Turkey: 2 killed in clashes between rival Kurdish groups

ANKARA: Turkish authorities say a group of Kurdish youths have clashed with supporters of a Kurdish Islamist party in southeast Turkey. Two people were killed.

The governor's office for Sirnak province says three people were also injured in the fighting that erupted in the town of Cizre, near Turkish-Syrian border, early Saturday.

Relations between the two groups have been tense since October, when Kurds - angered at what they said was Turkish impediment to efforts to defend the Syrian town of Kobani - clashed with police and the Islamist group members across Turkey. More than 30 people were killed in the rioting.

The Dogan news agency says the father of a leader of the Islamist party and a 19-year old Kurdish youth died in Saturday's clash.

- See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Dec-27/282385-turkey-2-killed-in-clashes-between-rival-kurdish-groups.ashx#sthash.1C96HCwZ.dpuf

Iranian Resistance welcomes Arms Trade Treaty, calls for halt of arms transfer to mullahs

Transfer of arms to Iraq should be halted until security of Iranian refugees in Camp Liberty and other innocent civilians is guaranteed

NCRI - The Iranian Resistance welcomes the enforcement of the Global Arms Trade Treaty, as a significant step towards global peace and security and calls on the state parties to immediately halt the transfer of arms and weapons parts and components to the mullahs ruling Iran and demands the cessation of the sale or transfer of arms to Iraq until the security of Iranian opposition members in Camp Liberty, as well as other innocent civilians, is guaranteed.

The United Nations Secretary General announced on December 24 the coming into force of The Global Arms Trade Treaty nearly two years, after it was adopted by the UN General Assembly.

The treaty stipulates that the transfer of all arms and ammunition is prohibited in case they would be used for 'genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements'.

The treaty emphasizes that the transferred arms should not endanger 'peace and security' or be in grave breach or facilitate the violation of International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, and international conventions or protocols relating to terrorism and 'transnational organized crime'.

According to this treaty, the export of arms that would violate the obligations of a treaty State Party under measures adopted by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, in particular arms embargoes, is prohibited. In all of the above cases, the transfer of arms parts and components is also banned.

The arsenal of the clerical regime ruling Iran that is essentially filled by imports from other countries is totally employed in breach of the covenants and laws mentioned in this treaty and the export of any arms’ parts, big or small, heavy or light, to this regime violates the Arms Trade Treaty.

These arms are used for the massacre of the Iranian people, widespread arrests, suppression of popular demonstrations and protests, and collective executions, or are employed for crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, violation of international humanitarian and human rights laws inside Iran or in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. No wonder that neither the Iranian regime, nor the government of Iraq or the Assad regime joined this treaty.

Six ruthless massacres in Ashraf and Liberty, collective and arbitrary imprisonment of Iranian refugees, and a criminal siege on them, as well as the massacre of innocent Iraqi citizens in Iraq are all conducted by the arms sent to Iraq by states that are party to this treaty.

The Iranian Resistance calls on the state parties, especially the Western states, to refrain from transferring any arms to the Iranian regime and to make the sale of arms to Iraq conditional on them not being used in the massacre of the innocent, in particular the residents of Camp Liberty, and to secure and guarantee their security as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and as political refugees.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 26, 2014

UPDATE on my Article : Priest has been found dead in Mexico " Killed "

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — 

A third priest has been killed in the "hot lands" region of Mexico's southern Guerrero state.

The bishop of the diocese in Ciudad Altamirano said Friday that the Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head near a highway on Christmas Day.

Lopez Gorostieta disappeared on Monday from the seminary in the city where he taught. His truck was later found abandoned near the seminary.

Many other priests have been robbed or briefly abducted in the region, which is dominated by drug cartels.

Bishop Maximino Martinez said the diocese is calling on authorities to investigate the killers and bring them to justice.

Copyright The Associated Press

- See more at: http://www.fox23.com/ap/ap/top-news/kidnapped-priest-in-mexico-found-dead/njbM8/#sthash.WHktPJX5.dpuf

Iran -Satter Beheshti 35 -year -old blogger tortured to death

Mexico - Kidnapped Priest unknown where he is ?

Attacks on Priest Continues

Missing Priest, Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta

Borderland Beat posted by DD from AP, and ABC News and Sin Embargo

Dozens of Roman Catholic priests and hundreds of parishioners marched through the southern Mexico city of Ciudad Altamirano on Wednesday to demand the release of a kidnapped priest and protest a series of kidnappings, killings and robberies of priests.

The marchers were led by Bishop Maximino Martinez and about 30 white-robed priests. They called for the release of the Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta, who apparently was kidnapped from a local seminary early Monday morning by a group of four armed persons who entered the Catholic seminary that morning.

Bishop Maximino Martinez

On Monday when the Bishop issued the call for the Wednesday march, the church also used social media to spread the message;

“To the whole people of God on pilgrimage to the diocese of Ciudad Altamirano, they are told of the disappearance of the father Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta, on the night of Sunday December 21, so at this time what is important is to unite us all in prayer with the confidence that he is okay. If anyone has information that can help locate him please call the seminar”.

In his call for the faithful to join the march, he also said called for an end to the violence in Tierra Caliente and for the release of Father Gregorio.  He also said he does not think that there is any direct problem against the priests, in spite of the cases that have happened in last years, “ because we devote ourselves to serve the people either God, to preach the gospel, we do not do anything more, our work is the redemption of the person ”.

He added that "on the occasion of Christmas, it is very important that we manifest in the march that we call for peace for our country, and to set aside all this atmosphere of violence".

"Enough Already!" and "Return Father Gregorio!" read banners carried by the marchers, who sang hymns as they marched to the city's cathedral.

"Enough, is the cry of all the bishops of Mexico and the diocese.  Enough of those who provoke lawlessness, corruption, impunity of complicity and indifference while all they have done to provoke violence, fear and disappearance, 'the document says.

seminary in Ciudad Altamirano, Mexico

Lopez Gorostieta's pickup truck was found abandoned and locked near the main plaza which is also near the seminary, but no blood stains were found inside.  The church has filed a crime report with police, but the motive remains unclear.

"We haven't received any demand for ransom," said Martinez, who noted his diocese "has suffered a lot" from the drug cartel violence that has made the hotlands region of southern Guerrero state one of the most dangerous in all of Mexico.

At least two priests have been killed in Guerrero state this year and several others have been abducted, robbed or wounded in robbery attempts.

The Interview -Buy it youtube

Christian Pastor spends fourth Christmas in Iran prison

Iranian pastor Farshid Fathi is to spend his fourth Christmas behind bars this year after being convicted of 'acting against national security' for leading a network of underground evangelical house churches.

The 35-year-old Christian cleric is being held in the Rajai Shahr prison, near Tehran, where he shares a cell with hardened criminals, London-based public-affairs strategist Miles Windsor wrote.

Mr Windsor, who works on behalf of Christians persecuted in the Middle East, said: "This will be Pastor Farshid Fathi’s fourth Christmas in an Iranian prison, yet his fortitude, faith and indomitable spirit continues to impress and encourage.

"Pastor Fathi converted to Christianity at the age of 17. As the pastor would soon learn, Iran is a very dangerous place to worship Christ.

"The Tehran regime likes to tout its treatment of Iran’s historic Christian communities, the Armenians and Assyrians, as a testament to its tolerance.

"The mullahs reserve the most vicious treatment for Iranian Muslims, like Pastor Fathi, who have dared to convert to Christianity. Persian-language Bibles are banned in the country, and apostasy is punishable by death under Shariah law, which lies at the heart of the Iranian penal code.

"Yet to mask its naked persecution of Christian converts, the Tehran regime usually jails them on national-security charges or on the pretext that they spy for foreign powers.

"That’s what happened to Pastor Fathi. In December 2010, the father of two was arrested and arbitrarily detained in Tehran’s nightmarish Evin Prison. His 'crime' was serving as the leader of a network of underground evangelical house churches.

"After a year-long interval, during which he spent months in solitary confinement and was subjected to psychological abuse, he was convicted by a revolutionary court of 'acting against national security' and sentenced to six years."

Then in April, Pastor Fathi was one of several prisoners beaten during an attack by security forces on Ward 350 of Evin, Mr Windsor said.

He added: "His right to family visits, guaranteed under Iran’s own laws, is routinely violated. He isn’t permitted to sing Christians hymns, and prison authorities have confiscated his Bible.

"For the past few years, I have been advocating on behalf of Pastor Fathi and other Iranian Christians in Westminster and before the regime’s representatives. Though his case angers me and calls me to action, I am more often impressed and encouraged by the pastor’s fortitude, faith and indomitable spirit as they are reflected in his letters to supporters from prison.

"His latest contains a powerful Christmas message: 'Although the beauty of Christmas or the signs of Christmas cannot be found in this prison, with the ears of faith I can hear the everlasting and beautiful truth that: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel'."

"It is signed “your captive brother who is free in Christ."