BOGOTA Colombia ( 9 killed in countryside farm - drug wars )

9 people killed in massacre on Colombian farm

The Associated PressAssociated Press

Posted: 12/31/2012 10:39:17 AM MST

BOGOTA, Colombia—Nine people have been shot to death in the countryside outside Medellin in a massacre police suspect is a settling of accounts between drug traffickers. Gen. Yesid Vasquez is commander of the Metropolitan Police Department in Medellin, Colombia's second largest city. He says that the five men and four women were killed on a farm, apparently in the early morning hours of Monday. Vazquez says the slayings following a Sunday afternoon party at the "extremely luxurious" country home, and the farm's owner is among the dead. The general says that the victims were apparently shot with guns that had silencers, explaining why no one nearby reported hearing gunfire. Santiago Londono, secretary of government for Antioquia department says one woman survived the massacre and is being questioned by investigators.

Pakistan ( Gunmen kill five female teachers- and two aid workers )

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen in northwest Pakistan killed five female teachers and two aid workers on Tuesday in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center, officials said.

The attack was another reminder of the risks to women educators and aid workers from Islamic militants who oppose their work. It was in the same conservative province where militants shot and seriously wounded 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, an outspoken young activist for girls' education, in October.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest shootings.
The van was transporting teachers and aid workers from the center in conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is an area where Islamic militants often target women and girls trying to get an education or female teachers.

Militants in the province have blown up schools and killed female educators. They have also kidnapped and killed aid workers, viewing them as promoting a foreign agenda.

Last month, nine people working on an anti-polio vaccination campaign were shot and killed.

The teachers were killed along with two health workers, one man and one woman. Their driver was wounded. They were on their way home from a community center in the town of Swabi where they were working at a primary school for girls and adjoining medical center.

Swabi police chief Abdur Rasheed said most of the women killed were between the ages of 20 and 22. He said four gunmen who used two motorcycles fled the scene and have not been apprehended.

The gunmen on motorcycles opened fire with automatic weapons, said Javed Akhtar, executive director of the non-governmental organization Support With Working Solutions. The NGO conducts programs in the education and health sectors and runs the community center in Swabi, he said. The group has been active in the city since 1992, and started the Ujala Community Welfare Center in 2010, he added. Ujala means "light" in Urdu.

The center is financed by the Pakistani government's Poverty Alleviation Program and a German organization, said Akhtar.
He said the NGO also runs health and education projects in the South Waziristan tribal area, as well as health projects in the cities of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan and the regions of Lower Dir and Upper Kurram. All of those cities and regions are in northwest Pakistan, the area that has been most affected by the ongoing fight with militants opposed to the current government.

Aid groups such as Support With Working Solutions often provide a vital role in many areas of Pakistan where the government has been unable to provide services such as medical clinics or schools. But in some areas like the northwest, they have had to work to overcome community fears that they are promoting a foreign agenda at odds with local traditions and values.

Akhtar said he has directed staff at all projects to stop working for the time being until security measures are reviewed but vowed that they would resume their work soon.

He said that the NGO had not received any threats before the attack.

In a case in the same province that gained international attention, a Taliban gunman shot 15-year-old Yousufzai in the head last October for criticizing the militants and promoting girls' education. She is currently recovering in Britain.

JAPAN ( Detained 3 Chinese fishermen in Japan waters - They were fined 49,000 dollars )

Japan releases 3 Chinese caught illegally fishing

CrimeJan. 01, 2013 - 05:16AM JST( 0 )

BEIJING —

Three Chinese fishermen detained for illegal fishing in Japan’s waters were released Monday after promising to pay a 4.28 million yen ($49,700) fine, China’s state news agency Xinhua said, citing the consulate general in Fukuoka.

Xinhua said the detention of the three fishermen for unauthorised coral fishing within Japanese waters was “peacefully resolved” within 48 hours.
The detention comes as tensions simmer between China and Japan over ownership of disputed islands near Taiwan, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The dispute had sparked waves of anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities this year.
Chinese fishermen tend to fish in waters far east of China to get away from depleted stocks at home.
The captain of the Chinese fishing boat that was among those detained had admitted to being in Japanese waters, Xinhua said on Sunday.
Japanese news agency Kyodo said separately on Monday that the captain was arrested on Saturday for fishing in Japan’s exclusive economic zone without permission, charges that he admitted to.

MEXICO ( 82 women killed in Juarez in 2012 ) Women's Rights group disagree

Office: 82 women slain in Juárez in 2012

By Juan Antonio Rodríguez \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com

Posted: 09/19/2012 10:31:43 AM MDT

 

A poster about missing women in Juarez was sponsored by a Mexican government agency investigating crimes against women. (Jesus Alcazar / El Paso Times)

Up to 82 women have been slain in Juárez so far this year, and the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office in Juárez is linking 59 of these cases to organized crime.
The 23 other cases are labeled as genre crimes, because the victims were killed with knives, were beaten to death, or sexually assaulted, according to Silvia Nájera, a spokeswoman for the Crimes Against Women Special Unit in Juárez.
Chihuahua authorities attribute 59 slayings to organized crime, because the victims were shot to death, Nájera said.
But advocates for women's rights are in disagreement with the way those homicides are labeled.
"Those cases had not been thoroughly investigated by authorities," said Cecilia Espinosa, a member of Workshop for Women in Juárez. "Therefore, officials weren't able to determine the motive of the killings."
Instead of elaborating on those cases, officials label the victims as if they were at fault, Espinosa said.
Cases of women shot to death are turned over to the office as linked to organized crime, while the rest are handed for investigation to the Crimes Against Women Special Unit, said Arturo Sandoval, spokesman for the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office.
Compared with the past two years, the tally of women slain by organized crime has decreased in 2012, Sandoval said.
Espinosa pointed out the vicious ways the women were killed.
On Sept. 3, Belinda Aidé Moncayo, 42, was killed with an ax, officials said. Her body was found in the Valle de Juárez rural area.


Five women have been killed in Juárez in September alone, officials said.

April was the deadliest month for women, with 18 victims reported, according to figures released by the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office.

Humberto Robles, with the May Our Daughters Come Back Home organization in Juárez, said the impunity of these killings contributes to worsening violence against women.

Authorities "take advantage of the so-called war against drugs cartels to link the victims to organized crime, instead of inquiring into the causes of those killings," Robles said. "It is good fishing in troubled waters, I guess."
Robles said that victims are labeled as prostitutes, the same way they were categorized in the 1990s, he said.

Robles said he doesn't believe the statistics provided by Chihuahua officials because those numbers conflict with figures released by Mexican national news media.

According to figures released by the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office, 98 women were slain in Juárez in 2008. The number of women killed increased in 2009, to 183, and the number in 2010 was 325, when the feud between drug cartels in Juárez peaked.

In 2011, 196 women were killed in Juárez, according to Chihuahua state figures.

A report released by Amnesty International in July indicates that the bodies of 13 young women were discovered in the Valle de Juárez rural area earlier this year.

In addition, 115 young girls remain missing in Juárez, according to the Amnesty International report. Those deaths have not been investigated appropriately and that leads to impunity, according to the report.

WASHINGTON (Hillary Clinton in hospital for blood clot ) Breaking news

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been admitted to a New York hospital after the discovery of a blood clot stemming from the concussion she sustained earlier this month.

 

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines says her doctors discovered the clot during a follow-up exam Sunday. Reines says Clinton is being treated with anti-coagulants.

Clinton was admitted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital so doctors can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours.

Reines says doctors will continue to assess Clinton's condition, "including other issues associated with her concussion."

Iran ( Small American plane breaks down in Iran - Lands in Iranian airport ) Iran helps with repairs

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A small American commercial plane left Iran Sunday after it was repaired following an emergency landing at an Iranian airport this month, state TV reported.

The plane was forced to land 16 days ago at the airport of the southern city of Ahvaz due to technical failure, Mahmoud Rasoulinejad, head of the state-owned Iran Airports Company, told the TV station.

Rasoulinejad said three passengers left Iran for Arab countries in the Gulf, but the plane remained under repair in the airport. He said the plane took off from Iran Sunday upon arrival of needed spare parts and completion of repairs.

It was not clear why the announcement of the plane's landing was not made earlier.

Iran is a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, which requires members to come to the aid of civilian aircraft when requested.

The service was provided though Iran and U.S. are at odds over Tehran's suspect nuclear program. The West believes it might be aimed at weapons development, a charge Iran denies.

A separate report by state TV said the Falcon-900 plane had one passenger and two crew members and was flying to Rotterdam in the Netherlands from Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates when it encountered mechanical difficulties.

It said a French team from Abu Dhabi repaired the plane at Ahvaz airport.

Every day some 500 foreign airplanes pass through Iranian airspace, including 30 American aircraft.

Mexico ( Juarez man tries to hide 74,900 dollars under doughnut box ) Gets busted at border

Juárez man arrested at border, agents seize grocery bag full of money

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com

Posted: 11/09/2012 04:50:50 PM MST

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized $74,900 that was in a car headed to Mexico on Tuesday at the Zaragoza Bridge. The cars driver was arrested for not declaring money over $10,000 as required by federal law. (Courtesy of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

A Juárez man was arrested after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized a bag of cash hidden under a box of doughnuts in a car headed to Mexico, officials said Friday. Gerardo Nares Frias, 33, was arrested after $69,750 were found in a brown grocery bag, CBP officials said. Another $5,150 allegedly was found in Frias's pant's pocket and wallet. CBP officers seized the money and the car that Frias was driving because Frias allegedly did not declare the money. The seizure was made Tuesday by CBP officers checking Mexico-bound traffic at the Zaragoza Bridge. The seizure was part of more than $150,000 seized by CBP in four cases this week at the El Paso border. Drug proceeds are regularly shipped to Mexico is large

Reporter Daniel Borunda

quantities of cash. Federal law requires that travelers make a declaration when transporting more than $10,000 out of the country.