Thursday, June 07, 2007

Correo de Noticias al 7/06/07



http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/07/index.php?section=estados&article=034n1est

PRI, PRD, PVEM y PT denuncian una "tiranía"

Conforman en Guanajuato frente común contra el PAN

MARTIN DIEGO RODRIGUEZ

Guanajuato, Gto., 6 de junio. A fin de contrarrestar la "intolerancia, soberbia, insultos a la sociedad civil y conceptos doctrinarios que busca implantar como políticas públicas el Partido Acción Nacional desde el Congreso local y en el gobierno del estado", dirigentes estatales de los partidos Revolucionario Institucional, de la Revolución Democrática, Verde Ecologista de México y del Trabajo se aliaron para conformar el "frente común contra el PAN".

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/07/index.php?section=opinion&article=026a1eco

John Saxe-Fernández

El polvorín de Bush

Aunque "más de lo mismo" es la receta para el desastre político-electoral del Partido Republicano en 2008, tal es el curso que siguen Bush et al en Irak y en otros renglones vitales como la desestabilización estratégica global, impulsando temerarios despliegues antibalísticos en Polonia y la República Checa, en medio de amenazas bélico-nucleares contra Irán que concitan el rechazo de la opinión pública mundial, incluyendo la polaca y checa; el sabotaje a medidas efectivas contra el cambio climático y de programas vinculantes en el marco de la ONU, en momentos en que los científicos dan la alerta y la población exige acciones fuertes. Asimismo, la designación de Robert Zoellick por parte de Bush muestra la continuidad del perfil neoconservador del Banco Mundial (BM).

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/07/index.php?section=opinion&article=022a1pol

Immanuel Wallerstein

Africa, 2057

El año 2007 marca el 50 aniversario de las independencias africanas. Cifro esta fecha a partir del 6 de abril de 1957, cuando la colonia británica de Costa de Oro se convirtió en el Estado independiente de Ghana, la primera colonia de lo que entonces se llamaba Africa subsahariana que consiguió este estatus. El líder del movimiento que triunfó en esa lucha por la independencia era Kwame Nkrumah. El mundo aclamó ese día como un muy importante punto de viraje en la historia de Africa y envió a sus líderes a ser parte de las celebraciones en Accra. Gran Bretaña envió a la princesa de Kent y a su primer ministro, sir Harold Mcmillan. Estados Unidos, al vicepresidente Richard Nixon.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/06/index.php?section=opinion&article=004o1pol

Astillero

Julio Hernández López

Golpismo televisivo

Tentativa de crimen social

Chantaje electoral contenido

¿Apagar esa tv facciosa?

La resolución judicial de ayer confirma que los máximos poderes electrónicos (Televisa, Televisión Azteca y Telmex, la Triple T) pretendieron doblegar el legítimo interés nacional mediante maniobras de presión y chantaje, realizadas en el contexto de las pasadas elecciones federales para imponer condiciones injustas en materia de concesiones televisivas y expansiones tecnológicas que pretendían gratuitas y automáticas.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/primera/29024.html

Los tres rostros de "El Mayo" Zambada

En Sinaloa por todos es sabido que a Zambada se le considera "el último reducto de generosidad" que distinguió hasta hace algunos años de manera palpable a varios jefes del narco.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/151567.html

"El Mayo" Zambada: empresario, benefactor y calculador

Cada diciembre repartía dinero a sus paisanos. Sus primeras ganancias las invirtió en ganado. Quienes lo conocen, dicen que no le gusta la ostentación

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/151573.html

UE respalda que militares apoyen lucha antinarco

Recomienda basar estrategia en el respeto a los derechos humanos

UE respalda que militares apoyen lucha antinarcoUE respalda que militares apoyen lucha antinarco

Sergio Javier Jiménez

El Universal

Jueves 07 de junio de 2007

BRUSELAS.- El secretario general del Consejo y Alto Representante de la Política Exterior y de Seguridad Común de la Unión Europea, Javier Solana, respaldó la labor del Ejército en la lucha contra la delincuencia organizada en México, y consideró que se requiere la aplicación de todos los medios posibles para su combate.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/429757.html

“Red de lavado” inyecta recursos a 3 entidades

Su cliente, el gobierno de Sinaloa; admiten parentesco con El Mayo Zambada

“Red de lavado” inyecta recursos a 3 entidades“Red de lavado” inyecta recursos a 3 entidades

El Universal

Ciudad de México

Jueves 07 de junio de 2007

LOS MOCHIS, Sin.- Las empresas Leche Santa Mónica, Multiservicios Jeviz y Jamaro Constructores se jactan de contribuir al desarollo económico de Sinaloa, Sonora y Nayarit, de generar más de mil empleos y de que más de 15 mil clientes distribuyen sus productos o utilizan sus servicios.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/international/newsid_6729000/6729125.stm

Príncipe saudita en escándalo de armas

Una investigación de la BBC reveló que el arquitecto de un cuantioso acuerdo para la venta de armamento británico a Arabia Saudita recibió importantes pagos secretos por más de una década.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/business/newsid_6181000/6181381.stm

R. Unido frena investigación saudita

La Oficina de Fraudes Mayores del Reino Unido (SFO) canceló una investigación sobre presuntas irregularidades cometidas en un acuerdo comercial firmado entre la principal compañía de defensa del país, BAE Systems, y Arabia Saudita.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_4247000/4247852.stm

Vinculan a Pinochet con pagos de BAE

El diario británico The Guardian abre su edición de este jueves con un informe sobre presuntos pagos realizados por la mayor compañía fabricante de armas de Gran Bretaña, BAE Systems, al ex gobernante militar chileno entre 1997 y 2004.

http://www.proceso.com.mx/analisis_int.html?an=51326

Daños colaterales

josé gil olmos

México, D.F., 6 de junio (apro).- Mientras los calderonistas festejaban su triunfo en la asamblea nacional del PAN, en un reten de Sinaloa militares mataron a cinco personas e hirieron a dos más, sin que el gobierno federal diera una explicación. ¿De qué gobernabilidad hablan cuando dicen que Felipe Calderón ganó dentro de su partido precisamente esta condición fundamental para conducir al país?

http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=61963&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

Televisa, inmune a invalidación de la ley de medios

Negocios - Jueves 7 de junio (05:40 hrs.)

* Estable, situación financiera del grupo: Nymia Almeida

* Inversionistas, al margen de cambios regulatorios

* Bajan acciones de las televisoras en la BMV

http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=61366&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

La UNAM, sucesión en puerta

U. de Inteligencia - Lunes 4 de junio

José Ramón de la Fuente. Foto: Eladio Ortiz

* Hoy, la disputa se centra entre las áreas jurídicas y de ciencias.

Como generadora de conocimiento, investigación y cultura, por su papel en las artes y las humanidades, en la ciencia y la tecnología, la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) ocupa un lugar destacado en el presente y futuro de México y de Latinoamérica. Como universidad pública, junto con el Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), constituye uno de los pilares de la educación pública superior en México y un referente de las tendencias ideologías y políticas presentes en la vida nacional.

http://www.nuevoexcelsior.com.mx/27_2378.htm

Reconocen senadoras derroche en manicure

La mayoría desconoce incluso la existencia de la Sala de Apoyo, a la que se destinaron un total de 64 mil 700 pesos

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/science/07cell.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells

In a surprising advance that could sidestep the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient’s cells into specialized tissues that might replace those lost to disease.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/world/europe/07prexy.html?th&emc=th

At Group of 8 Meeting, Bush Rebuffs Germany on Cutting Emissions

ROSTOCK, Germany, June 6 — As leaders of wealthy nations converged Wednesday on a Baltic Sea resort for their annual meeting, the White House effectively derailed a climate change initiative backed by one of President Bush’s strongest European allies, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/fashion/07Cyber.html?th&emc=th

Cyberfamilias

‘omg my mom joined facebook!!’

I HAVE reached a curious point in life. Although I feel like the same precocious know-it-all cynic I always was, I suddenly am surrounded by younger precocious know-it-all cynics whose main purpose appears to be to remind me that I’ve lost my edge.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2097226,00.html

Beckham drives England back to winning ways

Kevin McCarra in Tallinn

Thursday June 7, 2007

The Guardian

All sorts of bitter endings could have lain in wait, but England left Estonia with a quietly satisfying close to an overwrought season. The axe will not fall on Steve McClaren and the manager, in turn, is going to have trouble chopping David Beckham from the squad for a second time now that the midfielder has confirmed his efficiency by contributing to a couple of the goals.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2096988,00.html

Dark side of the moon

The claim from Brighton police that crime rates rise when the moon is full is nothing new - for centuries it has been blamed for inducing all kinds of irrational behaviour. But is there any truth to it? Aida Edemariam reports

Thursday June 7, 2007

The Guardian

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2621808.ece

Anti-G8 carnival turns sour as protesters clash with riot police

By Tony Paterson

Published: 07 June 2007

The Baltic seaside site of Germany's G8 summit was surrounded by thousands of anti-globalisation protesters despite the presence of more than 16,000 riot police who used baton charges, water cannon and tear gas in an abortive attempt to keep them at bay.

While world leaders were flown in by helicopter, organisers had to rely on an armada of police launches to ferry other delegates to the summit in Heiligendamm, as protesters forced their way through a no-go area and reached asecurity fence surrounding the site.

Jutta Sundermann, spokeswoman for Attac, one of the main anti-globalisation organisations, said two groups comprising about 10,000 protesters had blocked all land routes to the summit venue. "It is our style of civil disobedience and we appear to have outwitted the police," she said.

Riot police used baton charges and fired water cannon and tear gas grenades at groups of demonstrators who attacked road checkpoints. Police said eight officers were injured in the clashes. Police insisted they had not been surprised by the protesters, but had decided to end an earlier policy of de-escalation and respond with force.

Scenes at two police checkpoints resembled a battlefield yesterday afternoon, with the road littered with stones as ambulances sped in to evacuate injured officers. Masked members of Germany's so-called "black block" of anarchist demonstrators fought running battles with riot police. The protests started off in an almost carnival atmosphere as demonstrators, somedressed as clowns, trooped off from two camps south of Heiligendamm towards the summit. Thousands of protesters sidestepped police checkpoints by flanking off into woods or fields thick with poppies. They were pursued, Apocalypse Now-style, by 12 low-flying police helicopters.

Police claimed that members of a group called "the rebel clown army" had sprayed officers with acid. A "clown army" spokesman denied the accusations.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2621831.ece

Zimbabwe's terror: How I raped and tortured for Mugabe

Washington was a member of the secret police who committed unspeakable crimes on behalf of the African dictator. He escaped - but continues to be tormented by what he did

By Olly Bootle and Emeka Onomo in Windhoek, Namibia

Published: 07 June 2007

As Washington drove out of Harare, he didn't know that there was a man, barely breathing, in the back of his car.

He was nearing the end of his training for Zimbabwe's notorious secret police - the Central Intelligence Organisation or CIO - but already his days as an agent were numbered. His mission had seemed simple enough. "We were given a car, and there was a trunk behind in the boot of the car," he recalled. "The briefing was to get to Lake Kariba. There would be a boat tied to a tree." In the boat, he was told, they would find the keys to the trunk, and instructions on what to do with their cargo.

It was only when they stopped along the road for a drink that Washington heard a noise coming from the boot of the car. "At first I thought I was just imagining it, but I called the other guys to listen," he said. "I heard some movements coming from the trunk, and a voice."

His terrifying story began less than two years previously, when Washington, then aged 20 and desperate for a place at university, decided to enrol in one of Zimbabwe's National Youth Service Training Camps. "A friend of mine told me the reason I wasn't getting a place in university was because I didn't have a National Youth Certificate."

What Washington didn't know was that horrifying stories had already emerged from Zimbabwe about the youth camps. Though billed by the government as a way of helping bored and unemployed youth to get off the streets, testimony from people who had fled Zimbabwe suggested that they existed primarily as brutal schools of indoctrination for Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party; that rape in the camps was commonplace, and that some recruits were trained in torture techniques. Within a few months of enrolling, Washington found himself doing things he'd never have thought possible.

One night, he and some friends were plied with drugs and alcohol, and led into an interrogation room at the camp. A girl lay there, handcuffed to the wall. Washington's commanding officer told his recruits to rape the girl. "I don't know what I was doing, but I just had sex with her," said Washington. "I don't know whether I enjoyed it or not because I was drugged."

During the night, as he sobered up, the horror of what he had done struck him. He realised he had to run away. When dawn came, as he tiptoed out of his dormitory, he bumped into his friend, Gideon, who had also been forced to rape the night before. "I asked him where he was going. He said: 'I also want to run away. I can't stand it.'" They fled together.

Within minutes they were caught and dragged back to the camp. Washington claimed he wasn't trying to flee, and was only beaten. Gideon refused to make excuses, saying he'd had enough of the brutality of the camp. He was beaten to death.

Washington's attempted escape persuaded his superiors that he had potential. "We were told, 'Congratulations. Normally indiscipline and intelligence go hand in hand. From now on you're different from the others'." Washington found himself drafted into a training programme for the CIO.

This was late 2005, and Zimbabwe, collapsing under the tyrannical reign of Robert Mugabe, had recently been battered by Operation Murambatsvina - the President's vicious programme to clear the slums of Harare and the other big cities. Nicknamed Operation Tsunami for its abruptness and ferocity, it resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being made homeless, with no access to food, water, or sanitation.

Over the next few months Washington says he and the select few who had been chosen from the camps received weapons training; they learnt tai kwon-do; they were told who they could and could not trust in the government.

But there were also darker elements to the training.

One day, Washington says his instructor took him into a room and presented him with someone who had stolen cattle. "He said no one cares whether he lives or whether he dies. So far as we are concerned he is long dead. He said I should beat them under the feet. I said I can't do that. Then he took a bottle of gin that was on the corner. He asked me to drink it. I could not do it. He slapped me on the face. I drank it and we started smoking marijuana. Then after we smoked I didn't really know what happened but I beat him. At first he was crying then later on he just passed out and his feet were black."

The torture training extended beyond beatings.

Washington was shown how to use electric wires, pliers and screwdrivers. He also learnt what happened to opponents of the regime. "During the lessons we were told that there are jails you know but there are some jails that you don't know. We were told, 'Whatever we are going to see is going to be between us only and whatever you see, don't tell anyone outside'."

They were taken to a car park. "There was a sort of a metal door on the wall." The door was unlocked electronically, and the trainees were led inside. "It was dirty, it was smelling," recalled Washington. He was surprised to see a white foreigner. "He was so brown in colour, his hair was so dirty. He went into the toilet then to the bathroom. He was washing his face. I asked him what he was doing here. He did not reply to me at first. Then I said, 'Where are you from?' He said, 'I came here a long time ago. I was a tourist but I was suspected to be a CIA agent and I was kidnapped and brought here.'"

Washington does not know who the man was, or how long he'd been in prison. "We were just told that these are political prisoners and that was it," he said. It was a warning. Washington was told: if you try to run away, whatever country you go to, as long as you are within our reach, we can get you.

But despite the warnings and the fear that had been drummed into him, what Washington was instructed to do at Lake Kariba was enough to persuade him that he had to flee.

When they arrived at the shores of Kariba, the vast, deep, man-made "sea" on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, they found the boat as promised. Inside was cement, the instructions and the keys to their cargo. The orders were to fill the trunk with cement, take it out to the middle of the lake, and drop it overboard.

They heaved the trunk on to the shore and hurriedly opened it. "There was a man inside. He looked 40 to 50 years old. His shirt was grey and soaked in blood." Washington described the clear signs of torture: the man's tongue was cut, and chunks of his lips and ears had been removed with pliers. His arms were slashed and Washington could see the bone of his knuckles. "It was so horrible."

He was in such bad shape he could barely talk. "He was saying: 'Help me my son, help me.'" When Washington wondered aloud whether he could go ahead with it, one of his colleagues told him to look over his shoulder.

"There was a man in the tree holding what looked like binoculars or a camera. Then I felt there was nothing I could do." As the man in the trunk pleaded for help, they started shovelling cement and sand on top of him. What happened next is unclear. Washington, now in hiding in Namibia, breaks down into uncontrollable sobs. He says the man in the trees drove off, but he won't say if he completed the mission. Perhaps they buried the man and Washington can't admit to being a murderer. Perhaps they let him go and he is protecting the colleagues he left behind.

With most foreign media organisations officially barred by President Mugabe from entering Zimbabwe, it is impossible to verify all the details of Washington's story. But the claims of rape in the youth camps, the torture and the beatings tally with countless reports emerging from the country. And the Zimbabwean journalist Spiwe Ncube recently reported in the Zimdaily.com news website that as a result of engineering work on a dam wall in Lake Kariba, bodies had been found in trunks filled with cement.

Washington said he has had to evade CIO agents who have come to Namibia to abduct him. Those that have tried to help him say they have been harassed.

Washington may have evaded capture so far. He may even be able to hide from the Zimbabwean CIO until Mugabe is gone, but he will never stop running from his conscience.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2621597.ece

Zachary Katznelson: In Guantanamo, men shadow-box for their lives

Have your hopes dashed enough and you start to question if there is ever a way out

Published: 07 June 2007

Imagine that this is your world: a 6 ft by 8 ft cell where everything is steel - the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the toilet, the sink, the bed. Walk two steps in any direction and you hit a wall. There are no windows. The lights are on 24 hours a day. You are allowed out of your cell two hours a day, sometimes at 6am, sometimes at midnight. For those two hours, you are placed in a 6.5ft by 16.5ft outdoor cage with a deflated football. You can go weeks without seeing the sun.

Imagine five and a half years away from your family, your wife, your children. You can't call them. They can't visit. Mail takes months to get through. When it does, it is heavily censored. Imagine being beaten, stripped naked, humiliated, again and again and again. This is the life of my clients in Guantanamo Bay.

Since 2005, my colleagues and I at Reprieve, a legal charity based in London, have been representing 37 prisoners in Guantanamo. Two of us have passed through the United States military's screening process and have been to the base. We are the only people in Britain who can actually go and talk to these men.

Every time I visit them, the prisoners ask for just one thing: a fair trial. "I know mistakes are made," Jamil El Banna, a British refugee from Jordan, told me when we met last month. "I'm not upset about that. But why has it taken this long to correct them? I've been here for years and I've never seen a judge. Put me on trial. Just give me a chance. Doesn't anyone care that I'm an innocent man?"

No prisoner in Guantanamo will see a judge any time soon. On Monday, military judges threw out the charges against the only two prisoners actually charged with crimes. As a result, their trials are on hold and no one else's will start.

Sadly, there is no question that trials in Guantanamo will be unfair. The judges can hear evidence gained from torture. They can sentence someone to death based on hearsay evidence - second, third or even fourth-hand information. The prisoner is not allowed to see the evidence against him. It's like shadow-boxing for your life.

But despite the patent illegality of the trials, in the bizarre universe of Guantanamo, many of the men actually want to appear before a military commission. The prisoners look at David Hicks, an Australian citizen who pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism and was sent home to Australia to serve a nine-month sentence. They see this result, and they see hope. Maybe they too could cut a deal, whether they are guilty or not. They too could go home. The hell of Guantanamo would end. Then they learn of a ruling like the one on Monday. They are happy, because the process masquerading as justice has been exposed. But at the same time, it means yet another door has slammed shut. And as it does, it crushes that kernel of hope.

Have your hopes dashed enough and you start to question if there is ever a way out. Three men apparently took their own lives last year. Days ago, another man was found dead in his cell; the cause of death is unknown, though he had been on hunger strike for an extended period. Virtually all my clients have told me they have thought about killing themselves.

Despite the fact that they desperately want to be home with their families, despite the fact that Islam prohibits suicide, many have tried. I am a lawyer, but far too often, my role when I visit Guantanamo is social worker and psychologist. I am a poor tool in this regard, but I am all the men have.

Ahmed Belbacha seems to shrink a bit every time I see him. We meet alone in a claustrophobic, windowless room, monitored constantly by a video camera. You can hear the camera shift to track us if we change position. As he sits across from me, shackled to the floor, Ahmed is despondent. "My cell is like a grave," he said to me four weeks ago. He tells me how everything echoes off those steel cell walls. Doors slam constantly as guards come and go. Large fans drone and screech. Even footsteps seem cacophonous. There is no such thing as quiet in Camp 6. There is no peace. "If I could just sleep..."

Ahmed has never been charged with a crime. He has never been before one of those military judges. Yet, finally, after five and a half years, Ahmed has been cleared to be released. He should be celebrating. But his nightmare may just be beginning. Ahmed is originally from Algeria. He fled there to the UK, seeking asylum after he was threatened repeatedly by Islamic extremists because he worked for a government-owned oil company. But now, the UK is washing their hands of him, refusing to help because Ahmed was a resident, not a citizen. As a result, the United States wants to send him back to Algeria.

The Algerian intelligence services have told Reprieve that if Ahmed returns, they cannot ensure that he will be safe - from their own personnel. And so Ahmed sits in that steel box, freezing in the constant flow of air-conditioning. The only things in his cell are a Koran and an inch-thick mattress. He is denied even a pen. He has nothing to do but contemplate his fate. Does he resign himself to the likelihood that he will go back to abuse and torture in Algeria? Or does he let himself believe the British government might change its mind, that Gordon Brown will have the courage to act where Tony Blair has not? Can he allow himself to hope?

The writer is senior counsel for Reprieve

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