Sunday 24 May 2015

The European Union Times

Protest against Monsanto GMO to roll in 38 countries this weekend

Posted: 23 May 2015 07:36 AM PDT

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in 428 cities are expected to turn out this weekend to protest agribusiness giant Monsanto. The third annual ‘March Against Monsanto’ seeks to highlight the company’s part in control of the food supply.
The worldwide protest scheduled for May 23 is a continuation of growing awareness and opposition to industrial agriculture’s increasing consolidation of farming resources and methods, according to organizers.
In 2013, the first March Against Monsanto garnered more than 2 million protesters in 436 cities across the world, according to a previous report by RT. Similar numbers were reported for last year’s demonstrations.
Monsanto’s track record has been scrutinized ever since it aided US warfare during the Vietnam war. Agent Orange was manufactured for the US Department of Defense primarily by Monsanto Corporation, the use of which is estimated to have killed and maimed around 400,000 while causing birth defects for 500,000 children.
Scientific studies have linked the chemicals in Monsanto’s biocides to Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and cancer.
“People are fed up. We should break up Monsanto,” Adam Eidinger of Occupy Monsanto told RT. “Monsanto is a monopoly, and it’s acting like one. It’s basically controlling 90 percent of the seed market in the United States. We wouldn’t let one cell phone company control 90 percent of the cell phones. But for some reason we let food be controlled.”
As the most powerful multinational biotech corporation today, Monsanto has drawn the ire of those within the movement for its firm grip on the global food chain. The company’s control and advancement of genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds is of prime concern.
“In polls conducted by the New York Times, Washington Post, Consumer Reports, and many others, over 90% of respondents were in support of national GMO labeling – an initiative that has been defeated time and time again at the state level thanks to heavy spending by Monsanto-backed lobbying groups,” wrote March Against Monsanto in a news release.
Amid a wave of concern over genetically engineered foods sweeping through the US and around the world, major agribusiness and biotechnology conglomerates like Monsanto have spent immense amounts of cash to cloud the ‘right-to-know’ movement in the US.
According to the Center for Food Safety, dozens of US states have in recent years considered labeling legislation and ballot initiatives while a handful have passed laws mandating GMO transparency. Vermont’s governor signed the nation’s first clean GMO-labeling requirement into law in 2014, to take effect in 2016, but a coalition of biotech firms filed a lawsuit to prevent that from happening. Other states have passed labeling laws, but with strings attached.
To counter this movement, powerful farming and biotechnology interest groups have joined forces under the name “Coalition for Safe Affordable Food” to push a federal voluntary labeling standard for food made with GMOs, which would preempt state laws.
The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 — called the “Denying Americans the Right-to-Know Act” by opponents — was introduced by Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo, an ally of Charles and David Koch, heads of the powerful multinational corporation Koch Industries. The bill has yet to leave the committee level, as of May 22.
Congressional supporters of an involuntary federal labeling standard have responded with the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act, reintroduced in Congress in February.
The claim by biotech companies that GMOs are key to feeding the world’s growing population has been heavily contested. A recent report found that GMO “seed companies’ investment in improving yields in already high-yielding areas does little to improve food security; it mainly helps line the pockets of seed and chemical companies, large-scale growers and producers of corn ethanol.”
GMO crops and ingredients have been consumed in the US for more than two decades. Large amounts of corn, soybeans, and canola produced in the US are genetically engineered. As much as 75 percent of processed food made in the US contains GMO ingredients.
GMO seeds have caused use of glyphosate, the leading ingredient in the company’s Roundup biocide, to increase immensely since the 1990s, according to US Geological Survey data.
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer announced in May that Roundup, the most used herbicide in the world, is a “probable carcinogen.”
“There’s no question that March Against Monsanto is the most powerful grassroots initiative we have in the fight to reclaim our food supply from the GMO seed juggernaut known as the Monsanto Company,” said Anthony Gucciardi, a March Against Monsanto speaker.
“With the new admission by the World Health Organization that Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Roundup is causing cancer worldwide, now is the most important time to join the movement and take a stand.”
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ISIS Says Could Obtain Nuclear Bomb in Less Than 12 Months

Posted: 23 May 2015 07:32 AM PDT

According to the latest issue of ISIL’s propaganda magazine, Islamic State jihadist group (ISIL) could obtain a nuclear weapon within 12 month.
The Islamic State jihadist group (ISIL) could obtain a nuclear weapon within 12 month, according to the latest issue of the ISIL’s propaganda magazine Dabiq.
“The Islamic State has billions of dollars in the bank, so they call on their wilayah in Pakistan to purchase a nuclear device through weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials in the region,” the article, attributed to British photojournalist John Cantlie held hostage by the ISIL for over two years, said.
Once the ISIL buys the bomb in Pakistan, according to the article, it would transport it through Lybia and Nigeria to the West.
“Drug shipments from Columbia bound for Europe pass through West Africa, so moving other types of contraband from East to West is just as possible,” the article pointed out.
Cantlie stressed that the ISIL is looking to do “something big” on the US soil and it will be more real “a year from today.”
“The more groups that pledge allegiance [to the ISIL] the more possible it becomes to pull off something truly epic,” he added.
The Islamic State has been rallying militants from across the region under its banners since it rose to prominence in Iraq and Syria in summer 2014. It now runs cells in North Africa, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan
In November 2014, an affiliate of the Pakistani militant organization Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jundallah, claimed allegiance to the ISIL.
In April 2015, Nigeria’s notorious Boko Haram terrorist group also pledged allegiance to the Sunni ISIL movement and changed its name to Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Last week, the jihadist fighters from the Mali-based militant group Mourabitoun pledged allegiance to the ISIL movement.
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‘This land is ours, All of it is ours’ – New Israeli Minister

Posted: 23 May 2015 05:47 AM PDT

Tzipi Hotovely gives speech to Israeli diplomats in which she says she will try to achieve global recognition for West Bank settlements.
Israel’s new deputy foreign minister on Thursday delivered a defiant message to the international community, saying that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land and citing religious texts to back her belief that it belongs to the Jewish people.
The speech by Tzipi Hotovely illustrated the influence of hardliners in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new government, and the challenges he will face as he tries to persuade the world that he is serious about pursuing peace with the Palestinians.
Hotovely, 36, is among a generation of young hardliners in Netanyahu’s Likud party who support West Bank settlement construction and oppose ceding captured land to the Palestinians. Since Netanyahu has a slim one-seat majority in parliament, these lawmakers could complicate any attempt to revive peace talks.
With Netanyahu also serving as the acting foreign minister, Hotovely is currently the country’s top full-time diplomat.
In an inaugural address to Israeli diplomats, Hotovely said Israel has tried too hard to appease the world and must stand up for itself.
“We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country,” she said. “This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologize for that.”
Hotovely, an Orthodox Jew, laced her speech with Talmud commentaries in which God promised the land of Israel to the Jews. Speaking later in English, she signaled that she would try to rally global recognition for West Bank settlements, which are widely opposed.
“We expect as a matter of principle of the international community to recognize Israel’s right to build homes for Jews in their homeland, everywhere,” she said.
Hotovely will manage the ministry’s day-to-day functions, but Netanyahu will remain in charge of foreign policy.
During the recent election campaign, Netanyahu angered his western allies by saying he would not permit the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch. On Wednesday he told the visiting EU foreign policy chief that he remains committed to a two-state solution.
Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, declined comment on Hotovely’s speech, but said Netanyahu’s statements Wednesday reflected his policy.
Source

US Hunting Russians all over world: Moscow

Posted: 23 May 2015 02:45 AM PDT

Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned its citizens on Friday that US intelligence agents were “hunting” for Russians all over the world.

Russia has warned its citizens traveling abroad of the risks posed by US intelligence agents, which it say are “hunting” for Russians around the world.
In a travel warning issued on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, “The American authorities continue the unacceptable practice of ‘hunting’ for Russians all over the world, ignoring the norms of international laws and twisting the arms of other states.”
The ministry accused the United States of abducting Russian citizens. “By believing that it is allowed to do all it wants, Washington goes as far as kidnapping our citizens.”
“The threat of detention or arrest on the warrant of law enforcement bodies and special services of the USA in third countries still persists. It is quite real,” the ministry said in the statement.
Relations between the United States and Russia are at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War in 1991, largely due to the crisis in Ukraine.
The bilateral ties deteriorated after US-backed forces ousted the Ukraine’s elected president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.
The US and its allies accuse Moscow of sending troops into eastern Ukraine in support of the pro-Russian forces. Moscow has long denied involvement in Ukraine’s crisis.
Moscow says Washington is responsible for the escalating tension in Ukraine through sending arms in support of the Ukrainian army.
The United States has provided $75 million worth of military aid to Ukraine, but has so far, at least publicly, stopped short of sending lethal weapons.
Source

NATO Threatens Russia’s Allies

Posted: 23 May 2015 02:41 AM PDT

NATO’s increasing activity is threatening not only Russia but also its partner states, the head of the Russian Security Council has told his colleagues from the CSTO military bloc.
“The United States’ and NATO’s aggressiveness towards Russia is on the increase. They boost their advance potential in the direct vicinity of our borders and this creates threats not only for us, but also for our allies,” Nikolai Patrushev said at a conference of Security Council chiefs from Collective Security Treaty Organization members.
The Russian official added that in modern times countries use “non-direct action” to promote their interests in the international arena, such as the population’s protest potential, radical and extremist groups and also private military contractors. Another form of “new warfare” was the shift of major activities into the information space, he said.
According to Patrushev, the new methods have already been tested during the so-called Arab Spring, the events in Syria and Iraq and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
The Security Council is Russia’s top consultative body on national security, and Patrushev has headed the council since 2008. Before that, he was director of the Federal Security Service for nine years.
Patrushev addressed the issue of new methods of non-direct warfare in a newspaper article published earlier this month and promised that Russian authorities would adjust the nation’s security doctrine after learning the lessons of the latest political and security crises.
In October 2014, Patrushev openly accused the United States of playing a role in the Ukrainian conflict, saying it was a direct result of the anti-Russian programexecuted by American special services since the 1970s and based on Zbigniew Brzezinski’s “strategy of weak spots” – the policy of turning the opponent’s potential problems into full-scale crises.
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