ed sheeran

President pushes plan for growth

President Enrique Peña Nieto said Thursday that his administration will hold a series of public forums for citizens participation in the 2013-18 National Development Plan.
“We will implement the public’s best initiatives,” the president said at the National Palace. “The forums are (designed), precisely, to express ideas, and we are ready and prepared to receive them.
“We will listen to the fundamental players and sectors of our society, to youth, to women, to indigenous peoples (and) to disabled persons.”
Beginning March 2, the government will hold five forums throughout the country. Each will be dedicated to creating a peaceful, prosperous and inclusive country that provides quality education for all Mexicans and acts with global responsibility, Peña Nieto said.
“I will run an open government that is close to the people. … A government that asks for opinions, listens to the public, and with that as a fundamental, makes the best decisions,” he said.

depeche mode

Depeche Mode's origins date back to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a The Cure-influenced band called No Romance In China, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and The Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In 1979, Marlow, Gore, and friend Paul Redmond formed a band called The French Look, with Marlow on vocals/keyboards, Gore on guitar and Redmond on keyboards. In March 1980, Clarke, Gore and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar, Gore on keyboards, and Fletcher on bass.Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke and Fletcher switched to synthesisers, working odd jobs in order to buy or borrow the instruments from friends. Dave Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local scout hut jam session, singing to a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode were born. When explaining the choice for the new name taken from a French fashion magazine, Dépêche mode (from French dépêche that means here "dispatch" (from Old Frenchdespesche/despeche) or "news report", and mode that means "fashion"), Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." A different, though only slightly, version of the meaning of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is given as "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" Gore recollects that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", which was later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell.The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else."According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances".While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band were approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musicianand founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them to appear on Top of the Pops. The band actually went to London by train, dragging their synthesisers all the way to the BBC's studios. The next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". This relentlessly upbeat piece of synthpop became the band's first UK top ten hit and it remains one of their best known songs. It was also the first Depeche Mode song to get a music video and is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in November 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed – Melody Maker described it as a "great album... one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff"

Elba Esther Gordillo

Elba Esther Gordillo Morales (February 6, 1945) is a Mexican politician who has been the leader of the 1.4-million strong National Education Workers' Union (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, or SNTE), the largest labor union in Latin America, since 1989. She was formerly affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI) until 2005, when left and founded the New Alliance Party (Partido Nueva Alianza, or PANAL), which is currently led by her grandson Luis Castro Obregón. Gordillo was arrested by the Mexican authorities on 26 February 2013 on charges of embezzlement and organized crime. Gordillo has held considerable influence over governments and individual Presidents by persuading her union members to vote as a single bloc and suppress enemies.

 Arrest
Gordillo was arrested by the Mexican authorities on 26 February 2013 after her private jet in which she had travelled from California landed at the Toluca airport near the capital. She was arrested for allegedly embezzling $2 billion pesos ($156,816,000 USD or €119,242,600 euros) from the Mexican National Educational Workers Union (SNTE). Prosecutors argue she would not have been able to make several purchases on her salary. ($31,398 pesos or $2,459 USD per month.) She has been charged with embezzlement and organized crime.
The national public schools had been a system dominated by Gordillo's union in which teaching positions could be sold or inherited.

Pope Benedict XVI

The Vatican is confused: Pope Benedict XVI, 85, has announced his abdication and plans to quit on Feb. 28, saying he is stepping down being too weak to fulfill his duties. A voluntary papal resignation is rare, especially in recent centuries so Russian experts discuss what will happen to the Roman Catholic world.

In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI became the 265th pope and was the oldest Pontiff elected since the late 18th century.

In his resignation statement, Benedict said: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise” appearing at the ceremony of canonization of the martyrs of Otranto Monday.

The Cardinals were caught by surprise with this announcement.  Benedict XVI was the first pope to leave voluntarily in six centuries.

The new Pontiff will be elected by a Conclave in the late March. Cardinals eligible to vote will be sequestered within Vatican City and take an oath of secrecy. Ballots are burned after each round. White smoke signals that cardinals have chosen pope.

The head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk voiced hope that Benedict’s successor will safeguard Christian values and contribute to the development of ties between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

 

 

Stonehenge

For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the many mysteries of Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument that took Neolithic builders an estimated 1,500 years to erect. Located in southern England, it is comprised of roughly 100 massive upright stones placed in a circular layout. Whi1e many modern scholars now agree that Stonehenge was once a burial ground, they have yet to determine what other purposes it served and how a civilization without modern technology—or even the wheel—produced the mighty monument. Its construction is all the more baffling because, while the sandstone slabs of its outer ring hail from local quarries, scientists have traced the bluestones that make up its inner ring all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 200 miles from where Stonehenge sits on Salisbury Plain. Today, nearly 1 million people visit Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, every year.

http://www.history.com/topics/stonehenge/videos#true-purpose-of-stonehenge

Gaudí

Antonio Gaudi was a unique architectural talent, not easily compared with other architects in the terms used by architectural historians. Not only was his work strongly individualized, but Antonio Gaudi was fortunate to have loyal clients to support him. From early in his career, wide attention was given to his work, although Antonio Gaudi shunned publicity.
Antonio Gaudi has been indentified with the catalan Modernismo moevement of the late nineteenth century and, by extension with the international art nouveau style. His strong personality drew like-minded people of talent to him, and the collaboration of structural engineers, sculptors, and metalworkers was needed to carry out his ideas. It is often possible to identify the artists and engineers involved.The nationalist desires of Catalonians had been a problem of long standing for Spain. By the late nineteenth century, Barcelona had developed strong trade relationships with the UK and Western Europe. The wealth created contrasted with the difficult economic times in the rest of Spain and the loss of its last possessions in the war of 1898. the artistic activity in Barcelona was supported by business clients who by their travels were well acquainted with other countries, particulary with the arts and crafts movement in the United Kingdom. The development of illustrated periodicals further spread the art news to Barcelona. The cafe Els Quatre Gats, where Picasso's early work was shown and for which Antonio Gaudi designed menus in 1899, was an example of the international influences of the time.