Wednesday, 20 August 2014

The European Union Times

Completion of Australia’s largest solar plant at risk

Posted: 19 Aug 2014 02:49 PM PDT

Mildura Solar Power Station

Silex Systems, the company constructing Australia’s biggest solar plant, has suspended its funding following reports the national Renewable Energy Target (RET) could be scaled back or done away with altogether.
The 100-megawatt Mildura Solar Concentrator Power Station, a $70 million project in Victoria, was supposed to provide electricity to 40,000 homes. Now Silex Systems has said it is shelving the project.
“There are a number of factors, including low wholesale electricity prices and the uncertainty surrounding the Renewable Energy Target. They’re the two main factors,” ABC Radio quotes Michael Goldsworthy, the CEO of Silex Systems.
On Monday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott called for a government review of the RET which could go as far as removing the target completely. Initially the scheme was aimed at reaching 20 percent of all electricity coming from renewable sources by 2020.
The government is expected to cut back the RET scheme with Tony Abbott blaming it for pushing up power prices.
However research released on Monday by renewable energy advocates showed that power prices would rise if the RET was dismantled.
Moreover the report says that coal and gas generators will gain $10 billion in extra profits over the next 15 years, with carbon emissions rising significantly as a result.
The uncertainty over the RET is harming renewables said the Silex chief executive, but added that “concentrated photovoltaic technology has a strong future in delivering clean, low cost energy to supplement base load power in many suitable regions around the world.”
Source

US threatens Russia with military action over Ukraine

Posted: 19 Aug 2014 02:14 PM PDT

US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove has threatened Russia with military response should Moscow secretly send forces with or without military uniform into Ukraine.
“If NATO sees foreign forces infiltrating its sovereign territory, and if we can prove it comes from an aggressor nation then that’s Article five,” Gen. Breedlove said.
“That means a military response to the actions of the aggressor. Therefore, we have to expand the internal national capabilities to identify such a move and to deal with it.”
The top military commander of NATO and commander of US European Command issued the warning in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt.
He also noted that NATO must take into account Russian actions in Ukraine as it prepares for future threats.
Washington accuses Moscow of arming pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine and dispatching Russian military personnel to the country. However, the Kremlin denied the allegation.
Gen. Breedlove said NATO must be ready to counter such unconventional tactics.
“The most important thing is that NATO nations are prepared for the so-called little green men,” he said. “We’ve seen this in eastern Ukraine … And there is a danger that it also could happen in other East European states. Therefore, we have to train the police and army there in such a way that they can deal with this kind of challenge.”
On Friday, the US warned Russia over what it calls “extremely dangerous and provocative” efforts to destabilize Ukraine.
The US National Security Council warned of an escalation in the crisis after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed that his military had destroyed a Russian military convoy that had ventured into Ukraine. Moscow has dismissed the allegation as “fantasies.”
“We reiterate our concern about repeated Russian and Russian-supported incursions into Ukraine,” NSC spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
“Russia has no right to send vehicles, persons, or cargo of any kind into Ukraine, under any pretext, without the government of Ukraine’s permission.”
Source

Morning After Pills Affects Eyesight

Posted: 19 Aug 2014 10:32 AM PDT

More than half of teens use the morning-after pill indiscriminately. The habit can increase the risk of glaucoma and other serious eye diseases, an expert warns. How many girls aged fifteen to nineteen years of age use this pill without realizing the dangers? Studies point towards a shocking trend among this age group.
Brazilian girls 15-19 years old may not know how the morning-after pill works, but 60% have already taken it. The majority, 60%, made indiscriminate use, taking it along with monthly contraceptives. This is revealed in the recent survey released by the nursing faculty at USP – Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
According to the Penido Burnier Institute’s ophthalmologist, Leôncio Queiroz Neto, the recommendation of the WHO (World Health Organization) is just to use the morning-after pill for emergency, never more than once a month and not mixing with other contraceptives. “Taking another contraceptive greatly increases the hormone levels in the bloodstream and causes serious health problems that interfere with vision,” he says.
Just to give you an idea, the morning-after pill single dose is 1.5 mg of levonorgestrel, a derivative of progesterone that in this dosage is equivalent to half of a monthly pill dosage. In women, he comments, sex hormones have a direct relationship with glaucoma. Other systemic changes potentiated by the indiscriminate use of the morning-after pill that interfere with eye health are: water retention, hypertension and thrombosis.
Doubled risk
The expert points out that a recent study released by AAO (American Academy of Ophthalmology) shows that the use of contraceptives for 3 consecutive years doubles the risk of developing glaucoma. He explains that this is because the hormonal reflux can interfere with the drainage of aqueous humor and increasing the pressure inside the eye that characterizes primary open-angle glaucoma.
This does not mean that every woman who takes birth control pills will have glaucoma because the disease is multifactorial, he says. Although the outcome of the study is not conclusive, the recommendation is to make the AAO annual eye examination from age 40, regardless of the type of contraceptive used.
To Queiroz Neto, the girls who indiscriminately use the morning-after pill are at higher risk of glaucoma because of the high amount of this hormone in the contraceptive. He says that 80% of people only discover when the disease has already had significant loss of visual field or peripheral vision. Other factors that indicate a tendency to glaucoma are cases in the family, Afro-American race, obesity and high myopia. The treatment is made with eye drops that lower the pressure. The lack of adherence to treatment of the disease is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.
Other diseases
Queiroz Neto says that water retention causes widespread swelling, including eye neostructures. Therefore, although less common, in people who have kidney failure the angle between the cornea and the iris can close, causing a crisis of primary angle closure glaucoma. It is a medical emergency that has symptoms like severe pain around the eyes, severe and permanent impairment of vision, nausea and vomiting.
The doctor emphasizes that hypertension and thrombosis often triggered by contraceptives may cause other serious eye diseases. The main ones are:

Vitreous hemorrhage when neovessels affect the vitreous, transparent, gelatinous substance that fills the eyeball, causing sudden blockage of vision.
Retinal detachment caused by vitreous traction separating the layers of the retina leading to flashes of light and dark spots in the field of vision. Surgical treatment should be started immediately to prevent vision loss.
Neovascular glaucoma resulting from the formation of new vessels in the iris that can increase intraocular pressure and result in vision loss.

To protect the health, the expert recommends to only take the pill under medical supervision and undergo ophthalmologic examination at least every two years.
Source

Ebola death toll rises to 1229 in West Africa

Posted: 19 Aug 2014 10:19 AM PDT

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the number of deaths from the Ebola outbreak in four West African nations has climbed to 1,229.
The UN health agency said on Tuesday that death toll jumped between August 14 and 16, the period which registered 113 new cases.
Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders says the Ebola epidemic is moving faster than authorities can handle and it could take six months to bring under control.
On Monday, the WHO called on the affected countries to carry out exit screenings of travelers at international airports, seaports and major land crossings.
There is currently no known cure for Ebola, which is a form of hemorrhagic fever with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding as its symptoms.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are grappling with Ebola, which has also spread to Nigeria. The virus can be transmitted through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat.
But some people from other parts of the world, including the United States, have also contracted Ebola after visiting the West African nations.
The transmission of the virus can happen through sexual contact or unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.
Ebola was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976 in an outbreak that killed 280 people.
It remains one of the world’s most virulent diseases, which kills between 25 to 90 percent of those who fall sick.
Source

Red Cross takes over Russia’s humanitarian aid for Ukraine

Posted: 19 Aug 2014 10:15 AM PDT

Russian humanitarian aid trucks will cross the Ukrainian border in small batches of several dozen vehicles and only after a thorough examination by border guards, Kiev says, following an official acknowledgment of 280 trucks carrying crisis-relief cargo.
“The cargo, in agreement with the mission of the Red Cross, will be delivered to the international crossing point of Izvarino-Donetsk in batches of up to 30 vehicles,” the head of the Ukrainian State Fiscal Service Anatoliy Makarenko was quoted as saying by LB.ua.
After clearing customs, the aid trucks will be transferred “only to official representatives of the Red Cross,” Makarenko added.
The Red Cross is expected to arrive at the border crossing on Monday to perform the necessary procedures.
Currently, only 16 trucks from the humanitarian convoy are at the “Donetsk” border checkpoint on the Russian side, awaiting inspection, while the rest are still parked at a local depot in order to avoid jamming the border crossing.
In total, Russia moved over 270 trucks with almost 1,800 tons of medical supplies, food, including baby food, sleeping bags and other basic necessities towards Ukraine’s border last Tuesday. But the cargo still has not reached the residents of the regions badly hit by the conflict, even after Kiev recognized the Russian convoy as humanitarian aid cargo of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Meanwhile, the German foreign minister stated that he supports the sending of Russian humanitarian aid to the region and hoped that during the talks “the final difficulties could be cleared.”
“It would be nice if this [Russian] cargo could be delivered to where it is urgently need – in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, as well as in other cities of Ukraine,” he said, as the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France met in Berlin for a second round of talks in search of a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Saturday it was ready to take the aid shipment under its jurisdiction.
“All the parties involved should come to an agreement about conditions for the convoy to cross the territory of Ukraine, and ICRC staff should be guaranteed security as the Red Cross does not have its [own] armed guard,” ICRC’s spokeswoman Galina Balzamova told reporters.
Source