Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday, 14 March 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:14 AM PDT
Officials said the cause of the blast was a gas leak, though there was no evidence of that yet.
NYC Mayor de Blasio confirmed that a gas leak triggered an explosion which destroyed two buildings in Upper Manhattan Wednesday morning at around 9:31 a.m. EST. Over half a dozen people have now been confirmed dead and over 74 injured.
More than 250 members from the New York Fire Department (FDNY) have been dispatched, where they continue to extinguish the remnants of the blaze at 1646 Park Avenue in Harlem. Rescue workers are using back hoes and a bulldozer to search for any victims still buried in the rubble. Thermal imaging cameras are also being employed to identify heat spots which could either indicate bodies or pockets of fire.
One victim has been identified as 45-year-old Griselde Camacho, a security officer who worked at the Silberman School of Social Work building. Also killed was Carmen Tanco, 67, a dental hygienist. Her cousin, News 12 cameraman Angel Vargas, said the family started a desperate search when she failed to show up to work on Wednesday, AP reports.Police identified another victim as Rosaura Hernandez-Barrios, 21.
The bodies of four unidentified people have also been found. Two of the unidentified victims are men, and one of htem is a woman. The FDNY was not immediately able to confirm the sex of the fourth person.
Hospitals have reported receiving 74 people, including one child and one woman who suffered critical injuries. Nine people remain missing following the blast according to the Mayor’s office.
City authorities said a gas leak sparked the massive blast, which could be felt from a mile away. The explosion blew out windows in surrounding buildings and sent a hail of debris onto neighboring streets. Many were trapped in the cars and apartments in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
“It sounded like a bomb went off, so everyone started screaming, ‘They blew up the Metro North!’ But when we got there, we saw it was the building and started pulling people out,” Denise Ortiz, who was at a nearby doctor’s office when the building collapsed, told Fox 19.
Firefighters trying to put out blaze after explosion in Manhattan.
On Twitter, one eyewitness said he was on his way to work when he came across the scene and saw nearby cars covered by bricks and glass. Another, Campus Reform reporter Katherine Timpf, tweeted that her apartment five blocks away on 121 Street shook as the explosion occurred.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said there was scant warning to organize an evacuation, as the blast came only 20 minutes after city authorities were alerted to the gas leak.
“This is a tragedy of the worst kind because there was no indication in time to save people,” he said, adding that the search “will take quite a bit of time.”
The New York Police Department’s bomb squad was initially called to the scene, though
The building is on the west side of Park Avenue in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood between 116 and 117 Street, and contained a piano store in addition to apartments.
The Metro-North railroad suspended service in and out of Grand Central Terminal in downtown Manhattan as a precaution, and local trains were halted after debris reportedly landed on the tracks roughly nine blocks away from the building collapse.
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Posted: 13 Mar 2014 09:09 AM PDT

Thousands of teachers and government workers have taken to the streets of Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, calling for a pay rise.
Members of the Argentine Workers Federation, the South American country’s largest trade union, marched on Wednesday outside the Casa Rosada Government House at Plaza de Mayo square in central Buenos Aires.
The protesters urged the government to double the minimum wage in the face of rising inflation and currency devaluation.
Union chief Pablo Micheli said the government workers were seeking a minimum wage of 9,000 pesos (USD 1,150), more than twice the current minimum of 3,600 Pesos (USD 457) a month.
Trade unions have invited the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to talks over the diminishing purchasing power.
Argentina recorded an 11 percent inflation rate in 2013, but independent economists say the actual rate is more than 30 percent.
In August last year, thousands of Argentines held an anti-government demonstration in the capital to show their anger against rising inflation and corruption.
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Posted: 13 Mar 2014 07:12 AM PDT
Grainy footage apparently shows Russian tanks on the way to the Donetsk region border.
Ukraine warned last night that 80,000 Russian troops were massing on its borders and could invade – as world leaders told Vladimir Putin to back off.
A senior security chief in Kiev said Moscow could launch a full-scale invasion and Russian troops would be in the Ukrainian capital within ‘two or three hours’ of the order to advance.
Photographs of Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers close to Ukraine’s borders added to tensions.
Last night senior British officials told the Mail they had received reports about Russian troops massing on the border since Tuesday and were concerned by the show of force.
Heading to Ukraine? Armoured personnel carriers near Rostov in Russia
British intelligence is unsure whether the movements are intended to back up the annexation of Crimea, preparation for an invasion or simply defensive.
Moscow’s show of force came as Ukraine’s new prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, met Barack Obama in the Oval Office and Nato continued military exercises in Poland.
On a day of rising tensions, G7 leaders, including David Cameron and Mr Obama, warned Russia not to annexe the Crimea after a referendum on Sunday in the province, which has been taken over by pro-Putin troops.

Their statement warns the Russian president ‘to cease all efforts to change the status of Crimea contrary to Ukrainian law and in violation of international law’ and threatens ‘further action’ if Moscow seizes Crimea.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Russian MPs who voted to use force in Ukraine and Kremlin officials behind the invasion would be hit with asset freezes and a travel ban to the European Union – most likely at a Brussels summit on Monday.
But the main concern of Western leaders is to deter Russia from seizing the rest of Eastern Ukraine.
On the move: Tanks pictured on the streets of Rostov in Russia
Military vehicles have been picture all over Russia’s border regions. Here are APCs in Voronezh region
The moves come as the Russian armed forces have announced a separate huge military exercise by its airborne troops
Andriy Parubiy, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, yesterday said that even Kiev may not be safe from Putin’s troops, who were regrouping in ‘an offensive manner’.
Mr Parubiy claimed the forces massing included ‘over 80,000 personnel, up to 270 tanks, 180 armoured vehicles, 380 artillery systems, 18 multiple-launch missile systems, 140 combat aircraft, 90 combat helicopters and 19 warships and cutters’.
He added: ‘Critical is the situation not only in Crimea, but along the entire north-eastern frontier. In fact, Russian troop units are two or three hours of travel from Kiev.’
Former Putin adviser Andrey Illarionov predicted this week that in addition to Crimea, his ex-boss intends to annex other major cities in Ukraine, including Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Kherson and Odessa.
Pictures of Russian armoured vehicles on the move in regions close to the Ukrainian border – said to have been taken on Monday – include motorised infantry vehicles and tanks. The military movements are also said to include Grad BM-21 multiple rocket launch vehicles.
The movements come amid Western concerns that the Kremlin is seeking to destabilise other regions in the south and east of Ukraine
Tanks at the streets of Rostov, which is around 105 miles from Mariupol, on the Azov Sea, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region
A driver travelling from the Donetsk region in Ukraine to the Rostov-on-Don region in Russia filmed one column, several miles long, heading towards the border.
Tanks have also been pictured being carried by rail in Belgorod, and are reported to be in a village 12 miles from the border.
The moves come as the Russian armed forces have announced a separate huge military exercise by its airborne troops. The three-day exercise ordered by Putin involves a vast ‘landing operation’ by 4,000 paratroopers.
The alleged targets of ‘Putin’s Plan’ to invade south-eastern Ukraine
Last night a Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The Russians need to pull back to their bases.’
Nato has conducted its own show of force to reassure countries in Eastern Europe.
The US and Poland began war games on Tuesday that are expected to involve at least 12 American F-16 fighter jets. A joint naval exercise of US, Bulgarian and Romanian naval forces in the Black Sea started on yesterday.
Events are building to a crunch point on Sunday when Crimea votes on whether to join Russia. If Putin recognises the province as Russian, sanctions will follow.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov are expected to meet in London tomorrow, but British officials remain sceptical that Russia will make any concessions.
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Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:54 AM PDT

Australia has announced plans to buy a fleet of giant US drones to help patrol the nation’s borders, monitoring energy infrastructure and attempts to enter the country illegally.
On Thursday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the Triton Unmanned Aerial Vehicles would be based in the southern city of Adelaide, AFP reported.
“These aircraft will patrol Australia’s vast ocean approaches, and work closely with other existing and future Australian Defense Force assets to secure our ocean resources, including energy resources off northern Australia, and help to protect our borders,” he said.
“They will provide the Australian Defense Force with unprecedented maritime surveillance capabilities, operating at altitudes up to 55,000 feet (16,800 meters) over extremely long ranges while remaining airborne for up to 33 hours.”
The aircraft could be used to detect invading asylum-seekers, who frequently enter Australian waters illegally to the north on boat, usually setting sail from Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Under the ongoing Operation Sovereign Borders policy, Australia’s military is turning back asylum-seeker boats in a move that has angered Indonesia for refusing its illegal boats.
Stopping the asylum-seeker boats arriving in Australia’s north has been a key policy of Abbott’s government since he came to power last year.
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Posted: 13 Mar 2014 06:45 AM PDT

A New York hospital warned 4,247 people of potential exposure to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV after authorities discovered a risk of potential blood contamination.
In the letter dated February 22, South Nassau Communities Hospital said the patients may have received insulin from an insulin pen reservoir – not the pen’s single-use disposable needle – that may have been used with more than one person.
Damian Becker, spokesman for the hospital in Oceanside on Long Island – near New York City – said no medical staff had been observed reusing the insulin pen reservoir. The warning was issued, however, because a nurse was overheard saying it was alright to do so.
“Once that was said, we then followed through with a report to the state Department of Health,” hospital spokesman Damian Becker told the Long Island daily Newsday.
Earlier, the hospital released a statement saying “The risk of infection from this is extremely low,” though it recommended patients “be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.”
Becker said the hospital was sending out the letters in batches and the hospital announced it has set up a toll-free hotline for patients to schedule a blood test.
It will take patients about two weeks to receive test results, he said.
When asked by Reuters if anyone was confirmed to have been infected, a hospital spokeswoman said “not to my knowledge.”
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control both released strongly worded statements between 2009 and 2012 following a rash of similar incidents at other hospitals that put more than 2,000 patients at risk.
The agency warned it had become “increasingly aware of reports of improper use of insulin pens” that “must never be used on more than one person.”
“When you use the pen for more than one patient, you have the possibility of introducing the bodily fluids from someone else into another individual,” Dr. Alison Myers, an endocrinologist with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, told CBS New York.
The Long Island hospital said it has since banned the use of insulin pens and permits only the use of single-patient-use vials. The hospital seems to have changed its policy on the devices, though it was unclear when the change occurred.
“South Nassau has already implemented a hospital-wide policy that bans the use of insulin pens and permits only the use of single-patient-use vials to administer prescribed insulin treatments to patients,” the statement said.
The time frame of potential expose was between March 2011 and January 2014.
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Posted: 12 Mar 2014 03:20 PM PDT

Yet more previously secret surveillance operations waged by the United States National Security Agency were made public Wednesday morning thanks to leaked documents supplied by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The files — published first by The Intercept this week and dissected over the course of a 3,000-word article attributed to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher — bring to light a number of previously unreported programs undertaken by the secretive US spy agency, including operations that have given the NSA the potential to infect millions of computers around the world by relying on malicious software that’s sent to targets through surreptitious means.
In recent years, however, the NSA has reportedly made adjustments to these operations that enable them to by carried out automatically without the direct aid of human spies — a decision that experts say is undermining the internet as it is known today,
“Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process,” the journalists wrote.
That automated system named “TURBINE,” they said later, is designed to “allow the current implant network to scale to large size (millions of implants) by creating a system that does automated control implants by groups instead of individually.”
According to The Intercept, the NSA has escalated offensive cyber operations significantly since 2004 in order to spy on targets, and has used an array of tactics and “implants” that were previously undisclosed in order to carry out these missions.
The website reported that the agency’s British counterpart, the GCHQ, “appears to have played an integral role” with regards to developing these implants, which have grown in number exponentially in recent years from only 100 or so to tens-of-thousands, according to the report.
These implants, the journalists wrote, allow the NSA “to break into targeted computers and to siphon out data from foreign Internet and phone networks.” They can also be combined with a number of specialized plugins to provide analysts with additional surveillance options, the likes of which could likely leave many thinking staying secure on the Web seem impossible after reading the Greenwald and Gallagher report.
NSA presentation from theintercept.com
In one example cited by The Intercept, the NSA disguised itself as a fake Facebook server in order to intercept connections attempted to be made between account holders and the social networking site’s real computers. Instead, however, the NSA sends those unsuspecting Facebook users to a real site embedded with malware that then has the ability to infect that target’s computer.
That program — QUANTUMHAND — became operational in October 2010, The Intercept reported, after it successfully allowed the NSA to gain access to “about a dozen targets.”
A spokesperson for Facebook told The Intercept he had “no evidence of this alleged activity,” but QUANTUMHAND is far from the only program that, thanks to Edward Snowden, have linked the NSA to relying on already established websites and programs to pry into the communications of targets.
In another example, The Intercept included images from an internal NSA slideshow presentation that indicates surveillance missions can be waged by the agency against targeted email addresses, IP addresses and the “cookies” created by websites like Google, Yahoo, YouTube and countless others to track visitors, often for advertisement and user experience purposes.
NSA presentation from theintercept.com
Ashkan Soltani, a DC-based independent security researcher, remarked on Twitter that the information in that presentation “looks a lot like a catalog of ad tracking tech.” Instead of being used by the likes of Google to give YouTube users a more “personalized” browsing experience, however, the NSA and GCHQ can use these selectors to spy on the habits of unknowing subjects of investigation.
Other programs disclosed by Mr. Snowden and described by The Intercept include CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE (“used to take over a targeted computer’s microphone and record conversations”, GUMFISH (“can covertly take over a computer’s webcam and snap photographs”), FOGGYBOTTOM (“records logs of Internet browsing histories and collects login details and passwords”), GROK (“used to log keystrokes”) and SALVAGERABBIT to exfiltrate data from removable flash drives connected to a target’s computer.
To infect computers with these implants, The Intercept said, the NSA can avoid trying to trick targets into going to fake websites by instead spamming them with unsolicited email containing links to malware.
“If we can get the target to visit us in some sort of web browser, we can probably own them,” an NSA employee wrote in one of the previously secret documents. “The only limitation is the ‘how.’”
NSA presentation from theintercept.com
The Intercept’s latest report was published only two days after Snowden spoke remotely to the audience of the SXSW Interactive tech conference in Austin, Texas and urged attendees to use encryption — a tactic, he said, that is still relatively successful with regards to thwarting snooping like the kind carried out by the NSA.
Encryption, Snowden said on Monday, makes it“very difficult for any sort of mass surveillance”to occur.
If The Intercept’s report is anywhere close to representative of the NSA’s actual capabilities though, then the agency’s operations are expanding regardless and relying on new tricks and techniques to track down and monitor persons of interest in the name of national security.
“When they deploy malware on systems,” malware expert Mikko Hypponen told The Intercept, “they potentially create new vulnerabilities in these systems, making them more vulnerable for attacks by third parties.”
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Posted: 12 Mar 2014 03:09 PM PDT
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal
Saudi Arabia has threatened to block Qatar by land and sea amid a simmering row between the two Arab states over Doha’s links with the Muslim Brotherhood and the role of al-Jazeera television station.
According to a report published by US-based newspaper Huffington Post, the threats were made during a private meeting between the foreign ministers of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council states in Riyadh last week before Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain announced the withdrawal of their ambassadors from Qatar.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal reportedly said only the severance of ties with the Brotherhood, closure of al-Jazeera broadcaster and expulsion of two US think tanks – identified as Brookings Doha Center and the Rand Qatar Policy Institute — would be sufficient to prevent Qatar from “being punished.”
Qatar is reportedly not taking the threat of a sea blockade seriously, but its land border with Saudi Arabia could easily be closed by Saudi forces.
On March 7, Saudi Arabia listed Muslim Brotherhood along with several other groups as terrorist organizations. According to the new law, those who join or back the groups could face five to 30 years in jail.
The Saudi move, which was slammed by the Brotherhood, came after Egypt’s military-backed interim government decided to label the group a terrorist organization last December after the ouster of the country’s Brotherhood-backed president, Mohamed Morsi, in July.
Egypt has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of being responsible for a deadly bomb attack on a police headquarters building in the Delta Nile city of Mansoura in December 2013, which left at least 15 people dead. The group has condemned the attack and denied involvement in the incident.
Following the example of neighboring Saudi Arabia, the UAE labeled Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization on March 8.
Some Arab states accuse Doha-based al-Jazeera television network of taking a pro-Muslim Brotherhood stance.
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Posted: 12 Mar 2014 03:00 PM PDT

It has been well reported that China’s cities have some of the worst pollution problems in the world, with smog so thick that it is hard to see through.
The Chinese government’s solution is actually to use drones that will disperse chemtrails into the air.
This has been reported in state sponsored media and admitted by the government.
They claim that the chemtrails will actually work to disperse the pollution, but there is very little actual basis for these claims, and little is known about possible side effects that these chemicals can cause.
The operation is led by the China Meteorological Administration.
The unmanned aerial vehicle, produced by a subsidiary of state-owned aviation giant Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), are said to “disperses fog and smog” by releasing “a chemical catalyst”, state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday.
The manufacturer, AVIC, has already carried out about 100 hours of test flights, Ta Kung Pao, a local media outlet, reported.
The drone is fitted with a gliding parachute and ‘could be used to conduct agricultural seeding, emergency rescue and other tasks’, said AVIC CEO Ma Yongsheng.
At the opening of an annual parliament meeting last week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that China will “declare war on pollution.
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Posted: 12 Mar 2014 02:38 PM PDT

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for the full reoccupation of the besieged Gaza Strip amid rising tensions in the region.
Lieberman made the remarks on Israel’s Channel 2 television following a retaliatory attack by Palestinian resistance movement, Islamic Jihad, against the Israeli regime earlier on Wednesday.
“Following an attack like this — a barrage of more than 50 rockets — there is no alternative to a full reoccupation of the entire Gaza Strip,” said the Israeli foreign minister.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli security source said more than 60 mortar rounds had been fired from Gaza, while the Israeli military put the number at “more than 30 rockets,” adding eight hit urban areas, and another three were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome missile system.
“We will continue to strike those who want to harm us. We’ll act against them very forcefully,” Lieberman was quoted by his spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, as saying in a separate statement.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also threatened to respond “very forcefully” to the shelling from the besieged Palestinian sliver.
The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the Wednesday rocket attacks on the south of the occupied Palestinian lands, saying, it “responded to (Israeli) aggression with a volley of rockets.”
On Tuesday, three Palestinians lost their lives after an Israeli drone carried out an airstrike on the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas blamed Tel Aviv for the escalation of tensions in the region.
“We hold the occupation responsible, we warn of the consequences of any escalation and we reiterate that resistance is the right of the Palestinian people to defend itself,” AFP quoted Ihab al-Ghassin, a Hamas spokesman, as saying.
Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.
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Posted: 12 Mar 2014 02:28 PM PDT

In a confidence-building step, Russia’s Defense Ministry has given permission for a surveillance flight by Ukraine over Russian territory near the border between the countries. Kiev had claimed Moscow was building up its military presence there.
“The Ukrainians have asked for an unscheduled observation flight over our territory,” Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters in Moscow.
Russia and Ukraine are entitled to surveillance flights over each other’s territories following the Open Skies treaty signed in 1992, but Antonov said that Kiev had never asked for one before, and that Moscow was “under no obligation” to allow it immediately.
“We have decided to allow such a flight. We hope that our neighbors are assured that there is no military activity that threatens them on the border.”
Antonov vehemently denied a statement Tuesday by Igor Tenyukh, defense minister for the Kiev coup-appointed government, that Russia had amassed more than 220,000 troops, 1,800 tanks and over 400 helicopters in regions adjacent to eastern Ukraine.
“Ukrainian military officials know full well that the entire [Russian] Southern and Western Military Districts put together don’t have that much equipment. The only way you could arrive at that number of soldiers would be if you counted their families,” Antonov said.
“I would dissuade Mr Tenyukh from adding fuel to the fire of the crisis, which is what he appears to be doing. He openly outlined the reasons for this himself, when he asked the Ukrainian parliament to issue him with more funding,” continued the Russian official.
Antonov added that continuing mass training exercises in eastern Ukraine, which Kiev began this week, could plunge Ukraine into even deeper turmoil.
“Staging exercises in an area that is gripped by mass protests against the new regime which came to power as a result of a coup is a risky endeavor, which could further destabilize the political situation in Ukraine,” Antonov insisted.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 14:30