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Home/ History Readings/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by Emilio Ergueta

Contents contributed and discussions participated by Emilio Ergueta

Emilio Ergueta

Obama said gun owners would support his new restrictions. He was right. - The Washingto... - 0 views

  • President Obama rolled out a package of executive actions on guns this week. The changes included clarifying rules meant to broaden the use of background checks by private sellers, allocating money for mental health treatment, and adding more staff at the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to help enforce existing regulations.
  • The actions would be supported by an "overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners," he said Monday.
  • A new CNN-ORC survey of 1,000 Americans finds that the public supports Obama's plan by a 2-to-1 ratio: 67 percent of respondents favored the executive actions, while 32 percent opposed them. Even more striking, a similar share of people in gun-owning households -- 63 percent -- supported the measures.
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  • 51 percent of Republicans support Obama's executive action on guns
Emilio Ergueta

Bolivia: el millonario caso de corrupción que involucra a exministros, parlam... - 0 views

  • El caso de corrupción es considerado como el más grande desde que Evo Morales llegó a la presidencia de Bolivia en 2006.
  • US$6,8 millones de arcas públicas
  • 205 personas se encuentran procesadas y se dispuso la detención de una exministra
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  • Es gente que ha recibido dinero en cuentas particulares y no hay estos proyectos, son inexistentes"
  • El informe presentado el fin de semana por la fiscalía boliviana señala responsabilidades individuales en cinco líderes oficialistas
  • el daño económico podría alcanzar los US$14,9 millones
  • No es el primer caso de corrupción en el gobierno de Morales en los casi 10 años que lleva en la presidencia, sin embargo sí es la ocasión en la que las organizaciones que dan sustento a su partido se han visto más salpicadas.
Emilio Ergueta

Biden calls Iraqi PM to calm outcry over Carter remarks on fight against Isis | World n... - 0 views

  • US vice-president Joe Biden on Monday spoke to the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to reassure him of US support, a day after controversial remarks by the defense secretary, Ash Carter, sparked an argument over the recent military successes of Islamic State.
  • A White House statement on Monday said Biden recognised “the enormous sacrifice and bravery” that Iraqi forces had displayed over the past 18 months in Ramadi and elsewhere, and welcomed an Iraqi decision to mobilise additional troops and prepare for counterattack operations.
  • Nonetheless, rival powers and allies traded barbs and accusations over the recent successes of Isis, amid warnings that it may execute hundreds of hostages captured in its latest battles. In Iran, Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, the external operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards, said the US had “no will” to fight Isis.
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  • Last week, the militant group seized the capital of the predominantly Sunni Anbar province, its greatest victory in Iraq since its conquest of Mosul last summer and its declaration of a caliphate spanning swaths of Iraq and Syria. Isis advances have not been limited to Iraq. Last week, the group took control of the historic Syrian city of Palmyra and strategic gas fields nearby after a week-long siege that routed forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. The victory has triggered a humanitarian crisis, due to the flight of thousands of residents.
Emilio Ergueta

Saudi Arabia: an unlikely ally in the march towards renewable energy | Molly Scott Cato... - 0 views

  • If the 19th-century epitome of a futile economic transaction was carrying coals to Newcastle, then the 20th century equivalent might have been importing oil to Saudi Arabia. Rarely has a country been so spectacularly well endowed with a resource so fundamental to the functioning of the global economy in a particular era.
  • How striking, therefore, to learn that the Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, is predicting that within just 25 years we could no longer need fossil fuels. This, from a representative of a country that has done more than most to block progress in climate negotiations.
  • Al-Naimi believes that solar power will benefit the economy even more than fossil fuels. The evidence for this is that global investment in renewables jumped 16% in 2014, with solar attracting over half the total funding for the first time, driven by a 80% decline in manufacturing costs for solar in the last six years.
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  • Far from being a curse that concentrates power in the hands of an elite, renewables work most effectively when in community ownership. Energiewende (energy transformation) in Germany has shown this to be the case. Here, local ownership of renewables has provided a dramatic economic payback to investing communities.
  • The end game of climate change was always going to be a tussle between the vested interests of the past, using the wealth and power of the fossil fuel era to defend their assets, and the visionary supporters of the new clean energy technologies. The powerhouse states of the fossil era look set to overtake us on the path to a renewable energy future, while we continue to live under a finance curse inflicted on us by a government deeply attached to the finance industry.
Emilio Ergueta

EU naval mission rescues more than 4,200 migrants in 24 hours | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • More than 4,200 migrants trying to reach Europe have been rescued from boats in the Mediterranean in the past 24 hours, the Italian coastguard has said.
  • In some of the most intense Mediterranean migrant traffic of the year, a total of 4,243 people were saved from fishing boats and rubber dinghies in 22 operations involving ships from Italy, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Britain.
  • About 35,500 migrants arrived in Italy from the beginning of the year up to the first week of May, the UN refugee agency estimated, a number which has swelled considerably since. About 1,800 are either dead or missing.
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  • However, an EU plan to disperse 40,000 migrants from Italy and Greece to other countries met with resistance this week. Britain said it would not participate and some eastern countries have called for a voluntary scheme.
Emilio Ergueta

Fully dressed and preserved 350-year-old corpse of French noblewoman found | World news... - 0 views

  • 17th century widow Louise de Quengo, wearing her shoes and cap, was found along with heart of her husband in lead coffin
  • French archaeologists have uncovered the well-preserved body of a noblewoman who died 350 years ago – along with the clothes in which she was buried, including her cap and shoes, still intact.
  • The corpse of Louise de Quengo, a widow from an aristocratic family from Brittany, was discovered in an hermetically sealed lead coffin placed in a stone tomb at a convent chapel in the western city of Rennes.
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  • The corpse, uncovered in 2014, will be reburied in Rennes later in 2015, archaeologists have said. De Quengo’s clothes and shoes have been restored and are expected to be put on display. Colleter said: “As archaeologists we are used to finding interesting things, but this is the sort of find that happened once in a career. It’s a dream to find something so exceptional, so unu
Emilio Ergueta

Return of conscription in Lithuania sparks debate over gender roles | World news | The ... - 0 views

  • Two Lithuanian teenagers facing the prospect of conscription into the army – to resume in the Baltic nation from September – were asked for their views on national service and the military.
  • The callup – to run for five years from September – will enlist young men from 19 to 27 to serve nine months each. When it was announced, the Lithuanian president said the measure was necessary because of Russia’s “growing aggression” in Ukraine.
  • “To have a different opinion about conscription and masculinity is absolutely unpopular. We wanted to say that there is nothing wrong with tears and expressing emotions.”
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  • “The first day the project came out, we were called the traitors of the country and the enemies of the state. People think it puts Lithuanian men to shame and it can be used as Russian propaganda,” Rekašiūtė said. “We wanted to give a platform to present a different view of the conscript army. But our view is on the margins.”
Emilio Ergueta

Chinese workers face grim task recovering bodies from Eastern Star | World news | The G... - 0 views

  • As the known death toll from the Yangtze river cruiser rises to 77, there are angry scenes in Jianli as relatives say they cannot view victims’ bodies
  • On Thursday afternoon the vessel’s upended body poked from the water like a submarine resurfacing from the depths of what the Chinese call their Chang Jiang or Long River. Orange-clad rescue workers straddled the hull while navy divers searched the underwater graveyard below. Sparks flew as welders attached bollard-sized hooks to the vessel’s bottom with which, officials hoped, to lift it from the water.
  • So far only 14 survivors have been found, and since Tuesday lunchtime only bodies have been pulled from the sunken ship. “It is getting more and more difficult,” Dong Yan, a deputy navy commander, admitted in an interview with state media.
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  • “All the other ships – even the cargo ships – knew to wait for the storm to pass,” said Liu Gang, a 38-year-old from Jiangsu province whose mother was on the boat. “Why didn’t this one stop?”
  • “Don’t we have human rights? Why won’t you let us see the bodies?” she screamed. “You have found the bodies so why won’t you let us see them? Don’t we have any human rights in China? It’s my own mother. Why can’t I see her?”
Emilio Ergueta

Whispers of dissent in North Korea suggest waning loyalty to Kim Jong-un | World news |... - 0 views

  • Whispers of dissent in North Korea suggest waning loyalty to Kim Jong-un Though the true state of politics in Pyongyang remains opaque, sources in the capital report early signs of discontent.
  • Criticism of the alleged recent execution of the defence chief, Hyon Yong-chol, has been circulating in the capital, sources say, although it is impossible to verify these claims independently.
  • Criticism of Kim, who succeeded his father Kim Jong-il in 2011, has spread to other regions of the country, she says, with the common complaint being that the younger Kim is “even worse than his father”
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  • “officials in rural regions and security agents are far more inclined to air grievances more publicly regarding the leadership”.
  • “Orders from the top have been handed down calling for severe punishments to those who ‘spread absurd rumours’ [about Hyon],” another source who wished to remain anonymous claimed.
Emilio Ergueta

Turkish president's feud with press is rooted in a deeper, personal unease | World news... - 0 views

  • Recep Tayyip Erdogan fears he may have misread electorate’s mood as polls show strong support for opposition parties
  • President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s long-running feud with Turkey’s feisty opposition media has descended into open warfare ahead of Sunday’s general election, amid claims that his ruling neo-Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) is plotting to fix the results and shrill threats to lock up journalists and editors en masse.
  • But Erdogan’s livid fury with the press may be rooted in a deeper, personal unease
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  • Accustomed to winning easily, Erdogan has been thrown off-balance by opponents empowered by concerns over a slowing economy, unemployment, high-level corruption, the unresolved Kurdish question, and officialdom’s zero tolerance for dissent, as seen in the brutal suppression of the 2013 Gezi park street protests.
  • “If Erdogan cannot rig the elections, it seems the AKP will not be able to form a one-party government. This would mean the end of Erdogan’s sultanistic aspirations,” said Ihsan Yilmaz in a column headlined “Erdogan’s Jihad”.
  • “In a nutshell, it has turned out to be a simple choice between giving approval or not for all Erdogan now stands for: introducing to Turkey an arbitrary rule, disrespect for human dignity, rejection of supremacy of the rule of law, eradication of rights and freedoms, unaccountability and impunity, and construction of a new system in which there will be no separation of powers.”
Emilio Ergueta

Ukraine's president warns army to be ready to repel 'full scale' Russian invasion - Tel... - 0 views

  • Ukraine’s president has warned his army to be ready to repel a “full scale” Russian invasion, as fears mount of a return to all out warfare in eastern Ukraine.
  • At least 26 people were killed and dozens wounded on Wednesday when Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists fought a fierce battle on the outskirts of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk on Wednesday, in the most serious bout of fighting since a haphazardly observed ceasefire came into force in February.
  • Mr Poroshenko claimed there were already 9,000 Russian troops in separatist-held territory inside Ukraine, and said their was a “colossal threat” that Russian-backed forces would launch large scale operations in the near future. Russia denies deploying troops to east Ukraine.
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  • ens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, voiced alarm at “increased unpredictability, increased insecurity, increased nervousness,” in the region
  • John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, issued new calls for Minsk to be implemented last month.
  • At least 6,400 people have died in the conflict and hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced or fled abroad as refugees.
Emilio Ergueta

EU migrants can be barred from claiming benefits in first three months, Advocate-Genera... - 0 views

  • EU migrants can be barred from claiming benefits in first three months, Advocate-General says Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice suggests even if immigrants are looking for work they can be excluded from some benefits
  • In a legal opinion, the Advocate-General suggested that even if immigrants are looking for work they will not initially be able to get government support. It marks a boost to David Cameron's hopes of limiting migrant access to benefits - the centrepiece of his renegotiation of Britain's EU membership.
  • “Granting entitlement to social assistance to EU citizens who are not required to have sufficient means of subsistence could result in relocation en masse liable to create an unreasonable burden on national social security systems," the Advocate-General warned.
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  • An earlier version of this article stated that the European Court of Justice had "ruled" on this matter. It was in fact an opinion of the Advocate General, which is not binding on the Court. We are happy to make this clear.
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    Immigrants may be denied social benefits in the UK.
Emilio Ergueta

Hitler's secret cognac and champagne stash found beneath German restaurant - Telegraph - 0 views

  • Hitler's secret cognac and champagne stash found beneath German restaurant
  • A well-known German restaurateur claims to have found a secret store of cognac and champagne that once belonged to Adolf Hitler.
  • He said he had also found ledgers which showed Hitler's staff had moved the valuable bottles there to protect them from Allied air raids on Berlin. Hitler rarely drank, and it is likely the brandy and champagne would have been used for entertaining.
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  • "At the end of 1944 Adolf Hitler had his household food and drink stores moved to my cellar by his steward Kannegiesser, as they were not safe because of air raids on Berlin," Mr Stelzer told Bild newspaper. "Nothing remained of the food and consumables. After May 8, 1945, Russian troops looted everything," he said.
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    Hitler's secrest food stash found!
Emilio Ergueta

Greece misses IMF payment in warning shot as showdown with Europe escalates - Telegraph - 0 views

  • Greece is to take the drastic step of skipping a €300m payment to the International Monetary Fund on Friday, invoking an obscure mechanism in abeyance since the 1970s to bundle all debts due in June and pay them at the end of the month.
  • The IMF said it had been notified by the Greek authorities that they would pay the entire €1.6bn due this month on June 30, dusting down a procedure last used by Zambia in the 1980s.
  • The Greeks accuse the IMF of violating its own rules by colluding in an EMU-led policy that leaves the country with unsustainable debts. Athens is implicity threatening to escalate the situation all the way to a full default to the IMF, setting off a grave institutional and political crisis within the Fund itself.
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  • The decision to bundle the payments to the IMF brings forward a decision that was coming anyway. EU sources say the Greeks cannot meet a fresh deadline for €750m next week.
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    Greece defaults on latest payment to IMF, may signal the end for the countries economy.
Emilio Ergueta

Using Violence and Persuasion, ISIS Makes Political Gains - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Days after seizing the Syrian desert city of Palmyra, Islamic State militants blew up the notorious Tadmur Prison there, long used by the Syrian government to detain and torture political prisoners.
  • The demolition was part of the extremist group’s strategy to position itself as the champion of Sunni Muslims who feel besieged by the Shiite-backed governments in Syria and Iraq.
  • The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has managed to advance in the face of American-led airstrikes by employing a mix of persuasion and violence.
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  • While the Obama administration has focused on confronting the Islamic State militarily, experts say the group’s recent victories point to the need for a political component in the strategy to counter the group — even after nearly 4,000 airstrikes by the American-led coalition and what United States officials say are the deaths of 10,000 ISIS militants.
  • Sunnis form an aggrieved majority in Syria, where repression of a mostly Sunni uprising by Mr. Assad’s government, backed by Shiite-led Iran, exploded into war.
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    ISIS makes gains.
Emilio Ergueta

French Telecom Executive's Remarks on Israel Incite Furor - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • A growing global pro-Palestinian movement to boycott Israel instantly created a national furor on Thursday after the top executive of Orange, a leading French telecommunications company, said he would withdraw from the Israeli market if he could.
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the French government to repudiate the “miserable statement.”
  • The Orange chief executive, Stéphane Richard, said on Wednesday that were it not for the potential legal and financial penalties, he would leave the Israeli market “tomorrow morning.”
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  • The movement has been increasingly in the spotlight since last week’s failed Palestinian bid to oust Israel from FIFA, soccer’s global governing body.
  • ritain’s National Union of Students voted on Tuesday to align itself with the goals of the boycott movement, following a series of similar symbolic moves on American campuses, although the umbrella organization of British universities said it was strongly opposed to any academic boycott of Israeli institutions.
  • Mr. Netanyahu lashed out against the boycott movement on Sunday, denying that it had anything to do with Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians and saying that it rather had to do with Israel’s very existence, likening it to age-old anti-Semitic “libels.
  • he Orange episode is “only the beginning,” he said, “the tip of the iceberg if these policies continue.”
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    Orange executive suggests that he wants to pull out of Israel. Article highlights the reactions.
Emilio Ergueta

Palestinian Soccer Association Drops Effort to Suspend Israel From FIFA - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • JERUSALEM — The Palestinians dropped their bid to suspend Israel from international soccer competition at the last minute Friday, and agreed to instead form a committee of the sport’s governing body, FIFA, to handle their complaints of racism and discrimination.
  • Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestine Football Association, called for a vote at FIFA’s annual congress to ask the United Nations to determine whether five teams from settlements in the occupied West Bank should be allowed to continue to play in Israeli leagues.
  • In an emotional speech, Mr. Rajoub said he had been persuaded to abandon the demand to suspend Israel by fellow delegates to the FIFA congress, particularly one from South Africa, who said the vote would be “painful” for the conclave scarred by scandal after Wednesday’s dawn arrest of top soccer executives. He accepted Mr. Blatter’s proposal for a “peace match” between Israeli and Palestinian teams, but also said it “does not mean I give up the resistance.”
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  • The FIFA campaign, part of a mounting Palestinian effort to press the case against Israeli occupation in international forums, garnered global attention and incited deep concern in Israel’s soccer-obsessed society.
  • Yaakov Finkelstein, an Israeli diplomat sent to Zurich for the FIFA congress, said any action on the settlement teams would have been “a deal-breaker for us.”
  • The Palestinians contend the settlement teams violate FIFA rules by, essentially, having one member’s teams playing in another’s turf. The amended Palestinian proposal, which the congress passed overwhelmingly, calls on FIFA to ask the United Nations for official notification of its 2012 resolution upgrading Palestine to nonmember observer-state status “in order to prove the territorial issue.”
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    Article outlining how Palestine has given up trying to kick Israel out of FIFA.
Emilio Ergueta

Russian TV doc on 1968 invasion angers Czechs and Slovaks - BBC News - 0 views

  • The Czech and Slovak governments have accused Russia of rewriting history after Russian state TV broadcast a documentary about the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
  • Warsaw Pact - Pages Declassified, broadcast on state-run Rossiya 1 TV, argued that the Soviet-led military alliance was a purely defensive organisation in the face of an "aggressive" Nato alliance.
  • The programme claimed a Nato-backed "armed coup" was being planned under the cover of the "legend of peaceful civilian uprising with the romantic name of the Prague Spring".
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  • Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek summoned Russia's Prague ambassador Sergei Kiselyev to complain about the broadcast as well the inclusion of several Czechs on a list of 89 EU politicians and diplomats banned from entering Russia
  • The government in Bratislava said the decision to broadcast the documentary damaged traditionally good relations between Slovakia and Russia. It also pointed out that the Slovak government had vigorously refused what it said were attempts to revise the history of World War Two in a way that cast doubt on the role of the Red Army.
Emilio Ergueta

Ukraine conflict taking heavy toll on economy says IMF - BBC News - 0 views

  • Ukraine's economy is likely to shrink by a worse-than-expected 9% in 2015, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to the country has concluded.
  • The continuing conflict in the east of the country "took a heavier-than-expected toll on the economy in the first quarter of 2015", IMF mission chief Nikolay Gueorguiev said.Ukraine's inflation rate will hit 46% by the end of the year, he said.
  • Cash-strapped Ukraine has agreed a $17.5bn (£11.5bn) bailout programme with the IMF, and is hoping that the latest $2.5bn tranche of credit will be made soon. But the IMF will only release the money if it is satisfied the government is serious about reforming its beleaguered economy, which has been crippled by high energy costs, endemic corruption, and the conflict with pro-Russia separatists in the east of the country.
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    Ukraine is experiencing economic difficulties and is excepting help from the IMF.
Emilio Ergueta

Narendra Modi to become first Indian PM to visit Israel - BBC News - 0 views

  • Narendra Modi is to become the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, India's foreign minister has said.
  • The two countries have shared 23 years of diplomatic relations and are working together on counter-terrorism, defence, agriculture and the water and energy sectors.But no Indian prime minister or president has ever visited Israel.
  • The two countries have shared 23 years of diplomatic relations and are working tog
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  • "High level visits between both countries... are a natural ingredient of tightening relationship between Israel and India," Mr Carmon was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper.
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    Indian president plans to visit Israel
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