Tuesday, April 26, 2011

U.S. considers sancciones against Syria

United States admitted Monday for the first time is considering imposing sanctions against the Government of Syria in response to the bloody crackdown on protests in the country to demand democratic reforms. In a statement, the spokesman for the National Security Council, Tommy Vietor, said the Damascus regime's violence against its own people is "extremely disappointing and we condemn in the strongest terms." U.S., he added, is "a range of possible options, including the imposition of sanctions with very specific goals, to respond to violence and make clear that this behavior is unacceptable." So far, more than 300 people have died in the repression of demonstrations calling for democratic transition in Syria, where the ruling Assad family for over forty years.

USA - Budget Impasse in Congress

In Congress, time is running out to reach a budget agreement. The Republicans require a reduction in spending of 40 billion dollars, 7 billion more than what the Democrats propose, relateThe Washington Post. For now, the situation is blocked and, unless an agreement is reached by Friday at midnight local time, Washington will have its first shutdown since 1996.

The U.S. government could indeed find themselves paralyzed when budgets are not voted, says The New York Times. Gradually, the government departments will be forced to suspend their activities. By Saturday, several federal museums could not open it. It is not yet possible to know exactly what services will be affected, even if he does not doubt that the key sectors - military, police, fire, prisons and the air traffic control, in particular - will not be affected.

Syria denies closing the border crossings with neighboring countries

Madrid. .- The Syrian authorities have denied Monday that it has closed down border crossings with neighboring countries, after the Jordanian government report that the two steps between the two countries had been closed by decision of Damascus and linking the As the internal situation experienced by the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking to the official news agency SANA, the Syrian Customs director, Mustafa al Bikaii, assured that "border crossings between Syria and neighboring countries, including Jordan, are open." According to the Head, "the movement at border crossings, both passenger and freight, is normal and regular." Earlier, speaking to the agency official Jordanian Petra, Secretary of State for Communications and government spokesman, Taher Odwan, had confirmed the report conducted by Reuters of border closures and had attributed to a decision to Damascus by the "situation internal "in the country.

Presidents of Portugal launched a message of unity

The four heads of state that Portugal has had since the advent of democracy in 1974 have sent a message of unity to the country during the events celebrating the 37th anniversary of the Revolution of April 25. Antonio Ramalho Eanes (1976-1986), Mário Soares (1986-1996), Jorge Sampaio (1996-2006) and Anibal Cavaco Silva (2006) have led the public to advocate for the understanding of the parties and the formation of a new government after elections on June 5.

China - The press denounces the "free electron" Ai Weiwei

Three days after the arrest of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at the Beijing airport, the first official response was published on 6 April by the newspaper Huanqiu Shibao. In an editorial entitled "The law will not bend for a free electron," the newspaper castigated Western governments seeking the release of the artist.

"They ignore the sovereignty of China and faced with reckless China's political system, the name of respect for human rights," said the newspaper. It is rare that the official Chinese press reacts to foreign protests on the issue of human rights, and even rarer that it alludes to an arrest of this nature.

At least 165 killed in clashes between the army and rebel groups sursudanés

Juba. At least 165 people have died in the last week in clashes between the People's Liberation Army's (SPLA), the sursudanés regular army, armed militias and rebels, as reported on Monday the SPLA itself. A spokesman for the SPLA, Malaak Ayuen, explained that the clashes have been reported in Jonglei and Unity and the victims include military, rebels, members of tribes in northern Sudan and civilians.

12 dead and 80 missing in Congo

At least 12 people were killed and 80 others missing after a boat wreck that occurred on Sunday on Lake Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, said Monday the provincial authorities. According to some sources, a dozen bodies have been rescued after the sinking of the boat, overloaded with goods transported from the town of Kasunyu in the territory of Kalehe, bound to Bukavu in South Kivu province.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - The murder of a committed artist

"An Israeli living in the Jenin refugee camp was shot by unknown before the Liberty Theatre." When I received this text message, in the late afternoon, Monday, April 4, I asked myself who could well be that Israeli who lived in a Palestinian refugee camp. I thought it would be an anti-occupation, but he certainly had not chosen the camp as a dwelling place, nor had it been adopted by the inhabitants .

14,358 dead and 11,889 missing after the disaster

Tokyo .- The Japanese National Police Agency reported Monday that already 14,358 dead and 11,889 missing in the earthquake and tsunami recorded on 11 March. Only in Miyagi prefecture 8,669 people have been killed, 4,178 others have died in Iwate Prefecture and Fukushima 1,448 have died in the three prefectures most affected by the earthquake.

In addition, some 130,000 people remain housed in 2,300 shelters month six weeks after the earthquake of 9 degrees. The balance corresponds to 16.00 on Monday (9.00 Spanish CET) and has been released by Japanese police on your own website.

Dozens of Yemenis injured in a demonstration

Two people were killed and dozens injured Monday in Ibb, Al Baida and Taiz, south of Sana'a (Yemen's capital), where security forces and the army opened fire and launched tear gas to disperse a demonstration opposite the President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Government forces massively deployed in Taiz, the second largest city in Yemen, 200 kilometers from Sana'a, have intervened to stop the advance of the demonstrators in a suburb southeast, as reported by the demonstrators themselves.

CHINA - "We live in an age of madness"

What is this model on your table? I am preparing an exhibition to be held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan. It will start on October 29. This is surely the first time you expose in Taiwan, right? It's even better than that. If Taiwan is really a part of China, as claimed by the Chinese authorities, this will be my first exhibition in China for short (laughs).

So far I have not had the right to display here. You've tried recently. You need to expose for the first time in March, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Yes, but they prevented the exhibition. I worked on it for a year and a half, and the exhibition has just been banned.

Thousands of protesters demand in Germany a "nuclear blackout" immediate

Berlin. .- Several thousand Germans demanded today in dozens of demonstrations across the country the immediate abandonment of nuclear energy during the traditional Easter protests, which were recalled Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters. Concentrations, full of symbols and antinuclear banners urging the government to "turn off" the country's nuclear power plants took place in a dozen nuclear sites and facilities in several major German cities.

12 killed in bombings in Misrata gadafistas

At least 12 people, including two children, were killed on Monday as a result of shelling by forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi, on the town of Misrata, the rebel stronghold east of Tripoli. As reported by Qatari chain 'Al Jazeera', citing as source the testimony of a resident in Misrata, since last Saturday has killed 56 people in that city and over 150 have been injured by the attacks of gadafistas.

THAILAND - Shrimp exports taking on water

The south of the country, plagued by exceptional floods, concentrated 70% of shrimp farming in the kingdom. Many companies have been affected by torrential rains, so that officials estimate that exports could be revised downward to 50,000 tons (about 360,000 pledged) in 2011, reports the Bangkok Post.

Exports would rise and 99 billion baht [2.3 billion], representing a loss of 5 billion [€ 116 million].

UN urges Syria to stop the killings

Geneva. .- The High Commissioner for UN Human Rights Navi Pillay today made an appeal to the Government of Syria to stop the killings and violence as a method to suppress the peaceful protests of its citizens. Pillay defined as "unacceptable" the government's response to the protests and asked the security forces not to use live ammunition to suppress them.

"The international community has repeatedly requested the government of Bashar al-Assad not to use violence to suppress peaceful demonstrations, and he has ignored," said the High Commissioner, was quoted in a statement. According to information confirmed by his office, at least 76 people died on Friday because of repression and another 13 were killed by security forces during the funeral held on Saturday.

Australians and New Zealanders at Gallipoli revive

It was the last great battle between knights, where personal worth even decided on victory and defeat. Or so we now see many young Australians and New Zealanders, who try to relive the ordeal of his great-grandparents on the other side of the planet. A history of trenches between beach and mountains, early morning attacks, hills conquered and lost again and again and a slow defeat.

At least the cold as -6 degrees centigrade could experience who arrived on Sunday to the hills of Gallipoli to spend a night outdoors. At dawn, a mass, transmitted by 70 speakers and six giant screens boot gave three military ceremonies honoring troops Australians, New Zealanders and Turks who fought here in 1915 in one of the peripheral stages of the First World War.

UNITED STATES - A dull election campaign

The last two presidential elections were real pieces of anthology. The 2004 was comparable to the Battle of Antietam, one of the largest and bloodiest of the Civil War. A few days before the election, I told a friend that conservative I could not see how the Democratic candidate at the time, John Kerry could lose.

Voters left so he wanted to win. This friend told me a knowing look: "We Conservatives believe the same thing for our side." He was right, and this explains the despair and anger among Democrats after the victory of George W . Bush for a second term. After the election, a disappointed voter has posted a message on classifieds site Craigslist: "I would fight against a Bush supporter to me vent.

Syria closes border with Jordan

Amman - Syria closed its border with Jordan, announced today the Minister for Media Affairs, Taher Adwan. "The closure of the border between Syria and Jordan due to the events taking place in Syria," he said told the official Jordanian news agency Petra. In Syria, clashes between security forces and protesters against the regime of Bashar al-Assad so far left about 400 dead.

Gaddafi's troops returned to the attack Misrata

Muammar Qaddafi's forces bombarded the early hours of Monday, with heavy artillery rockets, the city of Misrata, the third largest in Libya, under siege for two months, according to the Qatari station Al Jazeera. A resident in the town told the television station by telephone that at least 42 people died and 150 were wounded in the last two days of intense attacks.

Of these 42 deaths, only 30 have occurred in the last hours. "There is a very intensive and random bombing against several residential areas of the city. The charred bodies being carried to hospital," said Ahmed al-Qadi, an engineer who works for a dissident radio station Misrata. The event takes place after Moammar Gadhafi announced he was withdrawing his men from the city to continue shortly after the fighting.

COTE D'IVOIRE - I smell a rat for Gbagbo

Côte d'Ivoire, things went at breakneck speed in recent hours. And obviously, we approach the end of a certain world: the very illegal Laurent Gbagbo certainly saw his last hours at the controls of this country, quite illegally since it governs the election results of November 28 who dedicated the victory his rival, Alassane Ouattara.

Too bad for him and good for everyone. But we can not help but say, man is a badass. And on reflection, you find yourself thinking that the troops of Alassane Ouattara, had they been committed solely to the task, would have been hard to dislodge the incumbent. At most, and assuming that the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire (FRCI, pro-Ouattara) were able to overcome it, it would have taken at least they make the bitter experience of a victory Pyrrhus.

Japan allocated 25,000 troops to the country's reconstruction

Tokyo .- Some 25,000 members of the Japanese Army have begun on Monday the third major search operation for the approximately 12,000 people still remain missing after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami on 11 March. In the operation assist the U.S. military and Japanese police and involves the movement of 90 aircraft and 50 boats, according to Japanese television NHK.

The search centers in the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, the most affected by the disaster. The operation includes part of the evacuation zone of 30 km radius around the established central Fukushima-1 until now excluded from the rescue efforts. In Miyagi Prefecture, part of the efforts focus on a school where about 650 soldiers are deployed to remove debris carefully for the bodies of the 74 students who are still missing and believed they were in college in the time of the earthquake.

Arrested the cashier of a clan of the Camorra

The mob boss Vincenzo Schiavone, 37, alias "O copertone" and considered the "cashier" of the powerful clan of the Camorra Casalesi, was arrested today at a clinic in Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, Avellino, Southern Italy, where he continued rehabilitation cure in the leg, police said. Schiavone, considered one of the hundred most dangerous fugitives Italian, had been hospitalized for six days.

At the time of the arrest he had no identity document and was recognized by the fingerprints. Apparently, none of the other hospitalized at the clinic, a small private health care facility, knew the identity of the mafia. Police are investigating whether the clinic address and we knew his identity concealed.

YEMEN - A dialogue between the government and the opposition is still far

President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on April 5 that he was ready to participate in discussions with the opposition offered by the Gulf Cooperation Council. But a representative of the Opposition said that the latter do not take part, announced the Emirati newspaper. "There is no dialogue with the regime and we are not authorized by the people to speak and negotiate on its behalf," said the representative.

Gaddafi's troops caused 42 deaths in the siege of Misrata

Algiers .- forces bombed Muammar al-Gaddafi since early Wednesday, with missiles and heavy artillery, the city of Misrata, the third largest in Libya, under siege for two months, reported the Qatari station Al Jazeera. A resident in the town told the television station by telephone that at least 42 people died and 150 were wounded in the last two days of intense attacks.

This figure could increase significantly in the coming hours, and it is bombing "violent, intense and anarchic," essentially residential areas, the source said. Gadafistas forces are no longer in the city, because "they were expelled by the rebels after the fighting of recent days" and have been stationed around 25 kilometers from where they launch their attacks with Grad missiles and tanks shells .

The Hungarian president signs new constitution

The Hungarian President Pal Schmitt, signed Monday the controversial new constitution Magyar, after being passed by Parliament last week and will enter into force on the first day of 2012 despite the strong criticisms leveled within and outside the country . With the adoption of the new Constitution, which is "Hungarian national, modern and European," the year 2011 "will be important for the entire nation," said the head of state after his signature on the document in the Sándor Palace Budapest, the presidential headquarters.

ITALY - The trial of suspended Rubygate?

"Bedroom," quipped the leftist daily, while it opens on April 6 the trial of "Rubygate" in which Silvio Berlusconi is on trial for use in prostitution of a minor and abuse of office. On 5 March, the Chamber of Deputies has indeed passed a motion to lift the "conflict attribution. The text says the Milan court is not competent to judge the President of the Council and that only a panel of judges composed for the occasion is.

United States prepares sanctions against senior Syrian officials

Barcelona (Editorial) .- United States prepares sanctions against senior Syrian government officials are not acting against the violent repression by the regime of Bashar Assad, which has claimed hundreds of lives. So what explains this Monday edition of The Wall Street Journal, which ensures that the Obama administration is preparing an executive order authorizing the President to freeze assets of Syrian officials and may prevent them from doing any business in the U.S..

Thailand and Cambodia fighting resumes

Cambodian-Thai troops exchanged gunfire today along the common border for a fourth day, when diplomatic exit was obstructed by the cancellation of talks sponsored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The exchange of gunfire and shells today at the temple of Ta Muen and so far not resulted in casualties to be added to the eleven people killed since Friday.

The official list of Thailand is five soldiers dead and 35 injured and about 40,000 displaced because of domestic violence, and Cambodia is in six military deaths and 10,000 evacuees. While the armies of both countries, reinforced roadblocks and heavy artillery during the weekend, they opened fire, Thai ministers of Interior, Chavarat Charnnukul and Foreign Kasit Piromya separately toured shelters to provide confidence and security people in the conflict zone.

JAPAN - The automotive industry still heavily affected

The business daily published a front-page map of north-east of the country which include auto-related businesses affected by the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March. Many of them have not yet resumed production, the newspaper said, stressing that this has consequences for the global economy to the extent that these companies provide spare parts.

Thus, the United States, General Motors and Toyota have had to reduce their production, pending a return to normal.

The "bullet train" between Tokyo and Sendai returns to work after the tsunami

Tokyo .- The Japanese bullet train (Shinkansen) from Tokyo to Sendai, a city hit hard by the tsunami, returned to work Monday for the first time since the disaster of March 11, Kyodo news agency reported. Service recovery after almost month and a half hiatus is because Monday was restored section between the city of Fukushima and Sendai, Miyagi capital of the province in which the disaster left 8,669 dead and 6,856 missing, according to last count police.

Complaint that were obtained illegally

The State Department and the Pentagon in a statement categorically denounced the leak of 779 secret documents about Guantanamo military prison in Cuba who won the organization Wikileaks. Several newspapers (the New York Times and Washington Post among others) have posted on their websites details of the new leak of Wikileaks.

"It is unfortunate that several media organizations have taken the decision to publish numerous documents obtained illegally by Wikileaks related to the detention center at Guantanamo," the statement said. "These documents contain confidential information about current and former detainees at Guantanamo and strongly condemn the leak of this sensitive information," the joint statement from the Pentagon and the State Department.

DIPLOMACY - David Cameron in Pakistan to warm relations

Prime Minister of Great Britain, David Cameron, was in Islamabad on April 5 for a first visit since taking office in May 2010. He has tried to reconcile the tensions arising from his statements in July 2010 when he was then accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism. To a question about a possible extradition of former President Pervez Musharraf, exiled in London and claimed by the Pakistani justice system, Cameron said that there was no mechanism for doing so, the newspaper said.

Thailand and Cambodia canceled talks

Bangkok .- Thailand and Cambodia canceled the talks were to begin today with the mediation of an envoy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), after three days of fighting in the border that have killed at least 11 dead. Foreign Minister of Indonesia and ASEAN envoy, Marty Natalegawa, now scheduled to begin peace negotiations as an intermediary, but suspended his trip at the last minute disagreements, Thai military sources.

Canada withdrew its troops from Afghanistan

And thought going in 2009 and did not, but now is for real. Canada will withdraw all its troops in July of combat in Afghanistan, without possibility of change in plans. Some units have already begun to retreat, and is scheduled to arrive end of May that American troops will take over. Some are already on the ground.

Canada currently has some 2,900 troops in Afghanistan, according to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Most are concentrated in the province of Kandahar, the traditional stronghold of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. In fact, for four years, from 2006 to 2009, Canada was the only country that had troops in the province-beyond-American special forces, despite being one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.

HAITI - Martelly promises a "new era"

Winner of the presidential election, Michel Martelly promised, April 5, a "new era" for Haiti, while tens of thousands of earthquake victims are still living in tents and that malnutrition affects more than 3 million Haitians. He wants to "reconcile with the nation itself." For its part, the defeated candidate Mirlande Manigat believes that the votes of his supporters were "stolen", but will not complain.

Military repression of the Syrian regime does not stop, causing dozens of deaths

Damascus / Cairo. .- At least 18 people have died on Monday in the Syrian army assault against the city of Dera, south of the country, as reported by Amar Qurabi known activist. Qurabi has stated that some victims died after being shot and another when the tanks bombed several buildings, and also there are many people injured or missing.

Previously, several eyewitnesses had claimed that the army had deployed eight tanks and two armored vehicles in the old town of Dera and had seen at least two bodies in a major city streets near the mosque El Omari . According to these sources, the snipers in the buildings of government and security forces fired indiscriminately at houses after arrival in the area of tanks, soon after the morning prayer.

Three bombs explode in northeast Nigeria

Three bombs have exploded in a city in northeastern Nigeria, killing at least two dead and eight wounded, police announced today, also attributed the attacks to an Islamic sect called Boko Haram. The explosions have occurred last night at the Palace hotel Tudu and Tasha transport station in the city of Kano, Maiduguri, has indicated the police spokesman, Mai Mamman.

"The victims have been evacuated to two hospitals. All indications are that the attack was the work of Haram Boko, who has conducted similar attacks in the past," concluded the spokesman for the police. Boko Haram is accused of being responsible for several killings of police officers, community leaders and attacks on churches in recent months in northern Nigeria.