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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in 2000lindo's InsaneJournal:

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    Monday, March 15th, 2010
    12:16 am
    Obama indignant by murder in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
    The U.S. president, expressed his outrage at the killing in Juarez, Mexico, three people linked to the U.S. consulate in the border city.
    The three victims are an employee of the consulate and her husband, both Americans, and Mexican spouse of another employee.

    Apparently there were two separate attacks. U.S. officials said the victims were shot gun while driving in different parts of the city, said a U.S. official told the BBC on condition of anonymity, citing privacy considerations.

    The U.S. government authorized the families of consular staff in six Mexican border cities can be sent outside the area.

    Obama promised the United States would work tirelessly with Mexican authorities to bring the murderers to justice and to break the power of drug trafficking organizations that are killing innocent people.

    The U.S. president noted that this was a shared responsibility, particularly for border communities in both countries.

    The Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico joined in the condemnation by the Barack Obama.

    Through a Foreign Ministry statement warned that the country's authorities will "work with determination to clarify the circumstances in which the events took place and bring to justice those responsible."

    The Mexican government said it is committed to ensuring the integrity of all persons, "not only of the diplomatic staff.
    At War
    "The death of people linked to the United States consulate occurs a few days before President Felipe Calderón to visit Ciudad Juarez for the third time in just over a month," said BBC News correspondent, Alberto Najar.

    "The president's trip is scheduled for Tuesday and the intention is to monitor the progress of the special plan of his government to combat crime in the border city, considered one of the most violent in the world."

    President Felipe Calderón also condemned the killing of people connected to the Consulate.

    In a statement the presidency of Mexico was committed to investigating and solving the crimes that occurred on Saturday in the border city.

    President Calderón "expresses its indignation and condemns the fact that three people related to the United States consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua killed yesterday," says the document.

    Mexico has lived in the last few hours an intense day of violence. In the southern state of Guerrero 13 people died violently, including several policemen.
    Families were
    The State Department authorized government employees in six U.S. consulate in northern Mexico to send their families out of the area due to concerns about the rise of drug-related violence.
    The six are consulates in the border cities of Matamoros, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Tijuana.
    "The president is deeply shocked and outraged by the news," said the spokesman of the National Security Council White House, Mike Hammer, in a statement.
    The U.S. statement did not provide details of the incident nungún in Chiguagua Ciudad Juarez, where last year more than 2,600 people died in violence associated with drug trafficking.

    Recent violent attacks have led to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City to advise American citizens to defer all travel is not necessary to the Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua, the statement said State Department reported Sunday.


    El Periodico


    Brazil announced in Geneva investigation against dictatorship



    Friday, March 12th, 2010
    8:27 pm
    Michelle Obama will make official visit to Mexico
    The wife of U.S. president will travel to Mexico City between 13 and 15 April to meet with Margarita Zavala to discuss the promotion of education, will be his first official trip alone to a foreign country

    Michelle Obama, wife of U.S. President, has chosen Mexico for his first official visit abroad alone between 13 and 15 April next.

    According to the White House has confirmed the visit of U.S. first lady will end not only to record the "deep ties" between Mexico and the U.S. but also continue to enter into dialogue last February in Washington with the wife of the president of Mexico, Margarita Zavala, in education and economic and social development through both sides of the border.

    During their last meeting at the White House in February, Margarita Zavala, Michelle Obama talked about the enormous problem of drug addiction that afflicts both nations, health problems among children and youth, the situation of immigrants, the problem of obesity and diabetes.

    The aim of the visit, according to the press office of the White House, will be well to "record of commitment" that Obama has assumed the administration to "advance an agenda of mutual respect between both nations."

    According to information from Office of the President, some of the topics to be discussed between Obama and Zavala are child health, obesity and addiction among others.



    Additional info: @ Noticias Minuto a Minuto.


    Brazil announced in Geneva investigation against dictatorship



    Thursday, March 11th, 2010
    11:27 pm
    Europe silence of the secret prisons
    Warsaw, March 11 (NAM) For years, the complicity of European countries remained silent destination of ghost prisoners accused of terrorism and victims of the rendition program covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

    The question of their whereabouts, created in 2005 by a newspaper article the Washington Post when he first addressed the issue of secret prisons, was cleared today despite attempts to conceal it.

    Reports of European organizations that defend human rights confirm that aircraft associated with the program of secret detentions by the CIA flew to Poland, Romania and Lithuania with the complicity of those governments.

    The data delivered by the Polish Agency for Air Navigation Services reveal details about the arrival in 2003 of at least six aircraft linked to the CIA in the former military airport of Szczytno-Szymany, in northern Poland.

    On this point, prosecutor Robert Majewski, in charge of the investigation initiated in 2008 by the Polish government about these accusations, said "not familiar with the flight logs above.

    On several occasions, the Polish authorities have denied carrying out such operations on their territory, despite a 2005 report by a humanitarian organization, which claims that the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland where were held in secret prisons.

    Meanwhile, a Lithuanian parliamentary inquiry found that between 2002 and 2005, U.S. warplanes repeatedly crossed the airspace of this country and landed there without being subject to any customs or border control.

    According to former Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas, in this Baltic country was a network of secret CIA prisons, whose construction began after his dismissal in April 2004.

    In August last year, Lithuanian press published information on a secret CIA prison 20 kilometers from Vilnius, the capital, where they were installed under the cover of an equestrian center, and local interrogation cell with concrete walls, in addition to torture prisoners.

    The reports reveal that the prison was intended to suspected terrorists of Al Qaeda, and was one of the centers of its kind built by the Lithuanian government after the attacks of 11 September 2001 on the twin towers in America, in open manifestation of loyalty to the northern nation.

    A symbol of the era of former U.S. President George W. Bush, secret prisons are secret CIA facilities located outside the national territory with little or no oversight or public policy, as part of the war against terrorism launched on 7 October 2001 by the White House.

    While no state in the old continent has confirmed the existence of those dark places in his territory, according to a report by the European Parliament, the CIA ran 245 flights thousand through that airspace between late 2001 and 2007.

    The dossier, unveiled in 2007, lamented that "European countries have ceded control over its airspace and airports, to take a blind eye or admitting flights operated by the CIA which, on occasion, were used for the illegal transportation of prisoners" .

    This controversy is compounded by the ghost prisoners kidnapped on European territory and returned to other countries, secret operations on which perhaps many governments in the region were aware testified Swiss senator Dick Marty.

    This is the case of Osama Mustafa Hassan, suspected terrorist and kidnapped in February 2003 by CIA agents in a street in the Italian city of Milan.

    The Egyptian imam was sent on a military plane to Germany, where he was transferred to a prison in Egypt and probably tortured.

    Marty points out in his report of January 2006 that the CIA is responsible for assisting and directing financially prisons in those countries where torture is practiced also in clear defiance of international conventions which prohibit it.

    Of the 14 European countries that Swiss senator listed as partners in "unlawful interstate transfers" excel UK, Germany, Italy, Romania, Poland, Sweden and Czech Republic.

    A fax system interfered by the Swiss Onyx, from the Foreign Minister of Egypt and led to its embassy in London said that 23 prisoners were secretly questioned by Americans in the Romanian International Airport "Mihail Kogalniceanu".

    After years of complicit silence, the truth came to light: the CIA in Europe found the perfect hiding place for hide and torturing their prisoners ghosts.

    Additional info: At Noticias Minuto a Minuto.


    Kathryn Bigelow makes history on film



    10:15 am
    Sebastian Pinera receives a country in emergency
    The handover ceremony will be austere, in sharp contrast with the campaign that brought him to power. The president-elect of Chile, Sebastian Pinera Echenique, will formally assume his post on Thursday, in a rarefied atmosphere following the powerful earthquake that rocked the country just 12 days ago.
    In a ceremony at the National Congress in Valparaiso city, the newly elected band will command the hands of Michelle Bachelet, who quit the palace after 20 years of government center and its alliance with a popularity rating soaring .
    But not only honors Bachelet delivered her presidential successor, also in your hands will leave the enormous and costly responsibility to address the reconstruction of Chile in the post-earthquake.

    Pinera, a conservative-leaning businessman multirrubro he won in the second round of elections last January, defeating the candidate of the ruling coalition, Eduardo Frei.

    His victory was a sign of unprecedented democratic transition in Chile's recent history: marked the arrival of the center to power by democratic means for the first time in more than half a century.

    With this merit prior coveted Piñera, at 60, start building your figure as head of state.

    But now, the urgencies that left behind the catastrophe forced him to rethink their programs, at least in part, to face a daunting task: is projected to Chile was U.S. $ 30.000 million insumirá recover from the damage and delay four years, as many as its mandate.
    Changing course

    Even before you walk in La Moneda, the days of Piñera portend contrasts: the axis is moved from the proposed change, which was based on his campaign to reconstruction. From the ambition of boosting growth to levels heretofore unknown, to combat insecurity and create jobs, to work to put back in place as it was the earthquake.

    The aftermath of the disaster plan emphasizes citizens face the emergency, restoring public services and infrastructure and restore the system of production in key sectors such as mining and fishing.

    "It's time for solutions," Piñera said in presenting his program, "Scratch Chile.

    "Pineristas" the Cabinet he has had to reassess priorities before formally entering into service.
    "The president has asked all ministers to analyze our budgets and the first thing is to get to the emergency in time and solve basic needs that were not foreseen," he noted to BBC World Felipe Kast, who holds the portfolio of National Planning key to the management of reconstruction.
    According to Kast, the new government is working on an adjusted forecast of how much cost this recasting of Chile bound by nature. The figure of U.S. $ 30,000 million seems plausible, though preliminary: equivalent to 15% of national GDP.

    On your Piñera also considering options that were previously not in folder, such as the reallocation of resources from the National Regional Development Fund (FNDR) from the north to the most affected areas or the option of using the 2% constitutional right Chile's president to turn remedies for public nuisance.

    "We want to rebuild, but better: move beyond what we have today. We are optimistic about how far we can get," he added.
    (Programs)

    From the same mouth Pinera heard a promise: the contingency will not turn back to government programs outlined before the disaster.

    But can he fulfill it?
    "The government has a mission to recover the prosperity to which Chile had become accustomed. The stability achieved presents a benchmark, a parameter which people want to be restored and the government will aim to achieve," he said to BBC News analyst Marta Lagos, MORI consultant.
    Some people point out, however, will not be possible to meet those goals or address the reconstruction without sacrificing items originally intended to other sectors such as education or plans for poverty eradication.

    "The promise of Piñera was the sustained growth, to transform Chile into a truly developed country. That dream is likely to collapse. Maybe I should get used to the idea of being remembered as the president who rebuilt the country, rather than one he did give Chile a leap forward into the future, "said Lucia Santa Cruz, an academic at the Universidad Adolfo Ibanez.
    (Timing?)
    However, many observers see the "softer side" of the crisis that receives Piñera in his assumption.

    On the one hand, the need to restore and repair could revive the construction industry and become, in time, in a way to fulfill the promise of creating a million jobs that made the new ruler.

    Close to their business colleagues, the situation is likely to expedite the closure necessary agreements with the private sector, which Piñera always thought seek cooperation.

    Politically, the earthquake may also have paved the ground for more amiable coexistence.

    "There is a political climate that is favorable. The policy of unity proclaimed Piñera was not going to give, but after the earthquake the Coalition took a 180 degree turn," said Rodrigo Alvarez Valdes, a researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences .

    "He revived a sense of community, of belonging to the same country, and I think that would be unacceptable that the opposition is so fierce in this context. That will certainly help Piñera," agreed Santa Cruz.

    The first signs were seen even before the handover: Coalition leaders anticipate that Congress will support the new government initiatives. These include reconstruction laws, grants and restructuring of warning systems.

    Piñera's government is underway and with it came to Chile when the repair.

    Additional info: @ Noticias Minuto a Minuto.


    Earthquake in Chile: just beginning to see the extent of destruction



    Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
    9:33 pm
    U.S. condemned Israeli plans to expand settlements
    The U.S. government on Tuesday condemned Israel's plans to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem settlements.

    The news of the construction of new housing was known during the second day of the visit of U.S. vice president, Joe Biden, is making the Middle East.

    Biden issued a statement which said the initiative announced by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu "is against the constructive discussions" that is keeping to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

    "The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launch of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the confidence we need right now," he said.

    "We must create an atmosphere that supports negotiations, not that simple," he said.

    For its part, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) reacted angrily to news of the construction of new Jewish homes.

    ANP spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said "Israel's decision to destroy the proximity talks, announced on Monday by U.S. mediator George Mitchell.

    "The decision to build in East Jerusalem means that U.S. efforts have failed even before the start of negotiations," said Rudeina, reported AFP.

    Palestinians on Sunday agreed to pursue for a limited period of four months indirect discussions with Israel brokered by George Mitchell.

    Occupied Territory

    The status of Jerusalem, home to some 450,000 Jews and 230,000 Palestinians, is one of the crucial aspects of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

    Israel considers Jerusalem as its capital "eternal and indivisible" and the Palestinians claim the eastern sector of the Arab-majority city, as the capital of their future state.

    The international community includes East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1967 after the Six Day War, as an occupied territory, as housing is illegal.

    Prior to that time the Israeli government's decision to allow the expansion of the settlement of Ramat Shlomo, Joe Biden had met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Biden said after the meeting that a "real opportunity" for peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

    The Vice President welcomed the fact that the two parties have agreed to conduct proximity talks and said his country will support those "who take risks for peace".

    He said the proximity talks expected to lead to direct talks, through which one can "achieve a two state solution."

    In a joint conference with Netanyahu, Biden also said Washington is absolutely committed to Israel's security and ready to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

    Bad timing

    As noted by the editor of the News Middle East Jeremy Bowen, Joe Biden's visit comes at a time of apprehension and pessimism about the possibilities that could provide further peace negotiations in the region.

    "The fact that the indirect negotiations are presented as an achievement, is a sign of how bad things are," said Bowen.

    The Palestinians refuse to hold direct peace talks with Israel until Tel Aviv to halt the building of settlements.

    Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements built on occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

    Despite the end of last year, Israel announced its intention to freeze for 10 months to build settlements in the West Bank on Monday, coinciding with the arrival of Biden to the region, Israeli authorities gave the green light to the building of 112 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit.

    Joe Biden will visit Ramallah on Wednesday for talks with PNA President Mahmoud Abbas, and also travel to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah.

    Biden is the highest American authority who is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories since Barack Obama became president in January 2009.

    Additional info: At Noticias Minuto a Minuto.


    The extreme right gaining ground in the Netherlands



    2:37 am
    Earthquake in Chile The aid comes in tons
    Mattresses Chinese, French seismographs, water purifiers, Russians, Americans canned foods. On the runway of the Air Force base on the outskirts of Santiago, consignments of humanitarian aid to shape a sort of outdoor bazaar, with goods "made worldwide".

    In the Pudahuel, east of the capital, the seat of Group 10 of the Armed Forces (FACH) functions as a repository and distribution of international aid that arrived in Chile to mitigate the devastating earthquake of 8.8 degrees on the Richter scale which occurred ten days ago.

    They are staples for the 2 million homeless, according to the authorities, left behind the earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

    But there are also medical technology and equipment for rescue and relief groups such as hospitals, electricity generators, satellite phones or mechanical bridges to restore contact with areas that have been isolated.

    "From abroad have come here about 200 tons of cargo," he told NoticieroGeneral Carlos Bertens, commander of the Second Air Brigade which is headquartered in Pudahuel.

    The military base, installed next to the Santiago International Airport, no rest. And what is handled here is only part of all assistance that comes from outside.

    "Chile has received most of 1,135 tons of aid on essential goods from different countries, therefore once again reiterate our infinite gratitude", said Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez.

    Study priorities) (

    The receipt of international aid began just after the government of President Michelle Bachelet evaluate the order of needs.

    "(The aid) corresponded fully with the priorities we set and the list of requests we have made," the minister added Fernandez.

    However, many criticized these proceedings as the arrival of foreign assistance took longer than necessary.

    Now, the loads are shipped mostly to the areas most affected, particularly the southern Maule and Bío Bío.

    Ten days after the natural disaster, the entry of cargo aircraft is ongoing. The purr of the engines at the track stuns Pudahuel military and volunteers, but nobody seems to care.

    In recent days, a thousand staff working in the base-joined 250 other civilians, police, volunteers and Scouts-Armed Forces working in "unbind" shipments, separating the boxes are grouped on palettes of wood.

    Then classify merchandise, which will be released according to priorities established by the Ministries of Health and Interior.

    "We brought about 300 rolls of plastic emergency shelters, for example, that are specially designed to replace damaged walls or ceilings and can last up to one year, which is important now that winter comes," he noted to a spokesman for BBC World U.S. embassy in Chile. The boxes marked "U.S. Aid, from the American People" (U.S. Aid, the American people) are stacked on the campus military aircraft downloaded from the north country and ready to be forwarded to the South.

    But also collaborating countries provide vital transportation services. This has established an "air bridge" between Pudahuel and other military bases in central and southern, covered by planes of different flag.

    Two U.S. C-130 Hercules, for instance, came loaded with water and satellite phones, and they were: fly to the pair of planes fetching and carrying Chilean people and goods.

    Regional solidarity ()

    According Bertens, the 70 flights that landed in recent days came mostly from countries in the region.

    "We would highlight the impressive Latin American collaboration, commitment, including developing countries that have a lower than Chile, and Bolivia, which has provided three planes with drinking water," said the chancellor.

    Neighboring Peru was among the first to get assistance, while Colombia and Ecuador have two separate aircraft parked in Pudahuel to serve in the airlift.

    From Argentina reached a field hospital, one of the 12 that are in operation, with a staff of 50 professionals, and ten thousand doses of vaccine against hepatitis A. Noticiero has learned, Argentina's Foreign Ministry has planned 8 flights, including newly arrived 3.

    Also Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, Uruguay and other Latin Americans added their quota.

    "Each country sends things by their means, because we could not take care of the logistics. And come even from distant places like Russia, China and Qatar, some of the armed forces and others as commercial flights," he noted Bertens.

    Two or three weeks, at least, will bustle in Pudahuel: this is the time that the military authorities estimate will receive all that the world has to send to assist earthquake victims in Chile.

    Additional info: At Noticias Minuto a Minuto.


    The extreme right gaining ground in the Netherlands



    Monday, March 8th, 2010
    10:26 am
    Kathryn Bigelow makes history on film
    She made history by becoming the first woman to win the Oscar for best director in the 82 years they have been giving these awards.

    "It's the most important moment of my life," said Kathryn Bigelow, whose film "The Hurt Locker" ( "In Hostile Land") was raised with six statues of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

    Full list of winners click


    The reporter (J) said that the success of Bigelow means a radical change of fortune since his previous films had gone completely unnoticed by the academy.

    But Bigelow decided to gamble in style with "The Hurt Locker", a film partially funded convinced herself that no major studio would allow him the creative freedom she needed, adds Savage.

    The result was that the film took awards for best editing, original screenplay, sound editing and sound mixing defeating the giant blockbuster "Avatar," director James Cameron, Bigelow's former husband, who left with just three: photography, visual effects and art direction.

    click on "the best party of the city

    Some have described the contest between Bigelow and Cameron as a clash of the titans as the tapes of both competing for nine awards, but the same director had said he only wanted the best picture and give him his ex-wife the best director .

    Bigelow made the film, a war drama set in Iraq, with a cast of unknowns "for the audience not imagine which of the three main characters would die based on the reputation" of the actors.

    And instead of deciding to shoot in the Arizona desert, the filmmaker chose to Jordan, despite having to work at temperatures up to 46 degrees Celsius.

    The result won over the critics for the "sharpness convincing action sequences" and "deep study of heroism", but many criticized the decision of the director not to assume ideological point of view regarding the war Iraq, as noted by Mark Savage.

    According to the filmmaker, one of his intentions was to recreate the drama of the soldiers in a war, something that in their opinion, the U.S. media fails to reflect.

    Kathryn Bigelow was born in 1951 in San Carlos, California. His father ran a paint factory and his mother was a librarian.

    The director is described as a shy girl who poured all their anxieties in artistic creation, especially in the arts. "Painting is a bit elitist, while the film crosses cultures and classes," he said.

    In adolescence Bigelow attended the Art Institute of San Francisco and received classes on film critic Susan Sontag at Columbia University in New York.

    And, says Savage, the composition of the scenes in his movies, you can see their training as a painter.

    His films, full of action, reflect the life of a person who likes action, who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and scuba diving.

    He has made films about vampires Near dark (When darkness falls, 1987), the Cold War K-19 The Widowmaker (K-19, 2002) and thrillers like Strange Days (Strange Days, 1995).

    Before Bigelow only three women were nominated for an Oscar for Best Director: Lina Wertmuller for "Pasqualino Seven Beauties" in 1977 and Jane Campion for "The Piano" in 1993, and Sofia Coppola for "Lost in Translation" in 2003.

    But despite its current position in the history of the Oscars, Bigelow did not yield to the feminist label, says Mark Savage.

    "I love strong women," she said in an interview. "However, just as men inspire me."


    Brown "was right" to go to war in Iraq



    Sunday, March 7th, 2010
    5:51 am
    Chileans experienced they worst week
    Santiago de Chile, Mar 6 (Prensa Latina) Chilean live out its worst week after suffering the biggest earthquake in its history, and time-past the initial emergency-will face the enormous challenge of recovery and reconstruction.

    From the nearby port of Valparaiso to Conception, the second largest city, located 500 kilometers south of Santiago, the quake triggered massive landslides, panic, injuries and a still-undetermined number of dead and missing.

    The government set up the date, in 452 fatal victims identified by the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. Physical damage to the country are estimated at 30 billion dollars.

    Approximately 50 percent of Chileans live in the devastated areas, declared state of emergency and disaster by President Michelle Bachelet, a measure authorizing military presence-security tasks, including curfew and distribution of assistance.

    Towards the end of the week, improved land connectivity of this long and narrow country, increased aid to more isolated places, consisting of clean water, food, blankets, tents and other items to those who had lost not only family but also their homes , goods, ie, everything.

    In many areas still lack electricity, water and fuel. The telephone-including mobile-phone interruptions suffered and suffered. In Chile, all these basic services are run by private companies.

    All television reporters deployed into the country to show the devastating effects of the earthquake, its aftershocks and many of the tsunamis that swept through fishing villages.

    Perhaps unintentionally, in rare scenes also revealed the degree of insecurity in many Chileans living inside the country before the disaster.

    A few days after the earthquake, many countries responded to the call for assistance from the government and sent and installed field hospitals, generators, water purification, satellite phones and money, support, culminating this weekend with the presence of Secretary General UN, Ban Ki-moon, who liberated 10 million dollars to Chile.

    This first week, Chileans sought to resolve their most pressing needs, but also wondered how the national recovery face the future government of Sebastián Piñera, who will take the next March 11.

    Bachelet spoke in the palace of La Moneda Pinera, in a meeting prompted by the need to transfer relevant information about the earthquake.

    After two hours of conversation, said that political differences are now moving a second, third or fourth level, the challenge of rebuilding the country and added that "guaranteed the continuity of government action in areas hardest hit.

    "My government will meet its obligations until the last day, but also do everything in their power to facilitate the installation of the new authorities, because I think all of Chile believes that time is unity, solidarity and generosity, "he added.

    Additional info: @ Noticias Minuto a Minuto.

    Earthquake in Chile leaves over 700 dead



    Saturday, March 6th, 2010
    2:03 pm
    Gay sex scandal in the Vatican
    Two employees of the Vatican were removed from their posts after being involved in a homosexual prostitution ring, in what constitutes a new scandal that splashes to the Holy See.

    An aide to Pope Benedict XVI and a member of a choir of the Basilica of St. Peter were expelled from their posts after their names appeared on transcripts of telephone conversations intercepted by police, who in turn were published by an Italian newspaper.

    A Vatican spokesman told the BBC that the Pope is informed of the case.

    "The Vatican's gay sex scandal, as some newspapers call it, captures headlines in Italy," the BBC correspondent in Rome, Duncan Kennedy.

    "According to reports, Thomas Ehiem-a showgirl Vatican aged 29, allegedly would have been an intermediary who then sought out young men who would argue with Angelo Balducci homosexual encounters," said our correspondent.

    According to Kennedy, Balducci is a 'Gentleman of His Holiness', ie, a close aide to the pope when he meets with important visitors.
    Dialogues

    The conversations leaked to the press include a dialogue between the two men.

    The transcripts suggest that Ehiem got at least ten contacts to Balducci, including several models and a rugby player.

    Duncan Kennedy BBC correspondent in Rome

    "In one call, Balducci Ehiem asks if he has' spoken to the seminary." Meanwhile, Ehiem replied: 'Perhaps you are at Mass,' "said Kennedy.

    "In another conversation, another man Ehiem described as" 2 meters, 97 kilos, is 33 years old and fully active '. "

    "The transcripts suggest that Ehiem got at least ten contacts to Balducci, including several models and a rugby player," said Kennedy.

    According to police, the telephone interceptions Balducci were carried out in connection with another separate investigation and not linked to the Vatican "on corruption, our correspondent said.

    It is understood that Ethiem sang against Pope Benedict XVI at Christmas as part of its obligations in the Vatican choir.

    Balducci's role as a Gentleman of His Holiness includes assisting in the events where heads of state are involved and carry the coffin at the papal funeral, Kennedy concluded.

    Additional info: @ Noticias Minuto a Minuto.


    Friday, March 5th, 2010
    9:32 pm
    The other war
    Havana (Noticiero) As elusive ghost, citadina violence causes more deaths today in the world to the unjust wars of the present and creates a particularly serious situation in Latin America.

    According to a forum held in Lima, Peru, on 9 February, one of the main bases of the phenomenon in this region is that much of "the poorest quintile among young people" (according to Wikipedia, the fifth of a statistical population sorted from lowest to highest) is not economically active or study, especially in the female gender. "

    Antonio Prado, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said here that only 32.4 percent of young women, with up to three years of school, have jobs, a percentage that rises to 53 between those who complete primary and secondary.

    It also found that "the consequences of a weak labor market insertion of young people are multiple, including low income, another of the many expressions of inequality.

    All of the above "perpetuates inequality and intergenerational transmission of poverty", the "misuse of resources invested in education and social disintegration," he added.

    Because "education influences the future employability of young people", ECLAC recommends investing in it and in job training.

    This will limit the negative effects that are in sight as possible, but both qualitative political changes are required.

    The Latin American Information Agency recently embodied the concern that "the specter of violence plaguing Latin America," without a "country or social gap that is safe," so that there seems no place of refuge.

    "Even after the walls of the sacred home", he added, "grows the aggression against the weak, children, or on the elderly and women."

    Roberto Briceño León, in Sociology of violence in Latin America, defines it as "meet death at the corner of the house", but also can be added inside.

    In his work, published in 2007 by headquarters Ecuador, Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Briceño notes that the unemployment rate for young Latin Americans in 2003 was 15.7 percent, more than double that among adults, those affected at 6.7 percent.

    But in 2009 unemployment was 8.3 percent regionally, on average, and continued to weigh, the more weight on youth and women, a population factor of national life in each country.

    Statistics cited by the author reveal that in the world at the beginning of the decade, 565 were killed every day young people aged between 10 and 29 years for a murder rate of 9.2 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants.

    According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002 occurred about 520 thousand homicides globally each year to a rate of 8.8 murders per 100 thousand inhabitants.

    In contrast, only produced about 310 thousand victims in military actions, which represented 5.2 per every 100 thousand inhabitants.

    Europe had the lowest homicide statistics, with one per 100 thousand, followed by America with 11, Africa and Latin America with 17.6 to 34.6, scene of the biggest problem.

    The WHO estimated as higher global rates in 2002 the Latin American countries like Colombia with 84.4, El Salvador with 50.2, 32.5 Brazil and Mexico with 15.3.

    Around the same time, the Inter-American Development Bank considered that 28.7 percent of all homicides in Latin America then as victims were young people aged 10 and 19 years, a reality that gets worse instead of better.

    Briceño notes, meanwhile, that one of the major sources of violence is based on the "inability to match the prescribed roles" for that age group, especially at the beginning of adolescence.

    The author adds that in Latin America had at the beginning of the decade about 58 million poor youth, of which 21 million were in extreme poverty, with higher incidence among women, leading to a deteriorating reality.

    With regard to violence, believes that "men exercise it and suffer" more in a world where the homicide rate, according to WHO, is among them, 19 per 100 thousand inhabitants and only four per 100 thousand among women.

    During 2002, the American men had 12 times more likely than women to die murdered in Colombia, El Salvador and Venezuela, 11 in Ecuador, 10 in Brazil and six in Costa Rica.

    Among the reasons are listed as aggravated trafficking in drugs, alcohol and possession of firearms, which facilitates and lethality caused annually in 2004, over 200 thousand deaths in these media "in no event warfare "and 300 thousand in the unjust wars.

    Weapons produced by "more than a thousand companies in 98 countries around the world," even contribute to Latin America with the highest number of homicides for this cause and show a rate three times that of Africa, five times that of North America or Central Europe and east, and is 48 times larger than Western Europe.

    Equally, femicide, trafficking and trafficking of women reflect a trend that the Central American Integration System and the Spanish Cooperation Agency in Madrid considered with "category epidemic in Central America.

    Throughout the area, the number of such deaths doubled between 2003 and 2009 with over five thousand murders in Guatemala, in this case since 2000 - followed by Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

    While the female leads in the insignificant figures, adds instead a growing number of victims, high at 160 per cent between 2003 and 2007, whereas for males then increased only at 50 percent.

    It is considered that this is enhanced by "the use of firearms, trafficking and trafficking in women - with" primarily for sexual exploitation - and the coexistence of "sale of children born in the context of trafficking ".

    On February 16, news media reported from Mexico, Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, was declared "disaster area" because "terror seized" of everyday life.

    The state Congress chief, Maria Avila Serna, said there that "the stories are frightening," because "there are families who no longer even go to restaurants, for fear that drug traffickers they pulled off their daughters, if they like , although they are minors.

    Given this, then developed military Coordinated Operation Chihuahua, whose scheme was based on "territorial control" and actions against vehicles without license plates or that the Americans had, and in bars, taverns and brothels.

    A report by the Woodrow Wilson International Center reflects that the Secretary General of the Organization of American States Jose Miguel Insulza, recently revealed that this region, with only eight percent of the world population in 2009 was 40 per cent of firearm homicides and 66 percent of kidnappings in the world.

    It recognized that the homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean twice in the present world average, although in some countries quintupled.

    In this regard he added that organized crime, drug trafficking and other evils have a transnational, with increasing magnitude across the continent and manifestations as actual drug trafficking, kidnapping, weapons proliferation and human trafficking.

    This comes as a progressive state, since when poverty began to deepen regional urban macrocephaly in the second half of the twentieth century.

    While it is argued that life expectancy tended to rise from 50 to 70 years, it is also true that a generation of parents migrating to cities in search of a better future which then caused the explosion in the hills Caracas, violence in the favelas of Rio and, finally, the fight for survival in Latin American cities.

    In 1950, only 41 percent of Latin America's population lived in cities, but in 2000 the percentage had risen to 75, almost twice statistically.

    But this was not a reflection only of migration, but also a growing urban population was 69 million at mid-century in Latin America and the Caribbean 391 million in 2000, an increase of 332 million city dwellers.

    By then the region was barely between 161 and 175 million people, but now exceeds 550 million and, according to projections, will rise to 695 million by 2025 and 794 million in 2050, alarming expectation if not modified expansion violence.

    In this context, WHO considers that the murders are, without doubt, a serious public health problem, with an even greater dimension than wars.

    Not always recognized, however, affect how the deficiencies in the population statistics of violence in Latin America the most unequal region in the world.

    In 2009, ECLAC reported that regional poverty increased by 1.1 percent and extreme poverty by 0.8 in relation to 2008 and that, as a result, the poor rose from 180 to 189 million (34.1 percent of the population) and the indigent from 71 to 76 million (13.7 percent), to roll back even very insufficient progress achieved between 2002 and 2007.

    Again increasing insecurity and crisis adds to population growth, urban concentration in the last 60 years, the economic and social inequality correlated, and a silent war, as reflected in statistics, triggered by poverty.

    Additional info: At Noticias Minuto a Minuto.

    Amounts to 800 the number of dead as earthquake hits Chile
    Earthquake in Chile Curico the city that was organized to avoid chaos


    2:32 pm
    Brown "was right" to go to war in Iraq
    British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has defended the decision to London to go to war in Iraq in 2003, to appear before the independent commission investigating the UK's role in that conflict.

    In his speech, Brown-who was then finance minister in Tony Blair's Labor government, "said the latter always provided all relevant information and to go to war" was the right decision for the right reasons. "

    He said "nobody wants war, nobody wants to see innocent people die, nobody wants that soldiers risk their lives."

    Brown added to the Committee call Chilcott: "Nobody makes a decision and if not the most serious of circumstances and with complete confidence that this is the right decision."

    He further explained that "we support the invasion in the last minute when we realized that there was no diplomatic option. He had reached a point where we felt that the sanctions of the international community would not work."

    In his words, "I have never been denied information, but my role was not to intervene" but to ensure that the government "to arrange for all necessary resources" to finance the participation in the war.

    Brown has been censored for not having sufficient funding for the armed forces, according to his critics.

    For this reason, many soldiers have gone into battle with inadequate equipment.

    But the prime minister insisted that "we did a good job on the costs" of war.

    "The Ministry (of Finance) would not interfere in any military decisions that had just been done and we would not put any economic barrier," he said.

    Additional info: At News Minute by Minute.

    Brazil and U.S. sign several memorandums of understanding
    The quake, on Saturday morning, killed at least 300 people


    3:18 am
    Number of NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan during 2010 reached to 111
    A soldier of the Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was killed by a homemade bomb on Thursday in southern Afghanistan and another in a traffic accident, the agency announced Friday, two low that they get to 111 the number of military foreigners who have died since the beginning of the year in the Central Asian country.

    The year 2009 had already been, from far away with 519 dead, the deadliest in eight years of war and the balance, after just over two months, announcing a 2010 even worse.

    "A soldier of the ISAF International Security Assistance Force (ISAF, for its acronym in English) NATO was killed by an improvised explosive device in the south" on Thursday, said a statement from ISAF. Another "died in a car accident" also in the south, the same day, "it said.

    NATO will never reveal the identities or nationalities of soldiers killed, leaving what do the countries of origin of the military.

    Extra info:
    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; pronounced /?ne?to?/, NAY-toe); French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN)), also called "the (North) Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium,[3] and the organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.

    Additional info: At News Minute by Minute.

    Earthquake in Chile leaves over 700 dead
    The extreme right gaining ground in the Netherlands


    Thursday, March 4th, 2010
    10:42 pm
    Security Council divided on new sanctions on Iran
    United Nations, March 4 (News) Russia and China today defended the continuation of the path of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, against the imposition of new sanctions promoted by the United States, France and the UK.

    These positions were set Thursday during a meeting of the Security Council, that committee heard a report from United Nations sanctions.

    During the debate on China's Alternate Representative to the UN, Liu Zhenmin, said there is still room for further diplomatic action with Iran and that the doors are still open dialogue.

    Similarly, the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Chirkin, also said there is still continuing discussions horizon in search of a deal.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. permanent representative, Susan Rice and the UK, Mark Grant, and the alternate of France, Nicolas de Riviere, insisted on applying new sanctions on Iran.

    These three countries have recently Russia and China delivered a proposal for another round of penalties against Tehran for continuing to pursue its peaceful nuclear program, as defined by the Iranian government.

    The report presented to the Security Council by the holder of the sanctions committee, the Japanese Ambassador Yukio Takasu, cites several alleged violations by Iran with regard to penalties imposed previously.

    The series of punishments meted out to the country so far include a ban on arms exports and trade in materials, equipment, goods and technology related to uranium enrichment and nuclear weapons development.

    They also include the freezing of assets, inspection of ships suspected of carrying any of the prohibited items and the strengthening of surveillance on Iranian financial institutions, among other restrictions.

    Additional info: @ News Minute by Minute.

    Nuevo sismo de 5,8 en Chile genera pánico en zona costera
    Security Council divided on new sanctions on Iran


    6:18 pm
    The extreme right gaining ground in the Netherlands
    Preliminary results in municipal elections in the Netherlands show that an anti-Islamic party gained ground and could jeopardize the general elections scheduled for June.

    The Party for Freedom (PVV, for short Dutchman) led by Geert Wilders is opposed to what he calls the "Islamization" of the country.

    General elections were called following the collapse of the Netherlands government in a dispute over the deployment of troops in Afghanistan.

    Last year, the Freedom Party was placed as the second political force in elections to the European parliament.

    Wilders positions are seen in many circles as extremist and xenophobic. He became known outside the borders of his country with a controversial short film entitled Fitna (a Koranic term can be translated as chaos or conflict), which shows scenes of the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States and of the Madrid attacks in March 2004 and London in July 2005.

    The video, which shows a graph of the growing number of Muslims in the Netherlands and Europe, concludes with the message: "Stop Islamization.'s Defend our freedoms."

    The UK had banned the entry of Wilders in the country.

    Additional info: At News Minute by Minute.

    Earthquake in Chile Curico the city that was organized to avoid chaos


    9:32 am
    China slows military spending surge and...
    China announced a significant decline in the growth of its expenditures in the defense area.}

    The spokesman of the National People's Congress, Li Zhaoxing said that the defense budget increased by just 7.5% in 2010.

    Li said the total planned spending for the year is U.S. $ 77,900 million.

    This is the first time in more than 20 years that the figure is below 10%. In 2009 the increase was slightly lower at 15 percentage points.

    In the past, had argued that China needed to increase its military spending to modernize its armed forces.
    Concern

    However, other countries in the region and the U.S. are concerned about what they consider is the lack of clarity about China's military objectives.

    Centron correspondent in Beijing, Cinte Lou said it is not known with certainty why, for the first time in over two decades, the annual defense budget of China fell below double digits.

    "The Chinese government belt tightening could estars after the global economic slowdown, or do not want to scare your neighbors with another significant increase in defense spending," said Bristow.

    Li Zhaoxing said that China is now more transparent about its military budget, but gave no details on why the increase in 2010 stood at half that this year, our correspondent added.

    "And just to prove the limits of China's transparency in regard to the military area, Li Zhaoxing refused to answer a question about whether the country was developing its first aircraft carrier," he said.

    Additional info: @ News Minute by Minute.

    2:05 am
    Microsoft offers more browsers, but...
    Europeans do not have many options when choosing your internet browser as they think, says a web designer.

    Since 1 March, Microsoft offers to the millions of European users of the browser program Internet Explorer (IE) can choose an alternate browser.

    The decision was intended to combat unfair competition as a legal agreement reached between the software giant and the Competition Commission of the European Union in December 2009.

    Microsoft had committed to providing Windows users in Europe can be installed the browser they prefer, instead of Internet Explorer by default.

    Just wanted to get a European user to the Internet from Monday, it featured a lineup like this, giving you the option of using another browser:

    But for some, this offer is only an "illusion of choice" for the proposed programs are "clones" of IE, says the technology correspondent Logos Marck.

    When the bill appeared to the websites designer Richard Quick, decided to try other lesser known browsers.

    After install and begin using them, he realized that many were based on the same rendering engine technology called manufactured by Microsoft, which IE uses an engine called Trident.

    Additional info: At Noticias Minuto a Minuto.

    Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
    10:59 pm
    Nuevo sismo de 5,8 en Chile genera pánico en zona costera
    An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 on the Richter scale jolted this Wednesday the Chilean city of Concepcion again creating panic among a population that has not recovered from the 8.8 earthquake last Saturday.

    After the zone authorities issue a tsunami alert for Concepcion, Valparaiso and Talcahuano, Onemi spokesmen said at a news conference that the magnitude of the earthquake was not enough to generate large waves that threaten the coastal zone of Chile.

    According to authorities the quake was centered 42 km northeast of the city of Concepción.

    "We are based on information from the official body that indicates no conditions to generate a tsunami warning along the coast of Chile," a spokesman Onemi.

    The spokesman called on the population to remain calm, "is a reproduction, not for the scale to produce a tsunami. The department has indicated that this figure does not cause a tsunami," he added.

    The police and Fire Department initially requested the villagers and journalists at the scene the eviction of low-lying areas to avoid risk.

    Emergency agencies were called to calm the population and remain vigilant to the statements of authorities.

    TeleSUR's special envoy in Concepcion, Sergio de Arco, reported that the climate we live in the city is desperate. "Although people were screaming that it is an alarm, others do not want to believe, for what happened with the first tsunami," he said.

    "The face of fright is widespread, no one is Police traffic laws, there is more chaos than it was before," said the reporter.

    He also said that it has become impossible to walk by the long lines have formed, because the people have begun leaving the city.

    The coastal areas of central and southern Chile were affected by a tsunami that occurred a few hours after the powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake last Saturday. The force of the sea swept away houses, cars and everything that got in its path.

    The regions of south-central Chile (Concepción, Constitution, Valparaiso) were the most affected by the tsunami on Saturday.

    Another tsunami-affected areas was the port of Talcahuano, located 500 kilometers south of Santiago. At the location a strong wave reached the center of this region and caused serious material damage.
    Additional info: At News Minute by Minute.

    9:01 am
    Brazil and U.S. sign several memorandums of understanding
    Brasilia, March 3 () United States and Brazil today signed several memoranda of understanding, as part of the official visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

    Clinton, who arrived in this capital last night, will meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the presidents of the Federal Senate, José Sarney, and Chamber of Deputies, Michel Temer and talk and have lunch with Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.

    Those responsible for external relations of their countries signed a memorandum of understanding on trilateral cooperation between the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (United States Agency for International Development, USAID).

    Also signed other memoranda, one on gender issues and another on climate change and consider the establishment of the Global Partnership Dialogue between Brazil and the United States refers to a note from the Foreign Ministry.

    Among other issues, this mechanism provides for annual meetings of the senior external relations of the two countries.

    Amorim and Clinton also discussed issues such as climate change, promoting racial and gender equal, the negotiations of the World Trade Organization, the trilateral cooperation with Haiti and African countries and the reform of the United Nations Organization and other issues of global and regional agenda.

    The U.S. is the largest foreign investor in Brazil, with an accumulated 28 billion dollars while the trade between the countries more than doubled between 2003 and 2008, going 26 thousand 260 million dollars to 53 thousand 50 million dollars.

    The visit of Secretary of State agrees with the announcement Monday, the Chamber of Foreign Trade (CAMEX) in Brazil that the next day 8 disclose the list of American products to receive retaliation authorized by the World Trade Organization ( WTO), amounting to $ 830 million.

    In August last year, the WTO ruled in favor of Brazil, a process of almost seven years, presented by the South American nation because of the damage caused to local cotton subsidies from Washington to American producers.

    Shortly after the CAMEX indicated last month that had the list of goods early, and the amount that would raise the penalty, the state agency Agencia Brasil reported that the government of U.S. President, Barack Obama, would take action against Brazilian retaliation.

    Asked at that time, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the U.S. will be on the sidelines of international negotiations if contrasanciona to Brazil to implement a ruling in favor of the WTO.

    After insisting that Brazil follows the guidance of the WTO, Amorim called a mistake if the U.S. government carries out its threat of imposing contraretaliación and Brazil said the goal is not to create problems with the U.S. or any other country.

    Although we are following the WTO rules, "we are not closed to negotiations. We have to talk. That's our disposal," said the chancellor.

    Additional info: @ Noticias Minuto a Minuto.

    2:47 am
    Guatemala another police chief arrested
    The director of the National Civil Police (PNC) in Guatemala, Baltazar Gomez, was arrested this morning in connection with the murder of five policemen in April 2009. Security forces also captured Nelly Bonilla, head of the Directorate of Analysis and Information Antinarcotics (CS) for the same case.
    Baltazar Gomez arrested (photo courtesy Daily Twenty-First Century)

    Gomez is the fourth director of the PNC appointed by Colom (photo courtesy Daily Twenty-First Century).

    Gomez was the fourth director of the NCP named in this administration of President Alvaro Colom, but is the second one, besides being dismissed is captured.

    Only last August he was fired and captured the director Porfirio Pérez Paniagua, being reported the theft of at least $ 300,000 of drug trafficking and about 350 kilos of cocaine.

    PNC Changes occur two days after President Colom appoint its fifth minister of the Interior.

    The newly appointed official is Carlos Menocal, who until February 28 served as the Presidential Commission against Impunity. Menocal was the liaison between the Presidency and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

    His appointment also came after former minister, Raul Velasquez, was dismissed after uncovering an embezzlement of almost $ 5 million to purchase fuel for the PNC.

    According to coordinate the Police Reform Commission, counsel Helen Mack, "corruption in the police never ends anywhere in the world" and added that the aim is to control the maximum.

    "The people of organized crime the first thing is to co-opt senior officers of the institutions, in this case, the police," Mack said to the news. Counsel agreed that catches today are a positive sign and said "cleansing should be permanent."

    Additional info:
    Earthquake in Chile the army goes into the streets
    Brazil announced in Geneva investigation against dictatorship

    Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
    8:32 pm
    Brazil announced in Geneva investigation against dictatorship
    Geneva, Brazil announced today before the Human Rights Council (HRC) United Nations the establishment of a National Truth Commission to investigate the military dictatorship that ruled the South American giant from 1964 to 1985.

    The Brazilian Minister for Human Rights, Paulo de Tarso Vannuchi, said that the initiative under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva aims to debug the violations committed during the black period in the life of the nation.

    He explained that this is a presidential decree last December entered into the National Human Rights Program, but acknowledged the resistance of certain military officers who threatened to resign when they perform the search.

    One of the goals of President Lula before expiry of his mandate and for my part I must say I am ready to resign my office if not achieved the purposes outlined, emphasized Vannuchi.

    He welcomed the explicit support to the idea of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, but admitted the ongoing controversy in Brazil for the launch of investigations.

    On the second day of the 13th session of the HRC panel also took ownership of high-level segment of the Forum on Education and Training as part of the fundamental aspirations of the people.

    Moreover, at the Conference on Disarmament of the UN that also occurs at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to resolve the mess made of its nuclear program directly with the United States.

    The North Korean diplomat Jon Yong Ryong rejected the proposal of South Korea to resume six-party talks.

    In this regard stated that the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula should be resolved between the Democratic People's Republic (of Korea) and the U.S. in every aspect, "as it is a product of U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK."

    "It's an illusion to expect that the DPRK dismantle its nuclear program without the United States remove its hostile policy toward the DPRK," he said.

    Additional info:
    Amounts to 800 the number of dead as earthquake hits Chile
    Curfew continues in Chile by massive looting after quake

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