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A group of astronomers are now on the mysterious Easter Island, one of the few solid places to stand on Earth where a total solar eclipse will be visible on July 11, 2010. The majority of the eclipse's path is over the ocean, so this will be one of the least observed eclipses ever. "This is one of the most interesting things that is possible for anyone on Earth to see in one of the most interesting places on the Earth that people can go," said Jay Pasachoff from Williams College, who is the Chair of the International Astronomical Union's...

The head statuary of Easter Island is instantly recognizable to people all over the world, but who would have guessed that, lurking beneath the soil, these famous mugs also had bodies? The Easter Island Statue Project Conservation Initiative, which is funded by the Archaeological Institute of America, has been excavating two of the enormous figures for the last several years, and have found unique petroglyphs carved on their backs that had been conserved in the soil. Their research has also yielded evidence of how the carvers were paid with food such as tuna and lobster, as well as clues to...

Explanation: Volcano Tungurahua sometimes erupts spectacularly. Pictured above, molten rock so hot it glows visibly pours down the sides of the 5,000-meter high Tungurahua, while a cloud of dark ash is seen being ejected toward the left. Wispy white clouds flow around the lava-lit peak, while a star-lit sky shines in the distance. The above image was captured in 2006 as ash fell around the adventurous photographer. Located in Ecuador, Tungurahua has become active roughly every 90 years since for the last 1,300 years.

Due to economic instability, in January of 2000, then Ecuadorian President Jamil Mahuad instituted a policy instating the United States dollar as the official currency of Ecuador. Despite disapproval of the policy by current Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s administration, no plans are currently in the works to replace the US dollar as the official currency. However, the administration has indicated that it would replace the US dollar in favor of a South American currency if one became available. The dollar replaced "sucres" in Ecuador, at a rate of 1 for every 25,000 sucres. While Ecuador has officially replaced their own...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his country's nuclear program as he began a four-nation tour of Latin America, joining his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in accusing the U.S. and its allies of using the dispute to unjustly threaten Iran.[snip] Both leaders planned to travel to Nicaragua on Tuesday for the inauguration of newly re-elected President Daniel Ortega, and then Ahmadinejad will also visit Cuba and Ecuador.

The United States has ordered the expulsion of Venezuela’s consul general in Miami, AFP reported on Sunday. The expulsion comes amid reports linking the diplomat to an alleged Iranian plot to target sensitive U.S. facilities with cyber attacks. According to the report, the Venezuelan embassy in Washington was notified on Friday that Livia Acosta Noguera, the consul general in Miami, had been declared persona non grata and had until Tuesday to leave the country...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to visit Venezuela and Cuba as part of a four-nation Latin America tour in the second week of January 2012, an official said Wednesday. Ahmadinejad will also visit Nicaragua and Ecuador on the trip, his international affairs director, Mohammad Reza Forghani, told the official news agency IRNA. All the countries are left-leaning and share an ideological antagonism towards Iran's arch-foe, the United States. "Mr Ahmadinejad will first go to Caracas to visit (Venezuelan President) Hugo Chavez," Forghani said, confirming an announcement made Tuesday by Chavez. "He will then go to the swearing-in ceremonies for Nicaraguan...

Ecuador has deployed some 10,000 security forces to its border with Colombia to deal with a "most grave" security problem, President Rafael Correa said Saturday. Correa said the troops and police forces were deployed to bolster security amid concerns about "organized crime, drug trafficking (and) irregular groups," including paramilitary groups and Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia known as FARC.

Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting, and she’s the go to expert on all things groundwater. In the press release announcing her reappointment to the National Academy of Sciences, they mention that she is focused on the environmental effects of mining and petroleum extraction and production, and, more recently, on the effects of climate change on water quality. Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. She’s also heavily used by the federal government, even though after new details about her past work are coming to light...

Supernatural things are coming your way , The stuff dreams are made of but won't fade away \o/ , The supernatural exposed in and through you , Watch now as "I" come into view ! The Ancient of Days The I AM That "IS ONE" ! A Fullness , a Gladness , My Entire Kingdom , For when ever "I" show My Face , There in the midst you shall find "My" Grace , Abounding , Abiding , Sweet and True , The "ALL of ME " all over you ! Genesis 28:10-19 Amplified Bible (AMP) 10And Jacob left Beersheba...

A few months after Massachusetts’s governor rejected a federal program that checks the immigration status of local arrestees, a drunk illegal alien with a criminal history killed a motorcyclist in the state and another who had been deported racked up his sixth drunk- driving charge. Had the state participated in the federal Secure Communities program, both men would have been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation long ago. Instead, they were released by local police and allowed to continue committing crimes in their respective communities. That’s because the state’s governor, renowned open borders advocate Deval Patrick,...

Costa Rica sounds awesome. Ecuador sounds exotic. Are they as good as they sound?

SNIPPET: "Three Pakistani men pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism-related charges of supporting the Pakistani Taliban, according to a release from the U.S. Justice Department. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Bates in the District of Columbia, Irfan Ul Haq, Qasim Ali, and Zahid Yousaf pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to provide material support to the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), a designated foreign terrorist organization. Ul Haq, Ali, and Yousaf were arrested in Miami on March 13 and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. The three men allegedly ran an alien smuggling operation out...

MILFORD, Mass. — Six communities around the state have asked to join a controversial federal fingerprinting program aimed at deporting illegal immigrants who have been charged with crimes. These jurisdictions want to join the program, called Secure Communities, before it becomes mandatory for all states in 2013. But one city isn’t waiting. The town of Milford is small. The latest Census says 25,000 people live in this community off Interstate 495 near Hopkinton. Town officials estimate 2,000 of them are from Ecuador. The men work in roofing, the women in service jobs. After A Fatal Car Accident, A Crackdown On...

Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that he shared the community’s outrage over the death of a 23-year-old Milford man struck last week by an alleged drunk driver who was also an illegal immigrant. But the governor urged people not to blame the death on illegal immigration.Matthew Denice was on his motorcycle last Saturday when he was hit in Milford and dragged for a quarter-mile. Nicolas Guaman, a 34-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include vehicular homicide while under the influence. “It’s a terrible, terrible tragedy,’’ Patrick said at the end of a news conference about...

FALFURRIAS — Sergio Gaspar died a slow death in an area known as the desert of McAllen. Workers at Cage Ranch found the partially-decomposed body of the Ecuadorian immigrant Monday — a day before his 35th birthday. Half naked and already beginning to bloat, Gaspar was the 32nd victim of the violent heat and tough terrain in Brooks County this year. Deputies have counted at least 35 bodies found on the ranchlands this year. The ranchlands, which cover 60 to 70 percent of the nearly 950-square-mile county, are known to many illegal immigrants as the desert of McAllen — even...

Apple Inc. has built up a $76.2 billion cash hoard. Now the question is what the company intends to do with the money pile. On Tuesday, the Cupertino, Calif., company disclosed cash, including short-term and long-term marketable securities, for the quarter ended June 25 increased 15.8% since March to $76.2 billion. That's more than the gross domestic product of 126 countries, including nations such as Ecuador, Bulgaria, Sri Lanka and Costa Rica, according to data from the World Bank. The gigantic sum on Wednesday prompted some investors to call for it to use some of the cash for dividend payouts....

This one took out an ad in El Diaro, a Spanish-language daily in New York City, to attract clients for his services facilitating driver’s license acquisition in New Mexico, according to court papers. The cost of the service: $2,500 to $2,700, plus expenses incurred getting to New Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested and charged Jose Luis Aguirre last month with harboring illegal immigrants Elsa Puente-Vasquez of Ecuador and her husband, Luis Sancho-Pachar, along with Edwin Zorrilla-Ordonez of Colombia. Aguirre’s is the latest case in an international market that has drawn foreign nationals from India, Poland, Brazil, Korea and elsewhere...

Quito, Ecuador – The 2010 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, used the term “perfect dictatorship” to describe Mexico’s political system under the absolute control of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for most of the 20th Century. That term also fits the current governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia – and now Ecuador – like a glove. Even though Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa is the most powerful president that Ecuador has had since the early 20th Century, he is still determined to gain full control of the two institutions over which his sway is incomplete: the justice system and...

Ex-SAAF Cheetahs arriving in Ecuador Three ex-South African Air Force Cheetah fighters will arrive in Ecuador this week as deliveries of the 12 aircraft on order commence. The first three aircraft were shipped from South Africa last week, Ecuadorian Defence Minister Javier Ponce told the El Universo newspaper on Friday. Neither Denel, Armscor nor the Ecuadorian Air Force could be reached for comment at the time of going to press. In December last year, Denel Aviation, Armscor and the South African Air Force (SAAF) jointly sold 12 Cheetahs to Ecuador for US$78.4 million. Both single seat and dual seat Cheetah...

Households headed by immigrants have a substantially higher rate of welfare use than native-headed households, according a report released by the Center for Immigration Studies this week. The report examined census data about the use of welfare programs – cash assistance, food assistance, housing assistance, and Medicaid – and compared usage by immigrant headed households with at least one child – those headed both by legal and illegal immigrants – with usage by native headed households with at least one child. 57 percent of immigrant headed households participate in at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent of native...

Terrorism: The March 1 death strike by the Colombian army against FARC warlord Raul Reyes broke open a trove of contacts in his computer. So why did the name of Barack Obama turn up there?Admittedly, it pales compared with other material from the dead thug's computer — such as FARC efforts to obtain uranium or Hugo Chavez's $300 million support. But the little Obama reference within the 15 FARC letters released by the Colombian government signals a disturbing pattern of contacts with rogue actors. It's not the first time, and Obama has yet to distance himself. In a Feb. 28...

A federal judge on Monday extended his temporary order banning collection of an $18 billion judgment by the courts in Ecuador against Chevron, saying the oil company could face irreparable harm because it appeared that lawyers for Ecuadoreans who sued over rainforest contamination were going to try to quickly collect the award. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said evidence had established that lawyers for 30,000 Ecuadoreans planned to move swiftly to pursue multiple enforcement actions and asset seizures around the globe, including in areas where Chevron would not be immediately able to challenge the actions. He said that without his...

BROCKTON — The lawyer for the family of murder victim Maria Palaguachi-Cela said it will be “impossible” to bring her accused killer from Ecuador to Brockton for trial despite the efforts of Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz. The lawyer, Alfredo Andrade, who was reached by telephone in Ecuador, spoke after Cruz revealed for the first time on Wednesday that Luis Augustin Guaman, 40, was secretly charged on Feb. 18 in Brockton District Court with the murders of Palaguachi-Cela and her 2-year-old son, Brian.

A Chevron Corp. lawyer said Friday that the company will not apologize for damage that an oil company it purchased is accused of causing to Ecuador's rainforest even though the refusal means a $9.5 billion judgment against it will nearly double within days. Attorney Randy Mastro instead attacked the judgment issued Monday by an Ecuadorean judge as the product of a corrupt judicial system and urged a U.S. judge to block lawyers for Ecuadoreans from trying to collect the money by getting other countries to seize Chevron assets and bank accounts. Mastro told U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in...

The Law: An Ecuador court's finding of Chevron liable for $8.64 billion over jungle drilling is a bogus case showing how easy it is for lawyers to manipulate banana republic systems. Hailing the ruling as a strike for "environmental justice," plaintiffs known as the Amazon Defense Front and their lawyers successfully convinced a judge in Lago Agrio, an Ecuadorean jungle town locally known as a supplying station for Colombia's FARC terrorists, that mighty Chevron, whose Texaco subsidiary drilled the rain forest from 1964 to 1990, irreparably polluted the rain forest with its drilling operations. That entitled the activists to $8.64...

A court in Ecuador today persisted in an attempt to shake down the California-based Chevron corporation despite orders from American and international tribunals that would block any seizure of Chevron's assets because of what multiple courts has said looks like “fraud” being perpetrated against the company.

An Ecuadoran judge has ruled against Chevron Corp. in a bitter, 18-year-old lawsuit over oil-field contamination in a corner of the Amazon rain forest. A Chevron spokesman confirmed today that the judge, ruling in the small town of Lago Agrio, had issued a final decision in the case but offered few other details.

SA sells Cheetah jet fighters to Ecuador Denel Aviation has sold 12 Cheetah C supersonic fighter aircraft to Ecuador, the company said on Monday. An agreement to conclude the deal was recently signed by Denel Aviation CEO Mike Kgobe in Ecuador's capital, Quito. Denel Aviation is the design authority of the single-seat fighter that was locally developed as a variant of the Mirage III in the 1980s. In terms of the agreement with the Ecuadorian Air Force, Denel Aviation would continue to provide a comprehensive maintenance and support service for at least five years following the sale, with an option...

Not that long ago, when the discussion by Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad first discussed unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stated his intention to recognize such a state. Then, for a stretch, there was silence, that is until this week. Now, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner, and Uruguayan Deputy Foreign Minister Roberto Conde have all come forward to support the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state with the 1949 Armistice Lines as a recognized border. Many following these events expect for Bolivia and Ecuador to join the march to...

If WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange needs a home, Ecuador's deputy foreign minister says this Andean nation is happy to provide one. The 39-year-old Australian, who has incensed and embarrassed Washington with the release by his online whistle-blowing organization of hundreds of sensitive diplomatic cables, had sought residency and a work permit in Sweden. But after the release by WikiLeaks beginning in late July of thousands of sensitive documents from the Iraq and Afghan wars, a Swedish court ordered him detained for questioning on sexual assault allegations - claims Assange denies and calls part of a smear campaign. Assange, who keeps...

Two men from Pakistan and Sri Lanka were held without bail Friday on charges that they smuggled Middle Easterners into the United States through third countries for $20,000 each. Iqbal Munawar and Chelliah Sri Kajamukam were arrested late Thursday at Miami International Airport on charges filed in New York, federal authorities said.They made federal court appearances Friday and were ordered to return to court for bond hearings Thursday.An Indian businessman led the smuggling ring, which illegally flew people to Miami and New York and carried them to the United States by boat, FBI agent Timothy Ryan wrote in a court...

Suspected Terrorist Arrested In Florida Iqbal Munawar Arrested In Alleged Immigration Scheme UPDATED: 3:25 p.m. EDT September 14, 2002 MIAMI -- Iqbal Munawar, who was on the FBI's list of suspected terrorists, was jailed as he tried to fly from Miami to Tampa, Fla., Friday morning. Munawar and two other men have been charged with smuggling illegal aliens from the Middle East into the United States on airplanes through Miami International Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport. The suspects are accused of making more than $100,000 in the smuggling operation, selling more than 1,000 false visas to illegal immigrants. Miami-Dade...

Here's What The Crisis In Ecuador Says About The Potential For Anarchy All Around The World Vincent Fernando, CFA Oct. 1, 2010, 10:09 AM Budget cuts clearly aren't going too well in Ecuador, where the prime minister was tear-gassed and then briefly held hostage by protesting police inside the hospital where he was receiving treatment. Prime Minister Rafael Correa was eventually freed after army troops stormed in, but now he has declared his political opposition as an attempted 'coup d'etat' and the country is under a state of emergency and in crisis. The conflict began when Mr. Correa went in...

Budget cuts clearly aren't going too well in Ecuador, where the prime minister was tear-gassed and then briefly held hostage by protesting police inside the hospital where he was receiving treatment. Prime Minister Rafael Correa was eventually freed after army troops stormed in, but now he has declared his political opposition as an attempted 'coup d'etat' and the country is under a state of emergency and in crisis. The conflict began when Mr. Correa went in person to address the police's grievances. The initial visit broke into a scuffle, and according to the New York Times, at one point the...

The fruits of socialism on display.

Ecuador President Rafael Correa has been left needing medical treatment after being injured in protests led by members of his security forces. Police angered at plans to limit their pay have burned tyres in the streets of Quito, while witnesses described seeing looting across the city. Scores of soldiers swarmed over the landing strip of the international airport in the capital to quell the trouble. All international flights have been cancelled after troops exerted a shutdown in confused and chaotic scenes. The President was hurt as he took to the streets in an attempt to quell the trouble in the...

SNIPPET: "BOGOTA – Colombian authorities detained an Ecuadorian man who crossed the border with 25 kilos (55 pounds) of explosives officials say were meant for the small ELN rebel group. The smuggler, Antonio Peña Perugachi, was arrested in Tuquerres, a village in the southern border province of Nariño. He was carrying 50 packets of pentolite, a high-power explosive, destined for a unit of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, police said in a communique."

SNIPPET: "BOGOTA – Police seized 100 kilos of pentolite and arrested five people, including four Ecuadorians, who were transporting the high explosive on a highway in southwestern Colombia, a police commander said Tuesday. A 17-year-old girl carrying a baby was among the foreigners arrested, the National Police commander in the southern border province of Putumayo, Col. Orlando Polo, said. Officers also seized 6,000 meters (6,565 yards) of detonating cord, Polo told reporters in Mocoa, the capital of Putumayo. The explosives and detonating cord were in a truck apparently headed for Florencia, the capital of neighboring Caqueta province." SNIPPET: "The pentolite...

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A survivor has told police that 72 people found dead at a ranch near the Mexican border with Texas were migrants kidnapped by an armed group, a federal official said Wednesday. The bodies of 58 men and 14 women were discovered Tuesday when Marines manning a checkpoint on a highway in the northern state of Tamaulipas were approached by a wounded man who said he had been attacked by gang gunmen at a nearby ranch.

More than 500 other people in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon region, close to the border with Ecuador - all of them Awajun Indians - have been bitten by the blood-sucking bats. Rabies outbreaks - particularly among bats - are a regular occurrence in Peru.

A large and mysterious creature is ripping apart cattle in a small village of Ecuador. Although the original article is in Spanish, Google translation tries its best to translate it to English, but fails. So I will paraphrase. The small community of “La Cuadra” (The block) has seen multiple cattle mutilated and torn apart by something powerful. The ghastly findings are out of the ordinary, even for local known predators. The residents concluded that what ever it is that has killed steer and cows, it’s powerful enough to rip them apart and leave huge, deep prints with large claws in...

PHOENIX — Two more Latin American countries added their own objections Tuesday to Arizona's new immigration law. In legal papers filed in federal court, Luis Gallegos, the ambassador to the United States from Ecuador, said his country wants to join Mexico in the fight to convince U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton to block the state from enforcing the law. “Similar to Mexico, Ecuador has a substantial and compelling interest in ensuring that its bilateral diplomatic relations with the government of the United States of America are transparent, consistent and reliable, and not frustrated by the actions of individual U.S....

Washington - A former US State Department official has been sentenced to life in prison for spying, while his wife was ordered to spend nearly seven years behind bars for helping to pass highly classified information to Cuba, the Justice Department said Friday. Walter Kendall Myers, 73, and wife Gwendolyn, 71, pleaded guilty in November to espionage charges and acting as agents for the Cuban government. Myers had also admitted to passing top secret information in a conversation with an undercover FBI agent, the Justice Department said.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS Visit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org Foreign News Report Friday, 7/2/10 La Hora (Quito, Ecuador) 7/1/10\ “Arizonas” – op/col by Simon Espinosa Jalil, titled as shown Ecuador, in keeping with its new arrogant and sovereign attitude, has been one of the most fervent critics of the anti-immigration policies of the rich countries, starting from the restrictions in Spain all the way to the criminalization in Arizona. Not only that, but the government, in an attitude matching its official posture, decided to open the borders to all visitors who might want to come to our beautiful...

The U.S. government announced on Saturday afternoon that for the first time ever a fully operational submarine used by drug traffickers has been seized in the waters of South America. The craft, which could move multi-ton loads of cocaine, was seized in a jungle tributary of Ecuador leading to the Pacific Ocean by Ecuadoran authorities using Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence.

China now finances a majority of the public energy projects underway in Ecuador. Recent deals include an 85% stake in a hydroelectric dam that will cover a third of the country's energy needs by 2016. Chinese firms will also take charge of most construction. As you can imagine if another country controlled our utilities, many Ecuadorians are extemely anxious, reports Asia Times:

Angelina Jolie visited a refugee center in Sucombios province north Ecuador, Friday, June 18. The center houses thousands of refugees who have fled the conflict in adjacent Colombia.

In the six months since their 22-year-old son, Max, was murdered in Ecuador, John Chamberlin and Ellen Madnick have slowly come to understand just how much of their pain and outrage is shared by the Obama administration and the State Department. None. It's nothing personal. In fact, Chamberlin notes, the U.S. government's response has been painfully impersonal: "You can murder an American and nothing will be done about it. It's our national policy not to get involved when people die." As I wrote in November, Max Chamberlin left his job with AT&T last year and moved to Manta, an Ecuadorean...

Federal District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan granted Chevron's request and ordered the release of outtakes from Joseph Berlinger's anti-Chevron documentary, "CRUDE". The court decision could have a big impact on the $27 billion lawsuit entangling the oil giant in Ecuador.