Gana comerciante mexicana batalla legal a Coca Cola

AP
El Universal online
Ciudad de México
Martes 15 de noviembre de 2005

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/315921.html

México ha impuesto a la empresa estadounidense Coca Cola 68 millones de dólares en multas -las mayores de su historia por la ley antimonopolios- como resultado de una demanda presentada por una comerciante harta de que los embotelladores de ese refresco le dijeran lo que podía hacer o no en su tienda de un barrio pobre de esta capital.

Si bien su tienda es pequeña, la victoria de Raquel Chávez no lo es.

Las multas -una de 15 millones de dólares y otra de 53 millones- no se anunciarán formalmente mientras no concluya el periodo obligatorio de apelaciones, pero los reguladores oficiales y un representante de la Coca Cola confirmaron esas cifras.

No es coincidencia alguna que la batalla se librase en México, que es el país con mayor consumo de refrescos embotellados per cápita en todo el mundo.

Ni siquiera Chávez, de 49 años, pensaba ganar la batalla legal cuando un distribuidor de la Coca Cola le prohibió que vendiese Big Cola, una marca que llegó procedente de Perú, o de lo contrario se arriesgaba a perder el suministro del refresco estadounidense.

"El servicio no me lo puede quitar, les dije. Eso es anticonstitucional", dijo Chávez a The Associated Press.

"Yo no sabía si de veras era anticonstitucional pero de todas maneras se lo dije".
Coca Cola desmintió que sus prácticas comerciales fuesen monopolísticas.

"Respetamos las... decisiones", dijo el vocero Charley Sutlive. "No obstante, hemos utilizado el proceso de apelaciones que nos corresponde para presentar el argumento de que nuestras prácticas comerciales cumplen con las leyes de competencia de México y para demostrar que... son leales".

Las ventas de Coca Cola abarcan alrededor del 70% del mercado de refrescos en México, y todas las tiendas de comestibles venden esa marca. Chávez también la vende. Pero según declaró, resiente que se le diga lo que puede vender o no en su establecimiento.

"Aquí ustedes no mandan", dijo Chávez a los representantes de la Coca Cola. "En mi tienda yo mando".

En el 2003, los clientes de su tienda, llamada "La Racha", comenzaron a pedirle que les vendiese Big Cola, un refresco importado que comenzó a penetrar en el mercado de la Coca Cola debido a sus precios más bajos.

Los representantes del refresco estadounidense quisieron prohibirle que vendiese el producto peruano, pero Chávez se negó.

"Yo me siento como un ciudadano que exige sus derechos, y no se deja pisotear", declaró Chávez. "Nada más".

Top Five Scariest Things

5 SCARIEST MOVIES

1. Alien, 1979, with Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, directed by Ridley Scott.
2. The Shining, 1980, with Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, directed by Stanley Kubrick.
3. Psycho, 1960, with Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
4. Halloween, 1978 with Donald Pleasance as Dr. Sam Loomis and Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, directed by John Carpenter.
5. Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984, starring Ropbert Englund as Freddy Kruger, directed by Wes Craven.

5 SCARIEST MONSTERS

1. the acid-dripping black reptile-like creature on Alien
2. frankenstein's monster as acted by Boris Karloff.
3. Dracula as acted by Bela Lugosi.
4. the demon that possessed Linda Blair in The Exorcist.
5. werewolf as portrayed in An American Werewolf in London.

5 SCARIEST FEARS

1. fear of heights/falling/bridges
2. fear of harm to family
3. fear of death
4. fear of failure
5. fear of getting old and being alone

5 SCARIEST BOOKS

1.The short stories of Edgar Allan Poe such as: The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Tell-Tale Heart, written from 1832 to 1849.
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897.
3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
4. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
5. The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty, 1971.

5 SCARIEST POEMS

1. The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe.
2. La Belle Dame Sans Merci, by John Keats.
3. The Little Green Orchard, by Walter De La Mare.
4. Lady Button Eyes, by Eugene Field.
5. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

5 SCARIEST COSTUMES

1. scarecrow with arm and hand extensions known as a creature reacher.
2. Frankenstein with creature reachers
3. Jason from Friday the 13th with creature reachers
4. clear distorting mask.
5. bleeding mask.

Police: Woman Used Stolen Card in Lottery

MEDFORD, Ore. - A woman bought a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million with a stolen credit card and could wind up with nothing if convicted, police said. ADVERTISEMENT
Christina Goodenow, 38, of White City in southern Oregon faced numerous theft-related charges, forgery and possession of methamphetamine, said authorities, who searched her home Thursday. The card belonged to a deceased relative, they said.
If convicted of any of the charges, Goodenow will not be able to collect prize money from the winning ticket, said police Lt. Tim George.
Oregon Lottery officials refused to discuss specifics of the case because an investigation is still under way.

"I'll be fascinated to see how this shakes out," Lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann said. "In my 12 years with the Oregon Lottery, this is the first time I've encountered something like this."

Goodenow purchased the winning ticket Oct. 9 using a credit card that had belonged to her mother-in-law, who died more than a year ago, police said.

Goodenow traveled to Oregon Lottery headquarters in Salem on Oct 12 to accept an installment payment of $33,500. The $1 million grand prize is paid out over 20 years.

Detectives began tracking Goodenow on Wednesday after learning that she had used the credit card to purchase several items, including the ticket.

A search warrant served at her home Thursday turned up some methamphetamine, but little money, George said.

"Our investigation is still trying to determine what happened to the $33,500," George said.


From Yahoo news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051028/ap_on_re_us/lottery_credit_card;_ylt=AgvRVjxFUfYhtkgL5P0RdevtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA

Is US becoming hostile to science?

By Alan Elsner 2 hours, 32 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051028/sc_nm/science_usa_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bitter debate about how to teach evolution in U.S. high schools is prompting a crisis of confidence among scientists, and some senior academics warn that science itself is under assault.
In the past month, the interim president of Cornell University and the dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine have both spoken on this theme, warning in dramatic terms of the long-term consequences.

"Among the most significant forces is the rising tide of anti-science sentiment that seems to have its nucleus in Washington but which extends throughout the nation," said Stanford's Philip Pizzo in a letter posted on the school Web site on October 3.

Cornell acting President Hunter Rawlings, in his "state of the university" address last week, spoke about the challenge to science represented by "intelligent design" which holds that the theory of evolution accepted by the vast majority of scientists is fatally flawed.

Rawlings said the dispute was widening political, social, religious and philosophical rifts in U.S. society. "When ideological division replaces informed exchange, dogma is the result and education suffers," he said.

Adherents of intelligent design argue that certain forms in nature are too complex to have evolved through natural selection and must have been created by a "designer," who could but does not have to be identified as God.

AT ODDS WITH BUSH

In the past five years, the scientific community has often seemed at odds with the Bush administration over issues as diverse as global warming, stem cell research and environmental protection. Prominent scientists have also charged the administration with politicizing science by seeking to shape data to its own needs while ignoring other research.

Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians have built a powerful position within the Republican Party and no Republican, including Bush, can afford to ignore their views.

This was dramatically illustrated in the case of Terri Schiavo earlier this year, in which Republicans in Congress passed a law to keep a woman in a persistent vegetative state alive against her husband's wishes, and Bush himself spoke out in favor of "the culture of life."

The issue of whether intelligent design should be taught, or at least mentioned, in high school biology classes is being played out in a Pennsylvania court room and in numerous school districts across the country.

The school board of Dover, Pennsylvania, is being sued by parents backed by the American Civil Liberties Union after it ordered schools to read students a short statement in biology classes informing them that the theory of evolution is not established fact and that gaps exist in it.

The statement mentioned intelligent design as an alternative theory and recommended students to read a book that explained the theory further.

Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller believes the rhetoric of the anti-evolution movement has had the effect of driving a wedge between a large proportion of the population who follow fundamentalist Christianity and science.

"It is alienating young people from science. It basically tells them that the scientific community is not to be trusted and you would have to abandon your principles of faith to become a scientist, which is not at all true," he said.

On the other side, conservative scholar Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute, believes the only way to heal the rift between science and religion is to allow the teaching of intelligent design.

"To have antagonism between science and religion is crazy," he said at a forum on the issue last week.

Proponents of intelligent design deny they are anti-science and say they themselves follow the scientific method.

AMERICANS DON'T ACCEPT EVOLUTION

Polls for many years have shown that a majority of Americans are at odds with key scientific theory. For example, as CBS poll this month found that 51 percent of respondents believed humans were created in their present form by God. A further 30 percent said their creation was guided by God. Only 15 percent thought humans evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years.

Other polls show that only around a third of American adults accept the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, even though the concept is virtually uncontested by scientists worldwide.

"When we ask people what they know about science, just under 20 percent turn out to be scientifically literate," said Jon Miller, director of the center for biomedical communication at
Northwestern University.

He said science and especially mathematics were poorly taught in most U.S. schools, leading both to a shortage of good scientists and general scientific ignorance.

U.S. school students perform relatively poorly in international tests of mathematics and science.

For example, in 2003 U.S. students placed 24th in an international test that measured the mathematical literacy of 15-year-olds, below many European and Asian countries.

Scientists bemoan the lack of qualified U.S. candidates for postgraduate and doctoral studies at American universities and currently fill around a third of available science and engineering slots with foreign students.

Northwestern's Miller said the insistence of a large proportion of Americans that humans were created by God as whole beings had policy implications for the future.

"The 21st century will be the century of biology and we are going to be confronted with hundreds of important public policy issues that require some understanding that all life is interconnected," he said.

Confunden a ahorcada con adorno

El cadáver podía ser fácilmente visto por automovilistas, pero todos creyeron que se trataba de un adorno del Día de Brujas
AP
Delaware, Estados Unidos (27 octubre 2005).- El cadáver de una mujer que al parecer se suicidó, que colgaba de un árbol, fue confundido por transeúntes con decorado de Día de las Brujas, por lo que no fue reportado durante horas, dijeron las autoridades.

La mujer de 42 años usó una cuerda para ahorcarse frente a unas viviendas en una arteria vehicular de moderada actividad el martes por la noche o la madrugada del miércoles, informó la Policía estatal.

El cadáver, que colgaba a una altura de unos cinco metros, podía ser fácilmente divisado desde los vehículos que pasaban.

El cabo Jeff Oldham, portavoz de la Policía estatal, y varios vecinos, se percataron del cadáver la mañana del miércoles, pero no le prestaron atención pensando que se trataba de una broma del Día de las Brujas.

Las autoridades recibieron una llamada tres horas después.

"Pensaron que se trataba de un decorado por la Día de las Brujas", dijo Fay Glanden, esposa del alcalde William Glanden, al diario The Wilmington News Journal.

"Parecía una cosa que alguien podría haber instalado", agregó.

Rat Race? Rodent 'Razza' Eludes Scientists

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Think your life is a rat race? Just ask scientists about a rodent named "Razza," who gave a whole new meaning to the phrase during a four-month chase across two deserted islands in New Zealand.

Like a furry Robinson Crusoe, the brown Norwegian rat was cast away and left to fend for himself in an experiment New Zealand researchers say has given insight into why it's so hard to eradicate vermin from fragile island ecosystems.

For 18 weeks, Razza sidestepped countless traps and turned up his nose at poisoned bait before eventually plunging into the South Pacific and paddling 400 yards in open water to a new island in search of love, according to research published in this week's issue of the journal "Nature."

The study was motivated by the need for conservation "because of the problems of rats on islands and rats reinvading islands that have been cleared," author Mick Clout of the University of Auckland's School of Biological Sciences told The Associated Press on Thursday.

"We wanted to test how difficult it would be to catch a single rodent using the standard methods of elimination (used for) for higher density populations," he said.
At least 11 New Zealand offshore islands cleared of rodents have been reinvaded in the past two decades.

Despite being weighed down by a tiny radio transmitter collar, Razza eluded intensive efforts to trap him during his 10-week sojourn on New Zealand's uninhabited and forested Motuhoropapa Island.

During that time, the rat evaded an arsenal of traps and poisoned baits that included peanut butter. He even continued to stay one step ahead of sniffer dogs sent in to track him down.

Then he disappeared only to turn up on neighboring Otata Island after his dip, apparently motivated by primordial urges during the spring-summer mating season, Clout said.
Researchers believe Razza's island-hopping journey was the longest confirmed swim by a rat.

"If this had been a pregnant female rat it would have been a problem," Clout said. "It takes only one ... to establish a population."

The saga didn't end there. Scientists spent eight more weeks trying to eliminate the ever-elusive invader on the second island.

"We were literally tearing our hair out at times trying to find this animal," Clout said.

New Zealand Department of Conservation scientist David Towns said the findings raise a series of issues over trying to protect threatened species on predator-free offshore sanctuaries.
The country's indigenous plants and animals often have ineffective defense mechanisms to ward off newly introduced species. Rats and possums have wreaked havoc on some islands.

New Zealand conservationists are using one rodent-free island to establish a colony of highly endangered plump and flightless green parrots called kakapos, according to the department's Web site.

"We didn't know it would be this difficult to trap (one) rat," Towns said, adding that rat-sniffing dogs ended up being the key to Razza's demise.

Only after they picked up the trail was the research team able to saturate the area with traps. The lure of fresh penguin meat was finally what ended Razza's 18 weeks on the lam — he was killed in the trap.

The scientists have since released another solo male rat with radio transmitter on the rodent-free 23-acre Motuhoropapa Island to make sure Razza's race wasn't a fluke.

"We want to check whether this (Razza) was normal behavior," Clout said.

Giant 'corpse flower' blooms in Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) - The world's tallest -- and smelliest -- flower has bloomed, reaching a height of 2.94 meters, 18 centimeters more than the previous record for the species, the Stuttgart botanical garden said on Friday.

The Titan Arum, or Amorphophallus Titanum, nicknamed "corpse flower" because of its putrid stench, blooms rarely and briefly.

Garden staff have nicknamed the purple flower "Diva" and are charting its life on their web site, www.wilhelma.de.

But those keen for a glimpse, or a whiff, in person must be quick: just 24 hours after the 11 year-old plant produced its first flower, the bloom began to wilt on Friday.

The Titan Arum was discovered in 1878 in its sole indigenous habitat, the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and grows in cultivation in only a handful of places around the world.

Its scent has been likened to rotting fish or animal flesh.

"The smell is crucial to its survival in its natural habitat because it attracts pollinating carrion beetles and flesh flies," said botanist Franziska Lo-Kockel.

Lo-Kockel brought the bulb of the plant, weighing some 40 kilograms, from the University of Frankfurt to the Stuttgart gardens 11 years ago.

From yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051021/sc_nm/corpse_flower_germany_dc

Wilma Sets Barometric Pressure Record

MIAMI - Hurricane Wilma doesn't stop making history: It is the strongest, most intense Atlantic hurricane in terms of barometric pressure and the most rapidly strengthening on record.

A hurricane hunter plane flying through the Category 5 storm's eye found a minimum central pressure of 882 millibars,
National Hurricane Center forecasters said Wednesday.

That is lower than the 888 millibars recorded in Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. The lowest pressure at landfall on record is 892 millibars in the 1935 Labor Day hurricane in the Florida Keys, which was blamed for more than 400 deaths.

Pressure is often used to compare hurricanes throughout history because there are usually more accurate measurements. Wind gauges are often damaged or destroyed by powerful hurricanes.

Wilma's top sustained winds were measured early Wednesday at 175 mph, the same as Rita and Katrina when they were at sea and 105 mph faster than the wind speed measured 24 hours before when it was a tropical storm. That wind speed increase is the fastest ever recorded, hurricane meteorologist Hugh Cobb said.

Hurricanes Camille (1969) and Allen (1980) were estimated to have winds of 190 mph, the highest ever recorded, but those readings are suspect because of problems with wind gauges, forecasters said.

A hurricane's winds are blown because higher-pressure air rushes toward the lower-pressure eye to equalize the difference. Typically, the lower the pressure, the faster the air speeds in. But because the pressure around each storm is different, lower pressure doesn't always correspond to a specific wind speed.

Wilma dropped from 982 millibars to 882 millibars in 24 hours, or a rate of 4.2 millibars an hour. Gilbert dropped at 3 millibars an hour over 24 hours. Wilma also fell 9.7 millibars an hour over six hours early Wednesday, beating Hurricane Beulah's drop of 6.3 millibars an hour in six hours in 1967.

The lowest pressure ever recorded in a tropical cyclone was 870 millibars in Typhoon Tip in the northwest Pacific Ocean in 1979.

Planea UNAM crear TV tridimensional

Especialistas de la UNAM esperan tener el prototipo en dos años

Con una inversión de 10 millones de dólares, el Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada de la UNAM, ubicado en Juriquilla, Querétaro, realiza investigaciones para crear con tecnología y financiamiento mexicano la televisión a color tridimensional.

Los recursos provienen de los sectores público y privado, y se espera tener el primer prototipo en dos años y que en cinco esté en el mercado.

En conferencia de prensa en esa entidad, el director de Centro de Física, Víctor Castaño, informó que la televisión tridimensional que busca desarrollar la UNAM será masiva, contraria a los productos que han desarrollado Sony y Sharp.

El funcionario universitario consideró que este trabajo es muy ambicioso, que podría representar para México convertirse en el líder mundial de pantallas tridimensionales, como lo fue Nokia para Finlandia en telefonía celular.

Xena has a moon (called Gabrielle)

More on the solar system's 10th planet
By Lucy Sherriff

Astronomers at the WM Keck Observatory have identified a moon orbiting Xena, a
body they argue is the 10th planet in our solar system. They have called the
moon Gabrielle, after Xena's sidekick in the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess.

Regular readers may remember that Xena's (formally 2003 UB313) discovery
reignited an old debate about what exactly ought to be classified as a planet.
There is also some debate over who found the planet first, but we will not
revisit that here because for astronomers, the important question has always
been whether or not Xena has a moon.

The California Institute of Technology's Michael Brown explains that although
observations can show that Xena is physically larger than Pluto, without a
companion body, it would be impossible to tell whether or not it is more
massive.

"Finding a moon...allows us to precisely measure the mass of the planet. A more
massive planet will pull on the moon tightly and it will circle the planet more
quickly," he writes.

"A less massive planet will allow the moon to have a slow lazy orbit around the
planet. We don't yet know the speed of the moon, but when we do we will suddenly
have new insight into the size and even composition of the 10th planet."

The discovery could also shed new light on the history of the solar system.
Several of the larger Kuiper belt objects, of which Xena is one, have moons, but
how they acquired them is an open question.

The astronomical community has also yet to settle the question of whether Xena
is a planet, and indeed, whether or not Pluto should be given that status. Many
astronomers feel that Pluto ought more properly to be classed as a minor planet,
or even just as a large Kuiper belt object.

Xena's discovery has prompted the International Astronomical Union to reconsider
its definition of a planet. Currently it considers both Pluto and Xena to be
trans-Neptunian objects, and says that until it has drawn up its new definition,
that is what they will remain.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/03/xena_has_a_moon/

Confunde ciclista meta y lo rebasan

A diferencia de Mauricio Ardila, Samuel Sánchez sí levantó los brazos en ellugar correcto para adjudicarse la decimotercera etapa.

Ampuero, España (9 septiembre 2005).- El español Samuel Sánchez se impusohoy en la decimotercera etapa de la Vuelta ciclista a España, después deque el colombiano Mauricio Ardila cometiera un grave error al equivocar lameta en el Santuario de la Bien Aparecida.

Ardila esprintó y levantó los brazos bajo la pancarta del premio de lamontaña, ubicada unos 100 metros antes de la llegada. El español OscarPereiro cometió el mismo error y Sánchez aprovechó las fuerzas malgastadaspor ambos antes de tiempo para imponerse y darle una nueva victoria alEskaltel Euskadi.

"Fue un error imperdonable", admitió el colombiano.

"Uno aprende de estos errores y espero no repetirlo nunca".

Canadians beat U.S. Army to New Orleans suburb

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday.

The Canadians beat both the Army and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. disaster response department, to St. Bernard Parish east of New Orleans, where flood waters are still 8 feet deep in places, Sen. Walter Boasso said.

"Fabulous, fabulous guys," Boasso said. "They started rolling with us and got in boats to save people."

"We've got Canadian flags flying everywhere."

The stricken parish of 68,000 people was largely ignored by U.S. authorities who scrambled to get aid to New Orleans, a few miles (km) away. Boasso said residents of the outlying parishes had to mount their own rescue and relief efforts when Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on August 29.

The U.S. government response to the disaster has been widely criticized. Politicians and editorial writers have called for the resignation of top Bush administration officials.

Boasso said U.S. authorities began airdropping relief supplies to St. Bernard last Wednesday, the same day the Canadian rescue team of about 50 members arrived from Vancouver, nearly 2,200 miles away.

"They chartered a plane and flew down," he said.

Two FEMA officials reached the parish on Sunday and the U.S. Army arrived on Monday, he said.

"Why does it take them seven days to get the Army in?" Boasso asked.

He speculated that the smaller parishes suffered because the focus was on New Orleans, the famous home of jazz and Mardi Gras.

As for the Canadians, Boasso gave thanks for their quick work.

"They were so glad to be here," he said. "They're still here. They are actually going door-to-door looking in the attics" for people to rescue, he said.

Polar bear makes huge 74 km one-day Arctic swim

OSLO (Reuters) - Scientists have tracked a tagged polar bear swimming at least 74 km in just one day -- and maybe up to 100 km -- providing the first conclusive proof the bears can cover such giant distances in the water.

Bears often roam thousands of kilometres in a year in search of prey such as seals and there has often been anecdotal evidence of prodigious ursine swims, with bears turning up on remote islands or across wide bays.

However, previously there had been doubts about whether the bears had walked over ice part of the way or hitched a ride on an iceberg.

"What's new this time is that we have data showing how long the bear was in the water," Jon Aars, a researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute, said on Friday.

"This is the first time that such a long swim has been documented by satellite telemetry for polar bears," the institute added.

The female bear, equipped with a satellite tracking device, entered the water on the east of the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen early on July 20, swam northeast and re-emerged on the island of Edgeoya a day later.
A sensor on the bear's collar sent different signals when it was in salty sea water compared to on land or on ice.

"This is an astonishing swim," Aars said, saying it showed that polar bears could in many ways be classified as marine mammals -- a group including whales and dolphins.
Aars said the bear, dubbed "Skadi" after a Norse goddess of snow, had probably swum closer to 100 km (62 miles) since the bear almost certainly did not swim the 74 km (46 miles) between the two points in an exact straight line.

The bear covered the gap in about 24 hours, giving an average speed of 3-4 kmh -- about as fast as a person walking.

Failing not politically correct

LONDON (Reuters) - The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.
Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.
A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. "We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said.
"But I recognize that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.The PAT said it would debate the proposal at a conference next week

Venden por error nuevo libro de Harry Potter

A los 14 afortunados poseedores del sexto libro de la saga, un juez les ordenó mantenerse el contenido en reserva y devolver la novela a la editorial hasta la fecha formal de su lanzamiento

Canadá
Martes 12 de julio de 2005

Un número reducido de personas en Canadá pudo adquirir el nuevo libro de Harry Potter y un juez les ordenó mantenerse el contenido en reserva.

El libro fue vendido a 14 personas que obtuvieron por adelantado un ejemplar de la más reciente obra de J.K. Rowlings, titulada, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, cuando fueron colocados el jueves en una tienda.

El libro, que formalmente iba a ser puesto a la venta el sábado, quedó bajo un velo de misterio y su venta ha sido programada a fin de que sea visto por todos al mismo tiempo, lectores, críticos e incluso publicistas. Se trata del sexto libro de la serie fantástica de Rowling sobre un niño mago.

Pero la tienda cometió un error y vendió 14 ejemplares antes de darse cuenta del error.

"Fue un error que pasó inadvertido a todo el personal", dijo Geoff Wilson, portavoz del establecimiento Real Canadian Superstore. Agregó que los libros fueron retirados de inmediato de los estantes.

La jueza Kristi Gill prohibió el sábado a los clientes que compraron los ejemplares a que hablen sobre el libro, lo copien, lo vendan e incluso que lo lean antes de la fecha fijada formalmente, a las 12.01 am del 16 de julio.

La orden también les obliga a devolver la novela a la editorial, Raincoast Book Distribution Ltd., hasta la fecha formal de su lanzamiento. En ese momento se les devolverá los ejemplares.

Como un incentivo adicional, la editorial Raincoast incluirá una fotografía autografiada de Rowling y un paquete de regalo.

Thai fishermen catch and eat record-sized catfish

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Thai fishermen caught a catfish weighing 293 kilograms - 646 pounds - which is believed to be the world's largest freshwater fish ever recorded, a researcher said Thursday.

The 2.7-metre (8.9-foot) Mekong giant catfish was netted May 1 by villagers in Chiang Khong, a remote district in northern Thailand, and weighed by Thai fisheries department officials, said Zeb Hogan, who leads an international project to locate and study the world's largest freshwater fish species.


The fishermen had hoped to sell the massive fish to environmental groups, which planned to release it to spawn upriver, but it died before it could be handed over, and was later chopped up and sold in pieces to villagers to be eaten.

"This is the largest individual fish of the species that's listed as the biggest in the Guinness Book of World Records," Hogan told The Associated Press by telephone.

Hogan, whose work is funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the National Geographic Society, said he is planning to write a paper about the catch to be published in a scientific journal. "That's the best way to document this kind of thing," he said.

The Mekong giant catfish - which shares the title of largest freshwater fish with a close relative, the dog-eating catfish - was listed as critically endangered in 2003 after research showed its numbers had fallen by at least 80 per cent over the past 13 years.

Fishermen believe the catfish species has been declining largely because of dams and environmental damage along the Mekong River - home to more species of giant fish than any other river, said a statement released earlier by the WWF and National Geographic Society.