British police arrest 2nd suspect over prostitute murders

LONDON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The police arrested a second suspect on Tuesday morning over the murders of five prostitutes in Suffolk, southeast Britain.

A 48-year-old man has been arrested at 5 a.m. at his home in the red light district of Ipswich, where five sex workers used to pry their trade, Sky news reported.


Tom Stephens, a 37-year-old worker with Tesco, the super market, was arrested on Monday by police at his home, southeast of Ipswich where the naked bodies of the women were found.

Stephens, who is now in custody at a Suffolk police station, reportedly told Sunday Mirror on Sunday that he knew all the girls well.


So far there have been no comments on Stephens' arrest. He will be detained for 24 hours and can be held for a further 12 hours with permission from a superintendent and up to 96 hours with permission from the courts.

The naked bodies of five sex workers from Suffolk, aged from 19 to 29, were found in early December in rural areas within 16 km of Ipswich. They were all drug-users.

A total of 412 detectives have been deployed from 36 forces across the country, the biggest ever for a murder investigation.

Darfur militias 'kill children'

Militias backing Sudan's government have killed at least 63 people in attacks in Darfur in the past week, African peacekeepers say.

At least 27 of the victims are thought to be children under the age of 12.

The attacks were carried on camps for the displaced in the rebel stronghold of Jebel Moon, in West Darfur.

The government says it is disarming the Janjaweed militia but a BBC correspondent in Sudan says all the evidence points to the exact opposite.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Sudanese government to restrain the militias following the attacks.

Terrified

Militia wearing government uniforms, on camels and horseback, swept into eight villages and camps in Jebel Moon on 29 October.

The African Union (AU) investigation team has just returned from the area to make its report.

The area is a stronghold of the National Redemption Front (NRF) alliance, one of the Darfur rebel group which refused to sign up to a peace deal in May.

"The government have begun mobilising the Janjaweed widely, especially in West Darfur, because they want to clear the area and move north along the border and defeat us," said the NRF's Bahr Idriss Abu Garda.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Darfur says that all along the long border with Chad, villagers are fleeing terrified as the Janjaweed aggressively take up positions in key towns.

Three years ago, at the start of the Darfur crisis, the Janjaweed cleared hundreds of villages, displacing more than two million people.

With morale in the Sudanese army reported to be low, Khartoum seems to have turned once again to their most brutal of allies, our correspondent says.

Some 200,000 people have died in Darfur, with the Arab Janjaweed accused of ethnic cleansing against black Africans.

Sudan's government says the scale of the problems has been exaggerated and resists plans for the United Nations to take over the peacekeeping force from the AU.

Stop the genocide

Our position: It would be outrageous for the U.N. not to intervene in Darfur.
Posted October 30, 2006

The government of Sudan is widely believed to be behind the genocide in the country's Darfur region that has claimed more than 200,000 lives and driven millions from their homes. Yet even with a new surge in violence, the United Nations is still waiting for permission from that same government to deploy a peacekeeping force to stop the killing. No wonder some critics of the United Nations consider it worthless.

It's way past time for the U.N. Security Council to dispatch the peacekeepers, whether or not Sudan's leaders agree.

U.N. intervention in a country against its wishes should be reserved for exceptional cases. But genocide more than meets that standard.

For three years, Arab militias backed by Sudan's government have looted, burned, raped and murdered their way through black African villages in Darfur to suppress a rebellion in the region. Two years ago, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell correctly labeled it genocide. A recent report from the United Nations itself concluded, "Government knowledge, if not complicity, in the attacks is almost certain."

A 7,000-troop African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur has been unable to stop the violence. That force lacks the manpower, equipment and mandate.

Now, amid recent gains by the rebels, Sudan's government is vowing a new offensive to crush them. Last week, the government kicked out the United Nations' top envoy in the country. And Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, also threatened to expel humanitarian relief groups and foreign media from Darfur. Hundreds of thousands more lives are in peril.

The Security Council passed a resolution in late August calling for a 22,000-troop U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the smaller African Union force in Darfur. Ideally, African and Arab countries would supply the manpower.

The presence of U.S. and European troops in yet another Muslim country could ignite opposition that would hamper a peacekeeping mission. But the United States and its European allies can work through NATO to provide logistical support for the U.N. force and take other steps to assist it, such as establishing a no-fly zone over Darfur.

If the United States and other council members are committed to ending the nightmare in Darfur, they will apply all their diplomatic leverage to overcoming opposition to intervention from China and other apologists for Sudan.

A little more than a decade ago, the United Nations failed to stop a genocidal rampage in Rwanda that left hundreds of thousands of people dead. A U.N. refusal to intervene in Darfur would deal another crushing blow to its credibility, and confirm the harshest views of its critics.

China faces suspicions about organ harvesting

By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

A pair of human rights activists are charging that "a crime against humanity" is happening on a large scale in China. Members of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned by the Chinese government since 1999, are being "in effect, murdered for their organs," which are being sold to buyers from China and abroad, says David Kilgour, a former member of the Canadian Parliament and coauthor of the report.

Mr. Kilgour and his partner, Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, are now traveling the world speaking with governments and professional and human rights organizations urging further investigation of the allegations. Early last month, the pair released a report laying out details of an investigation they undertook on behalf of a Falun Gong support group, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China.

"Ideally, we would like to pursue further research before we come to any firm conclusions," the two conceded, while noting the difficulty in obtaining accurate information within the closed society of the People's Republic of China.

But while the evidence may not persuade everyone who reads their report, it is strong enough in their minds to render a verdict. "Based on what we now know, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true," the report says. "We believe that there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."

The source of some 41,500 organ transplants in China in the years 2000 through 2005 remains unexplained, leading to the possibility that they may be the result of the execution of Falun Gong members, the report says.

The Chinese government "since 1999 have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience," the report alleges. Their vital organs were seized involuntarily "for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries."

The Falun Gong movement, whose guiding principles are truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, was founded in China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, who now lives in the United States. Its philosophies incorporate ideas from Buddhism and Taoism and include slow-motion meditative exercises. Falun Gong is generally seen as a peaceful and law-abiding movement outside China, but within its borders it is officially deemed a dangerous cult. For several years, Falun Gong followers around the world have been actively protesting the treatment of the movement's adherents inside China.

The Chinese Embassy in Canada issued a reply to the Kilgour-Matas report July 6, the same day the report was released. China abides by World Health Organization principles that prohibit the sale of human organs and require written voluntary consent from donors, the statement said. "It is obvious that their purpose is to smear China's image," the statement continues. "[T]he so-called 'independent investigation report' made by a few Canadians based on rumors and false allegations is groundless and biased."

In a phone call, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Li Jianhua, also called the allegations "totally fake" and said the Chinese government had already investigated the claims and found them meritless.

But by immediately dismissing their report "out of hand," Kilgour and Mr. Matas said in a reply, the Chinese government has admitted that it has conducted "no investigations to determine whether or not what the report contains is true."

Whether the organ harvesting - taking corneas, livers, hearts, and kidneys for transplantation - is being done as part of the official crackdown on Falun Gong or simply as the result of local corruption in prisons and hospitals around China is not clear, Matas says, and may be a result of both motives. China has a history of harvesting organs from executed prisoners, he says. The number of Falun Gong prisoners in China remains a mystery outside China. The Falun Gong "are completely defenseless in prison: unidentified, no protectors," Matas says. "They become an easy victim for this form of greed."

The Kilgour-Matas report "makes a very convincing case," says Kirk Allison, associate director of the Program in Human Rights and Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He says academic journals and conferences now should take an ethical stand to reject papers and presentations from authors who rely on data derived from transplantations performed in China.

"Given the evidence at hand, international transplant patients who obtain organs in China do so at the cost of benefiting from, and tacitly supporting, the continuance of an ongoing lethal violation of human dignity and human rights," Dr. Allison said in a published statement circulated at the World Transplantation Congress in Boston last week. "Prospective patients should be informed of this fact and actively discouraged from pursing this avenue of treatment."

Kilgour took on the Falun Gong project last spring after retiring from the Canadian Parliament, where he had been elected as a member since 1979. Neither he nor Matas are Falun Gong practitioners.

In March, the Chinese government announced that a new law, to take effect July 1, would ban sales of human organs and require that donors give written permission for their organs to be transplanted. But, according to Kilgour, the fact that a new law was passed "highlights the fact that there is no such legislation in place now."

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

Joseph Kony

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), formed in 1987, is a rebel paramilitary group operating mainly in northern Uganda. The group is engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government in what is now one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself a spirit medium, and apparently wishes to establish a state based on his unique interpretation of Biblical millenarianism. The LRA have been accused of widespread human rights violations, including mutilation, torture, rape, the abduction of civilians, the use of child soldiers and a number of massacres.

LILIANA LUCERO MERCADO GONZALEZ - Wanted

LILIANA LUCERO MERCADO GONZALEZ
FOREIGN POLICE COOPERATION - FELONIOUS HOMICIDE


Liliana Lucero Mercado Gonzalez and her husband, Francisco Javier Lopez Gonzalez, are wanted for murder. On November 12, 1999, in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico, the body of an unidentified male child, approximately 4 years old, was discovered in a trash container. The body appeared badly beaten and it was reported that the boy had suffered physical abuse his entire life. The unidentified child was dubbed by the news media as the "Nino del Contendor," which from Spanish translates to "the container boy". In June of 2001, it was determined that the unidentified victim was the son of Liliana Lucero Mercado Gonzalez and the stepson of Francisco Javier Lopez Gonzalez.

On July 2, 2002, a state arrest warrant was issued by the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico, after charging Liliana Lucero Mercado Gonzalez with felonious homicide.

Principal Shot at Wis. High School Dies

Sep 29, 5:50 PM (ET)

By TODD RICHMOND

CAZENOVIA, Wis. (AP) - A teenager brought two guns to his rural school and shot the principal to death Friday after a struggle with adults and other students, authorities said.

The 15-year-old was taken into custody and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, the district attorney said. No one else was hurt.

It was not clear why the student opened fire or if Weston Schools Principal John Klang was the intended target, Sheriff Randy Stammen said.

Witnesses said the student walked in with a shotgun before classes began. A custodian, teachers and students wrestled with him, but he broke through, took out a handgun and shot Klang three times, Stammen said.

The custodian said the teen was a special-education student who told him he was there to kill someone, but did not say who.

"He was calm, but he was on a mission," said Dave Thompson, 43, who also has two children at the school.

Sophomore Shelly Rupp, 16, described the boy as a freshman with few friends and said he was "just weird in the head."

"He always used to kid around about bringing things to school and hurting kids," she said at a gas station nearby where students and townspeople gathered.

Thompson said the student first pointed a shotgun in a teacher's face. Thompson grabbed away the gun, but the student then appeared to be reaching for another gun, so Thompson and the teacher took cover. Thompson then ran into a kitchen to call 911.

Junior Timmy Donovan said the student "pulled a .22 pistol out of his pants, and then started shooting the principal. And at that point, I guess the principal ran and tackled him to the ground."

Klang, 49, was shot in the head, chest and leg, authorities said. He died hours later at a hospital in Madison.

The student, identified as Eric Hainstock, could get life in prison if convicted, District Attorney Patricia Barrett said. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty.

Children from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade attend the small school near Cazenovia, a community of about 300 people about 60 miles northwest of Madison.

The shooting took place two days after a gunman took six students hostage in a Colorado high school and killed one of them before committing suicide.

Laurie Rhea, 42, said the principal spent last weekend at the gas station washing cars for a homecoming fundraiser.

"All the kids just loved him," she said.

The shooting happened as the school was preparing for homecoming weekend. The homecoming parade, football game and dance were canceled or postponed.

---

The Perverse Side of Things

"The Perverse Side of Things"
Torture, Inadequate Detention Conditions, and Excessive Use of Force by Guinean Security Forces

pdf file of report

Student organizes drive to save Darfur

By Cate Biggs, Associate News Editor, cbiggs@smu.edu

August 31, 2006

The Darfur genocide has been a horrifying reality in Sudan that has called SMU student, Denver Nicks, to action. Nicks has created a committee through Students For A Better Society that will attempt to raise awareness about the Darfur situation and help stop the genocide.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 after the Sudanese government used armed militias to begin a scorched earth campaign, as well as militia attacks that have led to countless human rights violations.

The situation is only worsening thanks to state-sponsored violence, lack of humanitarian aid, famine, starvation, disease and a program of systematic rape of African women.

With more than 3.5 million people starving, 2.5 million displaced due to the extreme violence, and more than 400.000 dead, one SMU student has decided to take a stand.

Nicks first became involved with the Darfur genocide when a friend from another university began a campaign and sparked Nicks’ interest. His involvement began by simply wearing his “Save Darfur” t-shirts and bracelet, but Nicks wanted to take a more hands-on approach. The grim situation made him want to take the campaign to the SMU student body to raise more awareness for the cause.

This summer Nicks attended a conference in Washington D.C. on student activism in Darfur, which furthered his drive to become more closely involved with the campaign to end the genocide.

Nicks will conduct a meeting on Thursday, Aug. 31, at 5 p.m. in Hughes-Trigg Portico E to discuss the plans for the anti-genocide committee. His main objective is to raise campus awareness about the genocide in Darfur through the sale of t-shirts and fundraising. The money from fundraising will go either to the cause of raising more awareness about Darfur, or to the International Rescue Committee Fund to assist Darfur directly.

Another huge goal of the committee will be to pressure political leaders to take a stand and assist with genocide relief.

“In the state of Texas the political leaders have very low scores when it comes to assisting with the Darfur genocide. We hope to pressure them to do more to help,” stated Nicks.

All of the Texas state representatives and senators have a grade of C or below on their assistance with the Darfur genocide. Sen. John Cornyn ranks the lowest with a grade of F, while the majority of representatives have a scored a D. (www.darfurscore.org/grades/texas).

Nicks encourages anyone who is appalled by genocide and wishes to assist with the effort to attend the meeting.

“I am so excited about the campaign and anyone who is not down with genocide is more than welcome to join,” Nicks stated.

Fore more information please contact Denver Nicks at dnicks@smu.edu