Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday, 27 February 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:52 AM PST


The question of how much the Ukrainian revolution was a grass roots effort versus being driven by external influences will be put to the test by a demand from some Ukrainian citizens that a right to bear arms be included in the country’s new constitution.
Citing how riot police used force to crush dissent during the recent uprising, the Ukrainian Gun Owner’s Association has announced that it will, “start to work on the preparation of amendments to the Constitution, which will provide an unconditional right for Ukrainian citizens to bear arms.”
“People should have the right to bear arms, which will be put in written into the Constitution. Authorities should not and will not be stronger than its people! Armed people are treated with respect!” states the press release.
Whether the newly formed Ukrainian government (which will almost inevitably be comprised of EU-friendly puppets) will allow Ukrainians the bedrock freedom of the right to bear arms seems highly unlikely given Europe’s restrictive firearms laws.
Current Ukrainian law only allows people to own pistols or revolvers if they are licensed and can provide a “genuine reason” for needing to own a gun.
One of the proposed amendments to the constitution which would legalize the right to bear arms states;
“Everyone has the right to freedom of owning a firearm to protect their life and health, housing and property, life and health of other people’s constitutional rights and freedoms in the case of usurpation of power , the encroachments on the constitutional order, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Exercising the right to free possession of firearms is governed by applicable law and may be limited only by the court on the individual. “
Good luck to Ukrainians attempting to secure actual freedoms in the aftermath of a revolution which was in fact more of a coup d’état that will replace one dictator with a more western-compliant dictator. We won’t be holding our breath.
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Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:41 AM PST

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an urgent drill to test the combat readiness of the country’s armed forces across western Russia, including the border area towards Ukraine, as if what Russia did to Ukraine in the 30′s during the Holodomor, plus Soviet occupation until 1991 wasn’t enough for the poor Ukrainians.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Putin ordered forces of the Western Military District to be put on alert on Wednesday.
“In accordance with an order from the president of the Russian Federation, forces of the Western Military District were put on alert,” said Shoigu.
Massive military drills are to be held for four days beginning February 28 and most of the country’s armed units including ships of the Baltic and the Northern Fleets and the Air Force are involved in the drills.
According to the defense ministry, some 150,000 service men are to participate during the military exercises.
There was no official statement from Moscow that the massive maneuvers are linked to the upheavals in Ukraine, which led to the fall of pro-Putin president Viktor Yanukovych.
On February 23, the Ukrainian parliament ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and named Oleksandr Turchynov, the legislature’s newly-elected speaker, as interim president.
Moscow has questioned the legitimacy of Ukraine’s new government, saying the current authorities have come to power as a result of an “armed mutiny.”
In addition, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has denounced the Western countries’ decision to accept the Ukrainian new authorities as a mistake and an “aberration of consciousness.”
Ukraine has been the scene of anti-government protests since November last year, when Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia.
The truth is, Ukraine is caught at the middle of two Zionist internationalist evils, Russia and the EU. Ukraine needs to keep its independence and sort its own problems with its borders closed, by voting with the legitimateSvoboda party which represents the interests of the Ukrainian people.
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Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:15 AM PST

The State of Connecticut is now demanding that gun owners across the state turn in all newly-banned, unregistered firearms and magazines or face felony arrest.
The State Police Special Licensing & Firearms Unit began mailing out notices to gun owners who attempted to register their firearms and accessories with the state but did not do so in time for the Jan. 1 deadline of Connecticut’s newly enacted gun control law.
The law bans the sale of magazines holding over 10 rounds and “assault rifles” manufactured after 1994 and requires that residents who possessed either before the ban to register them with the state.
“We are returning your application for [an] assault rifle certificate and/or [a] large capacity magazine declaration because it was not received or postmarked prior to January 1, 2014 as required by law,” the notice states.
The letter breaks down the gun owner’s “options,” including surrendering their firearms and magazines to the police, selling them to a gun dealer, removing them from the state or rendering them inoperable.
Because these owners attempted to register their guns and accessories, the state can now prosecute them at will because they know exactly who they are.
But when it comes to the vast majority of gun owners who did not register at all, Connecticut lacks clout.
Last month it was revealed that out of the over 2.4 million high-capacity magazines in Connecticut, only 38,000 have been registered.
“So, where did these millions of magazines go?” reporter Warner Todd Huston asked. “All that can be said is that it appears that gun owners in Connecticut are not quite the sheep that jackbooted government officials may have imagined they were.”
“After all, if there really were millions of high capacity magazines in the state – and it is very likely that there are – and they have now gone unregistered, that means that thousands of gun owners have refused to bow to this unconstitutional, anti-Second Amendment law.”
Likewise, only 50,000 semiautomatic rifles were also registered, further proof that Connecticut’s gun owners are revolting through civil disobedience.
These gun owners correctly realize that registration only leads to confiscation and that the overall agenda of gun control is to completely ban private gun ownership.
Last year, the New York Police Department began confiscating guns which were previously registered but are now banned under New York’s newest gun control law.
The NYPD knew exactly which gun owners to target by using the city’s centralized firearms registry which was already in place.
Connecticut’s anti-gun politicians want their own registry so they can eventually confiscate firearms in the exact same manner.
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Posted: 26 Feb 2014 11:04 AM PST
A militant fires towards government forces during clashes in Sheikh Najar area of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Russia has raised concerns about Saudi Arabia’s plans to provide the militants in Syria with advanced arms.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it is worried about reports that Riyadh is seeking to arm the foreign-backed militants in Syria with man-portable air defense systems (MPADS).
Reports say Riyadh is in talks with Pakistan to buy anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons for the militants.
“We are seriously concerned about the mass media reports citing gulfnews.com and saying that Saudi Arabia is willing to provide the Syrian opposition with MPADS and anti-tank systems made in Pakistan,” the statement said.
It warned that such deals are meant to tip the balance of power in favor of the militants.
“This deal will change the balance of power in favor of Syrian opposition militants who began their attacks on Damascus last spring from the southern territories,” the statement added.
It also noted that this would provide the armed extremist groups with better military capability in their planned attack on the capital Damascus in spring.
“If this sensitive weapon falls into the hands of extremists and terrorists who have flooded Syria, there is a great probability that in the end it will be used far from the borders of this Middle Eastern country,” the statement emphasized.
Saudi Arabia has been the main supplier of weapons and funds to the militants inside Syria.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. Over 130,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced due to the unrest.
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Posted: 26 Feb 2014 10:54 AM PST

Secret units within the ‘Five Eyes” global spying network engage in covert online operations that aim to invade, deceive, and control online communities and individuals through the spread of false information and use of ingenious social-science tactics.
Such teams of highly trained professionals have several main objectives, such as “to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet” and “to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable,” The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald reported based on intelligence documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The new information comes via a document from the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), entitled ‘The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations,’ which is top secret and only for dissemination within the Five Eyes intelligence partnership that includes Britain, the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
The document outlines what tactics are used to achieve JTRIG’s main objectives. Among those tactics that seek to “discredit a target” include “false flag operations” (posting material online that is falsely attributed to a target), fake victim blog posts (writing as a victim of a target to disseminate false information), and posting “negative information” wherever pertinent online.
Other discrediting tactics used against individuals include setting a “honey-trap” (using sex to lure targets into compromising situations), changing a target’s photo on a social media site, and emailing or texting “colleagues, neighbours, friends etc.”
To “discredit a company,” GCHQ may “leak confidential information to companies/the press via blog…post negative information on appropriate forums [or] stop deals/ruin business relationships.”
JTRIG’s ultimate purpose, as defined by GCHQ in the document, is to use “online techniques to make something happen in the real world or cyber world.” These online covert actions follow the “4 D’s:” deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive.

As Greenwald pointed out, the tactics employed by JTRIG are not used for spying on other nations, militaries, or intelligence services, but for “traditional law enforcement” against those merely suspected of crimes. These targets can include members of Anonymous, “hacktivists,” or really any person or entity GCHQ deems worthy of antagonizing.
“[I]t is not difficult to see how dangerous it is to have secret government agencies being able to target any individuals they want – who have never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crimes – with these sorts of online, deception-based tactics of reputation destruction and disruption,” Greenwald wrote.
In addition, the targets do not need to have ties to terror activity or pose any national security threat. More likely, targets seem to fall closer to political activists that may have, for instance, used “denial of service” tactics, popular with Anonymous and hacktivists, which usually do only a limited amount of damage to a target.

“These surveillance agencies have vested themselves with the power to deliberately ruin people’s reputations and disrupt their online political activity even though they’ve been charged with no crimes, and even though their actions have no conceivable connection to terrorism or even national security threats,” Greenwald wrote.
In addition to the personal attacks on targets, JTRIG also involves the use of psychological and social-science tactics to steer online activism and discourse. The document details GCHQ’s “Human Science Operations Cell,” which focuses on “online human intelligence” and “strategic influence and disruption” that are used to dissect how targets can be manipulated using “leaders,” “trust,” “obedience,” and “compliance.”
Using tested manipulation tactics, JTRIG attempts to influence discourse and ultimately sow discord through deception.
When reached for comment by The Intercept, GCHQ avoided answering pointed questions on JTRIG while insisting its methods were legal.
“It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Furthermore, all of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. All our operational processes rigorously support this position,” GCHQ stated.

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Posted: 25 Feb 2014 02:49 PM PST

Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Crimea are resisting the western banker takeover of their country by installing a Russian Mayor in the town of Sevastopol as part of an emerging revolt against the US-backed coup d’état that saw the overthrow of democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
“Sevastopol’s city council handed power to Aleksei Chaliy, a Russian citizen, during an extraordinary session on Monday evening while more than a thousand protesters gathered around city hall chanting “Russia, Russia, Russia,” and “A Russian mayor for a Russian city,” reports the Guardian. Former incumbent Vladimir Yatsuba resigned in order to allow Chaliy to take power.
The Russian military has also moved to secure the city against opposition militants by positioning armored personnel carriers in the town’s main square. Yesterday, it was reported that the Russian landing ship Nikolai Filchenko was on its way to Sevastopol with a contingent of 200 armed Russian soldiers.
“The day’s events marked the first stages in the establishment of an anti-Kiev administration amid tumultuous development that will cause headaches for the group of politicians that have replaced the administration of ousted fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych,” reports RIA Novosti.
Meanwhile, in an effort to afford the coup some kind of legitimacy, the Ukrainian parliament voted in favor of trying Yanukovych before the International Criminal Court, a development that came shortly after it was revealed that secretive British investigators are combing central Kiev for evidence that government snipers were used to massacre demonstrators.
While it’s admitted that both sides used firearms during the clashes, the clandestine nature of the investigation suggests that it is merely meant to be a rubber stamp for implicating Yanukovych as being responsible for a massacre.
Indeed, before the investigation even properly began, one of its anonymous members, who spoke to the BBC with his face blurred, had already concluded that the government was responsible for a “bloodbath”.
“The investigators – who do not wish to be identified – say they have already pinpointed four sniper positions,” states the report. “The Foreign Office declined to comment on whether the UK government was assisting in the investigation.”
In other words, the British Foreign Office already has its agents in Kiev either manufacturing or planting evidence which will subsequently be used to demonize Yanukovych as a barbarian who ordered the massacre of protesters.
The fact that innumerable images show protesters also carrying guns is likely to be overlooked because that doesn’t fit the narrative of an organic and righteous uprising which in fact more closely resembles an externally-backed violent coup.

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Posted: 25 Feb 2014 02:37 PM PST

Nokia announced today its first Android series phones at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.
Their new Android 4.4.2 KitKat series are entry level phones and Nokia’s Stephen Elop clearly said that their top high-end devices will always remain the Lumia Windows Phone series.
Nokia did not launch only one Android phone but 3! Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL which are all Dual SIM.
The Nokia X has a 4-inch screen with 800×480 IPS LCD, 1GHz Dual Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8225 chipset, 512MB RAM, Adreno 203 GPU, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, Radio FM, a tiny weak 3.2MP camera with fixed focus and only 4GB Storage which happily, it’s expandable via the microSD card slot which supports up to 32GB cards.
Unfortunately though as with all Android phones, you won’t be able to install apps on the external microSD card so the tiny 4GB internal memory can really be a problem for some people.
Both Nokia X and X+ weight 129 grams and pack 1500mAh battery. It’s good for 10.5 hours of 3G talk time and have a maximum standby time of 17 days. Both phones are also capable of maximum music playback of up to 26 hours, while video playback is rated at 8.4 hours before the battery needs a recharge.
Nokia X+ is basically the same as Nokia X but with a better RAM memory of 768MB.
Nokia XL (model name: RM-1030) is exactly the same as Nokia X+ but with a larger 5 inch screen and better camera, a 5MP autofocus camera and a LED Flash. Nokia XL is also equipped with a 2MP front facing camera for video calls.
Nokia XL is the closest to a decent smartphone while the other two are barely even smartphones.
Even though these phones are Android based, they have been reshaped to look exactly like the phones the majority of people do not buy: Windows Phone. You can reorganize the tiles similarly to Windows Phone 8 UI. They are resizable as well and the larger the tiles get, the more information they display but unfortunately for Microsoft and Nokia, their “live tiles” aren’t working out with people! Microsoft Windows 8 for desktop computers also uses live tiles and almost everybody criticized it for that. People want traditional icons, when will they get that already? iPhone uses traditional icons, Android uses traditional icons, and they are both top selling Operating Systems.
Unsurprisingly, the phone doesn’t have the Google Play Services installed, so the Play Store isn’t available. However, Stephen Elop highlighted that users can take advantage of the Nokia store for Android apps as well as the popular Yandex Store.
However it shouldn’t be too hard to install Play Store on the Nokia X Series if you want to. All you have to do is to go to Settings > under the “General” category > Security > and enable the Unknown Sources option.
Now once you’ve enabled the Unknown Sources, you can simply install Aptoide.apk by going to aptoide.com. Now after you’ve installed Aptoide you can simply search for Play Store and install it. There are many versions of it, some may work others may not but eventually you should be able to find a working version of Play Store for your Nokia X phone.
PROS:
+Beautiful exterior design
+Radio FM, a feature which seems to get lost in today’s smartphones
+Very fast and responsive for a 768MB phone
CONS:
-Small screen resolution, especially for the XL version, might even be pixelated here and there
-Small internal memory, should have been at least 8GB
-Should have also had a X Pro version with Nokia’s greatest cameras, such as the 41MP camera used in Nokia Lumia 1020

At the same event, Samsung announced their factory spy-enabled Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone which is able to read your fingerprint and send it to the NSA without your knowledge or consent all in the name of “security”. Yet again, Samsung lied about the release date of Galaxy S5. They previously lied that they will release S5 in January but instead they released it at the end of February.
There’s nothing much to be said about the Samsung Galaxy S5 as the phone followed everything exactly to what we already knew from leaks and posted all the way back in October 2013, before the phone launched today.
Unfortunately though Galaxy S5 is a little weaker than what we previously estimated and knew from leaks. For instance we thought that it will have 3GB or even 4GB of RAM but it only has 2GB, less than Note 3. Also we’ve thought that the S5 would come with a true Octa Core CPU based on 64-bit architecture but it didn’t. S5 only has a 2.5 GHz Quad Core CPU.
Following the new trend found in S4, Samsung also removed the Radio FM from the S5. Samsung also failed to deliver the rumored Galaxy F series which was supposed to be made out of a metal body. After all of this, the question is, why would anyone even consider buying the Galaxy S5? It brings nothing new to the Galaxy S4 besides UHD video recording which we already had with Note 3 and the damn new fingerprint espionage function which anyone in its right mind would reject to begin with.
One can say that Samsung was very disappointing at MWC 2014. Definitely a big thumbs down for the Galaxy S5 and for Samsung altogether.
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Posted: 25 Feb 2014 02:13 PM PST

Who’s in charge? Certainly not the bought-and-paid-for-moderates that Washington and the EU hoped to install as the new government of Ukraine. The agreement that the Washington and EU supported opposition concluded with President Yanukovich to end the crisis did not last an hour.
Even the former boxing champion, Vitaly Klitschko, who was riding high as an opposition leader until a few hours ago has been booed by the rioters and shoved aside. The newly appointed president by what is perhaps an irrelevant parliament, Oleksandr Turchynov, has no support base among those who overthrew the government. As the BBC reports, “like all of the mainstream opposition politicians, Mr. Turchynov is not entirely trusted or respected by the protesters in Kiev’s Independence Square.”
In western Ukraine the only organized and armed force is the ultra-nationalist Right Sector. From the way this group’s leaders speak, they assume that they are in charge.
One of the group’s leaders, Aleksandr Muzychko, has pledged to fight against “Jews and Russians until I die.” Asserting the Right Sector’s authority over the situation, Muzychko declared that now that the democratically elected government has been overthrown, “there will be order and discipline” or “Right Sector squads will shoot the bastards on the spot.”
The bastards are any protesters who dare to protest the Right Sector’s control.
Muzychko declared, “The next president of Ukraine will be from Right Sector.”
Another Right Sector leader, Dmitry Yarosh, declared: “the Right Sector will not lay down its arms.” He declared the deal made between the opposition and the President to be “unacceptable” and demanded the liquidation of President Yanukovich’s political party.
The Right Sector’s roots go back to the Ukrainians who fought for Germany against the communist Soviet Union during World War 2. It was the Right Sector that introduced armed fighters and turned the tide of the protests in Kiev from peaceful protests in favor of joining the EU to violent attacks on police with the view of overthrowing the democratically elected government, which the Right Sector succeeded in doing.
The Right Sector did not overthrow the Ukraine government in order to deliver it into the hands of the Washington and EU paid “opposition.”
There is a tendency to discount the Right Sector as a small fringe group, but the Right Sector not only took control of the protests away from the Western supported moderates, as moderate leaders themselves admitted, but also the Right Sector has enough public support to destroy communist monuments dedicated to the Red Army soldiers.
Unlike the US orchestrated toppling of the stature of Saddam Hussein, which was a PR event for the presstitutes in which Iraqis themselves were not involved, Ukrainian rightists’ destruction of the communist monument commemorating the Red Army’s “liberation of the Ukraine” (or better said prolonged communist genocide and dictatorship) had public support as most ethnic Ukrainians hold a grudge against Russia for murdering millions of Ukrainians during the Holodomor genocide, a historical event similar to the Holocaust perpetrated by Joseph Stalin.
The Russian parts of Ukraine clearly understand that the Right Sector’s destruction of the monument commemorating the stand of the Red Army against the German troops is a threat against the Russian population of Ukraine. Provincial governments in eastern and southern Ukraine that formerly were part of Russia are organizing militias against the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists.
Having interfered in Ukraine’s internal affairs and lost control, Washington is now issuing ultimatums to Russia not to interfere in Ukraine. Does Susan Rice, Obama’s neoconservative National Security Advisor, think Putin is going to pay any attention to her ultimatums or to any instruction from a government so militarily incompetent that it was unable to successfully occupy Baghdad after 8 years or to defeat a few thousand lightly armed Taliban after 12 years? In only took a few hours for Russian troops to destroy the American and Israeli trained and armed Georgian army that Washington sent to invade South Ossetia.
Where does Obama find incompetents like Susan Rice and Victoria Nuland? These two belong in a institution for the mentally challenged, not in the government of a superpower where their ignorance and arrogance can start World War 3.
Ukraine is far more important to Russia than it is to the US or EU. If the situation in Ukraine spirals out of control and right-wingers seize control, Russian intervention could be is certain. The arrogant Obama regime has carelessly and recklessly created a direct strategic threat to the existence of Russia.
According to the Moscow Times, this is what a senior Russian official has to say: “If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war.” Ukraine “will lose Crimera first,” because Russia “will go in just as we did in Georgia.” Another Russian official said: “ We will not allow Europe and the US to take Ukraine from us. The states of the former Soviet Union, we are one family. They think Russia is still as weak as in the early 1990s but we are not.”
The Ukrainian right-wing is in a stronger position than Washington’s paid Ukrainian puppets, essentially weak and irrelevant persons who sold out their country for Washington’s money. The Right Sector is organized. It is armed. It is indigenous. It is not dependent on money funneled in from Washington and EU financed NGOs. It has an ideology, and it is focused. The Right Sector doesn’t have to pay its protesters to take to the streets like Washington had to do.
Most importantly, well-meaning but stupid protesters–especially the Kiev students–and an Ukrainian parliament playing to the protesters destroyed Ukrainian democracy. The opposition controlled parliament removed an elected president from office without an election, an obvious illegal and undemocratic action. The opposition controlled parliament issued illegal arrest warrants for members of the president’s government. The opposition controlled parliament illegally released criminals from prison. As the opposition has created a regime of illegality in place of law and constitutional procedures, the field is wide open for the Right Sector. Expect everything the opposition did to Yanukovich to be done to them by the Right Sector. By their own illegal and unconstitutional actions, the opposition has set the precedent for their own demise.
Just as the February 1917 revolution against the Russian Tsar set the stage for the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, surprising the “reformers,” the overthrow of the Ukrainian political order has set the stage for the Right Sector. We can only hope that the Right Sector wins and puts an end to communism and Zionism in Ukraine.
The American media is a useless news source. It serves as a Ministry for Government Lies. The corrupt propagandists are portraying the undemocratic removal of Yanukovich as a victory for freedom and democracy, but if something has gone wrong, the propagandists will blame it all on Russia and Putin. The Western media is a plague upon humanity.
Americans have no idea that the neoconservative regime of the White House Fool is leading them into a Great Power Confrontation that could end in destruction of life on earth.
Ironic, isn’t it. America’s “first black president,” the person liberals thought would “restore” justice, morality, and reason to Western civilization, is instead now positioned as the person who will have to accept humiliating defeat or risk the destruction of life on earth. Why would liberals think only a black president could “restore justice and morality” is beyond mind-blowing and puzzling…First of all, there’s nothing to “restore” as the West is already the bastion of freedom and democracy. Don’t like it? Go to Iran, China or Zimbabwe and see what lack of justice really means! And second, why would liberals think that only a black president could “fix” a problem? Are white genetically damaged or something and they need blacks to fix them in their own countries? Crazy… but that’s the American mentality we need to stay away from.
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Posted: 25 Feb 2014 01:54 PM PST
People pay visit to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on February 24, 2014.
Air pollution strikes unhealthy levels in the Chinese capital Beijing for the sixth day in a row, prompting warnings for people to stay indoors.
On Tuesday, officials said the gray smog that has been covering the sky in much of six northern provinces could last until Friday.
Since last Friday, an orange alert — the second-highest warning level — has been issued in the capital.
Chinese scientists say the toxic air pollution is similar to a nuclear winter, a potential threat to food supply in the country.
He Dongxian, an associate professor at China Agricultural University’s College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, said the situation is “somewhat similar to a nuclear winter,” adding that the air pollutants stick to greenhouse surfaces, which would diminish the amount of light inside by about 50 percent, severely impeding photosynthesis.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping made an unannounced visit along with some other Chinese officials to a trendy alley in the capital where he spent some time with residents.
Pollution levels in Chinese cities in recent years have risen due to increased car ownership and growing industrial production.
In July 2013, China announced it would spend 1.7 trillion yuan, or 277 billion dollars, in a bid to tackle air pollution. The vast sum of money is planned to be invested over a period of five years.
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Posted: 25 Feb 2014 01:33 PM PST

A resident in a polluted city in northern China has become the first person in the country to launch a case against the local government over high levels of pollution. He is also seeking compensation for those affected by the smog.
The local environmental authorities should “perform their duties to control air pollution according to the law,” believes Li Guixin, a resident in Shijiazhuang, the capital of north China’s Hebei province, reported local Yanzhao Metropolis Daily newspaper.
He wrote the complaint to a district court, demanding the Shijiazhuang Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau “to ease the pollution, to pay the plaintiff 10,000 yuan (US$1,600) for economic losses, and to be responsible for the cost of the trial.”
Li Guixin is also demanding compensation for Shijiazhuang residents who suffered from enormous pollution that was rolling into his native city along with many other Chinese cities this winter.
“The reason that I’m proposing compensation is to let every citizen see that amid this haze, we’re the real victims,” Li said, as quoted by the newspaper.
According to Li, he began suffering from pollution since December, 2013 (when the smog was extremely chocking across Northern China). He started coughing and had to buy face masks as protection an air purifier and a treadmill for indoor exercises.
“Besides the threat to our health, we’ve also suffered economic losses,” the plaintiff told Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, ”These losses should be borne by the government and the environmental departments.”
Li decided to take into action after the Shijiazhuang government launched a special traffic restriction plan on February 22, 2014. The project forbade “some car plate numbers from hitting the road for one day.”
“The cars we bought are up to standard. If the environmental department thinks something is wrong with the gas, then they should go to the companies that produce the gas. Not us,” added Li.
The provincial and city courts already rejected Li’s case. However, his case is still being examined by the district court, which will give the response in a week.
Hebei, a major industrial region which surrounds Beijing, is considered a “major source of noxious smog that hung over Beijing a year ago” by the China Academy of Sciences. Shijiazhuang, its capital and largest city recorded “beyond index” measurements of particulate matter in early 2013.
Hebei province is not the only one blanketed by toxic smog. The whole Northern China has recently been suffering from the most hazardous air pollution in months, which worsens in winter, when stagnant weather patterns combine with an increase in coal-burning.
On Friday, Beijing which has been shrouded in stinking smog for more than a week, raised its four-tiered smog alert system to the second-highest ‘orange’ level for the first time as heavy smog was forecast to roll into the city for the next three days. Officials have urged people to stay indoors and use public transport.
“There’s now clear evidence that, in the long term, high levels of air pollution can actually also cause … lung cancer,” Bernhard Schwartlander, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in China, told Reuters.
The Chinese government is trying to curb its pollution problems. In recent years the authorities have put into action numerous policies to try to clean up the environment, including investing in new non-polluting projects and giving courts the power to enforce stiff penalties. In December, the Chinese government even used the practice of ‘cloud seeding’ – artificial rain – to disperse the county’s notorious smog. This technique will be officially used by local authorities from 2015.
However, the enforcement is patchy; particularly at the local level, where authorities rely on taxes from polluting industries.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 13:42