BioMosaic, which tracks foreign-borne disease threats in the United States, works by merging three separate data tools into a single app for guiding decisions at the time of an outbreak. … Read More
Bangladesh survivors ponder on work prospects
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Obama asked Pentagon to prepare Syria no-fly zone plans – report
If enacted, the no-fly zone would be enforced by the US military with help from France, Great Britain and other allies. This update is the latest in President Obama’s strategy to publicly advocate for a negotiated peaceful solution while, after speculating that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons, he has reportedly been weighing the benefits of direct military aid to the country’s insurgency. Two administration officials, speaking with The Daily Beast, stressed that no military decisions have been finalized. “The White House is still in contemplation mode but the planning is moving forward and it’s more advanced than it’s ever been,” said one official, who remained anonymous. “All this effort to pressure the regime is part of the overall effort to find a political solution, but what happens if Geneva fails? It’s only prudent to plan for other options.” More than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria as the conflict has continued for more than two years, and another three and a half million have been forced out of their homes and across the border into Jordan. Pentagon Press Secretary George Little denied the anonymous White House quotes, reminding the public that the US has closely monitored the unrest since the dawn of the Arab Spring. However, Richard Engel of NBC News reported that no-fly zone discussions had been ongoing for more than one year. “There is no new military planning effort underway with regard to Syria,” Little said. “The Joint Staff, along with the relevant combatant commanders, continue to conduct prudent planning for a range of possible military operations.” A no-fly zone is often enacted as a final precaution before military intervention. The no-fly zone in question, according to The Daily Beast, was requested shortly before US Secretary of State John Kerry traveled through the Middle East last week attempting to convince Syrian rebel forces and President Assad to negotiate the end of the Syrian civil war next month in Geneva, Switzerland. As a precondition for negotiation, the rebels have demanded Assad leave power, a scenario that is difficult to imagine. Before this news was made public lawmakers pushed Obama and his advisors to clarify the exact goals of any means of intervention, most notably those of a no-fly zone, which would be difficult to implement. “One thing about the Pentagon, if they don’t want to do something, they will tell you all sorts of reasons why they can’t do it,” Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) told The Daily Beast last week. “It’s going to take significant pressure for them to come up with realistic plans. They will invent ways for us not to do it until the president of the United States says we’ve got to do it.” A previous, failed peace conference led to another year of bloodshed, while another administration official told The Daily Beast that the meeting in Geneva next month “is a Kerry initiative.” Government sources previously told the New Yorker that military action in Syria would likely constitute a “nightmare scenario” both tactically and on the home front, where Americans are “exhausted” from the seemingly endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A no-fly zone would be perceived as the first step in getting bogged down in another, possibly unwinnable war. Gary Bass, a Princeton professor who has written about intervention overseas, warned that military action could be unnecessarily costly. “The political price is always heavily slanted against intervention when there is no core national-security interest involved,” he said. … Read More
Syrian opposition still divided
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Israeli bill would elevate Judaism superior to democracy
Israeli politician MP Yariv Levin, of Netanyahu’s Likud party drafted the proposed bill, which stated: “The land of Israel is the historical birthplace of the Jewish people and the place of the establishment of the State of Israel.” It continued to grant legal status to the term “the land of Israel” and sole Jewish affinity to it for the first time, saying that the right to realize national self-definition is “unique to the Jewish people.” The bill created a storm among opposition MPs on Monday, with Labor MP Avishay Braverman labeling the proposal a ‘disaster.’ “When David Ben-Gurion founded this country it was on the basis of two principles: Israel was to be a Jewish and a democratic state. Now they are trying to annex Judea and Samaria and erode the democratic state,” he said in statement reported by local press. If adopted, the bill could potentially impact future court decisions surrounding an Israeli presence in Judaea and Samaria. The region’s status is a key contentious issue in the ongoing Israeli-Palestine conflict. One provision requires that the state build “Jewish communities” in its territories, allocating resources specifically for the purpose. However, non-Jewish communities will have to get approval granted for construction. It also aims to downgrade the status of Arabic as an official Israeli language, and would establish Hebrew as the sole official language in the state, but allow the Knesset the ability to bestow ‘secondary language’ status on Arabic and English. Despite this, Levin’s proposal has made some provision for other communities within the country’s borders, stating that, “every resident of Israel, regardless of religion or nationality, is permitted to act to preserve his culture, heritage, language and identity.” Levin defended the proposal to Army radio on Monday, stating that “It is not like there is currently a balance between a Jewish state and a democratic state and we are coming along and disrupting it. This balance has been grossly trampled on and we are here to remedy this situation.” He wrote in defense of the bill: “The proposed law emphasizes the traditional and historical connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel and the national rights granted to it as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.” A former incarnation of the controversial bill was scrapped after a Kadima party official, MP Dichter, attempted to introduce it in November 2011. Included in Dichter’s 2011 submission was the statement that Israel is “the national home of the Jewish People, wherein the Jewish People fulfills its aspiration for self-determination,” causing a similar outcry and leading opposition to claim that it would harm Israel’s democratic nature, making its status as a nation-state, “democratic in principle” superior to any status as a Jewish and democratic state. Since its first introduction, the Levy Report was published, which drew the conclusion that Israel’s West Bank presence is not an ‘occupation.’ “According to international law, Israelis have a legal right to settle all of Judea and Samaria,” the report concluded, going on to claim that the establishment of Jewish settlements in the region is not illegal. Other parties have been working on producing similar proposed laws, but their proposals are much softer, according to Haaretz. … Read More
Gazprom announces ‘fundamentaly new’ LNG project
“Gazprom is known for successfully creating projects, and decisions on which have been made,” Miller said on Thursday at a meeting in the city of Tomsk. “We will have another fundamentally new project that you do not know of yet,” he said. Miller did not disclose any details. According to the Interfax news agency, the project Miller was referring to might be a new LNG plant, which will be receiving gas from the unified gas supply system; or it could also be reviving the Baltic LNG project in the St. Petersburg region. Reuters referring to unnamed sources suggests the new LNG plant will either be situated in the Baltic or in the Barents Sea. The news agency reports that Gazprom is currently deciding whether to build the LNG plant in St. Petersburg region, or on the Kola Peninsula. Gazprom intended to build an LNG plant with a capacity of 7 million tonnes in the Baltic region in 2004, however these plans were stalled. Now Gazprom wants to return to the idea in order to boost supplies to Europe.Gazprom already has the Nord Stream gas pipeline aimed at serving Europe by connecting Russia and Germany.The gas major is also engaged in building a liquefaction plant in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, to supply the Asia-Pacific region. Companies from Japan, a large consumer of LNG, are in talks on purchasing supplies from the facility. … Read More
Moscow court rules prison official not guilty in Magnitsky’s death
The court has rejected an appeal filed by Magnitsky’s relatives, contesting Kratov’s acquittal, instead seconding the original verdict.In late December, Moscow’s Tverskoy Court ruled that there was not enough evidence that Kratov was guilty of negligence. The ex-deputy head of the prison where Magnitsky died was the only official facing a trial in connection with the tragedy. Kratov says he has not decided yet whether he will demand compensation for the criminal proceedings lodged against him, now deemed false. But Interfax reports it’s unlikely he will take it any further.The lawyer representing Magnitsky’s family, Nikolay Gorokhov, said he will study the motivation behind the court’s ruling before making any decisions to appeal it.Financial lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, 37, died in pre-trial detention in Moscow in November 2009.He was working for the British investment fund Hermitage Capital, which became embroiled in a series of scandals between 2007-2009. Magnitsky accused a group of Russian officials of embezzlement. Soon afterwards he was arrested on charges of assisting Hermitage Capital to evade tax and was awaiting trial in Moscow’s Butyrka prison. He died in jail in 2009, about a year after his detention, of what doctors said was a heart attack. Magnitsky’s family demanded an investigation into his death.The lawyer’s sudden death caused a huge international scandal and accusations that Magnitsky had been tortured to make him withdraw his accusations. … Read More
