Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday, 17 November 2013

The European Union Times


Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:58 PM PST

Severe flooding is being reported in Saudi Arabia, especially in the kingdom’s capital of Riyadh, with the government closing schools and urging people to stay indoors amid heavy rain. Flooding is rare in the country dominated by the Arabian Desert.
Witnesses in Riaydh, which is also the country’s largest city, are reporting flooded streets and shops. Pictures posted on Twitter show cars drowning in rainwater.
Saudi Civil Defense warned citizens to stay indoors for their own safety, Al Arabiya reported.
Weather forecasts are predicting heavy rains to continue to batter Saudi Arabia for the entire weekend. The eastern part of the country looks to be hit the most by the rains.
The government is setting up a disaster management center in the holy city of Mecca and is planning to close schools and evacuate people in low-lying areas, Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News reported.
Rains in the northwest city of Ha’il are expected to flood the Al Adeera valley, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, witnesses reported that villagers 70 kilometers west of Ha’il were taking shelter on the rooftops of houses, mosques, and even mountaintops as the flooding began.
The desert kingdom has in the past been criticized for its lack of preparedness for such situations, as flooding is rare in that part of the world.
Residents were killed during flash floods in Riyadh, Baha, and Ha’il on May 13. The rain was reportedly the heaviest in more than 25 years.
Floods in the port city of Jeddah, located on the Red Sea, killed 123 people in 2009 and 10 others in 2011.
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Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:55 PM PST

China intends to increase investment in the Russian economy. The investment plans included the infrastructure, residential sector, and high tech areas. The prospects of cooperation between the two countries look promising, but the Russian Federation is not on the top of the list for China.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta recently reported that, according to the President of the Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products in China Zhang Yujing, Chinese investment in the Russian economy will grow nearly four-fold. By 2020, China plans to invest $12 billion in Russia instead of the current $3.5 billion. This promise was made in the framework of the 18th regular meeting between the heads of the government of Russia and China during the Russian-Chinese economic forum of business circles in Beijing.
The plan of the Russian-Chinese investment cooperation was approved back in 2009, so the idea of ​​increased investment is not revolutionary. The basic structure of the Chinese investment has not changed. They would first invest in the Russian infrastructure, residential sector, and mining and high-tech industries. According to the “Annual Statistical Bulletin of China’s Foreign Direct Investment,” for the year 2012 , 92.4 percent of the total private equity investments in China were investments in construction, leasing and business services, finance, mining, manufacturing, transport operations, warehouses and postal sector, wholesale and retail trade.
Zhang Yujing suggested that the annual rate of trade growth between Russia and China would exceed 4.5 percent. This year the trade between the two countries has reached $58.7 billion (which is 0.5 percent lower than last year’s numbers for January-September). It is assumed that by 2020 the trade turnover between Russia and China would grow to $200 billion. Unfortunately, this rapid growth is to be achieved mainly through sales of hydrocarbons, and by 2018 it is planned to double the supply of Russian oil to China to 30 million tons annually.
According to Yujing, the current levels of Chinese investment in Russia are insufficient. However, he noted that to increase the investments, Russia needs to take certain steps, in particular, improve the business climate and increase transparency of the economic legislation.
At the moment, according to the research by Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, Russia is number 143 out of 179 in terms of attractiveness of the investment and economic freedom. Consequently, Russia is far from the top of the list of recipients of Chinese investment. But it is not on the bottom either, and many Chinese experts believe that in the crisis period for the global economy it makes sense to acquire assets with a higher degree of risk. The “Annual Statistical Bulletin of China’s Foreign Direct Investment” for 2012 stated that last year, for the first time China has become the third largest investor after the U.S. and Japan. 16,000 Chinese investors set up foreign direct investment enterprises in China and abroad, nearly 22,000 enterprises located in 179 countries and regions, covering 76.8 percent of the globe. As of the end of 2012, their net investments amounted to $531.9 billion dollars, which is 10.2 percent of the U.S. investment funds, 29.4 percent of the UK investment funds, 34.4 of the German investment funds, 35.5 of the French ones, and 50.4 percent of the Japanese investment funds.
China’s investments in the United States are constantly growing (as of the end of 2012 they increased by 123.5 percent to $4.048 billion).
General trends, however, are not encouraging. Macroeconomic instability and political uncertainty reduces the global flows of foreign direct investment around the world. According to the UN World Investment report, they were down 18 percent compared to the previous year and amounted to 1.35 trillion dollars in 2012. The developing countries for the first time were able to attract more foreign direct investment than developed ones.
We can only guess how the overall instability in the world will affect meeting the expectations of China’s investment plans for Russia. We will also see whether the fact that the main hope of foreign partners is still the “oil needle” rather than nanotechnology will be flattering for the domestic economy.
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Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:52 PM PST

Putting quality education at the heart of development.
Since its creation in 1945, UNESCO’s mission has been to contribute to the building of peace, poverty eradication, lasting development and intercultural dialogue, with education as one of its principal activities to achieve this aim. The Organization is committed to a holistic and humanistic vision of quality education worldwide, the realization of everyone’s right to education, and the belief that education plays a fundamental role in human, social and economic development.
The folly of laws that force action upon the occurrence of some triggering event was on full display last week as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had to strip the United States of its voting rights because of nonpayment of dues that the government actually wanted to pay for the last two years but could not. The move is expected to cost at least 1,000 American jobs and undermine American influence around the world.
The U.S.-UNESCO conflict goes back to two laws passed by Congress in 1990 and 1994 that require the government to cease funding any UN agency that accepts Palestine as a full member. Nearly 20 years later, in 2011, the government was forced to stop all support for UNESCO after the organization voted to grant Palestine full membership. Despite reform efforts led by the Obama administration in 2011 and 2012, Congress refused to alter or amend the law.
Under UNESCO’s constitution, however, any nation that fails to pay dues for two years loses its vote in the UNESCO general assembly. That made UNESCO’s vote-stripping automatic, just as the U.S. “decision” to withhold dues was unavoidable under federal law. The U.S. had never before voluntarily given up its vote in a UN organization, according to diplomats.
“I deeply regret this,” said UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova in an interview Friday at agency headquarters. “This is not some kind of punishment on behalf of Unesco for nonpayment. It’s just our rules.”
The U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, David T. Killion, said at the ongoing UNESCO general conference in Paris that “UNESCO is a critical partner in creating a better future,” that the Obama administration was committed to restoring funding and that the U.S. would continue to participate as a nonvoting member in the meantime.
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Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:50 PM PST
A Chinese Coast Guard ship is cruising near the disputed islets known as the Senkaku islands in Japan in the East China Sea on August 8, 2013.
Four Chinese coastguard vessels have sailed into waters around a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea, Japanese Coast Guard says.
According to the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, the four vessels entered the waters around 9:20 a.m. local time and stayed there for about two hours.
The vessels have been spotted inside the territorial zone on 50 days so far this year, the coastguard said.
Japan has long been engaged in a dispute with China over the sovereignty of the uninhabited islands, known as the Senkakus in Japanese and as the Diaoyus in Chinese.
In September, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing is ready to hold talks with Japan over the maritime row. Wang also blamed Japan for the rising tensions between the two countries.
On September 11, 2012, the Japanese government signed a deal to buy three of the islands from their private Japanese owner in line with plans to nationalize the archipelago.
The move sparked a new wave of dispute and protests across China.
Since then, Chinese ships have been sailing in and out of the waters around the islands, which Japan claims are situated in its territorial waters.
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Posted: 16 Nov 2013 02:45 PM PST

For the first time since 2011, the Russian and Syrian presidents spoke on the phone to discuss developments in the Syria crisis. Vladimir Putin called Bashar Assad about the Geneva-2 peace talks and the destruction of Syria’s chemical stockpile.
President Putin called President Assad to talk about the preparations for the Syria peace talks, and to share Russia’s concerns over the reports of a surge in extremist persecution of religious minorities in Syria, the Kremlin press service said on Thursday.
The Russian President said he hopes that major Syrian opposition groups will take “a constructive approach” and participate in the peace conference in Geneva.
Putin told Assad he was “satisfied” with Syria’s cooperation with the UN and the OPCW (International Chemical Weapons Watchdog).
The presidents discussed the procedure for bringing the Syrian chemical arsenal under international control and its ultimate destruction.
Putin said he was concerned with “purposeful persecution of Christians and other religious minorities” by extremist groups in Syria. He said Russia hopes the Syrian government “will do everything possible to relieve the suffering of the civilian population and to restore the peace.”
Assad thanked the Russian government for “aiding the Syrian people,” and the two presidents confirmed they intend to foster bilateral relations further.
The Geneva-2 peace talks, brokered by the US and Russia, have not yet been scheduled officially, although they were tentatively planned for November 23. Syrian official media recently said the date has been set for December 12, but this has not been officially confirmed.
While Russia has been pushing the international community for months to start the talks, and the Syrian government has repeatedly said it is ready to participate without preconditions, Western powers are still struggling to bring the opposition groups to the negotiation table.
Recently, the leader of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, Ahmad Jarba, told the Sunday Telegraph the group will agree to take part in talks on condition that the West ensures humanitarian corridors to the opposition strongholds in Syria. Previously, Jarba rejected the possibility of attending the Geneva-2, demanding that President Bashar Assad must go.
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Posted: 15 Nov 2013 01:36 PM PST

To protect Russians against the “collapsing US debt pyramid”, a Russian legislator has filed a draft bill to ban circulation of the currency in Russia.
Once a Moscow mayoral hopeful, Mikhail Degtyarev, 32, likens the US dollar to a worldwide ponzi scheme which he says is scheduled to end in 2017.
“If US national debt continues to grow at its current rate, the dollar system will collapse in 2017,” the submitted draft legislation says.
“In light of this, the fact that confidence in the US dollar is growing among Russian citizens is extremely dangerous,” Degtyarev wrote in his explanatory note attached to the bill.
The bill would impose a ban on dollars within a year of its passage, and any private citizen holding accounts in dollars would either need to spend the money or convert it to another currency. There is no proposed ban on the euro, British pound, yen, or yuan.
If one doesn’t exchange or transfer dollars within a year, the dollars will be seized by officials, and reimbursed in rubles within 30 calendar days.
Under the proposed legislation, Russians would still be able to use dollars abroad and have foreign bank accounts, as well as buy goods on the Internet in dollars.
The Russian government, Central Bank, Foreign Ministry, Federal Treasury, Federal Security Service, and other state branches would be exempt from the law.
To protect Russian nationals, Degtyarev proposes to end dollar transactions and deposits at Russian banks, which would give rise to the ruble, and end dependence on the world’s dominant currency.
Part of the bill aims to restore the prestige of the ruble, which has weakened as the Russian economy battles inflation and slow growth.
Raising the prestige of the ruble by nixing foreign currency isn’t a novel idea- it was practiced during the Soviet Union when holding foreign currencies was illegal. A similar ‘anti-dollar’ proposal was filed by Duma deputies in 2003, but completely flopped.
Moscow, a developing financial center, is home to several international corporations, and many companies pay their employees in dollars, or ruble salaries pegged to the dollar.
If the bill garners enough support, it will continue onto as many as three preliminary hearings before being passed into law.
Degtyarev has made a name for himself with his outlandish proposals- from giving women extra holidays during menstruation, to his declaration Russia would lead the fight in defeating the antichrist. He serves as the head of the science and technology committee in the lower house of the Duma.
The populist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) is a political platform for Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is famous for political antics and outlandish bills.
On the same day, November 13, Belarus issued a statement denying rumors they were mulling a similar currency ban, after an opposition group reported a currency circulation ban that would get rid of dollars and euros in two months.
Citing Alexander Timoshenko, a representative of the Belarus’s National Bank, Interfax reported the rumors were “absolute nonsense” for a country with an open economy.
Dollars in demand
Public demand for foreign banknotes in Russia, especially dollars, has greatly increased as the ruble continues its slow devaluation.
The Russia’s Central Bank (CBR) said they believe the ruble has stabilized, but that hasn’t curbed investors, both private and public, to not put all their rubles in one basket.
The aggregate demand for foreign currency in September 2013 increased $9.1 billion, up 7 percent from August, according data from the the Bank’s September 2013 Review of State and Domestic Foreign Currency Market report, available on its website.
The Bank has allowed the ruble to flow more freely to accommodate foreign investment and financial markets, but this has created a tough inflation balancing act for the CBR.
Demand for dollars in September 2013 rose $5.9 billion, up 11 percent from August. Over the last year, aggregate demand for dollars has dropped 1 percent, but has jumped 12 percent by individuals’ purchase and conversion of greenbacks.
The ruble’s daily trade range is 32.45–39.45, which the regulator increased on Tuesday. The bank buys between $200 and $400 million in rubles per day to counter losses. At 20:15 Moscow time, the ruble was trading 32.7643 per one US dollar.
Consumer prices rose 6.3 percent from October, year-on-year, which is within the bank’s target inflation range of 5-6 percent. Inflation fears have prevented the bank from cutting the official interest rate for the last 14 month.
Over $13.3 billion in foreign currency flowed into (bought, acquired) authorized Russian banks in September, and nearly $13.1 billion flowed out.
In foreign currencies, total demand for the dollar in September was 65 percent, and 34 percent for euros.
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Posted: 15 Nov 2013 01:32 PM PST

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned that a lost generation of jobless youth in the eurozone could tear Europe apart if policymakers fail to address the chronic levels of unemployment.
The warning came on Friday, as the WEF presented its outlook on the global agenda for 2014.
“There is a growing consensus on the fact that unless we address chronic joblessness we will see an escalation in social unrest,” said S.D. Shibulal, chief executive of Infosys and a contributor to the report.
In addition, the WEF warned that failure to tackle the youth unemployment crisis could lead to a rise in crime rate, wreck economic recovery and worsen Europe’s social situation.
The report called on governments to provide their youths with the skills and training needed to handle the evolving labor market demands.
The European youth have been the hardest hit during the recession, as the jobless rate for those aged under 25 stands at 24.4 percent in the eurozone.
In the crisis-hit countries, the youth jobless figures are even worse, with over 62 percent of unemployed Greek youths. In Spain, the figure stands at over 56 percent.
On November 12, European leaders pledged to reverse the rising unemployment for young people in the European Union (EU) over the next two years.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the youth joblessness as “perhaps the most pressing problem facing Europe.”
Europe is struggling with an economic crisis that erupted in early 2008, leaving millions unemployed and in financial distress.
The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered massive protests in many European countries.
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Posted: 15 Nov 2013 01:29 PM PST

The police of Kosovo arrested six Albanians in Pristina and Gnjilane suspected of preparing terrorist attacks. Reportedly, the detainees were preparing an explosion of one of the man-made lakes to flood several villages. There are reports saying that Kosovo is being converted into a base for training terrorists. In general, the boomerang, launched by the West, is back.
Al-Qaeda has established itself firmly in the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, where the order is supported by NATO forces, consisting, inter alia, of U.S. troops. The police had been keeping tabs on an immigrant from Syria, Abu Hafs al-Albani for quite a time. In his house, a large quantity of arms and remote-controlled explosives were found after his arrest, the Serbian website novosti.rs said with reference to a spokesman for the Kosovo police. The official said that the group of Albani, acting on behalf of Syrian group An-Nusra (that sworn to the head of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri) planned terrorist attacks on religious grounds in the entire territory of Kosovo. The second detainee is suspected of attacking Mormons at the end of last week, U.S. citizens, who were distributing religious literature in Pristina.
The special mission of the European Union in Kosovo (EULEX) investigates eight cases of terrorism in the breakaway republic. Four of them are in their preliminary stage; charges were brought down against two individuals. Albani is an ethnic Albanian, who went to Syria a year ago, where he fought with hundreds of other Albanians on the side of jihadists. On his return home, he began to prepare terrorist acts. Serbian media, referring to Iranian news agency FARS, reported that it was a Turkish humanitarian organization that recruited Albanians for Syria in Kosovo. The last group consisted of 90 people.
One of them, known as Abu Abdullah al-Kosovo of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (or the Levant, ISIS), in a video message released on the Internet called on European Muslims to put aside their European comfort and go to fight in Syria. Employees of Western intelligence agencies are concerned that Western Muslims will be radicalized in Syria. “Security agencies believe that about 1,000 volunteering jihadists from all over Europe are now fighting in Syria, compared to only 250 at the end of 2012,” says Der Spiegel. “About 90 of them are from the UK, 120 – from Belgium, 50 – from Denmark and 150 – from Kosovo.”
“The Syrian jihad raises particular concerns, given how easier it is to reach Europe from Syria than, let’s say, from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen or Somalia,” a German security officer said. Moreover, Western intelligence services fail to monitor the spread of this infection. “The reality is that we can not keep track of all those coming from Syria,” the German newspaper wrote. In the wake of the above-mentioned arrests, a previously unknown terrorist group appeared, Jihad Kosovo. The group informed via email that the police of the region would become the target of a “terrible attack, unless the arrested individuals were released.
In April, it was reported that representatives of the Syrian opposition were establishing contacts with the authorities of Kosovo. The story was about the training of Syrian rebels, with the approval of the authorities of Kosovo that can not make a step without the approval of the Americans.
According to Serbian military analyst Milovan Dretsun, Syrian opposition members receive military training in Eastern Europe, in Kosovo in particular. “The center of the Kosovo Police Service in Vucitrn is under direct patronage of certain Western intelligence agencies, primarily British and American ones. They converted the Kosovo Police Academy into a training camp for the Syrian opposition, primarily radical Islamists, some of whom are members of al-Qaeda from different countries, from the countries of the region in the first place. After training, they will be sent to Syria to organize sabotage and terrorist acts,” Dretsun told the Voice of Russia.
The Associated Press also reported that on April 26, a delegation of the Syrian opposition, on the way from the United States, made ​​a stop in Pristina to negotiate the use of the experience of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Syria. Well, history repeats itself, and it is far from farce. Kosovo-trained rebels turned their weapons against their teachers and patrons. The United States and Britain, fueling the training of terrorists in Kosovo, reap the fruits of their irresponsible policy. “Returnees” may appear in the cities of Europe and the United States any moment. Thus, according to the AP, ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and neighboring Macedonia were associated with the preparation of the thwarted terrorist attack in Tampa, Fla. and in 2007, they attacked Fort Dix in New Jersey.
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Posted: 15 Nov 2013 01:25 PM PST

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned Congress that any new sanctions against Iran will be viewed as “bad faith” and can “destroy the ability to” reach an agreement.
“Our hope is now that no new sanctions would be put in place for the simple reason that if they are, it could be viewed as bad faith by the people we’re negotiating with, [and] it could destroy the ability to be able to get agreement,” said Kerry on Wednesday.
Kerry made the remarks before he entered a closed-door briefing with the Senate Banking Committee, where he said he would urge US lawmakers to “calm down” over new sanctions against Iran.
“What we’re asking everybody to do is calm down, look hard at what can be achieved and what the realities are,” he said.
The Senate Banking Committee is mulling over whether to move ahead with a new anti-Iran sanctions bill it had delayed before the latest round of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, which ended on Sunday in Geneva without an agreement. The two sides have planned to meet again on November 20.
In an interview with Reuters on November 7, the chairman of the US Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota), said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) had asked him to go ahead with the consideration of the new anti-Iran sanctions legislation after the last round of nuclear talks in Geneva ended.
However, after the nuclear talks, Johnson said he would wait until the briefing with Kerry before making any decisions.
The new round of sanctions against Iran, which the Senate Banking Committee has been asked to “mark up,” were passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in July. The House bill seeks to cut Iran’s oil exports by one million barrels a day for the next year and includes threats of military force against Iran.
If the Senate Banking Committee decides to go ahead with the mark-up, the bill will move one step closer to a full Senate vote.
Meanwhile, the White House has severely criticized Congress for trying to impose new sanctions on Iran, saying new anti-Iran sanctions would be a “march to war.”
“The American people do not want a march to war,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday.
“Putting new sanctions in place would be a mistake while we’re still determining a diplomatic route forward,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a separate briefing at the State Department.
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Posted: 15 Nov 2013 01:20 PM PST

Facing public outrage over his signature ‘Affordable care act’, US President Barack Obama announced major changes in the healthcare plan that will allow millions of Americans who were about to lose their cover to keep it for one more year.
The disastrous launch of Obamacare forced the president to change his stance on the “Affordable care act.” Only slightly more than 106 thousand Americans have so far obtained insurance under the new healthcare law, according to official data from the Department of Health and Human Services released on Wednesday. Meanwhile, about five million people received notices that their preexisting plans will be cancelled soon and they will have to pay higher premiums to obtain new insurance, Forbes reports.
Only last week, Obama denied that he had ever promised Americans that the majority of them will be able to keep their healthcare plans without changes. But after the media showed multiple videos of the president saying just that, his popularity sunk to an all-time low.
For the first time, the majority of Americans called their president ‘untrustworthy and dishonest’ and even members of his own party urged Obama to respect his promises. In particular, former president Bill Clinton said on Tuesday in an interview at OZY.com that “The president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they’ve got.”
Speaking on Thursday, Obama unveiled a one-year plan to allow insurers to keep selling existing plans that are about to be cancelled due to the law’s minimum benefits requirements.
Additionally, insurance companies will be required to explain to their policyholders that the Affordable Care Act offers alternative plans for them. Companies will also have to explain where their existing plans lack the benefits outlined by the law.
The one-year plan will notably end after the 2014 mid-term elections, raising questions about whether or not insurance companies would have to cancel existing cover then, or if Americans could keep them past the one-year mark.
Speaker of the House, John Boehner, responded to Obama’s proposed fixes with skepticism, saying he doubts the president can address problems with the law administratively. Boehner added that the ACA should be repealed entirely.
“I am highly skeptical that they can do this administratively,” Boehner said. “There is no way to fix this.”
Obama acknowledged that the administration “fumbled” the healthcare rollout, but added, “I am confident that by the time we look back on this next year, that people are going to say that this is working well.”
Responding to a question regarding the troubled Healthcare.gov website, Obama said, “I was not informed correctly that the website wasn’t working.” He continued by saying that if he had known it was not ready to launch, he would not have proclaimed how great it was going to be.
Obama added that in terms of the website, Healthcare.gov “will work much better” by the end of November. “The majority of the people going to the website” will find it working the way it’s supposed to, he said. “It’s not possible for me to guarantee that 100 percent of the people” going to the site will have a seamless and smooth experience, he added, but said improvements will continue beyond December 1.
“Buying health insurance is never going to be like buying a song on iTunes.” It’s a much more complicated transaction, but the experience will be a lot better, he said.
Obama also blamed technical issues on the way government purchases technology, saying it’s “cumbersome and outdated.”
The president added that since he knew this two years ago, he would’ve liked to do more to make sure the process improved.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 09:59