|
LATEST NEWS OF JANUARY 2010 |
|
U.S., HONDURAS NORMALIZE DIPLOMATIC TIES
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--Honduras
and the United States normalized on
Friday their diplomatic ties
which were affected by the political
crisis caused by the coup against then
president Manuel Zelaya in June last
year. Honduran President Porfirio Lobo
said on Friday that "I am happy that
with the visit of U.S. ambassador to
Honduras Hugo Llorens, we are
practically normalizing the ties with
the United States of America."
During a press conference at the
government house, Lobo, accompanied by
Llorens, said that "more than one
million Honduran people living in the
United States demanded a friendly tie"
between both countries. Meanwhile,
Llorens said that "we always said that
the elections (of Nov. 29) were an
essential condition, but not enough, and
the other element was the fulfillment of
the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Agreement."
"Honduras will be
able to appoint its ambassador (to the
United States) without problem. That
will be done with normality," Llorens
said. Llorens added that his
government will go through the
procedures about Honduras' request to
renew the Temporary Protection Program,
which benefits at least 75,000 Honduran
citizens living in the United States.
|
|
U.S.
ANNOUNCES $6.4 BILLION ARMS DEAL WITH
TAIWAN
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Overriding
objections from China, the Obama
administration unveiled a $6.4 billion
arms deal with Taiwan on Friday
-- including about $2.85 billion in
missiles. The sale includes 60 Black
Hawk helicopters (totaling $3.1
billion), 114 advanced Patriot air
defense missiles; a pair of Osprey
mine-hunting ships; and dozens of
advanced communications systems. China
has complained to the United States
about the sale of Patriot missiles and
other weapons to Taiwan, which neither
Beijing nor Washington recognize as a
sovereign nation. The deals do not
include F-16 fighter jets, which China
has vehemently opposed. China's Vice
Foreign Minister He Yafei issued a
statement in response to Friday's
announcement, saying the arms deal was a
"rude interference in China's internal
affairs, severely endangering China's
national security." He added, "China
expresses its strong indignation."
The State Department described the
latest round of arms sales to Taiwan as
a way to guarantee security and
stability, despite China's objections.
"This is a clear demonstration of the
commitment this administration has to
provide Taiwan with defensive weapons it
needs and as provided for in the Taiwan
Relations Act," State Department
spokesman P.J. Crowley said at his
regular Friday briefing. "We think this
action is consistent with the U.S.
one-China policy ... and contributes to
maintaining stability and security
across the Taiwan Strait." He said the
State Department had informed the U.S.
Congress as well as China and Taiwan
about the arms package. Crowley would
not speak directly about the timing of
the announcement of the sales, and about
the fact that the arms package does not
include F-16s. The arms sales come as
the United States is hoping to persuade
China to sign on to harsher sanctions
against Iran and just after Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton criticized China
for its policies relating to the
Internet. A senior U.S. official said
later that the United States expected
Chinese criticism of the arms deal, but
does not expect permanent damage.
"We've worked through these issues before. We will do
so again," the U.S. official said,
seeking anonymity on such an important
policy issue. "What is important here is
the stability in the region. And we do
think our ongoing sales of arms to
Taiwan is fully consistent with
everyone's long-term interest in
stability in the region." The official
said he believed Clinton had discussed
the sale in London with her Chinese
counterpart on the sidelines of
Thursday's international conference on
Afghanistan. "This relationship between
the United States and China is broad,
it's deep. There are a large number of
issues. We don't see eye to eye with
them and we have to have and do have the
ability to speak honestly," the official
said. The arms deal is the latest
chapter in a decades-long uneasy
standoff; China claims Taiwan is its own
territory and has threatened to invade
if Taiwan ever declares independence.
The United States has said it will
defend Taiwan if China ever attacks.
Many Western nations and the United
Nations recognized Taiwan as the
legitimate Chinese government until the
1970s. |
|
CHINA
THREATENS U.S. WITH SANCTIONS ON TAIWAN
ARMS DEAL
BEIJING,
CHINA--China
threatened U.S. firms who sell weapons
to Taiwan with sanctions on
Saturday, as Beijing ratcheted up the
pressure in a ballooning crisis that
will widen already deep rifts in their
relationship. The Foreign Ministry,
Defense Ministry and China's Taiwan
Affairs Office all piled in with their
own dire warnings, including that arms
sales would affect Sino-U.S. cooperation
on major international and regional
issues. "The United States must be
responsible for the serious
repercussions if it does not immediately
reverse the mistaken decision to sell
Taiwan weapons,"
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei
told the
U.S. ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman.
He said Taiwan was the "most important
and most sensitive core issue in Sino-U.S.
relations," in comments carried on the
Foreign Ministry's website.
The Obama administration told the U.S.
Congress on Friday of the proposed sales
to Taiwan, a potential $6.4 billion
package including Black Hawk
helicopters, Patriot "Advanced
Capability-3" anti-missile missiles, and
two refurbished Osprey-class
mine-hunting ships. The Black Hawk, a
tactical transport helicopter, is built
by Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United
Technologies Corp. The Patriot missile
is built by Lockheed Martin Corp, and
Raytheon Co is the system integrator.
"China will also impose corresponding
sanctions on U.S. companies that engage
in weapons sales to Taiwan," the Foreign
Ministry said, without naming any firms.
China will also postpone military contacts between the two
sides, as also vice-ministerial level
consultation on strategic security, arms
control and non-proliferation. "It will
be unavoidable that cooperation between
China and the United States over
important international and regional
issues will also be affected," the
Foreign Ministry said. Washington has
looked to China for help in surmounting
the global financial crisis, dealing
with Iran and North Korea, and fighting
climate change. The U.S. arms sales to
Taiwan have joined trade imbalances,
currency disputes, human rights, the
Internet, and Tibet among rifts dividing
the world's biggest and third-biggest
economies. Vice Minister He said the
arms sales were "crude interference in
China's domestic affairs and seriously
harm China's national security." |
|
IRAN HANGS 2 FOR ALLEGED PROTESTS, ANTI
GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY
TEHRAN, IRAN--Iran
on Thursday executed two men
accused of involvement in
anti-government group, as the public
prosecutor announced that new death
sentences have been issued against
opposition activists involved in
protests over June's disputed
presidential election. State media
depicted the two as part of the protest
movement, a sign of how the government
has lumped together many of its enemies
with the political opposition amid its
postelection crackdown. The media's
depiction of the executions may aim to
intimidate the opposition ahead of new
street demonstrations expected in
February.
In a further move likely aimed at cowing
protesters, Tehran's prosecutor
announced that five people have been
sentenced to death for involvement in
the most recent major demonstrations, on
Dec. 27. That day saw the worst violence
of postelection crackdown, with at least
eight people killed in clashes between
police and protesters and hundreds
arrested. The new verdicts raise to nine
the number of people sentenced to death
for involvement in protests, said the
prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi.
The two men who were executed, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani
and Arash Rahmanipour, were convicted by
a Revolutionary Court of belonging to
"counterrevolutionary and monarchist
groups," plotting to overthrow "the
Islamic establishment" and planning
assassinations and bombings, Dowlatabadi
told state TV. He said the two confessed
during the trial and that an appeals
court upheld their death sentences. He
made no mention of the postelection
protests in connection to the case.
State TV portrayed the executions as
part of the postelection crackdown. In a
report aired on the channel and reported
on its Web site, it said Rahmanipour and
Zamani were among those sentenced to
death "in the wake of the rioting and
counterrevolutionary and
antiestablishment acts of recent
months." |
|
IRANIAN
CLERIC CALLS FOR EXECUTION OF MORE
OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS
TEHRAN, IRAN--A
powerful hard-line Iranian cleric
on Friday called for the execution of
more opposition activists to silence
anti-government protests, praising the
hanging a day earlier of two men caught
up in the leadership's postelection
crackdown. Speaking in a Friday prayer
sermon, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said the
wave of street demonstrations sparked by
the disputed June presidential election
would not have lasted until now if
protesters had been executed early on.
"Whatever we suffered was because of our
weakness. How many did the judiciary
execute on July 9?" he said, referring
to one of the particularly large protest
days. "We showed weakness, so then we
had Ashoura," he said, referring to a
major protest on Dec. 27. "If you show
weakness now, the future will be worse
... There is no room for Islamic mercy."
Iran's judiciary is stepping up death
sentences as the leadership intensifies
its campaign to eliminate the challenge
from the pro-reform opposition movement.
Authorities announced Thursday that nine
people accused of involvement in
protests have been sentenced to death —
including five who allegedly had a role
in the Dec. 27 protests, which saw a
particularly violent clampdown.
Iran's top prosecutor said a new group of protesters and
others would soon be brought to trial.
The two men executed Thursday were
arrested before the June 12 election on
charges of belonging to an armed group
aiming to topple the government. But
authorities lumped them in with
opposition activists arrested during the
postelection crackdown. In his sermon,
aired live on state radio, Jannati
thanked Iran's judiciary chief, Sadeq
Larijani, for Thursday's executions and
urged more, saying: "Stand up
courageously for the sake of God, the
same way you executed these two persons
very quickly." Jannati cited verses from
the Quran, Islam's holy book, that he
said show Islam permits rulers to kill
their opponents, including "hypocrites,
those with evil intentions and those who
spread rumors." |
|
RUSSIA
TEST FLIES ITS RESPONSE TO U.S. F-22
RAPTOR
MOSCOW,
RUSSIA--Russia's
first stealth fighter intended to
match the latest U.S. design made a
successful maiden flight Friday, giving
a boost to the country's efforts to
modernize its rusting Soviet-built
arsenals and retain lucrative export
market. The Sukhoi T-50's flight
comes nearly two decades after the first
prototype of the U.S. F-22 Raptor took
to the air, and Russian officials said
it will take another five years for the
new jet to enter air force service.
Still, the flight marked a major step in
Russia's efforts to burnish the faded
glory of its once-proud aviation
industries and strengthen a beleaguered
military.
The sleek twin-engined jet closely
resembling the Raptor flew for
47-minutes from an airfield at Sukhoi's
production plant in the Far Eastern city
of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday.
Development of the so-called
fifth-generation fighter has been veiled
in secrecy and no images of it had been
released before the maiden flight.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
hailed the T-50's flight as a "big step
forward," but admitted that "a lot
remains to be done in terms of engines
and armament."
The NPO Saturn company said in a statement that the jet
has new engines, but military analysts
suggested that they were a slightly
modernized version of the Soviet-era
engine powering the Su-27 family of
fighters. "It's a humbug," said
independent military analyst Pavel
Felgenhauer. "It's just a prototype
lacking new engines and a new radar. It
takes new materials to build a
fifth-generation fighter, and Russia
lacks them." Putin said Friday the first
batch of new fighters is set to enter an
air force evaluation unit in 2013 and
serial production is set to begin in
2015. But analysts were skeptical,
pointing at a history of delays in the
new fighter program and other Russian
weapons projects. "The schedule will
likely be pushed back as usual," said
Alexander Konovalov, the head of the
Moscow-based Institute of Strategic
Assessment, an independent think tank. |
|
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ REQUIRES
COMPANIES TO CREATE MILITIAS AND LABOR
PATROLS
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--The
Labor Inspectorates in the Venezuelan
cities of Cagua, state of Aragua,
and Puerto Cabello, state of Carabobo,
have conditioned the approval of the new
collective bargaining agreements to the
establishment of labor patrols and
workers' militias. However, Maryolga
Girán - the labor adviser of the
Venezuelan Confederation of Industries
(Conindustria) - reported in both
bodies, which form part of the Ministry
of Labor and Social Security, there is
an additional delay in the salary
parity, as the inspectorates has ruled
out the possibility of enforcing labor
conventions to the extent that the
National Assembly amends the Labor
Organic Law. The National Assembly has
been unsuccessfully trying for nearly
nine years to change the legal text.
Meanwhile, the government has promoted
the establishment of labor patrols in
companies. They are committees of
workers belonging to the ruling party,
the Socialist United Party of Venezuela
(PSUV) which group together to "fight
against the attacks of the oligarchy,"
as explained in September 2009 by
Orlando Castillo, the leader of the
Socialist Workers Front. Meanwhile, the
worker's militias have emerged in
several government projects as a
priority in the labor movement. The
possibility of military training is
foreseen in the Socialist Guayana Plan
2019, a macro-project to promote
socialism in basic industries.
Military training is not only related to socialist
enterprises that were incorporated after
the nationalizations carried out by the
government in recent years. As a matter
of fact, as set forth in Article 81 of
the Law on Military Conscription and
Enlistment, for hiring purposes, public
and private companies and cooperatives
"should require Venezuelans to submit a
military enlistment document as evidence
of their enrollment in the military
service or having completed the military
service." |
|
THE
INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE (IPI)
CRITICIZES MEDIA OPPRESSION IN
VENEZUELA
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--
The International Press Institute (IPI),
a global organization of editor
and media executives, criticized in
Vienna "free media oppression" in
Venezuela as shown by the closure of
private TV station Radio Caracas
Televisión Internacional (RCTVI).
"Saturday's decision to order cable
networks to stop broadcasting RCTV fits
in with a pattern of free media
oppression in Venezuela that shows no
signs of ending," IPI Director David
Dadge said, as reported by Efe. Under
Venezuela's government broadcast
regulations, TV stations must broadcast
President Hugo Chavez's speeches "which
can last for hours," IPI said.
Dadge added that during a
November 2009 press freedom mission to
Venezuela, IPI "noted with concern a
continued deterioration of press freedom
in Venezuela due to a climate of
intimidation and hostility towards
journalists and media outlets." |
|
SPAIN
"FOLLOWS WITH INTEREST VENEZUELAN
SITUATION IN TIMES OF TURMOIL"
MADRID,
SPAIN--Spanish
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel
Ángel Moratinos, expects that
"dialogue" and "freedom" "keep
developing" in Venezuela, following
protests in recent days against the
closure of several private TV stations,
AFP reported. "We hope that dialogue
and all the elements of democratic
institutions and freedom of speech and
press freedom can be further developed
in all Latin American countries
including Venezuela," Moratinos said
referring to the Venezuelan private TV
network Radio Caracas Televisión
Internacional (RCTV-I). He highlighted
that Spain and Venezuela have "the best
relationships."
For his part, Spain's Secretary of State
for Ibero-America, Juan Pablo de
Laiglesia, said that they "followed with
interest the Venezuelan situation in
times of turmoil." He was referring to
the demonstrations in favor of the
Venezuelan government and against Hugo
Chávez's administration, in which
"unfortunately" he said, there are two
people dead and to the recent
resignation of "top members" of the
Venezuelan government.
When DeLaiglesia was questioned about possible initiatives
that the European Union could take in
the future, the Spanish Secretary of
State for Ibero-America said that this
decision must be taken by Catherine
Ashton, the High Representative of the
Union for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy. Spain holds the rotating
presidency of the European Union, Efe
reported. |
|
PORFIRIO LOBO SOSA WAS SWORN AS NEW
PRESIDENT OF HONDURAS
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--Porfirio
"Pepe" Lobo Sosa was sworn in
Wednesday as president of Honduras,
bringing an end to the de facto
government that ruled the country
following a June coup. Lobo was elected
in November in the middle of a political
crisis that deepened after the coup
against President Jose Manuel Zelaya.
Orlando Hernandez, president of the
National Congress, administered the oath
of office to Lobo. Lobo's first order of
business as president was to sign a
decree granting political amnesty for
those involved in the country's
political crisis. He signed it in front
of the crowd.
The move makes it possible for Zelaya,
who has been holed up inside the
Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran
capital, to leave the country safely for
the Dominican Republic. Some in the
crowd booed when Lobo thanked Dominican
President Leonel Fernandez, who was in
attendance, for striking a deal to
receive Zelaya. Lobo also thanked Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias, who drafted
the foundation for an agreement between
the two sides in the crisis.
Lobo's government will move forward with the San
Jose-Tegucigalpa Accord that both sides
signed but which has run into obstacles
in its implementation. "Today, we begin
a government with the participation of
all the political parties," Lobo said.
"There were no victors or losers [in the
election], only one winner -- Honduras."
Compliance with the accord could
determine how other countries receive
the new administration. Some countries
have refused to recognize the outcome of
Lobo's election because it took place
under the rule of the de facto
government. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ
DESIGNATED MINISTER ELIAS JAUA AS HIS
NEW VICE-PRESIDENT
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--EL
DICTADOR DE VENEZUELA Hugo Chavez
last night announced - to traverse of a
televising contact with the program the
Hojilla of VTV- the designation of Elías
Jaua like new vice-president of the
Republic replacing colonel (r) Ramon
Carrizalez. Jaua will continue to the
front of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Earth, added the agent chief executive,
whom in addition Figueroa Bush confirmed
to general Carlos in the Ministry of the
Defense, position that also Carrizalez
occupied.
Chavez last night appointed to his
minister Elías Jaua as vice-president
and to general Carlos Mata like titling
of Defense, in replacement of Ramon
Carrizalez who Monday resigned to both
positions for “strictly personal”
reasons. “Here she is the new
vice-president, Elías Jaua. We wished
much success him”, announced Chávez
through a contact from the palace of
government with the program the Hojilla
by VTV. “I was decided by Elías because
it has demonstrated transparency,
vocation of work, humility, honesty, in
all the positions that have faced”,
added the agent chief executive,
clarifying who Jaua will continue
occupying the portfolio of Agriculture
and Earth.
“Thanks for this new
space battle in which it has placed to
me”, thanked for Jaua. In Defense, in as
much, it designated to general Carlos
Bush, “an official of great professional
trajectory”, said Chávez. The new
minister of Defense declared that “the
Armed Forces will continue working next
to the Venezuelan town and to the
revolutionary government who you lead”.
The wife of Carrizalez, Yubirí Grouse,
that was the minister of the Atmosphere,
also resigned Monday. In his Chávez
place she appointed Alexander Hitcher,
president of water the providing company
of Caracas Hicrocapital. (AFP |
|
CANF
PRESIDENT FRANCISCO "PEPE" HERNANDEZ
DISMISSES CONFERENCE IN HAVANA
MIAMI,
FLORIDA--The
president of the Cuban American National
Foundation, Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez,
ridiculed a three-day conference that
opens Wednesday in Havana and has drawn
about 450 Cuban expatriates from around
the world, including several from South
Florida. ``It doesn't have any
importance whatsoever,'' said Hernández.
"The guys going down there have a right
to their own opinion and good
riddance.''
The conference opens Wednesday at the
Palace of Conventions in Havana and ends
Friday. It is titled ”Meeting of Cubans
Residing Abroad Who Oppose the Blockade
and Defend National Sovereignty.''
Blockade is the word used in Cuba to
describe the U.S. trade embargo on the
island. The Cuban government
periodically hosts emigre conferences.
The last one took place in 2004, the
year then-President George W. Bush
imposed travel and money remittance
restrictions on exiles. The limits have
since been lifted by President Barack
Obama.
A Cuban government statement on the conference said the
goal is to continue the ``frank and
direct'' exchange of views between Cuban
officials and Cuban emigres. The
statement, from deputy Cuban foreign
minister Dagoberto Rodríguez Barrera,
also contained a passage that drew
derision from Hernández. It said: ``We
can affirm today with absolute certainty
that there are no profound problems
between Cuba and the majority of its
emigres.'' Hernández laughed when a
reporter read the sentence to him. ``I
only wish that were true,'' he said.
``Unfortunately, that is not the case.
It would be true if the Cuban government
would give the Cuban people the rights
they deserve. But I would say that
tremendous differences remain between
the Cuban regime and the Cuban-American
community.'' |
|
|
HILLARY CLINTON: CRITICS OF U.S. HAITI
RELIEF MISGUIDED
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
said Tuesday she resents criticism of
the U.S. effort to help stricken Haiti
and pledged to redouble efforts to help
survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake. "I
deeply resent those who attack our
country, the generosity of our people
and the leadership of our president in
trying to respond to historically
disastrous conditions after the
earthquake," Clinton said. "Some of the
international press either misunderstood
or deliberately misconstrued what was a
civilian and military response, both of
them necessary in order to be able to
deliver aid to the Haitians who
desperately needed it," Clinton told a
gathering of State Department employees.
"I have absolutely no argument with
anyone launching a legitimate criticism
against our country," she said. "I think
we can learn from that, and we are
foolish if we keep our head in the sand
and pretend that we can't." She was not
more specific about the source of the
criticism. Asked later whom Clinton was
referring to, her spokesman P.J. Crowley
mentioned criticism from Italy and
France, plus news reporting from Haiti
by the Al-Jazeera news network and CNN
that he said was unfair.
Last weekend, the aid group Doctors Without Borders
complained of skewed priorities and a
supply bottleneck at the airport in
Port-au-Prince, amid reports that U.S.
military flights were getting priority.
French, Brazilian and other officials
complained about the airport's refusal
to let their aid planes land, forcing
many flights to end up in the
neighboring Dominican Republic, a day's
drive away. On Sunday, Italy's civil
protection chief blasted the U.S.
military intervention as inefficient and
out of touch with reality on the ground.
In an interview with state-run RAI
television, Guido Bertolaso said the
overall relief effort was a "pathetic"
failure, and he called for the
appointment of an international civilian
humanitarian coordinator. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ'S
VICE-PRESIDENT RESIGNS, CITING PERSONAL
REASONS
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--VENEZUELA'S
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ named the
soft-spoken Ramón Carrizalez to the
number two job in 2008, and in 2009
appointed him to simultaneously serve as
defence minister. But on Monday he
stepped down, citing personal reasons.
Chavez is facing growing discontent over
shortages of electricity and water and
sharply devalued the currency this
month. The Leftist leader is preparing
for elections in September that could
reduce his tight grip of the OPEC
nation's parliament.
Venezuela's oil output slumps under Hugo
Chavez State-backed news network Telesur
reported that Mr Carrizalez' wife,
Yuviri Ortega, the environment minister,
had also resigned. Carrizalez denied the
resignations had to do with differences
with the government, Telesur reported. A
government official confirmed the
resignation but did not provide details.
Carrizalez, a close Chavez confidant who
is a former army officer like the
president, was seen as one of the
government's more capable
administrators.
This month Chavez fired a recently named electricity
minister for botching a Caracas
electricity rationing scheme. He has
also changed his finance minister, Ali
Rodriguez, who he named new electricity
minister this month. Left-wing academic
Jorge Giordani took over the finance
ministry. Carrizalez previously served
as infrastructure minister and housing
minister. He took on some of the
nation's thorniest problems including
its acute housing deficit and the 2006
collapse of a crucial bridge linking
Caracas to the airport and its main
port. Chavez named Carrizalez
vice-president just after his first-ever
ballot box defeat in a constitutional
overhaul referendum in 2007, replacing
the combative Jorge Rodriguez. |
|
RCTV
INTERNATIONAL: THE GOVERNMENT LEAVES US
NO OPTIONS
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Although
the National Telecommunications
Commission (Conatel) says that
the opposition station Radio Caracas
Televisión Internacional (RCTV-I) has
the possibility to go back on the air in
cable TV, the owners of the Venezuelan
channel have accused Conatel director
Diosdado Cabello of acting maliciously.
Cabello, who is also the Minister of
Public Works and Housing, said on Monday
in a show aired on the state-run TV
network Venezolana de Televisión (VTV)
that RCTV Internacional could restart
transmission in Venezuela if it appears
in Conatel and applies as national
audiovisual production (PNA). Later, it
will be monitored for four months in
order to check its compliance with the
Radio and Television Social
Responsibility Law (Resorte Law).
"To determine whether an audiovisual
producer is national or international,
Conatel has to review the last four
months of programming. In the last four
months, this channel (RCTV-I) has 94
percent of national production and 6
percent of international production,"
the minister said. Meanwhile, executives
of the Venezuelan TV station said that
since January 13, 71 percent of its
programming has a foreign origin and 29
percent is a national production.
Therefore, it would currently meet the
requirements to be considered as an
international audiovisual producer.
According to the director of Conatel, if
RCTV Internacional is registered as PNA,
but it maintains more than 70 percent of
international production for four
months, complying with the Resorte Law
and avoiding the measure that has taken
it off the air, it could request a
reconsideration of its status.
Meanwhile, Oswaldo Quintana - the legal adviser of
RCTV-I - said, when he was asked about
the proposal of Conatel's director: "He
(Minister Cabello) knows that this
option is not feasible. He does it in
order to make people think that we have
an alternative. He is hiding that the
provision has an article that does not
allow us to have advertising in
commercial breaks. He is hiding it
maliciously from the country." The
owners of the private channel are going
to file a proceeding this week with the
Political-Administrative Chamber of the
Supreme Tribunal of Justice in order to
request a motion for annulment of the
provision. |
|
VENEZUELA'S DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ REMOVES
RCTV FROM CABLE
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--A
cable-television channel critical of
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR Hugo Chavez
was yanked from the air early Sunday for
defying new government regulations
requiring it to televise some of the
socialist leader's speeches. Venezuelan
cable and satellite TV providers stopped
transmitting Radio Caracas Television
Internacional, an anti-Chavez channel
known as RCTV, after it did not show the
president's speech Saturday to a rally
of supporters. While five other channels
were also dropped from cable, some say
the government took broader action to
disguise its mission to shut down a
popular, critical media outlet ahead of
congressional elections and amid rising
discontent over inflation, crime and
electricity shortages.
Venezuelan pollster and analyst Luis
Vicente Leon said the message is clear:
"The government is willing to do
everything to destroy its adversaries."
RCTV already was forced to switch to
cable in 2007 after the government
refused to renew its license for regular
airwaves. Chavez accused the station
then of plotting against him and
supporting a failed 2002 coup. Chavez
said Sunday the latest action is about
following the law. "Whoever refuses to
comply with the law, that's what must be
done," he said on his weekly broadcast,
calling for a round of applause for the
telecommunications agency. If channels
don't comply, he said, they won't be
allowed back on the air: "It's their
decision, not ours."
Under the new rules, two dozen local cable channels,
including RCTV, must carry government
programming when officials deem it
necessary, just as channels on the open
airwaves already do. Chavez regularly
uses that legal power to order broadcast
TV and radio stations to carry his
marathon speeches, which can last up to
seven hours. Though Chavez remains
Venezuela's most popular politician, he
has slipped in the polls and is
campaigning against an emboldened
opposition to keep control of the
National Assembly in September
elections. RCTV has asked the Supreme
Court to block the new regulations. RCTV
called the government's actions illegal
in a statement, saying the channel has
done nothing wrong and has a right to
defend itself. In Caracas neighborhoods,
Chavez opponents leaned out apartment
windows early Sunday to bang on pots and
pans. Others shouted epithets and
drivers joined in, honking car horns.
The national journalists' association
called it a violation of human rights
and freedom of speech. Its president,
William Echeverria, condemned it as an
"increase in censorship." The U.S.
Embassy also saw cause for concern. |
|
RCTV
DIRECTORS DISCUSS ACTIONS TO RECOVER
CABLE TV SIGNAL
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Opposition-minded
television station RCTV Internacional
is discussing the steps to be taken in
order to go back on the air, after cable
TV networks discontinued RCTV broadcasts
at midnight on January 24. At midnight
on Sunday, cable providers DirecTV,
Supercable, Intercable, NetUno and
Movistar TV dropped television station
RCTV Internacional, after Diosdado
Cabello, the director of the National
Telecommunications Commission, ordered
the cable networks to stop airing six TV
stations for alleged violation of the
Radio and Television Social
Responsibility Law (Resorte Law),
requiring broadcasters to televise
government messages.
"We are not closing any TV station. If
they abide by the laws they can continue
operating without any problems. We are
not closing any (company), we are not
removing any worker," Cabello said.
Meanwhile, Marcel Granier, the president
of RCTV Internacional and its parent
company Empresas 1BC, said that the
company filed an action seeking
protection of constitutional rights and
is waiting for the response of the
Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) on the
decision of the National
Telecommunications Commission, which
defined RCTV Internacional as a national
audiovisual production. "We hope that
the Justices reconsider their position
and realize the harm (they are doing to
the country) by handing the justice to
the whims of the president," he said.
He added that the company intends to file several actions
seeking annulment of the decision. "I
would like to preserve the company: It
is my responsibility as an officer. I
would like to retain the skilled staff
that we have trained," he said without
elaborating. Granier regretted the fact
that the government has used the
representatives of the cable networks to
take several TV stations, among them
RCTV Internacional, off the air. In his
view, the real problem is that the
Venezuelan government does not tolerate
freedom of expression. |
|
FORMER
PANAMANIAN DICTATOR MANUEL NORIEGA LOSES
BID TO BLOCK EXTRADITION TO FRANCE
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--
The US Supreme Court on Monday
decided not to stop the U.S. government
from sending former Panamanian dictator
Manuel Noriega to France to face money
laundering charges. The high court
refused to hear an appeal from Noriega,
who wanted to be sent back to his native
country after finishing his drug
sentence in the the United States. The
court's majority turned away Noriega's
appeal without comment. Justice Clarence
Thomas and Antonin Scalia said they
would have heard the appeal, however.
Federal judges have turned away
Noriega's claims that the Geneva
Conventions treaties regarding prisoners
of war require him to be returned to
Panama. U.S. troops invaded Panama in
late 1989 and ousted Noriega from power.
He was convicted of drug racketeering in
1992 and declared a prisoner of war by
U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler.
The former general's argument focused on
the Geneva Conventions treaties
regarding repatriation of POWs after
wars end. Noriega's attorneys argued
that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals and lower courts were wrong in
ruling that Noriega could not use the
treaties to block extradition to a third
country such as France.
Noriega was granted POW status by U.S. District Judge William
Hoeveler in 1992, shortly after his
conviction on drug trafficking and
related charges. Noriega was ousted as
Panama's leader and taken to Miami to
stand trial following a 1989 U.S.
invasion that drove him from power. That
drug sentence ended on Sept. 9, 2007. A
few weeks before, the U.S. filed papers
backing France's request that Noriega be
extradited to stand trial on drug
money-laundering charges there. Noriega
was convicted in absentia of laundering
some $3 million in drug proceeds, but
France has agreed to give him a new
trial. Noriega remains at the same Miami
prison where he served his drug
sentence. U.S. officials promised not to
move him until his appeals were
finished. |
|
|
FORMER CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO
DECRIES US, OTHERS SENDING TROOPS TO
HAITI
HAVANA, CUBA--FORMER
CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO, who invaded
Angola in 1975 with more than 50,000
troops,
is questioning why the U.S. and other
countries sent soldiers to quake-ravaged
Haiti, saying military presence hindered
international cooperation.
The former Cuban dictator writes that
"without anyone knowing how or why,"
Washington dispatched troops "to occupy
Haitian territory," and other nations
followed suit. In an opinion column
Sunday in state-controlled media, Castro
said neither the U.N nor the U.S. "has
offered an explanation to the people of
the world."
Castro noted that several governments complained that
the troops kept them from landing aid
flights and called on the U.N. to
investigate. Bolivian President Evo
Morales, a Castro ally, is seeking a
U.N. condemnation of what he called the
U.S. occupation of Haiti. |
|
IN A
NEW AUDIO TAPE, BIN LADEN WARNS THE US
OF NEW TERRORIST ATTACKS
CAIRO, EGYPT--A
new audio tape allegedly from al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden claims
responsibility for an attempt to blow up
a plane en route to Michigan on
Christmas Day and warns the United
States of more attacks. The tape, which
aired on the Arabic-language news Web
site Al-Jazeera on Sunday, says "the
United States will not dream of enjoying
safety until we live it in reality in
Palestine." The tape continues: "It is
not fair to enjoy that kind of life
while our brothers in Gaza live in the
worst of miseries."
President Obama's senior adviser David
Axelrod said on Sunday that while there
was no immediate confirmation that the
message was authentic, it "contains the
same hollow justification for the
slaughter of innocent people." In
another section of the audio tape that
Al-Jazeera broadcast, the voice says:
"God willing our attacks will continue
as long as you support the Israelis and
may peace be on those who follow
guidance." Bin Laden also claims
responsibility for the foiled attack on
Delta flight 253 in December.
"The message intended to be sent to you was through the
hero fighter Omar Farouq, may God
release him, confirming an earlier
message that the [September] 11th heroes
delivered to you and it was repeated
before and after [that event]," he says.
"They were able to get their man on an
American plane on an American soil so it
is successful by all means," said
Mustafa Al-Ani at the Gulf Research
Center. "The strategy is there, outlined
by the mother leadership and now we will
see the branches doing their best to
please their leadership and implement al
Qaeda vision in their own ways."
Sunday's message would be bin Laden's
first in seven months. In 2009, he had
six messages. The last one, on September
25, was "to the European people." In
that message, he urged the countries to
reconsider their involvement in the
Afghanistan war. |
|
NORTH
KOREA WARNS SOUTH PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE
WOULD CAUSE WAR
SEOUL,
SOUTH KOREA--North
Korea has warned it will consider
any pre-emptive strike by South Korea as
declaration of war.
The North's military also said Sunday it
will take prompt and decisive military
action against any South Korean attempt
to violate the North's dignity and
sovereignty and would blow up major
targets in the South.
The warning carried by the North's official Korean Central
News Agency is the latest salvo in a war
of words, waged even as the rival
nations show signs of stepping up
cooperation after months of tension over
the North's nuclear program. It came in
response to the South Korean defense
minister recently saying that the South
should launch a pre-emptive strike on
North Korea if there is a clear
indication the country is preparing a
nuclear attack. |
|
US RECOMMENDS THE OAS A FIRMER STANCE
REGARDING VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO
CHAVEZ
WASHINGTON, D.C.--US
Representative at the Organization of
American States (OAS) Carmen Lomellin
urged on Friday the hemispheric
organization to take more decisive steps
with regard to "undermined democracy" in
countries, such as Venezuela and
Nicaragua.
"It is not secret that we are
experiencing an erosion of democracy in
the region … little by little, in
countries such as Venezuela and
Nicaragua, we are witnessing how
democratic values are being undermined,"
Lomellin said in a forum of US
ambassadors to Latin America hosted by
the Chamber of Commerce, Efe reported.
The diplomat said, in this regard, that
democracy means not only elections, but
also "respect for human rights, freedom
of expression" or the ability of
non-governmental organizations to carry
out their activities and challenge their
governments' policies.
According to Lomellin, the OAS has troubles to deal with such
situation, "because is an organization
composed of Member States and,
sometimes, they are reluctant to
challenge or denounce such erosion of
democracy." "I think that there is need
of increasing dialogue, more involvement
… and certainly opening of opportunities
for the civil society to also take part
in such debate," Lomellin reasoned. |
|
IN A
HUMANITARIAN GESTURE, US OFFERS MEDICAL
SUPPLIES TO CUBAN DOCTORS SERVING IN
HAITI
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI--
IN A HUMANITARIAN GESTURE, the U.S.
government has offered medical supplies
to Cuban doctors in
earthquake-devastated Haiti, but the
Cubans have not yet formally agreed to
accept the aid, the State Department
said Friday. The Cubans were reported to
be running out of supplies at the three
hospitals in Port-au-Prince where they
have been treating hundreds of patients
a day and performing surgeries almost
around the clock.
“We have offered medical supplies, but
the Cubans have not formally agreed to
such assistance, nor have any materials
been provided as yet,'' said Charles
Luoma-Overstreet, spokesman for Western
Hemisphere Affairs at the State
Department. “We will continue to
identify areas where our cooperation
[with Cuba] can support the overall
relief effort in Haiti,'' added
Luoma-Overstreet in an e-mail from
Washington.
Cuba already had some
340 medical personnel in Haiti when the
quake leveled much of Port-au-Prince
last week, killing tens of thousands and
leaving many more with broken bones and
crushed limbs. It later sent in a
60-person emergency crew and 10 tons of
supplies.The Irish Times newspaper
reported Tuesday that some of the Cuban
medical teams had run out of anesthetics
and were performing amputations on aware
patients. Cuba is allowing U.S. medical
evacuation flights from the Guantánamo
Naval base to Miami to overfly the
island, saving up to 90 minutes of
flying time. |
|
US
TRIES TO QUELL unjustified CRITICISMS IN
A JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ WITH THE HAITIAN
GOVERNMENT
PORT-AU-PRINCE,
HAITI--The
government of the United States
tried to silence unjustified
criticism from some countries on its
role in Haiti by saying in a joint
communiqué with the President of Haiti
René Préval that the Caribbean country
welcomes the US efforts as "essential"
and has requested assistance from
Washington.
The communiqué, released by the US
Department of State on Sunday midnight,
was published after several countries,
including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia
and France, expressed discomfort over
the actions of Barack Obama's
administration after the earthquake.
French Cooperation Minister Alain
Joyandet said on Monday that the United
Nations must clarify the role of the
United States in the international aid
efforts in Haiti, because, "this is
about helping Haiti, not about occupying
Haiti," he said in Brussels.
In Latin America, some leaders have criticized the United
States efforts. Venezuelan dictator Hugo
Chávez and his Nicaraguan counterpart,
Daniel Ortega, have said that the United
States is taking advantage of Haiti's
tragedy to "occupy" militarily the
Caribbean island. |
|
HAITI
Earthquake GIVES GUANTANAMO NEW MISSION
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, CUBA--The
Haiti earthquake is giving the American
base at Guantanamo Bay a new mission:
supplying aid to the devastated island
nation and potentially detaining
thousands of Haitian migrants captured
at sea. President Barack Obama's
deadline for closing the base prison
expires Friday with no new date in
sight, but a huge effort to provide
earthquake aid is just getting started.
The U.S. has designated Guantanamo, less
than 200 miles from Haiti, as the hub of
the aid operation. Dozens of helicopters
and planes take off daily to ferry
supplies and personnel to the stricken
country or to American ships off the
coast.
In ordinary times, the base airstrip is
ghostly, with only about three flights a
day, including the sporadic release of
prisoners. "Clearly, Haiti has eclipsed
everything else," base commander Navy
Capt. Steven Blaisdell said Thursday.
Activity related to the aid effort is
expected to intensify in coming weeks,
and no one knows when those efforts
might end. At the same time, U.S.
officials refuse to predict when the
detention center, which now holds 198
men, will get a new date for closure.
The military plans to
clear part of a dormant airfield so
heavy-lift helicopters can pick up large
pallets of supplies and fly them
directly to Haiti. Plans are also under
consideration to set up a 150-bed mobile
hospital to treat casualties. Already,
the base hospital has been used to treat
Americans wounded in the earthquake.
Workers have also been preparing tents
at Guantanamo Bay for Haitian migrants
in case the earthquake spurs a mass
migration. This is not a new role for
the base: At any given moment, the
facility temporarily holds small groups
of migrants, mostly from Cuba. In the
1990s, Guantanamo housed tens of
thousands of Haitian boat people until
they could be sent home. |
|
CHILEAN PRESIDENT ELECT REPLIES TO THE
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR: "I HAVE THE RIGHT
TO EXPRESS MY OPINION"
SANTIAGO DE CHILE, CHILE--Sebastián
Pińera, Chile's president-elect, claimed
to respect "all countries and
governments". He added, however,
that he has also the right to express
his opinion, responding to criticisms
made on Tuesday by Venezuelan dictator,
Hugo Chávez.
Chávez lambasted the remarks made by
Chilean president-elect during an event
in Caracas. He urged Pińera to mind his
own business and do not get involved in
Venezuelan affairs. "We do not get
involved in Chileans' matters, so they
should mind their own business," Chávez
said. On Wednesday night, Pińera replied
to Chávez from the northern Chilean city
of Coquimbo. The president-elect said:
"I respect all countries and governments
but I also have the right to express my
opinion."
"What I have said is that the way we want to achieve
democracy in Chile and the way the model
of economic development is carried out
(in our country) is very different from
the model implemented by President
Chávez in Venezuela," he added. |
|
TWO
VENEZUELANS EXPELLED FROM COLOMBIA FOR
SPYING
BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA---Colombian
intelligence officials said on
Tuesday they expelled two Venezuelans
who had entered the country illegally
and were carrying out activities that
posed a threat to national security. “We
took the decision to expel them,” the
director of the DAS security service,
Felipe Muńoz, told a press conference in
Bogota. Muńoz said the two individuals
were conducting intelligence work during
their illegal stay in Colombia. “There’s
nobody, no authority – judicial or
police – from any foreign country who
can carry out intelligence work in
Colombia,” the DAS director said. The
two also “were (in Colombia) in clear
violation of immigration laws,” not
having registered with authorities upon
entering the country, the head of DAS –
which has been accused by Caracas of
illegal activities on Venezuelan soil –
said.
Jose Vicente Marquez and Diego Jose
Palomino, who were returned to Venezuela
on Monday, had entered Colombia on Jan.
12 via the border crossing at
Paraguachon. Muńoz said Marquez works as
security adviser for the western
Venezuelan state of Zulia and has 32
years of experience as a police
investigator. Palomino, for his
part, has been an active-duty officer
with the Zulia state police force for
the past two years, according to Muńoz,
whose organization verified with Caracas
the men’s ties to security forces. Some
video recordings and “other types of
intelligence material” were confiscated
from the two men, Muńoz said, adding
that judicial authorities who analyzed
the content did not consider it to be
the product of potential espionage.
More than 40
minutes of video recorded in the
northeastern Colombian city of
Valledupar was found inside their
camera, mainly efforts to track several
people and footage of vehicles and
homes. The Venezuelans told a DAS agent
that they were investigating a “criminal
gang,” without providing further
details. Muńoz said that both men
appeared before a judge in the
Valledupar and that DAS members were
present at the hearing. Bilateral ties
between conservative-led Colombia and
socialist Venezuela, which have had
their ups and downs in recent years,
have reached a new low point. Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez has been
particularly critical of the Colombian
government’s decision to allow the U.S.
military long-term access to several of
its military bases. He says the base
deal represents a threat to Venezuela,
although Colombia maintains the
agreement will bolster the fight against
drug trafficking and terrorist activity
and is necessary after Ecuador ended a
lease allowing U.S. access to a base in
that country. |
|
venezuelan dictator hugo chavez says
that cia report is a "declaration of
war"
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Venezuela's
DICTATOR Hugo Chávez said on
Wednesday that the concerns expressed by
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in
its report about Venezuela in the World
Factbook represent a "declaration of
war." The "CIA World Factbook", which
features information about all the
countries in the world, considers that
Hugo Chávez's Administration "purports
to alleviate social ills while at the
same time attacking globalization and
undermining regional stability."
"The first two things are true," Chávez
said at an official event. "We are
alleviating the great ills that
capitalism left as a heavy burden on
(the shoulders) of the Venezuelan
people," he stated. "They say that we
are attacking globalization. Of course,
we are. We buried the FTAA (Free Trade
Area of the Americas, promoted by the
United States) in Mar del Plata (an
Argentine city)" in 2005, during the
Fourth Summit of the Americas, the
Venezuelan Head of State added, as
reported by AFP. "What do they mean by
(regional) stability? Dominance? Yes, we
are undermining the Yankee hegemony, we
are weakening it, and we will continue
to do so," he said amidst a round of
applause.
Chávez considers that the concerns of the CIA are "a
declaration of war." "They are sending a
signal to the world for it to set its
eyes on us," he said. Among the concerns
expressed by the CIA in its report, it
also states that a "weakening of
democratic institutions, political
polarization, a politicized military,
drug-related violence along the
Colombian border, increasing internal
drug consumption, overdependence on the
petroleum industry with its price
fluctuations, and irresponsible mining
operations." Chávez has said on several
occasions that the intelligence agency
of the United States is promoting
"destabilization" against his
government, supported by Venezuelan
opposition leaders. |
|
DICTATOR CHAVEZ: SEBASTIAN PIŃERA, DON'T
TURN CHILE INTO ANOTHER PLATFORM TO
ATTACK VENEZUELA
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--
After saying that "the hemispheric
rightwing" is overexcited, Venezuela's
DICTATOR Hugo Chávez lambasted on
Wednesday the remarks made by Chilean
president-elect Sebastián Pińera, who
claimed that he did not share the
practice of democracy in Venezuela.
"He is a businessman; I think he is
among the richest in Chile; and among
the richest in the hemisphere. We
respect that. But we cannot allow them
to pick a fight with us. I expect that
Mr. Pińera will not purport to turn
Chile into another platform to attack
Venezuela," the president said.
Chávez said that Pińera's disagreements with the Venezuelan
revolution were expected, considering
that he is a wealthy businessman. "The
least we can ask for is respect for the
Venezuelan people, as we respect the
Chilean people. We do not get involved
in Chileans' matters, so they should
mind their own business." |
|
U.S.: "VENEZUELA, NICARAGUA AND
BOLIVIA CASH IN ON HAITI'S DISASTER"
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Chargé
d'Affaires of the United States Embassy
in Caracas, John Caulfield, said
on Thursday that the deployment of
marines in Port-au-Prince "is not due to
an invasion," as declared by the
Venezuela's ruler, Hugo Chavez, but "it
is a request from Haiti" to give
humanitarian aid.
"We (the United States) have been
invited and required by the government
of Haiti. We have not arrived with any
intent but to support the people by
giving humanitarian aid," said the
Deputy Chief of Mission during a press
conference. Bolivia, Venezuela and
Nicaragua, he said, "have cashed in on
the disaster to engage in political
deeds."
"The intent of the United States is
to give as much aid possible and as soon
as possible, instead of being distracted
by political criticism," he added.
Caulfield viewed it as "shameful" that
a website of the Venezuelan government
had posted "mistaken" reports on the US
presence in Haiti. |
|
THE VICTORY OF SCOTT BROWN OVER MARTHA
COAKLEY IN MASSACHUSETTS COMPLICATES
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S AGENDA
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Scott
Brown, once a little-known
Republican state senator, has pulled off
one of the biggest political upsets in
recent memory, beating Democratic
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha
Coakley 52 percent to 47 percent in the
special election to replace the late Ted
Kennedy in the U.S. Senate.
Brown ran an energetic, outsider's
campaign in a year that Gallup has
called the most anti-incumbent since the
Watergate era. His populist message
tapped into a deep well of voter anger
and frustration and gave him a massive,
75 percent advantage among independent
voters, who make up more than half of
the electorate.
"Tonight, the independent majority has
delivered a great victory," Brown said
in his victory speech Tuesday night. "I
will remember that while the honor is
mine, this Senate seat belongs to no one
person, no one political party, and as I
said before and you heard it today, this
is the people's seat." The raucous
audience at the event interrupted Brown
frequently, with chants of "Go, Scott,
go!" and "Gas up the truck," a reference
to the pickup he used to crisscross the
state.
The loss of the Kennedy seat is both a stunning symbolic
defeat for President Barack Obama, who
won Massachusetts in the 2008 campaign
by a 26-point margin, and a devastating
complication for Capitol Hill Democrats,
who will lose their crucial 60-vote
majority in the Senate when Brown is
sworn in, likely in the next two weeks.
The result sent shock waves through
Democratic circles as leaders and
rank-and-file members alike tried to
interpret the lessons of Coakley's
defeat. Reaction from Washington
Democrats was swift, but far from
united, with some arguing that the
results prove that voters want change to
come faster than Democrats are
delivering, while others said voters
want something entirely different from
the change President Obama has delivered
since taking office exactly one year
ago. |
|
SOUTH KOREA DEFENSE MINISTER: HIT NORTH
FIRST IF THREATENED
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--South
Korea's defense chief, Kim Tae-young,
called Wednesday for a
pre-emptive strike on North Korea if
there is a clear indication the country
is preparing a nuclear attack.
Meanwhile, a state-run think tank
predicted a military coup, popular
uprising, a massacre or mass defections
after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il
dies. Kim, who turns 68 next month, is
believed to have suffered a stroke in
2008. The comments and speculation -
made even as officials from the two
Koreas discussed further developing a
joint industrial complex in the North -
were likely to anger Pyongyang, which
recently threatened to break off
dialogue and to attack Seoul.
North and South Korea have remained
locked in a state of war and divided by
a heavily fortified border since their
three-year conflict ended in a truce,
not a peace treaty, in 1953. The United
States, which backed South Korea during
the war, has 28,500 troops stationed in
the South to protect the ally against
any threat from the communist North.
After a decade of warming ties,
relations between the two Koreas turned
frosty in 2008 with the inauguration of
conservative South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak, who has called on North Korea
to stick to its disarmament commitments.
Recent reports of a South Korean contingency plan to handle
any unrest in the isolate North raised
Pyongyang's ire, with the North
threatening to launch a "sacred
nationwide retaliatory battle" and to
cease all communication with the South.
If there is confirmation of North Korean
intention to wage a nuclear attack,
South Korea should "immediately launch a
strike" on the North, Defense Minister
Kim Tae-young said Wednesday in Seoul.
Kim, speaking at a seminar, made similar
remarks in 2008 when he was chairman of
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff -
comments that prompted North Korea to
threaten to destroy the South. |
|
U.S. HOSPITAL SHIP COMFORT REACHES
HAITI; MILITARY ROLE GROWS
PORT-AU-PRINCE,
HAITI--U.S.
Navy hospital ship Comfort
reached Haiti’s coast today, bolstering
the relief operation’s capacity to treat
quake-related injuries as the American
military presence on the island surges.
The USNS Comfort, which was used to tend
to victims of hurricanes Katrina and
Rita and helped with World Trade Center
recovery efforts, can handle 30 to 50
patients at a time. The ship has 12
operating rooms and 1,000-bed hospital.
The U.S. has ordered 4,000 more troops
to Haiti, diverting them from
deployments to Europe and the Middle
East, Agence France-Presse reported
today.
The U.S. bolstered its presence in the
country and offshore to 11,000 soldiers
and sailors yesterday, with troops
landing at the ruins of the presidential
palace. The Haitian government has
handed control of the country’s only
international airport to the U.S.
military while officials of the nations
providing relief are coordinating daily
with Haiti’s president or prime
minister, Major General Daniel Allyn
said yesterday.
The Haitian government has buried more than 72,000 bodies and
the overall death toll from the
7-magnitude earthquake may be higher
than 200,000, Prime Minister Jean-Max
Bellerive said yesterday. More than 30
U.S. military and Coast Guard
helicopters are being used and 15 more
will arrive tomorrow, the U.S. Southern
Command said in an e-mailed statement.
At least nine ships are operating near
Haiti, including the USS Carl Vinson,
and seven more are headed there. |
|
FRENCH MINISTER CRITICIZES US AID ROLE
IN HAITI
PARIS, FRANCE--The
United Nations must investigate and
clarify the dominant U.S. role in
earthquake-ravaged Haiti, a French
minister said Monday, claiming
that international aid efforts were
about helping Haiti, not "occupying" it.
U.S. forces last week turned back a
French aid plane carrying a field
hospital from the damaged, congested
airport in the Haitian capital of
Port-au-Prince, prompting a complaint
from French Cooperation Minister Alain
Joyandet. The plane landed safely the
following day. French Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner warned governments and
aid groups not to squabble as they try
to get their aid into Haiti. "People
always want it to be their plane ...
that lands," Kouchner said Monday.
"(But) what's important is the fate of
the Haitians."
But Joyandet persisted. "This is about
helping Haiti, not about occupying
Haiti," Joyandet, in Brussels for an EU
meeting on Haiti, said on French radio.
In another weekend incident, 250
Americans were flown to New Jersey's
McGuire Air Force Base on three military
planes from Haiti. U.S. forces initially
blocked French and Canadians nationals
from boarding the planes, but the cordon
was lifted after protests from French
and Canadian officials. The U.S.
military controls the Port-au-Prince
airport where only one runway is
functioning and has been effectively
running aid operations. However, the
United Nations is taking the lead in the
critical task of coordinating aid. U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
Saturday the U.S. government had no
intention of taking power from Haitian
officials. "We are working to back them
up, but not to supplant them," she said.
Joyandet said he expects a U.N. decision on how governments
should work together in Haiti and that
he hopes "things will be clarified
concerning the role of the United
States."Other French officials sought to
calm diplomatic tensions over aid.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman
Bernard Valero insisted the plane
incidents were "minor problems" to be
expected during such a difficult relief
mission and said that Kouchner and
Clinton have been working since the
quake on coordinating help. Both
nations have occupied Haiti in the past.
France occupied Haiti for more than 100
years, from 1697 to independence in 1804
after the world's first successful slave
uprising. More recently, U.S. Marines
occupied the country from 1915 to 1934
to quiet political turmoil. |
|
FRENCH PRESIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY SALUTES
'ESSENTIAL ROLE' OF US IN HAITI
PARIS, FRANCE--French
President Nicolas Sarkozy on
Tuesday praised the “essential role” the
U.S. is playing in helping Haiti recover
— scrambling to overcome comments by one
of his ministers who compared
Washington’s aid efforts to a new
occupation of the impoverished nation. A
U.N. spokeswoman in Geneva echoed
Sarkozy, insisting that aid coordination
is improving in Haiti and dismissing
criticism over how the U.S. controls the
clogged airport in the capital of
Port-au-Prince.“In the sphere of
logistics, we really have to thank
them,” spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said
of the U.S. military. “Without them, the
airport wouldn’t work.”
In a particularly flattering statement,
Sarkozy said his country was “fully
satisfied” by the cooperation between
the United States and France, which
decided last week to join forces to
respond to the devastation of the Jan.
12 earthquake. Sarkozy also acknowledged
the “exceptional mobilization of the
United States on Haiti’s behalf and the
essential role it was playing on the
ground.” Sarkozy was responding to
complaints by French Cooperation
Minister Alain Joyandet that the United
States was giving priority to its own
military and relief flights ahead of
other nations’ aid flights. Joyandet, a
member of Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party,
went as far as demanding a U.N.
investigation into U.S. aid efforts.
“This is about helping Haiti, not about
occupying Haiti,” Joyandet said Monday.
A day later, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner
tried to smooth over Joyandet’s abrasive
tone. “This is not the time to speak
about a few misunderstandings, which
when compared to the effort, the
achievement and the results, are of no
interest,” Kouchner told reporters
Tuesday with an unsmiling Joyandet at
his side. Kouchner, a humanitarian
relief veteran, said “there are always
small squabbles” when there are “big
catastrophes.” Byrs said the U.N.
reached an agreement Monday with the
U.S. that aid flights would get the top
landing priority at Port-au-Prince.
Joyandet’s comments hit a diplomatic
nerve, for both France and the United
States have occupied Haiti in the past.
Kouchner said an aid conference of 16
countries that comprise the so-called
“Friends of Haiti” would meet Jan. 25 in
Montreal and should lead to a much
larger meeting devoted to Haiti’s
reconstruction. “We must give Haitians
the assurance that we will not abandon
them” once the humanitarian emergency
has passed, Koucher said. |
|
chilean president-elect sebastian piŃera
SAYS raul castro IS a dictator
SANTIAGO
DE CHILE, CHILE--Chilean
president-elect, right-wing businessman
Sebastián Pińera, admitted that
he is at odds with Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez, but said that during his
administration he will seek to maintain
the best relations with Venezuela.
Pinera, a friend of Colombia's
conservative President Alvaro Uribe, has
been more outspoken, criticizing
populism as a failed approach. Pinera
said
Venezuela "is not a democracy," Cuba is
a "dictatorship"
and he vowed never to concede Chilean
territory. "I disagree with the way
public issues are handled in Venezuela,"
he said at a press conference with
foreign correspondents, a day after he
won the run-off election to ruling party
presidential candidate Eduardo Frei, AFP
reported. "I want to say it clear,
these discrepancies are profound and
have to do with the way democracy is
conceived and implemented, the way the
model of economic development is carried
out, and many more," he said.
However, Pińera added that he
believes in the "self-determination of
the peoples and the non-intervention in
the domestic affairs of other countries.
Therefore, we will seek to improve
relations with all Latin American
countries, including Venezuela, for our
mutual benefit." President Michelle
Bachelet said she had invited the
president-elect to the Rio Group Summit
to be held on February 21 in Cancun,
Mexico. |
|
HILLARY CLINTON MEETS WITH HAITI LEADERS
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI--Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton
presented a united stance with Haitian
President Rene Preval during her visit
Saturday to the quake-battered capital.
Clinton, the highest-ranking U.S.
official to visit the country since
Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, sought to
assure the Haitian people that the
United States is working with the
government "to assist in every way we
can." "We are here at the invitation of
your government to help you," she said.
"As President Obama has said, we will be
here today, tomorrow and for the time
ahead."
Clinton said she and Preval will issue a
joint communique Sunday "setting forth
our intention to cooperate together."
Clinton arrived in Haiti via a U.S.
Coast Guard plane Saturday afternoon and
immediately went into meetings with
Preval, Rajiv Shah, the director of the
U.S. Agency for International
Development, and other U.S. officials
already on the ground. "We had a very
good meeting about all of the priorities
of the Haitian government and the
Haitian people," Clinton said after a
brief news conference following the
meetings.
She said air efforts are focused on providing water, food and
medical help. She also stressed the
importance of restoring the country's
communications networks, electricity and
transportation. "We agreed that we
will be coordinating closely together to
achieve these goals." In addition to the
immediate needs, Clinton said the focus
will switch next week to long-term
recovery and reconstruction, telling
Gupta she believed that Haiti, with the
help of the international community,
could be a better place than it was
before Tuesday's quake. The U.S. Coast
Guard plane she arrived on was carrying
100 cases of water, 100 cases of
meals-ready-to-eat, and food and
toiletries for about 140 U.S. Embassy
staff members. Fifty Americans, who have
been waiting to be evacuated, will fly
back to the United States when Clinton
departs. |
|
SEBASTIAN PIŃERA WON CHILE'S
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
SANTIAGO DE CHILE, CHILE--Billionaire
Sebastian Pinera won Chile's election on
Sunday, becoming the nation's
first democratically elected right-wing
president in 52 years. The ruling
coalition's candidate, Eduardo Frei,
conceded defeat after 60 percent of
polling stations reported a 52 percent
to 48 percent advantage for Pinera,
ending two decades of center-left rule
since the end of Augusto Pinochet's
dictatorship. "Chile is much better than
the country we recieved in 1990," Frei
said. "We will be guardians of liberty
and of all our social victories."
Pinera had a wide lead in every poll,
and the race only tightened after Frei
and outgoing President Michelle Bachelet
repeatedly invoked the legacy of
Pinochet, whose dictatorship was
supported by the parties that make up
Pinera's coalition. But many leftists
have become disenchanted after two
decades with the same group of
politicians in power, and Frei's effort
to raise fears of a retreat on human
rights failed to persuade enough of them
to vote against Pinera.
Pinera, a
Harvard-trained economist, focused his
campaign on hopes for change, promising
to create a million jobs and double
Chile's per-capita income of $12,000 a
year by expanding the country's growth
to 6 percent a year. Pinera voters
included Tatiana Cantillana, a
57-year-old nurse's aide who hoped a
Pinera victory would reduce corruption.
"There has to be a change so that they
stop stealing," she said. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS
U.S. OCCUPYING HAITI IN NAME OF AID
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--
Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chavez
on Sunday accused the United States of
using Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti as a
pretext to occupy the devastated
Caribbean country. "I read that 3,000
soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as
if they were going to war. There is not
a shortage of guns there, my God.
Doctors, medicine, fuel, field
hospitals, that's what the United States
should send," Chavez said on his weekly
television show. "They are occupying
Haiti undercover."
"On top of that, you don't see them in
the streets. Are they picking up bodies?
... Are they looking for the injured?
You don't see them. I haven't seen them.
Where are they?" A perennial foe of U.S.
"imperialism," Chavez said he did not
wish to diminish the humanitarian effort
made by the United States and was only
questioning the need for so many troops.
The United States is sending more than
5,000 Marines and soldiers to Haiti, and
a hospital ship is due to arrive later
this week.
On Sunday
the country's president said U.S. troops
would help keep order on Haiti's
increasingly lawless streets. Venezuela
has sent several planes to Haiti with
doctors, aid and some soldiers. A
Russia-Venezuela mission was set to
leave Venezuela on Monday carrying aid
on Russian planes. Chavez said
Venezuela's planes were the first to
land in Haiti after the 7.0 magnitude
earthquake, which wrecked the capital
Port-Au-Prince and killed as many as
200,000 people. |
|
venezuelan dictator hugo chavez admits
to being a marxist
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Venezuelan
DICTATOR Hugo Chavez has
confessed for the first time that he is
a follower of the ideas of Karl Marx, as
well as saying that Jesus Christ was a
"radical" leftist. "I am a Marxist to
the same degree as the followers of the
ideas of Jesus Christ and the liberator
of America, Simon Bolivar," he said in a
televised speech on the government's
work in 2009 to the national assembly.
"Who can imagine Christ as a
capitalist?" he went on. "Christ was
more radical than any of us. It was He
who said - 'it is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven.'" Chavez said that
humanity would only find salvation after
"finishing with capitalism." He also
revealed that he had begun studying
Mark's Das Kapital again, and that the
19th century social philosopher's work
gave him "the answers to many
questions."
The Venezuelan leader recently hit out against the
commercialism of Christmas and
"consumption insanity." "For the
love of God, let's halt this, let's put
the brakes on this consumerist,
capitalist insanity, that leads us to
lose our spiritual values," he said in
December.
|
|
HILLARY CLINTON SALUTES CUBAN DICTATOR
RAUL CASTRO FOR HIS "GESTURE" ON HAITI
WASHINGTON, D.C.--US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
has thanked Raul Castrodictatorship for
the opening of its airspace to aircraft
with emergency and health evacuation
missions from Haiti, devastated by the
January 12 earthquake in Port au Prince.
In a press conference in Washington, the
Secretary of State welcomed any future
action by the island in support of
Haiti’s recovery. For several
years Cuba already had over 300 doctors
and other health staff working in Haiti,
and with reinforcements arriving from a
special emergency service brigade. Asked
how significant was the Cubans opening
their airspace for humanitarian flights,
the Secretary said: “ Well, we
very much appreciate the Cubans opening
their airspace for medical evacuation
and emergency flights, and we would
welcome any other actions that the Cuban
Government could take in furtherance of
the international rescue and recovery
mission in Haiti.”
Clinton has been steadfastly opposed to improved
relations between the US and Cuba and
favors maintaining the embargo on
the island. The Secretary of State
is also a supporter of the travel ban
that prohibits ordinary US citizens from
visiting Cuba. |
|
PENTAGON ACCUSES DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ OF
USING US TO DIVERT ATTENTION
WASHINGTON, D.C.--US
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
for Western Hemisphere Affairs Frank
Mora says that Venezuela's claims that
US aircraft violated the Venezuelan
airspace are “unfounded”. Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez is making
"baseless" accusations about a US
military plot to distract Venezuelans'
attention from real problems at home,
such as a currency devaluation, said
Frank Mora, the US Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Western
Hemisphere Affairs.
Chávez —who on January 8 announced a
devaluation of the local currency that
is likely to ignite inflation— said on
that same date that he had ordered the
launching of two F-16 jets to intercept
a US military aircraft that entered
Venezuelan skies twice. He described the
alleged incursion as a provocation.
Mora replied that the "baseless" and
"unfounded" accusations, which the
United States rejected immediately, were
part of a pattern by Chávez. "The more
President Chávez is confronted with
domestic challenges, the more his
rhetoric heats up," Mora said in an
interview last Monday, as reported by
Reuters. Mora added that he found
it "interesting that (Chávez) made that
unfounded accusation (...) at the same
time he was announcing a major currency
devaluation."
The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Western Hemisphere Affairs stressed that
consecutive devaluations can lead to a
potential scarcity of goods. "This
is, in my view, a diversion of attention
away from a particularly domestic
challenge, and trying to scapegoat the
issue by once again accusing the United
States government." Meanwhile,
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás
Maduro delivered a letter of protest to
the governments of the US and the
Kingdom of the Netherlands in Caracas
over the air incursion. US Deputy
Secretary of State James Steinberg met
with Colombian President Álvaro Uribe,
on the first day of a discrete two-day
visit to Colombia, its main ally in the
region, and in the framework of his
first Latin American tour that will also
take him to Peru. |
|
HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST ELIZARDO SANCHEZ:
20 PATIENTS AT HAVANA PSYCHIATRIC
HOSPITAL DIED
HAVANA, CUBA--At
least 20 patients in a Cuban mental
hospital died from hypothermia during
the cold snap this week, said
human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez,
who branded it a case of ``criminal
negligence by a government characterized
by its general inefficiency.'' Sánchez
said Thursday he had reliable reports of
20 deaths, but that some doctors had
told him the real number of deaths at
the hospital, popularly known as Mazorra,
was 24 or 26. Cuban authorities have
made no public comment on the case,
Sánchez said, but some hospital staffers
have reportedly been detained. ``It
looks like they want to blame some
doctors or paramedics,'' he added.
The deaths occurred overnight from
Monday to Tuesday, when the temperatures
near the Havana Psychiatric Hospital
dropped to 38.6 degrees, a bitter cold
for tropical Cuba, said Sánchez, who
heads the Cuban Commission for Human
Rights and National Reconciliation. The
Spanish news agency EFE, in a dispatch
from Havana, said European diplomatic
sources in the Cuban capital had
confirmed the deaths of more than 20
patients. A man who answered the phone
at the hospital's administrative offices
hung up when asked about the case.
``Never in the history of the republic
have so many hospital patients died --
avoidable deaths,'' Sánchez told El
Nuevo Herald in a telephone interview.
``The most irritating thing is that the
government is keeping silent.''
"This is a great tragedy, not a hurricane, not an earthquake,
but criminal negligence by a government
characterized by its general
inefficiency,'' he added. Cuba's
once-vaunted public health system has
suffered many hardships, first with the
end of the massive Soviet subsidies to
the island in the early 1990s and now
with an economic crisis. Sánchez said
the patients died from hypothermia --
exposure to the cold -- made worse by
the hospital's meager food, shortages of
warm clothing and blankets and the its
many broken windows. ``Apparently there
was no warm clothing, and above all no
concern that the patients be warmly
clothed,'' he said. ``At 5 p.m. on
Monday they received a very limited
dinner. By Tuesday morning, they were
dead.'' Sanchez said he did not have the
names or ages of the victims, and
declined to identify the sources of his
information. His Human Rights
Commission, which is illegal but
tolerated by the Cuban government,
issued a statement earlier Thursday
saying it was ``profoundly worried by
the high number of avoidable deaths that
occured at the beginning of this week in
the Psychiatric Hospital.'' |
|
EARTHQUAKE STRIKES VENEZUELA
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Days
after the devastating and horrific
earthquake that struck Haiti, an
earthquake strikes Venezuela. There is
no immediate report of any injuries or
damage. Around 2 PM EDT (1:30 PM
local time), the United States
Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 5.6
magnitude earthquake about 25 miles
southwest of Carupano, Venezuela. The
earthquake was about 7.3 miles deep.
Carupano resident Milagros Ordaz told
Reuters by telephone, "People were very
worried and ran into the streets because
it felt very strong." The quake
was felt in Puerto La Cruz where
witnesses told Reuters that cars
wobbled. PDVSA, a state oil company is
located in Puerto La Cruz. Officials
from PDVSA stated that it had no
immediate reports of any damage to the
refinery and oil upgraders.
The geological survey revised its estimates after initially
reporting the quake as having a 5.7
magnitude and an epicenter slightly
closer to Carupano. The revised location
is about 235 miles east of the
Venezuelan capital, Caracas. There were
no immediate reports of damage or
injuries. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SUSPENDS
ELECTRICITY RATIONING IN CARACAS
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--VENEZUELA
DICTATOR Hugo Chávez told
state-run TV network Venezolana de
Televisión that he ordered the
suspension of the electricity rationing
that his government was implementing in
Caracas. The ruler argued that the move
caused some "troubles" and was
"burdensome." Chávez added that,
following assessment of some cases in
the capital city, he decided to
discontinue the electricity rationing.
"I have realized that this move had an
undesired impact. Therefore, I would
like to tell the people of Caracas that
the rationing plan is suspended," said
Chávez. "Rectifying is wise. There was
a negative impact and for that reason
rationing was discontinued in Caracas
only," he added. He further reported
that in view of what happened on the
first day of the schedule, he called for
the resignation of Minister of
Electricity Ángel Rodríguez. "He has
accepted as a soldier," said Chávez.
He hoped that the country assumes the commitment of rationing
and that electricity supply can be
improved in the short term. He said
many malls have taken measures and are
saving energy. Chávez insisted that in
the rest of the country electricity
shortages have been conducted according
to the schedules that had been revised
and agreed upon. Therefore, the
rationing plan will be implemented on a
day-one-day basis in the rest of the
country. |
|
|
growing desperation grips haitian
capital in quake's aftermath
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI----Haiti's
capital awoke to increasing desperation
Thursday morning, a day and a
half after a devastating earthquake,
with covered bodies piling up along
streets and modern aspects of life, such
as electricity, mostly missing. The
streets of Port-au-Prince resembled
grainy black-and-white newsreels from
World War II that showed the rubble of
bombed-out houses in Berlin and London.
The devastation was wide and often
horrific.
A one-hour drive from the airport to a
walled-in hotel where the CNN contingent
is staying revealed the widespread
destruction from Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude
earthquake. Flattened and severely
damaged houses were found on every
block, and the streets were choked with
pedestrians and residents. They set up
overnight camps and slept by the
thousands in dark and crowded parks and
on sidewalks, for fear of being inside
if another powerful quake hit. Numerous
aftershocks have rattled the capital.
Sporadic gunfire was heard Wednesday night outside the
hotel where CNN is lodged. Sirens could
be heard at times, but the predominant
sounds in the pre-dawn darkness were the
shouts and screams from the thousands of
people who spent the night in a dark
park across the street. A rooster's
crowing could sometimes be heard above
the din. After electricity in the hotel
was shut off at 1 a.m., CNN technicians
worked on satellite equipment by
flashlight. The hotel resembles a
compound, with razor wire topping
eight-foot walls and a gated parking
lot, guarded by a man wielding an old
shotgun. And although the hotel's
residents seemed safe, and street
violence had not been seen, there was a
feeling of apprehension. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ BLAMES
THE FOURTH REPUBLIC FOR CURRENT
ELECTRICITY GAP
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Venezuela's
dictator Hugo Chávez put the
blame on the fourth republic for present
deficiencies at the national electrical
grid. "They (the opposition) continue
saying that it is Chávez's fault; if we
were in Haiti, they would surely say
that (the earthquake) was Chávez's
fault."
He urged people to accept the
electricity cuts. "They are needed; it
is like a diet when somebody is too fat;
like somebody suffering a pre-infarct
due to overweight and must walk, stop
eating something he likes, sweets, fat,
fat meat (…) some things need to be
excluded." The president said that a
look at the level of Guri dam (the major
dam in Venezuela which supplies 70-80
percent of the electricity nationwide)
is enough to understand the reason for
rationed power supply. "It is 10 meters
below, ten (…) it fell down; it did not
rain," he reasoned.
Chávez said that the government had ordered the use of some
aircrafts to shell at clouds and unleash
rains. "For several months, pilots have
been even risking their own lives,
because they have found thunderbolts and
hail in an attempt at producing rains."
"Here, the fourth republic made the
mistake to make us depend, as to the
electrical system, by more than 70
percent on River Caroní only," he added. |
|
DICTATOR CHAVEZ sells gasoline to iran
despite problems to supply domestic
refineries
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--State-run
oil company Pdvsa dispatched two
shipments of gasoline to Iran even
though Venezuela is importing more than
2 million barrels of products to supply
its refineries. According to a report
by Efe news agency, dictator Hugo Chávez
pledged, during his last visit to Iran,
to sell 20,000 barrels of gasoline to
the Asian country, to help avert the
impact of likely United States sanctions
on the Iranian economy, although the
price offered by the Venezuelan
government (USD 800 million) was higher
than the market price, according to
Iranian officials.
Venezuela imported in November last year
18 percent of the oil products and
blends it uses to process gasoline or
other derivatives. This percentage
amounts to 2.6 million barrels of
products per month, while 11.8 million
barrels per month came from domestic
production. These data were taken from a
recent report on crude oil production by
Juan Carlos Boué, a senior adviser of
Venezuela's Ministry of Energy and
Petroleum. The report published the
certified figures of Venezuelan exports.
Iranian sectors have pointed out, according to Efe, that
Venezuela will sell gasoline to Iran due
to the fragility of the Iranian refining
industry. The economic committee of the
Iranian Parliament hinted that the
quality of fuel shipped by Venezuela was
lower than expected. The shipment is
part of an offer that President Chávez
is fulfilling to supply gasoline to
Iran, although data with certified
figures by the oil research firm
Inspectorate show that imports of
products in Venezuelan refineries are
increasing. |
|
THOUSANDS OF CASUALTIES EXPECTED IN
HAITI EARTHQUAKE
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI----The
largest earthquake ever recorded in the
area rocked Haiti on Tuesday,
collapsing a hospital where people
screamed for help and damaging other
buildings. An aid official described
"total disaster and chaos."
Communications were widely disrupted,
making it impossible to get a clear
picture of damage as powerful
aftershocks shook a desperately poor
country where many buildings are flimsy.
Electricity was out in some places.
Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief
Services representative in the capital
of Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues
before phone service failed that "there
must be thousands of people dead,"
according to a spokeswoman for the aid
group, Sara Fajardo. "He reported that
it was just total disaster and chaos,
that there were clouds of dust
surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo
said from the group's offices in
Maryland.
The earthquake had a preliminary
magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about
10 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the
U.S. Geological Survey said. It had a
depth of 5 miles. It was the largest
quake recorded in the area and the first
major one since a magnitude-6.7 temblor
in 1984, USGS analyst Dale Grant said.
An Associated Press videographer saw the
wrecked hospital in Petionville, a
hillside Port-au-Prince district that is
home to many diplomats and wealthy
Haitians, as well as many poor people.
Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S.
government official reported seeing
houses that had tumbled into a ravine.
Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond
Joseph, said from his Washington office
that he spoke to President Rene Preval's
chief of staff, Fritz Longchamp, just
after the quake hit. He said Longchamp
told him that "buildings were crumbling
right and left" near the national
palace. He said he had not been able to
get through by phone to Haiti since.
Don Blakeman, an analyst at the USGS in Golden, Colorado,
said such a strong quake carried the
potential for widespread damage. "I
think we are going to see substantial
damage and casualties," he said. The
earthquake's size and proximity to
populated Port-Au-Prince likely caused
widespread casualties and structural
damage, added quake expert Tom Jordan at
the University of Southern California.
"It's going to be a real killer," he
said. The temblor appeared to have
occurred along a strike-slip fault,
where one side of a vertical fault slips
horizontally past the other, Jordan
said. "Whenever something like this
happens, you just hope for the best," he
said. "The damage caused by this
earthquake is not going to be pretty." |
|
HONDURAS ANNOUNCES WITHDRAWAL FROM ALBA
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--The
Honduran Congress approved on
Tuesday night Honduras' withdrawal from
the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples
of Our America (ALBA). The Central
American country had joined ALBA in
August 2008, under ousted President
Manuel Zelaya. "Honduras no longer
belongs to ALBA," said deputy Toribio
Aguilera, a leader of opposition Partido
Innovación.
Aguilera
added that 123 out of the 128 lawmakers,
members of five different political
parties, adopted the decision. Only the
five legislators of Partido Unificación
Democrática, a left-leaning party, did
not endorse the decision. The Honduran
Congress supported a proposal submitted
on December 16 by de facto President
Roberto Micheletti, who gave his consent
to Honduras' withdrawal from ALBA.
"With this decision, we close a major
financial source for our country,"
Aguilera admitted.
However, deputy Valentín Suárez, the leader of the
ruling Liberal Party lawmakers, said
that "Venezuela had broken relations
with Honduras and denounced the ALBA
treaty. Therefore, it was not necessary
that we denounced this integration
system." On the eve, Rafael Pineda, the
de facto Minister of the Presidency,
said that the withdrawal from ALBA "does
not mean that we suspend trade relations
with the countries that are part of the
alliance... We withdrew from ALBA's
accession treaty, because some countries
of that organization have shown no
respect for Honduras." Meanwhile,
hundreds of members of the Resistance
Front Against the Coup, which supports
Zelaya, demonstrated in the streets of
the Honduran capital to protest against
the legislative initiative to withdraw
from ALBA. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ
CHALLENGES THE OPPOSITION TO PURSUE A
RECALL REFERENDUM
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--VENEZUELAN
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ
did not remember -he said so- that last
Saturday, January 9th, he turned three
years in his second term in office.
However, he did remember that his
opponents may lobby again for a recall
referendum. "Go ahead, compadre! Go and
collect signatures! The Constitution is
for that. I am not afraid at all. Now,
they (dissenters) are saying that Chávez
has bitten the dust. Well, come on now.
Why do not you collect signatures for a
recall referendum? I challenge you!" the
president said in the 347th edition of
his TV and radio show "Aló, Presidente"
(Hello, President!) broadcast on Sunday
from western Cojedes state and devoted
to the anniversary of the death of hero
Ezequiel Zamora.
Chávez took over in January 1999.
However, his first term in office
started from scratch upon the passage of
a new Constitution in December of that
same year. He was reelected in 2006 for
a second six-year term. The president
claimed to love rap and asked film maker
Román Chalbaud and author Luis Brito,
present on the set, to produce
"socialist soap operas." "They produce
soap operas to poison our children,
prompt them to drug abuse, smoking,
crime. These are psychological war
strategies set by capitalism and its
lackeys," he said. The president
disclosed that he "lately visited Cuba
and soap operas are exhibited there, but
not capitalist, but of a social,
socialist content."
He reported that Fort Tabacare would become an armored
brigade. "Russian tanks and helicopters
will arrive soon in (the western state
of) Barinas." In his view, the same
story of former President Cipriano
Castro, who was invaded from Colombia,
is happening again nowadays. "Here they
go, the Colombian oligarchs, eager to
remove Chávez. They will never get to do
it. Not for me, but for the people."
|
|
|
CHINESE STATE MEDIA ANNOUNCES IT HAS
TESTED NEW TECHNOLOGY TO INTERCEPT
MISSILES IN FLIGHT
BEIJING, CHINA--China
successfully tested new
technology to intercept missiles in
flight yesterday, state media has
reported. The announcement came amid
repeated complaints from Beijing over
the US sale of weaponry including
Patriot PAC-3 air defence missiles to
Taiwan. In a terse three-sentence
report, the official Xinhua news agency
reported late last night that
"ground-based midcourse missile
interception technology" was tested
within Chinese territory. "The test has
achieved the expected objective," it
added, without specifying whether the
missile had been destroyed, although the
US reported detecting a collision.
Xinhua added: "The test is defensive in
nature and is not targeted at any
country."
The report, which was issued unusually
quickly, followed days of criticism of
the US arms sales. Patriots can destroy
missiles in mid-air, and could be used
against those deployed along the Chinese
coastline facing Taiwan. The island has
been self-ruled since the defeated
nationalists fled there at the end of
the civil war, but China still asserts
its sovereignty and has warned it could
use military action if the island sought
formal independence.
In Washington, the defence department said the US did not
consider the test related to the arms
sales. "We did not receive prior
notification of the launch," Maj Maureen
Schumann, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said.
"We detected two geographically
separated missile launch events with an
exo-atmospheric collision also being
observed by space-based sensors. We are
requesting information from China
regarding the purpose for conducting
this interception as well as China's
intentions and plans to pursue future
types of intercepts." Missile technology
has been one focus of the Chinese
military's modernisation drive, funded
by double-digit rises in defence
spending for several years running. Last
year China's military budget rose 14.9%,
to 480.6bn yuan (Ł44bn). "[The test]
indicates a huge scale of ambition,"
said Ron Huisken, of the Strategic and
Defence Studies Centre at the Australian
National University, adding that
intercepting missiles in flight was
"fiendishly difficult to do". |
|
LACK OF HARD CURRENCY CUBA'S MOST
PRESSING PROBLEM, VICE PRESIDENT SAYS
HAVANA, CUBA--Cuban
Vice President Marino Murillo
says that a shortage of hard currency
remains the most pressing problem for
the island’s communist government.
Murillo, who is also economy minister,
said that Cuba needs bigger exports and
import substitution to generate
reserves, as dictator Raul Castro has
been preaching for some time. The vice
president told a gathering of economists
that the government is giving priority
to revenue-producing sectors such as
tourism, telecommunications and civil
aviation, Communist Party daily Granma
reported.
Cuba is suffering through one of its worst slumps in decades
as a result of the global recession, the
continuing U.S. embargo and the
shortcomings of its own economic model.
Raul Castro, who formally succeeded
ailing older brother Fidel almost two
years ago, has reduced the size of
Cubans’s food rations, cut back on
energy use and suspended payment of
Havana’s foreign debts in a bid to
relieve the government’s liquidity
squeeze. |
|
SPANISH NEWSPAPER: DEVALUATION SHOWS
FRAGILITY OF VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO
CHAVEZ GOVERNMENT
MADRID,
SPAIN--The
devaluation of Venezuela's bolivar
was discussed in the editorials
of several Spanish newspapers on
Tuesday. All of them agreed that the
measure shows the fragility of the
economic model led by dictator Hugo
Chávez.
The independent newspaper "El País,"
under the heading "Brutal and
inadequate," claims that the devaluation
"was inevitable, due to the steady
erosion of the Venezuelan economy." It
termed the devaluation "a brutal
measure, as it means a 50 percent
depreciation of the Venezuelan
currency."
Meanwhile, the newspaper El Mundo says in its editorial that
the "devaluation of the Venezuelan
bolivar," which was decided by the
Venezuelan government on Friday (January
8), "has turned against Hugo Chávez, and
highlights the fragility of a model that
is melting down apart like a snowman."
It added that "the devaluation has
seriously hit (Spanish companies)
Telefónica, BBVA, Repsol and Mapfre,
which under the strict exchange control
implemented (by the government) need
authorization to repatriate their
profits," the conservative newspaper
said. |
|
north korea calls for peace talks, end
to sanctions
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--
North Korea proposed Monday that
a peace treaty to formally end the
Korean War be signed this year, saying a
return to negotiations on its nuclear
program depends on better relations with
Washington and the lifting of sanctions.
The North has long demanded a peace
treaty, but President Barack Obama's
special envoy for human rights in North
Korea said in Seoul on Monday that the
communist regime must improve its
"appalling" human rights record before
any normalization of relations.
Washington and Pyongyang have never had
diplomatic relations because the 1950-53
Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace
treaty, thus leaving the peninsula
technically at war. North Korea, the
U.S.-led United Nations Command and
China signed a cease-fire, but South
Korea never did. The United States has
resisted signing a treaty with North
while it possesses nuclear weapons.
Washington has said, however, that the
subject can be discussed within the
framework of six-nation negotiations
aimed at ridding Pyongyang of atomic
weapons. Those talks have not been held
for more than a year.
But the North indicated Monday it won't rejoin the nuclear
forum until talks begin on a peace
treaty. The communist country pulled out
of the nuclear talks last year to
protest international sanctions imposed
for its launch of a long-range missile.
South Korea is also suspicious of the
North's calls for a peace treaty, calls
for which Seoul has said are a tactic to
delay its denuclearization. |
|
CUBAN VICE-PRESIDENT DENIES THE COUNTRY
LACKS FUTURE GENERATION LEADERS
HAVANA, CUBA--First
Vice President Jose Ramon Machado
said Cuba did not lack leaders to
replace those who carried out the
revolution that brought Cuban Communist
Party First Secretary Fidel Castro to
power in 1959, the Juventud Rebelde
newspaper reported Sunday.
“The leaders of the future are
everywhere,” the 79-year-old Machado
said in an address to the Union of
Communist Youth, or UJC, a party entity,
in the coastal city of Cienfuegos.
“There are always many who have the
qualifications. You have to reach them
and have a good organizational policy,”
Cuba’s No. 2 leader said. Machado is
second-in-command to President Raul
Castro, who officially became head of
state on Feb. 24, 2008, after initially
serving as Cuba’s interim president.
The 83-year-old Fidel Castro, who stepped down
from the presidency in favor of his
younger brother, Raul, 79, after being
stricken by a serious illness in July
2006, remains the leader of the Cuban
Communist Party. “A revolution that
renews itself seeks, and young people
have a fundamental role to play in it
and will take over. We do not have the
least doubts,” Machado said. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS
MILITARY WILL ENSURE BUSINESS OWNERS
DON'T RAISE PRICES
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--In
the wake of his decision to devalue
Venezuela's currency, DICTATOR Hugo
Chavez on Sunday said he would
put the military on the streets to
ensure that business owners don't raise
prices. Speaking on his weekly
television program, "Alo Presidente,"
Chavez railed against merchants who
re-price their items in reaction to
Friday's announcement that the
Venezuelan bolivar currency, which had
been fixed at 2.15 to the U.S. dollar
since 2005, was devalued to 4.3 to the
dollar.
For food and medicine, Chavez announced
a second fixed exchange rate for these
"necessity" goods at 2.6 bolivares to
the dollar. "I want the national guard
in the streets, with the people, to
fight speculation," Chavez said, calling
re-pricing a form of robbery. A
devaluation makes foreign products
relatively more expensive for domestic
consumers, discouraging imports. Chavez
showed a photograph in a newspaper of
consumers in long lines over the weekend
to buy goods, fearing that the sharp
devaluation could result in higher
prices.
The president blamed such lines on "teleterror," saying
that opposition media outlets were
fueling a panic. "At this moment, there
is absolutely no reason for anyone to
raise the prices of anything," Chavez
said. He encouraged people to publicly
denounce businesses where prices
increase and threatened to expropriate
businesses that do. The government would
transfer ownership of such businesses to
the workers, Chavez said. |
|
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID
APOLOGIZES TO PRESIDENT OBAMA FOR
OFFENSIVE RACIAL
REMARKS
HONDURAS
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
apologized Saturday for newly
revealed racial remarks he made about
Barack Obama during the 2008
presidential campaign, comments that
could hurt his re-election hopes. Reid
referred to Obama, then a fellow
senator, in private talks as
"light-skinned" and speaking "with no
Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have
one," according to a new book on the
campaign by journalists Mark Halperin
and John Heilemann. "I deeply regret
using such a poor choice of words," Reid
said in a statement. "I sincerely
apologize for offending any and all
Americans, especially African Americans,
for my improper comments."
"I accepted Harry's apology without
question because I've known him for
years, I've seen the passionate
leadership he's shown on issues of
social justice and I know what's in his
heart," Obama said in a written
statement. "As far as I am concerned,
the book is closed." Obama also quickly
forgave then-Sen. Joe Biden in 2007,
after Biden referred to him in racial
terms as both men launched their quests
for the Democratic presidential
nomination. "I mean, you got the first
mainstream African American who is
articulate and bright and clean and a
nice-looking guy," Biden said. He also
apologized, and Obama chose him as his
running mate.
Obama's
forgiveness was a secondary issue,
however, as one of the nation's top
Democrats fights to keep his seat as
voters back home have soured on him.
Reid already is in danger of losing his
bid for re-election in Nevada, which
would make him the second Democratic
Senate leader voted out of office after
former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota
lost his re-election bid in 2002. A new
poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal
released Saturday found that more than
half of the state's voters are unhappy
with him, raising new questions about
whether he might decide to retire rather
than lose. The poll also showed Reid
trailing either of three possible
Republican rivals. It's the worst
'unfavorable' rating he's received in
the newspaper's surveys for this year's
election," Laura Myers wrote in the
paper. "And it comes amid quiet
speculation - or perhaps wishful
thinking by his opponents - that it's
time for the Nevada Democrat to retire
rather than lose re-election." |
|
ARGENTINE JUDGE DEFIES THE PRESIDENT AND
STOPS CENTRAL BANK HEAD REMOVAL
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA--
A major political and institutional
crisis brewing in Argentina over
repaying its national debt deepened
Friday as the courts dealt two blows to
President Cristina Kirchner. In two
rulings, an Argentine judge thwarted
government efforts to use central bank
reserves to pay down the national debt,
and said the bank's head sacked by
presidential decree must be reinstated.
Kirchner had strongly backed the use of
dollar reserves to cover 6.59 billion
dollars of debt that is due to mature in
2010, in a bid to return Argentina to
international credit markets. But judge
Maria Jose Sarmiento temporarily
suspended the government decree allowing
the use of central bank reserves to make
the payments. In a second ruling, the
judge said dismissed bank chief Martin
Redrado, who has clashed with Kirchner
over the plans, should be reinstated.
"The judge decided to temporarily
suspend the emergency decree which had
led to the dismissal of this official,"
the Justice Department's legal
information center said.
"I am returning to work at the bank. Justice has been done,"
a delighted Redrado told reporters as he
arrived back at the bank's headquarters
and marched into his offices. He was
sacked on Thursday by Kirchner, accused
of failing in his duties and replaced by
central bank vice president Miguel Pesce,
who was given provisional control of the
bank. Ruling party lawmaker Miguel Angel
Pichetto said the government would
"certainly" appeal the decision. The
government argues the move to use bank
reserves to pay down the debt is urgent
and necessary to retain international
creditors' confidence, shredded after
the country's default in 2001-2002. The
country owes around 13 billion dollars
in total. |
|
CHINA
OVERTAKES GERMANY AS WORLD'S BIGGEST
EXPORTER
BEIJING,
CHINA--China
overtook Germany as the world's biggest
exporter after exports rose in
December for the first time in 14
months, data showed Sunday, in a new
sign of the rapid Chinese rise as a
global economic force. Chinese exports
in the last month of 2009 jumped 17.7
percent from a year earlier, the state
Xinhua News Agency and government
television said. That made total exports
for the year just over $1.2 trillion,
ahead of the $1.17 trillion forecast
last month for Germany by that country's
foreign trade organization, BGA.
Economists and Germany's national
chamber of commerce said earlier it was
likely to lose its longtime crown as top
exporter. China's new status is largely
symbolic but reflects the ability of its
resilient, low-cost manufacturers to
keep selling abroad despite a collapse
in global consumer demand due to the
financial crisis. China's politically
sensitive trade surplus shrank by 34.2
percent in 2009 to $196.07 billion,
Xinhua said. That reflected China's
stronger economic growth, driven by a
$586 billion stimulus, and demand for
imported raw materials and consumer
goods at a time when demand in the
United States and other foreign markets
is weaker.
The December export rebound was an "important turning
point," a customs agency economist,
Huang Guohua, said on the state
broadcaster CCTV. "We can say that
China's export enterprises have
completely emerged from their all-time
low in exports," Huang said. Even though
China overtook Germany in 2009 as top
exporter, CCTV said its total 2009 trade
fell 13.9 percent from 2008. |
|
HONDURAS PRESIDENT ROBERTO
MICHELETTI FEARS FOR HIS LIFE
TEGUCIGALPA,
HONDURAS--Interim
President Roberto Micheletti
expressed concern over his security and
his family's when they do not have the
protection offered by security officers.
"Yes. There is a concern from many of our staff, and, of
course, from members of my family and
from myself over what might happen once
we leave office. Nowadays, we have a lot
of security to protect us," Micheletti
told the Honduran radio station HRN. He
added that he does not fear "those
Honduran bums who have expressed such
intentions, but a professional killer
who could be easily hired abroad by Hugo
Chávez or any enemy of the Honduran
democracy."
"We have confirmed that a Venezuelan citizen made a few
offers and even travelled to La
Mosquitia (in the Honduran Caribbean).
We realized that there was a USD 1
million offer to kill me," Micheletti
said. The de facto president reiterated
that he would leave office on January
27th. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS UYS
PLANE ENTERED VENEZUELAN AIRSPACE
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Venezuelan
DICTATOR Hugo Chavez says a U.S.
military plane entered Venezuelan
airspace and was met by his military's
F-16s, which escorted it out.
Chavez is calling it a provocation by the U.S. government,
saying the U.S. P-3 plane had taken off
from the Dutch Caribbean island of
Curacao and twice entered Venezuelan
airspace on Friday.
Chavez also warned, without giving details, that his
government could reconsider its
involvement in Curacao's Venezuela-owned
Isla refinery, which processes
Venezuelan crude. Chavez has protested
against the Dutch islands for allowing
U.S. military counter-drug flights from
their airstrips. There was no immediate
reaction from U.S. or Dutch officials to
Chavez's latest accusations. |
|
US DENIES ANY PLANE ENTERED VENEZUELAN
AIRSPACE
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
United States is denying a claim
by President Hugo Chavez that a U.S.
military plane entered Venezuelan
airspace.
Chavez said the plane was met by his military's F-16s and
escorted out of Venezuelan airspace.
The president is calling it a
provocation by the U.S., saying the P-3
plane had taken off from the Dutch
Caribbean island of Curacao and twice
entered Venezuelan airspace on Friday.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Southern
Command in Miami denied it.
Air Force Tech Sgt. Shanda De Anda said Saturday that
"no U.S. aircraft entered Venezuelan
airspace." She said the U.S. does not
fly over another nation "without prior
consent and coordination." |
|
CUBAN DOCTORS BRIBED OFFICIALS TO DEFECT
VIA VENEZUELA
MIAMI,
FLORIDA--After
bribing Venezuelan and Cuban staff who
work as immigration officers at
Maiquetía airport (16 miles north
of Caracas), seven Cuban doctors serving
on aid mission Barrio Adentro arrived
Wednesday in Miami. The defectors, who
were seeking to fly to Miami, were
briefly detained at the airport, and
paid USD 5,200 to have their passports
stamped and be allowed to board a flight
bound to the United States. "We
collected money among the seven doctors
who were detained and we finally managed
to travel," Jesús Peralta, 26, one of
the defectors, told El Nuevo Herald
newspaper.
The group of three women and four men were held by the US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), while they regularize their
situation. The other defectors, besides
Peralta, are physicians Lorenzo Toriza,
Yessenia Martínez and Jesús Badillo.
Peralta and Toriza said that they were held when they were
trying to board an American Airlines
flight at 6 am on Tuesday. They
explained that after being interrogated
by officials of the Cuban Embassy in
Caracas, who "subjected them to
psychological pressure for more than 12
hours," they were released. When the
group of physicians returned to the
airport to try to leave the country, the
officers asked them if they had enough
dollars to pay the stamping of
passports. "Depending on how you behave
concerning the bribes, they allow you to
leave or they arrest you," said Keiler
Moreno, in Miami. Moreno defected in
August. |
|
BISHOPS THINK THAT VENEZUELA HAS BECOME
A VIOLENT SOCIETY
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--The
president of the Venezuelan Bishops'
Conference (CEV), Monsignor Ubaldo
Santana, opened the 90th Regular
Assembly which is due to discuss the
adoption and implementation of the
Education Law and the main problems
affecting the Venezuelan society.
In his opening remarks, Santana expressed the concern of the
CEV with regard to the climate of
violence in the South American country.
"Venezuela has become a violent society.
With great dismay, we have witnessed the
increase of violent deaths in Venezuelan
cities, provinces and in the border
areas."
He warned that the weekends, "have become a tragedy that
cover many families with a bloody,
painful cloak. Young people and children
are the main victims of this scourge
which, together with violence, has taken
over the country regardless of political
parties, social class or religion." The
Catholic Church leader stressed that
Venezuela is affected by "a serious lack
of sound public policy" to fight
insecurity. |
|
PERUVIAN PM CRITICIZES VENEZUELAN
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ'S "EXPANSIONIST
EFFORTS"
LIMA,
PERU--Peru's
Prime Minister Javier Velásquez
criticized "expansionist efforts" in the
region of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez. He said that Peru will not allow
any interference in its domestic
affairs, in an interview published in
local newspapers.
"There have been expansionist efforts to introduce in
Venezuela's neighboring countries the
development model that President Hugo
Chávez has imposed on his nation (...).
We are not ready to allow any
interference in our domestic affairs,"
Velásquez told the Peruvian newspaper El
Comercio. "It is obvious that
(Venezuela) has had an open attitude to
intervene," the top Peruvian official
said.
Velásquez was referring to the crisis triggered in 2006 by
the public support given by President
Chávez to then presidential candidate
Ollanta Humala in the elections won by
current President Alan García, and the
alleged Venezuelan interference with the
establishment of ALBA houses in the
South American country, Efe reported. |
|
ANALYST SAYS THAT FUTURE OF VENEZUELAN
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ DEPENDS ON
ELECTIONS
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Heinz
Dieterich, a German sociologist and
political analyst residing in Mexico,
a theoretician of the Socialism of the
21st century and adviser to Venezuela's
dictator Hugo Chávez, said that if the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)
loses parliamentary elections scheduled
for September 26, "the revolution will
come to an end."
In the opinion of Dieterich, if Chávez wants to win elections
"he has to solve security problems,
government's inefficiency, economic
crisis and the loss of credibility in
official discourse, among others. To
solve these problems, the current model
of government has to be reinvented. Only
PSUV leaders can impose such change," he
said.
The possibility of a war between Colombia and Venezuela "is
very real because Washington has decided
that Chávez must leave, at all costs
(...).Bolivarianism is inconsistent with
the Monroe Doctrine and therefore it
represents a threat. In order to remove
Chávez, they prepare an aggression war,
using false positives, alleged tolerance
of drug traffic and presumed cooperation
with Hezbollah" Dieterich said in an
interview released by Ámbito Financiero. |
|
HONDURAN PRESIDENT-ELECT PORFIRIO LOBO
TO INVITE VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO
CHAVEZ AND DANIEL ORTEGA TO HIS
INAUGURATION
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--Conservative
president-elect Porfirio Lobo
said on Wednesday that he met with the
presidents of Central America and
announced that he would invite
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, with
whom he has not spoken, and Venezuela's
President Hugo Chávez to his
inauguration.
In an interview with Radio América, Lobo said that he met
with Presidents Álvaro Colom
(Guatemala); Mauricio Funes (El
Salvador); Oscar Arias (Costa Rica);
Ricardo Martinelli (Panama). He added
that "all of them want to help" to solve
the Honduran crisis.
Asked if he would invite Chávez and Ortega, Lobo answered:
"All of them are invited. If they refuse
to come, they have the right to do so,
but we will invite them all," Efe
reported. Lobo was also in favor that
the National Congress ratifies the
decision of withdrawing from the
Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples
of Our Americas (ALBA) made by the de
facto President Roberto Micheletti.
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya joined
ALBA in 2008.
|
|
U.S. PLANE BOMBER MET RADICAL MUSLIM
CLERIC IN YEMEN
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
alleged US plane bomber met radical
Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen,
after being recruited in London,
a senior Yemeni official has said. Last
week US security official John Brennan
said there were "indications" of direct
contact between the two men. Mr Awlaki
was linked to an attack by a US Army
major on the Fort Hood base in November,
in which 13 people died. Yemen's deputy
prime minister also said bomb suspect
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab used
explosives from Nigeria not Yemen.
Mr Abdulmutallab was indicted by a US grand jury on six
counts on Wednesday. Charges against
him include attempted murder of the 290
people aboard the plane and attempted
use of a weapon of mass destruction. Mr
Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to
detonate a bomb on Northwest flight 253
from Amsterdam to Detroit, but the plane
landed safely after crew and passengers
overpowered him. The suspected bomber
studied at University College London (UCL)
from September 2005 to June 2008 and was
president of its Islamic society in
2006-07. But UCL has said there is no
evidence to suggest Mr Abdulmutallab was
radicalised while he was there, and UK
officials responding to the Yemeni
statement said they still believed his
recruitment occurred in Yemen in the
months before the attack.
Mr Alimi said the suspect met Mr Awlaki in the cleric's
ancestral home province of Shabwa. Mr
Awlaki, a radical American Muslim cleric
of Yemeni descent, has been linked to
other attacks, including that carried
out by Maj Nidal Malik Hasan of the US
Army at the Fort Hood base in Texas in
November. "Mr Awlaki is a problem. He's
clearly a part of al-Qaeda in [the]
Arabian Peninsula," Mr Brennan, who is
UN deputy national security adviser,
told CNN last week. "He's not just a
cleric. He is in fact trying to
instigate terrorism." |
|
CUBAN DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO GOVERNMENT
PROTESTS TIGHTER U.S. AIRPORT SCREENING
HAVANA, CUBA--Cuba
summoned the top U.S. diplomat on the
island Tuesday to protest extra
screening for Cuban citizens flying into
the United States, calling the measure a
``hostile action'' meant to justify
America's trade embargo. Josefina Vidal
Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign
Ministry's North American affairs
office, said the new security controls
were ``discriminatory and selective.''
``We categorically reject this new
hostile action by the government of the
United States against Cuba,'' she told
The Associated Press in an exclusive
interview.
Vidal Ferreiro said she lodged the
protest in an afternoon meeting with
Jonathan Farrar, the head of the U.S.
Interest Section, which Washington
maintains in Cuba instead of an embassy.
Cuba's top diplomat in Washington
delivered a similar message to State
Department officials earlier in the day,
she said. The United States imposed the
airline security measures Monday after
an apparent attempt by a Nigerian to
blow up a jet as it neared Detroit.
Citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
-- nations the United States considers
state sponsors of terrorism -- are among
those who face extra scrutiny.
Cuba has been on that list since the 1980s, but has
maintained its inclusion had more to do
with the United States' antagonistic
policy toward it than with evidence it
sponsors terrorism. The U.S. and Cuba
have been at odds since soon after Fidel
Castro took power in 1959. The United
States has maintained a trade embargo on
Cuba for 47 years. Ferreiro said Cuba
has a spotless record against terrorism
and that Washington maintains a double
standard because it harbors individuals
Cuba considers to have committed
terrorist acts on the island. State
Department spokesman P.J. Crowley called
Cuba's inclusion on the terror sponsor
list justified: ``Cuba is a designated
state sponsor of terrorism, and we think
it's a well-earned designation given
their long-standing support for radical
groups in the region.'' He highlighted
its support for Colombian rebel groups.
|
|
VENEZUELA DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ "NOT
COOPERATING FULLY" WITH ANTITERRORISM
EFFORTS
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
US Department of State criticized
Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chávez's
position for "not cooperating
fully" with US antiterrorism efforts in
its last Country Reports on Terrorism
2008. As a result, US enforcement
officials have targeted Venezuelan
citizens and Hugo Chávez' regime
actions. In May 2008, Venezuela was
re-certified as "not cooperating fully"
with US antiterrorism efforts under
Section 40A de of the Arms Export and
Control Act.
The extensive paper entitled "Country
Reports on Terrorism 2008", published
last April, warned of the situation in
Venezuela due to "President Chávez's
ideological sympathy for the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
and the National Liberation Army (ELN)"
which has "limited Venezuelan
cooperation with Colombia in combating
terrorism." For the Unites States,
Venezuela's relationship with Iran is
also troubling. The report stated that
"Iran and Venezuelan continued weekly
flights connecting Tehran and Damascus
with Caracas. Passengers on these
flights were reportedly subject to only
cursory immigration and customs controls
at Venezuelan airports."
"Venezuelan citizenship, identity and travel documents
remained easy to obtain, making
Venezuela a potentially attractive way
station for terrorists," the report
added. In October 2009, Republican
Representative Connie Mack announced a
resolution asking the government of US
President Barack Obama to include
Venezuela in the list of States sponsors
of terrorism, which included four
countries: Cuba, Syria, Iran and Sudan.
There is another list of Terrorist Safe
Havens. |
|
honduras president roberto micheletti
objects to us. request he RESIGN
TEGUCIGALPA,
HONDURAS--HONDURAS
president Roberto Micheletti
responded harshly Wednesday to U.S.
suggestions that he resign weeks before
a new president takes office on Jan 27.
Micheletti has been serving as president
since a June coup deposed his long-time
political rival President Manuel Zelaya,
who later took refuge in the Brazilian
Embassy in Tegucigalpa and remains
there. "The U.S. wants me to withdraw on
Jan. 15," said Micheletti, calling U.S.
diplomacy erratic. "Washington should
respect the sovereign decisions of our
people."
U.S. State Department diplomat Craig
Kelly is currently in Honduras
attempting to reunite leaders in the
bitterly divided Central American
nation. Micheletti's interim government
has said Zelaya faces arrest on various
charges if he leaves the embassy under
any terms other than an asylum
arrangement in another country.
President-elect Porfirio Lobo has hinted
that he will be more conciliatory. Lobo
says he has invited to his inauguration
Latin American leaders - including
Zelaya's leftist allies Venezuelan
dictator Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega
of Nicaragua.
Chavez has lobbied for Zelaya's return to office and
urged the international community not to
recognize results of Honduras' November
election. "If they don't want to come,
oh well," Lobo said. "But we've invited
them." Meanwhile, Micheletti says he is
concerned that Chavez will eventually
retaliate against him. "I know I should
take precautions because Chavez has the
capacity to send assassins to kill me."
Chavez initially put his military on
alert after a coup in Honduras and vowed
to do whatever is necessary to restore
President Manuel Zelaya to power.
|
|
SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON SAID
THAT YEMEN SITUATION IS A "GLOBAL
THREAT"
WASHINGTON, D.C.--American
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
says the situation in Yemen is a threat
to both regional and global stability.
"We see global implications from the war
in Yemen and the ongoing efforts by al
Qaeda in Yemen to use it as a base for
terrorist attacks far beyond the
region," Clinton says. She was speaking
after a meeting with the visiting prime
minister of Qatar. C linton says a
decision on reopening the US embassy in
Yemen - shut for two days due to what
were described as al Qaeda threats -
will be taken "as conditions permit".
On Monday, Yemeni forces killed at least
two al Qaeda militants they said were
behind the threat. The raid took place
after the attempted bombing of a
US-bound plane on Christmas Day thrust
Yemen into the foreground of the US-led
war against Islamist militants.
"Security authorities had been
monitoring them for several days and
struck today," a Yemeni security
official told Reuters. "These elements
are believed to be behind the threats
directed to the US Embassy."
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,
the Yemen branch of Osama bin Laden's
network, claimed responsibility for the
December 25 attempt to blow up a US
passenger plane carrying 300 people. It
says the attempt was retaliation for US
involvement in Yemen and its support for
the government's offensive against the
militants. US President Barack Obama
said in response it was a priority to
help the Yemeni government strike al
Qaeda. |
|
DEA REITERATES DRUG-TRAFFICKING
AIRPLANES DEPART FROM VENEZUELA
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Jay
Bergman, DEA director for the Andean
region of South America, said
that most of the planes used for drug
traffickers to get cocaine to West
Africa have departed from Venezuela.
This was the situation in a dozen cases
in which there have been seizures,
Bergman said.
"Geography is the key reason why
Venezuela has become a springboard
location," Bergman added. "If you look
at the range and refueling requirements,
that is the place you have to fly from,"
the official of the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) said. In the
interview, Bergman denounced an "unholy
alliance" between the Colombian
guerrillas and Islamic extremists,
including Al Qaeda, to smuggle cocaine
from the South, through Africa, to
Europe, following the strengthening of
the maritime interdiction on traditional
distribution routes from Colombia to
United States or Spain and Portugal.
"For (drug-trafficking) organizations to survive, they
first and foremost have to be flexible
and make adjustments quickly to law
enforcement efforts," Bergman said,
referring to the alliance between the
Islamists and the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC). Three West
African men accused of ties to al Qaeda
were extradited to New York in December
on drug trafficking and terrorism
charges, being the first proven link
between the two organizations. |
|
spain summoned cuban ambassador after
diplomatic incident
MADRID,
SPAIN--Spain's
Foreign Ministry summoned the
Cuban ambassador Monday to explain why a
Spanish politician who has promoted ties
with Cuban opposition figures was denied
entry to the island and held for a
couple of hours before being sent back
home. It was unjustifiable that Luis
Yanez, a Socialist who now holds a seat
representing Spain at the European
Parliament and has served under a
previous Spanish government, was not
allowed to enter Cuba, the ministry said
in a statement.
The ministry's top official for Latin
America, Juan Pablo de La Iglesia,
called ambassador Alejandro Gonzalez
Galiano to come in on Tuesday to provide
an explanation. Yanez was detained upon
arrival and expelled from the
communist-run Caribbean country before
dawn Monday, the ministry said. Yanez
has promoted contacts between European
socialists and democratic Cuban
dissidents as president of a group
called Cuba-Europe in Progress. Spanish
news reports said Yanez was denied a
visa to enter Cuba in 2008 when he was
invited to attend a meeting of the
Progressive Arc dissident group.
Posted on the group's Web site is a
column Yanez wrote in the Spanish
newspaper El Pais in 2007 decrying "the
disappearance of the most minimal
freedom of expression and of artistic
creation" in Cuba, as well as the
jailing of dissidents. Manuel Cuesta
Morua, head of Progressive Arc, told The
Associated Press that Yanez had
indicated that he planned to visit with
him during his trip. "I think that (the
authorities) are taking reprisals,"
Cuesta said. An official with the
Spanish Socialist Party said Yanez and
his wife Carmen Hermosin, who is member
of the Spanish parliament, had traveled
to Cuba on a tourist visa for a private
trip with no political meetings planned.
She flew back with her husband. |
|
NEW PHOTOS SHOW EX-CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL
CASTRO USING HOSPITAL-TYPE CHAIR
HAVANA,
CUBA--Three Nicaraguan websites
have posted new photos of Fidel Castro
using a hospital-style wheeled chair
during meetings in Havana with President
Daniel Ortega last year.
The 12
color photos were posted Monday by El
19, La Voz del Sandinismo and El Pueblo
Presidente, all sites with close ties to
Ortega's leftist party, the Sandinista
Front for National Liberation.
El Nuevo
Herald could not independently
authenticate the photos. If confirmed,
they would be the first time Castro is
shown in a wheelchair since he underwent
emergency surgery in 2006. The Cuban
media reported on the Ortega-Castro
meetings last year.
A
short text posted with the photos on all
three sites says the snapshots were
taken during two Ortega visits to Cuba
in April and December, but does not
specify how many times they met. From
the clothes worn, it appears the photos
were taken during three meetings.
Five of the
photos show Castro sitting on what is
known as a companion wheelchair, with
four small wheels and a high head rest.
In seven of the photos, he sat in front
of a hospital-style table.
Another of
the photos shows him speaking with
Ortega outdoors, behind what appears to
be a large van, with its back doors open
and a metal handrail leading inside.
The photos
also show Castro's wife, Dalia Soto del
Valle, and Ortega's wife, Rosario
Murillo, as well as Fidel's brother Raúl
and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno
Rodríguez. |
|
PAT-DOWNS ON ALL FLIGHTS TO U.S. FROM 14
NATIONS, INCLUDING CUBA, IRAN, YEMEN AND
LIBYA
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Beginning
Monday, air travelers flying into the
United States from Cuba, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Yemen and other countries
will be subjected to enhanced
screening techniques, such as body
scans, pat-downs and a thorough search
of carry-on luggage. Additionally, all
passengers on U.S.-bound international
flights will be subject to random
screening, the Transportation Security
Administration announced Sunday.
Airports were also directed to increase
"threat-based" screening of passengers
who may be acting in a suspicious
manner.
The TSA said anyone traveling from or
though nations regarded as state
sponsors of terrorism — as well as
"other countries of interest" — will be
required to undergo enhanced screening.
The TSA said those techniques include
full-body pat-downs, carry-on bag
searches, full-body scanning and
explosive detection technology.
"The new directive includes long-term, sustainable
security measures developed in
consultation with law enforcement
officials and our domestic and
international partners," the TSA said in
a statement posted on its Web site. The
new security measures come in response
to the failed Christmas Day attempt to
bomb a jetliner as it approached Detroit
after a flight from Amsterdam. The State
Department lists Cuba, Iran, Sudan and
Syria as state sponsors of terrorism.
The other countries whose passengers
will face enhanced screening include
Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon,
Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia and Yemen. |
|
PERPETRATOR OF AFGHAN ATTACK AGAINST A
CIA BASE in afghanistan WAS AN AL-QAIDA
DOUBLE AGENT
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
suicide bombing on a CIA base in
Afghanistan last week was carried
out by a Jordanian doctor who was an
al-Qaida double agent, Western
intelligence officials told NBC News.
Initial reports said that the attack,
which killed seven CIA officers, was
carried out by a member of the Afghan
National Army. According to Western
intelligence officials, the perpetrator
was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi,
36, an al-Qaida sympathizer from the
town of Zarqa, which is also the
hometown of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the
Jordanian militant Islamist responsible
for several devastating attacks in Iraq.
Al-Balawi was arrested by Jordanian
intelligence more than a year ago.
However, the Jordanians believed that
al-Balawi had been successfully reformed
and brought over to the American and
Jordanian side, setting him up as an
agent and sending him off to Afghanistan
and Pakistan to infiltrate al-Qaida. His
specific mission, according to
officials, was to find and meet Ayman al
Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s No. 2, also a
physician. However, the Al-Jazeera Web
site quoted a Taliban spokesman who said
al-Balawi misled Jordanian and U.S.
intelligence services for a year. The
spokesman, Al-Hajj Ya'qub, promised to
release a video confirming his account
of the attack.
Last week, according to the Western officials, al-Balawi
reportedly called his handler to say he
needed to meet with the CIA’s team based
in Khost, Afghanistan, because he said
he had urgent information he needed to
relay about Zawahiri. His handler was a
senior intelligence official, identified
in Jordanian press accounts as Sharif
Ali bin Zeid. But bin Zeid was not just
a Jordanian intelligence officer; he was
also a member of the Jordanian royal
family and was a first cousin of the
king and grandnephew of the first king
Abdullah. Bin Zeid’s prominent role
offers rare insight into the close
partnership between American and
Jordanian intelligence officials and how
crucial their relationship has become to
the overall counterterrorism strategy.
Jordan's official news agency, Petra,
said bin Zeid was killed "on Wednesday
evening as a martyr while performing the
sacred duty of the Jordanian forces in
Afghanistan" and provided no further
details about his death. |
|
U.S., BRITAIN CLOSE EMBASSIES IN YEMEN
SANA,
YEMEN--Threats
by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
against targets in Yemen prompted
the closure of the U.S. and British
embassies there Sunday, officials said.
"There are indications that al Qaeda is
planning to carry out an attack against
a target inside of Sanaa, possibly our
embassy," John Brennan, the assistant to
the president for homeland security and
counterterrorism, said on Sunday. "And
what we do is to take every measure
possible to ensure the safety of our
diplomats and citizens abroad, so the
decision was made to close the
embassy." The United States is working
closely with the Yemeni government on
the proper security precautions, he
said.
The British Foreign Office said its
embassy also closed because of security
concerns. A spokeswoman said a decision
would be made later Sunday on whether it
would reopen on Monday. U.S. State
Department spokesman Fred Lash would not
elaborate on any specific security
threats, and said he did not know how
long the embassy would remain closed. On
Christmas Day, a Nigerian man allegedly
attempted to detonate an explosive
device on board a Northwest Airlines
flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to
Detroit, Michigan. On Saturday,
President Obama linked the suspect,
23-year-old Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab,
to an al Qaeda affiliate based in Yemen.
Shortly after the incident, Yemen-based
al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
claimed responsibility for the bombing
attempt. "I think what we've seen over
the past several years in Yemen is an
increasing strengthening of al Qaeda
forces in Yemen," Brennan said. "There
are several hundred al Qaeda members
there."
In a Sunday interview on the BBC's "The Andrew Marr
Show," British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown said besides increased security
measures, "We've got to also get back to
the source of this, which is Yemen,
Somalia, Pakistan, and we've got to
recognize that we've got a group of
young people who have been radicalized
as a result of teaching by extremist
clerics, and we've got to recognize that
we're fighting a battle for hearts and
minds here as much as everything else."
In remarks Saturday, Obama pledged that
everyone involved in the attack would be
held accountable, and highlighted his
administration's attempts to crack down
on extremist enclaves in Yemen. |
|
colombia's military kills 25 farc
guerrillas INCLUDING THREE COMMANDERS
BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA--The
number of FARC rebels killed in a
Colombian military airstrike on two
guerrilla camps and in ensuing clashes
in the east-central province of Meta has
climbed to 25, including three
important leaders of one of the
insurgent fronts, generals said
Saturday. The commander of the armed
forces, Gen. Freddy Padilla de Leon, and
of Task Force Omega, Gen. Javier Floerz,
told reporters that killed in the attack
carried out early Friday were Miller
Ospina Correa, alias “El Abuelo,” Eliseo
Caicedo Garzon, alias “El Pitufo”, and
an individual known only by the alias
“El Negro Alberto.”
The three were leaders of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s
43rd Front and trusted aides of Jorge
Briceńo Suarez, alias Mono Jojoy, the
guerrilla group’s military chief. El
Pitufo and El Abuelo had served 18 years
in the rebel group and the men they led
belonged to the security cordon for Mono
Jojoy. The two generals said that the
number of those killed among the
insurgents rose Saturday to 25 after
more bodies were found in the area of
the bombing. The operation continues
across a vast region along the line
between Meta and Guaviare provinces.
Friday’s airstrike, launched after an intelligence-gathering
operation, targeted two FARC bases that
were located in a rural area outside the
town of Vista Hermosa and had lodging
for a combined total of roughly 200
fighters. Another 13 insurgents were
captured in the same operation, eight of
whom surrendered and five of whom were
wounded and are being treated at
hospitals in Villavicencio, Meta’s
capital. In the operation, the air force
bombed the bases of the FARC’s 43rd
Front before ground troops from Task
Force Omega entered the now-abandoned
camps and found “25 rifles, abundant war
materiel, explosives and information of
interest to military intelligence,” the
Defense Ministry said Friday in a
statement. |
|
ECUADOR PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA SAID
"U.S. EXTREMISTS PLOT TO DESTABILIZE HIS
COUNTRY"
QUITO,
ECUADOR--Ecuadorean
President Rafael Correa says
right-wing extremists in the United
States are conspiring against his
government by attempting to destabilize
the poor Andean nation.
The leftist president contends that
U.S.-based groups - although not the
U.S. government - are funneling aid to
parts of Ecuador's indigenous movement.
He says plots to destabilize progressive
governments no longer use direct
confrontation.
Indian protests and roadblocks in recent months have
forced Correa to reconsider proposals to
allow mines on Indian lands without
their consent and to put water under
state control. Ecuador's president gave
no examples of the aid he denounced,
however. Correa spoke Saturday on his
weekly radio program. |
|
THE CIA WILL AVENGE THE TERRORIST ATTACK
IN WHICH 8 BRAVE AGENTS WERE KILLED
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
attack in Afghanistan came during an
already difficult week for the CIA,
which has taken a beating in
Washington with President Barack Obama
issuing a blunt critique of intelligence
failures in advance of the botched
Christmas Day terrorist attack. In the
terrorist attack, eight brave Americans
were killed in an explosion at a U.S.
compound in Afghanistan, officials say.
The CIA already began mobilizing against
the perpetrators of the attack. "The CIA
is working hard to find those who
supported the Khost attack," a U.S.
intelligence official, adding "this
attack will be avenged through
successful, aggressive counterterrorism
operations." CIA spokesman George Little
said that the attack serves as a
reminder of the dangerous nature of the
CIA's work. "There's still a lot to be
learned about what happened," he said.
"The key lesson is that counterterrorism
work is dangerous. Our fallen and
wounded colleagues were on the front
lines, conducting essential operations
to protect our country."
Wednesday's casualties will be added to a wall in the CIA's
lobby, which currently features 90 stars
representing agency employees killed in
the line of duty. The most recent one
was added in June to memorialize an
officer killed last year, but the
officer's name and duties weren't made
public. According to a military official
who works on Afghan issues, Chapman has
grown substantially in recent months and
is a base for both military and
intelligence operations. Because of its
size, the officer said, the suicide
bomber likely penetrated multiple layers
of security before detonating the
explosives. Much about the attack at
Forward Operating Base Chapman remained
uncertain. Officials variously said the
blast had occurred as the bomber exited
a car, or after the bomber had reached
the base's gym or its cafeteria. |
|
north
korea calls for end to hostile relations
with u.s.
SEOUL,
SOUTH KOREA--North
Korea has called for an end to
hostile relations with the United States
in a New Year message, the official news
agency KCNA reported. "The fundamental
task for ensuring peace and stability on
the Korean peninsula and in the rest of
Asia is to put an end to the hostile
relationship between the DPRK (North
Korea) and the USA," it said in a report
of a joint newspaper editorial on the
country's foreign policy stance.
It added: "It is the consistent stand of
the DPRK to establish a lasting peace
system on the Korean peninsula and make
it nuclear-free through dialogue and
negotiations." U.S. President Barack
Obama wrote a personal letter to North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il this month to
try to persuade Pyongyang to return to
nuclear disarmament talks.
North Korea a year ago stepped away from a deal with
China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and
the United States to end its nuclear
program in exchange for massive aid and
an end to its international ostracism.
North Korea has exploded nuclear devices
but has yet to show it has a working
nuclear bomb. Experts doubt the North
has the ability to miniaturize an atomic
weapon to place on a missile, but it has
been trying to develop such a warhead. |
|
DUTCH FOREIGN MINISTER REJECTS
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR'S COMMENTS AND
SUMMON HIS AMBASSADOR
AMSTERDAM,
THE NETHERLANDS--Dutch
Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen
on Friday denied fresh accusations by
the Venezuelan government that the
Netherlands is supporting U.S. spy
flights over Venezuelan territory.
Verhagen condemned the comments as
"inaccurate, unjust and really out of
place" in a statement on Friday and said
he would summon Venezuela's ambassador
again to explain the remarks.
Twice in the past two weeks, the
government of dictator Hugo Chavez has
publicly claimed that the Dutch have let
the U.S. military launch spy flights
from bases on the territories of Aruba
and Curacao under the guise of drug
surveillance missions. On December 17
Chavez said the Netherlands was planning
"aggression" against Venezuela in
concert with the United States, and on
Thursday his government again charged
the Dutch with "complicity" in such
plans. Verhagen said the Netherlands had
made clear to the Venezuelan government
that the civilian airports in the Dutch
islands have been made available to the
United States solely for unarmed drug
surveillance missions. The United States
has for years had a military presence on
Curacao and Aruba, with about 250 Air
Force crew and ground staff involved in
counter-narcotics and surveillance
operations over the Caribbean region.
In its statement on Thursday, the Venezuelan government
questioned whether that was their true
purpose. "The Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela doubts the installations that
the Netherlands government has put at
the disposition of U.S. military
contingents are used in the fight
against drugs," it said. The Foreign
Ministry, which summoned the Venezuelan
ambassador last month, said on Friday it
wanted to see the ambassador again
"quickly" to clarify the new comments.
|
|
SEVEN CIA AGENTS KILLED IN AFGHAN
SUICIDE ATTACK
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Seven
CIA agents were killed and six
wounded in a suicide attack on a US base
in eastern Afghanistan, the Central
Intelligence Agency said on Thursday.
The US spy agency said the employees
were killed Taliban bomber managed
Wednesday to penetrate the defenses of a
base in the province of Khost,
detonating an explosives belt in a room
described as a gym. CIA chief Leon
Panetta told the agency that "seven of
their colleagues were killed and six
others were injured on Wednesday at a
forward operating base in Khost
Province, Afghanistan. The casualties
were the result of a terrorist attack,"
the CIA said in a statement. The agency
did not reveal the names of those
killed, citing the sensitivity of their
work in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said the base, used by the CIA as well as one of
many provincial reconstruction teams
that dot Afghanistan, was located close
to the Pakistan border. Teams operating
at the facility were tasked with
delivering humanitarian assistance and
stabilizing difficult areas. "Those who
fell yesterday were far from home and
close to the enemy, doing the hard work
that must be done to protect our country
from terrorism," Panetta said in his
message Thursday. The CIA director said
US military doctors and nurses managed
to save the lives of other agency
workers wounded in the attack, and
ordered flags at CIA's Virginia
headquarters outside Washington flown at
half-staff to honor those who died.
"Yesterday's tragedy reminds us that the men and women of the
CIA put their lives at risk every day to
protect this nation," he said.
"Throughout our history, the reality is
that those who make a real difference
often face real danger," Panetta said,
adding that the loved ones those who
died "are in our thoughts and prayers --
now and always." The attack appeared to
have killed more US intelligence
personnel than have died since the start
of the US-led invasion in 2001. The
Central Intelligence Agency has
acknowledged the deaths of four CIA
officers in Afghanistan since then. |
|
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ WARNS OPPONENTS
AGAINST COUP ATTEMPT
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA-VENEZUELAN
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ
said in a televised speech Wednesday
that any action like the failed military
rebellion against him in 2002 wouldn't
have a chance. "If something like that
occurs to you, our counterattack is
going to be firm. I'm warning you,"
Chavez said. The leftist dictator, who
has consolidated power in the years
since the short-lived 2002 coup, said if
opponents wanted to try again "they'd
have to import an armed force."
Chavez was responding to a prediction by Newsweek magazine,
which listed a coup in Venezuela among
its world predictions for 2010. It also
predicted Chavez's friend and mentor
Fidel Castro would die. "Newsweek
magazine takes the liberty of predicting
and saying that 2010 will be Fidel
Castro's last year on Earth. Well, could
it be that he's going to the moon?"
Chavez said with a chuckle, dismissing
both predictions as the wishes of those
who prepared the list. He also repeated
his near constant theme that Venezuela
is facing threats from the U.S. and
neighboring Colombia, and repeated his
accusation that U.S. military planes are
using the nearby Dutch islands of Aruba
and Curacao as hubs for intelligence
operations. The Dutch government has
rejected those accusations, saying U.S.
soldiers do use civilian air fields on
Curacao and Aruba but only for anti-drug
trafficking efforts. Colombian and U.S.
officials have denied their militaries
pose a threat to Venezuela.
As for President Barack Obama, Chavez said: "This year we've
witnessed the falling apart of Obama.
Obama fell to pieces. Well, there wasn't
much hope really." Chavez called the
U.S. hypocritical for criticizing
Venezuela's democracy while recognizing
the recent presidential election in
Honduras after the coup that ousted his
ally, Manuel Zelaya. Chavez also said
that he views Colombia as a "high risk"
issue in the coming year. He has warned
of a possible armed conflict if U.S.
troops use military bases in Colombia
against Venezuela. |
|
CUBAN GOVERNMENT RENEWS SWINE-FLU ALERT
HAVANA,
CUBA--Cuban
health authorities
have renewed calls for precautions ahead
of an expected resurgence of the AH1N1
flu virus that is blamed for 41 deaths
on the island and more than 11,500
fatalities worldwide.
“The presence of the epidemic could
increase” with the winter tourist season
and an influx of Cubans working or
studying abroad who come home for
holiday visits, Deputy Public Health
Minister Luis Estruch said in Friday’s
edition of Communist Party daily Granma.
“We have, as of the moment, fewer than
1,000 confirmed cases. There could be
more, but only those endorsed by a
virological sample are accepted as
official data,” he said.
Estruch, who heads the ministry’s
Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology
department, called for stepped up
surveillance of incoming passengers at
Cuba’s ports and airports.
He pointed out that the virus was
introduced to the island in May by
travelers from Mexico, where the
outbreak began.
The AH1N1 flu has claimed 41 lives in
Cuba, President Raul Castro said last
week in a speech to parliament, the
first official update on the death toll
since October. |
|
|
|