Venezuela ( 900 weapons taken from prisons in 2 years " Guns " )

CARACAS – Searches of Venezuela’s prisons have led to the seizure of 900 weapons since July 2011, penal system Minister Iris Varela said Monday.

Authorities have also arrested soldiers and police who were collaborating with “mafias that operate with less and less power” in the country’s jails, Varela said before the ministers of defense, Adm. Diego Morelo, and of the interior, Gen. Nestor Reverol.

Varela made the statement on the occasion of 679 guns being destroyed together with other arms confiscated from criminals.

The rest of the weapons found among the inmates, including two air force rifles, stolen from a prison guard in an attack, were either returned or make up part of the evidence in court cases currently in progress, the minister said.

Morelo said that 300,114 arms seized in different criminal acts between 2003 and 2012 have been destroyed.

“We’re headed toward a Venezuela free of guns, toward peace, and that’s why we keep calling on the country” to cooperate, Reverol said, adding that officials are devising a program of incentives to persuade people to voluntarily hand over their guns.

Venezuela suffers a chronic prison crisis with constant riots and a situation totally out of control in some of the nation’s penitentiaries.

Figures from the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory show that at least 591 inmates died and another 1,132 were wounded in 2012 from prison violence. EFE

Mexico Morelia ( 8 Lemon pickers were killed along with 11 others ) Cartel wars

MORELIA, Mexico – At least 19 people died in drug-related violence in the western Mexican state of Michoacan and the southern state of Guerrero, officials and community leaders said.

Eight lemon pickers were killed and several others wounded in an attack Wednesday in Apatzingan, a city in Michoacan, by gunmen suspected of being on the payroll of the Los Caballeros Templarios drug gang, community leaders said.

The Caballeros Templarios gang was founded in March 2011 by former members of the La Familia Michoacana cartel and deals in both synthetic drugs and natural drugs.

The cartel has been fighting rival gangs for control of turf and smuggling routes in Guerrero and Michoacan states, both of which are on the Pacific.

Michoacan’s forests and mountains are used by drug traffickers to grow marijuana and produce synthetic drugs.

Federal Police officers were attacked in the same area by gunmen and killed one of the suspected criminals in a shootout, officials said.

An officer was wounded in the incident, which may be related to the attack on the lemon pickers, a police spokesman said.

Five suspected gunmen were killed in a shootout with the Federal Police in Charapando, another community in the Tierra Caliente region.

Officials in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, had to evacuate a high school after threats were made against an adjacent Federal Police station.

The bodies of four people, meanwhile, were found in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, state judicial officials told Efe.

The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say.

Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels.

President Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has continued the strategy implemented by Calderon of taking on the cartels, but he has also called for bolstering intelligence capabilities and attacking criminal organizations’ entire structures, not just kingpins. EFE

Mexico ( 4 million Chickens destroyed Due to Bird Flu ) Mexico City

Mexican Poultry Producers Destroy Nearly 4 Million Birds Due to Flu

MEXICO CITY – Nearly 4 million birds were destroyed at poultry farms in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Guanajuato due to the outbreak of avian influenza in February, Agriculture Secretary Enrique Martinez said.

“The damage could have been greater, and in the end nearly 4 million birds were killed, both chickens for consumption, nearly half, and laying hens,” Martinez said.

The outbreak was detected in time and contained with a vaccination program, the agriculture secretary said after inaugurating the 13th Agriculture and Fisheries Industry Outlook Conference.

Officials declared a health emergency on Feb. 15 after the Bachoco poultry company reported an outbreak of bird flu at its farms in the central state of Guanajuato. EFE

Mexico ( 4,249 drug related murders in 4 months in Mexico )

Mexico Registers 4,249 Drug-Related Killings in 4 Months
Some 685 fewer murders occurred between Dec. 1, when Peña Nieto took office, and March 31, compared to the prior period, Deputy Government Secretary Eduardo Sanchez said

MEXICO CITY – A total of 4,249 drug-related killings occurred in Mexico from December 2012, when President Enrique Peña Nieto took office, to March 2013, marking a drop of 14 percent from the comparable four-month period in 2011-2012, the Government Secretariat said.

Some 685 fewer murders occurred between Dec. 1, when Peña Nieto took office, and March 31, compared to the prior period, Deputy Government Secretary Eduardo Sanchez said.

Drug-related killings also fell 17 percent compared to the August-November 2012 period, Sanchez said.

A total of 184 law enforcement agents were murdered during the Peña Nieto administration’s first four months, the official said.

The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say.

Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels. EFE

Arizona ( Sheriff Joe Arpaio gets bomb mailed to him- Bomb squad intercepted it in Flagstaff )

Posted: Friday, April 12, 2013 10:42 am | Updated: 11:04 am, Fri Apr 12, 2013.

Sheriff Arpaio: Explosive device 1 of many threatsAssociated Press | 0 comments

Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio says the mailing of an explosive device addressed to him reflects the nature of his business and follows many threats he's received over the years.Arpaio has called himself the "toughest sheriff in America" and is known for his strict treatment of jail inmates and cracking down on illegal immigrants.His office says a mailed package intercepted in northern Arizona Thursday contained an explosive device.

A federal official won't confirm a device was found, but Arpaio's office says it was detected when the package was X-rayed. A bomb squad team neutralized the explosive.
Postal Inspector Patricia Armstrong says a "very astute" carrier emptying a collection box in the Flagstaff area thought something about package's outside looked wrong.
Armstrong says investigators are examining the package's contents.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Authorities are investigating an explosive device addressed to Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" known for his strict treatment of jail inmates and cracking down on illegal immigrants.
The device intercepted in Flagstaff late Thursday was in a package addressed to Arpaio at his downtown Phoenix office, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
It appeared suspicious, so it was X-rayed and the device was detected. A bomb squad team neutralized the explosive, the statement said.

Iran News ( Dead BLOGGER'S mother told to be silent or "else" ) Satter Beheshti

Iran: Family warned by regime to stop probing their blogger son's death

 

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Published on Thursday, 11 April 2013 11:42

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NCRI - The family of slain blogger Sattar Beheshti has been put under pressure from the regime to keep silent about his death, an Iranian MP has revealed.
The mother of Sattar told MP Ali Motahari that she had been threatened to prevent her from talking about her son's death.
Mr Motahari said in parliament on April 9: "In a ceremony held to mark 40 days since Satar's death, his mother said that she was forced to sign and give her consent " about the way his son's case had been handled by "showing an arrest warrant for her dauther."
He said Satar's mother told him: "I didn't want the further sorrow of losing my daughter, so I had to sign it."
Iranian interior minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar who is in charge of the case defended closing the investigation in Satar's death, adding: "Satar Beheshti engaged in activities against the Islamic Republic of Iran on the internet and Facebook by posting writings under a fake name.
"He also had connections with and collaboration with dissident political activists and foreign countries. He fed dissidents and the enemy by sending them false information on the political and social condition in the country.
"After studying the case, the cyber-police of greater Tehran demanded a judiciary official to issue an arrest warrant for Satar to prevent the spread of more destructive elements against the government on the internet."
Sattar Beheshti later was slain while in custody.

Iran breaking news ( Warrior poet and blogger -released from prison ) Update on my article

Imprisoned blogger and poet Reza Akvanian released

Keywords : Political Prisoners

فارسى

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Reza Akvanian, blogger, poet, writer and human rights activist has been released from Yasuj prison.

According to CHRR, Reza Akvanian, who was detained 17 days ago by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and was subjected to violent interrogations, was released on 100 million tomans bail from the Central Prison of the city of Yasuj on Wednesday, April 10th.

Security agents detained this human rights activist on Sunday March 24, 2013 at approximately 3am at his residence. The agents violently raided his home and after conducting a massive search they confiscated Akvanian’s personal items such as his laptop computer, external drive, scanner, printer, mobile phone, and his writings. Akvanian was held incommunicado for the first 2 weeks while detained and his family had no knowledge of his condition or whereabouts. When his family was finally able to see him, they reported visible signs of bruising from interrogations on his body.

Reza Akvanian is a writer for the blog “salhaye khoobe zendegi” (life’s good years) who was arrested earlier on February 1, 2010 by agents from the Ministry of Intelligence. Judge Tahmasabi presiding over Branch 1 of the Yasuj Revolutionary Court handed Akvanian a one-year prison sentence and a 5-year suspended term on the charges of “insulting the leader and the president in blog content” and “association with outsiders by sharing news reports.”