China ( Two Top Gun pilots killed in their Russian Su-27 fighter )

Chinese top guns killed in fighter crash

Two air force pilots were killed when their Russian-made Su-27 fighter crashed during a training mission.

The move is an attempt to stop China being reliant on Western software Photo: REUTERS

Our Foreign Staff

12:01PM BST 01 Apr 2013

The Defence ministry said the plane went down on a beach near the coastal city of Rongcheng in the northern province of Shandong. It did not offer any reason for Sunday afternoon's crash and said there were no reports of damage or injuries to people on the ground.

China began purchasing Su-27s in the early 1990s and many of the planes are near the end of their expected lifespans. China also manufactured a copy of the plane. The secretive People's Liberation Army and its air force have overhauled their training in recent years to make exercises more realistic, and details about accidents are rarely released.

Separately the Xinhua News Agency said an explosion at the Xinyu Group Iron Works destroyed its 100-ton No. 2 furnace killed four people and left 32 injured.

It said the injured were transported to hospital but gave no word on the cause of the accident.

China has struggled to boost workplace safety in recent years amid the pressures of rapid economic growth.

Tougher enforcement of safety rules has brought major improvements in areas such as coal mining, while companies have also been forced to improve conditions to attract workers amid a tightening labor market

Pakistan ( Young girl survives attack - Attempted " Honor killing " Brother tries to kill her )

Pakistani Muslim teenager whose brother tried to hack her to death with an axe in an attempted ‘honor’ killing, miraculously survives, but has a bleak future

At a women’s shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan, is Gul Meena, a 17-year-old girl from Pakistan who shouldn’t be alive. This Pakistani girl’s life of misery and suffering began at the tender age of 12, when instead of going to school she was married to a man old enough to be her grandfather. She says: “My family married me off when I was 12. My husband was 60. Every day he would beat me. I would cry and beg him stop. But he just kept on beating me.”

CNN When Gul told her family what was happening, they responded in a way that shocked her. “My family would hit me when I complained. They told me you belong in your husband’s house — that is your life.”

After five years of abuse, Gul Meena met a young Afghan man and finally gathered the courage to leave her husband in Pakistan. In November 2012 she packed up some belongings and they made their way across the border into Afghanistan to the city of Jalalabad.

Days later her older brother tracked them down. Armed with an ax, he hacked to death Gul Meena’s friend, and then struck his own sister 15 times — cutting open her face, head and parts of her body. Assuming she was dead, her brother escaped back to Pakistan. Authorities are yet to catch him, but his family denies that he tried to kill Gul.

Hearing the commotion, a passer-by discovered Gul Meena lying in a pool of blood in her bed, and rushed her to the Emergency Department of Nangarhar Regional Medical Centre. With part of her brain hanging out of her skull, neurosurgeon Zamiruddin Khalid held out little hope that the girl on his operating table would survive.

She did, but Gul’s troubles were far from over. While she’d received life-saving treatment from the doctors and staff at the hospital, she had no one to care for her on the outside. Gul had been disowned by her family and despite the government and authorities knowing that she was alive and receiving care at the hospital, they wanted nothing to do with her due to the stigma and circumstances surrounding her attack.

Gul Meena is one of thousands of Muslim women living in shelters across Afghanistan — many of them victims of attempted honor killings. Tragically this practice still exists in a number of Islamic cultures.

Mexico ( 5 tons of Marijuana headed to tijuana / and 10 pounds of Meth stopped by mexican Army )

Mexican Army seizes 5 tons from Chapo in BCS

Friday, April 5, 2013 | Borderland Beat ReporterTijuano664

Tijuano for Borderland Beat

Almost 5 tons of Marijuana were seized in a check point in San Ignacio, BCS.

The first investigations regarding this seizure of almost 5 tons of drugs in a checkpoint in San Ignacio, BCS exposed that the shipment was property of the Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin“El Chapo” Guzman.

The narcotic came from Sinaloa and had Tijuana as destination, after crossing without issue the checkpoints installed in 4 cities in Sinaloa and 4 more in Sonora, as well as 2 checkpoints in Baja California Sur it was finally detected by members of the Mexican Army belonging to the 40^th Military Zone in the 2^nd Region.

The seizure automatically became the 2^nd biggest hit in history to the Sinaloa Cartel in the state, where paradoxically, only one person was detained.

First reports indicate that the drug came hidden inside a gas tanker with PG2544-A as tags, no company names and with stickers of “Danger, transports hazardous material”, the following was found inside the tanker:

1. 481 large packages and 50 small packages containing marijuana with a total weight of 4 tons 763 kilograms (10,500 lbs.)

2. 10 plastic containers with a total weight of 5.9 kilograms (13 pounds) of Crystal Meth.

The drugs have an approximated value -according to military estimates- of almost 77 million Mexican Pesos (about 6.4 million USD)

Saudi Arabia ( An eye for an eye Justice - Man to be medically paralyzed ) Court order

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to be medically paralyzed unless he can raise 1 million Saudi Riyal (almost $267,000) to pay a man he stabbed in the back.
When he was 14, Ali al-Khawahir stabbed his friend in the back, paralyzing the victim. The assault earned al-Khawahir a spot in jail -- a spot he's occupied for the last 10 years, the Saudi Gazette reports. Now 24, al-Khawahir either has to pay the victim for forgiveness or have his spinal cord cut, as eye-for-an-eye justice.


Al-Khawahir had originally been expected to pay 2 million Riyal (more than $500,000), but the victim halved the amount after it became clear the sum was too high.
In a translation provided by Reuters, al-Khawahir's mother told the Arabic language al-Hayat daily that she agreed the victim deserved compensation, "but we don't have even a tenth of this sum."
The punishment follows the Islamic principle of "qisas." In a statement issued Tuesday, Amnesty International likened al-Khawahir's paralysis punishment to torture.
"That such a punishment might be implemented is utterly shocking, even in a context where flogging is frequently imposed as a punishment for some offences, as happens in Saudi Arabia," Ann Harrison, the group's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, said.

Mexico Juarez ( 4 people found shot and killed - one 13 yr old boy )

Murder Victims Dumped on Road in Northern Mexico

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Four people, one of them a 13-year-old boy, were found fatally shot on a road in the northern border state of Chihuahua, Mexican authorities said Friday.

The bodies were discovered Thursday night on the road linking the city of Parral with the village of Guadalupe y Calvo, state Attorney General’s Office spokesman Carlos Gonzalez told Efe.

“All of the bodies present bullet wounds in different parts of the body and in the head,” he said.

Shell casings from more than one type of gun were found with the bodies and authorities suspect the killings were the work of organized crime.

Chihuahua, the most violent of Mexico’s 32 states, has been the scene in recent years of a battle among rival drug cartels to control smuggling routes in the neighboring United States.

Some 70,000 people have died since December 2006 in conflict among the cartels and between the criminals and Mexico’s security forces. EFE

Mexico ( Young Female blogger - undercover tells her stories of the Mexican drug war )

Mexico's Blog del Narco Author is Revealed as a Young Woman

| Borderland Beat ReporterHavana Pura

Borderland Beat

Vaya Con Dios, "Lucy!" y Blog del Narco!

This story was produced in partnership with the Guardian, where a version of this story also appears.

Guardian version Rory Carroll , Texas Observer Melissa del Bosque

For three years Blog de Narco has chronicled Mexico's drug war with graphic images and shocking stories that few others dare show, drawing millions of readers, acclaim, denunciations – and speculation about its author's identity.

Blog del Narco, an internet sensation dubbed a "front-row seat" to Mexico's agony over drugs, has become a must-read for authorities, drug gangs and ordinary people because it lays bare, day after day, the horrific violence censored by the mainstream media.

The anonymous author has been a source of mystery, with Mexico wondering who he is and his motivation for such risky reporting.

Now in their first major interview since launching the blog, the author has spoken to the Guardian and the Texas Observer – and has revealed that she is, in fact, a young woman.

"I don't think people ever imagined it was a woman doing this," said the blogger, who asked to use pseudonym Lucy to protect her real identity.

"Who am I? I'm in my mid-20s, I live in northern Mexico, I'm a journalist. I'm a woman, I'm single, I have no children. And I love Mexico."

This is the first time Lucy has spoken directly about the motivations for running a blog which could cost her her life. In the early days, her male colleague who manages the technical side engaged in a few short, anonymous email exchanges with reporters, but neither has spoken out since.

The telephone interview was arranged through an anonymous intermediary. The Guardian then took steps to verify that Lucy was in control of the blog.

Iran News ( Mother pleads to UN to stop Iran from Executing her Son )

Iranian mother pleads to UN to stop Iran executing her son

Details

Published on Friday, 05 April 2013 11:22

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NCRI - A desperate Iranian mother has written to the United Nations begging them to try to overturn the 'unjust and tyrannical' death sentence on her political prisoner son.
Married father-of-one Gholamreza Khosravi, 47, is currently facing execution after almost six years in Tehran's Evin prison for giving financial support a to the Simaye Azadi television network.
His mother Beigom Yadi, 70, has now written to Ahmad Shahid, the UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, urging him to try to save her son's life.
She wrote: "I thank you for your truthful report on Gholamreza and your efforts to solve his problem.
"However, these efforts haven’t had any results so far and the officials haven’t cancelled his unjust and tyrannical death sentence.
"As you mentioned in your report, should someone who has financially supported a television network be sentenced to death? Should his six year imprisonment be changed into a death penalty?
He has been in prison for over 5 years and considering his previous sentence, he must be released any time soon. However, he has been denied any visits and leave from prison.
"I request you and every person who respects the life of human beings to return Gholamreza to me and his family. I can assure you that if I was healthy enough, I would follow up his case but unfortunately I'm old and sick and live in the city of Isfahan."
In a separate letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mrs Yadi added: "I thank you and your reporter Ahmad Shahid.
"He has been cruelly treated. He has spent 40 months in solitary confinement and sentenced to death confirmed by officials for financially providing a small amount to a television.
"The Iranian officials do not care for me and his family and we are not worth anything to them.
"Gholamreza’s life is at stake and my life is bound to him. I ask you to return him to me and his family. He has a wife and a 16-year-old son."