Ecuador recognizes state of Palestine

Ecuador has become the fifth South American country to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state. President Rafael Correa signed the Ecuadoran government’s official recognition of Palestine as a free and independent state with 1967 borders, Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement

.The statement said Ecuador’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state vindicates the valid and legitimate desire of the Palestinian people for a free and independent state and will be a contributing factor to a peaceful coexistence in the Middle East.

The border mention refers to the boundaries that existed before Israel captured East al-Quds (Jerusalem), the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Earlier this month, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay recognized Palestine as an independent state. Their move drew harsh condemnation from Israel and was opposed by the US House of Representatives as well.

The House on December 15 unanimously approved a resolution opposing unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. The resolution urged the White House to deny recognition to any unilaterally declared Palestinian state and veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognize a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties.

Ecuador offers residency to WikiLeaks’ Assange

QUITO: An Ecuadorean government official has invited the founder of the WikiLeaks whistleblower website to live and lecture in the country, days after the site caused an international uproar by releasing additional sensitive U.S. documents.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas told local media that Ecuador was attempting to get in touch with WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange to invite him to the country, praising his work as an investigator.

Ecuador is part of a leftist bloc of governments in South America, including Venezuela and Bolivia, that have been highly critical of U.S. policy in the region.

More than 250,000 State Department cables were obtained by WikiLeaks and given to media groups, which began publishing stories on Sunday exposing the inner workings of U.S. diplomacy, including candid and embarrassing assessments of world leaders. WikiLeaks previously

Mexico Vs North Korea

Mexico Vs North Korea, Mexico will take on North Korea (DPRK) on 18-03-10, Kick-off time 02:30 UK Time. Watch free online live stream coverage of this International friendly soccer match. Also you can watch all the highlights and goals video which will be available after the live match action.

Check your local timings for live match.
Previous few games for Mexico

New Zealand – Mexico 0 – 2
Mexico – Bolivia 5 – 0
Trinidad and Tobago – Mexico 2 – 2
Mexico – El Salvador 4 – 1
Mexico – Honduras 1 – 0
Costa Rica – Mexico 0 – 3
Previous few games for Korea DPR

2 – 1 Venezuela – Korea DPR
5 – 0 Korea DPR – Myanmar
0 – 4 Kyrgyzstan – Korea DPR
1 – 1 Korea DPR – Turkmenistan
1 – 0 Iran – Korea DPR
0 – 1 Qatar – Korea DPR

Fifa will investigates Maradona tirade

LONDON : Maradona’s outburst was broadcast live on television. Argentina coach Diego Maradona is to be investigated by Fifa following his furious outburst after the World Cup victory in Uruguay on Wednesday.

Maradona delivered an expletive-laden tirade, broadcast on live TV, that was directed at reporters and critics after his side qualified for the 2010 finals.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter said there was “no alternative” but to ask Fifa’s disciplinary committee to open a case.

Maradona, 48, could be banned for a minimum of five matches and fined.

However, the head of the Argentine Football Federation, Julio Grondona, claimed: “If it were another coach or player, the matter would not have had such importance.

“Everybody knows he’s a temperamental person and he’s already said he won’t speak like that again.”

But Maradona has refused to apologise to the press for his actions in interviews on Argentine radio and television.

“I don’t have to apologise,” he told Radio Continental on Thursday. “All I was doing was reacting to all those people who have spoken out against me. That’s as far as it goes.

“I’m not going to perform a U-turn. Everyone knows what has been said. It seems to me that a lot of journalists wanted the national team not to qualify for the World Cup finals.

“For me, that’s anti-Argentine and is something I can’t forgive.”

On Friday he told TyC Sports television: “I apologise to women, to my mother, to Argentinian women, to Uruguayan women and to women throughout the world. But only to them, not the others.”

Fifa is understood to be investigating whether Maradona’s comments breach Article 58 of the organisation’s disciplinary code.

Even people who hate Maradona would have to admit he makes things interesting in his own inimitable way

Maradona is a football icon in Argentina following his success as a player but his time as the national team’s coach has been hugely controversial, with Argentina having struggled to reach the 2010 finals in South Africa.Live Scores Soccer

As a player he produced a series of stellar displays to guide them to victory in the 1986 World Cup and then helped them reach the final, which they lost to Germany, four years later.

But his time as coach has included a 6-1 defeat in Bolivia and a 3-1 home loss to Brazil and the fans had feared they might not make it to South Africa.

Going into the final two qualifying matches a poll showed that the majority of Argentina fans thought Maradona was unfit to coach the national team, but in the end Argentina won both games to book their ticket to South Africa.

They were both were scrappy victories requiring late goals, although a draw in their final game against Uruguay would have been enough to earn a spot at the finals.fifa fifa world cup football europe

---

Fifa will investigates Maradona tirade was first posted on October 17, 2009 at 12:42 pm.

One Detained In Mexican Hijackers In Police Raid

MEXICO CITY: A Bolivian religious fanatic briefly hijacked a plane in the city of Cancun, and it landed in Mexico City on Friday, police said. All the crew were freed unharmed.
The Bible kidnappers using a juice can lead to a bomb, said the celebration of the 103 passengers and crew on the tar for more than an hour.
Masked police stormed the aircraft with guns drawn and escorted several handcuffed men away without firing a shot. Police later said there was only one hijacker, and the other men aboard were detained because the suspect had told a flight attendant he had three accomplices. The others were quickly released.

Jose Flores, 44, later told police his three companions were “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Flores hijacked Aeromexico Flight 576 after a divine revelation, according to Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna. Flores said Wednesday’s date — 9-9-09 — is the satanic number 666 turned upside down.

Flores, speaking to reporters after he was detained, said he took control of the aircraft with “a juice can … with some little lights I attached.”

“Christ is coming soon,” he added, smiling.

As the plane was landing, Flores stood up and showed his contraption to a flight attendant, Garcia Luna said.

He ordered the pilot to circle over Mexico City seven times and asked to speak with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, saying he wanted to warn him of an impending earthquake, Garcia Luna said.

His wife, Elizabeth Melgar, told W Radio that Flores “always told me that he was looking for a way to attract the attention of the media … he always told me that he was waiting for a signal from God to do something.”

“Don’t worry if they put me in jail,” Melgar quoted him as saying. “(It will be) glory to God.”

Garcia Luna said Flores is a drug addict who was convicted of armed robbery in Bolivia, and has lived in Mexico for 17 years. Flores described himself as a pastor in southern Oaxaca state who had gone to Cancun to preach.

U.S., French and Mexican citizens were among the passengers, according to a U.S. official in Washington who was briefed on the situation. The official was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said at least 14 U.S. citizens were on the plane and were being interviewed by Mexican authorities at the airport.

Aeromexico said in a statement that neither passengers or crew suffered any harm.

---

One Detained In Mexican Hijackers In Police Raid was first posted on September 10, 2009 at 11:35 am.
©2009 “News Trends“.

Princess Of Wales Lady Diana’s 12th Death Anniversary

LONDON: Today is the 12th anniversary of Diana’s death in a Paris car crash. Mourners lay tributes at the Pont D’Alma, the tunnel where she died, at Kensington Palace in London where she lived, and at Althorp in Northamptonshire, where she grew up and is buried.

---

Princess Of Wales Lady Diana’s 12th Death Anniversary was first posted on August 31, 2009 at 11:23 am.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.

Typhoon Hitted Eastern Japan As Heavy Winds and Rain

TOKYO: Japan’s weather agency issued storm and flood warnings on Monday as a typhoon approached the east of the country bringing heavy rain and strong winds to Tokyo and the Pacific coast.

Typhoon Krovanh was expected to move closer to the mainland during the day before tracking north along the east coast through Tuesday, packing gusts of up to 144 kilometers (90 miles) per hour, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

As of 9:00 am (0000 GMT), the storm was 110 kilometers (70 miles) east southeast of the island of Miyakojima, south of Tokyo.

It was moving north northeast at a speed of 35 kilometers (22 miles) per hour, the agency said.

The weather agency issued warnings and advisories for floods, heavy rain, gales and high waves, for Tokyo and nearby areas.

---

Typhoon Hitted Eastern Japan As Heavy Winds and Rain was first posted on August 31, 2009 at 12:02 pm.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Has Swine Flu

BOGOTA: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has the swine flu but is doing well, his spokesman said on Sunday, just days after the leader returned from a regional summit in Argentina.

Deaths from swine flu in Latin America — the worst-hit region in the world — rose to over 1,300 this month.

Uribe, a conservative staunch US ally, began to suffer from symptoms of the flu on Saturday after returning from a summit meeting in Argentina, so he had a checkup which confirmed he had the A(H1N1) virus, according to a statement read out by his spokesman Cesar Velasquez.

“The president is continuing to work, and he will be in quarantine for some time as he recovers,” the statement added, noting that Uribe was doing well and was working out of his ranch in Rionegro, in the country’s northwest.

Velasquez also said Uribe’s office sent a message to governments of other countries that took part in the summit in Bariloche, Argentina, to see if anyone else had taken ill.

“All the people and government leaders who have had close contact with the president are being informed,” the spokesman added.

To date 34 people have died of the flu in Colombia, official data show. A total of 621 infections have been confirmed.

The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) summit met in the Argentine ski resort of Bariloche to examine claims by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez that US military deployment in Colombia could be used to invade his country.

Chavez, Uribe’s frequent critic, in Caracas said he was sorry Uribe was ill. “I hope this will not affect his (overall) health, and that nobody else comes down with it,” Chavez said.

“He’ll be fine; he’s young and he exercises,” Chavez added of Uribe, and added that he himself felt well and did not plan to get tested.

“No, not now because I do not have anything. I am feeling so well that yesterday I pitched 10 innings (in a baseball game with his cabinet), we ran for three hours and then I sang a bit,” added Chavez, who on Monday leaves for a trip set to take him to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus and Russia.

Unasur groups Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and mediator of the Honduran political crisis, also is fighting the swine flu, the government said earlier this month.

Swine flu spreads four times faster than other viruses and 40 percent of the fatalities are young adults in good health, the world’s top health official warned in an interview appearing Saturday.

“This virus travels at an unbelievable, almost unheard of speed,” World Health Organisation Director General Margaret Chan told France’s Le Monde daily in an interview.

“Sixty percent of the deaths cover those who have underlying health problems,” Chan said. “This means that 40 percent of the fatalities concern young adults — in good health — who die of a viral fever in five to seven days.

“This is the most worrying fact,” she said, adding that “up to 30 percent of people in densely populated countries risked getting infected.”

---

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Has Swine Flu was first posted on August 31, 2009 at 12:09 pm.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.

Colambia To Give US Military Greater Access To Its Bases

LA PAZ: Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed Wednesday that South Americans vote in a continentwide referendum on Colombia’s plan to give the U.S. military greater access to its military bases.

Morales said he will take the proposal to Friday’s meeting of the Union of South American Nations, or UNASUR, which will discuss negotiations between Bogota and Washington to allow increased U.S. military presence at seven Colombian bases through a 10-year lease agreement.

“If the Colombian president wants his bases to be used, I say I want a referendum in South America so the people of Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina — all 12 countries — can decide,” said Morales, who called the proposal a provocation by the U.S. to create conflict and stall integration in the region.

The leftist governments in Venezuela and Ecuador also have criticized the pending deal, which the U.S. says is necessary to help Colombia fight drug trafficking and leftist guerrillas.

Ecuador’s national assembly passed a resolution Tuesday saying the U.S. use of Colombian military bases would undermine peace in the region.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez referred to the pending base deal as “a declaration of war against the Bolivarian Revolution,” referring to his socialist political movement.

The Venezuelan leader said he had a right to speak to the Colombian people to deliver his Bolivarian message.

On Wednesday, Colombia’s ambassador to the Organization of American States, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, protested to the hemispheric body that Chavez was meddling in Colombia’s internal affairs in violation of OAS principles.

Colombian officials deny the agreement is a threat to its neighbors, and say it is necessary to more effectively help Colombia’s security forces fight drug traffickers and leftist rebels.

U.S. diplomat Christopher J. McMullen, speaking in Uruguay Wednesday, said no one is proposing a U.S. base on Colombian soil, and the agreement is clear in that the U.S. will respect territorial sovereignty and not intervene in the affairs of other countries.

“We don’t think it’s responsible for a leader such as President Hugo Chavez to speak of the winds of war because it doesn’t serve the cause of peace in the hemisphere,” said McMullen, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

UNASUR meets in Bariloche, Argentina.

---

Colambia To Give US Military Greater Access To Its Bases was first posted on August 27, 2009 at 12:26 pm.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.