Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday 15 May 2015

The European Union Times



Posted: 14 May 2015 04:49 AM PDT



South Carolina residents warned they may encounter military vehicles.
Special Forces out of Fort Bragg are training with SWAT officers in Richland County, South Carolina this week for house to house raids, another unnerving sign of the militarization of domestic law enforcement.
The late night and pre-dawn exercises, which will involve the 3rd Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, have been running since May 8 and will conclude on Friday.
Previous exercises conducted by the 3rd Special Forces Group, seen in the video above, show troops conducting house to house raids and arresting individuals at gunpoint.
Residents in Lower Richland County have been warned that they may encounter military vehicles and “hear ordinance being set off or shots being fired.”
According to Sheriff Leon Lott, “Deputies will provide simulated scenarios for the military,” while Richmond County will provide, “an ideal location for training that cannot be replicated at Fort Bragg.”
During a similar drill last year, journalists were barred from reporting on the exercise.
Concerns over drills such as this have heightened since the announcement of Jade Helm, a nationwide military exercise set to begin in July during which troops will operate undercover amongst local populations.
Footage captured by a local during a dirty bomb exercise in Richmond, California earlier this month shows National Guard troops pushing irate citizens away with batons before one of the protest group states, “I’m a sovereign citizen, I refuse to recognize you guys, I refuse to recognize you.”
Source
        
Posted: 14 May 2015 04:42 AM PDT


A new report shows that the economy of Greece under SYRIZA has slipped back into recession after having contracted by 0.2 percent during the first quarter of the current year.
The report was released by the national statistics agency, ELSTAT, on Wednesday, showing the second consecutive quarterly fall in Greece’s national output, after it had grown for most of 2014, AFP reported.
The downturn, the report added, coincided with a return to political uncertainty in the country and doubt over its 240-billion-euro (USD 270 billion) international bailout. Greece’s economy contracted by 0.4 percent in the final quarter of 2014.
According to ELSTAT, four months of deadlock between Greece’s new government and the so-called troika of international lenders, namely the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), over the reforms needed to release a final 7.2 billion euros in bailout funds has led to concerns that Athens may run short of cash and soon end up defaulting.
The new revelation came after Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis warned on Monday of an imminent cash crunch for his debt-ridden country.
Speaking after a meeting with his peers in the 19-country eurozone, Varoufakis added that cash-strapped Athens was being strangled by a liquidity problem and urgently needs the final tranche of rescue funds from its 240-billion-euro bailout.
Athens has been under pressure by the international lenders to make reforms in its labor market as well as in pensions and taxation policies in exchange for a new bailout loan.
The country has already received two bailout packages in 2010 and 2012 worth a total of 240 billion euros (USD 272 billion) following its 2009 economic crisis. However, it has been unable to borrow on the international markets over the past few years due to high borrowing rates.
The government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose leftist Syriza party swept to victory in the January 25 elections, has tried to renegotiate the terms of the bailout Greece received in return for imposing harsh austerity measures.
During his electoral campaign, Tsipras had vowed to reconsider the austerity measures, which have caused mounting dissatisfaction in the country. As it turns out it is time for Greek people to stop playing games and finally vote for the patriotic Golden Dawn party.
Source
        
Posted: 14 May 2015 04:36 AM PDT


Cuba has always been known for its medical treatment. The Cubans have much higher life expectancy than the American citizens despite spending a pittance comparatively. Today, Cuba is to make a real breakthrough in combating cancer.
Cuban scientists spent decades developing a lung cancer vaccine, called Cimavax. The Cuban government started distributing Cimavax to citizens for free in 2011. The vaccine targets a protein called epidermal growth factor, which cancerous cells generate in order to signal others to grow out of control.
“Investigators from around the world are trying to crack the nut of cancer. The Cubans are thinking in ways that are novel and clever.” states biologist Thomas Rothstein.
Lung cancer accounts for about 27% of all cancer deaths and is by far the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. Overall, the chance that a man will develop lung cancer in his lifetime is about 1 in 13; for a woman, the risk is about 1 in 16. With such shocking statistics, this vaccine has the potential to be an absolute breakthrough.
Though the vaccine doesn’t target the tumor itself, the vaccine can make even a late-stage tumor manageable; experiments in 2008 showed lung cancer patients that received the vaccine lived four to six months longer on average than those that didn’t. This efficacy inspired some European countries and Japan to start clinical trials of their own, progress on which the US had been woefully behind thanks to icy diplomatic relations with Cuba.
But the States have been forced to accelerate plans to bury the hatchet after the vaccine proved its worth. Now researchers at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York have made an agreement with their Cuban counterparts to start clinical trials of the vaccine.
The Roswell Park researchers are also to evaluate the vaccine as a possible method of prevention, like a typical vaccine, and to see if it works with other types of cancer that used the same protein.
The Cuban scientists want to make it into a more traditional vaccine, like one for measles or mumps, which would prevent lung cancer in people for life.
Although President Obama has used his executive power to lift some restrictions against medical and research equipment, Congress must lift the Cuban embargo before collaborative research can ramp up.
Source
        
Posted: 14 May 2015 04:30 AM PDT


Robotic pets will replace their living counterparts in less than a decade as technology infatuation is growing and more people are crossing over to a high-density urban lifestyle, scientists say.
“It might sound surreal for us to have robotic or virtual pets, but it could be totally normal for the next generation,” said Dr. Jean-Loup Rault of the University of Melbourne in his paper published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science on Monday.
Flesh and blood pets will become a luxury commodity in an overpopulated future world with creatures created with chips and circuits mimicking the real things, the animal welfare researcher said.
“It’s not a question of centuries from now. If 10 billion human beings live on the planet in 2050 as predicted, it’s likely to occur sooner than we think,” he added.
In Japan people are becoming so attached to their robotic dogs that they hold funerals for them when they stop functioning, he noted.
Future robot pets may even feature bona fide Artificial Intelligence, which will permit them to learn, to think, and respond independently.
“When engineers work on robotic dogs, they work on social intelligence, they address what people need from their dogs: companionship, love, obedience, dependence,” he said.
Source
        
Posted: 14 May 2015 04:26 AM PDT


The president of the tiny African nation of The Gambia has reportedly threatened to kill any homosexuals in his country, adding to his long-time record of cracking down on homosexuality.
“If you do it [in The Gambia] I will slit your throat,” President Yahya Jammeh said in a public speech in the Wolof language, cited by VICE News. “If you are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about it.” He reportedly spoke in the town of Farafeni, while on an agricultural tour of his country.
Jammeh’s reference to “white people” was likely a nod to the European Union, which in December 2014 cut off some €13 million of humanitarian aid for The Gambia due to its poor human rights record. The only aid the African nation is receiving now comes from Middle Eastern states.
The EU’s aid freeze came after in November, Jammeh signed a law on “aggravated homosexualism”. It introduced life imprisonment for homosexual men and women who are sentenced for repeating the “offence”, or who are HIV-positive or sick with AIDS. Homosexuality was outlawed in the country even before that, punishable by up to 14 years behind bars.
This is by far not the first time Jammeh has lashed out at homosexuals. Last February, he called them “vermin” and vowed to fight them “like malaria-causing mosquitoes”. And back in 2008, he advised them to flee the Gambia, saying he would otherwise chop their heads off.
Yahya Jammeh, who came to power in the 1.9-million strong nation through a 1996 coup, survived an overthrow attempt himself in December 2014. The alleged conspirators, two of whom are US citizens, wanted”to restore democracy to the Gambia and to improve the lives of its people,”according to the US Department of Justice.
Jammeh is known not only for his crusade on homosexuality and crackdown on freedom of speech, but also for some rather extravagant statements.
These include putting the blame for his aunt’s 1999 death on “sorcerers,” and Jammeh’s 2007 claims he could cure HIV/AIDS with herbs.
Source
        
Posted: 13 May 2015 03:15 PM PDT
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot
American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX CEO is worried that Google may “accidentally” create an evil robot army that can turn against the human race.
Google’s intensive research into robotics could “produce something evil by accident,” technology entrepreneur Elon Musk said in a new self-titled authorized biography, The Independent reported on Wednesday.
Musk is the CEO at the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) and electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors and one of the founders of Pay Pal online payments system.
Without clearly specifying any ultimate purpose, Google started to acquire robotics companies such as Boston Dynamics, which makes numerous types of robots, including a humanoid robot called Atlas and a running robot, called Big Dog, which was developed for and funded by the US military.
Speculations point to the possibility that the robots are designed to run on a Google-developed Artificial Intelligence.
In the past, Musk has publicly announced his fears that the development of AI should be closely monitored as it may turn out to be dangerous.
AI is humankind’s biggest existential threat and its development is comparable to “summoning a demon,” he said.
“The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five-year timeframe. Ten years at most,” the SpaceX CEO wrote a few months ago in a leaked comment to an internet publication referring to the dangers of AI. “Please note that I am normally super pro-technology and have never raised this issue until recent months. This is not a case of crying wolf about something I don’t understand.”
Back in December, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking warned, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” adding that “humans… couldn’t compete and would be superseded” by robots.
Source
        
Posted: 13 May 2015 03:08 PM PDT


Patrick J. Buchanan, an American politician and senior adviser to the US presidents supposes that David Cameron’s victory in the UK general elections may lead to the country’s crackup and exit from the EU.
It is also stated that in order to secure the votes, the Conservatives attacked the Labour Party of Ed Miliband and warned that a Labour government would be hostage to a secessionist Scottish National Party, without whose votes Miliband could never reach a majority in Parliament.
The attack on the SNP as a subversive party secretly allied with Labour had an ancillary benefit for the Tories. It helped produce a SNP sweep of all but three of Scotland’s 59 seats. The Labour Party was virtually wiped out in Scotland, its northern bastion.
This situation seems certain to stir Scottish demands for a new referendum on independence, which would have a far better chance of succeeding than the last one.
Scottish nationalism is certain to generate a countervailing English nationalism.
Which brings us to the party that won 13 percent of the vote, three times the SNP total, but only a single seat in Parliament. This is the United Kingdom Independence Party.
The UKIP and the anti-EU Tories, some of whom sit in Cameron’s cabinet, have been promised a national referendum on secession from the EU by 2017.
Consider how the interests of these parties will push them all toward an England that is free of the EU and of Scotland both.
Unhappy with Tory policies, yet unable to alter them, the Scots are likely to create conflicts in Parliament that strengthen the forces of secession.
Former SNP leader Alex Salmond, who won a seat in the Parliament, is promising it.
Yet the United Kingdom may be only the first of the nations of Old Europe to break up or break out of the EU.
Should Scotland leave the U.K., this would surely set off a reflex reaction in Catalonia in Spain, Veneto in Italy and Flanders in Belgium.
Source
        
Posted: 13 May 2015 02:48 PM PDT


A chilling comment by British Prime Minister David Cameron suggests that even people who obey the law won’t be “left alone” by the state if they engage in anything the government deems to be “hate speech,” including “bigotry” and potentially criticism of homosexuality and feminism.
Preparing to introduce a new counter-terrorism bill later this month, Cameron laid the groundwork for the measures by remarking that the state not interfering with people’s lives if they “obey the law” was a “failed approach.”
“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It’s often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that’s helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance. This Government will conclusively turn the page on this failed approach,” Cameron stated.
The London Independent branded the quote, “the creepiest thing David Cameron has ever said.”
According to BBC News, the new anti-radicalization laws could even ensnare those who voice politically incorrect opinions.
“Would those who oppose homosexuality or multiculturalism or feminism be accused of threatening values of tolerance and equality?” asks the BBC’s Mark Easton. “Could Russell Brand’s argument against voting be regarded as threatening democracy?”
The new measures are being introduced under the justification of combating Islamic extremism, a dubious claim given that Cameron’s government has repeatedly backed actual jihadist groups in the conflicts in Libya and Syria.
Civil liberties organizations fear the new laws will instead be used to silence dissent from legitimate protest groups, bracketing anti-government sentiment in the same context as jihadist rhetoric.
Indeed, during a speech in front of the United Nations last year, Cameron suggested that those who question the official version of events behind 9/11 or 7/7 were non-violent extremists on a par with ISIS sympathizers. Scotland Yard also warned that British citizens who merely watch ISIS beheading videos could be arrested under anti-terror laws.
The laws will also empower broadcast regulator Ofcom “to take action against channels which broadcast extremist content.”
“The plans would allow the police to ask the higher court to order extremists to be banned from broadcasting and send every tweet, Facebook post or other web communication to the police for approval,” reports the Independent. “That would include posts from users telling friends and followers that their communications were now being vetted, or ones denying the extremism claims that led to them being charged under such measures.”
What constitutes “hate speech” and “extremist content” is of course completely subjective, but judging by Cameron’s UN comments it includes those who express non-mainstream political opinions.
Now that Cameron’s Conservative government has secured a majority, with leftist parties that normally act as a check on civil liberties abuses losing influence, we can expect a new surge of authoritarianism to dominate British society over the next few years.
Source
        
Posted: 13 May 2015 01:53 PM PDT
Hua Chunying, spokeswoman of China’s Foreign Ministry.
China has expressed concern over a plan by the United States to bolster its military presence in the disputed waters of the South China Sea in a move the Pentagon has described as ‘demonstrating freedom of navigation.’
“We are severely concerned by relevant remarks made by the American side,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, at a regular briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.
The remarks came in reaction to comments by a US official on the previous day that Washington is considering ways of demonstrating freedom of navigation in the disputed waters.
“Freedom of navigation does not mean that the military vessels or aircraft of a foreign country can willfully enter the territorial waters or airspace of another country,” Chunying stated.
Last week, Washington accused Beijing of rapidly building up to 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of an archipelago of more than a hundred artificial islands on the Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands that could be the first airstrip in the South China Sea.
US officials have expressed concern about China’s construction of airfields, surveillance systems and harbors, claiming that the moves could pose a threat to regional stability.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing the officials on Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter asked staff to explore sending US Navy surveillance aircraft and vessels to the disputed islands.
Beijing claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The disputed territories, which are located in the main shipping routes passing through the South China Sea, are believed to be rich in oil and gas.
Over the past months, tensions have escalated between China and its neighbors over the territories, including the Spratly Islands. The United States has taken sides with its allies against Beijing.
According the the WSJ report, any challenge by the US military in the region could potentially trigger a regional standoff.
Source
        
Posted: 13 May 2015 12:50 PM PDT


Psychiatric drugs lead to the deaths of over 500,000 people aged 65 and over annually in the West, a Danish scientist says. He warns the benefits of these drugs are “minimal,” and have been vastly overstated.
Research director at Denmark’s Nordic Cochrane Centre, Professor Peter Gøtzsche, says the use of most antidepressants and dementia drugs could be halted without inflicting harm on patients. The Danish scientist’s views were published in the British Medical Journal on Tuesday.
His scathing analysis will likely prove controversial among traditional medics. However, concern is mounting among doctors and scientists worldwide that psychiatric medication is doing more harm than good. In particular, they say antipsychotic drugs have been overprescribed to many dementia patients in a bid to calm agitated behavior.
Gøtzsche warns psychiatric drugs kill patients year in year out, and hold few positive benefits. He says in excess of half a million citizens across the Western world aged 65 and over die annually as a result of taking these drugs.
“Their benefits would need to be colossal to justify this, but they are minimal,” he writes.
“Given their lack of benefit, I estimate we could stop almost all psychotropic drugs without causing harm.”
Gøtzsche, who is also a clinical trials expert, says drug trials funded by big pharmaceutical companies tend to produce biased results because many patients took other medication prior to the tests.
He says patients cease taking the old drugs and then experience a phase of withdrawal prior to taking the trial pharmaceuticals, which appear highly beneficial at first.
The Danish professor also warns fatalities from suicides in clinical trials are significantly under-reported.
In the case of antidepressants venlafaxine and fluoxetine, Gøtzsche casts doubt over their efficacy. He said depression lifts in placebo groups given fake tablets almost as promptly as groups who partake in official clinical tests.
He also stressed the results of trials of drugs used to treat schizophrenia are disconcerting, while those for ADHD are ambiguous.
Commenting on the negative side effects of such pharmaceutical drugs, Gøtzsche argued the “short-term relief” appears to be replaced by “long term harm.”
“Animal studies strongly suggest that these drugs can produce brain damage, which is probably the case for all psychotropic drugs,” he said.
“Given their lack of benefit, I estimate we could stop almost all psychotropic drugs without causing harm – by dropping all antidepressants, ADHD drugs and dementia drugs … and using only a fraction of the antipsychotics and benzodiazepines we currently use.”
“This would lead to healthier and more long-lived populations.”
Gøtzsche says psychotropic drugs are “immensely harmful” if used for prolonged periods.
“They should almost exclusively be used in acute situations and always with a firm plan for tapering off, which can be difficult for many patients,” he adds.
Gøtzsche’s views are sharply contradicted by many experts in the field of mental health. But others, including a diverse group of medical experts and institutions affiliated with the Nordic Cochrane Centre, argue otherwise. The Nordic Cochrane Centre is an independent research hub dedicated to scrutinizing and monitoring the effects of health care.
The debate on psychiatric drugs has gathered momentum in recent times. In the discussion, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Gøtzsche’s arguments are contradicted by Professor of Mood Disorders Allan Young and John Crace. Crace, himself a psychiatric patient, writes for the Guardian.
Crace and Young say a broad body of research indicates the drugs are effective and that they are just as helpful as drugs for other ailments. They also argue mental health conditions are the fifth most significant contributor to disabilities worldwide.
While Gøtzsche stresses clinical trials bankrolled by pharma giants churn out skewered results, Young and Crace say the efficacy and safety of psychiatric medication continues to be monitored after research trials come to a close.
However, both Young and Crace acknowledge concern over the side effects and effectiveness of psychiatric medication.
“For some critics, the onus often seems to be on the drug needing to prove innocence from causing harm rather than a balanced approach to evaluating the available evidence,” they write.
“Whether concerns are genuine or an expression of prejudice is not clear, but over time many concerns have been found to be overinflated.”
The BMJ discussion is a preamble to the Maudsley debate at Kings College London on Wednesday. The debate takes place three times a year at the university’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN).
Wednesday’s debate focuses on the impacts of psychiatric medications, and poses the question of whether they prove more destructive for patients than beneficial.
Source