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But the hard-won accomplishments that earned Bogotá plaudits around the world are now being eclipsed by outrage. So many ambitious construction projects have been put in motion simultaneously that the city has endured months of traffic chaos. And a long simmering corruption scandal has resulted this week in the suspension of Bogotá’s mayor, Samuel Moreno. Making matters worse, fears of violent crime are spreading yet again.
Bogotá, Colombia, Backslides After a Comeback - NYTimes.com
Tomas Munita for The New York Times Protesting last month in Santiago, Chile. Government approval of a plan for a dam in a pristine part of the country has brought thousands to the streets.
Patagonia Dam Project Inspires Outrage in Chile - NYTimes.com
With the money she saved, she bought a two-bedroom apartment with granite kitchen countertops and a small veranda, a house for her mother, a plot of land for her brother and a Louis Vuitton purse from Paris that she proudly pulls from a closet. Later this year, with her monthly salary of $3,100, which she earns caring for a 10-month-old girl in an upscale neighborhood, she plans to buy a $39,000 car — in cash. “I have always had this dream of buying a house and a car,” said Ms. Soares, 39.
Nannies Move Into Brazil’s Middle Class — São Paulo Journal - NYTimes.com
KEIKO FUJIMORI’S father, , ’s former president, sits in prison here serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses . Her mother, Susana Higuchi, has shown scars on her neck that Ms. Higuchi said resulted from torture by Mr. Fujimori’s intelligence agents after Ms.
Keiko Fujimori Contends For Peru’s Presidency - NYTimes.com
But once inside, the prison for more than 2,000 Venezuelans and foreigners held largely for drug trafficking looks more like a Hugh Hefner-inspired fleshpot than a stockade for toughened smugglers. Bikini-clad female visitors frolic under the Caribbean sun in an outdoor pool. Marijuana smoke flavors the air. Reggaetón booms from a club filled with grinding couples. Paintings of the Playboy logo adorn the pool hall.
Where Prisoners Can Do Anything, Except Leave - NYTimes.com
Better yet, perhaps because of that history, the band played like rebels. Fast and raw, they zipped up and down the bass lines of “Dear Prudence” as if the song were new. They raced through “Rocky Raccoon,” and when they reached the opening words of “Let It Be” — “When I find myself in times of trouble” — the entire crowd began singing along, swaying, staring at the band or belting out the chorus with their eyes closed in rapture. “If there’s no Beatles, there’s no rock ’n’ roll,” said Guille Vilar, a co-creator of the bar. “This is music created with authenticity.”
Havana Journal - Beatlemania, a Half-Century Late - NYTimes.com
The actions by the security forces drew renewed attention this week when police officers searching for an accused leader of a drug gang stormed into the home of a gentle poet, breaking windows and doors and emptying closets and drawers. The government’s human rights commission said that to justify an illegal entry the security forces sometimes planted evidence or cited vague justifications, like having received an anonymous tip or having spotted a person who looked “unusually nervous.” “Illegal searches have become a common practice in many parts of the country, and they reveal a systematic pattern,” the commission said in a report released on Friday. It said that the security forces “burst into a home looking for illicit objects, they threaten, injure and detain the occupants, they take valuables or money, they alter evidence.”
Mexico Police Violations Seen in Drug War - NYTimes.com
The U.S. and Afghanistan have agreed to a deal that will put Afghan troops in charge of deeply unpopular night raids on local homes by special forces in Afghanistan. FULL STORY
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Engadget
If you're a little too impatient to wait for the Absinthe jailbreak tool to make its way to Windows, good news, there's another option. The iPhone Dev Team has released Corona, a command line-based option for Mac and Windows 7 that will deliver Cydia to your iOS 5.0 or 5.0.1-running iPhone 4S or iPad 2. Obviously, you'll want to be comfortable with the terminal and command prompt but, if you can handle a little CTRL+c and CTRL+v action, jailbreaking your brand new iOS device shouldn't prove too difficult. Hit up the source link for complete instructions on how to free your shiny A5 portable from Apple's shackles while still using your Microsoft machine.
Gizmodo
A peine le dernier jeu Saint Seiya disponible qu’il est déjà temps de penser au prochain. Mais attention, cette fois, vous ne revisiterez pas pour la douzième fois le Sanctuaire, ses courants d’air et ses flèches au pif. C’est de la nouvelle série animé dont il est question : Saint Seiya Omega , qui se déroule après la saga Hades.Wired.com
Isn’t it delightful how geek culture works? During my Christmas shopping last year, I stumbled into a favorite little pop culture shop in Little Collins Street in Melbourne which is well known for its comprehensive stocking of all things Lovecraftian. I was looking for some stocking fillers for the kids; instead I walked out with [...] The combination of a cloud service and verification that does not involve sharing data has allowed one company to provide a true bumper-to-bumper insurance policy, reports Victor Cruz.Wikileaks released Assassinated FARC-EP spokesman Raul Reyes Yahoo mailbox from December 19, 2007 to May 29, 2008. It contained 708 messages that were not deleted by the latter date. Elbarcino is a known alias of Reyes and the address (elbarcinocolombia@yahoo.com) appears as a FARC contact for UN resolution 1612 on child soldiers, as well as two FARC-EP related websites. Commander Reyes was assassinated by a combined United States and Colombian government cross-border night air attack inside Ecuador in early 2008. 20-30 other FARC members were also killed.