(All Voices) — Muslim rioters in Nigeria protesting the just concluded presidential elections have killed more than 100 Christians and burned down more than 40 churches in an attack that began yesterday.
This revelation is contained in a report by the Regional Manager for Africa, International Christian Concern (ICC), Jonathan Racho noting that this latest demonstration is in response to the election of Jonathan Goodluck, a Christian, as president of Nigeria.
He pointed out that the rioters even destroyed the homes of many Muslims who supported President Jonathan Goodluck adding that the Muslim attackers allege that the election was rigged and General Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim presidential candidate, is the rightful winner.
He said that the Commonwealth observers’ report judged that election as “this election the fairest in decades. The elections for the National Assembly and the Presidency were both credible and creditable and reflected the will of the Nigerian people.”
According Racho, it is difficult to know the full extent of the damage. The casualties could be much higher as the attacks took place over many of the 12 Muslim majority states in northern Nigeria.
Read more HERE
We may have already past the point in history for Africa to save itself from barbarism and savagery - S.L.
WORLD COMING APART: MIDDLE EAST
Syria's Bloodiest Day: 80 Dead as Security Forces Fire on Demonstrators
Damascus -- A strong military presence remained in place around Damascus on Saturday in the wake of the country’s bloodiest day in five weeks of growing unrest. Large turnouts are expected to mourn the scores of victims, which activists say has now reached more than 100.
Security forces fired on protesters, seeking to quell demonstrations following Friday prayers in Latakia, Homs, Hama, Damascus and the southern village of Isra’a. Tens of thousands took to the streets on Friday in defiance of earlier government warnings that any further displays of unrest would not be tolerated.
In Moadniyah, a small town roughly 10km south of Damascus, a massive cordon of troops encircled the town. Soldiers also positioned themselves on rooftops and outside mosques, while others peered out from behind barricades of sandbags and giant tires.
The town hosted sizeable unrest Friday, 15 March when thousands of residents marched towards Damascus but were forced back by security forces firing tear gas.
Late in the afternoon on Friday reports circulated claiming either the army or security forces had opened fire on demonstrators in the town.
"People are being taken to hospital in cars," said one demonstrator who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal.
President Bashar al-Assad maintains absolute power in the country he inherited from his father, Hafez, in 2000. Recently however, some analysts suggest internal rifts are forming within the Assad family.
"There are demonstrations in all the cities and villages around Syria," said Mr Maleh, a human rights lawyer in Damascus. "People want the regime to fall."
In a concession to demonstrators last Friday, Assad announced intentions to lift the much-despised emergency laws, in place for 48 years since the Baath Party seized power in a coup.
A law was passed this week to scrap the decades-old measure. Many activists, however, believe the move is not enough to quell the ever-growing tide of anti-government feeling now sweeping the country.
"I went to protest for the first time because I want freedom and dignity," said one young man in his twenties who sat on a bedroom floor sipping his glass of coke. "I want this country to be a good country."
More HERE
"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
- Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States
NORTH AMERICA: Brutal Mexican Drug Gang Crosses into U.S.
“Those of us who live and work along the border know they’re already here,” said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., whose Texas county lies on the Rio Grande 50 miles southeast of the Zetas’ stronghold of Nuevo Laredo. “There’s already been killings and many residents here are living in fear.”
Sheriff Gonzalez, whose Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition sought help from the federal government to control growing violence along the border, said the rising brutality of Mexican drug gangs, particularly the Zetas, “never stops shocking me.”
Trained as an elite band of Mexican anti-drug commandos, the Zetas evolved into mercenaries for the infamous Gulf Cartel, bringing a new wave of brutality to Mexico’s escalating drug wars. Bolstered by an influx of assassins, bandits, thieves, thugs and corrupt federal, state and local police officers, the Zetas have since evolved into a well-financed and heavily armed drug smuggling force of their own.
Known for mounting the severed heads of their rivals on poles or hanging their dismembered bodies from bridges in cities throughout Mexico, the Zetas have easily become the most feared criminal gang in Mexico — where 35,000 people have been killed in a continuing drug war. Everyone is a potential victim: men, women and children.
“The Zetas are determined to gain the reputation of being the most sadistic, cruel and beastly organization that ever existed,” said George W. Grayson, professor of government at the College of William & Mary and an expert on Mexican drug gangs. “Many of Mexico’s existing drug cartels will kill their enemies, but not go out of their way to do it. The Zetas look forward to inflicting fear on their targets.
“They won’t just cut off your ear, they’ll cut off your head and think nothing of it.”
Sooner or later we have to start treating the border like a military situation - in the meantime, expect this kind of savagery to continue moving northward - S.L.
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