Corpses, desperation litter site of Ankara peace rally

Yahoo – AFP, Burak Akinci, October 10, 2015

Dead bodies covered with flags lie on the ground following an explosion at the

 main train station in Turkey's capital Ankara, on October 10, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Adem Altan)

Ankara (AFP) - The square in front of Ankara's central train station was to have been the venue for a peace rally attracting people from different leftist and Kurdish groups.

But at 10:04 am, everything changed, in a moment that will mark Turkey forever.

The area was plunged into scenes of unimaginable horror as two suspected suicide bombers carried out the deadliest attack in the history of modern Turkey.

Dozens of bodies littered the asphalt, with bloodstains extending hundreds of metres. Crying and tears were audible from every direction.

Seconds before the twin explosions, the activists, who included several members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) had been filmed happily joining hands and dancing in celebration.

Then the explosion goes off and the activists either fall to the ground or run for cover.

This video grab taken from footage made avaliable by local source "Dokuz8 Haber"

 shows the moment an explosion ripped through a gathering ahead of a planned 

peace rally in Ankara on October 10, 2015 (AFP Photo)

The dead lay side-by-side as they had fallen before being taken away to the morgue. Many were swathed in the same banners they had taken to the event, including those of the HDP.

"I saw a man with his leg torn off lying on the ground. I also saw a torn-off hand on the asphalt," said Sahin Bulut, 18, member of the Istanbul association of engineers.

The power of the blast blew out windows high up on the Ankara railway station, the main hub of Turkey's growing rail network.

The attacks put a knife through the heart of Ankara, which became capital following the founding of the modern Turkish Republic by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Known as a relatively ordered place compared to the chaos that can engulf Istanbul, the city had never known anything like violence on this scale.

"We heard one huge blast and then one smaller explosion and then there was a great movement and panic. Then we saw corpses around the station," said Ahmet Onen, 52.

A man is helped after bombs were set 

off at a peace rally in Ankara on

October 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Adem Altan)

"A demonstration that was to promote peace has turned into a massacre, I don't understand this," he said, sobbing.

'Did you see him?'

Within two hours of the explosions, units of police in bullet proof vests and with automatic weapons in their hand surrounded the scene and cordoned off the area.

Police experts in white special suits combed the area for evidence while bomb disposal experts examined any suspect packages.

The sirens howled as the ambulances took survivors to Ankara hospitals. Urgent appeals for blood were made though social media.

Around the human remains and the corpses numerous ball bearings could be seen, used in bombs to cause the maximum damage and injury.

"There are people who died immediately, others who were very badly wounded. It's a true massacre," said a lawyer who came to supervise the demonstration, who asked not to be named.

Rescuers prepare to load a coffin into 

a van at the site of twin explosions near

 the main train station in Turkey's capital

 Ankara, on October 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Adem Altan)

In scenes of panic and desperation, dozens of people sought to find their loved ones amid the chaos.

Among them is a young man looking agonised who stops everyone who passes by him. "Did you see him? Did you see him? His name is Gokhan, he was with me."

Among the shocked survivors anger grew, accusing the security forces of not properly assuring security at the demonstration.

"None of the demonstrators who came were properly checked by the security forces," said Ahmet Oren.

Such is the anger, that a group of demonstrators targeted a police chief and the security forces fired into the air to disperse the protesters.

"This, I have never witnessed in my life," said one policeman.

Related Articles:

Thousands rally against Erdogan after Ankara attacks
Opinion: Ankara was an attack on democracy in Turkey

Saudi king hits French beach -- with a cast of 1,000

Yahoo – AFP, 24 July 2015

Saudi Arabia's King Salman will holiday in France with an entourage of more

than 1,000 people (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

Vallauris (France) (AFP) - King Salman of Saudi Arabia is expected to arrive in France later Friday for a Riviera beach holiday, bringing with him no fewer than 1,000 people from his entourage.

While the king's three-week visit is a boon for the local economy, it has also sparked anger due to the closure of a public beach for the privacy and security of the royal party.

The king's inner circle will be put up at the family's private villa, which stretches across a kilometre of Riviera coastline between Antibes and Marseille.

Some 700 other members of his entourage will be accommodated at top hotels on the promenade in Cannes.

Hundreds of other Saudis will be following the king on his holiday -- as is the tradition -- bringing the total number of Saudi citizens flooding into the southern French beach resorts to around 1,000.

"Clearly this is good news," said Michel Chevillon, president of an association representing hotel managers in Cannes.

"These are people with great purchasing power which will pep up not only the luxury hotel industry but also the retail and tourism sectors of the town," said Chevillon.

General view of the public beach called "La Mirandole", located below a villa

 owned by the Saudi King, on July 20, 2015 in Vallauris, southeastern France

(AFP Photo/Valery Hache)

But not everyone is happy.

An entire kilometre of public beach will be cordoned off for security and privacy reasons and coastguards will stop anyone coming within 300 metres of the villa by sea.

The Saudis also generated a great deal of anger by starting work on an elevator from the beach to the villa, which involved pouring a huge slab of cement directly on to the sand.

A petition against the "privatisation" of the public beach gathered more than 45,000 signatures in eight days.

"We recall that this natural zone, like all maritime public estates, is an intrinsic public property that should be available for the benefit of all, residents, tourists, French, foreigners or people passing through," said the petition.

"We ask the state to guarantee the fundamental principle of the equality of all citizens before the law," the text added.

"We're sick and tired of this messing around," said a local woman, more succinctly.

"I can see it's normal that you need to guarantee their security but they should let us go for a swim."

Related Articles:

Saudi King's Riviera holiday sparks anger in France
Anger as Saudi king takes over entire French beach

Anger as Saudi king takes over entire French beach

Yahoo – AFP, Vincent Morvan, 19 July 2015

An AFPTV screen grab shows the beach at Vallauris which will be cut off 

from the public during the Saudi royal family's stay (AFP Photo)

Vallauris (France) (AFP) - Beach lovers on the French Riviera expressed their anger Sunday over the imminent arrival of the Saudi royal family, who have ordered a long stretch of beach to be closed off to the public.

"Looking after their security is fine, but they should at least let us go for a swim," said Mohamed, a disgruntled fishing enthusiast.

Nestled in the rocks between the coastal railway and the translucent waters of the Mediterranean, the grounds of the royal family's immense villa stretches across a kilometre of Riviera coastline between Antibes and Marseille.

Local authorities confirmed that King Salman is due to arrive at some point this week, and that access to the entire kilometre stretch will be cut off, including the public beach at Vallauris, which can only be reached through a tunnel under the railway line.

"Access to the coast will be prohibited by police officers for the duration of the king's holiday," said local official Philippe Castanet.

Coastguards will also stop anyone coming within 300 metres of the villa by sea.

Beach users swung between disappointment and anger over the news.

"They take the decision and there's nothing we can say," said Mohamed, rinsing off his fishing rod on the beachfront.

"It's a good fishing spot and blocking access is not acceptable."

Beach-to-villa elevator

Fatima, a local nurse, had come with her two daughters for a swim.

"Whether it's him or another billionaire, they always have priority over ordinary people. On the other hand, they are good for business, coming here with 400 people in their entourage. I heard they might even fix the roads."

King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is due to arrive on the French Riviera

this week (AFP Photo)

Her boyfriend Didier recalls a time when Salman's predecessor King Fahd was visiting and the police had to forcibly remove swimmers who refused to clear out.

Workers hired by the Saudis had last week already started building the fence that will close off access to the beach, but were ordered to stop until the royal family arrives.

They had also generated a great deal of anger by starting work on an elevator from the beach to the villa, which involved pouring a huge slab of cement directly on to the sand.

The local authorities have allowed work on the elevator to continue on condition that it is dismantled when the family vacation ends.

The villa itself has become a hive of activity, with one local, Christian, saying there were dozens of people decking it out with rose bushes and other plants over the weekend.

"You can see they've replaced the balcony windows, no doubt to put in some bullet-proof glass," he said.

He also pointed out what appeared to be a golden throne, positioned to soak up the sun -- and a view unspoiled by the general public -- on the villa's terrace.

Related Articles:

Saudi Arabia tells citizens to ignore latest WikiLeaks release

Queen's Nazi salute video: pressure mounts on royals to open up archives

New EU rules to curb transfer of data to US after Edward Snowden revelations

Regulations will make it harder to move European data to third countries, with fines running into billions for failure to comply

theguardian.com, Ian Traynor in Brussels, Thursday 17 October 2013

Big US companies operating in Europe will be subject to EU law rather than
American court orders under the new rules. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

New European rules aimed at curbing questionable transfers of data from EU countries to the US are being finalised in Brussels in the first concrete reaction to the Edward Snowden disclosures on US and British mass surveillance of digital communications.

Regulations on European data protection standards are expected to pass the European parliament committee stage on Monday after the various political groupings agreed on a new compromise draft following two years of gridlock on the issue.

The draft would make it harder for the big US internet servers and social media providers to transfer European data to third countries, subject them to EU law rather than secret American court orders, and authorise swingeing fines possibly running into the billions for the first time for not complying with the new rules.

"As parliamentarians, as politicians, as governments we have lost control over our intelligence services. We have to get it back again," said Jan Philipp Albrecht, the German Greens MEP who is steering the data protection regulation through the parliament.

Data privacy in the EU is currently under the authority of national governments with standards varying enormously across the 28 countries, complicating efforts to arrive at satisfactory data transfer agreements with the US. The current rules are easily sidestepped by the big Silicon Valley companies, Brussels argues.

The new rules, if agreed, would ban the transfer of data unless based on EU law or under a new transatlantic pact with the Americans complying with EU law.

"Without any concrete agreement there would be no data processing by telecommunications and internet companies allowed," says a summary of the proposed new regime.

Such bans were foreseen in initial wording two years ago but were dropped under the pressure of intense lobbying from Washington. The proposed ban has been revived directly as a result of the uproar over operations by the US's National Security Agency (NSA).

Viviane Reding, the EU's commissioner for justice and the leading advocate in Brussels of a new system securing individuals' rights to privacy and data protection, argues that the new rulebook will rebalance the power relationship between the US and Europe on the issue, supplying leverage to force the American authorities and tech firms to reform.

"The recent data scandals prove that sensitivity has been growing on the US side of how important data protection really is for Europeans," she told a German foreign policy journal. "All those US companies that do dominate the tech market and the internet want to have access to our goldmine, the internal market with over 500 million potential customers. If they want to access it, they will have to apply our rules. The leverage that we will have in the near future is thus the EU's data protection regulation. It will make crystal clear that non-European companies, when offering goods and services to European consumers, will have to apply the EU data protection law in full. There will be no legal loopholes any more."

But the proposed rules remain riddled with loopholes for intelligence services to exploit, MEPs admit.

The EU has no powers over national or European security, for example, nor its own proper intelligence or security services, which are jealously guarded national prerogatives. National security can be and is invoked to ignore and bypass EU rules.

"This regulation does not regulate the work of intelligence services," said Albrecht. "Of course, national security is a huge loophole and we need to close it. But we can't close it with this regulation."

Direct deals between the Americans and individual European governments might also allow the rules to be bypassed.

Parallel to the proposed data privacy rules, there are various other transatlantic arrangements in place regulating European supply to the Americans of air passenger data, financial transactions and banking information aimed at suppressing terrorism funding and the so-called Safe Harbour accord allowing companies in Europe to send data to companies in the US where, as a result of Snowden, it is clear that that data can then be tapped by the NSA.

"The Safe Harbour may not be so safe after all. It could be a loophole because it allows data transfers from EU to US companies, although US data protection standards are lower than our European ones," said Reding. "Safe Harbour is based on self-regulation and codes of conduct. In the light of the recent revelations, I am not convinced that relying on codes of conduct and self-regulation that are not policed in a strict manner offer the best way of protecting our citizens."

The European commission is warning that it could suspend all these agreements unless the US commits to a new regime, but the commission's threats would also run into trouble with national governments, not least the British.

Brussels and Washington have also been negotiating a deal on police data exchanges for two years, but the talks are deadlocked because there is no legal redress for an EU citizen in the US courts if the system is abused.

Under the proposed new rules, the commission is calling for fines of up to 2% of a company's annual global turnover if it is found to be in breach, while the parliament calls for up to 5%.

Senior officials in Brussels describe the current penalties as a joke for mega-companies such as Google or Yahoo. The US-based companies, even when breaking European law, officials say, simply argue that they are not subject to it despite operating in Europe, while they are subject to the secret court orders of the US Fisa system facilitating the work of the NSA.

"On the basis of the US Patriot Act, US authorities are asking US companies based in Europe to hand over the data of EU citizens. This is however – according to EU law – illegal," said Reding. "The problem is that when these companies are faced with a request whether to comply with EU or US law, they will usually opt for the American law. Because in the end this is a question of power."

If the new rules are agreed next week by the parliament, they still need to be negotiated with the commission, which broadly supports them, and the 28 governments.

Related Article:

Nick Clegg welcomes major inquiry into scale of spy agency work in Britain

France launches probe into US spy programme

Google – AFP, 28 August 2013

Protesters demonstrate against US surveillance outside the US consulate

in Hamburg, Germany, on July 11, 2013 (DPA/AFP/File, Angelika Warmuth)

PARIS — French prosecutors are investigating alleged US spying under the PRISM surveillance programme following complaints by two human rights groups, sources close to the case said Wednesday.

They launched an investigation on July 16 into fraudulent access to personal data and personal correspondence following complaints by the International Federation of Human Rights and the League of Human Rights, the sources said.

The complaint also targets the role played by Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Paltak, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, AOL and Apple in the alleged espionage.

PRISM is said to give the US National Security Agency and FBI easy access to the systems of nine of the world's top Internet companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Skype.

A lawyer for the two groups, Emmanuel Daoud, said they wanted to determine whether these firms had cooperated with US intelligence gathering and made their servers available to the FBI and NSA.

If the companies had done so, they could face criminal charges in France for violating data protection and privacy rules, he said.

There has been deep concern in Europe about the alleged abuses of privacy.

Documents leaked by former CIA worker Edward Snowden suggest that Britain's electronic eavesdropping centre GCHQ has had access to a US Internet-monitoring programme since at least June 2010.

Related Article:

UN says it will contact Washington over NSA spying report

Dutch ask Irish government for answers on safety standards at Ryanair

DutchNews.nl, Saturday 29 December 2012

Junior transport minister Wilma Mansveld has asked the Irish government to clarify reports that airline Ryanair is ordering pilots to fly with as little fuel as possible, Nos television reported on Saturday.

Ryanair flies to a wide range of destinations from Dutch airports Eindhoven, Maastricht and Eelde.

Current affairs show Reporter on Friday featured four pilots who claimed they had been forced to fly with as little fuel as possible in order to save on costs.

The Irish government is responsible for controlling safety standards at Ryanair, a spokesman for Mansveld is quoted as saying by Nos. The minister has also asked for a copy of an Irish report into Ryanair.

Own investigation

Depending on the outcome of these inquiries, Mansveld will decide whether or not to start her own probe into safety standards at the airline. The Dutch pilots’ association has called for such an investigation.

Reporter said that three Ryanair flights have been forced to make an emergency landing in Valencia because they did not have enough fuel.

In her reaction to the claims, Mansveld points out that the three incidents have already been investigated and no further action was considered necessary.

The four pilots told the show there is a ‘deeply rooted culture of fear’ at Ryanair. Other former officials described the company as a dictatorship.

Related Article:

Ryanair says Dutch tv programme was 'factually incorrect'

Germany's nuclear reactors fall short in disaster scenario tests

Deutsche Welle, 17.05.2011

Four reactors were found wanting
in one test

A report on how well Germany's nuclear power plants would withstand a range of disaster scenarios has revealed they may be vulnerable to attack. However, experts did not call for any urgent closures.

A "worst-case scenario" test of Germany's nuclear reactors has revealed that they fall short when it comes to robustness in the event of extreme disaster.

Although the study by the country's Reactor Safety Commission found there was no urgent need to close any reactor down, it did identify safety concerns.

Revealing details of the report on Tuesday, Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen said the report showed that the country's nuclear power plants possessed a "basic robustness" in most of the scenarios envisaged.

However - citing the example of a terrorist attack using airplanes - he said it was a "different picture" in extreme situations.

The plants were able to meet only the very lowest requirements when examined in the context of a range of possible disasters.

Röttgen said the need remained
as strong as ever to replace
nuclear power

None of the power plants met the highest safety standard, level three, across every scenario. Nor did any achieve an overall average that met even the medium standard, level two. Despite this, Röttgen said there was no urgent need to shut any reactor down.

"There is no reason for us to make a mad rush to stop using nuclear power overnight," said Röttgen. "It remains the case that a way must be found for us to leave nuclear power behind as soon as possible," he added.

Vulnerable to suicide attack

The minister said that four reactors would not withstand the impact of a small airplane in the event of a terrorist attack.

He indicated that the plants - Biblis A, Biblis B, Brunsbüttel and Philippsburg I - would probably have to be closed before their scheduled shutdown date.

The four plants lacked the "required safety features," Röttgen said. Other, more secure facilities have thickened concrete domes.

The panel found that all of the reactors were vulnerable to the impact of a larger aircraft, which was deemed the main threat to Germany's nuclear facilities.

Some reactors in Germany were
closed after the disaster at Fukushima
in March

Röttgen also indicated that seven of the oldest reactors, which were closed temporarily following the Japanese nuclear disaster in March, might not be put back online. The German government ordered the tests in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

'Equipped to resist most disasters'

The report stopped short of recommending the closure of any one plant in particular, stating that plants were equipped to withstand most disasters.

Among the events envisaged were earthquakes, flooding, power failure and plane crashes.

The findings of the nuclear safety commission were also being debated at the annual meeting in Berlin of the Nuclear Forum, a pro-nuclear lobby organization. Up to 1,000 activists protested outside the meeting, complaining about a lack of transparency in the organization's proceedings.

Current legislation requires all of Germany's nuclear plants to be shut down by 2036.

The panel's findings come in the wake of an ethics-based review of nuclear power by a commission that included academics and bishops. The ethics panel said that Germany should phase out the technology within a decade.

Author: Richard Connor (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Editor: Nancy Isenson

Russian President calls for introducing international nuclear safety standards

RT, 24 March, 2011

image by RT

TRENDS:

• Fukushima nuclear disaster

Russian President Dmitry Medvedyev in an entry in his video blog called upon the international community to introduce a universal safety standard for building and operating nuclear power plants.

The Russian president said that universal safety norms in the nuclear industry were exceptionally important for regions where earthquakes and tsunamis are possible. The Russian president said that in his country there is already a standard forbidding the construction of nuclear power plants in regions where 8.0 earthquakes or stronger earthquakes on the Richter scale are possible. He suggested approving the same standards on an international level.

Medvedyev noted that when nuclear disasters take place, they never concern only one country, but are also dangerous for neighboring countries and for the whole planet.

The comments were made as Japan was struggling with the aftermath of a powerful earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11, causing irreparable damage to several nuclear reactors and creating a threat of radioactive contamination.

“The Fukushima disaster forces us to think about broadening the powers of international organizations in charge of safety in the nuclear energy sphere. And these must be real powers – the kind that are based on the situation and would allow for the solving of the problems with which these international organizations are charged,” Medvedyev said. He also added that information transparency and openness were extremely important when solving these problems.

The Russian President also said that his country was ready to vouch for the security of nuclear power plants built on Russian national territory and abroad. "I think we should build new nuclear power units with a maximum degree of security rather than extend the life of the existing units.

Our atomic energy specialists are ready to vouch for the nuclear power plants they built in domestic territory and in countries that signed related contracts with Russia," Medvedyev said.

In particular, the Russian leader said the nuclear power plants Russia is currently building in Turkey and India will have brand new safety systems ensuring full protection from possible disasters.

'Serious' cyber attack on EU bodies before summit

BBC News, 23 March 2011

Related Stories

• Cyber attack targeted Paris G20

The EU has reported a "serious" cyber attack on the Commission and External Action Service on the eve of a summit in Brussels, a spokesman told the BBC.

It was not immediately clear how
widespread the attack was

Crucial decisions on the future structure of the EU, economic strategy and the ongoing war in Libya are to be discussed at the two-day talks.

Details were not given but other sources compared the attack to a recent assault on France's finance ministry.

"We're often hit by cyber attacks but this is a big one," one source said.

The European Commission has been assessing the scale of the current threat and, in order to prevent the "disclosure of unauthorised information", has shut down external access to e-mail and the institutions' intranet.

Staff have been asked to change their passwords.

'Serious cyber attack'

"The Commission and External Advisory Service are subject to a serious cyber attack," Antony Gravili, spokesman for the security and information technology commissioner, told the BBC News website.

"We are already taking urgent measures to tackle this. An inquiry's been launched. This isn't unusual as the commission is frequently targeted."

Mr Gravili added that he had no information the attack had been linked to the EU summit.

France's finance ministry came under a cyber attack in December that targeted files on the G20 summit held in Paris last month.

Confirming the attack, Budget Minister Francois Baroin said an investigation had been launched.

Paris Match magazine said a sustained cyber attack had sought documents related to the G20 and international economic affairs.

More than 150 of the French ministry's 170,000 computers were affected.

Navy to axe 'Fukushima type' nuclear reactors from submarines

Reactors sharing similar design to ones at Japanese plant to be dropped because they fail to meet safety standards

guardian.co.uk, Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent, Wednesday 23 March 2011

Trident submarines based at Faslane, Scotland, and six Trafalgar-class
subs have reactors similar to the ones involved in Japan's nuclear
crisis. Photograph: Corbis

The Royal Navy is to drop a dangerous type of reactor used in its existing nuclear submarines because it fails to meet modern safety standards, defence ministers have disclosed.

A safer type of reactor is expected to be used in the submarines that will replace the Trident fleet, as the existing design shares very similar features to the nuclear reactors involved in the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan.

Liam Fox, the defence secretary, told MPs there was a "very clear-cut" case to use the new type of reactor because it has "improved nuclear safety" and would give "a better safety outlook".

A heavily censored Ministry of Defence report disclosed earlier this month by the Guardian and Channel 4 News said the current reactors are "potentially vulnerable" to fatal accidents, which could cause "multiple fatalities" among submarine crews.

The report, written by a senior MoD nuclear safety expert, Commodore Andrew McFarlane, said the existing type compared "poorly" with those in the most modern nuclear power stations because it relied on a vulnerable type of cooling system, falling "significantly short" of modern best practice for nuclear reactors.

McFarlane warned that the naval reactors are "potentially vulnerable to a structural failure of the primary circuit". An accident could release "highly radioactive fission products", posing "a significant risk to life to those in close proximity and a public safety hazard out to 1.5km [1 mile] from the submarine".

Known as the PWR2, this type is used in the four Trident submarines based at Faslane, near Glasgow, and six Trafalgar-class ones now being taken out of service. Like the Fukushima power station north of Tokyo, the PWR2 relies entirely on back-up power supplies to provide emergency cooling in the event of an accident.

Despite the anxieties about its safety, PWR2s are also being fitted in the seven Astute-class submarines being built. These vessels will also be based at Faslane.

There have been debates within the MoD and the navy about whether the PWR2 should be used if a replacement to Trident is finally approved – or if a safer type, PWR3, should replace it. The PWR3 uses "passive" cooling, which makes it far less reliant on back-up power, and has additional methods of injecting coolant into a reactor.

The PWR3 is widely used in modern US nuclear submarines. The debate has delayed a decision on what type of reactor to install by 18 months, McFarlane's report disclosed, and has cost a further £261m.

Fox was questioned in the Commons on the reactor's safety by Angus Robertson, the Scottish National party's defence spokesman, after the disclosure of the report. Fox said: "The government's view is that that is the preferred option, because those reactors give us a better safety outlook. That is a debate on both sides of the Atlantic, but we believe that in terms of safety, the case is very clear-cut."

Robertson said: "This still raises concerns about the currently operational and incoming nuclear submarines, which don't satisfy acceptable safety standards. The UK should give up its nuclear obsession."

John Ainslie, from the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, who uncovered the original McFarlane report, said the new reactor would push up costs for the Trident replacement fleet by billions of pounds, since it would need designing and testing.

"There is another option: they should completely abandon their plan to squander billions on new nuclear submarines," he said.