascus.Residents of the city had called for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in several demonstrations since anti-government protests took hold of the country four months ago.

One resident, who did not want his name used for fear of reprisal, said troops rounded up people indiscriminately -- including several who were waiting by the side of a street to go to work.

The troops then set up checkpoints around the city. People, he said, are afraid to leave their homes.

Another said phone services and electricity to the city has been cut off. He too confirmed the raids and the detentions.

On Saturday, hundreds of exiled Syrian activists met in Istanbul and elected a 25-member council as they sought to declare unity in their intention to oust Assad.

The National Salvation Council, composed of independents, liberals, Islamists and members of other parties, will serve as an umbrella organization representing various factions of the Syrian opposition -- sometimes seen as fractured in their demands.

"Bashar al-Assad is finished," said Haitham al-Maleh, a political prisoner who was released from jail in March in an attempt to appease protesters. "He must leave the country, leave the power. We want to build our government, our regime, without them.

"We will move together to be one opposition ... because you know we spent 50 years under a dictatorship," he said. "The civil society in Syria is finished. Now we are building ourselves for the future."

The Syrian National Salvation conference -- attended by about 350 opposition members -- unfolded as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was also in Istanbul for meetings with Turkish officials, expressed support for the opposition.

"What's happening in Syria is very uncertain and troubling, because many of us had hoped that President Assad would make the reforms that were necessary without seeing what we're now seeing in the streets of Syria, which are government tanks and soldiers shooting peaceful demonstrators," she said.

"There must be a legitimate, sincere effort with the opposition to try to make changes," she said. "I don't know whether that will happen or not."

Some opposition members were frustrated at what they perceived as a lack of response from the international community and hoped that a united Syrian opposition would ratchet up pressure on al-Assad.

"The international community seems to be still dancing around the issue of the Assad regime losing legitimacy and that could be due to a number of reasons," said M. Yaser Tabbara, a Syrian-American human rights lawyer.

"I think what we're trying to do is send these reassurances to the international community that a credible, competent council or body is being formed, and that we do not have to worry anymore about a vacuum of power or a vacuum for an alternative."

He said the Syrian opposition wants world powers to choke the regime economically, politically and diplomatically "to achieve a point of no return."

A similar opposition meeting was to have taken place in Damascus but because of violence Friday, the meeting was canceled. However, two prominent activists were able to connect to Istanbul via Skype and telephone.

But despite efforts to maintain a united front, there was disagreement still over whether to push for the ouster of al-Assad or to work to promote reforms within the current framework. And a banner that read the "Syrian Arab Republic" drew the ire of the Kurdish delegation for the inclusion of the word, Arab.

Also Saturday, at least one person was killed when Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters in the eastern town of Albu Kamal, according to the activist group Local Coordination Committees in Syria.

State television said, however, that "armed groups" attacked a police station, a mayor's home and other government sites in Albu Kamal and that two policeman was killed. It said a number of guards were injured.

At least 21 civilians and one soldier were killed Friday in demonstrations. Sixteen of the fatalities occurred in Damascus and its suburbs, one in Homs, three in Idlib and one in Daraa, said Rami Abelrahman, director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Videos that allegedly showed the funeral processions for those killed were posted Saturday on Facebook pages belonging to Syrian activists. They showed people marching on the streets, carrying coffins and chanting slogans against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Protesters echoed the demands for reforms that they have voiced for months.

CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali, Yesim Comert and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.

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Border shelling overshadows U.S.-Pakistan-Afghan talks (Reuters)

KABUL/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Fighting across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will overshadow talks when the two countries meet along with the United States on Tuesday to map out plans for reconciliation with the Taliban.

Pakistan on Monday rejected Afghan allegations it had fired 470 rockets into Afghanistan over the past three weeks, saying only that "a few accidental rounds" may have crossed the border when it pursued militants who had attacked its security forces.

But the escalation of fighting on the border between Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal areas and Afghanistan has underscored the difficulties the three countries face in working together to reach a political settlement to the 10-year Afghan war.

"I think the main thing on the agenda this time may be the situation on the border," said Waheed Mujhda, political analyst at the Afghan Analytical and Advisory Center in Kabul.

The meeting, between U.S. envoy Marc Grossman and top diplomats from Afghanistan and Pakistan, follows President Barack Obama's announcement last week of a faster-than-expected troop withdrawal, accompanied by talks with the Taliban.

"It's a way to coordinate efforts on reconciliation but also a way for Afghanistan and the U.S. to state clearly to the government of Pakistan ... to end the support by Pakistan of safe havens," Grossman told a news conference.

Pakistan blames Afghanistan for giving refuge to militants on its side of the border, particularly in eastern Kunar province, leaving it vulnerable to counter-attack when it chases them out of its own tribal areas.

Top military commanders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States met in Kabul on Monday to review the situation on the border, a Pakistan army statement said.

Generals Ashfaq Kayani, Sher Mohammad Karimi and David Petraeus looked at ways of improving the effectiveness of operations, the statement said.

"Steps for better coordination and enhanced cooperation to avoid misunderstandings as regard to the border security were also discussed," it said.

Pakistan, badly bruised after U.S. forces found and killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on May 2, is keen to show it has a constructive role to play in helping the United States to bring stability to Afghanistan.

It has long wanted the United States to hold talks with the Taliban to seek a political settlement to the Afghan conflict which it says is fuelling its own domestic Islamist insurgency.

The United States has come some way toward sharing that view, opening its own preliminary talks with the Taliban.

It has also softened its stance on talks by saying its demands that insurgents renounce violence, sever ties with al Qaeda and respect the Afghan constitution are outcomes rather than preconditions for negotiations -- a suggestion made last year by Pakistan.

"Strategically the two countries are on same page," a senior military official said last month. "There are issues on operational and tactical levels."

Karzai has also been pushing for reconciliation with the Taliban and for the first time in the 10-year war, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States all share -- in theory at least -- a commitment to seek a political settlement.

DISTRUST ON ALL SIDES

But deep distrust remains, both between the United States and Pakistan and between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan has so far been excluded from Washington's early contacts with the Taliban, Grossman told a news conference in Kabul. "Up to now, the government of Pakistan has not been involved in that particular process at all, as yet."

Kabul accuses Pakistan of continuing to support the Afghan Taliban, whom it openly backed when they were in power from 1996 to 2001, to maintain its influence in Afghanistan.

It also says Islamabad is trying to manipulate peace talks to its advantage, to the point of sabotaging them if they do not go in the direction it wants.

"We expect practical steps from Pakistan in the weeks and months ahead to help sustain the peace process," a senior Afghan government official said. "The ball is in Pakistan's court."

With the Taliban talks still at a preliminary stage, and vulnerable to ethnic and regional rivalries which could plunge Afghanistan deeper into civil war as U.S. troops withdraw, the cross-border shelling has added another complication to a fragile situation.

The Afghan government said on Sunday that "it strongly condemned the firing of 470 rockets over the past three weeks from the Pakistan side of the border in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangahar provinces."

President Hamid Karzai expressed his deep concern, it said, and asked Pakistan to immediately stop firing into Afghanistan.

A spokesman for Karzai said on Monday Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul had been summoned over the issue, adding: "We are sure it can be resolved."

Pakistan army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said no rounds had been intentionally fired into Afghanistan.

In the last month, there had been five major attacks from the Afghan side of the border in which 55 men in the Pakistani security forces had been killed and 80 wounded. "The fleeing militants were engaged by the security forces and a few accidental rounds going across cannot be ruled out," he said.

Pakistan says militants, including Pakistani Taliban commanders, have taken refuge on the Afghan side after it launched military operations to drive them out of its Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

It was angered by a U.S. decision to thin out its troops in eastern Afghanistan, including the Korengal valley in Kunar province, when Washington decided to concentrate on population centres in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban heartland.

"For quite some time we have been highlighting that there are safe havens across the border," Abbas said. "Something should be done about these."

Before the killing of bin Laden, the United States had been talking about improving coordination of military operations on both sides of the border so that they could work with, rather than against, each other, in fighting insurgents.

That cooperation may have deteriorated in the breakdown of trust which followed the unilateral U.S. raid to get bin Laden, perhaps explaining the escalation in cross-border shelling.

It is impossible to verify independently exactly what is happening on the remote mountainous border.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad, Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Rights investigations needed in Sudan border areas: U.N. (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Huts were still burning and looters roamed the main town of Sudan's disputed Abyei region this week, a senior U.N. official said, more than a month after Khartoum seized it and shut down a joint north-south administration.

Kyung-wha Kang, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said "thorough" investigations were needed in Abyei and another conflict-stricken border region, where weeks of fighting has forced tens of thousands of people to flee.

South Sudan will become a separate country in a little over two weeks, but clashes along the ill-defined border have raised fears of a return to the all-out north-south civil war that killed more than two million people over decades until 2005.

Fighting erupted between the northern army and southern-aligned fighters in the oil state of Southern Kordofan on June 5, about two weeks after Khartoum seized the neighboring contested Abyei region with tanks and soldiers.

Kang said a drive through Abyei's main town this week showed "complete destruction. No civilians. Some huts still burning, smoke, looters still roaming around".

"I think the situation is serious enough that it requires a thorough investigation," she said in an interview late on Tuesday.

The northern army, which says its troops are in Abyei and Southern Kordofan to guarantee stability and protect civilians, has called for Abyei's residents to return home.

Kang said human rights monitors should be given more access to the area to conduct interviews with people involved in and affected by the fighting on both sides.

"We would like that opportunity, but so far access has been very limited," she said.

Thousands of residents who had fled Southern Kordofan's state capital of Kadugli and the surrounding area to shelter near a U.N. mission in Sudan compound had returned home, but it was questionable whether the return was voluntary, Kang said.

She said her team had asked to visit Southern Kordofan during a tour of Sudan ahead of southern secession on July 9, but they had not heard back yet.

"Kadugli also requires a thorough, thorough look," Kang said. "The sooner the better".

Separate human rights and church groups have accused Khartoum of waging a campaign targeting the ethnic Nuba population in Southern Kordofan -- a northern state -- because of their perceived support for the south.

Northern officials have dismissed such charges as politically motivated allegations without grounds.

Air space has been largely restricted for U.N. flights over Southern Kordofan, which the world body has said has endangered its aid work in the area.

The United Nations also said six of its national staff were arrested at Kadugli airport on Wednesday.

Sudan has a long history of violent conflict.

The January referendum in which southerners voted to secede was a condition of a 2005 deal to end a civil war fought over ideology, ethnicity, religion and oil which forced millions to flee their homes.

Kang said the new nation in the south would face "enormous" human rights challenges, exacerbated because infrastructure and state capacity were still lacking.

"War leaves behind a culture where brute force gets its way," she said. "Overcoming that culture will require a lot of time, a lot of support, a lot of push".

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Syria forces storm border town near Turkey (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed a town near the Turkish border Saturday, burning houses and arresting dozens, witnesses said, in a persistent military campaign to crush popular revolt.

The latest assault followed another Friday of protests, which have grown in size and scope over the last three months, despite Assad's violent clampdown on public dissent. Activists said security forces shot dead 19 protesters Friday.

"They came at 7 a.m. to Bdama. I counted nine tanks, 10 armored carriers, 20 jeeps and 10 buses. I saw shabbiha (pro-Assad gunmen) setting fire to two houses," said Saria Hammouda, a lawyer living in the border town in the Jisr al-Shughour region, where thousands of Syrians had fled to Turkey after the army clamped down on the area this month.

Bdama is one of the nerve centers providing food and supplies to several thousand other Syrians who have escaped the violence from frontier villages but chose to take shelter temporarily in fields on the Syrian side of the boundary.

"Bdama's residents don't dare take bread to the refugees and the refugees are fearful of arrests if they go into Bdama for food," Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters.

Another witness said government troops were also burning crops on nearby hillsides in an apparent scorched earth policy.

European powers initiated a detente with Assad before the unrest to try to draw the Syrian leader away from Iran and also stabilize Lebanon..

But they now say Damascus should face tougher sanctions over the violence against demonstrators seeking more political freedoms and an end to corruption and poverty.

Syrian rights groups say at least 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people detained since March. One group has said more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed.

"SECURITY GRIP IS WEAKENING"S

Tens of thousands rallied across Syria Friday, defying Assad's repression and ignoring a pledge that his tycoon cousin Rami Makhlouf, a symbol of corruption among the elite, would renounce his business empire and channel his wealth to charity.

People rallied in the southern province of Deraa where the revolt began, in the Kurdish northeast, the province of Deir al-Zor near Iraq's Sunni heartland, the city of Hama north of Damascus, on the coast and in suburbs of the capital itself.

"The security grip is weakening because the protests are growing in numbers and spreading. More people are risking their lives to demonstrate. The Syrian people realize that this is an opportunity for liberty that comes once in hundreds of years," opposition figure Walid al-Bunni told Reuters from Damascus.

The Local Coordination Committees, a main activist group linked to protesters, said 10 demonstrators were killed on Friday in Homs, a merchant city of 1 million people in central Syria.

State television said a policeman was killed by gunmen.

One protester was also reported killed in the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, the first to die there in the unrest.

Thousands of people turned up to a funeral of a dead protester in Deir al-Zor, chanting anti-government slogans, Abdulrahman said.

The state news agency said nine people, including civilians and police, were killed in attacks by gunmen. Syria blames armed gangs and Islamists, backed by foreign powers, for the violence.

The Syrian government has barred most international journalists from the country, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials.

Two towns on the main Damascus-Aleppo highway north of Homs were also encircled by troops and tanks, residents said, five days after the army retook Jisr al-Shughour, sending thousands fleeing across the border into Turkey.

Refugees from the northwestern region said troops and gunmen loyal to Assad known as "shabbiha" were pressing on with a scorched earthed campaign in the hill farm area by burning crops, ransacking houses and shooting randomly.

The International Federation for Human Rights and the U.S.-based Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said in a statement that, according to local sources, Syrian forces had killed more than 130 people and arrested over 2,000 in Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding villages over the last few days.

The number of refugees who have crossed over into Turkey from Syria has reached 10,114, and another 10,000 were sheltering by the border just inside Syria, according to Turkish officials.

Journalists were given a brief tour of the Boynuyogun refugee camp in Hatay, where some 3,500 people were living in 600 tents.

One refugee described how security forces clamped down on anti-Assad demonstrations.

"We wrote anti-regime slogans on the walls. Then the government reacted by erasing the slogans and they arrested the guy who tore down Assad's picture," said a 26-year-old man from Jisr al-Shughour who said his name was Mohammed.

Another refugee named Adam said security forces arrested people in the middle of the night a couple of weeks after the demonstrations.

"They came to my house ... they started hitting me with the butts of their rifles on my back and head. They said "Is this the freedom you're asking for?'"

SECURITY COUNCIL DEADLOCK

Assad has responded to the unrest with a mix of military repression and political gestures aimed at placating protesters.

He has faced international condemnation over the bloodshed, and has seen the first signs of cracks in his security forces after a clash in Jisr al-Shughour earlier this month in which the government said 120 security personnel were killed.

There have been no mass desertions from the military, but the loyalty of Sunni Muslim conscripts might waver if the crackdown on mainly Sunni protesters continues.

Assad's family and many military commanders are members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. In a spillover of the unrest into Lebanon, Sunni and Alawite gunmen clashed in the northern city of Tripoli and four people were killed.

(Additional reporting by Tulay Kardeniz in Guvecci, Yann Le Guernigou and Stephen Brown in Berlin, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; writing by Dominic Evans and Yara Bayoumy; editing by David Cowell)

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Syrian tanks storm town near Turkey border: residents (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed a town near the Turkish border Saturday, burning houses and arresting 70 people, witnesses said, in wide-ranging military assault to crush a three month uprising.

"They came at 7 a.m. to Bdama. I counted nine tanks, 10 armored carriers, 20 jeeps and 10 buses. I saw shabbiha (gunmen) setting fire to two houses," said Saria Hammouda, a lawyer from the small town of Bdama.

The town lies 2 km from the Turkish border, in Jisr al-Shughour region, from where thousands of people have fled to Turkey following military assaults to quell dissent against 41 years of Assad family rule.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; editing by David Stamp)

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Gunfight kills 2 in Mexico border city (AP)

MEXICO CITY – A gunbattle between soldiers and suspected cartel gunmen left two suspects dead Friday in the northern Mexico border city of Matamoros, authorities said.

Mexico's Defense Department said an army patrol came under fire and two gunmen were killed in the ensuing shootout in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

Soldiers found four rifles, two pistols and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition at the scene and a bulletproofed vehicle.

A U.S. newspaper reported that Zetas drug cartel leader Heriberto "El Lazca" Lazcano was apparently killed in the gunbattle. But the Defense Department statement said that "the physical characteristics of the dead men allow the conclusion to be drawn that Heriberto Lazcano, leader of the Zetas criminal organization, was not among them."

The Matamoros area has seen frequent battles between the Zetas and their rivals in the Gulf cartel. The gangs frequently kidnap migrants who move through the area, and hold them for ransom.

Lazcano is considered the top leader of the Zetas, considered Mexico's most bloodthirsty major cartel. The United States is offering $5 million and Mexico another $2.5 million in rewards for information leading to Lazcano's arrest.

Also Friday, the government of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz said five suspects died there following a shootout with state police and soldiers.

The state government said in a statement the confrontation occurred when gunmen opened fire on a joint military-police patrol in an area near the border with Tamaulipas state, where Matamoros is located.

The Defense Department also reported Friday that a military helicopter suffered a low-level crash on a training exercise in the southern state of Oaxaca. The craft dropped about five meters (yards) to the ground, injuring the pilot and co-pilot.

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Pakistan "concerned" by NATO incursion near border (Reuters)

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan said Friday NATO aircraft attacked one of its military posts in the northwest near the Afghan border and it had expressed its serious concern to the U.S. embassy in Islamabad.

The incident in the Mohmand tribal region comes after relations between the United States and its ally hit a new low following the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. SEALS in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad in May.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said NATO aircraft intruded around 2.5 km (1.5 miles) inside Pakistani territory and attacked a military post.

Its statement said Pakistan had conveyed its "serious concern" to the U.S. embassy.

"A joint inquiry of the incident has also been requested," it said, without saying when did the incident took place.

Local officials in Mohmand said it occurred early Friday and that a few bombs were dropped but no casualties were reported.

Pakistan is crucial for the United States in its efforts to stabilize war-ravaged Afghanistan but relations have been seriously damaged since the killing of al Qaeda leader.

The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the raid until after it was over, humiliating the Pakistani armed forces.

U.S. forces have also stepped up attacks on militant targets by remotely piloted drone aircraft in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border -- dubbed the global hub of militants. Around 66 militants have been killed in such attacks this month.

Pakistan's army in return has drastically cut down the number of U.S. troops allowed in the country and set clear limits on intelligence sharing with the United States.

Pakistan army Friday rejected reports that its security forces tipped off insurgents at bomb-making factories after getting intelligence about the sites in its tribal areas from the United States.

"This assertion is totally false and malicious and the facts on ground are contrary to it," the military said in a statement.

The military said it had received information about four bomb-making factories in Waziristan -- the major sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

While two of them were destroyed, it said, the information about the other two was "incorrect." "Some persons have been arrested and they are under investigation."

Separately, Pakistan Friday summoned the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad to the Foreign Ministry and lodged a protest over a cross-border attack by "100-150 terrorists" on three border villages in Bajaur Thursday.

Pakistani officials in Bajaur said six civilians were killed in the attack, the second such cross-border incursion by militants reported by Pakistani officials this month.

(editing by Alison Williams)

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Sudan border state foes agree to talks: Mbeki (Reuters)

ADDIS ABABA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) – The warring parties in Sudan's Southern Kordofan border state have agreed hostilities should cease and that talks should start, former South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday.

Fighting between the northern military and southern-aligned armed groups broke out in Southern Kordofan on June 5 and has escalated to include artillery and warplanes. Over 60,000 people are believed to have fled the fighting, the United Nations said.

Both President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have called for an immediate ceasefire in the north-run oil state, where humanitarian groups fear a mounting death toll.

The south due to become a separate country on July 9 and a raft of issues remain unresolved between the two sides, including where to draw the common boundary.

"Both sides have agreed that there should be a cessation of hostilities, and that negotiations should begin immediately. They've said they will discuss on certain modalities. The details can only be done within those negotiations," Mbeki told reporters in Addis Ababa after visiting Southern Kordofan.

Mbeki, who has been helping guide talks between north and south ahead of secession, said he and other officials would begin planning "full-fledged negotiations" between the Sudanese government and representatives of Southern Kordofan.

He did not give a time frame for when any ceasefire would go into effect. Earlier on Thursday Sudan's army said it would continue fighting against southern-aligned groups in Southern Kordofan to end what it calls an armed rebellion.

"We are continuing our military operations in the mountains around Kadugli up to this moment, until the rebellion stops," northern military spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khaled told reporters in Khartoum.

AIRSPACE CLOSED

The United Nations urged north Sudan's military to open up airspace over Southern Kordofan, saying a six-day closure was endangering its aid operations there.

"The ongoing closure of the airspace in Southern Kordofan by SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) is dangerously hampering our humanitarian operations as thousands of internally displaced persons are in urgent need of emergency assistance," U.N. Mission in Sudan spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said.

"It is vital that the government of Sudan acts immediately to ensure access to all airspace by U.N. flights to alleviate the growing suffering of those most affected by conflict."

The London-based group Save the Children said in a statement 30,000 of the displaced were children "at risk of being separated from their families, traumatized and abused."

Northern spokesman Khaled dismissed charges the army was putting civilians in danger, saying its role was to help them.

Southerners voted to secede in a January referendum that was promised in a deal in 2005 that ended decades of civil war.

Many of the fighters in Southern Kordofan are still referred to as part of the south's army as a legacy of that conflict, though the southern military says they are no longer part of its forces.

Officials in the south's dominant party have said the fighting erupted after the northern army tried to disarm fighters there, while northern officials have accused southern-aligned groups of starting the fighting.

The government in Khartoum stands to lose around a third of its territory and up to three quarters of its oil reserves when Africa's largest country becomes two states, but most of the terminals, pipelines and refineries are in the north.

The northern government's oil minister said earlier that north Sudan have agreed to accept transit fees from the south to export southern oil after July 9 but the two sides had yet to agree a price.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz; Writing by Alex Dziadosz; editing by Tim Pearce)

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Turkey plans crisis talks as Syrians pour over border

Istanbul (CNN) -- The Turkish prime minister plans to huddle with a special Syrian envoy on Wednesday in an effort help stem the growing tide of refugees racing into Turkey from conflict-wracked Syria.

The number of Syrians who've crossed the border now stands at 8,421, according to Turkey's disaster and emergency management directorate. That flight has been spurred by violence and a military offensive in the conflict-scarred country, and Turkey is worried that the border crisis could deteriorate and destabilize the region.

"It is impossible for us to remain indifferent to the developments there," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.

"For us, the Syrians are people who have common future and destiny with us. Therefore, it is out of question to close the door to our Syrian brothers or the (refugee numbers) to stop after 10,000. However, when this turns into a big wave, it also has the potential to become a regional and an international matter."

Syrian security personnel have been carrying out a fierce crackdown against anti-government demonstrators over the past three months. Amnesty International says more than 1,100 people have died.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be meeting with the envoy, who is expected to provide an assessment of the refugee situation and the wider political unrest in Syria, an official from Erdogan's office told CNN.

The envoy represents Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the meeting follows a telephone conversation Erdogan and al-Assad had on Tuesday.

Davutoglu, who spoke to journalists at the airport in Ankara before flying to Hatay for a visit with the refugees, said Turkey hopes to initiate reforms that would alleviate the volatile conditions leading to the flight of ordinary citizens. He planned to attend the meeting between Erdogan and the Syrian envoy after his visit to Hatay.

Davutoglu said "escalating violence can increase the refugee wave" and Turkey is working on ways "to prevent escalation of violence."

His government touts a foreign policy dubbed "no problems," a strategy to promote good relations with its neighbors, and the Syrian situation has become a challenge for that policy.

Turkey fears a repeat of the enormous Kurdish refugee exodus from northern Iraq in 1991, and the country has spent the last decade promoting cozy relations and lucrative economic ties with Syria's al-Assad.

Over the last month, Erdogan began calling for reform in Damascus in a bid to curb the escalating violence.

"We hope that Syria changes its attitude towards the civilians to a more tolerant one and realize its steps for reform in a more convincing way for the civilians," Erdogan said last week, according to the semi-official Anatolian Agency.

Davutoglu said that Turkey's "wish and effort is for a process to begin at once that can prevent such a wave to continue increasingly."

He pointed to "reforms to be made as soon as possible, conditions to be eliminated that bring security forces and people against each other and to have a more peaceful approach, beyond focusing on security, in the attitude towards the civilian people. If all these were provided, the refugee wave would lessen."

Of the refugees, 4,368 are children and 73 Syrians are now being treated in Turkish hospitals, the emergency directorate said. More than 1,230 tents have been set up in a number of locations.

Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, has submitted an application to visit the refugees in Turkey, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal confirmed to CNN by phone. He says the government is "evaluating" the request.

Many displaced Syrians have fled toward the border but have not made it over. CNN's Arwa Damon met with some of them at a makeshift campsite on Tuesday in Syria, and they described terrible conditions at the site and frightening and deadly violence.

Many of the refugees have fled from a region that includes Jisr al-Shugur, seized by the Syrian military over the weekend, a network of human rights activists said.

The Syrian government insists it is stopping "armed terrorist groups" who carried out a "massacre" in the city -- the killing 120 members of the security forces.

Opposition activists say the government's claims are a ruse to justify a crackdown on demonstrators demanding government reform, in keeping with the wave of political protests across the Middle East and North Africa this year.

But Syrian refugees who have fled to Turkey said some Syrian soldiers rebelled after being ordered to fire on unarmed protesters and instead started fighting among themselves.

Syria's Cabinet on Tuesday hailed efforts by the army and security forces to restore calm in the Jisr al-Shugur area and surrounding villages, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

Adnan Mahmoud, the information minister, said the Cabinet urged citizens "who were forced to leave their homes to come back after calm and security were restored in the area," SANA said.

The minister said the Cabinet "assigned the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to contact the Turkish Red Crescent for cooperation to facilitate the Syrian citizens' return to their homes, noting that all necessary needs will be provided to secure the return, including medical aid for the patients and the injured."

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Over 10,000 flee clashes in Sudan border state: U.N. (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – More than 10,000 people displaced by fighting in Sudan's Southern Kordofan were staying near a U.N. compound on Thursday, the country mission spokesman said, after nearly a week of clashes in the tense border state.

Fighting between government forces and armed groups erupted in the state capital of Kadugli and elsewhere after a police station was attacked on Saturday, adding to tensions as the country's south prepares to secede in about a month.

Southern Kordofan, an oil-producing state which lies in northern territory, has long been seen as a flashpoint because it is home to thousands of fighters who fought alongside the south against Khartoum during the last civil war.

In statements carried by the state news agency SUNA, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said north Sudan's armed forces were in control of Southern Kordofan on Thursday and were combing it for "remnants of the rebellion."

Southern Kordofan is important to the north because it has the most productive oil fields that will remain under Khartoum's control after the split. The south could take as much as 75 percent of Sudan's 500,000 barrels per day of oil output.

It also borders the disputed Abyei territory and Darfur, a western region that is the scene of a separate insurgency.

Analysts have predicted fighting could break out in Southern Kordofan ahead of the split, especially after an official of the ruling northern party was named the winner in a gubernatorial election last month.

The south said the vote was rigged, which Khartoum denied.

Southern Sudan voted to secede in a January referendum, the culmination of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between the north and south. The split is scheduled for July 9.

CLASHES CONTINUE

The number of people staying near the local U.N. Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) compound after fleeing the state capital of Kadugli and nearby villages had risen to an estimated 10,000 by Thursday, UNMIS spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said.

Clashes took place in Kadugli and other areas into Thursday, he added.

Bashir's ruling National Congress Party had earlier accused southern-aligned armed groups in Southern Kordofan of fighting with the support of "foreign powers" and some domestic opposition.

"The armed forces will carry out their national duty and deal with all rebel forces," the statement cited presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie as saying.

Officials with the south's dominant party, the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, have said the clashes started when the north tried to disarm armed groups in the area.

The northern army has blamed the southern-aligned groups for starting the fighting.

The militias are still referred to as members of the Southern Peoples' Liberation Army -- the southern military -- although Juba says they are no longer part of their army and cannot ask them to withdraw south because they are northern.

(Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

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Levee breach near the Missouri-Iowa border prompts evacuations

(CNN) -- A levee breach along the swollen Missouri River prompted the evacuation Sunday of about 600 people in the area between the river and Hamburg, Iowa, officials said.

Residents were told they needed to leave within 24 hours.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported the breach occurred Sunday morning on a levee located in Atchison County, Missouri, near Hamburg.

Crews worked furiously to repair the breach, which Gen. Derek Hill, head of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, described as a boil, believed to be less than two inches in diameter.

He said the evacuation order was made as a precaution, in case the boil develops into a full-blown breach.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for southwest Iowa Sunday. If the levee fails, Interstate 29 and parts of Hamburg would likely be flooded, it said.

The cause of the breach was not immediately clear.

Crews were using a helicopter to pick up sandbags and fly them out over the levee, Hill said.

"No guarantees, but we certainly hope it will (work)," he said, noting the technique has been used before.

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The levee breach follows weeks of high flows and record releases from dams in Montana and the Dakotas, according to the Corps. Heavy rains and snow pack runoff could result in near-record flooding along parts of the Missouri River this year.

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All Quiet in Rafah: Egypt's Gaza Border Opens Not with a Bang but a Whisper (Time.com)

When the authorities at the Rafah border terminal closed down their offices on Saturday, they were wrapping up the first day of a new era in Egyptian foreign policy. In a move hailed by many Palestinians and Egyptians as a break from years of unpopular Mubarak-era diplomacy - the joint enforcement, with Israel, of a four-year blockade on the Gaza Strip - Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces launched a new set of border rules that observers said would give Gazan Palestinians back their pre-blockade freedom.

Palestinian women and children, as well as men under the age of 18 or over the age of 40, are now permitted to enter Egypt for up to one month without a visa. Men between the ages of 18 and 40 may be granted permits to enter for reasons such as enrollment in Egyptian universities or a need for medical treatment. In effect, the new conditions seem to read, Gazans will now have a great deal more freedom to travel outside their 139-square-mile territory, which they have likened to a large, outdoor prison since the blockade was imposed in 2007 after the Islamist group Hamas took control. (See pictures of Israel's assault on Gaza.)

And yet, opening day marked one of the slowest business days that Rafah Crossing had seen in years. Egyptian officials reported that roughly 400 people crossed into Egypt at Rafah on Saturday, and 153 into Gaza. "I think most of the people don't believe they can actually leave the Gaza Strip. It has been a long time," says Said al-Batran, a Palestinian-Danish surgeon who was trying to cross in the opposite direction.

Indeed, the atmosphere inside the arrivals terminal was mysteriously subdued for much of the day. The shouting and tears on either side of the crossing, typical of scenes from the blockaded border's past, were largely absent. A team of medics from the Egyptian Ministry of Health sat idly in a corner with no patients to treat. And only several dozen travellers seemed to populate the hall at any given time. "We noticed today that there were more journalists than Palestinians," observes Ahmed Abu Deraa, an Egyptian journalist from North Sinai. (See why the Rafah crossing was only opened sporadically.)

The Israeli government had warned that opening the border would threaten the region's security; weapons and terrorists would flood across in both directions. Gaza's Islamist rulers, Hamas, would become empowered. Israel's border security would plummet. "Do you see any missiles here?" scoffs a Hamas border official as as small groups of Palestinians trickled through metal detectors, and even fewer drifted out of the Egyptian departures hall into Gaza.

Could it be that Gaza is suffering from denial, as al-Batran suggested? Maybe it's just confusion, Egyptian border officials offered. "It's the weekend, so they probably didn't realize it was open," one customs official says while waiting for customers.

Afaf Hassan, who was on her way to Egypt, suggested the opposite: there was so much anticipation inside the densely-packed Strip that many people had decided to wait out the crowds. "I think a lot of people didn't come because they expected there to be a huge rush," she says. "People were calling me and I told them it's empty. There will probably be a big rush in the next few days." (See pictures of the tunnel economy in the Gaza Strip.)

More likely, others suggested: not a whole lot has changed. A huge proportion of Gaza's population (those men ages 18 to 40) are still largely banned from travel. "The truth about Rafah is that they never opened it. Three days ago it was exactly the same," said Deraa. When the military had announced the shift in policy, he initially expected to see thousands flood across the border. In the end, he says: "It was extreme propaganda - that has backfired because the journalists came and saw it."

Egypt's temporary military caretakers may have every reason to propagandize as the country hurtles through its fourth month of rocky transition after the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak. On Friday, thousands of mostly young activists flooded into Cairo's Tahrir Square for what many dubbed "the Second Revolution" to protest perceived delays in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' implementation of the revolution's demands. Those include speedy trials for ex-President Hosni Mubarak and his cronies, better security, economic reforms, and an end to military tribunals for civilians.

See how opening the crossing will "put an end to Palestinian suffering."

But increasingly, the revolutionaries of post-Mubarak Egypt have also focused their attention on foreign policy, particularly reform of Mubarak's steadfast but widely unpopular support for Israel and its enforcement of the Gaza blockade. Four days before the protest, the General Prosecutor's office announced that Mubarak would soon stand trial on charges of conspiring to kill protesters during the uprising. Less than a month earlier, the military had announced that it would loosen the operational procedures at Rafah crossing, easing the blockade for some 1.5 million Palestinians. While widely applauded by the Egyptian public, a number of cynics dismissed the moves as superficial efforts to mollify the would-be demonstrators of Tahrir.

At Rafah, at least thirty angry men were turned away on Saturday, deposited on buses and sent back to Gaza after their names showed up on an Egyptian security blacklist. It's a blacklist that dates to well before Mubarak's departure. "They all came today thinking they would get in because it's a new era," says a senior Egyptian border official. "But many of them have been turned away before." (See a cartoon history of Gaza.)

"They don't like people who look like me," says Abu Mohamed, a 46-year-old Islamist, pulling on his beard. "My beard is too long," he says, retreating to a bus with other religious men who attributed their rejection to their adherence to Dawa, a strict literalist interpretation of Islam.

Jamal Najim, 53, knew that he was turned away because he was among the thousands of Palestinians who flooded into Egypt in 2007, after Palestinian gunmen literally blew a hole in Egypt's blockade. That didn't make him any less angry, and he screamed at Egyptian customs officials until he was escorted out of the terminal. In 2007, he had spent months trapped in Gaza, and was desperate to see his Egyptian wife and daughter. He was arrested in Egypt, blacklisted, and returned. He hasn't seen his family since.

Indeed, much to Palestinians' dismay - and perhaps, to Israel's comfort - Egypt's feared intelligence service, the mukhabarat, continues to wield control over the border terminal, just as it always has. Foreigners and Egyptians still require special permission from Egyptian intelligence to enter Gaza. Even Palestinians who lack Ramallah-issued IDs still face the same difficulties trying to return. The Israeli government revoked Said al-Batran's national ID card in 1981, when he left the Gaza Strip to study in Russia. "Look, I'll show you my passport," he said, flipping through the 19 Egyptian visas, each one for a failed attempt to enter Gaza, that he'd accumulated since 2006. He's trying again now because his 82-year-old mother is gravely ill. So far he has had no luck. (See why tunnels have become a big business into Gaza.)

Most of the faces keeping security at the border haven't changed either, the Egyptian official admits. That includes Major Salama Baraka, Hamas' General Manager of Border Security, who has worked closely with his Egyptian counterparts for the past two years despite the fact that the same officials were also coordinating, at times, with the Israeli government. "We've always had good communication with the Egyptian side," he says. "But now there's the hope that travel for Palestinians will be much easier."

Indeed, it may not mark an end to the blockade, but the revised rules are a welcome change for many Palestinian families who crossed into Egypt successfully. The revolution has helped Egyptians reclaim some of the dignity they lost under Mubarak's repression, they say - and it's slowly trickling across the border to them. "It's better than before," says Issa Ali Nashar, a Hamas official from the Prime Minister's office who was traveling to Cairo for meetings and a doctor's visit. The passage has eased with the new regulations, and the Palestinians are meeting kinder treatment than they used to. "We can feel that things have changed. But we know the change will continue to come step by step."

In the arrivals terminal, Hassan, 62, was calm and optimistic, en route to Jordan for medical treatment. "It used to be that if you needed to go abroad for something, you had to really plan and gather your papers. We used to have to wait all day to cross," she says. "So far, we have only waited an hour."

See TIME's special report "The Middle East in Revolt."

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Palestinian refugees call for third intifada during deadly clashes at Israel-Lebanon border (The Christian Science Monitor)

Maroun er Ras, Lebanon – At least six people were killed and scores wounded Sunday when Israeli troops opened fire on a massive crowd of Palestinian refugees who gathered on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel to demand a return to the homes they were forced to leave 63 years ago.

Another four Palestinians were reportedly killed when they infiltrated the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria during another demonstration to mark the anniversary of the "nakba," or "catastrophe," as many Palestinians call the day Israel was founded in 1948.

Security on both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border was tight as an estimated 50,000 Palestinians were bussed from refugee camps all over Lebanon to the tiny hill village of Maroun er Ras which overlooks the border with Israel.

MONITOR QUIZ: Weekly news quiz for May 9-13, 2011

The huge turnout defied the expectations of the organizers, who had predicted some 20,000, and spurred calls for a peaceful “third intifada.” But it is too soon to tell whether a fresh mass uprising will gain traction.

“This is a peaceful message to Israel and the world, God willing, this will be the beginning of a peaceful third intifada,” says Mahmoud Zeidan, a Palestinian organizer from the Ain al-Hilweh camp in the southern Lebanese town of Sidon.

With the narrow winding road leading to Maroun er Ras blocked by parked buses, entire families – from toddlers to stooped and wrinkled old men – began climbing the steep northern slopes of the hill to reach the village. Colorfully dressed Palestinians steadily walked up the verdant flower-speckled hillside in narrow winding columns, red, green and black Palestinian flags fluttering in the spring breeze.

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The atmosphere on the climb up the hill to Maroun er Ras and the view of the border was cheerful and friendly, almost like a picnic outing. But on the southern side of the hill overlooking the border, the situation quickly grew tense.

Hundreds of Palestinians scrambled down the rocky slope to reach the frontier fence. A crowd of some 300 to 400 reached the fence itself and began hurling stones at Israeli soldiers.

Lebanese soldiers belatedly attempted to stop the numbers growing at the fence and formed a line across a dirt track about 400 yards from the border. Short bursts of machine gun fire and individual rifle shots broke out as Israeli soldiers shot at the crowd.

Casualties were stretchered from the border to a handful of ambulances parked nearby. As the casualties increased, dozens more ambulances began to arrive on the scene. The silhouettes of Israeli troops could be spotted on the ramparts of a border outpost watching the scene.

Inside the outpost, a tank revved its engines and emitted a thick cloud of smoke, partly obscuring the position.

Checked by the thin line of Lebanese soldiers, Palestinian tempers raged as the young men attempted to push through to reach the border. A group of supporters of the Islamic Jihad militant group chanted “God is greater” and “We will liberate Palestine with the Kalashnikov.”

Every few minutes, the surging crowd of Palestinians gained sufficient momentum to push past the angry Lebanese soldiers, cheering and whooping as they dashed toward the border fence to join their comrades.

The scattered machine-gun fire and casualties did little to deter the Palestinian demonstrators. If anything, each fusillade appeared to galvanize them further.

“The Israeli shooting against peaceful demonstrators on our southern border is a blatant, intolerable aggression and we call on the international community and UNIFIL to hold Israel accountable for the crime,” said Saad Hariri, the Lebanese caretaker prime minister. UNIFIL is the term for the UN peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon.

By early evening, the Shiite militant group, Hezbollah, had placed its cadres on full alert.

MONITOR QUIZ: Weekly news quiz for May 9-13, 2011

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Palestinian Border Protests: The Arab Spring Model for Confronting Israel (Time.com)

After more than 100 Palestinians breached Israel's border with Syria on Sunday, knocking down a fence and striding into a village in the Golan Heights, overmatched Israeli security forces scrambled to glean what they could from the protesters who had just, without so much as a sidearm, penetrated farther into the country than any army in a generation.

Under close questioning, the infiltrators closed the intelligence gap with a shrug and one word: Facebook. The operation that had caught Israel's vaunted military and intelligence complex flat-footed was announced, nursed and triggered on the social networking site that has figured in every uprising around the Arab World - and is helping young Palestinians change the terms of their fight against Israel. (See pictures of tempers flaring across the Middle East.)

The headlines Sunday were all about the violence of the day: at least four people were shot dead by Israeli forces on the Syrian fence line, and as many as 10 were killed either by Israeli or Lebanese army gunfire at a similar demonstration on the nearby frontier with southern Lebanon. The death toll, along with the accounts of stone-throwing and tear gas, comport with the familiar narrative of the conflict, one constructed over years of Israel describing efforts to defend itself. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged that narrative on Sunday, arguing that the protesters were undermining the very existence of the State of Israel.

But those closer to events found in the day the makings of a new narrative. The Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian enclaves of Gaza and the West Bank approached Israeli gun positions on Sunday without arms of their own. If some teenagers threw rocks, a protest leader said they had apparently failed to attend the workshops on nonviolence the organizers arranged in what they call a new paradigm for the conflict. The aim, which appears to be building support, aims to re-cast the Palestinian-Israel conflict on the same terms that brought down dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia.

Massive non-violent protests are aimed at winning international sympathy for the Palestinian perspective, and as a result, forcing Israel to pull out of territories its army has occupied since 1967. As the dust settled Sunday, senior Israeli officers acknowledged their vulnerability to the approach, which dovetails with the strategy of Palestinian leaders to ask the UN General Assembly to recognize a Palestininian state in September. (See "A New Palestinian Movement: Young, Networked, Nonviolent.")

"What we saw today was the promo for what we might see in September on the day the United Nations declares a state: Thousands of Palestinians marching toward Israeli checkpoints, Israeli settlements and the fence along the West Bank and Gaza Palestinians coming with their bare hands to demonstrate," a senior Israeli officer tells TIME. "This is a huge problem. Well have to study what happened today to do better."

Sundays protests marked the anniversary of Israels 1948 declaration of statehood, a day known as Nakba, or the catastrophe, to Palestinians who lost their land to the Jewish state. The day is routinely occasion for protests, and Israel had prepared for unrest. But in the Golan Heights, high ground Israel took from Syria in 1967, only 30 to 40 soldiers were on duty where hundreds of Palestinians began arriving by bus and marching toward the fence. Troops were ordered to shoot to maim. Four protesters were killed, and at least 100 scrambled into Majdal Shams, a Druze village so close to the Syrian frontier it's known for the shouting hill where families separated by the fence gather to exchange news by hollering across no-mans land.

Less clear was how the protesters navigated the Syrian security which usually maintains strict control over the border area. Israeli officials interpreted protesters' apparent ease of access to a military zone as evidence of sponsorship by the battered government of President Bashar al-Assad. With street protests threatening his regime in cities across Syria, the reasoning goes, al-Assad found in the Nakba protests a perfect opportunity to shift the focus to Israel.

But Fadi Quran, a Ramallah organizer in the Palestinian youth movement that promoted the marches, says his contacts in Syria were actually terrified of the Bashar government, which took steps to prevent some from traveling to the protests from refugee camps near Damascus where they have lived since fleeing their homes in what is now northern Israel. (See pictures of young Palestinians in the age of the wall.)

Governments of other neighboring states that host large Palestinian populations, apparently were aware of the protest plans, and responded according to their own interests. Egypt and Jordan, which have treaties with Israel, impeded the demonstrations. Those who are hostile, including Lebanon, eased their way into military zones. But Damascus appeared to be pre-occupied with its own domestic unrest, according to Quran. "I honestly think to a very large extent they took the Syrian government by surprise," he tells TIME.

Demonstrators also gathered in Gaza and on the West Bank. Even there, on a march toward the Qalandia check-point near Ramallah, Quran insists no stones were thrown until Israeli troops fired tear gas, and then only by adolescents. But the overall make-up of the crowd, featuring older women and men as well as students, was a change from previous years, according to Shawan Jabarin of the human rights advocacy group Al Haq.

"They say the Arab Spring gives people encouragement and makes people feel they can make a difference," says Jabarin. "The consciousness of the people, you feel it's something different." (See "Palestinians Mark Nakba with Violent Protests.")

Also encouraging people into the streets: The complete breakdown of peace talks with Israel. If Palestinians needed any additional reminder, the resignation of former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell as President Obamas special envoy for peace was announced two days before Nakba Day.

"We have to come up with an improvement in non-lethal weapons, no doubt," says an aide to an Israeli cabinet minister. "But if we have a new approach to peace talks then we won't have to deal with non-lethal weapons in September."

For their part, Palestinian protesters feel they've found a winning formula. The main political factions, Hamas and Fatah, were forced into their embrace by the same non-violent youth movement that now summons ordinary Palestinians to unite in shaming Israel into concessions.

"They understand the path to freedom is going to be long," Quran says "but were going to continue training in nonviolence, and were going to continue marching in nonviolence until it is very clear in the international media who is violating human rights."

- With reporting by Aaron J. Klein

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2 border agents killed in collision with train

Border Patrol Agents Hector Clark, left, and Eduardo Rojas Jr. died Thursday just south of Gila Bend, Arizona.NEW: The Border Patrol says the agents' vehicle was struck by a 90-car freight trainNEW: Both agents had been working with the Border Patrol for about a decadeHomeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says authorities are investigatingThe agents were assisting in the apprehension of suspected illegal immigrants

(CNN) -- Two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were assisting in the apprehension of suspected illegal immigrants were killed Thursday when their vehicle was struck by a train, officials said.

They were driving an unmarked Border Patrol vehicle when it was struck by a 90-car freight train at a crossing about nine miles west of Gila Bend, Arizona, the agency said.

Authorities were investigating what caused the accident that killed Border Patrol Agents Eduardo Rojas Jr. and Hector Clark, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.

The vehicle, an SUV, was struck by the train at the rail crossing of Paloma Road near exit 106 of Interstate 8.

"This is unfortunate not just for me, not just for the Yuma Sector, but for the Border Patrol as a whole," Border Patrol spokesman Kenneth Quillin said.

The agents were on duty and were assisting other officers in tracking down a group of people suspected to have entered the country illegally, Quillin said. The agents were trying to position themselves north of where the other agents were, he said.

Both Clark, 39, and Rojas, 35, were lead agents in the Border Patrol's Yuma Sector, the agency said.

Rojas, who had been working with the patrol for more than 11 years, is survived by his wife and two children. Clark, who had been working with the patrol for nearly 10 years, also is survived by his wife and two children.

"This tragedy is a reminder to all of us that whether they are facing down a criminal suspect with a weapon, or patrolling the highways and deserts, these law enforcement professionals encounter life-threatening dangers every day," Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said.

Napolitano noted the service of others as she expressed sympathy for the victims and their families.

"We also keep in our thoughts and prayers all of those who put their lives at risk every day, at home and abroad, to defend our country. We honor their service and pray for their continued safety," she said.

On Friday, a Mexican man was arraigned in a U.S. federal court for the killing last December of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.

CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.

CNN

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2 border agents killed in collision with train

Border Patrol Agents Hector Clark, left, and Eduardo Rojas Jr. died Thursday just south of Gila Bend, Arizona.NEW: The Border Patrol says the agents' vehicle was struck by a 90-car freight trainNEW: Both agents had been working with the Border Patrol for about a decadeHomeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says authorities are investigatingThe agents were assisting in the apprehension of suspected illegal immigrants

(CNN) -- Two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were assisting in the apprehension of suspected illegal immigrants were killed Thursday when their vehicle was struck by a train, officials said.

They were driving an unmarked Border Patrol vehicle when it was struck by a 90-car freight train at a crossing about nine miles west of Gila Bend, Arizona, the agency said.

Authorities were investigating what caused the accident that killed Border Patrol Agents Eduardo Rojas Jr. and Hector Clark, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.

The vehicle, an SUV, was struck by the train at the rail crossing of Paloma Road near exit 106 of Interstate 8.

"This is unfortunate not just for me, not just for the Yuma Sector, but for the Border Patrol as a whole," Border Patrol spokesman Kenneth Quillin said.

The agents were on duty and were assisting other officers in tracking down a group of people suspected to have entered the country illegally, Quillin said. The agents were trying to position themselves north of where the other agents were, he said.

Both Clark, 39, and Rojas, 35, were lead agents in the Border Patrol's Yuma Sector, the agency said.

Rojas, who had been working with the patrol for more than 11 years, is survived by his wife and two children. Clark, who had been working with the patrol for nearly 10 years, also is survived by his wife and two children.

"This tragedy is a reminder to all of us that whether they are facing down a criminal suspect with a weapon, or patrolling the highways and deserts, these law enforcement professionals encounter life-threatening dangers every day," Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said.

Napolitano noted the service of others as she expressed sympathy for the victims and their families.

"We also keep in our thoughts and prayers all of those who put their lives at risk every day, at home and abroad, to defend our country. We honor their service and pray for their continued safety," she said.

On Friday, a Mexican man was arraigned in a U.S. federal court for the killing last December of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.

CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.

CNN

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13 killed in clash on Mexico-U.S. border lake

Officials search Falcon Lake, Texas, for the body of American David Hartley in 2010.Mexico's Navy says a shootout occurred around an island used to store marijuanaTwelve suspected members of the Zetas drug gang and one member of Mexico's Navy are killedFalcon Lake is between Texas and the Mexican state of TamaulipasIt drew attention last year after an American was reportedly shot there

(CNN) -- Twelve suspected members of the Zetas drug gang and a member of Mexico's Navy were killed in a shootout on an island in a lake that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said Monday.

The Mexican Navy said the shootout occurred Sunday on Falcon Lake, located between Texas and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, after troops patrolling the area spotted a camping area on an island.

The suspected drug traffickers used the island for storing marijuana to be transported by boat to the United States, the Navy said in a statement.

After the shootout, the Navy said it seized guns, ammunition and bullet-proof vests from the island.

Falcon Lake drew the attention of law enforcement authorities on both side of the border last September after an American man on a personal watercraft was reportedly ambushed by attackers and shot in the head.

2010: 'He took a bullet for me,' Falcon Lake victim's wife says

Tiffany Hartley told police that she and her husband were riding water scooters on the lake on September 30 when they were attacked.

Her husband's body has not been found, and the case has remained unsolved.

"It didn't happen in the United States," said Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez.

Suspects in Falcon Lake killing identified

And Mexican authorities, he told CNN last month, have "somewhat of a zero solvency rate, and a zero conviction rate."

"So unfortunately, this case may remain open forever, even though the information and the evidence may be there," according to Gonzalez.

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Afghan official: 10 militants killed near border

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan police on Friday killed 10 militants in a gun battle in eastern Paktika province, a provincial official said.

The fighting occurred near the Pakistani border and the militants were suspected members of the Haqqani network, which is affiliated with the Afghan Taliban and closely aligned with al-Qaida, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for Paktika governor Muhibullah Samim. Afghan said all the militants were thought to be Pakistani.

Earlier, NATO said a roadside bomb killed a service member in southern Afghanistan. It said the attack occurred on Thursday and provided no further details about the attack, nor did it give the nationality of the service member.

Two coalition service members have been killed in action this month, while 114 have died since the start of the year.

In Baghlan province, northeast of Kabul, a torrential downpour on Thursday flooded several districts, killing nine people — including women and children — and destroying several houses and roads, according to provincial governor Abdul Majid.

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Libyan forces breach border with Tunisia

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan forces in more than a dozen military vehicles and armed with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers crossed into Tunisia on Friday as fighting with rebels raged along the western frontier, witnesses said. Tunisia's government was furious after clashes broke out on its territory and demanded Libya halt all incursions.

In this image from television, Libyan rebels celebrate the capture of the Dhuheiba border crossing between Libya and Tunisia.

In another sign that Moammar Gadhafi's regime was redoubling efforts to beat back resistance in its stronghold of western Libya, NATO warships intercepted several boats laying anti-shipping mines outside the harbor of the rebel-held city of Misrata. The port is the only lifeline for the city of 300,000, which has been under siege by Gadhafi's forces for two months.

Libyan forces also fired rockets and shells at Misrata from the outskirts of town, killing at least eight people.

The fighting on the Libyan-Tunisian border, the attempted mining of the waters near Misrata and the renewed shelling signaled a new push by Gadhafi's forces to retake the two areas of fiercest rebel resistance in the west. It's unlikely Gadhafi would be able to cling to power without consolidating control over western Libya.

The rebels have largely controlled the eastern part of the country since an uprising against Gadhafi, Libya's ruler of 42 years, erupted in mid-February. They have said they will not contemplate a cease-fire before he is pushed out.

The Dhuheiba border crossing between Libya and Tunisia has been a flashpoint in recent days. The crossing has been changing hands repeatedly between regime forces and rebels, who retook it Friday.

The crossing is key supply line for Libya's Nafusa mountain area, near Tunisia, from where members of Libya's ethnic Berber minority have been fighting Gadhafi's forces.

On Friday, there were different accounts of what exactly happened in the Tunisian border town of Dhuheiba, about three miles (five kilometers) from the border. Witnesses said more than a dozen Libyan military vehicles, carrying troops armed with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers, drove into town, setting off clashes. Three Tunisians were hurt.

Ismail al-Wafi, a Dhuheiba resident, said the Libyan forces fired indiscriminately. He said Dhuheiba residents clashed with the Libyans and Tunisian troops eventually captured some and took their weapons.

Another witness said Libyan troops clashed with Libyan rebels in Dhuheiba before they were defeated by Tunisian troops. Some of the Libyans were captured and the others chased out, said the witness, who only gave his first name, Akram, for fear of reprisals. "Gadhafi forces are no longer in Dhuheiba. They were defeated," he said.

The Tunisian news agency TAP said Tunisian forces fired in the air, but did not clash with Libyan troops.

Dhuheiba resident Mohamed Hedia said angry Dhuheiba civilians and the families of Libyan rebels who had been staying there set upon the Gadhafi troops, creating a "chaotic situation." Tunisian forces fired warning shots, Hedia said.

It was unclear why the Libyans entered Dhuheiba in the first place.

One witness said they were fleeing from rebels who had recaptured the border crossing earlier Friday. An Associated Press Television News crew saw two bodies of Libyan troops near the crossing Friday. The crew was told rebels were chasing two dozen Libyan military vehicles on the Libyan side in hopes of securing a supply corridor to the mountain area.

The Nafusa mountain range is home to Berbers who have complained of systematic discrimination by the Libyan government. Thousands of Libyans from the mountain communities have fled to Dhuheiba and other Tunisian border towns in recent weeks, as rebels and government forces battled for control of the border crossing.

On Thursday, Libyan troops briefly recaptured the crossing from the rebels, and some of the fighting spilled over into Tunisia, witnesses said. Mongi Slim, a representative of the Tunisian Red Crescent in the area, said at least two people were killed and 20 wounded Thursday, all Libyan troops.

Late Thursday, the Tunisian Foreign Ministry issued an angry statement.

"Given the gravity of what has happened ? the Tunisian authorities have informed the Libyans of their extreme indignation and demand measures to put an immediate stop to these violations," the statement said.

On the Misrata front, the mining of the waters "shows his (Gadhafi's) complete disregard for international law and his willingness to attack humanitarian deliver efforts," said British Brig. Rob Weighill, director of NATO operations in Libya.

Though rebels have managed to expel regime forces from the city itself, the enclave is isolated and remains dependent for much of its food and other supplies on the sea link with the rebel capital of Benghazi.

It appeared to be the first time sea mines have been used in the Libyan conflict. Weighill said NATO crews were disposing of the mines.

In Misrata, loud booms resonated through the city as regime loyalists fired shells and mortars.

Gadhafi forces fired with tanks and anti-aircraft guns on a group of 50 rebel fighters in the village of Zawiyat al-Mahjoub, on the outskirts of the city, said rebel fighter Abdullah Shiguman, 31.

Medics scrambled to evacuate six bodies and 10 wounded people to the hospital. Some of the wounded had lost limbs and huge chunks of flesh. One was a medic who had been shot in the back. Two of the dead were carried in bundled in blankets holding nothing more than body parts. Earlier, two people had been killed in the shelling.

Rebel field commander Salahidin Badi said Gadhafi's force had been firing mortars and rockets into the city all morning and that rebels had fired back with mortars. Badi said a shoe factory had caught fire during the battle.

"There are lots of materials and fuel there, so if anything blows up there, it will catch fire," he said.

Meanwhile, a NATO spokeswoman said rebel chief of staff Abdel-Fatah Younes met Thursday with senior NATO officials in Brussels. Carmen Romero said there had been "an exchange of views on Libya," but declined to elaborate.

Younes, a former Libyan interior minister who defected to the opposition, called on the international community to supply heavy weapons to the rebels.

It has been a month since NATO assumed control of the U.S.-led military operation in Libya, with the mandate to protect civilians from attack. Since then, alliance warplanes have conducted a total of 4,242 sorties and 1,766 strike sorties. In addition, a total of 19 NATO ships are patrolling the central Mediterranean.

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Red River crests on North Dakota-Minnesota border

By the CNN Wire Staff STORY HIGHLIGHTSSeasonal flooding has hit communities in upper MidwestAt least three people have died in MinnesotaThe U.S. Coast Guard says it rescued five people (CNN) -- The swollen Red River that forms the border between Minnesota and North Dakota crested near 40 feet in Fargo, North Dakota, a spokesman for the City of Fargo Fire Department said Sunday.

The river is expected to remain swollen for the next few days, said spokesman Jesse Schmidt.

Rain forecast for Sunday had raised flooding fears along the Red River, where recreational boating was barred in several counties. But the worst of the predictions seems not to have materialized.

The area could get up to half an inch of rain Sunday, Schmidt said.

The region usually has seasonal flooding after warm weather and rain melts snow in early spring.

Officials in Moorhead, Minnesota, across the border from Fargo, also were coping with the flooding, a repeat from 2010 and 2009. The Red River crested at nearly 41 feet in 2009.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, talked Saturday about improved levees and preparations.

Still, she said, three people have died in Minnesota because of the flooding.

"This is a ferocious river," Klobuchar said. "We have to continue to be careful."

Other Minnesota officials talked about the need for more flood mitigation.

The U.S. Coast Guard said one of its crews rescued rescued five people along the Red River Saturday -- one resident and four responders.

In Cass County, north of Fargo, residents placed sandbags along flooded streams and roads and used all-terrain vehicles to reach their homes.

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