Christian groups in South Korea are calling on the World Evangelical Alliance to put on hold plans for its next General Assembly in Seoul next year.

[Politics] :
The special counsel bill mandating an investigation for first lady Kim Keon-hee has passed in the National Assembly. The main opposition Democratic Party introduced the bill, its third attempt following presidential vetoes for previous bills, and all 191 lawmakers present voted in its favor in a plenary ...

[more...]

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 10:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Mentor: Daniel Klionsky
Check the MCDB Weekly update for the password.

VIENNA, 20 July 2016 – Presenting the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s work concerning the refugee and migrant crisis at a special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna today, Swiss parliamentarian Filippo Lombardi laid out the Assembly’s plan of action going forward, which includes monitoring the situation on the ground and developing policy recommendations for the OSCE and its participating States.

The meeting was convened by the OSCE German Chairmanship to present and discuss the report by Amb. Claude Wild, Chair of the OSCE Informal Working Group Focusing on the Issue of Migration and Refugee Flows. The participants discussed in particular the importance of improving global migration governance and how the OSCE can lend its contribution to promoting regional implementation of a global migration governance architecture.

Lombardi noted that the OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Migration, which he chairs, has been active in three main areas, including by organizing field visits, strengthening co-operation with the OSCE and other international actors, and promoting discussions on the migration crisis within the OSCE PA.

“The migration and refugee crisis remains high on the agenda of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as highlighted by the importance accorded to this issue in the Tbilisi Declaration adopted at the OSCE PA Annual Session on 5 July,” Lombardi said. “Indeed, the various aspects of this complex issue are addressed in the resolutions of all three general committees as well as in a number of supplementary resolutions” adopted in Tbilisi, he added.

Stressing the need for better communication strategies between governments and the public, Lombardi said that while media plays a fundamental role in shaping public opinion on migration, “political forces bear an equally important responsibility.

“Governments, diplomats and parliamentarians must join forces to tackle the root causes of migration,” he said.

Lombardi further highlighted a recent field visit to camps in Calais and Dunkirk, the Parliamentary Assembly’s contribution to the 27 June meeting of the Informal Working Group, which was addressed by five OSCE parliamentarians, and noted that the PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Migration met officially for the first timeduring the OSCE PA Annual Session in Tbilisi on 3 July.

In June, the OSCE PA’s then-human rights and humanitarian committee chair, Portuguese parliamentarian Isabel Santos, joined a delegation of the OSCE’s Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, for a visit to Lampedusa, Italy, to an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea, and to a refugee reception centre in Catania.

Migration will also occupy a prominent position in the discussions of the OSCE PA Autumn Meeting to be held in Skopje from 29 September to 2 October, Lombardi pointed out.

Other than Lombardi’s presentation, today’s special meeting of the Permanent Council included a comprehensive report by Amb. Wild, who noted that addressing the migration crisis requires a multidimensional response based on protection, combating crime, border management, successful integration, and solidarity and partnerships. The OSCE has a number of comparative advantages when addressing migration and refugee flows and is thus uniquely positioned to address this crisis, he emphasized.

Lombardi welcomed the priorities of the OSCE’s Informal Working Group and stressed that members of the PA’s Ad Hoc Committee have agreed to keep in mind the principles identified by this body in carrying out its work.

The Permanent Council and the Ministerial Council are the primary decision-making bodies of the OSCE.

To learn more about the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s work in the field of migration, please click here. A video interview conducted with Ad Hoc Committee Chair Filippo Lombardi is available on the OSCE PA’sYouTube channel.

VIENNA, 20 July 2016 – Presenting the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s work concerning the refugee and migrant crisis at a special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna today, Swiss parliamentarian Filippo Lombardi laid out the Assembly’s plan of action going forward, which includes monitoring the situation on the ground and developing policy recommendations for the OSCE and its participating States.

The meeting was convened by the OSCE German Chairmanship to present and discuss the report by Amb. Claude Wild, Chair of the OSCE Informal Working Group Focusing on the Issue of Migration and Refugee Flows. The participants discussed in particular the importance of improving global migration governance and how the OSCE can lend its contribution to promoting regional implementation of a global migration governance architecture.

Lombardi noted that the OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Migration, which he chairs, has been active in three main areas, including by organizing field visits, strengthening co-operation with the OSCE and other international actors, and promoting discussions on the migration crisis within the OSCE PA.

“The migration and refugee crisis remains high on the agenda of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as highlighted by the importance accorded to this issue in the Tbilisi Declaration adopted at the OSCE PA Annual Session on 5 July,” Lombardi said. “Indeed, the various aspects of this complex issue are addressed in the resolutions of all three general committees as well as in a number of supplementary resolutions” adopted in Tbilisi, he added.

Stressing the need for better communication strategies between governments and the public, Lombardi said that while media plays a fundamental role in shaping public opinion on migration, “political forces bear an equally important responsibility.

“Governments, diplomats and parliamentarians must join forces to tackle the root causes of migration,” he said.

Lombardi further highlighted a recent field visit to camps in Calais and Dunkirk, the Parliamentary Assembly’s contribution to the 27 June meeting of the Informal Working Group, which was addressed by five OSCE parliamentarians, and noted that the PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Migration met officially for the first timeduring the OSCE PA Annual Session in Tbilisi on 3 July.

In June, the OSCE PA’s then-human rights and humanitarian committee chair, Portuguese parliamentarian Isabel Santos, joined a delegation of the OSCE’s Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, for a visit to Lampedusa, Italy, to an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea, and to a refugee reception centre in Catania.

Migration will also occupy a prominent position in the discussions of the OSCE PA Autumn Meeting to be held in Skopje from 29 September to 2 October, Lombardi pointed out.

Other than Lombardi’s presentation, today’s special meeting of the Permanent Council included a comprehensive report by Amb. Wild, who noted that addressing the migration crisis requires a multidimensional response based on protection, combating crime, border management, successful integration, and solidarity and partnerships. The OSCE has a number of comparative advantages when addressing migration and refugee flows and is thus uniquely positioned to address this crisis, he emphasized.

Lombardi welcomed the priorities of the OSCE’s Informal Working Group and stressed that members of the PA’s Ad Hoc Committee have agreed to keep in mind the principles identified by this body in carrying out its work.

The Permanent Council and the Ministerial Council are the primary decision-making bodies of the OSCE.

To learn more about the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s work in the field of migration, please click here. A video interview conducted with Ad Hoc Committee Chair Filippo Lombardi is available on the OSCE PA’sYouTube channel.

Related Stories

• Press registration open for OSCE Parliamentary Assembly annual session in Tbilisi
• At start of Central Asia visit, Special Representative Muttonen calls for unity in struggle against violent extremism
• OSCE PA’s Santos welcomes release of Azerbaijan’s Leyla Yunus

BISHKEK, 3 June 2016 – Wrapping up a two-day visit to Kyrgyzstan, which has included meetings with the Speaker of the Parliament, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and officials at the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, Special Representative for Central and Eastern Asia and Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Christine Muttonen spoke to students today at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek on conflict prevention and peace-building, noting the strengths of the OSCE’s approach, as well as areas for improvement.

Muttonen’s visit this week – her first to Kyrgyzstan since her appointment as Special Representative in January – has served as an opportunity to discuss confidence-building in the region and developing co-operative approaches to common challenges such as energy security, water management and border co-operation. In her meetings with Speaker of Parliament Chynybay Tursunbekov and Minister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Abdyldaev, Muttonen noted the importance of continuing to build trust and dialogue through the OSCE.

“There is a need to develop ways of countering the lack of trust and promoting co-operation between countries in the region,” she said. “The OSCE is our common organization, an inclusive organization in which all of its members have an equal voice, and we need to work effectively together within this forum.”

Discussions in Bishkek also focused on promoting follow-up on OSCE/ODIHR election-related recommendations and on the importance that Kyrgyzstan attaches to the OSCE and its Parliamentary Assembly. Muttonen expressed appreciation for the fact that Kyrgyzstan intends to send a full delegation to the OSCE PA’s 25th Annual Session in Tbilisi, Georgia, next month.

In meetings with staff of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, Muttonen was briefed on the situation in the country and heard about the Centre’s ongoing projects, notably in the spheres of early warning and conflict prevention, as well as youth-oriented and parliamentary development projects. There was also discussion on the possibility of holding future OSCE PA events in the country.

In her lecture at the OSCE Academy, she highlighted the early warning capabilities of the OSCE – including through its field operations such as the Centre in Bishkek – but regretted that sometimes political considerations hamper effective implementation of early warning mechanisms. Discussing the OSCE’s consensus-based decision-making procedure and the non-binding character of its decisions, Muttonen pointed out the OSCE is only as strong as its participating States allow it to be.

Nevertheless, she said, the OSCE’s response to the crisis in and around Ukraine has served as an example of its ability to engage in conflict prevention and peace-building. “The Ukraine conflict has shown that the OSCE is well-placed and equipped to engage in conflict prevention and support mediation and peace-building,” said the PA Vice-President. “Through its unanimous vote principle, the OSCE and its participating States can formulate strong political agreements, even if the process may be slow.”

She noted that OSCE parliamentarians have been active in supporting the Central Asian countries’ peace-building efforts, notably through fact-finding missions.

Muttonen’s speech at the OSCE Academy concluded a week-long visit to Central Asia, which included meetings with government officials, parliamentary leaders and representatives of civil society in Astana, Almaty, and Bishkek.

In her mandate as Special Representative, she is tasked, inter alia, with encouraging active participation in the PA by parliamentarians from Central Asia, as well as liaising with and supporting the work of the OSCE field operations in the region.

To watch a recent interview with the Special Representative, in which she discusses her priorities, please click here. Photos of her visit this week to Central Asia are on Flickr. Her full remarks to the OSCE Academy are available here.

Related Stories

• Christine Muttonen of Austria elected OSCE PA President, Vice-Presidents and Committee Officers also elected
• OSCE parliamentarians in Tbilisi adopt wide-ranging Declaration on human rights, security and the environment
• OSCE parliamentarians consider resolutions on security, economic and environmental concerns and human rights

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Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun state on Wednesday presented the total sum of Three Hundred and Ninety Billion, Twenty Million, Two Hundred and Seventy Seven Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty Naira Only (390,028,277,740.00) to the state House of Assembly as 2025 budget. Governor Adeleke who tagged the 2025 budget as “Budget of Reconstruction and Recovery” […]

The post Gov Adeleke presents N390bn budget to Osun assembly  first appeared on Business Hallmark.

At the conference, a full array of organizations, foundations, nonprofits, Israeli partners, lifelong activists, concerned citizens, and contributors made up the attendees.

The voting for the bye-elections held for three Assembly constituencies in Karnataka on Wednesday is witnessing a good turnout as 26.33 per cent of voting was recorded till 11 A.M.

The bye-elections held for three Assembly constituencies in Karnataka on Wednesday witnessed a good turnout as 45.02 per cent of voting was reported by the Election Commission of India.

The Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has said that its vigilance squads have made seizure of more than Rs 500 crores from across the poll-bound state in the past few days.

1. Jharkhand Phase-I Assembly poll records over 65% turnout; Wayanad bypoll 64.72%  The Hindu
2. Watch: MS Dhoni casts his vote in Ranchi for Jharkhand Assembly Elections  The Times of India
3. First phase of polling ends in Jharkhand with 64.86% turnout of voters  The Hindu
4. Situation in West Asia matter of deep concern: Jaishankar  The Economic Times
5. Jharkhand Assembly elections: High voter turnout recorded in Maoist-hit pockets  Telegraph India

The revised cost estimate stands at ₹17,232 crore; the project is initially proposed to come up in two phases with four corridors spanning a total length of 76 km

Some families at Dandinpet in Savanur boycotted the bypolls over not being given record of occupancy rights to them.

Highest voter turnout of 75.27% was recorded in Ramgarh; independent candidate slaps government officer

People have been facing severe traffic problems in the and there is a need for rapid transport system like metro rail, says Gajuwaka MLA

Elections are being held at Madarihat, Sitai, Taldangra, Medinipur, Naihati, and Haroa. The polling till 5 p.m. was 69.29% on an average across the six constituencies.

1. HIGHLIGHTS | Jharkhand Assembly elections |Phase 1 sees voter turnout of 64.86 per cent  The New Indian Express
2. Jharkhand Phase-I Assembly poll records over 65% turnout; Wayanad bypoll 64.72%  The Hindu
3. Despite Maoist threats, Jharkhand records 64.86 per cent voter turnout during first phase of polling  The New Indian Express
4. Craze to capture video of MS Dhoni and wife Sakshi casting vote in Ranchi reaches new heights  Hindustan Times
5. Jharkhand elections: MS Dhoni casts his vote in Ranchi  India Today

At least three Indian-Americans have won from their respective states in the Assembly elections that were held along with the general elections this week.

Jharkhand Assembly Election 2024: 13 નવેમ્બરના રોજ ઝારખંડ વિધાનસભા ચૂંટણીના પ્રારંભિક તબક્કા માટે મતદાન ચાલી રહ્યું છે. આ વચ્ચે ભારતીય જનતા પાર્ટીના નેતા રામદાસ સાહુ પર પલામુના પંકી વિધાનસભા મતવિસ્તારની અંદર તરહસીમાં હુમલા થયો હોવાની ઘટના સામે આવી છે. આ ઘટના ઝારખંડ વિધાનસભા

Jharkhand Assembly Election 2024: ઝારખંડ વિધાનસભા ચૂંટણીના પ્રથમ ચરણમાં, નોંધપાત્ર મતદાન જોવા મળ્યું હતું, જેમાં 46.25 ટકા મતદારોએ 43 મતવિસ્તારોમાં બપોરે 1 વાગ્યા સુધીમાં 46.25 ટકા મતદાન નોંધાયું છે. ઘાટશિલા જિલ્લામાં સૌથી વધુ 53.87 ટકા સહભાગિતા દર જોવા મળ્યો હતો, જ્યારે રાંચીમાં

A Trinamool leader was killed in a violent attack in the Jagatdal area of North 24 Parganas district on Wednesday morning, amid the ongoing by-election to six assembly seats in West Bengal. Miscreants reportedly hurled bombs and fired bullets, leading to

Voters in Maharashtra can now use one of 12 approved identity documents, aside from the Voter Photo Identity Card (EPIC), to vote in the assembly elections on November 20. This decision by the Election Commission of India (ECI) mirrors a similar

In the Dapoli Assembly Election 2024, MLA Yogesh Kadam is gaining momentum due to his development efforts and the unity within the Grand Alliance. His father, Ramdas Kadam, a prominent Shiv Sena leader in Konkan, has a rich political history. Now,

ನವದೆಹಲಿ, ನವೆಂಬರ್ 13: ಜಾರ್ಖಂಡ್‌ ವಿಧಾನಸಭೆ ಚುನಾವಣೆ 2024ರ ಮೊದಲ ಹಂತದ ಮತದಾನ ಬುಧವಾರ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದೆ. 43 ಸೀಟುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ 7 ಗಂಟೆಗೆ ಮತದಾನ ಆರಂಭವಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಸಂಜೆ 6 ಗಂಟೆಯ ತನಕ ಮತದಾನ ಮಾಡಲು ಅವಕಾಶವಿದೆ. ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನ 1 ಗಂಟೆಯ ತನಕ ಶೇ 46.25ರಷ್ಟು ಮತದಾನವಾಗಿದೆ. ನವೆಂಬರ್ 23ರ ಶನಿವಾರ ಮತ ಎಣಿಕೆ ನಡೆಯಲಿದ್ದು, ಯಾರಿಗೆ ಅಧಿಕಾರ

ತೀವ್ರ ಕುತೂಹಲ ಕೆರಳಿಸಿರುವ ಜಾರ್ಖಂಡ್‌ ವಿಧಾನಸಭೆ ಚುನಾವಣೆ ಮತದಾನ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದು, ಜಾರ್ಖಂಡ್‌ನ 43 ವಿಧಾನಸಭಾ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬುಧವಾರ ಮಧ್ಯಾಹ್ನವರೆಗೆ ಶೇ.46.25ರಷ್ಟು ಮತದಾನವಾಗಿದೆ ಎಂದು ಅಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳು ತಿಳಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಜಾರ್ಖಂಡ್‌ನ 15 ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ 7 ಗಂಟೆ ಸುಮಾರಿಗೆ ಮತದಾನ ಆರಂಭವಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಸಂಜೆ 5 ಗಂಟೆಯವರೆಗೆ ಮತದಾನ ನಡೆಯಲಿದೆ. ಜಾರ್ಖಂಡ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಇಂದು ಮೊದಲ ಹಂತದಲ್ಲಿ ಮತದಾನ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದು, ನವೆಂಬರ್ 20ರಂದು

Dhoni was appointed as the brand ambassador for the Jharkhand elections.

In 1643, the English Parliament called upon "learned, godly and judicious Divines", to meet at Westminster Abbey in order to provide advice on issues of worship, doctrine, government and discipline of the Church of England. Their meetings, over a period of five years, produced the confession of faith, as well as a Larger Catechism and a Shorter Catechism. For more than three centuries, various churches around the world have adopted the confession and the catechisms as their standards of doctrine, subordinate to the Bible. -- The Westminster Confession of Faith was modified and adopted by Congregationalists in England in the form of the Savoy Declaration (1658). Likewise, the Baptists of England modified the Savoy Declaration to produce the Second London Baptist Confession (1689). English Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists would together (with others) come to be known as Nonconformists, because they did not conform to the Act of Uniformity (1662) establishing the Church of England as the only legally approved church, though they were in many ways united by their common confessions, built on the Westminster Confession. -- Evangelical Presbyterian Church: The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which broke from the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1981 in order to provide a conservative alternative to the older denomination, holds to the Westminster Confession of Faith composed of a combination of different editions, but based on the American version of the 1647 text.[4] The EPC holds to the Westminster Confession in light of a brief list of the essentials of the faith as drafted at its first General Assembly at Ward Church outside of Detroit, Michigan.

478,000 new homes will be built in the region - which covers the six counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk - up to 2021...

Staying healthy and fit in a workplace environment are key to healthy and happy employees as well as more productive ones.

[VOA] Gaborone, Botswana -- Three out of 28 female candidates were elected to Botswana's National Assembly in last week's general election, as women's rights activists called on the new administration to increase female representation in the nation's politics.

Ancient Faith Radio and Bill Marianes were honored to be present at the recent meeting of the Assembly of Bishops. This week, here Bill's interviews with Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochian Archdiocese, Metropolitan Tikhon of the Orthodox Church in America, Serbian Orthodox Bishop Irinej of Eastern America, Metropolitan Methodios of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston, Archbishop Daniel of the Ukranian Orthodox Church of the USA, and Metropolitan Savas of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh

In our continuing effort to keep you informed about the recent and on going work of our Hierarchs to bring about administrative unity, we present an extensive interview with Fr. Mark Arey. The discussion centers on the first Episcopal Assembly meeting in New York on May 26-28, 2010. You will hear first hand what took place behind the closed doors of the Assembly and how it impacts all of us for the future. Fr. Mark is the current General Secretary of SCOBA (the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in America) and was the initial Secretary of the Assembly in New York. He was one of very few non-Bishops in the meetings.

AFR correspondent Matthew Namee talks with His Grace Bishop Basil, the newly elected Secretary of the Episcopal Assemblies. We learn of his impressions of the historic May 26-28 gathering in New York as well as the assignment he has been given to coordinate the work of the committees that will be formed leading up eventually to a Great and Holy Council.

His Grace Bishop Basil joins us to talk about the next meeting of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops September 17-19 in Greater Chicago.

Matthew Namee talks with His Grace Bishop Basil, the newly elected Secretary of the Episcopal Assemblies. We learn of his impressions of the historic May 26-28 gathering in New York as well as the assignment he has been given to coordinate the work of the committees that will be formed leading up eventually to a Great and Holy Council.

Demands ECP action against K-P CM for using 'indecent language' about women

Debate on Rs55.42b supplementary budget completed

Privacy: Our analog parents had the right to meet whomever they liked, wherever they liked, and discuss whatever they liked, without the government knowing. Our digital children have lost this, just because they use more modern items.

For a lot of our digital children’s activities, there’s no such thing as privacy anymore, as they naturally take place on the net. For people born 1980 and later, it doesn’t make sense to talk of “offline” or “online” activities. What older people see as “people spending time with their phone or computer”, younger see as socializing using their phone or computer.

This is an important distinction that the older generation tends to not understand.

Perhaps this is best illustrated with an anecdote from the previous generation again: The parents of our parents complained that our parents were talking with the phone, and not to another person using the phone. What our parents saw as socializing (using an old analog landline phone), their parents in turn saw as obsession with a device. There’s nothing new under the sun.

(Note: when I say “digital children” here, I am not referring to children as in young people below majority age; I am referring to the next generation of fully capable adult professionals.)

This digital socializing, however, can be limited, it can be… permissioned. As in, requiring somebody’s permission to socialize in the way you and your friends want, or even to socialize at all. The network effects are strong and create centralizing pressure toward a few platforms where everybody hang out, and as these are private services, they get to set any terms and conditions they like for people assembling and socializing – for the billions of people assembling and socializing there.

Just as one example to illustrate this: Facebook is using American values for socializing, not universal values. Being super-against anything even slightly naked while being comparatively accepting of hate speech is not something inherently global; it is strictly American. If Facebook had been developed in France or Germany instead of the US, any and all nudity would be welcomed as art and free-body culture (Freikörperkultur) and a completely legitimate way of socializing, but the slightest genocide questioning would lead to an insta-kickban and reporting to authorities for criminal prosecution.

Therefore, just using the dominant Facebook as an example, any non-American way of socializing is effectively banned worldwide, and it’s likely that people developing and working with Facebook aren’t even aware of this. But the Freedom of Assembly hasn’t just been limited in the online sphere, but also in the classic analog offline world where our analog parents used to hang out (and still do).

Since people’s locations are tracked, as we saw in the previous post, it is possible to match locations between individuals and figure out who was talking to whom, as well as when and where this happened, even if they were only talking face to face. As I’m looking out my window from the office writing this piece, it just so happens that I’m looking at the old Stasi headquarters across from Alexanderplatz in former East Berlin. It was a little bit like Hotel California; people who checked in there tended to never leave. Stasi also tracked who was talking to whom, but required a ton of people to perform this task manually, just in order to walk behind other people and photograph whom they were talking to — and therefore, there was an economic limit to how many people could be tracked like this at any one time before the national economy couldn’t sustain more surveillance. Today, that limit is completely gone, and everybody is tracked all the time.

Do you really have Freedom of Assembly, when the fact that you’ve associated with a person — indeed, maybe just spent time in their physical proximity — can be held against you?

I’m going to illustrate this with an example. In a major leak recently, it doesn’t matter which one, a distant colleague of mine happened to celebrate a big event with a huge party in near physical proximity to where the documents were being copied at the same time, completely unaware and by sheer coincidence. Months later, this colleague was part of journalistically vetting those leaked documents and verifying their veracity, while at this time still unaware of the source and that they had held a big party very close to the origin of the documents.

The government was very aware of the physical proximity of the leak combined with this person’s journalistic access to the documents, though, and issued not one but two arrest-on-sight warrants for this distant colleague based on that coincidence. They are now living in exile outside of Sweden, and don’t expect to be able to return home anytime soon.

Privacy, including Privacy of Location, remains your own responsibility.

European Geosciences Union
General Assembly 2015
Vienna | Austria | 12 – 17 April 2015

http://www.egu2015.eu/home.html

One Workshop partiicluarly relevant for EU BON: ESSI2.17 Aggregation, consolidation and coordination of Earth observation networks. Harmonization and gaps

Convener: Joan Masó
Co-Convener: Ivette Serral

Abstract
We are investing in many efforts in creating pan-European or global EO thematic networks but are managed independently and coordination between them is limited. Europe is investing in the Sentinel constellation an at the same time, several initiatives are setting out to create, maintain and operationalize networks of in-situ sensors. These observation networks are usually conceived with a specific purpose in mind (e.g., air quality monitoring in the main cities or coastal water contamination), and they often lack a general coverage, are scattered irregularly in the territory, and sometimes are removed when the measurement campaign ends. There is a need for integrating systems and coordinating them more efficiently, explore synergies and make progress in harmonized and extend them.
Some initiatives aim to coordinate several themes into a single observation set. This is the case of the Critical Zone Exploration (the Earth’s outer layer from vegetation canopy to the soil and groundwater that sustains human life). The CZEN (Critical Zone Exploration Network; http://www.czen.org) is a network of field sites investigating processes within the Critical Zone.

This session is asking for presentations on the coordination between observation network examples and solutions to overcome technical and political barriers that help to reduce the cost and increase value by combining and sharing structures. Papers discussing gaps or redundancies in the current Earth observation networks are also welcome.

http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2015/session/18560

European Geosciences Union, General assembly: Interdisciplinary Approaches in Climatic Change Research and Assessment will take place in Vienna from 17 to 22 April 2016.

Adequate response to the challenges associated with climate change requires new formats of scientific research and assessment. In the past, linear approaches, starting from the recognition of climate change, through the analysis of observed or expected impacts and ending with policy recommendations, have been the mainstream. It is now widely recognised that these approaches mostly fail to reach their objectives since they do not account for feedbacks between the physical environment and societal action, nor for the feedbacks in the various subsystems. The objective of this session is to review and discuss the problem of climatic change in all its dimensions, with a special focus on interdisciplinary approaches. Climate change science concerns a number of disciplines, such as physics, biology, economics, social sciences etc. It is essential that new forms for interact between disciplines are found in order to produce innovative results.

We do not expect to cover all the aspects of the climate change science but we hope that as well researchers in physical and natural sciences than researchers in social sciences will find interest to participate at the session to present and discuss a few exciting issues within one of several of these scopes (and more):

- The link between global climate scenarios and the socio-economic developments

- Scenarios for impact studies: from global to local

- Climate services: the relation between scientists and stakeholders

- Ecosystem services: outputs from ecosystems, challenges and responses

- Climate – societal interactions in the last millennia: can we learn from past experience?

- Socio-ecosystems, towards a comprehensive approach to sustainability Science

- The climate change policies to mitigate climatic change

- Climatic change and biodiversity

- How to couple physical, ecological and socio-economic models

- Peoples' perception of risk, how to improve communication

- Sea level change and the problems of low lying areas.

Information: http://egu2016.eu/information/general_information.html

The call for abstracts for the EGU 2016 General Assembly is now open: make sure to submit your abstract by 13 January 2016, 13:00 CET. If you would like to apply for funding from the EGU to attend, please submit your abstract within the next few days, by 1 December. This month the EGU has also open a call for proposals for EGU 2016 co-sponsored meetings and has announced a new grant scheme for EGU members interested in developing an outreach and public engagement project.       

The Ecopotenial General Assembly will take place between from 27 to 30 June 2016 in the Netherlands (exact location to be determined).

More information to follow on the ecopotential website: http://www.ecopotential-project.eu/