Top FIFA officials among 16 indicted in widening scandal

Yahoo – AFP, 4 Dec 2015

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks about the corruption scandal

 engulfing FIFA at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on December 3,

2015 (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

Washington (AFP) - Sixteen more top football officials were charged in a dramatic widening of the FIFA corruption scandal on Thursday, as US prosecutors vowed to leave no stone unturned in their quest to root out graft.

Several senior FIFA officials from the past or present were named in a 92-count US Justice Department indictment which came after a series of dawn raids at a luxury hotel in Zurich hosting FIFA officials.

Among those indicted on Thursday were the president of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), Juan Angel Napout, and Alfredo Hawit, head of the North, Central American and Caribbean ruling body (CONCACAF).

Other notable officials indicted include Ricardo Teixeira, the once-powerful former head of the Brazilian Football Confederation and a former FIFA vice-president.

The indicted also included Ariel Alvarado, a Panamanian official who currently sits on FIFA's disciplinary committee.

The main players in the deepening FIFA corruption scandal (135 x 156 mm)

(AFP Photo/S.Ramis-K.Tian/P. Defosseux)

"The message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: You will not wait us out. You will not escape our focus," US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, describing the allegations as "outrageous" and "unconscionable."

Lynch revealed that eight more people indicted since authorities launched an earlier wave of FIFA raids and arrests in Switzerland in May had now pleaded guilty.

"I can report eight additional defendants have agreed to plead guilty for their involvement in the corruption scheme," she said.

Millions forfeited

Among those who had pleaded guilty were Jeffrey Webb, a former FIFA vice president and head of CONCACAF.

Webb, who was indicted when the corruption scandal erupted earlier this year, has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering conspiracy.

As part of his plea deal, Webb has agreed to forfeit more than $6.7 million in assets.

Webb and former CONCACAF chief Jack Warner, who was indicted earlier, were also accused of siphoning off cash intended for disaster relief, according to the new indictment.

"Certain of the defendants and their co-conspirators, including the defendant Jack Warner and Jeffrey Webb, took advantage of these opportunities and embezzled or otherwise personally appropriated funds provided by FIFA, including funds intended for natural disaster relief," the indictment read.

Several senior FIFA officials from the past or present were named in a

 92-count US Justice Department indictment which came after a series of dawn

 raids at a luxury hotel in Zurich hosting FIFA officials The unprecedented 

corruption scandal engulfing FIFA widened on December 3 with the arrests of

 two more top officials in another dramatic dawn raid at a luxury hotel in Zurich.

(AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

Napout and Hawit are both in Switzerland where they are now fighting extradition to the United States, officials said.

Both men are suspected of taking millions of dollars in bribes in return for selling marketing rights for regional tournaments and World Cup qualifying matches, according to the US indictment.

The investigation also covered the payment and receipt of bribes in connection with the sponsorship of the Brazilian soccer federation by a major US sportswear company, and the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 FIFA presidential election. Lynch would not confirm that the US sportswear company was Nike.

Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey meanwhile said those indicted had run corrupt schemes spanning decades.

"For decades, these defendants used their power as the leaders of soccer federations throughout the world to create a web of corruption and greed that compromises the integrity of the beautiful game," Comey said.

Lynch meanwhile dismissed claims by FIFA's suspended President Sepp Blatter that the US investigation was triggered by sour grapes over the country's failed bid for the 2022 World Cup, controversially awarded to Qatar in a 2010 vote.

"I think (Blatter) is well aware of the nature of our charges," Lynch said.

"This covers years of conduct by dozens and dozens of people from the past into the future. I called it outrageous and unconscionable. That still stands."

Colombia rethinks drug policy with medical marijuana

Yahoo – AFP, Raúl Arboleda and Paula Carrillo, 3 Dec 2015

Colombian Ines Cano (C) and her daughter Luna Valentina, visit the Cannalivio 

lab at Sabaneta municipality near Medellin in Colombia's Antioquia department

on May 7, 2015 (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

Medellín (Colombia) (AFP) - Every year Colombian mother Ines Cano celebrates her daughter's birthday by getting a butterfly tattoo, her way of giving thanks that little Luna has survived another year of chronic epilepsy.

Ines is up to 12 tattoos now, and is hopeful of adding many more thanks to the medical marijuana treatments she says have changed their lives, and which Colombia is now in the process of legalizing and regulating.

The 12 tattoos could also represent the number of anti-seizure medications she tried previously, to little effect.

"Every day Luna had seizures when she woke up and went to sleep. She could convulse for one or two hours," said Ines, who carried her developmentally delayed daughter on her back for seven years until she learned to walk.

"Seizures are pain, anguish, powerlessness. It's a phantom that grabs you. But cannabis made her feel better. Luna started recognizing colors, feeding herself, became more independent."

Since January Ines has been giving Luna one drop of cannabis extract every night. The changes have been dramatic, the 36-year-old mother told AFP at their home in Medellin.

Colombian Ines Cano gives medical marijuana to her daughter Luna Valentina (L)

 at their home in Medellin, in Colombia's Antioquia department, on November 25,

 2015 (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

"By the ninth day, she stopped having seizures, as if it were a miracle. That's why I think it's important, especially in this country, which has so much fertile land, to take advantage of that little plant," she said.

Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer, has a difficult history with drugs.

Drug trafficking has given rise to horrific violence by drug cartels such as slain kingpin Pablo Escobar's, which was based in the same city where Ines and Luna live. It has also fueled a five-decade armed conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people.

Colombia has been a close ally in the US war on drugs, deploying the military to combat drug traffickers and taking aggressive measures to destroy illegal crops.

But in a move to ease its drug policies, the government announced last month it would fully legalize medical marijuana and regulate its production, distribution, sale and export.

President Juan Manuel Santos is due to sign a decree any day now putting the new policy in effect.

'China of cannabis'

It is currently legal to grow up to 20 cannabis plants in Colombia, and medical marijuana is already available.

But the new policy will make it much easier to access it.

Colombian Ines Cano (L) and her daughter Luna Valentina visit the Cannalivio

 lab at Sabaneta municipality, near Medellin in Colombia's Antioquia department, 

on May 7, 2015 (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

"It will make it easier to buy, sell and process it," said Luna's doctor Paola Pineda.

Pineda, a vocal proponent of fully legalizing medical marijuana, said her activism began when she saw what patients were going through to access such treatments.

"It seemed very harsh to me that families would separate, sell everything they had in Colombia to travel to another country in search of that therapeutic opportunity, when we had it right here," she said.

Producers of medical marijuana currently operate small firms through the loopholes of a 1986 law that legalized cannabis for therapeutic purposes.

The new decree will allow them to offer high-quality products on a much larger scale, said Mauricio Garcia, co-founder of medical marijuana company Cannalivio.

The firm launched eight years ago, taking advantage of what Garcia calls "voids" in the 1986 law. Today it sells not only medication but oils, ointments and even a lip balm made with pot.

But with Colombia's fertile soil and tropical climate they could do much more, said Garcia, a civil engineer by training.

"In other countries, (medical marijuana) is grown completely inside, with artificial lights, irrigation and fertilizer systems," he said. "Colombia could become the China of cannabis."

Pope: Condom issue is 'morally complicated'

Pope Francis has dismissed a question about condoning condoms in the fight against AIDS, saying that the world is facing bigger issues. The pope left Africa after visiting Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

Deutsche Welle, 30 Nov 2015

The Roman pontiff admitted that condom use is "one of the methods" which could prevent the spread of HIV, while talking to journalists aboard the papal plane on Monday.

Francis was flying back to Rome after a five-day tour in Africa, when a reporter asked him if the Catholic Church should allow the use of condoms to combat the spread of AIDS.

The head of the Catholic Church did not provide a definite answer on the "morally complicated" issue, criticizing the question instead.

"I don't like getting into questions or reflections that are so technical when people are dying because they don't have water or food or housing," he told the German reporter, according to the AP news agency.

"The problem is bigger than that," he added.

Pope Francis also pointed to slave labor, environmental exploitation and arms trafficking as some of the more significant problems facing humanity.

Questions like condoms and AIDS can be addressed when the other issues he mentioned are resolved, according to the pontiff.

Abstinence against AIDS

The topic of AIDS and HIV has taken a back seat during the pope's visit to the three African countries.

However, the Vatican chief took the time to visit the HIV-infected children at a Uganda hospital, and thank the church's health care workers for looking after the infected.

AIDS is the number one cause of death among adolescents in Africa.

Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI sparked international criticism during his 2009 Africa visit by saying that condoms could make the AIDS situation worse.

The previous pope later admitted that using condoms was justified in some cases, but insisted they were not a "moral solution."

The Church discourages Catholic believers from using artificial birth control methods. Instead, the Vatican recommends abstinence as a way to stop AIDS.

dj/gsw (AP, AFP, Reuters)

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Pope says Catholics do not need to breed 'like rabbits'

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”

Central America tests drought-resistant 'miracle' beans

Yahoo – AFP, Carlos Mario Marquez, 1 December 2015

The CENTA-EAC bean is the product of hybridization: the combining of

naturally formed plants to form a cross-breed (AFP Photo/Marvin Recinos)

Quezaltepeque (El Salvador) (AFP) - "These beans are miraculous because they beat droughts," crowed Manuel Ceren, a farmer in El Salvador trying out a hybrid, climate change-defying crop produced by Salvadoran, Colombian and Honduran experts.

In Quezaltepeque, a village 30 kilometers north of San Salvador, Ceren and 13 other co-farmers feel fortunate to be the first testing the bean.

They proudly showed off an abundant harvest of around 0.7 of a hectare (1.7 acres) of the bean grown on the farm where they work, to the awed gaze of visitors.

Farmers in Quezaltepeque are trying out

 a hybrid, climate change-defying bean

produced by Salvadoran, Colombian and 

Honduran experts (AFP Photo/Marvin

Recinos)

"We were very careful with this initial experiment with these beans, which were hit with a 15-day drought and two storms," the 45-year-old manager of the farm, Baltazar Garcia, told AFP.

"Other people called us crazy. But today a lot of them are admiring the harvest."

The type of light red bean they are using, which is also resistant to an infection known as bean golden yellow mosaic virus, was painstakingly developed with the help of El Salvador's National Center for Agricultural and Forestry Technology (CENTA).

Dubbed CENTA-EAC, the bean is not a biotech crop designed by genetic engineers slicing up chromosomes.

Rather it is the product of hybridization: the combining of naturally formed plants to form a cross-breed.

"You could say it's the simple cross-fertilization of red bean and black bean plants in a process that in this case took five years of selecting and discarding plants until the desired variety was created," a CENTA researcher, Aldemaro Clara, explained.

A search for better crops

The Salvadoran experiment came as a prolonged drought settled on Central America this year, causing heavy crop losses across a broad swathe of land stretching from Costa Rica to Guatemala.

Because of the lack of water, 2.3 million small Central American farmers will need food aid, the UN's World Food Program has warned.

The CENTA-EAC bean is part of a decade-old effort by laboratories in the region to come up with hybrids able to survive and even prosper during the recurring droughts. With the help of farmers, it was noted that it was possible to come up with crops adapted to extreme weather conditions.

"Our mission to produce seeds resistant to climate change, which in this region means against high temperatures, long droughts and extremely heavy rainy seasons," Rolando Ventura, another CENTA researcher, said.

The whole region is working along the same lines. In Guatemala, scientists are working on the ICTA-Chorti, which will not only resist droughts but also be rich in iron.

In Nicaragua, another institute has made a variety of red bean, the INTA-Tomabu, also able to survive when water is scarce.

A farmer harvests and cleans beans of the CENTA-EAC variety at a farm in 

Quezaltepeque (AFP Photo/Marvin Recinos)

Corn, tomatoes and cacao

Candida Lazon, who is trying out that bean on her farm, said: "Here, it almost never rains. We have managed to grow the INTA-Tomabu bean by watering it just once every 12 days. I'm thrilled about this seed because it adapts to the very dry local climate."

It's not beans that are being made to "adapt" to climate change.

In Panama, one of the first countries in the region to work with types of corn resistant to changing weather, has come up with a new seed.

"In the case of corn, these seeds are compatible with higher temperatures, 35 to 36 degrees (95 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit), and drought-tolerant," said Jose Alberto Yau, deputy director for seeds at the country's IDIAP Agriculture and Fishing Research Institute.

In El Salvador, farmers already have the option of using a type of corn called CENTA-Pasaquina, but it has fallen from favor because of its perceived low yield.

Nicaragua meanwhile has a type of virus-resistant tomato seed christened INTA-Jinotega that copes with temperatures over 25 degrees centigrade.

In Costa Rica, it's cocoa -- a crop essential to the economy -- that is being looked at in the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center with hopes of coming up with a more resistant variety.

Brazil to sue dam spill mining companies for $5.2 bn

Yahoo - AFP, Damian Wroclavsky with Laura Binilla in Rio de Janeiro

Brazil's government says it will sue mining giants BHP Billiton and Vale for $5.2

 billion in clean-up costs and damages after the deadly collapse of a waste water

dam at an iron-ore mine (AFP Photo/Fred Loureido)

Brasília (AFP) - Brazil's government said Friday it will sue mining giants BHP Billiton and Vale for $5.2 billion in clean-up costs and damages after the deadly collapse of a waste water dam at an iron-ore mine.

Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said a lawsuit would be filed demanding that the companies and mine operator Samarco, which they co-own, create a fund of 20 billion reais. The money would go to environmental recovery and compensation for victims.

"There was a huge impact from an environmental point of view," Teixeira said at a press conference in the capital Brasilia.

"It is not a natural disaster, it is a disaster prompted by economic activity, but of a magnitude equivalent to those disasters created by forces of nature."

The suit will be filed on Monday, Attorney General Luis Inacio Adams said.

At least 13 people died and some 11 remain missing from the flood of mud and waste water triggered by the breaking dam at the Samarco iron ore mine near Mariana in southeastern Brazil on November 5.

The deluge swept down the River Doce to the Atlantic, sparking claims of major contamination, although the mining companies insist there is no serious pollution.

The fund being demanded by the government would dwarf initial estimates by Deutsche Bank that a clean-up could cost about $1 billion.

Adams said that the companies would be asked to pay the amount out gradually, as a percentage of their profits.

"The measure should guarantee long-term financing for actions to revitalize the (river) basin," Adams' office said in a statement.

Cooperation or denial?

Adams said he hoped the powerful corporations -- BHP Billiton is the world's biggest miner and Vale is the world's biggest iron ore specialist -- would cooperate with the government. Both have said they want to meet their obligations.

"The scale of the damage is very big but the companies have announced measures that show they are interested in repairing their image," Adams said.

Teixeira described the environmental impact as devastating and difficult to repair.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will attend the UN Climate Conference

 - COP21 - in Paris, where host of the summit, French Foreign Minister Laurent 

Fabius, has said he was counting on Brazil to help seal a global pact (AFP 

Photo/Evaristo Sa)

"What was lost there is lost. The biological chain that was broken will not be put back together in any way as it was before. We have to create conditions so that nature establishes new ecological conditions," she said.

Earlier Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Vale announced a compensation fund, but did not give figures. Executives also sounded a defiant note, rejecting allegations that the River Doce has been badly polluted.

Vania Somaville, director of human resources, health and safety at Vale, told a press conference that lead, arsenic, nickel and chrome had been detected at some points along the river.

However, Somaville argued that the potentially dangerous contaminants were not carried there by the waste water from the mine.

"They were (already) there at the edges or in the bed of the river" and were disturbed in the flood, she said.

"The good news is that these materials did not dissolve in the water" and are now diminishing, she said.

This was in stark contrast to a report by two UN experts on Wednesday accusing the corporations and the Brazilian government of failing to respond to a toxic disaster.

The UN's special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, John Knox, said the equivalent of "20,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic mud" spewed into the River Doce.

CEO on the defensive

Vale's CEO, Murilo Ferreira, has been criticized by environmental activists for what many saw as his slow response to the disaster and his attempt to distance himself from the tragedy by saying that Vale was only a shareholder in Samarco.

He told journalists Friday in a breaking voice that "the disaster has been extremely painful" for him and other executives.

"My soul is saddened and disturbed... We are very worried that there are 5,200 people who don't know what the future holds," he said, referring to the many jobs suspended in and around Samarco after the accident.

However, Ferreira once more sought to draw a distinction between Vale and the Samarco operation, saying that help was being offered only out of "solidarity."

"In four years I was never at the Samarco offices in Mariana," he said. Until the accident "I didn't know them... We don't know who their clients are or their prices."

Macri calls for unity and vows to take on Argentine economy

Mauricio Macri, Argentina's president-elect, has promised to introduce lasting changes to Latin America's third-biggest economy. While warming up to Western governments Macri has also vowed to further isolate Venezuela.

Deutsche Welle, 23 Nov 2015

Mauricio Macri beat his rival Daniel Scioli by less than three percentage points in elections held on November 22, ending 12 years of rule by the leftist Peronist movement, the broad populist movement that has dominated Argentine politics for much of the past 70 years.

With 99 percent of ballots counted, Macri had won with a marginal majority of 51.4 percent of the votes. Outgoing President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has reportedly congratulated Macri.

Abolishing capital controls

The favored candidate of big businesses and foreign investors, Macri vowed to focus on an economic action plan to tackle slowing growth and soaring inflation in Argentina.

Argentina is taking a new direction after
 eight years of rule by Cristina Fernandez
de Kirchner

In his first news conference as president-elect, the 56-year-old stressed that the new government's economic policy would start with correcting errors he said had been committed by outgoing Fernandez during her eight-year-tenure. Above all, the pro-market president-elect criticized capital controls on the over-inflated peso currency as introduced by the previous government.

"Capital controls are a mistake. We will fix the fact that the government gives no information, there is no access to statistics and the central bank is not independent," Macri said.

Central bank reshuffle

Macri also urged Argentines to patiently wait for his government to define a new overall economic strategy, while calling on central bank officials, especially the bank's president, Alejandro Vanoli, to step down and allow the new administration to nominate a new team.

"We hope they have the dignity and generosity to allow the new government to choose its path by letting us chose people in which I and all my team hold trust," Macri added.

Extending the olive branch beyond Argentina

Mauricio Macri meanwhile acknowledged the need to reach out to rivals, calling for unity after his narrow election win, as Argentine voters laid bare the country's divisions.

Following his narrow win Mauricio Macri
has called for unity in a divided Argentina

Macri, a former executive at the popular Buenos Aires football club Boca Juniors, might struggle to get his liberal economic reforms past hostile parliamentarians. Having fought a tense battle for votes against his rival Daniel Scioli, Macri will lead the next government but will not have a majority in either house of Congress.

"We Argentines know that we need to build the country we want and dream of together," he said.

Breaking with 12 years of leftist rule, Macri vowed to ease foreign trade and lift dollar restrictions. He is also expected to have a warmer relationship with Britain, after Kirchner had repeatedly attacked the United Kingdom in the territorial dispute over the Falkland Islands - referred to in Spanish as Las Malvinas.

Macri pledged to negotiate with foreign creditors who had sued Argentina in US courts for unpaid debts.

Tackling Venezuela

Among South American nations, Venezuela stood out in its reaction to Macri's victory. Venezuela's opposition took his win as a blow for leftists across Latin America and a good sign for change in upcoming parliamentary elections to be held in Venezuela in December.

Venezuela's ruling socialists, who had kept a political alliance with the Fernandez government, failed to comment on the change in government in Argentina.

Macri has repeatedly pressed in the past for Venezuela's suspension from Mercosur, the South American trade alliance, accusing President Nicolas Maduro's government of abusing the rights of opposition politicians.

ss/msh (AFP, Reuters, dpa)

Asean Establishes Landmark Economic and Security Bloc

Jakarta Globe, Trinna Leong, November 22, 2015

Asean leaders joined China's Premier Li Keqiang at the summit in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

Kuala Lumpur. Southeast Asian nations on Sunday established a formal community that attempts to create freer movement of trade and capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic output of $2.6 trillion.

The community declaration was signed by leaders of the 10- member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Kuala Lumpur, this year's host of the group's annual summit.

Twelve years in the making, the Asean community is a landmark in the 48-year history of a group founded at the height of the Cold War as an anti-communist bulwark.

The Asean Community includes a political, security and socio-cultural dimension in a region with governments ranging from communist in Vietnam and quasi-military in Myanmar to the kingdom of Brunei and the boisterous democracy of the Philippines.

But it is the economic community that offers the most concrete opportunities for integration in a region whose combined gross domestic product (GDP) would make it the world's seventh-largest economy.

In practice, Asean has already virtually eliminated tariff barriers among the 10 countries, said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the summit host, at the signing ceremony. "We now have to ensure that we create a truly single market and production base, with freer movement of goods and services."

At the closing news conference, however, he said Asean had no specific deadline for achieving zero tariffs, but would aim for "meaningful deliverables that can be done every year when we meet at the Asean summit."

The combined GDP of the Asean economies is expected to grow from $2.6 trillion to $4.7 trillion by 2020, Najib said, and could become the world's fourth-largest economy as a bloc as early as 2030.

The countries aim to harmonize economic strategies, recognize each other's professional qualifications and consult more closely on macroeconomic and financial policies.

They have also agreed to enhance the connectivity of their transportation infrastructure and communications, better facilitate electronic transactions, integrate industries to promote regional sourcing, and enhance private-sector involvement in the economy.

Eight groups of professionals will be able to work more easily throughout the region: engineers, architects, nurses, doctors, dentists, accountants, surveyors and tourism professionals.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Reuters

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"Message for South America" - Nov 16, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New


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

" ... 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 ...."

Pearl Jam donates concert proceeds to Brazil mine victims

Yahoo – AFP, 21 Nov 2015

Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam performs during the fourth annual Global Citizen
 Festival in Central Park Manhattan on September 26, 2015 in New York
 (AFP Photo/Kena Betancur)

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - US rock group Pearl Jam donated proceeds from a concert in Brazil to victims of a toxic mining spill that killed 12 people and was the country's worst environmental disaster.

The group's singer Eddie Vedder interrupted a show Friday night in Belo Horizonte, capital of the southeast state of Minas Gerais -- where the disaster occurred November 5 -- and called for the mining company involved to be severely punished.

As seen on a video on the news website G1, the group got a standing ovation when Vedder said the take from that concert would go to victims of the disaster.

It struck when a dam collapsed at the waste reservoirs of an iron ore mine, unleashing a torrent of yellowish muck that all but buried a village, left 280,000 people without water and smothered thousands of fish, turtles and other animals.

Besides the 12 dead, another 12 people remain missing.

The mining facility is owned by Samarco, a joint venture between the mining giants BHP Billiton of Australia and Vale of Brazil.

Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said Friday it was the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history and that it will take 30 years to clean the basin of the Doce River, into which the sludge flowed.

Samarco has already been hit with damages, fines and frozen funds totalling more than $400 million.

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