Colombia ( One person killed and 21 injured in nightclub attack )

One person was killed and 21 others were injured in a bomb attack on a nightclub in a northeast Colombian city of Cucuta on Sunday.

According to local police, an unidentified man detonated a grenade inside the downtown club in the early hours of the morning when the club was full.
Cucuta police chief Colonel Carlos Rodriguez told newspaper El Tiempo that investigators are trying to find out who detonated the grenade and whether the attacker is either the deceased person or among the injured.
Additionally, authorities are investigating whether the attack is related to tensions between drug traffickers.
According to El Tiempo, Sunday’s grenade attack was the seventh this year in Cucuta, a city on the Venezuelan border and a hub for smuggling and drug trafficking.

California ( U.S Fish and Game will no longer rescue " Peregrine Falcon chicks " ) 2000 left in California

After decades of scrambling on the underside of California bridges to pluck endangered peregrine falcon chicks from ill-placed nests, inseminating female birds and releasing captive-raised fledglings, wildlife biologists have been so successful in bringing back the powerful raptors that they now threaten Southern California's endangered shorebird breeding sites.
As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it will no longer permit peregrine chick rescues from Bay Area bridges, a move that they concede will likely lead to fluffy chicks tumbling into the water below and drowning next spring.

"It's a paradox," said Marie Strassburger, chief of the federal agency's division of migratory birds and habitat in Sacramento. "Yes, chicks are cute. I won't deny that for a second."
But she said the loss of chicks that fledge from the nest too early is a natural part of life.
Peregrines nest high on cliffs, trees, buildings and bridges because they hunt by diving, at speeds topping 200 mph, at wild birds they like to eat. When fledging, young peregrines fly well and land poorly. On cliffs, there are plenty of easy spots for a crash landing. On buildings, they scramble back onto window sills or ledges when their first flights go awry, or they hit the sidewalk and can be carried back to their nests. But on bridges, with smooth steel or concrete supports, chicks find no perch and often just hit the water.
"We see the loss of a chick by natural causes as an educational moment as this happens in nature all the time," said Strassburger. "The peregrine falcons on the bridges in the Bay Area just happen to be in a very visible spot so the public is more aware of it."
The recovery of peregrines, and now their potential threat to other species, underscores the fragile balance of nature that biologists have struggled with in recent years: Saving bighorn sheep in Yosemite National Park meant hunting protected mountain lions; reintroducing gray wolves in the Rockies brought a backlash when ranchers complained they were killing livestock; and bringing golden eagle populations back on California's Channel Islands nearly devastated the island fox, one of the world's smallest canines.

In Arizona we citizens try to save all .

The decision to stop saving peregrine chicks is strictly local, says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service migratory bird specialist Alicia King at their Arlington, Virginia headquarters. She said she didn't know of any other place where this was happening, and there's no national position. She noted that in many communities the peregrines are beloved and their chicks are treasured.
"But birds sometimes nest in places that are not the best places for them to nest, and while it's hard to watch, sometimes nature has to take its course," she said.

YEMEN ( Journalist and her husband kidnapped - Pleading for their lives ) See video

Journalist and her husband kidnapped in Yemen

A screenshot taken from YouTube shows the Dutch journalist and her husband pleading for their lives. (YouTube)

New York, July 19, 2013--A Dutch journalist and her husband reported missing in Yemen in June have appeared in a video, pleading for their lives and asking for their captors' demands to be met. Judith Spiegel, a Yemen correspondent for Radio Netherlands Worldwide, and her husband, Boudewijn Berendsen, were abducted by an unknown group in the second week of June, the Dutch station reported on Tuesday.

"We call on the kidnappers to immediately release Judith Spiegel and Boudewijn Berendsen," said CPJ's Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour. "There is no motive that justifies the abduction of an innocent journalist and her husband."
Unknown gunmen abducted Spiegel and Berendsen in the Hadda neighborhood of the capital, according to RNW and news reports. Agence France-Presse reported that the couple was last seen on June 12 and had been reported missing on June 15.
In the video, first published on YouTube on July 13 and described in numerous news reports since then, the Dutch couple said their captors would kill them in 10 days if their demands were not met, news reports said. The demands were not specified in the video.
CNN cited an unnamed tribal leader who said the kidnappers had asked for a ransom but had not disclosed an amount. The leader said the Yemeni government had asked several tribal leaders to intervene in the case and to ensure the safe release of the couple, CNN reported. He told CNN that the Dutch couple was in good health, but depressed.

In the video, the couple said they had told the Dutch ambassador in Yemen about their captor's demands. It is not clear how the couple was able to contact the Dutch ambassador.
The Dutch foreign minister, Frans Timmermans, said the abduction had the "full attention" of the government. A spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry declined to tell the BBC if the government had been asked to pay a ransom.
The Yemeni Ministry of Interior did not disclose whether the government had information on the whereabouts of the couple, news reports said.
A wave of kidnapping of Yemenis and expatriates has plagued Yemen in recent years, with journalists regarded as especially high-value targets, according to CPJ research. Disgruntled tribesmen have resorted to abductions to pressure the government to release imprisoned family members and extort political and financial compensation. Some captives have been sold to or abducted by Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants.

• For more data and analysis, visit CPJ's Yemen page here.

Iran News ( Drug Dealer Executed in the prison of Khorram Abad - He was arrested and charged with having 1 ton of opium )

prisoner have been hanged in Khorram Abad

Posted on: 21st July, 2013

                    

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HRANA News Agency – A prisoner who is told be charged with drug trafficking has been hanged in Parsiloun prison of Khorram Abad.

According to a report by IRIB, the commander of Lorestan province police announced to news of the execution of one prisoner who was charged with drug trafficking.

He said this execution was held in the presence of the judge.

Commander-in-chief Alizade claimed that this prisoner was arrested on charge of having 1 ton and 122 kg opium on February 19, 2013. The death sentence was issued by the branch one of the revolutionary court of Borujerd and confirmed by the supreme court afterwards.

He was charged also with gun marketing.

South Korea ( Jay Park - Young Korean Rapper 2013 )

BAGHDAD ( At Least 25 Dead in Sunni Mosque Explosion in Iraq )

BAGHDAD – At least 25 people died and more than 80 were wounded when a bomb went off in a Sunni Muslim mosque near the city of Baquba, an Iraqi security forces official told Efe.

The official, who at first reported 15 people killed, said the explosion was detonated in the Abu Bakir al-Sideeq Mosque in Wijaihiya.

Among those wounded in the attack, unleashed as dozens of the faithful were gathered for Friday prayers, 27 are in grave condition.

Wijaihiya and other areas northeast of Baquba have been the scene of armed attacks in recent days, perpetrated by Shi’ite Muslim militias, which have left dozens of victims and displaced persons.

Terrorist attacks and sectarian violence have increased in Iraq since July 10, the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Last Friday at least 10 people died and another 20 were wounded by an explosive device that went off in a Shi’ite mosque north of Baghdad.

The UN representative in Iraq, Martin Kobler, said this week that the past four months have been the bloodiest in five years, with a total of 3,000 dead and 7,000 wounded. EFE

Mexico MORELIA ( 4 people tortured and killed - 2 men and 2 women )

MORELIA, Mexico – Organized crime is suspected in the torture and murder of four people in the western Mexican town of Buenavista Tomatlan, a source in the Michoacan state Attorney General’s Office told Efe on Friday.

Each of the victims – identified only as two men and two women in their early 20s – was blindfolded and finished off with a gunshot to the head, the source said.

The bodies were found hanging from a metal archway at the entrance to El Limon de la Luna, a community in Buenavista Tomatlan, one of five Michoacan municipalities where residents have organized militias to defend themselves from a criminal outfit known as Los Caballeros Templarios (The Knights Templar).

Los Caballeros, a breakaway faction of the La Familia Michoacana mob, have come to dominate the illegal drug trade in Michoacan and are also involved in kidnapping, extortion and murder-for-hire.

The source in the state AG’s office suggested Los Caballeros killed the people found Friday in an effort to intimidate the community self-defense groups.

Two members of the local militia in the municipality of Apatzingan were among five men who were killed Thursday in the Michoacan village of La Cuchilla.

Mexico’s Federal Police said three of its officers were killed and five others wounded Thursday in an attack by suspected Los Caballeros gunmen in the southern state of Guerrero.

The assailants attacked a convoy of Federal Police vehicles traveling on the Siglo XXI highway, which links Morelia, capital of Michoacan, to the Pacific coast. EFE