Activists: Syrian airstrike kills 21 in Aleppo
BEIRUT – A Syrian government airstrike hit a crowded vegetable market in a rebel-held Tariq al-Bab neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, killing at least 21 people as well as shattering cars and storefronts, according to the Aleppo Media Center activist group and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
For nearly two weeks, President Bashar Assad’s warplanes and helicopters have pounded opposition-controlled areas of the divided city. Activists say the aerial assault has killed more than 400 people since it began Dec. 15.
The campaign comes in the run-up to an international peace conference scheduled to start Jan. 22 in Switzerland to try to find a political solution to Syria’s civil war. Some observers say the assault fits into Assad’s apparent strategy of trying to expose the opposition’s weakness to strengthen his own hand ahead of the negotiations.
Egyptian student dies during protests at campus
CAIRO – Riot police moved into Egypt’s main Islamic university on Saturday, firing tear gas and breaking up a strike by students who threatened to disrupt midterms. One student was killed in the melee, an administration building was torched and students fled from exam rooms.
Police say they entered eastern Cairo’s Al-Azhar campus, the site of frequent clashes in recent weeks, and deployed around other Egyptian universities to prevent supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi from intimidating other students trying to take the tests.
Pro-Morsi activists have called for an exam boycott but deny government claims they threatened anyone.
Students at al-Azhar, a stronghold of Morsi supporters, have been protesting for weeks against his ouster and a subsequent state crackdown, which this week saw his Muslim Brotherhood group declared a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood dismisses the label and has vowed to keep up its protests against Egypt-military backed authorities.
5 decapitated bodies found in western Mexico
MORELIA, Mexico – Prosecutors found five decapitated bodies in western Mexico on Saturday, with a hand-lettered sign linking the killings to a drug cartel.
The bodies were found in two different locations on the outskirts of Morelia, the state capital of Michoacan.
At one spot, the bodies of three of the men were found lying against the curb of a traffic circle. The state attorney general’s office said their heads had been cut off and placed next to the bodies.
A little later Saturday, the bodies of two other men were found in another community on the outskirts of Morelia. Both had been decapitated, and the heads were placed a little farther away. A bloody kitchen knife was found on a nearby road.
Michoacan has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Caballeros Templarios cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, known by its initials in Spanish as “CJNG.”
A hand-lettered sign left with some of the bodies read “We are here now ... respectfully, CJNG.”
Police in Jamaica probe slaying of New York teen
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Police in Jamaica are investigating the slaying of a New York teenager who vanished along with her cousin.
Assistant commissioner Derrick Knight said Saturday that detectives have seized two vehicles in connection with the double homicide. They have also identified someone whom they believe knows something about the crimes and have urged him to turn himself in.
Police say 19-year-old Franciena Johnson of Brooklyn, N.Y., and her 18-year-old cousin Nadia Fearon vanished last week. Police later found their bodies floating in a salt marsh along the southern coast. Johnson’s body had gunshot wounds.
She was born in Jamaica but moved to the United States as a child. She was in Jamaica to visit her grandmother.
Associated Press
