Felix Batista
Felix I. Batista (disappeared 10 December 2008) is a Cuban-American anti-kidnapping expert and former U.S. Army major who has negotiated resolution to nearly 100 kidnapping and ransom cases, dozens of them in Mexico. Batista was a consultant for Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...-based security firm ASI Global. In December 2008, he was kidnapped in Mexico. Kidnapping On 10 December 2008, Batista was kidnapped outside a restaurant in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico by unknown assailants while there to speak and give anti-kidnapping advice. Batista was working as a negotiator to secure the release of a friend of his, while he was in a restaurant with several other people he received a phone call advising that the victim had been released and a car was bei ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of Harris County, Texas, Harris County, as well as the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the List of Texas metropolitan areas, second-most populous in Texas after Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth. With a population of 2,314,157 in 2023, Houston is the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most populous city in the United States after New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the List of North American cities by population, sixth-most populous city in North America. Houston is the southeast anchor of the greater megaregion known as the Texas Triangle. Comprising a land area of , Houston is the List of United S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Major (rank)
Major is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer military rank, rank used in many countries. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators, major is one rank above Captain (land), captain in armies and air forces, and one rank below lieutenant colonel. It is considered the most junior of the senior officer ranks. Background Etymologically, the word stems from the Latin word meaning "greater". The rank can be traced back to the rank of sergeant major general, which was shortened to sergeant major, and subsequently shortened to ''major''. When used in hyphenated or combined fashion, the term can also imply seniority at other levels of rank, including major general, denoting a low-level general officer, and sergeant major, denoting the most senior non-commissioned officer (NCO) of a military unit. The term major can also be used with a hyphen to denote the leader of a military band such as in Pipe-Major, pipe-major or drum-major. Links to major ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Missing American People
Missing or The Missing may refer to: Film * ''Missing'' (1918 film), an American silent drama directed by James Young * ''Missing'' (1982 film), an American historical drama directed by Costa-Gavras about the 1973 coup in Chile *, a Belgian film that was a 2007 box office number-one film in Belgium *''Missing'', a 2007 film featuring Nao Ōmori * ''Missing'' (2008 film), a Hong Kong horror film directed by Tsui Hark *, a South Korean film directed by Kim Sung-hong * ''Missing'' (2009 short film), a film starring Susan Glover * ''Missing'' (2010 film), a Jordanian film directed by Tariq Rimawi * ''Missing'' (2016 film), a South Korean film directed by Lee Eon-hee * ''Missing'' (2018 film), an Indian film directed by Mukul Abhyankar * ''Missing'' (2019 film), a Hong Kong film directed by Ronnie Chau * ''Missing'' (2023 film), an American thriller film *''Missing'', a 2024 film featuring Satomi Ishihara * ''The Missing'' (1999 film), an Australian film directed by Manuela Alberti ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hostage Negotiators
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, or refrain from acting, in a certain way, often under threat of serious physical harm or death to the hostage(s) after expiration of an ultimatum. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition'' defines a hostage as "a person who is handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war." A party who seizes one or more hostages is known as a hostage-taker; if the hostages are present voluntarily, then the receiver is known as a host. In civil society, along with kidnapping for ransom and human trafficking (often willing to ransom its captives when lucrative or to trade on influence), hostage taking is a criminal activity. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2000s Missing Person Cases
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and other latin alphabets worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History Northwest Semitic šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative (as in 'ip'). It originated most likely as a pictogram of a tooth () and represented the phoneme via the acrophonic principle. Ancient Greek did not have a "sh" phoneme, so the derived Greek letter Sigma () came to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant . While the letter shape Σ continues Phoenician ''šîn'', its name ''sigma'' is taken from the letter ''Samekh'', while the shape and position of ''samekh'' but name of ''šîn'' is continued in the '' xi''. Within Greek, the name of ''sigma'' was influenced by its association with the Greek word (earlier ), "to hiss". The original name of the letter "Sigma" may have been ''san'', but due to the ear ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1990–present
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Mesopotamia is partitioned into two Roman provinces divided by the Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Osroene. * Emperor Septimius Severus lays siege to the city-state Hatra in Central-Mesopotamia, but fails to capture the city despite breaching the walls. * Two new legions, I Parthica and III Parthica, are formed as a permanent garrison. China * Battle of Yijing: Chinese warlord Yuan Shao defeats Gongsun Zan. Korea * Geodeung succeeds Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, as king of the Korean kingdom of Gaya (traditional date). By topic Religion * Pope Zephyrinus succeeds Pope Victor I, as the 15th pope. Births Valerian Roman ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yahoo!
Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its advertising platform, Yahoo Native. It is operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc., which is 90% owned by Apollo Global Management and 10% by Verizon. Yahoo was established by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was one of the pioneers of the early Internet era in the 1990s. However, its use declined in the 2010s as some of its services were discontinued, and it lost market share to Facebook and Google. Etymology The word "yahoo" is a backronym for "Yet another, Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle" or "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". The term "hierarchical" described how the Yahoo database was arranged in layers of subcategories. The term "oracle" was intended to mean "sourc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ransom
Ransom refers to the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release. It also refers to the sum of money paid by the other party to secure a captive's freedom. When ransom means "payment", the word comes via Old French ''rançon'' from Latin ''redemptio'', 'buying back'; compare " redemption". Ransom cases Julius Caesar was captured by pirates near the island of Pharmacusa, and held until someone paid 50 talents to free him. In Europe during the Middle Ages, ransom became an important custom of chivalric warfare. An important knight, especially nobility or royalty, was worth a significant sum of money if captured, but nothing if he was killed. For this reason, the practice of ransom contributed to the development of heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, Imper ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hostage Negotiator
Crisis negotiation is a Law enforcement agency, law enforcement technique used to communicate with people who are threatening violenceStrentz, Thomas (2006). ''Psychological aspects of crisis negotiation.'' CRC Press, (workplace violence, domestic violence, suicide, or Terroristic threat, terrorism), including barricaded subjects, Stalking, stalkers, criminals attempting to escape or evade arrest, and hostage-takers.Defense Information Access Network, United States State Department (1987). ''Hostage negotiation: a matter of life and death.'' DIANE Publishing, Crisis negotiation is often initiated by the first officer(s) on the scene. History Modern hostage negotiation principles were established in 1972 when New York City Police Department detective Harvey Schlossberg, also a psychologist, recognized the need for trained personnel in crisis intervention. Schlossberg had worked on the David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") case, and had instituted other psychological principles in poli ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kidnapping
Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by fraud or deception. Kidnapping is distinguished from false imprisonment by the intentional movement of the victim to a different location. Kidnapping may be done to demand a ransom in exchange for releasing the victim, or for other illegal purposes. Kidnapping can be accompanied by bodily injury, which in some jurisdictions elevates the crime to aggravated kidnapping. Kidnapping of a child may be a distinct crime, depending on jurisdiction. Motives Kidnapping can occur for a variety of reasons, with motivations for the crime varying particularly based on the perpetrator. Ransom The kidnapping of a person, most often an adult, for ransom is a common motivation behind kidnapping. This method is primarily utilized by larger organizations, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and has Mexico-United States border, an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest. Texas has Texas Gulf Coast, a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Covering and with over 31 million residents as of 2024, it is the second-largest state List of U.S. states and territories by area, by area and List of U.S. states and territories by population, population. Texas is nicknamed the ''Lone Star State'' for its former status as the independent Republic of Texas. Spain was the first European country to Spanish Texas, claim and control Texas. Following French colonization of Texas, a short-lived colony controlled by France, Mexico ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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El Universal (Mexico City)
''El Universal'' is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. History ''El Universal'' was founded by and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Querétaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution. The circulation of the print edition of ''El Universal'' is more than 300,000 readers. In 2013 the ''El Universal'' website claimed to have an average of more than 16 million unique visitors each month, with 140 million page views, and 4 million followers on Facebook. ''Aviso Oportuno'' is the classifieds service of ''El Universal''. The brand has become widely known in Mexico, and the phrase ''Aviso Oportuno'' is sometimes used as a generic term for the classifieds business. This brand has four sub-sites: ''Inmuebles'', ''Vehículos'', ''Empleos'' and ''Varios'' (Real Estate, Vehicles, Jobs and Miscellaneous). News items are open to reader comments through a simple sign-up system which has resulted in ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |