Idaho Baptists Detained in Haiti: Accused of Child-Trafficking

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Saudi Court Sentences Teen Girl to Prison, Flogging

Updated: 1 hour 44 minutes ago

AP
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Jan. 24) - A teenage girl has been sentenced to a 90-lash flogging and two months in prison as punishment for assaulting a teacher, a Saudi judge said in an interview published Sunday.

Human rights group Amnesty International said the assault happened after the girl was caught with a camera phone at school.

The teenager's name was not immediately available. She could be spared with a pardon from King Abdullah, said Judge Riyadh al-Meihdib.

"The verdict was read out to her at the court and she did not object," al-Meihdib told Al-Watan, a national Saudi daily newspaper.

He said the teacher refused to forgive the girl, who will not appeal the case. Camera phones are banned at the school.

Al-Watan quoted the school headmaster describing the girl as "about twenty" years old.

However, Amnesty said the girl is 13.

In a statement Friday, the London-based rights watchdog urged Abdullah to "intervene immediately to ensure that the flogging sentence is rescinded."

"He must also take steps to reform Saudi Arabian law and criminal procedure to ban the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, in particular floggings of children," Amnesty interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone said.

Judge al-Meihdib said his court will issue instructions to local authorities in Jubail to carry out the sentence within two days.

Jubail is located on the Red Sea. Its court sentenced the teenager with the harsh punishment Tuesday.
Filed under: World, Crime




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15 Yr. Old School-Girl Shot Dead by Hatian Police / Stealing Pretty Pictures

Haiti earthquake: Schoolgirl looter Fabienne Geismar, 15, killed by a single bullet to the head for stealing a few photographs

By Liz Hazelton
Last updated at 6:22 PM on 22nd January 2010

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She lies limp on the ground, killed by a single shot to the head.


Crushed beneath her bloodied face, are the garish paintings which she paid for with her life.


But Fabienne Geismar was not one of 4,500 prisoners to escape after the Haiti earthquake broke Port-au-Prince prison apart.



Lifeless: Fabienne Geismar died after being shot by police. The pictures she had looted lie beneath her face

She was a 15-year-old girl, killed by police desperate to stop a wave of looting and lawlessness which pushes the island into deeper anarchy every day.

The sight of the dead on the streets of Port-au-Prince has become commonplace. Few bothered to even glance down at Fabienne's crumpled body, clad in a pink and grey top and pink skirt, her flimsy shoes still resting on her feet.

But even in a city rank with the stench of death, where the latest fatality toll stands at around 200,000, her family were distraught.


Her father Osam, sister Samantha and brother Jeff had watched as she was felled by a bullet in the ruins of Marthely Seiee Street. There was nothing they could do.



Later they returned with a cart to collect her body. Her mother Armante stood wailing, barely able to stand.


As the crowd watched, her 52-year-old father lifted Fabienne from the ground, her heavy limbs awkward in his arms. He laid her on the cart and then subsided in a paroxysm of grief.


It is unclear whether police deliberately aimed at looters, who had targeted properties destroyed in the earthquake, or had been firing warning shots over their heads.




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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1245364/Haiti-earthquake-Schoolgirl-looter-Fabienne-Geismar-15-killed-single-bullet-head-stealing-photographs.html

UpDate: Hatian Police Rice Murder

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Hatian "Rice Wars" - Police Shoot 1 "Looter" Dead

Police have shot two men dead for looting at a market in the Haitian capital as desperation turns to death in Port-au-Prince.

Armed gangs and escaped prisoners are at large in the flattened city adding further fear and chaos to an already overwrought situation.

As the world’s attention focuses on the earthquake ravaged Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, just 20 kilometres outside the city lies Leogane where 85 per cent of the town is now rubble.

Grim figures are beginning to emerge highlighting the sheer scale of the death and destruction to hit the Caribbean island, the western hemisphere’s poorest nation.

The fragmented Haitian government claims that around 50,000 bodies have been collected with 25,000 being ferried out and buried in recently excavated mass graves.

The number of dead stands at around 50,000 with aid agencies and the Haitian government expecting the figures to increase to around 200,000, though its admitted the true death toll may never be known.

The survivors are having to deal with the memory of the initial quake, the grief following the deaths of family and friends, hunger, thirst, a lack of medical facilities as disease looms, no security and homelessness.

Of the 9 million Haitians 1.5 million are now dispossessed and the numbers are rising.

Copyright © 2010 euronews

Tags: Earthquake in Haiti, Haiti, Security



http://www.euronews.net/2010/01/17/earthquake-in-haiti-police-shoot-looters-in-port-au-prince/

Mexican Hospital Helping to Spread HIV

HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS, NOSOCOMIAL - MEXICO: MEXICO CITY, ALERT
*********************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases


Date: Sun 9 Aug 2009
Source: Yahoo Noticias, Espanol, Associated Press [trans. Mod.MPP, edited]



The Mexican National Human Rights Commission [NHRC] requested a public
hospital to investigate the cases of 2 children who were infected with HIV
[human immunodeficiency virus], the virus that causes AIDS [acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome], on whom they performed blood transfusions in 2008.

The governmental committee asked the La Raza Hospital in Mexico City to
investigate whether there are other patients who were infected, but their
recommendations are not mandatory. According to the NHRC, the hospital
failed to comply with norms on testing, classification, and handling of blood.

On Sunday [9 Aug 2009], the commission reported that the affected patients
were a 10 year old child and an adolescent of 13 years. In addition, there
was another report of an infection identified in a relative of a person
cared for in the same hospital.

--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail

[HIV transmission by blood transfusion is rare and almost always a
consequence of laxity in the testing and handling of blood and blood
products. The precise route of transmission in this incident has yet to be
established. Further information is awaited. - Mod.CP]

[see also:
2008
---
Hepatitis B & C, HIV, nosocomial (05): USA (NV) 20081210.3882
Hepatitis B & C, HIV, nosocomial (04): USA (NV) 20080928.3073
Hepatitis B & C, HIV, nosocomial (03): USA (NV) 20080302.0854
Hepatitis B & C, HIV, nosocomial (02): USA (NV) 20080228.0809
Hepatitis B & C, HIV, nosocomial - USA: (NV), alert, RFI 20080228.0802
2007
---
HIV, nosocomial, child - Kyrgyzstan (Oshskaya) 20070805.2545
HIV, nosocomial transmission - Kazakhstan (03) 20070627.2070
HIV, nosocomial transmission - Kazakhstan (02) 20070318.0948
HIV, nosocomial transmission - Kazakhstan 20070215.0569
2006
---
HIV, nosocomial transmission - Kazakhstan (02) 20061007.2884
HIV, nosocomial transmission - Kazakhstan 20060920.2689]

....................jt/mpp/cp/msp/sh



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House Committee Rejects Amendment Closing Loophole that allows for taxpayer funded health care for illegal aliens

FAIR Legislative Update August 3, 2009


Legislative Update



Another House Committee Rejects Closing Health Coverage Loophole for Illegal Aliens
Last week, another committee in the House of Representatives had a chance to close one of the many loopholes in the House health care bill that would open up taxpayer-funded health care benefits for illegal aliens. Unfortunately, by a vote of 28 to 29, the Energy and Commerce Committee narrowly defeated an amendment offered by Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) that would close one of those loopholes. (Amendment Language and Vote Results).

Congressman Deal's amendment would have continued to require that the government verify whether someone enrolling in Medicaid is not an illegal alien. (See video of Rep. Deal explaining his amendment). Section 1702 of the House bill reads that States "shall accept without further determination the enrollment… of an individual determined… to be a non-traditional Medicaid eligible individual." Concerns have been raised about whether a "non-traditional Medicaid eligible individual" would include illegal aliens and that the prohibition against verifying eligibility contained in Section 1702 would allow illegal aliens to enroll in Medicaid. (House bill).

On a related note, one of the nation's largest retailers this week announced support for free health care for illegal aliens. While speaking at a convention of the National Council of La Raza held in Chicago, Dr. John Agwunobi, the senior vice-president who runs the Wal-Mart unit that includes the company's health clinics, stated: "We believe strongly that everyone should have access to affordable health insurance. Everyone." (WBEX Radio, July 27, 2009). In late June, the National Council of La Raza issued a statement demanding that Congress give illegal aliens taxpayer-funded health care benefits. Last week, an unidentified member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said: "We're pushing to include everyone in the health care bill. Everyone." (See FAIR's Legislative Update, July 27, 2009 and June 22, 2009).

For the past two weeks, FAIR's Legislative Update has reported on certain provisions in the House health care bill that would give away taxpayer-funded health care benefits to illegal aliens. (See FAIR's Legislative Updates, July 27, 2009 and July 20, 2009). Various media outlets have begun to highlight our work on this issue, including FOXNews, which wrote: "In a recent study, FAIR said that nothing in the health care package would prevent illegal immigrants from enrolling in a taxpayer-funded public plan, and that no verification mechanisms exist to prevent them from receiving credits to help with private plans." (FOXNews, July 30, 2009).

Audio Tape Reveals ICE Dismantling 287(g) Enforcement, Instructed Sheriff to Release Illegal Aliens
Last week, Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio released tape-recorded conversations indicating that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials had instructed his department to release thirteen illegal aliens apprehended during a law enforcement operation. Arpaio's department participates in 287(g) — a federal program that trains state and local law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The taped conversations directly contradict a previous statement from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson claiming that "the determination to release these [illegal aliens] lies solely within the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office." (East Valley Tribune, July 25, 2009; Examiner.com, July 27, 2009).

The situation between ICE and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) stemmed from a crime suppression operation conducted on Thursday, July 23 and Friday, July 24. According to Arpaio, the MCSO had identified thirteen illegal aliens on civil violations as a result of the operation. In light of a recent announcement by DHS that ICE is changing the parameters surrounding the 287(g) program (See FAIR's Legislative Updates from July 13, 2009 and July 27, 2009), MCSO deputies consulted ICE officials about whether they still had permission — as they had previously — to take illegal aliens who had committed civil (and not criminal) violations into custody. The conflict initially arose from this conversation: DHS claimed that the decision to release the illegal aliens had come from Arpaio's office, while the MCSO stated that they had been advised by ICE officials to release the aliens. (East Valley Tribune, July 25, 2009; Phoenix Business Journal, July 25, 2009).

Following DHS' pronouncement that the decision to release the illegal aliens laid "solely within the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office," Sheriff Arpaio announced that his deputies had taped their conversations with ICE officials. According to the East Valley Tribune, a copy of the recording indicates that an ICE official had in fact advised the "MCSO not to take into custody those [illegal aliens] who don't have a criminal history." Arpaio noted that in previous years ICE would have deported the aliens but was refusing to now because of the recent changes to 287(g). However, Arpaio also pointed out that DHS had granted 287(g) participants 90 days to comply with the new directives. The Tribune noted that Arpaio felt that DHS' decision to accelerate the implementation of the 287(g) changes had been made for "political reasons." (Id.).

In spite of the release of the tape-recorded evidence proving otherwise, DHS continues to deny that ICE officials instructed the MCSO to release the illegal aliens. DHS spokesperson Matthew Chandler responded to the release of the tape-recording: "The Sheriff's Office was given specific instructions on how to institute immigration proceedings against any individuals suspected of being in this country illegally, however they declined to do so. These actions are disappointing and detract from immigration law enforcement efforts not only in Arizona, but throughout the rest of the country as well." (Id.).