Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Eurasia Review: News & Analysis

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• Romney Picks Ryan As VP Running Mate – US Press
• Alleged UBS Data Transfer Threatens German-Swiss Tax Deal
• US: White House Refuses To Abide With Ban Against Indefinite Detention Of Americans
• China: Bo Xilai’s Wife Confesses In Murder Case
• Seven Ways To Beat The Ballot Bandits – OpEd
• Egypt: President Morsi Asserts Power In Sinai And On The Pitch – Analysis
• Major US Arms Sales And Grants To Pakistan Since 2001 – Analysis
• FATA In Northern Mali? – Analysis
• Myanmar’s Military Diplomacy- Analysis
• India: Dalit Christians Observe ‘Black Day’
• South Korea Reconsiders Iranian Oil Imports
• Iran Says Dialog, Sole Solution To Syria Crisis
• Emergency Powers Spell Corrosion Of Liberty And Safety – OpEd
• Creating A Syrian Swamp: Assad’s ‘Plan B’ – OpEd
• Burma: World Bank Grant Could ‘Exacerbate’ Problems In Border Regions
• Brazil: Fisherfolk Fight For Survival
• Bleeding Syria – OpEd
• The Impending Israeli And US War On Iran – OpEd
• Romney’s Gaffes Show His Numbers Don’t Add Up – OpEd
• Neocons Vs. The ‘Arab Spring’: Back On The Warpath – OpEd
• Geithner Giving US Taxpayers’ Info To Foreign Nations – OpEd
• Mali: In Gao Where The Black Jihadist Flag Is Flying
• Computer Memory Leaks A Turn Off
• The Earthquake Risk And Europe
• The Joker Card In The Renewable Energy Game
• Microcopters And Ground Robots Used To Save Earthquake-hit Italian Churches
• Erasing W – OpEd
• Bloody Spring – OpEd
• Why Sri Lanka Does Not Trust India – OpEd
• Mali Stonings Galvanise Citizens Against Extremists

Romney Picks Ryan As VP Running Mate – US Press Posted: 10 Aug 2012 11:13 PM PDT Mitt Romney, the US Republican presidential candidate, has picked Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, 42, to be his vice president running mate, according to US media reports. The Associated Press, citing a “Republican with knowledge of the development,” said Romney and Ryan will both appear Saturday in Norfolk, Va., to make the official announcement before beginning [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Alleged UBS Data Transfer Threatens German-Swiss Tax Deal Posted: 10 Aug 2012 10:44 PM PDT Officials from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have given further details of the reported purchase of a CD containing data on UBS bank clients, although UBS denies knowledge of the incident. “UBS is not aware of having fallen victim to data theft,” UBS spokesman Andreas Kern told swissinfo.ch on Friday. “Information as to whether [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

US: White House Refuses To Abide With Ban Against Indefinite Detention Of Americans Posted: 10 Aug 2012 10:41 PM PDT Not only is the White House fighting in court for the power to jail Americans indefinitely without trial, but the Obama administration is refusing to tell a federal judge if they’ve abided by an injunction that prohibits them from such. Attorneys for the White House have been in-and-out of court in Manhattan this week to [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

China: Bo Xilai’s Wife Confesses In Murder Case Posted: 10 Aug 2012 10:36 PM PDT Chinese state media say the wife of politician Bo Xilai has confessed to the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood and vowed to accept her sentence. Xinhua state news agency reported Gu Kailai’s statement Friday, quoting her as saying the case has been “like a huge stone” weighing on her for more than half a [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Seven Ways To Beat The Ballot Bandits – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 10:33 PM PDT 1. Don’t Don’t DON’T Mail In Your Ballot For those of you who mailed in your ballot, please tell me, what happened to it? You don’t know, do you? I can tell you that in the last election, half a million absentee ballots were never counted, on the flimsiest of technical excuses. And when they don’t count, you don’t even know [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Egypt: President Morsi Asserts Power In Sinai And On The Pitch – Analysis Posted: 10 Aug 2012 10:16 PM PDT Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is negotiating his working relationship with the country’s powerful military in the battle against armed militants in the Sinai and on the soccer pitch. Taken together, the Egyptian military’s effort to restore control in the Sinai, a region that had become a no-man’s land in the wake of last year’s toppling [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Major US Arms Sales And Grants To Pakistan Since 2001 – Analysis Posted: 10 Aug 2012 10:14 PM PDT Major U.S. arms sales and grants to Pakistan since 2001 have included items useful for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations, along with a number of “big ticket” platforms – including aircraft and missiles – more suited to conventional warfare, according to a Congressional Research Service that was released by the US State Department. In dollar value [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

FATA In Northern Mali? – Analysis Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:54 PM PDT By Fernando Reinares Between April and June of 2012 three Jihadist organisations have managed to jointly impose their rigorist Islamist control over some 1.5 million inhabitants in northern Mali, a vast desert area of around 850,000 square kilometres between Mauritania, Algeria and Niger. These three organisations are al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Movement [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Myanmar’s Military Diplomacy- Analysis Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:50 PM PDT By K Yhome Myanmar military chief Vice Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has concluded his week-long visit to India. With this, he has rounded-off foreign trips to key countries in the region since appointed as commander-in-chief of the Defence Services in March 2011. General Hlaing’s visit came two months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

India: Dalit Christians Observe ‘Black Day’ Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:39 PM PDT By Bijay Kumar Minj Christians in India observed “black day” Friday to protest denial of equal rights to their dalit brethren. “Justice delayed is justice denied, we can no longer wait,” said Archbishop Vincent M. Concessao of Delhi, who led some 200 people in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral Church. The protesters carried black [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

South Korea Reconsiders Iranian Oil Imports Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:26 PM PDT South Korean officials say their refineries are holding talks with Iran to resume the import of Iranian crude, this time using Iranian ships. South Korea stopped oil imports from Iran in July under pressure from EU and U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports. AFP reports that South Korea had been completely dependent on European insurance [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Iran Says Dialog, Sole Solution To Syria Crisis Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:24 PM PDT ran has proposed the formation of a contact group to help end the violence in Syria, while stressing that dialog is the only solution to the crisis in the Arab country. “When a nation is hit by crisis, it is one of the customary methods of international relations to establish a contact group by impartial [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Emergency Powers Spell Corrosion Of Liberty And Safety – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:20 PM PDT Last week there was a great deal of outraged reaction to the news that President Obama quietly signed Executive Order 13618, which provides the Department of Homeland Security with emergency powers over civilian telecommunications, including private telephone, cellular, and wireless networks. Defenders of the Order point out that it simply extends earlier executive orders signed [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Creating A Syrian Swamp: Assad’s ‘Plan B’ – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:14 PM PDT s the regime’s “end game” coming soon? I fear not. Assad is likely to treat Syria as he did Iraq and Lebanon: he will work to break them apart. In 2005, a friend who was close to the regime told me that Assad and those around him were convinced that they could defeat President Bush’s [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Burma: World Bank Grant Could ‘Exacerbate’ Problems In Border Regions Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:50 PM PDT By Hanna Hindstrom Civil society groups have urged the World Bank to exercise caution before pressing ahead with their plans to pump $85 million into community projects in Burma’s conflict-torn border regions or risk “exacerbating” local problems. Campaigners have criticised the Bank for claiming that locals will be able to “decide whether to invest in [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Brazil: Fisherfolk Fight For Survival Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:31 PM PDT By Mario Osava His father and other fishermen fought back with sickles, hoes and other work tools against the armed men sent by the purported owner of the land where they lived in order to evict them. But then the military police came and knocked down eight of their houses. Their outrage reached the boiling [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Bleeding Syria – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:19 PM PDT By Adil E. Shamoo Syrian rebels have been fighting Bashar al-Assad’s forces for nearly a year and a half in a conflict that has caused 20,000 deaths. As the world watches in horror, much confusion remains about the nature of the rebel troops, the identity of the regime’s supporters, and what actions — if any [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

The Impending Israeli And US War On Iran – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:13 PM PDT By Ludwig Watzal The US Empire constitutes the greatest threat to world peace. This has been proven by the history of this nation. Starting out as a nation born in the fight against British colonialism, the US has become the world largest imperial power. The US does not only wage two neocolonial wars in Iraq [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Romney’s Gaffes Show His Numbers Don’t Add Up – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:11 PM PDT By Mamoon Alabbasi US presidential candidate Mitt Romney ended a three-country world tour of Britain, Israel and Poland without appearing to have learned much from his overseas trip. Even in his attempts to water-down the impact of some of his gaffes, following an influx of negative press, he seems to have stuck to the flawed [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Neocons Vs. The ‘Arab Spring’: Back On The Warpath – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:09 PM PDT The neoconservatives are back with a vengeance. While popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and other Arab countries had briefly rendered them irrelevant in the region, Western intervention in Libya signaled a new opportunity. Now Syria promises to usher a full return of neoconservatives into the Middle East fray. “Washington must stop subcontracting Syria policy [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Geithner Giving US Taxpayers’ Info To Foreign Nations – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:06 PM PDT In reaction to the worldwide economic turmoil with governments squeezing every penny possible out of taxpayers, Swiss bankers find themselves in the position of actually enticing clients from emerging markets or face a “slow death” as the pursuit of so-called tax evaders increases by U.S. and European authorities, according to The American Banker on Thursday. [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Mali: In Gao Where The Black Jihadist Flag Is Flying Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:00 PM PDT The black Jihadist flag is the first indication of who is in command in this moment in Gao. After repelling the Tuareg of the MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) at the end of June, the Islamists are now dictating law in the city. Serge Daniel, correspondent of Jeune Afrique, is among the [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Computer Memory Leaks A Turn Off Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:53 PM PDT When you switch off your computer any passwords you used to login to web pages, your bank or other financial account evaporate into the digital ether, right? Not so fast! Researchers in Greece have discovered a security loophole that exploits the way computer memory works and could be used to harvest passwords and other sensitive [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

The Earthquake Risk And Europe Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:50 PM PDT For the first time, scientists of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have succeeded in setting up a harmonized catalogue of earthquakes for Europe and the Mediterranean for the last thousand years. This catalogue consists of about 45000 earthquakes. Harmonized Earthquake Catalogue for Europe and the Mediterranean for the last Millennium available for the [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

The Joker Card In The Renewable Energy Game Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:48 PM PDT Woodchips are one of the renewable sources of energy used in domestic and district-level heating systems. They can come from wood waste from construction, agriculture, landscaping, logging and sawmills. Woodchips can also stem from trees planted in less productive land. “Woodchips have an important value, first of all, to stimulate the care of a resource [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Microcopters And Ground Robots Used To Save Earthquake-hit Italian Churches Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:45 PM PDT In late July the EU-funded project NIFTi successfully deployed a team of flying and ground-based robots in Mirandola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, upon the official request by the Vigili del Fuoco, the Italian national rescue organization in charge of disaster response and recovery. The NIFTi team was tasked to assess the damage to local churches only 20 [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Erasing W – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:41 PM PDT As Bill Clinton is resurrected by the Democrats, George W. Bush is being erased by the GOP — as if an entire eight years of American history hadn’t happened. While Bill Clinton stumps for Obama, Romney has gone out of his way not to mention the name of the president who came after Clinton and [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Bloody Spring – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:35 PM PDT On a flight to London in 1961, I had a unique experience. On the way, the plane made a stop in Athens and a group of Arabs joined us. That by itself was an experience. In those days, Israelis hardly ever met people from Arab countries. Three young Arabs took seats in the row behind [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Why Sri Lanka Does Not Trust India – OpEd Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:30 PM PDT By Shenali Waduge To refrain from mentioning the role India played in nurturing LTTE terrorism would be withholding an important element of the 30year conflict Sri Lanka weathered. This arrests the notion that LTTE was a liberation movement and nullifies its claim to be the representative of the Tamil people. LTTE was nothing more than [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.

Mali Stonings Galvanise Citizens Against Extremists Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:23 PM PDT By Jemal Oumar and Nazim Fethi It began with public lashings and escalated to a horrific stoning. Residents of northern Mali now find themselves with a choice: to accept an unrecognisable Azawad or reject the Islamist-terrorist alliance that has taken over their homeland. Northern Mali residents thought they had seen the worst when Ansar al-Din [...] To continue reading this article, click on the headline.