MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) — A recently retired Mexican army general whose bullet-riddled body was found Tuesday near Cancun had taken over as the area’s top antidrug official less than 24 hours earlier, officials said.
Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñonez, his aide and a driver were tortured before being killed, said Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo. He said there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime.
“The general was the most mistreated,” Rodriguez said at a Tuesday night news conference monitored by El Universal newspaper. “He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken.”
An autopsy revealed Tello also suffered broken knees and was shot 11 times, Mexico City’s Excelsior newspaper said.
JERUSALEM (CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday promised a “sharp Israeli response” if rocket attacks from Gaza continue. Palestinian militants fired four rockets into southern Israel on Sunday, police said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Israel’s response will be “disproportionate” if rocket attacks continue.
Israel was holding to its position that “if firing continues against residents of the south, there would be a sharp Israeli response that would be disproportionate,” Olmert vowed at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting. “We will not go back to the rules of the game that the terrorist organizations tried to dictate in the past. … We will act according to new rules that will ensure that we are not dragged into an unending shooting war on the southern border.”
One of the mortars landed near a kindergarten in the western Negev, but there were no injuries in that attack or the others, police said.
The attacks were another breach in a tentative cease-fire which Israel and Hamas militants each declared unilaterally
Don’t be surprised if there’s another Gaza invasion. Hamas again is the first to break the truce.
(CNN) — Palestinians activated an explosive device and a Palestinian was killed by Israeli helicopter fire early Tuesday in the first incidents of violence since last week’s Mideast cease-fire, according to Hamas and Israeli army sources.
The explosive device was detonated against an Israeli army patrol along the border just north of Kissufim crossing about 8 a.m. Tuesday.
In the fighting, an Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded, according to the Israeli military.
“I tell European nations… three years of trying to eliminate Hamas is enough. It is time for you to deal with Hamas, which has gained legitimacy through struggle,” Mr Meshaal said in a speech from the Syrian capital, Damascus.
“Now it is time to start to talk to Hamas, which is a legitimate force.”
Conditions for talks
The four main Middle East mediators – the EU, the US, the UN and Russia – have said there can be no dealing with Hamas until it recognises Israel, renounces violence and accepts interim peace deals signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
Mr Meshaal said that Hamas had withstood Israel’s attacks, despite its military superiority.
“The Gaza Strip has scored a victory. The enemy has failed and the resistance, together with our people and nation, has scored victory.
“This is the first war we have won, the first real and large-scale war. That is why the battle in Gaza is a real turning point in the struggle against the Zionist enemy,” he said.
“But we still have two important battles ahead of us. The battle to break the siege and the battle to reopen the border crossings, particularly the Rafah crossing.”
Israel has blockaded the Palestinian enclave since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
It has refused to fully open border crossings to allow desperately needed aid, goods and construction materials into Gaza.
Mr Meshaal also said the “liberation of Palestine” was no longer “just a dream”.
“It is now a reality we can see, we are close to realising it, with God’s grace,” he said.
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