Two UFOs Seen Over Medellin, Colombia on May 2014. (Videos)

UFO Sightings Daily, Scot Waring, May 27, 2014

Date of sighting: May 21, 2013 and May 25, 2014

Location of sighting: Medellin, Colombia

Location of sighting: Medellin, Colombia

Below are two videos. The first video with a blue sky was taken a few days ago in Medellin  Colombia and the second video (yellow sky) was taken in the same location, however was one year earlier. This cannot be a coincidence that this UFO shows up in May on two consecutive years. SCW

Eyewitness of May 25th video states:

UFO flies near the Atanasio Girardot stadium, hours before the final match between the national junior and then was national champion. MIRACLE making a goal in the last minute.

Video taken back in May 21, 2013.

Brazil seizes spoiled food from World Cup hotels

Yahoo – AFP, 27 May 2014

View of Sao Conrado beach in front of the hotel which will host the England

 national football team during the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014, in Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil, on May 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Tasso Marcelo)

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazilian health officials have raided hotels that will host visiting World Cup teams, including England and Italy, and confiscated expired food such as shrimp and salmon from their kitchens.

"The checks were carried out as part of our drive to see food safety codes enforced as part of a round of inspections being undertaken given the close proximity of the World Cup," Fabio Domingos, head of inspections at Rio de Janeiro state consumer protection agency Procon, told AFP Tuesday.

Teams are due to begin arriving next week for the World Cup, which kicks off on June 12. About 600,000 foreign fans and 3.1 million Brazilians are also expected to descend on the 12 host cities.

Procon said its inspectors had found 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of expired shrimp, salmon, margarine and pasta at the Hotel Portobello, which will house the Italian delegation in Mangaratiba just west of Rio.

Domingos said the shrimp had expired in early April.

The inspectors also removed another 24 kilos of food that had no date labeling.

Jose Mourinho's exclusive World Cup analysis

An inspection at the Royal Tulip Hotel in Rio, where England will stay, uncovered some two kilos of out-of-date salmon, butter and ham.

Procon said other hotels would be checked as "teams and fans are all consumers, and we are acting for their benefit."

It said hotels must tell government officials why they have out of date food on the premises within 15 days or face a fine.

Inspectors also checked Rio's Hotel Caesar Park, where Holland's squad will be based, but found nothing amiss in its kitchen.

Procon also visited restaurants, bakeries and shops as part of its crackdown and has cited eight establishments so far for irregularities which saw 218 kilos of food thrown away.

Many of the 32 teams competing at the World Cup will bring their own food, and some will even have their own chefs.

Procon said customs at airports would monitor what food was imported as well as its quality.

Gay Peru politician breaks new ground

Yahoo – AFP, Marie Sanz, 21 May 2014

Peruvian Congressman Carlos Bruce holds a banner reading "I Am Not Afraid"

during a pro-civil union rally in Lima, April 12, 2014 (AFP Photo/Yessel Sanchez)

Lima (AFP) - A Peruvian politician has announced he is gay -- a first in one of Latin America's most conservative countries.

He is Carlos Bruce, a 57-year-old member of congress and former minister and also one of the main drivers of debate on civil unions for same-sex couples in Peru.

"Yes, I am gay and proud to belong to a group of people who are so valuable to Peru," Bruce said in an interview over the weekend with the newspaper El Comercio.

His announcement drew a mix of praise, criticism and insults on social media.

Peru's gay and lesbian community has been more assertive in recent years in defending its rights, but it faces an uphill battle in a deeply conservative society where homosexuality is frowned upon.

At least 17 homosexuals were killed between January 2013 and March 2014 in Peru and the crimes went unpunished, said a recent report by Red Peruana TLGB, an association of gays, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals.

The study notes the horrific case of 19-year-old Joel Molero, who was killed in November 2013 in northeastern Peru. Molero was strangled, had his genitals, feet and hands cut off, and his body was burned, the report said.

"Once again, this case shows the extreme level of violence that is practiced, from strangulation to mutilations, to beatings, killings by blunt force and firearms, suggesting they are crimes motivated by the sexual orientation of the victims," said Maribel Reyes, the secretary general of Red Peruana TLGB.

Two activists pose for a picture during a demo against discrimination and to

 demand the Peruvian Congress to approve a law that would allow civil unions

of same-sex in Lima, Peru, April 12, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ernesto Benavides)

The Catholic Church in Peru and its leader, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, a member of the ultra-conservative group Opus Dei, says civil unions "destroy the institution of marriage."

'A legend'

A bill to allow same-sex civil unions is to go before congress by the end of the month.

But 61 percent of Peruvians are opposed to the idea, although 33 percent say they support gays and lesbians owning property together, according to a poll released by Ipsos in April.

Bruce, who has received several death threats, insisted that only three countries in Latin America have not approved civil unions for gay couples: Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru.

"It is a problem to be gay in a society as conservative as that of Peru. State security has had to double the number of agents assigned to me because they feel I am in danger," he said.

Flanked by his two sons Alex and Paul, who support their father and criticize what they call Peru's intolerance, Bruce said in the newspaper interview that "many people believe it is impossible to be a good father or serve your country if you are gay."

Bruce was a cabinet minister twice during the 2001-2006 presidency of Alejandro Toledo.

"Even my adversaries acknowledge that my work was efficient," he said.

"My future as a politician would be much brighter if I could choose to be heterosexual," Bruce said.

"Now, because of what I have said, I will never be president," he joked.

His coming out was hailed in political and intellectual circles. Lima's mayor Susana Villaran congratulated Bruce for being true to himself and for his "defense of the right to be different."

Television journalist Beto Ortiz wrote on Twitter: "A congressman kisses his sons to say 'I am gay' on the cover of El Comercio. Carlos Bruce, as of today, you are a legend."

Dozens of children die as fire tears through Colombian bus

Deutsche Welle, 19 May 2014

More than 30 children have been reported dead after a fire engulfed a bus in northern Colombia. There were reports of unrest outside the home of the driver, who was said to have fled the scene.

The children, who had been returning home from a religious service, were reported to have burnt to death aboard the bus in the northern town of Fundacion Cesar Uruena on Sunday.

Another 25 people, including one adult, suffered serious burns. The death toll could rise. A senior police chief for the town, 750 kilometers (465 miles) north of Bogota, told the AP news agency that some 50 people were aboard the bus, which was only rated to carry 38 people.

Mayor of Fundacion Estella Duran told reporters that the majority of children aboard the bus when it exploded were aged between one and eight. She said that an investigation was under way.

Emergency response coordinator Major Eduardo Velez said the fire had spread quickly and that a canister of gasoline had been inside the cabin of the bus, with reports that the driver had been trying to pour fuel into the engine from inside the vehicle.

Velez said the driver had escaped unharmed and was being questioned by police, with reports that angry locals had gathered outside his home, throwing rocks at windows.

Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper said there was a suspicion that the fire was accelerated by contraband fuel that was being carried on board.

Charred remains of the victims were set to the nearest major city of Barranquila for identification. Meanwhile, Colombian President Manuel Santos traveled to Fundacion to meet relatives of the victims after staging a final re-election campaign ahead of voting on May 25.

rc/crh (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Colombia and FARC reach deal to battle drug trade

Deutsche Welle, 17 May 2014

Colombia's government and FARC rebels have announced an agreement to jointly combat illicit drug trade in the country as part of a six-point peace plan. The deal comes ahead of May 25 elections in the country.

The Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) concluded an agreement Friday to fight the illicit drug trade in the South American country. The deal is part three of a six-point peace plan negotiated from the Cuban capital Havana.

"What we have agreed upon recognizes that in order to set then bases for a stable and lasting peace in Colombia it is necessary to find a definitive solution to the problem of illicit drugs," a statement from the talks said.

Under the agreement, the FARC, will divorce itself completely from the drug trade, which it had denied involvement with, claiming it only ever taxed producers. Colombian authorities, however, had accused some FARC fronts of being involved in the production and sales of drugs.

Colombia was for a long time the world's leading cocaine producer, and was only recently eclipsed by Peru.

It was the latest deal reached during months of talks in Havana with the two sides having earlier reached agreements on rural development and the rebels' reintegration into the political process.

The sides still have to tackle the three remaining agenda items which include the laying down of weapons by the FARC, compensation for victims of the conflict and deciding whether a final peace agreement should be put to a national referendum.

Election truce

Earlier in the day, the FARC issued a statement saying they would observe a truce during the country's May 25 presidential elections as a gesture of goodwill.

In the past, rebels have tried to disrupt elections and often dismiss the country's electoral politics as dominated by elites.

The FARC has battled a dozen governments since it began as an agrarian struggle against rural inequality but has been weakened over the past 10 years by a heavy US-backed offensive. The conflict has killed more than 200,000 people since it began almost five decades ago.

hc/av (AP, AFP)

Ecuador emergency over stricken Galapagos freighter

Yahoo – AFP, May 16, 2014

Ecuador emergency over stricken Galapagos freighter (AFP)

Quito (AFP) - Ecuador declared an environmental emergency in the Galapagos Islands Thursday, after a freighter carrying pollutants ran aground last week.

The measure will free up resources to remove the ship and mitigate its impact in the face of "possible environmental damage that could unleash a disaster" said the Directorate of the Galapagos National Park (DPNG).

The vessel, which ran aground off the Baquerizo Moreno port on the island of San Cristobal on Friday, was carrying 19,000 gallons (around 72,000 liters) of cargo fuel that has already been removed.

But highly polluting motor oil and cleaning products remain in the ship's airtight holds, yet to leak out.

At the request of Galapagos authorities, Ecuador's Environmental Minister Lorena Tapia issued the environmental emergency.

The measure aims at protecting the archipelago's marine reserve, specifically the "area affected by the stranding and possible sinking of the cargo ship 'Galapaface I'" DPNG said in a statement.

The Ecuadoran-owned Galapagos Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) off the coast of Ecuador, are classified as a UNESCO world heritage site.

Galapaface 1, which was carrying 1,000 tons of cargo when it ran aground, became blocked by sand and rocks that cracked its hull, causing flooding in the vessel's engine room.

In 2001 the Ecuadoran ship "Jessica," which was carrying fuel, ran aground near the same spot, causing a serious environmental crisis that affected several species.

The region is home to a large population of sea lions.

The Galapagos Islands are famous for their unique flora and fauna studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle as he developed his theory of evolution.

Brazilians protest against World Cup costs

Deutsche Welle, 16 May 2014

Protesters have taken to the streets of Brazil's major cities to voice their dissatisfaction with the money spent on the World Cup. The unrest comes less than a month before the football tournament's first match.

Demonstrators choked the main thoroughfares of Brazil's largest cities on Thursday, with police estimates putting the number of protesters at 10,000 nationwide.

In Sao Paulo, 5,000 members of the Homeless Workers' Movement blocked one of the city's main streets with burning tires. They then marched to Corinthians Arena, which will host the World Cup's opening match between Croatia and Brazil on June 12th. The two main streets in Rio de Janeiro were also blocked by demonstrations.

Meanwhile, protesters stormed the headquarters of Terracap in the national capital, Brasilia. Terracap manages the city's $630-million stadium (459 million euros), Brazil's most expensive. Protests also gripped the cities of Belo Horizonte, Manaus, and Porto Alegre.

In the northeastern city of Recife, young people took advantage of a police strike to loot stores.

Who benefits?

Many Brazilians have expressed frustration at the $11 billion (8.01 billion euros) that their government has spent to host the World Cup. They say that the money could have been better spent on fixing inadequacies in health care, education, and public transport systems.

"We thought it [the World Cup] would benefit the people but it's not turned out that way and that is why people are unhappy," Pedro Amarildo, 50, told the AFP news agency.

But former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who lobbied for the World Cup to be held in Brazil, has criticized the protests.

"The attacks against this event are becoming ever more sectarian and irrational," Lula told the Spanish daily El Pais, drawing a connection between the protests and Brazil's general elections scheduled for October.

Concerns about stability

The latest unrest has raised concern about whether or not Brazil is politically stable enough to successfully host the World Cup.

The federal police are considering a nationwide strike during the Cup. They are responsible for border security and immigration, critical functions as some 600,000 foreign nationals are expected to attend the tournament.

Last year, protesters staged mass demonstrations against the Confederations Cup, a warmup for the World Cup. President Dilma Rousseff was eventually forced to publicly address the protesters' demands.

slk/jr (AFP, Reuters)

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Chile: Catholic priests investigated over stolen babies

Church leaders admit to knowing about scheme in which single mothers were pressured to give up their newborns for adoption

The Guardian, Jonathan Franklin in Santiago, Thursday 15 May 2014

Matias Troncoso, a well-known Chilean photographer, was taken from
his mother and given to another family.

The Catholic church in Chile is under investigation over allegations that priests played a central part in a network which stole newborn babies from single mothers.

Police investigators are now probing dozens of cases in which unmarried women who became pregnant were pressured by priests to give their child up for adoption. Those who refused were anaesthetized during childbirth and, upon awakening, told that the newborn had died. The healthy babies were hidden from their biological mother and given away in order to be raised by married couples in "traditional" Catholic families.

Church leaders now admit they have known about the scheme for at least ten years. Unlike Spain and Argentina where babies were stolen from leftwing political activists, the motivation in Chile was to shield the reputations of well-off families from the social stigma of an unmarried mother.

Most of the cases now being investigated took place in the 1970's and 1980's but there are reports of cases as late as 2005.

Chile's child protection agency – Sername – has now opened an investigation and is working with detectives to determine how many children are involved.

Documents from the Sername investigation describe how parents were "tricked into believing that there baby had died at birth" and allege that "various newborn babies, from single women who were pregnant, were given away under irregular circumstances during the 1970's and 1980's to other families."

Matias Troncoso, 33, a well-known Chilean photographer, is one of these cases. Troncoso always knew he was adopted but when he began asking questions about his biological mother, the answers did not add up. His birth was not registered until he was six years old, and the clinic where he was born refused to release his records.

The doctor who delivered him was elderly and his memory starting to fail, but enough details leaked out that Troncoso began to suspect a plot.

Last month Troncoso's suspicions were confirmed when Chilean investigative news site Ciper reported the allegations. In a series of online articles, the collective's reporters tracked down and documented an underground network of wealthy families, gynaecologists, social workers, lawyers and at the heart of the scheme Gerardo Joannon, a gregarious and popular Catholic priest.

Troncoso, who ended up as the single son of a loving, upper-class family had nothing but praise for his adoptive parents and said they never hid the fact that he was adopted.

But he was extremely critical of the role played by the church. "They had funerals with empty caskets," he said.

Father Joannon has admitted working with a group of ten doctors who helped coordinate the underground – and likely illegal – adoptions. "In those moments, a young single woman who had a baby was looked at very badly. I wouldn't say it scrubbed out their life, but it was something close to that," said Joannon when confronted with the facts by Ciper reporters in March. "Nobody wanted to marry them."

Joannon insists that his role in the scheme was limited. He told Ciper: "The only thing I did was put [the pregnant young women] in contact with a doctor who made the effort to find families that were desiring to have a child."

Interviewed by a Chilean TV crew, Joannon declared, "I am not going to help [the investigation] with anything, I have nothing left to say." Church officials then announced that Joannon has been ordered to refrain from speaking further about the cases, which investigators now believe involves six Santiago-area hospitals.

Father Joannon insists that he only participated in underground adoptions in which the biological mother agreed to "donate" the baby to a second family. But at least one mother has said Joannon pressured her to give up her child, and alleges that when she refused, he participated in the disappearance of her newborn daughter.

A second mother described Joannon stalking the maternity ward, pressuring her to hand over her newborn.

Several other priests are alleged to have been involved in the scheme, but have not been named.

Catholic leaders in Chile have distanced themselves from Joannon. His weekly mass was suspended in April and Alex Vigueras, a spokesman for the church said it was clear that the babies were taken without consent. "What I find most troubling is to have said that the children died, knowing that it was not the case."

Vigueras said that Joannon and the baby-snatching ring had "committed an injustice … various rights have been violated." In a communiqué from the church, Vigueras promised to collaborate with investigations by Chilean law enforcement agencies.

A website set up by victims has logged dozens of alleged cases. Some of the inquiries come from parents looking for their children and others from children looking for their parents.

"Joannon made the contacts but he is just one lead on this problem," said Arturo Fellay, whose wife is searching for her biological parents. "There are many other cases of boys and girls who were said to be dead and were taken away or given or sold to families under a secret that was kept for years."

Asked about the ethics and honesty of holding funeral services for newborn children who in fact were alive, Joannon told reporters from Ciper, "I never held a funeral mass … these were masses where thanks were given to God for that day in which the young woman made such a tremendous sacrifice."

Pressed with evidence by parents that funeral services were indeed held, Joannon then said he was "sure that [the baby] was dead. The doctor told me [the baby] was dead."

Troncoso, the photographer who is now searching for his biological mother wants answers. "I don't know my birthday. I don't know my [biological] mother" he said. "These woman entered the clinic. They were put to sleep and when they woke up were told 'Your baby has died.' Basically it was kidnapping."

Troncoso is not interested in filing criminal charges. "Justice is not just the whip of vengeance," he said. "It's essentially about truth. How can you take a baby from a mother and convince yourself that you are doing a good deed?"

Alfredo Zolezzi: how a plasma water purifying system is saving lives

Wired.co.uk, Nicholas Tufnell, 17 October 2013

"If we can connect people and their needs with the advancement of technology we will make a better world" claims Alfredo Zolezzi during his talk at Wired 2013.

Zolezzi is a Chilean industrial designer and an expert in applied technological innovations. He has created an integrated objectives model which he says allows for him to improve technological innovation and create greater social, emotional and developmental impact.

Alfredo Zolezzi (Nate Lanxon)

"For many years I was involved in innovation, but I discovered I was using 80 percent of my time just surviving and had little time to create," explains Zolezzi. "So I decided to study the innovation models that were already out there, but there were none. So I wrote my own innovation model and soon after I started creating some of my most effective products."

Zolezzi soon developed technology that enhanced the recovery of oil from abandoned oil wells "using high-frequency and high-powered ultrasound waves." He wished to innovate further to create new technologies that could significantly reduce the cost of refining oil, but something held him back.

"I could have made billions," he said, "but there is no future if we do not change the way we are addressing our current problems. Only 2.5 billion people have to access to clean water, we cannot ignore that reality. We are living the future but we are still struggling with the problems from the past."

Wishing to refocus his efforts on humanitarian needs, Zolezzi set out to create a novel way of purifying water. The answer was found in plasma.

Zolezzi created a plasma sanitation system that can sanitise 35 litres of water in five minutes at a cost per litre of less than one penny. The system injects water into a reaction chamber, where it achieves plasma state through a high-intensity electrical field. The microbiological content of the water is then eliminated by electroporation, oxidation, ionization, UV and IR radiation.

"This technology won't remove impurities like salt or heavy metals, but it will kill bacteria," Zolezzi explained. "In our last test, the plasma procedure killed off 100 percent of bacteria with 100 percent efficacy."

The system has been used in a Chilean slum, where Zolezzi says it has "improved their health, dignity and quality of life in an instant".

Zolezzi closed his speech remarking that his technology alone isn't enough, it's crucial that social technology is used in conjunction with this his new device to ensure people are aware of its existence and importance. He left the stage reminding us to "just think that there is always someone who is not as privileged as we are. We have problems, but all this privilege that we have is also our commitment".

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"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

"The Time Capsule of Gaia" – Feb 9, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… Ideas and Inventions Are Not Random

Now, I want to revisit this because we're coming to the point of what I want to speak of, which we have not spoken of before. It seems unbelievable, but the fact is that ideas and inventions are given to the planet when it's ready, and not before. We told you last time that humanity believes it can "think of anything." The intellectual believes the sky is the limit in creativity. Yet, isn't it interesting that everything profound in ideas and inventions has come almost at the last moment? When you take a look at humanity and how long you've been here and how long there have been smart Human Beings, why is it that only in the last seeming second of time that almost all modern invention took place?

Imagine going through thousands of years without understanding what a bacteria was, or not believing in germs, or not having electricity. When you think about these things and the order in which they came to the planet, it's quite revealing. Many Humans were working on the same invention at the same time and didn't even know it. Suddenly, you received the invention of radio, then pictures that fly through the air, then flight. It all came together seemingly in the last moment. You've got to ask, do you not, how logical is this in the scheme of how things work? Did you have to come to a certain point in history before Humans got smart? Or do you think there was something else going on? The answer is there was something else going on. It seemed as though these ideas were being "delivered" to the planet all at the same time, and many were understanding these things suddenly all at once.

The Time Capsules

Here is what happened: Within that which you call Gaia, there is the Crystalline Grid. This is the memory of all things placed there by the Pleiadians. The Crystalline Grid was created for this purpose by the Pleiadians. When it's proper and when humanity's consciousness has reached a certain point, these ideas are released. It is a time capsule of invention and more. This does not happen from the great central sun; it does not happen from outside the earth, but rather it happens from within. …”

Scolari charged with tax fraud in Portugal

Yahoo – AFP, 14 may 2014

The coach of the Brazilian national football team, Luiz Felipe Scolari speaks

 during the announcement of his 23-men squad for the upcoming FIFA World

Cup Brazil 2014, during a presss conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 7,

 2014 (AFP Photo/Vanderlei Almeida)

Lisbon (AFP) - Portuguese authorities have charged Brazil's national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari with tax fraud, less than a month before the World Cup starts, a prosecution spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.

Investigators said they have asked the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Brazil for assistance in the case.

Scolari is accused of hiding about seven million euros ($9.6 million) in income when he was Portugal's coach between 2003 and 2008, according to media reports.

He has denied any wrongdoing. But the inquiry threatens to taint Brazil's preparations to host the World Cup, which starts on June 12.

Scolari coached Brazil to their World Cup triumph in 2002 and has returned to the national side for the campaign on home territory which they are favourites to win.

Portugal reached the final of Euro 2004 as hosts and the World Cup semi-finals in 2006 when Scolari was in charge.

The Portuguese inquiry is being carried out by the Central Department for Criminal Investigations and Penal Action (DCIAP).

The department, an arm of the Prosecutor General's office, confirmed in a statement that "Luiz Felipe Scolari stands accused in an investigation."

"This probe is investigating happenings dating back to the period between 2003 and 2008 and is related to eventual fiscal infractions," it added.

"In the course of these investigations, international assistance was requested from the Netherlands, Britain, Brazil and the United States. The request to the USA is still to be answered."

The statement did not give a figure for the alleged fraud and said "investigations are ongoing."

Scolari, 65, has made a personal fortune from his work with Brazil and Portugal but also as a club manager with teams such as Chelsea.

Scolari has also worked as a coach in Japan, Kuwait and Uzbekistan.

Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad said Scolari received money from two Netherlands-based companies, Chaterella Investors Limited and Flamboyants Sports.

Portugal has asked US authorities for assistance in the inquiry as the money was believed to have been transferred to the United States, the Dutch daily added.

Financieele Dagblad said that Scolari transferred money through companies based in the Bahamas and other tax havens.

"I made all my income tax declarations correctly," Scolari said in a statement in reaction to the press reports.

"I always declared my earnings in all the countries I worked in," he insisted.

"I am absolutely convinced of the correctness of my declarations.

"If there is something wrong it is not of my doing," said Scolari, who invited the authorities to look into "all the facts."

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) have yet to comment on the case, which has been given widespread attention in Brazil.

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Dominican Republic revamps failing education system

Deutsche Welle, 12 May 2014

The Dominican Republic has one of the world's worst education systems. Now it is finally investing money in schools. Thousands of classrooms are due to be built, although there are too few teachers for the existing ones.

Yovanny Gomez escapes from a sticky hot courtyard full of teenage students. He teaches math at the Republic of Argentina School, a free public school with 1,000 students in the Colonial District, a middle-class area in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Gomez plops down next to the breeze of a new air conditioner in the teacher's lounge.

"Two or three years ago this school was practically a cemetery of waste," he said. "There was trash, disorganization. The school wasn't painted. There wasn't air conditioning in the offices. Really everything was a mess because we didn't have any of the necessary resources to teach."

In the Caribbean nation of nearly 10 million people, the education system ranks among the worst in the world. Test scores in urban areas are as low as in rural areas. Poor students can't escape the failing public education system, making it difficult for them to break out of poverty.

Like its neighbors, the Dominican Republic struggles with overcrowded classrooms in shoddy facilities. There's a high dropout rate, an outdated curriculum, overage students who fail classes and have to repeat grades, among other problems. But perhaps the most worrying issue is poorly trained teachers.

Math teachers only understood 42 percent of the material they were supposed to be teaching, according to a recent study by education experts.

Felix Sanchez says that families need
 to do more to help their children at
school too

Low pay, tough conditions

Low pay makes the profession a tough sell. School teachers like Gomez earn a base salary of about 250 ($344) euros a month. The average university-educated worker earns 457 euros a month, according to the most recent figures from the Dominican Central Bank.

Gomez opted to get his master's degree in teaching anyway. But it hasn't been easy to be a teacher.

"We don't make a living wage for a family," he said. "A teacher can't have his own house, a car or support his family. A teacher might want to have children, but can't afford them. We can't even afford Internet with this salary. We want a salary that will pay for these things."

The Dominican Republic is the first country in the Caribbean to undertake a major education overhaul. In 2012, voters convinced all presidential candidates to promise - if elected - to double the education budget. Now President Danilo Medina is staking his reputation on education reform. The country will spend 4 percent of its GDP - almost 2 billion euros in 2014. Deputy Education Minister Luis Matos de La Rosa says the reform targets five problem areas.

"We can't say which part is the most important," de La Rosa told DW. "Everything is happening at the same time."

"Obviously first we need new spaces. We're also hiring people to fill these spaces, expanding preschool enrollment, teaching people to read and extending the school day.

But all efforts aren't funded equally. Construction gets four times more money than teacher training and hiring.

The government will build 28,000 new classrooms by 2016, but right now there aren't enough teachers for the classrooms they already have. Student-teacher ratios in schools with more than 500 students are 78:1 - this accounts for 68 percent of total enrollment for public schools.

Teachers have also protested and temporarily shut down schools to demand a 100-percent salary increase over the past few years, but they've gained little ground.

Maribel Hernandez, the communications director behind the education-funding increase, said the decision plays to politics.

Many kids are not used to the longer
 school day that has recently been
introduced

"The president usually wants to be re-elected. When he wants to get back in office, he'll say, 'This is what I built. This is what I did.' And they have concrete things to show, but training teachers, that's really intangible," said Hernandez.

Longer school days

The government is extending the school day to eight hours from five, aiming to have 80 percent of schools operating on an eight-hour day by 2016.

But students only learn for two hours and 40 minutes out of the five hours during the typical school day, according to a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) survey. They often hang out in class while they're supposed to be studying.

More class time won't mean better grades unless the extra time is invested in quality teaching and an extended curriculum.

"When you go to schools that have had their school days extended, what you'll find is a lot of boys and girls sleeping. They haven't figured out what the children should learn in these extra hours," said Hernandez.

Yirmel Sanchez, a skinny 13-year-old student at the Republic of Argentina School, started going to school for eight hours a day last year.

"It was a little exhausting, but I got used to it, and it's good to learn new things," he said.

Every day when he gets home, he goes online to learn outside the classroom. It also sharpens his tech skills, which he hopes will eventually help him land a job.

But unlike Sanchez, most students in the country don't have the luxury to take their education into their own hands. Only half of the population has Internet access.

In the poor, rural town of Mata Limon, just north of Santo Domingo, 550 students share two computers. Many children have to work to help make ends meet, and education often suffers.

One in four teenage girls in Dominican
 Republic get pregnant and many drop out
of school

A question of culture?

Behind the school, construction workers are laying down concrete blocks to build a new school. But principal Felix Sanchez said they'll need more than new buildings to turn things around.

"I would say it's something about our country's culture. A lot of the time, families don't understand the importance of their children's educational responsibilities."

Across the country, about 40 percent of boys and girls leave school before eighth grade. Even those who get through high school and complete 12 years of school start college at a sixth-grade reading level, according to a Dominican university study.

Despite its problems, Dominicans seem pleased with the reform. They say it's a step up from what they had before - an iron-fisted dictator, then human rights abuses and corruption.