Obama Legitimates Drones outside US Airspace

Al Manar

U.S. President Barack Obama issued a decree on Friday that allows the use of drones outside the borders of the United States.

He said that this decree will enable the United States to “carry out effective operations against the terrorists.”

In Friday’s speech at the National Defense University in Washington, U.S. President stressed “that he is determined to continue the war against al-Qaeda to eliminate it.”

But, in turn, he asserted “that a permanent war against terrorism will fail and will change the American current situation, as a clear strategy to address ‘terrorism’ is absent.”

The American President, reiterated his administration’s support for the Syrian opposition.

However, he lashed out at any attempt to replace Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by terrorist takfiris fighting now against the government troops.

“Extremists must not replace the dictatorial regime, he said, in reference to the acting regime in Syria.

“Permanent war on terrorism is the loser in advance,” he stressed.

Syria was hit by a violent unrest since mid-March 2011, where the Syrian government accuses foreign actors of orchestrating the conflict, by supporting the militant opposition groups with arms and money.

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Pakistan slams US drone strikes as violation of its sovereignty

Press TV

Islamabad has reiterated its strong opposition to the ongoing CIA-operated deadly campaign of drone strikes inside Pakistani soil.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the US drone attacks cause civilian casualties and are in breach of international law as well as Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“The Government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that the drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law,” the statement read.

Pakistan’s government was reacting to US President Barack Obama who on Thursday defended the use of controversial terror drones as self-defense.

Over the past several years, Washington has been launching drone attacks on Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen.

Pakistan’s tribal regions are attacked by US assassination drones almost regularly, with Washington claiming that militants are the targets. However, casualty figures clearly indicate that civilians are the main victims.

The killing of Pakistani civilians, including women and children, has strained relations between Islamabad and Washington. The US assassination drone strikes have triggered massive protests in Pakistan.

The United Nations says the US-operated drone strikes in Pakistan pose a growing challenge to the rule of international law.

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Obama, Bush, Blair must be put on trial at ICC: Chomsky

Press TV

Renowned American academic, Noam Chomsky, says US President Barack Obama, his predecessor George W. Bush, along with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should face trial for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ensuing turmoil in the Arab state.

“Bush and Blair ought to be up there [at the International Criminal Court]. There is no recent crime worse than the invasion of Iraq. Obama’s got to be there for the terror war,” Chomsky told Russia Today on Thursday.

In 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in a blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction. But no such weapons were ever found in Iraq.

More than one million Iraqis were killed as the result of the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of the country, according to the California-based investigative organization, Project Censored.

Chomsky, a prominent critic of the US foreign policy, said the invasion of Iraq is a “supreme international crime,” adding that the US and its allies were responsible for bomb attacks across the Arab country.

“The US and British invasion of Iraq was a textbook example of aggression, no questions about it. Which means that we were responsible for all the evil that follows like the bombings. Serious conflict arose, [and] it spread all over the region. In fact the region is being torn to shreds by this conflict. That is part of the evil that follows,” Chomsky stated.

He went on to slam Washington for its growing use of killer drones in a number of countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, describing it as a “massive terror campaign.”

“A drone strike was a terror weapon; we do not talk about it that way. It is; just imagine you are walking down the street and you do not know whether in five minutes there is going to be an explosion across the street from some place up in the sky that you cannot see,” said Chomsky.

“Somebody will be killed, and whoever is around will be killed, maybe you will be injured if you are there. That is a terror weapon. It terrorizes villages, regions, huge areas. In fact it’s the most massive terror campaign going on by a long shot,” he added.

Washington uses killer drones in several countries, claiming that they target “terrorists.” According to witnesses, however, the attacks have mostly led to massive civilian casualties.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– The Israeli authorities on Tuesday demolished 11 apartments in the occupied city of Jerusalem, displacing more than one hundred Jerusalemite citizens, mostly women and children.

Wadi Al-Helwa Information Center said in a report published on Wednesday that the Jerusalem municipality teams, accompanied by military and police forces, demolished in Tur neighborhood and Jabal Mukaber in eastern Jerusalem 7 Palestinian houses and a residential building of four apartments.

The occupation authorities said the apartments were built without a permit on lands threatened with confiscation, and started the demolition without any prior notice.

The Information Center said the residential building in the Jabal Mukaber, which consisted of four apartments, has been built since 1973, and that some years ago the occupation tried to buy it.

The building’s owner asserted that he had repeatedly tried to obtain building permits from all Israeli competent authorities, but his request was turned down because of the occupation’s plans to confiscate the building for establishing Jewish Gardens in its place.

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Amnesty: Israeli restrictions on movement of Palestinians collective punishment

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Israeli stringent restrictions imposed on the movement of Palestinians serve as a “collective punishment” of the population of Gaza and the West Bank in flagrant violation of the international law, an international human rights organization said.

Amnesty International stated in its yearly report that more than 500 Israeli military checkpoints and barriers continued to hinder Palestinian movement, in addition to a 700km fence/wall, mostly on Palestinian land within the West Bank, especially in East Jerusalem and parts of al-Khalil and the Jordan Valley.

The report pointed out that West Bank Palestinians are forced to get Israeli permits while the Israeli settlers are allowed to move freely in those areas.

Movement restrictions compelled some 200,000 Palestinians from 70 villages to take detours between two to five times longer than the direct route to reach the closest city, undermining their access to basic services, the report said.

The human rights organization confirmed that Israeli authorities generally withheld construction permits from Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem and Area C ( which constitutes 60% of the West Bank territories), where Israel retains full authority for planning and zoning, impeding their right to adequate housing.

More than 620 Palestinian houses and other facilities were demolished. Almost 1100 Palestinians were displaced as a result, more than 1400 others were affected by demolitions of 170 animal shelters and 46 cisterns, the report added.

Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank increased, the organization said, noting the establishment of 14 new settlement outposts for the first time since 7 years.

Regarding Palestinian prisoners, Amnesty confirmed that Israel held more than 4,200 Palestinian prisoners by the end of this year including 178 administrative detainees (held without trial or charge). Reports of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees continued.

The authorities also intensified demolitions of Palestinian homes inside Israel, particularly in officially “unrecognized” villages, where all construction is banned, the report said.

Amnesty yearly report added that “shacks and other structures in al-‘Araqib, an “unrecognized” village in the Negev, were demolished at least 20 times in 2011, following other demolitions in 2010.”

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IOA releases Palestinian prisoner after 15 years in custody

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– The Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA) released on Thursday a Palestinian prisoner from al-Khalil in the southern West Bank after serving 15 years in Israeli prisons for being affiliated with al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing.

The IOA released the prisoner Magdy Ibrahim Jabari, 35, at Shamaa checkpoint near Dahrya town in al-Khalil, where he was greeted by dozens of his relatives and friends and liberated prisoners.

Magdi Ibrahim Jabari has spent 15 years detention on charges of affiliation to al-Qassam Brigades, and trying to capture Israeli soldiers. He was arrested in 1997 where he was jailed in Nafha, Negev and Raymond prisons.

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IPS transfers Abu Sisi to Eichel solitary confinement

GAZA, (PIC)– The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has transferred the isolated prisoner Dirar Abu Sisi, director of Gaza power plant, from Ohlikdar solitary confinement to Eishel isolation in Beersheba in southern 1948-occupied territories, human rights institution stated.

Breaking the Chains Institution confirmed that Abu Sisi, detained and isolated since 2 years, was transferred from Ohlikdar to Eichel solitary confinement.

Dirar Abu Sisi, 43, was kidnapped by the Israeli Intelligence (Mossad) from the Ukraine on February 18, 2011, and then transferred to Israeli jails where he is being isolated for the past two years.

Abu Sisi is the sole Palestinian prisoner who was kidnapped outside the Palestinian territories and the only isolated prisoner in Israeli jails since two years where the IPS refused to put an end to his isolation following the Dignity strike in 11 April 2012.

Thousands of Iraqis have held unity prayers across the nation to show solidarity against attempts to push the country into sectarian strife.

The joint Shia-Sunni Friday Prayers came against the backdrop of growing anger countrywide over what Iraqi authorities, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, describe as attempts to sow sectarian strife.

On May 19, Maliki called on Iraqis to hold joint prayers every Friday in a bid to reduce violence after a series of terrorist attacks on Shia and Sunni holy sites across Iraq killed scores of people.

“Those who target mosques are enemies of Sunnis and Shias alike, and are planning to ignite (sectarian) strife,” Maliki said in a statement on Sunday.

More than 400 people have been killed in bombings and others acts of violence in Iraq since the start of May.

On May 21, at least 42 people were killed and many others injured in a series of terrorist attacks across Iraq. A day earlier, nearly 100 people were killed in multiple attacks.

The Iraqi premier has blamed militant groups and the remnants of the former Ba’athist regime for the violence. He has also accused some regional countries of fueling the violence in his country in a bid to topple the Iraqi government.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said on May 2 that April was the deadliest month in Iraq since 2008 as terrorist attacks killed over 700 people and injured more than 1,600 others across the country.

UNAMI also stated that Baghdad was the worst affected governorate, with a total of 211 killed and nearly 500 injured.

It seems an odd time for environment policy wonks to throw a party. The level of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is higher than it has been in three million years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US.

That sobering news hasn’t stopped the organisers of Carbon Expo in Barcelona from promising a celebration when the annual event is held for the tenth time at the end of this month. Ardent defenders of the polar ice caps like Shell and Statoil will spend the day gazing at mathematical models about the ideal price of pollution. After all those cerebral chinwags, they will surely have worked up an appetite for tapas and sangria.

On second thoughts, maybe it is apt for the oil industry and its chums in the world of finance to kick up the high life as the climate breaks down. For they have been dexterous enough both to cause that breakdown and to present themselves as the cure to it.

The big “green” story here in Brussels lately hasn’t been the perilous state of the planet but the problems befalling the EU’s emissions trading scheme. Although the scheme has proven to be disastrous in terms of mitigating climate change, it has helped entrench the idea that heat-trapping gases should be considered as a tradable commodity. Because there are people out there who stand to make millions from carbon transactions, it’s not surprising that they want to salvage the Union’s scheme.

The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) is arguing that the scheme “should remain the EU’s central climate policy instrument.” In fact, it’s so gung-ho in its support for this market-based mechanism that it is advocating that similar systems should be established as a result of global talks.

Among IETA’s members are Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Shell, BP and Total. I seem to recall that the first two villains helped to cause a global financial crisis and that the latter three sell fossil fuels, the principal source of carbon dioxide in our skies. Are they really in a strong position to decide what should be the “central” policies on climate change?

Unfortunately, they are. The prototype of the EU’s emissions trading scheme, as it happens, was developed by BP. While he was still chairman of that firm, Peter Sutherland, was hired as an adviser on climate on energy to the European Commission’s chief José Manuel Barroso during the early stages of the scheme’s implementation. It is an “instrument” both designed by fat-cats and played with the intention of pleasing them.

The agenda for the Carbon Expo boasts a session titled “learning from the legends.” The “legends” referred to here are emissions trading and the international Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that it supports.

Is this supposed to be a joke?

One of the most disgusting aspects of the EU’s climate change policies is that they rely largely on “offsetting.” Under this dubious concept, it is fine for power plants on this continent to belch out as much pollution as they want, provided some money is given to environmentally-friendly projects in poorer countries. This is akin to buying a nice present for your friend who has given up smoking instead of you.

Rules applying to the EU’s scheme allow for up to half of all emission “cuts” financed by it to be achieved via the CDM. Newly published data from the European Commission indicates that this form of offsetting is on the increase. In 2012, offsets accounted for one-third of the “compliance commitments” made by firms taking part in the trading scheme, compared to 13% the previous year.

Many of the projects being funded are anything but clean. A “high-level panel” overseeing the CDM – which includes a European Commission representative, as well as ministers from Japan and South Africa – published an assessment on its performance last year. The report warned that the CDM could lead to a “net increase” in global emissions of greenhouse gases. It suggested that the mechanism is being widely used to support coal-fired projects, particularly in India and China. Energy efficiency has been “almost entirely left out” of the CDM, the report added.

In a few weeks time, members of the European Parliament will decide whether or not they should endorse the continuation of the emissions trading scheme. The best thing our elected representatives could do is to bury the scheme. Trying to revive it would be irresponsible.

There is a salutary lesson here. Saving the planet requires what Americans call “big government,” not a dodgy market mechanism.

There is an urgent need to go back to the drawing board, not to tinker with a system fashioned by BP.

Fortunately, there are sensible policies being followed in parts of Europe. Germany has increased the share of renewables in its energy mix from 6% to 25% over a decade. A law guaranteeing priority to the grid for renewable energy has provided the incentive for this rise. Local communities have been able to break free from relying on oil giants.

This breakthrough means that emission cuts can be achieved on European soil, rather than exporting our pollution control problems to somewhere else. It is telling that this breakthrough has had nothing to do with emissions trading.

If the EU keeps doing the same thing, it will keep getting the same results. This approach might prove fruitful for Goldman Sachs and BP. But it won’t stop the earth burning.

(File photo)

Al Mezan: Israeli denial of al-Dorra Killing is a new attempt to hide IOF crimes

GAZA, (PIC)– Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly denounced the Israeli authorities’ denial of its responsibility for the killing of the child Mohammed al-Durra during the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, saying that it is “a new Israeli attempt to exempt forces from responsibility for violations of International law.”

The Israeli government’s investigation committee, which was formed in September 2012 in order to conduct investigations into the killing of the Palestinian child, Mohammed al-Durra, stated that at the end of the film that captured the incident and was aired by the French television channel France 2, al-Durra was still alive.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns “Israel’s policy of denial as an attempt to escape its responsibility for the death of Mohammed. The formation of the investigation committee came 12 years after the incident, heard no witnesses and reviewed no credible resources about the event.”

The French channel’s correspondent who filmed the incident where Jamal al-Durra and his young son were targeted and were trying to protect themselves from live fire.

The Israeli occupation forces continue to mislead public opinion regarding its actions in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), especially in the Gaza Strip, the center noted.

Al Mezan stressed that “Israel has thus far refused to cooperate with almost all of the UN investigative missions to the oPt.”

Israel has amended its laws to prevent Palestinians’ access to any form of justice or redress within the Israeli justice system. This development entrenches a serious state of impunity and denial of any remedies for Palestinians affected by Israel’s occupation of the oPt and acts as encouragement to the Israeli occupying forces to violate the rules of international law, the center added in its press release.

The center concluded by stressing that the international community’s failure to stand by its obligations has further encouraged Israel to continue with its crimes and policies of denial and impunity, with complete disregard to its obligation under International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law.

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In Two Separate Incidents; Two Children Injured By Settlers Vehicles

by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian medical sources have reported that two Palestinian children have been seriously injured, on Wednesday, in two separate incidents after being rammed by settlers’ vehicles in the West Bank districts of Hebron and Nablus.

The sources said that a 9-year-old child was seriously injured after being rammed by a settlers’ car east in As-Salayma neighborhood, east of the Ibrahimi Mosque, in Hebron city. She was moved to a local hospital; the settler fled the scene.

Furthermore, a 16-year-old Palestinian child, identified as Marwan Zakariyya ‘As’ous, suffered serious injuries and was moved to the Rafidia Hospital, after being rammed by a settler’s car at the Beta Junction, south of Nablus.

Usama Malhees, head of the Rafidia Hospital, stated that the ‘As’ous suffered various fractures and is currently on life support at the Intensive Care Unit.

On May 14, Hanin Bassem Al-Ja’bary, 7, was injured after a settler rammed her with his vehicle close to the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the Old City of Hebron. The settler fled the scene.

Dozens of claims have been filed with the Israeli police and the military in the occupied territories regarding hit and run ramming incidents carried out by Israeli settlers, but no actual measures were taken on the ground.

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Jewish extremists run over a Palestinian female student near Safed

NAZARETH, (PIC)– A female student at the Safed College, in the northern 1948-occupied territories, sustained injuries after being run over deliberately by Jewish extremists’ vehicle; while crossing the road heading to her college.

The Association of Arab students at Safed College asserted in a press statement that they recognized the car which belongs to supporters of the Jewish extremist Bar Salab.

Following the incident, the ambulances arrived to the place and took the student to the Western Galilee Hospital to receive treatment, while her father filed a complaint to the Israeli police.

The Association demanded the Israeli police to enforce the law and chase those extremists; especially because they fled from the place after running over the young woman.

Few days ago, Jewish extremists wrote racist slogans on the wall of an apartment in the city inhabited by three Palestinian female students from the same college.

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IOF demolishes two homes in Jerusalem

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raided on Tuesday Khelit al-Ain area in al-Tur neighborhood in Jerusalem and demolished two homes belonging to Abu Sa’alan family.

IOF demolished the two houses under the pretext of being built without permit in addition to bulldozing the garden surrounding the two buildings that housed 7 people.

The houses’ owners confirmed that the buildings were established since 12 years ago, noting that the family tried to obtain a building permit, but were unable to do so.

The Israeli municipal authorities imposed fines and issued demolition order against the mentioning houses three years ago, the family emphasized.

Khelit al-Ain area is threatened to be confiscated by the Israeli authorities in order to implement “National Parks” scheme that will confiscate 740 dunums of al-Tur and al-Isawiya lands.

It’s worth mentioning that 4 houses owned by Ghaith family have been demolished recently led to the displacement of 27 people.

According to the UN reports, 33 percent of all Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem lack Israeli-issued building permits, potentially placing at least 93,100 residents at risk of displacement. The reports show that 95 percent of Palestinian applications for a building permit are rejected.

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Occupation desecrates 2350 holy sites in Palestine 48

NAZARETH, (PIC)– A Palestinian Foundation, located in the 48 occupied territories, revealed that “Israeli gangs have been using malicious methods to destruct and Judaize Islamic and Christian holy places in order to blur the Palestinian landmarks over the past 65 years.

Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowments and Heritage said, in a press release on Tuesday, that Islamic and Christian holy sites are subjected to an Israeli continuous and tireless Judaization policy aiming to remove its Arab and Islamic character.

Nearly 2350 Palestinian Islamic and Christian holy sites have been desecrated by the Israeli occupation in the occupied territories in 1948, the Foundation confirmed.

1350 holy sites including graves, mosques, churches and chapels in the northern area of the Palestinian territories were either partially or fully demolished by Israel, Abdul Majeed Aghbariya, head of the sanctities portfolio at the Foundation reported.

Furthermore, Aghbariya pointed out that about 1,000 holy sites in the southern part of the occupied territories have also been desecrated. He noted that the report only included the Arab coastal cities such as Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Al-Lid and Ramla.

Hundreds of graves and mosques have been totally destroyed and turned into restaurants, bars, museums and synagogues, he added.

Saudi women have held a massive demonstration against the Al Saud regime in the country’s oil-rich Eastern Province, Press TV reports.

On Thursday, huge crowds of female demonstrators chanted anti-regime slogans in the Qatif region, situated about 418 kilometers (259 miles) east of the capital Riyadh, and condemned the regime’s suppression of political dissent.

They also expressed solidarity with Bahrainis, and slammed Riyadh’s military intervention in Bahrain to quell pro-democracy protests there.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in Qatif and Awamiyah in Eastern Province, primarily calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, as well as an end to widespread discrimination.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the repressive Al Saud regime, especially after November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province…

French authorities are interrogating International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde in connection with a controversial payout to a French tycoon during her term as France’s finance minister.

The 57-year-old appeared in France’s Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) on Thursday.

The court, which investigates cases of ministerial misconduct, is probing Lagarde’s handling of a dispute in 2007 that resulted in 400 million euros (USD 515 million) payment to the former politician and controversial business figure, Bernard Tapie.

The CJR prosecutors suspect that he was granted the treatment in return for backing former President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential race.

Lagarde, who was France’s finance minister at that time, is accused of being responsible for “numerous anomalies and irregularities” which could lead her to be charged for complicity in fraud and misappropriation of public funds.

The investigation focused on Lagarde’s move in 2007, when she asked a panel of judges to arbitrate in a row between Tapie and the partly state-owned Credit Lyonnais over his sale of sports group Adidas in 1993.

Tapie had accused the bank of defrauding him by deliberately undervaluing Adidas at the time of the sale. He further said that the state – as the former principal shareholder in the bank – should compensate him.

Tapie was previously jailed on charges of match-fixing when he was the president of French football club Olympique de Marseille.

The criminal charges are regarded as the second straight scandal for an IMF chief since Lagarde succeeded Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who quitted over allegations of an assault on a hotel maid in New York.

Lagarde, however, has downplayed the investigation.

“There’s nothing new under the sun. Ever since 2011 I had known very well that I will be heard by the investigative commission of the Cour de Justice,” she said last month.

by Alex Quinn, source

*view tables in original source*

Particularly now that wireless communications are so closely integrated into our daily lives, electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are all around us. Our cities, especially the larger ones, are perpetually shrouded in an invisible electrosmog, a ‘sea’ of EMFs through which we swim every day. But does this momentous development in civilisation come with health effects – and if so, can we do anything to reduce them?

What is ELF-EMF and what are its sources?

It’s important to realise that there are two main forms of EMF: radiofrequency (RF)-EMF and extremely low-frequency (ELF)-EMFs. The frequency range of ELF-EMF is 1–300 Hz, and the Earth’s natural geomagnetic field strength varies from around 60 μT (microtesla) at the magnetic poles to around 30 μT at the equator.

Many man-made sources of ELF-EMF exist. Prime among these artificial sources are power lines and electronic appliances, with vacuum cleaners, electric can-openers, microwave ovens, shavers and hair dryers among the most powerful. These appliances emit ELF-EMF at field intensities ranging from 17.44 to 164.75 μT, measured from 5 cm away. Since the intensity of magnetic fields decreases dramatically with increased distance from the source, the corresponding range of magnetic field intensities at 50 cm is 0.12–1.66 μT.

The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (INCIRP) has set limits of 1 mT (millitesla) for occupational exposure to ELF-EMF, and 200 μT for general public exposure. While these limits are not breached by individual man-made sources, additive effects must also be considered, as we shall see.

What is RF-EMF and what are its sources?

The frequencies of RF-EMFs are considerably higher than ELF-EMFs, ranging from 100 kHz to 300 GHz. As its name suggests, the main uses of RF-EMF are in broadcasting information. In today’s data-driven world, this means that RF-EMF is constantly around us: it is produced by things such as mobile phone base stations, cordless phones, utility ‘smart’ meters, remote control toys, wireless networks, radar and baby monitors. In addition, there are various natural sources of RF-EMF, including the Earth, the Sun and other black body radiators.

Here’s a shocking statistic: did you know that having a cordless phone base station in your house can expose you to the same level of RF-EMFs as having a mobile phone mast in your back garden?

Do EMFs pose health problems?

The mainstream view is that the only potential danger from EMFs stems from their heating effects on tissue, in the case of RF-EMF, or of electrical currents induced in the body for ELF-EMF. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the athermal effects of ELF- and RF-EMFs also contribute to various health problems.

Childhood leukaemia

According to the BioInitiative report, evidence indicates that risk of childhood leukaemia in young boys doubles when they are exposed to ELF-EMF levels of 1.4 mG (milligauss), while other studies indicate that leukaemia risks begin at 2, 3 and 4 mG. This occurs in the context of an ICNIRP limit of 1000 mG.
The BioInitiative report also found that ELF-EMFs interfered with recovery from childhood leukaemia: if a child was exposed to levels of ≥2 mG during recovery, their risk of death increased by 300%, while at levels of ≥4 mG that risk increased to 450%.

Alzheimer’s disease

ELF-EMF has also been found to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by increasing levels of a protein called amyloid beta, a leading risk factor for Alzheimer’s.

Melatonin

EMFs have also been found to decrease the levels of melatonin in the body. Melatonin is produced in the pineal gland of the brain, which produces melatonin when it directly or indirectly detects low light levels. EMFs may interfere with this mechanism because the brain confuses them with light waves, thus suppressing the pineal gland’s melatonin production. Melatonin is an absolutely vital hormone. It acts as a powerful antioxidant, and has been found to aid in the prevention of Alzheimer’s, depression, cardiovascular diseases, insomnia, mood disorders, tinnitus and various cancers.
Brain and auditory nerve cancers

RF-EMFs have been given a 2B classification – possibly carcinogenic – by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). They have been found to be possible causes of acoustic neuromas and brain tumours called gliomas. Studies have shown that using cordless phones, which produce RF-EMFs, can increase the risk of brain tumours by up to 470% after ≥10 years of use when habitually used on one side of the head. Mobile phones, in the same scenario, can increase the risk by up to 200%. Both mobiles and cordless phones can trigger reactions in people who suffer from electrohypersensitivity.

What about interactions between EMFs and other factors?

Of course, EMFs don’t affect us in isolation: everyone living in a city, for example, is bombarded by numerous chemical toxins and other environmental pollutants, and many of them take multiple pharmaceutical drugs – in addition to constant EMF exposure. We are at an early stage of investigating and defining these complex interactions, but existing research indicates that these combinations can have both beneficial and adverse effects. For example, in vitro DNA damage was caused by a 7 mT magnetic field in combination with ferrous chloride, but not with either agent alone. Other combinations of EMFs and agents enhanced analgesia and neural performance.

Call to action: Reduce your EMF exposure!

Thus, you should take as many steps as possible to reduce your exposure to EMFs. Suggested strategies include:

Using fibre-optic cables for your broadband
Using wired connections whenever possible
Keeping mobile and cordless phones away from your body
Using wired baby monitors: children are more effected by EMFs than adults
Keeping wireless routers or cordless phones out of regularly used bedrooms or children’s bedrooms
Reducing time spent in calls when using mobile or cordless phones
Reducing children’s exposure to wireless devices as much as possible
Avoiding using microwave oven
Avoiding placing wireless computers on your lap
Avoiding allowing your children to use remote-control toys for long periods of time, if at all

The “public relations” accompanying wars has become wearily predictable. Whenever one of its governments or allies conducts a military action, there is a near certainty that the European Union will host or participate in a “donors’ conference”.

One of these grotesque events has been dedicated to Afghanistan each year since it was invaded by the US in 2001. After Gaza was bombed for three weeks in late 2008 and early 2009, the EU rushed to foot the bill for damage caused by Israel (often to infrastructure previously built or equipped with Western aid). And now the European taxpayer is expected to pick up the tab for destruction wrought by France during its military expedition in Mali.

Let me be absolutely clear: I’m fully in favour of increasing aid to healthcare and education in Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries. Yet this Wednesday’s donors’ conference – jointly organised by France and the EU – is not really designed to reduce hardship in Africa. Rather, its purpose is to cover French imperialism with a veneer of benevolence.

At this juncture, there can be no doubt that France’s “intervention” was motivated primarily by its determination to control natural resources in Mali and Niger. An analysis published in February by in-house researchers at the defence ministry in Paris points out that these two neighbouring countries possess 60% of global uranium reserves. While exploitation of these reserves by Areva, the French nuclear firm, is “certain,” according to the researchers, “instability in the Sahel has an impact on economic projects in the whole region”.

Less than a month after he was sworn in as president last year, François Hollande hinted that he regarded this uranium as effectively Areva’s property. Following talks with Mahamadou Issoufou, his counterpart from Niger, Hollande said that Areva must be allowed to extract uranium from the giant mine of Imouraren at the earliest possible date.

As the former colonial power, it was France which set the border between Mali and Niger. The Touareg people who straddle this artificial frontier have been striving for autonomy since the 1960s. Hollande has been eager to quell the recent resurgence in the Touareg struggle and to bolster the Malian authorities.

His efforts have been sold as being part of a fight against “terrorism”. A more plausible explanation is that he wishes to make sure that the uranium in this area doesn’t fall into the “wrong” hands. It is no accident that French troops were deployed earlier this year in both Mali and around the Arlit mine – a key source of uranium for Areva – in Niger.

There is a fundamental dishonesty behind this week’s donors’ conference. Briefing material prepared by its organisers gives the impression that it is part of the EU’s overall development aid activities. The objective of development aid is defined in the EU’s Lisbon treaty as reducing and eventually eliminating poverty (indeed, the inclusion of this principle is one of the few positive things in a treaty that has a right-wing ideological orientation). Raiding the aid budget to help a resource grab in Mali runs counter to that objective. It can, therefore, be considered as illegal.

This is not the first time that the EU is violating its own law. A 2011 EU strategy paper on the Sahel blurs the distinction between military and development aid.

The pretext cited is that security is a prerequisite for progress. This ignores how it is poverty and oppression that beget conflict.

With some rare exceptions, the EU’s governments have reneged on a decades-old commitment to earmark at least 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) for tackling global poverty. Diverting some of the already inadequate development aid budgets to military training exercises is tantamount to blowing raspberries at the hungry.

Apart from tiny Luxembourg, all of the EU’s governments spend a higher proportion of GDP on the military than on international development. Not content with that manifest injustice, corporate-funded think tanks have pounced on the French intervention in Mali to advocate that Europe’s military expenditure should be even higher.

Nick Witney, the first head of the European Defence Agency – a body tasked with boosting military cooperation between both private firms and nations – has written an especially opportunistic tract for his current employer, the European Council on Foreign Relations. Witney laments that the “crisis in Mali once again exposed the hollowness of Europe’s military pretensions”. France was “left to do the job alone,” he writes, because of the lack of a “shared strategic culture in Europe”.

His proposed solution is to have a similar level of scrutiny for the military spending of EU governments as that introduced for other types of expenditure over the past few years. This is despicable: the scrutiny to which he refers enables the Brussels bureaucracy to insist that countries eviscerate their schools and hospitals in the name of deficit reduction. Witney advocates that the same bureaucracy can simultaneously demand greater expenditure on drones.

Meanwhile, a pamphlet by Notre Europe – an institute headed by one-time European Commission chief Jacques Delors – labels many of the EU states as “free-riders” because they did not deploy fighter jets in Libya during 2011 or help France in Mali this year.

These pamphlets have been produced as part of a concerted effort to step up the pace of the EU’s militarisation. You can be sure that they won’t be allowed gather dust.

Israeli soldiers shoot Palestinian boy in chest

Press TV

Israeli troops have shot and critically injured a Palestinian boy in the chest in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian security and hospital sources.

The troopers of the Israeli regime shot 12-year-old Atta Mohammed Sharadeh on Tuesday outside the Jelazoun refugee camp, near Ramallah, AFP reported.

Palestinian paramedics said Sharadeh was hit in the chest and the bullet exited through his back. The boy was transported to a Ramallah hospital, where he is in critical condition.

The Jelazoun refugee camp is close to the so-called Beit El Israeli settlement.

Earlier in the day, clashes had broken out between Palestinians and Israeli troops, The clashes erupted shortly after the occupying Israeli forces stormed the refugee camp.

Palestinian youths – angry over the presence of Israeli soldiers at the camp site – hurled stones and bottles at the Israeli troops, who fired live bullets in return.

Palestinian youth and children have been among the most vulnerable victims of the Israeli soldiers’ brutality in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip…

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Researcher: ‘Israel’ cancels UNESCO delegation’s visit to hide its crimes

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Jerusalemite researcher Jamal Amr stated that canceling UNESCO delegation’s visit to Jerusalem by the occupation authorities aims to hide the Israeli violations.

The UNESCO delegation came under Israeli conditions after international guarantees to Israel not to prosecute its violations, he stated.

He told Quds press that the occupation rejects any international investigation of its crimes. The occupation tries to hide its violations against Arab and Islamic monuments in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalemite researcher denied the alleged victory over Israeli authorities by accepting the committee’s visit to Jerusalem. Israel managed to escape from international condemnation by canceling the 5 draft resolutions against its practices in Jerusalem.

The occupation asked not to include the Mughrabi Gate or al-Aqsa mosque within the delegation’s visit in order to hide its excavation and violations.

Hebrew media sources reported that Israel decided on Monday to cancel a planned visit by UNESCO delegation to the occupied Jerusalem.

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Settlers attack a Palestinian village in the Negev

NEGEV, (PIC) — Palestinian sources in the Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj in the Negev, in the southern 1948 territories, said that Jewish extremists from Ratmim settlement attacked the village and its residents on Sunday evening.

Salman Ibn Ehmid, head of the local committee in the village, told Quds Press that a group of settlers from Ratmim settlement attacked the citizen Eid Abu Habak, and set fire to his tent and some of his properties.

The settlers closed the Western road leading to Bear Hadaj. In response, the villagers closed the eastern road to the settlement.

Ibn Ehmid added that he was attacked by one of the settlers and that confrontations erupted between the Palestinians and the Israelis; thus the occupation police forces intervened.

For his part; Arab MK Talab Abu Arar accused the Israeli police of standing by the Jewish settlers, as it arrested one of the Palestinian villagers.

He demanded the Israeli police to immediately arrest the settler who set fire to the tent, as well as the one who attacked the head of the local committee.

The town of Bir Hadaj has been recently exposed to repeated attacks by the Israeli policemen who have been storming the village in order to distribute demolition orders for a number of houses.