Mexico Rescues 6,733 Children from Human Traffickers

MEXICO CITY – Mexican immigration officers rescued 6,733 minor illegal immigrants from human traffickers who had promised to deliver them to their families in the United States.

The National System for Integral Family Development, DIF, and the National Institute of Migration, INM, said in a joint statement Sunday, the rescued children were mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

They said they have implemented common strategies to protect the rights of children and adolescents during their stay in the country after INM rescued them from irregular routes used by traffickers, where they were exposed to different kinds of abuse including forced labour, rape, physical and verbal assault.

Upon rescue, the children were immediately sent to state and municipal DIF systems for protection and specialized care.

Consular representatives are verifying their nationalities from their countries of origin, to reunite them with their families.

The state and municipal DIF systems have specialized staff including physicians, psychologists and social workers to attend to all children and adolescents in the shelters.

According to immigration authorities, a total of 11,893 children, 8,060 male and 3,833 female, from the above mentioned countries have been rescued so far this year.

Of the rescued, 4,029 were aged between 0 and 11 years of age and 7,864 were between 12 and 17 years.

The statement said from January to May 2013, INM rescued 3,496 foreign minors while in 2014 the corresponding figure was 8,003.

74 lashes, prison term for anyone caught eating in Iran during Ramadan

NCRI - Anyone in Iran caught eating or drinking in public during the days in the month of Ramadan may receive 74 lashes in addition to a jail term of up to two months, a high ranking judiciary official of the Iranian regime has threatened.

Dadkhoda Salari, the prosecutor general in the city of Kerman said on Friday: “Any individual who eats or drinks in public places could face a prison term of 10 days to two months and 74 lashes,” the state-run Mehr news agency reported.

Another state-run news agency warned the public that special patrols have been stationed at streets and public parks in Tehran during the holy month of Ramadan to deal with those who drink, eat or smoke in public.

“The police will deal with those individuals who smoke, drink water and other liquids, eat a snack or food in public,” the state-run ISNA news agency reported.

Last year hundreds of Iranians were lashed in public under the medieval laws of the religious dictatorship which can sentence offenders to 74 lashes and two months in prison for eating during Ramadan.

At least 200 people were flogged in last year in the Iranian province of Qazvin for eating in public during Ramadan.

In 2014, Qazvin official Ismail Sadeghi-Niaraki acknowledged the scale of medieval punishments now being carried out within the regime under the rule of so-called 'moderate' president Hassan Rouhani.

He said: "Exceptional measures were taken by the judiciary in Qazvin province during the month of Ramadan to deal with those eating in public.”

"Over this period, 400 people were arrested and some were given warnings. Another 200 had their cases reviewed by the judiciary and the flogging sentence was carried out within 24 hours of their arrest."

Last year, a Christian man in Iran was sentenced to have his lips burnt with a cigarette for eating during the day in Ramadan. The savage punishment was carried out in public in the city of Kermanshah.

“Women in Iran are becoming vocal in efforts to overcome misogyny”

Iranian women are becoming more vocal and determined in their efforts to overcome “misogynist” laws in Iran under the mullahs’ rule, an official of the Iranian Resistance has said.

Mrs. Houri Seyyedi, discussed the situation of women’s rights in a live Question and Answer session on Friday broadcast on women.ncr-iran.org (NCRI Women’s Committee), with international journalists and rights activists posing questions via Twitter.

“The suppression of women by the misogynist regime in Iran has in many instances become institutionalised”.

“Restrictions are imposed on women, even in their private lives and in the manner that they choose to dress. They are sidelined from work places and there is gender inequality in places of education including universities and government buildings. They are denied an active presence in educational, cultural and arts centres, and Iranian female singers are not allowed to perform.”

Women in Iran face constant violence and harassment, Mrs. Seyyedi said.

“There is constant harassment of women by the so-called anti-vice patrols, and arbitrary and unlawful arrests of women. There have even been cases of acid attacks on the faces of women on the bogus charge of mal-veiling. Even in their homes, women are denied basic rights, and face violence and harassment, and women are denied custody of their children in cases of divorce.”

“In the past 10 years more than 30,000 women have been arrested for so-called mal-veiling. More than 7,000 women have been forced to give written pledges to conform to the Islamic veil. At least 4358 women have had their files sent before the judiciary."

Mrs. Seyyedi said that despite promises of moderation by Hassan Rouhani, the rate of executions in Iran has increased at a soaring rate since he became president.

"However, Iranian women are fighting against this regime and its misogynist laws and they are resisting in different forms. They have no hopes on any reforms from within the regime. They are determined to bring about change themselves. For example they are resisting against the restrictions and misogynist laws imposed on them in carrying out or even watching sports matches."

Asked why the regime was preventing women to attend sports stadiums to watch matches, Mrs. said the regime was fearful that the scene could quickly transform into a political protest.

“Since misogyny is a key element of the fundamentalist regime, the women’s protests quickly become deeply political and attack the regime in its entirety.”

Over 20 Million Yemenis Need Urgent Humanitarian Assistance

GENEVA – A total of 21.1 million Yemenis, 80 percent of the population, are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, warned on Friday.

“We’re facing a humanitarian crisis,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said during a press conference, adding “the public services are collapsing in all regions of the country.”

Meanwhile, World Food Program, or WFP, spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said that more than 6 million people suffer from severe food insecurity and are “in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.”

According to this figure, one in every five Yemenis needs urgent help, she explained.

At the end of 2014, people suffering severe food insecurity numbered 3.4 million, an enormous amount, Byrs added.

The WFP has managed to distribute food to 1.7 million people in 11 regions in recent weeks, but Byrs said that it is a fraction compared to the number of those in need of help.

World Health Organization, or WHO, spokesman Christian Lindmeier said that the rate of people being treated in hospitals for malnutrition has increased by 150 percent.

Lindmeier also added that 53 health facilities, including 17 hospitals, were no longer in service, while the main operating center, where most of the surgical emergencies in Sana’a were performed, has been destroyed.

More than 15 million people, including a million displaced, require urgent health services, the UN official pointed out.

Yemen has been the epicenter of political unrest since 2011, worsened last September when the Houthi rebels launched their armed uprising.

The Shiite group gained control of the capital in February, forcing Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi into exile in Saudi Arabia.

In late March, Saudi Arabia formed an Arab coalition to launch airstrikes in Yemen, causing more than 2,600 deaths, half of whom were civilians, and huge damage to infrastructure.

Putin Accuses U.S. of Pushing World into Arms Race

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday of making global decisions that will push the world into an arm race, and possibly result in a new cold war.

“It’s not local conflicts but global decisions such as the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty that lead the world to local conflicts,” Putin said replying to a question at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“It is really a step which is pushing all of us to a new spiral of the arms race because it changes the global security system,” Putin said.

The Russian president also said that “wherever regional conflicts break out, the parties in conflict always inexplicably find weapons,” which could be equally applied to Ukraine’s eastern provinces, according to Putin.

Putin also highlighted that after the collapse of the Soviet Union “several of our partners in the West, including the United States first and foremost, came under euphoria and instead of setting up good neighborly and partner relations, they began grabbing free geopolitical space as they saw it.”

The Russian president claimed the problem with the United States is that it tries to impose standards and decision regardless of Russia’s position of common interests.

In practice, the United States is telling Russia that it knows what is best for it, according to Putin, who said that Russia determines its own needs and interests according to its history and culture.

Iran - Woman not allowed at volleyball match in Tehran

‘The entry of women at volleyball matches is forbidden,’ an official of the Iranian regime’s volleyball federation said on Friday, state-run ISNA news agency reported.

As part of the International Volleyball Federation’s (FIVB) 2015 World League, a match between Iran and the United States is scheduled to be held in the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran on Friday.

The Iranian regime previously prohibited women from attending an international men’s volleyball match in June 2014, in contravention of the principle of gender non-discrimination in sports.

State-run ISNA news agency reported on June 17, 2015 that a source inside Iran’s volleyball federation had confirmed that the “entry of all women to the Azadi Sports Complex during the World League matches has been prohibited.”

In November 2014, the International Federation of Volleyball (FIVB) sanctioned Iran from hosting international events for as long as women are not allowed to watch games.

A spokesman for the international federation told AFP on 9 November 2015 that the FIVB will "not give Iran the right to host any future FIVB directly controlled events such as World Championships, especially under age, until the ban on women attending volleyball matches is lifted".

"This does not include other volleyball tournaments or next year's World League tournament because the fixtures are already confirmed," the spokesman added.
The Iranian regime’s then police chief General Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said in June 2014 "we cannot allow the presence of women in stadia" because gender mixing "is not yet in the public interest".

The current Iranian regime’s police chief said on Thursday his forces have acted based on their natural duty in banning the entrance of women into sports stadiums or cancelling various music concerts.

The commander of the police Hossein Ashtari said in a trip to Qom: If we prevent the presence of women in concerts and sports stadiums, we are acting based on our natural and sharia duty,” the state-run Entekhab website wrote.

Police Officer Goes Missing after Shootout in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – A police officer disappeared following a shootout in Apatzingan, a city in western Mexico, where gunmen murdered two other officers and five civilians, Michoacan Gov. Salvador Jara said.

Officers assigned to guard the La Fortaleza de Annunaky ranch failed to return when expected, prompting their commander to send out a patrol car to search for them, Jara said.

The patrol car met up with the other officers halfway to the ranch and the three patrol cars headed back to town.

The officers came across a tractor-trailer loaded with scrap metal and an SUV.

“When they found these two vehicles, the patrol cars started to pass them and that’s when they were attacked by armed men. There is a shootout and they (the officers) head off, find a motorcycle rider and that’s how they sent word (to other officers),” the governor said.

The shootout was over quickly and the gunmen torched one of the patrol cars, “but they didn’t realize that reinforcements were coming,” Jara said.

Officers killed the tractor-trailer’s driver, his assistant and three other civilians, the governor said.

Investigators have not determined whether the men belonged to a criminal organization, Jara said, but he indicated that they may have been members of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.

The La Fortaleza de Annunaky ranch belonged to Caballeros Templarios boss Nazario Moreno, who died in a shootout with marines on Jan. 9, 2014.