Friday, 25 July 2014

The European Union Times

Giant sinkhole in Russia’s north puzzles scientists

Posted: 23 Jul 2014 01:06 PM PDT

Russian scientists conducted a primary examination of the giant sinkhole in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. The video of the bizarre hole on YouTube has received more than two million views in several days. As a result of the examination, the scientists concluded that the crater was of natural origin and did not appear either as a result of a manmade impact or the fall of a meteorite, the website of the regional government said.
There was no dangerous radiation detected on the site of the giant sinkhole. The scientists, who arrived to examine the sinkhole on the instructions of the regional governor Dmitry Kobylkin, said that the sinkhole appeared “as a result of a natural phenomenon, the nature of which is impossible to establish yet,” the report said.
“There is no terrestrial impact here, – Marina Leibman, a member of the scientific mission, chief researcher at the Institute of Earth’s Cryosphere said. – A careful examination showed that there was no trace of human presence on the site of the object. Assumptions about a hot meteorite are also groundless, otherwise, there would have been traces of charred rock,” the specialist said.
“On this site, there was a release of material from insides of the earth, – the scientist said. – I do not think that it was accompanied with an explosion, because in this case, high temperatures would have been required. This is purely a mechanical ejection, which most likely occurred due to increased pressure at the time, when some sort of a cavity was freezing and changing. Most likely, the cavity was filled with swamp gas.”
The diameter of the inner edge of the crater is about 40 meters, and 60 meters on the outside. Fragments of rock were scattered as a result of the emission on the square of 120 meters, senior researcher of the Scientific Research Center of the Arctic, Andrei Plekhanov said.
To accurately determine the depth of the hole, one needs to resort to the help of professional climbers, said the specialist, noting that approaching the edge of the sinkhole was dangerous as the edges constantly crumble.
Officials with the press service of the governor also rejected the versions of manmade and meteorite impact. “Scientists believe that something burst there like a bubble,” the press service told Interfax.
“The scientists say that the sinkhole is absolutely safe for people and does not impede gas production in the region. In the vicinity of tens of kilometers, there are no industrial facilities,” officials added.
The video of the giant sinkhole appeared on the Internet on July 10. In the description to the video, its uploader, who shot the sinkhole while flying in a helicopter, said that it was formed 30 kilometers from Bovanensky deposit. According to the author of the video, the size of the sinkhole is so large that “one can descend into it on several Mi-8, without fearing to touch something.”
The video shows that the sinkhole is surrounded with vegetation. A closer look on the territory around the object shows rocks scattered around the sinkhole, as it usually happens during explosions. It was also said that there were no research or exploration works conducted in the area of the sinkhole.
Source

I’d fire rockets at Israel, if I lived in Gaza: British MP

Posted: 23 Jul 2014 12:43 PM PDT

A British lawmaker says he would fire rockets into Israel if he lived in the besieged Gaza Strip, which has faced a deadly Israeli offensive for over two weeks.
“The big question is – if I lived in Gaza would I fire a rocket? – probably yes,” Liberal Democrat member of parliament David Ward said in a message posted on Twitter on Tuesday.
He added in a follow-up message that the West should “make up its mind – which side is it on?”
The comments drew criticism from the Liberal Democrats, with some on social media calling on party leader Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to suspend Ward from the party.
“We utterly condemn David Ward’s comments, they are not representative of the Liberal Democrats,” the party also said in a statement, adding that it would take the matter “very seriously and will treat it as a disciplinary issue.”
Last July, Ward was suspended from his party for making anti-Israeli remarks.
“There will be a ceasefire, then there will be a period of calm,” he said in an interview with BBC Radio Leeds about the latest Israeli onslaught on Gaza, adding, “But during that period of calm when hopefully people are not being murdered, there will still be Palestinians who are being shot by the Israeli forces, they will still be beaten up, there will still be child detentions, that to the Israelis is peace.”
Israeli warplanes have been hitting numerous sites in the Gaza Strip, demolishing homes and burying families in the rubble since July 8. Israeli tanks also began a ground offensive against the impoverished Palestinian land on July 17.
More than 630 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Tel Aviv’s offensive so far.
Palestinian resistance fighters have also retaliated against the deadly Israeli attacks by firing a barrage of rockets deep into the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
Source

Russia to introduce new ‘solidarity’ tax on rich

Posted: 23 Jul 2014 12:38 PM PDT

State Duma deputies want to levy an additional tax on people with high personal incomes in order to finance the development of the new federation areas of Sevastopol and Crimea.
The motion has been prepared by a group of MPs led by the Andrey Krutov of the center-left Fair Russia party. At the moment the group is completing consultations with legal experts and the bill will be submitted to the Lower House in the fall, Krutov said in an interview with popular daily Izvestia.
The draft suggests that personal income tax for people making 12 million rubles (about $343,000) per year or more should be raised from the current 13 percent to 30 percent. The motion sponsors say the changes would touch about 0.2 percent of the “socially active” population, but deal with over a third of the combined personal income of all Russian citizens. If the bill is passed it will add from 300 to 500 billion rubles ($8.6–14.3 billion) to the state budget in the very first year, the MPs claim.
Russia’s Federal Target Program for development of the Crimea and Sevastopol needs about 790 billion rubles ($22 billion) of funding in the next five years.
“The new federation subjects – Crimea and Sevastopol – have been underfinanced for decades and right now the budget lacks the means necessary for investment. What we need is a complex solution of this problem – not a one-time withdrawal of money, like freezing the pension savings under the excuse of launching joint-stock pension funds or a universal increase in the tax burden. I am sure that our bill will get support from the majority of Russian people as well as from the government,” Krutov told reporters.
Russia has a flat income tax of 13 percent for all citizens, one of the lowest rates in the world. Government officials have repeatedly suggested to raise it, but never sought to introduce a progressive scale.
Earlier this year Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said income tax should be increased to 14 or 15 percent and also suggested an additional sales tax on all transactions. In late 2013 Deputy PM Arkady Dvorkovich suggested raising income tax to 15 percent and at the same time lower VAT from the current 18 percent to 15 percent, claiming that the move would boost business activity and help overcome economic stagnation.
Krutov opposed the plans in his interview saying the universal increase would hurt the poorest members of the population, and quoted the international experience which suggests levying additional taxes on the rich.
The MP suggested naming it the “solidarity tax” – following the example of Germany that introduced the 5.5 percent “solidarity surcharge” in 1991 in order to finance the infrastructure projects in the Eastern parts of the country. Italy, France and the Czech Republic also have similar taxes.
Source