Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Wednesday 11 March 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 10 Mar 2015 03:58 PM PDT


An Indonesian minister has threatened to release a “human tsunami” of 10,000 asylum seekers to Australia amid tensions with PM Tony Abbott’s government over Canberra’s objections to the impending execution of two Aussie drug smugglers.
“If Canberra keeps doing things that displease Indonesia, Jakarta will surely let the illegal immigrants go to Australia,” Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, told local TV on Tuesday.
Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition came to power in 2013 on an anti-illegal immigrant platform. Abbott has since introduced policies which see military ships patrolling Australia’s water for migrant boats.
Tedjo said that Indonesia has so far been partnering with Australia to keep migrants from illegally crossing the Timor Sea to Australia, but suggested that the cooperation may stop if Canberra continues to antagonize its neighbor in advocating for clemency for the two Australian nationals imprisoned by Jakarta since 2005 for heroin smuggling.
“There are more than 10,000 in Indonesia today. If they are let go to Australia, it will be like a human tsunami,” Tedjo said.
The warning was issued as a response to comments made in February by Abbott in which he called on Jakarta to”reciprocate”for Australia’s massive tsunami aid package to Indonesia. Canberra has also attempted to discourage tourism to the Indonesian island of Bali in its efforts to save the lives of the two men.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has since apologized for Abbott’s comments, calling them “unhelpful.”
A prisoner swap suggested by Bishop was, in turn, dismissed by Tedjo as “unethical.”
Tedjo called on Canberra to respect the Indonesian judicial system during a speech on nationhood.
“We respect other countries’ legal systems, Australia must learn about ethics here in University of Gadjah Mada,” Tedjo said.
Over the weekend, Indonesian President Joko Widodo defended his decision to follow through with the executions of the Australian citizens. The two were arrested along with seven others in 2005 while attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Indonesia to Australia. Chan and Sukumaran were adjudged to be the ringleaders.
Views on capital punishment are divided within Indonesia. While a group of the country’s diplomats suggested a moratorium on the death penalty during a Human Rights Council Summit last Thursday, the practice also has ardent defenders.
Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world, and has executed six drug offenders in the last month alone. However, the number of executions is inconsistent from year to year. In 2014, for instance, no executions took place.
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Posted: 10 Mar 2015 03:44 PM PDT



A mom in Chicago is furious after her teen daughter received several vaccinations at school without her consent.
Michelle Miller says she believed a form she signed gave her 16-year-old daughter’s school permission to conduct nothing more than a routine sports physical.
But student Noelle Miller ended up receiving multiple vaccinations, one for chicken pox, Hepatitis A, meningitis and the sexually transmitted disease HPV, none of which Noelle’s mom had consented to, save the chicken pox shot.
“When I looked at that I flipped out,” Miller said regarding her daughter’s immunization records.
A source inside Chicago Public Schools says the mother did indeed sign a form consenting to the vaccines, according to CBS 2 Chicago, but the mom disputes that saying she only signed up for the state required immunizations.
“Only for the state requirements for a Chicago Public Schools student and only chicken pox fell in that category,” Miller said.
A spokesperson for the Norwegian-American Hospital, who ran the care van that administered the shots, couldn’t comment to CBS 2 on the specific case, but said it requires a consent form for every vaccine administered.
Illinois law also allows minors 12 and older to consent to HPV vaccines, but Noelle says she was never asked permission.
Miller’s concerns over the excess vaccinations are sound.
Vaccines geared to combat the Human Papillomavirus, Gardasil and Cervarix, have been blamed for a number of debilitating health effects, including headaches, strokes, seizures, auto-immune problems and a number of deaths. (CDC data between June 2006 and December 2008 admits to 34 deaths, but maintains “there was no common pattern to the deaths that would suggest they were caused by the vaccine.”)
“The July 2013 U.S. federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System shows 30,674 adverse reactions reported after Gardasil vaccinations, with 963 recipients being left disabled and 140 dead,” according to the Illinois Review.
The prevalence of adverse events led people from several countries, including France, Japan, India and Spain, to file criminal lawsuits against HPV vaccine manufacturers. Innumerable Gardasil horror stories can also be found at the website SaneVax.org.
The distraught Chicago mom says she’s waiting for an explanation from her child’s school and the school board.
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Posted: 10 Mar 2015 03:13 PM PDT


International Women’s Day is over, but there are millions of women in the world, who do not enjoy life to the fullest. Many women are considered inferior members of the human race, who are deprived of basic and constitutionally enshrined rights.
For example, in Yemen, if a woman is a witness in a court case, which is a very rare occurrence, her testimony will be counted as only 50-percent truthful. That is, the testimony of a woman is not considered as seriously as the testimony of a man. In addition, female residents of Yemen are not allowed to appear as witnesses on any type of cases. For example, women aren’t allowed to be witnesses for adultery, Pravda.Ru says.
In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive. Large-scale protests in the country have not yielded any results. In addition, both in Saudi Arabia and even in the Vatican, women are not admitted to vote, nor can they be nominated for political posts.
In Lebanon and Morocco, there are no laws to protect women from violence, in particular, from domestic violence, because sexual acts committed against them, even against their will, are not considered as violent acts.
In Morocco, rules are even tougher. A raped (in the European and Western sense of the word) woman is likely to be forced to marry the man, who committed such an act of violence against her. In one of such cases, when a sexually abused woman was forced to become the wife of her rapist, led to her suicide.
Gender discrimination is still in effect in Tunisia. In this country, a woman can inherit only half of her family fortune, while males can inherit twice as much, Pravda.Ru reports.
Life does not come easy to women in El Salvador. In this country, any kind of abortion is prohibited. Even natural miscarriages are punishable. In 2012, 18-year-old Glenda Xiomara Cruz, unaware of her pregnancy, due to the weakness of the body, lost the baby and was sentenced to ten years. The court did not believe the young woman and decided that she was supposed to keep the baby at all costs.
Pravda.Ru spoke to Colonel Marina Astakhova, the chief of the Legal Administration, chairwoman of the women’s council at the Central Directorate of the Ministry for Interior Affairs of the Russian Federation about the role of women at public service in Russia.
“I do not even know the area, where women can not work. I think that we have women working even at special departments. There are not many of them there, of course, but still. Maybe there is such a narrow field, where woman can not work, I am not sure. I think that women are multicore in nature. If a woman wear military uniform, she realizes that she will have to be on equal ground with men. No one relieves her of her other functions of a woman – the domestic goddess. Women have this dual responsibility in life – family and professional.
“In police structures, there are services that can not do without women. I spent a long time working at the “02” call center. Men can not handle such an avalanche of various calls and information, but women can, and they can do it well. There are many women among forensic experts and investigators; there are many women inspectors at the youth liaison service,” Marina Astakhova.
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Posted: 10 Mar 2015 02:57 PM PDT


American scientists have discovered a new class of drugs which dramatically slows the aging process by alleviating frailty symptoms, extending healthy lifespan and improving cardiac function.
The research was carried out on animal models by a group of scientists from the Mayo Clinic and the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and published in the online edition of the journal Aging Cell on March 9.
The term “senolytics” has been coined by the research team for the new drug class.
“We view this study as a big, first step toward developing treatments that can be given safely to patients to extend healthspan or to treat age-related diseases and disorders,” said TSRI Professor Paul Robbins, who headed the Scripps branch of the team along with Associate Professor Laura Niedernhofer.
During the tests the scientists used two available compounds, the cancer drug dasatinib and quercetin, which is a natural compound marketed as a supplement that is used as an antihistamine and anti-inflammatory.
“When senolytic agents, like the combination we identified, are used clinically, the results could be transformative,” he added.
The term “Senescent cells” is given to cells that stop dividing. These cells accumulate with age which in turn accelerates the aging process.
In mice “healthspan” is increased by getting rid of such cells. The team reasoned that discovering a way to accomplish this in humans could lead to a tremendous breakthrough.
“The prototypes of these senolytic agents have more than proven their ability to alleviate multiple characteristics associated with aging,” said senior author of the new study Professor James Kirkland.
“It may eventually become feasible to delay, prevent, alleviate or even reverse multiple chronic diseases and disabilities as a group, instead of just one at a time.”
“In animal models, the compounds improved cardiovascular function and exercise endurance, reduced osteoporosis and frailty, and extended healthspan,” said Niedernhofer. “Remarkably, in some cases, these drugs did so with only a single course of treatment.”
The authors warn that further testing is required before human trials begin as the drugs may have long-term side effects.
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Posted: 10 Mar 2015 02:44 PM PDT


A magnitude 6.6 earthquake has hit the Colombian capital of Bogota, prompting mass evacuations from the city’s buildings. Strong and prolonged tremors sparked panic and a social media storm.
The Colombian Geological Survey reported that the tremors originated from the Santander Department area and were 158 kilometers deep. The earthquake was an estimated magnitude of 6.6.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake was centered about nine miles (14 kilometers) north of Aratoca, which is about 175 miles (280 kilometers) north of Bogota. The epicenter was reportedly 91 miles (147 kilometers) deep. The USGS revised the earthquake’s magnitude to 6.2.
No damage or casualties were immediately reported.
Residents reported on Twitter that tremors were felt in several Colombian cities, and posted photos of people rushing into the streets and waiting outside houses, cafes, and shopping centers.
There were reports that cellphone networks were completely jammed in the capital minutes after the earthquake struck. Local media said the quake was felt in the second biggest city of Medellin, as well as in several Venezuelan cities near the border.
“We know of no serious impact up to now,” Oscar Ivan Marquez of the presidency’s Risk Management office said, as quoted by Reuters.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 10:28