Bolivian Mob Lynches Alleged Attacker

LA PAZ – A man who allegedly tried to murder a taxi driver so he could rob him in the Bolivian city of El Alto was lynched by local residents who came to help the supposed victim, police said.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in the neighborhood of Alto Lima, the destination to which the taxi driver took his presumed passenger, who then tried to stab him to death, the chief of the Special Anti-Crime Force in El Alto, Col. Felix Rocha, told reporters.

“(The driver) asked for the help of residents of the area, who immediately came at his call, (and they) captured and beat the suspect,” Rocha said.

The alleged attacker was taken to a La Paz hospital, where he died on Wednesday morning.

Lynchings of alleged criminals are a frequent occurrence in Bolivia and, as legal experts have warned, they show that a de facto death penalty imposed by angry mobs prevails in the country.

The people involved in the lynch mobs say that they are applying so-called “community (indigenous) justice,” which is recognized in the 2009 Constitution, although the document does not condone or set forth either capital punishment or physical punishment for convicted criminals.

Bolivian authorities and international organizations, such as the United Nations, have expressed their concern over these acts, which the police have been unable to fully suppress, given that many of them occur in rural areas where there are hardly few law enforcement personnel who are willing to confront the furious mobs.

According to human rights defense organizations, there are between 10 and 20 fatal lynchings each year in Bolivia and a greater number of attempts.

Egypt Confirms Death of 8 Mexicans in Security Force Attack

CAIRO - The Egyptian Ministry of Interior confirmed on Tuesday that eight Mexicans were killed in the accidental attack by the security forces on Sunday in the oasis area of the western desert, when a total of 12 people were killed.

Egyptian interior spokesman Ayman Helmy told EFE that the 12 victims included eight Mexican tourists and four Egyptians, while the nine wounded included seven Mexicans.

The injured were admitted to Dar al-Fouad hospital, on the outskirts of Cairo where their condition is currently stable and they are out of danger, according to Egyptian interior spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid and a hospital official.

Egypt's General Tourist Guide Syndicate said on Monday that the death toll among the Mexican group was eight victims, which has now been confirmed by the Mexican government.

Sources close to the victims told EFE that two of the Mexican casualties died of their injuries while being transferred from the oasis area to Cairo.

The victims were on a tourist trip that was accidently attacked by Egyptian security forces during an anti-terror operation, when their convoy was mistaken for a terrorist group.

The Egyptian interior ministry claimed that the tourists were attacked by mistake after they entered a restricted area, while the travel company responsible for the organization of the trip revealed that it had actually obtained the necessary permission from the tourism police.

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Egypt's General Tourist Guide Syndicate stated that the convoy was attacked by a military helicopter according to statements by survivors.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu is expected to arrive in Cairo, along with seven members of the victims' families, to meet with Egyptian authorities for clarification regarding the circumstances of the incident and to provide support to the wounded. 

Russia -The US sanctions against Iran are no concern of Russia ( Russian Foreign Minister said )

SEVASTOPOL, August 19. /TASS/. The US sanctions against Iran are no concern of Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, answering a question whether the possible sale of S-300 air defense systems to Iran by Russia fell within the scope of US sanctions laws.

"The US sanctions are no concern of ours. We only fulfill our international obligations, above all, with regard to sanctions, this is the decision of the UN Security Council. All other unilateral restrictions imposed bypassing the Security Council in violation of the general norms of the international law are of no interest to us. So, let our American colleagues study the issue, perhaps, it will useful for them to come to the conclusion that far from all corresponds to their vision of international law," Lavrov said.

On August 14, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that "the decision on possibly supplying S-300 to Iran has already been made by the Russian president, and technical issues of this matter are being discussed." "This is an exclusively bilateral issue. Participation of third countries is not envisaged and is not required," he stressed.

Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier said Moscow was ready to hand over to Tehran the modernized versions of S-300. Russia is currently working to upgrade the missile defense system in line with the Iranian side’s recommendations.

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Russian air defense systems in demand on global arms market

The ministry said these missile systems may be delivered to Iran under the Russian presidential decree "immediately."

Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on the S-300 supplies to Iran in April 2015 when six world powers confirmed significant progress after talks with Iran on the nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Under the 2007 contract, Moscow pledged to deliver to Tehran five battalions of S-300 medium-range air defense systems worth $800 million. Iran made an advance payment of $166.8 million. No supplies followed up to the middle of 2010.

In September 2010, Russia’s then-president Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on measures to implement the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1929 of June 2010 to prohibit the supplies of S-300 to Iran. The contract was annulled and the advance payment returned to Iran.

Bulletproof Vest Saves Colombian Presidential Candidate

BOGOTA – A mayoral candidate in the northern Colombian province of Sucre emerged uninjured from an assassination attempt thanks to the bulletproof vest he was wearing, his political party, the leftist Union Patriotica, said on Wednesday.

Hugo Sanchez, who is running for mayor of Palmitos, was shot twice in the chest but the bullets did not harm him due to the vest.

This is one of the measures that the National Protection Unit is providing to thousands of threatened candidates in Colombia ahead of the Oct. 25 provincial and municipal elections.

The UP said that Sanchez’s attackers “are the same people” who tried to wipe out the party in the late 1980s, when some 5,000 members of the Union Patriotica were exterminated by right-wing paramilitaries.

“The authorities know who finances them and who protects them. They know where they live,” UP chief Aida Avella said, adding that she saw no point in asking for an “exhaustive” investigation of the shooting, as such investigations “don’t exist in Colombia.”

“There are less than 700 armed men” in the vicinity of Sincelejo, capital of Sucre province, the UP said.

The Union Patriotica was founded in 1985 as the result of negotiations between the government of then-President Belisario Betancur and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas.

In its first elections, in 1986, the UP obtained more than 320,000 votes that allowed it to get into Congress and numerous municipal administrations, a situation that was the start of the persecution of the party and its members.

The UP disappeared in the early 1990s but returned to the Colombian political arena in mid-2013, when it regained its legal standing amid a peace process between the FARC and the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos

Death Toll in Mecca Rises to 100 from Crane Crashing onto Mosque

RIYADH – At least 107 people have died and 238 were injured when a crane crashed onto the Grand Mosque in the sacred Islamic site of Mecca, according to the latest figures announced by the Saudi emergency management agency.

The grave accident, caused by the strong winds and rainstorm lashing the area, occurred when Mecca was preparing for the imminent hajj pilgrimage.

Numerous bloody corpses were stretched out on the floor of the mosque that was crowded with the faithful, a usual occurrence above all on a Friday, the Muslim’s holy day.

Dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene to evacuate the injured, while aiding with the rescue work were emergency management teams and personnel of the Red Crescent and the Health Ministry, which declared a maximum alert in all Mecca’s hospitals.

The crane that caused the massacre when it fell, breaking through the roof and falling on the worshippers inside the Grand Mosque, was used in the work of restoring the place of worship and expanding its premises that has been underway for the last four years.

The hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam, together with the profession of faith known as the shahada, the giving of alms, prayer, and fasting in the month of Ramadan.

Nine Bodies Found in Clandestine Grave in Mexico

VERACRUZ, Mexico – The bodies of nine people were found in a clandestine grave in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz as part of a missing-persons investigation, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

The grave was discovered by Mexican navy personnel at a property in the coastal town of Alvarado. Most of the bodies bore tattoos covering most their skin, the AG’s office said Friday.

After the find, numerous relatives of disappeared persons in Veracruz arrived at a coroner’s office and a regional prosecutor’s office in the municipality of Boca del Rio seeking permission to view the bodies and determine if they correspond to their loved ones.

Between 2006 and 2015, 3,089 missing-person complaints have been filed in Veracruz state, which has been hard hit by drug-gang violence in recent years.

Hungarian camera woman caught on video kicking and tripping migrants