Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday 24 May 2015

“Flames Fan Lasting Fallout From Chernobyl” plus 23 more : Eurasia Review

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Posted: 23 May 2015 02:14 PM PDT
In the years following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, forest fires billowed plumes of contaminated smoke, carrying radioactive particles throughout Europe on the wind. Now, researchers fear that a shift to a hotter, drier climate in Eastern Europe could increase the frequency of these fires. Researchers from the University of South Carolina in Columbia used satellite imagery of fires in the 2000s and field measurements of radioisotope levels to model changes in the distribution of...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 02:07 PM PDT
By Andrea Gagliarducci Pope Francis’ one-day trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina this June will not include a visit to Medjugorje, the location of controversial alleged Marian apparitions, according to a coordinator of the visit. Monsignor Ivo Tomasevic, communications officer for the papal trip, confirmed to CNA May 22 that the Pope is only going to Sarajevo on June 6, and not the southern town near the Croatian border where six people claim to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Msgr....

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Posted: 23 May 2015 02:03 PM PDT
China tried to electronically jam US drone flights over the disputed South China Sea in order to prevent surveillance on man-made islands Beijing is constructing as a part of an aggressive land reclamation initiative, US officials said. Global Hawk long-range surveillance drones were targeted by jamming in at least one incident near the Spratly Islands, where China is building military facilities on Fiery Cross Reef, the Washington Free Beacon reported. That statement follows Thursday reports...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 02:00 PM PDT
(EurActiv) — Russia’s media watchdog has written to Google, Twitter and Facebook warning them against violating Russian Internet laws and a spokesman said Thursday (21 May) that they risk being blocked if they do not comply with the rules. Roskomnadzor said it had sent letters this week to the three US-based firms asking them to comply with Internet laws which critics of President Vladimir Putin have decried as censorship. “In our letters we regularly remind (companies) of the...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 01:57 PM PDT
By Rose Gottemoeller, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security for US State Department Madam President, The United States has a deep and long-standing interest in global nonproliferation efforts. President Obama remains committed to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. We remain unwavering in our support for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and believe that this Review Conference (RevCon) has demonstrated the broad international...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 01:54 PM PDT
The US has blocked a global document aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons, saying Egypt and other states tried to “cynically manipulate” the process by setting a deadline for Israel and its neighbors to meet within months on a Middle East zone free of such weapons. The now-failed final document of a landmark treaty review conference had called on the UN secretary-general to convene the Middle East conference no later than March 2016, regardless of whether Israel and its...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 11:31 AM PDT
By Felix K. Chang* Earlier this month, an American littoral combat ship, the Fort Worth (pictured above), sailed just over 12 nautical miles from some of the artificial islands that China has built from reclaimed land in the South China Sea.  While the U.S. Navy has conducted such transits before to ensure freedom of navigation through the region, it was the first time that a U.S. warship came so close to Chinese-held islands.  The transit was part of a stepped-up American effort to deter China...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 11:17 AM PDT
Rising defence budgets have fuelled a sizable naval buildup in Southeast Asia. As a result, countries surrounding the South China Sea have acquired new military capabilities that could make conflict in the region, should it occur, potentially more lethal. By Richard A. Bitzinger* Growing defense budgets have underwritten a sizable arms buildup in Southeast Asia since around the turn of the century. Regional navies have particularly benefited from this increase in military expenditures. As a...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 11:12 AM PDT
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran will not allow any inspections by foreigners of its military sites. “P5+1 countries are making new comments in the nuclear negotiations. Regarding the inspections, we have said that we will not allow foreigners to carry out inspections of any Iranian military sites,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. The Leader further warned against the enemies’ acquisitiveness. “The enemies should know that the Iranian...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 11:09 AM PDT
In explaining why he chose to put on ice his sterling career as a war reporter, renowned journalist, documentary filmmaker and author, Sebastian Junger says, “on some level a man’s job is to protect the people he loves. Risking your life is not protecting them – it’s exposing them to emotional danger.” And who could blame him, considering that more war correspondents than ever are dying in war zones today. Recent geo-political events however seem to rebut this somewhat...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 11:02 AM PDT
According to historian Daniel Headrick, the opening of Suez Canal in 1869 transformed the 19th Century geopolitics and geo-economics and accelerated the globalization of the world. In the 21st Century, the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor promises to do it once again. Zachary Karabell’s award-winning book, ‘Parting the Desert’ explains the complex engineering, economic, political and diplomatic challenges which the French diplomat and entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps faced, while...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 10:58 AM PDT
Addressing violent extremism is not only a challenge for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) but also for the whole world, said government, business and civil society leaders in the closing session of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa. “In Iraq and the region as a whole, the biggest challenge we face is extremism and terrorism, but this has repercussions at the international level,” said Ayad Allawi, Vice-President of Iraq. Saleh Muhammed Al Mutlaq, Deputy Prime...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 10:54 AM PDT
The tragic and untimely death of Sabeen Mahmud and the recent protests by a group who call themselves the “International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons” has brought new attention to the issue of the so-called missing persons of Balochistan. A few years ago the Supreme Court at the time led by the now infamous Chaudhry Iftekhar had threatened to take action against the Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI) and the head of Military Operations (MO), if the court had found them at fault of forcefully...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 10:48 AM PDT
On May 20 King Mohammed IV arrived on in Dakar for a working and friendship visit to Senegal, first of an African tour that will take the sovereign to Guinea Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon. The visit to Senegal is not a surprise to anyone, as King Mohammed VI has always included the Dakar phase in his trips to Africa. Thus, in 2001, just two years after coming to power at the demise of his father, the King paid a state visit to Senegal. In June 2004, the Moroccan king paid a second visit...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 10:43 AM PDT
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed disappointment at the inability of Member States to reach consensus on a “substantive outcome” on a non-proliferation treaty key for global nuclear disarmament, according to a United Nations spokesperson. In a statement issued earlier today regarding the conclusion of the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the UN spokesperson said the Secretary-General particularly regretted that States...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 10:40 AM PDT
By Srinivas Raman Last year, Marshall Islands, a small constellation of islands placed in the Pacific Ocean brought an unprecedented lawsuit in the ICJ against nine nuclear weapon possessing states accusing them of violating their good faith obligations under international law and in a bid to end the nuclear arms race. These nine states include the United States -part of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and others such as India, which are not signatories but still possess nuclear weapon...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 10:36 AM PDT
The U.S. Treasury has boycotted an Iraqi company and a UAE company for helping Iran to buy used airplanes. Iraq’s Al-Nasser Airlines and UAE-based Sky Bluebird have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for their dealings with Iran’s Mahan Airlines. The news comes after an Israeli official slammed the Obama administration for allowing Iran to buy passenger planes. Ever since the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, the U.S. had stopped selling planes and airplane parts to Iran. But after the Geneva...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 10:32 AM PDT
By Smruti S. Pattanaik On 12 May 2015, Bangladesh witnessed the murder of the third blogger in less than a month. The three killed so far are part of a list of 84 liberals that Bangladeshi fundamentalists have identified for elimination. The latest victim was Anant Bijoy Das, a blogger and the organiser of Sylhet city’s Gonojagoron Mancha – a liberal platform that emerged during the Shahbag movement. Das was a contributor to a local publication Jukti. He had also contributed to Mukto-mona,...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 10:26 AM PDT
The US Department of Defense says Alaska is its preferred location to deploy a new long-range “must-have” radar to enable missile defense systems to better intercept potential enemy threats, such as from Iran or North Korea. The Pentagon says that the new Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) will begin defensive operations in 2020 and will boost the capacity of ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California. The Clear Air Force Station, an Air Force Space Command radar station in central...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 06:26 AM PDT
There was at least one big surprise among Osama bin Laden’s personal library, declassified a few days ago by the Director of the Office of National Intelligence. Bin Laden, al-Qaeda’s mastermind, had a copy of The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly Hall (1928), a classic of New Age, or alternative spiritual thought. Was bin Laden a closet New Ager? No. Did he agree with the thesis of The Secret Teachings. Again, no. Writing in Salon magazine, Mitch Horowitz says that he “seriously doubt”...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 06:22 AM PDT
As a high school student, I came across an observation by Abraham Lincoln who said that “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” Today “public sentiment” would be called “public opinion.” Over the years, I have been astonished at how less than one percent of the citizenry, backed by the “public sentiment,” have changed our country for the better by enacting reforms to protect the people from abuses of power, discrimination and deep neglect. Specifically, if –...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 06:20 AM PDT
EU High Representative Federica Mogherini should publicly urge Gulf countries to release immediately and unconditionally activists detained for exercising their rights, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to her today. The letter was sent ahead of a Gulf Cooperation Council-EU ministerial meeting in Doha on May 24, 2015. The GCC countries’ crackdown on freedom of expression and association has resulted in the imprisonment of many activists and dissidents. Member countries are Bahrain, Kuwait,...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 06:15 AM PDT
Egypt’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, and 25 others are on trial in a Cairo court for ‘insulting’ the judiciary. Last week, the first democratically-elected president of Egypt was sentenced to death in connection to a mass prison break during the 2011 uprising that toppled the longtime Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak. The Saturday trial is the fifth judicial proceeding in Morsi’s case since he was removed from power in July 2013 by the then head of the armed forces, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi,...

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Posted: 23 May 2015 06:12 AM PDT
In this week’s address, US President Barack commemorated Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country. The President will spend the first Memorial Day since the end of the war in Afghanistan at Arlington Cemetery, remembering the more than 2,200 American patriots who gave their lives in that conflict, as well as all of our fallen soldiers. The President asked that all Americans spend Monday honoring the memory and sacrifice...

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