Ecuador ( More Than 1 Ton of Cocaine Seized in Ecuador )

QUITO – Ecuadorian authorities seized more than a ton of cocaine in an operation in which they arrested six people, the Attorney General’s Office reported Thursday.

The operation, in which personnel from the police and the AG’s office participated, was carried out early Thursday morning in the southwestern province of Guayas.

“The prosecutor in charge of the operation said that the drug was apparently ready to be sent by sea to Central America,” said the AG’s office.

In the operation, the AG’s office added, the prosecutor ordered a preliminary field test of the drug which came back positive for cocaine.

The AG’s office did not say what the nationalities of the six arrested people were.

Ecuador is not a drug-producing country, but its neighbors Colombia and Peru are the principal producers of cocaine.

Venezuela ( UN Slams Excessive Use of Force Against Protests in Venezuela )

 The UN has received direct complaints from demonstrators, their families and attorneys, some referring to the lack of information about the whereabouts of those arrested when the protesters’ camps were wiped out over the past two days

GENEVA – The United Nations criticized Friday the excessive use of force by the Venezuelan government to break up peaceful protests in Caracas.

“We unequivocally condemn all violence by all sides in Venezuela. We are particularly concerned at the reported excessive use of force by the authorities in response to protests,” said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.

Security forces removed, among others, a movement camped peacefully in front of the UN Development Program office in Caracas, he said.

He said the UN repeated its petition to the government “to ensure that people are not penalized for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and to freedom of expression.”

The United Nations has received direct complaints from demonstrators, their families and attorneys, some referring to the lack of information about the whereabouts of those arrested when the protesters’ camps were wiped out over the past two days, Colville said.

Since Feb. 12, Venezuela has been experiencing a series of anti-government protests, which on occasion have become violent and so far have left more than 40 people dead and hundreds arrested.

The dead include both opponents and supporters of the government, as well as police and bystanders.

Among the hundreds of people in custody are members of the security forces accused in connection with two of the deaths.

Mexico ( Kidnappers Free Mexican Lawmaker )

MEXICO CITY – A state legislator kidnapped earlier this week in southern Mexico was released by his captors, authorities said Friday.

Olaguer Hernandez Flores, a member of the Guerrero state assembly, was abducted around 11:00 p.m. Tuesday from a casino in Chilpancingo, the state capital.

Despite the captive’s release, the investigation will continue, the Guerrero state Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

The AG’s office “regards the physical integrity of the victim as the priority, and without diminishing its function as an investigative organ, will continue in the task of pursuing and arrested the likely perpetrators,” the statement said.

Hernandez Flores, a member of Mexico’s governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was dragged out of the Emotion casino by a group of armed men.

The Guerrero AG’s office collaborated with federal agencies in efforts to secure the lawmaker’s release.

Mexico’s criminal organizations have kidnapped and murdered numerous politicians and businessmen in recent years.

Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre’s administration announced the creation of a special unit to deal with kidnappings last October. Abductions have spiked in the state, a trend that has affected the rest of Mexico.

A total of 1,695 kidnappings were reported in Mexico in 2013, up 20 percent from the previous year, the National Public Safety System said.

An unknown number of kidnappings, however, go unreported, with some estimates putting the figure at 90 percent.

Iran ( Female blogger sent to prison -transferred to hospital ) some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright

Imprisoned student activist transferred to hospital

Friday, May 09 2014

 

 

 

Maryam Shafipoor, the imprisoned student kept in Evin prison since April 25, 2013 was transferred to a hospital outside of the prison in handcuff.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Maryam Shafipoor has been transferred to a hospital due to her sever deterioration of health condition, while hospital's physicians has diagnosed the reason of her pains are the wrong medications which are prescribed in the prison.

Need to be mentioned, she had an ultrasound test that the result is not publicized yet.

During several visit of Maryam Shafipoor to clinic on different working shift, each resident physician prescribed different medicines but none has any effect on the condition of her stomach.

In the meantime, all of the requests of Ms. Shafipoor for gastroscopy were rejected and there was no proper treatment for her stomachache and nausea and she has been bearing the pain.

Besides, this political prisoner is suffering from hearth disease, skin ailments, toothache and very recently lymph nodes. Previously, in one occasion she passed out in the prison.

Amnesty International had expressed concern about her health condition and asked for her immediate and unconditional release and proper treatments.

Maryam Shafipoor is the former student of agricultural engineering, in the field of irrigation in Qazvin International University and was expelled from the university while she was in eighth semester. In 2010, she was sentenced to five years in prison, by the revolutionary court of Qazvin, for student activism and blogging.

Maryam Shafipoor was summoned by security courthouse, in June 2013, and in July 27, she was arrested by the order from persecutor in court number two of Evin (Shahid Moghaddas).

Need to be mentioned, her case, which is 7 years in prison sentence by prime court, is sent to appeal court, in branch number 54 of revolutionary court, with chief judge Ghazipoor Arab.

BOGOTA ( Antonio Banderas Proud of Hispanics’ Triumph in Hollywood )

 

BOGOTA – Spanish actor Antonio Banderas said that he is proud to be a part of the generation of Hispanic artists who managed to open the doors of Hollywood and consolidate themselves in the movie mecca.

Banderas, who was in Bogota to present his new ladies’ fragrance, “Her Golden Secret,” recalled at a press conference his early years in movies and gave details about his most recent film project,” The 33,” about the Chilean miners who were trapped in a collapsed mine for 70 days in 2010.

The 53-year-old actor said that one of the first things he was told when he arrived in the United States was that if he stayed in Hollywood “I was going to be a villain all my life” in terms of the roles that came his way, since “blacks and Hispanics” are (or were) the bad guys in film.

The interesting thing, Banderas added, was that when he starred in the 1998 film “The Mask of Zorro,” the bad guy was blond and “had blue eyes.”

Hispanics who have made a career in movies or in any other professional sphere in the United States “have struggled a lot, have come from countries in conflict, where many difficulties have occurred” with the aim of having their children go to college, Banderas said.

The children of those pioneers “currently are in positions of power (and that) had to be reflected in Hollywood,” he added.

WASHINGTON ( U.S. Suspends Embassy Operations in Yemen After Attacks )

 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government announced Wednesday the temporary suspension in providing services to the public at its embassy in Yemen citing recent attacks against “western interests.”

“The recent attacks against western interests and information we have received have given us enough concern to take this precautionary step,” said State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki.

A security advisor with the European Union was killed and another wounded on Monday in Sanaa in an attack on their car by unknown gunmen, but Yemeni authorities attribute the hit to Al Qaeda. Both Frenchmen worked for a private security firm operating in the country.

Germans also have been attacked recently in Yemen.

“We continue to evaluate the security situation every day, and we will reopen the embassy to the public once it is deemed appropriate,” Psaki said in the statement.

Psaki went on to reiterate the “strong commitment” of the United States to supporting Yemen to achieve “significant reforms” in its transition process to improve security for its citizens.

A little more than a week ago, the Yemeni army launched a broad offensive against the Al Qaeda strongholds of Shebua and Abien, the largest such military move since 2012 and one in which dozens of alleged terrorists have been killed.

HAVANA ( Havana Arrests 4 Cuban-Americans on Terror Charges )

HAVANA – Four Cuban-Americans have been arrested in Cuba on charges of plotting terrorist attacks, the interior ministry said Wednesday.

Jose Ortega Amador, Obdulio Rodriguez Gonzalez, Raibel Pacheco Santos and Felix Monzon Alvarez, all residents of Miami, were detained April 26, according to a statement circulated in Cuba’s state-controlled media.

“The detainees acknowledged that they sought to attack military installations,” the interior ministry said, adding that three of the suspects admitted having traveled to Cuba several times since 2003 in connection with the plot.

The suspects, according to the statement, also told investigators that plan was devised by three other Cuban-Americans living in Miami: Santiago Alvarez Fernandez Magriña, Osvaldo Mitat and Manuel Alzugaray.

Cuba will urge U.S. authorities “to investigate these acts and promptly prevent the action of terrorist elements and organizations based in that country from endangering people’s lives and the security of both nations,” the interior ministry said.

The three alleged masterminds in Miami “maintain close ties with the famous terrorist Luis Posada Carriles,” the statement said.

Posada, an anti-Castro militant accused by Venezuela and Cuba of involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion airliner over Barbados that left 73 dead, is thought to be living in South Florida after his April 2011 acquittal on U.S. federal charges of perjury, fraud and obstruction of justice.

The Cuban-born Venezuelan citizen was accused of lying when he applied for political asylum and U.S. citizenship. Federal prosecutors said he perjured himself when he denied under oath that he was involved in bomb attacks on Havana hotels in 1997.

An Italian tourist died in one of the blasts.

Posada acknowledged in a 1998 interview with The New York Times that he helped organize the bombings of hotels in Cuba, but the U.S. Army veteran later claimed that his poor grasp of English caused him to misspeak in his exchange with reporter Ann Louise Bardach.

The octogenarian Posada was jailed in Venezuela in 1976 for his alleged role in the jetliner bombing, but escaped in 1985 while awaiting a second trial.