CARACAS ( Bodyguard of Venezuelan President Murdered )

Bodyguard of Venezuelan President Murdered
One of the bodyguards of the Venezuelan president was shot to death while driving along a Caracas highway on Sunday, the Public Ministry announced

CARACAS – One of the bodyguards of the Venezuelan president was shot to death while driving along a Caracas highway on Sunday, the Public Ministry announced.

Lt. Marco Cortez, 29, died when unknown gunmen fired at his vehicle from another car.

“According to preliminary information, Cortez was traveling in his vehicle on the Valle-Coche highway ... when presumably they started shooting at him from another automobile,” said the Attorney General’s Office in a communique.

Cortez was taken to the Hospital Militar, “where he was admitted without vital signs,” the official text of the announcement read.

The Caracas daily El Universal said that the bodyguard “was attacked by gunfire by individuals who apparently were trying to steal his vehicle from him” when he left a party early Sunday morning with his wife, who was unhurt in the incident and took him to the hospital.

Cortez had been working for the presidential security detail for six years and was a member of one of the “security rings” surrounding late President Hugo Chavez, the predecessor of Nicolas Maduro, the press version said.

Cortez’s murder comes a week after Eliecer Otaiza, a former director of the Venezuelan intelligence service, was killed – according to Maduro – by people who were formerly in power in the South American nation and are now in Miami.

“I cannot provide further details,” said Maduro last Thursday regarding the former Disip intelligence service director, whose body turned up last Saturday along another highway in the capital with four fatal bullet wounds.

Disip was revamped into the Sebin intelligence service.

Venezuela is one of the countries hit hardest by crime and violence, with 11,000 murders last year, according to government figures, although non-governmental organizations place the number at about 25,000.

Mexico ( A man was found dead and signs of torture in San Pablo ) cartel wars

A man of about 55, was found dead on the side of the UH, San Pablo in Karachi, on Line 5 with the asphalt.


The body showed signs of torture and a message written on the back and chest with black marker. 

The discovery occurred about 00:30 am when neighbors reported to police patrols in the vicinity of the Northern Axis 5 a person had been shot. Officers arrived on the scene along with an ambulance of the Red Cross and Civil Protection Atzcapotzalco and corroborated the report of the emergency.

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Pakistan ( Children continue with school -see video )

Ukraine ( 38 die in blaze Amid Political Clashes in Odessa )

 
KIEV – A fire at a union hall amid political clashes Friday in the southern city of Odessa caused 38 deaths, Ukraine’s provisional government said.

“Thirty-eight people died as a result of the fire: eight of them jumped out the windows on finding themselves trapped and the rest were asphyxiated,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

Another 50 people were hurt in the blaze, including 10 members of the security forces, the statement said.

Four people were killed earlier Friday in Odessa during violent confrontations between supporters and opponents of the government in Kiev.

One of the four died of a gunshot wound, a police source said.

Three police officers were among at least a dozen other people hurt as Kiev loyalists and their mainly Russian-speaking opponents battled each other with clubs, stones and other rudimentary weapons.

Rowdy supporters of the local soccer club took part in the clash on the pro-Kiev side.

The anti-Kiev protesters took refuge in the union hall shortly before the fire broke out.

Russia’s RT television said the blaze was deliberately set by members of Right Sector, a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist group affiliated with the government in Kiev.

The disturbances in Odessa, Ukraine’s third-largest city, came hours after Ukrainian armed forces launched a military operation to wrest control of the southeastern city of Sloviansk from ethnic-Russian militias opposed to the Kiev government.

Ukraine’s interior ministry said two of its helicopters were shot down by missiles during the operation.

Two military personnel were killed and seven others wounded, the head of the provisional government, Oleksander Turchinov, said, adding that the insurgents suffered “significant losses.”

Sloviansk has been blockaded by the Ukrainian troops, who have deployed a score of helicopters in their offensive, militia leader Igor Strelkov said.

Long-simmering tensions between pro-European western Ukraine and the country’s eastern region, which has close ties with Russia, were exacerbated by the ouster in late February of President Viktor Yanukovych, a Russian-speaker from the East.

The crisis that led to Yanukovych’s ouster erupted at the end of November, when Yanukovych backed away from plans to ink a pact with the European Union and instead signed a $15 billion financial-aid package with Russia.

Brussels’ offer of closer ties with EU was conditioned on a pledge by Ukraine not to enter into any additional economic accords with Russia, Kiev’s leading trade partner and energy supplier.

Uruguay ( Marijuana to Be Sold for Less Than $1 a Gram in Uruguay )

 
Authorities said the price was deliberately set below what marijuana sells for illegally, and the quality control of the drug available at pharmacies would be “very high”

MONTEVIDEO – Marijuana will be sold at licensed Uruguayan pharmacies at a price of between 20-22 pesos ($0.87-$0.95) per gram, according to newly released regulations fleshing out last year’s law legalizing the cultivation, distribution and marketing of the drug.

The president of the National Drug Board, Diego Canepa, said at a press conference that that price would cover the cost of production and allow growers to make a profit, adding that pharmacies selling the product would not be allowed to undercut one another.

The price was deliberately set below what marijuana sells for illegally, Canepa said, adding that the quality control of the drug available at pharmacies would be “very high.”

Pharmacies must not place the marijuana in public view nor advertise that they are selling it and they must safely store the drug, just as they do with prescription-only medications or other products intended for “controlled use.”

Canepa said pharmacies that want to sell the drug may start doing so in November or December.

The marijuana sold at pharmacies will be supplied by a maximum of six companies that are to be awarded contracts in a competitive bidding process.

Those companies will meet annual domestic demand of 22 tons of marijuana, the Uruguayan government says.

Consumers registered to buy marijuana at pharmacies may buy up to 40 grams of the drug per month.

Besides buying the product at a licensed pharmacy, marijuana consumers will also be able to access pot by growing it themselves or by belonging to 15-to-45-person cannabis clubs, although with an annual production limit of 480 grams for both individual growers and club members.

Last December, Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalize cannabis.

Iran ( Attack On Banner of Condolences that Was Sent from Jailed Dervishes to Mr. Moradi )

Attack On Banner of Condolences that Was Sent from Jailed Dervishes to Mr. Moradi

Sunday, May 04 2014

 A few nights ago some plainclothes attacked the alley where the late Mr. Khalil Moradi Sarvestani's family is living and destroyed the banners of condolences that were affixed to the outside wall of the house which were sent from imprisoned Dervishes to the family of the deceased.
According to a report by Majzooban Noor, some verses of Holy Qur'an which refer to return of believers to God have been printed on those banners and below the verses, the sympathy messages from jailed Dervishes in Evin, Rajai Shahr, Shiraz's Nezam and Bandar-Abbas prisons have been written.
Mr. Khalil Moradi Sarvestani, the father of imprisoned Gonabadi Dervish in Evin prison, died in Shiraz's Central Hospital on 9th of Ordibehesht 1393 ( April 29, 2014), after suffering a period of heart disease which was due to the stress that caused by his son's incarceration. Mr. Khalil Moradi who has had two previous heart attack and a stroke at the same time after the arrest of his two sons, Hamid-Reza and Saleheddin Moradi Sarvestani in 1390 (2011), during three years of this unjust imprisonment, due to his dire health condition, it was only once that he could travel from Shiraz to Tehran to visit his ill son in hospital.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ( American couple sentenced to jail - over child abuse )

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates –  A lawyer for an American couple sentenced to jail in Qatar over charges they starved their 8-year-old adopted daughter to death said Tuesday their defense team will keep pursuing efforts to allow the family to leave the Gulf nation while their case is appealed.
Matthew and Grace Huang were originally jailed in January 2013 and faced charges of murder following the death of their daughter, Gloria. They were released from prison in November, but were banned from leaving Qatar during their trial.

A court in the natural gas-rich OPEC nation sentenced the California couple to three years behind bars on March 27. They only learned that they had been convicted on a lesser child endangerment charge when the official judgment was received last week, according to a U.S.-based member of their legal team, Randy Papetti.
The Huangs say their adopted daughter, who was born in Ghana, died of medical problems complicated by unusual eating habits that included periods of binging and self-starvation. Defense witnesses have testified that the girl appeared healthy and active just days before her death.
Lawyers for the couple have vowed to appeal the case -- a process that got underway this week. Papetti told The Associated Press that members of the legal team have filed an intent to appeal the verdict but have yet to submit an appellate brief with supporting evidence.
They have repeatedly asked the court to let the Huangs leave the country to rejoin two other African-born adopted children, who left Qatar during the trial to live with relatives in the U.S. That request has been denied so far.
The prosecution, meanwhile, has raised the possibility of pursuing new charges of human trafficking during the appeal. Papetti said police and prosecutors have so far not offered any evidence to back up that allegation.

An investigative report by Qatari police had earlier raised questions about why the Huangs, who are of Asian descent, would adopt children who did not share their "hereditary traits."
"They're just having a hard time understanding that the Huangs would adopt children of a different race without strings attached," Papetti said.
The case has raised questions about possible cultural misunderstandings in Qatar.
The conservative Muslim country is seeking a higher international profile through major overseas investments and plans to host the 2022 soccer World Cup, but Western-style adoptions and cross-cultural families are relatively rare.
The U.S. State Department has expressed concerns about the case and said it has raised the issue with Qatari officials on multiple occasions. Qatar hosts an important American military air operations center at a desert air base outside the capital, Doha.
The next appellate hearing in the Huangs' case is scheduled for May 11.