Free Republic

Itanagar, October 3 (Agencies): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said a Rs.125 billion trans-state highway in Arunachal Pradesh would be completed by 2013, a step that would boost infrastructure in the strategic northeastern state bordering China. “The Trans-Arunachal Highway, rail and air connectivity, and construction of two small hydro projects would meet the requirement of many remote areas, especially villages located on border areas, suffering from isolation,” Manmohan Singh said, addressing an election rally at Pasighat in East Siang district. “The highway would be completed by 2013 and would go a long way in boosting infrastructure in the region....

Mexican soldiers and police officers made more than 200 unauthorized incursions into U.S. territory from 1996 to Sept. 30, 2005, according to internal Homeland Security intelligence reports. The annual intelligence summaries of "Mexican Government Incidents" were released Monday by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which obtained them through a Freedom of Information Act request and circulated detailed reports from 2003, 2004 and 2005. The annual bulletins convey the chaos and danger of the border — and the heart-wrenching losses for some of those trying to cross it. Cooperation and confrontation are described between U.S. border agents and Mexican military...

Some officials suggested Wednesday that the confrontation between Texas law officers earlier this week was with drug smugglers, not Mexican soldiers assisting narcotics traffickers across the Rio Grande. But a Border Patrol agent who spoke on condition of anonymity said continuous cover-ups by Mexican and U.S. officials have put many agents and American lives in danger. "I think it shows how desperate the situation has become. I think it's insulting to expect Americans to believe what (Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael) Chertoff and the Mexican government are saying," the agent said Wednesday. "Isn't it the most reasonable explanation that...

EL PASO, Texas - A closed-door meeting at El Paso International Airport involving a congressman and federal and local officers promised answers to reports of Mexican military incursions into the United States, setting the stage for congressional hearings next week. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations for the Committee on Homeland Security, said at a news conference Friday that the incursion investigations will be the first time his committee has conducted hearings since its formation four years ago. "I want to thank these brave men and women for what they do every day and the threat...

EL PASO, Texas -- Suspected drug runners dressed in Mexican military-style uniforms who were involved in an armed confrontation with Texas lawmen were using a Mexican military-issue Humvee and weapons, the Hudspeth County sheriff said Friday. "It was military," said Arvin West, whose officers were involved in the standoff. "Due to the pending congressional hearings I can't comment further." West said the determination that the equipment was military-issue came from the federal government, but he wouldn't elaborate. A U.S. Army spokesman said he could not confirm West's statement, and the Mexican Foreign Relations Department said it would have no comment....

An official with a civilian border group says a squad of Mexican soldiers opened fire on a position only moments after it was vacated by group volunteers patrolling private property near Douglas, Ariz. Jack Foote, national spokesman for property protection group Ranch Rescue, told NewsMax a reconnaissance squad of his volunteers spotted two armed Mexican soldiers wearing green combat fatigues and Kevlar helmets on U.S. soil adjacent to property the group was asked to protect. Foote said his volunteers, part of a mission Ranch Rescue dubbed "Operation Thunderbird," deployed at the landowner's request to interdict smuggling of illegal aliens and...