another person who was not identified was also arrested in the raid early
tuesday officials said
the roar of several helicopters woke us up and we found the area surrounded by
soldiers local resident mario zamora told afp
the arrest is the second major victory for president felipe calderon
controversial clampdown on organized crime after top drug lord arturo beltran
leyva was killed in shootout with marines in raid south of mexico city on
december
calderon administration has also touted the arrest of arturo less powerful
brother carlos beltran leyva on december in the drug plagued northwestern
state of sinaloa just two weeks after his brother death
garcia was not as powerful or influential as arturo beltran leyva but was
infamous for his extreme violence
baja california authorities say garcia broke off an alliance with the tijuana
or arellano felix cartel in january after bloody gunfight and now backs
joaquin shorty guzman head of the rival sinaloa cartel and mexico most
wanted man
garcia is blamed for wave of attacks in tijuana in recent years
hitman called the soup maker last year confessed to dissolving some
hundred bodies in acid for garcia
after his girlfriend was killed by rivals in garcia allegedly went on
revenge killing spree murdering people in hours
analysts said they hoped his arrest would help reduce violence in tijuana
think that levels of violence in tijuana will drop shortly security
consultant eduardo guerrero told afp
but many said the prospect of typical in fighting which takes place after the
removal of gang leader was also possibility
more than people have died in spiraling drug violence in the past three
years across mexico particularly in northern border areas on lucrative
trafficking routes into the united states
tijuana with around violent deaths in is the country second most
violent city after the notorious border city of ciudad juarez
calderon has staked his presidency on tackling violent drug gangs authorizing
the deployment of some troops across the country
jal shares dive percent in early trade
tokyo jan afp
shares in ailing carrier japan airlines plunged by more than percent to just
seven yen in early trade on wednesday hit by flood of sell orders amid fears
it will be delisted from the bourse
investors have been dumping the stock on reports that the debt ridden airline is
preparing for court backed bankruptcy filing possibly next week and that its
shares will be delisted from the tokyo stock exchange
jal share price dived by the daily limit of yen for second straight day
to hit yet another record low of seven yen down percent from tuesday
closed
the government has pledged to avoid total collapse of the former state owned
carrier but has refused to rule out bankruptcy proceedings which could aid
jal restructuring but would likely leave investors out of pocket
us carriers american airlines and delta air lines are in bidding war for
slice of the airline the largest in asia
urgent jal shares dive percent in early trade
tokyo jan afp
shares in ailing carrier japan airlines plunged by percent to just seven yen
in early trade on wednesday hit by flood of sell orders amid fears it will be
delisted from the bourse
obama says us ready to assist after haiti quake
washington jan afp
president barack obama on tuesday said the united states stood ready to assist
haiti after powerful quake rocked the impoverished caribbean nation
my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this
earthquake we are closely monitoring the situation and we stand ready to assist
the people of haiti he said
the white house said obama was notified about the quake at pm gmt
and asked staff to find out if embassy personnel were safe
the department of state usaid united states agency for international
development and the united states southern command have begun working to
coordinate an assessment and any such assistance the white house statement
said
in hawaii us secretary of state hillary clinton said government agencies were
still gathering information about this catastrophic earthquake
the united states is offering our full assistance to haiti and to others in the
region we will be providing both civilian and military disaster relief and
humanitarian assistance
former president bill clinton now un special envoy for haiti said his
office and the rest of the un system are monitoring the situation and we are
committed to do whatever we can to assist the people of haiti in their relief
rebuilding and recovery efforts
us worried over possible return of guinea junta chief
washington jan afp
the united states expressed concerned tuesday about the possible return of
guinea junta leader moussa dadis camara to his country us state department
official said tuesday
any effort by dadis to return to guinea would concern us said the official
who requested anonymity
camara arrived in neighboring burkina faso on tuesday after he was treated at
moroccan hospital from gunshot to the head
the injury was sustained on december during an argument with his aide de camp
allegedly over bloody crackdown on an opposition rally
government official in ouagadougou told afp camara was lucid he is
speaking
since the assassination attempt camara he has not appeared in public and it was
not immediately known if he planned to stay in burkina faso or travel to another
country
the united states for months has been insisting guinea military junta step
down and that transition government take over to prepare new democratic
elections
the bauxite rich west african country has been under military rule since
december and tensions peaked last september when troops massacred
at least people at the opposition rally
the united states is working with france and morocco to resolve the political
crisis in guinea they fear camara return could touch off civil war that
could extend to neighboring countries
guinea interim junta leader and defense minister general sekouba konate has
met in rabat with french and us representatives he has asked opposition leaders
who fled the country to return to help set up transition government
alert
shares in japan airlines dive percent in early trade
un having trouble communicating with its mission in haiti
united nations jan afp
united nations officials said late tuesday they were having trouble contacting
the un mission in haiti to get clear picture of the huge earthquake that
struck the caribbean island nation
we are trying to get in touch with our people on the ground but we are
experiencing communication problems which is not unusual in disaster such as
this stephanie bunker spokeswoman for the un office for the coordination of
humanitarian affairs told afp here
the quake toppled buildings and caused widespread damage and panic
according to haitian officials and afp witnesses
bunker said ocha sent alerts to its other offices around the world to prepare
for major relief effort
and un spokesman martin nesirky also said communication problems made it
difficult to piece together information on the scale of the disaster
attempts to reach alexandra duguay spokeswoman for the un mission in haiti
minustah in port au prince by telephone through mail facebook or twitter
proved unsuccessful
google may quit china over cyberattacks on rights activists
san francisco jan afp
google threatened tuesday to shut down its operations in china after uncovering
what it said were highly sophisticated cyberattacks aimed at chinese human
rights activists
google said china based cyber spies struck the internet giant and at least
other unidentified firms in an apparent bid to hack into the email accounts of
activists around the world
google said the online espionage has it reconsidering its business operations in
china and it has decided to no longer filter internet search engine results in
china
these attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered combined with the
attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web have led
us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations
in china google chief legal officer david drummond said in blog post
we have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on
google cn and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the chinese
government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine
within the law if at all he said
drummond said google realizes that defying chinese government demands regarding
filtering internet search engine results may mean having to shut down its
operations in china
google has taken bold and difficult step for internet freedom in support of
fundamental human rights said leslie harris president of us based nonprofit
advocacy group center for democracy amp technology
no company should be forced to operate under government threat to its core
values or to the rights and safety of its users
drummond said google detected in mid december highly sophisticated and
targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from china that
resulted in the theft of intellectual property from google
evidence indicated that the attackers were trying to get access to gmail
accounts of chinese human rights activists according to drummond
google believes the attack was mostly blocked and that only minor information
like creation dates and subject lines were stolen from two accounts
at least other large companies including finance internet media
technology and chemical businesses were similarly attacked according to
google
we are currently in the process of notifying those companies and we are also
working with the relevant us authorities drummond said
google said its investigation revealed that accounts of china human rights
activists who use gmail in europe china or the united states had been
routinely accessed using malware sneaked onto their computers
independent of the attack on google we have discovered that the accounts of
dozens of us china and europe based gmail users who are advocates of human
rights in china appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties
drummond said
we have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with
broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications
of what we have unearthed but also because this information goes to the heart
of much bigger global debate about freedom of speech he said
the decision to review our business operations in china has been incredibly
hard and we know that it will have potentially far reaching consequences he
added
google was careful to stress that the decision was made by the california
company executives in the united states and not by workers within easy reach
of authorities in china
google also said it has used information gained from studying the attack to
improve the internet titan security
we have been working hard to secure our systems confirm the facts and notify
the relevant authorities said google spokesman gabriel stricker
we ve gone public with this as quickly as we sensibly could
fears of major catastrophe as quake rocks haiti
port au prince jan afp
huge quake measuring rocked the impoverished caribbean nation of haiti
tuesday toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic officials
and afp witnesses said
think it really catastrophe of major proportions haiti ambassador to
the united states raymond alcide joseph told cnn television
all communications with the island went down after the earthquake and no details
were immediately available on any people killed or injured in the disaster
tsunami alert for the carribean region was immediately issued after the
earthquake struck at gmt
an afp correspondent said the ground shook for more than minute later three
aftershocks measuring and on the moment magnitude scale hit us
officials said
in port au prince local media reported that the presidential palace
parliament cathedral and several ministries were badly damaged
an afp correspondent in petionville suburb east of the capital said one
three story building housing two offices was toppled by the quake and
tractor was already at the scene trying to dig out victims as people fled onto
the streets in panic
the up scale area is home to many foreign diplomats and members of major
united nations mission to the country
the us geological survey usgs said the powerful quake was initially measured
at and struck kilometers ten miles from the capital port au prince and
kilometers miles from petionville
the earthquake struck at depth of kilometers miles the usgs said
in washington president barack obama said the united states stood ready to
help
my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this
earthquake obama said we are closely monitoring the situation and we stand
ready to assist the people of haiti
us southern command spokesman in miami said the agency was monitoring the
situation and coordinating everything to respond rapidly
tsunami warning issued for haiti cuba the bahamas and the dominican republic
was scrapped shortly afterwards
haiti ambassador told cnn he was heartbroken as he had just spoken by
telephone with senior presidential aide who described scenes of chaos and
devastation
he had to stop his car just about half an hour ago and take to the streets
start walking but he said houses were crumbling on the right side of the street
and the left side of the street joseph said
already the poorest nation in the americas haiti has been hit by series of
disasters recently and was battered by hurricanes in
four big storms tropical storm fay and hurricanes gustav hanna and ike
pounded impoverished haiti in august and september killing total of
people and leaving more than others missing according to government
figures
the country was also gripped by tense political standoff in april amid
riots over skyrocketing food prices un troops are regular sight throughout
much of the country
seventy percent of haiti population lives on less than two dollars per day and
half of its million people are unemployed
according to official figures food insecurity already affects more than
quarter of haiti population some million people with women and children
the worst affected
the food and agriculture organization has designated haiti as one of the world
most economically vulnerable countries
the wfp serves one meal day to more than haitian schoolchildren
providing them with what is often their only meal of the day
the organization also feeds women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and
children under the age of five
since mid the brazilian led minustah has been keeping the peace in the
impoverished caribbean island nation
guinea junta chief travels to burkina said to be speaking
ouagadougou jan afp
guinea junta chief moussa dadis camara hospitalised in morocco after an
attempt on his life last month arrived in burkina faso on tuesday and was lucid
and speaking an official said
he is lucid he is speaking source in the office of burkina faso president
blaise compaore told afp
camara was supported by two people as he descended from the plane and walked
with difficulty according to local journalist
camara had been hospitalised in rabat after being shot in the head by his aide
de camp on december following dispute allegedly over bloody crackdown on
an opposition rally
since the assassination attempt he has not appeared in public
it was not immediately known if camara planned to stay in burkina faso or travel
to another country
we don know yet its for him to tell us for the moment he hasn told us
anything said the presidential source
burkina faso had provided plane to evacuate camara from guinea to morocco for
hospital treatment
compaore has also been acting as mediator between guinea interim junta leader
defence minister general sekouba konate and the opposition
compaore was initially rejected as mediator last year by the guinean
opposition which considered him too close to the junta
but since then the junta has new interim leadership which has asked the forces
vives coalition of opposition parties trade unions and the civil society to
share power
recent un report on the stadium massacre in guinea capital conakry where
hundreds more were wounded and women and young girls were raped has underscored
efforts for peace
the un inquiry named camara as suspect in accusing the army of crimes against
humanity during the crackdown on the rally convened to oppose any bid by
camara to stand for president in elections then slated for january
early this month konate went for week to morocco to see camara
konate said then that camara life is not in danger but it will take time
for him to recover completely
the us french and moroccan envoys all seized the occasion to meet with konate
once the discussions were over rabat revealed that several working sessions
have been held directly with general konate or alternatively with senior french
and american officials
rolling blackouts hit drought stricken venezuela
caracas jan afp
venezuela will be hit with rolling blackouts lasting four hours per day starting
wednesday as part of power saving effort to cope with severe drought the
head of the the state run power company said tuesday
in caracas the power cuts will begin after midnight tuesday and will take place
on alternate days in different sectors and times electricidad de caracas
president javier alvarado said in his announcement
the rest of the country will also suffer electricity cuts that could last until
the start of the rainy season in may he added
alvarado said the power saving measures extended to government institutions as
well
venezuela is flush with oil the country chief export and natural gas but
meets domestic energy demand with electricity generated by its massive guri dam
hydroelectric complex on the orinoco river which supplies percent of the
nation power needs
but with drought affecting large swathes of latin america water levels at the
guri dam have dropped to critical nine meters feet below normal and are
still falling at rate of centimeters four inches daily experts said
there no time to lose if we don want the guri reservoir to collapse the
president of state run corpoelec power distribution company jes rangel told
vtv television
president hugo chavez last month announced series of energy saving measures to
slash power consumption across the country by percent
venezuela began rationing electricity in in malls businesses and
billboards
however due to public outcry and concerns that darkened malls would increase an
already alarming crime wave in caracas the government tuesday said it would
keep entertainment centers lit up at night
in popular spots we ll keep the lights on it an important consideration
regarding the safety of our people said alvarado
chavez set up the electricity ministry at the end of october to help solve
problems he blames on the drought and waste but that his critics blame on bad
management and lack of investment
all power companies were nationalized in venezuela in
tokyo stocks open lower
tokyo jan afp
japanese share prices opened lower wednesday with the benchmark nikkei
index falling points or percent to in the first minutes
of trading
haitian presidential palace leveled after quake report
washington jan afp
haiti presidential palace and numerous other government buildings in the
country capital port au prince collapsed tuesday after massive
earthquake haitian television streaming online reported tuesday
communications to the island the most impoverished in the western hemisphere
were cut in the wake of the massive earthquake which produced several
aftershocks and prompted tsunami warning
journalist with haitian television station haitipal interviewed by telephone
from port au prince told the station that public buildings across the capital
had been destroyed
the presidential palace the finance ministry the ministry of public works
the ministry of communication and culture were all affected by the quake the
reporter said adding that the parliament building and cathedral in the
capital were also crumbling
shipping map helps combat invasive species at sea
paris jan afp
invasive species that hitch ride on cargo ships pose rising threat to marine
biodiversity with the potential to inflict costs in the billions of dollars
but new map of shipping networks should provide watchdogs with useful tool
against these stowaways scientists in germany said on wednesday
microbes larvae snails and other species are notorious for riding in ballast
tanks or on ships hulls to new home
but until now there have been scant means of identifying ships or even shipping
patterns to help pinpoint the source of the risk
sleuths trying to track these intruders have generally used so called gravity
model of ship movements it assumes that journeys are likelier between nearby
ports than between ports that are far apart
the truth though is rather more complex say marine biologists led by bernd
blasius of the carl von ossietzky university in oldenburg
they used data from automatic transmitters installed aboard large ships from
to give port authorities the time of arrival and departure to build
network of how the world large cargo vessels plied their trade in
what emerged were small clusters of ports sometimes based in regional
transport web and journey lengths and port stays that differed crucially
according to the type of ship bulk dry carrier container or oil tanker
container ships they found sail along largely predictable repetitive routes
among small dense linked cluster of ports gathered in regional
communities around the world
for instance container ship may shuttle frequently around europe visiting
rotterdam hamburg and antwerp and around buenos aires montevideo and santos
in south america
these vessels travel fast at between and knots and spend less than two
days in port on average
in contrast bulk dry carriers are more unpredictable changing their routes at
short notice according to the fluctuating supply and demand of the goods they
carry in the course of year they do few repeat trips on the same route
oil tankers too also follow short term market trends but their destinations
are limited moving between ports with crude terminals and refineries
both tankers and carries are slow movers travelling at between and knots
and have longer turnaround spending around five or six days in port
importantly both bulk dry carriers and oil tankers often sail empty after
offloading their goods and take on large quantities of ballast water for trim
which is then discharged when they are laden once more
but frequency of trips as seen in container ships especially is also factor
the more aliens that are offloaded in new habitat the better their chance of
beating the odds of ecological roulette says the study
with percent of world trade carried by sea the global network of merchant
ships provides one of the most important modes of transportation of intrusive
species says the study
the paper published on wednesday by britain journal of the royal society
interface quotes estimate that bioinvasion inflicts financial loss
billion dollars year
among the most notorious examples is north american jellyfish mnemiopsis
leidyi that has so devastated native plankton stocks in the black sea that it
has helped destroy several commercial fisheries
the european zebra mussel introduced into the great lakes in the mid has
infested percent of internal waterways in the united states in southern
australia the asian kelp undaria pinnatifida is invading new areas rapidly
displacing the native seabed communities
afp
afp world news service no unauthorized reproduction
common blood pressure drug also combats dementia
paris jan afp
widely prescribed drug to tackle high blood pressure and heart disease also
appears to reduce the risk of alzheimer and other forms of dementia according
to large us study published on wednesday
us military veterans who took angiotensin receptor blockers arbs were between
and percent less likely to develop dementia over four year period
compared with counterparts who took other drugs it said
among patients who were diagnosed with alzheimer at the start of the four
years those who took arbs were nearly half as likely to be needing admission to
nursing home by the end according to the research published online by the
british medical journal bmj
arbs block angiotensin molecule that causes the muscles in blood vessels to
contract as result of the drug action the vessels dilate easing blood
pressure
previous studies have already suggested that arbs are more effective at
protecting against diabetes and possibly stroke when compared with other drugs
but say the investigators this is the first demonstration of them as
bulwark against dementia
doctors led by benjamin wolozin professor at boston university school of
medicine looked at incidence of dementia among people aged or more
with cardiovascular disease most of them men from and the data was
provided by the us veteran affairs agency
the patients were assessed according to whether they took arbs cardiovascular
drug called lisinopril and other comparative drugs for treating heart disease
arb apparent protection against dementia was found to be especially pronounced
among men who used that drug in conjunction with another treatment for high
blood pressure called angiotensin converting enzyme ace inhibitors
in commentary also published by the bmj colleen maxwell and david hogan of
the university of calgary canada said the study had its limitations
it did not factor in family history of dementia was rather short in duration
and did not look at dementia among women
further work was needed to confirm the findings they said
given that around million people worldwide have form of dementia such as
alzheimer disease tally that could double over the next years the
benefits of preventing this disease are immense they said
age genetic inheritance and heart disease are established factors in dementia
to which diabetes and high blood pressure in mid life have been tentatively
added
nations mobilizing to help haiti us
washington jan afp
countries around the world are swinging behind huge aid effort for quake
ravaged haiti with at least nations having sent or readying help us
official said thursday
eight search and rescue teams were already on the ground in port au prince
comprising about personnel who had joined the grim search for survivors
among the ruins state department spokesman crowley said
obviously this is still very growing list but our estimate is that at least
countries have meaningful assistance that has already reached haiti or is en
route he said
so not only is the united states commitment to haiti growing but also the
international commitment as well
apart from us team on the ground there were also staff in place from iceland
spain chile he said adding they had helped free two people from the ruins
un chief ban ki moon announced earlier that relief workers from china the
dominican republic france and venezuela had also joined the huge operation to
help the haitians devastated by tuesday quake
crowley also confirmed news of the first american to have been killed by the
massive temblor identifying her as the us cultural affairs officer in haiti
victoria delong who had served in the country since
it tragedy for the state department for our family and the public
diplomacy and public affairs world crowley said adding she died when her home
collapsed
nba clippers griffin philosphical over season ending op
los angeles jan afp
blake griffin the top selection in last year national basketball association
draft was philosophical thursday over knee surgery that will end his first
season before it begins
guess you could say it debut prolonging injury he said with rueful
smile
griffin broke his left kneecap in the los angeles clippers final pre season
game in october he was originally expected to miss up to six weeks
but the team said wednesday the injury hadn healed and he would have season
ending surgery
griffin sounded an optimistic note despite the frustrating situation at the
clippers training facility on thursday
going to attack it and make it into something positive he said
hopefully can speed up the recovery process as much as possible it better
to take care of it now and not have to deal with it in the future
griffin had been running on treadmill without much pain as part of his
rehabilitation last week
but he began to experience pain when completing jumping exercises
griffin said the surgery will allow him to return at full strength eventually
wouldn be able to have full strength griffin said of the scenario without
surgery be playing at percent for the rest of the season much
rather get this done now and be able to play percent next season
imf strauss kahn to visit tokyo hong kong
washington jan afp
international monetary fund chief dominique strauss kahn will travel to tokyo
and hong kong next week for talks with top officials and to address forum on
asia role in the global economy
strauss kahn will meet with high level japanese government officials on monday
the imf said in statement thursday
during his second official visit to tokyo as the imf managing director
strauss kahn also will participate in town hall discussion with students and
faculty at the university of tokyo the washington based institution said
in hong kong strauss kahn will deliver keynote speech at the asian financial
forum on tuesday that will focus on the global post crisis financial
landscape and asia role in the new economic order
the forum is co organized by the hong kong government and the hong kong trade
