domenica 12 gennaio 2014
Weather swap: Is America’s ‘polar vortex’ linked to record warm winter in Russia?
Weather swap: Is America’s ‘polar vortex’ linked to record warm winter in Russia?
Mist rises from Lake Michigan as temperatures dipped well below zero on January 6, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. (AFP Photo / Getty Images / Scott Olson)
As Americans kept struggling with extreme cold and snow brought on by a ‘polar vortex,’ people in central Russia were puzzled by warm rainy weather that swept all the snow away. Now weather experts say the two anomalies are in fact connected.
As residents of the US and Canada were surprised by the frigid cold dipping below minus 30 degrees Celsius, Russians were also surprised by the January weather, with temperatures in Moscow rising some 11 degrees above average and melting the snowy “New Year’s spirit” away.
Central Europe also experienced sudden warm-up, and trees in Moldovan capital Chisinau got confused to the point their buds started swelling, apparently in anticipation of the blooming season.
One of the reasons for the snowless January in Russia and the coldest winter in the last 17 years for the US is in fact the shifting of the Arctic Cyclone towards North America, Greg Carbin, warning meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Itar-Tass news agency.
The cyclone may come to Russia in a week or two, Carbin said, predicting that the temperatures in the country could soon leap back to below zero and even below average.
Russian meteorologists have said that the gradual return of winter is to be expected even sooner. According to the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia, frost and snow is coming back, starting from this weekend and reaching minus 17 degrees Celsius on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, people in practically every US state (except Alaska and Hawaii) have been suffering the fate of the US East Coast and Midwest, which were hit by heavy storms ahead of Thanksgiving, and then have suffered Winter Storm Hercules, with its severe snowfall and chilling wind, just after New Year’s.
The natural disaster has since grounded thousands of flights, halted some trains and traffic midway, cut power lines, leaving whole parts of cities in the dark, and was responsible for countless road accidents, some of them fatal. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday even declared a state of emergency due to a “polar vortex” raging in the state, describing the weather conditions as “life threatening.”
Weather experts, however, have stopped short of saying the anomalies are direct signs of global warming.
What is happening now in the US and Russia is due to “natural climactic variations,” said Claire Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The so-called Rossby planetary waves, which, among other factors, are responsible for the emergence of jet streams – the strong high-altitude winds blowing from west to east – are behind with the extreme weather fluctuations, Nullis said in Geneva on Friday.
Russia’s cyber security strategies to be discussed online
Russia’s cyber security strategies to be discussed online
The Russian government will be having an online discussion with the public to hear what people think about the new cyber security strategy it has developed, the website of the upper chamber of parliament stated.
The online discussion is set to last one month, according to Senator Ruslan Gattarov, who is leading the project.
Afterward, the feedback and new proposals received will be analyzed, incorporated and the new modified strategy will be developed.
The concept of Russia’s cyber security was presented by the Federation Council in April 2013.
Russia’s Interior Ministry and Communications Ministry also took part in the development of the strategy.
The main goal is to get feedback and ideas about how to improve existing laws around information security in Russia.
The document’s authors say their main goal was to “formulate the model of threats to cyber security in Russia” and to define “the directions and measures to counter them.”
However, there are concrete suggestions in the text of the document, which has been posted online for public attention and debate.
For instance, a “cyber education” course is suggested to be introduced in schools and higher education institutions.
Also, it’s proposed to organize special cyber security centers, which will consult citizens and companies on cyber security issues.
In August, the Russian Defense Ministry announced its plans to create a separate branch of military forces, aimed at combating cyber-attacks.
Also in August, President Vladimir Putin signed a document that defined cyber attacks as a major threat to international security. It also suggested that such threats be countered by a special international body.
The topic of cyber security is becoming an ever greater concern for governments around the globe and individuals, in light of the revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) global snooping tactics.
Sharon died without facing justice - Human Rights Watch
Sharon died without facing justice - Human Rights Watch
An elderly Palestinian woman mourns 27 May 1985 a member of her family killed in the fighting between Palestinian guerrillas and Amal Shi'ite militia in Sabra Palestinian refugee camp in the southern West Beirut. (AFP Photo / Joel Robine)
As world leaders send their condolences to Israel following the death of former PM Ariel Sharon, there are no tears shed among those who suffered most from his policies. Human Rights Watch says he evaded prosecution for crimes against humanity.
Ariel Sharon died Saturday at the age of 85, after spending eight years in a coma following a stroke in 2006. Lauded as a great military commander and politician by many in Israel, he is described as war criminal by many others.
Palestinians reacted to the news of the demise of their former arch-foe without any sadness. Some cheered and distributed sweets, while some prayed for divine punishment of the former Israeli leader who masterminded military offensives against Palestinians in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement on Saturday, stressing that Sharon “died without facing justice for his role in the massacres of hundreds and perhaps thousands of civilians by Lebanese militias in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982.”
Back in the days of the Lebanese Civil War, Israeli-allied forces systematically slaughtered hundreds of Palestinians, three months after then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon engineered the invasion of Lebanon.
In 1983, Israel’s official commission of inquiry found that the “serious consideration… that the Phalangists were liable to commit atrocities… did not concern [Sharon] in the least.” Sharon’s “disregard of the danger of a massacre” was “impossible to justify,” the commission said, recommending his dismissal.
However, no criminal investigation was ever conducted by Israeli judicial authorities. A case brought by survivors of the massacre to Belgium’s highest court was dropped in 2003 following political pressure from Tel Aviv.
“His passing is another grim reminder that years of virtual impunity for rights abuses have done nothing to bring Israeli-Palestinian peace any closer,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"May God torture him," a woman named Samia told AP in the Sabra refugee camp. "We should celebrate. We should be firing in the air."
"May God torture him," a woman named Samia told AP in the Sabra refugee camp. "We should celebrate. We should be firing in the air."
Sharon also is viewed as the architect of Israel’s settlement program in occupied Palestinian territories. Although in 2005 he ordered the evacuation of nearly 8,000 Jewish settlers from four settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, some 500,000 Jewish settlers still live in unlawful settlements and the unresolved issue remains a key obstacle to peace in the region.
HRW also said that Sharon had escaped accountability for his role in expanding the settlements. The group said that “transfer by an occupying power of its civilians into an occupied territory is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, and a potential war crime.”
In 2002, Sharon approved the construction of the security separation barrier along and within the West Bank. According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, 8.5 percent of West Bank territories will end up on the Israeli side of the barrier upon its completion.
“Since 2003, the Israeli military has subjected thousands of Palestinians who live in areas of the West Bank between the barrier and the 1967 armistice line (the “Green Line”) to severe, discriminatory restrictions on their freedom of movement, with devastating economic and social consequences,” HRW stated.
“For the thousands of victims of abuses, Sharon’s passing without facing justice magnifies their tragedy,”Whitson said.
Sochi 2014 Olympics to be ‘costly, but terrific and safe’ – int’l skiing chief
Sochi 2014 Olympics to be ‘costly, but terrific and safe’ – int’l skiing chief
A general view of the media centre in Gorky-Gorod near the resort of Krasnaya Polyana, near Sochi (Reuters / Maxim Shemetov)
The upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi are going to be impressive, modern and secure, IOC member and president of the International Ski Federation Gian-Franco Kasper has said.
“The Games will be terrific and we will have the most modern venues you can imagine. The expectations are good,” Kasper told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Despite the widespread media scaremongering about the potential threat of terrorist attacks during the Games, Kasper said he is “convinced Sochi will be the safest place in the world during the Olympics.”
More than 30,000 law enforcement officers will be ensuring the security of the Games, which start in Sochi on February 7. The strict security measures mean the authorities might be “bureaucratic, not very flexible,” fears Kasper, who is also an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member.
“But we know that we need security. We know there is a terrorism problem not only in Russia but all over the world,” the FIS president added.
Kasper’s chief concern has been the reportedly reduced number of spectator seats for some of the Olympic sports events due to security reasons. Such measures “do not help to create a special atmosphere,” he said.
The Swiss official, who is not in favor of the ever-increasing costs of the Olympics and had predicted a return to a smaller, more “sensible” scale of the Games, also reiterated his criticism of Sochi’s $50 billion price tag.
“Those costs in Sochi are enormous and a bad example for future candidates. Most nations cannot afford it. Switzerland or France could never afford such amounts. Particularly for the Winter Games,” Kasper said.
He did, however, concede that Russia had to build the whole mountainous infrastructure from scratch, which he finds impressive.
“We have to see that what we did in the Alps we needed 150 years and they had to do it in five years. If you see that, then it shocks you,” the skiing federation official said.
Despite the widespread media scaremongering about the potential threat of terrorist attacks during the Games, Kasper said he is “convinced Sochi will be the safest place in the world during the Olympics.”
More than 30,000 law enforcement officers will be ensuring the security of the Games, which start in Sochi on February 7. The strict security measures mean the authorities might be “bureaucratic, not very flexible,” fears Kasper, who is also an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member.
“But we know that we need security. We know there is a terrorism problem not only in Russia but all over the world,” the FIS president added.
Kasper’s chief concern has been the reportedly reduced number of spectator seats for some of the Olympic sports events due to security reasons. Such measures “do not help to create a special atmosphere,” he said.
The Swiss official, who is not in favor of the ever-increasing costs of the Olympics and had predicted a return to a smaller, more “sensible” scale of the Games, also reiterated his criticism of Sochi’s $50 billion price tag.
“Those costs in Sochi are enormous and a bad example for future candidates. Most nations cannot afford it. Switzerland or France could never afford such amounts. Particularly for the Winter Games,” Kasper said.
He did, however, concede that Russia had to build the whole mountainous infrastructure from scratch, which he finds impressive.
“We have to see that what we did in the Alps we needed 150 years and they had to do it in five years. If you see that, then it shocks you,” the skiing federation official said.
Corrupt Britain: Organized crime infiltrates key institutions – report
Corrupt Britain: Organized crime infiltrates key institutions – report
A secret report spanning many years, which was seen by The Independent, reportedly shows a shocking level of corruption in the Metropolitan Police, the judicial system, the Crown Prosecution Service, HM Revenue & Customs, and the Prison Service.
In 2003, Operation Tiberius – an undercover Scotland Yard probe - found that organized crime gangs had compromised virtually all of the UK’s criminal justice system, The Independent reveals.
Tiberius, which was compiled from a number of covert intelligence sources including police informants, telephone intercepts, information from MI5 and MI6, as well as thousands of historical files, came to the appalling conclusion: “Quite how much more damage could be done is difficult to imagine.”
Tiberius, which according to the British daily, was ratified by the most senior management in London’s Metropolitan Police, found jurors being bought off, corrupt individuals working for Revenue and Customs and “get out of jail free cards” being bought for £50,000. The probe found infiltrated murder investigations and sensitive intelligence leaked to the criminals.
The report said that the Met suffered “endemic police corruption” and that organized crime syndicates were able to infiltrate New Scotland Yard “at will”.
One article in Tiberius concluded about the state of the Metropolitan Police: “Witnesses terrified into silence, dodgy jurors, bent lawyers, bent policemen and bent CPS clerks – all are part of the same cancer eating away at justice. A cure for the malady will not be easy to come by. Perhaps we should begin by acknowledging that the patient is sick.”
Some relationships between Met officers and the criminal underworld were reportedly so close that in one case Met detectives were identified as co-owning properties and racehorses with a man widely suspected of being one of Britain’s most hardened gangsters.
The probe also concluded that it became almost impossible for police and prosecutors to successfully pursue the organized gangs.
The Met is flagged up by Tiberius as being unable to successfully tackle the corruption of police officers by organized criminals. It said that the approach was to wait for the intelligence on corruption of individual officers to surface and react to it, rather than introduce a system to try and prevent corruption in the first place.
Scotland Yard said in a statement in response to the publications in the Independent about Tiberius:“[We] will not tolerate any behavior by our officers and staff which could damage the trust placed in police by the public. We are determined to pursue corruption in all its forms and with all possible vigor.”
But a former senior officer, who recently retired from the Met, told the Independent, “Nothing has changed. The Met is still every bit as corrupt as it was back then.”
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