Sunday 3 May 2015

The European Union Times

UK Companies to Invest $400 Million in Cuba

Posted: 02 May 2015 05:10 AM PDT

British firms have signed financial agreements with Cuban companies for UK investments of $400 million, including in the energy, agriculture and tourism sectors, the Havana Times reports.
The signing of the investment agreement took place within the framework of a business seminar sponsored by Cuba Initiative in Havana. The three-day meeting started on Tuesday and was attended by Cuban authorities and executives from 32 British companies.
“It was a very successful mission,” Lord Hutton of Furness, co-chairman of the joint Cuban-British Cuba Initiative project, said as quoted by the online publication on Friday, adding that the visit of British businessmen to Cuba came at the right time.
In June, 2008, the European Union lifted the economic sanctions it imposed on Havana in 2003. The United Kingdom is now Cuba’s 9th largest trading partner within the European Union.
In June, 2014, Cuba introduced a new law on foreign investments, lowering taxes and increasing security guarantees for joint ventures.
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Metformin, cure for diabetes, can also change sex

Posted: 02 May 2015 04:56 AM PDT

The number of prescriptions for the medication that treats diabetes has been growing along with the rate of the blood sugar disorder in the United States. Metformin is used as a one of the most common medication to cure Type II diabetes.
Surprisingly, metformin can also be found in freshwater system. What is more, researchers said that the drug can change the sex of fish, Pravda.Ru reports.
Rebecca Klaper, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has been looking to the drug’s prevalence in watersheds, as well as exploring its potential effects on wildlife.
“It is the chemical we found in almost every sample and in the highest concentrations compared to other emerging contaminants — even higher than caffeine,” she said in a recent press release.
Fish expressing combinations of male and female sex organs are increasingly common in waters downstream from water treatment plants. The phenomenon has mostly been blamed on hormone-related drugs like birth control and beauty products such as acne medicine.
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Turk mayor of Ankara calls US State Department spokeswoman “stupid blonde”

Posted: 02 May 2015 04:51 AM PDT

US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

Racist mayor of Ankara, the capital of Turkey, has referred to US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf as a “stupid blonde” for her silence over the Baltimore riots despite Washington’s repeated criticism of Turkey during anti-government protests in 2013.
Ibrahim Melih Gokcek condemned Harf on Wednesday for being “silent” about US police brutality and the violent crackdown of protesters rallying against the death of Freddie Gray, who was killed while in police custody.
Gray died on April 19, a week after an encounter with police that left him with grave spinal injuries. Authorities have not explained how or when his spine was injured.
The majority black city has been the site of daily demonstrations since Gray’s death, as tensions simmer over police brutality and discrimination against African Americans.
“Come on blonde, answer now!” Gokcek wrote in English as well as Turkish on his Twitter account, sharing an image of a Baltimore police tackling a protester alongside a picture of Harf.
“Where are you stupid blonde, who accused Turkish police of using disproportionate force?” he added in a caption.
Harf refused to respond to the insults, saying: “I really don’t think I’m going to dignify them with a response.”
A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began in May of 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park.
Nationwide demonstrations spread across Turkey against the ruling Justice and Development Party and then prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is currently the country’s president, with police using water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets against the demonstrators.
On Friday, US ambassador to Turkey John Bass hit back at the Ankara mayor, posting a picture of himself with his normally brown hair turned blond.
“American diplomats: we’re all blonde,” he wrote in English and Turkish. According to BBC, the ambassador’s hair had been photoshopped.
Not too long ago no one would even listen to this Muslim to begin with. Stupid blonde? With what exactly did “magnificent” and “intelligent” Turkish race ever contributed to world technological, medical and cultural evolution? What would the world say if the mayor of Washington called some Turkish official “stupid creole”?
Despite anti-white/Western attitudes like this dumb Ankara mayor, Turks still fashion about becoming part of the EU someday but in reality there is no place for Muslim Turks among the Western European civilization.
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UKIP chief Nigel Farage pins his election hopes

Posted: 02 May 2015 04:15 AM PDT

With less than a week to go before the UK general election, RT visits Nigel Farage’s target constituency in Kent to ask what locals think of the insurgent UKIP leader.
Farage is narrowly behind the Conservatives in South Thanet constituency, with Lord Ashcroft’s latest poll suggesting he will lose the seat by two points to a Tory majority of 34 percent.
A senior UKIP source has dismissed the ominous figures, arguing five points are added when Farage’s “national status” is taken into account. “I’m quite content that we’re well ahead.”
RT visited the seaside town of Margate on the boundary of two constituencies, South Thanet and North Thanet, to ask local residents what they thought of the pint-swilling parliamentary candidate.
The bad news for UKIP, however, despite daily national coverage, is many locals have no idea who he is.
“Who? I don’t even know the guy,” multiple residents told RT.
South Thanet saw a voter turnout of just 65 percent in the last election, meaning more than 20,000 eligible voters didn’t cast their ballot.
This sizeable minority, enough to determine the outcome of the election in the area, consists of many citizens who are completely disengaged from politics.
Others RT spoke to have become so disillusioned with Westminster they have no interest whatsoever in the election.
“I’m not interested in politics at all. Whoever gets in, the working man will suffer,” one man told us. “This government doesn’t look after the working man. Same with Labour, it used to be for the working man and now it’s for the middle class. No good.”
Among locals who did know Farage, there were strong opinions voiced both for and against the UKIP leader.
“I love him, I think he’s wonderful,” one elderly resident told us. “I think he’s a great leader and he knows what he’s talking about. He’s for the British people, 100 percent, and I shall be voting.”
“He should be the king,” another gung-ho supporter said. “I just think he would make a better leader than some of the clowns that are going up now. Like Miliband and co.”
“He’s good, he stands up for what we want. We’ve tried all the others and they don’t seem to work, so we’ll give him a crack this year,” another Thanet resident told RT.
“I’ve got a lot of time for him, I think he’s a good chap,” a young voter said.
“I don’t think he’s too bad to be fair,” another told RT.
Margate’s anti-Farage camp were every bit as vehement in their opposition to the would-be MP as his supporters.
“Sorry, don’t want UKIP in. No!” one Thanet resident said. “I just don’t think he’s got the right idea.”
“I think he’s a chancer, but he does say the things that he means,” a local man told us. “Whether he can carry it out, I don’t know. But he’s not for me, thank you.”
Another idiot bum was less courteous in his opinion of the banker-turned-politician.
“He’s a w**ker,” he told RT. “He’s a racist f***ing w**ker.”
“I think he is probably using Thanet as a stepping for his own agenda,” a local fat feminist-looking woman said. “And he’s quite small minded and bigoted, and I don’t like him very much.”
“I think he’s trying to rally supporters around the threat of immigration,” a young voter said. “Meanwhile he’s going to do things like privatize the NHS. Frankly I think other parties are a better solution for this country.”
With opinion sharply divided in the constituency, the outcome of South Thanet’s election is likely to be determined by a silent minority of undecided and disinterested voters.
This gives UKIP supporters less than a week to answer the pressing question on constituents’ lips: “Nigel who?”
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