The Recycler

Overthrow of Gaddafi Not an Easy Job

2011-04-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

- Libyan government forces tried to storm into the besieged city of Misrata on Friday as NATO generals acknowledged their air power was not enough to help insurgents remove Muammar Gaddafi by force alone. Misrata, a lone rebel outpost in the west of the country, has been under siege by Gaddafi's forces for weeks. On Friday insurgents said government troops were advancing into eastern districts and fighting street battles with rebels.

"They tried to advance and enter the city from the eastern side, from an area called Eqseer which is a populated area. The rebels confronted them and clashes are continuing," insurgent spokesman Hassan al-Misrati told Reuters.

The only active front in the war, along the Mediterranean coast around the eastern cities of Brega and Ajdabiyah, has descended into stalemate for a week with both sides making advances and then retreating behind secure lines at night. The head of U.S. Africa Command, General Carter Ham, said on Thursday the conflict was entering stalemate and it was very unlikely the rebels would be able to fight their way into Tripoli to overthrow Gaddafi.

Early hopes that Western air cover and attacks on Gaddafi forces would tip the balance in favor of the rebels have evaporated as government troops sheltered their mechanized forces near civilian areas which NATO fears attacking.

POLITICAL SOLUTION

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu followed a similar line to Ham on Friday.

"We have always made clear there is no purely military solution to this conflict. This is why it is so important to find a political solution and in this there is no stalemate," she said. Rebels have rejected peace talks with Gaddafi.

Lungescu, like other NATO officials, expressed frustration with the difficulty of hitting Gaddafi's troops while avoiding civilian casualties.

"The fact that we see Gaddafi's forces driving around in civilian vehicles means it is hard to tell who is who.

"The fact is they are using human shields and parking tanks next to mosques and schools so it is very hard to pinpoint any military hardware without causing civilian casualties," she told a briefing in Brussels.

The confusion on the desert battlefield has caused "friendly fire" incidents, the latest on Thursday, increasing anger among the rebels.

They said five of their fighters were killed when NATO planes bombed a column of 20 tanks brought out of storage and moving west out of Ajdabiyah to bolster the front around Brega.

NATO acknowledged on Friday its aircraft were probably responsible for the incident.

Ukraine Backs Russian Base Extension

2010-04-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

In Ukraine, the Legislative House approved a 25-year extension of Russian base in Crimea. Crowds of government supporters and opponents scuffled outside the parliament building as deputies from newly elected President Viktor Yanukovich's coalition approved a 25-year extension to the Russian Black Sea Fleet's base in Crimea.

Opposition lawmakers hurled eggs and smoke bombs inside Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday as the chamber approved an agreement allowing the Russian Navy to extend its stay in a Ukrainian port until 2042.

"Today will go down as a black page in the history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian parliament," former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now in opposition, told reporters inside parliament.

The chamber filled with smoke as the smoke bombs were released. Speaker Volodymyr Litvyn took shelter under umbrellas provided by bodyguards as eggs rained down on him. Protesting deputies unfurled Ukrainian flags across the benches.

The protests galvanized various opposition parties against Yanukovich for the first time since he was elected in February, and they may yet prove a defining moment in the formation of an united opposition front.

They also highlighted the deep division in the former Soviet republic of 46 million. Yanukovich enjoys support mainly from Russian speakers in the east and south, including Crimea, who lean more toward Moscow.

British Ambassador In Yemen Escaped Bomb Attack

2010-04-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

The British ambassador in Yemen narrowly escaped a homicide attack Monday, when a young man in a school uniform detonated his explosives belt near his armored car at a poor neighborhood of San'a, officials said.

The attack -- the first such bombing in the capital in a year -- raised questions over the Yemeni government's U.S.-backed campaign against Al Qaeda militants, who have found a haven in parts of the mountainous, impoverished nation where the central government's control is weak.

Washington has dramatically stepped up counterterrorism aid to San'a over the past year, warning that Al Qaeda's offshoot in Yemen has become a global threat, particularly after it claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas Day attempt to bomb an American jet liner heading for Detroit.

A British Embassy spokeswoman said the ambassador, Timothy Torlot, was unhurt in the attack Monday morning, which wounded three bystanders, including a woman.

The ambassador's vehicle was passing through the impoverished San'a district of Noqm when the explosion went off nearby, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The explosion ripped apart the bomber, and his head was found on the roof of a house about 20 meters (yards) away, it said.

Obama Refused To Use The Word Genocide

2010-04-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — President Obama, who as a candidate vowed to use the term genocide to describe the Muslim Turkish mass slaughter of Christian Armenians nearly a century ago, once again declined to do so on Saturday as he marked the anniversary of the start of the killings.

Trying to navigate one of the more emotionally fraught foreign policy challenges, Mr. Obama issued a statement from his weekend getaway here commemorating the victims of the killings but tried to avoid alienating Turkey, a NATO ally, which adamantly rejects the genocide label.

“On this solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95 years ago one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century began,” Mr. Obama said in the statement, which largely echoed the same language he used on this date a year ago. “In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.”

When he was running for president and seeking votes from some of the 1.5 million Armenian-Americans, Mr. Obama had no qualms about using the term genocide and criticized the Bush administration for recalling an ambassador who dared to say the word. As a senator, he supported legislation calling the killings genocide, and in a statement on Jan. 19, 2008, he said that “the Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact.”

Two years later, as president, he used none of that sort of language, though as he did a year ago, he hinted to Armenians that he still felt the same way. “I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed,” he said. “It is in all of our interest to see the achievement a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts.”
In March, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted narrowly to condemn the killings as an act of genocide, defying a last-minute plea from the Obama administration to forgo a vote because it would threaten the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation efforts. Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest.

Armenia announced Thursday that it would suspend ratification of peace accords with Turkey, apparently because it was angered that Turkey was making new demands.

Meanwhile, the Armenian National Committee of America, an advocacy group based in Washington, condemned the “euphemisms and evasive terminology” in Mr. Obama’s statement and called it “yet another disgraceful capitulation to Turkey’s threats.”

“Today we join with Armenians in the United States and around the world in voicing our sharp disappointment with the president’s failure to properly condemn and commemorate the Armenian genocide,” said Ken Hachikian, the committee’s chairman. He added that Mr. Obama’s failure to follow through on his campaign pledge was “allowing Turkey to tighten its gag rule on American genocide policy.”

Deadly Fungus Spreading In U.S. And Canada

2010-04-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

(Reuters) - A potentially deadly strain of fungus, the Cryptococcus gattii, is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday.

The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said.

"This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people," said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

"The findings presented here document that the outbreak of Cryptococcus gattii in Western North America is continuing to expand throughout this temperate region," the researchers said in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens.

"Our findings suggest further expansion into neighboring regions is likely to occur and aim to increase disease awareness in the region."

The new strain appears to be unusually deadly, with a mortality rate of about 25 percent among the 21 U.S. cases analyzed, they said.

"From 1999 through 2003, the cases were largely restricted to Vancouver Island," the report reads.

"Between 2003 and 2006, the outbreak expanded into neighboring mainland British Columbia and then into Washington and Oregon from 2005 to 2009. Based on this historical trajectory of expansion, the outbreak may continue to expand into the neighboring region of Northern California, and possibly further."

Drug Could Stop Spinal Injuries

2010-04-22T05:12:00.000-07:00

(Reuters) - A drug could be used to shut off a single gene, helping stop the cascade of damage that can paralyze people with spinal cord injuries, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. They propose using a common, generic diabetes drug in combination with a gene-silencing technique to stop spine injuries from getting any worse, and believe the approach may also work in people with stroke and traumatic brain injuries.

Their experiment, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, shows it is possible to stop the bleeding that can cause the damage from an injured spinal cord to spread and worsen.

"What we're doing is preventing bleeding from occurring," said Marc Simard of the University of Maryland, which has licensed the technology to a company Simard works with called Remedy Pharmaceuticals.

When the spinal cord or brain is injured, the capillaries can burst, bringing in an overwhelming wave of chemicals called inflammatory factors that are meant to heal but that often worsen the damage. This is why stroke patients do not always show immediate symptoms but can worsen in the hours afterwards.

Simard's team demonstrated that a gene called ABCC8 starts this process. It controls a molecule called the sulfonylurea receptor 1 or SUR1.

French Government Wants To Ban Full Veil

2010-04-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy of France told his cabinet on Wednesday that he would put forward a bill in May to ban the wearing of the full veil in public places in France, despite a warning from senior legal authorities that the bill may be unconstitutional. As a security measure against Muslim terrorism, Mr. Sarkozy wants a bill that goes farther than initial proposals, including a ban on wearing the full veil — the niqab, which leaves only the eyes uncovered, and the burqa, which is almost unknown in France — from streets, markets and shops, according to his spokesman, Luc Chatel.

The full veil “hurts the dignity of women and is unacceptable in French society,” Mr. Chatel quoted Mr. Sarkozy as telling the cabinet. The idea of a ban is popular with the French and with his own political party, while Mr. Sarkozy’s own standing in the opinion polls has rarely been lower.

An earlier proposal from a panel of the National Assembly suggested a bill banning the full veil in public places belonging to the state, like schools and public buildings, and in areas where facial recognition is vital for security reasons: airports, banks and even public transport.

Mr. Sarkozy’s push for broader restrictions was seen as a challenge to the Council of State, France’s top administrative authority, which warned in March that “a general and absolute ban on the full veil as such can have no incontestable judicial basis” and could be thrown out by the courts.

Ukraine and Russia Agree on Navy Base

2010-04-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

MOSCOW — Swiftly carrying out his pledge to improve strained ties with neighboring Russia, the new Ukrainian president agreed to a landmark deal on Wednesday to extend the lease on a Russian naval base on Ukrainian territory. The decision by the Ukrainian president, Viktor F. Yanukovich, represented a sharp reversal in policy and a victory for the Kremlin, which had feared that its military readiness would be undermined if the base were closed.

“We have opened a new page in relations,” Mr. Yanukovich said at a news conference in Kharkiv, in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, where the agreement was signed.

But the lease extension drew criticism from Ukrainian opposition leaders, who view the facility as a symbol of Russian interference in Ukrainian affairs and want their country to have a closer alliance with the West.

The base is located on the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea, a place of historic resonance for Russia, which has headquartered its fleet there since czarist times. Mr. Yanukovich’s predecessor, Viktor A. Yushchenko, who left office in February, was hostile to the Kremlin and had vowed that the lease would not be renewed after it expired in 2017.

International Court States That 'There Are No Reasons to Ban Botnia From Operating In The Area'

2010-04-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

The International Court of Justice read its judgment on the pulp mills case after having been analyzing it for four years, since May 2006. It established that noise and visual pollution had not been brought about by the paper mill Finnish company Botnia. Activists in Gualeguaychú watched the ruling live on TV screens set in Arroyo Verde, where they are still gathering.

The reading began at 10:00am sharp. An interpreter simultaneously translated the ruling, for it was read in French and in English. People have been flooding the streets during the night, and some neighbours even arrived yesterday to the chosen spot. Picketers are also present. The International Court of Justice has so far established that no visual or noise pollution was brought about by Botnia paper mill, as well as sentencing that it is no responsibility of the Court to rule on the company's bad smells or its impact on tourism.

Judge Peter Tomka said that the Court "is no witnessing any strong arguments for the demands to be supported", when referring to Argentina's accusation of the pulp mill harming the environment. Tomka as well specified that "no article in the River Uruguay Treaty tackles ‘the bad smells' issue" and, due to this fact, Argentina's demand of this issue and on the tourism impact is not to be taken into account. "Argentina hasn't shown any strong signs of this types of pollution," the ICJ ruling went on.

As for Uruguay and the Treaty, the Court ruled the country had violated the 7th article, for it had allowed Botnia to operate in the area without informing it to the Administrative Commission of the River Uruguay (CARU in Spanish).

Montevideo's administration was sentenced to have not complied with the Treaty, as Argentina it fact has, according to the International Court of Justice's ruling.

The magistrates who form the Court assure they are not to rule of specific issues such as the noise, visual pollution and the bad smells demand. A negotiation stage was suggested for both countries.

As Uruguay has violated the 7th article of the River Uruguay Treaty, it was highlighted that the country had not informed the Administrative Commission of the River Uruguay of the paper mill's operation, as this article specified "any project" must be reported to the CARU.

"Uruguay had not reported on Botnia's projects before it had started to function alongside River Uruguay. It has violated its informing obligation," the Court sentenced.

Argentine and Uruguayan delagations are listening to the International Court of Justice's ruling. The national delegation includes officials such as Ambassador Susana Ruiz Cerruti, escorted by Argentine Ambassador to the Netherlands Santos Goñi Marenco and National Institute of Foreign Service's head Horacio Basabe.

UK's third party surge raises election uncertainty

2010-04-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

New polls on Monday showed Britain's opposition Liberal Democrats surging in popularity ahead of a May 6 election as the two larger parties tried to fend off the unexpected centrist challenge.

The election has been thrown wide open since a strong performance by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg last Thursday in a live TV debate with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Labor and frontrunner David Cameron of the opposition Conservatives.

In the latest of a series of shock poll results, a YouGov survey published in the Sun newspaper found the Liberal Democrats, or Lib Dems, in first place. An ICM poll for the Guardian put them second, ahead of center-left Labor, which has been in power for 13 years.

Cameron, 43, has long been the favorite to be the new prime minister, but he needs his center-right party to win an overall majority in parliament and the Lib Dems could deprive him of that if they are able to sustain the momentum until May 6.

Goldman case helps financial reform

2010-04-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Representative Barney Frank said on Monday that securities regulators' fraud case against Goldman Sachs increases the chance that financial reform will pass. Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, also said he does not believe all 41 Republicans in the Senate will vote against the financial reform bill.

"It reinforces the need for much of what we were doing" on financial reform, Frank said on CNBC Television. On Friday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman with fraud for its marketing of a subprime mortgage product.

Frank also said it is not essential to create a standing fund of capital to dismantle troubled financial firms, responding to Republican objections that it would amount to a bailout fund.

Marines Assault On Marjah

2010-02-14T06:28:00.000-08:00

MARJAH, Afghanistan — U.S. Marines have launched a major assault on Marjah, but it could take weeks to reclaim this Taliban stronghold, a top Marine commander said Sunday as thousands of U.S. troops and Afghan soldiers fought for a second day in NATO's most ambitious effort yet to break the militants' grip on Afghanistan's dangerous south.

"That doesn't necessarily mean an intense gun battle, but it probably will be 30 days of clearing," Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said. "I am more than cautiously optimistic that we will get it done before that."

Squads of Marines and Afghan soldiers occupied a majority of Marjah, but sporadic gun battles erupted as pockets of militants dug in and fought. Sniper fire forced Nicholson to duck behind an earthen bank in the northern part of the city where he toured the tip of the Marines' front line held by Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines.

"The fire we just took reflects how I think this will go — small pockets of sporadic fighting by small groups of very mobile individuals," he said.

Afghan officials said Sunday that at least 27 insurgents have been killed in the operation. NATO reported two troop casualties from the first day of the offensive — an American and a Briton. Seven civilians have been wounded but there were no reports of deaths, Helmand provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said.

The offensive, called "Moshtarak," or "Together," is the biggest joint operation since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, with 15,000 troops involved, including some 7,500 in Marjah itself.

Between 400 and 1,000 insurgents — including more than 100 foreign fighters — were believed to be holed up in Marjah, a town of 80,000 people that is the linchpin of the militants' logistical and opium-smuggling network in the south.

The second day of the massive NATO offensive was marked by painstaking searches from compound to compound as Marines and Afghan troops used metal detectors and sniffer dogs to locate explosives rigged to blow.

They also encountered pockets of resistance, fighting off sniper attacks, as they moved deeper into the town.

"We're in the majority of the city at this point," said Lt. Josh Diddams, a Marine spokesman. He said the nature of the resistance has changed from the initial assault, with insurgents now holding ground in some neighborhoods.

"We're starting to come across areas where the insurgents have actually taken up defensive positions," he said. "Initially it was more hit and run."

Meanwhile, thousands of other British, Afghan and U.S. troops fanned out across the Nad Ali district to the north of the mud-brick town.

Explosions from controlled detonations of bombs and other explosives were being heard about every 10 minutes in the area.

"There's really a massive amount of improvised explosive devices," Nicholson said. "We thought there would be a lot, but we are finding even more than expected."

NATO forces uncovered 550 pounds of ammonium nitrate and other bomb-making materials while clearing a compound in Marjah, a coalition statement said. They also found a weapons cache in Nad Ali that included artillery rounds, pressure plates and blasting caps.

Laura Chinchilla Political Background

2010-02-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Laura Chinchilla has been called tough, intelligent, funny and honest. Late Sunday, Costa Ricans added another description: first female president.

The 50-year-old Chinchilla -- who served as a legislator, public security minister and vice president -- handily defeated six other candidates to win the presidency.
She pledged to protect Costa Rica from increasing crime, complete outgoing President Oscar Arias' plan to produce the first carbon neutral country by 2021 and shepherd the country of 4.5 million toward being the first developed nation in Latin America.

Chinchilla's victory puts Costa Rica among the small but growing list of Latin American countries to elect woman presidents in recent years, including Argentina and Chile.

``She is `amply' prepared for her role,'' said former professor and advisor Constantino Urcuyo, for whom Chinchilla apprenticed while she was a student at the University of Costa Rica. ``Her political résumé alone has made her very prepared.''

Backed by the ruling party and seen as Arias' protégé, Chinchilla was often accused of representing a continuation of the government, which helped and hurt her campaign.

``We want change for Costa Rica,'' said Jesus López, who spent Sunday campaigning for Libertarian candidate Otto Guevara, a Harvard-educated attorney, who won 20.9 percent of the vote. ``We don't want another member of the Arias regime.''

But Chinchilla moved to emphasize her independence during the campaign -- and again after her victory was announced.

``We are open to dialogue, advice and permanent consultation. But when
the moment arrives after listening to different perspectives . . . we have to make the decision.''

To her younger brother, Rafael Chinchilla, who joined her on the campaign trail, Chinchilla is someone who is ``funny, pragmatic, intelligent and very human.''

``She always finds what can be done and gets it done, but she is honest with the impossible,'' said Rafael Chinchilla, 48. ``I can remember in television interviews when she first became public security minister in 1996. She said, `We have strong security problems and I am not going to fix them in two years, but here is what I can do . . . ' She is very honest with what's doable.''

Chinchilla was born the only daughter of Rafael Angel Chinchilla and Emilce Mirando Castillo in a suburb of San José. She learned politics from her father, who served as the country's comptroller between 1972 and 1987.

A young girl who loved to dance, but was a little too mechanical with musical instruments, her father remembered, Chinchilla developed an interest in politics at a young age and became involved in student groups at the university.

``She was intelligent, always in the 90th percentile, but not an academic,'' said Urcuyo, a political analyst at the think tank Center for Political Research and Training (CIAPA) and a former political science professor at the University of Costa Rica.

At 26, Chinchilla received a scholarship to pursue a master's degree in public policy at Georgetown University and later worked on judicial and security reform. Under former President José María Figueres, she began her public life as vice minister of security in 1994 becoming the country's first female public security minister in 1996.

In a moment that revealed a glimpse of home life on election night, Chinchilla said she spent the hours immediately after the polls closed ironing shirts and preparing her family for the victory party as her close friends and advisors read off the poll numbers. She shook her head, smiled and said she was just like any other mother.

Being a mother and wife -- something new to Costa Rica's Casa Presidencial -- wasn't an obstacle for Chinchilla on the campaign trail, Urcuyo said.

``In Costa Rica, [machismo] is not a problem in the political sphere,'' he said. ``Maybe within families where there are often high rates of domestic crimes, but reforms have opened political spheres up to women and men have accepted it.''

Though Chinchilla promotes gender issues, promising to create a national daycare system and create new opportunities for women, her brother said, ``She is no feminist.''

She lost the feminist vote on Election Day because of her right-of-center political views, some feminist groups said.

In an e-mail circulated by feminist groups months before the election, women rights leaders wrote, ``We respect Laura Chinchilla, as a woman and as a citizen, but we don't share her political principles.''

Despite lack of support from feminist groups, Chinchilla praised women who blazed the trail for her during her victory speech.

Chavez Declares Energy Emergency

2010-02-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez has signed a decree declaring an energy emergency in Venezuela to facilitate his government's efforts to ease severe energy shortages. Last week, he had turned to Cuba for help on the energy issue.

Venezuela imposed electricity and water rationing in December to prevent a collapse of the electricity grid as severe drought drops water levels behind the Guri Dam to critical lows. The dam supplies most of Venezuela's electricity.

Energy Minister Ali Rodriguez says the government must accelerate plans to reduce energy consumption while boosting production. Chavez signed the emergency decree Monday.

Patient In Vegetative State Communicates By Thought

2010-02-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

A man who was presumed to be in a vegetative state for five years has answered questions using his thoughts alone in a ground-breaking experiment that promises to allow some patients who are “locked in” by brain injuries to communicate.

The 29-year-old Belgian was able to reply to simple “yes”/”no” questions such as “Is your father’s name Alexander?” by changing his brain activity. Scientists then read his answers by studying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans.

He had previously failed to show any signs of consciousness after suffering a severe brain injury in a road accident. A vegetative state (VS), in which patients wake from a coma but appear to have no awareness, had been diagnosed.
The remarkable results, from British and Belgian researchers, suggest that at least some VS patients are able not only to hear and understand people, but also to respond mentally in ways that can be harnessed for communication.

“It’s very possibly the case that we will get into a situation within ten years where patients incapable of any response are able to communicate using their brain alone on a day-to-day basis,” said Adrian Owen, of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, a leader of the research.

The advance, however, raises difficult ethical questions, such as whether patients could use the technology to express a wish to die. While they may be able to answer “yes”/”no” questions, their brain damage may mean they lack the capacity to give informed consent to life-or-death decisions.

“An obvious question you might ask is whether you want to be kept alive, but there are ethical and legal hurdles that need to be crossed to determine whether a patient has the cognitive wherewithal to make decisions like this for themselves,” Dr Owen said. “You can’t do that on the basis of these results for one gentleman.”

He said that the findings, which are published in The New England Journal of Medicine, had been a comfort to the patient’s relatives. “One of the most difficult things in this situation is not knowing whether you’re getting through, whether your loved one can understand you,” he said.

Illegal Muslim Immigrants Joins Leftist Activists In France

2010-02-07T08:40:00.001-08:00

French riot police are on standby to evacuate migrants from a warehouse in Calais after ministers expressed concern that the building could become a base for those trying to reach Britain.

Up to 100 migrants, mainly Afghan, broke through a police cordon to gain access to the warehouse, which was rented by left-wing activists opposed to the French Government's immigration policies.

However, many left in search of food today and were prevented from regaining the building afterwards. Only a dozen or so migrants were still in the warehouse, according to locals.

The incident occurred less than five months after officials ordered the destruction of The Jungle, a makeshift camp in Calais that was home to hundreds of migrants hoping to cross the Channel to Britain.

In a statement, Eric Besson, the Immigration Minister, said that he would not let the warehouse become a ''new Jungle ... serving as a rear base, near the port of Calais for human-trafficking gangs who might ship into Europe potential terrorists from Muslim countries.

He said that he would ''put an end to an unacceptable situation'', suggesting that he was ready to order an evacuation by the 75 or so riot police stationed around the building.

Natacha Bouchart, the Mayor of Calais, called on the Government to expel the migrants within 48 hours, and said that they had only got into the building because of a ''flaw'' in policing.

Officials had known that No Border, a hard-left migrant-support group, was planning to use the building as a shelter and had ordered police to seal off the road that led to it.

But officers let the migrants through yesterday after activists said that they were holding a party and would clear the warehouse when it had finished. Instead, the migrants spent the night there.

The stand-off comes with French officials hailing the destruction of the Jungle as a decisive blow in the struggle against the people-trafficking networks that transport migrants from Calais to Dover.

They say that the number of migrants in the French port has fallen from more than 1,000 to fewer than 300 since the operation in September.

''There has been a considerable improvement and the numbers we now have are much more manageable,'' said Mrs Bouchart.

Afghanistan: Special Forces Infiltrate Taliban Stronghold

2010-02-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

Elite British and American troops, poised to assault the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, have begun targeting insurgent leaders for assassination. Military sources said special forces had been infiltrating the town on "kinetic" missions — jargon for armed attacks. "Special forces guys have been going in on assassination missions with the aim of decapitating the Taliban force," one said.

At the British base of Camp Bastion and the adjoining Camp Leatherneck, the U.S. Marine base, troops and munitions have been airlifted in by night to avoid enemy rockets. It is clear that international forces are on the brink of a big battle. All Saturday morning, the thud-thud-thud of heavy machine guns and the crump of mortars filled the air.

In a break from traditional military secrecy, American, British and Afghan commanders have announced that Marjah, the last town in Helmand under Taliban control, will be attacked.

Operation Moshtarak (“Together”) will be by far the largest offensive since General Stanley McChrystal, the American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, instigated his counter-insurgency strategy, backed by President Obama’s 30,000-troop "surge."

About 1,000 Taliban, mostly Afghans but with some foreign fighters in their ranks, are believed to be in Marjah, an opium centre and local headquarters for bomb-making and sending out homicide bombers.

Military sources described the use of publicity as a psychological tactic to intimidate the Taliban into laying down their weapons or fleeing.

For Chávez, A Tough Year Ahead

2010-02-07T07:19:00.000-08:00

According to political pundits president Hugo Chávez will face a tough year. It will be like going uphill with lot of rocks rolling downhill. With protests, high inflation, accusations of being involved in the FARC's cocaine trafficking, and falling approval ratings.

Marking 11 years in power this week and with a decisive Parliamentary election scheduled for late September, President Hugo Chávez faces his greatest crisis since the brief coup against him in 2002.

``This year will be a very difficult one and an uphill [battle] for Chávez, and he has little maneuvering room, because he is coming up against a huge crisis,'' said political analyst Manuel Felipe Sierra in Caracas.

Student protests continued for a second week in Caracas and other cities, confronting a harsh response from police, amid new signs that Chávez plans to strengthen his position while facing serious economic problems, an alarming political polarization and growing popular discontent.

In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, Chávez said Ramiro Valdes, vice president of the Council of State of Cuba and its Minister of Technology and Information, will chair a committee to address the electricity crisis in Venezuela.
The news raised suspicions. Valdes, who served as interior minister several times over nearly 50 years, is the creator of Cuba's security apparatus and has always been considered one of the most hard-line officials in Castro's government.

Chavez Crushes Students Demonstration

2010-02-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

CARACAS, Venezuela - Police used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter hundreds of students who were peacefully demonstrating against the government crack down on the independent press. While President Hugo Chavez's indoctrinated supporters celebrated the 18th anniversary of his failed coup as an army officer against the democratic government of Andres Perez, thousands of students were being viciously beaten by police sticks and plastic bullets.

Caracas Police Chief Carlos Meza said authorities broke up the protest because university students had not been granted permission to march. He said the denial was aimed at preventing clashes with thousands of "Chavistas" marching across the capital to mark the botched 1992 military rebellion that Chavez led as a lieutenant colonel.

"They don't have permission to march," Meza said.

Student leaders countered that they have the right to stage peaceful protests, and they said authorities loyal to Chavez frequently deny them permission to demonstrate. Before the protest was dispersed, students chanted: "We're students, not coup plotters!"

"This is one more demonstration of the government's abuse of power," student leader Roderick Navarro said.

Students started leading protests last week after the government pressured cable and satellite TV providers to stop transmitting an opposition channel. Students have organized demonstrations in cities across the country, accusing Chavez of forcing Radio Caracas Television International off the airwaves as a means of silencing his critics.

Chavez Asks Cuba For Help

2010-02-04T04:08:00.000-08:00

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez has asked his friends in Cuba for help in solving Venezuela's energy crisis, drawing criticism for seeking advice from the communist-led island that has struggled with its own electricity woes. Populism and corruption have led Venezuela to this paradox: the country which is one of the biggest oil and natural gas producers suffers from engergy crisis! With all the money Mr. Chavez has squandered in helping boost his leftist Bolivariana Revolution and put his leftist buddies in power (Correas, Cristina Kirchner, Ortega, etc.), he could have had at least 30 thermoelectric power plants built in Venezuela, and then be able to boost, not his crazy leftist ideas, but Venezuela's economy. But... as the saying goes: the populist loves the poor so much that he multiplies them!!!

Chavez gave few details on Wednesday about what is expected of Cuba, but insisted that "it's valuable experience that's serving us well." He said that he spoke for hours Tuesday with Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes after his arrival in Venezuela to lead the consulting team.
The decision to seek help from Cuba bewildered Venezuelans coping with the nation's power shortage.

"It's laughable that he's looking for help from Cuba," said Aixa Lopez, director of the Committee for People Affected by Power Outages, which monitors the extent of current energy shortages and rationing in Venezuela.

Chavez blames a drought for bringing the country's hydroelectric reservoirs to their lowest levels in decades, prompting a wave of planned and unplanned blackouts across the country.
Critics acknowledge the lack of rainfall, but blame Chavez's government for failing to upgrade power generation capacity even as the oil-rich country's consumption has soared.

Cuba itself has suffered a series of electricity crises since the collapse of the Soviet Union removed a major source of oil and financing. It now gets much of its imported oil from Venezuela.

The island's communist government has had some success against once-routine blackouts by upgrading generating capacity and imposing sometimes draconian energy-saving measures.
Even so, Cuban officials last summer were forced to idle some state factories while turning off the lights and air conditioners in many government office buildings, banks, retail stores and other businesses. Officials have hinted at even more strict conservation methods will be imposed throughout 2010.

Chavez has experimented with similar measures, ordering some public institutions to close at 1 p.m. and partially shutting down state-run steel and aluminum plants. Officials also are installing tens of thousands of energy-saving light bulbs imported from Cuba.

Cuba is already aiding Venezuela in a cloud-seeding effort the government hopes will ease the drought.

Valdes, who fought alongside Fidel and Raul Castro to topple dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, is a former interior minister and current minister of communications. For more than a decade, he ran Cuba's Electronic Group, overseeing technology projects and skirting the U.S. trade embargo by importing tons of equipment into Cuba through third-party nations.

Bomber Rammed US Troops' Vehicle In Pakistan

2010-02-04T03:57:00.000-08:00

The suicide bomber who killed three U.S. soldiers in northwestern Pakistan rammed his car into their vehicle, raising questions about whether the attacker had inside information on the location of the troops, police said Thursday.

The attack, which occurred Wednesday in the former Pakistani Taliban stronghold of Lower Dir, came as U.S. intelligence officials said they believe the militant group's chief recently died from injuries sustained in a U.S. drone strike in mid-January. Police official Naeem Khan said Pakistani authorities are investigating whether the bomber knew the soldiers, who were training Pakistani forces to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda, would be passing through Shahi Koto town where the attack occurred and which vehicle to target out of the 5-car convoy.

"We launched a massive search in the area yesterday, and now about 35 suspects are in our custody and we are questioning them in an effort to trace those who orchestrated the suicide attack," Khan told The Associated Press. "God willing, we will capture those responsible for this carnage."

The blast also killed three girls at a nearby school and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier traveling with the Americans. Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded, along with about 100 other people, mostly students at the school. Several were left trapped, bloodied and screaming in the rubble.

U.S. officials said Wednesday it did not appear the soldiers were specifically targeted in the attack, and initial reports indicated the blast was caused by a roadside bomb. The latest information raises the specter of a militant informant close to the training mission.

The soldiers' deaths were the first known U.S. military fatalities in nearly three years in Pakistan's Afghan border region, drawing attention to a training program officials rarely discuss because of opposition here to American boots on Pakistani soil.

Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan does not allow U.S. combat troops on its territory, making training local security forces an important part of ensuring that militants are not able to use the area as a sanctuary from which to attack American and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has also relied on drone missile strikes to target militants in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal area near the Afghan border. A senior intelligence official said Wednesday that U.S. counterterrorism officials believe Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is dead following one such strike last month. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

The statement came after days of posturing by Pakistani Taliban officials, who first said they would prove their leader was alive and well, then reversed course and said they saw no need to prove it. It was unclear whether Wednesday's bombing had any connection to Mehsud's reported death. The group stepped up attacks last year after Mehsud's predecessor was also killed in a U.S. drone strike.

The soldiers killed Wednesday were part of a small group of American soldiers training members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Pakistan's army and the U.S. Embassy said. The mission is trying to strengthen the ill-equipped and poorly trained outfit's ability to fight militants.

While not a secret, neither the Pakistanis or the Americans have talked much about the program because of the political sensitivity in Pakistan of accepting American assistance. While the government in Islamabad is closely allied with Washington, America is deeply unpopular among many Pakistanis, even those who recognize that fighting militants is in their country's interest.

The soldiers killed Wednesday were driving to attend the inauguration of a girl's school, but the school that was damaged in the blast was not the one where the convoy was heading.

Toxic Cadmium in Adult Jewelry

2010-02-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

Heavy metal cadmium was found in jewelry on Tuesday as a California environmental group said new testing of adult necklaces and bracelets bought at three leading retailers, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Aeropostale, detected high levels of the toxic material - as much as 75 percent by weight.

One of the pieces was made in China and another was made in India. Labeling on a black-colored link necklace, purchased at Saks for $69.99, did not indicate where it was made.
Based on the results of its testing, the Center for Environmental Health said it would seek a ban on cadmium in all jewelry.

The center said it began lab testing adult jewelry for cadmium after an Associated Press investigation reported last month that pieces of cheap children's jewelry imported from China contained levels of cadmium of up to 91 percent of their total content.

In response to an AP inquiry about the adult jewelry findings, the parent company of Catherines, a national chain of plus-size stores, said Tuesday that it was pulling a bracelet with a pink "breast cancer awareness" charm that was found to have high levels of cadmium from all 460 of its stories. The item, made in China, was bought for $6.99.

Saks Inc. spokeswoman Julia Bentley said only: "We received a letter from the CEH today and are reviewing and evaluating this matter."

Aeropostale did not respond to requests for comment after tests showed that a circular pendant on a necklace bought at the retailer for $7.99 also revealed a relatively high level of cadmium, according to the center. The piece was made in India.

Muslim Terrorists Launch Floating Bombs at Israel

2010-02-02T13:21:00.000-08:00

Palestinian extremists claimed Tuesday they had sent a barrage of floating barrels filled with explosives toward Israel's beaches to avenge the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouha Hamas terrorist leader, who was responsible for many murderous bomb attacks against innocent civilians.

Police cordoned off beaches, ordered surfers out of the water and deployed robotic bomb squads along a large swath of southern Israel's coastline after two explosive-laden barrels washed up on shore, ready to blow up. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas and hinted at retaliation.

Abu Saed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza faction with close ties to Hamas, said the attack was meant to avenge the killing last month of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a veteran Hamas operative who Israeli defense officials say was involved in smuggling rockets into Gaza.

Hamas says Israeli Mossad agents ambushed al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room, immobilized him with an electrical shock and strangled him to death.

Hamas and its Iranian patrons have accused Israeli agents of killing him. Israel has refused to comment on the allegations.

"We confirm that there are still many of these charges in the ocean, and they haven't exploded yet. The Zionist enemy should expect more of these operations from the hands of the Palestinian resistance," Abu Saed said, standing alongside five other gunmen in military fatigues.

A joint statement from his group and two other small factions — Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — said they sent eight bombs and detonated them by remote control. Hamas did not sign the statement.

In Jerusalem, Netanyahu accused Hamas, which rules Gaza, of being behind the operation, with support from Iran and Syria.

"We view with great severity the Hamas operation near the Gaza beach, and we will respond accordingly," he said at a news conference with visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He did not elaborate.

On Monday afternoon, a barrel bomb washed up on the beach of Ashkelon, about nine miles (15 kilometers) north of Gaza. A few hours later, another one was found at Ashdod, six miles (10 kilometers) farther north.

Each had about 22 pounds (10 kilograms ) of explosives, police said. They said bombs of that size could cripple small civilian vessels but not Israeli warships.

The barrels should not pose a threat to shipping lanes in the east Mediterranean since the tides would just carry them back to shore.

The second barrel blew up as a police robot was examining it, sending the tractor-like device tumbling through the air, according to witnesses. A police bomb squad defused the other one. No one was hurt.

Ahmadinejad Wants to Exchange U.S. Hikers For Iranian Terrorists In U.S. Prisons

2010-02-02T13:07:00.000-08:00

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested in a television interview Tuesday that Iran would release three jailed U.S. hikers in exchange for Iranians currently serving in American prisons. Ahmadinejad said that there were ongoing negotiations about possibly exchanging the hikers for several Iranians jailed for years in the United States.

"There are some talks under way to have an exchange, if it is possible," he said. "Recently they (the U.S.) have sent messages, we answered to bring them (the Iranians), to bring these people (the hikers). We are hopeful that all prisoners to be released."

Ahmadinejad did not mention any specific cases but in December Iran released a list of 11 Iranians it says are being held in the U.S. — including a nuclear scientist who disappeared in Saudi Arabia and a former Defense Ministry official who vanished in Turkey. The list also includes an Iranian arrested in Canada on charges of trying to obtain nuclear technology.

"I had said I would help in releasing them, but the attitude of some of U.S. officials damages the job," said Ahmadinejad. "There are a large number of Iranians in prison in the U.S. They have abducted some of our citizens in other countries."

Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were hiking in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region in July when they accidentally crossed the border, their families have said. Iran's foreign minister said in late December that the three would be tried in court, but he did not say when a trial would begin or what the three would be charged with other than to say they had "suspicious aims." Earlier, the country's chief prosecutor said they were accused of spying.

Their families say that's ludicrous and last month hired an Iranian attorney to press the case. Ahmadinejad said there were "indications they knew they were crossing into Iran."

The last time anyone sympathetic saw the three was at the end of October, when Swiss diplomats were granted a short visit. The U.S. has no diplomatic relationship with Iran and is represented in such matters by the Swiss. At the time, the diplomats said the three were in good health. In December, in an interview with ABC News, Ahmadinejad appeared to hedge on his promise to help free the hikers.

Their jailing comes amid continued tension between the U.S. and Iran over that nation's nuclear program. When the list of 11 Iranians came out State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said it appeared the Iranian government was trying to suggest some kind of equivalence between the hikers and Iranians that had left Iran.

"There really is no equivalence at all," he said at the time. Three of the Iranians on the list have been convicted or charged in public court proceedings in the United States. The circumstances surrounding some of the others are more mysterious.

Ali Reza Asgari, a retired general in the elite Revolutionary Guard and a former deputy defense minister, disappeared while on a private trip to Turkey in December 2006.

Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist, went missing while on a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia in June. Iran's foreign minister has accused the U.S. of helping to kidnap him and has asked for his return.

The list also includes three Iranians who Tehran claims were abducted in Europe and sent to the U.S.: merchant Mohsen Afrasiabi, who it says disappeared in Germany, as well as electrical engineering student Majid Kakavand and a former ambassador to Jordan, Nasrollah Tajik, who it says vanished in France.

French media have reported that Kakavand was arrested in March at the request of the U.S. on suspicion he obtained electronic equipment. He was jailed, then moved to house arrest on Aug. 27. The French press has reported that Tajik went missing in Britain.

Three of the Iranians Tehran is asking about have faced public legal proceedings in the U.S. One of them, Baktash Fattahi, is a legal U.S. resident. He was arrested in April in California and charged with conspiracy to export American-made military aircraft parts to Iran.

Another, Amir Amirnazmi, is a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen who was convicted by a court in Pennsylvania in February of business dealings with Iranian companies banned under U.S. sanctions.

Amir Hossein Ardebili was sentenced to five years in prison on Dec. 14 by a court in Wilmington, Delaware, after pleading guilty to plotting to ship U.S. military technology to Iran. Iran has called it a show trial and said Ardebili was abducted in the former Soviet republic of Georgia in 2007 before being handed over to U.S. authorities in 2008.

One of the other Iranians, Mahmoud Yadegari, was arrested in April in Canada after a joint investigation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and charged with trying to send nuclear technology to his native Iran.

Authorities allege Yadegari tried to procure and export pressure transducers, which can be used in the production of enriched uranium but also have many legitimate commercial uses.

The other two Iranians on the list are Amir-Shahrzad Amir-Qolikhani and Hassan Saeid Kashari. Iran gave no information about them other than to say they are being held in the U.S. without charge.

Brazil's Cosan and Shell Made a Deal

2010-02-01T05:24:00.000-08:00

SAO PAULO - Brazil's Cosan, the world's largest ethanol and sugar processor, agreed on Monday to merge its ethanol and fuel distribution business with Royal Dutch Shell in a deal worth as much as $12 billion.

The transaction expands Shell's biofuels operations in Brazil, continuing a trend from 2008 when BP took a stake in a big Brazilian biofuels project and announced $1 billion in investments.

The deal would extend Cosan's fuel distribution business in Brazil after the company took over U.S.-based ExxonMobil's Esso unit in 2008 for nearly $1 billion. Cosan last month also agreed to buy a local chain of filling stations called Petrosul for an undisclosed sum.

Cosan said the combined company will have 4,500 filling stations around Brazil, becoming the country's third-largest fuel distributor and helping the company sell directly to consumers a large portion of the ethanol it produces.

Cosan said it has 180 days to discuss the non-binding memorandum of understanding exclusively with Shell International Petroleum Company Ltd.

As part of the transaction, Cosan will transfer its sugar, ethanol, fuels distribution and energy generation business to the merged entity, with assets valued at $4.925 billion and debt of $2.524 billion.

Cosan said Shell will contribute its retail fuels and aviation distribution business and will inject about $1.625 billion into the merged company in up to two years. Cosan will contribute another $300 million in cash over five years.

Cosan and Shell will have the option of buying out each other's stake in the venture after 10 years, with the price of the stakes to be determined at the time of purchase, Cosan said.

Irak: Bomb Attack Killed 41

2010-02-01T05:16:00.000-08:00

A female suicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 41 people. An official says the bomber struck Monday as the pilgrims were walking near the Shiite neighborhood of Shaab. He says that about 106 people were wounded.

A hospital official also confirmed the casualties. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Baghdad's top military spokesman, said 19 people were killed and 80 wounded. Conflicting casualty counts are common in the aftermath of an attack.

Despite an overall decline in violence in Iraq, al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists have routinely targeted pilgrims in an attempt to stoke sectarian strife and make the Shiite-dominated government look bad.

This week, hundreds of thousands of Shiites make the pilgrimage to Karbala to mark the end of 40 days of mourning that follows Ashoura, the anniversary of the death Imam Hussein, one of two revered Shiite figures buried there.

A steady stream of pilgrims - some carrying green, black or red banners - have been walking through the Shaab neighborhood, following a highway out of Baghdad en route to the shrine.

That is the way of Islam, killing those who a fundamentalist thinks are infidels.

Fast Speed Trains in America?

2010-01-30T06:09:00.000-08:00

High-speed railroads that travel upwards of 200 miles per hour whisk commuters around France, China and Spain. Does America have the technology and the know-how to build such a system?

President Obama has announced a multibillion-dollar investment in high-speed railroads that could travel as fast as 200 miles per hour. Could high-speed rail become America's new Eisenhower Interstate, criss-crossing the nation and whisking us from Baton Rouge to Bethesda in mere hours? And does America have the technology and the know-how to build such a system?

"The talent is here in the U.S. to build high-speed rail networks," says Thomas D. Simpson, executive director of Washington D.C.'s Railway Supply Institute. "All we've ever needed is the wherewithal to do it. And 8 billion is going to get us started."

High-speed rail is an umbrella term that encompasses trains that travel over 90 mph, and as fast as 200 or more. And it's very real: Today, French TGV trains can take you from Paris to Lyons -- a journey of 250 miles -- in two hours. Amtrak's Acela covers the same distance in five hours, and that's the best the U.S. has to offer at present. China's high-speed trains cover 664 miles in just 3 hours, averaging a stunning 217 mph.

High-speed trains are very different from existing passenger trains (and from maglev trains, in which magnetic forces lift, propel, and guide a vehicle over a guideway at up to 300 mph): The rails they ride on need to be electrified and require different grades, plus federal regulations dictate that trains that travel over 110 mph can't go over graded crossings. That means they'll require entirely new tracks.

"There's a paradox," explains Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association. "High-speed rail on the one hand is a just a train. But when you combine better trains and better tracks together, you get something that's completely transformational in the way cities interact and people travel."

In addition, high-speed rail has the potential to reduce oil use by 125 million barrels a year, according to Environment America. Only foreign companies like France's TGV, Canada's Bombardier, and Germany's Siemens manufacturer the trains, though many operate manufacturing facilities here in the U.S. Harnish thinks given the demand, American companies have plenty of room to innovate in this market.

"We don't have an industry, so we're not going to start it new? It's silly," says Harnish. "What happened in Spain and Korea and China was that a foreign manufacturer came in and built the first sets. Then the industry grew up to build their own sets."

Israel Killed Hamas Terrorist Leader

2010-01-29T05:20:00.000-08:00

Hamas accused Israeli agents of assassinating one of the Palestinian militant group's veteran operatives, and vowed to retaliate.

The militant group identified its slain figure as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing and one of the planners of many terrorist attacks carried out on inocent civilians in Israel. Al-Mabhouh, 50, was responsible for hundreds of deadly attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israelis since the 1980s. Hamas blamed Israel for his death, but gave no details on how al-Mabhouh was killed.

The Israeili newspaper Ha'aretz, however, quoting al-Mabhouh's brother, reported that a medical team that examined Mabhouh had determined that he died after a massive electric shock to the head, and that there was evidence of strangulation.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment on the claims.

Haiti: Quake Survivors Are Being Raped by Criminals

2010-01-29T05:07:00.000-08:00

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Criminals in Haiti are preying on vulnerable earthquake survivors, even raping women, in makeshift camps which were set up in the capital of Port-au-Prince after the disaster. Haiti has sunk into a black chaotic world of boundless lawlessness.

"With the blackout that's befallen the Haitian capital, bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents," Haiti’s national police chief Mario Andresol said yesterday.

"We have more than 7,000 detainees in the streets who escaped from the National Penitentiary the evening of the earthquake... It took us five years to apprehend them. Today they are running wild.

Rachelle Dolce, who is living at a large makeshift camp on the Petionville Club Golf Course, said she thought a rape had occurred outside her tent the previous night. She said she heard men making noise and a woman struggling.

"I heard a fight outside, and I saw panties on the ground," she said. "I started to shout a lot, and they left."

Fund to reintegrate Afghan Taliban

2010-01-28T03:44:00.000-08:00

LONDON- The international community must aim to turn the tide in Afghanistan by the middle of next year, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Thursday. He told a 60-nation conference that both Afghan and international forces would be strengthened and a new fund set up to win over Taliban fighters who severed ties with al Qaeda and renounced violence.

NATO allies hope this, combined with a fresh commitment to development and the influx of an extra 30,000 U.S. troops, will break a stalemate in a war now into its ninth year.

"By the middle of next year, we have to turn the tide in the fight against the insurgency," Brown told the conference.

Western governments are hoping a final military and civilian push will put them in a position of strength to begin withdrawing troops in 2011 and negotiate a political settlement.

With public opinion wearying of war, attention is already turning to an eventual exit strategy involving a political settlement with the Taliban leadership -- although officials stress that this is not on the cards right now.

"To those insurgents who refuse to accept the conditions for reintegration we have no choice but to pursue them militarily," Brown said.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said on Wednesday any reconciliation with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was "probably a bridge too far" after he gave safe haven to al Qaeda to launch the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. "This is a very naive approach; are the western nations leaders imbecile? They have killed tens of thousands of people and now we give them money...They will lie and pretend to negotiate until all the troops leave Afghanistan and then will go back to schemming and murdering again! WATCH OUT!

U.S. Special Forces in Secret Joint Operations With Yemeni Troops

2010-01-27T04:23:00.000-08:00

U.S. special forces and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops, The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing unnamed senior administration officials.

Yemeni troops in the past six weeks have killed scores of people, among them six of 15 top leaders of a regional Al Qaeda affiliate, sources told the newspaper.

The operations were approved by President Barack Obama and begun six weeks ago and involve several dozen troops from the U.S. military's clandestine Joint Special Operations Command.

A Yemeni official told the Associated Press Tuesday that the U.S. military and intelligence agencies have been participating in joint operations for some time with Yemeni troops, and the two countries are currently in discussions to build a new aviation unit to help bolster Yemen's counterterrorism forces.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, said that while the intelligence sharing has been critical, the Yemen military badly needs helicopters for its counterterrorism operations.

North Korea Pounded South Korean Troops With Artillery Fire

2010-01-27T04:12:00.000-08:00

SEOUL - North Korea suddenly attacked South Korea troops with artillery fire near their disputed sea border on Wednesday, highlighting instability along a heavily armed frontier for the second time in three months.

North Korea warned the South that more rounds were on the way as a part of military training, and then fired off another barrage a few hours after delivering the message in a state media report.

Analysts doubt the latest clash will escalate and see it more as an attempt by Pyongyang to stress tensions on the Korean peninsula and press home its demand for a peace deal that would open the way to international aid for its ruined economy.

"No one can argue about the premeditated exercises staged by Korean People's Army units in waters of the North side," the North's KCNA news agency quoted the general staff of the country's army as saying.

North Korea has more than 10,000 pieces of artillery aimed at the wealthy South and which could in a matter of hours destroy much of the capital Seoul, 25 miles from the border.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North fired artillery from land toward the South but landing on its side of the disputed sea border off the west coast. South Korea returned fire from its coastal artillery.

"We want to express grave concern over the incident that resulted from the North's illegal act that unnecessarily creates tension through live-fire artillery fire," the South's Defense Ministry said in a message to the North.

Johnson & Johnson Results Beat Wall Street Forecasts

2010-01-26T05:42:00.000-08:00

Johnson & Johnson reported Tuesday better-than-expected fourth quarter sales and earnings, helped by a recovering global economy, but provided a 2010 profit forecast range that barely reached Wall Street projections. The pharmaceutical and consumer products company said it earned $1.02 a share on a non-GAAP basis in its fourth quarter, above analysts' estimates of 97 cents a share and up from 94 cents a share a year earlier.

Sales reached $16.6 billion, below expectations of $15.7 billion and up from $15.18 billion a year ago. J&J, which is known for making conservative forecasts, predicted a full-year 2010 profit of $4.85 per share to $4.95 per share excluding items. Analysts have expected $4.94 per share.

Obama Seeks Three-year Freeze On Domestic Spending

2010-01-26T05:33:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama, under pressure from deficit hawks, will seek a three-year freeze on domestic spending in his 2011 budget that would save $250 billion by 2020, administration officials said on Monday. Obama will outline the spending hold-down in his State of the Union address on Wednesday and will spell it out in detail on February 1, when he unveils his second budget.

Obama is under fire for a record deficit and has called for a bipartisan congressional commission to consider spending cuts and tax increases to improve the country's fiscal outlook.

Democrats are jittery after the Massachusetts election of a Republican for the Senate seat long held by the late Edward Kennedy, worried that it may be a warning sign for congressional elections in November.

Baghdad Hotel Blasts: 25 Killed

2010-01-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

BAGHDAD — Three car bombs were detonated Monday near three Baghdad hotels popular with Western journalists and businessmen. At least 25 people were killed in the blasts, wounding 60 more, sources told Fox News.

The first explosion struck at about 3:40 p.m. in the parking lot of the Sheraton Hotel, toppling high concrete blast walls protecting the site and damaging a number of buildings along the Abu Nawas esplanade across the Tigris River from the Green Zone, two Iraqi police officials said.

Two other blasts followed minutes later, striking near the Babylon Hotel and al-Hamra Hotel, which is popular with Western journalists.

The Iraqi army was trying to remove families trapped inside nearby houses and to extract injured people from the second floor of the Hotel.

The officials said the death toll was expected to rise. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The blasts come about a month a half after a series of five blasts struck Baghdad, killing 127 people and injuring more than 500. The Dec. 8 attacks — which included homicide bombings outside a court complex and the Finance Ministry — brought a wave of outrage from parliament members and others for security lapses in the capital.

Multiple blasts in August and October also targeted government buildings, killing more than 255 people.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed those attacks on groups loyal to Saddam Hussein's now-outlawed Baath Party.

Earlier Monday, an Iraqi security official defended a bomb-detecting device that Britain banned for export to Iraq because of questions about whether it works, saying it would be a "big mistake" to withdraw it from checkpoints.

The ADE651, made by the British company ATSC, is used at security points across Iraq, including outside the protected Green Zone that includes the Iraqi parliament and the U.S. and British embassies. Britain halted the export of the machine to Iraq and Afghanistan after a BBC report challenged its effectiveness.

Chemical Ali Was Executed

2010-01-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

BAGHDAD — Iraq's government spokesman says Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was executed Monday about a week after being sentenced to death for the poison gas attacks that killed more than 5,000 Kurds in 1988.

News of the hanging came shortly after three suicide car bombs struck downtown Baghdad. It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were linked the execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed the execution took place.

Al-Majid -- widely known as "Chemical Ali" for the gas attacks -- was convicted on Sunday for ordering the poison gas to be dropped on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 as part of a campaign against a Kurdish uprising.

It was the fourth death sentence against him for crimes against humanity.

GE Exceeded Wall Street Expectations

2010-01-22T05:43:00.000-08:00

BOSTON - General Electric Co's quarterly earnings topped Wall Street expectations on Friday, as it kept costs in line despite sluggish demand for jet engines, railroad locomotives and other heavy equipment. The results showed the largest U.S. conglomerate's efforts to stabilize itself after two brutal years seemed to be paying off, investors said. Its shares rose about 1 percent in premarket trading.

The 19-percent drop in profit marked GE's eighth straight quarter of profit decline, though Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said the company is on track for flat earnings this year.

"They exceeded expectations on both the top line and the bottom line, which is a positive," said Perry Adams, senior portfolio manager at Huntington Private Financial Group in Traverse City, Michigan. "Orders came in strong, grew sequentially from third quarter and the backlog improved slightly from the third quarter."

Fourth-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders fell 19 percent to $2.94 billion, or 28 cents per share, from $3.65 billion, or 35 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average expected profit of 26 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 10 percent to $41.44 billion. Wall Street had looked for revenue of $40.02 billion.
Immelt called the company's 2010 financial "framework," which calls for earnings to be about equal to 2009 results, "quite achievable." The company posted a 2009 profit of $1.03 from continuing operations.

Analysts forecast 2010 profit of 94 cents per share on sales of $152.77 billion.

Yemen Is Becoming A Feared Nation

2010-01-22T05:32:00.000-08:00

Yemen
With the news that the attempted Christmas Day underpants bombing was sponsored by an Al Qaeda franchise based in Yemen, the tiny Arabian peninsula nation shot immediately from obscure desert corner to international threat. It wasn't the first. In the grand tradition of pariahs from Somalia to Serbia, Newsweek surveys other instant menaces. (We've excluded states where the turmoil is internal in order to focus on those whose actions have frightened the broader world.)

Afghanistan
It was a turning point for world history and for Afghanistan. In 1996, the Taliban finally triumphed over rivals for control of the country—and the new government welcomed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, recently expelled from Sudan. Bin Laden opened a base from which Al Qaeda launched the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and the 9/11 attacks. Even now, bin Laden exerts influence over jihadists worldwide, while the United States is mired in a costly and nearly unwinnable war in Afghanistan.

Air America is Ceasing Broadcasting

2010-01-21T15:02:00.000-08:00

Air America, the socialist talk radio network, said Thursday that it would cease broadcasting immediately, bowing to what it called a “very difficult economic environment.”

“It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business,” the chair of Air America Media, Charlie Kireker, said in a memorandum.

His statement was published on AirAmerica.com.

The news did not come as a complete surprise to staffers. The company, which was founded in 2004, never found a substantial audience or sound financial footing. It first filed for bankruptcy protection in 2006, but managed to stay on the air at that time. The network churned through several owners and several attempted reinventions, with little to show for it.

“The fact of the matter was, it was always a very challenging business proposition, and it never had the right management,” said Sam Seder, who hosted programs on Air America until last year.

The headwinds were enormous, he added: “Radio is a dying industry.”
Nonetheless, the network was a launchpad for a small number of liberal media stars, most notably Rachel Maddow, who now anchors a prime time program on MSNBC. Other former Air America hosts include Randi Rhodes and Thom Hartman.
Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, hosted an Air America show from 2004 to 2007 before running for office.

Chavez And Drug Trafficking

2010-01-21T04:24:00.000-08:00

RIO CARIBE, Venezuela - Prowling through the Caribbean swell in a heavy gray patrol boat and toting new Kalashnikov guns, soldiers scouring the craggy coves of Paria peninsula for cocaine smugglers look more like they mean business than war on drug barons; as if they were protecting government's official trafficking lanes against competition.

Yet the five Venezuelan National Guard soldiers led by Sub-Lieutenant Douglas Maldonado are outnumbered and outpaced. Their work is mainly preventative, they patrol only three times a week, and they almost never capture any drugs, despite Paria being one of the world's trafficking hotspots.

"They have faster craft than us," Maldonado, 23, said from the recently refitted boat on the coast of Paria which juts out from Venezuela to just 11 km (6.8 miles) from Trinidad and Tobago.

Washington accuses Venezuela of leniency in the drugs fight and collusion with Colombian rebels financed by smuggling. Hurt by a blockade on sales of U.S. military equipment and spare parts to Caracas, the government of President Hugo Chavez recently bought millions of dollars worth of radar and other gear from China. Authorities have also captured a significant number of alleged traffickers and "capos."

"Venezuela has a PR interest -- it does not want to be seen as a country that facilitates the drugs trade. New purchases and new initiatives are part of this trend," said Anna Gilmour, crime expert at Jane's Intelligence Review.

Washington accuses Venezuela of leniency in the drugs fight and collusion with Colombian rebels financed by smuggling. Hurt by a blockade on sales of U.S. military equipment and spare parts to Caracas, the government of President Hugo Chavez recently bought millions of dollars worth of radar and other gear from China. Authorities have also captured a significant number of alleged traffickers and "capos."

"Venezuela has a PR interest -- it does not want to be seen as a country that facilitates the drugs trade. New purchases and new initiatives are part of this trend," said Anna Gilmour, crime expert at Jane's Intelligence Review.

Chavez may also be worried the corrosive power of cartels could weaken his anti-U.S. socialist revolution.

Venezuela's drug-fighting capacity took a big blow when relations between the United States and Chavez soured. In 2005, after the U.S. withdrew its radar systems and imposed an embargo on arms sales, Chavez stopped cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"We had no radars -- we were left blind," Venezuela's anti-drugs chief Nestor Reverol told Reuters.

The United Nations estimates 40 percent of cocaine that reaches Europe now passes through Venezuela, much of it shipped first to Africa. A big drop in traffic to Africa and Europe in 2008 is largely due to a small Colombian coca crop that year.

Starbucks Results Beat Forecasts

2010-01-20T13:14:00.000-08:00

Starbucks results beat Wall Street forecasts. Starbucks reported sales and earnings that topped Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, sending shares higher in after-hours trading.

Excluding one-time items, the world's largest coffee chain earned 33 cents a share a share in its fiscal first quarter on sales of $2.72 billion, compared with 15 cents a share on sales of $2.62 billion in the same period last year.

Analysts who follow Starbucks expected the company to turn in a profit of 28 cents a share on sales of $2.60 billion, according to a consensus from Thomson Reuters.

Shares of Starbucks rose more than 6 percent in extended trading Wednesday. Get after-hour quotes for Starbucks here.

The shares fell 1.23 percent to close at $23.29 in the regular New York Stock Exchange session [SBUX 23.29 -0.29 (-1.23%) ]. Volume exceeded 140 million shares before the closing bell.

Last year, the company cut costs, laid off workers and reinvented much of the food sold in its shops. It shut roughly 800 locations and tweaked prices for some drinks.

Oil-Rich Muslim Nations Fall Far Short In Haiti Donations

2010-01-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

What do Alyssa Milano, Sandra Bullock, Lance Armstrong, Gisele Bundchen, the country of Senegal and — very possibly — you have in common?

All — including you — have donated more funds to the Haitian relief effort than oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia and Iran.

That's right ... if you personally have donated money to help the earthquake-stricken people of Haiti, then you have contributed more money than the governments of Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose combined dollar donation is a big fat zero.

As Haiti slowly recovers from last week's earthquake, nearly $400 million has been donated by countries, individuals and organizations to the devastated nation, accordign to United Nations documents.

But the goodwill has been far from balanced. India, which has one of the world's largest gross domestic products, has donated $1 million, a figure matched or eclipsed by much smaller economies like the Czech Republic ($1.1 million), Botswana ($1.1 million) and Senegal ($1 million).

Climate Scientists Reexamine Himalayan Glacier Thaw Report

2010-01-19T05:43:00.000-08:00

The United Nation panel of climate scientists is reexamining a report which contains a little-known projection that Himalayan glaciers might completely thaw by 2035, a finding severely criticized by the Indian government.

The 2007 U.N. panel report said global warming could cause the Himalaya's thousands of glaciers to vanish by 2035 if current warming rates continue.

"We are looking into the issue of the Himalayan glaciers, and will take a position on it in the next two or three days," Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told Reuters in an e-mail.

Other experts have said the 10 major Asian rivers the glaciers feed could go dry in the next five decades. Hundreds of millions of people in India, Pakistan and China would be affected.
Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Monday questioned the findings of the 2007 report.

"They are indeed receding and the rate is cause for great concern, Ramesh said of the glaciers, but he told reporters the 2035 forecast was "not based on an iota of scientific evidence."

Other experts have said the 2035 projection was not based on peer-reviewed science. In London, The Times newspaper said the Indian scientist who first made the Himalayan thaw projection in 1999 now acknowledged it was "speculation."

Flaws in IPCC reports can be damaging since the findings are a guide for government policy. The IPCC's core finding in 2007 was that it was more than 90 percent sure that mankind is the main cause of global warming, mainly by using fossil fuels.

Ramesh said he had been accused of "voodoo science" in questioning the IPCC findings about the Himalayas in the past.

The IPCC's 2007 report said: "Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate."

However, the report also said of the glaciers: "Its total area will likely shrink from the present 500,000 to 100,000 sq km (193,000 to 38,600 sq miles) by the year 2035."

At the Copenhagen climate summit last month, Pachauri, an Indian citizen, strongly defended the IPCC's core findings after a scandal over emails hacked from the University of East Anglia in England.

In the email scandal, climate change skeptics accused researchers of colluding to suppress others' data.

Ramesh had said in November that a paper commissioned by the Indian government had found no conclusive evidence to link the retreat of Himalayan glaciers to climate change.

He said many of India's 9,500 Himalayan glaciers are shrinking, but some are shrinking at a slower rate or even increasing.

UK Court Rules in Favor of Two Terrorism Suspects

2010-01-18T06:10:00.000-08:00

A British court on Monday canceled curfews imposed on two men considered potential security threats, dealing a blow to the government which says such measures are a tool to combat extremists. The ruling was a new challenge to so-called "control orders", introduced by the government in 2005, after the highest court in the country said last June the authorities should not use secret evidence to justify restricting people's freedom. This kind of legal decision, which blindly hangs on to the law of the ordered world of the civilized, is the Western Civilization Achilles' Heel, for these suspects originally do not come from this legal ordered world, but from a cultural milieu whose people decided to launch a savage war on the Western World. In the human evolution struggle for survival, Man did not survive making legal decisions, but wise decisions. Intelligence is flexible, nimble, adapting to new situations, but a legal sistem can be regid and awkward.

"I'm very disappointed by this judgment and will be appealing in the strongest possible terms," said Home Secretary (interior minister) Alan Johnson, in a statement responding to the ruling by the London High Court.

The two men, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had argued that the control orders imposed on them in 2006 violated their human rights because they were not told what was the evidence against them and could not defend themselves in court.

The High Court ruled in their favor, cancelling the orders and opening the way for the pair to file claims for compensation from the government. This would be a first.

"The government argued strongly that these control orders were properly made for the purpose of protecting the public and that they should not be retrospectively quashed," Johnson said in his statement.

"We will resist strongly paying damages to former subjects of control orders wherever possible, and to minimize the level of compensation where we have no choice but to pay," he said.

Control orders, part of a series of security measures brought in by the Labor government since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, allow terrorism suspects to be kept under curfew for up to 16 hours a day.

The aim is to keep tabs on suspects deemed to pose a security threat but who cannot be prosecuted because of lack of evidence, or because making the evidence public would compromise intelligence sources.

Human rights and justice organizations, who never stand up for the human rights of victims of terrorim, argue that control orders violate fundamental rights, and in June last year the House of Lords, the upper house of parliament that was formerly Britain's highest court, said in a landmark ruling the procedure was not fair.

Chavez Nationalized A French Retailer

2010-01-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

In a move that is seen as another step towards complete communism and state controlled economy and society, the socialist President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, nationalized a chain of French supermarkets controlled by France's Casino on charges of price gauging after the government devalued the bolivar currency on Sunday.

"Because of multiple violations of Venezuelan laws the Exito chain will now belong to the republic, there is no way back," Chavez said on his weekly television show. In his 11 years in office, Chavez has nationalized large swathes of the economy, including major oil projects along with electricity and telecommunications companies.

The leader who calls Cuba's Fidel Castro a mentor has recently declared himself a Marxist and wants to build a socialist society in one of the world's top oil exporters.

He said the Exito supermarkets had increased prices without justification. Exito has stores in Caracas and several other cities.

Chavez devalued the bolivar on January 8 to boost government finances and revitalize the recession-hit economy, but risks boosting already high inflation.

Aware a price surge could anger his mostly poor supporters, Chavez ordered troops to monitor shopping districts. Authorities had already temporarily closed stores belonging to the supermarket chain on charges of price gouging.

The stores are run by Colombian retailer Alamcenes Exito, which belongs to Casino. Chavez said legal reforms were under way to take over companies accused of speculation. He said those reforms will have to be finalized to complete the nationalization of Exito.

Google said it is not leaving China

2010-01-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

The world's most popular search engine, Google, said last week it was considering about quitting China after suffering a sophisticated cyber-attack on its network that resulted in theft of its intellectual property.

The company has said it is no longer willing to filter content on its Chinese language google.cn engine, and will try to negotiate a legal unfiltered search engine, or exit the market.

Most of the filters on google.cn were still in place on Sunday, though controls over some searches, including the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, appear to have been loosened.

The Google announcement captured the attention of China's 384 million netizens, the world's largest Internet market by users, with blogs and local media quoting unnamed insiders as saying Google has already decided to close its offices in China.

Google has denied that, saying the company is still in the process of scanning its internal networks since the cyber-attack in mid-December. Google also said it would hold talks with the Chinese government over the next few weeks.

China has tried to play down Google's threat to leave, saying there were many ways to resolve the issue, but insisting all foreign companies, Google included, must abide by Chinese laws.
Washington said it is issuing a diplomatic note to China formally requesting an explanation for the attacks.

The Google issue risks becoming another irritant in China's relationship with the United States, already strained by arguments over the Chinese currency's exchange rate, trade protectionism and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Washington has long been worried about Beijing's cyber-spying program. A congressional advisory panel said in November the Chinese government appeared increasingly to be penetrating U.S. computers to gather useful data for its military.

When Google introduced its google.cn website in 2006 with the decision to self-censor searches, it said the move would benefit the Chinese people by expanding access to information.
"We think we have made a reasonable decision, though we cannot be sure it will ultimately be proven to be the best one," a top level Google spokesman told the U.S. Committee on International Relations in 2006.

Google's move to publicly denounce censorship and accuse Chinese hackers of launching an attack that resulted in the theft of its intellectual property was seen as a bold move.

"We have never seen a company take on the Chinese government in such a public and confrontational manner," said James McGregor, senior counselor to public affairs consultancy Apco Worldwide.

Kenya Will Deport Muslim Cleric

2010-01-16T15:22:00.000-08:00

The Kenyan goverment will deport jailed Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal "without delay" after a protest against his detention triggered battles with police in the capital Nairobi, a minister said on Saturday.

Kenyan security forces used live rounds, tear gas and dogs to quell the demonstration on Friday near a downtown mosque used by many Somalis who have fled years of violence at home.

Internal Security Minister George Saitoti appealed for calm. He blamed "violent foreign elements from a neighboring country" for the mayhem and assured Muslims in Kenya they would not be targeted and their civil liberties respected.

The violence in Nairobi has stoked fears of a crackdown on the large Somali community in Kenya, or strikes by insurgent sympathizers in east Africa's biggest economy -- the target of successful al Qaeda-linked attacks in 2002 and 1998.

Some protesters carried the black flag of hardline Somali rebels al Shabaab, a group Washington accuses of links to al Qaeda that is trying to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its own harsh version of sharia law.

"This is an indication that some of our youth have been exposed to these ideas by foreign elements bent on ensuring that peace and security obtaining in our country is compromised," Saitoti told a news conference.

Some residents in Somalia's capital Mogadishu welcomed the appearance of al Shabaab's flag on Nairobi's streets, hoping it might inspire Kenya to help crackdown on the rebels.

US Citizen Arrested In Cuba

2010-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

A U.S. government subcontractor arrested by the Cuban regime police was acused of spying. He declared that he was helping Jewish groups get "unfiltered'' Internet access to sites like Wikipedia, sources said Wednesday.

The identification of Alan P. Gross, 60, of Potomac, Md., and his mission on the island cast a new light on a case that has sharpened the discord between Washington and Havana.

"If this is true, it moves the case away from politics, and the world Jewish community could make a lot of noise,'' said Max Lesnick, a Cuban Jew and Miami radio commentator who often visits the island.

"But we have to ask if he's also been in contact with other groups that Cuba considers more destabilizing,'' added Lesnick, referring to political dissidents.

The sources, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said as far as they knew Gross was only helping two or three Cuban Jewish groups obtain ``unfiltered access to the Internet.''

Cuba's government tries to control all Web access, but there are many ways to get around the controls and the filters blocking access to sites considered to be hostile.

"His role was pretty innocuous, helping them to access the Internet sites like Wikipedia, enabling them to download music and to establish contacts with Jewish groups abroad,'' one of the sources said.

Cuba has at least two government-recognized Jewish groups, one for Ashkenazi, descendants of European Jews, and one for Sephardi, descendants of those from the Iberian Peninsula. El Nuevo Herald's efforts to contact group officials in Havana were unsuccessful.

Gross was detained Dec. 4 at the Havana airport. He has not been charged, but Cuban officials have alleged he was ``contracted to work for American intelligence services.'' Washington has flatly denied any links to spying.

Cuban law bans any cooperation with U.S. pro-democracy programs, viewing them as part of Washington's efforts to subvert the government.

Powerful Nations Meet on Iran

2010-01-16T04:37:00.000-08:00

New York - Representatives from six major powers are meeting on Saturday to discuss whether Iran should face new U.N. sanctions for refusing to halt sensitive nuclear work, but Western envoys said China's decision to send a low-level official ruled out a quick deal.

The meeting comes after Tehran ignored a year-end 2009 deadline set by U.S. President Barack Obama for the Islamic Republic to respond to an offer from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China of economic and political incentives in exchange for Iran halting its nuclear enrichment program.

Five of the six nations that made the offer are sending senior Foreign Ministry officials -- so-called political directors -- to the meeting. But China decided not to send its political director. Instead, Beijing is expected to send a low-level diplomat from its U.N. mission, diplomats in New York told a news agancy.

"We're expecting a political expert from the Chinese mission who won't have any decision-making authority," a diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

China's virtual snub of the six-power meeting has caused consternation among the four Western powers in the group, which had hoped to use Saturday's meeting to reach an agreement on whether to begin drafting a new Security Council resolution on a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran.

Diplomats said they did not know China's motive, speculating it might be to illustrate Beijing's resistance to punishing Iran with more sanctions or dismay at U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province.

"There's not much point in having the meeting in light of the Chinese representation but we're going to have it," a diplomat from one of the six countries said. "We need to send a message to Iran that we're not dropping this issue."

"I wouldn't expect a particular deliverable out of this meeting," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday.

Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian atomic program. Iran says its atomic program is designed to generate electricity so it can export more of its valuable oil and gas. But why not generating electricity via thermoelectric power plants. Iran has an endless reserve of natural gas. Countries like Venezuela and Iran shouldn't suffer from energy crisis. These countries want something else...

Quake Hits Venezuela

2010-01-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

Breaking News

Earthquake has hit eastern Venezuela. So far no casualties have been reported, only damage to buildings and houses. It measured 5.8 on the Richter scale.

Central Bank Governor: Reserves Will Be Operational Soon

2010-01-15T09:25:00.001-08:00

Argentinian Central Bank governor Martín Redrado stated that he would file a proposal to US District Judge Thomas Griesa to avoid future embargoes on foreign currency reserves, and said that he is confident that accounts "will be operational" by noon.

He also fired back today at the agency's board of directors after their decision to restrict his duties.

"They think they are killing me, I think they are committing suicide," he expressed.

Iran Will Try Political Detainees

2010-01-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

Iran will try 16 political detainees accused of "waging war against god". They were arrested in connection with anti-government demonstrations that turned violent last month when police savagely wounded with gunfire one demonstrator.

The Iranian Fars News Agency, which did not identify the detainees who are to be put on trial, said one was accused of "moharebeh" -- an Islamic term meaning waging war against God -- which carries the death sentence.

The others were accused of gathering with the intention of disrupting national security and propaganda activities against the Islamic establishment, Fars said.

Eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi on Ashura, the day of ritual Shi'ite mourning that fell on December 27.
It was the most serious violence since the aftermath of a disputed presidential election in June, which the pro-reform opposition says was rigged, a charge the authorities reject.

The opposition website Rahesabz said earlier this month that more than 180 people, including 17 journalists, 10 Mousavi aides and some members of the outlawed Baha'i faith, were arrested after the Ashura day demonstrations.

Hardline clerics and authorities have called on the judiciary to punish opposition leaders for creating tension in Iran, saying they were "mohareb" (enemies of God).

"The files of 16 of the accused arrested on Ashura have been sent to Tehran's Revolutionary Court for consideration," Fars said, citing a court statement. "All the 16 are in detention. Their trial will begin soon," Fars added.

France Wants to Put a Ban on Burqa

2010-01-14T11:46:00.000-08:00

In order to be able able to identify potential terrorists, the French goverment plans to ban the wearing of the burqa in public. Jean-François Copé, parliamentary leader of the ruling UMP party, this week submitted a draft law stating that “nobody, in places open to the public or on streets, may wear an outfit or an accessory whose effect is to hide the face”. A few exceptions would be made, he said, such as for carnivals. At other times, anybody refusing to take off a face-covering could be fined €750 ($1,090). He hopes parliament will debate the draft at the end of March, shortly after the regional elections.

The move by Mr Copé, an ambitious politician, is a parliamentary not a government-led initiative. Yet it has broad backing. President Nicolas Sarkozy declared last year that the burqa was “not welcome on French soil”. François Fillon, the prime minister, said this week that he backed the idea of a ban. Mr Copé says that he already has 220 deputies supporting him.

When the French refer to the burqa, they do not mean the Afghan outfit, with a cloth grille over the eyes, which is not seen in France; they mean the niqab, the head-to-toe covering that leaves a narrow slit open for the eyes, which is traditionally found in the Gulf. Ten years ago, even this garment was virtually unknown in France, since most French Muslims originate from north Africa, where traditionalists cover only the hair, not the face. Today, according to intelligence estimates, some 1,900 women wear the niqab in France.

Europe is cornered by the growth of Muslim population, much faster than the European, and this minority does not seem to adapt to their new cultural milieu; they just challenge it by perpetuating their deeply engrained religious patterns of thoughts and behavior, which is being passed down from generation to generation. This represent a big threat to the Western civilization, since one of the basic fundamentals of Islam is "kill the Infidel", that is to say "us". And the free world people are still blind by a pall of too much idealism.

Video of Haiti Earthquake

2010-01-14T05:53:00.000-08:00

Haiti Earthquake was recorded on tape

Haiti cursed by devil pact

2010-01-14T05:45:00.000-08:00

U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson said on Wednesday that earth-quake devastated Haiti was cursed because of a past pact that the island’s inhabitants had made with the devil. The comments, which have spread like wildfire through the blogosphere and eslewhere on the Internet, were made during a broadcast of his Christian Broadcasting Network.

“They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story,” Robertson said in a matter-of-fact tone on the broadcast.“And so the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal. .. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another,” he said.

Haiti’s slave revolt led to the establishment in 1804 of the first republic run by freed black slaves and has long been an inspiration for national liberation movements especially in Africa.
Robertson, a former Republican Party presidential candidate, has made controversial comments before. In 2005, he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Chavez, a constant critic of then President George W. Bush. Robertson later said he was misinterpreted and eventually apologized.

He has also claimed in the past to have a direct line to God. In January 2007 he said God told him a terrorist attack would result in “mass killing” in the United States in the second half of 2007.

Argentinian Judge Rules Against Central Bank Reserve Use For The Second Time

2010-01-13T14:42:00.001-08:00

Federal Judge María José Sarmiento has ruled against the use of Central Bank Reserves to pay the foreign debt for the second time in a week. Due to mismanagement and a festered pocket of corruption, the Argentinian government faces a lot of difficulties to meet Argentina's 2010 debt payments.

By sacking the Mr. Redrado, President Cristina Kirchner ( a former Montonero guerrilla activist and Chavez's friend) would have power to print money in an attempt to finance the budget defficit. But for the time being, the judge has ruled against, since Argentina's Central Bank is an independent institution and its president, Mr. Redrado, can only be removed by Congress.

According to Sarmiento's ruling, the reserves won't be transferred to the Bicentennial Fund for Stability and Reduced Indebtedness until the Congress decides whether the country's international reserves should be used to pay debts.

After the Judge made this resolution public, Camaño declared that Cristina Fernández de Kichner should summon extraordinary sessions for the Legislative Branch to intervene in the Central Bank conflict.

"It is highly important to remember that the heads of each House should convene meetings at the Congress," Camaño expressed, referring to Julio Cobos, the head of the Senate, and to Eduardo Fellner, the president of the Chamber of Deputies.

Devaluation In Venezuela: People Rush To Shops

2010-01-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

In the country that is one of the biggest oil producers, Venezuelans rushed to the shops on Saturday, fearful of price rises after a currency devaluation that will let President Hugo Chavez boost government spending ahead of an election but feeds opposition charges of economic mismanagement. Not only food prices will rise, but there is also an energy crisis, despite the fact that Venezuela is a natural gas producer and exporter!

In a bid to jump-start the recession-hit economy of South America's top oil exporter, Chavez on Friday announced a dual system for the fixed rate bolivar. It devalues the currency to 4.3 and 2.6 against the dollar, from a rate of 2.15 per dollar in place since 2005, giving the better rate for basic goods in an attempt to limit the impact of the measure on consumer prices.

The opposition seized on fears that prices for imported goods will double as shoppers formed lines of more than a hundred people outside some stores in the capital Caracas.

"It was a Black Friday, tinted red," said sales executive Diana Sevillana in reference to the crimson color of Chavez's socialist party. She stood in a line of 30 people outside an electrical goods store in a middle class neighborhood.

The socialist Chavez believes the state should have a weighty role in managing the economy. During his 11 years in office he has nationalized most heavy industry, and business and finance are tightly regulated.

The devaluation is politically risky but means every dollar of oil revenue puts more bolivars in government coffers. That allows Chavez to lavish cash on social projects and fund salary increases ahead of parliamentary elections in September.

Opponents were quick to criticize the socialist, who a year ago promised the global financial crisis would not touch "a hair" of Venezuela's economy. He announced the devaluation on Friday night during an important baseball game.

"By establishing the exchange rate at 4.3 bolivars per dollar, the quality of life for Venezuelans is automatically devalued since we now have half the money we had before," said Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, a Chavez opponent.

BLACKOUTS, WATER SHORTAGES

Opposition parties, emboldened by public dissatisfaction at frequent blackouts and water shortages and a 2.9 percent economic contraction in 2009, hope to strip Chavez of his legislative majority in September.

The devaluation is embarrassing for Chavez, who resisted calls from economists and many government allies to make the move last year when oil prices were at their lowest and elections a long way off.

"Venezuela's decision to devalue the Bolivar culminates an event that the market has been anticipating for a long time," said Walter Molano, an analyst at BCP Securities. "It helps alleviate the country's fiscal woes and puts it on a sounder macroeconomic footing."

The measure is a relief for state oil company PDVSA, which has struggled to pay service providers and meet requirements to fund social projects since crude prices dropped sharply last year. It also makes Venezuelan businesses more competitive.

Holders of Venezuela's foreign debt are also pleased, since the devaluation improves government finances and lessens the need to issue more bonds. However, Chavez risks taking a blow to his popularity ratings, which are about 50 percent, as prices for many products inevitably will rise in the country of 28 million people, which relies on imports for much of its consumption.

Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said the devaluation will add 3 percent to 5 percent to inflation, already the highest in the Americas at 25 percent last year.

"The popularity of the government is obviously going to be sharply and negatively affected," said economist Pedro Palma. "The inflationary impact of the measure diminishes the real income of people. People can consume less."

The new two-tiered exchange system offers the 2.6/dollar rate for goods deemed essential including food, medicine and industrial machinery. Other products, including cars and telephones, will be imported at the higher 4.3 rate.

Last month, BMO Capital Markets cut ratings on Colgate-Palmolive Co (CL.N), Avon Products Inc (AVP.N) and Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB.N) to "market perform" saying a possible devaluation in Venezuela could hurt the U.S. consumer goods makers' profits.

Economist Pavel Gomez of the IESA economic school said the new system will increase opportunities for graft in a country that already is corruption-ridden.

"Multiple exchange schemes are incentives for corruption, more so if they are applied in the Venezuela way," he said. "Those who have good contacts can buy at 2.6 and sell at 4.3."

Chavez, whose popularity usually rises in correlation with public spending, also said on Friday that the Central Bank had transferred $7 billion of foreign reserves to a development fund used to finance investment projects.

Iran Leader Warns Opposition

2009-09-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader told the opposition on Friday they would face a harsh response if they drew their "swords" against the ruling establishment. The warning from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered at Friday prayers three months after a disputed poll that led to widespread unrest, was a clear message he would not tolerate any threat to Iran's clerical system of government.
"Resisting the system and taking out the sword against the system will be followed by a harsh response," he told worshippers in a sermon broadcast live on state television.
"If somebody stands against the basis of the (Islamic) system and violates people's security, the system is forced to stand against it," he said.
But in his lengthy sermon Khamenei did not address proposals that Tehran on Wednesday delivered to world powers involved in efforts to resolve the issue diplomatically, but reiterated that the Islamic state should not back down on its "nuclear rights."
"It is a sign of deviation to give up one's rights, nuclear rights or non-nuclear rights, instead of insisting on them," he said.
But Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, added criticism and differences among officials were acceptable.
It was Khamenei's first Friday prayers sermon since the June poll, when he endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, blamed the opposition for bloodshed and accused Western powers of interfering in Iran's affairs.
The election and its turbulent aftermath plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposing deepening divisions within its ruling elites and adding to tension with the West.
The opposition said 70 people were killed in the unrest while officials put the death toll at up to 36 people.
Rights groups say thousands of people, including senior pro-reform figures, were arrested after the presidential poll. Most have been freed but more than 200 remain in jail, according to the opposition.
This week the authorities detained three pro-reform figures allied to opposition leader and defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi. They also closed down the offices of reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi, another presidential contender in June.
Mousavi and Karoubi say the poll was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad's re-election. Officials reject the charge.
The hardline president shored up his position last week when parliament approved most of his new ministers after almost three months of political turmoil in the major oil exporter.

Iran Defies Western Countries

2009-09-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran defied Western countries on Thursday and ruled out talks on its nuclear program, but still looked set to escape the threat of oil sanctions with Russia saying it would not back such measures at the United Nations. Western powers are becoming frustrated by what they have called Tehran's "persistent defiance and point-blank refusal" to suspend uranium enrichment and its avoidance of negotiations as demanded by U.N. Security Council resolutions since 2006.

Instead of directly addressing those demands, Iran handed world powers on Wednesday proposals including a global system to eliminate nuclear weapons, the Washington Post reported.
Cooperation on Afghanistan, fighting terrorism, as well as collaboration on oil and gas projects were also among the proposals, the paper quoted an Iranian official as saying.

The United States said the proposals were "not really responsive to our greatest concern, which is obviously Iran's nuclear program."

Western nations suspect the Islamic Republic is secretly developing a nuclear bomb to seal its status as the big regional power in the Middle East. Iran denies the charge.

U.S. President Barack Obama has indicated Iran will face much harsher international sanctions, possibly targeting its lifeblood oil sector, if it does not accept good-faith negotiations by the end of September. But Russia said Iran's latest proposals to world powers contained something to work with and ruled out oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Russia has veto power in the U.N. Security Council.

"Tehran is prepared to have fair and substantive talks about various problems, including the guarantee of access by all countries to nuclear energy and preventing the proliferation of nuclear arms," Iranian state television quoted Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, as saying.

"But these talks do not include Tehran's nuclear program and legal activities in this connection."
The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are evaluating Iran's plan and their senior diplomats are to hold a conference call to discuss it on Friday.

But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "I would say Iran's proposals have time and again failed to live up to its international obligations."

"NO OIL SANCTIONS"

Russia, however, was more responsive.
"Based on a brief review of the Iranian papers my impression is there is something there to use," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

Hugo Chávez Attacks Israel During His Tour of Arab Countries

2009-09-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez attacked Israel while visiting Syria during a tour of Muslim countries. In his vitriolic speech, he called Israel an imperialist nation that annihilates other people.

Chávez comments came during a news conference with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad after a one-hour meeting at the hilltop presidential palace.

"Israel has become a country that annihilates people and is hostile to peace," he said, according to the Arabic translation of his remarks to reporters.

In comments carried by Venezuelan state television, he also accused Israel of being part of imperialist efforts to divide the Middle East.

"The entire world knows it. Why was the state of Israel created? ... To divide. To impede the unity of the Arab world. To assure the presence of the North American empire in all these lands," he said.

Chavez is on an 11-day trip to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus and Russia in his bid to build a multi-polar world and decrease US influence in the region.

"I believe it is a fateful battle. It's either now or never in order to liberate the world from imperialism and change the world from a unipolar into a multi-polar world," Chávez told reporters in Damascus.

On Tuesday he attended Libya's celebration of the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Moammar Gadhafi to power before heading to Algeria.

The firebrand Latin American leader has built close ties with Iran, Syria, Cuba and other countries while his relations have grown tense with Israel.

Chávez strongly criticized Israel's war against Gaza in December and January and said the Jewish state should return to Syria the strategic Golan Heights that it captured in 1967 Mideast war.

For his part, Assad said that he does not think Israel is ready to make peace, while Damascus is serious about the matter.

Last year, Turkey mediated several rounds of indirect peace negotiations between Israel and Syria. But Syria suspended them in December over Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

Assad said in a newspaper interview in March that the Turkish-mediated talks failed because Israel would not make a clear commitment to return all of the Golan up to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Chávez's regional socialist dreams is losing ground in Latin America

2009-08-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is a liar and a troublemaker. Congressmen and columnists can say this, but President Obama is correct not to do so, even though his critics want a tougher US policy against the Venezuelan," The Washington Post wrote in an article called "An Open Hand That Weakens Chávez."

The newspaper added that since the inauguration of Obama and his appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state "a testament to the success of diplomatic finesse is that Chávez and his pan-regional socialist dreams have been losing ground in Latin America."

"Chávez's allies in Argentina, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her husband, recently lost congressional elections and are now minority lame ducks in that country," it added.

Critics who demand bellicose policies that might lead to a break in relations with Venezuela should look at the failure of such policies to sway events in Cuba, Iran, North Korea and prewar Iraq. Chávez is a nuisance but not a threat to the United States, and he has to be treated with the hemisphere in mind. So far, Obama and Clinton are doing just fine, the Post said.

Honduras breaks diplomatic relations with Argentina

2009-08-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

The military government in Honduras, headed by Roberto Micheletti, has broken diplomatic ties with Argentina on the basis of “strict reciprocity”, after Argentina removed its ambassador in Tegucigalpa, accusing her of being pro-coup.
The Honduran Foreign Ministry today issued a diplomatic note demanding Argentina to respect the country's sovereignty and refrain from interfering with Honduran domestic affairs, after President Fernández de Kirchner supported the return of Zelaya to the presidency of the Central American republic.
Micheletti toppled the government of leftist José Manuel Zelaya in June, reacting to controversial socialist-leaning policies and a close friendship with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez.
Bilateral relations between Argentina and Honduras will now be channeled through the Honduran Embassy in Israel, according to the statement.
"The diplomatic staff of Argentina in Buenos Aires will have the same treatement than our fellow nationals receive in Buenos Aires," the statement reads.
Last Thursday, the Argentine Foreign Ministry ousted the Argentine ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Carmen Eleonora Ortez Williams, on the basis of her "support to the government of Roberto Micheletti", a communiqué said.

Missing Russian Cargo Ship Found Near Cape Verde

2009-08-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

A Russian-manned cargo ship which had vanished last month in the Atlantic was found near Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa, according to French and Russian officials.
The Arctic Sea - carrying a load of timber and 15 Russian sailors - disappeared after passing through the English Channel on July 28. The Maltese-flagged freighter sent radio messages as it sailed along the coasts of France and Portugal, but then all contact was lost.
"Cape Verde coast guards said they have located the boat" about 840 kilometers off Cape Verde, said French Defence Ministry spokesman Capt. Jerome Baroe. France was involved in search efforts together with several other countries.
Two military officials in Brussels separately confirmed the ship had been tracked and located off West Africa. The officials asked not to be named while the operation was ongoing.
Russian naval ships were ordered to pursue the ship after the Cape Verde coast guard reported the freighter was outside the country's territorial waters to the north, Russian Ambassador to Cape Verde, Alexander Karpushin, told reporters.
There was no immediate information about the condition of the crew or whether there was anyone other than the crew onboard.
The ship's crew had reported a June 24 attack in Swedish waters by up to a dozen masked men, who they said tied them up, questioned them about drug trafficking, beat them and searched the freighter before leaving 12 hours later in a high-speed inflatable boat.
The alleged attack, unusual in itself, raised further concerns because it was not reported until the freighter had passed through Britain's busy shipping lanes and was heading out into the wide Atlantic. There have been fears that some of the attackers might still be aboard.
The Arctic Sea had been due to make port Aug. 4 in Algeria with a euro1.3 million ($1.8 million) haul of timber.
The European Commission suggested the ship may have come under attack a second time. "Radio calls were apparently received from the ship, which had supposedly been under attack twice, the first time off the Swedish coast and then off the Portuguese coast," said commission spokesman Martin Selmayr. He said he could add no further comment so as not to hinder the ongoing law enforcement activities.
The Portuguese Foreign Ministry said, however, that the ship was never in Portuguese territorial waters.
The ship's Russian operator, Solchart Arkhangelsk, said it had no information about a possible second attack. Company officials said all attempts to communicate with the crew have failed.
French maritime authorities said they received radio messages on July 29 as the ship sailed past the north coast of France. The Arctic Sea's report to British maritime authorities as it passed through the Dover Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, was the last known voice contact with the crew.
Speculation on what might have happened to the ship has ranged from suspicions that it was carrying secret cargo _ possibly narcotics _ to theories about a commercial dispute. Security experts have been wary of attributing its disappearance to bandits, noting that piracy is almost unheard of in European waters.
"It would seem that these acts, such as they have been reported, have nothing in common with 'traditional' acts of piracy or armed robbery at sea," Selmayr said. David Osler, a maritime journalist at Lloyd's List in London, said there are three main types of piracy. There is the sort seen in Somalia, where a gang takes the ship and the captain, and demands a ransom in return for release.
In the Far East, criminals would steal the entire ship, repaint it and trade it _ creating what are called "phantom ships," Osler said in an interview.
And in less developed areas, piracy has sometimes been more like armed robbery, he said, noting that ships often carry cash around for necessities while traveling. "It's like holding up the local liquor store," he said. "It's just for cash." Osler said the 18-year-old Arctic Sea was not particularly valuable. "The ship isn't really worth stealing," he said, noting most such ships have a life of 20-25 years.

4 Tons of Ephedrine Confiscated in Buenos Aires Warehouse

2009-08-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Police officers and Custom staff raided a building in Buenos Aires' port and seized more than 4 tons of ephedrine, official sources said.
According to Customs' sources, the ephedrine was found in a fiscal deposit which belongs to a laboratory that has been investigated by Federal Judge in Campana Federico Faggionato Márquez.
It is the biggest ephedrine cargo seized in the country and it is worth for 40 million dollars, said the head of the AFIP Dr. Ricardo Etchegaray.
The raid was ordered by Federal Judge Faggionato Márquez, who is investigating into the notorious triple-murder in General Rodriguez, linked to suspicion that a Mexican ephedrine smuggling ring is operating in Argentina.
The Federal Judge is probing into the local connection of an international criminal organization, which smuggled ephedrine into Mexico.
There were another two raids, one in the Port and the other in Gerli district in Buenos Aires province.
Investigators believe that the ephedrine, which was not announced in Customs, may have been purchased by Unifarma S.A. last year when the methamphetamine laboratory located in Ingeniero Maschwitz district in Buenos Aires province was raided.
Unifarma, which has been raided several times, is being investigated because three "Ephedrine route" case suspects, Claudio Mancuso and Héctor and Guillermo Salomón, purchased various quantities of this product.

Hugo Chávez's message fails to attract Peruvians

2009-08-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

Lima- Hugo Chávez's attempts to play a role in Peru have fizzled, and a once-popular leftist candidate said the Venezuelan president has hurt his career.

Dissatisfied and dispirited, most Peruvians think that the country's recent economic boom has passed them by.
That should make Peru fertile territory for the populist message that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has been attempting to spread to the downtrodden in the rest of Central and South America.
``Without a doubt, Chávez wants to gain a foothold here,'' said Pedro-Pablo Kuczynski, who served as Peru's prime minister in 2005-06. ``He needs to expand his network. The one Indian country [in South America] where he doesn't have control is Peru.''
However, Chávez has little to show for his efforts in Peru after his disciple, Ollanta Humala, nearly won an insurgent campaign for president in 2006 by appealing to the disaffected. Venezuela financed Humala's campaign with suitcases full of cash, according to Kuczynski and two former Humala confidants. A Peruvian newspaper earlier this year exposed secret payments to Humala's wife by a Venezuelan newspaper that's allied with Chávez.
NEGATIVE VIEWS
About half of the 45 congressmen elected under Humala's Peruvian Nationalist Party banner in 2006 have broken ranks with him, and a majority of Peruvians now have negative images of Chávez and Humala, polls indicate.
``I believe that, yes, my closeness to Chávez hurt me'' in 2006, Humala recently told a Spanish newspaper, Latino Madrid. ``There were errors like him being overexposed during the campaign.''
Chávez's difficulties in Peru indicate the limits to achieving his ambition of a Latin America-wide union with himself as its leader, which would fulfill the failed dream of Simón Bolívar, the Venezuelan 19th century independence fighter who Chávez says is his guiding star.
Since Chávez ally Manuel Zelaya was ousted as the president of Honduras, Chávez's anti-U.S. alliance consists of Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador. He calls this alliance the Bolivarian Alternative for the People of our Americas, or ALBA, its acronym in Spanish.
The fall of oil prices from their peak a year ago means that Chávez has less money to spend abroad, at least in the short term.
To be sure, President Alan García and his ministers regularly evoke Chávez and close ally Bolivian President Evo Morales as boogeymen who're whipping up street protests against the unpopular government throughout Peru.
A spokeswoman at the Venezuelan Embassy in Lima, Elsa Martes, said that no one would be available to comment for this article because Chávez had withdrawn his ambassador to Peru. She said, however, that the ambassador regularly had denied that Chávez wanted to destabilize the García government.
All discussion about Chávez in Peru begins and ends with Humala.
Chávez must have had high hopes when Humala surged from nowhere during the 2006 presidential election to lead the first round of voting. Like Chávez, Humala was a retired army colonel who said that he'd help the poor by having the government take over private businesses. Humala also said that he'd apply Chávez's 21st century socialism model.
SUITCASES WITH CASH
Facing off against García, then an unpopular former president, Humala invited two Chávez political consultants to run his advertising campaign. Venezuelans delivered suitcases full of cash on at least four occasions to finance the TV ads, Alvaro Gutiérrez and Gustavo Espinoza said in interviews with McClatchy. Both were Humala confidants who were elected to Congress in 2006 as allies but soon broke with him over Chávez's influence.
In separate interviews, each man described seeing cash in suitcases destined for the Humala campaign on two separate occasions.
``It's the same thing that happened in Argentina,'' said Kuczynski.
``Humala is Chávez's puppet in Peru,'' Gutiérrez said. ``As president, he'd follow Chávez's line.''
Speaking with Latino Madrid, Humala confirmed his kinship with Chávez, noting that the leader blessed his candidacy in 2006. However, Humala denied receiving any money from Chávez.
His wife, Nadine Heredia, also denied wrongdoing in May after the newspaper Correo leaked bank transfer records showing that The Daily Journal, an English-language newspaper in Caracas owned by a Chávez ally, had been paying her $4,000 a month. She doesn't speak English.
The associations with Chávez have hurt Humala's popularity.
A poll by Ipsos Apoyo in mid-July among likely 2011 presidential candidates found that Humala remains popular among poor Indians. Overall, however, he placed third, with 14 percent. His negative rating is above 50 percent.
``Humala needs to create distance between himself and Chávez because of Chávez's unpopularity,'' said Giovanna Penaflor, a Lima-based pollster.

The Brain: The Source Of Our Noble Thoughts

2009-08-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

Until not too long ago, most people believed human morality was based on scripture, culture or reason. Some stressed only one of those sources, others mixed all three. None would have thought to include biology. With the progress of neuroscientific research in recent years, though, a growing number of psychologists, biologists and philosophers have begun to see the brain as the base of our moral views. Noble ideas such as compassion, altruism, empathy and trust, they say, are really evolutionary adaptations that are now fixed in our brains. Our moral rules are actually instinctive responses that we express in rational terms when we have to justify them.

Thanks to a flurry of popular articles, scientists have joined the ranks of those seen to be qualified to speak about morality, according to anthropologist Mark Robinson, a Princeton Ph.D student who discussed this trend at the University of Pennsylvania’s Neuroscience Boot Camp. “In our current scientific society, where do people go to for the truth about human reality?” he asked. “It used to be you might read a philosophy paper or consult a theologian. But now there seems to be a common public sense that the authority over what morality is can be found by neuroscientists or scientists.”

This change has come over the past decade as brain scan images began to reveal which areas of the brain react when a person grapples with a moral problem. They showed activity not only in the prefrontal cortex, where much of our rational thought is processed, but also in areas known to handle emotion and conflicts between brain areas. Such insights cast doubt on long-standing assumptions about reason or religion driving our moral views. “A few theorists have even begun to claim that that the emotions are in fact in charge of the temple of morality and that moral reasoning is really just a servant masquerading as the high priest,” University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt, one of the leading theorists in this field, has written.

Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory argues that morality is based on five concepts that evolved in all cultures: harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authorty/respect and purity/sanctity. Those concepts have real-life consequences, he says — political liberals and conservatives disagree so much on so-called “culture war issues” because liberals base their moral views on the first two concepts while conservatives use all five. Other theorists such as Marc Hauser of Harvard and John Mikhail of Georgetown suggest humans have a universal moral grammar akin to the universal grammar that linguist Noam Chomsky claims underlies all the world’s languages.

Media says Chinese firms offer $17 BL for Repsol's YPF stake, the company denies it

2009-08-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

China National Petroleum Corp. and Cnooc Ltd. have proposed paying at least $17 billion for all of Repsol YPF SA's stake in its Argentine unit YPF SA, two people close to the talks said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The deal, which could be the biggest overseas investment by China, highlights its growing thirst for energy resources globally and its willingness to offer big money for them, and underlines the ambition of CNPC to build up its presence in South America and elsewhere.

The Chinese side discussed their offer with Repsol executives in a two-and-a-half-hour evening meeting on July 30 in Europe, the newspaper added.

However, a spokesman for Repsol YPF in Madrid denied this information saying that the mentioned meeting never occured nor any concrete offers.

Indonesia: Top Militant Dead, Thwarts Attack

2009-08-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

KEDU, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian police shot dead a man suspected to be leading Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top after an 18-hour siege in Central Java and planned to confirm his identity using DNA tests, police said on Saturday.
Police in a separate raid foiled a plot to attack Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's residence outside the capital, Jakarta, with a car bomb, officials said.
Malaysian-born Top is a prime suspect in last month's near simultaneous suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels which killed nine people and wounded 53.
Yudhoyono has vowed to track down the bombers and if Top has been killed or captured it would be major coup for security forces and could reduce the chance of further attacks.
Police planned to seek a DNA sample from the family of Top to confirm his death after a shoot-out in Central Java, national police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri told a news conference.
"We welcome if the family, the wife wants to see the face. If this is Noordin Top then please let us check the DNA. if this is done then we can say who this," he said.
Police have launched a series of raids since Friday and two police sources close to the investigation into the hotel attacks said a man suspected to be Top was killed in Temanggung, over 250 miles southeast of Jakarta.
"He was shot dead," one source said, adding that raids in the area had led police to a house in Bekasi, on the outskirts of the capital, where up to 500 kg of bombs had been found. A Reuters correspondent in Bekasi heard a loud blast from the cordoned-off area and police said they had killed two suspected militants.
"I think this is very significant. Hopefully the person in Temanggung is Noordin," said national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna.
The militants were planning a suicide car bomb attack on the residence of President Yudhoyono in Bogor near Jakarta, the police chief said. He added that the militants planned to use a minibus packed with explosives to target Yudhoyono, after holding him responsible for the execution of the Bali bombers last year.
Intelligence officials say Top, 40, and fellow Malaysian Azahari Husin, a bomb-maker who was killed in a 2005 police raid, were leaders in the Jemaah Islamiah militant network, blamed for a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia since 2002.
Top is believed to have planned previous bomb attacks on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and in Bali in 2005.
Security consultant Ken Conboy said Top was key to the network with his skills of recruiting suicide bombers.
"If you look at the history of violent radicalism in Indonesia, once they wrap up the main players, it goes into a period of hiatus for a time," he said.

Pakistan Is Certain Taliban Chief Is Dead

2009-08-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is "pretty certain" Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was killed with his wife and guards in a missile attack two days ago, the foreign minister said on Friday. An intelligence officer in South Waziristan told Reuters that Mehsud's funeral had already taken place, while Pakistani media cited their own security sources, saying Mehsud was dead.

"He was killed with his wife and he was buried in Nargosey," the officer said, referring to a tiny settlement about 1 km (half a mile), from the site of the attack, believed to have been carried out by a pilotless U.S. drone aircraft. Diplomats in Islamabad say Mehsud's death would mark a major coup for Pakistan, but many doubt it will help Western troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Most of his focus has been on attacking Pakistan's government and security forces.

"It is pretty certain now that he is dead. Various government agencies have reported so, his own followers have said so, there are people who have been to the funeral and are witness to the burial," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told BBC radio on Friday.

"It is a significant development. He was the principal personality leading the Taliban movement in Pakistan.

"With him gone, I think there is going to be an internal struggle and disarray in their ranks, I think it will set in demobilization. It is a great success for the forces that are fighting extremism and terrorism in Pakistan," Qureshi said.

An official who requested anonymity went further.

"It's 100 percent certain now," a senior member of the Pakistan government told Reuters, explaining that the intelligence services had obtained confirmation of Mehsud's death from family members.

But Pakistani officials say they lack physical evidence of Mehsud's death as it was impossible to enter the Taliban controlled area in the tribal lands of South Waziristan. People were mourning in the settlement close to Makeen village, where Mehsud was tracked and targeted, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters.

He said intelligence suggested Taliban leaders were meeting somewhere in South Waziristan to decide on Mehsud's successor.

The missile attack killed Mehsud's brother and seven bodyguards as well as his wife, Malik added. The wife's death had been confirmed hours after the attack on Wednesday that targeted her father's house.

A spokesman for the Afghan Taliban said their struggle would be unaffected by Mehsud's reported death.

"The Taliban's jihad against foreign forces in Afghanistan will not be affected if a Pakistani Taliban leader is killed on the other side," Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Twitter site knocked down in hack attack

2009-08-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

Twitter, the popular Internet micro-blogging service, said it is fending off a cyber attack that prevented people from accessing its website for several hours.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said on Twitter's blog that the site was the victim of a denial-of-service attack, a technique in which hackers overwhelm a website's servers with communications requests.
"We are defending against this attack now and will continue to update our status blog as we continue to defend and later investigate," Stone wrote.
A separate Twitter status Web page said "the site is back up, but we continuing to defend against and recover from this attack."
The Twitter site remains inaccessible. Some people also reported delays logging in or posting to their Facebook profiles.
A spokeswoman at the popular social networking site did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Asked for comments on the outage in an email, Twitter's Stone referred to the blog posts.
Twitter, which lets users publish short, 140-character messages to groups of online "followers," is one of the fastest-growing Internet companies.
The number of worldwide unique visitors to the Twitter website reached 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold year-over-year, according to comScore data.
In the US, Twitter broke into the top 50 web properties by traffic for the first time in June.

Russian submarines patrol off US East Coast

2009-08-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

Two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines have been patrolling in international waters off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States in a rare mission tracked by Washington, US officials said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the U.S. military was "mindful" of Russian military activities, but he declined to comment on any specific submarine maneuvers.

"Navies, including the United States, operate around the world. Vessels operating safely in international waters ought not to concern anybody," he said.
Another US official familiar with the intelligence, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Alarm bells are not ringing."

The submarines have not taken any provocative action, the official said.
The New York Times, which first reported the presence of the vessels, described them as Akula-class submarines. Akula is the NATO codename for the Soviet-designed Nerpa, which has been in service since the mid-1980s. They are armed with torpedoes, cruise missiles and can carry underwater missiles.

One of the Russian submarines remained in international waters on Tuesday about 200 miles off the coast of the United States and the second sub made a port call in Cuba in recent days, the Times said, citing Defense Department officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. officials declined to speculate on what weapons might be aboard the two submarines, and described the Russian exercise as rare. During the Cold War, the United States and Russia regularly sent submarines on secret missions near each other's coasts.

Russia conducted a successful sea trial of the Nerpa last month in the Sea of Japan, according to the RIA news agency.

During testing of the submarine last November, 20 people died and 21 were hospitalized when the fire extinguishing system was turned on in error, releasing freon gas that asphyxiated the victims.

The accident, the worst to hit the Russian navy since 118 sailors died in 2000 when the Kursk nuclear submarine sunk in the Barents Sea, exposed the gap between the Kremlin's ambitions and its military capabilities.

Hugo Chavez To Muzzle The Press

2009-08-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

On Chavez behest, the media committee in Venezuela's parliament is set to begin today studying a draft law that could jail anyone publishing comments that authorities consider a threat to national interests. The controversial text will be weighed just days after President Hugo Chávez revoked the licenses of 32 radio stations and two local television stations "to democratize the radio-electric spectrum."

"We are going to analyze the text and make contributions so that the law can reflect what the media situation in Venezuela is.", said Deputy Rosario Pacheco, who's the president of the Congress Media Committee.

The president of the parliamentary media committee, Rosario Pacheco, told AFP that the text was only an outline for now, and that the public could be consulted before it was put before lawmakers for debate and a vote.

"The media have to assume the consequences of their acts," said Information Minister Blanca Eekhout. "If they commit a crime, they must be punished."

Detractors, though, call the text a "muzzle law." They noted that Chavez supporters dominate the parliament and pass bills endorsed by the president, who in any case also can rule by decree.
The draft law being considered has similarly created uproar among media and rights groups.

The text "is not compatible with freedom of expression in Venezuela," agreed Gregorio Salazar, secretary general of the National Press Workers' Union.

Flaws in Cloud Computing

2009-08-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Demonstrations of new ways to attack corporate data stored with the increasingly popular “cloud” services have added to concerns about the technology. Security researchers at the Black Hat USA security conference in Las Vegas showed how users of Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud services were tricked into using virtual machines that could have included “back doors” for snooping.
Another demonstration criticised Amazon and Microsoft for relying on insecure methods for granting access to their sites after users claimed to have forgotten their passwords. The findings follow the embarrassing theft of Twitter corporate documents from Google’s cloud applications a week earlier. Although experts faulted Twitter’s policies in that case, they said the break-in might not have occurred if the micro-blogging platform had kept its files at its own headquarters.
The developments help illustrate why off-site computing power, data storage and software have not matured to the level that the largest potential clients would require. John Pescatore, security analyst at Gartner, said: “The security of these cloud-based infrastructure services is like Windows in 1999. “It’s being widely used and nothing tremendously bad has happened yet. But it’s just in early stages of getting exposed to the internet, and you know bad things are coming.”
Mr Pescatore predicted that at least until 2013, companies would spend more money on in-house virtualisation, in which software can run several times on the same machines, than on outsourcing their computing functions.
By then, cloud computing companies would have not only to be more secure, but to prove that they are.
The problem is that many companies offering to host, analyse and process information remotely have business models developed to deal with consumers, not businesses. Most such firms either cannot or will not make millions of users jump through hoops, for example when they have lost their passwords.
Some free e-mail services or social networking sites just send passwords to an alternate electronic address, which could be hacked, or ask security questions which have the answers on the victims’ Facebook or MySpace pages. Birthdates can be gleaned from such places as Amazon wishlists.
Amazon’s EC2 and Microsoft’s online version of Office have similarly lax password-recovery systems, researchers said. The two companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Globovisión TV Network Attacked by Chavez-organized Gangs

2009-08-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

August 3, 2009

Groups of young pro-Chavez activists attacked the privately-owned Globovision TV network with handgrenades and stones. Globovision is the only private and free tv station in Venezuela and represents an obstacle in Chavez's way to perpetuate himself in power, just as Fidel Castro did in Cuba.

Mass Trial for Protesters Begins in Iran

2009-08-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Iranian authorities opened an extraordinary mass trial against more than 100 opposition figures on Saturday, accusing them of conspiring with foreign powers to stage a revolution through terrorism, subversion, and a media campaign to discredit last month’s presidential election.

The trial, coming just days before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in for a second term, signaled an intensified government attack on the opposition movement, which maintains that the June 12 election was rigged and continues to muster widespread street protests.

The charges read out in the courtroom were a broadside against virtually every major figure associated with reform in Iran, including some who are not in detention. State television broadcast images of the defendants, who included a former vice president and a Newsweek reporter, as well as some of the reform movement’s best-known spokesmen, clad in prison uniforms and listening as prosecutors outlined their accusations in a large marble-floored courtroom. Some were shackled.

Although no formal charges were brought against the leading opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, prosecutors said that his campaign and the post-election protest movement that supports him has drawn crucial support from enemies of the state in Iran and abroad.
Opposition leaders angrily disputed the accusations on Saturday and protested that the defendants have had no access to lawyers or to details of the charges against them.

Mr. Moussavi issued a call on his Web site, Ghalam News, for Iranians to resume their nightly protest chants of “God is great” more intensely than ever. Those protests have infuriated the country’s ruling ayatollahs, and Basij militiamen roam the streets in force in an effort to snuff out the chanting wherever it crops up.

Although the trial was expected, its scale took many Iranians by surprise, coming days after the government said that there would be just 20 defendants.

As the trial started, just after 9 a.m., prosecutors accused a group of prominent dissidents, like the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and the human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr, and echoed the Iranian government’s longstanding claims that its internal critics are pawns of an international plot to undermine the Islamic republic through human rights groups and even terrorists.

Iran state TV confirms arrest of 3 Americans

2009-08-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Iran state TV confirmed Saturday that it has detained three Americans who crossed the border from northern Iraq, saying they failed to heed warnings from Iranian guards. Kurdish officials from northern Iraq said the three - two men and a woman - were tourists who had mistakenly crossed into Iranian territory Friday while hiking in a mountainous area near the resort town of Ahmed Awaa.

Kurdish officials from northern Iraq said the three - two men and a woman - were tourists who had mistakenly crossed into Iranian territory Friday while hiking in a mountainous area near the resort town of Ahmed Awaa. "The Iranians said they have arrested them because they entered their land without legal permission," said Qubad Talabani, the Kurdish regional government's envoy to Washington.

Iran's state owned Arabic-language al-Alam TV station cited a "well-informed source" in the Interior Ministry that the three Americans were detained Friday after crossing into Iran's Kurdistan province.

The report said the Americans were arrested after they did not heed warnings from Iranian border guards. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Saturday that Washington had asked the Swiss, who represent U.S. interests in Tehran, "to confirm these reports with Iranian authorities and, if true, to seek consular access" to the detained Americans.

Spain on maximum alert for 50th anniversary of ETA

2009-07-31T12:24:00.000-07:00

The leaders of Spain's main political parties paid tribute to two slain police officers as security forces guarded against a fresh attack on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the armed Basque group ETA.
Authorities blame ETA for an explosion that killed the officers near a police barracks on Mallorca island yesterday and a car bomb that wounded more than 60 people in the northern city of Burgos on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero flew to Mallorca early Friday with Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy and placed medals of honor on the coffins of the officers, both members of the paramilitary Civil Guard in charge of policing rural areas and guarding official buildings.
Bells tolled at noon as people gathered in silence for five minutes outside town halls across Spain in pay their respects. Crown Prince Felipe, Princess Leticia and other authorities were to attend a funeral Mass at the Cathedral in Palma de Mallorca.
ETA was founded on July 31, 1959, and has killed more than 825 people since beginning its violent campaign for an independent Basque state in 1968.
If confirmed as ETA attacks, the blasts would conflict with government assertions that the group is seriously weakened after major police crackdowns in Spain and France in recent years. Their timing, two days before the milestone anniversary, may be part of an ETA effort to demonstrate it is in no danger of breaking up.
ETA is now blamed for nine attacks this year.
"The government has given orders to the security forces to be on maximum alert, to double their work, to increase even more their efforts and to protect themselves from these vile murderers," Zapatero said late Thursday.
In Madrid, armed police patrolled the streets around the headquarters of the country's two main political parities, the governing Socialists and the conservative Popular Party.
Several people were also lightly wounded in Thursday's bombing in the Palmanova beach resort area, southwest of the island's capital and some 10 kilometers from the Marivent royal summer residence where King Juan Carlos is due to arrive this week.
The explosion, caused by a bomb attached to the underneath of a vehicle, occurred at the height of the summer holiday season for the Mediterranean island resort, which is one of Europe's main tourist destinations.
"I was asleep outside the pool. Next thing I heard was the biggest explosion I've heard in my life," English tourist Michael Edgware told Associated Press Television NBews.
"I woke up and I thought 'what's going on?" he said, adding "Then I looked out and I saw fire, flames and fire brigades putting fires out. I got a bit scared."
Officials shut down the island's airports and ports for several hours while police searched for bombing suspects. Strict airport, road and boat controls were also being applied today.
Police believe the attack was carried out by an ETA cell that came to the island specifically to carry it out and was not based there.
Hours after the blast, police found another bomb attached to a police car in the same area and were forced to carry out a controlled explosion.
The attack Wednesday morning on the Spanish mainland also targeted a police compound and surrounding buildings, in which around 120 people including dozens of children were at the time of the blast. More than 60 people were reported injured.
There were no warning calls before the two attacks, for which no group has claimed responsibility.
Zapatero said the attacks were staged as Spanish police in collaboration with French counterparts were hitting ETA hard "dismantling its organization, thwarting its action, identifying its members and detaining them more rapidly each time and in greater numbers."
Spain has vowed to crush the separatist group since ETA ended what it had said was a permanent cease-fire with a 2006 bombing that destroyed a Madrid airport parking garage and killed two people.

The Oil Industry Will Lose Its Customers Before Running out of Oil

2009-07-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

A combination of much more efficient designs and advanced biofuels will allow the U.S. to wean itself off oil. In 1850, whaling was big business. Whale oil lit most houses. But as whales got shy and scarce, the price of whale oil drifted up. This elicited competitors, chiefly synthetic oil and gas made from coal, that grabbed more than five-sixths of whale oil's lighting market in the nine years before even cheaper oil was first struck in Pennsylvania in 1859. The astounded whalers ran out of customers before they ran out of whales. Whales were actually saved by profit-maximizing capitalists. The whalers were soon reduced to begging for federal subsidies on national-security grounds.

Oil feels like this today. Over the last few decades, the U.S. has built a vast portfolio of powerful technologies to save and replace oil. Yet nobody had totaled exactly how much oil these new technologies could save, until my team at Rocky Mountain Institute did in 2004. Our largely Pentagon-funded study Winning the Oil Endgame showed these technologies could more than replace all U.S. oil use, at an average cost of $15 per barrel (in 2000 dollars). Five years later, that finding looks conservative. Oil, as I'd long predicted, has become uncompetitive even at low prices before it became unavailable even at high prices.

Buy a good hybrid vehicle, drive it properly, and you'll halve your oil use per mile. Make that hybrid out of very lightweight materials and make it aerodynamic, and you'll halve your oil consumption again. Fuel it with 85% ethanol made from woody, inedible cellulose like switchgrass, and you'll save three-fourths of the remaining oil. Make it a plug-in hybrid, and your savings rise to 97%.

Some plug-in hybrids, like Rocky Mountain Institute spin-off Bright Automotive's IDEA--a 100mpg, 1-ton van slated for market in 2012--need no government subsidy because their high efficiency eliminates most of the costly batteries. Even greater efficiency is possible, as illustrated by Hypercar's 2000 Revolution, a halved-weight mid-size SUV design getting 67mpg with gasoline or 114mpg with hydrogen, or Toyota's ( TM - news - people ) 2007 1/X concept car, a plug-in hybrid with half the fuel use and one-third the weight of a same-size Prius. If cars were that efficient, then it could be cost-effective to use batteries or hydrogen fuel cells to power them, so they'd need no liquid fuel at all.

The key to greater efficiency is integrative design using light-but-strong materials. The lightest, carbon-fiber composites, were too costly for cars until one of Rocky Mountain Institute's spin-off companies, Fiberforge Corp. in Colorado, developed an automated manufacturing process. When that process is matured and scaled up, it should produce carbon-fiber structures with near-aerospace performance but at automotive volume and cost. Compared with the equivalent steel vehicles, such ultralight materials can halve weight and fuel use, improve crashworthiness, yet cost no more per car. That's like America's finding a Saudi Arabia under Detroit.

Rocket Launchers Bought by Venezuela Went to FARC

2009-07-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

BOGOTA -- Swedish-made anti-tank rocket launchers sold to Venezuela years ago ended up in FARC guerrilla units, and Sweden said Monday it was demanding an explanation. Colombia said its military found the weapons in a captured rebel arms cache and that Sweden had recently confirmed they originally were sold to Venezuela's military.

The confirmation strengthens Colombian allegations that Hugo Chavez's government has aided the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and exacerbated tensions between the neighboring nations over an imminent agreement to expand the U.S. military's use of Colombian air and naval bases.

The bazooka-like AT-4 single-use launchers, made by Saab Bofors Dynamics, lack the precision and range of surface-to-air weapons and there is no evidence FARC rebels have used any in combat.

President Alvaro Uribe complained over the weekend that if Colombia had kept quiet about the weapons "they'll fire them and obtain more and no one in the international community will halt their sale."

Venezuela's justice minister, Tareck El Aissami, on Monday dismissed the report of the missiles, denying that "our government or institutions have ever collaborated with any type of criminal or terrorist organizations."

The country's foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, called the launcher claim part of a "brutal campaign" with a single objective: "to justify the presence of U.S. bases" in Colombia. He was referring to talks between Washington and Bogota - a hoped-for final round is slated for early August - on a bases accord.

Neither official offered information on whether the launchers might have once belonged to Venezuela's arsenal. Three launchers were recovered in October in a FARC arms cache belonging to a rebel commander known as "Jhon 40" and Colombia only recently asked Sweden to confirm whether they had been sold to Venezuela, a senior Colombian official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter.

In Stockholm, a senior Swedish Trade Ministry official, Jens Eriksson, said his government was working with Colombia "to find out how this happened."

"We have also contacted Venezuelan authorities," he told the AP. "We are still waiting for an answer."

The head of the Swedish government agency that supervises weapons exports, Jan-Erik Lovgren, told Swedish Radio that the weapons were sold to Venezuela in the 1980s.

Lovgren said the incident - a clear violation of end-user licenses - could affect future decisions on whether to allow weapons sales to Venezuela.

"Right now we don't have any ongoing business, but if we were to receive some, we would very likely say no," he added.

Colombian officials leaked electronic documents last year they said were found on the computer of slain FARC No. 2 commander Raul Reyes in which rebel commanders discussed obtaining bazookas and other arms from Venezuelan officials, including then-military intelligence chief Hugo Carvajal.

Colombia has long maintained that the FARC has been seeking to obtain shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, whose use would significantly escalate a 45-year-old low-level conflict that has claimed about 3,500 lives annually.

"We know from intelligence that they are now seeking to buy some surface-to-air weapons to try to shoot down our planes," Uribe told reporters on Monday.

Military analyst Anna Gilmour, deputy editor of Jane's Intelligence Review, said the AT-4s don't provide a major boost to the FARC's capability.

"While SAMs are guided missiles that lock on to fast-moving aerial targets such as helicopters, the AT4 fires unguided rockets that can easily miss their target," she said. Jane's Intelligence Weekly first reported on the launchers last week.

It said batches of AT-4s were sold to Venezuela in the 1980s and 1990s but that Saab ceased sales of military equipment to Venezuela in May 2006 in response to a U.S. arms embargo. Colombian and U.S. officials accuse Venezuela of giving senior FARC leaders refuge and of allowing the rebels to smuggle tons of cocaine through the country.

Documentary Chronicles Honduras' Poverty, Despair

2009-07-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

Many Americans have been watching Honduras for tales of military coups and political intrigue. But Alexie Elfmont knows the Central American country has other problems.
A recent graduate of the University of Southern California's film school who grew up in Miami, Elfmont spent nearly three weeks in Honduras two summers ago. She documented the street children, gangs and prisoners of San Pedro Sula, the industrial capital of one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The result: a documentary on Honduran teenagers at risk, called Blinded by Open Arms. The film has been screened in several film festivals, including the Artivist Festival in Los Angeles and the International Film Festival of South Africa.
``I had a good connection with the people. I told them why I was there. I wanted to hear their story,'' said Elfmont, 24, a graduate of Ransom Everglades in Coconut Grove.
Elfmont first learned about Honduras from Eduardo Sabillon, a Honduran native who is a research assistant and family therapist at the University of Miami. Five years ago, he founded Club Desafio, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping Honduran teens off the streets and away from drugs.
``He asked me to shoot a fundraising video to raise awareness about the organization,'' Elfmont said in a phone interview from New York.
After researching the country, Elfmont wanted to do more than a promotional video. She recruited five college friends, packed up her film equipment in 19 metal cases and filmed in San Pedro Sula for nearly three weeks.
For 17 days, the filmmakers interviewed former M-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) and M-18 gang members, drug addicts, lawyers, policemen, politicians and prison officials.
They filmed children begging on street corners, inhaling glue and sleeping on sheets of cardboard. Their stories have a common theme: extreme poverty, low education rates and broken homes. More than 50 percent of the Honduran population lives below the poverty line.
The young filmmaker took her camera into San Pedro Sula's prison, where prostitution and rapes are common. Foreigners are the most common target of kidnappings. Although there are women in the prison, it is not divided by gender, Elfmont said.
``We went inside with one policeman. I remember walking through the prison and feeling the eyes of the inmates fixated on our bodies,'' she said. ``I felt I was a piece of meat and that at any moment, something could happen to me.''
Later that night, filmmakers went out with a Honduran SWAT team that regularly patrols the streets. They came across a 13-year-old boy who appears in the film sniffing glue.
``Why are you in the street?'' Elfmont asks.
``Because I don't have a family,'' he replies.
Sabillon was impressed with the candor of those interviewed.
``Nobody does this in Honduras,'' he said, discussing the film. ``In a way, people are victims of the system and they wanted to be heard.''
One former drug addict clearly did.
Heidi, a former M-18 gang member, was raped by her father and living on the streets. She was 22 -- the same age as Elfmont at the time.

Historic Flight in Europe: Blériot’s Crossing of the English Channel

2009-07-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

One hundred years have passed since Louis Blériot´s flying machine took to the air, bearing its designer and pilot, Louis Blériot, to Dover, on Britain’s southern coast, from a seaside farmyard near Calais. It was the first international flight over water by an airplane, and it required of the pilot a mixture of courage and madness to set out on the voyage without so much as a compass as a guide.

To mark the centennial on Saturday of Mr. Blériot’s crossing of the English Channel, a handful of intrepid aviators are gearing up to re-enact the event. All are hoping to recapture some of the emotion, if not the glory, that Mr. Blériot may have experienced that day as he flew across 22 miles of churning sea.

“I expect to feel a bit of apprehension to look down and see the Channel under my wings, but that is also part of the charm,” said Edmond Salis, who has made a half-dozen short flights in his 1919 Blériot XI replica. “Then to land and have the earth beneath me again, I think will be something of the same relief and joy that he would have felt.”

With a century’s hindsight, Mr. Blériot’s hop across the Channel may seem like a modest achievement. But at the time his feat was an international sensation and became a landmark of aeronautic progress. Within weeks of the crossing, Mr. Blériot had received 100 orders for his plane, many from European militaries that suddenly recognized the airplane’s strategic potential.
Mikael Carlson has been flying his 1910 Blériot for 16 years, after discovering it, dismantled, in a barn. It took him a year to reassemble it, relying on drawings found in an aviation museum, and another six months to get it flying. A professional pilot from Sweden, Mr. Carlson has 12,000 hours of flight experience under his belt, 45 of them on Blériots, and his plane has already made one successful Channel crossing, in 1999. Compared with modern aircraft, Mr. Carlson said, the Blériot handles miserably. “You have to conquer the elements,” he said. “That’s where the challenge is.”

The weather conditions on Saturday will have to be just right for the re-enactments to go ahead. “In that sense, we face the same constraints that Louis Blériot did,” Mr. Salis said.

Aviation was a second career for Mr. Blériot, who acquired his first fortune making and selling acetylene headlights for automobiles. He turned to flying machines in 1901, experimenting first with an ornithopter, a device with flapping wings that was a total failure.

In 1904 he built a biplane glider mounted on floats, which he tested, unsuccessfully, on the Seine in 1905. Beginning in 1907, Mr. Blériot began experimenting with monoplane designs, the first of which managed to stay aloft for 1,600 feet before tumbling to the ground. Several more iterations, and accidents, followed.

But after eight years and numerous injuries, his luck changed. He first flew the Blériot XI in January 1909. Within six months, the plane made progressively longer flights. Crossing the Channel in an airplane had seemed an impossible feat in 1908 when the publisher of The Daily Mail in London offered a prize of £1,000, quite a significant amount of money at the time, to the first pilot to make the flight.

But early airplanes were unstable in the air, and their engines were temperamental. Few pilots at the time had dared to stray far from an airfield.

Still, by July 1909, two pilots had stepped up to the challenge. One, Hubert Latham, was forced to ditch his plane in the Channel after its engine failed. The other, Charles de Lambert, crashed his biplane in a test flight.

Mr. Blériot informed The Daily Mail of his intention to compete and set up his plane near the beach at Les Barraques. At 4:41 a.m. on July 25, in near-perfect weather conditions, Mr. Blériot took to the air, the plane’s engine belching clouds of black smoke. He skirted the French coastline and then veered north, flying about 30 yards above the water.

“For more than 10 minutes I was alone, isolated, lost in the midst of the immense sea, and I did not see anything on the horizon or a single ship,” Mr. Blériot told The Daily Mail upon landing. As he approached the British coast, the winds picked up considerably, and he was blown temporarily off course. Clouds soon enveloped him and his plane in a light drizzle.

He descended and when he reached a height of about 20 yards, he cut the ignition. The nose of the plane struck the ground first, smashing its undercarriage and reducing the wooden propeller to match sticks. The trip took 37 minutes.

With his success, Mr. Blériot soon set up a factory to keep up with a deluge of orders for the plane. The Blériot XI became one of the first mass-produced airplane, with roughly 800 built from 1909 to 1914.

Zelaya arrives in Honduras, could be arrested

2009-07-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya arrived in Honduras, after waiting in the land border between Nicaragua and Honduras, in order to return to his country. Zelaya arrived to Las Manos where many Honduran followers where waiting for him. The Venezuelan Chancellor, Ricardo Maduro, is with him. On Honduras' land border there are police and the military forces carrying weapons and shields waiting for the ousted President to return to the country so they can arrest him.

To attract foreign investors, Russia Eases Foreign Access to Resources

2009-07-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Russia should think about easing foreign investors' access to its resources in the changed world after the boom years, a Russian minister said, two weeks after US President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow.

Emboldened by a seven-fold surge in crude prices from 2002 to over $147 a barrel in July 2008, Russia had passed laws to curb foreign participation in tapping its mineral resources.

"I believe that today there is a need to think about legislative changes, about investment attractiveness... on investments of foreign companies in the exploration and development of resources," Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev told reporters.

The comment came after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered in June surprise deals to Royal Dutch Shell and France's Total which analysts said signalled the easing of resource nationalism. The deals were signed days before Obama's trip to Moscow in early July, during which some US companies, including ExxonMobil, called on Russia to clarify and ease caps on foreign investments in strategic sectors.

Hondura's Manuel Zelaya Vows To March Back

2009-07-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

During the 1980s, the woods surrounding this lonely border crossing were the scene of ambushes and firefights, as Nicaraguan Sandinistas and Honduran-based contras waged a bloody civil war. Now, as ousted Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya vows to lead a caravan across the frontier to reclaim the presidency he lost June 28, some fear this thin ribbon of asphalt that links the two nations could once again be the scene of a clash.

As hopes for a negotiated solution to Honduras' 3-week-old political crisis fade, Zelaya has said he will lead a mass march into his country later this week. His rival and Honduras' interim president, Roberto Micheletti, has ordered the army to arrest him on sight. Few believe that the encounter will take place without bloodshed, as passions for both men run high.

``If Mel were to show up I would let him sleep in my bed and give him something to eat,'' said Isaías Rodríguez, a taxi driver who shuttles tourists from the desolate border region to the town of Dalí, Honduras, about 19 miles away. ``If he comes in and they arrest him, there will be bullets.''

Mercosur summit in Paraguay, Honduras and swine flu

2009-07-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

The 37th two-day summit of the South American largest trade bloc Mercosur opens in Paraguay. Ministers of foreign affairs, industry and trade, finance, public health service, social policy and education of Mercosur member-states are meeting in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, to prepare agenda for the meeting of their presidents on July 24.

The presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - Cristina Kirchner, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Fernando Lugo and Tabare Vasquez - will discuss the global financial crisis, trade and economic cooperation, the use of national currencies in trade operations, integration and social issues, spread of H1N1 virus and Venezuela's accession to Mercosur.

But the main topic that is to be discussed at the Presidents summit, on Friday is the conflict in Honduras and the possibility of a return in his country of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the leaders of Mercosur associate members Bolivia and Chile, Evo Morales and Michelle Bachelet, are also expected to attend.

Venezuela: Hillary Clinton Backs Globovision

2009-07-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

The chief of a Venezuelan opposition television network made a stop in Miami after meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who expressed support for Globovision's stance against Hugo Chávez's government.

Fresh from a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the head of Venezuela's main opposition television network said he's returning home convinced Clinton supports Globovisión's efforts to speak out against Hugo Chávez's government.

Alberto Federico Ravell and his main anchor, Leopoldo Castillo, met with El Nuevo Herald editors and The Miami Herald's Editorial Board on Wednesday to share news of their interview with Clinton and discuss the network's battle with Chávez, who is trying to shut down Globovisión.

''We have to respect the media, we have to respect the constitution, we have to respect elected governments,'' Ravell said Clinton told him. ''In everything. she said I was seeing a red beret,'' he said speaking about the famed symbol of the Venezuelan president.

The Washington meeting on Tuesday with Clinton was the highlight of their trip and came on the same day Clinton was trying to negotiate a resolution to the recent ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya -- a situation that Ravell said Chávez is trying to manipulate.

Honduran Crisis: Both Sides Lay Their Claims in DC

2009-07-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -- Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is meeting behind closed doors Tuesday afternoon with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as both sides laying claim to the Central American country's government arrive to press their cases in Washington.

The State Department said Clinton will meet at 1 p.m. with Zelaya, whose aborted attempt to retake the presidency on Sunday was met by military force. The conversation may not be to his liking: The Obama administration is reportedly irked by the fact Zelaya sought much of his advice from Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

The high level meeting with Clinton could signal greater intervention by the United States, which has joined with leaders across the Americas in trying to bring an end to the crisis, which began with a predawn raid June 28, and seek Zelaya's return to Tegucigalpa. The Organization of American States, which has stated that Zelaya's return is not negotiable, is seeking a compromise with Honduran legislators and judges.

Several members of the Honduran National Congress and former members of the Honduran judiciary will make their own case at a 3 p.m. Washington news conference.

The delegation is in Washington for several days of meetings with U.S. policymakers 'to clarify any misunderstandings about Honduras' constitutional process and to discuss the next steps to ensure the preservation of the country's democratic institutions,'' a news release from the group says.

The defacto government in Honduras maintains Zelaya's ouster was justified because he was flouting the Honduran constitution and seeking to overturn presidential term limits that would have removed him from office in six months.

Also in town, former Honduran President Ricardo Maduro, who will meet with Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been critical of Zelaya and the OAS and said Monday ``the United States and other responsible nations must shift to a more responsible approach that does not focus on Zelaya but on supporting democratic institutions and the rule of law.''

Ethnic Clashes in Western China: Toll Rises to 158

2009-07-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

158 people were killed and more than 800 injured when rioters clashed with the police in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between members of the Uighur ethnic group and Han Chinese. Although Beijing says Uighurs went on the rampage, one exiled Uighur leader says police fired on students.

Deadly fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese in southern China last month led to last Sunday demonstrations. The casualty toll would make this the deadliest outbreak of violence in China in many years. the violence started on Sunday in Urumqi after a protest of a few hundred people grew to more than 1,000.

Xinhua says the protesters carried knives, bricks and batons, smashed cars and stores, and fought with security forces. Wu Nong, news director for the Xinjiang government, said more than 260 vehicles were attacked and more than 200 shops and houses damaged. Most of the violence is reported to have taken place in the city centre, around Renmin (People's) Square, Jiefang and Xinhua South Roads and the Bazaar.

Uighurs

2009-07-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

Uighurs are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (Western China). Today Uighurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and more than 40 % of them are Muslim. There are Uighur diasporic communities in Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Australia, Germany and Turkey and smaller ones in Afghanistan, Russia and Taoyuan County of Hunan province in south-central Mainland China. Uighur neighborhoods can be found in major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai. There are small communities in the United States, mainly in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Washington, DC, as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.

The earliest use of the term "Uighur" was during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 CE), in China. At that time, the Uyghur were part of the Gaoche (English: "High Wheels"), a group of Turkic tribes, which Chinese later called Tele people, from the Turkic word, "tele" the "Nine-Family Tele" association, i.e., Tokuz-Oguzes) for "wheelwagon". This group included tribes such as Syr-Tardush, Basmyl, Oguz, Khazar , Alans, Kyrgyz, Tuva and Yakut from the Lake Baikal Region. The forebears of the Tele belonged to those of Hun (Chinese: Xiongnu) descendants. According to Chinese Turkic scholars Ma Changshou and Cen Zhongmian, the Chinese word Tiele originates from the Turkic word "Türkler" (Turks), which is a plural form of "Türk" (Turk) and the Chinese word "Tujue" comes from the Turkic word "Türküt" which is a singular form of Türk. The origin of Gaoche can be traced back to the Dingling peoples of about 200 BC, contemporary with the Chinese Han Dynasty.

The Kirchners' dreams of alternating in office for another decade are over

2009-07-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

"The Economist" British publication wrote an analysis of the outcome of last Sunday's midterm elections in Argentina saying that "not only did the first couple lose those majorities but they also lost the political dominance they have exercised over Argentina since 2003."

"There were other hugely symbolic defeats, such as in Santa Cruz, the Patagonian province where Mr Kirchner was governor before he became president. Ms Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sought solace in the performance of Fernando Solanas, a leftist filmmaker, whose new grouping came second in the capital district, winning 24% (though he campaigned as an opponent)," it added.

The article stated that "Argentina seems to feel uncomfortable with a weak leader. In the current democratic period starting in 1983, two presidents, both of them Radicals facing deep economic woes, were forced to step down early after losing their congressional majorities."

"The new Congress will not assemble until December. Even then, the president could rule by decree. Opponents want the government to fire those responsible for doctoring economic statistics, and to cease its harassment of the private sector. The risk premium on Argentina's bonds has fallen by more than three percentage points over the past month. The opposition still has much work ahead. The Radicals need to rebuild their weakened party machine. And the Peronists need to rally round a new leader. But the Kirchners' dreams of alternating in office for another decade are over," it ended.

FDA Advises Lower Dosage for Popular Painkiller

2009-07-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Food and Drug Administration recommended on June 30 that the maximum over-the-counter dose of the popular pain reliever acetaminophen be lowered and that the current maximum single dose of the drug be available by prescription only. Acetaminophen, more commonly known by the brand name Tylenol, is one of the most frequently used pain and fever relievers in the U.S. It has the advantage of not causing stomach bleeding or other gastrointestinal side effects that other popular pain medications, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, can cause. Acetaminophen is also found in several cold- and cough-remedy products as well as in prescription drugs such as Vicodin and Percocet.

But despite its widespread use, there have been growing concerns about the non-prescription drug's effects on the liver. The 13-member FDA committee convened specifically to address liver toxicities due to acetaminophen overdose. The group of doctors and patient representatives concluded that the daily maximum dose of acetaminophen should be reduced from the current allowable 4 g and that the maximum single over-the-counter level be set at 650 mg, down from the current 1,000 mg.

Experts stress that taken as recommended, the drug is safe. But because the agent is present in so many over-the-counter medications, there is the potential that users can unintentionally overdose. "People might be taking Tylenol and taking a combination cold product that also has Tylenol in it, and Vicodin, which also has Tylenol in it, and start combining medications and not realizing they are taking that much acetaminophen," says Dr. Michelle Ruha, a medical toxicologist at Banner Good Samaritan Poison Control Center in Phoenix.

Since 1998, acetaminophen-containing products have carried a warning label advising users to consult their physician when using the pain reliever in combination with alcohol. In 2002, the medication earned a warning advising users to avoid taking more than two acetaminophen-containing products at the same time. Nevertheless, in a study of adverse event reports submitted to the FDA since the 2002 label change, the number of liver problems has doubled, says Bill Soller, a professor of pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, who conducted the survey. "People don't read labels, and physicians aren't doing the communication in the office," Soller says. "At some point, when you find the labels don't work, then you've got to bump it up to the next level."

That's what the committee's conclusions represent — a strong message that as safe as acetaminophen is, it can be made safer, to help people avoid accidental overdoses. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Tylenol's manufacturer, disagrees, citing 150 clinical studies on the drug's safety if taken as recommended. In a statement, the company said, "McNeil Consumer Healthcare strongly disagrees with the committee's recommendation. McNeil Consumer Healthcare believes that this recommendation is likely to lead to more serious adverse events as consumers shift to other over-the-counter products ... in search of pain relief."

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to join Zelaya in return to Honduras

2009-06-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will join Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in his return to that country, after a coup overthrew his government on Sunday, an unidentified source in the government told reporters in Buenos Aires.

"The President will be among the delegation of the Association of American States that will travel to Honduras with Zelaya," said the source. The decision of the Kirchner administration was adopted "to show the clear political will of the region to return the ousted authority to his post," he added.

Zalaya, a leftist president who is very close to Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, was captured by a military operation on Sunday and he was brought to Costa Rica, amid an increasingly violent controversy over his plans to amend the constitution to introduce deep pro-socialist reforms.

The coup in Honduras was condemned by the OAS, the European Union, the UN and the government of the United States, which imports about 80 percent of Honduras' exports.

After the military coup Zelaya says he will return to Honduras, interim government threatens to arrest him

2009-06-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

Honduras' ousted president Manuel Zelaya said he will return to his country in two days and reclaim control from coup leaders, urging soldiers to go back to their baracks and stop cracking down on thousands of his supporters who have protested his overthrow. The military coup has provoked the condemnation of world leaders from US President Barack Obama to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and sparked clashes in the Honduran capital that have left dozens of people injured.

Flanked by leftist Latin American leaders who have vowed to help him regain power, Manuel Zelaya said late Monday that he would accept an offer by Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza to accompany him back to Honduras and work for the restoration of the democratic order.

Zelaya, a wealthy rancher who has championed the poor, said he wanted to make the trip Thursday, after attending a meeting of the UN General Assembly to seek support from its 192 member nations.
"I will return Thursday to Tegucigalpa and I want the support of whoever thinks I have the right to finish my presidency," Zelaya said at a late night news conference in Nicaragua, where he earlier received a standing ovation during a meeting of Latin American leaders to discuss the coup. Honduran military leaders arrested him Sunday and flew him to Costa Rica.

He said he would call for dialogue and urged soldiers to return to their barracks. "In the name of God, in the name of the people, stop repressing the people. If the people want to express themselves, don't press them," Zelaya said.

However, the interim government set up after the army bundled Zelaya out of the Central American country on Sunday said it would arrest him if he went back. Enrique Ortez, caretaker foreign minister, told media sources that Zelaya has charges pending against him for violating the constitution, drug trafficking and organized crime.

The opposition claims he was legally ousted because he violated the constitution by sponsoring a referendum that was outlawed by the Supreme Court. Many saw the foiled vote as a step toward eliminating barriers to his re-election, as other Latin American leaders have done in recent years.

On Monday, thousands of protesters clashed with police and soldiers outside the national palace amid calls for the restoration of Zelaya to Honduras' presidency. The loudest voice calling for Zelaya's return has been Chávez, who has urged a rebellion by the Honduran people.

"I'll do everything possible to overthrow this gorilla government of Honduras. It must be overthrown," the socialist leader said. "The rebellion in Honduras must be supported."

Chávez vowed to halt shipments of oil to Honduras under Venezuela's Petrocaribe pact, which provides fuel to countries across the region with highly favorable financing terms. Most of Honduras' oil comes from other sources.

Mexico's conservative government joined the region's leftist leaders in pulling its ambassador from Honduras. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala would cut trade with neighboring Honduras for at least 48 hours.

The Organization of American States called an emergency meeting for Tuesday to consider suspending Honduras under an agreement meant to prevent the sort of coups that for generations made Latin America a spawning ground of military dictatorships.

Protests outside the presidential palace grew from hundreds to thousands, and soldiers and police advanced behind riot shields, using tear gas to scatter the protesters. The demonstrators, many of them choking on the gas, hurled rocks and bottles as they retreated. At least 38 protesters were detained, said Sandra Ponce, a government human rights official.

Red Cross paramedic Cristian Vallejo said he had transported ten protesters to hospitals, most of them with injuries from rubber bullets. Congresswoman Silvia Ayala said she counted 30 injured at a single Tegucigalpa hospital and an Associated Press photographer in another area close to the palace saw protesters carrying away five injured people.

Zelaya said more than 150 people were injured and 50 were arrested but added that he didn't "have exact figures, because I'm not there."

Officers armed with rifles briefly detained four journalists from the AP and three from Venezuela-based Telesur, arresting them at their hotel, loading them in a military vehicle and taking them to an immigration office, where two officials demanded to see their visas. The group was released a short time later.

In the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, several thousand anti-Zelaya protesters waving blue-and-white Honduran flags packed in a square to back the interim government and to protest against the return of a leader they say wants to follow Chávez's socialist model.

In Washington, Obama said the United States will "stand on the side of democracy" and work with other nations and international groups to resolve the matter peacefully.

"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there," Obama said. "It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections."

Meanwhile, Roberto Micheletti, named by Congress to serve out the final seven months of Zelaya's term, vowed to ignore foreign pressure and began naming Cabinet members, including a new minister of defense.

"We respect everybody and we ask only that they respect us and leave us in peace because the country is headed toward free and transparent general elections in November," Micheletti told HRN radio.

Zelaya alienated the courts, Congress, the military and even his own party in his tumultuous three years in power but maintains the support of many of Honduras' poor.

Zelaya was arrested in his pajamas Sunday morning by soldiers who stormed his residence and flew him into exile. A day later, back in suit and tie, he sat beside Chavez and other allies at the Nicaragua meeting of the nine-nation ALBA alliance, which agreed to pull its ambassadors from Honduras and reject the replacement government's envoys.

Recounting his detention, he said his daughter hid under her bed for 35 minutes while masked soldiers burst in to the residence and searched for him. He was on the phone with a media outlet when the soldiers ordered him to drop the cell phone, he said.

He said the soldiers were shaking as they pointed their guns because they were "facing the president of the republic, and they knew it."

"I said, 'I'm not going to drop it. If you have been ordered to shoot, then shoot,'" Zelaya said. He said the soldiers simply yanked the phone from his hand.

Coups were common in Central America until the 1980s, but Sunday's ouster was the first military power grab in Latin America since a brief, failed 2002 coup against Chavez.

It was the first military ouster of a Central American president since 1993, when Guatemalan military officials refused to accept President Jorge Serrano's attempt to seize absolute power and removed him. Honduras had not seen a coup since 1978, when one military government overthrew another.

Iranian cleric stated that rioters should be executed

2009-06-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

A hardline Iranian cleric called for the execution of "rioters" in the latest sign of the authorities' determination to stamp out opposition to the June 12 presidential election.

Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, said it had found no major violations in the election, which it called the "healthiest" vote since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The council had already rejected a call for the annulment of the vote by moderate former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi, who has led mass protests since he was declared a distant second in the election behind incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson," Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University.

Iranian state television said on Thursday eight Basij militiamen were killed by "rioters" during the protests. State media previously said 20 people were killed in the marches.

Iranian authorities have accused Mousavi of being responsible for the bloodshed, while the moderate former prime minister says the government is to blame.
Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading "rioters" as being "mohareb" or one who wages war against God.

"They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely," he said. Under Iran's Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution.

Mousavi's supporters plan to release thousands of balloons on Friday with the message: "Neda you will always remain in our hearts," in memory of the young woman killed last week who has become an icon of the demonstrations.

The authorities have used a combination of warnings, arrests and the threat of police action to drive large demonstrations off Tehran's street since Saturday with small gatherings dispersed with tear gas and baton charges.

Seventy professors were detained after meeting Mousavi and his campaign manager was among many arrested. The professors were released on Thursday.
The 12-man Guardian Council's statement leaves little scope for more legal challenges, short of an attack on the position of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has expressed strong support for Ahmadinejad.

"The Guardian Council has almost finished reviewing defeated candidates' election complaints ... the reviews showed that the election was the healthiest since the revolution ... There were no major violations in the election," said Abbasali Kadkhodai, spokesman of the council.

Telecom Italia seen shedding Argentine stake-sources

2009-06-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

Italy's No. 1 telecom operator Telecom Italia is likely to sell its stake in its Argentine unit, which is caught up in a probe by local antitrust regulators, two industry sources close to the matter said.

Telecom Argentina, one of Argentina's top phone companies, is controlled by Telecom Italia along with an Argentine investor group led by the Werthein family. It is being probed by Argentine authorities because a Telecom Italia shareholder, Spain's Telefonica, runs a rival local operator.

"Things are heading towards a sale, as long as there is no political change or a change of strategy by the government, which seems improbable to me," said one industry source, referring to upcoming parliamentary elections in Argentina.

Argentine regulators have frozen Telecom Italia's call option on Telecom Argentina as part of the antitrust probe, and the country's centre-left government has named two officials to oversee the running of the company.
The source confirmed an Argentine report that Telecom Italia had hired Credit Suisse to evaluate a sale of its stake. Telecom Italia has declined to comment on the report, but in the past has not ruled out a sale.

Telecom's 50 percent stake in Sofora, the holding company that controls Telecom Argentina, is expected to be worth up to 300 million euros (US$ 415.7 million), an Italian newspaper has said.

A sale of the stake will likely have ramifications for the Italian company's sale of its German broadband unit Hansenet - which Telefonica is bidding on - and where Telecom Italia has received less than satisfactory offers, said the source.

A Telecom Italia exit from Argentina would leave the field open to Telefonica to become the top operator there, the source said, which in turn could allow the Spanish company to be more generous in its bid for Hansenet.

"Telecom Italia is looking at Argentina with an eye towards Germany and another towards Spain," said the source. Vodafone and United Internet are others eyeing Hansenet, according to sources familiar with the matter.

"The road seems to be marked (...) the advantages seem to be for the Spanish partner," said a second industry source. Telecom Italia, which Telefonica controls along with a group of Italian investors, has been selling off assets to cut debt.

Pentagon approves a cyber command

2009-06-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON- The Pentagon will establish a Cyber Command to oversee the U.S. military's efforts to protect its computer networks and operate in cyberspace, under an order signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday.

The new headquarters of the Cyber Command, likely to be based at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., will be responsible for defending U.S. military systems but not other U.S. government or private networks, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Asked if the command would be capable of offensive operations as well as protecting the Department of Defense, Whitman declined to answer directly.

"This command is going to focus on the protection and operation of DoD's networks," he said. "This command is going to do what is necessary to be able to do that."
U.S. officials have voiced growing concern in recent years about being vulnerable to attacks on the country's civilian or military networks as technology takes on an ever-increasing role, including in military operations. President Barack Obama said last month he would name a White House-level czar to coordinate government efforts to fight cybercrime.

The United States has said many attempts to penetrate its networks appear to come from China but it has stopped short of accusing Chinese authorities of being responsible. Whitman said the new command will consolidate existing Pentagon efforts to protect its networks and operate in cyberspace.

Those efforts currently come under the auspices of U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska, which will also oversee the new headquarters. The U.S. Department of Defense runs some 15,000 electronic networks and runs some 7 million computers and other information technology devices, Whitman said.

"Our defense networks are constantly probed. There are millions of scans every day," he said.

"The power to disrupt and destroy, once the sole province of nations, now also rests with small groups and individuals, from terrorist groups to organized crime to industrial spies to hacker activists, to teenage hackers," he said.

"We also know that foreign governments are trying to develop offensive cyber capabilities," he added, saying more than 100 foreign intelligence services were trying to hack into U.S. networks.

The new command should begin initial operations by this October and be fully up and running a year later.

The head of the Cyber Command would also be the director of the U.S. National Security Agency, which conducts electronic surveillance and communications interception and is also based at Fort Meade.

NASA's Big Question: Can Humans Live on the Moon?

2009-06-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

Can human beings live on the moon? Nearly four decades after astronaut Neil Armstrong planted his boot on the surface of the moon, the United States is about to take the first small step toward colonizing Earth's tag-along satellite.
As soon as Thursday, NASA is scheduled to launch a robotic mission aimed at finding the best site for Earth's first off-world colony, the centuries-old dream of science fiction writers and utopians.

This time, it's not about going for a walkabout or hitting golf balls and cruising around in a US$10-million moon buggy, as the Apollo astronauts did. Ultimately, it's about packing up the kids and the dog and moving in."We're going to provide NASA with what is needed to get human beings back to the moon and to stay there for an extended duration," said Craig Tooley, project manager for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, one part of the two-pronged mission.

The orbiter itself is expected to produce the most detailed topographic maps of the moon ever made, as well as first glimpses inside perpetually shadowed craters at the north and south poles. Inside those craters, scientists hope to find caches of frozen water that have been hidden away for billions of years.
The mission won't stop there. Using a second spacecraft - the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is planning to punch a hole in one to see what comes out.

Both spacecraft will be launched together with a two-stage rocket, and nearly four months from now, the agency will use the spent second stage of the rocket as a battering ram to create a crater 66 feet wide by 13 feet deep and send a six-mile-high plume wafting into space that should provide a show for hobbyists on Earth with decent-sized telescopes.

"This should be spectacular," said Tony Colaprete, the satellite's project scientist. "It should be a very visible impact from Earth."

The biggest uncertainty hanging over the US$579-million mission as it prepares for launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida is the question of whether the lunar outpost will ever be built.

The plan for a lunar colony was developed as a consequence of President George W. Bush's 2004 Vision for Space Exploration, which proposed putting human beings back on the moon by 2020. That plan also called for using the moon as a jumping-off point for a still more ambitious plan to put astronauts on Mars.
But President Barack Obama has not endorsed the Bush vision.

The administration's recent decision ordering a review of the future of human spaceflight stirred anxieties in the space community. Some observers wonder whether Obama is setting the stage for a pullback from Bush's vision to a much more limited one - similar to the one that led NASA to abandon the moon in the 1970s in favor of the space shuttle program.

In testimony to a Senate science subcommittee last month, Christopher Scolese, acting NASA administrator, indicated that he was well aware the long-term plan for humans to colonize other worlds could be in danger. He took note that, "The administration will provide an updated request for exploration activities, as necessary."

"In the meantime," he said, "NASA is proceeding as planned with current exploration activities, including ... lunar systems."

An hour after launch, the 4,000-pound reconnaissance orbiter will separate from the crater-sensing satellite and rocket portions of the spacecraft. After a nearly five-day cruise, it will use a dozen guidance thrusters to settle into orbit about 30 miles above the lunar surface, which is much more of a mystery than many people might think.

Other than the equatorial area explored by the Apollo missions, "Images of the rest of the moon are pretty poor," Tooley said. "We have much better images of Mars than the moon."

The problem is particularly acute at the poles, where the current maps can be off as much as 10 miles, even though NASA plan calls for establishing the outpost at one of the poles.

The poles have areas of perpetual sunlight and perpetual shade. The sunlight would be useful as a source of solar power for colonists. The shaded areas might feature deposits of ice that have been locked up for billions of years.

Such ice could be used not just as a source of water. Through electrolysis, it could be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen could be used both for respiration and to make rocket fuel for trips back and forth to Earth. But there's no definitive proof ice is there. The possible presence of water on the moon "is a hotly and passionately debated topic," Tooley said.

Tantalizing clues point in both directions. One of the most persuasive came from the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission, which detected large stores of hydrogen in sunken craters, where the temperature never rises above minus 270 degrees. Yet, recent efforts to find water with other international satellites orbiting the moon have failed.

The current mission aims to answer that question and strip away the last shrouds of mystery from the moon.The lunar orbiter carries seven instruments, among them a set of cameras that can resolve features as small as 18 inches across, the size of a small boulder.

A laser altimeter will bounce beams off the surface to create a detailed view of the landscape -mountains, ridges and valleys. An instrument dubbed CRaTER will measure the radiation environment. NASA has long known that exposure to cosmic and solar radiation is a hazard for anyone living on the lunar surface.
"If we're going to stay on the moon a long time, we're going to have to figure out how to protect ourselves," Tooley said.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will have a good chance of finding water, if it's there. But sometimes, nothing beats getting your hands dirty, and that's where the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite comes in.After the orbiter parts company with the satellite and rocket shortly after launch, the crater-busting combo will go into a looping Earth orbit to line up a space-based knockout blow to the moon. The punch will be delivered by the second-stage of the Atlas V rocket (by then devoid of fuel), called a Centaur. After sling-shotting around the Earth to gain momentum and achieve the highest possible angle for its plunge into the moon, the SUV-sized Centaur will barrel into the targeted crater on the morning of Oct. 8 at about 5,600 mph. It will shatter any surface ice and send up a huge plume of dust.

Four minutes after the collision, the accompanying satellite will fly through the debris to take measurements of the chemical composition. Any water blasted out of the crater will decompose quickly. But the satellite carries among its nine instruments a set of visible light and infrared cameras, as well as spectrometers, specifically designed to spot the decomposing chemicals.

After flying through the cloud, the satellite will crash into the lunar surface some distance away. Miles above, watching the drama unfold, will be the reconnaissance orbiter.

And a bit farther away, down on terra firma, hobbyists by the thousands will be training their telescopes on the moon's underbelly.
NASA still hasn't decided which crater to pummel. It must be shallow enough that the material blasted out can rise above the rim so the spacecraft can fly through it to take measurements, Colaprete said.

NASA won't settle on a target until 30 days before impact, when it will have the orbiter's measurements to help guide the choice.

It could take months to unravel what the spacecraft finds. But if it turns up unequivocal proof of water on a purportedly dead world, no one is going to sit on that bombshell."If we hit a high concentration of water, we will report that as soon as we can," Colaprete said.

Hilda Molina critizes the 'Mothers of Plaza de Mayo'

2009-06-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

Neurosurgeon and Cuban dissident Hilda Molina accused the Human rights organization Mothers of Plaza de Mayo of "demonizing" anyone who thinks differently than them. She criticized the fact that the ‘Mothers' "show respect to dictators such as Castro."

In an interview with a local newspaper, Molina said she knew the "history" of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo but that she "never thought of getting in touch with them and ask them to intercede with Cuban and Argentine governments."

Molina explained that "they suffered from one dictatorship, but they now show respect for other dictatorships, such as the Cuban one, who is left-wing, while the one in Argentina was right-wing."

The neurosurgeon who finally managed to leave the island this week and meet with her family in Argentina, after having been denied this right for fifteen years, gave more details on why she did not contact the Human rights organization: "I knew they wouldn't do anything because someone who shows so much respect for a dictatorship demonizes someone who thinks differently".

However, Molina added that "the ‘Mothers' have suffered very much, they fought for their families and this deserves a lot of respect. I didn't want to upset them, this is why I did not get in touch with them."

Despite her anger at Cuban authorities, Hilda Molina said she will return to Cuba: "I came here to take care of my mother and I will then go back to Cuba, as I promised. I could have escaped from Cuba a year ago when I had a chance, but I wanted to do it all with pride, leave from the Martí airport, with a passport and a permit."

The Human rights group "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo" fought for many years, claiming for the appearance of their sons who disappeared during the last dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983).

In Iran Mousavi urges more protests

2009-06-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

TEHRAN - Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi urged his supporters on Sunday to continue their protests over a disputed presidential election, in a direct challenge to the leadership of the Islamic Republic. EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Helicopters buzzed through the evening sky over Tehran and gunfire was heard in northern Tehran, a bastion of support for the reformist former prime minister.
"Protesting against lies and fraud (in the election) is your (Iranians) right," Mousavi said in a statement on his website.

"In your protests continue to show restraint. I am expecting armed forces to avoid irreversible damage," he added.

At least 10 people were killed in a crack down on protests on Saturday and Mousavi said the deaths, and the mass arrest of his supporters, would "create a rift between society and the country's armed forces."

Mousavi's comments came the day pro-reform clerics stepped up criticism of Iran's authorities after more than a week of unprecedented popular defiance against the leadership of the Islamic Republic.

A disputed June 12 election which returned to power hardline anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked the most violent unrest since the Islamic Revolution which ousted the U.S.-backed shah in 1979.

The authorities have dismissed the protesters as "terrorists" and rioters, an indication of their determination to crack down hard on demonstrations.

GUNFIRE
In pro-Mousavi districts of northern Tehran, supporters took to the rooftops after dusk to chant their defiance, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"I heard repeated shootings while people were chanting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) in Niavaran area," said a witness, who asked not to be named.
Another witness heard shooting in Zaferaniyeh district in the north of the capital. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The shooting appeared to be an attempt by the authorities to break up unsanctioned protests. Government restrictions prevent correspondents working for foreign media from attending protests to report.
As authorities fulminated against protesters backing Mousavi, moderate former President Mohammad Khatami signaled increased opposition among pro-reform clerics to Iran's conservative leadership.
"Preventing people from expressing their demands through civil ways will have dangerous consequences," Khatami, a Mousavi ally, said in a statement quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Indian protests continue in Peru

2009-06-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

BAGUA, Peru -- President Alan Garcia accused Amazon Indians of "barbarity" Sunday in the killing of 22 members of a paramilitary police force sent to break up anti-development protests.

While the blockades that had halted the flow of oil out of the jungle appeared mostly disbanded, and Indians went into hiding fearing arrest, native groups nevertheless seized a remote airport Sunday and refused to abandon a key jungle roadblock.

Protesters interviewed by The Associated Press, meanwhile, said the police attack early Friday was unprovoked, and they couldn't be expected to stand by as officers mowed them down with gunfire.

In a speech in Lima, Garcia accused Indians opposed to oil, gas and other development on their native lands of impeding progress, either through "elemental ignorance" or manipulation by outside interests he didn't name.
Funerals were held for six of the fallen officers in Lima. Two officers who survived the melee in Amazonas state described on national TV from their hospital beds how Indians had slain comrades who surrendered.

"They even tortured those they killed," said patrolman Fredegundo Vasquez.
Garcia said he deplored the killings and sent police reinforcements to Bagua, a sweltering Amazonas state district located 450 miles (730 kilometers) north of Lima.

"When one thinks of the final moments of those officers who were disarmed, tied up and then had their throats slit like animals, one understands the barbarity and savageness," Garcia said.

Heavily armed police killed at least 30 Indians, according to protest leaders, after moving Friday to open a road natives had blocked since April 9. The protests had cut off oil and gas flow from the Amazon and prevented food, medicine and gasoline from getting in, according to the government.

Indians say police burned or threw some bodies into the Maranon river beside the highway to hide the true death toll.

"We have brothers who still haven't been found," said Euclides Calvo, a 28-year-old student and Wampi Indian who was among 2,500 men manning the roadblock.

Calvo said the protesters were unarmed when police attacked, except for the spears some carried as "symbols of our identity." He said he witnessed local indigenous leader Santiago Manuin, who was among 155 wounded, being shot repeatedly as he approached police trying to persuade them to stop firing.

A 3 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew was imposed Saturday in Bagua and Utcubamba provinces, where the protests were centered. The curfew was still in effect Sunday.

The political violence is the Andean country's worst since the Shining Path insurgency was quelled more than a decade ago and bodes ill for Garcia's ambitious plans to boost Peru's oil, gas and mineral output and spur logging and biofuel development.

Nine of the slain police had been seized at an oil pumping station owned by the state petroleum company Petroperu, and two officers remained missing on Sunday.

Protest leader Alberto Pizango went into hiding after a judge on Saturday issued a warrant for his arrest on sedition charges. His replacement, Champion Nonimgo, called Sunday for the Organization of American States and other international bodies to investigate the violence.

Meanwhile, about 30 Achuar Indians - including women and children - took over the tarmac of the small Trompetero airport Sunday in the neighboring jungle state of Loreto. The airport is used by Pluspetrol, an Argentine oil company, according to a Pluspetrol official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the news media.

Another undetermined number of Indians continued to block a highway between the nearby jungle cities of Tarapoto and Yurimaguas, authorities said.

Indians have been blocking roads, waterways and occupying oil facilities on and off since early April, demanding Peru's government repeal laws they say help foreign companies exploit their lands.

The laws, decreed by Garcia as he implemented a Peru-U.S. free trade pact, open communal jungle lands and water resources to oil drilling, logging, mining and large-scale farming.

Indian leaders and environmental groups say the decrees violate Peru's constitution and break international law because Garcia's administration has failed.