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http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 17346.html


Kim Sengupta Thursday 18 July 2013

British arms sales: A step towards transparency, but many more are needed
This information was only released through the efforts of one Committee





The publication by the Foreign Office of an annual report on human rights and democracy is a good thing. It does, however, also mean that it would be seen as hypocritical for the British government to supply arms and intelligence equipment to repressive regimes.

The fact that it has done so would not be a major surprise in the world of realpolitik. What makes it so astonishing is the sheer scale of it, more than 3,000 export licences worth a staggering £ 12.3 billion, to those on its own official list for abuse.

Sir John Stanley, the redoubtable chairman of the  Committee on Arms Export Controls, a former defence minister, knew as a Whitehall veteran that expressions of good intentions by government are all too often not matched by deeds. After the Foreign Office began publishing its human rights reports he wrote to Vince Cable, the business secretary, to get details of the licences which have been issued.

“The figures involved would be so large – I thought someone may have added some zeros by mistake; £12bn is an absolutely huge sum. I asked Vince Cable to confirm they were accurate and, apart from a small adjustment for Iran, they all were” Sir John recalled. Further inquiries elicited that one contract alone, for Israel and the occupied territories, came to £ 7.7 billion.

For some of the items the catch-all words are ‘dual use’, components which can have both civilian and military functions. What we do not know is what they have actually been used for or, indeed, how much the British government knows about this. At a very basic level, the accountability of agents acting between the manufacturers and purchasers seem to be a very loose concept.

There are no ambiguities about some of the supplies. For example Sri Lanka — whose forces have been accused of rape, torture and murder of civilians — received assault rifles, combat shotguns, body armour and military vehicles. China, whose human rights record is routinely criticised by the UK, got components for military helicopters, military radars and lasers.

There are, actually, cases where supplying specific military material is justified despite unpalatable and disturbing developments taking place; the consequences of not doing so may be to make the situation worse.

The report states that Libya is receiving military equipment despite the bloodshed which is taking place there. But, in fact, the scale of that has been quite limited compared to what it could have been — just look at another ‘Arab Spring’ state, Syria. The fledgling administration in Tripoli needs the supplied forces to counter the militias and to try to tackle the strife. Afghanistan, too, is mentioned. Yes, there are rights violations taking place there. But the Afghan government is an ally fighting an Islamist insurgency and there is no evidence that cutting off supplies will suddenly lead to peace breaking out.

There is a debate to be had about whether there should be flexibility on individual countries. But for that to take place there needs to be what is singularly lacking on this matter; adequate transparency. We have only got these statistics thanks to the efforts of this particular Committee. One can only hope that in its response to the report the Government will be much more forthcoming than it has been hitherto. The public can make up its own mind about arms exports and human rights.

[Lusitano89]

Portugal não conseguiu evitar execução de cidadão luso-chinês


Lau Fat Wai, o cidadão chinês de nacionalidade portuguesa condenado à morte em 2009 na cidade chinesa de Cantão, foi executado em finais de Fevereiro, informou hoje à Lusa um porta-voz da Amnistia Internacional em Londres. "Falamos com um dos irmãos de Lau Fat Wai, que nos confirmou que [o cidadão chinês com nacionalidade portuguesa] foi executado em finais de Fevereiro", disse à agência Lusa o porta-voz da Amnistia Internacional, Olof Blomqvist.

Lau Fat Wai era residente de Macau e, segundo os irmãos, citados hoje pelo jornal de Macau Ponto Final, passou a fronteira para a China continental em 2006 para entregar uma encomenda a alguém com quem tinha alegadamente uma dívida, tendo depois sido detido, e, três anos mais tarde, condenado à morte por tráfico de droga e posse de arma proibida.

Segundo a lei chinesa, o tráfico de mais de 50 gramas de heroína incorre na pena de morte, como aconteceu com o cidadão britânico Akmal Shaikh, executado em 2009 em Urumqi, noroeste da China, através de injecção letal.

O primeiro advogado de Lau era o português Vasco Passeira, com escritório em Macau, que contactou as autoridades portuguesas com o objetivo de conseguir a suspensão da pena de morte e substituição desta por uma pena de prisão, mas o caso passou a ser depois acompanhado por um advogado de Cantão.

Este outro advogado disse à agência Lusa, no final de 2009, que aguardava a resposta do Supremo Tribunal Popular a um recurso que tinha apresentado em março desse ano.

Desde 2007 que as condenações à morte na China têm de ser validadas pelo Supremo Tribunal Popular, o que tem contribuído para reduzir o número de execuções, mas este país continua a ser considerado como o que mais aplica a pena de morte, sendo responsável pela maioria das registadas anualmente em todo o mundo.

A secção portuguesa da AI indicou em 2012 que a sentença do cidadão sino-português foi confirmada em segunda instância em Setembro de 2011 e o caso estava pendente de uma decisão do Supremo Tribunal Popular chinês.

Lau Fat Wai nasceu em Cantão e foi adoptado por uma família chinesa de Macau - a mãe tinha nacionalidade portuguesa - e deixou um filho, também com nacionalidade portuguesa.

Lau obteve, pela última vez, no Consulado-Geral de Portugal em Macau, o passaporte português a 29 de Outubro de 2003 e o bilhete de identidade a 02 de fevereiro de 2004, mas, ao contrário das autoridades portuguesas, as chinesas não reconhecem a dupla nacionalidade, considerando-o, por isso, como um cidadão chinês.

Em Fevereiro, mês em que Lau foi executado, a presidente da Assembleia da República, Maria Assunção Esteves, emitiu um comunicado em que se manifestava contra a condenação do cidadão sino-português e reuniu-se com o embaixador português em Pequim, tendo-se manifestado "optimista" quanto ao desfecho do caso.

No início de 2012, a secção portuguesa da AI garantiu que o Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros português realizou "várias acções diplomáticas" para evitar que Lau fosse executado, indicando que não poderia divulgá-las.

A Amnistia chegou a lançar, em todo o mundo, um apelo para as autoridades chinesas não executarem Lau Fat Wai.

Lusa

[HSMW]

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http://www.economist.com/news/china/215 ... sing-plant

Nuclear activism

Limiting the fallout

A rare protest prompts the government to scrap plans to build a uranium-processing plant. Is anti-nuclear activism on the rise?

Jul 20th 2013 | PENGZE, JIANGXI PROVINCE



“OPPOSE nuclear pollution”; “Give us back our green homeland”. So declared banners raised by some of the hundreds of protesters who took to the streets of Jiangmen city in the southern province of Guangdong on July 12th. In a remarkable concession, the local government announced that it would heed their demands and abandon plans to build a uranium-processing facility. For officials in Beijing, keen to develop nuclear power and keep activism in check, the demonstration was an unsettling sign of potential trouble.

The protest was the first known major public rally against a project involving the nuclear-power industry since China began building nuclear plants in the mid-1980s. On July 14th residents gathered again outside Jiangmen’s government headquarters (see photo), worried that the $6 billion project nearby had merely been postponed. The city’s Communist Party chief, Liu Hai, emerged to reassure the citizenry that it had indeed been scrapped for good. It is rare in China for officials to concede so rapidly to public concern about such a large project. For one linked to nuclear power, it was unprecedented.

Officials in Jiangmen probably feared that the protests could escalate to the scale of those provoked by large chemical-factory projects in the city of Xiamen in 2007 and Dalian in 2011. Those attracted thousands of people, and also resulted in concessions. Unrest in Jiangmen risked being fuelled by public opinion in nearby Hong Kong which, unlike the rest of China, has a long history of anti-nuclear activism.

Until nuclear disaster struck the Japanese plant at Fukushima in March 2011, hardly anyone in China challenged the government’s ambitions for a rapid expansion of the nuclear industry. Green activism had been spreading, but it was focused mainly on chemical projects such as those in Xiamen and Dalian and on the dumping of factory waste. There were then 13 nuclear reactors in operation. Officials wanted 100 of them to be working by 2020.

Fukushima changed the public mood. Social media, especially Twitter-like weibo services, helped to spread distrust of nuclear power. In response to this, as well as to a global reassessment of the industry’s safety, the government called a temporary halt to nuclear power-plant building. In October last year it allowed such projects to resume, but said that work on about 30 of them that were to be built inland would remain on hold until at least 2015. China’s reactors (now numbering 17, some grouped together) are all along the coast, where there is unlimited seawater to cool fuel rods and disperse radioactive pollution in the event of an accident. The government cited public opinion as a reason for the moratorium: a very new ingredient.



Plans to build a nuclear plant on the south bank of the Yangzi river in Pengze county of Jiangxi province became a prominent topic of public debate. Local officials wanted Pengze to be the site of the first nuclear power plant to be built away from the coast. They had long earmarked a verdant strip of land close to a nature reserve roamed by a rare species of deer for what they hoped would become a proud new landmark. Jiangxi officials regarded it and another proposed power plant on a Yangzi tributary as the “two nuclears” that would become a driving force of development in an energy-starved province.

If all had gone to plan the Pengze nuclear plant would have begun to generate power in 2015. Its American-designed AP1000 pressurised-water reactors (a “third-generation” type, said to have more safety features than Fukushima’s) would eventually have a total capacity of 8 gigawatts; the equivalent of nearly two-fifths of Jiangxi’s entire capacity from other sources (mostly coal) at the end of 2012.

The state-owned companies behind these projects, as well as investment-hungry local governments, are not abandoning the idea of building them. Before Fukushima, hundreds of millions of dollars had already been poured into preparing the site for Pengze, including the relocation of villagers and levelling hilltops. The area remains fenced off and guarded. (“Any risk can be controlled, any irregularity can be eliminated, any accident can be avoided,” proclaims a large blue billboard on the perimeter.) In June a senior government adviser on nuclear energy said inland projects would “steadily” resume after 2015.

Residents of Mopan village on the opposite bank of the Yangzi are worried. “People didn’t pay much attention before Fukushima. After Fukushima there was terror,” says Hong Zengzhi, a doctor of Chinese medicine who can see the Pengze site across the river from the balcony of his clinic. Mr Hong says a village leader, who had disapproved of his opposition to the plant before work began in 2009, apologised to him after the disaster in Japan. Another villager, Wu Duorong, a retired veterinarian, worries about contaminated water flowing into the Yangzi. He penned a poem about the danger: “A river of springtime water flows east; a few families take pleasure but a hundred million mourn.”

Despite such local misgivings, anti-nuclear activism in China has mostly remained low-key (with the recent exception of Jiangmen). Most environmental NGOs in China, aware of the political sensitivity of nuclear power, avoid the issue.

In late 2011, however, four former senior leaders of Wangjiang county, to which Mopan belongs, submitted a petition to the central government calling for the project to be scrapped. They said the area was vulnerable to seismic activity and the plant would pose a risk to local people. Wangjiang’s government echoed their views in a report that was leaked on the internet.

Inter-provincial rivalry, some of it economic, may well have prompted the officials to speak out. Wangjiang county is in Anhui province, not Jiangxi. Pengze stands to gain much from the project, including the possibility of thousands of new jobs. Wangjiang, a half-hour ferry-ride across the Yangzi, stands to gain little.

Not in my front yard

The government in Beijing would be happy if anti-nuclear protests were to stay at the level of bickering between counties or even the occasional outburst of nimbyism, as in Jiangmen. But there is a risk that the success of Jiangmen residents in securing a change of heart could encourage others. “We can expect similar protests wherever a nuclear project is planned,” says Eva Sternfeld of Berlin’s Technical University, who has studied such activism.

As well as complicating China’s nuclear plans, such protests would raise fears in Beijing of something more worrying: an anti-nuclear movement becoming a cover for anti-government activity. Taiwan offers a precedent. In the 1980s opponents of the island’s authoritarian government rallied public support for their cause by tapping into public concerns about nuclear power. The Communist Party does not want to run that kind of risk.

[Edu]

Pressão americana atrasa nova lei de protecção de dados na União Europeia
ALEXANDRE MARTINS 23/07/2013 - 00:00

Os alemães têm-se manifestado junto às instalações da Agência de Segurança Nacional dos EUA perto de Darmstadt, na Alemanha

Mais de 4000 emendas apresentadas por deputados europeus. Algumas são copiadas de documentos enviados por empresas como eBay e Facebook.

O Parlamento Europeu está a travar uma batalha contra o tempo para aprovar a nova legislação de protecção de dados antes das eleições de 2014. O número recorde de emendas - muitas delas a reflectir argumentos defendidos por empresas tecnológicas norte-americanas - pode fazer cair o processo em cima das secretárias dos futuros deputados, o que tornaria ainda mais difícil o cumprimento do calendário: a entrada em vigor de uma regulamentação europeia sobre a protecção dos dados de cidadãos, empresas e organismos públicos em 2016.

Para além do objectivo de substituir uma directiva aprovada em 1995 - numa era anterior ao aparecimento das redes sociais online, por exemplo -, a proposta de regulamento europeu para a protecção de dados assumiu uma nova importância após as revelações do analista informático Edward Snowden sobre os programas de vigilância da Agência de Segurança Nacional norte-americana. O debate sobre o registo e armazenamento de dados em larga escala ultrapassou as fronteiras dos Estados Unidos e chegou à Europa e à América Latina nas últimas semanas, com novas revelações sobre o alcance dos programas de espionagem em países como a Alemanha ou o Brasil.

Ainda ontem, em entrevista ao jornal espanhol El País, a comissária europeia da Justiça, Direitos Fundamentais e Cidadania, Viviane Reding, admitia nunca ter visto "um lobby tão poderoso" como o do Governo e de empresas norte-americanas com vista à introdução de emendas nas propostas de leis europeias sobre protecção de dados.

"Os lobbies tinham dez vezes mais colaboradores do que a minha equipa. Houve centenas de advogados e representantes pagos pelas grandes empresas", disse Viviane Reding, quando questionada sobre se ela própria se tinha reunido com elementos de grupos de pressão que defendem interesses dos Estados Unidos.

Contactado pelo PÚBLICO, o deputado europeu independente Rui Tavares diz mesmo que "há emendas que são ipsis verbis" propostas que figuram em documentos enviados por empresas a membros do Parlamento Europeu.

"Debilidade da democracia"

A comparação entre as propostas de empresas como a Microsoft, Facebook e eBay e as emendas de deputados europeus pode ser testemunhada no site LobbyPlag.eu, mantido por um grupo de jornalistas e programadores alemães. A ideia surgiu no início do ano, depois de Max Schrems, o estudante austríaco que levou o Facebook a tribunal por violação de privacidade, ter descoberto que "vários segmentos das petições dos lobbies foram copiados palavra por palavra para as emendas", disse um dos fundadores, Richard Gutjahr, em declarações à Euronews, em Fevereiro.

O deputado Rui Tavares diz-se "testemunha quase directa da muita actividade na entrega de emendas" - mais de 4000 - e reconhece que a equipa do relator Jan Philipp Albrecht está "assoberbada". Não faz previsões, mas afirma que, se o regulamento não for aprovado antes das eleições de 2014, "será um golpe muito fundo" e "uma enorme vitória destes lobbies".

Para Rui Tavares, a culpa é das "debilidades da democracia europeia" e a solução passa por "reforçar a permeabilidade da União Europeia aos cidadãos", porque "os deputados, por si só, não dominam todos os assuntos". Para além da falta de "regras claras" sobre a actividade dos grupos de pressão, o deputado do Parlamento Europeu considera que as instituições europeias "não ajudam os cidadãos a terem um poder de fogo tão grande como o que têm essas empresas".

http://www.publico.pt/mundo/jornal/pressao-americana-atrasa-nova-lei-de-proteccao-de-dados-na-uniao-europeia-26860334

Lobbies americanos a fazer das suas...

[Lusitano89]

China endurece política de vistos e definição de «imigrante ilegal»


As autoridades chinesas deram esta terça-feira detalhes da nova política de vistos que o país aplicará aos estrangeiros a partir de 1 de Setembro, que endurece as condições para a sua concessão e aumenta os supostos nos quais um residente de outro país pode ser considerado «imigrante ilegal».

Segundo a agência oficial Xinhua, será considerado imigrante ilegal «qualquer estrangeiro que se mudar para qualquer área fora daquela em que a sua estadia está restrita», além dos visitantes cujo visto expirou antes da sua partida.

A informação não estabelece qual será a punição dos «imigrantes ilegais», embora notícias anteriores mencionassem multas de até 500 yuan por dia de residência clandestina, detenções de até 15 dias e até mesmo deportações nos casos mais graves.

As regulações, aprovadas em Junho do ano passado pelo legislativo nacional, implantam a criação de um visto especial para estrangeiros que viajam para a China para visitar familiares (antes era outorgado um visto de turismo).

Também haverá um novo visto para «talentos», que poderia ser o de maior duração (até cinco anos), e com o qual a China procura atrair trabalhadores altamente especializados em campos como o científico ou o tecnológico.

As novas leis, cujo conteúdo ainda não foi totalmente divulgado, causaram um certo alarme entre a comunidade estrangeira residente na China.

Teme-se que o país asiático reduza a emissão de vistos de «visita de negócios», utilizados pela maioria de estrangeiros como professores de línguas, empresários autónomos e outros grupos que não podem aceder a vistos com trâmites mais complexos como o de «trabalho».

O número de estrangeiros que visitam a China aumentou a um ritmo do 10% anual desde 2000, e actualmente já se aproxima do de países com grande tradição turística como a Espanha. O ano passado os dois países «empataram» com 57,7 milhões de visitantes, segundo os números da Organização Mundial do Turismo.

Lusa

[mafarrico]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... trial.html

Five plead not guilty to murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 'illegitimate' trial

Five men have pleaded not guilty to the murder of an anti-Kremlin journalist who was shot dead seven years ago, in a trial denounced as illegitimate by her two children.





By Rosie Shields, agencies

5:45PM BST 24 Jul 2013

The group of men – four Chechens from the same family and a former police officer – are accused of shooting Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of President Vladimir Putin, in her apartment block in 2006 in a crime that was linked to her controversial reporting in the Northern Caucasus. At the time, she had been investigating human rights abuses in Chechnya and high-level corruption across Russia.

Judge Pavel Melekhin of the Moscow City Court declined to postpone the trial as requested by Politkovskaya's daughter Vera and son Ilya, who informed the court ahead of time that they refused to attend. In a statement, they said their rights had been "violated" because the court had rushed the trial date knowing they could not take part.

"We have waited almost seven years for the killers to stand trial but the state could not wait a few days. Tomorrow [Wednesday], a patently illegitimate process begins. We refuse to take part in such a trial," they said in a statement release on Tuesday.

In addition, the pair claimed that the jury were chosen without their consent.



Dmitry Muratov (AP)




Dmitry Muratov, the editor of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper the 48-year-old Politkovskaya wrote for, supported their stance, saying the jury was chosen "frenetically and rapidly".

A Moscow city court spokesman said that the jury were chosen with full compliance of the law.

Three of the five men have been tried and acquitted previously, although that ruling was thrown out by the Russian supreme court.

Another police officer, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who was linked to the case, was sentenced to 11 years in prison last year after charges of tracking the journalist and supplying the murder weapon.

The person who is thought to have ordered the assassination is still believed to be free.

Mr Putin condemned the murder at the time but said her ability to influence Russian politics had been "extremely insignificant" and her killing had caused greater damage to Russia's image than her reporting.

[mafarrico]

o relatório em questão pode ser visto aqui http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov ... gnidad.pdf


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... study.html

Colombia civil conflict has killed 'nearly a quarter of a million': study

Almost a quarter of a million Colombians have been killed in the country's bloody half-century conflict, most of them civilians, a government-funded report revealed on Wednesday, providing fresh evidence of the vast scale of human rights violations since hostilities began.


Colombia has been fighting a war with the FARC and another leftist rebel group, the ELN (National Liberation Army) since their formation in the late 50s and early 60s Photo: GETTY



By Reuters

10:23AM BST 25 Jul 2013

The study, which took six years to complete, examined atrocities that have occurred since the early days of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (the FARC) in 1958, said Gonzalo Sanchez, head of the investigation.

Colombia has been fighting a war with the FARC and another leftist rebel group, the ELN (National Liberation Army) since their formation in the late 50s and early 60s after a long period of civil war known as La Violencia. The FARC and ELN, or National Liberation Army, also battled right-wing paramilitary groups, leaving civilians caught in the middle.

"We all deserve to know the truth, we all deserve to understand what happened in our rural areas and cities, and only then will we be able to say with force: Stop!" Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said at the presidential palace on Wednesday, when the study was released. "Only in a Colombia without fear and with truth can we begin to turn the page."

The government has been engaged in peace talks with the FARC since November. While human rights violations have receded, the report painted a grim picture of bloodshed from the height of the conflict until 2012.

Colombia's armed forces, backed by billions in US aid, have used better intelligence and logistics over the last decade to combat the illegal armed groups, pushing their fighters deep into inhospitable jungle terrain.



"It's a war that has left most of the country mourning, but very unevenly. It's a war whose victims are, in the vast majority, non-combatant civilians. It's a depraved war that has broken all humanitarian rules," said Mr Sanchez, who presented the report to Santos.

In more than a half century, the war killed 220,000 Colombians, more than 177,300, or 80 percent, of whom were civilians, according to the report. Another 40,787 members of the armed forces, paramilitary and rebels groups were killed in combat.

The 400-page study, packed with shocking photos of victims, was conducted in some of Colombia's most volatile areas, where communities have lived in fear for decades. It details the types of violence used by each group.

The bloodiest period was between 1985 and 2002, when the paramilitaries formed to defend landowners and business leaders against rebel attacks. The paramilitaries, known as the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, or AUC, were responsible for some of the most atrocious human rights violations.

Paramilitary groups, guerrillas and members of the armed forces committed 1,982 massacres - defined as four victims or more - killing 11,751 between 1980 and 2012. The AUC was responsible for the bulk of the massacres, while guerrillas kidnapped more and were responsible for most attacks against infrastructure.

The study found 4.7 million had been displaced since 1996, 27,023 victims were kidnapped since 1970, and 1,190 indigenous Indians were killed between 1996 and 2009.

Edited by Hannah Strange

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ju ... afia-raids

Italy arrests 51 in Ostia anti-mafia raids

Police operation in coastal suburb near capital is described as one of the biggest ever anti-mafia sweeps in Rome area

Lizzy Davies in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 July 2013 16.11 BST   


Police lead away a suspect arrested in Ostia. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images


As temperatures soar to around 40C this weekend, thousands of Romans will flock to nearby beaches to roast in the sun, play on the slot machines and dance in sticky seaside nightclubs. They will not be the only ones feeling the heat.

On Friday in an operation that prosecutors said revealed the extent of organised crime in the coastal suburb of Ostia near the Italian capital, 51 people were arrested on suspicion of mafia-related activity.

The crackdown, which involved about 500 police officers as well as dog support units, patrol boats and a helicopter, was described as one of the biggest anti-mafia sweeps ever carried out in the Rome area.

Its aim was to hit at the heart of gangs that prosecutors say have been carving up the coastal territory and sharing its considerable spoils for the past 20 years.

Located about 15 miles south-west of the capital near Leonardo da Vinci airport, Ostia's sandy beaches prove a popular weekend destination for city-dwellers seeking to escape Rome's stifling heat.

Particularly targeted in the operation on Friday were members of three clans – the Fasciani, Triassi, and D'Agati – whom investigators suspect of carrying out criminal activities including drug trafficking and extortion.

The Triassi are believed to have close ties to the Sicilian mafia. The website of Il Fatto Quotidiano, a daily newspaper, headlined the raids: "Welcome to Cosa Nostra beach".

The alleged infiltration by criminal networks in Ostia's political administration emerged this month when police raided the town hall's permit office and placed an employee and local contractors under investigation on suspicion of rigging bids for beach contracts in favour of another mafia clan, the Spada.

The move prompted Rome's new mayor, Ignazio Marino, to announce that permits to manage Ostia's coastline would henceforth be handled directly from the capital. He said his administration would fight to curb "the underworld infiltration" of Ostia.

"In recent years, the Roman coastline has become fertile ground for criminal activities, the scene of bloody clashes between clans and criminal gangs who seek to control significant parts of the city's economy," he said.

One of the most startling incidents in the increasingly bloody turfwar in Ostia came in November 2011 when two criminals, Giovanni Galleoni and Francesco Antonini, were shot dead in the town centre in broad daylight.

In a separate but equally dramatic anti-mafia operation on Friday morning, police in the southern region of Calabria made dozens of arrests in the city of Lamezia Terme, about 40 miles south of Cosenza, some of which concerned a suspected car-crash scam in which payouts were allegedly used to provide criminals with drugs and arms.

Police said the raids had targeted a panoply of local people suspected of involvement in the scheme, ranging from insurers and lawyers to car repairers. There were also arrests of suspected hitmen on suspicion of several killings between 2005 and 2011, police said.

A Calabria senator in the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Freedom People (PdL) party was being investigated for suspected vote-buying but had not been arrested, they added.

Guido Marino, police chief in nearby Catanzaro, said the raids revealed a flourishing criminal system in the city that had drawn in not only fully paid-up members of criminal gangs but "professionals above suspicion".

"This was a mafia system which not only bloodied Lamezia Terme with murders but which also bled dry a part of [the city's] already fragile economy," he was quoted as telling the Ansa news agency.

Calabria, one of Italy's poorest regions, is the home to the 'Ndrangheta, now Italy's most formidable organised crime syndicate, which has grown far beyond its southern origins into a hugely powerful force thought to control much of the cocaine trade in Europe.

[mafarrico]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/bruno-in-b ... air-force/

EU planning to 'own and operate’ spy drones and an air force

By Bruno Waterfield Last updated: July 26th, 2013





The European Union is planning to “own and operate” spy drones, surveillance satellites and aircraft as part of a new intelligence and security agency under the control of Baroness Ashton.

The controversial proposals are a major move towards creating an independent EU military body with its own equipment and operations, and will be strongly opposed by Britain.

Officials told the Daily Telegraph that the European Commission and Lady Ashton’s European External Action Service want to create military command and communication systems to be used by the EU for internal security and defence purposes. Under the proposals, purchasing plans will be drawn up by autumn.

The use of the new spy drones and satellites for “internal and external security policies”, which will include police intelligence, the internet, protection of external borders and maritime surveillance, will raise concerns that the EU is creating its own version of the US National Security Agency.

Senior European officials regard the plan as an urgent response to the recent scandal over American and British communications surveillance by creating EU’s own security and spying agency.

“The Edward Snowden scandal shows us that Europe needs its own autonomous security capabilities, this proposal is one step further towards European defence integration,” said a senior EU official.

The proposal said “the commission will work with the EEAS on a joint assessment of dual-use capability needs for EU security and defence policies”.

It continued: “On the basis of this assessment, it will come up with a proposal for which capability needs, if any, could best be fulfilled by assets directly purchased, owned and operated by the Union.” A commission official confirmed the proposal.

There is a already an intense behind-the-scenes battle pitting London against the rest over plans to create an EU military operations headquarters in Brussels.

Lady Ashton, the European foreign minister, the commission and France – backed by Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland – all support the plans. Both sets of proposals are likely to come to a head at an EU summit fight in October.

“We would not support any activity that would mean the Commission owning or controlling specific defence research assets or capabilities,” said a British government spokesman.

Britain has a veto but the group of countries have threatened to use a legal mechanism, created by the Lisbon Treaty, to bypass the British and create a major rift in Nato.

Geoffrey Van Orden MEP, Conservative European defence and security spokesman, accused the commission of being “obsessed” with promoting the “EU’s military ambitions”.

“It would be alarming if the EU – opaque, unaccountable, bureaucratic and desperately trying to turn itself into a federal state – were to try and create an intelligence gathering capability of its own. This is something that we need to stop in its tracks before it is too late,” he said.

Nigel Farage MEP, the leader of Ukip, described the plans for EU spy drones and satellites as “a deeply sinister development”.

“These are very scary people, and these revelations should give any lover of liberty pause for thought over the ambitions of the EU elite.”

The Open Europe think tank has warned that the EU “has absolutely no democratic mandate for actively controlling and operating military and security capabilities”.

“The fact is European countries have different views on defence and this is best served by intergovernmental cooperation, not by European Commission attempts at nation-building,” said Pawel Swidlicki, a research analyst at Open Europe.

The spy drones and secure command systems would be linked to a £3.5 billion spy satellite project known as Copernicus which will be used to provide “imaging capabilities to support Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations”. Currently Copernicus is due to be operated by the European Space Agency.

It is part of the Sentinel system of satellites, which is costing British taxpayers £434 million. Previously known as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security project, which is due to become operational next year.

[mafarrico]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 34387.html

Pink Panther jewel thief breaks out of Swiss jail

Notorious gang behind robberies worth £200m used ladder to climb over prison fence

TONY PATERSON  Friday 26 July 2013





Police across Europe are hunting for a leading member of the infamous “Pink Panther” gang of international jewel thieves who staged a spectacular breakout from a Swiss jail aided by accomplices firing automatic weapons to cover his escape.

Convicted jewel thief Milan Poparic, 34, and a fellow inmate, Swiss kidnapper Adrian Albrecht, 52, escaped from  the prison in Orbe, western Switzerland, early on Thursday evening.

The jailbreak was launched during an exercise period when a van rammed open a prison gate and smashed through barbed wire separating the gate from the yard inside. A police spokesman said: “They used ladders to create an escape route over the prison fence. The guards were pinned down by automatic weapons fire. Fortunately, no one was injured.”

The escapees and their accomplices then set fire to the van and fled at high speed in a second vehicle. Police immediately sent 12 patrol cars in pursuit, and as Orbe lies only 10 miles from the French border, French police were also involved. Yesterday afternoon, police said that although Interpol had been alerted, the hunt was continuing.  Poparic, who was serving a six-year sentence for a 2009 jewel robbery, was the third Pink Panther member to escape from a Swiss prison since May. Two others were among a group of five who broke out of a jail near Lausanne after accomplices hurled a sack over the prison wall containing escape equipment and a gun.

 The gang is estimated to have carried out at least 150  robberies and stolen £200m in jewels since raiding a shop in London’s New Bond Street in 2003. The gang earned its Pink Panther nickname after British police found a diamond ring they had stolen buried in a jar of face cream, echoing an incident in the film starring Peter Sellers.

 At its core, the gang comprises jewel thieves said to originate from  Montenegro’s Cetinje region. But according to Interpol, over the past decade it has grown to incorporate a wider alliance of criminals from across the Balkans.

Since 2003  the Pink Panthers have raided jewellers in countries as far apart as  the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Switzerland, Britain, France and Monaco. The so-called “white glove” crooks are notorious for the cool precision of their raids.

 In one Tokyo raid, immaculately dressed gang members took 36 seconds to steal nearly £2m worth of gems from a jeweller’s; after spraying employees with tear gas, they escaped on bicycles. “When we go out, we dress nice, in suits,” an incognito gang member once confessed to a reporter from The New Yorker magazine

 In Dubai, the gang used black and white Audi limousines to drive across the polished floors of an upmarket shopping mall where they smashed the front window of a jewellery store. Stunned shoppers looked on as the balaclava-wearing raiders stormed inside, smashing open cabinets and escaping with £1.9m worth of gems. In one raid in St Tropez, gang members wore flowery summer shirts and used a speedboat to flee the scene of their crime.

The gang’s roots in impoverished, war-torn Montenegro has lent its members a  Robin Hood image of down-on-their-luck adventurers who only target the rich. In 2010, Interpol was so annoyed by The New Yorker ’s piece, which it felt was sympathetic to the gang, that it felt obliged to issue an official complaint.

Interpol says that jewel hauls are usually melted down to separate the gems from the metal, making them easier to sell. Police estimate that the gang now has more than 150 members and has been operating since the late 1990s. Several have been caught, convicted and jailed over the past decade, but they are experts at organising escapes. They usually regroup and commit further robberies.

Audacious raids: Gang’s biggest hits

2002: In May, Nebojsa Denic and an accomplice walked into Graff’s jewellers on London’s New Bond Street disguised in suits and wigs and armed with a Magnum pistol. Within three minutes, they escaped with jewellery worth £23m. A security guard gave chase and wrestled Denic to the ground. His capture led the police to up to 20 other robberies committed by the gang’s 150 members since the late 1990s. In the same year, the gang sprang Dragan Mikic – believed to be the Panthers’ ringleader – from a French jail while firing Kalashnikovs at the prison tower.

2007: Having grabbed £20m-worth of gems from a shop in the upmarket Tokyo district of Ginza in 2004, the gang struck again in 2007, when Panther Rifat Hadziahmetovic and an accomplice escaped with jewels worth £2m. Both were later arrested for separate robberies. In 2011, Hadziahmetovic, from Montenegro, was jailed for 10 years for the 2007 raid.

2008: A French court found three Serbian members of the Pink Panthers guilty of robberies in Biarritz, Cannes, Courchevel and Saint-Tropez. The gang members behind the 2005 heist in Biarritz wore flowery shirts during the raid, and escaped on a speed boat. In another robbery that year, Panthersdressed as women to raid a Paris jewellers and escape with £60m. Such is their attention to detail, their crimes have been dubbed “artistry”.

2013: Milan Poparic became the third member of the Pink Panther group to be sprung from jail since May.

[Lusitano89]

Polémico acampamento secreto reúne poderosos nos EUA


Como em todos os meses de Julho há mais de um século, alguns dos homens mais ricos e influentes dos Estados Unidos estão reunidos no acampamento Bohemian Grove, perto da cidade de Monte Rio, no norte da Califórnia.

O encontro, que é fechado à imprensa, dura duas semanas e é o ponto alto do ano para os membros do Bohemian Club, uma instituição privada para homens fundada em São Francisco, em 1872.

Entre os elementos há intelectuais, vários ex-presidentes dos Estados Unidos e influentes senadores, deputados, académicos e altos executivos das maiores empresas e instituições financeiras do país.

Acredita-se que o Projecto Manhattan, que levou à criação da bomba atómica, tomou forma no Bohemian Grove, durante uma reunião em 1942.

De acordo com o porta-voz do clube, Alex Singer, o evento é apenas uma reunião em que os sócios e os seus convidados - entre os quais, como em todos os anos, figuras de destaque internacional - desfrutam da natureza e de uma série de actividades culturais que incluem concertos, peças de teatro, recitais e palestras sobre assuntos da actualidade.

Mas o forte esquema de segurança e sigilo têm tornado o encontro alvo de protestos de muitos grupos de activistas, que questionam a legitimidade do Bohemian Grove por reunir funcionários do governo e representantes do mundo corporativo a portas fechadas.

O acampamento também tem gerado uma série de teorias da conspiração (algumas mais prováveis do que as outras) que asseguram que os «bohos», como são chamados os sócios do clube, trabalham para estabelecer uma nova ordem mundial e celebram rituais pagãos com conotações satânicas.

Peter Phillips, professor de sociologia política da Universidade de Sonoma, na Califórnia, pesquisa as actividades do Bohemian Club há mais de 20 anos. Para a sua tese de doutoramento entrevistou muitos dos seus membros, e acabou por ser convidado a a passar vários dias no acampamento de Verão do grupo.

Ele explica que a confraria tem entre 2.500 e 3 mil sócios (embora o número exacto e os nomes dos integrantes do clube nunca tenham sido divulgados). A lista de espera pode durar entre 15 e 20 anos, e não é de surpreender que tornar-se um «boho» tenha o seu preço: entrar no selecto grupo custa nada mais nada menos do que  25 mil dólares.

Fundado por um grupo de jornalistas, artistas e músicos, o Bohemian Club começou a aceitar empresários e homens de negócios com o passar do tempo para financiar as suas actividades culturais.

O especialista diz que actualmente o clube conta com os 200 maiores doadores do Partido Republicano e directores das 100 maiores empresas americanas.

Figuras de destaque já passaram pela confraria, entre eles os escritores Mark Twain e Jack London, os multimilionários William Randolph Hearst e David Rockefeller e políticos conservadores de reputação nacional, como Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, George Bush e seu filho George W. Bush, Dick Cheney e Donald Rumsfeld.

Este ano, a lista inclui nomes como o ex-general do Exército americano Stanley McChristal, o famoso comediante Conan O'Brien, o presidente da Universidade de Stanford, John Hennessey, o ex-presidente da Intel, Paul Otellini, e o ex-presidente boliviano Jorge Quiroga.

Phillips diz que os participantes dividem-se em cerca de 120 acampamentos, que vão desde chalés com bastante conforto até alojamentos mais simples, com casas de banho e chuveiros partilhados.

Na floresta, as instalações contam ainda com três teatros ao ar livre, um restaurante, um pequeno museu de história natural e mais de 100 pianos.

O clima é de festa e há muita bebida, conta o estudioso, relembrando outro aspecto essencial do evento: a preferência dos seus sócios por urinar ao ar livre, nas árvores, constantemente.

Lusa

[Lusitano89]

China cria primeira lei que protege os «bons samaritanos»


A primeira lei da China que protegerá os «bons samaritanos», ou pessoas que ajudam outras em acidentes ou catástrofes, entrou em vigor a 1 de Agosto e pode ser o primeiro passo para resolver um forte problema da sociedade chinesa: a indiferença de muitos cidadãos em relação aos problemas alheios.

Denominada oficialmente «Regulação para a Protecção de Direitos dos Bons Samaritanos», a lei será aplicada na cidade de Shenzhen, situada na mesma província (Cantão), onde a falta de atendimento a uma menina que foi atropelada duas vezes diante do olhar indiferente de dezenas de pessoas comoveu o país.

Agora, em Shenzhen, cidade que costuma adiantar-se ao resto da China em reformas legais e sociais (não por acaso foi a primeira do país onde se aplicou nos anos 1980 a economia de mercado), os cidadãos que ajudarem outros em casos de emergência estarão especialmente protegidos por lei.

Concretamente, as novas regulações absolvem essas pessoas de qualquer responsabilidade de ajudar vítimas, a menos que cometam «graves falhas» no processo, e estabelece que receberão assessoria legal gratuita se forem levados a julgamento pelas pessoas que atenderam (litígios muito frequentes na China).

A lei também contempla punições a resgatados ou atendidos se for comprovado que mentiram a fim de conseguir benefícios económicos, destaca hoje o jornal South China Morning Post, publicado em Hong Kong, vizinha a Shenzhen.

A lei é uma resposta à prática comum de não ajudar os acidentados, pessoas com problemas de saúde e outros necessitados, porque muitos têm a convicção de que isso pode gerar problemas legais ou financeiros.

«Caí da bicicleta, fiquei inconsciente e dez minutos depois acordei cercada de um montão de gente. Todos olhavam, mas ninguém tinha feito nada, nem sequer ligar para as emergências», lembra Zhang Qian, uma jovem negociante de arte pequinesa.

Segundo os sociólogos, essa cultura é resultado do sistema de saúde e de emergências do país, no qual médicos, enfermeiros e motoristas de ambulâncias cobram de forma antecipada pelo atendimento, por isso muitas vezes quem ajuda nesses acidentes deve, para piorar, gastar grandes somas de dinheiro.

Também influem casos o ocorrido em 2006 na cidade de Nankín, quando um homem chamado Peng Yu ajudou uma idosa que caiu no passeio e fracturou um osso, mas depois foi denunciado pela mesma mulher e teve que pagar uma compensação de cerca de 1,2 mil dólares após um longo julgamento.

O debate nacional surgiu, no entanto, após a morte, em Outubro de 2011, da menina Yue Yue, de dois anos, atropelada por dois carros diante a indiferença de 20 peões que passaram ao seu lado num facto que foi registrado por uma câmara de segurança, em imagens que deram a volta ao mundo.

Cidadãos, especialistas em direitos humanos e até algumas autoridades pediram mudanças legais que punissem a omissão de ajuda, ou pelo menos a protegessem ou premiassem.

Isto, por enquanto, só foi aplicado em Shenzhen, embora a imprensa e a opinião pública tenham manifestado o seu desejo que se estenda a outras cidades e ao resto do país.

Desde o acidente com Yue Yue, é frequente que os veículos de imprensa chineses publiquem notícias elogiando pessoas que ajudam outras - esta semana ficou famoso um idoso de 70 anos que salvou outro de morrer afogado - e ao mesmo tempo têm sido muito criticados casos de omissão de ajuda se esses forem descobertos.

Lusa

[Lusitano89]

Sargento condenado a 10 meses de prisão por tocar nas nádegas de superiora


O Supremo Tribunal espanhol condenou um sargento do Exército a 10 meses de prisão por dois delitos de «insulto a um superior», por ter tocado nas nádegas de uma superiora como «forma de provocação e falta de respeito».

O tribunal confirmou a decisão de um tribunal de primeira instância que deu como provado que, na tarde de 05 de abril de 2011, o sargento executou «um movimento de baixo para cima tocando nas nádegas» da capitão, que estava com um grupo de oficiais, incluindo o seu marido, um tenente do Exército, num terraço de um café em Ceuta.

O sargento e a oficial já tinham tido um encontro tenso noutro bar da cidade, depois de o sargento condenado ter reconhecido a oficial como a superiora que tinha instruído um outro processo contra si por má conduta, refere-se também no acórdão.

Lusa

[mafarrico]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 44984.html

'Trojan horse' raid ends 18-month hunt for Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov

Fresh details emerge of how financier accused of one of the world's biggest frauds was tracked down

David Connett Sunday 04 August 2013






The armed police looking on from their camouflaged surveillance posts in the woods were convinced the gardener's van which emerged from behind the gates of the secluded villa was their cornered target's final attempt to escape. As the van left, officers radioed colleagues some distance away and ordered a armed "hard stop" in an effort to stop him. Yet when the van was stopped by armed officers moments later, they discovered the van was empty and the gardeners were genuine. Undeterred, the police quickly capitalised on the mix-up. The gardeners were persuaded to change clothes with police and readily provided the access code for the formidable security gates. So it was that a humble workman's van, acting as an improvised Trojan horse, ferried a heavily armed French tactical firearms team past the security cameras and into the heart of the fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov's secret bolthole in the south of France.

The officers who entered the main building quickly found the Kazakh businessman, accused of one of the world's biggest frauds, seated at his computer, unaware of his imminent arrest. Ablyazov, arrested on an Interpol warrant, is now facing extradition from France to Ukraine, where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of banking fraud.

The dramatic final moments of Ablyazov's arrest emerged yesterday in France as full details of the 18-month hunt for him after he fled Britain last year were revealed.

Ablyazov was hunted by British private detectives when he fled the country after the High Court sentenced him to prison for contempt of court. The banker has been accused of embezzling $6bn (£3.9bn) from Kazakhstan's BTA Bank. The bank fought to get the money returned through a series of civil court battles, opposed at every stage by the businessman, who claimed he was the victim of political persecution as a result of his opposition to Kazakhstan's autocratic President, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The banker, whose country's elite has grown wealthy on the proceeds of vast oil and gas reserves, insists he is the target of a political conspiracy after he left his post as energy minister and became a prominent opponent of Mr Nazarbayev. Ablyazov funded a pro-reform party in 2001, earning himself a six-year prison term for abuse of public office. After he was pardoned by Mr Nazarbayev in 2003, he presided over rapid growth at BTA, allegedly plundering its assets until he fled to London 2009 and successfully applied for asylum in 2011. Kazakh prosecutors have described him as the head of an extremist, criminal conspiracy bent on "seizing power by inciting civil strife and hatred".

In May, Ablyazov's wife and six-year-old child were controversially detained and then taken from Rome to Kazakhstan, sparking a domestic political crisis in Italy. The Italian government says it was not properly informed about the expulsion and has asked the head of police to explain what occurred. Ablyazov's family says that the wife, Shalabayeva, and the couple's six-year-old daughter, Alua, are "in danger" in Kazakhstan.

The British private detectives tracked down the missing banker after following a Ukrainian lawyer, Olena Tyshchenko, from the High Court in London, where she sought an adjournment of legal proceedings to seize Ablyazov's assets. Ms Tyshchenko, who lives with her children in the luxurious private St George's Hill estate in Surrey, was then trailed to the south of France, where she was spotted meeting Ablyazov in a waterfront villa in Miramar.

According to legal sources, the British detectives were unaware of Ablyazov's presence until he was spotted in his boxer shorts placing flowers in a vase and rearranging the bed before closing the curtains. The properties were kept under observation, and the financier's personal staff later led investigators to another, more secluded property north of Cannes in the village of Mouans-Sartoux. The villa, where French police eventually arrested him last week, is close to where Ms Tyshchenko also owns property. While Ablyazov was kept under surveillance, Ms Tyshchenko was followed to Moscow, where she secured a divorce from her husband Sergei, a Ukrainian banker. Ms Tsychenko then returned to the south of France, where she socialised with Ablyazov.

Ablyazov, who appeared in court in Aix-en-Provence, is expected to apply for release from detention this week. In April, Ablyazov's former bodyguard, Aleksandr Pavlov, was detained in Madrid, Spain, accused of bank fraud and terrorism charges, which he denies.

Legal sources said the Ablyazov investigation had been led by the British corporate intelligence firm Diligence. When approached, a company spokeswoman said it had a policy of not confirming or denying its involvement with projects or the identity of clients.