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Alice Walker, author of "The Color Purple" and Pulitzer Prize winner, will travel to the Gaza Strip along with other activists to highlight the damage caused by the Israeli invasion in the territory.

"I think what is happening in the Middle East is very important because the situation is so volatile," said Walker in a telephone interview from the border crossing at Rafah, while the group was waiting to enter Gaza. "I love people and love children and I think the Palestinian child is as valuable as the child of Afro-American and Jewish children."


Walker is part of a group of about 60 women coming to Gaza to distribute aid and meet with NGOs and residents of the coastal strip. His trip, organized by the American group Code Pink (Code Pink), is designed to force Israel and Egypt to open its borders with Gaza, said Medea Benjamin, a founder of the group.

The trip coincides with the stagnation of efforts to achieve a truce between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas. The Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip to prevent rocket and mortar attacks against the Jewish state's south, was completed on January 18 with separate statements of truce from Israel and Hamas.


Group members remain in Gaza until March 11, said Benjamin. During his trip to Gaza delivered baskets full of personal feminine products such as shampoo.

Walker, on his first visit to Gaza, said it is important for Americans, who give so much military aid to Israel, to understand how their money is used.

The health system reform, the debate was opened by President Barack Obama will have a "huge impact" on communities of Hispanics and blacks, the two largest minorities in the United States on Friday said Melody Barnes , presidential adviser on domestic policy.

40% of Latino children and up to 1 in 3 Hispanics in general do not have health insurance and reform will touch not only this aspect but the cost and infrastructure of the system, Barnes said in a dialogue with journalists from Hispanic media in the House Blanca.


He said the plan aims to have a health system "affordable and accessible to all."

"It will be a tremendous impact on Latino communities, black, Asian and other sources," he said. "We are working to provide necessary assistance to each of them."


Barnes, director of domestic policy from the White House, is the third official team of advisers of the president speaking to reporters in the Hispanic work six weeks of the new Democratic administration, in an unprecedented plan developed by the office of Latino media contacts.

White House sources also reported Friday that Obama will deliver a speech on Tuesday 10 in the Chamber of Commerce Hispanic-Americans. Although not specified themes, Obama addressed, from his campaign on the issues on immigration reform and the advancement of minorities, including Hispanics, in fields that include health and education.


It will be the first occasion on which the president addresses the Democratic Hispanic community since he assumed the government.

Obama launched the campaign for health reform at a forum Thursday at the White House in which leaders of several Hispanic activist organizations, which are an "important source" for the generation of ideas, Barnes said.


Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, one participant said that although health was an "urgency to the Hispanic community, the reform project begun 15 years ago during the administration of President Bill Clinton has found difficulties to succeed.

Barnes also acknowledged that Obama will face resistance, particularly in its attempt to universalize health care to all who live in the United States, but expressed optimism, noting that the government hoped to have draft legislation ready for debate in the final quarter of the year.


He noted that the minority of people with chronic illnesses, including diabetes, no lack of help with a system that is expected to be more effective not only with a better quality of care but with prevention programs, pharmacy and trained professionals to meet group minority.

Human rights groups on Friday asked Google, Yahoo! Microsoft and the next March 12 not censor their search engines in countries where they are obliged to, to protest against cyber-censorship.

"The Day Against Censorship Cybernetics is a day to advance and hold a free internet as a window on the world, and denounced the attacks on the free flow of information online," asked the software giant in a letter to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Amnesty International (AI).


"In the spirit of promoting freedom of expression, which does not ask any censor their search engines or blog platforms anywhere in the world that day," said the two organizations.

RSF and Amnesty International stressed that currently "there are more than two dozen countries that restrict Internet access."


"We understand the challenges of operating in countries that restrict Internet access, these countries seek to pressure to obey local laws that do not conform with international laws and standards that protect freedom of expression," said the organizations. "But access to local demands that violate international law does not justify their actions," said RSF and AI.

Microsoft announced that the new version of its Windows platform will allow its users to disable the Internet Explorer browser and other integrated programs, a matter of dispute with the European Union.

The group was indicted in January by the European Commission for abusing its dominant position to incorporate its browser to Windows Internet Explorer, well away from other market competitors explorers.


The Windows platform operates in more than 90% of the world's computers.

The custom of Microsoft to maintain secrecy about their programs to prevent other manufacturers create programs compatible with yours, that's what the EU's condemnation in 2004.

Most U.S. shares rose on Friday as rising oil prices encouraged the energy sector, which overshadowed a liquidation of securities in technology.




The market spent most of the session low, but financial shares recovered after the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported that Lloyds Banking Group and the British Government agreed to a scheme of protection against losses on toxic assets.

During the session, the Dow Jones and S & P set new minimum of 12 years, but erased its losses late in the session after the newspaper report on Lloyds.


The report on Lloyds' is positive news that the minor things are being cleaned. I think it is temporary, but the news is these that help the market, "said Giri Cherukuri, head trader for Oakbrook Investments LLC.

Cherukuri said that the report set off a bidding game.


JP Morgan lowered its target price for the shares of Apple Inc and its earnings forecasts, leading to a low of 4 percent in their roles and the Nasdaq sank to an intraday minimum of six years.

Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron underpinned the Dow Jones after the oil price rose 4.38 percent, to close at about $ 45 a barrel amid expectations that OPEC could cut production again .


The roles of Chevron climbed 3.2 percent to $ 58.27 and Exxon added 2.9 percent to 64.03

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 32.50 points, or 0.49 percent to close unofficially at 6626.94. The Standard & Poor's 500 advanced 0.83 points, or 0.12 percent, to 683.38. But the Nasdaq composite index gave 5.74 points, or 0.44 percent, to 1293.85.


It was the fourth week to the bottom of all the indices, while the S & P 500 had its worst week since November.

During the week, the Dow Jones lost 6.2 percent, the S & P 500 yielded a 7 percent and the Nasdaq 6.1 percent a restaurant.


Weak economic news added to the negative tone of the market. The U.S. government reported that unemployment last month rose to 8.1 percent, its highest level since December 1983 due to 651,000 lost jobs.

Some 12,000 Americans and 4,000 British soldiers will leave Iraq in September, announced on Sunday the U.S. military, shortly after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives next to police officers who were front row at the entrance to the academy Police in Baghdad, killing 32 people and injuring dozens, authorities said.

As for the announced withdrawal of allied troops, Gen. David Perkins said it will reduce combat units in the United States from 14 to 12 brigades. He added that the U.S. military is handing over to the Army military installations in Iraq as part of the withdrawal of forces.


The U.S. president Barack Obama has said that all combat troops from Iraq will end in August 2010 and that the remaining troops will leave by the end of 2011. The 4,000 British troops will leave Iraq will be the last to remain in this Arab nation.

There are currently some 135,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. With the departure of 12,000, there are still 123,000 troops in the country.


Hours earlier on Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a side entrance of the academy, which is in a mostly Shiite area of the capital. A police officer said the attacker was on a motorcycle when he approached the row of policemen, but the Interior Ministry said that the method of attack had not yet been determined.

Three medical officers and a policeman were in the area said 32 people died, including 19 soldiers and some 60 wounded. Another police officer at the Interior Ministry said 28 died and 57 were injured.


The blast was a bloody reminder of the ability of insurgents to launch spectacular attacks in time when the U.S. begins to reduce its forces in Iraq. Extremists have targeted their attacks more and more Iraqi troops, who are trying to prove that they can take over the security of the country so that U.S. soldiers can be withdrawn.

The main police academy in Baghdad has been the target of several attacks. On January 1, another suicide bombing there killed 33 people.


Iraqi officials provided different figures of casualties, a common after attacks of this magnitude.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but usually the suicide attacks in Iraq are attributed to al-Qaida and other Sunni militias that seek to undermine public confidence in the safety improvements that have led to a considerable decline in violence.

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.