President says Mexico will have clean cops (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? In a state-of-the nation speech overshadowed by the death of 52 people in a casino fire, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Friday that he will fight to the last day of his term to defeat the drug cartels that have taken over towns, police forces and institutions in parts of Mexico.

Calderon also announced the creation of a federal prosecutor dedicated entirely to victims of violence after much criticism that his government had downplayed as "collateral damage" the innocents caught up in wars among cartels and in his crackdown on organized crime.

The prosecutor's job will be to identify all victims so far, as the government has been asked to do, and find people who have disappeared at the hands of criminal groups, he said, "a major step to close the wounds that have opened in the country."

The president said he regretted that the insecurity gripping the country has overshadowed the progress he says his government has made in other areas, including economic stability, universal health coverage and access to primary education.

He promised to clean up corruption among police and federal attorneys by the time he leaves office in December 2012, and challenged the governors of Mexico's 31 states to do the same by next May. By that time, he said, they should have vetted all of their mid- and upper-level police commanders and prosecutors, and at least half of the rank and file.

"My commitment is to end my term with federal institutions of police and prosecutors completely renovated, trustworthy, honest and well trained," he said. "It worries me that at the rate we're going, only four states have concluded the vetting of all of their police forces."

Mexico has tried many times in the past to clean up corruption among police and political ranks, with little result. A state police officer was arrested in connection with last week's fire in the northern city of Monterrey, along with five others who authorities say confessed to being members of the Zetas drug cartel.

The majority of the victims were middle-aged women who had gone to the Casino Royale to gamble or eat lunch and became trapped in the back of the building as they tried to flee their armed assailants, who spread gasoline at the front door, setting the building on fire. Authorities are investigating the crime as a presumed extortion attack by the Zetas.

Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal's brother, Jonas, also has been questioned in a casino-related corruption probe after videotapes became public earlier this week showing him in several casinos taking wads of cash, including one lot worth 400,000 pesos ($32,000).

Larrazabal's lawyer said his client was collecting money because he sold Oaxacan cheese and other products, setting off an epidemic of jokes in social media networks in which Mexicans coined the word "quesoborno," a combination of the word "cheese" and "bribery" in Spanish.

Despite it being his second-to-last year in office, Calderon gave what many considered an anticlimatic speech that repeated his standard stump delivery on the successes and failures of his government.

Among his standard points: Mexico will not regain peace by negotiating with or tolerating cartels. Less than a year before the next presidential election, violence-weary voters are giving the lead in early polls to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years and generally kept a lid on drug violence.

Many say it did so by negotiating ground rules with the traffickers that they not let their activities interrupt civilian life. Some Mexicans see returning the PRI to power as a way to stop the violence.

Calderon said that would not be the case.

"It's absurd to suppose that if the government backed out, the only result would be the utopian tranquility that some imagine," Calderon said. "The country would be totally dominated by cartels ... to the point of having state institutions at their service."

Calderon cut the usual fanfare around the delivery of his annual report to Congress out of respect for those who died last week, calling the attack "one of the saddest events for Mexico."

He declared three days of national mourning after the Aug. 25 fire and on Friday asked for a moment of silence for all victims of drug violence.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110902/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_state_of_nation

ethiopia spc melaleuca tcu seneca grenada grenada

'Hidden' hawksbill turtles found

Scientists have found hawksbill turtles "hiding" in mangrove forests of the eastern Pacific.

The team, that has been tracking the turtles for three years, also found that the critically endangered animals nested in these estuaries.

The discovery of this previously unknown sea turtle habitat was published recently in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

It could explain why the species went undetected in the region for so long.

Mangrove forests, which are unique coastal tree and shrub habitats, are also under threat. They could represent an important breeding and nesting site for the species, which was thought to depend on coral reefs.

Alexander Gaos, a conservation scientist with San Diego State University and the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative, led the research.

He and his colleagues tracked hawksbills in four countries - El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Ecuador - using satellite tracking tags glued to the turtles' backs.

These trackers revealed that adult hawksbill turtles in the eastern Pacific inhabited in-shore mangrove estuaries.

"For upwards of five decades sea turtle scientists thought hawksbills had [disappeared from] the eastern Pacific Ocean", Dr Gaos told BBC Nature.

"Despite hundreds of sea turtle projects and scientists focusing efforts in the region, no one had located hawksbills.

Our findings help explain this? it's hard to spot hawksbills in mangrove estuaries."

Dr Gaos said that the turtles might be spending their entire lives in these "cryptic habitats".

"Couple that with the fact that there are very few individuals left - hawksbills in the eastern Pacific are one of the world's most endangered sea turtle populations - and it's no wonder researchers didn't know about them!"

The scientists worked with local fishermen and even illegal egg collectors, in order to find hawksbill turtles to fit their tags to.

They hope their revelations about the species' habitat will inform conservation efforts.

Why the turtles were "seeking shelter" in mangroves was not clear.

The scientists think it might be a recent adaptation brought on by a lack of their more typical habitat of coral reefs in the region.

Dr Gaos said: " We now have a better idea of where to look for them, which may help us direct research and conservation of the species, upon which their survival may ultimately depend."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14735144

neiman marcus fed fx fx gavin degraw gavin degraw warren jeffs

Pilla Creative Marketing Announces an Arts and Entertainment ...

New York, NY (PRWEB) August 24, 2011

?The arts have special needs, and opportunities, when it comes to marketing themselves on the internet,? said Michael Pilla, founder and Creative Director of Pilla Creative Marketing. ?We started this new division to help these companies take full advantage of these opportunities.?

?The audience relationship has changed,? Mr. Pilla continued. ?It used to be that all they could do was buy a ticket and applaud, or not as the case may be. The internet is allowing them to become active participants. We create campaigns that enable arts and entertainment organizations to engage with their audiences before the curtain goes up and long after the doors have closed.

?We?ve created event-specific websites that extend the art and entertainment experience to the online world, as well as social media campaigns that allow these organizations to reach, and keep, a wider audience.?

PCM Arts has had clients on and off Broadway as well as community theatres and festivals, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Williamstown Film Festival in Williamstown, MA and The Arts Project of Cherry Grove in Fire Island, NY among others.

Pilla Creative Marketing is a boutique interactive marketing firm focusing on website development and social media marketing.

As a creative director, internet marketer, graphic designer, illustrator and entrepreneur, Michael Pilla has built his career achieving business objectives through the targeted use of art and technology for clients the arts, entertainment. real estate, professional services and a host of small businesses.

Michael has been working the ?net since its beginnings. He served as an Associate Creative Director for the Sponsorship Group at the iconic iVillage.com, where he created interactive advertising for Fortune 100 companies including Clinique, CompUSA, Ford, Fuji Film, and PNC Bank. He next brought his talents to ModemMedia, working on IBM, GE, and the development of IBOL (Investment Bankers Online) portal for USB Warburg.

A sought-after speaker on the power of Internet marketing, Michael has spoken at events for the Westchester Business Council, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, the Arts and Business Council of New York and Yonkers Partners in Education. He has also taught internet and design courses at Pratt Institute, Pace University and Mercy.

Source: http://www.dedyng.com/blog/pilla-creative-marketing-announces-an-arts-and-entertainment-division.php

arundhati roy brody jenner brody jenner billionaire detroit news bipolar disorder toronto star

Latest Insurance Health Auctions | Health Insurance Info Plus

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*