Russia charts new course for BRICS nations as presidency begins

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. Grand plans have been outlined for the BRICS emerging market nations as Russia begins its presidency of the group on Wednesday.

Transforming the BRICS assembly of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa into "a full-scale mechanism of strategic interaction on key issues of global policy and economics" is a "top priority" for Russia’s presidency, which is expected to culminate at a summit in the Russian city of Ufa in early July, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

There are plans to open new tracks for multilateral industrial cooperation, the ministry said after a meeting on Tuesday. The main goal is to launch the group’s development bank and currency reserve pool as outlined in the Strategy for Economic Cooperation of the BRICS countries established until 2020, it said, referring to the plan proposed by Russia at the BRICS summit in Brazil.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s special envoy, Vadim Lukov, noted that some Western partners had already started to explore the possibility of joining the BRICS New Development Bank, noting that: "This is the first time that such institutions have been created without Western countries’ involvement."

Speaking about the tasks of the bank, Lukov pointed out that the new structure would operate on commercial principles.

"Shareholders [of the BRICS New Development Bank] believe that all projects should be profitable. This is not a mutual benefit society and not an association providing grants," he said. "The New Development Bank will be based on commercial principles."

The head and the board of directors of the new bank are expected to be appointed before the BRICS summit in Ufa, scheduled for July 9-10.

A distinguishing feature of Russia’s presidency of BRICS is involvement of civil society groups and young people in the assembly’s work. Moscow will host the BRICS Civil Society Forum in June, while on July 1-5 the inaugural youth forum will open in the Russian city of Kazan. Discussions will focus on youth interaction in culture and economy, alongside prospects for cooperation between young diplomats.

Among the most immediate upcoming events during the Russian presidency is the first official meeting of the BRICS countries’ natural resources ministers on April 22 and consultations between deputy foreign ministers in April-May.

Georgy Toloraya, executive director of the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research, said the most import thing was to enlist the moral support of the BRICS bloc in terms of opposing unilateral sanctions and double standards against Russia.

"In this regard, we enjoy the backing of these countries. We hope that this support will also be declared quite clearly at the summit in Ufa," Toloraya said, adding that it would be much more difficult for Russia to stand alone against the West.

The BRICS agenda under the Russian presidency includes plans to strengthen strategic stability and international information security, reinforce the non-proliferation regime, and combat international terrorism.

The BRICS countries collectively represent about 26% of the world’s geographic area and are home to 42% of the world’s population. In 2013, the share of the BRICS countries reached 16.1% in global trade, 10.8% in military spending and 40/2% in production of non-renewable energy resources. The BRICS consumer market is the largest in the world and is growing by $500 billion a year.

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Russia extends winter package of gas prices for Ukraine

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. Russia is again offering Ukraine a $100 discount per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, extending the so-called winter package into the second quarter.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has supported this proposal. The gas price for Ukraine with the discount from April 1 will be $250 per 1,000 cubic meters, an almost 25% decrease from the first quarter of 2015.

At the meeting with the president late on Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the government had decided to meet the respective demand of the Ukrainian side and Gazprom.

In turn, Kiev has to strictly comply with all the conditions, and namely the payment of the remaining debt to Gazprom which including penalties is $2.477 billion.

Ukraine has secured the discount upon the request of the European Commission.

The winter package of Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine was agreed between Russia and Ukraine with the EU’s mediation in Brussels in October 2014. Ukraine paid its outstanding debt of $3.1 billion for previous supplies.

One of the key issues now is the return of a take-or-pay term in the second quarter.

Russia insists on returning to the take-or-pay term despite the extension of the winter package conditions, a source close to the negotiations told TASS on Tuesday.

Gas supplies to Ukraine in the second quarter should be implemented in accordance with the currently effective contract between Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz, which stipulates the take-or-pay condition, the source said.

On March 20, after the trilateral gas talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the take-or-pay regime would be resumed for Ukraine from April 1 as Naftogaz and Gazprom were currently considering the issue in the arbitration court.

According to Ukraine’s gas pipeline operator Ukrtransgaz, Ukraine has recently increased imports of Russian gas by almost 50% On March 29, Ukraine’s import of Russian gas totaled 17.15 million cubic meters, though the average gas offtake was around 10 million cubic meters in March.

The venue and date of the new round of trilateral talks on gas have not been yet announced. The talks are to discuss the injection of 12-15 billion cubic meters of the Russian natural gas to Ukraine’s underground storages, guarantees of the reliable transit of the Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine and financial assistance of the European Commission to Ukraine for gas procurements.

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Both Russia's president, government focused on anti-crisis plan — Kremlin spokesman

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The Kremlin is not afraid of high ratings of President Vladimir Putin, the Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said on Tuesday after a roundtable discussion at TASS reviewing Putin’s 15 years in power.

"The president has said it more than once that he is not in the habit of being preoccupied with his ratings. If one is always absorbed in trying to foretell how his or her future actions might impact the rating in this or that situation, no efficient work is possible," Peskov said. "Hence, the president is focused not on his ratings but on concrete actions. Both the government and the president are now focused on the implementation of the anti-crisis plan. No one is afraid of any ratings."

The presidential press secretary said he thought the roundtable discussion was rather interesting. He said expert opinion had been useful. "But, on the other hand, only he who does nothing, who has no ambitious plans, never makes mistakes," Peskov noted. "And we know that the president always puts forth ambitious plans. Not all of them are implemented as comprehensively and as promptly as we would like them to, but no one casts any doubt on purposeful, gradual progressive movement over these 15 years, which has entailed quality changes in the life of the country and each Russian."

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Russia completes its Gonets orbital group — company president

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The launch of three Gonetsk satellites from the Plesetsk space center Tuesday has completed the formation of the orbital group of the eponymous satellite communications system, Gonets Satellite System company president Dmitry Bakanov said Tuesday.

"After the launch of this block of three Gonets-M space apparatuses, the group will consist of 12 Gonets-M satellites and one Gonets-D1. Thus, for the first time over the entire history of Gonets system creation, the orbital group has reached its regular strength," Bakanov told TASS.

"Control of the apparatuses was established immediately after the marker signal was received," he said.

Earlier it was reported that a Rokot carrier rocket was launched from the Plesetsk space center in northwestern Russia’s Arkhangelsk Region at 16:48 Moscow Time [13:48 UTC] on Tuesday. Initially, it was supposed that the Rokot would blast off March 3, but on the eve of the day, the launch was postponed indefinitely, and the carrier rocket was sent to undergo an additional engine check.

The Rokot light rocket was created under the conversion program on the basis of decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missile RS-18. The first launch of the Rokot rocket took place from the Plesetsk space center on May 16, 2000. The Defense Ministry plans to stop using these rockets from 2016 in favor of the light rocket Angara and Soyuz-2.1v. Rokot rockets have been launched from Plesetsk 22 times.

Gonets-M satellites are a product of the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems (ISS) company. Each such apparatus has a mass of 280 kilograms and 14 data transmission channels. Its life cycle in orbit is five years.

At the moment the orbital cluster consists of nine Gonets-M satellites of the second generation and one Gonets-D1 first generation satellite. The previous trio of satellites was put in space in summer 2014. The Gonets system provides personal communications services and transmits various types of data, including that for the GLONASS information system.

Gonets is Russia’s only satellite communications system. It is designed for global exchange of various types of information with rocket and space equipment, as well as for organization of retransmission channels for various purposes.

The use of the Gonets system in particular makes it possible to transfer GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) coordinate data from a mobile object to remote monitoring and communications centers regardless of the subscriber’s location.

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Russia's Aeroflot plans to obtain 50 new Sukhoi SuperJets by 2016

NOVO-OGARYOVO, March 31. /TASS/. Russia’s biggest air company, Aeroflot, plans to enlarge its fleet with 50 new Sukhoi SuperJet 100 airliners by 2016, Aeroflot CEO Vitaly Savelyev said on Tuesday at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"As of today, we have 18 state-of-the-art Sukhoi SuperJet planes and we hope to receive 50 more such planes by 2016," he said, adding that Aeroflot expected to buy 50 MS-21 planes from 2017.

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Activists decry Russians' increasing sympathy for Stalin

“This is a very troubling signal. And it is a testimony not even of the citizens’ attitude to Stalin, but rather of the relations between the state and a person. Stalin is perceived as a symbol of a powerful and potent state. The fact that Stalin and his policies were inhumane becomes of secondary importance,” the head of Memorial, Arseny Roginsky, said in comments to Interfax.

The activist added that he saw this as a very dangerous tendency.

Roginsky’s March statement was drawn by the release of the latest research on the attitude to Stalin in the Russian community, conducted by the independent pollster Levada Center in late March this year. According to the survey, the share of those who confessed their respect to Stalin increased from 23 percent in 2010 to 30 percent this year. The number of those who described their attitude as “fascination” and “sympathy” remained unchanged at 2 and 7 percent respectively.

When pollsters asked the public if they would like a monument to Joseph Stalin to be erected in Russia for the 70th anniversary of the victory in WWII, 37 percent said they had a positive attitude to the idea (compared to 24 percent in 2010)and 27 percent said they did not like it (36 percent in 2010).

In late February this year, Memorial criticized a proposal to erect a monument to Stalin in Moscow and to rename the city of Volgograd as Stalingrad.

READ MORE: Perm-anent marker: Communists defend Stalin billboards in Urals city

“No city can be named after a man who has been an organizer, initiator and perpetrator of a mass terror that exterminated Russian peasants in the years of collectivization, and by whose orders over 700,000 people were executed in 1937 and 1938 alone,” Roginsky said back then. “In other words, we cannot name a city after a criminal.”

The controversy surrounding Stalin’s name and his role in Russian history is a popular topic and has been used by various political forces in Russia in recent years. In 2013, leftist parties proposed renaming the city of Volgograd back to Stalingrad, claiming that this was the name used by the city’s defenders during the war and that Stalingrad is better-known around the world.

However, both the general public and the Russian officials rejected the idea. Polls showed that 60 percent of Russians were against the renaming. President Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said in an interview that Kremlin officials had never considered renaming Volgograd to Stalingrad and did not plan to put this issue on the agenda in the future.

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Putin's giant pike was real — Kremlin spokesman

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The 20-kilogram pike that Russian President Vladimir Putin hooked during a fishing trip in Siberia in 2013 was a fair catch, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"The pike was real, no matter what you say," Peskov told reporters during a roundtable discussion at TASS, reviewing Putin's 15 years in power.

The specimen pike was caught at Siberia's remote Lake Tokpak-Khol in July 2013. Peskov said then that the lake "was abundant with fish".

"Even the gamekeeper who accompanied Putin said he had never seen anything like it."

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Russian army to have more than 350,000 contract servicemen by year end

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. More than 350,000 contract servicemen will serve in the Russian army by the end of the current year, but the Defense Ministry is not going to abandon the conscription, head of the General Staff’s main mobilization organization department Lieutenant General Vasily Tonkoshkurov told reporters on Tuesday.

"It is planned that by the end of 2015 more than 350,000 contract soldiers will serve in the Armed Forces, above all, on positions of non-commissioned officers and related to the operation of modern armaments and equipment. That is, these positions will be occupied by the servicemen not for one year, but for three to five years as a minimum," Tonkoshkurov said.

According to him, the Defense Ministry does not intend to abandon conscription into the armed forces, and the army will be manned on a mixed basis.

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Russia’s losses from Crimea integration estimated at $150-200 bln — ex-finance minister

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The Russian economy’s total losses from Crimea’s reintegration are estimated at $150-200 billion over 3-4 years, ex-Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin said on Tuesday.

Kudrin made his statement at a round table discussion held at TASS news agency on the fifteenth anniversary of Vladimir Putin's election as Russia's president.

"During 3-4 years, this figure may reach from $150 billion to $200 billion," Kudrin said. "These are indirect and direct losses in aggregate. This is a very approximate estimate but this is what it will perhaps be, in my view," the expert added.

Russia’s indirect losses from reintegrating Crimea include Western sanctions and a changed attitude to the Russian economy, the ex-finance minister said.

Direct losses are related to financial restrictions imposed by Western sanctions, as well as "direct costs Russia is bearing."

Crimea’s reintegration will cost Russia about $6-7 billion a year, Kudrin said.

Crimea used to be part of Russia from 1784 until 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev handed it over to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in a voluntaristic act. Crimea remained part of independent Ukraine after the USSR collapsed in 1991.

A people’s referendum was held in Crimea on March 16, 2014, in which most people voted for reuniting with Russia. On March 18, 2014, President Putin signed a decree on Crimea’s integration into Russia.

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​Russell Brand blames ‘mental illness plague’ for Germanwings crash

Brand has spoken out against the media’s “stigmatizing” coverage of Andreas Lubitz, the 27-year-old co-pilot who is alleged to have deliberately crashed flight 4U 9525 into the French Alps.

In the latest episode of his YouTube show, The Trews, he attacks FOX News’ coverage of the crash, branding the channel a “propaganda machine” that fuels the causes of mental health issues.

Brand urges viewers to look past the co-pilot’s mental health issues as a cause of the crash and focus on it as an internal issue.

After analyzing the channel’s coverage of the tragedy, Brand claims the news anchor “has an assertion” that mental illness is about “otherness,” suggesting it is not a common condition.

In one broadcast, the FOX News anchor said Lubitz “looks like someone who’d rather crash a party than crash a plane,” when referring to an image of the co-pilot smiling.

Blasting the anchors take on mental illness, Brand said, “So far from being something weird, peculiar, uncommon, it’s some normal thing that’s happening all the time.”

The reason we are now in a “mental illness plague” is because of those “in power,” Brand says. “FOX News is what causes mental illnesses.”

FOX News is a “propaganda” system which “separates us from one another and tells us the way to solve our individual problems is through purchasing, through identifying primarily through our role as consumers,” Brand claims.

The channel condemns those “who are weaker,” Brand adds.

@rustyrockets not many people seem bright enough to realise this is actually a go at the media's irresponsible coverage of this tragedy.

— Duncan Chriscoli (@DChriscoli) March 30, 2015

“@rustyrockets: Interesting clip. If we look at #mentalhealth as a societal issue rather than blaming the individual we can move forward.

— colette@pct (@colettebonar) March 30, 2015

@rustyrockets Brilliant! But if the pilot wouldve been honest about his illness,he wouldve lost his job which likely made him more depressed

— qgirl (@qarmann) March 30, 2015

Annabel Crowley, Disability and Mental Health adviser at University of the Arts London told RT the media’s coverage of the co-pilot’s mental health issues is “disingenuous.”

“Everyone who experiences mental health difficulties is different,” Crowley said, adding it “cannot be separated from individual experiences.”

The generalized assumptions the media portrays “is unfair to anyone who experiences depression,” she added.

The representation “further stigmatizes mental illness and reinforces harmful stereotypes about those who experience it,” Crowley added.

As the investigation of the crash is still in its early stages, “we’ll never know Lubitz’s state of mind while he was in flight,” Pete Etchells, lecturer in biological psychology at Bath Spa University told the Guardian.

Etchells told the paper it is “irresponsible” for media to make claims Lubtiz “deliberately crashed the plane because of reason X or Y.”

Friday's Daily Mail: "Why on earth was he allowed to fly?" http://ift.tt/1EYvlEy#BBCpapers#tomorrowspaperstoday via @hendopolis

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) March 26, 2015

Referring to the Daily Mail’s headline “Why on Earth was he allowed to fly?” Etchells said “depression does not make you want to kill people.”

Murder suicide is “extremely rare” from those diagnosed with depression says Dr. Paul Keedwell, consultant psychiatrist and specialist in mood disorders.

“It is committed by two to three people in every million per year,” Keedwell told the Science Media Centre.

However, many on social media “lack sympathy” for Lubitz, despite his mental issues, branding him a “mass murderer.”

@andersoncooper Why is #CNN treating #Lubitz with such sympathy. He is a MASS MURDERER. All terrorists have mental health issues!!!

— Kim Hagen (@jppsmomma) March 31, 2015

.@cnn Can you STOP reporting "mental illness" to get sympathy as to why Lubitz killed everyone? Where's your integrity?

— Larry Appleton (@MisterOffensive) March 30, 2015

One Twitter user said: “Why is CNN treating Lubitz with such sympathy? He is a mass murderer. All terrorists have mental health issues.”

“CNN can you stop reporting mental illness to get sympathy as to why Lubitz killed everyone? Where’s your integrity?” one user asked.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, announced on Friday his party would invest £3.5 billion in mental healthcare in England if they return to office after May’s general election.

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Russia needs to hop off the 'oil needle' and develop small business — TASS research center

MOSCOW, March 31 / TASS / Russia soon needs to focus on getting rid of its oil dependency and develop small business and improve living standards, said Semyon Sorkin, Chief of the TASS Research Center during the round table discussion at TASS dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the election of Vladimir Putin as president of Russia on Tuesday.

"Over the past 15 years the share of oil and gas revenue has not diminished, but increased and it’s no longer a third, but a half of the revenue," Sorkin said.

Another area that needs to be further developed, said Sorkin, is the support for small business. He admitted that the input of small business into the country's GDP has increased over the last few years, but that Russia still lags behind other countries in that matter.

Sorkin went on to say that Russia also needs to increase production independence. According to experts, the share of Russian medicine on the domestic market fell by 10% from 2000-2012. In addition, there is a need to focus on improving the living standards of living for Russian citizens, he said.

Sorkin's report shows the growth of the Russian economy during the 15 years of Putin's presidency. During these 15 years, the GDP grew by 76% from 2000 until 2014, while the national debt was reduced by 69%.

The average salary has increased due to inflation, by 3.8-fold, pensions by 2.7-fold. Aside from that, Sorkin said that funds from the federal budget are not only being spent on military and defense, but on culture and sport as well.

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Kremlin refutes allegations of Russian troops in Ukraine

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Moscow "strongly refutes" allegations about the presence of Russian Armed Forces units in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"We are absolutely not ashamed to talk about it, and we openly talk about it," Peskov said at the roundtable at TASS devoted to President Vladimir Putin’s 15 years in power, answering a question from a Ukrainian journalist.

"We strongly refute what is written in the media, and the media can write whatever they want," the spokesman said.

"The main thing is that [presence of Russian servicemen in Ukraine] is refuted by international observers and official representatives in Kiev," Peskov stressed.

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Saving face: Spanish hospital performs world's most complex ‘face transplant’

Physicians in Barcelona performed what they call a 'face transplant', although no information about a donor was made available.



The 27-hour-long surgery was performed at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital back in February, the hospital said in a statement.

It was conducted by a huge team of 45, which included physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists and other health professionals.



"This is the first time that a transplant of this complexity is performed in the world," the statement said.

#hvhebron University Hospital has successfully performed a new #facetransplanthttp://t.co/MainfZnHmH#txcarhvhhttp://ift.tt/1C1n0Oi

— hvhebron (@hvhebron) March 30, 2015

The 45-year-old patient has suffered for 20 years from arteriovenous malformation, an abnormal connection between arteries and veins, bypassing the capillary system. The condition can cause intense pain or bleeding and lead to serious complications.



The man, who didn’t want to be identified, had mass deformation of his tissue.



"The patient, due to the evolution of his illness, had important functional alterations, such a vision and speech problems, and the risk of severe bleeding that put his life in danger," the hospital said.

The medics managed to reconstruct his lower face, neck, mouth, tongue and pharynx.

El Hospital Vall d’Hebron realiza el segundo trasplante de cara http://t.co/EzgTXNVKC9http://ift.tt/1C1n0Ok#LaHoraAzulPP306

— Andrés Cano (@ANDRES_CANO42) March 30, 2015

"The patient evolution after the surgery was successful, similar to any transplant patient at the hospital. Now he is already at home and only comes to the hospital to do routine checkups,” added the hospital.



Before treatment in Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron, the man consulted several other hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School in the United States. However, all of them considered him inoperable. Only Barcelona’s medics took the case, saying that the surgery was his only treatment option.



This is not the first successful face transplant carried by a team of Vall d'Hebron hospital. In 2010 the medics performed the world's first full face transplant on man who had a trauma. He was left without a nose and had deformed jaw and cheekbones.



The world's first partial face transplant was carried out in 2005 in France. Isabelle Dinoire underwent the operation to replace her original face, which had been mauled by her dog.

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​‘Extradite Obama to Israel, lock the b*stard up’: UKIP candidate resigns over FB post

Jeremy Zeid, who was standing as MP for Hendon in northwest London, said Obama should be locked up like a Nazi war criminal.

His comments were in response to news the US government had declassified documents revealing the existence of Israel’s nuclear program, which is officially secret.

Zeid is a Jewish decorator from Kenton in northwest London, and a former Tory councilor who defected to UKIP.

Zeid bowed out of the general election race after writing on his Facebook page: “Once Obama is out of office, the Israelis should move to extradite the ba****d or ‘do an Eichmann’ on him and lock him up for leaking state secrets.”

His comments were linked to an article about the United States, which revealed Israel’s nuclear program from the right-wing Israeli news website Arutz Sheva.

In response to another Facebook user, who suggested Obama “may” go to prison for “multiple counts of treason” in the US, Zeid effectively compared the president to a Nazi war criminal.

“Nah, just kidnap the bugger, like they did to Eichmann, who suddenly found that he’d woken up in Israel,” he wrote.

READ MORE: ‘Farage talking bollocks’: Doctor who survived testicular cancer challenges UKIP leader to ‘one-ball to one-ball’ NHS debate

“The problem is [that] Israeli jails are far more humane and adherent to human rights than American ones,” he added.

Adolf Eichmann was a German Nazi SS officer responsible for managing the logistics of the Holocaust. He was kidnapped by Israel’s secret service and flown to Israel in 1960, where he was tried and executed.

Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, Zeid stood by his controversial comments.

“All I said is that we should ‘do an Eichmann’ and extradite him. It is a private opinion. Remember that phrase ‘Je Suis Charlie’? – well, freedom of speech,” he told the Jewish Chronicle (JC).

“[President Obama] wants to do a deal with Iran – which wants to wipe Israel out, to see the Jewish State gone to dust. Left-wing Jewish people do not want to deal with it.

“People can spin it any way they want. If people do not like it, well, I am sorry,” he added.

READ MORE: Remix the rich! Russell Brand & Cassetteboy mock the Tories & UKIP (VIDEO)

Before being deleted, Zeid’s Facebook profile ‘liked’ several right-wing American and Israeli politicians.

These included Israel’s Minister of the Economy Naftali Bennett, an outspoken advocate for the annexation of the West Bank, and a politician who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.

Zeid insisted his decision to step down was not related to UKIP.

He said he was “done with politics” because people focus on the “minutia” and it was affecting his health.

“This is a dirty, disgusting, revolting, horrible election campaign with slurs and accusations and I am glad to be out of it,” he told JC.

A UKIP spokesman told the Independent: “Jeremy Zeid resigned as a candidate last week, citing his health. UKIP accepted his resignation.”

Zeid has been replaced as UKIP’s prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hendon by Jewish dentist Dr Raymond Shamash.

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​Visa to pay $60mn guarantee as it misses April 1 data deadline

Visa will pay roughly $200-300 million a year, or about $60 million per quarter, says RBC citing sources close to the Central Bank of Russia.

READ MORE: Visa, MasterCard to pay $3bn to stay in Russia - Morgan Stanley

Visa apparently won’t manage to meet the target date, so it will continue to use capacity in the US after April 1, said the news agency.

The Central Bank of Russia "shifts the responsibility on Visa, believing that it is to blame, as it took too much time to solve the issue of connecting to the national system of payment cards. If it doesn’t have time to transfer traffic, let them pay a fee,” people familiar with the matter told RBC.

Visa doesn’t comment on its plans, but the payment system’s representatives earlier said they were ready to leave Russia so that they didn’t have to pay the fee.

The other major international payment system MasterCard will avoid penalties, as it transferred its processing of Russia’s operations to the country’s national payment system on time.

READ MORE: Domestic MasterCard: 5 Russian banks begin new National Payment System

The bankers surveyed by RBC say that their customers will not notice switching to the national system of payment cards on April 1. At the same time they unofficially admit that Visa’s readiness to carry out transaction processing through the national system of payment cards is practically at zero.

"If 80 percent of MasterCard transactions are already carried out through NSPC and by April 1 the figure will be at 100 percent, the share of Visa is at the same time less than 10 percent," RBC quotes an employee of a leading Russian bank. Visa will have to use their operational center to prevent failures.

On March 25 Vedomosti reported that Visa was behind schedule to transfer to Russia’s NSPC. Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev said there were two options for those in arrears: either to deregister as a national payment system or to pay a deposit.

Moiseev stressed that Visa didn’t ask the Ministry of Finance to extend the period of transition to the national system of payment cards. "And if they did, we would be unlikely to make advances," he said.

READ MORE: Sanctioned: Visa, MasterCard suspend servicing Russian banks in Crimea

Under the new legislation adopted last May, March 31 is the last day for international payment systems who want to work in Russia to transfer local processing operations to the national system of payment cards (NSPC). Otherwise, they will have to make a security deposit to the Central Bank.

Together Visa and MasterCard have 95 percent of the Russian market. According to Morgan Stanley, both payment systems would have had to pay $3 billion in guarantee fees to stay in Russia, if both of them had failed to transfer Russian domestic payments to the NSPC.

The idea to establish the national system of payment cards was proposed last year after Visa and MasterCard froze transactions via their cards issued by banks that were facing Western sanctions.

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Putin’s address at UN General Assembly’s anniversary session quite likely — Kremlin

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The address of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the anniversary session of the UN General Assembly is highly probable, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"It is quite likely that such a trip and an address will take place," Peskov said, adding that no final decisions on this issue have been taken yet.

The majority of world leaders are expected to participate in the opening of the 70th session of the General Assembly this year. Apart from the heads of state and/or government, Pope Francis I is expected to address the Assembly, too. His speech has been scheduled for September 25.

This will be the first papal trip to New York over the past twenty years.

In recent years, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has been leading the Russian delegations to the General Assembly sessions. President Dmitry Medvedev addressed the UN in 2009.

Vladimir Putin attended the opening of the General Assembly session in 2005 when the organization turned 60 years old.

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Kazakhstan should seek access to major regional markets — Nazarbayev

ASTANA, March 31. /TASS/. Kazakhstan needs to seek access for domestic manufacturers to major regional markets, including the Eurasian Economic Union, incumbent Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said in his election program.

"In the course of Kazakhstan’s integration policy over the previous years in general the most important tools for expanding the involvement of the economy in the world economic ties were formed," Nazarbayev says.

"On their basis there is a need to seek access for our producers to big regional markets and also the liberalization of customs and import and export procedures in the Eurasian Economic Union," the document reads.

The Treaty on establishing the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) was signed by the presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in Astana on May 29, 2014 and went into effect from January 1, 2015. Armenia also became the member of the EEU in January, and Kyrgyzstan is expected to join the bloc later this year.

Nazarbayev’s election platform, "Modern State for All: Five Institutional Reforms," together with the programs of other presidential candidates was published on Tuesday in the republic’s newspaper, the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.

The program focuses on the results that have been already achieved as part of the republic’s integration in the world economy. "Together with our partners we have created the Eurasian Economic Union. A new Agreement on expanded partnership and cooperation with the European Union is also ready for signing. The process of Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO has entered the final phase," the document says.

Kazakhstan is due to hold early presidential elections on April 26. Three candidates have been officially registered for the key post. Nazarbayev, who heads of the ruling Nur Otan party, became the first of them.

The two others are a member of Kazakhstan’s Communist People’s Party, Turgun Syzdykov, and independent candidate and chairman of Kazakhstan’s Federation of Trade Unions, Abelgazi Kusainov.

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Diplomat says Belarus-US relations 'normalizing'

MINSK, March 31. /TASS/. Relations between Belarus and the United States have improved thanks to mutual effort and are on course for a "certain normalization", Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Guryanov said on Tuesday.

Full-fledged partnership had always been a goal in dealings with Washington, Guryanov told a televised question-and-answer session.

"Even during the most difficult years for Belarusian-American interaction the two countries never halted cooperation in ensuring global and regional security and preventing illegal transit of nuclear materials," he said.

Interaction continues between law enforcement agencies in Belarus and the US alongside growing inter-regional ties and the deepening of scientific and cultural associations, the minister told his audience, noting that Belarusia's prime minister has joined an investment forum in New York City last year coinciding with the appointment of honorary consuls in the United States.

"Cooperation in trade and investment is a priority issue for Belarus," the diplomat said. "Belarus is interested in its producers gaining access to a financially reliable and receptive US market," he added. Minsk sought opportunities for attracting investment, developing industrial co-operation and receiving loans.

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Istanbul prosecutor taken hostage in courthouse by leftist activist

Savvier Mehmet selim kiraz I rehin aldik http://ift.tt/1I07nyT

— aysekosan123@gmail.c (@aysekosan123) March 31, 2015

http://ift.tt/1I07nyV

— aysekosan123@gmail.c (@aysekosan123) March 31, 2015

Special police forces entered İstanbul courthouse for a possible operation to rescue prosecutor held hostage byDHKP/C http://ift.tt/1I07nyX

— Abdullah Ayasun (@abyasun) March 31, 2015

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Ukraine’s military prosecutors accuse National Guard of $217,000 combat helicopter fraud

KIEV, March 31. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Main Military Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday it had launched a criminal probe against the country’s National Guard and an exporter company over the illegal sale of two Mi-24R combat helicopters at considerably understated prices.

"The crime was exposed by investigators of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office jointly with the operatives of the Security Council of Ukraine," investigators said.

"Officials of the National Guard of Ukraine and representatives of the exporter company forged acceptance and delivery certificates for these aircraft for the purpose of concealing their military designation," the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

"These actions inflicted a damage of 5 million hryvnias [$217,000]," the statement said, without disclosing the country, to which the combat helicopters had been sold.

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Siberian farmer fined $188 for emptying dung cart near bank

NOVOSIBIRSK, March 31. /TASS/. A district court in Novosibirsk, Siberia's largest city, fined a local farmer $188 on Tuesday for emptying a dung cart in front of a Sberbank branch office in February as a protest against the bank's credit policy.

Alexander Baksheyev stuck gallows-shaped posters reading "Bankers are people's enemies" and "Down with credit slavery" into the dunghill, the court has told. He was found guilty of violating the rules of organizing rallies and demonstrations.

The farmer's assistant, who drove the dung to the bank's office in his tractor, was fined $94.

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Controversial opera canceled in Siberian theater after scandal

NOVOSIBIRSK, March 31. /TASS/. New Director of the Novosibirsk State Theater of Opera and Ballet Vladimir Kekhman has canceled the controversial Tannhauser production, the theater’s press service told TASS on Tuesday.

The Tannhauser opera was staged at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater in December 2014. The production stirred heated debates after the regional leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Tikhon said church symbols are used wrongly in the production. Director of the opera Timofey Kulyabin and theater director Boriz Mezdrich were taken to court, accused of offending the feelings of believers. Last week, Mezdrich was fired by Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky and replaced by Vladimir Kekhman, Director of Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

Censorship in creative arts is unacceptable, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, commenting on the situation around fired Director of the Novosibirsk State Theater of Opera and Ballet Boris Mezdrich. However, the state has the right to expect appropriate performances financed from budget funds, Peskov added.

"It was said more than once that the state provides funds through budget subsidies, various grants, for cinema productions, staging performances in theaters," the spokesman recalled. "Of course, the state has the right to expect appropriate performances from creative teams - at least, [performances] that do not trigger such an acute reaction from the general public," he noted. "Along with that, it should not be interpreted as attempts to impose any type of censorship," he stressed. "Censorship in creative arts is unacceptable," Peskov added.

Commenting on the situation around the fired director of the Novosibirsk theater, the spokesman said the measure was not connected with the Tannhauser production. "I want to urge to read attentively the decree of the minister of culture," Peskov said. "The former director of the theater was fired not for the [Tannhauser] production, but for something like ‘insubordination’. As he [Mezdrich] was appointed by the Ministry of Culture, at the federal level, he has to comply with subordination rules," the spokesman stressed. "But this does not mean censorship in any way," he concluded.

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Spy services in ‘tech arms race’ against ‘dark side of globalization’ – MI6 chief

Speaking at his first public engagement since taking the helm of the security agency last year, Alex Younger said the country was facing threats from agents who were “unconstrained by the ethics of law.”

Younger told a privately invited audience in London that traditional modes of spying were increasingly becoming interspersed with “technological operations,” with opponents using internet technology to create threats to national security.

He said the use of ‘big data’ had allowed the security agencies to “sharpen some very human characteristics” of their work.

“Using data appropriately and proportionately offers us a priceless opportunity to be even more deliberate and targeted in what we do, and so to be better at protecting our agents and this country,” he said.

He acknowledged, however, that the increased use of technology would make the agencies vulnerable to cybercriminals.

“The bad news is the same technology in opposition hands, an opposition often unconstrained by consideration of ethics and law, allows them to see what we are doing and to put our people and agents at risk,” he said.

“So we find ourselves in a technology arms race. Contrary to myth, human intelligence operations are not an alternative to technical operations – the two are interdependent and set to become more so.”

He described the threats faced by Britain’s security agencies as “the dark side of globalization,” which included “terrorists, malicious actors in cyberspace and criminals.”

READ MORE: ‘Torturing terror suspects produces useful intelligence’ – ex-MI6 director

“As I speak there are SIS [MI6] officers serving in some of the most dangerous and forbidding places on the planet,” he said.

“Others are operating under deep cover, unable to reveal the real nature of their work, or sometimes even their identity. This takes a particular type of bravery and resilience.”

Younger paid tribute to the work of the security services in the recent wars in the Middle East.

“I am particularly proud of the way in which our work with the military developed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Put bluntly, work done by SIS and GCHQ saved many British and coalition lives.”

He also defended the work of the intelligence and security system. Despite coming under heavy criticism, its work was essential to maintain public trust in the security agencies, he said.

“What really distinguishes us from our opponents is that we live by the values of this country and are regulated by its laws, even as we work in secret. This is our vital advantage,” said Younger.

“Our staff are asked to make complex decisions in a difficult ethical and legal space. They do so with remarkable assurance. If we make mistakes, we face up to them and learn from them.

“The guiding principle is clear – we cannot protect the values this country represents if we undermine them in the process. And we cannot hope to hold the public’s trust unless they know this principle is effectively overseen.”

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Putin to head to US for major UN event – report

Kommersant Daily quoted sources “close to the presidential administration” as saying that Putin’s trip to the United States was already in the preparatory stage. The newspaper also claimed that a source in the United Nations’ secretariat confirmed this.

However, all the sources noted that Putin’s plans would become clear only in early August. They also emphasized that “everything depends on the international situation.”

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov also said that no final decision has been made on the trip.

“Attending the General Assembly Session is one of the options that are being considered and in this sense it is not very important that it will be the anniversary one.”

In September the United Nations will hold its 70th General Assembly session, with many world leaders expected to participate.

Putin last spoke before the UN General Assembly 10 years ago. Prior to that he had attended in 2003 and 2000. In 2008, the speech at the UN General Assembly session was delivered by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and over the past years Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has represented Russia at major UN events.

Senior Russian officials, including Putin have always prioritized the UN’s role in resolving major international crises and repeatedly accused the US of attempts to “hijack” the UN powers and violate the basic principles of international law.

READ MORE: Use of force in bypass of UN will cause chaos, Putin warns

“Any attempts to replace the universal principles of the United Nations’ Charter by unilateral actions or some bloc agreements, or, worse even, the attempts to use force to bypass the UN Charter, never lead to anything good,” Vladimir Putin said in his 2012 speech before foreign diplomats.

Russia is currently facing fierce opposition from Western countries over the situation in Ukraine, where the pro-Western regime in Kiev is waging a civil war against the southeastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. The greater area known as Donbass has a pro-Russian population, many of whom are ethnic Russians.

The EU, the US and some of their allies have imposed sanctions against top Russian politicians and major companies. Moscow reciprocated with similar steps and has repeatedly vowed that the outside pressure would never make it change its course.

“No sanctions would force Russia to make changes to the persistent line it follows in international affairs,” Peskov said in early March. He also called the sanctions “a double-edged weapon” that, while causing certain discomfort to the Russian economy, was also hurting businesses in the countries that introduced them, not to mention the world economy as a whole.

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‘PRESS logo makes you target’: Killing journalists should be war crime, AP chief says

The AP president and CEO, Gary Pruitt, pointed to the increasingly upside down nature of conflict coverage, wherein reporters used to be seen as impartial civilians covering the fighting, but have since been counted as full participants, targeted for their work. An updated legal framework should reflect this, according to Pruitt.

"It used to be that when media wore PRESS emblazoned on their vest, or PRESS or MEDIA was on their vehicle, it gave them a degree of protection… But guess what: That labeling now is more likely to make them a target,” he said in a speech in Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club.

The global statistics have shot up, with 61 dead in 2014, putting the number of journalists killed since 1992 at 1,000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The AP in particular lost four journalists on assignment last year.

READ MORE: 2 female journalists shot in Afghanistan, 1 killed, 1 critical

Meanwhile, the bloody conflict in Ukraine, which has witnessed indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in the east by Ukrainian forces, has also taken on a political dimension, with journalists in the firing line. Last year, the Rossiya Segodnya news agency lost prolific wartime photographer Andrey Stenin to the conflict. His sterling work gave people a window on the early Maidan uprising. He was eventually killed on August 6 near Donetsk, where his convoy came under fire from government forces.

READ MORE: ‘How it all ends’: Slain journalist Andrey Stenin lives on in epic Maidan photos

Eight journalists have been killed in Ukraine in 2015 alone. Russia-based journalists became frequent targets for their work, as the video from Slavyansk below demonstrates.

There is death on all sides. Ukraine has lost prominent wartime photographer Sergey Nikolaev, who was with the ‘Segodnya’ newspaper. He was killed during mortar fire near Peski village. The 37-year-old was accompanied by a Ukrainian Right Sector volunteer - both were not wearing flak jackets. Nikolaev became the eighth journalist to perish in the conflict, according to CPJ data.

READ MORE: Ukrainian photog killed in shelling outside Donetsk

Naturally, not all deaths are a result of deliberate targeting, but the worsening trend of journalist killings doesn’t sit well with the AP chief, whose comments follow condemnation from the UN and numerous rights groups, including Human Rights Watch. Pruitt proposed creating a new protocol to the Geneva Convention, which would make targeting reporters a specific war crime. He also suggests adapting specific articles at the International Criminal Court.

The AP chief’s reasoning doesn’t just revolve around the changing nature of war, but of social media itself. Its growth increasingly means that extremist groups no longer need journalists to tell their story – they’ve now got Twitter, Facebook and so on.

"They don't need us, they don't want us. They want to tell their story in their way from start to finish with nothing in between, and a journalist is a potential critical filter that they don't want to have around.”

"The larger world, however, needs us. They need us to get the real facts out or the complete story out. Not just one side as they want to tell it,” Pruitt continued.

A further evolution in conflict is seen by the agency boss in hostage-taking. For militant groups it has been an invaluable source of ransom money. That includes abducting journalists and this practice has been on the increase.

Taken together with developments in social media, the it also means journalists aren’t indispensable and are often used by terrorist groups to gain media attention. This can end in public beheadings, broadcast internationally, or in public humiliation, with the reporter being kept alive to report on the terrorists’ gains, as the crisis in the Middle East has shown.

READ MORE: ISIS hostage John Cantlie tells family: ‘Let me go, get on with your lives’

According to Pruitt, "a beheading becomes a bloody press release."

While the majority of slain journalists are attached to prominent news outfits, the AP want to make it their mission to include freelancers, who throw themselves into the conflict without proper training, eager to report on the fighting. Such skills, together with medical training and kits, should be the new standard, according to the agency chief.

Pruitt’s words follow a recent lawsuit by four journalists against the St. Louis police over their arrests during the Ferguson riots last August. They claim unlawful detention and mistreatment, which has also been on the rise lately.

READ MORE: Reporters arrested in Ferguson sue St. Louis police

According to the San Francisco-based Freedom of the Press Foundation, 24 journalists were arrested in Ferguson between August and November 2014, including RT’s Denise Reese.

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Test launch of Russia's new RS-26 ballistic missile successful — designer

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The test launch of Russia's solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile RS-26 in mid-March was successful, a senior official at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology told TASS on Tuesday.

"Yes, the launch was successful," said Vladimir Georgiyevsky, an assistant of the general constructor.

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Russia insists on take-or-pay term for gas supplies to Ukraine

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Russia insists on retuning to take-or-pay term for supplying Russian gas to Ukraine, despite the extension of winter package conditions, a source close to negotiations told TASS Tuesday.

Gas supplies to Ukraine in the second quarter should be implemented in accordance with the currently effective contract between Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz, which stipulates the take-or-pay condition, the source said. The contract also stipulates a gas discount, which Russia may give to Ukraine in the second quarter.

On March 20, after the trilateral gas talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that the take-or-pay regime will be resumed for Ukraine from April 1 as Naftogaz and Gazprom are currently considering the issue in the arbitration court.

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Russia needs serious reform, economic growth program — ex-finance minister

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Russia needs a serious program on new reforms and economic growth rates, former Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin said on Tuesday.

The ex-finance minister spoke at a roundtable discussion devoted to 15 years since Vladimir Putin was elected as Russia’s president.

"Unfortunately, during the current period of Putin’s presidency, economic growth will be just 1.5-2% from 2012 to 2018," Kudrin said.

"We have moved to a new growth level with low growth rates, which do not correspond to Russia‘s possibilities to be a real competitor in the world economy and ensure substantial rates of technological progress and, as a result, its military and economic might," the ex-finance minister said.

"Today we’re facing serious challenges. If the leadership of the country realizes them we will need a serious program on reforms and a recovery in growth rates," he said.

"If the rating is not used for carrying out reforms it’s just a rating for the sake of rating," he added.

According to the poll conducted by the Public Opinion Fund (POF) in March, the electoral rating of President Putin reached its new high of 75%.

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Russian strategic missile force drills involve over 3500 troops

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. More than 3,500 troops and 300 equipment units are involved in maneuvers of the Orenburg missile formation, spokesman for the Russian Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) Colonel Igor Yegorov told TASS on Tuesday.

"In accordance with the plan of the Strategic Missile Forces’ training in the period from March 31 to April 4, 2015 the Orenburg missile formation units are engaged in maneuvers under the command of RVSN Commander Colonel General Sergey Karakayev," Yegorov said.

On Monday, Yegorov told TASS that the main purpose of the exercise is to estimate the real state of affairs and combat readiness and check the commanders’ competence.

The exercise is to last through to April 4.

The Orenburg strategic missile unit is armed with Topol and Voyevoda missiles.

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Russian airborne force unit to get new combat gear for Arctic mission

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Paratroopers of the Airborne Forces formation in Ivanovo (Central Russia) will get new combat garments for the Far North and transpolar missions, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman for the VDV Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Meshkov said on Tuesday.

"The new outfit is to ensure comfortable conditions for the body in the Far North and transpolar regions’ landing missions at air temperatures minus 50 degrees Celsius," Meshkov said.

According to him, the paratroopers’ combat garment comprises several elements in which soldiers can take dynamic actions and also remain motionless for a long time in the cold. "Paratroopers in this garment will be able to wait out strong winds with sleet not suffering health damage even staying motionless. The uniform is designed for quick change and putting on of any of the garment element depending on the conditions," the spokesman said.

The Ivanovo paratroopers were among the airborne formations involved in a surprise inspection of the troops’ combat readiness in the Arctic that was conducted in the period from March 16 to 21. During the maneuvers they landed, in particular, on the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Joseph Land archipelagos and then took part in an exercise to defend the Olenegorsk airfield and the Northern Fleet headquarters from a simulated enemy.

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Russia's participation largely contributes to Paris Air Show popularity — chief executive

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The international Paris Air Show at Le Bourget largely owes its popularity to Russia’s participation, one of the world leaders in aircraft industry, the show’s chief executive and chairman Emeric d'Arcimoles said Tuesday.

"Russia is a traditional contributor to the Paris Air Show, and its participation largely contributes to the show’s popularity," he said at the air show presentation at the French Embassy in Moscow.

D'Arcimoles said that Russia’s largest aerospace industry representatives will be present at the Air Show, for example the United Aircraft Corporation and United Engine Corporation, Rostec, Russian Helicopters, VSMPO-AVISMA and others.

"The Russian aircraft industry recently was a subject to modernization. We participate in the process and, in particular, in the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft program," d'Arcimoles said. French aircraft company Snecma together with Russian company Saturn developed SaM-146 engine for Sukhoi Superjet.

"Today it is very difficult to build an aircraft alone, without international cooperation. We would like Russian-French cooperation to evolve," the show’s president said.

He noted that in October, 2015 the first Russian-French Forum on training in the field of aviation will be organized together with the Moscow Aviation Institute. "This will provide the opportunity to share experiences in the implementation of projects at the level of higher education institutions, as well as between industrial companies," d'Arcimoles said.

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Russian lawmaker criticises US for hampering formation of pan-European space

YEREVAN, March 31. /TASS/. Forming a pan-European space along the West-East line is hampered by Washington’s pressure, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin said on Tuesday.

"US and Brussels themselves drive Russia and its allies to build a new cooperation axis along the North-South line," Naryshkin said.

"We see that Washington’s pressure seriously hampers the formation of pan-European space along the West-East line from Lisbon to Vladivostok," the speaker said.

Talking about the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Naryshkin said the organization is working in uneasy conditions. "These are global crisis events, also illegal pressure. Talking clearly and sincerely, this is crude blackmail, economic and political, from Brussels and Washington, in the form of different sanctions and in general the escalation of international tensions," he stressed,

It becomes even more relevant to form a new, safe, sustainable and multi-polar world order where "centers of power are not in confrontation, but in cooperation with each other, where they solve their domestic problems not to the detriment of others, but instead relying on mutually beneficial, constructive cooperation with all regions in the world," Naryshkin said.

It is important to develop cooperation with other centers of power of the Eurasian continent - with EU and countries of Southeast and South Asia, the speaker said. The current situation only speeds up the development of cooperation along the North-South line - from Murmansk to Delhi, Shanghai and Hanoi, Naryshkin noted.

The speaker also drew attention to the fact that "the monopoly of foreign currency" has negative impact on international cooperation.

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Australia’s expanded sanctions against Russia come into force

SYDNEY, March 31. /TASS/. Australia’s expanded sanctions against Russia, first announced on September 1, 2014, came into effect on Tuesday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said.

The sanctions include restrictions on export and import of arms and related materiel, export to Russia of certain items for use in petroleum exploration and production, export to Crimea and Sevastopol of certain items for use in the energy and minerals sector.

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Ukraine's Donetsk republic accuses Kiev forces of truce breaches over past 24 hours

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military shelled populated areas on the territory controlled by the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) 19 times over the past twenty-four hours, the DPR Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Overall, 19 instances of shelling by the Ukrainian military involving tanks, air defense weapons, mortars and small arms were registered in the past twenty-four hours," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the DPR Defense Ministry as saying.

The Ukrainian military’s fire was directed at the populated areas of Shirokino, Spartak and Sakhanka. The Ukrainian army again shelled the Donetsk airport and the nearby Volvo center, the DPR Defense Ministry said.

No casualties were reported among self-defense militia or civilians, the DPR Defense Ministry said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Sunday the OSCE’s latest report on developments in east Ukraine was a cause for concern.

The OSCE observers said in their latest report that the neighborhood of Shirokino east of Mariupol had been massively shelled by the Ukrainian military on March 27. The monitors said the shelling began as soon as they left Shirokino. Self-defense fighters of the Donetsk Republic opened retaliatory fire, the observers said.

The German foreign minister said everything should be done to prevent a disruption of the ceasefire accords reached by the Ukrainian warring sides in February in Minsk.

The German foreign minister urged both the Ukrainian army and self-defense militia in east Ukraine to "follow the spirit and the letter of the Minsk accords and stop the shelling."

"It is not the first time that we were confronted with this during the crisis in Ukraine. If the process is halted, it will hardly be possible to avoid a new military escalation. We should consistently pursue the goal of continuing the political process," the German foreign minister said.

The ceasefire between the Ukrainian conflicting sides started from midnight on February 15. The ceasefire regime is stipulated in a package of measures for the implementation of the accords signed in Minsk on February 12.

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Shots fired in Virginia hospital during prisoner escape - reports

The incident happened in Invoa Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, Fairfax County Police spokesperson Ellen Pittman told CBS news.

She confirmed shots had been fired, but it was unclear who fired them or if anyone in the hospital was injured.

Trailer w addl equipment joins police @InovaHealth Fairfax Hosp that's locked down: "Active Shooter" event #WTOP http://ift.tt/1EvDqpl

— Kristi King (@kingWTOP) March 31, 2015

The hospital is on lockdown and the police are looking for an escaped prisoner, according to WUSA-TV.

The convict reportedly managed to overpower a policeman and take his weapon, said an ABC news correspondent on the scene.

There is large police presence in the hospital, WTOP-AM reported, adding there is currently no access to the establishment.

Fairfax County ambulances are reportedly ferrying patients to other hospitals.

Unconfirmed reports they are going room by room at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Large police presence here. http://ift.tt/1EvDoOn

— Zachary T. Kiesch (@ztkiesch) March 31, 2015

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US oil production growth at record 100-yr high in 2014

This is the sixth consecutive year that the US, with the help of horizontal drilling and fracking, has increased crude production.

Surges in output hailed from fracking states such as North Dakota, Texas, and New Mexico, the EIA’s report, published on Monday, said. The US shale revolution has made the US a net exporter and not an importer of oil. This major change in output level has had a downward trend on oil prices, which lost more than 50 percent in 2014 due to the global supply glut.

In terms of the growth rate, US oil production was up 16.2 percent last year, the biggest increase since 1940 and the largest yearly rise in more than six decades.

“Annual increases in crude oil production regularly surpassed 15 percent in the first half of the 20th century, but those changes were relatively less in absolute terms because production levels were much lower than they are now,” the report said.

OPEC, the group of 12 Gulf State oil producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, has forecast a possible decrease in shale production by the end of 2015, since tight oil production is more vulnerable to low, recently slashed oil prices.

READ MORE: US shale boom may be over by end of 2015 – OPEC

Weak global oil market prices have forced several US oil companies to either close down rigs, or worse, file for bankruptcy. In March 2015, there were 734 less active oil rigs in the US, according to Texas-based oil service company Baker Hughes. This compares with the total of 66 lost internationally. The next rig count will be published on April 2 at 1:00pm EST.

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Media: heads of Russian state-owned companies no longer obliged to disclose financial data

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree which excludes 23 top managers of state-owned companies and members of their families from the list of those who are obliged to disclose income information to the media, Kommersant newspaper citing a copy of the decree reported Tuesday.

Now only heads, their deputies, and chief accountants of "autonomous non-profit organizations, state-owned commercial institutions, state budgetary institutions, foundations, public companies and public corporations" have to publish financial data. Companies excluded from the list, still have to disclose the information on their income, expenditures and property liabilities to the government. But only heads of non-profit organizations have to reveal the information to the media.

"The company’s top management are not public employees, they work in business. The very presence of the state as a company’s shareholder does not change the company's status as a commercial entity. In this case, the top management of state-owned companies must provide information to the government, but it is also a commercial secret," PM spokesman Natalia Timakova said.

Non-government and budgetary organizations, according to Timakova, are "a different issue" - they are directly financed from the budget, so their management should report publicly.

Heads of state-owned companies were obliged to provide information to the government, but not to the general public in the summer of 2013. The list consisted of 62 companies, including Russian Railways, Rosneft, Gazprom, Rusnano, Sberbank, VEB, Rosneftegaz, Transneft. At the end of December, 2014 Medvedev signed a decree obliging heads of state companies to publish income data in the Internet.

Not all top managers agreed to the changes. In particular, the head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin in January said in an interview with Rossiya 24 channel, that he considered the requirement to be an unlawful invasion of privacy. But later he said he was ready to publish the data, since this was required by the government.

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Third of Ukraine’s GDP left in self-proclaimed republics — interior minister

KIEV, March 31. /TASS/. A third of Ukraine’s GDP has remained on the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), Ukrainian Interior Ministry Arsen Avakov said on Tuesday.

"It is difficult to speak about reforms when 30% of GDP has been left on the territories [of the self-proclaimed republics]. It is difficult to speak about reforms when society is engulfed by military operations in the east," Avakov told the 5th national expert forum "Ukraine. Stress Test."

The Ukrainian society needs "to have patience and pin hopes on the presumption of the police’s rightness during the reforms," Ukraine’s interior minister said.

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Economic analogue of USSR takes real shape

Under the conditions of low oil prices, the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union face serious economic problems. The population of the Eurasian Economic Union will increase by 50 percent as compared to the population of Russia. The dollar should not exist for us when we live within our own country

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Massive power cut has struck across Turkey

A widespread power shortage has been confirmed in 23 Turkish provinces, including Ankara and Istanbul. The subway system is at a standstill and flights across the country have also suffered setbacks.

Turkey’s Anadolu agency reports that the outages struck around 10:36am Turkish time, according to officials. Eleven out of 16 flight radar receivers are reported to be down, according to Turkish air traffic control. Flights in and out of the capital have been grounded.

This is the first outage event of such magnitude in 15 years, according to the daily Hurriyet paper.

@IvorCrotty dark.

— Lucy Kafanov (@LucyKafanov) March 31, 2015

Electricity blackouts in at least 23 Turkish provinces including Ankara and Istanbul. Metro trains grind to a halt.

— Isobel Finkel (@is_fink) March 31, 2015

#BREAKING: MORE PHOTOS FROM #TURKEYBLACKOUThttp://ift.tt/1bM5IQb

— Kaya Alexander Heyse (@KayaHeyse) March 31, 2015

A widespread power outage in Turkey is affecting flights. 11 of 16 FR24 receivers are down. http://t.co/F84acygyGx http://ift.tt/1adF2Ye

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 31, 2015

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

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‘Emergency alert’ sparks panic among TV viewers nationwide

A test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) began shortly before noon on Monday and was seen by millions of television viewers in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington, DC, Infowars reported.

READ MORE: March to martial law? Undercover Special Forces to sweep US Southwest

EAS is a special department run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Weather Service (NOAA/NWS).



The alert interrupted regularly scheduled television programs for 10 minutes with a listing of affected states and an announcement that the alert would remain in effect until midnight.

MSNBC emergency alert seems to have us all in trouble. It's frozen and is pretty broad. http://ift.tt/19vu932

— Paul Angelone (@PaulAngelone) March 30, 2015

Americans across the country took to social media to express a wide range of emotions – from bewilderment to panic – as the alert gave no indication that it was only a test.

Anyone else seeing this #emergencyalert on their TV right now?

— Julie Grauert (@JulieGrauert) March 30, 2015

While much of the alert was for the East Coast of the United States, viewers from as far away as Sacramento, California, also reported seeing the test.

So the emergency alert system is going off on my tv. Listing a couple dozen states... And it doesn't say "this is a test...."

— Jenn Coffill (@BecauseImCheap) March 30, 2015

The emergency alert follows shortly after reports that elite branches of the US military - including Green Berets, Navy SEALS and Special Operations from the Air Force and Marines - are preparing to hold military training in seven southwest states, with some troops operating incognito among civilians.

Emergency Alert System just broadcasted all the States but it's frozen. What the hell is going on?

— Kenneth Sitjar (@KSitjar) March 30, 2015

Operation Jade Helm, which is scheduled to kick off in July and run for eight weeks, will involve the participation of 1,200 troops in dozens of towns in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas and Utah.

#EmergencyAlert earlier, only #Infowars reported WTF! No mention of test anywhere, but we saw it. People Paniced. Not much on Google #ww3

— WarMonitor (@USCitizen95) March 31, 2015

No information was available indicating that the emergency alert was connected to this upcoming military drill, where Americans were asked to provide information on ‘suspicious’ activity to the authorities.

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Russia FM: situation in Yemen should not escalate into conflict between Arabs and Iran

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Moscow cannot allow for the situation in Yemen to turn into an open conflict between the Arabs and Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"It should not be allowed to deteriorate into a Sunni-Shia standoff," Lavrov said. "We have been warning about the serious threat of such a split inside Islam from the very start of the Arab Spring. We were not heard very well, or maybe we were heard, but they just chose not to take this into consideration. We cannot allow for this situation to turn into an attempt to unleash an open conflict between the Arabs and Iran," the foreign minister said.

The minister said any use of force in Yemen should be stopped.

"We are deeply concerned with the developments in Yemen. The situation should not get out of control," he said.

The minister said the sides should resume talks in neutral territory.

"The Ansar Allah group should stop military activities in the south of Yemen. The coalition should stop delivering air strikes at the territory of Yemen. Both sides - the side of President [Abd Rabbuh Mansur] Hadi, and the side of so-called Houthis - should restart negotiations," Lavrov said. "There is understanding that the talks should be [held] on neutral territory," he added.

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Explosive device detonated at railway station in Ukraine’s Kharkiv

KIEV, March 31. /TASS/. An explosive device has detonated in Ukraine’s Khrakiv at the Osnova railway station, press secretary of the Kharkiv prosecutor Vita Dubovik told journalists on Tuesday.

"Around 03:00am Moscow time on March 31, an explosive device detonated under a moving train at the Osnova railway station in Kharkiv. Five meters of railway was destroyed in the explosion, two empty cargo cars derailed," the Ukrainian news agency Levy Bereg (Left Bank) quoted Dubovik as saying.

"Preliminary qualification [of the incident] is sabotage," Dubovik said. No one was injured in the incident, she added.

Overnight to March 30, a fuel tank for Ukraine’s armed forces exploded at the Osnova railway station, Levy Bereg reported earlier.

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Evidence of torture in east Ukraine presented to Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly

HANOI, March 31. /TASS/. Video footage and printed matter in English giving evidence of violence against civilians of Ukraine’s southeast, including torture, have been presented at the 132nd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The documents were prepared and presented by the Russian parliamentary delegation. "The world must learn the truth about torture in Donbas, we have documentary evidence of violence against and killings of civilians by Ukrainian law enforcement troops," said Valentina Petrenko, a member of the Russian delegation.

People taken prisoner by Ukrainian troops had been questioned for the report, she said. "These materials tell us about hundreds of killed civilians, show thousands of destroyed civilian facilities, residential buildings, apartments," said Valentina Petrenko, member of the upper house’s committee for social policy and chairperson of the Mothers of Russia civic movement.

"We hope very much that the materials we are circulating among IPU delegations will help to draw attention of the global community to the developments in the southeast of Ukraine and to work out mechanisms to influence those fighting against the peaceful population," Petrenko added.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union, established in 1889, is an influential parliamentary organization brings together more than 160 countries.

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Lavrov: Chances to reach Iran nuclear deal ‘pretty good’

Lavrov interrupted his participation in the talks in in Switzerland's Lausanne on Monday for a meeting with a delegation from Vanuatu, a small Pacific nation recently devastated by a cyclone.

Later on Tuesday he is to return to the negotiations, which are in a make-or-break phase.

The chances of a breakthrough in the talks are high, but success is not guaranteed, Lavrov stressed during a joint media conference with his Vanuatu counterpart Sato Kilman. The parties have brought their respective positions close to a compromise, and the most important part now is not to be tempted to raise the stakes at the last moment in a bid to win extra benefits from the potential deal.

The Russian minister added that once a compromise is reached, the UN Security Council should dismantle the sanctions it imposed against Iran over its nuclear program. As for the unilateral sanctions imposed by the US and its allies, “we do not recognize them in any situation, whether it is Iran or any other country,” Lavrov noted.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

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Greece PM says his Moscow visit will lay new basis for Russian-Greek ties

ATHENS, March 31. /TASS/. The visit to Moscow due on April 8 is expected to lay the new foundation for the Russian-Greek relations, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in an exclusive interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman on Tuesday.

"This is a possibility for their true reset and for giving a new impetus to the Russian-Greek relations which have very deep roots in history and were hammered out in a joint struggle of our nations," Tsipras said.

The prime minister noted that over the past years the relations with Russia have been frozen: "I do not know if this is like the Siberian winter, but this was winter and now we are having spring and should support this spring for the real development of our relations," he said.

"We are in a geopolitical environment of special tensions and have common challenges, and we need to look at how we treat them," the prime minister said.

"We should see how our nations and countries can really cooperate in many spheres - economy, energy, trade, agriculture, and find out where we can help each other and, first of all, look into how our cooperation can be constructive as I indeed believe that Greece, as a member of the EU, can be a link and a bridge between the West and Russia," he said.

The prime minister suggested that the possibilities for strengthening relations between Greece and Russia could be also related to tourism and also various cultural events.

"In Russia, besides the very important meetings that I will have with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, I will also have a chance to make a speech in one of the central universities of Moscow," he said.

"From this point of view, I believe that the possibility of an exchange and cooperation at the educational level between the Greek and Russian universities is also a very important aspect of enhancing our mutual ties," Tsipras said.

According to the prime minister, 2016 is an important possibility for developing relations as this will be the cross-year of Russia and Greece.

"In 2015 we together mark the 70th anniversary of the Great anti-fascist victory and the victory of nations over Nazism," Tsipras said. "This anniversary has great importance both for the people of Russia and Greece. Our nations hammered out brotherly relations as they conducted a joint fight in the critically important historical moments," he said.

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Launching New Development Bank priority for BRICS — Brazilian diplomat

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 31. /TASS/. Launching the New Development Bank (NDB) and creating a reserve currency pool will be one of the top priorities for the BRICS countries during Russia’s presidency in the organization, Brazil’s sous-sherpa at BRICS, Director of Regional Mechanisms of the Foreign Ministry of Brazil Flavio Damico told TASS on Tuesday.

"During Russia’s presidency, we hope to see how mechanisms of our cooperation are developing and strengthening and [how] cooperation spheres are expanding," Damico said, commenting on the upcoming ceremony of handing over the presidency in the association to Russia on April 1. "Along with preparatory works on launching the Development Bank and a reserve currency pool in accordance with decisions made at the BRICS summit held in July last year in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza, the issues of ratifying the corresponding agreements will be discussed," he added.

"Here in Brazil we are currently working to speed up the ratification in the parliament," Damico said, adding that "Russia has gone ahead in this respect." On March 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on ratification of the agreement that stipulated establishing the New Development Bank by BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

Talking about the place and role of BRICS in the modern system of international relations, Damico said that the association "has been a significant factor in world affairs right from the moment of its establishment as countries in the group have big influence in decision-making on the international arena."

"After they began coordinating their actions, their influence has grown even more," the diplomat said. "Wide coordination between the BRICS countries became the new factor in the international life," he added. The countries in the organization are "very large and complex," and it is only logical that "there are spheres where coordination and cooperation are moving forward very fast and some spheres where more effort is needed to see tangible progress," Damico said.

The next BRICS summit will take place in Russia’s Ufa in July 2015.

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Japan extends North Korea sanctions as abduction investigation stalls

TOKYO, March 31. /TASS/. Japan has extended for two years unilateral sanctions against North Korea expiring on April 13, citing no progress in the investigation into abductions of Japanese nationals, the Japanese government reports on Tuesday.

The sanctions include a ban on trade with Pyongyang as well entry ban for North Korean ships into Japanese ports with an exception of humanitarian cases, it said.

The decision comes as no progress has been reached in talks on abducted Japanese nationals, with North Korea failing to present new information on the issue at consultations in January.

The problem of abducted Japanese nationals is a sticking point in ties between the two countries that don’t have official diplomatic relations. In 2002, Pyongyang for the first time acknowledged the abduction of only 13 Japanese nationals, allowing five of them to return to Japan.

The others were declared dead, while their relatives received remains the authenticity of which was not confirmed. Tokyo has repeatedly demanded from North Korea to settle the dispute once and for all, but until last year Pyongyang had insisted that the problem was settled.

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Red alert: Beijing partially bans traffic on heavy pollution days

Four types of pollution alerts, blue, yellow, orange and red, will be issued on ‘heavy pollution’ days, according to Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau. The term will be applied if the Air Quality Index tops 200.

Orange and red alerts are to be announced 24 hours before these heavily polluted days, Yao Hui, deputy head of the bureau, told Xinhua news agency.

Vehicles bearing odd- and even-numbered license plates will be allowed on the streets on alternating days during red alerts. Also 30 percent of government cars will be banished from the city traffic irrespective of their plate numbers.

Typical street #smog #pollution#beijinghttp://ift.tt/1Ev8UMi

— Angela Liu (@chairman_meows) March 23, 2015

All factories will be shut down during orange alerts. Heavy vehicles, such as construction trucks, will also be completely banned during orange and red alerts. The same system is applied to battle another big city problem – traffic jams.

READ MORE: Smog-beater: First hydrogen powered tram developed in China

Was up CCTV tower,sum smog which was annoying but still good understanding of sheer scale of this great city #Beijinghttp://ift.tt/19DQeME

— Ronnie (@RonnieJ1967) March 25, 2015

"With the new plan, strong pollution measures could be implemented more often and public health - particularly that of children - can be protected more effectively,” Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental based in Beijing, told the Global Times.

“The only concern is whether the government will be determined enough to issue red alerts considering the difficulties in implementing the controversial car ban," he said.

READ MORE: Air in 90% of China’s cities still not safe for breathing, despite ‘war on pollution’

Beijing smog life #beijing#baejing#chill#china#instacool#instagood#instamood#Inst… http://t.co/6oBSkehkyZhttp://ift.tt/1Ev8UMr

— Ethan Houston (@ethanzedler) March 26, 2015

Beijing is the world's most-polluted city. A map of air quality in the capital and other Chinese cities shows that numerous locations are smog-bound. In some areas the air quality index already tops 200.

On Tuesday, Plumelabs.com, a website that monitors 60 cities, indicated Beijing AQI (Air quality index) level of 176. It means that there is “critical level of pollution and harmful impacts on the general public” in the city.

#China#Beijing#北京#中國 Final night in #China includes a #gorgeous#sunset over #Beijing, filled with #kites, #smog… http://ift.tt/19DQhbc

— ooopsididit (@ooopsididit) March 26, 2015

READ MORE: China to shut down last Beijing coal power plant in 2016

China has been suffering a pollution crisis for decades which has left big cities shrouded in constant smog and half the groundwater contaminated. Pollution from the coal industry alone killed 670,000 people in China in 2012, according to last year’s study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Grim photo of the choking smog in Beijing on Jan. 15 taken by my colleague, Kim Kyung-Hoon. http://ift.tt/1Ev8V2T

— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) March 31, 2015

The level of air pollution in China was more than double the national standard in 2014 with the indicators of environmental pollution over the limit in 90 percent of 161 Chinese cities. The level of small particles that pose a danger to human health, averaged 85.9 micrograms per cubic meter in 2014 in Beijing compared with the national standard of 35.

Only eight of China’s 74 large cities have managed to meet official air safety standards in 2014, according to the Environmental Protection Ministry.

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