CHINA and JAPAN ( Dispute over flying over islands - Gets Heated )

China 'highly vigilant' over Japanese fighters flying over disputed islands

NationalDec. 28, 2012 - 06:50AM JST( 21 )

BEIJING —

China is “highly vigilant” about Japanese jet fighter flights over islands claimed by both countries and Japan must bear responsibility for any consequences, Chinese military and maritime officials said on Thursday.
The officials, speaking a day after a new Japanese prime minister took office, were responding to Japan sending jet fighters several times in the past two weeks to intercept Chinese patrol planes approaching airspace above the islands.
The situation in the volatile East China Sea region has severely strained relations between Beijing and Tokyo.

“We will decisively fulfill our tasks and missions while coordinating with relevant departments…so as to safeguard China’s maritime law enforcement activities and protect the country’s territorial integrity and maritime rights,” Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a news conference.
Japan’s Defense Ministry has acknowledged scrambling F-15 jets on several occasions in recent weeks to intercept Chinese marine surveillance planes approaching the islands, called the Diaoyu in Chinese and the Senkaku by Japan.
It says a Chinese aircraft breached what it considers Japanese airspace for the first time on Dec 13.
The Japanese government administers the islands and purchased three of them from a private owner this past summer, sparking violent anti-Japanese protests across China.
New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised not to yield in the dispute over the islands and boost defense spending to counter Beijing’s growing military clout.
“The Japanese side is using military aircraft to interfere with planes on normal patrol in undisputed Chinese airspace,” said Shi Qingfeng, director general of the Administration Office of the State Oceanic Administration, the agency whose ships patrol disputed waters in the South and East China Seas.
“This is highly unreasonable conduct and the Japanese side is consciously trying to escalate the situation,” Shi said at a presentation for Chinese media and diplomats. “The Japanese side must assume responsibility for the consequences.”
China has been increasingly flexing its military and political influence in the western Pacific, forcefully asserting territorial claims while it builds up its military forces.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the South China Sea.
To China’s east, the island conflict with Japan has led to tense confrontations in the waters around the islands.
“China-Japan defense relations are an important and sensitive part of bilateral ties, and the Japanese side should face up to the difficulties and problems that currently exist,” Yang said.

JAPAN ( Judo gold medalist charged with rape- Masato Uchishiba )

Prosecutors urge 5-year sentence for former judo champion over rape charge

CrimeDec. 28, 2012 - 06:51AM JST( 17 )

TOKYO —

Prosecutors this week called for a 5-year jail sentence for retired double Olympic judo gold medalist Masato Uchishiba who is on trial for allegedly raping one of his teenage students in a hotel room.
The trial opened in September and a verdict is expected in early January.
Uchishiba, 34, who won the 66kg title at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, has pleaded not guilty. He maintains he had consensual sex with the girl, who was drunk after a training camp party in Tokyo in September 2011.
Prosecutors say Uchishiba assaulted the girl, a member of the college judo team he coached, in a hotel room after she fell asleep at a karaoke parlor, intoxicated.
“When she became aware, she resisted but he turned up the volume of the television and covered her mouth with his hand,” prosecutors said.
The alleged victim is not being identified publicly because her exact age at the time has not been given.
Uchishiba, who is married, admits that sex took place, but denies it was forceful.
“She was unmistakably awake. What we did was by mutual consent. I absolutely did not assault her,” Uchishiba told the court in earlier testimony.
Uchishiba was hailed as a hero at home when he became the first Japanese to win a gold medal in any sport at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when Japan’s judo medal haul of two was its lowest ever.
However, after the rape allegation was made last year, he was sacked by Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare where he had been coaching its women’s judo team since April 2010.

JAPAN ( Newborn girl found in bag near Highway ) Saitama

Newborn girl found in bag near highway in Saitama

CrimeDec. 25, 2012 - 02:35PM JST( 43 )

 

 

SAITAMA —

Police said Tuesday that a newborn girl was found in a tote bag near a highway in Misato, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday. The infant is being treated in hospital.
According to police, a woman walking her dog spotted the vinyl bag among shrubbery by Route 298 at about 4:40 p.m., and notified police. TV Asahi reported that the infant was wrapped in a towel and still had her umbilical cord attached.
Police said they are looking for the person or persons responsible on a charge of abandoning the baby.

Japan Today

WASHINGTON (Protestors ask White House to classify Westboro church as hate group )

Petition urges White House to classify Westboro church as hate group

Reuters – 7 hrs ago

 

Enlarge Photo

Reuters/Reuters - Two male protestors kiss next to a member of the Westboro Baptist Church outside the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida August 28, 2012. REUTERS/Philip Andrews

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 475,000 people have signed petitions asking the White House to crack down on Westboro Baptist Church after the group, known for holding anti-gay demonstrations at funerals, threatened to picket in Newtown, Connecticut.

Newtown was the site of a school massacre on December 14 in which 20 young children and six adults were killed.

Five petitions posted on the White House website since the shootings have asked the government to name the church, based in Topeka, Kansas, as a hate group or end its tax-exempt status. The requests were among the most popular on the White House site on Thursday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, has called the church "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America" because of the anti-gay signs its members have carried at hundreds of military funerals. The protests reflect their view that God is punishing America for tolerance of gays and lesbians.

The church has successfully defended its right to free speech in court. The church could not be immediately reached for comment.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether it would address the petitions.

The White House has a policy of responding to petitions that reach a threshold of 25,000 signatures but does not comment on certain law enforcement issues that are within the jurisdiction of federal agencies or courts, according to its website.

Obama last week asked Americans to pressure Congress to help tighten gun laws. He responded after several hundred thousand people signed a dozen petitions calling for tougher gun laws following the Newtown attack.
Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza used a military-style assault rifle to kill 20 elementary school children and seven adults, including his mother shot earlier at the family home, then he took his own life.

Obama has called for Congress to approve a ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons and a ban on the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips, as well as measures to ensure background checks for gun purchases at gun shows.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Peter Rudegeair; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Iran ( Mother of blogger who was killed -was attacked while at son's gravesite )

mother of dead blogger attacked while mourning son at his graveside

Posted: 14 December 2012 Sattar Beheshti died in “Cyber Police” detention facility The mother of an Iranian blogger who died in custody last month was attacked by security forces as she mourned at her son’s graveside on Thursday (13 Dec), prompting Amnesty International to renew its call for a thorough and impartial investigation into the 35-year-old’s death. Beheshti died in the “Cyber Police” detention facility on 3 November after being arrested on suspicion of "acting against the national security" because of his online activities on social networking sites. He was later buried on 7 November. As the family and friends of Beheshti marked 40 days since his death – the end of the traditional mourning period for the deceased, eyewitnesses report that security forces attacked mourners, with one of them dragging Sattar Beheshti's mother on the ground by her hair. The attack came amid ongoing harassment of the blogger’s family members and concerns about the independence of investigations into his death. Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme Deputy Director Ann Harrison said: “What is especially devastating for Sattar Beheshti’s family is that even though their traditional mourning period has come to an end, there are still many unanswered questions about how and why he died while in the custody of the Cyber Police. “The Iranian authorities must ensure that the ongoing investigations into the incident – and all other deaths in custody – are thorough, impartial and in line with international human rights law and standards, leading to those responsible being brought to justice. Intimidation and attacks against Sattar Beheshti’s family must not be tolerated.” On 27 November, Iran’s police chief, Brigadier General Esma'il Ahmadi-Moghaddam, accepted partial responsibility for Beheshti’s death in custody. The head of Iran’s Cyber Police was subsequently removed from his position, but a member of the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission later denied the removal had anything to do with the blogger’s death. Family members have also been threatened with arrest if they speak to the media about the case. The family’s lawyer has expressed concern that the case – which is currently the subject of a criminal investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office – may not go to court. Ann Harrison added: “It is very troubling that Sattar Beheshti’s family members appear to be under pressure not to demand their right to justice over this fatal incident. “In addition to bringing charges against anyone responsible for torture or for causing his death, without imposing the death penalty, the authorities must not block this – or any other’s family’s – right to access justice.” Amnesty has repeatedly raised concerns about torture and other ill-treatment of detainees in Iran, including cases where deaths in custody appear to have resulted from such treatment. Background Following his arrest on 30 October at his home in Robat Karim, Beheshti’s family had no further contact with him until 6 November when they received a telephone call telling them to collect his body from Kahrizak detention centre. Before being transferred to the Cyber Police detention centre, Beheshti had been held for one night in Section 350 of Tehran’s Evin Prison. While there, he lodged a complaint with the Evin Prison authorities claiming that his interrogators had tortured him after his arrest. Fellow prisoners at Evin Prison later wrote an open letter corroborating that allegation, saying they had seen torture marks on his body. The Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission and the Judiciary’s High Commission for Human Rights have both launched investigations into the incident. But various judicial officials and parliamentarians have given contradictory explanations for the blogger’s death even before the investigations have been completed, raising serious concerns about their impartiality, independence and transparency.

MEXICO ( Hit man gets 54 dollars to kill- boys paid 500 pesos to kill in Juarez )

Nogales, Sonora, hit man is paid $54

The eye's of evil !  (14 yr old hit man)

 

Sonoran police revealed the price tag on a life over the weekend, and it was cheap.
A U.S. citizen living in Nogales, Sonora, was in a seafood restaurant just after midnight Sunday morning when a gunman came in and shot him. The accused killer later told police he was paid 700 pesos for the hit, according to Sonoran news reports.
That's about $54.
The victim, Jonathan Martin Morgan, was eating at Mariscos La Bocanita, about a mile south of the border. The gunman shot him six times, and Morgan died in an ambulance taking him across the border for treatment.
Morgan, 20, was an admitted drug smuggler, having been caught driving a pickup loaded with about 400 pounds of marijuana near Lochiel, Ariz., on April 9, 2011. He was awaiting sentencing in that case.

14 yr old gets 3 years in mexican prison for murder.

Police arrested Iván Aniceto Estrada López and accused him of the murder. In an interrogation, police told Sonoran reporters, the accused killer gave this version of events: A man known as Juan approached Estrada López outside a church about 10 p.m. He offered to pay him 700 pesos to kill a man.
Estrada López agreed, and Juan gave him a 9 mm pistol and took him to find Morgan. Juan pointed out Morgan at the restaurant and left, Estrada López told police.
Then Estrada López went inside, shot him six times and fled.
By the time police arrested him about an hour later, Estrada López had already spent 200 of the pesos on drugs, Radio XENY reported.
The price tag, while apparently low, was not the lowest seen in Mexico during the years of drug-war violence.
Officials of Mexico's social development ministry said in December 2010 that boys as young as 13 were being paid 500 pesos for a killing in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
Nogales, Sonora, experienced a wave of drug-war violence from 2008 through 2011, but it began easing in late 2011, with eruptions becoming more rare and less random.

MEXICO ( Sinaloa 9 killed on Christmas Eve- Shot with assault weapons ) Cartel wars

By Martin Duran Romero / Associated PressAssociated Press

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) - A group of armed men stormed a town in the mountains of the western state of Sinaloa on Christmas Eve and shot nine men to death with assault weapons, then dumped their bodies on a sports field as part of a war between Mexico's two most powerful cartels, officials said Wednesday.

"El Chapo " Guzman

Sinaloa state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez said the town of El Platanar de Los Ontiveros had become part of a dispute between the Sinaloa cartel controlled by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted man, and remnants of the Beltran-Leyva cartel who have allied themselves with the Zetas, a paramilitary organized-crime group founded by ex-members of the Mexican special forces. "Everything is linked to a dispute for territory and the buying and selling of drugs," he said. The prosecutor said the nine victims were eating Christmas dinner when gunmen entered the town on foot, surrounded them, and opened fire with assault rifles. They decapitated one victim with a machete and dumped the bodies on field, Higuera Gomez said. He said the army had set up a checkpoint nearby to hunt for drugs, but the killers had avoided it by entering the town on foot.

Beltran-leyva members

 Another cartel fight is raging to the south, along the border between the state of Jalisco and Michoacan. At least seven people have been killed in the area since Sunday. Officials in both states said Wednesday they could not confirm local media reports of more than a dozen new deaths in clashes in the area. Michoacan authorities did report the slaying of a mother and her three children in the capital, Morelia, which has been mostly spared the worst of the state's drug violence.
Prosecutors said 41-year-old Maria Elena Lopez Bautista and her 19-year-old daughter and 18- and 13-year-old sons appeared to have been tied hand and foot with wire and burned to death inside their home on Monday.Officials did not speculate on the motive for the crime, but the border with Jalisco has been hit by clashes between Michoacan's dominant Knights Templar cartel, and the New Generation cartel that operates in much of Jalisco.