­por Hannah Stone guest blogger

Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala

The capture of “Comrade Artemio,” one of the last of the Shining Path rebels’ old guard to remain at large, is a security success for Peru’s government, but is unlikely to affect the country’s burgeoning drug trade.

On Thursday, the news emerged that Artemio, whose real name is Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala, had been seriously wounded in the early hours of the morning. Some reports (most links are in Spanish) said he was shot by his own bodyguards, who were working for the authorities, though others said he was hit in a confrontation with the police.

He was found on Sunday morning by a military patrol, lying gravely wounded in a hut near the river Misholla, in Tocache province, San Martin region. Later that day he was flown by military helicopter to Lima. As the veteran guerrilla fighter was carried on a stretcher into a police hospital, his hands heavily bandaged, he shouted some unintelligible words and raised a fist to the watching press.

Mexican party defines candidates to deputies and senators

The VIII National Council of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) will define this Sunday the list of candidates to the Chamber of Deputies and Senate for the elections next July 1 in Mexico.

Dolores Padierna, general secretary of PRD, who will be substituted because she aspires to a post in the Senate, welcomed the new national advisors and presented the proposal to the National Advisors.

The PRD National Congress held on Saturday elected the 64 advisors missing to install the Council this Sunday.

Either one or the other activities were postponed by members of this force that claimed greater participation in the process for the selection of candidates, as well as their imposition.

The VIII National Council will take oath to the six candidates to governorships, senates, federal deputies, assemblies and chiefs of delegations, besides the ratification to presidential candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador.

Alert on possible epidemic in Honduras prison burnt down

Prisoners survivors of the fire at the Farm Prison of Comayagua, Honduras, are now at risk of an epidemic by the lack of cleanliness in the place where experts of the Public Ministry collect evidence.

­Since the tragedy occurred on February 14 , the situation of disaster is complete and the inmates spend their nights out in the open, warned the Center for Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and their Families.

This situation and other trauma caused by the incident generated insomnia in most of the inmates that are suffering from the lack of clothing, underwear, shirts, towels, sandals, toiletries, toilet paper, and others.

Prisoners need to receive more water than the one they currently receive from the centre where medical attention is not available full time and is provided only by nurses in the institution, added the release.

It is necessary that the Ministry of Health completed the application of anti-tetanus vaccine to survivors, so far only 40 have been vaccinated, stressed the civil organization.

He also ordered the prison authorities to allow the entry of food and supplies provided by the families of inmates and proceed to the immediate construction of a new prison in the area. (Christian Science Monitor and Prensa Latina contributed to this report).

Security industry boomed for years, but terror is rarely a focus

by Allison Linn
msnbc.com

When riots broke out in London this month, it didn’t take long before police began using security cameras to identify the alleged thugs.

And when a little boy went missing in New York City, security cameras were quickly used to track his last movements, although they didn’t end up saving his life.

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the market for video surveillance cameras boomed in the United States and around the world. Shocked by the worst attack on U.S. soil in 60 years, everyone from small-business owners to executives of giant multinationals rushed to get advanced security measures in place.

A decade later, there haven’t been any more major terrorist attacks in the United States, but there are an estimated 30 million more security cameras. Instead of being used to prevent terrorist attacks, experts say cameras are more often used for mundane purposes like nabbing criminals or calling out bad behavior at the office — if they’re used at all.

Of course the use of security cameras predated 9/11, but the market exploded in the fear-tinged months following the attack. A wave of new security businesses sprang up, and existing security providers rushed to land new government and corporate contracts installing security systems.

After 9/11, many companies realized for perhaps the first time that they could be vulnerable, said Ray O’Hara, president of the security industry trade group ASIS.

“There was a lot of money spent right after 9/11 to upgrade corporate facilities,” said O’Hara, who is also an executive with the security firm Andrews International. “From a reactionary standpoint when you just sat there for a second and said, ‘Could this happen in Los Angeles?’ And (yourealized) the answer is yes.”

Story: How did 9/11 change you?

The attacks coincided with technological advancements that made it much cheaper to install and monitor surveillance cameras, allowing even small businesses and private residences to afford such protections.

Market research firm IMS Research estimates that more than 30 million surveillance cameras have been sold in the United States in the past decade. Video surveillance alone is a $3.2 billion industry, representing about one-third of the overall security market, according to 2007 figures from the Security Industry Association, a trade group.

That was the last time they gathered such data, a spokesman said.

Gregory Spear was one of those who saw opportunity soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He founded Spear’s Security Industry Analyst to provide investors with information about the growing field.

After a burst of business in the first five years after the attacks, Spear said business slowed substantially, at least in part because no terror attacks occurred. Some security firms merged or went out of business, and the industry has stabilized in the last few years, he said. Business has stayed stronger outside the United States in countries such as Israel, he said. “You get attacked all the time in Israel, and you don’t get attacked in  Manhattan,” Spear said.

Still, the panic lasted long enough to create the increasingly accurate perception that there is a camera on every corner, and it’s now rare to enter an office building without seeing some evidence that you’re being watched. Few people are surprised to have their photo snapped when they walk into a building for a business meeting, or to have their identification photocopied just to meet a friend for lunch. A decade ago, those same visitors likely would have been waved through by a bored-looking security guard, if there wa any protection at all.

O t h e r u s e s Although advanced security measures are now commonplace, they are rarely being used to nab wouldbe  terrorists. Instead, security cameras often serve other purposes, such as catching students or workers who are misbehaving, or tracking down common criminals.

In London — where outdoor security cameras have long been more common than in U.S. cities police have posted screen grabs from security cameras onto a Flickr page, in the hopes that ordinary citizens will help them catch looters. The police have been assisted by civilian efforts such as the “catch a looter” Tumblr blog. Video cameras also were used to track the movement of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky , the Brooklyn boy who was killed earlier this year while walking home alone.

The increasing prevalence of security cameras, often assisted these days by facial recognition software, have raised thorny privacy questions as Americans find their images captured with increasing regularity. But in the fearful days  after the Sept. 11 terroristattacks, people were much more likely to say that invasion of privacy was worthwhile because it also made us feel safer. Now, the advent of social networking means people have just grown more accustomed to living their lives in a more public way.

“I think that as we transition forward, the openness in our society — with the Facebooks and the social networks and what have you — is going to prevail because that’s the way we’re going to live,” said O’Hara, the security executive.

Advertise | AdChoices Privacy advocates warn that we may be too complacent about the fact that our pictures are being taken everywhere from the department store checkout counter to the high school hallway, as well as shared freely on social networks. That data can potentially be used by everyone from marketers to police investigators. “I do think it’s really important when we think about that question of where those data go in the world of social media,” said David Lyon, a professor of surveillance studies at Queen’s University in Canada.

Experts also warn that surveillance cameras — while perhaps the most obvious way in which our movements are tracked — are far from the only way personal information is now collected. In the wake of Sept. 11, and thanks also to technical advances, it’s become far more commonplace for companies to use devices such as keystroke ­trackers, which monitor everything you type on your computer.

“One thing that changed was that there was a new emphasis on attempting to obtain as much information as possible,” Lyon said. And while security cameras are everywhere, security companies increasingly are looking at the less visible threat of cyberattacks.

“Today’s buzzword is the cyber-issues. There’s just no doubt about that,” O’Hara said. “We used to worry about people coming over the fence. Now that’s probably the least (of what’s on) our minds.”

por Jonathan Nathan‚

Reprinted from BeyondChron

A family protests unjust Wells Fargo Bank’s foreclosure.

It’s been three months now that ACCE activists, municipal politicians, and local residents have protested the major bank branches in the Persia Triangle over foreclosure and home loan practices. Three months of hearing nothing but platitudes and get-back-to-yous from the banks. Three months of no relief. But the struggle of home ownership has been a longer — and realer — fight for the residents under threat. Two of them spoke to the press on Tuesday about their experiences before taking their cases — one more weary time — to the bank responsible for their hardships.

Maria Villareal embarked on the journey that has been her current home 14 years ago. The loan for her Naples Street home was originally owed to Wachovia, but was taken over by Wells Fargo. When Villareal’s husband went on disability and the family’s income stream dwindled, Wells Fargo sold the family an adjustable rate mortgage, a dangerous proposition that has become so destructive that it’s illegal in parts of the country. Adjustable rate mortgages are frequently targeted at low-income populations, often groups with little formal education and/or a language barrier.

Wells Fargo eventually ratcheted the interest rate to 8%, bringing monthly payments up to $5000. Villareal’s husband was forced to get off disability and is working under duress. Her children are also working to support the family. Villareal’s home has entered into the foreclosure. She’s currently asking that Wells Fargo give her a lower interest rate, a lower monthly payment, and a reduced principle. She adamantly insists that she doesn’t want anything for free — just the opportunity to pay for her home. The sale date for her home has been postponed indefinitely, but could be scheduled at any time. Monica Kenney’s story doesn’t go back as far, but it’s even more fraught with pain. Kenney purchased her first home in July 2008. “I realized a dream,” she said.

The Vienna Street home was 582 square feet and cost $352,000. The starting monthly payments on her loan from Wells Fargo were $2700. Kenney got the payments modified down to $2400 per month in 2009, but unforeseen disaster struck in January 2010 when she lost her job.

Over the course of the next eight months, she emptied her two retirement accounts to pay her house note, but by September, she was out of resources and still out of work. The following January, Wells Fargo told her that her home was in foreclosure, but that they were willing to work through the process with her. By now the way this story ends is a familiar refrain to anyone who’s followed the foreclosure crisis, but no homeowner assumes that she’ll be the one to fall. Kenney worked with the bank for months to come up with a solution, constantly being referred back and forth from department to department, from desk to desk, from phone call to phone call, never getting anywhere. She got the distinct impression that there was very little communication among different units within the bank, that she was being victimized by the bureaucracy. Finally, in June of last year, Wells Fargo offered her a forbearance. Essentially, they offered to let her pay $600 per month until she got a job, at which time her payments would revert to normal. The agreement would allow her to stay in her home while she weathered the storm of unemployment.Kenney agreed, and the plan was formalized in writing. She made her first $600 payment.

The next day the bank put her house up for auction. Wells Fargo has not returned that first payment to Kenney, and has refused to work with her to resolve the situation. Kenney was a victim of “dual-tracking,” a process that ACCE members have attacked publicly before, by which a bank pursues loan modification and foreclosure processes simultaneously, often without communication between the two divisions, often resulting in a home being sold even as an agreement is being reached to prevent foreclosure. Kenney’s home is now owned by Fannie Mae. Kenney hopes to work out an ­arrangement with Fannie Mae to get them to honor the forbearance agreement.

Kenney and Villareal led a small cadre of ACCE members and upset residents into the local Wells Fargo branch. Unlike past demonstrations and sit-ins, this one was quiet. But all was not lost. The regional manager for San Francisco happened to be in the office on Tuesday, and spent about a half-hour on the phone with his superiors and in conversation with Kenney and Villareal about the specifics of their situations. He made no promises, but said higher-ups at the bank would be in contact with ACCE, with Kenney, and with Villareal, and held out the possibility of hope. After three months, after three years, after fourteen years, that possibility was good news.

­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.