Latin American nations bid to join Mexico in Arizona case

PHOENIX Seven other Latin American countries want to join Mexico in supporting a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s immigration enforcement law.Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru filed separate, nearly identical motions to join Mexico’s legal brief supporting the lawsuit filed by U.S. civil rights and other advocacy groups.A federal judge formally accepted Mexico’s filing July 1 but did not immediately rule on the latest motions filed late last week.

Mexico says the law would lead to racial profiling and hinder trade, tourism and the fight against drug trafficking.The law is to take effect June 29. It requires that police conducting traffic stops or questioning people about possible legal violations ask them about their immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” that they’re in the country illegally. (AP)

Telefonica on Saturday pulled out of negotiations to acquire a euro7.15 billion stake in Brazil's leading cell phone company Vivo

MADRID Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica on Saturday pulled out of negotiations to acquire a euro7.15 billion ($9.3 billion) stake in Brazil’s leading cell phone company Vivo. Telefonica said in a statement to Madrid’s stock exchange early Saturday that the deal fell through after Portugal Telecom’s board of directors failed to accept the Spanish company’s offer by the deadline.”The deal has been extinguished,” Telefonica said.Though PT shareholders voted two weeks ago to accept the offer, the Portuguese government used special voting rights to block the sale, citing national interests.The European Union’s Court of Justice then ruled that the Portuguese government’s blocking of the deal was illegal.

Telefonica and PT each own 50 percent of Brasilcel, a Dutch holding company which owns 60 percent of Vivo. The Spanish company’s offer was to buy PT’s half of Brasilcel and following the court’s finding it extended the offer until July 16.Telefonica is eager to expand its significant presence in the fast-growing Latin American sector, where it has an important foothold in burgeoning markets such as Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela and Brazil.

Brazil’s economy is booming, in contrast to Telefonica’s home territory of Spain which is struggling to emerge from nearly two years of recession.PT is Portugal’s largest telecommunications operator and the Portuguese government demanded it maintain a foothold in Brazil as it did not want to lose PT’s Brazilian revenue stream.

Telefonica SA is a much larger company than Portugal Telecom SGPS SA, employing about 237,000 people compared with the around 32,000 employees at its Portuguese counterpart.Telefonica would not comment Saturday on the possibility of legal action following the collapse of the deal.Calls to Portugal Telecom on Saturday went unanswered.Telefonica shares fell 1.55 percent to euro16.16 on Friday while Portugal Telecom directors were still considering the deal. Portugal Telecom shares slid 4.53 percent to euro8.08 per share. (AP)

earthquake shook southern Peru

LIMA, Peru A magnitude-6.4 earthquake shook southern Peru near the Chilean border late Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were reports of toppled electricity poles in the Peruvian city of Tacna.The USGS said the quake’s epicenter was 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Tacna at a depth of 11 kilometers (6.8 miles). It struck at 9:42 p.m. local time.

The were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, said Edgard Lopez, a spokesman for Peru’s Civil Defense.But radio station RPP said the quake toppled electricity poles in Tacna and the city was without power. The station said Peru’s Geophysical Institute put the quake’s magnitude at 6.5.On Aug. 15, 2007, a powerful earthquake killed 596 people and reduced the Peruvian town of Pisco to rubble.

Tacna is near Peru’s border with Chile, where a huge magnitude-8.8 quake hit Feb. 27, triggering a tsunami and killing 486 people. Since then the region has been shaken by dozens of smaller quakes.The latest quake was felt in northern Chile, but there were no reports of serious damage. Chile’s National Early Warning Center said some telephone and electricity outages were reported in the port of Arica.Dozens of people reportedly fled coastal homes in fear of a tsunami, but the navy’s Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service said none was expected.That part of Chile is hundreds of miles north of the area hit by the February quake.(AP)

2 WARSAW, Ind, boys accused of killing stepdad to run away

WARSAW, Ind.  Two young friends from a quiet, middle-class neighborhood in northern Indiana wanted to run away to Arizona so badly, prosecutors say, that they gunned down a stepfather who stood in the way of their plans.The two alleged triggerman ages 15 and 12 hadn’t shown any signs of violence before the older boy’s 49-year-old stepfather, Phillip Danner, was shot to death in his home last week, according to neighbors and family members who testified at a hearing Thursday in which a judge ruled the boys would be tried for murder as adults.

But sheriff’s Detective Jonathan Tyler testified that the boys and two of their friends, who didn’t take part in the actual slaying, plotted for at least a month to kill Danner, so they could run off to Arizona.On the day of the slaying, the boys met at a park before going to the older boy’s home near Lake Wawasee, between Fort Wayne and South Bend, where he had gathered two of Danner’s handguns, Tyler said. The two defendants waited in the living room until Danner appeared in a kitchen doorway, Tyler said, then shot him four times — once in the eye, once in the wrist, and twice in the chest.

Neighbors and family members who testified Thursday said the 15-year-old and 12-year-old were good students who stayed out of serious trouble at school. The worst trouble either had been in came last year when the 15-year-old was put under juvenile court supervision for four months after he shot a BB gun at a neighbor riding a lawn mower.

“Obviously, something’s gone very wrong,” the 15-year-old boy’s mother said. “I don’t know what that is. I would like to know what that is.”One of the two other boys who authorities say took part in the planning is a 12-year-old who is being detained on juvenile charges of aiding a murder. The other boy hasn’t been charged.According to police, the two 12-year-olds and the 15-year-old met up hours after the shooting and took off in a car belonging to the 15-year-old’s mother’s, who was in Florida on vacation.

Investigators still aren’t certain why the boys wanted to go to Arizona. One theory is that the boys — who allegedly killed Danner and headed west on April 20, an unofficial holiday for marijuana users — intended to sell pot. Police said alcohol, marijuana and a gun were found in the car when the boys were caught in Peru, Ill., about 5 a.m. the next day.

Attorneys for the 12-year-old and 15-year-old murder suspects stressed Thursday that both boys were presumed innocent and urged Judge Duane Huffer to treat them as juveniles, saying their chances of rehabilitation would be greater in the juvenile system than in adult prison. But Huffer said the juvenile system wasn’t equipped to deal with crimes of such magnitude.

“The act alleged was violent and unprovoked,” Huffer said.Both boys are being held in the county jail and could face an initial hearing in adult court as early as Friday, according to Chief Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Hampton.Calvin Carr, 35, Danner’s neighbor, said he thought the 15-year-old was “a good kid” but recently became suspicious that the boy might be smoking cigarettes and pot. After that, Carr said, the boy had stopped coming over to Carr’s house to hang out with his children.Mike Koher, a longtime friend of Danner’s who often went motorcycling with the family on weekends, saw no sign of any trouble in his friend’s relationship with his stepson. Sheriff’s officials said they had found no sign of any abuse.

“I never seen anything out of the ordinary,” said Koher, 53. “They seemed to get along.”He said the teen rode behind on his stepfather’s Harley-Davidson on family trips while his mother rode her own motorcycle. He also said Danner bought dirt bikes for himself and his stepson so they could ride together and they went fishing together in Danner’s bass boat.”It seemed real normal to me. Being a step’s always tough, but I would never have saw this coming if that’s what actually happened,” Koher said.

earthquake on the coast of Chile has killed at least 52 people

A massive earthquake on the coast of Chile has killed at least 52 people, flattening buildings and triggering a tsunami. The 8.8-magnitude quake, the country’s largest in 25 years, shook the capital Santiago for a minute and half at 3:34am (0634 GMT) today. A tsunami warning has been extended across the Pacific rim, including most of Central and South America and as far as Australia and Antarctica. The wave has already caused serious damage to the sparsely populated Juan Fernandez islands, off the Santiago coast, local radio reported.

Carmen Fernandez, the head of Chile’s emergency services, said at least 52 people died. President Michelle Bachelet has declared a “state of catastrophe” in the country. The quake hit near the town of Maule, 200 miles southwest of Santiago, at a depth of 22 miles underground. The epicentre was just 70 miles from Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river. In Santiago buildings collapsed and phone lines and electricity were brought down, but the full extent of the damage is still being determined.

Santiago resident Simon Shalders said: “There was a lot of movement. The houses were really shaking, walls were moving backwards and forwards, and doors were swinging open. “The power is still out here. There’s quite a few choppers flying around in Santiago I suppose checking out the worst-affected areas.” In the coastal city of Vina del Mar, the earthquake struck just as people were leaving a disco, Julio Alvarez told a local radio station. “It was very bad, people were screaming, some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them.”

Several big aftershocks later hit the south-central region, including ones measuring 6.9, 6.2 and 5.6. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for Chile and Peru, and a less-urgent tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Antarctica. A spokesman said: “Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. “It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicentre and could also be a threat to more distant coasts.”

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Center issued also warned of a “potential tsunami threat; to New South Wales state, Queensland state, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island”. Any potential wave would not hit Australia until Sunday morning local time, it added. Earthquakes are relatively common in Chile, which is part of the pacific “ring-of-fire” tectonic-plate boundary, and many buildings are built to withstand tremors. The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same region on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left two million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the US West Coast.

Alan Garcia Want to run for the Third Period as Peruvian President

Lima Peruvian President Alan Garcia in an interview with a newspaper saying that he wants to run for a third time, not in a row in 2016, although the support is low, around 31 percent in a poll, Sunday.”I will not lie to this country  of course I would like to nominate myself for the third period” in 2016, according to figures 61-year-old social democrat, the Garcia’s current position will expire in 2011.Elected in 2006, Garcia also served as president in the period 1985-1991, when Peru experienced the bad conditions of economic collapse.Constitution of Peru has banned the president’s re-election in a row.

Garcia’s popularity is low right now, not a good sign for efforts to re-nomination. According to the poll conducted by Ipsos-Apoyo in El Comercio newspaper, Sunday, Garcia’s rating in the range of 31 percent, after moving between 26-31 percent this year.When asked about the reason for disapproval, 45 percent of the 1200 residents who were interviewed on August 11 to 13 refer to the corruption in his government.

General Garcia in an interview he admitted to have parted with his wife, Pilar Nores, confirming the rumor that the couple split up in 2007, after Garcia admitted to having a child with a partner outside marriage.”I’m through tough times with my wife after we lived together for a long time … We feel quite alien to each other now,” said Garcia told El Trome.

But Garcia said he wanted to reunite with his wife someday. “One does not spend time together for 30 years and have four wonderful children without strife is not it?””I can not understand how someone can share your life and in times turned to each other. I can not understand it.””I have no doubt if at any point we will get back together,” said Garcia, who also has a son from a previous marriage.(AFP)