Latin America
has in Caracas, Venezuela one of the largest active social groups
of expats (expatriates) in South America. Called the Rincon
Gang or Rinconeers, they publish a regular newsletter, the Rincon
Reminder, which updates their Caracas community web site, www.Expat-Village.com
The Rincon Reminder updates are also issued to ex-Caracas Rinconeers
now living and working in over 25 countries..
The Expat-Village web-site has all the latest Venezuelan news in English.
We publish news stories of interest to expatriates, including world news, sport,
entertainment and business. We have features on travel in Venezuela, Latin
America and the Caribbean, quick food recipes, and Venezuela security alerts.
Caracas social activities are listed in ‘What’s on in Caracas’, and we’ll keep
you amused with the 'Joke of the Day' page.
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USA News
The First Baby Boomer Collects Social Security
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Kathleen Casey-Kirschling was born New
Year's Day 1946, at one second past midnight, making her the first baby
of a new generation.
Raised on "Howdy Doody" and hula hoops, she danced on "American
Bandstand." Her first husband served in Vietnam. And in later years,
she prospered like many of her classmates -- the baby boomers.
"I just happened to be the first. The first of many," Casey-Kirschling said.
Today, she reached another milestone -- she became the first baby boomer to sign up to receive Social Security payments.
"It's a great feeling to know that after all these years of working and
seeing that taken out of your check that actually you're getting it
back," she said.
Trouble is, 80 million others are right behind her. Casey-Kirschling is the raindrop that's about to become a tidal wave.
"If this were a movie, this is when the scary music would start,
because there are so many people coming in this flood," David John, an
economist from the Heritage Foundation, said.
FDR did not foresee how a population boom might affect the program he introduced in 1935.
At the end of World War II, there were 44 workers paying Social Security taxes for every......
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Expat Village is edited and published by Iain Williams
in Caracas, Venezuela.
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USA News
Glow In The Dark GM Mosquitoes Prevent Spread Of Malaria
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US scientists have genetically
engineered mosquitoes with eyes that glow in the dark and do not carry
malaria that have a better survival rate than their wild counterparts.
The study is published in this week's early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The scientists, led by Dr Mauro Marrelli from Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore, Maryland, suggest that the transgenic malaria-resistant
mosquito could one day be introduced into the wild where it would
outbreed natural mosquitoes and reduce the spread of malaria.
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a single-celled protozoan
parasite called Plasmodium of which there are ten species that infect
humans. The parasite needs two hosts to complete its life-cycle: female
Anopholes mosquitoes, and the bloodstream of a vertebrate where it
invades and damages red blood cells.
Female mosquitoes feed on blood to get the extra protein they need
during their egg-laying phase, and thereby transmit Plasmodium from
infected vertebrates to non-infected vertebrates.
Dr Marrelli and colleagues had already shown in previous experiments
that transgenic anopheline mosquitoes would not pick up the Plasmodium
(in this case, they used the species P. berghei) when fed on infected
mice.
However, this was the first study where they were able to show that the
transgenic mosquitoes had a twofold survival advantage over their.......
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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USA News
Mike Tyson held on drink and drugs charges
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Mike Tyson was arrested early today on
suspicion of driving under the influence and possession of cocaine
after police in the US state of Arizona stopped him shortly after he
left a Scottsdale nightclub.
Sgt Larry Hall said the boxer was stopped after his car almost struck a
sheriff’s vehicle while leaving the club at about 1.45am local time.
“He showed signs of impairment and....
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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USA News
Former President Gerald Ford Dies at 93
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A story from The Associated Press
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| Oldest former president Gerald Ford dies |
Former
President Gerald R. Ford, who declared "Our long national nightmare is
over" as he replaced Richard Nixon but may have doomed his own chances
of election by pardoning his disgraced predecessor, has died. He was 93.
The nation's 38th president, and the only one neither elected to the
office nor the vice presidency, died at his desert home at 6:45 p.m.
Tuesday.
"His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country," his wife, Betty, said in a statement.
Ford was the longest living former president, surpassing Ronald Reagan, who died in June 2004, by more than a month.
Ford's office did not release the cause of death, which followed a year
of medical problems. He was treated for pneumonia in January and had an
angioplasty and pacemaker implant in August.
Funeral arrangements were to be announced Wednesday.
"President Ford was a great man who devoted the best years of his life
in serving the United States," President Bush said in a brief statement
to the nation Wednesday morning. "He was a true gentleman who reflected
the best in America's character."
Former President Carter described him Wednesday as "one of the most
admirable public servants and human beings I have ever known."
Ford was an accidental president. A Michigan Republican elected to
Congress 13 times before becoming the first appointed vice president in
1973 after Spiro Agnew left amid scandal, Ford was Nixon's hand-picked
successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a.........
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Expat
Village is edited and published by Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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USA News
Voting machine company will sever ties to Venezuela
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A story from the Chicago Tribune.
CHICAGO - The company that supplies
voting equipment to Chicago and Cook County announced Thursday that it
will be sold by its Venezuelan parent company because of controversy
over foreign ownership.
Smartmatic Corp., the parent company of California-based Sequoia Voting
Systems, said it would put the equipment manufacturer up for sale in
the coming year.
"With so much public debate over foreign ownership of firms in an area
that is viewed as critical U.S. infrastructure - election technology -
we feel it is in both companies' best interests to move forward as
separate entities with separate ownership," Smartmatic CEO Antonio
Mugica said in a statement.
The companies also said they will withdraw from a review process now
under way by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States,
a panel of 12 government agencies that earlier this year reviewed an
attempt by a United Arab Emirates company to take over operations at
six U.S. ports.
Sequoia and Smartmatic, which are privately held, had come under review
several months ago because of questions about alleged ties to the
leftist government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The inquiry,
which will.........
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Expat Village is edited and published by Iain Williams
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USA News
U.S. Marine charged with murder in Haditha deaths
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A Reuters story by Dan Whitcombi at www.reuters.com
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Dec 21 (Reuters) - The
U.S. military charged a Marine squad leader with 13 counts of murder in
the killings last year of unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq, one of
the man's defense lawyers said on Thursday.
The charges handed down against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich carry a
maximum penalty of life in prison, but do not include premeditated
murder, said attorney Mark Zaid.
Wuterich led a squad at the center of the probe into the Nov. 19, 2005,
shooting of 24 unarmed men, women and children in the western Iraqi
town. It is one of a series of cases in which U.S. service members have
been accused, and in some cases convicted, of involvement in killing
civilians.
At least four other Marines may be charged later on Thursday, sources
close to the case have said. A local newspaper, the North County Times,
quoted attorneys for two of the others as saying they had learned their
clients would be charged.
Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt faced three counts of unpremeditated murder,
the Times quoted attorney Gary Myers as saying. Lance Cpl. Stephen
Tatum would also be...............
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Expat Village is edited and published by
Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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USA News
Assisted suicide advocate Kevorkian paroled
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A Reuters story by Kevin Krolicki at www.reuters.com
DETROIT (Reuters) - Jack Kevorkian, a
fiery assisted suicide advocate, will be released from a Michigan
prison in June after serving eight years for murder and vowing never to
help the terminally ill take their own lives again, state officials
said on Wednesday.
Known as "Dr. Death," Kevorkian, 78, touched off a firestorm of
controversy in the 1990s for presiding as a medical doctor in dozens of
suicides and advocating the legalization of such procedures in the
United States.
Kevorkian has been serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree
murder for giving lethal injections to a man with Lou Gehrig's disease
who died with Kevorkian's help in suburban Detroit in 1998.
A representative of the Michigan Parole Board interviewed Kevorkian on
Thursday. The state parole board then approved a recommendation
Kevorkian be paroled in June, the earliest possible date for his
release, officials said.
Russ Marlan, a spokesman for Michigan's prison system, said Kevorkian
acknowledged he had broken the law during a flamboyant eight-year
campaign to legalize assisted suicide.
"He said that anything that would bring him back to prison, he will avoid. He said prison is no place to live," Marlan said.
Kevorkian will not be allowed to counsel anyone on suicide as a
condition of parole, Marlan said, although he remains free to speak out
on the issue of assisted suicides.
Marlan said Kevorkian, who will serve a 24-month parole, indicated that
he planned to write and speak on the question of assisted suicide once
free. But Marlan added: "I think he sees his role in this issue as..........
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Expat Village is edited and published by
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$2M settles wrongful arrest of lawyer in Madrid terror bombing
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An ABC story by Sarah Skidmore at http://abcnews.go.com
PORTLAND, Ore. The federal government
has agreed to pay an Oregon lawyer $2 million to settle part of a
lawsuit he filed after the FBI misidentified a fingerprint and wrongly
arrested him in the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings.
"The pain and torture and humiliation that this (case) has caused my
family is hard to put into words," Brandon Mayfield said after the
settlement was announced Wednesday.
Mayfield was arrested in May 2004 on the basis of a fingerprint found
on a bag of detonators in Madrid that was mistakenly matched to him
after the March 11, 2004, train bombings that killed 191 people and
wounded more than 1,500. Mayfield was jailed on a material witness
warrant but was released after the FBI acknowledged the fingerprint was
not his.
Mayfield, who was detained for two weeks, and his wife, Mona, maintained that he was arrested because of his Muslim faith.
"We are Muslims. We are American. We are patriotic," Mona Mayfield said. "We are unhappy with the...........
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Expat Village is edited and published by
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Sad Sunday: Iraq War Longer Than World War Two. JFK Was Right, George Bush Is Wrong
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A story by Brent Budowsky at http://www.huffingtonpost.com
The tragic milestone has arrived, the
Iraq War lasted longer than the Second World War, with the President
telling us that many more days are left in his tragedy drenched in
blood.
In 1957 Senator John F. Kennedy gave a major address opposing European
colonial policies and the French colonial dominance of Algeria. JFK
warned that these policies and practices gave aid, comfort and strength
to Soviet communists who prayed on misery, exploitation and corruption.
Sound familiar?
One can reread JFK's speeches between 1957 and Algerian independence
after he became President, and substitute "terrorists" for "Soviet
communists." It is eerie. It is true. It is a hard lesson for President
Bush and the country he so wrongly and disastrously pushed to war,
through the politics of fear, and the obsession of ideology.
In a just world, President Bush will take this sad Sunday and apologize
to the people of America and the people of Iraq, accept his
responsibility, discuss what lessons he has learned, and move to set
things right.
That is what JFK did after the Bay of Pigs; he accepted responsibility,
grew from his mistakes, and saved the world from nuclear war when he
removed the Soviet missiles from Cuba. That is what the President
should do.
He will not. George W. Bush is no JFK, nor is he Reagan, nor is he George Herbert Walker Bush, nor is he even......
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Expat Village is edited and published by Iain Williams
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How History Will Judge Donald Rumsfeld
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A Newsweek article by John Barry and Michael Hirsh at
There weren't many people in the
Pentagon brave enough to give bad news to Donald Rumsfeld. Jim Roche,
though, was one. The Air Force secretary and his boss shared Chicago
roots and Washington ties going back 30 years—and, like Rummy, the
white-haired Roche had made a lot of money in business. In the fall of
2002 it was becoming clear inside the Pentagon that George W. Bush
intended to invade Iraq.
A worried Roche dragooned the then Army secretary, Thomas White, to
join him for a frank talk with Rumsfeld, according to a knowledgeable
source who asked for anonymity because he was describing a private
conversation.
With some trepidation, the pair marched up to Rummy's elaborate
dark-paneled office in the E-Ring, the power corridor of the Pentagon.
"Don, you do realize that Iraq could be another Vietnam?" Roche asked.
Rumsfeld, a political survivor of the Watergate era whose main goal was
to exorcise the ghost of Vietnam forever—restoring American power and
prestige in the world—was outraged at the very suggestion. "Vietnam?
You think you have to tell me about Vietnam?" Rumsfeld sputtered. "Of
course it won't be Vietnam. We are going to go in, overthrow Saddam,
get out. That's it." Then he waved them out of his office.
Now Rumsfeld himself has been thrown out after six stormy years, a chastened if...........
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Village is edited and published by Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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Rumsfeld: "Irresistibly Charming And Stunningly Rude"
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Expat
Village is edited and published by Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
A CBS story at http://www.cbsnews.com
Veteran CBS News Correspondent David
Martin has been covering the Pentagon for decades. He's seen a lot of
Defense Secretaries come and go -- and today shares some of thoughts on
the current one, Donald Rumsfeld, before he goes, too.
In the past six years, I've listened to Donald Rumsfeld deliver a
withering off-the-record tirade against the inefficiencies of the U.S.
military and I've seen him burst into tears when talking about his
father's affliction with Alzheimer's. This is an extraordinarily
complex man with almost inhuman physical and mental energy. One of his
close aides once jokingly referred to him as "a freak of nature."
He can be irresistibly charming and stunningly rude. Once when the
former Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge was ushered into the
Defense Secretary's office, Rumsfeld left him to stand in silence while
he finished reading whatever document he had before him.
After one particularly bruising encounter with Rumsfeld, Gen. Pete
Pace, then the vice chairman, now the chairman, of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, showed up for his next meeting with the Secretary wearing a................
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USA News
BP Agrees to Settle Suit Over 2 Refinery Blast Deaths
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A Bloomberg story by Margaret Cronin Fisk and
Laurel Brubaker Calkinsl at www.bloomberg.com
BP Plc, the world's third largest
publicly traded oil company, agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by a
woman whose parents died in a Texas refinery explosion that killed 15
and injured hundreds more.
BP will pay as much as $38 million to community groups and charities
and an undisclosed amount to Eva Rowe, 22, whose parents, James, 48,
and Linda, 47, died after a spark ignited gasoline vapors at the
refinery. The settlement was confirmed by Rowe's attorney, Brent Coon,
and Jim Galbraith, a lawyer for BP. The Rowes worked for a construction
company at the site.
BP set aside $1.6 billion to resolve claims arising from the refinery
explosion. The company faced unlimited damages and harm to its
reputation if the trial had gone forward. The March 23, 2005, explosion
at its Texas City, Texas, refinery led to more than 1,300 suits, a
record fine from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration
and a finding by another safety agency that BP endangered workers by
cutting costs.
``It's almost like cleaning house -- you want to take care of all these
things, you want to make sure you start the new year, 2007, with a
clean slate,'' said Fadel Gheit, an analyst for Oppenheimer & Co.
in New York who owns shares of BP and rates the company a ``neutral.''
``Whether it's the refinery explosion, or other factors, it really
weighed negatively and heavily on the stock for the last 12 months, or
18 months, even, and this is not what John Browne wants,'' Gheit said.
Cost BP $2.5 Billion
Browne, BP's chief executive officer who's due to step down at the end
of 2008, ``doesn't want to leave on a down note,'' Gheit said. He said
he ``wouldn't rule out'' Browne making share buybacks or more
acquisitions to boost BP's shares before he leaves the company.
On the overall impact of the accident, Gheit said, ``This deal cost BP,
when all's said and done, over $2.5 billion. All the legal settlements
were trivial compared to the lost opportunity costs and the repairs.''
London-based BP, which acknowledged safety shortcomings at the plant,
settled about 1,000 suits, including all death claims except the two
filed by Rowe. She had refused to settle unless BP agreed to...........
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Village is edited and published by Iain Williams in Caracas, Venezuela.
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