Daily Headlines: September 14, 2009

* Latin America: A London-based think tank credited Mexico and Argentina as the world's top nations that are making the “global economy more climate friendly", based on an index of "carbon competitiveness”.

* Guatemala: Nine people were reportedly arrested for the May murder of a lawyer who claimed before he died that President Alvaro Colom was plotting his death.

* Peru: “A flood of high-quality counterfeit U.S. money from Peru is perplexing federal authorities,” according to this Los Angeles Times article published over the weekend.

* Brazil: Thousands are homeless and at least two are dead in southern Brazil as a result of heavy rains and flooding.

Image- Guardian UK (“A combination photograph shows an image from 1928 (top) of the Upsala glacier in Patagonia, Argentina, contrasted with a 2004 photograph (bottom) of the same view. The pictures illustrate the extent to which climate change has caused the ice to melt away this century.”)
Online Sources- AP, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, CNN

Daily Headlines: September 11, 2009

Note: Better late than never? What can I say apart from apologizing for posting these headlines so late in the day.

* Brazil: U.S.-based Boeing may outbid French firm Dassault to win a Brazilian military contract for 36 fighter jets.

* Cuba: A court upheld the unjust two-year sentence against a Cuban who spontaneously protested the country’s food shortages on TV.

* Guatemala: According to a government report hundreds (if not thousands) of children were put up illegally for adoption by the military during Guatemala’s civil war.

* Mexico: Police apprehended an alleged hitman accused of at least eighteen murders in Ciudad Juarez.

Image- AFP (French-made Rafale fighter jets.)
Online Sources- Bloomberg, Reuters, LAHT, MSNBC

So Much for That Virtual Border Fence : Again

If you can't keep up with the virtual border fence along the Arizona- Mexico border, don't feel bad. The Department of Homeland Security can't seem to make up it's mind on the issue either. First, the virtual border fence was going to be delayed,
then Michael Chertoff, approved the fence. Now, it looks like the whole plan is going to be tossed in the trash. But don't you worry. Homeland Security is going to get those illegals yet (and spend millions more in the process). Now Boeing, who won an $860 million contract to provide the technology, physical fences and vehicle barriers, is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said.

Sources : Reuters, Yahoo

Virtual Border Fence to Get the Green Light

After some initial problems with contractor Boeing Co. because the technology the company used in the test project near Tucson, Arizona, did not work properly, the prospect of having a 28 mile long virtual fence along part of the U.S. / Mexico border is becoming more real.

Chertoff saw the fence during a trip to Arizona last week.
"I think it looks good," he told lawmakers. The department has not yet made the official acceptance.

The scarier idea is that some of the technology: radar, sensor devices and cameras capable of distinguishing people from cattle at a distance of about 10 miles, could be used on other parts along the border.

Source: CNN