Jordanian woman kills three of her children

A Jordanian mother reportedly strangled three of her children to death in the capital Amman on Saturday, as the motive behind the murders remains unknown.

Security sources told Agence France-Presse that the 40-year-old woman strangled two of her daughters - one aged three and another aged five - and a seven year-old son while they were asleep.

The woman’s two other daughters managed to run away from the house, and sought help from the building’s guard.

When police arrived at the crime scene, the woman was arrested then transferred to the hospital due to her being in shock. She will later be interrogated by police after her condition becomes more stable. 

Egypt sentences 23 pro-democracy protesters to 3 years

An Egyptian court sentenced 23 pro-democracy activists on Sunday to three years in prison each for holding an unlicensed protest, after international calls to free the defendants.

The rights activists include Yara Sallam and Sanaa Seif, described by Amnesty International as “prisoners of conscience.”

The Cairo court also ordered each of the 23 defendants to pay a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about $1,390).

Some of the activists had supported the military’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in July last year which unleashed a deadly crackdown on his Islamist supporters.

Extended crackdown

They had since turned on the new authorities as it extended a crackdown on all protests.

The verdict, one of several against secular-leaning activists in recent months, may be appealed.

The defendants were accused of holding an illegal protest on June 21 calling for the release of detainees and the annulment of a law that bans all but police-sanctioned demonstrations.

“The ruling is political, it has no legal grounding,” alleged Ahmed Ezzat, one of the defence lawyers, after judge Abdelrahman al-Zawary pronounced his verdict.

Last Update: Sunday, 26 October 2014 KSA 16:35 - GMT 13:35

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Lawyer Sotoudeh arrested during acid-throwing protest

Sat, 10/25/2014 - 18:55

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Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested in front of the interior ministry in Tehran during a protest against acid throwing, her husband Reza Khandan reported on his Facebook page.

“Today after a sit-in in front of the Lawyer’s Supervisory Board, Nasrin accompanied a group of her peers to join a protest in front of the interior ministry in support of women assaulted with acid and against the lack of government action. Upon their return, they were all arrested and they were all released after being identified. But Nasrin remains in custody without any judicial order.”

Giti Pourfazel, Abbas Jamali and Peymon Aref and Farid Rohani were reportedly some of the other lawyers present at the protest.

Reports from Tehran indicate riot police were highly visible along the main arteries of the city. The political deputy of Tehran security forces has been quoted as saying: “We are also very concerned about the acid throwing in Isfahan and condemn such action; however, there can be no demonstrations in Tehran without first getting permits.”

In recent weeks, a number of women have been assaulted with acid on the streets of Isfahan, and while the authorities maintain they are hard at work identifying the perpetrator(s), the public has been showing its outrage with mass gathering in Isfahan and Tehran.

Iran acid attack suspects freed as lack of evidence

Several Iranian men arrested on suspicion of committing horrific acid attacks on women have been released due to insufficient evidence, the interior minister revealed Saturday.

The attacks in Isfahan, Iran's top tourist destination, have shocked the public and provoked a major protest there Wednesday from citizens who demanded better security and action over such violent crimes.

Reports on social networks have claimed that the victims were doused on the face and body because they were not properly veiled. They were targeted by assailants on motorcycles.

Under Islamic law in force in Iran since the 1979 revolution, women must wear loose clothing, known as hijab, that covers the head and neck and which conceals their hair.

But many women now push the boundaries by wearing a headscarf and thin coat rather than the chador, a traditional black garment that covers the body from head to toe.

Justice officials previously said that four men had been arrested in connection with the Isfahan attacks.

But Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, quoted on state television's website, said those in custody had been freed.

He also denounced what he called “a foreign media campaign” to link the attacks to hijab, saying that acid attack victims are usually targeted for reasons of “personal motive or revenge”.

Prosecutor general Ebrahim Raissi, meanwhile, vowed that the attackers would be caught and dealt with, even if the victims were to grant clemency.

“These crimes are unforgivable. While victims can grant forgiveness, there is no way we will give up rights of the state against those who caused fear in the population,” Raissi said.

“They will be severely punished. We will not allow people, under any pretext, to disrupt security,” he added.

Raissi's comments appeared linked to a prominently reported acid attack in Iran in 2011 where the victim later allowed her assailant to pay her compensation in exchange for leniency.

The attacks in Isfahan come after a new bill in parliament proposed greater powers for morality police and volunteer militias to ensure compliance with hijab.

However President Hassan Rowhani, who has been under pressure from hardline MPs to pursue a tougher police stand on the veil, on Wednesday appeared to caution against harsher penalties.

“We should not be overly focused on one issue, such as bad hijab, to prevent vice,” he said, alluding to the Islamic duty to promote virtue.

Wednesday's protest in Isfahan came as the acid attacks dominated the front pages of Iran's newspapers, and as Health Minister Hassan Hashemi visited one victim at a city hospital.

The woman, covered in bandages, gave a harrowing account of how the attack has disfigured her and left her without sight in her right eye.

Magazine Editor Found Murdered in Mexico

CULIACAN, Mexico – A magazine editor in western Mexico who went missing Oct. 10 has been found murdered, a source in the Sinaloa state Attorney General’s Office told Efe on Thursday.

Jesus Antonio Gamboa, 39, was the editor of the political publication Nueva Prensa.

Police tracked down the killers after one of them used Gamboa’s ATM to withdraw large sums. Once in custody, the suspects told authorities where to find the body.

The journalist was murdered after an argument at a bar with the two suspects, investigators said.

The killers tortured Gamboa before shooting him, according to the source in the state AG’s office.

The western state has been the scene of heightened violence since the Feb. 22 arrest of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, boss of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, which set off a turf war among rival criminal outfits.

COMMUNITY MOURN DEATH OF NATIVE MISTY UPHAM,

AUBURN, WASHINGTON — Family, friends and fans will attend the memorial service of Native actress Misty Upham today at 2:00 p.m. at the Muckleshoot Pentecostal Church in Auburn, Washington.

The 32-year-old actress’ body was discovered October 16 at the bottom of a steep drop-off along the White River.

The cause of her death remains under investigation. Police have said there is no evidence to suggest foul play, but her family insists that it wasn’t suicide. In a statement to the press prior to Misty being found, Charles Upham said, “As her father I do not fear she committed suicide. I feel that she has been hurt by accident or someone has put her in harm’s way.”

Having had roles in Hollywood films including “Frozen River,” “Django Unchained” and “August: Osage County,” news of the award-winning actress’ death spread nationwide and has been reported in publications ranging from local newspapers to entertainment publications such as Us Magazine, ABC News and E! News. Fellow actresses Juliette Lewis and Meryl Streep, among others, have expressed their sadness and brought even more attention to Misty’s untimely passing.

Unsung Heroes

While news outlets nationwide have been reporting on the case, something the public may not be aware of is how Misty’s body was discovered by two Native men who found her while taking great risks to retrace her steps along the steep embankment and drop-off where she was found.

The two men who found Misty Upham’s body, Jeff Barehand (in white T-shirt) and Robert Kennedy (far right), shown here with the late Billy Frank Jr. (in blue shirt) and his son Willie Frank.

Robert Kennedy (Tlingit/Athabascan) and Jeff Barehand (Gila River/Navajo) both knew Misty and when her uncle, Robert Upham, had already gone out to search the woods for his missing niece, Robert Kennedy and Jeff Barehand volunteered to help too. They decided to re-check one specific area where Robert Upham had been before. Having grown up in Alaska where he learned hunting skills, Robert Kennedy felt his experience could be an asset in the search. Jeff Barehand came up from Olympia to help.

“I thought that was the least I could do,” Jeff Barehand said. “No one knew where she was or what happened or if she was even alive.”

Robert Kennedy and Jeff Barehand recounted the day of Misty’s discovery to the Puyallup Tribal News.

“After (Robert Upham) dropped us off, me and Jeff were walking along the ridge and I told Jeff I’m going to go down this ravine here,” Robert Kennedy said. “When I got down there I saw something purple and went to check it out. As soon as I picked it up, I saw that it was a purse. I dumped out the contents and saw a medicine bottle with Misty’s name on it. I called Robert (Upham) and told him we found her purse and I think we’re going to find Misty today.”

Jeff Barehand said the terrain was treacherous and very steep.

“I knew right then in my mind that it was (Misty’s purse),” said Jeff when he heard Robert Kennedy call out what he had found. “I knew if the purse was nearby, she would be too.”

Tying a rope to a tree, Jeff Barehand said he carefully lowered himself down as far as he could. “It’s a really steep slope and if you slipped there’s a very good chance you could slide all the way down,” he said. “I went to see if there was another way down the cliff until I found a place to lower myself down and do a controlled fall with the rope.”

Looking over the high brush and foliage, Jeff saw what he knew instinctively was the body of Misty Upham, and called 911.

“If Robert and I hadn’t been in that spot and gone down that specific path and Robert hadn’t found that purse, I probably wouldn’t have looked over the edge – it was too precarious,” Jeff Barehand said.

IN FACT, MISTY’S BODY COULD STILL BE THERE TO THIS DAY WERE IT NOT FOR THE WORK OF THESE TWO MEN.

Robert Kennedy’s wife, Millie Kennedy, said that while her husband and Jeff Barehand are in fact heroes, they were treated very differently when police arrived. An attorney, Millie Kennedy said she left work in a panic thinking police may arrest her husband because officers were photographing him and his muddy boots rather than having him and Jeff show them to where they found the purse and body.

“I am angry that they treated my husband like a criminal and not a hero,” Millie Kennedy said. “Being an attorney I wanted to protect my husband. The Auburn Police would not let Robert explain anything about the evidence that led to finding the beloved. They treated Robert like a criminal and the Auburn Police early reports that day claimed that they, the Auburn Police, found the missing actress.

“Overall, the Native community is outraged by the lack of help from the Auburn Police Department,” Millie Kennedy said. “Had it been Auburn Police who found the actress, they would have been treated like heroes. Instead, Robert, and probably Jeff, were treated like criminals.”

Both Robert Kennedy and Jeff Barehand have difficulty talking about that day, understandably, and both said that they are not looking to be declared heroes or anything like that. All they cared about was finding Misty.

“I wasn’t there to be on the news,” Robert Kennedy said. “The fact that we can bring closure to family is all that matters to me.”

Matt Nagle is a writer for Puyallup Tribal News.  He may be reached at matt@puyalluptribalnews.net