by the El Reportero’s news services

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iran has mounted a concerted and successful diplomatic outreach towards Latin America designed to counter U.S. interests and offset the pressure it is facing over its alleged nuclear enrichment ambitions. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a controversial figure both at home and abroad, has found a welcome in capitals from La Paz to Caracas that he cannot be sure of anywhere else.

The promise of Iranian investment has helped to bolster its political initiatives, yet there remains a large gap between the hype surrounding its promise of broad anti-imperialist cooperation and the reality of funds left unspent and projects unimplemented. Tehran’s major challenge is to effect a coherent long-term strategy towards Latin America that goes beyond the opportunism of its recent contacts. The close personal relationship between Venezeula’s President Hugo Chávez and Ahmadinejad has made Caracas the most important port of call for Iran. Yet it is Brazil’s biggame diplomacy that may, in the long-term, offer Tehran the best opportunities to leverage its political and economic clout.

Rebels kidnap Colombian governor

On 21 December the governor of the southern province of Caquetá was kidnapped from his home by gunmen dressed in military uniforms, in an attack the authorities believe was carried out by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerrilla group.

This would be the Farc’s fi rst major stunt since early 2009 and arguably its most high profile kidnapping since 2002. The stunt is a bold show of strength intended to demonstrate that the rebel group is not a spent force ahead of important congressional and presidential elections in March and May next year. The attack, in the context of increased activity by the group in the latter part of 2009, appears to indicate that it has come out of a strategic withdrawal following its disastrous year in 2008.

Venezuela: Campaign to Revoke Obama´s Nobel

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) shapes from Tuesday a world campaign to claim the revocation of the Nobel Peace Prize that was bestowed upon Barack Obama because he is considered to be a warmonger.

was founded in 1901 andAccording to the party, which has more that seven million members, the first African American Head of the White House is far from deserving the prize that has been bestowed upon 95 people and 20 organizations.

We believe there should be a review of the acknowledgement. It is a duty of the progressive countries to request it, assured leader of the PSUV Jacqueline Faria when she announced the initiative.

According to Faria, the Commission of Foreign Affairs of the bloc has the mission to promote the crusade.

The justification of the war in Afghanistan, the sending of new occupying troops to that Central Asian nation and the installation of military stations in Colombia and Panama constitute arguments to demand the annulment of the Nobel Prize.

Obama´s stance at the Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, where he acted as a strategist but a war one, should be added to that.

Faria recalled the North American plan of imposing an exclusive pact in the meeting that was meant to save the planet, which was a proposal with a lack of concrete actions to move forward in the mitigation of the release of pollutant gases to the atmosphere that are responsible for the increase of global temperature.

Obama has broken his promises of peace and change, she said.

Among the guests that are different from Obama are the indigenous Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchu (1992), Kenyan environmentalist and politician Wangari Maathai (2004), former President of the United States James Carter (2002) and former US Vice President Al Gore (2007).

­(Latin News and Prensa Latina contributed to this report).

by Malkia Cyril, y co-autores

A major new report on higher education has found that Hispanics and African Americans are completing college at rates far below those of their white counterparts.

The study also revealed that rates of non-white and low-income students receiving bachelor’s degrees have seen little increase over the past 30 years. The analysis was released by the Access to Success (A2S) Initiative, a project run by the heads of the 24 U.S. college and university systems with support from The Education Trust, a national organization that works to promote academic achievement.

A2S was formed in 2007 with goals of increasing the number of college-educated adults and ensuring that their institutions of higher education graduated more students of color and those from families in the lowest- income brackets.

Their report, “Charting a Path,” culls data from a baseline survey of their member institutions, which according to A2S educate nearly 40 percent of undergraduates at four-year colleges and universities nationwide. Survey results clearly show that non-white and low-income young adults are having far more difficulty receiving their degrees than are white students. While 36 percent of white young adults are attaining a bachelor’s degree, the rate is only 20 percent for blacks and 12 percent for Latinos.

Once in college, students of color are much less likely than their white counterparts to graduate. An estimated six in ten white students earn bachelor’s degrees within six years, compared with only about four in ten students of color.

The report also found that the gaps separating Latino and African-American students from their white peers are wider today than in 1975. Thirty years ago, 24 percent of white young adults attained a bachelor’s degree, a figure more than double that of blacks (11 percent) and two and a half times that of Latinos (9 percent). at rate (20 percent), with Latinos at one-third (12 percent). Latinos have seen only a 3 percent growth in degree attainment over the last 30-plus years.

The differences between high- and low-income students are even more apparent.

In 1975, 38 percent of high-income young adults attained a bachelor’s degree, compared to 7 percent of their low-income classmates. Today, a staggering 76 percent of high-income young adults are receiving a four-year degree, contrasted to only 10 percent of those from low-income families.

A2S participants claim these disparities cannot be corrected until policymakers have access to data that better reflect the attendees and graduates of colleges and universities. According to A2S, unlike in their study, transfer and part-time students aren’t included in federal data collections, nor is the progress of low-income students tracked through college.

However, these previously uncounted students account for two-thirds of students in the A2S Initiative and a similar percentage of higher education enrollments nationwide.

“Students who aren’t counted don’t count when policies are debated and decisions are made,” said Jennifer Engle, assistant director of higher education at The Education Trust and coauthor of the report. “By measuring results for such nontraditional groups as low-income, transfer and part-time students, the A2S metrics provide an unprecedented view of how well institutions are serving their entire undergraduate enrollment, not just a select few.”

Each of the A2S participant-institutions sets its own progress goals for increasing graduation rates among targeted communities, but the organization is working collectively to achieve the goal of halving by 2015 the gaps in college-going and college-completion that separate low-income and non-white students from the others.

“Closing the achievement gap is not just a competitiveness issue for our nation. It is also the civil rights issue of our day,” said William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

A2S hopes to pressure national leaders on the issue by invoking the struggling economy and promises made by President Obama. A press release announcing the survey results states, “President Obama seta goal for America to regain the global lead in college-degree attainment by 2020. In no small measure, our success in meeting this goal — and in helping our once-vital economy rebound to generate more job opportunities for all Americans — will depend on higher education leaders taking responsibility for making colleges work better for all of the students they serve.” Hispanic Link.

Details of the study can be found at: ­http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/publcations/files/NASH-EdTrust.BaselineReport.pdf.

by Marvin Ramírez

Owner of El Zocalo and El Valenciano dies: ‘Edgar’ Vides, rests in peace

The news of one of San Francisco Latino community’s sudden passing away of popular restaurateur , Edgar Vides, has left the Mission PiñeraDistrict and beyond in a state of shock. He was 64.

The night on Dec. 17 had a clear sky, and the chilly weather that had kept people close to their heater, indoors, had diminished. On that evening, Mr. Vides was talking to his brother Carlos, sitting down at his other El Zocalo Restaurant at El Camino Real in South San Francisco, when suddenly his head bent down forward. He was dead, instantly, and accord-ing to sources he suffered a heart attack. There was no noise or complaint.

Dozens of people, including members of Mr. Vides’s large family and friends, came to pay their respect to the family at his funeral reception at Valente Marini Perata.

Most people who knew him considered Mr. Vides a complete gentleman, a man full of joy, full of life, who always was there to talk and greet his customers personally, and one who threw a joke that made everyone laugh. He was someone special and loved. But he overworked himself, said his beloved wife.

“Edgardo always told me that he would live up to 100 years, because he was feeling stronger than a 18-year-old young man, and that he was so strong as the oak,” said his wife Victoria Vides.

But he neglected his health.

“And yes, he was strong, but he couldn’t understand that his body had a (health) condition, which if it went untreated by a doctor, it would kill him before his wishes,” Mrs. Vides said.

“The pain that I feel today in my heart, is because I will not be able to listen to him telling me how happy he was in the house that he decorated with such love for me,” Mrs. Vides said.

“I was just with him… he (Mr. Vides) was a type of person that even when I hadn’t seem for several weeks, he would greed you as if he hadn’t seen you for one day,” said Jake Pavlovsky, board president of Mission Neighborhood Centers.

Mr. Vides, born on Aug. 20, 1945 in San Salvador, came to San Francisco in 1972. When he went to eat at El Zocalo Restaurant, which was owned by Mrs. Vides’s aunt and uncle, he met Victoria. “My aunt liked him, so one of those days when I went to help them at the restaurant, they introduced us,” said Mrs. Vides to El Reportero. They got married in Sept. 28, 1974, at St. Anthony’s Church. Soon after, when the aunt and uncle put the restaurant for sale, it was an opportunity for the new wed. They decided to make an offer to purchase it, and with the help of her aunt, they took possession of their new business.

As their love grew and their restaurant consolidated, Mr. Vides got a job a Pacifi c Bell telephone company in 1975, where he worked until 10 years ago, when he retired to dedicate entirely to his other businesses.

In 1979, with the administrative skills of Mrs. Vides, they were purchased another Zocalo Restaurant in El Camino Real in San Bruno. And in 1996, an excellence opportunity arrived to purchase the El Valenciano Restaurant and its building.

Now he is gone, and with the help of “my family and my employees,” Mrs. Vides plans to continue and to maintain what she and her husband built with hard work and love.

The staff, and especially this writer, editor of El Reportero, send our very warm condolence to Mrs. Vides and the rest of the family during this diffi cult time.

Mr. Vides, whose father, José Vides is already deceased, is survived by his mother Rosaura Vides, 82; his wife of 35 years Victoria Vides, 59; four children, three daughters Roxana, Patricia and Lissette, and one son, Edgar; five grandchildren: Jonathan, Jackie, Tatiana and Mateo; and seven brothers and sisters, Vilma, sonia, María Elena, Carolina, Eraclio, José and Carlos.

A mass with body present will be held at Corpus Christi Church on Monday at 10:30 a.m., in San Francisco, and his remains will be taken and buried after the mass to Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Following, a reception will take place at El Valenciano Restaurant, at 1153 Valencia Street, San Francisco.

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A new study finds that compounds derived from the spices turmeric and pepper could help prevent breast cancer by limiting the growth of stem cells, the small number of cells that fuel a tumor’s growth.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that when the dietary compounds curcumin, which is derived from the Indian spice turmeric, and piperine, derived from black peppers, were applied to breast cells in culture, they decreased the number of stem cells while having no effect on normal differentiated cells.

“If we can limit the number of stem cells, we can limit the number of cells with potential to form tumors,” says lead author Madhuri Kakarala, M.D., Ph.D., R.D., clinical lecturer in internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and a research investigator at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

Cancer stem cells are the small number of cells within a tumor that fuel the tumor’s growth. Current chemotherapies do not work against these cells, which is why cancer recurs and spreads. Researchers believe that eliminating the cancer stem cells is key to controlling cancer. In addition, decreasing the number of normal stem cells – unspecialized cells that can give rise to any type of cell in that organ – can decrease the risk of cancer.

In this study, a solution of curcumin and piperine was applied to the cell cultures at the equivalent of about 20 times the potency of what could be consumed through diet. The compounds are availañoable at this potency in a capsule form that could be taken by mouth. (Note: This work has not been tested in patients, and patients are not encouraged to add curcumin or piperine supplements to their diet at this time.)

The researchers applied a series of tests to the cells, looking at markers for breast stem cells and the effects of curcumin and piperine, both alone and combined, on the stem cell levels. They found that piperine enhanced the effects of curcumin, and that the compounds interrupted the self-renewal process that is the hallmark of cancer-initiating stem cells. At the same time, the compounds had no affect on cell differentiation, which is the normal process of cell development.

“This shows that these compounds are not toxic to normal breast tissue,” Kakarala says. “Women at high risk of breast cancer right now can choose to take the drugs tamoxifen or raloxifene for prevention, but most women won’t take these drugs because there is too much toxicity. The concept that dietary compounds can help is attractive, and curcumin and piperine appear to have very low toxicity.”

Curcumin and piperine have been explored by other researchers as a potential cancer treatment. But this paper, published online in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, is the first to suggest these dietary compounds could prevent cancer by targeting stem cells.

In addition, tamoxifen or raloxifene are designed to affect estrogen, which is a factor in most, but not all breast cancers. In fact, the aggressive tumors that tend to occur more often in women with a family history or genetic suscep­tibility are typically not affected by estrogen. Because curcumin and piperine limit the self renewal of stem cells, they would impact cancers that are not estrogen sensitive as well as those that are.

Researchers are planning an initial Phase I clinical trial to determine what dose of curcumin or piperine can be tolerated in people. The trial is not expected to begin accruing participants until spring.

Breast cancer statistics: 194,280 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,610 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.