Monday, August 12, 2013
Riot at Greek migrant detention camp
They have their FEMA camps in use.....
POLICE have been dispatched to put down a riot at Greece's main migrant detention camp with detainees hurling stones at officers and setting fire to living quarters.
Local television footage on Saturday showed fires blazing at the Amygdaleza detention camp outside Athens, where about 1200 mainly Asian migrants are kept.
"We have 10 officers injured by stones and other objects thrown at them," a police spokesman told AFP.
"The detainees set fire to mattresses and their living quarters but riot police have been sent and the situation is calming down," he said.
Amygdaleza is one of several detention camps set up since last year to assist in the repatriation of thousands of undocumented migrants.
The police spokesman said rioting began when the detainees were told their maximum stay in the camp would be extended to 18 months from a year previously.
Rights groups charge that the migrants have been subjected to abuse in the camps and are denied proper healthcare.
Last week, leftist group KEERFA said Muslim detainees had been beaten by guards during prayers.
In July, the same group reported the death of an Afghan detainee from a pulmonary infection which his guards had allegedly ignored for months.
Greece is a major entry point into the European Union for migrants and refugees fleeing war-torn or impoverished countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
Herald Sun
POLICE have been dispatched to put down a riot at Greece's main migrant detention camp with detainees hurling stones at officers and setting fire to living quarters.
Local television footage on Saturday showed fires blazing at the Amygdaleza detention camp outside Athens, where about 1200 mainly Asian migrants are kept.
"We have 10 officers injured by stones and other objects thrown at them," a police spokesman told AFP.
"The detainees set fire to mattresses and their living quarters but riot police have been sent and the situation is calming down," he said.
Amygdaleza is one of several detention camps set up since last year to assist in the repatriation of thousands of undocumented migrants.
The police spokesman said rioting began when the detainees were told their maximum stay in the camp would be extended to 18 months from a year previously.
Rights groups charge that the migrants have been subjected to abuse in the camps and are denied proper healthcare.
Last week, leftist group KEERFA said Muslim detainees had been beaten by guards during prayers.
In July, the same group reported the death of an Afghan detainee from a pulmonary infection which his guards had allegedly ignored for months.
Greece is a major entry point into the European Union for migrants and refugees fleeing war-torn or impoverished countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
Herald Sun
Pope Francis: greetings to Muslims, our brothers
Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians and Muslims to promote mutual respect , especially through the education of new generations. His remarks came at the end of his Angelus address when he sent greetings to Muslims throughout the world who have just celebrated the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Text of report below:
Pope Francis spoke to the thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square about how God’s love is our greatest treasure. He said today’s gospel reading from St Luke talks to us about our desire for a meeting with Christ, calling it a key aspect of human life. All of us, the Pope said, "have this desire in our hearts, be it explicit or hidden." In St. Luke’s account of Jesus walking with his disciples towards Jerusalem, Christ reveals to them what is really important for him at that time. The Pope says Jesus’s thoughts include a distancing from earthly goods, faith in the providence of the Father and his interior vigilance while awaiting the Kingdom of God. This gospel account, he continues, teaches us that a Christian is someone who carries within him a deep desire to meet the Lord together with his brethren and his companions along the way. All this can be summed up in Jesus’ words: “for wherever your treasure is, that is where your heart will be too.”
Addressing the pilgrims directly, Pope Francis asked them two questions, “do you have a heart with a wish or do you have a closed heart, a sleeping heart, a heart that is anesthetized." His second question for the pilgrims was: “Where is your treasure”, what for you is the most important and precious reality that attracts your heart like a magnet?" "Is it" he asked, "God’s love which is the desire to do good to others and live for the Lord?" Pope Francis went on to describe how God’s love keeps a family united and gives meaning to our daily tasks and also helps us to face up to the big challenges. This, he declared, is the true treasure for mankind. God’s love isn’t something vague and generic, "it has a name and a face, Jesus Christ." The Pope said "God’s love gives value and beauty to every human activity" and it gives meaning to negative experiences. That’s because God’s love allows us to move beyond those experiences and not remain prisoners of evil but also be open to hope and the final destination of our pilgrimage.
Before reciting the Angelus prayer the Pope recalled today’s feast of St. Clare of Assisi who left everything to consecrate herself to Christ in poverty, following in the footsteps of St. Francis.
He said this saint gives us a beautiful witness of today’s gospel and she helps us, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary, to live it out, each one according to their own vocation.
After the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis departed from his prepared remarks to recall that this coming Thursday is the solemnity of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven and said on that day we will honour Her. He then said he wished to send greetings to Muslims, our brothers, throughout the world who have just finished celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan . Referring to his earlier message released to mark this event, the Pope said he hoped that Christians and Muslims will strive to "promote mutual respect, especially through the education of the new generations."
He concluded his remarks by greetings all the pilgrims and groups present and reminding them of the words which were the motto of the recent World Youth Day gathering in Rio: “Go and make disciples among all nations.”
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/08/11/pope_francis_greets_muslims_and_urges_both_christians_and_muslims_to/en1-718872
of the Vatican Radio website
Americans Giving Up Passports Jump
Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship surged sixfold in the second quarter from a year earlier as the government prepares to introduce tougher asset-disclosure rules.
Expatriates giving up their nationality at U.S. embassies climbed to 1,131 in the three months through June from 189 in the year-earlier period, according to Federal Register figures published today. That brought the first-half total to 1,810 compared with 235 for the whole of 2008.
The U.S., the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxes citizens wherever they reside, is searching for tax cheats in offshore centers, including Switzerland, as the government tries to curb the budget deficit. Shunned by Swiss and German banks and facing tougher asset-disclosure rules under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, more of the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas are weighing the cost of holding a U.S. passport.
“With the looming deadline for Fatca, more and more U.S. citizens are becoming aware that they have U.S. tax reporting obligations,” said Matthew Ledvina, a U.S. tax lawyer at Anaford AG in Zurich. “Once aware, they decide to renounce their U.S. citizenship.”
Fatca requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers, or held by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest. It was estimated to generate $8.7 billion over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
Delaying Implementation
The 2010 Fatca law requires banks to withhold 30 percent from “certain U.S.-connected payments” to some accounts of American clients who don’t disclose enough information to the IRS. While banks can sign agreements to report to the IRS individually, many are precluded from doing so by privacy laws in their jurisdictions.
The Treasury Department last month announced that the IRS will delay the start of Fatca by six months until July 1, 2014, to give foreign banks time to comply with the law. The extension of the act follows a previous one-year delay announced in 2011.
Financial institutions including Canada’s Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and Allianz SE of Germany have expressed concerns that Fatca is too complex.
The latest delay comes after the Swiss government agreed in February to simplifications that will help the country’s banks implement Fatca.
Penalty Threat
“The United States wishes to ensure that all income earned worldwide by U.S. taxpayers on accounts held abroad can be taxed by the United States,” the Swiss government said on April 10.
Since 2011, Americans, who disclose their non-U.S. bank accounts to the IRS, must file the more expansive 8938 form that asks for all foreign financial assets, including insurance contracts, loans and shareholdings in non-U.S. companies.
Failure to file the 8938 form can result in a fine of as much as $50,000. Clients can also be penalized half the amount in an undeclared foreign bank account under the Banks Secrecy Act of 1970.
The implementation of Fatca from July next year comes after UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, paid a $780 million penalty in 2009 and handed over data on about 4,700 accounts to settle a tax-evasion dispute with the U.S. Whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in a U.S. prison in 2009 after informing the government and Senate about his American clients at the Geneva branch of Zurich-based UBS AG. (UBSN)
Compliance Costs
The additional compliance costs for companies to ensure that Americans they hire are filing the correct U.S. tax returns and asset-declaration forms are at least $5,000 per person, said Ledvina.
For individuals, the costs are also rising. Getting a mortgage or acquiring life insurance is becoming almost impossible for American citizens living overseas, Ledvina said.
“With increased U.S. tax reporting, U.S. accounting costs alone are around $2,000 per year for a U.S. citizen residing abroad,” the tax lawyer said. “Adding factors, such as difficulty in finding a bank to accept a U.S. citizen as a client, it is difficult to justify keeping the U.S. citizenship for those who reside permanently abroad.”
Businessweek
Iran to Sign New Nuclear Power Plant Deal with Russia
TEHRAN, August 11 (RIA Novosti) – Iran intends to sign an agreement with Russia soon on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the Islamic Republic, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday, citing Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
“Iran has held consultations with the Russian side and soon an agreement of mutual understanding will be signed on the construction of a new nuclear power plant,” Mehr quoted Salehi as saying.
Iran’s foreign minister said the Islamic Republic needed nuclear power for electricity generation, and also for medicine.
Iran’s newly-elected President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday during his first press conference after his inauguration that the Islamic Republic would continue negotiations with Russia on nuclear power development in the country.
Rouhani said Iran needed to produce 20,000 MW of nuclear power and planned to build new nuclear power plants and continue cooperation in this sphere, in particular, with Russia.
Russian parliament speaker Sergei Naryshkin said on August 4 during his visit to Iran to attend Rouhani’s inauguration ceremony that Russia hoped for holding consultations with Iran on expanding cooperation in civilian nuclear power after the Islamic Republic’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr was fully commissioned in September.
Western countries suspect Iran of using its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons capability, a claim Iran has consistently denied. Tehran claims it needs atomic technology for producing electricity, although it has some of the world's largest reserves of oil and gas.
Construction of Bushehr began in the 1970s, but has been plagued by delays. Russia signed a billion-dollar deal with Tehran to complete the plant in 1998.
Iran’s foreign minister said in February Tehran expected to start joint work with Russia on a second power unit at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
“We hope to start building the second unit with our Russian colleagues,” he told journalists at a news conference.
Salehi said Russia was Tehran’s preferred partner in the construction of Iran’s second nuclear power plant, local media reported.
The Bushehr plant's launch in August 2010 prompted Israel and other nations to express fear that the reactor could help Iran create an atomic bomb. Tehran has denied the allegations, saying the facility was used for peaceful power generation only.
RIA Novosti
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Indonesia volcano eruption: Six dead
Six people have been killed in a volcanic eruption on a tiny island in Indonesia, officials have said.
Mount Rokatenda, on the island of Palue some 2,000km (1,250 miles) east of Jakarta, spewed ash and rocks 2km into the air.
Disaster officials said hot ash covered a nearby beach, leaving four adults and two children dead.
The volcano had been rumbling since late last year, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people.
A 3km exclusion zone was set up after an eruption last October.
But Surono, a spokesman from Indonesia's volcanology agency, said many villagers had become accustomed to the volcanic activity and ignored the mandatory evacuation order.
Mr Surono said the latest eruption had begun at 04:27 on Saturday (20:27 GMT Friday) and lasted for nearly four hours.
He urged villagers to stay clear of the affected area, saying it was difficult to predict if there would be further eruptions.
Palue is about 4km wide and lies a short distance off the north coast of Flores, the main island in East Nusa Tenggara province.
The ACT Alliance humanitarian group reported in April that eruptions in Palue in October and again in March this year had forced hundreds of people from their villages, with significant losses of income in farming, trade and fishing.
Much of the Indonesian archipelago lies on the Pacific "ring of fire", an area prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
At least 350 people died and 250,000 were displaced when Mount Merapi in central Java erupted in 2010.
BBC
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