Subastan fotos de Korda en el Reino Unido

martinoticias

Un grupo de 55 fotografías históricas firmadas por el cubano Alberto Korda saldrán a subasta el 7 de marzo en la localidad inglesa de South Cerney, en el condado de Gloucestershire.
   
Las fotografías estarán repartidas en 30 lotes que la casa de subastas británica Dominic Winter espera rematar por una cifra cercana a las 50.000 libras esterlinas (57.000 euros o 75.658 dólares).
   
Algunas de las imágenes son instantáneas sin contenido político de la primera etapa del fotógrafo, autor del conocido retrato del guerrillero Ernesto "Che" Guevara tomado el 5 de marzo de 1960.
   
El resto de las fotografías, marcadas y firmadas por el fotógrafo y que han pertenecido hasta ahora a la colección personal de Norka Korda, una de sus hijas, corresponden a los primeros años tras la Revolución cubana, a partir de 1959.
   
La colección incluye una imagen del "Che" hablando con el filósofo francés Jean-Paul Sartre y la escritora Simone de Beauvoir, esposa del escritor, así como instantáneas del guerrillero pescando y jugando al golf con el ex presidente de Cuba Fidel Castro.

 
Unas pocas imágenes, las más antiguas del grupo, son retratos de pasarela en las que aparece la segunda mujer del fotógrafo.
  
Esas imágenes son rarezas dentro de la obra del fotógrafo cubano, tal como explicó su hija en un comunicado de Dominic Winter: "Se conservan muy pocas de aquellas imágenes. Los negativos desaparecieron cuando en marzo de 1968 las autoridades confiscaron el archivo fotográfico de mi padre", comentó Norka Korda, hija del fallecido fotógrafo.
   
"Se trata de trabajos de gran valor, teniendo en cuenta que se remontan al principio de su carrera, un período en el que se formó como artista con una particular visión de la fotografía". 

Duchess of Cambridge shows off baby bump during Hope House visit

itnnews

An Economic Explanation for the Horsemeat Scandal

freakonomics

From the Independent:

A law banning horses from Romanian roads may be responsible for the surge in the fraudulent sale of horsemeat on the European beef market, a French politician said yesterday.
Horse-drawn carts were a common form of transport for centuries in Romania, but hundreds of thousands of the animals are feared to have been sent to the abattoir after the change in road rules.
The law, which was passed six years ago but only enforced recently, also banned carts drawn by donkeys, leading to speculation among food-industry officials in France that some of the “horse meat” which has turned up on supermarket shelves in Britain, France and Sweden may, in fact, turn out to be donkey meat. “Horses have been banned from Romanian roads and millions of animals have been sent to the slaughterhouse,” said Jose Bove, a veteran campaigner for small farmers who is now vice-president of the European Parliament agriculture committee.

‘Muslim Patrols’: Sharia Enforcers Hit Britain’s Streets

PJMedia/  Mike McNally

zionstrumpet.com

No longer content with preaching Sharia in the mosque, some British Muslims are now attempting to impose Islamic law on the streets. In videos posted on YouTube, self-described “Muslim patrols” have filmed themselves berating young women for being inappropriately dressed, seizing cans of beer from men, and burning posters advertising women’s underwear.

In another video, a mob pursues a man they suspect of being gay down a street, calling him a “fag” and telling him to get out of their “Muslim area.”

The videos are the latest example of how many Muslims — particularly young men — are not just failing to integrate into British society, but are becoming increasingly open in their hostility to it. It’s more evidence, if any more were needed, of the disastrous legacy of the policies of mass immigration and multiculturalism inflicted on Britain by Tony Blair’s “New Labour” government.

Only the worst excesses — such as the vigilante videos and the case last year of a Muslim gang that raped and abused vulnerable white girls — get widespread media attention. But national and local media regularly carry stories of less sensational yet alarming incidents. Even these are only the tip of the iceberg; the failure of multiculturalism is manifested in countless minor incidents in cities across Britain every day.

Typical of such incidents is what my partner experienced recently when walking through an ethnically mixed area of a city that is home to large numbers of Somali refugees. She had to run a gauntlet of hissing, spitting, and hostile comments from Somali men. The Somali women, meanwhile, turned their backs on her. Such insidious, low-level incidents go largely unremarked upon, but are the source of growing tensions.

The encounters captured in those videos show a new development. In the past, the worst excesses of Muslim extremism have been perpetrated in the shadows. The victims were mostly either young girls from poor white communities — as in the “grooming” incident — or other Muslims who are the victims of abuses ranging from being denied an education to female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and “honor” attacks which in some cases result in murder. 
But the people being harassed and threatened in the videos are random passers-by. Many of them will be young, liberal-minded urban dwellers who fancy themselves as sophisticated and tolerant types and who desire living in culturally mixed communities.

Increasingly, Islamists are coming into conflict with the very people who have been most eager to embrace liberal thinking on immigration, political correctness, and “diversity.” Multiculturalism has been a warmly satisfying and largely consequence-free indulgence for white liberals. It allowed them to flaunt their moral superiority over “racist” conservatives (an advisor to the Blair government has admitted that Labour’s immigration policy was a political project intended to “rub the Right’s nose in diversity”). It also served to alleviate their guilt over past actual sins, such as the slave trade, and to present imagined ones, such as “globalization.”

Labour’s lax attitude to immigration had distinct material benefits for the liberal elites. It ensured plentiful supply of cheap nannies, exotic food stores, and hip ethnic restaurants, while those who could afford to were able to keep a safe distance from the squalor and criminal activity of the slum areas that mass immigration helped create.

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Britain's future in the European Union

GlobalToronto

Kubicheando en La'bana con la bandera inglesa

algunos aseres ni saben que es una bandera de un pais y mucho menos que el reino unido existe, pero eso carece de importancia, hay que parecer cool a lo ... kubiche.
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Prince Harry: I killed Taliban's fighters [Interview before leaving Afghanistan]

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UK's Goverment and Muslims Charities

Gatestone Institute

August 2012: Hamas leaders at 'martyr' Sheikh Yassin's home with Interpal trustee Essam Mustafa (wearing a headscarf and sitting under Sheikh Yassin's portrait).

Successive British governments continue to tolerate the existence of large charities that encourage and provide for Islamist terror groups. By failing to separate British Muslims from the Islamist charities that exploit them, we flatter and legitimize supporters of terrorism as humanitarians and community leaders. In the US, the charity Interpal is a proscribed organization: when you help terror groups build homes, you are also helping terror groups build bombs. In the UK, however, Interpal is a leading charity that provides support for terror groups. What is Interpal, and why isn't the British government shutting it down?

For hundreds of years, London has mostly been a welcoming home for extremists who wished to destroy the very freedoms the city afforded them. It was here that 19th century nihilists such as Bakunin and Nechayev freely disseminated their violent ideas. In the 20th century, Soviet money seeped into our trade unions and lobbying groups. And now, today, London is a hub for Islamist and Arabist terror infrastructure. It is a city from which financial and logistical support sustains violent supremacist movements across the world. A few months ago, Lord Alton of Liverpool told the British parliament that he believed the Al Muntada Trust, a large London-based charity, is funding the Nigerian Al-Qaeda terrorist group Boko Haram[1]. The speakers at events previously hosted by Al Muntada have described Jews as the "descendants of apes and pigs" and have called for the execution of homosexuals and adulterous women[2]

We do not, however, just idly tolerate anti-Western groups in our midst and abroad; the harder truth is that government is often complicit with their activities, and when caught, our elected leaders simply refuse to discuss the facts. A recent report by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) revealed that British taxpayers are contributing towards the $4.5 million paid each month to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including terrorists and mass murderers. Despite the evidence gathered by PMW, the British Foreign Office continues to deny that British money is rewarding terrorism. In a letter to Robert Halfon MP, who had voiced his concern at the findings, the International Development Minister Alan Duncan wrote: "We have investigated the matter fully and can confirm that the allegations in Palestinian Media Watch's report are both inaccurate and misleading."[3] Duncan did not say how the report was inaccurate, and nor did he provide any sources or facts to back up his claim. As PMW sharply responded, "the general statements made by the Minister of State in his letter, which lack any sources that contradict PMW's findings, are wrong". [4]

This is unfortunately not the first time the British government has just rejected the accusations rather than examine the evidence. Several years ago, a report by the Taxpayers' Alliance revealed that £100 million in British aid to Palestinian schools was funding textbooks indoctrinating children with pro-terror and anti-Jewish propaganda[5]. Similarly, rather than properly investigate, the government simply dismissed the claims as baseless. Why do politicians and the vehicles of government knowingly allow themselves to be complicit with groups that advance pro-terror and anti-Western ideas?

Look, for example, at a large organization called Interpal. Although in the UK it is a well-established charity which has enjoyed the support of leading British politicians and cabinet members, in the United States Interpal is designated a terrorist organization. What is Interpal, and why isn't the British Government shutting it down?

Interpal

Interpal describes itself as a "non-political, non-profit making British charity that focuses solely on the provision of relief and development aid to the poor and needy of Palestine"[6]. However, many critics believe Interpal to be part of a terrorist fundraising network that helps to sustain the violent terror group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians. In 2003, the United States government classified Interpal as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), stating:

Interpal, headquartered in the UK, has been a principal charity utilized to hide the flow of money to HAMAS … Reporting indicates that Interpal is the fundraising coordinator of HAMAS. This role is of the type that includes supervising activities of charities, developing new charities in targeted areas, instructing how funds should be transferred from one charity to another, and even determining public relations policy.[7]

Australia followed suit and designated Interpal, along with six other charities, as a terrorist organization. The Canadian government has also cited Interpal as a Hamas front. An Israeli investigation into a 2002 Interpal trustees report noted that every one of Interpal's 'local partner' charities within the Palestinian territories is "affiliated with Hamas or works on its behalf, not only with regard to humanitarian issues but as part of its terrorism-supporting apparatus."[8]

Keep reading on Gatestone Institute >>

Photo of Princess Diana, mystery man to be auctioned

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Woman in UK Beats Son to Death for Not Memorizing Koran

MidweekPolitics

UK police unable to identify man who fell from sky to his death

The Canadian Press

E-FIT image (Electronic Facial Identification Technique)

LONDON - Police believe he was from Africa, probably from Angola, but they don't know his identity.

The mystery began in September when residents of a suburban street in the Mortlake neighbourhood of West London woke up on a quiet Sunday morning to find the crumpled body of a black man on the sidewalk of Portman Avenue, near a convenience store, an upscale lingerie shop and a storefront offering Chinese medical cures.

Detectives believed at first the man was a murder victim and cordoned off the area. Within a day, however, police concluded the man — probably already dead — had fallen to the ground when a jet passing overhead lowered its landing gear as it neared the runway at nearby Heathrow Airport.

The apparent stowaway had no identification papers — just some currency from Angola, leading police to surmise that he was from that African nation, especially as inquiries showed that a plane from Angola was beginning its descent into Heathrow at about that time.

The macabre explanation made perfect sense to residents, who are familiar not only with the roar of the jets descending, but are also able to see the planes lower their landing gears as they pass overhead, said Catherine Lambert, who lives a few doors down from the spot where the man landed.

"You could see him, his body was contorted," she said. "It was a beautiful blue day, really sunny, but we had to keep the children inside. I didn't want the children to see, and to have to explain to them and put fear into them every time a plane goes over."

A post mortem conducted two days after the body landed listed the cause of death as "multiple injuries."

In the days afterward, some neighbours put flowers on the spot where the stowaway was found, and a small group of Angolans who live in the London area came to place more flowers and to pray. Lambert, 41, said there is lingering sadness, since the man has not been identified and there has been no way to tell his family he is gone.

"I felt, what was he running away from? What made him think he could he could? And how will his family ever know? He's a lost soul now; his father and mother are probably waiting for him to make contact," she said.

A London police spokesman, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record because of force policy, said Sunday that police are appealing to the public for help identifying the man based on a composite image of his face and a photo of a tattoo on his left arm. The tattoo showed the letters "Z'' and "G'' inked on his upper arm, with a horizontal line through the "Z''.

Police also said attempts to identify the man with the help of Angolan authorities had been unsuccessful. They stressed there is only "circumstantial" evidence linking the stowaway to that country.

In a statement, police said the man is believed to be an African of slight build between the ages of 20 and 30. He was wearing jeans, white sneakers and a grey sweatshirt when he was found on Sept. 9, police said.

Although firm figures are not available, in recent years there has been a rise in the number of stowaways trying to get to Western Europe by hiding in the undercarriages of passenger planes.

Aviation safety specialist Chris Yates of Yates Consulting said Sunday that poor airport perimeter security at a number of airports in Africa — including the main Angola airport at Luanda — and in other parts of the world has made it easier for people to stow away on planes, but that most attempts fail.

"They so often end in fatality because more often than not stowaways climb into the wheel base or cargo hold, and those areas are not necessarily pressurized," he said. "When you start moving beyond 10,000 feet, oxygen starvation becomes a reality. As you climb up to altitude, the issue becomes cold as well, the temperature drops to minus 40 or minus 50 degrees centigrade, so survival rates drop."

He said the man who crashed to the pavement in Mortlake had probably lost consciousness and died within the first hour of his flight.

Police said the body is being held for possible repatriation in case the man's identity is established.

Mortlake residents and business people speak of a similar death in recent years, but disagree about the timing and the details.

"People say the same thing happened a few years ago a few blocks away" said Jay Sivapalan, 29, who works at the Variety Box convenience store half a block from where the body landed. "We are near Heathrow and when they lower the landing gear, the body falls out."

Others believe the incident may have happened 10 years ago. Police said they had no information about other stowaway deaths.

Cuba: Marabu weed for fresh power

bbc.co.uk/

A British company has just signed the first foreign investment deal in Cuba in a long time - a project to build a renewable energy power plant, to run a sugar mill and power a wide area of housing and businesses.

The plant will be powered by the marabu weed - which is currently strangling Cuban agriculture after taking over huge swathes of idle farmland.

Havana Energy says the project has the double benefit of clearing that land for use again and creating energy for the surrounding area, as well as being more environmentally friendly than diesel.

The firm is also planning to export the weed to Europe, as their research has revealed its excellent properties as activated carbon.

Havana Energy Chief Executive Andrew Macdonald showed the BBC's Sarah Rainsford around the sugar mill.

British man [Cuba born] detained in Cuba

ITV News/

Yoandry Depass and daughter Photo: Leah Hall

A father from Nottinghamshire is currently being held in Cuba following his detention by border control, after visiting his mother whose house had been destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.

Yoandry Depass moved to the UK 20 years ago and holds a British passport. However, due to Cuba not recognising dual nationality, Mr Depress requires a Cuban passport under Cuban law, and is unable to leave without one.

Mr Depress has paid £320 for a passport but doesn't know when he'll get his hands on it.

Yoandry Depass and partner Leah Hall Credit: Leah Hall

His partner, Leah Hall, is worried about his safety, and she's anxious that he won't be back in the UK in time for Christmas.

Leah also says that their 15 month-old baby girl is starting to wonder where her Daddy is.

Yoandry is currently being assisted by the British Embassy in Havana, Cuba.

WHAT??? Nurse at Duchess Kate’s hospital who was hoaxed by DJs found dead

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

By Ian Johnston, NBC News

Updated at 1:18 p.m. ET: A nurse duped by a prank call made to the hospital where Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, was treated for an extreme form of morning sickness was found dead Friday morning, the hospital said in a statement.

Two Australian DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian of Sydney station 2Day FM, called the hospital earlier this week and pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles asking to be put through to the ward. They were then given an update on Kate’s health by a nurse.

It wasn't clear what role the nurse found dead Friday played in the incident.

The woman’s body was found at an address in Weymouth Street, London, which is around the corner from King Edward VII Hospital on Beaumont Street. Police described the circumstance of her death as "unexplained."

“It is with very deep sadness that we confirm the tragic death of a member of our nursing staff, Jacintha Saldanha,” said the statement, which was released by the hospital's public relations firm.

Keep reading >>

Havana Energy to sign Cuban biomass plant deal

Energy Business Review/

British firm Havana Energy will sign a previously announced joint venture agreement with Azcuba subsidiary Zerus following an approval from the Cuban government.

The venture is expected to develop a sugar cane bagasse burning biomass energy generating facility in Ciro Redondo in Central Cuba.

Havana Energy CEO Andrew Macdonald was quoted by The Financial Times as saying that, while Zerus will own 51% in Biopower, Havana Energy would own 49% stake.

"We plan to invest about $50m in this first plant in Ciro Redondo, which should be up and running in early 2015," Macdonald said.

Havana Energy Chairman and former British energy minister remarked, "This is a big step forward for the company and for Cuba, and I hope it pushes forward our bilateral economic relations."

The joint venture marks the first such project for the Cuban sugar sector and will generate energy for the national power grid.

Espia George Blake celebra su 90 aniversario en Moscu

CHAINESNEWS 

ElPais.com/  Mauricio Vicent

En el manual del buen espía hay reglas no escritas que son de obligado cumplimiento, incluso para los jubilados. Entre ellas, por supuesto, está la discreción, tener un ego medido y nada de juegos con la prensa, por si acaso. Sin embargo, a determinadas edades y con algunos personajes se permiten excepciones, como en el caso de George Blake, el famoso agente del MI6 británico que se pasó al KGB en los años cincuenta y entregó a Moscú importantes secretos de inteligencia. Su “traición” más memorable fue el informe que dio sobre el túnel que construían los americanos en Berlín para espiar las comunicaciones de rusos y alemanes del Este, lo que permitió su desmantelamiento. Blake también entregó listas de nombres de agentes dobles soviéticos que trabajaban para Occidente y una nómina de 400 espías británicos, algunos de los cuales fueron detenidos y ejecutados.

El pasado 11 de noviembre, este espía de leyenda cumplió 90 años y lo celebró tranquilamente en la dacha en que vive a las afueras de Moscú. Para ser un ex agente secreto, lo hizo de un modo singular: se sentó en un sofá, encendió la televisión y vio el documental sobre su vida que ese día transmitió Zvezda, el canal de las Fuerzas Armadas rusas. El mismo domingo, en otro hecho nada usual, recibió la felicitación pública del presidente Vladímir Putin, exmiembro del KGB y director de su institución sucesora, que dio a Blake tratamiento de héroe por los servicios prestados al Kremlin.

Georgi Ivánovich —ese fue el nombre que adoptó Blake al refugiarse en la URSS, luego de su fuga de una cárcel británica en 1966— aparece en el documental dando un paseo por su casa de campo con su esposa, Ida, y un perrito. Con aparente buena salud pese a su edad, el doble agente recordó ante las cámaras la operación del túnel de Berlín y otras aventuras de aquellos años de dentelladas encubiertas entre las potencias. “Soy un hombre feliz; tuve mucha suerte, una suerte excepcional”, declaró hace días Blake al diario oficial Rossiskaia Gazeta, en otra entrevista en la que reiteró no tener cargo de conciencia alguno.

Y con un lenguaje digno de la era soviética, Putin expresó así su reconocimiento al espía: “Usted pertenece con todo derecho a la pléyade de profesionales brillantes, hombres fuertes y valientes”, que realizaron con su “trabajo invisible” una “importante contribución a la paz al asegurar el equilibrio estratégico” en la época de la guerra fría. El mandatario no los mencionó, pero en esa “pléyade de hombres valerosos” también estaban otros famosos agentes dobles, como Kim Philby o Donald MacLean, integrantes del quinteto de Cambridge, quienes escaparon a la URSS tras ser descubiertos.

KGB spy George Blake by ulaghchi

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British soldier in Afghanistan gives birth at base attacked by Taliban

naharnet.com

By Ian Johnston, NBC News

A British soldier serving in Afghanistan has given birth to a baby boy at a NATO compound attacked by the Taliban just a few days earlier, the U.K. government confirmed Thursday.

The child was born Tuesday at a field hospital in Camp Bastion in the war-torn Helmand province, the government said in a statement.

The mother, a gunner with the Royal Artillery, arrived in Afghanistan in March after the child was conceived, a U.K. spokeswoman confirmed. The woman only discovered she was pregnant and about to give birth when she complained of stomach pain.

On Friday night, two U.S. personnel were killed and several others wounded in an attack on the adjoining Camp Leatherneck. The Taliban has also promised to do everything it can to kill the U.K.'s Prince Harry, who is based at Bastion.  More >>

Prince Harry - You want to be naked? Go to war

nbcnews.com/

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War of 1812: Toronto 200 years ago

GlobalToronto

Al-Qaeda terror suspect caught at London Olympic Park

The Telegraph/ By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent

9:15PM BST 07 Jul 2012

The alleged al-Qaeda militant was caught crossing through the Olympic Park five times, breaking a ban imposed by the Home Secretary, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

The 24 year-old has previously tried to get to Afghanistan, allegedly for terrorist training, and is suspected of fighting for the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab, which has been responsible for thousands of deaths, including those of Western aid workers. He is accused of trying to recruit other Britons to its cause.

A Home Office lawyer warned after his discovery in the Olympic area that CF wanted to “re-engage in terrorism-related activities, either in the UK or Somalia” and is “determined to continue to adhere to his Islamist extremist agenda”.

His detention is the most serious security alert yet to hit the Olympic Park.

It is disclosed today after a week which saw 14 terror-related arrests across Britain, including a white Muslim convert detained over an alleged plan to carry out a major terrorist attack. More >>