BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's main opposition group on Friday accused President Bashar Assad's regime of committing a "large-scale massacre" in a Sunni village near the Mediterranean coast in which activists say at least 50 were killed with guns, knives and blunt objects.
The killings in Bayda reflect the sectarian overtones of Syria's civil war. Tucked in the mountains outside the Mediterranean coastal city of Banias, the village is primarily inhabited by Sunni Muslims, who dominate the country's rebel movement. But it is located in the heartland of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that is the backbone of the regime.
In amateur video purportedly taken after the killings, the bodies of at least seven men and boys are seen strewn in pools of blood on the pavement in front of a house as women weep around them.
"Don't sleep, don't move," one woman sobs, leaning over to touch one of the men, who appeared already dead. The video appears genuine and consistent with reporting by The Associated Press from the area.
Thursday, May 2, 2013 | Borderland Beat ReporterBuggs
The United States has spent more than $1 billion supporting a war on drug cartels in Mexico.
But as US president Barack Obama heads to Mexico, the situation is still so desperate in some areas that local media are afraid to talk about it.Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports from Reynosa in Mexico, near the US border.
Obama and Peña Nieto Reaffirm Joint
Cooperation Obama said at a joint press conference after his meeting with
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto that the two leaders agreed to continue the
countries’ tight security coordination
MEXICO CITY – U.S.
President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he supports the Mexican
government’s efforts to reduce violence in this country and emphasized that the
bilateral relationship is “dynamic.”
Obama said at a joint press
conference after his meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto that the
two leaders agreed to continue the countries’ tight security
coordination.
He also promised “strong cooperation” from the U.S. as
Mexico moves to reduce internal violence, particularly as it relates to
organized crime, adding that Washington will work to “meet our responsibilities
to reduce the demand for illegal drugs and reduce the southbound flow of guns
and cash.”
For his part, Peña Nieto said that “the new strategy in the
area of security in our country has a clear intent: fighting organized crime of
whatever kind,” whether it be drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion or
anything else.
He also said that he had agreed with Obama to take joint
measures to create a “more secure border,” albeit one that facilitates the
passage of persons and goods.
Obama thanked Peña Nieto and the Mexican
people in Spanish for their hospitality and he went on to express his support
for the reforms undertaken by the Mexican leader’s government.
“What I
have been impressed with is the president’s boldness in his reform agenda,”
Obama said. “He’s tackling big issues, and that’s what the times demand. We live
in a world that’s changing rapidly. ... We can’t be flat-footed as the world
advances.”
If Mexico is successful in that effort, that will be good for
the United States, the U.S. leader emphasized.
Obama and Peña Nieto, in a
joint statement issued after their meeting, announced the creation of a
high-level economic dialogue – the first meeting of which will take place this
year – to promote competitiveness, productivity and connectivity, along with
fostering economic growth and innovation.
“As Mexico works to become more
competitive, you’ve got a strong partner in the United States because our
success is shared,” Obama said, noting that annual bilateral trade now exceeds
$500 billion.
The United States is Mexico’s largest customer and Mexico
is the second-largest market for U.S. exports.
The two presidents also
reconfirmed their commitment to concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore,
and Vietnam.
With regard to immigration reform, Obama said that he is
“optimistic” that the U.S. Congress will pass a comprehensive reform package.
“If we’re going to get that done, now is the time to do it,” he said.
The
majority of foreign-born immigrants in the United States are Mexicans, and many
of them are undocumented.
The two leaders also spoke about the importance
of working together with Canada with an eye toward making North America the
world’s most dynamic and competitive region.
Obama and Peña Nieto also
concluded agreements in the educational area and reaffirmed their commitment to
act as jointly responsible partners in the area of public safety.
Obama
arrived in Mexico on Thursday on an official visit that will focus on economic
issues.
After his meeting with Peña Nieto, he returned to a hotel in the
exclusive Polanco neighborhood, where he is scheduled to meet with local U.S.
Embassy personnel and on Thursday evening Obama will attend a dinner in his
honor hosted by the Mexican president. EFE
New Delhi: A 22-year-old woman accused five people, including two of her brothers-in-law, of raping her in south Delhi, police said on Wednesday.
In her complaint to police, the young woman alleged that she was gangraped by the five men late Tuesday night. The three others involved in the crime were friends of her brothers-in-laws, police said. The accused have all been arrested.
According to the woman, a resident of RK Puram, the men came to meet her husband for some personal work on Tuesday night. The woman said her husband was not at home at the time, but when she returned to her house, she found the men drinking alcohol there.
Women protest the 16 December Delhi gangrape. AP
“She left to go elsewhere, but the men overpowered her and took her to an empty plot,” a police official said, quoting victim’s complaint.
“They snatched her bag and took turns to rape her. The woman somehow fled and sought help from a passerby who made a call to the police control room,” the official said.
“She was rushed to AIIMS Trauma Centre for medical examination. Her medical examination confirmed gangrape,” the officer said, quoting the woman’s complaint. On the basis of her statement, the police officer said, a case of gangrape was registered.
The accused were arrested after late-night raids, and presented before a magistrate who sent the five to judicial custody for 14 days, the officer said.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A small patch of prairie sits largely unnoticed off a desolate road in southwestern South Dakota, tucked amid gently rolling hills and surrounded by dilapidated structures and hundreds of gravesites — many belonging to Native Americans massacred more than a century earlier.
The assessed value of the property: less than $14,000. The seller's asking price: $4.9 million.
Tribal members say the man who owns a piece of the Wounded Knee National Historic Landmark on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is trying to profit from their suffering. It was there, on Dec. 29, 1890, that 300 Native American men, women and children were killed by the 7th Cavalry in the final battle of the American Indian Wars.
James Czywczynski, whose family has owned the property since 1968, is trying to sell the 40-acre fraction of the historic landmark and another 40-acre parcel for $4.9 million. He had given the Oglala Sioux Tribe until Wednesday to agree to the price, after which he said he'd open it up to outside investors.
Oglala Sioux tribal president Bryan Brewer told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the tribe does not have the money to buy the land and that, even if it did, tribal members shouldn't have to buy back something that is theirs.
"We are hoping no one will buy this land. And I'd like to tell investors that if someone thinks they can go down there and commercialize this, it will never happen. We will not allow it," he said.
Czywczynski did not return repeated calls from The Associated Press by Wednesday evening to see whether outside investors are now able to bid for the land. Earlier this month he told the AP he had three offers from West Coast-based investment groups interested in buying the land for the original asking price.
The ultimatum has caused anger among many tribal members and descendants of the massacre victims.
"I know we are at the 11th hour, but selling this massacre site and using the victims as a selling pitch is, for lack of a better word, it's grotesque," said Nathan Blindman, 56, whose grandfather was 10 when he survived the massacre. "To use the murdered children, the murdered teenagers, the unborn, women screaming and running for their lives, using that as a selling pitch ... that has got to be the most barbaric thing ever to use as a selling pitch."
Czywczynski acknowledges the historical significance adds value to each parcel of land, which have each been appraised at less than $7,000 apiece, according to records reviewed by the AP.
Besides its proximity to the burial grounds, the land includes the site of a former trading post burned down during the 1973 Wounded Knee uprising, in which hundreds of American Indian Movement protesters occupied the town built at the massacre site. The 71-day standoff that left two tribal members dead and a federal agent seriously wounded is credited with raising awareness about Native American struggles and giving rise to a wider protest movement that lasted the rest of the decade.
The land sits on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, but many of the descendants of the massacre victims and survivors are members of several different Lakota tribes, said Joseph Brings Plenty, a former chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and a traditional chief.
Brings Plenty said the tribes are not in a position to pay millions of dollars for the land. Although tribal members are not opposed to development that would preserve, beautify or better educate the public about the land and its history, they are opposed to commercialization, he said.
"You don't go and dance on grandma and grandpa's grave to turn a hefty dollar sign," he said.
Tribal members and descendants have reached out to President Barack Obama to make the site a National Monument, which would better guard it against development and commercialization, Brings Plenty said.
But even if an outside investor buys the land with intent to develop, there will be obstacles, said Craig Dillon, an Oglala Sioux Tribal Council member. The tribe could pass new laws preventing the buyer from actually building at the site.
"Whoever buys that is still going to have to deal with the tribe," Dillon said. "Access is going to be an issue. Development is going to be an issue. I'm not threatening anybody, but my tone is be aware you have to deal with the tribe if you purchase it."
There are nearly 2,500 national historic landmarks across the country, with the vast majority of them owned by private landowners, said Don Stevens, chief of the History and National Register Program in the Midwest Region for the National Park Service.
"We advocate for preservation and we always express concern about potential harm for their care," Stevens said, adding that the NPS does not have any legal authority.
Still, a site can lose its designation if it does not retain its physical integrity, he said. One example is Soldier Field in Chicago, which lost the designation when it was remodeled a decade ago because it changed its physical character.
As for the Wounded Knee site, Stevens said any development could potentially affect the Historic Landmark designation.
"Certainly you would hear a hue and cry about that type of thing," he said. "And certainly if we saw something going up, we'd express our concern, even if we don't have a legal jurisdiction to intercede, we'd express our concern."
Boston.comThe two men, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, came to America from the Central Asian Muslim nation to study at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was also enrolled. The law enforcement official did not release the name of the third person arrested.
Tazhayakov (left), the 19-year-old Kadyrbayev (middle), and Marathon bomber Tsarnaev together in Times Square: (checking out potential bombing spots?)
The Boston police Web page said that three additional “suspects” had been taken into custody. It emphasized that there was no threat to public safety. Harlan J. Protass, a criminal lawyer from New York who is representing Tazhayakov, confirmed today that Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev were taken into custody.
Kadyrbayev’s car license plate reads ‘TERRORISTA # 1′:
Thursday, May 2, 2013 | 
MEXICO CITY – U.S.
President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he supports the Mexican
government’s efforts to reduce violence in this country and emphasized that the
bilateral relationship is “dynamic.”
