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Mars

2010-04-05T02:30:00.003-07:00

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Mars

2010-04-05T02:30:00.001-07:00

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Elettra Rossellini by Eric Guillemain

2010-04-05T02:25:00.001-07:00

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POLICE FORCE UNDER FIRE AS RAPISTS ARE LET OFF WITH A CAUTION

2010-04-05T01:56:00.001-07:00

By Padraic Flanagan

A POLICE force is under fire for letting off more than 600 self-confessed sex offenders – including 11 rapists – with just a caution in the past five years.

The shocking figures from Avon and Somerset Police reveal that the force has issued 611 cautions as punishment for the crimes, that include rape and child abuse, since 2004.

It comes after the Lord Chief Justice earlier this year criticised the massive rise in out-of-court penalties, with a quarter of the 1.3 million crimes solved each year treated with a caution.

These are handed out when guilt is admitted and mean offenders do not go before a court, do not have their names made public and don’t risk going to prison.

Instead, the guilty only receive a conviction against their name and have their DNA and fingerprints taken to keep on record.

Victim support and women’s rights campaigners described the figures as “deeply shocking”. Vanessa Powell, manager of Bristol Rape Crisis, a support service for the victims of crime, said: “Rape and sexual assault are serious offences and have a damaging impact on the women and men that suffer as a result.

“They need justice. What message does this send about the value of victims? I’m disappointed to see the figures are this high and I’d hope they would improve in the very near future.”

Released under the Freedom of Information Act, the figures showed four of the 11 rapists had admitted the rape of a child under 13.

The figures also revealed that 74 sexual assaults on women, seven on men and 28 on children were dealt with by caution.

Four cautions were given for incest or family sexual offences, two for abuse of children through prostitution or pornography and two for sexual grooming. The most cautions, 333 in total over five years, were given to men who admitted soliciting women. The number of cautions has almost doubled, from 46 in 2004 to 87 in 2009.

Sian Norris, of Bristol Feminist Network, said: “I think the main problem in not bringing these people to justice is that women affected often find it difficult to get closure.

“If reporting a rape doesn’t give them the chance to get justice, it also prevents other women from coming forward and having faith in the system. The sheer number of these attacks is shocking, let alone that these are just for those who have been cautioned.”

Detective Inspector Marie Wright, of Bristol CID, said: “Cautions for sexual offences are issued on rare and exceptional occasions in accordance with national guidance.

“There would need to be evidence and a clear admission of guilt, while age, welfare, mental well-being and the views of the victim would be taken into account.”

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Can CNN Be Saved?

2010-04-05T01:38:00.001-07:00

By ROSS DOUTHAT

Published: April 4, 2010

Listening to Jon Stewart helped destroy CNN. Now imitating him might be the network’s only hope of salvation.

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Susan Etheridge for The New York Times

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It was October of 2004, the heat of the presidential campaign, when Stewart showed up on “Crossfire,” long CNN’s flagship political program, and delivered a now-legendary tirade.

“Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America,” he told the hosts, Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. He called them “political hacks.” He accused them of “helping the politicians and the corporations.” He compared their show to a professional wrestling match. “You’re doing theater,” he said, “when you should be doing debate.”

At it turned out, CNN was paying attention. Within two months, “Crossfire” was canceled, and the network’s president, Jon Klein, cited Stewart’s tirade as a tipping point. “I agree wholeheartedly with Jon Stewart’s overall premise,” Klein said. Henceforward, he announced, CNN would move away from “head-butting debate shows.” Let FOX and MSNBC have their “live guests” and “spirited debate.” CNN was going to report, not editorialize.

Big mistake.

Six years later, CNN is still the network Americans turn to when an earthquake strikes Haiti or a crucial health care vote takes place. But most days are slow news days, opinionated journalism is more interesting than the elusive quest for perfect objectivity and CNN is getting absolutely murdered in the ratings.

It was bad before this year; now it’s terrible. CNN’s prime-time hosts have lost almost half their viewers in the last 12 months. In February, the once-proud network slipped behind not only Fox News and MSNBC, but Headline News (its sister network) and CNBC as well. Anderson Cooper sometimes gets beaten by re-runs of Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown.”

People at CNN see themselves as victims of a polarized political culture — and to some extent, they are. But high-minded self-pity only gets you so far. At a media event in Washington recently, I watched a CNN producer try to persuade a gaggle of skeptical right-wing journalists that the network’s hosts really are objective. (“You’d be surprised how some of them vote!”) Even if they were, it wouldn’t matter. The disinterested anchorman pose worked when TV news ran for 30 minutes every night at 6 p.m. It doesn’t work across hours and hours of prime time, with Campbell Brown blurring into John King blurring into Wolf Blitzzzzzz... .

What might work, instead, is a cable news network devoted to actual debate. For all the red-faced shouting, debate isn’t really what you get on Fox and MSNBC. Hannity has ditched Colmes, and conservatives are only invited on Rachel Maddow’s show when they have something nasty to say about Republicans. There’s room, it would seem, for a network where representatives from the right and left can both feel comfortable, and compete on roughly equal terms. Sort of like they did on ... “Crossfire.”

But not the “Crossfire” of 2004. CNN overreacted to Jon Stewart’s jeremiad, but he wasn’t entirely wrong. The show was years removed from its Michael Kinsley/Pat Buchanan glory days, and its liberal hosts at the time, Begala and James Carville, really were Democratic Party hacks. (The conservatives, Carlson and Robert Novak, were much more independent-minded, but the constant need to rebut partisan talking points took its toll on them as well.)

What cable news needs, instead, is something more like what Stewart himself has been doing on “The Daily Show.” Instead of bringing in the strategists, consultants and professional outrage artists who predominate on other networks, he ushers conservative commentators into his studio for conversations that are lengthy, respectful and often riveting. Stewart’s series of debates on torture and interrogation policy, in particular — featuring John Yoo and Marc Thiessen, among others — have been more substantive than anything on Fox or MSNBC.

Even the thrust-and-parry sessions of “The Daily Show,” though, are limited by the left-right binary that divides and dulls our politics. They’re better than the competition, but they don’t give free rein to eccentricity and unpredictability, or generate arguments that finish somewhere wildly different than where you’d expect them to end up. This is what you find in the riveting television debates of the past: William F. Buckley versus Gore Vidal, Vidal versus Norman Mailer, anything involving Ross Perot. And it’s what you get from the mad, compulsively watchable Glenn Beck, who’s an extremist without being a knee-jerk partisan: You know he’s way out there on the right somewhere, but you don’t know what he’s going to say next.

Stewart, Buckley, Beck ... none of these are exactly the models that you’d expect “the most trusted name in news” to look to for inspiration. And some CNN suits have probably never even heard of Gore Vidal.

But television is a business. And when you’re losing to re-runs, you’ve got nothing to lose.

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20 million people felt Mexicali earthquake; big aftershocks are 'likely,' Caltech says

2010-04-05T01:07:00.001-07:00

April 4, 2010 | 5:57 pm

Caltech seismologists said Sunday's magnitude 7.2 Mexicali earthquake was the strongest to strike the region in nearly two decades and that an estimated 20 million people felt it across the Southwest U.S. and Mexico.

Caltech scientist Lucy Jones said an aftershock in the 6-magnitude range is "reasonably likely" in the next few days, and the chance of quake larger than 7.2 magnitude is fairly unlikely but still possible.

"The fault is pretty long, approximately 50 miles," Jones said. "We are seeing aftershocks heading northwest." Jones said the direction of the strike-slip fault runs northwest into California, about six miles beneath the earth's surface.

Information about quake damage in Mexico remains sketchy. According to Reuters, there have been reports of people trapped in elevators, collapsed retaining walls and power outages in and around Mexicali. Telephone lines were down and items fell off of shelves and bookcases, according to reports.

Photos from Mexicali showed structural damage to some buildings and ruptured roads.

In San Diego County, officials said no injuries have been reported so far. But authorities are looking into reports of shattered glass and items falling off of shelves.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said their preliminary inspections of major infrastructure -- such as tall buildings, freeway bridges and stadiums -- found no problems.

"All fire stations completed their district drive-through assessment with no significant damage or injuries reported. LAFD had a slight increase in 911 call load mostly associated with automatic alarms and stuck elevators. Again no significant damage or injuries reported," the LAFD said in a statement.

San Diego County officials also said they found no significant damage. There were reports of people stuck in elevators. LAFD officials said they found broken elevators -- but no one stuck inside. Rides were temporarily closed at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim.

The temblor struck at 3:40 p.m. about 108 miles east of Tijuana. In Los Angeles, the shaking lasted for several seconds.

Jeniffer Haynie, 59, of Hemet was sitting by the side of her bed reading the newspaper and got up when the ground began moving.

“When it first started it felt like I was on a roller coaster,” Hayne said in a phone interview. “It slowed down, then it picked up even faster for about a minute.”

As the ground shook, she said, she grabbed her Brussels griffon, Chewbacca, and told him to hang on. The quake lasted for about a minute, Hayne said. “That’s a long time for an earthquake,” she said.

This part of Baja California -- near Mexicali -- has experienced regular seismic activity -- mostly small quakes but also some strong ones. Guadalupe Victoria has recorded numerous minor quakes in the last few weeks.

Hundreds of people so far have reported it on the "Did You Feel It" reporting system at the U.S. Geological Survey. Tell us if you felt it too.

-- Richard Winton in Pasadena, Ruben Vives, Alan Zarembo, Rong-Gong Lin II and Shelby Grad in Los Angeles and Tony Perry in San Diego

Map: Above: Shaking intensity maps. Below: Main quake an suspected aftershocks. USGS

More from L.A. Now

• Three dead in Poway

• One death reported in Baja quake [updated]

• Earthquake damage in Mexicali; quake was triggered south of San Andreas fault

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Suicide bombs hit Russian province of Ingushetia

2010-04-05T00:36:00.001-07:00

Telegraph.co.uk

A suicide bomber has blown himself up close to a police station in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region, killing two policemen and wounding two more.

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 7:06AM BST 05 Apr 2010

The terrorists, Islamist radicals seeking to establish an Islamist caliphate in southern Russia, detonated a second bomb at the same location forty minutes later. Nobody appears to have been killed or wounded in the second blast.

The attacks come as the Islamists boast they have launched a fresh terror campaign after two suicide attacks last week left more than fifty Russians dead in the most serious escalation in an undeclared guerrilla war since 2004.

The latest attack is the fourth in the last week.

Two female suicide bombers targeted the Moscow metro last Monday, two male suicide bombers targeted police in southern Russia last Wednesday, and on Sunday terrorists blew up a goods train in the same region.

In the latest attack, a suicide bomber targeted a town called Karabulak in the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Ingushetia.

Two policemen died and two more were badly wounded when an unidentified man drove his vehicle up to the local police station's entrance and blew himself and his car up when two police cars drove past him, a police spokesman said.

In a sign of how seriously the authorities are taking the violence, the whole of Ingushetia was recently declared to be a zone of counter-terrorism activity giving the police and special forces a freer hand to hunt down and kill the extremists.

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@Mica_in_Detroit Your Chicago Dark Night [time lapse]

2010-04-04T23:45:00.001-07:00

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Miscelaneous

2010-04-04T14:17:00.001-07:00

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Various Illustrations

2010-04-04T14:00:00.001-07:00

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Vintage Illustrations

2010-04-04T13:35:00.001-07:00

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Human Geometry

2010-04-04T13:25:00.001-07:00

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Hans de Vries

2010-04-04T13:12:00.001-07:00

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Things you should know about Breasts

2010-04-04T13:03:00.001-07:00

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Things you should know about Breasts

2010-04-04T13:00:00.001-07:00

<br />Via: Online Schools

From Carolyn Chan

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The Sexiest Way To Learn Italian

2010-04-04T10:55:00.001-07:00

<a style='display:block; color:#ffffff; width:421px; padding:5px 0px 7px 5px; background:#000000; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Times New Roman; text-decoration:none; font-size:14px; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/3EFBFFFF01DC2FFD001700E7D7C3/'>Rosetto Stonoli</a><div style='border-top:1px solid #343f43; padding:5px 0 7px 0; text-align:center; width:426px; font: bold 10px verdana, sans-serif; color:#c1ddf2; background:#000000;'>Atom.com: <a href='http://www.atom.com/' target='_blank' style='color:#c1ddf2; margin:0 5px;'>Funny Videos</a> | <a href='http://www.atom.com/channels/category_spoofs/?tab=channels' target='_blank' style='color:#c1ddf2; margin-left:5px;'>Spoofs</a> | <a href='http://www.atom.com/channels/category_cartoons/?tab=channels' target='_blank' style='color:#c1ddf2; margin:0 5px;'>Funny Animations</a></div>

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Richard Avedon´s portraits of power

2010-04-04T04:18:00.001-07:00

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Color Portraits

2010-04-04T04:03:00.001-07:00

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Black and White Portraits

2010-04-04T03:52:00.001-07:00

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Another Cousteau Working to Save the Waters

2010-04-04T03:32:00.001-07:00

I FIRST went on an expedition with my father, Philippe Cousteau, and my mother when I was 4 months old. He had outfitted an amphibious plane, named the Flying Calypso, as a base of operations, and it became our home away from home. By the time I was 4, I had traveled to over a dozen countries.

Alexandra Cousteau

President of Blue Legacy, a nonprofit group based in Washington.

AGE 34

FAVORITE DIVE SPOT Bonaire

FISH SHE MOST RESPECTS Sharks

Jacques Cousteau, my grandfather, taught me to scuba-dive when I was 7. He suited me up in a mask and fins, a small weight belt and child-size air tanks and gently introduced me to a whole new universe.

I remember standing at the edge of the boat and feeling concern about how I would breathe underwater. But I trusted my grandfather, and after a few tentative breaths I plunged in and found myself surrounded by a huge school of silver fish. It was a different universe — alien, beautiful and exciting — and a defining moment. That memory keeps me pushing the boundaries of exploration and discovery.

My family had a home in the United States and in France, and we alternated living in the two countries. My father and grandfather worked closely together, co-producing their award-winning documentaries. I spent the first several years of my life on expedition with my parents. But in 1979, when I was 3 1/2, I lost my father to a plane crash in Portugal. His example has moved me to ask the hard questions, to challenge old thinking and to carry forward a legacy that inspires each of us to act.

After graduating from Georgetown University in 1998, I moved to Barcelona for a year. I worked for Canal Natura, a “green” TV channel, writing and producing environmental programming. Several years later, I went to Costa Rica to work on projects that engaged communities in sustainable practices and responsible management of marine-protected areas. I was there two years.

In 2008, I founded Blue Legacy International to shape society’s dialogue to include water as one of the defining issues of our century. Last February, I took a nine-person crew on a 100-day expedition across five continents to explore the interconnectedness of our global water resources. We produced over 30 short films, as well as photographs and blogs we published through a network of media partners.

I love the feeling of arriving in a new place and immersing myself in something I’ve never experienced. I love coming to know a foreign culture, new people and the perspective they offer on the world.

We were recently filming about water issues in a slum community in India when the back of my jeans split. Before I knew it, a group of young children were having a delightful time throwing pebbles aimed at where I had crudely repaired the tear with duct tape. After weeks in the field, it was wonderful to have a chance to laugh at ourselves and marvel at the humor and mischief of children. After a while, a local woman took me inside her house and sewed the rip for me.

As a woman continuing in the tradition of a male-dominated legacy, I have had to learn to stand on my own and assert myself more than I would naturally. But by developing a strong personal voice, I have been able to define my mission in a way that has generated great successes for my organization.

I’ve logged quite a few gypsy miles over the years, but there are times I enjoy being home in Washington to catch up with my friends and family.

I especially enjoy rowing on the Potomac River. It’s like a focused meditation, because if you don’t pay attention to balancing and keeping your oars straight, the boat will tip over. I love the feeling of gliding across the surface and gazing across the water at the birds and forests.

As told to Patricia R. Olsen.

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Hurting U.S. Efforts to Win Minds, Taliban Disrupt Pay

2010-04-03T18:27:00.001-07:00

Moises Saman for The New York Times

Hajji Abdul Zahir, far left, the district governor of Marja, oversees payments by the Marines to Afghans in the region. More Photos »

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Slide Show

Turning Tides in Afghanistan

6 Afghans Die as Their Unit Is Hit in Error by Germans (April 4, 2010)

The New York Times

The Marines took Marja, but the Taliban remain there. More Photos »

MARJA, Afghanistan — Since their offensive here in February, the Marines have flooded Marja with hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. The tactic aims to win over wary locals by paying them compensation for property damage or putting to work men who would otherwise look to the Taliban for support.

The approach helped turn the tide of insurgency in Iraq. But in Marja, where the Taliban seem to know everything — and most of the time it is impossible to even tell who they are — they have already found ways to thwart the strategy in many places, including killing or beating some who take the Marines’ money, or pocketing it themselves.

Just a few weeks since the start of the operation here, the Taliban have “reseized control and the momentum in a lot of ways” in northern Marja, Maj. James Coffman, civil affairs leader for the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, said in an interview in late March. “We have to change tactics to get the locals back on our side.”

Col. Ghulam Sakhi, an Afghan National Police commander here, says his informants have told him that at least 30 Taliban have come to one Marine outpost here to take money from the Marines as compensation for property damage or family members killed during the operation in February.

“You shake hands with them, but you don’t know they are Taliban,” Colonel Sakhi said. “They have the same clothes, and the same style. And they are using the money against the Marines. They are buying I.E.D.’s and buying ammunition, everything.”

One tribal elder from northern Marja, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being killed, said in an interview on Saturday that the killing and intimidation continued to worsen. “Every day we are hearing that they kill people, and we are finding their dead bodies,” he said. “The Taliban are everywhere.”

The local problem points to the larger challenges ahead as American forces expand operations in the predominantly Pashtun south, where the Taliban draw most of their support and the government is deeply unpopular.

In Marja, the Taliban are hardly a distinct militant group, and the Marines have collided with a Taliban identity so dominant that the movement appears more akin to the only political organization in a one-party town, with an influence that touches everyone. Even the Marines admit to being somewhat flummoxed.

“We’ve got to re-evaluate our definition of the word ‘enemy,’ ” said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marine expeditionary brigade in Helmand Province. “Most people here identify themselves as Taliban.”

“We have to readjust our thinking so we’re not trying to chase the Taliban out of Marja, we’re trying to chase the enemy out,” he said. “We have to deal with these people.”

The Marines hoped the work programs would be a quick way to put to work hundreds of “military-aged males,” as they call them. In some places, that has worked. But the programs have run into jeopardy in other parts of Marja, an area of about 80 square miles that is a patchwork of lush farmland and small bazaars and villages.

In northern Marja, the biggest blow came when the local man hired to supervise the work programs was beaten by the Taliban and refused to help the Marines any more. The programs are “completely dead in the water” there, Major Coffman said.

In addition to work programs, the Marines are using compensation payments to build support for the newly appointed district governor of Marja, Hajji Abdul Zahir, telling people that to receive money they must get his approval. That effort has proved equally vulnerable.

In late March, an Afghan man was beaten by the Taliban hours after he had gone to the Marine outpost that houses Mr. Zahir’s office to collect his compensation. The Taliban took the money and stole a similar amount as punishment, said Colonel Sakhi, the police commander.

“My greatest fear right now is not knowing if I have put money into the pockets of the Taliban,” Major Coffman said.

Despite those reservations, the Marine strategy depends on sowing this community with buckets of cash. The money is a bridge to a day when, in theory, the new Marja district government will have more credibility than the Taliban.

That would be a difficult goal even if the Americans did not intend to rid the region of its lucrative poppy crop. While the United States has abandoned the policy of widespread eradication of the crop, efforts to discourage planting it will still cost farmers and power brokers huge sums.

“There are lots of people with lots of money invested here, and they are not just going to give that up,“ General Nicholson said. “Now is the heavy lifting. We have to convince a very skeptical population that we are here to help them.”

A steady flow of Taliban attacks have added to the challenge. After the February offensive, the Marines used cash payments to prod more than 20 store owners at one bazaar in northern Marja to open their doors, a key to stabilizing the area and reassuring residents.

By late March, all but five shops had closed, Major Coffman said. A prominent anti-Taliban senior elder was also gunned down in northern Marja, prompting most of the 200 people in his district to flee.

“They have completely paralyzed all the folks here,” Major Coffman said.

In another sign of how little the Marines control outside their own outposts, one week ago masked gunmen killed a 22-year-old man, Hazrat Gul, in broad daylight as he and four other Afghans built a small bridge about a third of a mile from a military base in central Marja.

Mr. Gul’s boss, an Afghan who contracted with the Marines to build the bridge, says he has been warned four times by the Taliban to stop working for the Americans.

And even as the NATO-backed Mr. Zahir struggles to gain credibility as Marja’s leader, the Taliban are working to fortify their own local administration.

According to Colonel Sakhi, the Taliban’s governor for Marja returned to the area on Monday for the first time since the February assault and held a meeting with local elders, many of whom Mr. Zahir is trying to win over. The Taliban governor warned them not to take money from the Marines or cooperate with the Afghan government, Colonel Sakhi said.

In central Marja, where the work projects have had more success, about 2,000 Afghan men are employed by programs financed by the First Battalion, Sixth Marines, said the unit’s civil affairs leader, Maj. David Fennell.

At one of the battalion’s outposts, shipments of cash arrive regularly. The last was 10 million afghanis, or $210,000, stuffed into a rucksack. The battalion doles out $150,000 a week, Major Fennell said.

On one afternoon in late March, 40 Afghans could be seen clearing away several acres of rubble remaining from a bazaar leveled during a NATO bomb strike two years ago. The $190,000 contract is expected to take a month to complete.

But intimidation is still rife — even inside the walls of the Marines’ outpost. One woman who came to the base crouched behind a Humvee and begged for help, saying that her husband had been killed during the February operation.

First Lt. Aran Walsh offered her $1,700 worth of Afghan currency. He asked her why she hid herself.

“If they see me, they’ll inform the Taliban,” she said.

Moises Saman contributed reporting from Marja, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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The Ultimate Decadent Invention, @jbruin

2010-04-03T14:57:00.001-07:00

Jennifer van Grove (@jbruin) presents us the ultimate absurd invention of KFC.

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Que no, que en el Vaticano no querían decir eso, ¿qué dijeron, entonces?

2010-04-03T10:53:00.001-07:00

El Vaticano no comparó las críticas con el antisemitismo

Redacción

BBC Mundo

El Vaticano dejó en claro que las palabras de Cantalamessa no representaban la posición oficial.

Comparar las críticas al Papa por el manejo de las acusaciones de abusos sexuales contra menores con el antisemitismo "no es la línea del Vaticano", aseguró este sábado el portavoz oficial del Vaticano, Federico Lomabardi.

En declaraciones a Radio Vaticano, Lombardi afirmó que "asemejar los ataques a Benedicto XVI por los escándalos de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes a niños con el antisemitismo no es la línea mantenida por la Santa Sede".

Con estas palabras, el portavoz buscó matizar las declaraciones previas del predicador personal del Papa, Raniero Cantalamessa, quien al comparar las críticas que recibió el líder del catolicismo con la violencia contra los judíos provocó la ira de los grupos judíos y la de las víctimas de abusos sexuales.

Según Lombardi, la intención de Cantalamessa fue hacer pública la solidaridad expresada por un amigo judío en una carta, en la que el autor señala que las acusaciones le recordaron "los aspectos más vergonzosos del antisemitismo".

Pero reconoció que hacer esta clase de paralelismos puede "generar malos entendidos".

Las afirmaciones de Cantalamessa generaron una ola de críticas.

Lo que para Cantalamessa pudo haber sido una comparación útil, fue sin duda una comentario desatinado, señala el corresponsal de la BBC en el Vaticano, David Willey.

Pese a que Benedicto XVI tiene previsto visitar Israel, señala Willey, las relaciones entre ambas comunidades aún son difíciles y comentarios de esta clase no contribuyen a mejorar el vínculo.

clic

Comparan críticas al Papa con antisemitismo

Indignación

Si bien el Vaticano dejó en claro que no se trataba de una posición oficial, las palabras de Cantalamessa, pronunciadas durante la ceremonia del Viernes Santo celebrada en la Basílica de San Pedro, provocaron críticas inmediatas.

Estoy sin palabras. El Vaticano está intentando convertir a los verdugos en víctimas

Stephan Kramer, Consejo Central de Judíos de Alemania

La organización que agrupa a las víctimas de abusos basada en Estados Unidos, Snap, dijo que los comentarios eran "moralmente equivocados".

Mientras que el Consejo Central de Judíos en Alemania describió al sermón de Pascuas como un "acto de insolencia" sin precedentes.

Su secretario general, Stephan Kramer, dijo que las palabras del sacerdote eran ofensivas y repulsivas.

"Estoy sin palabras. El Vaticano está intentando convertir a los verdugos en víctimas", aseguró Kramer.

Controversia y defensa

Los escándalos por abusos contra menores por parte de sacerdotes ha generado mucha controversia en relación a la actuación de Benedicto XVI antes de haber sido elegido Papa, que algunos consideran ha sido negligente.

Sin embargo, el Vaticano asegura que los señalamientos son injustos y que el pontífice ha introducido nuevas normativas para proteger a los menores.

Hasta ahora, el Vaticano ha defendido enérgicamente sus cinco años de papado y la conducta previa de Benedicto XVI durante el período en que fue cardenal arzobispo de Munich y, posteriormente, líder de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, el departamento de vigilancia del Vaticano responsable de la disciplina de los sacerdotes culpables de mala conducta.

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The Old Art of Poster

2010-04-03T02:16:00.001-07:00

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Hannelore Knuts

2010-04-03T01:52:00.001-07:00

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Fantastic Vector Portraits

2010-04-03T01:51:00.001-07:00

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A Serene, Antique Beauty

2010-04-03T01:44:00.001-07:00

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Vivid, Warm, Fashion Portraits

2010-04-03T01:40:00.001-07:00

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10 Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp

2010-04-03T00:45:00.001-07:00

10 Tease your brain

: Whether crossword puzzles, sudokus and other brain teasers actually keep your brain in shape, has not been well-established. However, lack of education is a strong predictor of cognitive decline. The more you've tried to learn, the better you'll be at mental sit-ups in old age. The key may be tackling something new; the challenge of the unknown is likely more beneficial than putting together the same jigsaw puzzle over and over again.

9 Skip the supplements

: Supplements have been getting a bad rap recently, with even the familiar multivitamin now looking like a waste of money -- or worse. Brain pills, such as ginkgo and melatonin, likely belong in the trash as well. Despite their "natural" origins, they are not free of potential side effects, such as high blood pressure, digestion trouble, fertility problems and depression. And among healthy individuals, ginkgo offers no brain benefits beyond that of a placebo. (In some cases, the placebo worked better.)

8 Chill out

: Stress takes a toll on the brain by washing harmful chemicals over the hippocampus and other brain areas involved in memory. Some scientists suspect that living a balanced lifestyle and pursuing relaxing activities such as yoga, socializing and crafting may delay memory impairment by reducing stress.

7 Eat fish

: Some theories credit the introduction of fish into the human diet with the evolution of our tremendous cognitive prowess. Essential fatty acids, such as Omega 3s, are critical to brain function and are proving beneficial for treating such brain-sapping ailments as depression. Studies on the efficacy of Omega 3 supplements, however, have had mixed results, so get doses from food sources, such as flax seeds, fatty fish and grass-fed animals.

6 Enjoy your coffee

: Growing evidence suggests a caffeine habit may protect the brain. According to large longitudinal studies, two to four perk-me-ups a day may stave off normal cognitive decline and decrease the incidence of Alzheimer's by 30 to 60 percent. It is unclear whether the benefits come from caffeine or the antioxidants found in coffee and tea, but that latte may improve cognition this afternoon and several decades from now.

5 Get your beauty rest

: When we rest and dream, memories are sifted through, some discarded, others consolidated and saved. When we don't sleep, a recent study found, proteins build up on synapses, possibly making it hard to think and learn new things. Furthermore, chronically sleeping poorly (in contrast to not enough) is linked to cognitive decline in old age, although the relationship may not be causal.

4 Take care of your body

: Largely preventable diseases -- such as Type II diabetes, obesity and hypertension -- all affect your brain, too. System-wide health concerns have been linked to an increased risk of cognitive decline and memory impairments. Keeping your circulatory system in working order, by, say, avoiding cigarettes and saturated fat, lessens the onslaught of age-related damage to the brain.

3 Watch that diet

: While overindulging can make the brain sluggish and lead to long-term detriments to your brain, too few calories can also impair brain function. Extreme dieting can cause some diehards to feel stretches of calm -- a feeling that may underlie the addiction of anorexia -- but many studies have also linked dieting with distraction, confusion and memory impairment.

2 Eat, eat, eat

: Too much or too little energy throws a kink in the brain's delicate machinery. A low glycemic diet -- high fiber, with moderate amounts of fat and protein -- is broken down more slowly in the body than high glycemic foods, such as sweets and white starches. A steady pace of digestion in the gut gives a more reliable flow of energy to the brain, likely optimizing the organ's long-term health and performance.

1 Do something!

: Scientists are starting to think that regular aerobic exercise may be the single most important thing you can do for the long-term health of your brain. While the heart and lungs respond loudly to a sprint on the treadmill, the brain is quietly getting fitter with each step, too. For mental fitness, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity every other day.

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5 Things You Must Know About Sleep

2010-04-03T00:33:00.001-07:00

5.- Get used to being tired, hit the desk
he bottom line is that a good night's sleep is within the reach of most of us if we follow common-sense guidelines for sleep hygiene:

> Go to bed at the same time nightly.

> Set aside enough time to hit that golden 7 hours of sleep.

> Refrain from caffeine, heavy or spicy foods, and alcohol and other optional medications that might keep you awake, four to six hours before bed-time.

> Have a pre-sleep routine so you wind down before you hop in.

> Block out distracting lights and noises.

> Only engage in sleep and sex in bed (no TV-watching, reading or eating).

> Exercise regularly but not right before bed. But you already know all this and you don't do it. So your realistic plan might be to surrender to the mid-day desk nap.

4.- Animals exhibit a range of sleep habits

The three-toed sloth sleeps 9.6 hours nightly. But newborn dolphins and killer whales can forgo sleeping for their entire first month. However, the latter extreme is not recommended for humans. We grow irritable and lose our ability to focus and make decisions after even one night of missed sleep, and that can lead to serious accidents driving and using other machinery.

3.- You can sleep like a baby (or Thomas Edison)

Multiple, shorter sleep sessions nightly, rather than one long one, are an option. So-called polyphasic sleep is seen in babies, the elderly and other animals (and Thomas Edison reportedly slept this way). For the rest of us, it is more realistic and healthy to sleep at night as best we can and then take naps as needed. EEGs show that we are biphasic sleepers with two alertness dips -- one at night time and one mid-day. So talk to HR about setting up a nap room, like they have for NASA's Phoenix mission team members.

2.- We need less sleep as we age

We'll die without sleep. The details are sketchy, but research suggests it's a time when we restore vital biological processes and also sort and cement memories. Last year, the World Health Organization determined that nightshift work, which can lead to sleep troubles, is a probable human carcinogen. On the upside, the latest research suggests we need less of it as we get older.

1.- We sleep better than we think we do

For most of us, sleep deprivation is a myth. We're not zombies. The non-profit National Sleep Foundation (which takes money from the sleep-aid industry, including drug companies that make sleeping pills) says the average U.S. resident gets 7 hours a night and that's not enough, but a University of Maryland study earlier this year shows we typically get 8 hours and are doing fine. In fact, Americans get just as much sleep nowadays as they did 40 years ago, the study found.

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Asked to Declare His Race, Obama Checks ‘Black’

2010-04-03T00:17:00.001-07:00

By SAM ROBERTS and PETER BAKER

It is official: Barack Obama is the nation’s first black president.

A White House spokesman confirmed that Mr. Obama, the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, checked African-American on the 2010 census questionnaire.

The president, who was born in Hawaii and raised there and in Indonesia, had more than a dozen options in responding to Question 9, about race. He chose “Black, African Am., or Negro.” (The anachronistic “Negro” was retained on the 2010 form because the Census Bureau believes that some older blacks still refer to themselves that way.)

Mr. Obama could have checked white, checked both black and white, or checked the last category on the form, “some other race,” which he would then have been asked to identify in writing.

There is no category specifically for mixed race or biracial.

Instructions for the census’s American Community Survey, which poses the question in the same way as the 2010 form, say that “people may choose to provide two or more races either by marking two or more race response boxes, by providing multiple write-in responses, or by some combination of marking boxes and writing in responses.”

In the 2000 census, when Americans first were allowed to check more than one box for race, about 6.8 million people reported being of two or more races.

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Comparing the House and the Senate Health Care Proposals

2010-04-02T23:36:00.001-07:00

In December, the Senate approved a sweeping legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system. The House approved its bill in November. The proposals are broadly similar but differ on some major issues, like a new government insurance plan, abortion and how to pay for the expansion of coverage. A look at some key differences between the proposals:

Require that most Americans have a minimum level of health insurance or else pay a penalty.

House version

Includes mandate.

Penalty: Tax equal to 2.5 percent of adjusted gross income over certain thresholds ($9,350 for individuals, $18,700 for couples).

Exemptions: American Indians, people with religious objections and people who can show financial hardship.

Senate version

Includes mandate.

Penalty: $95 a year or 0.5 percent of a household’s income, whichever is greater, in 2014; $495 or 1 percent of income in 2015; $750 or 2 percent of income in 2016 (with a maximum of $2,250 for a family). The penalty would be adjusted for inflation after 2016. No penalty if the cost of cheapest available plan exceeds 8 percent of household income.

Exemptions: American Indians, people with religious objections, people who can show financial hardship and people with income below 100 percent of the poverty level ($22,050 for a family of four).

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Cycling Provides a Break for Some With Parkinson’s [Hopefuly]

2010-04-02T23:16:00.001-07:00

MOTHER IS DYING, FROM AN AGRESSIVE CANCER (NOT MUCH TO DO ABOUT, BUT TO HAVE CONFIDENCE, STRONG SPIRIT AND A GOOD MOOD).
FATHER IS STILL YOUNG, BUT SOME OLD LESIONS FROM HIS ANTIQUE LOVE TO MOTORCYCLES, CAUSED HIM SOME KIND OF EARLY-STAGED DISEASE, VERY MUCH ALIKE PARKINSON.

FROM NOW ON, I WILL POST, NOW AND THEN, EVERYTHING I CONSIDER USEFUL (TO US AND OTHERS). RIGHT NOW, I BEGIN WITH THIS ARTICLE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES ABOUT THE KINDNESS OF CYCLING FOR SOME PARKINSON´S PATIENTS. HERE WE GO... GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY:

Cycling Provides a Break for Some With Parkinson’s

By GINA KOLATA

Published: March 31, 2010

Dr. Bastiaan R. Bloem of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands thought he had seen it all in his years of caring for patients with Parkinson’s disease. But the 58-year-old man who came to see him recently was a total surprise.

The New England Journal of Medicine

A video from the Netherlands of a 58-year-old man with a 10-year history of Parkinson’s disease showed him freezing in his movements after a few steps. Yet he was able to ride a bicycle.

The man had had Parkinson’s diseasefor 10 years, and it had progressed until he was severely affected. Parkinson’s, a neurological disorder in which some of the brain cells that control movement die, had made him unable to walk. He trembled and could walk only a few steps before falling. He froze in place, his feet feeling as if they were bolted to the floor.

But the man told Dr. Bloem something amazing: he said he was a regular exerciser — a cyclist, in fact — something that should not be possible for patients at his stage of the disease, Dr. Bloem thought.

“He said, ‘Just yesterday I rode my bicycle for 10 kilometers’ — six miles,” Dr. Bloem said. “He said he rides his bicycle for miles and miles every day.”

“I said, ‘This cannot be,’ ” Dr. Bloem, a professor of neurology and medical director of the hospital’s Parkinson’s Center, recalled in a telephone interview. “This man has end-stage Parkinson’s disease. He is unable to walk.”

But the man was eager to demonstrate, so Dr. Bloem took him outside where a nurse’s bike was parked.

“We helped him mount the bike, gave him a little push, and he was gone,” Dr. Bloem said. He rode, even making a U-turn, and was in perfect control, all his Parkinson’s symptoms gone.

Yet the moment the man got off the bike, his symptoms returned. He froze immediately, unable to take a step.

Dr. Bloem made a video and photos of the man trying to walk and then riding his bike. The photos appear in the April 1 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

After seeing that man, Dr. Bloem asked 20 other severely affected patients about riding a bike. It turned out that all could do it, though it is not clear why.

Dr. Bloem and other Parkinson’s specialists were amazed. People with Parkinson’s disease can often dance, run, walk smoothly and do complex movements for a few minutes if they are given appropriate signals — emotional or visual cues. There are famous examples, such as a group of Parkinson’s patients who were caught in a fire and managed to run down steps and escape, only to freeze in place when they got outside.

But this effect, known as the kinesia paradox, does not last long. Riding for miles and miles is very different from walking for a few minutes. And until now, Dr. Bloem said, it was not known that patients with Parkinson’s could ride bikes.

“The observation is so novel and exciting that I keep amazing audiences when I show this video during my lectures, even when the audience consists of movement disorder experts,” Dr. Bloem said.

Of course, he added, he is not advocating that Parkinson’s patients hop on bikes and go out on busy roads. They need help in mounting a bike and can get into trouble if they have to stop at traffic lights. They need to ride in safe areas. He recommends that patients ride tricycles, or use stationary bikes or trainers — devices that turn road bikes into stationary ones.

Still, he said, bicycling offers patients an opportunity to be symptom-free while they are riding, to look and feel normal, and to get some real cardiovascular exercise even when their disease is so far advanced that they cannot walk.

Parkinson’s experts were intrigued.

“This is an impressive thing,” said Dr. C. Warren Olanow of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “He has described a terrifically interesting case, and there are things to learn from it.”

Dr. Bloem said one explanation for the finding might be that bicycling uses a different part of the brain than walking and might not be so severely affected by Parkinson’s disease. Or it might be that the rhythmic pressure of the pedals on patients’ feet cues the nervous system to allow a cycling movement.

Bicycling does not cure patients, of course. And, added Dr. Lisa M. Shulman, a neurology professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, whether most patients with severe Parkinson’s disease will be able to ride a bike “is an empirical question that would need to be tested.” And, she said, those who cannot do one sort of exercise may be able to do another.

But Dr. Bloem said he hoped that perhaps regular exercise might slow the progress of Parkinson’s disease. It does in rats, he said, and he is running a clinical trial in 600 patients to see if exercise also slows the disease in humans.

In the meantime, Dr. Bloem said he knew there was a long way to go from observation to scientific fact. But, he said, that does not mean an observation is useless.

“I’m a strong believer that single cases can provide crucial evidence,” Dr. Bloem said. “Even though this is a single patient, it is very, very provocative.”

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Marloes Horst

2010-04-02T22:37:00.001-07:00

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Baby Baby Baby

2010-04-02T18:03:00.001-07:00

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Múltiples ataques aéreos de Israel sobre la Franja de Gaza

2010-04-02T17:24:00.001-07:00

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Un portavoz de la administración de Hamas en la ciudad de Gaza, Ayman Taha, dijo que el movimiento islámico está tratando de mantener bajo control los ataques de militantes a Israel, luego de que el gobierno israelí advirtiera de que habría más acción militar si persistían con el lanzamiento de morteros.

Mientras, los gobierno de Francia y el Reino Unido urgieron a ambas partes a que actúen con moderación.

Durante la noche del jueves, aviones de guerra israelíes llevaron a cabo al menos 13 ataques sobre la Franja de Gaza, según le dijeron varios testigos palestinos a la BBC.

De acuerdo a estas fuentes, la ofensiva aérea se concentró en Gaza, pero también alcanzó otras ciudades, como Jan Yunis y Rafah.

Israel afirma que el objetivo eran cuatro fábricas de armas.

Objetivos

Aunque por el momento no se conoce si hay víctimas mortales, el director de emergencias del Ministerio palestino de Salud afirmó que tres niños resultaron levemente heridos por la caída de escombros.

La ofensiva de Israel se concentró en Gaza, pero también alcanzó las ciudades de Khan Younis y Rafah.

El corresponsal de la BBC en Jerusalén, Jon Donnison, explicó que estos son los ataques aéreos más graves producidos en la zona en más de un año.

El movimiento Hamas, que controla Gaza, dijo que algunos de los objetivos del fuego israelí eran comisarías de policía e instalaciones de entrenamiento.

Las fuerzas militares de Israel también habrían logrado atacar edificios, granjas y talleres pertenecientes al grupo islámico.

"Israel no tolerará actividad terrorista dentro de Gaza que amenace a los ciudadanos israelíes", comunicó, por su parte, el ejército israelí.

Ofensiva sobre Khan Younis

Cuatro de los ataques tuvieron lugar cerca de la ciudad de Jan Yunis, donde hace sólo una semana Israel realizó una incursión tras la muerte de dos soldados israelíes y dos militantes palestinos en el peor enfrentamiento desde la ofensiva contra ese territorio en diciembre de 2008.

El brazo armado del movimiento Hamas —las brigadas de al-Qassam— reivindicó la autoría de los ataques a estos soldados.

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Lea: Repliegue israelí tras incursión en Gaza

Un residente de Gaza le dijo a la BBC que los soldados israelíes distribuyeron panfletos antes de los últimos ataques advirtiendo a los palestinos sobre una posible respuesta a la muerte de aquellos militares.

Crece la tensión

Mientras, en los últimos días se han lanzado a suelo israelí varios cohetes procedentes de la Franja.

El pasado miércoles impactó uno de ellos en el sur del país, aunque las autoridades de Israel dijeron que no produjo daños materiales o personales.

En las últimas semanas creció la tensión por los proyectos nuevos de asentamientos judíos de Jerusalén Oriental, considerados ilegales por las leyes internacionales.

Los palestinos sostienen que estos planes tendrían que ser cancelados para poder reiniciar el diálogo de paz.

Por su parte, Israel insiste en que construir viviendas en Jerusalén (que los palestinos quieren como futura capital de su Estado) es lo mismo que construirlas en ciudades como Tel Aviv.

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Comparan críticas al Papa con antisemitismo

2010-04-02T16:57:00.001-07:00

Redacción

BBC Mundo

Cantalamessa hizo su reflexión en la conmemoración del Viernes Santo.

El predicador personal del Papa Benedicto XVI, Raniero Cantalamessa, comparó las críticas que ha recibido el líder del catolicismo -por la forma en que la Iglesia Católica ha manejado el escándalo de pederastia- con la violencia colectiva sufrida por los judíos.

En la ceremonia del Viernes Santo -celebrada en la Basílica de San Pedro-, en compañía del sumo pontífice y ante cientos de feligreses, el sacerdote mencionó el fragmento de una carta escrita por un amigo judío que señala que las acusaciones le recuerdan los aspectos más vergonzosos del antisemitismo.

El Vaticano se ha defendido de lo que algunos han calificado como la negligencia del Papa en el manejo de los casos de abusos sexuales a menores de edad por parte de sacerdotes, cuando el actual líder del catolicismo se desempeñaba como cardenal en Alemania y Roma.

Críticas de los judíos

¿Se sientan en su palacio papal, están pasando por un momento incómodo y se comparan a ellos mismos con los que eran llevados en coches de ganado hacia Auschwitz? No pueden estar hablando en serio

Peter Isely, activista judío

Los comentarios de Cantalamessa enojaron a organizaciones judías y a representantes de las víctimas del antisemitismo.

Stephan Kramer, secretario general del Consejo Central de Judíos de Alemania, dijo que las palabras del sacerdote eran ofensivas y repulsivas.

"Estoy sin palabras. El Vaticano está intentando convertir a los verdugos en víctimas", dijo.

Peter Isely, portavoz del grupo estadounidense Snap, dijo por su parte que el sermón había sido "irresponsable".

"¿Se sientan en su palacio papal, están pasando por un momento incómodo y se comparan a ellos mismos con los que eran llevados en coches de ganado hacia Auschwitz? No pueden estar hablando en serio", aseguró.

El rabino Gary Greenebaum, del Comité Judío Americano, habló de "un uso desafortunado del lenguaje".

"La violencia colectiva contra los judíos ocasionó la muerte a seis millones de personas, mientras la violencia verbal en este caso no ha resultado en asesinatos ni destrucción", dijo.

Iglesia alemana pide perdón

La declaración de Zollitsch contrasta con el silencio sobre los abusos por parte del papa Benedicto XVI.

Mientras tanto, el presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal alemana, el arzobispo Robert Zollitsch, admitió que la Iglesia Católica hizo muy poco por las víctimas de abusos sexuales cometidos por curas.

"No se prestó la suficiente atención a las víctimas, en parte por el temor equivocado a dañar la reputación de la Iglesia", afirmó el líder religioso.

Zollitsch prometió además un nuevo comienzo, a través de un comunicado difundido el día en que los católicos celebran el Viernes Santo.

Recordó que justamente este día simboliza el comienzo de algo nuevo y que debe aprovecharse para "ese nuevo comienzo" que tanto necesitan "todos con urgencia".

"Se abrieron heridas que apenas pueden ya curarse. Tanto más debemos centrarnos por ello en ofrecer toda la compasión y el apoyo posibles a las víctimas", añadió.

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Opine: ¿qué debe hacer la jerarquía de la Iglesia Católica?
Oración especial
No se prestó la suficiente atención a las víctimas, en parte por el temor equivocado a dañar la reputación de la Iglesia
Robert Zollitsch, presidente de los obispos alemanes
En todas las iglesias de Alemania habrá una oración especial durante Semana Santa para las víctimas de los abusos, señala la corresponsal de la BBC en Berlín, Oana Lungescu.
Y es que son muchas. Desde enero, más de 250 personas en todo el país han denunciado haber sufrido abusos por parte de sacerdotes entre los años 50 y 1990.
Además, más de 4.000 personas llamaron al teléfono especial de asistencia a las víctimas, abierto este martes por la Iglesia para mejorar su imagen, según medios locales.
La admisión del presidente de los obispos alemanes contrasta con la reacción del papa Benedicto XVI, acusado por algunos de haber ocultado casos de abusos en el pasado.
El pontífice evitó referirse a este tema en las dos misas que ofició con motivo del Jueves Santo.
Sin embargo, cargó contra las leyes que permiten el aborto.

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At Vatican Service, Persecution of Jews Is Invoked

2010-04-02T11:23:00.001-07:00

By DANIEL J. WAKIN and RACHEL DONADIO

ROME — A senior Vatican priest speaking at a Good Friday service compared the uproar over sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church — which have included reports about Pope Benedict XVI’s oversight role in two cases — to the persecution of the Jews, sharply raising the volume in the Vatican’s counterattack.
Enlarge This Image
L'Osservatore Romano, via European Pressphoto Agency
Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household since 1980, delivered a sermon at the Vatican on March 5.
Related
Times Topic: Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Cases
The remarks, on the day Christians mark the crucifixion, underscored how much the Catholic Church has felt under attack from recent news reports and criticism over how it has handled charges of child molestation against priests in the past, and sought to focus attention on the church as the central victim.
In recent weeks, Vatican officials and many bishops have angrily denounced news reports that Benedict failed to act strongly enough against pedophile priests, once as archbishop of Munich and Friesing in 1980 and once as a leader of a powerful Vatican congregation in the 1990s.
Benedict sat looking downward when the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, who holds the office of preacher of the papal household, delivered his remarks in the traditional prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica. Wearing the brown cassock of a Franciscan, Father Cantalamessa took note that Easter and Passover were falling during the same week this year, saying he was led to think of the Jews. “They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms,” he said.
Father Cantalamessa quoted from what he said was a letter from an unnamed Jewish friend. “I am following the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful by the whole word,” he said the friend wrote. “The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt, remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.”
Even as the priest spoke out against attacks on the church, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, head of the German Bishops Conference, said that sex abuse victims were not helped enough “out of a misplaced concern for the reputation of the church.” The church, he said, was shaken by “the suffering inflicted on the victims, who often for decades could not put their injuries into words.” Bishops around Europe have been offering similar remarks in recent days, following up on a major statement on molestation in the Irish church by the pope.
Father Cantalamessa’s comments about the Jews came toward the end of a long talk about scripture, the nature of violence and the sacrifice of Jesus. He also spoke about violence against women, but gave only a slight mention of the children and adolescents who have been molested by priests. “I am not speaking here of violence against children, of which unfortunately also elements of the clergy are stained; of that there is sufficient talk outside of here,” he said.
Disclosures about hundreds of such cases have emerged in recent months in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and France, after a previous round of scandal in the United States earlier this decade.
A leading advocate for sex abuse victims in the United States, David Clohessy, called comparing criticism of the church to persecution of the Jews “breathtakingly callous and misguided.”
“Men who deliberately and consistently hide child sex crime are in no way victims,” he said. “And to conflate public scrutiny with horrific violence is about as wrong as wrong can be.”
The comments could cause a new twist in Vatican-Jewish relations, which have had ups and downs during Benedict’s papacy.
Rabbi Riccardo di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome, who hosted Benedict at the Rome synagogue in January on a visit that helped calm waters after a year of tensions, laughed in seeming disbelief when asked about Father Cantalamessa’s remarks.
“With a minimum of irony, I will say that today is Good Friday, when they pray that the Lord illuminate our hearts so we recognize Jesus,” Rabbi Di Segni said, referring to a prayer in a traditional Catholic liturgy calling for the conversion of the Jews. “We also pray that the Lord illuminate theirs.”
In 2008, Benedict ruffled feathers with Jewish groups when he issued a ruling making it easier to use the Latin Mass including that Good Friday prayer, which had fallen out of widespread use after the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In January 2009, he stirred outrage when he revoked the excommunication of four schismatic bishops, one of whom turned out to have denied the scope of the Holocaust.
The legacy of the wartime pope, Pius XII, has been another sticking point. Some say he didn’t do enough to save Jews during the Holocaust; on a visit to the Rome synagogue in January, Benedict said that the Holy See had “provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way,” to help Jews.
Father Cantalamessa’s remarks come after weeks of intense scrutiny of Benedict, which some Italian media have seen in conspiratorial terms. Last week, the center-left daily La Repubblica wrote, without attribution, that “certain Catholic circles” believed the criticism of the church stemmed from “a New York ‘Jewish lobby.’”
Father Cantalamessa is a longtime fixture in the papal household, having been its official preacher since 1980. It is an ancient role, established by Pope Paul IV in the middle of the 16th century. The job is reserved for a member of the Franciscan Order of Capuchin Friars Minor. The apostolic preacher, as he also is called, gives meditations — especially during Advent and Lent — for the pope, cardinals, bishops and leaders of religious orders.
Father Cantalamessa was also tasked to deliver a meditation on the problems facing the church and need for careful consideration to the college of cardinals shortly after the death of John Paul II, as they prepared to elect his successor. Their choice was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict.
Later in the evening, Benedict was to move on to the Colosseum, to take part in the Way of the Cross procession marking Jesus’ final hours and his crucifixion.
Nicholas Kulish contributed reporting from Berlin.

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Pope's Personal Preacher: Accusations Against Benedict are 'Anti-Semitism'

2010-04-02T11:14:00.001-07:00

VATICAN CITY � Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.
The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday homily with the pope listening in St. Peter's Basilica that a Jewish friend wrote to him to say the accusations remind him of the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."

The 82-year-old pontiff looked weary as he sat near the central altar during the early evening prayer service a few before he was scheduled to take part in a candlelit Way of the Cross procession near the Colosseum which commemorates Christ's suffering before his crucifixion.

Thousands of Holy Week pilgrims were in St. Peter's Square as the church defends itself against accusations that Benedict had a role in covering up sex abuses cases.
The "coincidence" that Passover falls in the same week as Easter celebrations, said Cantalamessa, a Franciscan who offers reflections at Vatican Easter and Advent services, prompted him to think about Jews.
"They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms," the preacher said.
Quoting from the letter from the friend, who wasn't identified by Cantalamessa, the preacher said that he was following '`'with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful of the whole world.'"

"The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism,'" Cantalamessa said his friend wrote him.
In the sermon, he referred to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying "unfortunately, not a few elements of the clergy are stained" by the violence." But Cantalamessa said he didn't want to dwell on the abuse of children, saying "there is sufficient talk outside of here."

Benedict didn't speak after the homily, but, in a tired-sounding voice, chanted prayers. He leaned up to remove a red cloth covering a tall crucifix, which was passed to him by an aide. He took off his shoes, knelt and prayed before the cross.

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Donata Wenders Awsome Faces

2010-04-02T05:25:00.001-07:00

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Fabulous Nature

2010-04-02T05:10:00.001-07:00

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Motion Blur

2010-04-02T05:01:00.001-07:00

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Silhouete

2010-04-02T04:56:00.001-07:00

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Israel Prevents Christian Pilgrims From Visiting Bethlehem

2010-04-02T04:48:00.001-07:00

by Daoud Kuttab
The Huffington Post
Palestinian journalist residing in Jerusalem and Amman

In a response to a totally nonviolent protest by Palestinian Christians and Muslims demanding their freedom of movement the Israeli army has effectively banned entry of Christian pilgrims and tourists from visiting the birth place of Christ.

The protest on March 28th http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/page1/focused on the Israeli restrictions to Palestinians from Bethlehem from participating in the Palm Sunday events in the holy city of Jerusalem, a mere 8 miles away. For centuries Christians from around the world have reenacted the triumphant entry of Jesus to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives one week before his crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

Protesters marched from the Nativity Church in Bethlehem towards the checkpoint near Rachel's Tomb. In addition to Palestinians, the protest included members of international solidarity groups as well as a number of Israeli peace activists.

Additionally, and in keeping with the biblical story of the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem, the marchers waving palms and olive branches were led by a man riding a donkey.

When the protesters arrived at the checkpoint they appear to have caught the Israelis totally off guard even though the march that was sponsored by the Palestinian NGO Holy Land Trust was publicized using local media for the past week. The private security company hired to man the checkpoint escaped leaving the protesters the ability to pass through the checkpoint without restrictions. No soldiers appeared to stop them, no one declared the area a military zone and so the protesters which included a senior member of the Fatah movement continued their march. A few hundred meters past the checkpoint and before crossing the now unmarked border point between the occupied territories and Israel, the protesters decided to stop make a few speeches and turn around. By this time the Israeli army seems to have regrouped and began attacking the returning protesters (as well as the donkey and its rider). Eleven protesters including an American woman, and an Israeli as well as Abbas Zaki a member of the Fatah Central Council, were arrested.

The Israelis quickly released the foreign and Israeli participants and held the Palestinians for four days (the maximum amount allowed before having to present them to an Israeli judge. The arrestees are charged with entering a closed military area (although it was not declared as such) entering into Israel without a permit (they had not entered the internationally recognized border of Israel and incitement. Lawyers for the arrested say that the fact that no stones were thrown and the arrests occurred while the protesters were on their way back, weakness the Israeli position legally.

On the ground, however, the Israeli army decided to close the entrance and exits from Bethlehem at the main checkpoint near Rachel's Tomb. The closure effectively prevented the thousands of international pilgrims and tourists who have come to Israel and Palestine from visiting Bethlehem. Local tourist companies say that in the first day of the closure at least 50 tourists buses were expected in Bethlehem. The closure continued the following day and most expect it to continue until the end of the Passover Holiday.

Israel has in previous years permitted many of Bethlehem's Christian population from visiting Jerusalem by providing those seeking it permits to the city. The permits distributed through local Churches, obviously, require individuals wishing to get the sought after permits to apply through one of the local churches. Human rights organizations say that this is a discriminatory act. Not only are the permits themselves a clear violation of the right to movement, the idea of giving selective individuals through local churches these permits creates yet another level of discrimination against non church goers. Church officials have noted that this year fewer permits were issued and the period of the permits had been cut from the 'generous' one month last year to a mere 15 days this year.

International humanitarian law requires occupying powers to respect the right to worship as well as the right of movement.

The restriction on the exit of Palestinians as well as the restriction of the entry of tourists and pilgrims to Bethlehem is a collective punishment which is a violation of the fourth Geneva convention. The Convention regulates how an occupying power is expected to operate towards the population under its control. Preventing tourists buses from entering Bethlehem is another form of collective punishment aimed at getting local business to press activists not to publicly express their demands for the freedom of movement.

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Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys

2010-04-02T04:45:00.001-07:00

Advertise on NYTimes.com

The Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, with hands together, at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Wisconsin in 1960.

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

The internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, shows that while church officials tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting the church from scandal.
The documents emerge as Pope Benedict is facing other accusations that he and direct subordinates often did not alert civilian authorities or discipline priests involved in sexual abuse when he served as an archbishop in Germany and as the Vatican’s chief doctrinal enforcer.
The Wisconsin case involved an American priest, the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, who worked at a renowned school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974. But it is only one of thousands of cases forwarded over decades by bishops to the Vatican office called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Ratzinger. It is still the office that decides whether accused priests should be given full canonical trials and defrocked.
In 1996, Cardinal Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters about the case from Rembert G. Weakland, Milwaukee’s archbishop at the time. After eight months, the second in command at the doctrinal office, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican’s secretary of state, instructed the Wisconsin bishops to begin a secret canonical trial that could lead to Father Murphy’s dismissal.
But Cardinal Bertone halted the process after Father Murphy personally wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger protesting that he should not be put on trial because he had already repented and was in poor health and that the case was beyond the church’s own statute of limitations.
“I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood,” Father Murphy wrote near the end of his life to Cardinal Ratzinger. “I ask your kind assistance in this matter.” The files contain no response from Cardinal Ratzinger.
The New York Times obtained the documents, which the church fought to keep secret, from Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, the lawyers for five men who have brought four lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The documents include letters between bishops and the Vatican, victims’ affidavits, the handwritten notes of an expert on sexual disorders who interviewed Father Murphy and minutes of a final meeting on the case at the Vatican.
Father Murphy not only was never tried or disciplined by the church’s own justice system, but also got a pass from the police and prosecutors who ignored reports from his victims, according to the documents and interviews with victims. Three successive archbishops in Wisconsin were told that Father Murphy was sexually abusing children, the documents show, but never reported it to criminal or civil authorities.
Instead of being disciplined, Father Murphy was quietly moved by Archbishop William E. Cousins of Milwaukee to the Diocese of Superior in northern Wisconsin in 1974, where he spent his last 24 years working freely with children in parishes, schools and, as one lawsuit charges, a juvenile detention center. He died in 1998, still a priest.
Even as the pope himself in a recent letter to Irish Catholics has emphasized the need to cooperate with civil justice in abuse cases, the correspondence seems to indicate that the Vatican’s insistence on secrecy has often impeded such cooperation. At the same time, the officials’ reluctance to defrock a sex abuser shows that on a doctrinal level, the Vatican has tended to view the matter in terms of sin and repentance more than crime and punishment.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, was shown the documents and was asked to respond to questions about the case. He provided a statement saying that Father Murphy had certainly violated “particularly vulnerable” children and the law, and that it was a “tragic case.” But he pointed out that the Vatican was not forwarded the case until 1996, years after civil authorities had investigated the case and dropped it.
Father Lombardi emphasized that neither the Code of Canon Law nor the Vatican norms issued in 1962, which instruct bishops to conduct canonical investigations and trials in secret, prohibited church officials from reporting child abuse to civil authorities. He did not address why that had never happened in this case.
As to why Father Murphy was never defrocked, he said that “the Code of Canon Law does not envision automatic penalties.” He said that Father Murphy’s poor health and the lack of more recent accusations against him were factors in the decision.
The Vatican’s inaction is not unusual. Only 20 percent of the 3,000 accused priests whose cases went to the church’s doctrinal office between 2001 and 2010 were given full church trials, and only some of those were defrocked, according to a recent interview in an Italian newspaper with Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, the chief internal prosecutor at that office. An additional 10 percent were defrocked immediately. Ten percent left voluntarily. But a majority — 60 percent — faced other “administrative and disciplinary provisions,” Monsignor Scicluna said, like being prohibited from celebrating Mass.

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Christopher Hitchens: Catholic Church Wants 'Wiggle Room' For Rape And Torture Of Children

2010-04-02T04:37:00.001-07:00

Author and journalist Christopher Hitchens appeared on "Real Time With Bill Maher" Friday and slammed the Catholic church for it's handling of the "rape and torture of children."

Pope Benedict XVI was criticized this week after internal church files showed that in his prior capacity, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had ignored multiple letters from Bishops asking him to defrock a Wisconsin priest who abused as many as 200 boys at a school for the deaf. On top of these claims, the church is dealing with a wave of sex abuse allegations in Germany, Benedict's homeland.

Hitchens argued that the church has been complicit in abuse by protecting abusers and shuttling them from parish to parish. As he sees it, the moral church wants "wiggle room" for "the one crime that no one can think about without vomiting."

Hitchens: The only worry [the Pope] had was 'Would this damage the church?' Would it hurt the church--not the children. Now what I want to know is this: what is the attorney general of the state of Wisconsin now going to do? Are we going to say these people are above our law. I appeal to people. I mean, that's what's being asked for. If you're a clergyman, you're not liable to the laws.... Don't let's call it child abuse. It's the rape and torture of children.

Maher observed that there is a "Watergate-like aspect" to the scandal and that it's creeping up the church hierarchy. Although Maher also argued that because the church is a country unto itself, it will not be held accountable. Hitchens brushed aside Maher's concern and pointed out that the Pope is still a civilian when he travels.

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Sunlight

2010-04-02T04:33:00.001-07:00

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The Photography of Chris Anthony

2010-04-02T04:18:00.001-07:00

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Bicycles Built for You

2010-04-02T04:12:00.001-07:00

Bicycles Built for You
CULTURE, DESIGN
|

By JESSE ASHLOCK
| APRIL 1, 2010, 4:00 AM
From Sacha WhiteGeared Up: An example of handiwork from the master craftsman Sacha White of Vanilla Bicycles in Portland, Ore.
When it comes to bespoke bicycles, Michael Maharam happily calls himself a dilettante. A lifelong collector of one-of-a-kind bikes from around the world, Maharam, of the New York textile company of the same name, recently made friends with a true expert — Sacha White, a master builder who owns Vanilla Bicycles in Portland, Ore. Together, they conceived an exhibition devoted to the work of craftsmen like White, who make a living cutting steel, welding and filing for weeks on end. (‘‘You wouldn’t want to be their manicurist,’’ Maharam says.) The show, ‘‘Bespoke: The Handbuilt Bicycle,’’ which opens May 12 at the Museum of Arts and Design, collects 21 of the finest contemporary examples from America and abroad, from charming, Old World road bikes to aggressively styled titanium and steel mountain bikes. On the gallery’s back wall, a set of drawings by the design firm 2×4 explains how bicycles are built. Maharam hopes the exhibition will open up the city’s bicycle culture to more people. ‘‘One reason bicycles have become so popular is because manufacturers are making the well designed and beautiful accessible to the masses,’’ he says. ‘‘This is the epitome of the well designed and beautiful.’’

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Vatican Official Defends Pope’s Handling of Case

2010-04-02T04:09:00.001-07:00

Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Cardinal William J. Levada, who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in New York in 2008.

By RACHEL DONADIO

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VATICAN CITY — A top Vatican official issued a detailed defense of Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of sexual abuse cases and extensively criticized The New York Times’s coverage, both in its news and editorial pages, as unfair to the pope and the church.

In a rare interview and a 2,400-word statement posted Wednesday on the Vatican Web site, the official, Cardinal William J. Levada, an American who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, praised Pope Benedict for vigorously investigating and prosecuting sexual abuse cases. He said The Times’s coverage had been “deficient by any reasonable standards of fairness.”
Cardinal Levada singled out several Times reporters and columnists for criticism, focusing particularly on an article describing failed efforts by Wisconsin church officials to persuade the Vatican to defrock a priest who had abused as many as 200 deaf boys from 1950 to 1974. The pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office when the case was referred there, in 1996.
He said the article wrongly “attributed the failure to accomplish this dismissal to Pope Benedict, instead of diocesan decisions at the time.” On Wednesday, the archbishop of Milwaukee said the pope should not be held responsible for mistakes that were made in Wisconsin, according to The Associated Press.
The Times article drew on documents obtained from lawyers suing the church that showed that Vatican officials had at first ordered a secret canonical trial, then asked the archdiocese to suspend it after the priest pleaded for leniency to Cardinal Ratzinger. Wisconsin church officials protested the suspension, but followed it. The priest, the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, died a few months later.
News coverage of the abuse has clearly touched a nerve in the Vatican. As the church grapples with abuse cases that have come to light in several European countries, Benedict has come under scrutiny for how he and his subordinates handled sexual abuse allegations against priests while he served as an archbishop in Germany as well as when he was the Vatican’s top doctrinal enforcer.
In 1980, when the pope was archbishop of Munich and Freising, he approved the transfer of a priest who had abused boys to therapy and was copied in on a memo saying that the priest had been allowed to resume pastoral duties shortly after his therapy began. The priest was later convicted of molesting other boys.
“This is different, because it’s the pope and because it’s a pope who is most self evidently beyond accusation, particularly in this area,” said a senior Vatican official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
Cardinal Levada said he believed that “the evidence is clear” that Father Murphy represented an “egregious case” and deserved to be defrocked.
But he also said he was not second-guessing the decision to suspend the trial. He said a canonical trial would be “useless if the priest were dying.” “Have you ever been to a trial? Do you know how long they take?” he said. “If the man had had a miraculous recovery and doctors said he’d live another 10 years, I’m sure a letter would say fine, ‘Start the trial.’ ”
Sitting in a receiving room at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with a view of Saint Peter’s out the window and an oil portrait of Cardinal Ratzinger on the wall, Cardinal Levada expressed pain at the case of Father Murphy.
“I think the evidence is clear from the documents that he was a serial abuser of children, helpless children often times, he had no respect for the sacrament of confession, even using that to accomplish his abuse,” he said. “It’s one of the saddest and the most egregious cases I’ve seen.”
At that point a canon lawyer who sat in on the interview but declined to speak on the record intervened about the nuances of the unfinished trial, effectively deflecting questions about why it had been suspended.
Cardinal Levada said that although Father Murphy never faced judgment in a criminal or canonical court, the priest had not evaded it altogether.
“As a believer,” he wrote in his statement, “I have no doubt that Murphy will face the One who judges both the living and the dead.”
Cardinal Levada said Benedict had played a “very significant role” as the “architect” of the Vatican’s 2001 norms that sent sexual abuse cases directly to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and streamlined procedures for bishops to report sexual abuse cases. Those norms ushered in a flood of abuse trials, many of which are still unresolved.
In a related letter in 2001, the future pope reminded bishops to adhere to secrecy in ecclesiastical trials, which caused some confusion about whether clerics should report abuse to the civil authorities. In recent weeks, Benedict and the Vatican have emphasized that the clergy should report evidence of crimes to the civil authorities.

“He was prefect when the church put into place a very important standard and practice for helping bishops deal with these cases,” said Cardinal Levada.
In light of media reports that have questioned what Benedict knew about abuse cases, Cardinal Levada said, “Anyone can say, ‘Why didn’t you do this?’ ‘You could have done this better.’ That’s part of life, but certainly it’s not the case to say that he is deficient,” Cardinal Levada said. “If anything, he was the architect of this step forward in the church and I think he deserves his credit.”
Benedict named Cardinal Levada, a theologian, a former archbishop of Portland and San Francisco, and a former member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to succeed him as prefect after he became pope in 2005.
A full 80 percent of the abuse cases to come through the congregation in the past decade are from the United States, according to the head of the internal tribunal that handles abuse cases, Msgr. Charles Scicluna.
Cardinal Levada said that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had a staff of about 45 and devoted about a third of its time to disciplinary issues.
“I would say it’s an increasing amount of the work of the congregation,” he said, adding that he anticipated having to expand its staff.
He said it should not be seen as leniency that some 60 percent of the abuse cases that the congregation had considered since 2001 did not result in trials. In cases of “moral certitude” trials aren’t necessary, he said, and other disciplinary measures can be taken, while murkier cases requiring more evidence might require trials.
“A canonical trial is an instrument appropriately used, but it would not be the normal procedure,” he said.
The senior Vatican official said that the pope himself was “serene” in the face of news reports but probably upset on behalf of Catholics. “I can’t imagine he wouldn’t be troubled that the faithful are troubled,” he said.

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Pope has immunity in abuse trials: Vatican

2010-04-02T04:00:00.001-07:00

Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY

Thu Apr 1, 2010 2:11pm EDT

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Pope Benedict XVI holds the crucifix as he celebrates the Chrismal Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican April 1, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Alessia Pierdomenico

VATICAN CITY
(Reuters) - Pope Benedict, accused by victims' lawyers of being ultimately responsible for an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse of children by priests, cannot be called to testify at any trial because he has immunity as a head of state, a top Vatican legal official said on Thursday.
World
The interview with Giuseppe dalla Torre, head of the Vatican's tribunal, was published in Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper as Pope Benedict led Holy Thursday services in St Peter's Basilica and Catholics marked the most solemn week of the liturgical calendar, culminating on Sunday in Easter Day.
In the morning the pope blessed oils for Church services during the year, and in the evening in the Rome basilica of St John's in Lateran he washed the feet of 12 priests to commemorate Jesus' gesture of humility the night before he died.
But on the day Catholics commemorate Christ's founding of the priesthood, the pope did not refer in any of his sermons to the crisis of confidence sweeping the Church as almost daily revelations surface of sexual abuse of children in the past, accompanied by allegations of a cover-up.
Dalla Torre outlined the Vatican's strategy to defend the pope from being forced to testify in several lawsuits concerning sexual abuse which are currently moving through the U.S. legal system.
"The pope is certainly a head of state, who has the same juridical status as all heads of state," he said, arguing he therefore had immunity from foreign courts.
Lawyers representing victims of sexual abuse by priests in several cases in the United States have said they would want the pope to testify in an attempt to try to prove the Vatican was negligent.
But the pope is protected by diplomatic immunity because more than 170 countries, including the United States, have diplomatic relations with the Vatican. They recognize it as a sovereign state and the pope as its sovereign head.
Dalla Torre rejected suggestions that U.S. bishops, some of whom have been accused of moving molesters from parish to parish instead of turning them in to police, could be considered Vatican employees, making their "boss" ultimately responsible.
CHURCH NOT A MULTI-NATIONAL
"The Church is not a multi-national corporation," dalla Torre said. "He has (spiritual) primacy over the Church ... but every bishop is legally responsible for running a diocese."
Dalla Torre also rejected suggestions by some U.S. lawyers and critics of the Church that Vatican documents in 1962 and 2001 encouraged local bishops not to report sexual abuse cases.
He re-stated the Vatican's position that the documents, one of which called for procedures to remain secret, did not suggest to bishops that they should not report cases to authorities.
"Secrecy served above all to protect the victim and also the accused, who could turn out to be innocent, and it regarded only the canonical (church) trial and did not substitute the penal process," he said.
"There is nothing that prohibited anyone (in the Church) from giving information to civil authorities."
The Vatican has taken off the gloves in its response to media reports alleging the pope mishandled a series of abuse cases before he was elected.
It launched a frontal attack on the New York Times on Wednesday night by posting a long statement on its website (http:/www.vatican.va/resources/resources_card-levada2010_en.html)by Cardinal William J. Levada, who succeeded the pope (http:/www.vatican.va/resources/resources_card-levada2010_en.html)by Cardinal William J. Levada, who succeeded the pope as head of the Vatican's doctrinal department.
Levada asked the newspaper "to reconsider its attack mode about Pope Benedict XVI and give the world a more balanced view of a leader it can and should count on."
The Vatican has denied any cover-up over the abuse of 200 deaf boys in the United States by Reverend Lawrence Murphy from 1950 to 1974. The New York Times reported the Vatican and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, were warned about Murphy but he was not defrocked.
The Times said its reports were "based on meticulous reporting and documents."
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Suárez Coppel: tornemos Pemex en empresa tipo Cemex, Telmex o Televisa

2010-04-02T03:55:00.001-07:00

Pemex: privatización en curso
Exige flexibilizar la estructura para hacerla más eficiente y rentablepara los mexicanos
Aprobada la ley, se firmarán contratos incentivados con nacionales y extranjeros
Israel Rodríguez J.
Enviado
Periódico La Jornada
Jueves 1º de abril de 2010, p. 2
Cancún, QR, 31 de marzo. El director general de Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Juan José Suárez Coppel, insistió en la necesidad de flexibilizar la estructura de la paraestatal para convertirla en una empresa como Cemex, Televisa, Telmex o Grupo Modelo, y de esta manera hacerla más eficiente yrentable para los mexicanos.
Aseveró que existen grandes posibilidades de reactivar diversos yacimientos maduros y pozos que están cerrados, los cuales serán una oportunidad para los llamados contratos incentivados, que permitirán participar a empresas petroleras internacionales de manera conjunta en la exploración y explotación de petróleo.
Tras sostener reuniones privadas con representantes de las empresas petroleras más importantes del mundo, estatales y privadas, reveló que en los dos años recientes destacan los descubrimientos de dos series de yacimientos que son continuidad del Ku Maloob Zaap, en la sonda de Campeche: Ayatzil-Tekel, de crudo superpesado, y Tsimin-Xux, de crudo superligero.
Aún hay mucho petróleo
En contraste con el discurso oficial que insiste en que el crudo se agota, Suárez Coppel reveló que México aún tiene mucho petróleo. Explicó que cada uno de los yacimientos descubiertos contiene más de mil millones de barriles de reservas totales.
En entrevista, detalló: para darnos una idea de la magnitud de estos hallazgos, ambos yacimientos estarían entre los tres más grandes que se han descubierto en la parte estadunidense en cinco años recientes.
Planteó la posibilidad de que empresas petroleras internacionales participen, mediante contratos incentivados, en más de mil oportunidades para explotar campos maduros de aguas someras.
Aunque rehusó precisar cuándo saldrán esos contratos incentivados, dijo que al siguiente día que se pueda se emitirá el modelo de contrato. Se prevé que sea este mismo año.
Cabe recordar que la Cámara de Diputados presentó una controversia constitucional ante la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación con el propósito de invalidar artículos de las normas de las leyes de Pemex y reglamentaria del artículo 27 constitucional en el ramo del petróleo, porque considera que ese esquema contractual permitirá que empresarios tengan acceso y se beneficien de la renta petrolera, que sólo corresponde a la nación.

Juan José Suárez Coppel, director general de Pemex, sostiene que existen grandes posibilidades de reactivar yacimientos maduros y pozos cerrados, en conjunto con empresas internacionales, en la exploración y explotación de petróleo
Foto Guillermo Sologuren
Suárez Coppel afirmó: creo que para que Pemex funcione necesita ser una empresa. Ninguna empresa trabaja con las restricciones que Pemex. Lo que tenemos que pensar es cómo funciona y cómo da cuentas, y cómo se aseguran de dar buenos resultados Cemex, Televisa, Telmex y Grupo Modelo. Si queremos que Pemex dé valor a los mexicanos, necesitamos que Pemex opere como empresa y que tenga un marco regulatorio como empresa.
Insistió: lo que necesitamos hacer en Pemex es una transformación de la empresa de cómo operamos para sacar provecho del talento de la gente, de los recursos y del dinero que le hemos puesto los mexicanos.
Sostuvo que tenemos gran potencial en campos maduros, campos abandonados en tierra. Entonces, todo eso es parte de la estrategia de Pemex. Eso nos va a dar el potencial y espero que tengamos claridad pronto si van a ser 2.8 millones o 2.6 o 3 millones de barriles diarios hacia delante de manera sostenible.
El primer contrato incentivado se otorgará al siguiente día de que podamos hacerlo para que podamos contratar con la flexibilidad que necesitamos, apuntó.
–¿Dónde se asignarán esos contratos y a quién?
–Lo que vemos más inmediato son campos maduros. Pemex tiene más de mil oportunidades de desarrollo, literalmente mil. No en sentido figurado. Son oportunidades de desarrollo de reapertura. Son pozos cerrados de campos maduros que actualmente no producen. Eso requiere de gran capacidad de ejecución y que nos ayuden con nuevas ideas y nuevos conceptos, pero además todo este trabajo va a ser en conjunto con Pemex.
Pemex va a participar en todos estos contratos ya que, a final de cuentas, lo que necesitamos es que Pemex tenga la capacidad para desarrollar que queremos todos los mexicanos.

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Number of crimes involving Facebook leaps 346% in a year

2010-04-02T03:44:00.001-07:00

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:57 AM on 02nd April 2010

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Reports of crimes allegedly involving Facebook have increased by 346 per cent in less than a year in one police force, it was disclosed today.
Incidents of abuse or other crimes allegedly involving the social networking site reported to Nottinghamshire Police rose sharply between April 2009 and February this year.
The force recorded 13 such reports between April 2008 and March 2009, it said.

Facebook was cited in a case of actual bodily harm, four cases of harassment and one other crime in Nottinghamshire in the past year

In the following 11-month period, this number leapt to 58.
This led to six people being charged with offences, compared with three the previous year.
Harassment was the crime most frequently reported to involve Facebook in the past year, accounting for 36 of the 58 alleged incidents, Detective Sergeant Harry Parsonage said.
DS Parsonage, who manages the force's e-crime unit, said: 'For crime that involves communication, Facebook is just a method of communication.

Peter Chapman, left, kidnapped, raped and murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall, right, after entraping her on Facebook using a false identity

'Essentially Facebook is no different from any other part of the internet.'
Users of the site are becoming increasingly careful and making sure they adjust their privacy settings to prevent strangers from seeing their profiles, he said.
However, in the past year it has been cited as a factor in a case of actual bodily harm, four cases of harassment and one other crime in Notts, all of which were prosecuted.
DS Parsonage said: 'We don't know what part Facebook played in each offence.
'All we know is at some point within each crime there is some mention of Facebook.'
A spokeswoman for the site said it was no surprise that it was being mentioned in reports of crimes, given its huge growth in users in the past 20 months.
She said: 'With active monthly users rising from 100 million globally in August 2008 to more than 400 million globally in February 2010, Facebook's name is featuring more frequently in the conversations we are all having every day and being used as a tool for raising awareness of issues such as knife crime through to political activism in Iran.
'As such, it is no surprise that Facebook is also mentioned in criminal reporting, especially since everyone knows that the police use Facebook as a tool in many of its investigations.
'The correlation between the growth of the service and its mention in crimes is probably the same for any number of digital platforms that have entered our everyday lives in recent years, from the mobile phone to email.'
The statistics, she added, did not specify how Facebook featured in the crimes, including whether Facebook aided investigations or if the police received help from the company in securing a conviction.
She went on: 'We are committed to maintaining the highest levels of protection for our users.
'We regularly work with national law enforcement organisations and the world's leading experts in online protection to ensure we provide the best possible security for anyone that uses the site and we have robust reporting systems in place for individuals to flag any criminal activity that violates our terms of use.'
Facebook came under pressure last month for not doing enough to protect children from online predators after the conviction of a man who murdered a teenager he groomed on the site.
Serial sex attacker Peter Chapman was jailed for life for kidnapping, raping and murdering 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall from Darlington after using a false identity to befriend and entrap the schoolgirl online.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1263021/Number-crimes-involving-Facebook-leaps-346-cent-year.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0jqLokrPV

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The Delicacy of Photographer Ugur Doyduk

2010-04-02T03:40:00.003-07:00

.

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Israel pounds Gaza with missiles

2010-04-02T03:40:00.001-07:00

Hamas said that Israeli missiles hit two caravans,
a cheese factory and a metal foundry [AFP]

Three children have been reported injured in eastern Gaza City after Israeli aircraft carried out a series of missile attacks across the Palestinian territory.
Palestinian hospital officials said the children were injured by flying debris after the air raids that came in the early hours of Friday.
Al Jazeera's Casey Kauffman, reporting from Gaza, said there were attacks in at least six locations.
He said that work on tunnels, which are often used for smuggling goods into the blockaded territory, had stopped for fear of the strikes and the Hamas government had also ordered police stations across Gaza to be evacuated.
Witnesses and Hamas officials said that Israeli missiles hit two caravans near the town of Khan Younis and a cheese factory, while helicopters attacked a metal foundry in the Nusseirat refugee camp.
'Rocket fire response'
The Israeli military said it had targeted weapons manufacturing and storage facilities in the central Gaza Strip, in Gaza City in the north and the southern Gaza Strip, all in response to rockets fired from the territory.

in depth

"Nearly 20 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip during March, killing one man in the community of Netiv Ha'Asara and doubling the number of rockets fired this year," a statement from the Israeli army said.
"The IDF [Israeli military] will not tolerate any attempt to harm the citizens of the State of Israel and will continue to operate firmly against anyone who uses terror against it. The IDF holds Hamas as solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Jerusalem, said the rocket attack came despite a warning earlier in the day by the Israeli military that it would "respond harshly against any attempt to disrupt the calm in Israel's southern communities".

There was no claim of responsibility for Thursday's lone rocket, which caused no casualties, but the Israeli army had said in its earlier statement that it held Hamas, the Palestinian faction which controls Gaza, "solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in and around" the territory.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, told Al Jazeera that Hamas held the Israeli government led by Binyamin Netanyahu responsible for the "escalation", but said the air raids had been expected because of threats by Ehud Barak, the defence minister, and other ministers.
He also blamed "the international community and the Arabs" for failing "to do anything about the situation in Gaza".
"The absence of the international community and the Arabs has allowed the Israelis to escalate the situation," he said.

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Divide and Diminish, Olivia Judson

2010-04-02T03:26:00.001-07:00

By OLIVIA JUDSON *
Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
In Indonesia, the smallest islands are home to many fewer species than the largest.
This week, I want to dust off my crystal ball and make a prediction: in the future, the biggest land animals will be smaller than they are now.
Here’s why I think so. As a rule of thumb, larger animals need more food than smaller animals; they also need more space. Obviously, it takes more land to grow 100 rhinoceroses than it does to grow 100 rabbits. One hundred tigers require more land than 100 foxes. Indeed, meat-eaters, being higher in the food chain, need even more space than plant-eaters. For land mammals, every kilogram of prey supports just 9 grams of carnivore. So to feed one tiger of 180 kilos, you need 20 tonnes of prey.
To support a breeding population of tigers, you need rather more. (For non-metric types, 2.2 pounds of prey feeds one third of an ounce of carnivore; a tiger weighs about 400 pounds and needs 22 tons of prey.)
When we break up rainforests or steppes, or build roads through pristine landscapes, we start to fray the fabric of nature.
Which has the following consequences. On islands, there’s a relationship between the size of the island and the size of the largest animals that live there. Enormous animals don’t live on tiny, or even medium-sized islands — they can’t. Moreover, an island of a given size will be home to more large herbivores than large carnivores. The pattern even extends to continents: the biggest animals on big continents outsize the biggest animals on small continents. (In general, large animals that find themselves on islands either go extinct — or shrink. For example, continental tigers are bigger than those on large island of Sumatra, which are, in turn, bigger than those on the small island of Bali.)
As a corollary of this, smaller islands are also home to fewer species than larger islands; hence, the ecosystems tend to be simpler. There are fewer niches for organisms to occupy, and fewer organisms of other species to interact with. Predators may be few, or entirely absent, for example.
O.K., fine. But what does this have to do with the future of large animals?
A lot. Although “island” tends to conjure images of small bodies of land surrounded by water, such as Bermuda, or the Falkland Islands, this is not the only kind of island out there. Lakes are islands of water surrounded by land. Caves are islands of darkness surrounded by light. Oases are islands of fertility surrounded by sand. In short, an island is any self-contained patch of habitat within some larger sea. Looked at this way, the garden outside my window is an island of parkland in an ocean of bricks and concrete.
For we humans are island makers. We routinely fragment former “oceans”— be they tracts of forest or prairie, or some other vast ecosystem — leaving remnants here and there. These remnants are, from a biological point of view, islands.
Before humans began building roads and cities, damming rivers, and hacking down forests, islands formed in one of two ways. The first is exemplified by Hawaii. Here, volcanic activity in the middle of the ocean has created islands where, before, there was nothing but water. On islands like this — call them Clean Slates — the ecosystem gets assembled from scratch by the various organisms that arrive there.
Alternatively, islands form when, say, sea levels rise so that pieces of land that were previously connected become separated. For example, as recently as 12,000 years ago, much of what is now Indonesia was part of the Asian mainland. Then, the glaciers retreated, sea levels rose, and what had been one large landmass became an archipelago of separate islands. Human-made islands tend to be of this second type — let’s call them Splinters.
Islands of both kinds are famous for being home to weird and wonderful organisms found nowhere else: isolation on an island allows the evolution of new and distinct forms — such as the marine iguanas of the Galápagos. But three things are worth pointing out. The first is that the evolution of new forms takes time — the island needs to remain isolated for thousands of years.
Second, the relative simplicity of island ecosystems means that they are vulnerable to disruption by competitors that have evolved in the more intense environments of the mainland. Third, many of the most spectacular episodes of island evolution — finches on the Galápagos, cichlid fishes in the Great Lakes of central Africa, bees and snails in Hawaii, and so on — occur on the Clean Slate type of island. This makes sense: the combination of few competitors plus empty niches presents massive evolutionary opportunities.
MORE BY OLIVIA JUDSON
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Evolution by the Grassroots, March 2, 2010
All previous columns »
A different process goes on when an island forms by splintering. Here, the ecosystem is pre-existing: the island is created with a set of residents already in place. But it is now too small to support them all.
What happens next is a kind of unraveling, a fraying, a disassembling such that the ecosystem becomes simpler, so as to fit the space that is now available. On those recently-created islands of Indonesia, for example, the smallest islands are home to many fewer species than the largest islands. And, as you’d expect, you don’t find big animals on the smallest islands either.
When we humans burn tracts of forest, or make islands in some similar way, the immediate impacts depend on a suite of factors, including how many islands there are, how big they are, and how close they are together. It also matters what is between them. Fields may be more hospitable to wildlife than roads or water; under some circumstances, life forms may be able to flit from one fragment to another, and the “island” nature of the fragments will be reduced. Perhaps we can use such patterns to shape how we use land, to try and minimize the impact we have.
Perhaps.
Or perhaps we should stop getting mired in details, and reflect on what we know: small islands are simpler, less ecologically interesting places than big islands. When we break up rainforests or steppes, or build roads through pristine landscapes, we start to fray the fabric of nature. We may not see the full impact today, tomorrow, or next year. But we know what the long-term effects will be. By fraying nature we make the planet a simpler, duller, diminished place.
Notes:
For the tonnage of prey that carnivores need, see Carbone, C. and Gittleman, J. L. 2002. “A common rule for the scaling of carnivore density.” Science 295: 2273-2276. For the relationship between body size and island size, see Marquet, P. A. and Taper, M. L. 1998. “On size and area: patterns of mammalian body size extremes across landmasses.” Evolutionary Ecology 12: 127-139. For a fascinating paper on the relationship between big animals and continent sizes, see Burness, G. P., Diamond, J., and Flannery, T. 2001. “Dinosaurs, dragons, and dwarfs: the evolution of maximal body size.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 98: 14518-14523. I took tiger body sizes from page 825 of Nowak, R. M. 1999. “Walker’s Mammals of the World.” Sixth edition; volume 1. Johns Hopkins University Press.
The study of islands has a long history in evolution and ecology. See, for example, “Island Life: or, The Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras”, by Alfred Russel Wallace, which was first published in 1880. Another landmark book, about ecological processes on islands, is MacArthur, R. H. and Wilson, E. O. 1967. “The Theory of Island Biogeography.” Princeton University Press. For the formation of Hawaii, and the evolutionary history of its animals, see, for example, Cowie, R. H. and Holland, B. S. 2008. “Molecular biogeography and diversification of the endemic terrestrial fauna of the Hawaiian Islands.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 363: 3363-3376. The greater simplicity of island ecosystems has been well documented; the size effect is well known. It is my observation that the most flamboyant evolutionary radiations happen on Clean Slate islands; however, this needs testing.
For disassembly on Indonesian islands, see Okie, J G. and Brown, J. H. 2009. “Niches, body sizes, and the disassembly of mammal communities on the Sunda Shelf islands.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 106 (supplement 2): 19679-19684.
Habitat fragmentation is the subject of a voluminous literature, much of which is devoted to analyzing specific cases. But for the possible importance of the “matrix”—the kinds of habitat that lie between different habitat fragments—see Prugh, L. R. et al. 2008. “Effect of habitat area and isolation on fragmented animal populations.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 105: 20770-20775. For an excellent, and sobering, analysis of the ecological and evolutionary trajectories of human-created fragments, along with an analysis of the vulnerability of fragments to invasive species, see Leigh, E. G. Jr, Vermeij, G. J. and Wikelski, M. 2009. “What do human economies, large islands and forest fragments reveal about the factors limiting ecosystem evolution?” Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22: 1-12.
Many thanks to Dan Haydon and Jonathan Swire for insights, comments and suggestions.

* Olivia Judson, an evolutionary biologist, writes every Wednesday about the influence of science and biology on modern life. She is the author of “Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex.” Ms. Judson has been a reporter for The Economist and has written for a number of other publications, including Nature, The Financial Times, The Atlantic and Natural History. She is a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London.

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Stuck in Customs, Trey Ratcliff

2010-04-02T02:43:00.001-07:00

STUCK IN CUSTOMS is the name of te web page of Trey Ratcliff. A good teacher for me in all related with HDR Photography.
Enjoy his work.

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apm35

Mars

Mars

Elettra Rossellini by Eric Guillemain

POLICE FORCE UNDER FIRE AS RAPISTS ARE LET OFF WITH A CAUTION

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