“Popo,” as the volcano is known, has displayed a “notable increase in activity levels” in the last few days, including tremors and explosive eruptions, according to a statement from the federal government.
Webcams have shown large chunks of molten rock spewing from the crater, and ash has rained down on the nearby city of Puebla. On Sunday, Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention elevated its warning level to “Yellow Phase 3,” the fifth stage of a seven-stage warning scale.
“Don Goyo”, Popo’s other name was throwing red rocks.
Popo’s twin, Iztaccihuatl, remains dormant.
And, no, don’t ask me how to pronounce Iztaccihuatl.
A group of Cubans attending AfricAmericas, a six-day event being held here through today, told stories that most U.S. blacks would find familiar, “but it is not like here,” said Manuel Cuesta Morua, who has been a tour guide, history teacher and a museum director whose political activism cost him his job. “In Cuba, we are all equal, but [blacks] can’t be in the media. We have the same education, but we can’t have that job.
“Here there are civic tools” and a justice system that can work, he said. “We have no political or symbolic representation, no access to the emerging economy” and no avenues to leadership positions.
4. Barbara Walters is retiring. Back in 1977 she spent 10 days in Cuba as Fidel Castro’s guest.
She came back with an interview that aired on TV, and a very persistent rumor that she boinked the dictator. Then she went back 25 years later, asked the same questions and got the same BS answers, like “we [Cuban Communists] don’t have the same notion of freedom as you”,
Since Fidel’s not available for interviews, but the regime needs money, expect more dissidents being allowed to travel abroad and that Mariela will get more awards.
The real test comes when the dissidents return to the island-prison. So far, it does not bode well.
Mexican students studying to be teachers released a hostage on Wednesday—in the municipality of Nahuatzen—due to concerns about his health. But they continue to hold five others. The students are supported by the Michoacán State Teachers Organization, which warned that the remaining captives, who are state policemen, would be freed only when a demand for 1,200 new teaching jobs is met.
to celebrate Mother’s Day, Emory Tango Ensemble and Tango Orchestra Club Atlanta, directed by Kristin Wendland (March 30, 2012, Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts), performing Desde el alma, a vals with the theme of a mother’s love,
by Alberto Paz
Rosita Melo was born in Uruguay in 1897 but she lived in Argentina since age 2. She wrote the music for Desde El Alma, a Boston-style vals, at age 14 in 1911. In 1922 she married poet Victor Piuma Velez who wrote the first set of lyrics for Desde El Alma. It was a theme dedicated to the love of a mother. In 1948, Homero Manzi called to tell them that he was interested in including the song in his movie Pobre mi madre querida [My Poor Beloved Mother], but with different lyrics as demanded by the movie script. This would not affect the copyright ownership of the song. Piuma Velez and Rosita Melo opposed the idea, and requested that if Manzi wrote new lyrics, Piuma Velez’s name should be included as co-author. Manzi agreed, the lyrics became famous and the vals, already a classic became universally famous.
The Boston-vals is a style originated in the city of that name in the United States. It is associated with the piano and its characteristic is that the player does not mark the rhythm with the left hand as it is customary with that instrument. The rhythm is marked witht he right hand along with the melody. The left hand only marks the first note of the beat, the bass.
Labor activist Miguel Suarez, who was traveling with Shabazz, told The Associated Press that his friend was beaten up at a bar near Plaza Garibaldi, a downtown square that is home to Mexico City’s mariachis.
Plaza Garibaldi is popular with tourists, but the pair were at a bar across the street from the plaza in an area of rough dive bars tourists are warned against going to.
Suarez said he and Shabazz were lured to the bar on Wednesday night by a young woman who made conversation with the American in English. The Palace bar is on one of Mexico City’s busiest avenues.
“We were dancing with the girls and drinking,” said Suarez. Then the owner of the bar wanted them to pay a $1,200 bar tab, alleging that they should pay for music, drinks and the girls’ companionship.
Former dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt is now the first person ever to be convicted of genocide in a court of his own country for the murders of Ixl Mayans: A historic verdict in Guatemala
Genocidal general
Amid cheers from the gallery and chaos in the courtroom, the judge, Jazmín Barrios, part of a three-person tribunal, immediately ordered General Ríos Montt to be taken to jail. Until then, he had been under house arrest. His conviction came a day after he broke a silence that he had maintained throughout weeks of testimony. He had hotly declared his innocence, showing particular antipathy to the charge of genocide, saying he had never authorised attacks on any ethnic group,
However, in reaching her verdict, the judge pointed to evidence of a pattern of army massacres that she said appeared to follow plans that were ordered from the top. In proving genocide, she said there was evidence that 5.5% of the Ixil ethnic group had been wiped out by the army, even though she said they were civilian farmers. And she said General Ríos Montt, knew what was going on in the villages where the massacres and bombardments were taking place, and didn’t order a halt to them. However, she acquitted his co-defendant, the general’s former intelligence chief, José Rodríguez Sánchez.
In her remarks the judge dwelt on the brutality that led to the killing of 1,771 Ixils, relayed by almost 100 witnesses during the trial that started on March 19th. She spoke of babies being killed in the womb, of gang rapes by soldiers, and of mass graves showing evidence of violent death. She praised the Ixil witnesses for speaking out about their suffering, noting that the psychological scars still persisted, even among generations who were not alive when the atrocities were committed.
With Argentina facing an implied annual inflation rate of 98.3% (and the peso tanking at 10 pesos to the US dollar), Steve Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University, makes the case for dollarization.
The trick would be to use the black market (i.e., free market) conversion rate, or close to it: Dollarize Argentina Now
For example, if Argentina decided to dollarize at an ARD/USD exchange rate of 9.33 pesos to the dollar (5.5% lower than the black-market ARD/USD exchange rate as of Tuesday) only $31.23 billion would be required to cover its monetary base and dollarize the economy. This is the exact amount of net foreign assets held by the BCRA (see the accompanying table).
Read the rest of the article for more details.
It’s a proposal that makes sense, so I expect Cristina to pay no heed to his advice.
Soler handed the pope two letters from the wives of political prisoners, according to the French news agency AFP. Soler later told the media that the pope had given her a blessing and asked her to continue her fight.
It may seem like an insignificant encounter to some, but this is a big deal, and the rulers of the Castro Kingdom will gnash their teeth when they see this photo. The Cuban flag draped between the two figures in white will be a great irritant to the tyrants, because they refuse to accept the fact that Cuba belongs to all Cubans, not just to their slave-drivers and those slaves who agree to submit to the lash. .
So, even though this was a brief encounter, it delivers a potent message.
Yes, Mexican students studying to be teachers are holding hostages in protest against president Peña Nieto’s proposed changes. Mary O”Grady reports on Mexico, 
