{"id":29753,"date":"2016-12-01T12:37:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T01:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=29753"},"modified":"2016-12-01T15:47:53","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T04:47:53","slug":"national-security-wrap-48","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/national-security-wrap-48\/","title":{"rendered":"National security wrap"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/strong><\/p>\n The Beat<\/strong><\/p>\n A murder every 1.5 hours<\/em><\/p>\n At least 6,640 murders<\/a> took place in El Salvador last year, making it one of the world\u2019s deadliest nations<\/a>. Though numbers have dropped<\/a> more recently, the country still experiences a murder every 1.5 hours<\/a> on average. A new series, Latin America Investigates<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> highlights the police and military\u2019s failed attempts to prosecute, use force against, and negotiate with gangs such as MS-13. In desperate attempts to regain control of death squads like Los Exterminio, police implemented harsher anti-gang policies. But unsurprisingly\u2014given a 94% impunity rate<\/a> for homicides; meaning there\u2019s little to deter groups from killing\u2014the policies have seen higher numbers of police-gang confrontation.<\/p>\n No stranger to corruption scandals<\/em><\/p>\n South Korean President Park Geun-hye has asked the parliament to find a way for her to stand down from office<\/a>. The news comes after corruption allegations; more specifically, that Ms Park had a considerable role in pressuring large South Korean companies to contribute funds to foundations owned by a close friend. It\u2019s just the latest twist in a bizarre story<\/a>. But South Korea\u2019s no stranger to corruption scandals<\/a>\u2014Former president Kim Dae-jung\u2019s two sons were jailed for taking bribes, and his successor, President Roh Moo-hyun, committed suicide after leaving office as corruption investigators closed in on allegations he accepted US $6 million in bribes.<\/p>\n CT Scan<\/strong><\/p>\n German spy agency employee arrested<\/em><\/p>\n An employee of Germany\u2019s domestic intelligence agency BfV was arrested<\/a> on Tuesday under accusations that he made extremist comments and leaked sensitive agency information online. The 51-year-old man had reportedly discussed bombing<\/a> the BfV\u2019s home office in Cologne with an agency informant before being detained. According to Der Spiegel<\/a> (source in German), the man\u2019s family didn\u2019t know<\/a> about his conversion to Islam two years ago and subsequent radicalisation, nor did his actions raise any red flags at the BfV during his hiring process.<\/p>\n \u2018Lone wolf\u2019 attack at US university campus<\/em><\/p>\n Ohio State University in the US was locked-down on Monday after a man injured 11 students<\/a> by intentionally ramming them with his car and then attacking them with a knife. The attacker, a US permanent resident from Somalia who studied at the university, was shot dead<\/a> soon after by a nearby university police officer. Daesh has claimed responsibility<\/a> for the attack but no evidence has been found to suggest that the attacker had any contact with the group. Posts on the attacker\u2019s Facebook profile suggest he may have been self-radicalised<\/a>, with specific references to deceased radical American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.<\/p>\n Checkpoint<\/strong><\/p>\n Open for business<\/em><\/p>\n Cameroon has reopened its border market with Nigeria. Markets were closed in January following a Boko Haram attack that killed at least 35 in Bodo on Cameroon\u2019s far north border. The spike in terrorist activity<\/a> on the poorly-managed borders had been linked to a Nigerian-led regional offensive<\/a>\u2019s gain against the group\u2019s strongholds in Nigeria. Attacks have subsided in recent months<\/a>, prompting the decision to reopen borders and allow the return of hundreds of merchants.<\/p>\n \u2018This land is your land\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n Belgium and the Netherlands have negotiated a land swap<\/a> to settle a longstanding border problem. The issue arose after the rerouting of the Meuse River\u2014that demarcated the border between Belgian and Dutch municipalities\u2014created small parcels of each country\u2019s territory on the opposing side of the river (see map here<\/a>, and watch explanatory video here<\/a>). The resulting jurisdictional ordeal left Belgian and Dutch law enforcement authorities unable to do much about it. The plots became havens for drug and sex-related crime; neither country was able to combat the issue as special permissions<\/a> had to be granted from each side. Under a treaty<\/a> signed on Monday, Belgium is due to give 40 acres of land to the Netherlands in return for just over seven acres, effectively realigning the border with the river. It\u2019s hoped that the lawlessness in the municipalities can be corrected after the treaty comes into effect in 2018, pending Parliamentary approval.<\/p>\n First Responder<\/strong><\/p>\n Floods lash Italy<\/em><\/p>\n The Italian regions of Liguria, Piedmont and Sicily recently suffered heavy rains which caused floods, landslides<\/a> and sinkholes<\/a> over Thursday and Friday which finally receded over the weekend. Hundreds were evacuated in \u00a0the three regions<\/a> by the Protezione Civile who suggested that construction on low lying farmland had contributed to the crisis. Piedmont and Liguria\u2019s main rivers, the Tanaro and Po, both swelled<\/a> to inundate towns\u2014leaving 610 homeless. In Sicily, agricultural association Coldiretti estimated<\/a> (Italian) a loss of 50% of citrus fruit crops and said that extreme weather events had cost Italian agriculture \u20ac14 billion<\/a> over the last decade.<\/p>\n The community-minded Taliban?<\/em><\/p>\n The Afghan Taliban have announced<\/a> in a press release that they are offering to protect large national infrastructure projects like the Mes Aynak cooper mine, CASA 1000 electricity project and TAPI gas pipeline. Ministry of the Interior spokesmen Sediq Sediqqi responded to the claim by saying<\/a> that, \u2018until now the Taliban has been the main obstruction in the way of development of Afghanistan, over the past few months, nearly two billion Afs in losses was inflicted on public utility projects\u2019. Human Rights Watch looks at<\/a> the Talban\u2019s destructive track record of infrastructure protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Beat A murder every 1.5 hours At least 6,640 murders took place in El Salvador last year, making it one of the world\u2019s deadliest nations. Though numbers have dropped more recently, the country still …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":552,"featured_media":29759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1163,321,301,1580,1088],"class_list":["post-29753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-borders","tag-corruption","tag-national-security-2","tag-resilience","tag-taliban"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n