12:38 PM 7/20/2014 - Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks

Putting pressure on Putin - YouTube

1 Share
Published on Jul 20, 2014
Homeland Security chair Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) thinks President Obama needs to put more pressure on Vladimir Putin.

GoPro: Diver Saves Sea Turtle - YouTube

1 Share
Published on Jul 3, 2014
Divers off the coast of Mexico save a sea turtle that became tangled in rope.

Special thanks to Colin Sutton & Cameron Dietrich who freed the turtle and shared their footage with us.

VIDEO: Puerto Rican kite surfer saves turtle trapped in deadly fishing nets

1 Share
An endangered turtle trapped in fishing nets showed his thanks to a life-saving kite surfer by returning to give him an emotional hug.
Heartwarming footage shows Cameron Dietrich, who'd been spear fishing off the Mexican coast, spotting the distressed creature bobbing up and down.
With rope wrapped around one of its front fins, the animal was unable to paddle.
Previous Next
Enlarge
GoPro via YouTube
After carefully slicing away the rope, Puerto Rican Dietrich gently sent the critter on its way into the clear blue waters.
But the grateful beast then slowly circled back around to his rescuer and - after stopping just inches from his face - appeared to hold out a fin to say thanks.
Filmed by Colin Sutton, the GoPro clip was uploaded to YouTube earlier this month.
It's since gone viral with more than 1.6 million views.
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.

Iraqi Christians ordered out of Mosul - YouTube

1 Share
Published on Jul 19, 2014
The Islamic State group in Iraq has issued an ultimatum to Christians and Muslim minorities to leave Mosul.

They captured the city last month at the start of their offensive and the Iraqi army have been unable to dislodge them.

Al Jazeera's Omar al Saleh reports on the many families living in fear of persecution.

Путин в понедельник посетит самарский РКЦ "Прогресс"

1 Share
МОСКВА, 20 июл — РИА Новости. Президент России Владимир Путин в понедельник посетит ОАО "Ракетно-космический центр "Прогресс" в Самаре, сообщила пресс-служба Кремля.
"Глава государства посетит ОАО "РКЦ "Прогресс", где ознакомится с работой и новыми образцами продукции предприятия по созданию, производству и эксплуатации ракет-носителей среднего класса", — говорится в сообщении.
Президент также проведет совещание по социально-экономическому развитию региона, в котором примут участие руководители крупнейших областных предприятий в сфере нефтепереработки, автомобилестроения, авиационной отрасли и жилищного строительства, добавили в пресс-службе.

"Морской старт"

Ожидается, в ходе визита на предприятие будет затронут вопрос, связанный с продолжением программы "Морской старт" (Sea Launch) по запуску космических кораблей из акватории Тихого океана.
Сотрудничество с Украиной и США в рамках этой программы сейчас оказалось заморожено. Однако источник в космической отрасли сообщил РИА Новости, что производство украинских ракет-носителей "Зенит 3SL" для "Морского старта" можно при необходимости наладить на российских предприятиях, а сам плавучий космодром перевести из американского порта базирования Лонг-Бич во Владивосток. По его словам, эту ракету можно начать выпускать при участии ЦСКБ "Прогресс", Центра имени Хруничева и "Красмаша".
Кроме того, "Прогресс" может быть задействован в работах по проекту создания нового сверхтяжелого ракетоносителя. Как сообщил ранее глава Роскосмоса Олег Остапенко, есть "прекрасное предложение по РКК "Энергия", по Центру имени Хруничева и по ЦСКБ "Прогресс". При этом он не исключил, что это будет "комплексный проект".

"Ракетной отрасли РФ необходимо глубокое реформирование"

Член-корреспондент Российской академии космонавтики имени Циолковского Андрей Ионин: "Без очень глубокого реформирования российской ракетно-космической отрасли не обойтись, реформа назрела давно, еще десять лет назад, и о ней нужно уже не говорить, а начинать. Основания для реформы — истощение кадрового капитала в отрасли, а также ее неэффективная структура". Читайте подробнее >>

"Амбиции великой космической империи более не подкреплены надежным фундаментом"

Обозреватель РИА Новости Константин Богданов: "Это называется утрата способности поддерживать высокотехнологическую инфраструктуру, доставшуюся в наследство. Причина в том, что космос достался России на птичьих правах, его же весь Советский Союз делал, советские инженеры. Это их отрасль, не наша. Просто амбиции великой космической империи, которой привыкла считать себя Россия, более не подкреплены надежным фундаментом".Подробнее >>
Read the whole story
 
· ·

Cueva del Indio Arecibo Puerto Rico, Taino Indian Cave - YouTube

1 Share
Published on Jul 7, 2014
Cueva del Indio Arecibo Puerto Rico,
Taino Indian Cave, Arecibo Puerto Rico July 1, 2014
Video by: Miguel A. Ramos©2014"Copyright"
AI News Service Puerto Rico
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 2

Malaysia Airlines plane 'shot down' in Ukraine near Russian border

1 Share
LIVE UPDATES: http://www.euronews.com/2014/07/18/mh...
A Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board has crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border, according to unconfirmed reports.
The Interfax news agency quoting an aviation industry source said the Boeing-777 plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Reports say that flight MH17 came down in the Donetsk region.
It is said to have crashed about 50 kilometres from the Russian border, in an area where there has been fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
The agency says the airliner was shot down at an altitude of 10,000 metres. This information has not been confirmed.
A Russian aviation industry source told Reuters that the airliner did not enter Russian airspace when it was expected, but crashed in eastern Ukraine.
Interfax quotes an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry as saying that all 295 people on board the plane are all dead.
euronews: the most watched news channel in Europe
Subscribe! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c...
euronews is available in 14 languages: https://www.youtube.com/user/euronews...
In English:
Website: http://www.euronews.com/news
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/euronews
Twitter: http://twitter.com/euronews
Google+: http://google.com/+euronews
VKontakte: http://vk.com/en.euronews
Read the whole story
 
· ·

Estable pescador que se encontraba perdido

1 Share
playa.jpg
Por InterNewsService – 4:12 pm
Un pescador que había sido reportado desaparecido el pasado miércoles, fue encontrado este viernes a eso de las 6:37 de la tarde por tres jóvenes ciclistas, quienes después de asistirlo dieron parte a las autoridades, informó hoy la Policía.
El pescador José Antonio Montero Rosado, de 53 años, fue localizado en el barrio Indios, sector Playa Ventana, en la parte posterior de la Tropical Fruit, conocido como Los Mangos en Guayanilla.
Montero Rosado, quien se hallaba desaparecido desde el día 16 de julio, fue localizado por tres jóvenes ciclistas, Ero Troche Ortiz, Carlos Rodríguez Cruz y Omar Baleno Rodríguez, quienes le dieron de comer y le suplieron agua al tiempo que informaron a la Policía del distrito de Guayanilla.
Al lugar se personó el sargento Gerardo Martínez en compañía de los agentes Miguel Rodríguez Candelario y Héctor Báez Irizarry junto a una unidad de Emergencias Médicas Municipal, que le brindó los primeros auxilios.
Posteriormente, el pescador fue transportaron al Hospital Metropolitano de Yauco, donde fue atendido por el doctor Morales, quien diagnosticó insolación y deshidratación.
Aunque la condición del hombre es estable, se le dejó hospitalizado en observación.

InterNewsService

Inter News Service (INS) es una agencia de noticias, fundada por el periodista Nelson del Castillo y que tiene su base en San Juan de Puerto Rico.
Read the whole story
 
· ·

They break warning PPD Commitment to the people

1 Share
Mensaje__Gobernador__Alejandro_Garcia_Padilla013.jpg
By InterNewsService - 10:25 a.m.
The National Boricua Convergence (conabo) organization today warned the governor Alejandro García Padilla and the dome of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), que performs Their convention this weekend in San Juan, for breaking its election Commitment to the people to hold a Status Assembly This Year.
Conabo Spokesman, Luis Toro Goyco, Accused the president and the leadership of PPD aside his pledge to accept the U.S. Congress "a handout of $ 2.5 million and ordered to hold another plebiscite inconsistent, in Which Both President Barack Obama and Congress hands like Pilate" be washed.
Such action, According to Toro Goyco, alienates the ruling party and its president 54 percent of the people who said "clearly your vote in November 2012 does not want to live under colonial ELA and waiting for action to change the status and the other to group of 'ñangotaos.' "
He Accused ñangotados the PDP industry, led by the governor García Padilla, had misled the country With the false promise of Assembly Refuses to Comply Status now.
Governor Garcia Padilla Announced this week holding a plebiscite in four years With the definitions of status for Puerto Rico to the United States Shall accept, que will determine the U.S. Department of Justice.
As part of the consultation process, the Puerto Rican governor accepted the allocation of $ 2.5 million Allocated by President Obama to the State Election Commission (EC) to educate people In this regard.
The governor Recalled That since 62 years ago, When the Commonwealth (ELA) was established, Puerto Ricans have failed to introduce changes in Their Relationship with the U.S., so this is a good opportunity to Promote to "ELA developed" that, Among Others, Their can Provide solutions to economic and financial problems.
That said Goyco Toro In this scenario "can not sit back, we must be clear That Among the sovereignist, statesmen (annexation) we want independence and decolonization in Puerto Rico, (we are) more than 900,000 voters."
García Padilla alerted and members of the Legislative Assembly That 54 percent of people are aware of your actions and his reelection That Largely depends on the position to assume in relation to projects on the Status of Assembly.
"We reiterate That These PNP (New Progressive Party) who want decolonization can not be fooled with another plebiscite lie, can not allow the hardliners limit the discussion of the status to Which type of ELA will support, discussion must focus on the need for an Assembly of colonial status to solve our problem, "said the Spokesman of the National Convergence Boricua.
A PNP Demands at present Embodiment sector, yes or no consultation statehood, while another stresses the need to request the inclusion of Puerto Rico to the United States as a first step towards full membership as a state 51 of the North American Union.
ELA Soberano Toro Goyco Proposed supporters in the PDP, the Alliance pro Free Association (ALAS) and PROELA, the Puerto Rican Join with Independence Party (PIP), the National Hostos Independence Movement (MINH) and the Union Sovereignty Movement (MUS), as conabo, Arise work together Toward a Status Assembly.
Despite The Toro Goyco proposal, including non-members, the so-called civil society and members of the PNP, not full matches Between Organizations towards an immediate goal beyond Their rejection of the governor's proposal García Padilla

InterNewsService

Inter News Service (INS) is a news agency founded by journalist Nelson del Castillo and is based in San Juan de Puerto Rico.
Read the whole story
 
· · · ·

MH17: the evidence against Russia | World news

1 Share
Buk missile system on video said to be eastern ukraine hours before aeroplane crash
A still from an unverified video said to show a Buk surface-to-air missile battery being driven along a road in eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, hours before Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed. Photograph: EMPR/Barcroft Media
Social media
A posting on an account linked to a pro-Russia separatist leader in Ukraine, on a Russian social network site, claims that militants shot down at least one Ukrainian military plane near the Donetsk region town of Torez. The post has been deleted.
Photographs
Ukrainian government adviser Anton Herashchenko claims the plane was hit by a missile fired by a Buk SA-11 launcher, a Russian-made, surface-to-air missile system. Photographs of such a launcher in the town of Snezhne, near the crash site, appear on the internet. Later, photographs of a Buk being moved on a transporter from Ukraine to Russia appear.
The intercepts
Ukrainian authorities release a recording they claim is a conversation between pro-Russia militants admitting to shooting down the plane. A rebel fighter going by the nom de guerre of "Major" is heard telling another comrade called "Grek" that a group of fighters had brought the airliner down. "The plane broke up in the air, near the Petropavlovskaya mines. The first [casualty] has been found. It was a woman. A civilian," he says. At 5.42pm, "Major" acknowledges the plane was civilian: "Hell. It's almost 100% certain that it's a civilian plane."
In another recording, a Russian officer called Igor Bezler is apparently heard reporting on the downing of the jet to his superior in Russian military intelligence, Colonel Vasily Geranin: "A plane has just been shot down ... They've gone to search and photograph the plane. It is smoking."
In a third conversation, a rebel fighter says: "It turned out to be a passenger plane. It fell in Hrabove area. There's a sea of women and children ..."
Satellite detection
Satellite images show a plume of smoke left by a ground-to-air missile. The images help to compile an intelligence analysis shared with the UN security council by US ambassador Samantha Power, which she claimed showed the airliner was "likely downed by a surface-to-air missile, an SA-11, operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine". The location of the missile launch appears crucial.
"It strains credulity to think [the missile] could be used by separatists without at least some measure of Russian support and technical assistance," said Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby.
Read the whole story
 
· · ·

In Call, Obama and Merkel Discuss ‘Cooperation’ on Intelligence

1 Share
WASHINGTON — In their first telephone conversation since revelations of American spying activities jarred relations between the United States and GermanyPresident Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday discussed what White House officials described as “ways to improve cooperation” in the wake of the scandal.
The officials described the call as “friendly and cordial,” though they provided few details about what was discussed. But a brief description in a White House statement left no doubt that the subject of spying came up.
“The president and the chancellor also exchanged views on U.S.-German intelligence cooperation, and the president said he’d remain in close communication on ways to improve cooperation going forward,” the statement said.
Relations between the United States and Germany have been frosty since documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, showed that Ms. Merkel’s personal cellphone had been tapped. The recent revelations that the United States had recruited spies in the German defense and intelligence agencies prompted Germany to expel the C.I.A. station chief from Berlin.
The potential damage to the relationship between Germany and the United States comes at a time that the two allies are seeking to work together to resolve several international crises.
On Tuesday night, Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel reiterated their position that Russia must take steps to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine, and agreed to remain “closely coordinated” on measures that could impose further economic costs on Russia, White House officials said. 
Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel also discussed negotiations with Iran about its disputed nuclear program, officials said. They noted progress in the talks, saying that it remained “imperative” that Iran take steps to prove it is not developing nuclear weapons.

‘Protecting’ Russians in Ukraine Has Fatal Consequences

1 Share
OXFORD, England — SOMETIMES, just sometimes, you should pay attention to annoying things said by tiresome people at worthy conferences.
In 1994, I was half asleep at a round table in St. Petersburg, Russia, when a short, thickset man with a rather ratlike face — apparently a sidekick of the city’s mayor — suddenly piped up. Russia, he said, had voluntarily given up “huge territories” to the former republics of the Soviet Union, including areas “which historically have always belonged to Russia.” He was thinking “not only about Crimea and northern Kazakhstan, but also for example about the Kaliningrad area.” Russia could not simply abandon to their fate those “25 million Russians” who now lived abroad. The world had to respect the interests of the Russian state “and of the Russian people as a great nation.”
The name of this irritating little man was — you guessed it — Vladimir V. Putin, and I know exactly what he said back in 1994 because the organizers, the Körber Foundation of Hamburg, Germany,published a full transcript. For the phrase that I have translated as “the Russian people,” the German transcript uses the word “volk.” Mr. Putin seemed to have, and still has, an expansive, völkisch definition of “Russians” — or what he now refers to as the “russkiy mir” (literally “Russian world”). The transcript also records that I teased out the consequences of the then-obscure deputy mayor’s vision by saying, “If we defined British nationality to include all English-speaking people, we would have a state slightly larger than China.”
Little did we imagine that, 20 years later, the St. Petersburg deputy mayor, now uncrowned czar of all the Russians, would have seized Crimea by force, covertly stirred up violent mayhem in easternUkraine and be explicitly advancing his 19th-century völkisch vision as the policy of a 21st-century state. Today’s Kremlin has its own perverted version of the Western-developed and United Nations-sanctified humanitarian doctrine of the “responsibility to protect.” Russia, Mr. Putin insists, has a responsibility to protect all Russians abroad, and he gets to decide who is a Russian.
We should, of course, avoid what the philosopher Henri Bergson called the illusions of retrospective determinism. History seldom moves in straight lines. After Mr. Putin’s rise to supreme power in the Russian state, starting when he became prime minister in 1999, he experimented with other models of relations with the West and the rest of the world. For some years, he tried modernization in cooperation with the West. He embraced membership in the Group of 8 — one of several inducements that the United States and Europe offered to help Russia down its inevitably difficult post-imperial path. President George W. Bush got Mr. Putin wrong when he “looked the man in the eye” in 2001, but it would be bad history to conclude that the Putin of 2001 was already secretly planning to take back Crimea and destabilize eastern Ukraine.
Although historians should explore those paths not taken, it is nonetheless fascinating to see how the essentials of Mr. Putin’s resentment-fueled protector state doctrine were already there in 1994 — even if they were not then buttressed by ideological quotations from Russian thinkers like Ivan Ilyin.
Once upon a time, there was the Brezhnev Doctrine, which justified as “fraternal help” such actions as the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Mikhail S. Gorbachev replaced it with the Sinatra Doctrine —You do it your way, as Gennadi I. Gerasimov, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, put it — toward Eastern Europe. Now we have the Putin Doctrine.
It is impossible to overstate the degree to which this is a threat not just to Russia’s Eastern European and Eurasian neighbors but to the whole post-1945 international order. Across the world, countries see men and women living in other countries whom they regard as in some sense “their people.” What if, as has happened in the past, Chinese minorities in Southeast Asian countries were to be the targets of discrimination and popular anger, and China (where, on a visit this spring, I heard admiration expressed for Mr. Putin’s actions) decided to take up the mother country’s burden, exercising its völkisch responsibility to protect?
TO make clear why such actions are totally unacceptable, and a grave threat to world peace, we also have to agree on the legitimate rights and responsibilities of a mother country. My British passport still carries the resonant old formula that Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State “requests and requires” foreign powers to let me pass “without let or hindrance,” and if I got into a spot of local difficulty in, say, Transnistria, I would hope (though not necessarily trust) that he would very earnestly require it. More relevant, Poland has expressed concern for the position of Polish speakers in Lithuania. Hungary has handed out both passports and voting rights in national elections to citizens of neighboring countries whom it deems to be members of the Hungarian people. To pin down what is illegitimate, we have to explain more clearly what is legitimate.
As of Friday, American and Ukrainian officials were saying it was likely that a Russian-made antiaircraft missile had brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, in yet another harvest of sorrow on Ukrainian fields already blood-soaked by history. It was not clear who fired it. But it is hypocrisy on an Orwellian scale for Mr. Putin to maintain, as he did on Friday, that “the government over whose territory this happened bears the responsibility for this terrible tragedy.” There is undoubtedly bitter discontent among many self-identified Russians in eastern Ukraine, but the violence of their protests has been stirred by a massively mendacious narrative on Russian television, and their paramilitaries have been supported, to put it no more strongly, by Mr. Putin’s Russia — including the presence of members or former members of Russian special forces.
It seems plausible already to suggest that a regular army (whether Ukrainian or Russian) would usually have identified the radar image of a civilian airliner flying at 33,000 feet, while a group made up solely of local militants (even ones with military experience) would not ordinarily have had the technology and skill to launch such an attack without outside help. It is precisely the ambiguous mixtures created by Mr. Putin’s völkisch version of the “responsibility to protect” that produce such disastrous possibilities. He subverts and calls into question the authority of the government of a sovereign territory, and then blames it for the result.
So if an obscure deputy mayor starts sounding off in alarming terms at some conference you are attending, my advice is, Wake up. Of course, most such ranters do not rise to the top. But when they do, their ideologies of resentment may be written out in blood.
Read the whole story
 
· · · ·
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 3

Eye federal finances of Puerto Rico

1 Share
Approved as the federal Treasury encourages you to Provide technical assistance to the Government tax
WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives of the United States today approved the appropriations bill That includes, in its report, a call to the federal Treasury to Provide tax technical assistance to the government of Puerto Rico.
The initiative, Promoted by Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi Rep. Jose Serrano through, seeks to reaffirm the interest on the federal Treasury keep your eye on the finances of the government of Puerto Rico.
Since 2013, the Working Group of the White House Announced the creation of a special team headed by the federal Treasury Remains close to the Initiatives of the government of Alejandro García Padilla.
"Puerto Rico is facing the worst economic and financial crisis in its history," said Commissioner Pierluisi, Insisting That the root of the crises is the spatial relationship of the island against the U.S. system.
 "The crises is rooted in the inequality of its political status as a territory and has-been worsened by the reckless actions of the Local government," Pierluisi, president of the New Progressive Party (PNP) said.
By law not finishing its course, though hardly the report be removed, the Treasury Department has avoided comment.
Literally, the report of the appropriations bill on financial services, que includes the Proposed 2015 budget for the Treasury calls "the Department To provide technical assistance to Puerto Rico to stabilize and Strengthen Their public financial management and financial management"
"Puerto Rico has taken steps to address some substantial businesses of the Most Important challenges, including the adoption of a balanced budget and reform of its system board," recently Respond to Spokesman for the federal Treasury, que considers That the tax problems of the country or Emerged or are to solve "the overnight".

Auxiliary police go on trial for murder of young woman in Naranjito

1 Share
A Marrero Marcus Arroyo is Accused of killing 23 year old girl During a transit intervention Naranjito
Superior Court Judge Agnes Oriola Friday Collado found him cause for trial to the auxiliary police, Marcus Arroyo Marrero, who is charged with killing a 23-year transit During a speech in Cedar neighborhood Up in Naranjito.
"After hearing the arguments of the parties and Examined all the testimonial, documentary and expert evidence, we find That there is probable cause for the crime charged," the judge said at the finding of the preliminary hearing in the Court This Afternoon of Bayamón.
Marrero Arroyo weighs against a charge of second-degree murder and two of the Arms Act Violations
ACCORDING to the evidence prosecutors presented Gustavo Rivera Velez and Enrique Mendoza, young Carla Michelle Aviles died from a distance Rosado That shot came in from the back of his left ear, que was triggered by the weapon carrying Marrero Arroyo dawn of the facts, on June 23, 2013.
From the evidence That Emerged During the procedure, several police officers in Which PARTICIPATED, Also shot another officer, but the analysis Showed That the ballistic missile killed Michelle Carla That came from the Glock pistol carrying the Accused.
The victim was riding in the back of a Toyota Four Runner bus in Which They Were traveling and Felipe Zayas Marrrero Felix brothers, Who were arrested by the police for traveling without a seatbelt Allegedly.
ACCORDING to previous testimony, the youth refused to show his papers and went to flight.
The trial was set for August 18.
Carla Michelle's parents, who Were in the room were satisfied With the judge's ruling.
"I demand justice for my daughter and continue to the end," said Rosado Claribel Sanchez, mother of the girl died. His father, Rafael Aviles, said in the preview "That proved Please Carla Michelle was murdered, vile and cowardly, without any reason And Also be tested in the trial. "
"I have no comment," was all I said as I left court Accused Accompanied by his lawyers and Carlos López Cherena Brenda Quiñones Cruz. At the time the events occurred, was retired and worked as a volunteer in the police.
In his closing argument the prosecutor Velez said the state trial established the defendant That Allegedly shot straight When the vehicle is running and detonation That causes the death of the deceased. Argued That The prosecutor determined to the chemical analysis That the vehicle had no gunshot residue.
One of the defense lawyers Argued That's When the police arrested the youth, one of the men pulled out a gun Allegedly and the officer who gave the highest "have a gun Shouted and called 'cover' (protection)."
In the preview two policemen They Said, a young resident of Barranquitas, two forensic investigators and investigator of the Bureau of Special Investigations (NIE), Hector Reyes Guzman, Department of Civil Rights.
Tags
Read the whole story
 
· ·

They demand equality for all couples

1 Share
While raising her daughter, Yolanda Arroyo and Zulma Oliveras struggle to marry sometime in Puerto Rico. Watch the video
Terrified and nervous, Yolanda Arroyo sat one day with his 10 year old daughter, decided to speak candidly with the girl on the love relationship that he intended to have with a person who was acquainted. It was just a year and a half who had divorced the girl's father and feared the reaction of the girl at the news that Mom would come out with a woman now.
"I decided I was going to answer all the questions she did me. To me, that would be the guide, I would answer all you ask for that is their maturity level. Told him I was ready for a new relationship, but it would be with a boyfriend, but with a girlfriend, "Arroyo recalled.
From that point, it's been almost five years. Arroyo and her partner, Zulma Oliveras, photo-manager since the now-15 year old, who had no qualms with the relationship. But they have not done alone, as they have the full support of their families, the father of the child and his family.
Mature women shares her story
"It's like they say in English, 'It Takes a Village' (requires a village) to raise a child. And that is our tribe, we, the baby's father, my family, the family of Zulma, family Dad. Sometimes two of us went out to eat with the girl and someone in the family dad.'re all together, "said Arroyo.
Contrary to initial fears, this couple did not face rejection by their families when starting their relationship. Instead, all they have received has been supportive, Oliveras said.
But they are still latent fear about the future, since the laws of Puerto Rico forbid them to marry. Oliveras reports that Arroyo has been hospitalized for complications with asthma suffering and not afraid to make decisions in an emergency situation because their relationship is not recognized by the state.
"I use the example to everyone of what you do if your partner is sick and you can not be with her in the hospital. What if heterosexual people forbid them to be in the room?" Said Oliveras.
Given this reality, and Oliveras Arroyo joined the lawsuit filed in Federal Court to demand that the government of Puerto Rico recognizes marriage between same sex. They are one of five couples, who along with the Puerto Rico Tod @ s organization to establish that the lack of recognition of gay marriage watchful against their constitutional rights to be a discriminatory action that prevents them from receiving benefits that heterosexual couples receive.
The lawsuit, originally filed in March by attorney Ada Conde Vidal and his wife Ivonne Alvarez, is based on a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States issued last year which declared unconstitutional an article of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA , for its acronym in English) indicating that, for the federal government, marriage only the union between a man and a woman. 
"We want to ensure that Puerto Rico is not left behind, you have to recognize the same rights and the same guarantees based on the Constitution," the lawyer Omar Gonzalez Pagan. The attorney belongs to Lambda Legal organization that has come together to represent several of the plaintiffs in this case.
Pagan González stressed that since 2013, courts in 17 states have issued decisions in favor of marriage between same sex and against bans such unions. In total, since 19 states in the United States, plus Washington DC, already allow gay marriage. The Federal Court of Puerto Rico belongs to the First Circuit Court of Appeals and all other states as belonging to that Court of Appeals already recognize such unions.
"With this event we hope to vindicate the rights of our clients and all LGBT families in Puerto Rico," said González Pagan.
Tags
Read the whole story
 
· · ·

BBC News - Putin denies Russia plans to reopen spy base in Cuba

1 Share
17 July 2014 Last updated at 14:47 ET
Lourdes base communications dishes - 2001 file picDuring the Cold War the Lourdes base was said to be the biggest Soviet overseas listening post
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied reports that he made a deal with Cuba to reopen an electronic listening post on the Caribbean island.
The Lourdes base near Havana was used by the Soviets to spy on the US during the Cold War.
Speaking at the Brics summit in Brazil, Mr Putin said Russia could "meet its defence needs without this component".
Russia's Kommersant newspaper had earlier reported that Russia and Cuba had agreed to reopen the spy facility.
Mr Putin closed the base in 2001, citing concerns over its cost.
The paper said the deal to make the base operational again had been reached during Mr Putin's visit to Cuba last week.
A Russian security source quoted by Reuters news agency had confirmed the Kommersant report, saying "a framework agreement" had been agreed.
Lourdes base communications dishes - 2001 file picProximity to the US considerably boosted Soviet monitoring of American communications
The Lourdes base began operations in 1967 and provided intelligence for Soviet state security bodies. It also handled secret communications for the Soviet navy.
In Soviet times some 3,000 specialists worked there, then in the 1990s Russia reduced the staff by about half. Kommersant said staffing on that level would not be required now, because of improvements in technology.
The base was converted into a university after the Russians left. It is now the University of Information Sciences (UCI).
Reopening Lourdes itself would always have been out of the question, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Havana.
Russia is planning to help build a new civilian airport next to the site of the old spy base.
When Russia shut the base in 2001 the annual cost - the rent paid to Cuba - was $200m (£115m).
Cuba was a Cold War hotspot. The crisis over Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962 almost escalated into nuclear war.
Read the whole story
 
· · · ·

BBC News - Pope Francis demands justice for Jewish centre attack victims

1 Share
18 July 2014 Last updated at 13:36 ET
Pope Francis delivers recorded message to the Jewish CommunityThe message for the Jewish community was recorded last month at the Vatican by a friend of the Pope
Pope Francis has demanded justice for the victims of a bomb attack against a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires exactly 20 years ago.
In a recorded video to mark the anniversary, the Pope described the attack as an "act of madness".
Eighty-five people were killed in the attack, which was masterminded by Iran, according to Argentine courts. Iran denies any involvement.
Last year, Iran and Argentina agreed to set up a truth commission.
Pope Francis said the suffering of the families cannot be forgotten. He was the auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires at the time.
"My prayers for all the victims are accompanied today by my call for justice. Justice must be done," he said.
"And may God give peace to all of those who died in this act of madness."
The video was recorded on the mobile phone of a friend of the Pope and Jewish community leader who went to visit him at the Vatican last month.
'Justice, not agreements'
Hundreds of people gathered outside the reconstructed Jewish cultural centre and the Justice Palace building to pray for the victims and demand justice.
The old seven storey-building of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (Amia) in the centre of Buenos Aires was completely destroyed by a car bomb on 18 July 1994.
Two years earlier, a bomb attack against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires had killed 29 people.
Archive - Amia building after the 1994 bombingThe biggest bomb attack on Argentine soil killed 85 people and injured another 300
Vigil to mark the 20th anniversary of the Amia bomb attack in Buenos AiresHundreds of people hold pictures of the victims and signs calling for justice
Jewish community members at Amia 20th anniversary actThe Argentine Jewish community was targeted by two attacks in the 1990s
The Jewish community in Argentina - the most numerous in Latin America - said there was enough evidence to show that Iran planned and financed the attack against Amia and that the militant group, Hezbollah, carried it out.
Argentine prosecutors accused Iran and Hezbollah in 2006.
Eight suspects were named, including former Iranian Defence Minister, Gen Ahmed Vahidi. But no arrests have been made.
At the time of the attack, Gen Vahidi was the commander of a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Amia's vice-president Thomas Saiegh spoke to the Jewish community during the vigil to mark the anniversary.
He called for "concrete measures" by the Argentine government to arrest the Iranian citizens allegedly involved.
"We all have an empty chair at home," said Luis Czyzewski, who lost a daughter in the attack.
Relatives and Jewish leaders also criticised last year's joint decision by Argentina and Iran to set up a commission to investigate the bombing.
"Our victims demand justice, not agreements," Mr Czyzewski added.
Read the whole story
 
· · · · · ·

A Theater Company Is Crowdfunding to Produce This ‘Powerful’ Play in Cuba About Homosexuality · Global Voices

1 Share
Bent se realizó por primera vez en 1979 en Londres (Foto compartida en la plataforma Indiegoogo)
“Bent” was first performed in 1979 in London (Photograph displayed on Indiegogo)
Havana's theater company “La Peña Meisner” has launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise 15,000 British pounds, or about 25,000 US dollars, to produce and launch “Bent” in Cuba, a play about the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany.
“Bent” is “a visceral and powerful representation of the abuse and internment of homosexuals in Nazi Germany leading up to World War II and the search for personal and social acceptance of one's identity,” the fundraising page says.
According to the theater group, which is not official and not financed by the Cuban state, and is made up of actors and directors working under the British director Stephen Bayly, “the topics explored in this classical work, regarding persecution and prejudice against gays, are still very relevant in Cuba today and globally.”
The new Cuban Labor Code, recently approved in the Caribbean nation, has received a lot of criticism due to the lack of explicit recognition of gender identity as a motive for discrimination, leaving transsexuals in a position of vulnerability. Historically the LGBT community in Cuba has suffered discrimination and persecution, but in the past years they have made tremendous strides in terms of acquiring rights. Of course, there is still much work ahead. 
The group's former production, titled “Azul/Naranja,” was financed by the British and Norwegian embassies along with Cuban sponsors. However, “Bent” is an even more ambitious project, which will also receive Norwegian funds.
The online platform Indiegogo specifies that the funds raised will be used for the leasing of the rehearsal space and the theater, the music, lights, marketing campaigns, print and graphic design, costumes and props, the filming of the production, and the actors, directors and producer's flights, amongst other costs.
The production design requirements are six completely different sets in the Act One, and construction of a concentration camp for Act Two. Costumes and accessories involve numerous full Nazi uniforms, both SA and SS, changes of prisoners’ uniforms, fitted wigs, discharging rifles, sets of horn-rimmed glasses, stage knives, etc.
Los requisitos del diseño de producción incluyen seis conjuntos completamente diferentes en el primer acto, y la construcción de un campo de concentración para el segundo acto. El vestuario y los accesorios abarcan numerosos uniformes nazis, tanto de las SA como de las SS, los uniformes de los presos, pelucas equipadas, fusiles descargados, juegos de gafas con montura de concha, cuchillos de la época, etc.
Bayly has stated that he is “extremely proud to be part of this moment in history in Cuba. In the years since I've been coming to Cuba, there has been a growing awareness of LGBT issues (…) So the presentation of Bent (…) could have a significant effect on public opinion.”
La Peña Meisner's realistic acting have turned this company into leaders in Latin America in this form of acting. In February 2012, their production “Las Tumbas Olvidadas” made its debut, performed during the “British week” in Havana.
In June 2013 they performed “Azul/Naranja,” with which members of the cast, Idalmis Garcia and Héctor Noas, earned two nominations for the Premios Caricato, one of the most prestigious acting awards in Cuba.
The first performance of “Bent” took place in London in 1979, with Ian McKellen and Tom Bell in the leading roles. In fact, McKellen appears in a video for the crowdfunding campaign. “The play has been done all over the world, and I'm very glad it's now finally reaching Cuba,” he says. “And wherever it's been shown, I think people have realized its relevance to our lives today.”
In 1980, “Bent” was performed in New York City starring Richard Gere. The play was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1980, and won the Dramatist Guild Best Play Award. It was adapted into a film in 1997 under the direction of Sean Mathias.
The crowdfunding campaign ends on July 23.
Read the whole story
 
· · · ·

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New questions arise about House Democratic caucus’s loyalty to Obama | » Democrats Stymie Obama on Trade 12/06/15 22:13 from WSJ.com: World News - World News Review

Немецкий историк: Запад был наивен, надеясь, что Россия станет партнёром - Военное обозрение

8:45 AM 11/9/2017 - Putin Is Hoping He And Trump Can Patch Things Up At Meeting In Vietnam

Review: ‘The Great War of Our Time’ by Michael Morell with Bill Harlow | FBI File Shows Whitney Houston Blackmailed Over Lesbian Affair | Schiff, King call on Obama to be aggressive in cyberwar, after purported China hacking | The Iraqi Army No Longer Exists | Hacking Linked to China Exposes Millions of U.S. Workers | Was China Behind the Latest Hack Attack? I Don’t Think So - U.S. National Security and Military News Review - Cyberwarfare, Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity - News Review

10:37 AM 11/2/2017 - RECENT POSTS: Russian propagandists sought to influence LGBT voters with a "Buff Bernie" ad

3:49 AM 11/7/2017 - Recent Posts

» Suddenly, Russia Is Confident No Longer - NPR 20/12/14 11:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks | Russia invites North Korean leader to Moscow for May visit - Reuters | Belarus Refuses to Trade With Russia in Roubles - Newsweek | F.B.I. Evidence Is Often Mishandled, an Internal Inquiry Finds - NYT | Ukraine crisis: Russia defies fresh Western sanctions - BBC News | Website Critical Of Uzbek Government Ceases Operation | North Korea calls for joint inquiry into Sony Pictures hacking case | Turkey's Erdogan 'closely following' legal case against rival cleric | Dozens arrested in Milwaukee police violence protest