Politics

Cruise passengers describe terrifying waves in Spain

BARCELONA (AP) – The Mediterranean Sea is shaking while Ana Lita, an Italian aged 68, was resting in the lounge of the cruise. A minute later, a monster wave broke the windows of the boat and hit her with broken glass on the head, leaving her bleeding on the ground and calling for her husband.

Torrents of water soaked the Louis Cruise Majesty, flooding several floors of the ship.

“I thought it would at sea, drowned,” said Lita, who on Thursday had a black eye and bandages on his head and hand.

The three waves that struck the Cypriot vessel, killing two people on the coast of northeastern Spain. The ship was carrying 1,350 passengers and a crew of 580 from a total of 27 countries.

Lita’s husband, Carlo, 69, and who sat beside her when the accident occurred, was released into the air and finished with five points in the head and a leg injury.

Another Italian, Giovanni Zanoni, said that after the waves breaking windows in the common room, the roof gave way and sowed chaos.

“People were screaming, panicking. He took the life jackets,” said Zanoni. The passenger said he saw a huge piece of glass hit a man on the face, killing him. It took a while to find the body because he was under the ruins of the roof, he said.

Louis Cruise Lines, owner and operator of the ship, said the cruiser was hit Wednesday by three waves “unusually high” of 10 meters (33 feet). The waves smashed the windows of the bow section on the cover number five, which is one of the passengers using. Two people died and 14 were slightly injured, the company said.

Sarah Palin reads cheat notes on her hand – video

The fact that was criticized by many politicians and analysts today, Palin notes shows how his left hand several times, the time to answer some questions.

Palin was answering questions ultraconservative militants during a meeting Saturday in Nashville, a city located south of the country.

The former vice presidential candidate of the United States, Sarah Palin, used his hand as a makeshift aid memory, as can be seen in a new video released today.

According to some photos taken at the hand of Palin, who publishes the blog huffingtonpost.com, you can see the words “Energy”, “Tax and exacerbate the spirits,” while the phrase “budget cuts” appears with the word “budget” crossed out.

Obama asked Congress to increase national security spending

WASHINGTON .- The government of Barack Obama today unveiled a budget for 2011 of $ 3.8 billion that focuses its efforts on economic recovery, while cutting costs in various sectors, despite which provides a massive shortfall of nearly 1.3 billion.

The current budget (2009-2010) included about 130,000 million dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which cost a billion dollars since 2001.

In early December, Obama announced a reinforcement of 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is gaining ground.

For next year (2010-2011), whose bill was sent to Congress today, the U.S. administration plans to increase to 159,000 million dollars to finance the costs of conflict abroad.

The federal budget is for the fiscal year runs from October 2010 to September 2011.

Medicines. Another measure to raise funds for the Treasury proposal is the collection of fees on generic drug labs to help reduce the inspection time of the cheaper versions of drugs and alleviate a backlog of applications.

Obama’s plan for 2011 also proposed increasing funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA for its acronym in English) in order “to obtain cheaper generic drugs safe, effective and lower cost and expand the safety oversight of medical products once they have entered the market.

Biotech drugs, or biological, are produced from living organisms and are more complicated to manufacture than traditional drugs based on chemicals.

Cut to NASA. The first American president on Monday ruled NASA project to send astronauts back to the moon, which would cost 100,000 million dollars, the seventh anniversary of the Columbia space shuttle tragedy.

The death of seven astronauts in 2003 when the shuttle disintegrated on its return to Earth, made the then-President George W. Bush proposed returning to the moon. NASA has already spent 9,100 million dollars in that program.

However, the White House said Thursday that the program is too similar to the Apollo missions of the 1960s and would need large budget increases to carry astronauts to the satellite by 2030.

In the budget the president sent Congress on Monday promised a new approach to the topic, without elaborating. Obama also proposed using 6,000 million over the next five years to encourage private companies to build spacecraft that NASA can rent.

McCain’s daughter comes out in defense of the daughters of Zapatero

Meghan McCain, daughter of former Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency, John McCain, left yesterday on behalf of the daughters of President of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and expressed surprise that there is a country that protects and privacy of minors. Continue reading the printed article
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McCain’s daughter comes out in defense of the daughters of Zapatero Enlarge photo

In an article published by “The Daily Beast”-a digital newspaper columnist and she is Meghan McCain confesses amazement because “there is a country in which the means to protect the children of public figures, and even more so if the daughters the prime minister. ”

In his commentary says he was “deeply saddened” that “these girls are enduring the baptism of fire of the media scrutiny that has surrounded the family picture with Obama.”

“Not only because they are unaccustomed to photograph them, but because its first foray into this that they are shooting and the critique has been done at the level of the most famous and powerful politicians around the world,” says Meghan McCain.

It also indicates that Zapatero’s daughters “are teenagers who express themselves and it is clear that the president (of Spain) and his wife had no problem so their dress gothic dress to meet with Obama.”

The columnist confesses “fascinated” by the fact that Rodriguez Zapatero was able to dissuade the Spanish state news agency not to circulate the photo. The youngest daughters are protected by Spanish law.

Although this is a version that was published in Spanish media, the Agencia Efe has categorically denied that there had been a call from the Spanish Presidency of the Government requesting it not be transmitted photographs of children who had in his possession.

Simply, it is the policy of the Agency, as endorsed by its Board of Editors does not transmit pictures of minors against the will of their parents.

In his commentary, Meghan McCain says he can not believe “that a photo of President Barack Obama and his family, in any context, is not distributed via the Internet or the agencies, no matter how the picture.”

He laments that “our media do not have the same limitations with families. Unfortunately it is.”

To illustrate this statement, Megan McCain confesses that “deeply sympathizes with Laura and Alba, two young teenagers who are brought to the UN, in a foreign country, whose physical appearance and clothing have been vilified and ridiculed by our media.

By the end asks, “What kind of reception is that to a foreign diplomat and his family?” and expresses its hope that the “mass media to learn and be more respectful, not only with children of foreign diplomats, but with our own first family and other families of politicians.”

“Nobody knows better than me, being the daughter of a politician is something that is not chosen at birth. Do you think if we give these girls a break?, Megan McCain concluded by referring to the daughters of Zapatero.

Bush tops list of most absurd statements – according to a survey

London, Sept. 8 (EFE) .- The residence of George W. Bush at the White House is remembered for many things, among them by the incoherent and meaningless phrases uttered during his tenure and who have given former U.S. president the dubious honor of leading a “list of the most absurd statements.

The list has been conducted through a survey via the Internet by British insurer Aviva, with the participation of 4,000 people and has a seven politicians in the top ten, with two sports commentators and a footballer.

George W. Bush is the only one that appears twice.

The top ten is as follows:

1 .- George W. Bush, U.S. President on 5 August 2004: “Our enemies are innovative and have resources and we do too. Do not ever stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

2 .- Arnold Schwarzenegger, California governor’s election campaign in 2003: “I think gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

3 .- Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 12 February 2002: “Reports that say that something has not happened are always interesting. There are things we know we know. There are known unknowns, ie we know there are some things we do not know. But there are things unknown unknowns, we do not know we do not know. ”

4 .- Murray Walker, motor racing commentator, “the frontrunner car is absolutely unique, except for going back, which is identical”

5 .- John Motson, football commentator, “for those who are watching the game in black and white, Spurs are in yellow.

6 .- Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, 1 July 2009: “Total government spending will continue to increase and a 0 percent in the period 2013-2014.

7 .- Bill Clinton in 1998 during testimony before the grand jury “Lewinsky affair”: “depends on what is the meaning of the word ‘is’. If ‘is’ means ‘is and never has been,’ that is one thing if it means ‘none’, then it was a completely true statement.

8 .- Eric Cantona, footballer, in 1995: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.”

9 .- George W. Bush, U.S. President on 22 July 2001: “I know what I believe. I will express what I believe and what I believe. I believe what I believe is right.”

10 .- Boris Johnson, Mayor of London in 2003: “could not disagree less with you.”

Open discussions in the early Obama presidential vacation?

The U.S. president, Barack Obama, began his first vacation in the exclusive island of Martha’s Vineyard (Massachusetts), accompanied by his family and a long list of political problems.

Obama begins the White House has described as a “deserved rest”, amid a strong debate inside and outside his party on the plan to reform the health care system, with the country in recession, a high deficit and two war.

In fact, the government cut its forecast for the budget shortfall for fiscal 2009 to 1.58 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros) from 1.84 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros). This is mainly due to the removal of a sum of 250,000 million dollars had been booked earlier forecasts for potential bailouts of banks in the future.

Seven days on the island

It is expected that some of the closest friends of Obama, the presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and Eric Whitaker Medical Chicago, accompanying her during a week stay on the island, one of the favorite destinations of the country’s elite progressive .

The Obama rented a mansion known as “Blue Heron Farm” ( “Blue Heron Farm”) that has access to a private beach, a garden with trees, swimming pool and a basketball court, the favorite sport of the president.

11.34 acres of the property is rented for $ 35,000 (24,400 euros) per week, costing the Obama of his pocket.

In addition, the White House has asked the media to respect the privacy of Malia and Sasha, Obama daughters, 11 and 9 years.

The arrival of Obama has revolutionized the exclusive resort, with a permanent population of about 20,000 is multiplied by five during July and August.

The island is filled with all kinds of souvenirs with the image of the presidential family, from shirts to mugs, key rings and ice cream and muffins by the name of Obama.

Obama wants to be better parents than men that their own

WASHINGTON (AP) – During his childhood, Barack Obama received from his father, a basketball, his first name and ambitions, but little more than that. The president of United States now is asking Americans to be better parents to their own.

In contrast with the little he received from his father, his son gave him much more: a lifetime of memories and comments on the man who abandoned his family, a book entitled “Dreams of My Father” and the legacy of his daughters Sasha, for eight years and Malia, 10.

As a candidate and now president, Obama is repeating a ritual repeated every Father’s Day and is not ashamed of it. Advises the type of men to be father and calls on Americans to be better parents than it was hers.

The president said he understood the importance of fatherhood in his absence in households that grew, like some 24 million Americans who today are growing up without a father.

His wife, Michelle, has repeatedly how his father died, Fraser is its foundation and its referent.

Barack Hussein Obama father left a family in Africa to study in United States. He was pastor of a Kenyan goat transformed into intellectual who won scholarships and attended the University of Harvard.

He started another family in the United States and then abandoned his second wife and Barak when he was two years to return to Africa with another woman.

His fortunes faded into Africa after working for an oil company and the Kenyan government. He began to drink and died in a traffic accident when his son was 21 years and studied at Columbia University.

“I do not want to be the type of father I had,” said the agent to a friend as a new book about his life.

However, it is not considered a model father. No politician can do ambitious.

“I know I’ve been an imperfect father,” he wrote in the Sunday edition of Parade magazine. “I know I made mistakes. I lost my mind, over the years, the demands of my work away from my duties of a father.”

Barack Obama said – The U.S. and Islam are not unique and need not compete

After making history in Egypt, with his speech to the Muslim world, the U.S. president, Barack Obama, arrives in Europe to an emotional look back at recent history. In his brief visit to Germany, where he landed Thursday night, and France, the U.S. leader to visit the Buchenwald concentration camp and participate in the pomp that recall the Normandy landings.

Obama has tried to turn the page on Thursday to the difficult relations between the U.S. and the world musilmán. “I came here to seek a fresh start between the U.S. and Muslims, one based on mutual interest and respect,” he said.

“The U.S. and Islam are not unique and need not compete,” said the president, who said he hoped to build a coalition with Muslim governments to support their diplomatic initiatives, reaffirmed its commitment to a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict . “The situation of the Palestinians is intolerable,” he said.

Europe will stop, on the contrary, a more emotional stress than political. According to the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, Obama’s visit to Dresden and Buchenwald, and then to Normandy, is to mark the memory of war and Nazism.

“The concentration camp of Buchenwald, the battlefields of northern France and the destruction of Dresden has become a symbol of terrible suffering exemplary brought Europe to Germany to star in the Holocaust and the horrors of World War II,” said Merkel in Statements published on Friday the newspaper “Leipziger Volkszeitung. “We Germans, we keep the memory alive in order that this does not recur.”

Obama arrived at the airport in Dresden (East Germany) on board the presidential aircraft, the Air Force One, which landed at 2050 hours on Thursday. The official part of this visit will start this Friday morning at a meeting with Merkel in the Green Vault, which houses the museum collection of royal jewels of Europe’s most valuable. The visit to Dresden is of great historical burden, as a symbol of the horrors of war. On the night of 13 to 14 February 1945, with virtually defeated the Third Reich, the city of Dresden was the victim of an operation launched by the punishment of allied aircraft.
A memory of suffering and destruction

“In Dresden, President Obama will see a city that has long been a memory of suffering and destruction has become a jewel that addresses the future with optimism and dynamism, the chancellor said in the interview.

The city was practically destroyed and the reconstruction work for the division of Germany-Dresden was part of the former Democratic Republic, focused on building homes, ignoring the rehabilitation of historic buildings of what had been the capital of the German Baroque.

From there they moved to Buchenwald, accompanied by Merkel and the Nobel Peace Prize winner Eli Wiesel, a survivor of the concentration camp, where an estimated 56,000 confined uaos died of cold, hunger, diseases or victims of Nazi experiments .

Some 21,000 prisoners lived through the liberation of the camp April 11, 1945, when U.S. troops entered Buchenwald. Among those soldiers was Charles Payne, Obama’s grandfather, uncle of 84 years at present.

Obama ended his visit to Germany in the American base at Ramstein, the largest in Europe, and the hospital in Landstuhl, where he treated the wounded who arrive daily airlift of Afghanistan and Iraq. The president will leave the military base of Ramstein in the direction of Paris, last stop on his recent tour of Middle East and Europe.

The tour concludes in France, where the president will participate in events commemorating the 65 anniversary of the Normandy landings, and will meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Hong Kong imposed a quarantine for 350 swine flu

Authorities in Hong Kong signed a downtown hotel with 350 tourists and employees inside in an attempt to contain an epidemic of swine flu, while Costa Rica, Canada, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Israel confirmed new cases of people infected with the virus.

The Minister of Health of Costa Rica, Maria Luisa Avila, on Saturday confirmed the first case of influenza in Latin America outside of Mexico, after receiving the results of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.

Spain confirmed two new cases of infection and Italy reported its first influenza sick swine.

In Hong Kong, the government located to all persons who have been in contact with a Mexican tourist who brought the virus to the area and a total of 71 Mexicans who are in China were isolated by the health authorities, according to the Foreign Secretary protested that this action it deemed “unjustified”.

Even Espinosa called on Saturday to their fellow citizens not to travel to China, “while these measures may not be corrected.”

The rapid and intense action of the authorities of the former British colony indicated the willingness to demonstrate what they learned from the deadly virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003. At the time, accused the authorities of Hong Kong to impose quarantine measures too late.

Germany confirmed the case of a man of 38 years in Bavaria, which added six in the central European country. The chairman of the laboratory of the Ministry of Health, Joerg Hacker, said that none of the patients at risk.

Canada on Saturday raised the number of infected to 85, with three new minor in British Columbia.

The Ministry of Health Services of British Columbia said that the province has 22 confirmed cases of swine flu. Shortly before that these new cases were reported, Robert Strang, Nova Scotia chief doctor, said that the province has 17 new cases.

There are now 31 cases in Nova Scotia, the province with the largest number of patients confirmed in the country.

In addition, Canadian officials reported that some pigs in the province of Alberta have been infected by the new flu virus and swine are in quarantine.

It is the first known report of a case where the new virus infected pigs.

Regularly, because the swine flu epidemic in these animals, and officials stressed that the pigs do not represent a dietary risk.

The officials said Saturday at a press conference that the pigs had been infected by a Canadian worker who recently traveled to Mexico and fell ill after his return.

The British authorities confirmed two new cases, bringing the total to 15, three of them in Scotland. Two of the patients had not traveled to Mexico.

One patient in the region of Tuscany in central Italy, was diagnosed with swine flu, said on Saturday, a hospital authority, the first confirmed case of the epidemic in Italy.

The hospital’s director Massa Carrara, Biselli Giuliano, said that the man is recovering, but will remain hospitalized for several days as a precaution.

In Spain, the Ministry of Health confirmed two new cases of swine flu, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 15.

A ministry statement issued on Saturday said that all infected, but one had recently traveled to Mexico. None was in serious health condition.

The two new patients are in the eastern region of Valencia, where a person had been previously diagnosed with the disease. A total of 103 persons are under observation in Spain, added the ministry.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli hospital on Saturday, the third diagnosed case of swine flu in the country. The patient, a man of 33 years, was in good health but remained under observation, the professor said Yehuda Carmeli, Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

In South Korea, reported the second confirmed case of swine flu in Asia. She is a woman who has been quarantined since the beginning of the week when he returned from Mexico.

Globally the number of cases was around 750, the vast majority in Mexico, United States and Canada. The virus has killed at least 16 people in Mexico and one in United States.

With the disease in the threshold of Hong Kong, China suspended all direct flights to Mexico, the epicenter of the swine flu virus in quarantine and put to other travelers on the same flight that arrived from Mexico 25 years old who became the first confirmed case in Asia in late on Friday. The Mexican first landed in Shanghai before proceeding to Hong Kong, where he was in the hotel Metropark.

Workers from the health department on Saturday, patrolling the lobby of the hotel Metropark. The hotel is in quarantine for seven days, starting on Friday.

Other employees for assistance in monitoring civil maintained resort Lady MacLehose Holiday Village in the suburbs of Hong Kong. The place was used as a quarantine center for other guests and hotel staff Metropark.

In Brazil, the Ministry of Health reported that the largest country in Latin America has no confirmed cases of swine flu, but 14 people with symptoms of the disease, who were in countries where patients have been confirmed or who had contact with sick people, have been hospitalized. It is probable cases of the disease.

The Argentine Ministry of Defense ordered the installation of a mobile hospital at the international airport of Ezeiza, outside Buenos Aires, to attend to passengers suspected of having influenza A or submit a fever to go through the scanners temperature located in the airport terminal.

The hospital, which will be ready on Wednesday, has 24 beds and an operating room.

Meanwhile, Minister of Health of the city of Buenos Aires, Jorge Lemus, told a local radio station in the city’s hospitals “had 40 consultations (for symptoms of influenza A) of which 28 were discarded and 12 could be considered suspicious. ”

For their part, some 150 Argentines waited the arrival of two flights to Mexico sent by the government to bring them back to the country after being stranded in the Mexican capital and the city of Cancun after the government Wednesday suspended flights to and from that country to prevent the entry of potential patients. The suspension runs through Monday.

In Peru, was cleared on Saturday that his country’s citizens who are in Mexico to return to flight “ad hoc,” said Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde.

“It has not been restored (flights), has authorized the Peruvians who are tourists in the city of Mexico to return to Peru and to allow flights that were ad hoc. Not with regular frequency,” Garcia Belaunde said in a telephone conversation with AP.

The head of diplomacy said that the Peruvian Peruvian citizens flying from Mexico to Peru had no “time limit”. “I estimate that this will be in a matter of just a few days,” he said.

On Thursday the Ministry of Transport of Peru said in a communique that as a precautionary measure, the government had suspended flights to and from Mexico in response to the notice issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), which rose to levels five levels of alert for pandemic of swine flu virus.

Is globalization has made us more prone to disaster ?

The position of the U.S. president to torture – Obama and the box of thunder

Is Barack Obama of wanting to open the box of thunder on the use of torture under the Bush Administration? How far is willing to pull the hand up the rope? That rope is actually quite short and leads directly to those who designed and ordered to conduct the war on terror ‘between September 2001 and early 2009.

Among these characters are none other than Donald Rumsfeld, then chief of the Pentagon, John Ashcroft, attorney general of the State, Alberto Gonzales, first as a key advisor in the Department of Justice and then as a successor to Ashcroft, the heads of the CIA , first George Tenet and then Michael Hayden, Condoleezza Rice, the first National Security advisor and later secretary of state, and the influential Vice President Dick Cheney.

This list is not complete, certainly, if it was not on their big star, the 43rd occupant of the White House, George W. himself Bush.

“It is likely that use is made scapegoats

Are they referring to Obama by chance when, forced by the Left Democrats and organizations that defend civil rights and human rights, said days ago that was not ruled out prosecution of those responsible for having legitimized torture?

Not seem to want to go that far: never a U.S. president has done something similar with its predecessor. His advisers, in turn, pressured by the right-wing Democrat, by a majority of the Republican Party, by the Pentagon and the powerful intelligence agency, you are warning of uncontrollable consequences that such action could have for his new presidency .

Despite this, in the closest of those who believe Obama is that it would consolidate its image as a new president and gain more authority to the whole world, especially in Muslim countries, whether with specific facts demonstrating that the aberrant crimes committed under the umbrella of the ‘war on terror’ for eight years did not go unpunished.

This will seek to find a few scapegoats, limiting the court action against a very limited number of officials, against those whose signatures appear below the main secret memos produced between 2002 and 2005, which provided the scaffolding and legal arguments for never justify what would have been justified: the use of systematic torture of prisoners (under the euphemism of “coercive interrogation” or “extreme methods”).

The same team of lawyers from the Justice Department, Pentagon and intelligence services is that since shortly after the 11-S, also suggested rocambolescos legal mechanisms in order to ’shield’ in the federal courts and international courts, both the torturer ‘base’ of the CIA or military intelligence, as is the commander in chief of the armed forces, George W. Bush, the official total impunity for their crimes.

That team, calling itself the “Committee of War,” was composed mainly of David Addington, former adviser to Dick Cheney, Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, Jay S. Bybee and John Yoo, assistant state prosecutor, Steven G. Bradbury, head of the Legal Department of Justice, and William J. Haynes II, general counsel of the Department of Defense.

“It has been torture disguised under the euphemism of” coercive interrogation “or” extreme methods ”

Several of these advisors are also on the list of those to whom the judge Baltasar Garzon intends to pursue for his responsibility in this concentration camp of the XXI century has been Guantanamo since January 2002, an action that disagrees with the Office of the Audiencia Nacional .

However, the possibility of limiting the court action in this “War Committee” would be very difficult, to the extent that the report of more than 200 pages released on Wednesday a Senate committee, as well as internal investigations The Army conducted because of the scandal of Abu Ghraib in 2004, leave no doubt that those responsible were those who went past the White House, Pentagon, Justice Department and the CIA.

It remains to be seen how far Obama manages to get out of those waters in the marsh that has been put, without being too much evidence that back and leave everything as is, with impunity guaranteed.

Roberto Montoya is section chief of the newspaper THE WORLD International, international policy analyst and author, among other works, the trials’ global empire ‘and’ imperial impunity.

U.S. removes restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba by relatives

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The U.S. president, Barack Obama, on Monday lifted all restrictions on travel and remittances for Cuban-Americans with family in Cuba, reported the White House.

“The president tasked the Secretaries of State, Treasury and Commerce to take the necessary steps to lift all restrictions on individuals to visit their relatives in Cuba and send remittances,” he said in a press conference the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs .

The governor “ordered that steps be taken to reach out to Cubans to support their desire to enjoy basic human rights and determine the future of their country,” said Gibbs.

Similarly, Obama allowed U.S. companies to establish connections with fiber optics and satellite Cuba and negotiate with their peers on the island to offer mobile telephony services, as well as expand the list of humanitarian goods that could be exported to the list.

The lifting of restrictions will benefit 1.5 million Cuban-Americans who may travel and mandar unlimited money to their relatives on the island.

The decision that a specific Obama promise made during his campaign, comes on the eve of the first reunion of the U.S. president with its Latin American peers at the Summit of the Americas, between Friday and Sunday in Trinidad.

Ahmadinejad first day of torpedoing Durban II to attack Israel – huge stir on the first day of the UN Conference on Racism

GENEVA (AFP) – The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday caused a huge stir on the first day of the UN Conference on Racism

Ahmadinejad ignored the call of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, not to associate Zionism with racism and rose to the podium to denounce the creation of Israel deprived of land to an entire nation under the pretext of Jewish suffering .

After the Second World War (1939-1945) “sent to migrants from Europe, United States and the world of the Holocaust to establish a racist government in occupied Palestine,” said the Iranian president, who tends to frequently criticize Israel.

When called for “efforts to end the abuses of the Zionists and (his) supporters,” the 23 European representatives present left the room at the European headquarters of the UN, amid booing, as previously agreed in Should Ahmadinejad launched “anti-Semitic accusations.”

Several demonstrators wore multicolored wigs and red noses also hindered at shouts of “racist” Ahmadinejad’s speech, which lasted half an hour instead of the officially planned seven minutes.

The Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) claimed this operation, while described as a “farce” the follow-up conference held in 2001 in Durban (South Africa), which had finished in the midst of confusion following the decision United States and Israel to withdraw from the criticism of the Hebrew State.

The UN strongly condemned the attitude of Ahmadinejad. “I regret the use of this platform by the Iranian president to acknowledge, divide and even lead,” said Ban.

Western countries condemned the chain of the Iranian statements.

From New York, the United States deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff, whose country refused to participate in the conference, branded as “shameful, abominable and odious.”

Eight other countries have refused to travel to Geneva: Israel, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Australia, Holland, Italy and Poland.

European countries once again demonstrate their disunity. Late, Great Britain and France chose to participate but only at the ambassadorial level.

While the Europeans left the courtroom, observers remained in the Vatican. Also stayed where they were Latin Americans, who chose to attend the meeting.

In fact, Brazil as “inexplicable and unacceptable” to boycott the conference by United States and eight other countries.

“Away from the negotiating process means surrendering to the lack of dialogue,” said the Brazilian minister of Development and Racial Equality, Edson Santos.

The summit involved 103 of the 192 states comprising the UN, including all of Latin America and the Caribbean, with about 2,000 activists from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), with the aim of laying the groundwork for an international plan to improve combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and various forms of intolerance.

In addition to the statements of Ahmadinejad, the draft final declaration also poses problems, as most western countries questioned its contents, even though the text adopted on Friday by the commission to prepare the summit and no mention of Israel or the principle of defamation of religion.

Negotiations on the text will continue this week with the aim that it be adopted on Friday, last day of the conference

Blow to U.S. piracy in Somalia – Navy Captain Richard Phillips freed after being held for five days – three of the four hijackers were killed in the rescue operation

Navy Captain Richard Phillips freed after being held for five days – three of the four hijackers were killed in the rescue operation

The U.S. Navy succeeded in rescuing the captain of the merchant yesterday Maersk Alabama, Richard Phillips, 53, captured by Somali pirates on Wednesday. Three died in the operation of their captors. The fourth was taken to the destroyer Bainbridge to negotiate his surrender and has been under U.S. custody, as reported yesterday by the Department of Defense. The operation involving military experts and the FBI. The tactics with which he has solved the kidnapping may open new routes, more aggressive in how the international community will be confronted with a crime network that in 2008 captured 40 ships.

The U.S. president, Barack Obama, has authorized the use of force if it came to the point where life could be endangered Phillips. The president described yesterday Captain Richard Phillips as “a model for all Americans.” “I’m very proud of the efforts of the U.S. army and other departments and agencies that have worked tirelessly to save the captain,” he said in a statement.

The U.S. military command decided to solve the kidnapping of the limited use of force. Thus ended more than 100 hours of captivity in which four armed pirates were able to maintain suspense United States. Finally, Captain Phillips, who described her as a brave crew capable of risking their lives to prevent the 19 men who were under his command suffered any harm, as a national hero returns to his home in Vermont.

The operation began when the hostage jumped into the lifeboat which was being held, using the early hours of the night, and hackers take aim with their weapons, according to information released yesterday by the Army’s Central Command. “At this point we feel that his life was in danger and decided to act,” said Vice Admiral Bill Gortney at a press conference.

A command of the Navy SEAL (special operations corps of the Navy) killed three pirates who remained in the boat. The captain was transferred to Bainbridge, from which coordinated the rescue efforts.

Speech by the FBI

The FBI had conducted negotiations with the pirates, which were broken in the early hours of Saturday. Until then, tribal leaders of the Somali region of Jariban tried to mediate by telephone with the captors to retain four to Phillips. USA demanded the release to Phillips and to stop the hijackers, to which tribal leaders refused. The pirates demanded a ransom of initial 1.5 million.

Finally, the U.S. command decided to break off negotiations. Phillips had tried to escape over the side on Saturday, taking advantage of darkness. At that time, pirates captured him again and threatened to kill him.

United States remained almost 5 days pending the release of the master. His ship arrived in the early hours of Saturday at the port of Mombasa in Kenya, where it initially went with a shipment of food to the UN. “We’re saved! Is a hero,” said the second board, Ken Quinn, upon reaching land. The crew then reported the abduction in detail. The pirates attacked the boat so unusual. Their number, four people, was small compared with other similar operations, which some Americans have ventured that it could be because it was an impromptu action, and that probably did not know that the pirates were raiding a ship with American flag.

When they reached the deck, the ship’s engineer, A. T. M. Reza, succeeded in capturing its leader. In a tense exchange, the captain decided to offer Philips hostage. Thus, he returned to the boat when the leader of the pirates were released. The attackers failed to meet its side of the bargain.

Two centuries without pirates

In almost two centuries, the U.S. has not experienced such a crisis. The recent acts of piracy over the country are reminiscent of the Berber Wars, when faced blackmail and kidnapping by pirates of North Africa in the early nineteenth century. However, the problem of piracy was added the bad memory that prevails in Washington of the bloody defeat lived in Somalia in the 90s.

In 1993 U.S. troops who were on a humanitarian mission in Somalia in Mogadishu fought against the militia of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. They managed to shoot down two Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 U.S. soldiers.

The president Bill Clinton ordered a complete withdrawal from the area and his administration began an isolationist phase, in which he avoided intervening in armed conflicts in the Third World.

That situation changed last week when the United States affected piracy. Republican Senator Tom Coburn told Fox News that could not offer any concession to the pirates and that the management of this problem was going to have to act “in a much more aggressive.” This was the formula that led to release Phillips and perhaps become a more common practice for dealing with piracy.
France rescued a yacht hijacked by pirates

French forces on Saturday attacked the pirates who hijacked last week a private yacht in an operation in which one of the hostages died. The French Government has informed that the military killed two pirates and captured three others.

Le Tanit the boat with two couples on board and a child of three years, was captured by pirates on April 4, about 640 kilometers from the Somali coast, as he was traveling to Zanzibar. Elysium’s office said in a statement that the child is safe, but has offered no details on which of the hostages died.

The note adds that the Navy French contact with the pirates on Thursday and a decision was made to conduct the rescue operation after the pirates rejected the terms of the French Government and try to bring the yacht to the coast.

The press release concludes that the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, “reaffirms the determination of France not to give in to blackmail and to thwart piracy.”
A tugboat kidnapped Italian

Meanwhile, an Italian flag and tug with 16 people aboard was hijacked by pirates on Saturday in the Gulf of Aden. The Buccaneer, owned by a U.S. company, launched an emergency call was taken aboard the warship Portuguese Corte-Real, which is involved in the security device deployed by NATO in the area that was too far to assist the vessel attacked.

The kidnapping was confirmed by Andrew Muangura, coordinator of the Program of Assistance to Africa’s Eastern Navigators. At the time of the attack, the Buccaneer was towing two boats, which have not been informed what cargo. “This incident shows that pirates have become bolder and more violent,” said Muangura.

It was not the only one confirmed attack on Saturday against ships in the Indian Ocean. A Panamanian flagged cargo ship was also assaulted when they transit the Gulf of Aden, between Somalia and Yemen. The attackers came to throw grenades at the bridge side and fired at the hull of the boat. The attack was repelled by water jets at high pressure released from the interior of the vessel, according to officials aboard the Corte-Real.

Friday night was released on Norwegian ship Bow Asir, 23,000 tons, after payment of a ransom from its owners. Some sources say the shipping company paid $ 2.4 million for the release of the vessel, hijacked in late March with 27 crew on board.

Thousands of protesters and police clash in central London

Heavily guarded by thousands of police and escorted by four horses of Revelation carton, symbolizing war, climate chaos, financial crimes and homelessness, the demonstrators gathered in front of the Bank of England (central) to express their anger against bankers.

The police estimated that about 4,000 protesters were in the streets of the City.

By noon local (11H00 GMT), police surrounded the protesters and not let anyone enter or leave the square at the center of the City, the financial district in central London. At least 23 people have been arrested, according to police.

Some 5,000 policemen have been deployed to protect the heads of State and Government of 20 countries being held on Thursday in a huge conference center east of London, and deal with the protests.

Many banks, insurance companies, financial firms and shops in the City are covered with wooden fences, in anticipation of protests.

“There is anger, a lot of anger against the banks, which have precipitated the crisis, and benefit from it, while people pay the cost of the recession,” he told AFP one protester, Carmen Roig, who participates in the coalition G20 Meltdown , who called the protests against the Bank of England.

Some of the protesters painted graffiti on the doors of banks and brokers. One of them drew a flower, but at his side, a young man with a handkerchief tapándole faces wrote “Burn it” (Burn).

By early evening, some protesters broke the windows of a branch of Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the banks that received a multimillion-dollar rescue of the British government to prevent its collapse.

Despite the impressive array of riot police, some of the demonstrators managed to enter the bank and climbed to the roof of the RBS.

An RBS spokeswoman said the agency was closed on Wednesday, but there was no one inside. “We made the decision yesterday to close a number of agencies,” he said.

Images of bankers effigies hanging on lamp posts and called anarchist organizations to “burn a banker,” that circulated in dozens of web sites, on the eve of the summit of the G20, led to banks and financial firms the City to take precautionary measures unprecedented.

The group recently claimed responsibility for attacking the luxurious residence of former executive Fred Goodwin of RBS, who received a multimillion dollar retirement, despite having contributed to the collapse of that bank had threatened to launch more operations against “criminal bankers.”

Banks asked their employees not to come to work, and that if they had to come to the City, which left hanging in their closets their ties, dark shoes and elegant attire, that could become targets of attacks.

Other protesters have set up camp in the City to denounce global warming.

The massive protests against the G20 debuted on Saturday, when some 35,000 demonstrators took to the streets of the British capital to demand “jobs, justice and the fight against climate change.”