1/1/2014

Say it isn't so! Very bad news for the Church of Climatology and its' followers....

Carbon dioxide emissions help tropical rainforests grow faster: Study shows trees absorb more greenhouse gas than expected

• Nasa study shows tropical forests absorb 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 a year
• 
  
• Rainforests absorb more than half of CO2 taken up by vegetation globally
• 
  
• Scientists previously believed tropical forests emitted carbon dioxide 
• 
  
• Researchers claim their findings emphasise the need to protect rainforests from deforestation to help counteract human greenhouse gas emissions

By RICHARD GRAY FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:46 EST, 30 December 2014 | UPDATED: 11:47 EST, 30 December 2014

Tropical forests are growing faster than scientists thought due to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A Nasa-led study has found that tropical forests are absorbing 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year as they photosynthesise and grow.

And this is far more than is absorbed by the vast areas of boreal forest that encircle the Arctic.

+4

Trees and plants in tropical forests (stock image) are absorbing 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. The researchers claim their findings show that rainforests are essential for soaking up excess greenhouse gases, and play a far greater role than had been previously realised

The researchers claim their findings show that rainforests like the Amazon are essential for soaking up excess greenhouse gases, and play a far greater role than had been previously realised.

Dr David Schimel, a researcher at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, who led the study, said: 'This is good news, because uptake in boreal forests is already slowing, while tropical forests may continue to take up carbon for many years.'

AMAZON DEFORESTATION FALLS

Deforestation in the world's biggest rainforest, the Amazon, dropped by 18 per cent over the past year.

Brazil said that 4,848 square kilometers (1,870 square miles) of rain forest were destroyed between August 2013 and July 2014 - an area slightly larger than the US state of Rhode Island.

The figures were down from 5,891 square kilometers (2,275 square miles) cut down during the same period a year earlier.

It comes in the wake of the adoption of a controversial bill revising the Forest Code, which was 2012 after more than a decade-long effort by Brazil's powerful agricultural lobby, mostly eased restrictions for landowners with smaller properties, allowing them to clear land closer to riverbanks.

Rain forest clearing is responsible for about 75 percent of Brazil's emissions, as vegetation is burned and felled trees rot.

The Amazon extends over 6.1 million square kilometers (3.8 million square miles), with more than 60 percent within Brazil's borders. 

However, Dr Schimel and his colleagues warn that deforestation in tropical rainforests could exacerbate climate change by leaving more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

In total, they estimate that forests and other vegetation absorb around 2.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, about 30 per cent of that emitted by humans.

As emissions add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, forests worldwide are using it to grow faster.

However, the rate at which they absorb this has been hard to estimate with many studies producing contradictory results.

As many rainforests consist of mature trees that are often hundreds of years old, they were not thought to absorb much carbon dioxide.

Young fast growing trees tend to absorb more carbon dioxide as they use the carbon as they grow.

Global air flows and data on deforestation also suggested tropical forests were releasing more carbon dioxide than they absorb.

But this new study suggests the tropical forests are using far more of the carbon, and so growing far faster than previously believed.

Dr Schimel and his colleagues, whose work is published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, used computer models, satellite images, data from forest plots and photosynthetic experiments to build up a picture of how forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

+4

Deforestation and burning releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and were thought to cause tropical forests to release more carbon dioxide than they absorbed. But the new study suggests this is not the case

+4

Nasa satellites monitor changes in rainforests like the Amazon (pictured from above) to estimate carbon dioxide uptake. In total, experts estimate that forests and other vegetation absorb around 2.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, about 30 per cent of that emitted by humans

He said: 'What we've had up till this paper was a theory of carbon dioxide fertilisation based on phenomena at the microscopic scale and observations at the global scale that appeared to contradict those phenomena.

'Here, at least, is a hypothesis that provides a consistent explanation that includes both how we know photosynthesis works and what's happening at the planetary scale.

'All else being equal, the effect is stronger at higher temperatures, meaning it will be higher in the tropics than in the boreal forests.'

However, he added that changes in water supply to forests due to changing climate and deforestation could alter the amount of carbon dioxide tropical forests are absorbing.

He said: 'The future tropical balance of deforestation and climate sources and regrowth and carbon dioxide sinks will only remain a robust feature of the global carbon cycle if the vast tropical forests are protected from destruction.'

+4

Scientists believed that rainforests were poor at absorbing carbon dioxide despite their rich plant life, but the new study shows that they, in fact, account for more than half of all greenhouse gases absorbed by vegetation

Read more:

• Effect of increasing CO2 on the terrestrial carbon cycle

source

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!: Global Sea Ice Breaks Record High For The Day – Antarctic Sea Ice Also Breaks Record High For the Day

1/1/2015

Read the Full Article 

Earth's  sea ice expands to record levels as 2014 comes to a close. Arctic ice returns to 1984 levels: Area of Arctic sea ice is nearly identical to 30 years ago - Also see: Satellite Temperatures Reveal the ‘Global Warming Pause’ Lengthens to 18 years 2 months – (218 Months)

By: Marc Morano - Climate DepotDecember 30, 2014 11:20 AM with 2912 comments

source

Malicious Intent: Palestinians to join International Criminal Court

1/1/2015

By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH

(AP) Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour speaks to Russian Foreign... Full Image

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says the Palestinians will join the International Criminal Court — a move that sets the stage for filing a war crimes case against Israel.

Abbas made the announcement in the West Bank on Wednesday, a day after the U.N. Security Council failed to pass a resolution that had aimed to set a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of territories sought by the Palestinians.

Abbas had warned that if the resolution failed, he would resume a Palestinian campaign to join international organizations to put pressure on Israel.

Abbas' decision is expected to trigger a harsh response from Israel.

Israel says all disputes should be resolved through peace talks, and such actions are aimed at bypassing negotiations.

source

AND THE WINNER OF THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’ FINANCED DREAM HOME 2014 GIVEAWAY IS…

1/1/2015
BY KEN SILVERSTEIN

Oceanfront views, 24-hour doorman, heated pool, and perhaps best of all, a “private tunnel to the beach.” This $3 million Palm Beach, Florida penthouse could be yours, but unfortunately it isn’t because this prize has already been claimed by a former high-level U.S. official who helped pave the way for the over decade-long “war on terror,”which has been a near complete catastrophe.

Iraq is aflame, the Islamic State is on the rampage, the situation in Afghanistan worsens by the day, and thousands of Americans—and many more Iraqis and Afghans—have died during the post-9/11 conflicts. Meanwhile, the combined cost of the “war on terror” comes to an estimated $1.6 trillion.

But if the American people got screwed on the deal, a lot of former senior government officials who played important roles in this debacle have done quite well for themselves. It’s New Year’s Eve and I need to write a final sendoff to 2014, so I thought I’d take a look at the fortunes (literally) of some of these figures: Former CIA director George Tenet and former FBI director Louis Freeh (I’ll cover former Department of Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge in a New Year’s post).

Consider Tenet. As head of the CIA, he missed multiple signs of a major Al Qadea attack directed against the United States, called the case against Saddam building Weapons of Mass Destruction a “slam dunk,” and approved the Bush administration’s torturing of terror suspects.

In any fair world Tenet would be tried for criminal incompetence. Instead, he got the Presidential Medal of Freedom and after resigning in 2004 (at which point his agency salary was south of $200,000), he received a $4 million advance to write a memoir. In it, he confessed to “a black, black time” a few months after 9/11 when he was sitting at home in his favorite Adirondack chair thinking about the tragedy that killed 3,000 Americans on his watch and asked, “Why me?”

Tenet has received millions more in his current role as managing director of a privately held New York investment bank and as a board director and advisor to intelligence and military contractors. Meanwhile, he collects fat speaking fees to talk about “current global threats to U.S. security and what the future holds for the U.S., our allies and interests around the globe.” (Top Secret: Here’s where he gets his best intelligence.)

Not bad for the son of Greek immigrants who before entering government service in 1982 (as legislative director to then-Senator H. John Heinz III) worked at the American Hellenic Institute and the Solar Energy Industries Association. When he headed the CIA, Tenet lived in a ranch house in Potomac, Maryland, which he bought in 1986 for $179,000. He currently splits his time between New York and the affluent D.C. suburb of Bethesda, where he reportedly lives in a neighborhood “known for its tree-lined streets, vintage brick homes, and atmosphere oozing with understated luxury.”

Then there’s Louis Freeh, Tenet’s counterpart at the FBI during the run-up to 9/11. (He resigned a few months before the attacks.) The former FBI director was seriously injured in a car wreck this August, but told police he had no idea what happened because he’d been asleep at the wheel, which is a perfect metaphor for his FBI stewardship. (And let me sincerely say I wish Freeh a speedy recovery, but the metaphor is precise.) Like Tenet, Freeh failed to act on a mountain of evidence pointing towards 9/11, i.e. an April 2001 memo sent to him by his assistant director that cited “significant and urgent” intelligence of “serious operational planning” for terrorism attacks by Islamic radicals linked to Osama bin Laden. He also botched cases involving Richard Jewell, Wen Ho Lee, and Robert Hanssen.

Freeh resigned from the FBI two months before 9/11. When he worked there he was making an annual salary of $145,000 and lived “in a heavily mortgaged house in Great Falls, a Virginia suburb,” according to an old and admiring New Yorker profile. He and his wife now own at least four lavish estates worth many millions of dollars, including a residence in Wilmington, Delaware, a six-bedroom summerhouse worth more than $3 million in Vermont, and a beachfront penthouse at 100 Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida, which was bought for $1.4 million and now has anestimated value of $3 million.

How’d that happen? Well, Freeh is one of many former U.S. officials who got paid big speaking fees (reportedly up to $50,000 a pop) by a creepy Iranian group called the People’s Mujahedin, also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK, to successfully advocate for its removal from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. He also opened up a consulting firm whose clients have included Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar, who the U.S. Department of Justice accused of taking massive bribes from a British defense contractor. That’s right, Freeh represented a prince from America’s old pal Saudi Arabia, home to fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers, and whose export of Wahhabism is credited with giving rising to the Islamic State.

Freeh is also hired to conduct investigations, like the controversial report he produced about Penn State’s football program. Nasser Kazeminy, a Minnesota businessman who in 2008 was accused of bribing former Senator Norm Coleman, also hired Freeh to conduct a “thorough investigation” of the allegations against him in the hopes of clearing his name.

In 2011, Freeh issued a public statement saying that his investigation had“completely vindicated” both Kazeminy and Coleman. Sure, Kazeminy had bought Coleman $100,000 worth of presents, but, Freeh said at a press conference, “There was no quid pro quo in the gifts. There was no wrongdoing.” Freeh also met with the Justice Department – which was investigating the bribery charges but declined to bring a case—on Kazeminy’s behalf.

Oh yeah, about Freeh’s Palm Beach penthouse. As I discovered through Florida property records, Freeh’s wife co-owns it with Kazeminy, which kind of makes you wonder about just how thorough and impartial his investigation was. The quit claim deed giving Freeh’s wife one-half ownership of the penthouse was signed nine days after Freeh’s vindication of Kazeminy.

Freeh declined to comment for this story.

Photo: Sotheby’s

Email the author: kensilverstein@firstlook.org

source

Feds Bring Down $2 Million Food Stamp Ring

1/1/2015

Second Conspirator Pleads Guilty in Lakeland SNAP Fraud Ring

TAMPA, FLORIDA — Basem Abualteen (48, Lakeland) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announced. Abualteen faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison, and has agreed to make restitution (along with co-conspirators) in the amount of $2,110,778 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food Nutrition Service.

According to the plea agreement, from January 2013 to August 27, 2014, Abualteen conspired with Hamzeh Abu-Aish and Shoeneikia Abu-Aish to defraud the USDA’s food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP). Hamzeh Abu-Aish was the owner of Finest Meat Market d/b/a Finest Super Market in Lakeland. Abualteen and Shoeneikia Abu-Aish worked as Finest store clerks beginning in about January 2013. Hamzeh Abu-Aish instructed the clerks to purchase SNAP benefits from SNAP recipients in exchange for cash and a commission, a practice called “cash back” or “discounting.” For example, a SNAP recipient would approach a store clerk and ask for $100 in cash. The store clerk would charge approximately $200 to the recipient’s Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, and then give the SNAP recipient $100 in cash. This practice is strictly prohibited by SNAP regulations. During the scheme, Finest SNAP EBT redemptions far exceeded the national and state averages of similarly sized stores. For example, during July 2013, the average SNAP benefit redemptions for a similarly sized store were $7,059 in Florida, and $6,490 nationally. Finest had $160,821 in SNAP benefit redemptions for the month of July alone. During Abualteen’s participation in the scheme, Finest submitted and received approximately $2,110,778 in fraudulent SNAP EBT redemptions.

On December 3, 2014, Shoenekia Abu-Aish pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the same fraudulent SNAP scheme. On the same date, a grand jury returned a two count indictment charging Hamzeh Abu-Aish with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Office of Inspector General (USDA-OIG). It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark E. Bini.

source

Puerto Rico Reports More Than 4,000 Chikungunya Cases

1/1/2015

SAN JUAN – Puerto Rico has logged more than 4,000 confirmed cases of infection with the Chikungunya virus this year, the Health Department said Wednesday.

Lab tests confirmed 118 new cases during the Nov. 12-Dec. 9 period, chief epidemiologist Brenda Rivera Garcia said, which brought the total to 4,185, pending data for the rest of December.

“Most of the cases confirmed in this report are in the western area of the island,” she said in a statement. “It is important that residents in this region’s municipalities take steps to protect themselves and to eradicate mosquito breeding sites both around houses and work areas.”

Chikungunya, like dengue fever, is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Rivera Garcia urged residents to continue using insect repellants and wearing clothes that limit exposure to mosquito bites.

The Chikungunya virus is responsible for five deaths on the island this year, according to the Puerto Rico Health Department.

Puerto Rican authorities declared a Chikungunya epidemic in July.

First detected in Africa in the 1950s, Chikungunya did not appear in the Americas until 2013. There is no vaccine for the virus.

source

Death By Regulation: Venezuela's Maduro Vows Reforms as Economy Crashes

1/1/2015

Russ Dallen, head of investment bank Caracas Capital Markets, said he counted Maduro using the phrase "economic war" 63 times during Tuesday's news conference. "The speech was long on excuses and short on adjustments," said Dallen. "If Maduro had a million dollars for each of his excuses, Venezuela's economic problems would be solved." 

By Corina Pons and Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS -- President Nicolas Maduro vowed on Tuesday to reform Venezuela's Byzantine currency controls in early 2015 as part of a six-month plan to shake Venezuela out of recession, but foes accused him of incompetence and inaction.

After sitting on GDP data all year, the Central Bank announced that OPEC member Venezuela had entered recession, with the economy contracting in each of the first three quarters: by 4.8, 4.9 and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Confirming Venezuela as the region's worst-performing major economy this year, the bank also said 12-month inflation reached 63.6 percent in November, the highest rate in the Americas.

Maduro, 52, who won election last year to replace his socialist mentor Hugo Chavez, blamed political opponents for damaging the oil-dependent economy with months of street protests earlier this year.

Maduro vowed to head up a six-month plan to turn around the economy in 2015 by reducing inflation-inducing liquidity, boosting international reserves, cutting unnecessary costs, and reforming the three-tier foreign exchange system.

"We are going to perfect the currency system," he told a news conference, without giving much further detail on that or the other measures. "2015 will be a year of economic recovery ... great economic transformation."

Opponents quickly slammed Maduro's comments as devoid of detail and real solutions for the ailing economy.

"Yet again, no announcements. He doesn't know what to do," opposition leader Henrique Capriles fumed. "Today makes clear to all Venezuelans that with Nicolas we will not escape the chaos."

Venezuela, whose last recession was from 2009-2010, has been handicapped by the plunge in oil prices. Venezuelan crude, which provides 96 percent of hard currency revenues, has halved from mid-year to $46 per barrel.

"ECONOMIC WAR"

Venezuela's central bank had not published inflation data since August. The figures released on Tuesday put September inflation at 4.8 percent, October 5.0 percent and November 4.7 percent, compared with the same months of 2013. ( http://www.bcv.org.ve/Upload/Comunicados/aviso301214.pdf )

The bank said opposition demonstrations during the year had disrupted both distribution and production, causing an inflationary spike and the GDP decline.

The demonstrations sparked Venezuela's worst political violence in a decade. Forty-three people, including protesters, security officials and Maduro backers, died.

Chavez-era welfare policies have long been popular among Venezuela's poor, and the bank said social indicators were all improving despite the poor GDP data.

It said extreme poverty was down to 5.4 percent of households in 2014, half the level before Chavez came to power, while unemployment fell to 5.9 percent.

"Despite the protests and economic war during 2014, Venezuela's economic indicators have improved," Maduro said.

"This economic war, this fall in the oil prices, is a great opportunity for economic change. 2015 is the year of opportunity, for great change in the economic model."

Many analysts have been recommending a unification of Venezuela's currency controls and a rise in gasoline prices that are the cheapest in the world. But Maduro has balked at such measures so far, perhaps wary of a social backlash prior to a crucial vote for a new parliament next year.

Russ Dallen, head bond trader at investment bank Caracas Capital Markets, said he counted Maduro using the phrase "economic war" 63 times during Tuesday's news conference.

"The speech was long on excuses and short on adjustments," he said. "If Maduro had a million dollars for each of his excuses, Venezuela's economic problems would be solved."

The central bank said Venezuela's balance of payments posted a surplus of $6.8 billion by the end of the third quarter, with a current account surplus of $899 million, and the capital account showing a deficit of $568 million.

Venezuelan exports, of which oil accounts for more than 90 percent, fell 14.2 percent to $19 billion in the third quarter, while imports were down slightly, by 1.4 percent, to $12.2 billion in the same period. Reuters

2014 Venezuela Economy Report by Banco Central de Venezuela 30 December 2014 by Latin American Herald Tribune

source

Colombian City to Manufacture Parts for Black Hawk Helicopters

1/1/2015

DOSQUEBRADAS, Colombia – Manufacturers in Dosquebradas, a city in eastern Colombia, are producing parts and spare parts for military aircraft, including the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, competing in a market traditionally dominated by U.S. and European contractors.

Three years ago, the Dosquebradas Chamber of Commerce created an aeronautics cluster that now has contracts with the Colombian air force and is looking to expand into the civilian aviation market.

With some 200,000 residents, Dosquebradas is the second-largest city in Risaralda province, and “it has a strong technological capacity to produce parts for aircraft,” John Jaime Jimenez, chairman of the chamber, told Colombia.inn, an Efe-operated news agency.

Some 14 companies in the region identified potential demand and began developing parts for Black Hawk helicopters and airplanes, such as the Kfir and Cessna Caravan.

Local industries already manufacture 34 of the 17,000 pieces in the Black Hawk military helicopter, including parts for the tail rotor and brakes, fuel tanks, valves and special lids.

“We have produced small metal parts, safety seals, landing gear filters and assorted special pieces in titanium and aluminum,” Jimenez said, adding that sometimes aircraft were grounded for lack of replacement parts.

The air force has 32 U.S.-made Black Hawks, called the Arpia in Colombia, while the army has about 70 and the National Police operates seven of the helicopters.

Colombia’s air force has 24 Israeli-made Kfir fighter-bombers.

Colombia imports about 4 trillion pesos ($1.67 billion) of aircraft parts each year, and the Dosquebradas Chamber of Commerce sees an opportunity to boost Risaralda’s economy.

The chamber currently works with 30 additional companies developing and designing parts.

“With this aeronautical cluster, Colombia proves it has the potential, the capability, the expertise, the knowledge, the machines and a series of supplies enabling us to be a country offering those parts and replacements,” Jimenez said.

Aircraft parts made in Risaralda are not exported yet, but the Colombian companies are exploring markets and preparing for the certification process.

The goal is that by 2020-2025 the region can become the main parts supplier for the Colombian air force.

That would double the 6,500 jobs currently generated by the metal and mechanics sector, which accounts for 8 percent of the province’s gross domestic product and the second most valued exports after coffee.

source

Palestinians Fail to Muster Security Council Support for Israeli Withdrawal

1/1/2015

UNITED NATIONS – The UN Security Council on Wednesday rejected a resolution demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of all Palestinian territory and withdrawal to pre-1967 borders by 2017.

The proposal, which Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas had outlined to the UN General Assembly in September, fell one vote short of the nine required for approval, making the United States’ threat to use its veto power redundant.

Months of negotiations were needed to draw up the resolution in an initiative that was initially backed by France but whose final draft ended up being defended only by the Arab bloc.

French UN ambassador François Delattre acknowledged that the text submitted to the Council was not the “ideal” one and that “We would have preferred a consensual approach.”

Nonetheless, France cast its vote in favor of the resolution, as did Argentina, Chad, Chile, Luxembourg, Russia and Jordan, the country that formally presented the proposal. Australia and the United States voted against it.

Abstaining were Britain, a country that usually coincides with the United States in Security Council decisions, Nigeria, which is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, Lithuania, South Korea and Rwanda, whose delegate had indicated he would vote but in the end, did not.

In the aftermath of the ballot, Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour accused the Security Council of being “incapable” of fulfilling its responsibilities and too “paralyzed” to support global efforts for peace in the Middle East.

Mansour added that given the “unsustainable and precarious” situation existing in the region, “Palestinian leaders must now analyze their next steps, and will be meeting tomorrow to decide them.”

In Jerusalem, meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman expressed satisfaction with the result and said it “should teach the Palestinians that provocations and attempts to force Israel into unilateral processes will not get them anywhere – quite the opposite.”

Lieberman’s cabinet colleague, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the “Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to prove that it has no interest in direct negotiations, but rather provocations and continued acts aimed at delegitimizing Israel.”

“The PA way is to try to get what it can from Israel without giving a thing. We will not compromise the security and future of the state of Israel,” Yaalon added.

source

Kenyan Led Al Shabab Attack on African Union Base in Somalia

1/1/2015

MOGADISHU – A renegade Kenyan used his knowledge of the Swahili language and his nationality to help the radical jihadist group Al-Shabab stage a deadly Christmas Day attack on the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM).

The boastful admission was made on an audio tape released by the Islamist organization to which Efe had access, and was recorded hours before the attack that killed a civilian contractor and three soldiers of the AMISOM.

The Kenyan national, self-identifying as Omar Said, said in the recording that he is willing to die for the jihadist cause and eager to kill “infidels and enemies of Islam,” referring to soldiers of the AMISOM.

A Somali who is one of the leaders of the cell, justified the attack by claiming that the AMISOM troops, in collaboration with the federal government, intend to propagate Christianity and kill Muslim leaders.

Adan Nur Idris, or Sahal, said that he has been fighting for seven years and took part in the assault on the African Union base in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, because it was where “Christian soldiers organize attacks to kill our leaders.”

Sahal explained that the operation was meant to avenge the death of Al-Shabab’s former leader, Ahmed Godane, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike last September.

Although al-Shabab fighters fully prepared for the operation, they met with great resistance inside the African Union base. Four of the attackers were killed during the fighting and the other four were eventually apprehended.

The Kenyan government has been investigating the presence of its citizens in the ranks of al-Shabab, and suspects that many attacks carried out in the northeast and in the coastal area were organized by individuals with Kenyan nationality.

source

Power And Control: Leftist Uruguay’s First Lady to Run for Mayor of Montevideo

1/1/2014

MONTEVIDEO – Sen. Lucia Topolansky, the wife of outgoing Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, will run for mayor of Montevideo in the May 2015 elections, representatives of the governing leftist Broad Front coalition told Efe.

The 70-year-old Topolansky is a member of the People’s Participation Movement, or MPP, the largest voting bloc within the front, whose national executive committee decided on Tuesday to back the senator’s mayoral bid.

There are now two Broad Front candidates for mayor in Uruguay’s capital and largest city since the Socialist Party, another member of the coalition, has nominated Daniel Martinez for the job.

“Lucia has considered the situation and pondered if she would accept being a candidate under some conditions that we consider important,” MPP spokesman Alejandro Sanchez told Efe.

Among the conditions agreed to with Topolansky are mutual respect between the front’s candidates and that the future municipal Cabinet be staffed on the basis of experience and ability without making support at the polls contingent on future posts.

The intention is to provide voters with options while avoiding “butchery” within the coalition, Sanchez said.

Sanchez noted Topolansky’s long political career and “decision-making ability, her ability as a negotiator” always open to dialogue.

Topolansky “knows the real Montevideo because she’s in constant contact with people and that enables her to run a campaign and a city administration very close to the citizens,” Sanchez said.

Like her husband, Topolansky is a former Tupamaro guerrilla who spent over a decade as a political prisoner under the 1973-1985 military regime.

In May, Uruguayans will elect governors and councils in each of the country’s 19 provinces, and mayors and councils for the municipalities within the provinces.

source

Communism Still In Tact: "Obama Buddy" Cuba Releases Dissident Artist after Thwarting Performance

1/1/2015

HAVANA – Artist Tania Bruguera, detained to prevent her from staging a politically themed performance in the Cuban capital, was released Wednesday along with a number of other dissidents, opposition spokespeople said.

“#TaniaBruguera was released, she is already home, she refused to sign an accusation of promoting public disorder, demanded to be released only when the others detainees were freed,” the Yo tambien exijo group said on Facebook.

“She is in good physical and psychological condition,” the group said, adding that authorities confiscated Bruguera’s passport and cellphone.

The 46-year-old artist, who spent the last few years living in New York, convened a “performance” for 3:00 p.m. Tuesday in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolucion, but police intercepted her well before the scheduled start.

Bruguera intended to set up a microphone-equipped podium and invite ordinary Cubans to share their thoughts about the future of the Communist-ruled island in light of the recently announced restoration of diplomatic ties between Havana and Washington.

Around 50 people in all were arrested to stop the event and at least 20 remained in custody Wednesday, Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, told Efe.

Among the dissidents released on Wednesday was independent journalist Reinaldo Escobar, the husband of prominent opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez.

source