Noticias Mundiales | World News

[Ultramatic]

Marc Anthony comes to aid of Dominican Republic orphanage

By : The Associated Press
cb.pr@gmail.com



SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Singer Marc Anthony is coming to the aid of an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.A foundation run by Anthony with music and sports producer Henry Cardenas plans to build a new residence hall, classrooms and a baseball field for the Children of Christ orphanage in the eastern city of La Romana. Anthony attended the groundbreaking ceremony Friday with his model girlfriend Shannon de Lima.
Children of Christ Foundation Director Sonia Hane said Anthony visited the orphanage previously and decided to help. His Maestro Cares Foundation raised $200,000 for the expansion on land donated by a sugar company. The orphanage was founded in 1996 for children who were abused or abandoned or whose parents were unable to care for them.

http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/n...age-78812.html

[Ultramatic]

Swallowing Rain Forest, Cities Surge in Amazon


Lalo de Almeida for The New York Times
The torrid growth is visible in places like Parauapebas. On the outskirts, slums stretch to the horizon and houses continue to go up. More Photos »

By SIMON ROMERO

Published: November 24, 2012

PARAUAPEBAS, Brazil — The Amazon has been viewed for ages as a vast quilt of rain forest interspersed by remote river outposts. But the surging population growth of cities in the jungle is turning that rural vision on its head and alarming scientists, as an array of new industrial projects transforms the Amazon into Brazil’s fastest-growing region.

The torrid expansion of rain forest cities is visible in places like Parauapebas, which has changed in a generation from an obscure frontier settlement with gold miners and gunfights to a sprawling urban area with an air-conditioned shopping mall, gated communities and a dealership selling Chevy pickup trucks.
Scientists are studying such developments and focusing on the demands on the resources of the Amazon, the world’s largest remaining area of tropical forest. Though Brazilian officials have historically viewed the colonization of the Amazon as a matter of national security — military rulers built roads to the forest under the slogan “Occupy it to avoid surrendering it” — deforestation in the region already ranks among the largest contributors to global greenhouse-gas emissions.
Brazil has shifted away from colonization, but policies that regularize land claims by squatters still lure migrants to the Amazon. And while the country has recently made progress in curbing deforestation, largely by enforcing logging laws and carving out protected forest areas, biologists and other climate researchers fear that the sharp increase in migration to cities in the Amazon, which now has a population approaching 25 million, could erode those gains.
“More population leads to more deforestation,” said Philip M. Fearnside, a researcher at the National Institute for Amazon Research in Manaus, an Amazonian city that registered by far the fastest growth of Brazil’s 10 largest cities from 2000 to 2010. The number of residents grew 22 percent to 1.7 million, according to government statistics.
Of the 19 Brazilian cities that the latest census indicates have doubled in population over the past decade, 10 are in the Amazon. Altogether, the region’s population climbed 23 percent from 2000 to 2010, while Brazil as a whole grew just 12 percent.
Various factors are fueling this growth, among them larger family sizes and the Amazon’s high levels of poverty in comparison with other regions that draw people to the cities for work. While Brazil’s birthrate has fallen to 1.86 children per woman, one of the lowest in Latin America, the Amazon has Brazil’s highest rate, at 2.42.
Then there is the region’s economic allure.
Sinop, a city of 111,000 people in Mato Grosso State, grew about 50 percent in the past decade as soybean farmers expanded operations there. Fiscal incentives for manufacturing promote growth in Manaus and satellite towns like Manacapuru and Rio Preto da Eva. Logging still provides the lifeblood for growing towns along BR-163, an important Amazon highway now being paved.
Elsewhere in the Amazon, the biggest linchpins for the fast-growing cities are major energy and industrial projects. The construction of dozens of hydroelectric projects, including sprawling dams that have drawn protests, are luring manual laborers from around Brazil to cities like Pôrto Velho, in Rondônia State, and Altamira, in Pará.
Here in Parauapebas, also in Pará, an open-pit iron ore mine provides thousands of jobs. Plans for additional mines here, supported largely by forecasts of robust demand in China, have lured many to this corner of the Amazon in search of work. Just since the 2010 census, the city’s population has swelled to an estimated 220,000 from 154,000.
“This entire area was thick, almost impenetrable, jungle,” said Oriovaldo Mateus, an engineer who arrived here in 1981 to work for Vale, the Brazilian mining giant. That was about the time that the authorities cut a road through the forest, making the settlement of Parauapebas feasible. By the early 1990s, he said, it had muddy roads, brothels and more than 25,000 people.
“Now, Brazil’s future is in Parauapebas and other cities of the Amazon,” said Mr. Mateus, 62, who heads the city’s business association and owns a company that leases mining equipment. He boasted that on some frenetic days, as many as two homes are built each hour to meet surging demand in the city’s settlements.
Indeed, the streets of Parauapebas pulse with vitality. People shout to be heard along Rua 24 de Março, a traffic-clogged thoroughfare reverberating with the buzzing of motorcycle taxis, Pentecostal preachers bellowing warnings of sin and car stereos blaring eletromelody, the thumping electronic music style popular in this part of the Amazon.
Venture to the outskirts of Parauapebas, and slums of wooden shacks stretch to the horizon. One area where squatters have put down stakes is called Nova Vitória. With about 1,200 such homes, it is a magnet for strivers.

“I came here because the economic conditions are strong,” said Francisco Amorim da Silva, 20, who arrived in August from Marabá, another Amazonian city. Already, he has a small store selling basic foods like rice and beans and household items like laundry detergent.

Asked how much investment it takes to start such an operation, Mr. Amorim da Silva whipped out an iPhone and did the math, calculating the cost of a barren lot, building materials and a bit of start-up capital, which he said he obtained from selling a used Honda motorcycle. “Four thousand reais,” he replied, or about $2,000.
Some researchers have argued that in addition to allowing migrants to raise their living standards, migration to cities in tropical countries might actually reduce forest loss by depopulating certain rural areas, allowing tropical forests to regrow. But others contend that the migration may increase deforestation by permitting cattle ranchers, already responsible for razing big portions of forest, to acquire lands held by small cultivators.
The soaring population growth in some cities in the Amazon — called the “world’s last great settlement frontier” by Brian J. Godfrey, a geography professor at Vassar College who is the co-author of “Rainforest Cities” — is intensifying an urbanization that has been advancing for decades. For more than 20 years, a majority of the Brazilian Amazon’s population has lived in urban areas.
“It’s great that people are moving out of poverty, but one of the things we need to understand when people move out of poverty is there is a larger demand on resources,” said Mitchell Aide, a University of Puerto Rico biology professor, whose research has shown that deforestation has occurred on a larger scale than reforestation in Brazil’s Amazon over the past decade.
Such environmental worries seem far from the minds of those who arrive here in Parauapebas. These days, a train comes three times a week from Maranhão in northeast Brazil, delivering hundreds of people each time. On a recent humid night, Maria Antonia Santos, 34, arrived with her six children from Zé Doca, a city more than 16 hours away.
As she lugged her family’s possessions in plastic bags, she explained her motivation: “I was told this is the best place in Brazil to start on life again.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/wo...BBC193518FCE5E

[DarkGold]

[ddcraper]

Originally Posted by DarkGold

Wtf, pero eso son balas reales?!

No son balas reales lo que ven que sale de las escopetas, pero de hecho si tiraron balas reales y mataron a un estudiante de medicina, pero lo de las escopetas no

[Jaykar]

En el mismo video sale el policia que mato al estudiante o al menos cuando lo grita.

[ddcraper]

Si ese policía mato el muchacho, y aunque la policia de aquí es brutal no lo es tanto como para entrarle a escopetasos a una multitud de estudiantes.

[Ultramatic]

CDC offers health advice for travelers to the Dominican Republic

• Dominican Republic cholera
• November 28, 2012
• By: Robert Herriman

Cholera is a bacterial disease that can cause diarrhea and dehydration.

The Dominican Republic has been battling a cholera outbreak for two years this month. In 2012 alone, Dominican health officials have reported more than 6,600 cholera cases, including 47 fatalities.
Because of these large numbers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an outbreak notice for travelers to this part of Hispaniola on Nov. 28.
Neighboring Haiti has seen well over a half million cases since the outbreak began in Oct. 2010.
Cholera is an acute bacterial intestinal disease characterized by sudden onset, profuse watery stools (given the appearance as rice water stools because of flecks of mucus in water) due to a very potent enterotoxin. The enterotoxin leads to an extreme loss of fluid and electrolytes in the production of diarrhea. It has been noted that an untreated patient can lose his bodyweight in fluids in hours resulting in shock and death.
It is caused by the bacterium, Vibrio cholerae. Serogroups O1 and O139 are the types associated with the epidemiological characteristics of cholera (outbreaks).
The bacteria are acquired through ingestion of contaminated water or food through a number of mechanisms. Water is usually contaminated by the feces of infected individuals.
Drinking water can be contaminated at the source, during transport or during storage at home.
Food can be contaminated by soiled hands, during preparation or while eating.
Beverages and ice prepared with contaminated water and fruits and vegetables washed with this water are other examples. Some outbreaks are linked to raw or undercooked seafood.
The incubation for cholera can be from a few hours to 5 days. As long as the stools are positive, the person is infectious. Some patients may become carriers of the organism which can last for months.
Cholera is diagnosed by growing the bacteria in culture. Treatment consists of replacement of fluids lost, intravenous replacement in severe cases. Doxycycline or tetracycline antibiotic therapy can shorten the course of severe disease.
The CDC says, although the risk of contracting cholera in the Dominican Republic is not high, health officials say that travelers to the country take precautions to avoid getting sick.
They recommend seeing your physician or a travel medicine specialist prior to traveling to see if a prescription for antibiotics is in order.


http://www.examiner.com/article/cdc-...nican-republic

[Jaykar]

$2.2B plan to beat cholera in Haiti, DR
By : The Associated Press
cb.pr@gmail.com


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti and the Dominican Republic will require $2.2 billion over the next 10 years for an ambitious plan to eliminate cholera, an official from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.
The plan is due to be rolled out in a week or two and it outlines a government-led effort backed by the CDC, the Pan American Health Organization and UNICEF.

It's still unclear who will pay for what would be the biggest endeavor yet to develop Haiti's barely existent water and sanitation system.

"This is the greatest public health intervention that could be implemented in Haiti, but it's a long-term strategy, it's not a fix tomorrow," said Dr. Jordan Tappero, director of the Health Systems Reconstruction Office for the CDC's Center for Global Health. "Our goal is to eliminate transmission of cholera."

Short-term goals include building water supply systems, sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants, as well as improving access to latrines, especially in schools.

The tattered state of Haiti's infrastructure has contributed to the flow of cholera since the disease was likely introduced in October 2010 by a unit of peacekeepers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic. The disease is easily preventable through proper hygiene but it has killed more than 7,600 people in Haiti and more than 420 in the neighboring Dominican Republic, health officials say.

The plan warns that the disease could spread to the rest of the hemisphere if left unchecked and produce an "economic catastrophe" because of a heavy impact on agriculture, tourism and private sector investment.

The need is obvious. Haiti's access to sanitation has been declining for the past two decades and is the worst in the hemisphere. Today about half of the people in this country of 10 million have no bathroom whatsoever.

"If you don't have a place to defecate, where solid waste can be cleaned up then you openly defecate," Tappero said.

The plan, at this point, is unfunded. Organizers said getting a plan, with costs, was the first step. They will now ask international donors for support.

So far, the World Bank plans to contribute $5 million, unspent money from a $15 million grant that went toward the health ministry and government's water department, said Maryanne Sharp, a Haiti project manager for the World Bank.

"We're looking at this plan to figure out what we're doing with the rest," Sharp said.

The plan also calls for moving cholera treatment into regular hospitals. Much is now done in tent facilities with rows of cots where patients go to be rehydrated. The idea is to make better use of hospital workers and curb stigmatization, Sharp said.

[ddcraper]

Mientras sigan pasando haitianos sin regulación el cólera se seguirá extendiendo en RD lamentablemente.

[Ultramatic]

El centro de México DF vive horas de caos por las protestas contra Peña Nieto

Los manifestantes, armados con barrotes y piedras, fueron repelidos con gases lacrimógenos

Incidentes violentos también en las inmediaciones de la Feria de Guadalajara

Se da a conocer un nuevo grupo subversivo, el Ejército Popular Magonista

• Peña Nieto promete transformar México, por LUIS PRADOS
• Una herencia envenenada, por SALVADOR CAMARENA
• Gases lacrimógenos contra el 132, por RAQUEL SECO

Salvador Camarena México 2 DIC 2012 - 05:09 CET119


La policía trata de contener a los manifestantes junto al Congreso. / P. PARDO (AFP)

La jornada del cambio presidencial en México ha quedado marcada por la violencia que se ha vivido en distintas partes de la capital mexicana, donde durante varias horas manifestantes sostuvieron enfrentamientos con la policía. Marcelo Ebrard, alcalde del Distrito Federal, ha condenado los “actos de barbarie”, acusó a tres grupos anarquistas de llevarlos a cabo y calificó la situación como una “provocación” como ninguna a la que se haya enfrentado en los últimos años.
“Nunca habíamos tenido en la ciudad de México una provocación de este tamaño, esto no tiene nada que ver con una protesta políticamente aceptable”, dijo al mediodía Ebrard, figura clave del Partido de la Revolución Democrática. El alcalde recordó que la ciudad de México es conocida como la ciudad de las libertades, pero advirtió que los desmanes y el vandalismo visto a lo largo de la mañana del sábado no tiene nada que ver con una legítima manifestación en contra del nuevo presidente.


Imagen de un manifestante herido durante la protesta. / Pedro PARDO (AFP)

Por la noche, el gobierno de la ciudad informó que hay un total de 92 detenidos, entre ellos 20 mujeres, más 11 menores de edad. Ebrard reveló que pertenecen a grupos “anarquistas” como Bloque Negro México, Cruz Negra y Coordinadora Estudiantil Anarquista. El gobernante, que entregará el poder el miércoles, condenó la manifestación que con palos, barrotes, piedras y cócteles mólotov causó destrucción en propiedad privada y pública. El monto de los daños aún se está calculando. El alcalde informó que la Cruz Roja reporta cuatro civiles heridos, uno de ellos de pronóstico reservado.

Incidentes en la FIL

EP / Guadalajara

Los jóvenes se enfrentan a la policía. / Ulises Ruiz Basurto (EFE)

Alrededor de 500 personas se han enfrentado este sábado a la Policía en las zonas aledañas a la sede de la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (FIL). Al menos 17 personas han sido detenidas.
La manifestación ha degenerado en enfrentamientos entre los jóvenes y la Policía antidisturbios después de que un grupo de los asistentes a la protesta comenzara a lanzar palos y piedras contra los agentes.
Varios de los manifestantes habrían intentado que la marcha alcanzara el complejo donde se celebra la FIL, aunque sin éxito debido al amplio despliegue policial.
Como resultado, dos policías han resultado heridos. El movimiento juvenil YoSoy132 se ha desvinculado de esta protesta, según ha informado el periódico Milenio.
A raíz de los altercados, la Policía ha reforzado el dispositivo de seguridad en torno a la sede de la FIL y ha restringido el acceso a varias calles cercanas a la Feria del Libro.

La violencia comenzó al amanecer, cuando grupos de manifestantes intentaron romper el cerco instalado con planchas metálicas alrededor del Congreso, donde a las 10 de la mañana estaba programada la toma de protesta de Enrique Peña Nieto. Ésta se retrasó una hora pero transcurrió con relativa normalidad en medio de algunas protestas sonoras, billetes falsos que caían y carteles que reprochaban a Peña Nieto el haber “comprado” la presidencia.
Tanto quienes protestaban como los policías se lanzaron piedras y otros objetos. La policía recurrió al uso de gases lacrimógenos para repeler el intento de romper la barrera, que por algunos minutos estuvo a punto de tener éxito. Más tarde, los manifestantes se trasladaron a la zona de la Alameda Central, donde atacaron el Hotel Hilton y muchos otros establecimientos comerciales como tiendas y restaurantes, causando daños considerables. En muchos momentos, la policía se concretó a resistir el embate, y en otras también respondieron a golpes.
Inicialmente, los vándalos fueron identificados como parte del Movimiento #Yosoy132, pero portavoces de esta institución publicaron en twitter que su protesta estaba programa para el Zócalo, frente a Palacio Nacional, donde Peña Nieto pronunció su primer discurso.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, líder del Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional, Morena, condenó el operativo policial, que hasta el mediodía en muchos momentos se limitó a resistir a quienes protestaban. “Nuestro movimiento siempre se ha conducido de manera pacífica”, dijo López Obrador. “Ha sido, es y seguirá siendo pacífico. No había razón para agredir a los manifestantes”, dijo, para enseguida pedir la destitución del secretario de Gobernación Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, que apenas cumplía a esa hora doce horas en el cargo.
López Obrador convocó a repudiar en todas las capitales de los Estados al nuevo presidente, cuya legitimidad no reconocen. En el caso de la capital del país, el excandidato se reunió con sus seguidores en el Ángel de la Independencia, a más de 5 kilómetros de la sede del Congreso y lejano también un par de kilómetros de donde ocurrieron los hechos violentos.

Surge el Ejército Popular Magonista

Pocas horas antes de la investidura de Enrique Peña Nieto un nuevo grupo irrumpió subversivo se dio a conocer en México. Se trata del Ejército Popular Magonista de Liberación Nacional (EMP-LN), que se dio a conocer mediante un comunicado que difundieron varios medios de comunicación. El Ejército Popular Magonista llama a obreros, campesinos, indígenas y a los jóvenes del 132 a combatir el "fraude electoral" y la dictadura policiaco-militar.
El jefe de Gobierno del DF, Marcelo Ebrard, atribuyó los incidentes que han dejado este sábado decenas de heridos y de detenidos a grupos “anarquistas” como Bloque Negro México, Cruz Negra y Coordinadora Estudiantil Anarquista.


http://internacional.elpais.com/inte...08_471003.html

[Ultramatic]

Spain’s handicapped become the latest group to converge on Madrid streets to protest cutbacks

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, December 2, 9:17 AM


MADRID — Disabled people have taken to the streets of Madrid in the latest protest against broad austerity measures, angry over government cutbacks reducing services, closing disability centers and forcing care workers from their jobs.
More than 10,000 people, many in wheelchairs or being led by guide dogs, marched in a demonstration with the slogan “SOS Disability: Save our Rights, Inclusion and Welfare.”


http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...02c_story.html

[DarkGold]

Cuba bans reggaeton from airwaves

Issued : Tuesday, December 4, 2012 03:35 PM
By CB Online Staff
cbnews@caribbeanbusinesspr.com; cb.pr@gmail.com



The Cuban government is barring broadcasts of Puerto Rican-born reggaeton music as the administration of President Raúl Castro targets “vulgar” songs on the communist island that is the cradle of salsa and son, official newspaper Granma reported.

The Cultural Ministry’s music institute will levy severe sanctions or ban musicians including reggaeton artists whose lyrics are deemed sexually explicit or demeaning to women, the Communist Party paper said in a story posted Tuesday.

“Neither vulgarity nor mediocrity will be able to tarnish the richness of Cuban music,” , institute chief Orlando Vistel Columbie said. “Obviously, people can listen to what they want privately. But, that freedom doesn’t include the right to reproduce and disseminate that music.”

A throbbing blend of reggae, hip-hop, and Latin music, reggaeton grew out of Puerto Rico and has taken root throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States and Europe. The genre is known for its often racy lyrics and the sexually suggestive dance moves that it has inspired.

Vistel said the music misrepresents “the inherent sensuality of Cuban women” and portrays them as “grotesque sexual objects.”

“I can assure you that traditional Cuban music has nothing to do with elitist codes nor is outdated,” Vistel said, defending musical forms such as salsa, son as well as rumba and Cuban jazz. “With a professional movement, we encompass the most varied styles and modes of conducting sound, with a wonderful choral movement, with orchestras and soloists class, with carriers of traditions that preserve and transmit traditional values.”

[Ultramatic]

Hugo Chávez nombra sucesor: “Elijan a Nicolás Maduro como presidente”

El presidente de Venezuela señala como eventual sucesor al vicepresidente

El actual gobernante deberá regresar a La Habana para operarse por cuarta vez

Maye Primera Miami 9 DIC 2012 - 13:30 CET804

Ya es oficial: el presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, ha asumido que el cáncer no le dejará completar ni tan siquiera la mitad del cuarto mandato de seis años para el cual fue electo el pasado 7 de octubre. Ante esa coyuntura, se ha dirigido este sábado a los venezolanos para ungir al vicepresidente y canciller, Nicolás Maduro, como su sucesor. Minutos antes, Chávez ha anunciado que deberá ser sometido a una cuarta cirugía para tratar el cáncer que le fue diagnosticado en junio de 2011.
...


http://internacional.elpais.com/inte...39_272029.html

[Ultramatic]

Hugo Chavez Recovers After Surgery In Cuba


by The Associated Press


December 12, 2012 2:31 AM

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was recovering in Cuba on Tuesday after an operation targeting an aggressive cancer that has defied multiple treatments and has prompted the socialist leader to name a political successor.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro spoke on Venezuelan television after the surgery, saying that "it's been a complex operation." He indicated that the surgery lasted more than six hours and said it was completed "correctly and successfully."


...


http://www.npr.org/2012/12/12/167023...urgery-in-cuba

[Ultramatic]

Indians Outraged Over Rape on Moving Bus in New Delhi

By NIHARIKA MANDHANA and ANJANI TRIVEDI



Anjani Trivedi/ Associated PressA protest, on Tuesday, condemning the rape of 23-year-old, on a moving bus in Delhi, on Sunday.
The police say the men were looking for some fun. They had been drinking, having a party, and decided to go on a joy ride. They began circling the capital in a private bus, the police say, when they spotted a couple looking for a ride home. They waved the couple onboard and charged them each 36 cents.
And then, police say, the men beat the couple with an iron rod and repeatedly raped the woman as the bus circled the city. The woman suffered severe injuries to her head and intestines and required multiple surgeries, local news media reported, indicators of an assault so savage that India’s capital on Tuesday was shaking with public outrage. Protesters encircled a local police station and blocked a major highway. India’s Parliament erupted in angry protests and condemnation.

...

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/...ase/?ref=world

[Ultramatic]

El Gobierno pone en venta Portugal

El año se cierra con una avalancha de privatizaciones de empresas emblemáticas: desde la compañía aérea TAP a la televisión pública RTP, pasando por los aeropuertos

• Un año de ajustes y privatizaciones

Antonio Jiménez Barca Lisboa 18 DIC 2012 - 19:37 CET6



Trabajadores de la aerolínea TAP se manifiestan contra la privatización, hoy en el aeropuerto de Lisboa. / francisco seco (AP)

El Gobierno portugués, en pocos días, se deshará de la compañía aérea nacional, la TAP; de los aeropuertos portugueses; decidirá la suerte (privada) de su televisión pública, la RTP, y venderá de paso los astilleros de Viana do Castelo. Lo de se vende Portugal no es ninguna originalidad y ya ha salido en alguna publicación portuguesa con un fatalismo pesimista muy de estos días. Mientras, los ciudadanos, abrumados por recortes de servicios públicos y subidas de impuestos equivalentes a la cuantía de un mes de salario, asisten entre estupefactos y deprimidos a esta ceremonia del despojamiento que comenzó hace un año, cuando la parte estatal de la principal eléctrica del país, la EDP, pasó a manos del gigante chino Three Gorges (Tres gargantas) por 2.700 millones de euros. La empresa china se aseguraba una base para abordar desde allí el mercado latinoamericano y el Estado portugués ingresaba dinero que servía para limpiar las telarañas de la caja y enjugar la inmensa deuda que ahoga el país.

...

http://internacional.elpais.com/inte...43_527906.html

[Ultramatic]

Al menos dos muertos durante los saqueos en varias ciudades argentinas

En Bariloche se produjeron los mayores desmanes de la jornada

En al menos seis asaltos a comercios y gasolineras resultaron heridos 35 personas

• FOTOGALERÍA Asaltos a supermercados en Argentina

Alejandro Rebossio Buenos Aires 21 DIC 2012 - 14:52 CET641



El mismo día en que se cumplían 11 años de la caída del Gobierno del radical Fernando de la Rúa, en una de las peores crisis de la historia de Argentina, pobladores de barriadas pobres de cinco ciudades argentinas protagonizaron este jueves saqueos o intentos de asaltos a supermercados y otros comercios. Dos personas murieron, al menos 45 resultados heridas (incluidos 25 policías) y 193 fueron arrestadas. Pese a que la economía argentina apenas ha crecido en 2012 después de varios años de alta expansión y a que la inflación continúa siendo alta (22,8%, según las agencias provinciales de estadística), la situación social dista mucho de asemejarse a la que este país sudamericano padecía en 2001. Sin embargo, se repitieron algunas imágenes de personas, sobre todo jóvenes, forzando las persianas de los comercios y llevándose alimentos, aunque esta vez también retiraban bebidas alcohólicas, bicicletas, ropa y televisores, en Rosario, Bariloche y ciudades de las provincias de Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos (este de Argentina) y Chaco (noreste)...



http://internacional.elpais.com/inte...57_348310.html

[Ultramatic]

Madrid Journal

In a Land of Austerity, Christmas Is Reinvented as a Season of Thrift

By RAPHAEL MINDER

Published: December 23, 2012

MADRID — This is the season when barren stone plazas and broad sidewalks here fill with Christmas markets peddling sweets, candles, holiday decorations and crafts. But alongside the festive stalls this year, another kind of market has sprung up in response to Spain’s hard times.

Enlarge This Image

Carlos Lujan for The International Herald Tribune

Shopping for bargains this month at La Galería del 32, pop-up store that sold, among other things, wine, ham, sculpture, jewelry and handbags.

They are the “mercadillos,” or little markets, where the entrepreneurial-minded have found a niche by gathering and selling the unsold stock of more established retailers whose sales have plummeted, or unwanted clothing and other items from people in need of cash...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/wo...EE05A1D4BBD7D3

[DarkGold]

Haiti to see construction of first 4-star hotel

Issued : Monday, December 24, 2012 05:30 PM
By : The Associated Press
cb.pr@gmail.com



PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Construction crews last week began to build what is touted as Haiti's first four-star branded hotel, a $45 million project expected to help boost the country's economy.

The Marriott hotel will create some 200 jobs and is scheduled to open in early 2015, officials said. It will feature 175 rooms and will be located in the Turgeau area of Port-au-Prince. [...]

[Ultramatic]

Oyala, una nueva capital para la megalomanía de Obiang

eduardo s. molanoeduardosmolano / corresponsal en nairobi

Día 26/12/2012 - 01.55h

El dictador de Guinea Ecuatorial se embarca en un faraónico proyecto en mitad de la selva para cambiar la sede de su gobierno


abc

La construcción de la autopista de seis carriles de Oyala, la capital fantasma de Guinea Ecuatorial

Autopista de seis carriles, un hotel de lujo con cerca de 450 habitaciones o un campo de golf envidia de cualquier sede de la Ryder Cup. En Oyala, la nueva utopía africana, nada parece pequeño. Tampoco el pantagruélico ego de su inspirador. En los últimos meses, el Gobierno de Guinea Ecuatorial se ha embarcado en un faraónico proyecto encaminado a trasladar la capital del país desde Malabo a una localización en pleno terreno selvático...