Venezuela to probe Chavez cancer 'poisoning', Al Jazeera

Acting president Maduro tells local TV "truth" will be sought, insisting president who died of cancer was "poisoned".

Maduro said foreign scientists would be invited to join a government commission to probe the accusation [Reuters]

The Venezuelan government has said that it will set up a formal inquiry into suspicions that the late President Hugo Chavez's cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad. The decision to probe the circumstances surrounding the former president's death comes days after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the foreign dignitaries at Chavez's funeral, alleged he died of a "suspect illness". Acting President Nicolas Maduro, handpicked by Chavez to run the country as the president underwent surgery in Cuba, also said the socialist leader had been "poisoned". "We will seek the truth," Maduro told regional TV network Telesur late on Monday. "We have the intuition that our commander Chavez was poisoned by dark forces that wanted him out of the way." Foreign scientists will be invited to join a government commission to probe the accusation, the OPEC nation's acting leader said. But the the accusation has been derided by critics of the government, who view it as a typical Chavez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed fears of "imperialist" threats to Venezuela's socialist system and distract people from daily problems. Maduro, a candidate in the April 14 snap election to choose Venezuela’s new president, is trying to keep voters' attention firmly focused on Chavez to benefit from the outpouring of grief among his millions of supporters, analysts said.

Falkland Islanders vote to remain British

One-sided outcome of referendum on South Atlantic territory rejected by Argentina as "manoeuvre with no legal value". Last Modified: 12 Mar 2013 09:30

Only three votes were cast against the islands remaining British [Reuters]

Falkland islanders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a British overseas territory in a referendum designed to send a strong message to Argentina, which earlier derided the poll as illegal. About 92 percent of the islands' 1,672 eligible voters turned out to deliver a 98.8 percent "yes" vote in favour of staying a self-governing British territory, election officials in capital Port Stanley announced on Tuesday. Only three votes were cast against the islands remaining British. The resounding "yes" result, delivered at around 22:30pm local time (01:30 GMT) on the remote South Atlantic territory, was setting the stage for an after-vote party. Argentina, which invaded the islands in 1982 before its troops were removed by a British task force after a short but bloody war, maintained its dismissive line on the vote. "It's a manoeuvre with no legal value, which has neither been convened nor supervised by the United Nations," Alicia Castro, Argentina's ambassador to London, said. "We respect their way of life, their identity. We respect that they want to continue being British, but the territory they inhabit is not British." jacob k

Falkland Islands closes sovereignty vote

Results for the referendum, which will decide if residents choose to remain part of Britain,due later on Monday. Last Modified: 12 Mar 2013 02:20

Majority of residents are expected to favour the referendum, which Argentina dismisses as a 'meaningless' [Reuters]

Residents of the Falkland Islands have finished voting in a sovereignty referendum that seeks to counter Argentina's increasingly assertive claim over the British-ruled territory. Diplomatic tension between Britain and Argentina has flared up after more than three decades since they went to war over the South Atlantic archipelago, and that has unsettled some of the roughly 2,500 islanders. On Monday, voting by Falklands-born and long-term residents drew to a close on the second day of a referendum on whether they want to remain a British Overseas Territory. Officials are expected to announce the result at about 8 pm (23:00 GMT) after polls close on Monday. An overwhelming "yes" vote is likely, prompting Argentina to dismiss the referendum as a meaningless publicity stunt. A high turnout is expected, however, as islanders embrace it as a chance to make their voices heard. "We hope the undecideds, or the uninformeds, or those countries that might otherwise be prepared to give the nod to Argentina's sovereignty claim might have pause for thought after the referendum," said John Fowler, deputy editor of the islands' weekly newspaper, the Penguin News. "This is an attempt to say 'hang on a minute, there's another side to the story'." People queued to vote at the town hall in the quiet island capital of Stanley, where referendum posters bearing the slogan "Our Islands, Our Choice" adorned front windows. "For me, this referendum is extremely important because I have no wish to be part of Argentina," said Rob McGill, 67, who runs a guesthouse in isolated Carcass Island and voted by post. "I consider myself a Falkland Islander, but my ancestors came from Britain," he said.

Bin Laden's son-in-law pleads not guilty

Suleiman Abu Ghaith, accused of conspiring to kill US nationals, appears in New York court after arrested overseas. Last Modified: 09 Mar 2013 15:31 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/03/201337224243339718.html

Osama bin Laden's son-in-law has pleaded not guilty at a court in New York to charges of conspiring to kill US nationals. Suleiman Abu Ghaith, reportedly a 47-year-old Kuwaiti and allegedly one of the chief propagandists of the al-Qaeda network, entered the plea through a lawyer on Friday. Abu Ghaith, who was brought to the US after being arrested in Jordan, stands accused of plotting "to kill nationals of the United States", the US Justice Department said on Thursday. Eric Holder, US attorney-general, said the arrest showed that the US would never relent in its pursuit of the fighters who launched the attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York and Washington. "No amount of distance or time will weaken our resolve to bring America's enemies to justice," he said. "To violent extremists who threaten the American people and seek to undermine our way of life, this arrest sends an unmistakable message. "There is no corner of the world where you can escape from justice because we will do everything in our power to hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law." US authorities accuse Ghaith of assisting bin Laden, who was killed in a 2011 raid by American commandos, and of taking to the airwaves to promote al-Qaeda's war against America after the 9/11 attacks.

US study gives boost to Keystone oil pipeline, Al Jazeera

State Department concludes controversial pipeline from Canada will not cause "substantial change" in carbon emissions.

Environmental groups have held numerous protests at the White House urging Obama to reject the pipeline [Reuters]

The US State Department said on Friday that the Keystone XL oil pipeline would not likely change the rate at which Canada's oil sands are developed, a boost for a project which environmentalists warn would lead to a spike in greenhouse gas emissions. TransCanada Corp's proposed project is "unlikely to have a substantial impact" on development of Alberta's oil sands, the world's third-richest oil deposit, the State Department said in a long-awaited report of more than 2,000 pages. It said the pipeline would result in "no substantial change in global greenhouse gas emissions." The more than 800,000 barrel-per-day pipeline would have little environmental impact on most resources along its proposed route, provided the company takes certain measures to make it safer, the review added. Supporters of the project, which would bring oil to Texas refineries, have dismissed concerns it would lead to additional greenhouse gas emissions, saying the oil would reach markets regardless of whether the pipeline is built. Obama rejected the pipeline in 2011 on concerns about its route through ecologically sensitive regions of Nebraska and after several high-profile spills on lines carrying Canadian crude. TransCanada then issued a new route for the pipeline, which Friday's assessment took into consideration.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez dies, Al Jazeera

Outspoken and divisive president dies after two-year battle with cancer, leaving future of oil-rich nation in question.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader's 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro has said in a televised speech.
Maduro, surrounded by other government officials, announced the death in a national television broadcast on Tuesday.
"In the immense pain of this historic tragedy that has affected our fatherland, we call on all the compatriots to be vigilant for peace, love, respect and tranquility," Maduro said.
Maduro said the government had deployed the armed forces and police "to accompany and protect our people and guarantee the peace".

"In the immense pain of this historic tragedy that has affected our fatherland, we call on all the compatriots to be vigilant for peace, love, respect and tranquility." - Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's vice president

Elias Jaua, the foreign minister, said Chavez's hand-picked successor Maduro would take over as interim leader pending the next election, declaring: "It is the mandate that comandante President Hugo Chavez gave us."
Venezuela's constitution, however, specifies that the speaker of the National Assembly, currently Diosdado Cabello, should assume the interim presidency if a president can't be sworn in.

Mexico arrests head of teachers' union, al jazeera

The powerful Elba Esther Gordillo is accused of embezzling about $160m from the union's funds.

Gordillo was seen controlling the union and much of Mexico's education system like her personal fiefdom [Reuters]

The head of Mexico's powerful teachers' union has been arrested at an airport outside Mexico City on suspicion of embezzling the union's funds. Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said that Elba Esther Gordillo, who has led the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Worker for 23 years, was detained in Toluca on Tuesday on charges that she embezzled about $160m from union funds. Her arrest comes a day after President Enrique Pena Nieto signed Mexico's most sweeping education reform in seven decades into law, seeking to change a system in which teaching positions could be sold or inherited, and no official census of schools, teachers and students was ever carried out. Gordillo was seen controlling the union and much of Mexico's education system like her personal fiefdom. The overhaul was Pena Nieto's first major proposal since taking office December 1 and was considered a political blow to Gordillo, who has played the role of kingmaker for many Mexican politicians.

Why Killing Kingpins Won't Stop Mexico's Drug Cartels, The Atlantic

Why Killing Kingpins Won't Stop Mexico's Drug Cartels

By Keegan Hamilton

Even when El Chapo dies, Sinaloa will live on.

Federal police present weaponry seized during an arrest operation against drug traffickers linked to Chapo Guzman, during a media presentation in Mexico City on February 4, 2012. (Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

The rumor started Thursday afternoon when the newspaper Prensa Libre reported that several narcos were killed

during shootout in Guatemala's remote Petén region. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez said one of the corpses was "physically very similar" to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, top boss of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. Other outlets, including the unfiltered drug war diary Blog del Narco, spread the word on Twitter, piquing the interest of the international press, and sending Mexican and Guatemalan officials scrambling to confirm the powerful drug lord's purported demise.
The rumor was soon thoroughly debunked. There was no shootout, let alone one that claimed the life of the modern day Pablo Escobar. (Lopez, the Interior Minister, later apologized for the "misunderstanding" and blamed contradictory reports for the confusion.) Not only is El Chapo still very much alive, his legend has grown larger than ever. Already a billionaire according to Forbes, the Sinaloa capo has supplanted Osama bin Laden as the State Department's top international target, and the Chicago Crime Commission recently named him Public Enemy No. 1, a title originally reserved for
 Al Capone.