Venezuela suspends summit over Hugo Chavez's illness

BBC News, 29 June 2011

Related Stories

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Venezuela has suspended a regional summit scheduled for 5 July amid continuing speculation over the state of health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuelan TV had shown pictures
of Mr Chavez (r) apparently looking well

President Chavez left Venezuela on 8 June for Cuba, where he had surgery, apparently for a pelvic abscess.

On Tuesday, Cuban state TV aired images of President Chavez talking animatedly to former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

But officials said the summit, which he was due to host, had been delayed.

Analysts say the suspension of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) meeting will be a blow to President Chavez.

He was due to chair the first gathering of the new regional bloc on Margarita island, off the Venezuelan coast.

Venezuelan officials had earlier said that extended video footage released on Wednesday and showing the president apparently looking well proved his recovery was continuing.

Vice-President Elias Jaua said President Chavez had been in close contact with officials in an effort to "continue driving the national plans forward".

Mr Chavez's unexpectedly long absence from Venezuela has prompted debate on whether he should delegate executive power to the vice-president.

Venezuelan officials have said he underwent emergency surgery on 10 June for a pelvic abscess, but there has been speculation in the Venezuelan and foreign press that the president's condition could be more serious.

He had been widely expected to be back in time to host the CELAC summit which also coincides with Venezuela's bicentennial celebrations.

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

" .... Soon the one dictator will be gone, and the unification can begin.."

Peru cancels mine after 6 killed in clash

The Jakarta Post, Franklin Biceno, The Associated Press, Lima, Sat, 06/25/2011

Peru's government canceled a Canadian-owned silver mine in the southern highlands Friday after six people were killed and at least 30 wounded when police fired on mostly indigenous protesters opposing the project.

Protesters also attacked a police station and a state bank in a second city.

The bloodshed occured when police turned back protesters who tried to take over an airport near the city of Juliaca in Puno state, an area they have paralyzed with road blockades since May 9 in a bid to cancel the Santa Ana mine as well as a proposed hydroelectric project on the Inambari river.

The outgoing government of President Alan Garcia announced after leftist military man Ollanta Humala won the presidential election June 5 that it was scrapping the Inambari project. In April, it canceled a huge copper mining project in another southern state after three protesters died in clashes with police.

Mining accounts for two-thirds of Peru's export earnings and has been the underpinning of a decade of robust economic growth, but the rural poor have benefited little from mining and complain it contaminates their water and crops.

Dr. Percy Casaperalta, who directed the evacuation of wounded after Friday's clash at Manco Capac airport, said at least 4,000 protesters were involved. He provided the toll of six dead and at least 30 wounded by telephone from the local hospital Carlos Monge Medrano.

Television images of the airport showed its perimeter walls breached and tires burning on the tarmac.

Speaking with journalists in Lima, Interior Minister Miguel Hidalgo said police in Azangaro, about 40 miles (68 kilometers) from Juliaca, were "in a difficult situation." Local radio reports said about 500 protesters angry over the deaths at the airport burned tires and threw rocks at the local police station and a state bank.

Hours after the violence, Deputy Mining Minister Fernando Gala announced that the government had revoked a 2007 decree granting approval to Bear Creek Mining Corp. of Victoria, British Columbia, to mine silver at Santa Ana in Puno. The decree was required because the mine site is within 50 miles of an international border, in this case with Bolivia.

Bear Creek's director, Andrew Swarthout, told The Associated Press that the company had not received formal notification of the decree's revocation.

He said any government attempt to cancel the project would be illegal and amount to "expropriation."

"We followed all the rules. We got public consent. We're in the middle of an environmental impact statement. It was due process. Everything was within the letter of the law," Swarthout said.

The company has said it already spent $96 million on the Santa Ana project.

Swarthout has warned previously that any attempt to end the project would give pause to international investors who have announced their intention to plow more than $40 billion into Peru's mining sector in the coming decade.

Associated Press writer Frank Bajak contributed tothis report.

Related Article:

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US man charged with sexually abusing Haitian boys

BBC News, 24 June 2011

A US man who ran a centre for impoverished boys in Haiti has been charged over claims that he forced them to perform sex acts for food and shelter, prosecutors have said.

Many impoverished children in Haiti's capital of
Port-au-Prince are forced to live on the streets

Matthew Andrew Carter, who operated the Morning Star Center, has been charged with four counts of child sex tourism.

Investigators said the 66-year-old "preyed upon" impoverished boys and performed acts that "defy belief".

Mr Carter was arrested in Miami on 8 May and pleaded not guilty on Thursday.

Mr Carter, who also went by the names William Charles Harcourt and Bill Carter, had operated the Morning Star Center in Port-au-Prince since the mid-1990s and lived there with Haitian boys, according to court documents.

"The acts that the defendant is charged with committing, quite simply, defy belief," Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said in a news release.

He added: "As charged in the indictment, he preyed upon and terrorized impoverished Haitian children who were in dire need of the services offered by the Morning Star Center - the very children he was purporting to help."

The facility was originally established to provide shelter, food and education to Haitian minors, court documents said.

Mr Carter is charged with four counts of child sex tourism, or travelling in foreign commerce to engage in illicit sex with minors.

'Preying upon children'

At the time of his arrest in May, 14 boys were living at the Morning Star Center, with three spending their weekends at the facility.

The court documents claimed that Mr Carter had sex with at least eight boys, sometimes for years until they became adults and left the centre.

Carter also allegedly forced the boys to shower with him and asked them to perform sexual acts on him in his bedroom, according to a US investigator who interviewed several of the youths from the facility.

Prosecutors said those who agreed to his requests were given schooling, clothing, books, compact disc players and cash.

"This defendant preyed on innocent Haitian children living in severely depressed conditions, making his conduct particularly deplorable," said Attorney Wifredo Ferrer.

Mr Ferrer added that instead of using the facility to "provide sanctuary to needy children", the Michigan resident used the facility to "manipulate, abuse and sexually exploit them".

"Few crimes are as despicable as the ones committed against these children in Haiti," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent Director John Morton.

A public defender assigned to represent Mr Carter has not commented on the case.

If convicted, Mr Carter faces up to 105 years in prison.

Europe aims to set the credit rating rules

Deutsche Welle, 24 June 2011

Europe wants to ensure ratings
agencies operate by EU rules

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) warns US credit ratings agencies that they will need to play by EU rules if they want a license to continue operating within the bloc.

The head of the European Securities and Markets Authority, Steven Maijoor, said Europe wants to break the monopoly currently held by major US ratings companies, and enforce its own operating regulations.

"We shouldn't blindly adopt the regulatory system of a third country," Maijoor told the Financial Times Deutschland, referring to the guidelines governing the behavior of ratings companies in the United States.

He said any agency seeking a license to operate within Europe would be expected to supply extensive paperwork with their application. ESMA said this has not yet been forthcoming.

The biggest agencies, Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's, the latter two of which are American, have been widely criticized since the global financial meltdown.

"Everyone knows that after the crisis there was a big problem with ratings agencies, and that was a conflict of interest," Philip Whyte, senior research fellow with the Centre for European Reform in London told Deutsche Welle. "The people's whose papers were being rated were the people who paid the agencies."

Mixed messages

Greece's ratings have been slashed by Standard and Poor

Yet he added that it is sometimes hard to disentangle what politicians say about the behavior of the agencies in the run up to the financial crisis and what they are saying now in the face of sovereign debt woes.

"Either politicians want them to be independent and to do a good job of rating paper, or they want them to be political puppets who respond to European political pressure," Whyte said. "But they can't have it both ways."

For the past year, Europe has been promising to curb the power of the major three agencies, which the Financial Times Deutschland reported as having a collective market share of 95 percent. Although as of July 1, ESMA will hold the sole responsibility for the supervision of credit rating agencies in Europe, Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's will remain the major players.

In a recent EU report on the reform of the ratings industry, Wolf Klinz, a German member of the European Parliament, called on central banks, investors and private banks to practice risk assessment themselves, thereby reducing dependency on the main agencies.

He also said ratings companies should be held accountable for the economic consequences of their actions.

"When the agencies say they are only expressing opinions, it is inaccurate," Klinz said in his report. "What we need is greater responsibility and accountability."

A European ratings entity

Fitch is owned by a European financial group

The MEP is one of many EU politicians, including Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the group of eurozone finance ministers, to back the proposal of the creation of a European ratings agency.

But as Nicolas Veron, a senior fellow with the European think tank Bruegel, was quick to point out, the idea is a very old one, and would be hard to pull off.

"I am not exactly sure what is desired here," he told Deutsche Welle. "If it is a state controlled ratings agency, it would be hard to establish credibility, and it if is about creating a state monopoly, I think it would be a non-starter."

The future of Frankfurt

On Friday, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants announced that it is in talks with the German state of Hesse, the association Frankfurt Main Finance and the Frankfurt Stock exchange "in order to promote, establish and develop a European rating agency in Frankfurt am Main."

Could Frankfurt become home to
an European ratings agency?

The company's global head of risk management, Markus Krall, said in a statement that it was crucial to "reduce conflicts of interest and restore credibility of and confidence in ratings." He added that Roland Berger was inviting companies and institutions across Europe to participate in setting up the initiative.

Whyte, however, said he is skeptical of both the wish and the need for such an entity. He said he believes the EU is angry with rating agencies for downgrading sovereign debt and is looking for ways to make them stop.

"They always think Anglo-Saxons have an inherent bias and that an EU agency would be more balanced," he said. "But one person's balance is another person's susceptibility to political pressure."

Reporter: Tamsin Walker

Editor: Sean Sinico

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Hugo Chávez silence fuels fears of power vacuum in Venezuela

President has gone uncharacteristically quiet as he recovers from surgery in Cuba, prompting rumours over his health and warnings of instability

guardian.co.uk, Tom Phillips and Virginia Lopez in Caracas, Wednesday 22 June 2011

Hugo Chávez talks to the former Cuba president Fidel Castro last Friday,
one of only two appearances from the Venezuela president since he was
admitted to hospital on 10 June. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

He is famed as one of the most verbose leaders on earth, a media-obsessed commander-in-chief whose adrenaline-filled speeches often stretch deep into the night.

But recent weeks have seen Hugo Chávez fall silent, as the Venezuelan president recovers from emergency hip surgery in Cuba. His uncharacteristic quietness has fuelled a flurry of speculation and criticism back home.

Since being admitted to hospital in Cuba on 10 June, Chávez has made just two public appearances, showing up last Friday in four photographs alongside the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, and his brother Fidel, and popping up on 12 June for a telephone interview with Venezuela's Telesur television network.

Normally a prolific tweeter, Chávez's Twitter profile – @chavezcandanga – has not been used since 4 June.

More than 1.6m Chávez followers are missing the president's 140-character musings on anything from football results to the activities of Venezuela's state-controlled oil firm, "the most revolutionary oil company in the world".

Even an explosive outbreak of prison violence and a growing power crisis have failed to stir Venezuela's convalescing president, prompting criticism from the opposition, a spate of online rumours and a fierce reaction from supporters who accuse detractors of launching opportunistic attacks on a sick man.

"Such poor, scarce and ambiguous medical updates inevitably trigger rumours that go from liposuction to improve his figure to a back problem that will hinder his ability to campaign, or even a more serious illness," wrote Luis Vicente León, a columnist for the opposition El Universal, on Sunday.

León rejected the idea that Chávez's absence had created a "power vacuum", but complained of a "vacuum of respect for Venezuelans, their traditions and their symbols".

Mystery around Chávez's extended absence briefly thickened on Monday night when one international news agency picked up on a supposed Chávez tweet, in which the Venezuelan leader apparently admitted: "My illness is more complicated than we thought."

Fifteen minutes later, however, the agency retracted its story; the Twitter account was a fake.

Supporters of Chávez, who will run for a third presidential term in elections next year, have reacted angrily to criticism of their hospitalised leader.

Cilia Flores, an MP from Chávez's United Socialist party, last week accused opponents of acting "like vampires and vultures trying to see what they can fish from troubled waters".

In a text message to the Guardian on Wednesday, Venezuela's information minister, Andrés Izarra, said Chávez was "recovering well" but denied rumours that he would return to Caracas in the coming days.

Since taking power in 1999, the president has reportedly interrupted normal television programming 2,135 times to address his nation.

A briefing by London-based thinktank Latin News said: "In the glaring absence of any official comment, there is wild speculation as to what exactly is afflicting President Chávez. The government's silence about the president's condition and his expected return date is … bad form."

"It is absurd that the president can sign documents from Cuba," said Robert Bottome, from the Caracas-based consultancy VenEconomy, warning that Chávez's absence could trigger a messy scramble for power in Venezuela. "By disrespecting the constitution,we are leaving the door open to serious turmoil," he said.

Leopoldo Lopez, a prominent Chávez opponent and leader of the Popular Will party, said the furore over the president's stay in Havana was a distraction from more pressing issues.

"The discussion should centre on the key problems that affect millions of Venezuelans with regard to security, the high cost of living, employment and public services. For me, this should be the debate," he said.

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Uncontacted tribe found deep in Amazon rainforest

Ancient community discovered after small forest clearings detected on satellite images

guardian.co.uk, Tom Phillips, Rio de Janeiro,  Wednesday 22 June 2011

Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest: satellite pictures revealed small
 clearings where an uncontacted community is living.
Photograph: Gerd Ludwig/ Gerd Ludwig/Corbis

Brazilian authorities say they have pinpointed the location of a community of ancient and uncontacted tribespeople in one of the remotest corners of the Amazon rainforest.

Fabricio Amorim, a regional co-ordinator for Brazil's indigenous foundation, Funai, said the indigenous community had been found after three small forest clearings were detected on satellite images. Flyovers were carried out in April, confirming the community's existence.

Four straw-roofed huts, flanked by banana trees and encircled by thick jungle, can be seen in photographs taken during the flyover.

The community is likely to be home to about 200 people, probably from the Pano linguistic group which straddles the border between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, according to Funai.

Amorim said the region — known as the Vale do Javari — contained "the greatest concentration of isolated groups in the Amazon and the world" but warned of growing threats to their survival.

"Among the main threats to the well-being of these groups are illegal fishing, hunting, logging, mining, cattle ranching, missionary actions… and drug trafficking," he said. Oil exploration over the border in Peru could also have a negative impact on indigenous tribes in region.

Officially, Funai recognises the existence of 14 uncontacted tribes in the Vale do Javari, making up a total of at least 2,000 people. But that number is likely to rise as expeditions to this region of the western Amazon continue.

Government officials currently seek to avoid direct contact with Brazil's uncontacted tribes, instead working to identify and protect their lands from afar. But many believe limited contact may become necessary in order to protect the groups from external threats.

José Carlos Meirelles, a veteran Funai official who has spent more than two decades working in the Javari region, said in 2009: "If this situation continues, contact will become inevitable, and it is better that it happens with us than with loggers or goldpanners."

'La Familia cartel boss' Mendez Vargas held in Mexico

BBC News, 21 June 2011

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Mexican President Felipe Calderon has congratulated police on the capture of the alleged leader of one the country's top drug gangs, the La Familia cartel.

Officials said Mr Mendez Vargas
had been arrested in Aguascalientes

Police arrested Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, also known as "The Monkey", in the central city of Aguascalientes.

Mr Calderon described the capture as a great blow to organised crime.

La Familia has a reputation for violence but claims to protect local communities and promote family values.

Mexico's security spokesman Alejandro Poire said the arrest had "destroyed the chain of command" of the La Familia cartel.

A previous leader of La Familia, Nazario Moreno, was killed by security forces in December 2010.

France 'preparing' Manuel Noriega extradition to Panama

BBC News, 20 June 2011

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The French authorities say they are preparing to try to extradite the former Panamanian military ruler, Manuel Noriega, back to Panama.

Former Panamanian strongman,
Manuel Antonio Noriega

Noriega is currently serving a seven-year sentence in France for money laundering.

But he is wanted by the Panamanian authorities, having been convicted there for crimes committed during his rule in the 1980s.

Once France issues its decree, Noriega will have one month to appeal.

Gen Noriega was extradited from the United States to France last year, having served 17 years of a sentence there for drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering.

Once an informer for the CIA, Noriega was arrested by US troops after their invasion of Panama in 1989.

US consent

A French foreign ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, said France would move forward with the extradition process having received the consent of the US authorities.

This was necessary under the terms of the extradition agreement that brought Noriega to France in the first place, as he has not yet served the full sentence imposed by the French court.

The former Panamanian was originally sentenced in absentia in France, in 1999, for laundering money from Colombian drugs gangs through a French bank, in order to buy property in Paris.

This ruling was confirmed at a re-trial after his extradition from the US.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Panamanian foreign ministry said Gen Noriega was being sought "to serve a 20-year sentence" for having ordered the killing of Hugo Spadafora Franco.

Mr Spadafora, a political opponent of Noriega, was found beheaded in 1985.

Ten years later, a Panamanian court sentenced Noriega in absentia for the crime.

Noriega, 77, was the de facto ruler of Panama between 1983 and 1989.

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The X-Conference: Hidden Truth - Forbidden Knowledge - Steven Greer, MD - LIVE

.

Steven M. Greer, MD is the Founder and Director of the Disclosure Project. Dr. Greer is an emergency physician and former chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Caldwell Memorial Hospital in North Carolina. In addition to heading the Disclosure Project, he has also been supervising a world-wide search for alternative energy sources, specifically those known as zero-point or over-unity devices with the plan to identify and develop systems which will eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

Dr. Greer is the author of several books including "Hidden Truth -- Forbidden Knowledge," in which he relates his own personal experiences with extraterrestrial peoples and the unfolding of cosmic awareness since his childhood - from his sighting of a UFO at an early age, to his amazing near-death experience at age 17, to his unraveling of the secret cabal running the illegal transnational energy and UFO -- related projects, to his meetings with a CIA Director, US Senators, heads of state and royalty.

As Director of The Disclosure Project, Dr. Greer presided over The Disclosure Project Press Conference from the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Over 20 military, government, intelligence, and corporate witnesses presented compelling testimony regarding the existence of extraterrestrial life forms visiting the planet, and the reverse engineering of the energy and propulsion systems of these craft. Over 1 billion people heard of the press conference through webcast and subsequent media coverage on BBC, CNN, CNN Worldwide, Voice of America, Pravda, Chinese media, and media outlets throughout Latin America. The webcast had 250,000 people waiting online - the largest webcast in the history of the National Press Club.

Dr. Greer has met with and provided briefings for senior members of government, military, and intelligence operations in the United States and around the world, including senior CIA officials, Joint Chiefs of Staff, White House staff, senior members of Congress and congressional committees, senior United Nations leadership, and diplomats and senior military officials in the United Kingdom and Europe. He has been seen and heard by millions worldwide on the Larry King Show, CBS, the BBC, NTV in Japan and has made dozens of radio and television appearances.

The X-Conference is pleased to welcome Investigative Reporter Dr. Steven Greer

The X-Conference is produced by X-PPAC (Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee) and The Paradigm Research Group, who's mission is to educate Congress, the Press and the Public about the Government imposed "Truth Embargo" and to bring about formal acknowledgment by the U. S. Government of an Extraterrestrial presence engaging the Human Race - Full Disclosure. UFOTV is pleased to present all of the presentations that were given by all the invited speakers at each of the X-Conference events over the years.

We apologize for the commercials during this online presentation. As stated on our main channel page, the advertising revenue from this program helps to cover the heavy production costs of putting on the yearly X-Conference event.

DVDs from this historic and ongoing X-Conference event are available from UFOTV: Go to http://www.ufotv.com/. Keyword - "X-Conference"

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"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - New

Independent Expression Radio: Listening to Mother Earth

Pepper was recently a guest on Shirley MacLaine's Independent Expression radio show. Her lively and entertaining conversation with Shirley offers insights to some of today's most pressing concerns.

Guatemala: Ex-armed forces chief Lopez Fuentes arrested

BBC News, 18 June 2011

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Guatemalan authorities have arrested a former armed forces chief accused of joining in massacres during the nation's civil war nearly 30 years ago.

Relatives of victims of Guatemala's
civil war try to identify exhumed
remains

Retired general Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes, 81, was detained in the capital, Guatemala City, on Friday.

Human rights groups have accused him of participating in genocide and crimes against humanity during the military government of Efrain Rios Montt.

It is not clear how Mr Lopez Fuentes is likely to plead to the charges.

Guatemala's office of public prosecutions said he was accused of being the intellectual author behind the killings of more than 300 indigenous Maya civilians from the Ixil region in 1982 and 1983.

It is the latest high-profile arrest linked to alleged crimes committed during the country's 36-year civil war.

More than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the conflict, the vast majority at the hands of the security forces.

The security forces at the time said they targeted left-wing guerrillas during counter-insurgency operations.

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U.N. passes 'historic' gay rights resolution

CNN News, By Jill Dougherty, CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent, June 17, 2011

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The resolution is approved 23-19 with three abstentions
• Some African nations criticize South Africa, which introduced the measure
• The move "puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda," a U.S. official says
• "This is really a critical beginning of a universal recognition of a new set of rights," she says

(CNN) -- In what the U.S. State Department is calling a "historic step," the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva passed a resolution Friday supporting equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

The resolution, introduced by South Africa, is the first-ever U.N. resolution on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons.

It passed with 23 votes in favor, 19 opposed and three abstentions, amid strong criticism of South Africa by some African nations.

Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, told CNN, "It really is a key part in setting a new norm that gay rights are human rights and that that has to be accepted globally."

"It talks about the violence and discrimination that people of LGBT persuasion experience around the world," she said, "and that those issues ... need to be taken seriously. It calls for reporting on what's going on, where people are being discriminated against, the violence that is taking place, and it really puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda going forward."

Divided opinion continues among some countries about whether the time has come to take up gay rights in the U.N. forum, Nossel said, "so this resolution is really significant as far as gaining widespread support for doing just that."

The State Department lobbied intensively for the resolution, and Nossel said the United States was pleased to see African leadership, from South Africa in particular, as well as strong support from South America, Colombia and Brazil.

The resolution also will commission the first-ever U.N. report on the challenges that LGBT people face around the globe. Nossel said the Obama administration hopes it will "open a broader international discussion on how to best promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons."

In March the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a statement, supported by 85 countries, on gay rights called on "Ending Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made gay rights a key focus of the State Department's human rights agenda, expressing her view that "gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights."

In June, at a Gay Pride event at the State Department, Clinton said, "Men and women are harassed, beaten, subjected to sexual violence, even killed, because of who they are and whom they love. Some are driven from their homes or countries, and many who become refugees confront new threats in their countries of asylum. In some places, violence against the LGBT community is permitted by law and inflamed by public calls to violence; in others, it persists insidiously behind closed doors."

Nossel told CNN, "it's not like discrimination or violence are going to end overnight" because of the U.N. resolution, "but now ... when there are proposals in parliaments or legislatures around the world to illegalize gay activity or repress people because of their sexual orientation, opponents can point to this and say, 'Hey, the U.N. has spoken out, there is a resolution that rejects this squarely.'

"That is the way these international norms are built," she said. "It's not from scratch. On women's rights, on minority rights, it builds up over time. So this is really a critical beginning of a universal recognition of a new set of rights that forms part of the international system."

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About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channeled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack) - “You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.”

Princess Máxima promotes microfinance in Mexico

RNW, 17 June 2011

Dutch Crown Princess Máxima held talks with Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Thursday on the benefits of microfinance. She was representing the United Nations during a two-day visit to Mexico.

Princess Máxima

During the meeting, also attended by Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero, Princess Máxima appealed for more extensive availability of microfinance for people on lower incomes. Microfinance contributes to economic growth and facilitates a greater distribution of economic wealth, she said.

On Wednesday, she had discussions with bankers and financial institutions that grant microfinance loans.

The princess is married to Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and advises UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on matters related to microfinance.