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Tag: Peru

  • Joran van der Sloot Getting Married in Peru Prison

    Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch national presently serving a 28-year prison sentence for murder in Peru, plans to be married in lockup and is expecting a child. Van der Sloot made international headlines as the prime suspect in the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, who vanished in Aruba on May 30, 2005.

    Van der Sloot was never formally charged with murdering Holloway, and her disappearance remains unsolved, but the Dutchman was indicted by a federal grand jury in the United States for wire fraud and extortion related to the teen’s whereabouts. Van der Sloot killed Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramírez on May 30, 2010, five years to the day after Holloway vanished, and is now sitting in a Lima prison for the next couple of decades.

    According to Maximo Altez, van der Sloot’s Peruvian defense attorney, the 26-year-old Dutchman is getting married to Leydi Carol Figueroa Uceda, 23, some time in late May or early June. Altez said, “They met when she was visiting a relative in prison. They became friends and spent a lot of time together in his cell. Unlike The United States, here in Peru loved ones or relatives can see inmates inside their jails.”

    Uceda is expecting a baby boy fathered by van der Sloot, and is five months’ pregnant. Altez added, “He’s very happy about getting married. Since his girlfriend is pregnant, he wants his child to be born to a married couple and he’s anxiously awaiting the day he can get married.” The small, private wedding will be held in a chapel in Piedras Gordas Prison, located in Lima’s Ancon district.

    Here is a glimpse of Piedras Gordas:

    Van der Sloot is scheduled to be released on June 10, 2038, though his prison stint can be reduced considerably for good behavior. Some have speculated that the marriage might be a maneuver to avoid extradition to the United States once his Peruvian sentence ends. Altez commented, “He’s getting married because he’s in love and is having a child. There are no hidden agendas.” Van der Sloot is presently teaching English to other inmates to pass his time.

    As for Uceda, her attraction to a convicted killer might be tied to hybristophilia, also known a “Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome,” which is a paraphilia of the predatory type in which sexual arousal, facilitation, and attainment of orgasm are responsive to and contingent upon being with a partner known to have committed an outrage, cheating, lying, known infidelities or crime, such as rape, murder, or armed robbery.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Joran van der Sloot to Marry Leydi Figueroa Uceda

    Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance and assumed murder of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway back in 2005 in Aruba, will soon marry 22-year-old Leydi Figueroa Uceda, a woman he met while she sold goods in the Peruvian prison in which he is being held on another murder conviction. She is five months pregnant with his child. The two have nearly completed the legal arrangements needed for them to marry while he is in prison.

    van der Sloot is presently serving a 28-year prison sentence for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, a student he met in a Lima casino. It is believed that she saw information on his laptop computer that told her exactly who he was and he killed her in a hotel room as a result. This took place five years to the day of Natalee Holloway’s disappearance.

    Once Joran van der Sloot serves his time in Peru he will be extradited to the United States where he will go to trial for extortion. He allegedly took $25,000 from Natalee Holloway’s mother Beth with the promise of leading the woman to her daughter’s remains.

    Is it even possible that Leydi Figueroa Uceda didn’t know who van der Sloot was when she became intimately involved with him in his prison cell? How could that be? His face has been plastered all over the news since Holloway went missing in 2005. This murderer is no doubt charismatic as he has proven he can win over the ladies time and time again.

    What kind of life will Uceda have raising Joran van der Sloot’s baby on her own while he serves out a 28-year sentence and is then extradited to the United States? By the time he has any chance at all of being a free man, this child will be long grown.

    What’s your take on Joran van der Sloot getting married and becoming a father? Is there some underlying scheme behind his most recent actions?

    Image via YouTube

  • Chile Aftershock Registers Magnitude 7.6

    Chile Aftershock Registers Magnitude 7.6

    The U.S. Geological Survey reports that a magnitude 7.6 aftershock rattled Chile’s northern coast late Wednesday night, triggering a tsunami warning for regions of that country and Peru.

    The significant tremor came after an April 1st magnitude 8.2 quake generated a tsunami which produced 6.9 foot waves. The initial quake hit at 23:46 UTC off the coast of Chile, and the epicenter was approximately 59 miles northwest of the city of Iquique. The epicenter of last night’s aftershock was 12 miles south of Iquique at a depth of 25 miles, according to the USGS.

    The aftershock was felt along the border in southern Peru, where people in the cities of Tacna and Arequipa followed suit with the residents of Iquique, and fled into the streets, avoiding buildings in fear. Citizens of low-lying areas were reevacuated, though the tsunami warning issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for the region was cancelled late Wednesday.

    Roughly 2,500 houses were damaged during the initial temblor in Alto Hospicio, a poor neighborhood situated in the hills above Iquique, a city with a population of nearly 200,000 people. The death toll so far due to the quake is six, and Chilean president Michelle Bachelet declared parts of the country’s North as a disaster zone, and military and troops and police reinforcements were dispatched to maintain order, prevent looting and to corral escaped convicts.

    Here are some images of the damage, via Twitter:

    The main April 1st tremor was preceded by a number of mid-sized quakes that hit in the same region in the preceding weeks. These events are associated with the boundary of the Nazca Plate and the South America Plate. The USGS stated that the main earthquake was shallow at 12.5 miles below the seabed, and struck roughly 950 miles from capital Santiago.

    Earthquake-prone Chile has established an excellent infrastructure to deal with seismic activity, but the system has its flaws. Tsunami warning sirens are lacking in areas of Arica, and authorities were giving orders to evacuate by megaphone, as well as using Twitter to relay instructions. Though, fewer than 15 percent of Chileans use the tsunami warning app on their smartphones.

    Image via Twitter

  • Peru Volcano Prompts Evacuations

    Peru Volcano Prompts Evacuations

    A volcano in southwestern Peru called Ubinas began ejecting pyroclastic material into the sky in 2006, after over four decades of lying dormant. Recent volcanic activity has prompted officials to evacuate 60 residents of Querapi, a village near its base. The last state of emergency due to Ubinas activity occurred on April 23, 2006.

    Ubinas town mayor Pascual Coaquira said the villagers were relocated Saturday, and that residents of the town of Ubinas have been distributed masks and goggles, as the building ash content in the air has made it difficult for some to breathe.

    Portions of Peru lie in the Andean Volcanic Belt, which is comprised of four main volcanic zones. The stratovolcano Ubinas lies in the Central Volcanic Zone (CVZ) of the belt, a series of volcanoes formed due to subduction of the Nazca Plate under western South America along the Peru-Chile Trench.

    Here Ubinas displays some activity in 2013:

    Ubinas is situated in southwestern Peru, and its upper slopes are primarily made up of of Pleistocene andesitic lava flows, and steepen to nearly 45 degrees. The steep walls allowed for the debris-avalanche from the collapse of the southeast flank of volcano to extend 6.2 miles. In the larger Moquegua region, including Arequipa and Tacna, there are roughly 40 volcanoes, most of which are inactive.

    Coaquira added, “We are readying a shelter for refugees from the blasts. The volcano has been emitting a lot of ash all day, the people in the town (of Ubinas) are having some problems breathing.”

    Ingemmet, Peru’s geological and mining agency, stated that lava had been building up in recent weeks, and warned locals they should prepare for the possibility of more evacuations. Fortunately, the type of lava from the stratovolcano is viscous and moves very slowly, while cooling and hardening quickly.

    The Ubinas volcano is located in the Moquegua region, roughly 43 miles from the city of Arequipa.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Joran Van Der Sloot: Peru Wants Full Sentence Served

    Joran Van Der Sloot: Peru Wants Full Sentence Served

    It was one of the most talked about cases nearly ten years ago: A beautiful blonde teenage girl in an exotic location suddenly vanishes and is never seen again.

    The disappearance of Natalie Holloway remains one of the most heart-breaking cold cases in recent history. The man many felt to be responsible for her death, Joran van der Sloot, was never actually charged.

    He is now wanted in the United States to answer for federal charges including extortion and wire fraud. Allegedly, van der Sloot toyed with the desperate family of Holloway by offering them leads that went nowhere in exchange for money.

    The American Justice system eagerly awaits another crack at the Dutch national, but it’s a wait that will go on for 26 years.

    Peru has told the United States that the 26-year-old will not be extradited until after he serves time for the murder of Stephanie Flores.

    The 21-year-old Peruvian woman was murdered because according to van der Sloot, she had seen something damning on his computer about the Holloway murder case. Whether or not it was evidence of his responsibility remains unclear. Whatever Flores saw, it was enough to make the Dutch national silence the woman forever.

    After killing Flores, van der Sloot stole her valuables, money, credit cards, and van. He then fled across the border into Chile where he was arrested days later.

    The evidence against van der Sloot for the murder of Flores was exceedingly strong, and he eventually confessed to the crime. The Peruvian court system sentenced van der Sloot to 28 years for the murder of Flores in 2012.

    Peru is determined to make him serve every single day for the murder before handing him over to the United States.

    That day may never come as van der Sloot is fighting extradition every step of the way and going to some rather desperate extremes:

    Of course 26 years is a long time, even for a “convict groupie”. There’s nothing to say he won’t be a divorcee when the time comes to extradite.

    Image via YouTube

  • Joran Van Der Sloot To Be Extradited To The U.S. In 2038

    The Peruvian government has agreed to transfer Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch national, to the U.S. after he has served his sentence on a murder conviction in Peru, which will end in 2038. The news was published in one of Peru’s official gazette.

    Van der Sloot is currently serving his sentence in Peru after he was convicted of robbing and murdering Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramirez, a 21-year old Peruvian student that he met in 2010. In 2012, van der Sloot was given a 28-year sentence in prison for the murder charge, just 2 years less than the maximum sentence.

    In the United States, Van der Sloot was indicted on accounts of extortion and wire fraud related to the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway. United States authorities have accused Van der Sloot of extorting $25,000 from the mother of Holloway. He said that he would give valuable information on the whereabouts of her missing daughter in exchange for the money. The incident happened in 2010, just before Van der Sloot went to Peru.

    Holloway, an Alabama-native, disappeared on May 30, 2005 and she was last seen leaving, Carlos’n Charlie’s, a bar in Aruba, with three men. One of them is said to be Van der Sloot. Holloway was on a trip to the Caribbean with 100 of her classmates to celebrate their high school graduation. Nobody was ever convicted for the crime and Holloway’s body was never found. She was declared dead in 2012 by a judge.

    Investigators believe that Van der Sloot killed Ramirez after she found something related to the disappearance of Holloway on his computer. The murder happened exactly five years after Holloway’s disappearance.

    Van der Sloot has confessed to robbing Ramirez and killing her. He also used the victim’s vehicle in order to leave the country. After the incident, he flew to Chile and was apprehended by the authorities a few days after he arrived.

    Joran van der Sloot sentencing

    Image via YouTube

  • Dollar Counterfeiting: Peru is #1 Worldwide Producer

    In a heavily reprinted AP story out of Lima, a 13-year-old boy was arrested during a raid on a large counterfeiting operation. The boy was caught with almost three quarters of a million in fake dollars and euros; this led to the revelation that Peruvian counterfeiters were finishing each bill by hand.

    The Secret Service claims that, through cheap criminal labor, counterfeiting gangs in Peru have overtaken Columbia as the number one producer of bogus bills in the world. The Service has had to open its fourth permanent office in Latin America to counter the Peruvian counterfeiters; over 50 individuals have since been arrested for counterfeiting.

    The Secret Service estimates the amount of fake money seized from Peruvian counterfeiters at $103 million, and the Peruvian counterfeiting process is often more convincing because they finish each bill by hand. Speaking about one of the seized notes, a Secret Service officer from the U.S. Embassy (who spoke on a condition of anonymity) said that the bill was “a very good note… they [Peruvian counterfeiters] use offset, huge machines that are used for regular printing of newspapers or flyers… [then] once a note is printed they throw five people [at it] and do little things, little touches that add to the quality.”

    The Peruvian bills go just about everywhere, including the States, Argentina, Ecuador, and Venezuela. The United States gets counterfeit $100’s, while the rest of the nations get the fake $10’s and $20’s. The chief of the Peruvian police fraud division, Col. Segundo Portocarrero, has said that Peru became attractive to counterfeiters with the United States’ constant interference with Colombian politics through drug interdiction.

    “[Counterfeiting] is more profitable than cocaine,” one of the investigators working for Portocarrero said, an ironic statement considering that Peru has possibly also overtaken Colombia as a cocaine producer.

    If you want to know more, like how Peruvian counterfeiters create their fake income, click here for the NBC News reprint of the AP story.

    [Image via a Youtube video about funny money]

  • Mashco-Piro Tribe Of Peru Makes Rare Appearance

    In the modern world it is easy to assume that everyone carries a cell phone and has access to things like the internet. After all, you are using it right now to read this story and when you opened your browser it was as uneventful as pouring a glass of water. It is easy to forget that there are still people in the world that leave in a primitive state that is not that far removed from our ancestors. Enter the Mashco-Piro people of Peru.

    The indigenous tribe, who live in voluntary isolation in the Eastern portion of Peru, made a rare appearance in the late June at a small river hamlet. It was only the second time since 2011 that the tribe attempted to make contact with outsiders. They asked for rope, machetes, and bananas, but their full intentions were unclear due to a language barrier that only allowed interpreters to understand portions of what they were saying.

    At times the encounter become hostile, with one tribesman even threatening to shoot his bow. It is unlikely that the tribe was angry at illegal logging and other operations that are taking place on their land.

    The Mashco-Piro are one of 15 “uncontacted” tribes living east of the Andes mountain range. In total those tribes are thought to number between 12,000 and 15,000 people, all of whom live exactly how their tribe did hundreds of years ago.

    The tribe making contact with individuals is just as shocking to the modern world as it is to them, a kind of mutual time travel with one group going forward and the other back. It is also extremely rare since contact with the tribes is forbidden by the Peruvian government for several reasons, one of which is their weaker immune systems that have not been subjected to many modern diseases.

  • Woman Off Cliff: Shocking Video Captures Woman And Mistress Fighting

    A woman in Peru was caught on surveillance camera throwing another woman off a cliff because she thought the woman was having an affair with her husband.

    Lisset Lupo Mamani, a mother of four, caught up to husband Renzo Zanabria Huanca out on a stroll with Sandra Bruna Morales and grabbed the woman by the ponytail, engaging in a fight before Morales had time to defend herself. She then flung Morales over a cliff, where she dropped 20 feet. Shockingly, Morales only suffered minor scrapes and bruises.

    Huanca bolted as soon as the fight broke out, but later said he’d been messing around with Morales. She claims, however, that he’d made multiple passes at her and was turned down every time.

    The incident happened back in January, but it hasn’t been reported what charges were brought against Mamani, if any.

  • Lima, Peru Shaken by Small Earthquake

    Lima, Peru Shaken by Small Earthquake

    The capital of Peru was shaken Tuesday night by a relatively small earthquake.

    The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a mild magnitude of 4.6. The epicenter of the quake was around 22 miles (35km) off the coast of Lima, and occurred at a depth of around 38 miles (61km). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued no tsunami warnings as a result of the light quake.

    There are no reports of damage or injury as a result of the earthquake. The quake was felt by residents of Lima as only a light shaking. The quake was also felt by some residents of the smaller city of Barranca.

    The ring of fire – the coastal areas of the Pacific where earthquake and volcanic activity is prevalent – has been particularly active already this year. Earlier this month, the big island of Hawaii also experienced a small 5.3 magnitude earthquake. In May, a massive 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck in the Sea of Okhotsk, just off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Before that, large earthquakes also struck northern Japan and Papua New Guinea.

  • Joran van der Sloot to Marry in Prison

    Joran van der Sloot to Marry in Prison

    Back in 2005, Joran van der Sloot was implicated in the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway. The American girl was last seen with van der Sloot during a high school graduation trip to Aruba. He was never tried for a crime connected to the disappearance. Last year, van der Sloot was convicted of the murder of a Peruvian woman named Stephany Flores, and sentenced to 28 years in prison. Now, it appears that rumors of van der Sloot’s impending marriage are true.

    According to an Associated Press report, the 25-year-old van der Sloot is planning to wed a Peruvian woman while serving his sentence. If approved by prison officials, the wedding would take place within two weeks.

    Van der Sloot’s lawyer told the AP that his client is “truthfully in love.” In October 2012 it was reported that van der Sloot had impregnated his girlfriend while in prison.

    There is speculation, however, that the marriage is a move to avoid extradition to the U.S. to face extortion charges. Van der Sloot is accused of receiving $25,000 from Natalee Holloway’s mother in 2010, in exchange for information on where Holloway’s body can be found. The information he provided was allegedly false, and a U.S. District Court has since charged him with extortion and wire fraud.

  • Joran Van Der Sloot Might Be Getting Married Behind Bars

    Joran Van Der Sloot, the man responsible for killing Peruvian student Stephany Flores, is currently spending quite a bit of time behind bars for his heinous crime. In addition to this murder, Van Der Sloot is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, who went missing after leaving an Oranjestad bar with Joran and two of his associates back in 2005. To this day, Natalee’s body has not been found. To make a long story short, Van Der Sloot isn’t a very nice guy, and he’s going to be spending a lot of time in prison for his actions.

    Despite all of those strikes against him, rumors are currently swirling that Joran is a few steps away from getting married behind bars. Never mind that the guy has a history of butchering women — he’s a catch in someone’s eyes, and they want to make their relationship official. This bizarre little story comes on the heels of reports that Van Der Sloot had fathered a child while behind bars, though his partner in reproduction has publicly stated the child isn’t his. Why in the world anyone would want to help this man breed is beyond my realm of comprehension.

    Although details about the potential marriage are sketchy — his lawyer has stated that he wasn’t hired to deal with Joran’s social commitments — some are speculating this whole wedding nonsense is just an act. The Daily Beast is reporting that Van Der Sloot is looking to have his sentence overturned due to the “poor legal advice” he received upon his arrest. His attorney stated that, since he admitted to the murder, he should have only received 15 years for the crime, as opposed to the 28 he’s serving right now.

    Falling in love with prisoners, regardless of how disturbed or unbalanced they are, is really nothing new. Some women have become so obsessed with their incarcerated Romeos that they’ve lost their jobs, their families, and their friends as a result. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Joran gets proposals from lovesick ladies several times a year.

  • Google Maps Brings Traffic Coverage to 7 More Countries

    When you next take yourself on a gnarly voyage, Google Maps maintains that it wants you to encounter as little resistance as possible, so to smooth the edges off of your trips it offers real-time coverage of traffic conditions in many places throughout the world. Today, the geo service announced that it’s expanding traffic coverage to 7 more countries across 4 continents to help spread gnarliness of free passage.

    As you can see in the lead image of this article, if you live in America or Europe, Google Maps is more than likely going to have your traffic conditions covered. Today’s additions include some more European areas but then also expand to a couple of places beyond that continent: Minsk, Belarus; Riga, Latvia; Tallin, Estonia; Mexico City, Mexico; Lima, Peru; Bucharest, Romania; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

    Given I’ve always heard so many astonishing things about the smog in Mexico City, I imagined that the traffic there must perpetually feel like one of the nightmarish puzzles you have to solve in those Saw movies. Checking in this morning with the city’s traffic, it does not look like some place I would like to navigate through today:

    Google Maps Mexico City

    Look at those congested red and black snakes of traffic. Sheesh.

    In addition to launching traffic coverage for the above cities, Google Maps has also expanded its coverage in 19 countries that already had the gift of grim traffic foresight: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the U.K.

    The new traffic data is available both on Google Maps website as well as multiple mobile devices.

  • Natalee Holloway Suspect To Be Extradited To U.S.

    Joran Van Der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance of American Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005, will soon be extradited to the U.S. to face charges of extortion. He is currently in Peru serving 28 years for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, who was stabbed to death in his hotel room. Van Der Sloot confessed to the murder as well as robbery, saying he took cash and the victim’s car in which to escape.

    The 24-year old was the last person to see Natalee Holloway alive and told authorities he would lead them to her body and reveal how she died in exchange for $250,000. He was allegedly given $25,000 by Holloway’s mother, Beth, which he used to travel without revealing any of the promised information. He faces a sentence of 25 years if found guilty of extortion, and the extradition will commence within the next few months.

    But some think the U.S. courts want Van Der Sloot here in the states so that a trial can be held regarding Holloway’s death, which will be difficult since her body has never been found. She has, however, been declared legally dead, and officials believe Van Der Sloot murdered Stephany Flores because she found incriminating evidence on his computer.

    “The key to that is that the U.S. has jurisdiction over anybody, anywhere in the world, who kills or injures a U.S. citizen,” said Michael Griffith, senior partner for the International Legal Defense Council.

    On Van Der Sloot’s future, his Peruvian attorney, Maximo Altez, said, “I think he will be extradited within the next three months. He will go to trial in the United States. Once he is sentenced, he will return to Peru to finish serving his 28 years, and then go back to the States to serve whatever sentence he gets there.”

  • Dead Dolphins Leave Peruvian Officials Perplexed

    Authorities in Peru seems to be completely clueless as to why so many dead dolphins have washed up on their beaches over the past two months. Officials hope to have some answers on the subject when their investigation into the matter wraps next week.

    The carcasses of 877 dolphins and porpoises began washing up on shores last February. The number has only continued to grow as the months wear on. Likely culprits behind the mysterious deaths include infection or diseases, though nobody seems to be able to put a finer point on it. Scientists do feel, however, that these issues have nothing whatsoever do to with the exploration work currently taking place in the waters north of Peru.

    “Right now, the most probable hypothesis is that it’s a virus outbreak,” Deputy Environment Minister Gabriel Quijandria told CNN.

    According to report, roughly 80% of the bodies were discovered partially decomposed, which makes it difficult for officials to properly determine the cause of death. Preliminary investigations have determined that the deaths were not attributed to ” lack of food, interaction with fisheries, poisoning with pesticides, biotoxin poisoning, or contamination by heavy metals.”

    Authorities currently feel that Morbillivirus or Brucella is the likely cause of death.

    These unfortunate events, however, are not just a regional occurrence. According to The International Fund for Animal Welfare, 108 dead dolphins washed up on shore in Cap Code last February.

    “We experience mass strandings several times each year. The events may involve only a few animals or hundreds,” said IFAW manager of marine mammal rescue and research Katie Moore. “The causes of these events are often not determined, which is a frustrating fact.”

    Recently, 30 dolphins who beached themselves in Brazil were rescued by concerned locals. The whole event was captured on amateur video, which you can watch below.

  • YouTube Peru Launched, Expansion continues

    YouTube Peru Launched, Expansion continues

    Google announced the launch of a new localized version of YouTube for Peru at YouTube.pe.

    “YouTube Peru will give more exposure to local talent, as well as make the experience of discovering, sharing and commenting on videos have a local flavor, making them more relevant with local tastes,” says Google Peru country manager Gianfranco Polastri. “Peruvians can now browse videos by category or by popularity and find local talent easily, without missing anything that also happens on a global scale.”

    “Peru is a multicultural and multilingual country, the result of the merger of different influences and customs throughout the centuries,” says Polastri. “It has a cultural abundance, from its literature, music and dance to its incredible cuisine, famous worldwide for its variety and originality. Taking all this into account, it’s not surprising to find great examples of this culture’s expressions on videos that anyone could enjoy at YouTube, such as Marca Perú, PerúTubers, Alicia and Sucedió en el Perú.”

    Here’s a quick look at those:

    According to an official blog post, this is the 42nd country to get its own YouTube (and the sixth Latin American country, following Aregntina, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia and Chile), but YouTube also launched in Malaysia last week, and at the time, Google said that was the 42nd country, so Peru might actually be the 43rd. Either way, YouTube is expanding.

    At YouTube.com, they’re keeping the original channels coming as well. This week, they announced the Ski Channel. Last week, a new My Damn Channel comedy channel launched.