Mexico - priests are a target for murder

Two priests were kidnapped and killed in the Mexican state of Veracruz, raising the death toll of priests murdered in Mexico to 14 in less than four years.

Veracruz state attorney general Luis Angel Bravo Contreras told reporters Sept. 20 that the "victims and the victimizers knew each other" and added that the attack was "not a kidnapping."

"They were together, having a few drinks, the gathering broke down due to alcohol and turned violent," he said.

Catholic officials in Veracruz rejected the explanation, calling it "an easy out" and saying it ignored the reality of a state notorious for crime and corruption.

"We are hoping for more professional and careful inquiry, because this declaration the prosecutor is giving generates more doubts than responses to the issue of the murder of these two priests," said Fr. Jose Manuel Suazo Reyes, spokesman for the Xalapa archdiocese. "It surprises us how quickly they've concluded an investigation that requires more time and care."

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Fr. Alejo Nabor Jimenez Juarez and Fr. Jose Alfredo Juarez de la Cruz were dragged at gunpoint out of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Poza Rica, a Gulf Coast oil city consumed by crime in recent years, the Papantla diocese confirmed in a statement. Media reported the men were found Sept. 19, one day after their abduction, along the side of a highway with their hands and feet bound. They were beaten and had gunshot wounds, according to media reports.

A driver employed by the parish also was abducted, Mexican media reported, but was found unharmed.

State officials said Sept. 20 that five men participated in the abductions and one of the suspect's identities was known. Robbery of a church building fund was cited as a motive, Veracruz media outlet Plumas Libres reported.

"In these moments of pain, impotence and tragedy provoked by violence, we raise our prayers to the heavens for the eternal rest of our brothers and implore to the Lord the conversion of the aggressors. Of the authorities, we await the clarification of the acts and the application of those responsible," the Mexican bishops' conference said in a statement.

Violence has struck Veracruz clergy previously. In 2013, two priests in the Tuxpan diocese were murdered in their parish.

Palestinian Shot after Attempting to Stab Israeli Soldier

JERUSALEM – A Palestinian teenager was shot and gravely injured by Israeli security forces after he attempted to commit a knife attack near a Jewish settlement in Hebron, the Israeli Army said.

According to local witnesses, the alleged assailant was wielding a knife when he approached Israeli security forces at the entrance of the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement.

The assailant was shot by security forces at the scene and was receiving medical attention, according to an Israeli military statement.

The area outside the settlement has become the target of attacks and aggression over the last year amid a wave of tension and violence in the region.

There has been a general surge in violence over the last week, in which there has been dozens of attacks or assaults in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

A similar attack was carried out by Palestinians last week near the Kiryat Arba settlement which left a woman lightly injured, according to Israeli authorities.

The escalation of sporadic violence that has engulfed the region has claimed the lives of 233 and a Jordanian since October 2015, the majority of which were suspected of attacking Israelis.

The rest were killed in either police raids or demonstrations in the West Bank, Gaza Strip or East Jerusalem.

Palestinian attacks have killed 36 Israelis and three foreigners in the region.

Egypt Says 162 Killed in Migrant Boat Capsizing

CAIRO – At least 162 people died when a boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized in the Mediterranean, the Egyptian Health Ministry said Friday.

Six of the travelers rescued alive following Wednesday’s accident remain hospitalized, the ministry said in a statement.

The boat was carrying between 400 and 600 migrants when it capsized after setting out from a point somewhere between Rashid and Baltim, in the province of Al Bahira.

The provincial governor, Mohamed Sultan, called for search operations to continue and for the legal process of returning victims’ bodies to families be sped up.

So far, 164 migrants have been rescued alive, among them 111 Egyptians, 26 Sudanese, 13 Eritreans, two Somalis, one Syrian and one Ethiopian, according to information released by the International Organization for Migration.

Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Mujahid told EFE that bodies recovered from the site are brought to the port of Bugas Rashi.

If identification documents are found on the body, the family is notified, while bodies without documents are taken to hospitals for identification, Mujahid said.

U.S., Russia at Odds over How to Revive Syria Truce

UNITED NATIONS – Efforts by the United States and Russia to resuscitate a Syrian cease-fire that collapsed after seven days remained stalled on Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly a day after both took part here in an acrimonious session of the International Syria Support Group.

“We exchanged some ideas and we had a little bit of progress. We’re evaluating some mutual ideas in a constructive way,” Kerry said of his talks Friday with Russia’s top diplomat.

Both Washington and Moscow say the cease-fire accord Kerry and Lavrov announced two weeks ago in Geneva offers the only realistic chance for progress toward ending a conflict that has claimed more than 400,000 lives since the spring of 2011.

But the atmosphere between the two great powers has grown frosty following a U.S. airstrike last weekend that killed scores of Syrian government troops – attributed by Washington to a mistake – and Monday’s attack on a Syrian Red Crescent aid convoy, which left at least 20 dead.

The U.S. accuses Russia of bombing the convoy. The Russians deny any involvement and demand a “thorough and impartial” investigation.

Kerry said this week that restoring the shattered truce will require a major gesture on the part of the Syrian government and its allies, demanding the establishment of a no-fly zone over areas controlled by the opposition.

In an address Friday to the General Assembly, Lavrov made it clear that Russia will not accede to Kerry’s demand, insisting instead on the responsibility of the U.S. and it allies to separate “so-called moderate opposition from terrorists.”

Under the plan adopted in Geneva, the cease-fire was supposed to lead to cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in mounting coordinated airstrikes against terrorist groups such as Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front.

The prerequisite for the joint strikes was disentangling the Western-backed rebels from the terrorists.

Sen. Ted Cruz Back-Pedals, Now Supports Trump

WASHINGTON – The Republican senator previously in the running for his party’s presidential nomination, Ted Cruz, back-pedaled Friday from his rejection of Donald Trump as his party’s presidential candidate and stated that he will cast his vote for the magnate next November.

Cruz was a leading figure in one of the most controversial moments of the Republican National Convention last July in Cleveland, Ohio, when the multimillionaire was officially nominated for the presidential race and the senator in his speech withheld his support for Trump.

The Republican nominee was visibly annoyed with the senator, his toughest rival in the primaries, and countered by saying “I don’t want his endorsement,” and “if he gives it, I will not accept it.”

“This election is unlike any other in our nation’s history. Like many other voters, I have struggled to determine the right course of action in this general election,” Cruz said Friday on his Facebook page.

“In Cleveland, I urged voters, ‘please, don’t stay home in November. Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket whom you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution,’” he recalled

“After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump,” the senator said in a long message to voters.

Cruz said he has taken that decision for two reasons: first, because last year he promised to support whatever Republican candidate was elected; and second, though he has “areas of significant disagreement” with Trump, “by any measure Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable.”

Trump replied that “I am greatly honored by the endorsement of Senator Cruz. We have fought the battle and he was a tough and brilliant opponent.”

The backing by Cruz, a symbol of the Tea Party and of the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, comes at less than two months before the country’s presidential and legislative elections.

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