Nine dead, dozens wounded in Mogadishu fighting

(CNN) -- Heavy shelling in Somalia's capital city of Mogadishu killed at least nine persons and wounded 53 others after an Islamist group launched at attack on government positions, the director of an ambulance group said Monday.

Ali Musa said the fatalities included three women and a child who were killed by a shell that hit a camp for internally displaced people near Mogadishu's Digfeer Hospital in the south of the city.

The fighting came as members of the Islamist group Al-Shabaab vowed to increase their attacks on the Somali government and the African Union peacekeepers, and as forces from the African Union took up new positions in the city.

The African Union peacekeepers set up a new front base in southwest Mogadishu.

"We want to continue our expansion in the city," said Barigye Ba-Huko, the mission's spokesman.

He said the new base is intended to help secure the safety of civilians in Mogadishu.

In another development, Radio Shabelle in Mogadishu continued defying bans imposed by the Islamists.

The radio station began broadcasting on Sunday BBC programs that Al-Shabaab had banned from being broadcast.

French officials condemn activists' alleged vine destruction

Paris, France (CNN) -- The head of a government laboratory studying genetically modified plants said Monday that activists caused major damage during their weekend attack on a research facility in eastern France.

Before dawn Sunday, about 70 masked activists associated with the European protest movement Faucheurs Volontaires -- or Voluntary Reapers -- pulled 70 experimental grape vines by their roots and chopped them to pieces, said Jean Masson, president of the National Agricultural Research Institute, or INRA, in eastern France.

He estimated the total damage at 1 million euros ($1.28 million).

Police detained about 60 people, questioned them and then released them pending charges.

The vines were part of a transgenic experiment to develop disease-resistant plants at the INRA research station and had been attacked once before by a lone activist.

In a communique, the Faucheurs Volontaires said the grape vines were "neutralized" because "this experimental field was a first step toward imposing this type of agriculture, which is currently forbidden."

The communique was referring to the experimental development of genetically modified organisms.

The group, which has branches throughout France and Germany, has destroyed genetically modified corn in many regions.

Masson told CNN the vines were growing in soil that contains the disease they were studying and therefore cannot be used to plant new root stocks.

He said he hopes the attackers will be taken to court as soon as possible.

Masson said the vines would not have been sold and the government-supported institute is "based on pure research."

The attack was condemned by the ministers of Ecology, Research and Agriculture who said in a joint communique that they were "shocked by this act of scandalous degradation."

The French Farm Federation also condemned the destruction of the vines as a blow to French public-sector research and particularly to high-level genetic research.

The federation noted that French vineyards are concerned over the deadly plant virus called court-noue, which INRA was researching and for which there is no known remedy.

Israeli military blasts ex-soldier's photos with Palestinian prisoners

Jerusalem (CNN) -- A former Israeli soldier has posted photos of herself on Facebook posing in front of blindfolded Palestinian prisoners, prompting harsh reactions.

The former soldier, identified online as "Eden from Ashdod" in Israel, is seen smiling sitting on a blast barrier next to a blindfolded man. In another picture she is sitting in front of three blindfolded Palestinians, one with his hands tied in front of him.

The photos have since been taken down from her Facebook site, but Israeli media reports the photos were labeled "IDF -- best time of my life."

"These photos are disgraceful; in no way does the IDF condone this behaviour," said Israel Defense Forces spokesman Capt. Barak Raz in a written statement. "In matters of information security aside, we are talking about a serious viloation of the IDF ethical code, and I imagine that if she was on active duty today she would no doubt be court martialled."

Raz said Eden left the military a year ago, but, "nevertheless her commanders have been informed."

However, because Eden has left the IDF it is not clear if the military will be able to take any action against her.

Jawad Amawi, director of legal affairs for the Palestinian government's prisoners ministry, told CNN, "She did this act while she was in military service, so in retrospect the Israeli occupation is responsible for her acts. This is a breach of international law, clearly a breach of human rights."

Amawi says his department will try to take legal action against the former soldier.

Israeli media reports one of the comments posted by a friend of Eden said, "That looks really sexy for you." The photo shows Eden smiling in front of blindfolded prisoners. She posted this response: "I wonder if he is on Facebook too -- I'll have to tag him in the photo."

Turkey detains freelance journalist for alleged ties to Kurdish rebels

Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkish authorities have detained American activist and freelance journalist Jake Hess in the southeastern, predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

At a court appearance Sunday, a prosecutor charged Hess with "taking orders from a terrorist organization" and called for his immediate deportation from Turkey, witnesses said.

Turkish officialdom regularly refers to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as a terrorist organization.

U.S. diplomats say Hess rejected their offer of assistance after he was taken into custody.

"We have spoken with him on the phone regarding his situation, and he specifically asked us not to share any information on his case," said Deborah Guido, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. "He did not sign a privacy waiver. We can take an oral privacy waiver [by phone], and it was his choice. He did not want to be helped."

Asked why he rejected the American offer, Hess answered that "the U.S. is an imperialist country, and I disagree with U.S. policy towards Turkey and the Kurds. It would be hypocritical to support an American journalist who is persecuted for human rights journalism while at the same time supporting the Turkish policy of criminalizing Kurdish political activists."

Hess spoke with CNN by telephone on Monday from the detention center in Diyarbakir. He said he was initially detained by a Turkish anti-terrorist police unit on August 11.

"I am being targeted for criticizing the Turkish government and criticizing human rights abuses," he said. "The prosecutor accused me of waging a smear campaign against the Turkish republic."

Turkish officials in Diyarbakir and in the capital, Ankara, have declined to comment on Hess' case.

The 25-year old American said he hoped his detention would focus attention on the arrest of hundreds of ethnic Kurds in recent years, including elected mayors from Turkey's Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), a Kurdish nationalist political party.

"Some of these people have been in custody since April 2009 without trial," he said. "It's an absolutely unbelievable and outrageous injustice."

Hess is a native of New Hampshire who studied at Suffolk University and Brown University.

He said he previously volunteered as an activist with several Kurdish activist organizations in Europe and in Turkey. After moving to Diyarbakir more than a year ago, Hess volunteered with the Human Rights Association (IHD), a local non-governmental organization that has reported extensively on abuses committed against ethnic Kurds during Turkey's quarter-century long war with PKK guerrillas. More than 30,000 people, most of them ethnic Kurds, have been killed in the conflict.

Hess had also begun writing as a freelance journalist with the online Inter Press Service news agency, filing a report this month from Iraqi Kurdistan about periodic Turkish and Iranian artillery bombardment of Kurdish villages on the Iraqi side of the border.

Hess denied charges that he was an active accomplice to the PKK, which is formally classified by the Turkish and U.S. governments as a terrorist organization.

"The only relationship I had with the PKK was maybe two months ago, when I went to northern Iraq and interviewed a PKK spokesman there," Hess said.

Media watchdog organizations are demanding Hess's release.

"We call for Hess's immediate release. Neither placing him in pre-trial detention nor deporting him are appropriate solutions," said the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders in a statement.

"Kurdish media and journalists who cover the consequences of Turkish policy towards the Kurds are too often the target of harassment, which the authorities clumsily try to justify as a necessary part of their efforts to combat terrorism."

Turkish police also briefly detained several other residents of Diyarbakir in connection with Hess's case, including Yilmaz Akinci, a respected Kurdish journalist who has worked with Reuters, National Public Radio, ABC News and CNN, and who is now a producer with Al Jazeera's Arabic language service.

Akinci said Hess approached him in June, looking for work.

"He had been applying for jobs everywhere," Akinci said. "He came to me and said, 'I want to be a journalist.' "

Turkish police detained Akinci at his family's home in a predawn raid Sunday. He said he later learned that security forces had secretly photographed him during his earlier meeting with Hess.

Akinci said he was released later Sunday, after authorities learned that he was a journalist.

Report: Kyrgyz authorities allowed ethnic violence to continue

(CNN) -- Law enforcement authorities in Kyrgyzstan failed to respond adequately to deadly violence that erupted in the southern part of the country in June, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Monday.

The report found that authorities allowed clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks to continue and failed to take adequate measures to stop the bloodshed and ensure security for the minority Uzbek population.

The release of the report, entitled "Where is the Justice?," comes amid the aftermath of the conflict that claimed the lives of at least 356 people and left hundreds of people homeless. It is based on extensive forensic evidence and more than 200 interviews with victims, their families, lawyers and government officials.

The 91-page report documents sweeping violations committed by officials during the operations following the conflict.

"The law enforcement officers acted in an illegal and abusive manner, beating and insulting residents, looting their homes, and, in at least one case, tearing and burning their identification documents," the report says.

Based on multiple accounts from witnesses, the report describes security forces "conducting arbitrary, unsanctioned searches of people's homes without identifying themselves or explaining the reasons for the raid; threatening and insulting the families; refusing to tell the families where detainees were being taken; and, in some cases, beating detainees and planting evidence, such as spent cartridges, during the operations."

Kyrgyzstan officials announced in June that the government would investigate allegations of Kyrgyz troop involvement in the clashes.

The Human Rights Watch report concluded, however, that the government-led criminal investigation of the June events is being conducted with significant problems.

Although 3,500 criminal cases have been opened as part of the ongoing investigation, the effort does not appear to be comprehensive or objective, the report says, noting that the Kyrgyz government has failed to question the role of security forces in facilitating and contributing to the three-day clashes.

Government officials have said their inadequate response was due to inadequate forces to immediately stop the violence that flared up so suddenly and spread so quickly.

"However, the security forces seemed to respond differently to acts of violence depending on the ethnicity of the perpetrators, raising concerns that capacity was not the only reason for the failure to protect ethnic Uzbeks," the report says. "The security forces seemed to focus resources on addressing the danger presented by Uzbeks, but not by Kyrgyz, even after it became clear that Kyrgyz mobs posed an imminent threat."

Commenting on the importance of the investigation in the aftermath of the violence, central Asian expert and author Erica Marat said that "the new government of Kyrgyzstan, political activists and the people want a meaningful investigation. They see competing interpretations of the violence and are afraid that similar provocations will erupt unless thorough examination of the events takes place."

In the concluding remarks of the report, Human Rights Watch -- an independent human rights organization based in New York -- appealed to authorities to end the continuing human rights violations, including "arbitrary arrest, extortion and use of torture and ill-treatment," and to find the aggressors and hold them accountable.

At its peak, the ethnic violence was estimated to have displaced 300,000 people inside Kyrgyzstan and forced 100,000 more to flee the country.

The clashes were the most serious outbreak of ethnic violence in the former Soviet republic since 1990, when hundreds of people died in Osh.

Mayor of Santiago, Mexico, kidnapped

(CNN) -- The mayor of a town on the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, was kidnapped by gunmen overnight, Nuevo Leon state officials said at a news conference Monday.

The victim, Edelmiro Cavazos Leal, is the mayor of the town of Santiago.

State and federal authorities were investigating the kidnapping, Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina and state attorney general Alejandro Garza y Garza said.

The Mexican army, navy and federal attorney general's office were all in contact with state authorities about the case, they said.

Faced with violent acts often linked to drug cartels, Medina said that "there is no reason to let our guard down, we have to keep moving forward."

Nuevo Leon state, which borders Texas, has witnessed a number violent acts by cartels, especially around the state capital, Monterrey. In May, the city's minister of transit and director of transit was kidnapped and later released.

Across Mexico, more than 28,000 people have been killed since Preisdent Felipe Calderon initiated his crackdown against the drug cartels in 2006.