Two headless bodies found in Egypt’s Sinai

 France Presse, Cairo
Saturday, 10 January 2015

Two headless bodies were found in a village in Egypt's restive North Sinai region on Saturday, police said, the latest in a series of beheadings allegedly carried out by Islamist militants.

The bodies of two men, believed to be civilians in their 30s, were found near the town of Sheikh Zuweid.

It was not immediately clear who had killed them.

Egypt's deadliest Islamist organization, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, has previously claimed several beheadings of men it said were working for the Egyptian army or Israel's Mossad spy agency.

The Sinai-based group, which last year pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has regularly released video footage showing the executions of alleged informants, often by beheading.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) has targeted Egyptian security forces since the army ousted Islamist President Mohammad Mursi in July 2013.

Militant attacks have killed scores of security personnel, with Islamist groups claiming they are retaliating for a government crackdown on Mursi supporters. 

Egypt's military has launched a widespread offensive against Islamist groups in the Sinai Peninsula.

Last Update: Saturday, 10 January 2015 KSA 17:09 - GMT 14:09

Delta - Lost " Dog on Flight " Vanished ?

jackie romano

glendale, CA

Delta lost and never found our dog Ty. Since losing our beloved family member, they have yet to provide us the report detailing what happened, admit to negligence, or help in our efforts to find Ty. We are calling on Delta to release their report to the Federal Aviation Administration on what happened to Ty, apologize for their wrong-doing, and state how they will prevent this from happening again.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has strict rules on airline travel and animals. We felt confident Ty could be entrusted to Delta to fly safely with our son Frank from Los Angeles to our new home in Tampa. Ty had been checked by our vet and transported in an airline approved crate. Delta confirmed everything was in order prior to assuming responsibility for Ty. When we said our goodbyes to Ty, his tail wagging, we never imagined it would be for the last time.

Prior to takeoff, Frank was removed from the plane and told Delta couldn’t find Ty. Our son was confused and horrified listening to Delta’s story. One minute Delta had the dog, and the next he was gone. They claimed there were no witnesses. Eventually Delta would state Ty had “compromised the kennel on his own”. When we got the crate back there were no bite marks, scratches, or other damage inside that would corroborate Delta’s story. All we found was a crack on the outside of the kennel that wasn’t there when Delta checked Ty into their custody.   

After Delta lost a member of our family all we asked for was help searching for Ty. Delta denied our requests in helping provide resources for the search effort. Instead, we had to rely on many kind-hearted volunteers who spent weeks searching, putting up posters, and talking to people in the area.

To add insult to injury, a Delta employee at LAX commented on a local news story about Ty’s disappearance. The employee accused our family of animal abuse because we didn’t drug Ty prior to the flight and claimed to have seen Ty run across the tarmac and into a neighborhood, adding “Hopefully to a better home, who actually CARE for him.” Delta had lost our dog and we were being treated horribly.

We believe that in an age of heightened security, regulation, and surveillance at airports, Delta has no excuses for losing Ty. Not only do they owe our family the truth and an apology, they owe their valued customers assurances that they have a plan to ensure this never happens to another family. Pets are family members and irreplaceable, not to be treated as just another piece of luggage. Please join us in calling on Delta to release their official report, apologize to our family, and put in place a plan to prevent future pets from being lost. Please sign and share our petition today.

Iran: Messaging services LINE, WhatsApp and Tango blocked

NCRI – The Iranian regime’s judiciary has ordered three personal communication apps to be blocked.

The services are popular among Iranians because they allow inexpensive or free communication with people in Iran and abroad.

Also, the messaging services circumvent the state-controlled Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).

Social websites including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have already been blocked by censors, though many young and web-savvy Iranians use proxy servers or other workarounds to bypass the controls.

The government of Hassan Rouhani is implementing what it calls a ‘Smart filtering’ system.

Mahmoud Vaezi, the Communications and Information Technology Minister said on December 28 that implementing the ‘Smart filtering’ system does not mean that ban on already blocked websites and social networks will be removed.

He said that the ban on “the already blocked web sites such as Facebook and YouTube” will not be lifted.

The regime in Iran has set up one of the strictest controls on Internet access in the world and has blocked hundreds of thousands of websites and social networks.

Maryam Rajavi welcomes French president’s call for Paris mass rally

The National Council of Resistance of Iran strongly welcomes and supports President Francois Hollande’s call for attending the Paris mass rally on Sunday.

As Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, has stated the Iranian people and their Resistance have been on the side of the people of France from a long time ago in the fight against terrorism and fundamentalism and defending the separation of religion and state.

Since three decades ago, the Iranian Resistance has declared that the epicenter of fundamentalism, export of terrorism, and retrogression is the religious caliphate ruling in Tehran, which is the spiritual godfather of the ISIS and is the world’s leader in execution, terrorism, and barbarism in the contemporary times.

Mrs. Rajavi described the remarks of President Hollande who reiterated that the terrorist crimes have no relevance to Islam as encouraging for all Muslims and nations of the region such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen that are the main victims and the primary enemies of Islamic fundamentalism.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 9, 2015

Tennessee mother and 2 yr old feared kidnapped in Matamoros, Mexico

by lucio using material from el manana and face book

A search is underway for two American citizens believed to have been kidnapped while in the border city of Matamoros, México.   

Matamoros is the location of  the last verifiable sighting.

Tennessee residents, twenty-four year-old Kelly Jean Shumake and her two year-old daughter went missing, on December 30th. Family members have filed a report with  police, of  the  disappearance,  prompting a multi-agency investigation. 

The family traveled to Brownsville, then to Matamoros, to distribute posters and file missing person’s reports there.

J.J. Treviño,  Brownsville police spokesman, confirmed that a complaint was received and filed regarding  the search for an American woman and her child, and he confirmed a complaint was also filed  in the city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

"We cannot do much in these cases, it isn’t  under our jurisdiction, so this limits us in investigation, we reply on what is provided to us." said Trevino.

The U.S. Consulate in Matamoros recently released a warning to American citizens traveling to or through the state of Tamaulipas, given recent reports of express kidnappings happening near commercial areas in broad daylight.

U.S. Priest Who Scuffled with Colleague to Enter Treatment

NEW YORK – A Catholic priest in New Jersey accused of attacking another cleric with a metal crucifix entered a one-year program of probation and counseling, the U.S. press reported.

Successful completion of the pre-trial intervention program will enable the Rev. Frank Hreno, 51, to have the charges against him dropped.

The incident occurred last April during an argument between Hreno and 37-year-old Rev. Emeka Okwuosa at the Vocationist Fathers Retreat and Conference Center in Florham Park, New Jersey.

The two priests were quarreling about an automobile that Hreno had leased.

Okwuosa said Hreno struck him on the arm with a metal staff 1.2 meters (almost 4 feet) long bearing a crucifix, leaving a cut that required 29 stitches.

Because it was Hreno’s first offense, the judge was amenable to his entering the pre-trial intervention, defense attorney Peter Gilbreth told the Daily Record newspaper.

Paris Shooting Attack: Kourachi Brothers Are Dead

Shortly after 5 p.m. in France, two simultaneous hostage standoffs came to dramatic conclusions amid gunshots and explosions. 
The mayor of the town of Dammartin-en-Goële announced that Said and Cherif Kourachi – the brothers suspected of being behind Wednesday's attack in Paris on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 – were themselves dead. 

Early Friday, the two had been trapped in a Dammartin-en-Goële printing plant within a vast warehouse complex. The town is near Charles de Gaulle Airport, 25 miles north of Paris. 

The mayor also said that a hostage, believed to be female, whom the brothers had taken before the standoff, is unhurt and has been freed. 

Also on Friday, a gunman opened fire at a kosher supermarket in eastern Parisand took at least five people hostage. Police officials say at least four people, including the shooter, are dead. 

Police said the gunman, who has been identified as 32-year-old Amedy Coulibaly, had links to the Kourachi brothers. They also blamed the hostage-taker for Thursday's murder of a French policewoman who was gunned down during an unrelated traffic stop on a Paris street. One of the two suspects in that shooting, a female identified as 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddienne, is still at large.