EU reaches deal on CO2 emissions cut
31 Oct 2014European Union leaders have reached what they described as the world's most ambitious climate change targets for 2030, paving the way for a new UN-backed global treaty next year. The 28 leaders on Friday finally overcame divisions at an EU summit in Brussels to reach a deal including a commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% compared to 1990 levels. They also agreed on 27% targets for renewable energy supply and efficiency gains, in spite of reservations from some member states about the cost of the measures. The EU wanted to agree on the targets ahead of a summit in Paris in November and December 2015, where it is hoped the world will agree to a new phase of the Kyoto climate accords which run until 2020. The agreement puts the EU ‘in the driving seat’ ahead of the Paris conference, European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said
The EU registered 30,146 victims of human trafficking from 2010 to 2012, according to a European Commission report out on Friday 17 October. The vast majority were trafficked for sexual exploitation, with women and children suffering the most. The latest trends offer a sobering glimpse into a crime that is thought to be significantly wider spread. ‘We do not claim to have measured the full extent of trafficking,’ said EU commissioner for home affairs Cecilia Malmstrom, who presented the report to mark the eighth EU anti-trafficking day. The data, compiled by the EU’s statistical office Eurostat, comes from national authorities and also notes it ‘does not aspire to measure the full extent of the phenomenon’.However it estimates that over 1,000 children were trafficked for sexual exploitation. Around 80% of the victims were women of which 95% were also trafficked for sex. Others, mostly male, were enslaved for labour
Ukraine: Amnesty deplores abuses by both sides
24 Oct 2014Human rights group Amnesty International says there is evidence of atrocities committed by both warring sides in eastern Ukraine, but not on the scale reported by Russia. It said ‘strong evidence’ implicated government forces in the killing of four men near rebel-held Donetsk. When the bodies were discovered Russian media spoke of ‘mass graves’ there. Meanwhile a huge blast has rocked part of Donetsk, as clashes continue despite a truce agreed on 5 September. ‘There is no doubt that summary killings and atrocities are being committed by both pro-Russian separatists and pro-Kiev forces, but it is difficult to get an accurate sense of the scale of these abuses,’ said Amnesty's Europe and Central Asia director John Dalhuisen. In a new report, Amnesty urged both sides to investigate such killings and other abuses thoroughly, because some had been ‘deliberately misrecorded’.
The growing involvement of European citizens in jihadist groups is a reason for concern here, where authorities estimate that some 3,000 Europeans, mostly French citizens, have enrolled in Islamic fundamentalist groups. According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, some 1,000 French citizens or residents in France are linked to extremist groups that operate in Syria or Iraq. The issue became relevant a few months ago, when four journalists who were held hostages by the so-called Islamic State (IS) for nearly a year revealed that some of their captors spoke with a French accent. Shortly afterwards it was learned that the executioner of US journalist James Foley is of British origin. Most French citizens involved in the jihad join the groups voluntarily after being recruited by cells that operate in the country, and many of them are recruited on the Internet
A ceasefire may still be officially in place in eastern Ukraine, but try telling that to the owners of burning homes in Donetsk. Battles are raging unabated between Ukrainian forces and separatist fighters, mainly around the city’s airport and nearby neighbourhoods are often caught in the crossfire. Resident Valentina Kovaleva told reporters: ‘All the balconies were damaged by shrapnel, everything burning. Can you imagine, if we hadn’t sent away the children, they would be dead now. Every day there is shooting. More than 3,500 people have been killed since fighting began between pro-Russian separatists and government troops’. Raisa Kozlova, a 75-year-old Donetsk resident injured by shelling, said: ‘What truce? You call that a truce? They might make agreements and talks, but it changes nothing. We’re still being bombed.’
Ukraine troops and rebels 'begin withdrawing'
26 Sep 2014Ukranian officials have said that government troops and pro-Russian rebels are withdrawing forces and artillery from frontline positions in eastern Ukraine in line with a peace agreement. Monday's withdrawal leaves a 30km buffer between the two sides as part of a nine-point memorandum signed on Saturday. The agreement came after a truce signed on September 5 was hampered by violations, leading to the deaths of 39 Ukrainian troops and civilians. However, reduced fire from pro-Russian rebels in recent days has allowed Ukranian forces to begin to pull back troops, said Anriy Lysenko, a Ukranian military spokeswoman. Although the withdrawal has begun, it is ‘not as large as expected’, added Lysenko. ‘We are seeing a trend that [the rebels] are reducing their use of heavy armed weaponry.’ Neither side has completed their withdrawal. The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, said that a continued Ukrainian offensive risked alienating support from the US and other Western governments.
The Belgian Justice Department has leads that jihadists from The Hague have plans to attack the office of the European Commission in Brussels. In August, a man and a woman of Turkish origin were arrested at Brussels airport where they had returned from Turkey. They had most probably been in Syria. Apparently the Belgian Justice Department is searching for additional jihadists in the Netherlands. All of these jihadists are Dutchmen of Turkish descent who are suspected of having connections to jihadist networks.
Traffickers are accused of ramming a boat carrying more than 500 migrants sailing from Egypt, causing it to sink in the Mediterranean off the coast of Malta, an inter-governmental agency reports. The account is based on reports from two survivors who were rescued and taken ashore in Sicily after spending a day and a half in the water clinging to flotation devices. The two Palestinian men, aged 27 and 33, were picked up by a Panamanian merchant ship. They told staff from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that they had fled Gaza through Egypt and were requesting asylum. They said that the migrants were forced to change boats several times, but resisted moving to a boat that they did not think was safe or big enough to carry them. When they refused to cooperate, the traffickers, in a separate boat, reportedly rammed the boat the migrants were in, causing it to sink 300 miles southeast of Malta on September 10.