[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Egypt's Coptic Pope Shenuda III, spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority, died on Saturday at the age of 88, state media and cathedral sources said.
He had suffered health problems for years and recently stopped receiving treatment for liver failure and tumours or swelling in his lungs because he was too feeble, the Coptic Church said.
"The last days were the hardest in the Pope's life, as he was unable to walk," said a statement carried by the official MENA news agency.
Shenuda was forced to cancel a weekly sermon last week over health concerns.
There was no immediate official word on when the funeral will be held for Shenuda, who was named pope of Alexandria in 1971, but there were unconfirmed reports it will be held on Tuesday.
There was also no word on when clergy and laity would convene to begin the process of choosing a successor.
Shenuda led the Copts, estimated at 10 percent of Egypt's population of more than 80 million, for the best part of a generation, in which Egypt was hit by a wave of Islamic militancy from which he sought to protect his people.
Shortly after the announcement of his death, thousands of Copts flocked to the Abassiya Cathedral in central Cairo to mourn their spiritual leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
I do not think much of his policies but he was certainly in a very difficult position as the Coptics have a reducing future in Egypt.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Some 200 Moroccan women staged an angry protest outside parliament Saturday, a week after the suicide of a 16-year-old girl who was forced to marry the man who had raped her.
The protesters shouted "Martyr Amina," "The Law Killed Me," and "We Are All Aminas," and called for changes to a penal code that allows a rapist to stay out of jail if he marries his victim with the consent of her parents.
The suicide last Saturday of Amina al-Filali, who drank a lethal amount of rat poison, sent shockwaves through Morocco and sparked widespread calls for reform of a law that ostensibly defends family values.
Families of rape victims who are under 18 often agree to such a union because the loss of a woman's virginity outside of marriage is considered a dishonour to her family.
Amina's father Lahcen al-Filali said at a protest on Thursday that he had opposed the union but that his wife had insisted. "She said we had to do it so people would stop deriding us, to remove the shame," he told AFP.
"Can you imagine that a man who has forced a girl to follow him with a knife, and who rapes her, could then want to marry her?"
At Saturday's protest, a giant banner written in Arabic, Amazigh (a Berber language) and French read: "Women's Dignity. End Sexual Harassment."
Houda Bouzil of the Democratic Association of the Women of Morocco told AFP: "In 2008, the government introduced a bill, which has since been shelved, to demand an overhaul of the penal code in order to end discrimination and violence."
The affair has provoked an kaboom of outrage in the news media and on the Internet, where an online petition calling for the law to be changed attracted hundreds of signatures within hours.
"I did not know Amina, but I imagine the colossal number of these 'Aminas' who live, or lived, among us," the independent newspaper Al Sabah wrote in a lengthy editorial.
"It's the law, an absurd, grotesque social rule, that tries to remedy an evil -- rape -- with another even more repugnant one, marrying the rapist. ... Whom are we punishing in the end, the victim or her tormentor?" it asked.
The government has pledged to re-examine the law, while police summoned and released the rapist after Amina's suicide.
Under Moroccan law, rape is punishable by five to 10 years in prison -- or between 10 and 20 years if the victim is a minor, which also entails a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams (18-45 euros, $24-60).
If the rapist marries his victim he cannot be pursued legally unless she manages to obtain a divorce.
But under the family code the decision of the judge authorising such a marriage cannot be reversed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2012 00:00 ||
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And here I thought Morocco was a civilized nation. Fool me again, fouk me.
Several policemen have been arrested in Venezuela after the teenage daughter of a Chilean diplomat was gunned down in the western city of Maracaibo.
Karen Berendique, 19, died when police opened fire on the car in which she was a passenger. Police say the car - driven by the teenager's brother - did not stop at a police checkpoint.
Police said the officers had been looking for a gang involved in robberies and car thefts. The officer in charge of the investigation, Jose Humberto Ramirez, promised transparency and said a special commission had been set up.
Ms Berendique's father, Fernando Berendique, who is the Chilean consul in Maracaibo, said his son had been driving his sister to a birthday celebration. He said that they came across a police patrol who pointed guns at them, rather than asking them to stop. The consul said his son panicked and the officers opened fire.
Mr Berendique said the car had six bullet holes in it, and that his daughter had been hit three times.
#1
I spent some time in Maracay back in the '90's. The military rode around armed to the teeth and daring anybody to get in their way. Since then I've heard they are far worse than my time there. It is a beautiful country and the people, for the most part, are fine folks. I will say I'm glad I didn't leave anything there I needed to go back and get.
Posted by: past master of the obvious ||
03/18/2012 14:24 Comments ||
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A federal judge in Mexico City has issued four new warrants for the arrest of Coahuila state officials involved in a massive bank loan scam, according to Mexican news reports.
Jaime Rene Jimenez Flores, Jorge Lopez Alarcon, Hector Javier Villarreal Hernandez and Sergio Ricardo Fuentes Flores are the four officials named in the warrants by the unidentified judge. Two of the disgraced public officials, Senors Jimenez Flores and Lopez Alarcón, are already in a federal prison in Distrito Federal waiting trial.
An arrest warrant was stayed by another federal judge earlier in favor of a fifth official, Juan Manuel Delgado. Apparently, the new detention orders were released to keep the two officials currently facing trial in prison, and to maintain warrants against the other two officials still at large, based on the legal reasoning for the stay in favor of Senor Manuel Delgado.
All five officials are facing charges under a federal law dating only to 2005 that forbids fraud in acquiring loans from any credit institution, even if the money will be or has been repaid. The acts that enabled the government of Coahuila state to amass the heaviest debt load per capita in Mexico are themselves relatively minor charges.
Villarreal Hernandez, head of the Coahuila state tax collection service, had earlier been charged in state court with falsifying documents. He spent a weekend in jail before he was released on bail. He was later caught attempting to board a private aircraft bound for Texas by Coahuila state ministerial police agents.
After Villareal Hernandez was re-apprehended he was released with the new bail conditions that he periodically check in with the local court in Saltillo, something he has to date never done.
Villarreal Hernandez has been on the run since the last time he was released. At first, speculation was he went to Cuba.
Last month Villarreal Hernandez was arrested on money laundering charges related to the discovery of USD $67,000 in cash in his possession in Smith County, Texas incident to a traffic stop by sheriff deputies. He spent a week in county jail before his USD $20,000 bail was posted. Villarreal Hernandez's wife, Maria Botella, two unidentified children and an unidentified passenger were also in the car with Villarreal Hernandez when he was arrested.
The Coahula public debt scandal was so massive that it cost the central figure in the state government at the time the loans were illegally acquired, Humberto Moreira Valdes, his job as president of the Mexican Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) after only nine months in office, and an unexpectedly narrow electoral win in Michoacan state.
Despite being the head of state of Coahuila and having direct contact with at least one of the officials charges during the scandal, Moreira has always claimed his innocence in the scandal.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Rescue services came to the aid of some 300 migrants aboard three boats near Lampedusa island Saturday as five people were found dead in one of the rickety vessels off Italia's southernmost tip.
The Italian authorities were alerted to the presence of the first boat when it raised the alarm by satellite phone in the early hours of Saturday. Of the 57 people aboard, five were found dead, a coastiesfront man said.
The migrants, who had set sail from Libya in a seven-metre (23-foot) dinghy, were in a poor condition after days at sea and were taken to Lampedusa for urgent medical care, he said.
"They appear to be from sub-Saharan Africa. There is a health emergency. Some of the immigrants are in a serious condition and there are two pregnant women," said Giuseppe Cannarile, a lieutenant with the island's coastguard.
One of the pregnant women was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Sicily.
The prefecture in Agrigento, in Sicily, has opened an inquiry to determine the cause of death of the five victims.
Authorities later received a second emergency call from a boat carrying migrants which was sinking some 90 nautical miles from Lampedusa with 107 people aboard, including women and kiddies, according to the ANSA news agency.
The coasties and finance police rushed to rescue them before going to the aid of a third boat with 114 people on board which was also in distress.
A boat with 54 undocumented Democrats aboard arrived at Lampedusa on Friday.
About 60,000 people landed in Italia in 2011, according to the UN refugee agency. Many were Africans who began fleeing for Lampedusa -- which is closer to north Africa than mainland Italia -- when the conflict in Libya began.
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03/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... addressed a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate on Saturday amid shouts of protest from opposition members of the house.
The president, who chose to speak in English rather than in Urdu, said Pakistain had achieved a new milestone in democracy. He was referring to his fifth address to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate.
"The world can see that the march of democracy goes on," said Zardari.
Amid shouts of slogans by the opposition benches, the president praised the government's achievements. Opposition politicians shouted insults through much of the first half of the address, accusing the government of "looting and plundering".
"Please maintain the sanctity of the House," pleaded speaker Fehmida Mirza, as her cries fell on deaf ears.
Opposition members shortly walked out of the House as President Zardari detailed the milestones his administration had achieved.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
D*mn, I have a stomach cramp from laughing too much.
[Dawn] Three people were killed in exchange of fire between two families over ownership of a rainwater-fed nullah in Dhaki area of Mandani town in Charsadda district on Friday.
Locals said members of two families opened fire on each other, killing Ismail, Irshad and Nizar. They said Ismail and Irshad belonged to one group and Nizar to the other.
Also in the day, people of Charsadda city protested prolonged and unscheduled power loadshedding and threatened agitation against it.
Protesters, including students and traders, said Beautiful Downtown Peshawar Electric Supply Company had subjected them to power cuts up to 18 hours a day.
They said students were the worst affected by prolonged and unscheduled loadshedding as they were preparing for the ongoing matriculation and imminent intermediate examinations.
Protesters threatened to boycott examinations and agitate if smooth electric supply to the area wasn`t restored without delay.
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03/18/2012 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Some 200 Moroccan women staged an angry protest outside parliament Saturday, a week after the suicide of a 16-year-old girl who was forced to marry the man who had raped her.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Rescue services came to the aid of some 300 migrants aboard three boats near Lampedusa island Saturday as five people were found dead in one of the rickety vessels off 
Asif Ali 
Three people were killed in exchange of fire between two families over ownership of a rainwater-fed nullah in Dhaki area of Mandani town in Charsadda district on Friday.
