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El metiche Kirchner en la Cumbre Santos-Chávez

Martha Colmenares — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:18:42 GMT

Mi artículo en Diario de América, un conjunto de apreciaciones en conflicto:
Un escenario insólito inesperado, mantiene sorprendidos a muchos, a otros indignados, una premura o premisa incomprensible, o quizá indigna… Leyenda de la gráfica: Las alabanzas de Hugo Chávez al ex presidente Néstor Kirchner, a quien trató de atribuirle bondades de las cuales carece, su presencia, no fue más que la impertinencia de un metiche....

Free Oscar Biscet

Cuba Companioni — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:06:54 GMT

Dr. Biscet sends a special message about Oscar's Cuba from prison - I want to thank all those who made the Oscar´s Cuba documentary possible. Although I haven't been able to watch it, for being unjustly in prison, my wife Elsa Morejon, and the Lawton Foundation Directive Board have told me that it reflects part of my life, and the life of many Human Rights activists and Civil Society in Cuba.....

Harry Reid can’t believe I’m a Hispanic Republican

Cubachi — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:00:56 GMT

“I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican.”

Well Harry, let me introduce myself. I am the daughter of Cuban exiles who have seen first hand the failures of liberal and socialist policies in their native country. My father in fact, was a political prisoner in Cuba for five years because the government deemed his speech against repression and dictatorship “hateful and dangerous.” Sort of like what you democrats say about the tea parties, although you have not thrown their members in jail… yet.

....

Here’s George Rodez

Cubatradition.com — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:33:48 GMT

I’m very happy to be posting George Rodez page here on Cubatradition.com. He is based in Miami but has exhibited his work throughout the world. His latest is in Miami:

“EKLEKTICITY: a collective exhibition of Eight Latin American, Mid-Career Artists.”

RODEZart.com Gallery presents the diverse works of Chenco (Colombia), Vicente Dopico-Lerner (Cuba), Carlos Gámez de Francisco (Cuba), Daniel García (USA/Puerto Rico), Lidia Godoy (Cuba), Israel Guevara (Venezuela), George Rodez (USA/Cuba), and Ana María Sarlat (México).

An intensive presentation of personal journeys within a dramatic visual dialogue without reference to their native culture; these artists dare to express their independent voices in a combination of abstract, conceptual realism, and surreal landscapes, as well as startling subject matter that explore the contribution of diversified roles....

Marlins announcer displays longevity

Miami Herald — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:24:52 GMT

MIAMI -- Marlins Spanish radio play-by-play announcer Rafael "Felo" Ramirez always wanted to be a baseball player.

But when it became clear Ramirez wasn't going to fulfill that dream, he chose another alternative.

"Obviously, when you're a kid, everyone wants to be a baseball player," Ramirez said in Spanish. "But if you don't have the ability, you're not going to be a baseball player -- that was my case.

"I wasn't going to be a baseball player, so I did broadcasting."

Looks like that secondary alternative has turned out well.....

US Army flies flood relief missions in Pakistan

Yahoo News — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:40:22 GMT

KALAM, Pakistan – U.S. Army choppers flew their first relief missions in Pakistan's flood-ravaged northwest Thursday, airlifting hundreds of stranded people to safety from a devastated tourist town and distributing emergency aid.

In the country's south, authorities began evacuating half-a-million people as the worst monsoon rains in decades threatened new destruction.

The floods have already killed an estimated 1,500 people over the past week, most in the northwest, the center of Pakistan's fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. An estimated 4.2 million Pakistanis have been affected, including many in eastern Punjab province, which has seen numerous villages swallowed by rising water in recent days.

The flooding is one of several crises that has hit Pakistan since mid-July, including a suicide bombing in the northwest city of Peshawar, a plane crash that killed 152 people in the capital,......

Fidel Castro addresses parliament after four-year gap

BBC — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:18:35 GMT

Fidel Castro, the former Cuban leader, has delivered his first speech to the national assembly since resigning over ill health four years ago.

The chamber erupted into applause at the sight of Mr Castro, dressed in his familiar olive-green fatigues but without his comandante's insignia.

In an uncharacteristically short speech of just over 10 minutes, he urged the US not to allow a war with Iran.....

Massive chunk of ice breaks off Greenland glacier

Washington Post — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:13:09 GMT

NASA's MODIS satellite sensor, which has a history of providing breathtaking shots of our planet, was at it again yesterday. A large -- approximately 97-square-mile -- chunk of ice broke away from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland. This new ice island (as seen in the image above just to the right of center) is the largest iceberg formed in the Arctic since 1962, according to a University of Delaware news release. It's about 40-percent larger than the District of Columbia.

Icebergs calving off of Greenland's glaciers are nothing new. In fact, the Canadian Ice Service and the U.S. Coast Guard's International Ice Patrol estimate that anywhere between 10,000 and 40,000 icebergs calve from the glaciers of western Greenland in a given year.

U.S. could ease restrictions on `purposeful' visits to Cuba

Miami Herald — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:03:16 GMT

Said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.: ``Concessions to tyrants like Fidel Castro simply embolden them in their ruthless brutality. History teaches that lesson. . . . But President Obama continues to err.''

U.S. regulations allow only 12 categories of travel to Cuba, including family reunification, official U.S. government business, journalism, professional research and meetings, educational and religious activities, and performances or athletic competitions.

Some fall under ``general licenses'' that do not require prior U.S. approval, but most require applications for ``specific licenses'' issued by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The ``people-to-people'' travel, if it is restored, would require specific licenses, but the president has the power to change it into general license, said Robert Muse, a Washington lawyer who follows U.S. sanctions on Cuba closely.

Congress has been considering a bill that would lift all U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba. Its backers insist it has a good chance of passing, though congressional staffers monitoring the bill say it's short of the needed votes.

One of the three sources said the easing of the travel and other restrictions is the Obama administration's ``calibrated response'' to the Raúl Castro government's promise to free at least 52 political prisoners by September. More than 20 already are free.....

Zapata Lives, Castro forces dissidents to accept exile as the price of release from his dungeons

Wall street Journal — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 05:53:03 GMT

The announcement last month that Cuba would exile 52 political prisoners currently in jail was supposed to help repair the regime's international image in the wake of the death of Orlando Zapata.

It's not working. The 21 who have already arrived in Spain are speaking out about the hell hole run by Castro that is Cuba. And at least 10 are refusing to leave the country. Zapata lives.

In December 2009, Zapata, who had been rotting in a rat-infested prison cell and repeatedly tortured for almost seven years, launched a hunger strike on behalf of Cuba's prisoners of conscience. He was protesting the unjust incarceration of nonviolent dissidents and the cruelty inside the dungeons. The regime desperately tried to break him, even refusing him water for a time. This led to kidney failure and his death on Feb. 23....

Cuban refugee in Spain gives up hunger strike

Miami Herald — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:31:05 GMT

A Cuban refugee in Spain has ended a hunger strike after getting a new Spanish government promise that he will get residency and a work permit -- 15 months after he was first promised them.

Jorge Alberto Pérez Fernández said a senior Interior Ministry official told him the government had agreed to grant him legal status, though the documents will be issued next month because the government comes to a virtual halt during the August vacation period.

``I told him that words can be carried away by the wind, and he sent a written note'' containing the promise of permanent residency, a work permit and access to Spain's social security system, Pérez told El Nuevo Herald by phone.

The 42-year-old architect from the eastern town of Banes went on a hunger strike July 19 to protest the Spanish government's failure to meet its promise to grant him residency and a work permit within six months after his arrival in June 2009.

Todos somos culpables

Martha Colmenares — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:29:17 GMT

Una excelente reflexión de Luis Antonio Garcia Planchart que todo venezolano que diga pertenecer a la oposición debe leer:
Todos somos culpables

Durante el disfrute de una excelente recopilación sobre la labor de Simón Díaz, transmitido ayer por Biography, se nos abrió el entendimiento acerca de las causas del asalto al poder y el mantenimiento del Guasón en el mando por más de 11 años.

Y llegamos a la conclusión de que ellas no se focalizan en la ideología sino en la idiosincrasia del venezolano.
Casi tres siglos AC, Herodoto, Padre de la Historia, aseguró: Humanum est errare –Equivocarse es propio de los humanos...

Direto ao Ponto : A prova do crime que o PT endossa

MOVCC — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:24:10 GMT

Na foto do alto, que o mostra com 39 anos, Ariel pesa 81 quilos e a aparência é saudável. A imagem de Ariel desembarcando em Miami numa cadeira de rodas mostra um homem devastado pela travessia terrível. Pesa 49 quilos e aparenta muito mais que 47 anos. É mais que uma foto. É a prova de um crime....

Aznar: "La libertad y la dignidad no pueden someterse a subasta"

Libertad Digital — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:34:09 GMT

El presidente de la Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales FAES, José María Aznar, se ha reunido este miércoles con los excarcelados cubanos en España. Aznar ha defendido en el encuentro la posición común de la Unión Europea hacia Cuba, y ha puesto de manifiesto que "hay que tener la claridad moral suficiente y el coraje político necesario para saber que hay cosas que no se negocian: la libertad y la dignidad de las personas no pueden someterse a subasta". "Ésa es la posición de decencia que marcó y debe seguir marcando la acción de la Unión Europea hacia Cuba. Porque esa es la mejor forma de ayudar a que el futuro de libertad llegue a Cuba cuanto antes", ha sostenido.

High executioners

The Economist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:40:11 GMT

CHINA executes more of its own citizens than any other country, and more than all others in the world combined. “Thousands” of Chinese were executed in 2009 according to Amnesty International's annual study, which states that an exact number is impossible to determine because information on the death penalty is regarded as a state secret. But this gruesome record may yet change. The National People's Congress is reported to be reducing the number of offences that are punishable by execution. Among the crimes that currently carry the death penalty are bribing an official and stealing historical relics.....

More bloody and defiant

The Economist — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:30:44 GMT

AS INDIA’S Maoist rebellion deepens and grows, so too do divisions in the government over how it should be confronted. Nearly 800 people have been killed in the insurgency so far this year, close to the total for the whole of 2009–a record year for bloodshed in this conflict. The lack of a unified government response suggests this grim trajectory will continue.

On July 17th Digvijay Singh, general secretary of the ruling Congress Party, used a television interview to defend criticisms he had made earlier in print, accusing the home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, of mishandling the rebellion. He had written that it is wrong to treat the insurgency “purely as a law and order....

Portrait of a Warrior

Babalu — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:27:21 GMT

Do not let his brutalized appearance fool you, within the battered and tortured body of Ariel Sigler Amaya exists the soul of a warrior. The heart beating within his emaciated body is the heart of a lion......

Cuba sets shake-up for powerful health minister

Guardian.UK — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:44:06 GMT

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has replaced its long-serving health minister, the latest in a flurry of recent leadership changes by the government of President Raul Castro.

Jose Ramon Balaguer, 78, will rejoin the powerful Central Committee of the Communist Party, according to a statement read Thursday night on government-run television. It saluted Balaguer for his work, but offered few details on why he was replaced.

Balaguer had held the post since 2004, when he was a surprising choice to replace Damodar Pena, an official made health minister in 2002 as part of a then effort to promote younger leaders.

Trained as a physician, Balaguer was a founding member of Cuba's Communist Party and has been an ideological hard-liner for decades.

Replacing him will be 43-year-old Roberto Morales, a fellow physician who had been first vice minister of health....

Freed Cuban prisoner heads for US

Al Jazeera — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:35:24 GMT

A recently freed Cuban political prisoner, who is paralyzed from the waist down, has won permission to leave the country for the US.

Ariel Sigler, 44, was freed in June as part of a deal between the Cuban government and the Roman Catholic Church.

He had served more than seven years of a 25-year sentence for treason.

Sigler was among 75 leading opposition activists rounded up by police in March 2003 and charged with taking money from the US to destabilise Cuba's government.

All denied the charges, as did US officials.

Sigler had been a fit and healthy boxer when he was arrested, but developed paralysis below the waist while in jail and has to use a wheelchair....

Efren Fernández Fernández, Political Prisoner of the Week, 4/15/07

Uncommon Sense — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:28:47 GMT

Efren Fernández Fernández only wanted Cubans to have a choice, to have the right to decide how they should be governed. And he was willing to play by the communists' rules, joining with others in the Varela Project, which was ostensibly allowed by the Cuban constitution.

But the dictatorship had a different interpretation, and as part of the "black spring" crackdown of 2003, rounded up Fernández and other organizers of the Varela Project and sentenced them to lengthy prison terms......

Three of every four oil and gas lobbyists worked for federal government

Washington Post — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:26:37 GMT

Three out of every four lobbyists who represent oil and gas companies previously worked in the federal government, a proportion that far exceeds the usual revolving-door standards on Capitol Hill, a Washington Post analysis shows.......

Cuba said they were releasing the prisoners, where are they?

Babalu — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:12:07 GMT

First the lying dictators said there were no political prisoners in Cuba; then they announced they were releasing them. Where are they? Still in prison, behind bars, or the prison of forced exile.

BREAKING NEWS (UPDATED): Cuban prisoner deportations suspended

Babalu — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:05:44 GMT

I have yet to get confirmation, but I'm told the Cuban government has suspended their "magnanimity" and the political prisoners set to be "released" to Spain today will not be released. I'm also told the meeting at the US Interests Section with the families of those political prisoners who did not wish to be repatriated has also been suspended. Will post more as info comes in.

Cuban prisoners say they shared cells with rats

The Star Online — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:26:20 GMT

MADRID (AP): Rats and diseases infested Cuban prison cells so badly that some inmates tried to kill themselves and other did themselves harm, according to freed political prisoners who spoke in Spain.

Those who spoke were among 11 political prisoners released this week and flown to Spain to start new lives. At a press conference in Madrid, they painted a squalid picture of the prison conditions they had endured.

"The hygiene and health situations in prisons throughout the island of Cuba are not terrible, they are worse than terrible," freed dissident Julio Cesar Galvez said Thursday.

"We had to live with rats and cockroaches ... with excrement. It's not a lie," he said......

El PP pedirá al Gobierno que no disperse a los disidentes cubanos

ABC.es — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:51:47 GMT

Los disidentes cubanos que llegaron esta semana a España fueron muy claros hoy al mediodía en rueda de prensa: «Queremos permancer juntos». Sin embargo según el plan de acogida diseñado por el Gobierno español y las tres ONG responsables de brindarles asistencia durante 23 meses, está estipulado que en los próximas días sean «repartidos» junto a sus familias por diferentes centros para inmigrantes y refugiados de Málaga y Valencia.

Ante la petición unánime de los desterrados, todos ellos encarcelados en 2003 y puestos en libertad a comienzos de esta semana, la Presidenta de la Federación Española de Asociaciones Cubanas (FECU), Elena Larrinaga, se puso en contacto ayer con el diputado popular Teófilo de Luis, que hoy declaró a ABC: «Nadie puede suplantar el criterio de una persona en su sano juicio. A los efectos de facilitar su entrada suave en la sociedad democrática, a los efectos de garantizar su integración en un nuevo país, con una cantidad de incógnitas muy serias, es fundamental que se respete su voluntad.....

George Steinbrenner is gone now but the Yankee tradition lives on

Yankeeology.com — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:16:11 GMT

My condolences to the Steinbrenner family, all Yankee fans will miss the “Boss” and especially Yankee fans of my age. I’m talking about the ones that had to struggle watching the Yankees in the late sixties and the early seventies, you know who you are. We were first hand witnesses when we picked up the Daily News to read about this guy who had just purchased the Yanks. Nobody knew who he was, this guy from Cleveland, George Steinbrenner. And remember, unless you had some idea of who the Yankees were before, another words, if you were in your early teens and on, you would know a little about Yankee tradition. So it was a crucial time, the Yankee tradition was in jeopardy. For those who were just toddlers, Steinbrenner was the only hope left for the Yankee tradition to continue. If he didn’t step in, Yankee stadium would probably not exist anymore.....

Cuban Kremlinology

The Mourning News — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:11:05 GMT

“They are watching you, you know? They took your picture in Havana. They knew you were going to that hotel. They were waiting for you.”

“How do you know that?”

“They are watching everything you do.”

A cantankerous old man, who followed us into this Camaguey bar seemingly just to leer at us while we drank, was now bringing our paranoia to a head. We were already nervous about sneaking into Cuba from the U.S., not knowing what sort of animosity was left between our two countries or what we could get in trouble for. We weren’t trying to sabotage crops or kill Castro. We were just simple tourists curious to spend time on a beach and see what life was really like behind the plantain curtain. But it was certainly possible we were being followed.

“They follow all Americans. They write up reports on where you’ve been.”

“Aren’t there thousands of Americans that come here every year? Why are you telling us this?”

The old man shrugged, then looked down at his feet as if unsure what else to say...

U.S. Cuba Policy: A 50-Year Failure?

Yahoo News — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:09:03 GMT

Creators Syndicate – After a 134-day hunger strike, Guillermo Farinas' waist is so small that a dog collar could fit around it. This living skeleton (who has survived this long only because he has taken nutrients intravenously) now has a victory: The Cuban government has announced the planned release of 52 political prisoners. That Raul Castro appears to have buckled to international pressure is, of course, good news — though it comes too late for Orlando Zapata.

Zapata was a plumber and bricklayer who committed what the Castro brothers consider a treasonous act — he joined a political group that believes in freedom, the Alternative Republic Movement. After his 2002 arrest and conviction for "disrespect, public disorder, and resistance," he was repeatedly abused and beaten in prison.

Displaying a flair for irony, he demanded treatment comparable to that which Fidel Castro endured when imprisoned by Fulgencio Batista in 1953. Instead, he was further mistreated and his prison sentence was lengthened from three to 36 years.....

Cuban dissident ends hunger strike

The Boston Globe — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:06:27 GMT

Farinas, 48, drank sips of water at a hospital near his home in the central city of Santa Clara, said Licet Zamora, a spokeswoman for the psychologist and freelance journalist. Zamora had described Farinas’s condition as grave after he recently suffered a potentially fatal blood clot in his neck.After ending his strike, Farinas sat on the bed in his third-floor hospital room, writing. He appeared in good spirits as two nurses attended to him. A group of relatives gathered in a waiting room.Kept alive by intravenous feeding, Farinas had refused food and water since shortly after the Feb. 23 death of fellow dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died after a lengthy prison hunger strike of his own behind bars. President Raul Castro had said that if Farinas died it would be his own fault. Farinas had demanded the release of dozens of political prisoners, but a deal between the government and officials from the Cuban Roman Catholic Church prompted him to give up the strike....

Oliver Stone goes latin

Chicago Sun Times — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:57:44 GMT

Oliver Stone does not shirk from controversy. After lobbing political fireballs with the films "Salvador" (1986) and "Platoon" (1986), he shot down the Warren Commission report with "JFK" (1991). His biopic "Nixon" (1995) explored the tortured soul of the president perhaps best remembered for declaring "I am not a crook." More recently, his "W." sketched out the oedipal drama in which Bush 43 embarked on a quest for the presidency as a means of exacting revenge on his godlike father.

Now the Oscar-winning director strikes once again into the political heart of darkness with his documentary "South of the Border," opening today in Chicago. Billed as "a road trip across five countries," the film sets out to explore the rise of new governmental forces and leaders in Latin America dedicated to freeing the region from the centuries-old grip of the United States. (In a clever visual metaphor, the film's poster depicts the continent caught in the claws of the American eagle.) As Stone states....

The Spy Who Loved Chavez

The Daily Beast — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:47:25 GMT

El Diario’s Vicky Pelaez, arrested as part of the Russia spy ring, glorified dictators Castro and Chavez in her columns and decried “American imperialism.” John Avlon says her case is a wakeup call for fellow travelers.

In her writing, El Diario La Prensa columnist Vicky Pelaez managed to personify the stereotype of the reflexive leftist radical, attacking “American imperialism” and capitalism while lionizing dictators like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. In one column she compared Castro to Christ. Seriously.

“We had the moments of Christ, Mohammed, Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Newton, Pascal, Bolivar, Marti, Che Guevara, etc,” she wrote. “Fidel Castro Ruz belongs to that glorious group of rebels!”

“If you had told me that she’d been spying for Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, or China, I might have believed it, but Russia? I never heard her talk about Russia or the Soviet Union. Ever.”......

Chavez: Detained Salvadoran wanted in Cuba

Guardian.UK.com — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:39:44 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A Salvadoran man wanted by Cuba as a suspect in a series of bombings was arrested carrying a false passport at Caracas' airport, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday.

Chavez said the suspect, Francisco Chavez Abarca, was detained upon arrival Thursday by Venezuelan intelligence agents. The president said he is accused of placing bombs in Havana and Mexico in 1997.

He called the Salvadoran a "big terrorist" who is closely associated with Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative wanted for allegedly plotting a 1976 bombing of a Cuban plane that killed 73 people.

"My heart tells me this gentleman came here to kill me. I have no doubt," the president said.

"I'm sure this man didn't come here for tourism. He came here to place bombs, to see how to hunt an objective that has a price: my head," Chavez said, adding that he is tightening security.

Chavez has demanded for years that the U.S. extradite Posada, who faces trial in El Paso, Texas, in January in a perjury case, accused of lying to U.S. authorities about his alleged involvement in 1997 bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian tourist. He is also accused of obstruction and naturalization fraud....

Alleged Russian agent was dramatic TV reporter in Peru

CNN Justice — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:38:40 GMT

(CNN) -- One of the 11 people arrested Monday and Tuesday and accused of being secret agents for Russia is no stranger to controversy.

Vicky Pelaez, 55, is known for her leftist writings as a columnist for El Diario La Prensa, the largest Spanish-language daily newspaper in New York, as well as other publications. She has been a strident supporter of former Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez....

News from the House Agriculture Committee

House.gov — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:12:03 GMT

WASHINGTON - Today, the House Agriculture Committee passed legislation to expand U.S. agriculture trade and increase jobs, approving historic legislation that will greatly expand trade of U.S. agriculture products to Cuba.

H.R. 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, is a bipartisan bill introduced by Chairman Peterson and co-sponsored by 62 Members of Congress, including Representatives Jerry Moran of Kansas. The bill passed the Committee by a vote of 25-20.

"I am proud to say that today, the House Agriculture Committee took a courageous vote to end the short-sighted and failed policy that limits American agriculture's access to the Cuban market." Chairman Peterson said. "An unprecedented coalition of agriculture, business, religious and social organizations have endorsed H.R. 4645, and today's vote demonstrates that Congress is ready to change our nation's approach on this issue.".....

Guillermo Fariñas, en estado «crítico»

abc.es — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:46:24 GMT

Guillermo Fariñas, en estado «crítico»

El periodista independiente Guillermo Fariñas, que lleva 127 días en huelga de hambre y sed, se halla en estado «grave y crítico» desde el pasado fin de semana. Su portavoz, Licet Zamora, confirmó ayer a ABC que los médicos que le atienden en la unidad de cuidados intensivos de un hospital de Santa Clara le han diagnosticado un trombo en la vena yugular izquierda. Por ello no puede hablar ni moverse para que no se extienda a órganos vitales como el pulmón o el cerebro, y está siendo tratado con anticoagulantes.....

Internal Revenue Service may tax Gulf Coast damage claims following Deepwater Horizon oil spill

The Daily News — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:58:28 GMT

The Internal Revenue Service may take a bite out of that $20 billion Gulf spill fund.

And locals are fuming.

Many residents were already surprised that BP took so long to dish out payments. So when they got their compensation -- a few thousand dollars each -- they spent it quickly.

“"If they're going to pay you a lump sum, like for a year, then bam, take the taxes out of the check," said Todd Pellegal, an unemployed Gulf Coast shrimper from Boothville, La. "But a little bit at a time, they shouldn't."

Pellegal said he immediately spent his $2,500 check buying groceries for his family and paying off bills......

"FALTAN TODAVÍA CUATRO POR SER TRASLADADOS"... "NOSOTROS SIEMPRE HEMOS PEDIDO LA LIBERACIÓN DE LOS PRESOS; NO LA RELOCALIZACIÓN EN LUGARES MÁS CERCANOS"

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:30:49 GMT

Hoy, 21 de junio, Misceláneas de Cuba, Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas, tuvo a bien entrevistar al prominente líder Guillermo Fariñas Hernández (foto), en huelga de hambre y sed hace ya más de 100 días. La entrevista giró en torno a la visita que recientemente realizara a la isla el Canciller del Vaticano, Dominique Mamberti; sobre sus encuentros con las autoridades castristas, eventuales resultados en materia de derechos humanos, así como un posible viaje a Cuba del Papa Benedicto XVI para el año 2012.....

Cuban dissident found guilty, then freed

Guardian.UK — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:20:37 GMT

Associated Press Writer= HAVANA (AP) — A Cuban court found prominent opposition leader Darsy Ferrer guilty of purchasing black-market cement Tuesday, but he was released on time served since it took nearly a year for his case to go to trial.

Human rights officials say Ferrer was arrested for a common crime that officials usually overlook — or punish with a simple fine — in an attempt to silence his criticism of the government.

Ferrer's trial was closed to the media and most of the public, but his wife, Yusnaimy Jorge Soca, said he was found guilty of buying black-market building materials and then ordered released. He is supposed to serve the roughly four months remaining on his 15-month sentence at the couple's Havana home....

The Alien in the White House

Wall Street Journal — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:09:46 GMT

The deepening notes of disenchantment with Barack Obama now issuing from commentators across the political spectrum were predictable. So, too, were the charges from some of the president's earliest enthusiasts about his failure to reflect a powerful sense of urgency about the oil spill.

There should have been nothing puzzling about his response to anyone who has paid even modest critical attention to Mr. Obama's pronouncements. For it was clear from the first that this president—single-minded, ever-visible, confident in his program for a reformed America saved from darkness by his arrival—was wanting in certain qualities citizens have until now taken for granted in their presidents. Namely, a tone and presence that said: This is the Americans' leader, a man of them, for them, the nation's voice and champion. Mr. Obama wasn't lacking in concern about the oil spill. What he lacked was that voice—and for good reason......

NI ME CALLO, NI ME VOY!

The Cubanology Blog — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:08:25 GMT

We write to you – in this exercise of free speech and thought – based on complete respect for diverging points of view and within the spirit of democracy and utmost respect for differing opinions. We believe it is not reasonable, nor fair, to speak in a representative manner on behalf of Cuban civil society, much less, on behalf of the Cuban people, when it concerns H.R. 4645 – title given to the bill concerning the restrictions on travel to Cuba and the promotion of commerce with the island.....