Mexican Governor to Step Down amid Corruption Investigation

MEXICO CITY – Javier Duarte, the governor of the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz, said on Wednesday that he planned to step down 48 days before the end of his term to deal with the corruption investigation targeting his activities.

“I have made the decision, as of today, to ask the state legislature to grant me leave so I can step down from the post of governor,” Duarte, who took office in 2010 and was to finish his term this year, said in an interview with Televisa.

The 43-year-old Duarte, who is under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office for illicit enrichment, embezzlement and failure to perform his official duties, said “Veracruz does not need a part-time governor, it needs a full-time governor.”

“And it’s the right time to deal with, to face up to, the allegations and I cannot, if I stay on, govern on the one hand and on the other deal with this situation,” Duarte said, adding that the allegations against him were “unfounded.”

The Veracruz state legislature plans to hold a special session on Wednesday afternoon at which it may take up Duarte’s request.

The governor will not appear before the legislature in person, but his request is contained in a letter to lawmakers, state government spokesman Alberto Silva told EFE.

Duarte, a member of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said no one demanded his resignation and that the move was “a personal decision.”

“I have nothing to hide, my assets have been made public, my financial statements have been very clear and have no variations in them,” Duarte said.

The governor said he had not touched “a single peso” from the public coffers and that the state’s debt “is balanced.”

“It would be truly laughable (to say) that I stole 35 billion pesos (nearly $1.85 billion). Where is it? It’s not simple or easy to hide” a sum of that size, Duarte said, adding that the allegations were “mere speculation.”

The governor was suspended by the PRI in late September, the final step before expulsion from the party.

Duarte has been accused of engaging in corrupt acts during his nearly six years in office and of attempting to shield himself legally from prosecution.

State lawmakers in Veracruz approved the creation of an anti-corruption prosecutor’s office and a special court in the state judicial system focused on corruption, with both initiatives seen as a way to protect Duarte, who was scheduled to leave office on Nov. 30.

The last governor to request a leave to step down before the end of his term was Angel Aguirre, a member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, in Guerrero in October 2014, following the disappearance of 43 education students at the hands of police and drug traffickers in the city of Iguala.

Over 600 Human Remains Found in Mexico’s Coahuila State

MEXICO CITY – The remains of over 600 corpses have been unearthed in a field in the San Pedro municipality of northern Mexico’s Coahuila state, according to Grupo VIDA, a civil society group comprising the relatives of disappeared persons.

Bones, teeth, pieces of clothing and shoes were discovered in a 16-hectare field in San Pedro, west of the state capital of Saltillo.

Grupo VIDA president Silvia Ortiz said the remains have been handed over to authorities be identified, as cited by local media.

The ranches of San Pedro were the preferred mass killing sites for criminal groups active in the area years ago, when Torreon municipality was listed as one of the most violent cities in the world.

According to official data, almost 2,000 people from the area have been missing since that time, mostly as a result of violence between drug cartels.

Members of the office for the Attorney-General of Mexico and its forensics branch were involved in gathering the remains, alongside the National Human Rights Commission.

Hours before the remains were discovered, the assistant Attorney General’s office for Special Investigations said that since April last year, over 3,500 body parts were found in the ranch land.

The process of identification has been complicated owing to the deterioration of the bodies, some of which were set on fire in metal drums up to eight years ago as perpetrators attempted to erase the traces of their violent acts.

MOSCOW - There are so many pussies around your presidential campaign " stated Russian Foreign Minister ."

MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed Washington’s claims that Moscow is interfering in the US presidential race.

 

 "It's flattering, of course, to get this kind of attention -- for a regional power, as President Obama called us some time ago," Lavrov said in an interview with CNN, adding that Russia had not seen “a single fact, a single proof” that Russia is meddling in the election.

When asked what he thinks about Republican candidate Donald Trump’s latest campaign scandal, Lavrov said that English was not his first language and that he was unsure if he would sound "decent.”

Then Lavrov said: "There are so many pussies around your presidential campaign on both sides that I prefer not to comment."

The video in which Trump talked about women in lewd terms back in 2005 emerged last week, forcing the candidate to apologize for his words. 

 

'Man bun' sparks drunken brawl on flight to Alicante

Published: 10 Oct 2016 11:47 GMT+02:00

A fight that broke out between passengers on a flight between Edinburgh and Alicante last week erupted after one man was repeatedly insulted over his hair style.

When the Ryanair flight from Edinburgh arrived at lunchtime last Thursday, police were waiting to arrest four passengers after airline staff called ahead to report the troublemakers.

During the brawl, a young child was reportedly hit on the head by a flying wine bottle.

It has now emerged that the scuffle broke out after members of a stag party taunted a fellow passenger because he was sporting a “man bun”, a style popular with hipsters.

Eyewitness Conor Cockburn who was travelling a few seats behind the stag party told The Sun that the constant taunts upset the girlfriend of the man with the “offending” hairstyle.

 “The woman lost it and ‘jumped’ at the drunk revellers after they continuously shouted ‘topknot’ at her friend,” Cockburn said.

Passengers said the group celebrating the bachelor party had been “absolutely hammered” before they even got on the flight.

In a statement, Ryanair said: "The crew of this flight from Edinburgh to Alicante requested police assistance upon landing in Alicante, after four passengers became disruptive in-flight.

"The aircraft landed normally and the individuals were removed and detained by police in Alicante.

Russia - Talk about the debate (last night)

MOSCOW, Sunday evening’s US presidential election debate between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump revealed utter lack of tact on either side, with the opponents getting too personal now and then, polled experts on US affairs have told TASS. By and large, the TV show sounded like an obscene quarrel.

In the debate televised from St. Louis, Missouri, Clinton, a former US Secretary of State, accused Russia of war crimes in Syria and called for an investigation. Trump retorted that in Syria Bashar Assad, Russia and Iran were fighting together against the Islamic State (terrorist organization outlawed in Russia) and that the United States should join that common struggle.

Clinton’s "trump card"

"Hillary Clinton tends to demonize Russia and Putin in an attempt to deal a heavy blow on her main rival, Donald Trump," believes State Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov, whose doctoral thesis was devoted to the US political system. "Confrontation with Russia is Clinton’s ‘trump card’ she is keen to use in attempts to outplay her Republican rival, allegedly having sympathy for Putin."

"By presenting Russia as an enemy the Democratic candidate hopes to mobilize her electorate for struggle against a common threat," Nikonov said.

He expressed regret the current election rhetoric was a reflection of Washington’s real policy towards Moscow. Over the past few days the US television networks kept showing footage presented as the effects of Russian air bombardments of hospitals and childcare centers in Syria, Nikonov said. "Clinton has in fact followed in US Secretary John Kerry’s footsteps to urge an investigation of what she described as Russia’s war crimes in Syria. In fact, this is a call for direct confrontation."

Andranik Migranian, a professor at the Moscow state institute of international relations MGIMO, remarks that Clinton did not bother to present any proof, though.

"At a certain point Clinton supported bombardments in Iraq and Libya, which had left tens of thousands of civilians killed. It is very careless of her to come out with war crime charges against Russia," Migranian said.

"Russia is now more proactive in its foreign policy. It has built up its military potential and proposed its own conditions for cooperation with the United States.

A very convenient situation for pointing an accusing finger at Russia and declaring it a common enemy, isn’t it? This is being done for mobilizing the electorate in Clinton’s support. But even if she emerges the winner, Clinton will have to interact with the Kremlin somehow, which she acknowledged regarding cooperation in the nuclear sphere," said the deputy head of the Institute of US and Canada Studies, Viktor Kremenyuk.

Meager content, much bawdry

By and large the experts described the US presidential debate as meaningless in content and very harsh in form.

"Judging by comments in the social networks, the fly that settled on Clinton’s face during the debate was the most widely discussed participant. This is a sure sign the public at large does not care at all about the content of the debate," Nikonov said.

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First Clinton-Trump presidential debate: clash of equal rivals

He found rather amusing Clinton recalled a dirty remark about women, whcih Trump dropped eleven years ago, in her attempt to discredit the opponent as a sex maniac.

"By doing so she merely helped 70-year-old Trump score more points," Nikonov said with irony.

In his opinion, the rivals’ ferocious attacks against each other, including Trump’s threat to send Clinton to jail, are something unprecedented in US politics.

Migranian said the debate looked pretty much like a household quarrel, in which Trump dubbed Clinton as a duplicitous liar, while the opponent came pretty close to slamming him as a rascal.

"It was pretty boring to watch this 90-minute hassle, in which the opponents were washing the other’s dirty linen. It looks like the Americans are fed up with political correctness," Migranian said.

Who beat whom

"Even the outspokenly pro-Clinton television network - the CNN - had to admit that in the second round the Democratic candidate performed worse than Trump, while the multi-millionaire presidential hopeful coped with his task far better. It looks like it was really so," Nikonov said.

Kremenyuk disagrees. "By the second debate Trump had obviously lost much of his original momentum. On the contrary, Hillary looked triumphant," he said.

"We will know the answer to the question who beat whom after the latest public opinion polls, to be more precise, after November 8, the day of the presidential election in the United States," Kremenyuk concluded.

 

Spain- 10 yr old hit in head by bottle of booze " On plane flight ."

 Four passengers were arrested by Spanish police after “disruptive drunken behaviour” on board their flight from Edinburgh to Alicante. 

Police in Alicante were waiting for the Ryanair flight which left Edinburgh at 11.15am on Thursday after airline staff phoned ahead to report the troublemakers.

The men were part of two distinct stag parties heading to Spain who were reportedly "absolutely hammered" before the plane even took off.

A mother travelling with her two children told The Scottish Daily Recordthat scuffles had broken out between the rival groups and that one ten-year-old child had been hit on the head by a flying wine bottle.

In a statement, Ryanair said: "The crew of this flight from Edinburgh to Alicante requested police assistance upon landing in Alicante, after four passengers became disruptive in-flight.

"The aircraft landed normally and the individuals were removed and detained by police in Alicante.

U.S. House Speaker Ryan Cancels Joint Event with Trump over Sexist Comments

WASHINGTON – U.S. House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan withdrew on Friday his invitation to the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for a joint event, which was to be the real estate mogul’s first appearance after a recording of his sexist comments surfaced in American media.

“I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified. I hope Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves and works to demonstrate to the country that he has greater respect for women than this clip suggests,” Ryan said in a statement, adding that, “In the meantime, he is no longer attending tomorrow’s event in Wisconsin.”

Ryan referred to the controversy unleashed following The Washington Post’s publication of a clip in which Trump used vulgar language to talk about women and women’s bodies.

“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. Grab them ... When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump says at one point on the tape.

Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus similarly condemned the words spoken by Trump, saying that “No woman should ever be described in these terms or talked about in this manner.”

The event this Saturday in Wisconsin, where the congressman’s re-election will play out in November, would have been the first campaign in which Ryan appeared together with Trump, as the two have expressed their differences to the public on many occasions.

Ryan delayed giving his official backing to the real estate magnate for several months due to Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, but eventually held several meetings with the billionaire, saying he will accept the will of the voters.

However, Ryan has stayed away from the Republican electoral sphere since Trump was officially confirmed as the party’s candidate at the convention held in Cleveland last July, something unusual for someone occupying a senior political post in the U.S. conservative bloc.

Indiana Governor and vice presidential candidate Mike Pence finally travelled to Wisconsin in place of Trump, as confirmed by the Trump campaign, explaining that the tycoon will now stay in New York to prepare for Sunday’s debate with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.