The bodies of Barbara Caridad Cruz Ruiz, 46; Leonardo Ortiz Estrada, 53, and Eric Perez de Alejo Omar Quesada, 41; all specialists in General Comprehensive Medicine and residents of Villa Clara province, were found under the rubble of a building that totally collapsed in the municipality of Pedernales, Manabi.

The official note adds that the bodies are in preservation in order to be transferred to their homeland.

The rest of the medical brigade is in good health, asserts the Ministry of Public Health in its communique, noting that the Cuban workers are working normally and that a group of them participates in recovery efforts in the areas most affected by the earthquake.

A Cuban emergency brigade departed Sunday from Havana to Ecuador to assist victims of the devastating earthquake that took
place on Saturday, which so far has claimed the lives of 413 people, as confirmed Prensa Latina quoting the Security Coordination Ministry of the South American nation.

These figures may increase as new bodies are found under the rubble and the specialized staff manages to get to places cut off following the earthquake, as warned by President Rafael Correa, Prensa Latina specified, as well as the number of people injured reported -more than 2,500 up to his moment-, and the assessment of the substantial material damage caused.

(ACN)

Osama Bin Laden

The Pakistani government on Monday confirmed the death of Osama Bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaeda network, in an operation by U.S. soldiers less than 100 kilometers from the capital.

The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the operation in Abbottabad, about 60 kilometers from Islamabad, was in line with the express U.S. policy of the elimination of Bin Laden by U.S. forces wherever he was found.

After describing the death of one of the most-wanted men in the world as a serious setback for terrorist groups everywhere, the Foreign Ministry statement said that U.S. President Barack Obama had telephoned his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari to inform him of Bin Laden´s death.

Obama issued a surprise message to the U.S. nation shortly before midnight on Sunday saying that a U.S. commando had killed Bin Laden in a residence in Abbottabad, and that he had phoned Zardari shortly after confirming the kill.

In Pakistan, the insurgent organization Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan threatened on Monday to carry out attacks in that Islamic country and in the United States to avenge Bin Laden´s death.

“If Bin Laden attained martyrdom, then we will avenge his death and we will attack the governments of Pakistan and the United States and their security forces,” said a spokesman for the rebels, Ehsanullah Ehsan, in a telephone call to several news media in Pakistan.

The Al Qaeda network is said to have close ties with the Pakistani Taliban movement.

Shortly after the kill was made public, Zardari met with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the army high command, but no details of the meeting were released.

“The house of Saif al-Arab Gaddafi … who is the youngest of the leader’s children, was attacked tonight with full power,” he said.

“The leader with his wife was there in the house with other friends and relatives.”

Saif al-Arab was a civilian and a student who had studied in Germany.

But Mr Ibrahim told a news conference in Tripoli that Moamar Gaddafi himself was not hurt.

“The leader himself is in good health; he wasn’t harmed,” he said.

“His wife is also in good health; she wasn’t harmed [but] other people were injured.

“This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country.”

Mr Ibrahim had earlier taken journalists to the remnants of a house in Tripoli.

Given the level of destruction, it is unclear that anyone could have survived, raising the possibility that if Moamar Gaddafi was there, he had left beforehand.

Three loud explosions were heard in Tripoli on Saturday evening as jets flew overhead.

Volleys of anti-aircraft fire rang out following the first two strikes, which were followed by a third.

The Libyan rebel capital Benghazi was rocked by sustained gunfire and explosions as fighters sent off volleys of celebratory fire after reports of the younger Gaddafi’s death.

“They are so happy that Gaddafi lost his son in an air strike that they are shooting in celebration,” said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, military spokesman of the Libyan opposition Transitional Nation Council, headquartered in Benghazi.

An international coalition began carrying out strikes on forces loyal to Moamar Gaddafi on March 19 under a United Nations Security Council mandate to protect Libyan civilians.

NATO took command of operations over Libya on March 31.

(Agency Information)

Photo: Rolando Segura/Telesur

Photo: Rolando Segura/Telesur

Photo: Rolando Segura/Telesur

Dear friends:

Last night our attorney and beloved friend Leonard Weinglass died. The notice reached me this morning through various messages of friends and families.

This is one of those occasions where there are no words to express the profound sorrow that one feels for the loss of such a beloved comrade in the struggle. Nothing could prepare us for this moment. Just as Len himself showed me many times, my thoughts were always of hope, a hope that he would overcome such a sudden illness.

Today I am remembering many shared moments with him.

One of those, that day of my re-sentencing in the Miami court, where Weinglass hoped that it would just be a matter of a process and that I would receive the least sentence possible, for which he had worked without rest. We all know what finally happened. But there was a very critical moment when the judge scolded the prosecutor about the things that she had argued eight years before, to urge a life sentence that was imposed on me in 2001. I was at Len’s side and I could see his disturbed reaction and surprise, and he looked at me and said, “What’s is this?” And I told him: “Don’t worry, tell her all you want to say, I confide completely in you.” And Len found the precise words, because his heart harbored only the strength of justice and the purity of truth.

We are in the midst of what is considered our last legal recourse, the habeas corpus. With an iron will during those difficult days Len wrote in his bed a memorandum that strengthens our irrefutable arguments. It is difficult to think that now he will now no longer be physically with us, but Len will always be accompanying us. His work and example will serve every step of the way as a guide and stimulus for all the lawyers who will continue defending us honorably and for all the friends who make up the unstoppable solidarity that will bring us home.

Thinking of Weinglass makes me think of Marti:

“Death is not real when one’s life’s work is done well.”

“Even in death, certain men radiate the light of an aurora.”

Five embraces.

!Venceremos!

Tony

FCI Florence

March 24, 2011