Myanmar ( Muslims in Myanmar barricade village as attacks spread ) Buddhists Clash with Muslims

Muslims in Myanmar barricade village as attacks spread

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WIN KITE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Three Muslim men peered over a bamboo fence built recently to fortify their village in central Myanmar. They gazed across dry rice paddies towards a nearby Buddhist community, looking for rising dust, a sign of an approaching mob. It was a false alarm. But a day earlier, on Wednesday, about 100 Buddhists armed with sticks had gathered outside the fence, threatening to burn the village and kill them, said the villagers of Win Kite, about a two-hour drive from Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. Police foiled that attack. But Muslims were taking no chances after four days of mob violence led by Buddhist monks in Meikhtila in March killed 44 people, mostly Muslims, and touched off a wave of unrest in central Myanmar that threatens to derail the country's nascent economic and political reforms. "We have a plan to defend ourselves if they come and attack us," said Kin So, adding that many in Win Kite had armed themselves with clubs and swords as a precaution for when troops and police patrolling the area pull out. The five-foot (1.5 meter) fence encircling Win Kite is a vivid illustration of divisions between Myanmar's Muslims and majority Buddhists that are beginning to cause problems elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Indonesian police said on Friday they had foiled a plan to attack Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta, arresting two men late on Thursday and seizing explosives. A spokesman told reporters the suspects had planned the attack in protest at the treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. At least 192 people, mostly Rohingya, were killed last year in clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine State. In April, eight people died when Muslim and Buddhist refugees clashed at an Indonesian immigration center. On April 30, one man was killed in riots in Oakkan and nearby villages just 100 km (60 miles) north of Yangon, when a Muslim woman bumped into an 11-year-old novice monk, who dropped his alms bowl, damaging it. The authorities are aware that such mundane incidents can spiral out of control in the present environment. A district officer said a measure that stops crowds from gathering had been imposed in Taikkyi, a town near Oakkan, as a precaution.

JAPAN ( Japan and Turkey sign a 22 billion dollar nuclear Deal ) Nuclear power plant

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Japan, Turkey sign $22 billion nuclear deal Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) shakes hands with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on May 3, 2013.(AFP photo) Japan and Turkey on Friday signed a long-awaited deal to build a major nuclear power plant on Turkey's Black Sea coast, a milestone for the Japanese nuclear industry as it recovers from the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the $22 billion contract as a “very important step” that would transform bilateral relations with Japan into a “strategic partnership.” A Japanese-French consortium won the giant contract to build Turkey's second nuclear plant, Japan's first successful bid on an overseas nuclear project since a tsunami wrecked the power station in Fukushima. Turkey weathered criticism for teaming up with Japan in light of the catastrophe, but “despite that, we have taken this step,” Erdogan said. “What happened at Fukushima upset all of us. But these things can happen. Life goes on. Successful steps are being taken now with the use of improved technology,” the Turkish premier added. Like Japan, Turkey lies in a part of the world that is prone to earthquakes, making it essential that nuclear plants are designed to resist the effects of such events. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who arrived in Turkey as part of a larger Middle Eastern tour, said that Japan had learnt important lessons from the 2011 catastrophe. “Japan will share its experience and the lessons it has learnt and will contribute to the improvement of nuclear security at the highest level,” Abe said in comments translated into Turkish. Abe and Erdogan also signed an agreement covering the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The winning consortium includes the Japanese group Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and power company Itochu, the French energy company GDF-Suez and a Turkish company to be determined. The French energy company Areva is to supply the plant's reactors in connection with Mitsubishi. The Sinop plant is to comprise four reactors with a combined output of 4,800 megawatts. Construction is slated to begin in 2017, with the first reactor to be operational by 2023, an energy ministry official said. Turkey, which relies heavily on gas and oil imports from Russia and Iran, wants to build a total of three nuclear power plants to reduce its dependence on foreign energy. In 2010, Ankara struck a deal with Russia to build the country's first nuclear plant at Akkuyu, in southern Turkey.

Iran ( Sharia punishment - Two young gay men are fitted with nooses for Execution )

Sharia punishment

CARACAS ( Venezuelan Journalist Killed in Robbery - Johnny Gonzalez -Sports writer )

Venezuelan Journalist Killed in Robbery

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 ( Attacks on Journalists Remain on the Rise in Mexico- 80 killed since 2000)

Attacks on Journalists Remain on the Rise in Mexico
The watchdog group Article 19 documented 50 attacks on individual journalists and three assaults on media outlets in the first quarter of 2013

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

Iran News ( Young man Lashed in public - Looks like braveheart movie ) Un-real

Iran: Man lashed in public in Khash

 

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Published on Friday, 03 May 2013 07:08

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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 ( Journalist Missing in Northern Mexico- Jose Gerardo Padilla was beaten a few months ago )

Journalist Missing in Northern Mexico

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