Evacuees are screened for radiation contamination at a testing center in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture
A Wikileaks cable reports that Belarus was too poor to study UFOs but also reports of a deep study of them by the old Soviet Union and US.
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/01/first-wikileaks-cable-mentioning-ufos-released
Update 17/1/11
The second cable states UFOs of great concern to the governments of the world.
http://www.allnewsweb.com/page1199999467.php
Update 11/2/11
On 6/2/11, Julian Assange released a video concerning several topics. One of his claims was that the UFO cables mostly dealt with UFO cults, the majority of which involve the Raelians and their information about human cloning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyF5OC-Fdbg&feature=player_embedded
US diplomatic documents released on Sunday by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks include 734 reports dealing with Hungary, according to the German Der Spiegel magazine's website.
Most of the documents concerned were written in 2006 and in the subsequent years. The magazine did not disclose the content of any document, only their level of classification.
Accordingly, four of the 734 documents belong to the "Secret - NOFORN" category meaning that they should not be made accessible to non-US nationals. Another 32 documents on Hungary were classified as "Secret".
The package includes seven "Confidential - NOFORN" documents while 408 cables from Budapest were classified as "Confidential".
The rest of the diplomatic documents were either restricted for official use or not classified at all.
The US ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, sought Wednesday to stem the diplomatic damage from awkward cables on WikiLeaks, calling the maligned foreign minister "a friend".
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, seen here in November 2010. The US ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, sought Wednesday to stem the diplomatic damage from awkward cables on WikiLeaks, calling the maligned foreign minister "a friend".
Amid demands for his sacking, Murphy called the release of the documents featuring frank opinions about German leaders "embarrassing and deeply uncomfortable", in an interview with people magazine Bunte.
In cables from Berlin signed by Murphy, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who is also Germany's vice chancellor, comes in for the most withering criticism, branded incompetent, vain and critical of America.
But Murphy insisted his relations with Westerwelle had not suffered.
"He is a true friend," Murphy is quoted as saying. "I have great respect for him. These comments are only snapshots and do not take the entire picture, the great German-American film, into account. Guido Westerwelle knows this."
Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and a major fundraiser for US President Barack Obama, has faced calls from deputies from Westerwelle's Free Democrats for Washington to recall him.
Merkel's spokesman said Friday that the government did not share these views, calling US-German ties "robust".
Meanwhile comments by Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle in which he compared the vast collection of US diplomatic cables with the practice of the despised East German Stasi secret police of keeping copious records on its citizens sparked a barrage of critical questions at a government briefing Wednesday.
"Some of what I read on WikiLeaks reminds me of the collecting mania that former institutions in the East, including the Stasi, had," Bruederle told a conference Tuesday.
A ministry spokeswoman said Bruederle intended to criticise WikiLeaks' practices, not the United States.
Wikileaks: Romania, among dissatisfied countries by the NATO response at the Russian military exercises in 2009
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 11:45Russia can face a small conflict in West of the country but cannot answer simultaneously to two conflicts or one conflict in the East, an American cablegate regarding NATO’s answer to the Russian military exercises in 2009 that has been criticized even by Romania reads, news agency Mediafax reports.
In the note released by Wikileaks and quoted by Aftenposten in its online edition, NATO presented on November 18, 2009 a report on the Russian military exercises at Zapad and Ladoga. Exercises focused on countering a possible attack launched by Poland and Lithuania against Russia and Bielorus and included the used of ballistic missiles.
NATO’s report read that the military Russian exercises were aimed to remedy deficiencies identified in the 2008 conflict in Georgia. Russia’s military exercises, according to the report, proved that the country has a limited capacity to run operations in collaboration with air forces and continues to rely on old equipments and needs more military.
Canada and several other allied countries in Eastern and Central Europe including Romania criticized the “failure”of NATO to give a proper response to the Russian military exercises. Critics were included n a document signed by Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania tht asked the organization of talks on Russia within NATO. Romania expressed its views that Russia’s exercises resemble with those it conducted in the Cold War period and are part of a worrying behavior.
Japan earthquake: Japan warned over nuclear plants, WikiLeaks cables show
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 10:56Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.
An official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in December 2008 that safety rules were out of date and strong earthquakes would pose a "serious problem" for nuclear power stations.
The Japanese government pledged to upgrade safety at all of its nuclear plants, but will now face inevitable questions over whether it did enough.
While it responded to the warnings by building an emergency response centre at the Fukushima plant, it was only designed to withstand magnitude 7.0 tremors. Friday's devastating earthquake was a magnitude 9.0 shock.
The news is likely to put further pressure on Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, who has been criticised for "dithering" over the country's response to the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Panic started to spread throughout Japan yesterday following the news that a third explosion at the plant might have damaged the protective casing around the reactor core, increasing the threat of radioactive leaks.
The government was considering using helicopters to spray water over the Fukushima site to limit the spread of radioactive particles as part of its increasingly desperate attempts to keep the situation under control.
Meanwhile the FTSE-100 share index fell by 1.4 per cent as stock markets around the world slumped in response to a 10.6 per cent drop in Japan's Nikkei index.
Warnings about the safety of nuclear power plants in Japan, one of the most seismologically active countries in the world, were raised during a meeting of the G8's Nuclear Safety and Security Group in Tokyo in 2008.
A US embassy cable obtained by the WikiLeaks website and seen by The Daily Telegraph quoted an unnamed expert who expressed concern that guidance on how to protect nuclear power stations from earthquakes had only been updated three times in the past 35 years.
The document states: "He [the IAEA official] explained that safety guides for seismic safety have only been revised three times in the last 35 years and that the IAEA is now re-examining them.
"Also, the presenter noted recent earthquakes in some cases have exceeded the design basis for some nuclear plants, and that this is a serious problem that is now driving seismic safety work."
The cables also disclose how the Japanese government opposed a court order to shut down another nuclear power plant in western Japan because of concerns it could not withstand powerful earthquakes.
The court ruled that there was a possibility local people might be exposed to radiation if there was an accident at the plant, which was built to out of date specifications and only to withstand a "6.5 magnitude" earthquake. Last Friday's earthquake, 81 miles off the shore of Japan, was a magnitude 9.0 tremor.
However, a cable from March 2006 reported that the court's concerns were not shared by the country's nuclear safety agency.
It says: "Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency believes the reactor is safe and that all safety analyses were appropriately conducted."
The Government successfully overturned the ruling in 2009.
Another cable reported to Washington local concerns that a new generation of Japanese power stations that recycle nuclear fuel were jeopardising safety.
The cable, quoting a local newspaper, reports: "There is something precarious about the way all electric power companies are falling in step with each other under the banner of the national policy. We have seen too many cases of cost reduction competition through heightened efficiency jeopardizing safety."
The cables also disclose how Taro Kono, a high-profile member of Japan's lower house, told US diplomats in October 2008 that the government was "covering up" nuclear accidents.
He alleged that the government was ignoring alternative forms of energy, such as wind power.
The cable states: "He also accused METI [the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry] of covering up nuclear accidents, and obscuring the true costs and problems associated with the nuclear industry." He added that the Japan's "extensive seismic" activity raised safety concerns about storing nuclear material.
Mr Kan was not in office at the time the nuclear warnings were made. He became science and technology minister in 2009 and prime minister in June 2010.
German-U.S. Relations Will Survive WikiLeaks — but the Trust Is Gone
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 10:03
German police officers guard the U.S. embassy in Berlin on Nov. 29, 2010
Just when it looked like U.S.-German relations were on the mend after the fallout over the Iraq war — when then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's vocal opposition to the U.S. invasion in 2003 put Germany on a collision course with the Bush Administration — the leaking of classified cables from U.S. embassies has threatened to cause a new diplomatic row. German newsmagazine Der Spiegel was given advanced access to hundreds of documents released by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, and the magazine showed no mercy, splashing the story on its cover on Monday. The memos — emanating from a reported 1,719 documents from the U.S. embassy in Berlin — reveal that diplomats regarded German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a leader who approached international relations with the aim of reaping domestic political gain. In one cable sent from the embassy on March 24, 2009, Merkel is called "risk averse and rarely creative"; in another, dated early 2009, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, reportedly describes Merkel as "insecure" in her dealings with the new U.S. government. And in other documents, the Chancellor is given the undiplomatic nickname of "Angela 'Teflon' Merkel" for her habit of steering clear of conflict.
"The leak is extremely awkward for the U.S. embassy in Berlin, and it's bound to sour personal relations between U.S. officials and German politicians," says Volker Perthes, director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. "It's also damaging for the U.S. State Department, as from now on it will get fewer frank assessments from German officials and politicians."(See the top 10 leaks.)
Perhaps the harshest criticism is reserved for Merkel's Vice-Chancellor, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who in various memos is slammed as incompetent, vain and critical of the U.S. On Sept. 18, 2009, just days before German's federal election, the U.S. embassy sent a cable calling Westerwelle "opportunistic" and "arrogant and too fixated on maintaining his 'cult of personality' " and saying he had little experience in foreign policy. In a document dated Feb. 4, 2010, Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is reported to have told U.S. Ambassador Murphy that Westerwelle was "the single biggest obstacle" to a request from the U.S. for more German troops in Afghanistan.
In fact, Guttenberg is virtually the only German minister to emerge from the revelations untainted. Described as a "close and well-known friend of the U.S.," the affable politician is praised for being a "foreign policy expert and transatlanticist." Meanwhile, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is unflatteringly noted as being "neurotic" and "an angry old man."(See more on WikiLeaks.)
Der Spiegel called the publication of the confidential information a "disaster for U.S. diplomacy," while the mass-market daily Bild said the revelations were a "political earthquake." As Germany's political establishment braces itself for more embarrassing revelations, ministers have been forced onto the defensive. At a news conference on Monday, Westerwelle told reporters that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called him on Friday to express her "deep regret" about the imminent leak. And German government officials are desperately trying to reassure the Obama Administration that U.S.-German relations are still on track. On Monday, Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert insisted to reporters that ties between the two countries were "firm" and "robust" and would not be harmed.
While many analysts say the leaked memos will not affect the main areas of cooperation between Berlin and Washington — over Iran or climate change, for example — the candid comments about German politicians have gone down like a lead balloon. "This will be damaging," said Ruprecht Polenz, a member of Merkel's CDU party, to public broadcaster ZDF on Monday, adding that Washington would have to reassure its allies that it can be trusted and that the Obama Administration must review its security measures. "The revelations are embarrassing — because they make classified cables public, and not because of their content," says Constanze Stelzenmüller, senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Berlin. "A lot of the assessments of German policymakers seem accurate. I suspect they are widely shared in Berlin."(See pictures of the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.)
As the man whose name often appears on the leaked memos, U.S. Ambassador Murphy has had to do the rounds on TV to try to calm the media storm. "This is completely and utterly irresponsible," he fumed during an interview with ZDF on Monday, admitting there would be "bumps in the road and broken china" in the days ahead.
It's still too early to predict the long-term consequences of the latest WikiLeaks revelations, but one thing is clear: in the future, German politicians will probably think twice about confiding in U.S. officials. As former U.S. ambassador to Germany John Kornblum told ZDF on Monday, "If that trust is broken, as is now the case, then of course you need to start back at zero." Hardly a tantalizing prospect for Germany's diplomatic corps.
WikiLeaks: EU Slams France Over Mass Gypsy Deportations
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 07:12France is facing possible legal action from the European Union over its policy of tearing down makeshift Gypsy settlements and hastily deporting their residents to Eastern Europe.
Since the beginning of the year, at least 8,000 Roma (as the Gypsy people are known) have been rounded up and sent to Romania and Bulgaria,according to France 24. Human rights groups, the Catholic Church and even members of President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative Cabinet have condemned the policy, which many critics believe is designed to boost Sarkozy's popularity at a time of unpopular spending cuts.
Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, today joined that growing wave of criticism. At a press conference in Brussels, she labeled the Roma expulsions "a disgrace" and said the policy was likely illegal under European law.
Paul Szajner, AFP / Getty Images
Members of the Roma community react after being forced out of their camp in Saint Denis, north of Paris, on July 6. The French government faces possible legal action from the European Union over its treatment of Gypsies.
"I personally have been appalled by a situation which gave the impression that people are being removed from a member state of the European Union just because they belong to a certain ethnic minority," she said. "This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War."
Reding added that the European Commission -- the EU's executive body -- now had "no choice but to initiate infringement procedures against France," meaning Sarkozy's government could be hauled before the European Court of Justice and hit with hefty fines.
That new tough line is in marked contrast to the EU's relatively meek approach to date. Last week, for instance, Reding announced that the French government was sending "very positive" signals on its Roma policy. And after a meeting with Sarkozy last week, Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said he didn't want to turn the issue into a "controversy."
However, the European Commission changed its tone following the leak of a damning French government document. Throughout the removal campaign, both Sarkozy and his immigration minister, Eric Besson, have claimed that authorities were treating Roma no differently than other EU citizens who didn't meet France's residency rules.
The leaked memo, though -- dated Aug. 5 and signed by Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux's chief of staff -- reminds French officials that a "specific objective" had been set out by Sarkozy. "Three hundred camps or illegal settlements must be evacuated within three months; Roma camps are a priority," the memo read, according to The Guardian. "It is down to the [state representative] in each department to begin a systematic dismantling of the illegal camps, particularly those of the Roma."
Besson later told French TV that he "wasn't a recipient" of the letter "and therefore I didn't need to know about it."
The Guardian notes that France could have violated a 2004 law that guarantees EU citizens -- including Roma originally from Bulgaria or Romania -- freedom of movement across the union's 27 member states. And the EU's charter of fundamental rights also outlaws discrimination on ethnic grounds, which should have stopped French authorities collectively targeting the Gypsies, Europe's largest ethnic minority.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told the BBC that Reding's statement was unhelpful. "We don't think that with this type of statement, that we can improve the situation of the Roma, who are at the heart of our concerns and our action," he said.
If the European Commission does crack down on France, other European nations might also be forced to rethink their apparently discriminatory targeting of the Roma. Italy, for instance, is pushing through legislation that will make it easier to expel Gypsies. And even once-welcoming countries like Sweden and Denmark have begun, albeit quietly, deporting Roma who also hold EU citizenship.
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