England ( Two guests were found dead in Hotel pool - Down Hall Country House Hotel )

By Tom Whitehead

12:29PM BST 28 Apr 2013

The bodies of the pair were discovered on Saturday evening at the four star Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hertfordshire.

Officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate are investigating the deaths, which are currently being treated as “unexplained”.

The two guests, from the London area, were found shortly before at 7.35pm in the unsupervised swimming pool.

^{A Police Community Support Officer outside the gates of Down Hall Country House Hotel (Martin Rose/Eastnews.co.uk)}

Hotel staff and paramedics tried to revive them but in vain and both were declared dead at the scene.

Police and hotel management declined to say where any one else was believed to be in the pool at the time.
The hotel, in Hatfield Heath, near Bishop’s Stortford, describes itself as “one of England’s most established country house hotels”.
It is housed in a 781-year old Italianate mansion set in 110 acres of woods and parklands.
Double rooms cost around £149 a night
A spokesman for the hotel declined to comment on the incident and post mortem examinations in to the cause of the deaths will be held tomorrow.
A spokesman for Essex Police said: "Detectives are investigating the deaths of two guests at a hotel at Hatfield Heath.
"Officers were called to Down Hall Country House Hotel in Matching Road at about 7.35pm on Saturday April 27 following reports that a man and a woman had been found under water in the hotel's swimming pool.
"Hotel staff and ambulance crews tried in vain to revive the man and woman but both were later pronounced dead at the scene.
"Officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate are investigating and are treating the deaths as unexplained at this stage.
"The man who was in his 30s and the woman, who was in her 20s, are believed to be from the London area.”

BRAZIL ( 5 Cops arrested for the Murder of a Journalist and photographer )

Five Brazilian Police Arrested in Journalists’ Deaths

BRASILIA – Five Brazilian police officers were arrested for their suspected role in the murders of journalist Rodrigo Neto de Faria and press photographer Walgney Carvalho, the daily Folha de Sao Paulo said Saturday.

The five officers are members of the Civil Police in the region known as Vale do Aço in the central part of Minas Gerais state, and are suspected of belonging to militia groups that operate in the area, the newspaper said.

Rodrigo Neto, who worked for the Vale do Aço newspaper, was slain by unknown persons on March 9 at the door of his home, and at the time was specifically working on an investigative report about the activities of those militias.

Carvalho, from the same newspaper, was shot dead on April 14 at a restaurant.

Minas Gerais Police Chief Cylton Brandao declined to make any comment on the police who have been arrested.

According to Brandao, the investigation into the case requires a strict “confidentiality,” though he said that everything points to the prompt capture of the suspects for both murders, which according to local media are closely related.

The press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, known by the French initials RSF, has slammed the murders and demanded that Brazilian authorities investigate the possible involvement of police in these cases.

After Carvalho’s death, RSF released a communique in which it also noted that the photographer was the fourth journalism professional murdered in Brazil to date in 2013.

Mexico City ( 11 Dead 65 Injured in Mexico Prison Fight ) San Luis Potosi

11 Dead, 65 Injured in Mexico Prison Fight
The inmates used knives and other sharp objects, as well as rocks and pieces of concrete slabs, in the fight, Mexican authorities said

MEXICO CITY – At least 11 inmates died and 65 were injured early Saturday in a fight at a prison in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, authorities said.

The melee broke out at around 4:15 a.m. and involved two rival gangs inside the La Pila prison, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

The inmates used knives and other sharp objects, as well as rocks and pieces of concrete slabs, in the fight.

State authorities told reporters that the disturbance should not be characterized as a riot but rather a fight among inmates, adding that nine of the victims died inside the prison and the other two perished while receiving medical care.

The battle erupted after the inmates broke the padlocks on their cells, the state’s social rehabilitation director, Concepcion Tovar, said, adding that the two rival gangs had previously traded accusations about robberies and other perceived wrongs.

The prison guards were unable to control the melee and required the assistance of the police and the military, who managed to restore order about three hours after the fight began.

Japan ( 2 inmates hanged , bringing the number to 5 under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe )

2 inmates hanged, bringing number of executions to 5 under Abe

CrimeApr. 26, 2013 - 03:17PM JST( 50 )

TOKYO —

Japan said Friday it hanged two death-row inmates, in the first executions since a trio of convicted killers died in the gallows two months ago and drawing immediate protest from human rights groups.
Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki told reporters that Katsuji Hamasaki, 64, and Yoshihide Miyagi, 56, two members of a crime syndicate, were executed for the shooting of two rival gangsters at a restaurant in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, in 2005.
The executions bring to five the number of death-row inmates hanged since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative government swept to power in landslide December elections.
Japan now has 134 inmates on its death row.
Amnesty International Japan, the Japanese branch of the global rights group, protested Friday.
“We strongly condemn the five executions conducted since the launch of the new government, which goes against calls by the international community and indicates the government’s intention to pave the way for mass executions,” it said in a statement.
Tokyo did not execute any condemned inmates in 2011, the first full year in nearly two decades without an execution amid muted debate on the rights and wrongs of a policy that enjoys wide public support.
But in March last year, Tokyo resumed its use of capital punishment with an unapologetic government minister signing death warrants for three multiple murderers.
Apart from the United States, Japan is the only major industrialised democracy to carry out capital punishment, a practice that has led to repeated protests from European governments and human rights groups.
International advocacy groups say the system is cruel because death row inmates can wait for their executions for many years in solitary confinement and are only told of their impending death a few hours ahead of time.

FBI News ( Top 10 Fugitive Arrested -Eric Toth - School teacher -production of child pornography)

FBI Top Ten Fugitive Captured in Nicaragua
Eric Justin Toth was wanted for alleged possession and production of child pornography

WASHINGTON – The Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Valerie Parlave announced on Tuesday the arrest of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Eric Justin Toth.

In coordination with Nicaraguan authorities, the FBI’s Panama City Legal Attaché Office and the Regional Security Office of the U.S. Embassy in Managua located Toth in Esteli, Nicaragua, where he was placed into custody on April 20, 2013. His arrest was the result of an exhaustive and well coordinated investigation by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the FBI legal attaché, and special agents of the Diplomatic Security Service assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Managua.

Toth, a former private school teacher and camp counselor, had been sought for his alleged production and possession of child pornography. The investigation into Toth began in June 2008 after pornographic images were found on a school camera that had been in his possession. On June 27, 2008, an arrest warrant was issued for Toth out of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for possession of child pornography and, on December 1, 2008, he was indicted in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland for production of child pornography.

Toth had been a fugitive since his alleged criminal activity was discovered, and he was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on April 10, 2012.

A recent tip led law enforcement to Nicaragua, where Toth was living under an alias. Law enforcement was able to trace his recent movements and, through a recent purchase, locate him in Esteli, Nicaragua, where he was taken into custody.

Assistant Director in Charge Parlave praised the Nicaraguan National Police (NNP) Commissioner’s Office, the NNP Trafficking in Persons Unit, and the Nicaraguan Immigration Service for their crucial work in apprehending this fugitive. In addition, Assistant Director in Charge Parlave thanked the Washington Metropolitan Police Department; the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of Columbia and the District of Maryland; the U.S. Embassy Managua Regional Security Office; the Diplomatic Security Service Criminal Investigative Liaison Branch; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the U.S. Marshals Service’s National Sex Offender Targeting Center; and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children-Sex Offender Targeting Team for their diligent work in the investigation.

The FBI has legal attaché offices and sub-offices in more than 70 key cities worldwide, providing coverage for more than 200 countries, territories, and islands. Each office is established through mutual agreement with the host country and is situated in the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in that nation.

The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list was established in March 1950. Since then, 469 fugitives have been apprehended or located, 155 of them as a result of citizen cooperation.

CUBA News ( Visa Request from Castro's daughter to the U.S turned Down ) LGBT Conference

U.S. Turns Down Visa Request from Cuban Leader’s Daughter

MIAMI – U.S. authorities have refused to issue a visa to Cuban President Raul Castro’s daughter to attend a May 2-5 forum on LGBT in Philadelphia that will be particularly dedicated to the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Cuba.

The announcement was made by the Equality Forum, organizer of the conference, which said that Mariela Castro, director of Cuba’s Cenesex sex-education institute, did have a visa to travel to some meetings that will be held next month at U.N. headquarters in New York.

“Over the past 11 years, Equality Forum has invited leaders of the featured nation to attend. For those who needed a visa, all past visas have been approved,” the group’s executive director, Malcolm Lazin, said in a statement.

“It is shocking that our State Department would deny Ms. Castro travel to a civil rights summit – especially one held in the birthplace of our democracy that enshrines freedoms of speech and assembly,” Lazin said.

Several months ago Mariela Castro accepted the Equality Forum’s invitation to speak at next week’s event, as well as to receive a prize for her work in favor of the rights of LBGT people on the Communist-ruled island.

“Mariela Castro runs the leading Cuban LGBT organization that offers support and services to LGBT youth and seniors, provides HIV and STD education and prevention, and combats homophobia,” Lazin said. “These are shared values that deserve the right to be heard regardless of political systems.”

Last May, the State Department’s decision to allow Mariela Castro to travel to San Francisco for a conference of the Latin American Studies Association sparked criticism from some Cuban-American politicians. EFE

Iran News ( Women not veiled while driving - May have their car impounded ) Hmm

Iran: Cars of 'improperly veiled' women will be confiscated by regime police

 

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Published on Friday, 26 April 2013 11:09

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NCRI - Women in Iran have been warned they will have their cars confiscated for three weeks for driving while 'improperly veiled'.
They also face having their vehicles impounded for 'unchaste behaviour' or 'noise pollution' whilst behind the wheel, Tehran's chief of traffic police said.
Hossein Rahimi said the clampdown was part of a 'moral security plan' and at 'controlling and monitoring vehicles and the youth'.
He told the state-run INSA news agency: "In line with the moral security plan, the vehicles of violators will be taken away for three weeks.
"Cases involving driving by individuals who are improperly veiled and commit unchaste behavior or noise pollution inside their vehicles are also included in this plan."
The latest draconian measures against women come after the regime's State Security Forces chief Ahmadi Moqqadam announced earlier this month that: "A new round of moral and social security plans by the police will begin next month.
"These plans are not associated with election issues but will be executed during the election days.
"Their approach will be social and cultural and we are working ensure people do not hate us, but pay attention to us. For this reason, social and cultural measures have been included in this year's plan."
The Iranian regime is re-imposing its 'public security plan' - first launched in April 2007 - to suppress any dissent against the regime.
All the measures are being seen as an attempt to crush any anti-regime protests during the forthcoming June presidential election.