Two Soldiers Killed in Combat in Eastern Ukraine

KIEV – Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours in combat between the army and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country, Kiev’s National Security and Defense Council announced Sunday.

Eight other troops were wounded, said Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko, who added that the insurgents have intensified their bombardment of army positions in the rebellious regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

In addition, he said that the separatists launched eight attacks against Ukrainian troops dug in at the Donetsk airport, the main focus of recent hostilities and an important strategic site for the two sides.

“Our soldiers are not surrendering. All the attacks have been repelled,” Lysenko said.

On the eve of a new cease-fire agreed to between the pro-Russian forces and Kiev, and despite the fact that the two sides have declared cease-fires on several previous occasions, combat has continued in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Also, according to local authorities, over the past 24 hours eight civilians – three in Donetsk and five in Luhansk – have died in the ongoing exchanges of artillery fire.

Iran slams Israel over airstrike on Syria

Tehran, YJC. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Marziyeh Afkham rapped Israel’s airstrike on areas in Syria as a sign that Tel Aviv is helping terrorists in the killing of Syrians and destruction of the country.

The Iranian diplomat also called on the United Nations to fulfill its duties to stop the kind of aggressive acts.

"The Zionist regime is abusing Syria’s critical situation, the aftermath of such warmongering moves, however, will upset that regime as well,” she explained.

Her comments came after Syrian fighters bombarded Syria’s airport on Sunday evening.

Israeli planes bombed the near the capital of Damascus international airport and the town of Dimas, the Syrian army said.

No casualties were reported after the attack. There has been no comment on the air strikes from Israel either.

Israel has been conducting air strikes on Syria since 2011.

Iran Student Day protests: ‘Free political prisoners’

 Sunday, 07 December 2014 23:45

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NCRI - Iranian students held protests and gatherings on Sunday in universities across Iran marking Student Day, known locally as 16 Azar (December 7).

In fear of student protests in Tehran, the clerical regime cancelled Hassan Rouhani’s scheduled program at Tehran University.

This program was finally held at Iran Medical Science University located in a remote area.

Through the imposition of extreme security measures, the regime’s officials prevented students from entering the conference hall where the program was held.

Nevertheless, during Hassan Rouhani’s speech, students questioned him on the recent high increase in the price of bread.

Students chanted “Independence, freedom, republic of Iran” in an expression of opposition to the rule of clergy in Iran.

The suppressive elements used batons to beat up those who were filming.

At Tehran University’s College of Engineering and at Iran University of Science and Technology, students shouted “Political prisoners must be freed”. The students at Allameh University shouted the slogan “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I sacrifice my life for Iran”. The anti-riot forces prevented students from taking pictures and filming.

The IRGC Brigadier General Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Mayor of Tehran, who was expected to speak at Tehran’s Sharif University, cancelled his program in fear of student protests. The plainclothes agents at this university prevented students from taking pictures and filming.

At Tehran University of Art, the regime’s elements, fearing disturbances, prevented students from participating in a state-organized program. The students staged a gathering outside the university.

In the city of Bandar Abbas (southern Iran), at Hormozgan University, a protest by students began at 2:30 pm.

Students who had gathered at the university’s entrance gate shouted “Political prisoners must be freed”, “Imprisoned students must be freed” and “Hassan Rouhani, what happened to your promises?”

In the city of Babol (Northern Iran), despite disruptions by agents of the Herasat Office (office representing the Ministry of Intelligence and Security at the university), the students at Noushiravan University managed to hold a protest.

They shouted “Student dies rather than succumb to oppression”.

Students at Jondi Shapour University in the city of Ahvaz (Southern Iran) also staged a protest marking Student Day.

Intelligence agents from the Herasat Office at the university strictly controlled the students to prevent the spread of the protest outside the university.

Students held signs that read: “Here is a university, not a garrison”.

Protests also were held in universities in the cities of Esfahan, Shahroud and Qazvin.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 7, 2014

Mexico- one of the 43 students missing since September has been identified

Posted by DD from material posted by Lala and Pepe on Forum and updated Preceso and AP

 

 MEXICO CITY (AP) -- At least one of 43 college students missing since September has been identified among charred remains found near a garbage dump, two Mexican officials confirmed Saturday.

The two could not provide more details on how many of the students might have been identified.

They agreed to speak only if granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

A family member of a missing student told The Associated Press that the remains were of Alexander Mora. The families were given that information late Friday by an Argentine team of forensic experts working on behalf of the relatives and with the Attorney General's Office, said the relative, who also would speak only on condition of anonymity.

Parents of the students declined comment, planning to address a crowd that gathered Saturday afternoon at an already planned protest at the capital's Monument to the Revolution to demand the return of the students alive.

Parents participating in Saturday's protest got off buses with sullen faces and were immediately surrounded by people for protection and support.

Omar Garcia, a student at the march who attended the same rural teachers college in Ayotzinapa as the missing young men, relayed the reaction of Mora's father when he learned the fate of his son: "He will never give up. He will never get over his pain, but what he wants to tell all of you, and what we all want to say is this: We want justice!"

Mexican Small Farmers Stage Missing Students Protest

MEXICO CITY – Mexican small farmers on Friday carried out a protest in solidarity with the family members and classmates of trainee teachers who disappeared more than two months ago at the hands of corrupt police officers, using 43 tractors in the demonstration to symbolize each of the missing students.

The protest began at the El Angel monument at 11:45 a.m., covered a portion of the Paseo de la Reforma thoroughfare and was to end up at the interior ministry building, organizers told Efe.

Some 2,500 small farmers from 27 of 32 Mexican states took part in the march, according to El Barzon, the association that headed the demonstration.

Each tractor had a photograph of one of the students from the teachers college in Ayotzinapa, a village in the southern state of Guerrero, who were abducted Sept. 26 by municipal cops in the nearby town of Iguala.

Police officers from Iguala and the neighboring town of Cocula detained those 43 students that night at the orders of Iguala’s mayor 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.

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

Upon their arrival at the interior ministry building, the march participants also will call on President Enrique Peña Nieto to enact reforms that close the gap between the prices paid to small farmers and the retail price in the marketplace.

Small farmers are increasingly more “indebted,” even as the big monopolies become wealthier, according to El Barzon

Mexico City Police Chief Resigns amid Wave of Protests

MEXICO CITY – Mexico City’s police chief, Jesus Rodriguez Almeida, has resigned amid a wave of protests over the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers.

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Macera announced the decision in a brief message to the media Friday in which he did not accept questions or provide further details.

Mexico’s constitution establishes that the Mexico City police chief must be endorsed by the head of state and his departure from office also must receive the approval of President Enrique Peña Nieto.

In recent weeks, Rodriguez Almeida has come under fire for the police response to protests in the capital in support of the family members of 43 students who went missing in late September in the southern state of Guerrero.

During the protests, self-described anarchist groups have carried out isolated acts of violence in the capital targeting commercial establishments and government buildings, including the National Palace.

Police officers from Iguala, Guerrero state, and the neighboring town of Cocula detained the 43 students on the night of Sept. 26 at the orders of Iguala’s mayor 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.

The students’ parents have refused to accept the suspects’ account without definitive proof that human remains recovered near Iguala are those of their missing loved ones.

The remains are being examined by specialists at a laboratory in Austria.

Corrupt municipal police targeted the students from a teacher training college in the nearby village of Ayutzinapa, according to some media accounts, after they had seized several buses for use in protests against education reform

Chinese man charged with sending Iran parts with nuclear weapon use

 Friday, 05 December 2014 23:04

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A Chinese man accused of conspiring to export devices to Iran that can be used in nuclear weapons production has been brought to the United States on Friday to face charges.

The "pressure transducers" devices sent to Iran through china were featured in pictures of nuclear centrifuge plants that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former president of the clerical regime released to the public, U.S. federal prosecutors said.

The man who arranged those shipments, Chinese citizen Sihai Cheng, landed in federal custody at Logan International Airport in Boston after was he was extradited to from the United Kingdom.

He was arrested on U.S. terrorism charges last February during a visit to the United Kingdom.
An indictment accuses Cheng of establishing shell companies in China to receive pressure-measuring sensors known as "pressure transducers" from the Shanghai subsidiary of MKS Instruments Inc., based in Andover, Massachusetts.

During the 2009 scheme to supply the Iranian regime with the technical goods, Cheng and six co-defendants placed ordered for pressure transducers through MKS, and had them shipped to MKS-Shanghai.

Once there, the parts made their way to Tehran where they were installed at nuclear enrichment facilities.