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Publicado: 19 de febrero de 2013
Ecuador court upholds US $9.5 billion ruling against Chevron
File Reuters
QUITO (AFP) - A court in Ecuador on Tuesday fully upheld a 2011 ruling requiring US oil giant Chevron to pay $9.5 billion for environmental damage in the Amazon rainforest.
The landmark ruling for environment management costs was in the suit that dates back to 1993 against Texaco, a firm later acquired by Chevron.The Ecuadorans allege that Texaco dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon rainforest.
The top regional court in Sucumbios province, in northeastern Ecuador, fully upheld the February 14, 2011 ruling against Chevron of $8.6 billion with an additional 10 percent for environment management costs, a judicial source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The originalruling also ordered Chevron "to publicly apologize to the victims" or pay twice the stated amount. Chevron has not apologized.
"I must state my satisfaction" over the ruling, President Rafael Correa told reporters in the southwestern city of Guayaquil.
"I believe justice has been done -- the damage that Chevron did in the Amazon basin region is undeniable," Correa said.
In a statement,Chevron lashed out at the ruling.
The decision "is another glaring example of the politicization and corruption of Ecuador's judiciary that has plagued this fraudulent case from the start," Chevron said, claiming that the judgment was "illegitimate" and "procured through a corrupt and fraudulent scheme."
Chevron "does not believe that the Ecuador ruling is enforceable in any court thatobserves the rule of law. The company will continue to seek to hold accountable the perpetrators of this fraud."
The firm said it was also pursuing efforts at an international tribunal and in the US courts to prevent enforcement of the ruling.
The lawsuit on behalf of Ecuadoran Amazon communities was originally filed in New York in 1993.
Separately, some of the original plaintiffs are alsoappealing; claiming that the amount Chevron was ordered to pay was insufficient.
Chevron, the second-largest energy company in the United States, has long claimed the Ecuadoran legal process was tainted.
Meteorite from Mars fell in Morocco: scientists
Rare and expensive fragments of a Mars meteorite fell from the sky in July over Morocco, a team of international scientists confirmed onWednesday.
A fireball in the sky was observed months ago in a remote region of southern Morocco by several people who then tracked down fragments of the seven kilogram (15 pound) meteorite, marking only the fifth time in history that a Mars rock has been seen falling to Earth.
A team of eight experts with the Meteoritical Society analyzed the pieces and determined that they are authenticchunks of the red planet, said Carl Agee, part of the team and curator at the University of New Mexico.
"This discovery is tremendously important because of the quality of the sample," Agee told AFP.
The Moroccans who found the fragments quickly sold them to dealers, and museums scrambled to purchase them at a range of $500 to $1,000 dollars per gram, said Agee, whose museum now possesses a 108gram piece.
The price for meteorites ranges from 10 to 20 times the price of gold.
"Some of these meteorites have atmospheric gas trapped inside glassy material. When they are heated and released in the laboratory and measured it's identical to the Mars atmosphere that all the Mars probes have measured," said Agee.
"All planets, like Venus, Mars and Earth, they have very differentatmospheres," he added. "It's like a fingerprint."
The meteorite was named Tissint, and its discovery was documented in the Meteoritical Society's latest bulletin issued January 17.
"At about 2:00 am local time on July 18, 2011, a bright fireball was observed by several people in the region of the Oued Draa valley, east of Tata, Morocco," it said.
"One eyewitness, Mr Aznid Lhou, reported that...
File Reuters
QUITO (AFP) - A court in Ecuador on Tuesday fully upheld a 2011 ruling requiring US oil giant Chevron to pay $9.5 billion for environmental damage in the Amazon rainforest.
The landmark ruling for environment management costs was in the suit that dates back to 1993 against Texaco, a firm later acquired by Chevron.The Ecuadorans allege that Texaco dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon rainforest.
The top regional court in Sucumbios province, in northeastern Ecuador, fully upheld the February 14, 2011 ruling against Chevron of $8.6 billion with an additional 10 percent for environment management costs, a judicial source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The originalruling also ordered Chevron "to publicly apologize to the victims" or pay twice the stated amount. Chevron has not apologized.
"I must state my satisfaction" over the ruling, President Rafael Correa told reporters in the southwestern city of Guayaquil.
"I believe justice has been done -- the damage that Chevron did in the Amazon basin region is undeniable," Correa said.
In a statement,Chevron lashed out at the ruling.
The decision "is another glaring example of the politicization and corruption of Ecuador's judiciary that has plagued this fraudulent case from the start," Chevron said, claiming that the judgment was "illegitimate" and "procured through a corrupt and fraudulent scheme."
Chevron "does not believe that the Ecuador ruling is enforceable in any court thatobserves the rule of law. The company will continue to seek to hold accountable the perpetrators of this fraud."
The firm said it was also pursuing efforts at an international tribunal and in the US courts to prevent enforcement of the ruling.
The lawsuit on behalf of Ecuadoran Amazon communities was originally filed in New York in 1993.
Separately, some of the original plaintiffs are alsoappealing; claiming that the amount Chevron was ordered to pay was insufficient.
Chevron, the second-largest energy company in the United States, has long claimed the Ecuadoran legal process was tainted.
Meteorite from Mars fell in Morocco: scientists
Rare and expensive fragments of a Mars meteorite fell from the sky in July over Morocco, a team of international scientists confirmed onWednesday.
A fireball in the sky was observed months ago in a remote region of southern Morocco by several people who then tracked down fragments of the seven kilogram (15 pound) meteorite, marking only the fifth time in history that a Mars rock has been seen falling to Earth.
A team of eight experts with the Meteoritical Society analyzed the pieces and determined that they are authenticchunks of the red planet, said Carl Agee, part of the team and curator at the University of New Mexico.
"This discovery is tremendously important because of the quality of the sample," Agee told AFP.
The Moroccans who found the fragments quickly sold them to dealers, and museums scrambled to purchase them at a range of $500 to $1,000 dollars per gram, said Agee, whose museum now possesses a 108gram piece.
The price for meteorites ranges from 10 to 20 times the price of gold.
"Some of these meteorites have atmospheric gas trapped inside glassy material. When they are heated and released in the laboratory and measured it's identical to the Mars atmosphere that all the Mars probes have measured," said Agee.
"All planets, like Venus, Mars and Earth, they have very differentatmospheres," he added. "It's like a fingerprint."
The meteorite was named Tissint, and its discovery was documented in the Meteoritical Society's latest bulletin issued January 17.
"At about 2:00 am local time on July 18, 2011, a bright fireball was observed by several people in the region of the Oued Draa valley, east of Tata, Morocco," it said.
"One eyewitness, Mr Aznid Lhou, reported that...
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