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We are all now very familiar with the aptly-named triple threat posed by Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. But there's another gathering storm closer to home and the media only feigns interest. Cuba's old news. And Venezuela's rants against colonialism and America have reached the level of parody. But recently Bolivia has stepped up and is trying to play with the big boys.

WASHINGTON -- Millions of American boys have dreamed of hitting a grand slam or pitching a no-hitter at Yankee Stadium because baseball's greatest have performed there. Talented musicians and singers aspire to New York's famed Carnegie Hall, for they know it represents the pinnacle of their profession. For gifted physicians and medical researchers, the Mount Everest of medicine is the Mayo Clinic. But certain institutions can bring out the worst in people. For the professional peddlers of anti-Americanism, haters of free enterprise, and true believers in global government, there is only one place that it really pays to perform: the...

Russia offered aid to the leftist government of Nicaragua on Wednesday, a former Cold War ally, as part of a push to increase its influence in Latin America after years on the sidelines in the region. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin was in the Central American country following a tour of Cuba, where he promised to help areas devastated by recent hurricanes. Sechin said his country wants to promote trade, energy and education projects while increasing "political cooperation" with Nicaragua. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, had close ties to Moscow when he first governed the country...

A new session of the United Nations General Assembly has opened in New York, with a sharp attack on the United States by the assembly's president, former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann. VOA's Walter Wisniewski reports from our New York newscenter. The past year's General Assembly of the United Nations has come to a close, and the new, 63rd session of the General Assembly is now formally open. World leaders will address the annual U.N. meeting next week, but the Assembly's incoming president caught diplomats' attention Tuesday with his opening remarks, a scathing attack on U.S. policies. The General...

A bitter political-cultural confrontation that exploded in Nicaragua in late August could mark the final end of the passionate romance between the world’s leftist intellectuals and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Ortega, you may recall, was the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front when it seized power after overthrowing the 40-year Somoza family dynasty. A dashing young revolutionary who electrified liberals and leftists around the world, Ortega served as Nicaragua’s president for most of the 1980s. He lost power in 1990, but after 16 years in opposition, he was elected president again in 2006. For years — in and out...

Recognition a Lonely Exercise for Moscow 05 September 2008 By Nabi Abdullaev / Staff Writer Ten days after Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, the only other country to have followed suit as of Thursday was that Cold War battlefield of the 1980s: Nicaragua. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's announcement this week of his Central American nation's recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions was a "pleasant surprise," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday. Closer to home, however, Russia's allies among former Soviet republics have remained reticent on the issue. The Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-led alliance of...

Nicaragua has recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, backing the Russian stance on the breakaway Georgian regions and siding with other leftist Latin American countries to defy Washington. The Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader who had close ties to Moscow during the Cold War, has criticized the Georgian attempt to regain control of South Ossetia and supported the counterattack by Russia. Venezuela and Cuba have sided with Russia in the dispute, but Ortega went further in fully recognizing the regions' independence. "The government of Nicaragua recognizes the independence of the republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and...

Their lives and their fates could hardly have been more different. William Walker graduated from college when he was 14 and later earned a medical degree and passed the bar. Cornelius Vanderbilt quit school after the sixth grade and is known to have read only one book in his entire life. Walker was executed by firing squad when he was 36, his body thrown naked into a shallow grave far from his native Nashville, Tenn. When Vanderbilt died in bed at the age of 83, he was the richest self-made man in the world. His tomb on his native Staten...

What nice things oil buys.

Mr. Ortega refers to the FARC as "brothers." His help would be welcomed by the rebels, who have suffered a string of recent setbacks, including the deaths of three of its top members and the recent rescue by Colombia's military of some of the group's most prized hostages. Latin America's oldest and largest insurgency, the FARC funds itself through drug trafficking and kidnapping. It holds about 700 hostages, most for ransom. ... Mr. Ortega agreed to mediate the conflict, much to the annoyance of the Colombian government, which resents the sympathy with which Mr. Ortega and some other Latin American...

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega charged Saturday that the opposition was "openly conspiring" with US help to overthrow his government, and threatened to unleash "weapons of war" if they did not stop. Thousands of Nicaraguans marched against Ortega last month after the Electoral Tribunal disqualified two political parties from the November municipal and the 2011 general elections. "We want peace, but we're also prepared to raise the steel weapons of war if they try to overthrow the people's government, the power of ordinary citizens," Ortega said on the 29th anniversary of the rebel uprising that overthrew the Anastasio Somoza dictatorship. The...

Question of the Day: John McCain Supposedly Roughed Up . . . By Debbie Schlussel . . . an associate of Communist Sandinista Dictator Daniel "Gucci Glasses" Ortega of Nicaragua, and this is a "bad thing" because . . .? Sorry, but if true--and he's now denying it--this enhances my respect for John McCain a gazillion-fold and makes me happier to vote for him in November. It probably is true because the John McCain of 1987 was a true conservative, a lot different than the one of today. A brief refresher: Daniel Ortega was (and remains) a Communist thug. He...

President Daniel Ortega, who led the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua, says Barack Obama’s presidential bid is a “revolutionary” phenomenon in the United States. “It’s not to say that there is already a revolution under way in the U.S. … but yes, they are laying the foundations for a revolutionary change,” the Sandinista leader said Wednesday night as he accepted an honorary doctorate from an engineering university. Ortega led a Soviet-backed government that battled U.S.-supported Contra rebels before he lost power in a 1990 election. He returned to office last year via the ballot box. In statements broadcast on Sandinista Radio...

Team rescued 120 women from grim conditions when it dismantled the operation in Houston The farewell party was in full swing at midnight when police came for Maximino "El Chimino" Mondragon, his accomplices and his victims — scantily dressed women and girls he forced to sell beers and sexual favors under the flashing lights of a revolving crystalline disco ball inside his strip mall bar off Hempstead Highway. Mondragon was celebrating his retirement at El Potrero de Chimino bar, also known as the Wagon Wheel. He had a one-way ticket back to his native El Salvador and blueprints in the...

United Nations: It's said that the U.N. is only as good as its members. But putting a Nicaraguan dinosaur communist at the presidency of the General Assembly takes it all a step lower. Already, the America-bashing is back.Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, Nicaragua's foreign minister until his Marxist Sandinista party was booted in 1990, has now got a new gig leading the U.N. General Assembly. Oh, lucky us. A Maryknoll priest of the old liberation theology school, the 75-year-old rifle-and-cassock radical is famous for taking the U.S. to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 1986 over President Reagan's arming...

The General Assembly of the United Nations voted this week to elect Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann as its new president. Readers with a long memory will recall Father D'Escoto (he's a Catholic priest) as Nicaragua's foreign minister during the Sandinista regime of the 1980s. He's also the winner of the 1985 Lenin Prize. Only at the U.N. does that count as a recommendation.continued

BULLETIN TROPICAL DEPRESSION ONE-E ADVISORY NUMBER 1 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP012008 800 PM PDT WED MAY 28 2008 ...TROPICAL DEPRESSION FORMS NEAR COSTA RICA...EXPECTED TO BRING HEAVY RAINS TO PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA... AT 8 PM PDT...0300 UTC...THE GOVERNMENT OF COSTA RICA HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR THE PACIFIC COAST OF COSTA RICA. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO SPREAD ACROSS THE PACIFIC COAST OF NICARAGUA DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS. FOR STORM...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — The government billboards and graffiti in this sultry city tell a visitor a lot about the ideological battle racking Nicaragua. President Daniel Ortega Saavedra beams from the billboards, promising “Citizens Power” as a solution to Nicaragua’s endemic poverty. “The world’s poor arise!” the signs say. But beneath the billboards, on walls and benches all over town, others have scrawled “No to CPC. No to dictatorship.” The graffiti alludes to Citizens Power Councils — or C.P.C.’s. In December, Mr. Ortega established the neighborhood committees, which are controlled by his left-wing Sandinista party and administer antipoverty programs, despite a...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced Thursday that he is breaking off relations with Colombia because of his country's opposition to the Colombian raid on a guerrilla base in Ecuador. Ortega announced his decision publicly after meeting with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who is on a multination tour in the region to rally opposition to Colombia's action, which killed the No. 2 commander of the Colombian FARC guerrilla group and 23 other Colombian guerrillas. "We are breaking off relations because of the political terrorism being carried out by the governnent of Alvaro Uribe, not because of the Colombian...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) -- The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl and ended the season with a perfect 19-0 record -- at least it looks that way in Nicaragua. The NFL donated 290 Patriots hats and an equal number of team jerseys trumpeting the slogans "Super Bowl Champions, 19-0" to impoverished children from two small communities in southern Nicaragua. Thursday's gifts could not change history -- the Patriots lost the Feb. 3 game to the New York Giants 17-14 -- but they made a lot of youngsters in the communities of San Gregorio and Buena Vista very happy, said...

Election 2008: It always helps to know how America's enemies size up presidential candidates. South of our border, for example, Barack Obama draws praise from Nicaragua's dictator as John McCain enrages Cuba's.Daniel Ortega, the Marxist whom President Reagan once called "the little dictator," is feeling the love these days. Perpetually at odds with Reagan, who funded the Contra resistance in a war against his bid to turn Nicaragua into a Soviet beachhead, Ortega is pleased with what he sees in Barack Obama. He has called Obama a spokesman for Nicaragua's illegal immigrants in the U.S. and has said Obama's campaign...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua: President Daniel Ortega, who led the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua, says Barack Obama's presidential bid is a "revolutionary" phenomenon in the United States. "It's not to say that there is already a revolution under way in the U.S. ... but yes, they are laying the foundations for a revolutionary change," the Sandinista leader said Wednesday night as he accepted an honorary doctorate from an engineering university. Ortega led a Soviet-backed government that battled U.S.-supported Contra rebels before he lost power in a 1990 election. He returned to office last year via the ballot box.

President Daniel Ortega, who led the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua, says Barack Obama's presidential bid is a "revolutionary" phenomenon in the United States. "It's not to say that there is already a revolution under way in the U.S. ... but yes, they are laying the foundations for a revolutionary change," the Sandinista leader said Wednesday night as he accepted an honorary doctorate from an engineering university. Ortega led a Soviet-backed government that battled U.S.-supported Contra rebels before he lost power in a 1990 election. He returned to office last year via the ballot box.

MIAMI - At the end of Nicaragua's civil war, Juan Gregorio Rodriguez traded his life as a Contra rebel for that of auto mechanic in Florida. He kept in touch with other rebels and supported their political efforts, but mostly from afar. That changed in 2006, when the Contras' nemesis, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, was elected president, 16 years after his Soviet-backed government lost power in a vote that ended the guerrilla conflict in which some 30,000 people died.

MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua — If the ruling mullahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran were chafing enough about U.S. Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz to send speedboats after them last month, they must take some comfort in having projected an equivalent threat in America's own backyard, in this unlikeliest of locales.

Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega is reverting to radicalism, writes JAIME DAREMBLUM. But the opposition is fighting back. When Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega returned to power as president of Nicaragua last year, there were encouraging signs that this time would be different. Ortega’s first term as president in the 1980s was marred by failed socialist economic policies, his support of Communist revolutions in the region, and a military conflict with the U.S.-backed Contra rebels. Even so, at the time of Ortega’s election in late 2006, Latin American democrats hoped this onetime revolutionary had abandoned his radical past in favor of a...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega may appear too insignificant to create U.S. security risks from his tiny, impoverished nation. But the leftist's growing alliance with Tehran tells another story. Ortega is the same Marxist Sandinista leader that Ronald Reagan in 1989 dubbed "the unwanted animal at the garden party... Ortega had shot his way to power, forged an alliance with Cuba and ignited a long civil war. He was surprised when Nicaraguan voters unceremoniously threw him out in 1990. Since then, Ortega has changed his tune...He now calls himself a social democrat, and he lowered his anti-American rhetoric to win a...

Iran making push into Nicaragua Web Posted: 12/18/2007 10:25 PM CST Todd Bensman Express-News MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua — The second military helicopter in as many days hovered over the jungle and then landed to a most unwelcome reception from several dozen angry Rama Indian and Creole villagers. Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, a leader of some 400 Creole who live along the shoreline, confronted the foreigners dressed in suits and military uniforms that day in March and demanded to know the purpose of their aerial trespasses. "This is our land; we have always lived here, and you don't have our permission...

To duck radar, gangs ditch tattoos, go for college look CHIMALTENANGO, Guatemala — Tattoos, baggy pants and tank tops are out. Smart blazers and university recruits are in. It’s an extreme makeover for Central America’s gangs. Facing harsh crackdowns by government security forces and citizen vigilante groups, they are trying to lower their profile. The Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs are known throughout Central America and the United States for their brazen tactics, including beheading their enemies and covering entire buildings and even their bodies with gang symbols. Now, according to anti-gang operatives, these traditionally uneducated and aimless youth...

MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua — The second military helicopter in as many days hovered over the jungle and then landed to a most unwelcome reception from several dozen angry Rama Indian and Creole villagers. Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, a leader of some 400 Creole who live along the shoreline, confronted the foreigners dressed in suits and military uniforms that day in March and demanded to know the purpose of their aerial trespasses. "This is our land; we have always lived here, and you don't have our permission to be here," Duncan spat, when refused the courtesy of an explanation. Not until...

Translator - AltaVista/Babelfish: SANGTIAGO DE CHILE. - The United States had to pay 50,000 million dollars to Nicaragua by their support in the decade of 1980 to the "cons", maintained Central American president Daniel Ortega during XVII the Latin American Summit. "the United States must pay to Nicaragua a compensation of 50,000 million dollars by the sanction that applied in 1986 the Court the International to him of Is It", it affirmed Ortega Saturday in an extensive speech in which it reviewed to American interventions in the world. Ortega indicated that There is condemned It to the United States by...

Villagers cash in on endless cocaine on beach By staff writers October 10, 2007 10:49am VILLAGERS living on Nicaragua's remote Mosquito Coast are living like the rich thanks to tonnes of free cocaine washing up on their shores. The bags of cocaine, worth millions of dollars, are coming from Colombian speedboats on "narco-routes" which drop the booty overboard if intercepted by US and Nicaraguan patrols, guardian.co.uk reported. Currents carry the bags towards shore. People living in villages such as Karpwala and Tasbapauni who find it are then offered up to $4000 a kilo for the cocaine - seven times less...

Pope Congratulates Nicaraguan Government for Maintaining Prohibition of Abortion By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman ITALY, September 25, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a meeting with Nicaragua's new ambassador to the Holy See at Castlegandolfo yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI congratulated the Nicaraguan government for maintaining the country's absolute prohibition of abortions in the face of heavy international pressure. The pontiff expressed his "recognition to Nicaragua for its position in international forums on social topics, especially the respect for life in the face of not insignificant internal and international pressures." The pope was referring to Nicaragua's decision to impose criminal sanctions on all abortions...

Amnesty International Organizes Worldwide Gay Protest Against Nicaragua By Peter J. Smith MANAGUA, Nicaragua, September 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After enshrining abortion as a human right in its humanitarian mission, Amnesty International has now stepped up its campaign to target nations that criminalize sodomy as grave violators of human rights, beginning with Nicaragua. Last week Amnesty International through its affiliates orchestrated international protests outside Nicaraguan embassies and consulates in Germany, Canada, Chile, Iceland, Mexico, Paraguay, Sweden and Taiwan, demanding the repeal of Nicaragua's sodomy ban. "Article 204 contradicts numerous provisions in international human rights law," said an Amnesty press release....

Nicaragua Overwhelmingly Renews Total Abortion Ban in 66-3 Vote By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman MANAGUA, September 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com)--The Nicaraguan congress voted today overwhelmingly  to renew the penal code's punishment of all abortions, striking down an amendment that would have created an exemption for "therapeutic abortion." Although there was concern that the governing Sandinista party might renege on its 2006 campaign promise to support the anti-abortion penal code, the party kept its promise and voted to maintain the law.  The three votes against were from the far-left Movimiento Renovador Sandinista (MRS), a group that split from the original Sandinista party in...

Bishops Denounce Influence of International Abortion Lobby in Nicaragua Warn that they will take to the streets to Prevent Legalization of Abortion By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman NICARAGUA, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -The Catholic bishop's conference of Nicaragua denounced attempts by foreign organizations to promote "therapeutic abortion" in the country on Sunday, and warned that they would take to the streets to protest if it was necessary to prevent the practice from being legalized, something that they have done in the past. "We know that there are international entities who are interested in legalizing therapeutic abortion in Nicaragua," said Abelardo Mata,...

Nicaragua: Bishop Condemns "Therapeutic" Abortion MANAGUA, September 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bishop Abelardo Mata, the president of the committee for the family of the Nicaraguan bishops' conference, has sharply condemned the proposals of some politicians in his country to legalise so-called "therapeutic abortion". Speaking to the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), he stated that Nicaragua had no need of "therapeutic abortion" to protect the rights of its citizens. The very use of the term "therapeutic" was an ill chosen one, he said, since in reality it was a matter of a "crime". The majority...

Two Latin American Babies Saved from Abortion by their Governments "Hard Cases" rejected as excuse for killing the unborn By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman LATIN AMERICA, September 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) --Two abortions were prevented by government action in two different Latin American countries last week. In Argentina, a judge issued an order preventing the mother of a unnamed mentally handicapped girl from obtaining an abortion for her child. The girl, who is 19 years old, was reportedly raped by someone close to the family, and doesn't fully understand her situation. When her mother discovered the pregnancy, she took her child to a...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 31, 2007Managua Nicaragua (LifeNews.com) -- The Supreme Court in Nicaragua is expected to issue a ruling on the nation's abortion ban in the next two weeks. The Central American nation adopted the complete ban last November that prohibits all abortions, including those for rape and incest or to save the life of the mother.Abortion advocates, led by the New York-based Americas for Human Rights Watch, have taken the law to court.The nation's high court is expected to deliver a decision in the case soon and it could result in the undermining of other pro-life laws in...

Sweden Cuts Aid to Countries that Oppose its Pro-Abortion Stance Said to be "very concerned" about abortion policies of Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Peru Matthew Cullinan Hoffman CENTRAL AMERICA, August 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Sweden announced on Tuesday that it would completely sever aid to several countries that oppose its pro-abortion policy, including Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Peru. Although the government of Sweden did not publicly attribute the decision to the abortion policies of the Latin American nations, the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa yesterday quoted anonymous sources who stated that the Swedish leadership, "was very concerned about the...

Abortion Campaigner Who Sexually Abused Stepdaughter is Captured in Nicaragua Francisco Fletes Secured Abortion for Girl in 2003, While Her Original Pregnancy Was Being Investigated By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman MANAGUA, August 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The stepfather of "Rosita", the young Nicaraguan girl whose "therapeutic abortion" in 2003 because a cause celebre for abortion campaigners worldwide, was captured by police on August 17th after a nationwide manhunt that lasted a week. Francisco Fletes, who had campaigned for his stepdaughter's abortion in 2003, is now accused of having sexually abused the girl since at least 2004.  "Rosita", whose real name is...

President Daniel Ortega has swapped one John Lennon tune for another to promote his Sandinista party. But the new message has some opposition leaders and democracy activists fearing a return to his authoritarian ways of the 1980s. The former Marxist leader wants to form thousands of "citizen power councils," from the neighborhood to the federal levels, that would have an official role in public policymaking and distributing food in his Zero Hunger program. To promote the first major initiative of his seven-month presidency, Ortega has saturated the airwaves with a Spanish version of Lennon's "Power to the People." As a...

The Making of a Pro-Abortion Poster Child - Rosita - Backfired! The history of "Rosita" continued By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman Part III of a III part series.Part I: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07081602.htmlPart II: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07081603.html MANAGUA, August 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After her famous abortion, "Rosita" and her family were transformed into stars of the pro-abortion movement worldwide.  Network organizers spread the story to the foreign press, and after Catholic Church officials announced the automatic excommunication of anyone involved in the abortion, a petition drive was created in which people asked to receive an excommunication for supporting "Rosita's" abortion.  In Spain, Network organizers claimed to have gathered over...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said he does not trust the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration because its operations mask "unexpected interests" and "terrible things." During a celebration of the Nicaraguan Navy's 27th anniversary on Monday, Ortega remarked, "You have to be careful with the DEA. You can't be blind." The DEA has cooperated with Nicaragua's army and the police since 1990 in the fight against drug traffickers, but Ortega insisted that behind the DEA's operations exist "unexpected interests" and "terrible things." He did not elaborate. "We have to wage the war against drugs (but) don't come to us with stories about...

MIAMI: Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, to be released from a U.S. prison in September, was due in court Monday for a hearing on an extradition request from France, which wants him to be tried there. Noriega, 72, is to leave a Miami prison Sept. 9 after serving 15 years for drug trafficking and racketeering. He wants to fly immediately to Panama to fight a conviction in the slayings of two political opponents, his lawyers have said. But American prosecutors are pushing for his extradition to France, where Noriega was convicted in absentia in 1999 on money-laundering charges. He was...

Iran and Nicaragua in Barter Deal August 05, 2007 BBC News Iran is to help Nicaragua develop its infrastructure in return for farm products, according to a trade deal between the two countries. Under the agreement, Iran will help develop a port and build houses and industrial sites. In return, Nicaragua will export coffee, meat and bananas to Iran. The two countries, which have strained relations with the US, have improved ties since Daniel Ortega became Nicaraguan President in January 2007. Under the accords, Iran will fund a farm equipment assembly plant, four hydroelectric plants, five milk-processing plants, a health...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has accused the United States of backing opposition groups to subvert his leftist government. In a speech in Managua, Mr. Ortega said U.S. officials were giving money and guidance to Nicaraguan opposition groups and media outlets. Mr. Ortega led the leftist Sandanista National Liberation Front that toppled the U.S.-backed regime of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. During the 1980s, the Soviet-backed Sandanistas fought a civil war against U.S.-funded Contra rebels. Mr. Ortega was Nicaragua's president from 1985 until 1990, when he was voted out of office. He was re-elected as president late last year. Since taking office...

Has Former Marxist Revolutionary Turned Practicing Catholic, Pro-life Advocate Had Sincere Conversion? Nicaragua, July 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Ever since Daniel Ortega accompanied his re-election as the president of Nicaragua with a series of conciliatory gestures towards the Catholic Church, including asking forgiveness for his past offences against the Church, many have been daring to ask whether Ortega's apparent conversion is sincere. An article that appeared earlier this week in the California Catholic Daily asks this very question, pointing out that shortly after taking office in 2007, the leader who was once known for his virulent hatred for the Catholic...

June 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation for the Netherlands has threatened Nicaragua, saying that the country which recently banned all abortions may only receive EU and Dutch funding in the case that it reverses its comprehensive abortion ban, reports CNA. According to CNA, Bert Koenders made the remarks while addressing the Dutch Platform of Millennium Goals. "Even if an abortion is medically necessary, it still remains illegal in Nicaragua,” said Koenders, “which results in the death of women. We should emphasize that this is completely unacceptable.” Koenders, who said he wants the UN...

Straousburg, France (LifeNews.com) -- The European Union is threatening to cut funding for the nation of Nicaragua because it recently approved a law banning all abortions. The EU and the nation of the Netherlands are saying they may revoke any public funding for the Latin American nation unless it changes the law. Bert Koenders, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation for the Netherlands, announced the threat. He pledged to continue funding if Nicaragua reversed the new law. Koenders wants the United Nations and the EU to both crack down on pro-life countries and “put women's rights higher on the...