War on Christianity > Baptist pastor killed by military in Myanmar

 

Baptist pastor executed by Myanmar military junta amid conflict: watchdog

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, September 01, 2026

This aerial photo taken on Oct. 29, 2021, shows smoke and fire in Thantlang, Chin State, where more than 160 buildings were destroyed by shelling from junta military troops, according to local media. | STR/AFP via Getty Images

The Rev. William, a Baptist pastor in Myanmar’s Chin state, has been killed by the country’s military junta, along with a fellow Chin Christian, Nam Ceu, according to international advocacy groups. The pastor had led his congregation for more than 25 years.

The pair had been arrested in May and held by the military since then, according to the U.S.-based International Christian Concern (ICC). The two men were accused of aiding the Hakha Chinland Defense Force, an armed group fighting the junta.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been in conflict since a 2021 coup, when the military overturned the second consecutive election victory of the party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover widened a decades-long fight between the military and ethnic armed movements, which have long contested government authority along the country’s border regions and demanded autonomy, into a nationwide war. New pro-democracy resistance groups have since allied with established ethnic forces, some of which comprise Christians.

The Rev. William, who did not use a surname, was killed on June 4, and a funeral service was held on Aug. 26 in Chungcung, reports the Maryland-based Burma Research Institute. 

The Rev. William’s church, Chungcung Baptist Church, was looted and burned in October 2021, and the village around it has faced repeated violent raids since the military junta seized power that year. The village consisted of about 300 houses.

William leaves behind a wife and five children. 

“We grieve with his family, his congregation, and our Chin brothers and sisters everywhere. This was an extrajudicial killing, carried out without due process or trial," Rev. Dr. Robin Stoops, Burma Research Institute board chairman and former associate general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, said in a statement. "But grief demands action. We call on the international community, and especially the United States, to hold those responsible accountable."

Stoops traveled through Chungcung village during a visit before the 2021 military coup.

The conflict has brought airstrikes, shelling, mass displacement and interruptions to humanitarian aid in Chin, Kayah, Kachin, Karen and parts of Shan states, where roughly 2 million Christians make their home.

The military controls only about 14% of the country’s territory.

The killing took place amid attacks on churches carried out by Myanmar’s soldiers.

Troops burned St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Kachin to the ground just ahead of the congregation’s planned Saint Patrick’s Day celebration in March 2025.

The cathedral fire came days after soldiers had already flattened a high school, the priest’s residence and the diocesan offices on the grounds, on Feb. 26 that year. Airstrikes had destroyed Sacred Heart Church in Mindat, Chin state, on Feb. 6. Less than a month later, an airstrike on March 3 destroyed the pastoral center at St. Michael’s Catholic Church, part of the Banmaw Diocese in Kachin.

Rights groups say the strikes on churches, Buddhist monasteries and other worship sites are retaliation against communities suspected of aiding ethnic resistance fighters.

The resistance groups have overrun hundreds of junta outposts, and the military has faced defections and surrenders in its ranks. The advocacy group Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust previously said the offensive brought hope to the pro-democracy movement but triggered a harsh crackdown by local commanders.

Ethnic Burman Buddhists make up most of Myanmar’s population, though the country is also home to a range of ethnic and religious minorities. Between 20% and 30% of ethnic Karen people are Christian, and Christians form a majority in Chin and Kachin states.

Decades of persecution have pushed many to flee Myanmar for neighboring India and Thailand, with some resettling in the United States or Australia, while many others remain in refugee camps near the border facing years of uncertainty.

Chin State, Myanmar

Why North Korea's Kim Jong Un Executed His Uncle

Defector: Jang Song Thaek wrecked North Korea's economy

By Elizabeth Shim

In this 2013 photo, a South Korean man watches TV news showing North Korean politician Jang Song Thaek

 as he appears before a military tribunal. A defector in the South says North Korea’s internal politics

and economy are misunderstood. File Photo by Jeon Heon-kyun/EPA

SEOUL, UPI -- North Korea's economy is structured so differently from the South's that its capitalist economy would be "unimaginable" to most North Koreans, according to a defector who once claimed membership in the Korean Workers' Party.

The former North Korean citizen, identified only by his surname Kim, served in the North Korean air force before he resettled in the South. He said important features of Pyongyang's planned economy are gravely misunderstood in the South, as are incidents like the execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle-in-law Jang Song Thaek.

"South Korean analysts who study North Korea are bad, because they blame the command economy for the Great Famine," the former North Korean pilot recently said.

The defector said drastic actions from powerful members of the North Korean regime, including Jang, were responsible for the shutdown of North Korean industry when millions starved.

"In South Korea, capital sits at the top of the hierarchy," Kim said. "In North Korea, people are at the center. In South Korea, without capital, you can't do anything. In North Korea, people work for each other."

When North Korea publicly disclosed the execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle-in-law in 2013, the news sent shockwaves around the world.

But according to defector Kim, Jang was a "bad person" who enriched himself during North Korea's notorious 1994-98 Great Famine, when idle machines in factories were torn apart and sold.

Jang was responsible for selling North Korean coal to China, even though the energy source was needed domestically. Coal mining productivity had plunged to one-fifth of pre-famine levels, but Jang exported the resource to China, Kim said.

North Koreans may also have been surprised, but not shocked, when Jang was sentenced to death by his nephew.

Jang, who secretly controlled the levers of power in the North for decades, ordered the rounding up of citizens with spinal disorders that cause dwarfism, Kim said.

The victims were sent to concentration camps because Jang believed their presence in society was "bad for socialism."

The men and women were "secretly kidnapped," around the time of the 1976 Korean axe murder incident at the border. Families would find them unexpectedly missing when they returned home. North Korea at the time reeled from the shock of the Jang-led mission to round up the disabled, Kim said.

A 'people-centered' economy

Just as the South's capitalist economy could leave many North Koreans scratching their heads, North Korea's economy may also baffle outsiders.

Profits are the least of economic priorities in North Korea, the defector said, where a pair of shoes that costs 60 cents to produce would be supplied to the population at 3 cents.

"In North Korea that would be jackpot pricing. In a capitalist economy that would be going for broke," Kim said.

The notion of an economy that benefits people also means Kim Jong Un is not the kind of dictator outsiders have assumed him to be.

The North Korean leader's field guidance visits are neither the product of an executive decision nor autocratic whimsy.

"Chairman Kim conducts field guidance according to Party direction," the defector told UPI. "Kim receives [institutional] permission, and then he has a duty to conduct field guidance."

Looking to the future

While South Koreans more familiar with profit-driven economic development learn about North Korea, experts on inter-Korea connectivity are preparing for the future.

Min Kyung-tae, a North Korea specialist at Seoul-based Yeosijae, Future Consensus Institute, told UPI the South Korean government ought to look beyond the manufacturing model of economic development in the long term.

Seoul shut down Kaesong, a jointly operated factory park in North Korea in February 2016, after a former South Korean administration claimed Kaesong proceeds were being used to fund North Korea's weapons programs.

"For the future we need projects involving advanced technology, next-generation industries of the Fourth Industrial Revolution," Min said, referring to the phase of development when robotics, artificial intelligence and self-driving cars enter mainstream society.

Min said North Korea is an ideal place to plan entire cities around emerging technological breakthroughs, because it is relatively undeveloped. The idea is one of several themes he raises in his book about the potential for a Fourth Industrial Revolution in North Korea.

"In North Korea, a new city could be built for self-driving taxis," Min said. "In South Korea if the government designates a city a self-driving taxi zone, drivers would go on strike."

Kim said the Fourth Industrial Revolution, if introduced in North Korea, would not have the same significance it would have in the South, the world's most wired country.

Artificial intelligence and other innovations will not be valued for their disruptive value to society, but rather, how they improve the lives of North Koreans, he said.

"If North and South are to cooperate, they must know each other well," Kim said.

Woman Beheaded in Afghanistan 'for Going Out in City Without Her Husband'

Her husband was in Iran; No one arrested; Taliban deny involvement

Peter Walker, Independent

Under Taliban rule, women were publicly flogged, lashed and executed in football stadiums ( Getty )

A woman has been beheaded for visiting a city without her husband, officials in Afghanistan have said.

The 30-year-old was decapitated and stabbed to death on Monday evening in Lati in the Sar-e-Pul province of northern Afghanistan.

The Middle East Press claims a government spokesman told them Taliban militants killed her for the “infidelity act” of going shopping without a male guardian.

The Taliban, which occupies Lati, imposes fierce policies of discrimination against women which includes banning them speaking loudly in public and appearing in media.

In other words, when they cease to become invisible!

Punishments have included public lashings and executions in football stadiums.

National broadcaster Tolo News reports that the provincial governor spokesman Zabiullah Amani said the woman’s husband is in Iran, and that they do not have children.

It also claims Sar-e-Pul women’s affairs head Nasima Arezo has confirmed the incident took place.

No one has been arrested and the Taliban have reportedly rejected any involvement.

The Sunni fundamentalist movement, which has roots in the days of Soviet occupation and emerged out of the Afghan civil war in around 1994, held power between 1996 and 2001.

It has continued to wage deadly terrorist attacks including the killing of four people in a bomb attack at a US airfield last month and a Taliban suicide bomber’s murder of nearly 40 people near Kabul.

A Taliban gunman shot Malala Yousafzai, who went on to become the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate for her activism, in Pakistan in October 2012.

sar-e-pul province

Vietnam Orders Execution of Former Oil Exec in Massive Corruption Purge

How to handle corruption the Vietnamese way

Former Petro Vietnam (PVN) chairman Nguyen Xuan Son (R) © Kham / Reuters

The former chairman of the state-run PetroVietnam has been handed a death sentence after being found guilty of embezzlement, intentionally breaking state rules on economic management and abusing his position and power.

Nguyen Xuan Son, who was arrested in 2015 by the previous administration of former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, maintains his innocence and will appeal the verdict.

In a mass trial of 51 senior officials and banking executives accused of graft and mismanagement which has resulted in losses of $69 million, the Communist Party of Vietnam has continued its massive crackdown on corruption within the country’s financial sector. 

This is the first time in years that the death penalty has been given to such a high-ranking official, however.

'Communist Party', 'crackdown on corruption', - why am I having trouble putting these two terms together?

Vietnam has one of the highest rates of executions in the world according to Amnesty international and has only recently replaced firing squads with lethal injections.

“According to a report of the Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security which became public in February 2017, 429 prisoners were executed between 6 August 2013 and 30 June 2016,” Amnesty wrote.

Following a power struggle within the communist party last year, which led to Dung’s ouster, authorities have engaged in a massive crackdown on corruption Reuters reports.

Son stood trial in his capacity as both the former chairman of the state-run oil company and as the former chief executive of Ocean Bank, which was bailed out and taken over by the Vietnamese central bank after it defaulted on debt repayments.

Another senior banking executive, Ha Van Tham, founder of Ocean Group and one Vietnam's wealthiest business people, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the mass trial.

"Tham and Son's behaviour is very serious, infringing on the management of state property and causing public grievances, which requires strict punishment," said judge Truong Viet Toan as cited by AFP.

Other executives involved in the mass trial handed 18-month suspended sentences to 22 years in prison Reuters reports.

The head of state-run shipping firm Vinashin was also sentenced to death following major financial losses in February. 

Vietnam is ranked as one of the most corrupt nations in Asia. 

Richard Glossip: Oklahoma Halts Execution 'to Check Drugs' - Insane, Just Insane

US and Oklahoma treatment of Glossip borders on Muslim treatment of dissidents

BBC
From the section US & Canada

Supporters of Glossip celebrate the stay Reuters

A man convicted of ordering his boss's murder has had his execution postponed at the very last minute, due to uncertainty over the lethal drugs.

Richard Glossip looked certain to die by injection in Oklahoma on Wednesday afternoon after the US Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

But Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has asked for more time to check if the drugs are compliant with state rules.

Pope Francis had urged her to halt the execution.

His archbishop had written to her and urged her to act to commute the sentence, but she said she did not have the authority to do so.

An hour after Glossip was due to be put to death, Ms Fallin announced that she was rescheduling the execution for 6 November.

Circumstantial evidence, or the testimony of one

 person who clearly benefits from such testimony,

should never be justification for execution in 

any sane country

OK, enough is enough! How many times can you bring someone to within minutes of execution only to delay it for a couple weeks so they can do it all over again. Is this not cruel and unusual punishment? Is this really much better than Saudi Arabia's torture of Ali Mohammad al Nimr, or Raif Badawi?

Based entirely on the confession of the admitted murderer, who got to escape the death penalty by implicating someone else, the guilty finding is pathetic. Then to sentence him to death based on that flimsy self-serving 'evidence', is hardly believable. You might expect something like this in Sudan or Iran, but it should never even be possible in a modern country, especially one that considers itself the best country in the world.

I'm not entirely opposed to the death penalty, but it should never be invoked without 'hard' evidence! Circumstantial evidence, or the testimony of one person who clearly benefits from such testimony, should never be justification for execution. It is well known that innocent people are executed in the US with disturbing frequency. It is very disturbing that this doesn't seem to faze anyone in the courts system or the government.

She said prison officials had received potassium acetate for use in the execution, as one of the three drugs used, but state guidelines only list potassium chloride.

Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said he requested the stay of execution "out of due diligence".

Richard Glossip who is pictured (left) has maintained his innocence for nearly 20 years. (Getty Images)

Glossip has refused plea deals because he says he is innocent

Glossip's boss Barry Van Treese, the owner of the Oklahoma City motel, was beaten to death in 1997.

His colleague Adam Sneed was convicted of the killing but said Glossip had ordered him to carry it out.

Glossip and his family have maintained his innocence for nearly 20 years, saying that Sneed acted alone.

He was first convicted in 1998 but that was overturned in 2001, only for Glossip to be convicted again three years later.

In the most recent appeals, his lawyers said they had an affidavit from another inmate who said Sneed admitted to setting Glossip up.

British billionaire Richard Branson took out a full-page ad in The Oklahoman newspaper on Wednesday that argued Glossip is innocent.

Anti-death penalty activists rally outside the US Supreme Court in a final
attempt to prevent the execution of Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip
 on 29 September 2015 in Washington Getty Images

Executions have been delayed recently in the US amid problems buying drugs as many firms have refused to sell them.

Oklahoma's drugs procedures have been under scrutiny since a flawed execution in April 2014.

Clayton Lockett struggled for 43 minutes before eventually dying, after an intravenous line was improperly placed.

It's just unfathomable that Americans would not know how to kill a person efficiently.

The Pope had also intervened in the case of a woman in Georgia, but Kelly Gissendaner was put to death on Tuesday.

During the pontiff's visit last week to the US, he urged Congress to abolish the death penalty.

Islamic State Gains Libya Foothold

Egypt is bombing Islamic State targets in its stronghold of Derna

The Islamic State (IS) has wreaked havoc in the Middle East, seizing vast areas of Iraq and Syria and now it is taking advantage of Libya's collapse into anarchy.

It has gained a foothold in key towns and cities in the mostly lawless North African state, prompting Egypt - seeing itself as the bulwark against Islamists in region - to launch air strikes against the group.

Last August I reported on IS in Libya, and in September I reported that IS was popping up all over the place. As limited in numbers as they are I think it will be impossible to stamp them out. There is too much money behind them and the extreme ideology is a literal adherence to the Quran. There may be ebbs and floes in the IS tide, but eventually it will become a tsunami.

After the two war-ravaged Middle Eastern states, IS has launched its most high-profile attacks in Libya, bombing an upmarket hotel in the capital, Tripoli, in January, and releasing a video earlier this month showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians it had kidnapped.

For UK-based Libyan academic, Mohamed Ahdash, the emergence of IS affiliates in Libya is not surprising.

"There is a study which shows that after Saudi Arabia, most of the fighters who went to Syria were from Libya," he told the BBC.

'Magnet for African jihadists'
Libya's UN-backed government believes the fighters are now returning, following a shift in IS thinking to promote local jihad, and are under the command of a Tunisian named Abu Talha.

A fighter of Libya's Fajr Libya group (Libyan Dawn) fires his gun during clashes
in the hill village of Kikla, southwest of Tripoli on 21 October 2014
Libya descended into anarchy after the fall of Col Gaddafi

Libya, analysts say, is an obvious target for IS - it has been chaotic since the overthrow of long-serving ruler Muhammar Gaddafi in a Nato-backed offensive in 2011.

A Libyan woman walks past the rubble of a building in the Mediterranean
 city of Sirte on 13 October 2012. The militants have built a presence in Sirte,
which was heavily bombed during the campaign to oust Gadaffi

There are currently two rivals governments, dozens of groups armed with weapons looted from the former regime's arsenal, and smugglers who roam freely across porous borders in the desert region.

Moreover, Libya is rich in oil and earlier this month, gunmen claiming to represent IS raided a French-run oil facility in al-Mabruk, south of Sirte city, killing at least 11 guards.

Libyan oil is a potentially lucrative source of funding for IS, though it will find it difficult to export it because of the foreign navies patrolling the Mediterranean coast.

Mr Ahdash says Libya has become a magnet for jihadis from other parts of Africa - especially those who fled northern Mali after a French-led military operation recaptured territory from them in 2013.

"They are under one umbrella, but they are very different and very divided. It is difficult to work out who is who," he says.

He says Islamists had a presence in Libya during Col Gaddafi's rule, but they were heavily suppressed.

The late Strongman Col Muammar Gadaffi

So it does not surprise him that they have now gained a foothold in cities like Benghazi, the cradle of the 2011 revolution that overthrew Col Gaddafi, and Derna, the coastal town being targeted by Egypt's military and where the first IS affiliate emerged in October.

But what surprises him, Mr Ahdash says, is that they have secured a presence in Sirte, the birthplace of Col Gaddafi, which had been seen as hostile towards Islamists.

'Aspirational'
He says either foreign jihadists have infiltrated the city or Gaddafi loyalists, including military officers, have joined the militants, just as they did in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was overthrown by US-led forces in 2003.

"I'm worried that could happen in Libya; that there could be a marriage of interest," says Mr Ahdash, pointing out that Ahmed Gaddafi al-Dam, an influential cousin of the former ruler, has publicly hailed IS as "pure".

An image posted online by militants who claim to be part of the Islamic State
group showing them destroying statues in Derna - 1 February 2015

Nevertheless, he does not believe IS or its affiliates have a huge presence in Libya.

"Most Libyans are moderate Muslims, and they hate Daesh," Mr Ahdash told the BBC, referring to the name by which IS is known in the Arab-speaking world.

A Coptic clergyman shows a picture of a man whom he says is one of the
 Egyptian Coptic Christians purportedly murdered by Islamic State (IS)
group militants in Libya. Egypt intervened after its nationals were killed.

Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer, is quoted by Foreign Policy magazine as saying that there are an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 fighters loyal to IS in Libya, many of whom acquired combat experience in Iraq and Syria.

IS-linked fighters operate in Tripoli, the south-western region of Fezzan, and the eastern region of Barqa, which includes Benghazi and Derna.

However, Thomas Joscelyn, senior editor of the Long War Journal, says that while IS has grown in Libya, its strength should not be exaggerated.

"These zones are more aspirational than they are real," Mr Joscelyn told Foreign Policy.

Even if IS control in Libya is limited to a few small areas, it still has the potential to make the country's desperate situation even worse, threatening regional stability.

Daesh (IS) Executing 'Educated Women' in New Wave of Horror says UN

Men excavate remains from a mass grave on the outskirts of Saadia
 in Diyala province, (just east of Baghdad, Iraq) January 15, 2015
The mass grave contained the remains of more than 25 men

GENEVA: The UN on Tuesday decried numerous executions of civilians in Iraq by the Daesh, warning that educated women appeared to be especially at risk.

The terrorist group is showing a "monstrous disregard for human life" in the areas it controls in Iraq, the UN human rights office said.

The group, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and in neighbouring war-ravaged Syria, last week published pictures of the "crucifixions" of two men accused of being bandits, and of a woman being stoned to death, allegedly for adultery.

Numerous other women have also reportedly been executed recently in Daesh-controlled areas, including Mosul, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.

She said "educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office, seem to be particularly at risk."

"In just the first two weeks of this year, reports indicate that three female lawyers were executed," Shamdasani said.

Daesh is clearly uncomfortable with educated women, almost certainly because they are smarter than most brain-washed or brain-dead militant Muslims. How can a man control and abuse a wife who is more educated and smarter than he?

A number of other groups are also targeted by the terrorists, Shamdasani said, pointing to "the ruthless murder of two men, who were thrown off the top of a building after having been accused of homosexual acts by a so-called court in Mosul."

Minorities are not the only ones suffering, with IS meting out "cruel and inhuman punishments" to anyone accused of violating its "extremist interpretations of Islamic Sharia law, or for suspected disloyalty," she said.

Four doctors were recently killed in central Mosul, allegedly after refusing to treat IS fighters.

The group also reportedly executed 15 civilians in front of a large crowd in Fallujah on January 1, on suspicion they had cooperated with Iraqi security forces, and 14 more in a public square in Dour, north of Tikrit, for refusing to pledge allegiance to IS, Shamdasani said.


Daesh threat to behead 2 Japanese hostages in 72 hours

TOKYO: The release of an online video Tuesday purporting to show a Daesh figure demanding $200 million in ransom for two Japanese hostages ambushed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he was wrapping up a six-day tour of the Middle East.

The news brought into sharp, urgent focus in Tokyo terrorism issues that are usually only a distant concern for most Japanese.

Abe said the threat by the Islamic State group to kill two Japanese hostages in 72 hours is "unforgivable."

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the comment Tuesday in Jerusalem. Abe said: "It is unforgivable and I feel strong resentment."

An image grab taken off a video on January 20, 2015, reportedly released by the Daesh (Islamic State) group through Al-Furqan Media, one of the Jihadist platforms used by the militant organisation on the web, allegedly shows Japanese hostages Kenji Goto (L) and Haruna Yukawa (R) in orange jumpsuits with a black-clad militant brandishing a knife as he addresses the camera in English, standing between them at an undisclosed location. The Islamic State group threatened to kill the two Japanese hostages unless Tokyo pays a $200 million ransom within 72 hours to compensate for non-military aid that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to support the campaign against IS during an ongoing Middle East.

Abe demanded the Daesh group immediately release hostages Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa.

Japan relies on the Middle East for most of the crude oil it needs to run the world's third-largest economy. Japan has been stepping up its efforts to build wider economic ties and has increased exports as Abe has crisscrossed the region peddling Japanese technology and investment. Abe's Middle East mission included more than 100 government officials and presidents of Japanese companies.

Japan's government spokesman, Yasuhide Suga, said Tuesday that Tokyo remains committed to working for stability in the region and providing non-military, humanitarian aid.

Abe and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Sunday during Abe's visit to Jerusalem to cooperate on counterterrorism.

Switching gears
Abe will participate in planned official talks Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but is cancelling other events on his schedule to focus on the hostage crisis, Suga said.

He was due to return to Japan on Wednesday.

Here is what you need to do, Mr Abe: Tell Daesh to release the Japanese prisoners unharmed or you will send a large fleet of fighter/bomber jets to pulverize them. It probably won't work, but it will make them highly reluctant to hold any more Japanese to ransom. That is, if you follow through on the threat.

Clashes in Ankara as Turkey Remembers Murder of Armenian Journalist

Riot police using water cannon on protesters in Ankara

Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish police on Monday used pepper spray and water cannon to disperse a protest in Ankara calling for justice over the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead in broad daylight outside his offices eight years ago.

Thousands of people had marched though central Istanbul earlier on Monday in a peaceful demonstration to remember Turkey's most notorious killing of recent years that sent shockwaves around the country.

However police moved in to disperse a smaller rally in central Ankara in the evening as the protestors sought to march on the justice ministry.

Twenty people were arrested as police used pepper spray and water cannon to disperse the protest, the CNN-Turk television channel and Radikal news site reported.

Holding signs in Turkish, Armenian and English reading "Justice for Hrant", protesters in Istanbul had earlier rallied around the offices of the Agos newspaper, a bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly, which he edited.

The Istanbul memorial rally is an annual event but was considerably larger than in previous years.

A man holds a poster depicting slain journalist Hrant Dink and reading
"Despite fascism, Hrant

Meanwhile, a young man brandished a gun at a rally for Dink in the central city of Malatya -- where the journalist was born -- but was rapidly arrested by police.

- Centenary of disputed genocide -

Dink, 52, was shot dead with two bullets to the head in broad daylight outside the offices of Agos on January 19, 2007.

Ogun Samast, then a 17-year-old jobless high-school dropout, confessed to the murder and was sentenced to almost 23 years in jail in 2011.

But the murder grew into a wider scandal after it emerged that the security forces knew of a plot to kill Dink, but failed to act.

People hold a banner reading ("From 1915 to Hrant, genocide continues")
during a march in Istanbul

A court on Monday remanded in custody Ercan Demir, who was police intelligence chief of the Black Sea Trabzon region where the gunman and his suspected accomplices came from, on charges of failing to act on intelligence that could have prevented the murder.

Demir had been controversially named police chief of the southeastern Sirnak province but an arrest warrant was issued for him last week and he turned himself into the police in Ankara.

Turkey had on Tuesday arrested two lower ranking policeman on charges of negligence for failing to prevent the murder.

Dink, a major figure in Turkey's tiny but prominent Armenian community, has long pushed for a reconciliation between Turks and Armenians after decades of bitterness.

Armenians accuse Ottoman forces (Muslims) during World War I of carrying out a genocide against their forebears that left an estimated 1.5 million people (Christians) dead. But modern Turkey has always vehemently resisted terming the mass killings as genocide. What was it then, herd reduction?

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the tragedy and the date appeared to give the Dink memorial march additional impetus.

Some at the Istanbul protest held banners referring to the events such as "become conscious of the genocide along with Hrant Dink". Others held cards reading: "We are all Hrant Dink, we are all Armenians."

Less than 10 percent of Turks believe their government should recognise the mass killings of Armenians in World War I as genocide, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

Supporters of Dink's family have long feared that those behind the murder were protected by the state and have asked for a deeper investigation. 

Like that's going to happen while Erdogan is increasing his grip on the Turks. I wonder if Erdogan plans to set up a caliphate in Turkey with himself as Caliph. That's about the only thing big enough to appease his ever-swelling ego.

Mexico Missing Students: Guerreros Unidos Gang Member Arrested

Relatives of the 43 missing students protest outside the Attorney General's
office in Mexico City. They are calling for an investigation into the role
of the Mexican army in the case

Police in Mexico have arrested a member of a criminal gang accused of killing 43 students in Iguala in September.

Felipe Rodriguez ordered Guerreros Unidos gang members to burn the bodies and clothing of the victims to hide evidence, prosecutors say.

They say the students were detained by police after a protest and handed over to the gang.

The students' disappearance sparked weeks of protests across Mexico against corruption and violence.

Felipe Rodriguez

Felipe Rodriguez - known as "El Cepillo" or "The Brush" - was arrested on Thursday night in the city of Jiutepec, some 90km (55 miles) south of Mexico City.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam identified him in November as the gang member who ordered the bodies and clothes of the victims to be burned in a nearby rubbish dump and thrown into a local stream.

'Mayor ordered killings'
"His intent was to destroy all evidence of the murders," said Mr Murillo Karam.

More than 90 people, most of them local police in south-western Guerrero State, have been detained so far in connection with the case.

Maria de los Angeles Pineda (C), wife of former Mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca
Maria de los Angeles Pineda will be tried with involvement in organised crime

Members of the gang confessed to killing the 43 and burned their bodies after they were told the students belonged to a rival gang.

Alexander Mora's remains were identified by
forensic experts at the University of Innsbruck

But the remains of only one student, Alexander Mora, have been identified so far, after being taken for DNA tests at a forensic centre in Austria.

He was in his first year of studies at the rural teacher training college in Ayotzinapa, a college with a tradition of left-wing political activism.

Empty chairs at the Ayotzinapa teachers school in Guerrero State

Alexander Mora was part of a group of students who travelled to nearby Iguala on 26 September and, as part of a protest, commandeered a number of buses.

On their way back to their college the students were intercepted by police allegedly on the orders of the local mayor, who wanted to prevent them from disrupting a speech his wife was giving at a public event that evening.

Mayor and Maria Pineda in happier times
They were arrested in a Mexico City slum in November

Federal investigators blamed Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, for ordering local police to hand the students over to members of the Guerreros Unidos gang.

Relatives of the 42 missing students say they will not give up hope of finding them alive until forensic evidence proves they are dead.

They want the authorities to open an investigation into the role of the Mexican army in the disappearance.

Le Pen calls for Suspension of Visa-Free EU Zone, Loss of Citizenship & Death Penalty

Right Wing Politicians across Europe have come out against Islamization, but liberals still have their heads buried in the sand, or somewhere.

Marine Le Pen leader Front National

The leader of France’s rightwing Front National (FN), Marine Le Pen, has asked French President Francois Hollande to suspend the visa-free Schengen Area in Europe and strip dual nationals of their French citizenship if they carry out “barbaric crimes.”

Geert Wilders' comments

“I expressed to the president the absolute necessity…to immediately suspend Schengen to be able to control our borders as an essential element in the fight against terrorism, and also the fight against arms trafficking,” Le Pen told reporters following a meeting with Hollande on Friday.

The Schengen Area consists of 26 European countries that have abolished passport and any other type of border controls. The agreement allows for both freedom of movement for both European citizens, Schengen visa holders and those who can travel in the area visa-free. Freedom of movement is considered “a fundamental right” guaranteed by the EU to its citizens.

Four EU states however – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania – are yet to join the area despite being obliged to do so, sometimes due to resistance from other EU states.

Le Pen also turned her eye to the issue of dual-nationals who have been suspected of engaging in terror-related activities at home or abroad, saying such individuals should be stripped of their French citizenship.

“I also expressed the necessity – in another inevitable way – of measures for the removal or the forfeiture of citizenship for all of those who have dual citizenship who have left to train or fight in a foreign country, and then come back to our territory, to commit barbaric crimes, which seems to be the case with these two murderers who are currently in the process of being chased,” she said.

The measure would put France in line with the United Kingdom, where Home Secretary Theresa May currently has the power to strip foreign born terror suspects of their British citizenship if they possess another citizenship.

Hollande has yet to react to Le Pen’s proposals.

Le Pen made waves on Thursday by expressing her support for the death penalty, saying she would organize a referendum to reintroduce it if elected president in 2017.


Following Wednesday's deadly attack on the office of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Le Pen made a passionate speech against Islamic fundamentalism, which she called an "odious ideology."

While Hollande has called for national unity following the tragedy, Le Pen has openly pinned the attack on “radical Islam.”

“Time is up for denial and hypocrisy,” she said. “The absolute rejection of Islamic fundamentalism must be proclaimed loudly and clearly.”

Critics have accused Le Pen of ratcheting up anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments for political purposes. That anti-immigration and anti-Islamization has been the hallmark of the FN since it began seems to have eluded them.

France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, with nearly five million people practicing Islam out of a population of roughly 65 million.

As the president of FN, Le Pen has vowed to drastically curb immigration if elected president.

According to the latest opinion polls, if France were to hold its presidential election today, Le Pen would lead in the first round.

The French presidential election is set to be held in April and May 2017.

Daesh (IS) ‘Police’ Official Beheaded, Possibly for Smoking

Beirut: A senior figure in Daesh’s self-declared police force in Syria, which has carried out beheadings, was himself found decapitated in the eastern province of Deir Al Zor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

The man was an Egyptian national and was known as the deputy “emir” of the Al Hesbah force in the province, the British-based Observatory said. His body, which showed signs of torture, was found near a power plant in Al Mayadeen city, it said.

Daesh fighters

Daesh, an offshoot of Al Qaida, has seized land in Syria and neighbouring Iraq and has been the target of US-led air strikes in both countries since September.

The Observatory, which gathers information from a network of sources on the ground, said the message “This is evil, you Shaikh” was also found written on the corpse, which had a cigarette in its mouth.

It was not clear who had carried out the beheading.

Residents in areas controlled by Daesh have said the group has banned smoking in public.

News of the emir's beheading comes just a day after pictures emerged of what appears to show ISIS soldiers executing a group of Iraqi policemen.

Entitled 'the Day of Judgement', the photos show eight Iraqi men dressed in orange Guantanamo Bay style jumpsuits.

Standing behind them, armed with pistols, are Islamic State's notorious security forces, known for carrying out mass public executions in broad daylight.

Unknown assailants also tried to kill two Daesh militants in the city, the Observatory said. The first attempt was when a car tried to run over a fighter near a roundabout.

Another was hit by an attacker carrying a metal weapon and travelling by motorcycle, and was seriously wounded.

Daesh has fought with other insurgents and cracked down on local populations. It has also occasionally killed its own members for what it describes as violations.

Residents and activists say it has beheaded and stoned to death many people in areas it controls for being enemy fighters or for actions they see as violating their reading of Islamic law, such as adultery and blasphemy.

In December, a similar self-declared police force in western Syria decapitated four men after accusing them of blasphemy, according to the observatory. It reported a similar killing days earlier in the north of the country.

You know what they say, 'What goes around, comes around!' It appears that if they don't have any 'enemies' to behead that they will turn on their own. They're not happy unless they're lopping off heads.

Wife of Mayor of Mexican City where 43 Students Were Murdered Sent to Federal Prison

Maria de los Angeles Pineda was transferred to federal prison in western Mexico

The wife of the former mayor of the Mexican city where 43 students went missing has been charged with organised crime and money laundering.

Maria de los Angeles Pineda was transferred to a high security prison to await trial.

She had brothers in a local drug gang that operated in the city, Iguala, in the state of Guerrero, prosecutors say.

They said police handed the students over to the drug gang who then killed them and burnt the bodies.

It is unclear whether the charges against Maria Pineda are related to the students' disappearance.

They went missing in September after clashes with police.

Their disappearance sparked nationwide protests and has rocked the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Prosecutors said that members of the drug gang linked to Maria Pineda had confessed that her husband, ex-mayor Jose Luis Abarca, had ordered the police to crack down on the students to stop them disrupting an event his wife was speaking at.

However a local news magazine said the event was over by the time the students arrived in the town.

The students vanished after the police attacked their buses leaving six people dead.

Investigators said members of the drug gang told them the police had delivered the young men to them.

They then took them to a local landfill, killed them and burned the bodies.

Only one of the students has been positively identified from the charred remains.

Maria Pineda and her husband Jose Abarca were arrested in November in Mexico City.

He was charged with organised crime, kidnapping and murder for events before the disappearance of the students.

54 Nigerian Soldiers will be Shot for Mutiny

A Nigerian court martial has sentenced 54 soldiers to death for refusing to fight Boko Haram Islamist militants. This will be the most casualties the army has ever recorded. 

The soldiers appeared before a court martial in Abuja

The soldiers, who were found guilty of mutiny, were accused of refusing to help recapture three towns that had been seized by Boko Haram in August.

A lawyer for the soldiers said the 54 would face a firing squad while five others were acquitted.

Troops have complained that they are not being given enough weapons and ammunition to fight Boko Haram.

I feel for the soldiers. They were between a rock and a hard place. They were likely going to die if they challenged Boko Haram with inferior fire-power, and they were going to face court-martial if they didn't.

There is so much corruption in Nigeria, in business, government and military brass. Last spring, $6 billion dollars disappeared and  no-one is looking for it. What does that tell you? Imagine the weapons they could have bought for the military with just 1% of that money.

What makes this story so much worse is that the officers condemning the soldiers to death know that they are poorly armed, know why they are poorly armed, and still sentenced them to death. Life is pretty cheap in Nigeria.

Nobody even talks about the $6 billion anymore. The kidnapping of the Chibok girls buried the corruption story. Funny coincidence that!

Nigerian soldiers

The group has been waging an insurgency since 2009 and is seeking to create an Islamist state in north-eastern Nigeria.

More than 2,000 people have died in attacks blamed on Boko Haram so far this year and thousands more have been displaced by the fighting.

The court martial began in October and was conducted behind closed doors. Military officials were not available for comment afterwards.

Defence lawyer Femi Falana said the soldiers were all accused of "conspiring to commit mutiny against the authorities of 7 Division, Nigerian Army".

All the soldiers had denied the charges and the sentence is subject to approval by senior officers.

In a similar case in September, 12 soldiers were sentenced to death for mutiny and the attempted murder of a commanding officer in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

Syria Conflict: 230 Bodies 'Found in Mass Grave' in Deir al-Zour

The bodies of more than 230 people believed to have been killed by Islamic State (IS) have been found in a mass grave in eastern Syria, activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they were thought to be members of a tribe that fought the jihadist group in Deir al-Zour province in the summer.

The mass grave was discovered after the Sheitat were allowed to return to their homes by IS leaders, it added.

Last month, the UN said it had received reports of a massacre there in August.

Investigators said it appeared to have been perpetrated by IS in a struggle for control of oil resources near the town of Mohassan.

One survivor described seeing "many heads hanging on walls while I and my family escaped", while locals saw several freshly-dug mass graves.

Video published online also indicated that IS fighters had conducted a mass execution of fighting-age Sheitat tribesmen.

In early November, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reportedly issued a statement granting members of the tribe permission to return to their homes upon the condition that they did not assemble. They were also told to surrender all weapons and inform on all "apostates" to the group.

All "traitors" would be killed, Baghdadi's statement warned.

On Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory reported that it had been informed by a trusted source that the 230 bodies had been found by returning members of the Sheitat in a mass grave in the desert near the village of Kashkiya, in eastern Deir al-Zour.

The UK-based group said the "vast majority" of the victims had been civilians and that many of them had been executed in cold blood.

The discovery brought the number of Sheitat tribes-people killed during the summer to more than 900, it added. In just a couple weeks last summer, 100 Sheitat soldiers were slaughtered along with 600 civilians including some women and children. Hundreds more are still missing.

Have you heard about this in the news? God forbid if Israel should accidentally kill a Palestinian; you will hardly hear anything else for days. But IS slaughters hundreds of people and there are no reports, no international condemnations. What gives? The Sheitat people might never recover from this carnage.