21/03/2015 Belgian Police dismantles Jihadist cell planning large scale terrorist attack.

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Belgian Police dismantles Jihadist cell planning largescale terrorist attack.Two radicals were killed and third arrested after rushhour gunfire exchange andexplosions.

With Europe still recovering from the brutal terrorist attacks in Paris, the Belgian CounterTerrorism police launched, this Thursday, a vast preemptive operation involving searchesin more than 10 properties, to dismantle active jihadist cells. Two men were killed inVerviers, a city in the province of Liège, 70 miles away from the capital Brussels. They werepart of a trio planning "a large scale attack" and being closely monitored by Belgianauthorities ever since entering the country returning from Syria, more than a week ago.

16 January 2015

MIGUEL VASCONCELOS (/EDITORIALSTAFF/MIGUELVASCONCELOS/)

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21/03/2015 Belgian Police dismantles Jihadist cell planning large scale terrorist attack.

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The operation led by the Belgian Federal Police Special Units caught Verviers' populationby surprise. The three men were Belgian citizens and extremely wellarmed, opening fire assoon as the police closed in on their building, near the Verviers railway station. Some of thelocals described scenes right out of a war film, at the height of rushhour. Videos posted onthe internet show blasts, gunfire and sirens around the building where these Syria returneeswere barricaded. By the end, two of the radicals were killed and the third was badly injuredand is in custody. No civilians or policemen were injured.

The authorities believe their plan was to carry out an attack against a police station andbehead a prominent law enforcement official to post the video online. The FederalProsecutor, Eric van der Sypt, confirmed, in a press conference, that these men "wereextremely well armed" and "on the verge of committing important terror attacks", possibly"within a matter of hours" but the threat has been "neutralised".

The Belgian primeminister, Charles Michel, announced that "out of prudence" the terroralert level has been raised from two to three (the secondhighest level) and authorities areready to respond to any potential backlashes to this operation.

The city of Verviers, close to the border with Germany, has been struck by an unusual waveof Islamic radicalisation. The small town with a population of 56.000 has seen at least 610of its inhabitants leave for Syria to join ISIS.

There seems to be no direct link between this cell and the attacks perpetrated by theKouachi brothers or Ahmed Coulibaly that killed 17 people in Paris, last week, but theauthorities are still investigating.

After the Paris attacks, this successful preemptive operation will help rebuild some trust inthe authorities' capability to monitor and neutralise such threats. It won't stop the pressureon European leaders to come up with a sensible response to the continuing radicalisation ofits youth, with the latest figures, from Europol, showing that as many as 5.000 Europeancitizens are still fighting in Syria.

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21/03/2015 British nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, is recovering after contracting the Ebola virus

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British nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, is recovering aftercontracting the Ebola virusThe Royal Free Hospital London announced that Pauline Cafferkey is 'no longercritically ill'.

The British nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, who contracted the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone “isshowing signs of improvement and is no longer critically ill”, according to a statement fromthe Royal Free Hospital in London.

23 January 2015

MIGUEL VASCONCELOS (/EDITORIALSTAFF/MIGUELVASCONCELOS/)

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21/03/2015 British nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, is recovering after contracting the Ebola virus

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After several weeks in a critical condition, Ms Cafferkey seems to be slowly recovering fromthe virus contracted in December during her volunteer work with Save the Children at anEbola Treatment Centre in Sierra Leone.

Ms Cafferkey has been given an antiviral experimental drug, ZMapp, and blood plasmainfusions from virus survivor and fellow nurse, William Polley. He was the first patientdiagnosed with Ebola in the UK and recovered after being treated by the Royal FreeHospital London staff, last year.

Public Health England and Health Protection Scotland have been conducting acomprehensive review of all the Ebola screening procedures in the UK, after Ms Cafferkeywas cleared to fly to Glasgow Airport, despite telling staff that she was feeling unwell. Uponarriving at Heathrow Airport, her temperature was taken several times and with the testsshowing normal results, she was given permission to go home, in South Lanarkshire. TheBritish volunteer nurse had just flown in from Morocco in a connecting flight from SierraLeone.

Ms Cafferkey would, days later, report symptoms of Ebola to an NHS helpline and wastaken into an isolation room at the Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow and later transferred tothe Royal Free Hospital in North London, by a Royal Air Force Hercules plane onDecember, 30.

According to the Royal Free Hospital staff, Ms Cafferkey will “remain in isolation as shecontinues receiving specialist care”, until she tests negative for the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 7,000 people have alreadydied with Ebola and the number of people infected has now passed 20,000, mostly in SierraLeone, Liberia and Guinea. The United Kingdom has committed an additional £92.5m tosupport West Africa eradicate the virus, taking the UK’s total contribution to £325m. PublicHealth England clarifies however that “the overall risk of Ebola to the UK remains low”.

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21/03/2015 Google hands over Wikileaks emails to the FBI and keeps it secret

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Google hands over Wikileaks emails to the FBI andkeeps it secretWikileaks is concerned that “privacy and journalistic rights” of its members may havebeen violated

Wikileaks is asking for explanations, in a letter written to Google boss Eric Schmidt, aboutnot being informed that private emails and communications from three members of theirstaff had been released to the FBI. Their concern is that several “privacy and journalisticrights” of their staff may have been violated by Google and the US Justice Department.Court orders are usually disclosed to its subjects immediately, to give them a chance tochallenge them.

26 January 2015

MIGUEL VASCONCELOS (/EDITORIALSTAFF/MIGUELVASCONCELOS/)

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21/03/2015 Google hands over Wikileaks emails to the FBI and keeps it secret

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These warrants were issued in March 2012 and the three Wikileaks staff members targetedwere only informed just before Christmas Eve, this year. In its letter, Wikileaks says “it’sastonishing and disturbing” that it took almost two and half years for the search engine giantto disclose that it had handed over private information.

The members of staff targeted were the spokesperson for the organisation, KristinHrafnsson, one of its senior editors, Joseph Farrell and investigations editor, SarahHarrison. She is a British citizen and told British newspapers that Google helped the USgovernment hide “the invasion of privacy into a British journalist’s personal email address”.They are not living up to their own laws and rhetoric”. She added that “knowing the FBI readthe words I wrote to console my mother over someone dying in the family makes me feelsick”.

The warrants caused shock and doubts on many lawyers and specialists because of theirwide nature, covering basically all communications by the trio. All sent, received, deletedand drafted emails as well as their source and destinations with date and time. Also alldetails about their internet accounts, including IP addresses, phone and bank accountnumbers or even the time they spent online.

Google has not revealed which information was actually handed over or if they triedcontesting the warrants, like Twitter, in 2012, when the US Justice Department tried asimilar ‘data grab’ with another Wikileaks volunteer. Google says it had a gagging order andwas unable to inform its users.

These warrants issued by the Department of Justice are believed to be an integral part of awider investigation into alleged ‘conspiracy’ and ‘espionage’ from Wikileaks and their stafffollowing its publication of secret cables and information, that had been passed to theorganization by army private Bradley Manning, in 2010. The federal judge responsible forthe warrants is John Anderson, the same who in 2013 issued the arrest warrant for EdwardSnowden.

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21/03/2015 Wales and Scotland have a plan to block a possible Westminster decision to leave the EU

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Wales and Scotland have a plan to block a possibleWestminster decision to leave the EUWelsh nationalists Plaid Cymru and the SNP want a potential EU exit to be unanimousamong all UK nations.

The Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, revealed a plan drafted in conjunction with theSNP that could stop Britain from leaving the EU, even if the majority of England voted for itin a referendum. The plan would require such a decision to be unanimous among the fournations of the UK, by holding an independent referendum in each one. The Plaid Cymru

10 February 2015

MIGUEL VASCONCELOS (/EDITORIALSTAFF/MIGUELVASCONCELOS/)

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21/03/2015 Wales and Scotland have a plan to block a possible Westminster decision to leave the EU

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leader, Leanne Wood, explained this morning to Sky News that "the votes in each of thenations should be added up separately and we should only pull out of the EU if all fourcountries want to do that".

The British PrimeMinister David Cameron has ruled out, last October, any possibility ofdifferent nations having an independent say over the overall decision, saying that areferendum would be decided based only on the majority of the people who vote. Theleader of the Welsh nationalists went further and said she is prepared to submit anamendment to any referendum legislation requiring that "for the UK to leave the EU, each ofthe four constituent nations would have to vote to do so, not just the UK as whole."

This distinction is important because England has over 40 million people and the otherthree nations combined only about 8 million. This would mean that if a UKwide referendumis called, the interests of the three smaller constituents would have little impact whencompared to England's views, where the Eurosceptic feelings are clearly more popular.

Ms Wood argues that "we have had a lot of talk during the Scottish referendum about theUK being a family of nations and all members of the family need to be involved in such a bigdecision". This plan would make sure that the interests of the three smaller members of theUnion would be factored in by giving Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland's population thepossibility to veto an English decision to leave the EU.

Scottish nationalists leader Nicola Sturgeon supports the plan and has previously voicedsimilar views saying, just last October, that the Scots would want their own say about Britainleaving the EU.

David Cameron has promised that if his Conservative Party wins the next general election,in May 2016, a referendum on Britain's European Union membership would be called by2017.

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21/03/2015 Ukraine crisis: ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk

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Ukraine crisis: ceasefire deal agreed in MinskVladimir Putin announced a ceasefire deal with Ukraine after 17hour long tensenegotiations in Belarus.

The Russian president Vladimir Putin announced, this morning, that a ceasefire deal for theUkrainian crisis was reached and will go into effect on the 15 of February. Theannouncement came after 17 hours of tense negotiations, in Belarus, between the Russian,Ukrainian, French and German leaders.

The ceasefire agreement includes the withdrawal of heavy weapons and foreign armedgroups from the conflict areas, disarmament of all illegal militias, lifting the restrictions anddecentralising more power to Ukraine's 'rebel areas' and the release of prisoners from both

12 February 2015

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21/03/2015 Ukraine crisis: ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk

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sides.

The deal was also signed by the proRussian rebels in Eastern Ukraine. AlexanderZakharchenko, the leader of the Donetsk rebels, warned that if Ukrainian president PetroPoroshenko violates any of these new agreements the ceasefire will be immediately calledoff. The leader of the Luhansk rebels, Igor Plotnitsky, said they were ready to "give Ukrainea chance to change its constitution and its attitude".

The French president François Hollande told reporters that the deal managed to reach animportant agreement on contentious issues like border control, decentralisation andeconomic sanctions but recognised that there is "very, very much work still to do". A similarceasefire deal had been agreed in September 2014 but unravelled quickly with accusationsof treaty violations from both sides.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel said that this is "a glimmer of hope" to all thoseaffected by the conflict. More than 5,400 people have already lost their lives since April andthe bloodshed keeps on rising, with over 200 people being killed just in the first two monthsof 2015.

Several key contentious issues are still unresolved and will require further negotiations: Thestatus of Debaltseve, a town held by Ukrainian government troops but surrounded byrebels; how far the decentralisation of powers to 'rebel areas' should go; or how will Ukrainebe able to monitor border areas with Russia, controlled by the rebels.

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21/03/2015 Three Tory MPs block wild animal circus ban

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Three Tory MPs block wild animal circus banTrio of Conservative MPs blocked a bill supported by all parties, the PM and 94% ofthe British public

A new proposed law that would ban the use of wild animals in circuses was blocked for the 12 andfinal time on Friday, by three Tory MPs. The bill had the personal of support of the PrimeMinisterDavid Cameron, the government, Labour, all other parties in Parliament and 94% of the Britishpublic but the trio of backbenchers blocked any discussion on the matter by filing objections againstit 12 different times, since the proposed law was first introduced in September last year.

8 March 2015

MIGUEL VASCONCELOS (/EDITORIALSTAFF/MIGUELVASCONCELOS/)

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21/03/2015 Three Tory MPs block wild animal circus ban

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The bill was introduced by former environment minister and current Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick thatblamed Conservative MPs Andrew Rosindell, Phillip Davies and Christopher Chope, for preventingBritain from ”joining the 21 century”. Andrew Rosindell MP explained that he believes the circus isa “great British institution” and that it would be cruel to remove the animals “from the environmentthey are accustomed to.”

This latest objection filed by Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, on Friday, means that the bill hasnow effectively “failed” because there will be no more opportunities to discuss the proposed banbefore the next general election, in May. The bill will have to be reintroduced under a newgovernment and Parliament.

Although more than 200 local British authorities have already banned the use of wild animals incircuses, the United Kingdom remains one of the few European countries without a nationwide banon the use of wild animals in circuses. Greece, Cyprus, Bosnia Herzegovina and Malta have bannedthe use of animals – wild or domestic for any performances, shows or exhibitions. Other countrieslike Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, TheNetherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden have already passed some form of nationwide ban on theuse of wild animals in circuses. In the Rest of the world, countries like India, Israel, Singapore,Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia and more recently Mexico havealready outlawed the use of wild animals in circuses.

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21/03/2015 Ed Miliband rules out coalition with SNP

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Ed Miliband rules out coalition with SNPThe Labour leader says his party will not form a coalition with the SNP after thegeneral election, in May.

The Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition with the ScottishNational Party, after the general election on May 6th. He dismissed today, in a speech delivered in Pudsey,West Yorkshire, claims by the Conservative Party that he wanted to build a coalition with an antiunionistparty, as simply “scaremongering” and guaranteed that such an alliance was “nonsense” and “will nothappen”. He made his position clear by adding that “there will be no SNP ministers in any government Ilead”.

16 March 2015

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21/03/2015 Ed Miliband rules out coalition with SNP

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The Conservative Party reacted with a statement saying that Ed Miliband’s speech had been carefullydrafted to not rule out the possibility of an “informal coalition” with the Scottish nationalists. The ScottishNational Party first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, reacted by saying that Ed Miliband’s statement today“doesn’t change anything” and simply dismissed a possibility that “no one proposed”. She added that aformal coalition between Labour and the SNP was not her preference either but she still believes that theSNP and Labour should “work together to keep the Tories out of government”.

The SNP’s First Minister had previously said that in case her party held the balance of power inWestminster, after the general election, they “would never support or form an alliance with the Tories” andthat a coalition with Labour would be “highly unlikely” but she wouldn’t rule out the possibility of “a looseagreement” to support a Labour ledgovernment.

The latest polls by Lord Ashcroft revealed that the SNP could win as much as 56 of Scotland’s 59parliamentary seats in May. Such a landslide victory could make the SNP one of the political forces thatwould hold the balance of power, in case of a hung parliament, along with the Lib Dems and UKIP.Commenting on the possibility of holding the balance of power in Westminster, Nicola Sturgeon has alsoguaranteed, in a speech at the London School of Economics, that her party would strive to be “aconstructive force” and help bring positive change not only to Scotland but also across the Union.

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