Tuesday, February 24, 2009


The Iranian authorities have blocked access to two sites in Iran to support web Mohamad Khatami in the presidential elections on June 12, said Sunday that the newspaper Sarmayé.

This is the site Yarinews, defined as the portal for information from supporters of former president Khatami, and the Yari site that collects the messages sent to support his candidacy.


Both sites are managed by a group supporting Khatami. The authorities of the Islamic Republic "filtered" numerous web sites, preventing access to the Internet in Iran. These sites, which generally are based in other countries are available abroad.

The Iranian presidential elections will take place on June 12. The current president, the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has not yet announced if it wants to show it happened in 2005 to Khatami, president from 1997 to 2005.


The Islamist Hamas movement on Monday accused the PA of its activists have spied for Israel during the recent war in Gaza, and to use the software Google Earth to locate targets.

"Officers and members of security services in Ramallah have instructed their agents (in Gaza) to monitor the movements of resistance in the Gaza Strip," he said at a press conference in Gaza, the spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry, Ihab andalusia Ghosein. "These reports were sent to Ramallah (site of the Palestinian Authority) and then transmitted to the enemy (Israel), which pointed against targets based on information collected before and during the war," added the spokesman.


At the press conference were broadcast several videos that showed "confessions" by men claiming to be members of Fatah of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.

According to a chief of the intelligence services of Hamas in Gaza, Abu Abdullah, several maps, mainly with the help of Google Earth program, were sent to locate the precise number of whites then attacked by Israeli aircraft.


"With the help of Google Earth program, these groups have developed maps to locate mosques, institutions, tunnels and workshops. Then sent their responsibility for security services in the West Bank before the war," said Abu Abdullah to the press. According to him, the coordinates of caches of weapons in Beit Hanoun (northern Gaza Strip) were transmitted, as well as drawings of the home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, among other objectives.

The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip (from December 27 to January 18) left some 1330 dead Palestinians. The stated goal was to minimize the firing of rockets by Palestinians against Israel.


The new Nokia 6720 model, a number of mobile phones worldwide,

The world's number one mobile phone, Finnish Nokia, announced on Tuesday in a communique that it will launch a new restructuring plan that involves the removal of 1,000 jobs in various parts of the world.

"In addition to what had previously been announced to increase the reduction of costs and adapt to a difficult environment, Nokia announces new measures to reduce staff costs," the group said in a statement.


Nokia said that it implies a thousand jobs and favor early retirement.

Four owners of 33 U.S. newspapers have been declared bankrupt in the past two months and the outlook is far from offering encouragement to the sector.

Analysts doubt that these companies can emerge from bankruptcy without accepting the radical changes that agreements require its lenders, such as reverse some of its newspapers to digital format.


Of course, the publishers of newspapers have begun to make drastic changes, such as reducing the printed editions. But it remains unclear whether creditors can submit their best ideas, although that probably will not discourage lenders desperately trying to change things.

"These early warnings are declared bankrupt for all the others," said John Penn, a lawyer specializing in bankruptcy in Fort Worth, Texas. "It's almost certainly going to have to change their business models because the old are not working."


The publishers of newspapers say that the bankruptcy will not have an immediate impact on their daily operations and that probably affected the 33 newspapers will not close all at once as part of the reorganization.

But the problems were highlighted in the newspapers over the weekend with the statements of the bankrupt publishers of The New Haven (Connecticut) Register and Journal Register Co., and the owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.


These statements came after the bankruptcy Tribune Co., whose media group includes Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, did the same in December, January and the bankruptcy of The Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Other firms could continue publishing these steps in the coming months as the chances of getting publicity for 2009 are bleak.

The four went to the publishers of commercial bankruptcies for help as their debts have become unsustainable in the fall during two years of advertising revenues, which have worsened with the economic recession.

In the cool waters of a lake Patagonian Argentine rudimentary wooden crates to float its vera, enclosing within it thousands of young trout that will become a traditional dish of the area.


The reproduction and rearing of salmon in southern Argentina is a cottage industry, small scale, and certainly unusual in a global agricultural power as Argentina.

"Everything is handmade, the spawning is done by hand massages to the female during the months of May and June and then the eggs are fertile to begin the process of breeding, which lasts a year and half to be marketed," said Marcela Beveraggi, owner of a southern farm.


The hatchery trout Colonia Suiza is 1,700 miles from Buenos Aires, 40 km from the city of Bariloche, the main reference urban Argentine Patagonia.

Situated in a paradise on the shores of Crystal Lake Moreno, surrounded by mountains and lush pine forest, the hatchery produces trout for 22 years of the rainbow variety.


While the magnitude of activity limiting its export potential, is a business that has an attractive growth potential based on the purity of a product, developed in an almost untouched and free of disease.

"This is an activity that will continue to grow because it has a great future," said the farmer Beveraggi.


Trout is a branch of salmonids, which was introduced in the United States from Argentina in 1904. Copies of Colonia Suiza pools are raised in cages and then passed.

OTHER THAN THAT IN CHILE


The current production of trout in Argentina amounts to only supply the local market, thus leaving the exterior "to the Chilean" is sent to more sophisticated breeding.

"Ours is a production that requires patience and dedication. In Argentina, breeding and care were conducted in full manual, making it difficult to compete with industrialized farms as those in Chile," explained Beveraggi,


In addition, government incentives to attract investment to the sector are poor.

But in the region, the equation changes and the trade in farmed trout is an artisan who is consolidating gradually.


A copy of 250 grams, equivalent to a portion for an adult, needs a year and a half of work before it can go on the market.

Hatcheries receive about 25 pesos ($ 6.8) per kilogram clean trout, compared to 40 pesos ($ 11) payable by a diner ready to be enjoyed in a restaurant.


The largest farms, with more technology and engaged in export are installed on the margins of dykes Patagonia.


President Barack Obama said it halved the huge national deficit exceeding trillion (correct) dollars, in a bold promise hours before delivering his first speech to Congress on Tuesday.

The economy has taken the agenda of Obama, but all economic indicators have worsened significantly since it started its government, the Congress won the approval of his stimulus plan of $ 787,000 million and strove to keep afloat the financial sector the nation.


Obama will leave it clear that the massive economic deficit was "inherited." In other words, wants to remind the public that President George W. Bush and Congress earlier this stopped him, forcing him to promote the costly economic stimulus package.

In attempting to deal simultaneously with the unprecedented budget deficit, Obama passes on a tightrope, and depends on its ability to reduce the cost of war in Iraq, tax incentives for the rich and government spending, to start down the national debt.


In Congress, the president believes that everyone will say how the economic factors are linked.

Obama will seek to ensure universal health insurance, expand educational opportunities, diversify sources of energy, have rights as a retirement system and to halve the budget deficit in four years.

Officials warned on Tuesday that the fires that devastated the south this month in Australia could ignite again when strong winds and high temperatures sweep the region later this week, and it updated the death toll from the fires to 210.

The Security Council of Australia, meanwhile, reported thousands of claims for payment for a total exceeding $ 500 million and damage by fire of February 7 that burned the state of Victoria.


Still continue to burn in the four major fires, and officials warned that it is expected to considerably increase the temperature on Friday, accompanied by strong winds.

"It's important that people understand that the events of Saturday were unable to complete black," said Commissioner of Emergency Services of the State of Victoria Bruce Esplin, referring to the conflagrations of February 7. "The devastating fire season continues," he said.


Hundreds of fires swept through a wide area of Victoria where record temperatures near 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit), winds of 100 kph (60 mph) and Dry Forests by years of drought combined to create an inferno. The number of confirmed dead rose to 210 on Tuesday and is expected to increase further as more remains are identified in the rubble.

Firefighters continued to fight fires as they prepare for the expected changes in conditions.


"We must do our best to manage fatigue among our squad and work strong enough to contain these fires and prepare for Friday," said the head of the County Fire Authority Russell Rees.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

A bomb exploded in the early hours of Monday outside the local Socialist Party of Euskadi (PSE), in the town of Lazkao (Guipúzcoa, Basque Country), after a call from the armed Basque separatist group ETA, said the channel CNN + news in Spanish.

The explosion, which caused extensive material damage but no injuries, occurs when the Basque country which is preparing for the upcoming regional elections, the channel reported, citing that local government officials.


The explosion occurred at approximately 03H00 (0200 GMT), about two hours after the roadside assistance service for Spanish DYA received a phone call in which someone who spoke in the name of ETA warned of the explosion of a bomb, he added .

ETA usually call the DYA to warn of its attacks.


Polls published on Sunday show that in the upcoming regional elections, the moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) could lose after nearly 30 years in power in the Basque Country, with the Socialists.

The armed group ETA was responsible for the deaths of 825 people throughout its 40 years of struggle for an independent Basque country, straddling northern Spain and parts of southwestern France.


The group is considered a violent terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.

ETA ended a ceasefire in June 2007, citing the lack of concessions from the government of socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in preliminary peace talks.


Since then, ETA has committed thirty attacks, killing six people including three policemen.



The story of Love in Bombay "Slumdog Millionaire" became a millionaire on Sunday with eight Academy Awards, including Best Film, in a night of glory for the Spanish Penelope Cruz, Britain's Kate Winslet, Australian Heath Ledger and American Sean Penn.


"The curious case Benjamin Button" took only three of the 13 statuettes at sucking and technical categories.

In the categories of actors Sean Penn took out only the face by the United States by winning the Oscar for Best Actor for "Milk," the second in his career, while Britain's Kate Winslet won his sixth nomination as Best Actress, Spanish Penelope Cross made history by rising with the trophy for Best Actress and Australian Heath Ledger catapulted his legend by winning a posthumous Oscar as supporting actor.


The interpretation of Ledger as the Joker in Batman "The Dark Knight", won the second of which receives a posthumous Oscar after his fellow actor Peter Finch in 1976 for her role in "Network."

The film "Milk" won the statuette for Best Original Screenplay, "Slumdog Millionaire" took the trophy for Best Adapted Screenplay, "WALL-E" won for Best Animated Film and the Japanese "Departures" took the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.


"All those from Spain are now sharing this moment with me, and think that this is also dedicated to them and all the players in my country," said an excited Penelope Cruz in Spanish to thank for the statue, while Woody Allen remember Pedro Almodovar and Fernando Trueba, Bigas Luna, who marked her film career.

Actress madrileña of 34 years won the statuette which aspiring Viola Davis ( "Doubt"), Marisa Tomei ( "The Wrestler"), Amy Adams ( "Doubt") and Taraji P. Henson ( "The curious case of Benjamin Button").


The 81 prizes Oscar started at 17H30 (01h30 GMT Monday) at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood with a scenario of competition and a television musical by the Australian Hugh Jackman, to build a more intimate format sensitized these to tears on several occasions.

"I want to celebrate and listen to music. Where can I dance?" Said Penelope Cruz to speak to the press at the Kodak Theater shortly after receiving his award, the first of the gala and twelve months after Javier Bardem won the same trophy in the male list.


The winner for Best Director, the Briton Danny Boyle, the architect of the great winner of the night "Slumdog Millionaire", was accompanied by the entire cast of the film, mostly from India, including two of the six children of the plot who traveled from their homes in Dharavi, the largest shanty town in Mumbai miserable Asia, where the movie was filmed.

The fictional story of "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The curious case of Benjamin Button" competed for the Oscar for Best Film with three other plots based on real life: "Frost / Nixon," "The Reader" and "Milk."


Upon receiving his Best Actor statuette for her performance in "Milk," Sean Penn dedicated his speech to defend the special right to marry for homosexuals, then the writer of the tape of Gus Van Sant, Dustin Lance Black, excited to be the statuette for Best Screenplay also advocates social equality of the gay community.

In the category for Best Actress, Kate Winslet Oscar managed to rise to five times that he was shy, this time for his character in "The Reader" and with that managed to beat Meryl Streep ( "Doubt"), Melissa Leo ( " Frozen River "), Angelina Jolie (" Changeling ") and Anne Hathaway (" Rachel Getting Married ").


Oscar since 1929, which are awarded to 24 categories of cinema after the 5830 vote on this industry professionals and members of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences.


A Mexican judge ordered the attachment (custody) for forty days of seven men who allegedly participated in a street confrontation between the army and thugs in the northern city of Reynosa, leaving five dead and seven wounded, said an official source.

In a statement, the Attorney General's Office (PGR, OTP) indicates that the seven arrested are being investigated by the Deputy Attorney Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (OFDI).


Last Tuesday a group of thugs clashed for a couple of hours at various points in the city and full light of day with soldiers and federal agents, in a crash in which brought to light rifles and grenades, causing panic among residents Reynosa, on the border with the United States.

In the scuffle alleged hitmen killed five and wounded seven federal agents.


The root is a legal measure which allows the Prosecutor to expand its research on detainees to present evidence to a judge.

After the confrontation, the federal forces seized an 60 mm mortar, five rifle grenades and two fragmentation, bulletproof vests and two trucks.


The clash coincided with several locks, allegedly paid by the Gulf cartel, which made hundreds of people in this border city to protest against the presence of the Mexican Army.

Belongs to Reynosa Tamaulipas, a state considered the seat of the powerful and violent Gulf cartel, who disputed control of several regions of the country with Sinaloa.


This war between the cartels and against the federal forces had left the country so far in 2009 over a thousand dead and some 10,000 in the three last three years, according to sources.


The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Mexico said today that there were not enough safety in offshore oil platform Usumacinta by bad weather that hit in 2007 with another, killing 22 workers and injured 68.

The NHRC, which acts as an Ombudsman on Sunday issued a recommendation to the state company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Attorney General's Office (PGR) on the accident which occurred on October 23, 2007 when two platforms in the Gulf Mexico collided pushed by high winds and swells.


He said that according to research there were "violations of human rights to life, the law, legal security and integrity of individuals."

Pemex employees stated that "allowed the platform to operate without observing the rules and safety regulations that are required in such facilities."


"There was a poorly trained and equipment provided to employees of these facilities and not have rescue boats in the vicinity of the platforms," said the NHRC said in a statement.

These "(...) flaws and omissions are attributable to the company" oil, he said, noting that the recommendation calls for Pemex to investigate the officers involved in the incident and that no bids awarded to firms that do not comply with measures greater security.


Furthermore, Pemex sought to conduct an adequate and ongoing training in the use of safety equipment, providing evidence that the victims were compensated, and survivors received medical and psychological care.

The PGR asked officials to investigate that hampered the investigation of the NHRC.


Last October, an independent commission, headed by Nobel laureate in chemistry Mario Molina, issued its findings of an investigation into the accident.

The committee explained that the accident was avoided if the weather was sufficiently accurate and if the platform had not been moved.


He also indicated that a safety valve did not work and no lifeboats remained closed.

While plans and followed the procedures established in the security protocol, the problem focused on the safety boats, called "mandarins" for its similarity in shape and color with this fruit, were opened during the storm, leaving the open their occupants.

Two robbers escaped convicts from a prison on Sunday Athenian up a rope ladder to a helicopter for the second time in three years, the authorities said. A woman who was the helicopter and exchanged fire with the guards of the prison.

Vassilis Paleokostas, 42, and Alket Rizaj, 34, were picked up by the helicopter that flew over the courtyard of the Athens Korydallos prison. The prisoners entered the aircraft after climbing the ladder of ropes thrown by a passenger, said the Ministry of Justice.


The guards shot the woman and returned fire with an automatic rifle. No one was injured.

Three years ago Paleokostas and Rizaj escaped the same prison with the same procedure.


An elderly couple found hours after the helicopter left near a road north of Athens, police said. The pilot was handcuffed, and gagged with a hood over his head.

Told the police that the helicopter was rented by a couple who said want to go to Athens from the village of Itea, in central Greece. The couple had rented a helicopter on several occasions in recent weeks.


There were contradictory reports from local residents about the number of vehicles from the place where the helicopter landed, the police said.

Authorities feared at first that four people could have escaped, but a second count of inmates at the prison confirmed that only two had disappeared.


Paleokostas and Rizaj should have appeared on Monday before a judge in connection with his escape by helicopter earlier, the June 4, 2006. That deal was engineered by the elder brother of Paleokostas, Nikos, a convicted criminal who escaped the same prison in 1990.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), arrives with her husband

President Barack Obama wants to reduce the fiscal deficit in half by the end of his first term, largely by reducing the cost of Iraq war, increasing taxes on the wealthiest and streamline the federal bureaucracy, said an official of the administration.

Obama's proposal for fiscal year 2010, which begins on 1 October, projected that the deficit inherited from the administration of George W. Bush, of about 1.3 trillion dollars, shall be reduced to 533,000 million dollars in 2013.


"We can not generate sustained growth if we do not control the deficit tax, Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and the internet.

Obama is expected to provide a summary of their proposed budget on Monday at a reunion at the White House on tax policy. It could also provide an explanation on Tuesday night, when deciding his first speech to Congress.


It is believed that Obama will send a sketch of the proposed budget to Congress on Thursday, barely a week after the promulgation of its economic stimulus plan by 787,000 million dollars.

It is expected that the draft budget also takes steps Obama to fulfill their campaign promises to establish a universal health insurance and reduce dependence on foreign oil.


The official, who spoke Saturday on condition of not being identified, said that Obama expects to reduce the fiscal deficit by generating savings in three areas.

Obama has pledged to withdraw most combat troops from Iraq in a span of 16 months after taking office.


He also said that it will expire in 2011 tax cuts for people earning more than $ 250,000 per year. This measure was enacted by Bush.

He also promised to improve government efficiency and reduce costs by eliminating programs that do not work.


At least 74 miners were killed and 114 wounded, several of them seriously, after a gas explosion occurred on Sunday in a coal mine in northern China, state media reported. It was the deadliest mining accident in China in over a year.

China's mines are considered the most dangerous in the world, with over 3,000 deaths a year from fires, floods and explosions.


The Xinhua news agency reported that the gas explosion occurred before dawn, when there were 436 workers in the coal mine of Tunlan, belonging to the Group in Shanxi Jiaomei City Gujiao near Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi.

At least 74 miners were killed and 113 were hospitalized, 21 of them in serious condition, Xinhua said information. Six of the seriously injured were in critical condition, said the news agency.


By Sunday night, all the trapped miners had been found, Xinhua said citing rescue officials. No other details were provided.

A miner who was hospitalized, Huancheng Xue said, according to Xinhua, the foreman ordered him to flee, because the ventilation system had stopped working.


"At that time the underground electricity supply was cut off and we had to walk out," said the miner. He added that he fainted when he was about to reach the exit, after walking about 40 minutes.

Xinhua said that most of the injured miners were poisoned by the inhalation of carbon dioxide, according to doctors at a hospital nearby. The carbon dioxide can cause death.


CCTV state television showed footage of rescue workers with orange uniforms and helmets with red lights, entering the elevator down into the mine tunnels, while others came from the same workers carrying stretchers and ambulances came in they were waiting at the scene.

The owner of the mine is the Shanxi Jiaomei Group, the largest producer of coke in China, which is used in steel production. The company operates 28 mines.


There had been no accidents in the mine Tunlan in the last decade, Xinhua reported. The mine produces five million tonnes of coking coal per year.

Although the Chinese authorities have sought to reduce accidents of this activity to close more than 1,000 small and dangerous mines last year, the country's mining industry remains the deadliest in the world.