Assange Thanks Ecuador for Granting Political Asylum
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange thanked the Ecuadoran government on Thursday for granting him political asylum.
“Thanks to Ecuador and you,” wrote Assange in his Twitter account @JulianAssange, after learning about the decision by Ecuadoran authories.
Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño on Thursday announced his government’s decision to grant political asylum to the Australian citizen, who has been in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London since June 19, 2012.
In a press conference, Patiño validated his country’s right to adopt that decision.
The foreign minister reiterated his government’s rejection of the United Kingdom’s threat to attack the Ecuadoran Embassy in London.
In a response to the Ecuadoran government’s decision, the United Kingdom on Thursday announced its refusal to grant a safe-conduct passage for Assange to leave the Ecudoran Embassy in London.
Patiño said that the Ecuadoran government hopes that the United Kingdom will offer guarantees of such a passage as soon as possible.
The Ecuadoran minister also stressed that he hopes that the excellent friendship that joins Ecuador and the United Kingdom will remain unaltered.
Vietnam Number One Worldwide Producer of Coffee
From the distant experimental coffee plantations under French colonialism, Vietnam has become the world”s current leading exporter of the grain to satisfy growing markets.
For the first time in history, Vietnam displaced Brazil from that position, according to statistics from the International Coffee Organization (ICO) highlighted in this country.
In reaching this conclusion, they took into account that in the first six month period of the year, Vietnam exported 14,325,000 sixty kilogram sacks, which represented a 13 percent lead over Brazil’s production.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development valued sales at $2.5 billion dollars, with a 25 percent increase in the above mentioned period.
The Arabic type Vietnamese coffee has a stable rising demand in the US, Japan, Germany and Belgium while in the Robusta variety the demand is stable.
By the beginning of last century, French settlers experimented with cultivation in appropriate areas of the western plateau, but did not produce enough to exceed domestic consumption.
Meanwhile, tea intake remained predominant among Vietnamese as the traditional preferred drink until recent decades when coffee experienced a boom in gastronomic facilities and homes.
Thanks to a consistent policy of promoting coffee, using Tay Nguyen’s conditions in the Western highlands, coffee was a major agriculture product export after rice, to 80 countries, by 1996.
The next year, Vietnam was part of the fourth largest suppliers in the world.
Without wasting time, those in charge of the aromatic grain have planned from now until 2020, a total of 500,000 hectares, with a performance of 2,400 tons per territorial unit.
At Least 18 People Feared Dead at Platinum Mine Shooting in South Africa
At least 18 people were shot and feared dead at a platinum mine conflict in South Africa on Thursday, local media reported.
The shooting took place as police attempted to disperse armed striking miners at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in the northern province of the North West, the South African Press Association (SAPA) quoted police as saying.
The miners were gathering on a hill in the area, demanding improvement of their working conditions before the shooting occurred.
A witness claimed to have seen 18 bodies lying on the ground.
Paramedics were attending to those hit during the shoot-out between police and armed miners, the report said.
The hill where the protesting miners gathered was cordoned off by police, and two helicopters were flying over the area.
On Friday, about 3,000 drilling miners at the mine launched protests, demanding a 12 percent wage increase.
Up to Wednesday, the violence at the Marikana mine had claimed 10 lives, including two police officers, two security guards, three protestors and three other men.
Lonmin is reportedly the world’s third largest platinum producer with approximately 28,000 employees, and its operational headquarters is in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Via PL