Roberto Abraham Scaruffi: The European Union Times

Thursday 11 July 2013

The European Union Times

Severe thunderstorms leave Toronto underwater, 300K without power

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 03:34 PM PDT

Severe thunderstorms hammered Toronto Monday, leaving cars stranded throughout the city and over 300,000 residents without power.
The Canadian city was hit with a month’s worth of rain in just one day, with approximately 3.5 inches of rainfall beginning at 4:00 pm EST. Commuters were soon stranded in traffic, with public transit enduring long delays.
Environment Canada, the national weather service, put Toronto under a severe thunderstorm warning through Monday night because of a “cluster” of storms approaching from the southern Ontario cities of Brampton and Mississauga. Total rainfall is expected to near or exceed 4 inches.
Flash flooding has left hundreds of passengers stranded aboard the Richmond Hill public train, according to the Globe and Mail, with as many as 1,000 people thought to be stuck in cars. The water was ankle deep and forced commuters to the upper level of the cars and to open the windows for extra air. Rescue crews were still en route at 9:52 pm EST.
A train carrying as many as 1,400 other people was in a similar situation, with emergency crews only able to provide one small raft, according to Kim MacDonald of the National Weather Network.
Mayor Rob Ford told CBC Radio “it’s all hands on deck” and the city has “brought in everybody to deal with the storm.”
City officials warned residents to be safe but patient in waiting for overwhelmed utility workers, namely Toronto Hydro, to start turning the lights back on.
“There’s not a lot that will change once it starts getting dark,” Hydro spokeswoman Tanya Bruckmueller told the Canadian Press. “It’ll be harder for the crews … they need to be able to identify where the damage is so it’ll take longer in the night.”
Flooding plagued highway routes to the south of the city and traffic lights were reportedly out through the region. Porter Airlines, headquartered in the heart of the city, had canceled all flights while Air Canada announced many of its flights would be delayed or canceled, as well.
Toronto police issued a release Monday “advising the public to remain in their homes, avoid underpasses and low-lying areas. If in a stalled vehicle, please remain in your vehicle if possible until help arrives.”
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Australian Prime Minister vows to hold vote on recognition of aborigines

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 03:22 PM PDT

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says if the Labor Party is reelected, he will hold a referendum on the recognition of the country’s Aborigines in the constitution.
On Wednesday, during the 50th anniversary of the indigenous land rights movement, Rudd said the recognition of the Aboriginal people as Australia’s first inhabitants was a key priority.
“I therefore, as prime minister, want to see this matter brought to the people of Australia by referendum within two years of the election of the next parliament,” he added.
This is while national elections are scheduled later this year.
“No more delays, no more excuses, no more buck-passing. It’s time the nation got on with this business. That is my commitment to you,” said Rudd, calling on the conservative Tony Abbott-led opposition to make more efforts to work with the government.
The statement by Rudd came ahead of an event planned in the Aboriginal community of Yirrkala in northern Australia.
Over the past years, human rights groups have pointed out that the Aborigines have been suffering from the violation of their basic human rights by the Australian government.
The United Nations has also criticized the government’s policies toward the country’s indigenous people.
Last month, Rudd defeated former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a Labor Party leadership vote.
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Greece shuts the doors for Syrian refugees

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 02:33 PM PDT

Syrian refugees, driven out of their country by the war, are trying to cross the Turkish-Greek border to seek asylum in the European Union. It is obvious that Greece cannot accept all those in need, therefore, the Greek authorities take a tough stance with respect to illegal immigrants. However, people still flee, drowning in the Aegean Sea and in the Maritsa River at the border with Turkey.
A Syrian citizen Achache Adeeb, a longtime resident of Athens who lost his relatives on a boat that sank near the island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea, spoke of the strict measures by the Greek authorities against refugees. He said, referencing the words of the surviving refugees from other boats: “the boats were turned over and driven away by a Greek ship. According to eyewitnesses, it was a Greek Coast Guard vessel.”
Another witness is a Syrian citizen Salva Al-Rajhi, who along with her family repeatedly tried to escape from Turkey to Greece via the Maritsa River near the city of Edirne, and in the end got into a Greek jail. Salva Rajhi’s family set off on a difficult journey to the Greek land six months ago with a group of 40 Syrians. They had to leave Syria because her husband worked for the government intelligence, and the rebels intended to kill him. Al-Rajhi said that in one of the attempts to reach Greece, she along with other refugees was detained by Greek police and forced to return to the boat. At a gunpoint, representatives of Greek police divided the group and pushed their boat back to Turkey. “We were put in a rubber boat. I did not know where my children and my husband were. I almost fell into the water. I grabbed a policeman’s hand, but he pushed me away,” she said.
In turn, an adherent of Islam Ekrem Sherif-Omadoglu, helping to bury refugees on Greek soil, said: “They came from different countries around the world, but we consider them brothers,” The son of a local imam continued: “They came in search of a better life, but unfortunately, they were not lucky.” “We are doing for these people what we would have done for our fathers and relatives. We bury them according to the Muslim tradition,” he continued, pointing to 400 fresh graves on a remote hill. This cemetery is located on the Greek territory near a Muslim village of Sidari near the Evros River. This turbulent river is about one kilometer wide, and separates Greece and Turkey. Four hundred refugees drowned while crossing the river in an attempt to reach Europe illegally. Only at the end of their journey they found understanding in Greece – local Muslims who bury them.
The Greek police and coast guard deny all the allegations against them. According to the authorities, refugees often drown in the Maritsa trying to overcome the turbulent river in unreliable rubber boats. At sea, they often turn over their boats when they see the Greek coast guard to be rescued and taken to Greece.
Of course, Greece is attractive for the Syrians whose home country has been engulfed in a civil war since the spring of 2011. For a long time the most vulnerable sections of the border of the European Union was the Turkish-Greek border, but recently other EU countries became involved in its protection. According to official statistics, over the past two years over nine thousand Syrians were detained in Greece, and only one percent of these detainees were granted the refugee status.
For two years, groups of women and children have been forced to flee along the dusty roads from Syria to Turkey. Television reports show them walk, with only plastic bags in their hands filled with clothes and household goods they were able to take with them.
Some Syrians find shelter in refugee camps located along the Turkish border. Others search for a better life in Turkish cities like Gaziantep located 100 km from the border. According to law enforcement organizations, there are 57,000 Syrians there at this time. People who have a little more money go to Istanbul in search of a better life. From there, until recently, immigrants used to travel to the city of Edime located on the banks of the river Evros. There, under the cover of the night, smugglers would place them in rubber boats and send them to Greece with rapid flows.
In a desire to get as much profit as they could from the refugees ready to do anything to get to the other shore, the smugglers violated all safety rules. “These people do not care. They locked women and children under the deck. It was a small boat for 20 people. They put 110 people in it,” said an eyewitness. “The boat could not sustain such weight. It sailed 10 meters from the shore and sank.” This case was not the only one. Last year alone hundreds of refugees drowned, and the total number of victims is unknown since not all the bodies were found.
According to human rights organizations, the forced return of the boats with refugees from Greek to Turkish waters is very dangerous, especially at night, and threatens people’s lives. Smugglers transporting Syrians usually act at night. Amnesty International reported that in recent months forty cases of illegal shipments in the Aegean Sea and the Maritsa River were recorded.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of registered migrant workers from Syria on March 17 of 2013 amounted to 1 million 515 thousand 639 people. Every day, 7,000 people move across the Syrian-Turkish border. According to the agency, 473,587 people found refuge in Jordan, 470,457 in Lebanon, 347,157 in Turkey, 147,464 in Iraq, 66,922 in Egypt, and 10,052 in other countries of North Africa. In addition, about 4.25 million people travelled inside Syria. At the same time, the UN noted that these numbers have increased because refugees arrive constantly, and not all of them had time to register at the time the report was prepared.
The issue of refugee acceptance and their number is one of today’s main challenges of the world community. Officially, none of the countries are going to stop accepting refugees. There is Geneva Convention on Refugees, national laws for foreigners have been developed, and money is allocated to the budget for these purposes. However, the tightening of procedures that swept across Europe in recent years is understandable. The position of Greece is logical. At the time when the country is shaken by a severe crisis breeding poverty and unemployment, the influx of refugees, particularly Muslims, will bring new challenges. This, apparently, is the reason why the Greek security forces block the channels for refugees in an informal manner. A solution must be found with participation of the international community, at least in the face of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. It would be much more humane than discussing the possibilities and ways of delivery of weapons to the Syrian Muslim militants.
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Brazil lawmakers demand answers on US spying, urge boycott

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 04:52 AM PDT

As Brazil awaits Washington’s response on reports that US spy agencies also conducted surveillance on Brazilian companies and citizens, its lawmakers are urging the nation’s president to cancel her October visit to the White House.
Brazilian politicians have called on President Dilma Rousseff to adopt a tough position against Washington and cancel her official meeting with US President Barack Obama next October following allegations that the Americans monitored billions of Brazilian emails and other electronic communications as part of their global surveillance bids, local media reported Tuesday.
Recent press reports cite documents leaked by former NSA contract worker Edward Snowden, who is wanted in the US for revealing top-secret electronic spying operations by its intelligence agencies.
Brazil has further stated that it will submit a proposal to the United Nations to look into the worldwide American surveillance activities in order to guarantee privacy rights.
Citing a leaked report by Snowden, Brazilian newspaper O Globo published a report on Sunday, revealing that Brazil may have been subjected to the highest level of surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA) of any South American nation.
Following the report, President Rousseff reacted immediately and condemned the US effort.
“Brazil’s position on this issue is very clear and very firm,” she said in a Monday press conference. “We do not agree with interference of this kind in Brazil and in any other country.”
The new revelations further triggered a fierce debate on Monday in the Federal Senate in Brasilia as lawmakers representing both the ruling parties and the opposition insisted that Brazil should demand an apology from Washington if allegations of spying on Brazilian territory are proven to be accurate.
“These allegations of eavesdropping are very serious and affect the sovereignty of our country,” said Senator Alvero Dias of the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). “President Rousseff should discuss the matter directly with President Obama and if the answer is not satisfactory, she should cancel her visit to Washington in October.”
The development comes following a diplomatic fiasco last week in which the aircraft carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was denied access to European airspace due to suspicions that Snowden was on board.
After the incident, South American leaders expressed solidarity with President Morales.
This is while Brazilian Politicians on all sides have voiced support for Snowden, arguing that Brazil should have also followed the lead of Venezuela and publically offered him political asylum.
The Brazilian government has already demanded official clarification on the report from the US government.
Moreover, State Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo further launched an inquiry on Monday led by the federal, saying the probe could lead to criminal proceedings.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey cautioned in a Sunday televised interview that Snowden’s disclosures have undermined American relationships with other nations and affected what he described as “the importance of trust.”
According to local analysts, the developing situation may generate a damaging impact on diplomatic ties between America and Brazil.
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Unapproved GM rice found in US exports to over 30 countries

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 04:45 AM PDT

A new report has revealed that the rice supply in at least 30 countries may have already been contaminated with genetically modified strains from US exports, thereby threatening worldwide contamination.
A new report by the GM Contamination Register has disclosed US Department of Agriculture findings from 2006 and 2007, which show that the department detected traces of unapproved GM rice in over 30 countries. At the time, all of the Bayer CropScience varieties discovered had not been approved for cultivation or consumption abroad, and only one of the three types had been approved for domestic cultivation.
The USDA believes that the source of the contamination is field trials which occurred between the mid 1990s and early 2000s.The genetically modified LLRICE62, LLRice601 and LLRICE604 varieties are herbicide resistant. The trials were terminated in 2002 and none of these varieties ever made it onto the US market. But years later, traces of these strands were found worldwide.
The USDA report said the agency was unable to conclude whether pollen from the trials escaped and contaminated other fields or mechanical mixing was to blame.
News of the USDA’s findings comes after Monsanto’s unapproved GM wheat made its way onto an Oregon field, threatening US supplies and making other countries weary of importing US crops. GM wheat has not been approved for cultivation anywhere in the world. The US is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, and many of its trading partners are fiercely opposed to the use of GM wheat supplies. After news of the contaminated Oregon farm broke out, Japan and South Korea suspended some of its imports of American wheat, and the European Union urged its member nations to test for any contamination in its imports.
When experimental crop strains escape into general seed supplies, it is difficult to keep them contained, prompting some countries to pull US rice off their shelves.
“Scientific studies confirm that GM contamination is unavoidable once GM crops are grown in a region,” Earth Open Source wrote in a report. “‘Coexistence’ rapidly results in widespread contamination of non-GM crops… through cross-pollination, spread of GM seed by farm machinery, and inadvertent mixing during storage.”
The USDA report notes that the rice contamination “has had a major impact on US rice exports,” prompting Russia and Bulgaria to ban US rice imports and causing numerous other countries to conduct strict certification and testing of all rice imports.
The report also notes that the contamination has affected US farmers financially, costing them billions of dollars to try to eradicate the unapproved varieties.
“The contamination episode has also affected seed producers,” the report states. “[A]n entire non-GM rice variety Clearfield 131 was banned by U.S. regulators in early 2007 when it was found to be contaminated, costing producer BASF billions of dollars in losses.”
Bayer has attempted to acquire approval for its contaminating rice strands. The USDA approved commercial growing of LL601 in 2006 and approved Canadian import of LL62 in 2006, but none of the GM rice strands are available on the US market.
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