CAIRO ( An Egyptian court gave jail terms to 15 Americans - outrage in Washington )

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court gave jail terms to 43 Americans, Europeans, Egyptians and other Arabs on Tuesday in a case against democracy promotion groups that plunged U.S.-Egyptian ties into their worst crisis in decades.

Judge Makram Awad gave five-year sentences in absentia to at least 15 U.S. citizens who left Egypt last year. He sentenced an American who stayed behind to two years in prison and gave the same sentence to a German woman.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry harshly criticized the decision, calling it "incompatible with the transition to democracy" and a violation of the government's commitment to support civil society as it emerges from years of authoritarian rule by close U.S. ally former President Hosni Mubarak.

Beginning in late 2011, Egypt's crackdown on organizations which included U.S.-based groups linked to America's two main political parties caused outrage in Washington, which supplies Cairo with $1.3 billion in military aid each year.

The court ordered the closure of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in the case, including the U.S.-based International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Freedom House.

Both NDI and IRI plan to challenge the verdict.
In Washington, the State Department issued a tough statement in Kerry's name but did not hint at any consequences - such as a cut in U.S. assistance to Egypt - as a result of the verdict.
"The United States is deeply concerned by the guilty verdicts and sentences ... handed down by an Egyptian court today against 43 NGO representatives in what was a politically-motivated trial," he said.
"The decision to close these organizations' offices and seize their assets contradicts the government of Egypt's commitments to support the role of civil society as a fundamental actor in a democracy," he added.

India Manali ( American woman on a holiday trip gang-raped by 3 men in a truck )

Manali: An American tourist in Manali was gang-raped early this morning, allegedly by a truck driver and two other men.

The three suspects are missing.

"The 30-year-old was raped by men in a truck on Monday night. They offered her a lift and she accepted it," police inspector Abhimanyu Kumar told news agency AFP. He said the American was unable to remember the number plate of the truck and that every truck driver in Manali hadbeen ordered to report at the local police station as part of the investigation.The assault took place in Manali, a popular tourist destination 500 kilometres from New Delhi.

The woman was on a holiday with three other Americans and was returning to her guest house alone after bathing at a hot water spring.

The natural water spring, called "Vashist", is a tourist spot renowned for its temples and bathing tanks.

"The victim's friends wanted to spend more time at the spring but she was tired and decided to walk alone to the guest house," said another senior police officer VK Dhawan.Yesterday, the Kolkata Police arrested a local businessman suspected of drugging and raping a 21-year-old Irish charity worker after her birthday party.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry, a major trade body, said earlier this year that the number of foreign women tourists visiting India had dropped by 35 per cent following several sex attacks that have made global headlines.

December's fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi made international headlines and provoked large and angry street protests in India.A Swiss cyclist was gang-raped in Madhya Pradesh in March, while a British tourist jumped out of a hotel window in Agra in March after the hotel owner allegedly tried to forcibly enter her room.

MEXICO Abduction ( FBI Seeking Information in Kidnapping of U.S. Citizen in Mexico )

FBI Seeking Information in Kidnapping of U.S. Citizen in Mexico

BROWNSVILLE, TX – Armando Fernandez, Special Agent in Charge of the San Antonio Division of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), whose territory includes Brownsville, Texas, announced on Monday that the FBI is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the person(s) responsible for the kidnapping of Armando Torres, III in La Barranca, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on May 14, 2013.

As reported in the national and international news services, the FBI and Mexican law enforcement agencies have been investigating the May 14, 2013 kidnapping in La Barranca, Tamaulipas, Mexico, of U.S. citizen Armando Torres, III, as well as of his father Armando Torres, II and his uncle Salvador Torres, both of whom are Mexican citizens. Armando Torres, III is a U.S. Marine in the Individual Ready Reserve and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

On May 14, 2013, Armando Torres, III drove across the International Port of Entry Bridge at Progresso, Texas, to visit his father’s ranch in La Barranca, Tamaulipas, which is located near the International Port of Entry Bridge at Los Indios, Texas. Shortly after he arrived at the ranch, armed gunmen entered the ranch and took all three Torres family members by force. They have not been seen or heard from since this event.

In addition to the Mexican criminal investigation, the FBI has opened a concurrent international kidnapping investigation and is vigorously pursuing all investigative leads.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation is requested to contact the FBI-Brownsville Resident Agency Office at telephone number 956-546-6922.

Blogger News ( Matt Lauer from the " Today Show " treats staffers like " Dirt " )

Matt Lauer is 'derogatory, dismissive and demeaning' to Today show staffers

By Rachel Quigley
PUBLISHED:09:39 EST, 4 June 2013| UPDATED:11:00 EST, 4 June 201
( MAIL ONLINE ARTICLE)

 

 

More woes: Even after Ann Curry's departure, Lauer is said to be derogatory and dismissive of staffers on the show

Matt Lauer may not be aware of the old adage, 'Be careful how you treat people on your way up, because you might meet them again on your way down'.
And from the way the Today show's ratings are going - and especially due to Lauer's supposed part in its decline - he may find himself on his way down sooner rather than later.
He might regret then, treating staffers on the show in a derogatory and dismissive manner, if recent reports are to be believed.
A source close to the morning TV show told RadarOnline: 'The way Matt treats staffers at work is so derogatory and dismissive.
'He is so demeaning to many people on the staff. He is cordial to his fellow hosts and the senior executives but to anyone below him they say he treats them like dirt.
'For a while Matt was acting nicer to everyone, but now the staffers are afraid of him. So many people feel like he doesn’t even listen when they’re pitching stories or trying to break news.
'They say they could have the biggest breaking news of the year and Matt wouldn’t pay attention to them. They say it is harder than ever to work with him.'
The rumors come after it emerged that Good Morning America beat the Today show in the May Sweeps for the first time in 19 years.
But a Today show insider told the MailOnline the allegations could not be further from the truth.
'Anybody who actually works at the Today show - as opposed to someone "close to the show" - will tell you there is no one more generous and loyal than Matt. He’s the biggest champion for the show's staff, producers and crew.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2335757/Matt-Lauer-derogatory-dismissive-demeaning-Today-staffers.html#ixzz2VGiHfp1B
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Iran News ( European Union sanctions Iranian judges - For Cyber police abuse )

CYBER POLICE FOR RIGHTS ABUSE

EU SANCTIONS IRAN JUDGES, CYBER POLICE FOR RIGHTS ABUSE

Posted on: 17th March, 2013

 

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(AFP) – Iranian judges, media officials and a special police Internet monitoring unit linked to the death of a dissident in custody were added Tuesday to the EU’s sanctions list against Tehran for grave human rights violations.
The Iranian Cyber Police unit was set up in 2011, taking on anti-revolutionary and dissident groups who organised protests in 2009 against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the European Union’s Official Journal said.
It said it was this Cyber Police unit which arrested blogger Sattar Beheshti who was found dead in his Tehran prison cell in November shortly after his arrest for criticising the government online.
Beheshti was “believed to have been tortured to death by the Cyber Police authorities,” the Official Journal said.
Among the nine individuals added to the EU’s blacklist were the new head of the notorious Evin Prison, three judges, two prosecutors and the head of a special commission, Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, in charge of Internet censorship.
In state media, the EU named Mohammad Sarafraz and Hamid Reza Emadi, senior officials linked to the security forces and held responsible for “violating the right to due process and fair trial.”
EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to renew European Union rights sanctions for another 12 months, with the nine new names bringing the blacklist to 87 Iranians subject to an EU travel ban and asset freeze.
The sanctions for rights abuse are separate from those linked to concerns over Iran’s contested nuclear drive.
A total of 490 companies and 105 people are currently targeted by an asset freeze and travel ban under those sanctions, which also include tough restrictions on trade and financial dealings, as well as an oil embargo.

U.S Navy SEAL ( Transgender Navy SEAL 'Warrior Princess' Comes Out )

A former member of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs has come out to say she's now a woman.

Kristin Beck, formerly Chris, served 20 years as a SEAL and fought on some of the most dangerous battlefields in the world, but after she left the service she realized she wasn't living the life she wanted.

"Chris really wanted to be a girl and felt that she was a girl and consolidated that identity very early on in childhood," said Anne Speckhard, co-author of Beck's biography "Warrior Princess," which was published over the weekend. Speckhard told ABC News Beck suppressed that secret for decades, however, through the trials of SEAL training and the harrowing missions that followed, growing a burly beard as she fought on the front lines of American special operations.

Brandon Webb, a former SEAL who served on a different SEAL team than Beck, said that Beck's reputation in the SEALs was a good one and said she was, by all appearances, the "consummate guy's guy."
But the book says that Chris "had considered living as the woman he felt himself to be for a very long time, but while he was serving as a SEAL he couldn't do it."
"For years Chris had turned off his sexuality like a light switch and lived as a warrior, consumed with the battle -- living basically asexual. For Chris the other SEALs were brothers and in the man's man warrior lifestyle, even if he had wanted to entertain sexual thoughts, there really was never any time to be thinking too much about sexuality," the book says.
After her retirement in 2011, however, "Now seemed the right time to go for it -- to make his body match his identity -- or at least start by dressing like a woman in his regular life."
Speckhard said Beck first announced her decision to friends online with the declaration "No more disguises" and the book describes her going out to gay bars in Florida as a woman.
Beck is currently on hormone therapy in preparation for sexual reassignment surgery and generally wears long hair, make-up and women's clothes, Speckhard said.
In the book's Preface, Beck said she wrote the book "to reach out to all of the younger generation and encourage you to live your life fully and to treat each other with compassion, be good to each other, especially in your own backyard (where it be high school or your community)."

ISTANBUL ( Protest - New meaning to the song " Lady in Red " by Chris DeBurgh )

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - In her red cotton summer dress, necklace and white bag slung over her shoulder she might have been floating across the lawn at a garden party; but before her crouches a masked policeman firing teargas spray that sends her long hair billowing upwards.
Endlessly shared on social media and replicated as a cartoon on posters and stickers, the image of the woman in red has become the leitmotif for female protesters during days of violent anti-government demonstrations in Istanbul.


"That photo encapsulates the essence of this protest," says math student Esra at Besiktas, near the Bosphorus strait and one of the centres of this week's protests. "The violence of the police against peaceful protesters, people just trying to protect themselves and what they value."