Pope calls on Putin to make “sincere, great effort” for Ukraine peace

Eleven men sentenced to death after fatal Egyptian football violence

Syrian rebels capture government army base in south

U.S. Judge Orders Prisoner Freed After 43 Years in Solitary

WASHINGTON – U.S. Judge James Brady has ordered the release of Albert Woodfox, a member of the Black Panthers who has been held in solitary confinement for the past 43 years, accused of killing a prison guard.

Woodfox, 68, who always said he was innocent, could be freed immediately, since the judge decided that, given his age, his poor state of health and doubts that the state would provide “a fair third trial,” the best option was to set him free, according to local media.

The inmate had been tried and found guilty on two previous occasions, along with another two prisoners, for the death in 1972 of corrections officer Brent Miller at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola.

The three prisoners, all blacks and members of the Black Panthers, were known as the “Angola Three,” and only Woodfox is still in jail, since the other two, Robert King and Herman Wallace, were released in 2001 and 2013, respectively.

When Miller was killed, Woodfox was in jail accused of armed robbery, and during those years he always said he was falsely accused in retaliation for his activism with the Black Panthers “aimed at improving conditions inside Louisiana’s notorious prisons.” 

16 Die in Shootout in Mexican Pacific Resort City

MEXICO CITY – At least 16 people died in a shootout between vigilantes and suspected criminals in Xolapa, a town outside the Mexican Pacific resort city of Acapulco, state officials said.

The victims of Saturday’s shootout were members of the United Front for Security and Development in Guerrero State, or FUSDEG, the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office said.

FUSDEG members engaged the gunmen in a shootout, the daily La Jornada reported, citing state officials.

An Efe reporter confirmed that nine people had died in a shootout involving the self-styled community police force just minutes before the information about the shootout came out.

The shootout occurred around 5:45 p.m. on Saturday and an investigation was opened to “determine the number of dead and wounded,” the AG’s office said.

The shootout involved vigilantes under the command of Salvador Alanis Trujillo and former FUSDEG members led by Ignacio Policarpio, the AG’s office said.

The two groups “apparently have an ongoing dispute over territory in the Acapulco-Chilpancingo corridor,” the AG’s office said.

Iran news in brief, 9 June 2015 - Evening Edition

Amitis - King ft. Snoop Dogg ( Iranian video )