World News Post: Apr 15, 2011

Friday, April 15, 2011

Obama's austerity: dispute over cuts at four billion dollars

The Republicans have announced strong opposition to the fiscal policies of President Obama. The Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, John Boehner made clear on Wednesday that tax increases are unacceptable to his party. In a speech at George Washington University on Thursday night, President Obama introduced an austerity plan, which saved over the next twelve years to four trillion dollars (the equivalent of € 2.8 trillion) in household will be. The defense budget should be reduced, taxes are increased, the lower income groups but are largely unaffected by stress.

WTO - Lamy wants to get negotiators to the confessional

Big nervousness in the air Tuesday, March 29 at the General Council meeting, the supreme body of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Usually patient and tireless, its director Pascal Lamy for the first time mentioned a possible failure of the Doha Round negotiations [launched in 2001]. And literally begged the members to consider the consequences of such an eventuality.

"I do not think it's time to make long speeches, he told delegates. It's time for you, especially for those who have the greatest responsibility in the system, thinking the costs of failure for the world economy and prospects for development of weaker countries that rely on a multilateral rules-based.

New bombing in Tripoli 27 days after the start of the allied intervention

Tripoli .- The NATO aircraft carried out three bombings Thursday in the Libyan capital, Tripoli and its surroundings, as recognized by a spokesman for the Atlantic Alliance. The attacks have destroyed "a battery of air missiles" in the south of the city, and also "the information coming from the pilots is that they have beaten two other targets near the center of the city." Muammar Gaddafi's government has been estimated at three the number of civilians killed on Thursday in Tripoli because of the bombings carried out by NATO aircraft and had previously Libyan television reported.

The Mubarak's health is stable but remains hospitalized

The Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who was arrested yesterday, remains in hospital International Sharm el Sheikh, where stable, according to medical sources reported on Thursday. According to sources quoted by the official MENA news agency, Mubarak is accompanied by his wife, Suzane, in room number 309 of the hospital.

Another hospital source said that Mubarak and his wife have not received any visitors since yesterday and are assisted by a Filipino maid. Yesterday, Egyptian police arrested Mubarak and his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, after the Attorney General ordered the arrest of three for 15 days. Mubarak and his sons are accused of abuse of power and illicit enrichment, and to be involved in the attack on protesters during the popular revolt that forced the resignation of then president, on 11 February.

NIGERIA - Assassination of opposition leader

Modu Makanike Gana, a leader of the youth organization of the Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) was shot March 27 in Maiduguri, the newspaper reported Yaounde Cameroon Tribune. The authorities suspect an act of the Islamic sect Boko Haram very active in this region of northern Nigeria. The head, killed instantly, was leaving a rally when men on motorcycles, weapons in hand, arose and strafed the Kalashnikov.

Arrested two suspects in connection with the subway attack in Minsk

Moscow. .- The Belarus security forces have arrested two suspects in connection with the terrorist attack on Monday in Minsk subway that left 12 dead and nearly two hundred injured. With these and are 5 people who have been arrested for an attack that shocked the Belarusian city. "He (the attack) has been arrested and his accomplices identified.

They have less than 30 years, are citizens of Belarus and no criminal record," said Andrei Shved today, Deputy Prosecutor of Belarus, according to Russian news agencies. The two new detainees are in addition to the three arrested on Tuesday, including the alleged perpetrator of the explosion at rush hour in the central metro station 'Oktiábraskaya', not far from the presidential residence.

The international community calls for a ceasefire and dialogue in Libya

The leaders of the UN, European Union, Arab League, African Union and the Organization for Islamic Conference in Cairo have highlighted the need for a ceasefire in Libya and begin a process of dialogue. "We are concerned about the escalating violence and civilian casualties" in Libya, said the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who chaired the meeting at Arab League headquarters in central Cairo.

CHINA - activists accused of human rights

A month after his arrest, writer and blogger Ran Yunfei China was formally charged on 28 March, of "inciting subversion of state power". He faces a prison sentence of at least five years, says the Hong Kong daily Ming Pao. On 29, Ding Mao, was also accused of the same crime. Ran is one of many victims of the unprecedented repression which followed the calls for rallies Jasmin, launched February 17 in China.

King Mohammed VI granted pardon to 190 prisoners

Madrid .- The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI has pardoned a total of 190 prisoners, in response to a report by the National Council for Human Rights (CDNH), as announced by the Moroccan Ministry of Justice in a statement picked up by the official news agency MAP. The measure of grace will bring the majority of prisoners (96 prisoners) the cancellation of the remainder of his sentence, while for five inmates lead a commutation of his death by a prison sentence.

Candidates behind bars, Turkish MPs with one foot in jail

From Jail to Parliament and Parliament to jail. It is not so rare trip to Turkey, a country where the judiciary and the legislature dragged a long history of fighting. The general elections of June 12 will confirm again, there are 14 candidates in the ready-made public this week, "currently in custody.

And between 70 and 80 MPs, who have to leave the seat in June, is facing trial, some with jail waiting forever. For the pro-Kurdish deputies BDP is now a routine, any excuse to use the Kurdish language, and being in a demonstration with banners independence, can lead to charges of "collaborating with terrorists." Eight members of this party, they will lose the immunity to renew the Chamber, accumulate claims totaling 895 years in prison.

SYRIA - Thirty years of terror

From 1970 to 2000, the date of his death, the dictator Hafez Assad, father of current president, has raged mercilessly against its opponents.

Trente Oiseaux (wikipedia)

Clinton says U.S. remain in Libya until Qaddafi fall

Berlin .- The Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on Thursday urged NATO countries to maintain the "unity" because, she said, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is trying to prove the "determination" allies in its military operation against its forces. "While continuing our mission, we maintain our resolve and unity is increasingly important," said Clinton before the foreign ministers of NATO, meeting in Berlin today and tomorrow, before the last signs of dissension among the allies.

Morocco frees three Sahrawi activists imprisoned for 18 months

The Court of First Instance in Casablanca has decided, after a trial extended several times, the provisional release of three Saharawi activists arrested in October 2009 and accused of "threatening internal security" of Morocco. The three Sahrawi are still in prison, but prison officials said his release from prison could occur on Thursday, the very day that the activists had decided to launch its ninth prison hunger strike to demand a fair trial, after more than year and a half in prison.

NEW ZEALAND - To McCaw, rugby comes before the marriage of Prince William

Richie McCaw, captain of the All Blacks, will not attend the wedding of Prince William to be held April 29. "I must admit I was surprised to receive an invitation," said Richie McCaw in The New Zealand Herald. Nearly 2000 people were invited to attend this event. But for Richie McCaw, rugby is a priority this year.

Recently had surgery on one foot, Richie McCaw hopes to find land in a few weeks with his club Crusaders and best prepare for the World Cup held in New Zealand. The paper said that other rugby players have been invited to the wedding, including Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll and former Welsh captain Gareth Thomas.

The maverick Libyan who has 'hacked' telecommunications network Gaddafi

"So far we communicated with flags. When the yellow ondeábamos withdrawal played when we were about to avanazar, green." The speaker is Ahmed al-Ghatrani, commander of the insurgency in Benghazi Libya. "Gaddafi forced us back to the stone age," he assured. In this 'battle chromatic', insurgents also have been forced to paint their cars pink to avoid being victims of friendly fire.

For weeks it has been virtually the only way to 'communicate' in the front. And Gaddafi's regime cut the telephone and internet connections in early March, leaving millions of Libyans, including the insurgents, unable to communicate. Until today. A team led by a Libyan engineer telecommunications expert has helped the rebels to 'hijack' the network of Muammar Qaddafi and has enabled the Government to re-establish their own communications Benghazi.

Five people die in a fire at a building in Paris

Five people have died and at least 42 others were seriously injured in a devastating fire in a building located in Cité du Labyrinthe, a popular neighborhood northeast of Paris. The fire was extinguished shortly after 5.30 am after the intervention of 300 firefighters. For now, the cause is unknown what caused the fire.

The first call originated shortly after 3:00 in the stairs of a five-storey building. "The risk of flames spreading to other nearby buildings have been discarded after two hours of fighting," he assured one of the firemen responsible for ending the fire. The central laboratory of the Prefecture of Police will conduct the necessary investigations to determine the cause of the accident.

Paris (lonelyplanet) Paris (homepage) Paris (wikipedia)

UNITED STATES - Saving Detroit

Imagine that everyone living in San Jose, California (over 150 000), abandon all of a sudden the city. Vanished. Extinct in the wild. Leaving behind office buildings and factories. This is what happened in Detroit, if one believes the 2010 census figures published recently. The city, which now boasts 1.8 million inhabitants in 1950 and has been the country's economic engine for much of the twentieth century, home to more than 714,000 souls, or a loss of about 1, 1 million.

Chavez buys 11,000 million in weapons from Russia

Moscow .- Venezuela has bought nearly 11,000 million dollars on Russian weapons in the last five years, reported Rosoboronexport, the Russian state corporation for the export of weapons. "Some of the contracts were signed with Venezuela have been made and others are still at the stage of implementation," said Sergey Ladiguin, the head of Rosoboronexport Latin American department, told Interfax.

Israeli Justice informed Lieberman has decided to charge him for fraud

After ten years of intense research, interviews and many suspicions, the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has received the news Wednesday that they feared. The state attorney general and adviser to the Government, Yehuda Weinstein, announced his intention to bring to court on charges as serious as fraud, money laundering, abuse of trust and obstruction of justice.

His only consolation is that the indictment does not include charges such as bribery, as the researchers noted. Before being tried, there will be a confrontation with the attorney general will be essential not only for the future of Lieberman, but the Israeli government. At this hearing, Lieberman has to convince of his innocence Weinstein not to be charged.

INDIA - Calcutta Tramways sacrificed

Five years ago, the depot is located at Kalighat, a suburb of Kolkata [Calcutta], was one of the busiest in the city. Trams then circulating on three lines, which covered about 16 km. Today there is only one tram that cruises painfully three kilometers between the Kalighat Tollygunge [south of the city].

This tram was traveling on rails embedded in large grassy spaces reserved for it. But in 2004, these spaces have been removed to make room for cars and buses. Now the tram ride in the middle of the road and passengers must make their way to their peril to catch one. "Why do people risk their lives so they catch a tram?" Application Manik Ghosh, who works at the Calcutta Tramways Company for over thirty years.

Berlusconi ruled out for re-election in 2013

ROME .- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has ruled out re-election filed for the office of the current parliamentary term in 2013, and noted the current Justice Minister Angelino Alfano, as a possible successor. The Italian press today reflects the content of a dinner held in Berlusconi on Tuesday night with foreign journalists in Rome.

"My project is to complete the term and then, despite having the most beautiful boat in the Caribbean, followed by politics. But not to an operational role in the government," Berlusconi said during the dinner, told the newspaper that today includes Italy's La Repubblica. "If the polls show that I can serve," he added, could limit myself to lead my party list and then make noble father, "ie, from progressing to an honorary position in training which leads and governs in Italy since 2008 The People of Freedom (PDL).

Berlusconi promised that he will not occur in 2013

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has confirmed he will not run as a candidate for reelection in the upcoming elections to be held in 2013. According to BBC reports, it was announced at a dinner with reporters, although he qualified that will all depend on how the polls when election date approaches.

At the meeting with journalists of 'Le Monde', 'Wall Street Journal' and 'The Guardian' proposed as a successor to the current Justice Minister Angelino Alfano. "If they need me as a noble father, I am available, could be top of the list of the Freedom Party (PDL), but I do not want an operational role," he said, 'Il Cavaliere' to the press.

There is no age

One hundred years is worth celebrating. The American Fred Mack celebrated his birthday with a parachute jump. The second of his life. In his first plunge, he was 95 years, reports CBS News. The jump in video:

At least nine civilians killed in bombing Gaddafi's forces in Misrata

Algiers. .- At least nine people were killed and 27 wounded today as a result of the intense bombing of the Libyan town of Misrata by forces loyal to Muammar al-Gaddafi, said the Qatari Al-Jazeera network. A resident in the city, besieged for weeks by gadafistas forces, told the station, which is a provisional death toll because many bodies "are still under the rubble of houses and buildings destroyed by bombing" .

Somali pirates to duplicate the ship approaches

The Pirates committed in the first three months of the year a total of 97 attacks on ships in the Gulf of Aden, more than double those committed during the same period in 2010, said today the Information Center on Piracy. The center, under the International Maritime Bureau, said that there has been a "dramatic increase in violence and techniques" used by Somali pirate gangs, despite increased surveillance by ships force international patrol those waters.

INDIA-PAKISTAN - The game that shook Indians and Pakistanis

On 30 March, India and Pakistan face off on the grass in the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup. If nationalism put their heart's content on both sides of the border, the two prime ministers, meanwhile, decided to attend the duel side by side.

Sarkozy wants to prevent by law the planes flying over his summer residence

Paris (Editor) .- French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants the planes will not be disturbed in their rest in the summer holidays in the Costa Azul. At least that is what follows after the preparation of an official decree air pilots threaten a fine of up to 40,000 euros or six months in jail if they drop below 3,000 feet, flying over the house by the sea that Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni have in Cap Negre in the French Riviera, reports the Guardian.

The Atlantic Alliance raises funds for military operations in Libya

First you assess the achievements of the military operation in Libya and also quantify the anticipated cost sharing from now. These are the main objectives of the meeting held on Thursday and Friday in Berlin's 28 foreign ministers of NATO with the six countries that contribute to the operation under NATO command in Libya (Qatar, UAE, Jordan, Morocco, Sweden and Ukraine).

And although not mentioned on the agenda, the confidential, will focus on the possibilities for a new government in Libya, as well as countries whose intelligence services are not active on the ground, but who is asking for more contributions money and arms and who insist on having more precise information on the rebels that NATO is prepared to fund.

SWEDEN - Saab in trouble

The automaker Saab is unable to pay its subcontractors, reports Svenska Dagbladet. Equipment shipments were stopped, which resulted to stop production at the plant in Trollhättan March 29. The president of Saab, Victor Muller, acknowledged that his company would probably not have enough money to pay bills this year.

More than a thousand earthquakes shake Japan from March 11

Tokyo .- More than a thousand earthquakes above 4.5 Richter scale has rocked Japan since the great earthquake of 9 degrees on March 11 rocked the northeast of the archipelago and caused a devastating tsunami which killed more than 28,000 dead or missing. According to the U.S. Geological Survey. UU., Today at 17.00 Japanese time (08.00 GMT) there had been in this country at least 1,001 earthquakes of over 4.5 degrees on the Richter scale.

TEPCO confirms that the spent fuel rods from the reactor 4 is damaged

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has confirmed that some of the fuel rods from the reactor number four of the Fukushima nuclear power plant-1 were damaged, although most would be in good condition, according to Kyodo news agency. The National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) has confirmed on Wednesday that radioactive waste from the reactor four in the central Fukushima have exceeded 100,000 times normal levels.

SYRIA - Resignation of Government

Syrian President Bashar Assad has agreed on March 29 the resignation of his government, tells the daily UAE, which sees it as a recognition of demands for reform made by the demonstrators. The protest movement launched March 15 in the country is increasing, while on March 29, the power has organized demonstrations in support of Bashar Assad.

The official news agency announced that the chairman shall declare a "major speech" at the Syrian people that day.

The radioactivity in Fukushima is 100,000 times higher than normal

Tokyo .- The National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) has confirmed on Wednesday that radioactive waste from the reactor core four of the Fukushima-1 has exceeded 100,000 times normal levels. For its part, TEPCO has acknowledged that the level of radioactivity of iodine 131, cesium 134 and 137 is higher than normal and several fuel rods are damaged.

This is because the water level of the fuel pools, which cool the rods used, is down temporarily and those fuel rods that have been damaged pollute and increase the radioactivity, as reported by Japanese news agency Kyodo . In addition, the NNSA has requested TEPCO to examine the strength of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima-1 against possible earthquakes.

U.S. accuses Iran of helping the Assad regime to repress the protests in Syria

The U.S. government has accused Iran of helping, in secret, the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad to suppress the riots that are occurring in the country, according to the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal. The United States accuses Tehran of providing material assistance to leave the streets and to block and monitor the activity of the demonstrators through internet and mobile phones.

"We believe that Iran is materially assisting the Syrian Government in its efforts to end his own people," said a spokesman for the Obama administration. According to communications intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies, Iran is exploring ways to help the Shiites of Bahrain and Yemen intransigent, as well as ways to destabilize U.S.

HAITI - The announcement of the results of presidential elections is postponed

"The Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) inform the public that a high level of fraud and irregularities of various kinds has been detected" during the counting process, the paper explains. Forced to adopt "more stringent verification measures," the PRC has postponed to April 4, the publication of preliminary results, originally scheduled for March 31.

The second round of the presidential election on March 20 opposite the singer Michel Martelly and the former first lady Mirlande Manigat.

The central Fukushima confirms that the fuel rods from the reactor 4 is damaged

Tokyo .- The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has confirmed that some of the fuel rods from the reactor number four of the Fukushima nuclear power plant-1 were damaged, although most would be in good condition, according to Kyodo news agency . Engineers have detected high levels of radioactivity, in particular iodine 220-131 becquerels per cubic centimeter, 88, cesium-134 and 93, cesium-137 in water sample taken from the pool that holds the bars in this reactor.

Icelanders, or the power of a people

Paying the debts caused by dishonest bankers?, Highlight "decency and solidarity of the people?," Pay a fair price?, "Uncertain wait for a trial? These are some questions that Icelanders, some 230,000, had to resolve in his heart before the referendum last week. They had to decide whether their country should accept a pact reached with Britain and the Netherlands to return the nearly 4,000 million euros paid to London and Amsterdam to compensate more than 320,000 citizens after the collapse of Icesave.

GERMANY - Stuttgart 21 project frozen after the elections

"After the triumph of the red-green coalition [Social Democrats - environmentalists] in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Deutsche Bahn [German Rail] announced March 29 a temporary halt of construction of the station Stuttgart 21", tells the newspaper . The company said it would not advance on this very controversial project before the establishment of the new government of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Land that has been won by the Greens, allied with the Social Democrats (SPD) during the local elections on March 27.

Stuttgart 21 (wikipedia)