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MEAN STREETS MEDIA
Friday, November 7, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Shelling Kills 11 Children on the Outskirts of Damascus
Shelling Kills 11 Children on the Outskirts of Damascus
BEIRUT – At least 11 children were killed Wednesday in shelling near a school in the Al Qabun area on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, or SOHR, reported.
The NGO said the death toll could rise since an unknown number of people were injured and were listed in critical condition.
The Observatory did not specify whether the shelling was conducted by Syrian government forces or by the opposition.
Meanwhile, the official Syrian news agency Sana reported that two civilians were killed in a mortar attack launched by “terrorists” in the town of Harasta, northeast of Damascus.
SANA, citing a police source in Damascus, stated that a woman was injured in a rocket attack in the capital’s Rukendin neighborhood.
More than 200,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in Syria in March 2011, according to latest data issued by UN.
BEIRUT – At least 11 children were killed Wednesday in shelling near a school in the Al Qabun area on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, or SOHR, reported.
The NGO said the death toll could rise since an unknown number of people were injured and were listed in critical condition.
The Observatory did not specify whether the shelling was conducted by Syrian government forces or by the opposition.
Meanwhile, the official Syrian news agency Sana reported that two civilians were killed in a mortar attack launched by “terrorists” in the town of Harasta, northeast of Damascus.
SANA, citing a police source in Damascus, stated that a woman was injured in a rocket attack in the capital’s Rukendin neighborhood.
More than 200,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in Syria in March 2011, according to latest data issued by UN.
Israeli killed in East Jerusalem car attack
A Palestinian rammed his car into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem on Wednesday, in the second attack of its kind in two weeks, killing one person and fuelling concerns of another Palestinian uprising.
Israeli security forces identified the assailant as Ibrahim Akari from East Jerusalem.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which it termed as the “the heroic running-over operation.”
“We praise this heroic operation,” said Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum. “We call for more such ... operations.”
(AFP)
Israel's Minister of Public Security Yitzhak Ahronovich said civilians and police officers were among the wounded. He praised the police officer who neutralized the Palestinian attacker, saying that “a terrorist who attacks civilians deserves to be killed.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the attack saying it was a “terrorist act” that “only raises tensions” in the tinderbox region.
Speaking ahead of a meeting with Jordan's foreign minister in Paris, Kerry told reporters: “That is not just a terrorist act and an ... atrocity, but it only makes matters worse. It only raises tensions.”
The attack was almost identical to one two weeks ago, also committed by a Palestinian from east Jerusalem, that killed two people, a baby girl and a young woman from Ecuador, at a train platform near the scene of Wednesday's attack.
Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have been clashing almost daily in east Jerusalem in recent months.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Pro-Kurdish politician stabbed in Turkish capital
A Turkish politician was stabbed repeatedly in the capital Ankara on Tuesday, in an attack that his pro-Kurdish party blamed on a government-led ‘lynch campaign’ against it.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu condemned the stabbing of Ahmet Karatas, a member of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and denied the government had done anything tomake him a target. He said a suspect had been detained and had confessed.
Mutual recriminations are running high because of what Kurds see as Turkey’s failure to protect their ethnic kin just across the border in Syria. Dozens of people were killed last month in unrest in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
Politician Ahmet Karatas was knifed in the neck and leg, a party official told Reuters.
An HDP statement said he had been stabbed some seven times in the attack at the party’s offices in Ankara.
Karatas was being treated in intensive care in hospital.
Kurds accuse the Turkish army of standing by and just watching as Islamic State fighters besiege the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, just across the border. While Ankara has refused to intervene militarily, it allowed Iraqi Kurdish fighters to cross into Kobani with arms and ammunition from Turkey last week.
The HDP accused the government and media of turning its leader and representatives into targets with anti-Kurdish statements and reports in recent days.
“We warn the government once more in the face of this dangerous development and call on it to abandon this sustained lynch campaign,” it said.
Davutoglu rejected the accusation. “During the Kobani incidents, the HDP with its statements turned not only the government but all our citizens in the east and the whole of Turkey into targets. We never turned anyone into a target,” he told reporters.
The government and the HDP have accused each other of fuelling the recent unrest and damaging a peace processlaunched by Ankara and Kurdish militants to end three decades of conflict in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
Karatas was being treated in intensive care in hospital.
Kurds accuse the Turkish army of standing by and just watching as Islamic State fighters besiege the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, just across the border. While Ankara has refused to intervene militarily, it allowed Iraqi Kurdish fighters to cross into Kobani with arms and ammunition from Turkey last week.
The HDP accused the government and media of turning its leader and representatives into targets with anti-Kurdish statements and reports in recent days.
“We warn the government once more in the face of this dangerous development and call on it to abandon this sustained lynch campaign,” it said.
Davutoglu rejected the accusation. “During the Kobani incidents, the HDP with its statements turned not only the government but all our citizens in the east and the whole of Turkey into targets. We never turned anyone into a target,” he told reporters.
The government and the HDP have accused each other of fuelling the recent unrest and damaging a peace processlaunched by Ankara and Kurdish militants to end three decades of conflict in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
U of A student assaulted on campus
TUCSON - The University of Arizona Police Department is investigating an assault on a female student that occurred on campus Sunday afternoon.
According to UAPD, the woman was walking in the area of 1100 East Lowell when an unknown male grabbed her from behind and punched her, knocking her to the ground.
The victim then punched the suspect in the face and stomach until he ran off.
The suspect is described as a white male, in his 20s to 30s, muscular build, with short spiky brown hair and wearing blue jeans.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call 911 or 621-8477 (TIPS).
Arizona - A man was shot and killed after a traffic confrontation
SPRING VALLEY, AZ - Authorities say a man who was shot during an apparent confrontation after a traffic collision in Northern Arizona has died.
Deputies with the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office responded to the shooting on Highway 69 near Mayer High School in Spring Valley around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Officers with the Department of Public Safety were already on the scene and reported that a man in his 40s had been shot and was being transported to a local hospital.
Officers had detained a 59-year-old man and identified him as the shooter.
Within the hour, deputies learned the victim had died.
YCSO says witnesses indicated the two men, each in their own vehicle, were in some type of dispute while driving south on Highway 69.
The man who was shot apparently confronted the other man on the side of the road following a collision.
The shooter remained at the scene and is being interviewed by sheriff’s detectives.
YCSO said a handgun has been recovered.
No arrests have been made and the incident is under investigation.
British-Iranian volleyball woman gets jail time
A British-Iranian woman who was arrested in Tehran after trying to attend a volleyball match has been sentenced to one year in jail, her lawyer was reported as saying Sunday.
Ghoncheh Ghavami, a 25-year-old law graduate from London, who was detained in June at a Tehran stadium where Iran's national volleyball team was to play Italy, went on trial last month.
"According to the verdict she was sentenced to one year," her lawyer Alizadeh Tabatabaie was quoted in Iranian media as saying, noting that the judge had shown him the sentence.
But no reason was given for the conviction.
Iranian officials have said Ghavami was detained for security reasons unrelated to the volleyball match. So far she has been held in the capital's notorious Evin Prison for 126 days.
Ghoncheh Ghavami, a 25-year-old law graduate from London, who was detained in June at a Tehran stadium where Iran's national volleyball team was to play Italy, went on trial last month.
"According to the verdict she was sentenced to one year," her lawyer Alizadeh Tabatabaie was quoted in Iranian media as saying, noting that the judge had shown him the sentence.
But no reason was given for the conviction.
Iranian officials have said Ghavami was detained for security reasons unrelated to the volleyball match. So far she has been held in the capital's notorious Evin Prison for 126 days.
The "Free Ghoncheh Ghavami" Facebook page where her friends and family campaigned for her release features photographs of her against the slogan: "Jailed for wanting to watch a volleyball match".
An update on the page on Sunday appeared to corroborate the one year sentence but bemoaned the closed-doors legal process that has prevailed in the case.
"This morning Ghoncheh's family and lawyer returned empty handed from branch 26 of Revolutionary court," it said.
"It is not clear to her family and lawyer as to what the current legal basis of her detention is. A fair and just legal process according to Iran's legal framework is the basic right of every Iranian citizen. Why are these rights not upheld in Ghoncheh's case?"
Ghavami's arrest came after female fans and even women journalists were told they would not be allowed to attend the volleyball match at Azadi ("Freedom" in Persian) stadium in the capital.
National police chief General Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said it was "not yet in the public interest" for men and women to attend such events together. "The police are applying the law," he said at the time.
Women are also banned from attending football matches in Iran, with officials saying this is to protect them from lewd behavior among male fans.
An update on the page on Sunday appeared to corroborate the one year sentence but bemoaned the closed-doors legal process that has prevailed in the case.
"This morning Ghoncheh's family and lawyer returned empty handed from branch 26 of Revolutionary court," it said.
"It is not clear to her family and lawyer as to what the current legal basis of her detention is. A fair and just legal process according to Iran's legal framework is the basic right of every Iranian citizen. Why are these rights not upheld in Ghoncheh's case?"
Ghavami's arrest came after female fans and even women journalists were told they would not be allowed to attend the volleyball match at Azadi ("Freedom" in Persian) stadium in the capital.
National police chief General Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said it was "not yet in the public interest" for men and women to attend such events together. "The police are applying the law," he said at the time.
Women are also banned from attending football matches in Iran, with officials saying this is to protect them from lewd behavior among male fans.
Last Update: Sunday, 2 November 2014 KSA 15:58 - GMT 12:58
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