[sergio21699]

Espanha admite mudar de fuso horário
Proposta para o país atrasar os relógios uma hora defende que o regresso ao fuso de Greenwich favorece a conciliação da vida profissional com a familiar.

O Governo espanhol prometeu levar muito a sério a proposta para atrasar uma hora os relógios do país, o que significaria o regresso de Espanha ao fuso horário de Greenwich, partilhando a hora portuguesa.

A medida está na ordem do dia por causa de um relatório sobre conciliação aprovado pela comissão parlamentar para a Igualdade. Em seu favor, a proposta tem como argumentos ser esta uma forma de melhorar os horários de trabalho e favorecer a conciliação da vida profissional com a familiar.

Para já, o ministro da Economia, Luis de Guindos, prometeu que o assunto "não vai ficar na gaveta", reconhecendo que "do ponto de vista geográfico há uma divergência entre o horário espanhol atual e o que lhe corresponderia efectivamente". Assim, as "implicações da mudança" estão a ser analisadas, garantiu.

A hora seguida em Espanha é uma herança antiga. O país abandonou o seu fuso horário em 1940, por interesse de Francisco Franco, que preferiu ajustar o relógio nacional com o da Alemanha nazi de Hitler.

http://expresso.sapo.pt/espanha-admite-mudar-de-fuso-horario=f832580#ixzz2g31KAq4p

[mafarrico]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 42496.html

Exclusive: The Lariam scandal - MoD ‘ignored decades of warnings about dangers of suicide drug’

Drug that most GPs are reluctant to prescribe for their patients and that is banned by US military is putting thousands of British soldiers’ lives at risk

Jonathan Owen  Friday 27 September 2013



Thousands of British soldiers are being put at increased risk of psychosis and suicide because the Ministry of Defence refuses to stop using a controversial anti-malarial drug that has just been banned by the US military, The Independent can reveal.

Mefloquine – better known as Lariam – has long been the subject of warnings over its effects on mental health and is now only used by a minority of people travelling abroad.

Amid mounting concerns about the dangers of the drug – which has been linked with a string of suicides and murders – the US military acted this month to ban its use among special forces. The decision came after it was linked to the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by a US soldier.

Yet British soldiers are still being given Lariam – a drug described as a modern-day “Agent Orange” by doctors because of its toxicity.

Speaking to The Independent, a former senior medical officer accused the MoD of ignoring repeated warnings over the dangers of the drug. Lt-Col Ashley Croft, who served for more than 25 years in the Royal Army Medical Corps and is an expert on malaria, said: “For the past 12 years I was saying this is potentially a dangerous drug – most people can take it without problems but a few people will experience difficulties and of those a small number will become psychotic and because there are other alternatives that are safer and just as effective we should move to them but my words fell on deaf ears.”

Lt Col Ashcroft, who retired in April, accused the MoD of being in “denial mode”. He added: “The problem is that it can make people have psychotic thoughts and therefore act in an irrational manner and potentially a manner that is dangerous to themselves or their colleagues, or civilians.”

Doxycycline and malarone are safer drugs which are as effective in preventing malaria, according to the retired officer. “Really the only people that get it [Lariam] now are the poor old soldiers and they have no choice.”

Mefloquine is typically given to soldiers serving in sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Latin America and South-east Asia. Lt Col Croft estimates around 2,500 soldiers a year are given the drug.

Lariam was developed by the US Army in the 1970s, and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1989. It became a popular drug for preventing and treating malaria, but recent years have seen it become superceded by newer antimalarial drugs, such as malarone.

While most NHS doctors now recommend that civilians travelling overseas take alternatives to Lariam with fewer side-effects, British service  personnel are given little choice about whether to take the drug.

This is despite the US military  banning Lariam on safety grounds. An order issued earlier this month by the US Special Forces Command states: “medical personnel will immediately cease the prescribing and use of mefloquine for malaria prophylaxis”. It adds: “Hallucinations and psychotic behaviour can occur and continue for months or years after mefloquine use; cases of suicidal ideation and suicide have been reported.”

The decision comes after an order in July from the FDA to force manufacturers to give the drug a “black box” label, its strongest warning. The FDA warned that some neurological and psychiatric side effects can last for months or years after people stop taking the drug.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the US soldier who killed 16 Afghan civilians in March 2012, had taken Lariam while serving in Iraq.

Dr Remington Nevin, a former US army doctor and expert on the psychiatric effects of Lariam, who is based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said: “As a result of its toxic effects, the drug is quickly becoming the “Agent Orange” of this generation, linked to a growing list of lasting neurological and psychiatric problems including suicide.” In addition to the mental health risks, physical side effects range from internal bleeding to liver and lung damage.

But there are no signs of the British Army stopping its use of Lariam. An MoD spokesperson said: “All our medical advice is based on the current guidelines set out by Public Health England. Based on its expert advice, the MoD continues to prescribe mefloquine as part of the range of malaria prevention treatments recommended. It is just one of the prevention treatments available and is only prescribed under certain circumstances to ensure the treatment provided is the most effective.”

While ordinary soldiers are routinely given the drug, the MoD ordered that it should not be given to air crew or divers, given the particular risks of such posts. In its latest guidance for commanders, dated 2013, it cites “significant risk of side effects, which could degrade concentration and co-ordination”, and that any such specialist personnel who take it will be unfit for duty for three months.

A spokesman for the Public Health England Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention (ACMP), said: “Mefloquine is an extremely effective antimalarial and we are not aware of any new data that alter our view of the safety of mefloquine.” He added: “Whenever new evidence about antimalarials appears the ACMP considers this as part of its continuous process of developing advice.”

Lt Col Croft condemned the ACMP for “promoting this drug as ‘safe’” and added: “They shelter behind collegiality, and won’t budge from this position since it would imply that their earlier judgement on mefloquine was wrong, and if they were to now change their advice then they as individuals could potentially be cited, in personal injury actions brought by mefloquine-damaged travellers.”

And Dr Nevin commented: “Public Health England has a responsibility to protect the travelling public from the threat posed by dangerous medicines, and should carefully reconsider its recommendations in light of mefloquine’s neurotoxicity and its association with risk of permanent neurological injury and death.”

He added: “Mefloquine toxicity is also a potentially life-threatening condition that is fully preventable by use of safer daily antimalarials.”

Roche, the company that makes Lariam, warned of the risk of suicide more than a decade ago. And this July, in a letter to doctors in Ireland, Dr Maria Luz Amador, the company’s medical director, warned that the drug “may induce potentially serious neuropsychiatric disorders” and that “hallucinations, psychosis, suicide, suicidal thoughts and self-endangering behaviour have been reported.”

A statement from Roche said: “All medicines have side effects and we are sorry to hear about those that experience adverse reactions to our medicines.” It continued, the benefits “outweigh the potential risk of the treatment and Roche maintains the position that there is no causal relationship between suicidal tendency, suicide or self-harm and Lariam.”

But it cautioned: “Lariam should not be prescribed for prophylaxis in persons with active depression or with a history of major psychiatric disorders or convulsions.”

Doctors “tend to steer clear of it,” said Dr Claire Gerarda, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners. “I wouldn’t encourage it, because I think it’s got nasty side effects. I can’t remember the last time I prescribed Lariam.”

Lariam: The suicides, murders and incidents of self-harm

The controversial anti-malarial drug Lariam has been linked to a series of military suicides, murders and incidents of self-harm during the past 20 years.

* Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the US soldier who killed 16 Afghan civilians in 2012, had taken Lariam while serving in Iraq. Although he is not mentioned by name, an “adverse event” report was made to Roche, manufacturers of the drug, on 29th March 2012 from a pharmacist regarding an unnamed Army soldier. “The patient who was a soldier in the US Army developed homicidal behavior and led to Homicide killing 17 Afghanis,” it said.  The report, which was passed on to the US Food and Drug Administration, claimed the drug had been given “in direct contradiction to US military rules that Mefloquine should not be given to soldiers who had suffered TBI (Traumatic brain injury) due to its propensity to cross blood brain barriers inciting psychotic, homicidal or suicidal behaviour.”


Staff Sergeant Robert Bales

* Canadian peacekeepers beat, tortured and shot two local teenagers in Somalia in 1993. Major Barry Armstrong, the military commander of the Somalia surgical unit, in a report dated October that year, stated: “I believe there may be an additional, simple explanation for our difficulties in Somalia: Canadian and American troops may have been impaired by the use of mefloquine.”

* In 2000, Lance Corporal Kristian Shelmerdine, the Parachute Regiment, shot himself in the arm while serving in Sierra Leone. He blamed the accident on the drug, claiming to have had bad dreams and woken up to find himself shot, but was found guilty of ‘negligent discharge’. Two years later, four US soldiers based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (three of whom had recently returned from Afghanistan, where troops were prescribed Lariam) killed their wives. Two of the soldiers killed themselves.

* In 2004, a US Army reservist shot himself in Iraq – just weeks before he was due to return home. In a US army report which subsequently emerged, an army psychiatrist stated: “if toxicology reveals the presence of mefloquine, SPC Torres’ case should be viewed in light of other suicides suspected to be associated with the drug.”

Jonathan Owen

[mafarrico]

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/s ... ated-press

Yemen leak: former FBI man admits passing information to Associated Press

Donald Sachtleben says he will plead guilty to passing on secret information in case that led to outcry over media freedom


    Agencies in Washington
    theguardian.com, Tuesday 24 September 2013 01.27 BST   


Eric Holder: 'a very grave leak'. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images



A former FBI explosives expert said on Monday he would plead guilty to revealing secret information for an Associated Press story about a US intelligence operation in Yemen in 2012. The story led to a leaks investigation and the seizure of AP phone records in the government's search for the information's source.

Donald Sachtleben, 55, of Carmel, Indiana, said in court papers that he provided details of the operation to a reporter. Four months ago, Sachtleben also acknowledged he distributed and possessed pornographic images of underage girls.

He agreed to a prison sentence of three years and seven months for telling the news agency of the bomb plot, in addition to eight years and one month for the unrelated child pornography charges, the court papers said.

If accepted by a judge, the prison sentence would be the longest ever handed down in a civilian court for a leak of classified information to a reporter.

The justice department said in a statement that its pursuit of Sachtleben was made easier by the child pornography investigation, but that Sachtleben was not identified as a suspect in the leaks case until after investigators had analysed the AP phone records and compared them with other evidence in their possession.

AP spokesman Paul Colford said, "We never comment on sources."

The deal is the latest legal action in the Obama administration's aggressive pursuit of people it believes have revealed government secrets, including seeking records and even testimony of journalists who prosecutors believe were given classified information and then published stories about it.

Senior prosecutor Ronald Machen, who was appointed by the attorney-general Eric Holder to investigate, said in a statement: "This prosecution demonstrates our deep resolve to hold accountable anyone who would violate their solemn duty to protect our nation's secrets and to prevent future, potentially devastating leaks by those who would wantonly ignore their obligations to safeguard classified information."

Monday's court filing stems from an investigation launched by the justice department shortly after AP reported that US intelligence had learned that al-Qaida's Yemen branch hoped to launch a spectacular attack using a new, nearly undetectable bomb aboard a US-bound airliner around the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death.

The AP's story on 7 May 2012 attributed details of the operation, including that the FBI had the bomb in its possession, to unnamed government officials.

CIA director John Brennan has called the leak "irresponsible and damaging", while Holder said the story was the result of "a very serious leak, a very grave leak".

FBI assistant director Valerie Parlave said in a statement that the bureau "will continue to take all necessary steps to pursue such individuals who put the security of our nation and the lives of others at risk by their disclosure of sensitive information".

Just over a year after the story appeared, on 10 May, the justice department informed AP that it had secretly obtained nearly two months of call records for more than 20 telephone lines used by AP reporters and editors, including some who worked on the story.

AP protested that the government's actions were likely to inhibit investigative journalism and the company and its reporters did not co-operate in the investigation. AP chief executive Gary Pruitt called the records' seizure a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organisations gather information.

The court records do not identify AP or name the reporter who communicated with Sachtleben. But the headline from the AP story that ran on 7 May 2012 is reproduced in the federal court records and Larry Mackey, Sachtleben's Indianapolis-based lawyer, said the AP was the news organisation described in the papers.

Sachtleben spent 25 years as an FBI special agent bomb technician and worked on major cases involving terrorist attacks, the government said. He retired in 2008, but was rehired as an FBI contractor and kept his "top secret" security clearance and access to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.

In court papers, Sachtleben said he visited the FBI lab on the morning of 2 May 2012, at the very time that FBI experts were examining the bomb. Sachtleben shared that information with a reporter the same morning, the government said.

The AP story ran five days later. For several days the news organisation had agreed to the Obama administration's requests not to publish it.

The child pornography investigation did not become public until 11 May, when the FBI searched Sachtleben's home and seized a laptop from his truck in the driveway. The FBI said it found 30 photos and videos of child pornography on the computer. Sachtleben was arrested the same day. The government said it began investigating Sachtleben for child pornography after an email address linked to him popped up on a known child-porn web site.

Sachtleben apologised in a brief, three-sentence statement that his attorneys released on his behalf on Monday afternoon.

"I am deeply sorry for my actions," he said. "While I never intended harm to the United States or to any individuals, I do not make excuses for myself."

The justice department said it had already had in its possession, as part of the child pornography investigation, Sachtleben's mobile phone, computer and other electronic media, including a CD/DVD containing classified information.
But the department said in a statement that it was able to link Sachtleben to the unauthorised disclosures about the Yemen plot only after investigators had analysed the seized AP phone records and compared them with other evidence already in their possession.

Based on the analysis, they were able to get a search warrant for a new and more thorough look at his phone and computer, the department said.

[Lusitano89]

Duas centenas de investigadores portugueses juntos no CERN


A Organização Europeia para a Pesquisa Nuclear (CERN, em francês) junta 205 cientistas portugueses em Genebra, naquele que é o maior centro de pesquisa em física de partículas do mundo. "Portugal é um país pequeno, mas um país visível no CERN através dos seus cientistas e engenheiros", disse à Lusa Rolf-Dieter Heuer, diretor geral do CERN.

"É um dos primeiros países que entendeu a importância da engenharia no CERN", acrescentou o diretor-geral, salientando que o país apoia a organização através de bolsas de investigação e ações de formação de professores do ensino secundário.

Alguns portugueses trabalham no centro de investigação há muitos anos, como é o caso do físico André Tinoco Mendes.

Veio "por acaso" para o CERN em 2000 e começou o seu doutoramento na experiencia NA60. Hoje, ele é responsável pelo grupo que estuda as propriedades do Bosão de Higgs, uma partícula elementar cuja descoberta foi anunciada nos anos 60 e só confirmada em março deste ano.

Esta partícula vem explicar a origem da massa de outras partículas elementares, pelo que a confirmação da sua existência causou grande entusiasmo na comunidade científica.

Já Eduardo Rodrigo chegou ao CERN em 2002. "Vim para o CERN por escolha, logo após ter terminado o meu doutoramento numa experiencia que decorreu em Hamburgo".

O objetivo era trabalhar no acelerador de partículas do CERN e "tive sorte, pois arranjei na altura uma bolsa Marie Curie da União Europeia", recorda.

José Carlos Rasteiro da Silva, especialista em detetores, está no CERN desde 1987. "Vim para aprender eletrónica de detetores de câmaras de fios em 1987, no grupo do George Charpak, prémio Nobel Física de 1992".

Neste momento, o investigador português é autor e responsável pela leitura de dados do detetor ECAL do CERN.

"Os portugueses tem uma ótima reputação aqui, fruto da competência e seriedade com que se empenham nas diferentes tarefas, como atestam alguns cargos com funções de destaque nas varias experiencias", acrescentou José Carlos Rasteiro da Silva.

Entre os 205 cientistas, distinguem-se os funcionários do CERN e os que vêm através de laboratórios associados.

Dados fornecidos à agência Lusa indicam que 89 portugueses são contratados diretamente pelo CERN, 19 são beneficiários de programas de bolsa, 19 são cientistas associados e existem 6 estudantes técnicos ou em doutoramento.

Os 116 restantes são utilizadores que participam nas palestras e em projetos associados. São pagos pelas instituições que colaboram com o CERN como o LIP (Laboratório de instrumentação de Física experimental), o ITN (Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa), a Universidade de Coimbra ou a Universidade de Aveiro.

Lusa

[mafarrico]

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/cr ... /cius_home

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... erica.html

Chicago: the murder capital of America

Chicago, the birthplace of the skyscraper, hang-out of Al Capone and home to Barack Obama, has claimed a new and unwanted title as America’s murder capital.


The figures show that firearms were used in the vast majority of murders, with 69.3 per cent of all homicides involving a gun Photo: Getty Images

By Philip Sherwell, New York

5:41PM BST 19 Sep 2013




The city registered more murders than any other US community in 2012, surpassing New York for the first time, despite having a population only a third of the size.

There were 500 murders in Chicago last year, up from 431 in 2011, according to crime statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Over the same 12 months, murders in New York fell from 515 to 419.

Most violent crime in Chicago is focused on predominantly African-American and economically-ravaged neighbourhoods of the city’s South Side where street gangs wage violent turf wars and there is a proliferation of stolen guns.

President Obama cut his political teeth as a community organiser there and the wails of ambulance and police sirens are a constant backdrop to life in their home district of Hyde Park, a leafy South Side enclave close to some of the city’s most dangerous streets.



Chicago’s reputation for violence dates back to the days of Prohibition, when Capone and rival mobsters battled to control the lucrative bootleg alcohol business. But New York had long had a much higher murder tally than the “Windy City”.

Residents of neither city are as likely to be victims as in Detroit, however, where some 386 people were murdered there last year. That is one for every 1,832 locals, meaning a resident of Detroit is three times as likely to be murdered as one in Chicago.

Across the US, violent crime increased marginally after a decade of decline and guns were used in 70 per cent of murders.

In Chicago’s South Side, the dangers were all too clear on the first day back at school last month as parents and escorts walked their children alongside specially-designated “safe passage” corridors.

Several hundred newly-hired security officers in bright neon vests joined armed police officers to guard roads running through gang boundaries, past derelict houses and abandoned plots, as pupils as young as four were escorted to school through urban war-zones along 53 new routes marked with bright yellow “safe passage” signs.

The programme was first launched in 2009 in the wake of the killing of a 16-year-old boy after he left his South Side high school one afternoon.

Rahm Emanuel, the city’s mayor and Mr Obama’s former chief of staff, has ramped it up significantly this year in response to a spate of killings of children caught up in the city’s violence. He called the overwhelming security presence an “all-hands-on-deck” operation.

In a murder that shocked the nation, Hadiya Pendleton, 15, was gunned down days after she performed at a presidential inauguration celebration for Mr Obama in Washington in January. She had previously recorded an anti-gang video.

Other notorious killings have included a seven-year-old girl shot dead last summer as she stood at her mother’s street-side sweet stand, and a six-month-old baby girl who was killed when a gang member opened fire at her father.

"It's shameful for Chicago to overtake New York as number one in the murder tables, said Charlene Johnson, 32, after she collected her daughters from a South Side elementary school.

"Our children are being murdered in the crossfire of these gangbangers. What does it tell you that we need armed guards in the streets just so that our children can get home alive."

Even as the new statistics starkly illustrated how the city is plagued by violence, Mr Emanuel was this week touting some hopeful signs.

Chicago’s murder rate is down 22 per cent compared with the same period in 2012, and down 45 per cent in the 20 neighbourhoods targeted since February for additional policing.

But the rate in the country’s third largest city is still dramatically higher than in its more populous counterparts of New York and Los Angeles, where figures are also falling. Chicago recorded 27 per cent more murders in the first nine months of this year than New York, and 49 per cent more than Los Angeles which has 40 per cent more residents.

Overall, murders in Chicago are down to 286 from 366 for the same period in 2012, but they are still marginally up from 278 in 2011.

[HSMW]

[mafarrico]

Um grande dia para o desporto português. Rui Costa campeão mundial de estrada em ciclismo e João Sousa vence para portugal o primeiro titulo ATP. Somos poucos mas bons.

[Lusitano89]

Tom Clancy, o criador de Jack Ryan, morre aos 66 anos


O escritor norte-americano Tom Clancy, popularizado pelos «thrillers» de espionagem modernos protagonizados por Jack Ryan, faleceu aos 66 anos. Muitos dos seus filmes foram adaptados ao cinema em «blockbusters» de Hollywood.

O escritor terá falecido no Hospital de Baltimore, segundo comunicou o seu editor ao confirmar o óbito. A causa da morte ainda não foi divulgada.

Numa carreira com mais de 30 anos, Tom Clancy especializou-se em «thrillers» militares altamente detalhados e complexos, que se tornaram popularíssimos. Escreveu 28 romances (o último dos quais, «Command Authority», será publicado em dezembro), 17 dos quais atingiram a lista dos «best-sellers» do New York Times.

A sua personagem mais popular é Jack Ryan, cujas aventuras já foram transpostas quatro vezes ao cinema, com um quinto filme a caminho: «A Caça ao Outubro Vermelho» (1990), de John McTiernan, com Alec Baldwin como Ryan, «Jogos de Poder - O Atentado» (1992) e «Perigo Imediato» (1994), ambos de Phillip Noyce e com Harrison Ford como o herói, e «A Soma de Todos os Medos» (2002), de Phil Alden Robinson e protagonizado por Ben Affleck. Todos estes filmes foram adaptados diretamente de romances com o mesmo título original, o que não sucede com o futuro «Jack Ryan: Shadow One», que parte de um argumento original, é realizado por Kenneth Branagh e protagonizado por Chris Pine, tendo estreia internacional prevista para dezembro de 2013.

Sapo Cinema


   

[Lusitano89]

Gâmbia anuncia saída da Commonwealth


O Governo da Gâmbia anunciou na quarta-feira a sua saída da Commonwealth (Comunidade de Estados britânica), com efeitos imediatos, sem dar detalhes.

"O público em geral é informado de que o Governo da Gâmbia abandonou a Commonwealth das Nações com efeito imediato", informou o executivo, em comunicado.

"O Governo abandonou a sua qualidade de membro da Commonwealth Britânica e decidiu que a Gâmbia nunca mais integrará uma instituição neocolonial e nunca mais fará parte de qualquer instituição que represente uma extensão do colonialismo", acrescentou no texto.

A Commonwealth é uma associação voluntária de mais de 50 países, muitos dos quais antigos territórios do império britânico.

Nenhum dirigente governamental esteve disponível para comentar a decisão, no final de quarta-feira.

Mas um dirigente do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiro, sob condição de anonimato, disse à AFP que a decisão foi tomada depois de o Governo ter rejeitado uma proposta da Commonwealth, feita em 2012, para criar comissões em Banjul com a missão de proteger os direitos humanos e a liberdade de imprensa e combater a corrupção.

A proposta seguiu-se à visita ao país do secretário-geral da Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, em abril de 2012, durante a qual se reuniu com o Presidente, Yahya Jammeh, e outros dirigentes governamentais.

Jammeh, que é acusado com regularidade de desrespeito de direitos humanos, tem governado o mais pequeno país africano com uma aura de misticismo e um punho de ferro, desde que tomou o poder em 1994.

No início deste ano, a Gâmbia foi destacada no relatório anual do Reino Unido sobre direitos humanos e democracia, que citou casos de detenções arbitrárias, encerramentos ilegais de jornais e estações de rádio e discriminação de grupos minoritários.

A Gâmbia é um estreito território encravado no Senegal, onde a pobreza é generalizada e as praias são muito procuradas por turistas europeus.

Lusa

[Cabeça de Martelo]

Morreu Vo Nguyen Giap


Morreu aos 102 anos o general que assegurou a independência do Vietname


 
Nascido a 25 de agosto de 1911, Vo Nguyen Giap era considerado um dos maiores génios militares do século XX.

Organizou a luta dos guerrilheiros nacionalistas vietnamitas contra a colonização francesa que culminou com a derrota das tropas francesas em Dien Bien Phu (1954) e levou à emergência de dois novos países: o Vietname do Norte, pró-comunista e o Vietname do Sul pró-ocidental.

Inspirou, também, a estratégia militar do Norte durante a Guerra do Vietname, levando a cabo uma guerrilha que desgastou as forças norte-americanas entre 1961 e 1973 e suportando ataques aéreos americanos a parte do território do Vietname do Norte. O conflito terminaria com a reunificação dos dois países sob controlo do Vietname do Norte (1975).

Em 1979, o Vietname viria, ainda, a travar com sucesso uma guerra fronteiriça com a República Popular da China.  


Ler mais: http://expresso.sapo.pt/morreu-vo-nguye ... z2glNFWaRn

[Luso]

Comuna patriota?

[Cabeça de Martelo]

É isso mesmo que eu considero, afinal ele bateu-se contra todos os que representavam para ele um perigo para o Vietname (incluindo a China Comunista).

[listadecompras]

A morte da princesa diana continua na imprensa britanica. Um choque de civilizacoes.

do daily star

Diana 'assassin' silenced in suicide mystery
A KEY member of the Princess Diana “assassination team” was murdered, it was claimed last night.

By Nigel Pauley/Published 4th October 2013

Millionaire photographer James Andanson had been threatening to write an explosive book.

But Andanson, who had links with the Secret Service, died mysteriously after meeting author Fredieric Dard to discuss the book that would “blow the lid off a conspiracy”.

He was found in a torched car with two bullet wounds in his head, but the authorities ruled it was suicide.

In a bizarre twist, Frenchman Dard also died within a few weeks of their meeting. Last night top investigative writer John Morgan and friends of Mohamed Al Fayed urged police to reopen the investigation into Andanson’s death in 2000.

Aussie-based Morgan, who has written nine books about Diana’s death, is convinced Andanson “is a vital area” of inquiry for police.

Mr Morgan insisted: “There is no doubt in my mind that James Andanson was murdered because he was getting ready to spill the beans about the part the security services played in her murder. To be blunt, he was silenced.”

A close friend of Mr Al Fayed, 84, whose son Dodi died with Diana in the car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997, added: “We have always believed this man was part of the team that was behind the assassination, and he was killed to shut him up.”

Witnesses said they saw a white Fiat Uno speed out of the tunnel seconds after the crash.

Andanson, who was 54, drove a distinctive white Uno and had trailed Diana and Dodi around France in the final two weeks of his life.

Before his death he boasted that he was the driver of a Fiat that hit the back of Diana’s Mercedes.

He told Dard that he had taken “explosive” unpublished photographs of the smash.

Scotland Yard is already taking a fresh look at claims by an ex-SAS sniper that Diana was murdered.

Dying Diana 'finished off by the SAS'
SAS hitmen on motorbikes swarmed around Princess Diana’s crashed car to ­“finish her off”, it was claimed yesterday.

By Richard Spillett/Published 5th October 2013

Royal author John Morgan ­believes a squad of Special Forces soldiers disguised as press photographers had trailed her.

And they were first to the stricken car after the smash in a Paris road tunnel to make sure she did not survive.

But Morgan, who has written nine books about Diana, says they made one major mistake during their mission.

They rode “heavy duty” bikes rather than the light scooters favoured by the Paris paparazzi at the time.

Morgan, who has spent 16 years researching Diana’s mysterious death, wants his claims to form part of Scotland Yard’s new probe into the 1997 car smash.

The inquiry was triggered by a former member of the SAS, known as Soldier N, who claims Diana was murdered in an ­Establishment plot for fear she would undermine the monarchy by marrying Dodi Fayed, 42.

He said: “There was a group of motorcyclists. They were seen by quite a few witnesses between the Place de la Concorde and the Alma tunnel where the crash happened. Those motorcyclists were riding heavy machines, big motorbikes.

“It’s been shown that those motor-cyclists were not paparazzi because the paparazzi were all accounted for and were way behind because they were on scooters.

“So the question is, who was on those motorbikes?

“It is a quite possible that MI6 employed SAS personnel to ride on those motorbikes.”

Mr Morgan is convinced the SAS men were on hand to ensure Diana’s injuries were non-survivable, as they proved to be.

He also believes three senior MI6 o­fficers moved to Paris shortly before the smash to co-ordinate the operation.

Australia-based Morgan says the claims of ex-SAS sniper Soldier N are a breakthrough in solving the riddle.

Soldier N is due to be quizzed by Scotland Yard after telling his wife that security forces caused the smash by shining a bright light into ­Diana’s driver Henri Paul’s eyes.

Former Royal Protection officers insist that Diana’s death was a tragic accident.

EXCLUSIVE: Princess Diana's secret baby
PRINCESS Diana was killed because she was having her lover Dodi’s baby, according to explosive claims.

By Peter Dyke & Marc Walker/Published 8th October 2013

A doctor at the Paris hospital where Diana was taken saw a six-to-10-week-old foetus in her womb, says a shock new book.

Author Alan Power reveals in The Princess Diana Conspiracy that radiologist Dr Elizabeth Dion and a nurse both spotted the unborn child.

The focus on Diana’s death in August 1997 is at fever pitch since SAS marksman Soldier N sparked a police probe with claims she was murdered by the Special Forces regiment.

Power says 36-year-old Diana’s body was then illegally embalmed to cover up her pregnancy.

The investigator believes she was carrying the child of her Muslim boyfriend Dodi Fayed, 42, who was killed alongside her.

He says Dr Dion told friends there was a “clearly visible” foetus in the womb of the Princess after she was taken to Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital.

Power adds that West Indian-born nurse Jocelyn Magellan also saw it.

He claims the pregnancy is the reason the Princess Of Wales was allegedly killed by an SAS death squad.

“It established a motive for murder and explained Diana’s illegal and speedy embalming,” he said.

“There was also a nurse at the Salpetriere Hospital where Diana was taken.

“Jocelyn Magellan said that she had also seen a foetus in Diana’s womb.

“This evidence was not available in court, although available to some others.”

The astonishing claim that Di, mother to Princes William and Harry, was to have a son or daughter out of wedlock was briefly aired during her 2007 inquest.
But since Scotland Yard launched an investigation in August, more details have emerged surrounding the mystery of the popular royal’s death.

Power says documents in the hospital’s archives also back the claim she was up to 10 weeks pregnant.

Diana and Dodi’s chauffeur Henri Paul, 41, was also killed in the horror smash.

Power claims Diana was murdered by SAS soldiers posing as paparazzi who shone a laser into Paul’s eyes.

He says the elite troops were recruited by MI6 agents to cover up her pregnancy and stop her revealing embarrassing details about her sex life with Prince Charles, 64.

[Edu]

Subvenções dos políticos suspensas para quem tem outros rendimentos superiores a 2000 euros
RAQUEL MARTINS 15/10/2013 - 18:22

Orçamento prevê suspensão de subvenções a quem ganha mais de 2000 euros por mês, sem contar com a subvenção, ou tem mais de 100 mil euros em acções.

As subvenções vitalícias dos políticos passarão a estar dependentes de condição de recursos e, em alguns casos, poderão ser totalmente suspensas. A proposta de Orçamento do Estado (OE) para 2014 prevê que todos os beneficiários de subvenções vitalícias e subvenções de sobrevivência (calculadas com base nas remunerações de cargos políticos) que tiverem um rendimento médio mensal superior a 2000 euros (sem contar aqui com a subvenção) ou património mobiliário (acções, por exemplo) acima de 100.600 euros verá a sua subvenção suspensa.

Os restantes beneficiários terão um corte na sua subvenção. A proposta determina que apenas terão direito ao valor que resultar da diferença entre o rendimento médio auferido e o limite dos 2000 euros. Por exemplo, um ex-político que tenha 1600 euros de salário e não tenha qualquer património mobiliário, terá direito a receber 400 euros de subvenção (a diferença entre os 1600 e o limite de 2000 euros).

De acordo com a proposta de OE a que o PÚBLICO teve acesso, o beneficiário da subvenção deve entregar à entidade processadora da prestação, até ao dia 31 de Maio de cada ano, a declaração de IRS ou a certidão comprovativa de que, nesse ano, não foram declarados rendimentos. Quem não cumprir verá a prestação suspensa de imediato.

A medida “abrange todas as subvenções mensais vitalícias e respectivas subvenções de sobrevivência, independentemente do cargo político considerado na sua atribuição”. Mas haverá excepções, a proposta prevê que as subvenções pagas aos ex-Presidentes da República e aos cônjuges de Presidentes ou ex-Presidente da República que morreram não ficam abrangidas por esta medida.


O Governo chegou a equacionar um corte de 15% nas subvenções vitalícias, mas acabou por enveredar por uma solução mais radical.

Da mesma maneira que critico também sou capaz de apoiar. A vir a efectivar-se esta proposta quero dar os meus parabéns ao governo e deputados.

Há a excepção dos Presidentes da Republica mas essa não faz grande comichão.

[Lusitano89]

Ásia é locomotiva de energia nuclear, segundo Agência Internacional de Energia Atómica


O director-geral da Agência Internacional de Energia Atómica considerou hoje que a Ásia é a locomotiva do desenvolvimento do nuclear, com a China e a Índia a construírem dezenas de reactores para responder às necessidades energéticas. "A Ásia estará no centro da expansão do nuclear", apesar do desastre na central de Fukushima, no nordeste do Japão, em Março de 2011, declarou à agência noticiosa francesa AFP Yukiya Amano, à margem do Congresso Mundial de Energia, que decorre até quinta-feira em Daegu, na Coreia do Sul.

"O nuclear vai desenvolver-se em todo o mundo, mas a Ásia estará no coração do movimento. A China, Índia e a Coreia do Sul fazem parte dos países que vão aumentar a utilização" deste tipo de energia, garantiu.

Se a catástrofe de Chernobil (Ucrânia), em 1986, representou um importante travão ao desenvolvimento do sector, o mesmo não se passou depois de Março de 2011, quando um sismo e um tsunami destruíram a central nuclear de Fukushima, no Japão.

"A construção de novos reactores continuou. Neste momento, contam-se perto de 70 em construção, em todo o mundo, além dos 430 já em exploração. E o essencial deste crescimento está a acontecer na Ásia", lembrou Amano, numa intervenção perante os participantes no Congresso.

A China lidera esta dinâmica e as autoridades vêem no átomo um elemento incontornável, e com uma fraca emissão de dióxido de carbono (CO2), na política energética chinesa, devido às imensas necessidades do país.

"A China tem 1,3 mil milhões de habitantes e todos os anos o consumo de energia aumenta mais 5%, o que é indispensável para alimentar um crescimento económico de 10%", lembrou Yumin Wang, responsável da administração energética chinesa.

Neste contexto, "e apesar de existir uma crise nuclear no Japão, a energia nuclear continua a fazer parte da solução para a China", adiantou Liu Zhenya, administrador da maior empresa gestora da rede eléctrica chinesa, a State Grid Corporation.

De acordo com a Associação Mundial do Nuclear (WNA, sigla em inglês), a China possui o programa nuclear mais impressionante do mundo, com 30 reactores em construção, 59 em fase de projecto e 17 em funcionamento.

Karl Rose, responsável pelas projecções energéticas no Conselho Mundial de Energia, disse que "a China, mais do que qualquer outro país, deve investir em todas as fontes de energia. A curto prazo, não tem outra escolha", se quer cumprir os ambiciosos objectivos de desenvolvimento.

Responsáveis do sector energético japonês, incluindo o vice-presidente da empresa gestora da central de Fukushima, TEPCO, sublinharam também, em Daegu, que o átomo ia continuar a desempenhar um papel no arquipélago nipónico.

No plano económico, a pressão é forte, já que de momento o Japão é obrigado a importar petróleo e gás para compensar a paragem do parque nuclear, o que mina a balança comercial e a competitividade industrial.

O governo de Shinzo Abe pretende relançar o funcionamento dos reactores, apesar da oposição declarada dos ecologistas e de parte da população japonesa.

A Índia, onde milhões de habitantes têm um acesso intermitente à electricidade, está a construir sete reactores, para um parque actual de 20, e tem projectos para 18 mais, de acordo com a WNA, o que transforma este país na outra locomotiva do sector depois da China.

O Paquistão quer passar de três a cinco reactores, enquanto o Vietname, que ainda não tem nenhum, pretende construir quatro.

A Coreia do Sul, já um bastião mundial do nuclear, quer aumentar a produção eléctrica de 40 para 60%, até 2035, estando a construir cinco novos reactores.

Esta política origina preocupações, numa altura em que a catástrofe no vizinho Japão deixou claros os riscos de uma grande dependência do átomo.

O governo sul-coreano deve rever, em Dezembro, a política nuclear e um grupo de peritos está a causar polémica com a recomendação apresentada às autoridades: a redução da dependência do átomo, para produção de energia eléctrica, em 25%, em 20 anos.

Lusa