Guinea opposition says 120 arrested in protest crackdown

Guinean opposition parties said Saturday that at least 120 protesters had been arrested after police clamped down on a banned protest march which sparked clashes in the capital this week.

"At least 120 members and sympathisers of the opposition were arrested on Monday according to a count we did ourselves after the march," said Aboubacar Sylla, president of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC).

Sylla, also the spokesman for a collective of opposition parties, told journalists that 87 of those arrested belonged to opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo's Union for Democratic Forces in Guinea (UFDG).

"What happened on Monday shows our country is far from being considered a democratic country, respectful of republican values," he said.

Opposition parties had called for a gathering Monday to demand legislative polls which should have been held six months after President Alpha Conde's inauguration in December 2010, but have been repeatedly postponed.

Security forces turned protesters away, sparking clashes with police in several suburbs of the capital, who fired tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators.

The UN human rights commission expressed its concern for the "excessive use of force against protesters" by Guinean security forces.

"Security forces fired teargas into the house of a party leader. Real bullets were fired and many people arrested, beaten or injured," spokesman Rupert Colville said in a statement Friday.

National police, who said the march had been banned, reported that 35 people had been arrested and 20 paramilitary police officers injured by stones thrown by demonstrators.

Sylla said the opposition was determined to continue its fight for "free, fair and transparent legislative elections".

The last legislative elections were held in June 2002 during the regime of president Lansana Conte, who died in December 2008 after 24 years in power.

A military junta took power after his death and a transition government took over in 2010 until the nation's first ever democratic election was held in November. The national transitional council still serves as parliament.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Dozens arrested in crackdown on California gang

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Federal agents and police targeting a violent street gang swept through a Southern California neighborhood Friday where earlier police killings sparked violent protests.

Federal, state and local agents raided 54 locations in Anaheim and in Los Angeles County, arresting 33 people to cap a yearlong investigation of the East Side Anaheim gang, police Sgt. Bob Dunn said.

Another 20 to 25 people already were in custody and several more were still being sought, he added.

Some of the raids concentrated on a poor, mainly Latino neighborhood known as Anna Drive where there has been a recent rise in gang activity, authorities said.

That is the neighborhood where police shot and killed Manuel Diaz, a reputed gang member who was unarmed, on July 21.

The next night, police shot and killed suspected gang member Joel Acevedo after he reportedly shot at an officer.

The killings prompted four days of violent demonstrations and a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit by Diaz's family.

Mug shots of some reputed suspects were displayed at the news conference Friday. One was named Manuel Diaz but police declined to say whether he was the same Diaz who was shot.

The raids were not related to the shootings and authorities even considered delaying them to avoid that appearance, police Chief John Welter said.

"We didn't want to be seen as coming in now and arresting a bunch of community members and having people misunderstand or again spread rumors and false information about what we were doing," he said.

"We need to regain some of the trust that has been lost as a result of some of these actions in the street by protesters," Welter said.

The gang is suspected of drug-dealing and murder and those facing federal or state drug and weapons charges could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, authorities said.

Televised reports showed a line of men, some shirtless, sitting on the curb with their hands bound behind their backs.

During the yearlong investigation dubbed Operation Halo, authorities also seized 11 pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 40 guns, including assault-style rifles, sawed-off shotguns and a pistol believed used in a killing, authorities said.

The investigation was prompted by the 2011 stabbing death of a 12-year-old member of a graffiti tagging crew that is considered a "feeder" for the street gang, Dunn said.

Prosecutors say Juan Martinez was walking home from school when he was stabbed during a fight with a member of a rival tagging crew. Bryan Ocampo is charged with murder.

Violent crime in Anaheim, home of Disneyland and the Angels baseball team, jumped 10 percent last year and the number of murders nearly doubled, according to FBI crime statistics.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Ninety arrested in nationwide synthetic drug crackdown

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal agents arrested more than 90 people and seized about 5 million packets of synthetic drugs - known on the street as "bath salts," "K2" and "Spice" - in the first U.S. nationwide crackdown on "designer drugs," the Drug Enforcement Administration said on Thursday.

The DEA said the haul from multi-agency raids in more than 100 U.S. cities included 4.8 million packets of synthetic cannabis, 167,000 packets of "bath salts" and more than $36 million in cash.

Operation Log Jam, which involved the DEA, five federal agencies, state and local police, "has disrupted the entire illegal industry, from manufacturers to retailers," DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said in a statement.

"Together with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, we are committed to targeting these new and emerging drugs with every scientific, legislative and investigative tool at our disposal," she said.

Synthetic drugs - with street names like "bath salts" or "plant food" - mimic more traditional illegal narcotics like cocaine, LSD, MDMA and methamphetamine, and have rapidly grown in popularity, the DEA said.

Bath salts have been blamed in several incidents of erratic and violent behavior around the country.

Smokable herbal blends marketed as "Spice," "K2," "Blaze," and "Red X Dawn" and labeled as incense contain illegal psychoactive compounds that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. They have become popular among teens and young adults, the DEA statement said.

(Reporting By Paul Eckert; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.