3 Photographers Found Dead in Mexico

From nytimes.com -The bodies of three photojournalists were found dismembered on Thursday in the eastern state of Veracruz, days after a crime reporter for a national magazine was killed in her house there. The motives for the killings were not immediately known, and few such cases in Mexico are ever solved. But human rights groups condemned the deaths as another worrying sign of the vulnerability of journalists reporting on the wave of drug and organized crime violence that has rocked Mexico in the past six years and left more than 50,000 people dead.“What we have seen in Mexico in the last years is a systematic attempt to muzzle the press that has been successful in various parts of the country, where the press has been effectively censored,” said Rosental Alves, director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, in Austin, Tex. “This unprecedented blood bath is fueled by a certainty of impunity, as the cases of crimes against the press usually don’t even reach a court of law.”   More here

3 Photographers Found Dead in Mexico

Romney and Netanyahu Have Long History

From nytimes.com -The two young men had woefully little in common: one was a wealthy Mormon from Michigan, the other a middle-class Jew from Israel.   But in 1976, the lives of Mitt Romney and Benjamin Netanyahu intersected, briefly but indelibly, in the 16th-floor offices of the Boston Consulting Group, where both had been recruited as corporate advisers. At the most formative time of their careers, they sized each other up during the firm’s weekly brainstorming sessions, absorbing the same profoundly analytical view of the world. That shared experience decades ago led to a warm friendship, little known to outsiders, that is now rich with political intrigue. Mr. Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, is making the case for military action against Iran as Mr. Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee, is attacking the Obama administration for not supporting Mr. Netanyahu more robustly.

The relationship between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Romney — nurtured over meals in Boston, New York and Jerusalem, strengthened by a network of mutual friends and heightened by their conservative ideologies — has resulted in an unusually frank exchange of advice and insights on topics like politics, economics and the Middle East.  More here

Romney and Netanyahu Have Long History

Parents of Murdered Students Criticize President Obama

From Gateway Pundit -  Today the parents of two British students murdered in Florida slammed President Barack Obama for his lack of compassion over their son’s deaths. The Telegraph reported: His failure to respond to three letters sent to the White House was because there was no “political value” and not worthy of a few minutes of his time.  They spoke out as teenager Shawn Tyson began a life sentence after being found guilty of the murder of James Cooper and James Kouzaris last April.  The 17 year old, who shot the men as they begged for their lives, will die in prison. His conviction of first degree murder carries an mandatory life sentence without the chance of parole. Later speaking after Tyson was jailed Davies and Hallett lashed out at Mr Obama saying the deaths of their friends was “not worthy of ten minutes of his time.” Davies said: “We would like to publicly express our dissatisfaction at the lack of any public or private message of support or condolence from any American governing body or indeed, President Obama himself. “Mr Kouzaris has written to President Obama on three separate occasions and is yet to even receive the courtesy of a reply. “It would perhaps appear that Mr Obama sees no political value in facilitating such a request or that the lives of two British tourists are not worthy of ten minutes of his time.” The rebuke follows Mr Obama’s personal intervention into the shooting in Florida of a young black teenager by a white neighbourhood watch captain.  More News New Mexico

Parents of Murdered Students Criticize President Obama

Big Quake Shakes Mexico City

From latimes.com -A strong, long earthquake with an epicenter in Guerrero state shook central southern Mexico today, swaying buildings in Mexico City and sending frightened workers and residents into the streets.  The U.S. Geological Survey initially set the intensity at 7.9 and said the epicenter was 11 miles underground. Mexico's National Seismological Survey said the temblor had an epicenter southwest of Ometepec.  Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard's Twitter account said the water system and other "strategic services" were not experiencing problems.  

Big Quake Shakes Mexico City

NAACP Asking UN to Condemn U.S. Voter ID Laws

From cnsnews.com -Riled by state-level voting law changes that it alleges are designed to suppress “the political participation of people of color, the poor, the elderly, and the young,” the NAACP is turning to the U.N. Human Rights Council for support. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Benjamin Jealous and other association representatives plan to visit Geneva next week to address the HRC, a forum that frequently witnesses clashes between Western democracies and repressive states.  The NAACP delegation hopes the HRC will take up its concerns about legal initiatives such as voter ID laws passed by more than a dozen states, which proponents say are designed to prevent voter fraud but the NAACP charges are part of an orchestrated campaign to disenfranchise minority groups.  More News New Mexico

NAACP Asking UN to Condemn U.S. Voter ID Laws

Iran May Be Cleaning Up Nuke Work

From usatoday.com - Satellite images of an Iranian military facility show trucks and earth-moving vehicles at the site, indicating that crews were trying to clean it of radioactive traces possibly left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trigger, diplomats told the Associated Press on Wednesday.   Two of the diplomats said the crews may be trying to erase evidence of tests of a small neutron device used to set off a nuclear explosion. A third diplomat could not confirm that but said any attempt to trigger a so-called neutron initiator at the Parchin site could only be in the context of trying to develop nuclear arms. The images, provided to the IAEA by member countries, are recent and constantly updated, said one of the diplomats.  More News New Mexico

Iran May Be Cleaning Up Nuke Work

Goldman Sachs and Greece Secretly in Bed

Bloomberg - Greece’s secret loan from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) was a costly mistake from the start. On the day the 2001 deal was struck, the government owed the bank about 600 million euros ($793 million) more than the 2.8 billion euros it borrowed, said Spyros Papanicolaou, who took over the country’s debt-management agency in 2005.

By then, the price of the transaction, a derivative that disguised the loan and that Goldman Sachs persuaded Greece not to test with competitors, had almost doubled to 5.1 billion euros, he said.
.Papanicolaou and his predecessor, Christoforos Sardelis, revealing details for the first time of a contract that helped Greece mask its growing sovereign debt to meet European Union requirements, said the country didn’t understand what it was buying and was ill-equipped to judge the risks or costs. “The Goldman Sachs deal is a very sexy story between two sinners,” Sardelis, who oversaw the swap as head of Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency from 1999 through 2004, said in an interview. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Goldman Sachs and Greece Secretly in Bed

Tighten Your Money Belts, Gas is Going Higher

Businessweek - Oil climbed over $110 a barrel after a report of an explosion on a pipeline in Saudi Arabia. The report of the blast, which appeared on English-language websites from the Middle East, explained the rise in the oil market after 2:30 p.m. New York time, said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy.
Crude oil for April delivery rose $1.77 to settle at $108.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before extending gains after the floor closed. The price was $109.99 at 3:36 p.m. in New York. Futures have dropped 0.8 percent this week after reaching a nine-month high of $109.77 on Feb. 24.
Brent oil for April settlement climbed $3.54, or 2.9 percent, to a 10-month high of $126.20 a barrel on the London- based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Brent rose as high as $128.40 after the settlement and dropped back to $127.79 at 3:36 p.m. Futures rose 1.7 percent in regular trading as U.S. officials escalated warnings that the nation may join Israel in attacking Iran to stop the development of nuclear weapons and on economic reports signaling growth.  Read full story here: News New Mexico

Tighten Your Money Belts, Gas is Going Higher

El Paso Woman Shot By Bullet From Juarez

From elpasotimes.com - El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said the woman was a 48-year-old mother who was pushing a child in a stroller when she was shot in the upper right calf.   Allen said the round went through her leg. She was taken to University Medical Center of El Paso. Allen, El Paso Mayor John Cook and El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles conducted a press conference late Tuesday afternoon at City Hall.   Allen said the woman is a Mexican citizen but has a residency card and lives in El Paso. Allen said that the bullet came from a gunfight between carjackers and law enforcement in Juarez.  Cook said that the public should not panic over this incident and that El Paso is still a safe place to live.  More News New Mexico

El Paso Woman Shot By Bullet From Juarez

Mexico: Prison Guards Helped Zeta Drug Cartel Escape

From theblaze.com -Nine guards have confessed to helping Zetas drug gangsters escape from prison before other Zetas slaughtered 44 rival inmates, a state official said late Monday, underlining the enormous corruption inside Mexico’s overcrowded, underfunded prisons. The top officials and as many as 18 guards at the Apodaca prison in northern Mexico had been detained under suspicion that they may have helped 30 Zetas escape during the confusion of a riot early Sunday in which 44 members of the rival Gulf cartel were bludgeoned and knifed to death.  More News New Mexico

Mexico: Prison Guards Helped Zeta Drug Cartel Escape

Around the Nation and Around the World

Click here for today's national and international headlines from the Daily Beast.

Around the Nation and Around the World

Native American Jewelry Huge in Japan

From koat.com -Native American jewelry handcrafted in New Mexico is huge in Japan, and some local artists said most of their work is headed to the Land of the Rising Sun.Japan has the world's 10th largest population with more than 127 million people. The Japanese are rapidly becoming one of the largest consumers of Native American jewelry.  More News New Mexico

Native American Jewelry Huge in Japan

Greek Protestors: Cousins of Occupy Movement

Greek Newspaper depiction of Angela Merkel

Financial Times - A Greek newspaper depicts Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, in a Nazi uniform above the headline “Memorandum macht frei” – an allusion to the memorandum in which Greece’s foreign creditors demand more austerity measures and to the Auschwitz slogan. In these anxious times anti-German sentiments are not unusual in Greece. Locked in a struggle to avoid economic ruin and exit from the eurozone, Greece is confronting the potential collapse of its self-image as a country with a secure place in Europe’s family of nations.

To blame Germany draws on deep wells of national suffering endured during the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation of Greece. It is not the only response: Greek economic mismanagement, public sector corruption and dysfunctional politics inspire much self-criticism. Animosity towards Germany is not sweeping through all levels of Greek society.

However, a steady drumbeat of resentful attacks on Germany’s policies in the eurozone debt crisis, and on German popular views of Greece, rumbles week after week through television talk shows and the press. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Greek Protestors: Cousins of Occupy Movement

100 Year Low Temperatures Cause 79 Deaths in Eastern Europe, Global Warming Proponents are Undeterred

Guardian - Rescue helicopters evacuated dozens of people from snow-blocked villages in Serbia and Bosnia and airlifted in emergency food and medicine as a severe cold spell kept eastern Europe in an icy grip.
The death toll from the cold snap rose to 79 across the region, with emergency crews working overtime as temperatures sank to -32.5C (-26.5F) in some areas. Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline and rare snow fell on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea. In Bulgaria, 16 towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records began 100 years ago.
In central Serbia, helicopters pulled out 12 people, including nine who went to a funeral but then could not get back over icy, snow-choked roads. Two people froze to death in the snow while two others are missing, bringing the country's death toll to five.
"The situation is dramatic, the snow is up to five metres high in some areas, you can only see rooftops," said Dr Milorad Dramacanin, who participated in the helicopter evacuations.
One of the evacuees was an elderly woman who had fallen into a coma. She survived after being airlifted to hospital. Read full story here: News New Mexico

100 Year Low Temperatures Cause 79 Deaths in Eastern Europe, Global Warming Proponents are Undeterred

Law Abiding Mexicans Taking Up Illegal Guns

From npr.com - In Mexico, where criminals are armed to the teeth with high-powered weapons smuggled from the United States, it may come as a surprise that the country has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world.  Law-abiding Mexicans who want a gun to defend themselves have no good options. Either they fight government red tape to get a legal permit, or they buy one on the black market. After an outbreak of violence, one embattled community in northern Mexico called Colonia LeBaron has begun to ask if it's time for the country to address its gun laws.  More News New Mexico

Law Abiding Mexicans Taking Up Illegal Guns

N.M. National Guard Deployed to Egypt/Israel

From kob.com -About 400 New Mexico National Guard soldiers will soon be on their way to Egypt, as part of a multi-national mission to help keep the peace between Egypt and Israel.  The troops are from the 1st Battalion of the 200th Infantry Division - the same men and women who helped fight wildfires around the state last summer, and came to the rescue of thousands during the deep freeze cold snap last winter.  It's 7,000 miles from Albuquerque to the Sinai peninsula where the New Mexico soldiers will spend at least 9 months. Today brought farewell ceremonies in Farmington and Albuquerque, and there will be another one in Las Cruces tomorrow.  More News New Mexico

N.M. National Guard Deployed to Egypt/Israel

Rejected by Obama, Canada Will Work with China

Stephen Harper

Bloomberg - President Barack Obama’s decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a telephone call yesterday, told Obama “Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports,” according to details provided by Harper’s office. Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the country’s “financial security.”
The “decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market,” Oliver told reporters in Ottawa.
Currently, 99 percent of Canada’s crude exports go to the U.S., a figure that Harper wants to reduce in his bid to make Canada a “superpower” in global energy markets.

Air Pollution in Beijing, China

Canada accounts for more than 90 percent of all proven reserves outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to data compiled in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Most of Canada’s crude is produced from oil-sands deposits in the landlocked province of Alberta, where output is expected to double over the next eight years, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Rejected by Obama, Canada Will Work with China

New Mexico Partnership Hires Steve Vierck

Steve Vierck

New Mexico Business Weekly - Steve Vierck has been named president and CEO of the New Mexico Partnership. Vierck is the president of the economic development division of Angelou Economics. He will be responsible for leading the Partnership in its efforts to market New Mexico to companies, decision makers in business and site selectors, according to a release from the New Mexico Economic Development Department. Prior to working with Angelou, Vierck was the CEO of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, where he led the recruitment and expansion of 49 companies, generating 3,000 jobs and $146 million in capital investment in southern New Mexico, said the Economic Development Department. Read full story here: News New Mexico

New Mexico Partnership Hires Steve Vierck

NM Project to Link Power Grids Lines up Partners

From abcnews.com -The partnerships with Mitsui and Co. and the European Power Exchange will ensure access to a large talent pool and funding for the next three phases of development for the Tres Amigas SuperStation in eastern New Mexico, said Tres Amigas president and chief executive Phillip Harris. Harris has spent the last week meeting in Santa Fe with Mitsui officials about details of the project. Construction is set to begin this summer, and officials expect the transmission hub to be operational in 2015. Harris said there is international interest in the success of a U.S. hub that would allow electricity to flow more freely between grids, and in the development of a trading system that could work seamlessly in a global market.  More News New Mexico

NM Project to Link Power Grids Lines up Partners

Stolen N.M. Meteorite Worth $20K-$40K Found

From time.com -A meteorite that landed in Russia in the 1940s and was recently stolen from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque has been located. KRQE-TV reports authorities found the rock after a man in Missouri bought it for $1,700. It's worth between $20,000 to $40,000. The Meteorite Museum at UNM flew an employee to retrieve the nearly 21-pound chunk of space — and lug it through security. School police believe someone stole the meteorite from the display case and walked out the front door. Investigators have a suspect but no one has been arrested. More News New Mexico

Stolen N.M. Meteorite Worth $20K-$40K Found