Brazil ( TV Cameraman Shot While Covering Carnival in Brazil )

 

SAO PAULO – A TV cameraman was hospitalized in serious condition after being shot several times while he was covering a Carnival procession in the northeastern Brazilian city of Pedreiras, Bandeirantes television said Wednesday.

Hilton Costa Brito, 36, was at a parade when a man got out of a nearby car and opened fire at him, according to Bandeirantes, which is affiliated with TV Atenas, for which the cameraman works as a freelancer.

Brito, who was shot four times in the stomach and legs, was taken to the hospital, where he underwent two operations.

According to the annual report of Reporters Without Borders, five journalists were murdered in Brazil in 2013, making the country one of the most dangerous for reporters in the Americas.

Last month, two gunmen shot to death journalist Pedro Palma, the owner of Panorama Regional newspaper in Rio de Janeiro state.

Cameraman Santiago Andrade, who is also with Bandeirantes, died after being hit by a flare as he was covering a street demonstration in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

“The escalation of violence against journalists is extremely worrisome and that crime cannot remain unpunished,” the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters said Wednesday in a communique.

Ukraine ( Ukraine flew its flag over the government headquarters in the eastern city )

DONETSK, Ukraine: Ukraine flew its flag over the government headquarters in the eastern city of Donetsk on Thursday and ejected pro-Moscow demonstrators that occupied it, ending a siege that Kiev had seen as part of a Russian plan to create a pretext to invade.
Police said they had taken more than 70 people into custody for questioning after clearing out the regional administration headquarters and another government building.


“The people who were removed from the building did not resist,” Donetsk city police chief Maksim Kirindyasov said. “The building was cleared in a matter of a few minutes.”
Later on Thursday, security service agents arrested the protest leader. Pavel Gubarev was led away from his apartment without a fight. The local businessman who called himself the “people’s governor” had demanded control over the police and tried to persuade lawmakers to install him as regional boss while his men occupied their hall.
He was charged with seeking to damage “the territorial integrity and independence of the state.”
The pro-Moscow protesters who had been occupying the building since Monday were first lured out on Wednesday by police who said there was a bomb scare, but fought their way back in after battling police throughout Wednesday.
The building had flown the Russian flag since Saturday, when President Vladimir Putin declared Russia’s right to invade Ukraine.
Donetsk, home city of deposed president Viktor Yanukovich, has seen the most persistent pro-Moscow demonstrations in a wave of protests that erupted simultaneously across southern and eastern cities the day of Putin’s announcement.

Similarities to Crimea
Kiev’s new government has named one of Ukraine’s richest men, metal baron Sergei Taruta, as Donetsk regional governor, a sign that powerful oligarchs, many of whom once supported Yanukovich, are now behind the new authorities.
On Thursday, Taruta promised to restore calm: “I am not a magician, I can’t do it all in a single day, but I think in two weeks or so the situation will be completely different.”
Russian forces seized Ukraine’s Crimea region, an isolated Black Sea peninsula, but did not enter other areas of Ukraine.
Kiev says the protests across the south and east were orchestrated by Moscow to justify a planned wider invasion.
It points to similarities between Gubarev’s tactics and those used in Crimea — where a pro-Russian politician was named provincial boss in a besieged legislature before Russian forces took control — as evidence a wider assault was planned.
The pattern was also repeated in other cities on Saturday where demonstrators raised Russian flags at regional government buildings and pro-Russian politicians held closed-door legislative sessions.
But Donetsk was the only city outside Crimea where the Russian flag flew above the government building for more than a day and the protest leader continued to insist he was in charge.
Most Ukrainians in eastern and southern regions speak Russian as a native language and many are deeply suspicious of the government in Kiev.
The pro-Moscow demonstrators initially enjoyed substantial support, but their tactics and Putin’s invasion threat have increasingly caused a backlash and protest numbers have ebbed.
In Donetsk, anti-Russian protests in the past two days were much larger than the pro-Kremlin demonstrations.
Kiev has said that many of the pro-Russian demonstrators have been bussed in from Russia. Police chief Kirindyasov said those detained at the regional headquarters were all Ukrainian citizens from the Donetsk region, though not from the city itself.
The Ukrainian authorities say they did not take steps earlier against the pro-Moscow protests because of fear that violence would provoke a Russian military response.

Kearny Arizona ( Family say " Man beaten to death " Never threw a punch ) Milo Candeleria

 

                            (  suspects )                                                                      (  milo)

( His family say , Milo never threw a punch ) ?   That would be Murder 1 or 2 ?

KEARNY, AZ - A deadly bar brawl last Friday night in this old mining town left one man dead and two arrested.
Kearny Police say Juan Lopez and Anthony Sigala were drinking at the La Cantina Bar in Kearny when they got into a fight with Milo Candeleria.
Kearny Police responded to the bar at about 11 p.m. Feb 21 where they found Candeleria injured. He was airlifted to UAMC where he succumbed to his injuries, Kearny Police Chief Robert Ingulli said in a release.
Both men were officially charged with aggravated assault and manslaughter

Amman ( Middle East will be vaccinated against polio this month )

AMMAN: Millions of children in the Middle East will be vaccinated against polio this month after the crippling disease resurfaced in conflict-hit Syria, the United Nations said Sunday.
Mass vaccinations have already been launched in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria, while a similar campaign in Lebanon will start on March 9, the UN Children’s Fund Unicef said in a statement.
“Polio does not respect borders,” said Ala Alwan, World Health Organization regional director for the eastern Mediterranean.



“The detection of polio in Syria is not Syria’s problem alone, but one requiring a regional response. The safety of children across the Middle East relies on us being able to put a stop to polio in Syria.”
Preliminary evidence suggests the virus in this outbreak — and also polio samples found in sewage in Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip — came from Pakistan, one of the disease’s last bastions.
The Syrian Ministry of Health said in October that polio had returned to the country for the first time in almost 15 years.
“We need to get two drops of polio vaccine into the mouth of every child under the age of five, regardless of their previous immunization history, every time there is a campaign,” Khouzama Al-Rasheed, a medical worker at a health center in rural Damascus, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Inside Syria, the campaign is targeting 1.6 million children with vaccines against polio, measles, mumps and rubella,
Seven countries across the Middle East are planning to vaccinate more than 22 million children multiple times over six months, in the region’s largest-ever coordinated immunization plan, said UNICEF.
“To vaccinate so many children in different countries is a huge undertaking,” said Maria Calivis, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Each country faces its own set of challenges in order to make the campaign effective — above all in Syria — but this is the only way we can ensure children across the region are properly protected against this terrible disease.”

Ukraine ( Ukraine’s navy chief announced Sunday he had switched allegiance to the pro-Russian ) He should be arrested on the spot !

KIEV: Ukraine’s navy chief announced Sunday he had switched allegiance to the pro-Russian authorities of the flashpoint peninsula of Crimea, a day after he was appointed to the post by interim leader Oleksandr Turchynov.
“I swear to execute the orders of the (pro-Russia) commander-in-chief of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea,” Denis Berezovsky said in a televised statement from inside the Crimean headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, adding that he “swears allegiance to the residents of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.”

Pakistan ( 11 killed in a Shopping mall " along with a Judge " )

ISLAMABAD: Gunmen burst into a court in a busy shopping area in the heart of Pakistan's capital, killing at least 11 people in a bomb and gun attack likely to shatter any prospect of meaningful peace talks with insurgents.
The Pakistani Taliban, who have declared a month-long ceasefire to pursue peace talks with the government, immediately distanced themselves from the attack as well as a separate blast on the Afghan border which killed two soldiers.


 An explosion reverberated in central Islamabad just after 9 a.m., followed by bursts of gunfire. Police said at least 30 were wounded. A judge was among those killed.
"There was a blast, then there was a lot of gunfire. Gunmen were spraying bullets at everyone," said Faisal Ali, a businessman who witnessed the attack.
Even as the Taliban declared willingness to talk peace, almost daily attacks have continued around Pakistan in past weeks, showing that the central Taliban leadership is not entirely in control of its operations.
"We have already declared a ceasefire for a month and we stand by our promise," a Taliban spokesman said.
Bomb attacks are rare in Islamabad, the leafy and hilly seat of Pakistan's government.
The judge, Rafaqat Awan, was killed on the spot. He had rejected a petition last year to file a murder case against former President Perzez Musharraf over his order to storm a hardline mosque in Islamabad in 2007.
Many radical Islamists hold a grudge against Musharraf over the storming in which more than 100 people were killed, and any official seen as obstructing their fight for justice is likely to be on their hit list.
During Monday's attack, two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the courtroom where a hearing had just started, police said.
Two other attackers were killed in the ensuing gun fight with police. Police said gunmen fired at random targets in the area after the initial explosion.
Shortly afterwards, police blocked entry and exit points to the area, a maze of narrow, dusty streets lined with one-room shops and offices.
Commandos in camouflage knocked on doors and secured street corners as they combed the area for more militants. Police secured the area an hour later and the market resumed normal operations.
At the court, broken glass and charred human remains littered the site of the blast at the F8 market area as residents and police rushed around in bloodstained clothes.
A severed leg lay atop the rubble. Pools of blood and severed body parts were scattered on the floor of several offices.
"There is one policeman among the dead," local police station head constable Mohammad Yousaf said.
"We also have unconfirmed reports that two lawyers have died."
The Taliban, a fragmented group consisting of dozens of smaller bands of militants, said at the weekend they would observe a one-month ceasefire to try to revive peace talks and called on all groups to observe it.
Talks broke down last month after a series of attacks and counter-attacks by the army and insurgents.
Observers say striking a deal with the central leadership would not stop the violence because many fridge militant groups operate independently from the central Taliban command.
The Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting to bring down the Pakistani state, are allied with, but separate from, the Afghan Taliban.
The Afghan Taliban are fighting to expel foreign forces from Afghanistan and do not fight Pakistani security forces.

Hong Kong ( Protest after attack on " former Chief Editor " of Ming Pao )

 

A Hong Kong news editor injured in a cleaver attack is improving, officials say, as journalists held vigils condemning the violence.

Kevin Lau, the former chief editor of newspaper Ming Pao, was critically wounded after being attacked by two men on Wednesday.

Police are investigating the attack.

Mr Lau was recently replaced by a Malaysian editor viewed as pro-Beijing, sparking fears among staff that the paper's independence was under threat.

Ming Pao is a respected Chinese-language Hong Kong paper known for its investigative reporting.
'Heartbroken'
In a statement, Mr Lau's family said that he was now conscious and able to communicate by writing.

"We are confident that with your support and Kevin's own determination, he will not only recover but continue to serve shoulder by shoulder with his fellow journalists," his family added.

On Thursday, at least 200 people held a vigil outside the government headquarters denouncing the attack and calling for press freedom to be protected.

Journalist groups have organised a protest on Sunday against the violence.

Thousands had demonstrated the previous Sunday over fears that Hong Kong's press freedom was under threat.