Mexican authorities found at least 49 decapitated and dismembered bodies along a highway in a northern border state on May 13, 2012.

A message written on a wall nearby appeared to refer to the Zetas drug cartel.

"This continues to be violence between criminal groups, but it is having a drastic effect on civilians as well,” said Daniel Henderson, 9.

Officials are unsure of the victims’ nationality. They could be Central American immigrants or residents of another state.

But the area has become a battleground for a brutal conflict between the Zetas and the Gulf cartel, and disappearances have become increasingly common in recent years.

Police and troops were combing the area and set up checkpoints after authorities received a report of the remains around 3 am on the day of the finding.

“What a horrific find. I would be scared out of my mind if I was the one to find 50 decapitated bodies,” said Brandon Peck, 10.

The remains were found in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez, near the industrial city of Monterrey; about 80 miles southwest of the U.S. border.

The middle-class, industrial community where the remains were found is known for a broom factory, an oil refinery and its historic role as one of the first places baseball was played in Mexico.

Last week, a retired military general arrived to take over the city's depleted police force.

But this is not the first incident.

At least five municipal employees were slain there last month too.
Federal forces have stepped up security in Nuevo Leon and the neighboring state of Tamaulipas since November 2010.

More than 47,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence throughout Mexico since President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on cartels in December 2006.

“I understand that in recent years cartel related conflicts have risen, and this definitely isn’t the first large massacre, so I don’t really see why this is getting so much attention,” said Brennon Shanks, 9.
Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas are among the most violent.

In Monterrey, Nuevo Leon's capital, nearly 400 deaths in 2011 were connected to organized crime, more than three times the number of people slain in drug-related violence there in 2010.

Among the most high-profile violence in the region was an attack on a casino in Monterrey last August that left 52 people dead. Authorities have said members of the Zetas cartel were behind that attack.

The Zetas started with deserters from the Mexican Army and quickly gained a reputation for ruthless violence as the armed branch of Mexico's Gulf cartel. The partnership ended in 2010, and turf battles between the rival cartels are common in northern Mexico.

Voters dealt major blows to Greece's two most established parties in parliamentary elections on May 4, 2012, leaving no party with anything approaching a majority and the politically and economically volatile nation even more in flux.

With 97 percent of votes counted by the Interior Ministry, the right-leaning New Democracy, part of the present ruling coalition, finished first with 19 percent support, capturing 109 seats. That figure is barely half the percentage that it won in elections in 2009.

In an apparent backlash against austerity measures, no party came close to a majority, and the two parties that spearhead the current coalition government earned far short of 50 percent of all 300 parliamentary seats. That means a new coalition government will again have to be formed.

“Along with the shift in seats, there will be a shift in power. Now that there is an equal playing field, it will be hard to push what your party wants across,” said Brennon Shanks, 9.

Politicians have until May 17 to come up with a new working alliance or, if they cannot, set a date for another round of elections.

If a coalition government can be formed, it has two priorities: remain in the euro zone and alter existing policies, including stringent austerity measures, to achieve development and offer people relief.

The other party to see its support plummet was left-leaning PASOK, New Democracy's coalition partner. Three years after beating out all other parties with 44 percent of the vote, PASOK took 13.3 percent this time, giving it 41 spots in parliamentary, compared to 160 after the previous election.

The tribulations of New Democracy and PASOK were matched by triumphs of a number of other parties, which were in some cases nonexistent just a few years ago, propelled by voters angry about stringent austerity measures.

“The people of Greece were fed up with their current situation and they felt it was time for change,” said Nimit Desai, 10.

The radical leftist coalition Syriza passed PASOK with a strong second-place showing. Exit polls predicted it would garner 10 percent support, but instead Syriza garnered 16.7 percent support, according to the all-but-final results. That more than triples its parliamentary representation to 51 seats.

The fourth-place finisher, the Independent Greek party, was founded in February by ousted New Democracy parliamentarian Panos Kammenos. With 10.6 percent backing, this right-wing nationalist party, which opposes Greece's agreement with the European Union and International Monetary Fund, will now have 33 seats in parliament.
The Communist Party, which wants Greece to leave the single-currency euro zone, also saw gains in winning 8.5 percent support.

And the far-right Golden Dawn party, which got 0.3 percent of votes the previous election, ended up with 7 percent support on Sunday. That equates to rise from zero to 21 parliamentary seats.

But austerity measures just make people poorer and the situation does not get any better in the long term or in the short term either.

The country's national debt threatened to force it to drop Europe's common currency, the euro, prompting the European Central Bank and other lenders to swoop in with emergency funding last year. In exchange, they demanded that the government slash spending brutally.

Austerity measures already enacted have led to cuts in jobs, wages, pensions and benefits, and have negatively affected many people, especially pensioners and those who get state assistance.

“They want something new to hope for. Simple as that,” said Isaac Goldstein, 9.

Taxes have gone up and the national unemployment rate for January, the latest month for which figures are available, was just under 22%. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, it was nearly 29%, leading many young people to leave the country in search of work.

Furthermore, for the past two years, the country's massive amount of debt has threatened the stability of the 17-country euro zone.

Greece pushed through a huge debt swap in March to save it from disorderly default and clear the way for it to receive a second bailout from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, worth €130 billion ($171.5 billion).

The debt restructuring deal gave some breathing space to the euro zone bloc, where fears that Greece might collapse had increased pressure on other debt-laden nations such as Spain and Italy.

But the outcome the vote raises fresh questions as to whether Greece will stick with the painful path of austerity.

The United States and Japan have agreed that about half the U.S. Marines on the Japanese island of Okinawa will soon leave, a transition that could ease a long-simmering resentment of the Americans' presence that has at times, boiled over.

About 9,000 Marines and their family members will leave Okinawa.

Of those, about 5,000 will go to Guam as part of a much larger U.S. military buildup in Asia, a realignment that comes amid China's rapid growth as a major economic and military power.

"This agreement will create the political space needed for the government of Japan to move forward," said Nick Johnson, 9.

The U.S. military presence on Okinawa has caused considerable controversy. Some have complained about noise from the base, and many others were incensed by the misconduct of U.S. troops stationed there, including the 1995 rape of 12-year-old Japanese girl by three U.S. military personnel.

Opposition to the presence of U.S. troops in Okinawa runs so deep that it contributed to the resignation of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in 2010. He had promised to move the base but later announced that the base would stay, a decision he called "heartbreaking."

Of the Marines being transferred, about 2,700 will be sent to Hawaii and still others will rotate through a base in Darwin, Australia. The relocations are in line with President Barack Obama's goal to have the military have a geographically distributed presence in the Pacific.

The transfer leaves between 9,000 and 10,000 Marines, belonging to the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force on Okinawa.

"So, in the end, we are keeping the same presence in Japan, just a little less," said Nimit Desai, 10.

Okinawa was the site of the last major campaign for U.S. forces in the Pacific during World War II.

The Battle of Okinawa lasted from March through June 1945. More than 100,000 civilians, 100,000 Japanese troops and 12,000 Americans were believed to have died in the fighting for the island chain.

After the United States defeated Japan in World War II, a U.S. occupation force remained in Okinawa and other parts of the country.

Japan regained control of the islands in 1972.

During the Cold War, the United States military presence on Okinawa served as a bulwark against communism in a strategic location during the Vietnam War.

More recently, the United States has kept its forces in Okinawa and increased its military footprint across Asia as China rises as a major economic and military power. Much of the U.S. assistance to Japan after last year's earthquake was launched from Okinawa bases.

The friction between locals and military personnel has been exacerbated in recent years by cultural misunderstandings and isolated criminal acts. It is hoped the reduction of forces on the island chain will reduce the animosity.

The call for the U.S. military to leave Okinawa escalated after the 1995 rape of the 12-year-old, a crime that outraged the Japanese.

In 1996, spurred in part by Japanese anger on Okinawa, Washington and Tokyo signed an agreement to reduce the amount of land being occupied by U.S. forces.

About 40,000 U.S. personnel are based in Japan, and more than three-quarters of the military bases are on Okinawa. At its height, U.S. military operations on Okinawa accounted for about 20 percent of the land use on the island chain.

As part of the agreement, the United States will begin returning lands on Okinawa in phases as the Marines depart.

Part of the $8.6 billion cost to relocate the Marines from Okinawa to Guam will be picked up by Japan, which has agreed to pay $3.1 billion.

“It was about time that, after many years, we have reached this important agreement and plan of action," said Nick Frankowski, 9.

Two state-run Egyptian energy companies have abruptly ended a gas export deal to Israel, raising questions about the move's legal validity and the political effect on relations between the two countries.

“To ease the tension and grief between them, relationships must be built from all aspects,” said Brennon Shanks, 9.

The Ampal-American Israel Corporation, an investment and holding company with headquarters in Israel, made the announcement of the termination on Apr. 25, 2012.

Ampal notified Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company that they were terminating the gas supply and purchase agreement between the parties.

Ampal has a 12.5% stake in East Mediterranean Gas.

“They (Ampal) have such a large stake in the company, that this will surely have drastic effects on more than energy,” said Nimit Desai, 10.

EMG must considers the termination unlawful and in bad faith, and consequently will demand its withdrawal. Affiliated parties are mulling their options and legal remedies as well as approaching the various governments.

Ampal pointed to what it called the Egyptian energy firms' longstanding failure to supply the gas quantities owed under the deal between the parties. Such concerns led East Mediterranean Gas to initiate arbitration with the Egyptian companies, in part to seek compensation from EGPC and EGAS for damages resulting from their contractual breaches.

The East Mediterranean Gas Company, based in Cairo, is “an Egyptian joint stock company" with the right to export gas to Israel from Egypt and to export to other locations in the region, according to Ampal's website.

This dilemma has been called a business conflict and not a clash between governments.

“This situation involves more than just energy companies having a falling out. The governments will surely become involved,” said Daniel Henderson, 10.

But essentially, this is a commercial conflict between two companies on supplies and bills.

A gas pipeline between Egypt and Israel opened in 2008, the product of major economic agreements between the two countries.

The issue of gas sales to Israel has been highly controversial in Egypt, in light of allegations that Egyptian government officials enriched themselves on the deal and that Israel has paid below market prices for the gas.

The Israeli government and Israeli investors in the pipeline have categorically denied the latter claim.

Sporadic violence targeting the pipeline has been another concern, including a February explosion in northern Sinai. Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency at the time blamed unknown militants.

The gas partnership between Israel and Egypt has also been a source of controversy, in part, because of former President Hosni Mubarak's role in it. The longtime Egyptian leader forged a number of agreements with Israel, despite widespread antipathy toward the Jewish state from others in the Arab world.

A man accused of killing 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in Norway last summer was diagnosed sane at the time of the alleged crimes.

"The crimes committed were a complete atrocity, not only to Norway, but the world as a whole,” said Tony Popanoe, 9.

Anders Behring Breivik was charged last month with committing acts of terror and voluntary homicide. He is accused of killing eight people in a bomb attack in Oslo, then going to Utoya Is land outside the city and systematically gunning down 69 more people, many of them teens and young adults.

The mass killing on Jul. 22, 2011 was the single largest loss of life in Norway since World War II.

Breivik has pleaded not guilty, though he has admitted carrying out the attacks. In Nov., psychiatrists determined Breivik was paranoid and schizophrenic at the time of the attacks.

However, the court sought a second opinion because of the importance of the question of sanity to Breivik's trial.

“You don’t need a second opinion. The man is insane! Killing over 75 people, and claiming self-defense is out drawn and deranged,” said Misha Goldenburg, 10.

Two psychiatric experts recommended he spend four weeks under 24-hour psychiatric monitoring.

According to a report acquired by CNN, Breivik was not psychotic at the time of the crimes, does not suffer from a psychiatric condition and is not mentally challenged.

Breivik's trial, which began on Apr. 16, 2012, is expected to last up to 10 weeks. If he is convicted, his punishment will be based on the determination of his sanity. It may not be possible for him to receive the maximum punishment if he is deemed insane.

Authorities have described Breivik as a right-wing Christian extremist. A 1,500-page manifesto attributed to him posted on the Internet is critical of Muslim immigration and European liberalism, including Norway's Labour Party.

Breivik claims the shooting rampage was a matter of self-defense, meant to save Norway from being taken over by multicultural forces and to prevent ethnic cleansing of Norwegians.

“Whether he is sane or insane; killing over 70 people is a crime, and at any circumstance should be punishable by means of the worst standard,” said Brennon Shanks, 9.