Iran ( Charshanbeh Suri "the last Wednesday of the year" 2 killed )

Tehran, YJC. Tuesday evening’s bonfire (Chaharshanbe Suri) has taken its toll of the year as all previous years.Head of the Public Relations of the Health Ministry’s Treatment Department said that 148 have been injured playing with fire on Tuesday evening.

Every year Iranians celebrate the last Wednesday of the year. The bonfire starts late Tuesday and is pursued the following day by firing firecrackers, setting up fire, and flying sky lanterns. The occasion is called Charshanbeh Suri.

Arezoo Dehghani in interview with Mehr News Agency added "By 22:30 tonight the Charshanbeh Suri wounded 148 people, 51 of which were released with outpatient treatment and 97 were transferred to hospitals.”

She further stated that hospitals and emergency services are kept on duty.

More recent reports say that two people have died from wounds inflicted during the bonfire.

Copenhagen Zoo ( Kills four lions " to make way for new one" ? )

The Danish zoo that drew so much criticism for killing a healthy young giraffe named Marius and inviting schoolchildren to watch as he was dismembered and fed to lions is at it again.

This time, the zoo announced that it euthanized four healthy lions Monday to make way for a young male lion.

It did not say what it did with their carcasses, nor whether they were among those who ate Marius.

Of course it’s tempting for any older person to anthropomorphize the situation (four old guys equals one young guy), but it turns out that only two of the lions were older -- 16 and 14 years old -- and one of them was a female. The other two were 18-month-old male cubs.

Having checked its humanity at the door in February when it so publicly killed and disposed of Marius, the zoo has a perfectly cold-eyed scientific rationale for the slaughter:

“The change in the lion pride had to happen now because Copenhagen Zoo currently has two young females from the 2012 litter and it is ideal to keep these as part of the new pride and then find a suitable male,” officials said in a statement on the zoo's website. “If the Zoo had not made the change in the pride now then we would have risked that the old male would mate with these two females -- his own offspring -- and thereby give rise to inbreeding.

“Furthermore, we couldn’t risk that the male lion mated with the old female as she was too old to be mated with again due to the fact that she would have difficulties with birth and parental care of another litter.”

(As an old female myself, I’m straining against the temptation to apply any evolutionary biology comparisons to human beings here.)

There were other exigencies outlined by the zoo in its explanation for why four perfectly healthy creatures had to be put down instead of moved.

The older male and older female would have killed the new male lion, officials said. And the new male lion would have killed the two sexually immature younger males.

Also, they said, had the new male not arrived quickly, the remaining females of the pride might have ganged up on him and killed him.

But none of that explains why the animals could not have gone off to some preserve and lived out their lives in peace.

Zoo spokesman Tobias Stenbaek Bro told CNN that the zoo tried to place them, “but unfortunately, there wasn’t any interest.”

How hard did they try?

You may recall that even when there was a great deal of interest in saving the life of Marius, the zoo refused to let him go, citing regulations of its governing organization, the European Assn. of Zoos and Aquaria. Yet two zoos that offered to take Marius, the Krakow Zoo and the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, are members of the association.

You could argue, correctly, that captive animals enjoy longer life spans than those in the wild, and in that sense a zoo animal’s life is often extended, perhaps even pleasurably, as it no longer has to deal with predators. (Well, non-human predators.)

But it is also true that these life-and-death decisions have nothing to do with an individual animal’s welfare, and in fact only serve the zoo’s needs and its higher goals of maintaining genetic diversity.

Maybe this is naive, but it seems to me that we humans owe a debt to these magnificent creatures. They entertain us, educate us and enlighten us. They deserve more than regular feedings and an untimely death.

 

CAIRO ( Protest at University " Over 520 death senttences " )

CAIRO: Hundreds of largely university students in a number of universities protested Wednesday against the mass death sentences issued against more than 520 suspected supporters of President Muhammad Mursi in a cursory trial, setting off clashes that left dozens injured.
One person was killed near the university when protesters clashed with security forces, a Health Ministry official told Reuters. The official said eight were wounded.


At Cairo University, hundreds of students who attempted to take their protest outside the campus were met with volleys of tear gas from police. Khadiga El-Kholy, a student participating in the protest, said the police force gave no warnings before firing the tear gas, sending the students rushing back on campus.
Students responded by throwing stones and fireworks and hurling tear gas canisters back at the security forces in pitched street battles. TV footage showed security in civilian clothes detaining protesters and taking them away in blindfolds. There were also images of the security seizing firebombs from young protesters. El-Kholy said police fired birdshot at the protesters.
“We wanted to escalate our protest because of those death sentences, which included university students,” she said, adding that the protesters had sought to move into a nearby public square outside the campus. “We want to break the barriers that the security forces have imposed on all the squares.”
In the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, police said students damaged the facade of an administrative building in the local university and clashed with rival students, prompting to security forces to enter the campus and arrest eight rioters.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s state news agency says the country’s chief prosecutor has ordered two new mass trials for 919 suspects on charges that include murder.

Amnesty News ( Amnesty slams Iran over the " Death Penalty ") Video

Mexico ( Double homicide two car dealers killed )

Information collected about states that at 09:00 hours ,  authorities were informed that district federal police had located the bodies of two men who were killed  at close range .The manager was ripped facial skin .


At the site the public prosecutor was in the company of expert criminologists who ordered the removal of the bodies to transfer to Semefo city of Uruapan , so far as known.

Later at Amphitheater Civil Hospital, relatives identified one of the victims , which in life by the name of Hugo Alejandro Barragan Venegas, who served as manager of the Renault agency in the city of Uruapan , he died of injuries from gunshot fire and was subsequently flayed by suspects.

Similarly, a second body of a man about 30 was killed , who was also working as the same car dealership . Ministerial authorities started with the investigations to clarify the motive for the double homicide and to give the identity of the murderers .

Read more: http://www.elblogdelnarco.info/2014/03/ejecutan-el-gerente-de-agencia.html # ixzz2xBhCNxR2
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California Senator arrested ( Leland Yee arrested on public corruption charges )

By Kevin Roderick | March 26, 2014 1:46 PM

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The San Francisco area lawmaker, a Democrat, is due in federal court for arraignment right about now. Yee was arrested this morning along with a shadowy San Francisco figure known as "Shrimp Boy" during raids involving hundreds of agents and officers from the FBI and gang task forces. Yee is running for California Secretary of State in this year's primary election. There is video in the media of Yee being taken into custody. From SFGate:

State Sen. Leland Yee was arrested on public corruption charges Wednesday morning in a federal investigation that also targeted Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, a notorious former San Francisco gangster, officials said.

The arrest of Yee, who represents San Francisco and a part of San Mateo County and is a candidate for California Secretary of State, came amid searches of his office in Sacramento and his home on 24th Avenue in San Francisco's Sunset District.

Sources told The Chronicle that the predawn raids, carried out by hundreds of agents from the FBI and the IRS as well as local police officers, stemmed from a fatal shooting about five years ago.....

Also in custody was San Francisco political consultant Keith Jackson, a former San Francisco school board member, sources said.

According to the story, "local television cameras showed Yee being led away in handcuffs from his home."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ( United States Congress refuses to help American in Jail ) Zack Shahin

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 6, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lawyers for imprisoned U.S. citizen Zack Shahinhave renewed their request for intervention by the U. S. Department of State, arguing that the continued reluctance of the U.S. government to publicly urge Dubai Authorities to release Shahin, who remains innocent of charges filed against him, is a dereliction of the U.S. government's duty to protect the life and interests of Americans abroad.

"Numerous letters have been sent, both to Washington and the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in the U.A.E., none of which have been answered.  Although Senator Sherrod Brown was kind enough to inquire about Zack's case, the response contained nothing we did not already know," stated Eric J. Akers, co-counsel for Shahin.

In a letter sent March 6, Shahin's attorneys renewed their request for a written response from U.S President Obama and the State Department to the prior communication delivered to a number of State Department officials, including Secretary Kerry and Acting Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, Elizabeth Jones.  "Zack Shahin has reached the end of his options and will perish if his government continues to leave him to his fate," wrote Akers.

What effect the remand by the Cassation Court of Shahin's case in which the trial court imposed a term of imprisonment is, as of now, uncertain due to the lack of an interpretation of the judge's ruling.  However, as is reported, to require a new review of his case by a new panel of judges, raises serious questions about the Dubai justice system's overall appellate process and transparency which seems not to exist.

"As far as we know, including what we are able to glean from those officers who visit Zack, no effort has been exerted on Zack's behalf.  We can only assume that the American foreign policy is, as it appears to be elsewhere in the world, non-existent," said Akers. "The callous and inexcusable neglect of this American citizen by his own government while U.S. officials busy themselves with issues across the globe having little relevance to our country is a measure of how misguided our foreign policy has become."

Even Shahin's brother has not received a response from inquiries to the State Department, nor from President Obama. In 2012, in response to a letter to President Obama, Zack's brother did receive a letter from a State Department official, indicating the efforts taken to that date.  However, neither he, nor Zack's wife have received any written response from letters sent since then.

About Zack Shahin's Plight Since His March 2008 Arrest and Imprisonment:

On March 2, 2014, Zack Shahin declared a hunger strike to protest the U.S. government's unwillingness to intervene on his behalf and demand that Dubai authorities release him after six years in jail without an upheld conviction.

March 23, 2014, will mark the six-year anniversary of Zack Shahin's arrest.  Except for the brief period following his release on bail in July 2012 and return that September, he has remained imprisoned without an upheld conviction.  In early 2013, Zack was acquitted on the first of four criminal cases against him, all of which stem from the same baseless accusations concerning his tenure as CEO of Deyaar, a Dubai-based real estate company.  The prosecutor unsuccessfully appealed this decision and the not-guilty verdict was upheld.  In March 2013, Zack and co-defendants were found guilty of embezzlement and received a 15-year sentence. Zack immediately appealed the conviction and the Dubai Court of Appeals overturned the court's decision.

Despite an appeals court overturning Shahin's guilty verdict and a cassation court upholding another not-guilty verdict, after four years of court appearances and continuances, and an obvious strategic maneuver by the Dubai government to deny U.S. citizenZack Shahin his due process right to a trial, Washington continues to tread lightly.

For more information on Zack Shahin's arrest, visit www.FreeZack.com.  U.S. legal counsel for Zack Shahin are Eric Akers andJames Jatras.

SOURCE U.S. Legal Counsel for Zack Shahin