Enraged Protesters Burn Down State Assembly In Mexico

Demonstrators set fire to the local legislature building on Wednesday in the capital of the southwestern state of Guerrero in protests over the apparent massacre of 43 students by corrupt police and thugs from drug gangs, The Times of India reports.

Violent demonstrations rocked several other states, where protesters blocked an airport and damaged the local office of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

In Guerrero’s capital of Chilpancingo, members of a teachers union set fire to the session hall in the state assembly building while also torching several cars outside.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze and no injuries were reported. Protesters also set a fire at administrative offices of the state’s education department.

Anger has intensified in Mexico since Attorney General Jesus Murillo said last week that evidence suggests 43 missing trainee teachers were murdered by gangsters, incinerated in a bonfire at a garbage dump and their ashes thrown in a river.

The students were abducted by corrupt police in September, Murillo said.

New Reports - Police have killed 11,000 Brazilians in five years

Brazilian police commandos stand by before being deployed as security for the presidential run-off election. Getty Images 

Brazilian police killed more than 11,000 people between 2009 and 2013 for an average of six killings a day, a public safety NGO said Tuesday.

The study by the Sao Paulo-based Brazilian Forum on Public Safety said police nationwide killed 11,197 people over the past five years, while law enforcement agents in the United States killed 11,090 people over the past 30 years.

“The empirical evidence shows that Brazilian police make abusive use of lethal force to respond to crime and violence,” the report said.

Mexican Iguala Mayor & Wife Arrested For Massacre Of 43 Students Who Went Missing In September

Jose Luis Abarca, who was previously mayor of Iguala, and his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda have been arrested after suspecting they had a link in the massacre of 43 students who went missing in September, in Mexixo.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo, the legal practitioner handling the matter said yesterday that three detainees have revealed that they set fire to the group - some of whom were still alive - at a rubbish dump near Iguala in the state of Guerrero, close to where the students actually went missing.

More investigations also revealed that the former mayor and his wife who have been on the run before their arrest on Monday actually ordered that the students be killed.  

According to reports, Pineda demanded that police arrest the students when they threatened to ruin a party she was having, and once the police had the students they were then handed over to the gang members who then murdered them. Prior to this the police also opened fire on the group, killing several before the bodies were burned.

What's worse, the students had no intention of disrupting Pineda's speech, but were merely travelling through the town on buses they'd hired to take them to Mexico City for a remembrance service in honor of students massacred there in 1968.

8 bootylicious women made it to Miss Butt Brazil finals

Here are the finalists of Miss Butt Brazil 2014. After weeks of voting, 8 bootylicious women came out tops out of the 27 contestants and on November 6th, the finalists took to the beach for a photo shoot to show off their assets. The pageant will hold this November and the winner will go home $22,000.

See more photos after the cut...

OMG! Mexican mayor and wife 'masterminded' the disappearance of 43 students

Demonstrators march in protest over the disappearance of 43 students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college, in Mexico City, Wednesday. Mexican authorities ordered the arrest of the mayor of the city of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, his wife and an aide, charging them with masterminding last month's attack that left six students dead and 43 missing. AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

E. Eduardo Castillo, Mark Stevenson, Associated Press
Officials say a Mexican mayor and his wife likely “masterminded” the disappearance of 43 student protesters.

They added that a drug gang implicated in the crime essentially ran the southern city, paying the mayor hundreds of thousands of dollars a month out of its profits from making opium paste to fuel the U.S. heroin market.

The statements painted the fullest picture yet of the control that is exercised by gangs over a broad swath of Mexico’s hot lands in Guerrero state. The Guerreros Unidos cartel’s deep connections with local officials in the city of Iguala came to a head Sept. 26 when the mayor ordered municipal police to detain protesting students, who were then turned over to the drug gang.

Since then, Mexican authorities have mounted wide-ranging searches for the students, spurred by increasingly violent demonstrations that included the burning of Iguala’s city hall by protesters Wednesday. The case also has drawn international attention, and people in several Latin American nations staged vigils for the missing young people during the day.

OMG! Mexican drug cartel tracks down journalist, killed her and hack her Twitter account to boast about it

A journalist named Dr María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio from Reynosa, Mexico, who spoke out against organised crime in her city was tracked down and brutally killed by Mexican drug cartel who then hacked into her twitter account and used it to announce her death and then posted a photo of her bloody, lifeless body.

The cruel pic was accompanied by a series of tweets, which started by saying: 'Friends and family, my real name is María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio. I am a physician. Today my life has reached its end. Do not make the same mistake I did.' 

From UK Daily Mail

She was known for tweeting under the name Felina and @Miut3 handle with the hashtag #reynosafollow to warn others about crime in her city, which has a reputation for corruption.

Battle Royale | LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers Reunion With Miami Heats

LeBron James drives past the Miami Heat's Luol Deng during the Cleveland Cavaliers' preseason game in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP photo)

Joe Vardon, Northeast Ohio Media Group 

Long before each game, prior to the two teams coming out for layup drills, LeBron James likes to get onto the floor for some early shooting. Most NBA players do.

It didn't happen for James Saturday night, keeping intact the theme of James' week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Not much happened for James here.

"For me I don't think I have personally found my rhythm, but that's kind of secondary for me right now," James said.

James' Cleveland Cavaliers outlasted the Miami Heat 122-119 in overtime of a preseason game at Rio's HSBC Arena. The fizzling for James came in two parts -- his on-floor performance against his old team, and the drama that was supposed to unfold surrounding his reunion with his old team.

First, the basketball.

James was wrapping his back and knees in ice with one minute left in the third quarter, done for the night with seven points and eight assists.

Colombian Woman Hospitalized After She Used Potato as Contraceptive

A 22-year-old Colombian woman used a potato as a contraceptive, and was hospitalized after it began to germinate and grow roots inside her.

The woman’s mother advised her to use the potato as a technique to prevent pregnancy, Daily Mail reports.

After the woman complained about severe stomach discomfort, she was taken to the hospital where doctors discovered the potato.

“My mum told me that if I didn’t want to get pregnant, I should put a potato up there, and I believed her,” she said.

OMG! Teenage girl left disfigured after 'jealous rivals mutilate her for being too pretty'

15 year old Argentinian Julia Alvarez was left disfigured after two jealous girls slashed her face with knives because she was 'too pretty'. The two girls, who are sisters, have since been arrested. Julia later told police the girls said they wanted to make her look like horror movie character, Chucky.

Julia said she was walking home in the town of Juan Domingo Peron, in the northern Argentinian province of Formosa, when the girls aged 18 and 16 attacked her without any provocation.

"Everyone says you are pretty. You won't look pretty when we have finished with you. People will call you Chucky." - Julia claims this is what the girls told her before slashing her face...

After the attack on her face and other parts of her body, the two sisters ran away and left her in the pool of her own blood. She was rushed to the hospital by passers-by.

Brazilian prisoners behead two inmates during riot

 

Rioting prisoners in Brazil have decapitated two inmates and are using their severed heads to threaten two prison wardens they have taken hostage, The Guardian reports.

 

At least four people are thought to have died in disturbances at the Cascavel state penitentiary in Parana state, which has highlighted the brutal conditions inside the country’s prisons.

 

According to the authorities, about 700 inmates have taken part in the uprising, which began on Sunday morning when two guards were taken captive while they were serving breakfast.

 

The prisoners then ran amok, storming other areas of the facility and climbing on to the roof where – wearing balaclavas – they burned mattresses and ran up the flag of the First Capital Command criminal organisation.

 

Two prisoners were beheaded and two thrown off the roof.

 

The rebels are demanding an end to strip-searches and shackles, a relaxation of visiting arrangements, better food and more dialogue with the authorities over how the facility is run.

 

“They are using the severed head of one of the prisoners to inflict psychological torture on one of the hostages,” Jairo Ferreira, lawyer for the prison agents’ union, told the Gazeta do Povo newspaper. “There are scenes of terror inside the jail now.”

 

Gang leaders often hold court in Brazil’s prison system. Earlier this year authorities in the northern state of Maranhão released mobile phone footage of three bodies that were decapitated during a riot at the Pedrinhas prison last December. In 2013 at least 60 inmates were killed there – often during clashes between rival gangs.

Utterly Bizarre! Brazilian man born with his head upside-down

A man born with physical disabilities so severe his head is Upside-down has defied the odds to become an inspirational public speaker.

Claudio Vieira de Oliveira, 37, was born with his neck folded back on itself, as well as badly deformed legs and almost no use of his arms and hands. Doctors told his mother to stop feeding him as a newborn as they believed he had no chance of survival. But Claudio from Monte Santo, Brazil, has overcome his extreme disadvantages to graduate as an accountant and become a public speaker.

"Since I was a child I've always liked to keep myself busy and work - I don't like to depend totally on other people. I do a bit of accounting, research for clients and consulting. I have learned to turn on the TV, pick up my cell phone, turn on the radio, use the internet, my computer - I do it all by myself." he said.

Photo - How We Cross Border In Mexico

Central American migrants rest on the roof of a moving freight train as it heads north from Arriaga toward Chahuites, Mexico. A crackdown by the Mexican authorities seems to be keeping women and children off the deadly train, known as 'the beast', that has traditionally helped thousands of migrants head north

 

Miley Cyrus Gets Booted From Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic government commission that oversees public performances is banning a Sept. 13 concert by Miley Cyrus on morality grounds.

The commission said in a statement Thursday it took the action because Cyrus often, in its words, “undertakes acts that go against morals and customs, which are punishable by Dominican law.”

Tickets ranging from $27 to $370 for the concert in the capital have been on sale since July.

Some critics have declared Cyrus’ onstage antics, including twerking and crotch-grabbing, as vulgar.
A representative for Cyrus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Concert organizers in the Dominican Republic did not comment on the ban.

The commission in the past has banned songs it considers vulgar from the airwaves, including some by Calle 13 of Puerto Rico.

Argentina Car Crushed to Death Three Relatives of Pope Francis

Three relatives of Pope Francis died and a fourth was in serious condition Tuesday after their car crashed on a provincial highway in Argentina, the Vatican and local officials said.

The small car carrying a nephew of the pope along with the man's wife and two young children slammed into the back of a truck, Highway Police Superintendent Jorge Raineri said. The crash killed the wife and children, one 2 years old and the other 8 months.

The passenger side of the car was smashed and crumpled beneath the cargo truck.

Emanuel Bergoglio, the 38-year-old son of a brother of Pope Francis, was hospitalized. He suffered extensive injuries and was in serious condition in the hours after the pre-dawn crash, Ignacio Bruno, an assistant director of the hospital in the town of Villa Maria, told Todo Noticias television.

The man's 36-year-old wife, Valeria Carmona, and youngest child, Jose, died in the accident. Two-year-old Antonio died at the hospital, Bruno said.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said: "The pope was informed about the tragic accident. He is profoundly saddened." He added that the pope asks "all who share in his grief to unite with him in prayer."

Argentinian grandmother finds ‘stolen grandson’ after 36 years

The founder of Argentina’s leading human rights group has found her grandson, who was taken from her daughter while she was a prisoner of the military dictatorship in the 1970s. A DNA test solved the mystery, one of many from the “dirty war” era.

 

An emotional Estela Barnes de Carlotto, founder of the “Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo”, announced that her long hunt had ended.

 

“Thanks to God, thanks to life, because I didn’t want to die without embracing him and soon I will be able to,” the 83-year-old grandmother said at a news conference covered live on national TV. She has not yet met him.

 

The now 36-year-old man came forward to have a DNA test taken and have the sample compared in a national database because he had doubts about his own identity, said Guido Carlotto, a son of de Carlotto and the human rights secretary for the Buenos Aires Province.

 

The family didn’t release the man’s name, but Argentine media identified him as Ignacio Hurban, a pianist and composer who is director of a music school in the city of Olavarria, southwest of Buenos Aires.

 

“The empty picture frames will have his picture,” Estela Barnes de Carlotto told France 24.  “I’ve seen his (photo), it’s beautiful, he’s an artist, he’s a good guy and he searched for me, he searched for me.

 

“He achieved what the grandmothers have said, they (the victims) will find us like we have found them. He came to the grandmothers, he was received, he went to CONADI (the identity commission) and was received and listened to and today they told me he’s my grandson with a 99.999999% (probability).”

 

Son of an executed activist

De Carlotto said the test revealed the man is the son of Laura Carlotto, a university student activist who was executed in August 1978 two months after she gave birth while being held under the dictatorship’s brutal campaign against guerrillas and other opponents of the regime.

 

The announcement was major news in Argentina, drowning out coverage of the recent default forced on the country by a legal dispute with US investors.

Argentina in Deep Waters Again As Economy Faces Recess

People in Buenos Aires walk past a sign saying: 'Together we will fight against the loan shark vultures' [AP]

Talks in New York aimed at averting Argentina's second default in 13 years have ended with bitter recriminations as Buenos Aires said it could not accept a deal with US hedge fund creditors it dismisses as "vultures".

Court-appointed mediator Daniel Pollack said the failure triggered an imminent default that, among other things, would hurt the Argentine economy as well as bondholders who were not part of the dispute.

"The full consequences of default are not predictable, but they are certainly not positive," Pollack said.

A US court ruling previously blocked Argentina from making $539m in interest payments, due by midnight on Wednesday, to the majority of bondholders until a deal with the hedge fund creditors was reached.

The hedge funds reject the restructuring accepted by 93 percent of bondholders and are demanding a full payout of $1.5bn on bonds they hold.

Cristina Fernandez, Argentina's president, had long refused to negotiate with the hedge funds, calling them "vultures" for picking on the carcass of the country's record $100bn default in 2001.

There was no immediate comment from the hedge funds.

Brazil sacks WorldCup coach Luiz Felipe Scolari after disastrous results

Fourth place in the World Cup: not bad. Fourth place in the World Cup after consecutive embarrassing losses as the host nation and favorite to win: cause for change.

Several Brazilian outlets, including Globo TV, have reported that Brazil manager Luiz Felipe Scolari will not be retained as head coach and an official announcement will come later Monday. According to the Associated Press, a Brazilian soccer official confirmed reports that Scolari will not return as coach. His contract was due to expire later this summer.

Reports are conflicting as to whether Scolari resigned or was fired. After his side's loss to the Netherlands Saturday, though, Scolari said that he would leave the decision of his future to Brazil's soccer officials.

It was a disastrous end to the World Cup for Brazil, who reached the semifinals after winning Group A. But Neymar, the team's clear top player, was injured in the quarterfinals and lost for the remainder of the tournament. Eventual champion Germany then beat Brazil 7-1, before the Netherlands smoked the Brazilians 3-0 in the consolation game.

Scolari led Brazil to its last World Cup title in 2002, but he resigned shortly thereafter. He returned in 2012, and won the 2013 Confederations Cup, beating Uruguay and defending World Cup champion Spain in consecutive matches.

CBS

WorldCup Final Preview: Best of Europe Vs. Best of South America

    

     
      

WSJ-  After four years and hundreds of qualification matches—plus 63 games of some import here in Brazil—it will come to this: Germany vs. Argentina, the best of Europe against the best of South America, playing the World Cup final in a continent where a European team has never won.

 

It's the world's best national team against the planet's best player, a three-time champion against a two-time winner.

 

So who is going to win?

 

It's nearly impossible to make an argument against Germany, especially after the Germans pummeled host Brazil into submission Tuesday in the semifinal. They have scored 17 goals in six matches, five more than any other team. They score once every 34 minutes, a rate that is double the average at this tournament. They score one goal for every 5.2 attempts on the net. The average for teams here has been one goal every 9.8 attempts.

 

Argentina's Lionel Messi Getty Images

           

In Miroslav Klose, the Germans have the all-time leading scorer at the World Cup. He is supposed to be over the hill at 36 years old. Instead he has two goals in four matches and seems as dangerous as ever.

What makes the Germans particularly frightening is that other than a 15- minute stretch against Ghana in the second group game, when they lost a lead and had to scramble for a draw, they have shown they can win playing whatever style they want.

 

Plan A with the Germans is to press relentlessly and attack. When they give up the ball they try to win it back within the first four seconds, then counter at warp speed, with their fullbacks like Philipp Lahm, sprinting forward to overwhelm the opponent. 

World's Most Powerful Drug Lord "El Chapo" Guzman Captured

The World's Most Powerful Drug Lord "El Chapo" Guzman, Leader Of The Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, Captured By The DEA! (His Yearly Revenues Rumored To Exceed $3 Billion)

 

President Santos wins Colombia's presidential vote For Second Term

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has won a second term, beating right-wing challenger Oscar Ivan Zuluaga in a vote that will allow peace talks with FARC rebels to continue and seek an end to five decades of war.

With more than 98 percent of the runoff vote counted on Sunday, centre-right Santos led over economist Zuluaga with 50.8 percent compared with 45.1 percent.

Santos, who hails from one of the country's most influential families, opened talks with rebel leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in late 2012 to end a conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and forced millions more from their homes.

He made the pursuit of peace the centrepiece of his campaign, and cast the election as a choice between peace and war.

"This is the end of more than 50 years of violence in our country and it is the beginning of a Colombia with more justice and social inclusion,'' Santos told cheering supporters in his victory speech. He vowed to "dedicate all my energies and all the energies of my government" to sealing an accord