CARACAS ( 18 Handguns Stolen from Venezuela Police Station )

CARACAS – A police station near Caracas was assaulted by four “heavily armed” criminals, who stole 18 handguns and seven ammunition magazines, an official spokesman told Efe on Monday.

“Four individuals entered the police station... they overcame the officers who were there, beat them, tied them up and took their service weapons along with 16 handguns they found in storage and seven ammunition magazines with 17 bullets each,” Miranda state police press secretary Niumar Oropeza said.

The assailants targeted a police station in San Pedro de Los Altos, at some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Caracas.

“One (police officer) was struck on the head, and the other, besides the blows he received, had a stress-induced breakdown, so both were taken to a clinic in Caracas,” Oropeza said.

Venezuela is one of the countries hit hardest by insecurity and violence which, according to official figures, took the lives of 11,000 people last year.

AP names Vivian Salama as Baghdad bureau chief

CAIRO: Vivian Salama, a television and print journalist who has reported on the Middle East for over a decade, has been named as Baghdad bureau chief for The Associated Press.
The appointment was announced by Ian Phillips, AP's Middle East news director based in Cairo.
Salama, 34, succeeds Adam Schreck, who is now based in Dubai and oversees AP coverage of the Gulf countries as well as Iran. Salama will be the senior reporter and will lead a team of reporters, photographers, video journalists and support staff covering Iraq.
"The AP is one of the few international news organizations to have maintained a continuous presence in Iraq before and after the US occupation," said John Daniszewski, vice president and senior managing editor for international news in New York. 
"With Iraq again front and center in the news, Salama is a serious student of the region and her expertise will inform AP's reporting as the drama continues."
"She is an accomplished journalist who will write with authority about the challenges facing Iraq and who understands the power of visual storytelling," said Phillips.
Salama, who speaks Arabic and holds a master's degree in Middle East and Islamic Studies from Columbia University, has covered major stories overseas including Egypt's historic presidential election, the resurgence of violence in Iraq and drone deaths in Yemen.
She begins her new position in Iraq at a critical time for the country as security unravels nearly three years after the US military withdrew. Sunni militants have overrun several cities in northwestern Iraq near Syria, hoping to exploit the chaos to link territories they control on both sides of the border.

Ukraine seeks Western help to end pro-Russia revolt

IZVARINO, Ukraine: Ukraine pressed German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other Western allies on Monday to help end a pro-Russian uprising that has continued to rage in the industrial east despite Kiev’s unilateral cease-fire.
President Petro Poroshenko conducted another furious round of telephone diplomacy while his top diplomat prepared to outline the details of Kiev’s new peace plan to EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Poroshenko will also sign an historic EU trade pact on Friday that crowns his May 25 election promise to make the decisive move westward — a move that is strongly opposed by Russia and lies at the heart of the current crisis.
The new president’s high-stakes peace push envisions talks with eastern representatives but not rebel leaders — a condition that Russian President Vladimir Putin says will not help end the 11-week revolt.
Putin threw his weight behind Poroshenko’s plan over the weekend provided it also leads to constitutional changes granting better protections to ethnic Russians who remain wary of the new government Kiev.
Russia further insisted on Monday that the week-long cease-fire Poroshenko ordered last week be extended over the long term.
Insurgent commanders have ignored Poroshenko’s overtures and continued waging their campaign to gain independence and eventually join Russia — a drive thus fur resisted by the Kremlin.
Reporters near the Russian border saw rebels push back and in some cases encircle government soldiers dispatched by Poroshenko to stem the flow of weapons and gunmen into the conflict zone.

Park Ranger ( Fired '' For trying to dance " while working ) haha

Mexico ( 2 people were executed at a car swap meet )

Running two traders in @ Cd_Victoria, Tamaulipas

Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas - The evolution of about 1:30 pm in the afternoon 2 people were executed in this capital city by armed men riding in a car.

The incident occurred in the Peace Avenue in front of the car swap meet this avenue is located off of Reynosa. According to the information gathered about a young man of about 20 to 25 years, and a man, presumably both car dealers at this flea market. According to witnesses subjects arrived at the scene and began firing his high-powered weapons against victims who were already identified, fled the scene immediately afterwards, the young reach to run but remained depressed meters ahead, the man stayed lying on the ground.



The man in  the ambulance still had vital signs so he was taken to hospital for treatment, his current health status is unknown.  All federal police arrived, the motive for the attack is unknown.

Leer mas: http://www.elblogdelnarco.info/2014/06/ejecutan-ados-comerciantes-en.html#ixzz35UmxoVyP
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BAGHDAD ( Sunni Militants Take 3 More Towns in Iraq )

BAGHDAD – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters have taken three more towns in Al Anbar province, their stronghold in western Iraq, a military spokesman said Sunday.

Army troops had to pull out of Rawah, Qaim and Anah, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta said in a press conference.

The decision was made to carry out a tactical withdrawal to “mobilize and reactivate the military units in strong areas and guarantee more effective control,” Atta said.

Qaim, one of three posts on the Iraq-Syria border, fell to the jihadists on Saturday night, but officials had not confirmed the town’s fall until now.

Sunni insurgents have been fighting the army in Al Anbar since January, when they took Fallujah and a section of Ramadi, the two biggest cities in the province.

Security forces members are still in Tal Afar, a town in Nineveh province, and repulsed several insurgent attacks, the army spokesman said.

The security forces also stopped an attack on the Baiji refinery, Iraq’s largest petroleum processing complex, which is under the control of troops loyal to the government in Baghdad, Atta said.

The refinery in Saladin province, located north of Baghdad, and Tal Afar were at the center of fighting last week between government forces and the insurgents.

Tal Afar is located between Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the capital of Nineveh province, and the border with Syria.

The security forces, meanwhile, killed 42 ISIS fighters and destroyed 13 vehicles in operations east of Tikrit, the capital of Saladin province, the army spokesman said.

Ten other jihadists were killed in the northern part of Babil province, Atta said.

ISIS is leading the Sunni insurgency spreading across Iraq.

Mexico ( Cartel Leader’s Son Arrested in Western Mexico )

MORELIA, Mexico – One of the sons of Caballeros Templarios drug cartel boss Servando Gomez Martinez was arrested in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, officials said.

Huber Gomez Patiño was arrested in the city of Arteaga on Saturday, the Government Secretariat, Defense Secretariat, Navy Secretariat and Attorney General’s Office said in a joint statement.

The 22-year-old suspect tried to flee after spotting federal law enforcement agents and was captured, federal officials said.

Gomez Patiño, who was armed, told the officers he was Gomez Martinez’s son and threatened to have them killed if they did not release him, the federal agencies said.

The suspect faces firearms and drug charges, officials said, adding that he was turned over to federal prosecutors.

Servando Gomez Martinez took over the Caballeros Templarios cartel’s leadership earlier this year.

Federal security forces killed the cartel’s two top leaders, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez and Enrique Plancarte Solis, in February and March, respectively.

Moreno and other members of the Familia Michoacana gang formed the Caballeros Templarios organization after he was reported killed by the government in 2010.

The Caballeros Templarios cartel, which deals in both synthetic and natural drugs, commits murders, stages kidnappings and runs extortion rackets that target business owners and transport companies in Michoacan.

The cartel uses Michoacan’s 270 kilometers (168 miles) of coastline to smuggle chemical drug precursors for the production of synthetic drugs into Mexico.

The federal government is offering a reward of 30 million pesos (about $2.3 million) for information leading to Gomez Martinez’s arrest.

State officials, meanwhile, said Jose Manuel Chacon, a hitman on the cartel’s payroll, was arrested in the upscale Chapultepec district of Morelia, the capital of Michoacan