Mexico ( Federal Police seized more than 600 kilograms of marijuana )

SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, December 1 -. Federal Police seized more than 600 kilograms of marijuana that was hidden in a truck that was moving toward the town of San Luis Rio Verde.

The Federal Police said that the incident occurred in the Tampico-Sanchez Roman road at kilometer stretch 152 Rio Verde-Santa Catarina, where federal agents were carrying out inspection, security and surveillance when they detected a type box truck with only one plate, so asked the driver to stop.

In a statement, said the driver stopped the drive and upon inspection the vehicle, the truck was empty, but you could see that it had been modified recently and upon closer examination the drug was found.

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Mexico ( When I grow up " I want to be a Hit Man " )

The climate of insecurity and violence that is perceived through music, television and the internet, has meant that the dream of every child is to be hit man, this has been demonstrated in studies and analysis conducted by the Center of Attention and Family Violence Prevention (Cepavi) and have thrown that out of ten small, both want to be assassins.

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Iran ( Temporary marriage is " Up in Iran " a way of continuing a sexual relationship ) Pre-marital sex is illegal in Iran

Friday, 15 November 2013   

Figures released by the Iranian National Statistics Office indicate that Sigha –temporary partnership – is on the rise, while fewer and fewer people are marrying in the conventional way.

Mohabat News -  Figures released by the Iranian National Statistics Office indicate that Sigha –temporary partnership – is on the rise, while fewer and fewer people are marrying in the conventional way.
According to the deputy justice minister, Sigha rose by 28% in 2012 and by a further 10% in the first half of this year. Sociologist Mustafa Aghlima told the ISNA news agency: "The increase in Sigha at the cost of fewer proper marriages means the collapse of family life and its cultural values. Sigha is endemic among wealthy people seeking sexual gratification."
Pre-marital sex is illegal in Iran, and many young men and women resort to temporary marriage as a way of continuing a sexual relationship. University lecturer Dr. Hussein Baher told ISNA: "Getting married is harder now than it ever has been. 90% of the problems experienced by married couples are the result of economic hardship, while in the remaining 10% cultural differences are to blame."
The Iranian authorities however blame foreign satellite television for the increase in family breakdowns, while discounting such problems as the high cost of living, high rates of unemployment and a lack of decent housing./shahrzad

Syria ( Watchdog says Syria most dangerous country for journalists )

             

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

11/28/2013 01:54

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The New York-based group Committee to Protect Journalists cited the case of two kidnapped Swedish journalists.

Syrian opposition fighters drag a rocket launcher near the 80th Brigade base in Aleppo Nov. 13, 2013 Photo: REUTERS

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Tuesday that the civil war in Syria posed the greatest danger for working reporters in conflict areas.

“Syria remains the most dangerous country in the world for journalists,” CPJ said. “At least 55 journalists have been killed covering the conflict since 2011, with local journalists comprising 90 percent of the fatalities.”

The New York-based group cited the case of two kidnapped Swedish journalists.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday by a spokeswoman for the Swedish Foreign Ministry, the two had been “taken away” on Saturday. It is unclear whether Syria’s regime or rebel forces kidnapped the men.

CPJ said there were at least 30 local and international journalists missing there.

“The number of journalists currently missing in Syria is nothing short of shocking,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa coordinator, Sherif Mansour.

“We call on all players in the conflict to respect journalists’ status as civilians and ensure their safety.”

Many cases of missing journalists have not been publicized because of family wishes and the probability of damaging complex negotiations to secure their release.

According to the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, the two journalists were Magnus Falkehed and Niclas Hammarstrom. The Paris-based Falkehed worked for the paper as a freelance reporter, and Hammarstrom as a freelance photographer. The paper said they had not been on assignment for the daily when they disappeared.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders issued an extensive report earlier this month titled “Journalism in Syria, impossible job?” According to the report, “more than 110 news providers have been killed in the course of their work in Syria since March 2011 and more than 60 are currently detained, held hostage or missing.”

The difference in statistics between CPJ and Reporters Without Borders is typical in war reporting where civilian deaths and casualty numbers vary according to sources and methods used to track victims.

Reporters Without Borders is an international organization that seeks to expand freedom of information. It released its report to coincide with the six-month date of captivity for Edouard Elias and Didier François, two French TV journalists.

The report noted that Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces targeted journalists at the outset of the revolt against his regime in 2011. While Assad continues his crackdown on journalists, rebel jihadi groups in northern Syria also aim to kidnap journalists.

Reporters Without Borders placed Assad on its annual list of “Predators of press freedom” in 2011. The Al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra group was added in 2013.

The advocacy organization now seeks to add the al-Qaida-linked ISIS to its list. ISIS controls large swaths of territory in northern Syria and goes to great lengths to target Western and independent journalists working in the country.

Writing for the Daily Beast website on Tuesday, Jamie Dettmer described how Syrian army forces attempted to kidnap him in the Kurdish-controlled region of northeast Syria.

CPJ said Rami al-Razzouk, a journalist for the local news outlet Radio ANA, was abducted by ISIS gunmen in October. In August, Mohamed Nour Matar, a local journalist, disappeared while reporting on a protest against ISIS in the city of Raqqa. He worked for the non-profit media organization Al-Shara, according to CPJ.

Benjamin Weinthal reported for The Jerusalem Post on the Turkey-Syria border, where he entered the Syrian-side of the border town of Jarabulus in September. He is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

GUATEMALA ( City Councilman Gunned Down in Guatemala )

GUATEMALA CITY – A member of the municipal council in the eastern Guatemalan city of Jalapa was fatally shot by unknown assailants, first responders said Friday.

Carlos Valdez was slain Thursday night in the capital of Jalapa province, fire rescue spokesman Mario Cruz told reporters.

The shooting took place as the councilman was getting into his vehicle in a parking lot, according to the official report. Valdez, 49, took office in January 2012 after winning election on the ticket of a short-lived coalition of the UNE and GANA parties.

Authorities declined to speculate on the motive of the killers.

With an average of 15 homicides a day, Guatemala is one of the most dangerous nations in Latin America.

Buenos Aires ( Sex workers protest " Topless " over legal structure for sex work )

Sex Workers Demand Law to Protect Their Rights

by Chiara Gnoli, 27 November 2013. Tags: AMMAR, law, protest, sex work, sex workers, violence against women

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Ammar members protesting yesterday (Photo: Raúl Ferrari/Télam/aa)

A day after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which took place on Monday 25th November, the sex worker collective Ammar (Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina) organised a manifestation in front of the Congress building in Buenos Aires to support the “self-determination of sex workers.” Holding up a poster demanding for a law on autonomous sex work, the demonstrators called for the government to recognise the violence sex workers suffer as a result of a non-existent legal structure for sex work.
Georgina Orellano, the National Coordinator of Ammar, stated: “In the last few years we have been suffering constant persecution, discrimination, abuse, loss of jobs, and police bribery.”
Ammar’s aim through the demonstration was to shed light on the problems sex workers face on a daily basis, including violence and abuse. According to Ammar, a recent crackdown on brothels and the law to criminalise clients are forms of violence towards the sex workers as it denies their self-determination. In Ammar’s online statement, they write: “Banning our right to exercise our work is violence. The impossibility of being able to decide on issues regarding our body is violence…. the constant confusion between trafficking and sex work is violence.”
Orellano stated that the collective does not believe the state helps sex workers as sexual work in Argentina has no legal foundation. She stated that the work “is not prohibited but it’s not permitted” and emphasised that due to this lack of legality there is a void in which sex worker’s rights are denied and their situation is often confused with that of human trafficking victims. Orellano declared that there are many sex workers that become so voluntarily, and are thus in need of protection from criminalisation, discrimination, violence, and abuse.
“Our sector has always been criminalised and stigmatised, there is a lot of prejudice around our work and we wish for society to see us not as victims but as a subjects of rights,” Orellano stated.
Ammar’s protest in the context of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women comes on the same day NGO Casa del Encuentro presented findings on violence against women. According to their findings, a woman is killed every 35 hours in Argentina. 

Mexico ( Amnesty International Blasts Mexico for Inaction on Human Rights Issues )

MEXICO CITY – Twelve months after taking office, the administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto “has failed to demonstrate that human rights are its priority,” Amnesty International said Friday.

Abuses, such as forced disappearances, violence against migrants and attacks on rights activists, have gone on with impunity during the first year of Peña Nieto’s six-year mandate, AI’s Mexican chapter said in a statement.

Besides abetting existing rights violations, the new government has presided over increased police brutality toward protesters and a rise in arbitrary arrests, the rights watchdog said.

The few advances, including a crime victims’ bill of rights and the creation of a special missing-persons unit in the Attorney General’s Office, have had no “real impact” on Mexico, according to AI.

The clearest sign Peña Nieto’s administration has not prioritized ending the “epidemic of violence and abuse ... that characterized the (2006-2012) tenure of Felipe Calderon” is that the government put off until next March its review of a set of recommendations from the U.N. Human Rights Council, AI said.

Fully implementing those recommendations, issued last month, “would contribute to mitigating this serious human rights crisis,” Amnesty International said.