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Nicaragua es el sexto país más seguro Latinoamérica y el Caribe, según el Índice de Paz Global (GPI 2014), del Institute got Economics and Pieace (IEP), confirmó este sábado 7 de enero la agencia oficial de promoción de inversiones y exportaciones, ProNicaragua.

Nicaragua se ubicó en la posición número 58 en dicho índice, que evalúa los gastos militares, relaciones con países vecinos, cantidad de homicidios, crimen organizado y respeto por los derechos humanos, dio a conocer ProNicaragua, en una nota de prensa.

Los países latinoamericanos que se ubicaron mejor que Nicaragua fueron Uruguay (29), Chile (30), Argentina (43), Costa Rica (52) y Panamá (57).

“El GPI 2014 indica que el mundo se ha convertido en menos pacífico; desde el 2008, 111 países se han deteriorado en cuanto a niveles de paz, mientras que Nicaragua está entre los 51 que han mejorado”, refirió la nota.

ProNicaragua destacó que Nicaragua y Jamaica sobresalieron en el GPI 2014 por la “seguridad doméstica y sus calificaciones de seguridad”.

El GPI coincidió con los datos oficiales de Nicaragua, que ya lo ubicaban como uno de los países más seguros por sus tasas de homicidio y de robos.

La tasa de homicidios en Nicaragua es de 8,7 por cada 100,000 habitantes y de robos es de 71,5 por cada 100,000 habitantes, según los datos oficiales.

Este es el octavo año en que el IEP realiza el GPI, en el que son evaluados 162 países, bajo la dirección de un panel de expertos internacionales, según ProNicaragua.

Source Article from http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2015/02/07/nacionales/1778630-nicaragua-sexto-pais-mas-seguro-de-latinoamerica

El religioso, repatriado la semana pasada, murió en el hospital Carlos III de Madrid, en el que había sido ingresado en una habitación con medidas para evitar contagios. Estaba siendo tratado con ZMapp con el suero experimental que están recibiendo los dos estadounidenses con el virus y del que la administración norteamericana va a enviar varias dosis a Liberia después de que su presidenta, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, se lo pidiera personalmente a Barack Obama.

El ataúd fue sellado con una cinta de zinc y trasladado desde el hospital a un tanatorio-crematorio de la localidad madrileña de Collado-Villalba. La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) cifra ya en más de un millar los muertos en el brote de ébola que estalló en marzo en Guinea Conakry y se extendió a Liberia y Sierra Leona, y luego saltó a Nigeria.

Los casos de infectados reportados son más de 1800. Para el ébola no hay vacuna ni cura conocida. Los síntomas iniciales son fiebre, dolores de cabeza, musculares y de garganta, además de debilidad. Luego llegan los vómitos, las diarreas y los problemas de las funciones renal y hepática, entre otros, y en algunos casos sangrados internos y externos.

Source Article from http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/ultimas/20-252814-2014-08-12.html

President Biden referred to the late baseball player Satchel Paige as “the great negro” before correcting himself during his Veterans Day address at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday.

Biden was honoring former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Donald Blinken, an Army veteran and father of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during his speech when he launched into a story about Paige, who played in the so-called “Negro leagues” before moving to Major League Baseball in the late 1940s.

BIDEN PRESSED ON ‘YOU AIN’T BLACK’ COMMENT DURING TOWN HALL

“I’ve adopted the attitude of the great negro at the time, pitcher of the Negro leagues, who went on to become a great pitcher in the pros — in Major League Baseball — after Jackie Robinson. His name was Satchel Paige,” Biden recalled.

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President Biden salutes before placing a wreath during a centennial ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery Nov. 11, 2021, in Arlington, Va. (Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

“And Satchel Paige on his 47th birthday pitched a win against Chicago,” Biden continued. “And all the press went in and said, ‘Satch is amazing. Forty-seven years old. No one’s ever, ever pitched a win at age 47. How do you feel about being 47?’ He said, ‘Boys, that’s not how I look at it.’ And they said, ‘How do you look at it, Satch? And he said, ‘I look at it this way: How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?’”

Biden, 78, went on to joke that he’s only 50 years old and the 95-year-old elder Blinken is 47.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-satchel-paige-great-negro-gaffe

Utah Sen. Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyOvernight Defense: Veterans group seeks Trump apology for comments on brain injuries | Pentagon says dozens of troops suffered traumatic injuries after attack | Trump unveils Space Force logo Lindsey Graham will oppose subpoena of Hunter Biden Senators push Pentagon on Syria strategy after withdrawal uproar, Soleimani strike MORE (R) said Saturday that it is “very likely” he will be in favor of calling witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial against President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump says his advice to impeachment defense team is ‘just be honest’ Trump expands tariffs on steel and aluminum imports CNN’s Axelrod says impeachment didn’t come up until 80 minutes into focus group MORE.

However, the GOP lawmaker said he will hold off on making his final decision until after Democratic impeachment managers and the president’s defense lawyers conclude their opening arguments.

“I think it’s very likely I’ll be in favor of witnesses, but I haven’t made a decision finally yet and I won’t until the testimony is completed,” the Utah Republican said Saturday after the first day of the Trump team’s opening arguments, CNN reported.

Romney declined to say whether he thought the president’s defense team was effective in the opening hours of their arguments, saying, “I just don’t have any comments on the process or the evidence until the trial is over,” CNN reported.

Earlier this month, Romney was the first GOP lawmaker to specifically say that he wanted to hear from former White House national security adviser John BoltonJohn BoltonSenate Republicans must stand up for the rule of law and ensure a fair, open proceeding Democrats cap impeachment arguments with focus on Trump stonewalling Lindsey Graham will oppose subpoena of Hunter Biden MORE in the course of the impeachment trial.

Romney told reporters at the Capitol that he wants to find out “what he knows” about Trump’s contacts with Ukraine, the central issue in the impeachment effort against the president.

“I would like to be able to hear from John Bolton. What the process is to make that happen, I don’t have an answer for you,” Romney said.

Bolton has yet to be subpoenaed by lawmakers in the trial, and Democrats will need four Republicans to support their efforts if they are going to call the former Trump administration officials or other witnesses. 

Bolton has said he would testify if subpoenaed by the Senate.

Fellow GOP Sens. Susan CollinsSusan Margaret CollinsSchiff sparks blowback with head on a ‘pike’ line Schiff closes Democrats’ impeachment arguments with emotional appeal to remove Trump Democrats feel political momentum swinging to them on impeachment MORE (Maine) and Lisa MurkowskiLisa Ann MurkowskiSchiff sparks blowback with head on a ‘pike’ line Democrats feel political momentum swinging to them on impeachment Nadler calls Trump a ‘dictator’ on Senate floor MORE (Alaska) have also both indicated an openness to hearing from further witnesses.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/479933-romney-its-very-likely-ill-be-in-favor-of-witnesses-in-trump-impeachment

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blamed an unnamed aide for the document that was sent out to the media and posted on her congressional website during the disastrous February rollout of her Green New Deal climate plan.

The freshman congresswoman told MSNBC Friday she didn’t accept any responsibility for the widely-ridiculed six-page document.

“I definitely had a staffer that had a really bad day at work,” she said.

The nonbinding resolution outlining a Green New Deal — a wide-ranging proposal to combat climate change — was released by Democrats in the House and the Senate in a coordinated campaign in February. All 2020 Democrats in the U.S. Senate signed on.

But the rollout hit an immediate snag: a confusing six-page Green New Deal FAQ document that had also been sent to the media by Ocasio-Cortez’s office and posted on her website.

Among other things, it proposed providing “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work” and called for “a full transition off fossil fuels and zero greenhouse gases.”

“We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast,” the Green New Deal FAQ document read.

The plan called for the eventual elimination of fossil fuels, the retrofitting of every building in America, and the phasing out of personal transport like cars.

Democrats immediately distanced themselves from the FAQ, with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the leading co-sponsor of the resolution in the Senate, saying: “I’m familiar with the fact sheet. But again, it’s separate from the resolution, all right? The resolution is really what the document is that I was speaking to today … That’s the key document. That’s what you should focus on. Focus on the resolution.”

When asked by Hayes Friday about the negative fallout, Ocasio-Cortez said the working draft was meant to spark a serious conversation about technology.

“We did release a working draft early, so I get that that is what they’re seizing on. But really, what we need to do is have a serious conversation. And even in those draft versions, what they were talking about is really about the fact that we need to innovate on our technology,” she said, acknowledging that the staffer released a document that mentioned cow flatulence.

“Which is an issue,” she said, echoing Hayes.

Criticism of the Green New Deal went beyond just the flawed FAQ document — one estimate from a center-right think tank said the proposal could cost anywhere between $51 trillion and $93 trillion over the first decade.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, brought the Green New Deal resolution up for a vote earlier this month.

The resolution failed, with 57 voting against and 43 voting “present.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/aoc-blames-staffer-for-controversial-green-new-deal-farting-cows-document

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The Justice Department has announced when Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation will be released to Congress and the public. Veuer’s Justin Kircher has the story.
Buzz60, Buzz60

WASHINGTON – Democrats are in an uproar over Attorney General William Barr’s handling of the highly anticipated report by special counsel Robert Mueller, demanding that he cancels a planned news conference on Thursday about Mueller’s findings before actually releasing the report to the public.

For weeks, House Democrats have criticized Barr’s handling of the report but those critiques intensified significantly on Wednesday, one day before the Justice Department is set to release a redacted version of the 400-page report to the public. 

“Once again, Barr wants to shape the public’s perception of the report,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wrote on Twitter. “This is not justice. Just PR.”

In a joint statement, Democratic House chairs called Barr’s news conference “unnecessary and inappropriate” and called for release of the full report.

“These new actions by the Attorney General reinforce our concern that he is acting to protect President Trump,” the statement says.

“He should let the full report speak for itself. The Attorney General should cancel the press conference and provide the full report to Congress, as we have requested,” the statement continues. “With the Special Counsel’s fact-gathering work concluded, it is now Congress’ responsibility to assess the findings and evidence and proceed accordingly.”

Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will hold news conference at 9:30 a.m. EDT, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. The report is expected to go to Congress between 11 a.m. and noon EDT and likely will be released to the public around the same time.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi railed against the decision and pointed to a New York Times report indicating that Justice officials had briefed the White House on the contents of the report in advance of its public release. White House and Justice officials declined to comment on The Times account.

More: AG William Barr to hold news conference Thursday on before Mueller report goes to Congress

“AG Barr has thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else,” Pelosi wrote on Twitter. “The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin.”

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said the idea to release the report after Barr’s news conference was ill-advised. “This is wrong,” he wrote in a tweet. He continued, saying he was “deeply troubled” by the Times report about contact between the Justice Department and the White House before the report was released. 

Nadler, D-N.Y., along with four House Democrats, held a last-minute news conference in New York to discuss both Barr’s delayed release of the report and his handling of the probe as a whole. 

“The attorney general appears to be waging a media campaign on behalf of President Trump, the very subject of the investigation at the heart of the Mueller report,” Nadler said during the news conference. “Rather than letting the facts of the report speak for themselves, the attorney general has taken unprecedented steps to spin Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation.” 

He continued, listing out concerns echoed by fellow Democrats, saying that Barr was attempting to create a narrative about the report before its release to help the White House.

“The central concern here is that the Attorney General Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report speak for themselves, but is trying to bake in a narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House,” Nadler said. 

Alongside Nadler was Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who tweeted that Barr’s handling of the report equated to a “dog and pony show” and urged Barr to “keep your mouth shut.” 

“So-called Attorney General is presiding over a dog and pony show. Here is a thought. Release the Mueller report tomorrow morning and keep your mouth shut,” Jeffries said. “You have ZERO credibility.”

Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., also questioned Barr’s intentions. 

“Why is William Barr holding a press conference if not to (once again) try and frame the Special Counsel’s findings,” he wrote on Twitter. “Just release the full report and let the American people judge for themselves!”

On Twitter, Rep. Doug Collins, R-Georgia, lashed out at Nadler while defending Barr’s handling of the report.

“The only person trying to spin the report is @RepJerryNadler,” Collins tweeted. “The AG has done nothing unilaterally. After partnering with DAG Rosenstein to share principal conclusions, Barr is releasing the report voluntarily, working with Mueller’s team step by step.”

Well before Wednesday, Barr had already become a magnet for Democratic criticism.

He was lambasted by Democrats for making the determination that Trump’s conduct did not constitute a crime after the special counsel did not make a decision on whether the president’s actions during the investigation amounted to obstruction of justice.

Barr was also criticized over his four-page letter to members of Congress that went over aspects of Mueller’s conclusions. Members of Mueller’s team said that Barr’s letter “failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated,” according to the New York Times, which cited a number of unnamed officials. 

Democrats have pushed for Barr to release the full report, without redactions, and said they would subpoena a full copy. Barr, no doubt, will be criticized for any redactions made to the report when it’s released Thursday.

A less-redacted version would be made available to select members of Congress, according to a Wednesday court filing.

He has also been targeted for his past conduct before he was nominated attorney general by the president. 

In June last year, Barr authored an unsolicited, 19-page memo outlining his opposition to an obstruction investigation of Trump. He shared that memo with White House lawyers. 

That memo, written months before Trump selected him as the next attorney general, called the obstruction theory “fatally misconceived” and said that it was based “on a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law.” Barr acknowledged that he did not know what type of case Mueller was pursuing, but argued that Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey didn’t constitute obstruction and that the president shouldn’t be forced to testify to Mueller’s investigators.

Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/17/mueller-report-ag-william-barr-under-fire-over-handling-report/3502602002/

But Pence, in a 14-page filing brought by Justice Department attorneys, said the suit shouldn’t be aimed at him, since he is who Gohmert is trying to empower.

“A suit to establish that the Vice President has discretion over the count, filed against the Vice President, is a walking legal contradiction,” Pence’s brief said.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Kernolde, a Trump appointee who sits in Tyler, Texas, has not scheduled a hearing in the case. Gohmert is due to file a reply to Pence’s brief on Friday morning.

Gohmert’s suit, filed Sunday, contends that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 — a law prompted by the disputed presidential election of 1876 — is unconstitutional because of the structure it imposes on the process of receiving electoral votes from each state.

Under the Electoral Count Act procedures, the vice president — presiding over the chamber — opens each state’s set of electors alphabetically. The law also sets out a process by which lawmakers can challenge sets of electors, triggering debates and votes by the House and Senate.

In the case of the 2020 election, Gohmert is among dozens of House GOP lawmakers who intend to object to Biden’s victory, alleging baseless claims of fraud. But those challenges appear doomed in a House controlled by Democrats and the closely divided Senate, where a slew of Republicans say there’s no evidence to reverse Biden’s win.

Gohmert is calling for the courts to throw out the rules altogether, which would leave the vague language of the Twelfth Amendment as the only guide to the process. Under that language, Pence would be the ultimate decider of which electoral votes to introduce to Congress.

In a 26-page brief calling on the court to reject Gohmert’s suit, House General Counsel Doug Letter described the effort as baseless and argued that both Gohmert and the Arizona electors lacked standing to bring it.

“At bottom, this litigation seeks to enlist the federal courts in a belated and meritless assault on longstanding constitutional processes for confirming the results of a national election for President,” Letter said.

Letter also says that Gohmert’s argument lacks substantive logic: It would make no sense for the framers to empower the sitting vice president to unilaterally control who becomes the next president, particularly when that sitting vice president is a candidate on the ticket. He also notes it would upend the accepted process for counting electoral votes that has been in practice for more than 130 years.

“Granting plaintiffs this extraordinary relief just days before the Joint Session would not only reward their inexcusably delayed filing,” Letter says, “it would also risk upending the orderly rules that have governed Congressional counting of electoral votes for more than a century and undermining the public’s confidence in the constitutionally prescribed processes for confirming—not overturning—the results of the election.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement Thursday calling Gohmert’s lawsuit an attempt to “unconstitutionally” empower Pence to override the will of the American voters — an effort she said would fail next week.

“There is no doubt,” she said, “that despite this desperate unpatriotic charade, on January 6, Joe Biden will be confirmed by the acceptance of the vote of the Electoral College as the 46th President of the United States.”

In his brief, Pence points to the House’s objections to Gohmert’s lawsuit as a reason for the court to reject it.

“It would be the Senate and the House of Representatives that are best positioned to defend the Act. Indeed, as a matter of logic, it is those bodies against whom plaintiffs’ requested relief must run,” the Pence filing says.

The Justice Department submission also argues that the suit against Pence is improper for another reason: the Constitution grants broad legal immunity to lawmakers. DOJ lawyers say that sweeping protection extends to Pence’s acts undertaken in an official capacity as president of the Senate.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/31/pence-overturn-election-results-lawsuit-453207

An already tense hearing involving former Trump fixer Michael Cohen got heated when a Democratic congresswoman and a Republican congressman traded accusations of racism.

The flareup started when Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., was questioning Cohen and took a swipe at Rep. Mark Meadows for bringing Lynne Patton, a black woman who’s friends with the Trump family and works for the federal government, to the hearing as a “prop.” Meadows had presented Patton to the hearing to push back against Cohen’s claims that the president is a racist.

“Just because someone has a person of color, a black person, working for them does not mean they aren’t racist, and it is insensitive that some would even say — the fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman, in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself,” the freshman Democrat said.

An angry Meadows demanded Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, strike her comments from the record. “I’m sure she didn’t intend to do this, but if anyone knows my record as it relates, it should be you, Mr. Chairman,” he said to Cummings.

Asked to clarify her remarks, Tlaib said, “I’m just saying that’s what I believe to have happened and as a person of color in this committee that’s how I felt at that moment, and I wanted to express that. But I am not calling the gentleman, Mr. Meadows, a racist for doing so. I’m saying in itself it is a racist act.”

The North Carolina Republican and close Trump ally denied he’d used Patton as a prop — and said that accusation was racist.

“To indicate that I asked someone who is a personal friend of the Trump family, who has worked for him, who knows this particular individual, that she’s coming in to be a prop — it’s racist to suggest that I ask her to come in here for that reason,” he said. “She loves this family. She came in because she felt like the president of the United States was getting falsely accused.”

He said he took the accusation especially personally because “my nieces and nephews are people of color. Not many people know that. You know that, Mr. Chairman.”

Cummings responded that he could “see and feel” Meadows’ pain, and referred to him as “one of my best friends” before giving Tlaib another opportunity to clarify her remarks.

She maintained it wasn’t her intention to call Meadows a racist and said, “I do apologize if that’s what it sounded like.”

“As everybody knows in this chamber I’m pretty direct so if I wanted to say that I would have, but that’s not what I said,” she said.

Patton, now an official at the U.S. Department of Housing and Development, made her unusual cameo appearance earlier in the hearing.

“I asked Lynne to come today,” Meadows told Cohen as she stood behind the congressman.

“You made some very demeaning comments about the president Ms. Patton doesn’t agree with. She says as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, there’s no way she would work for an individual who’s a racist. How do you reconcile that? “

Cohen responded, “Ask Ms. Patton how many people who are black are executives at the Trump Organization. The answer is zero.”

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/lawmakers-racial-dispute-mars-cohen-hearing-n977441

In the portion of the report that focused on collusion, Mueller offered a big-picture overview of the myriad contacts between Trump associates and Russians that occurred in 2016.

“The Russian contacts consisted of business connections, offers of assistance to the campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and Putin to meet in person, invitations for campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet, and policy positions seeking improved US-Russian relations,” Mueller wrote in the report.

Many of these contacts are already known. At least 16 Trump associates had Russian contacts during the campaign or transition, according to public statements, court filings, and reports from CNN and others. Some of the Trump aides lied about these contacts and were charged with lying to investigators.

These contacts include the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, negotiations with a Russian company to build a Trump-branded tower in Moscow, meetings with the Russian ambassador, and more.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/robert-mueller-report-public/index.html

El coordinador de la misión de observadores de la Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (Unasur), Alexander Vega, advierte violencia política si los dos candidatos presidenciales finalistas no llaman a su militancia a aceptar los resultados electorales. Lamenta que antes que el diálogo haya escalonado la violencia y ultrajes entre ambos aspirantes a Carondelet.

¿Cuál es su visión sobre el proceso de segunda vuelta?
Desde el punto de vista técnico serán las mismas tecnologías que aplicó el CNE el pasado 19 de febrero; lo preocupante es el tema del diálogo y, sobre todo, el lenguaje que utilizan ambas campañas.

¿Qué le preocupa a Unasur?
El conflicto, lo que pueda llegar a armarse; que la democracia resulte sacrificada y a nivel mundial el Ecuador afecte su imagen.

¿Cuál es el peor escenario?
Primero se espera que ambos candidatos acepten los resultados; si no se acepta quien crearía la inestabilidad podría generar el resquebrajamiento de la democracia y obviamente la violencia política. Por eso, hay que hacer un llamado para que ambos candidatos hablen a sus militantes para que eviten esas confrontaciones y se haga un discurso pacífico.

¿Qué papel ha jugado la autoridad electoral en este caso para evitar esta confrontación?
Cualquier órgano electoral del mundo tiene que ser de árbitro imparcial, en este caso, los que se encargan de ser árbitros en Ecuador deben dar esas garantías para que la gente vote libremente. En ese orden de ideas, lo que estamos viendo es que hay confrontaciones de campaña que están afectando la democracia.

¿Han observado si el CNE ha realizado el suficiente control para evitar el uso de recursos públicos en la campaña electoral?
Nosotros hemos recibido quejas por parte de la oposición de que se han utilizado bienes del Estado a favor de un candidato; y ese actuar lo rechaza no solo la misión de Unasur, sino cualquier sistema democrático. En Ecuador, deben ser los órganos de control como Fiscalía y Contraloría los encargados de vigilar que esos dineros y recursos del Estado no se apliquen en campañas electorales.

El CNE anunció que habrá fiscales de flagrancia para el proceso del domingo.
Creo que no debería haber anuncios, es obligación de la Fiscalía. En el Código Penal hay un capítulo de delitos electorales y debe ser la Fiscalía la que garantice eso, independientemente de que lo haya anunciado el CNE…

Esta activación de los fiscales de flagrancia no ocurrió el 19 de febrero.
Es cierto eso, creo que ahí faltó y debió aplicarse en la primera vuelta; y reitero que eso no es un tema que se tenga que activar, eso debe funcionar constantemente…

La presencia de fiscales debe ser tomada como garantía de que el sistema democrático va a estar salvaguardado; pues a quien va a afectar que un fiscal esté ahí es al que quiera cometer un delito.

¿Ustedes han podido detectar quiénes han promovido esta escalada de violencia y campaña sucia?
Acá no hay que sindicar si es uno u otro, creo que ambas campañas han escalonado el diálogo a un tema de violencia y de ultrajes. Yo creo que si hay un responsable es la falta de manejo y control de las mismas campañas sobre sus militantes. (I)

Source Article from http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2017/04/01/nota/6118439/unasur-teme-que-haya-violencia-politica-tras-conocerse-resultados

A gunman opened fire in an Alabama shopping mall, killing an 8-year-old boy and injuring a girl and two adults.

The shooting started around 3:30 p.m. Friday at Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham. The shooter fled, AL.com reported.

Police identified the dead boy as 8-year-old Royta Giles Jr., who died at a hospital. The injured were all taken to hospitals, but officials didn’t give their names or list their conditions.

Royta was with his family — mother, stepfather and two siblings — outside a children’s clothing store, waiting to be allowed in because the story limits the number of customers because of coronavirus precautions, his mother told AL.com.

“That’s my baby, my firstborn,” she said of Royta, who was going to be in third grade and wanted to be a rapper. “The person who did this is going to have to answer for that whether it is to whoever they pray to or if it’s the streets.”

The mother, who asked not to be identified, added: “This one hits home. They took a good one.”

Police at the Riverchase Galleria shopping mall after the shooting.Carol Robinson/The Birmingham News via AP

The principal of Royta’s school, Jonesboro Elementary, called him a jewel and talked about how smart he was. Dr. Anjell Edwards and other staff members tried to convince him to consider becoming a lawyer.

Officers are collecting evidence and reviewing surveillance tapes to try to identify possible suspects, Police Chief Nick Derzis told reporters late Friday, according to AL.com.

A trail of blood leading to a parking deck is leading investigators to believe the suspect left in a car, Derzis said.

The shopping mall has been the scene of other shootings in the past few years, AL.com reported.

A police officer who was responding to a shooting on Thanksgiving in 2018 killed Emantic Fitzgerald “EJ” Bradford Jr. The state later ruled the shooting was justified. And last June, police found a man inside a vehicle dead from a gunshot wound.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2020/07/04/alabama-mall-shooting-leaves-8-year-old-boy-dead/

France is reacting with anger after being left out of an agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to give Australia nuclear-powered submarines. 

In a statement issued by French Minister Of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-yves Le Drian and Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly, the country said the decision announced on Wednesday “is contrary to the letter and spirit of the cooperation that prevailed between France and Australia, based on a relationship of political trust as well as on the development of a very high-level defence industrial and technological base in Australia.”

BIDEN CALLS NEWSOM’S VICTORY A ‘WIN’ FOR ‘STRONG VACCINE REQUIREMENTS’

“The American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether in terms of our values or in terms of respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law, shows a lack of coherence that France can only note and regret,” the statement continued. 

The statement went on to call the announcement “regrettable.”

“The regrettable decision that has just been announced regarding the FSP program only reinforces the need to make the issue of European strategic autonomy loud and clear,” the joint statement said. “There is no other credible way to defend our interests and our values in the world, including in the Indo-Pacific.”

France added that it is the “only European nation present in the Indo-Pacific with nearly two million citizens and more than 7,000 military personnel.”

Earlier in the day, U.S. President Biden joined British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in announcing the creation of  an enhanced trilateral security partnership, called “AUKUS”, which involves sharing highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology with Australia.

“As the first initiative under AUKUS, recognizing our common tradition as maritime democracies, we commit to a shared ambition to support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy,” the White House said. “Today, we embark on a trilateral effort of 18 months to seek an optimal pathway to deliver this capability. We will leverage expertise from the United States and the United Kingdom, building on the two countries’ submarine programs to bring an Australian capability into service at the earliest achievable date.”

JUDGE PIRRO BLASTS MILLEY AFTER REPORT ON HIS CALLS TO CHINA: ‘GET HIM THE HELL OUT OF THE PENTAGON’

During the announcement, Biden referred to France as having a “substantial Indo-Pacific presence” and a “key partner and ally in strengthening the security and prosperity of the region.”

 “The United States looks forward to working closely with France and other key countries as we go forward,” Biden said. 

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The announcement of the partnership is widely perceived as a challenge to China’s authority in the region and the Chinese embassy quickly responded to the news.

“Exchanges and cooperation between countries should help expand mutual understanding and trust,” the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. said in a statement. “Countries should do more things that are conducive to solidarity and cooperation among countries and regional peace and stability. Meanwhile they should not build exclusionary blocs targeting or harming the interests of third parties. In particular, they should shake off their Cold-War mentality and ideological prejudice.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/france-issues-angry-response-to-nuclear-submarine-deal-between-u-s-france-and-australia

A whistleblower who had worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations, spending a total of 18 years in the White House, told Congress that the White House had overridden professional concerns about granting 25 different individuals clearances. The immediate response from the Trump White House was “WITCH HUNT.”

This is wildly inappropriate. When Republicans controlled the House, both Reps. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, in their role as chairmen of the House Oversight Committee, initiated investigations into security clearances. And President Trump’s former hand-picked chief of staff, John Kelly, and White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II, found the process of granting clearances so disturbing that they both made a point of documenting their objections.

Never mind that some of Trump’s associates have been indicted for shady and illegal dealings with foreign governments and that this topic should be especially sensitive.

In spite of those concerns, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wasted no time lashing out at the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and his decision to start the process of issuing subpoenas. Notably, his criticism framed the request for documents as an “excuse to go fishing through the personal files of dedicated public servants.”

In light of seemingly meritorious concerns about national security and the refusal of the White House to cooperate, such accusations would bar any scrutiny whatsoever for national security’s sake. Although this might yield satisfying results in the short term — goading a self-righteous opponent almost always does — there could be real consequences. We elected lawmakers of both parties on the expectation that they would show genuine concern for and provide us with a basic level of national security. To make this into a partisan issue is to make the country less safe.

National security and the security clearances that enable civil servants to do their work must be a bipartisan concern, even if that means pushing back against the clearances obtained by the beloved daughter of the president, her husband, and other officials.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/security-clearances-should-not-be-a-partisan-issue

August 28 at 6:17 PM

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Dorian appeared to spare Puerto Rico on Wednesday, weaving an erratic path that sideswiped the archipelago and pounded the U.S. Virgin Islands with rain, but didn’t ravage the U.S. territories that are still recovering from Hurricane Maria’s destruction from 2017.

The Category 1 storm, which was headed out into the Atlantic Ocean late Wednesday, was on its way to becoming the first major hurricane to threaten the East Coast of the United States this season, with forecasters predicting a direct hit on Florida, perhaps on Labor Day, when the storm is expected to have reached Category 3 status.

Puerto Rico dodged a worst-case-scenario direct hit after growing from a tropical storm earlier in the day, but some residents lost power amid winds that topped 75 mph, and some areas flooded as intense rainfall pelted thousands of homes that still don’t have adequate roofing to keep families and properties dry.

“This is not Maria,” said Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced at an afternoon news conference in San Juan as she updated residents on the shifting track of a storm that has defied prediction.

The threat of a major storm this week served as a catalyst for a faster, more efficient rollout of emergency preparedness plans and resources by a local government wary of repeating the mistakes of the past — and hoping to win back the public trust lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Hundreds of power utility worker brigades were staged ahead of time in strategic locations. Massive amounts of supplies were stocked and ready. Scores of public schools became shelters full of cots and food.

But vulnerabilities persist in the U.S. territory, where memories of death and destruction remain raw and where promised federal funds aimed at mitigating catastrophe still have not arrived. Local communities have now established their own protocols for protecting themselves — and each other — in the wake of feeling abandoned by Puerto Rico and federal officials during Maria.

When Dorian’s projected path unexpectedly swerved northward late Tuesday, Puerto Rico’s eastern islands of Culebra and Vieques fell squarely in the cone of uncertainty, triggering fears that the struggling communities would once again be cut off from the big island, where resources are concentrated.

Mark Martin Bras, operations captain for the local nonprofit ViequesLove, said community members on the small island just off the big island’s east coast created a communication network using 32 radios to keep everyone informed of storm conditions in real time. With donations and support from nonprofit organizations on the U.S. mainland, they bought the technology and trained volunteers, connecting them to other residents, church leaders, emergency responders and businesses.

As Dorian swirled nearer, volunteers were activated. They learned the local shelter was without a working generator and pulled together resources to bring a new source of power to those who sought refuge.

“These are private citizens working to make sure we feel more protected than we were during Maria,” Martin Bras said. “We dodged a bullet but we are not where we need to be in Vieques. The local state government still hasn’t answered questions about water, power and transportation that are critical to being prepared for the next one.”

Pastor Urayoan Silva of the local Fe Que Transforma congregation has for years been serving the local Vieques community, where the cost of living is higher and maritime transportation to the main island is unreliable. His church established a food bank and supplies clothes to families in the center of the island. But after Hurricanes Maria and Irma, Silva realized the group needed to enhance its operation to help protect people from the next storm.

The church took over an abandoned school and, with help from outside donors and the community, rebuilt it into a recovery center and supply warehouse powered by solar energy. Every barrio now has a leader with a radio to stay connected and access to a water filtration system should the electric system that supplies power to local water pumps fail.

“If a hurricane comes, I have instant access to information to know how my community is doing,” Silva said.

On the main island of Puerto Rico, Dorian turned into a rain event, allowing island officials to breathe a sigh of relief. They told residents they would remain alert, but the power grid appeared to withstand Dorian’s gusts and remained largely operational throughout Wednesday. Officials said that schools and government offices will be open Thursday.

“We have to be cautious and not let our guard down,” said FEMA’s federal coordinating officer, Nick Russo, who monitored the slowing storm through the night amid concerns the hurricane was intensifying as it heads toward Florida. FEMA officials said they are watching and waiting to see if they can start demobilizing in Puerto Rico and shift teams to the Sunshine State.

Before and during the storm’s trek through the Caribbean, President Trump took to Twitter to criticize Puerto Rico as “one of the most corrupt places on earth,” encouraging locals to thank FEMA “unlike last time” and taunting San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.

“Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten …” the president said. “And by the way, I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico!”

Trump’s comments were met with little attention from the governor’s mansion, where Vázquez Garced has been communicating with administration officials in recent weeks. But Cruz responded by telling CNN that the president has a “vanity complex” and is attempting to distract the public from his administration’s diversion of FEMA funding toward border security.

“This is not about him,” Cruz wrote on Twitter. “This is not about politics. This is about saving lives.”

Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, who has a voice but no vote in Congress, responded to the president’s comments, saying hurricanes obviously are not the island’s fault.

“This is a moment for everyone to stand up and help our fellow Americans suffering from a natural disaster,” said González-Colón, who is a Republican and is expected to run for governor of Puerto Rico in 2020 as the candidate for the island’s statehood party. “Thank you for quickly dispatching personnel and declaring a state of emergency in Puerto Rico.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday declared a state of emergency for more than two dozen counties due to “the threat posed by Hurricane Dorian.” Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in a statement that every resident along the state’s east coast — from Miami to Jacksonville — should be prepared and monitor forecasts because “the track of this storm has been changing and can continue to change rapidly.”

Back in Puerto Rico, municipalities in the southeast and northeast such as Toa Baja, Canóvanas and Naguabo are still susceptible to dangerous flooding from bloated lakes and rivers. Many of those communities were targeted for federally funded resiliency projects to build and reinforce levees and systems that would help mitigate the worst effects of the flooding on roads and neighborhoods, said Deepak Lamba-Nieves, lead researcher with the San Juan-based think tank Center for a New Economy.

Congress imposed new restrictions and requirements on some disaster aid funding earlier this summer after two top-ranking members of the previous Puerto Rican administration were charged in a public corruption investigation involving federal funds. That, coupled with other delays in the disbursement of the bulk of $42 billion in appropriated aid, has stalled Puerto Rico’s reconstruction.

The local government, whose finances are managed by a federally appointed fiscal oversight board, does not have the resources to tackle such projects on its own in many cases, experts say. The oversight board authorized $260 million in aggregate funds from a reserve account for Puerto Rico’s emergency-related expenses late Wednesday.

“These communities are in dire situations, and the government has done little to solve their structural and geographically based problems,” Lamba-Nieves said. “The combination of flood zones and poverty in these places is a recipe for future disaster.”

With more than two months left in the Atlantic hurricane season, Puerto Rico could still face another emergency.

Dorian was a “great dry run,” said longtime Vieques resident and community leader Paul Lutton. “Hopefully we will learn things from it that will make us better prepared for a big one.”

Gordon is a freelance journalist based in Vieques, and Jackson is a freelance journalist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hernández reported from Washington.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/28/near-miss-puerto-rico-dorian-strengthens-into-hurricane/