Panama Papers law firm closes Jersey, Gibraltar offices

Yahoo – AFP, May 28, 2016

Panama-based Mossack Fonseca law firm says it will close its offices in Jersey
 and Isle of Man -- two Crown dependencies of Britain -- and Gibraltar -- a British
overseas territory jutting off from Spain (AFP Photo/Rodrigo Arangua)

Panama City (AFP) - The law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers revelations is closing its offices in the British-dependent territories of Jersey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar, it Tweeted.

Mossack Fonseca "will be ceasing operations" in those territories, "but we will continue serving all of our clients," it said.

"This decision has been taken with great regret, as Mossack Fonseca has had a presence in these locations for more than 20 years," the Panama-based law firm added.

The office closures were part of a strategy to "consolidate our service office network," it said.

The announcement came nearly eight weeks after the first reports about the Panama Papers emerged, divulging details taken from nearly four decades of records from Mossack Fonseca's computer archives.

Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca created an offshore company for 

Vancouver billionaire David Ho even though he was facing criminal charges

They revealed that many prominent leaders, politicians, celebrities and wealthy individuals around the world used Mossack Fonseca to start up or run offshore entities to hold their assets.

Although offshore companies are not in themselves illegal, the sudden publication of the information drew attention to possible tax avoidance and money laundering crimes in some cases, and embarrassed some figures trying to keep their finances secret.

News of the closure of Mossack Fonseca's offices in Jersey and Isle of Man -- two Crown dependencies of Britain -- and Gibraltar -- a British overseas territory jutting off from Spain -- was reported earlier this week by local media in those territories and the BBC.

The law firm in Panama did not confirm the information on Thursday when contacted by AFP.

While its tweets Friday said those closures were happening, they made no mention of another report circulating this week in US media, about Mossack Fonseca's affiliate in the state of Nevada resigning as the agent for 1,000 companies it administered there. 

Mexico agrees to extradite drug boss Chapo to US: govt

Yahoo – AFP, Leticia Pineda, May 20, 2016

Drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted into a helicopter at Mexico
City's airport on January 8, 2016 following his recapture during an intense military
operation in Los Mochis, in Sinaloa State (AFP Photo/Alfredo Estrella)

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico on Friday agreed to extradite drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the United States where he faces narcotics and murder charges, the foreign ministry said.

The announcement follows a series of dramatic escapades by El Chapo or "Shorty" Guzman, 59, considered the world's most wanted drug boss as leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

This police handout photo taken on 

January 8, 2016 shows Joaquin Guzman Loera 

aka "El Chapo" as he is imprisoned in Almoloya 

de Juarez, Mexico State (AFP Photo/HO)

"The Mexican government grants his international extradition to the government of the United States of America for him to be tried," the ministry said in a statement.

Guzman escaped from a top-security jail in July 2015 and was recaptured in January.

Police caught him after a colorful episode involving a US-Mexican soap opera actress and the Hollywood star Sean Penn, who met with Guzman in hiding.

The ministry said it had approved the extradition after receiving assurances from the US government that Guzman would not face the death penalty if convicted, since he could not receive such a punishment under Mexican law.

It said it had notified the suspect's lawyers of the agreement to extradite Guzman, who is wanted by courts in California and Texas.

Guzman's legal team has a month to appeal against the decision before it is carried out.

Jail conditions

A Mexican judge on Monday ruled that Guzman could be extradited to face drug trafficking, money laundering and murder charges in a US federal court in Texas.

Previously a judge had also endorsed an extradition request based on cocaine-smuggling charges filed at a court in California.

Guzman's lawyer, Jorge Refugio Rodriguez, told AFP after those rulings that he would appeal if the foreign ministry decided to extradite his client.

Refugio has vowed to fight extradition. He said Guzman has hired a US lawyer and would be willing to plead guilty in return for good US prison conditions.

A US government official who asked not to be named told AFP on May 9 that the United States would not negotiate with Guzman over his plea or conditions.

The official expected Guzman to be extradited by the end of this year.

President Enrique Pena Nieto's government had previously balked at sending Guzman to the United States.

But after Guzman was recaptured in January, Pena Nieto asked the attorney general's office to expedite the extradition process.

Federal police block a road as authorities transfer drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" 

Guzman to a prison in Ciudad Juarez from his maximum-security jail near Mexico

City (AFP Photo/Gerardo Macias)

Hollywood tale

The government was embarrassed by last year's escape, when Guzman tunneled out of what was supposed to be one of Mexico's most secure prisons.

It was one of two dramatic prison breaks the cartel boss has staged.

In 2001, he hid in a laundry cart to sneak out of a maximum-security lockup in western Mexico. He was detained in February 2014 after a long manhunt.

In July 2015 he escaped again, this time from the Altiplano prison, sneaking out through a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel leading to his cell's shower.

He was recaptured in January and sent back to Altiplano near the capital, which is still considered the highest security prison despite his escape.

As the extradition drive gathered speed, Guzman was abruptly transferred last week from Altiplano to a jail in Ciudad Juarez, at the US border.

His lawyers have complained about conditions in the Juarez jail. Refugio said Guzman is isolated and had complained his cell was dirty.

The drama of Chapo's recapture was enhanced by the role of US-Mexican actress Kate Del Castillo, who played a drug boss in a popular soap opera.

She admitted arranging a meeting between herself, Guzman and Penn three months before the capture, in which she wanted to discuss making a film about the drug lord.

Penn wrote about the meeting in Rolling Stone magazine.

Related Articles:

Drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzman 'desperate' for US extradition

Colombia captures feared Peruvian drug lord 'Caracol'

US pharma firm Pfizer stops availability of products for lethal injections

At sea, scientists drill into crater for dino clues

Yahoo – AFP, Yemeli Ortega, May 18, 2016

The L/B MYRTLE Offshore Support Vessel, a scientific platform in the Gulf
of Mexico (AFP Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

MYRTLE PLATFORM IN THE GULF OF MEXICO (México) (AFP) - Sharks swim around a platform off Mexico's east coast as scientists drill deep into the ocean floor, extracting the remains of the asteroid widely blamed for the demise of the dinosaurs.

Some 30 meters (98 feet) above the ocean floor, the researchers pull out cylinders filled with rocks that could unlock the mysteries of life and death caused by the cataclysmic crash in the Gulf of Mexico some 66 million years ago.

The remains of the space rock might even give them clues about the possibility of life on other planets.

The $15 million Expedition 364, an international team at sea since April, is the first to peer into the offshore side of the 200-kilometer wide Chicxulub crater. The crater is large enough to also straddle part of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.

"One of the exciting questions is what caused the environmental changes that led to a mass extinction and what insights arise from biologic recovery in the Paleogene (period)," Sean Gulick, professor at the Institute of Geophysics of the University of Texas, told AFP in the first visit for journalists to the platform.

The search is like looking for a needle in a haystack because the asteroid was pulverized by its apocalyptic impact, which destroyed 75 percent of life on Earth.

A team of 30 geologists, paleontologists and microbiologists from the United States, Mexico, Japan, China, Australia, Canada and Europe are working on the platform, which is located 33 kilometers off the Mexican coastline.

The scientists are drilling 1.5 kilometers (one mile) below the ocean floor, seeking microfossils and remains from the space rock.

Sailors and workers load supplies for the the L/B MYRTLE Offshore Support 

Vessel -a scientific platform in the Gulf of Mexico (AFP Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

Life in other planets?

Wearing helmets and protective gear, the scientists communicate with hand signals or by screaming over the loud noise from the heavy machinery as they work around the clock on the L/B Myrtle platform, a flat, seagoing vessel that jacks up on three pillars.

As they removed dark rocks from a meter-long tube, Auriol Rae, a geologist from the Imperial College of London, could hardly contain his excitement.

"These are the rocks we expected, but 30 meters shallower than we thought it would be," Rae said, staring at the material that will later be cleaned, refrigerated and analyzed.

The rocks will be sent to Bremen, Germany, when the mission ends in early June, so that scientists can write about their discoveries.

For now, they know that the asteroid's impact was so powerful caused material to fly into orbit and fall back into Earth like fireballs. Later, ash covered the skies, turning the planet into a dark and cold place.

"This created a chain of extinction. Months later, the dust fell on the continents and oceans, changing the chemistry of the oceans," said expedition chief Jaime Urrutia, president of the Mexican Science Academy.

While there are still debates about whether the asteroid is solely to blame for the disappearance of dinosaurs, scientists agree that it caused great destruction and had a role in how life evolved after its crash.

The scientists of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) hope that Expedition 364 can provide more answers about how life was extinguished on Earth, and then revived following the asteroid's crash.

They have extracted thin and clear or black and shiny rocky material, as well as yellowish or green sediment.

The research aims to find evidence of the origin of the universe and the

evolution of life on Earth (AFP Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

Each layer corresponds to a moment in time between the Cretaceous -- the last period of the dinosaurs -- and Paleogene periods, said Ligia Perez, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The crater has a circle of mountains known as the "peak ring" that are up to 500 meters high. The Myrtle platform's three pillars stand on top of one of those peaks.

"There's so much fracturing of rocks inside the peak ring that you think hot fluids rushed through it, that we might anticipate that there's a great place for microbial life to occupy," Gulick said.

"If it turns out that impacts are great places for life then maybe that's why we should be looking for microbial life in other planets," he said.

Joanna Morgan, a British scientist, said that before the impact the ocean's microorganisms were diverse, large and complex.

But they became "much smaller and simpler" immediately after the asteroid's hit.

Drilling angers fishermen

Scientists may be excited about their work on the platform, but local fishermen are not pleased with the presence of the foreign object in their seas.

A scientific mission studies the Chicxulub impact crater on the Gulf of Mexico, 

created after an asteroid crashed 66 million years ago (AFP Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

Guadalupe Alvarez, leader of a fishing cooperative, said the drilling noise has scared away fish such as red or yellowtail snapper.

"In places we used to catch 100 kilos, now we catch nothing," Alvarez said.

The local government has agreed to pay 30 liters of fuel to each of the 1,000 fishermen because they have to travel farther to find fish.

But Urrutia said the machines were barely making any noise because the engines are on the platform.

A video taken by a submarine showed little fish swimming around the undersea drill as it perforated the soil.

Related Articles:

Guizhou radio telescope may pick up signs of alien life (China)

NASA discovers closest Earth-twin yet (USA)

Hawking launches biggest-ever search for alien life (UK/Russia)


"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" -  Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... Question Three: Is there life on other planets?

Are you kidding? There's life everywhere. Everywhere! Right now, your scientists are searching for microbial life on all the planets and their moons in your solar system, and they will eventually find it. They expect to find it. They will eventually understand that the seeds of life are everywhere.

How much life might there be? How long has it been "out there"? When science starts to realize the scope of how long life has been in your galaxy, they will begin to see something counterintuitive to evolution - their own Human history. How old is your Universe? Ask your scientists and they will say about 13 billion years. That's OK. Let's use their numbers. How old is your own planet - 4 or 5 billion, perhaps? Correct. But how old is humanity? Why weren't you here with the dinosaurs? You think the earth wasn't ready? Do you think that perhaps that which controls evolution was a little too stupid to make a Human sooner, but the process could make a dinosaur? Have you ever thought about these things?

If you put the earth's entire history into a 24-hour clock, life itself only started in the last hour and humanity, all of civilization, happened the last few seconds. Isn't that odd to you? Therefore, in a Universe that may be 13 billion years old, you arrived in the last few seconds. Did you ever think maybe you're the newest ones on the block? Well, you'd be right.

If the Universe is really that old, do you think perhaps there are civilizations in your galaxy that might be a billion or more years older than you? If that's the case, do you think perhaps they have gone through anything you're going through? Do you think any of them might have had your DNA attributes? Perhaps they also went through what you are going through spiritually? Perhaps they even went into a quantum ascension status? The answer is dozens of them.

You already know them and you've listed them in your publications. The ones who directly seeded you are called Pleiadians. The ones who seeded them might be Octurian and the ones who seeded them may be even Orion. They're everywhere, and they're all here as well. They're looking at you, for you are the ones who are next, and you are passing this marker of the shift.

Oh, dear ones, it's going to be a long time before you really know any of these things to be your reality. The first step is peace on Earth. The next is a new kind of Human evolution that is going to increase your DNA efficiency to 100% and you're going to live a long time. Every time I say that, there are Humans in their intellectual mind saying, "Well, there is a geometric birth rate going on. We're not going to make it. It's going to over-crowd and we are going to run out of food. So what you're saying, Kryon, can't be a good thing. We're all going to be suffering and killing each other for food."

Let me address this, for if that is your thought, Human, you are assuming Humans are stupid and haven't figured out what's going on and why there's so much birth. You assume they can't control it because they haven't figured it out? I want to tell you, you're going to see something you didn't expect. You're going to see a decline in birth rate because Humans are smart and they're getting smarter. They're going to see that quality of life is linked to the number of children they have, and they're going to figure out the solution. It won't be how many children their church says they should have. They are going to do it intuitively. You're going to see it sooner than not.

You are going to see wisdom on the planet in many areas that no sociologist would ever have predicted. You will surprise them all, and it's going to happen without a government program. It's going to happen because you decide you want it. It's going to happen collectively, and you may even see it soon. Look for negative birth rates in first-world countries. Where Humans are able to see a larger picture and have freedom of information, the situation will not be what you have predicted.

Is there life on other planets? The scientists are saying, "It's going to be a long time before we get to the stars, you know? We have to get in this little metal can and put air in it, and then travel in it for years and years before we ever get to the next star." Meanwhile, a Pleiadian can do it in the blink of an eye! What do you think is going on there? Do you even believe me?

Not long ago, if you wanted to communicate to someone far away, you sent a letter. It was carried by a horse. It took a month to get a response. Now you communicate instantly!  Why is this so unbelievable to you about travel?

I will tell you, as long as you stay in 3D, you'll still be getting in little metal cans and air suits and going to planets. As soon as you begin the quantum age, however, you will simply wish yourself there, because you will be entangled with everything and can go with intent. If you don't believe this now, you will later, for what I give you is true. It may be lifetimes and lifetimes from now, but the group that is before me is the group that is going to come back over and over and over. The difference is that you're done coming back in an old energy. This is a new energy. ..”

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  Physics - Sticking To The Known

Physicists are among the kinds of scientists who expect change through discovery, and who absolutely know that they are unaware of how everything works. It comes with the territory of being a physicist. Yet the mistakes they make in their bias are the same as the computer scientist. They take their truth from known absolute physics in 3D and then apply this truth to everything they don't know.

I point to the revelation and the discoveries of astronomer Vera Rubin. When she found out that stars that orbit the middle of your galaxy don't behave within the gravitational laws of Newton or the laws of planetary motion from Kepler, it was a major discovery. Your solar system moves around the sun in highly definable 3D laws of motion. The objects that are further away from the sun go slower. The ones closer to the sun go faster. However, her discovery showed that stars orbiting the galaxy had this reversed! The stars that are further away from the middle go faster. What she discovered was that all of the stars go the same speed in relationship to the middle, like they were pasted on a plate, all revolving together around the center. They do not follow the rules of the physics that you know.

So, what did the physicists and astronomers do with this major new information? Instead of seeing a brand new paradigm, they instead used Newton's laws and computed what would have to be "out there" to make this happen. Dark matter! It had to be mysterious, invisible matter that was creating this very strange and enormous new Newtonian attribute. Instead of looking at this and saying, "There is a new law of physics happening here that we don't yet know about," they kept it within the Newton box and renamed it, "Altered Newtonian Physics". That's funny! That's like a situation when you discovered the earth was round and called it the "Altered Flat-Earth Principle"!

Newton's name is still attached, but his 3D laws have nothing to do with anything Ruben discovered. Dark matter does not exist! It's a made-up energy to satisfy an old law that doesn't apply! Instead, there is a new law of physics that you haven't seen yet. It's a multidimensional law having to do with modified entanglement. Modified entangled objects are created because of what is in the middle of the galaxy. The immense push-pull twin energy at the middle of each galaxy is not simplistic like your sun is to your own solar system. It does not have Kepler rules, since it's not mass that's just orbiting naturally. Yet, you think it is, since it looks similar: The galaxy has stars circling it in space. Someday, you'll slap your heads in revelation of what you did with this, and you will change the rules.

Now to esoteric astronomy: Look what you've done with the idea that you came from the Pleiadians. There are some scientists laughing right now who smugly say that the mythology of the Pleiadians being your seed biology is simply not possible. It's not possible because of astronomical history, and what they now know about the constellation itself.

Pleiadian Connection - Mythology?

Let's talk about the Pleiadian system, the Seven Sisters. Let's talk about the truth of it, and then let's discuss what science says is the mythology of it. We will tell you what you don't see and don't comprehend, simply because of your existing knowledge.

You call this constellation the Seven Sisters [M45]. The physical facts are that there are hundreds of stars in this Pleiades group. Circling these stars is a nebula (dust particles and gas). This creates a wonderful blue tinge that you can see in the heavens on a clear night. With distance and atmospheric attributes against you, the naked eye can only perceive what appears to be seven stars (or clusters), hence the name Seven Sisters. However, there are actually nine when you use a telescope. Each of the nine have been identified with names, but again, there are actually hundreds of stars.

The Seven Sisters are approximately 440 light years away. From the viewpoint of astronomy and distances, that's close - very close! Now, here's what science says is wrong with your mythology about the Pleiadians: The constellation is way too young! The whole system of the Pleiades is far too young to have developed life. It's only approximately 100 million years old - a baby! The galaxy is four billion years old [according to your science] and your planet is at least a billion of that. Yet, the Pleiadians are only a tiny fraction of that, only 100 million.

So here is what science says: The mythology has most of the ancients of this planet claiming the Pleiadians as their seeds. However, this is impossible due to the age of the stars. The suppositions and logic are applied this way: What you saw on earth happens everywhere in the galaxy. That's incorrect, and quite humorous! Your bias is that life develops only a certain way, based upon the way it developed here. Not only is that incorrect in general, but the possibility has never even been broached that perhaps, just perhaps, the Pleiadian life as you think it exists was actually implanted there! How about that? Perhaps it didn't evolve from there at all! So to dismiss a possibility completely due to only the knowledge of what you have here may result in a totally illogical conclusion. Then there is the question, "How did those Pleiadians get so advanced so quickly?" [Wink]

These are just little vignettes of possibility, which I throw to you this evening to give you things to think about. The Pleiadians who are here are smiling, and they know you so well. You may be the new kids on the block because life just developed on your planet, but the Pleiadians had an entirely different scenario from what you had. To become an ascended planet, they needed certain kinds of pushes from certain other kinds of planets. They had their own seed biology! Dear ones, it's important to start thinking out of the box of your knowledge and open up to possibilities that are not what you've seen here.  ….”

"FUTURE AND PHYSICS (#)" - May 16-17, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (#) New major Discoveries (This channel will become a historical channel in the future, prove that Kryon is a real communication from the Creative Source/God to Humanity - 'Óur Family') - (Text version Physics)

1 To see and measure multi-dimensional/quantum physics, instrument (super-cooling quantum plasma lens)

2 Two more laws of multi-dimensional physics revealed: explanation of dark matter & acknowledgement of free energy (controlling mass)

3 God in the atom. God has - provable - part in physics. Intelligent/benevolent design. (Will bring religion and science together.)

4 Human Consciousness is an attribute of physics. (Pleiadians - Humans ancestors / Humans free choice only planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Other galaxies have their own spiritual systems and physics)

5.Coherent DNA. Multidimensional DNA coherent between dimensions will give Enhanced DNA

"Earth, the only planet with free choice in the Milky Way Galaxy"

"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.) - (Text Version)

"Recalibration of the Universe"– Jan 25, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

“… The entire galaxy revolves as one plate, in a very counter-intuitive way. The stars and the constellations do not orbit within the rules of Newtonian physics that you are used to seeing all around you in your own solar system. For the stars and clusters in your galaxy, distance from the center does not matter. All the stars rotate as one. This is because the galaxy is entangled with the middle of itself. In that state, there is no time or distance. The change of consciousness on this planet has changed the center of the galaxy. This is because what happens here, dear one, is "known" by the center.

It's interesting to us what your reaction to all this is scientifically. You saw that the "creative event" of your Universe is missing some energy in order for it to have formed as it did. In addition, the unusual way the galaxy rotates, as I just stated, was also noted. So you have calculated that for all this to be in place, there has to be missing 3D matter, and you have given it a name - dark matter. How funny! Did you ever think that there could be a multidimensional effect going on that you now can observe and calculate - that has immense power, but can't be seen? It's not "matter" at all and it's not 3D. It's quantum energy.

Let me tell you something about physics. Yet again, I'll make it simple. Everything your scientists have seen in physics happens in pairs. At the moment, there are four laws of physics in your three-dimensional paradigm. They represent two pairs of energy types. Eventually, there will be six. At the center of your galaxy is what you call a black hole, but it is not a single thing. It is a duality. There is no such thing as "singularity". You might say it's one energy with two parts - a weak and a strong quantum force. And the strangest thing is it knows who you are. It is the creator engine. It's different in other galaxies than this one. It's unique.

The very physics of your galaxy is postured by what you do here. The astronomers can look into the cosmos and they will discover different physics in different galaxies. Could it be that there's something going on in the other galaxies like this one? I'm not going to answer that. … “

"The Physics of Consciousness - The Future Revealed" - June 29, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

Mexico leader proposes legalizing gay marriage nationwide

Yahoo – AFP, Laurent Thomet, May 17, 2016

People participate in the gay pride parade in Mexico City, on June 28, 2014
(AFP Photo/Alfredo Estrella)

Mexico City (AFP) - President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed Tuesday a constitutional reform to legalize same-sex marriage across Mexico, joining a handful of Latin American nations allowing such unions.

Pena Nieto said he will send the landmark initiative to Congress after the Supreme Court declared last year that it was unconstitutional for states to ban same-sex marriage.

"I do this with the conviction that the Mexican state must prevent discrimination for any motive and ensure equal rights to all," he said at an event marking the national day against homophobia.

"This way, equal marriage will be clear in our constitution," said Pena Nieto, who added rainbow colors to his picture in his Facebook and Twitter accounts and met with representatives of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Mexico City has authorized gay and lesbian marriages since 2009 and three of the nation's 31 states have followed suit. A fourth state, Campeche, has approved legislation but it has yet to come into force.

The Supreme Court's landmark "jurisprudence" does not oblige states to change their laws, but it requires courts to rule in favor of same-sex couples whose marriages were rejected.

Pena Nieto presented another initiative requiring the foreign ministry's passport office to accept birth certificates in which a person's gender was changed.

Among the few in Latin America

Elsewhere in the region, Colombia became the fourth South American country to allow same-sex marriage when the constitutional court definitively legalized it last month.

Argentina was the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2010.

Lawmakers in Uruguay followed suit in 2013 and Brazil authorized same-sex marriage under a court ruling the same year.

Same-sex marriages are also legal in various other countries including Britain, Canada, South Africa and the United States.

Around 12 million of the 120 million people in Mexico, the world's second biggest Roman Catholic country, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to the government.

Pena Nieto's proposal "is a response to the struggle that citizens have undertaken since 2012 to expose the violations in the civil codes," said Alex Ali Mendez, attorney of the gay rights organization Mexico Equal Marriage.

"One announcement by the president won't be enough," Mendez said. "We need reforms and we have seen (state) legislatures be very reluctant."

Another issue, he said, was that clerks that are granting marriage certificates to same-sex couples are not giving their children birth certificates.

"The president's announcement could make the other issues move forward with fewer obstacles," the attorney said.

Canada's justice minister will unveil legislation to protect transgender people
from hate speech and discrimination (AFP Photo/Geoff Robins)

Related Articles:

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Panama Papers database on shell companies goes online

Yahoo – AFP, Paul Handley, May 10, 2016

An online database has been put up to allow public access to the Panama Papers
 11.5 million documents, leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca (AFP
 Photo/Rodrigo Arangua)

Washington (AFP) - The public gained its first access to the Panama Papers records of over 200,000 secret offshore companies when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists put a searchable database up online.

The database, built on just a portion of the 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, reveals more than 360,000 names of individuals and companies behind the anonymous shell firms, the ICIJ said.

It reveals the full extent to which the world's wealthy, alongside criminals, create such nominee companies to stash and transfer assets out of sight of the law and tax officials.

Reports already published in April based on the explosive dossier linked some of the world's most powerful leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron and others to unreported offshore companies.

Iceland's prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, and Spain's industry minister Jose Manuel Soria, were forced to resign when they were tied to shell companies.

Until now access to the total cache of documents, originally provided by a mysterious "John Doe", was restricted to the ICIJ and a select group of international media.

Panama Papers leaks: political connections (AFP Photo/Adrian Leung,

John Saeki)

'In the public interest'

The ICIJ said Monday it is publishing some of the information catalogued in a database "in the public interest," as a global movement against tax evasion and the secrecy accorded the beneficial owners of anonymous shell companies gains force.

The database "allows users to explore the networks of companies and people that used -- and sometimes abused -- the secrecy of offshore locales with the help of Mossack Fonseca and other intermediaries," the ICIJ said.

It said it was not making available raw records online, nor was it putting all the information from the records out, in part to prevent access to bank account details and personal data of those mentioned.

The database can be searched by individual and company name and address, and shows links between those in the database.

But it gives no information -- beyond their name -- on the full identities of those behind the companies, nor of the underlying assets linked to the accounts.

And often the names of companies are linked to other similarly anonymous companies.

Even so, the individuals associated with the firms plainly come from all four corners of the globe. Many of the names are Chinese, Middle Eastern, Latin American and European.

The data came from nearly four decades of digital archives of Mossack Fonseca, one of the leading firms in the world for creating secret companies.

It is not known how the documents came to light; Mossack Fonseca says its computer records were hacked from abroad.

However they were obtained, "John Doe" first provided them to the German newspaper Süeddeustche Zeitung, which then approached ICIJ to organize a collective analysis of them.

Graphic showing public figures forced to resign or under pressure following the

Panama papers revelations (AFP Photo/Kun Tian, Alain Bommenel)

Criminals, filmmakers, footballers

The groups working with the ICIJ had full access to the Panama Papers, and their research has linked political leaders, celebrities and a few criminals to the companies.

- Putin's closest circle moved $2 billion through banks and shadow companies, according to the ICIJ, prompting the Russian leader to claim the Panama Papers was a US plot against him.

- Argentine President Mauricio Macri was also linked to offshore companies.

- China censored media and online social networks from mentioning links between the families of Chinese leaders with offshore entities.

- The names of Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan and Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar, all came up in the database.

Mossack Fonseca on Thursday sought a court order last week to prevent the ICIJ from putting the data online, arguing it would violate attorney-client privilege.

But the ICIJ said it is important the public be able to look up information on any offshore company.

"We think that information about who owns the company should be public and transparent," Marina Walker Guevara, deputy director of the ICIJ, told CNN.

She stressed, however, that "this is not disclosing private information en masse."

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