Were 43 students killed to stop speech being disrupted?

A Mexico mayor, his wife, and a police chief are on the run after a "mass grave" was found in the town of Cocula, 10 miles from where 43 students were last seen before they disappeared.

TUESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2014

Local officials and drug runners are among the 56 people, including 22 police officers, who have been arrested over the disappearance of the students.

Mexico's attorney general said that there is clear evidence that the mayor gave the order to police to target the students to prevent them from interrupting a speech that his wife was giving in the town of Iguala.

Other speculation is that the students were killed for failing to pay extortion money to the a gang.

Two arrested drug gang members led authorities to the site of the mass grave where human remains were found.

The grave was found 10 miles from where the students were last seen.

The students are from a rural teaching college. Last year they took part in a violent occupation of city hall to protest the murder of a local activist.

On the run

The mayor, his wife, and the police chief are now on the run from authorities and there is no seen of the missing 43 students.

Mexico's Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said that police officers handed the students over to a drug gang in the Mexican state of Guerrero.

The attorney general has come under enormous nationwide pressure to find those responsible. The city hall of the town of Iguala was burned last week by protesters.

We have the people who carried out the abduction of these individuals.Jesus Murilla Karam, Mexico's attorney general

Protests have also occured in Texas, Venezuela, London and Paris.

"We have the people who carried out the abduction of these individuals," Mr Murillo Karam told reporters.

At the time, eyewitnesses said that the students were bundled into police cars shortly after police shot at buses carrying them, killing six people including three students.

The men arrested for the abduction itself are believed to all be from the group Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors).

India uncovers suspected plot to assassinate Bangladeshi PM - security officials
Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses a high-level summit on strengthening international peace operations during the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York September 26, 2014.

BY RUPAM JAIN NAIR AND ANDREW MACASKILL-NEW DELHI Tue Oct 28, 2014 

(Reuters) - The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has uncovered a suspected plot by banned Bangladeshi militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen to assassinate the country's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and carry out a coup, three senior Indian security officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

India will hand over a dossier to Bangladesh with details of the plan by members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which has carried out scores of attacks in India's eastern neighbour, the government and police officials said.

Bangladesh did not comment directly on the assertions that Hasina had been the target of a plot, but said it had tightened security on the border with India.

Mainly-Muslim Bangladesh has suffered three major army coups and two dozen smaller rebellions since gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971 in a war that killed and displaced millions.

The alleged conspiracy was discovered after two members of the group were killed in an explosion while building homemade bombs at a house in West Bengal earlier this month. Indian police say the militants were Bangladeshis and were using India as a safe haven to plan the attacks.

"The strategy was to hit the political leaders of the country and demolish the democratic infrastructure of Bangladesh," said a senior Indian Home (interior) Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"This was all being planned on Indian soil and we could have been blamed if there was an attack."

Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Monday visited the house where the blasts took place and met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to discuss the situation.

The revelations come against a backdrop of political friction earlier this year between nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Banerjee.

On one campaign stop in West Bengal before his general election victory in May, Modi said illegal immigrants from Bangladesh should get their "bags packed" if he came to power.

Analysts said the speech sought to mobilise Modi's Hindu support base against Banerjee, who leads a regional party in West Bengal that is backed by many of the Muslims who make up a quarter of the state's 90 million population.

Asaduzzaman Khan, Bangladesh's junior home minister, said Dhaka had been tipped off about a possible militant plot.

"We have received this information unofficially from India about a terror threat to top politicians in Dhaka. This is the first time there has been such information," said Khan.

"We are always serious about curbing the activities of the militants. After the news from India our (security) efforts have been raised manifold."

West Bengal Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee declined to comment.

Modi reached out to leaders of neighbouring countries as soon as he was elected, inviting them to his inauguration as prime minister, and he sent his foreign minister to Dhaka to establish friendly relations. However, border disputes and water sharing remain unresolved issues between the two countries.

MASSIVE ATTACKS

The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen also planned to assassinate the country's main opposition leader, Khaleda Zia, the Indian officials said. Prime Minister Hasina and her chief rival, Zia, have dominated the country's politics for more than a decade.

The security officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the record, did not say how the militants planned to carry out the assassinations.

The outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujihadeen detonated nearly 500 bombs almost simultaneously on one day in 2005 across Bangladesh, including in the capital, Dhaka.

Its militants later carried out suicide attacks on several courthouses, killing 25 people and injuring hundreds.

Earlier this year, gunmen opened fire and tossed bombs at a security van carrying members of the group on the way to court.

"The group were a very serious threat in 2005 and up to 2008, but they have now been very badly decimated," said Ajay Sahini, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi that monitors militant groups across South Asia.

"The group's leadership has been eroded, which means their planning capability and capacities for execution have been seriously limited."

India has arrested at least six people tied to the coup plot, according to the NIA, the law enforcement institution investigating the case.

Local police found nearly five dozen crude bombs and arrested two women who were living in the same house and were trying to burn bomb-making manuals after the incident. In a nearby home police found 35 unexploded bombs.

(Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in Dhaka and Sujoy Dhar in New Delhi; Editing by Douglas Busvine, John Chalmers and Mark Heinrich)

ISIS in the Suburbs

The Iraqi Army claims that Baghdad is secure. But in Abu Ghraib, just 40 minutes away, the Islamic State’s presence can be felt everywhere.

• BY SUSANNAH GEORGE-OCTOBER 27, 2014

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — “Do you notice any ISIS here?” Col. Ayad Khadam asked while driving a group of Western journalists around Abu Ghraib, a restive neighborhood west of Baghdad and one of the last bastions of government control outside the capital.

ISIS in the Suburbs by Thavam Ratna

In Afghanistan the west suffered from institutional failure. Let’s learn from it

To have any hope of dealing with the crises in Iraq and Syria we must reflect on our experience in Afghanistan
 

Afghanistan’s camp Bastion handed over by British and US troops - video

Afzal Amin-Tuesday 28 October 2014

As the final British troops leave Afghanistan they do so with several hundred military personnel still in post supporting the Afghan National Army. They must now continue the fight against rural insurgency and terrorism the best way they can. It is easy to be pessimistic when a clear-cut victory failed to materialise, and not just for our brigade of troops but for the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) mission of more than 100,000 troops too. It is also possible to be positive. Afghanistan remains a decentralised and rural society so there is ample data across this rich and varied land to support either a conclusion of failure or one of tentative success.

Notwithstanding my own view that it was incredibly naive of Isaf to entertain the idea that a nation state built up in Kabul could within 10 years extend its writ over the whole country, overall the troops who served there deserve our unflinching credit and admiration (which does include me and, yes, the irony of such a self-serving statement does not escape me). But we know from our own counter-insurgency doctrine that for the security forces (the west) to win, they must defeat the insurgents (those who are loosely classified into three distinct groups: the Taliban, the Haqqani Network and Hekmatyar’s Hizbi-Islami), and for the insurgents to win all they need do is survive. This is what has happened.

Afzal Amin with a delegation of British Muslims on a 2010 visit to Helmand province in Afghanistan. Photograph: Sgt Martin Downs (RAF)/International Security Assistance Force

Numerous reports show active insurgent presence and resurgence in many regions. So if there has been failure, whose is it? It certainly is not the failure of the military who have served despite many political, equipment and planning failures.

What we have witnessed in Afghanistan, and Iraq too, is a failure of Nato institutions that were not fit for the task of counter-insurgency. Nato, like too many elements of the western strategic-level structures, remains more suited to the cold war than current military interventions requiring stabilisation, policing and counter-terrorism.

This is because the personality type (in psychological terms) favoured across Nato in terms of recruitment, training, promotion and retention is the linear-thinking process-focused maintainer of the status quo, which was ideal for holding back the Soviets while keeping our force readiness at optimum levels. We didn’t want mavericks and non-conformists so we didn’t have them. But for the problems that were Iraq and Afghanistan, mavericks were precisely what we needed, the problem-solvers and the independent thinkers. Recognising our own limitations is both wise and necessary. We must learn from the institutional failure to gain victory in Afghanistan if we are to have any hope that the escalating crises in Iraq and Syria are to be resolved any time soon.

As for Afghanistan itself, the ancient fault-line of Pashtu-speaking peoples versus Dari speaking ones remains unresolved, the border areas to the south and east remain unconfirmed by both Kabul and Islamabad, and the millions of disenfranchised, dispossessed Afghans who still need support remain easy prey for the miscreant forces of non-state actors engaged in insurgency and terrorism.

All in all, the future would look bleak were it not for the mythical ability of the Afghans to strike the right deals, pursue a path of least resistance and to ensure that the plethora of stakeholders each get something they seek and so refrain from further organised violence. There could be cause for hope and we in the west must be ready to see those whom we were previously fighting sharing in the power distribution as a future settlement is hewn from the sinews of a nation that has spent decades in war.

China unveils legal reform plans, but says party to remain in control

BY SUI-LEE WEE-Tue Oct 28, 2014

(Reuters) - China's Communist Party pledged on Tuesday to speed up legislation to fight corruption and make it tougher for officials to exert control over the judiciary, even as it stressed full control over the courts.

The decision, released by the official Xinhua news agency, was reached at a four-day party meeting, or plenum, last week.

The party said it would "prevent extorting confessions by torture" and prevent miscarriages of justice with a "timely correction mechanism" following a series of corruption investigations involving torture that have outraged the public.

The plan to prevent forced confessions, which had been flagged last year, is aimed at preventing abuses under the party's anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Some legal cases have illustrated the brutality of a secretive detention system for party members, known as "shuanggui", and the drive to get confessions as President Xi Jinping presses on with an aggressive anti-corruption campaign.

Lawyers had raised questions about the legality of the process, calling it unconstitutional.

The party said it would "uphold" the Political and Legal Committee, a secretive body overseeing the security services that many lawyers have blamed for interference in legal cases.

"They are not ready to move forward with abolishing the institution and I think that will be a problem in future," said Bo Zhiyue, an expert on Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute.

Legal scholars had hoped the party would reform the Committee, which they say would be a repudiation of former domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang, who is under investigation for corruption and has been blamed for much of the abuse of the rule of law.

The party promised the separation of local powers from the courts through the establishment of courts spanning administrative regions but it stressed the judiciary would remain in its grip.

Xi said in a speech to the party that its leadership was "the most fundamental guarantee of socialist rule of law".

The moves, made after last week's closed-door meeting of the party's elite, are pivotal to the workings of China's market economy, the world's second largest. They come as slowing growth raises the prospect of more commercial disputes.

The measures also reflect leaders' worries about rising social unrest. Anger over land grabs, corruption and pollution - issues often left unresolved by the courts - have resulted in violence between police and residents in recent years, threatening social stability.

"The judicial system is the last defence for social justice," Xi was quoted as saying. "If it fails, the people will widely question (the ability to realise) social justice and stability will hardly be maintained."

The party would accelerate national anti-graft legislation and improve the system of punishing and preventing corruption.

The party also said it would promote pilot programmes aimed at judicial independence and the separation of powers.

'SHOUT SLOGANS'

The party also said officials had to pledge allegiance to the constitution before taking office.

"We keep on talking now about ruling the country in accordance with the constitution, but I think we should not overdo this propaganda," said Zhan Zhongle, a law professor at Peking University.

"These things are just formalities, the more important bit is the implementation. You know, China is a country that shouts slogans louder than any other country."

Legal scholars are sceptical about significant change under one-party rule. For sensitive cases, such as high-level corruption or for prominent dissidents, the party will remain in charge.

Still, the announcements were emblematic of Xi's agenda.

Since he took office in March 2013, Xi, who has a doctorate in law, has vowed to put "power within the cage of regulations" and waged a war against corruption, winning over many ordinary people. This year was the first time the party made "governing the country by law" the focus of the plenum.

He has abolished a system of labour camps and called for judicial independence under the party. But at the same time, his administration has detained dozens of dissidents in what some activists say is the worst suppression of human rights in years.

Despite the legal reforms, Xi has shown no interest in political change.

It is uncertain how much of an impact the plenum's policies will have. Laws are often not enforced and can be abused by the police. Full details of the reforms will likely be unveiled in coming months.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

Child poverty up in more than half of developed world since 2008

Unicef report finds number of children entering poverty during global recession is 2.6 million greater than number lifted out of it

A woman begs with her child in Athens, Greece. The child poverty rate in Greece has jumped from 23% to 40.5%. Photograph: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

Harriet Sherwood-Tuesday 28 October 2014 

Child poverty has increased in 23 countries in the developed world since the start of the global recession in 2008, potentially trapping a generation in a life of material deprivation and reduced prospects.

A report by Unicef says the number of children entering poverty during the recession is 2.6 million greater than the number who have been lifted out of it. “The longer these children remain trapped in the cycle of poverty, the harder it will be for them to escape,” it says in Children of Recession: the Impact of the Economic Crisis on Child Wellbeing in Rich Countries.

Greece and Iceland have seen the biggest percentage increases in child poverty since 2008, followed by Latvia, Croatia and Ireland. The proportion of children living in poverty in the UK has increased from 24% to 25.6%.

Eighteen of the 41 countries in the study have seen falls in child poverty, topped by Chile which has seen a reduction from 31.4% to 22.8%.

Norway has the lowest child poverty rate, at 5.3% (down from 9.6% in 2008), and Greece has the highest, at 40.5% (up from 23% in 2008). Latvia and Spain also have child poverty rates above 36%. In the US, the rate is 32%.

“In the past five years, rising numbers of children and their families have experienced difficulty in satisfying their most basic material and educational needs,” says the report. “Unemployment rates not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s have left many families unable to provide the care, protection and opportunities to which children are entitled. Most importantly, the Great Recession is about to trap a generation of educated and capable youth in a limbo of unmet expectations and lasting vulnerability.”

It adds: “The impact of the recession on children, in particular, will be felt long after the recession itself is declared to be over.”

The study’s authors asked people about their experiences and perceptions of deprivation, based on four indicators: not having enough money to buy food for themselves or their family; stress levels; overall life satisfaction; and whether children have the opportunity to learn and grow.

In 18 of the 41 countries, scores showed a worsening situation between 2007 and 2013, revealing “rising feelings of insecurity and stress”.

The percentage of households with children unable to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or a vegetable equivalent every second day more than doubled in four European countries – Estonia (to 10%), Greece (18%), Iceland (6%) and Italy (16%).

Material deprivation and stress affected parents’ relationships with their children, the report for the UN’s agency found. “Lower levels of consumer confidence are associated with increased levels of high-frequency spanking, a parenting behaviour that is associated with greater likelihood of being contacted by child protective services.”

Young adults have arguably been the hardest hit by the recession, according to the report, with 7.5 million within the EU not in education, employment or training (Neet) – nearly a million more than in 2008.

Israel had the highest Neet rate, with 30.7%, but this was a marginal increase on 2008. The biggest absolute increases were in Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Romania. In contrast, Turkey’s Neet rate fell from 37% in 2008 to 25.5% in 2013 – still the second-highest rate.

“Even when unemployment or inactivity decreases, that does not mean that young people are finding stable, reasonably paid jobs. The number of 15- to 24-year-olds in part-time work or who are underemployed has tripled on average in countries more exposed to the recession,” the report says.

Many countries responded to the recession by adopting economic stimulus packages and pushing up public spending, it points out. “Governments that bolstered existing public institutions and programmes helped to buffer countless children from the crisis – a strategy others may consider adopting.”

The report concludes: “The problems have not ended for children and their families, and it may well take years for many of them to return to pre-crisis levels of wellbeing. Failing to respond boldly could pose long-term risks.”

How To Get Rid Of Dark Underarms

Dark coloration of the skin in the underarms region is usually not a disease or medical condition. Dark underarms can be thought of as the skin’s response to exposure to certain elements, similar to a suntan that results from exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

Some of the main causes of dark underarms are shaving, regular use of hair removing creams, excessive sweating, poor ventilation of underarms, accumulation of dead skin cells, and use of alcohol-based deodorants and antiperspirants.

You can easily get rid of dark underarms using simple home remedies that are safe, effective, natural and affordable.

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How to Get Rid of Dark Underarms by Thavam Ratna

SRI LANKA: Mass poster campaign launched against commemoration of enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka.

(Hong Kong, October 27, 2014)

Every year on the 27^th of October a commemoration of the enforced disappearances is held at the Raddoluwa junction in Seeduwa, in the front of the monument for the victims of enforced disappearances. On this day, parents, brothers, sisters, and other relatives and friends of the disappeared person gather at the monument, and several events are held to commemorate the loss of their loved ones.

These events include the placing of flowers before the wall where the photographs of over 600 disappeared persons are exhibited. It has always been a very emotional moment when mothers, fathers, relatives, and friends place flowers and say their prayers before the images of their loved ones. Other events held are religious ceremonies conducted by Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim clergy, according to the respective religious traditions of those disappeared. In line with local traditiondhana (alms) are offered to a number of Buddhist monks from nearby temples.

Different pieces ofaudio-video footage are shown to remember the tragedy faced by these disappeared persons. Many speakers attend the events to express their solidarity with the families of the disappeared and to support their call for investigations and justice regarding these disappearances. The monument for the disappeared persons was erected in the year 2000. This commemoration event has been held continuously during the last 14 years, receiving considerable coverage in the media.

Among the persons who have spoken at this commemoration in the past is incumbent President MahindaRajapaksa, who has supported the event and promised support for demand for justice by the families of the disappeared. Other guests have included many well-known politicians from all spectrums of political life in Sri Lanka, as well as intellectuals and persons committed to the pursuit of human rights in Sri Lanka. Among the guests for this year's commemoration is Victor Ivan a well-known journalist, and an Editor of the highly respected newspaper Ravaya.

While the event is being advertised, a poster has been exhibited in Negombo, Colombo, and many other parts of the country, attacking the commemoration as a work of "dollar crows". These posters have photographs of Victor Ivan, Brito Fernando (who has been a founder member of the families of the disappeared and a spokesman for this cause), Phillip Dissanayake (also a founder member of the group), and five other persons who have appeared as guests at previous commemorations or have actively supported this commemoration.

This poster does not carry the names of those responsible for itscreation and publication. Therefore, under Sri Lanka's law this is an illegal poster. However, the law enforcement authorities have allowed the posters to be exhibited and have not taken any action against persons who are responsible for the publication and pasting of these illegal posters.

On behalf of the families of the disappeared persons, complaints have been made to the Inspector General of Police and also to all the nearby police stations, to investigate the matter and provide protection for the holding of this commemoration. The organizers also fear that those responsible for the publication of this illegal poster have done so with the purpose of disrupting the commemoration. They fear that there maybe attempts to disrupt the commemorative activities, which are set to take place throughout the day on 27^thOctober 2014, i.e. today.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns this shameful attempt to discredit and disrupt a commemorative meeting by the families who have suffered due to enforced disappearances of their family members. Under international law, causing of enforced disappearances is a heinous crime.

Regarding such disappearances, which have taken place in the South as well as the North and East of the country, it is the government security forces that have been perceived as the perpetrators. The government has publicly undertaken the responsibility of investigating the enforced disappearances and has also appointed various commissions for this purpose. However, it is a secret agency, either directly controlled by the Ministry of Defense or working under its patronage that is likely to have conducted this massive pasting of the posters against those promoting the commemoration on behalf of the families of the disappeared.

The AHRC asks everyone to intervene to protect the rights of citizens to express their sympathies and condolences to those who have been unjustly and illegally destroyed by way of enforced disappearances. If, even the basic right to mourn for the loss of their loved ones is attacked, then there can hardly be any space for the protection of the freedom of expression of the people.

This attack, by way of publicly exhibiting the posters of those concerned with the plight of their fellow men and women and labeling them as "dollar crows", needs to be condemned as a barbaric attack. Attacking the commemoration of the dead is an attack on civilization itself.

While calling upon the government to investigate and take legal action against those responsible for the illegal posters, the AHRC also urges the government to protect this commemorative meeting.

The AHRC also wishes to bring this attack to the attention of all international agencies, including all governments, and all of them are urged to intervene at this stage so that such actions will not be repeated and the democratic rights of the people will be respected and protected by the government.

Man arrested by TID officers for distributing UN inquiry forms lost family in 2009
27 October 2014
The man arrested by Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) officers on October 24 in Kilinochchi for distributing evidence collection forms for the OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL), has been identified as a victim of war crimes.

Sinnathampi Kirishnarajah

The man, Sinnathampi Kirishnarajah, was a father of six children from Mulankaavil, in the Mullaitivu district, but lost his family in the final stage of the armed conflict in 2009, sources in Mullaitivu told Tamil Guardian.

He was arrested and charged over the documents in his possession and his attempt to distribute these within the village, and taken to Vavuniya northern TID head office for further questioning. 

Following the loss of his own family, Kirishnarajah had taken part in many demonstrations and protests seeking justice for those who were massacred by the Sri Lankan state forces.

He previously lived in Iranaimaatha Nagar, a transition village of Iranaitheevu Island on the west coast of Mullaitivu, however he was evicted in 1990, following the Sri Lankan navy occupation. 

Rajapakse Ancestry: Rajapaksa's are born Catholics of Malaccan origin..!

(Lanka-e-News -27.Oct.2014, 10.00PM) Rajapaksa is a 'name' that the British Raj gave to people that did a good job in Negombo/ Seeduwa area, close to Katunayake. 

The same way the British did, give fancy names to people in the Hill country and South, that did a good job!

Rajapaksa's are born Catholics of Malaccan origin (this explains the strong 'gob looking' Mongoloid phenotype features in all of them).

Rajapakse Ancestry Rajapaksa's Are Born Catholics of Malaccan Origin..! by Thavam Ratna