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Influenster June Beauty VoxBox
As part of being a member of the Influenster community, I received my first Beauty VoxBox which I was stoked. I received Meaningful Beauty by Cindy Crawford Complete Skincare Kit Pure Silk (Raspberry Mist Shaving Cream), SoftSoap Pampered Hands Foaming Hand Soap, Garden Botanica (Anti-Aging Lip Treatment) Diamond Hand File or Foot File, Montagne Jeunese (Green Tea Peel off Masque) The Influenster process is really simple, sign up http://www.influenster.com/ create an account & its’s absolutely FREE! You unlock badges, which are badges that you unlock to what suits you. Example: I unlocked the “Beauty Badge”, “Blogger” “Twitter" ect. Its simple as that, & the best part you keep the products to review, as part of a member of the Influenster Community.
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| Garden Botanica Anti-Aging Lip Treatment |
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| Pure Silk Raspberry Mist Shaving Cream |
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| DIAMANCEL Diamond Hand File or Foot File |
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| SoftSoap Pampered Hands Foaming Hand Soap |
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| Meaningful Beauty* Cindy Crawford Complete Skincare Kit 1. Skin Softening Cleanser 2. Antioxidant Day Creme SPF 20 3. Anti-Aging Night Creme 4. Eyes- Lifting Eye Creme 5. Firming Chest and Neck Creme Bonus Samples! Deep Cleansing Masque, Glowing Serum and Wrinkle Smoothing Capsules. |
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Meaningful Beauty
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| Montagne Jeunesse Green Tea Peel Off Masque Directions for use: Cleanse face, apply masque thinly & evenly . Relax and wait 10-20 minutes, once masque is dry peel off and then wash away. Patricia |
“Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” with Pavilion Gift Company.
I was really excited to work again with the Pavilion Gift Company. As part of my review I received, “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” mug & “Live, Laugh, Love” 2.5 Square Tea Light Holder. As I mentioned before
Pavilion Gift Company offers a wide range of gifts for any occasions, birthdays, graduations or just something special for yourself. I love that Pavilion Gift Company take pride in their products & customer service. I love coffee, well who doesn’t really. This coffee mug is absolutely beautiful, it’s all me. I’m a “Coffee Lover”. It keeps my coffee, tea or hot chocolate just the way I like it. I would like to thank the lovely Tracy for sending me this lovely items. You can also check out their Spring Collection right now Pavilion Gift Company and find a local retailer near you. The “Live, Laugh, Love” candle really called out to me, it’s my life motto sort of say. The fine detailed is beautiful, it comes in a small box which it was so pretty I have it on my nightstand, next to the Tea Light candle. Also the Pavilion Gift Company just launch a new line called “Feel Good” the line includes chocolate filling greeting cards & gifts. Now, who doesn’t love chocolate? I know I do. You can find the Pavilion Gift Company on Facebook and on Twitter Pavilion Gift Company
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| Side 1. “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” Distributed by Pavilion Gift Company www.paviliongift.com |
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| Side 2. “Coffee Lover" |
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| “Live, Laugh, Love” 2.5” Square Tea Light Holder |
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| Side 1. Beautifully detailed. |
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| Side 2. Embellish with white flowers, gorgeous designed. Tea light candle is shaped into a flower. www.paviliongift.com |
{"This are my true and honest opinion. I was not compensated in anyway. I received this items for the purpose of my review. Read the Disclosure Statement."}
Afghan hospital bombing kills 60
"As a result of this distressing incident, 60 of our countrymen counting children, women, youths and men... have be martyred and 120 others counting health personnel have been injured," the statement supposed
Syrian forces kill 15 protesters, activists say
"Tell the world Bashar is without legality," shouted several thousand protesters in the Damascus suburb of Irbin, the chants audible in a telephone call to a witness at the protest.
The Local harmonization Committees, a main activist' group, said it had the names of 14 civilians killed in the merchant city of Homs, the poor town of Kiswa south of Damascus and in the housing district of Barzeh in the capital.
Happy Friday! TGIF!
It’s Friday! Who’s ready to start the weekend? Any plans this weekend? Do tell!. It’s been such a long week, really looking forward to a relaxing weekend, hopefully. What a week, School’s Out, Graduations doesn’t seem that the days are longer in the summer? It’s been raining non-stop, it’s gloomy & cold here in Boston is ridiculous, haven’t seen the Sunday in days. Praying for sunny day this weekend. Since the kids are out of school for the summer, one question comes to mid. How to keep the kids busy all the summer. Summer Camp doesn’t start till next week. This weekend, if the weather cooperates we should be taking the kids sightseeing around Boston, very exciting!. Happy Friday! Have a great weekend Diva’s. “Live, Love, Laugh”.
That’s It Fruit Bars Review
That’s it fruit bars are a healthy delicious snack for the whole family. I received That’s it fruit bars for the purpose of this review, the fruit bars come in different flavors including, Apple, Apple+Apricots, Apple+Pear Apple+Cherrie. “USDA Recommends 2-4 fruit servings a day. Satisfy hunger and energize with That’s it.” That’s it bars make it convenient for people to get their 2 a day serving of fruit from just one bar. I had my Little Princess help me with this one, so talented. The fruit bars were very soft, sweet, a good texture. You can actually taste pieces of fruit, delicious. Kids are very picky when it comes to anything basically, I had my little tester taste the bars (Apple) didn’t know what to think at first, but let me tell you, she took that first bite & she was hooked. That’s it bars are fruity, nutritionist and filling a good alternative if your looking for a healthy snack instead of potato chips or candy as a snack. You can purchase That’s it fruit bars, Retail $19.99 for a box of 12 or a Variety pack $21.18 for a box of 12. For more information visit http://www.thatsitfruit.com/
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| 100 Calories Total Fat 0g Total Carbohydrate 27g Sugars 23g Protein 1g |
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| 1 Apple+ 10 Cherries in this bar No Preservatives 100 Calories 3g of Fiber Gluten Free Low Glycemic Index (<50) Kosher Vegan |
** This are my true honest opinion. I was not compensated in anyway. I received the products for the purpose of this review. Read the Disclosure Statement.
$50.00 Visa Card Giveaway via Mixxed Reviews
Mixxed Reviews is offering a lucky reader the chance to win a $50.00 Visa Card. Whether it’s for groceries, gas, a night out with the family head over to Mixxed Reviews for a chance to win. What are you waiting for? Good luck, everybody.
Happy Father’s Day! Feliz Día de Los Padres!
Happy Father’s Day! Wishing all the wonderful amazing Dad’s a Happy Father’s Day! Dad’s are those special people that make life a little sweeter. What does Father’s Day mean to you? I hope you enjoy your day. Have a blessed, safe Sunday. I’m keeping it short & sweet. We will be spending the day with the family. I would like to share a poem my 8 year old daughter wrote:
“ Dear Papa”
Dear, Papa without you I’m incomplete. You Rock. Your out of this World. Happy Father’s Day! You will always belong to me. And you’ll always be in my heart.
To: The Best Dad in the whole galaxy.
Hugs and Kisses.
Pavilion Gift Company/ Father’s Day Gift Ideas.
Father’s Day is a special time to celebrate Dad’s, Father’s or just that person that has a place in your heart, lives who you looked up to as a friend or Father figure. I had the pleasure to review a few items from the wonderful Tracy at the Pavilion Gift Company. Pavilion Gift Company offers a wide range of special or any occasion gifts for your Father, Mother, Sister, Neighbored or just a gift for a friend. They offer high quality desirable reasonable price gifts ranging from coffee mugs, candles, “Gift & Inspirational” “Holiday” Home & Baby collection. I was sent two Father’s Day coffee mugs, a Father’s Day notepad for those special man in our lives as part of my review. What a great way to surprise Dad with his favorite cup of joe or a cup of tea, hot cocoa or breakfast in bed. The coffee mugs are great it keeps your coffee hot, no spill & excellent size for those big coffee drinkers. Large handle, no mess. I think father’s are really important in a child’s life. My Dad lives in another state but we stay in touch, through phone calls, emails & he visits he’s grandkids a few times a year. A good relationship with your Dad, is wonderful the talks, the advice that only Dad can give you, are priceless. Make Father’s Day extra special with this fabulous gifts from the Pavilion Gift Company. The Pavilion Gift Company has exquisite taste, detailed, beautifully design gifts. Pavilion Gift Company is located in Buffalo Rd, Bergen, NY. Also check the store locater for a retailer near you. I highly recommend this company to anyone looking for a special gift for that special someone. You can also find Pavilion Gift Company on Facebook & follow on Twitter Pavilion Gift
Any plans for Father’s Day? Can’t tell you, otherwise it wouldn’t be a surprise!
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| “Dad. Dad’s brighten our smiles, our hearts, our world." |
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| “Mark my Words You’ll love it!” Pavilion Gift Company. Dad #66241 Beautiful design, remarkable detailed gifts. |
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| “ Dad, It’s going to be Tough filling your Shoes." |
** This are my true and honest opinion. I received the products for the purpose of my review. Read the Disclosure Statement.
im turning 20
♥hello gals!
very cold! (mobile photo)
Sorry long time no write, Im preparing a lot of news for this blog. Please, come and see, soon I'll change it a lot. Hope it will get more interesting and cute♥
Well, today I'm turning 20. I still can't belive im not a 'teen' anymore. hahaha
It doesnt mean I wanna change. I like to feel young. I dont wanna turn out more serious. ^_^
Hey I got a lot of cute new items and I wanna show you!
This is a gift my boyfriend gave me because of valentine's day at my place, which is june 12.
The way he gave me this was really cute. He just told me to close my eyes and when i opened my eyes I was wearing this♥ Then super hug!
I'm so happy, I LOVE YOU dear♥
Thats all today!
BAIII (^з^)-☆Chu!!
SuperSmile Father’s Day Giveaway Contest on Facebook!
Supersmile is hosting a Father’s Day Giveaway on Supersmile on Facebook To enter simply upload a picture & caption of you and your Dad on their Facebook wall for the chance to win a Supersmile Professional Teeth Whitening System! “Supersmile is a premium whitening and oral care brand created by Dr. Irwin Smigel. Supersmile products are 100% Silica Free, Gluten Free, Sulfate Free & Dye Free. Well what are you waiting for head over Supersmile on Facebook for the chance to win. Tell your family, your friends! Who doesn’t love Giveaways! Also check out supersmile.com
Mineral Fusion (Beautiful Basics) Three Step Kit
Mineral Fusion “Beautiful Basics is a three step kit for defined lashes, glowing cheeks and soft, glistening lips-a natural gorgeous look in 5 minutes or less.” The three step kit comes with a mascara, blush & liquid lip gloss. I really love this kit because its just simple, it’s perfect for those summer days when you don’t want to pile on all that makeup. Mineral Fusion Cosmetics offers a wide variety of products: Mineral Shampoo’s & Conditioners, Brushes + Tools, Bronzer, Blush ect. Also check out Mineral Fusion/Facebook weekly giveaways, and a $3 Coupon for Fans!
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| Kit Includes: graphite mascara, creation blush, polished liquid lip gloss. |
STEP 1. Mascara
STEP 2. Blush
STEP 3. Liquid Lip Gloss
*** I received this products free of charged for the purpose of this review. I was not compensated in any way. This are my true & honest opinion.
Mexico says state leader of Zeta cartel caught
The suspect, Victor Manuel Perez Izquierdo, was in charge of kidnappings, extortion and killings for the Zetas in Quintana Roo state, a federal police statement said.
Police said information gleaned from the arrest of 10 other alleged Zeta members in Cancun last Saturday led to his capture Thursday. Perez Izquierdo was detained in Cancun while trying to escape in his car, the statement said.
While Quintana Roo has not seen the levels of violence plaguing Mexico's northern border states, it is a major drug trafficking zone.
Also Saturday, Guatemalan authorities said they captured 15 alleged Zeta members, five of them Mexican, for alleged links to the killing and dismemberment of a Guatemalan prosecutor.
Prosecutor General Claudia Paz y Paz said the suspects are under investigation in the death of local prosecutor Allan Stwolinski of Coban, a town about 120 miles northeast of Guatemala City. Authorities believe Stwolinski was slain in retaliation for helping seize 434 kilograms of cocaine from the Zetas.
Police seized a cache of weapons along with the 15 suspects, including eight rifles, two grenade launchers, a grenade and ammunition for an M-16 assault rifle, said Donald Gonzalez, spokesman for Guatemala's national police.
The alleged Zeta members were detained in Coban, a stronghold of the ruthless Mexico-based drug cartel near Guatemala's border with Mexico.
The suspects are also being investigated for a possible connection to the massacre of 27 cattle ranch workers in mid-May in another northern province plagued by drug cartels, Paz said.
Most of the workers were decapitated in the attack in Peten province near the Mexico border, in one of the worst massacres since the end of Guatemala's 36-year civil war. The owner of the ranch is being investigated for drug activity.
Guatemala is a major transshipment point for drugs, the U.S. State Department said in its latest narcotics report. The country's weak law enforcement, rampant corruption and proximity to Mexico have drawn Mexican drug cartels into its border regions.
Elsewhere in Central America, Honduran troops seized two tons of cocaine after an hour-long gunbattle with an estimated 60 drug traffickers, Defense Minister Marlon Pascua said.
The showdown took place in Raya, around 250 miles northeast of Tegucigalpa in the province of Gracias a Dios, bordering Nicaragua, Pascua said at a news conference.
"The drugs were transported in a four-motor boat," Pascua said. "We were unable to arrest any of the drug traffickers, who fled from the scene."
In the last month, Honduran police have seized more than five tons of drugs. According to authorities, 100 tons of cocaine pass through the country each year on their way from Colombia to the United States.
NATO steps up strikes in Libya
The airstrikes' increasing frequency has put ever more pressure on the beleaguered regime of Moammar Gadhafi.
The overnight strikes appeared to target sites on Tripoli's outskirts. It wasn't immediately clear what they targeted — Libyan government officials were not available for comment. They followed pounding explosions that shook Tripoli on Sunday.
A NATO statement said those strikes hit missile storage areas and launchers, command and control facilities and a radar system.
NATO military craft appear to be increasing the frequency of their strikes around the Libyan capital — the stronghold of Gadhafi's four-decade-old regime.
It adds more pressure on a regime that is already shaken by a four-month-old rebel insurgency, as well as several defections and a naval blockade.
5 US troops killed by rocket, Iraq officials say
Two Iraqi security officials say a barrage of at least three rockets hit an Iraqi base in eastern Baghdad on Monday morning and killed the five American troops.
Earlier, the U.S. military said in a brief statement that five troops were killed but gave no additional details about where the incident occurred or how they died.
The Iraqi officials say the Americans were staying on the Iraqi base as advisers and the rockets hit near their living quarters.
The Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Five American troops were killed Monday in central Iraq, U.S. officials said — the single largest loss of life for the American military in Iraq in the past two years.
The military said in a brief statement that the five were killed Monday, giving no additional details about where the incident occurred or how they died.
The incident was under investigation and the names of the deceased were being withheld pending notification of the next of kin, the military said.
The deaths raised to 4,459 the number of American service members who have died in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count.
The U.S. currently has roughly 46,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, down from a one-time high of roughly 170,000. The American military officially ended its combat operations in Iraq last August and reduced its forces to less than 50,000 troops.
The remaining forces are focused on training and assisting Iraqi security personnel, and are not supposed to be actively engaged in combat operations. However, American forces still come under almost daily attack by rockets and mortars in their bases and get shot at and targeted by roadside bombs when they move outside of their bases.
Monday's incident was the single largest loss of life for the U.S. military since May 2009, when five U.S. troops were killed in Baghdad during a non-combat related incident. In April 2009, six U.S. troops died — five in combat in the northern city of Mosul and one north of Baghdad in a non-combat related incident.
Ex-Tijuana mayor taken by troops over gun cache
Saturday's raid was a bold strike against Tijuana's former mayor, who has prospered through decades of never-proven suspicion that his family's fortunes are linked to illegal drugs.
Troops found 40 rifles, 48 handguns, 9,298 bullets, 70 ammunition clips and a gas grenade, authorities said.
Mexican law limits ownership of large-caliber firearms to the military and requires licensing of most other guns. Violations can be punished by as long as 15 years in prison in some cases.
Hank Rhon, 55, was flown to Mexico City and officials said he was being investigated by a division specializing in organized crime. Ten others were also in custody with Hank Rhon.
The former mayor wrote in a a hand-written account to human rights officials that he was awakened early Saturday by masked men and military personnel who burst into his bedroom and did not show a search warrant. The men took photographs of him standing next to weapons that he says he had never seen before, the letter states. Authorities did not let him call his lawyer until the afternoon, says the letter, released Sunday by Hank Rhon's spokesman, Francisco Ramirez.
"They held me in the 'lobby' with my forehead to the wall, so I could not see what these people were doing in my home," Hank Rhon said in the letter, which was his first public statement since his detention.
"They took me to the station of the Attorney General's Office, where I am being held without knowing why they detained me," the letter added.
His wife, Maria Elvia Amaya de Hank, said that after arresting several of Hank Rhon's security guards, the soldiers told her they were recovering arms intended solely for military use.
Amaya de Hank insisted all the weapons in the house had permits and demanded that her husband be released.
"I am fully confident that our authorities will quickly resolve the painful affair and do it with transparency, for my husband has been incommunicado until now," she said in a statement Saturday.
Amaya de Hank was hospitalized after the army raid, said her press secretary, Martina Martinez.
The federal Attorney General's Office said the troops staged the raid after three armed people detained near a hotel told them that weapons were hidden in the compound, which Hank Rhon's spokesman said includes the home, a casino, the ex-mayor's private zoo, a soccer complex and a school.
Heriberto Garcia, Baja California's human rights ombudsman, said Hank Rhon told him that armed men in hoods, some in civilian garb and others in military uniform, broke into the house and disarmed his security guards.
Hank Rhon was mayor of Tijuana from 2004 to 2007, but lost in a run for Baja California state governor that year. He is a self-proclaimed billionaire who owns a dog track, a nationwide chain of off-track betting parlors and the Tijuana soccer team that last month won advancement into Mexico's top soccer league.
His supporters charged that the arrest was an effort to tarnish his once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, ahead of Mexico's 2012 presidential election and the 2013 vote for Baja California governor. Hank Rhon has been widely considered a potential candidate to try again to wrest the governor's office from President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party.
"They want to finish off his chances in the election," said Edgar Velasquez, a 23-year-old dance teacher who wore a red T-shirt from Hank Rhon's failed 2007 campaign and was among a crowd of about 200 protesters outside the federal Attorney General's Office after the arrest.
But the PRI's president, Humberto Moreira, said he saw no evidence of a strike against his party. "I don't think it is part of a witch hunt," he told reporters in the central city of San Luis Potosi.
Hank Rhon is the son of a legendary figure in the PRI, Carlos Hank Gonzalez, who served in Mexico's Cabinet, was governor of Mexico state and later was mayor of Mexico City. He started his career as a school teacher and died a billionaire in 2001 after a life in public service.
Hank Rohn's elder brother, Carlos Hank Rhon, sold Texas-based Laredo National Bancshares in 2004, three years after he and another bank he controlled agreed to pay $40 million to settle a dispute with the U.S. Federal Reserve over ownership rules.
Defiant Indian guru vows to resume hunger strike
Baba Ramdev, along with tens of thousands of supporters, began fasting Saturday in a massive tent camp in New Delhi, despite reaching an 11th-hour agreement with the government on his demands to battle graft.
Police swooped down on the protest camp early Sunday, using tear gas to break it up and triggering a stampede and clashes with rock-throwing protesters that left dozens injured on both sides. Police said they were forced by safety concerns to take action after more than 40,000 people showed up for the event, which was cleared for only 5,000.
Ramdev evaded police for nearly two hours by dressing in women's clothing, and he asked women supporters to form a protective ring around him while he refused police orders to leave the area, police said. He was briefly detained before flying to the northern state of Uttarakhand, where his sprawling ashram, or spiritual headquarters, is located. He had tried to go to the Delhi suburb of Noida to resume the fast there but was barred by authorities.
Ramdev called the crackdown a "blot on democracy and a conspiracy to kill me" and vowed to continue his hunger strike from Haridwar on the Ganges river. The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, condemned the police raid and said the government should resign.
The protest campaign is part of a push by civil society to demand government accountability after months of scandal-plagued politics that have embarrassed officials with allegations of improper telecoms licensing, illegal land acquisitions and irregularities in staging last year's Commonwealth Games.
Ramdev and other critics accuse the government of failing to act against Indians who illegally stash money abroad, while doing little to end a widespread culture of corruption.
A recent report by Global Financial Integrity also riled the public by saying India had lost hundreds of billions of dollars since the 1940s as companies and the rich sent cash overseas to avoid taxes and hide ill-gotten gains. As a result, it said, the country's hundreds of millions of poor were being deprived of crucial resources and falling further behind the rich, exacerbating social tensions.
The orange-robed Ramdev — who preaches health and happiness while striking complex yoga poses on his wildly popular Indian TV show — jumped onto the anti-corruption campaign weeks ago when 73-year-old activist Anna Hazare captivated national attention with his own four-day hunger strike.
Ramdev joined Hazare under a white canopy during that hunger strike, which ended with the government establishing a committee to draft legislation on creating an anti-corruption watchdog.
Hazare, now a committee member, said Sunday that he will only attend meetings that are televised live "in view of government's barbaric actions, since its intentions to remove corruption have become suspect."
The ruling Congress party has faced opposition and public anger over recent scandals including the sale of cell phone spectrum in 2008 that reportedly cost the country tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue. The telecoms minister had to resign and is in jail pending a probe into the losses.
Congress has also come under fire for alleged mismanagement and corruption tied to the Commonwealth Games and the takeover of valuable Mumbai apartments intended for poor war widows by powerful bureaucrats and politicians' relatives. The country's top anti-corruption official was forced to resign this year after the Supreme Court ruled that graft charges he faced disqualified him from holding the office.
Volcano billows giant plume for 2nd day in Chile
Flights in the region were canceled and more than 3,500 people stayed away from their homes near the volcano, which produced an eerie show of lightning dancing through its clouds of ash overnight.
Most of the residents in 22 settlements near the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic complex evacuated when the eruption began Saturday afternoon and were staying in government shelters or friends' homes. One group of 122 people were being moved from a shelter for fear that the eruption could cause flooding on the Nilahue River.
There were no reports of injuries.
Rodrigo Ubilla, Chile's undersecretary of labor, said some people near the volcano had decided not to leave their homes because they didn't want to abandon their animals.
Wind carried ash across the Andes into Argentina until Sunday afternoon, dropping a blanket of ash on the tourist town of San Carlos de Bariloche, which had to close its airport. Officials there urged people to use cover their mouths and noses against the ash, to stock up on food and water and stay indoors if possible.
A shift in wind direction Sunday began dropping more ash on Chile's side of the border.
"The situation is very complicated," said Santiago Rozas, mayor of Lago Ranco, a town about 40 miles (70 kilometers) north of the eruption.
"The shift means that we will have a rain of ash, with damage for the population and a threat to smallholder farming," Rozas said.
Officials closed the border crossing at Cardenal Samore because falling ash lowered visibility on the mountain road.
The eruption is nearly 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Chile's capital, Santiago.
Authorities put the area on alert Saturday morning after a flurry of earthquakes, and the eruption began in the afternoon. The National Emergency Office recorded an average of 240 tremors an hour for the first 12 hours, but that dropped to about 17 an hour by Sunday, Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said.
With the Andes running along its entire length, Chile has more than 3,000 volcanoes, of which about 500 are considered active and 60 have had eruptions recorded over the past 450 years.
Leftist Humala narrowly wins Peru election
Ollanta Humala, 48, won Sunday after softening his radical image and disavowing the affinity for Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez that fueled his defeat in a first run for the presidency five years earlier.
He promises Peru's poor a greater share of the Andean nation's considerable mineral wealth and pledged in victory to honor the free market but put Peruvians first.
The former army lieutenant colonel won 51.5 percent of the vote against 48.5 percent for Keiko Fujimori, according to complete unofficial results compiled by the independent election watchdog Transparencia.
Official results, with 87 percent of the vote counted, had Humala ahead with 51.2 percent but officials cautioned that rural districts where Humala fared better were slow in reporting.
Humala told supporters Sunday night he'd work to convert a decade-long economic boom that is the envy of Latin America into "the great motor of the social inclusion Peruvians desire." He says he'll do so by taxing windfall mining profits and exporting less natural gas so Peruvians get it cheaper.
Rife with mudslinging and dirty tricks, the campaign was marred by doubts about both candidates' commitment to democracy.
Fujimori's father is serving a 25-year prison term for rights abuses and corruption, and many Peruvians considered her little more than his proxy. Humala has been accused of violent excesses as an army counterinsurgency unit commander in the 1990s and of encouraging a bloody uprising his brother staged in 2005 seeking to oust then-President Alejandro Toledo that cost four policemen their lives.
Keiko Fujimori, 36, did not immediately concede, instead appearing briefly before supporters Sunday night to ask them "responsibly and with prudence" await official results.
Humala narrowly lost the presidency to Alan Garcia in 2006. In that election he presented himself as a fan of Gen. Juan Velasco, the leftist dictator who expropriated land from the rich and nationalized a raft of industries during his 1968-75 rule.
This time, Humala tempered his rhetoric.
After initially vowing to renegotiate free trade agreements and rewrite the constitution "to create an economic regime with social justice as its goal" he reversed himself, pledging to instead follow Brazil's market-friendly model for elevating the poor.
Two weeks ago, he swore on the Bible to respect democracy and press freedom.
But Humala failed to win over the business elite and most of the news media, which campaigned openly against him. They fear he's a Velasco reincarnate.
As he rose in popularity, stockholders sold off shares in Lima's exchange.
Billions are at stake. Investors have pledged more than $40 billion over the next decade to develop gold, silver, copper and other mining operations in rich Andean lodes.
In a rousing victory speech Sunday to more than 10,000 supporters in central Lima, Humala said he would create jobs, build homes, and deliver running water and electricity to long-neglected backwaters.
"We've been waiting a long time for a government that really cares about the poor," he said, rather than catering to a Lima elite that sells transnationals the mineral riches that comprise more than 65 percent of Peru's export earnings.
"This has got to change, and it's for this change that I am here. That is why I got into politics," Humala said. "I'm only interested in achieving what I've offered the Peruvian people."
His base was the one in three Peruvians who are poor — in Peru's rural highlands its closer to two in three.
Jose Romero, a 58-year-old construction worker who said he was harassed for labor organizing during Alberto Fujimori's regime, was overjoyed by Humala's win and pledges to protect workers from exploitation that let employers hire people full time without paying benefits.
"We're getting everything back with him. Good jobs will come back. There won't be corruption. I believe in his word," said Romero, who is from Peru's poorest state, Huancavelica.
Both candidates promised a raft of giveaways for the poor, including free school meals and preschool care. Humala promised a government pension for all at age 65.
Exit polls gave Humala better than 70 percent of the vote in four poor highland states including Puno, where Aymara Indians who object to a planned Canadian-owned silver mine suspended a nearly monthlong highway blockade so people could vote. The protesters fear the mine will poison their water.
Fujimori did capture Lima, but by a modest margin.
Humala finished first in the election's April 10 first round, when three centrist candidates together split 45 percent of the vote. He got a big boost with the endorsement of Toledo, who finished fourth. Toledo had previously likened voting for Humala to "a jump into the abyss."
Had Toledo and the other two centrists united behind a single candidate they could have elbowed out Keiko Fujimori. But Peru is a country where personality decides elections rather than political party affiliations or ideologies. Its parties are weak, its political class considered extremely corrupt.
That opens the door for outsiders like Humala and Fujimori's father, Alberto. He vanquished hyperinflation and fanatical Shining Path rebels during his autocratic 1990-2000 presidency. A fifth of Peruvians revere the man, but his legacy of corruption hurt his congresswoman daughter. Humala harped on it.
He says he'll put crooked politicians in jail and make it easier for citizens to recall dishonest elected leaders.
Peru's best-known intellectual, 2010 Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, said Humala's win "saved democracy."
"What's important is that we have been freed from the return to power of a dictatorship that was terribly corrupt and bloody," he told CPN radio. "We should congratulate ourselves and celebrate."
Humala insists he'll steer Peru closer to the United States and Brazil than to Chavez's leftist camp, which includes Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, none of which currently have U.S. ambassadors.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, in Peru as an Organization of American States election observer, met with both candidates and said he didn't consider Humala another Chavez.
"He is a nationalist and an enigma with evolving views and a pragmatic streak," Richardson said. "I think he's educable and the business community should give him a chance."
Gates continues Afghan farewell tour
He flew from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to a troop base in one of the more remote and dangerous parts of the country, in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan.
On Sunday, he visited two troop bases in southern Afghanistan to say goodbye and thank soldiers and Marines for their service in the fight against the Taliban.
Gates, 67, is retiring June 30, ending a 4 1/2 year tenure as Pentagon chief. One of his last major issues will be to recommend to President Barack Obama how to begin and carry out a U.S. troop withdrawal starting in July.
In a session with soldiers of the 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, Gates said that despite eliminating Osama bin Laden, it was still too soon to wind down the Afghan war. He said more military pressure must be applied to the Taliban before they are likely to feel it necessary to talk peace.
"We've got to keep the pressure on them," he told an assembly of several hundred troops at Sharana. "We're not quite there yet."
"It's too early to tell" how bin Laden's death will affect the course of the war in Afghanistan, where the al-Qaida leader once enjoyed a haven from which to operate under the ruling Taliban regime, he said.
Acrobat, mom reenact fatal Puerto Rico wire walk
Nik Wallenda said he had planned to walk by himself across a 300-foot-long (91-meter-long) wire, but his mother convinced him to let her join him on the reconstruction of the fatal 1978 stunt.
"I've been mentally prepared my entire life for this," he said. "I've seen the video of my great-grandfather falling hundreds of times. It's something I've been wanting to do for all of us, for our family."
He said he initially rejected a request by his mother, Delilah Wallenda, to join him.
"Just because of safety," he said. "We've obviously lost several family members doing this."
But Delilah Wallenda, who is in her late 50s, eventually won him over, he said.
The mother-and-son team walked slowly toward each other on a damp morning, balancing on a wire as wide as a nickle. Nik Wallenda was wearing moccasin-style shoes that his mother had made. He carried a 45-pound (20-kilogram) balancing pole, while Delilah Wallenda carried a 25-pound (11-kilogram) pole.
They met at the middle. Delilah Wallenda sat on the wire while her son stepped over her in slow motion. She then struggled slightly to get up before both continued toward the towers of the Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza Hotel.
"Normally, I'm in a zone," he said. "At this point, I was in no zone. I was still focused on my great-grandfather."
Dozens of onlookers on balconies and the street below gasped as he knelt and steadied himself just feet (meters) before he completed the walk.
The Wallendas obtained permission to do the stunt about two months ago so they could commemorate German-born Karl Wallenda, who was 73 when he fell to his death after a lifetime of spectacular acrobatics. He was the founder of the "The Flying Wallendas" high-wire act.
In 2001, another relative, Tino Wallenda, crossed a 300-foot (91-meter) cable at a prison in Puerto Rico and did a headstand in honor of Karl Wallenda.
Nik Wallenda said Saturday's walk was an emotional experience.
"It was to show the world that the Wallendas are still here, we're still going strong," he said. "My great-grandfath er always said, 'Never give up,' and that's something we'll never do."
6 killed as violence returns to streets of Sanaa
Saleh flew to Saudi Arabia for surgery shortly after its King Abdullah brokered a cease-fire late Saturday. The truce held for just hours.
In the latest violence, the office of powerful opposition tribal leader Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar said three of his supporters were shot dead in the tense Hassaba neighborhood in the north of the capital. The district is headquarters for al-Ahmar's tribal operation.
Three other shooting deaths occurred late Sunday. A defecting military official said government gunmen opened fire on their checkpoint.
The six killings belied an offer by the acting president — Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi — to withdraw government forces from the area. It has seen some heaviest fighting in Yemen's four months upheaval.
Government officials said Hadi was meeting again Monday with security officials in an attempt to arranged a cease-fire that would hold.
Checkpoints were spread all along the road leading to the Hassaba neighborhood, which has been virtually a closed military area since May 23 as intense fighting broke out in the district.
Residents trying to return to their homes were fired on by rooftop snipers and forced to flee yet again, said a military officer from a defecting unit that was guarding access to the tribal chief's house.
While unable to enter the district, an Associated Press reporter who reached the checkpoint could see broken electricity pylons and shops and buildings pockmarked by mortar shrapnel.
Regardless of joyous celebrations Sunday, many Yemenis feared Saleh, a masterful political survivor, would yet return — or leave the country in ruins if he cannot. Hanging in the balance was a country that even before the latest tumult was beset by deep poverty, malnutrition, tribal conflict and violence by an active al-Qaida franchise with international reach.
Saleh underwent successful surgery on his chest to remove jagged pieces of wood that splintered from a mosque pulpit when his compound was hit by rockets on Friday. He was being treated in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
The stunning rocket attack, which the government first blamed on tribal fighters and later on al-Qaida, killed 11 bodyguards and seriously injured five senior officials worshipping at Saleh's side.
Deputy Information Minister Abdu al-Janadi said Saleh would return and assume duties after treatment, though experts on Yemeni affairs questioned whether a return is possible in the face of so much opposition.
Saleh's sudden departure raised many questions, including whether his Saudi hosts want him to return. The Saudis have backed Saleh and cooperated in confronting al-Qaida and other threats, but they are now among those pressing him to give up power as part of a negotiated deal. Saudi Arabia has watched with concern the anti-government protests that have spread to other neighboring countries like Bahrain and is eager to contain the unrest on its doorstep.
An opposition party official said Sunday that international mediators, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, tried to get Saleh to sign a presidential decree passing power to his vice president before he left for Saudi Arabia — a strong indication that they are trying to push Saleh from power permanently.
Saleh refused to sign the declaration, offering only a verbal agreement, but the negotiations delayed his departure, the official said.
The president's absence raised the specter of an even more violent power struggle between the armed tribesmen who have joined the opposition and loyalist military forces under the command of Saleh's son and other close relatives. Street battles between the sides had already pushed the political crisis to the brink of civil war.
Late Sunday, opposition figures and ruling party officials said negotiations had begun based on a U.S.-backed Gulf Arab plan to end the crisis with Saleh's resignation. Saleh rejected that plan three times after first agreeing to sign it. His departure could allow Yemen's powerful Gulf neighbors to push it forward. Details remained murky.
The two sides said Saleh was expected to remain in Saudi Arabia for two weeks, one for treatment and another for meetings, but it remained unclear if he will return to Yemen,
Yemen's unrest began as a peaceful protest movement that the government at times used brutal force to suppress, killing at least 166 people, according to Human Rights Watch. It transformed in the past two weeks into armed conflict after the president's forces attacked the home of a key tribal leader and one-time ally who threw his support behind the uprising. The fighting turned the streets of the capital into a war zone.
Other forces aligned against Saleh at the same time. There were high-level defections within his military, and Islamist fighters took over at least one town in the south in the past two weeks.
In Taiz, Yemen's second-largest city, dozens of gunmen attacked the presidential palace on Sunday, killing four soldiers in an attempt to storm the compound, according to military officials and witnesses. They said one of the attackers was also killed in the violence. The attackers belong to a group set up recently to avenge the killing of anti-regime protesters at the hands of Saleh's security forces.
Elsewhere in the south, gunman ambushed a military convoy, killing nine soldiers, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Officials: US missiles kill 16 in Pakistan
The identities of the dead in the unusually intense volley of drone-fired strikes in the South Waziristan tribal region were not known. Several Arabs were said to be among the victims of one of them, according to the officials, who did not give their names in line with agency policy.
Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters remain in South Waziristan, despite a Pakistani army offensive launched there in 2009.
Since the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2 in northwest Pakistan, missile strikes have picked up pace from a relative lull in the year's first half. But anger at the bin Laden operation, seen here as a violation of Pakistani sovereignty, has led to fresh calls on Washington to stop the attacks.
Pakistani authorities said Sunday that they were increasingly sure that a Friday missile strike in South Waziristan killed Ilyas Kashmiri, a top al-Qaida commander rumored to be a longshot contender to replace bin Laden as the terror network's chief.
Getting definitive confirmation about who died in the missile strikes is difficult, especially if no body is retrieved.
When asked about Kashmiri on Monday, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said "the U.S. has confirmed that he died," but it was unclear if he was referring to private communications between the two governments. Publicly, at least, U.S. officials have not confirmed the death.
Kashmiri was wrongly said by Pakistani and American officials to have been killed in a missile strike in 2009. Pakistani officials declined to comment on whether they had assisted the U.S. in the Friday strike.
Before dawn, one set of missiles hit a compound in Wucha Dana village, killing seven people. The second set landed at about the same time at a Muslim seminary there, killing five people, two Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
They said several Arab men were believed to be among the dead.
Later Monday, missiles hit a vehicle traveling in Dra Nishter village elsewhere in the region, killing four, officials said.
Washington says the missiles have killed hundreds of militants, including several top al-Qaida commanders since they began in earnest in 2008. More than 30 have struck this year, compared to last year's tally of about 130. Some experts question their legality and the secrecy under which they operate. Transparent investigations of alleged civilian casualties are not carried out.
Pakistani intelligence is believed to provide the U.S. with targeting information for at least some of the strikes. But its civilian and military leaders publicly protest the strikes and say they create more enemies than they kill. It would be politically toxic to acknowledge collaborating with the U.S. in attacks unpopular among many Pakistanis.
Also Monday, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb that killed 18 people at a bakery in an army neighborhood in the northwest town of Nowshera the previous night. The militant group said the attack was vengeance for Pakistani army actions against them in the nearby Swat Valley.
Pope denounces 'disintegration' of Europe families
Benedict stressed traditional Catholic family values, including opposition to abortion, during an open-air Mass attended by about 400,000 people at Zagreb's hippodrome, the highlight of his trip to mark the local church's national day of families.
The faithful, who came in droves from across Croatia and surrounding countries, arrived before dawn at the field muddied by overnight thunderstorms. Another fierce thunderstorm, when the pope was about to fly back to Rome in the evening, forced the departure ceremony at the airport to be hastily moved from the planned tarmac venue to inside a hangar. Benedict arrived safely back in Rome Sunday night.
The sun shone through the clouds in the morning as Benedict celebrated Mass before a crowd of flag-waving faithful whose numbers exceeded estimates of 300,000 and whose devotion seemed to deeply impress the pontiff. Later, Benedict prayed before the tomb of a Croatian World War II-era cardinal hailed by Catholics for opposing communism but criticized by Jews for sympathizing with the Nazis.
It was Benedict's first visit as pope to Croatia, an overwhelmingly Catholic Balkan nation that is poised to soon join the European Union. The Vatican has strongly supported its bid, eager to see another country with shared values join the 27-member bloc and help Benedict's project of rekindling Europe's sense of its Christian heritage.
Yet while Croatia is nearly 90 percent Catholic, it allows some legal rights for same-sex couples and, thanks to leftover communist-era legislation, permits abortion up to 10 weeks after conception and thereafter with the consent of a special commission of doctors. Elsewhere in Europe, including in Italy, marriages are on the decline as more and more people choose to just live together.
In his homily, Benedict lamented the "increasing disintegration of the family, especially in Europe" and urged young couples to resist "that secularized mentality which proposes living together as a preparation, or even a substitute for marriage."
"Do not be afraid to make a commitment to another person!" he said.
He urged parents to affirm the inviolability of life from conception to natural death — Vatican-speak for opposition to abortion, saying "Dear families, rejoice in fatherhood and motherhood!" He also urged them to back legislation that supports families "in the task of giving birth to children and educating them."
His message — delivered mostly in Italian and translated into Croatian — has been received with a resounding welcome in Croatia, which Benedict's predecessor Pope John Paul II visited three times during and after the Balkan wars of the 1990s in a sign of the strong ties the Vatican and Croatia enjoy.
"It's great the pope's here," said Karmela Sokolic, a young girl who said she arrived at the hippodrome at 4 a.m. to snag a place near the altar. "I just love the pope and I love that I am here."
Nea Busic, a 27-year-old who has a 3-year-old daughter, a 1-year-old son and is pregnant with a third child, said she and her husband took the pope's message to heart.
"We are not afraid of life, we are not afraid of children and the Catholic Church approves of that," she said as she waited for Benedict's vespers service to begin.
"The pope especially, he encourages young people to get married and to have lots of children, because that is our future," said Busic, an English teacher who came to Zagreb on an overnight train with some 1,000 faithful, mostly families, from Split.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said Benedict had been particularly impressed by the level of devotion of the Croat faithful, noting the intensity of prayer he witnessed among young people and the absolute silence that accompanied a prayer during a vigil Saturday night that drew 50,000 people to Zagreb's elegant central square.
"I was there and I could hear the birds singing," Lombardi said. "If someone can hear birds singing in a piazza with 50,000 people, it means the silence is perfect."
Monsignor Valter Zupan, in charge of family issues in the Croatian bishops' conference, echoed Benedict's denunciation of secular trends in Europe which he said favored "different types of living together which don't have any foundation in European culture."
Croatia has recognized same-sex couples since 2003 and allows gay partners in relationships of more than three years rights of inheritance and financial support, the same as enjoyed by heterosexual couples who aren't married. There is no gay marriage, however, and gay couples cannot adopt.
"We want our children to continue to call their parents 'mamma' and 'papa' because that's their natural names," he told the applauding crowd. "Children have the right to publicly state that a 'father' and a 'mother' gave them life," he said, adding that the church also had the right to demand the government reverse its abortion law.
After Mass, Benedict presided over a vespers service in Zagreb's Gothic cathedral and prayed before the tomb of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, Croatia's World War II primate whom John Paul beatified during a 1998 trip.
Stepinac was hailed as a hero by Catholics for his resistance to communism and refusal to separate the Croatian church from the Vatican. But his beatification was controversial because many Serbs and Jews accuse him of sympathizing with the Ustasha Nazi puppet regime that ruled Croatia during the war.
Benedict said that thanks to his Christian conscience, Stepinac knew to resist both forms of totalitarianism, "becoming in a time of Nazi and Fascist dictatorship, a defender of the Jews, the Orthodox and of all the persecuted, and then in the age of communism, an advocate for his own faithful, especially for the many persecuted and murdered priests."
Some Jews took exception to the pope's visit, even while praising the German-born Benedict for having said earlier in the trip that the Ustasha regime was a lie.
"Stepinac was an avid supporter of the Ustasha whose cruelties were so extreme that they even shocked some of their Nazi masters," said Elan Steinberg of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants. "Pope Benedict was right in condemning the evil Ustasha regime; he was wrong in paying homage to one of its foremost advocates".
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