Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday 26 April 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 26 Apr 2014 01:21 AM PDT

The Russian government says allegations regarding the use of chemicals by forces of the Syrian government are false and fabricated.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that Moscow had proof against the allegations by France and the United States that Syrian forces may have used industrial chemicals on a militant-held village in Hama province this month.
“Accusations against government forces continue to be fabricated about alleged cases of them using chemical substances,” said the statement, adding, “The Russian side has authentic information that such statements are false.”
“This, yet another anti-Syrian ‘chemical’ hysteria, highlights the question of the real goals of its initiators, who are not abandoning attempts to find a reason for intervention in Syria,” Moscow noted.
The allegations are made as 92.5 percent of the country’s chemicals have been removed, according to a Thursday statement by the joined Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-UN task team.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. Over 150,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced due to the violence fueled by Western-backed militants.
According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies, especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
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Posted: 26 Apr 2014 01:16 AM PDT

Washington is pushing Venezuela towards a “civil war” because it wants access to the country’s rich oil reserves, Bolivian President Evo Morales has warned. The Venezuelan government has also accused the US of fomenting a coup d’état.
Addressing over 3,000 young people at a Latin American Youth Summit in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, Morales branded the US an “empire” with its eye on Venezuelan oil wealth. Morales said that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was blameless in the recent wave of unrest in the country and accused Washington of orchestrating a civil war.
“I believe [the US] are trying to incite if not a coup d’état then a civil war from their empire,” Morales said. “They are always going to sponsor internal conflict so that they can interfere and invade us to take control of our oil reserves.”
The world needs an “anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-colonial youth,” said Morales, urging Latin Americans to stand together in solidarity with Venezuela. Morales said there was no danger of a coup d’état in Bolivia since the government had ejected US Ambassador Phillip Golberg in 2008 after he was accused of collaborating in a plot to overthrow the government.
Venezuela has been gripped by a wave of anti-government protests since February which has left at least 41 dead and over 600 injured. The Venezuelan government has recognized people’s right to demonstrate, but has accused foreign-backed, right-wing extremists of hijacking the protests in an attempt to oust Maduro.
At present, the Maduro government is in dialogue with some of the members of the opposition movement to try and find a peaceful solution to the conflict. The opponents of the government complain that Venezuela is experiencing massive inflation and shortages of basic food products, as well as frequent power cuts.
‘Economic war’
Maduro announced last week that Venezuela was facing an “economic war” and as such his government intended to fight back with a new “offensive” to combat capitalism. He set out the main aims of the new initiative on Monday, including the encouragement of supply and production and the stabilization of prices in Venezuela.
“This new economic offensive should bring prosperity to the people and the country. Neoliberalism speaks of growth, but growth for whom? For those that always had wealth, not the have-nots,” Maduro said.
Maduro has previously blamed the strife in Venezuela on Washington, saying that the US is orchestrating the unrest with a view to overthrowing his government. In March, Caracas’s foreign minister, Elias Jaua, accused US Secretary of State John Kerry of inciting murder and violence in Venezuela. Washington has denied any links to the ongoing unrest and maintains the Venezuelan government is terrorizing its own people.
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Posted: 25 Apr 2014 03:34 PM PDT

The chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission is attempting to refute recent reports that suggest that the FCC is on track to terminate the basic principle of net neutrality.
News articles first emerged on Wednesday evening this week indicating that a draft FCC document includes new rules that would allow Internet Service Providers, or ISPs, to give preferential treatment to content producers willing to pay more money for better access to consumers.
If true, the rule would go against the fundamentals of net neutrality and reportedly open the door for major ISPs like Verizon and Comcast to give bandwidth-hogging business, such as Skype or Netflix, better access to customers at a higher price.
Tom Wheeler, a former cable industry lobbyist-turned-FCC chairman, wrote on the agency’s official blog on Thursday that those latest reports are brimming with “a great deal of misinformation” that will be clarified later in the day when the draft Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in question is officially circulated among the commission.
Wheeler gave no indication of when the FCC will release those proposed rules to the public, however, but in his latest blog post he claims that the earlier reports were highly inaccurate.
According to Wheeler, the notice will mandate that all ISPs “not act in a commercially unreasonable manner to harm the internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity.”
“To be very direct, the proposal would establish that behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted,” he wrote.
Wheeler’s latest remarks echo statements he made late Wednesday in which he insisted there would be “no ‘turnaround in policy’” and that “[t]he same rules will apply to all internet content.”
But within minutes of Thursday’s blog going live, Wheeler was already being called out by critics, including reporter Chris Welch at The Verge website.
“Despite his best efforts, Wheeler’s words won’t do much to calm the storm,” Welch wrote. If the FCC agrees to let ISPs provide a “fast lane” to high-paying content producers as long as the fee is a “commercially reasonable” one, as reported, then the matter of what is considered reasonable still needs to be weighed.
According to The Verge’s Welch, that could be a problem. On Thursday, he wrote, a spokesperson for the FCC that was asked that very question said the agency doesn’t quite know yet.
“We want to have a broad public debate. We want to know how people are affected in their daily life. We want to know how businesses are being affected. We want to know if innovation is being affected,” Welch heard from the FCC spokesperson.
“Based on that statement, the FCC seems aware that this ‘pay for access’ aspect could bring on some trouble,” Welch reported. “But the FCC won’t eliminate the idea entirely.”
Wheeler hopes to have the text of the draft Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted by the end of the year, he wrote.
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Posted: 25 Apr 2014 03:03 PM PDT
US Secretary of State John Kerry
US Secretary of State John Kerry has issued a stern and final warning to Russia to help de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine or face more sanctions.
“The window to change course is closing. The world will make sure the costs for Russia will only grow” if Russia refuses to change course, Kerry said late Thursday.
Kerry’s warning came after Ukraine used lethal force against pro-Russia activists in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, reportedly leading to five deaths.
“What is happening in eastern Ukraine is a military operation that is well-planned and organized. If Russia continues in this direction, it will not only be a grave mistake — it will be an expensive mistake,” Kerry said.
The top US diplomat accused the Kremlin of “a full-throated effort to actively sabotage the democratic effort.”
“Russia has put its faith in distraction, deception, and destabilization,” he said, adding, “For seven days Russia has refused to take a single concrete step in the right direction.”
Tensions between Russia and the West heightened after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and became part of the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16.
Meanwhile, protests have been a common scene across eastern Ukrainian cities over the past weeks with demonstrators occupying state buildings in several towns and cities.
On April 17, Ukraine’s interim government together with the United States, Russia and the European Union reached an agreement in the Swiss city of Geneva, calling for all sides to ease the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine interim authorities in Kiev said on Friday that army units have begun the second phase of an operation to drive out pro-Russia activists from the eastern cities.
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Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:47 PM PDT

Moscow’s refusal to acquiesce to NATO over Ukraine signals new cold war.
Top diplomat Christopher R. Hill says that Russia’s response to the Ukraine crisis means that Moscow has betrayed the “new world order” it has been a part of for the last 25 years.
In a piece for the influential Project Syndicate publication, Hill, a former US ambassador to Iraq and Korea, writes that Russia’s annexation of Crimea and “intimidation” campaign against Kiev has brought an end to a 25-year historical period, accusing Moscow of engaging in “regression, recidivism, and revanchism”.
Hill’s definition of the “new world order” is Russia’s post-Glasnost involvement in “Western institutions, a market economy, and a multi-party parliamentary democracy.”
“This new world order held for almost 25 years. Except for Russia’s brief war with Georgia in August 2008 (a conflict generally seen as instigated by reckless Georgian leadership), Russia’s acquiescence and commitment to the “new world order,” however problematic, was one of the great accomplishments of the post-Cold War era,” writes Hill.
Hill, who is an advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Group, a “global strategy company” with tentacles deep within the White House and the State Department, goes on to accuse Moscow of reviving the days of the Soviet empire, adding that, “Russia….no longer seems interested in what the West has been offering for the last 25 years: special status with NATO, a privileged relationship with the European Union, and partnership in international diplomatic endeavors.”
Arguing that western sanctions are unlikely to have any impact, Hill asserts that NATO should prepare itself for the long haul, warning that Russia “will seek to make similar trouble among former Soviet “allies,” invoking the German invasion of Poland in 1939 to suggest that Moscow may launch aggression against other eastern European nations.
Hill’s assertion that Russia has turned its back on the “new world order” illustrates how Moscow is seeking to lead an alternate BRICS-aligned faction that will pose a major threat to the unipolar future envisaged by the United States and NATO.
In other words, whether Russia wants one or not, the western elite is digging in for a new Cold War and the world may be entering the most dangerous period of history since the Cuban missile crisis.
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Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:17 PM PDT
Ukraine’s Acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia
Ukraine acting foreign minister says Kiev is ready to fight Russian troops if Moscow deploys forces to the country.
“The Ukrainian people and Ukrainian army are ready to do this. Ukraine will confront Russia. We will defend our land. We will defend our territory,” the Associated Press quoted Andriy Deshchytsia as saying.
The Ukrainian official was reacting to Russia’s plan to launch military exercises along its border with Ukraine after at least five pro-Russian protesters were killed in eastern Ukraine.
Deshchytsia said the planned drill “very much escalates the situation in the region,” adding, “We will now fight with Russian troops if…they invade Ukraine.”
Deshchytsia also called on the European Union to impose fresh sanctions on Russia.
Ukraine said on Friday that it has launched the second phase of an operation to drive out pro-Russia activists from the country’s eastern cities.
Acting Head of Presidential Administration of Ukraine Serhiy Pashynsky said the second stage of the operation has kicked off in the city of Slavyansk, which is held by protesters.
The first stage of the operation began on Thursday, when Ukrainian troops entered the eastern city, killing at least five pro-Russia protesters.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced Kiev’s operations in the eastern part of the country as a “bloody crime,” saying the Ukrainian government is waging a war on its own people.
On April 17, Ukraine’s interim government together with the United States, Russia and the European Union reached an agreement in the Swiss city of Geneva, calling for all sides to ease the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine, where protesters keep occupying state buildings in several towns and cities.
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Posted: 25 Apr 2014 09:21 AM PDT

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed a new law into effect – nicknamed the “guns everywhere bill” – that allows individuals to carry weapons into bars, schools, and even some churches and government buildings.
Officially titled the “Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014,” the bill easily sailed through the state legislature and was signed by Deal on Wednesday. The bill doesn’t officially go into effect until July 1, but it will permit those with gun licenses to carry weapons into numerous public spaces, even parts of the airport – which, in Atlanta, is the busiest in the US.
If a bar owner does not want to allow guns into their establishment, they will have the ability to “opt out” – a change from previous law which stated bars had to “opt in” to permit firearms. Meanwhile, church leaders who don’t mind having visitors enter with weapons will be able to opt in as well.
“Our state has some of the best protections for gun owners in the United States,” Deal said as he signed the bill, according to USA Today. “And today we strengthen those rights protected by our nation’s most revered founding document.
“People who follow the rules can protect themselves and their families from people who don’t follow the rules,” he added. “The Second Amendment should never be an afterthought. It should reside at the forefronts of our minds.”
The bill was supported by gun-rights activists and the National Rifle Association, which called it “the most comprehensive pro-gun reform legislation introduced in recent history.”
Opponents like the gun-control group Americans for Responsible Solutions, however, called the bill the most extreme gun law in the United States, claiming it “moves Georgia out of the mainstream.”
“Among its many extreme provisions, it allows guns in TSA lines at the country’s busiest airport, forces community school boards into bitter, divisive debates about whether they should allow guns in their children’s classrooms, and broadens the conceal carry eligibility to people who have previously committed crimes with guns,” ARS senior advisor Pia Carusone told CNN.
Other groups oppose the fact that the bill will let people carry firearms into government buildings that don’t feature security measures like metal detectors. This includes public libraries, city halls, recreational centers, and fire stations. Notably, guns will still not be allowed at the state Capitol.
The bill also removes obstacles previously put in place to keep those convicted of select misdemeanors from acquiring gun permits. This detail was opposed by law enforcement agencies, which will not be allowed to detain individuals “for the sole purpose of investigating whether such a person has a weapons carry license.”
Speaking with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Deal defended the bill, arguing that the more controversial aspects were dropped – including a provision that would have allowed guns on campuses across the state.
“There are always opportunities for people to use any piece of legislation as a political tool if they don’t like it,” he said. “But there was bipartisan support for the bill. The main story that should come out of it is the final product is significantly different from earlier versions.”
Still, at least one church leader in Georgia – Rev. Raphael Warnock – seemed perplexed by the law, telling CNN, “No one asked for this bill but the gun lobby, and still, we’re here.” He noted that the majority of the churches in the state are trying to deal with issues like education and healthcare, not guns.
“I don’t know of a single pastor in the state of Georgia who has been lobbying to have guns brought into their churches,” he said. “When we say pass the peace, we mean P-E-A-C-E, not the P-I-E-C-E.”
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 19:34