A motorbike that was covered in explosives smashed into the police station, which is located in Tumaco city centre. Police officials say that Colombia’s left-wing Farc was behind the attack, which was meant to takeout General Jorge Nieto Rojas – the region’s police commander. Thankfully, he came out unscathed.

As drug trafficking gangs battle it out with leftist rebels in the fight for all-out control of lucrative Pacific Coast smuggling routes, Tumaco is a place of lawlessness and is regarded as one of the most dangerous places in Colombia. Last year, Farc guerrillas killed 10 soldiers in what was 2011’s deadliest attack. Before that, in July, over a dozen prisoners were able to get out of the main city jail as a result of Farc rebels blowing a hole in the perimeter wall.

Although active since the 1960s, the Marxist-inspired Farc movement has been weakened by successful military offensives and the murders of two top leaders. Despite this, the organisation continues to raise cash via the illegal drugs trade and can carry out attacks against the Colombian government at any given time.

The woman wasn’t aware of the fact that she was carrying such an amount of children and hadn’t received fertility treatment. Medical experts say that the mother turned up at her nearest hospital on Monday before giving birth to three of each sex in what was her first-ever pregnancy.

Doctors say that giving birth to six children without any fertility treatment is remarkably rare. As has been well documented, Afghanistan is near the top of the list of countries with the highest maternal and infant mortality rate. Known as Sharah, aged 24, the mother arrived at Mazar-e-Sharif hospital after having travelled a vast distance from her remote village in the heart of Balkh province.

Provincial Health Director Mr Mirwais Rabi spoke to foreign news reporters and told of how each one of the six babies are doing well but are under-weight. Mr Rabi said that the sextuplets are being kept inside incubators while a specially-appointed team of doctors and nurses are looking after them.

Sharah is reported to be healthy but exhausted. Doctors have insisted that had they already known the mother was carrying six babies, her presence at their hospital would have been requested several days in advance. Understandably, the story has been a media sensation in Afghanistan.

Jeff Astle, a player for Midlands-based outfit West Bromwich Albion throughout the 60s and 70s, passed away 10 years ago. The coroner ruled that 59-year-old Astle, sustained brain damage by way of heading leather footballs for the duration of his career.

The Football Association said that “conflicting opinions” remain on the effects of heading footballs over time. Mrs Laraine Astle, of Netherseal, in Derbyshire, spoke to reporters and told them of her belief that FA doesn’t wish to hold its hand up and admit that the game the public loves the most is actually a killer.

She added that her husband died due to being a prolific header and no one that has played the game since has even come near. Remarkably, over half of the striker’s goals were scored with his head.

Mrs Astle went on to explain how she and the three daughters she had with her husband have been unsuccessful in an attempt to be awarded compensation from the FA, in spite of the coroner’s report. A spokesperson from the FA said that it will carry on liasing with FIFA, the world governing body, on this issue and others that are related to the health of players past and present.

Van der Sloot first went on trial at the start of the year for the killing of Stephany Flores, a young lady he met while gambling at a Lima casino that was later found murdered in a hotel room on 30 May 2010. Additionally, Van der Sloot remains a suspect in US student Natalee Holloway’s disappearance in 2005 on the island of Aruba. Frustratingly for her family, her corpse has never been discovered.

Ms Flores was murdered exactly five years to the day that Natalee Holloway, aged 18, was last seen by friends. The prosecution in the case heard in Lima accused Van der Sloot of murdering Ms Flores cruelly and ferociously in a hotel room after they had initially met whilst playing poker.

Through pleading guilty, the Dutch citizen should get certain benefits, such as having his sentence reduced. The three judges of the trial have exactly 48 hours to pass sentence, with the prosecution seeking a jail term of 30-years.
Last week, the trial was adjourned after Van der Sloot explained to the court that he needed extra time to consider which plea he should enter. At Wednesday’s hearing, he told the judges while speaking Spanish that he wished to plead guilty.

Abbott said that she didn’t mean to generalise after writing that: ”White people love playing ‘divide & rule’”. The comments came as a response to a criticism of the use of “black community leaders” by the media after the murder trial of the two men that killed Stephen Lawrence.

Labour’s Chuka Umunna confirmed that party leader Ed Miliband has already told Ms Abbott that her remarks were “unacceptable”. Making her own statement, Abbott apologised for any offence that was possibly caused and said that she understood that people might have interpreted her comments as making a generalisation about Caucasian people – behaviour that she doesn’t agree with.

Abbott, who was the first black woman in history to be sworn in as an MP, earlier tweeted about how her remark was “taken out of context”. The comments were just a small part of a conversation on Twitter regarding, as mentioned, media coverage of the well-publicised Stephen Lawrence murder trial.

The comments sparked criticism from other users of Twitter and the MP updated her page to say that the Tweet was taken entirely out of context. The Labour Party had to release a statement clarifying that it entirely disagreed with the tweet as it is wrong for anyone to make generalisations about any culture, race, or creed.

Living in the suburban town of Dearborn, Michigan, the characters have been reported as containing a wish to tackle the touch topicy, as confirmed by US cable channel TLC. In December, the show made headlines when appeals from Christian groups prompted a home improvement chain with stores across the US to withdraw all its advertising.

The Christian groups accused the show of concealing an “Islamic agenda” that opposes US values. Kavak.com, a travel website, pulled its sponsorship from the show as well, in response to the Florida Family Association’s requests. With news of which topic is to be covered in the penultimate episode, more pull-outs are expected.

The reality show, entitled All-American Muslim, airs on TLC every Sunday evening and features characters living in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit home to what is among Arab-America’s largest population. Deputy Sheriff Mike Jaafar, involved with the security arrangements for a 9/11 memorial service that took place at Tiger Stadium in Detroit was emotional while remembering the emergency response efforts in New York City. Another woman, Suehaila Amen, told how 9/11 marked the first time that people looked at her though she was less American than them.

According to the US state department, Yasin al-Suri is a Syrian national currently operating from Iran. This mentioned bounty aims to smash a financial network that has been operative within Iran since 2005.

Robert Hartung, a State department official, said that the announcement marks the first time that a “terrorist financier” has become a target in such a manner. According to Hartung, al-Suri is a dedicated individual that has the support of both al-Qaeda and the Iranian government while being a danger to the interests of the US and the Western world in general.

It was added that al-Suri – or Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil as he is also known – operated with permission from the Iranian government, which agreed with al-Qaeda that recruits and money could be moved through its land and to branches of the network in neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

Mr Hartung said that, from 1984 onwards, the Rewards for Justice scheme has been paying over $100m 70-plus people who have provided credible information and details that helped prevent attacks or bring accused terrorists to justice.

Over 60 staff at Kommersant, which is a liberal business daily, gave their signatures to the letter after Alisher Usmanov, the owner, sacked the two men. The internet letter said that the paper was being compelled into being cowardly, which is both unworthy and unproductive.

Mr Usmanov said that he understood the view of the journalists but would be standing by his decision. In Monday’s edition of Kommersant Vlast, there was a photo of a damaged ballot slip that had an obscene message to Putin scrawled in red ink.

The magazine cover shows Russia’s powerful prime minister looking into a ballot with a headline that reads “Win for United Stuffers”, which plays on the name of Putin’s party, United Russia, while also drawing attention to the alleged practice of packing ballot-boxes with fabricated votes.

Usmanov subsequently fired the magazine’s previous editor, Maxim Kovalsky, as well as Andrei Galiyev, the head of the parent holding company of the publisher. The head of Kommersant Publishing House, Demyan Kudryavstev, took all the blame and then submitted his resignation. After, he said on his blog that the issue was published in violation of Russian law.

After spending several weeks masquerading as a chef on the MV Esperanza, Simonon was arrested with 18 other activists in June as a result of the Esperanza launching speedboats at Leiv Eriksson’s oil rig, which is situated close to Greenland. Greenpeace was protesting about the Arctic rig’s owners allegedly refusing to disclose the oil-spill disaster plan they had supposedly constructed.

Around the time, Ben Ayliffe, a Greenpeace activist, said that it was obvious why Cairn Energy wouldn’t tell the world just how it would clean up any BP-style oil spills in the Arctic because it can’t actually be done.

Speaking in an interview with NME music magazine, the bassist explained that when Greenpeace stormed the oil rig they were warned that Cairn would phone Greenland’s authorities and get them arrested, which is exactly how it played out.

According to Greenpeace, Simonon had only begun his involvement in the mission a matter of weeks before, first approaching Frank Heweston, its UK action coordinator. After the Esperanza protesters’ arrest, Simonon spent a fortnight in a cell while still keeping his real identity a complete secret.

Soldiers in Culican – Sinaloa state’s capital – captured Ovidio Limon Sanchez due to accusations that he has organised the arrival of huge shipments of cocaine and other drugs into the southern US while running a vast network that distributed narcotics to other parts of America.

He faces an extradition hearing that prosecutors hope will land him in the hands of the US government – which offered a reward of $5m for his arrest. Sanchez is allegedly a close ally of “El Chapo” Guzman, the leader of Sinaloa’s cartel and Mexico’s most wanted drug baron – who is currently on the run.
Mexican defence ministry spokesman Colonel Ricardo Trevilla explained that the detention of Sanchez significantly affects all activities of the Guzman criminal organisation’s capacity to traffic cocaine while weakening its ability to be able to generate great financial resources. Trevilla added that Sanchez was captured by soldiers without a single shot being fired.

Sanchez allegedly smuggled cocaine into southern California while bringing back millions to Mexico in cash , according to the notice that was put up on the US State Department’s website. The suspect is the latest in a string of drug traffickers to be either killed or captured since Mexican president Felipe Calderon began his war on drugs in 2006.