Monday, April 18, 2011

Lula cherishes the dream of founding a large Brazilian Progressive Party

When Lula came to power in 2003 from his Workers' Party (PT), PT said that would never come to power without Lula, and Lula would not have gone up the ramp of the Planalto presidential palace, where he ruled for the past eight years, without the party. However, this axiom has become old. It remains true that the PT without Lula would crumble, but so is that Lula has his own power and light, the PT does not need to survive.

Bernard-Henri Lévy: Engulfed in Libya? You said stalemate?

The anti-Gaddafi is also "stuck" we want to believe and say that those who, like Claude Lanzmann, find the time long and turn coat? I think, for my part, no. And hear testimony, here, back from another trip to Benghazi, the reasons that make me hope. And then, farther east, the camp Abouatni, where they form special forces: climbing, skydiving simulator, endurance tests, body to body.

"How long are you there?, I asked to Abdeslam Nasser, who came to Australia where he was selling mobile phones - 21février the very beginning. - You fought? - Not yet. - Why? - because training lasts four weeks and ... "The officer, who approached and is the only one to wear the uniform, continued:" ...

Washington, outstanding accounts in Bay of Pigs

On April 19, 1961 two United States B-26 were shot down in Cuba, in a battle that could be considered as the beginning of the end of the battle at Playa Giron, or Bay of Pigs. One of these bombers dropped by the action of a Sea Fury and two T-33 Cuban and the other by the fire of anti-aircraft batteries deployed in the Australia sugar mill, where Fidel Castro had set up his command.

The B-26 were part of the Brigade 2506, organized by the CIA and consisting mostly of Cuban exiles to enter Cuba and try to win as fast a beachhead to allow them to apply for U.S. intervention. But the attempt in 1961 ended in failure. After three days of fighting the invaders did not achieve their immediate objective (the beachhead), the support promised by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) never came by the reluctance of President John F.

Finland: Nationalists rose more than expected

The conservative alliance members outgoing government won a narrow victory in the elections of Sunday, April 17 in Finland. The Nationalists have them made a historic breakthrough by becoming the third political force. Of the 200 parliamentary seats, the Election Commission has granted 44 to the National Coalition (Conservative), 42 Social Democratic Party (SDP), which was in opposition and 39 to right-wing nationalist True Finns who are clearly even better than what they had been led to expect the polls.

Hundreds of Palestinians honor the memory of Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza

Hundreds of Palestinians have attended a funeral ceremony in memory of pro-Palestinian Italian pacifist Vittorio Arrigoni, who was killed last week by a group sympathetic to the terrorist network Al Qaeda. "Vittorio, Vittorio," the congregation chanted the passage of the coffin with the remains of the Italian activist, covered by a Palestinian flag.

The body has been moved from a morgue until an ambulance to take the corpse to the border with Egypt, where it will be repatriated to Italy. On Sunday, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced a cash reward for members of the security forces to arrest those responsible. Moreover, Haniyeh announced a state funeral for Arrigoni.

Regime in the Levant Arab riots The fire spreads to Saudi Arabia

With international attention focused on what happens between Tripoli and Benghazi, threatens to overshadow the fire extending into the Mashreq, the Arab Levant. A fire that now extends from Syria to Yemen, through Jordan and even the Shiite regions of Saudi Arabia, forcing world oil supplies. Syria - The situation is perhaps the most explosive Syria.

In the night between Sunday and Monday, security forces opened fire on demonstrators in the city of Homs, a traditional stronghold of the religious-inspired movements against the regime of Assad. According to the pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, the dead are at least 13. A figure likely to rise if, as some say local witnesses, there are injuries, even in serious conditions, which do not go to the hospital for fear of being arrested.

Libya: Gaddafi bomb again Misrata

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have again bombed Misrata in western Libya, Monday, April 18, said a spokesman for the rebels, adding that 17 people had died the previous day in the besieged city. "Gaddafi's forces are being bombed. They shoot rockets and shells on the eastern sector - Street Nakl el Thekil and residential areas around," said Abu Abdoubasset Mzeirek.

A hundred people, mostly civilians, were injured in the fighting Sunday, he said. At a meeting Sunday in Tripoli, senior envoys from the United Nations had demanded that the Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi, an end to attacks against the rebellious city under siege. In a statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW), quoting witnesses, reported 16 civilians killed since April 14.

The UN wants to send a humanitarian team Misrata

.- The United Nations said on Monday it wants to send a humanitarian team to the Libyan town of Misrata siege, which the rebels had been shelled by forces loyal to the leader Moammar Gadhafi. "What we're asking is that a United Nations mission has access to Misrata, so you can assess the situation and the needs there," said UN spokesman, Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.

His comments reflected those of the UN's humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, who during a visit to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi was extremely concerned about the situation in Misrata. "I hope the security situation allows us to enter Misrata," said Amos. "Nobody has any idea of the depth and scale of what is happening there." The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said in Budapest that the Government of Gadhafi had accepted a humanitarian presence in the capital, Tripoli.

A new drug scares Brazil

A new drug, the oxy is creating panic in Brazil. Soon, the new stone, which looks to crack but is much more lethal and four times cheaper, has spread through the country. Is already in use in all states in the north, in Goiania, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasilia, in some states in the Northeast and has come to Sao Paulo.

Health authorities and the public are scared. The crack, six times stronger than cocaine, is already a problem that concerns the country with more than 600,000 drug addicts and was one of the most debated and controversial issues in the last presidential campaign. The oxy is so strong that those who use it every day "does not live more than a year," said Alvaro Ramos, president of the NGO Harm Reduction of the State of Acre, where the oxy, arrived from Bolivia and Peru, has spread quickly to other States.

Fukushima, all the truth (and denials) of the Government, and TEPCO nuclear experts

A protester during an anti-nuclear protest in Tokyo More than a month after the earthquake and resulting tsunamis that caused the crisis - not yet returned - the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, the actors of disaster management Nipponese are unable to d ' agreement. Not even with themselves and even the same day.

On 12 April, for example, the Japanese government raised the assessment of severity of the nuclear level 7, the same as the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. According to the Japanese Prime Minister, however, Naoto Kan, "the situation is stabilizing in Fukushima step by step, radiation is decreasing." "The total amount of radioactive material released in the accident is 10% of that released in the case of Chernobyl," specify the Japanese Association of Industrial and Nuclear Safety (Nisa).

Explosion of violence in Nigeria after the victory of Goodluck Jonathan

The outgoing president, Goodluck Jonathan, was reelected as head of Nigeria, according to full results released Monday, April 18 evening by the National Electoral Commission, in a country marked by deep regional divisions and community. The winner has called for an end post-election riots that left several dead and wounded in the north.

On Sunday, violence erupted in the North, provoked by accusations of fraud against the camp of the incumbent president. Monday, they were still burning in Kano where mobs armed with clubs, knives and boards faced soldiers, and had won Jos in the Centre, and other cities. In Zaria, rioters burned the house of the vice-president and the emir of the city, according to one resident.

Two remote-controlled robots with high levels of radioactivity in Fukushima

Two U.S. guided robots have entered the buildings affected by the disaster-stricken central Fukushima I figures measuring radioactivity, hydrogen, temperature and humidity. The devices have detected high levels of radioactivity in the reactor buildings one and three, whose cooling system was badly damaged after the great earthquake and tsunami on 11 March.

Since then, operators of TEPCO, the company that operates the plant, have unsuccessfully tried to cool the reactors to prevent leakage of radioactive material. The aim of these measurements is to determine whether plant workers could access the reactors to restart the tasks of cooling, especially in the number three, where it has not entered any operator from the hydrogen explosion last month.

London Diaries: The many faces of a city

After years of work in Italy as a freelance TV director and filmmaker, I felt the need to confront a different reality, in our country. Perhaps because Bologna, my city, but also Rome and Milan, which I know from having worked and lived, I have always seemed a bit 'too little, and if I pass the word "provincial".

Especially if you compare to other major European capitals. Instead, arriving in London I felt all the difference. It was for me as projected in a dynamic, constantly changing, capable of fascinating and frightening at the same time. Of this city, where the whole world can feel at home while maintaining their culture, I like to take advantage of the many vibrations that can give.

The riots are increasing in Burkina Faso

The uprisings not longer confined to the capital of Burkina Faso. Shots in the air military, which began Saturday, April 16 in the evening, were always heard Sunday at Po, a major city in southern Iraq, where soldiers still engaged in looting, according to residents contacted by the from Ouagadougou.

"The shooting continued and intensified. The soldiers are currently in the city, some on foot, others on motorcycles," said one resident. "The looting continued. Those who venture into town with their vehicles, will see them retreat by the soldiers," said another. The reasons for the mutiny of soldiers in Po were unknown Sunday and had no military source contacted in this town about 143 km from Ouagadougou.

New clashes in northern Iraq left 48 injured

.- At least 48 people were injured on Monday in the second consecutive day of clashes between protesters and security forces in the city of Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq, police and hospital sources said. The popular discontent in the semi-autonomous Kurdish regional government targets for decades dominated by two political parties, whose former guerrilla groups have been converted into security forces.

Portugal begins to negotiate the terms of its rescue

Portugal begins a crucial stage in negotiations to set the terms of his bail, that a "very preliminary estimate" of the Commissioner of Economic Community Executive, Olli Rehn, estimated at 80,000 million euros over three years. Delegates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission and European Central Bank is in Lisbon to discuss the details, a day after a Finnish extreme right party, Authentic Finns, who opposes the bailout, gain weight in Nordic country after the elections yesterday.

Afghanistan, suicide bombings at the Ministry of Defence. Objective Longuet, the French Minister

A commando of three suicide bombers to storm the Defense Ministry in Kabul. According to the TV broadcaster Al Jazeera this morning, a terrorist managed to penetrate the headquarters of the ministry in the heart of the Afghan capital and it blew up. At least one person died and three were injured. The death toll, however, is not yet official.

Other government sources speaking, however, at least two suicide bombers killed. There is already a vindication of the attack sends Afghan Islamic Press news agency by the Taliban. The group has set the goal: the French defense minister, Gerard Longuet, and some French officers who were in the building.

The Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba: A Debate

At least 85 injured in demonstrations in Yemen

.- At least 85 people were injured in clashes between Yemeni police and protesters calling for the downfall of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the coastal city of Al Hudaida, in western Yemen, according to medical sources. The same sources told Efe that 22 people had gunshot wounds and were admitted to two hospitals in Al Hudaida, located in the Red Sea.

The other 63 injured were injured by the blows inflicted by the police who used batons to disperse the demonstrators. Several witnesses to the incident reported that the clashes erupted when demonstrators marched from the square in which were concentrated in the center of Al Hudaida to a street that connects to the main entrance of the city, where they set up barriers.

Thousands of people demanding the departure of the Syrian president's funeral at least eight protesters

Tension escalates in Syria despite attempts by the president, Bashar Assad, to curb the protests. Thousands of people participate in Homs at the funerals of at least eight protesters died last night and calling for the resignation of the president, as reported by a witness. The Syrian security forces killed early this morning in the city of Talbisa, near Homs (central Mexico), in accidents occurring during the funeral of a tribal leader killed while in police custody.

Fukushima, radiation increases, the technicians can not intervene

The robot in action yesterday in central Fukushima Daiichi have measured high levels of radioactivity in buildings No. 1 and No. 3 reactor, recording values that make it extremely difficult for the direct intervention of technicians TEPCO on the premises. As reported today by Japan's Atomic Safety (Nisa) in reactor No.

1 was detected radioactivity level is 10 to 49 millisieverts per hour, while the No. 3 reactor have been reported even higher values, from 28 to 57 millisieverts per hour, compared to an average of 0.01 in normal millisievert per hour. "In this situation it is very difficult for the engineers of the plant to carry out their work from the inside - said the agency spokesman, Hidehiko Nishiyama -.

Two Palestinian suspects arrested for the murder of a settler family

Two Palestinians were arrested for the murder, March 11, five members of a family of Israelis in a colony of the northern West Bank, say, Sunday, April 17, the internal security service Shin Beth and the police. Five alleged accomplices were also arrested, said the Shin Beth. The suspects, two cousins aged 17 and 19 years, inhabitants of the Palestinian town of Awarta, two kilometers from the settlement of Itamar, where the killings took place, acknowledged the facts, provides the police.

The United States has funded opposition groups in Syria, according to Wikileaks

.- The U.S. government has funded opposition groups in Syria, according to diplomatic documents published by the website Wikileaks, said today the Washington Post. Among the programs of U.S. assistance to the Syrian opposition figure Barada television channel based in London, which began broadcasting in April 2009 and has intensified its work "with the coverage of street protests" that are now occurring in Syria.

Tepco announces new plan to end nuclear crisis

After much pressure, criticism and widespread alarm, the operator of Fukushima presented a "road map" for ending the crisis that lies in three months the time needed to restore stable cooling damaged units, and six to nine months the time needed to shut down its nuclear fuel. "We estimate that it will take three months for radiation levels start to fall," said Tsunehisa Katsumata, president of the company operating the plant in Fukushima (North East), Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).

Retreating rebels in the east but resist in Misrata, Libya

.- The Libyan rebels retreated again on Sunday to the east of Ajdabiya to heavy shelling of Muammar Gadhafi forces, but still resisted intense bombing in Misrata (west) which killed 16 people, hospital sources said. Besides those killed, 71 others were injured Sunday in Misrata, where the rebels claimed to have advanced to positions with respect to regime forces.

Misrata rebels, better organized than in other parts of the country on Saturday had destroyed four tanks hidden in houses to prevent the NATO bombing. In several districts of the city were remnants of cluster bombs, found. Accused by human rights defenders to use this type of weapon, the Libyan regime had denied.

Brain, wit, and large doses of charisma

Four years have been sufficient to multiply your score and manage to be the third most voted for Finland. Brain, large doses of wit and charisma have made it possible for Timo Soini, leader of the far-right Authentic Finnish, having spent 4.05% of the votes in the parliamentary elections of 2007, to 19% in the elections this Sunday.

One in five Finns bet on your prescription Eurosceptic and nationalist. "He draws crowds like flies fly-trap," said a voter intended to vote in the Finnish Social Democrats told Agence France Presse, after listening to a rally of his campaign. "It's a very good speaker. Talk to ordinary people does not complicate things," he told the BBC Jan Sundberg, a professor at the University of Helsinki.

Bolivia .- The Government unions started at a slight raise and consider lifting the strike today

LA PAZ, Oct 18. (Reuters) - Bolivia's unions on Monday discussed raising a general strike for nearly two weeks after winning this morning to start a new agreement the government of Evo Morales that minimally meets their demand for wage increase. The unit Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) said that in negotiations for nearly 40 hours that ended at midnight on Sunday, the government agreed to increase from 10 to 11 percent wage increase this year, with possibility reaches 12 percent for some sectors of public administration.

Lifetime Achievement Award for Berlusconi?

David Pannick is the lawyer who argued the reasons for the prosecution in dealing with the appeal lodged by the British parliamentarians charged with theft in the scandal of the inflated expense accounts, who claimed their right to immunity, and to be judged by the Chambers of membership and not by an ordinary court.

Since the common crimes claim was rejected because the submission of expense reports by the parliamentary is not an obligation and has no impact on essential functions of Parliament. Politicians have already been tried and sentenced to various prison terms. Meanwhile, in Italy, another prominent politician, indicted in Milan for immediate graft and child prostitution, says his right to be tried by the court of Ministers, thunders against the magistrates and the left calls for a parliamentary committee of inquiry to establish the 'existence of a criminal association for subversive within the judiciary.

Cuba: Raul Castro offers a unique limiting political mandates

Cuban President Raul Castro, made the unprecedented proposal to Cuba limit to ten year term of office of officers, Saturday, April 16 before the Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) which has adopted more than 300 economic measures to save Cuba bankruptcy. "We came to the conclusion that it was advisable to limit to a maximum of two consecutive five-year term limits political rights," he told the president before the thousand delegates of the Congress of the CPC, the first since 1997.

Twenty killed in Syria during opposition protests

At least twenty people were killed and one hundred were injured in the last hours in the riot near the Syrian city of Homs, where the funerals were held today for victims of past protests, according to the Qatari Al-Jazeera network. The television gave no details about the identity of the victims, who died last night at Homs confusing incidents and surroundings, where there was an opposition protest and an armed clash between security forces and unknown.

More than half of tsunami victims were elderly

.- More than half the deaths due to and tsunami in the northeast of the March 11 were 65 years or more, and most drowned, according to police data released by Japan's Kyodo local agency. The latest data collected on the tragedy speak of 13 000 843 14 000 030 dead and missing, police said today. Of the nine thousand 112 dead in the provinces of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima whose identity is confirmed, four thousand 990 or 54.8% were 65 years or more.

Finland wins the Eurosceptic right "is now stuck on the bottom-saving states"

Sensational turn right in the prosperous Finland. In the country for years called "Nokia republic" recalling its overall excellence, the ultra-right anti-European triumph in parliamentary elections today. The young centrist Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi, the "small Finnish Merkel," is the main loser.

The "True Finns" (Perus suomalaiset) the dynamic, youthful radical right led by Timo Soini, jumping from 4 percent of the general elections in 2007 to 19%. Eurosceptics closely tailed by the opposition Social Democrats (19.1% reduction) and the conservative National Jyrkki KATAINEN outgoing finance minister, previously allies Kiviniemi, who stop at 20.4% of the vote.

Tornadoes afflict the U.S. More than 40 dead in seven states

A series of tornadoes and storms of incredible intensity caused dozens of deaths and many wounded in the south and the Atlantic coasts of the United States. The authorities have stated that it is still a total budget of victims and damage, but so far, would be at least 47 confirmed deaths. The most serious consequences of the hailstorms and high winds that have crossed the last 48 hours the Southern States have occurred mainly in North Carolina: the 24 confirmed dead following the passage of something 62 as a tornado, according to the Meteorological Service reported.

Palestinian Authority will collapse if occupation continues indefinitely: Abbas

.- The Palestinian Authority "will sink" if Israel persists in its need to maintain a military presence in the territory of a future Palestinian state, estimated the organization's president, Mahmoud Abbas, in an exclusive interview. Abbas explained that during the peace negotiations in September 2010, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told of his desire to hold "for 40 years," a military presence in the border zone along the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.

Ral Castro economay commitment to reform the Communist Party in the VI Congress

The words of Raul Castro at the inauguration of the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), last Saturday, confirmed several things: that the Cuban economic reform progresses, even timid, to a mixed system, with more private and less state , that its scope and limits are unclear, although there is talk of a "five" to "update model" there is no respite in sight to replace the historic leadership, and an octogenarian, and the worst enemy of the changes is the actual way of functioning of the PCC and its bureaucracy more orthodox, and to this reality Castro said the party and its methods must also be reformed.

Emergency Law abolished soon in Syria, promises Al-Assad

In a speech before the new government Saturday, April 16 broadcast by public television, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said the emergency law would be abolished at the latest within one week. The abolition of emergency law, in force since 1962 and which substantially reduces civil liberties, is one of the main demands of protesters who are calling for a liberalization of the regime.

"The Legal Committee on the Emergency Law has developed a series of proposals for new legislation. These proposals will be submitted to the government that will enact laws (...) in a week maximum, "said Assad. In late March, Mr. Assad was given until April 25 to a legal committee to draft new legislation.

In Libya, patience cons stalemate

Even under the friendly pressure of Bernard-Henri Levy, who was its originator, Claude Lanzmann was signed March 16, "calling the last chance" for an intervention in Libya. The writer and filmmaker expresses today in these columns more than doubts about the strategy of the interference that leads to "a war without a name, after very uncertain." Parisian controversy? Maybe.

But very revealing of the growing embarrassment that now surrounds the international intervention in Libya. Stalled, discord and, ultimately, failure: that is, in fact, the sequence that threat. More coordinated military operations by NATO air trample over the coalition led by France and the United Kingdom will be exposed to wrangling and strife, which will only undermine its effectiveness.