Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Monday 16 March 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 15 Mar 2015 03:57 PM PDT


The genome of humans and other complex animals contains essential “foreign” segments of genetic code, new study says.
The research, which cast doubt on the theory that evolution is exclusively a process of selection through ancestry, was published on Friday in the journal Genome Biology.
Initially, it was thought that complex animals’ genes were solely inherited through parents, but the study proposes that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is still ongoing between microorganisms and more complicated creatures.
“This is the first study to show how widely horizontal gene transfer (HGT) occurs in animals, including humans, giving rise to tens or hundreds of active ‘foreign’ genes. Surprisingly, far from being a rare occurrence, it appears that HGT has contributed to the evolution of many, perhaps all, animals and that the process is ongoing, meaning that we may need to re-evaluate how we think about evolution,” said Lead author Alastair Crisp from the University of Cambridge.
During HGT, genes from various organisms living in the same environment are transferred to others through the process, which is widely carried out between single-celled life forms such as bacteria or algae and is thought to hold a key role in phenomena such as bacterial resistance to antibiotics.
During the research, the genomes of 12 fruit fly species, four nematode worm species, and ten species of primate, including humans, were analyzed and then the results were compared to find similarities to discover the likeliness of a certain gene acquired via HGT and how long ago this occurred.
The research unveiled 128 new foreign genes and confirmed that 17 formerly reported ones were acquired through HGT from bacteria, viruses and fungi in humans. Some of which have key roles in the human genome, such as in metabolism and digestion, and the immune responses.
“This means that the tree of life isn’t the stereotypical tree with perfectly branching lineages. In reality, it’s more like one of those Amazonian strangler figs where the roots are all tangled and crossing back across each other,” Crisp added.
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Posted: 15 Mar 2015 03:48 PM PDT


Ukraine has concluded deals with eleven countries of the EU on delivery of weapons, including lethal, President Petro Poroshenko told the country’s TV. He, however, didn’t mention which countries will provide ‘defensive aid’ to Kiev.
“The Head of State has informed that Ukraine had contracts with a series of the EU countries on the supply of armament, inter alia, lethal one. He has reminded that official embargo of the EU on the supply of weapons to Ukraine had been abolished,” said a statement on Poroshenko’s official website, citing his interview to the TV channel “1+1″.
According to Poroshenko’s statement, he is confident that EU and USA will support Ukraine with weapons if needed.
“If there is a new round of aggression against Ukraine, I can surely say that we will immediately receive both lethal weaponry and new wave of sanctions against the aggressor. We will act firmly and in a coordinated manner.”
Ukraine won’t reduce its defense capacity, said Poroshenko, adding that now “intensive combat training is being held” in the country.
“We are mining the most dangerous tank directions and building engineering structures under the new plan and projects.”
The statement said that the decision of the US President Barack Obama “who decided to supply Kiev with defensive weaponry” is crucial.
“This armament will increase preciseness and efficiency of the Ukrainian weapons. In addition, thermal imagers and radars that detect motion help counteract reconnaissance and subversive groups of the opponent.”
The Ukrainian leader said the situation in Donetsk and Lugansk Regions is being gradually deescalated, adding that the Ukrainian army hasn’t suffered casualties for several days.
In the meantime, the head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic, Igor Plotnitsky, said he doesn’t understand why Kiev is planning to buy weapons while the country is seeing a peaceful process. He was referring to a peace deal which was struck between the Ukrainian government and the rebels in the south-east of the country in Belarusian capital Minsk on February 12, after almost a year of fighting.
“We have a question: why do they [Kiev authorities] want weapons if they were the first to demand peace?” Plotnitsky asked.
On Wednesday US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that Washington was to send Kiev more non-lethal military aid, including drones and armored Humvees.
“We are today providing immediately some $75 million of additional non-lethal assistance, immediately, to Ukraine in order to help them in non-lethal assistance,” Kerry told the Senate.
The US also announced earlier in March that they were planning to send about 300 military advisors to train the Ukrainian army from March through October.
Washington is not the only state which openly announced military aid to Ukraine. The UK said that it will send 75 British military personnel in March who will offer medical, intelligence and infantry training to the Ukrainian army. Poland has also said it is sending military advisors to Ukraine.
However, not all countries share the enthusiasm. America’s NATO allies, namely France and Germany, have spoken against arming Ukraine, a move that could shatter the fragile peace that have just settled in the country torn by a civil war.
Germany has been one of the most vocal critics of sending arms to Ukraine and now the country’s officials question NATO’s assessment of the situation in the country.
The armed conflict in Ukraine’s south-east began in April 2014, after Kiev sent its military to the area, as locals refused to recognize the new coup-imposed authorities in the capital. The fighting has seen over 6,000 killed and nearly 15,000 injured, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
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Posted: 15 Mar 2015 03:39 PM PDT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech to his supporters during an election campaign meeting in the Israeli Mediterranean coastal city of Netanya on March 11, 2015.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the West, particularly the Scandinavian governments, of plotting to remove him from power.
“Scandinavian governments have spent millions of dollars on a campaign to remove me from power,” Netanyahu told Israel’s Kol radio station on Sunday.
The Israeli premier further said Western governments, mostly Scandinavians, prefer his opponents to win the regime’s upcoming parliamentary election.
The relations between Israel and Scandinavian governments have recently soured. In October 2014, Sweden became the first EU country to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.
Following Sweden’s decision, Israel’s Ambassador to Stockholm, Isaac Bachman was recalled.
Netanyahu’s comments come just two days before Israel’s parliamentary election as his Likud Party is facing a tough challenge against competitors.
An opinion survey on March 10 revealed that the opposition Zionist Union is edging Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party in the March 17 elections.
The poll conducted by Israeli research institute, Panel Politics, found that Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union, which identifies itself as center-leftist, could earn 24 seats against Likud’s 21 projected seats in the Knesset (Israeli parliament).
Earlier on Thursday, Netanyahu acknowledged that his Likud party risks losing the upcoming parliamentary elections.
“Our security is at great risk because there is a real danger that we could lose this election,” he said.
On March 7, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv to voice their anger at Netanyahu’s warmongering policies, calling on him to step down.
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Posted: 15 Mar 2015 03:34 PM PDT
UK traffic diverted through Ukraine included nuclear weapon maker AWE.
Sensitive data from around 170 major companies, including the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment and Lockheed Martin, might have be compromised after British Telecom web traffic was accidentally rerouted through Ukraine.
The hijacking of the companies took place over a 90-minute period Thursday, while many British Telecom customers experienced diverted traffic for five days, starting from Saturday, Dyn, Internet performance company, said in a report.
Several UK government bodies were affected by the problem, including the Royal Mail and the country’s Atomic Weapons Establishment, which is “responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent.”
Such companies as Wal-Mart, Lockheed Martin, Virgin Money, Marks and Spencer, Hitachi, Toshiba and others also saw their data rerouted.
It is impossible to tell if any information was lost or compromised, with the traffic flow over the networks most likely being encrypted.
According to Dyn, the sensitive data was put at risk as routing is based “entirely on trust, it’s relatively easy to commandeer IP address space that belongs to someone else.”
“Unnecessarily sending the data to Kiev may have made it possible for employees with privileged network access to Ukrainian telecom provider Vega to monitor or tamper with data that wasn’t encrypted end-to-end using strong cryptography,” Dan Goodin, Ars Technica Security editor, wrote on his blog.
The redirection was caused by a bad route announced by the Ukraine’s Vega telecom, Doug Madory, Dyn’s director of internet analysis, told Tech News Today website.
“At this point, I have to believe this was an innocent mistake by Vega, but it’s concerning nonetheless,” Madory said.
The traffic was rerouted through Vega due to the company being the sole reseller of British Telecom services in Ukraine since 2013.
It’s not the first time Dyn has discovered an instance of so-called “route hijacking” as company reported of data from Western network service providers and financial institutions being sent through Belarus and Iceland in 2013.
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Posted: 15 Mar 2015 09:12 AM PDT


A new report from the Federation Security Council (SCRF) on Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov’s [photo 1st right] recent private visit with President Barack Obama at the White House, in Washington D.C., grimly states that America’s leader has “privately advised” President Putin that a global war is nearing…and he “may be powerless to stop it”.
Director Bortnikov, it is important to remember, is in some Kremlin circles believed to be the third most powerful person in Russia after President Putin, along with being known as the Federations top counter intelligence commander.
As an agent of the Committee for State Security (KGB) since 1975, Director Bortnikov, over the past 40 years,ascended through the ranks of Russian intelligence and from 2004-2008 was head of the FSB’s Economic Security Service and a Deputy Director of FSB, after which he became the Director on 12 May 2008.
Reports of Director Bortnikov’s travels to meet President Obama a few weeks ago, it is interesting to note, did not emerge until the FSB published a press release announcing he was already in the United States. The release specifically mentioned that Director Bortnikov had been invited by the US State Department and the White House.
Though Director Bortnikov cannot travel to EU countries or Canada because he is on their sanctions list, it is interesting to note, he is notably absent from the US list and “officially” he was in the United States for two days to attend the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.


Director Bortnikov’s private White House visit with President Obama a few weeks ago, it should be further noted, follows a similar meeting held this past May between America’s leader and SCRF Secretary Nikolai Patrushev [photo 2nd right] (known as the second most powerful person in Russia), who, likewise, has been a longtime KGB-FSB spy.
As to why President Obama has chosen over the past year to meet privately in the White House with the Federations top two spies this SCRF report doesn’t say, but it is understandable in the context of a similar crisis between Russia and the US that occurred in the early 1960’s when then President John F. Kennedy chose to use indirect backchannels with both Cuba and Moscow to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis as he did not trust his own country’s warmongers in the Pentagon and Congress.
President Obama’s choice to meet with Director Bortnikov, the “shadow CIA” global intelligence organizationSTRATFOR further reports, is due to the FSB Director’s knowing the ins and outs of Russia’s support for separatists and intelligence on US moves in the region.
Also, STRATFOR correctly reports, Director Bortnikov is an economist by trade and understands the pressure created by Western sanctions on Russia and has the comprehensive knowledge needed to discuss all these issues in Washington.
To President Obama’s “warning” to Director Bortnikov, this SCRF report says, that he may be powerless to stop a global war was further accentuated last week when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) reported that Minister Sergey Lavrov had endured a nearly one-hour tirade from US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland who, among other claims, “raged” that former Vice President Richard “Dick” Cheney was in charge of the United States, not President Barack Obama.
With President Putin, and other top political and military officials, remaining today under the “protection” of the Ministry of Defense due to fears of a first-strike nuclear launch against the Federation this coming week, a horrific plot uncovered by the FSB, the SCRF in this report notes that communications to avert total war are currently ongoing, but the outcome is not certain due to no one in the Kremlin even knowing who is in charge of the United States anymore.
In other words…as the Western propaganda news media continues to print stories about a possible coup d’état in Russia against President Putin, the more likely truth is that one is currently underway in the United States.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 09:08