Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/179428078?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Growing poverty looms for next Mexican president (Reuters)
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) ? When President Felipe Calderon came to power five years ago, he pledged to cut rampant poverty in Mexico. Instead, millions more have joined the ranks of the poor.
A battle over how to tackle poverty, which is blamed for stunting Mexico's economic development and fueling the rise of violent drug gangs, is already raging between candidates competing to succeed Calderon in a July presidential election.
From left to right, they have vowed to find a way of addressing chronically weak tax revenues, a failing education system, and the vast concentration of wealth in few hands.
But with more than a quarter of the economy off the books, the task facing the next president is huge.
Mexico is home to world's richest man, Carlos Slim. At the end of last year, he was worth around $74 billion, according to Forbes magazine. That's equivalent to roughly 6.6 percent of Mexico's annual economic output.
Just a few blocks from the Mexican stock exchange that Slim's companies dominate, Marcial Maya earns about 80 pesos ($5.80) a day selling nuts, gum and cigarettes at traffic lights. At that rate he would have to work for 35 million years, 365 days a year to match the tycoon's fortune - provided he spent no money.
"I have six children, and I want them to study but I am at the point of asking them to leave school," the 37-year-old Maya said. "I just can't afford it any more."
About half of Mexico's population lives below the poverty line and it has failed to match its big Latin American rival, Brazil, in making significant inroads against the problem.
LOST YEARS
A weak global environment has been part of the problem, with Mexico battered during the financial crisis, in large part because it is so dependent on U.S. demand for its exports.
But Calderon's government has drawn criticism for failing to strengthen the domestic economy. Mexico has had an average annual growth of 2.2 percent since 2003 -- about half the rate for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Between 2006 and last year, the number of Mexicans living on 2,100 pesos ($150) a month or less jumped from 45.5 million to almost 58 million, according to Coneval, the government body in charge of measuring poverty.
In 2008, the government's formal definition of poverty changed, stripping out millions from the official tally. But even using the new measure, the number of poor rose by more than 3 million to 52 million between 2008 and 2010.
Mexico's wealthiest 10 percent earn 27 times what the bottom tenth makes on average, according to figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
By contrast, in the United States, the top 10 percent are only 14 times better off than the bottom bracket.
Alberto Diaz-Cayeros, a poverty expert and director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican studies at the University of California, San Diego, said Calderon's approach to eliminating poverty had not been thought out properly.
"He never had a really cohesive or comprehensive strategy," he said. "We lost, in a way, six years."
After Mexico's 1994-95 economic crash, the government slowly managed to bring back poverty levels back to pre-crisis levels by the time Calderon took office. Then, that momentum ended.
Calderon's failure to stem the tide has eroded support for his conservative National Action Party (PAN) and has prompted presidential hopefuls to call for a broader welfare net and more investment in education - just as Calderon did himself.
OUT OF TOUCH
Known as Oportunidades, Mexico's chief anti-poverty scheme covers 5.8 million families living in mostly rural areas.
The program's funding has more than doubled since 2003, and coverage has expanded by more than 1 million people, providing healthcare and education to many of Mexico's neediest.
But Mexico still devotes far less to social spending than Latin America's biggest economy, Brazil.
In 2009, Mexico spent about 11.2 percent of its gross domestic product on social programs compared to 27 percent in Brazil, according to Cepal, the United Nations economic commission for Latin American and Caribbean.
While Mexico's government was struggling to contain the spread of deprivation, Brazil lifted some 40 million people out of poverty under former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The favorite to succeed Calderon, Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), says Mexico is not creating enough good jobs and he has proposed universal healthcare, social security and unemployment benefits for all.
However, Pena Nieto's proposals will be expensive and he may fail to find a majority in Congress.
"It costs a lot of money: four or five, maybe six percent of gross domestic product, and the only way you can finance it is with a major tax overhaul," said Jorge Castaneda, foreign minister under former president Vicente Fox, also of the PAN.
With the notable exception of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who ran for office on a "poor first" mantra in 2006 and is competing again in 2012, Mexican politicians have frequently appeared out of touch with the needs of the poor.
Pena Nieto slipped up this month when he was unable to say how much corn tortillas -- a staple of the Mexican diet - cost or what Mexico's minimum wage is: about 60 pesos a day. In February, one of his PAN presidential rivals, Ernesto Cordero, took a beating in the media when he said a monthly income of 6,000 pesos ($430) could cover a family home, a car and private education in Mexico.
Whoever wins will seek to reduce the size of the informal economy, a fertile recruiting ground for drug gangs.
Seeking an alternative to low paid work, thousands of Mexicans have drifted into organized crime - often ending up as just another statistic in Calderon's war on the cartels, which has claimed 45,000 lives in the past five years.
Beneath gleaming skyscrapers in Mexico City's business district, Cristian Ortiz, 30, said he made more money washing car windows than he could with many regular jobs. And he had little faith that things would change with a new government.
"Politicians have said they're going to fix poverty for hundreds of years, they always say the same thing," he said.
(Additional reporting by Noe Torres; Editing by Dave Graham and Kieran Murray)
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Clashes between sect, police kill 61 in Nigeria (AP)
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria ? Fighting between a radical Muslim sect and paramilitary forces in Nigeria has killed at least 61 people over several days of violence in the nation's northeast that has left churches bombed and people hiding in fear, authorities said Saturday.
In hard-hit Yobe state, where at least 50 people died, the government ordered a dusk-till-dawn curfew following attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram. In Maiduguri, the capital of neighboring Borno state, bombs reduced at least three churches to rubble and raised fears of further attacks by a group that claimed Christmas Eve bombings last year that killed dozens.
The fighting began Thursday in the two states, with gunfire and explosions heard into the night and the following day in an arid region that borders Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and the town of Potiskum bore the brunt of the violence.
In Damaturu, residents fled their homes near the city's central mosque ahead of a combined attack by soldiers and the federal police's feared Mobile Police, known as "kill-and-go" for their propensity for violence. The paramilitary forces raided the area in armored personnel carriers and tanks, with heavy gunfire marking their arrival.
"We were able to kill 12 of the Boko Haram armed sect and bombers," local police commissioner Lawan Tanko said. The police commissioner said officers also recovered Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and explosives.
In Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, a mortuary official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter told The Associated Press at least 11 bodies had been brought in from the violence. Authorities blamed Boko Haram for firebombing at least three churches around the capital, attacks that killed one pastor and his young child.
This is just the latest in a series of bombings over the last year by Boko Haram. The group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, wants to implement strict Shariah law across a nation of more than 160 million people that is home to both Christians and Muslims.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a Nov. 4 attack on Damaturu, Yobe state's capital, that killed more than 100 people. The group also claimed the Aug. 24 suicide car bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria's capital that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.
While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties. The sect is responsible for at least 465 killings in Nigeria this year alone, according to an AP count.
Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say. That, as well as its increasingly violent attacks, have some worried the group will carry out further attacks around Christmas and New Year's.
Last year, a series of Christmas Eve bombings in the central Nigerian city of Jos claimed by Boko Haram killed at least 32 people and wounded at least 74 others.
With those attacks in mind, the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria's capital of Abuja issued a warning Friday to citizens to be "particularly vigilant" around churches, large crowds and areas where foreigners congregate.
Analysts say the government's response remains strained as President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the country's south, remains worried about alienating the country's predominantly Muslim north with heavy-handed tactics. In 2009, a military and police crackdown following rioting by Boko Haram members in and around Maiduguri left 700 people dead.
Yet since Thursday, authorities have been using paramilitary police and soldiers more freely. Tanko, the Yobe state police commissioner, said joint patrols by the military and police would continue.
"When you are fighting people you don't know, you cannot say that's the end of the exercise," Tanko said. "We are trying to ensure that will be the end, but we are monitoring what is going on. But we know we cannot specifically say that will be the end."
___
Jon Gambrell reported from Lagos, Nigeria and can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Royals to visit UK's Prince Philip after heart surgery (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? Queen Elizabeth's 90-year-old husband Prince Philip had a "good night" after being rushed to hospital for heart surgery and will be visited by members of Britain's royal family on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said.
Britain's longest-serving royal consort, known for his outspoken and sometimes brusque manner, needed an operation to fit a small tube to clear a blocked artery after suffering chest pains as the royal family prepared to celebrate Christmas.
"The Duke of Edinburgh had a good night," a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said. "There is an expectation that some of the royal family will visit this morning."
Philip had been due to spend Christmas with members of the royal family - including grandson Prince William and his wife Catherine, accordingly to British media - at the Sandringham royal estate in eastern England, but he may have to spend the holiday in a hospital bed.
Philip, who married Elizabeth in 1947, was taken to Papworth Hospital, one of Britain's main heart and chest centers, about 60 miles away in Cambridge on Friday.
"The Duke of Edinburgh was found to have a blocked coronary artery which caused his chest pains," the palace said. "This was treated successfully by the minimally invasive procedure of coronary stenting."
He would stay in hospital "for a short period" under observation, it added.
The hospital declined to comment although, with members of the royal family visiting him on Saturday, it appeared unlikely he would be discharged until at least Christmas Day.
Philip had attended a lunch for staff a week ago and had been on "very good form," the BBC reported.
"He has had these chest pains before and I don't think it's anything untoward, but given his age they are being safe rather than sorry," former royal press spokesman Dickie Arbiter said.
Despite his age, Philip generally has been in good health and has continued a busy round of charity work and social engagements, recently visiting Australia and Ireland.
A pivotal figure in the House of Windsor, Philip has a reputation as a fiercely loyal consort who prefers outdoor pursuits to introspection.
Britain's tabloid newspapers have delighted over the years in recounting his many public gaffes.
He once told British students in China: "If you stay here much longer, you'll be slitty-eyed."
Born on the Greek island of Corfu in 1921, Philip served in Britain's Royal Navy before marrying Elizabeth. They have four children, including the heir to the throne, Charles.
(Reporting by Matt Falloon and Peter Griffiths; Editing by Alison Williams)
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sfsignal: A Gallery of Christmas-Themed Galaxy Covers From the Pulp Days of Science Fiction: http://t.co/OwXzoFPn #FreeFiction
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A Gallery of Christmas-Themed Galaxy Covers From the Pulp Days of Science Fiction: sfsignal.com/12975 #FreeFiction 
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Source: http://twitter.com/sfsignal/statuses/150826873486716928
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Gloss Find: Photo Cube iPhone Photo Printer
Are you finished with your holiday shopping yet?
Well, at this point, GOOD LUCK ? but if you are gifting someone who will not judge you for belated, you have to check out this iPhone photo printer I discovered ? how many of your photos sadly never make it anywhere except the album in your phone?
NOW imagine you can take that iPhone, dock it into your printer, and print those special photos? Amazing, right???
Photo Cube iPhone Photo Printer ($100)
Source: http://mygloss.com/geek/accessories/gloss-find-photo-cube-iphone-photo-printer/
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Is Gremlins 3 in the Works?
Exclusive : Has Warner decided to do Gremlins 3!?
Something tells me those mischievous, scantily-dressed midnight snackers The Kardashians the Gremlins will be back before a Green Screen in the coming months.
If a domain renewal is anything to go by, ?Gremlins 3? could be creeping up on us.
Seems Warner Bros renewed Gremlins3.com last week, a domain they?ve owned since 2009.
Now that doesn?t mean the film is definitely happening, but it does suggest that for the past few years the water tower gang have been seriously considering putting Gizmo back on the front-line. And if I had to guess, I?d say the domain renewal reiterates their interest in doing a new ?Gremlins? film.
When will it happen? Anyone?s guess, but with strong brand name franchises like ?Mission : Impossible?, ?The Muppets? and ?Transformers? eating up large chunks of the multiplex receipts of late, I wouldn?t at all be surprised to discover it?s clandestinely in-development as we speak.
(The same date Warner Bros also renewed their registration for the still-possible ?Green Lantern? sequel at GreenLantern2.com and the inevitable ?Hangover 3? with TheHangover3.com.)
There?s a number of other rumoured Warner Bros sequels/prequels that the studio haven?t reserved domain names for ? i.e ?Blade Runner 2?, ?Lost Boys 4?, ?Police Academy 8?, ?Lethal Weapon 5?, ?The Goonies 2?- so it?d seem the studio isn?t in the business of ?buying up all the domains for possible future product?. Everything url-wise they?ve snapped up has either been announced or is in development by looks.
I dropped a contact at Warner Bros a line (the same contact who) about the ?Gremlins 3? find and whilst they said they?ve ?heard things? they had nothing solid to fill a return email with.
?Gremlins? director Joe Dante told us last year that he didn?t expect Warner Bros to call him with a request to shepherd a second sequel to his 1984 hit ? but he did expect the studio would soon do something with the property.
Here?s what Dante, who had a falling out with the studio a couple of years back, said :
I?m constantly asked ?why the hold up on Gremlins 3? And that?s because those films were such products of the technology at the time. The movie was more limited and created by technology. They were puppets. The storylines, then, were based around what we could do with the Gremlins. Now, of course, anything is possible but it becomes a little more difficult to hone it on what your storyline would be. First of all, I won?t be asked. Second of all, I wouldn?t bring back the original cast because it?s been too long ? the kids now would be familiar with the title, and familiar with Gizmo and Stripe, but as far as the actual [live-action] characters and story, they don?t know them.. it.
Dante?s probably correct about the original cast not being involved ? can?t imagine Warner would bother with Zach Gallighan and Phoebe Cates; they?d go for more noteworthy names ? and it?s a certainty that it?d be CGI now.
Again, no guarantee a third ?Gremlins? will happen, but seems it?s definitely something Warner are looking at. And that?s cool with me. Heck, I?m happy to know that if a new ?Ghostbusters? doesn?t happen, which quite frankly, I?m not convinced will happen, we might see that other 1984 franchise get a reprise.
Anyone keen for another ?Gremlins??
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924198/news/1924198/
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