Obituaries: Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner Dies

Former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, the husband of the nation's current president, Cristina Kirchner, died suddenly October 27th after suffering a heart attack. He was 60 years old.

Mr. Kirchner died at a hospital in the southern city of El Calafate.

The former president had suffered heart problems in the past and had surgery just last month to treat a blocked artery.

Mr. Kirchner served as president of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, when his wife succeeded him. He was credited with leading the country out of a severe financial crisis while in office, and many expected him to run for president again in next year's elections.

Mr. Kirchner stayed active in politics after leaving office, serving in the Argentine congress and as leader of the country's Peronist party.

A lawyer by training, Mr. Kirchner was first elected to public office as mayor of the southern city of Rio Gallegos, his hometown. He later became governor of the province of Santa Cruz.

As secretary general of the Union of South American Republics, or Unasur, Kirchner mediated one of the many border disputes between Venezuela and Colombia. Both countries' leaders mourned his loss on Wednesday.

"Oh my dear Cristina...how sad! What a huge loss suffered by Argentina and our America! May Kirchner live forever!" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tweeted.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos asked for a moment of silence in Bogota in Kirchner's honor.

"It's a great loss for Argentina and a great loss for the continent," he said, adding that he would try to reach Fernandez to share his condolences.

U.S. President Barack Obama also praised Kirchner's significant roles in Argentina and Unasur. "Michelle's and my thoughts and prayers are with President Fernandez de Kirchner and their children," he said.

adapted from The New York Times and VOANews

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French Senate Passes Controversial Retirement Bill (video)

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After watching the video at least twice, provide the context in which the following words are used:

(1) targeted
(2) widespread gas shortages
(3) break up
(4) keep debating
(5) strikes
(6) called for more days
(7) vowed to continue public disruptions
(8) pose a problem
(9) want support to grow
(10) peaceful
(11) just over half
(12) discuss how to ease the problems
(13) little by little
(14) progressive improvement
(15) however
(16) garbage collectors
(17) reduce the pool
(16) depend on

Cholera Spreading Through Vulnerable Haiti

Health officials warn that an outbreak of cholera spreading through rural Haiti is worsening.

The disease has already killed about 200 people, and has sickened at least 2,000.

The outbreak has been centered mostly in the rural Artibonite region of the country, and many believe a contaminated river is the source.

Officials fear it will soon reach the capital, Port-au-Prince. Once there, it will easily spread through the unsanitary camps housing hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by an earthquake in January.

Reporters visiting medical centers and the main hospital in the town of St. Marc say patients are lining the floors and courtyard.

The United Nations says humanitarian agencies, rushing to contain the outbreak, are distributing 10,000 boxes of water purification tablets and hygiene kits in affected areas.

Cholera is a bacterial infection that is typically spread by contaminated water or food. Symptoms include fever, severe diarrhea, and vomiting. The disease is treatable, but without attention, it can kill within hours.

International health experts say this is the first cholera outbreak to hit Haiti in decades.



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The Girl Effect Initiative

World Bank, Nike Team Up for 'The Girl Effect' Initiative

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iPad Prices

The price of Apple's tablet computer, before sales tax, varies significantly between countries

An iPad with Wi-Fi and 16 gigabytes of memory costs $200 less in Hong Kong, the former British colony than in Germany and France. Given the risk of having to pay extra duty (and the price of the flight) potential iPad buyers in Frankfurt or Paris should consider a trip to nearby Luxembourg, where Apple's popular device is $35 cheaper.

The sales tax is only one reason for such differences in price. Consumers in Hong Kong also get a better deal because iPads are assembled in mainland China. Buyers in Switzerland have to pay more because there is less competition between retailers. In China and Mexico, the device may be cheaper because people are poorer.

Incidentally, if income is taken into account, consumers in Luxembourg get the best deal: they only have to spend about 0.8% of the city-state's GDP per person on an iPad.

California elections: Proposition 19 (audio)

adapted from VOA

Protests to continue in France

Oil refinery workers, high school students, rail workers and other protesters sought to maintain pressure on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's reforms, which face a key Senate vote expected Wednesday. Truck drivers used vans to slow traffic on highways around Paris and cities like Lille, Rennes and Lyon, but they did not use fleets of large trucks to block roads.

Wider strikes will hit everything from air travel to mail on Tuesday when unions opposed to President Nicolas Sarkozy will start a massive street protest against the unpopular pension bill. The proposed reforms include provisions to raise the French retirement age from age 60 to 62.

A majority of French people -- 71 percent in one poll -- back protests over the plan to raise the minimum and the full retirement ages by two years to 62 and 67 respectively, a move the government says is vital to stem a soaring pension deficit.

This could be a make-or-break week for Sarkozy. The center-right government assured the public infrastructure will not freeze up despite a week-long strike at refineries that has dried up supplies at hundreds of France's roughly 12,500 gas stations.

"The situation is critical," a spokeswoman at Exxon Mobil said. "Anyone looking for diesel in the Paris and Nantes (Western France) regions will have problems."

Sarkozy, in the northern seaside town of Deauville for talks with the leaders of Germany and Russia, said he will not back down. "The reform is essential and France is committed to it and will go ahead with it just as our German partners did," he told reporters after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Only 13 percent of rail workers kept up a week long strike on Monday but workers at France's 12 refineries were in their seventh day of a strike and protesters blocked access at many fuel distribution depots around the country.

The UFIP oil industry lobby has said France will probably see serious fuel supply problems by mid-week-The DGAC aviation authority asked airlines to reduce flights to Paris's Orly airport by 50 percent and to all other airports by 30 percent on Tuesday.

Government ministers stressed the country has plenty of fuel and that airports in particular have ample supply. "The government is in control," Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said.

As many as 1,800 service stations have run short of fuel in recent days. A body representing supermarket fuel stations said 500-1,000 were hit on Monday. Total said 400 of its stations had been affected and Esso reported a similar toll.

At an empty station on Paris's Champs Elysees avenue, manager Paula said she spent much of her morning trying to stop drivers unhooking fuel pumps. "It's madness, we're submerged," she said.

The International Energy Agency, which overlooks strategic oil supplies in OECD countries, said that France as of Friday had 98 days of fuel between industry reserves and government reserves.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon has warned that people blocking fuel depots were breaking the law.

Riot police used teargas and rubber pellet guns in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to break up a crowd of youths who set fire to cars near an anti-reform protest by secondary school students. They intervened for similar reasons in the city of Lyon.

adapted from Reuters and VOANews

Innovative Technology Monitors Teenage Drivers (Video)

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A? An? The?

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Chile Completes Rescue of All 33 Miners (Fill in)

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Chilean rescuers ………………………… (end) a marathon operation Tuesday and ……………………………………. (free) all 33 miners trapped underground for more than two months. All of the rescued miners …………………………….. (send) for medical treatment and several of them ………………………….. (undergo) surgery in the coming days.

Chilean officials …………………………….. (say) the rescue operation at the San Jose mine in northern Chile …………………………………………. (advance) more quickly than expected.

Rescue crews ……………………………….(pull) each miner to the surface in about 15 minutes.

Rescue crews and officials ……………………….. (cheer) and ………………………(clap) as each miner……………………………..(arrive) at the surface, where family members ………………………………………. (wait) for him. Medical teams ………………………………… (rush) each man to a hospital in nearby Copiapó for a thorough examination.

Chile's President Sebastián Piñera ………………………………….. (be) at the site to greet each rescued miner.

The rescue ………………………………….(end) a two-month-long ordeal for the men, who …………………………………………… (trap) by a cave-in at the gold and copper mine on August 5. The men ………………………(cut off) from the surface for 17 days, until a drilling crew ……………..……………..(locate) them.

Chilean Mining Minister Laurence Golborne …………………………………. (thank) scores of experts and others who ………………………………… (help) carry out the rescue operation. But he ………………………………..(caution) that the job ………………………..(be) over yet.

Health Minister Jaime Mañalich ………………………….. (say) many of the miners ………………………………….(appear) to be in better health than expected. He ……………………………….. (add) that each miner ………………………………………... (undergo) a series of tests, including a lung x-ray and heart monitoring, and that some ………………………………………….(receive) psychiatric treatment, if needed.

A few miners …………………………………………(receive) dental surgery in the coming days to treat abscesses and other conditions.

Mañalich …………………………………………..(say) the most serious case ……..……………………………… (be) a miner with pneumonia, who …………………..………………….(remain) in intensive care for some days to receive oxygen and other treatments.

More than 1,000 journalists …………………………………….. (cover) the rescue operation at the remote San Jose mine in the Atacama desert. During the past two months, relatives of the miners and rescue crews …………………………… (gather) outside the mine and ………………………………………… (form) a community they …………………………………….. (call) Camp Hope.

Millions of people around the world ………………………………….(watch) the rescue operation unfold on television.

In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama ……………………………. (say) he ……………………………………..(watch) the first miner being freed, adding that it ……………………………………(be) a tribute to the hard work of the rescue workers and the Chilean people. He …………………………………. (thank) people from around the world who…………………………………. (contribute) to the operation, including a U.S.-based drilling team and experts from the U.S. space agency, NASA.

adapted from VOAnews

Chile Completes Rescue of All 33 Miners (Video)

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Chile's successful test of rescue hatch

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Hungary's Echological Disaster: Director arrested

Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

A resident of Devecser, Hungary begins cleanup after red sludge flooded the town.

BUDAPEST — Zoltan Bakonyi , the managing director of MAL Zrt, the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company whose reservoir unleashed a lethal torrent on three villages last week was arrested on Monday October 11.

He will be charged with criminal negligence leading to a public catastrophe. If he is convicted, he will face a sentence of up to 10 years, according to a government spokeswoman.

A week ago, nearly 200 million gallons of toxic red mud — a byproduct of the conversion of bauxite to alumina, for aluminum — poured out of a reservoir, killed eight people and injured hundreds more.

Updating Parliament on the government’s response, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said "A new emergency law will be enacted to bring MAL Zrt under state control. A state commissioner will be appointed to manage the company and its assets. The government will also focus on saving jobs and identifying other risky industrial sites"

Some observers accused the government of using the catastrophe as a pretext to renationalize private industry and rule by decree. MAL Zrt was owned by the state during Communist times, before it was taken over by private investors after Communism fell in 1989.

Gyorgyi Tottos, spokeswoman for Hungary's Catastrophe Protection Unit, said “I have just returned from the site and there are three gaps in the wall that are a half-meter wide and 20 meters long, which suggests that the wall will fall over time. But we are building a concrete barrier and an emergency dam. We hope that the effects of the wall collapsing will be less dramatic than last time.”

Peter Szijjarto, the prime minister’s spokesman, told the broadcaster TV2 "The dam will be finished by Tuesday. We have 4,000 people and 300 machines working at the scene so we are doing our utmost to prevent another tragedy.”

The government held a special meeting on Sunday to analyze the consequences of the disaster.

Analysts said Mr. Orban’s center-right government, elected earlier this year, was gaining popularity because the devastating rupture had inspired national unity and served to distract the country from its economic worries. They said Mr. Orban moved quickly to take control of the situation and is fashioning himself as a Hungarian protector.

John Lennon's biography

John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, during a German air-raid over Liverpool. His father, Alf Lennon, was a seaman, who deserted his wife Julia and their infant child. Twenty years later when Alf Lennon tried to reenter his famous son's life, Lennon did not welcome him.
Unable to raise Lennon alone, Julia asked her sister and brother-in-law, Mimi and George Smith, to care for her son. Tragically, an off-duty police officer knocked down and killed Lennon's mother in 1958.
Inspired by the rock 'n' roll of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry in the mid 1950s, Lennon started learning the guitar. His mother had introduced the banjo to him, and he initially played the guitar like a banjo.
In 1957 he formed the band that became the Beatles, and in the 1960s he achieved enormous success performing with the group and writing songs with Paul McCartney.
Lennon married Cynthia Powell in August of 1962, and they had a son, John Charles Julian, the following year.
Divorced from his first wife in November of 1968 on the grounds of adultery with Ono, Lennon married Ono, a Japanese environmental artist with whom he collaborated in both music and the visual arts.
In October of 1968, Lennon was arrested with Ono, for the possession of hashish, and Lennon pled guilty and received a fine
Ono and Lennon released "Unfinished Music Number One: Two Virgins" in November of 1968, featuring the couple naked on the cover.
The couple spent their honeymoon protesting against the war in Vietnam. In the same year, and as a form of protest, Lennon returned to the British government the Member of the Order of the British Empire Medal, which Queen Elizabeth had awarded the Beatles in 1965.
Meanwhile, the Beatles recorded their final album, "Abbey Road" in 1969 as the group began to disintegrate. Many fans blamed Ono for breakup, only strengthening Lennon's commitment to her.
Lennon and Ono moved to the United States in September of 1971. However, Lennon continued to be a high profile figure after the immigration service declared him ineligible for residency and served him with a deportation notice because of his 1968 drug conviction. The New York Supreme Court eventually reversed the order in 1975.
In New York, Lennon recorded "Imagine."
Sean Ono Taro Lennon was born in 1975 on father John's birthday.
In 1976 Lennon announced that he was going to be a househusband, and he did not record anything until 1980.
After the hiatus, Lennon worked with Ono to produce "Double Fantasy," which many critics considered among Lennon's best work.
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan, murdered Lennon outside the Dakota in Manhattan. Lennon's death returned his music to worldwide prominence

Imagine by John Lennon

Indonesia Becoming an Economic Power - Video

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Indonesia Becoming an Economic Power - Follow up

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An ………………………………………………… manufacturing base, an ……………………………………… of natural resources, a …………………………………. domestic market, a …………………………………….financial sector and a …………………………………………………..political climate all contribute to make Indonesia's economy one of the strongest in the world.

Milan Zavadjil the International Monetary Fund's representative in Indonesia, says it ……………………………………………………………………………….. China and India in attracting foreign investment.

"Various investor ……………………………………………………. have it jumping up the rankings. And an interesting ………………………………………..puts it as the fourth most likely place for investment over the ………………………………………………. years among emerging markets."

For investors, ……………………. year's ……………………………………………….. presidential election is seen as ushering in a new era of political stability and optimism……………………………………………. the bombings of two Jakarta hotels in July of 2009, government efforts to prevent terrorism have …………………………………………….. the business community.

Indonesian Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo says the government's conservative fiscal policies protect investments ……………………………………………………………… inflation.

"Most important we would like to ……………………………………………… our budget. Yes, we will provide stimulus but we will not have a budget deficit of more than 1.7 percent. And I believe that is the ………………………………………………………… of Indonesia."

Free trade agreements with China and other Asian countries have increased ……………………………………………….. -And in some industries, such as ……………………………………………………………….manufacturing, companies are moving factories from China to Indonesia.

But ………………………………………………………… the free trade policies. Baso Rukmana, head of Indonesia's National Workers Union, says ……………………………………………………… for Indonesian companies to compete in part because of corruption

Some surveys of business managers show corruption ……………………………………………………… here. ………………………………………………………, the IMF's Zavadjil says it is ……………….. than in some other countries.

…………………………………………. Indonesia's stock market is at record levels, the finance minister ………………………………. there is …………………………………. the economy will ……………………………………….. He says, and many economists agree, the country is …………………………………………………….to see annual growth of ……………………………. percent for the next few years.

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