MIAMI ( Change of Heart - U.S has Granted Castro's Daughter a Visa to attend LGBT Conference )

 Cuban Leader’s Daughter Granted U.S. Visa

MIAMI – The U.S. State Department finally granted a visa to Cuban President Raul Castro’s daughter so that she can attend a May 2-5 forum on LGBT issues in Philadelphia, Equality Forum, the organizer of the seminar, said on Tuesday.

“Equality Forum is delighted that the State Department has affirmed democratic values by authorizing Mariela Castro to speak at Equality Forum 2013,” said Equality Forum executive director Malcolm Lazin in a statement.

Initially, the State Department had denied permission to Mariela Castro to travel to Philadelphia, although it allowed her to travel to the United Nations in New York.

The forum will pay special attention at this conference to the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Cuba.

Mariela Castro, who is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education, months ago accepted the organization’s invitation to be a panelist on the forum’s “Cuba: Featured Nation Panel.”

During the forum, the daughter of the Cuban president will also receive the International Ally for LGBT Equality Award at the International Equality Dinner to acknowledge her work for the rights of the LGBT community.

Equality Forum is a national and international LGBT civil rights organization with an educational focus. EFE

TUCSON Az ( Man shot and killed - Dies in walmart store ) Northgate shopping center

A man was shot and killed at a midtown grocery store early this morning.
Just before 4 a.m. police responded to a 911 call about shots fired at the Northgate Shopping Center on the northeast corner of East Grant Road and North Alvernon Way. They found a 25-year-old man dead just inside the door of the Walmart Neighborhood Market, Sgt. Chris Widmer, spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, said.
The man, who was unarmed, had a confrontation with at least two men outside the store entrance, Widmer said. Multiple shots were fired and the victim walked into the Walmart, collapsed and died.
Police are looking for a white four-door car that was seen leaving the parking lot immediately after the shooting, heading north on Alvernon.
In addition to homicide investigators, members of TPD’s gang unit were called in to investigate, Widmer said.
The name of the slain man has not been released.
The investigation is ongoing.

Mexico ( Japan to build a Auto Parts Plant in Mexico to employ 1000 people )

Japan’s Furukawa to Build Auto Parts Plant in Mexico

TOKYO – Furukawa Electric plans to break ground next month on a new auto parts plant in Mexico to supply Japanese automakers operating in that country, the Japanese business press reported Tuesday.

Furukawa, which supplies products to the automotive, construction, electronics, energy, materials and telecom industries, expects the $12.2 million plant to be finished in January 2014, the Nikkei business daily said.

The company currently has two auto parts plants in Mexico, a plant that produces fiber-optic cable for the telecom industry in Brazil and another plant in Argentina.

Furukawa wants to expand its presence in Latin America and boost sales in the region from $102 million today to $153 million by 2017.

The new plant in Mexico will initially employ 300 people, but the payroll could climb to about 1,000 within a few years, Furukawa said.

Wires and cables produced at the new plant will be sold in Mexico and exported to Latin America and Europe, the company said.

Furukawa also plans to manufacture parts for vehicle air bag systems and battery sensors at the new plant.

Mexico hosts the largest concentration of Japanese corporations in Latin America, with nearly 540 companies, including automotive industry titans Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mazda, operating in the country. EFE

Mexico ( 6 people Killed plane crash - The plane belongs to the Mexican Attorney Generals Office)

Six Killed in Mexico Plane Crash
The plane went down shortly before noon in the municipality of Morelos after taking off from the town of Calera en route to Mexico City

MEXICO CITY – Six people who were traveling in a small plane belonging to the Mexican Attorney General’s Office died Tuesday when it crashed in the northern state of Zacatecas, authorities told Efe.

“Regrettably the occupants died,” a spokesman for the AG’s office confirmed to Efe, adding that at present the identities of the victims and the cause of the accident are not known.

The plane went down shortly before noon in the municipality of Morelos after taking off from the town of Calera en route to Mexico City.

Evidently, the plane lost altitude, ultimately hitting the ground and bursting into flame in the community known as Noria de los Gringos, Milenio Television reported.

The state attorney general of Zacatecas, Arturo Nahle, confirmed the six deaths via Twitter and said that the aircraft was the same one on which federal Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam traveled to the state last month. EFE

TUCSON Az ( La Fonda " That likes to steal Honda's " Wanted car Thief ) Do you Know her ?

Police seek help finding woman who steals Hondas
Tucson police are looking for a woman they describe as a serial car thief.
Friday the department released a photo taken by a traffic camera of the woman they suspect is responsible for "numerous auto thefts," Sgt. Chris Widmer, spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, said in a news release. The photo was taken on Jan. 26, about 20 minutes after the car was reported stolen.
                          La Fonda  " That likes to steal Honda's " Do you know her ?

The thief targets 1990s model Honda passenger cars.
The woman is described as 20 to 30 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing between 95 and 115 pounds. She has blond or brown hair.
Anyone with information about the identity of the suspect should call 911 or 99-CRIME

SYRIA ( Israeli Jet flew over Chemical plant in Damascus- And Bombed it )

Israel Defense Forces | Flickr

A ccording to unconfirmed reports by the Free Syrian Army and others, Israeli jets flew over Damascus on Saturday morning, circled Assad's palace, and then bombed a chemical plant .
If it really happened, the strike could be a both risky and prudent move for Israel.
One analyst recently advocated a "one-off" strike as the most measured response to Syrian chemical weapon use :


"The most proportional response (to limited chemical weapons use) would be a strike on the units responsible, whether artillery or airfields," said Jeffrey White, a former senior official at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency and a Middle East expert who is now a defense fellow at the Washington Institute For Near East Policy told Reuters.
" It would demonstrate to Assad that there is a cost to using these weapons - the problem so far is that there's been no cost to the regime from their actions."
One-off strikes are among the most viable ways to intervene in Syria, with the U.S. and allies wary of getting too deeply involved. They may also serve as a way to rein in Assad without deposing him and risking the chaos that follows.
Israel also has defensive reasons for bombing Syria.
Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence who directs the Institute for National Security Studies, told Washington Post there are four types of weapons whose transfer to militant groups would not be tolerated: advanced air defense systems, ballistic missiles, sophisticated shore-to-sea missiles, and chemical weapons.
Israel has decided that stopping the spread of these weapons is worth conducting targeted strikes, and the risk of starting a war.
But there is a gamble with this aggressive strategy.
The last time Israel bombed Syria — in January when its planes supposedly bombed a weapons convoy and a military research center without even entering Syrian air space — Russia and various antagonistic Middle Eastern states immediately condemned the action . Syria delivered a letter to the United Nations declaring its right to self-defense. Iran promised there would be "grave consequences."
Another strike, this time supposedly in Syrian air space and attacking Syrian infrastructure, would represent a significant escalation.
It would also confirm that we have entered "a new and more volatile phase in the regional repercussions of Syria's civil war," as described by Washington Post's Joel Greenberg and Babak Dehghanpisheh after the January attack.
Finally, there's the question of whether the U.S. was involved at some level of the supposed Israeli air strike.
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told Fox News Sunday that while the U.S. and Israel "can't discuss details, we are working out ways we can address this threat" — indicating that the U.S. may have been involved if there really was an attack.

FLORIDA ( Two Pakistani men arrested for plotting bombing attacks on New York)

FLORIDA: Pakistani Muslims, Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, and his brother, Raees Alam Qazi, were arrested for acquiring materials and plotting bombing attacks on NYC, similar to the ones in Boston.