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European Revolution 29 May 2011 [HD720p]

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Peru: Indigenous anti mine protestors hold Puno city

Customs warehouse in Puno on fire after it was attacked overnight

20,000 Aymaras occupy Puno

Thousands of angry indigenous protesters have taken over the city centre of Puno in south-eastern Peru.

Looters have taken advantage of the unrest and ransacked offices and shops as the police retreated.

Cars and buildings were torched on Thursday night when protesters went on the rampage, demanding an end to a Canadian silver mining project.

The indigenous Aymara activists say the mining company will pollute their ancestral lands.

The protesters have blocked the main roads into the city.

Border crossing still closed

A customs office was set ablaze on Friday and several other buildings are still smouldering after being torched in the night.

The demonstrators have threatened to continue the disruption until the government revokes the mining concessions for the Canadian Bear Creek mining company.

The activists say the mining corporation will contaminate nearby Lake Titicaca, decimating the fish stocks.

However, the firm denies it will harm the environment and wants to begin production next year.

The unrest in Puno comes two weeks before the 5 June presidential run-off election.

The indigenous activists say they will try to stop the polls from going ahead in Puno if their demands have not been met.

Chile:Dictator Laws used against anarchists, Mapuches…

By Pamela Sepúlveda

SANTIAGO, May 25, 2011 (IPS) – “What is happening in Chile isn’t justice; it’s a pantomime, because under the anti-terrorism law, there is absolutely no way justice can be done,” José Venturelli, spokesman for the European Secretariat of the Ethics Commission against Torture, said on a recent visit to this South American country.

The controversial law that Venturelli was referring to has been used to try members of Chile’s Mapuche indigenous community involved in the long-running struggle for their right to land.

Ramón Llanquileo, José Huenuche and Jonathan Huillical, sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Héctor Llaitul, sentenced to 25 years, began a hunger strike on Mar. 15 in a prison in southern Chile, demanding a fair and impartial retrial.
The four Mapuche activists were not actually tried under the counter-terrorism law, which dates back to the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and has been widely condemned by the international community. But although they were tried under ordinary criminal law, the case against them was built on the investigation carried out under the anti-terrorism legislation, and their recent conviction was based on the testimony of police officers and anonymous witnesses.

The four were found guilty of theft of lumber and attempted murder for allegedly attacking a prosecutor riding in a motorcade in 2008 in the southern town of Tirúa, 700 km south of the capital.

Ten activists arrested is the so-called “caso bombas” (bombs case) ended a 65-day hunger strike in April, held to protest an alleged frame-up and their trial under the anti-terrorism law. They were arrested for allegedly setting off 29 bombs in Santiago in incidents dating back to 2005. But most of the supposed evidence against them was thrown out by the judge.

Bee Gardens: Flowers..Fruits for a Bee-Friendly Habitat

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An estimated 70 percent of the food we eat is dependent upon pollination by insects such as bees. You can help support these vital, fascinating creatures by learning how to raise them yourself! Whether you want to keep bees for pleasure or profit, in the city or in a rural area, “Keeping Bees and Making Honey” can guide you every step of the way, from where to place your hive all the way up to how to best savor your first spot of “homegrown” honey.

You may want to give your bees a helping hand when it comes to collecting pollen and nectar by planting bee-friendly flowers and shrubs in your garden or outside space. Even in a larger garden, you’ll unlikely have enough flowers to produce sufficient nectar to sustain a hive, so your bees will probably go farther afield — up to 3 miles — to find richer and denser sources of food. But the right flowers, fruit and vegetables in your garden will attract some of your own bees, as well as welcoming other visitors such as the bumblebee and solitary bee species. Above all, a garden or patch devoted to plants that are attractive to bees can be a source of great pleasure to any beekeeper, as much for the riot of color as for the activity of the bees.