International
Israel says that the attack of one of its tanks on the UNFIL tower is “being studied”
The Israeli Army assured tonight that the attack of one of its tanks on a watchtower of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (UNFINUL), which the organization denounced this afternoon, “is being examined.”
Without confirming or denying the attack, the Israeli armed forces said in a statement that they were “carrying out operational activity” against Hezbula, but that “the sites and forces of the FINUL are not an objective.”
“Any irregular incident will be thoroughly examined,” they claimed, although so far the rest of the Israeli attacks that have affected the UNIFIL and have left at least five injured have not had repercussions on the Hebrew Army.
This afternoon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFINUL) accused the armed forces of opening “direct and apparently deliberate fire” against one of its positions near Kafer Kela, where an Israeli Merkava tank fired at an observation tower and destroyed two surveillance cameras.
In a brief statement, FINUL explained that peacekeeping forces observed this morning, in a position close to Kafer Kela, “a Merkava tank of the FDI (Israeli Defense Forces) shooting at its watchtower,” in an attack in which “two cameras were destroyed and the tower was damaged.”
“Once again we see direct and apparently deliberate fire against a position of the UNFILL,” added the note in which the UN mission reminded the Israeli Army and all the actors involved in the conflict “their obligation to guarantee the safety of UN personnel and property and to respect at all times the inviolability of their facilities.”
The attacks
Also on Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that “it is the terrorist organization Hezbulla that uses UNIFIL personnel as ‘human shields’, deliberately attacking Army soldiers from locations near the positions of the FINUL to create friction” in a statement on the social network X.
In the text, the minister insisted that the Hebrew State “has no intention of harming” the blue helmets.
Three days ago, the UN mission already reported that two Israeli tanks entered their position in southern Lebanon, from which they left 45 minutes after UNFIL protested through the liaison mechanism.
Subsequently, he reported several shots 100 meters north of the base that emitted smoke that caused skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions in at least 15 troops of the mission.
The UN mission denounced the day before, on Saturday, that one of its soldiers was wounded “by gunshots” at its headquarters in Naqoura (south), bringing to five the number of blue helmets injured in incidents in three days, attributed to Israel.
UNFIL is located in Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbulah.
International
North Korea amends its constitution and defines the South as a “hostile state”
North Korea confirmed some details about its recent constitutional amendment, where it has defined the South as a “hostile state”, in the first modification of its magna carta that eliminates references to a possible reunification.
“This is an inevitable and legitimate measure, in which South Korea is clearly defined as a hostile state, and it is due to the serious security circumstances that lead to the brink of war by the political and military provocations of hostile forces,” the North Korean state agency KCNA published today.
Changes in North Korea
Last week, North Korea concluded an important parliamentary session in which it was planned to amend its Constitution, but did not reveal any details about the changes then, although it did say that the vote had been held unanimously.
It was already expected that in this amendment references to reunification with the South would be removed and national borders would be redefined, as the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, had ordered.
Kim urged to reflect that the South – with which relations have been non-existent in the last five years – is the main national enemy, to eliminate clauses related to reunification and to clarify what the territorial limits of the country are, including the disputed western maritime border.
Zero dialogues with the South
Experts believe that Kim’s desire to discard dialogue, formalize the existence of two clearly differentiated states in the peninsula and unilaterally define the northern borders can further worsen the terrible atmosphere that is breathed in the region.
Pyongyang’s constitutional amendment comes in a context of renewed resurgence of tensions with Seoul, after the latter’s Army fired shots south of the border with the North on Tuesday in response to the detonations used by the latter to destroy sections of roads in its territory that connect both countries.
The detonations occurred in northern sections of the Gyeongui and Donghae corridors and after Pyongyang announced last week that it was going to cut all transport routes to the neighboring country.
International
Relatives of the Menéndez brothers press for their release
The family members of Erik and Lyle Menéndez, the brothers who are serving a life sentence for killing their parents in Beverly Hills more than 35 years ago, asked the Los Angeles Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday to consider releasing them, after the new evidence that came to light in the case.
The brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life imprisonment for the murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menéndez, in a controversial case in which the young people reported being sexually abused by their father.
“I had no idea of the magnitude of the abuse they suffered at the hands of my brother-in-law. None of us knew,” Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menéndez’s sister, said in a choppy voice at a press conference in Los Angeles where more than 20 family members attended.
Menéndez brothers, victims of abuse
The woman described the couple’s death as “tragic,” but warned that it is now known that the abuse “has lasting effects and that trauma victims sometimes act in ways that are very difficult to understand.”
He added that at the time of the trial “the whole world was not prepared to hear that boys could be raped … and today we know more.”
For her part, Ana Maria Baralt, Erik and Lyle’s cousin and family spokesperson, said that “if the case had been heard today, with the understanding we have now about abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, I have no doubt that the sentence would have been very different.”
Mark Geragos, the brothers’ lawyer, believes that the brothers must regain their freedom after the new evidence presented in the case to the office of the Los Angeles prosecutor, George Gascón.
The new tests
Among the new evidence is “a letter that one of the brothers allegedly sent to another family member confessing that he was a victim of abuse,” long before the murder.
Added to this are the statements of a member of the famous group Menudo, who claims that José Menéndez abused him on a visit to his home.
At the beginning of the month, Gascón said that although the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the brothers committed the murders, it considers reviewing this evidence and making a decision on whether a new sentence is necessary.
After the crime, which occurred on the afternoon of August 20, 1989 at their home, located in a luxurious Beverly Hills neighborhood, with shotguns that they had bought days before the attack, the brothers told the authorities that they found the lifeless bodies of their parents after having spent the afternoon away from home.
The details of the crime
The case gained special relevance when the brothers began to follow a life of luxury and excesses after accessing their father’s fortune, which raised the suspicions of the authorities.
Shortly after, Erik’s psychologist’s girlfriend warned the Police of the existence of recorded sessions in which she admitted and discussed her guilt.
Although the Prosecutor’s Office argued that they sought to inherit the family fortune, the brothers affirmed, and today they maintain, that their actions were due to a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse by their father.
The brothers’ lawyer, Mark Geragos, also highlighted today that during their time in prison the brothers created programs to advise and guide other inmates, and were part of the first class of 22 prisoners who obtained their university degree while they were imprisoned.
The family also opened a website to seek public support in the release of the two brothers, of Cuban roots.
International
María Corina Machado denies Maduro and denies that he has fled to Spain: “I’m here in Venezuela”
The anti-Chavista leader María Corina Machado assured, in an interview with EVTV, that she is “in Venezuela,” with which she denies the Government of Nicolás Maduro, who had said shortly before that the former deputy “fled the country to Spain,” where the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia is exiled.
“Venezuelans know that I am here in Venezuela, people know it and Nicolás Maduro also knows it. What happens is that they are desperate to know where I am, and I am not going to give them that pleasure,” said Machado, who maintained that she and the citizens of the country are “here fighting and determined to advance to the end.”
On the other hand, the head of state, according to Machado, is in a “parallel universe surrounded by bodyguards” because “he knows that the people defeated him” in the presidential elections of July 28, in which the opponent asserts that González Urrutia was the “elected” candidate, despite the fact that the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner.
“María Corina Machado fled to Spain,” says the Government
Shortly before, the Government of Venezuela had assured that Machado “fled the country to Spain,” where the standard-bearer of the opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia, considered the winner of the last presidential elections of July 28 by the Spanish Congress of Deputies, is exiled.
In a televised event, President Nicolás Maduro – proclaimed re-elected by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) – said that “the sayona” – as he usually refers to in a derogatory way to Machado – “also left” the country and “fled” to “a very good tavern there somewhere in Spain.”
Although the head of state did not mention the name of the opponent, the Minister of Communication, Freddy Ñáñez, collected these statements and assured on Telegram that, according to the president, “María Corina Machado fled the country to Spain.”
Specifically, Maduro said: “I have a secret from you, but I don’t know, do you know how to keep a secret? (…) Who likes gossip? (…) It turns out that the old man (in reference to González Urrutia) left a month ago, (…) and the sayona also left, fled, fled, (…) left until the end, a very good tavern there in a place in Spain, (…) that’s where he got. Please don’t tell this to anyone.”
The ‘Sayona’ is a character who, according to Venezuelan oral literature, appears in the form of a specter and punishes unfaithful men.
Machado and González Urrutia
Last Monday, the president, without giving names or direct references, said that “she” had left the country, despite the fact that she has been banned from leaving the national territory since June 2014.
“Don’t tell anyone, he left the country, my sources tell me that he fled (…) they are cowards, they are good at sending messages of hatred and intolerance, but he left, his Gucci suitcases arrived and he left,” he said then, once again, without giving any name.
González Urrutia, leader of the main opposition coalition – the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) – arrived in Madrid on September 8, after requesting asylum due to the political and judicial “persecution” that he denounced having suffered in his country after the elections.
After the departure of the opponent, Machado, who claims to be in “the clandestinity”, fearing for his “life” and “freedom”, reiterated that he will continue to fight from Venezuela, while González Urrutia will do so “from the outside.”
Likewise, on September 30, the former deputy, in her speech of gratitude by videoconference after having won the Václav Havel Human Rights Award, reiterated that she will “continue to fight alongside the Venezuelan people.”
North Korea amends its constitution and defines the South as a “hostile state”
Relatives of the Menéndez brothers press for their release
María Corina Machado denies Maduro and denies that he has fled to Spain: “I’m here in Venezuela”
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