Despite diplomatic relations being restored with Bolivia yesterday, Vice President Vice President Alvaro Garcia said today the DEA is still unwelcome there.

[Garcia]says the Drug Enforcement Administration "was a mechanism of political blackmail" and is not welcome back.

The DEA was expelled from Bolivia in 2008 by by President Evo Morales.

An appeals court in Great Britain has refused to invalidate Sweden's extradition warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. He now has two weeks to appeal to the country's highest court.

Here is the ruling.

Mexico has released its 2011 murder statistics for January through August. Murders are down in Juarez, the border city in Chihuahua, which has been known as the most violent area in Mexico.

While it remains exceedingly bloody, Juarez is far safer than it was in 2010: with 1,065 murders through August, it is on pace for just under 1,600 murders, a murder rate of roughly 120 per 100,000 residents. In 2010, the city registered some 3,000 murders and a murder rate of roughly 250 per 100,000.

Murders are also down in Baja California Norte, home to Tijuana and Mexicali. On the other hand, murders are up in Guerrero, especially Acapulco. [More...]

As we all know from the travails of Schapelle Corby, the laws of Indonesia and Bali suck.

The latest travesty is "The Bali Boy," a 14 old from Australia, on vacation with his parents, who has been jailed since Oct. 4 when police say they saw him stop and buy $25.00 worth of marijuana (3.6 grams) from a street dealer who had approached him.

[More...]

Muammar Gaddafi has been killed by fighters in Libya.

[His death] was announced by several officials of the National Transitional Council (NTC) and backed up by a photograph of a bloodied face ringed by familiar, Gaddafi-style curly hair.

"He was killed in an attack by the fighters. There is footage of that," the NTC's information minister, Mahmoud Shammam, told Reuters.

Apparently, it has occurred formally now. A NYTimes Editorial today said:

Last year, President Obama’s speech to the United Nations was full of promise and determination to advance Palestinian statehood through negotiations with Israel. This year, his address was about lowering expectations and a dispiriting realpolitik as the president spoke of how “peace is hard” and vowed to veto the Palestinians’ bid for statehood if it came to a Security Council vote. Mr. Obama had no choice but to stand by Israel, this country’s historic ally. [. . .] But there should be no illusions about the high cost both Israel and this country will pay if this stalemate is allowed to drag on any longer.

There is plenty of blame to go around. The main responsibility right now belongs to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel who refuses to make any serious compromises for peace.

In a meeting with bloggers yesterday, Bill Clinton explained that part of this is due to the changing demographics of Israel, with many newcomers having little respect for the Palestinian position and driving for more land on the West Bank. Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy provides more detail on Clinton's remarks on the Israel- Palestine situation.

Statues are being pulled down in Tripoli:

Rebels surged into the Libyan capital Sunday night, meeting little resistance from troops loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and setting off raucous street celebrations by residents hailing the end of his 42 years in power.

Congratulations to the Libyan people. Good luck with the future of your country.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, along with companion Sarah Shourd, were hiking in Northern Iraq in 2009. They came across a dirt road near a waterfall and unknowingly crossed the Iran border. Bauer and Fattal have been imprisoned in Iran ever since, and today were sentenced to 8 years in prison for unlawful entry into Iran and spying for the U.S.

They have 20 days to appeal. Shourd was granted bond and returned to the U.S. Her case is still open.

Requests through the Swiss embassy in Tehran to free the men has fallen on deaf ears so far.

Amazing photos of the London riots which continue. 16,000 officers are now patrolling the streets.

One of the crimes to be charged: inciting violence through social media. How will they find the rioters not caught in the act? Camera images.

What's the deeper cause behind the riots? No one seems to agree on that.

Bump and Update: Here are suspect Anders Behring Breivik 's online postings in English. He "rants against multi-culturalism." BBC News has this profile of him. More from The Telegraph here.

Norwegian police describe him as a "right-wing Christian fundamentalist." It's still unclear if he acted alone.

According to police, Breivik has been charged and confessed. The death toll is close to 100. [More...]

All eyes are on British Parliament today where hearings are underway in the News Corp phone hacking scandal. Newly resigned Scotland Yard Chief is being questioned, to be followed later this morning by Rupert Murdoch and his son James, and Rebekkah Brooks.

You can watch live here, or follow the Times' live updates here. All of our major cable news stations will carry Murdochs' questioning live, and when the second committee starts questioning the Murdochs and Brooks, the session is to be online here.

CNN yesterday unveiled live feeds of its tv programming for smartphones. If you have a home cable package that gets CNN, it's free. It took me only 3 minutes to set up yesterday on my iPad and the picture is great.

In Egypt, some have argued that it is too soon for elections. In Libya, the Gaddafi regime is floating the idea of elections:

The Libyan government on Sunday renewed its offer to hold a vote on whether Muammar Gaddafi should stay in power, a proposal unlikely to interest his opponents but which could widen differences inside NATO. [. . .] Moussa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Gaddafi's administration, told reporters in Tripoli the government was proposing a period of national dialogue and an election overseen by the United Nations and the African Union.

Should this alternative be pursued? If not, why not? In Egypt the argument against elections is:

NATO launched an airstrike today that killed Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, the 29 year old son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, and three grandchildren.

The Libyan Government, through spokesman Moussa Ibrahim says Colonel Gaddafi and his wife were also in the house but unharmed. BBC reporter Christian Fraser writes that a few hours after the explosion:

[W]e were eventually brought to the villa, which was surrounded by reinforced concrete, cameras, and military positions. This is clearly an exclusive neighbourhood. Inside, total destruction.

....It's hard to imagine that anyone could have escaped unscathed, though according to the government spokesman the Libyan leader and his wife were present and are safe and well. But there's no independent evidence they were there.

NATO airstrikes are intended to save civilian lives in Libya. Libya says today's strike was an assassination attempt.

NYTimes:

Security forces in Syria fired tear gas and live ammunition Friday to disperse crowds of demonstrators who took to the streets of Damascus and other cities after the noon prayers that have been a focus of uprisings across the Arab world, according to protesters, witnesses and accounts posted on social networking sites.

The authorities had deployed police officers, soldiers and military vehicles in two of the country’s three largest cities ahead of a call for nationwide protests testing the popular reception of reforms decreed by President Bashar al-Assad as well as the momentum that organizers have sought to bring to the five-week uprising.

The main problem with "humanitarian" interventions in foreign civil wars is that they do not work unbless you accept that you are deciding to go to war, I think Libya is proving that point. OF course even if you accept you are going to war, then you can have an Iraq Debacle on your hands.

Speaking for me only

Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez has resigned after only 18 months on the job. He has been the subject of controversy ever since leaked Wikileaks cables were disclosed that cast him in a negative light.

One "embassy cable from September 2009 called Chávez Chávez's nomination "totally unexpected and politically inexplicable."

It noted that he "has strong detractors within the Mexican human rights community" because of botched prosecutions in the murders of women in the northern Mexico border city of Ciudad Juárez in the 1990s, when he was the top state prosecutor.

The cable suggested Chávez Chávez "is a less capable political operator, who will be overshadowed by García Luna and stymied by his considerable human rights baggage."

President Calderon has nominated a woman, Marisela Morales to replace him. She currently serves as the head of the organised crime special investigations unit.