The Falklands ..[ 3029 ]

Cristina Fernandez asks Cameron to return the Falklands “forcibly stripped” in 1833

Thursday, January 3rd 2013 - 00:31 UTC

 Prime Minister David Cameron must return the Falkland Islands to Argentina, 180 years after the territories were “forcibly stripped” from Buenos Aires, President Cristina Fernandez has claimed in UK newspaper adverts scheduled to be published on Thursday and which has been anticipated.

 

 MLA Dr Barry Elsby: ”we are not a colony – our relationship with the United Kingdom is by choice”.

 

Copy of the letter from the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez to Prime Minister David Cameron

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In an emotional open letter to the British PM, Cristina Fernandez has called on him to honor a United Nations resolution dating from 1965 and start negotiations about handing over the islands.
The letter, which was due to be published in the British national newspaper “The Guardian” on Thursday, is timed to mark the anniversary of when on 3 January 1833 Britain took control of the Falklands from Argentina.
A copy of the 212-word letter was advanced to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
It says: “One hundred and eighty years ago on this same date, January 3rd, in a blatant exercise of 19th century colonialism, Argentina was forcibly stripped of the Malvinas Islands, which are situated 14,000 km away from London.
“The Argentines on the Islands were expelled by the Royal Navy and the United Kingdom subsequently began a population implantation process similar to that applied to other territories under colonial rule.
“Since then, Britain, the colonial power, has refused to return the territories to the Argentine Republic, thus preventing it from restoring its territorial integrity.
“The question of the Malvinas is also a cause embraced by Latin America and by vast majority of peoples and governments around the world that reject colonialism.
“In 1960, the United Nations proclaimed the necessity of ‘bringing to an end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations’.
“In 1965, the General Assembly adopted, with no votes against (not even by the United Kingdom), a resolution considered the Malvinas Islands a colonial case and inviting the two countries to negotiate a solution to the sovereignty dispute between them.
“This was followed by many other resolutions to that effect. In the name of the Argentine people, I reiterate our invitation for us to abide by the resolutions of the United Nations.”
The Falklands’ population is overwhelmingly pro-British and is scheduled to hold a referendum with international observers next March on the Islands political status. PM Cameron has said the UK would “respect and defend” the result of the plebiscite.
Dr Barry Elsby, Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands, told “The Daily Telegraph” on Wednesday night: “We are not a colony – our relationship with the United Kingdom is by choice.
”Unlike the Government of Argentina, the United Kingdom respects the right of our people to determine our own affairs, a right that is enshrined in the UN Charter and which is which is ignored by Argentina.”
On Wednesday night the Foreign Office said that it “strenuously denied” that Britain expelled Argentine citizens from the Falklands in 1833.
A spokesman said: “The people of the Falklands are British and have chosen to be so. They remain free to choose their own futures, both politically and economically, and have a right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter.
“This is a fundamental human right for all peoples. There are three parties to this debate, not just two as Argentina likes to pretend. The Islanders can’t just be written out of history.
“As such, there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands unless and until such time as the Islanders so wish.”
The diplomatic broadside follows the British government's decision last month to name a large frozen chunk of Antarctica after the Queen – a gesture viewed in Buenos Aires as provocative. 

Depardieu, gets Russian citizenship...[ 3028 ]

Depardieu, in tax fight, gets Russian citizenship

JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press, By JIM HEINTZ and LORI HINNANT, Associated Press | January 3, 2013 | Updated: January 3, 2013 6:45am

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FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010 file photo Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, and French actor Gerard Depardieu, left, attend the Russian Museum, in St. Petersburg. Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has been sparring with his native country over taxes, has been granted Russian citizenship. A brief announcement on the Kremlin website said President Vladimir Putin signed the citizenship grant on Thursday Jan. 3, 2013. Photo: RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Pool / AP

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MOSCOW (AP) — Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has waged a battle against a proposed super-tax on millionaires in his native country, has been granted Russian citizenship.
A brief announcement on the Kremlin website revealed that President Vladimir Putin signed the citizenship grant on Thursday.
The former Oscar nominee and star of the movie "Green Card" has been vocal in his opposition to French President Francois Hollande's plans to raise the tax on earned income above €1 million ($1.33 million) to 75 percent from the current high of 41 percent.
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"I have never killed anyone, I don't think I've been unworthy, I've paid €145 million in taxes over 45 years," Depardieu wrote in an open letter in mid-December to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who had called the actor "pathetic."
"I will neither complain nor brag, but I refuse to be called 'pathetic," Depardieu wrote in his response.
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A representative for the former Oscar nominee declined to say whether he had accepted the Russian offer and refused all comment. Thursday was a holiday in Russia and officials from the Federal Tax Service and Federal Migration Service could not be reached for comment on whether the decision would require Depardieu to have a residence in Russia.
Depardieu said in his letter to Ayrault that he would surrender his passport and French social security card. In October, the mayor of a small Belgian border town announced that Depardieu had bought a house and set up legal residence there, a move that was slammed by the newly-elected Socialist government.
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Though the two-year tax was struck down by France's highest court Dec. 29, the government has promised to resubmit the law in a slightly different form soon. On Wednesday it estimated that the court decision to overturn the tax would cost it €210 million in 2013.
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France's debt burden is around 90 percent of national income — not far off levels that have caused problems elsewhere in the 17-country eurozone. In contrast to the proposed top French rate, Russia has a flat 13 percent tax on income.
Depardieu has made more than 150 films, among them the 1991 comedy "Green Card" about a man who enters into a marriage of convenience in order to get U.S. residency. Most famously, Depardieu was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1990 film by the same name.
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The Kremlin statement gave no information on why Putin made the citizenship grant, but the Russian president expressed sympathy with the actor in December, days after Depardieu reportedly said he was considering Russian citizenship.
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"As we say, artists are easily offended and therefore I understand the feelings of Mr. Depardieu," Putin said.
Although France and Russia disagree sharply about how to resolve the civil war in Syria, the two countries have strong commercial relations. In 2011, Russia signed a contract worth more than €1 billion ($1.33 billion) Friday to buy two French warships — the largest military deal between a NATO country and Moscow.
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Depardieu is well known in Russia, where he appears in an ad for Sovietsky Bank's credit card and is prominently featured on the bank's home page.
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Depardieu is not the only high-profile Frenchman to object to the super-tax. Bernard Arnault — chief of the luxury goods and fashion giant LVMH and worth an estimated $41 billion — has also said he would leave for Belgium.
France's Civil Code says one must have another nationality in order to give up French citizenship because it is forbidden to be stateless. Thursday's decision by the Kremlin appears to fulfill that requirement.
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Hinnant contributed from Paris

Drill Ship runs aground in Alaska...[ 3027 ]

Oil Drill Ship runs aground in Alaska

Drill ship the Kulluk, carrying about 155,000 gallons of fuel, drifted in stormy weather before being driven on to rocks

• Reuters

• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 January 2013 12.06 GMT

The drill ship Kulluk is towed by the tugs Aiviq and Nanuq. Photograph: AP

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A large drill ship belonging to the oil company Shell ran aground off Alaska on Monday night after drifting in stormy weather, company and government officials said.
The ship, the Kulluk, broke away from one of its tow lines on Monday afternoon and was driven, within hours, to rocks just off Kodiak Island, where it grounded at about 9pm Alaska time, officials said.
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The 18-member crew had been evacuated by the coastguard late on Saturday because of risks from the ongoing storm.
With winds reported as reaching 60 miles an hour and Gulf of Alaska seas of up to 12 metres, responders were unable to keep the ship from grounding, said coastguard commander Shane Montoya, the leader of the incident command team.
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"We are now entering into the salvage and possible spill-response phase of this event," Montoya told a news conference late on Monday night in Anchorage.
There was no known spill and no reports of damage, but the Kulluk had about 155,000 gallons of fuel on board, Montoya said.
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The grounding of the Kulluk, a conical, Arctic-class drill ship weighing nearly 28,000 gross tonnes, is a blow to Shell's $4.5bn (£2.8bn) offshore programme in Alaska.
Shell's plan to convert the area in to a major new oil frontier has alarmed environmentalists and many Alaska Natives but excited industry supporters.
Environmentalists and Native opponents say the drilling programme threatens a fragile region that is already being battered by rapid climate change.
"Shell and its contractors are no match for Alaska's weather and sea conditions either during drilling operations or during transit," Lois Epstein, Arctic programme director for the Wilderness Society, said in an email.
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"Shell's costly drilling experiment in the Arctic Ocean needs to be stopped by the federal government or by Shell itself given the unacceptably high risks it poses to both humans and the environment."
The Kulluk's woes began on Friday, when the Shell ship towing it south experienced a mechanical failure and lost its connection to the drill vessel.
That ship, the Aivik, was reattached to the Kulluk early on Monday morning, as was a tug sent to the scene by the operator of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. But the Aivik lost its link on Monday afternoon, and the tug's crew could only try to guide the drill ship to a position where, if it grounded, "it would have the least amount of impact to the environment", Montoya said.
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Shell used the Kulluk in September and October to drill a prospect in the Beaufort Sea. It was being taken to Seattle for the off-season when the problems began on Friday.
Susan Childs, emergency incident commander for Shell, suggested a significant spill from the drill ship was unlikely.
"The unique design of the Kulluk means the diesel fuel tanks are isolated in the centre in the vessel and encased in very heavy steel," she said.
Shell was waiting for weather to moderate "to begin a complete assessment of the Kulluk", she said. "We hope to ultimately recover the Kulluk with minimal or no damage to the environment."
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The Kulluk was built in 1983 and there were plans to scrap it before Shell bought it in 2005. The company has spent $292m since then to upgrade the vessel.
Shell's Arctic campaign has been bedevilled by problems. A second drill ship, the Discoverer, was briefly detained in December by the coastguard in Seward, Alaska, because of safety concerns. A mandatory oil-containment barge, the Arctic Challenger, failed for months to meet coastguard requirements for seaworthiness and a ship mishap resulted in damage to a critical piece of equipment intended to cap a blown well.

New Year's Eve celebrations wwide..[ 3026 ]

New Year's Eve celebrations around the world: live

Fireworks, party poppers and champagne at the ready: join us as we celebrate New Year's Eve celebrations around the world.

11:49AM GMT 31 Dec 2012

• Australia welcomes in the New Year
• Revellers around the world prepare to celebrate the start of 2013
• India's army cancels New Year celebrations in remembrance of gang-rape victim
• Britain expects washout New Year as flooding countinues
• Record turnout expected for Hogmanay in Edinburgh

Latest

13.30 Spectacular scenes across Sydney's famous Harbour

(Getty)

13.29 2013 will ring in the changes in very different ways around the world. Hung-over Russians will wake up to a "new and troubling reality" on New Year's Day, when beer becomes classified as an alcoholic drink for the very first time, reports Tom Parfitt in Moscow. Read the full story here.
13.19 Fireworks explode over Sydney Harbour as it turns midnight

(Reuters)
13.05 Lasers light up the sky above Victoria harbour in Hong Kong

(Getty)
13.04 Our Moscow correspondent, Tom Parftt, reports that Russian revellers are expected to gather in Red Square, where there will be a firework display over the Kremlin later. He writes: "In Moscow, where snow is falling as the temperature hovers around -7C, shoppers are making their last desperate purchases before rushing home to their families. New Year is a more important event for Russians than Christmas – a low-key event marked on January 7 according to the pre-revolutionary Julian calendar – and gifts are put under a tree on December 31st, just as they are in the West on December 25th."
12.49 Kylie Minogue was clearly getting into the New Year spirit when she tweeted this photo of her in Sydney earlier:

12.48 Take a brolly if you are seeing in the New Year outdoors in Britain tonight. Forecasters are warning that the UK's celebrations will be dampened by a continuation of the downpours that have soaked the country over the festive season. Many parts of England, Wales and Scotland remain under flood alerts, and some areas are expected to see as much as 33mm (1.3ins) of rain falling today. However, the start of 2013 is set to bring better news, as the weeks of heavy rain give way to cloud, dull skies and light showers.
12.40 Dancers take part in parade in Bali, Indonesia

(EPA)
12.31 Indian revellers celebrate in Amritsar

(Getty)
12.20 In Sydney crowds are gathering for traditionally one of the most spectacular New Year's Eve fireworks displays anywhere in the world. Lord Mayor Clover Moore said about 1.5 million spectators are expected . Those in place already include Melissa Sjostedt who has made the journey from Florida to see the festivities which she first read about a decade ago in National Geographic magazine.
12.05 Meanwhile Malcolm Moore, our Beijing correspondent, reminds us that the Chinese New Year - when the Year of the Dragon gives way to the Year of the Snake - takes place on February 9. Those who want to celebrate the western calendar are having to dig deep with the city's finest restaurants offering special menus at up to £150 a head.
12.00 Special cause for celebration at Myanmar - or Burma to you and me - where the country will see in the New Year with a grand fireworks display in a celebration unprecedented in the former military-ruled country.
Thousands were expected to attend the celebration at a large field in Yangon against the backdrop of the city's famed Shwedagon Pagoda, where the Myanmar public will get its chance to do what much of the world does every New Year's Eve.

Preparations for Myanmar's New Year celebrations (Reuters)
11.56 People take part in the celebrations under the Harbour Bridge

(Getty)
11.50 Celebrations are already underway in Sydney, where fireworks are lighting up the city's skyline for the 9pm family show

(Reuters)
11.30 In Pakistan Rob Crilly, our correspondent reports, the celebrations are being held amid tight security. He adds: "Pakistanis are sending their 2013 text message greetings several hours early in case the country's mobile phone networks are turned off later to prevent mobile phones being used to detonate bombs.
11.15 The Indian armed forces on Monday cancelled their New Year celebrations while many hotels and bars scaled back parties in the wake of the gang-rape which has shocked the nation.
The Indian army, air force and navy have decided to cancel all the parties planned to welcome the new year. They want to dedicate the last day of the year to the gang-rape victim," a senior defence ministry official told AFP.
In the capital, where the horrific crime took place on December 16, leading private members' club Gymkhana, where top officials and ministers are often seen, cancelled its party as did the Press Club in the capital.
The five-star Ashoka hotel in New Delhi also closed its popular nightclub, while other bar owners were quoted in the media as saying they were scaling back festivities.

A student prays during a vigil in Ahmedabad (Reuters)
11.10 In Auckland the celebrations are well underway with Kiwis being serenaded by "Legendary New Zealand funk rockers Supergroove" - no I haven't heard of them either.
11.00 Welcome to the Telegraph's Live Blog as we brace ourselves for 2013.

Athens Greece

Spiral Galaxy...[ 3025 ]

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3627

The spiral galaxy NGC 3627 is located about 30 million light years from Earth. This composite image includes X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (red), and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope (yellow). The inset shows the central region, which contains a bright X-ray source that is likely powered by material falling onto a supermassive black hole.

A search using archival data from previous Chandra observations of a sample of 62 nearby galaxies has shown that 37 of the galaxies, including NGC 3627, contain X-ray sources in their centers. Most of these sources are likely powered by central supermassive black holes. The survey, which also used data from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey, found that seven of the 37 sources are new supermassive black hole candidates.

Confirming previous Chandra results, this study finds the fraction of galaxies found to be hosting supermassive black holes is much higher than found with optical searches. This shows the ability of X-ray observations to find black holes in galaxies where relatively low-level black hole activity has either been hidden by obscuring material or washed out by the bright optical light of the galaxy.

Credits: NASA/CXC/Ohio State Univ./C.Grier et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI, ESO/WFI; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech