NATO Chief Warns Of Challenges After 'Black Year'
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
NATO Chief Warns Of Challenges After 'Black Year'by noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance must prepare for further challenges after a "black year" of Russian intervention in Ukraine and terror attacks on Europe's streets.
Донецк. Обстрел Дома культуры by Радио Свобода
 |
В Донецке в пятницу под обстрел попал Дом культуры, где находится пункт выдачи гуманитарной помощи. Погибли...
|
From: Радио Свобода
Views: 10045
   41 |
| Time: 01:39 | More in News & Politics |
A brilliant British TV show reflects a modern-day dystopia, made in America.
At least six people were killed in shelling which hit a cultural center and a bus in the separatist-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on January 30. Separately, the Ukrainian government said five of its troops were killed in the previous 24 hours. The casualties came at the end of one of the bloodiest weeks in Ukraine for several months. Warning: Contains disturbing images. (Reuters)
Putin Calls on Russian Regions to ‘Independently’ Struggle with Crisis by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, January 30 – In a move that recalls Mikhail Gorbachev’s times and that the current Kremlin leader may come to regret, Vladimir Putin has called on Russia’s regions to “formulate their own anti-crisis plans and independently search for sources of financing for new infrastructure projects” (bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/2015/01/150129_putin_regions_on_their_own).
Those words which recall Gorbachev’s outline of his thinking in December 1984 before he came to power and which signaled the end of massive Soviet interregional transfers of resources played a major role in triggering not just new thinking about economics but also about the futurepolitical relationship between Moscow and the now-independent union republics.
Yesterday, Putin called on the leaders of Russia’s federal subjects to come up with their own “action plans” to cope with the crisis in the way that they did in 2008-2009. “Now, it is necessary to do the same thing.” He added that Moscow will support those it can but that the regions will also have to look for their own funding as well.
Two Russian experts with whom the BBC’s Russian Service spoke were quite dismissive of Putin’s suggestion, seeing it as a reflection of his being out of touch with the situation in the country and at best too little too late.
Natalya Zubarevich, director of regional programs at Moscow’s Independent Institute for Social Policy, said that Putin’s remarks show that he “poorly understands what is taking place in the regions,” a reflection of a breakdown in communications between the Kremlin and regional leaders.
Were the Kremlin leader aware of the actual situation, one in which the regions can do little because they are facing rising debt, falling tax revenues, and cuts in federal subsidies, he would know, Zubarevich continued, that there was no possibility for the regions to take the kind of steps he called for.
And Karen Vartapetov, deputy director of Standard&Poors for Russia, agreed, noting that the regions face the challenge of extinguishing far more debt in the coming year than they have the capacity to do on their own and that Moscow is doing far too little to help them whatever the Kremlin suggests.
This situation has arisen, the ratings analyst said, because of Putin’s directives in May 2012 which, in the face of slowing economic growth, “imposed on the regions greater obligations” for social spending. That in turn has led to a structural imbalance in regional budgets equal to 1.5 to 2.0 percent of the country’s GDP as a whole.
Neither addressed the political consequences of these economic problems, but they are obvious: if Moscow is cutting the regions lose to face their own problems as far as the economy is concerned, at least some people in some of the regions of the country may begin to think seriously about cutting themselves off politically from a capital so obviously out of touch.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Some of the victims were killed as they waited in line for humanitarian aid intended for children and the elderly.
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 2
Russia's Supreme Court has said that the Russian authorities are investigating at least 58 criminal cases against Russian nationals who are involved in the conflict in Syria and are fighting alongside the Islamic State (IS) group.
Russian politicians will consider a new statement that would condemn an event that happened 25 years ago – the reunification of Germany.
Vladimir Putin is getting smaller.
Download audio: http://flashvideo.rferl.org/clips/ENGL/2015/01/30/d59672ef-9b08-482e-a141-6aeff2c43dc8.mp3
Download audio: http://flashvideo.rferl.org/clips/ENGL/2015/01/30/d59672ef-9b08-482e-a141-6aeff2c43dc8.mp3
 The Economist |
Russia and Ukraine
The Economist IN A book of interviews published when he first became Russia's president, Vladimir Putin told a story of his early scares: a rat he had cornered had nowhere to go and jumped out at him. Having pushed himself into a corner, Mr Putin is now playing out ... Greece Steps Back Into Line With European Union Policy on Russia SanctionsNew York Times Russia sanctions fail to stop Ukraine fightingWashington Times Greece's leftist government sparks fears of a Russian beachhead in EuropeWashington Post Deutsche Welle- Newsweek-Voice of America all 1,945 Reuters all 1,892 news articles » |
Putin’s ‘Conservative Revolutionaries’ Dreaming of National Socialist Utopia, Morozov Saysby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, January 30 – The old left-right continuum in Russian politics with its differences between conservatives and reformers ceased to be relevant as the basis for analysis and understanding with Putin’s Anschluss of Crimea and the formation of a populist left-right alliance of support, according to Aleksandr Morozov.
In a commentary in “New Times,” he argues that “with the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the war in the east of Ukraine, all the political space of the Russian Titanic together with its tables, chairs and orchestra slid to one side” and came together in ways few expected (newtimes.ru/articles/detail/93246).
“All the old political distinctions lost any meaning before both former reformers and former conservatives and even national Bolsheviks and national organizations like Barkashov’s and socialists like Kagarlitsky found themselves in one multi-voiced crowd shouting ‘Send the tanks to Kyiv! Fascism will not pass!’”
“The so-called ‘peace party’ in such circumstances,” Morozov continues, “cannot possibly be qualified as liberals. What kind of liberalism is in there in wartime? In wartime it can be only ‘a fifth column’ and ‘traitors to the motherland.’”
What has formed instead is “a broad left-right populist consensus,” one that is quite familiar to historians of interwar Europe and especially of Germany and Italy. Leftwing political thought has always characterized fascism as “reactionary and conservative,” but there is more to it than that as recent analysis has shown.
Today, many historians are more inclined to talk about the movements of that time in terms of populism rather than in terms of a left-right continuum. Indeed, it seems, Morozov says, that “each new stage of globalization and the inclusion in communications of new masses generates a reaction in the form of an epidemic spread of populism.”
However that may be, he continues, “one must not say that this was or is an exclusivey conservative reaction.” In the Russian case now, “the populist synthesis includes within itself both former revolutionaries like Eduard Limonov and such died in the wool state types like Ramzan Kadyrov.”
“The fate of this ‘post-Crimean populist consensus,” Morozov says, “is still unclear. It may break apart or it may form the basis of a new state system.” It may lead to “Italian fascism or Hitlerism” or it may go off in another direction altogether. “The next three years,” he suggests, will provide the answer.
One of the reasons for uncertainty is that past analogies are useful only up to a point and “populism mutates” regularly. Putin’s “’post-Crimea consensus’” is in the very early stages, and where it will lead to could vary from judicial pressure on the Sakharov Center to the smashing of its windows by mobs while the police look on.
Russia’s current “post-Soviet ‘rightists’ always were not completely conservative because they called not for the preservation” of a real past in the present but rather for the construction of something “impossible, a kind of conservative utopia” be it “Stalinism, Byzantium or the Russian 19thcentury.”
“All of them conceive the war in the Donbas not simply as a war for territory but as a struggle for the construction of a new society corresponding to their national socialist idea in a separate gubernia.” As such they are truly “conservative revolutionaries” who join together both left and right ideas.
“Now, this right-left consensus works in the following way.” It draws on popular support from below and uses television from above, and it is seeking to form “a new social fabric based on anti-Americanism, the opposition of Putin to weak Western leaders, support for Russian values against the degenerate West, state sovereignty, and the militarization of public life.
As one can see, Morozov says, “the right, like the left, has dissolved in this post-Crimea consensus.”
“The ‘televized Ukraine’ has been transformed into a field of virtual war with the West and the United States for millions while the Donbas is a real war for several thousand citizens with Russian passports. No one knows what this new populism will become when it matures.” But one thing is clear: “the degeneration of society is proceeding very quickly.”
Read the whole story
· · · · ·
 |
По словам Джен Псаки, США продолжают работать с Москвой по ряду проблем, но добиваются прекращения ее вмеша...
|
From: Голос Америки
Views:
12
ratings |
| Time: 01:04 | More in News & Politics |
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 3
 |
Глава Госдепартамента высоко оценил решение Риги о повышении оборонных расходов Originally published at - http://www.golos-ame...
|
From: Голос Америки
Views:
9
1 ratings
|
| Time: 00:59 | More in News & Politics |
 |
Комментарий политолога Джил Догерти Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/sanctions-seen-from-russia/2620803.html.
|
From: Голос Америки
Views: 0
0 ratings
|
| Time: 02:03 | More in News & Politics |
VOA SPECIAL REPORT: US Army Turns Its Best Minds Toward Ebola by webdesk@voanews.com (Catherine Maddux)
Deep inside the maze of hallways at a research laboratory outside Washington, DC, at the end of a long corridor, is a small window built into the wall. It provides the only outside view of a dangerous mission: researchers handling samples of the deadly Ebola virus and working with drugs to mitigate it. At biosafety level 4 (BSL4), the lab is at the highest level of danger. Inside, Spencer Stonier, a virologist, wears a white biohazard or “space” suit. A thick yellow spiral cord is attached to the back. It twirls up to the lab’s ceiling, supplying him with filtered air and puffing out his suit. Stonier’s heavily gloved hands slowly and carefully work with samples of Ebola in small dishes. His boss, John Dye, says he worries about the danger that his team of scientists expose themselves to in the course of their research. “I wake up in cold sweat,” said Dye, a viral immunologist leading a team of cutting edge scientists racing to find a drug or vaccine to stem the longest and deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. VOA was recently granted access to the "hot" labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, one of the famed high security laboratories of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), which handles the world’s most lethal pathogens. Far from the African villages and cities ravaged by Ebola, researchers are working round-the-clock to halt the current epidemic and prevent future outbreaks of Ebola and similar diseases. In one capacity or another, Dye, an affable and helpful professional, has been working on a vaccine for Ebola and its cousin in the family of filoviruses, Marburg, at USAMRIID since 2003. During VOA's visit, Dye at times appearedsomewhat nervous, perhaps with exhaustion as he and about 100 scientists, veterinarians and support staff have worked doggedly since the virus began spreading out of control in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia last year. With a fatality rate between 60 to 90 percent, Ebola is considered one of the most lethal viral infections known to man. The pathogen races through the cells of an infected human, replicating itself quickly while simultaneously dealing a strong blow to a patient’s immune system. Ebola sufferers become extremely dehydrated due to uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea and, in the end stages of the disease, they suffer internal and external bleeding. Dangerous work Scientists who work in BSL4 labs – USAMRIID scientists call them suites – handling Ebola must go through extensive training before donning protective anti-contamination suits and conducting experiments. Suiting up is anything but simple. It’s a lesson in step-by-step safety protocols. It all begins with the hands, said Dave Harbourt, a biosafety officer at USAMRIID, as he taped two pairs of elastic gloves to the end of his long-sleeved undershirt. “By far, one of the most important checks that you have to do is you have to check your gloves, every time,” he said. “Because whether you’re in BL1 or BL4, your highest area of contamination is always going to be your hands and wrists.” Wearing the cumbersome suit is exhausting and isolating. Dye won’t let any of his team members work longer than four hours in one. "It gets very dark, your visor fogs up, it's very cumbersome, it dehydrates you,” Harbourt said. There’s “muscle weakness, fatigue. You're carrying – with air in there – about 40 extra pounds. One of the biggest factors in this work is that it is very time consuming." Each and every movement requires intense concentration. The simple act of opening a jar or bottle with heavily gloved hands requires slow, deliberate movements to guard against an accident that might lead to exposure. Once sealed inside a suit, there are no bathroom breaks and there is no conversation. "You get good at reading lips,” Harbourt said. To communicate, scientists also use hand signals or write on a whiteboard with a pen. On the day two VOA journalists visited USAMRIID, Harbourt said he did some minor work - changing out some filters - related to an Ebola study in a BSL4 lab. "If I'm doing that in a lab with this situation, the absence of the suit, it's probably takes me 10 minutes,” he said. “It took me an hour and a half to do that this morning." Despite daily work with the world’s most fatal pathogens, USAMRIID says there have been no lab-acquired infections for researchers working in BSL4 labs. Around 20 so-called “close calls” – needle sticks, a bite or scratch from an animal used in a study, gloves that fail – have been reported. From bio ‘offense’ to bio ‘defense’ USAMRIID was launched in 1969. when then President Richard Nixon announced the United States would no longer develop deadly biological weapons, something the U.S. government had engaged in since at least World War II. Driven by perceived threats from Germany and Japan, the United States began an offensive biological program in 1943. For decades, U.S. scientists working at the specialized facility at Fort Detrick weaponized several deadly agents, including anthrax. But since 1969, the mission at USAMRIID has been to protect United States military personnel and develop vaccines and treatment for the world’s deadliest bugs. Among them: anthrax, tularemia, Q fever, Marburg, Lassa, botulinum toxin and, of course, Ebola, which, according to the latest WHO figures, has killed over 8,800 people and infected another 22,000 so far. Their work is performed on annual budget of about $140 million. USAMRIID’s approach to Ebola is three-pronged: therapeutic medicine, faster diagnostic tools and the best answer to controlling Ebola outbreaks, a vaccine. Not long after the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported “that this virus was starting to spin out of control … we really stepped up our research here," Dye said. That means roughly one-third of USAMRIID’s 300 staff scientists are now entirely devoted to Ebola research. That Ebola has engulfed three West African nations weighs heavily on the scientists here. “We are under tremendous pressure,” said Travis Warren, principal investigator at USAMRIID. “My activities have focused almost exclusively on developing and evaluating anti-Ebola virus therapeutics since approximately June.” The search for safe and effective drug therapies to treat the infected requires intimate knowledge of how the Ebola virus works. And scientists must also come up with ways to outsmart the virus: block its ability to infect human cells after exposure, or curtail its rapid replication once inside a cell. Despite how vicious this particular pathogen is in humans, the Ebola virus is only a single strand of genetic material, containing instructions for just seven proteins. The virus encodes those instructions on RNA, a chemical cousin of DNA that makes up our genes. Once inside a cell, the virus copies its genes into proteins that, in turn, rapidly assemble copies of the virus. One cutting-edge approach in the hunt for Ebola drugs is focusing on the virus' RNA, Warren said. “With an RNA virus, we can…target the viral RNA for destruction in a very specific fashion,” he said. “Once that viral RNA is destroyed, the virus cannot reproduce its own genetic material…then the infection is effectively suppressed.” USAMRIID and Canadian pharmaceutical company Tekmira helped develop one promising RNA drug called TKM-Ebola. The drug contains a small piece of the virus’s RNA, wrapped up in a package that alerts the cell’s defenses, Warren said. “There are enzymes that literally chop up the viral RNA and destroy it. Once the viral RNA is destroyed...the virus ceases to function,” he said. Another trial drug, ZMapp, is based on the proteins our immune systems use to fight infections, known as antibodies. “We’ve taken a cocktail of three of these antibodies…that are known to fight the virus, and put them all together,” Dye said. “And then we inject that, and that helps to control the virus.” But a key ingredient of the cocktail comes from tobacco plants and can’t be manufactured quickly. And the last supplies were delivered to Liberia in August. A third drug, Favipiravir, takes a different path. Originally designed by Japanese researchers for influenza, the drug is a nucleoside analogue — a molecule that looks like a building block of genetic material. It works by jamming up the machinery the virus uses to copy its genes. It has shown promise fighting Ebola in animal studies. It is also being tested in Guinea, where the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders is conducting a clinical trial on humans. Diagnostics Of the many complicating factors driving the current epidemic, one of the biggest is figuring out quickly who is sick with Ebola and who isn’t. Currently, people suspected of infection must be monitored for 21 days, the maximum period of incubation. “Diagnostics are the way we're going to get this Ebola outbreak under control," said USAMRIID virologist Randy Schoepp. Ebola experts say that accurately determining who is infected plays a key role in contract tracing – another crucial step in stemming an outbreak. At the moment, a test known as real-time PCR – short for polymerase chain reaction – is being used in the field. The Federal Drug Administration approved it under emergency authorization rules. “It's a test in which we amplify genomic material and then look for specific signatures,” said Schoepp, who is chief of USAMRIID’s Applied Diagnostics Branch. “It's exquisitely sensitive. And exquisitely specific.” But real-time PCRs are problematic, especially during a dangerous outbreak. First and foremost, getting a single result takes four hours. And testing is very difficult to conduct at bedside, the most ideal situation during an outbreak. The diagnostic machine, about the size of a portable television, must be connected to a computer. And Scheopp said it requires a fully functioning lab – another difficulty working in the field presents. But Scheopp, who went to Liberia earlier in the epidemic, has been working on a possible solution: a plastic stick test that resembles a pregnancy test. “You can put a few drops of blood on, or in our case it's plasma, you put a few drops of plasma on, allow it to wick through this and if you have Ebola there, it gives you a line. If there is no Ebola there, there is no line." It’s simple and the results are fast – as fast as 15 minutes. And it can be used at bedside. “But it has its limitations,” Scheopp said. “For that convenience and quick 15 minute assay, you trade off sensitivity.” That means health workers need to confirm the results, particularly a negative result, with a real-time PCR machine. But when Scheopp was in Liberia early in the epidemic, he said, there was a lot of confusion among health experts there. “Even the medical community in Liberia didn’t understand that…our tests were not infallible,” he said. Still, Scheopp thinks the stick test can best be used in triage situations, contract tracing and handling corpses, which are highly infectious. Scheopp’s work in Africa during the epidemic this outbreak profoundly demonstrated the importance of a fast, reliable test. “In Liberia ... that’s when it was all brought home to me because, suddenly, I was making decisions that affected a person’s life,” he said. “It was quite sobering. Kept me up at night." Trials on the plastic stick diagnostic are currently underway in Liberia. If all goes well, USAMRIID's best guess is that a reliable and portable test may be available in a few months. Vaccine models While drugs to help those suffering the ravages of Ebola are a priority at USAMRIID, preventing a future outbreak hinges on finding a safe and effective vaccine. According to Dye, there are at least a half a dozen vaccines developed and tested at USAMRIID that show 100 percent efficacy in monkeys. In two candidates, USAMRIID researchers have employed the novel approach of using the vector – the genetic material – of the virus to induce an immune response. “They’re actually taking the genetic material that makes that protein [of the virus], putting that genetic material into the human to make that [viral] protein naturally,” Dye said. “If you put the DNA or RNA in, the genetic material, there’s less chance for it to break down.” In essence, the method of prompting the body to make the viral protein naturally helps improve the recognition of the virus by the immune system and generate a protective response. If all goes well, Dye predicts that by early spring there might be a vaccine that could be given to health care workers – those most likely to become infected in West Africa. Because USAMRIID is part of the Defense Department, its mission also includes another very important objective: that is, anticipating and fending possible bioterrorist attacks. That's why researchers, in addition to protecting the military and public, are driven to get a grip on this disease. “The CDC and the U.S. government have determined that Ebola is a category A pathogen, which is high-tiered pathogen in that it could be used for intentional release,” Dye said. The harsh reality is that it will take years to be absolutely certain that an Ebola vaccine actually works. And that bumps up against another reality that plagues Dye. “What keeps me up at night is the concept [that] as the world globalizes and we are infringing on new habitats of new species of animals, like is going on in Africa, the chances of emerging infectious diseases increases, and I think we’re going to see more infections,” he said. “Not Ebola per se,” he said. “But like Ebola that we’re going to learn to have to deal with.” VOA'S Steve Baragona contributed to this report.
Read the whole story
· · · · · · · ·
 |
Водка дешевеет в России впервые с 2009 года. Цены на основные товары растут. Будем меньше есть и больше пить?...
|
From: Радио Свобода
Views: 3253
82 |
| Time: 55:01 | More in News & Politics |
Столтенберг: Создание подразделений НАТО в Европе - не провокация против России
Взгляд Создание подразделений НАТО в шести странах Восточной Европы не является провокацией в отношении России, заявил генсек Североатлантического альянса Йенс Столтенберг. Tweet. «Это находится полностью в пределах наших международных обязательств, то, что мы делаем, ... и другие » |
Kerry to Visit Ukraine, Germanyby webdesk@voanews.com (Pamela Dockins)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Ukraine and Germany next week for talks with officials, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday that Kerry will travel to Kyiv, where he will meet with Ukrainian President PetroPoroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and members of Ukraine's parliament. There had been speculation that Kerry would also travel to Moscow next weekbut State Department officials say no additional stops have been planned. Psaki did say that Kerry expected to meet with Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Psaki said Kerry and Lavrov would likely discuss “a range of issues.” While in Germany, Secretary Kerry will hold bilateral and multilateral meetings. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg plans to meet the Russian Foreign Minister on the sidelines of the Munich conference. NATO has indicated that it wants to resume military cooperation with Russia. The meetings come amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Russia for what the U.S. and its Western allies say is Russia’s interference in Ukraine.
Read the whole story
· ·
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 4
Hezbollah Chief Says Does Not Want War But Ready for Oneby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the Lebanon-based militant group does not want war with Israel, but is prepared to go into battle "in any place and at any time." Speaking to supporters via video link, Nasrallah was commemorating six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general killed in Syria January 18 in an Israeli airstrike, an attack he called an "assassination crime." Hezbollah retaliated Wednesday with a rocket attack on an Israeli convoy along the disputed Lebanon/Israel border, killing two Israel soldiers. Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. A Spanish peacekeeper with the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon was also killed in Wednesday's exchange. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for Wednesday's flareup, the biggest escalation of fighting there since the 2006 war between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Netanyanu said on Thursday Israel will continue to defend itself against all threats, "near and far alike." The area features a set of tense borders, with the history of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, Hezbollah's backing by both Syria and Israeli rival Iran, and Hezbollah militants fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops in that country's civil war. The U.N. has peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon and in the Golan Heights as part of separate Security Council resolutions. Despite the tensions, VOA's correspondent in Jerusalem reports that with an Israeli election looming and Hezbollah's involvement in Syria, there would appear to be little interest in a wider conflict for either side.
Read the whole story
· ·
More than a dozen civilians were killed by artillery fire in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk yesterday as fighting intensified between pro-Russia separatists and government troops.
 РИА Новости |
Дейнего не знает о попытках ОБСЕ выйти с ним на связь в Минске
РИА Новости Ранее ОБСЕ сообщило, что представителям Тальявини не удалось связаться с представителями самопровозглашенных Донецкой и Луганской народных республик в Минске. Представитель Луганской народной республики Владислав Дейнего (ЛНР) отвечает на вопросы журналистов в ... ОБСЕ заявляет, что не смогла связаться с представителями ДНР и ЛНРКоммерсантъ В ДНР удивились заявлению ОБСЕ о невозможности связаться с представителями ДонбассаВзгляд Представитель ОБСЕ в контактной группе Хайди Тальявини готов к встрече в минском формате в любое времяРадиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ Утро.Ru -Полит.ру -Первый канал Все похожие статьи: 47 » |
US Campaign, Legislation Aims to Fight 'Modern Day Slavery'by webdesk@voanews.com (William Gallo)
Human trafficking is among the world's most lucrative criminal businesses, bringing in an estimated $150 billion each year. It is also a major problem in the United States, where efforts are underway to combat what is being called "modern day slavery." As a 14-year-old, Holly Austin Smith was like many other kids her age. "I was a troubled teenager. I was angry and confused, not getting along with my parents. I just had very low self-confidence," she said. Around that time, Smith met an older man at a shopping mall near her home in the northeastern U.S. state of New Jersey. "We exchanged phone numbers. And we talked on the phone. He said things to make me feel good about myself," she said. The stranger painted a glamorous lifestyle. He said he traveled across the country, went to dance clubs, hung out with famous people. Eventually, Smith ran away with him, in search of a better life. "But within hours of running away, I was forced into prostitution in Atlantic City, New Jersey." she said. Children at Risk Smith's story is not as rare as you may think. The FBI says the child sex trafficking industry in the U.S. is worth $9.5 billion every year. By some estimates, as many as 300,000 children are at risk of sexual exploitation each year in the United States. But this often goes unnoticed, partly because of how sexual exploitation is discussed, says Tina Frundt, another child sex trafficking victim. "It happens right in front of us, and we name it something different. So for U.S. citizens, we say 'prostitutes' and 'prostitution,' but for foreign nationals we say 'sex trafficking.' So I think it's a disconnect on language," she said. Frundt started Courtney's House, a non-profit organization in Washington that rescues boys and girls from the sex trade. Human trafficking also takes other forms, including forced labor. William Bell says he has run into that problem as the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. "Our police department raided an apartment building. And there was a three-bedroom apartment that had 25 individuals working there sewing garments together. You would have never thought that would happen in a residential area," he said. Efforts to Fight Human Trafficking Mayor Bell is part of a task force organized by the group Human Rights First. It met this week in Washington to come up with a global anti-trafficking strategy. The task force is co-chaired by retired U.S. General Chuck Krulak. "When I recognized the absolute dangers inherent in a global crime syndicate, basically, I wanted to attack it. I'm a fighter, and I wanted to attack it," he said. General Krulak, who served as the highest-ranking officer in the Marine Corps, admits many human traffickers operate with virtual impunity. But he is confident that will change. "We are going after what you'd call the big fish. We're going after the business of the business of modern day slavery and human trafficking. We are going to disrupt it, and we are going to make the perpetrators pay," he said. Congressional Response Some progress toward that end was made this week, when lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a dozen anti-human trafficking bills. The legislation addresses the issue from multiple angles. It includes tightening travel restrictions on known sex offenders, improving treatment for victims, and imposing penalties for knowingly selling ads that offer certain commercial sex acts. Much of that legislation had already been passed by the House during previous sessions. But it failed to make it through the Senate, falling victim to a politically divided Washington atmosphere. There are again questions whether the bills will be delayed this time around. As for Holly Austin Smith, she is now in her 30s and helps educate America's youth about how they are vulnerable to sex slavery. "I recently spoke at my middle school from which I graduated in 1992. And one of the students said to me, 'Why am I just hearing about this now?' And I thought it was such a good question, because why is she just hearing about this now? If youth are commonly being targeted, then they have a right to know,"she said. Smith says the recent anti-trafficking legislation is a good start. But it is clear there is a long way to go before the business of modern day slavery is disrupted.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Romney Out For 2016 Presidential Bid; Bush Could Benefitby webdesk@voanews.com (Jim Malone)
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney told supporters Friday he will not run for president in 2016. Romney spoke during a conference call with supporters after weeks of saying he was interested in a third try for the White House next year. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
US Man Pleads Guilty in Gambia Coup Plotby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
A man in the U.S. Midwestern state of Minnesota has pleaded guilty to charges related to last month's failed coup attempt in Gambia. Papa Faal, 46, admitted in a Minneapolis court Friday that he took part in the December 30 attack on the presidential palace in Gambia's capital, Banjul. He pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to export arms to Gambia and one charge of conspiring to overthrow a foreign government with which the United States is at peace. Faal, who holds both U.S. and Gambian citizenship, said a fellow conspirator gave him money to buy eight semi-automatic rifles in Minnesota, which he shipped to Gambia hidden in barrels. He said the conspirators initially planned to attack a presidential convoy but changed their target to Gambia's State House when they learned President Yahya Jammeh was out of town. The attack was repelled by State House guards. Faal said the plotters were "surprised by the fact that we had more resistance than anticipated." Faal and a fellow conspirator, Cherno Njie of Austin, Texas, were arrested and charged after returning to the United States. Faal will be sentenced at a later date.
Read the whole story
· ·
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 5
Kurdish Poet Battles to Defend Language, Cultureby webdesk@voanews.com (Dorian Jones)
In a packed auditorium, a performance of a historical epic Kurdish poem, its tragedy akin to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," is taking place. It was adapted for theater and produced by Kurdish poet Kawa Nemir. Nemir points to his traumatic childhood in Turkey as the driving factor to fight to keep the Kurdish language alive. "With the beginning of school I was harshly assimilated," he said. "They were telling us, 'You are Kurds, but you are beasts.' I remember this. And also, 'You are not a nation. You are not human. You don't have any language. You don't have any literature.' When I started to be more political, I had to do something." During the rule of the country’s generals throughout much of the 1980s, Kurds officially did not exist; they were referred to as “mountain Turks." Their language was banned in public until the 1990s, but slowly restrictions were eased. Despite numerous brushes with the law, Kawa embarked on his prolific career of poetry and translation. It was a career that he admits probably saved his life. Unlike most of his friends, Kawa chose not to join the PKK, the Kurdish rebel group that has been fighting the Turkish state for minority rights for four decades. 'I have to write' "I had some really intimate friends and I lost them," he said. "They were really my comrades, my friends. And in university I was one of the rare ones who chose to be a writer and did not die. If I did not write, I would have gone to the PKK, because we were all ready as a generation. I stayed here and said, 'Yeah, I have to write.' Language itself is a strong means for a whole, a nation, because it's combining our nation." But his fight for the Kurdish language and culture also brought him into conflict with PKK rebels. "They were really not aware of the role of the language in forming and combining society," he said. "They were so late. The PKK leader, Mr. Abdullah Ocalan, in 1995 said if we achieve this revolution, maybe for 50 more years we will be speaking in Turkish, not Kurdish. But right now, for the last eight or nine years, they are so active. We have a lingual movement for education." Along with a political awareness among many Kurds, there is also now a growing cultural awareness. At the end of one of Kawa’s productions, there is appreciation and hope among many in the audience. "We have waited so long for such a theater in our own language," one audience member said. "It's an historical and beautiful moment for us. We can now see and hear our literature, which has been denied for so long." A sense of accomplishment Kawa has so far written and translated 89 books into Kurdish. He has even produced Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" and taken it on tour to Iraqi Kurdistan and to Kurds living across Europe. After years of struggle, Kawa believes he is now seeing the fruits of his work. "There were some students from universities, they were reciting my translations of Shakespeare sonnets," he said. "It made me really very happy. I saw that demand is getting more and more every year. What they took from us was our belief, our national belief. Right now, Kurds are not doubting about being a nation. They believe we are nation." There is a tentative peace process between the government and the PKK. But Kawa believes whatever the outcome, there is an irreversible cultural and political assertiveness among Kurds in Turkey and across the region.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Russian Police Search Detained Crimean Tatar Official's Homeby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
Russian police have searched the house of a detained deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis.
Two More Russian NGOs Face 'Foreign Agent' Labelby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
Moscow prosecutors have demanded that two NGOs in Russia provide documents related to their activities.
One of Ukraine’s most famous battles was waged at Ilovaisk (here on Google Maps). As we reported in our summary of the battle which we posted in August, 107 Ukrainians and 300 Russians were reportedly killed between August 7th and September 2, after Ukrainian troops which had been on the offensive suddenly met unexpectedly heavy resistance and quickly became completely encircled.
See our summary of the battle – The Battle of Ilovaisk: A Turning Point in Russia’s War on Ukraine
The blogger for Ukraine At War , Dajey Petros, has reviewed images from Google Earth which have been released since the battle. What he discovered was shocking — evidence that Russian military units crossed the border and engaged in the battle which was a major turning point in this war.
His work is reproduced below. — James Miller
Google Earth shows how Russians crossed border to create Ilovaisk massacre
In August Ukrainian volunteer battalions were ordered to encircle Donetsk from the South. At Ilovaisk they met fierce resistance and they were never able to really take it.
As can be seen there is a natural barrier near Novyi Svit in the form of an artificial lake (highlighted in green above). After weeks of uncertainty they were offered a ‘safe corridor’ [by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called for the opening of a "humanitarian corridor," an offer which was never offered by the Russian or separatist forces - The Interpreter] back so they could retreat. They had to take the route south of Novyi Svit again.
But there they were slaughtered.
Now with updated satellite images on Google Earth we can reconstruct how. It was done by a Russian invasion army that crossed the border near Berestove (here on Google Maps).
Here is that border crossing on July 16th:
Here is that crossing on the updated September 14th map:
To understand the scale of this we can zoom in:
We can see a ‘single track’ (which might even have been used by several vehicles) and very broad ‘multiple tracks’.
My rough estimate would be that these tracks have been used by 50 to 100 vehicles if not more.
Now we can trace the tracks and see where they come from and which direction they go:
First of all we can see this on the Russian side:
Zoomin in on the ‘forward position’ we can still see quite a large amount of vehicles:
There are trucks and likely GRAD launchers parked there, but also camouflaged positions and tents.
A little bit south of this two large vehicles can be seen. Although it cannot be determined what they are exactly, I suspect these to be BUK air defense systems or some other type of air defense.
This area shows the situation on July 16, before the battle:
And this was taken on September 14th, after the battle:
Now there are a lot of tracks that lead into the trees. That indicates this has been a camping site.
There are more such camping areas, as well as used firing positions for artillery and trenches. This whole area is a forward position of the army with a HUGE temporary campsite. No vehicles can be seen anymore in this camp.
When we follow the tracks into Ukraine this is the image we get:
There is ONE BIG trail crossing the border which then splits into several smaller ones, leading to an area where many firing positions can be seen as well as camp sites.
This is an example:
Here are dug-in positions, often used for MSTA heavy self-propelled artillery:
The layout of the camp/firing positions:
To the northeast the tracks lead to this:
There is an area (yellow circle) with several firing positions. The blue area is the known killing zone of Ukrainian units. (Remember the corpse hanging on the electricity line? That was here…)
The light blue area shows mortar impacts. It looks like some Russian units have tried to advance there and received some counter fire.
So this can be understood like this:
The blue line shows how the Ukrainian units were retreating. To get there they had already been fired on with artillery many times. When they arrived at this position, they were attacked from the side and from behind by an overwhelming Russian force (Yellow arrow).
The small yellow arrow indicates that attacks via that side must also have been taken place, but it cannot be seen because that road is a hard road and the September satellite images end there.
Just North of the yellow circle next to the road, three wrecks and burned areas can be seen:
These are the first visible victims on the satellite image. Here is a video showing many more.
Here is a map of all tracks and positions:
A video shows that more to the south units had also been destroyed, (small blue area). But that’s also the end of the satellite images, so we cannot see exactly how and where yet.
So THAT’S how Russia invaded Ukraine and destroyed the volunteer battalions who had been guaranteed a save passage out…
Spread the message, retweet this:
How Russia destroyed Ukraines volunteer battalions by invading Ukraine August 2014:http://t.co/L7KZVwtFt3 pic.twitter.com/hfk1DboEH6
— Ukraine@war (@DajeyPetros) January 28, 2015
Read the whole story
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
Crisis Veteran Naimi Stays to Hold Line on Saudi Oil Policyby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
The new Saudi king's decision to keep Ali al-Naimi in his job as oil minister signaled to energy markets that the world's top crude exporter would not flinch from its policy of refusing to cut output as it fiercely guards market share. Naimi convinced fellow OPEC members to pursue such a strategy, regardless of how far oil prices might fall. He was determined not to cede ground to producers outside the group such as Russia and U.S. shale drillers. When reshuffling his cabinet on Thursday, King Salman - just days into his role as ruler - would have found it difficult to find more experienced hands to guide the kingdom's oil sector through these turbulent times. After all, 79-year-old Naimi has seen at least three price crashes during his two decades as oil minister. "You can't beat experience, and Ali al-Naimi has loads of it. He earned his wings in the 70s and 80s at Aramco and has now gone through three iterations of a crude price cycle: early 1980s, late 1990s, and the current one," said Yasser Elguindi from economic consultants Medley Global Advisors. That experience - and the respect it commands internationally - could be crucial to convince those OPEC states without pockets and reserves as deep as Saudi Arabia to hold the line in the current crisis. "Is it reasonable for a highly efficient producer to reduce output, while the producer of poor efficiency continues to produce? That is crooked logic," Naimi told the Middle East Economic Survey in December. "If I reduce, what will happen to my market share? The price will go up and the Russians, the Brazilians, U.S. shale oil producers will take my share." But since November's OPEC decision not to reduce output, some members have privately questioned whether this was the right approach. Oil prices - down by more than half since June - have collapsed more than $20 a barrel since November's meeting to depths unexpected even by core Gulf OPEC producers who had led the decision despite a call for a cut by others. Outside OPEC, the oil minister of Oman, a Gulf Arab crude exporter, said the decision was creating volatility in the market without benefiting oil producers. A Survivor Energy investors have been closely watching for signs of continuity - or otherwise - of oil policy in Saudi Arabia, which has reacted in different ways to price collapses in the past. The kingdom slashed its own output from over 10 million barrels per day (bpd) in 1980 to less than 2.5 million bpd in 1985, in a failed attempt to arrest a price slide which eventually removed Oil Minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani from office. Naimi has already survived more than one price crash by acting decisively. In the late 1990s OPEC, under his de facto leadership, agreed to a supply increase as Asia went into economic collapse. He is then credited with orchestrating a rescue from the subsequent price crash by also bringing non-OPEC producers to the table for production cuts and then for recruiting their support again in late 2001. In 2008, when oil prices crashed to the low $30s, Naimi led the way as OPEC implemented its biggest-ever supply cut. Faced with the latest crisis, while the tactics are different, few analysts expect Naimi to deviate from the policy he and his country have committed to. The main tenets of Saudi oil policy, including maintaining the ability to stabilize markets via an expensive spare capacity cushion and a reluctance to interfere in the market for political reasons, are set by the top members of the ruling Al Saud family. But Naimi has been granted wide scope to interpret and implement policy in the way he thinks best. Having joined state oil firm Saudi Aramco at the age of 12 as an office boy, he eventually became CEO. He was named oil minister in 1995 and is now one of the country's highest ranking non-royals, a technocrat who commands respect for his market knowledge and for avoiding politics, driving OPEC policy along business lines. Some people familiar with Naimi have said that he has considered retiring for years. But that is unlikely to happen until there are at least some signs of market recovery, said Olivier Jakob from Petromatrix consultancy. "If Naimi goes I would think that he prefers to go after there is some order put back into OPEC," he said.
Read the whole story
· · ·
 Softcraze.com - актуальная лента новостей для думающего читателя |
Нарышкин не видит смысла оставаться в ПАСЕ
Softcraze.com - актуальная лента новостей для думающего читателя По мнению спикера Государственной думы Сергея Нарышкина, в нынешних условиях, когда Россию лишили полномочий в Парламентской ассамблее Совета Европы (ПАСЕ), смысла и дальше оставаться в этой организации нет. Об этом он заявил в эфире телеканала «Россия 24». ПАСЕ лишила Россию права голоса до апреля — ЕвропаКрасноярские новости - krasnews.com Россия закрыла границу для миссии ПАСЕДни.Ру Россия отказывается принимать миссии ПАСЕГрани.Ру РИА Новости -Вести.Ru -Актуальные новости - периодическое издание о событиях в мире Все похожие статьи: 681 » |
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
Comments
Post a Comment