Pope Asks That Argentina Avoid “Mexicanization”

BUENOS AIRES – Pope Francis expressed his concern about the growing drug trafficking in Argentina in a letter to Buenos Aires legislator Gustavo Vera, in which he asked that Argentine citizens “avoid the Mexicanization” of their country.

“I was talking with some Mexican bishops and the matter is terrifying,” the pontiff said in the letter posted on the Web site of the non-governmental organization La Alameda, headed by Vera.

“I see your tireless work going full steam ahead. I often ask God to protect you and all those of La Alameda,” Pope Francis said.

The letter was an answer to a previous message from Vera about the constant growth of drug trafficking in Argentina and informing the pontiff about the denunciations he is about to launch through the NGO, whose mission is the fight against people trafficking and slave labor.

The lawmaker and the pope frequently exchange letters, since they have kept up a long-standing friendship, and Vera even visited Francis in Rome and spent a week with him at the papal residence at Santa Marta in 2013.

Coca-Cola Bottler Shuts Down Operations in Mexican City over Security

MEXICO CITY – Coca-Cola Femsa, the company’s bottler, has announced that it will be temporarily suspending operations of its distribution center in Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, over security concerns.

The company shut down operations last Friday and will be evaluating the viability of its operations and reviewing its operating procedures keeping in mind the safety of its more than 350 employees in the locality.

The company added that it will continue operating normally in other parts of the state in compliance with its protocols and security measures.

On Feb. 18, teachers from Guerrero detained Coca-Cola employees in Chilpancingo’s main plaza in exchange for the release of three students accused of looting the company’s trucks.

The employees were released by the members of the State Coordinator of Education Workers of Guerrero, CETEG, early the next day after Coca-Cola agreed to withdraw the charges against the students.

CETEG has held several protests, some violent, against the 2013 education reform which did away with privileges that the teaching unions enjoyed during the hiring, evaluating, promoting and retaining of teachers.

It has also joined protests over the case of 43 teacher trainees who were kidnapped on Sep. 26 in the Guerrero town of Iguala after coming under attack by the police and who remain missing.

Coca-Cola Femsa is the multinational’s largest public bottler in the world.

Leaked documents allege Israel PM and Mossad differ on Iran

Iran news in brief, 22 February 2015

At Least 5 Dead in Suicide Attack on Nigerian Market

NAIROBI – At least five people died and 30 were wounded Sunday in a suicide attack staged by a woman at a market in the northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum, according to what several witnesses told Nigerian media.

The attack came about 1:25 p.m. when the terrorist blew herself up at the market entrance after getting into a dispute with the guards who were attempting to search her at the security checkpoint.

“I heard a loud noise from my house. When we went outside, we saw that the people were removing bodies and transporting them to the hospital,” local resident Mohammed Abbas told Nigeria’s Daily Trust newspaper.

The spokesman for the police in Yobe state, where Potiskum is located, Toyin Gbadegesin, confirmed the attack but did not provide any casualty figures.

However, according to what several witnesses told the daily, the bomb killed at least five people and wounded more than 30.

Despite the fact that there has, as yet, been no claim of responsibility for the attack, the prevailing suspicion is that it was the work of the Boko Haram jihadist group, which in recent months has staged a number of deadly attacks in public places in Potiskum.

The terrorists carried out a similar attack on the same market on Jan. 11, when two girls blew themselves up killing seven people.

Despite the deployment of the regional military force to fight the terrorists, attacks by Boko Haram are not only continuing but have become more intense in northern Nigeria, and they have even spread into Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which border on Africa’s most populous country

Islamic State Burns 43 People Alive in Western Iraq

BAGHDAD – The jihadist group Islamic State, or IS, burned alive on Saturday 43 people kidnapped in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, a security official told Efe.

The IS militants caged their hostages, who were mostly police and members of the pro-government Sunni militias called Salvation Councils, then set them on fire.

The radical group kidnapped the victims more than a week ago in the Al Baghdadi area of Anbar province.

The massacre recalled what happened several weeks ago when the IS aired a video of how it burned to death the Jordanian pilot Muaz Kasasbeh, captured in Syria last December after his plane crashed during an operation of the international coalition against the IS.

Last Feb. 17, the IS executed and burned more than 40 people in the same area, most of them members of the police and the Salvation Councils.

Anbar province is largely dominated by the jihadists, and Al Baghdadi was one of the few cities where the Iraqi government was still in control.

The United States, which leads an international alliance against the IS, has 300 soldiers deployed at the military base of Ain al-Asad, located some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Al Baghdadi, and which has been the target in recent days of some frustrated IS attacks. 

Iran - Masoume Zia ( female ) Sentenced to 74 Lashes and Imprisonment

Posted on: 22nd February, 2015

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• Editor: Human
• Translator: S.A.
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HRANA News Agency – Masoume Zia, one of the Erfane Halghe activists has been sentenced to 74 lashes and 1 year imprisonment.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Masoume Zia who was arrested in a protest gathering of Erfane Halghe followers in front of Islamic Revolutionary Court, was sentenced to 74 lashes and 1 year imprisonment in a hearing on 7 February 2015 at Islamic Revolutionary court on the charges of disturbing public order and public safety by attending an illegal gathering.

Masoume Zia and 15 other Erfane Halghe instructors attended different hearings during February and in total received 37 years of imprisonment.

It is important to note that “Masoumeh Zia” was sentenced to 1 year suspended imprisonment back in 2006. This sentence was given to her based on the charge of attending the peaceful Women’s gathering which intended to change discriminatory laws against women on 12 June, 2006