Friday, January 10, 2020

On Tuesday, the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reasserted the openness of the EastMed project, which is aimed at connecting the Eastern Mediterranean gas fields with the European mainland via a pipeline through contested waters.

In his Tuesday live-streamed talk at the United States think tank Atlantic Council’s Washington headquarters, Mitsotakis reaffirmed that the EastMed project, which currently involves Greece, Cyprus and Israel, is open for other countries to join. “We don’t seek to exclude anyone from energy cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean provided they respect international law”, he said, repeating his January 2 remarks made on the EastMed signing ceremony.

He also commented on the Turkish-Libyan maritime border agreement, calling it “null and void” and “geographically ridiculous”. “The agreement assumes that our islands, including our biggest island Crete, does not have an exclusive economic zone, which goes against everything we know in international law”, he added. He also noted that the Libyan House of Representatives rejected the demarcation, and that Greece and Turkey might end up before International Court of Justice in the Hague if talks would fail. Mitsotakis underlined they keep channels to Turkey open for dialog and that he would be “very-very happy if Turkey were to reconsider its overall approach”.

Later on Tuesday Mitsotakis met with the International Monetary Fund, then with President Trump, where he denounced the border agreement again. In regard of clashing exclusive economic zone claims, he noted “it is important to point out that the agreement signed between Turkey and Libya infringe upon Greece’s sovereign rights”.

On last Thursday, the delegations of Cyprus, Greece and Israel had met for their seventh trilateral summit, that time in Athens at the Zappeion Hall, to sign an agreement to construct the EastMed pipeline by 2025. The meeting was attended by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and energy minister Yuval Steinitz, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and energy minister Konstantinos Hatzidakis, and Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades and energy minister Georgios Lakkotrypis. The agreement was signed by the energy ministers. Greek daily Kathimerini said Greece and Cyprus had to speed up to counter possible Turkish interference with the project.

Earlier that day, the Greek gas producer Energean signed a letter of intent on selling two billion cubic meters of gas per year to the Greek gas supplier DEPA. The planned pipeline capacity is 10 billion cubic meters per year. Energean has committed 1.7 billion dollars in the Karish and Tanin fields.

With this forming of political and economic alliance with Hellenic countries, Netanyahu envisioned the pipeline to end their “fringe country” status. Netanyahu called on Italy and Egypt to join the project, adding “We call on any other country that wishes to join us to do so”. In Cyprus, the ruling Democratic Rally in Cyprus hailed the pipeline as an advancement in the nation’s sovereignty. Progressive Party of Working People, the main opposition force, underlined that the agreement is only a legal framework, and actual construction is in the hands of still undecided private investors. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy underlined Turkish and Turkish Cypriot mining rights in the region, and projected a failure if these would be overlooked.

Otranto, Italy is a proposed end point for the pipeline, and Italian economic development minister Stefano Patuanelli sent a letter of support prior to the signing, but the minister said they are to build another pipeline to Igoumenitsa, Greece. The United States expressed its support via the December 20 signing of the Eastern Mediterranean Bill, a July 25 quadrilateral meeting in Washington, and sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to join the trilateral meeting of EastMed countries on March 20 last year. The EU partially funded the feasibility studies, as it considers the EastMed pipeline to be a Project of Common Interest (PCI), ending the energy isolation of Crete and Cyprus, and diversifying the gas supply of Europe, when completed.

In December, a Turkish official said that the trans-Anatolian pipeline, which is already up and running, renders the EastMed building effort unnecessary, Cyprus Mail reported. On November 27, Turkey and Libya signed a maritime border agreement, according to which a section between Crete and Cyprus would cross the Turkish economic zone. Athens expelled the Libyan ambassador to Greece over this issue. Turkey maintains a position that only Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey, has the right to the exclusive economic zone around the island. Because of its drilling operations there, Turkey is already under EU sanctions, and was condemned in a joint statement by Egypt, Greece and Cyprus on October 8.

In 2017, a memorandum of understanding about the pipeline was signed between Cyprus, Greece and Israel.

According to the Cyprus Mail, the 2000 km long pipeline is to connect the fields with Crete, the Greek mainland, and would end in Otranto, Italy. The May 2019 map of gas routes by Gas Infrastructure Europe draws the pipeline between the Aphrodite gas field and Thesprotia, Greece, where it merges with the Poseidon line en route to Italy.

Alex Lagakos, deputy director of the Greek Energy Forum, said the project has a geopolitical significance rather than an economic one. He called it unlikely that the EU would finance the project, as it has committed itself to green energy. The estimated cost is six billion euros, but the saturation of the gas markets and competition from liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals are likely to keep private investors away, he noted. Egypt has two usable terminals in the Nile-Delta, in Damietta and Idku. On September 19, 2018, Cyprus and Egypt had signed an alternative deal to export Aphrodite gas through these ports via a new pipeline.

Haifa University geostrategy expert and former Israeli security official, Avinoam Idan, said the new EastMed supply can’t be considered a significant geopolitical change to Europe’s energy market, as it would not affect the market share of Russian gas. In the analysis of the German Institute for Economic Research, the high costs and technical challenges render the project unrealistic.

During the trilateral meeting of Cyprus, Greece and Israel on January 28, 2016, the then-envisioned EuroAsia Interconnector was considered as an alternative route to export the gas as electricity. The 1000 megawatt underwater cable connecting the three power grids is to be completed by December 2023. The estimated cost is 2.5 billion euros, and the EU considers it a PCI. EuroAfrica Interconnector, a similar project between Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, is also in its planning stage.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald has performed an interview with Dr Isabella Margara, a London-based member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In the interview Margara sets out the communist response to current events in Greece as well as discussing the viability of a communist economy for the nation. She also hit back at Petros Tzomakas, a member of another Greek far-left party which criticised KKE in a previous interview.

The interview comes amid tensions in cash-strapped Greece, where the government is introducing controversial austerity measures to try to ease the nation’s debt-problem. An international rescue package has been prepared by European Union member states and the International Monetary Fund – should Greece require a bailout; protests have been held against government attempts to manage the economic situation.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Recently, Wikinews spent time with with Canadian Paralympic skier Vanessa Knight who was at Copper Mountain, Colorado for the IPC Nor-Am Cup.

((Wikinews)) We’re interviewing Vanessa Knight, who’s from Canada.

Vanessa Knight: That’s right!

((WN)) And what kind of skier are you?

Vanessa Knight: I am a disabled racer. I have a left arm amputation and I’m a speed skier.

((WN)) So you’re one of the standing skiers.

Vanessa Knight: Yes.

((WN)) I’ve been asking a lot of Paralympic disability skiers, what is the craziest skier of the slope? The standing ones, the blind ones, or the mono skiers?

Vanessa Knight: Oh my God, the blind ones for sure. I couldn’t imagine throwing myself down a hill without seeing anything. Especially the B1s. They have duct tape on their goggles.

((WN)) Where from Canada are you from?

Vanessa Knight: I’m from Quebec. Montreal.

((WN)) And how long have you been skiing?

Vanessa Knight: I’ve just entered my fourth year.

((WN)) And are you going to Sochi?

Vanessa Knight: I hope so!

((WN)) Are you going to beat… oh! Australia doesn’t have any skiers for you to beat. Do you think the level of competition for women’s disability skiing is high enough to give the sport a future?

Vanessa Knight: I think the level of competition is high enough, yes. But I still think we need more racers and people to get involved and really promote the sport, because, I mean, the more the merrier, right?

((WN)) Why are there so many men in skiing compared to women?

Vanessa Knight: I guess some girls are just scared and they don’t want to throw themselves out there. But I’m not like that and neither are the rest of the girls here. They’re not afraid to throw themselves down a hill and go fast.

((WN)) Do you think skiers are some of the craziest Paralympic athletes?

Vanessa Knight: Oh definitely.

((WN)) Is there anything you want to say about disability skiing in Canada that people in Australia or the world should know?

Vanessa Knight: Pretty much to say: It’s really cold in Canada. And we love it!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World‘s fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering “in the woods” of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World in painting and animals. Below is David Shankbone’s interview with the soap diva.

Saturday, November 4, 2006

On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Don Valley East (Ward 33). One candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Zane Caplan, Shelley Carroll (incumbent), Jim Conlon, Sarah Tsang-Fahey, and Anderson Tung.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A team of eight transplant surgeons in Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA, led by reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow, age 58, have successfully performed the first almost total face transplant in the US, and the fourth globally, on a woman so horribly disfigured due to trauma, that cost her an eye. Two weeks ago Dr. Siemionow, in a 23-hour marathon surgery, replaced 80 percent of her face, by transplanting or grafting bone, nerve, blood vessels, muscles and skin harvested from a female donor’s cadaver.

The Clinic surgeons, in Wednesday’s news conference, described the details of the transplant but upon request, the team did not publish her name, age and cause of injury nor the donor’s identity. The patient’s family desired the reason for her transplant to remain confidential. The Los Angeles Times reported that the patient “had no upper jaw, nose, cheeks or lower eyelids and was unable to eat, talk, smile, smell or breathe on her own.” The clinic’s dermatology and plastic surgery chair, Francis Papay, described the nine hours phase of the procedure: “We transferred the skin, all the facial muscles in the upper face and mid-face, the upper lip, all of the nose, most of the sinuses around the nose, the upper jaw including the teeth, the facial nerve.” Thereafter, another team spent three hours sewing the woman’s blood vessels to that of the donor’s face to restore blood circulation, making the graft a success.

The New York Times reported that “three partial face transplants have been performed since 2005, two in France and one in China, all using facial tissue from a dead donor with permission from their families.” “Only the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip, lower teeth and jaw are hers, the rest of her face comes from a cadaver; she could not eat on her own or breathe without a hole in her windpipe. About 77 square inches of tissue were transplanted from the donor,” it further described the details of the medical marvel. The patient, however, must take lifetime immunosuppressive drugs, also called antirejection drugs, which do not guarantee success. The transplant team said that in case of failure, it would replace the part with a skin graft taken from her own body.

Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital surgeon praised the recent medical development. “There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.

Leading bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania withheld judgment on the Cleveland transplant amid grave concerns on the post-operation results. “The biggest ethical problem is dealing with failure — if your face rejects. It would be a living hell. If your face is falling off and you can’t eat and you can’t breathe and you’re suffering in a terrible manner that can’t be reversed, you need to put on the table assistance in dying. There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.

Dr Alex Clarke, of the Royal Free Hospital had praised the Clinic for its contribution to medicine. “It is a real step forward for people who have severe disfigurement and this operation has been done by a team who have really prepared and worked towards this for a number of years. These transplants have proven that the technical difficulties can be overcome and psychologically the patients are doing well. They have all have reacted positively and have begun to do things they were not able to before. All the things people thought were barriers to this kind of operations have been overcome,” she said.

The first partial face transplant surgery on a living human was performed on Isabelle Dinoire on November 27 2005, when she was 38, by Professor Bernard Devauchelle, assisted by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard in Amiens, France. Her Labrador dog mauled her in May 2005. A triangle of face tissue including the nose and mouth was taken from a brain-dead female donor and grafted onto the patient. Scientists elsewhere have performed scalp and ear transplants. However, the claim is the first for a mouth and nose transplant. Experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant.

In 2004, the same Cleveland Clinic, became the first institution to approve this surgery and test it on cadavers. In October 2006, surgeon Peter Butler at London‘s Royal Free Hospital in the UK was given permission by the NHS ethics board to carry out a full face transplant. His team will select four adult patients (children cannot be selected due to concerns over consent), with operations being carried out at six month intervals. In March 2008, the treatment of 30-year-old neurofibromatosis victim Pascal Coler of France ended after having received what his doctors call the worlds first successful full face transplant.

Ethical concerns, psychological impact, problems relating to immunosuppression and consequences of technical failure have prevented teams from performing face transplant operations in the past, even though it has been technically possible to carry out such procedures for years.

Mr Iain Hutchison, of Barts and the London Hospital, warned of several problems with face transplants, such as blood vessels in the donated tissue clotting and immunosuppressants failing or increasing the patient’s risk of cancer. He also pointed out ethical issues with the fact that the procedure requires a “beating heart donor”. The transplant is carried out while the donor is brain dead, but still alive by use of a ventilator.

According to Stephen Wigmore, chair of British Transplantation Society’s ethics committee, it is unknown to what extent facial expressions will function in the long term. He said that it is not certain whether a patient could be left worse off in the case of a face transplant failing.

Mr Michael Earley, a member of the Royal College of Surgeon‘s facial transplantation working party, commented that if successful, the transplant would be “a major breakthrough in facial reconstruction” and “a major step forward for the facially disfigured.”

In Wednesday’s conference, Siemionow said “we know that there are so many patients there in their homes where they are hiding from society because they are afraid to walk to the grocery stores, they are afraid to go the the street.” “Our patient was called names and was humiliated. We very much hope that for this very special group of patients there is a hope that someday they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things we take for granted,” she added.

In response to the medical breakthrough, a British medical group led by Royal Free Hospital’s lead surgeon Dr Peter Butler, said they will finish the world’s first full face transplant within a year. “We hope to make an announcement about a full-face operation in the next 12 months. This latest operation shows how facial transplantation can help a particular group of the most severely facially injured people. These are people who would otherwise live a terrible twilight life, shut away from public gaze,” he said.