­by the El Reportero’s news services

Hugo Chávez

When troubles come, create another level of bureaucracy. It is a simple rule of thumb that has served Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez well for years but as October’s elections approach, he seems more and more convinced of its efficacy.

Chávez knows there is a pressing need to be seen to be tackling public security, a perennial problem in Venezuela and the principal public concern, so he created a new political entity, a council of state, to form a commission to combat it. He also announced a whole new political structure to address another enduring problem – stagnant agricultural production.

Bolivia, the main reserve of drinking water in the world

La Paz, Feb 8 (Prensa Latina) Bolivia has the highest potential of freshwater in the world, said today the executive director of the National Irrigation Service (Senari), Delfin Reque.

The director of the Senari said that an important aspect to consider is that the most important water reserves of the planet are all together in the Amazon area, which includes part of Bolivia.

Reque said that the amount of national reserves of water are so considerable; that by means of different topographic factors they could make transfers to mountainous areas and valleys to use it in different ways.

At the same time, he said that there is no a current water balance in the country because it is difficult to make accurate measurements of the level of annual rainfalls.

On the other hand, he recognized the importance of water reserves, which are essential if we consider that Bolivia has a large number of basins that must be preserved.

A test for Brazil’s Rousseff­

On 6 February the US State Department issued a warning to US citizens to avoid temporarily all non-essential travel to Salvador, the troubled capital of the north-eastern state of Bahia, where a third of the state’s military police (PM) have been violently striking for the past week in demand of a 50% pay rise and better working conditions.

Bolivian government to toughen eradication of coca crops

Bolivian Interior Minister Carlos Romero has warned that those who try to hinder the process for the eradication of coca leaves will be punished by the law.

Any position contrary to what it is established by authorities on the eradication of the coca leaves will be legally punished, said Romero when referring to the events that took place in La Asunta.

On Monday, soldiers of the Joint Task Force (FTC) were attacked by coca growers in La Asunta, in the zone of Los Yungas zone, department of La Paz.

The FTC soldiers were eradicating coca crops in Floriarti and Barbarito when they were attacked by coca growers, who said that the soldiers were doing their work without a previous agreement.

Romero said that late last year, another FTC unit was attacked by coca growers who resisted the elimination of coca crops, as a result of that clash several people were wounded, including troops. (Latin News and Prensa Latina contributed to this report).

by Dvid Rose
Mail Online

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

Meanwhile, leading climate scientists yesterday told The Mail on Sunday that, after emitting unusually high levels of energy throughout the 20th Century, the sun is now heading towards a ‘grand minimum’ in its output, threatening cold summers, bitter winters and a shortening of the season available for growing food.

Solar output goes through 11-year cycles, with high numbers of sunspots seen at their peak.

We are now at what should be the peak of what scientists call ‘Cycle 24’ – which is why last week’s solar storm resulted in sightings of the aurora borealis further south than usual. But sunspot numbers are running at less than half those seen during cycle peaks in the 20th Century.

Analysis by experts at NASA and the University of Arizona – derived from magnetic-field measurements 120,000 miles beneath the sun’s surface – suggest that Cycle 25, whose peak is due in 2022, will be a great deal weaker still.

Yet, in its paper, the Met Office claimed that the consequences now would be negligible – because the impact of the sun on climate is far less than man-made carbon dioxide. Although the sun’s output is likely to decrease until 2100, ‘This would only cause a reduction in global temperatures of 0.08C.’ Peter Stott, one of the authors, said: ‘Our findings suggest a reduction of solar activity to levels not seen in hundreds of years would be insufficient to offset the dominant influence of greenhouse gases.’

These findings are fiercely disputed by other solar experts.

‘World temperatures may end up a lot cooler than now for 50 years or more,’ said Henrik Svensmark, director of the Center for Sun-Climate Research at Denmark’s National Space Institute. ‘It will take a long battle to convince some climate scientists that the sun is important. It may well be that the sun is going to demonstrate this on its own, without the need for their help.’

He pointed out that, in claiming the effect of the solar minimum would be small, the Met Office was relying on the same computer models that are being undermined by the current pause in global-warming.

CO2 levels have continued to rise without interruption and, in 2007, the Met Office claimed that global warming was about to ‘come roaring back’. It said that between 2004 and 2014 there would be an overall increase of 0.3C. In 2009, it predicted that at least three of the years 2009 to 2014 would break the previous temperature record set in 1998.

­So far there is no sign of any of this happening. But yesterday a Met Office spokesman insisted its models were still valid.

Writers speak in San Francisco

Informado por sfWCWmedia

Human Rights activistas protest and ask at UC Hastings College of the Law on Jan. 13, the closure of Guantánamo prison.

As Guantánamo prisoners begin a hunger strike, a British journalists and filmmaker Andy Worthington visited the San Francisco Bay Area as part of a national speaking tour in a campaign to close the notorious U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He was joined in conversation on stage by the renowned investigative journalist Jason Leopold (truthout.org).

Worthington and Leopold spoke about the current status of Guantánamo, legal issues and controversy over indefinite military detention (including in light of the new National Defense Authorization Act), and current U.S. policies on torture and rendition. To this date, prisoners still held at Guantánamo marked the 10th anniversary of the ­prison’s opening, by announcing their plans for peaceful protest, and the beginning of a 3-day hunger strike.

Andy Worthington’s path-breaking work continues to bare the truth about Guantánamo and the hundreds held there illegally without charge or trial, and tortured.

Both his book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison and his film Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo are highly acclaimed by legal and civil liberties experts.

In 2011, after working with WikiLeaks on the release of classified military documents relating to the Guantánamo prisoners, Worthington began a new project, The Complete Guantánamo Files, a million-word series that will continue throughout 2012.

Jason Leopold has also written extensively on the role of torture in the U.S. “War on Terror” strategy, and has broken a number of related stories on the actual practice of torture and the illegal decisions made and carried out during the Bush-Cheney regime.

by S. D. Wells
Natural News

Aluminum Lake food coloring, used to heavily coat liquid medicines for children, contains dangerous amounts of aluminum and harmful synthetic petrochemicals. These “petrochemicals” are carcinogens containing petroleum, antifreeze and ammonia, which cause a long list of adverse reactions. Aluminum poisoning can lead to short and long term central nervous system (CNS) damage, such as memory impairments, autism, epilepsy, mental retardation, and dementia.

Research shows that just 4ppm of aluminum can cause the blood to coagulate. This is what causes Alzheimer’s Disease and has been documented to inhibit learning. Aluminum consumption can also be associated with the development of bone disorders, including stress fractures.

Also known as tartrazine, FD&C Yellow Aluminum Lake is a chemical concoction derived from coal tar. It is known to be a reproductive toxin. All artificial colors contain Aluminum Lake, so when your child gets to pick between red, blue or green medicine, they’re really choosing which poison they get to consume. Several chemically enhanced food colorings contain ammonia and therefore produce compounds proven to cause various cancers in animal studies, according to CSPI, the Center for Science in the Public Interest. (http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm)

Most widely used food colors and their damaging actions:

• Blue #1: Research shows it causes kidney tumors in mice.

• Blue #2: Research shows even higher incidence of tumors, specifically gliomas in male rates (a type of tumor that starts in the brain or spine).

• Red #2: Toxic to rodents, even at modest levels, and causes tumors of the bladder.

• Red #3: FDA recognized it in 1990 as a cause of thyroid cancer in animals. It was banned in cosmetics, but still allowed in food and medicine.

• Red #40: Most popular dye of all. Debilitates the immune-system in mice. Allergic reactions common.

• Green #3: Causes bladder and testes tumors.

• Yellow #5: Affects behavior and induces severe hypersensitivity reactions.

• Yellow #6: Causes adrenal tumors in animals.

The following is taken directly from FDA’s Regulatory Process and Historical Perspectives: “Color additives are important components of many products, making them attractive, appealing, appetizing, and informative. Added color serves as a kind of code that allows us to identify products on sight, like candy flavors and medicine dosages.” Really?! Decoding medicine dosages on sight?

There has been a 55% increase in U.S. toxic food dyes just since the year 2000. There are over 15 million pounds of dyes put in foods, drinks, candy and medicine every year, and the FDA does nothing to protect consumers from the colorful barrage of poison. (http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/food/artificial-food-colors.htm).

­Studies reveal that children have consumed as much as three pounds of dye by the age of twelve.

Here are some popular product and “brand” names you may mistake as exempt products: RD&C dyes and colors in baked goods, beverages, candy, cereal, drugs, pet food, personal care products, cosmetics, cough syrups, NyQuil,Tylenol, Robitussin,Jello, gelatins, Cheetos, Skittles, Fruity Pebbles, Marachino cherries, sausage, Mountain Dew, Doritos, chewing gum, and powdered drink mixes.

American companies doing business in Europe currently have to change their products to natural colorings to meet European Union strict regulations. The FDA’s rationale is that because artificial food colorings are used mainly in foods and medicines of low or no nutritional value, that the American public should “already be aware” of health implications, so it doesn’t matter if other toxins are added.

What are your options as opposed to poisonous medicines? Consult a naturopath (ND) for advice on ingredients in food and medicine.

­by the El Reportero’s news services

The Raramuri Indians, inhabitants of the Sierra Tarahumara region of the northern state of Chihuahua, are battling severe food shortages and a threat to their traditional way of life amid Mexico’s most worst drought in 71 years.

“The situation is difficult,” Tomas Ruiz, a member of the Tarahumara Supreme Council, said. “We had droughts for three years and it’s gotten worse this year; and the frost even left us unable to bring in the harvest.”

The Raramuri (“the light-footed ones”), or Tarahumara, a community of roughly 100,000 people, inhabit scattered hamlets in the Tarahumara mountains. They prefer to live far from urban areas and remain in direct contact with nature, a pillar of their ancient culture.

Like other peasant communities in northern Mexico, the Raramuri face a severe scarcity of food and cattle due to the drought, prompting them to travel to Mexico City to demand emergency assistance from the federal authorities.

­Raramuri Indians, as well as peasants from several states in northern Mexico, have been holding demonstrations in recent days in Mexico City, walking or riding on horseback or tractors through the streets and holding up signs demanding more drought-relief funds.

by Brandon Turbeville
Infowars.com

In a world where national sovereignty is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, announcements that the United Nations will be taking the lead on any variety of topics is no longer shocking. Indeed, there is a real push across the world to view the United Nations as the ultimate authority on virtually every issue, from human rights to nutritional content in food.

Through decades of propagandizing, the United Nations has developed an undeserved reputation for humanitarianism and democracy. As a result, the vast majority see the United Nations as a benevolent organization which they can call on to defend human rights in their home countries.Unfortunately, national sovereignty rarely enters into the equation anymore, as the average citizen tends to look straight to the United Nations to address their concerns, bypassing their own governments.

As case in point, a recent report by AFP, entitled, “Experts urge U.N. to address mental health,” discusses how a recent article in PLoS Medicine, a reputable medical journal, has called for the United Nations General Assembly to develop a plan to tackle mental, neurological, and substance-abuse disorders (MNS).

The article was authored by Vikram Patel of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Judith Bass from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the United States, among other contributors. They write, “The time has come for recognition at the highest levels of global development, namely the U.N. General Assembly, of the urgent need for a global strategy to address the global burden of MNS disorders.”

They also state that investment is needed in three different, but key, areas – “expanding knowledge about mental health disorders, better access to evidence-based programs of care and treatment, and protection of human rights.”

Although the further understanding of mental health disorders and their treatment is a laudable goal, it is also one in which both the Psychiatric/Psychological complex and the United Nations have a horrible track record.

Indeed, even within individual national boundaries, the Psychiatric/Psychological complex has vastly more authority that it needs or deserves. When one multiplies that oppressive authority with the global jurisdiction of the United Nations, as well as the U.N’s tendency to introduce tyrannical guidelines in its own right, we can see a clear recipe for disaster.

In an excellent breakdown of the situation, the Daily Bell writes, The ultimate element of this charade (and probably the reason for it) will be a People’s Charter for Mental Health that will provide the opportunity for the elites to create yet more command-and-control bureaucracies.

To begin with these bureaucracies may seem innocent and even innovative. But over time it will become apparent that the UN is setting up some sort of worldwide mental health apparatus to evaluate people’s emotional and intellectual stability.

Worst case – if it gets that far – the UN will try to provide itself not only with the authority to evaluate people’s mental competence but also the authority to send people to mental institutions and re-education camps if they are not sufficiently docile and open to the appropriate level of mind control.

Although this analysis may appear extreme to some, the fact is that it is not nearly as extreme as it may sound at first. Considering the level of control that the Psychiatric/Psychological complex currently wields over our lives, the transition of this undeserved authority from a national level to that of an international body is not at all far-fetched.

Indeed, an authoritarian standard-setting UN-based organization in the areas of mental health would no doubt be an issue for all to be concerned with. The UN has, on virtually every occasion, shown its aptitude toward oppressive legislation, lack of concern for human dignity and individual rights, as well as forcing its guidelines upon the rest of the world by stealth and economic sanctions.

For instance, the standard-setting organization for food, Codex Alimentarius, has con1sistently forced its guidelines on national governments by virtue of the WTO trade dispute settlement mechanisms. Codex Alimentarius guidelines involve reducing the level of nutrition available invitamin and mineral supplements, allowing for the increased proliferation of genetically modified food, and unlimited irradiation of food products. (See my book Codex Alimentarius – The End of Health Freedom).

U.N.-related organizations like the IMF (International Monetary Fund) are also highly successful at implementingausterity programs on debt-ridden countries like Greece as a pre-condition for more loans, which are themselves nothing more than an increase of irrational debt by virtue of the sacrifice of living standards and tangible physical wealth.

Even the WTO (World Trade Organization), another U.N.-related agency is famous for dismantling any protectionisttariffs or subsidies imposed by nation states upon cheap products being dumped into ­their economies. It is also well-known for punishing any nation that even slightly steps away from the agenda of globalism.

A U.N.-controlled bureaucracy overseeing the treatment and diagnosis of mental health disorders, addiction, or anything else that would so greatly involve the individual, is without a doubt a recipe for disaster.

The Psychiatric/Psychological complex already wields entirely too much authority over the lives of supposedly free human beings. This authority, as it currently exists, must be taken away.

We cannot afford to give this industry any more control over our lives, much less give international authority to the detriment of national sovereignty.

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Mullins, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University where he earned the Pee Dee Electric Scholar’s Award as an undergraduate. He has had numerous articles published dealing with a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, and civil liberties. He also the author of Codex Alimentarius – The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies and Five Sense Solutions.

This article first appeared on Activist Post.