Inaugural commercial flight from US lands in Cuba

Yahoo –AFP, Hector Velasco, with Leila Macor in Fort Lauderdale, August 31, 2016

JetBlue Flight 386 departs for Cuba from Fort Lauderdale airport, Florida, on
August 31, 2016 (AFP Photo/Rhona Wise)

Santa Clara (Cuba) (AFP) - The first regular commercial flight in more than 50 years from the United States landed in Cuba on Wednesday, as the two nations took the latest step in their efforts to boost ties.

JetBlue Flight 387 landed in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara a little before 11:00 am (1500 GMT), about an hour after leaving Fort Lauderdale in southeastern Florida with 150 passengers on board.

The plane was greeted with a water cannon salute, an aviation tradition in which aircraft pass under arcs of water before flying to their destinations for the first time. Its departure from Florida was celebrated the same way.

The first two passengers off the plane carried US and Cuban flags as they descended the stairs onto the tarmac, where they symbolically exchanged the banners in a sign of friendship.

The plane was scheduled to complete the round trip later in the day, returning to Fort Lauderdale.

The flight was the first of 110 expected daily trips connecting US cities to airports in the Communist-run island, many of them in or near tourism hotspots.

Regular air service was severed during the Cold War, and charter flights have been the only air links since.

US Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the watershed.

"The 1st US commercial flight to #Cuba since 1961, just over a year after raising the flag at US Embassy Havana. Another step fwd," he wrote on Twitter.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, who was on the JetBlue flight, will meet with local officials during his visit, Cuba's transport ministry said.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx arrives at the airport of Santa Clara, Cuba

 on August 31, 2016 on the first commercial flight between the United States and

Cuba since 1961 (AFP Photo/Alejandro Ernesto)

Party in Florida

The Fort Lauderdale airport was in full party mode near Jet Blue's departure area -- a live salsa band blared Cuban favorites as passengers and bystanders broke into spontaneous dances.

There were cheers, applause and a sea of balloons as boarding for the historic flight got underway.

For some, there were also tears of joy.

"I am so proud, so overcome with emotion," said Domingo Santana, 53, who left Cuba when he was just six years old.

Since then, he said, "I've never been in my country. I don't know my country," adding: "It's a great opportunity."

History in the making

The JetBlue flight was flown by Captain Mark Luaces and First Officer Francisco Barreras, both Americans of Cuban descent, the airline said.

One passenger, Aleisy Barreda, 46, was overcome with emotion.

Passengers arriving at the airport of Santa Clara, Cuba on August 31, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

"This reopening has really benefitted us," she gushed.

"Not only in terms of the ticket prices, but also in terms of how much easier it is to purchase them," she said -- a reference to the rock bottom promotional ticket price starting at $99 one way, including checked bag.

"Now we only need more vacation time!"

The last regular commercial flight between the two countries took place in 1961, when air links fell victim to the Cold War.

Air travel between the United States and Cuba has been restricted to charter flights since 1979.

Washington and Havana agreed in February to restore direct commercial flights -- one of several watershed changes initiated in December 2014, when US President Barack Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro announced a thaw after more than 50 years of hostility.

Diplomatic relations were restored in July 2015.

Milestone

Washington still bans Americans from visiting Cuba as tourists, but travel is permitted for 12 other categories, including cultural and educational exchange.

The renewed links are a "milestone" in relations between the United States and Cuba, said Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

Regular flights "will allow more fluid movement of people, goods, information and ideas between two places that are very close geographically but distant politically," he said.

Cuban ambassador to the United States Jose Cabanas unveils a 

poster during a press conference at Fort Lauderdale airport, Florida, on 

August 31, 2016 (AFP Photo/Rhona Wise)

Cuba: 'Hot' travel destination

Of the 3.5 million tourists in Cuba in 2015, only 161,000 were Americans.

However, that number was up 77 percent from the previous year and Americans are now expected to become a major component in a growth industry expected to reach 6.8 million visitors in 2018.

Travel agents said US interest in making the short journey to the island has skyrocketed.

"There's a lot of interest in Cuba. It's the hot, 'in' place right now," said Frank Gonzalez, owner of the Mambi travel agency which offers packages to the island from the United States that include cultural workshops.

Twenty daily routes to Havana are pending.

The airlines designated to fly to the nine Cuban airports -- not including Havana -- include American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines and Sun Country Airlines, according to the US government.

Flights departing from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Minneapolis and Philadelphia will head to the Cuban cities Camaguey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba.

Related Articles:

Obama, Castro hail 'new day' for US-Cuba relations

Kryon Q&A

QUESTION (2005): Dear Kryon: I read in a spiritual article that Fidel Castro's mission is to show how to do things without money, that this is the reason why he and the tropical revolution have been kept alive. Is that true? If not, then why didn’t Cuba change when Eastern Europe changed? Has Fidel Castro been working for the light or is he a part of the old energy?

Answer: This leader is of the old energy, but was needed for the time. The real reason was to bring the Soviet Union close to your shores in order to help with the year 2000 Armageddon scenario that didn’t happen. His earthly masters would have played a very important part in Cuba with the nuclear war you didn’t have.

That’s the whole reason, and now he exists as a relic of what didn’t happen. His society is poor, and the culture is not elevated or pleased with itself. This energy will change soon… sooner than you think. Then you will see a Cuba that has been “hiding” for a very long time, and also realize the unbalance and cultural richness that has been there all along.

"THE FUNDAMENTAL FRACTAL" – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Kryon.com, June 11, 2016

This live channelling was given in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Lee Carroll

To help the reader, this channelling has been revisited [by Lee and Kryon] to provide even clearer understanding. Sometime information is even added. Often what happens live has implied energy within it, which carries a kind of communication that the printed page does not. So enjoy this enhanced message given in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service. We wish to take a moment to honor the science of today, of yesterday, which was presented in this place [speaking of the presentations during the conference].

For 26 years, I have given you messages over and over that may have sounded odd to you. When I've given you truths that were not yet validated, or told you things that were not the mainstream of thought, they were just things that had no basis. Year after year, slowly some of these things have come to fruition, but only now are you starting to see the Kryon message validated in this way. I want to fill in the gaps, just a little, in this final message of this day.

The science, as taught this weekend, is complete and is accurate. For those who have not been here who are listening to this, it sounds much like it was torn from a page of the many Kryon messages over time. We told you years ago about how long humanity really had been here. We gave you the timeline of humanity since what we called the seeding 200,000 years ago. We told you stories, perhaps, that you did not believe at that time. We gave you numbers to look at, and we even gave you unknown history to consider. Here it is right now, being validated in front of your eyes F the charts, the graphs, the research.

The scientists come only to the edge of truth, giving you what they can, and for good reason. The truths they speak of are things that need to be validated, proved, and researched. They can't do that yet, but they can take you to the edge of validation by showing you the evidence. Proof is more elusive, and science wants proof. So they present the research that piles up to conclusions of common sense and connecting the dots.

Indeed, it has been shown over and over that research would indicate that you may not have biologically come from anything here on Earth. The missing link remains missing. We said that years ago. We told you it would always be missing because you did not come from anything here, and now these words are being echoed in the very teachings of these last two days. These science teachers take you to the edge, but they don't tell you "who" might have been involved in your beginning. The esoterics of it all is my job, and I will start to complete the picture, which then will marry itself to the science.

The scientists are telling you about fractals. Fractals are the way of all physics, of all biology. If you ask a physicist about fractals, they will give you all of the mathematics - big to little, bigger, smaller - and all of it represents fractals of sameness. Biologists know that everything goes from small to large in fractals. It's simply the way of things. The teacher Gregg [Gregg Braden] comes up with the research that is absolutely, 100% accurate when he starts discussing the potential of time repeating itself, something you've heard in conversation all your life. It's obvious that it, indeed, does seem to repeat, but could it be that it does so in ways that you haven't even discovered? He's right.

I want to take it to another level. I sat in Turkey and gave you a message of unknown history. It's a good place to have given that channel. We told you you would discover civilizations that you have no record of, and that you don't believe have happened. We even told you that this planet has had numbers of civilizations before yours, and that they terminated themselves in various ways. Now here comes the science as presented today with the same message. It's starting then to wrap around itself, is it not, dear one? You've seen the teachings of the odd, esoteric things from me for years, and now you are hearing from others who are starting to validate them.  They are now being discussed, discovered, and researched - and the picture begins to sharpen.

I want to talk about the fractals of time for a moment. It's difficult if you were not here in the conference to go to the next step. However, it's important to know what was said, because we have spoken of these very things in the past. Our words didn't include fractals, but we spoke of a patterning and a system and the timing involved in what's happening.

The teacher, Gregg, has done his research well, and has proposed that the ripples of time come back upon themselves.* They present themselves in a way that would allow you to predict and calculate when they might occur again. They come in such a fashion that they reinforce one another and perhaps might be even stronger than when they occurred before. You even clearly see that the math of the fractals show you are at the end of a cycle, the one we have told you about. He's right, and you are.

The Mayans told you the same thing, and the others who had calendars much like the Maya long count said the same thing. The Aztecs and the Toltecs had a similar calendar. The prophecy was everywhere! So here's the big question: What keeps you from repeating the old history now? It comes upon you yet again and the fractals are there and the history is clear. The patterns are there, and they are the same ones over and over. Why won't you repeat them? Why won't you go to the final war and terminate humanity yet again? I'm going to fill it in esoterically for you right now.

Dear ones, there is a fractal that I'm going to call the fundamental. This fractal was not necessarily discussed yesterday, but I'm sure the teacher Gregg knows it. Sometimes when you're dealing with the discussion of patterning and repetition, you have that which would seem to be invisible, because it's not perceivable within your normal Human consciousness. The fundamental beginning fractal of time is the one that the others build upon. It's the start, the fundamental wave, and I will show it to you. Everything resonated to the fundamental in multiples. I will even give you some numbers to consider.

The fundamental fractal of your earth time is the precession of the equinoxes of the planet. All the ripples of potentials are built from it. This precession is caused by a physical wobble of the planet, which takes 25,630 years. That's how long it takes for one cycle, or wobble, to return to the start. Because it is so long, it can vary up to 1%, but not much more. The 25,630 years is the measurement of the wobble of the planet.

If you take the Mayan calendar long count, then exactly five Mayan calendars would fit into the 25,630-year wobble. The long count as described by the Maya is 5,125 years.* This also happens to be the length of time that your former unknown civilizations that we spoke of lasted before they would annihilate one another. It all starts to make sense. The fundamental fractal, dear ones, is the key to why this current cycle is different. It's because you're sitting on the end and beginning - the center point of the precession of the equinoxes. It's the first one in modern humanity. Time simply isn't just coming around again like it did before. This is the center. This is the prediction of the ancients and the Mayans, and that's why the old calendar stops now, and starts again with another long count.

This fundamental center, the precession of the equinoxes, gives an energy that none of the cycles within it did before. There is an allowance in this center fractal cycle for you to shift it and change it. The proof of this are the wildcards you see all around you. You already have started! The fall of the Soviet Union is a good example of a wild card. It's a shift of Human nature to begin a harmonious process of putting things together, instead of tearing them apart. This is especially profound when you see it done with the nations of the planet who used to be enemies for centuries. That's different! That's new! It's not going to repeat the way it did in the past.

"Well Kryon," some say, "you've got some ripples and fractals coming up that are dangerous. In fact, there is a major cycle starting in 2017 that looks ominous." Dear ones, I'll give you one main reason why this is now different from the other repetitive long counts. There's a 36-year window to the procession of the equinoxes. The window is 18 years to the center [which is December 21, 2012] and 18 years out of it. You're still in the last 18 years. You are still in the residual energy of the last long count. The time fractals are still there, and there are still major potentials being felt. Indeed, they still could happen, but there's more to this, and that's what I want to tell you. That's just one thing of many that will cause this time to be different. Let's ask the main question again: What makes it so different this time?

You're centered up on the prediction of the ancients and the end of the fundamental cycle of 25,630 years. This alone gives this time a special energy, but that's not all of it. Long ago, I told you who seeded you and we spoke about Human consciousness evolution beginning now, where it has been stagnant for so long. We told you about the Pleiadians being the source of your current DNA (and the missing link). We gave you a channelling called “The Compassion Factor” for you to know what the real difference is, and what's really going to change humanity - compassion. However, you're so linear and so 3D that you're saying, "Will DNA chemistry change? Can we watch it change?" The answer is of course it's going to change, but not like you think.

Metaphor coming: The farmer has a field that he has worked for years. He comes home and announces, "There's a new kind of crop. There's a wonderful kind of crop and it's going to be growing soon." So are you going to go out and see if the dirt has changed? No. It's the seeds that have changed. DNA is not what you think, and this information was given to you yesterday [referring to the information from Dr. Bruce Lipton]. DNA is not a static, unchanging group of chemicals. Instead, it's the framework blueprint for the Human body; it's the dirt that the evolution seeds grow in, and the seeds represent your consciousness, not the chemistry. So don't study the chemicals looking for Human evolution. Instead, study the consciousness shift of the planet. But that's not all.

I want you to start using spiritual logic, something that will be more obvious in time. The Pleiadians are your spiritual-seed creative parents. Simple. Most of the earth will not believe that. Your accepted creation story sounds just like it, and even the timing is the same, but it can't involve an E.T., to be believed by most. The very thought of extra-terrestrials always involves those who come and conquer you or hurt you. This is your bias and is a reflection of your own Human consciousness and what your brief history has been. You do it, so you expect all life forms to do it.

We've said this before. The Pleiadians have a civilization that is millions of years earlier than yours, dear ones. What do you think that might that look like? It is a very advanced civilization that has gone through what you've gone through. They have a very high, wise consciousness that can even control physics through thought, and they came here with a divine plan to give you the knowledge of dark and light and the free choice of duality so that you can work the puzzle. Their God is your God - the creative source. That's what they did here, and they are like your biological seed parents, and they care. They must be hands-off, but they care.

The Pleiadians themselves gave a time limit for your growth, and it's the one you are looking at right now. It is the start and end of the precession of the equinoxes, the middle of the fundamental cycle, 25,630 years. You had several civilizations that started and stopped during that time, and if you hadn't made it by now, you weren't going to make it at all. This was the last chance.

You started to change in the last decades, and by the late '80s it was obvious that you were going to shift. The Harmonic Convergence of 1987 was a turning point. I then came in 1989. At the beginning of 1992, you dissolved the Cold War. It was starting to happen!

When the Pleiadians seeded you, they set up a system in case you would make it, and we have given that information to you before. It's called the nodes and the nulls of the planet. The nodes and the nulls just sat there dormant as time capsules, waiting for the right time to activate. That time has arrived, and we have identified all of them, and they are starting to open.

"Kryon, we have never heard of this before. This is so esoteric, and we have no knowledge of this. There are no ancient writings that have indicated it either." Dear one, use your logic. Of course you didn't know about it, because you hadn't reached that finish line of December 21, 2012! This was information for those who would make it, not for an earth that was always on the edge of destroying itself. We saw what was happening where you disarmed the third world war of your civilization. The proof that it was a last-minute turnaround is that everyone is still expecting it! It's almost like waiting for "the other shoe to drop," right?

I want to ask you a logical question. When you have children, and it's time for them to ride a bicycle, what is the process? First, you get them a bike. Then what is next? Do you hand them the bike and say, “Good luck, kid! I know you may fall over and hurt yourself, but that's just the way bikes work.”? No! Loving parents don't do that. Instead, you give them training wheels and you work with them. You hold the bicycle until they get the feel of it; you run alongside the bike with the training wheels engaged until they've got it right. You smile with glee as they get the balance that you know every child will eventually have, and then they pedal off without you as you cheer them on.

Well, dear ones, the fundamental fractal is at hand, and the training wheels are the nodes and the nulls. They open, activate, pair up, and begin to wipe away some of the negativity and darkness of this planet in order to give you a fast track to a higher consciousness. We've been telling you this for years - how they work and how they remove the old energy via the Crystalline Grid, the Gaia Grid. This entire conference is about remembering, and yet many say, "Remembering what?" I'll tell you what to remember. I want you to remember the original information the Pleiadians gave you when you got here! That's what you are remembering, old soul, and that is what this node is about to pour out into the Crystalline Grid. It begins to erase the remembrance of war and suffering from this planet. It's going to change the time fractals themselves, almost a restart for the Crystalline Grid.

What you must know is that the Crystalline Grid is partially responsible for remembering the old fractals of time. These are the fractals that say history will repeat itself, even though you are creating a new future and voiding them. When they start to be erased and reframed, it's like a restart of the energy of humanity.

I want to ask you, wouldn't you do that for your children? Doesn't it make sense that the Pleiadians, who brought you the beautiful energy of the love of God, would also provide help to get through this new and unknown evolution of consciousness? Don't you think they would give you the training wheels? Doesn't it start to make esoteric sense that this new fundamental cycle beginning would carry something beautiful if you made it? Well, here it is, and it has arrived, and this cycle beginning is different!

Don't let anybody tell you, "Here it comes again. We are overdue for war, so it's coming!" Just because you did it before doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen again. This cycle is different.

That has been the message for 26 years, not necessarily presented in those terms, but it was the message right away in my first publication in Chapter One of Kryon Book One: "There will be no World War III. There will be no Armageddon. The old prophecies will not happen." Twenty-six years ago, we saw your shift coming. The fundamental fractal is recalibrating in readiness to start again with a different energy set, and this is why you're not going to repeat the past.

The timing of the training wheels duration is up to you. You have free choice and can make it as difficult or as easy as you want. Even with training wheels, you may still fall over, but with the help brought to you in this new energy, you'll get right back up and keep going. It can be a long haul for an older humanity to start a new system of consciousness. I'll say it again: Two steps forward, one step back. It's part of a new Human and you're in the right place at the right time.

Don't you feel it? What you heard today and what you heard yesterday is the paradigm of truth. Doesn't it ring true that something special and different is going on? And I'll tell you what it is: You are going on! You have a higher consciousness because you sit here asking yourself, “What am I feeling that is so different?” The difficulties you've been through regarding the recalibrations we've talked about are all part of this slow shift into a new consciousness. You are going to sail right through the old fractal and potentials!

Congratulations, dear old soul, for coming into this planet at this time, knowing these would be difficult times. You weren't going to miss the party, were you?

And so it is.

* Fractal Time by Gregg Braden

[www.hayhouse.com/fractal-time-2?utm_source=GB.com&utm_medium=Product_listing&utm_campaign=GB.com_FractalTime]

** [www.maya.nmai.si.edu]

KRYON

Related Articles:

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

"The Timing of Creation" - Aug  12, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

THE NODES AND NULLS OF EARTH part 1 – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

THE NODES AND NULLS OF EARTH part 2 – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"THE MISSING PIECE” – May 26, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

Colombia ceasefire ends half-century war with FARC

Yahoo –AFP, Alina Dieste with Hector Velasco in Havana, August 29, 2016

The head of Colombia's FARC rebel force, Timoleon Jimenez, aka "Timochenko" (C),
speaks during a press conference with other members of his delegation in Havana
on August 28, 2016 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

Bogota (AFP) - A historic ceasefire came into effect in Colombia Monday, ending a 52-year war between the FARC rebels and the government that claimed more than 250,000 lives.

The full ceasefire ordered by President Juan Manuel Santos and the head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Timoleon Jimenez, began at midnight (0500 GMT Monday).

"This August 29 a new phase of history begins for Colombia. We silenced the guns. THE WAR WITH THE FARC IS OVER!" Santos wrote on Twitter one minute after midnight.

A message from the official FARC account at the same time was more restrained: "From this moment on the bilateral and definitive ceasefire begins."

In a statement to reporters in Cuba, where peace talks were held, Jimenez said he had ordered all commanders and units "and each one of our combatants to definitively cease fire and hostilities against the Colombian state."

Santos had issued similar orders Thursday to the Colombian military.

The ceasefire is the first in which both sides are committed to a definite end to the fighting.

"The ceasefire is really one more seal on the end of the conflict. It is the test of fire," said Carlos Alfonso Velazquez, a security expert at the University of La Sabana.

The full ceasefire ordered by President Juan Manuel Santos and the head of the 

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Timoleon Jimenez, began at 

midnight Sunday (0500 GMT Monday) (AFP Photo/Tatiana Magarinos, Gustavo Izus)

Peace referendum

The conflict began in 1964 with the launch of the FARC, a Marxist guerrilla group born out of a peasant uprising. It has left 260,000 dead, 45,000 missing and 6.9 million uprooted from their homes.

To end the war with the FARC for good, Colombians must now vote in an October 2 referendum on the peace accord reached in Havana after nearly four years of talks.

Santos said the exact question that will be put to voters in the referendum would be announced "in the coming days."

"We are on the verge of perhaps the most important political decision of our lives," he said in a speech on Saturday.

Opinion polls show Colombians are divided ahead of the referendum.

Santos's top rival, former president Alvaro Uribe, is leading a campaign to vote "no" to the peace deal. He says a special justice system envisaged for crimes committed during the conflict would give FARC fighters impunity.

Opponents question the FARC's commitment to peace.

"I don't think we can believe them," said Felipe Giraldo, a 25-year-old unemployed man in Bogota.

Others have a high personal stake in the vote.

Adelaida Bermudez, 50, hopes it will bring home her daughter, a FARC fighter for the past nine years.

"I hope we'll have peace... so the children come home," she said in Gaitania, in the central region where the FARC was born.

The FARC rebel movement (AFP Photo/Gustavo IZUS)

Demobilization

Santos and Jimenez are due to sign the peace agreement sometime between September 20 and 30 -- possibly at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin.

The end of hostilities will be followed by a six-month demobilization process.

Starting Monday, the FARC's estimated 7,500 fighters will head to collection points to surrender their weapons under UN supervision.

Guerrillas who refuse to demobilize and disarm "will be pursued with all the strength of the state forces," Santos told El Espectador newspaper.

Before the demobilization, the FARC will convene its leaders and troops one last time before transforming into "a legal political movement," according to a statement published on Saturday.

A man on a motorcycle passes a white flag in San Miguel, Colombia, on August 26,

 2016, one of the 22 areas where FARC former rebels will be relocated after the 

signing of a peace accord (AFP Photo/Guillermo Legaria)

Reconciliation

The territorial and ideological conflict has drawn in various left- and right-wing armed groups and gangs.

Efforts to launch peace talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), have yet to bear fruit.

But with the FARC ordering a ceasefire, the conflict appears to be reaching an end.

"We wish to express our clear and definite will for reconciliation," said Jimenez, known by the nom de guerre Timochenko, in Havana.

"Rivalries and resentment must remain in the past. Today more than ever we regret that so much death and pain has been caused by the war. Today more than ever we wish to embrace (the military and police) as compatriots and start to work together for a new Colombia."

Obama establishes world's largest marine reserve in Hawaii

Yahoo – AFP, Kerry Sheridan, August 26, 2016

Obama's announcement more than quadrupled the size of the existing protected
 area, known as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (AFP Photo/
Brendan Smialowski)

Miami (AFP) - President Barack Obama on Friday burnished his environmental legacy by establishing the world's largest marine reserve, home to thousands of rare sea creatures in the northwestern Hawaiian islands.

Obama's announcement more than quadrupled the size of the existing protected area, known as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which is now 582,578 square miles (1.5 million square kilometers) -- about four times the size of California.

The waters are home to pristine coral reefs and hundreds of animals found nowhere else on Earth, including a new species of ghost octopus discovered only this year and the world's oldest living organism, black coral, which is estimated to be 4,265 years old.

Some 14 million seabirds soar over the area and make their nests on the islands, including a 65-year-old albatross named Wisdom. The area is also home to threatened green turtles and endangered Hawaiian monk seals.

The marine monument was established in 2006 by then president George W. Bush and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.

"By expanding the monument, President Obama has increased protections for one of the most biologically and culturally significant places on the planet," said Joshua Reichert, an executive vice president at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Greenpeace also hailed what it called a "bold decision" that will ban commercial fishing and mineral extraction in the region.

US Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, said in a statement that the expansion will create "a safe zone that will replenish stocks of tuna, promote biodiversity and fight climate change."

Obama "has given Native Hawaiians a greater voice in managing this precious resource," Schatz said.

But some expressed disappointment over the move to expand the zone to 200 miles from shore, saying that it imperils fishermen's ability to make a living.

"Closing 60 percent of Hawaii's waters to commercial fishing, when science is telling us that it will not lead to more productive local fisheries, makes no sense," said Edwin Ebiusi Jr., chair of the Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

"Today is a sad day in the history of Hawaii's fisheries and a negative blow to our local food security."

Matt Rand, director of the Global Ocean Legacy project at the Pew Charitable Trusts, took a different view, saying that the change should have "a minimal economic impact" on fishing in the area.

The archipelago and its surrounding waters are considered a sacred area by native Hawaiians.

The White House said permits will also be available for noncommercial fishing -- including recreational fishing and the removal of fish and other resources for Native Hawaiian cultural practices -- in the area.

World congress

Obama's announcement came just days before the kickoff of a major global conservation meeting including thousands of heads of state, scientists and policy makers, which the US president is expected to address in Hawaii on September 1.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's world congress is held every four years at a different location around the globe. This year it runs from September 1-10.

Obama will also travel to Midway Atoll, inside the protected area, to underscore the decision.

There he will make the case that climate change "makes protecting our public lands and waters more important than ever," according to the White House.

The timing of Obama's announcement is important because it "will inspire probably the people that are most interested and most engaged in conservation globally," said Rand.

Obama has made conservation and climate change a central pillar of his presidency -- in the face of Republican opposition in Congress -- forging international climate accords and promoting national parks.

"All together, President Obama has protected more public lands and waters than any other president," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"And these sites often help tell the story of significant people or extraordinary events in American history."

Obama establishes world's largest marine reserve in Hawaii https://t.co/iiHtWPZ7gj by @kerrsheridan pic.twitter.com/sO3e45v90i

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 28, 2016

Related Article:

Barack Obama to create world's largest ocean reserve in the Pacific

The existing boundaries of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument

 are outlined in light blue. The other Monuments, outlined in purple and green, are

not being changed. Photograph: Noaa

Peace deal in hand, Colombia heads toward high-stakes referendum

Yahoo – AFP, Florence Panoussian, August 25, 2016

Colombian government delegation head Humberto de la Calle (R) and FARC-EP
 Commander Ivan Marquez (L) shake hands after signing a peace agreement at the
Convention Palace in Havana, Cuba on August 24, 2016 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

Bogota (AFP) - After sealing a historic peace accord with the FARC rebels, the Colombian government launched a campaign Thursday to persuade voters to adopt it in a referendum on October 2.

After four years of arduous negotiations in Cuba, the effort to end the civil war -- which has killed hundreds of thousands of people across more than half a century of fighting -- now comes down to a yes-or-no vote.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who has staked his legacy on the peace process, faces a tough political battle to win the referendum.

His top rival, former president Alvaro Uribe, is leading a campaign to vote "No" to the deal, arguing that his successor has given away too much to the Marxist guerrillas of FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Uribe told the newspaper El Heraldo he would give a speech on the deal Friday, once he has been able to read the final text -- which Santos was due to send to Congress on Thursday.

Santos wasted no time in launching the "Yes" campaign.

Speaking on national television Wednesday just after peace negotiators in Havana announced the deal, he told voters the referendum would be the most important election of their lives.

"This is a historic and unique opportunity... to leave behind this conflict and dedicate our efforts to building a more secure, safe, equitable, educated country, for all of us, for our children and grandchildren," he said.

Opinion polls are mixed on how Colombians will vote.

The accord will take effect only if the "Yes" camp wins a majority while gathering at least 4.4 million votes -- 13 percent of the electorate.

Tough road ahead

Other obstacles to peace remain.

The government is still fighting a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), whose ongoing kidnappings have derailed efforts to open peace negotiations.

And it will have to come up with the money to finance rural infrastructure projects and other carrots offered to the FARC, at a time of economic slowdown.

US President Barack Obama, who called Santos on Thursday to congratulate him on the "historic" news, acknowledged the tough road ahead.

"Even as we mark the end of an era of war, we recognize that the work of achieving a just and lasting peace is only beginning," he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini also hailed the deal but warned of the challenges ahead.

Obama vowed continuing support for Colombia, a key ally in the US war on drugs.

Washington has spent more than $10 billion on a joint anti-narcotics strategy called "Plan Colombia" -- recently rebooted as "Peace Colombia" by Obama.

Colombians welcomed Wednesday's announcement with both skepticism and joy. Many took to the streets, waving the national flag and carrying balloons emblazoned with the word "Yes."

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos hailed the "historic" news and said a

 referendum on the peace deal with FARC would be held on October 2 (AFP

Photo/Gustavo IZUS)

Half-century of conflict

The conflict began with the founding of FARC in 1964, at a time when leftist guerrilla armies were fighting to sow revolution throughout Latin America.

Over the years, the conflict has killed an estimated 260,000 people, uprooted 6.8 million and left 45,000 missing.

Along the way, the fighting has drawn in several leftist rebel groups and right-wing paramilitaries. Drug cartels have also fueled the violence in the world's largest cocaine-producing country.

Now, 25 years after the Cold War, Colombia's civil war is the last major armed conflict in the Americas.

The peace accord comprises six separate deals, covering justice for victims of the conflict, land reform, political participation for ex-rebels, disarmament, a fight against drug trafficking, and the implementation and monitoring of the accord.

Under the deal, the FARC will begin moving its estimated 7,000 fighters from their jungle and mountain hideouts into disarmament camps set up by the United Nations, which is helping monitor the ceasefire.

The FARC will then become a political party.

Special courts will be created to judge crimes committed during the conflict.

An amnesty will be granted for less serious offenses. But it will not cover the worst atrocities, such as massacres, torture and rape.

Those responsible for such crimes will face up to 20 years in prison, with lighter sentences if they confess.

Colombia's government and FARC rebels reach a deal to end their half-century civil war https://t.co/zMjKaIN8gJ pic.twitter.com/73vIjavNLf

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 25, 2016

We're The Superhumans - Rio Paralympics 2016

US makes major Guantanamo transfer to UAE

Yahoo – AFP, Thomas Watkins, August 16, 2016

The transfer of 15 prisoners to the United Arab Emirates reduces Guantanamo
Bay's inmate population to 61 (AFP Photo/John Moore)

Washington (AFP) - Fifteen Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the largest such release in years, the Pentagon announced.

The latest transfers bring the remaining population of the detention center down to 61. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, about 780 inmates have been housed in the US military-run facility.

According to a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, 12 of the men are from Yemen and three are Afghans.

The Pentagon has previously struggled to find a third country to take Yemeni detainees, given that they can't go home because of the civil war in their nation.

"The United States is grateful to the government of the United Arab Emirates for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close" Guantanamo, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Once transferred, former inmates are usually freed subject to supervision and undergoing rehabilitation programs.

Amnesty International USA welcomed the announcement as a sign President Barack Obama is serious about closing the controversial facility before he leaves office.

Guantanamo Bay (AFP Photo/AFP)

"It's a significant repudiation of the idea that Guantanamo is going to be open for business for the indefinite future," Naureen Shah, Amnesty International USA's security and human rights program director, told AFP.

One of those transferred is an Afghan called Obaidullah, who allegedly had hidden land mines in 2001. He was detained for 14 years without trial.

Monday's announcement represents the largest transfer of prisoners under the Democratic Obama administration.

"The continued operation of the detention facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent extremists," Ambassador Lee Wolosky, the special envoy for Guantanamo closure, said in a statement.

"The support of our friends and allies -– like the UAE -- is critical to our achieving this shared goal."

Obama urgently wants to close the facility before he leaves office at the start of next year but has been continually thwarted by Republican lawmakers.

Closure a long shot

Still, the United States has in recent months accelerated the rate at which detainees who have been approved for transfer are released from the facility.

When Obama took office, there were 242 detainees at Guantanamo.

Monday's announcement means 19 inmates will remain who have been cleared for transfer.

Obama wants to send the rest, deemed to be the most dangerous, for incarceration in the United States -- but that is an extreme long shot given Republican opposition.

In February, the president presented Congress with a new closure plan for Guantanamo, which he says serves only to stoke anti-US resentment and fuel jihadist recruitment.

Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte recently renewed calls to keep Guantanamo open and published an unclassified report on 107 current and former detainees that she said highlighted their terrorist pasts.

November's election will likely help determine the future of the notorious prison, as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to fill Guantanamo with "bad dudes" should he win the White House.

Trump has said he would "bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding."

To date, just 10 of the detainees face criminal trial, including the "9/11 Five" -- led by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- who are accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Shah said it was important for Obama to push ahead with plans to shutter Guantanamo, or the next administration could start filling its cells with suspected jihadists captured in the campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

"We are at an extremely dangerous and pivotal point where if President Obama fails to close Guantanamo then the next administration could bring more detainees there," Shah said.

Guantanamo is a US naval base carved out of a remote chunk of land on the tip of southeastern Cuba.

The administration of George W. Bush opened a prison there to hold terror suspects.