News Brief

Mexico's growing violence puts credit rating at risk

Mexico's increasing violence poses a risk to the nation's credit rating in the "medium term" and may threaten economic growth.

Deaths related to drug trafficking have spiked during President Felipe Calderon's term as the government battles organized crime. Economic data has yet to show an impact this year.

Violence related to organized crime has killed more than 28,000 people since Calderon began battling drug gangs when he came to office in December 2006. The government says violence saps one percentage point from gross domestic product annually. Moody's currently rates Mexico Baa1, the third-lowest investment grade rating.

Mexico's credit rating was cut one level by Standard & Poor's in December and one level by Fitch Ratings in November after tumbling oil output and the worst recession since the 1930s swelled the budget deficit.

In the past two weeks in the northern part of the country, two mayors have been assassinated, a car bomb exploded outside a television station and 72 migrants were found massacred. A gubernatorial candidate was killed in June.

Afghan police lack of guns, gas shows flaw in U.S. exit plan

The Afghan police unit rated best by U.S.-led forces last year now can't function on its own and has ceded up to half its district to the Taliban, showing how hard it will be for U.S. troops to carry out a planned withdrawal.

Only half of 285 policemen at Baghlan-e-Jadid in northern Afghanistan received U.S.-sponsored training, at least 40 percent are illiterate and their Kalashnikov rifles are too few, often jam and lack ammunition, district police chief Amin Mangal said in July. Each police vehicle gets 1.25 gallons of gasoline a day to help patrol 850 square miles of mountainous terrain, he said.

While U.S. mentors last year rated the police unit capable of independent operations, now their "capabilities are very low," and the Taliban dominates 30 percent to 50 percent of the district.

Such deficiencies buttress a U.S. general's statement on Aug. 23 that Afghan police and troops won't be ready to take over security next July when President Barack Obama has vowed to begin removing soldiers.

Md. hostage situation ends with suspect fatally shot

A standoff at the Discovery Communications building in downtown Silver Spring, Md., ended Wednesday afternoon when authorities shot and killed a suspect holding three hostages, bringing a dramatic close to a tense situation four hours after it began, according to police and law enforcement sources.

All three hostages are safe and all Discovery employees are accounted for, said Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger.

Sources said James Lee, 43, a radical environmentalist who railed against the Discovery Channel for years, was dead. Law enforcement officials fired at 4:48 p.m. on Wednesday because police "believed the hostages' lives were in danger," Manger said.

Lee was hit by at least two rounds by officers who had set up inside the building, according to a law enforcement source. It is unclear how many officers fired their weapons.