Belgium, Turkey to be involved in Iran’s Gas, Energy Market.

Belgium, Turkey Eye Presence in Iran’s Gas, Energy Market. (IranFrontpage).

The Belgian deputy prime minister said Brussels and Ankara will cooperate on major gas and energy projects in Iran under a joint venture agreement.

Didier Reynders said Friday that Belgium and Turkey have agreed to cooperate for construction of natural gas power plants and renewable energy projects in Iran in the wake of the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions.

“With the lifting of the embargos on Iran, there will be many changes in the energy sector and we will see new investments in the country,” Reynders said as quoted by Anadolu Agency.

“Turkish and Belgian companies are already cooperating in a number of projects,” he added.

There has been growing international interest in trade ties with Iran since Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015 finalized a comprehensive deal on Iran’s nuclear program and implemented it on January 16.

The comprehensive nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terminated all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran after coming into force. Hmmm.......Belgium has been planning this a long time, No wonder the Belgian king gave Erdogan a knighthood at his latest visit to Brussels.

Quoting materials from Iran Front Page is permitted only if the source is mentioned by name.

Related:  2015:  'Sanctions that Benefit' - Iranian MPs Visit Belgian Gas Transmission Firm.

               2014 - February 22 :  Belgium foreign affairs minister (in search of cheap natural gas) to meet Iranian counterpart in Tehran.

Europe made deal with 'Islamist' Turkey to keep receiving refugees in Future.

Europe made deal with 'Islamist' Turkey to keep receiving refugees in Future. (HD).

Merkel is aware that German population is aging at a rapid pace and the country needs immigrants. Unlike Turkey, which finds thousands on its doors every day, Germany wants to receive refugees in a more orderly way. 

What’s more, it wants to receive migrants that will more easily integrate into German society. That is only natural, as far as German government is concerned. After all, it wants to pursue a smooth integration policy for migrants that will create minimum disturbance of Germany’s socio-economic texture. That is also a point of concern in Turkey at the moment.


While the deal reached by Brussels and Ankara does not include a concrete article on the controlled flow of refugees to Europe, there seems to be an understanding between Berlin and Ankara that Germany, in addition to some other EU countries that it wants to convince, will continue to receive refugees through a mechanism established with Turkey.

They have already started to see how they can establish this mechanism, whereby some of the refugees will be able to make it to Germany legally.

Turkey is ready for such cooperation, but it does not want Germany to discriminate between refugees. A possible German tendency to cherry-pick – perhaps focusing on Christians or more educated refugees - might emerge as one of the most controversial issues in the upcoming cooperation between the two countries over refugees.

Cherry-picking… Let’s hope that the German “policy of societies” can go further than that. Hmmm.....What else did EU[Rabia] agree to ? Read the full story here.

Related:    U.S.All Employment Growth Since 2000 Went to Immigrants

@MarietjeSchaake @nytimes Have you seen the @ESI_eu proposal? https://t.co/N77iyQ7PWq

— Paul T. Levin (@PaulTLevin) November 29, 2015

The #EU is committed to provide an initial 3 billion euro of additional resources. It's obvious this is only the start of 'milking' the #EU

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) November 30, 2015

'Sanctions that Benefit' - Iranian MPs Visit Belgian Gas Transmission Firm.

'Sanctions that Benefit' - Iranian MPs Visit Belgian Gas Transmission Firm. (Fars).

Iranian lawmakers of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) who are also members of the Iran-Belgium Parliamentary Friendship Group visited the Fluxys Belgium company which is a gas transmission operator in Europe.

The Iranian chairman of the group, Abbasali Mansouri, is heading the five-member delegation visiting Belgium on the invitation of the Belgian chairman of the group, Dirk Van der Maelen, member of the Chamber of Representatives or the lower house of the Federal Parliament.

During their stay, the Iranian MPs are scheduled to meet their counterparts as well as speakers of the Belgian legislative chambers, foreign minister, and deputy foreign minister.

Promotion of parliamentary relations, facilitation of trade and economic ties, cooperation in energy fields, and exchanging views on regional and international developments are on the agenda of visit.

Related: 

 2014 - February 22 :  Belgium foreign affairs minister (in search of cheap natural gas) to meet Iranian counterpart in Tehran.

Sen. Schumer Demands Airlines Ground Their Plan To Reduce Size Of Allowable, Carry-On Luggage, slams corporate greed.

Sen. Schumer Demands Airlines Ground Their Plan To Reduce Size Of Allowable, Carry-On Luggage, slams corporate greed. (Matzav).

Senator Charles E. Schumer today urged major air carriers to scrap a proposed policy made this week that would reduce the size of carry-on luggage for travelers.

Currently, the maximum carry-on size for American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines is 22 inches tall, 14 inches wide and 9 inches deep. The global trade association for the airline industry, known as International Air Transport Association (IATA), recently proposed standardizing carry-on luggage to a size of 21.5 inches tall, 13.5 inches wide and 7.5 inches deep, which would reduce carry-on bag sizes by more than twenty percent.

Schumer explained that if this proposal becomes reality, air travelers may be forced to spend hundreds of dollars on new luggage in order to meet the new criteria. In addition, travelers who may normally rely on carry-on luggage when traveling may be forced to check their bags and therefore, spend money on fees they’ve never been subject to prior.

“Enough already,” said Senator Schumer. “The airlines already charge more for checked baggage, pillows, peanuts and head phones. It’s got to stop.”

“With already sky-high airfares, travelers should not be forced to spend hundreds of dollars on new carry-on luggage to fit this newly proposed policy for airlines,” said Senator Schumer. “I am urging airlines to ground any attempts to change the current carry-on luggage policies that travelers are already familiar with and accustomed to. Air travelers should not be forced to pay more fees or buy new luggage.”

Schumer also pointed out that IATA this week also projected industry profits to reach an all-time high of nearly $30 billion in 2015.

In 2010, Schumer successfully fought back against an airline proposal to charge for carry-on bags. Schumer reached out to airline chief executives and urged them to reconsider the idea. Airlines heeded the call.

Video - Iran the ME China? Iran's nuclear issue, possible lifting of sanctions

The west needs Iran, Iran’s oil and gas reserves, Sidqi Shevket, head of Azeri Daily Website, told Trend on "This Week in Focus".

Shevket said that in terms of proven gas reserves, Iran is second in the world, while also fourth in terms of having proven oil reserves.

The EU is trying to build energy security and it means that they have to diversify their flows of energy resources, he said, adding that it is not about the replacement but about being added to the supply scheme.

"The EU does not want to cease buying gas from Russia, they just want to have many sources of energy sources,” he said.

The expert believes that by the end of June Iran and P5+1 group of countries will probably achieve the final agreement, as the fact that the sides reached the framework agreement is a very big step forward.

Another important factor, according to Shevket, was that both Barack Obama and Hassan Rohani have been moving forward, despite all the opposition from both conservative circles in Iran itself, and the US, despite what Israel has been saying.

“They have moved forward because that is in the interest of the West which is trying to solve some of the regional problems with the help of Iran,” said Shevket. “And it is in the interest of Iran itself from the economical point of view.”

He said that Iran has great economic potential, and during so many years under sanctions, this country proved that it can sustain its economy. And while not verything is as well as people of Iran might wished for, but the country has still been developing despite all the sanctions, all negative imaginary, Shevket believes.

So if the sanctions are removed, it is obvious that Iran is going to achieve very high level of economic development, he said.

“In my opinion, it is important to see that Iran might become a very attractive country for foreign investors as well,” said Shevket. “I am not speaking just about its oil and gas reserves.”

What is important, Shevket says, is that Iran is a pragmatic partner.

The recent nuclear negotiations between Iran and P5+1 group of countries proved that Iran has pragmatism as one of the characteristics which is inherent to the Tehran authorities, despite all the ideological differences that Iran might have with the West and vice versa, according to Shevket.

The agreement will be important mainly for those parts of the world where Iran has certain influences, he said. Then all other kinds of political and economy deals could be possible, according to Shevket.

Two activists “evict” Jesus from the Grande Place nativity scene in Brussels.

Two activists from the Anonymous collective “evict” Jesus from the Grande Place nativity scene in Brussels. (BT).

Two activists from the Anonymous collective, a group that presents itself as anarchic-poetic, entered the Grande Place nativity scene on Tuesday afternoon to symbolically evict the occupants.

Disguised as police officers, they wanted to denounce the Michel government’s policies. “We evicted a poor family who were probably illegal refugees.

They had been insolently squatting on our cherished Grande Place. Through this ironic gesture, we want to show our support for the Michel government and its new measures to punish those really responsible for the economic crisis”, said an Anonymous activist.

“We approve the government’s very therapeutic persecution of the unemployed, because although there is only one job available for 60 unemployed, we all know they are unemployed on purpose. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. We also applaud the criminalization of social movements”, he added.

“We are for a modern government that isn’t scared to say its right-wing, that it will be all against all, that the last will be the last. That solidarity and craftsmanship are finished. A government that listens to multinational companies’ plans to make an even more market-based and dissocialized town.

A government that supports the enlargement of the wonderful global European market. And to finish, lets the rich lull about in their tax havens. It was about time”, he concluded.

Global warming Wackiest theory EVAH ! - "Ants Can Save Earth From Global Warming"

Global warming Wackiest theory EVAH ! - "Ants Can Save Earth From Global Warming".(NDtv).

Ants may be cooling the Earth by helping trap carbon dioxide from the environment, a new study has claimed.

A long-term experiment tracking the ants' effects on soil suggests they cooled Earth's climate as their numbers grew.

"Ants are changing the environment," said lead study author Ronald Dorn, from the Arizona State University in Tempe.

Certain ant species "weather" minerals in order to secrete calcium carbonate - better known as limestone. The process traps and removes a tiny bit of carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere, Dorn said.

This ant limestone factory is a small-scale version of the massive planetary-cooling process that takes place in the oceans, known as carbon sequestration, 'Live Science' reported.

Dorn discovered that ants were powerful weathering agents by tracking the breakdown of basalt sand.

His experiment shows that ants appear to break down the minerals 50 to 300 times faster than sand left undisturbed on bare ground.

According to Dorn, the ants may be scavenging calcium and magnesium from the minerals and using these elements to make limestone.

In the process, the insects may trap carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in the rock, the report said.Hmmm...It's true the lunatics are running the Asylum.

Revealed: Thousands of Irish orphans were used as ‘vaccine guinea pigs’ for pharmaceutical firms.

Revealed: Thousands of Irish orphans were used as ’vaccine guinea pigs'  for pharmaceutical firms.(DM).

Scientists secretly vaccinated more than 2,000 children in religious-run homes in suspected illegal drug trials, it emerged today.

Old medical records show that 2,051 children and babies in Irish care homes were given a one-shot diphtheria vaccine for international drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome between 1930 and 1936.

There is no evidence that consent was ever sought, nor any records of how many may have died or suffered debilitating side-effects as a result.

The scandal was revealed as Irish premier, Enda Kenny, ordered ministers to see whether there are more mass baby graves after the discovery that 800 infants may be buried in a septic tank outside a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.

The Taioseach intervened from the United States yesterday to say that he had ordered his officials to 'see what the scale is, what's involved here, and whether this is isolated or if there are others around the country that need to be looked at.' Michael Dwyer, of Cork University’s School of History, found the child vaccination data by trawling through tens of thousands of medical journal articles and archive files.

He discovered that the trials were carried out before the vaccine was made available for commercial use in the UK. Homes where children were secretly tested included Bessborough, in Co. Cork and Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, both of which are at the centre of the mass baby graves scandal.

Other institutions where children may also have been vaccinated include Cork orphanages St Joseph’s Industrial School for Boys, run by the Presentation Brothers, and St Finbarr’s Industrial School for Girls, run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. In Dublin, it is believed that children for the trials came from St Vincent’s Industrial School, Goldenbridge, St Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys, Cabra, and St Saviours’s Dominican Orphanage.

But Mr Dwyer said: 'What I have found is just the tip of a very large and submerged iceberg. '

The fact that no record of these trials can be found in the files relating to the Department of Local Government and Public Health, the Municipal Health Reports relating to Cork and Dublin, or the Wellcome Archives in London, suggests that vaccine trials would not have been acceptable to government, municipal authorities, or the general public.

'However, the fact that reports of these trials were published in the most prestigious medical journals suggests that this type of human experimentation was largely accepted by medical practitioners and facilitated by authorities in charge of children’s residential institutions.'

Following the discovery and reports of medical tests, Irish Premier Enda Kenny ordered ministers to search for further mass baby graves.

The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has called for an investigation in Tuan independent of the Catholic Church since “mother and baby homes” mostly operated in Ireland from the 1920s to 1960s, when Catholic policy and control of social services reached their zenith.

“We have to look at the whole culture of mother and baby homes; they’re talking about medical experiments there,” he told RTE Radio at the weekend.

“They’re very complicated and very sensitive issues, but the only way we will come out of this particular period of our history is when the truth comes out.”Read the full story here.

Related:

Ireland - Nine missing women may also be in Septic Tank mass baby grave.

"US won't be successful in deterring multinationals from doing business with Iran"

"US won't be successful in deterring multinationals from doing business with Iran"(Taz).

After Iran and the P5+1 group reached an agreement regarding Iran's nuclear status on Nov. 24, the Islamic Republic agreed to curb some of its nuclear activities for six months in return for some relief on the sanctions imposed by the international community.

Following this change in policy, international companies started expressing their interest in doing business with Iran once again. Iran, in turn, continues to try and draw in foreign companies, encouraging them to return, invest, and receive benefits.

The advice from the U.S. on the other hand to foreign companies is not to get too excited over what might appear to be positive outcome in the negotiations. As cautioned Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Sherman last Feb. 4, "Iran is not open for business."

Explained the State Department official; "Since sanctions relief is temporary, quite limited and quite targeted." Sherman also warned that the US told the companies who want to start dealing with Iran again that "they are putting their reputations, themselves and their business enterprises at risk..."

Teaching fellow of the Department of Politics and International Studies of SOAS (University of London), Dr. Shirin Shafaie believes that to understand and assess current US approach towards Iran and the most recent nuclear deal, one should consider the wider historical context of US-Iran relations.

Coming back to what Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman said with regard to companies considering doing business with Iran, Shafaie said her comments are perfectly in line with the US historical policy towards Iran.

"Mrs. Sherman is trying to make clear to these companies that the US is not interested in making a genuine deal with Iran; that her country has no intention of acknowledging and respecting Iranian national independence and sovereignty," Shafaie said. "Therefore she is politely asking them not to get too excited about the US tactical and most probably short-term change of attitude vis-à-vis Iran."

"Perhaps she is giving them clues as what is to follow the recent nuclear deal, i.e. "temporary, quite limited and quite targeted" sanctions relief in return for long-term limitations on Iran's nuclear energy program," Shafaie noted. "Moreover, the Western coercive measures are likely to continue until the day when Iran's national independence and by extension its indigenous nuclear energy program become virtually non-existent."

Shafaie said that in other words Mrs. Sherman might be warning businesses about the long duration of this process which will nevertheless need to contain short episodes of seemingly genuine negotiations, even some initially promising deals, in order for the process to be sustainable in the long term.

"Thus, according to the US government, these momentarily episodes should not be mistaken for a real change in the US approach towards Iran and the American wider agenda for the region," she said.

"Having said that, I do not think that the US government will be very successful in deterring international companies from doing business with Iran for much longer," she suggested. "The US is simply not in a position to dictate who can do what throughout the world."Read the full story here.