Ecuador ( Well Known - Journalist killed leaving mothers house ) Fausto Valdiviezo Shot

Well-Known Ecuadorian Journalist Slain

QUITO – Ecuadorian broadcast journalist Fausto Valdiviezo was fatally shot in his car, authorities said Friday.

“We are dismayed by the murder of Fausto Valdiviezo. An embrace of solidarity for his family and the commitment that the murder will not go unpunished,” the country’s president, Rafael Correa, said on Twitter.

The 53-year-old journalist was killed Thursday night after leaving his mother’s home in the coastal city of Guayaquil, witnesses said.

Valdiviezo had been attacked Wednesday while driving, but did not report the incident to authorities, the police chief in surrounding Guayas province, Marcelo Tobar, said.

If the television reporter and anchor had reported the first attack, “we would have had some recommendations for him,” the police commander said.

The victim’s brother said he didn’t have any enemies.

“The police are on track, the country has known my brother for very many years from his journalism career,” Alfredo Valdiviezo told Ecuadorian radio. “He didn’t have problems of any kind with anyone. In reality, no enemies. So as he didn’t have enemies, I think it is very easy to detect who it might have been.” EFE

HAVANA ( 1917 the first Sloppy Joe's Bar -Cuba - Spanish storekeeper )

Cuba Restores Legendary 20th Century Bar, Sloppy Joe’s

HAVANA – Sloppy Joe’s, one of the legendary Havana bars of the 20th century for its bohemian clientele, its long bar and famous customers like Ernest Hemingway and Spencer Tracy, has reopened its doors after almost half a century in ruins thanks to a painstaking reconstruction aimed at giving the city back some important memories.

Inaugurated in 1917 by Jose Abeal, a Spanish storekeeper, the bar was for decades a hot spot for American tourists and a symbol of where it was all happening in Havana, but unlike other famous bars like the Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio, it closed down in 1965 and time destroyed it.

The Office of the Historian, directed by Eusebio Leal, was entrusted with developing a complex process of restoration based on old photos and with the cooperation of people, including some in the United States, who could supply information, anecdotes and objects related to the old bar.

Its spectacular 18-meter (59-foot) black mahogany bar, the longest that existed in Cuba, posed one of the biggest problems for restorers.

Stories about the bar in its heyday indicated that it was made up of three parts, one of which was “miraculously” recovered and from it the carpenters were able to build a similar bar, also of mahogany, with space for 25 stools.

Other details the restorers were careful to reproduce were the typical windows and the shelves along the walls exhibiting dozens of liquors from around the world, as well as the preparation of the extensive menu of sandwiches, cocktails and liquors of all kinds that were served at the downtown Havana locale.

At the bar, now hung with Cuban flags, were seated at one time or another such celebrities as writer Ernest Hemingway and actors Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn and Cantinflas.

Iran News ( Human rights reporter - Shiva Nazarahari returned to prison) She was out on furlough

13 April 2013

Shiva Nazarahari returned to prison

Keywords : Political Prisoners , Women

فارسى

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Shiva Nazarahari, human rights activist, founder and former head of Committee of Human Rights Reporters, returned to Evin prison a few hours ago.

According to CHRR, Shiva Nazarahari who was granted furlough on March 12th after enduring 184 days behind bars, returned to prison on Saturday April 13th to serve the remainder of her prison term.

On December 20, 2009, Shiva was arrested while she was on a bus with other activists intending to attend the funeral of the late dissident cleric Ayatollah Montazeri. After facing harsh interrogations while in detention, Shiva Nazarahari was handed a 4-year prison sentence and 74 lashes on the charges of “moharebeh” (enmity with God), “propaganda against the regime,” and “illegal gathering with the intent of disturbing national security.” She turned herself in at Evin prison to serve her prison sentence on September 8, 2012.

Mexico City ( 10 arrested on murder charges - 2 linked to killing Federal police officer )

Police Arrest 10 on Murder, Drug Charges in Northeast Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Ten people were arrested by the Federal Police on murder, drug, kidnapping and cattle rustling charges in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the National Security Commission said.

Federal Police officers spotted two vehicles on a highway near Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, trying to evade a checkpoint and whose “occupants had firearms and were tossing metallic items on the pavement,” the commission said in a statement.

Officers stopped the two vehicles and arrested the 10 people aboard.

Two of the suspects have been linked to the killing of a Federal Police officer in Ciudad Victoria in March, the commission said.

Officers seized two rifles, a handgun, 85 rounds of ammunition, three ammunition clips, a bullet-proof vest and small quantities of marijuana and cocaine from the suspects.

Tamaulipas has been plagued by a turf war pitting the Gulf cartel against the Los Zetas and Sinaloa cartels. EFE

Syria ( Soil samples show chemical weapons being used in War )

British scientists 'find evidence of Syrian chemical attack'

A secret British operation has smuggled out a soil sample which provides the first forensic evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, it was reported last night.

A girl, injured in what the government said was a chemical weapons attack, is treated at a hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo last month. Photo: REUTERS

By Our Foreign Staff

11:45PM BST 12 Apr 2013

Government scientists working at the Ministry of Defence's research facility at Porton Down, Wiltshere, found traces of "some kind of chemical weapon" after performing tests, according to The Times.

Syria has one of the world's largest stockpiles of chemical weapons and the US has consistently warned that their use would be "a red line" that could trigger military intervention.

If proven the weapons were used by the regime, the new tests will add to growing pressure for the West to intervene or at least begin arming the Syrian rebels

The tests at Porton Down reportedly concluded that the chemical traces were from a weapon rather than gas sometimes used by the Syrian security forces to put down protests.

"There have been some reports that it was just a strong riot-control agent but that is not the case - it's something else although it can't definitively be said to be sarin nerve agent," one source told the newspaper.

The sample was reportedly smuggled out of Syria in a mission involving MI6 last month.

It was not clear whether the sample was from Aleppo, Syria's largest city, where more than 20 people were alleged to have been killed in a chemical attack last month.

Both the Syrian regime and rebel groups accused the other side of using chemical weapons but definitive evidence has not yet emerged to support either claim, or even to prove that chemical weapons were used at all.

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the reported tests at Porton Down.

The fighting in Syria continued yesterday as government troops backed by aircraft struggled to take control over a series of strategic hilltop villages near the Lebanese border.

Iran ( Student Blogger gets in fight with police - At Campus big clash " called a spy " )

12 April 2013

Pouria Farazmand, blogger from Kermanshah, arrested

Keywords : Political Prisoners , University

فارسى

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – According to received reports, student, blogger and cyber activist Pouria Farazmand was detained in Kermanshah on April 7th.

According to CHRR, last Sunday when the student from Kermanshah province went to his university to follow up on matters regarding his graduation, he was handed a summons by the university security. As Farazmand was exiting the university, plain clothed officials who were equipped with walkie-talkies and pistols accosted and detained the student.

Students who witnessed the clash reported that the officials engaged in a brutal confrontation with Pouria Farazmand, beating him up and insulting him as they detained him.

After Pouria Farazmand was violently taken away, one of the security officials, M. Seyedi, appeared in front of the university’s gate and hurled insults while threatening the group of students who had converged at the scene. He lashed denigrating remarks and called the detained student and blogger a “spy” who is associated with “foreign entities.”

Pouria Farazmand is the writer for the blog Azadi Baraye Hamegan (freedom for all) and served on the editorial board of Mosht (fist), a banned student newspaper. Witness students said Farazmand never wrote anything pointing to foreign associations and that he only wrote about internal politics in Iran.

There is still no news of the whereabouts or condition of the student blogger.

During the past months an increasing number of bloggers, Internet activists and citizens taking part in social networks critical of the ruling regime have been arrested in various provinces in the country including Tehran, Alborz, Fars, Kurdistan and Razavi Khorasan

San Juan ( 4 people killed - 100 rounds fired in shoot out ) Drug Wars

SAN JUAN – Four people were killed and another wounded in a running gunfight on the Jose de Diego highway, Puerto Rican police said Wednesday.

More than 100 shell casings were recovered at the scene of the Tuesday night shootout, including some from an AK-47 assault rifle, according to the police report.

The first multiple murder of 2013 in Puerto Rico took place on Feb. 21 in the eastern district of Canovanas, leaving three people ages 16 to 29 dead.

Less than two weeks later, three young men were murdered in another incident.

The third multiple murder, in which three more people died, came on March 3 in San Juan’s Barrio Obrero neighborhood.

Puerto Rico for years has been beset by a crime wave linked to drug trafficking that every weekend results in an average of 10 murders, the majority of them involving score-settling between groups of criminals warring over control of street-corner sales.

The increase in pressure from U.S. authorities on the Mexican border has diverted smuggling routes to the Caribbean and especially to Puerto Rico, from where the drugs can more easily be shipped to the continental United States.

A portion of the drugs remains in Puerto Rico for internal consumption, and small-time traffickers fight each other for control of the sale of cocaine, heroin and other illegal substances. EFE