Suicide bomb attack on Nigeria checkpoint kills eight

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber attacked a military checkpoint in Nigeria's northeastern city of Damaturu on Sunday, killing six soldiers and two civilians, police said.

Suspicion is likely to fall on Islamist sect Boko Haram, which is waging a bloody insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan's government across the north.

The sect is seeking to carve out an Islamic state in Africa's top energy producer and most populous country, which is split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.

"The lone suicide bomber detonated the bomb before the car he was in could be stopped, killing the six soldiers and one civilian," Patrick Egbuniwe, the police commissioner for Yobe State, told Reuters by telephone.

"Another civilian died of his wounds in hospital shortly after," he added, saying that nine soldiers were in hospital receiving treatment for their wounds.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Damaturu's Shagari housing estate.

Labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the United States, Boko Haram has been behind almost daily shootings and bombings in the volatile northeast.

Witness Abdullahi Sabo said the whole neighborhood shook when the Damaturu bomb exploded.

"The car blew up outside the front of my shop, the explosion was deadly," he said. "After the dust settled, many security operatives were rushed to the hospital."

FATAL SHOOTING

In a separate incident, police said suspected sect members had shot dead a former commissioner for the environment in neighboring Borno state, the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency, in the early hours of Saturday.

The sect has not been as active as it was at the start of the year, when it was often inflicting heavy casualties on the security forces and civilians, but has still been carrying out attacks.

President Jonathan has been criticized for failing to get to grips with the insurgency, though his supporters say a military crackdown in the north has weakened the sect dramatically.

Last Sunday, suspected members of Boko Haram killed five people in a series of gun battles in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city. Four sect fighters were also killed. The following day, gunmen attacked Vice President Namadi Sambo's house in his home state, though he was not in the building.

Boko Haram has shown an increasing appetite for bombing churches this year in what looks like an attempt to foment sectarian strife.

The government says it is open to dialogue with the sect's members, although an attempt to initiate contact with the main faction leader Abubakar Shekau earlier this year went nowhere.

(Reporting by Ibrahim Mshelizza; Additional Reporting by Mike Oboh in Abuja; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suicide-bomb-attack-nigeria-checkpoint-kills-eight-163934075.html

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By Your Own Bootstraps: Quick Tips On Self Improvement

The number of people looking to improve themselves is huge, if not limitless. There are different areas in each person?s life where they want to makes these changes. If you are looking to apply some personal development to your life, look no further than the wonderful advice that is contained in this article.

Create a personal development plan by determining what your personal values are. It wouldn?t make sense to work on areas in your life that contradict your values. Spend your time on things that are in line with your values. This is the best way to make long-term changes.

TIP! Choose someone you admire to assist you with your goals and accountability in personal development. Someone to help guide you is always helpful.

Have a notebook or a smartphone app to jot down notes wherever you go. Pack some paper with you when you go out. Write down your idea in detail, then implement it at a later time when you can expand on the issue.

Go out of your way to give other people compliments. Resist the urge to focus on the negative and instead speak out in kindness to others and you will find yourself being kinder to yourself, as well.

Your physical limitations should be your guide when working toward achieving a goal. You should give it your very best effort and you need to know when you are giving too much. Taking care of your physical abilities is more important than achieving a goal. Hurting your body is going to be counter to what you are hoping to achieve in improving yourself.

TIP! If you notice that you are consistently failing to meet your goals and live up to expectations, you should attempt to diagnose the probable causes. Look for stories of other people who have successfully achieved goals similar to your own, then compare your approaches.

You will miss many opportunities to develop personally if you put off making decisions. Even if your knowledge is not what it could be, have the courage to make choices. Great decisions encourage sharp instincts. Even when your decision is incorrect, you can learn a lot from the mistake that you made. A bad choice will just open up the door for a better one.

A great organizational system can help you track your progress. If you break big goals down into little sub-goals, you will gain confidence as you achieve the sub-goals. You can use off-the-shelf tools like day planners or diaries to monitor your personal development progress.

Give yourself a boost of confidence by reciting all the things you like about yourself. Make a self-empowering post-it note or note card. Carry it around, and read it when you need to. An even more effective solution would be to read the list out and have it recorded on video; playing it back when you are feeling low. How will this help with your personal development?

TIP! Research how other people became successful. You can build upon the trails they blazed and avoid mistakes they made by finding out how they reached fulfillment.

Always treat people respectfully, whether they have power and can do something for you, or whether they?re an ordinary person. The way you act toward others says something about your character, not theirs.

Are you having trouble meeting someone that you can love and call your own? Try the world wide web. Many couples meet online now. There could be someone out there who is searching for their significant other, and that could be you. Both of these sites have pros and cons.

Every now and then, you may find yourself making a poor decision when it comes to food. Allowing stressful situations to build can be as harmful as eating an unhealthy diet, and therefore, it is important to remind yourself to maintain perspective and your calm at all times.

TIP! If you want to improve yourself, write down a specific list of things you want to improve. For example, should you want a greater amount of confidence, write about it.

Make the important aspects of your life the focus of how you live. You will surely find inner peace by focusing your thoughts on things that are important as opposed to those that don?t matter at all.

Your physical well-being and mental health are connected. Be sure to get plenty of exercise and nourishment. You cannot keep a healthy mind without taking care of your body.

TIP! Maintaining benevolent wishes for others can lead to an increase in the good things you bring into your own life. If you consider things this way, you will wish only good things for those around you.

Begin your personal development with a look at your leadership qualities. Leadership can be defined in many ways, but most people like to define it as ?influence.? Identify the leadership qualities you possess. Have certain people and events made more significant impacts on your life? What changes did those events bring forth in you? What skills would you contribute to a group? When you can answer those questions, you?ll know how to be part of a team.

Use your core principles to guide you as you begin to take action. All people have beliefs that tell what they are about. If you have this rooted in a good foundation, your self-esteem will benefit greatly due to this. This will also promote consistency in your life and actions, which is a trait almost everyone finds admirable.

Most people know they want to improve something in their life but remain unsure of how to get started. Reading this article for insight was the easy part. Next, you must commit yourself to applying these ideas to your daily life. If you notice that you are starting to lack motivation, read over this article again to lift you back up

Source: http://www.uptownrenaissance.com/by-your-own-bootstraps-quick-tips-on-self-improvement

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Those of you with a Sony Xperia cellphone with the LED strip: give this app a shot

A couple of days back a friend of mine who bought his first Android device asked me to give him a list of apps that he should try out. As I was putting together a bunch of links, I came across this app called the Illumination Bar Notificaiton?for Sony Xperia devices that have an LED strip along the bottom. I forwarded it to him since he?s got the Xperia S, and felt it was worth sharing with our readers. Since I don?t have an Xperia, I haven?t been able to test it out. So do give us your feedback in the comments since I?d love to know whether or not it?s as cool as it sounds.

Source: http://phandroid.com/2012/08/05/those-of-you-with-a-sony-xperia-cellphone-with-the-led-strip-give-this-app-a-shot/

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Food. Fun. and Smile Saturday? Eat and Move like an Olympian ...

?

Food. Fun. and Smile Saturday?

Eat and Move like an Olympian!

with Elaine Hastings, RD

Growing up in a small town in Michigan brought its?challenges?but I never let that stop me. Ever!

I thing my father taught me was that I could do anything I wanted. ?He would say half-pint, ?as long as you work hard and never give up, you will achieve your dreams. ?My father was right! ?We all have the ability to go for the GOLD! ?The question really is, Do we have the heart and soul for what it takes to reach beyond our comfort zone. ?Don?t worry, your not alone, I still struggle with this my self.

Eat and move like an Olympian?

As a 6 year old, I remember watching the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and thinking, I am going to be a World Olympic Gold Medalist some day or if NOT a model would be fine too. Lol ?I was for sure that I was going to be competing against?Nadia Elena Com?neci?in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Oh yeah, that would have made me 10 years old, I am a bit of an over achiever :)

Not to worry, 1984 would come soon and I knew that I could make the US Women?s Gymnastic Team. ?Well OK, Mary Lou Retton beat me on that one; I guess I would have to take the back seat and wait it out for Seoul.

I practiced and believed the Olympics were in my?future. ?Until I became so ill that I could no longer?participate?as an athlete. ?I am sure your thinking, so your father wasn?t right! ?No, he was right! ?I lost my focus and my drive. ?I gave up on myself!

We CAN?T give up on ourselves, EVER! ?I learn through this experience and I will share with you that we have it within ourselves, we just need to locate it. ?Locator button anyone? ?I am going to talk more about the keys to our life and how to use them in future blogs. ?If your searching, stay with me and we will laugh, cry and learn to locate our keys.

Don?t ever stop. Don?t ever give up. EVER!

Olympic Style Breakfast!

Breakfast Pancakes
oatmeal, egg whites, flaxseed, bananas & protein powder & fresh strawberries.

75 calories & 8gms protein

Make Substitutions

  • Use low fat evaporated skim milk instead of cream
  • Saute with olive oil or wine instead of margarine or butter
  • Replace one-half or all of the white rice, pasta and flour with their whole-grain counterparts
  • Use applesauce in place of oil when baking brownies

Use Less

  • Use less fat than the recipe calls for (if the recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of oil, try it?with 1 or 2 tablespoons)
  • Use less sugar than the recipe calls for (start with just a fourth less and see how it tastes)

Add Healthful Ingredients

  • ?Add chopped carrots and peppers to meatloaf
  • ?Add barley to beef stew
  • ?Add sliced pears and pine nuts to mixed green salad
  • ?Add berries to oatmeal or cold cereal

Serve Smaller Portions

  • ?Instead of serving an entire plate of macaroni ?n cheese, serve a smaller portion along with a salad and steamed veggies
  • ?Have one slice of roast beef with one dollup of mashed potatoes with a large spoonful?of steamed vegetables or mixed green salad

Try some recipe makeovers with your main courses and see if you can remake a not so healthy meal into a healthy, lower calorie option.

Stay in Your Game?

Eat and move for Top Performance in YOUR Life!

? ? ? ? ? ? ?work. fitness. kids. corporate. teams. athletes

Elaine Hastings, The Game Changer!

#elainehasitngs

#elainehastingsRD

?

About Elaine Hastings, RD, LD/N, CSSD. Nutrition & Healthy Lifestyles Expert

Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist Elaine Hastings, RD, LD/N, CSSD is the founder of Associates in Nutrition and Sports Specialty, a leader in the health, wellness, fitness and sports nutrition industries. Elaine is an engaging and informed Nutrition, Performance and Energy Expert. Elaine is a go-to media source both nationally and internationally, with extensive knowledge in every aspect of nutrition. She has been a multimedia content contribute and media resource for some 20 years. Elaine specializes in healthy lifestyles, wellness, energy, performance, nutrition, fitness, eating disorders, sports and team nutrition. She is a highly sought after educator, author and spokesperson with excellent cross-cultural awareness. Being a former athlete and model Elaine knows how to help you Stay in Your Game! Stay in Your Game? Eat and move for Top Performance in YOUR Life! ?work. fitness. corporate. teams. athletes. kids. Elaine Hastings, your game changer!

Source: http://elainehastings.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/food-fun-and-smile-saturday-eat-and-move-like-an-olympian/

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Tabby - Brown - Ramon - Medium - Baby - Male - Cat | Cincinnati ...

Tabby - Brown - Ramon - Medium - Baby - Male - Cat

His name makes him sound like a Latin lover. In reality, Ramon is actually a Cincinnati boy, and a very sweet kitten. He is always eager to play with anyone, even the big cats in his foster home who were't quite his friends. He is friendly to all people and all pets. Ramon is very vocal and a big eater! With his striking marbled tabby and white markings, this little guy definitely has the looks to go with his charm. He love to come home and be your furry, purry little lover boy! Interested In Adopting? If you are interested in adopting or have any specific questions, please fill out our online adoption questionnaire. <http://www.ohioalleycat.org/adoption-form/> This information will go straight to the adoption coordinator who will answer any questions or talk to you about the adoption process. The adoption fee for this cat is $75, which goes toward the medical and daily care expenses for each cat. NOTE: Part of the adoption process is a face-to-face meeting.
About O.A.R. The Ohio Alleycat Resource & Spay/Neuter Clinic <http://www.ohioalleycat.org> is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, volunteer-run organization. We promote non-lethal control for feral cat colonies and humane methods to reduce the population of feral cats. In particular, we practice Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). We also offer a low-cost, high-quality spay/neuter services for cats in a full-time Humane Alliance clinic. OAR also lends humane traps and provides advice on TNR. The organization also runs a small rescue with adoptable cats and kittens.

CHARACTERISTICS:
Breed: Tabby - Brown
Size: Medium
Petfinder ID: 23577798

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Pet has been spayed/neutered

CONTACT:
OAR | Cincinnati, OH | 513-871-PAWS

For additional information, reply to this ad or see: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=23577798

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Source: http://cincinnati.ebayclassifieds.com/cats-kittens/cincinnati/tabby-brown-ramon-medium-baby-male-cat/?ad=22181294

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NCAA to Paternos: Don't bother appealing

Joe Paterno's family said it planned to appeal the sanctions imposed by the NCAA against Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The governing body's response: Don't bother.

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Family lawyer Wick Sollers in a letter sent Friday to the NCAA said the Paternos would like to appeal the "enormous damage" done to Penn State, the community, athletes and the late Hall of Fame coach. He died in January at age 85.

But the NCAA quickly rejected their plan. "The Penn State sanctions are not subject to appeal," spokesman Bob Williams said.

The landmark penalties handed down last month included a four-bowl ban, scholarship cuts and 111 vacated wins from 1998-2011, meaning Paterno no longer has the most coaching victories in major college football.

The family said the NCAA acted hastily and without regard for due process, and that it accepted the results of the school's internal investigation without further review.

The report from former FBI director Louis Freeh said Paterno and three school officials concealed allegations against Sandusky dating back to 1998. Paterno's family and the three officials have all vehemently denied the conclusions.

Once a revered defensive coordinator, Sandusky is awaiting sentencing in jail after being convicted in June of 45 counts of sexually abusing young boys.

Penn State handed the Freeh report to the NCAA, which announced the harsh sanctions on July 23. Also among the penalties was a $60 million fine.

The school accepted the sanctions and signed off on a consent decree, with President Rodney Erickson saying later he didn't see a better option - the threat of the "death penalty," or the total shutdown of the football program, was hanging over the school.

A Penn State spokesman declined comment Friday on the Paterno family's intent to appeal.

Paterno's lawyer said the family had a right to file an appeal because it was named in the NCAA's consent decree with Penn state, as well as the Freeh report. The family said it hoped to formally submit an appeal and requested oral arguments before the NCAA's infractions appeal committee, its executive committee or other leaders.

"Furthermore, the NCAA and Penn State's Board (of Trustees) Chair and President entirely ignored the fact that the Freeh Report, on which these extraordinary penalties are based, is deeply flawed because it is incomplete, rife with unsupported opinions and unquestionably one-sided," Sollers wrote the NCAA.

Sollers called the sanctions possibly "the most important disciplinary action in the history of NCAA," but that it had been handled fundamentally inappropriate and unprecedented manner.

Michael McCann, director of the Sports Law Institute and a professor at Vermont Law School, said Friday he doubts the Paternos have standing to appeal.

"He's not alive, and his family itself would not seem to have any legal standing to challenge the NCAA," McCann said, "at least in terms of filing an appeal."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48504425/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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US-bound Cubans pour into Panama through Colombia

In this July 3, 2012 photo, Cuban migrant Mayra Reyes, sitting fourth from right, gathers with other Cubans with whom she traveled as they rest at a shelter along with another group of migrants from Bangladesh, after being found by Panamanian border police in the Darien province in Meteti, Panama. Panamanian authorities began noticing five years ago that the Darien Gap, the only interruption in the Pan-American Highway, was being used by migrant smugglers, usually to move people from Asia and Africa. Panama's Public Safety Minister Jose Murillo says that the movement of people from Asia and Africa has tapered off but that hundreds of Cubans are now taking the arduous Darien Gap route toward the United States. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

In this July 3, 2012 photo, Cuban migrant Mayra Reyes, sitting fourth from right, gathers with other Cubans with whom she traveled as they rest at a shelter along with another group of migrants from Bangladesh, after being found by Panamanian border police in the Darien province in Meteti, Panama. Panamanian authorities began noticing five years ago that the Darien Gap, the only interruption in the Pan-American Highway, was being used by migrant smugglers, usually to move people from Asia and Africa. Panama's Public Safety Minister Jose Murillo says that the movement of people from Asia and Africa has tapered off but that hundreds of Cubans are now taking the arduous Darien Gap route toward the United States. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

In this June 22, 2012 photo, a man bathes in a river at dawn in the Darien province on the border with Colombia, in Union Choco, Panama. Panamanian authorities began noticing five years ago that the Darien Gap, the only interruption in the Pan-American Highway, was being used by migrant smugglers, usually to move people from Asia and Africa. Panama's Public Safety Minister Jose Murillo says that the movement of people from Asia and Africa has tapered off but that hundreds of Cubans are now taking the arduous Darien Gap route toward the United States. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

In this June 19, 2012 photo, a Panama border police officer walks with his rifle after taking a bath in the river near a police station in the Darien province on the border with Colombia, in Union Choco, Panama. Panamanian authorities began noticing five years ago that the Darien Gap, the only interruption in the Pan-American Highway, was being used by migrant smugglers, usually to move people from Asia and Africa. Panama's Public Safety Minister Jose Murillo says that the movement of people from Asia and Africa has tapered off but that hundreds of Cubans are now taking the arduous Darien Gap route toward the United States. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

In this June 19, 2012 photo, Panama border police patrol by boat in the Darien province on the border with Colombia, near Yaviza, Panama. Panamanian authorities began noticing five years ago that the Darien Gap, the only interruption in the hemisphere-spanning Pan-American Highway, was being used by migrant smugglers, usually to move people from Asia and Africa. Panama's Public Safety Minister Jose Murillo says that the movement of people from Asia and Africa has tapered off but that hundreds of Cubans are now taking the arduous Darien Gap route toward the United States. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

In this June 19, 2012 photo, people bathe in the river as the sun sets in the Darien province on the border with Colombia, in Union Choco, Panama. Panamanian authorities began noticing five years ago that the Darien Gap, the only interruption in the Pan-American Highway, was being used by migrant smugglers, usually to move people from Asia and Africa. Panama's Public Safety Minister Jose Murillo says that the movement of people from Asia and Africa has tapered off but that hundreds of Cubans are now taking the arduous Darien Gap route toward the United States. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

(AP) ? Led by smugglers armed with knives and machetes, Mayra Reyes and 14 other Cubans sloshed through swamps and rivers and suffered hordes of mosquitoes as they struggled across the notorious Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia, the only north-south stretch of the Americas to defy road-builders.

After walking for three days, the group reached the foot of a steep, scrubby mountain. There, the smugglers peeled away and told the Cubans they would have to press ahead alone.

"I thought I was going to have a heart attack," the 32-year-old hairdresser from Havana told The Associated Press. "What the guides did was get us to the mountain, where we had to wait for nightfall while these green and black poisonous frogs got on top of us."

Hundreds of Cubans like Reyes are taking that arduous new route toward the United States, trekking across the 85 miles (135 kilometers) of steamy tropical jungle that divides Colombia and Panama, through mountains, ravines, and muddy ground teeming with poisonous reptiles, jaguars, wild boars, guerrillas and drug traffickers,

And after that, they still face a journey across 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) and six countries to reach the United States.

Panamanian immigration authorities detained 800 Cubans near the border with Colombia from January through the first week in July, compared to 400 in all of 2011.

"We have detained up to 90 people in one week," said Frank Abrego, director of Panama's National Borders Service.

Thousands of islanders over the decades have used rudimentary rafts to travel the 90 miles (150 kilometers) that separate Cuba from the United States, but that journey can be deadly, and the U.S. Coast Guard has been patrolling the Florida Straits more aggressively, halting many before they can reach Florida. Most Cubans who reach U.S. soil can stay, but those intercepted at sea are usually returned to their homeland, and U.S. figures indicate that more than 1,000 have been stopped at sea so far this year.

So Cubans have turned to land routes. In the first nine months of this fiscal year, 7,407 Cubans have entered the United States through the border with Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The route across the Darien Gap arose partly because many Cubans are now using the South American nation of Ecuador as the start of their path to the United States. President Rafael Correa eliminated visa requirements for Cuba in 2008, as other countries in Latin America, including Mexico, made it harder for Cubans to reach their shores.

All a Cuban needs is an exit permit from the Cuban government and a letter of invitation from a citizen of Ecuador, where some people sell such letters for $300 to $500. If Cubans have a letter of invitation and prove they can finance their travel abroad, it's relatively easy to get an exit permit if they are not doctors, scientists, military or members of other professions deemed high value by the government.

The result has been a flood of islanders traveling to the South American nation, which borders Colombia along the Pacific Ocean.

"Going to Ecuador is the easiest way right now to get out of Cuba," said Andy Gomez, a senior political fellow at the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. "For the majority, Ecuador is a stopping point but they have to come up with the money to get to their final destination, the United States," he said.

According to Ecuadorean official figures, between 2007 and February 2012, 106,371 Cubans entered the country legally and 97,923 left legally. It is unclear what happened to the other 8,448.

In Ecuador, many Cubans work to save money to pay smugglers to take them to Mexico's border with the United States, a route shared with many Central American migrants who have to cross territory controlled by drug traffickers and who often face extortion and kidnapping.

Few, though, cross the Darien, one of the world's most rain-drenched regions. While several thousand indigenous people live along its trails and rivers, the jungle is so dense, the ground so swampy or mountainous, that the few attempts to cross it by car or motorcycle have taken weeks or months. That terrain, and fears of environmental damage to its wild ecosystem, have continued to frustrate planners trying to link South and North America with the Pan-American Highway.

Panamanian authorities began noticing five years ago that the Darien Gap was being used by migrant smugglers, usually to move people from Asia and Africa who had traveled to the area by boat from Brazil, said Jose Mulino, Panama's public safety minister. That has tapered off. Panamanian immigration officials have detained just 97 non-Cuban migrants in the area since the start of the year.

"That traffic of Africans and Asians has considerably decreased, and the big problem we have now is the flow of Cubans who are coming through the jungle," Mulino said.

The Cuban migrants are sharing dangerous paths used by drug traffickers and rebels of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Mulino said, That has sometimes caused problems for local law enforcement.

Police recently had to call off a drug raid after spotting a group of Cubans near the border, Abrego said.

"We had to get them out of there and take them to Panama City," he said. "We lost the raid's effectiveness."

Authorities have yet to determine if their guides work for either group, Mulino said.

"It's not clear if the rebels, or the drug traffickers, or both, are the ones guiding the migrants," Mulino said. "Someone is helping them and those people are the ones who walk that area."

Mildred Morales, a 34-year-old Cuban nurse who was part of Reyes' group, said she paid $300 just to cross the border into Panama. She had spent about $1,000 since leaving Ecuador three days earlier.

"From the moment you leave Ecuador you have to pay people off, police and immigration officials in Ecuador and in Colombia," the Havana woman said. "This is not cheap."

After climbing the mountain, the group walked another six hours to a river. From there, Panamanian authorities detained them and took them eight hours by canoe to the town of Yaviza, where the Pan-American Highway ends in Panama. From there, they went by car to a detention shelter in the town of Meteti.

The Cubans remained in Meteti for several days until immigration authorities gave them, like most Cuban migrants, a temporary permit allowing them to be in the Central American country as long as they report to authorities every two weeks. Authorities in Meteti say it's rare to see the Cubans again.

Like everyone in the group, Morales was nursing dozens of mosquito bites and thinking about the rest of the journey north.

"We don't know what kind of problems we'll face in the rest of the countries," Morales said. "We have heard from other Cubans that it is possible to reach Mexico's borders with the United States."

____

Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador and Olga R. Rodriguez in Mexico City contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-08-02-Panama-Cuba-Crossing%20the%20Gap/id-4934a21d02a84d7fa49bbf6363f99fc8

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