Protests in Brazil after Street Vendor’s Murder on Metro

SAO PAULO – About 50 people protested on Tuesday in Sao Paulo against homophobia after a street vendor was fatally beaten at a metro station while trying to defend a transsexual.

Luiz Carlos Ruas, nicknamed “Indian” for his ethnic roots, was brutally attacked by two men, ages 21 and 26, who beat and kicked him to death.

Carrying rainbow flags, the protests, including several transsexuals, gathered on Tuesday at the Pedro II metro station in Sao Paulo to denounce Ruas’s killing and criticize “hatred” against transsexuals.

“In 2007, I was attacked by nine men and lost a kidney. I only have one now. I know what it is to feel the violence in your own skin. I don’t want that to happen to my friends and colleagues. So, we’re here today asking for justice,” transsexual Renata Moraes Pessoa told EFE.

Moraes called for an “effective and definitive” response by the state to violence against transsexuals.

“It’s not possible to camouflage the truth and say that Brazil is not a transphobic country, because transphobia exists and the evidence is right here,” she said.

Also participating in the demonstration were several priests, including Julio Lancellotti, the director of the Street People Ministry, who paraphrased Pope Francis’s call for everyone to be “respected as brothers.”

“We’re here expressing our outrage over this terrible death and this senseless violence, he said.

The attackers, Ricardo Martins do Nascimento, 21, and Alipio Rogerio Belo dos Santos, 26, have been fugitives since Monday night, when police went to their homes to arrest them, according to what officials with the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Police told EFE.

The two attackers, who have no criminal records, were recognized by their relatives after seeing the images recorded by metro security cameras.

According to the police investigation, the incident began when Ruas tried to stop the two men’s attack on a homeless transsexual.

Police Find 8 Bodies in Western Mexico

MORELIA, Mexico – Police found eight bodies in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, where at least four criminal organizations are waging a turf war, state prosecutors said.

The bodies of the two women and six men were found on Tuesday, the Michoacan Attorney General’s Office said.

The victims had been beheaded and their heads found on Christmas Day in the city of Jiquilpan.

The bodies were found in a wooded area near La Palma, a town outside the city of Venustiano Carranza, located near Jiquilpan.

The arrest of five suspected hitmen on Monday night led police to the bodies, the AG’s office said.

The suspects engaged police in a shootout in Sahuayo, a city adjacent to Jiquilpan, the AG’s office said.

The gunmen apparently belong to Los Viagras, the armed wing of the Nueva Familia drug cartel, which was formed by former members of the Familia Michoacana and Caballeros Templarios gangs.

Police found a “narco message” next to the heads in which the Nueva Familia organization claimed responsibility for the killings and said they were aimed at the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion.

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Apparently, naked pictures sell products

A small Austrian firm making ski goggles has proved sex sells after they tripled their turnover by posting pictures of themselves wearing their gear while naked on the internet.

The ski glasses producer "Naked Optics" from the sound of music city of Salzburg on the border of Germany is currently running its naked people campaign on social media and it is proving an enormous success.

They said they were inspired to come up with the saucy strategy by the company's name "Naked Optics", and that it involved one of the company founders and some friends getting undressed in front of the camera to advertise the ski goggles.

The manufacturer has been producing its unique line in China for a low price, using the same company as other big name manufacturers, meaning customers get the same quality at a lower price, hence the no-frills name "Naked Optics". They are also selling them exclusively on the internet, which again cuts costs.

Christoph Fink, 28, the founder of the company, said: "This way, the margins for the retail sector are shortened in some cases to 100 percent, while the costs for the design and the fee for the employees are removed."

French police hunt 'killer' of Japanese student

Police in France are hunting for a Chilean man suspected of killing a Japanese student in the eastern town of Besancon, sources close to the case said Thursday.

The man is the ex-boyfriend of Narumi Kurosaki who was studying French at the university in Besancon before she went missing on the night of December 4th-5th. 
Although her body has not been found, police have concluded she was killed after studying CCTV footage, checking her phone records and speaking to witnesses who reported screams at her university residence.
The Chilean suspect, who was in contact with Kurosaki before she arrived in France in August, is believed to have travelled to his home country, the source added, asking not to be named.
Police have also discarded a possible sighting of Kurosaki two weeks after her disappearance at a cafe in the town of Verdun, 300 kilometres to the north of Besancon. 
"Judicial police have identified the girl seen in Verdun. It's not Narumi," a police source told AFP, asking to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.