Uruguay legalises abortion

BBC News, 17 October 2012

The measure was approved by a narrow margin in both houses
of the Congress

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Uruguay has become the second country in Latin America, after communist Cuba, to legalise abortion for all women.

With a 17-14 majority, the Uruguayan Senate approved legislation that allows women to have an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The measure has divided opinion in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

Pro- and anti-abortion campaigners have criticised the compromise that sealed the deal expected to be signed into law by left-wing President Jose Mujica.

The proposal had already been approved by the lower house of Congress and the Senate, but politicians from both sides of the debate agreed further changes and held another vote.

Abortions versus adoptions

Pro-abortion campaigners say many lives will be saved with the end of clandestine, high-risk terminations. 

The vote has split opinion in the
Roman Catholic country

"With this law, we are joining the ranks of developed countries that have largely adopted a stance to liberalise, recognising the failure of criminal laws to avoid abortions," said government Senator Luis Gallo.

Pro-abortion campaigners reject changes to the proposal that forces women to justify before a panel of experts why they wish a termination.

After that, they will need to wait for several days - a period of reflection - before being able to state their final decision.

Anti-abortion politicians said the government should have adopted measures to encourage adoptions, rather than change the law.

"Abortion is not a medical act. It does not seek to protect and preserve a patient's health," said opposition Senator Alfredo Solari.

Abortion is legal and available on request in Cuba.

Abortion is also allowed up to the 12th week of pregnancy in many Mexican states and in the area of the capital, Mexico City.

In other Latin American countries, it is only allowed in cases of rape or health risk for the woman.

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Archangel Michael: The Declaration of Human Freedom

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

"... I want to define life for you - not biological life, but spiritual life. So for all those intellectuals, just hold on, for many won't like this. Spiritual life, as measured by Spirit, is when a Human has free choice. When is that? It's when they take their first breath. Not in utero. There will be those who will say, "That's wrong, that's wrong. The soul in the woman's body is alive!" Just wait. I'm talking about spiritually. That which Spirit sees, and it's when you come from the other side of the veil and take your first breath.

A child with the mother has no free choice. That child is linked to the choice of the mother until it is born. It is, indeed, a soul in preparation for free choice, and there are many attributes that are spiritual that we have discussed before about how that soul reacts. But now I'm discussing life with polarity [duality], free choice.

But let's discuss that "child inside" for a moment, for there is a process I want you to know about. I want to talk about 240 days into the pregnancy. At about that time, the child has perfect DNA. It hasn't taken its first breath. The DNA hasn't measured the energy of the planet yet, since it is contained. Did you realize that? Inside the womb is a perfect child. The child's DNA has all the attributes of the Akash and also the parent, but it's different in a way you have not been told. The DNA is 100% as designed.

The quantum instructions within the DNA are all talking to the biology of the child,, getting ready for the first breath. ..."

Colombian government, rebels, in Norway for peace talks

Deutsche Welle, 17 October 2012

Representatives from the Colombian government and the leftist FARC rebel group have arrived in Oslo, where they'll try to negotiate an end to an armed conflict lasting half a century.

The talks in Norway, which along with Cuba is acting as a mediator in the peace process, will be the fourth time the two sides have tried to seek a negotiated settlement, and the first talks in a decade.

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said both parties were taken through a VIP section of Oslo airport, to an undisclosed location for meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.

It is believed the Colombian government and FARC have held secret talks in Cuba since February, in which the groundwork for these negotiations were set out.

The talks are expected to cover the laying down of arms, rural development, narcotics trafficking, victims' rights, and various guarantees for the opposition.

The guerrillas originally formed to demand what they viewed as a just distribution of Colombian land. Originally, a number of Colombians supported the guerrilla fighters' demands. But, as the war drags on, the number of civilian victims has increased and there is growing support for an end to the fighting.

jr/rc (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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Farc to send Dutch woman to Oslo talks

Farc to send Dutch woman to Oslo talks

Colombian rebel group says Tanja Nijmeijer will be among its representatives at delayed peace talks in Norway

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press in Bogotá, Tuesday 16 October 2012

Tanja Nijmeijer, 34, joined the Farc insurgents a decade ago. Photograph: AP

The delegation representing Colombia's main rebel group at peace talks set to begin this week in Oslo will include a young Dutch woman who joined the insurgents nearly a decade ago.

Timoleón Jiménez, the commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), said Tanja Nijmeijer, 34, would be among rebel representatives in the Norwegian capital .

Nijmeijer gained fame when she complained of disillusionment in a diary found in 2007, four years after she joined the Farc. In 2010, however, she appeared in a video distributed by the Farc pledging allegiance to the insurgency.

Jiménez, better known as Timochenko, also acknowledged in an interview broadcast on Monday that the talks had been postponed by several days. They were to have begun in the first half of October.

Government officials did not comment publicly on the reason for the delay but Enrique Santos, an adviser to government negotiators and brother of President Juan Manuel Santos, said the issue of suspending international arrest warrants for Farc delegates as well as the rebels' late inclusion of the Dutch woman contributed to the delay, as did bad weather that delayed travel for Ivan Marquéz, a top rebel negotiator.

Santos said the talks would definitely begin by Thursday.

Timochenko, 53, complained the government had not provided guarantees that all Farc-nominated delegates to the talks would be permitted to attend. He named, in particular, Ricardo Palmera, the best-known of the rebels' five chief negotiators.

Palmera, 62, is serving a 60-year prison sentence in a maximum-security US prison, convicted of conspiring to kidnap three US military contractors whom the Farc captured in 2003 when their surveillance plane crashed after mechanical failure.

He is held in solitary confinement at the so-called "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado.

His lawyer, Oscar Silva, told Associated Press that the US government had barred Palmera from receiving visitors and that he could only speak with his client during hearings for a Colombian trial in which Palmera participates by video conference, with no opportunity for confidential conversations.

In addition to the US sentence, Palmera has been convicted in Colombia of the kidnapping of the former mayor of the north-eastern regional capital of Valledupar, where he was a wealthy banker before joining the rebels.

Colombia's chief prosecutor, Eduardo Montealegre, says Palmera could be permitted to participate in the talks via teleconference.

He told Associated Press on Monday, however, that the Colombian government had not yet asked the US government for permission.

Timochenko called Palmera's participation "decisive", given his expertise in agrarian economics.

All but one man on the Farc's six-member ruling Secretariat is wanted by the US on drug-trafficking charges, with $5m (£3.1m) rewards on offer for each.

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Cuba to end exit permits for foreign travel

BBC News, 16 October 2012

Changing Cuba 

• Taxing times
• Reform but 'no rush'
• A last hurrah
• Market socialism?

Obtaining an exit permit currently
takes a lot of time and money

Cuba has announced it is removing the need for its citizens to obtain exit permits before travelling abroad.

State media said the move, to come into effect on 14 January next year, would "update" migration laws to reflect current and future circumstances.

Cubans currently have to go through a lengthy and expensive process to obtain a permit and dissidents are often denied one, correspondents say.

The move is the latest in a series of reforms under President Raul Castro.

Cubans who have permanent residency on the island will also be allowed to stay abroad for up to 24 months, instead of the current 11, without having to return to renew paperwork.

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford, in Havana, says the exit permit process is hated by most Cubans so this reform, which was much anticipated, will be widely welcomed.

Cuba previously saw people attempting to leave the country as traitors or enemies of the revolution, says our correspondent, but official recognition is growing that many Cubans want to leave for economic reasons and that the country can benefit from the cash and knowledge they bring back with them.

Now all that Cubans will need to leave is a valid passport and a visa.

However, the new law still argues for the need to protect Cuba's "human capital", our correspondent adds, so highly-qualified professionals like doctors, will continue to face extra hurdles to travel.

Government critics are also likely to experience further difficulties, as passport updates can be denied for "reasons of public interest defined by the authorities".

The restrictions have failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of Cubans emigrating illegally in the past few decades, many of them to the US where they have formed a strongly anti-Havana diaspora.

The US grants automatic residency to anyone who reaches it from Cuba.

Brink of war

For nearly half a century, Cuba was run as a command economy, with almost all activity controlled by the state. 

Cubans remember missile crisis 'victory'

In pictures: Cuban missile crisis

But under President Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, it has gradually eased restrictions in many areas of politics, business and society.

The latest reform comes on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war as the US and the Soviet Union nearly went to war over Soviet missiles placed on the island.

But the crisis was resolved diplomatically when the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a US promise not to invade Cuba.

However the relationship between Cuba and the US remains hostile - they have no diplomatic relations and an American economic blockade of the era is still in effect.

Cuba has struggled economically since the collapse of the Soviet Union and now relies heavily on the support of the left-wing government of Venezuela.

European Union wins Nobel Peace Prize

Deutsche Welle, 12 October 2012

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has unanimously awarded the European Union the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts for peace, reconciliation, and democracy over the past six decades.

Friday's announcement was considered a surprise to some, but a Norwegian broadcaster had reported the announcement an hour before it was officially made.

Making the announcement in Oslo, the head of the Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, said the European Union's efforts toward "the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe" since the end of World War II had earned the 27-nation bloc the prize.

Jagland highlighted the reconciliation and continued good relationship between Germany and France as a key point in the decision to recognize the EU.

"Over a seventy-year period, Germany and France had fought three wars," he said. "Today, war between Germany and France is unthinkable."

Conditions of democracy placed on countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal before they were allowed to join the EU, and the opportunities for EU membership afforded to Central and Eastern European countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall, were also highlighted in the EU's track record.

The committee also illustrated the EU's continued commitment to democracy with the admission of Croatia as a member next year, and the discussion of membership for Turkey, which "has also advanced democracy and human rights in that country."

Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said on Twitter that he was "deeply touched and honored" that the EU had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

mz/tj (Reuters, AFP)

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“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“…  We told you there'd come a time on the planet when there'd be only five currencies because the continents would decide to put countries together, not separate them. Do you know who was the model? It's the United States. What an experiment you had! Imagine: Could you take many different states that were governed separately, yet didn't have any visible borders, and give them one currency? It worked. It has worked for well over 100 years. Against all odds, it worked.

Fifty years ago, with the end of the last world war, the Europeans saw what the USA did and emulated it. It has become the European Union. After the war, they postulated, "What if we took many of the countries of Europe, ones who have warred with each other since the beginning of recorded civilization, and we unified them? We will take away the borders and give them one currency." They were laughed at! Yet today, you're seeing it.

Today, their monetary system is more valuable than yours! Where am I going with this? Listen - here is an attribute, a postulate, an axiom of this new earth energy: Separatism kills. Unity is the survival of humanity. You will start putting things together and not taking them apart. And the more you put them together, the more you will unify. Then slowly you'll realize that the goal is to put things together, not tear them apart. What has the European Union created? I'll tell you. It isn't the Euro. It has created a group of countries that will never go to war with each other again! They can't. They trade with each other. Think about it. That's what we're talking about. …“

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text-Version)

Europe

Let's talk about Europe - Eastern and Western Europe. Look at the history. I want you to look at the history of the Europeans. What do you know about them? What did you study in school about them, American? You had to learn all those dates and facts. You sit in a country that's barely 200 years old and you had to memorize all the battles and all those conquerors and all those army specifics for hundreds of years! Fourteen hundreds, 1300s - all the way to the present century they seemed to be conquering each other on a regular basis. They warred with each other like the tides of the ocean, constant and predictable. When they got tired of that, they conquered other continents. The small country of Spain alone is responsible for conquering all of South America, middle America and well up into North America. Millions today are speaking their language who never did before they arrived.

The armies of Napoleon spread across parts of Europe like water flowing in a river, conquering everything in its path. There are some cities today in Europe that still don't know which country they belong to! This is because their borders kept changing so often! Now, that's history. I want you to look at it carefully. Still, there would be those who say, "This is just what men do. They create borders and cultures and they go to war. That's Human nature."

Fifty years ago, this new energy started to arrive. Oh, the alignments go slow, dear Human Being, but it was here. It was starting; it was beginning. Fifty years ago, something happened in Europe and you didn't hear much about it back then. Some very clear thinkers got together after World War II and said, "If we don't do something different and out of the box of today's thinking, it's all going to happen again because this is what we do. Men make war." Even the young country called America was involved in war. America itself almost split apart before that, because that's what men do. They split good things apart. It was obvious to these wise men that they could try something, something that might work - a uniting instead of separation. And so they formed an idea. Let me tell you what it was.

They said to themselves, "What if we could get as many countries as we can to agree to become a collection of 'country states'? If we start this now and go at it slowly, we could eventually have a system where we would trade together to the point where the borders come down, no checkpoints and no passports. All these cultures and former enemy countries would all trade evenly together, and for that to happen we might even have a common currency. Look at the United States, for this is how it works there. Europe would never go to war with itself again. It couldn't, since it would be allied financially."

Of course, they were laughed at! Everyone who heard it said it couldn't' be done and that there were just too many issues to solve. Those who objected said, "No, no, no. That's not what we do. We have too many different cultures. There's some with strong currencies, there's some with weak currencies. There are too many objections. Imagine going from one country to another without being inspected at the border? That won't work. Who are you to suggest something of this nature?" And the forward thinkers said, "We are unifiers. And we think it's a good idea so we will have strength and will never war again." That was two generations ago, 50 years.

Today, you have the European Union of States. There are more all the time, way past the original number of countries. Some are "standing in line" to be accepted! The borders are gone and the checkpoints are missing and the currency called the Euro is the strongest currency on Earth - stronger even than yours [the USA]. Now, let me tell you what did that. It's a consciousness shift that even 50 years ago was developing. Through two generations, it slowly allowed for free thinkers to unify things that had never been unified before. The result? These countries will never conquer each other again, because "history" ended at that moment. They started a new paradigm for Europe and one that has no historic profile known to man. The old history of the area is gone, and it will not repeat itself.

Those in the old Eastern Bloc of Europe, where there is still to this day very little unity, will still say, "History will again repeat itself. We are victims of it. It's only a matter of time." But not all of them feel this way. There are some who are starting to feel a unity of spirituality within their own cultures that they were never allowed to speak of before. So they are free thinking, out of the box of the old paradigm. It's new.

There are those who are standing on podiums and in pulpits and are proclaiming, "History is ended. It's the end of suffering. It's the end of dictatorships. It's the end of those who would put us in a low place. Instead, it's the beginning of discovering who we are." And although they don't say it in these exact words, they are discovering the creator inside - that which is the unity of God. So it's a full circle back to what the Angel told Muhammad, isn't it? For unity was the key to peace, and still is. It is a sacred principle and will never change.

Who would have thought this would have happened? The United States is what it is because 200 years ago the founders said, "Let us make a group of state countries without physical borders in a system that's never been tried. It's one of unity - the UNITED States of America." Oh, it had its tests, but the unifiers won. And it is why this country is what it is and is seen and respected for what it is and for what it's done. So young, it is, but representing the new energy, it is.

Your Declaration of Independence was channelled. Did you know that? It was collective effort channelling by those who had asked God for help. Go read it and feel that which is sacred inside, for it unifies and does not separate.

Archangel Michael: The Declaration of Human Freedom

“.. South America and the New Energy

South America is starting to consider the same thing. My partner was just there and I allowed him to see the energy of the potential future in that land.

I would like to paint history for you regarding South America. There was a time when every single country had a dictator. Less than 15 years ago, they had failing economies and currencies that were worthless. Trouble and strife and killings were the norm. Marauding drug lords openly killed in the streets and corruption was everywhere. Even the politicians created fear and many disappeared overnight, never to be seen again. Today it isn't that way. Today, there is an ongoing stability as one country after another brings a new, positive, stable energy to their cultures. So, without a concentrated effort by any kind of multi-national leadership or direction, how could this have changed in only 15 years?

Within the entire continent, there's only one dictator left. What's happening? If you think that's amazing, there is a move afoot that you're not going to hear about yet. But they're discussing it right now, so let me tell you what they're thinking. "What would happen if we took these countries and eliminated the borders?" Sound familiar? They're talking about it. In back rooms where nobody is reporting it, they're saying, "What about a plan of eventually having one currency from the top of Columbia to the bottom of Chile? And we would be strong and we would be unified." And dear ones, I'm here to tell you, that it's going to work, and it might not take 50 years. Soon the one dictator will be gone, and the unification can begin.

There's a shift happening on this planet. ..”

Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez played role in Colombia's peace talks with Farc

Meetings in Havana paved the way for negotiations that open in Oslo on Wednesday on ending long-running civil war 

The Guardian, The Observer, Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor, Saturday 13 October 2012

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro, centre, and Venezuelan leader Hugo
Chávez, left,  were instrumental in bringing Farc and the Colombian government
together. Photograph: Estudios Revolucion/AFP

The ailing former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, together with Venezuela's recently re-elected leader Hugo Chávez, played a critical role in bringing the Colombian government and the deadly Farc guerrilla group together for peace talks that could end one of Latin America's longest-running civil wars, the Observer has learned.

According to sources closely involved in the peace process, which sees historic talks opening in Oslo on Wednesday, the key breakthrough after almost four years of back-channel talks between the two sides came during a visit earlier this year by Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, to Cuba, where he met both Castro and Chávez, who was in Cuba being treated for cancer.

That meeting was the first of many in Havana between the two sides, facilitated primarily by Cuba and Norway with the backing of Venezuela, which saw agreement on the detailed agenda for the first round of talks this week. "Officially President Santos went to Cuba to discuss the Americas summit," said a source intimately involved in the peace negotiations. "But the purpose of that trip was to discuss the peace initiative."

The meetings earlier this year followed the decision last year by Santos to take the step of recognising that an "armed conflict" existed in his country, an initiative encouraged by Chávez since 2008. Those contacts also came in the same period that Farc announced it was ending kidnapping, one of five preconditions for talks that had been set down by Santos as a gesture of goodwill.

Farc and the government have been at war since 1964, with the group more recently accused of having taken a directing role in coca production in areas it controls, an issue that will be on the agenda for the talks.

But in what is being billed as the best chance to bring about a negotiated end to the long-running conflict, the Colombian government delegation will sit down with Farc leaders whose Interpol arrest warrants have been suspended to allow them to travel to Oslo without fear of arrest.

The government delegation, for the first time ever, will include retired generals with the trust of the country's military and representatives of Colombia's business elite, whose presence, it is hoped, will help sell any peace deal that emerges to those hostile to the process.

After the failure of the last round of peace negotiations, which foundered 12 years ago, top of the agenda will be the issues of land reform – Farc's key demand – political participation, the disarmament of the guerrilla group and the issue of paramilitaries who have in the past sought to torpedo any deal.

The disclosure of the key role of Cuba in organising support for the peace process marked the culmination of a long period of back-channel talks first initiated by Santos's predecessor as president, Alvaro Uribe, under whom Santos served as minister of defence.

During those four years contacts continued despite the death during an army operation of Farc's leader, Alfonso Cano, last year.

Others credited with having created the conditions for the talks in Norway are unnamed former participants in the Northern Ireland peace process.

The talks are due to begin amid warnings from both sides, as well as observers, that a serious threat exists from those on both sides of Colombia's political divide who might attempt to use violence to derail the process.

The attempt to reach a negotiated peace settlement foundered over a decade ago as both sides accused the other of stalling and rebuilding their forces, a period, observers say, that saw a doubling of anti-Farc paramilitaries.

A senior Colombian government source, who briefed the Observer on condition of anonymity, described the chances for talks as the best ever, adding that the Santos government had already enacted a new law for land reform and victim restitution. "President Santos is a pragmatist. He has already presented to congress a framework for an agreement. Colombia was already moving into a post-conflict phase, in some respects, even as the conflict continues. It is the right moment. Farc have a historic opportunity – probably the last – to find a solution to this conflict with dignity. To go into history and say they fought for social justice. To say they fought for land reform.

"We want to see 'Timochenko' [Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, who took over command of Farc after Cano's death in 2011] in Colombia's congress just as we have seen Gerry Adams in the Northern Ireland assembly."

The sense of a guarded new optimism is shared by outside observers, including Marc Chernick, a US academic who has followed the history of Colombian peace negotiations and written The Farc at the Negotiating Table. Speaking from Colombia on Friday, Chernick said: "I've observed all the previous negotiations and I have been optimistic before, but this time I believe there is a real seriousness on both sides that has not been shown before.

"In the past Farc has always asked for a demilitarised zone as a precondition and this time it has not pressed for that. Four years ago it started to release prisoners, first civilians then military, and then renounced kidnapping.

"Clearly they want to talk. And they stayed at the table for the pre-negotiations even though three senior leaders were killed, including Alfonso Cano.

"Santos is clear, too. He was former minister of defence under President Uribe. They pushed the war as hard as they could and killed leaders. Now he has recognised that it will go on indefinitely. So Santos has come to the conclusion that only a negotiated solution is possible."

Chernick – like the senior government source – warned of the risk of violence during the peace talks from those, particularly on the right, opposed to peace with Farc, not least, he says, from paramilitaries who, although officially "disbanded", are still active and supported by elite sectors of society.

"What is different this time," added Chernick, "is that both sides have signed up to the idea that the intended end of the peace talks is the end of the conflict."

A LOSING BATTLE

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) has been fighting a guerrilla conflict since 1964. Formed by Marxist-Leninist intellectuals, it claimed to represent the poor against the ruling elite and the stranglehold of the US.

By the 1990s it had become one of the richest guerrilla armies in the world, financed through kidnapping, drugs and illegal gold mines. In 2008 several Farc leaders, including Alfonso Cano, right, were killed, weakening the group, which is now led by Rodrigo Londoño, better known as Timochenko.

The Colombian military says the rebels' strength is down from 16,000 fighters in 2001, when they controlled nearly a third of the country, to about 8,000 in rural areas.

Cuban refugees' raft sinks off Mexico's Isla Mujeres

BBC News, 12 October 2012

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An improvised raft carrying 23 Cuban refugees has sunk as it approached a Mexican island near the popular resort of Cancun.

Two people have died and 11 are missing and presumed dead.

Survivors told Mexican media that their home-made raft sank as it hit the reefs surrounding Isla Mujeres on Friday morning.

The refugees said they headed for Mexico in the hope of joining relatives in the United States.

The accident happened some 150 metres (140 yards) off Isla Mujeres, in an area known for its strong currents, the Mexican Navy said. 

Cancun is one of Mexico's best known
holiday destinations

Ten Cuban refugees managed to swim to safety.

But they said the others were taken away by the currents or fatally injured as they were pushed towards the rocks by the big waves.

"One of them head a head injury and died on the beach. The other one, a woman, was taken to hospital but also died of her injuries," said a Navy official, Ismael Gonzalez Gil.

There were no children among the 23 Cuban refugees.

The survivors said group's intention was to reach the Mexican coast, which lies some 220km (140 miles) west of Cuba, and eventually cross the border into the United States.

Colombia apology for devastation in Amazon rubber boom

BBC News, 13 October 2012

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Many Colombian indigenous peoples are
 threatened by conflict between left-wing
rebels and the army

Colombia's president has apologised to indigenous communities in the Amazon for deaths and destruction caused by the rubber boom around 100 years ago.

Backed by Colombia's government, a Peruvian firm tapped rubber from 1912 to 1929 near La Chorrera in the south.

Up 100,000 people were killed and communities devastated, according to indigenous leaders.

President Juan Manuel Santos asked for forgiveness "for all the dead and their orphans".

He apologised "in the name of a company, a government".

Mr Santos said that in pursuit of progress, the government of the day "failed to understand the importance of safeguarding each indigenous person and culture as an essential part of a society we now understand as multi-ethnic and multicultural."

Torture and mutilation

Rubber barons in the Amazon carried out horrendous human rights abuses, first documented by British diplomat Roger Casement in 1912.

These included forced labour, slavery, torture and mutilation, says the BBC's Arturo Wallace in Colombia.

The apology was issued on the day Latin Americans mark the beginning of Spanish colonisation.

The Day of the Race, as the date is known in the region, commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the continent on 12 October 1492.

The president named nine indigenous peoples who were decimated by the rubber-tapping project of Julio Cesar Arana, a controversial Peruvian entrepreneur and politician.

"It is essential to contribute towards healing the wounds inflicted on your lives and in the memory of our nation," he said.

President Santos vowed that such abuses would never happen again.

The Colombian government recognises 87 indigenous groups but the Colombian Indigenous Organisation, OIC says there are 102.

Up to one-third of them face extinction because of the armed conflict and forced displacement.

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Argentinian 'sex slave' allowed abortion after ruling

BBC News, 12 October 2012 

Activists in Argentina say illegal abortions put the lives of thousands under risk

  

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Doctors in Argentina have carried out an abortion on a woman rescued from a prostitution ring, following a Supreme Court ruling to allow the termination to go ahead.

In the predominantly Catholic country, abortion is illegal except in rape cases or to protect a woman's health.

A judge had blocked the operation, saying there was no proof that the woman had been raped.

The case led to days of protests and revived the debate in Argentina.

Doctors carried out the abortion on Friday morning, the authorities in Buenos Aires said.

Several doctors and nurses refused initially to get involved in the termination, as "conscientious objectors".

Argentina's Health Ministry intervened to clarify the procedure was legal and those involved in carrying it out would not be punished.

The 32-year-old woman was on the 10th week of pregnancy.

She said she had been kidnapped and forced into prostitution.

The Supreme Court ruling on Thursday night, overturning a decision by a judge on Tuesday, was celebrated by pro-abortion campaigners.

Cuba is the only Latin American country where abortion is available to all.

Last month the lower house of Congress in Uruguay voted to legalise abortion under certain circumstances.

The measure is expected to be approved by the Senate next week.

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Archangel Michael: The Declaration of Human Freedom

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

"... I want to define life for you - not biological life, but spiritual life. So for all those intellectuals, just hold on, for many won't like this. Spiritual life, as measured by Spirit, is when a Human has free choice. When is that? It's when they take their first breath. Not in utero. There will be those who will say, "That's wrong, that's wrong. The soul in the woman's body is alive!" Just wait. I'm talking about spiritually. That which Spirit sees, and it's when you come from the other side of the veil and take your first breath.

A child with the mother has no free choice. That child is linked to the choice of the mother until it is born. It is, indeed, a soul in preparation for free choice, and there are many attributes that are spiritual that we have discussed before about how that soul reacts. But now I'm discussing life with polarity [duality], free choice.

But let's discuss that "child inside" for a moment, for there is a process I want you to know about. I want to talk about 240 days into the pregnancy. At about that time, the child has perfect DNA. It hasn't taken its first breath. The DNA hasn't measured the energy of the planet yet, since it is contained. Did you realize that? Inside the womb is a perfect child. The child's DNA has all the attributes of the Akash and also the parent, but it's different in a way you have not been told. The DNA is 100% as designed.

The quantum instructions within the DNA are all talking to the biology of the child,, getting ready for the first breath. ..."

Trinidad and Tobago murder statistics banned

BBC News, 10 October 2012

Related Stories 

• Fifa vice-president Warner quits
• Country profile: Trinidad and Tobago

Jack Warner, a former Fifa
 vice-president, is a well-known
figure in the Caribbean

Police in Trinidad and Tobago have been ordered to stop releasing murder statistics.

National Security Minister Jack Warner said reports of violence encouraged people to commit more crime.

He accused the opposition PNM party of using official police information to encourage mayhem in the Caribbean country.

Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams said that he would ignore the order.

Mr Williams said the police would continue to fulfil their legal obligation of disseminating information on murders and other crime on the islands.

Mr Warner's comments have led to angry reactions in Trinidad and Tobago, particularly among members of the PNM party.

'Domino effect'

Jack Warner is a well-known, albeit controversial, figure in the Caribbean.

He was appointed as national security minister in his native Trinidad and Tobago in June, a year after resigning as vice-president of the world's football body, Fifa.

He had been accused of paying bribes to Caribbean football associations. Mr Warner denies any wrongdoing.

His comments on crime in Trinidad and Tobago came after the murder of a young man in a violent area of the country.

The order was meant as a temporary measure to tackle crime, Mr Warner said.

"The intent of this measure is to seek to ensure that crime statistics are not sensationalised, thereby acting as a domino effect in certain hot spot areas," he said in a statement.

"The issue is not about withholding the statistics. It is about the management of the sensitive information that has the potential to inflame additional crime - particularly when treating the issue of gangs."

Drug-related violence is a major problem in Trinidad and Tobago, which has become a shipment point for cocaine coming from South America.