Mexico ( Mexican Senator Robbed at Restaurant )

MEXICO CITY – Sen. David Penchyna, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, said in a social media post that he was robbed this weekend by several armed subjects at a restaurant in Mineral del Monte, a city in the central state of Hidalgo.

“This morning, in the company of several friends, we were robbed in Mineral el Monte. Fortunately, we are all fine,” Penchyna, a member of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Penchyna and the businessmen he was dining with were robbed of more than 500,000 pesos ($37,758) at the El Galeron restaurant, media reports said.

The other victims were Cemex executive Mauricio Bremer and Jose Antonio Garcia, president of soccer team Atlante, the El Universal newspaper reported.

Police launched a search for the robbers but no arrests have been made, media reports said.

Mexico ( Yaqui Indians " End protest Over Aqueduct " )

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s federal government has achieved a breakthrough in a dispute between the Yaqui Indians and the government of the northern state of Sonora, securing an agreement from the Yaquis to end to a nine-month road-blocking protest over construction of an aqueduct.

In a statement Friday, the Government Secretariat said President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration would ensure full compliance with court rulings pertaining to the Independence Aqueduct, which the Indians have opposed on the argument that it will leave them without water.

The Yaquis in 2009 began their struggle against the 152-kilometer (95-mile) aqueduct, which was built to transport water from the Yaqui River to the booming manufacturing hub of Hermosillo, Sonora’s capital, and began operating in April 2013.

The protest measures have included blocking a section of the Mexico City-Nogales federal highway since May, 28, 2013.

The Yaquis alleged the aqueduct, built at a cost of 4 billion pesos (some $300 million), would pose a serious threat to their way of life.

On Feb. 23, 2011, the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat authorized construction of the Independence Aqueduct without respecting indigenous peoples’ right to be consulted about projects affecting their resources, the Supreme Court ruled last year in ordering that the consultation process be held.

The roadblock is to be lifted before March 1 after the Indians received assurances during a meeting in Sonora that the federal government would respect an agreement that was signed on Jan. 21 at the Government Secretariat’s headquarters in Mexico City.

That pact guarantees that the water extracted from the Yaqui River will only be used for human consumption in Hermosillo and that the rights of the region’s Yaqui and peasant communities will be respected.

YAVAPAI COUNTY ( Arizona K9 sniffs out $100k in drug cash )

 

YAVAPAI COUNTY - A Southern California man was arrested in Yavapai county with more than $100,000 in cash and drugs in his car.
It happened Monday on I17 south near Highway 260. A Deputy pulled 63-year-old Karl Harz over for allegedly speeding and a lane change violation.
The Deputy noticed it appeared Harz was under the influence of a stimulant and wasn't straightforward about his travel plans.
Due to suspicions Harz might be transporting contraband, deputies requested permission to search the vehicle and Harz declined. As a result, deputies deployed a YCSO certified narcotics detection K9 for an exterior sniff of the Taurus.
The K9 displayed an odor alert on the vehicle indicating the likelihood of narcotics inside. During a check of the vehicle interior, deputies found a stack of U.S. Currency, approximately $9000, by the front seat and a small quantity of methamphetamine in a cup holder.
When the trunk was examined, deputies located several stacks of U.S. Currency in a duffle bag and additional currency stacks hidden inside liquor bottle bags. The total exceeded $104,000.
Based on additional information developed at the scene, deputies determined the money was connected to drug transactions and the cash was seized. The K9 alerted to the currency during a controlled blind sniff test conducted as part of follow-up during evidence processing.
Harz was booked at the Camp Verde Detention Center on charges including Money Laundering, Possess Dangerous Drugs and DUI-Drugs. He remains in-custody on a $250,000 bond.
The K9 team has been very busy in recent weeks with drug associated cash seizures including $52,000 on February 5 and $10,000 on January 31, 2014

MANAMA ( A Bahraini policeman died on Saturday after being wounded in a bomb explosion )

MANAMA: A Bahraini policeman died on Saturday after being wounded in a bomb explosion during protests to mark the third anniversary of an uprising led by the opposition.
The Interior Ministry said the policeman was one of four wounded by “terrorist” blasts on Friday.
“Some villages saw rioting, vandalism and the targeting of policemen. This required police to respond to these criminal acts with legal means,” the ministry said, adding that 26 suspected rioters and vandals had been arrested the same day.
Dozens of protesters demonstrated in different parts of the island, throwing stones at police firing tear gas. “Three years since the start of the protests, we have seen no peace,” said a 34-year-old clerk in Saar village who gave his name only as Abu Ali. “Every day...youngsters go out and burn tires on the roads and the police attack them with teargas.”
Information Minister Samira Rajab said dialogue would go on, blaming “terrorists” for the clashes of the last few days.

Blocked Comments ( The U.S " Angels of Death " bunch of crap ) Arab Article

UNITED NATIONS: Western powers pushed forward Tuesday with a UN resolution threatening sanctions against Syria despite Russia’s veto threat, with President Barack Obama sharply criticizing Moscow’s opposition to a measure to help millions in desperate need of humanitarian aid.


 The resolution, which expresses the Security Council’s intention to impose sanctions if the Syrian government does not allow unrestricted aid deliveries to civilians caught in the fighting, was circulated among the 15 council members. Western countries made clear they had no intention of dropping the proposal despite Russia’s vow to block it a day earlier.
Obama, speaking at a joint news conference in Washington with French President Francois Hollande, said there is “great unanimity among most of the Security Council” in favor of the resolution and “Russia is a holdout.”
Obama said Secretary of State John Kerry and others have “delivered a very direct message” pressuring the Russians to drop their opposition. He said “it is not just the Syrians that are responsible” for the plight of civilians but “the Russians, as well, if they are blocking this kind of resolution.”
Hollande made clear France was determined to move forward with the resolution.
“How you can object to humanitarian corridors? Why would you prevent the vote of a resolution if, in good faith, it is all about saving human lives?” he said.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the text is a “one-sided” effort to blame the Syrian government, which Moscow supports, for holding up aid.
Still, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin attended a Security Council meeting Tuesday to discuss the text and told reporters later that it was “a good exchange of the challenges of the humanitarian situation in Syria.”
A day earlier, both Churkin and China’s ambassador were no-shows at a meeting with supporters of the draft resolution, and the Russian ambassador made clear his country would veto it if it were put to a vote. China sent its deputy ambassador to Tuesday’s meeting.
Russia and China have blocked three previous Western-backed resolutions that would have pressured President Bashar Assad to end the now three-year-old civil war.
The divided Security Council did come together in October to approve a presidential statement appealing for immediate access to all areas of Syria to deliver aid. Western and Arab countries want to go a step further with a legally binding resolution.
Pressure mounted on Russia and China to consider the proposal, with UN spokesman Martin Nesirky saying Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos support the measure. Nesirky, however, said it was up to the Security Council to decide.
France’s UN Ambassador, Gerard Araud, said the text — which calls for pauses to allow humanitarian access and an end to sieges — is “very simple, not political. It’s balanced. There is no reason to oppose it.”
“We are facing the worst humanitarian tragedy since the genocide in Rwanda in 1994,” Araud said. “Starvation is used as a weapon by the regime, and the regime is bombing in an indiscriminate way the city of Aleppo.”
“I think we should move quickly,” he added.
___
Associated Press writer Alexandra Olson contributed to this story from New York

Tucson AZ ( Homicide - Trucker's body found in Kansas freezer )

 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - Police say a frozen body discovered last week in Kansas City, Kan., was a truck driver from Tucson.
He was reported missing in October.

The body of 53-year-old Lawrence Peter Muirhead was found Sunday inside a freezer in a detached garage behind a home in Kansas City, Kan.

Police said Thursday his death is considered a homicide.

Muirhead's family reported him missing Oct. 1 when he didn't return home to Tucson after a trip to Pennsylvania. Relatives said their last contact with him was Sept. 28.

The truck he was driving was found abandoned Oct. 4 in Merriam.

Kansas City, Kan., police haven't said how Muirhead died.

Mexico ( Journalist " Found dead " Murdered )

MEXICO CITY – Journalists in the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz on Wednesday demanded that officials conduct a full investigation of the murder of newspaper reporter Gregorio Jimenez de la Cruz after authorities said his killing was not linked to his work.

Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte should carry out “a serious investigation and not rule out his journalistic work” as a motive for the murder, journalist Gregorio Antonio Hernandez, a friend of Jimenez de la Cruz, told MVS radio.

Jimenez de la Cruz, a police reporter for the Notisur and Liberal del Sur newspapers, was abducted outside his residence in Villa Allende last Wednesday.

The reporter’s body was found on Tuesday along with those of two other men in clandestine graves in the city of Las Choapas, Veracruz Attorney General Amadeo Flores said.

Authorities did not consider the reporting Jimenez de la Cruz had been doing on the wave of kidnappings and murders in Villa de Allende over the past three months in the investigation, Hernandez said.

Reporters in the southern region of Veracruz state, who have to use pseudonyms or sign stories with the publication’s name to avoid being murdered, feel “indignant” and “powerless” due to the violence, Hernandez said.

“We are going to continue this fight” until officials fulfill their obligation to conduct an investigation that leads to those behind Jimenez de la Cruz’s murder and guarantee the safety of journalists, Hernandez said.

Nearly a dozen journalists have been murdered in Veracruz since Duarte, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, took office in 2010.

Jimenez de la Cruz’s body was “fully identified” by investigators, the attorney general said in a press conference on Tuesday, adding that the motive for the killing was “personal revenge.”

One of the other bodies found in Las Choapas has been identified as that of union leader Ernesto Ruiz Guillen, while the other body appears to be that of an unidentified taxi driver.

The two men were kidnapped several weeks ago and Jimenez de la Cruz reported on their abductions for Notisur.

The three bodies were found as a result of the arrest Monday of Jose Luis Marquez Hernandez at the bus terminal in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, as he prepared to leave the state, officials said.

Marquez admitted to “having participated in the incidents that led to the disappearance and subsequent murder of Gregorio Jimenez,” the attorney general said.

The suspect told investigators that a bar owner, identified as Teresa de Jesus Hernandez Cruz, hired “a group of hitmen” to abduct Jimenez de la Cruz from his residence and murder him due to “personal differences,” Flores said.

Revenge is still “the consolidated motive” for the killing, Veracruz government spokeswoman Gina Dominguez told Radio Formula on Wednesday.

The investigation is ongoing and authorities are looking for four other suspects linked to the kidnap-murder, Dominguez said.

Marquez’s information was confirmed by the discovery of the three bodies in two clandestine graves at a safe house in Las Choapas, officials said.

The suspect provided information that led to the arrests of four other people, including the bar owner.

Teresa de Jesus Hernandez allegedly paid the hitmen 20,000 pesos (about $1,500) to murder the journalist.

It is “unacceptable to rule out the journalistic work of Gregorio Jimenez as a possible motive for his murder,” the Articulo 19 press rights group said, adding that Veracruz authorities should “exhaust all the possible lines of investigation” and guarantee the safety of the victim’s family and the media outlets at which he worked.

Ten journalists have been murdered, at least three have gone missing and about a dozen others have left Veracruz since 2011 due to the drug-related violence in the state.

A total of 87 journalists have been murdered since 2000 in Mexico, making it the most dangerous country in Latin America for members of the media, the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, said.