Latin Americas prisons in critical condition
Related posts:16 killed in Guatemala prison fight, official says Clash over development plans leaves 8 dead in Guatemala Guatemalan ex-police officers accused of assassinating Myrna Mack investigator to finally stand trial El Salvador arrests 4 military officials over civil war Jesuit killings MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – Latin America’s prisons are overcrowded, violent and sometimes lack even the most basic services, despite the fact that several of the region’s current leaders themselves spent time behind bars.As incarceration rates have soared across the region over the past two decades, Latin America’s jails have become packed, nightmarish facilities where serving time is a battle to survive, rights groups say.In Brazil, whose President Dilma Rousseff was jailed by the former military regime for three years in the 1970s, nearly half of all prisons lack enough beds for their inmates, according to FIO, an umbrella group of watchdogs and rights organizations.During a recent mutiny at a prison in the southern city of Cascavel, rioting prisoners decapitated two fellow inmates.And last year, at the only prison in the northeastern city of Pedrinhas — a 1,700-capacity facility that holds 2,500 inmates — 60 prisoners were killed.“It’s a life where people are fighting each other to the death every day,” inmate Mario Ibáñez told AFP in the Chilean capital, Santiago, where detainees complain of cells with no light or ventilation — a “jungle full of wild animals,” he said.Like Brazil, Chile has a leftist president, Michelle Bachelet, who was jailed and tortured by her country’s military regime in the 1970s.In Chile’s prisons, “there are systematic episodes of violence marked by inmates wounding each other and killing each other in brawls,” said Ana María Morales, who runs rehabilitation programs for former inmates at a nonprofit organization.“It’s not only violence between inmates, but also by prison staff,” she added, condemning abusive punishments by guards.“We made mistakes and we’re paying for them. But we’re not monsters,” said Dario, a prisoner doing time for theft in Punta de Rieles, in Uruguay.The South American country is also led by an ex-political prisoner, José Mujica, detained for more than 13 years by the former military regime.Uruguay today comes in for regular criticism from watchdogs for conditions inside its prisons.“The general population has a sense of insecurity, sometimes fed by the media, and people want prison, prison and more prison,” said Mirtha Guianze, head of Uruguay’s National Human Rights Institute.She said she is concerned about government plans to begin trying 16-year-olds as adults.“Are they going to be sent to adult prisons?” she asked, saying that would only exacerbate overcrowding. “We’ve asked, but no one’s given us a clear answer.” Army and police personnel stand guard at the National Prison in Comayagua, Honduras, where more than 350 people perished in a fire in one of the worst prison disasters in Latin America, in February 2012. Orlando Sierra/AFPExtreme violenceThe three countries have the highest incarceration rates in Latin America, except for Cuba.Uruguay has 281 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, Brazil 274 and Chile 266, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS).That doesn’t come near the rate in the United States — 716, the highest in the world — but is far more than in countries such as Canada (118), Australia (130), France (98), or Spain (147).“From 1992 to the present, all the countries of Latin America have increased their incarceration rates, without exception,” said Elias Carranza, head of the Latin American Institute for Crime Prevention, a United Nations body based in Costa Rica.“Most of them have doubled their rates, many have tripled and some are on the verge of quadrupling,” he added.Incarceration rates have risen worldwide, but the trend is “strongest in low- and middle-income countries, which is the case for Latin America,” he said, linking the phenomenon to growing inequality, rising crime and harsher sentences.Overcrowding is a problem across the region.In Venezuela, there are nearly three times as many prisoners as beds, fueling an environment of extreme violence, with more than 16,000 inmates killed in the last 15 years, according to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (OVP).Most of those in jail — 64.56 percent — are still awaiting trial.“We could let people remain free until sentencing, but unfortunately every person who is accused of a minor crime is jailed,” said Marianela Sánchez, legal coordinator at OVP.“That makes overcrowding even more acute.” Facebook Comments
Source = e-Travel Blackboard: P.T Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong in April 2012 rose by more than 14 percent, compared with the same month last year. The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) issued visitor arrival data for the month of April 2012, announcing a total of 3,840,180 visitors to the city-state. Travellers from Mainland China recorded the largest year-on-year increase, up almost 24 percent to 2,647,026. Long-haul market tourist numbers were relatively similar to April 2011 but HKTB reported a 30 percent increase in Russian visitors. Short-haul visitor arrivals fell by 3.7 percent overall, while the Philippines and Japan recorded individual growth. Overnight arrivals were up nearly 5 percent for the month of April 2012, with Mainland China achieving the greatest growth.
Emirates SkyCargo wraps up 2017 on a positive noteEmirates SkyCargo wraps up 2017 on a positive noteEmirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, completed a year of strong growth in 2017. The air cargo carrier’s robust performance, set against the backdrop of a resurgent global air cargo market, was underlined by the introduction of specialised customer focused air transportation solutions across a number of industry verticals and by continued investment in infrastructure.Between January and December 2017, Emirates SkyCargo’s hubs at Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC) saw a combined cargo throughput of over 2.5 million tonnes.Specialised, Innovative products and solutionsIn response to increasing demand from its customers, Emirates SkyCargo introduced a range of air transport solutions specific to industry verticals including Emirates Pharma, Emirates Wheels and Emirates Fresh. Emirates Pharma, developed for the secure transportation of temperature sensitive pharmaceuticals from origin to destination has been extremely well received by pharma customers worldwide.Volumes of pharmaceutical cargo travelling through Emirates SkyCargo have grown by 38% since launch. Emirates SkyCargo also worked with DuPont on developing a new thermal cover called White Cover Xtreme, offering enhanced protection for cargo in hot, cold and wet weather conditions. Emirates SkyCargo operates world class EU GDP certified facilities at its hub in Dubai to ensure secure transportation of life saving medicines and treatment.Emirates Fresh has helped producers around the world transport fruits, vegetables, flowers and other perishables including fresh fish and meat. In 2017 Emirates SkyCargo transported over 285,000 tonnes of perishables across its network. In February Emirates SkyCargo unveiled a unique rose decal on one of its freighter aircraft to highlight the importance of air cargo to the floriculture industry.With the introduction of Emirates Wheels, Emirates SkyCargo has been transporting close to 150 cars a month not only in the peak summer season, but throughout the year. In addition to individual customers, the air cargo carrier has worked with major car manufacturers and distributors to transport premium and luxury cars.With its focus on structured and customised offerings, Emirates SkyCargo is well positioned to further address customer needs in 2018 in other sectors including e-commerce. Industry partnershipsIn May 2017, Emirates SkyCargo entered into a first of its kind strategic operational partnership with Cargolux. The two carriers started working together on a number of operational areas including block space and interline, aircraft charter and hub connectivity. In October Emirates SkyCargo and Cargolux announced a code share agreement for cargo. Emirates SkyCargo has had one CargoluxBoeing 747 freighter aircraft chartered full time since June 2017.In the UAE, Emirates SkyCargo signed an MoU with Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre to become the space science centre’s preferred partner. In the e-commerce segment, the air cargo carrier entered into an understanding with Dubai CommerCity to develop new solutions for the global ecommerce industry and to strengthen Dubai’s position as a global hub for e-commerce.Capacity and networkIn addition to offering belly hold cargo capacity on its fleet of 254 wide body passenger aircraft, Emirates SkyCargo also offers freighter capacity on its fleet of 13 Boeing 777-Fs and one Boeing 747- 400ERF. In 2017, Emirates SkyCargo’s fleet of freighters transported cargo to more than 140 destinations including scheduled and charter operations.In addition to commencing scheduled freighter services to Luxembourg in June 2017, the air cargo carrier also increased frequency of freighter services to Hong Kong from 22 to 26 flights a week. Unique cargo transported onboard Emirates’ freighters included horses, luxury cars, boats, heavy equipment and aircraft engines.Emirates SkyCargo facilitates global trade flows by transporting cargo across six continents and over 155 destinations. Freighters from the Emirates SkyCargo fleet connect over 40 scheduled destinations across the globe.AccoladesEmirates SkyCargo is committed to excellence in service delivery and this was acknowledged in a number of industry forums. Some of the awards that Emirates SkyCargo won this year included the ‘Best Cargo Airline Middle East’ award at the annual Cargo Airline of the Year 2017 awards organised in London by Air Cargo News; ‘Best Air Cargo Carrier- Middle East’ at the 2017 Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain (AFLAS) Awards held in Singapore by Asia Cargo News; and the prestigious DHL Carrier Award for Reliability and Excellence (DHL CARE) for pharma in Singapore in June 2017.Source = Emirates
Chilean citrus: Clementines end with 18% volume dr … The system would extend from a tractor or ATV to grab the tree trunk. Because the grip has many small needles, it can create numerous tiny openings in the tree, said Batuman.Bactericides can enter the tree through those small openings, he said. These areas on the trunk with openings will be covered with a reservoir, such as a funnel or plastic balloon, that will hold the liquid containing the bactericide, Batuman said. The liquid then slowly enters through the holes of the trunk.This contrasts with traditional tree trunk injections, in which a grower would use large, single-needle syringes to inject liquid materials in one spot, Batuman said.Most bactericide treatments are not very effective at staving off citrus greening because they were not directly delivered into the citrus vascular system, where greening — and its associated bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) – lives, he said. The therapeutic chemicals can kill or suppress the growth of CLas and can be used in HLB-affected plants, Batuman said.The system can also help newly planted trees fight the disease by controlling the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), which can transmit greening into citrus plants, he said. Researchers see the automated delivery system as part of an integrated pest management program to help stem the psyllid ACP.“We are developing a delivery method that will send chemicals with therapeutic potential into phloem, where bacteria live,” Batuman said.This four-year project will also study citrus vascular systems with a multidisciplinary research team. Researchers at the University of Florida are developing an automated system to deliver chemicals into the vascular parts of trees to reduce their susceptibility to citrus greening disease.Ozgur Batuman, an assistant professor of plant pathology at the university’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, leads a team of researchers trying to make the automated delivery system a reality to help growers deal with the disease.Citrus greening, also known as HLB, has led to huge losses for Florida’s multibillion dollar-a-year citrus industry.“The automated delivery system can be installed on any farm equipment and be operated by anyone who is driving – physically or remotely,” Batuman said. The person will be trained to use a joystick to control the arm that delivers the chemicals,” he said.To conduct the research, scientists will use a US$3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, an arm of the USDA. USDA seeks comments on proposed Chinese citrus imp … You might also be interested in
U.S. citrus production ‘rebounding from previous-y … February 13 , 2019 EU: Spanish citrus group labels South African mand … 
– / 61 The Arizona Cardinals’ first win of the 2014 season was seen by a lot of people. Nationally, the 18-17 victory earned a 7.1 rating with an average of 8,272,2000 households and 11,515,000 viewers. Locally, the win secured a combined 27.0 rating between ESPN (15.7) and Channel 3 (11.3). Along with the fans who watched on TV, the game was also watched by a sold-out crowd at University of Phoenix Stadium. It was the 86th consecutive sellout for the team since moving into the dome in Aug. 2006. Derrick Hall satisfied with D-backs’ buying and selling Comments Share Top Stories 
Former Cardinals kicker Phil Dawson retires The 5: Takeaways from the Coyotes’ introduction of Alex Meruelo Grace expects Greinke trade to have emotional impact
September 30, 2002 All-site meeting washeld in theamphitheater. This quarterly forum consists of business andcommunity related reports and discussions. [Photo & text: T] In the Business partof the meeting, activity reports were presented by area managers andcoordinators, followed by Q&A’s. The community part was concerned withresident’s topics. [Photo & text: T] Justin Dehnert[second from the left], a member of CommunityCouncil moderated the meeting. [Photo & text: T]