Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday, 3 July 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 02 Jul 2014 03:26 PM PDT

Seven Internet service providers, including the UK-based GreenNet, have filed an official complaint at the investigatory powers tribunal in London charging Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) with illegal surveillance.
The ISPs come from the US, UK Germany, South Korea, the Netherlands and Zimbabwe.
They have also joined forces with the anti-surveillance charity Privacy International, who unsuccessfully tried to take GCHQ to court last year over its use of spyware trained on UK internet users. The group accuses the agency of breaching UK laws, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights, which is designed to protect the privacy of all EU citizens.
“These widespread attacks on providers and collectives undermine the trust we all place on the internet and greatly endangers the world’s most powerful tool for democracy and free expression.” Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said in a statement.
The move follows last year’s revelations by ex-CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who exposed the global surveillance program PRISM deployed by the US National Security Agency.
“Snowden’s revelations have exposed GCHQ’s view that independent operators like GreenNet are legitimate targets for internet surveillance, so we could be unknowingly used to collect data on our users. We say this is unlawful and utterly unacceptable in a democracy,” Cedric Knight, of GreenNet, told BBC News.
However, a GCHQ spokesman insisted the organization’s work operates “in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate.”
It is the first time GCHQ will have to face a private company in a courtroom.
The legal challenge comes following reports published this year in Der Spiegel earlier, which published reports claiming that Belgian telecoms employees were monitored and targeted by the British spy agency, based in Cheltenham in western England.
The reports also suggested that German internet exchange points were targeted, which allowed GCHQ to monitor internet traffic and infect users’ computers with viruses.
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Posted: 02 Jul 2014 03:20 PM PDT

India has summoned the top American diplomat at the US embassy in New Delhi to protest, for the third time, US spying efforts following new charges that its National Security Agency (NSA) targeted India’s ruling party.
The development on Wednesday came after a new document supplied by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was made public by the Washington Post on Monday showing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was among authorized targets for the US spy agency in 2010, when it was India’s main opposition.
“What we have said is that we expect a response and an assurance that this won’t happen again,” said an unnamed Indian Foreign Ministry source, who spoke to the AFP on condition of anonymity.
New Delhi has complained to Washington on two other occasions, in July and November 2013, over other revelations, including the disclosure that its UN mission in New York and its Washington embassy were under surveillance.
On both occasions, said the source, Washington said it would look into what it can share about its espionage program but failed to offer any details.
“We have said that we would like a response, which we haven’t received,” he said.
The latest incident comes ahead of a visit to New Delhi by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is expected to meet members of Modi’s government in the next few months.
Meanwhile, Modi is scheduled to travel to the US in September for the United Nations General Assembly and his first meeting with President Barack Obama.
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Posted: 02 Jul 2014 03:01 PM PDT


New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio fully supports President Obama’s plan to bypass Congress by using executive actions to further enact amnesty for illegal aliens.
During a press conference earlier today, the Democratic mayor said Obama “has every right to act in every way he can” to implement so-called “immigration reform” by himself.
“If Congress is uninterested in acting on crucial national issues that have fundamental national impact on our future as a country, then the president has every right to act in every way he can,” de Blasio said, suggesting that the best way to deal with the undocumented “fellow residents of this country” right now is through amnesty by executive fiat.
“I think the president doesn’t have a lot of choice here,” he added. “I think he’s tried for years to find common ground with the Republican House members and to address something that obviously has to be responded to in this country.”
After becoming mayor in January, De Blasio spent the first six months of his term giving free benefits to illegals.
“We want to make sure that no son or daughter of our city goes without the bank accounts, the leases, the library cards that make everyday life possible simply because they lack identification,” he said when he announced an earlier plan to grant city IDs to anyone, regardless of their citizenship status.
Obama would like to enact similar measures for illegal immigrants across the U.S. and is more than willing to use his “pen and phone” to do so.
“We’re not always going to be able to get things through Congress, at least not this Congress,” Obama said earlier today when he dared representatives to try and block his executive actions. “I want to make sure we emphasize not what we can’t do, but what we can do in the coming months.”
Bypassing Congress, however, is not only unconstitutional, but it also sets a dangerous precedent for future presidents to act dictatorially on issues beyond just illegal immigration.
“The president’s taste for unilateral action to circumvent Congress should concern every citizen, regardless of party or ideology,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote in January. “The great 18th-century political philosopher Montesquieu observed: ‘There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates.’”
“America’s Founding Fathers took this warning to heart, and we should too.”
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Posted: 02 Jul 2014 02:46 PM PDT

A young Australian tourist who was celebrating the end of her studies with her best friend in the United States has been shot in the face during a New Orleans gunfight.
The 21-year-old Amy Matthews was shot along with 10 other bystanders when two gunmen began firing shots on Sunday.
A bullet blasted through Amy’s right cheek and exited through her top lip, causing massive injuries to her mouth.
“It shattered the top of my palate in four places and ripped my tongue in several places,” Matthews said. “Because the bullet was so hot, it just ripped through my teeth and burnt a lot of my gums. They had to remove a lot of dead gum.”
The political science and economics graduate from Perth received 30 stitches in her tongue and had a metal support attached to the roof of her mouth.
“I can replace my teeth and my mouth will heal but if it had have been a few centimeters towards my brain or my jugular, who knows?”
New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu visited Matthews, who examined US gun laws for her thesis at the University of Western Australia.
“Because of last year and all the little kids who were shot, I thought something would definitely be done but it just shows you how embedded the whole gun culture is in the US,” she said.
“This won’t deter me from coming back but it makes me angry that the government can’t be strong enough to say, ‘No, something needs to be done’,” she added.
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Posted: 02 Jul 2014 02:29 PM PDT

A million more working Britons have been pushed into poverty because of soaring housing costs and stagnant wages. That’s according to a new UK government report attacked bitterly by unions and rights groups.
New figures published by the UK government reveal that the number of working Britons below the poverty line has risen by at least 1 million. The government, however, insists the poverty numbers keep shrinking.
A report published by the Department for Work and Pensions shows that the number of working age adults living in “absolute poverty” soared from 7.7 million to 8.7 million between 2010-11 and 2012-13.
The Child Poverty Action group also cited the Department of Work and Pensions’ figures saying that children living below the breadline rose from 3.6 million to 4.1 million during the two-year period.
Britain’s Trade Union Congress (TUC) savaged the reports’ findings, suggesting that the government’s policies were causing living standards in the UK to deteriorate.
“Today’s figures clearly show why living standards are falling. While wages have stagnated, and benefits and tax credits have been cut, prices have been rising, especially the cost of housing,” said TUC secretary General Frances O’Grady.
“Since the last election a million more adults and half a million more children fell into absolute poverty when housing costs are taken into account. Without a major affordable home building program and action to secure fair wages, this type of poverty will continue to grow.”
The government insists that poverty has decreased since coming into office in 2010, and that they have been tackling child poverty “at its source.”
Following the publication, a spokesperson for The Department of Work and Pensions said: “The number of people in poverty has fallen by 100,000 over the past year and in-work poverty fell with 200,000 fewer working age adults in families where someone works in poverty.”
“The percentage of individuals in relative poverty is now at the lowest level since the 1980s. Child poverty remains at its lowest level since the 1980s, having fallen by 300,000 since 2009-10.”
Despite the government’s assurances, many remain skeptical that the current anti-poverty strategy is working.
“Today’s child poverty statistics highlight the inconvenient truths for the government that maintaining the value of social security support helps protect families with children from poverty and that work isn’t working for far too many families,” Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said in a statement.
“Child poverty already costs Britain £29 billion a year,” she said. “It’s good to hear that the government says it is sticking to its promise to end child poverty but its strategy simply isn’t delivering. We need actions that improve the childhoods and life chances of poorer children, not just words.”
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Posted: 01 Jul 2014 01:43 PM PDT

China is planning to land a rover on Mars by 2020 and bring back samples from the Red Planet a decade later, according to a top scientist with the country’s Lunar Exploration Program.
The Mars probe will be launching an orbiter and a landing rover, Ouyang Ziyuan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the chief scientists of China’s Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) said on Monday at the 22nd International Planetarium Society Conference in Beijing, with 35 other member countries in attendance.
The central goal of the mission is to explore extraterrestrial activity and research the planet’s environment, Ouyang explained. “The mission will also mark the beginning of China’s deeper voyages into outer space,” the Shanghai Daily quoted him as saying.
Ouyang presented a timetable for the mission, to land the rover by 2020 and collect samples from the Red Planet a decade later.
China is also planning to conduct further space explorations, including looking for signs of life on other planets.
China’s Mars program began in 2009 in cooperation with Russia. However, the Chinese probe Yinghuo-1, which was carried by the Russian spacecraft Fobos-Grunt, crashed shortly after lift-off in 2011. Following the accident, China continued with its own Mars probe.
Just last month, a Chinese team emerged from a sealed capsule, in which they subsisted on mealworms and plants for over three months in a study designed to determine if the high-protein diet could be used in lengthy space travel.
In 2013, China landed the unmanned lunar rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit) on the Moon as part of its Chang’e-3 mission. By 2017, the Chinese plan to bring back rock samples from the Moon.
Also, by 2020 – the year the International Space Station is scheduled to be retired, Beijing plans to operate a comparable, full-manned orbital lab of its own.
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Posted: 01 Jul 2014 01:33 PM PDT

Hospital antibiotics have become one of the most over prescribed “medicines” today
As a result people have ruined their digestive systems, and ironically, have lowered their natural immunity to all types of infections in the future. Get rid if infections without the digestive destruction, with these five powerful natural antibiotics.
Garlic
Garlic has been used medicinally by cultures around the world for thousands of years. In fact, it was used in the 1700s to ward off plague.
Garlic possesses potent antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties and is able to help protect and facilitate removal of unfriendly bacteria. It is also very high in natural antioxidants that destroy free radicals, which also supports a strong immune system.
The active ingredient in garlic, allicin, is the key component to killing and warding off harmful bacteria. Crush it to activate these compounds, and eat it raw, in a warm tea, or in lightly cooked food.
Colloidal silver
Colloidal silver has been known as an effective antibiotic for centuries. In the early 1900s, Alfred Searle, founder of the Searle pharmaceutical company, discovered that it could kill the most deadly pathogens.
Searle stated that applying colloidal silver to human subjects has been done in a large number of cases with astonishing results. The main advantage was that it was rapidly fatal to microbes without toxic action on its host.
Recent research has also stated that colloidal silver can destroy antibiotic resistant microbes like MRSA, the bird flu, and SARS.
Oil of oregano
Oil of oregano takes care of pathogenic bacteria without disrupting beneficial bacteria. It is also antiviral and antifungal which makes it a powerful three-in-one combination that rivals pharmaceuticals while not encouraging antibiotic resistance.
The key antimicrobial ingredient in oil of oregano is carvacrol. You should ensure that your source is at least 70 percent carvacrol content in order to be effective.
Echinacea
Echinacea has been used to treat a wide variety of infections for hundreds of years. Traditionally, it was used to treat open wounds, diphtheria, blood poisoning, and other bacterial related illnesses.
Today, this potent herb is used mostly for colds and flu, due to its ability to destroy the most dangerous forms of bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus, which causes deadly MRSA.
Manuka honey
Perhaps the most palatable antibiotic comes in the form of manuka honey. Applied topically it can kill a wide range of pathogens including MRSA and flesh-eating bacteria. It was also found that the treated bacteria did not build up any resistance, which would eventually render manuka honey ineffective.
This is certainly not an exhaustive list of natural antibiotics, but a great start for an all natural pharmacy. Also consider reishi, pau d’arco, una de gato, olive leaf extract, cloves, turmeric, and even lemons to round out your antibiotic arsenal.
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Posted: 01 Jul 2014 01:16 PM PDT
A revised map issued over the weekend by ISIS claims territory in Spain and Eastern parts of Europe. On Friday we reported on the ISIS five year expansion plan. It shows the Middle East, including Israel, the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and India.
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the terror army supported by Saudi Arabia, theCIA and trained by the Pentagon, has declared a caliphate in the Middle East. It has changed its name to the Islamic State, dispensing with Iraq, Sham and the Levant.
The announcement was made on the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy day. An ISIS spokesman said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the leader of the declared caliphate reaching from Syria into Iraq.
The shadowy al-Baghdadi may actually be several people using the same nom de guerre, according to Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb, a former British special forces commander. He was reportedly held as a “civilian internee” at Camp Bucca in Iraq and released in December, 2004.
The spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, said all Muslims worldwide will be required to pay allegiance to al-Baghdadi. “The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organizations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph’s authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas,” explained al-Adnani. “Listen to your caliph and obey him. Support your state, which grows every day.”
He characterized the establishment of the caliphate as “a new era of international jihad.”
It is unlikely members of the world’s second largest religion, totaling 1.6 billion people, will recognize the caliphate and pay allegiance to al-Baghdadi.
More realistically, the move is intended to shore up support in the areas controlled by ISIS, now simply IS, and serve as propaganda for the incremental expansion of the jihadist movement into other areas of the Middle East, most notably Jordan, and Africa.
ISIS propaganda video capture shows plan to move into Jordan.
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Posted: 01 Jul 2014 01:11 PM PDT

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been detained for questioning over influence-peddling, judicial sources say.
Sarkozy turned himself in early on Tuesday to be quizzed by investigators at their offices in Nanterre, west of Paris, after his lawyer Thierry Herzog was held for questioning on Monday, sources told Reuters.
The investigators are seeking to establish if the former president, with the help of Herzog, attempted to divert the course of justice during his term in office by promising a prestigious role to a high-ranking judge in exchange for information.
Investigators are trying to find out whether the 59-year-old politician obtained inside information from the magistrate about the progress of a separate probe into the alleged financing of his 2007 election campaign by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and illegal donations from French billionaire Liliane Bettencourt.
According to reports, Gilbert Azibert, one of the most senior judges at the court of appeal, was also called in for questioning on Monday. Another judge, Patrick Sassoust, was also held for investigation.
Under French law, corruption investigators can hold suspects in criminal cases for up to 48 hours for questioning before charging them with any crime or releasing them.
The development is seen as a blow to Sarkozy’s plans to run for president again in 2017.
The case is one of six legal probes involving the former president, including a new one this year into separate irregularities in his unsuccessful election campaign in 2012. Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party is said to have ordered fake invoices to cover the costs of the campaign.
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Posted: 01 Jul 2014 12:02 PM PDT

The Israeli Air Force bombed dozens of sites in the Gaza Strip hours after a search for three missing young Israelis led to discovery of their dead bodies. The Israeli government is contemplating further action.
The airstrikes on 34 targets were conducted on Tuesday morning in a standard Israeli response to rocket launches from the Gaza Strip, the IAF reported. The tension has been reaching the boiling point amid two weeks of door-to-door searches and arrests in the Palestinian territories by the IDF. Palestinian militants launched five rockets at Israel overnight, or over 20 projectiles since late Sunday.
Palestinian rockets caused damaged to a building in Israel, while Israeli bombs left several people lightly injured.
Also overnight a Palestinian man was killed by the IDF as he was trying to throw a home-made grenade at a group of Israeli soldiers conducting arrests in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. The killed man was identified as Yousouf Ibrahim abu Zagha, 19, by the Palestinians. Several people have been killed amid clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians angered by the Israeli searches and arrests over the two weeks.
The Israeli government has blamed the Palestinian militant movement Hamas for the alleged abduction of three Israelis aged between 16 and 19, who went missing on June 12. Many of the people arrested by the Israeli forces have links to Hamas.
Hamas warned Israel against waging war on the Gaza Strip, saying this would “open the gates of hell” on Israel. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that Israel bears responsibility for the latest escalation in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile the bodies discovered Monday afternoon in a field northwest of Hebron have been identified as belonging to Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel, and Eyal Yifrah, the missing teenagers.
On Tuesday, United Nations human rights spokesman Ravina Shamdasani pressed both sides to exercise “maximum restraint” following the discovery of the bodies near the West Bank city of Hebron.
“We urge all parties to refrain from punishing individuals for offences they have not personally committed or by imposing collective penalties,” Shamdasani told a news briefing in Geneva.
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Posted: 30 Jun 2014 03:59 PM PDT

Previously undisclosed files leaked to the media by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden now show that the United States National Security Agency has been authorized to spy on persons in all but four countries.
The Washington Post published on Monday official documents provided by Mr. Snowden that shows new proof concerning the extent of the NSA’s vast surveillance apparatus.
One of the documents, a file marked “top secret” from 2010 and approved by the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, shows that the NSA has been authorized to conduct surveillance on 193 foreign government, as well as various factions and organizations around the world, including the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Virtually no foreign government is off-limits for the National Security Agency, which has been authorized to intercept information from individuals ‘concerning’ all but four countries on Earth, according to top-secret documents,” journalists Ellen Nakashima and Barton Gellman wrote for the Post.
The reporters write that the NSA’s ability to target the communications of foreign persons and parties is “far more elastic” than previously known, and that documents suggest the agency can acquire conversations that may not involve an intelligence target directly, but concern that individual or entity to a certain degree by relying on provisions contained within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Unless, of course, that person of interest is a citizen of one of the ‘Five Eyes’ nations that, together with the US, are involved in a global surveillance partnership of sorts.
According to the Post, the NSA’s computers automatically filter out phone calls from Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that would otherwise be collected using FISA. Even those nations, however, aren’t entirely sparred.
Nakashima and Gellman go on to acknowledge that the list contains 28 sovereign territories, including the British Virgin Islands, where the NSA reportedly still does permit intelligence gathering filtering out those country codes would otherwise slow the system down.
One former senior defense official who spoke to the journalists on condition of anonymity said that the broad authority is allowed so that the US government is able to assess any developing situations around the world at the drop of a hat.
“It’s not impossible to imagine a humanitarian crisis in a country that’s friendly to the United States, where the military might be expected on a moment’s notice to go in and evacuate all Americans,” the official said. “If that certification did not list the country,” the source suggested, then the NSA could not gather intelligence under the FISA Amendments Act, which allows for the interception of such communications.
“These documents show both the potential scope of the government’s surveillance activities and the exceedingly modest role the court plays in overseeing them,” Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post.
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Posted: 30 Jun 2014 03:15 PM PDT
Lesbian activist Masha Gessen: “The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change, and… I don’t think it should exist.”
Gay pride marches this past weekend spotlighted the effort by the Obama administration to elevate homosexuality and use it as a political weapon.
Diplomats reportedly took part in gay pride parades and embassies flew the rainbow flag along with the official flag of the United States government.
“President Barack Obama has taken the U.S. gay rights revolution global, using American embassies across the world to promote a cause that still divides his own country,” theAssociated Press reported on Saturday.
It was the “Obama administration that launched the push to make lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights an international issue,” the AP notes.
The United States sent five openly gay ambassadors abroad last year, with a sixth nominee, to Vietnam, now awaiting Senate confirmation. American diplomats are working to support gay rights in countries such as Poland, where prejudice remains deep, and to oppose violence and other abuse in countries like Nigeria and Russia, where gays face life-threatening risks.
According to the American Family Association, “the core goal of the homosexual movement is to abolish the traditional, Christian view of human sexuality, marriage and family.”
The AFA does not elaborate in detail on the homosexual agenda and its ultimate goal, the destruction of the concept of marriage and the dissolution of the traditional family.
Gay activists, however, speak openly about the agenda now pushed by the Obama administration and the State Department.
“For quite some time, the defenders of natural marriage have attempted to point out that the true agenda behind the homosexual demands organizations is not marriage equality; it is the total unraveling of marriage and uprooting traditional values from society.”
The lesbian activist Masha Gessen believes the objective is not gay marriage, but the dissolution of marriage in favor of polygamist family arrangements:

“I agree that we should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that it is a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist,” Gessen says in the above video. “Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we’re going to do with marriage when we get there, because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change, and again, I don’t think it should exist.”
“Last Thursday the State Department hosted its now annual Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies Pride day,” Austin Ruse wrote on June 23. “One of the speakers was journalist and LGBT activist Masha Gessen.”
Secretary of State Kerry praised Gessen because she is proven a useful tool in the new cold war. “The government in Moscow may look at Masha as a troublemaker to contend with, but here in the United States, we know that she is a wonderful person – a mother, a journalist, an extraordinary human rights defender – and we are honored by her presence here,” Kerry said.
Gessen also represents the new sort of diplomat the elite want representing the United States as the government reflects the social and political agenda of the elite who are primarily interested in depopulation and eugenics in an effort to cull a herd.
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Posted: 30 Jun 2014 03:10 PM PDT

A study performed by the Institute of Demographics and Migration Policies in Cyprus, caused shock. According to the study, Greek Cypriots are already almost the minority on the island and will definitely be the minority in the coming years.
According to the 2011 census, the Greek Cypriots only number at 572,000, with a downward trend. The president of the Institute for Population and Migration Policy, Yiannakis Matsis, announcing the results of the study, he stated “population disaster” is occurring, since at this time Greek Cypriots are outnumbered by inhabitants in the occupied areas and Muslims across all of Cyprus.
Of great concern also are also the low birth rate among Greek Cypriots, an aging population, and the immigration problem.
Economist and member of the institute, Penelope Christophoridou, stated that “the high rate of natural births in the occupied areas, but also with the incoming waves in the coming years, the settlers will number between 500,000 to 800,000.”
“With a careful analysis of the numbers it can be concluded that in the Republic the Greek Cypriots, about (572,000) are already in the minority, with whatever that entails,” said Mrs. Christoforidou.
She added that “there should be a demographic and migration policy designed and implemented, with targeted measures for the protection and preservation of our national identity and culture as well as safeguarding the population ratio in Cyprus”.
She recommended the policy should chiefly aim to minimize migration of Cypriot citizens, especially young people, who, given the economic crisis, began to migrate to other countries to find work, while simultaneously reducing migration to non-Cypriots to Cyprus.
Editors note: One wonders if Greek Cypriots in America like Endy Zemenides of HALC or Nicholas Karacostas of AHEPA will back such a demographic policy for Cyprus, or will they keep supporting their Zionist friends instead?
It was also mentioned that in Cyprus there is a large and worrisome climate over the low birthrate of Greek Cypriots, the aging population, and a large immigration problem, with both inflows and outflows, noting that “according to information of the Cyprus Republic, the population in the liberated areas from 1974 to 1990 had a population increase of 13.7%, while in the occupied areas, the population growth during the same period was 48.35%, due to the mass influx of settlers in 1975 and 1977”.
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Posted: 30 Jun 2014 03:02 PM PDT
A man and a woman struggle to cross a flooded road in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, June 29, 2014.
An emergency agency in Brazil says severe flooding caused by torrential rain in the southern parts of the country has forced more than 50,000 people out of their homes.
The emergency agency for Santa Catarina State said 40,000 people had been evacuated, while in neighboring state, Rio Grande do Sul, 10,700 people had been forced out of their homes following floods caused by a week of heavy rains.
Images of the affected areas showed entire neighborhoods with houses submerged in floodwaters.
The floods have affected 37 cities in Santa Catarina and 59 towns in Rio Grande do Sul, officials said.
According to authorities, between June 23 and 27, Rio Grande do Sul received more than twice the average rainfall for the entire month.
Santa Catarina has seen heavy rains in recent weeks. On June 23, officials said the severe weather had caused an estimated 519 million reals (USD 233 million) in damage.
In addition, the southern Brazilian state of Parana has been affected by torrential rains this month, which caused the Iguazu River to break its banks. The flooding killed at least 13 people in the state and left thousands homeless.
The recent severe weather has also affected Brazil’s neighboring country Paraguay and Argentina.
In Paraguay, some 200,000 people have been forced out of their homes due to heavy rainfall in recent weeks. Meanwhile in Argentina, some 5,000 people were forced out of their homes earlier this month due to flooding in the city of Formosa located at the border to Paraguay.
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Posted: 30 Jun 2014 02:47 PM PDT
The aftermath of an artillery shelling of Slavyansk by the Ukrainian military.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has decided to not prolong the ceasefire with Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, announcing an end to a fragile deal to deescalate tensions in the country’s eastern regions.
“We will attack and will free our land,” Poroshenko said. The ceasefire officially ended at 19:00 GMT, according to a statement that appeared on the president’s website shortly after midnight.
Since then, heavy shelling and intense shooting was reported in the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region.
“The shelling started at 22:25 local time,” American photographer Patrick Lancaster told RT by phone from Kramatorsk. “We are in the basement of the Kramatorsk Hotel. About two hours ago, mortaring started on the center of the city. Each wave lasted anywhere between five to 20 minutes, and there were three different waves of mortars. I don’t have any direct information about wounded or killed, but there were so many explosions that I really think there is large number of casualties.”
“We are still waiting for another wave of mortaring,” blogger Christian, sitting in the same cellar with Lancaster, told RT. “We really are scared that it might happen again.”
“We are in the basement now. With us there are around 10 other people. Most of them are old people,” Christian said, adding that he convinced them to stay because of the extreme danger posed by the shelling. The blogger said it is “absolutely impossible” that there were no casualties, as they heard “dozens” of shells hitting the city.
According to an Itar-Tass source, the attack by Ukrainian troops began at 19:30 GMT. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military claimed that it was the militia who launched the attack, killing several service members.
The newly-elected president said that the decision to unilaterally end the ceasefire was taken after his meeting with Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. Poroshenko told Ukrainians that “peace” is the end game, but the “tools” of achieving it have changed.
“Protection of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, security and lives of civilians requires not only defensive, but offensive action against terrorists-militants. Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Service, the Security Service received appropriate orders,” Poroshenko said, adding that they “are no longer limited to the ceasefire.”
The decision to end the ceasefire comes despite peacekeeping efforts from both Russia and Europe. In a final effort to influence Kiev’s decision, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered earlier on Monday for border checkpoints on the Russian side to be monitored by representatives of the Ukrainian Border Service, as well as OSCE observers, for “the joint control of the border,” in order to ensure there were no crossing points being used for illegal purposes.
“Non-renewal of the ceasefire is our response to terrorists, rebels, looters, all those who torment the civilians, who paralyze the economy of the region, who disturb payment of salaries, pensions, stipends, who undermines the railroads, destroys water pipes, those who deprive people of normal peaceful life,” Poroshenko said in an address to the nation.
Poroshenko has put all the blame for truce failure on representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk militias, claiming they violated the ceasefire “over 100 times,” thus losing this “unique opportunity” to implement a peace plan. Poroshenko added that within the timeframe of the temporary truce, international support for Ukraine’s actions grew stronger, as Kiev managed to sign the EU Association Agreement.
“Political leadership of separatists demonstrated unwillingness and inability to control the actions of their terrorist units and gangs of looters,” Poroshenko said.
Despite numerous documented assaults by Ukrainian forces on Lugansk and Donetsk regions – which killed dozens of civilians during what was supposed to be a ceasefire – Poroshenko was quick to assure the public that Ukraine’s military conduct is noble in nature.
“Ukrainian Armed Forces, National Guard, and other units would never allow themselves to use force against peaceful people. They will never assault the residential quarters. Ukrainian soldiers and guards will be risking their lives, so as not to expose threats to women, children and elderly people,” Poroshenko said, adding that “such is the eternal nature of the Ukrainian military valor.”
Poroshenko asked for “understanding” from the people of Donetsk and Lugansk regions for his decision to renew military assault. “I ask you to be our allies in returning security to Donbass,” he said, offering those still with arms to voluntarily surrender in return for a “presidential amnesty.”
The destroyed facade of a residential building in the Artyom microdistrict in the town of Slavyansk after the Ukrainian army’s shelling.
At the end of the speech, Poroshenko said that the “peace plan, as a strategy for Ukraine and Donbass” is still in force, as well as the promised rights for the Russian language in the region. Disarmament and decentralization, Poroshenko said, are also on the table. He promised to implement the EU scheme to provide employment opportunities, and stated that Kiev is willing to pay for damages inflicted.
“And even to the ceasefire, we are ready to return at any moment, when we see that all parties adhere to the implementation of the main points of the peace plan.”
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 08:38