Eight-Year-Old Girl Dies of Rabies in Bolivia

LA PAZ – An 8-year-old girl died in Bolivia of rabies after being bitten by a puppy three months ago at home, authorities in the eastern Santa Cruz region, where the death occurred, said on Tuesday.

The Santa Cruz Provincial Health Department, or Sedes, said in a communique that the death occurred Monday and that the minor came from the rural municipality of Portachuelo.

According to Sedes, the child’s mother did not report the bite to any medical center until she had her admitted a week ago as the symptoms of the disease intensified.

This is the first case of death from rabies recorded in the eastern Santa Cruz region in two and a half years, Sedes said.

It is the third case of death from rabies reported in Bolivia so far this year, since in March a woman, 28, died, as did a 63-year-old man in May, both infected by dog bites in the central region of Cochabamba.

More than 300,000 stray dogs live on the streets of Bolivia, a country with some 10 million inhabitants, according to Health Ministry officials.

The packs of dogs that wander the streets and feed on whatever they find in the garbage are a typical sight in Bolivian cities like La Paz, though the dogs are not usually aggressive toward people.

In Bolivia it is also a common practice for domestic dogs to spend the day on the street and return home to their owners at night to eat and sleep.

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Regime change in Iran is key to regional security

By Mona Salem al-Jabouri

Any scrutiny of the political situation in this region reveals the prominent role played by the Islamic Republic of Iran. One cannot contemplate ending or restricting this role without thinking about its consequences in Tehran.

Meddling in the affairs of other nations in the region is a pillar of Tehran’s strategy, and it uses it as a lever to extract concessions from these nations, as well as using it as a playing card in its negotiations with world powers.

To expect Tehran to change its strategy overnight or for the moderate faction to stop it is erroneous because this strategy is a pillar upon which the Islamic Republic has been built and its destiny is intertwined with it. This is an important point to keep in mind for us who aim at ending Iran’s interventions in Iraq and the whole region.

Such a conclusion places the region in a difficult situation with options each of which is more bitter than the other. This situation cannot end except by Tehran itself. Certainly, negotiating with Tehran means to kowtow to its demands and ambitions, and no one can guarantee that Tehran would be bound to cease its mischief in the region in any case. The conclusion is that the only ideal solution lies in a regime change which is a task for the Iranian people and their Resistance. On June 13, 2015, the world was witness to a grand gathering of the Iranian Resistance in Paris attended by over 120,000 in which Iranian dissidents called for change and the overthrow of this regime.

It is unclear how much longer countries in the region would keep themselves with the regime away from the reality of an expanding opposition by the Iranian people and for how long they would ignore the Iranian Resistance which is the vanguard in shaping political activity and mustering a campaign against Tehran. Is it not time for the countries in the region to extend their hands in support of the Iranian Resistance? This Resistance represents the wishes of the Iranian people. Is this not the prime time for responding to Tehran with redoubled force and to point to the reality that ‘the one sitting in a glasshouse should not throw stones at others’?

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian opposition, expressed her view of the conditions in the region by saying: “The solution lies in ridding the entire region from this regime and to overthrow the caliphate of fundamentalism and terrorism ruling Iran.” This is the direct consequence of the dubious strategy of this regime, because this strategy will not cease without a regime change through its overthrow.

U.S. Investigating 7 Fires at Black Churches

WASHINGTON – The FBI is investigating seven fires at churches in black communities in the southern United States that broke out after the June 17 massacre of nine people at an historic African-American house of worship in Charleston, South Carolina.

The latest fire occurred Tuesday night at Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville, a small town 120 km (75 mi.) from Charleston, local authorities said.

It is not yet known if this fire was the result of arson, but two of the other six fires being investigated certainly were.

The Mount Zion church, like hundreds of others since the first such fire for racist reasons in 1822, burned down once before in 1995, when two white youths with links to the Ku Klux Klan set it ablaze.

A year later, then-President Bill Clinton visited the rebuilt church and issued a call to the nation from there to unite against racism.

That fire was one of a series of at least 30 blazes in churches in black communities in the southern United States.

The social networks have erupted in outrage at the images of African-American churches in flames, which resurrect the worst fears of past racial violence in this country.

The incidents have come in the two weeks after the Charleston massacre, where 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof shot to death nine worshippers, including the pastor, at Emanuel AME Church with the declared aim of sparking “a race war.”

“Racism, we are not cured of it,” President Barack Obama said in an interview just days after the Charleston shooting.

“The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow, and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on,” the nation’s first black president said.

Burned Bodies Found on Highway in Northwestern Mexico

CULIACAN, Mexico – At least two burned bodies were found on the highway that links Culiacan, the capital of the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa, with the community of Palos Blancos, state prosecutors told EFE.

Investigators suspect that the killers used automobile tires to burn the bodies of the unidentified victims.

Bullet casings from a .45-caliber weapon, an AK-47 assault rifle and a .38-caliber “super” pistol were found at the crime scene.

Investigators did not find any of the victims’ belongings at the crime scene, so they have not been able to determine the gender of the bodies.

The burned bodies were taken to the coroner’s office, where autopsies will be performed and specialists will try to identify them

Blast at Fireworks Warehouse Kills 1, Injures 5 in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – At least one person was killed and five others were seriously injured in an explosion at a house being used to store fireworks in Refugio de la Pila, a town in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, emergency management officials said.

The explosion occurred on Monday, Guanajuato emergency management office spokesmen told EFE.

The five injured people were transported to the regional hospital in Silao, where they are listed in critical condition and are undergoing treatment for burns.

Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office investigators are trying to determine what caused the explosion.

It is not known whether the owners of the house had permits to store the fireworks at the property.