Mexico ( Whale " young calf " Saved from Fishing Net in Mexican Waters )

MEXICO CITY – Personnel from government agencies and a tour company headed the rescue of a humpback whale found snared in a fishing net in the ocean near Baja California Sur, Mexico’s Environment Secretariat said.

The cetacean was sighted by the ship’s crew of The Abyss, who reported they had seen a pair of humpback whales and that one of them was caught in a net off Punta Ballena, Baja California Sur state, the secretariat said in a communique.

“A rescue team was immediately activated in coordination with the Cabo San Lucas harbormaster’s office under the command of Braulio Cota,” it said.

The rescuers set sail for where the whale had been sighted, while keeping in constant contact with The Abyss and other boats sailing through the area to notify them about the operation and ask for further information.

Around 11:45 a.m. Thursday they found the snared whale, “which apparently was a calf accompanied by its mother.”

The rescuers then proceeded to free the sea mammal from the fishing net, an operation that “ended with a successful and coordinated rescue,” the Environment Secretariat said.

Mexico ( Mexico’s Human Rights Panel Blasts Massacre probe of 72 victims )

MEXICO CITY – Authorities at all levels did a poor job of investigating the August 2010 massacre of 72 undocumented migrants in northeastern Mexico, the country’s independent National Human Rights Commission says in a report released Friday.

Police allowed evidence to be lost or compromised, forensic personnel mishandled the bodies of the victims and government agencies were negligent in caring for the two survivors of the bloodbath on a ranch near the U.S. border, the commission said.

The autonomous, publicly funded panel also criticized the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office and the federal AG’s office, which ultimately asserted jurisdiction over the case.

Authorities have yet even to identify all of the bodies, the commission noted.

The group of 74 migrants was headed toward the U.S. border on Aug. 21, 2010, when armed men intercepted their bus and took them to a ranch outside the town of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, according to the survivors’ account.

Migrants headed for the United States are often targeted by Mexican criminal organizations, which kidnap them or try to forcibly recruit them to join their gangs.

In this case, when the migrants refused to join, their abductors decided to kill them.

One of the two survivors, Ecuadorian teenager Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, notified Mexican marines of the killings.

Marines found the bodies of the 58 men and 14 women after a shootout with gunmen at the ranch that left a marine and three criminals dead.

Mexican authorities have blamed the San Fernando massacre on Los Zetas, the country’s most violent drug cartel.

The human rights commission urged the federal AG’s office to train its investigators and forensic personnel in the legal and scientific protocols for handling and preserving the bodies of crime victims.

Iran ( The top foreign adviser to Iran's supreme leader called for separate talks directly with the U.S )

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The top foreign adviser to Iran's supreme leader on Friday called for separate talks directly with the United States amid the multilateral negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

 

The remarks Friday by Ali Akbar Velayati signaled a high-level endorsement of the policies of President Hassan Rouhani, who has been been sharply criticized by hardliners over the landmark nuclear deal that Iran reached with world powers last month and over other contacts with the U.S.

Velayati said Iran benefits by talking separately with each of the so-called "5+1" powers — the grouping of the United States, Russia, France, Britain, China and Germany, with which it negotiated the interim nuclear deal and with which it is still to work out a permanent accord. Each has separate interests, he said in comments on television that were also carried on the semi-official Mehr news agency.

"We aren't on the right path if we don't have one-on-one talks with the six countries," he said. 'We have to talks with the countries separately. ... It would be wrong if we bring the countries into unity against us, since there are rifts among them over various international issues."

Iraq ( Drones sent to Iraq " Scan Eagle " to Fly the desert SKY ) Iron Eagle

WASHINGTON: The United States is sending Iraq dozens of missiles and surveillance drones to help it combat a recent surge in Al-Qaeda-backed violence, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
The weapons include a shipment of 75 Hellfire missiles purchased by Iraq, which Washington delivered to the country last week, the Times reported.


 The daily wrote that 10 ScanEagle reconnaissance drones — smaller versions of the larger Predator drones that once were frequently flown over Iraq — are expected to be sent by March. Administration sources told the Times that the delivery comes as the Iraqis had virtually run out of Hellfire missiles.
The shipments are being sent as Baghdad confronts the worst wave of Islamic militant violence in half a decade.
Recent attacks, including the bombing Wednesday of a market near a church in Baghdad, have killed at least 44 people across Iraq, in the worst bloodletting since 2008 when the country was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings.
Militants frequently attack places where crowds gather, including markets, cafes and mosques, in an effort to cause maximum casualties.
Experts say widespread discontent among Iraq’s minority Sunni Arab community is a major factor fueling the surge in unrest.
More than 6,700 people have been killed in Iraq since the beginning of 2013, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources

India ( 20 year old woman Gang Raped by ( 7 ) Men on Christmas Eve )

NEW DELHI: A 20-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped on Christmas Eve in south India, media reports said, the latest in a string of sexual attacks reported in the country.
The reports of the latest assault came two days before India was due to mark the first anniversary of the death of a student who was gangraped on a bus in an attack that shocked the nation.
The woman who was assaulted on Christmas Eve told police she was abducted by three men while sightseeing with friends in Karaikal, a port city in Puducherry, the Times of India newspaper and TV networks reported.

 One of the men raped her at a secluded spot before freeing her, the Times said.
She called for help but then another group of seven men attacked her as she was being escorted to a safe place, the paper said.
Six of the men raped her, it added.
"One case has been reported. There are 15 accused (persons) and one victim," senior police officer Monika Bhardwaj told reporters.
Bhardwaj said three of the accused "are absconding" while the rest have been caught.
The Times of India said police had registered preliminary cases of abduction, gang-rape and criminal intimidation against the accused.
The woman has been admitted to hospital where police will record her statement, the CNN-IBN TV network reported.
The issue of sex crimes in India has received widespread attention since last year's gang rape of the 23-year-old student in New Delhi.
The physiotherapy student died on December 29, nearly two weeks after being attacked by a gang of six men on a moving bus as she returned home from the cinema with a male companion.
The brutality of the attack and her subsequent death shook the country and shone a global spotlight on India's widespread mistreatment of women.
The attack also prompted the Indian parliament to pass tougher laws against rapists and other sex-crime offenders.
But a string of other sex attacks, including against foreign tourists and a photojournalist in Mumbai this year, has highlighted the continuing dangers facing women in India.

Egypt ( A bomb wounded five people when it exploded near a Cairo bus )

CAIRO: A bomb wounded five people when it exploded near a Cairo bus Thursday, officials said, as authorities began rounding up members of the Muslim Brotherhood after declaring it a terrorist group.
Army chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who overthrew Islamist president Muhammad Mursi in July, vowed to eliminate terrorism as he urged Egyptians to trust the military.
The explosion shattered the windows of the red and black bus as it passed near a busy intersection in the capital’s northern neighborhood of Nasr City.

 Police defused a second bomb at the site and cordoned off the area as sniffer dogs searched for more explosive devices, an AFP correspondent said.
The bombing came a day after the military-installed government declared Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and a suicide car bomber killed 15 people at a police headquarters north of Cairo on Tuesday.
The Interior Ministry said that attack was meant to intimidate voters ahead of a referendum next month on a new constitution, billed as the first step in a democratic transition ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections.
On Thursday, Egyptian prosecutors ordered at least 18 Muslim Brotherhood members, including an ex-lawmaker, held on accusations of belonging to a terrorist group, state media reported.
Police also arrested 16 suspected Muslim Brotherhood members for passing out leaflets in support of the group and “inciting the violence,” the official MENA news agency said.
The Brotherhood’s designation as a terrorist group means anyone joining their rallies could be jailed for five years, while those possessing their literature or supporting them “verbally or in writing” could face up to five years, a ministry statement said.
The Brotherhood still organizes almost daily protests demanding Mursi’s return almost six months after the military overthrew him.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in street clashes and thousands imprisoned in a police crackdown on the movement since Mursi was ousted on July 3.
Sisi, who led the ouster of Mursi, vowed to fight terrorism in the deeply polarized country.
“Do not allow these terrorist actions to affect you,” the army quoted him as saying at a military ceremony.
“If you want freedom and stability, which is not achieved easily, then you have to trust God and your army and your police.”
Following Thursday’s blast in Nasr City, police General Mohamed Gamal showed reporters a defused pipe bomb he said had been placed inside a nearby advertising display and primed to explode when police arrived at the scene.
“It was set to go off remotely,” interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told AFP, adding the bombs were “meant to terrorize people before the referendum.”
A witness described scenes of panic after the attack .
“I was 100 meters (yards) away when I heard the explosion. I came running to help the wounded,” said Mahmud Abd Al-Al, a construction worker.
“They were covered in blood. One man lost a leg,” he said.
Dozens of angry men and women chanted slogans against the Muslim Brotherhood as police tried to keep them away from the site of the blast while forensic experts searched for clues inside the bus.
“The Muslim Brotherhood people are dogs,” chanted 40-year-old Fadiya as police pushed her away.
“My country is bleeding. Everybody is scared now in Egypt, even the police are scared,” she said as some took pictures of the targeted bus with their mobile phones.
Residents of Cairo expressed fear on Thursday.
“This is not the city I used to know,” said taxi driver Ihab Abdelmoneim commenting on the attack.
“Today, I am scared of the passenger who sits in my taxi and he is scared of me.”
The Brotherhood, which won all elections since the 2011 ouster of Hosni Mubarak, insists it is peaceful and has condemned militant attacks.
The authorities also shut down the newspaper run by the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Islamist group, and seized several presses belonging to the movement, the interior ministry said.
The deadliest attacks, including Tuesday’s bombing, have been claimed by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis group based in the restive Sinai.
The group, composed mostly of Egyptian Bedouin, has criticized the Brotherhood’s style of political Islam and advocates armed attacks.
Authorities say there are links between the Sinai jihadists and the more moderate Brotherhood, but have offered no proof.

Brazil ( Brazil Lottery Winner Rescued from Kidnappers )

 

RIO DE JANEIRO – A lottery winner and his brother were rescued Tuesday from kidnappers, police in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo said.

The brothers were found unharmed inside a residence in Guarulhos, a suburb of Sao Paulo city.

Police identified the abductors as Saulo Moraes de Araujo, a 25-year-old vendor with previous arrests for robbery and homicide; and Felipe Torres, 23.

The pair grabbed the brothers on Monday from their home in Guarulhos and demanded 500,000 reais ($217,390) for their release.

One of the siblings, a construction worker, won Brazil’s Mega Sena lottery in September, netting 7.8 million reais ($3.4 million).

De Araujo and Torres were part of a gang that specializes in what are known as express kidnappings, which involves grabbing a person and forcing him or her to fork over cash before releasing the captive after a few hours.

Police were already tapping the gang members’ phones as part of an ongoing investigation and agents were able to track down the kidnapped brothers within hours of their abduction.

The captors opened fire when they saw police closing in and De Araujo was killed in the ensuing gunfight.

Officers took Torres into custody and confiscated two handguns and a kilo of cocaine.