Mexico - Former Iguala mayor formally charged with the kidnapping of 43 students

by Lucio for Borderland Beat

There has been a formal arrest warrant issued for former Iguala, Guerrero mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, along with 44 others for charges of kidnapping of 43 kidnapped and missing normalistas (students) on September 26th 2014.

This was announced by Tomas Zeron, of the federal general attorney’s office.  He did not state when the warrant was issued.  

Although Abarca was charged with crimes connected with organized crime activities, these are the first charges that are directly related to the September Iguala attacks, and kidnapping of the 43 students.

It is suspected that .Abarca directed the municipal police, in conjunction with the organized crime group Guerreros Unidos,  to attack and kidnap the students.  

There is no mention of the other deaths in the attacks of the night of September 26th.
   

Those attacks resulted in the deaths of 8-9 people, one being a young 15 year old soccer player who was  traveling on the team bus.

Another normalista, Julio Mondragon was taken, murdered,  his face flayed, and his corpse dumped in the street close to the location of the second attack.  

He is not counted with the  43.

It is peculiar that with the world wide publicity and attention of the Iguala 43, almost zero has been paid to the others that were killed and injured in the same attacks.  

As for Abarca’s wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, on Monday, the federal courts spokesman said a judge had ruled Abarca's wife will stand trial for links to organized crime. 

In evidence are records of bank deposits into her account originating from Guerreros Unidos.

There are doubts that she will be charged with the attacks and kidnapping of the normalistas, and there have been no announcement either way as of yet.

Saudi Arabia ( Blogger to receive his second flogging ) Photo

Saudi Arabia's history of hypocrisy we choose to ignore

On Thursday, a Saudi blogger will receive his second flogging for 'insulting Islam'. Robert Fisk looks at a barbaric regime with a brutal record

US must halt appeasement to ‘tyrannical’ Iranian regime, Senator Cotton demands

The United States must cease all appeasement towards the 'tyrannical' Iranian regime which is the world's greatest state-sponsor of terrorism, US Senator Tom Cotton has demanded.

Republican Tom Cotton said America should begin with 'immediate and crippling sanctions' in place of 'sham nuclear negotiations' to make the US military threat more credible.

In a speech at the US Heritage Foundation, he said: "Iran is a radical, Islamist tyrannical regime... that has been killing Americans for 35 years.

"Iran is at war with the West just as the Islamic State is. While operating a repressive totalitarian state at home, the Iranian regime conducts many of these operations against America and our allies through terrorist proxies, as Iran remains the worst state sponsor of terrorism in the world, according to President Obama’s own State Department.

"Iran is a lead financer and arms supplier of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, vile terrorist organizations dedicated to destroying Israel.

"While Iran likes to boast that it has joined the fight against the Islamic State, it’s done so only to protect Assad, and has threatened to attack US forces currently fighting against the Islamic State if they target the Assad regime."

Cotton also warned about Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and stressed that appeasement by the US would only help the regime obtain them.

He added: "US negotiators have surrendered repeatedly to Iran’s demands, conceding a right to enrich uranium, allowing Iran to keep its plutonium-producing reactor, asking only that its centrifuges be disconnected instead of dismantled.

"In return for these concessions to Iran, the US has given and will give Iran billions of dollars more in sanctions relief.

"What started as an unwise policy has now descended into a dangerous farce. One can only suspect an unspoken entente between the Obama administration and Iran: the US won’t impose new sanctions on Iran and will allow it to develop threshold nuclear capabilities, while Iran won’t assemble a bomb till 2017."

Mr Cotton called for a clear policy of regime change, adding: "Cease all appeasement, conciliation, and concessions toward Iran, starting with these sham nuclear negotiations.

"Enact immediate, crippling sanctions; and make our military threat more credible."

Israel buries Jews slain in Paris attack

 JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel held a funeral Tuesday for four Jews killed by a gunman in Paris, with thousands turning out to mourn the victims of an attack that shook the Jewish community.

Shock and sorrow was palpable in the crowd as family members and top Israeli officials stood to pay tribute to the four men who were shot dead on Friday when an Islamic extremist stormed a kosher supermarket.

They were among 17 people gunned down in Paris during three days of bloodshed that began with a grisly attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, in violence that convulsed France and sent shock waves through its Jewish community, the third-largest in the world.

The four bodies were flown to Israel early on Tuesday for a joint funeral, after which they were laid to rest in a more private ceremony at the sprawling Givat Shaul cemetery on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. 

"This is not how we wanted to welcome you to Israel," said President Reuven Rivlin, addressing the victims by name during the ceremony attended by more than 2,500 people including Israeli political leaders.

"We wanted you alive."

Rivlin said that it was unacceptable that Jews were once again living in fear in Europe.

"We cannot allow that in 2015, 70 years since the end of World War II, Jews are afraid to walk in the streets of Europe" wearing a skullcap and prayer shawl, he said. 

On a sunny but freezing winter morning, French flags were flying across the city alongside signs reading: "Jerusalem is with the French people, we are all Charlie."

The attack on the supermarket, which killed Yoav Hattab, 22, Philippe Braham, 45, Yohan Cohen, 23, and Francois-Michel Saada, 64, has left the Jewish community in both France and Israel badly shaken. 

'Crying with me'

Speaking in Hebrew, Valerie Braham paid tribute to her husband Philippe. 

"I am crying but I know that you're all crying with me," she said.

Gary Buchwald, a friend of the Brahams who flew in from Paris with the family, told AFP the impact of the attack was devastating.

"His wife is in pieces. They had to literally carry her to the plane. I am in shock like all of the French community in France," he said.

"She won't get over this. It is not three million people marching in the street who will change this reality: other attacks will happen," he said. 

"We only have two choices: either we fight back or we run."

French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal, who was representing Paris at the funeral, sought to reassure the Jewish community, saying anti-Semitism "has no place in France."

"I want to assure you of the unfailing determination of the French government to fight against all forms and acts of anti-Semitism," she told mourners.

The Jewish community in France numbers 500,000 to 600,000 people.

French migration to Israel hit a record high last year of 6,600 people, and many believe the trend will accelerate, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making a personal appeal to the Jews of France, saying Israel is their "home."

Among the crowd there was a clear sense that the threats facing Jews in France were not yet over.

"The grief is profound, the families are broken," top French Jewish official Joel Merghi told AFP. 

"The Jewish community has survived (other attacks) many times in history but it will be very difficult to recover this time," he said.

Man Tries to Cross Chinese Border with 94 iPhones Taped to His Body

BEIJING – A man tried to cross the border between Hong Kong and China with 94 iPhones of models 6 and 5S taped to his body with plastic and duct tape, the local daily South China Morning Post reported Tuesday.

The alleged “i-smuggler,” a Hong Kong citizen, was arrested by the police in Futian when the officers noticed that he was having difficulty walking.

On searching him, they found nearly 100 phones underneath his suit.

The iPhones, fastened with duct tape, were placed like armor plating as can be seen in the photos released by the border police.

Investigators have estimated the phones to be worth around $50,000. However, they have not yet figured out where the smuggler intended to resell them or if he wanted them for some other purpose.

Although Hong Kong has been a part of China since 1997, both have independent economies and trade, and their common border is a major smuggling point, especially for electronic goods.

Apple products, including iPhones and iPads, that tend to be cheaper in Hong Kong than in China are among the most common smuggled goods.

In the past, smugglers have been caught with these Apple products trying to evade border controls using other unorthodox schemes such as tunnels under the police checks or catapults that throw iPhones or iPads from one side of the border to the other

U.S. Central Command’s Twitter Account Reopens after Being Hacked by IS

WASHINGTON – The Twitter account of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), responsible for operations in Iraq and Syria, is back in action after being allegedly hacked by the Islamic State jihadist group.

“We’re back,” were the first words of the Central Command late Monday after their accounts on Twitter and YouTube were suspended following the attack by a group of hackers going by the name CyberCaliphate.

However, the YouTube account where the Central Command posted videos of their offensive against IS continues to be out of service.

In the 30 minutes that the accounts of CENTCOM on Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised, hackers posted extremist messages and the personal data of Pentagon members.

The Central Command said that the attack, which was seen as a case of cyber-vandalism and the leakage of privileged information, did not have any effect on military operations.

The hackers disrupted the entire Central Command’s Twitter account and changed its profile picture to a person with his face covered with a ‘kufiya’, the traditional Arab scarf, and the IS flag.

Threats were issued to U.S. soldiers: “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your backs,” read one of the messages signed ISIS, one of the acronyms used by the IS.

“We know everything about you, your wives and children,” they threatened in one of the messages.

In addition, hackers published a list of addresses, phone numbers and names of generals, Central Command soldiers based in Florida, and retired military personnel with private information.

“ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base. With Allah’s permission we are in CENTCOM now,” continued the message.

Before being suspended, the YouTube account showed Islamist videos, including “Flames of War,” a Sunni extremist propaganda video with which they threatened the United States and which showed pictures of executions.

Blogger given first 50 of 1,000 lashes as Saudis deny mercy

A young Saudi blogger has been flogged in public for insulting Islam as the kingdom defied international condemnation and calls from western allies to halt the punishment.

Before a large crowd after Friday prayers, Raif Badawi, 27, was bound and whipped 50 times in front of a mosque in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

Convicted of cybercrime and insulting Islam after setting up a liberal online forum that infuriated the Saudi authorities, he was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, ten years in jail and fined one million rials