EU attacks smokers [614 ]

30.01.10 | 19:45

Smoking police ashtray ban trials - EU attacks smokers with new recommendations

Smokers have it increasingly harder in Europe.

29.01.2010 - 15:23 UHR

By Dirk Hoeren

The EU has declared war against smokers! Brussels wants to eliminate cigarettes with a ‘smoking police’, ashtray bans and high-publicity legal processes against celebrities who enjoy a puff.

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A dossier with recommendations for the 27 member states has been released by the EU. The objective - a “100 per cent smoke free environment”.

Health ministers proposed the paper and the EU parliament has approved it.

Member countries now have three years to bring the recommendations into their own legal systems, and in Germany it is set to spark a new debate over the controversial smoking ban.

The new 31-page document makes recommendations for drastic measures to ban smoking in all workplaces, public buildings and facilities:

• Fines: Anyone who breaks the ban will receive a fine. The penalties are intended to be high enough to act as a deterrent. Companies will be threatened with higher fines than individuals and if necessary may even be threatened with the temporary withdrawal of their business permit.

• ‘Smoking police’: The EU states are being asked to set up a system for enforcing the smoking ban, including a system of prosecution. The use of inspectors and enforcement officials is recommended. They will also carry out random spot checks.

• Ashtray ban: It will be the responsibility of all companies and public services to ensure that there are no ashtrays in the building.

• Shock trials: The EU states will be encouraged to carry out sensationalist prosecutions designed to shock the public.

Celebrities who smoke will also be targeted and exposed publicly as smoking offenders.

The document states that if individuals in the public eye have deliberately disregarded the law and this is publicly known, the authorities will demonstrate their commitment to and the seriousness of the legislation by reacting with rigorous and speedy measures, attracting the widest possible public attention.

With these measures, the EU is trying to attack and eliminate smoking as much as possible. The aim is for all enclosed workplaces and public areas to become smoke free, including those which are partly open or enclosed.

The smoking ban will also include all hallways, staircases, toilets, staffrooms, store rooms and lifts that are used at work.

In the future tobacco smoke should not be seen or smelled in the air - it will probably be illegal to light a cigarette!

The dossier even defines smoking as including the ownership or handling of a lit cigarette, regardless of whether or not the smoke is actively being inhaled.

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The Machu Picchu evacuation[ 613 ]

Peru completes Machu Picchu evequation said Minister

A man uses a loud speaker to organize the evacuation of tourists in Aguas Calientes, in Cuzco region, Peru. Peruvian authorities successfully completed the evacuation of thousands of tourists stranded for days by mudslides and flooding near Machu Picchu, a minister said.

Foreign tourists help to fill sandbags to contain floodwaters of the Vilcanota river in Cusco. Peruvian authorities successfully completed the evacuation of thousands of tourists stranded for days by mudslides and flooding near Machu Picchu, a minister said.

30 January 2010 - 06H54 ,,AFP - Peruvian authorities successfully completed the evacuation of thousands of tourists stranded for days by mudslides and flooding near Machu Picchu, a minister said.

"Not a single tourist remains in Machu Picchu or in the town of Aguas Calientes" near the ancient ruins, said Tourism Minister Martin Perez.

He added that members of the police and military conducted an extensive search of hotels and homes "to verify that there was not a single tourist in the zone."

He said diplomats from several countries whose nationals were among the 3,500 tourists trapped since Monday had gathered in the former Inca capital of Cusco and were brought to the site to confirm that no visitors remained in Machu Picchu.

"Today we evacuated 1,460 tourists. In total, over four days, we rescued 3,500 tourists in 276 flights," Perez said.

Torrential rains had drenched the region, washing out roads and sections of a railway between Cusco and Aguas Calientes, and causing floods and mudslides that affected more than 25,000 people. Seven people were killed, authorities said.

Twelve helicopters, six of them lent by the United States, had been flying tourists out of the area since Tuesday, taking them to a nearby village where they were put on buses to Cusco.

Argentina and Chile also sent military planes to Cusco to repatriate their nationals.

Earlier, reports said some tourists did not want to be taken out of the region, but Perez said all visitors would be evacuated.

"The air bridge will keep going until all the tourists are evacuated, even though there are some who don't really want to go, who are happy to stay. But we are making the evacuation of all mandatory," he had said.

Several young backpackers from countries like Argentina, Brazil, Britain, Chile, France, Mexico and Spain were helping locals fill sand bags and form stone walls against the nearby Vilcanota river, which was threatening to flood homes.

"We are working to help the population while we wait for them to come for us," a Brazilian tourist told Peruvian television.

The government sent one ton of food to Aguas Calientes, the village adjacent to the Machu Picchu site, as well as 400,000 dollars to replenish emptied ATM machines.

The tourists became trapped at Machu Picchu when landslides cut the railway to the area that is the main link to civilization.

The only alternative is a four-day hike along a narrow mountain pathway called the Inca Trail that only 10 percent of visitors use. That path was also cut by landslides, resulting in the death of an Argentine hiker and his Peruvian guide.

Sources from Peru Rail said it could take two months to repair the railway, a period President Alan Garcia suggested would be too long of a delay for visits to resume to one of the most popular tourist destinations in Latin America.

"I don't believe it will take eight weeks. We will set up helicopter flights to take tourists there, but it's possible it will be more expensive" than the train, Garcia said from Cusco.

Machu Picchu attracts more than 400,000 visitors a year. The 15th-century Inca citadel is located on a high mountain ridge 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Cusco.

Empty Seats At Inauguration [ 612 ]

Ministers To Face Empty Seats At Inauguration Of Judicial Year

• sabato 30 gennaio 2010, alle 15:30

Magistrates association (ANM): “No to personalised laws and no to insults to magistrates”. Justice minister says: “They have ruined a day that is for ordinary citizens

ROME– Magistrates all over Italy will take action after agreeing to a hard-hitting form of protest. Justice minister Angelino Alfano and his representatives will be speaking to empty chairs at Saturday’s inauguration of the judicial year. It is a very visible way of expressing “concern at legislation currently under way” and saying no to “personalised laws that destroy the judicial system”.

CONSTITUTION AND REPORT – At the ceremonies to be held at all appeal court districts, magistrates will be carrying a copy of the Italian constitution to “symbolise their strong attachment to the judicial function and the constitution”. They will leave the hall when the minister or ministry representative is due to speak in order to “testify to their concern at legislation currently under way, which threatens to destroy justice in Italy, and at the absence of initiatives necessary to ensure the efficiency of the system”. Magistrates will return at the end of the speech. Presidents of local branches of ANM, the magistrates’ association, will then read a document drafted by the central executive council (“No more laws without reason or coherence, designed exclusively for individual judicial processes, and which have brought criminal justice in this country to its knees. No more insults or attacks”). After this, presidents will hold up a copy of the report “Europe’s Truth about Italian Magistrates”, which will be handed to the president of the appeal court. Copies of the report will be distributed to all those present. Following the ceremony, each local executive will hold a media briefing at which the ANM document and the report will be presented and problems specific to each district explained.

REACTIONS – Politicians reacted to news of the magistrates’ decision. The People of Freedom’s (PDL) national coordinator, Sandro Bondi, said the initiative was “a profound, outrageous infringement of the democratic and constitutional order. A clear stance on the part of all institutions to safeguard legitimate democratic prerogatives is now a matter of urgency”. In contrast, the Italy of Values (IDV) group leader in the Senate, Massimo Donadi, referred to “a just protest at a disgraceful law. Alfano has shown on a thousand occasions that he is not the minister of justice. He is Berlusconi’s anti-magistracy commissioner”.

ALFANO – Later on, the justice minister replied: “I am the minister of justice, I serve my country and I have sworn on the constitution. Unlike those who are going to follow ANM’s short-sighted suggestions, I will be present at the inauguration of the judicial year at the Supreme Court of Cassation, in the presence of the president of the republic”, announced Angelino Alfano, the justice minister, in a note. Mr Alfano continued: “Similarly, I will be going tomorrow to the appeal court at L’Aquila, where the justice service has started to function brilliantly again after the earthquake, thanks to the efforts of the institutions and of many public servants. Instead of inaugurating the judicial year, ANM has decided to inaugurate an election campaign in view of the upcoming vote for the magistracy’s ruling council, the CSM, which will be held in the spring. ANM has opted to ruin a day that is about Italian citizens and their right to justice. The image ANM is offering of itself does not coincide with the image and sense of ethics of the thousands of magistrates who every morning serve Italy and the institutions they represent”.

English translation by Giles Watson

Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 ..[ 611 ]

Reports: Russia's Superjet to be certified in July

Sukhoi Superjet 100

by Associated Press

Posted on January 27, 2010 at 7:53 AM

MOSCOW – Russia's much-anticipated regional passenger aircraft, the Sukhoi Superjet, should be given flight certification by the summer, officials reportedly said Wednesday.

The Superjet, produced by Russian airline maker Sukhoi in association with Italy's Alenia Aeronautica, has been widely seen as Russia's chance to gain a competitive foothold in the international passenger airline market.

The jet, which seats 75 to 95 people, has a range of about 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) and is priced at $29 million a piece.

Superjet is designed compete against other regional craft such as the Embraer E-Jets and the Bombardier CRJ program. Locally, it will replace Russia's aging fleet of Soviet-designed Tu-134s and Yak-42s in moving people across Russia's vast spaces.

Sukhoi has orders for 122 aircraft from airlines across Europe and at home, where Russia's biggest carrier Aeroflot — which has ordered 30 Superjets — recently withdrew its creaking, Soviet-era Tu-154 fleet from service.

But persistent delays over the Superjet engines have set back delivery dates, making Wednesday's announcement by Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko a welcome development.

Khristenko told the parliament the Superjet 100 had gone through the final certification tests last year and is likely to receive a so-called type certificate in July, RIA Novosti and ITAR-Tass reported.

"The granting of the type certificate is scheduled for July 2010," he was quoted as saying.

A type certificate is awarded to a manufacturer to certify that a plane's design fulfills current requirements for aircraft safety standards. The certificate, which clears the way for Superjet to be delivered and used by Russian airlines, is awarded by Russia's Aviation Register of the Interstate Aviation Committee. The company is also applying for an EU certificate.

Russian carriers account for more than half of the Superjet order portfolio to date, and companies in Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Spain, Poland and Armenia make up the rest.

Sukhoi officials recently announced they expect the first deliveries in mid-2010.

The new jet arrives at a time when Russian airlines are facing rising fuel costs, with kerosene costing more than twice what it did a year ago. Analysts say the new jet will.

Taiwan , the $6.4bn USA weapons sale,,, [ 610 ]

China hits back at US over Taiwan weapons sale

The US has a treaty obligation to help towards Taiwan's defence (BBC,11:10 GMT, Saturday, 30 January 2010) China has announced a series of moves against the US in retaliation for a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan worth $6.4bn (£4bn). Beijing said it would suspend military exchanges with the US, impose sanctions on companies selling arms, and review co-operation on major issues. Ties are already strained by rows over trade and internet censorship. Taiwan's president welcomed the sale, saying it would make his country "more confident and secure". Beijing has hundreds of missiles pointed at the island and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control if Taiwan moved towards formal independence. Taiwan and China have been ruled by separate governments since the end of a civil war in 1949. Strained relations The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says China's latest moves are what the US would have expected, as the US view is that military exchanges are of limited use. US Taiwan arms plan announced China's Xinhua state news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying: "Considering the severe harm and odious effect of US arms sales to Taiwan, the Chinese side has decided to suspend planned mutual military visits." "We strongly demand that the US respect the Chinese side's interests", it added, calling for the sale to be stopped. The foreign ministry, meanwhile, said it would impose sanctions on US companies selling weapons to Taiwan, and that co-operation on major international issues would be affected. Our correspondent says it is not clear what impact such sanctions might have. Xinhua also said the US defence attache had been summoned. Defence ties between the two countries have been difficult for several years because of differences over Taiwan, but the two countries' leaders pledged to improve them in 2009. 'More confident' The moves came after Mr He said the arms deal would have "repercussions that neither side wishes to see". "The United States' announcement of the planned weapons sales to Taiwan will have a seriously negative impact on many important areas of exchanges and co-operation between the two countries," Mr He said in a statement published on the foreign ministry website. Earlier China summoned US Ambassador Jon Huntsman to give a warning about the consequences of the deal and to urge its immediate cancellation. Taiwan, meanwhile, welcomed the US move. "It will let Taiwan feel more confident and secure so we can have more interactions with China," the Central News Agency quoted President Ma Ying-jeou as saying. The Pentagon earlier notified the US Congress of the proposed arms sale, which forms part of a package first pledged by the Bush administration. PROPOSED ARMS SALE 114 Patriot missiles ($2.81bn) 60 Black Hawk helicopters ($3.1bn) Communication equipment ($340m) 2 Osprey mine-hunting ships ($105m) 12 Harpoon missiles ($37m) Source: Defense Security Co-operation Agency Friday's notification to Congress by the Defense Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) was required by law. It does not mean the sale has been concluded. US lawmakers have 30 days to comment on the proposed sale, Associated Press reported. If there are no objections, it would proceed. The arms package includes 114 Patriot missiles, 60 Black Hawk helicopters and communications equipment for Taiwan's F-16 fleet, the agency said in a statement. It does not include F-16 fighter jets, which Taiwan's military has been seeking. Our correspondent says the deal has been in the pipeline for a long time and is nearing its conclusion, but China does want to stop it. Beijing has previously warned the US not to go ahead with arms sales to Taiwan. TAIWAN-CHINA RELATIONS Ruled by separate governments since end of Chinese civil war in 1949 China considers the island part of its territory China has offered a "one country, two systems" solution, like Hong Kong Most people in Taiwan support status quo Guide to Taiwan flashpoint Last week US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton angered Beijing with a call to China to investigate cyber attacks on search giant Google, after the company said email accounts of human rights activists had been hacked. The DSCA said the proposed sale would support Taiwan's "continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and enhance its defensive capability." It added: "The proposed sale will help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region." The US is the leading arms supplier to Taiwan, despite switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. Washington regards it as an obligation to provide Taiwan with defensive arms.