Suicide bomber kills 40 at volleyball match in Afghanistan

Sunday, 23 November 2014

A suicide bomber walked into a crowd of spectators at a volleyball match in eastern Afghanistan and detonated his explosives vest on Sunday, killing at least 40 people, a provincial official said.

Paktia provincial spokesman Mukhles Afghan said at least 50 more were wounded in the attack in Paktia province, where hundreds had gathered to watch a tournament final.

Magnitude-6.8 Earthquake Injures 14 in Central Japan

TOKYO – A magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit central Japan’s Nagano prefecture and left at least 14 people with injuries of varying degrees of severity, after collapsing several homes and causing water cuts and power outages, the NHK public network reported.

The hardest hit town was Hakuba at 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of Tokyo, where the quake’s epicenter was located and where at least five houses were partially knocked down, though the 21 people including a 2-year-old boy who were inside the buildings were successfully rescued by emergency management teams.

Two of them have been admitted to hospital, though the severity of their injuries has not been announced.

In the Omachi district of Nagano city, capital of the prefecture, another 12 people have been sent to hospital emergency rooms, three of them with serious injuries, NHK said.

An army emergency management team has been sent to the area to help with the rescue work and the repair of material damages.

The temblor, which took place at 10:08 local time in the northern part of Nagano prefecture, with an epicenter at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), has been followed be a series of aftershocks.

NHK has shown pictures taken in Nagano showing houses partially demolished and regional highways on which piles of rocks and trees have fallen.

Japan is located over the so-called Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most active seismic zones, and suffers earthquakes with relative frequency, so that the country’s infrastructures are especially designed to resist the temblors

Arizona’s Arpaio Sues Obama over Immigration Measures

TUCSON, Arizona – Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Barack Obama for his executive order providing protection against deportation for close to 5 million undocumented immigrants.

“We have to understand whether this is constitutional or not, whether his going around Congress is legal,” Arpaio told local media Thursday night after Obama’s announcement.

The Maricopa County sheriff, whose jurisdiction includes Phoenix, is known for raiding local businesses to find and arrest undocumented workers.

“This is going to open the door. Everybody in Mexico, Central America, thinks they will have a free pass when they come into our country because of what the president is issuing,” Arpaio said.

But activists gave little importance Friday to the sheriff’s announcement and said Arpaio was just looking for attention.

“Arpaio will say and do anything to attract attention – he’s one of those public figures who depend on that. Since we began fighting for this we have been sure it’s legal. The president has all the authority to do it, so Arpaio can do what he likes,” activist Erika Andiola told Efe Friday.

Other activists downplayed Arpaio’s lawsuit but believe Republican leaders won’t stop slamming the executive order.

“Some Republic presidents have taken action on immigration by means of executive orders, and we know that this president has the legal authority for the action he is taking,” said Eduardo Sainz of the Mi Familia Vota group.

Arpaio, who still has a lawsuit pending against him for allegedly ordering operations against Hispanics based on racial profiling, said that his lawsuit against Obama will not be paid for with his constituents’ money.

Mexico: Fugitive Police Chief Arrested in Missing Students Case

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office has confirmed the arrest of a former deputy police chief who is a suspected member of the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel and is linked to the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers in the southern state of Guerrero.

Cesar Nava Gonzalez, ex-deputy police chief of the town of Cocula, Guerrero, had been on the lam since shortly after Sept. 26, when police attacked students from the Ayotzinapa Normal School, a nearby teacher’s college, leaving six dead, 25 wounded and 43 missing in the town of Iguala, the AG’s office said in a statement.

Corrupt police officers from Iguala and Cocula detained those 43 students that night and handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos gang, which killed them and burned the bodies to eliminate all traces of the victims, Mexican authorities say, citing statements by suspects in the case.

But the parents of the missing young people say they won’t accept that explanation without solid proof.

Nava Gonzalez went into hiding in Mexico City and later in Colima, capital of that likenamed Pacific coast state, where he was arrested, the AG’s office said.

Family members of the missing students and trainees at the teacher’s college are to meet Saturday to plan their next steps in their search for justice.

Mexican authorities have made dozens of arrests in the case, including detaining the purported head of the Guerreros Unidos cartel and the mayor of Iguala, whose town hall and police force had allegedly been infiltrated by organized crime.

Corrupt municipal police targeted the students, according to some media accounts, after they had seized several buses for use in protests against education reform.

The case has sparked widespread protests in Mexico.

Berlin says 550 Germans joined jihadist cause in Syria and Iraq

Saturday, 22 November 2014

Hundreds of Germans have left their home country to fight alongside jihadists in Syria and Iraq, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.
"We estimate 550. Just a few days ago we had 450," the minister told German television channel Phoenix on Friday.

"These young people... were radicalised in Germany, within this society. That's why prevention must be accompanied by repression," he added.

Most of those who have joined the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) organization's jihadist cause are men, although some women have also travelled to the two war-torn countries.

De Maiziere said authorities are keeping a close watch on some 230 more people who are considered potential threats on German soil.

"We cannot exclude, and in certain cases it's actually quite possible, that they are preparing an attack," the minister said.

In mid-October, Germany announced new measures to prevent its citizens from travelling to join the jihadist cause in Iraq and Syria, including confiscating their identity papers.

Concerns are mounting in Europe over the growing national security threat posed by jihadists returning from war-ravaged Syria and Iraq.
 

Two People Arrested after Murders of Miss Honduras and Her Sister

TEGUCIGALPA – Two people were arrested after the murders of Miss Honduras World 2014 Maria Jose Alvarado and her sister Sofia Trinidad, crimes that have shocked Honduras with the nation demanding punishment for the killer.

Honduran Security Minister Arturo Corrales said that authorities believe that Plutarco Antonio Ruiz, boyfriend of Sofia Trinidad, was the culprit and arrested him on Wednesday along with Aris Maldonado.

Maria Jose and Sofia Trinidad, 19 and 22 years, respectively, disappeared on Nov. 13 from the western province of Santa Barbara and their remains were found buried in Cablotales village, said criminal investigation director Leandro Osorio.

Officials said autopsies were completed and the bodies would be delivered to the family for burial.

Maria Jose had traveled from Tegucigalpa to Santa Barbara to attend Ruiz’s birthday party, according to the sisters’ mother Teresa Muñoz.

Authorities seized Ruiz, 28, and Maldonado, 24, along with a gun that was probably the murder weapon, and a vehicle that was used to transport the bodies for their disposal, according to the police report.

Local press reports said that Ruiz murdered the sisters apparently in a fit of jealousy when Sofia Trinidad danced with another man at the party.

Ruiz and Sofia Trinidad reportedly argued, then he pulled out his gun and shot her. Beauty queen Maria Jose was shot as she tried to flee.

The crime has shocked Honduras, with citizens demanding an end to the endemic violence that takes an average of 14 lives a day, mainly by gangs linked to drug trafficking and organized crime.

The organizers of the Miss World pageant also expressed their grief over the murders of the two young women.

In a statement from London, the organization president, Julia Morley, said that she stands in solidarity with the family and friends of the two women and announced that a special service will be held on Sunday with all the participants to honor the Honduran sisters.

Mexicans Block Roads, Hurl Molotov Cocktails over Missing Students

MEXICO CITY – Mexico marked Thursday’s 104th anniversary of its 1910 Revolution with mainly peaceful protests over the abduction and apparent murder of 43 students, though some militants blocked roads and hurled Molotov cocktails at police.

The most significant confrontation took place in Mexico City, where some 200 hooded protesters battled police in an attempt to reach the capital’s international airport and shut it down.

Repulsed by cops in full riot gear, the protesters retreated to a city square to prepare for marches set for later Thursday.

From San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern state of Chiapas came reports of youths smashing shop windows and setting off homemade bombs.

Authorities in the southwestern state of Guerrero, scene of the Sept. 26 abduction of the students, saw more than 2,000 people temporarily shut down a stretch of the expressway that links Mexico City with the Pacific resort of Acapulco.

In the northern state of Chihuahua, bordering Texas, around 300 students and teachers disrupted a parade for the anniversary of the revolution with a protest on behalf of the missing students.

The largest university in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second city, suspended classes Thursday in solidarity with the 43 students.

The 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa Normal School, a teacher’s college, were detained by police on the night of Sept. 26 and handed over to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel, which killed them and burned the bodies to eliminate all traces of the victims, Mexican authorities say, citing statements by suspects in the case.

But the parents of the missing young people say they won’t accept that explanation without solid proof.