Australia : Aborigine protesters ...[ 2660 ]

Aborigine protesters burn Australian flag outside Parliament

By Jethro Mullen, CNN

January 27, 2012 -- Updated 0926 GMT (1726 HKT)

Australian PM loses shoe in attack

(CNN) -- A group of indigenous Australian protesters made headlines for a second day in a row Friday after they gathered outside the Australian Parliament and set fire to the country's flag.

The move came a day after security officers dragged Prime Minister Julia Gillard out of a Canberra restaurant after scores of angry protesters surrounded the building during a luncheon ceremony.

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Aborigine leaders on Friday criticized the actions of the group, saying they jeopardized efforts to reconcile indigenous Australians with the broader society.

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Video on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. showed a circle of protesters outside Parliament in Canberra setting light to an Australian flag and chanting, "Always was, always will be Aboriginal land."

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"I think it was totally uncalled for," said Tom Calma, a co-chair of Reconciliation Australia, which promotes the improving of relationships between Aborigines and the wider Australian community. "It's just not acceptable that they burn the flag of Australia."

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The police are investigating the lighting of a fire in an unauthorized place, a police spokeswoman said. She said the act of burning the Australian flag is not a criminal offense in Canberra.

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The move by the protesters, connected to a long-running Aboriginal demonstration known as the "tent embassy," was likely to add to dismay across the country after the disturbance involving Gillard on Thursday, Australia's national day.

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Security officers took Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott out of the restaurant after between 50 and 100 protesters circled it during a lunchtime ceremony, bashing windows and brandishing sticks and rocks, according to the police.

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Gillard was presenting medals to emergency service workers during an event for the national day. A spontaneous protest erupted nearby among an Aboriginal rights group commemorating the 40th anniversary of the tent embassy.

 

Australian PM rescued from protest mob

Protesters were chanting "shame" and "racist" as they banged on the restaurant's three glass sides, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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They were apparently upset about remarks Abbott made earlier Thursday suggesting it may be time to reconsider the tent embassy's relevance.

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The makeshift embassy was set up 40 years ago by four Aboriginal men who planted a beach umbrella on the lawn in front of Parliament House in Canberra to protest the failure of the coalition government at the time, led by Prime Minister William McMahon, to recognize Aboriginal land rights. It has endured despite successive government attempts to close it.

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"I think the indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian," Abbott had said in response to a question about whether the tent embassy was still relevant, according to a transcript of the comments posted on his website. "And yes, I think a lot has changed since then and I think it probably is time to move on from that."

Local media reported that Gillard was visibly shaken, and stumbled during the encounter.

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Photographs showed her being led to a waiting vehicle by a group of at least seven security officers, losing a shoe in the process.

Video showed her being hustled into the vehicle, surrounded by security officers, some carrying shields, as protesters shouted, "Shame on you."

The shoe was collected by protesters, who proclaimed it a trophy.

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But Aboriginal leaders were unimpressed.

"It's pretty appalling behavior," said Mick Gooda, the commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice at the Australian Human Rights Commission.

"And while we enjoy the right to protest and raise issues in this country, I don't think we should be resorting to that type of violence," he said Friday on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

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There was also criticism of the protesters' actions in the Australian press.

"Those who want to preserve the embassy should make their point in a peaceful, respectful way," said an editorial on Friday in The Australian, a national daily. "Their actions yesterday can only have damaged their cause."

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There were no injuries Thursday, and no arrests were made, the police said. Video from the ABC showed some minor struggles breaking out between the authorities and protesters.

A spokesman for the tent embassy, Mark McMurtrie, said Abbott's remarks and the police's behavior had incited the disturbance.

Speaking Friday on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio, McMurtrie said that news media coverage of the events had overly dramatized the protesters actions.

"There was no threat to them at all," he said, referring to Gillard and Abbott.

The episode took place against the backdrop of efforts to change the nation's constitution to give better recognition to indigenous Australians, often referred to as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Last week, a panel issued a government-commissioned report suggesting ways the constitution could be altered to achieve that aim.

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Indigenous Australians have suffered at the hands of later settlers and the government they established. Australian politicians have since apologized for the past mistreatment, but Aborigines remain disadvantaged socially and economically compared with the overall population.

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Explicit references to Aborigines in the original Constitution, drafted in the late 19th century, were subsequently deemed to be negative. Australians voted overwhelmingly to remove those points in a 1967 referendum, but many people say the document can be further improved to acknowledge the role of the country's indigenous population.

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The panel -- which included Aboriginal leaders, business executives, legal experts and members of the main political parties -- has handed over its report to Gillard, whose government has promised to hold a referendum on the matter by the next general election.

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The events of the past two days may have made that process more complicated for those in favor of the referendum.

"I think it's going to increase the challenge," said Calma of Reconciliation Australia. "There was always going to be a challenge to get people on board with the constitutional changes."

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He said the tent embassy protesters' actions would detract from "successful advocacy taking place between indigenous groups and the government at the moment on reconciliation.

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CNN's Hilary Whiteman and journalist Hugh Williams contributed to this report.

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Cloud Streets ...[ 2659 ]

Cloud Streets Off of the Aleutian Islands

Strong winds polished the snow of southwestern Alaska and stretched marine stratocumulus clouds into long, parallel streets in early January, 2012. After crossing Bristol Bay, the winds scraped the clouds across the tall volcanic peaks of the Aleutian Islands. As the wind impacted the immobile mountains, the airflow became turbulent, swirling in symmetric eddies and carving intricate patterns into the clouds on the leeward side of the islands.

At the top of this image, the bright white color indicates a thick layer of snow overlying the land of southwestern Alaska. The pristine white is broken by the rugged Ahklun Mountain Range in the east, which is partially covered by a bank of clouds.

Off the coast of Alaska, sea ice floats in Bristol Bay, cracked and chipped by the flow of the waters which lie underneath. A few cloud streets – parallel lines of clouds – can be seen in the far northwest over land. The clouds increase over the sea ice and become thick over open water, where row upon row of clouds lie close in perfectly parallel formation.

The Aleutian Islands stretch from northeast to southwest across the image. Sea ice, which is bright white here, lies on the windward side of the islands. A few of the tallest volcanic peaks can be seen rising from the icy islands.

The character of the cloud streets change as they impact the Aleutians, especially near the center of the image, where two rows of beautifully symmetric swirls of eddies in the clouds stretch across the sky. These swirling formations are known as von Karman vortex streets. This true-color image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite on January 11, 2012.
Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team
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'Microplastic' threat to shores...[ 2658 ]

Accumulating 'microplastic' threat to shores

BBC., 27 January 2012 Last updated at 17:39 GMT 

By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News

 

Concentrations of microplastic were greatest near coastal urban areas, the study showed

Microscopic plastic debris from washing clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain, a study has warned.

Researchers traced the "microplastic" back to synthetic clothes, which released up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they were washed.

Earlier research showed plastic smaller than 1mm were being eaten by animals and getting into the food chain.

The findings appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

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"Research we had done before... showed that when we looked at all the bits of plastic in the environment, about 80% was made up from smaller bits of plastic," said co-author Mark Browne, an ecologist now based at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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"This really led us to the idea of what sorts of plastic are there and where did they come from."

Dr Browne, a member of the US-based research network National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, said the tiny plastic was a concern because evidence showed that it was making its way into the food chain.

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"Once the plastics had been eaten, it transferred from [the animals'] stomachs to their circulation system and actually accumulated in their cells," he told BBC News.

In order to identify how widespread the presence of microplastic was on shorelines, the team took samples from 18 beaches around the globe, including the UK, India and Singapore.

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"We found that there was no sample from around the world that did not contain pieces of microplastic."

 

The smallest fibres could end up causing huge problems worldwide

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Dr Browne added: "Most of the plastic seemed to be fibrous.

"When we looked at the different types of polymers we were finding, we were finding that polyester, acrylic and polyamides (nylon) were the major ones that we were finding."

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The data also showed that the concentration of microplastic was greatest in areas near large urban centres.

In order to test the idea that sewerage discharges were the source of the plastic discharges, the team worked with a local authority in New South Wales, Australia.

"We found exactly the same proportion of plastics," Dr Browne revealed, which led the team to conclude that their suspicions had been correct.

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As a result, Dr Browne his colleague Professor Richard Thompson from the University of Plymouth, UK carried out a number of experiments to see what fibres were contained in the water discharge from washing machines.

"We were quite surprised. Some polyester garments released more than 1,900 fibres per garment, per wash," Dr Browne observed.

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"It may not sound like an awful lot, but if that is from a single item from a single wash, it shows how things can build up.

"It suggests to us that a large proportion of the fibres we were finding in the environment, in the strongest evidence yet, was derived from the sewerage as a consequence from washing clothes."

The visit of Samaras in Russia .. . [2657]

Step by step the visit of the leader of the Greek opposition A.Samara in Russia

Newsbomb.gr.,, 26 / 01 / 2012 - 08:44

Ending today, the three-day official visit of President of the Southwest, Antonis Samaras , in Moscow to meet with Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and President of the company GazProm Mr Alexei Miller .

Yesterday the leader of the Greek opposition met in Kremlin with the head of the Presidential Office, former Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov and the chairman of the Upper House and former ambassador in Athens Valentina Matvienko, two contacts which took place in a very hot climate.

Wednesday afternoon, the President of the Southwest, attended and welcomed a large Greek-event director Constantinos Charalambides homogeneous in the Conference Center of the Cathedral Church of Christ dedicated to crypto, an initiative embraced by prominent and numerous Russian and Greek artists, including The famous actor Alexei Petrenko, the composer Evanthia Remboutsika, the orchestra of folk instruments Zikina the Byzantine Choir "Chanting Workshop." The event was attended by, Pontus origin, famous cosmonaut Theodore Giourtsichin.

"Need for strengthening of Greek-Russian relations"

In a series of statements to the media representatives, Mr. Samaras tried to send out the message that in a moment of great trial for the Greek people, finds himself in Moscow, with initiatives for economic cooperation at all levels: energy, tourism, exports, but mainly to attract Russian investment in Greece with the target rather than the casual-but the long-term cooperation between Greece - Russia.

Moreover, in his interviews to Russian media, the president of the New Republic pointed out that: "The Greek-Russian relations are not at the level that could and should, hence objective LD, conditional upon the governance of the country in upcoming elections, is to change existing negative data, starting from energy cooperation with Russia, "adding that projects such as the oil pipeline Burgas - Alexandroupolis either suspended or have stalled, will try to unblock it again putting a priority any form of major projects that facilitate transport of energy supplies in Greece and Europe in general and passed by the Greek territory contributing to the development of our country and secure energy supplies to Europe.

Samaras, identified more specifically, opportunities for cooperation in:

• Energy transfer

• Broader infrastructure

• Transport

• Travel through residential investment

• Shipping through investment in marinas

• Export of vegetables

The "weapon" of Orthodoxy and the case ... Ephraim

Antonis Samaras, in addition to economic cooperation and investment, puts the deep spiritual content, which should be used and promoted Greek-Russian relations, highlighting the strong ties between the peoples of Greece and Russia, which are linked through the history, common culture and orthodoxy, and wants to revive the relations cooled after the arrest of Abbot Ephraim was very popular in Moscow.

Speaking even a Russian news agency, estimated that the Vatopedi used to topple the previous government of New Democracy and that two committees of inquiry of the Greek Parliament investigated the case without finding the slightest incriminating evidence in any way, nor to "harm the public interest" or for "political money flow."

"The exit from the eurozone is not a solution"

Referring to the Russian economic crisis, Mr. Samaras made ​​it clear that "the exit from the eurozone is not a solution would be a very bad and disastrous development for Greece. And immediately in the medium term ", and stressed that if given the opportunity for growth in Greece, to be competitive and extroverted, if given the opportunity to exploit the large and hitherto untapped competitive advantages, including mineral and property may present a real developmental leap.

Making specific reference to the negotiations said that PSI "is an absolute priority and a key to make the Greek debt is" sustainable ", that is so, so as to enable the service in the future.

I hope that this will happen very soon. Then, of course, we must roll up our sleeves and work hard. But there must be some light at the end of the tunnel. "

Russian Military Airfields...[ 2656 ]

Russia to Modernize All Military Airfields by 2020

All of Russia’s military airfields will be upgraded and modernized by 2020

© RIA Novosti. Sergey Pyatakov//15:27 26/01/2012

MOSCOW, January 26 (RIA Novosti)

All of Russia’s military airfields will be upgraded and modernized by 2020, Defense Ministry spokesman Col Vladimir Drik said on Thursday.

That includes airbases, flight test and training centers, army aviation sites, and other facilities, he said.

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This year construction of new runways and command and control structures will begin at military airports in the Krasnodar territory, and the Saratov, Astrakhan, and Kaliningrad regions.

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Gen Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said in November the Defense Ministry had a total of 356 aerodromes.