The young criminology student and mother of a baby boy is not your usual tough talking burly law enforcer, but she is determined to make a difference. With just 13 agents, nine of whom are women, one working patrol car and three automatic rifles and a pistol – Valles faces having to take on the drug cartels. Her patch of Praxedis is in Chihuahua, Mexico’s most violent state. Drug wars there have killed almost 7,000 people since 2008. Cartels are fighting each other for lucrative smuggling routes to the US.
Twin roadside attacks kill Afghans
Insurgent planted bombs have killed at least 22 people in two separate incidents in Nimruz province in southwestern Afghanistan. In the first, 13 members of a family were killed and 10 others injured when their vehicle struck a road mine as they headed to a wedding in Herat. Five women, five children and three men died including its believed the bride. And in another part of Nimruz, a school bus carrying school children struck an explosive device, killing nine girls.
French protesters defy government calls for calm
Protests against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s unpopular pension reform in the French city of Lyon turned violent yesterday. Police used tear gas to disperse some three hundred youths who had gathered in the central Bellecour square. Elsewhere in Paris demonstrators broke a police barricade and blocked access to the capital’s main airport, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, causing some flights to be cancelled. Transport unions say protests also shut down Clermont-Ferrand airport and disrupted flights from Nice and Nantes. Crowds also gathered outside the Senate in Paris to call on deputies to vote against the proposed raising of the retirement age to sixty two. Sarkozy said the changes are necessary to plug a 32-billion-euro gap in the French state pension fund, which is forecast to grow to 80 billion by 2030 if no reforms are enacted. The upper house of parliament was expected to vote on the text later .
French police clear fuel depot protest
French police moved in on Wednesday to clear blockaded fuel depots as unions step up the pressure on the government ahead of a vote this week to raise the retirement age to 62. Strikes have crippled ports, as well as oil refineries and depots, leaving petrol pumps across France to run dry. More than 3,000 service stations in France are out of fuel. Out of the country’s 12 refineries, nine were hit by industrial action on Wednesday. Security forces also intervened at to break up a number of demonstrations outside oil depots so operations can restart. After deploying the police, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said continued protests “could paralyse the country and hurt the economy.” A nine-day transport strike in 2007 cost France about 400 million euros a day, although the current strikes are not expected to cost as much. The port of Marseille has been blockaded for 24 days, leaving nearly 70 tankers lying idle and unable to dock. Unions are to hold a ballot on today on whether to continue their action.
Guilty- Skydiver murders love rival in death jump
A Belgian woman has been found guilty of murdering a fellow sky diver by sabotaging her parachute, all in crime of passion. Els Clottemans is said to have been jealous of the relationship her victim Els Van Doren, had with another male sky diver. Although Clottemans denied the charge which was based mainly on circumstantial evidence, Judge Michel Jordans read out in court the verdict of guilty to premeditated murder. The whole case has gripped the imagination of the Belgian public mainly due to the salacious stories surrounding the love triangle. Clottemans’ family firmly believe she is innocent. It was four years ago that Els Van Doren performed a 4,000 metres jump. When she tried to open her chute it, and the backup failed due to the chords having been cut. She crashed into a garden, dying on impact. Clottemans faces between three years to life for the murder.
From: Euronews
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