Month: October 2014

According to parliamentarians in Victoria, British Columbia, knowledge of a security threat to Canada had existed since earlier this week. Victoria parliamentarians were contacted days ago and alerted to a possible problem.

Parliamentary House Clerk Craig James said that “steps were taken” with regard to security this week. “We are aware and have been aware of a heightened concern from entities in Ottawa for least a few days.”

“We didn’t receive caution, we received information that there may be a problem,” said James. “We had discussions with certain members of the assembly to be prudent and keep them informed.”

Shortly after the attack Wednesday, Canadian Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister of Multiculturalism Kenney Jason tweeted, “Canada won’t be terrorized or intimidated.”

Many commentators are pointing to terrorism directed at Canada by militant Islamists as a possible source for the two attacks on Canadian military personnel this week.

Tuesday, two Canadian soldiers were hit by a car being driven by a Quebec man, 25-year-old Martin Rouleau, who had been “radicalized” by Islamists. Police shot Rouleau dead in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec after a car chase.

Also Tuesday, Canada sent combat aircraft to participate in the war against Islamist group Islamic State (IS, also referred to as ISIS and ISIL).

Wednesday, an attack on the War Memorial and other sites around the Parliament building in Ottawa, Ontario took the life of one military guard. One gunman was also shot dead in that attack.

IS distributed a call last month for attacks on civilians in countries that were members of the US-led coalition opposed to the Islamist group.

“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European–especially the spiteful and filthy French–or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State … kill him in any manner or way however it may be,” said  ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani in the recording.

Following the events in Ottawa, US President Barack Obama condemned the attack, pledging continued coordination with Canada regarding terrorist attacks, and saying, “We have to remain vigilant when it comes to dealing with these kinds of acts of senseless violence or terrorism and I pledged as always to make sure that our national security teams are coordinated very closely. Not only is Canada one of our closest allies in the world, but they’re our neighbors and our friends.”

Also following the attack, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) increased its alert posture–increasing the number of planes on higher alert status.

By James Haleavy

RCMP and Ottawa police briefed the nation Wednesday on the shooting that took place at and around Ottawa’s Parliament building. The situation, which the RCMP referred to as “ongoing,” “dynamic and unfolding,” was now focused mainly on the area immediately around Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, and Canadians were told to stay vigilant and report suspicious activities about anyone who may want to cause harm to Canadians.

“We’re asking the community to continue to be aware, to be vigilant, and to continue to report any suspicious activity that they deem serious–that could impact their safety,” said Ottawa police chief Charles Bordeleau at the briefing.

“In general terms, we’ve been asking the community to remain vigilant over potential acts that we’ve seen overseas and in in other countries. That is something that we’ve always asked Canadians to be aware of, and to be constantly vigilant, and to report any suspicious activity that may identify any individual that may want to cause harm to fellow Canadians.

“We’ve asked the public to stay away from the downtown core,” said Bordeleau. Police had set up a perimeter around Parliament Hill and were clearing the area. Bordeleau confirmed that the key area of focus was Parliament Hill and the immediate area around Parliament Hill.

Just before 10:00 AM Wednesday, shots were fired at locations around and including the Parliament building in Ottawa. The site of the first attack was the War Memorial, where one Canadian officer was shot. That officer died of his injuries. Another person was reported to have been injured by a stray bullet in the attack.

A barrage of shots was fired in Parliament in footage captured by the Globe and Mail. During the firefight, one RCMP officer was injured.

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The one male suspect confirmed to have died in the events is thought to have been the gunman involved in this firefight.

It had earlier been reported that there had been a shooting incident at the Rideau Center as well, but this was disconfirmed by the RCMP.

RCMP would not say whether there was currently more than one suspect in the crime, but they did repeat that the investigation was ongoing, and that they wanted to speak to witnesses.

When asked whether the dead suspect had been among the 19 people who had been identified by Canadian authorities as having been radicalized, the RCMP said it was too early to confirm. RCMP did comment on whether they would be investigating the 19 suspects.

“We basically draw all of our resources towards any threat that exists, and actively investigate those individuals,” said RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud.

RCMP would not comment on the weapon used in the incident, the identity of the suspect who had been killed, or whether he had driven his own car to the scene of the crime or had hijacked a car.

By James Haleavy

China executed more people than the rest of the world combined, according to a nonprofit US-based rights group. China executed 2,400 people in 2013, three times the number executed by the 195 other countries, which executed a total of 778 people.

“China currently executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined, but it has executed far fewer people since the power of final review of death sentences was returned to the (Supreme People’s Court) in 2007,” said the nonprofit human rights foundation, Dui Hua, which seeks clemency and better treatment for at-risk detainees.

Courts in China used final review to send 39 percent of death sentences back to lower courts for additional evidence in 2013, and 10 percent of the verdicts were overturned.

Executions are treated as state secrets in China. Amnesty International, which collects information on death sentences around the world, was forced to abandon publishing statistics on death penalties in China in 2009 because of the difficulty in obtaining information from Chinese authorities.

According to Amnesty, death sentences worldwide increased in 2013–14 percent. The total death sentences in 2013 were 778. Eighty percent of those 778 were recorded in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Iran executed 369 people and Iraq executed 169.

Most of the 23,392 people (excluding Chinese executions since 2009) recorded by Amnesty have been executed for offenses related to drugs.

China also uses the death penalty as punishment for drug trafficking, as well as corruption offenses.

Dui Hua estimated that the 2,400 figure was down 20 percent from the previous year, and that China would likely execute the same number of people in 2014.

The report was published in the Guangzhou-based newspaper Southern Weekly. Information for the report was based on a judicial official who had access to the annual number of executions, reportedly.

By Sid Douglas

 

Russian human rights ombundswoman Ella Panfilova has warned that a new, large-scale attack may be conducted by Russia against Ukraine in the near future. Panfilova made comments in an interview Monday in which the ombunswoman stated that Russia should prepare for a second wave of migration from Ukraine, despite a current ceasefire agreement that has existed in Ukraine since September. Panfilova said that the migration would not come only from southeast Ukraine–the only area so far affected by the conflict.

“We should be ready for the second wave of migration, and not only from the southeast of Ukraine,” said Panfilova, commenting on the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who had sought refuge in Russia over the past months of fighting, most of which had since returned to Ukraine.

“The first wave of refugees is now on a decline as people are inspired with a possible truce. But there will be winter, which will be hard to live through in affected Ukrainian territories. So we should be ready for the second wave of migration and not only from the southeast of Ukraine. We should also not forget that many refugees who arrived earlier remain in Russia,” said Panfilova.

Panfilova’s comments came the same day Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the self-declared “prime minister” of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR)–a pro-Russian separatist group in eastern Ukraine–declared on Twitter that the month-long ceasefire was over.

“After today’s shelling of Donetsk with rockets,” one Tweet read, “the ceasefire, even formally, has to be considered abandoned.”

In Zakharchenko’s second tweet, he wrote, “An hour ago, the [Ukrainians] carried out a strike near the old terminal, after which our artillery carried out a strike on the dillweeds’ positions near Peski.”

According to the UN, the death toll from the conflict in Ukraine sits at over 3,700–over 300 since the ceasefire was agreed upon–and almost 10,000 have been wounded. Ukrainians continue to flee areas of conflict. UN places the number of Ukrainian internally displaced persons (IDPs) at 415,000 and the number of refugees at 427,000, most of which have sought refuge in Russia.

Since 1970, the glaciers of Peru have decreased by over 40 percent, according to the National Water Authority of Peru (ANA), causing concern regarding the hydroelectric plants, agricultural basins and cities that lie below–particularly in the dry coastal region where most Peruvians live.

Peru used satellite images to inventory their glaciers ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 20), which Peru will host in December.

ANA found that 40 percent of Peru’s glaciers had melted since 19070, and some glaciers had lost more than half of their surface to melting during that time. The worst affected, the 5,200 meter (17,000 foot) Pastoruri Glacier, situated in the Andes Mountains, lost 52 percent of its surface in the last four decades.

The melts have created nearly 1,000 new lagoons, according to the ANA.

Peru has 2,670 glaciers in 20 mountain ranges that cover approximately 2,000 square kilometers (770 square miles).

The glaciers feed hydroelectric plants and irrigate agricultural basins and cities below,

Peru is one of the world’s most biodiverse nations. Below the snowy Andes Mountains lie Amazon rainforests. The coastal region, where most of Peru’s population lives, is dry, and environmentalists have raised concerns about the impact of the melting glaciers on these populated areas.

Peru is the third most sensitive country when it comes to the impacts of climate change, according to Britain’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Changes in Peru’s glaciers could have a significant impact on precipitation and water availability.

Lima has a population of almost 10 million. It is the world’s second largest desert city after Cairo, Egypt. Lima relies mostly on non-glacial water supplies–specifically, 20 regulated lakes in the Andes, runoff from Yuramayo Lake, and the Rimac and Chillon rivers. However, Lima’s water supply is currently strained due to its growing population, and only 80 percent of Limans have access to running water.

The ANA warned that the Peruvian government needed to adopt preventative measures to protect water resources in the face of natural disasters.

By Sid Douglas

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by pro-Russian separatists on July 17, according to the conclusions of the German Foreign Intelligence Service, which completed its detailed analysis of the evidence this month. The conclusions of the agency were unambiguous, it reported, and Russian claims that Ukrainian soldiers had fired the missile were false.

“It was pro-Russian separatists,” said Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) President Gerhard Schindler. Pro-Russian separatists captured a BUK air defense missile system at a Ukrainian military base and shot a missile that exploded in direct proximity to the plane, according to the BND report.

Schindler said that the findings were unambiguous.

Schindler also disconfirmed Russian claims that Ukrainian photos had been manipulated and that a Ukrainian fighter jet had been flying nearby to MH17 when it was shot down. Claims that the missile had been fired by Ukrainian soldiers were also false, Schindler stated.

The German agency made its conclusions after completing a detailed analysis. BND presented their case to members of the parliamentary control committee Oct. 8, providing satellite image and diverse photographic and other evidence. The news was first reported Sunday in Der Spiegel.

MH17 was shot down while en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lampur July 17, killing 298 people, and since that time Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the downing of the plane.

Further investigations into the crime have been initiated, according to a spokesperson for the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The identities of the perpetrators of the attack on MH17 are being sought. The downing of MH17 is considered to be a possible war crime.

The world’s regions view the threats currently faced by the world differently, according to Pew’s 2014 Global Attitudes survey. The survey looked at five major areas of concern and found that some regions worry much more about certain problems than other regions.

The Pew poll included almost 50,000 respondents in 44 countries, and was taken between March and June, 2014. Pew asked participants about five threats: religious and ethnic hatred, inequality, AIDS and other diseases, nuclear weapons, and pollution and the environment.

Europe and the US viewed inequality as the largest threat, according to the research. For Europeans, inequality was by far the greatest threat. For Americans, however, religious and ethnic hatred and nuclear weapons were also seen as significant threats.

The concern over inequality was most pronounced in Spain and Greece, and this concern has doubled in Italy since 2007.

 

In South Korea and Argentina as well, inequality was at the top. South Korea also worried significantly about the environment and nuclear weapons, and Argentina worried significantly about the environment.

Pollution and the environment were among the main concerns in Asia and Latin America, although Latin America worried most about nuclear weapons.

For Africans, the biggest threat was AIDS and other diseases–particularly in Central and Southern Africa. In Northern Africa, religious and ethnic hatred was the top threat. Only in Nigeria did any threat rank above diseases and hatred–nuclear weapons.

In the Middle East, religious and ethnic hatred was seen to be the biggest threat by far. In Lebanon, for example, almost 60 percent of the population worried about hatred. In the same population, around 20 percent worried about nuclear weapons and inequality, while only 2-3 percent worried about the environment or diseases.

The most scattered area of concern was nuclear weapons. The nations that worried most about nuclear weapons were Chile, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Japan–to date the only country to have experienced a nuclear attack.

The world’s regions also differed in what they did not worry about. In the US and Europe, AIDS and other diseases was a minor concern relative to the other threats. The Middle East and Asia also worried about disease far less than Africa and Latin America.

The Middle East and Africa did not worry a lot about pollution and the environment, and Latin America did not worry a lot about religious and ethnic hatred.

Overall, global concern over inequality has decreased since 2007, as has global concern about the environment and diseases. Global concern has, however, risen with regard to nuclear weapons and especially religious hatred.

 

By Heidi Woolf