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The Colombian Constitutional Court on Monday reasserted its support for gay rights in response to a reactionary appeal raised by the Inspector General. In May of 2012, Colombia’s inspector general sought to annul the court’s 2011 decision which established survivor pension rights for couples of the same sex. The court on Monday reasserted the stance it took in 2011, which was that couples of the same sex constitute family before the law. An official ruling on the Inspector General’s appeal has yet to be provided by the court. …

The U.S. Geological Survey says a strong but deep earthquake has shaken western Colombia. The agency says the quake struck at 9:16 a.m. (1606 GMT) Saturday and had a magnitude of 7.0. it was located about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Pasto. There are no immediate reports of damage.

Colombia announced that it produced an average of 1.01 million barrels of oil per day in January, marking the first time that average crude output for a month surpassed the one million-barrel mark that the government had set as a target for the country's oil industry. Last month's figure was more than 7% higher than the 944,000 barrels a day produced in January 2012, the Mines and Energy Ministry said in a statement. For all of 2012, average oil output stood at 940,000 barrels of oil per day, which represents a 3.16% increase from 2011. Colombia has seen its oil...

NASA has revealed that the Columbia crew were not told that the shuttle had been damaged and they might not survive re-entry. The seven astronauts who died will be remembered at a public memorial service on the 10th anniversary of the disaster this Friday at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle was headed home from a 16-day science mission when it broke apart over Texas on February 1, 2003, because of damage to its left wing. Ten years ago, experts at NASA's mission control faced the terrible decision over whether to let the astronauts know that they may die on...

Treasury Targets Major Money Laundering Network Linked to Drug Trafficker Ayman Joumaa and a Key Hizballah Supporter in South America 6/27/2012 WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated four individuals and three entities involved in laundering the proceeds of narcotics trafficking for drug kingpin Ayman Joumaa. Treasury also designated a Colombia-based individual under its terrorism authority, Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, for directing Hizballah’s fundraising activities in the Americas. This individual was previously designated under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for his role in narcotics-related money laundering. Today’s designations further expose Ayman Joumaa’s network as...

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say they have arrested a Panamanian woman arriving at Barcelona airport with 1.38 kilograms (3 pounds) of cocaine concealed in breast implants. The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that border police noticed fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on her chest as well as pale patches beneath her skin.

An investigation for the agency that oversees the U.S. Secret Service suggests Director Mark Sullivan lied during his congressional testimony in the Colombia prostitution scandal that ensnared 13 of his agents, multiple law enforcement officials and congressional sources tell FoxNews.com. Investigators with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) have completed their investigative report, which will be referred to the Department of Justice along with a memorandum of activity that lists potential criminal actions. The report indicates Sullivan may have obstructed Congress by lying about the criminal associations of prostitutes involved in the scandal. The report...

I am President Obama’s classmate at Columbia University, Class of ’83. I am also one of the most accurate Las Vegas oddsmakers and prognosticators. Accurate enough that I was awarded my own star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. And I smell something rotten in Denmark. Obama has a big skeleton in his closet. It’s his college records. Call it “gut instinct” but my gut is almost always right. Obama has a secret hidden at Columbia- and it’s a bad one that threatens to bring down his presidency. Gut instinct is how I’ve made my living for 29 years since...

@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

Will the Cartagena brothel case make an unwelcome reappearance in the middle of Barack Obama’s re-election efforts? That’s what sources from law enforcement and Capitol Hill told Fox News yesterday, saying that an upcoming report on the Secret Service scandal will also name two White House staffers as suspects: "Federal law enforcement personnel and a congressional committee are anxiously awaiting an overdue inspector general’s report that they believe may reveal the involvement of two White House advance team members in the Secret Service prostitution scandal in Colombia earlier this year." more at link-

The Mexican government will aim to follow the lead of Colombia in the fight against drug trafficking, according to the country's elected president. Enrique Peña Nieto, who met with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday, will take office in Mexico on December 1 and he has already revealed his desire to learn from Colombia’s strategy on drug control. Several drug cartels are currently in the midst of a fierce fight for power in Mexico, leading to continued violence which has allegedly left at least 55,000 people dead in six years. Peña Nieto will succeed current Mexican President Felipe Calderon...

U.S. weapons that were exported to Mexico as part of the controversial "Fast and Furious" program ended up in the hands of Colombia crime syndicate Oficina de Envigado, reported newspaper El Tiempo Monday. According to the newspaper, investigations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have established that some of the weapons found during the arrest of Oficina boss "Sebastian" were part of the thousands of arms lost in the Fast and Furious program. "Two rifles that were seized in February with "Frank," the brother of Sebastian also are part of the tracking operations of the ATF,...

Griselda Blanco, the drug kingpin known for her blood-soaked style of street vengeance during Miami’s “cocaine cowboys” era of the ’70s and ’80s, was shot to death in Medellin by a motorcycle-riding assassin Monday.

The US authorities say they have seized $150m (£95m) from a bank allegedly linked to a money-laundering scheme of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Last year, US officials accused the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) of helping the group launder profits from drug trafficking and other crimes. The funds were allegedly used to ship cars from the US to West Africa, with the proceeds smuggled back to Lebanon. The US classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. "As we alleged last year, the Lebanese Canadian Bank played a key role in facilitating money laundering for Hezbollah-controlled organisations across the globe," the head...

Former GM Workers Sew Mouths Shut to Protest Work ConditionsPublished August 16, 2012 Fox News Latino Disabled workers from General Motors in Colombia have gone on a hunger strike and sewn their mouth shut with threads. The workers, who say they were injured on the job and then fired, want GM to give them other jobs. The workers, who’ve been camping out in front of the United States embassy in Bogotá for three weeks, say if they don’t get another job, they will die. “I have terrible pains in my stomach, my lips are swollen and sore, and I am...

The plea agreement drops robbery and battery charges against the man, who was to be released. A man who grabbed a stranger in downtown Roanoke in March pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted abduction. Mauricio Ramirez-Diaz, 22, initially had been charged with assault and battery and attempted robbery, but in June a Roanoke grand jury added abduction with attempt to defile and misdemeanor sexual battery to the counts against him. Through a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the robbery and battery charges and amended the abduction charge to a lesser felony. Ramirez-Diaz, who had been held since March, was given a two-year...

Excluding the cost of Colombian prostitutes for U.S. Secret Service agents, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has discovered that hotel rooms and rental vehicles alone for President Obama's scandal-plagued trip to Colombia cost taxpayers nearly $1 million. Slated for inclusion in the presidential entourage had been "the Secretary of State, several other Cabinet members, and at least one CODEL," or congressional delegation, according to U.S. Department of State planning documents that the Monitor has obtained. The trip called for the rental of 1,046 hotel rooms at 13 separate establishments in Cartegena, Colombia, where the sixth annual Summit of the Americas...

One of the Colombian escorts at the center of the Secret Service scandal emerged from hiding today, recounting in detail her night in Cartagena with a member of President Obama's protective detail and saying she fears for her safety. Dania Suarez, a 24-year old dark-haired beauty, appeared on a call-in show carried by Colombia's W Radio and Carocol Television Friday morning, telling callers the agent was "heavily intoxicated" and everything in his luggage and his papers was left open in his room and could have been easily stolen.

What the Secret Service could learn from drunken sailors Roberto Loiederman, a merchant seaman from 1966 to 1974, is a writer in California. He co-authored “The Eagle Mutiny,” an account of the 1970 mutiny on a U.S. vessel. What happened in Cartagena, Colombia, with the Secret Service seems unsavory to me, but not for the reasons you might think. I make no judgments about men spending a night with escorts. As far as I’m concerned, those who take a holier-than-thou attitude about this are like Inspector Renault in “Casablanca” when he says he’s “shocked, shocked” to discover there is gambling...

It was easy to see this coming. When the news about Secret Service agents hooking up with prostitutes in Columbia first broke we were told there were 11 men (some reports had it at 12) being investigated. Immediately we heard six were kicked out leaving; five “still under investigation.” In this case “under investigation” meant being squeezed to see if they would break and roll on their partners. Three decided to clam up and take whatever was coming instead of turning on their teammates. That left two. Any good cop knows why those two weren’t immediately fired. They handed up...

The investigation into the Colombia prostitution scandal has broadened to include the White House Communications Agency, Nextgov has learned. Laura Williams, a spokeswoman for the Defense Information Systems Agency, which manages the White House office that provides the president with secure communications, confirmed that one individual from WHCA is under investigation, but could not provide any more details at this time.

Secret Service Colombian Hooker Prostitute Brought to Light By Paula Reid, South American Chief & Rising Black Star in AgencyThe Secret Service officer responsible for the recall of 11 agents in a dispute with Colombian prostitutes over payment to Dania Suarez, has been revealed as Paula Reid, a rising black star in the agency. She recently became the head of the agency’s Miami office after 21 years on the force. Ms. Reid uncovered the scandal and alerted her superiors about the “egregious behavior” of the agents. Paula Reid was in Cartagena ahead of President Obama’s trip, laying the groundwork for...

f Six Secret Service agents quit the force over scandalPresident personally briefed on state of the investigationColombian prostitute at the hear of affair has gone into hidingSays she was eventually paid $225 for the eveningClaims to fear retaliation by the U.S. government The prostitutes involved in the Secret Service scandal that cost six agents their jobs may have been underage, according to a new report.A Colombian government official told a newspaper group that investigators from the Colombian attorney general’s office have questioned employees of the hotel in question, and the taxi driver who drove home the woman who triggered the...

Ms. Sandra Fluke is attached to an organization with high moral values, that places an emphasis on ethics, honesty and integrity. There is in fact not only a student code at Georgetown University, there also an ETHOS CODE , and there is also the history, tradition and mission statement of the Catholic university guiding certain behaviors (both on and off campus as stated and each student is to be aware of this).It is this very essence and aspect of core institutional values which "15-Minutes-of-Fame Sandra" very publicly whined about, mocked and assailed on national TV and also asserted that the...

Sarah Palin joined FOX News tonight to discuss the Secret Service prostitution scandal as well as the GSA spending scandal. Palin also reacted to news that broke this afternoon about another Secret Service scandal, this time involving her. "Well check this out, bodyguard -- you're fired. And I hope his wife sends him to the doghouse. As long as he's not eating the dog, along with his former boss. Greta, you know, a lot of people will just, I guess say that this is boys being boys. And boys will be boys, but they shouldn't be in positions of authority."

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that Democratic attempts to highlight presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s wealth are not only unfair, but likely to backfire. Earlier this week, President Barack Obama said that he and his wife Michelle were not born with a “silver spoon” in their mouths, a comment which was widely considered to be a jab at Romney, the son of a successful CEO. Although Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney denied that was the case, the Democratic Party has been attacking the former Massachusetts governor in an effort to paint him as out-of-touch...

The Secret Service this week fired supervisors David Chaney and Greg Stokes following the incident immediately preceding President Barack Obama’s trip to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas. One of the agents, David Chaney, joked on Facebook that he checked out former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while on assignment during the 2008 campaign. On his Facebook page, former Secret Service agent David Chaney admitted checking out former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign. (CNN)

Sarah Palin's charge that the Secret Service prostitute scandal highlighted President Barack Obama's "poor management skills" drew a sharp rebuke Friday from the White House, where chief spokesman Jay Carney dubbed it absurd and politically motivated. "It is preposterous to politicize the Secret Service," Carney told reporters at his daily briefing. Palin and Republican Senator Jeff Sessions have in recent days charged that the scandal, coupled to the outrage over the General Services Administration's lavish spending on a convention in Las Vegas, reflect poorly on Obama. Those two controversies, as well as the tragic mass slaying of Afghan civilians, allegedly...

Does U.S. President Obama have a foreign policy or should we call it a "dangerous farcical policy." Is he even control of the White House? By now, most people have heard the story of how, "11 Secret Service agents" and "as many as 10 U.S. military personnel," hired prostitutes, drank alcohol, and possibly used illicit drugs -- all in "security preparation" for the president to attend the Summit of the Americas in Columbia. Besides the security debacle, Obama's diplomatic effort, "wasn't exactly smooth sailing." But there's a subtle clincher to Obama's ridiculous Columbia trip which belies his true incompetency, a...

The disgraced Secret Service supervisors accused of engaging in a cocaine-fueled hooker party on the taxpayer dime will still cash in on lucrative taxpayer-funded pensions. Three Secret Service agents tasked with protecting President Barack Obama have been terminated since it was revealed that they reportedly caroused with prostitutes and drugs in Colombia. The Washington Post Thursday identified the two supervisors who have been forced out of the agency. Supervisor David Randall Chaney, 48, has been allowed to retire, while Greg Stokes, the assistant special agent in charge of the K-9 division, has been fired with cause. A third low-level officer...

At least three more Secret Service employees involved in the Colombian prostitution scandal are expected to lose their jobs Friday, as the Pentagon increased to 11 the number of military personnel it’s investigating as part of the incident. The three additional departures, confirmed to POLITICO by a federal official, bring the total number of employees to be forced out or to have quit their jobs to at least six. There are 11 members total of the Secret Service thought to be involved in the scandal, which occurred ahead of President Barack Obama’s trip to Cartagena for the Summit of the...

As officials warn of more Secret Service resignations as soon as Friday stemming from a prostitute scandal in Colombia, one of the former agents allegedly involved joked on Facebook that he checked out former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while on assignment during the 2008 campaign. David Chaney and Greg Stokes are the two Secret Service supervisors no longer with the agency in the wake of the incident immediately preceding President Barack Obama's trip to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN National Security Contributor Fran Townsend on Thursday. In a photo...

Leadership: What do the GSA spending scandal, the Secret Service sex scandal and Leon Panetta's expensive weekend trips home have in common? They stem from a culture of irresponsibility set by the man in the White House. When President Obama came to Washington, he promised to usher in a "new era of responsibility," one where everyone would recognize "duties to ourselves, our nation and the world." But Obama has delivered the opposite. He's used the presidency to lavish himself and his family with hugely expensive perks. He's used the Treasury as a piggy bank to reward donors and friends. He's...

Dem leader Pelosi 'stunned and disgusted' by Secret Service scandalBy Mike Lillis - 04/19/12 04:13 PM ET House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says she's "stunned and disgusted" by the prostitution scandal dogging the Secret Service this month. The California Democrat said she has not been briefed on the incident — in which almost a dozen Secret Service agents caroused with prostitutes ahead of President Obama's recent trip to Colombia — but she urged a quick investigation into the culture of the agency and suggested those involved should be fired. "It's a stunning thing. It's actually disgusting," Pelosi said Thursday at...

Twin GSA, Secret Service scandals pose new threat to ObamaBy Amie Parnes - 04/19/12 06:22 PM ET The General Services Administration (GSA) and Secret Service scandals have been a distraction for the White House as it moves toward the general election and fights the perception of an out-of-control government. The double dose of scandals has made it difficult for the White House to get its message out, and Republicans have piled on, pushing a tone of cynicism and disappointment with a government they say needs to be reined in. Obama’s likely opponent, Mitt Romney, said this week that he would...

April 19, 2012 You Thought You Knew Prostitutes? You Don’t Know Prostitutes Glenn T. Stanton The president’s Secret Service detail, preparing for his visit to Colombia, took some time to unwind and enjoy the local flavor. We all know the sordid details. But the New York Times today gives us more detail on the matter, some very important detail.These very high-level men did not consort with prostitutes. No, these ladies were at a level commensurate with their clients. They were escorts. Our Paper of Record performs an important community service, giving these two ladies the opportunity to clarify the difference....

The Daily News can reveal the first photo of the 24-year-old Colombian call girl whose encounter with a cheapskate Secret Service agent ignited the agency’s worst sex scandal. One of the agents tried to brush off his girl, the single mother of a 9-year-old son known as Tania, the next morning with only $28 in cab fare. She caused a ruckus, demanding her full payment, so cops got involved and word reached the US Embassy.

Diplomacy: After a weekend of cavorting in Colombia, the White House was caught flat-footed by Argentina's takeover of a big oil company whose loss will hike gas prices, harm Spain and slam U.S. investors. Lucky us. Never was a response to a global outrage more mealy-mouthed than the one from the U.S. after Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, standing under a portrait of Evita Peron, announced a brazen grab for YPF, the Argentine oil company that's 57% owned by Spain's Repsol. Markets fell, world leaders denounced the violation of contracts and economically battered Spain rallied European Union support. But...

The alleged sexcapades by several Secret Service agents while in Colombia in service to President Barack Obama may not just be an embarassment for their country; rather, the objects of their affections may have been exploited against their will, and the investigation into the debaucherous debacle necessarily must include the circumstances by which the involved women found themselves in the meat market. Legal prostitution in Colombia and other countries has generated a thriving sex tourism industry, and in meeting supply for the demand many women find themselves enslaved in the trade. For example, in Spain where prostitution is legal an...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty or 21 women were brought back to the hotel in Colombia by U.S. Secret Service agents and members of the U.S. military in an incident last week involving alleged misconduct with prostitutes, U.S. Senator Susan Collins said on Tuesday. Collins was briefed by the director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, on Monday evening. "There are 11 agents involved. Twenty or 21 women foreign nationals were brought to the hotel, but allegedly Marines were involved with the rest," the Republican senator said in comments emailed to Reuters by her spokesman. (Reporting By Susan Cornwell; Editing by...

<p>Standing alongside President Santos of Colombia and singer Shakira in the Plaza de San Pedro, Obama reflected on his own ancestry.</p> <p>"Early in my presidency, my family and I visited Ghana in West Africa and we visited the historic Cape Coast Castle and I'll never forget my two young daughters, the descendents of Africans and African-Americans, looking out through the door of no return where so many Africans began their forced journey to this hemisphere," he said.</p>

A set up? An incredulous Beck asked if anyone had ever seen the Secret Service conduct itself this way before. Being dismissed for an alleged tryst with with prostitutes in Cartagena; carelessly plotting out routes in foreign countries that compromise the presidential motorcade; approving risk-laden locations for foreign stop-overs. None of the above bodes well for those entrusted with protecting America’s Commander in Chief. After a careful review of these transgressions, Beck came to the conclusion that there can only be two explanations — and each one spells trouble. Either the Secret Service is a motley crew of inept “morons”...

President Obama erred during a speech at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, when attempting to call the disputed archipelago by its Spanish name. Instead of saying Malvinas, however, Mr Obama referred to the islands as the Maldives, a group of 26 atolls off that lie off the South coast of India. Cristina Kirchner, the Argentine president, has renewed her country's sovereignty claim to the Falklands in the build-up to the 30th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the islands, which triggered the Falklands War, on April 2. She has accused David Cameron of maintaining a "colonial enclave"...

It was in this one-story, windowless, brick building with a cheesy neon sign on top that 11 Secret Service agents assigned to protect the President ended up embarrassing their country all for a little fun and flesh, local sources told the Daily News. Drinking beers and whisky that range in price from 40,000 to 150,000 pesos ($24 to $84) for bottle service, the agents had their pick of young girls with long, black and brown hair and lots of makeup. “The gringos got rowdy at the bar. They drank fine whisky and slept with the prettiest ones, the ones that...

Investigators probing the Secret Service prostitute scandal are looking into whether any of the girls involved were underage, Ronald Kessler, the journalist who broke the story, tells Newsmax.TV exclusively. Kessler warned that more scandalous details of the Colombian cavorting are still to come, including the age of the prostitutes. (VIDEO AT LINK) Kessler, Newsmax’s chief Washington correspondent, broke the story of the scandal over the weekend. The details have since been confirmed by the Secret Service, and President Barack Obama has called for an investigation. Up to a dozen agents were sent home from Cartagena, Colombia, where the president was...

Original title: Obama in Colombia: ‘Part of My Job Is to Scout Out Where I May Want to Bring Michelle Back Later for Vacation’ ------------------------------ Just two days after President Barack Obama gave a sharply edged response to news anchor Larry Conners of KMOV in St. Louis after Conners had asked the president about Americans who “get frustrated and even angered when they see the first family jetting around [to] different vacations and so forth,” Obama told a panel at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia that part of his job there was to scout out locations for...

Children gesture as Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos (R) addresses the audience next to U.S. President Barack Obama during a ceremony to restitute land to Afro-Colombians displaced from their homes by armed rebel groups in San Pedro Square in Cartagena April 15, 2012. Obama is on a state visit to Colombia following the Americas Summit which ended earlier in the day. Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos (L) hugs U.S. President Barack Obama as they arrive at the San Felipe Castle for a state dinner before the start of the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena April 13, 2012. The summit...

After attending debates at a major summit in Cartagena, Colombia, where more than 30 world leaders gathered together, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton partied the night away at a nightclub. The 64-year-old, who is in South America for the Sixth Summit of the Americas, made the most of the country's nightlife at Café Havana on Saturday evening. In photos taken at the salsa hotspot, Mrs Clinton can be seen dancing with her hands in the air and swigging back a bottle of beer while surrounded by friends.

Obama in Colombia: ‘Part of My Job Is to Scout Out Where I May Want to Bring Michelle Back Later for Vacation’ By Terence P. Jeffrey April 15, 2012 (CNSNews.com) - Just two days after President Barack Obama gave a sharply edged response to news anchor Larry Conners of KMOV in St. Louis after Conners had asked the president about Americans who “get frustrated and even angered when they see the first family jetting around [to] different vacations and so forth,” Obama told a panel at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia that part of his job there...

President Barack Obama, speaking for the first time about allegations that Secret Service agents hired prostitutes, said Sunday that "of course I'll be angry" if those accusations are proven true by an investigation. Obama said the agents represent the United States and are supposed to conduct themselves with the highest levels of dignity anywhere in the world. "Obviously, what's been reported doesn't match up to those standards," Obama said in a news conference wrapping his appearance at a Latin America summit. The president never directly mentioned that the specific accusations, confirmed by media outlets, that agents were cavorting with prostitutes...