Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called his re-election a defeat for George W. Bush, vowing to use his nation’s oil wealth to expand social welfare programs and challenge U.S. interests across Latin America. His victory sets the stage for Chavez to take on the role as the region’s pre-eminent anti-U.S. voice from the ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro, his friend and mentor. With record revenue pouring into Venezuela from the sale of oil, its top export, Chavez is subsidizing crude for Cuba and helping promote anti-free trade policies in countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador. ‘Chavez recognizes that oil is a resource of diplomatic power,” said Daniel Hellinger, a professor of political science at Webster University in St. Louis and author of several books about Chavez. “Chavez has assumed the role of Fidel Castro in that he can say things that other leaders in Latin America are afraid to say.” Chavez, the 52-year-old former lieutenant colonel who calls Bush the `’Devil,” won 61 percent of the vote in yesterday’s election with most ballots counted, the national electoral council said. The election gives Chavez six more years in office. He first won election in 1998 then again in […]
0CARACAS, Venezuela - Officials identifying themselves as members of a state regulatory agency forced the U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network Telemundo to halt transmission Sunday of its presidential election coverage. ‘We’re surprised by this,’ said Pablo Iacub, a member of Telemundo’s eight-person team, which arrived last week. ‘We only want to do our work,’ he said by telephone. At least six people who identified themselves as members of the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL), which regulates electronic media in Venezuela, arrived Sunday afternoon at the hotel from which Telemundo had been transmitting since Friday, said Iacub. The officials said the network needed permission to transmit and lacking such could not, he said. Iacub said he was unaware of such a requirement but that the Telemundo journalists were accredited with Venezuela’s national elections council. Iacub said the Telemundo team asked how they could obtain permission and, after an hour, were told that they would not be able to transmit. Telephone calls to Conatel offices seeking comment on the incident went unanswered. Telemundo Communications Group is owned by NBC Universal Inc., which is controlled by General Electric Co. It claims to reach about 93 percent of Hispanic […]
WASHINGTON — In denouncing the way the Bush administration has denied aid to tens of thousands of victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a federal judge in Washington last week pulled back the curtain on a deeper mystery 15 months after the nation’s costliest natural disaster: What has happened to 2.6 million households that applied for disaster assistance but have been largely shed from the rolls? The numbers, recently disclosed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are striking. FEMA projects that fewer than 4,700 families will reach a $26,200 cap on all post-disaster aid by March, when an 18-month statutory cutoff takes effect — less than one-fourth of 1 percent. The figures are all the more surprising given the storms’ scope, the incomplete reconstruction of New Orleans and the demographic profile of evacuees, who tended to be poorer and less well-insured and to have higher jobless rates than other Americans. To anti-poverty advocates, FEMA’s policies, combined with inadequate computer systems and support staff, unfairly pushed thousands of disaster victims toward homelessness, slowed the recovery of New Orleans and saddled cities such as Houston and Austin with housing crises. The critics cite damning federal court findings, FEMA policy […]
Analysis of ancient teeth has enabled scientists to build a detailed picture of what was on the menu for early human beings 1.8 million years ago. The tooth of Paranthropus robustus Chemical traces have shown that the early hominid changed its feeding habits from month to month, indicating a nomadic lifestyle. The findings increase the chances that the species, Paranthropus robustus, was wiped out by Man’s direct ancestors in a battle for supremacy on the African plains. Until now, research on the shape of the teeth has suggested that the hominid became extinct because it was unable to adapt to environmental changes as its diet was too specialised. But analysis of four Paranthropus teeth found at Swartkrans in South Africa has shown that, far from living on tough, low-quality vegetation, the species had a varied diet. Among the foods that it consumed were fruit and nuts, sedges, grasses, herbs, seeds, tree leaves, tubers and roots. Meat may have been eaten, although it is impossible to tell whether it was hunted or scavenged. The Anglo-American team said in its report, featured in the journal Science, that the teeth showed evidence of seasonal variety in diet. There were […]
HOUSTON — Researchers say a new experimental ultrasound technique could give doctors the ability to determine instantly wether a woman has cancer or not – without an intrusive biopsy. In a small study of 80 women, doctors used the technique called ‘elastography’ to distinguish harmless lumps from malignment ones with almost 100 percent accuracy.Houston (eCanadaNow) – Researchers say a new experimental ultrasound technique could give doctors the ability to determine instantly wether a woman has cancer or not – without an intrusive biopsy. In a small study of 80 women, doctors used the technique called ‘elastography’ to distinguish harmless lumps from malignment ones with almost 100 percent accuracy. When checked against biopsies of women’s breast tissue, the ultrasound technique correctly identified 17 out of 17 cancerous tumors, and 105 out of 106 harmless lesions. The technique was first used in the 1990’s at the University of Texas Medical School of Houston by Jonathan Ophir. Ophir says elastography is a way to measure and picture the elasticity of body tissue. The findings were reported at a national radiology meeting in Chicago this week.
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
