Noted Argentine actor Federico Luppi dies at 83.

Federico Luppi, a dignified Argentine actor well known for his complex performances died on Friday in Buenos Aires. He was 83.

The cause was complications of a subdural hematoma that developed after a fall at his home in April, said his wife, the actress Susana Hornos.

Luppi’s career, which began in the mid-1960s, included dozens of film and television roles, often in Argentine productions. Slim and stately with a shock of white hair, he endowed his characters with a sense of gravity.

Born in Ramallo, northwest of Buenos Aires, in 1934 to poor Italian immigrants, he studied architecture and worked in a slaughterhouse and a bank before he was able to support himself as an actor.

He was blacklisted from Argentine productions for some years after he was openly critical of the 1976-81 dictatorship of Gen. Jorge Videla.

He was also beset by a rocky personal life, including an acrimonious divorce to co-star Haydée Padilla in 1987, and a child support dispute over an illegitimate son born in Uruguay in 1999. Argentina's collapse in 2001 forced Luppi to emigrate to Spain; he returned in 2008.

Despite those difficulties, he remained a prolific actor, active in theater, television and film.

Luppi is best remembered in Argentina for two thrillers by the Argentine director Adolfo Aristarain: as a demolitions expert who stages an accident in order to expose an unscrupulous mining firm in “Time for Revenge” (1981); and as a contract killer who has tables turned on him in “Last Days of the Victim” (1982).

He also won acclaim for his role as a naive small-businessman in the tragedy “Sweet Money” (1982); as a political idealist who organized rural shepherds in “A Place in the World” (1992); and as a dying literature professor who tries to start a new life in “Common Ground” (2002).

Luppi later starred in three films by famed Mexican director Guillermo del Toro: as an antiques dealer turned into a vampire in “Cronos” (1993); as a leftist sympathizer who ran a haunted orphanage in Franco’s Spain in “The Devil’s Backbone” (2001); and the monarch of a fairy kingdom in “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006), which won three Academy Awards in 2007.

Writing in Spanish on Twitter, del Toro called him “our Olivier, our Day Lewis, our genius, my dear friend.”

At: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/obituaries/federico-luppi-83-actor-known-for-del-toro-films-dies.html

“When you've learned everything, then you die.” Federico Luppi, 1934-2017.

Brother identifies body of missing Argentine protester Santiago Maldonado

The brother of an Argentine protester whose disappearance prompted nationwide demonstrations said Friday that the family believes a body found in a river is that of activist Santiago Maldonado.

The family is now "convinced that the body is Santiago," his brother, Sergio Maldonado, told reporters outside a morgue in Buenos Aires where the autopsy was performed.

“We saw the body. We recognized Santiago’s tattoos so we are convinced it is Santiago,” he said.

The body was found Tuesday near the site of a protest on August 1, when Maldonado, 28, was last seen alive. Protesters were demanding the release of a jailed Mapuche indigenous leader and the return of lands belonging to Italian clothing company Benetton that are claimed by the Mapuche as their ancestral territory.

People at the protest said they saw police beat and detain Maldonado after he and others blocked a road in Patagonia.

Police never confirmed the arrest and denied wrongdoing. But some rights groups accused President Mauricio Macri's government of being part a cover-up.

His being located nearly a mile upstream from where he was last seen has led his family and rights groups to suspect his body may have been planted.

"It's very strange that the body was found where it was, when we have searched those same places and there was nothing," Sergio Maldonado pointed out. "We want to know the truth. "

The Maldonado case has overshadowed Sunday’s congressional election in a country where potential cases of abuse by security forces are particularly sensitive. It has also spurred mass protests and campaigns on social media demanding to know what happened to Maldonado.

At: http://newsok.com/article/feed/1467169

Santiago Maldonado

France grants extradition for Argentine Dirty War suspect Mario Sandoval

The Versailles Court of Appeal in France granted the extradition to Argentina of former police inspector Mario Sandoval, accused of crimes against humanity committed in the ESMA detention center during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship.

The extradition is pursuant to an international arrest warrant issued in 2012 by Argentine Federal Judge Sergio Torres.

Sandoval was charged with the kidnapping and the disappearance of Hernán Abriata, a 24 year-old architecture student detained at his home in Buenos Aires by Sandoval at the height of the Dirty War in 1976. He was last seen in the clandestine detention center which at the time functioned beneath the Navy Mechanical School (ESMA).

Around 5,000 detainees were tortured and killed at ESMA, the largest of some 300 detention centers during the Dirty War.

"This is another step after five years of waiting and 41 years after Abriata's disappearance," said Carlos Loza, a member of the Association of Former Disappeared Detainees and a former cellmate of Abriata's during their ESMA ordeal.

Sandoval, 64, left Argentina shortly after democracy returned in 1983 and settled in France, where he obtained citizenship in 1997.

Unlike most Dirty War fugitives, Sandoval had a relatively high-profile life in exile, obtaining degrees in public safety and economic intelligence, teaching at the Universities of La Sorbonne Nouvelle and Marne-la-Vallé, and working as a consultant to several French companies as well as for Colombian paramilitaries.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infonews.com%2Fnota%2F311093%2Fcausa-esma-francia-concedio-la-extradicion

Dirty War fugitive Mario Sandoval during his French exile, and Hernán Abriata shortly before his 1976 murder.

Information cannot be silenced: 40 journalists sign open letter against Macri for press reprisals

A group of 40 well-known journalists in Argentina and elsewhere have signed an open letter denouncing the administration of President Mauricio Macri for "retaliation" and "pressures to silence voices."

The letter refers specifically to alleged threats made against the center-left Buenos Aires news daily Página/12, and its senior investigative journalist, Horacio Verbitsky, for information published on August 27 detailing over $132 million in "whitewashed" offshore accounts owned by at least close associates of the president - including his brother, Gianfranco Macri.

Those involved took advantage of a tax amnesty law, passed by Congress at Macri's urging in July 2016, which drops all tax evasion charges or potential charges in exchange for a 10% payment. The law was amended by decree that November - in violation of Argentine constitutional law - to allow family and close associates of the administration to take advantage of the offer.

The ensuing scandal - as well as six cases against Macri that range from influence trafficking to money laundering - has become a headache for his center-right "Let's Change" coalition heading into legislative elections this Sunday.

The open letter, titled 'Information cannot be silenced', also comes weeks after news anchor Roberto Navarro, to whose top-rated evening news program Verbitsky was a frequent contributor, was fired on September 19 amid what executives later admitted was pressure from the government to force his removal.

Some 38 Argentine signatories were joined by French journalist Patrick de Saint-Exupéry and Robert Cox, a British journalist who edited the recently defunct Buenos Aires Herald from 1959 until his reporting on massive human rights abuses in the 1970s forced him to leave Argentina in 1979.

The open letter reads as follows:

In recent weeks various media have reported on the decision of the national government to carry out retaliatory actions for the information published by the journalist Horacio Verbitsky in Página/12 regarding money laundering carried out by associates and relatives of President Mauricio Macri.

This information, citing sources, was not denied.

As journalists, we note our deep concern at the attack on freedom of expression that a decision of this kind would imply. We believe that there should be no retaliation for disseminating information and that every democratic system must guarantee plurality.

We are convinced that the pressures to silence voices produce irreparable damage to our democratic life.

Argentine lawyer Delia Ferreira Rubio elected chair of Transparency International

Delia Matilde Ferreira Rubio was elected chair of Transparency International, the global anti-corruption movement, at its Annual Membership Meeting in Berlin.

Rueben Lifuka was elected as vice-chair, along with seven new board members. All will serve a three-year term.

“Globalisation and technology have changed the nature of corruption. It is the role of Transparency International to face up to this changed world. Our work will be guided by our strong principles of transparency, integrity and accountability. We shall walk the talk and in this I will lead,” said Ferreira Rubio.

Ferreira Rubio is from Argentina and was the former president of Transparency International’s Argentine chapter, Poder Ciudadano. She has served as chief adviser for lawmakers at Argentina's Congress and has advised the Constitutional Committee of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

During her tenure at Poder Ciudadano, she was critical of then-Buenos Aires mayor (now President) Mauricio Macri for eroding transparency in municipal contracts and for ignoring freedom of information laws that allow access to all public contract records.

Born in Córdoba, Ferreira Rubio, 61, has a PhD in law from Madrid’s Complutense University and is the author of numerous publications on democratic culture and parliamentary ethics. She served on the international board of Transparency International from 2008 to 2014.

At: https://www.transparency.org/news/pressrelease/delia_matilde_ferreira_rubio_elected_chair_of_transparency_international

Delia Ferreira Rubio

Venezuela's ruling party wins surprise victory in regional elections

Candidates in Venezuela aligned with the movement founded by the late President Hugo Chávez have claimed most of the country's governorships, despite projections that the opposition would win. The results were likely to result in fresh unrest in the troubled nation.

Reporting from Caracas, NPR's Philip Reeves says: "Polls said Venezuela's opposition were going to be big winners in these elections. Instead, the ruling Socialist Party are now celebrating what Maduro calls 'a decisive victory,' after taking 17 of the country's 23 state governorships."

Opposition politicians are refusing to recognize the results of the poll, Philip reports.

"Maduro's critics want to know how his unpopular government secured this outcome amid an economic crisis that's produced chronic shortages of food and medicine and the collapse of the currency," he says.

The results were announced late Sunday by Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Election Council.

At: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/16/557977291/venezuelas-ruling-party-wins-surprise-victory-in-regional-elections

Drone hits commercial airliner in Canada; no injuries

Source: Reuters

A drone hit an airplane landing at a Quebec City airport this week, the first time an unmanned flying object has collided with commercial aircraft in Canada, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said on Sunday.

No injuries were reported in the incident, which happened on Thursday at Jean Lesage International Airport and involved a plane belonging to Quebec-based Skyjet Aviation.

Drones are not allowed within 5.5 km (3.4 miles) of Canadian airports, helipads and seaplane bases. Operators who put aircraft at risk face steep fines and jail time under Canadian law.

Drone usage has soared in North America, Europe and China, raising privacy concerns and fears of collisions with commercial jets, and prompting the United Nations’ aviation agency to back the creation of a single global drone registry.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-transport-drones/drone-hits-commercial-airliner-in-canada-no-injuries-idUSKBN1CK0TW

Pro-Trump states most affected by his health care decision

President Donald Trump's decision to end a provision of the Affordable Care Act that was benefiting roughly 6 million Americans helps fulfill a campaign promise, but it also risks harming some of the very people who helped him win the presidency.

Nearly 70% of those benefiting from the so-called cost-sharing subsidies live in states Trump won last November, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. The number underscores the political risk for Trump and his party, which could end up owning the blame for increased costs and chaos in the insurance marketplace.

The subsidies are paid to insurers by the federal government to help lower consumers' deductibles and co-pays. People who benefit will continue receiving the discounts because insurers are obligated by law to provide them.

But to make up for the lost federal funding, health insurers will have to raise premiums substantially, potentially putting coverage out of reach for many consumers.

Some insurers may decide to bail out of markets altogether.

At: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/pro-trump-states-affected-health-care-decision-50479492
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So much for the "forgotten man."

Argentine political prisoner Milagro Sala reimprisoned, flouting IACHR ruling

Argentine Indigenous leader Milagro Sala has been removed from house arrest this morning and taken to prison, in what her lawyer describes as an abduction done without notification or knowledge of the defense.

Her reinmprisonment flouts a July 28 ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ordering officials to comply with a formal UN request to release Sala from prison. IACHR rulings are legally binding in Argentina.

Sala's defense attorney, Elizabeth Gómez, described the move as an "abduction" by police forces against the elected lawmaker and activist. "It is an absolute illegality, reminding us of the darkest times of our country."

IACHR President Francisco Eguiguren condemned the decision, comparing it to the case of Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, who was arrested on incitement charges in 2014 and who following international appeals was transferred to house arrest this July.

House arrest

Sala had been transferred to house arrest on August 31 pursuant to the IACHR ruling a month earlier.

Jujuy Province Governor Gerardo Morales, who ordered Sala's detention, resisted the IACHR ruling and then "complied" by having her moved to an abandoned house lacking doors, windows, basic amenities, or connections to public utilities.

Following the governor's refusal to fund improvements, private donations were raised for its refurbishment.

The Sala case

Sala, now 53, was ordered arrested on January 16, 2016, by Governor Morales on unsubstantiated charges of “inciting violence” — a charge that was later dropped.

She was charged nearly a year later with embezzlement, extortion, and conspiracy related to government earmarks for housing projects managed by the Túpac Amaru Association and related charges.

Critics note that prosecutors have offered no proof to substantiate charges, relying only on hearsay from individuals including an illiterate man who was later awarded a public contract and an ex-convict who was released despite serving a sentence for murder.

Citing lack of evidence and serious irregularities such as the use of bribed witnesses, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled on October 21, 2016, that Sala's detention is in fact arbitrary, and urged President Mauricio Macri (a close ally of Morales) to release her immediately. The IACHR did likewise on December 4.

At: https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Milagro-Salas-Transfer-Was-An-Abduction-Attorneys-Claim-20171014-0010.html

Trump will scrap critical Obamacare subsidy

Source: Politico

President Donald Trump plans to cut subsidy payments to insurers in his most aggressive move yet to undermine Obamacare after months of unsuccessful repeal efforts on Capitol Hill, according to two sources.

The subsidies, which are worth an estimated $7 billion this year and are paid out in monthly installments, may stop almost immediately since Congress hasn’t appropriated funding for the program.

Scrapping the funding is likely to provide another jolt to the already fragile Obamacare markets. The impact may be cushioned by the fact that many insurers had priced next year's plans higher than they otherwise would have, fearing this decision. Others have already fled the Obamacare markets, which are set to begin open enrollment in Nov. 1 for the 2018 plan year.

Insurers rely on the subsidies to reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income Obamacare customers. They’re still on the hook to provide the discounted rates to their members under the law, despite no longer receiving the federal funding.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/12/trump-obamacare-subsidy-243736