Interview of Carlos Gomez With Dady Chery, News Junkie Post | Haiti Chery. “SOPA/PIPA was meant to protect rights that corporations should not be allowed to have. Copyright laws were developed to protect the livelihood of authors — not the corporations that buy the right to an author’s work…. There is no sense to a copyright outliving its author, since no amount of incentive would entice that author to further efforts.” – C. Gomez
Aaron Swartz’ s Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto
By Aaron Swartz | Haiti Chery. “The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations….”
By Staff, UPI via The Argentina Independent | MSN Noticias. The Federal Court of Mar del Plata, Argentina, handed out convictions to 14 retired Argentine military and police officers. Six of these were life sentences to the retired officers, including former General Alfredo Arrillaga, for crimes against humanity during the last dictatorship.
By K. S. Harikrishnan, IPS | Staff, Rediff Business. American pharmaceutical companies, taking advantage of a Congressional provision called The Pediatric Exclusivity Provision, have been carrying out clinical trials in poor and developing countries where the drugs might never be available. In India there were over 2,000 deaths in the last four years from serious-adverse events (SAE) during clinical trials, many of which were illegally done without consent. These deaths and a recent discovery of drug testing on Bhopal gas victims have ignited the wrath of rights activists and prompted prominent legal institutions to begin to tighten the country’s drug regulation laws.
By Kate Beioley, Argentina Independent | Staff, Los Andes. Two men, rural producer Francisco Parra and chemical-application person Edgardo Pancello, were sentenced in the Cordoba Criminal Court of Argentina to three-year prison terms for use of the agrochemicals endosulphin and glyphosate in the barrio of Ituzaingó Anexo. So far, 200 cases of cancer have been discovered in the barrio, 100 of these fatal. (English | Spanish)
Marco A. Gandásegui Jr, America Latina en Movimiento | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. In an annual exercise called Panamax, from Monday, August 6 to Friday, August 17 Panama was virtually occupied by troops from the U.S., France, Canada, the Netherlands, and 14 Latin American “allies,” although the Panamanian Constitution says Panama has no army and its sovereignty is inalienable and nontransferable. (English|Spanish)
By Majie Sayila, The Times of Zambia | Staff, The Herald Online. Forty-one Bangladeshis have been arrested between Zimbabwe and Zambia as these countries tighten the fight against human trafficking. Fifteen who were smuggled into Zambia from the Democratic Republic of Congo have been fined for unlawful presence in the country. The driver of the truck in which they were ferried was committed to the High Court for sentencing after he admitted to the offense of smuggling persons, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years.
By spp and jmd, Radio Kiskeya. According to residents of the Nan Beny and Ti Bois areas of Martissant — a neighborhood in south Port-au-Prince, Haiti — in retaliation for having two of their numbers injured by unknown assailants Tuesday July 31, elite police in uniform, while under observation from MINUSTAH troops, beat and shot several people, broke the windshields of various cars, and torched at least four motorcycles plus 15 houses. Shortly thereafter, the West Department’s police chief announced that troops would be maintained in Martissant. UPDATES: Police put bounties out on four “bandits,” and a new human-rights report describes the details of the incident. (English | French)
Massacre at La Visite
By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirty six commandos from Haiti’s Departmental Unit for Maintenance of Order (UDMO), together with presidentially-appointed regional and local government representatives, arrived in La Visite Park, near the city of Jacmel (southeast Haiti) to evict 142 families by force on July 23. The small farmers, who had lived there since 1942, were offered $1,160 for each property. In the battle that ensued, 4-12 people were killed.
By Staff, Defend Haiti | Meagan Fitzpatrick and Staff, CBC News Online | Sheila Dabu Nonato, National Post. Canada Foreign Aid Minister Bev Oda — the woman responsible for the relocation of hundreds of thousands from the tent camps on Champs de Mars, Port-au-Prince, Haiti — has resigned. She was replaced by Julian Fantino, a former policeman risen to the ranks of police chief, Member of Parliament, and Defense Minister. Mr. Fantino has been followed in every political post by allegations of corruption.
By David Jessop, Caribbean Council via Stabroek News. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, is one of a growing number of US laws that are extra-territorial in effect and have been introduced on the grounds of security, to counter terrorism and organized crime, or to address tax evasion. In addition to extending US jurisdiction into the Caribbean, FATCA carries with it the possibility of being used to extend the reach of US law into areas that the legislation was not primarily designed to address.
By Marcela Valente, IPS | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. More than 600 businesspeople lost their property to the Argentina dictatorship of 1976 to 1983. “they took everything we had, our seven companies and the company plane. And it’s a miracle they didn’t kill us,” says Alejandro Iaccarino, a prosperous dairy industry businessman during the 1970s who is suing for millions of dollars in reparations.
By Staff (spp), Radio Kiskeya | Translation and editorial by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. In two incidents on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday July 7, angry citizens lynched three suspected robbers before burning their bodies with lit tires, AFP reports, quoting police and witnesses. (English | French | Creole)
By Staff, Agencies via AlJazeera | By Staff, RT. In a major victory for rights group the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo (Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo), former military leader and president of Argentina Jorge Videla has been sentenced to 50 years for systematically stealing the babies of detained leftist activists. Another 10 former members of Videla’s government, including a woman were also sentenced. (English | Spanish)