Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC) este detinuta in proportie de 80% de catre Gabriel Resources (TSX: GBU), o companie miniera canadiana de mica dimensiune, limitata financiar si neexperimentata care intentioneaza sa stramute localnicii din Rosia Montana pentru a realiza cea mai mare mina de aur de suprafata din Europa. Restul de 20% din actiuni sunt detinute de Minvest, o companie miniera de stat. Inca de la inceputul sau, acest aranjament a fost asaltat de scandaluri, probleme operationale si opozitie vehementa pe plan local, national si international. Compania miniera Newmont (NTSE: NEM) a achizitionat recent 10.8% din actiunile Gabriel Resources.

Incepand cu anul 2000, Consiliul Local Rosia Montana a adoptat numeroase hotarari al caror beneficiar direct este RMGC. Acestea se refera la concesionarea si cumpararea de terenuri, utilitati publice, modificarea planurilor urbanistice ale comunei si la protocoale de colaborare. De exemplu, in iulie 2002 Rosia Montana a fost declarata zona industriala rezervata exclusiv planurilor RMGC. Cel mai frapant efect al acestei hotarari este acela de interzicere a oricarei propuneri noi de dezvoltare incompatibile cu proiectul minier al RMGC.

La initiativa Alburnus Maior, Centrul de Resurse Juridice a solicitat Prefectului judetului Alba sa constate nulitatea absoluta a acestor hotarari dat fiind faptul ca majoritatea consilierilor locali din Rosia Montana care au participat la vot s-au aflat in conflict de interese. Potrivit sesizarii trimise Prefectului, conflictul de interese se datoreaza faptului ca numerosi consilieri precum si sotiile si/sau copiii lor sunt angajati ai RMGC si/sau Minvest. Potrivit articolului 47 (2) din Legea Administratiei Publice Locale, nu poate lua parte la deliberare si la adoptarea hotararilor consilierul care, fie personal, fie prin sot, sotie, afini sau rude pana la gradul al patrulea inclusiv, are un interes patrimonial in problema supusa dezbaterilor consiliului local.

?Orice proiect de asemenea proportii provoaca ilegalitati si este timpul ca autoritatile sa-si ia ochii de la brosurile lucioase ale RMGC si in schimb sa tina cont de ce sunt aici in primul si in primul rand?, a declarat Eugen David, Presedintele Alburnus Maior.

?Primarul Rosiei Montane si unii consilieri locali au incalcat legea si am sesizat in consecinta autoritatile competente. Daca nu iau masurile adecvate in termenul prevazut de lege, o sa actionam fiecare dintre aceste cazuri in instanta,? a adaugat Radu Nicolae, manager de proiect in cadrul Centrului de Resurse Juridice.

Centrul de Resurse Juridce este un ONG cu sediul in Bucuresti, infiintat in 1998. Actioneaza pentru crearea si functionarea unui cadru legal si institutional care sa asigure respectarea drepturilor omului si a egalitatii de sanse, pentru accesul liber la un act de justitie echitabil si contribuie la punerea in valoare a expertizei juridice in interesul tuturor persoanelor.

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Pentru mai multe informatii, va rugam contactati: Eugen David, Presedintele Alburnus Maior la 0740 280 309 si Radu Nicolae la Centrul de Resurse Juridice la 021 212 05 20.

Anuntul a fost facut miercuri de ministrul federal pentru consum Renate Kuenast, care a precizat ca parlamentul federal urmeaza sa adopte o lege in acest sens pana la sfarsitul lunii iulie.

Producatorii de tigari vor putea totusi sa-si faca reclama pe panouri publicitare si in salile de cinematograf, dar numai dupa ora 19.00.

Germania s-a opus multa vreme interzicerii publicitatii la tutun, iar in 2003 a facut un apel la Curtea Europeana de Justitie impotriva directivei UE, ramas inca nesolutionat.

Un nou studiu dat publicitatii miercuri a dezvaluit ca, in Germania, tinerii din grupa de varsta 12-17 ani fumeaza mai putin decat in urma cu cativa ani, datorita unui nou sistem de accizare care a ridicat pretul pachetului de tigari pana la 3,50-4,00 euro.Aceeasi politica a determinat scaderea vanzarilor la tigari cu aproape 16% in 2004.

And the insurance industry says this year will face unprecedented claims for damage from weather-related disasters.

Both sets of figures were released as ministers from 180 countries heard a message from the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging an end to doubts and delays on action to combat climate change.

The WMO reported that the average temperature of the world’s surface for 2004 was expected to be 0.44C higher than the mean for the period 1961-1990, making it the fourth hottest year since 1861, just behind 2003, but still well below the all-time record year of 1998.

New risks

And this year has been the most expensive ever for the insurance industry in terms of payouts for damage from natural disasters such as hurricanes and typhoons.

According to preliminary figures compiled by the leading re-insurer Munich Re, insured damage for the first 10 months of 2004 amounted to $35bn, with the United States facing the biggest bill of $26bn.

Overall economic losses, the majority of which were uninsured, are expected to be about $90bn.

Among the disasters singled out in the report are Hurricane Ivan, which devastated the island of Grenada in September, killing 28 people and causing an estimated $1bn in damaged homes, buildings and agricultural losses.

The report says the insurance industry is also worried that new climate-related risks may be emerging, such as Hurricane Catarina, which hit southern Brazil earlier this year.

It developed in the south Atlantic where the sea temperatures are normally too low for tropical cyclones to form.

homas Loster, a climate expert with Munich Re said: "As in 2002 and 2003, the overall balance of natural catastrophes is again clearly dominated by weather-related disasters, many of them exceptional and extreme.

"We need to stop this dangerous experiment humankind is conducting on the Earth’s atmosphere."

The figures were released as ministers gathered for the final stage of the UN conference to discuss future action on climate change.

‘Seize this moment’

The executive director of the UN environment programme Klaus Toepfer read a message from Mr Annan saying the eyes of the world were on the governments gathered in Buenos Aires.

Mr Annan said: "People ar?und the world want to know that you are working together, on a multilateral basis, to address this challenge with all your creativity and will.

"They want genuine signs that the days of delay and doubt are behind us. I call on you to seize this moment."

While it did not mention the US by name, the apparent reference was to the refusal of President George W Bush to take on targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions set by the Kyoto protocol, which comes into force next year.

A more obvious attack on the US position came from the President of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner.

He accused rich countries of double standards by insisting on the repayment of financial debt from the developing world, while refusing to acknowledge their own "environmental debt" – since it was the industrialised economies which created the build-up of greenhouse emissions, but the poor who will suffer the worst impacts of global warming.

Intr-o nota a CMP, prezentata Consiliului raional, se arata ca in teritoriul raionului functioneaza doar 36 din cele 96 de fantani arteziene, iar calitatea apei furnizata prin ele consumatorilor s-a inrautatit la toti indicii verificati, dar mai ales la componenta bacteriologica.

Potrivit studiului, cea mai poluata apa o beau locuitorii din localitatile rurale Buda, Tibirica, Dereneu, Niscani si altele.

In nota CMP se mai mentioneaza ca ?toate acestea se intampla in conditiile cand Consiliul raional a aprobat in 2003 un program de aprovizionare cu apa si canalizare a localitatilor raionului pe o durata de trei ani, care insa nu este executat de factorii de raspundere?.

Denumita ?HELP¬, campania isi propune sa ?debanalizeze acest obicei ucigas¬, punand ?accentul pe ridicolul tigarii¬, fara insa a-i condamna pe fumatori, mentioneaza documentul Comisiei.

Spoturile, in numar de trei, vor fi difuzate pe canalele de televizune din cele 25 de state-membre ale Uniunii Europene incepand din data de 7 iunie si vor fi reluate in luna septembrie.

Comisia Europeana isi propune, de asemenea, sa oblige producatorii de tagari sa insciptioneze pe pachete ?avertismente ilustrate¬, printre care fotografii cu plamani innegriti si dinti cariati de nicotina.

The life of the average Antarctic penguin chick is harsh enough at the best of times. But if predators and appalling weather were not enough to worry about, the birds now face something rather more menacing: a giant iceberg with the ominous name BI5A.

And its 1,200 square miles of ice and snow is floating between them and their next square meal.

According to scientists, as many as 50,000 penguin chicks face a cold, lonely and very hungry Christmas because B15A has blocked the birds’ route to open water and forced their parents to waddle more than 60 miles to find food.

The iceberg also threatens supply routes to three Antarctic research stations on the McMurdo Sound coast, where a US icebreaker and three cargo ships are scheduled to arrive next month.

Lou Sanson, chief executive of Antarctica New Zealand, called the iceberg "the largest floating thing on the planet right now".

It is part of an even bigger iceberg that broke loose from the mainland in 2000 and split into two in November 2003.

US experts reckon B15A contains enough fresh water to supply Egypt’s Nile River complex for 80 years – or to satisfy the water requirements of the UK population for 60 years.

It was drifting north at about 1.2 miles a day when it wedged between the land and a tiny island, where it now stops the wind and currents breaking up the thick layer of ice covering coastal waters. "There is more blocked ice in McMurdo Sound than we’ve ever recorded in living history for this time of year," Mr Sanson said.
The blocked ice causes real problems for the 50,000 breeding pairs of Adele penguins stranded miles from the open sea, where they catch krill to feed themselves and their growing chicks.

Keith Reid, a penguin expert with the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, said: "Adeles will often walk a long way back to their colonies to breed in the expectation the ice will disappear during the time they are incubating the eggs. But that’s not been happening, the ice hasn’t been blowing out."

Thousands of eggs are now hatching. "The adult penguins commute across the sea ice to the sea for food and this big iceberg has created a much longer walk," said Dr Reid. "It costs them a lot of energy to walk instead of swimming."

The adults will use all their food in the struggle back to the nests. And when they realise they cannot feed their chicks they will abandon them.

Biologists in New Zealand predict that only 10% of the breeding penguins will raise a chick this season – bird numbers in the?colonies could fall by up to 70%. Dr Reid said populations should recover in time.

Rescue is out of the question. "The Americans, New Zealanders and Italians are having difficulty getting their ships in to resupply their bases," Dr Reid said. "So it’s difficult to imagine them flying down a few tins of pilchards to feed several thousand penguins."

Este vorba de teritoriul nostru si de ariile protejate", avertizeaza ing. Romulus Stiuca, directorul Institutului National de Cercetare-Dezvoltare "Delta Dunarii" Tulcea (INCDDD). Solutiile propuse de institutul tulcean au fost aprobate deja de Guvern. Prioritatile ar fi decolmatarea a peste 300 kilometri de canale si a lacurilor afectate de excesul de aluviuni, aduse in partea romaneasca de lucrarile de constructii ale canalului ucrainean. Totodata, se au in vedere imbunatatirea circulatiei apei, reactivarea unor stavilare etc. "Pasarile, pestii si animalele din zonele distruse dincolo se indreapta spre noi. Or, noi trebuie sa extindem habitatele Deltei, ca zone de reproducere a pestilor si pasarilor. Un calcul minim arata ca acest canal va costa Romania peste 30 milioane de euro, in urmatorii 10 ani, pentru a-i rezolva efectele. Canalul Bastroe este, in fapt, vectorul excedentului de marfuri dinspre Occident spre Orient si al importurilor de materii prime din Orient. De aceea, suntem convinsi ca Uniunea Europeana ne va sprijini pentru a face fata acestui impact".
Vanatoarea a fost interzisa in Delta
"Efectul Bastroe" poate sa mai insemne si deteriorarea echilibrului biodiversitatii mediului deltaic. "In acest moment nu exista inca specii pe cale de disparitie. Avem in schimb specii periclitate. Cele 6 specii de sturion – nisetru, morunul, cega, pastruga, sipa si viza – in primul rand. Se stie, pentru reproducerea naturala ele migreaza din mare in Delta. Numai Marea Neagra si Marea Caspica mai detin aceste relicve vii ale planetei". SOS-ul lansat de specialistii tulceni pentru salvarea Deltei nu ocoleste nici activitatile cu grad mare de risc asupra mediului. "Demersul facut de noi la Ministerul Agriculturii pentru ca, prin lege, vanatoarea sa fie oprita cu desavarsire in ariile protejate n-a ramas fara raspuns. S-a aprobat, ceea ce este un lucru bun. Cat priveste pescuitul sportiv, marea atractie a turistilor de altfel, restrictiile se refera doar la folosirea uneltelor pescaresti. Pescuitul sportiv cu undita si lanseta este permis. Pentru pescuitul industrial s-a stabilit un plafon fix, de 3.000 de tone de peste recoltate de catre cei 1.500 pescari abilitati"

Carmen Chihaia

In parcurile Tineretului, Herastrau, Bazilescu, Cismigiu, National, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Obor si Carol. Vor fi organizate concursuri de desene pe asfalt, se vor distribui pliante si fluturasi cu mesaje privind riscurile fumatului.

In anul 1988 Organizatia Mondiala pentru Ocrotirea Sanatatii a declarat ziua de 31 mai – Ziua Mondiala fara Fumat. De atunci anul in diferite orase ale lumii se organizeaza campanii pentru promovarea conceptului "Societate eliberata de tutun".

Fumatorii, cu aceasta ocazie, pot zice "[b]Renunt Acum[/b]" (Quit Now) !!!

At a recent international summit of NGOs in Vienna ? preceding the EU Ministerial Meeting of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) ? WWF, together with 18 NGOs, called on Danube Basin countries and the European Commission to ensure that future shipping projects do not destroy the river.

"In contrast to many other European rivers, the Danube and its tributaries have a unique biodiversity," said Michael Baltzer, Conservation Director of WWF’s Danube-Carpathian Programme.

"It is a living lifeline that offers crucial benefits for people, such as drinking water, fisheries, tourism and forests that help flood prevention."

The EU Trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T) proposes to use the Danube more intensively for inland shipping and so-called "bottlenecks" ? the shallow waters of the Danube with the greatest ecological value are to be modified or destroyed. However, more than 65 per cent of the "bottlenecks" are either existing or potential Natura 2000 sites protected under the EU Habitats Directive.

The work would also affect three national parks ? Dunau Auen in Austria, and Duna-Ipoly and Duna-Drava National Parks in Hungary ? as well as 11 Ramsar wetland sites and one world heritage site in Wachau, Austria along the Danube basin. White pelicans, white-tailed eagles, and sturgeon are some of the species that will be threatened to any development.

WWF and the other NGOs have adopted a resolution that calls for ecologically sensitive implementation of shipping projects along the Danube basin, following the EU Water Framework Directive. It also asks to ensure public participation and to avoid new depth requirements beyond existing legislation. In addition, NGOs are calling for a European Environmental Co-ordinator to be appointed to help protect the environment.

WWF and its partners also urge the government of Ukraine and the European Commission to stop further construction works on the Ukrainian Danube?Black Sea Canal and to restore the damage that has been already done.

Notes:
? In 1972, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. This international agreement aims to protect landscapes of outstanding beauty and variety from destruction and to protect them as world heritage.

Three landscapes on t?e Danube have been declared World Heritage sites: the Danube Delta in Romania, the Srebarna Nature Reserve in Bulgaria, and since December 2000, the Wachau Cultural Landscape in Austria.

? The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was adopted in 1973. It aims at protecting internationally significant wetlands, which host rare or threatened animal or plant species. Most States along the Danube have Ramsar sites.

? On May 11, 2004, the Ukrainian government launched the construction of a canal to aid shipping through the Danube Delta. The government has chosen a route called the Bystroye Canal that will cut through the heart of the Ukrainian Danube Delta Biosphere reserve. Up to eight alternatives have been suggested for the route of the canal, including two endorsed by a special Ramsar and UNESCO mission to the Delta.

Alena, prima pensionara a centrului Vier Pfoten, o asociatie mai cunoscuta pentru eforturile de rezolvare a situatiei maidanezilor, a pus, inca de anul trecut, bazele unui proiect unic de salvare, crestere si apoi eliberare in padure a ursuletilor orfani. Acestia sunt crescuti in asa fel incat sa nu ramana dependenti de om. Ajunsi la maturitate, ei vor putea pleca din nou in salbaticie. Proiectul a inceput cu o mica ursoaica, botezata Alena, care fusese gasita si adoptata anul trecut, cu putin timp inainte de terminarea constructiei la orfelinatul de ursi din Muntii Harghitei. Apoi a fost descoperita Bruna, care s-a alaturat Alenei, mormaind fericita ca are o sora vitrega.
Fara ajutor, ursuletii mor de foame sau mancati de lupi
Cand centrul a fost gata, o echipa condusa de inginerul cinegetic Leonardo Bereczky, coordonatorul profesional al proiectului, a plecat in cautarea ursuletilor fara mama. Din grup mai fac parte un medic veterinar din Austria si doi asistenti. Ei au batut Bucegii, Muntii Harghitei, Vrancei si apoi s-au dus in zona Baile Herculane. Attila, puiul de un an, a fost descoperit aproape mort de frig, in zapada si dus de urgenta la Centrul de Salvare. Azi, Attila este sanatos, fara urme de rani si se dezvolta normal. Se joaca toata ziua cu ceilalti orfani ai centrului. De obicei, acesti pui sunt gasiti de catre lucratorii forestieri sau de salvamontisti. Ei au in fata doar varianta unei vieti in captivitate, prin circuri, gradini zoologice sau tarcuri private. intr-un singur an au fost descoperiti zece ursuleti. "Avand in vedere ca pana la varsta de trei ani puii sunt crescuti de mama, care nu numai ca le asigura hrana, dar ii si invata cum sa supravietuiasca si sa-si procure mancarea, orfanii abandonati in padure vor fi victimele ursilor adulti, ale lupilor sau vor muri de foame", ne-a spus Leonardo Bereczky.
Contactul cu omul i-ar transforma in tomberonisti
Ursuletii din "orfelinat" au nevoie de ingrijiri speciale. Ei trebuie pregatiti pentru viata din salbaticie, fara ca, ajunsi la maturitate, sa devina dependenti de om, fara sa astepte de la acesta hrana zilnica. Se cunoaste faptul ca multi dintre aceia care s-au obisnuit sa manance din mana turistilor au devenit ursi problema, hranindu-se cu gunoaie si atacand gospodariile. Asemenea exemple sunt ursii tomberonisti de la Brasov sau cei din Muntii Bucegi – Valea Cerbului, care sunt deja actori amatori pentru videocamerele turistilor. Pe masura ce invata sa se descurce singuri, ursuletii sunt lasati sa faca scurte iesiri prin vecinatatile impadurite. O data ce isi termina "educatia" si "antrenamentul", sunt eliberati si monitorizati permanent, datorita zgarzilor cu emitatoare telemetrice pe care le poarta la gat. Centrul Ursilor Orfani nu este deschis publicului, ci numai catorva oameni de stiinta, pentru a pastra universul acestor animale cat mai aproape de cel natural.