Lawyers

• U.S. to charge Venezuela's National Guard chief with drug trafficking

  U.S. prosecutors are preparing to unveil drug trafficking charges against the head of Venezuela's National Guard, according to people familiar with the case, as the United States investigates the suspected involvement of senior Venezuelan officials in the cocaine trade.

• At least six U.S. states move to arm National Guard offices

  The governors of Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Indiana on Saturday ordered National Guard members at offices and other facilities to be armed in the wake of attacks that left five servicemen dead in Tennessee.

• Pentagon says security at bases in U.S. highest in four years

  The U.S. military has ordered security at its bases around the United States to the highest level in nearly four years, Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday.

• Marchers protest police violence in Baltimore, New York

  Protesters marched against police violence in cities from New York to Denver on Wednesday, and a large demonstration in Baltimore ended peacefully two days after rioting over the death of a black man injured in police custody.

• St. Louis-area mall closes on Black Friday as Ferguson protests spread

  Demonstrators shut down a shopping mall near Ferguson, Missouri, at the start of the holiday shopping season on Friday as protests over the killing of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer turned on some retailers around the country.

• More than 400 arrested as Ferguson protests spread to other U.S. cities

  National Guard troops and police aimed to head off a third night of violence on Wednesday in Ferguson, Missouri, as more than 400 people have been arrested in the St. Louis suburb and around the United States in civil unrest after a white policeman was cleared in the killing of an unarmed black teenager.

• More troops deployed in Ferguson to guard against fresh riots

  Missouri's governor ordered hundreds more National Guard troops on Tuesday to the St. Louis suburb rocked by rioting after a white policeman was cleared in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, while the local mayor said the governor did not do enough to protect businesses from looting.

• Texas to draw down guard troops on border in early 2015: official

  Texas plans to begin winding down its deployment of state National Guard troops to the border with Mexico around March or April of next year, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst told reporters on Wednesday.

• Ukraine prosecutor opens criminal case against Russian officials

  Ukrainian state prosecutors said on Tuesday they had opened a criminal investigation against a Russian law enforcement agency, accusing it of supporting separatist and "terrorist" groups in the east of the country.

• Mexico President slams Texas governor over border crackdown

  Texas Gov. Rick Perry's deployment of National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexican border is "reprehensible" and puts neighborly relations at risk, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said in an interview published on Friday.

• Calm holds in streets of Ferguson, Missouri two weeks after police shooting

  Two weeks after a white policeman shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, smaller, quieter street protests prevailed at the weekend, while supporters of the officer rallied separately and called the shooting justified.

• National Guard start pullout as protests in Ferguson turn calmer

  Missouri's governor ordered National Guard troops to withdraw from the riot-weary town of Ferguson on Thursday as tensions eased after nearly two weeks of racially charged protests over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

• Governor Rick Perry announces plan to amp up Texas-Mexico border with 1,000 National Guards

  Perry, who has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration's efforts to the border crisis has also said that the state of Texas has a responsibility to act after the supposed "lip service" the federal government has been providing in response to the undocumented immigrant issue. Fox News said Perry is mulling to run for the second time as president in 2016.