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.

Mexico City ( Police Chief, Deputy Chief Murdered in Western Mexico )

MEXICO CITY – The police chief and deputy police chief of Tarimbaro, a city in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, were murdered, police spokesmen said Wednesday.

The bodies of chief Luis Manuel Gonzalez Magaña and deputy chief Osvaldo Rendon Salcedo were found Tuesday afternoon after police received a report that two bodies were lying by an SUV parked behind the Las Chalupas bar in the community of Uruetaro.

Officers found the bodies of the two chiefs, who were holding their pistols and had been shot several times, by the vehicle.

Gonzalez Magaña and Rendon Salcedo had been reported missing on Monday, police said.

Investigators are trying to determine the motive for the killings and find those responsible, the Michoacan Attorney General’s Office said.

Salvador Gonzalez Magaña, the former police chief in Tarimbaro and brother of Luis Manuel Gonzalez Magaña, was murdered in March, media reports said.

Michoacan has been rocked by a wave of drug-related violence in recent months.

Michoacan’s forests and mountains are used by drug traffickers to grow marijuana and produce synthetic drugs.

Political cartoons ( Those bags are going to cost you )

Texas ( Political cartoons - Tea party ) Lol

China ( smugglers dig tunnel into Hong Kong )

HONG KONG: The underground path had “one end in a rented garage in Shenzhen and another in a thicket of reeds in Hong Kong, totally concealed,” said a report posted on its official website.
“It was dug in a totally professional way,” it said.
Semi-autonomous Hong Kong, along with Shenzhen in mainland China, are both important trade hubs for the fast-growing and massive market.
But the two have very different tariff systems.

 The as-yet unidentified smugglers sought to exploit their proximity by building a 40-meter-long underground passage and installing a rail track and wagon with a block-and-tackle system to ferry goods such as cell phones and tablet computers.
The tunnel stood about 0.8 meters wide and 1 meter high, just big enough for an adult to crawl through.
It started from a remote area of Shenzhen, in a garage full of bags packed with sludge dug up from the tunnel, and ended in a cluster of tall reeds a few meters past a river dividing mainland China and Hong Kong, with the nearest village 20 meters away.
The project was estimated to have cost three million yuan ($490,000) and taken four months to build.
Border officers discovered the tunnel a week ago, and a nearby resident said she heard drilling noises for one or two nights but assumed they were for renovations.
The man who rented the garage had used a fake ID, authorities were quoted as saying

Saudi Arabia ( Rescue operation to save a " 6 year old Girl " who fell 100 ft into a Well )

Rescue operations to free a six-year-old girl, Lama, who had fallen into a 100-meter-deep well in Tabuk, have been hampered by adverse weather conditions and loose soil at the site.
An official said she might be freed in the next 24 hours as reports suggested that the rescuers were close to reaching her.

 The Saudi Red Crescent, and municipal and health officials are involved in the operation.
Civil Defense teams are digging a parallel borehole to reach the child.
Police are also looking for the landowner who dug the well and left it uncovered.
It has now been six days since Lama fell into the well in Haql area near Tabuk.
She was on a weekend picnic at the spot with her parents when she fell into the well that was partly covered and had no warning signs.
Lama’s father called the Civil Defense and police after hearing Lama’s screams.
There has since been a full-scale rescue operation under way monitored by Tabuk Gov. Prince Fahd bin Sultan.
Brig. Mastour Al-Harithy, director of Tabuk’s Civil Defense, has been camping at the site with dozens of personnel, including specialist geologists from Saudi Aramco.
Col. Mamdouh Al-Anzi, media spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Tabuk, said officials lowered a camera into the well, which found that Lama was at a depth of 30 meters in the 100-meter-deep and half-meter-wide well.
He said Civil Defense teams are working around the clock with their machinery.
Al-Anzi said the rescue operation was halted for some time due to strong winds and falling sand and rocks. However, the rescuers had almost reached the child on Wednesday, and it was likely she would be freed in the next 24 hours, he said.
The relatives of the girl wanted to join the rescue operations but officials stopped them because they might endanger the child in the sandy area.

Syria ( Air Strike " Baby on Ground Lives " Saved ) Video

Syria ( Air Strikes " What you need to see " behind the lines )

China ( Fire Department " New recruits " beaten by Senior employee's )

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ( American gets 1 year in prison for " mockumentary " ) Film Spoof

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: An American man detained for months in the United Arab Emirates and seven co-defendants were fined and sentenced to jail Monday after being convicted in connection to a satirical video about youth culture in Dubai.

 The case, which has drawn the attention of international human rights advocates, centers around a mockumentary uploaded to the Internet. Officials charged that the film spoofing would-be Dubai “gangstas” ran afoul of a 2012 cybercrimes law that tightened penalties for challenging authorities, according to supporters of one of the filmmakers, Shezanne Cassim.
Cassim, 29, is a US citizen from Woodbury, Minnesota, who was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Dubai for work after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2006. He became the public face of the defendants after his family launched an effort to publicize his months-long incarceration following his arrest in April.
He was sentenced Monday to a year in prison followed by deportation and a 10,000 dirham ($2,725) fine, according to family spokeswoman Jennifer Gore.
American consular officials have been following the case closely and attended Monday’s hearing at the State Security Court in the federal capital, Abu Dhabi.
The US Embassy had no official comment following the verdict. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf last week said American officials were troubled by Cassim’s “prolonged incarceration” and called for “a fair and expedient trial and judgment.”
Two Indian defendants received similar sentences, while two Emirati brothers were sentenced to eight months behind bars and received 5,000 dirham fines, according to state-owned newspaper The National. A third brother was pardoned.
The paper said the defendants had been accused of “defaming the UAE society’s image abroad.”
Three other defendants, a Canadian, Briton and an American, were convicted and sentenced in absentia to the penalties given to their other foreigners. They have never been detained by authorities and so are unlikely to serve their sentences.
The paper identified the defendants only by their initials, which is common in the Emirati media.
Gulf Arab authorities have been cracking down on social media use over the past two years, with dozens of people arrested across the region for Twitter posts deemed offensive to leaders or for social media campaigns urging more political openness.
The video, called “Ultimate Combat System: The Deadly Satwa Gs,” is set in the Satwa district of Dubai. It is a documentary style clip that pokes fun at Dubai youth who style themselves “gangstas” but are not particularly thuggish, and shows fictional “combat” training that includes throwing a sandal and using a mobile phone to call for help.
It opens with text saying the video is fictional and is not meant to offend.

Saudi Arabia ( Ethiopian housemaid gets " Death " for killing 6 year old child )

A Saudi court has sentenced an Ethiopian housemaid for murdering the six-year-old daughter of her Saudi employer to avenge his alleged mistreatment of her.


 The court in Riyadh handed down the death verdict after the 26-year-old maid confessed to killing Lamis by slitting her throat with a kitchen knife.
Police arrested the maid just an hour after she killed the daughter in July and hid in the back garden of her employer’s house in Hota Bani Tamim, just south of Riyadh.
Police said in July they found the maid armed with a cleaver, which she used to attack them before they overpowered her.
Saudi newspapers on Tuesday said the maid was told by the judge she can appeal against the death sentence within 30 days.

Gaza City ( A three-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in a series of retaliatory Israeli strikes )

GAZA CITY: A three-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in a series of retaliatory Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip. They came shortly after an Israeli man was shot dead by a Gazan sniper while working on the border fence.

 The planes fired at a Hamas training facility in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, with two more strikes reported east of Gaza City and another in the center of the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli civilian was targeted while he was repairing the Gaza border fence, prompting Israel to warn it would respond “forcefully.”
A spokeswoman for the Soroka hospital in southern Israeli city Beersheba, where the man was taken, told AFP “he arrived dead. We pronounced his death here.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would respond “forcefully” to the attack. “This is a very severe incident and we will not sit idly by,” he said.
Witnesses in Gaza said Palestinian militants fired mortar rounds at Israeli military vehicles east of the security fence near Nahal Oz, and reported seeing an ambulance evacuate one person.
Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesman for the emergency services in the Hamas-run enclave, told AFP an 18-year-old Palestinian was moderately wounded by Israeli fire in the northern-Gaza Beit Lahiya area.

King Abdul Aziz University ( Students Campaign to stop misuse of Prophet’s name " Muhammad " )

One type of the manifestation of our deep respect and love for Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is to show the utmost respect to his name and preserve its sanctity by preventing its use for any common purpose such as calling expatriate workers ‘Muhammad’ just because we don’t know their names.


 A group of students from the Faculty of Economics and Administration in the King Abdul Aziz University (KAAU) in Jeddah recently started a campaign aimed at honoring the name of the Prophet (pbuh) and are trying to halt the spread of the phenomenon where Saudis use his name to call any stranger, even non-Muslims, in restaurants or supermarkets. The name of the Prophet (pbuh) has come to denote inferiority when used in this manner and the speaker usually has a sullen expression which is not only impolite but an insult to the Prophet (pbuh).
The students started to garner support for their campaign by sending text messages via social networking services or through the mobile phone’s “WhatsApp” application where the message reads, “Assalamu alaikum, this is a campaign carried out by the Saudi community aimed at honoring the name of our Prophet (pbuh) and stopping the use of his name to call people whose names we don't know, workers and sometimes even non-Muslims.”
As a result of this misuse, the name Mohammad has come to be associated with any person whose name we don’t know and denotes inferiority which contradicts our love and respect for the Prophet (pbuh).
A long time ago, we used to call unknown people with the term, “Oh brother” or “Mr.” So why don’t we use those instead of calling the person with the name of our Prophet (pbuh).
Commenting on the campaign, Saleh Salem, a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in the KAAU, said: “It is a commendable initiative by our students who are aware of the malpractices of some people in our community and are willing to change this phenomenon by raising awareness in society of the importance of showing the ultimate respect to our Prophet (pbuh) in all possible ways.”
He said the campaign was expected to be launched by the students of the Islamic Studies Department in the faculty, but the students of the Economics Department beat them to it.
“The prevalence of using ‘Mohammad’ in this inappropriate way surfaced around 15 years ago and I remember we never used this name to call unknown people or workers before. Unfortunately, we as Muslims and members of the Saudi community disregarded the sanctity of the name until we arrived at a point that we began to use it to show our resentment toward strangers,” he said.
Khalid Al-Madani, a flight attendant, told Arab News that he gets annoyed when some passengers call him Mohammad. He said that when someone does that he usually points to his badge implying that he be called by his name.
“I know that it is such an honor for every Muslim to be called by the name of the Prophet (pbuh). However, the name in our society has regrettably come to denote a lowly person,” said Madani.
Well-known Saudi scholar Sheikh Abdullah Al-Muslih told Arab News in a telephone interview that any initiative based on Islamic rules, which aims to honor the personality of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) or any aspect related to him including his name is regarded as praiseworthy and is rewarded by Allah.
To the specific question whether it is permissible under the Shariah to call someone whose name is not known Mohammad, Al-Muslih said: “Calling a Muslim person whose name we don’t know with the word Mohammad was originally considered an honor. Moreover, it is not prohibited to do so for a Muslim as he is a follower of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). As for non-Muslims, it is better to call them with a title such as ‘Fellow’, ‘Friend’ or even ‘Abdullah’ as we are all servants of Allah.
“However, if the use of the name of our Prophet (pbuh) has conventionally become a norm or sign of contempt when calling unknown or low-class people and workers, it is unacceptable in Islam and could amount to a lack of respect for the Prophet (pbuh) and his honorable name,” expounded the sheikh.
Tawfeeq Al-Saqqa, an Egyptian engineer, said that when he came to Saudi Arabia 10 years ago he was surprised at seeing many people here using the word Mohammad to call workers or cleaners. He said that in his country people use “Man” or “Brother” to call unknown people.
“My son told me that his friends at school just shout ‘Hey, Mohammad’ at the canteen’s Nepalese guy, a non-Muslim, when they want to buy something. My son asked me why people didn’t call the canteen guy 'Ammo' (uncle) as we usually do in our schools in Egypt. I really commend this campaign for preserving our Prophet’s name,” concluded Al-Saqqa.
Usamah Al-Ajlan, a Saudi businessman, said that we should never ever use the name of our Prophet (pbuh) in this inappropriate and unacceptable way which indicates a lack of Islamic and religious basics of respecting our Prophet (pbuh). He said that in his frequent travels around the world on business trips he has never heard people in the West use Jesus as a common name or to call unknown people by that name.
“We, as Saudis living in this country of the Two Holy Mosques, should be the first to show the utmost respect to the name of Prophet (pbuh) and preserve it from any misuse. I support this campaign wholeheartedly. I have received the text messages on my cell phone and forwarded them to as many contacts as I could. I also suggest that the campaign be supported by the local media and senior scholars,” added Al-Ajlan.

Mexico ( Another homicide in the " Killing Fields " of Mexico )

According to the version of the ministerial authorities, this person was beaten to death, he had multiple bruises and wounds in different parts of the body. The victim remains unknown.


Note from Editor ( I would take a second glance at anyone buying trash bags, cardboard signs and colored pen's in Mexico )

The body fully "packed" in black garbage bags and wrapped with a sheet, which turned out to be a male person aged between 20 and 25 years from about age, was located during Sunday morning on the shoulder of Coatzacoalcos-Minatitlan the road at kilometer 9.5 on the place known as Las Matas.

Read more:
Follow us: @ MundoNarco on Twitter

Mexico ( Mexican Authorities Arrest 10 Suspected People Smugglers )

MEXICO CITY – Three Indians and seven Mexicans were arrested for smuggling people from Asia and Africa into the United States via Mexico, the federal Attorney General’s Office said Sunday.

The 10 suspected people traffickers, who belong to an international network, were arrested in Mexico state, Quintana Roo and the Federal District, the AG’s office said in a statement.

Law enforcement agents from Mexico state, which surrounds the Federal District and forms part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, and the Federal District arrested the people smugglers and rescued 13 migrants from India, Bangladesh and Nepal, the AG’s office said.

The two Indians, five Bangladeshis and six Nepalese were “being held in unhealthy conditions,” the AG’s office said.

Federal Police officers and personnel from two other agencies also participated in the operation.

The investigation started in August and led to the identification of the leaders of the smuggling network, which helped people from Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Somalia enter the United States illegally, the AG’s office said.

Arrest warrants have been issued for several other suspects, federal prosecutors said.

Yemen ( Al -Qaeda said " Sorry for attack on hospital " it was a mistake )

SANAA: A deadly Al-Qaeda attack this month on a Yemeni defense ministry hospital was a mistake and the group is ready to pay blood money, a top jihadist commander has said.
The brazen daylight attack on the defense ministry complex on December 5 left 56 people dead, including patients and foreign health workers from the Philippines, Germany, Vietnam and India.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has already claimed responsibility for the attack and late Saturday its military chief said in an online video the assault on the hospital had not been authorized.
“The attack was on the ministry of defense, it was not on the hospital,” said AQAP military commander Qassem Al-Rimi.


 Rimi said the militants were told to stay away from the hospital and a prayer hall in the sprawling defense ministry complex, but that one lone jihadist disobeyed orders.
“We told them (jihadists) to be cautious, not to enter the prayer place or the hospital. Eight of our brothers were cautious, and one did not. May Allah forgive him and have mercy on him,” said Rimi.
AQAP admits its mistake and offers “apologies and condolences” and accepts “full responsibility” for the attack, including the paying of blood money to compensate the families of the victims, Rimi said.
AQAP, which is considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of Al-Qaeda, is also willing to pay for the medical treatment of civilians wounded in the hospital attack, he added.
“Whatever our Sharia (Islamic law) commands us we will do. Because we are preachers of Sharia and not frauds,” he said, according to an English translation of comments he made in Arabic.
Following the December 5 attack Yemeni state television aired footage from a hospital security camera showing a heavily armed gunman shooting in a hospital corridor.
At one point he lobs a hand grenade at a group of doctors and nurses and in further footage a gunman can be seen executing a man and a child.
AQAP said earlier this month that its militants struck at the defense ministry a control center for US drone attacks against jihadists in Yemen.
The Washington-based think tank New America Foundation says there have been 93 strikes by drones since 2002 in Yemen, killing between 684 and 891 people, among them between 64 and 66 civilians.

Mexico ( Two phoenix boys " Murdered " on the way home ) Update

To kids 15 and 17 years old, who were cousins. were intercepted by armed men "and killed". The kids were on their way to Phoenix from El Ejido Matamoros, Coahuila, after a family reunion.



Two bodies were found with the coup de grace in the vicinity of the ejido El Fenix ​​de Matamoros.

The  two minors, who on Saturday night went to a family party in the ejido Solima and three o'clock decided to return to the Phoenix, when they were intercepted by several armed men who were then murdered in front of a football field.
The bodies were identified as Brandon Iván Martínez Estrada 17 years , residing in the ejido El Fenix ​​Estrada and Eduardo Perales 15 years , with housing in the community Solima

Read more: http://www.elblogdelnarco.net/ # ixzz2oJaF9nk9
Follow us: @ MundoNarco on Twitter

Mexico ( Gunmen burst into party of " 15 year old " and shoot guests )

Cuernavaca, Mor. - A group of armed men burst into a room where a party was held for a 15 year old and shot the guests.


Locally one man died and another was taken to hospital, while four others were injured by bullets, including a minor.

State Attorney reported that the incident occurred in the Spring Farm Hall of colony around 19:30 pm when a group of armed men entered and shot the party guests.

Read more: http://www.elblogdelnarco.net/ # ixzz2oJXes6gE
Follow us: @ MundoNarco on Twitter

Syria ( Dozens of people were killed in an eighth day of air strikes )

BEIRUT: Dozens of people were killed in an eighth day of air strikes on Aleppo in Syria on Sunday, a watchdog said, as a bombing in Homs killed five schoolchildren.
"Dozens of people were killed or wounded" in attacks that saw loyalist warplanes drop so-called barrel bombs near the Friday market in Aleppo city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Separate attacks also targeted the rebel-held Sakhur, Ahmadiyeh, Baideen and Ard Al-Hamra neighbourhoods of the former commercial capital, it said.
The Aleppo Media Centre, a network of citizen journalists on the ground, also reported the attacks, adding that the barrel bomb attack "destroyed a bus, leaving no survivors".
The bombing also destroyed "some 10 cars, as well as a residential building," the AMC said.
It added that "hospitals are packed with wounded", and that the number of dead could not yet be confirmed.

The air force was "continuing to bombard several areas of Aleppo," the AMC added.
It posted footage on the Internet showing pools of blood inside the wreckage of the bus that was hit.
A second video showed burning vehicles, while images distributed by activists showed the bloodstained faces of wounded children.
The Observatory also reported a man and his son were killed in bombing on the Aleppo province village of Atareb, while a man, woman and child from one family were killed in Marea in the same province.
Footage distributed by Shahba Press, another network of citizen journalists, showed children in a bombed-out school in Marea, as one said "the warplane staged four raids here" while classes were on.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a network of grassroots activists, described "panic and mass flight to the countryside, despite the intense cold".
On Saturday, Human Rights Watch accused regime forces of "wreaking disaster" in Aleppo with its intense aerial bombing campaign, which has killed hundreds in the past week.
In the central province of Homs, a car bombing on Sunday killed eight people, six of them schoolchildren, the official SANA news agency reported.
"Terrorists blew up a car bomb near the primary school in the town of Omm al-Amd in the countryside outside Homs, killing eight people including six children, and wounding 34 others," SANA said.
The Observatory reported a higher death toll of at least 12, including five children

Iran ( Wife and Mother die in car accident after " Prison visit " of political prisoner )

 Posted on: 21st December, 2013                         

                  

Tell A Friend

Close

Your Name

Friend Email

Enter Message To Frie

 

 

                                               

HRANA News Agency – Nahid Rahmani and Ziba Sadegh Zadeh, the mother and wife of the political prisoner, Payman (Amirreza) Arefi died on the way back home from visit, in a car accident.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), earlier in an interview with HRANA, the mother of Payman Arefi, who resided in Tehran, had stated that she was concerned about this prisoner’s exile to Masjed-Soliman prison.

Payman Arefi was arrested on May 2009, on charge of supporting monarchical society. First he was sentenced to death but the appeal court the sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

This political prisoner, align with his cousin, Arash Rahmani who was executed in 2010, were put to the post-election mass trial court, as a street rioter who was contemplating for armed action against national security and Islamic Republic, while they had been arrested before 2009 election.

Ziba Sadegh Zadeh, herself was arrested with Payman Arefi, and spent some times in ward 209 of Evin prison and had been interrogated. Payman Arefi has announced in a letter from prison that he had confessed against himself to make her wife be released.

DAMASCUS ( Syrian forces are “wreaking disaster” on Aleppo, killing hundreds in air strikes )

DAMASCUS: Syrian forces are “wreaking disaster” on Aleppo, killing hundreds in air strikes on the city, Human Rights Watch said Saturday, as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi held talks with Iran’s foreign minister.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), meanwhile, said the body of Abbas Khan, a British doctor who died in a Syrian jail, was to be transported to Beirut.
“Government forces have really been wreaking disaster on Aleppo in the last month, killing men, women, and children alike,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“The Syrian air force is either criminally incompetent, doesn’t care whether it kills scores of civilians — or deliberately targets civilian areas,” Solvang added.
The HRW statement comes six days after the launch of a massive aerial campaign against opposition-held areas of Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial capital, involving dozens of warplane strikes and helicopter attacks using TNT-packed barrels.
The New York-based organization cited the Syrian Network for Human Rights as saying 232 civilians were killed from Dec. 15 to 18 in and around the northern city.
HRW concluded that the attacks, which targeted both Aleppo city and its province, showed “government forces had used means and methods of warfare that... could not distinguish between civilians and combatants, making attacks indiscriminate and therefore unlawful.”
It also lashed out against rebels for firing rockets and mortar rounds into civilian areas in government-controlled parts of Aleppo.
The city has been split into rebel and regime-controlled areas since mid-summer 2012 when rebels launched a massive offensive to try to take Syria’s second city.
On Saturday, a day after rebels made a fresh advance in the city, overrunning the Kindi hospital, regime troops pounded the area, which loyalists had for months been using as a base, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Aleppo Media Center, a network of activists on the ground, also said the army had launched a new attack against the opposition-held Qadi Askar neighborhood.
The loyalists, according to the AMC, used highly destructive TNT-packed barrel bombs, whose use has been condemned widely by rights groups.
The violence comes despite preparatory discussions for peace talks due for Jan. 22 in Switzerland, which should bring together opposition and regime representatives.
There has been no agreement yet on whether key Damascus backer Iran will participate in the talks.
On Saturday, peace envoy Brahimi talked by phone with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif about the latest on the Geneva 2 conference,” the ministry said.
Zarif, it said, “insisted on a political solution” that includes talks between the parties to the conflict which has claimed some 126,000 lives since it erupted nearly three years ago.
On Friday, Brahimi had said negotiators failed to reach agreement on whether Iran should be invited to the peace talks, but that Tehran was not yet “off the list” of participants.
“It’s no secret that we in the United Nations welcome the participation of Iran, but our partners in the United States are still not convinced that Iran’s participation would be the right thing,” said Brahimi.
While Iran backs President Bashar Assad’s regime, the United States has insisted he should be excluded from a future transition.
Meanwhile, the ICRC announced the body of Abbas Khan, a British doctor who died in a regime jail, will arrive in Beirut on Saturday.
In the Lebanese capital, his remains will be handed over to the British Embassy.
London and a Syrian rights group has held Damascus responsible for Dr. Khan’s death.
But Syrian authorities said on Wednesday the doctor was found “hanging” in his cell, where he was being held for “unauthorized activities,” and that he had committed suicide.
Khan, a volunteer with London-based charity Human Aid UK, had traveled to Aleppo in northern Syria last year to help civilians when he was arrested by the regime.
The developments come a day after the opposition condemned the arrest by the security forces in the northern city of Qamishli of a prominent Assyrian Christian dissident, Gabriel Mushi Gowriyeh.
“The Syrian National Coalition condemns the detention in the city of Qamishli on Dec. 19 of Gabriel Mushi Gowriyeh, head of the Assyrian Democratic Organization’s political bureau,” the group said.