United States and Mexico border wall a costly failure film says

Washington’s plan to build a fence on the border with Mexico has cost $3 billion and has not deterred illegal immigrants or drug traffickers from entering the country, according to a new U.S. documentary.”The Fence” hopes to show Americans, who were divided when construction of the wall was approved in 2006, that the venture is a failure as conceived and a blemish upon the United States internationally.It argues that illegals and smugglers can easily climb over, dig under and even drive over the wall, which is only a few feet (meters) high in parts, has no razor wire, and abruptly ends in the desert.

“One of the most confounding and little-known realities of the fence is that it only covers about one third of the 2,000-mile (3,218-km) border,” said Rory Kennedy, the director and narrator.Kennedy, who is a daughter of the late Senator Robert Kennedy, spent weeks traveling along the border from California to Texas as the fence was being built in 2009. It is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Up to 500 people die every year crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, according to U.S. immigration experts and the Mexican government, a sharp jump from a decade ago. Tougher border security and the fence’s construction have forced migrants to take more dangerous, remote routes into the United States.Some 650 miles of the 670-mile wall called for under the Secure Fence Act and signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush in October 2006 have been built. It contains 120,000 tons of metal and materials, ranging from railroad ties to concrete and chain link fencing.

“COMPLETE THE DANGED FENCE”

Lined in parts with stadium-style lights, cameras and roads to allow U.S. agents to patrol, the fence was partly a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. It also aims to stop terrorists from crossing over from Mexico.”This was put up to illustrate to Joe whoever up in Dubuque (Iowa) or someplace that they see a picture of this and … they think ‘oh yeah, that’ll stop them’,” Arizona ranch owner Bill Odle said in the film. “Well of course it doesn’t.”

But it remains a magnet for Republicans keen to show their get-tough credentials in the run-up to the November U.S. elections. Arizona Republican John McCain, facing his toughest re-election battle in years for the Senate, demanded that the government in May to “complete the danged fence.”Despite calls for a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexican border, the terrain, which ranges from swamps to deserts, makes that idea almost impossible and financially prohibitive.

U.S. law enforcement uses helicopters, unmanned planes and agents in watchtowers and in vehicles to monitor the area stretching from the Tijuana-San Diego crossing in California to the Matamoros-Brownsville crossing in Texas around the clock.U.S. Border Patrol agents say the wall and virtual fencing cut the number of people caught trying to cross into the United States by a quarter in the fiscal year 2009.

Immigration experts counter that the deep U.S. recession in 2008-2009 and the resulting lack of jobs in the world’s biggest economy was a bigger factor behind the drop.Even with a sluggish economy, 300,000 illegal immigrants entered the United States every year between 2007 and 2009, according to the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center.But critics, both in the United States and Mexico, where there was an outcry when the plan was approved, also are questioning the wisdom of spending billions on the fence during hard economic times.

Future U.S. administrations are likely to spend $6.5 billion on maintenance of the fence over the next 20 years, the United States Government Accountability Office says, although researchers at the U.S. Congress say it could be more.The documentary airs on Thursday on U.S. cable television channel HBO.(Reuters)

Malaysian court fined 12 Muslims on Tuesday and sentenced one of them to a week in prison for illegally protesting the construction of a Hindu temple

KUALA LUMPUR, A Malaysian court fined 12 Muslims on Tuesday and sentenced one of them to a week in prison for illegally protesting the construction of a Hindu temple and parading a severed cow’s head.The protest last August stoked tensions among Malaysia’s three main ethnic groups – the Malay Muslim majority and Chinese and Indian minorities, most of them Buddhists, Christians or Hindus who have complained that their religious rights are often sidelined in favor of Islam.

The 12 men were among scores of Muslims who marched with a bloodied cow’s head from a mosque to the central Selangor state chief minister’s office on Aug. 28, 2009 to denounce the state government’s plan to build a Hindu temple in their largely Muslim neighborhood.Some of the protesters also stomped and spat on the head and made fiery speeches that deeply offended Hindus. The cow is the most sacred animal in Hinduism.

All 12 pleaded guilty in a Selangor district court Tuesday to a charge of illegal assembly and were fined 1,000 ringgit ($320) each, said defense lawyer Afifuddin Hafifi. They faced up to a year in prison and a fine for the charge.Two of them who brought and stepped on the cow’s head also pleaded guilty to sedition. Both were fined an additional 3,000 ringgit ($960), and one was sentenced to a week in prison, Afifuddin said.

Sedition, defined as promoting hostility between races, is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine.The conflict highlighted frustrations among minorities about strict government guidelines that restrict the number of non-Muslim places of worship, partly based on whether enough non-Muslims live where a church or temple is to be built.Authorities in Selangor eventually found a new site to build the controversial temple.

A. Vaithilingam, a Malaysian Hindu religious leader, raised concerns that the penalties imposed by the court Tuesday might appear inadequate to some Hindus.”The sentences seem to be very light after the huge commotion and the insult,” he said. The men’s actions “stirred up the emotions throughout the country. This could have caused a riot.”

The protest was among the most high-profile in a string of interfaith disputes in recent years that threatened decades of harmonious ties between Malays, who make up nearly two-thirds of Malaysia’s 28 million people, and ethnic minorities.Early this year, a string of firebomb attacks and vandalism hit mostly non-Muslim places of worship following a court verdict that allowed Christians to use “Allah” in Malay-language publications.Some Muslim Malaysians insist the non-Muslim use of “Allah” would confuse Muslims and tempt them into converting. Minorities say this is an example of institutionalized religious discrimination, but the government denies any bias. (AP)

51 Killed in China As a result of Hurricane

BEIJING accompanied by a massive storm that hit China’s heavy rain this week, causing 51 people lost their lives. While tens of thousands of other residents at risk of losing their homes.As reported by Xinhua, Friday (7/5/2010), extreme weather that hit most of southern China from Wednesday to Thursday this week, causing approximately 190 people injured and 11 others reported missing.

Areas most affected this storm is Chongqing. In these cities 29 citizens were reported killed, while storms also destroyed the storm and uproot trees. Not only that, the storm also caused the road is filled with water and resulted in a landslide.

According to the Ministry of Civil China, more than 70 thousand citizens of Chongqing were displaced from their homes due to fierce storm that destroyed home residents.China’s government estimates that economic losses due to hurricanes in Chongqing this figure touched 420 this yuan.experienced by more than 30 million people in Chongqing

Mexico condemns Anti-Immigration Law

Mexico has warned its citizens to visit Arizona, responding to one anti-immigration legislation that cause anger strict in Mexico and throughout America. The law, signed in January Brewr, U.S. state governors, the southern part of it, from Republicans, allows police to inspect and arrest anyone who they suspect may be illegal immigrants, although they are not suspected of criminal acts.

Action caused resentment on both sides of the border, with MPs California, on Tuesday called for economic boycott against Arizona and one Mexican airline warned it may cancel more flights to the southern U.S. states that. Mexico’s foreign ministry suggested its citizens carry identity documents and to respect the laws of Arizona, warned that an adverse political situation for the migrant community and all visitors of Mexico.

“With this legislation is estimated to every citizen can be disrupted and examined for reasons that are not important at all times,” the statement said. President Felipe Calderon criticized the law as racial discrimination and said the government would use all means available to defend its citizens.

He said the law threatens the relationship of friendship, business, tourism and culture between Mexico and Arizona. Many Mexican migrants and the opposition party called for a boycott of businesses on the southern U.S. states, while the businessmen concerned about the negative reaction.

“Without doubt it will have an impact on traffic and the pelacong between Mexico and the state’s (Arizona),” Leader said Andres Conesa Aeroméxico airline told reporters at a tourism conference in Acupulco, Tuesday. “Aeroméxico’ve closed the routes between the cities of Mexico City and Guadalajara and Phoenix in Arizona in recent months,” he said.

In Sonora, the Mexican state bordering Arizona government symbolically membatalan one annual meeting with officials of Arizona, said its Internet pages, but said that trying to maintain good relations. North of the border, the legislation sparked a wave of criticism, including from U.S. President Barack Obama, and create legal and political fights while the Democratic party would consider filing a change in the law immigration wide.

Members of Congress in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Tuesday called for a boycott, including tightening up contracts with companies in Arizona and encourage private companies to reduce business with the state.

U.S. Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano says U.S. justice officials very worried about the law and the Justice Department is considering whether the law meets constitutional requirements. Mexico, which have a 3.200km long border with the United States, estimated to have approximately 12 million citizens in the U.S., half of them do not have documents or illegal. Arizona estimates in its territory there are 460 000 illegal immigrants, mostly from Latin America.

defense minister says torpedo blast likely sank warship near sea border with NKorea

SEOUL, South Korea  An explosion caused by a torpedo likely tore apart and sank a South Korean warship near the North Korean border, Seoul’s defense minister said Sunday, while declining to assign blame for the blast as suspicion increasingly falls on Pyongyang.Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said an underwater explosion appeared to have ripped apart the vessel, and a torpedo blast seemed the most likely cause. Investigators who examined salvaged wreckage separately announced Sunday that a close-range, external explosion likely sank it.

“Basically, I think the bubble jet effect caused by a heavy torpedo is the most likely” cause, Kim told reporters. The bubble jet effect refers to the rapidly expanding bubble an underwater blast creates and the subsequent destructive column of water unleashed.Kim, however, did not speculate on who may have fired the weapon and said an investigation was ongoing and it’s still too early to determine the cause.

Soon after the disaster, Kim told lawmakers that a North Korean torpedo was one of the likely scenarios, but the government has been careful not to blame the North outright, and Pyongyang has denied its involvement.As investigations have pointed to an external explosion as the cause of the sinking, however, suspicion of the North has grown, given the country’s history of provocation and attacks on the South.

The Cheonan was on a routine patrol on March 26 when the unexplained explosion split it in two in one of South Korea’s worst naval disasters. Forty bodies have been recovered so far, but six crew members are still unaccounted for and are presumed dead.
The site of the sinking is near where the rival Koreas fought three times since 1999, most recently a November clash that left one North Korean soldier dead and three others wounded. The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Also Sunday, investigators said a preliminary investigation of the front part of the 1,200-ton ship – retrieved the day before – pointed to an external explosion.Chief investigator Yoon Duk-yong told reporters that an inspection of the hull pointed to an underwater explosion. He appeared to support the bubble jet effect theory, saying, “It is highly likely that a non-contact explosion was the case rather than a contact explosion.”

But he, too, said it was too early to determine what caused the explosion.Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said South Korea will take “stern” action against whoever was behind the explosion as the country started a five-day funeral for the 46 dead and missing sailors. Makeshift alters were set up in Seoul and other major cities to allow citizens to pay their respect.

“We will remember all of you in the name of the Republic of Korea to let you keep alive in our hearts,” said Chung, clad in a black suit and tie. The 46 sailors will be promoted by one rank and awarded posthumous medals, he said.In Pyongyang, the North marked the 78th anniversary of the founding of the country’s military Sunday with a vow to “mercilessly” punish any hostile moves by “the imperialist enemies,” a term it uses when referring to the U.S.

Pyongyang routinely accuses the U.S. of plotting to invade the North, despite the repeated denials by Washington.”If the imperialist enemies intrude into” the North’s territory, “its army will beat them back at a stroke by mercilessly showering bombs and shells on them,” the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. It didn’t mention the ship sinking.(AP)

Argentina Argentina and Uruguay both professed neighborly affection, if not brotherly love

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Argentina and Uruguay both professed neighborly affection, if not brotherly love, after a U.N. court delivered a long-awaited ruling that rejects Argentina’s claim that an Uruguayan pulp mill pollutes their shared river.Both sides said Tuesday’s decision by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands gave them what they need to resolve their differences, with Argentina taking heart from a part of the ruling that said Uruguay did not properly inform it about the project.The countries vowed to work through a binational commission to protect the Rio Uruguay.

A key hurdle remains, however, with no indication of how Argentine President Cristina Fernandez will overcome it: Argentine activists are still blocking the main bridge across the river and are refusing to give up their fight.The verdict cannot be appealed, but the activists said they won’t accept it – raising the possibility of a violent confrontation if Argentine police have to intervene.

For more than three years, the activists have blocked traffic between Guayleguachu, Argentina, and Fray Bentos, Uruguay, where the $1.2 billion Botnia paper mill is located. At times they had the open support of Fernandez’s predecessor and husband, Nestor Kirchner, who took the fight to the U.N. court demanding the factory be torn down.The court said it found no conclusive evidence that the mill is pumping dangerous pollution into the river.

In a portion of the ruling welcomed by Argentina, the court said both South American countries “have a legal obligation” to work closely together in honoring their treaty requiring shared decision-making for river projects.While saying Uruguay should have involved the river commission to inform Argentina of plans to build two pulp mills before authorizing construction, as called for in their 1975 treaty regulating the river’s use, the court rejected Argentina’s demands for more than a reprimand of Uruguay.

“Ordering the dismantling of the mill would not, in the view of the court, constitute an appropriate remedy,” the court’s vice president, Peter Tomka, said.Uruguayan President Jose Mujica made no immediate comment, in keeping with his effort to reduce passions and resolve the dispute. But his foreign minister, Luis Almagro, called the verdict a reaffirmation of international law.

“In environmental politics, Uruguay follows the most strict international standards,” Almagro said.Fernandez took a conciliatory stance, saying, “Surely both of our countries are going to pursue from now on a strong monitoring effort, a strong control.”

“We have with Uruguay a common history, we have more than 300,000 Uruguayans living in Argentina, we have a deep feeling for Uruguay and I in particular have a very special affection for its president, Pepe, for Lucia his wife and surely this will enable us to build mechanisms of control,” the Argentine president added.The paper mill is far downstream along the Rio Uruguay, which runs for 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) from Brazil to the Rio de la Plata, and drains about 210,000 square miles (339,000 square kilometers) of farmland, an area larger than California and more than twice the size of Britain.

The farm runoff includes vast amounts of fertilizer, including nitrogen, phosphate, potassium and magnesium. It combines with heavy metals from factories – mostly on the Argentine side – and untreated sewage from most of the nearly 100 Argentine and Uruguayan municipalities near the river. Together, these effluents feed algae blooms, robbing the water of oxygen and contributing to skin diseases for people who come into contact with the water.

While the bridge blockade has damaged local economies and frustrated people who have to drive hundreds of miles (kilometers) out of their way to cross the river, the dispute has raised environmental consciousness and prompted governments in both nations to take action. Guayleguachu opened its sewage treatment plant in 2005, which sharply reduced coliform bacteria in the Rio Guayleguachu, which feeds the Rio Uruguay.

In part to compensate for any pollution from its mills, Uruguay plans similar treatment plants for its main river cities of Salto and Paysandu, while the sewage from Fray Bentos will soon be processed by the Botnia mill’s own treatment facility, said Uruguay’s lead counsel before the U.N. court, Paul Reichler.

The dispute also led to intensive monitoring of the river, both upstream and downstream from Botnia, starting two years before the plant opened. But neither country systematically tracks pollutants in the river to their sources, drawing criticism from environmental activists.”This is a conflict that involves a lot of hypocrisy,” said Juan Carlos Villalonga, campaign director for Greenpeace-Argentina. He said both countries need to strengthen land use rules in the watershed, where fast-growing eucalyptus trees promise a booming industry.(AP)

China have rescued a 68-year-old man who had been trapped for 100 hours under the rubble of collapsed buildings caused by the earthquake

Yushu, Qinghai Several aid officials of China have rescued a 68-year-old man who had been trapped for 100 hours under the rubble of collapsed buildings caused by the earthquake.As reported Xinhua, the old man was rescued at around 11:00 local time Sunday in a Small Town Gyegu, Qinghai Province, and his condition seemed to stabilize, said several officials. The man was taken to hospital.Miracles happen when the government said the number of fatalities increased by an earthquake which devastated the so 1484 people.

Until Saturday at 17:00 local time, the quake – which shook the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai, 07:49 pm Wednesday – have been injured 12,088, which is 1.394 of them were badly injured.Meanwhile, most of the victims in Yushu have shelter in tents and get makana, clean water and other basic needs, said an official at the Ministry of Public Affairs in Beijing.Victims who suffer injuries and illness can be separated, said Director of the Department of Disaster Assistance in the Ministry of the Zou-tse, in a briefing in Beijing on Sunday.(AFP)

1144 people were killed by earthquake 6.9 on the Richter scale on Wednesday in Qinghai

Qinghai, The number of victims who died in the earthquake that shook the region of Tibet, Qinghai province, northeast China, on Saturday (17/4/2010) rose to 1144 people and 400 others still missing.Government of China is ready to cremate hundreds of victims of the earthquake on Saturday in Tibet to reduce the risk of disease outbreaks.”The death toll from an earthquake 6.9 on the Richter scale on Wednesday in Qinghai province has increased to 1144 people were killed,” said state news agency Xinhua.

Currently the government continues to struggle to get aid and supplies to thousands of people lost their homes.An AFP reporter saw hundreds of bodies lying on the floor of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Jiegu.Locals said their bodies would be cremated on Saturday morning. The death toll is expected to increase.

Four Spanish soldiers seconded to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, was reported killed

PORT AU PRINCE, Four Spanish soldiers seconded to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, was reported killed.”Four people have us confirm the Spanish army were killed in a helicopter crash on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic,” said George Ola Davies, spokesman for the UN, Saturday (17/4/2010).Spanish military helicopter crashed in the area’s steep cliffs in Haiti on Friday in a steep cliff 50 miles southeast of the capital of Haiti.

According to George Ola-Davies, seconded Chilean helicopter for the UN peacekeeping mission, the crew finally managed menindetifikasi who died.”Location of the accident about 50 miles southeast of the capital of Haiti. Terrain is very heavy, very steep cliff,” he said.

U.S. Embassy in Nigeria said Wednesday they have raised the security alert level

ABUJA U.S. Embassy in Nigeria said Wednesday they have raised the security alert level because of the “world terrorist threat which continues against U.S. citizens.”An email message sent to the U.S. people who lived in Nigeria did not provide detailed explanations about the threats.”Because the world terrorist threat which continues against U.S. citizens, U.S. government facilities, and to U.S. interests, the U.S. Mission in Nigeria which includes the U.S. Embassy in Abuja and U.S. Consulate General in Lagos has raised siaganya status,” the statement said.(Reuters)