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Wednesday, 21 May 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 21 May 2014 01:27 AM PDT

Amid the ongoing standoff with Russia over Ukraine, the United States is sending another warship to the Black Sea.
According to Pentagon officials, a guided missile cruiser, the USS Vella Gulf, is sailing to the region to reassure US allies over what they describe as Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.
Washington launched a military buildup in the Balkans in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.
It has sent troops to several eastern European countries and held several NATO military maneuvers in the region.
In March, the United States deployed the Navy destroyer the USS Truxtun.
The Navy frigate the USS Taylor has also been in the strategic waters of the Black Sea two times in recent months.
However, the presence of US warships violates a 1936 convention, which bars extra-regional countries from keeping warships in the Black Sea for more than 21 days.
Vella Gulf, a Ticonderoga class Aegis guided missile cruiser, is equipped with Aegis air and ballistic missile defense system, and has 122 missiles in the inventory, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, ASROC antisubmarine missiles, and surface-to-air missiles.
The missile cruiser also accommodates two multipurpose helicopters.
Tensions between Washington and Moscow heightened after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of the Russian Federation following a referendum in March.
The United States accuses Russia of violating Ukraine’s sovereignty by stirring up pro-Russia protests in the Eastern European nation.
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Posted: 21 May 2014 01:18 AM PDT

They say even under perfect conditions, it couldn’t be possible, yet somehow, paleontologists have unearthed a preserved dinosaur foot deep in the heart of the Gobi Desert in Southern Mongolia.
“I wouldn’t believe any reports if I hadn’t been there,” said paleontologist Dr. Greg Hudkins, who was one of several experts sent on the dig. “But I saw it, and I felt it. I’ve analyzed it. That thing is the foot of a real dinosaur.”
Scientists have released one photo of what they’re calling the “find that will define this century.” After an already successful day of digging, the group reportedly came across a small, warm pocket beneath the rocks. They believe the beast had its leg stuck in the wet pocket around 70 million years ago. However, how it stayed preserved for that long is a question no one is capable of answering just yet.
“We’re not sure how that could be,” Hudkins said. “But I know what this is. It’s the foot of some theropod, a raptor-like creature, perhaps. But much bigger.”
Hudkins maintains that there are thousands of dinosaur genera that have not been discovered, so no immediate label is not alarming and a mystery that may take time. The larger question will still be how the foot with skin, bones and tissue could have made it this far. The group will reportedly take on these questions in separate groups. They will publish their findings, including verification that the foot is absolutely real, in an upcoming issue of the journal Science.
Scientists are also beginning to extrapolate clues about other dinosaurs from the photographic evidence provided.
        
Posted: 20 May 2014 06:41 AM PDT

Scientists in Argentina say they have found the remains of what could be the largest dinosaur ever to have walked the planet. By analyzing the fossils, they say it could have been 40 meters in length and weighed 77 tons – as much as 14 elephants.
The discovery was made by a local farm worker in Patagonia. The fossils were then excavated by a team of paleontologists from the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol. The scientists were able to calculate the size of the dinosaur by measuring the size of the thighbone.
They unearthed the partial skeletons of seven individuals – about 150 bones in total – all in “remarkable condition.” Speaking to the BBC, they added, “Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth.”
“Its length, from its head to the tip of its tail, was 40m. Standing with its neck up, it was about 20m high – equal to a seven-story building,” they added.
The dinosaur is a type of titanosaur, the largest creatures in earth’s history. The team who made the discovery said that the fossils proved diplodocids roamed South America during the early Cretaceous era, millions of years after scientists thought these kinds of dinosaurs had become extinct.
Despite being what could be the world’s largest ever dinosaur, it still does not have a name.
“It will be named describing its magnificence and in honor to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery,” the researchers said.
However, Dr Paul Barrett, a dinosaur expert from London’s Natural History Museum, who agreed the new species is “a genuinely big critter,” he cautioned that a number of sauropod thigh bones of comparable dimensions had been discovered in the past. Paleontologists also had various methods for calculating size and weight from incomplete skeletons, he added.
“Without knowing more about this current find it’s difficult to be sure,” Dr Barrett said, according to the BBC. “One problem with assessing the weight of both Argentinosaurus and this new discovery is that they’re both based on very fragmentary specimens – no complete skeleton is known, which means the animal’s proportions and overall shape are conjectural.”
The Argentinosaurus was previously the biggest dinosaur discovered, also in Argentina as the name suggests. It was found in 1987 and was initially believed to have weighed 100 tons, but was revised down to 70 tons after further analysis.
This discovery comes just days after Argentine scientists made another discovery, also in Patagonia, where they uncovered a much smaller sauropod, which was nine meters in length.
It lived about 140 million years ago, millions of years after scientists had previously thought diplodocids had disappeared, according to Argentine paleontologist, Pablo Gallina, one of the researchers.
“Finding Leinkupal was incredibly exciting since we never though it possible. A diplodocid in South America is as strange as finding a T-Rex in Patagonia,” added another of the scientists, Argentine paleontologist Sebastián Apesteguía, referring to the North American dinosaur predator Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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Posted: 20 May 2014 06:27 AM PDT

Thailand’s army has declared martial law across the country amid the political tensions over the past months.
A Thai army statement said the decision was made “to restore peace and order for people from all sides.”
The Thai government says it is still in office and has not been consulted on a military rule.
Tensions deepened in Thailand after the Constitutional Court removed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office on May 7 for abusing power.
The premier’s Pheu Thai Party, however, refused to leave power and immediately replaced Shinawatra with the country’s Commerce Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan.
Protesters are pushing the Thai Senate and the country’s courts to remove the caretaker administration and install a non-elected prime minister. They say they will obstruct the elections set for July that would likely give the ruling party a victory.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s Election Commission called for a delay in a key parliamentary vote due to political unrest that has disrupted preparations for the polls.
The appeal for the delay came following an attack on May 15 against an anti-government demonstration in the capital, Bangkok, which left three people dead and nearly two dozen others injured.
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Posted: 20 May 2014 06:15 AM PDT

Children as young as nine will be given controversial drugs on the NHS to prepare them for sex-swap surgery, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The treatment, which halts the onset of adulthood, is aimed at youngsters who believe they are trapped in the wrong body. But critics accused the clinic offering the puberty- postponing injections of ‘playing God’.
‘I think many people will be horrified at the thought of a nine-year-old being provided with a drug that effectively stops them developing and maturing naturally,’ said Conservative MP Andrew Percy.
Others insisted that undisputed research shows that the vast majority of under-16s who are troubled about their gender do not go on to take the drastic step of surgery. Many turn out to be gay, but no longer feel confused about whether they are male or female.
Although the gender treatment is reversible, there are concerns about the long-term effects on brain development, bone growth and fertility.
The drugs, known as hypothalamic blockers, stunt the development of sexual organs so less surgery is required if a child chooses to change sex after reaching adolescence.
Monthly injections into the stomach suppress the production of testosterone and oestrogen. In girls that halts the menstrual cycle and the development of breasts. In boys, they stop facial hair growing and voice changes.
Doctors at The Tavistock And Portman NHS Foundation Trust in North London have just completed a three-year trial involving 12- to 14-year-olds, assessing the ‘psychological, social and physical benefits and risks involved’.
Because the trial was deemed such a success, medics have decided to make the drugs more widely available – and to much younger children. Yet only five years ago national guidelines stated that treatment for ‘gender dysphoria’ should not start until puberty had finished.
Dr Polly Carmichael, who led the Tavistock trial, said decisions will now be based on the ‘stage’ of sexual development rather than age.
‘We’re talking about stopping puberty in the normal range of puberty, so I guess the younger age might be ten or nine,’ she said.
Asked if she expected children younger that the survey group to now come forward, she replied: ‘Yes, definitely… because some will be starting [puberty] earlier.’
Monthly shots: The children are injected with Gonapeptyl, which costs £82 a time.
Research has found puberty is starting earlier in Western children. A recent study found the average age for American girls was nine years and ten months – a full year earlier than a similar study 15 years ago.
Tory MP Mark Pritchard said: ‘With competing NHS resources, especially for life-saving cancer drugs, there needs to be an immediate investigation into why these drugs are being prescribed to those so young.’
The Tavistock and Portman is the UK’s only specialist clinic for youngsters diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
It was previously caught up in controversy in 2012 when it diagnosed Zach Avery – a five-year-old boy allowed to live as a girl – with the condition.
The clinic was first given public funding in 2009 when, on average, it treated about 100 under-18s every year for the condition, which affects one in 4,000 people in Britain.
The number of annual referrals has now increased to about 500, reflecting the growth of a new, largely taxpayer-funded industry.
There are now about 150 transgender support groups in Britain. Those diagnosed with gender dysphoria can be prioritised by local councils for housing as ‘vulnerable people’.
One public figure, who refused to be named, said: ‘This is about policing the behaviour of little girls and boys.
‘So tomboys and boys who like to play with dolls are immediately seen as transgender. All the liberals think they are supporting transgender rights with this, but what they are really doing is mutilating healthy bodies to help people “fit in”.’
But supporters of the injection treatment say the drugs give children who are confused about their gender a much-needed ‘window’ before they take on too many masculine or feminine features. This, they say, prevents mental anguish – and will reduce the amount of surgery needed if they do go ahead with an operation.
Dr Carmichael said that the treatment takes ‘away some of the fear and distress young people go through if they feel their body is going in the wrong direction’.
But Professor Anne Dreger, a leading bioethics expert, said: ‘Putting children on puberty-blocking hormones, may, for some, cement the idea that they are transgender when perhaps they are not.’
Only eight of the 32 children diagnosed with gender dysphoria who took part in the Tavistock trial went on to start the sex change process.
But Dr Carmichael said: ‘Now we’ve done the study and the results thus far have been positive we’ve decided to continue with it. So we’ve decided to do “stage not age” [as the criterion] because it’s obviously fairer. Twelve is an arbitrary age.
‘If they started puberty aged nine or ten instead of 12, as long as they’re monitored and the bone density doesn’t suffer, then it is right that the aim is to stop the development of secondary sex characteristics.’
Dr Carmichael stressed that the injections are only given to children who meet strict criteria. They must have parental consent, normal bone density and weight, and no serious mental health problems.
The best-known brand of blocker is Gonapeptyl, which costs £82 per dose, and possible side-effects include depression, rashes, asthma and ovarian cysts.
The Tavistock accepts that while the effects of the drugs are temporary, and puberty will resume if you stop taking them, there are risks.
To be considered for the treatment, children need to have ‘demonstrated an intense pattern of cross-gendered behaviours and identity’ for at least five years. This means nine-year-old boys would have had to behaved like girls, and vice-versa, since the age of four.
While the clinic makes clear that the ‘young person’ must be ‘able to give informed consent’ for the procedure, critics argue that it is beyond the grasp of even the brightest nine-year-old to fully understand the full implications.
Dr Carmichael believes the rise in numbers attending the clinic is because more people are aware of gender identity issues.
Previously, parents who wanted their children to undergo gender treatment in the early stages of puberty had to travel to countries such as Holland, Belgium and the United States.
As a result, campaign groups sprang up to try to persuade the UK to follow their example.
One particularly influential campaign group is the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES), founded in 2010 by Bernard and Terry Reed, whose adult daughter is a transsexual.
The group’s influence extends to giving policy advice to the NHS, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and the Home Office
However, with the battle to lower the age of children receiving hormone blocking jabs in the UK seemingly won, even Dr Carmichael cautioned: ‘Some people think this is absolutely the way to go and actually I don’t think it’s right for everybody in this situation.
‘It has to be about balancing risks and benefits.’
How Lily became Leo on clinic’s trial at the age of 12 with hormone blockers
Leo Waddell was one of the young people who started taking hormone blockers on the Tavistock and Portman clinic’s trial at the age of just 12.
The schoolboy, who began life as Lily, has favoured boy’s clothes over dresses and frills since he was a toddler and at the age of nine told his mother: ‘I don’t want to be a girl any more.’
He admitted that if he had been forced to continue living as a girl, ‘I would probably kill myself’.
Leo described being referred to the gender identity development service in 2001 as ‘amazing’ because he was finally able to start living his life.
Initially ‘Lily’s’ mother Hayley, pictured, left, with her son, thought her desire to act like a boy would be something she would grow out of, but as she got older and continued to reject all things feminine she realised this wasn’t the case.
At the age of 11 she allowed Lily to change her name by deed poll to Leo.
But Leo, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, recalled how even with his family’s understanding, he still struggled.
He said: ‘School was tough. It was normal until year six, but then when I got my name changed they wouldn’t call me Leo for about three months, and then when they started calling me Leo they still wouldn’t call me “he”, they carried on calling me “she”.’
His mother added: ‘Especially where we come from there was a lot of ignorance surrounding gender dysphoria because no one had heard of it – not the doctor, not the schools, not even social services.’
So, is NHS right to offer this treatment to 9-year-olds?
Objections: Victoria Gillick says the treatment plays fast and loose with children’s futures
NO, says VICTORIA GILLICK, a pro-life campaigner who brought landmark court case against health authorities giving under-16s the pill
I think it’s an appalling idea. How can they possibly know at such an early stage of their psychological development if they should go one way or another?
This is destroying a child’s future before he or she is old enough even to give a valid consent to treatment.
They shouldn’t be giving unnecessary drugs to children anyway.
We know now that too much Ritalin has been prescribed to children who are supposedly hyperactive and this strikes me as another example of the medical profession jumping in with drugs when what the children need is probably a different form of caring.
This is playing fast and loose with a child’s future.
Let the child develop naturally until they are of an age, at least 16, to give valid consent to treatment.
That was the argument I always put against giving contraceptives to a child, which will affect every cell in their body.
There will, in the future, be an awful lot of doctors who will be sued by older men and women for having done something to them before they were of an age to understand what the significance of it was.
The children are not of an age to decide and it’s probably the parents who need more and better counselling rather than starting to medicate their children so drastically.
Most parents would think this is the medical profession going too far.
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Posted: 20 May 2014 04:39 AM PDT

Malaysia’s former prime minister says the CIA spy agency is hiding crucial facts about the destiny of the missing Malaysian Airlines plane.
Commenting on his personal weblog on Sunday, Mahathir Mohamad questioned crash scenario for the plane.
He said CIA and the Boeing Company may be withholding data on the flight, but for some reasons, media outlets are not printing anything on this story.
The former Malaysian premier also said the plane could have been switched onto autopilot remotely by the US spy agency and may have landed somewhere, and then had its Malaysian Airlines markings removed.
“The ‘uninterruptible’ autopilot would be activated—either by pilot, by on board sensors, or even remotely by radio or satellite links by government agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency, if terrorists attempt to gain control of the flight deck,” he said.
“Clearly Boeing and certain agencies have the capacity to take over ‘uninterruptible control’ of commercial airliners of which MH370 B777 is one.”
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER which was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to the Chinese capital, Beijing, lost contact with Malaysian air traffic control two hours into the flight at 2:40 a.m. local time on March 8, 120 nautical miles (140 miles; 225 kilometers) off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu.
A multi-nation search has failed to find any clue weeks after the presumed crash.
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Posted: 20 May 2014 04:32 AM PDT

Briton’s wealthiest people own a third of the country’s GDP, with a combined fortune of 874 billion dollars, which is an increase of 15.4 percent on last year’s total, according to an annual survey.
The Sunday Times Rich List shows that the United Kingdom’s richest are richer than ever before, which is in sharp contrast with many ordinary Britons who are struggling after five years of austerity.
“I’ve never seen such a phenomenal rise in personal wealth as the growth in the fortunes of Britain’s 1,000 richest people over the past year,” said Philip Beresford, who has compiled the list since 1989.
“The richest people in Britain have never had it so good,” he told Reuters. “The challenge now for the government and the rich themselves is to see this wealth percolate downwards and outwards, out of London and towards the North and West of the country.”
Russian metals and mining magnate, Alisher Usmanov, who is also a major shareholder in Arsenal football club, has been knocked off top spot on the list, as his fortune fell to $17.9 billion.
The Indian born brothers, Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who have a combined wealth of $20 billion, have replaced him. The pair have made their fortune in a wide range of fields, from banking to oil.
There are now more than 100 billionaires living in the United Kingdom, but there are only three Britons in the top 20 in the country, which includes David and Fredrick Barclay. They are the only self-made billionaires within the group, amassing their fortune through property development and publishing.
The richest Briton, the Duke of Westminster, is ranked 10th with a property-based fortune of $14.2 billion. Queen Elizabeth has added $16.8 million to her personal wealth and is now ranked equal 285th with $555 million.
In the list of the 50 Young Rich, aged 30 and under, 24-year-old ‘Harry Potter’ star Emma Watson is now worth $50.4 million, which is a ten percent increase from the previous year.
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