Americas

Speaking of the new directions of American foreign policy, new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry read Kyrgyzstan as Kyrzakhstan in his speech, Global Post writes.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta will get a fond farewell from his NATO colleagues at a two-day meeting beginning Thursday, as the alliance faces a difficult withdrawal from Afghanistan and looks for a new supreme military commander, AFP reports.

President Hugo Chavez shocked and delighted Venezuelans by returning home Monday after spending more than two months in Cuba for cancer surgery and treatment, AFP reports.

A team of US Congressmen met with the Iranian dissident group MEK in Paris on Sunday and threatened to declare Iraq's prime minister a sponsor of terrorism after a deadly attack on an Iranian exile camp there, AFP reports.

Authorities in the Mexican state of Jalisco say tests have revealed that a girl who gave birth two weeks ago is between 12 and 13 years of age, not 9 as the parents had claimed.

 

Jalisco state prosecutors also say the girl was impregnated by her stepfather and not her alleged 17-year-old boyfriend.

 

Authorities announced last week that a 9-year-old had given birth to a baby girl and that they were looking for her boyfriend.

 

But prosecutors said Wednesday that DNA tests revealed the baby's father is the girl's 44-year-old stepfather and that he is under arrest.

 

They said an anthropological study of the girl showed she is between 12 and 13. The girls' parents didn't have a birth certificate for her and initially told authorities she was 9.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Texas waiter who refused to serve a customer that made fun of a child with Down syndrome has used his publicity and unexpected donations to set up a scholarship at a school for special needs children.
 
 

Michael Garcia, a 45-year-old waiter at Laurenzo’s restaurant in Houston, has regularly served a family that includes a 5-year-old child with Down syndrome, Milo Castillo. But when another family seated nearby ridiculed the child and moved to a table further away from Castillo, Garcia refused to serve the rude customers. One of the guests had told his family that “special needs kids shoud be kept in special places” – a statement that prompted the waiter to react.

 

Ever since the story gained significant media publicity last month, Garcia has been receiving letters, unusually high tips, gifts, and unexpected donations from people thanking him for standing up for the boy and potentially putting his job at risk, the Houston Chronicle reports.

 

And Garcia continues to act selflessly: last Thursday, the waiter took the donations and presented a $1,145 check to the boy’s school, the Rise School of Houston. The preschool offers a special program for children born with Down syndrome and other disabilities, and Garcia’s donation will be used for a scholarship fund.

 

“When you have something like this with someone who had no reason to be kind – he doesn’t have relatives with special needs, he’s not a teacher – but he did it out of a sense of what was right and from his heart, it gives us hope,” Ashley Kress, development director of the preschool, told the Chronicle. “Like, OK, if Michael can do that then maybe other people in the world can do that, too.”

 

The boy’s mother, Kim Castillo, continues to express thankfulness for what Garcia did – first by defending her child, and then by giving away the money he received.

 

“What he’s doing is not only inspirational, but it’s going to hopefully push people to make donations to this amazing, amazing school,” she said.

 

When Garcia visited the preschool to present the check, he received a paper crown that the students had made for him, adorned with plastic jewels and stickers. A group of preschoolers performed a song in sign language to say thanks to the waiter who they described as a “kind of God” and a “kind of Martin Luther King”.

 

While Americans have thanked Garcia for his generosity, the man continues to act humbly, claiming that the focus should be on the children – not him.

 

“The children are the real heroes,” he told Fox News. “I don’t feel like a hero in any way. It’s the children. That’s what this is about, helping the children.”

 

Garcia said that he will now use his free time to continue raising awareness about special needs children and to work towards a nationwide tolerance for those with disabilities.

 

Approximately 400,000 Americans suffer from Down syndrome, many of which are discriminated against in the public sphere. From being barred from flying first class to being stared at in public, special needs children and adults are too often treated unkindly.

 

Connor Long, an 18-year-old Colorado resident who suffers from Down syndrome, wrote an open letter to Garcia, outlining his gratitude for an action that he says is very rare.

 

“It is unfortunate that the act of a decent, caring, everyday human being willing to do the right thing is so rare,” he wrote in the letter, which was published on the website of the National Down Syndrome Society. “People with special needs don’t need more heroes, we need more everyday people like you who are willing to do and say what is fair and supportive, simply because it is the right thing to do and needs to be done. That is not a special need – it is an ordinary need.”

For all of his liberal positions on the environment, taxes and health care, President Barack Obama is a hawk when it comes to the war on terror.

A 9-year-old girl who became pregnant when she was 8 gave birth to a healthy baby in western Mexico.

The baby, a boy, was born via c-section and weighed close to six pounds.

The birth occurred at a hospital in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on January 27, but became public Wednesday. Local authorities said the father is a 17-year-old who fled when he found out about the pregnancy.

"We want to find the young man who was responsible to know his version, because she (the mother) is not able to understand the significance of their actions," said the prosecutor in the case, Jorge Villasenor, to Mexican daily Milenio. "This is a case of rape or child sexual abuse."
 

Many Chicagoans who call 911 will no longer receive immediate help. Chicago police will no longer show up at crime scenes unless someone is in critical condition or a criminal suspect remains on the scene.

It may soon take bullet wounds, broken bones, rape attacks or other injuries to catch the attention of the police department, while crimes like car thefts may largely be overlooked.

Chicagoans who report property damage, vehicle thefts, garage burglaries or other crimes in which the perpetrator is no longer on the scene will not be assisted until the police have time, thereby freeing up officers for patrol duties but also leaving distraught victims in the dark.

Starting Sunday, about 44 officers will be freed up each day and will no longer be dispatched for certain crimes. Instead, the officers will spend their time patrolling the streets and searching for crimes elsewhere. The Chicago Police Department believes it does not need to report to scenes where the victim is “safe, secure and not in need of medical attention” and the offender is “not on the scene and not expected to return immediately.”

But some Chicago residents are angry about the new response plan, arguing that the taxes they pay for police should be used to help them when they are in need.

“I think that’s ridiculous. I think if there’s a burglary, they’ve got to come. It’s what we pay for. They have to come,” said Carmen Curio, who told CBS that she lives nearby a house that burglars broke into on Christmas Day.

Ald. Nick Sposato, a Northwest Chicago resident, said he pays high enough property taxes to deserve police assistance after a traumatizing break-in.

“People are upset; they want to talk to a police officer. They want to know something is being done to prevent this in the future,” Sposato said.

In some cases, crime victims might also believe the perpetrator has left the scene when the suspect is actually still at large. And even if a victim was not physically injured, they may have experienced emotional trauma that needs to be addressed. With police failing to show up, Chicago residents can no longer be guaranteed the care that law enforcement exists to ensure.

Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said he is aware of this, but continues to believe that police are more useful on the street than responding to 911 calls.

“You’re upset; you’re violated. It’s happened to me. So, you’ve got to weigh it, and I’m making tough decisions,” he said. “I’m making a tough decision, but I’d rather have that officer on the street, doing something to prevent the next shooting than – honestly – making somebody feel better, because they’re responding rather than talking to them over the phone.”

McCarthy claims he was a victim of a burglary “three or four times”, but changed the response plan because of the city’s financial distress.

The Alternate Response Unit will draw up police reports on the phone and send evidence technicians to crime scenes later on, if documentation is necessary. Last year, about 74,000 such case reports were processed. But about 151,000 are expected to be processed this year – more than doubling the number of cases that the Chicago Police Department does not have time to attend to in person.

In 2012, 911 callers had the option to have an officer come to their location and file a report in person – but that choice will no longer be available to them unless they are injured or in the presence of a crime suspect.

The Chicago Police Department is in fact dealing with an overwhelming number of gun violence incidents, with its 513 homicides last year reaching a four-year high. Last month’s 42 homicides were the most January murders Chicago has experienced since 2002, and the city is on the pace for more than 700 murders this year.

But while gun violence does indeed need more attention than non-violent crimes, local residents continue to be distraught about the prospect of being overlooked when they call 911. With too much crime and too few police officers, the city is in a financially tough situation when it comes to fighting crime.
 

At least 54 countries including Syria, Iran, Sweden, Iceland, and UK offered CIA “covert support” to detain, transport, interrogate and torture suspects in the years following the 9/11 attacks, according to a new report.

­The 213-page report released by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), a New York-based human rights organization, documents wide-ranging international involvement in the American campaign against Al-Qaeda.

The report, titled Globalizing Torture, provides a detailed account of other countries covertly helping the US to run secret prisons, also known as ‘black sites’ on their territory and allowing the CIA to use national airports for refueling while transporting prisoners.

Countries listed in the report include many from the Middle East and Europe.

The OSJI identifies Syria and Iran as two participants of the CIA’s rendition program.

“Syria detained, interrogated, and tortured extraordinarily-rendered individuals. It was one of the ‘most common destinations for rendered suspects’,” states the report. “The CIA rendered at least nine individuals to Syria between December 2001 and October 2002.”

Syria also had detention facilities that were used by the CIA, where “detainees report incidents of torture involving a chair frame used to stretch the spine (the ‘German chair’) and beatings.”

Iran has helped CIA by handing over 15 individuals to Kabul, after the US invasion of Afghanistan, knowing that they would be placed under the US control.

In Egypt, Pakistan, Libya, Jordan, Afghanistan, Malawi and Morocco the existence of secret prisons and the use of torture are documented.

The report describes Egypt as “the country to which the greatest numbers of rendered suspects have been sent [by the US].” Many suspects held in Egypt described having been tortured.

Pakistan is said to have detained 672 alleged Al-Qaeda members and transferred 369 to Afghanistan and/or to Guantanamo Bay.

There are grave reports of torture documented in Morocco. Detainees described torture over several months. One individual, Binyam Mohamed, was transferred by the CIA to Morocco in July 2002, “where his interrogators broke his bones while beating him, sliced his genitals, poured hot liquid onto his penis while cutting it, and threatened him with rape, electrocution and death.”

The list also includes states such as Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Greece and Cyprus. All of the above secretly helped the CIA by granting the use of their airspace and airports for aircraft involved in rendition flights.

Canada is identified as going beyond that and providing the CIA with information about one of its nationals that led to his capture, detention and rendition to Syria.

European countries such as the UK, Sweden and Italy even helped to apprehend individuals, interrogate and transfer them.

Countries such as France, the Netherlands, Hungary and Russia are not listed at all.

Report locates ‘black sites’

­States such as Poland, Lithuania and Romania are accused of accommodating secret prisons on their territories.

Poland is said to have “hosted a secret CIA prison on its territory, assisted with the transfer of secretly detained individuals in and out of Poland, including to other secret detention sites, and permitted the use of its airspace and airports for such transfers,” according to the report.

A CIA-run prison was discovered in a small Polish remote village Stare Kiejkuty, which was operational from December 2002 to the fall of 2003. It was used to transport suspected Al-Qaeda members outside US territory to interrogate them without having to adhere to US law.

The Polish government began an investigation into the secret prison in 2008. It is the second country to have opened a criminal investigation into the matter, after Lithuania (though that case has since been closed).

A secret CIA prison in Romania was revealed by Human Rights Watch in November 2005. The report notes CIA planes ‘dropping off’ detainees and leaving.

“The CIA brokered ‘operating agreements’ with the Government…of Romania to hold ‘high value detainees’ on a secret detention facility on Romanian territory.”

Romanian authorities have denied any existence of a secret CIA prison.

In Lithuania the secret prison is said to have held “up to eight ‘high value detainees’ at the facility until late 2005.” The prison was located in Antaviliai, about 20km from the capital, Vilnius, and owned by Elite LLC, a former CIA front company.

Villagers living close to the site reported that “English-speaking construction workers brought shipping containers filled with building materials to the site, and built a large, two-story building without windows, ringed by a metal fence and security cameras.”

Report’s goals

­The OSJI argues that the US could not have carried out its covert operations without the support of other countries and those who helped the US should be held accountable.

"But responsibility for these violations does not end with the United States. Secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations, designed to be conducted outside the United States under cover of secrecy, could not have been implemented without the active participation of foreign governments. These governments too must be held accountable,” the report states.

In addition, the report identifies 136 people who were detained or transferred by the CIA and specifies when and where the prisoners were held, creating the largest list in existence today.

The goal of OSJI is to force US to end the rendition program, terminate all of its remaining secret prisons, and open a criminal investigation into human rights abuses.

Also, the report calls upon other countries to stop their covert support of CIA programs and to hold past participants responsible.

 

A federal prison guard was charged Tuesday with having an illegal affair with an inmate convicted in one of New York's most notorious police killings, later becoming pregnant with his child.

Nancy Gonzalez, 29, was arrested on charges she intentionally engaged in a sex act with Ronell Wilson while working the night shift at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. She became pregnant in June, a few months into the affair, according to court papers. Gonzalez appeared in court Tuesday visibly pregnant and crying, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and was released on $150,000 bond.

"She's had a very tragic life," said her attorney, Anthony Rico. "She has long-term issues that affected her life and judgment."

Her family didn't comment as a swarm of photographers and television cameras surrounded them outside federal court. Gonzalez buried her head in Rico's shoulder while he spoke to reporters.

"These are very serious charges," he said, adding he wouldn't say whether Wilson pressured Gonzalez into the affair.

Gonzalez faces 15 years in prison if convicted.

Wilson, 30, was a young gang member on Staten Island when he was convicted in the point-blank shootings of undercover officers James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews in a 2006 illegal gun sting gone awry. The officers were both shot in the back of the head. Wilson was sentenced to death, but the sentence was thrown out in 2010 by an appeals court based on prosecutorial error.

Wilson could still face death; a new jury will decide his fate. But the replay of the trial's penalty phase has been put off as Wilson's lawyers seek to convince a judge that he's ineligible for the death penalty because he's mentally disabled.

In November, a hearing was held on the claim, and a decision from Judge Nicholas Garaufis is pending, though it's unclear if and how Gonzalez's arrest will affect the motion.

Wilson was moved to solitary confinement in August while reports of the relationship were investigated.

According to court papers, Gonzalez was seen by other inmates going in and out of Wilson's cell starting in March, meeting him in a vacant activity room next to his cell when other inmates were supposed to be sleeping.

"I took a chance because I was so vulnerable and wanted to be loved and now I am carrying his child," Gonzalez said, according to court papers.

She said she "kind of got sucked into his world," and that she "felt like, well, why not give him a child as far as giving him some kind of hope."

She confessed her relationship with Wilson to a different boyfriend, another inmate who had been under her supervision at the federal prison but is now housed at a state facility. She said it was over with Wilson, and that she was worried she would get into trouble.

After she became pregnant, Wilson's mother made contact, requesting a sonogram photo, according to court papers. Gonzalez said she was worried about the calls because she feared authorities would catch her.

"I know what's to come. I know what is going to be said about me," she said, according to court papers. "How am I going to explain this to this little boy? Mommy was in the military ... Mommy was a C.O., Mommy got wrapped up ... And then the opposite end is with a person who took lives. So how do you explain that?"
 

Graduate student borrowers are defaulting on almost US$1 billion in federal loans that were given out to the poor. US colleges such as Yale, Penn State and George Washington are coming after them in the courts, suing for nonpayment.

­All three colleges have pursued lawsuits against students who defaulted on their Perkins loans. The exact number of lawsuits is not known, but just last year alone the University of Pennsylvania filed at least a dozen lawsuits over the Federal Perkins Loan, Bloomberg reported.

Colleges are suing to collect unpaid Perkins Loans, given out by individual colleges to students who demonstrate extreme financial hardship.

Colleges depend on repayment of money to finance the new Perkins loans and so when graduates fail to pay back the borrowed sum, the current students are put at risk of not receiving new loans.

Between June 2010 and 2011 students defaulted on $964 million in Perkins loans, 20 per cent more than five years ago, Bloomberg reports.

The result is that the colleges go after the students in courts to collect the money.

“If you borrow to go to school, it may not be just the government that ends up coming after you if you can’t pay,” attorney Deanne Loonin told Bloomberg. “We offer credit very easily.” If the student doesn’t benefit financially from the education, “the government or the school comes after them very aggressively.”

Borrowers with multiple debts often put aside paying back the Perkins loans because it has a lower interest rate than other private loans.

After graduating with a Perkins loan, students get a nine-month grace period and a 5 per cent per annum interest rate afterwards.

Perkins is given out to those from low-income families and “they may have the least ability to pay it back,” Associate Director of Student Financial Support for the University of California System Nancy Coolidge told Bloomberg.

As the cost of higher education continues to soar, more and more students are forced to take out loans, which increased US education debt to US$1 trillion.

The average size of student loan debt has also almost doubled from US$17,233 in 2005 to US$27,253 in 2012, according to a study released by FICO Labs.

The increased amount of debt is connected to the increased number of defaults on loans, Daily Free Press quotes the study as saying.

In addition, a poor economy and high unemployment make it very difficult for recent graduates to repay their loans.

Around 5.9 million people nationwide have fallen at least 12 months behind in their payments.

This number has grown by a third in the last five years, according to a State Higher Education Finance survey.

Many who can’t repay their loans feel they have no choice but to default. It’s a decision that can be disastrous – ruining a borrower’s credit and increasing the amount they owe.

In the meantime, President Barack Obama is working to expand education opportunities for working class families by increasing the Perkins fund from US$1 billion to US$8.5 billion and putting the Education Department in charge of the loans instead of the institutions.