while riding bikes, playing ball or participating in other games that might bring them into the streets.

In addition to the radar lasers, police will have 115 conventional devices tracking speed. There will be 650 patrol cars on the highways and 166 officers of motorcycles.  For those with vehicle problems or serious offenders there are 255 tow trucks. There also will be checkpoints on the highways and in the cities.

The Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud said that most of the area museums will be hosting programs for children. Some are free and some require a small admission.

Obama say U.S. actively seeks
fugitive NSA leaker Snowden


U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States is using all the appropriate legal channels to try to apprehend the fugitive intelligence contractor who disclosed clandestine American surveillance programs.

The White House on Monday said it believes Edward Snowden is in Russia and is pressuring Moscow to expel him to face espionage charges in the United States.

In his secretive hide-and-seek run for asylum, Snowden had been booked on a Monday flight from Moscow to Havana, with his possible eventual destination Ecuador, where he is seeking asylum. But the flight to the Cuban capital left with no sign of him on board.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose secret-disclosing organization is assisting Snowden, said Snowden is safe, but he declined to disclose where he is.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. has frequently returned criminal suspects to Russia, and said it expects Russia to turn over the 30-year-old Snowden to American authorities.

"Given our intensified cooperation with Russia after the Boston Marathon bombings, and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters, including returning numerous high-level criminals back to Russia at the request of the Russian government, that we do expect the Russian government to look at all the options available to them to expel Mr. Snowden back to the United States," he said.

Carney criticized China for what he said was Beijing's deliberate choice to allow Snowden to fly Sunday from Hong Kong to Moscow. He said the Chinese decision unquestionably damaged relations between the U.S. and China.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to India, said U.S. authorities don't know, specifically, where Snowden may head, or what his intended destination may be.

The diplomat said that the programs Snowden divulged have damaged U.S. counterterrorism efforts, and could cost lives.

"This man just took real information and put it out there because he happens to believe something that is not in fact justified by the facts.  I think he has put counterterrorism at risk. He has put individuals at risk. And it may well be that lives will be lost in the United States because terrorists now have knowledge of something they need to avoid that they did not have knowledge of before he did this," he said.

Ecuador's foreign minister, Richard Patino, said at a news conference in Vietnam that Snowden has asked for asylum but he can't give information on Snowden's whereabouts. Patino said his government has been in contact with Moscow.

Kerry said it would be deeply troubling for Hong Kong and Russia to allow Snowden to continue his international journey to escape prosecution in the U.S.  

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says the White House is disappointed that Snowden was allowed to leave Hong Kong despite a legally valid request for his arrest.  The statement early Monday says the United States has registered strong objections with authorities in Hong Kong and the Chinese government. Assange said Snowden had a refugee document of passage from the Ecuadorian government before leaving Hong Kong.

Ecuador says it is analyzing Snowden's request for asylum. Patino said Ecuador would consider the asylum request based on the principles of its constitution.

Quito has often criticized U.S. foreign policy, and Patino noted that the U.S. has refused in the past to extradite "fugitive bankers... who have hurt the interests of many Ecuadorians."

U.S. officials say Snowden's passport was revoked before he left Hong Kong for Moscow.  The government has advised countries where Snowden may pass through or serve as his final destination that he is wanted on felony charges and should not be allowed to travel internationally.

Ecuador has sheltered Assange at its London embassy for the past year to prevent his possible extradition to Sweden where he is under investigation for sexual assault. His lawyers say Assange fears he will be sent to the United States in connection with the group's publication of secret U.S. diplomatic cables in 2010.

Snowden leaked documents showing that U.S. intelligence services have gathered data for years about patterns of telephone and Internet use. He said he believes the programs violate the privacy rights of citizens.

A senior administration official sharply criticized Snowden's motives, saying his focus on transparency and individual rights "is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen."  The official listed China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador, saying Snowden's failure to criticize those governments shows his true motive was to harm U.S. national security.

Senior U.S. officials have said the surveillance programs do not monitor the content of phone conversations but look for patterns in the metadata, including information on the time, date and numbers called.

U.S. authorities also have said the programs prevented at least 50 terrorist attacks worldwide since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.  They have accused Snowden of weakening their ability to foil future plots.


Leaker's choice of Ecuador
rebuts free speech claims


In asking for political asylum from the government of Ecuador, NSA leaker Edward Snowden seems to be contradicting his earlier statement that he would look for a country that believes in protecting free speech and global privacy.  The South American country’s democratic but increasingly authoritarian government has been criticized by human rights groups for imprisoning journalists and political opponents.

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño says his government will consider Snowden’s request for asylum because of the risk of persecution from the government of the United States.

"The state will consider the request, but also will consider some important international principles under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," said Patiño.

On one hand, it is understandable why Edward Snowden, who leaked details of a top secret U.S. surveillance program, would look to Ecuador for asylum. Last year, Ecuador granted asylum to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, who remains in that country's embassy in London. He is under extradition from Sweden on rape charges. Assange and Wikileaks have been assisting Snowden in avoiding extradition to the U.S. on charges of espionage.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has been a harsh critic of Washington, and these asylum cases could enhance his international stature.  Carl Meacham, the director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the Ecuadorian leader wants to be seen on the same level as the Castros in Cuba and the late Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. 

“The countries in the world that don’t like the United States, what it stands for, that they would see him as a leader in that effort to say these things that are negative and point out faults with American foreign policy," said Meacham.

Even though President Correa obtained a doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois, he is critical of what he calls U.S. imperialism and capitalism. The president describes himself as a Christian leftist, and defaulted on foreign loans he said were illegitimate.  He closed a U.S. airbase in Ecuador, saying the U.S. could keep the base if Ecuador could operate a similar base in Miami.
 
But on the other hand, Ecuador is an unusual destination for advocates of free speech, transparency and human rights. The opposition in Ecuador has accused President Correa of dictatorial policies. Reporters Without Borders criticized the president for shutting down several broadcasting outlets that were critical of the government.  José Miguel Vivanco with Human Rights Watch says Ecuador recently passed some of the most restrictive media laws of any democratic country in the world, laws that ironically forbid the media from disseminating classified information. 

“The case of Ecuador is unique in the region in terms of standards that imposed prior censorship on the media, even creates an environment for self-censorship and criminal punishment for journalists or anyone who cross the line," said Vivanco.

While espionage and treason are not covered under Ecuador’s extradition treaty with the U.S., the United States does have some economic leverage. Ecuador relies on the U.S. for 45 percent of its exports. Under the Andean Trade Preferences Act, it is allowed to ship many goods duty free.  Congress must soon vote to renew the program, but could opt to exclude Ecuador if its leaders give Snowden asylum.


Trial begins for Florida man
who shot black teenager


A closely watched U.S. trial has opened for a neighborhood-watch volunteer charged in the shooting death of a black teenager last year in Florida.

Defendant George Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming self-defense in shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

In his opening statement, the prosecutor said Zimmerman thought Martin was about to commit a crime solely because he was a black man. He said Zimmerman, a Hispanic, followed Martin through his neighborhood, confronted him, and then fatally shot him during a fight.

Zimmerman said he feared for his life because the teenager attacked him and was trying to take his gun.

The case has attracted widespread attention in the United States because Zimmerman was charged 44 days after the shooting. The delay in the arrest prompted protests nationwide.


Senate passes new proposal
to tighten border with México


A proposal to dramatically boost U.S. border security has cleared a key procedural vote in the Senate, providing momentum for the chamber’s final passage of a bill to overhaul U.S. immigration laws, possibly later this week.

Prospects for immigration reform brightened in the Senate after a 67-27 vote ending debate on an amendment mandating 20,000 additional border agents, more than 1,000 kilometers of new fencing between the United States and Mexico and a boost in border monitoring technology.

The amendment was crafted to win the support of Republican senators seeking iron-clad guarantees that America’s porous borders will be secured before 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country gain legal status. Republican Bob Corker helped draft the proposal.

“If you really believe in making sure that we address our border security, this amendment is something you should support. This amendment gives results," said Corker.

Corker said that, under the amendment, the so-called border surge will have to be in place before undocumented workers gain permanent residency in the United States. Few Democratic senators were wildly enthusiastic about the added border security measures, but most were willing to back them if they help win bipartisan support for comprehensive immigration reform, a top item on President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, said the amendment removes border security doubts as a reason to vote against immigration reform.

“No one can dispute that the border becomes virtually airtight. And that means those who cross the border will be few and far between," said Schumer.

Even so, some Republicans were not swayed. Sen. Chuck Grassley said that, even with the amendment, immigration reform amounts to de facto amnesty for the undocumented with promises of border security that are likely to be broken.

“We are going to secure the border after legalization. Because a plan put before Congress is not securing the border. But legalization is going to take place before any plan is put into effect," said Grassley.

Monday’s vote is seen as a hopeful sign for Senate passage of the larger immigration overhaul bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid says he wants a final vote by the end of the week.

Even if the bill clears the Senate, its passage is far from assured in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where many legislators steadfastly oppose any plan that provides a path to citizenship for the undocumented.


Network of personal computers
will seek solar chemicals


Scientists from Harvard University and IBM Corp. plan to use the down time of thousands of personal computers in search of the next generation of solar cell materials.

Researchers with the Clean Energy Project will ask volunteers from IBM's World Community Grid to create a virtual supercomputer for studying millions of chemical compounds in order to identify those suitable for harvesting the sun's energy more efficiently.

U.S. computer giant IBM already has what is called the World Community Grid, a network of private computers worldwide, which can be employed for scientific research when not in use by their owners, for instance during the night.

The Clean Energy Project has collected about 2.3 million candidate compounds for organic voltaic cells, which can be accessed free online.

The biggest hurdle for much wider use of solar cells is their relative low efficiency of around 19 percent for standard commercial silicone cells. Other materials are more efficient but the cost is prohibitive.

Harvard scientists hope to be able to find new organic based materials that will be more efficient and at the same time cheaper to manufacture and install.

Volunteers in the World Community Grid already help scientists with projects such as the fights against AIDS, childhood cancer and malaria.


Google Street View maps
world's tallest building


Google Street View allows anyone with an Internet connection to tour many parts of the globe virtually, and now users can even take a virtual tour of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

In a post on the Google blog, the company said this was the first time they’ve mapped a skyscraper using Street View.

The Burj Khalifa stands at an amazing 828 meters in height and has been described as a vertical city.  It took the Google team three days to gather the high-resolution, 360-degree panoramic imagery both inside and outside the building.

Some of the highlights include views from the world’s tallest observation deck on the 124th floor, the highest occupied building floor in the world on the 163rd floor and the highest swimming pool in the world on the 76th floor.

Construction of the Burj Khalifa began in 2004, and the building was officially opened in 2010.


Indonesia holding captive
many refugee children


Hundreds of children who have fled war, violence, and poverty have been detained in Indonesia and face violent and degrading conditions, according to a Human Rights Watch report published Monday. The report says some are held in detention for years.

The Human Rights Watch report says more than 1,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Indonesia in 2012.  Many, it says, were detained by Indonesian authorities and faced inhumane conditions in overcrowded, unsanitary, and occasionally flooded detention centers.

Human-rights researcher Andreas Harsono says the children rarely see sunlight.

"Sometimes, once in a week or twice in a week, they are given the freedom to walk inside the compound of the migrant detention center where they can walk free, running around, playing, being children," he said.

The report is based on interviews with more than 100 migrants, including 42 who were children when they entered Indonesia.

It says the migrants described guards kicking, punching, and slapping them and, in one case, parents said immigration guards forced their children to watch guards beat other migrants.

Harsono says the number of migrants entering Indonesia is on the rise and many have experienced persecution in nearby countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma and Iran.

"The Indonesian government should open their eyes that increasingly over the past three to five years, because of the conflict in the Middle East and in South Asia, because of the persecution of minorities there, religious minorities mostly, these people are running away," he said. 

Indonesia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention.  The U.N. Refugee Agency is responsible for processing asylum claims, but Human Rights Watch says even when the agency recognizes people as refugees, Indonesia often refuses to release them from detention.

Harsono says for those who avoid detention, the goal is to reach Australia.  For them, a dangerous journey lies ahead.

"If they are lucky, they are not arrested,"  he said. "It takes them another year or a year-and-a-half to get them to another smuggler who specializes in using boats to cross the Indian Ocean into Australia."

Human Rights Watch says hundreds are thought to die on these crossings each year. 

Last week, the Australian Immigration Department announced that more than 700 unaccompanied minors are in the Australian immigration network.


U.N. adopts measure aimed
at use of rape as war weapon


The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution strengthening ways to fight the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

U.N. agencies estimate more than 40,000 women were raped during Liberia’s civil war from 1989-2003, as many as 60,000 in the former Yugoslavia during the early 1990s, and at least 200,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1998.

Syria has now been added to this sad list, with reports of women and girls, and some boys, being sexually violated as a result of that country’s on-going conflict.

Those are just a few examples.

After a war ends, the effects of sexual violence continue in the form of pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, discrimination and ostracizing of victims.

The resolution adopted Monday by the U.N. Security Council aims to strengthen mechanisms across the U.N. system that can help tackle rape in war, such as deploying gender advisors with peacekeeping and political missions and urging sanctions against perpetrators of sexual violence where appropriate.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who chaired the meeting, called for an end to sexual violence, saying it is as much a weapon of war as tanks and bullets, intended to tear apart communities and achieve military objectives.

“We need action on all fronts, from the Security Council and the United Nations as a whole, and from governments in conflict-affected countries," Hague said. "We need to begin to demolish impunity, to create a new culture of deterrence, and at the same time focus on long-term care and support for survivors.”

Perpetrators often go unpunished and are able to rebuild their lives, but their victims have difficulty moving forward, according to Zainab Bangura, the U.N. point-person on sexual violence in conflict.

“In their day-to-day lives, survivors of sexual violence are forced to face the men who raped them; in banks, in supermarkets and at the schools of their children," Bangura said, "children whose inheritance is the stigma of sexual violence, many of whom are children born of rape.”

Also addressing the council meeting was American actress and humanitarian activist Angelina Jolie, who is a U.N. Special Envoy for Refugees. She appealed to the Security Council to be united in stopping such atrocities.

“Rape as a weapon of war is an assault on security," Ms. Jolie said. "And a world in which these crimes happen is one in which there is not, and never will be, peace.”

She noted that all countries are affected by some form of sexual violence, whether it is domestic abuse or female genital mutilation, and therefore all countries have a responsibility to act to prevent it.


Murders of mountaineers hurt
tourism in Pakistan's West


Pakistan's once thriving mountaineering industry is reeling from the killing by militants of 10 foreign climbers, a massacre likely to drive away all but the hardiest adventurers from some of the world's tallest and most pristine peaks.
 
A tour company present during the attack said gunmen dressed as police ordered tourists out of tents at the 4,200-meter (13,860-foot) base camp of Nanga Parbat, the country's second highest peak, late on Saturday night, then shot them and a Pakistani guide.
 
The attack on the last peak over 8,000 meters (26,400 feet) in the western Himalayas has been claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and a smaller radical Islamist group.
 
The foreign victims included two citizens from China, one from Lithuania, one from Nepal, two from Slovakia, three Ukrainians, and one person with joint U.S.-Chinese citizenship.
 
Manzoor Hussain, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said at least 40 foreigners including citizens from Serbia, Italy, Ireland, Denmark and the United States, among several other nationalities, were evacuated from a higher camp.
 
A group of Romanians is believed to be scaling the mountain from another side. Some other groups booked for climbs this summer have already canceled, one company said.
 
Hussain said the attack was a fatal blow for his efforts to attract more climbers to the Hindu Khush, Karakoram and western Himalayan ranges, home to many unexplored summits.
 
“We are still in shock, we've had to apologize to so many mountaineers across the world,” said Hussain, who described the attack as appalling and said he was devastated.
 
Geographically, Pakistan is a climbers paradise. It rivals Nepal for the number of peaks over 7,000 meters and is home to the world's second tallest mountain, K2, and three more that are among the world's 14 summits higher than 8,000 meters.
 
In more peaceful times, northern Pakistan's beauty would be a major tourist draw, bringing sorely needed dollars to a nation that suffers repeated balance of payments crises.
 
Mountaineers, many from China, Russia and Eastern Europe, are among the last foreigners who regularly visit Pakistan for leisure. Tourism has been devastated since 2007 by militant attacks and fighting between the Taliban and the army in once popular tribal valleys such as Swat in the northwest.
 
The number of expeditions had also dwindled, but before the attack some 50 groups were expected this year in the remote Gilgit-Baltistan region, a stop over on the historic Silk Road.
 
That has changed following Sunday's massacre, which sparked protests on Monday in Chilas, the closest town to the base camp, which depends on climbing for income in the summer.
 
“I haven't slept since yesterday, it's a very sad situation,” said Ghulam Muhammed, whose company Blue Sky Treks and Tours guided five of the climbers killed at the base camp.
 
Blue Sky is based in the town of Skardu, which is heavily reliant on the income brought by outsiders.