Archive for September, 2009

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has thanked Iran for providing the agency with information about the construction of its new pilot enrichment plant, reports Press TV.

“With reference to the letter of 21 September 2009… from HE Ambassador Soltanieh to the Director General of the Agency Dr ElBaradei, I wish to thank the Islamic Republic of Iran for providing the Agency with information about Iran’s activities related to the construction of a new pilot enrichment plant,” read a letter by the IAEA to Iran, a copy of which was obtained Press TV.

Iran, on September 21, informed the agency that it was constructing an enrichment plant in Fordu, south of the capital Tehran. The plant will be, according to senior lawmaker Hassan Ghafouri-Fard, used as a backup facility to Iran’s first enrichment facility in Natanz.

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says its program is solely aimed at the civilian applications of the technology.

“To ensure that appropriate safeguard measures are put in place, I would appreciate receiving, in accordance with Iran’s Safeguards Agreement, further information with respect to the name and location of the pilot enrichment facility, the current status of its construction and plans for the introduction of nuclear material into the facility,” continued the IAEA letter, signed by Herman Nackaerts, Director of IAEA’s Division Of Operations Department Of Safeguards.

“We kindly request that this information, along with the other information detailed in the attached design information questionnaire, be provided to the Agency as soon as possible. The Agency would also appreciate being given access to the facility as soon as possible.”

Iran, under the Safeguards Agreement, is obliged to inform the IAEA of a new facility six months before using it for nuclear purposes. Tehran, however, informed the IAEA of the construction about a-year-and-a-half before the introduction of nuclear material.

The disclosure of the letter comes hours before Iran is to meet with the six world powers — the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany — in Geneva to discuss a wide-range of global issues, based on the country’s package of proposals released earlier in the month.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Iran built nuclear site shielded from air attack (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Iran Admits Nuclear Site Near Base In Case Of Attack (huffingtonpost.com)
• Iran details reason for nuclear plant location (msnbc.msn.com)
• IAEA: Iran broke law by hiding nuclear facility (cnn.com)

The United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC) together with a voluntary organisation Wada Na Tode Abhiyan here on Wednesday launched the India chapter of the global people’s movement called, “Stand Up Take Action”, to eradicate poverty, reports The Hindu.

The movement seeks to inspire people to take action in support of the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations to remove poverty from the world by 2015, said a release by the UNMC.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals with deadlines to improve the lives of the world’s poorest people. To meet these goals and eradicate poverty, leaders of 189 countries signed a declaration at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000.

The “Stand Up and Take Action” movement began in 2006 to ensure the achievement of the MDGs remains a priority on the global political and public agenda, especially since there are just six years left to the 2015 deadline.

India plays a key role in the movement since experts across the globe are of the opinion that if India misses the MDGs, in all likelihood the rest of the world will too, the release said.

Campaigners from across India will pick up eight goals on which to base their creative “Stand Up Actions.” The burning issues of hunger, health and education bear special significance in the Indian context given the backdrop of drought, with the prices of foodgrains and vegetables spiralling in an otherwise deflationary scenario.

The Italian economy is going crazy.

Today, Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti issued an attack against banks who refused to accept the ‘Tremonti bond.’ The ‘Tremonti bond’ allows ‘the Treasury to buy bonds issued by Italian banks as a way to pump cash into the credit system for personal loans, mortgages and to help small businesses.’ It was recently revealed that the bond itself would not help businesses and local economies especially as major banks have refused to participate in the bond scheme.

Furthermore, Tremonti’s plan for a ‘fiscal shield,’ which would allow for the reentry of foreign investments made by Italians evading taxes is encountering difficulties.

Italy’s parliament this week is expected to give a definitive green light to a tax amnesty which will sharply limit penalties on capital brought back to Italy from abroad.

Tax havens around the world are believed to hide between five and seven trillion dollars, of which up to $1.6 trillion belonging to organized crime, says Italian news agency ANSA.

The debate on the decree to allow Italians to bring back capital from abroad has split parliament along partisan lines and a confidence vote is now expected on the measure.

According to Dario Francheschini, leader of the biggest opposition party, the Democratic Party (PD), the measure ”is a pardon, a slap in the face of honest citizens who obey the law and regularly pay their taxes”.

”They are going to see that people can break the law and then bring back hidden gains not only without punishment but also paying 10-15 time less tax. It’s disgraceful,” Franceschini said.

Criticisms have also been spilling in from the press.

In times of crisis, the message of this ‘fiscal shield’ has deleterious effects because it rewards tax evaders and damages the morale of those who have always been honest, reports La Repubblica.

Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti explained on Tuesday that this was necessary because, otherwise, it would have created a ”trap” for the tax evaders, who would find themselves incriminated on charges other than tax evasion if they took advantage of the pardon.

Posted by our contributor Alessandro Passanti

Russia Today reports that an investigative report carried out by the EU indicates that Georgia is responsible for unleashing the Five-Day War in the Caucasus last August.

The report was commissioned by the Council of the European Union. More than 30 European military, history and legal specialists – headed by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini – compiled the document. The group concluded that it was Georgia who fired the first shot and the opening attack was not justifiable under international law.

The report is huge, made up of three volumes which make up more than a thousand pages in total. Russia’s envoy to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov received the document personally from Heidi Tagliavini and says he is satisfied with it.

“The part I managed to see already is unequivocal. It’s unequivocal on the main issue – who started the war,” Vladimir Chizhov told RT.

When asked whether the report was a victory for Russia, Chizhov said “no, it’s been a victory for reason.”

“I think this is more important for those who still might not have a clear picture of the events in that sense,” Russian official added.

The EU Observer confirms that the 1,150-page long study is the culmination of nine months of work by a 20-strong team of legal and military experts based in Geneva and headed by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini.

EU member states last year launched and paid for the €1.6 million investigation. The independent survey comes atop nine previous reports into the conflict by other organs, including the UN, the US Congress and the British House of Lords.

Ms Tagliavini’s study also heaped blame on Russia and on South Ossetian irregular forces.

It said Russia had the right to defend Russian peacekeeping soldiers stationed in Tskhinvali. But it described Russia’s subsequent mass-scale incursion into Georgia as illegal and disproportionate.

“Much of the Russian action went beyond the reasonable limits of self-defence,” it said. “Extended Russian military action reaching out into Georgia was conducted in violation of international law.”

The Swiss report rejected Russia’s claims that it was acting to protect Russian citizens in South Ossetia.

The Georgian Times, quoting the The Times (UK) reports:

Tbilisi’s submission to the EU accused Russia of preparing a “full-scale war against Georgia” for months before the conflict began. However, it also acknowledged that Mr Saakashvili ordered troops into the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, after a day of escalating confrontation with separatists.

“Georgian military efforts were directed towards previously identified military targets, located in the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali region,” the documents stated.
“In line with Georgia’s defensive objectives, artillery fire was also directed at a Russian tank convoy that was moving towards the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali conflict zone. Similarly, military aviation bombed the Gupta Bridge with the aim of stopping Russian tanks that were moving towards South Ossetia/Tskhinvali region.”
Mr Yakobashvili said that the EU report could not blame Georgia for the war, adding: “How can Georgia start a war in our own territory when we are fighting Russians in our territory? The war did not start on August 7. There was ample evidence that the Russians were arming the so-called separatists and deploying troops prior to August 7 and provoking clashes.”

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s Ambassador to Nato, defended the Kremlin’s actions and rejected claims that it had used disproportionate force. Mr Rogozin told reporters in Moscow: “Georgia attacked South Ossetia and did so in an utterly brutal manner. It is a tragedy of Georgia because Georgia became smaller as a result.

“When you have acid splashed in your face and you put on brass knuckles and give the attacker a good punch, is that proportionate or disproportionate? If the response had been disproportionate I think we would have had our troops in Tbilisi.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• EU steps up Georgia patrols before war report (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• The saviour of Georgia? (guardian.co.uk)
• Report: Georgia Triggered Russia War (online.wsj.com)
• EU war report to blame Russia and Georgia (guardian.co.uk)

A grand ceremony is scheduled to start at 10 am Thursday in Beijing to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), reports China Daily.

The celebrations will center on the Tian’anmen Square in the heart of Beijing, and Chang’an Avenue, the capital’s main west-east thoroughfare, said Wang Yue, executive commander of the headquarters for civilians’ parade affairs of the 60th anniversary celebration in the Chinese capital.

According to Wang, immediately following a massive military parade, there will be a civilians’ parade comprising 36 formations and six performing groups involving about 100,000 citizens and 60 floats. It is complemented by 80,000 primary and middle school students in the Tian’anmen Square forming background patterns.
More than 4,000 performers, including a 2,400 strong chorus, will present a concert in the Tian’anmen Square, said Wang.

The civilians’ parade begins with a formation of honor guards holding high the National Flag of the New China.

The civilians’ parade will have three themes: ideology, achievements and future prospects, Wang said.

Shanghai Daily says that on Tiananmen Square the Monument to the People’s Heroes has been thoroughly cleaned, while to the north of the monument stands a portrait of Dr Sun Yat-sen, a forerunner of the Chinese democratic revolution.

Jia Yingting, deputy chief of Tian’anmen Area Administrative Committee, said that four giant electronic screens, erected around the square for the first time this year to show slogans and video programs, added “a sense of dynamism” to the square.

The most eye-catching objects on the square are 56 huge pillars, installed along its eastern and western sides. They symbolize the ethnic groups inhabiting China.

In vibrant red and gold, each pillar features a young dancing couple draped in festive costume, plus a representative image and a corresponding title for each ethnic group.

Visitors who went to the square yesterday to absorb the festive atmosphere stood in long lines under wet skies as they waited to pass security checks, which have been tightened across the capital.

Meanwhile, the Indian newspaper, The Hindu, comments of the festivities held by its neighbor to the North:

In a barbershop in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Huang Xianlong, 5, smiled at his new hair style comprising four Chinese characters “Guo Qing Kuai Le”, which means “Happy National Day”.

“I saw people wearing the same haircut on TV, ” said Huang’s mother. “I think it is a creative way to deliver our best wishes to our motherland.”

“This month, we have served more than 100 children who ordered the National Day-themed haircuts,” said Wang Qian, manager of the “Qiangzhongqiang” barbershop.

Related articles by Zemanta

• China’s 60th anniversary of Communism: public barred from celebrations (telegraph.co.uk)
• Public barred from China parade (guardian.co.uk)
• Mao Zedong’s grandson promoted to general (ctv.ca)
• Communist heritage good for business (guardian.co.uk)

Climate change will increase the number of malnourished children in Africa by 10 million to 52 million  in the next 40 years, and the continent needs new agricultural investment of U.S. $2.9 billion a year to offset the adverse effects, says a new report.

The report, “Climate Change: Impact on Agriculture and Costs of Adaptation,” is billed by its authors from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), as the most comprehensive assessment of the impact of climate change on agriculture to date.

After comparing predictions of the numbers of malnourished children in 2050 with and without climate change, it concludes that climate change will produce 25 million more malnourished children around the world than would otherwise have been the case.

A fact sheet issued with the report says the number of malnourished children in Africa is expected to rise from 33 million in 2000 to 42 million in 2050 – without taking into account the effects of climate change.

Climate change will further increase this number by over 10 million, resulting in 52 million malnourished children in 2050,” the sheet says.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• By 2050, 25m more children will suffer food shortages (guardian.co.uk)
• Food supplies at risk from price speculation, warns expert (guardian.co.uk)
• Climate change will force 25 million more children to hungry (americablog.com)

When asked how the Art Forum in Berlin went, many of the gallerists sounded a lot like politicians: upbeat. On the whole the fair was “really good”, the atmosphere was great, many “good discussions” were held and “good contacts were established.” The sales were “satisfactory” and pieces “sold well.” One gallerist from New York says that he would be returning home with less than he came with — he didn’t specify whether he meant dollars or artworks.

“The quality still needs to be improved, the Berlin fair has potential,” Frankfurt-based gallerist Bärbel Grässlin says. And one needs to bear in mind that the acquisitions and choices the galleries made came at the same time as the low point in the global financial crisis, she says. Grässlin hopes that there will be more cooperation with larger art institutions in the future and that the fair will be more visible to both collectors and the city’s inhabitants. Unlike other cities, Berlin does not have an “established upper middle class” with wealth enough to carry an entire art fair. The Art Forum also needs to become more international, she added.

Much of the art on display was in the lower and middle price range. Most galleries showed a “a bit of everything” and very few chose to focus on only one or two artists. For example, the French-Austrian gallery Ropac brought important works from its exhibition Art & Language, with pieces ranging from 1965 to 2007, from the moderately priced (starting at around at £27,000 (€29,500, $43,000). Among them were collaborative works by the artists Arnulf Rainer and Dieter Roth. These included photography that had been painted over. Only one was sold.

Read more here.

Voice of America is reporting on the destruction left by the tsunami which has swept through the ‘normally a serene corner of the South Pacific.’

A series of tsunamis has caused widespread death and destruction in the South Pacific. The waves were triggered by a powerful deep sea earthquake between Samoa and American Samoa. Scores of people are reported to have been killed.

Each hour brings more reports of loss of life and immense damage.

Nathan Becker from the Pacific Tsunami Center in Hawaii says that large walls of water would have crashed onto the shoreline.

“I think it’s on the order of several meters probably,” Becker said. “That’s a damaging and dangerous tsunami. A half meter tsunami can take you off your feet and drag you under, so three meters could be quite damaging and dangerous.’ ”

Damage reports are hard to get, because telecommunications and power supplies have been knocked out or overloaded in the islands. Scores of people are reported to have been killed. Officials fear entire villages have been washed away and that many bodies may be buried in the sand.

The BBC says that over 100 people are dead in islands across the South Pacific:

At least 77 people were reported dead in Samoa, more than 25 in American Samoa and at least six in Tonga, on the island of Niuatoputatu.

Thousands of homes have been destroyed.

The Australian reports the eyewitness account of a hotel worker on American Samoa who witnessed the tsunami onslaught:

A local worker at the Ili Ili resort on the south coast of Upolo described the horror of watching the water recede before the enormous wave crashed ashore just after dawn.

“We had just finished sweeping and we looked out to sea and there was nothing, no water, there was only coral.”

“Then after about five minutes we saw the big wave coming and I said: ‘we have to flee’. So we left in the car and we could see the wave – which was about 3m high – coming closer. We were driving down the main road and we could see the wave.”

He said there was nothing left of their resort: “We don’t have a resort anymore. Every single thing has gone. The boat, the bungalows, the restaurant … it is gone.”

And The Times says that American Samoa was too close to the epicenter to receive an adequate tsunami warning, hamering any possible prevention measures:

A sophisticated network of seismometers around the world pinpointed the location and strength of the quake within minutes of it occurring and sent out a tsunami alert.

But the proximity of Samoa and American Samoa to the epicentre meant that it was only a matter of minutes before their coastlines were hit by 3m-high waves, giving villagers little time to escape to higher ground.

“These islands are right on the subduction zone, which means the official warnings don’t always come soon enough,” said Professor John McCloskey, a geophysicist at the University of Ulster.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Samoa Police Say 63 Dead in Tsunami, Toll May Rise (abcnews.go.com)
• Tsunami hits Samoa islands after massive earthquake (ctv.ca)
• Brit Child Found Dead After Samoan Tsunami (news.sky.com)
• Tsunami levels Samoan villages (thestar.com)
• At least 80 dead in Samoa following tsunami (americablog.com)

Two Indonesian suicide bombers were filmed discussing martyrdom and being instructed to target Australians, just weeks before they blew up two Jakarta hotels, killing seven people, including three Australians.

The video was found on a laptop in a backpack worn by terrorist leader Noordin Mohammed Top after he was killed by police during a raid on a home in central Java earlier this month.

Lounging back in a park across the road from the Ritz-Carlton, terrorists Dani Dwi Permana, 18, and Nana Ikhwan Maulana, 28, chat in the footage with an unseen cameraman, who tells them “this is our target”.

“America has to be destroyed,” the cameraman says. “Australia has to be destroyed. Indonesia has to be destroyed.”

Permana, a high school graduate, justifies the violent act through an extreme interpretation of his religion.

“This is a very noble way to destroy the enemies of Islam,” he says. “This is not suicide. Suicide is only for frustrated people.”

Three weeks later, the men walked into the lounges of the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott and triggered bombs that killed seven people, including Australians Craig Senger, Garth McEvoy and Nathan Verity, and wounded more than 50 others.
The cameraman, believed to be fugitive Top follower Saifuddin Jaelani, is alleged to have recruited the bombers.

Releasing the footage yesterday, Indonesian police aired suggestions that the terrorist group planned to increase the frequency of their attacks to as often as once a month, citing evidence found in a separate raid on a terror safehouse in Jati Asih, outside Jakarta.

Attacks had previously been carried out annually with the Bali bombing in 2002 and first bombing of the Marriott in 2003, followed by the Australian embassy in Jakarta attack in 2004 and a second Bali in 2005.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jakarta hotel bombers lounged outside before attack (ctv.ca)
• Video: Bombers relaxed outside hotels before blast (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Four killed in Indonesia anti-terror raid (cnn.com)
• Indonesia confirms militant alive (news.bbc.co.uk)

A tsunami warning has been issued for New Zealand after an earthquake struck Samoa.

The Ministry of Civil Defence said the quake, measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale struck at 06.48am New Zealand time.

The quake was centred 200 kilometres from Samoa’s capital Apia at a depth of 35 kilometres.

Families in Apia fled their homes amid severe shaking that lasted for up to three minutes.

New Zealander Scott Mulholland, who works for a communications firm in Apia, told Newstalk ZB everyone had fled.

He said the evacuation was speedy thanks to the fact that police are on duty at every major intersection at the moment because of the driving change-over from the right to the left hand side of the road.

A witness told Radio New Zealand villages on the south-east coast of Upolu had been flattened and police were moving people to higher ground.

Samoan emergency services said the whole country was being evacuated to higher ground.

Newstalk ZB reported that a three metre wave had hit Samoa’s coast.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said sea level readings indicated that a tsunami had been generated.

Read more here.