FORT BRAGG ( Female Capt alleged General Sinclair threatened to KILL her ) Sexual assault

Aide: General in sex case threatened to kill her

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FILE - This undated file photo provided by the U.S. Army shows Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair. Sinclair, who served five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been charged with forcible sodomy, multiple counts of adultery and having inappropriate relationships with several female subordinates, two U.S. defense officials said in September. The military judicial hearing scheduled Monday, Nov. 5, 2012, for Brig. Gen. Jeffery Sinclair will be at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. (AP Photo/U.S. Army, File) — AP

By MICHAEL BIESECKER, Associated Press

5:44 a.m., Nov. 6, 2012

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A female U.S. Army captain testified Tuesday that her commanding general initiated a sexual affair during a combat tour in Iraq and threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone.

The woman said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair was extremely controlling, even telling her how much water to drink and when and where she could use the bathroom during a later combat tour in Afghanistan.

She said she repeatedly tried to end the relationship and asked Sinclair, a married man, for a transfer.

On two occasions, she testified the general ended such conversations by exposing himself and physically forcing her to perform oral sex. The Associated Press does not identify victims of alleged sexual assaults.

When a prosecutor asked if Sinclair should have been able to tell that she did not want to participate, the captain responded: "Yes, I was crying."

The woman testified on the second day of a military hearing at Fort Bragg on whether there was enough evidence to court-martial Sinclair on charges including forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct and engaging in inappropriate relationships.

It is a rare criminal case against a general and the details from the hearing are the first public narrative of the alleged offenses that prosecutors say involved a total of five women: four of them military subordinates and one a civilian.

During the testimony, the woman often broke down in tears as she recounted their 3-year relationship. As she spoke, Sinclair repeatedly rolled his eyes, sighed audibly and stared at his former aide from the defense table as she sobbed. She did not look back at him.

The woman says she was honored at first by the attention from Sinclair, who she said was highly regarded. They first had sex in 2008 at a forward operating base in Iraq, she said.

"I was extremely intimidated by him. Everybody in the brigade spoke about him like he was a god," she said.

The captain testified that she believed Sinclair's threats to kill her because he had gone through Ranger training, knew how to kill with his hands and had a reputation as being unfazed by violence in battle.

Sinclair was deputy commander in charge of logistics and support for the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan before being abruptly relieved in May during the criminal probe. He has been on special assignment since then at Fort Bragg, the sprawling post that is home to the 82nd Airborne.

Sinclair's former commanding officer, Maj. Gen. James Huggins, testified Monday that he launched the criminal investigation on March 19 after the captain came to his office at the division's headquarters in Afghanistan late at night and in tears.

She reported that she had been involved in an affair with Sinclair. Adultery is a crime under the military code of justice and Huggins said the captain understood that making such a report could end her military career. After making her report, her security clearance was suspended and she was relieved of her duties. The captain was also referred for a mental health assessment.

ARIZONA ( 300,000 thousand in Copper plates- Headed to China ) BIG BUST by U.S Customs

Stolen Asarco plates were headed for China, DPS says

A.E. ARAIZA / ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Copper plates stolen from the Asarco mine in Hayden were on display Tuesday during an Arizona Department of Public Safety news conference. Copper recovered near Tucson was valued at more than $300,000. Another $1.25 million worth was seized in Los Angeles. "Our detectives just followed the money, which took them from Southern Arizona all the way to China," said the DPS director.

2012-11-14T00:01:00Z2012-11-14T08:07:58ZStolen Asarco plates were headed for China, DPS saysKimberly Matas Arizona Daily StarArizona Daily Star

10 hours ago • Kimberly Matas Arizona Daily Star

(41) Comments

A local investigation of copper theft has uncovered a large-scale operation to steal millions in unrefined metal and ship it to China.
Arizona Department of Public Safety investigators were tipped off to the thefts by security personnel at the Asarco mine in Hayden, about 70 miles northeast of Tucson. Mine security tracked flatbed trucks of copper plates to a ranch on state trust land in Marana, said Capt. Ken Hunter after a news conference Tuesday in Tucson.
The plates of unrefined copper, containing traces of gold and silver, measure 4 feet square and weigh between 820 and 880 pounds. They are valued at $3,488 apiece.
At the ranch, in the 6300 block of West Tangerine Road west of Twin Peaks Road, the plates were loaded into box trucks and driven to a Los Angeles seaport for shipment to Hong Kong, the DPS said.
There are only two facilities Asarco sends the plates for refining - Amarillo, Texas, and Hayden, Hunter said.
"This we should not see heading to California," he said, pointing to the flatbed of anodes displayed in the DPS parking lot.
DPS investigators pulled over a box truck on Interstate 10 just north of the Pinal County line on Sept. 27 and found 49 copper plates. A search of the property turned up another 56 plates, plus three tractor-trailer rigs and a forklift. Total copper recovered in the Tucson area was valued at more than $300,000, said Robert Halliday, director of the Arizona DPS.
Further investigation by the DPS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the seaport turned up another 359 stolen plates in six containers. Their total value: $1.25 million, according to authorities.
Customs officers stopped three of the containers from leaving the seaport a day before their scheduled departure and ordered the return of three others on ships that had already departed.
"Our detectives just followed the money, which took them from Southern Arizona all the way to China," Halliday said.
However, 240 stolen plates remain missing, DPS Capt. Ryan Young said.
Because the investigation is ongoing, Young would not comment on arrests made or the scope of the operation except to say: "It's a significant number of people involved."
The price of copper increased by more than 500 percent between 2001 and 2008, according to the FBI.
On its website, the agency stated: "The demand for copper from developing nations such as China and India is creating a robust international copper trade." Therefore, "the market for illicit copper will likely increase."

MEXICO ( Women go on HUNGER STRIKE to pressure Government ) The Missing

Tuesday, November 13, 2012 | Borderland Beat ReporterHavana Pura

Borderland Beat

Relatives of people who have gone missing in Mexico are camped out in front of the country’s Interior Ministry on hunger strike. Shannon Young reports.

The women began their hunger strike on Tuesday as part of a last-ditch effort to pressure the federal government to take action on the issue of disappearances before the current administration leaves office.
The cold early Monday became the seventh consecutive day of the hunger strike undertaken by a group of women fighting against impunity in Mexico where kidnapped family members are killed and have not received justice.

But the hunger strike isn’t the only effort to keep the issue of drug war victims in the public eye and on the government’s agenda ahead of the change of power.

Mexico’s drug war has produced a series of hard-to-fathom statistics. More than 60 thousand people have been killed in the past 6 years. Thousands of others have gone missing. And now – an extensive investigation by the newspaper Milenio reveals tens of thousands of unidentified bodies found on the streets or elsewhere were buried in mass graves dug by the government over the past 6 years.

 

As part of its investigation, Milenio sent out more than 470 public information requests to government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. It found the unidentified, unclaimed bodies of more than 24 thousand people have been buried in formal mass graves in Mexico over the last six years.

While that’s a staggering figure, it’s far below the real number of John and Jane Does buried nationwide. Six of Mexico’s 31 states did not provide data in response to Milenio’s requests.

Mexico has thousands of cases of missing and disappeared persons and victims’ relatives have become increasingly vocal about what they say is the government’s lack of political will to deal with the issue.

The Movement of Embroidery for Peace in Mexico announced that on Saturday, December 1, 2012, the last day of Felipe Calderón's term, it will mount exhibits of hundreds of handkerchiefs embroidered with the names of those killed, missing and threatened throughout the administration. These exhibits will be mounted not only in various Mexican cities but abroad. In a statement, the activists said that these pieces of cloth embroidered by bereaved families are "the true memorial to victims of the war against organized crime" and are the symbol with which they want to bid farewell to the Calderón presidency.

 

San Diego man ( Doing life in prison for murder- shot and killed by prison guards ) Susanville

Christopher A. Sanchez

A 23-year-old San Diego man who was fatally shot by prison guards while he was attacking another inmate was identified Tuesday as convicted murderer Christopher A. Sanchez, prison officials said.

Sanchez was serving a sentence of 85 years to life in prison for the 2009 murder of Marcella Peraza at an Encanto birthday party. He was also convicted of attempted murder for wounding a 19-year-old man.

He had fought with others outside the party, then later fired shots into a residential street, striking the victims.

Sanchez was serving time at High Desert State Prison in Susanville when he and another inmate attacked a third on Friday morning, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The victim was stabbed with an improvised weapon.

Sanchez and his accomplice ignored numerous orders from correctional officers to stop, and one guard fired at Sanchez, prison officials said.

The 29-year-old victim suffered numerous stab wounds and injuries to his head. The other attacker was not wounded. Authorities have not released their names.

IRAN ( JUSTICE for blogger -3 suspects arrested for his death )

Iran: Dead blogger's interrogators arrested

Source: Radio Zamaneh An Iranian website linked to the Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Monday that three of Sattar Beheshti's interrogators have been arrested in connection with the probe into the prisoner's death while in custody. "Following the firm orders from the head of the judiciary for a speedy probe into the case of Sattar Beheshti's death, three of the officials in charge of the prisoner's interrogation have been arrested and handed over to the armed forces court," the report indicates. Yesterday, the judiciary finally announced that it is looking into the death of Sattar Beheshti, the 35-year-old blogger who died days after he was arrested on October 30. The Report in Iran Website gives no further details, but in an interview with the Asr-e Iran website, the head of the Tehran Police force announced that the cyber police had been in charge of Beheshti's arrest. Hossein Sajedinia said that the blogger was arrested on the charge of committing cyber crimes. Beheshti reportedly wrote a letter describing details of his torture, and his fellow inmates in section 350 of Evin Prison, who saw him two days after he was arrested, have written another letter confirming that they saw signs of torture all over his body. Today, the head of Parliament's National Security Commission, which has struck a committee to look into the death of Beheshti, said preliminary information about the case indicates there was no sign of torture on the dead prisoner's body.

TEHRAN ( Iran says it did not KILL BLOGGER who died last week ) In JAIL for blogging

Jailed Blogger Not Tortured Before Death, Iran Says

 

Published: November 12, 2012     

TEHRAN — An influential Iranian lawmaker said Monday that a blogger who died last week while in captivity had not been tortured during interrogations.

      

 

“According to a preliminary report, no traces of beating were seen on his body,” the lawmaker, Alaeddin Borujerdi, told the semiofficial Islamic Students News Agency. However, Mr. Borujerdi, who heads the National Security and Foreign Policy Committees in Parliament, called for further investigation into the case, a rare instance in which Iran’s Parliament and judiciary followed up a human rights complaint that was first raised internationally.

Iran’s judiciary also confirmed the death of the blogger, Sattar Beheshti, 35, acknowledging that five bruises were found on his body, but said the cause of death was still being investigated. He was held in the Kahrizak police prison south of Tehran, where three people died during the antigovernment protests in 2009.

“His body showed no fractures of bones, nor did his skull,” a judiciary spokesman, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, told reporters at his weekly news conference on Monday. He added that a doctor in Evin prison, where Mr. Beheshti was held temporarily before being transferred to Kahrizak, had reported that the blogger was “extremely exhausted” and had recommended a psychiatric evaluation.

The death of Mr. Beheshti, a government critic who was regarded as a relatively minor figure among Iran’s bloggers, has provoked outrage among both opponents and supporters of Iran’s leaders. Foreign-based opposition media have said he was tortured to death, while officials and pro-government bloggers were upset that state news media initially ignored the matter, creating a long silence that made the authorities appear indifferent.

The judiciary spokesman said Mr. Beheshti was arrested on Oct. 30 upon the request of Iran’s cyberpolice, known here as FATA.

Since its establishment in January 2011, FATA has arrested several bloggers who had been critical of Iran’s leaders, and also a group of youths who had created a “hot or not” contest on Facebook rating profile pictures of boys and girls.

Mr. Beheshti’s Web site, “My Life for My Iran,” criticized Iran’s financial contributions to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon. On his Web site Mr. Beheshti posted pictures of Lebanese youths having parties alongside images of Iranians living in poverty.

A day before his arrest, Mr. Beheshti published a post saying that officers had warned him in a telephone call that his “mother should soon don a black shroud because you refuse to shut your big mouth.” But, he added, “I will not remain silent even at the moment of my death.”

Victoria Secret ( NATIVE American groups lash out at war bonnet ) Cultural stereotyping

The annual Victoria's Secret fashion show taped last Wednesday caused a minor stir last week — but not because of any sexy underwear on display.

Model Karlie Kloss (pictured at left) set off some controversy when she walked the runway wearing a Native American headdress (also called a war bonnet), a culturally insensitive faux pas that led the company to pull the footage of the offending outfit from its planned Dec. 4 broadcast.
Several Native American groups called the lingerie company out for the blunder. Native Appropriations, a blog covering imagery of indigenous cultures, accused the retailer of "egregious cultural appropriation, stereotyping, and marginalizing of Native peoples." Ruth Hopkins, a columnist for a Native American news site, wrote that "after years of patronage and loyalty to the Victoria's Secret brand, I am repaid with the mean-spirited, disrespectful trivialization of my blood ancestry and the proud Native identity I work hard to instill in my children." Putting a headdress on a white model is particularly offensive, she wrote, because among the Sioux tribe, war bonnets are exclusively worn by men, with each feather symbolizing an act of valor.

CALIFORNIA ( 2 are Dead after eating soup with poisonous MUSHROOMS )

• Enlarge PhotoAmanita phalloides

Two residents of an elderly care center are dead and four people are in the hospital after a caregiver allegedly served soup made from poisonous wild mushrooms.

The deceased victims are 86-year-old Barbara Lopes and 73-year-old Teresa Olesniewicz, who lived at the Gold Age Villa in Loomis, Calif., according to the Sacramento Bee. A caregiver reportedly foraged mushrooms on the grounds of the senior living center before using them in a meal.

The poisonings are believed to be accidental, and the caregiver who allegedly prepared the soup is one of the people hospitalized, Sheriff's Lt. Mark Reed told the Associated Press. The three others hospitalized were elderly residents of the Gold Age Villa.

The variety of poisonous mushrooms that were used in the soup is yet unknown, but Dr. Todd Mitchell, a Santa Cruz, Calif., doctor who is reportedly consulting on treatment of one of the patients, told NBC News that the patient is suffering from amatoxin poisoning. [10 Most Common Poisonous Plants]

ARIZONA ( Woman runs HUSBAND over with family SUV ) Because he failed to vote

Police say a woman who was upset over the outcome of the presidential election ran over her husband because he didn't participate in his civic duty.

Police allege Holly Solomon ran over her husband after they had an argument over the 2012 presidential election.

/Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Holly Solomon, 28, chased her 36-year-old husband Daniel Solomon with the family Jeep SUV on Saturday night over a political argument stemming from the fact he didn't vote, CBS station KPHO in Phoenix, Ariz. reported. She pinned him between the underside of the SUV and the curb when he tried to run for help.

The husband told investigators that Solomon believed her family was going to face hardship from President Barack Obama's re-election.

Witnesses told police that Solomon followed her husband in her car through a parking lot while screaming at him. He hid behind a light pole to protect himself while Solomon circled several times. She struck him as he tried to make a break for the main road.

There were no signs Solomon was impaired either by alcohol or drugs, KPHO said.

She was booked on an aggravated assault and domestic violence.

Her husband remains in critical condition at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center, news outlet Arizona Republic reported.

It's not clear whether Solomon has a lawyer. She had no listed phone number.

CULVER City ( Woman Raped on Bus for 10 MINUTES ) L .A county

Woman raped for 10 minutes on Metro bus, authorities say

November 8, 2012 | 7:13pm

 

An 18-year-old woman was raped for about 10 minutes on a Metro bus as it drove through Culver City, authorities said Thursday evening.
The attack took place in the rear of the near-empty bus Wednesday evening and went unnoticed by the driver, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
"During the rape, an unknown witness, the only passenger on the bus, attempted to get the driver's attention," the department said in a statement.
But the suspect left the 217 bus before the driver became aware of the assault, according to the department. The suspect got off at the last stop where the bus makes its turnaround at Sepulveda Boulevard near Slauson Avenue.
The victim was described by authorities as having the mental capacity of a 10-year-old. She reported the attack to the driver after the suspect was gone.
Detectives said the attacker is African American and between 18 and 20 years old. He is 5-feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall with short-cropped hair and was wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt with narrow horizontal stripes, authorities said.
Detectives were also seeking the witness. Anyone with information is asked to call authorities at (866) 247-5877. Anonymous tipsters call call (800) 222-8477.

FLORIDA ( Woman arrested for masturbating in STARBUCKS ) Yes you read it right !

A woman was just taken into custody after she was allegedly caught masturbating in a Florida Starbucks and, when cops came, they found a glass pipe with cocaine residue in her purse.
Um, have you heard of anything more disturbing? I can't imagine this woman doing something so stupid and gross, and in a public place, no less!
According to a police report obtained by TheSmokingGun.com and reported by the New York Daily News, 29-year-old Jennifer Piranian told police officers that she wasn't feeling well when they found her in the Manatee County Starbucks coffee house. The cops had a different story, though, according to Brandenton Police spokesman Josh Cramer:

We got called there by someone who said she was masturbating. She was high on crack with her hands going everywhere. No one could ever say for sure what she was doing, and I'm pretty sure the video didn't show anything definitive. But her hands went into her pants when she was wigging out.

Well, talk about one WEIRD story! It's one thing for this woman to be dumb enough to do cocaine, but a whole other level to carry it with her in her purse and then go to Starbucks–to masturbate! Seriously, what was she thinking? I'm pretty much looking at this one and saying EW.

ARIZONA Donation to California called ' Money Laundering' (Romney's campaign backers)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An $11 million campaign contribution from an Arizona nonprofit that gave money to a group fighting Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative represents the largest case of campaign "money laundering" in state history, California's political watchdog agency charged Monday.

Americans for Responsible Leadership reported the source of its contribution to a political action committee that is active in the November election after the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Sunday that the group must turn over its records.

 

        http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/nov/05/ariz-donation-to-calif-called-money-laundering/?page=1#article               

 

But the disclosure on the eve of Election Day reveals little about the actual source of the money. It shows that ARL received the $11 million from a group called Americans for Job Security through a second intermediary, the Center to Protect Patient Rights. Both are federally registered nonprofits that are not legally required to disclose the source of their funds.

Americans for Job Security has been active in the presidential race, pouring millions of dollars into swing states for independent expenditure ads supporting GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates, and the Center to Protect Patient Rights distributed more than $44 million to more than two dozen conservative advocacy groups during the 2010 midterm elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

INDIANAPOLIS ( Huge Explosion kills 2 people in neighborhood )

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A massive explosion sparked a huge fire and killed two people in an Indianapolis neighborhood where about three dozen homes were damaged or destroyed, authorities said Sunday. The powerful nighttime blast shattered windows, crumpled walls and could be felt at least three miles away.

Seven people were taken to a hospital with injuries after the explosion and fire, Deputy Fire Chief Kenny Bacon said.

Fire Lt. Bonnie Hensley said firefighters put out the flames and then went through the rubble and damaged homes one at a time in case people had been left behind. She said they used search lights until dawn as they peered into the damaged and ruined homes. Two bodies were recovered.

Some witnesses said in televised reports that they heard people screaming "help me! help me!" after the explosion and fire and that two parents and two children were safely pulled from one house that caught fire.

The fire department has not released the names of those killed. Hensley said one body was found in one of the leveled homes after the fire was put out.

The explosion at 11 p.m. Saturday destroyed two houses that were side by side and spread fire to two other nearby homes in the neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis.

TUCSON Az ( ARMED Robbery Safeway- 3 suspects armed with Gun ) Gray hoodies

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -

Tucson Police are investigating an armed robbery at a midtown grocery store.

It happened just before 10:00 p.m. Friday, at the Safeway at East Broadway and South Kino Parkway.

 

Sgt. Chris Widmer tells Tucson News Now, three males wearing red bandanas over there faces and gray hoodies ordered everyone to get on the floor. The trio then stole an undisclosed amount of cash.

Widmer says at least one of the suspects was armed with a gun.

The three were last seen on foot, heading west across Campbell Avenue.

TUCSON Az ( BODY found in burning car Northwest side ) Owner of car out of town

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Pima County Sheriff's deputies say they're trying to find out how a person ended up inside a car that was discovered burning in a northwest Tucson neighborhood.

Sheriff's spokesman deputy Tom Peine (Py-NAH) says deputies were called to a car fire at about 8 p.m. Friday and found a homeowner trying to put out a burning Mercedes-Benz sedan with a garden hose. Once fire crews arrived they put out the flames and discovered the body.
Peine says the car's owner was out of town but said a friend had been staying at his home.
Peine did not say if detectives suspect the friend was the person found in the car and the body has not been identified.
The cause of the person's death and the fire are not yet known.

UPDATE:
A man found dead in a burning car in a Foothills neighborhood last week has been identified as a 54-year-old California resident.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Anthony Walter Patrick Basher was staying at the residence of a friend. The friend owned the car where Basher’s burned body was found.
Basher was a veterinarian in the San Diego area.
Deputy Tom Peine, a sheriff’s spokesman, said deputies were called to the 4500 block of North Caminito Callado, near North Hacienda del Sol and East River Road, at about 8 p.m. Friday. They found a homeowner trying to fight a fire in a burning Mercedes-Benz sedan with a garden hose. Fire crews soon arrived and put out the flames, and discovered the body.
The investigation is continuing, Peine said

United States ( Come January-Hillary CLINTON Gone? ) Secretary of state

Enlarge Photo
Reuters/AFP - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a news conference with the Croatian president after their meetings at the presidency in Zagreb October 31, 2012. NATO member Croatia will …more join the 27-nation EU next year. REUTERS/Saul Loeb/Pool (CROATIA - Tags: POLITICS) less

Come January, the Obama administration will begin again, and a number of people whose names and faces have grown familiar the past four years will leave the public realm for other livelihoods.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and press secretary Jay Carney are preparing for departure. Many also expect Attorney General Eric Holder to be considering an exit.
Foreign Policy
Clinton's position is perhaps most visible. Her management of the department and leadership of America's global diplomacy have won praise from Republicans and Democrats, and the former New York senator and first lady is thought by many to be the most popular member of Obama's Cabinet.
Foreign policy experts see her departure as leaving a gap, because significant problems remain: Iran's suspected ambitions to develop nuclear weapons; violent civil war in Syria; continued fallout from the "Arab spring"; and continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan among them. New challenges include China's slowing economy, coupled with its increasing aggressive response to territorial disputes.
So whose names are being talked about to take over State?
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has emerged as a favorite. Kerry's major strength is deep and longstanding experience on most vital foreign policy issues; he would also likely win easy confirmation by colleagues. But unlike his predecessor, Kerry may struggle to be welcomed into Obama's inner circle.
Kerry's most-cited rival is Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who, unlike Kerry, already has "inner circle" credentials. She has worked daily for years alongside diplomats from America's allies and foes. However, her controversial role in explaining the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack to the public could prompt a difficult confirmation process. Some Republican aides are already saying privately she shouldn't get the job.
It's also possible a Republican might come forward. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman worked for Obama as ambassador to China before returning to make a failed bid for the presidency. One senior Republican foreign-policy hand describes his work in Beijing as "superb, top-rate."
There's always a chance of promotion from within, such as Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. But what about an outsider? Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott held Burns' job under President Bill Clinton.
Another possibility: Nick Burns, who managed policy on Iran's nuclear ambitions under President George W. Bush. Burns publicly praised Obama's handling of the issue.

It's not known yet whether Defense Secretary Leon Panetta plans to leave. But if he does, two front-runners are being mentioned for the job: His deputy, Ashton Carter, and Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary at the Pentagon. Another possibility, though somewhat unlikely, might be retired independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Speculation in Washington also suggested Director of National Intelligence James Clapper might be seeking an exit. He hasn't said he will leave, but if he does, Flournoy is a possible replacement. CIA Director David Petraeus was also mentioned, but news on Friday of his resignation of his position due to an extramarital affair will likely take him off the list. Petraeus, in turn, will be replaced by acting director Michael Morell.

MEXICO ( 14 COPS Charged with Attempted murder of CIA agents )

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico charged 14 federal police officers on Friday with the attempted murder of two CIA operatives after the U.S. agents' vehicle was sprayed with bullets in a brazen daylight attack that security officials suspect was ordered by a drug cartel.

The ambush was initially blamed on a case of mistaken identity, but Mexican security sources said the fact that police officers used AK47 assault rifles and were not wearing uniforms suggested a gang-orchestrated hit.

The August incident, in which the CIA operatives tried to escape the hail of semi-automatic gunfire in a dramatic car chase, was a major embarrassment for the government of outgoing President Felipe Calderon, who has staked his reputation on taming the cartels.

The CIA officers' diplomatic vehicle was peppered with 152 bullet holes. Their injuries were not life-threatening and they were quickly moved out of the country.

The attorney general's office said it charged the 14 federal police officers with attempted murder. "We're not discounting any theory, including that they could be involved with organized crime," an official said on condition of anonymity.

The 14 police officers come from the southern Mexico City district of Tlalpan and were already in police custody, the statement said.

Drug cartels often take advantage of low pay for Mexican police to infiltrate their ranks and put officers on the payroll.

"The reputation of our police was already at rock bottom, and this doesn't help one bit," said Maximiliano Moyano, a criminal lawyer who works on police corruption cases.

The incident was the worst attack against U.S. officials in Mexico since drug-gang assailants killed a U.S. immigration agent and wounded his colleague in a highway attack in early 2011.

The August attack took place near the town of Tres Marias on a road south of Mexico City, and came as increased cooperation between U.S. and Mexican forces seemed to be yielding results in Calderon's six-year offensive against the bloody cartels.

MOSCOW ( Fitness Club Manager-Gets 4 yrs in PRISON ) For protesting

Enlarge Photo

Reuters/Reuters - Opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks during the first meeting of the Russian opposition Coordination Council in Moscow October 27, 2012. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prominent Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny said on Saturday the jail sentence handed to a protester against President Vladimir Putin highlighted the government's harsh approach to dissent.

Fitness club manager Maxim Luzyanin, the first of 17 people arrested during a protest on the eve of Putin's inauguration in May, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years on Friday for "mass disorder" and violence against the police.

"If earlier there were minor administrative arrests, soft harassment, now - jail time," Navalny, one of the top faces during the past year of protests against Putin's 12-year rule, told the OpenSpace.ru political internet portal.

"The time has passed when they were afraid to jail because they didn't want people to think about '37," the blogger added, referring to Great Purge of the 1937, a year of mass political repressions and murders orchestrated by Joseph Stalin.

Luzyanin, one of the "Bolotnaya 17" detained - named after the square where they protested, was the only member of the group to plead guilty.

Opposition activists say the Bolotnaya case could achieve the notoriety of the Pussy Riot trial, in which three members of the punk band were sentenced to two years in jail after performing an anti-Putin song in Moscow's main cathedral in February.

DUBAI ( Iran said it will DEAL with any DRONE in their Airspace ) Iran flexes small muscles

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran said it would deal decisively with any foreign encroachment into its airspace, an apparent warning to the United States after one of its surveillance drones was targeted by Iranian warplanes last week.

On Thursday U.S. officials said the unarmed Predator drone was in international airspace when Iranian warplanes opened fire on it on November 1. The aircraft was not hit.

The intercept was the first time Tehran had fired at an unmanned U.S. aircraft in their 33 year stand-off.

"The defenders of the Islamic Republic will respond decisively to any form of encroachment by air, sea or on the ground," Fars news agency quoted General Massoud Jazayeri, a senior armed forces commander, as saying on Friday.

"If any foreign aircraft attempts to enter our airspace our armed forces will deal with them," he said. Jazayeri did not mention the drone incident specifically.

According to the Pentagon, two Soviet-designed SU-25 aircraft intercepted the Predator drone over Gulf waters about 16 nautical miles off the Iranian coast. After firing at the drone they followed it for several miles as it moved farther away from Iranian airspace.

Washington has issued a formal protest to the Iranian authorities via diplomatic channels.

Details of the incident emerged ahead of large-scale air defense drills due to start across several provinces in eastern Iran this week.

The "Velayat 4" maneuvers will be jointly held by the regular armed forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and will involve testing new radar and surveillance equipment, military commanders say.

TUCSON Az ( Bank ROBBER - Whataburger employee Robbed wells fargo BANK ? ) Wanted

Tucson police are looking for a man in a Whataburger uniform who robbed a Wells Fargo Bank on Wednesday.

The bank, inside the Fry’s store at 4036 N. First Avenue, was robbed just before 5 p.m.
The man entered the bank and presented a robbery note to the teller demanding money and threatening harm. He left with an undisclosed amount of money.

The man is described as being in his mid-20s, about 5-feet, 7-inches tall, 160 pounds with a goatee. He wore black-frame glasses and had braces on his teeth.
He was wearing a Whataburger work uniform, including a baseball hat, orange shirt and tan pants.
Anyone with information can call 911 or 88-CRIME.

IRAN ( 2 Iranian Su-25 fighter Jets FIRE at U.S DRONE ) International airspace

DOD File

WASHINGTON (CNN) -

Two Iranian Su-25 fighter jets fired on an unarmed U.S. Air Force Predator drone in the Persian Gulf last week, CNN has learned.

The incident raises fresh concerns within the Obama administration about Iranian military aggression in crucial Gulf oil shipping lanes.

The drone was in international airspace east of Kuwait, U.S. officials said, adding it was engaged in routine maritime surveillance.

TUCSON Az ( Home Invasion 9 yr old boy and 2 others WANTED ) Oro Valley

Posted: Nov 07, 2012 8:57 PM PSTUpdated: Nov 8, 2012 07:04 AM MST

Posted by Elizabeth Walton - email

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -

Oro Valley Police are asking for the publics help in looking for three suspects involved in the home invasion of an elderly woman last night.

The incident happened on the 11000 block of North Meadow Sage, an elderly woman answered her door to a young boy who asked to use the phone. When she opened the door to let him in two other suspects entered the house, holding weapons. The elderly homeowner was tied up as the three suspects stole items from the house.

They fled in an unknown direction, there was no vehicle seen or heard in the area around the time of the invasion. An aerial DPS unit was called in, but the suspects were not found.

The three suspects are described as the following:

• a white male, between 9 to 10 years old, wearing light blue jeans.
• a white male between 16 to 18 years old, wearing blue jeans and a dark hooded sweatshirt, he was also wearing diamond earrings.
• a white female between 16 to 18 years old, also wearing blue jeans and a dark hooded sweatshirt.

UPDATE  : SUSPECTS  IN CUSTODY

 

ORO VALLEY, AZ (Tucson News Now) -

Three adults and one minor were arrested in connection with an Oro Valley home invasion that occurred Wednesday.

Three people forced their way into a home near La Canada and Naranja at gunpoint.

This arrest happened because of a traffic stop on the suspect vehicle. A total of four suspects, three adults and one minor were taken into custody.

The driver of the vehicle stopped today was identified as Wellington Marin, 40. He is believed to be the driver during the original incident Wednesday.

Also in the car was Jacqueline Michelle Carlson, 37, and 18-year-old Anthony Kane White-Giordano and a 13-year-old boy, who is not believed to be related to any of the other suspects.

According to police, Marin knew the victim and planned the robbery.

He drove the suspects to the area and lured the victim to answer the door by having the 13-year-old ask to borrow the phone.

All four suspects entered the residence where the victim was tied up, choked and held at gun point. After the suspects took jewelry and money they fled the scene.

 

 

 

If anyone has any information about the suspects or the incident they are asked to call 9-1-1 or 88-CRIME, or the Oro Valley Police at (520)229-4900.