Friday, 4 October 2013

The European Union Times

US Treasury: Default would be ‘catastrophic’

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 03:46 PM PDT

The US Treasury has warned of catastrophic effects if a political stalemate over raising the government’s debt limit forces a US default on its obligations.
The federal government is expected to exhaust its cash reserves by October 17 and if US lawmakers do not reach an agreement to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, the government will not be able to pay its bills and will default on its legal obligations.
“In the event that a debt limit impasse were to lead to a default, it could have a catastrophic effect on not just financial markets but also on job creation, consumer spending and economic growth,” said the Treasury in a report on Thursday.
“Credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could plummet, US interest rates could skyrocket, the negative spillovers could reverberate around the world, and there might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse,” warned the Treasury.
According to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the nation’s current debt ceiling of $16.7 trillion will be reached by October 17. Lew has promised that he will have used up all extraordinary measures in order to stay below the debt limit by then. After October 17, the US government will have about $30 billion of cash on hand.
According to US law, the government cannot breach a certain debt limit and lawmakers must pass legislation to authorize the government to exceed that limit. If such legislation is not passed, the government cannot pay its bills.
Republicans are demanding the defunding or delaying of Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in return for increasing the government’s ability to borrow more money.
However, President Barack Obama restated his opposition to any deals with congressional Republicans over raising the nation’s debt ceiling on Wednesday.
In an interview with CNBC, Obama said he will engage in negotiations with Republicans only after they agree to reopen the federal government and raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
Source

Greek Bishop Pavlos of Glyfada: “They Have Jailed the Victims instead of the Abusers”

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 03:32 PM PDT

Pavlos of Glyfada, one of the most respected Bishops in the Orthodox church, bravely speaks out against the injustice against the people’s nationalist movement.
“There are old politicians who owe money to the state. Yet they have been spared. The people know how many (referring to 0) politicians have been in prison, and instead they lock up the victims.”
He then goes on to say:
“They were wrong when they opened our borders in 1990, wrong when they tried to make it easy for the foreigners to get citizenship. We welcome those from all countries as tourists, but they should go back to their homelands.”
Source

92 African illegal immigrants die in boat incident near Italy

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 03:23 PM PDT

At least 92 people died in an incident where a boat carrying some 500 illegal immigrants caught fire and capsized near an Italian island in what seems like a never ending flood of illegal immigrants who desperately want to move to the EU.
Emergency workers found 92 bodies, including those of two children and several women, after the deadly boat incident on Thursday, Italy’s news agency ANSA cited the local mayor of Lampedusa, Giusi Nicolini.
A total of 151 people have been rescued so far.
“The survivors are in a state of shock. They have been in the water since the early hours of the morning,” Nicolini told news channel SkyTG24.
Nicolini further said that the asylum-seekers made a small fire on their vessel near the shore to attract the attention of coast guards after their boat faced a technical failure.
When the blaze spread, it created panic on board which in turn caused the boat to turn over.
“We cannot keep on counting the dead. We have to mobilize, do something concrete to avoid these constant tragedies of despair,” the local archbishop, Francesco Montenegro, said.
The asylum-seekers said they were from Eritrea and Somalia. The vessel is believed to have left from Libyan shores.
Lampedusa is an Italian island that lies between Tunisia and Sicily and is a main entrance gate for illegal immigrants to the European Union where Italy shamelessly allows people from outside of the EU to cross into the EU illegally without having any sort of papers with them whatsoever. Only God knows how many criminals, rapists, fugitives and even spies came into EU territory without having their papers checked… and “thanks” to Italy for all those “benefits”.
The fatal accident is the latest in a string of drowning incidents involving illegal immigrants traveling on wobbly fishing boats or rubber dinghies in the Mediterranean.
On September 30, more than 10 Eritrean illegal immigrants died as they desperately tried to reach the shore when their boat went aground off Sicily near the city of Ragusa.
In August, six Egyptian men lost their lives in a similar incident near Catania in another part of Sicily.
Source

Japan to pay $3.1bn to remove US troops from Okinawa, will host spy drones

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 02:53 PM PDT

Tokyo is to foot a $3.1 billion bill, which is part of the cost for relocating American troops from Okinawa. For the first time, it will also host US long-range surveillance drones, which would help to monitor disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The cost-sharing agreement for the troop transfer and the future deployment of drones by next spring are both part of an effort aimed at updating the US-Japan military and diplomatic alliance.
The pledge to modernize the alliance for the first time in 16 years was made in a joint declaration during the visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who met their Japanese counterparts, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera.
Japan hosts some 50,000 American soldiers and officers, particularly in Okinawa. Their presence is a constant source of tension with local populations due to crimes committed by the servicemen, disruptions caused by military flights and land use by the US military.
Last year the countries announced a plan to relocate about 9,000 US Marines from Okinawa to other locations. 5,000 of them will go to Guam while others will be stationed elsewhere. The estimated cost of the relocation is about $8.6 billion.
Japan will cover $3.1 billion of that sum, the officials from the two countries announced on Thursday. The cost includes development of new facilities in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
As the foot soldiers leave, US Global Hawk unmanned aircraft will be arriving, marking the first time that American drones will be stationed on Japanese soil on a permanent basis. Two or three long-range spy drones will be placed at a US base to help monitor Japan’s territory.
While the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea was not mentioned in the documents, the islands contested by Japan, China and Taiwan was a prevailing topic in public speeches after the signing.
Hagel said the US reiterated that it recognizes Japan’s administration of the islands and has responsibilities to protect Japanese territory under a mutual defense treaty.
“We strongly oppose any unilateral or coercive action that seeks to undermine Japan’s administrative control,” he said.
The US will also deploy second X-band early warning radar in Japan. Officials were careful to stress that it will be directed against North Korea rather than China, and will help track down and probably intercept missiles coming from the defiant state. The plan to deploy radar was first announced by the then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about a year ago. The new system will be placed at Kyogamisaki air base in Kyoto prefecture in western Japan to complement already existing radar in the northern part of Japan.
Beijing however may not be convinced by the assurances. It has criticized the installation of the inaugural military radar, saying it could disrupt the strategic military balance in the region and destabilize the situation.
Other plans to boost US military presence in Japan include possible deployment of F-35 jet fighters around 2017, a top UN official told AP. There is also a plan to send Navy P-8 anti-submarine aircraft later this year – the first time the sub-killers deployment outside of US.
The upgrade also expands cooperation in areas like counter-terrorism and cyber warfare. The Internet threat is the one that Japan sometimes cannot defend itself against with the systems it currently has, Kazunori Kimura, the Defense Ministry’s director of cyber-defense planning, told Reuters.
Source