“UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari told the U.N. Security Council that talks between Sudan and the Liberation and Justice Movement are making steady progress. But he said the continued absence from the negotiations of two major armed movements is ‘deeply unfortunate.’

Gambari told the Security Council that despite considerable efforts by UNAMID, the security situation in Darfur has not improved since last month when he described it as ‘dire.’ Gambari said fighting between Sudanese government forces and the Justice and Equality Movement continues to be a major source of insecurity in several parts of Darfur. “

“Al Qaeda’s second in command Ayman Al-Zawahiri has surfaced again, this time threatening more attacks against the U.S. and the West.

‘Oh American people…We offered you a peace plan, and mutual benefit; but your governments were proud and haughty, and so the attacks against you followed one after another, everywhere – from Indonesia to Times Square, by way of Madrid and London. And the attacks are ongoing, and more will come one after another,’ said Zawahiri, according to a transcript provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, based in Washington, DC.

“Al Qaeda’s Yemen arm said on Friday it was behind coordinated attacks on security offices in the Arabian peninsula state in which four people were killed, and threatened more strikes on Yemeni targets.

Gunmen on motorcycles stormed police and intelligence offices in south Yemen and opened fire on July 14, part of a series of recent al Qaeda attacks in response to a government crackdown.

Suspected drug gang members launched a car bomb attack on police in Mexico’s border city of Ciudad Juarez for the first time, killing two police and two medics, a general said Friday.

The attack marked an escalation in Mexico’s brutal drug violence, which has left some 7,000 people dead so far this year, official figures showed Friday, compared with 9,000 killed in the whole of 2009.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes said that gang members had set a trap late Thursday using a wounded person dressed as a municipal police officer to lure federal police to a main intersection, before a car bomb exploded.

‘The supposed police officer had his mouth open, and his hands tied behind his back, which is why medical workers approached him,’ Reyes said.

“The leader of the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group that claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Uganda during the World Cup final is threatening further attacks.

The leader of al-Shabab — Sheik Muktar Abu Zubayr — also thanked the militants who carried out Sunday’s twin bombings in Uganda. The attacks killed 76 people.”