CARACAS – Venezuelan sportswriter Jhonny
Gonzalez was shot and killed in the wee hours Friday while leaving the building
where the sports daily Lider has its headquarters, apparently for resisting a
robbery, the publication said.
Lider said on its Web site that Gonzalez
was killed around 2:00 a.m. when leaving to work a night shift at the Cadena
Capriles building in downtown Caracas.
Several individuals in a car and
on a motorcycle apparently intercepted the journalist with intention to rob him
and fired three shots. Gonzalez died in the car.
Journalists do not
escape the situation of violence in Venezuela, a country with one of the highest
murder rates in the region with 55 homicides for every 100,000
inhabitants.
The Public Space organization denounced a 50 percent
increase in cases of attacks on freedom of expression in Venezuela so far this
year, and a 20 percent increase in 2012 over 2011
MEXICO CITY –
Aggression against the news media in Mexico rose 20 percent in the first three
months of this year compared with the same period in 2012, the watchdog group
Article 19 said Friday.
The organization documented 50 attacks on
individual journalists and three assaults on media outlets in the first quarter
of 2013, Article 19 spokesman Omar Rabago told Efe on the occasion of World
Press Freedom Day.
One news professional went missing during the period
and remains unaccounted for, while another, Jaime Guadalupe Gonzalez, was
murdered on March 3, Rabago said.
“Nothing has changed,” he said. “In
reality, we are still waiting for the Mexican state in this new administration
to comply with what it promised,” the activist said, referring to the government
of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who took office Dec. 1.
More than 80
journalists have been slain in Mexico since 2000, according to figures from the
country’s independent National Human Rights Commission.
Article 19,
applying the narrower definition of “a clear link between the journalistic work
and the murder,” puts the number at 73.
Mexico remains one of the world’s
most dangerous countries for journalists, with 16 reporters “disappeared” over
the last decade and 46 bombings and shootings at media outlets, the group
says.
The Mexican security forces have been responsible for a third of
the documented instances of aggression against news gatherers, Article 19
says.
Broadcast journalist Jose Gerardo Padilla Blanquet went missing on
April 30 in Saltillo, the northern city where newspaper photographer Daniel
Alejandro Martinez was murdered six days earlier, the organization noted. EFE
NCRI - A young man has been lashed in public in the city of Khash, in southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan Province,.This inhumane measure was opposed by furious people.
The lashing took place in end of April.
Photo: The Iranian regime’s henchmen in city of Sabzevar lashed a man in public on January 16, 2013
MONTERREY,
Mexico – A radio and television announcer in the northern Mexican state of
Coahuila is missing, state officials said.
Jose Gerardo Padilla Blanquet
disappeared Tuesday in Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila, state security
spokesman Jesus Carranza told Efe.
Padilla Blanquet’s friends and
co-workers reported on social-networking sites that he was missing, Carranza
said.
The journalist’s family filed a missing persons report on
Wednesday, Carranza said.
Padilla Blanquet works for Radio Grande de
Coahuila, whose director has received threats on numerous occasions and was
beaten a few months ago.
State prosecutors are investigating Padilla
Blanquet’s disappearance, Coahuila Public Safety Secretary Jose Gerardo
Villarreal told the press.
“The deputy prosecutor’s office for
investigating and finding missing persons immediately established a search
protocol to try to locate him and we are fully supporting them in everything
needed,” Villarreal said.
The mutilated body of Daniel Alejandro
Martinez, a photographer for Mexico’s La Vanguardia newspaper, was found last
week along with that of another young man in Saltillo.
The dismembered
bodies of the 22-year-old Martinez and 23-year-old Julian Alejandro Zamora
Gracia were found on April 24 in Los Arcos, a neighborhood in the southern
section of Saltillo, the Coahuila state Attorney General’s Office
said.
Media and press rights groups staged a protest Sunday in Mexico
City and several other cities to call for an end to attacks on journalists and
pressure officials to clear up crimes against members of the media.
An
International Press Institute, or IPI, and World Association of Newspapers and
News Publishers, or WAN-IFRA, delegation visited Mexico in February and called
for more protection for journalists.
Both the IPI and Reporters Without
Borders, or RSF, ranked Mexico as the fourth most dangerous country in the world
for journalists in 2012, trailing only Syria, Somalia and Pakistan.
More
than 80 journalists have been murdered and 18 others have been reported missing
since 2005 in Mexico, the Mexican National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH,
said in a report released in December.
Some 658 complaints were received
from members of the news media from Jan. 1, 2005, to Nov. 30, 2012, the rights
body 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. EFE
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
CARACAS – Venezuelan sportswriter Jhonny
Gonzalez was shot and killed in the wee hours Friday while leaving the building
where the sports daily Lider has its headquarters, apparently for resisting a
robbery, the publication said.
MEXICO CITY –
Aggression against the news media in Mexico rose 20 percent in the first three
months of this year compared with the same period in 2012, the watchdog group
Article 19 said Friday.
MONTERREY,
Mexico – A radio and television announcer in the northern Mexican state of
Coahuila is missing, state officials said.
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.”