Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday, 30 October 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 29 Oct 2014 03:43 PM PDT


As Ebola spreads further from its current epicenter in West Africa, American and British insurance companies have started to adjust their standard policies for hospitals and other vulnerable businesses to exclude the virus.
According to insurance industry insiders, companies needing to insure business travel to West Africa or to cover losses following a quarantine may now deal with revamped policies that will likely increase in price based on the latest Ebola outbreak, which has killed nearly 5,000 people in West African countries like Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
“What underwriters are doing at the moment is they’re generally providing quotes either excluding or including Ebola and it’s much more expensive if Ebola is included,” Gary Flynn, an event cancellation broker at London’s Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Plc, told Reuters.
Ebola has had less impact on liability insurance. For instance, in the US, policies that cover the likes of worker’s compensation claims are regulated on the state level. Thus, Ebola exclusions are not likely, according to Reuters.
Property and casualty insurers, though, have more at stake and are taking into account the possibilities of heightened Ebola infections.
ACE Ltd told Reuters that its global casualty unit, used for US companies to insure employees who travel abroad, was excluding Ebola on a “case-by-case basis” while underwriting new policies and renewals for some clients with operations in Africa, since there is a “potentially higher risk exposure.”
“Business interruption” may be getting the most attention, according to Tony DeFelice, managing director of Aon Risk Solutions’ national casualty practice in the US. Such interruptions include possible loss of employees to illness, or quarantine of an airliner or cruise ship due to a case of suspected Ebola or other sickness.
Special policies are being introduced to adequately address Ebola-era business interruption (BI) claims, as those are only triggered with direct physical damage to property, according to insurance broker Marsh.
“This means that without special provisions for example, manuscripted wording to broaden coverage healthcare providers’ property insurance and BI policies would likely not be triggered based solely on the presence of Ebola,” Marsh said this month.
Meanwhile, Miller Insurance Services LLP and William Gallagher Associates have worked with Lloyd’s of London underwriter Ark Syndicate to launch the first product to insure Ebola-stricken hospitals that may incur losses.
Another company, Aon PLC, has created an “Ebola task force” to monitor how the virus is or is not spreading in order to help clients prepare for risks.
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Posted: 29 Oct 2014 03:12 PM PDT
The Dimona nuclear weapons production facility in Israel
A new federal lawsuit in the United States seeks immediate release of a government report about how American charities contribute to Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program.
The Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy has filed a lawsuit in the DC District Court to obtain an unclassified study conducted in 1987 for the Pentagon titled “Current Technology Issues in Israel.”
The closely-held report named three institutions, Israel’s Weizmann Institute, Technion University, and Hebrew University, which raise “substantial tax-exempt charitable funding through affiliates in the United States.”
The study discovered that Technion University technicians were involved in developing nuclear missile re-entry vehicles and were working at Israel’s Dimona nuclear weapons plant.
Computer scientists at the American Friends of the Hebrew University, working at the Soreq nuclear facilities in Israel were also “developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs,” according to the suit.
In addition, the American branch of Israel’s Weizmann Institute “studied high energy physics and hydrodynamics needed for nuclear bomb design, and worked on lasers to enrich uranium, the most advanced method for making the material dropped on Hiroshima in 1945,” said sources familiar with the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also aims at ensuring the enforcement of the Symington and Glenn Amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibit US foreign aid to nuclear powers that are not signatories to nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Israel has never allowed any inspection of its nuclear facilities and continues to defy international calls to join the NPT.
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Posted: 29 Oct 2014 11:58 AM PDT

Ebola spreads through coughing and sneezing much like influenza, which most experts agree is spread “mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk,” according to documents by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A new CDC flyer describing the “droplet spread” of Ebola, which “happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick person,” is nearly identical to the CDC’s description of influenza which states “most experts think that flu viruses are spread mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk.”
“Droplet spread happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick person enter the eyes, nose, or mouth of another person,” the CDC Ebola flyer states, which was released on Monday. “Droplets travel short distances, less than 3 feet (1 meter) from one person to another. A person might also get infected by touching a surface or object that has germs on it and then touching their mouth or nose.”
“Droplet spread diseases include: plague, Ebola.”

Similarly, on a web page entitled “How Flu Spreads”, the CDC reveals the droplet spread of the flu is very similar to that of Ebola.
“Most experts think that flu viruses are spread mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk,” the CDC states. “These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.”
“Less often, a person might also get flu by touching a surface or object that has flu virus on it and then touching their own mouth or nose.”


So, in summary, the droplet spread of Ebola is almost identical to that of influenza, according to the CDC, which also released new guidelines on Monday stating that people are at risk for contracting Ebola if they are “in the same room for a brief period of time” with an Ebola patient.
“The new guidelines also list ‘fatigue’ as a potential Ebola symptom, while individuals who had direct contact (such as a hand shake) with an Ebola victim prior to symptom onset in the victim are also now considered a risk, suggesting that the CDC is entertaining the possibility that the virus can be transmitted even from victims who have yet to display symptoms,” Paul Joseph Watson wrote.
And it’s interesting to note the CDC’s “How Flu Spreads” web page also states “you may be able to pass on the flu to someone else before you know you are sick.”
U.S. Army scientists demonstrated that the airborne transmission of Ebola was possible “at lower temperature and humidity than that normally present in sub-Saharan Africa” in a 1995 study, and they said the high temperatures and humidity present in Africa “may have been a factor limiting aerosol transmission of Ebola virus in the African epidemics.”
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Posted: 29 Oct 2014 11:46 AM PDT


The Spanish government has taken the first steps to block Catalonia’s new vote on independence which is scheduled for next month.
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy requested the Council of State’s opinion on Catalonia’s “consultation of citizens,” which the region intends to hold next month instead of a full independence referendum.
On October 15, Catalan regional president Artur Mas said the planned referendum had to be canceled but a “consultation of citizens” would take place on the same day, November 9.
According to a statement released on the Spanish president’s website, Rajoy requested that the council issue its ruling as a matter of emergency so a decision could be reached to be presented at the upcoming cabinet meeting.
Rajoy is set to preside over an emergency cabinet meeting over Catalonia after returning from a trip to China.
The full independence referendum was reportedly cancelled due to a lack of legal guarantees.
The majority of the 7.6 million people living in Catalonia have been pushing for a vote on whether to break away from Spain as they are increasingly resentful of their treatment by Madrid.
In recent years, a series of demonstrations have been held in different parts of the country to demand self-determination for Catalonia as well as end to redistribution of the region’s taxes to other areas.
The independence bid has been fuelled by country’s economic crisis and Madrid’s refusal to meet regional demands for more autonomy.
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Posted: 29 Oct 2014 11:42 AM PDT


US-Israeli relations have sunk to new lows after Obama administration officials were cited calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “chickenshit” and “coward” engaging in political posturing, instead of efforts at Middle-Eastern de-escalation.
The comments were delivered in a conversation with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg on condition of anonymity. To many they symbolize the next step in a “full-blown crisis” of relations between the two, primarily over Netanyahu’s relentless settlement-building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and the Iranian nuclear issue.
“The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” said one official, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. “The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars. The bad thing about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states,” he continued.
Goldberg keeps a running list of all the things US officials have ever called Netanyahu in interviews, and it’s not small. “Aspergery” popped up, among other things. But it is the first time high-ranking officials have expressed their views of the Israeli leader in such a “gloves-off manner.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will not halt construction of 1,000 new housing units, which are considered illegal under international law, when built beyond the established 1967 ‘green line.’
Similarly, the Israeli leader is opposed to making any deals with Iran, and has recently warned in another conversation with The Atlantic that he intends to speak directly to Congress and to the American people, because President Barack Obama is unwilling to recognize his stance.
One of the officials interviewed by Goldberg voiced a “red-hot anger” at the Israeli leader for what he sees as severely undermining the peace initiative that Secretary of State John Kerry was so meticulously trying to build.
The other continued: “The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat. He’s not [Yitzhak] Rabin, he’s not [Ariel] Sharon, he’s certainly no [Menachem] Begin. He’s got no guts.”
Goldberg did not elaborate when exactly he recorded the interviews, only that they were done “the other day”.
“Netanyahu’s government has in recent days gone out of its way to a) let the world know that it will quicken the pace of apartment-building in disputed areas of East Jerusalem; and b) let everyone know of its contempt for the Obama administration and its understanding of the Middle East,” Goldberg says, explaining his own view on things.
Netanyahu reacts: ‘I get attacked because I defend the State of Israel’
The Israeli PM addressed the remarks directly, though usually Israeli leaders do not respond to comments made anonymously.
“Our supreme interests, chiefly the security and unity of Jerusalem, are not the main concern of those anonymous officials who attack us and me personally, as the assault on me comes only because I defend the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said in opening a memorial ceremony in parliament for an Israeli cabinet minister assassinated by a Palestinian in 2001.
“Despite all of the attacks I suffer, I will continue to defend our country. I will continue to defend the citizens of Israel,” he added.
Earlier promises by Netanyahu to strike Iran if it doesn’t stop enriching uranium have had everyone in fear of a new world war, but, as one official in the interview said, “it’s too late for him to do anything… two, three years ago, this was a possibility. But ultimately he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. It was a combination of our pressure and his own unwillingness to do anything dramatic. Now it’s too late.”
This mood is shared by other US officials, who, according to the interviewees, feel much easier about negotiating with Iran now that they think Netanyahu won’t carry out his strike threat.
These latest comments are part of the tit-for-tat opinion-trading that has been resounding over contentious issues, and have already aroused the criticism of the Israelis – most notably, the pro-settler Jewish Home party leader, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who insisted that “serious curses such as these towards the prime minister of Israel are harmful to millions of Israeli citizens and Jews around the world.”
“If what was written is true, the current government is planning to throw Israel under the wheels of the bus. I call for the US government to renounce these provocative insults and reject them out of hand,” he said, as cited by The Guardian.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 18:43