Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Monday, 1 September 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 31 Aug 2014 05:56 AM PDT

Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) say that a second, separate outbreak of the deadly virus has occurred in the country. Meanwhile, a Liberian doctor treated with an experimental serum against the illness has passed away.
DRC Health Minister Felix Numbi said that two of eight people who died from a “hemorrhagic fever” last week have been diagnosed with a strain of the disease in postmortem lab tests. The death toll of the sudden epidemic in the country’s Equateur province has reached 13 in total.
“This epidemic has nothing to do with the one in West Africa,” said Numbi. “The experience acquired during the six previous epidemics of Ebola will contribute to the containing of this illness.”
DRC, then Zaire, was where the virus, which eventually kills patients by literally liquefying their organs, was first discovered in 1976. Numbi said that medical cordons have been erected around the town of Gera, where the patients were identified.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1,400 people have died in the current West Africa outbreak, which may have started as far back as 2013 – more than the entire death toll of all the previous recognized epidemics put together. A report from the WHO last week said that the actual number of those infected, which stands at over 2,600, is likely to have been substantially underestimated.
In the meantime, one of a handful of people to be treated with the experimental ZMapp serum has died.
The Liberian Abrahim Borbor, a senior doctor at the Monrovia JFK hospital where dozens of staff have been infected, deceased on Monday. He was one of three Africans treated with the US-made pharmaceutical substance, but the fate of the others remains unknown.
Previously, ZMapp was hailed as a potential cure for the illness, after two American missionaries beat Ebola, which has a 47 percent survival rate, after being given the drug. A 75-year-old Spanish priest treated with ZMapp died last week.
While the success rate seems to give lie to the idea that it is a catch-all wonder drug, further live experiments are not imminent, as the drug manufacturer, Mapp, says it cannot produce more portions of the serum for months.
On Monday, Japanese company Toyama Chemical offered its own alternative antidote to the viral illness, a new anti-flu drug favipiravir. The WHO has encouraged manufacturers to re-purpose existing drugs to fight Ebola, and the Japanese pharmaceuticals makers, which is a subsidiary of Fujifilm, says that it is in possession of sufficient stocks to treat at least 20,000 patients.
Conversely, the efficaciousness of favipiravir depends on the similarities between the biological spread mechanisms of flu and Ebola and previous trials on mice, but no certified research on humans.
Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, which have borne the brunt of the infection, continue to be subject to border closures and flight cancellations from their African neighbors. In theory, the measures are introduced to impede the spread of Ebola, but, on Monday, David Nabarro, the UN official in charge of fighting the disease in Africa, said that the cancellations made his job “a whole lot harder.”
Nabarro predicted it will take another six months for the epidemic to subside.
The UN says that the reasons for why the disease continues to flourish concern both doctors and patients in West Africa. Relatives of those infected hide them or claim other illnesses to avoid being shunned, and refuse to transport Ebola victims to hospitals, fearing that they are “incubators” of disease. Many also practice burial rites that propagate the disease.
The doctors and nurses – more than 240 of whom have been diagnosed with the disease – suffer from shortages of gloves, masks and other protective equipment, and also forego safety procedures when dealing with patients, largely due to the fact that they had not been previously exposed to the illness, which had never been found in the region before.
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Posted: 31 Aug 2014 05:35 AM PDT
This US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) artists rendering shows the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2).
Technical complication has resulted in the termination of a mission to test a US hypersonic weapon and the destruction of the weapon itself.
The weapon, known as the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, which was developed by Sandia National Laboratory and the US Army, is part of a program to create a missile that will destroy targets anywhere on Earth within an hour of getting data and permission to launch.
“We had to terminate,” said Maureen Schumann, a spokeswoman for the US Defense Department. “The weapon exploded during takeoff and fell back down in the range complex,” she added.
She said the mission was aborted to ensure public safety, and no one was injured in the incident.
Some have described the US program as part of an arms race with China, which tested a hypersonic system in January.
James Acton, a defense analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said, “I believe the US program is significantly more sophisticated than the Chinese program.”
However, Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said, “The United States has never assumed that these … are going to be systems that you can use against a power like China by themselves.”
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Posted: 31 Aug 2014 04:58 AM PDT

Advisory arrives from kingdom after it financed the terror caliphate.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Muslim in the world, is warning IS, formerly ISIS, will soon attack the United States.
“If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month,” he told Asharq al-Awsat daily and Saudi-owned pan-Arab Al-Arabiya television on Saturday.
“Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East,” he added.
“It is no secret to you, what they have done and what they have yet to do. I ask you to transmit this message to your leaders: ‘Fight terrorism with force, reason and (necessary) speed’.”
ISIS and its predecessor, al-Qaeda, were financed by Saudi Arabia. The Saudis routinely denounce the terrorist groups they finance after the groups gain international notoriety.
The Saudis are now engaged in a propaganda campaign designed to put distance between the monarchy and IS.
The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations issued a stern rebuttal after The Guardian said Saudi Arabia has been “funding the most intolerant brand of Islam” and the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia issued a statement condemning the Islamic State.
“Saudi Arabia has been a major source of financing to rebel and terrorist organizations since the 1970s, thanks to the amount it has spent on spreading its puritan version of Islam, developed by Mohammed Abdul Wahhab in the 18th century,” writes Paul Vallely for the Belfast Telegraph.
The former Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, has accused Saudi Arabia and the neighboring Wahhabist kingdom of Qatar of financing IS.
“I accuse them of inciting and encouraging the terrorist movements. I accuse them of supporting them politically and in the media, of supporting them with money and by buying weapons for them,” he told France 24 television in March.
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Posted: 31 Aug 2014 04:34 AM PDT
UN investigators conduct a probe about use of WMDs by militants in Syria.
Syrian opposition sources say a laptop seized from ISIL Takfiri terrorists contains a series of secret plans including hints at biological attacks.
The laptop was recovered during a raid on an ISIL hideout in Idlib Province close to Turkey’s border.
A commander in a rival anti-government group in Syria has told American magazine, Foreign Policy, that the computer belonging to a Tunisian militant, contained thousands of secret files in French, English, and Arabic.
It also contained lessons on disguise, bomb-making, stealing cars as well as ideological justifications for militancy, the commander added.
Western media reports say one of the documents included instructions on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals.
“The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge,” the 19-page document in Arabic stated.
The laptop also includes a 26-page fatwa (decree) by ISIL terrorist leaders on the use of weapons of mass destruction.
The Syrian government has accused foreign-sponsored militants of using chemical weapons three times, once near Aleppo, a second time near Damascus, and another time in Homs in recent years.
UN investigators said in May 2013 that they had found testimonies from victims and medical staff that show militants had used the nerve agent sarin in Syria.
Senior Syrian officials say Damascus is “genuinely worried” that Syria’s enemies could provide chemical weapons to armed groups “and then claim they had been used by the Syrian government.”
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
ISIL terrorists have been behind many of the deadly bomb attacks targeting both civilians and government institutions across Syria over the past three years.
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Posted: 31 Aug 2014 04:28 AM PDT

Ukraine’s bid for closer ties with the west could come at a cost. With the IMF set to loan the country $17 billion, the deal could also see GMO crops grown in some of the most fertile lands on the continent, warns Frederic Mousseau.
Very few, not least the Ukrainian population are aware of these details, but according to Mousseau, who is a Policy Director at The Oakland Institute, in return for the cash, Ukraine could very well become a test ground for GMO crops in Europe, something the rest of the European Union has been looking to prevent. RT caught up with the Frenchman, who voiced his concerns at what may lay ahead.
RT: When this $17 billion deal is approved by the IMF and the Ukrainian ban on GM crops is lifted, does that mean it is just a matter of time before Ukrainian farmers grow modified crops?
Frederic Mousseau: This is very likely because there is a lot of pressure from the bio-technological industry, such as Monsanto, to have these approved in Ukraine. It is also part of the EU Association Agreement, which has a particular article which calls for the expansion of bio-technology and GMOs in Ukraine.
RT: If it was one of the pre-conditions of the multi-billion dollar loan, do you think it is fair to say that Monsanto has considerable influence over the IMF and the World Bank and even dictates terms to them?
FM: We saw in 2013 that Monsanto invested $140 million in new seed plans in Ukraine. It is clearly the bread basket of Europe and it is a key target for a company like Monsanto, which sees this huge potential for production and this huge market. Europe has been quite resistant in allowing GMOs, but if they are successful in Ukraine then there might be a domino effect in Europe.
RT: Was it a coincidence or a pre-planned action back in December 2013, when the ban on GM goods was lifted in Ukraine, just weeks before the IMF was supposed to give that country a loan?
FM: It can’t be a coincidence because we have seen a very strong mobilization of the industry and the agro business in lobbying the government and the EU to have these changes in the legislation. Also we have seen this investment coming in prior to any adoption of GMOs. So clearly this pressure was there and to have such a clause in the EU Association Agreement means that the lobbyists in the industry must have been at work for months before that.
RT: The president of the US-Ukraine Business Council has said that it is necessary to get the Ukrainian government out of the agriculture business and transform it into a private sector industry. Can we say that America has set its sights on the vast fields that could be a gold mine for agriculture?
FM: There are these seed businesses like Monsanto and pesticide companies, but there is also the land of Ukraine, which has so far been under the control of the Ukrainian government and has not been available for sale. There will be a big push to privatize this land and make it a valuable commodity, which can be acquired by foreign corporations. What we have seen in recent years is that even if the land could not be purchased, it has been leased on a massive scale. Already 1.6 million hectares have been acquired by foreign entities and it is very likely that if the reform programs continue, there will be more companies, more interest and they will be looking to strike deals for Ukrainian land.
RT: There is considerable anti-GMO sentiment around the world. If you take this into account, how beneficial would it be for Ukraine to rely on the US-based GMO crops industry?
FM: It comes as part of an agreement with the EU and we know that European citizens and farmers are against GMOs, but still we have a deal with the European Union, who have worked out a deal with Ukraine to expand the use of GMOs. It seems like it has been something that has been arranged by the lobbyists of corporations and the civil servants within the European Commission. We have seen all over the world that this is not beneficial for farmers, it is not beneficial to citizens. It is just in the interest of the corporations who are taking over control of seeds used by farmers around the world. The food that is produced does not become better or cheaper.
RT: How harmful potentially do you think growing GMO crops could be for those rich fertile Ukrainian soils?
FM: We have seen in the US, where GMO crops have been cultivated for a couple of decades now. We have concerns about the quality of soil because the use of GMOs comes with a high level of the use of fertilizers and this destroys a lot of the organic materials in the soils. There is also a very high risk of contamination for those farmers who choose not to use GMOs and we have seen this very clearly in North America where there has been a lot of contamination.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 16:51