En su tercera audiencia, Francisco habló por primera vez en español

«Dios es un papá para todos nosotros», dijo el Pontífice; además, saludó a un grupo del club de fútbol San Lorenzo y a la cantante norteamericana Patti Smith

ROMA.- Para deleite de los hispanohablantes, el papa Francisco utilizó ayer por primera vez su lengua madre. Decidido a tender puentes y a comunicarse en forma fácil y directa con los fieles, aseguró que «Dios es un papá para nosotros».

El Santo Padre tuvo ayer un nuevo baño de multitud, saludó a un grupo del Club Atlético San Lorenzo (ver Deportiva) y hasta a la famosa cantante y poeta norteamericana Patti Smith, que confesó ser una fan de él.

Todo esto hizo ayer Francisco, que en su tercera audiencia general llamó a los fieles presentes en la plaza -entre los cuales había muchos argentinos con banderas- a «vivir en Cristo, que es la verdadera libertad, la que nos salva de la esclavitud del mal, del pecado, de la muerte».

«Miremos a la patria celeste, tendremos una nueva luz y fuerza también en nuestro compromiso y en nuestras fatigas cotidianas -exhortó-. Es un servicio precioso que tenemos que darle a nuestro mundo, que muchas veces ya no logra levantar su mirada hacia lo alto, ya no logra levantar su mirada hacia Dios.»

El primer papa argentino habló en su lengua madre al resumir en español la catequesis que había pronunciado antes en italiano y al saludar a los peregrinos hispanohablantes.

Hasta ahora, para no hacer diferencias, el Pontífice había saludado siempre en italiano, dejando que otros prelados tradujeran sus palabras, incluso cuando se trataba del español, provocando cierta decepción entre los peregrinos de esa lengua.

Más allá de que probablemente se sienta incómodo al hablar idiomas como el inglés, el alemán o el francés -que conoce-, el cambio de ayer indica que, evidentemente, el ex arzobispo de Buenos Aires fue convencido por algún prelado del Vaticano de que no podía dejar de usar su lengua materna.

En la catequesis, el Papa reflexionó sobre el valor salvífico de la resurrección de Jesús, «en la que se funda nuestra fe y por la que hemos sido liberados del pecado y hechos hijos de Dios, generados a una vida nueva». «Dios nos trata como hijos, nos comprende, nos perdona, nos abraza y nos ama aún cuando nos equivocamos», dijo.

«La tentación de dejar a Dios de lado para poner en el centro a nosotros mismos siempre está al acecho [?]. Por eso tenemos que tener el coraje de la fe y no dejarnos conducir por la mentalidad que dice «Dios no sirve, no es importante para vos». Es lo contrario: comportémonos como hijos de Dios, sin desanimarnos por nuestras caídas, sintiéndonos amados por él, sabiendo que él es nuestra fuerza», exhortó.

«Es justamente el Espíritu que hemos recibido en el bautismo que nos enseña, nos empuja, a decir «Padre» y mejor «Abbá», que es «papá», así es nuestro Dios, es un papá. Sí, Dios es nuestro papá», también dijo, generando aplausos. «Dios no se olvida nunca de nosotros y esto es lindo, es lindo», aseguró, saliéndose del texto, y estableciendo gran sintonía con los fieles.

El Papa tuvo un nuevo baño de multitud al llegar a la Plaza San Pedro y recorrerla a bordo del papamóvil. Como siempre, se detuvo, saludó y besó a todo bebe que le alcanzaron desde la multitud, entre vivas. A un chico que lloraba el Papa hasta le puso el chupete.

«Es increíble lo que ha generado Francisco, él significa una renovación de la Iglesia total, tanto en lo administrativo como en la fe», dijo a LA NACION Javier Riotorto, publicista cordobés de 41 años. «Francisco es un tipo creíble y la gente necesita creer», agregó.

Al término de la audiencia, Francisco recordó a las víctimas del terremoto que sacudió el sur de Irán y expresó su cercanía a las poblaciones golpeadas por esa calamidad.

SALUDOS

Luego, siempre sonriente, se quedó saludando más de una hora a obispos, prelados y demás personalidades, entre las cuales estaba la estrella de rock Patti Smith, que luego confesó: «Me gusta este papa».

«Después de la renuncia de Benedicto XVI recé para que su sucesor eligiera el nombre Francisco. Cuando me enteré de que el nuevo papa se llamaba así fui feliz. Creo que es una personalidad interesante, me gusta mucho. Es pronto para juzgar, yo no soy católica, pero es muy valiente haber elegido un nombre que representa la humildad, la renuncia al materialismo, la atención por la naturaleza», dijo la artista a L’Osservatore Romano.

Además de los saludos, Francisco, el «papa de los pobres», les dedicó aún más tiempo, auténtico, sincero, sonriente, a decenas de anónimos enfermos en sillas de ruedas, a quienes saludó, uno por uno, como verdadero pastor entre las ovejas.

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Fuente: La Naciòn

Fundador de Facebook se une a la exigencia de la reforma migratoria en EEUU

Zuckerberg además firma un editorial en The Washington Post en el que elabora algo más su respaldo a la reforma migratoria, afirmando que Estados Unidos «tiene una extraña política migratoria para ser una nación de inmigrantes», como lo fueron sus propios abuelos, recuerda.

Washington.- El creador de Facebook, el multimillonario Mark Zuckerberg, se unió hoy a las demandas para que el Congreso de Estados Unidos elabore una propuesta de reforma migratoria, un día después de que decenas de miles de personas se manifestaran por el mismo motivo ante el Capitolio en Washington.

Según adelanta el diario Politico, Zuckerberg lanzará hoy formalmente un grupo de cabildeo, FWD.us (de Forward US, o «Adelante», lema de la última campaña presidencial de Barack Obama, Estados Unidos), cuya primera tarea será presionar por la reforma migratoria, manifestó DPA.

Entre los 11 fundadores del grupo figuran otros pesos pesados de Silicon Valley, la capital estadounidense de las nuevas tecnologías y una ciudad donde la demanda de «cerebros» de todas partes del mundo es especialmente fuerte.

Así lo señalan en su web, en la que explican su apoyo a la reforma migratoria como algo necesario para «contratar a los mejores y más brillantes».

Según el rotativo, entre los miembros de FWD.us, que en su web llama al internauta a «unirse a la comunidad tecnológica en su demanda de reforma migratoria», figuran también el cofundador de LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, y John Doerr, que ha apoyado proyectos de negocios como Google o Amazon. Figuran también como «donantes» la directora ejecutiva de Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, o su par de Google, Eric Schmidt, agrega la información.

Zuckerberg además firma un editorial en The Washington Post en el que elabora algo más su respaldo a la reforma migratoria, afirmando que Estados Unidos «tiene una extraña política migratoria para ser una nación de inmigrantes», como lo fueron sus propios abuelos, recuerda.

«Y es una política inadecuada para el mundo de hoy en día», subraya.

De acuerdo con Zuckerberg, la economía actual es una basada en el «conocimiento» y para «liderar» en el mundo en esta nueva economía, «necesitamos a la gente de mayor talento y que más duro trabaje».

«Entonces, ¿por qué echamos a más del 40 por ciento de los licenciados en matemáticas y ciencias que no son ciudadanos estadounidenses tras educarlos? ¿Por qué ofrecemos tan pocas visas H-1B para los especialistas talentosos que cada año se agota su oferta a los pocos días, incluso aunque sabemos que cada uno de esos empleos generará dos o tres puestos de trabajo más para estadounidenses a cambio?», se pregunta el creador de Facebook.

Estados Unidos aguarda con expectación la propuesta de reforma migratoria que está elaborando un grupo de ocho senadores bipartidistas. Según aseguró el miércoles uno de sus autores, el demócrata Bob Menéndez, tras varios retrasos la propuesta escrita podría ver la luz a comienzos de la semana próxima.

El senador republicano hizo estas declaraciones durante la masiva manifestación proinmigración en Washington, en la que decenas de miles de personas reclamaron que cualquier propuesta de ley incluya una vía a la ciudadanía para los 11 millones de indocumentados que viven en el país.

Fuente: El Universal

Hollande lanzó un plan de “moralización”

Un “shock de moralización” a la francesa, que incluyó la expulsión inmediata de Jerome Cahuzac del Partido Socialista, una semana después de que descubrieran que el ex ministro de presupuesto y encargado de vigilar el fraude fiscal tenía una cuenta no declarada en el extranjero, amenazas de más revelaciones incómodas y la convicción de la opinión pública de que el 77% “de los políticos franceses son corruptos”. Todo esto forma un cóctel explosivo, que ha forzado al presidente socialista François Hollande a encontrar un camino de salida a la crisis. La erradicación de los paraísos fiscales en Europa es una de sus ambiciones.

Ayer, presentó las grandes líneas de su proyecto de “ley de moralización” de la vida política francesa. Después de admitir que había que aprender la lección del affaire Cahuzac, Hollande propuso una “lucha implacable contra las derivaciones del dinero” .“La lucha contra el fraude es la condición para hacer respetar la igualdad delante de los impuestos”, anunció el presidente, que es un economista experto en tributos. Hollande anunció la revisión completa de todas las reglas sobre el patrimonio de los funcionarios públicos, con la creación de una autoridad independiente encargada de controlar las declaraciones sobre el patrimonio de miembros del gobierno, parlamentarios, responsables de agencias locales y de grandes administraciones.

El golpe de “moral republicana” implica la declaración de todos los bienes patrimoniales y cuentas de los ministros y parlamentarios, y la incompatibilidad de tener una actividad privada cuando se cumple un mandato. Un proyecto legislativo será presentado ante la Asamblea el próximo 24 de abril para imponer una nueva deontología en la política francesa y conseguir una “república ejemplar”.

Hollande anunció que el Estado reforzará la lucha contra los paraísos fiscales como parte de este plan moralizador. “Los bancos franceses deberán declarar públicamente cada año su lista de filiales en todo el mundo e indicar la naturaleza de sus actividades”, dijo, para que no sea posible disimular sus actividades off shore. “No será posible para un banco disimular las transacciones efectuadas en un paraíso fiscal porque el conjunto de estas informaciones serán públicas y a disposición de todos”, alertó. El mandatario espera que estas obligaciones sean también extendidas a nivel europeo. “Yo no dudaré en considerar paraíso fiscal a todo país que rechace cooperar plenamente con Francia”, dijo.

Hollande propone un “intercambio automático de informaciones” –y no solo a pedido– “sobre las ganancias y patrimonios de los franceses en el extranjero y de los extranjeros en Francia”.

Para poder recuperar la iniciativa política, Hollande no tiene otra alternativa que una renovación de su gabinete para iniciar un nuevo capítulo, a sólo once meses de las elecciones donde fue nominado presidente. Lo detiene su decisión de no dejar la sensación de que esta catástrofe es una crisis política y no una crisis moral.

Fuente: Clarìn

Al menos 45 muertos tras bombardeos y ejecuciones en Siria

Al menos 45 sirios murieron, algunos de ellos asesinados a sangre fría, luego de que tropas del Gobierno arrasaran el pueblo rebelde de Sanamein en el sur de la provincia de Deraa, dijeron el jueves activistas y un grupo de monitoreo.

El Observatorio Sirio para los Derechos Humanos, con sede en Gran Bretaña, señaló que decenas de civiles -incluidos niños- murieron el miércoles en un bombardeo y ejecuciones sumarias luego de que las fuerzas leales al presidente Bashar al-Assad ingresaran en Sanamein.

No hubo comentarios inmediatos de funcionarios estatales.

Las fuerzas de seguridad habían estado combatiendo con insurgentes que se oponen a Assad en la zona de Deraa, provincia que limita con Jordania y se ha convertido en un punto clave de las batallas, mientras ambas partes buscan controlar las fronteras sirias y las líneas de suministro a la capital, Damasco.

Rami Abdelrahman, jefe del observatorio que usa una red de contactos en Siria para obtener su información, dijo que la situación aún era muy confusa como para determinar cuántas personas habían muerto en combate y cuántas asesinadas a sangre fría.

«Los residentes dicen que hubo fuertes enfrentamientos ayer (miércoles) y que luego las fuerzas de seguridad arremetieron en el pueblo. Al ingresar, comenzaron a bombardear algunos distritos y otros hombres armados ejecutaron personas», indicó.

Abdelrahman agregó que 45 de las víctimas de lo que calificó como una masacre habían sido identificadas y que era probable que la cifra de muertos aumentara. Decenas de casas fueron destruidas por el bombardeo o el fuego, expresó.

Grupos activistas en Deraa dijeron que más de 60 personas habían muerto.

Imágenes de video subidas a internet por residentes mostraban filas de cuerpos esparcidos en un edificio, con sus rostros cubiertos de sangre y sus cuerpos cubiertos por sábanas, con nombres escritos en papeles colocados sobre ellos. Algunos de los muertos parecían ser niños pequeños.

«Sanamein, 10 de abril, una masacre se ha producido en Sanamein. Pongo mi fe en Dios», se oía decir a un camarógrafo que filmaba la escena.

Los reportes y videos de Siria son difíciles de verificar, dado que el acceso de los medios internacionales al país es limitado.

Fuente: Reuters

Obama muestra su cara menos amable

El presidente norteamericano cede ante los republcianos y presenta un presupuesto que por primera vez recorta programas sociales que afectan a los ancianos y jubilados.

En un intento por asegurarse el voto republicano, el presidente Barack Obama presento ayer un presupuesto que incluye por primera vez cambios en dos de los programas sociales mas populares, Medicare, es decir la atención medica para los ancianos y Social Security, el sistema jubilatorio. Se trata de una gran concesión a la oposición que le ha valido duras críticas de representantes de su propio partido.

Ambos temas fueron negociados de antemano con el líder de la mayoría republicana en el Congreso, John Boehner. Pero los republicanos siguen resistiéndose a cualquier tipo de aumento de impuestos y la Casa Blanca ha dicho que si no hay concesiones republicanas a ese nivel no habrá acuerdo.

De hecho, el presupuesto de Obama prevé nuevas inversiones en creación de empleo, trabajos públicos y educación por un total de 250.000 millones de dólares. Pero a fin de reducir el déficit fiscal hay casi 800.000 millones de dólares en nuevos impuestos incluyendo la reducción de privilegios impositivos para los ricos y unos 94 centavos de dólares extra por cada paquete de cigarrillos. Eso se suma a recortes en los programas federales por un total de 1 millón de millones, es decir un billón, que incluyen recortes en la Seguridad Social y Medicare.

«Nuestra economía esta destinada a progresar si es que Washington no se mete en su camino», dijo Obama durante la presentación que hizo en la jardín de las rosas de la Casa Blanca.

De hecho Obama se está jugando el todo por el todo. Demócratas de peso han objetado virulentamente los recortes en los programas sociales. Pero el objetivo del presidente es lograr que los republicanos apoyen este presupuesto lo que pondría fin a los «estúpidos» recortes automáticos del déficit que están teniendo lugar y que ya están «perjudicando la economía».

«Podemos hacer que nuestra economía crezca al mismo tiempo que reducimos el déficit», dijo Obama. «Los números cierran. No hay ningún espejismo o nubes en eso».

El problema es que los republicanos se han venido oponiendo sistemáticamente a todo aumento de impuestos. ¿Flexibilizarán su posición esta vez?

Boehner dijo que el plan de Obama «merece algo de crédito» porque incluye reformas a la Seguridad Social y a Medicare. No obstante, advirtió que no aceptará que esas reformas sean «rehenes» de la propuesta de aumentar las cargas impositivas a los más ricos. «Lo que vemos» (en la propuesta de Obama) «es más de lo mismo: más gasto, impuestos más altos y más deuda», indicó por su parte el líder de la mayoría republicana en la Cámara de Representantes, Eric Cantor.

Obama insistió con que los republicanos deben ahora hacer concesiones. «En lo que respecta la reducción del déficit fiscal, he avanzado hacia los republicanos más de la mitad del camino», dijo invitándolos a que haya reciprocidad a nivel impositivo.

Un funcionario de Obama que pidió no ser identificado explicó luego que si los republicanos no acepten ningún aumento impositivo no habrá acuerdo. «Es eso de simple. Básicamente lo que no va a ocurrir es una reducción del déficit cuyo costo sea pagado únicamente por la clase media y los ancianos», dijo el funcionario.

Fuente: Clarìn

South Korea increases surveillance as North moves missiles

South Korea said there was «very high» probability that North Korea, engaged in weeks of threats of war, would launch a medium-range missile at any time as a show of strength despite diplomatic efforts to soften its position.

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said South Korea had asked China and Russia to intercede with the North to ease tension that has mounted since the U.N. Security Council slapped fresh sanctions on Pyongyang after a new nuclear arms test in February.

But all was calm in the South Korean capital, Seoul, long used to North Korean invective under its 30-year-old leader Kim Jong-un. Offices worked normally and customers crowded into city-centre cafes.

Seoul stocks edged up 0.77 percent from a four-and-a-half-month low hit earlier this week, though trading was light with threats from the North still clouding the picture. The won currency gained 0.3 percent.

Other officials in Seoul said surveillance of North Korean activity had been enhanced. Missile transporters had been spotted in South Hamgyong province along North Korea’s east coast – possible sites for a launch.

North Korea observes several anniversaries in the next few days and they could be pretexts for military displays of strength. These include the first anniversary of Kim’s formal ascent to power, the 20th anniversary of rule by his father Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011, and the birth date next Monday of his grandfather, state founder Kim Il-Sung.

The near-daily threats to South Korea and the United States of recent weeks were muted in state media on Wednesday, with the focus largely on the festivities lying ahead.

A report by the KCNA news agency said North Koreans were «doing their best to decorate cities». Another dispatch related a «production upsurge» in the coal, steel, iron and timber industries, with figures showing that the quarterly plan set by authorities had been «overfulfilled».

In Washington, Admiral Samuel Locklear, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region, also said the U.S. military believed North Korea had moved an unspecified number of Musudan missiles to its east coast.

The Musudan can reach targets at a distance of 3,500 km (2,100 miles) or more, according to South Korea, which would put Japan within range and may even threaten Guam, home to U.S. bases. South Korea can be reached by the North’s short-range Scud missiles.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Malvinas war theme to be played at Thatcher’s funeral

Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will have a Malvinas War theme, the British government announced today.

Personnel from the UK’s Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force currently serving on ships and in regiments and units which played a key role in the 1982 conflict will carry the former Prime Minister’s coffin into St Paul’s Cathedral for the service a week today.

The 10 personnel will be drawn from the Royal Marines, the Scots Guards, the Welsh Guards, the Parachute Regiment, the Royal Gurkha Rifles and the RAF. More than 700 armed servicemen and women will take part in the ceremonial funeral.

The move was agreed today at a meeting of the committee co-ordinating the arrangements for the funeral of Baroness Thatcher, who died on Monday aged 87. It includes a representative of her family.

Asked if Lady Thatcher had wanted the funeral of a “war leader”, the British Prime Minister’s official spokesman replied that there had been a significant military involvement in previous ceremonial funerals but added: “Clearly Lady Thatcher has a strong association with the armed forces.” He added: “Her family have been very much at the heart of the preparations.”

Number 10 said that the coffin bearer party would “include current service personal from ships, units and regiments notable for their service in the Falklands [Malvinas] campaign.”

The 1982 war, following Argentina’s recovery of the South Atlantic islands 12,800 kilometers away from Britain, transformed Lady Thatcher’s political fortunes and helped her secure a landslide victory at the 1983 general election.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

British ‘test tube baby’ pioneer Robert Edwards dies

Robert Edwards, a British Nobel prize-winning scientist known as the father of IVF for pioneering the development of «test tube babies», died on Wednesday aged 87 after a long illness, his university said.

Edwards, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2010, started work on developing in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) in the 1950s, and the first so-called test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978 as a result of his research.

Since then, more than 5 million babies have been born around the world as a result of the techniques Edwards developed together with his late colleague, Patrick Steptoe.

Edwards, who has five daughters and 11 grandchildren, said he was motivated in his work by a desire to help families.

«Nothing is more special than a child,» he was quoted by his clinic as saying when he won his Nobel prize.

Edwards began his work on fertilisation in 1955, and by 1968 had managed to fertilise a human egg in a laboratory. He then started to collaborate with Steptoe.

In 1980, the two founded Bourn Hall, the world’s first IVF clinic, in Cambridge, eastern England, where gynaecologists and cell biologists around the world have since come to train.

Mike Macnamee, chief executive of the clinic, said Edwards was «one of our greatest scientists», whose inspirational work had led to a breakthrough that had enhanced the lives of millions of people worldwide.

IVF is a process by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body in a test tube, giving rise to the term «in vitro» or «in glass».

Experts say that today, as many as 1 to 2 percent of babies in the Western world are conceived through IVF, a method designed to help infertile couples or those who have trouble conceiving naturally but who want to have children of their own.

Yet Edwards’ work and its consequences remain controversial. The Roman Catholic Church strongly opposes IVF as an affront to human dignity that destroys more human life than it creates – because scientists discard or store unused fertilised embryos.

Working together in the 1960s and 1970s, Edwards and Steptoe, a gynaecologist, pursued their research despite opposition from churches, governments and many in the media, and scepticism from scientific colleagues.

They struggled to raise funds and had to rely on private donations, but in 1968 they developed methods to fertilise human eggs outside the body.

Working at Cambridge University, they began replacing fertilised embryos into infertile mothers in 1972. But several pregnancies spontaneously aborted due to what they later discovered were flawed hormone treatments.

In 1977, they tried a new procedure, which did not involve hormone treatments but relied instead on precise timing. On July 25 of the following year, the world’s first IVF baby was born.

Peter Braude, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at King’s College London, said few biologists had been able to have such a positive and practical impact on humankind.

«Bob’s boundless energy, his innovative ideas, and his resilience despite the relentless criticism by naysayers changed the lives of millions of ordinary people who now rejoice in the gift of their own child,» he said.

«He leaves the world a much better place.»

According to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), around one in six couples worldwide experience some form of infertility problem at least once during their reproductive lifetime.

Since Edwards’ pioneering work, various forms of «assisted reproductive technology» have been developed, including intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) – a process by which an egg is fertilised by injecting it with a single sperm.

Anna Veiga, ESHRE’s chairman, said calculations last year indicated there were now 5 million IVF babies in the world. «And they each reflect the sacrifices (Edwards) made to establish IVF as a legitimate treatment in world medicine,» she said.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Louvre Museum shuts for day as guards protest pickpockets

Tourists caught no glimpse of the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory or Venus de Milo due to a one-day closure of the Louvre, as guards protested that pickpockets were rampant at the world’s most visited museum.

Two hundred museum guards exercised their right to a work stoppage, forcing the museum to shut its doors for the day, union representatives said.

The CGT union said guards were «fed up» by attacks and threats directed at them and visitors over the past few months by pickpockets.

The secretary general of the national union for museums (SNMD), David Maillard, said petty thieves were multiplying at the site, visited by nearly 9 million people each year.

«There are thefts and threats every day. The guards are fed up with being assaulted by pickpockets,» Maillard told Reuters, adding that the unions want better security at the museum.

The Louvre, which confirmed the closure on its website, could not be immediately reached for comment, but unions said the museum would reopen on Thursday.

Paris police regularly patrol the city’s most crowded tourist sites, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.

But thieves who often operate in organised gangs are a constant frustration for authorities as they are easily able to exploit tourists and can lose themselves in crowds.

Many of those arrested do not hold French nationality or are minors, complicating judicial pursuit.

The Louvre posts signs warning against pickpockets at its entrances.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

China detains 10 for bird flu rumours, death toll at nine

Chinese police detained at least 10 people for spreading rumours about the H7N9 bird flu virus, state media said as the death toll from the new strain rose to nine.

Authorities detained the people in six provinces – Shaanxi, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Fujian – some of whom had posted «fake information» online about new cases of the virus in their areas, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The death toll and number of infections in China from the strain of bird flu first found in humans last month has ticked up daily.

Nine people have died out of 33 confirmed cases of the virus, all in eastern China, according to data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission. State media quoted authorities as saying a vaccine should be ready within months.

Until Wednesday, the source of the virus was not known but Chinese researchers said they had traced it to wild birds and chickens, Xinhua reported.

One man detained in Anhui province was given seven days of administrative detention for fabricating posts on microblogs about infections, Xinhua said.

The Xi’an city public security bureau in Shaanxi province is investigating another man’s posts, «to prevent untrue information from causing public panic», Xinhua said.

Scientists around the world have praised China for its handling of the deadly outbreak, but many Chinese people are sceptical of the government’s pronouncements about the H7N9 virus, given a history of public health scandals and cover-ups.

The government initially tried to conceal an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about one in 10 of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

Chinese Internet users have questioned why the government waited weeks to announce cases of the bird flu strain, but health officials said it took time to identify the virus, which was previously unknown in humans.

China’s Communist Party is very keen to maintain social stability, but it has struggled to clamp down on rumours, which often spread quickly on the Internet.

Authorities have detained people in the past for rumours, including 93 people accused of circulating information about the apocalypse last December.

Still, some commentators have noted that reports of a flu-like condition killing one person near Shanghai had been circulating on Chinese microblogs weeks before the government confirmed it was a case of H7N9.

«From this you can see if the government tried to cover up like in 2003, but more and more of these posts surfaced, there would be no way to conceal it,» social media watcher and journalist Wu Heng told reporters.

The latest H7N9 victim was from Anhui province, Xinhua reported. Among the new cases are several from Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, at least one of whom is dangerously ill, the news agency said.

«The outbreak overall is in a state that can be controlled,» the State Council, or cabinet, said in a statement issued online after a meeting overseen by Premier Li Keqiang.

The China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday that a vaccine for H7N9 has been authorized by China Food and Drug Administration and is expected to be introduced to the market in the first half of this year.

The source was «traceable to wild birds from east Asia and chickens from east China», Xinhua reported, citing the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been investigating two «family clusters» of people suspected of having been infected with the H7N9 virus to see it its being spread between people.

The virus was found not to have infected anyone in the first cluster. The second cluster is still under investigation, the WHO said, though tests have been inconclusive and experts say the poor quality samples may make it impossible to determine.

The virus is severe in most humans, leading to fears that if it becomes easily transmissible, it could cause a deadly pandemic.

However, a WHO spokesman told a news briefing in Geneva there was no firm evidence of human-to-human transmission occurring which could spark a pandemic. Chinese health authorities have said the same thing.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Spain politicians to be fenced off from evictions protesters

Spanish police will erect barriers around politicians’ residences to shield them from protests over the growing number of home evictions and to call for changes to mortgage laws.

The Interior Ministry said it ordered police to keep demonstrators at a distance after protests outside the houses of senior members of the governing People’s Party, including the Madrid home of Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaría.

Property foreclosures rose nearly fourfold in the four years since 2008 compared to the previous four-year period, court data shows. Last year, foreclosure cases opened by the courts increased 18 percent from 2011 to nearly 92,000 as the country suffered its second recession in five years and one in four workers was unemployed.

Around 200 people descended on Sáenz de Santamaría’s home on Friday, including several victims of evictions who related their stories to the crowd using megaphones.

Protest groups, coordinated by the Platform for Mortgage Victims (PAH in Spanish), argue their demonstrations are peaceful, though officials, including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, have condemned what they call «acts of intimidation.»

PAH wants changes to Spain’s mortgage laws, which allow little margin for struggling homeowners to negotiate with banks than in other countries. Nor can mortgages be eliminated by personal bankruptcy.

The People’s Party infuriated campaigners by amending a bill to ease mortgage regulations on Monday, removing a measure calling for such debts to be cancelled once houses are repossessed.

Hundreds of banner-waving protesters demonstrated at People’s Party headquarters all over the country on Monday evening after it emerged parliament would not debate the measure in an open session. The bill was triggered automatically after 1.5 million people signed a petition.

«The People’s Party’s proposal as it stands is one of economic, social and legal chaos,» PAH spokeswoman Ana Colau said.

Rigid mortgage rules have helped keep Spain’s mortgage default rate relatively low at 3.5 percent, around a third the rate in Ireland which suffered a similar property boom and bust.

On Tuesday the region of Andalusia, partly run by the opposition Socialist Party, said it would expropriate some properties from which families were about to be evicted so they could continue to live there. It would keep them out of lenders’ hands for a maximum of three years.

Andalusia also said it would penalise banks for holding on to empty housing.

Banks such as La Caixa, the country’s third biggest, said they were still analysing the measures.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Brazil to miss FIFA deadline for World Cup stadiums

More than half a million tickets have been sold for the Confederations Cup in June, but host nation Brazil has yet to finish the main stadiums to be used in the dress rehearsal for the 2014 football World Cup.

On the eve of yet another FIFA deadline, Brazil has delivered only three of the six venues for the eight-nation warm-up starting in two months.

World football’s governing body FIFA had demanded that all six stadiums be ready by this past December but construction delays forced it to extend the deadline until April 15. Even with that extra time, all the stadiums will not be ready.

The cities of Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza and Salvador have complied with the timetable and delivered their stadiums, while Recife will open its Arena Pernambuco on Sunday, one day ahead of the final FIFA deadline.

In Brasilia, 5,000 workers toil around the clock to finish the Mane Garrincha National Stadium, bolting seats into concrete galleries and draining the field where rolls of grass have still to be laid for the pitch. The $500 million colonnaded arena in the centre of Brazil’s modern capital is the most expensive of the 12 venues that will host the World Cup.

Brazil will face Japan here in the opening game of the Confederations Cup on June 15, the first test of the South American nation’s ability to organize two rapidly approaching global sporting events, next year’s World Cup and the Olympic Games two years later.

Building delays and cost overruns are threatening to turn the two events into an international embarrassment for Brazil instead of showcasing its arrival as a major economic power.

Brazilian officials, however, maintain that all will be fine. Opening Salvador’s Fonte Nova stadium last week, President Dilma Rousseff said five-times world champion Brazil will prove to be unbeatable on and off the sports field by «exceeding expectations» in organizing the global football tournament.

The biggest problem is with the venerable Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s largest stadium built for the 1950 World Cup. The arena is scheduled to hold the final match of the tournament on June 30 but is still undergoing finishing touches to a $400 million refurbishment, it’s third costly overhaul in 12 years.

The pitch has been laid and more than half the 78,000 seats have been installed, but work is still being done on the massive roof while access areas to the stadium have not been started.

Maracanã was supposed to be ready by this past December but that date was repeatedly pushed back. The earliest it will be handed over to FIFA is April 27, FIFA and Rio state officials said, and there are doubts the stadium will be finished even then.

An exasperated FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke reluctantly acknowledged last week that Brazil will not complete its preparations on time.

«Not all operational arrangements will be 100 percent» for the Confederations Cup, Valcke wrote on FIFA’s website, warning that such delays would not be tolerated for the World Cup.

«The deadline for the FIFA World Cup stadiums delivery stands firm as December 2013. There will be no compromise,» he wrote. Valcke said the scale of next year’s World Cup required a minimum six-month operational set-up.

With an estimated 3 million spectators flocking to 12 stadiums in a dozen cities across Brazil – more than half a million of them foreign visitors – the 32-nation, 64-game World Cup will be a major logistical challenge for Brazil.

Brazil’s World Cup preparations have been criticized several times by FIFA, including Valcke’s statement last year that the country needed «a kick in the backside.»

Delays in upgrading airports and urban transport could cause a logistical nightmare with so many football fans attending games. Projects to add bus lanes, trams and monorails in Brasilia, Fortaleza, Manaus, Salvador and Sao Paulo will not be ready in time, according to the government agency that audits public spending.

The Confederations Cup brings together the champions of FIFA’s six geographic confederations, along with the current world champions Spain and the World Cup hosts. It is considered an important organizational test ahead of the World Cup.

Demand for the Confederations Cup has been high and more than 546,000 tickets have already been sold, according to FIFA.

At best, it looks like the Confederations Cup matches will be played in stadiums that are usable, but not finished. One worry is that Brazilian officials will declare the works complete and open them to the public even though they are not ready, a common practice in Brazil.

Officials in Rio opened a massive concert hall and music complex in 2008 only to undertake another four years of works because the original construction was so shoddy.

Rio’s Engenhão stadium, opened in 2007 for the Pan American Games, was closed last month because of fears the roof could blow down in high winds.

The grass was so poor at the brand new Gremio Arena in Porto Alegre, a stadium that will not be used for World Cup, that the club had to play games elsewhere to let it mend.

FIFA requires that the new stadiums be tested twice, preferably with football games. At Maracanã, a first test will be behind closed doors on April 27 when local World Cup organizing committee members Ronaldo and Bebeto try out the field playing with a group of friends.

The big test will come on June 2, just two weeks before the Confederations Cup kicks off, when Brazil plays a friendly against England.

Brazil lost valuable time preparing for the World Cup by taking two years just to decide on which 12 cities would host the games, a problem football star Ronaldo says is cultural.

«We leave everything to the last minute,» Ronaldo told O Globo newspaper on Sunday. »

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

China, Irán e Irak, récord de ejecuciones

La pena de muerte pierde terreno en casi todo los continentes, y la perspectiva de su abolición universal empieza sentirse más cerca, aunque aún hay que lidiar con algunos países irreductibles como China que volvió a ejecutar más penas capitales que en el resto del mundo, según se deprende del informe que Amnistía Internacional presentó ayer en Londres.

Los países que aplican este castigo se han reducido en más de un tercio en comparación con la cifra de hace diez años. El número «oficial» de ejecuciones en todo el mundo durante 2012 asciende a 682 (sin contar los casos en China), lo cual supone dos víctimas más que el año pasado. La mayor parte de las ejecuciones documentadas el pasado año tuvieron lugar en 21 países, tantos como en 2011. Además, en todo el mundo se dictaron más de 1.700 penas de muerte.

En el ranking de países China se sitúa a la cabeza, con un número que fluctúa entre los 1000 y los 8000, seguida por Irán con al menos 314, Irak con 129, Arabia Saudí, con 79, Estados Unidos, con 43 y Yemen, 28.

El verdadero problema reside en el gigante asiático donde es imposible contabilizar el número de víctimas de pena de muerte, ya que la cifra que se suele admitir oficialmente es muy inferior al número real y los datos se mantienen bajo un férreo control. En el informe se habla de «miles», mientras otros grupos defensores de los derechos humanos afirman que fueron entre 4.000 y 8.000.

Fuente: ABC

Pakistán prueba un misil de medio alcance con capacidad nuclear

La versión mejorada del misil balístico Hatf IV ha sido probada hoy «con éxito» por las Fuerzas Armadas paquistaníes, según han informado en un comunicado oficial. Se trata de un arma capaz de alcanzar los 900 kilómetros y posee la capacidad de portar ojivas nucleares.

Según fuentes militares, el misil probado ha impactado en las aguas del Mar Arábigo.

Con esta versión que mejora «su alcance y sus parámetros técnicos», el Hatf IV «consolida y fortalece la capacidad de disuasión de Pakistán», han explicado.

Pakistán y la India, rivales que han librado tres guerras desde su independencia en 1947, suelen probar rutinariamente sus misiles de capacidad nuclear y habitualmente lo hacen con apenas días de diferencia entre los ensayos de uno y otro país.

En este caso, la prueba de hoy se realizó después de que el domingo pasado las Fuerzas Armadas indias probaran el misil balístico tierra-tierra Agni II, con capacidad nuclear y un alcance de más de 2.000 kilómetros.

Con la ayuda de China

Pakistán posee diversos misiles de alcance corto y medio -Hataf, Ghaznavi, Ghauri y Shaheen-, además de los misiles de crucero Babur y el proyectil antitanque Baktar-Shikan, la mayoría de ellos desarrollados con ayuda de China.

Uno de las últimas incorporaciones al arsenal paquistaní, en 2011, es el Nasr, un misil de apenas 60 kilómetros de alcance y capaz de contener una pequeña carga nuclear.

Islamabad ha desarrollado un arma nuclear táctica para contrarrestar el notable crecimiento militar de su vecino y gran rival, la India, cuya ventaja en armamento convencional se ha hecho inalcanzable para Pakistán.

Fuente: El Mundo

Periodista española asegura que Bendicto XVI se encuentra mal de salud

A raíz de la presentación de su libro ‘De Benedicto a Francisco’, la periodista española Paloma Gómez Borerro vaticanista con amplia experiencia afirmó que la salud del papa Emérito se encuentra deteriorada.

«Benedicto XVI tiene algo muy grave, en 15 días ha sufrido un deterioro físico tremendo…. y no le vamos a ver mucho tiempo a partir de ahora», declaró.

En la obra escrita por Gómez, da detalles de los entresijos que rodearon la elección del nuevo pontífice en tiempo real. La periodista se encuentra a la espera de que el papa Francisco nombre a su secretario de Estado y todo apunta a que será italiano,

Fuente: http://diariocorreo.pe/

Los carteristas provocan una huelga de empleados en el Louvre

«Importante. Por circunstancias excepcionales, el museo está actualmente cerrado. Pedimos disculpas a nuestros visitantes, y les mantendremos informado de la hora de reapertura». Con ese mensaje recibe la web del Museo de Louvre a quien teclee su dirección en Internet. Afuera, cerradas hasta nuevo aviso las puertas de la pinacoteca más visitada del mundo —diez millones de visitantes al año— debido a la protesta de los agentes de seguridad, que dicen que no dan abasto ante el recrudecimiento, desde hace meses, de los robos perpetrados por carteristas. Un millar de agentes trabajan en la pinacoteca, de los que la mitad está presente a diario.

Unos 200 empleados del Louvre ha decidido ejercer su derecho a no permanecer en su puesto de trabajo, al tiempo que una delegación de los vigilantes fueron recibidos por la dirección, a la que manifestaron «su preocupación por el recrudecimiento de los tirones y de las consecuencias que tienen en sus condiciones laborales» la proliferación de carteristas», ha explicado el museo en un comunicado. Un empeoramiento que corrobora la empleada y sindicalista Sophie Aguirre: «Desde hace un año y medio son más violentos y actúan más organizados». Uno de sus colegas ha referido el caso de una sala que tuvo que ser evacuada un domingo por los estragos causados por una pareja de rateros.

Después, el Ministerio de Cultura ha recibido a los representantes de los trabajadores y ha informado a la agencia AFP que la ministra, Aurélie Filippetti, va a hablar inmediatamente con su colega de Interior, Manuel Valls, «con el fin de poner en marcha un dispositivo de seguridad adaptado a esta situación inaceptable, y medios policiales adicionales en el exterior del museo». La ministra Filippetti tratará también de «sensibilizar al Ministerio de Justicia respecto a las denuncias» presentadas tanto por los guardias del museo como por los visitantes, muchas de las cuales han quedado archivadas. La dirección ha informado de que tiene al menos 150 quejas de particulares que se han visto afectados por este tipo de robos.

Los carteristas están «cerca de las entradas, a la salida del metro Palais Royal- Museo del Louvre, y en el propio museo, están en todas partes y ni siquiera se esconden», ha explicado un empleado al diario Metro. Este trabajador ha explicado que los ladrones «entran en las salas y roban de los bolsillos o los bolsos de los visitantes». A ello se añaden «insultos, escupitajos y amenazas» a los empleados.

En muchos casos se trata de menores que quedan rápidamente en libertad
La dirección ha señalado en esa nota que muestra «su apoyo total» a los vigilantes, e insiste en que «ha avisado desde hace meses a los poderes públicos» que «tiende a agravarse» las circunstancias pese a las medidas que se han puesto en marcha. Así que hoy, La Gioconda y el Escriba sentado no tienen quien los admire.

Entre los miles de visitantes afectados está una profesora austriaca de francés, Monika Kreuzig, que de visita en la capital francesa ha visto cómo tras hacer cola «durante una hora ha sido en vano» por el cierre del museo.

Según el relato de los vigilantes, cada vez hay más carteristas y se muestran más agresivos. En muchos casos se trata de menores que, tras ser detenidos por la policía, quedan rápidamente en libertad y vuelven a las andadas en pocos días.

Para hacer frente a esta situación inédita, el Louvre indicó que va a poner en práctica una nueva medida que permitirá a sus agentes prohibir la entrada a los accesos subterráneos del museo a «personas que hayan cometido de forma segura actos delictivos o que hayan violado de manera repetida el reglamento de visita».

En diciembre pasado, la pinacoteca ya había formalizado una denuncia ante la Fiscalía de París, establecido una cooperación más estrecha con los servicios policiales y se había dirigido a los consulados de los países de donde proceden buena parte de los visitantes del Louvre para que previnieran a sus ciudadanos del riesgo de sufrir tirones y las fechorías de los carteristas. Permanezcan atentos a la web si van a visitar hoy el museo.

Fuente: El Paìs

Thatcher’s funeral to take place on April 17

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will take place in London on Wednesday, April 17, David Cameron’s office said. The service will be held in St Paul’s Cathedral, Downing Street announced.

The British government said a ceremonial funeral with military honors, a tribute usually reserved for senior members of the royal family, would be held for former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 87, who died on Monday.

The ceremony is expected to be held at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral next week. In line with her family’s wishes, the occasion will not be a full state funeral, which another former British leader Winston Churchill was given in 1965.

However, Prime Minister David Cameron’s Downing Street office said Queen Elizabeth had given consent for a ceremonial funeral, the same status as that held for the late Princess Diana in 1997.

«A wide and diverse range of people and groups with connections to Lady Thatcher will be invited,» Downing Street said in a statement.

«The service will be followed by a private cremation. All the arrangements being put in place are in line with wishes of Lady Thatcher’s family.»

The day before the funeral, Thatcher’s coffin will be moved to Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster, home to Britain’s Houses of Parliament.

The following day, the streets of central London will be cleared of traffic with her coffin taken by hearse to the Church of St Clement Danes, the Royal Air Force chapel located on the Strand.

There it will placed on a gun carriage and drawn by the King’s Troop Royal Artillery in a procession through London with the route lined by service personnel from Britain’s military.

At St Paul’s it will be met by a guard of honor, with military personnel and veterans lining the steps of the cathedral.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, will attend the service.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Quake hits near Iran’s nuclear city Bushehr, 32 dead

A powerful earthquake struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station, killing 32 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two small villages, Iranian media reported.

The 6.3 magnitude quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built it.

Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud bricks, which have been known to crumble easily in quake-prone Iran.

«Based on the most recent figures on the impact of the earthquake, 32 people have been killed and 850 injured,» said deputy governor of Bushehr province, Shahpour Rostami, Fars news agency reported.

Across the Gulf, offices in Qatar and Bahrain were evacuated after the quake, whose epicentre was 89 km (55 miles) southeast of the port of Bushehr, according to the US Geological Survey. The early afternoon shock was also felt in financial hub Dubai.

The Russian company that built the nuclear power station, 18 km (11 miles) south of Bushehr, said the plant was unaffected.

«Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm,» Russian state news agency RIA quoted an official at Atomstroyexport as saying.

Iran informed the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency that there was «no damage to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and no radioactive release from the installation», an agency statement said, adding that it was not currently seeking additional information.

One Bushehr resident said the quake shook her home and the homes of her neighbours but they were not damaged.

«We could clearly feel the earthquake,» Nikoo, who asked to be identified only by her first name, said. «The windows and chandeliers all shook.»

While initial fears about nuclear fallout receded, nearer the epicentre the rescue efforts ramped up into the night in search of survivors and to feed and house hundreds of residents who were traumatised by at least 14 aftershocks.

A Red Crescent official told ISNA that 20 people had been saved by rescue teams searching through the rubble.

Reports in Iranian media spoke of landslides destroying buildings and crowds gathering in the town of Dashti from outlying areas in search of help. Military officials said army and police units had been deployed to maintain order.

Water and electricity lines were severed and communities stayed in the streets because of the threat from aftershocks.

In a statement, Iran’s most powerful authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, offered his condolences to the victims and urged authorities to extend all efforts to save lives and help the afflicted.

Tuesday’s quake was much smaller than the 9.0 magnitude one that hit Japan two years ago, triggering a tsunami that destroyed back-up generators and disabled the Fukushima nuclear plant’s cooling system. Three of the reactors melted down.

Iran is the only country operating a nuclear power plant that does not belong to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, negotiated after the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl which contaminated wide areas and forced about 160,000 Ukrainians from their homes.

Western officials and the United Nations have urged Iran to join the safety forum.

Tehran has repeatedly rejected safety concerns about Bushehr – built in a highly seismic area – that began operations in September 2011 after decades of delays.

Iran sits on major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 which flattened the southeastern city of Bam and killed more than 25,000 people. In August more than 300 people were killed when two quakes struck the northwest.

A report published last week by US think-tanks Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists said that «ominously» the Bushehr reactor sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates.

«Iran’s sole nuclear power plant is not at risk of a tsunami similar in size to the one that knocked out the electricity and emergency cooling systems at Fukushima. But, repeated warnings about the threat of earthquakes for the Bushehr nuclear plant appear to have fallen on deaf ears,» the report said.

The quake happened on National Nuclear Technology Day when Iran’s leaders celebrate the technological advances they say will reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels, leaving more of its abundant oil for export.

Israel, Gulf Arab states and many Western countries fear Tehran is seeking a nuclear weapons capability and the Islamic Republic is under international sanctions aimed at forcing it to curb some of its atomic work.

Iran denies it wants nuclear arms and says its atomic work is for electricity generation and other peaceful uses.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

At least 14 people injured in stabbing at Houston college

At least 14 people were injured during a mass stabbing at a local community college in the northwest Houston area, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Four people were transported by emergency officials to local hospitals after the incident at 11 a.m. at the CyFair campus of Lone Star College, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

One suspect was detained, the statement said.

«A long, extensive investigation on this sprawling campus is being conducted,» the police statement said.

One suspect was still on the loose, according to an alert on the school website. Those on campus were urged to seek shelter in a secure location.

The campus was still under lockdown at about 12:30 p.m. as public safety officers searched two health science buildings room by room for additional victims, Cy-Fair fire department Public Information Officer Robert Rasa said.

Three people were shot at a separate campus of Lone Star College in January.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Obama makes ‘last-ditch’ push in Connecticut on gun control

President Barack Obama, his voice rising with emotion, urged Americans to pile pressure on a reluctant Congress to approve new gun control legislation that is at risk of falling victim to Washington gridlock.

«We need a vote,» he shouted.

Obama took his gun control argument to the University of Hartford, an hour’s drive from the town of Newtown where 20 children and six educators were shot to death in December in a massacre that shocked Americans and spurred a fresh movement to tighten gun regulations.

Initial momentum for tougher US gun control laws sought by Obama has stalled in Congress in the face of fierce lobbying by the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups.

No major gun legislation has passed the US Congress since 1994 and the current White House guns push is in trouble.

Obama said his three priorities in gun legislation – strengthening background checks for gun purchasers, banning military-style assault weapons and limiting ammunition clips to 10 rounds – deserve a vote in Congress.

Only the background checks portion of his proposal is still seen as possible, and even this is in doubt as Democratic senators fail to find Republican partners to help them approve it.

«The policy window is either really close to closed, or closed entirely,» said John Hudak, of the Brookings Institution think tank. «In honesty, this is really a last-ditch effort by the White House.»

Obama’s tone grew fiery as he pushed back against the idea that what happens to gun violence legislation in Congress will either be a political victory or defeat for him.

«Connecticut, this is not about me,» he said. «This is not about politics. This is about doing the right thing for all the families who are here that have been torn apart by gun violence.»

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

North Korea suspends last project with South, Putin cites Chernobyl

North Korea suspended its sole remaining major project with the South, after weeks of threats against the United States and South Korea, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said any nuclear conflict could make Chernobyl look like a fairy tale.

Reclusive North Korea’s decision to all but close the Kaesong industrial park coincided with speculation that it will carry out some sort of provocative action – another nuclear weapons test or missile launch – in what has become one of the most serious crises on the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Tension has been rising since the United Nations imposed new sanctions against the North in response to its third test of a nuclear weapon in February. Pyongyang has been further angered by weeks of joint military exercises by South Korean and U.S. forces and threatened both countries with nuclear attack.

Putin said conflict on the peninsula could cause greater devastation than the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

«I would make no secret about it, we are worried about the escalation on the Korean peninsula, because we are neighbours,» he told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a visit to a trade fair in Germany.

«And if, God forbid, something happens, Chernobyl which we all know a lot about, may seem like a child’s fairy tale. Is there such a threat or not? I think there is… I would urge everyone to calm down … and start to resolve the problems that have piled up for many years there at the negotiating table.»

U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Ashton Carter urged China – the North’s sole financial and diplomatic backer – to use its influence with the North, something he said Moscow wanted Beijing to do as well.

«I think Russia, like others beholding this situation in North Korea, would like to see China exercise more of the influence that it evidently has with North Korea,» Carter told a forum in Washington.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said North Korea could not go on «confronting» the authority of the Security Council and challenging the international community.

«I sincerely hope that they will fully comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions. This is an urgent and earnest appeal from the international community, including myself.»

A senior North Korean official, quoted by the official KCNA news agency, said after a visit to Kaesong that authorities would withdraw North Korean workers and then decide on whether it would continue to operate.

«It will temporarily suspend the operations in the zone and examine the issue of whether it will allow its (continued) existence or close it,» KCNA quoted Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, as saying.

KCNA said leaders in South Korea, a major U.S. ally, were «running the whole gamut of intrigues to find a pretext for igniting a war against (North Korea) after reducing the Kaesong Industrial zone to a theatre of confrontation».

Seoul, it said, was trying to «turn the zone into a hotbed of war» against the North.

The North last week barred South Koreans from entering the zone and South Koreans had been leaving the zone gradually in the past week as raw materials and food begin to run out.

Analysts had suggested Pyongyang would continue to allow Kaesong to operate as it accounted for some $2 billion in annual trade, with 50,000 North Koreans working in the zone making household goods for 123 South Korean companies.

It also generates more than $80 million a year in cash in wages – paid to the state rather than to workers.

About 475 South Koreans workers remain in Kaesong. Thirteen factories have stopped operations due to lack of raw materials, according to the South’s Unification Ministry.

«North Korea’s unilateral decision to push ahead with this measure cannot be justified in any way and North Korea will be held responsible for all the consequences,» the ministry said in a statement.

«The Korean government will calmly but firmly handle North Korea’s indiscreet action and we will do our best to secure the safety of our people and the protection of our property.»

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Malvinas war, crucial for Thatcher’s career

When the head of Argentina’s military junta General Leopold Galtieri deployed military forces in the Falkland Islands, Britain assembled a task force to sail to the South Atlantic, to the astonishment of people in Britain, and the rest of the world.

The crisis became a defining moment of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, and changed her image and her political fortunes.

Until then, April 2, 1982, opinion polls showed her to be the most unpopular Prime Minister ever. After British forces won the Malvinas war, her popularity soared, allowing her to call a general election in 1983 which she won by a landslide.

Mrs Thatcher established and chaired a small war cabinet, officially called the ODSA Overseas and Defence committee, South Atlantic, to take charge of the conduct of the war.

Within days of the invasion, the ODSA had authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands.

Argentina surrendered on June 14, ending a war which left 255 British and more than 600 Argentinians dead. Half of the latter died after the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoed and sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano on May 2 in the most controversial military action of the war.

Mrs Thatcher was criticised in parliament and, famously, on television by a member of the public for the decision to sink the Belgrano, which reports said was sailing away from the Malvinas at the time.

She maintained that the Argentine cruiser had posed a threat to British forces.

In the years after the conflict, Mrs Thatcher often referred in public and in private to the «Falklands (Malvinas) spirit», reflecting her nostalgia not only for her popularity at the time, but also her preference for the streamlined and efficient decision-making of the military and a small war cabinet rather than the drawn-out and often painstaking deal-making of cabinet government in peacetime.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

North Korea lacks means for nuclear strike on US, experts say

North Korea’s explicit threats this week to strike the United States with nuclear weapons are rhetorical bluster, as the isolated nation does not yet have the means to make good on them, Western officials and security experts say.

Pyongyang has slowly and steadily improved its missile capabilities in recent years and US officials say its missiles may be capable of hitting outlying US territories and states, including Guam, Alaska and Hawaii.

Some private experts say even this view is alarmist. There is no evidence, the officials say, that North Korea has tested the complex art of miniaturizing a nuclear weapon to be placed on a long-range missile, a capability the United States, Russia, China and others achieved decades ago.

In other words, North Korea might be able to hit some part of the United States, but not the mainland and not with a nuclear weapon.

The threats against the United States by North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong-un are «probably all bluster,» said Gary Samore, until recently the top nuclear proliferation expert on President Barack Obama’s national security staff.

«It’s extremely unlikely they have a nuclear missile which could reach the United States,» said Samore.

The North Koreans «are not suicidal. They know that any kind of direct attack (on the United States) would be end of their country,» said Samore, now at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.

On Wednesday, North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency said its military had «ratified» an attack involving «cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means,» an apparent reference to miniaturized nuclear weapons.

It was the latest in a stream of invective from Pyongyang against what it apparently sees as hostile US-South Korean military exercises, and UN sanctions imposed after its latest underground nuclear test.

Also on Wednesday, the Pentagon said it was moving a missile defense system known as the THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, to Guam, which Pyongyang has specifically threatened.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Hillary Clinton to publish memoir in 2014

Hillary Clinton, already the front-runner in the minds of many Democrats for the 2016 US presidential election, is writing a memoir about world affairs and her time as secretary of state.

The book, her fifth, is to be published next year, and a tour to promote the memoir in 2014 would serve only to generate more guessing about her plans for 2016.

Among the subjects Clinton will explore are the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime in Libya, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, diplomacy pertaining to Iran and North Korea and relations with US allies.

«Hillary Clinton’s extraordinary public service has given her a unique perspective on recent history and the challenges we face,» said Jonathan Karp, president and publisher of the Simon & Schuster Publishing Group who will edit Clinton’s as-yet untitled book.

The book will also address trends in economics, energy and climate change, democracy and human rights, the critical role of women and girls, technology and innovation and health and human development, Simon & Schuster said today.

Source: Buenos Aires Herlad

Palestinian youth shot to death as West Bank seethes

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian youth in the West Bank, a Palestinian medic said, as confrontations went into a third day after the death of a prisoner held by Israel provoked street clashes and rocket fire.

Medical staff said troops brought the body of 17-year-old Amer Nassar from the village of Anabta to a hospital near Tulkarm, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army said troops fired on Palestinians who threw fire bombs at a guard post in the area after dark on Wednesday, but did not confirm the teenager was killed by them. It appeared to be the first violent death since trouble began on Tuesday.

With new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry due to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah next week in hope of seeing progress toward peace negotiations, Tuesday’s death in prison from cancer of 64-year-old Palestinian Maysara Abu Hamdeya has stirred widespread anger among Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Abu Hamdeya was serving a life term for a planned attack on a Jerusalem cafe in 2002.

In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, where Abu Hamdeya is to be buried on Thursday, Israeli forces clashed with dozens of Palestinian protesters on Wednesday, firing teargas and rubber bullets at men throwing stones and petrol bombs.

Israeli jets carried out their first air strike on the Gaza Strip since a truce ended several days of fighting in November.

The military said it was responding to rockets fired on Tuesday by an Islamist group. The group fired two more rockets on Wednesday and said it was responding to the death of Abu Hamdeya.

Palestinians say he had been denied proper medical care. Israel has denied negligence in Abu Hamdeya’s treatment.

Israeli officials pressed Gaza’s ruling Islamist movement, Hamas, to rein in the rocket-firing militants after the most serious outbreak of cross-border hostilities since the ceasefire that ended the eight-day war in November.

Some 4,600 Palestinian prisoners declared a hunger strike for three days in protest at Abu Hamdeya’s death. Food trays were returned untouched on Wednesday, an Israeli prisons official said. In West Bank towns, some shops were shuttered in solidarity.

Soure: Buenos Aires Herald

Scientists home in on mysterious dark matter

Scientists said they may be close to tracking down the mysterious «dark matter» which makes up more than a quarter of the universe but has never been seen.

A final identification of what makes up the enigmatic material would solve one of the biggest mysteries in physics and open up new investigations into the possibility of multiple universes and other areas, said researchers.

Members of an international team had picked up what might be the first physical trace left by dark matter while studying cosmic rays recorded on the International Space Station, said the head of the the Europe- and U.S.-based research project Samuel Ting.

He told a packed seminar at the CERN research centre, near Geneva, the team had found a surge of positron particles that might have come from dark matter.

In the coming months, he said, the CERN-built AMS particle detector on the space station «will be able to tell us conclusively whether these positrons are a signal for dark matter or if they have some other origin».

Dark matter, once the stuff of science fiction, «is one of the most important mysteries of physics today,» Ting, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 1976 Nobel physics prize winner, has written.

Sometimes called the sculptor of the universe’s millions of galaxies because of the way its gravity shapes their formation, its existence has long been recognised because of the way it pushes visible stars and planets around.

But efforts in laboratories on earth and in deep underground caverns to find concrete evidence that it is there, and to establish what it is, have so far proven fruitless.

Ting said it was also possible the surges came from pulsars – rotating neutron stars that emit a pulsing radiation.

But CERN physicist Pauline Gagnon told Reuters after hearing Ting that the precision of the AMS could make it possible «to get a first hold on dark matter really soon».

«That would be terrific, like discovering a completely new continent. It would really open the door to a whole new world,» said Gagnon, a Canadian physicist on ATLAS, one of the two CERN teams that believe they found evidence of the elusive Higgs particle in the centre’s Large Hadron Collider.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

US sends missile defenses to Guam over North Korea threat

The Pentagon said it was sending an advanced ballistic missile defense system to Guam in the coming weeks, describing the move as a precaution against North Korea’s regional ballistic missile threat.

The Defense Department is deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD), which includes a truck-mounted launcher, interceptor missiles, a AN/TPY-2 tracking radar and an integrated fire control system.

«The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and stands ready to defend US territory, our allies, and our national interests,» a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Anuncian reunión del presidente palestino con canciller de EE.UU.

El presidente palestino, Mahmud Abbas; y el secretario de Estado norteamericano, John Kerry, se reunirán el domingo próximo en Amman, dijeron hoy fuentes oficiales palestinas.

El encuentro se realizará en la capital del reino hachemita de Jordania, precisó el portavoz de la Autoridad Nacional Palestina, que se abstuvo de definir la agenda del encuentro.

El jefe de la diplomacia estadounidense estuvo en Israel varios días a fines de marzo, en coincidencia con la visita a ese país del presidente Barack Obama, quien se traslado dos veces a Cisjordania para entrevistarse con Abbas, aunque aclaró que no traía en cartera propuestas para reanimar las estancadas conversaciones de paz.

Preguntado sobre el propósito de la estancia de Kerry, la oficina del primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu, rehusó hacer comentarios.

Las eventuales gestiones de Kerry coinciden con un momento de particular dificultad debido a la composición del nuevo gabinete israelí, integrado por una mayoría de titulares que basaron sus campañas electorales en la expansión de los asentamientos judíos en la Cisjordania.

A todas luces, el encuentro entre Abbas y Kerry ha sido programado para Jordania debido a la tensión en los territorios ocupados por la muerte en una prisión israelí de Maisarah Abu Hamdiyeh, un dirigente de Al Fatah, enfermo de gravedad que Israel se negó a excarcelar para recibir tratamiento médico.

Los palestinos en Cisjordania están hoy una huelga general en protesta por el fallecimiento de Abu Hamdiyeh, del que responsabilizan a Israel.

Fuente: Prensa Latina

Rafael Yuste, el cerebro (científico) de Obama

El neurocientífico español hará una exhaustiva investigación de la actividad cerebral para la Casa Blanca.

La revista Nature le ha nombrado como uno de los cinco nombres a tener en cuenta en 2013. Pero Rafael Yuste (Madrid, 1963) dice que eso es solo «cotilleo científico». «Lo importante es trabajar en algo que te apasione, independientemente de que unos días hablen de ti y otros no», señala el neurocientífico español y catedrático de la Universidad de Columbia a EXPANSIÓN.
Pero es que de él hablan hoy sí y mañana también en los altos círculos profesionales y oficiales. Su proyecto para mapear el cerebro, bautizado como Brain Activity Map, ha sido elegido por la Casa Blanca como uno de los Grandes Desafíos. Este nombre significa que es un proyecto estrella en ciencia en EEUU, como quedó claro en la ceremonia del martes en Washington, donde el presidente Barack Obama hizo oficial la nominación del proyecto y anunció una dotación de 100 millones de euros.
El camino hasta aquí ha sido largo. «El Brain Activity Map (BAM) empezó como un proyecto gigantesco, en el que llevamos trabajando año y medio», recuerda Yuste citando a su grupo de investigadores. En ese tiempo, visitaron cuatro veces la Casa Blanca. «Competíamos con otros veinte proyectos, pero cada vez que hacíamos una nueva visita había más posibilidades», afirma.
Histórico
El momento crítico fue en el discurso del Estado de la Nación del presidente en febrero. «Obama mencionó que había que invertir presupuesto público en la ciencia básica y usó los mismos argumentos que nosotros: mapear la actividad cerebral puede llevar consigo la apertura de nuevos campos económicos e industriales para la nación». «Ahí supimos que la cosa iba en serio, me quedé de piedra», apunta el neurocientífico español.
Tan en serio como que el proyecto permitirá desarrollar técnicas para mapear el cerebro de una manera que «no se ha podido hacer hasta ahora, con una resolución que permita ver la actividad de las neuronas individuales». Esto tiene una influencia directa en la medicina, pues se beneficiarán las enfermedades mentales y neurológicas, como el Alzheimer o el Parkinson. «Se podrá entender mucho mejor qué les ocurre a estos pacientes», explica Yuste. «¿Cómo arreglas un coche roto si no sabes cómo funciona? Intentamos curar enfermedades, pero si no sabemos cómo funciona el cerebro, es difícil dar con el problema». De ahí que tener un mejor entendimiento de los circuitos cerebrales ayude a entender «qué pasa cuándo se rompen o funcionan mal».
Hay más. El reto «no es sólo mirar y medir la actividad cerebral, sino también alterarla y manipularla», algo crucial para ayudar a pacientes con ataques epilépticos y esquizofrénicos o con autismo. Además, los beneficios afectarán desde a las farmacéuticas, que podrían crear fármacos más efectivos, hasta a la industria de ordenadores, aprendiendo trucos para desarrollar tecnologías más ligeras y potentes.
Yuste lo cuenta con orgullo. Y con mucha modestia, pues avisa de que su papel y el de los científicos que secundaron su proyecto, en el que quieren participar Google, Amazon o Qualcomm, acaba en el momento en el que pasan la antorcha a «los administradores de ciencia». «Es a ellos a quien hay que remitir los currículum», advierte el catedrático, que tiene en su ordenador una carpeta llena de solicitudes de empleo. ¿Alguna española? «Sí, son de todo el mundo».
Y es que la ciencia no entiende de nacionalidades. «Los científicos no vamos detrás de agendas nacionalistas, respondemos a la humanidad: tratamos de aprender cosas independientemente del lugar donde tengamos que ir, somos gitanos académicos».
Su consejo
Él mismo llegó a Estados Unidos hace 26 años para trabajar en un laboratorio concreto. «Si hubiera estado en Australia, allí habría ido». Cree que la fuga de científicos «es algo que siempre ha ocurrido», si bien admite que «hoy hay grandes dificultades para sobrevivir siendo científico en España».
¿Su consejo? «Hacer lo que uno lleva dentro. Si estás apasionado por un área de la ciencia en concreto, sigue ese tirón y sé fiel a ti mismo, haciendo los sacrificios necesarios para culminar el desarrollo de tu carrera profesional en esa dirección».

Fuente: Expansiòn

El Vaticano reveló las primeras palabras de Francisco al ser elegido papa

Fue como anticipo de un documental sobre su elección que se estrenará el 2 de abril. «Recopila momentos emocionantes», afirman

«Soy un gran pecador. Confiando en la misericordia y en la paciencia de Dios, en el sufrimiento, acepto», fue la declaración del cardenal argentino Jorge Mario Bergoglio, tras ser elegido el 13 de marzo en la solemnidad de la Capilla Sixtina como papa número 266 de la historia.

Las primeras palabras del primer pontífice latinoamericano y primer jesuita fueron reveladas por el cardenal italiano Angelo Comastri, quien participó en el cónclave, con permiso del Papa, en un documental de 50 minutos producido por el Centro Televisivo del Vaticano (CTV).

El documental, realizado en alta definición (HD), será distribuido a partir del 2 de abril por el diario italiano Il Corriere della Sera, indicó en una conferencia de prensa el director del CTV, padre Edoardo Viganó.

«Recopila momentos emocionantes», aseguró el religioso.

El video, que será traducido a varios idiomas, entre ellos, el español, narra unas de las cinco semanas más intensas de la historia reciente de la Iglesia Católica, desde la sorprendente renuncia al papado de Benedicto XVI, en latín, hasta la elección del primer papa nacido en el continente americano.

El video incluye imágenes del momento de la renuncia ante los cardenales de Benedicto XVI, su traslado en helicóptero a Castel Gandolfo, las reuniones preparatorias de los cardenales al cónclave, la fumata blanca, las primeras apariciones de Francisco, su primer discurso ante la multitud congregada en la plaza de San Pedro y termina con el histórico abrazo entre dos papas, vestidos de blanco, el pasado 23 de marzo.

El documental (cuya portada se puede ver a la izquierda) será entregado al papa Francisco en los próximos días, indicó Viganó, quien realizó entrevistas a cuatro cardenales, entre ellos, al hondureño Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, quien testimonia el sentimiento de «orfandad» que lo invadió tras la renuncia de Benedicto XVI y también la «alegría» frente al primer papa de América Latina.

El CTV fue creado en 1983 por el papa Juan Pablo II, es la agencia de información por televisión del Vaticano, realiza transmisiones en directo y cubre desde las audiencias generales de los miércoles, hasta los viajes del Papa, actividades que distribuye posteriormente a los canales de televisión y agencias en todo el mundo.

Fuente: AFP