Colombia ( Lightning Strike Kills 2 Brothers Playing Soccer on Colombian Beach )

BOGOTA – Two brothers playing soccer on a beach in the northern Colombian city of Cartagena were killed by lightning and another person was injured, police said.

Armando Jose and Domingo Lopez died while playing soccer Saturday on the beaches of Cartagena’s Marbella district, media reports said.

Domingo Lopez was taken to a hospital, but doctors were unable to save him because of the severity of his injuries.

The other man injured in the lightning strike was treated and went home.

CARACAS ( 2 Colombian citizens charged with trying to Kill the President )

Two Colombian citizens were arrested Thursday near Caracas carrying rifles “with laser sights,” Venezuela’s Interior Minister Gen. Miguel Angel Rodriguez said

CARACAS – Venezuela’s leftist government announced Monday the arrest of two foreign nationals who planned to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro in a plot involving former Colombian head of state Alvaro Uribe.

Colombian citizens Victor Gueche, 18, and Erik Huertas, 18, were nabbed last Thursday near Caracas carrying rifles “with laser sights,” Venezuela’s interior minister, Gen. Miguel Angel Rodriguez, told a press conference.

Also found were munitions and a photo of Maduro posing with the speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello.

“Alvaro Uribe Velez undoubtedly knows all about what is happening. Everyone knows he is a man with control over drug-trafficking groups, and we’re not surprised at all that he is, directly or through operators,” one of those involved, the minister said.

Those in custody are part of a gang of 10 “hired killers with great experience,” Rodriguez said, adding that Colombian intelligence officials gave him the names of the gunmen during his recent visit to Bogota.

Cabello spoke out last month about an alleged assassination plot directed by Uribe, former Honduran strongman Roberto Micheletti and Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles, and disposing of more than $2.5 million in cash.

“The brains behind this organization is Posada Carriles,” Rodriguez said Monday, referring to the U.S. Army veteran and erstwhile CIA operative who now lives in Miami.

Posada Carriles, once the head of Venezuela’s secret police, is wanted by Caracas for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that left 73 people dead.

Relations between neighbors Venezuela and Colombia reached a nadir in the final months of Uribe’s 2002-2010 tenure, but improved under his successor, Juan Manuel Santos.

Caracas, however, took umbrage a few months ago when Santos received Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who refuses to accept his loss to Maduro in a special election to replace the late Hugo Chavez as president.

But the tension dissipated after Santos and Maduro held a summit on the shared border.

So far this year, the Venezuelan government has reported several plots and attempts to kill Maduro involving Salvadoran and Colombian mercenaries. EFE

Cat NEWS ( Special report - cats are being used for food in North Korea )

JAPAN ( Wife arrested for killing "Cheating " 70 yr old husband with a coffee cup )

Crime Aug. 26, 2013 - 03:20PM JST ( 44 )

TOKYO —

A 61-year-old housewife battered her 70-year-old husband to death with a coffee cup after discovering he was cheating on her, reports said Monday.
The woman allegedly attacked her husband after learning of his affair, battering him repeatedly about the face and head with the mug at their home in Isehara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Sunday afternoon, the Asahi Shimbun and other media reported.
Yasuo Hirose, an honorary professor with Yokohama National University, was taken to hospital but later confirmed dead.
“He had an affair with a woman I hate,” Emiko Hirose told police, according to the reports. “I went mad and hit him more than 10 times with a cup.”
Kanagawa Prefectural police said Monday that the charge was upgraded to one of murder.

JAPAN ( Man arrested for stealing 200 women's bicycle seats ) weirdo

Crime Aug. 27, 2013 - 06:30AM JST

TOKYO —

Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a man for stealing three seats from women’s electric bicycles in a housing complex at around 4 a.m. on Aug 24. After searching Kondo’s home, they uncovered a further 200 seats.
According to police, Joji Kondo admitted to the crimes saying “I wanted to smell the lingering scent of a woman.” MSN News Japan reported the 35-year-old as saying “I like the texture of the leather and the smell it has. I would lick it and sniff it.”
The three seats were valued at 18,000 yen and the other 200 were estimated to cost a further 1,200,000 yen in total. According to the investigation, Kondo targeted bicycles which were also fitted with child seats, so he knew it had a woman rider.

Mexico ( Runner Dies During Mexico City Marathon )

MEXICO CITY – A 38-year-old Mexican runner died from respiratory problems at a hospital after collapsing during the Mexico City marathon, the Federal District Health Secretariat said.

Jorge Saldaña Cerrillo died on Sunday from “respiratory arrest with probable myocardial infarction,” the secretariat said in a statement.

Saldaña started feeling ill as he ran down Amsterdam street at Insurgentes avenue in the borough of Condesa, a middle-class area in the center of the Mexican capital.

Paramedics treated the runner at the scene and transported him to a hospital.

A runner was hospitalized with neurological problems, a runner from Cameroon was transported to a hospital with symptoms of appendicitis, a runner was hospitalized for dehydration and another runner was taken to a hospital with hypoglycemia, the secretariat said.

Paramedics treated 2,135 people for minor health problems and injuries during Sunday’s race.

Peruvians Raul Pacheco Mendoza and Gladys Tejeda, who set a new women’s record, won the Mexico City marathon.

The two Peruvians broke the winning streak of Kenyan runners, who had dominated the race in recent years.

Pacheco won with a time of 2:16:56 and Tejada posted a record time of 2:37:34. EFE

MOSCOW ( Russian Border Patrol Detains Greenpeace Icebreaker )

MOSCOW – The Russian border patrol detained the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise after the environmental group decided to enter Arctic waters to protest oil exploration in the region despite Moscow’s denial of authorization.

Greenpeace said Monday on its Web site that a patrol boarded the ship without the captain’s permission.

Border agents stopped the ship after Greenpeace activists in inflatable boats approached the seismic exploration vessel Geolog Dmitri Nalivkin, leased by Russian state oil giant Rosneft and ExxonMobil, with banners reading “Save the Arctic!”

Administrators of the Moscow-controlled Northern Sea Route rejected repeated requests from the Arctic Sunrise to enter the route headed for the Kara Sea, citing technical concerns that Greenpeace claims are specious.

Maria Favorskaya, Greenpeace spokeswoman in the Russian capital, said Sunday that the Arctic Sunrise had reached the Kara Sea to protest the drilling for gas and oil in the Arctic.

“We came here to expose preparations for oil drilling and what we ended up exposing was that, and something else – the efforts of the Russian authorities to defend oil interests,” Christy Ferguson, a Canadian crew member on the Arctic Sunrise, said Monday as the ship set course for Norwegian territorial waters. EFE