BOGOTA ( Army Officer Arrested for Murder of Colombian Journalist )

BOGOTA – A retired army officer accused of being one of the people involved in the 1999 murder of popular journalist and political humorist Jaime Garzon was captured Thursday after a decade on the run, the Colombian Attorney General’s Office said.

Jorge Eliecer Plazas Acevedo was arrested in San Martin, a town in the central province of Meta, Deputy Attorney General Jorge Perdomo told reporters.

Plazas became a fugitive from justice after escaping in 2003 while serving a 40-year sentence for the murder of Israeli businessman Benjamin Khoudari.

Perdomo said that Plazas’ capture came after a joint operation with the National Police and after a year of investigation that eventually enabled authorities to locate him via intercepted telephone calls.

Garzon, an attorney and peace activist known for his devastating impersonations of political figures, was fatally shot on Aug. 13, 1999, in Bogota while on his way to work at now-defunct broadcaster RadioNet.

At the time of the murder, Plazas was working as the head of intelligence for the army’s 13th Brigade, according to the AG’s office.

Bloggers in Russia strike back at tough new law

MOSCOW: Russian bloggers took revenge on Friday for a controversal new law imposing tough rules on online expression by inundating Moscow’s communications watchdog with phoney registration requests.
Authorities in April passed new legislation — seen by critics as a bid to muzzle dissent on social media — requiring bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers to register and adhere to stricter rules or face a large fine.
The state ITAR-TASS news agency reported that between 20 and 30 percent of registration requests received by media regulator Roskomnadzor on Friday, the day the law came into force, were spam.
Under the new law, bloggers are required to submit personal details to a special register, and may no longer write anonymously.
Critics have warned the law could be a setback for freedom of expression as it is so vaguely worded that it could be used to target any of the social networking sites and blogs that make up Russia’s most vibrant forum for opposition political debate.
The legislation bars blogs from “making calls to carry out terrorism or publicly justifying terrorism,” publishing “other extremist materials” or promoting violence or pornography.
Bloggers also will also have to verify the accuracy of the information they publish and ensure that it does not intrude into an individual’s personal life.
Concealing or falsifying information important to the public as well as “besmirching a citizen” based on their profession or political beliefs is also banned.
“That means you can’t bad-mouth a political opponent or write something bad about the police,” wrote blogger Andrei Malgin on the popular Echo of Moscow radio station’s website earlier this year.
Those who breach the law risk hefty fines of up to 50,000 rubles ($1,400, 1,000 euros).

UNRWA Christopher Gunness Breaks Down In Tears On Live TV

Syria ( Jihadists Impose Restrictions on Women’s Clothes in Syria )

BEIRUT – The extremist Islamic State (IS) has imposed restrictions on women’s clothes in the areas they control in the Syrian province of Deir Ez-Zor, bordering Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Thursday.

According to SOHR, the jihadists have distributed a statement in Deir Ez-Zor province with rules for the clothing of the population in the province.

The islamist extremist group ordered women to wear a full “niqab” that blindfolds their eyes and an “abaya” or tunic which must cover the rest of their clothes and be wide enough to hide the shape of their body.

The “niqab” often hides the face but not the eyes, although it may cover the entire face.

The IS has also forbidden women from wearing high-heeled shoes and has warned all those who violate these rules they will face harsh punishment.

The IS proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria in late June.

The group started imposing restrictions in the Syrian province of Raqqa, in the northeast of the country, on January 20th, banning smoking and music, as well imposing the full-face veil and the closure of all shops before and during prayer times.

Mexico ( Mexican Journalist Murdered at Home in Zacatecas State )

MEXICO – A Mexican journalist was found stabbed to death in his home in the town of Guadalupe in Zacatecas state (central-north), sources said Thursday.

Journalist Nolberto Herrera Rodríguez was found dead in his home Wednesday with more than 20 stab wounds, a spokesperson for Article 19, an international organization defending freedom of expression, told Efe.

Herrera Rodríguez served as a cameraman, reporter and editor on Zacatecas’ Channel 9 television and other media, and as well as in the public sector.

The office of the Attorney in Zacatecas said his murder could have been a crime of passion, although other motives must not be ruled out, Channel 9 news director Alfredo Valadez Rodriguez said.

Article 19 has called on authorities “to conduct a proper investigation to punish those responsible and break the cycle of impunity which creates a chilling effect on the exercise of journalism”, the organization said in a statement.

“It is necessary that authorities in Zacatecas provide security to journalists in the region and establish a public policy of prevention to ensure the exercise of the right to freedom of expression”, it added.

Valadez Rodríguez said Herrera was “hard working” and “a very active person”, who produced a news report and wrote on culture and news in general.

The Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression of the federal government last June issued a report saying that since the year 2000, 102 journalists in Mexico had been murdered.

Ten of the murders occurred at the start of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration in December 2012

Gaza ( 16 killed when shells hit a UN school )

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: At least 76 people died in Israeli strikes across Gaza Wednesday, including 16 killed when shells hit a UN school, sending the Palestinian toll from 23 days of fighting above 1,300.
The deadliest strike was at a UN-run school in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where 16 people were killed and scores were wounded when two shells slammed into the facility, drawing a furious denunciation from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
In another strike on a house in Tuffah neighborhood in northeastern Gaza City, seven members of the same family were killed, among them four children and a woman, emergency services spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, a single strike killed nine members of the same family, including a child, Qudra said, and in a later incident, seven members of another family also died as Israeli tank shelling struck the city.
Later in the day, medics pulled the bodies of another seven people from the rubble of a house in Khan Yunis, also from the same family.
In another shelling attack in Gaza City, an 11-year-old disabled girl was killed, and a 16-year-old girl died in a strike on central Gaza.
Another 28 people were killed in various attacks across the Gaza Strip as Israeli ground troops made a “significant advance” into the tiny coastal territory which is home to 1.7 million people.
So far, 1,306 people have been killed and more than 7,200 wounded since the start of the Israeli offensive, which began with an intensive air campaign on July 8 and expanded when Israel sent ground troops into the Gaza periphery on July 17.
Figures released at 1200 GMT on Tuesday by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA give a figure of 1,118 dead, including at least 827 civilians, among them 243 children.
Of the 6,233 injured, 1,949 were children, it said.
OCHA also said up to 240,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced by the fighting, with the UN agency for refugees saying more than 200,000 of them had taken refuge in 85 of its shelters. The rest were staying with relatives or friends.
On the Israeli side, the conflict has also cost the lives of 53 soldiers, all of whom were killed since the ground operation began, as well as two civilians and a Thai agricultural worker who were killed by rocket fire.
The army says that during its offensive it has attacked some 4,100 targets in Gaza, and militants have fired more than 2,670 rockets, of which 2,102 struck Israel and another 513 of which were shot down by its missile defense system, Iron Dome.
Since midnight (2100 GMT Tuesday), 23 rockets have struck Israel and three more were shot down, a military spokeswoman said.

America's most wanted " suspect killed "

NEW YORK | A California man who skipped town after being accused of molesting a child was killed and three law enforcement officers trying to arrest him were wounded in a daytime shootout inside a New York City smoke shop, officials said Monday.

The suspect, wedding photographer Charles Richard Mozdir, was recently featured on a CNN show about fugitives produced by Auburn native John Walsh. He was wanted in a San Diego case and charged with five counts of lewd acts upon a child younger than 14, according to a criminal complaint.

Officials didn't disclose details of the injuries sustained by the two U.S. Marshals and a New York City detective, but Police Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters all three were in stable condition.

"We pray everything we are hearing is true and that these officers will be OK in the long run," de Blasio said.

The shootout between Mozdir and a fugitive apprehension task force happened just after 1 p.m. in the West Village not far from New York University in a highly trafficked tourist area bounded by jazz clubs, restaurants a subway station and basketball court.

"It was shocking and out-of-place," said Edoardo Gelardin, 24, who was heading to lunch shortly after the shooting when he saw officers loading the victims into ambulances and officers with assault weapons sealing off the scene. "It was a little overwhelming to see a scene like that."

A $1 million bench warrant was issued for Mozdir's arrest on June 15, 2012, after he skipped an arraignment in San Diego Superior Court on child sexual assault charges, according to Steve Walker, a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney. He had posted $250,000 bail.

He had also been charged with attempting to dissuade a witness from prosecution, according to the criminal complaint.

His case had recently been featured on CNN's "The Hunt with John Walsh." Mozdir was accused of abusing a young boy while babysitting him and authorities later found evidence of child pornography and bestiality on his cellphone and computers, according to the show's website, quoting federal authorities.

Authorities have searched for him in Coronado, Georgia, California and Mexico, according to the show.

The San Diego County Public Defender's Office, which represented Mozdir in the child molestation case, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

The fugitive task force seeks absconders from other states, Bratton said. Mozdir's weapon was recovered, authorities said.

The violence recalled a deadly shootout that left a gunman and two auxiliary New York City police officers dead on another Greenwich Village street in March 2007.

That gunman, David Garvin, killed a bartender, according to police, and then turned crowded streets packed with storied taverns into a shooting gallery. Unarmed volunteer officers Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Todd Pekearo were killed.