Medellín fue elegida como la ciudad más innovadora del mundo en el marco del concurso City of the Year, que organizan The Wall Street Journal y Citigroup. La capital del departamento de Antioquia compitió con Nueva York y Tel Aviv, y la decisión dependió de una votación realizada por los internautas.
El Urban Land Institute (ULI) tomó en cuenta la construcción de infraestructuras integradas de transporte público que, además de reducir las emisiones de CO2, han contribuido al desarrollo social de zonas marginadas, la reducción de los índices de criminalidad, la construcción de equipamientos y de espacios culturales y la gestión de servicios públicos.
Saturday, 2 March 2013
La compañía escocesa Chivas vierte al desagüe por error 18.000 litros de whisky
Empleados de la compañía escocesa Chivas Regal vertieron por error por el desagüe unos 18.000 litros de whisky, informa un diario británico citando una fuente anónima de la empresa.
Por lo general, los empleados de limpieza vacían y limpian el contenedor de whisky antes de llenarlo del siguiente producto. Pero esta vez, uno de los empleados se olvidó de cerrar el grifo que permite que salgan los líquidos del contenedor, en este caso el agua después de la limpieza. Cuando el depósito empezó a llenarse con el nuevo producto, el whisky, nadie se percató que se estaba derramando.
En la actualidad, la empresa realiza una investigación interna sobre el incidente. "Los implicados serán muy afortunados si logran mantener su empleo", dijo la fuente.
Por lo general, los empleados de limpieza vacían y limpian el contenedor de whisky antes de llenarlo del siguiente producto. Pero esta vez, uno de los empleados se olvidó de cerrar el grifo que permite que salgan los líquidos del contenedor, en este caso el agua después de la limpieza. Cuando el depósito empezó a llenarse con el nuevo producto, el whisky, nadie se percató que se estaba derramando.
En la actualidad, la empresa realiza una investigación interna sobre el incidente. "Los implicados serán muy afortunados si logran mantener su empleo", dijo la fuente.
Samsung contrata a un juez que le favoreció en el caso contra Apple
Jacob Robin, el juez británico que dictó una resolución en favor de Samsung en el proceso contra Apple, ha sido contratado por Samsung en calidad de asesor en EE.UU.
El gigante estadounidense afirmaba que el Samsung Galaxy Tab era una copia de su iPad. El juez dispuso que Apple pidiera disculpas públicas en su página web. Incluso después del primer anuncio en la página de la compañía estadounidense, esta fue obligada a rectificar para que sus disculpas fueran más claras.
El gigante estadounidense afirmaba que el Samsung Galaxy Tab era una copia de su iPad. El juez dispuso que Apple pidiera disculpas públicas en su página web. Incluso después del primer anuncio en la página de la compañía estadounidense, esta fue obligada a rectificar para que sus disculpas fueran más claras.
US faces huge job losses as Obama orders $85bn cuts
President says middle classes will suffer most and that Republican stance on taxation is 'root cause' of crisis
Barack Obama warned on Saturday of a "ripple effect" through the US economy that would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs after he reluctantly signed an order to begin a huge $85bn (£56bn) programme of government cuts.
The president even called the act "not smart" on the morning after the cuts officially became government policy, in a move that has been dubbed "sequestration" and has plunged Washington into another political crisis.
"The pain will be real. Many middle-class families will have their lives disrupted in a significant way," Obama said in his weekly address. He added that up to 750,000 jobs could be lost and half a percentage point knocked off America's economic growth this year. "This will cause a ripple effect across the economy. Businesses will suffer because customers will have less money to spend ... These cuts are not smart. They will hurt our economy and cost us jobs," he said.
The sequester originates in a political crisis in 2011, when debates over deficit reduction almost saw the US government default on its debt payments. To avert that crisis, Democrats and Republicans agreed that, unless they struck a deal on shrinking the country's debt, then the cuts to federal spending would begin.
The idea was that the prospect of cuts to social services would motivate the Democrats and hurting military spending would do the same for Republicans. Instead, despite the looming deadline last week, no grand bargain was ever struck and the cuts – which neither side had intended to happen – are now coming into force and spreading throughout the federal government. Over the next 10 years they will represent $1.2tn of slashed spending.
The hardest-hit part of the government will be the Pentagon, which has to make $40bn of cuts between now and September – about 9% of its budget. Defence chiefs have already said that the move will delay deployments – such as a recent move of an aircraft carrier to the Gulf – and hurt national security.
But almost every government department, from aviation to the park service, will be hit, with cuts amounting to about 5% of their overall budgets. Only Medicaid and welfare benefits such as food stamps are exempted. The Federal Aviation Authority has said that it will have to close scores of air traffic control towers and the National Labour Relations Board has already given staff 30 days' notice that they could be suspended from their jobs. Over the next few weeks, more such letters will go out, threatening school services and the smooth running of scores of other government functions.
In his speech Obama blamed Republicans for inaction, saying that their hostility to any sort of extra tax revenues being generated from rich Americans was the root cause of the problem. In recent weeks, and since his victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in last year's election, Obama has not shied away from attacking his opponents as defenders only of the wealthy.
"It's happening because Republicans in Congress chose this outcome over closing a single, wasteful tax loophole that helps reduce the deficit. Only last week they decided that protecting special interest tax breaks for the well-off and well-connected is more important than protecting our military and middle-class families from these cuts," Obama said.
But Republicans only want cuts on welfare spending, rather than defence, and have insisted on no new taxes. Republican House speaker John Boehner, at the end of the White House talks on Friday, was adamant that he will not contemplate any new taxes: "The discussion about revenue is over." That hard line is popular with his party's rightwing base but has left the party vulnerable to being attacked as being too entrenched in its ideology – especially after Obama's resounding victory in 2012.
In seeking to lay the blame for the sequester at the doors of the Republicans, the Obama administration has run a carefully orchestrated image campaign aimed at focusing on the impact on middle-class American workers and their families. Obama continued that theme on Saturday, saying Republican leaders were out of touch with ordinary people and their own voters. "We just need Republicans in Congress to catch up with their own party and the rest of the country," he said.
But on Saturday Republicans were holding firm. Washington congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers criticised out-of-control government spending and said there was no point in new taxes as the money would be wasted. "Instead of campaigning for higher taxes, the president should lead an effort to begin addressing our nation's spending problem," she said.
But for many observers the fiasco of the sequestration – which in effect means both parties are implementing a policy that neither wants and each thinks is damaging – has left many complaining about a broader American political dysfunction. Yet the sequester is only one of several rolling crises that are threatening the smooth running of the world's biggest economy that is still stuttering to recover after the Great Recession.
If Congress does not reach an agreement on a budget for this year by 27 March, the federal government faces the prospect of shut-down. Soon after that, Congress has to approve an increase in the federal debt limit: the same move that two years ago created gridlock in Washington and resulted in the sequester. The House of the Representatives is due to vote next week on a deal to prevent a federal shutdown but there is a risk this could end up in a new standoff between the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Barack Obama warned on Saturday of a "ripple effect" through the US economy that would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs after he reluctantly signed an order to begin a huge $85bn (£56bn) programme of government cuts.
The president even called the act "not smart" on the morning after the cuts officially became government policy, in a move that has been dubbed "sequestration" and has plunged Washington into another political crisis.
"The pain will be real. Many middle-class families will have their lives disrupted in a significant way," Obama said in his weekly address. He added that up to 750,000 jobs could be lost and half a percentage point knocked off America's economic growth this year. "This will cause a ripple effect across the economy. Businesses will suffer because customers will have less money to spend ... These cuts are not smart. They will hurt our economy and cost us jobs," he said.
The sequester originates in a political crisis in 2011, when debates over deficit reduction almost saw the US government default on its debt payments. To avert that crisis, Democrats and Republicans agreed that, unless they struck a deal on shrinking the country's debt, then the cuts to federal spending would begin.
The idea was that the prospect of cuts to social services would motivate the Democrats and hurting military spending would do the same for Republicans. Instead, despite the looming deadline last week, no grand bargain was ever struck and the cuts – which neither side had intended to happen – are now coming into force and spreading throughout the federal government. Over the next 10 years they will represent $1.2tn of slashed spending.
The hardest-hit part of the government will be the Pentagon, which has to make $40bn of cuts between now and September – about 9% of its budget. Defence chiefs have already said that the move will delay deployments – such as a recent move of an aircraft carrier to the Gulf – and hurt national security.
But almost every government department, from aviation to the park service, will be hit, with cuts amounting to about 5% of their overall budgets. Only Medicaid and welfare benefits such as food stamps are exempted. The Federal Aviation Authority has said that it will have to close scores of air traffic control towers and the National Labour Relations Board has already given staff 30 days' notice that they could be suspended from their jobs. Over the next few weeks, more such letters will go out, threatening school services and the smooth running of scores of other government functions.
In his speech Obama blamed Republicans for inaction, saying that their hostility to any sort of extra tax revenues being generated from rich Americans was the root cause of the problem. In recent weeks, and since his victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in last year's election, Obama has not shied away from attacking his opponents as defenders only of the wealthy.
"It's happening because Republicans in Congress chose this outcome over closing a single, wasteful tax loophole that helps reduce the deficit. Only last week they decided that protecting special interest tax breaks for the well-off and well-connected is more important than protecting our military and middle-class families from these cuts," Obama said.
But Republicans only want cuts on welfare spending, rather than defence, and have insisted on no new taxes. Republican House speaker John Boehner, at the end of the White House talks on Friday, was adamant that he will not contemplate any new taxes: "The discussion about revenue is over." That hard line is popular with his party's rightwing base but has left the party vulnerable to being attacked as being too entrenched in its ideology – especially after Obama's resounding victory in 2012.
In seeking to lay the blame for the sequester at the doors of the Republicans, the Obama administration has run a carefully orchestrated image campaign aimed at focusing on the impact on middle-class American workers and their families. Obama continued that theme on Saturday, saying Republican leaders were out of touch with ordinary people and their own voters. "We just need Republicans in Congress to catch up with their own party and the rest of the country," he said.
But on Saturday Republicans were holding firm. Washington congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers criticised out-of-control government spending and said there was no point in new taxes as the money would be wasted. "Instead of campaigning for higher taxes, the president should lead an effort to begin addressing our nation's spending problem," she said.
But for many observers the fiasco of the sequestration – which in effect means both parties are implementing a policy that neither wants and each thinks is damaging – has left many complaining about a broader American political dysfunction. Yet the sequester is only one of several rolling crises that are threatening the smooth running of the world's biggest economy that is still stuttering to recover after the Great Recession.
If Congress does not reach an agreement on a budget for this year by 27 March, the federal government faces the prospect of shut-down. Soon after that, Congress has to approve an increase in the federal debt limit: the same move that two years ago created gridlock in Washington and resulted in the sequester. The House of the Representatives is due to vote next week on a deal to prevent a federal shutdown but there is a risk this could end up in a new standoff between the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
México: Encuentran cadáveres de seis personas presuntamente relacionadas con los cárteles
En la ciudad mexicana de Morelos han sido hallados seis cadáveres, entre ellos uno de un niño de 13 años que había sido detenido el 4 de febrero acusado de diez asesinatos pero liberado horas después debido a su edad. El menor, identificado como Jorge Armando Moreno, miembro del cártel de los Zetas, podría haber sido torturado. Supuestamente la madre del menor estaba entre las otras personas asesinadas.
El hallazgo de los cuerpos fue posible por una llamada anónima al servicio de emergencias.
El hallazgo de los cuerpos fue posible por una llamada anónima al servicio de emergencias.
Beppe Grillo is a wise clown saving Italy with satire, says Dario Fo
The playwright tells Tom Kington in Rome that the comedian, who finds himself kingmaker of the Italian government, is taking his cues from medieval comics who bedevilled the powerful
What makes Beppe Grillo tick? After a quarter of Italians voted for his brand of populist insurgency in last week's general election, it is a question preoccupying the country's political class and much of the eurozone. According to Italy's most distinguished playwright and prominent Grillo supporter, the answer is simple.
"Grillo is like a character in one of my plays," says Dario Fo, whose satires on medieval and modern life have seen him handed a Nobel prize and hounded off Italian stages in a career that has covered 50 years. "He is from that school of medieval minstrels who played with paradox and the absurd," adds Fo.
Fo, 86, is best known for his play Accidental Death of an Anarchist, inspired by the death of a man in police custody in 1969, and has long been a leftwing hero in Italy. He publicly backed Grillo this year, co-writing a book on the comedian's fledgling political movement and giving him a ringing endorsement at a packed rally in Milan's Piazza Duomo days before the election.
In return, Grillo, 64, suggested that Fo be nominated as the next president of Italy, an offer that the playwright turned down.
The high-profile backing contributed to a campaign that achieved an astonishing momentum. As a result of the 8.7 million votes Grillo received, his movement is now the biggest single party in the chamber of deputies, which makes him a kingmaker in a hung parliament.
After building a cult following through his blog, which denounced the austerity drive of the former prime minister, Mario Monti, and dubbed ex-president Silvio Berlusconi "a saliva salesman" and "the psycho-dwarf", Grillo's breakthrough before the election came when middle-class professionals started to see him as the best way to express their alienation from Italy's self-perpetuating political class.
Experts and analysts have been drumming up ideas about new political paradigms in Italy ever since. Journalists mobbed Grillo all last week for clues as to what comes next. His only response so far has been to refuse an offer from Italy's centre-left Democratic party to work together in parliament, using characteristically earthy language to describe the party's leader Pier Luigi Bersani as an "arse face". On Saturday he said he would accept a centre-left alliance with Berlusconi, only to add "they will never do it."
For Fo, the key to understanding Grillo is not in 21st-century Italy but in the 13th century, when storytellers – giullari – roamed Italy, entertaining crowds in piazzas with lewd tales interwoven with satirical attacks on local potentates. "In English the equivalent word is 'juggler', but in Italy they juggled with words, irony and sarcasm," says Fo, who has attended Grillo's shows for years.
Grillo rose to fame mixing comedy routines with references to political scandals in the towns he was playing in, a straight lift from his medieval peers. "He is from the tradition of the wise storyteller, one who knows how to use surreal fantasy, who can turn situations around, who has the right word for the right moment, who can transfix people when he speaks, even in the rain and the snow," explains Fo.
At one rain-soaked pre-election rally in Viterbo, in Lazio, central Italy, Grillo yelled: "Put down your umbrellas, I want to look you in the face." The crowd duly obeyed the comedian's demand.
Even the internet-based forums where Grillo's followers argue over policy have their roots in the Middle Ages, argues Fo. He says: "We had extremely democratic town councils in medieval Italy which knew the value of working together and every now and then, down the centuries, this spirit returns."
Grillo's focus on the web followed his ejection from Italian state TV in the 1980s after he made fun of corrupt Italian Socialist politicians, a few years before many of them were rounded up during Italy's Clean Hands probe.
His TV ban was part of a proud tradition, says Fo. "Nothing has changed since the Emperor Frederick II issued a decree in the 13th century against giullari who criticised power."
Fo himself was thrown off state TV in 1951 after he adapted biblical tales as political satire, the start of a series of run-ins with Italy's fascists, communists and the Vatican as his radical theatre group challenged taboos.
By 2004, Fo was being sued by an associate of Berlusconi after he staged a satire that poked fun at Berlusconi's small stature. "Every time you touch those who have power over the media, they seek to stop you," he says.
As a young man in Milan during the second world war, Fo helped his father – a resistance fighter – smuggle escaped British prisoners of war into Switzerland and his memories flooded back when he was invited on stage by Grillo at the Milan rally.
"The end of the war was the last time I saw that piazza filled with the same joy, with people changing their way of thinking about politics," he says.
Fo draws a parallel between Grillo's Five Star Movement's attack on Italy's privileged political class and the activists he worked with in the late 1960s. "Back then, people were also realising the importance of culture, of schools, and a generation of Italian singer-songwriters were giving voice to that."
The difference is that those artists never held the balance of power in Italy as Grillo does, with 162 deputies and senators under his movement's control in parliament. Now, after his election triumph, Grillo faces the challenges of real politics.
The first came last week when thousands of supporters urged him to form a functioning government with the centre-left leader, Bersani, who needs his backing in the senate to reach a majority.
"It is not easy, the Democratic party treated Grillo with disrespect, called him a fascist, a buffoon, but now they are offering their hand," says Fo, who is actively encouraging Grillo to negotiate, meaning that a playwright and a comic were making Italy's political headlines at the end of the week.
In Sicily, where the Democratic party runs the regional council but Grillo's movement is the biggest party, the two have formed a cagey alliance. "This is the model, it is working," explains Fo.
The real trap for Grillo, warns Fo, is being beguiled by flattery. Turning again to history, he cites Cola Di Rienzo, the charismatic son of a tavern owner in the 14th century who wooed Romans with his oratory and became the city's leader, setting his sights high and ousting corrupt noble families, only to see his support slip away before he was murdered by a mob as he sought to flee in disguise. "I have seen the glowing press for Grillo and he must be careful not to fall for the adulation, it's a honey-like trap."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
What makes Beppe Grillo tick? After a quarter of Italians voted for his brand of populist insurgency in last week's general election, it is a question preoccupying the country's political class and much of the eurozone. According to Italy's most distinguished playwright and prominent Grillo supporter, the answer is simple.
"Grillo is like a character in one of my plays," says Dario Fo, whose satires on medieval and modern life have seen him handed a Nobel prize and hounded off Italian stages in a career that has covered 50 years. "He is from that school of medieval minstrels who played with paradox and the absurd," adds Fo.
Fo, 86, is best known for his play Accidental Death of an Anarchist, inspired by the death of a man in police custody in 1969, and has long been a leftwing hero in Italy. He publicly backed Grillo this year, co-writing a book on the comedian's fledgling political movement and giving him a ringing endorsement at a packed rally in Milan's Piazza Duomo days before the election.
In return, Grillo, 64, suggested that Fo be nominated as the next president of Italy, an offer that the playwright turned down.
The high-profile backing contributed to a campaign that achieved an astonishing momentum. As a result of the 8.7 million votes Grillo received, his movement is now the biggest single party in the chamber of deputies, which makes him a kingmaker in a hung parliament.
After building a cult following through his blog, which denounced the austerity drive of the former prime minister, Mario Monti, and dubbed ex-president Silvio Berlusconi "a saliva salesman" and "the psycho-dwarf", Grillo's breakthrough before the election came when middle-class professionals started to see him as the best way to express their alienation from Italy's self-perpetuating political class.
Experts and analysts have been drumming up ideas about new political paradigms in Italy ever since. Journalists mobbed Grillo all last week for clues as to what comes next. His only response so far has been to refuse an offer from Italy's centre-left Democratic party to work together in parliament, using characteristically earthy language to describe the party's leader Pier Luigi Bersani as an "arse face". On Saturday he said he would accept a centre-left alliance with Berlusconi, only to add "they will never do it."
For Fo, the key to understanding Grillo is not in 21st-century Italy but in the 13th century, when storytellers – giullari – roamed Italy, entertaining crowds in piazzas with lewd tales interwoven with satirical attacks on local potentates. "In English the equivalent word is 'juggler', but in Italy they juggled with words, irony and sarcasm," says Fo, who has attended Grillo's shows for years.
Grillo rose to fame mixing comedy routines with references to political scandals in the towns he was playing in, a straight lift from his medieval peers. "He is from the tradition of the wise storyteller, one who knows how to use surreal fantasy, who can turn situations around, who has the right word for the right moment, who can transfix people when he speaks, even in the rain and the snow," explains Fo.
At one rain-soaked pre-election rally in Viterbo, in Lazio, central Italy, Grillo yelled: "Put down your umbrellas, I want to look you in the face." The crowd duly obeyed the comedian's demand.
Even the internet-based forums where Grillo's followers argue over policy have their roots in the Middle Ages, argues Fo. He says: "We had extremely democratic town councils in medieval Italy which knew the value of working together and every now and then, down the centuries, this spirit returns."
Grillo's focus on the web followed his ejection from Italian state TV in the 1980s after he made fun of corrupt Italian Socialist politicians, a few years before many of them were rounded up during Italy's Clean Hands probe.
His TV ban was part of a proud tradition, says Fo. "Nothing has changed since the Emperor Frederick II issued a decree in the 13th century against giullari who criticised power."
Fo himself was thrown off state TV in 1951 after he adapted biblical tales as political satire, the start of a series of run-ins with Italy's fascists, communists and the Vatican as his radical theatre group challenged taboos.
By 2004, Fo was being sued by an associate of Berlusconi after he staged a satire that poked fun at Berlusconi's small stature. "Every time you touch those who have power over the media, they seek to stop you," he says.
As a young man in Milan during the second world war, Fo helped his father – a resistance fighter – smuggle escaped British prisoners of war into Switzerland and his memories flooded back when he was invited on stage by Grillo at the Milan rally.
"The end of the war was the last time I saw that piazza filled with the same joy, with people changing their way of thinking about politics," he says.
Fo draws a parallel between Grillo's Five Star Movement's attack on Italy's privileged political class and the activists he worked with in the late 1960s. "Back then, people were also realising the importance of culture, of schools, and a generation of Italian singer-songwriters were giving voice to that."
The difference is that those artists never held the balance of power in Italy as Grillo does, with 162 deputies and senators under his movement's control in parliament. Now, after his election triumph, Grillo faces the challenges of real politics.
The first came last week when thousands of supporters urged him to form a functioning government with the centre-left leader, Bersani, who needs his backing in the senate to reach a majority.
"It is not easy, the Democratic party treated Grillo with disrespect, called him a fascist, a buffoon, but now they are offering their hand," says Fo, who is actively encouraging Grillo to negotiate, meaning that a playwright and a comic were making Italy's political headlines at the end of the week.
In Sicily, where the Democratic party runs the regional council but Grillo's movement is the biggest party, the two have formed a cagey alliance. "This is the model, it is working," explains Fo.
The real trap for Grillo, warns Fo, is being beguiled by flattery. Turning again to history, he cites Cola Di Rienzo, the charismatic son of a tavern owner in the 14th century who wooed Romans with his oratory and became the city's leader, setting his sights high and ousting corrupt noble families, only to see his support slip away before he was murdered by a mob as he sought to flee in disguise. "I have seen the glowing press for Grillo and he must be careful not to fall for the adulation, it's a honey-like trap."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Manifestantes incendian una estación de Policía en Egipto tras la llegada de John Kerry
Cientos de manifestantes egipcios incendiaron una comisaría de Policía en la localidad de Port Said después de que el secretario de estado de EE.UU., John Kerry, aterrizara en El Cairo para abordar los lazos bilaterales y estudiar la situación en la región. Hasta el momento, una persona ha muerto, mientras que al menos 40 han resultado heridas.El Ministerio del Interior de Egipto comunica que unos 500 manifestantes lanzaron piedras y cócteles molotov contra la comisaría, le prendieron fuego y después impidieron a los camiones de bomberos acercarse a las llamas.
Sharks at risk of extinction from overfishing, say scientists
Almost 100 million sharks are killed each year and many species need better protection, according to researchers
Sharks risk being driven to extinction due to overfishing, with almost 100 million killed each year, scientists have warned.
Many species of shark need better protection to prevent their extinction within coming decades, researchers warned in advance of a global conference on the trade in threatened species.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) will consider greater protection of vulnerable sharks, including porbeagles, oceanic whitetip and three types of hammerhead to preserve their populations.
Sharks are caught for their fins for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy in Asia. The fins are cut off with the dead carcass being thrown back into the sea. Sharks grow slowly and take years to reproduce, which makes them vulnerable to overfishing.
The researchers estimated that global reported catches, unreported landings, discards and sharks caught and thrown back after their fins were cut off – a process known as finning – added up to 97 million fish caught in 2010.
The figure is only slightly less than the estimated 100 million caught in 2000, and could be anywhere between 63 million sharks and 273 million a year, according to research by North American scientists published in the journal Marine Policy.
It is estimated that between 6.4% and 7.9% of all sharks are killed each year, leading to decline in the number of some species.
Boris Worm, one of the report's authors, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, said: "Biologically, sharks simply can't keep up with the current rate of exploitation and demand. Protective measures must be scaled up significantly in order to avoid further depletion and the possible extinction of many shark species in our lifetime."
Although some regions, including the European Union, have banned shark finning, commercial fisheries for fins, meat, liver oil, cartilage and other body parts are largely unregulated in much of the world.
Under the proposals put forward by the Cites meeting, five shark species would be listed as "Appendix II", which would ensure that any international trade in them is sustainable and legal.
A previous attempt to have the trade in some species of shark monitored and regulated under the Cites treaty narrowly failed, but the conservation charity Pew Environment Group believes there is a great deal of momentum behind the latest bid. Elizabeth Wilson, Pew manager of global shark conservation, said the proposals had broad support across developed and developing countries and campaigners.
"We are now the predators. Humans have mounted an unrelenting assault on sharks, and their numbers are crashing throughout the world's oceans," she said.
"A simple vote 'yes' to support their listing could turn things around for some of the world's most threatened shark species. Countries should seize this opportunity to protect these top predators from extinction."
The Cites meeting is also considering protection for manta rays, which are being fished for their gill plates, sold in China as medicine and claimed to treat a range of health complaints from asthma to chicken pox and even cancer.
The trade is on the increase, with Mozambique recording an 86% decline in sightings of the fish over the past eight years, but manta rays are very important for tourism and attract divers who will pay a lot to see them.
The UK environment minister Richard Benyon said: "We want to see better protection for sharks and will be pushing for this strongly at Cites next week. I am keen to see trade controls introduced for vulnerable and endangered species like porbeagle, hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks and manta rays."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Sharks risk being driven to extinction due to overfishing, with almost 100 million killed each year, scientists have warned.
Many species of shark need better protection to prevent their extinction within coming decades, researchers warned in advance of a global conference on the trade in threatened species.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) will consider greater protection of vulnerable sharks, including porbeagles, oceanic whitetip and three types of hammerhead to preserve their populations.
Sharks are caught for their fins for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy in Asia. The fins are cut off with the dead carcass being thrown back into the sea. Sharks grow slowly and take years to reproduce, which makes them vulnerable to overfishing.
The researchers estimated that global reported catches, unreported landings, discards and sharks caught and thrown back after their fins were cut off – a process known as finning – added up to 97 million fish caught in 2010.
The figure is only slightly less than the estimated 100 million caught in 2000, and could be anywhere between 63 million sharks and 273 million a year, according to research by North American scientists published in the journal Marine Policy.
It is estimated that between 6.4% and 7.9% of all sharks are killed each year, leading to decline in the number of some species.
Boris Worm, one of the report's authors, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, said: "Biologically, sharks simply can't keep up with the current rate of exploitation and demand. Protective measures must be scaled up significantly in order to avoid further depletion and the possible extinction of many shark species in our lifetime."
Although some regions, including the European Union, have banned shark finning, commercial fisheries for fins, meat, liver oil, cartilage and other body parts are largely unregulated in much of the world.
Under the proposals put forward by the Cites meeting, five shark species would be listed as "Appendix II", which would ensure that any international trade in them is sustainable and legal.
A previous attempt to have the trade in some species of shark monitored and regulated under the Cites treaty narrowly failed, but the conservation charity Pew Environment Group believes there is a great deal of momentum behind the latest bid. Elizabeth Wilson, Pew manager of global shark conservation, said the proposals had broad support across developed and developing countries and campaigners.
"We are now the predators. Humans have mounted an unrelenting assault on sharks, and their numbers are crashing throughout the world's oceans," she said.
"A simple vote 'yes' to support their listing could turn things around for some of the world's most threatened shark species. Countries should seize this opportunity to protect these top predators from extinction."
The Cites meeting is also considering protection for manta rays, which are being fished for their gill plates, sold in China as medicine and claimed to treat a range of health complaints from asthma to chicken pox and even cancer.
The trade is on the increase, with Mozambique recording an 86% decline in sightings of the fish over the past eight years, but manta rays are very important for tourism and attract divers who will pay a lot to see them.
The UK environment minister Richard Benyon said: "We want to see better protection for sharks and will be pushing for this strongly at Cites next week. I am keen to see trade controls introduced for vulnerable and endangered species like porbeagle, hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks and manta rays."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Japón: Un tren bala descarrila debido a una gran tormenta de nieve
Un tren bala japonés con cerca de 130 pasajeros a bordo descarriló en el norte de Japón debido a las fuertes nevadas del sábado, aunque no hubo reportes de heridos, informan los medios locales.
El tren bala cubría el trayecto entre Tokio y Akita cuando la locomotora del convoy, integrado por seis vagones, se salió de las vías en torno a las 16:05 horas (7:05 GMT). El tren circulaba por el municipio de Daisen, en la prefectura de Akita, bajo una fuerte nevada cuando el conductor escuchó un ruido anormal y accionó los frenos.
Las autoridades confirmaron que el accidente no causó heridos y que un equipo de peritos fue enviado al lugar para investigar las causas del accidente.
El tren bala cubría el trayecto entre Tokio y Akita cuando la locomotora del convoy, integrado por seis vagones, se salió de las vías en torno a las 16:05 horas (7:05 GMT). El tren circulaba por el municipio de Daisen, en la prefectura de Akita, bajo una fuerte nevada cuando el conductor escuchó un ruido anormal y accionó los frenos.
Las autoridades confirmaron que el accidente no causó heridos y que un equipo de peritos fue enviado al lugar para investigar las causas del accidente.
Horsemeat scandal: Taco Bell withdraws UK beef products
Fast food firm finds some beef contains more than 10% equine DNA as Birds Eye confirms ready meals were contaminated
Taco Bell, the US-based fast food company, has withdrawn its taco beef products from sale in British and Spanish outlets after finding some beef contained more than 10% horse DNA. The move came as Birds Eye confirmed that two ready meals it removed from supermarket shelves as a precaution last week have proved to have "low levels" of horse DNA.
Taco Bell has three UK outlets, in Manchester's Arndale centre, and the Lakeside shopping centre and Basildon in Essex. It has nine outlets in Spain.
A spokesperson for the company said its testing had revealed ingredients from one as yet unnamed supplier in Europe had tested positive for horsemeat. "We immediately withdrew it from sale, and discontinued purchase of that meat and contacted the FSA [Food Standards Authority] with this information. We apologise to our customers and take this matter very seriously as food quality is our highest priority."
Birds Eye withdrew its Traditional Spaghetti Bolognese 340g, Shepherd's Pie 400g and Beef Lasagne 400g lines last week because they were made by the Belgian company, Frigilunch, that was responsible for the chili con carne made for the Belgian market that was found to have equine DNA. Further tests on the bolognese and lasagne have found they also had horse DNA.
The company said no other products had tested positive, nor did they share the same supply chains as Frigilunch.
"Going forward we are introducing a new ongoing DNA testing programme that will ensure no minced beef meat product can leave our facilities without first having been cleared by DNA testing.
"Since the first discovery of horsemeat in some beef products produced by a number of manufacturers and retailers, we have been DNA-testing all our own beef products."
The catering supplier Brakes, which previously reported a horse-adulterated frozen beefburger found in a Scottish school kitchen, a spicy minced beef skewer, and a lasagne manufactured for Whitbread, has now revealed that the products all came from different suppliers. It has so far named only one of those, Pinnacle Foods, and says investigations are continuing.
The latest details of horsemeat adulteration came as the FSA ended its immediate programme of industry tests, which have seen the food industry conduct 5,430 tests on their products to identify those that had 1% or more of horse DNA.
So far 17 products have been found to have what the FSA regards as "gross contamination", which it regards as the result either of "gross negligence or deliberate substitution of one meat for another".
The presence of horsemeat has also been reported outside the testing programme at the Burger Manufacturing Company in Wales and the catering wholesaler Makro.
From now on, industry test results that reveal more than 1% contamination will be placed on the the FSA's website immediately, but summaries of all products tested will only be reported quarterly. Next week will see the publication of the first data from the agency's own sampling programme being carried out by local authority officers. It is hoped this programme will help give some further idea of the scale of beef contamination.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Taco Bell, the US-based fast food company, has withdrawn its taco beef products from sale in British and Spanish outlets after finding some beef contained more than 10% horse DNA. The move came as Birds Eye confirmed that two ready meals it removed from supermarket shelves as a precaution last week have proved to have "low levels" of horse DNA.
Taco Bell has three UK outlets, in Manchester's Arndale centre, and the Lakeside shopping centre and Basildon in Essex. It has nine outlets in Spain.
A spokesperson for the company said its testing had revealed ingredients from one as yet unnamed supplier in Europe had tested positive for horsemeat. "We immediately withdrew it from sale, and discontinued purchase of that meat and contacted the FSA [Food Standards Authority] with this information. We apologise to our customers and take this matter very seriously as food quality is our highest priority."
Birds Eye withdrew its Traditional Spaghetti Bolognese 340g, Shepherd's Pie 400g and Beef Lasagne 400g lines last week because they were made by the Belgian company, Frigilunch, that was responsible for the chili con carne made for the Belgian market that was found to have equine DNA. Further tests on the bolognese and lasagne have found they also had horse DNA.
The company said no other products had tested positive, nor did they share the same supply chains as Frigilunch.
"Going forward we are introducing a new ongoing DNA testing programme that will ensure no minced beef meat product can leave our facilities without first having been cleared by DNA testing.
"Since the first discovery of horsemeat in some beef products produced by a number of manufacturers and retailers, we have been DNA-testing all our own beef products."
The catering supplier Brakes, which previously reported a horse-adulterated frozen beefburger found in a Scottish school kitchen, a spicy minced beef skewer, and a lasagne manufactured for Whitbread, has now revealed that the products all came from different suppliers. It has so far named only one of those, Pinnacle Foods, and says investigations are continuing.
The latest details of horsemeat adulteration came as the FSA ended its immediate programme of industry tests, which have seen the food industry conduct 5,430 tests on their products to identify those that had 1% or more of horse DNA.
So far 17 products have been found to have what the FSA regards as "gross contamination", which it regards as the result either of "gross negligence or deliberate substitution of one meat for another".
The presence of horsemeat has also been reported outside the testing programme at the Burger Manufacturing Company in Wales and the catering wholesaler Makro.
From now on, industry test results that reveal more than 1% contamination will be placed on the the FSA's website immediately, but summaries of all products tested will only be reported quarterly. Next week will see the publication of the first data from the agency's own sampling programme being carried out by local authority officers. It is hoped this programme will help give some further idea of the scale of beef contamination.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Afganistán: Militares australianos de la ISAF matan a dos niños
Militares de la Fuerza Internacional de Asistencia a la Seguridad en Afganistán (ISAF) mataron a dos niños afganos en la provincia de Uruzgan, en el sur del país, según ha reconocido este sábado la propia coalición.
La ISAF no da datos sobre los responsables, pero las autoridades australianas han reconocido que se trata de militares de este país. Los dos menores fueron tiroteados el pasado jueves tras ser confundidos con milicianos insurgentes durante el desarrollo de una operación en el distrito de Shahid-e Hasas, explicó el comandante de la ISAF, el general estadounidense Joseph Dunford.
"Presento mis disculpas y condolencias personales a la familia de los niños que han fallecido", señaló Dunford en un comunicado oficial publicado por la ISAF.
La ISAF no da datos sobre los responsables, pero las autoridades australianas han reconocido que se trata de militares de este país. Los dos menores fueron tiroteados el pasado jueves tras ser confundidos con milicianos insurgentes durante el desarrollo de una operación en el distrito de Shahid-e Hasas, explicó el comandante de la ISAF, el general estadounidense Joseph Dunford.
"Presento mis disculpas y condolencias personales a la familia de los niños que han fallecido", señaló Dunford en un comunicado oficial publicado por la ISAF.
Quebec language police try to ban 'pasta' from Italian restaurant menu
French-language inspectors who claimed menu had too many Italian words forced to back down after public outcry
They are known as the language police, a unit within the regional Quebec government that seeks to protect French from the rising tide of English. It deploys inspectors to rein in recidivist anglophones, take on big corporate transgressors such as Guess, the Gap and Costco and conduct spot checks to follow up thousands of public complaints.
Now, however, zealots in the Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Board of the French Language) may have gone a step too far in picking a fight with an Italian restaurant known for its celebrity clientele including Bono, Rihanna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jerry Seinfeld and Robert De Niro.
After a five-month investigation into an anonymous complaint, Massimo Lecas received a letter from the board telling him that his establishment, Buonanotte, had broken the law by including the words "pasta" on the menu and "bottiglia", the Italian word for bottle, instead of the French word bouteille.
Outraged, Lecas posted the letter for 2,500 of his Facebook friends to see. In doing so, he unleashed a political tempest over one of the most sensitive topics up for debate in the province. The outcry has forced the Quebec government to rein in its language inspectors, ensure exceptions to the rules are made for ethnic food and restaurant menus and order a review of how it handles public complaints. Anglophones and the many ethnic communities that call Quebec home are now celebrating a victory. French-language advocates and Quebec separatists, meanwhile, see signs of a campaign by a cabal of English-speakers in Quebec and across Canada to undercut what they view as the only tool to ensure that French thrives.
Lecas, who was born and raised in Canada's second-largest city, and who also speaks French, does not hide his linguistic frustrations. But he says this episode is no sinister plot. Rather, it is a perfect storm propelled by social media.
"I think that when they circled the word pasta that was the sensitive spot," he said. "It wasn't an anglophone thing so right away the francophones jumped in [to support the restaurant] because it was an Italian word."
Lecas's decision to go public with the letter from the language inspector has prompted other restaurateurs to come forward. One told how he was ordered to cover his microwave's on/off switch and the redial button on a telephone with tape because they were in English.
The chef's grocery list, which was written on a kitchen chalkboard, was also found to have broken the law: steak frites may be a staple of Parisian bistros but, according to Quebec law, biftek is the only acceptable term.
Maison Publique, the British-style gastropub in Montreal co-owned by Jamie Oliver, was also visited twice after a complaint. Inspectors arrived, took pictures inside the establishment but would not reveal the nature of the supposed language-law breaches.
Others have also come forward to describe their encounters with a government department that conducts its business like a spy agency and wields the powers of a top-court judge.
Sensitivity to any real or perceived crackdown on English-speaking entrepreneurs and businesses in Quebec has spiked since the election of the Parti Québécois last autumn. The party has led the province through two failed referendums on sovereignty since 1980 and is openly trying to build the conditions for a third vote to have the province separate from Canada despite historically low levels of support.
In the meantime, Quebec premier Pauline Marois is introducing a bill to apply French-first laws to small companies and to prevent towns and cities where the majority of the population is francophone from also offering services in English.
Her government's rallying cry that French remains threatened so long as it is surrounded by the cacophony of English voices in North America is undiminished. And in a period of severe cutbacks, Quebec's recent budget included one notable increase: the yearly allotment for the language police.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
They are known as the language police, a unit within the regional Quebec government that seeks to protect French from the rising tide of English. It deploys inspectors to rein in recidivist anglophones, take on big corporate transgressors such as Guess, the Gap and Costco and conduct spot checks to follow up thousands of public complaints.
Now, however, zealots in the Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Board of the French Language) may have gone a step too far in picking a fight with an Italian restaurant known for its celebrity clientele including Bono, Rihanna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jerry Seinfeld and Robert De Niro.
After a five-month investigation into an anonymous complaint, Massimo Lecas received a letter from the board telling him that his establishment, Buonanotte, had broken the law by including the words "pasta" on the menu and "bottiglia", the Italian word for bottle, instead of the French word bouteille.
Outraged, Lecas posted the letter for 2,500 of his Facebook friends to see. In doing so, he unleashed a political tempest over one of the most sensitive topics up for debate in the province. The outcry has forced the Quebec government to rein in its language inspectors, ensure exceptions to the rules are made for ethnic food and restaurant menus and order a review of how it handles public complaints. Anglophones and the many ethnic communities that call Quebec home are now celebrating a victory. French-language advocates and Quebec separatists, meanwhile, see signs of a campaign by a cabal of English-speakers in Quebec and across Canada to undercut what they view as the only tool to ensure that French thrives.
Lecas, who was born and raised in Canada's second-largest city, and who also speaks French, does not hide his linguistic frustrations. But he says this episode is no sinister plot. Rather, it is a perfect storm propelled by social media.
"I think that when they circled the word pasta that was the sensitive spot," he said. "It wasn't an anglophone thing so right away the francophones jumped in [to support the restaurant] because it was an Italian word."
Lecas's decision to go public with the letter from the language inspector has prompted other restaurateurs to come forward. One told how he was ordered to cover his microwave's on/off switch and the redial button on a telephone with tape because they were in English.
The chef's grocery list, which was written on a kitchen chalkboard, was also found to have broken the law: steak frites may be a staple of Parisian bistros but, according to Quebec law, biftek is the only acceptable term.
Maison Publique, the British-style gastropub in Montreal co-owned by Jamie Oliver, was also visited twice after a complaint. Inspectors arrived, took pictures inside the establishment but would not reveal the nature of the supposed language-law breaches.
Others have also come forward to describe their encounters with a government department that conducts its business like a spy agency and wields the powers of a top-court judge.
Sensitivity to any real or perceived crackdown on English-speaking entrepreneurs and businesses in Quebec has spiked since the election of the Parti Québécois last autumn. The party has led the province through two failed referendums on sovereignty since 1980 and is openly trying to build the conditions for a third vote to have the province separate from Canada despite historically low levels of support.
In the meantime, Quebec premier Pauline Marois is introducing a bill to apply French-first laws to small companies and to prevent towns and cities where the majority of the population is francophone from also offering services in English.
Her government's rallying cry that French remains threatened so long as it is surrounded by the cacophony of English voices in North America is undiminished. And in a period of severe cutbacks, Quebec's recent budget included one notable increase: the yearly allotment for the language police.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
UK police under fire for seducing activists, stealing dead infants’ names
The UK House of Commons held a Home Affairs Select Committeeprobe into a series of scandals involving undercover policeofficers. In an interim reportpublished on Friday, thecommittee addressed three separate issues.
First: Undercover officersbecame intimate with those they were investigating. Second: Thepractice of using the names of dead infants to create coveridentities for the officers. And last, but not least: MPscriticized the overall system of undercover police work.
Several of the women are nowclaiming damages over the incidents. While MPs refrained fromcommenting on the legality of the officers’ actions, “theterrible impact on the lives of those women who had relationshipswith undercover officers is beyond doubt,” they said, addingthat the officers “were not unaffected” either.
“There is an alarmingdegree of inconsistency in the views of Ministers and senior policeofficers about the limits of what may and may not be lawfullyauthorized,” the report said. Officials offered MPs differentviews on whether such relationships were justified, could beprevented or should be banned outright. One official said suchcloseness “could almost be inevitable” is somecases.
One practical consideration,former Minister for Policing Nick Herbert explained, is that anexplicit ban on such intimacy “would provide a ready-made testfor the targeted criminal group to find out whether an undercoverofficer was deployed among them.” However, there must be strictrules for officers becoming intimate with their targets, the MPssaid.
One witness told thecommission how she found the home address of the people shebelieved to be the parents of her missing partner, who was anundercover officer using a fake name. Her intention was notmalevolent, but “it is easy to see how officers infiltratingserious, organized criminal and terrorist gangs using theidentities of real people could pose a significant risk to theliving relatives of those people,” the reportstressed.
The commission pledged torequest updates on the progress of the probe every three months,including the remaining amount of work, costs, disciplinaryproceedings, arrests made, and the families involved beingidentified and informed. The probe should be concluded by the endof 2013, and the results will be published on the commission’swebsite every three months.
“It cannot be sufficientlyemphasized that using the identities of dead children was not onlyabhorrent, but reflects badly on the police. It must never occuragain,” the MPs said.
Of particular concern for thecommission was the weak oversight for undercover agents who weregathering intelligence, and how there was no expectation that theevidence gathered must stand up in court.
The MPs argued thatundercover police activity should be limited to genuine threats topublic safety or national security. They also expressed doubts overthe practice of infiltrating activist groups engaged in peacefulprotest in the hopes of reaching more radical groups.
The report said that acompelling case exists for a fundamental review of the legislativeframework governing undercover policing, including 2000’sRegulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
“We recommend that theGovernment commit to the publication of a Green Paper on theregulation of investigatory powers before the end of thisParliament, with a view to publishing draft legislation in theSession after the next general election,” the reportsaid.
First: Undercover officersbecame intimate with those they were investigating. Second: Thepractice of using the names of dead infants to create coveridentities for the officers. And last, but not least: MPscriticized the overall system of undercover police work.
Unauthorized, but ‘almostinevitable’ sex
The MPs highlighted severalcases in which undercover officers infiltrated various activistgroups and initiated long-term intimate relationships with membersof those groups. The affairs were then broken off when the agentsfinished their work. Some incidents reviewed by the commissiondated as far back as the 1980s.Several of the women are nowclaiming damages over the incidents. While MPs refrained fromcommenting on the legality of the officers’ actions, “theterrible impact on the lives of those women who had relationshipswith undercover officers is beyond doubt,” they said, addingthat the officers “were not unaffected” either.
“There is an alarmingdegree of inconsistency in the views of Ministers and senior policeofficers about the limits of what may and may not be lawfullyauthorized,” the report said. Officials offered MPs differentviews on whether such relationships were justified, could beprevented or should be banned outright. One official said suchcloseness “could almost be inevitable” is somecases.
One practical consideration,former Minister for Policing Nick Herbert explained, is that anexplicit ban on such intimacy “would provide a ready-made testfor the targeted criminal group to find out whether an undercoverofficer was deployed among them.” However, there must be strictrules for officers becoming intimate with their targets, the MPssaid.
“We do notbelieve that officers should enter into intimate, physical sexualrelationships while using their false identities undercover withoutclear, prior authorization, which should only be given in the mostexceptional circumstances,” the reportsaid.The report outlined that itis clearly unacceptable to conceive a child as result of suchrelationships, which reportedly happened to one of the officers.“This must never be allowed to happen again,” the MPssaid.
‘Ghoulish anddisrespectful’
Another dubious practicecondemned by the MPs was the use of the names of dead infants tocreate aliases for undercover agents. The practice was “ghoulishand disrespectful,” and potentially dangerous to the bereavedfamilies, they said.One witness told thecommission how she found the home address of the people shebelieved to be the parents of her missing partner, who was anundercover officer using a fake name. Her intention was notmalevolent, but “it is easy to see how officers infiltratingserious, organized criminal and terrorist gangs using theidentities of real people could pose a significant risk to theliving relatives of those people,” the reportstressed.
“The families whohave been affected by this deserve an explanation and a full andunambiguous apology from the forces concerned,” the commissioncontinued. “We would also welcome a clear statement from theHome Secretary that this practice will never be followed infuture.”The Metropolitan Police iscurrently conducting an investigation into the use of dead infants’names. To the shock of the commission, the practice was“apparently a surprise to senior officers and it is vital thatthe investigation establish quickly how high up the chain ofcommand this practice was sanctioned,” the reportsaid.
The commission pledged torequest updates on the progress of the probe every three months,including the remaining amount of work, costs, disciplinaryproceedings, arrests made, and the families involved beingidentified and informed. The probe should be concluded by the endof 2013, and the results will be published on the commission’swebsite every three months.
“It cannot be sufficientlyemphasized that using the identities of dead children was not onlyabhorrent, but reflects badly on the police. It must never occuragain,” the MPs said.
Reform pending
During the investigation, theMPs found that “standards in undercover operations arejeopardized by lack of clear lines of responsibility between… thedifferent forces and units involved.” They cite discrepanciesin training, tactics and review, and called for the establishmentof a coherent set of operational instructions.Of particular concern for thecommission was the weak oversight for undercover agents who weregathering intelligence, and how there was no expectation that theevidence gathered must stand up in court.
The MPs argued thatundercover police activity should be limited to genuine threats topublic safety or national security. They also expressed doubts overthe practice of infiltrating activist groups engaged in peacefulprotest in the hopes of reaching more radical groups.
The report said that acompelling case exists for a fundamental review of the legislativeframework governing undercover policing, including 2000’sRegulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
“We recommend that theGovernment commit to the publication of a Green Paper on theregulation of investigatory powers before the end of thisParliament, with a view to publishing draft legislation in theSession after the next general election,” the reportsaid.
Spain falls further into recession as GDP plunges by 0.8%
Gloomy figures for final quarter of 2012 offset by news that deficit has fallen to 6.7%, close to EU target
Spain's recession worsened dramatically at the end of last year as the government made a final austerity push in order to meet deficit targets imposed by Brussels.
GDP fell by 0.8% over the final quarter of 2012, as state spending was reduced and the public sector continued to shed jobs. The figure contrasted with good news on the deficit, which dropped to 6.7% of GDP from last year's 8.9%. The deficit figure does not include the money Spain borrowed to rescue its banks and is liable to upward revision, but leaves the country just short of its 6.3% deficit target it had been set.
The government claimed the economy had touched bottom and would return to growth this year. Budget minister Cristóbal Montoro pledged that, as Spain tried to meet this year's deficit target of 4.5% of GDP, there would be no more tax rises or spending cuts beyond those already in this year's budget.
According to analysts, Spain's spending plans for this year are based on optimistic growth predictions. Forecasters also believe that Spain's 26% unemployment rate looks set to increase: earlier this week, the European commission predicted 27% unemployment for 2013.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Spain's recession worsened dramatically at the end of last year as the government made a final austerity push in order to meet deficit targets imposed by Brussels.
GDP fell by 0.8% over the final quarter of 2012, as state spending was reduced and the public sector continued to shed jobs. The figure contrasted with good news on the deficit, which dropped to 6.7% of GDP from last year's 8.9%. The deficit figure does not include the money Spain borrowed to rescue its banks and is liable to upward revision, but leaves the country just short of its 6.3% deficit target it had been set.
The government claimed the economy had touched bottom and would return to growth this year. Budget minister Cristóbal Montoro pledged that, as Spain tried to meet this year's deficit target of 4.5% of GDP, there would be no more tax rises or spending cuts beyond those already in this year's budget.
According to analysts, Spain's spending plans for this year are based on optimistic growth predictions. Forecasters also believe that Spain's 26% unemployment rate looks set to increase: earlier this week, the European commission predicted 27% unemployment for 2013.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Detroit plunges into financial emergency
Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, told reporters Friday morningthat "There's probably no city that's more financiallychallenged in the entire United States” than Detroit. Thegovernor declared the crisis a financial emergency and started topave the way for an emergency manager to intervene and take controlof the city’s ledger.
“Detroit can no longer afford to wait for a new wayforward,” read a brochure handed out to audience members duringFriday’s announcement. “An Emergency Financial Manager can morequickly and efficiently reform the finances in the city and stopthe cycle of overspending and one-time fixes.”
Even with a bankruptcy filing a longtime looming, the city ofDetroit has tried relentlessly in recent years to pick itself upout of the red and find a way to reverse a downward spiral that hasseemed to only intensify amid growing cases of other localeconomies crumbling across the United States. Such attempts havebeen futile, though, with seemingly no solution existing for thecity’s woes: an earlier study determined the city faces a $327million budget deficit and more than $14 billion in long-term debtand persistent cash flow problems. Then on Friday, the governorsaid, "I believe it's appropriateto declare the city of Detroit in financial emergency.”
Gov. Snyder made his remarks today only two weeks after astate-appointed review team conducted a study that concluded withthe determination that "no satisfactory plan exists to resolve aserious financial problem." Now the city’s mayor, David Bing,has 10 days to respond. From there, reports the Associated Press,Snyder could either revoke his decision or appoint an emergencymanager.
Doug Bernstein, a managing partner of the Banking, Bankruptcyand Creditors' Rights Practice Group for Michigan’s Plunkett Cooneylaw firm, tells the AP that filing for bankruptcy would be the nextlikely, but not necessarily guaranteed, step.
"Is it imminent? Well not tomorrow," he said. "Youneed to give a financial manager the opportunity to formulate aplan and let the plan have a chance to succeed or fail. It may notavoid a bankruptcy, but you don't need to do a bankruptcytoday."
On his part, Mayor Bing issued a statement seeming to suggest hewas open to doing whatever necessary to save the faltering citythat was once America’s hub in regards to the booming automobileindustry and rhythm-and-blues music.
"I think we have to learn to make the best out of a badsituation," the mayor told the AP. "The state and the citywill have to work together to get us out of this."
In 2011, the capital city of Pennsylvania — Harrisburg — voted to file for bankruptcy aftera failed garbage-to-energy conversation program put the town morethan $300 million in debt. The nearby city of Scranton quite closeto soon following, and by this past summer three cities in California were all forced to do thesame.
Since 2000, the city of Detroit has lost roughly 25 percent ofits entire population. The number of Detroit residents today isequivalent to half of the city’s population in the year 1950.
“Detroit can no longer afford to wait for a new wayforward,” read a brochure handed out to audience members duringFriday’s announcement. “An Emergency Financial Manager can morequickly and efficiently reform the finances in the city and stopthe cycle of overspending and one-time fixes.”
Even with a bankruptcy filing a longtime looming, the city ofDetroit has tried relentlessly in recent years to pick itself upout of the red and find a way to reverse a downward spiral that hasseemed to only intensify amid growing cases of other localeconomies crumbling across the United States. Such attempts havebeen futile, though, with seemingly no solution existing for thecity’s woes: an earlier study determined the city faces a $327million budget deficit and more than $14 billion in long-term debtand persistent cash flow problems. Then on Friday, the governorsaid, "I believe it's appropriateto declare the city of Detroit in financial emergency.”
Gov. Snyder made his remarks today only two weeks after astate-appointed review team conducted a study that concluded withthe determination that "no satisfactory plan exists to resolve aserious financial problem." Now the city’s mayor, David Bing,has 10 days to respond. From there, reports the Associated Press,Snyder could either revoke his decision or appoint an emergencymanager.
Doug Bernstein, a managing partner of the Banking, Bankruptcyand Creditors' Rights Practice Group for Michigan’s Plunkett Cooneylaw firm, tells the AP that filing for bankruptcy would be the nextlikely, but not necessarily guaranteed, step.
"Is it imminent? Well not tomorrow," he said. "Youneed to give a financial manager the opportunity to formulate aplan and let the plan have a chance to succeed or fail. It may notavoid a bankruptcy, but you don't need to do a bankruptcytoday."
On his part, Mayor Bing issued a statement seeming to suggest hewas open to doing whatever necessary to save the faltering citythat was once America’s hub in regards to the booming automobileindustry and rhythm-and-blues music.
"I think we have to learn to make the best out of a badsituation," the mayor told the AP. "The state and the citywill have to work together to get us out of this."
In 2011, the capital city of Pennsylvania — Harrisburg — voted to file for bankruptcy aftera failed garbage-to-energy conversation program put the town morethan $300 million in debt. The nearby city of Scranton quite closeto soon following, and by this past summer three cities in California were all forced to do thesame.
Since 2000, the city of Detroit has lost roughly 25 percent ofits entire population. The number of Detroit residents today isequivalent to half of the city’s population in the year 1950.
Cancer risk 70% higher for females in Fukushima area, says WHO
Girls exposed as infants in the worst hit areas have a higher risk of developing thyroid cancer over their lifetime
People in the area worst affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident two years ago have a higher risk of developing certain cancers, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, killed nearly 19,000 people and devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering meltdowns, spewing radiation and forcing about 160,000 people to flee their homes.
"A breakdown of data, based on age, gender and proximity to the plant, does show a higher cancer risk for those located in the most contaminated parts," Dr Maria Neira, WHO director for public health and environment, said in a statement.
In the most contaminated area, the WHO estimated that there was a 70% higher risk of females exposed as infants developing thyroid cancer over their lifetime. The thyroid is the most exposed organ as radioactive iodine concentrates there and children are deemed especially vulnerable.
The report estimated that in the most contaminated area there was a 7% higher risk of leukaemia in males exposed as infants, and a 6% higher risk of breast cancer in females exposed as infants.
The report concluded that for the general population inside Japan, the predicted health risks were low, but that one-third of emergency workers were estimated to have increased risk.
But there was no discernible increase in health risks expected outside Japan, the WHO said in its report , based on a comprehensive assessment by international experts.
Jim Smith, professor of environmental science at the University of Portsmouth in England, said: "Apart from emergency workers, the most affected people were those who remained in some highly contaminated towns and villages to the northwest of the power station for up to four months before evacuation.
"The report found that these people received a lifetime radiation dose of up to 50 milli-Sieverts (MSV) and therefore have a significant, but relatively small, additional risk of contracting cancer in later life."
He said the average British person receives more than 150 MSV during their lifetime from background radiation.
He said the report did not yet give data on the numbers of people who received particular radiation doses, so it was not yet possible to estimate the overall health consequences.
Neira said: "The WHO report underlines the need for long-term health monitoring of those who are at high risk, along with the provision of necessary medical follow-up and support services."
Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) earlier this month received approval for 697bn yen ($7.5bn) from the Japanese government to compensate those harmed by the disaster, taking the total fund to 3.24tn yen.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
People in the area worst affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident two years ago have a higher risk of developing certain cancers, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, killed nearly 19,000 people and devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering meltdowns, spewing radiation and forcing about 160,000 people to flee their homes.
"A breakdown of data, based on age, gender and proximity to the plant, does show a higher cancer risk for those located in the most contaminated parts," Dr Maria Neira, WHO director for public health and environment, said in a statement.
In the most contaminated area, the WHO estimated that there was a 70% higher risk of females exposed as infants developing thyroid cancer over their lifetime. The thyroid is the most exposed organ as radioactive iodine concentrates there and children are deemed especially vulnerable.
The report estimated that in the most contaminated area there was a 7% higher risk of leukaemia in males exposed as infants, and a 6% higher risk of breast cancer in females exposed as infants.
The report concluded that for the general population inside Japan, the predicted health risks were low, but that one-third of emergency workers were estimated to have increased risk.
But there was no discernible increase in health risks expected outside Japan, the WHO said in its report , based on a comprehensive assessment by international experts.
Jim Smith, professor of environmental science at the University of Portsmouth in England, said: "Apart from emergency workers, the most affected people were those who remained in some highly contaminated towns and villages to the northwest of the power station for up to four months before evacuation.
"The report found that these people received a lifetime radiation dose of up to 50 milli-Sieverts (MSV) and therefore have a significant, but relatively small, additional risk of contracting cancer in later life."
He said the average British person receives more than 150 MSV during their lifetime from background radiation.
He said the report did not yet give data on the numbers of people who received particular radiation doses, so it was not yet possible to estimate the overall health consequences.
Neira said: "The WHO report underlines the need for long-term health monitoring of those who are at high risk, along with the provision of necessary medical follow-up and support services."
Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) earlier this month received approval for 697bn yen ($7.5bn) from the Japanese government to compensate those harmed by the disaster, taking the total fund to 3.24tn yen.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
NYPD lied under oath to prosecute Occupy activist
Michael Premo was found innocent of all charges this week inregards to a case that stems from a December 17, 2011 Occupy WallStreet demonstration in Lower Manhattan. For over a year,prosecutors working on behalf of the New York Police Departmenthave insisted that Premo, a known artist and activist, tackled anNYPD officer during a protest and in doing so inflicted enoughdamage to break a bone.
During court proceedings this week, Premo’s attorney presented avideo that showed officers charging into the defendant unprovoked.The Village Voice reports that jurors deliberated for several hours on Thursdayand then elected to find Premo not guilty on all counts, whichincluded a felony charge of assaulting an officer of the law.
Since his arrest, supporters of Premo have insisted on hisinnocence. “They're trying to make something out of nothing andthey're trying to charge him with something that didn't actuallyoccur,” colleague Rachel Falcone told Free Speech Radio Newsthis week.
After being arrested, the Manhattan District Attorney's officepresented Premo with a deal that would have let him off the hook bypleading guilty to lesser charges. Maintaining his innocence,however, he was determined to fight the case in court.
Premo was “facing serious charges and potential substantialjail sentence, even though he never should have been arrested atall,” his supporters claimed in a post published on TheLaundromat Project website.
Nick Pinto of the Village Voice says he was nearby during theDecember 2011 rally and recalls watching Premo’s arrest from adistance. In his report from court this week, Pinto explains howthe details provided by the NYPD in this trial have been fabricatedto such a degree that the allegations presented by the cops turnedout to be literally the opposite of what occurred.
“Premo charged the police like a linebacker, taking out alieutenant and resisting arrest so forcefully that he fractured anofficer's bone. That's the story prosecutors told in Premo's trial,and it's the general story his arresting officer testified to underoath as well,” Pinto writes. He adds that attorneys for thedefendant underwent a lengthy search to try and find video thatverified their own account yjpihj, and found one in the hands ofDemocracy Now. “Far from showing Premo tackling a policeofficer,” writes Pinto, that video “shows cops tackling himas he attempted to get back on his feet.”
The footage obtained from Democracy Now also showed that an NYPDofficer was filming the arrest as well, but prosecutors toldPremo’s attorney that no such footage existed.
"There is no justice in the American justice system, but youcan sometimes find it in a jury,” Premo tweeted after he wasacquitted this week.
In an interview given to NBC in 2012, Premo identified himselfas a spokesperson for the Occupy Wall Street movement. He has alsoled an initiative in the New York area that have provided relief tothose that endured last year’s Superstorm Sandy and has alsoadvocated for fair housing.
"The biggest thing for me coming out of this," he toldthe Voice, "is not being discouraged by the attempts of New YorkCity to quell dissent and prevent us from expressing ourconstitutional rights."
During court proceedings this week, Premo’s attorney presented avideo that showed officers charging into the defendant unprovoked.The Village Voice reports that jurors deliberated for several hours on Thursdayand then elected to find Premo not guilty on all counts, whichincluded a felony charge of assaulting an officer of the law.
Since his arrest, supporters of Premo have insisted on hisinnocence. “They're trying to make something out of nothing andthey're trying to charge him with something that didn't actuallyoccur,” colleague Rachel Falcone told Free Speech Radio Newsthis week.
After being arrested, the Manhattan District Attorney's officepresented Premo with a deal that would have let him off the hook bypleading guilty to lesser charges. Maintaining his innocence,however, he was determined to fight the case in court.
Premo was “facing serious charges and potential substantialjail sentence, even though he never should have been arrested atall,” his supporters claimed in a post published on TheLaundromat Project website.
Nick Pinto of the Village Voice says he was nearby during theDecember 2011 rally and recalls watching Premo’s arrest from adistance. In his report from court this week, Pinto explains howthe details provided by the NYPD in this trial have been fabricatedto such a degree that the allegations presented by the cops turnedout to be literally the opposite of what occurred.
“Premo charged the police like a linebacker, taking out alieutenant and resisting arrest so forcefully that he fractured anofficer's bone. That's the story prosecutors told in Premo's trial,and it's the general story his arresting officer testified to underoath as well,” Pinto writes. He adds that attorneys for thedefendant underwent a lengthy search to try and find video thatverified their own account yjpihj, and found one in the hands ofDemocracy Now. “Far from showing Premo tackling a policeofficer,” writes Pinto, that video “shows cops tackling himas he attempted to get back on his feet.”
The footage obtained from Democracy Now also showed that an NYPDofficer was filming the arrest as well, but prosecutors toldPremo’s attorney that no such footage existed.
"There is no justice in the American justice system, but youcan sometimes find it in a jury,” Premo tweeted after he wasacquitted this week.
In an interview given to NBC in 2012, Premo identified himselfas a spokesperson for the Occupy Wall Street movement. He has alsoled an initiative in the New York area that have provided relief tothose that endured last year’s Superstorm Sandy and has alsoadvocated for fair housing.
"The biggest thing for me coming out of this," he toldthe Voice, "is not being discouraged by the attempts of New YorkCity to quell dissent and prevent us from expressing ourconstitutional rights."
Councillor who said disabled children should be put down resigns
Collin Brewer, an independent Cornwall councillor, says: 'I was wrong – I admit it. I will continue to apologise'
A councillor who said children with disabilities "should be put down" to save taxpayers money has resigned, it has been reported.
Collin Brewer, an independent Cornwall councillor, said his remarks at an equalities event at County Hall in Truro 18 months ago were designed to "provoke a debate".
However, the veteran council member has been met with a storm of criticism from disabled people, carers and campaigners – including the former glamour model Katie Price, whose son Harvey is disabled.
Brewer initially refused to resign on Wednesday, saying his comments were "a flippant remark".
But he has since reconsidered his position. Asked in an interview with BBC Radio Cornwall whether those offended by his comments would be pleased with his decision, Brewer said: "I know they will be. This is my first indiscretion – not that there's any excuse for that."
He said he had received messages of support from at least half a dozen councillors who contacted him over his remarks.
"They know this is against my character," he said.
"I was wrong – I admit it. I will continue to apologise."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Texas cop fired after shooting at suspect 41 times, killing him
Officer Patrick Tuter shot and killed Michael Vincent Allen onAugust 12, 2012, but he has only now been fired more than sixmonths later. He has spent the last half year on administrativeleave while the Garland Police Department conducted aninvestigation that has finally concluded this week.
“Tuter has been fired because he was found in violation oftwo general orders of our department,” Garland PD spokespersonJoe Harn tells the Dallas Morning News. “He violated our pursuitpolicy as well as our use of force policy.”
The events of last August occurred after Officer Tuter pursuedAllen, an unarmed 25-year-old, because he was wanted for runningfrom the police only days earlier. A high-speed chase ensued, andTuter followed Allen in his cruiser for around 30 minutes. At thatpoint, Tuter slammed into Allen’s pickup, reached for his gun andfired 41 shots.
Only three of the few dozen bullets entered Allen’s body, but hedied nonetheless from gunshot wounds to the back, side and arm.
“I don't see anybody reacting like that,” the victim’sfather, Randy Allen, tells CBS 11 News. “41 shots, I mean, wasthe other police officers just standing there?”
''I can't believe somebody didn't tackle him and say, ‘Stop,that's enough,’'' he says. Speaking to NBC News, he adds thatthe officer’s use of force wasn’t just excessive. “It wasexcessive on top of excessive,” he says.
According to the officer’s attorneys, “Tuter did feel in fearfor his life and was justified in firing his weapon.” Theestate of the victim is suing the officer for wrongful-death.Meanwhile, Tuter’s attorneys have been appealing the indefinitesuspension that was enacted in August and according to some reportwill appeal his termination.
“Tuter has been fired because he was found in violation oftwo general orders of our department,” Garland PD spokespersonJoe Harn tells the Dallas Morning News. “He violated our pursuitpolicy as well as our use of force policy.”
The events of last August occurred after Officer Tuter pursuedAllen, an unarmed 25-year-old, because he was wanted for runningfrom the police only days earlier. A high-speed chase ensued, andTuter followed Allen in his cruiser for around 30 minutes. At thatpoint, Tuter slammed into Allen’s pickup, reached for his gun andfired 41 shots.
Only three of the few dozen bullets entered Allen’s body, but hedied nonetheless from gunshot wounds to the back, side and arm.
“I don't see anybody reacting like that,” the victim’sfather, Randy Allen, tells CBS 11 News. “41 shots, I mean, wasthe other police officers just standing there?”
''I can't believe somebody didn't tackle him and say, ‘Stop,that's enough,’'' he says. Speaking to NBC News, he adds thatthe officer’s use of force wasn’t just excessive. “It wasexcessive on top of excessive,” he says.
According to the officer’s attorneys, “Tuter did feel in fearfor his life and was justified in firing his weapon.” Theestate of the victim is suing the officer for wrongful-death.Meanwhile, Tuter’s attorneys have been appealing the indefinitesuspension that was enacted in August and according to some reportwill appeal his termination.
Elba Esther Gordillo – Mexico's famed union boss – accused of embezzlement
'The Teacher' charged with misusing members' funds after arrest seen by some as political move by new president
She is known simply as The Teacher, a union boss of such legendary influence that she was credited with putting a president in office and, until this week, so untouchable she flaunted her apparently dubious wealth with abandon. Now Elba Esther Gordillo is behind bars over the alleged embezzlement of stratospheric amounts of union funds.
Gordillo, leader of the 1.5 million-strong national teachers' union in Mexico, was arrested on Tuesday evening after the private jet in which she had travelled from California landed at an airport near the capital. She spent the night in a Mexico City jail before appearing in court where she was formally read the charges of "operations with resources of illicit origin" and "organised crime".
She appeared with two other detainees linked to the case and was told she was not eligible for bail. Visible only vaguely through bars separating the prison from the court, and, when asked if she had any questions, she shrugged and said: "No."
The judge in the case has an initial period of 72 hours to determine whether to indict Gordillo, although this could be extended for a further three days.
With the aid of complicated diagrams, the attorney general, Jesús Murillo, laid out a triangulation scheme in which nearly 2,000m pesos (close to £100m) was funnelled out of union bank accounts in Mexico into other accounts at home and abroad of three associates and a business, and then used to finance Gordillo's legendarily expensive tastes, from luxury homes to plastic surgery.
The money allegedly includes up to $3m (£2m) spent in the luxury US department store Neiman Marcus, and tens of thousands of dollars spent on plastic surgery in California.
The smoothness of the arrest contrasts with the drama of the fall that is being interpreted in Mexico as an assertion of authority by the incoming president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and his Institutional Revolutionary party, or PRI, returned to the power it lost in 2000 after 71 uninterrupted years at the helm.
It is also seen as a message of caution to other so-called de facto powers, ranging from feudal-style governors to television giants, who had filled the power vacuums left by the weakened presidency of the intervening 12 years.
"Peña Nieto chose [Gordillo] first, I think because of her emblematic nature, and because it is politically convenient. That's valid, but it shouldn't be limited to that," former foreign minister Jorge Castañeda told MVS radio.
One of the few public figures now prepared to admit a friendship with Gordillo, Castañeda added that the union leader's "excesses, bad taste and sometimes offensive behaviour" should not lead to the presumption of guilt.
Gordillo is an ideal target. The 68-year-old was not only mounting active opposition to a key education reform largely designed to deal with sub-standard teaching by prising the sector out of union control, but had also accumulated a battery of enemies across the political spectrum and among the intellectual and journalistic elite over her 24 years at the head of the union.
At the same time, she had become a national figure of ridicule. Her extravagant designer outfits lay uneasily with the low salaries of the teachers, and she was mercilessly mocked for her, at times rather odd, personal appearance, born of repeated plastic surgery and chronic illness.
The Teacher's near mythical reputation for subterfuge also provided fantastic stories, including the claim that she once held off an imminent attempt to depose her in the late 1990s with the help of a witchcraft ceremony up a Nigerian mountain in which she was clothed with the pelt of a white lion that had been skinned alive.
In her most recent interview, earlier this month, a television news anchor usually known for her soft interviews asked her how she felt about being "the most hated woman in Mexico". Gordillo responded: "Nobody is more loved by their own."
The union did not immediately respond to the arrest of the woman named its leader-for-life several years ago. While she has always had to face dissidence, Gordillo maintained support through adept negotiations of above-average improvements in wages and conditions for teachers.
She also kept a tight hold on the leadership in ways that reputedly ranged from a network of female spies charged with seducing collaborators she suspected of disloyalty, to extravagant gifts. During a conference in 2008, she distributed a fleet of hummers to regional bosses.
Gordillo was made head of the union in 1989 by then president Carlos Salinas, at a time when her predecessor and former mentor was struggling to control a wave of dissidence after 17 years in the job. She struggled through the next administration headed by President Zedillo, but came into her own in the weaker governments of the post-PRI period.
Gordillo became a personal friend and trusted adviser of Vicente Fox of the National Action party, or PAN, after he became president in 2000. At the same time she cemented her independent political power base with the creation of the New Alliance party, or Panal, which is credited by many with helping Felipe Calderón, also of PAN, win a wafer-thin victory in the 2006 presidential elections. This allowed her to negotiate further quotas of power during his administration.
With the 2012 elections on the horizon, Gordillo's party negotiated an alliance with the PRI, but when that broke down many predicted her days were numbered. The voices of doom got louder when Peña Nieto kicked off his administration with an education reform proposal. Gordillo was arrested a day after the president signed the reform into law.
Few analysts take seriously the repeated official denials that politics played any part in the decision to go after Gordillo, who clearly suspected something was brewing herself, if not exactly what.
At a speech delivered on her 68th birthday earlier this month, she said: "I want to die with the epitaph: Here lies a warrior. She died like a warrior."
• $3m in numerous transfers to the luxury US department store Neiman Marcus.
• $2m transferred to bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein in the name of a company 99% owned by Gordillo's mother. The company bought two properties with the money in California.
• $1.4m in transfers to a private jet company called Ademex.
• $17,260 to plastic surgery clinics in California.
Gordillo's reported income from 2009 to2012 was 1.1m pesos ($86,000).
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
She is known simply as The Teacher, a union boss of such legendary influence that she was credited with putting a president in office and, until this week, so untouchable she flaunted her apparently dubious wealth with abandon. Now Elba Esther Gordillo is behind bars over the alleged embezzlement of stratospheric amounts of union funds.
Gordillo, leader of the 1.5 million-strong national teachers' union in Mexico, was arrested on Tuesday evening after the private jet in which she had travelled from California landed at an airport near the capital. She spent the night in a Mexico City jail before appearing in court where she was formally read the charges of "operations with resources of illicit origin" and "organised crime".
She appeared with two other detainees linked to the case and was told she was not eligible for bail. Visible only vaguely through bars separating the prison from the court, and, when asked if she had any questions, she shrugged and said: "No."
The judge in the case has an initial period of 72 hours to determine whether to indict Gordillo, although this could be extended for a further three days.
With the aid of complicated diagrams, the attorney general, Jesús Murillo, laid out a triangulation scheme in which nearly 2,000m pesos (close to £100m) was funnelled out of union bank accounts in Mexico into other accounts at home and abroad of three associates and a business, and then used to finance Gordillo's legendarily expensive tastes, from luxury homes to plastic surgery.
The money allegedly includes up to $3m (£2m) spent in the luxury US department store Neiman Marcus, and tens of thousands of dollars spent on plastic surgery in California.
The smoothness of the arrest contrasts with the drama of the fall that is being interpreted in Mexico as an assertion of authority by the incoming president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and his Institutional Revolutionary party, or PRI, returned to the power it lost in 2000 after 71 uninterrupted years at the helm.
It is also seen as a message of caution to other so-called de facto powers, ranging from feudal-style governors to television giants, who had filled the power vacuums left by the weakened presidency of the intervening 12 years.
"Peña Nieto chose [Gordillo] first, I think because of her emblematic nature, and because it is politically convenient. That's valid, but it shouldn't be limited to that," former foreign minister Jorge Castañeda told MVS radio.
One of the few public figures now prepared to admit a friendship with Gordillo, Castañeda added that the union leader's "excesses, bad taste and sometimes offensive behaviour" should not lead to the presumption of guilt.
Gordillo is an ideal target. The 68-year-old was not only mounting active opposition to a key education reform largely designed to deal with sub-standard teaching by prising the sector out of union control, but had also accumulated a battery of enemies across the political spectrum and among the intellectual and journalistic elite over her 24 years at the head of the union.
At the same time, she had become a national figure of ridicule. Her extravagant designer outfits lay uneasily with the low salaries of the teachers, and she was mercilessly mocked for her, at times rather odd, personal appearance, born of repeated plastic surgery and chronic illness.
The Teacher's near mythical reputation for subterfuge also provided fantastic stories, including the claim that she once held off an imminent attempt to depose her in the late 1990s with the help of a witchcraft ceremony up a Nigerian mountain in which she was clothed with the pelt of a white lion that had been skinned alive.
In her most recent interview, earlier this month, a television news anchor usually known for her soft interviews asked her how she felt about being "the most hated woman in Mexico". Gordillo responded: "Nobody is more loved by their own."
The union did not immediately respond to the arrest of the woman named its leader-for-life several years ago. While she has always had to face dissidence, Gordillo maintained support through adept negotiations of above-average improvements in wages and conditions for teachers.
She also kept a tight hold on the leadership in ways that reputedly ranged from a network of female spies charged with seducing collaborators she suspected of disloyalty, to extravagant gifts. During a conference in 2008, she distributed a fleet of hummers to regional bosses.
Gordillo was made head of the union in 1989 by then president Carlos Salinas, at a time when her predecessor and former mentor was struggling to control a wave of dissidence after 17 years in the job. She struggled through the next administration headed by President Zedillo, but came into her own in the weaker governments of the post-PRI period.
Gordillo became a personal friend and trusted adviser of Vicente Fox of the National Action party, or PAN, after he became president in 2000. At the same time she cemented her independent political power base with the creation of the New Alliance party, or Panal, which is credited by many with helping Felipe Calderón, also of PAN, win a wafer-thin victory in the 2006 presidential elections. This allowed her to negotiate further quotas of power during his administration.
With the 2012 elections on the horizon, Gordillo's party negotiated an alliance with the PRI, but when that broke down many predicted her days were numbered. The voices of doom got louder when Peña Nieto kicked off his administration with an education reform proposal. Gordillo was arrested a day after the president signed the reform into law.
Few analysts take seriously the repeated official denials that politics played any part in the decision to go after Gordillo, who clearly suspected something was brewing herself, if not exactly what.
At a speech delivered on her 68th birthday earlier this month, she said: "I want to die with the epitaph: Here lies a warrior. She died like a warrior."
The allegations
Mexican authorities are investigating the alleged embezzlement of 1,978m pesos ($154m at today's exchange rate) of union funds by Elba Esther Gordillo and close associates between 2008 and early 2012. It claims to have incontrovertible evidence linking the cash to:• $3m in numerous transfers to the luxury US department store Neiman Marcus.
• $2m transferred to bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein in the name of a company 99% owned by Gordillo's mother. The company bought two properties with the money in California.
• $1.4m in transfers to a private jet company called Ademex.
• $17,260 to plastic surgery clinics in California.
Gordillo's reported income from 2009 to2012 was 1.1m pesos ($86,000).
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
'Google News Tax' battle: German lawmakers back watered-down Internet copyright law
Google has fended off a German publishers’ campaign that wouldforce it to pay for linking to news articles, after a watered-downversion of a controversial law was passed in parliament – but mayface further legal battles.
The search engine will still be allowed to link to “singlewords or very small text excerpts” from websites of newspublishers. But now arguments may break out over what constitutesan ‘excerpt’ – a term not strictly defined in the legislation.
The ancillary copyright law was passed by 293 to 243 votes inthe the lower chamber of parliament, after backing from theright-wing ruling coalition.
After a months-long public campaign against the legislation,Google expressed reserved relief at the final formulation of thelaw.
“As a result of today’s vote, ancillary copyright in its mostdamaging form has been stopped. However, the best outcome forGermany would be no new legislation because it threatensinnovation, particularly for startups,” said Ralf Bremer, thesearch engine’s spokesman in the country.
Nonetheless, the publishers association BDVZ put on a braveface, saying the law will “enable portals to set the conditionsunder which their content is used by search engines and aggregatesfor commercial purposes.”
German publishers argued that aggregation sites, such as GoogleNews, which collects articles from various sources and sorts themby headline, have replaced the front pages of newspapers, andallowed web engines to use the content to make their money offadvertising.
But Google, from links in which more than six billion articlesare accessed every month around the world, said it was doing justthe opposite.
The search engine claimed that its aggregation service is awin-win situation for the customer, who gets easier access toinformation, the news sources themselves, which can attract abigger audience, and the company itself, which earns money from theadvertising on its own linking page.
Once an original, harsher draft of the law was aired, Googlestarted a petition arguing that the legislation was impedingfreedom of information.
The opponents of the law, which included the opposition parties,and the majority of bloggers, also argued that it would make itharder for less established news media to gain viewer access, andnoted that if individual companies wanted to opt out of Google’ssearch engines, they could do so, without forcing others who do notdesire it.
In response to the outcry, German lawmakers backed away fromwhat even its proponents claimed was an “unprecedented law,”instead agreeing on a compromise that may or may not change thestatus quo. This will depend on whether the publishers decide thatthe current Google News summaries that amount to three lines aretoo long.
The law may also be foiled during an upcoming vote in theBundesrat, the upper chamber of parliament, as it is dominated bythe opposition parties.
Google has faced similar attacks from newspapers in Belgium andFrance. Last month it agreed to pay a settlement of €60 million toFrench publishers for the right to continue displaying its newslinks, and it made a “partnership agreement” with Belgiannewspapers, following a six year legal battle.
But in Brazil there has been no compromise. Last year more than90 percent of the local media unilaterally withdrew itself fromGoogle News.
The search engine will still be allowed to link to “singlewords or very small text excerpts” from websites of newspublishers. But now arguments may break out over what constitutesan ‘excerpt’ – a term not strictly defined in the legislation.
The ancillary copyright law was passed by 293 to 243 votes inthe the lower chamber of parliament, after backing from theright-wing ruling coalition.
After a months-long public campaign against the legislation,Google expressed reserved relief at the final formulation of thelaw.
“As a result of today’s vote, ancillary copyright in its mostdamaging form has been stopped. However, the best outcome forGermany would be no new legislation because it threatensinnovation, particularly for startups,” said Ralf Bremer, thesearch engine’s spokesman in the country.
Nonetheless, the publishers association BDVZ put on a braveface, saying the law will “enable portals to set the conditionsunder which their content is used by search engines and aggregatesfor commercial purposes.”
German publishers argued that aggregation sites, such as GoogleNews, which collects articles from various sources and sorts themby headline, have replaced the front pages of newspapers, andallowed web engines to use the content to make their money offadvertising.
But Google, from links in which more than six billion articlesare accessed every month around the world, said it was doing justthe opposite.
The search engine claimed that its aggregation service is awin-win situation for the customer, who gets easier access toinformation, the news sources themselves, which can attract abigger audience, and the company itself, which earns money from theadvertising on its own linking page.
Once an original, harsher draft of the law was aired, Googlestarted a petition arguing that the legislation was impedingfreedom of information.
The opponents of the law, which included the opposition parties,and the majority of bloggers, also argued that it would make itharder for less established news media to gain viewer access, andnoted that if individual companies wanted to opt out of Google’ssearch engines, they could do so, without forcing others who do notdesire it.
In response to the outcry, German lawmakers backed away fromwhat even its proponents claimed was an “unprecedented law,”instead agreeing on a compromise that may or may not change thestatus quo. This will depend on whether the publishers decide thatthe current Google News summaries that amount to three lines aretoo long.
The law may also be foiled during an upcoming vote in theBundesrat, the upper chamber of parliament, as it is dominated bythe opposition parties.
Google has faced similar attacks from newspapers in Belgium andFrance. Last month it agreed to pay a settlement of €60 million toFrench publishers for the right to continue displaying its newslinks, and it made a “partnership agreement” with Belgiannewspapers, following a six year legal battle.
But in Brazil there has been no compromise. Last year more than90 percent of the local media unilaterally withdrew itself fromGoogle News.
Two Crown Prosecution Service staff accused of £1m fraud plot
CPS investigator says police are to charge finance manager and unnamed employee over allegedly bogus taxi claims
Two Crown Prosecution Service staff are facing charges of conspiracy to commit fraud over false taxi claims totalling at least £1m.
The charges against Lisa Burrows, 41, a finance manager in the West Midlands branch of the CPS, and an unnamed administrator concern false claims for taxi services for witnesses, the CPS said in a statement. No such service was ever provided.
West Midland police launched an investigation following a complaint by the CPS.
Burrows has already been charged and will appear at Birmingham magistrates court on Thursday.
Malcolm McHaffie, deputy head of special crime for the CPS, said: "I have carefully considered available evidence in relation to Lisa Joanne Burrows, a finance manager, and another member of staff, an administrative officer. Both are employed by CPS West Midlands.
"I have now concluded that it is appropriate to charge both Burrows and the other individual with conspiracy to commit fraud.
"The charges relate to an allegation that Burrows and the other member of staff, on or before 27 February 2013, conspired together to commit fraud by false representation by submitting to the Crown Prosecution Service false claims for witness care taxi services to the value of at least £1m when no such services had been supplied.
"I have tonight authorised West Midlands police to charge these two individuals, and Lisa Burrows has now been charged. The other individual has not yet been charged."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Two Crown Prosecution Service staff are facing charges of conspiracy to commit fraud over false taxi claims totalling at least £1m.
The charges against Lisa Burrows, 41, a finance manager in the West Midlands branch of the CPS, and an unnamed administrator concern false claims for taxi services for witnesses, the CPS said in a statement. No such service was ever provided.
West Midland police launched an investigation following a complaint by the CPS.
Burrows has already been charged and will appear at Birmingham magistrates court on Thursday.
Malcolm McHaffie, deputy head of special crime for the CPS, said: "I have carefully considered available evidence in relation to Lisa Joanne Burrows, a finance manager, and another member of staff, an administrative officer. Both are employed by CPS West Midlands.
"I have now concluded that it is appropriate to charge both Burrows and the other individual with conspiracy to commit fraud.
"The charges relate to an allegation that Burrows and the other member of staff, on or before 27 February 2013, conspired together to commit fraud by false representation by submitting to the Crown Prosecution Service false claims for witness care taxi services to the value of at least £1m when no such services had been supplied.
"I have tonight authorised West Midlands police to charge these two individuals, and Lisa Burrows has now been charged. The other individual has not yet been charged."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Hundreds of protesters halt demolition of Berlin Wall, scuffle with police (PHOTOS)
Some of Berlin's most famous wall paintings, such as Brezhnevand Honecker's Kiss are under threat if the work goes ahead.
Nearly 300 activists gathered in front of the famous East SideGallery to prevent the demolition of one of Europe's most populartourist attractions. Protesters carried banners, one of which read"Does culture no longer have any value?", apparentlyaddressed to local authorities.
Watch RT’sgallery from Berlin.
Several arrests have been reported as protesters scuffled withpolice officers.
Construction crews managed to remove a meter and a half sectionof the famous monument before the crowd arrived. To replace themissing part of the world-famous Berlin Wall, demonstrators thenwheeled in a mock wall section they set up in front of the gap.
Protesters are fighting against allowing private interests todestroy the historic wall as they view the action as a “direct actof destruction towards an artwork,” the newspaper cited Kani Alavi,the head of the artists' initiative East Side Gallery, who led a€2.5m restoration project of the wall four years ago.
Activists and artists who painted the murals on the East SideGallery are now circulating petitions against the demolition,saying it will violate their copyright.
French artist Thierry Noir, the author of the famous colorfulgraffiti "Heads with big lips", has joined protesters to fight forhis work not to be removed from the gallery and for the wall'ssurvival.
“This is a unique opportunity to preserve a large section ofwhat was once a death strip. If you remove the sections, you'redestroying the authenticity of this place," Guardian quotesNoir whose painted section of the wall is to be removed. "It'sunbearable to see that the wall here is being so brutally torndown."
Opponents also say the removal will insult the memory aboutthose who died in the former infamous “death strip”. During theyears of the Wall, an estimated 136 people were shot dead whiletrying to cross it in attempt to flee to the Westernsector.
The East Side segment is the longest remaining stretch of theBerlin Wall, which was separating East and West Berlin for almost30 years.
It was transformed into an open-air gallery months after EastGermany opened its borders in November of 1989. Covered with 105colorful graffiti works painted by some120 artists, the wallattracts up to 800,000 visitors a year - from all over theworld.
However, despite its popularity, local authorities ruled tosacrifice parts of the 1,3 kilometer Berlin Wall to provide a sitefor a luxury apartment complex, a 63-meter-high tower of 36apartments and offices, which is now being built on thenearby banks of the Spree river.
The plan is to remove and relocate a 20-meter section.
"The investor has a legal right to demand this, so we'll haveto do it," the district's mayor, the Green MP Franz Schulz saidconfirming the removal plan.
Nearly 300 activists gathered in front of the famous East SideGallery to prevent the demolition of one of Europe's most populartourist attractions. Protesters carried banners, one of which read"Does culture no longer have any value?", apparentlyaddressed to local authorities.
Watch RT’sgallery from Berlin.
Several arrests have been reported as protesters scuffled withpolice officers.
Construction crews managed to remove a meter and a half sectionof the famous monument before the crowd arrived. To replace themissing part of the world-famous Berlin Wall, demonstrators thenwheeled in a mock wall section they set up in front of the gap.
Protesters are fighting against allowing private interests todestroy the historic wall as they view the action as a “direct actof destruction towards an artwork,” the newspaper cited Kani Alavi,the head of the artists' initiative East Side Gallery, who led a€2.5m restoration project of the wall four years ago.
Activists and artists who painted the murals on the East SideGallery are now circulating petitions against the demolition,saying it will violate their copyright.
French artist Thierry Noir, the author of the famous colorfulgraffiti "Heads with big lips", has joined protesters to fight forhis work not to be removed from the gallery and for the wall'ssurvival.
“This is a unique opportunity to preserve a large section ofwhat was once a death strip. If you remove the sections, you'redestroying the authenticity of this place," Guardian quotesNoir whose painted section of the wall is to be removed. "It'sunbearable to see that the wall here is being so brutally torndown."
Opponents also say the removal will insult the memory aboutthose who died in the former infamous “death strip”. During theyears of the Wall, an estimated 136 people were shot dead whiletrying to cross it in attempt to flee to the Westernsector.
The East Side segment is the longest remaining stretch of theBerlin Wall, which was separating East and West Berlin for almost30 years.
It was transformed into an open-air gallery months after EastGermany opened its borders in November of 1989. Covered with 105colorful graffiti works painted by some120 artists, the wallattracts up to 800,000 visitors a year - from all over theworld.
However, despite its popularity, local authorities ruled tosacrifice parts of the 1,3 kilometer Berlin Wall to provide a sitefor a luxury apartment complex, a 63-meter-high tower of 36apartments and offices, which is now being built on thenearby banks of the Spree river.
The plan is to remove and relocate a 20-meter section.
"The investor has a legal right to demand this, so we'll haveto do it," the district's mayor, the Green MP Franz Schulz saidconfirming the removal plan.
Nato commander apologises after troops shoot dead Afghan children
Coalition soldiers kill two boys in Uruzgan province in episode likely to worsen strained relations with President Hamid Karzai
Nato said on Saturday its forces had accidentally shot dead two Afghan boys, in the latest of a series of reports of civilian deaths at the hands of international troops.
The shooting, in the southern province of Uruzgan, could further strain the relationship between the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who has demanded US special forces leave another province over allegations of torture. The two boys were shot dead when they were mistaken for insurgents during an operation in northwest Uruzgan on 28 February, Isaf commander US General Joseph Dunford said in a statement.
"I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed," Dunford said. "The boys were killed when Coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces." Dunford added that a team of Afghan and Isaf investigators visited the village on Saturday and met local leaders.
The area, Lowar-e-Dowahom, was often patrolled by international troops, a spokesman for provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada said. "They saw two young children who were apparently listening to a radio and they shot them – it is not yet clear why," the spokesman said.
Australian forces deployed in Uruzgan said earlier there had been an "operational incident" in the province's northwest but gave no details except that no soldiers were harmed.
On 13 February a Nato air strike requested by Afghan forces killed 10 people – including five children and four women – in the eastern province of Kunar, prompting Karzai to ban his troops from requesting foreign air strikes. Two weeks later he halted all special forces operations in the central province of Wardak after a series of allegations involving US special forces soldiers and Afghan men said to be working with them.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Nato said on Saturday its forces had accidentally shot dead two Afghan boys, in the latest of a series of reports of civilian deaths at the hands of international troops.
The shooting, in the southern province of Uruzgan, could further strain the relationship between the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who has demanded US special forces leave another province over allegations of torture. The two boys were shot dead when they were mistaken for insurgents during an operation in northwest Uruzgan on 28 February, Isaf commander US General Joseph Dunford said in a statement.
"I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed," Dunford said. "The boys were killed when Coalition forces fired at what they thought were insurgent forces." Dunford added that a team of Afghan and Isaf investigators visited the village on Saturday and met local leaders.
The area, Lowar-e-Dowahom, was often patrolled by international troops, a spokesman for provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada said. "They saw two young children who were apparently listening to a radio and they shot them – it is not yet clear why," the spokesman said.
Australian forces deployed in Uruzgan said earlier there had been an "operational incident" in the province's northwest but gave no details except that no soldiers were harmed.
On 13 February a Nato air strike requested by Afghan forces killed 10 people – including five children and four women – in the eastern province of Kunar, prompting Karzai to ban his troops from requesting foreign air strikes. Two weeks later he halted all special forces operations in the central province of Wardak after a series of allegations involving US special forces soldiers and Afghan men said to be working with them.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Incomes plummet to worst in 20 years
Yes, it was a good month for the US economy in terms of pumping money away on utilities like gas and electric. The Commerce Department said on Friday that consumer spending increased 0.2 percent compared with December — on par more or less with what most economists had predicted — and largely due to a surge in demand for utilities during the winter months. But while that statistic is being touted as a signal of the strengthening economy, other indicators suggest things are not as sound as they may seem.
Personal incomes plummeted in January, the new report adds, with that month’s drop of 3.6 percent being the most significantdownward change since January 1993 when Pres. Bill Clinton was justbeginning his first term in office. Coupled with a slight surge inspending, the latest news means Americans are largely spending moremoney than before while saving less.
The news comes only days after a study released by the websiteBankrate.com found that barely half of Americans have more money intheir savings account then they owe in credit card debt.
Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas, New York, tellsReuters that this could be the start of something much moreserious. "We expect a significant decrease in real consumerspending in the first half of the year," says Shulyatyeva.Additionally, the economist says this could mean some underwhelmingnews for the GDP this quarter.
Speaking to the Associated Press, BMO Capital Markets senioreconomist Jennifer Lee says that a slight hike in taxes starting onthe first of the year is partially to blame for what could become aserious problem in the months to come. "The sting of highertaxes hit home at the start of the year. This will cool spending inthe next few months before consumers adjust to higherrates."
James Marple, a senior economist at TD Economics, adds in a USAToday report that, given the latest changes in tax rates andspending cuts, growth during the first half of 2013 is unlikely toexceed a rate of 2 percent.
"At this pace, the unemployment will not improve and pressurewill remain on the Federal Reserve to continue its asset purchaseprogram,” Marple said.
Earlier in the week, an analysis conducted by MSCI Inc.concluded that current economy-saving policies enacted by FederalReserve Chairman Ben Bernanke could cause the country’s centralbank to lose half atrillion dollars during the next three years.
January’s 3.6 percent decline in income growth comes after anincrease of 2.6 percent one month earlier, results that are typicalgiven the holiday shopping season.
Personal incomes plummeted in January, the new report adds, with that month’s drop of 3.6 percent being the most significantdownward change since January 1993 when Pres. Bill Clinton was justbeginning his first term in office. Coupled with a slight surge inspending, the latest news means Americans are largely spending moremoney than before while saving less.
The news comes only days after a study released by the websiteBankrate.com found that barely half of Americans have more money intheir savings account then they owe in credit card debt.
Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas, New York, tellsReuters that this could be the start of something much moreserious. "We expect a significant decrease in real consumerspending in the first half of the year," says Shulyatyeva.Additionally, the economist says this could mean some underwhelmingnews for the GDP this quarter.
Speaking to the Associated Press, BMO Capital Markets senioreconomist Jennifer Lee says that a slight hike in taxes starting onthe first of the year is partially to blame for what could become aserious problem in the months to come. "The sting of highertaxes hit home at the start of the year. This will cool spending inthe next few months before consumers adjust to higherrates."
James Marple, a senior economist at TD Economics, adds in a USAToday report that, given the latest changes in tax rates andspending cuts, growth during the first half of 2013 is unlikely toexceed a rate of 2 percent.
"At this pace, the unemployment will not improve and pressurewill remain on the Federal Reserve to continue its asset purchaseprogram,” Marple said.
Earlier in the week, an analysis conducted by MSCI Inc.concluded that current economy-saving policies enacted by FederalReserve Chairman Ben Bernanke could cause the country’s centralbank to lose half atrillion dollars during the next three years.
January’s 3.6 percent decline in income growth comes after anincrease of 2.6 percent one month earlier, results that are typicalgiven the holiday shopping season.
‘Cry dear Sphinx’: Egypt’s finance ministry proposes renting out pyramids
The proposal was authored by Egyptian intellectual Abdallah Mahfouz, who argued that renting historical sites could helpbreathe new life into the country’s economy.
Earlier this week, Adel Abdel Sattar, Egypt's secretary general ofthe Supreme Council of Antiquities, reportedly confirmed in an interview with local station ONTV the existence of the proposal torent Egypt’s main monuments – including the pyramids at Giza, theSphinx, the Abu Simbel Temple and the temples of Luxor – tointernational tourism firms.
“But is it possible that we rent our monuments? … This is ourheritage, our roots,” the official was quoted as saying. Sattarsaid he received a request from the Finance Ministry to study theproposal, which has sparked outrage from local archeologists andtheir international counterparts.
"Cry dear Sphinx, people want to rent you out and maybe latercut you into pieces and sell you! Shame on those who want to rentyou. You are the symbol of dignity, power and Egypt’s ancientcivilization," Egyptology professor Ahmed Saeed of CairoUniversity wrote on his Facebook page, according toAhramonline.
The country's antiquities ministry has reportedly rejected thecontroversial plan, which became the talk of the town and gave riseto various rumors. The Gulf state of Qatar reportedly expressedinterest in renting Egypt’s landmarks for five years for $200billion, according to Al Arabiya.
Two years after the rise of the Arab Spring and the fall ofPresident Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's economic downturn has resulted inhigher budget deficits. Currency reserves are said to be at acritical level – $14 billion, or three months' worth of imports –according to US Ambassador Ann Patterson, who said the “reservesare kept afloat only due to regular injections of cash by Qatar andTurkey.”
While financial hardships have weakened the country’s economy,protests have also paralyzed the country's tourismindustry.
Earlier this week, Adel Abdel Sattar, Egypt's secretary general ofthe Supreme Council of Antiquities, reportedly confirmed in an interview with local station ONTV the existence of the proposal torent Egypt’s main monuments – including the pyramids at Giza, theSphinx, the Abu Simbel Temple and the temples of Luxor – tointernational tourism firms.
“But is it possible that we rent our monuments? … This is ourheritage, our roots,” the official was quoted as saying. Sattarsaid he received a request from the Finance Ministry to study theproposal, which has sparked outrage from local archeologists andtheir international counterparts.
"Cry dear Sphinx, people want to rent you out and maybe latercut you into pieces and sell you! Shame on those who want to rentyou. You are the symbol of dignity, power and Egypt’s ancientcivilization," Egyptology professor Ahmed Saeed of CairoUniversity wrote on his Facebook page, according toAhramonline.
The country's antiquities ministry has reportedly rejected thecontroversial plan, which became the talk of the town and gave riseto various rumors. The Gulf state of Qatar reportedly expressedinterest in renting Egypt’s landmarks for five years for $200billion, according to Al Arabiya.
Two years after the rise of the Arab Spring and the fall ofPresident Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's economic downturn has resulted inhigher budget deficits. Currency reserves are said to be at acritical level – $14 billion, or three months' worth of imports –according to US Ambassador Ann Patterson, who said the “reservesare kept afloat only due to regular injections of cash by Qatar andTurkey.”
While financial hardships have weakened the country’s economy,protests have also paralyzed the country's tourismindustry.
Google Reveals Details About Its Plan To Fix Password Security
Passwords are broken. Trying to protect your digital life with an online password is sort of like protecting your front door with a lock that can be picked with credit card. But amidst all the hand-wringing about hacks at companies like Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Burger King, there is some hope: two bright engineers from Google have a plan.
Bad Pharma And The Statin Wars
It's been amusing to watch former Pfizer executive John LaMattina try to pick apart Ben Goldacre's new book, Bad Pharma, a powerful indictment of the industry in which LaMattina used to work. This is not the occasion to get into the details of this battle, but as an aside let me just say that I would advise any representatives of the pharmaceutical industry to think very carefully before choosing to take on Goldacre.
Health pros: Alcohol is EVIL – raise its price, ban its ads
Hooch 'brings forth a whole world of harm'
A broad coalition of UK health organizations has released a report detailing the evils of demon rum (and whisky, vodka, brandy, gin, lager, ale, wine, et al.), and calling for a series of government actions to suppress its use, including sharply increased pricing and a ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorships.…
A broad coalition of UK health organizations has released a report detailing the evils of demon rum (and whisky, vodka, brandy, gin, lager, ale, wine, et al.), and calling for a series of government actions to suppress its use, including sharply increased pricing and a ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorships.…
Legalize rhino horn trade to try to save species: scientists
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A worldwide ban on the trade in rhino horns has been ineffective and a regulated market should be set up as part of a last-ditch attempt to save the endangered animals from extinction, four leading environmental scientists say.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s Last Large Forest Elephant Population in Serious Decline
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) largest remaining forest elephant population, located in the Okapi Faunal Reserve (OFR), has declined by 37 percent in the last five years, with only 1,700 elephants now remaining, according to wildlife surveys by WCS and DRC officials. WCS scientists warn that if poaching of forest elephants in DRC continues unabated, the species could be nearly extinguished from Africa's second largest country within ten years.
According to the latest survey, 5,100, or 75 percent, of the reserve's elephants have been killed in the last 15 years. These numbers are particularly shocking as the OFR is considered the best protected conservation area in DRC. According to WCS, the primary reason for the recent decline in forest elephant numbers is ivory poaching.
According to the latest survey, 5,100, or 75 percent, of the reserve's elephants have been killed in the last 15 years. These numbers are particularly shocking as the OFR is considered the best protected conservation area in DRC. According to WCS, the primary reason for the recent decline in forest elephant numbers is ivory poaching.
Beijing residents bemoan smog and sandstorms
Beijing (AFP) Feb 28, 2013
Beijing residents were urged to stay indoors Thursday as pollution levels soared before a sandstorm brought further misery to China's capital.
A thick blanket of smog covered large swathes of the country in the morning, causing residents to once again dig out face-masks as China's gruelling winter of pollution continues.
The noxious haze saw the US embassy's air quality index reading for
Beijing residents were urged to stay indoors Thursday as pollution levels soared before a sandstorm brought further misery to China's capital.
A thick blanket of smog covered large swathes of the country in the morning, causing residents to once again dig out face-masks as China's gruelling winter of pollution continues.
The noxious haze saw the US embassy's air quality index reading for
Mindfulness Can Improve Your Attention and Health (preview)
Pulling into a parking spot at work, you realize you have no recollection of the drive that got you there. On reaching the bottom of a page in a book, you are frustrated that you have failed to understand what you just read. In conversation, you suddenly become aware that you have no idea what the person speaking to you has said.
[More]
[More]
Organic versus Conventional: A Scanner May Say Which Is Healthier
Are organic foods more nutritious than conventionally raised ones? Stanford University scientists cast doubt on that concept last year in a widely publicized report. But the gritty little secret is that whether your apples and spinach are organic or not, nutrient levels can vary dramatically depending on growing conditions, such as soil type and quality, temperature, and days of sun versus rain. As a consumer, you have no independent way of verifying that you have chosen a superior batch. But what if you had a handheld scanner that would allow you to check nutrient density? “You could compare carrots to carrots,” says Dan Kittredge, executive director of the Bionutrient Food Association, which is raising the funds to research such a device. “If this batch is a dud, pass. If the next one is good, that's where you spend your money.”
[More]
[More]
Horsemeat found in four new products
Four beef products sold by Bird's Eye, Taco Bell and catering supplier Brakes are found to contain horse DNA, the Food Standards Agency says.
India boosts budget for science, innovation, crops
Despite economic constraints India has boosted budgetary allocation for the science sectors.
New Study Links BPA and Childhood Asthma
Kids exposed to a commonplace chemical early in life are more likely to have asthma, according to a study published today.
[More]
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MIND Reviews: Blindspot
Type Set: Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People Mahzarin R. Banaji Anthony G. Greenwald Delacorte Press, 2013 ($27)
When journalist Brent Staples walks down the street, he whistles classical music. Staples, who is African-American, does not do this to share his love of Mozart. Rather he wants to ease the fears of white pedestrians who might not realize how nervous they feel when passing a black man.
As psychologists Banaji and Greenwald discuss in Blindspot , Staples is attempting to counteract unconscious bias. Our social and cultural surroundings influence these attitudes in ways we may not notice. They argue that forming implicit biases is an innate, often helpful, ability that allows us to distinguish friend from foe and to find our place in a complex social world. Psychologists study this phenomenon using tests that force us to make rapid associations. The speed with which we connect words from two categories, such as “good” and “thin” or “good” and “fat,” reveals our underlying preferences. One study showed, surprisingly, that ambitious, professional women often prefer a male boss, for instance, and another found that people who proclaim the earth is flat unconsciously accept that it is round.
[More]
When journalist Brent Staples walks down the street, he whistles classical music. Staples, who is African-American, does not do this to share his love of Mozart. Rather he wants to ease the fears of white pedestrians who might not realize how nervous they feel when passing a black man.
As psychologists Banaji and Greenwald discuss in Blindspot , Staples is attempting to counteract unconscious bias. Our social and cultural surroundings influence these attitudes in ways we may not notice. They argue that forming implicit biases is an innate, often helpful, ability that allows us to distinguish friend from foe and to find our place in a complex social world. Psychologists study this phenomenon using tests that force us to make rapid associations. The speed with which we connect words from two categories, such as “good” and “thin” or “good” and “fat,” reveals our underlying preferences. One study showed, surprisingly, that ambitious, professional women often prefer a male boss, for instance, and another found that people who proclaim the earth is flat unconsciously accept that it is round.
[More]
Eating aromatic rice may cut arsenic risk for Bangladeshis
Aromatic varieties of Bangladeshi rice contain less arsenic and so could be safer than more commonly eaten varieties, reveals a study.
Tropical nations to see above average sea-level rises
Seawater expansion and gravitational effects are likely to increase the scale of sea-level rises, says a study.
Rare sharks turn up in Australian waters
A pair of rare sharks found for the first time off the coast of Australia may force a rethink of the species' range. They were identified as mandarin dogfish sharks.
MIND Reviews: Why Humans Like to Cry
Complex Tears: Why Humans Like to Cry: Tragedy, Evolution, and the Brain by Michael Trimble Oxford University Press, 2012 ($29.95)
Mammals can all produce tears, yet humans are the only ones who cry. In his new book Why Humans Like to Cry , neurologist Trimble delves into how evolution and culture seemingly shaped the human brain to express emotion on a higher level than the rest of the animal kingdom.
Weeping may have been one of the earliest forms of hominid communication. Initially a method to keep the eye lubricated and a response to pain, Trimble argues that crying became a way for early humans to share feelings of sorrow, joy and compassion and to empathize with others long before we developed language.
[More]
Mammals can all produce tears, yet humans are the only ones who cry. In his new book Why Humans Like to Cry , neurologist Trimble delves into how evolution and culture seemingly shaped the human brain to express emotion on a higher level than the rest of the animal kingdom.
Weeping may have been one of the earliest forms of hominid communication. Initially a method to keep the eye lubricated and a response to pain, Trimble argues that crying became a way for early humans to share feelings of sorrow, joy and compassion and to empathize with others long before we developed language.
[More]
Glitch forces Mars Curiosity to go to backup
A computer glitch on the Mars rover Curiosity has forced it to switch to a backup computer while engineers try to fix the problem.
Acidic seas will hit northeast US hard
Coastal regions around the United States respond differently to ocean acidification, a large-scale study finds.
Police: Firefighters kept child sex slave
Two volunteer firefighters are accused of forcing a boy into sexual slavery that lasted for years, according to the Vermont State Police Department.
Lagos’s Homeless Are Increasingly Paying the Price of Progress
As Lagos tries to raise its business profile, the city’s poor feel they have become the government’s enemy, a feeling deepened by the dismantling of a slum last week.
The Price of Ivory: An Illicit Trail of African Ivory to China
Trade in elephant tusks continues to thrive in China, even as conservation groups call on Beijing to do more to crack down on the slaughter of African elephants.
World Briefing | Europe: France: Le Monde Picks First Woman for a Top Post
Natalie Nougayrède, 46, was chosen Friday as the first woman to serve as both director and editor of Le Monde, France’s most prominent newspaper, and its Web site.
World Briefing | Europe: France: Le Monde Picks First Woman for a Top Post
Natalie Nougayrède, 46, was chosen Friday as the first woman to serve as both director and editor of Le Monde, France’s most prominent newspaper, and its Web site.
World Briefing | The Americas: Argentina: U.S. Court Orders Debt Repayment Plan
A United States court of appeals gave Argentina until March 29 to submit a plan for the repayment of $1.33 billion in debt that the country defaulted on 11 years ago.
Obama signs order for painful budget cuts
US President Barack Obama has signed an order that starts putting into effect across-the-board budget cuts known as the "sequester" after he and congressional leaders failed to find an alternative budget plan.
News Analysis: The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking
The Germans had vastly more work camps and ghettos than anyone knew.
Venezuelan Official Confirms Chávez Receiving Cancer Treatments
President Hugo Chávez is receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatments, a government official said Friday. Mr. Chávez has not been seen in public since his Dec. 11 surgery in Havana.
Turkish PM's Zionism comments "objectionable": Kerry
ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday criticized a comment by Turkey's prime minister likening Zionism to crimes against humanity in a disagreement that cast a shadow over talks between the NATO allies.
Acusan a abogado en EU de fraude por 32 mdd contra la CFE
DALLAS, 1 de marzo.- Un gran jurado federal en El Paso, Texas, emitió una acusación en la que señala al abogado estadunidense Marco Antonio Delgado como responsable de un fraude por 32 millones de dólares contra la mexicana Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE).
Esta es la segunda acusación en contra de Delgado, detenido en una cárcel federal en El Paso, luego de ser aprehendido en noviembre pasado por cargos de lavado de dinero por unos 600 millones de dólares a favor del mexicano "cártel del Milenio".
En la nueva acusación, emitida el pasado miércoles, se indicó que Delgado participó y ganó en octubre de 2009, como representante legal de la compañía "FGG Enterprise, LLC.", una subasta pública de la CFE para proveer equipo para la Planta Termo-Solar Agua Prieta II.
"FGG Enterprise" ganó el concurso a pesar de haber sido constituida solo seis meses antes en el estado de Nevada y de competir contra una media docena de compañías reconocidas en el ramo.
El contrato firmado en enero de 2010 por la CFE y Delgado, como representante de "FGG Enterprise", era por 121 millones de dólares para proveer turbinas de generación eléctrica y darles mantenimiento.
Según la acusación, Delgado instruyó a representantes del Banco de Comercio Exterior de México, que actuaban como fiduciarios de la CFE, que comenzaran a hacer los pagos a FGG Enterprise con transferencias a una cuenta bancaria en las Islas Turcas y Caicos.
El primer depósito por 20 millones de dólares se hizo el 8 de marzo de 2010 y el 6 de julio de ese mismo año se realiza un segundo depósito por 12 millones de dólares más.
La acusación, por un total de 17 cargos, señaló que Delgado utilizó en forma fraudulenta el dinero, depositado a su cuenta en las Islas Turcas y Caicos, para su enriquecimiento personal.
Los documentos ante la Corte Federal en El Paso también dieron a conocer nueve transferencias realizadas por Delgado, entre junio de 2010 y septiembre de 2012, de su cuenta en las islas a otra bajo su nombre en El Paso, Texas.
Cada una de estas transferencias fue por cifras que oscilaban entre 75 mil y 200 mil dólares.
De ser encontrado culpable de los cargos en esta segunda acusación, Delgado podría ser sentenciado hasta a 20 años de prisión.
Las autoridades federales solicitaron al juez a cargo de la causa el decomiso de 2.5 millones de dólares en efectivo y de una residencia, muebles y dos vehículos.
Delgado, de 46 años de edad y de origen mexicano, era conocido en El Paso, como una persona altruista presto a otorgar generosas donaciones para causas sociales.
Era propietario en El Paso del despacho de "Delgado and Associates", dedicado a brindar asesorías en las áreas de regulación de energía, negocios internacionales y planificación de transacciones internacionales.
De acuerdo con el sitio de internet de la Universidad Carnegie Mellon, Delgado -exalumno de esa institución privada ubicada en Pittsburgh- estableció una beca para otorgar cinco mil dólares por semestre a estudiantes hispanos.
En la nueva acusación, emitida el pasado miércoles, se indicó que Delgado participó y ganó en octubre de 2009, como representante legal de la compañía "FGG Enterprise, LLC.", una subasta pública de la CFE para proveer equipo para la Planta Termo-Solar Agua Prieta II.
"FGG Enterprise" ganó el concurso a pesar de haber sido constituida solo seis meses antes en el estado de Nevada y de competir contra una media docena de compañías reconocidas en el ramo.
El contrato firmado en enero de 2010 por la CFE y Delgado, como representante de "FGG Enterprise", era por 121 millones de dólares para proveer turbinas de generación eléctrica y darles mantenimiento.
Según la acusación, Delgado instruyó a representantes del Banco de Comercio Exterior de México, que actuaban como fiduciarios de la CFE, que comenzaran a hacer los pagos a FGG Enterprise con transferencias a una cuenta bancaria en las Islas Turcas y Caicos.
El primer depósito por 20 millones de dólares se hizo el 8 de marzo de 2010 y el 6 de julio de ese mismo año se realiza un segundo depósito por 12 millones de dólares más.
La acusación, por un total de 17 cargos, señaló que Delgado utilizó en forma fraudulenta el dinero, depositado a su cuenta en las Islas Turcas y Caicos, para su enriquecimiento personal.
Los documentos ante la Corte Federal en El Paso también dieron a conocer nueve transferencias realizadas por Delgado, entre junio de 2010 y septiembre de 2012, de su cuenta en las islas a otra bajo su nombre en El Paso, Texas.
Cada una de estas transferencias fue por cifras que oscilaban entre 75 mil y 200 mil dólares.
De ser encontrado culpable de los cargos en esta segunda acusación, Delgado podría ser sentenciado hasta a 20 años de prisión.
Las autoridades federales solicitaron al juez a cargo de la causa el decomiso de 2.5 millones de dólares en efectivo y de una residencia, muebles y dos vehículos.
Delgado, de 46 años de edad y de origen mexicano, era conocido en El Paso, como una persona altruista presto a otorgar generosas donaciones para causas sociales.
Era propietario en El Paso del despacho de "Delgado and Associates", dedicado a brindar asesorías en las áreas de regulación de energía, negocios internacionales y planificación de transacciones internacionales.
De acuerdo con el sitio de internet de la Universidad Carnegie Mellon, Delgado -exalumno de esa institución privada ubicada en Pittsburgh- estableció una beca para otorgar cinco mil dólares por semestre a estudiantes hispanos.
Colombia: Condenan a 147 militares por apropiarse de un botín de las FARC
Un juez penal militar condenó a 147 militares a penas de entre cuatro y seis años de cárcel por apropiarse de un botín de unos 22 millones de dólares que la guerrilla de las FARC tenía enterrado en la selva de Colombia.
Los uniformados, entre ellos 15 oficiales, 3 suboficiales y 129 soldados, fueron hallados culpables por el delito de peculado por apropiación, a pesar de que la Fiscalía y la Procuraduría de ese país habían pedido su absolución.
La 'guaca', que es como en Colombia se denomina a los tesoros enterrados, fue hallada en 2003 por soldados en la selva del departamento del Caquetá, en el sureste del país. Entonces el caso causó gran polémica y sirvió como guión para una película.
Los uniformados, entre ellos 15 oficiales, 3 suboficiales y 129 soldados, fueron hallados culpables por el delito de peculado por apropiación, a pesar de que la Fiscalía y la Procuraduría de ese país habían pedido su absolución.
La 'guaca', que es como en Colombia se denomina a los tesoros enterrados, fue hallada en 2003 por soldados en la selva del departamento del Caquetá, en el sureste del país. Entonces el caso causó gran polémica y sirvió como guión para una película.
Melanoma 'hits body's immune system'
A deadly form of skin cancer is able to avoid attack from the body's immune system, UK researchers have found.
Annual shark kills 'hit 100 million'
The most accurate assessment to date of the impact of commercial fishing on sharks suggests around 100 million a year are being killed.
News Analysis: Euro Zone Plan to Limit Bonuses Rattles Bankers
Bankers voiced complaints about a euro zone proposal to limit bonuses, but it appears that banks will have ways to get around it.
Friday, 1 March 2013
When water causes sickness
For almost anyone, the sight of a well pump clogged with sediment would mean bad news. For the residents of Pinalito, Dominican Republic, it meant the risk of drinking bacteria-contaminated water from the river. For the Harvard College Engineers Without Borders (HCEWB), however, it meant the chance to brainstorm a slew of solutions — and determine which would work best.
In January, a team of students led by Casey Grun ’14 and Tunde Demuren ’15 ventured to Pinalito for nine days to learn about the village’s resources and needs. They noticed that the pump had been installed improperly, letting water out and sediment in, and the original contractor was long gone.
Pinalito is a community so rural it doesn’t show up on Google Earth, and has only 20 to 30 permanent households. The economy is based on agriculture, and the residents have an average income of only about $7.50 a day. Not only did the 100 villagers need access to clean water, but they needed a long-term, sustainable solution they could own and maintain themselves.
HCEWB, the Harvard chapter of the humanitarian organization Engineers Without Borders USA, contributes to environmentally sound and economically sustainable engineering projects all over the world, while promoting global consciousness on campus. Supported in part by a Nectar grant from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the group also develops programming and builds mentoring relationships among engineers and students in the Cambridge area.
HCEWB had first traveled to the Dominican Republic in 2007 on the suggestion of the Constanza Medical Mission, a Massachusetts-based Catholic charity that was treating many waterborne illnesses there and seeking an engineering-based solution to the problem.
The Harvard group began working to improve the contaminated water supply in the village of Tireo Abajo, just outside the small city of Constanza. By the summer of 2011, it had distributed point-of-use water filters throughout the community. The students were then referred to nearby Pinalito, visiting last March and again in January to assess the community’s general needs.
In one busy week, the group conducted a detailed land survey with 260 points of interest to create a regional map using GIS, enabling an in-depth analysis of the geography. The team also tested the quality of the community’s existing water sources, including the river, mountain springs, and tinitas, sand-enclosed water pits from which the villagers collected most of their water. The team measured arsenic levels, turbidity, and nitrate levels, as well as fecal coliform bacteria and E. coli in these sources, suspecting that the waterborne diseases prevalent in the community came from its drinking water.
Manuel Ramos ’14, Leah Gaffney ’15, Tunde Demuren ’15, and Dipti Jasrasaria ’16 meet with elementary schoolchildren in Tireo Abajo to discuss water sanitation and the prevention of waterborne illness.
The team found that the sandy tinitas actually filtered out a good portion of the bacteria in the water. The mountain spring water was the cleanest, but also harder for the villagers to access. The residents used this initial data to decide where they should collect water in the short term, until the pump was fixed or replaced. Some families also began using biosand filters in their homes.
For the students working on the project, said Grun, “The biggest challenge is the constant tension between urgency and prudence. The natural inclination is to want to do something as quickly as possible, but we want our solution to be effective and sustainable — and this requires time to do a careful analysis and design.”
Speaking Spanish, the Harvard students also took time to teach lessons on water quality to children ages 6 to 13at three schools. The team designed and presented a curriculum covering water purification and good sanitation, and demonstrated the use of Petrifilms to compare bacteria compositions in different water sources. The Harvard students even created a comic book chronicling the adventures of Señor Agua, or “Water Man,” against a villain who contaminates water sources. A forum teaching water treatment and sanitation included parents in the educational initiative.
Throughout the process, HCEWB ensured there was open communication with the community.
“Though the Harvard students may be separated geographically and culturally from Pinalito during our academic semesters, we really work hard to form deep connections with our local contacts and ensure all decisions are made jointly,” said Grun, who is studying biomedical engineering and computer science.
Before leaving Pinalito, for instance, the Harvard team held a community meeting to explain the results of the water testing and discuss possible solutions to the problem. Together, the participants determined that their most viable options were to dig a well near the river or further uphill, pipe water from a faraway spring, or restore the old, nonfunctional well.
Back in Cambridge, the students are now analyzing the four possible solutions, using the data they previously collected. They regularly call their contacts in the Dominican Republic to check on conditions and get feedback on their proposals.
“It’s been very exciting to work on a real-world problem,” Grun said, “but it’s a weighty responsibility as well. The stakes are higher. Our actions, positive or negative, have a measurable effect on the health and well-being of the residents of Pinalito. This isn’t the case for our exams or problem sets, which makes it both inspiring and intimidating.”
The group has four months before its next trip to evaluate the options and decide the best to implement.
“Today’s largest engineering challenges are in global infrastructure and how this infrastructure can meet the needs of the 7 billion people who live on earth,” said the group’s advisor, Christopher Lombardo, assistant director for Undergraduate Studies in Engineering Sciences at SEAS. “Student groups like Engineers Without Borders provide a mechanism for students to make global contributions during their college education.
“The experience they gain by working on these projects also makes these students highly competitive for employment with companies or institutions that are internationally focused or have offices worldwide,” Lombardo said.
In January, a team of students led by Casey Grun ’14 and Tunde Demuren ’15 ventured to Pinalito for nine days to learn about the village’s resources and needs. They noticed that the pump had been installed improperly, letting water out and sediment in, and the original contractor was long gone.
Pinalito is a community so rural it doesn’t show up on Google Earth, and has only 20 to 30 permanent households. The economy is based on agriculture, and the residents have an average income of only about $7.50 a day. Not only did the 100 villagers need access to clean water, but they needed a long-term, sustainable solution they could own and maintain themselves.
HCEWB, the Harvard chapter of the humanitarian organization Engineers Without Borders USA, contributes to environmentally sound and economically sustainable engineering projects all over the world, while promoting global consciousness on campus. Supported in part by a Nectar grant from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the group also develops programming and builds mentoring relationships among engineers and students in the Cambridge area.
HCEWB had first traveled to the Dominican Republic in 2007 on the suggestion of the Constanza Medical Mission, a Massachusetts-based Catholic charity that was treating many waterborne illnesses there and seeking an engineering-based solution to the problem.
The Harvard group began working to improve the contaminated water supply in the village of Tireo Abajo, just outside the small city of Constanza. By the summer of 2011, it had distributed point-of-use water filters throughout the community. The students were then referred to nearby Pinalito, visiting last March and again in January to assess the community’s general needs.
In one busy week, the group conducted a detailed land survey with 260 points of interest to create a regional map using GIS, enabling an in-depth analysis of the geography. The team also tested the quality of the community’s existing water sources, including the river, mountain springs, and tinitas, sand-enclosed water pits from which the villagers collected most of their water. The team measured arsenic levels, turbidity, and nitrate levels, as well as fecal coliform bacteria and E. coli in these sources, suspecting that the waterborne diseases prevalent in the community came from its drinking water.
Manuel Ramos ’14, Leah Gaffney ’15, Tunde Demuren ’15, and Dipti Jasrasaria ’16 meet with elementary schoolchildren in Tireo Abajo to discuss water sanitation and the prevention of waterborne illness.
The team found that the sandy tinitas actually filtered out a good portion of the bacteria in the water. The mountain spring water was the cleanest, but also harder for the villagers to access. The residents used this initial data to decide where they should collect water in the short term, until the pump was fixed or replaced. Some families also began using biosand filters in their homes.
For the students working on the project, said Grun, “The biggest challenge is the constant tension between urgency and prudence. The natural inclination is to want to do something as quickly as possible, but we want our solution to be effective and sustainable — and this requires time to do a careful analysis and design.”
Speaking Spanish, the Harvard students also took time to teach lessons on water quality to children ages 6 to 13at three schools. The team designed and presented a curriculum covering water purification and good sanitation, and demonstrated the use of Petrifilms to compare bacteria compositions in different water sources. The Harvard students even created a comic book chronicling the adventures of Señor Agua, or “Water Man,” against a villain who contaminates water sources. A forum teaching water treatment and sanitation included parents in the educational initiative.
Throughout the process, HCEWB ensured there was open communication with the community.
“Though the Harvard students may be separated geographically and culturally from Pinalito during our academic semesters, we really work hard to form deep connections with our local contacts and ensure all decisions are made jointly,” said Grun, who is studying biomedical engineering and computer science.
Before leaving Pinalito, for instance, the Harvard team held a community meeting to explain the results of the water testing and discuss possible solutions to the problem. Together, the participants determined that their most viable options were to dig a well near the river or further uphill, pipe water from a faraway spring, or restore the old, nonfunctional well.
Back in Cambridge, the students are now analyzing the four possible solutions, using the data they previously collected. They regularly call their contacts in the Dominican Republic to check on conditions and get feedback on their proposals.
“It’s been very exciting to work on a real-world problem,” Grun said, “but it’s a weighty responsibility as well. The stakes are higher. Our actions, positive or negative, have a measurable effect on the health and well-being of the residents of Pinalito. This isn’t the case for our exams or problem sets, which makes it both inspiring and intimidating.”
The group has four months before its next trip to evaluate the options and decide the best to implement.
“Today’s largest engineering challenges are in global infrastructure and how this infrastructure can meet the needs of the 7 billion people who live on earth,” said the group’s advisor, Christopher Lombardo, assistant director for Undergraduate Studies in Engineering Sciences at SEAS. “Student groups like Engineers Without Borders provide a mechanism for students to make global contributions during their college education.
“The experience they gain by working on these projects also makes these students highly competitive for employment with companies or institutions that are internationally focused or have offices worldwide,” Lombardo said.
China says U.S. routinely hacks Defense Ministry websites
BEIJING (Reuters) - Two major Chinese military websites, including that of the Defense Ministry, were subject to about 144,000 hacking attacks a month last year, almost two-thirds of which came from the United States, the ministry said on Thursday.
Canada minister doesn't expect U.S. to veto Keystone pipeline
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said on Thursday he does not expect the United States to reject TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to Texas.
Argentina's Congress approves pact with Iran to probe bombing
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's Congress approved early on Thursday an agreement with Iran aimed at resolving the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that Argentine courts have long accused Tehran of sponsoring.
China moves ahead with North Korea trade zone despite nuclear test
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China appears to be pressing ahead with plans to invest in a North Korean free trade zone in a sign that its recent nuclear test has not soured its economic ties with its only major ally.
Netanyahu seeks more time to build new Israeli coalition
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Deadlocked talks with potential coalition partners have forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek more time to build a new government and avert a possible snap election, officials said on Friday.
Exclusive: Chinese trader accused of busting Iran missile embargo
(Reuters) - A Chinese businessman indicted in the United States over sales of missile parts to Iran is still making millions of dollars from the trade, say security officials who monitor compliance with Western and U.N. sanctions.
U.S. finds Erdogan comments on Zionism "particularly offensive"
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's reported comment equating Zionism with crimes against humanity is "particularly offensive" and has a "corrosive effect" on U.S.-Turkish relations, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
Le Vatican sans pape
Pour la première fois depuis Célestin V, en1294, un pape a renoncé jeudi à ses fonctions. Benoît XVI met ainsi un terme à un pontificat de huit ans marqué par des scandales sexuels et la volonté de l'Église de relancer le christianisme dans un monde où les fidèles sont de plus en plus concentrés dans l'hémisphère sud.
US sailors who raped Japanese woman jailed
Two US sailors who raped a Japanese woman in Okinawa last October, sparking island-wide anger, have been jailed for nine and 10 years, according to reports.
China executes drug kingpin with last moments on TV
One of Asia's most notorious drug kingpins has reportedly been executed in China for the massacre of 13 Chinese sailors - with his final moments being broadcast live on national television.
US State Department employee found dead in Rio hotel
An employee of the US State Department on holiday in Rio de Janeiro has been found strangled in her hotel room.
Arrancan los primeros registros por la supuesta financiación de Gaddafi a la campaña de Sarkozy
Policía francesa realizó primeros registros en la casa y el despacho del ex ministro del Interior francés Claude Guéant sobre el caso de financiamiento de la campaña electoral del ex presidente francés Nicolas Sarkozy en 2007 por el ex líder libio Muammar Gaddafi.
Actualmente la fiscalía está llevando a cabo la investigación preliminar sobre el documento publicado en marzo de 2012 por la agencia independiente Mediapart. Según el documento, Gaddafi entregó unos 50 millones de euros para la campaña de Nicolas Sarkozy.
La investigación empezó después de que el ex presidente francés acusara a Mediaport de calumnia e interpusiera una denuncia ante la Policía.
Actualmente la fiscalía está llevando a cabo la investigación preliminar sobre el documento publicado en marzo de 2012 por la agencia independiente Mediapart. Según el documento, Gaddafi entregó unos 50 millones de euros para la campaña de Nicolas Sarkozy.
La investigación empezó después de que el ex presidente francés acusara a Mediaport de calumnia e interpusiera una denuncia ante la Policía.
Japon: Marines américains condamnés pour viol
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Deux soldats américains ont été condamnés jeudi par un tribunal japonais à 9 et 10 ans de prison pour le viol en octobre dernier d'une Japonaise sur l'île d'Okinawa (sud), ont indiqué les médias.
eRecycling Corps: 10 Million Cell Phone Trade-Ins Since 2009
Few press releases cause me to say, "Wow." Yesterday's press release about eRecyclingCorps (eRC) achieving 10 million cell phone trade-ins since 2009 is an exception. eRC, a leader in mobile device trade-ins, began in 2009 when Ron LeMay, from Sprint, and David Edmondson, from Radioshack, launched the company. Edmondson is now the CEO and LeMay is the Chairman. eRC allows in-carrier and retail stores to offer instant-credit that a customer can apply to the purchase of a new phone. It also allows carriers to make money from their e-waste. It’s a clichéd win-win situation for both customers and carriers. What does eRC do with the devices collected by in-store operators and retail programs? They are repaired to "like new" quality and resold. That keeps them out of landfills.
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