Daily Headlines: December 20, 2008

* Ecuador: The body of Jose Sucuzhanay was returned to his native Ecuador from New York nearly two weeks after he was targeted in an anti-Latino, homophobic attack.

* Mexico: Mexico joined Canada in an official World Trade Organization complaint against the U.S.

* Cuba: Pentagon officials said that they are pursuing the death penalty against an accused defendant of the USS Cole bombing who is detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

* Haiti: First lady of France Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will donate about $330,000 in sales of her latest album to Haitian children's charities.

Image- AFP (“Airport workers unload a box containing the body of slain Jose Osvaldo Sucuzhanay which arrived from New York at the Mariscal Sucre airport in Quito, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008.”)
Online Sources- miamiherald.com, washingtonpost.com, AFP, AP, The Latin Americanist

Carla Bruni hits sour note with Colombia

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: model, first lady, and singer. The thirty-year-old has an album coming out next month and in it she sings of her love to her recently-wed hubby:

Among the 14 tracks is a song called Ma Came (My Junk) – equating her intense love to a class A drug. Written two years ago, before she met Mr. Sarkozy, it is nevertheless dedicated to her husband.

“You are my junk. More deadly than Afghan heroin. More dangerous than Colombian white (powder),” she sings, adding: “My guy, I roll him up and smoke him.”

With so many important problems to tackle (e.g. conflict with guerillas, corruption allegations, free trade) one would assume that Colombian officials would ignore Bruni’s little metaphor. In the grand scheme things, her silly love song is of no importance. Right?

Guess again:

"Since this is coming from the mouth of the president's wife, we consider this statement very hurtful to Colombia," said Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo. "These kinds of things happen when you mix politics with art; we deeply regret it"…

"Instead of offering an apology for consuming, we hope that the whole world joins us in the fight against drugs," Araujo said.

Afghani officials have yet to respond to Bruni’s quip on heroin, probably because they have bigger fish to fry.

Sources- Wonkette, AFP, Xinhua, International Herald Tribune, Reuters, Reuters UK, Bloomberg

Image- CBC