GUATEMALA CITY ( Baby Rescued from Kidnappers in Guatemala )

GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan police on Tuesday rescued safe and sound an 18-month-old girl who had been kidnapped last week in a neighborhood on the northern outskirts of the country’s capital.

The little girl was found inside a home in the Santa Faz neighborhood of Chinautla, but the abductors managed to escape after they noticed the presence of law enforcement personnel in the vicinity, police said in a statement.

The criminals, and authorities are not certain precisely how many of them were involved in the plot, escaped via a ravine, according to the terse police report.

The child’s kidnapping was reported on May 13 by the father, who said that it occurred while she was playing in the yard of their residence in Alameda, a poor zone in northern Guatemala City.

Police did not specify who was with the baby at the time of the abduction or the circumstances under which the crime occurred.

The authorities said only that the criminals were demanding 50,000 quetzales ($6,476) in cash for the child’s return without mentioning whether or not anything was paid to them.

After her rescue, the little girl was returned to her relatives, the police communique said.

Iran ( Iranian actors arrested for this " video " ) Come on ?

West Bank ( Two Palestinian teens were killed -Tuesday )

JERUSALEM: An investigation of a fatal West Bank clash between Israeli forces and Palestinian stone-throwers indicates that troops used live fire without justification and in violation of the army’s and one was wounded in last week’s confrontation. Palestinian hospital officials haverules of engagement, an Israeli human rights group said Tuesday.


 Two Palestinian teens were killed  said the three were shot in the upper body by live rounds.
The Israeli military has denied live fire was used in last Thursday’s clash on the outside of the West Bank town of Beitouniya and that troops only shot rubber-coated metal pellets. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a senior army spokesman, said an investigation is continuing.

Riyadh ( Filipino maid " had hot water poured on her back" ) Outrage

Riyadh police and the Philippine Embassy are jointly investigating the case of a 23-year-old Filipino maid, who suffered severe back burns when the mother of her male employer allegedly poured boiling water on her body. 
In Manila, Vice President Jejomar Binay on Tuesday said the Philippine government will pursue the filing of charges against the employer.
Binay, who serves as Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFWs) Concerns, said in a statement that he has ordered the Special Concerns Unit of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh to get updates on the case and pursue the necessary legal actions.According to a new revelation by the victim’s relative, Normiah Alagasi, the incident happened on May 4 at the residence of the employer’s mother, whose name has been withheld, when she asked for a cup of coffee, leading to the bizarre altercation.
The employers are said to be Yemeni nationals. Arab News called the Philippine Embassy to confirm these facts, but was unable to make contact or get an official statement on the case. 
Relatives of the Filipino maid appealed that their cousin be given both moral and physical damages rights, as these injuries will remain a life-long nightmare for the victim who left her two children and spent money to work abroad so that she could help her family back home.
Normiah was anxious about the information given to the police investigating the case by a clinical doctor, where the victim was first brought for treatment. 
She said that her cousin was forced by her employer to give a different version of the incident in which it appeared that she poured boiling water on her own body accidentally. She added that the clinic had even helped rescue her cousin from her abusive employer.
Hundreds of OFWs across the globe and other nationals are still posting comments on various social networks as they wait patiently for the outcome of the police investigation.
Another cousin of the victim, Harrish Alagasi, informed Arab News that his cousin is now at Kalinga House, a rented shelter of the embassy where Filipinos women who seek refuge at the embassy are housed.
Earlier, a source from the embassy confirmed that the maid was at Kalinga where a nurse was taking care of her. The official said that King Saud Medical City (Al-Shumaisy) where she was brought by the embassy on Sunday allowed the woman to be released as her injuries are healing.
“The Philippine Embassy is mandated to help Filipinos. Such an incident could be brought to the embassy immediately for prompt action,” the embassy official said.
According to Harrish, the victim has two children in the southern Philippines and was recruited by a certain Amphill Agency.
“The pouring of boiling water over a Filipino maid’s body by her employer in Saudi Arabia is circulating around the world,” said OFW Maria Elizabeth Embry adding, “The news has gone viral on the Internet and is indeed horrific and shocking.”
However, she wondered why there was no outcry from the Philippine govt. Mission, the official voice of the Philippine government. “Where is the outrage?” she asked saying that there should have been some reaction from the Philippine government at this shocking incident.

Yemen ( al-Qaeda explosives expert was captured during an operation )

Staff Writer, Al Arabiya News
Saturday, 17 May 2014

Yemen’s interior ministry said on Friday that an al-Qaeda explosives expert was captured during an operation in the southern province of Lahaj.

The man, named Mohammad Hassan Jaafar, alias Awkal, was described as a “prominent expert in making explosive devices within al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penesula.”

Yemen said late on Thursday it had foiled a number of al-Qaeda attacks on government, military and diplomatic premises in the capital Sanaa and arrested several suspected would-be suicide bombers, according to Reuters.

Two weeks ago, the army launched its biggest offensive in nearly two years to try to dislodge the Islamist militant group from its southern strongholds, after a wave of attacks against government officials, security forces, foreigners and energy facilities.

While it has made territorial gains, it has failed to prevent retaliatory strikes, some of them in the heart of the capital, by al Qaeda’s most active wing, the Yemeni-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and its affiliates.

The Interior Ministry said security forces had thwarted “a number of cowardly terrorist operations that al Qaeda had planned in the capital” targeting “vital government establishments, security and military headquarters as well as some foreign embassies.”

It said a number of “suicide terrorist elements” had been arrested before they were able to carry out their attacks in Sanaa, among them “a number of foreigners who came from Syria.”

Security forces also detained five al Qaeda suspects in the southern province of Shabwa, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

Al Qaeda wants to establish an Islamic emirate in the Arab world’s poorest state. But the fact that AQAP has used Yemen to launch attacks abroad makes the country, which shares a long border with the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, an international concern.

The United States, which backs the Yemeni government and military and has mounted regular drone strikes against suspected militants, has closed its embassy in Sanaa to the public because of security fears. After a number of increasingly bold attacks on foreigners, other Western embassies have also tightened security.

Yemen has been beset by turmoil since 2011, when mass protests forced veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

Boko Haram ( A member of Nigerian militant group Boko Haram speaks to CBS)

Mexico ( Seven Bodies Found Inside SUV in Northeastern Mexico )

 

MEXICO CITY – Seven bodies were found inside an SUV abandoned in Tampico, a port city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, officials said Monday.

The victims – four men and three women – have not been identified, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group, or GCT, said in a statement.

The killings are related to conflicts involving “the presumed criminal groups operating in the zone,” said the GCT, a joint federal and state agency.

The bodies were discovered Sunday night inside a green SUV with Tamaulipas tags that was abandoned on a closed street in Tampico.

The federal government said last week it was deploying more security forces units in Tamaulipas and planned to purge the state’s law enforcement agencies in an effort to stop a spike in drug-related violence.

Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong announced the expanded deployment last Tuesday in the border city of Reynosa, unveiling a “new phase” of the federal security strategy for Tamaulipas aimed at restoring to residents “the peace and safety they deserve.”

Patrols will be stepped up at ports, airports, customs posts, border crossings and highways, with inspections of prisons and nightspots where criminal activities occur being expanded, Osorio Chong said.

The Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas and smuggling routes into the United States for years