In brief: Moderate Syrian rebels losing foothold in Aleppo

REYHANLI, Turkey – Moderate rebel forces are warning that they are in danger of losing their last foothold in Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial center, and that government troops are pressing an offensive that is just three miles from completely cutting rebel supply lines.

Rebel commanders interviewed in recent days in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli said their forces’ position has deteriorated in the month since troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad forced them from the city’s primary industrial zone in the east. Rebel counterattacks have failed to dislodge the government troops, and government attacks from the air are taking a huge toll on rebel formations, the commanders said.

“We are in dangerous need for weapons, especially anti-aircraft missiles,” said Abdullah Rammah, the leader of the Atareb Martyrs Brigade, one of the fighting units in the city that adheres to the Free Syrian Army’s secular agenda.

Aleppo is both strategically and symbolically important to the effort to topple Assad, now well into its fourth year.

Mexico’s president signs landmark energy reforms

MEXICO CITY – President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday signed into law Mexico’s landmark energy reform legislation and announced that his government could name as early as this week the first oil and gas fields that will be opened up to foreign investors.

“It is the moment to put the energy reform into action,” Pena Nieto said in an elaborate signing ceremony at the National Palace.

The new laws, which required amending the Mexican Constitution, will open up oil and gas industries in Mexico to private investment for the first time in more than seven decades.

Officials hope to attract billions of dollars in outside money and bring in the expertise and technology to reverse the country’s declining oil production.