Mexican archaeologist receives July 7 medal

Mexico’s foremost archaeologist, Eduardo Matos, will be awarded the “July 7 Medal” Tuesday at the starting ceremony of the Third World Heritage Cities Congress, to be held in San Miguel de Allende.

The four-day gathering will feature 20 speakers who will focus on one of the UNESCO denominated cities, Puebla, the theme city for the entire Congress, which will conclude on July 10.

The July 7 medal is named after the July 7, 2008, when San Miguel de Allende was named a World Heritage city. Matos has also been awarded the “Henry Nicholson” medal by Harvard University, among many other worldwide recognitions.

Matos was the leading archaeologist in the digging for the old Aztec pyramids in downtown Mexico City. The findings of the excavation led to the publication of his now highly-regarded book “Major Temple.”

Congress organizers Adolfo Rubio and Lupe Meza made it a point in saying that this a “privately organized” event with scholarly objectives as all of the participating speakers are experts in their fields.

“The two previous congresses were a success and that’s what’s keeping us going on,” says Adolfo Rubio.

The Congress is sponsored by the Guanajuato state government and the local hospitality industry.

The main attraction this year will be the city of honor, Puebla, which is sending an entourage led by Puebla Tourism Secretary Roberto Trauwitz, who will be featuring all the amenities of “Angelopolis” (as Puebla is popularly known) with a novelty promotion called ”SENSORAMA: Know Puebla through your senses.” Traditional foods will also be showcased — like mole — and the presentation of a new beer brand called “Cinco de Mayo” in honor of the famous victory of the Mexican ragtag army against the mighty French invaders in 1862.

Several Puebla chefs will offer — for free — morsels of different dishes at Casa de Europa from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the congressional meeting.

Speaking specifically on World Heritage cities will be Gustavo Salinas from Zacatecas, Elena del Río who will talk about Tlacotalpan, as well as bullfighting expert Luis Niño de Rivera who will speak about the traditional bullrings.

San Miguel de Allende

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Mexico Gay Mariage

Now that Mexico’s top court has given the green light to gay marriage, a host of states should bring their laws into line, a Supreme Court justice said.

The court ruled in a decision published on June 19 that laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman were unconstitutional.

The decision, based on five separate rulings, means gay couples may marry by court injunction in states which have not legalized same-sex unions. Until state legislatures change their statutes, however, the couples must still petition courts case by case.

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Leaders warn sanctions on Russia will remain

ELMAU, Germany – The world should move away from using fossil fuels by the end of this century, G-7 leaders announced Monday, setting an ambitious but distant goal ahead of a global summit on climate change this year.

The leaders of seven wealthy democracies also warned Russia that sanctions imposed for its actions against Ukraine would remain until a cease-fire is fully observed in eastern Ukraine — and those sanctions could be made tougher if the situation requires.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose turn it was to host the annual gathering, pressed for a commitment to “decarbonize” the global economy — that is, to eliminate most carbon dioxide emissions from burning oil, gas and coal. While the goal was set for the end of the century, the seven leaders also asserted that “urgent and concrete action is needed to address climate change.”

Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, which traps the sun’s

heat and warms the atmosphere. The leaders agreed to press for a reduction, by 2050, of 40 to 70 percent in the 2010 global emission levels of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The range was a disappointment to some environmental activists, but the leaders added they recommended the “upper end” of that range.

They also said they would commit to a “transformation of the energy sectors” in their countries to produce fewer carbon emissions.

The word “decarbonization” implies the replacement of carbon-based fossil fuels by alternative sources such as wind and solar power. The statement did not specify “full” de-carbonization, and the term is open to interpretations that include the use of some fossil fuels. It also does not mean the elimination of nuclear power.

Merkel set climate change as a key topic for the gathering, just like she did the last time she hosted it in 2007.

Her goal was to come up with a united stance among the group’s advanced economies in order to better advocate for the goals at a much broader climate summit to be held in Paris in December. The thinking was that negotiations with other countries — including major greenhouse gas emitters such as China and India — would be easier if the developed world took a united position.

Ulf Moslener, professor of sustainable energy finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, said the G-7 statement was “largely a confirmation of what has already been agreed” upon on climate change.

Its chief value was in getting the developed countries on the same page ahead of climate change negotiations with developing countries.

He said “decarbonization” usually refers to a major reduction in the output of carbon emissions to, for example, 20 percent of current emissions.

“That is very ambitious” and does imply substantial change, he said, “though it has to be said it’s a rather long time horizon.”

Merkel and President Barack Obama devoted much of their one-on-one meeting during the summit to Ukraine, where renewed fighting has broken out in recent days.

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Philippines Ferry Accident, Wow !

MANILA, Philippines – A ferry carrying 189 passengers and crew capsized Thursday minutes after it left a central Philippine port in choppy waters, leaving at least 35 dead and 20 others missing, coast guard officials said.

They said at least 134 people from the M/B Kim Nirvana were rescued by nearby fishing boats and coast guard personnel or swam to safety off Ormoc city on Leyte Island.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said the wooden outrigger ferry was leaving Ormoc for the Camotes Islands, about 44 kilometers (27 miles) to the south, when it was lashed by strong waves.

He said the captain and some of the crew were rescued and are in custody pending an investigation.

Coast guard officials and survivors said it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the 36-ton ferry, which was carrying a heavy cargo of construction materials and bags of rice, to overturn.

Survivors told The Associated Press by cellphone that the bow suddenly rose from the water before the vessel flipped over on one side, turning it upside down and trapping passengers underneath.

Among the passengers who survived were at least three U.S. citizens and a Canadian.

Lawrence Drake, 48, a retired firefighter from Rochester, New York, said he was able to revive a woman who wasn’t breathing while they were in the water via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Drake said he also saved the woman’s pregnant daughter and an 8-year-old boy. He said he saw at least seven bodies floating in the water, including two children.

Many of the passengers were screaming in panic, he said.

Drake’s Filipino wife, Mary Jane, said the ferry was pulling slowly out of the port when it suddenly flipped to the left in strong waves.

“No one was able to jump out because it overturned very swiftly. There was no time to jump,” she said.

TV footage showed coast guard rescuers and army soldiers carrying survivors from rubber boats to a beach. Not far away, the bottom part of the vessel could be seen protruding from the water.

A rescue leader, Ciriaco Tolibao, said army frogmen and coast guard divers were searching the over-turned boat to find more survivors or retrieve bodies. The search was continuing into the night, Balilo said.

Cloudy weather at the time of the accident did not pose any danger that would have prompted the coast guard to stop sea voyages, officials said.

A brewing storm in the Pacific was 550 kilometers (344 miles) east of Ormoc and was too far away to affect any part of the Philippine archipelago, according to forecasters. They said winds in the Ormoc region were not strong enough to whip up dangerous waves.

Ormoc, a regional economic and transportation hub of about 200,000 people, is located in a disaster-prone eastern region that is regularly hit by some of the approximately 20 tropical storms and typhoons that blow in from the Pacific each year.

The city was among those devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 dead and missing and leveled entire villages in 2013.

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Netanyahu apologizes to Israel’s Arab minority

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he knows his “comments last week offended some Israeli citizens.” AP/SEBASTIAN SCHEINER

BY IAN DEITCH

The Associated Press

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Israel’s Arab citizens Monday for remarks he made during last week’s parliament election that offended members of the community.

The move appeared to be an attempt to heal rifts and mute criticism at home and in the United States. Netanyahu drew accusations of racism in Israel, especially from its Arab minority, and a White House rebuke when, just a few hours before polling stations were to close across the country, he warned that Arab citizens were voting “in droves.”

Netanyahu, who’s Likud Party won re-election in the vote, met with members of the Arab community at the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem on Monday and apologized.

He said he knows his “comments last week offended some Israeli citizens and offended members of the Israeli-Arab community.”

“This was never my intent. I apologize for this,” Netanyahu said. “I view myself as the prime minister of each and every citizen of Israel, without any prejudice based on religion, ethnicity or gender.”

“I view all Israeli citizens as partners in the building of a prosperous and safe state of Israel, for all Israelis,” he also said.

A recently established alliance of four small, mostly Arab parties called the Joint List made unprecedented gains in the March 17 election, earning enough votes to make it the third-largest party in Israel’s parliament. Arab citizens make up 20 percent of Israel’s population. Equality is guaranteed in Israel’s laws but many Arabs have long complained of discrimination, mainly in the job and housing market.

Ayman Odeh, the head of the Joint List, told channel 2 TV that Netanyahu’s apology was not accepted.

“This is not a real apology,” Odeh said. “He incited against citizens who were exercising their basic right to vote for Knesset.”

Odeh also accused Netanyahu of “zigzagging” by saying one thing one day and a different another.

In the final days of the campaign, Netanyahu angered the U.S. by taking a tough stance toward the Palestinians and by saying a Palestinian state will not be established on his watch in the current climate of regional chaos and violence. Resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in a two state solution is a key U.S. foreign policy priority.

The tough talk was part of a last-ditch attempt by Netanyahu to spur his more hard-line supporters to the polls after it appeared he was losing voters to a more hawkish party.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Monday that she had not seen the Netanyahu apology but that the Israeli prime minister is hard to read because “he said diametrically opposing things in the matter of a week.”

“When you say things, words matter. And if you say something different two days later, which do we believe,” she said. “What we’re looking for now are actions and policies.”

Netanyahu defended his election-day remarks in the days after the vote. He told NBC last Thursday that he remains committed to Palestinian statehood — if conditions in the region improve — and to the two-state vision first spelled out in a landmark 2009 speech at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. “I haven’t changed my policy,” he said. “I never retracted my speech.”

He told NBC that his government has spent billions in Arab towns to upgrade infrastructure, schools and narrow gaps.

Earlier Monday, Netanyahu secured a majority of backers in the new parliament and will later be tasked with forming the next government.

Israel’s ceremonial president, Reuven Rivlin, has been meeting with the parties in parliament to hear their recommendations before appointing who will form the next coalition government. Kulanu, a new centrist party gave its nod to Netanyahu on Monday, giving him 61 backers out of the 120 in parliament.

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Argentina President Misterious

BUENOS AIRES – An Argentine prosecutor found dead in mysterious cir- cumstances last month had drafted a request that President Cristina Fernández be arrested for conspiring to derail his probe into the deadly bombing of a Jewish center, the investigator into his death said Tuesday.

The papers were found in the trash at Alberto Nisman’s apartment while his property was being scoured for clues over whether the father-of-two committed suicide or was murdered.

He was found in a pool of blood with a single bullet to the head on Jan. 18.

“The drafts are in the file,” Viviana Fein, the lead investigator into Nisman’s death, told a local radio station.

The request for Fernández’s arrest, which the prominent pro-opposition daily newspaper Clarin said Nisman drafted in June, was not included in his final 350-page submission to the judiciary delivered days before his death.

Instead Nisman called for Fernández to face questions in court.

On Monday, Fein’s office had denied the existence of the document containing the arrest request and the government denounced a Clarin story about it as “garbage.”

Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich even dramatically tore up a copy of the paper in his daily news briefing. But on Tuesday, Fein backtracked, saying there had been a misunderstanding between her and her office, and the documents did exist.

“They are properly incorporated into the case file, nothing is missing,” Fein said of the papers on Tuesday.

Nisman spent almost a decade building up a case that Iran was behind the 1994 attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) that killed 85 people. Iran’s government has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Nisman had been due the day after his death to answer questions in Congress about his allegations that Fernández sought to cover up Iran’s involvement in return for Iranian oil. Fernández has called the claim “absurd.”

Argentine judges are proving reluctant to take on a case some are calling a “judicial hot potato.” Two judges turned down hearing the case on Monday, including one who is already presiding over separate charges of attempts to derail the investigation into the 1994 bombing.

The other cover-up charges involve ex-President Carlos Menem, who ruled the South American country from 1989 to 1999.

Fernández, who had come under fierce criticism for her handling of Nisman’s death, is currently on a trip to China.

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Ricardo Castillo Story

Echoes of old hatred still linger in the U.S-Cuban community. They are hurt and alarmed at the fact that on July 20 the U.S. and Cuban governments will set up formal embassies as a start to thaw the Cold War between the two nations.

Surely old timers still think the Marxist-Leninist Castro revolution is alive and well. Certainly it has survived the ideals of Lenin and Mao. But both Russia and China welcomed long ago the winds of economic change and the fact that individuals, not governments, are the prime source of social evolution.

Contrary to the reticent old Cubans (“the marielitos,” given the 1981 mass migration of Cubans to the United States from Cuba’s Mariel port), everyone in the Mexican-U.S. diplomatic corps is celebrating the moves made both by Raúl Castro and Barack Obama to start the process towards amicability.

It’s good to see that President Obama does not eye Cuba as the backward nation most Republicans who oppose the diplomatic move want to see.

Cuba is a poor nation but the upside is that in their dictatorship the Castro brothers deemed education as the prime target and, as a result, Cuba is the only Latin American nation that boasts a 100 percent literacy rate. Not bad for a third-world nation.

In the midst of the U.S.-Cuban diplomatic war, no nation has tried harder to see what today has come to fruition as Mexico has been the go-between for decades. It’s odd to see nowadays that neither the United States nor Cuba needed Mexico to bring them together. But it’s good to see regardless.

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Egyptian president has issued Terroris

CAIRO –The Egyptian president has issued a law that broadens the state’s definition of terrorism to include anyone who threatens public order “by any means,” and gives authorities powers to draw up lists of alleged terrorists with little judicial recourse.

Under the new law, prosecutors can name someone a terrorist, freezing their assets, and barring them from public life or travel, with only simple approval from a panel of judges, and without a trial.

The listing is valid for three years and can be renewed.

The legislation was signed in the form of a decree by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last week and was distributed to reporters Tuesday.

It is part of the government’s stepped-up campaign against an expanding insurgency by militant groups, including one that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The authorities have also waged a sweeping crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, as well as young activists and groups that fuelled the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Internationally, Egypt has pushed allies for closer cooperation to combat terrorism in the region, particularly in neighboring Libya.

Rights activists criticized the law, saying it only serves to expand Egypt’s existing arsenal of legislation that empowers authorities against political opponents.

“In the absence of accountability and monitoring, we will never know whom this law is applied to,” said Mohammed Zaree, Egypt program manager at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

“The absence of accountability and monitoring only leaves authorities above the law.”

The new Egyptian law defines a terrorist group as any entity that calls “by any means, inside or outside the country, for harming individuals, terrorizing them or putting their lives, freedoms, rights or security in danger.”

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Taliban and Islamic State Bus attack

KARACHI, Pakistan – Gunmen stormed a bus in southern Pakistan and ordered its Shiite Muslim passengers to bow their heads before shooting them, killing at least 45 people in the latest attack targeting religious minority, officials said.

Who carried out the attack in the port city of Karachi wasn’t immediately clear, as a Pakistani Taliban splinter group and an Islamic State affiliate both claimed the attack. However, some Taliban fighters have pledged their allegiance in recent months to the extremist group that now holds a third of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate.

“These are the people who are extremists, who are terrorists,” provincial police chief Ghulam Haider Jamali said of the assailants. “These are the same people who have been doing terrorism before.”

The bus was in a relatively deserted area on the outskirts of the city en route to an Ismaili Shiite community center when six gunmen boarded it, Jamali said. Investigator Khadim Hussain said the attackers ordered the passengers to bow their heads and not look up before opening fire at close range.

Shell casings at the scene suggested the gunmen used both pistols and machine guns in their attack before fleeing on three motorcycles, police said. Jamali said the attackers killed 45 people, including 16 women, and wounded 13.

Qadir Baluch, a security guard at a nearby building, said he heard the gunshots and saw at least one of the militants wearing a police uniform.

The attack riddled the bus with bullet holes, but its wounded driver still could drive it to a nearby hospital, said Mohammad Imran, a guard there. Imran said when he got on the bus later he saw blood still seeping across its seats and floor. Blood stained Imran’s own hands and uniform.

“I hardly saw any survivor,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear who carried out the attack. Pamphlets found nearby the site of the attack claimed an Islamic State affiliate carried it out, calling it revenge for the killing of their fellow fighters in Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, police officer Najeeb Khan said.

Khan said the pamphlet read: “We swear that we will keep on making you and your families mourn in tears of blood.”

Meanwhile, a man describing himself as a spokesman for a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban called Jundullah, or Army of God, claimed responsibility for the attack in a call to The Associated Press. The man, who identifies himself as Ahmad Marwat and has conveyed similar claims in the past, said “infidels were the target.”

The Taliban and other Sunni militant groups long have had a presence in Karachi. Sunni extremists view Shiites as apostates and have targeted them in the past, though attacks on the Ismaili branch have been rare.

Wednesday’s attack was the deadliest in Pakistan since December, when Taliban militants killed 150 people.

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Fears rise as fate of pilot remains in ISIS hands

AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan renewed an offer Sunday to swap an al-Qaida prisoner for a fighter pilot held captive by the Islamic State group, a day after a video purportedly showed the militants beheading a Japanese hostage.

The fates of the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto previously had been linked. The video of the beheading made no mention of the pilot, raising fears for the lieutenant’s life.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II condemned the killing as “criminal act” and “stressed the need for concert- ed international efforts to fight terrorism and extremism,” the official news agency Petra said. It said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke to the king by phone.

The Islamic State group last week demanded the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, an al-Qaida prisoner who faces death by hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in 2005.

Jordan offered last week to release her for the pilot, but the militants didn’t say at the time if they were considering such a deal. An audio message last week, purportedly from the Islamic State group, only said the pilot would be killed if al-Rishawi was not released Thursday.

The deadline passed after Jordan said it cannot free her without proof the pilot is alive. Late Saturday, the video purportedly showing Goto’s beheading was released.

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told The Associated Press on Sunday that “we are still ready to hand over” al-Rishawi in return for the pilot.

Earlier, the state-run Petra news agency quoted him as saying Jordan is working to confirm the pilot “is still alive and ensure his release and re-turn to Jordan.”

Al-Momani also said his country spared no effort to free Goto.

Relatives of the pilot, meanwhile, said they want the government to be more open with them about efforts to free him.

“We want the government to tell us the truth,” said Yassin Rawashda, an uncle of the pilot. He said the family is not demanding a full briefing, but wants to hear if release efforts are headed “in a positive direc- tion or not.”

The pilot’s father, Safi al-Kaseasbeh, said he is worried, but still is putting his faith in the government.

“Of course, I’m concerned,” he said by telephone. “This is my son. I’m always concerned about him and any development makes me more concerned.”

Jordan is reportedly conducting indirect, behind-the-scenes negotiations through tribal leaders in neighboring Iraq.

The beheading of Japan’s Kenji Goto have raised concerns for the pilot’s safety.

Al-Kaseasbeh was captured in December when his F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group. The militants control about a third of both Syria and neighboring Iraq in a self-declared caliphate.

Jordan, a staunch Western ally, is part of a U.S.-led military coalition that has carried out airstrikes against Islamic State group targets since September.

King Abdullah II says the campaign against the extremists is a battle over values, but participation in the airstrikes is not popular among Jordanians. The hostage crisis has prompted more vocal criticism of the government position.

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Barrack Obama Defend on Yaman

NEW DELHI – President Barack Obama defended his counterterrorism strategy in tumultuous Yemen Sunday, as influential lawmakers from both parties suggested the United States may need to turn to special operations forces to root out terrorists from the Middle Eastern nation and elsewhere.

Obama, who is traveling in India, said U.S. operations against a dangerous al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen would not stop because of the country’s political vacuum. In his first public remarks on Yemen since the country’s American-backed president and Cabinet resigned after rebels seized the capital last week, the president rejected the notion of moving away from the current drone-based campaign to a heavier footprint on the ground.

“We’ll continue to try to refine and fine-tune this model, but it is the model that we’re going to have to work with,” Obama said during a joint media appearance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The alternative would be massive U.S. deployments in perpetuity, which would create its own blowback and cause probably more problems than it would potentially solve.”

In a direct challenge to Obama, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that more special operations forces in particular may be necessary in Yemen and elsewhere.

McCain, the new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, accused the administration of being “delusional” in thinking that its strategy in the Middle East was working and said Iran was “on the march.” The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, who now control Yemen’s capital of Sanaa, are widely believed to be backed by Iran, though they deny having any support from the Islamic republic.

“We need more boots on the ground,” said McCain, R-Ariz. “I know that’s a tough thing to say, and a tough thing for Americans to swallow. But it doesn’t mean the 82nd Airborne. It means forward air controllers. It means special forces, it means intelligence, and it means other capabilities.”

Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she agreed that more special operations forces are probably necessary. She also said the U.S. needs more human intelligence in the region instead of relying so heavily on intelligence gathered by technical means.

The California Democrat said that while Americans “don’t want another war,” she believes it is time “to look more deeply and broadly into what we’re doing and how we’re going it.” She said the United States must also do more to protect U.S. partners in the region, including Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Yemen is home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which the United States views as the global terrorist network’s most dangerous branch. The group has been linked to numerous failed attacks on the United States and claimed responsibility for the attack on a Paris satirical magazine.

Obama has relied heavily on drone strikes to take out terror targets in Yemen. There were 23 U.S. drone strikes last year and 23 the year before, according to Long War Journal, which tracks the strikes based on local media reports.

The U.S. military also has trained elite counterterrorism units of Yemen’s military that have battled al-Qaida.

The president has compared his counterterrorism strategy in Yemen to the military operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, where the United States is relying on airstrikes to combat the extremist group. In going after both AQAP and the Islamic State, Obama has warned of the “long, arduous process” of operating in places like Yemen that have troublesome political landscapes.

“It is not neat and it is not simple, but it is the best option that we have,” he said.

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