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Bird flu at UK duck farm same strain as Germany and Netherlands cases
Culling of 6,000 birds at duck-breeding farm in East Yorkshire under way to stem ‘highly pathogenic’ H5N8 virus
Bird flu outbreak Preparations begin for a cull of ducks at a farm in Nafferton, East Yorkshire, after a bird flu outbreak.
The strain of bird flu found on a duck-breeding farm in the UK is the same as the one recently identified in the Netherlands and Germany, the environment department has said.
The culling of 6,000 ducks at the farm in Nafferton, near Driffield, East Yorkshire, where the “highly pathogenic” virus has been found, is under way, according to officials.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the disease was the H5N8 strain, the same as the strain confirmed at a chicken farm in the central province of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and in Germany.
But the advice from the chief medical officer and Public Health England remained that the risk to public health from the virus was “very low” and the Food Standards Agency has said there is no food safety risk for consumers, she said.
She said the cull to prevent the potential spread of infection was being carried out in a safe and humane manner by fully-trained staff from the government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency.
“Our response to this outbreak follows tried and tested procedures for dealing with avian flu outbreaks and we expect the cull to be completed later today. Additionally, our animal health laboratory at Weybridge has confirmed that the outbreak of avian influenza in East Yorkshire is the H5N8 strain.
“The advice from the chief medical officer and Public Health England remains that the risk to public health is very low. The Food Standards Agency have said there is no food safety risk for consumers,” the spokeswoman said.
The cull of 6,000 ducks at the farm owned by the UK’s largest producer of duck and duck products, Cherry Valley, comes after the transport of poultry and eggs throughout the Netherlands was banned after the H5N8 outbreak in Utrecht.
Officials have been quick to reassure the public that the strain found at the farm after the alarm was raised by a vet on Friday was not the H5N1 strain of the virus which has led to human deaths, and that the risk to public health from the outbreak remained very low.
But experts have warned further outbreaks could emerge in the coming days.
Officials are investigating how the virus reached East Yorkshire, whether it could have be the result of commercial transport of birds, or carried by wild birds which are also affected by bird flu.
The East Yorkshire outbreak is the first serious case of bird flu since 2008, when the H7N7 strand was found in free-range laying hens near Banbury, Oxfordshire.
Most types of bird flu are harmless to humans but two types, H5N1 and H7N9, have caused serious concerns.
Chief veterinary officer Nigel Gibbens said the Cherry Valley farm at the centre of the alert had good biosecurity in place, and as a result the risk of spread was “probably quite low”, he said. But he warned more cases could follow and, because of the risk of wild birds spreading the disease, urged farmers and their vets all over the country to be alert to the possibility of disease.
Keith Warner, president of the British Veterinary Poultry Association, also said that while previous outbreaks of bird flu had been controlled on one or two isolated farms, there could be more incidents in the latest outbreak.
“Everybody in the UK that owns birds in any number should be on biosecurity lockdown,” he urged, advising no unnecessary visits to farms, transport or sharing of equipment, and that free-range birds in the restriction zone should be kept inside.
Paul Bellotti, head of housing, transportation and public protection at East Riding of Yorkshire council, said staff would be stationed across the six-mile (10km) surveillance zone and the two-mile protection zone immediately around the farm to provide advice and guidance and gather important data.
“By the close of play today, every registered poultry farm will be visited within the 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone, as well as other smaller non-registered poultry and bird-keeping premises that we become aware of during the course of the day,” he said. “Residents should not be concerned by the visits being undertaken by our officers and we would ask that they provide any and all assistance, if requested.
“The council would like to once again state that the risk to public health is very low and would also like to reassure residents that poultry and eggs are safe to purchase and eat, subject to normal food preparation. Motorists and the travelling public should continue to use any and all routes on the highways network, unless they are advised otherwise, and, unless specifically closed, public footpaths remain open.”
The British Poultry Council said: “Defra confirmed this afternoon that the strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) found on a duck breeding farm in Yorkshire is of the H5N8 strain, which is a very low risk to human health and no risk to the food chain. Work is now under way to understand the route of the infection.
“The exclusion zones around the farm, at 3km (protection zone) and at 10km (surveillance zone), remain in place. Across the country a high level of surveillance of housed and wild birds is continuing.”
theguardian.com
(edited)
Culling of 6,000 birds at duck-breeding farm in East Yorkshire under way to stem ‘highly pathogenic’ H5N8 virus
Bird flu outbreak Preparations begin for a cull of ducks at a farm in Nafferton, East Yorkshire, after a bird flu outbreak.
The strain of bird flu found on a duck-breeding farm in the UK is the same as the one recently identified in the Netherlands and Germany, the environment department has said.
The culling of 6,000 ducks at the farm in Nafferton, near Driffield, East Yorkshire, where the “highly pathogenic” virus has been found, is under way, according to officials.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the disease was the H5N8 strain, the same as the strain confirmed at a chicken farm in the central province of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and in Germany.
But the advice from the chief medical officer and Public Health England remained that the risk to public health from the virus was “very low” and the Food Standards Agency has said there is no food safety risk for consumers, she said.
She said the cull to prevent the potential spread of infection was being carried out in a safe and humane manner by fully-trained staff from the government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency.
“Our response to this outbreak follows tried and tested procedures for dealing with avian flu outbreaks and we expect the cull to be completed later today. Additionally, our animal health laboratory at Weybridge has confirmed that the outbreak of avian influenza in East Yorkshire is the H5N8 strain.
“The advice from the chief medical officer and Public Health England remains that the risk to public health is very low. The Food Standards Agency have said there is no food safety risk for consumers,” the spokeswoman said.
The cull of 6,000 ducks at the farm owned by the UK’s largest producer of duck and duck products, Cherry Valley, comes after the transport of poultry and eggs throughout the Netherlands was banned after the H5N8 outbreak in Utrecht.
Officials have been quick to reassure the public that the strain found at the farm after the alarm was raised by a vet on Friday was not the H5N1 strain of the virus which has led to human deaths, and that the risk to public health from the outbreak remained very low.
But experts have warned further outbreaks could emerge in the coming days.
Officials are investigating how the virus reached East Yorkshire, whether it could have be the result of commercial transport of birds, or carried by wild birds which are also affected by bird flu.
The East Yorkshire outbreak is the first serious case of bird flu since 2008, when the H7N7 strand was found in free-range laying hens near Banbury, Oxfordshire.
Most types of bird flu are harmless to humans but two types, H5N1 and H7N9, have caused serious concerns.
Chief veterinary officer Nigel Gibbens said the Cherry Valley farm at the centre of the alert had good biosecurity in place, and as a result the risk of spread was “probably quite low”, he said. But he warned more cases could follow and, because of the risk of wild birds spreading the disease, urged farmers and their vets all over the country to be alert to the possibility of disease.
Keith Warner, president of the British Veterinary Poultry Association, also said that while previous outbreaks of bird flu had been controlled on one or two isolated farms, there could be more incidents in the latest outbreak.
“Everybody in the UK that owns birds in any number should be on biosecurity lockdown,” he urged, advising no unnecessary visits to farms, transport or sharing of equipment, and that free-range birds in the restriction zone should be kept inside.
Paul Bellotti, head of housing, transportation and public protection at East Riding of Yorkshire council, said staff would be stationed across the six-mile (10km) surveillance zone and the two-mile protection zone immediately around the farm to provide advice and guidance and gather important data.
“By the close of play today, every registered poultry farm will be visited within the 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone, as well as other smaller non-registered poultry and bird-keeping premises that we become aware of during the course of the day,” he said. “Residents should not be concerned by the visits being undertaken by our officers and we would ask that they provide any and all assistance, if requested.
“The council would like to once again state that the risk to public health is very low and would also like to reassure residents that poultry and eggs are safe to purchase and eat, subject to normal food preparation. Motorists and the travelling public should continue to use any and all routes on the highways network, unless they are advised otherwise, and, unless specifically closed, public footpaths remain open.”
The British Poultry Council said: “Defra confirmed this afternoon that the strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) found on a duck breeding farm in Yorkshire is of the H5N8 strain, which is a very low risk to human health and no risk to the food chain. Work is now under way to understand the route of the infection.
“The exclusion zones around the farm, at 3km (protection zone) and at 10km (surveillance zone), remain in place. Across the country a high level of surveillance of housed and wild birds is continuing.”
theguardian.com
(edited)
Finland back on red alert over expansionist Russia
Almost a century after breaking free from its giant neighbour Helsinki still follows Moscow’s every move
A Finnish navy soldier on patrol. Russia-watching has been a national obsession for Finns for decades.
Captain Markus Aarnio, chief of the Gulf of Finland naval command, has the sort of craggy good looks associated with the hero of a cold war movie. Standing stiffly in a control centre overlooking Helsinki harbour against a backdrop of grey seas and driving sleet, he appears poised to dash off at any moment for a real-life remake of the Sean Connery film The Hunt for Red October.
Aarnio’s job, along with those of other members of Finland’s army, navy and air force, border guard and coastguard, and a good chunk of the national political, academic and media establishment, can be summed up in three words: watching the Russians.
Russia-watching has become a national obsession since Finland broke free of the Russian empire in 1917. Two bitterly fought wars with the Soviet Union during the second world war are far from forgotten. Neither are the tense years of the cold war, when Finland pursued a delicate balancing act between the importunate demands of its giant neighbour and its natural attachment to the west.
After the Berlin wall came down in 1989 and political chaos followed the Soviet Union’s implosion, Finland’s 840-mile land border with Russia and its territorial waters still required guarding, though for different reasons.
Now – with a newly expansionist, jingoistic Russia led by President Vladimir Putin set on reasserting itself internationally, with eastern Europe and the Baltic states wondering fearfully what may follow its armed intervention in eastern Ukraine, and with close military encounters between Russia and the west running at cold war levels – Finland is once again on red alert.
Aarnio’s area of operations commands the highly congested approaches to St Petersburg and the oil export terminals crucial to Russia’s economic survival. Each year, 43,000 ships and tankers travel along an often ice-bound, six-mile-wide international corridor leading from Russian waters to the wider Baltic and thence to the Atlantic. And those are the ones Aarnio knows about. As the recent, abortive Swedish hunt for a suspected Russian submarine suggested, not everything Moscow sets afloat may be visible.
“Our work includes maritime surveillance and ship recognition. We maintain 24-hour vigilance,” Aarnio said. His command includes missile boats, a mine warfare squadron, a coastal battalion and special forces, including divers.
A photograph of a Russian AN-72 transport plane taken by a Finnish pilot in August.
Although Russian military activity is up in the past six months, there have been no maritime incidents comparable to three apparently concerted violations of Finnish airspace in August by Russian aircraft, which caused widespread consternation about Moscow’s intentions. “Right now we do not have any trouble with the Russians,” Aarnio said. Judging by the grim look on his face, the Russians may do well to keep it that way.
Alexander Stubb, Finland’s boyish-looking conservative prime minister, agreed on the need to keep things calm. Finland had good bilateral relations with Russia, he said, but it was important western countries understood what they were dealing with.
“The situation is naturally worrying from a European and Finnish perspective. I said in 2008 after the war in Georgia that power politics, spheres of influence and war had returned to the borders of Europe. I hoped I was wrong. Now, unfortunately, we are back to square one. There’s a lot of cold war rhetoric,” Stubb said.
“I think Russia has made two strategic mistakes. Number one is the destabilisation of its neighbourhood, in particular annexing Crimea … I want stable not unstable borders. The second is they still rely on fossil fuels for economic growth, and that is an impediment to modernising their economy.
“We in the west need to reassess our relations with Russia … We have put in a lot of effort to try to integrate Russia into western institutions and we slightly idealistically believed that Russia could become a normal, liberal market democracy that relies on international institutions. It hasn’t. So we have to be both pragmatic and principled.”
In part, that meant strong Finnish support for American and EU sanctions on Russia, even though they were hurting Finland’s economy, Stubb said.
Cpt Markus Aarnio says the Finnih navy is alert 24 hours a day to the potential dangers posed by Russia.
Jaakko Iloniemi, Finland’s former ambassador to the US, said the outlines of the problem were clear. “Their military and naval activity is certainly up. For Putin it’s about showing the flag and restoring pride. The Russians call it [the Crimea operation] ‘fast power’ – there are no democratic encumbrances, executive power is sovereign, the legislature, the military, the media, the judiciary are compliant. Putin’s achilles heel is the economy … So he needs external crises and foreign devils,” Iloniemi said.
René Nyberg, a former ambassador to Russia, said Finland and the west were facing a new situation and it was uncertain where it might lead. Putin did not have a clear plan in Ukraine or elsewhere but had acted opportunistically in reaction to events, he said.
“Fast power became hasty power,” Nyberg said. “The possible loss of Ukraine was seen by Russia as an existential threat. It wasn’t really. But it challenged Moscow like nothing else. It was projected as a Nato-US-international conspiracy.”
The Ukraine crisis had cost Russia far more than it anticipated in terms of forfeited investment, devaluation of the rouble, lost trade and higher prices caused by sanctions, said Nyberg. A falling oil price was also causing serious economic damage. Ironically, with relations with the US at a low point, and China interested in Russia only for cheap energy and raw materials, Moscow needed the EU more than ever.
“The economy is getting worse, the oil price is killing them. Russia needs Europe but these are the very people they are alienating,” Nyberg said.
A senior government insider said Finland backed the EU stance but was concerned about what might happen if Russia’s internal situation deteriorated.
“Russia’s actions in Ukraine are more a show of weakness and fear. This is not expansionism, this is insecurity,” the insider said. “Nevertheless we need to send a signal that we are not soft targets or else Ukraine could happen again elsewhere … You cannot rule it out [but] Russian intervention in the Baltic states is unlikely. It would be much harder for them there than in Crimea. People in the Baltics know they have a better life than those in Russia and inter-ethnic relations are relatively good.
“The bigger point is that the Russian economy is living on borrowed time. There is genuine concern, especially in Germany, that their oil and gas industry is so inefficient that they eventually will be unable to deliver. If they get very desperate, we don’t know what they would do.
“In the near term, Russia will continue to try to bully and threaten us. The EU is in disarray, physically and mentally. But in five to 10 years it will be different … When it comes, it [a Russian collapse] could be like a stock market panic. Putin is no Gorbachev, he is not a guy who is going to give up. He will not go quietly. Remember, this is a global nuclear power we are talking about,” the insider said.
Opinions differ about how Finland should handle the Russian challenge. The country is deeply split, as ever, over the question of Nato membership, with about 60% of voters opposed.
But there is also concern about a return to the bad old cold war days of “Finlandisation”, when Finnish governments sometimes appeared too eager to appease the Soviet leadership at the expense of their country’s values and independence. Some Finns believe this may already be happening. As Lasse Lehtinen, a retired MP and newspapercolumnist, put it, Finlandisation is creeping back.
Practical considerations also apply. Finland, lacking fossil fuel deposits, is also highly dependent on Russian energy imports – 71% of its oil, 66% of its coal and 100% of its gas comes from Russia. In other areas, too, Russia is a major trade partner and export market. Meanwhile, Finland’s own economy is struggling. Controversially, the defence budget is facing a sharp 10% cut. To compensate, closer military integration with Sweden, another non-Nato state, is planned.
Russian corvette Boikiy is pictured from the deck of Finnish research vessel Aranda in international waters in September.
Erkki Tuomioja, a lifelong social democrat and foreign minister in Stubb’s ruling coalition, said Finland supported sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. But he was critical of the EU’s handling of relations with the Kiev government.
“The EU made a mistake last year concerning the association agreement with Ukraine in not talking first to the Russians, at least to set their wildest fears at rest,” he said. Europe’s biggest states had failed to give the EU a clear mandate to deal with the crisis. US leadership had also been found wanting.
Tuomioja, who opposes Nato membership, said he did not believe Putin had a grand design for restoring Russian greatness. “I think it’s more an ideal or wishful thinking … Russia overall is going backwards now. The west mismanaged relations in the 1990s but we don’t know whether [what is happening now] could have been avoided.”
More exchanges with Russia’s leadership and ordinary Russians were needed at every level to avoid making the same mistakes in future, he said.
Yet whatever happened, the government insider insisted, Finland would not kowtow to Moscow. “There is zero appetite for going back to the old way of doing things, to placating and appeasing Russia. We’re not looking for a fight. But we need to be able to deal with Russia. Russia is our everyday reality.”
the guardian.com
Almost a century after breaking free from its giant neighbour Helsinki still follows Moscow’s every move
A Finnish navy soldier on patrol. Russia-watching has been a national obsession for Finns for decades.
Captain Markus Aarnio, chief of the Gulf of Finland naval command, has the sort of craggy good looks associated with the hero of a cold war movie. Standing stiffly in a control centre overlooking Helsinki harbour against a backdrop of grey seas and driving sleet, he appears poised to dash off at any moment for a real-life remake of the Sean Connery film The Hunt for Red October.
Aarnio’s job, along with those of other members of Finland’s army, navy and air force, border guard and coastguard, and a good chunk of the national political, academic and media establishment, can be summed up in three words: watching the Russians.
Russia-watching has become a national obsession since Finland broke free of the Russian empire in 1917. Two bitterly fought wars with the Soviet Union during the second world war are far from forgotten. Neither are the tense years of the cold war, when Finland pursued a delicate balancing act between the importunate demands of its giant neighbour and its natural attachment to the west.
After the Berlin wall came down in 1989 and political chaos followed the Soviet Union’s implosion, Finland’s 840-mile land border with Russia and its territorial waters still required guarding, though for different reasons.
Now – with a newly expansionist, jingoistic Russia led by President Vladimir Putin set on reasserting itself internationally, with eastern Europe and the Baltic states wondering fearfully what may follow its armed intervention in eastern Ukraine, and with close military encounters between Russia and the west running at cold war levels – Finland is once again on red alert.
Aarnio’s area of operations commands the highly congested approaches to St Petersburg and the oil export terminals crucial to Russia’s economic survival. Each year, 43,000 ships and tankers travel along an often ice-bound, six-mile-wide international corridor leading from Russian waters to the wider Baltic and thence to the Atlantic. And those are the ones Aarnio knows about. As the recent, abortive Swedish hunt for a suspected Russian submarine suggested, not everything Moscow sets afloat may be visible.
“Our work includes maritime surveillance and ship recognition. We maintain 24-hour vigilance,” Aarnio said. His command includes missile boats, a mine warfare squadron, a coastal battalion and special forces, including divers.
A photograph of a Russian AN-72 transport plane taken by a Finnish pilot in August.
Although Russian military activity is up in the past six months, there have been no maritime incidents comparable to three apparently concerted violations of Finnish airspace in August by Russian aircraft, which caused widespread consternation about Moscow’s intentions. “Right now we do not have any trouble with the Russians,” Aarnio said. Judging by the grim look on his face, the Russians may do well to keep it that way.
Alexander Stubb, Finland’s boyish-looking conservative prime minister, agreed on the need to keep things calm. Finland had good bilateral relations with Russia, he said, but it was important western countries understood what they were dealing with.
“The situation is naturally worrying from a European and Finnish perspective. I said in 2008 after the war in Georgia that power politics, spheres of influence and war had returned to the borders of Europe. I hoped I was wrong. Now, unfortunately, we are back to square one. There’s a lot of cold war rhetoric,” Stubb said.
“I think Russia has made two strategic mistakes. Number one is the destabilisation of its neighbourhood, in particular annexing Crimea … I want stable not unstable borders. The second is they still rely on fossil fuels for economic growth, and that is an impediment to modernising their economy.
“We in the west need to reassess our relations with Russia … We have put in a lot of effort to try to integrate Russia into western institutions and we slightly idealistically believed that Russia could become a normal, liberal market democracy that relies on international institutions. It hasn’t. So we have to be both pragmatic and principled.”
In part, that meant strong Finnish support for American and EU sanctions on Russia, even though they were hurting Finland’s economy, Stubb said.
Cpt Markus Aarnio says the Finnih navy is alert 24 hours a day to the potential dangers posed by Russia.
Jaakko Iloniemi, Finland’s former ambassador to the US, said the outlines of the problem were clear. “Their military and naval activity is certainly up. For Putin it’s about showing the flag and restoring pride. The Russians call it [the Crimea operation] ‘fast power’ – there are no democratic encumbrances, executive power is sovereign, the legislature, the military, the media, the judiciary are compliant. Putin’s achilles heel is the economy … So he needs external crises and foreign devils,” Iloniemi said.
René Nyberg, a former ambassador to Russia, said Finland and the west were facing a new situation and it was uncertain where it might lead. Putin did not have a clear plan in Ukraine or elsewhere but had acted opportunistically in reaction to events, he said.
“Fast power became hasty power,” Nyberg said. “The possible loss of Ukraine was seen by Russia as an existential threat. It wasn’t really. But it challenged Moscow like nothing else. It was projected as a Nato-US-international conspiracy.”
The Ukraine crisis had cost Russia far more than it anticipated in terms of forfeited investment, devaluation of the rouble, lost trade and higher prices caused by sanctions, said Nyberg. A falling oil price was also causing serious economic damage. Ironically, with relations with the US at a low point, and China interested in Russia only for cheap energy and raw materials, Moscow needed the EU more than ever.
“The economy is getting worse, the oil price is killing them. Russia needs Europe but these are the very people they are alienating,” Nyberg said.
A senior government insider said Finland backed the EU stance but was concerned about what might happen if Russia’s internal situation deteriorated.
“Russia’s actions in Ukraine are more a show of weakness and fear. This is not expansionism, this is insecurity,” the insider said. “Nevertheless we need to send a signal that we are not soft targets or else Ukraine could happen again elsewhere … You cannot rule it out [but] Russian intervention in the Baltic states is unlikely. It would be much harder for them there than in Crimea. People in the Baltics know they have a better life than those in Russia and inter-ethnic relations are relatively good.
“The bigger point is that the Russian economy is living on borrowed time. There is genuine concern, especially in Germany, that their oil and gas industry is so inefficient that they eventually will be unable to deliver. If they get very desperate, we don’t know what they would do.
“In the near term, Russia will continue to try to bully and threaten us. The EU is in disarray, physically and mentally. But in five to 10 years it will be different … When it comes, it [a Russian collapse] could be like a stock market panic. Putin is no Gorbachev, he is not a guy who is going to give up. He will not go quietly. Remember, this is a global nuclear power we are talking about,” the insider said.
Opinions differ about how Finland should handle the Russian challenge. The country is deeply split, as ever, over the question of Nato membership, with about 60% of voters opposed.
But there is also concern about a return to the bad old cold war days of “Finlandisation”, when Finnish governments sometimes appeared too eager to appease the Soviet leadership at the expense of their country’s values and independence. Some Finns believe this may already be happening. As Lasse Lehtinen, a retired MP and newspapercolumnist, put it, Finlandisation is creeping back.
Practical considerations also apply. Finland, lacking fossil fuel deposits, is also highly dependent on Russian energy imports – 71% of its oil, 66% of its coal and 100% of its gas comes from Russia. In other areas, too, Russia is a major trade partner and export market. Meanwhile, Finland’s own economy is struggling. Controversially, the defence budget is facing a sharp 10% cut. To compensate, closer military integration with Sweden, another non-Nato state, is planned.
Russian corvette Boikiy is pictured from the deck of Finnish research vessel Aranda in international waters in September.
Erkki Tuomioja, a lifelong social democrat and foreign minister in Stubb’s ruling coalition, said Finland supported sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. But he was critical of the EU’s handling of relations with the Kiev government.
“The EU made a mistake last year concerning the association agreement with Ukraine in not talking first to the Russians, at least to set their wildest fears at rest,” he said. Europe’s biggest states had failed to give the EU a clear mandate to deal with the crisis. US leadership had also been found wanting.
Tuomioja, who opposes Nato membership, said he did not believe Putin had a grand design for restoring Russian greatness. “I think it’s more an ideal or wishful thinking … Russia overall is going backwards now. The west mismanaged relations in the 1990s but we don’t know whether [what is happening now] could have been avoided.”
More exchanges with Russia’s leadership and ordinary Russians were needed at every level to avoid making the same mistakes in future, he said.
Yet whatever happened, the government insider insisted, Finland would not kowtow to Moscow. “There is zero appetite for going back to the old way of doing things, to placating and appeasing Russia. We’re not looking for a fight. But we need to be able to deal with Russia. Russia is our everyday reality.”
the guardian.com
Keystone XL pipeline opposition forges 'Cowboys and Indians' alliance
Native Americans and ranchers in South Dakota are making common cause in their efforts to stop the project to transport oil from Canadian tar sands
A depot used to store pipes for Transcanada Corp’s planned Keystone XL oil pipeline is seen in Gascoyne, North Dakota, last week. Photograph: Andrew Cullen/Reuters
As she watches the red sun dip past the window of her home deep in a South Dakota valley, Beth Lone Eagle says she isn’t prepared to see a tar sands pipeline tarnish any bit of “God’s country”.
With the US Senate scheduled to hold a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday, the Lakota woman says ranchers, landowners and tribal nations throughout the midwest are girding for a fight regardless of how the process in Washington plays out.
The debate over the controversial pipeline, which would run from Alberta’s tar sands to Gulf coast refineries, has over the last few years become a defining struggle over the future of energy politics in America.
Under the new banner of No KXL Dakota, Lone Eagle is intervening with a number of environmental and rural organizations in South Dakota’s Public Utilities Commission hearings in an attempt to deny TransCanada a construction permit.
It’s a process that could delay TransCanada beyond even its current entanglement in Nebraska, where a lawsuit is before the state supreme court over the constitutionality of a statute giving the governor the right to approve pipeline decisions instead of the state’s public utilities commission.
Active in urban politics in the 1980s, Lone Eagle moved to the Bridger community on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation to live a more quiet life with her husband and children – only to find herself drawn into a new fight against a pipeline that would run two miles from her home and over the Cheyenne river, which local residents rely on to stock their freezers with fish and game.
This is a storied area for many. Bridger was the last refuge camp set up in 1890 by Lakota, pursued by the US cavalry, before hundreds of men, women and children were killed in the infamous Wounded Knee massacre in Pine Ridge. Survivors returned to establish a community in Bridger.
Every December, the Lakota conduct a pilgrimage horse ride over land the proposed pipeline would follow, retracing the steps that led to Wounded Knee. Last year, Elizabeth’s 11-year-old son was the only person to complete both the horse ride and a multi-day run back home.
As the pipeline fight has heated up, Lone Eagle and other tribes have joined up with ranchers and landowners in a loose coalition – at times described as the “Cowboys and Indians” alliance.
One of those non-Native Americans is lifelong rancher Paul Seamans, a 67-year-old former chair of Dakota Rural Action. Under threat of having his land in central South Dakota expropriated through eminent domain, he initially signed a deal with TransCanada to accept a 1.5-mile segment of the pipeline.
But as he’s learned more, he has become one of the leading voices of opposition in South Dakota.
“A lot of people have been taken in by the inflated jobs claims,” Seamans says. “TransCanada and the politicians realized how well the jobs line would play – so they kept inflating it all the time. First they said 5,000 jobs, then a hundred or even two hundred thousand, and now they seem to have settled on 40,000. But I’ve never seen credible studies of how they arrived at even that.”
A US State Department report earlier this year found the pipeline would create 35 permanent jobs, leading Obama to call Keystone XL’s potential impact on jobs creation a “blip”.
Another study by Cornell University’s Global Labour Institute concluded the pipeline project could in fact kill more jobs than it would create, through oil spills, pollution, and an increase in gas prices.
Locals call South Dakota the “Mississippi of the North” because of its history of racism, but the pipeline battle has drawn Native American and non-native people closer than ever before.
“An alliance might seem unlikely, but it’s not really,” says Seamans. “We have a lot of the same interests. Historically it may have been so, but things are changing. Especially with the advent of social media, which has made it a lot easier to keep in contact. A lot of us have given more consideration to their Native American treaty rights and see things more from their perspective now.”
Some of these partnerships date back to the 1970s, and have resulted in the blocking of uranium and coal mining and toxic waste dumps.
Earlier this year, in April, many of the local activists rode horses side-by-side through Washington DC, where they presented a painted tipi symbolizing protection of water to President Barack Obama. Lone Eagle says it’s been a “tentative step toward righting these relationships”.
Seamans says ranchers’ views have evolved, as they have learned a lot about the potential environmental and climate impacts of Alberta tar sands development through meetings with tribal nations.
“I’ve always been irritated by the eminent domain laws that favour the oil companies and don’t protect landowners,” he said. “But as I’ve learned about what the tar sands is all about, I know it’s very destructive. I would as soon as they leave it in the ground.”
Having delayed TransCanada’s pipeline already for three years, the North American-wide movement has been responsible for costing oil companies $17bn in investment in Alberta’s tar sands, according to a recent report by Oil Change International. The report anticipates that increasing protests and escalating costs for oil companies will stall the construction of pipelines, slowing the expansion of Alberta’s tar sands and reducing carbon emissions.
“Many of us have taken a personal pledge: they will physically have to go through us,” said Lone Eagle. “Whenever Indian people take action, no matter how non-violent, we know whose blood gets shed. They proved that to us at Wounded Knee. But we have to draw the line somewhere. Our horses are ready –people think that’s figurative, but it’s not.”
theguardian.com
Native Americans and ranchers in South Dakota are making common cause in their efforts to stop the project to transport oil from Canadian tar sands
A depot used to store pipes for Transcanada Corp’s planned Keystone XL oil pipeline is seen in Gascoyne, North Dakota, last week. Photograph: Andrew Cullen/Reuters
As she watches the red sun dip past the window of her home deep in a South Dakota valley, Beth Lone Eagle says she isn’t prepared to see a tar sands pipeline tarnish any bit of “God’s country”.
With the US Senate scheduled to hold a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday, the Lakota woman says ranchers, landowners and tribal nations throughout the midwest are girding for a fight regardless of how the process in Washington plays out.
The debate over the controversial pipeline, which would run from Alberta’s tar sands to Gulf coast refineries, has over the last few years become a defining struggle over the future of energy politics in America.
Under the new banner of No KXL Dakota, Lone Eagle is intervening with a number of environmental and rural organizations in South Dakota’s Public Utilities Commission hearings in an attempt to deny TransCanada a construction permit.
It’s a process that could delay TransCanada beyond even its current entanglement in Nebraska, where a lawsuit is before the state supreme court over the constitutionality of a statute giving the governor the right to approve pipeline decisions instead of the state’s public utilities commission.
Active in urban politics in the 1980s, Lone Eagle moved to the Bridger community on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation to live a more quiet life with her husband and children – only to find herself drawn into a new fight against a pipeline that would run two miles from her home and over the Cheyenne river, which local residents rely on to stock their freezers with fish and game.
This is a storied area for many. Bridger was the last refuge camp set up in 1890 by Lakota, pursued by the US cavalry, before hundreds of men, women and children were killed in the infamous Wounded Knee massacre in Pine Ridge. Survivors returned to establish a community in Bridger.
Every December, the Lakota conduct a pilgrimage horse ride over land the proposed pipeline would follow, retracing the steps that led to Wounded Knee. Last year, Elizabeth’s 11-year-old son was the only person to complete both the horse ride and a multi-day run back home.
As the pipeline fight has heated up, Lone Eagle and other tribes have joined up with ranchers and landowners in a loose coalition – at times described as the “Cowboys and Indians” alliance.
One of those non-Native Americans is lifelong rancher Paul Seamans, a 67-year-old former chair of Dakota Rural Action. Under threat of having his land in central South Dakota expropriated through eminent domain, he initially signed a deal with TransCanada to accept a 1.5-mile segment of the pipeline.
But as he’s learned more, he has become one of the leading voices of opposition in South Dakota.
“A lot of people have been taken in by the inflated jobs claims,” Seamans says. “TransCanada and the politicians realized how well the jobs line would play – so they kept inflating it all the time. First they said 5,000 jobs, then a hundred or even two hundred thousand, and now they seem to have settled on 40,000. But I’ve never seen credible studies of how they arrived at even that.”
A US State Department report earlier this year found the pipeline would create 35 permanent jobs, leading Obama to call Keystone XL’s potential impact on jobs creation a “blip”.
Another study by Cornell University’s Global Labour Institute concluded the pipeline project could in fact kill more jobs than it would create, through oil spills, pollution, and an increase in gas prices.
Locals call South Dakota the “Mississippi of the North” because of its history of racism, but the pipeline battle has drawn Native American and non-native people closer than ever before.
“An alliance might seem unlikely, but it’s not really,” says Seamans. “We have a lot of the same interests. Historically it may have been so, but things are changing. Especially with the advent of social media, which has made it a lot easier to keep in contact. A lot of us have given more consideration to their Native American treaty rights and see things more from their perspective now.”
Some of these partnerships date back to the 1970s, and have resulted in the blocking of uranium and coal mining and toxic waste dumps.
Earlier this year, in April, many of the local activists rode horses side-by-side through Washington DC, where they presented a painted tipi symbolizing protection of water to President Barack Obama. Lone Eagle says it’s been a “tentative step toward righting these relationships”.
Seamans says ranchers’ views have evolved, as they have learned a lot about the potential environmental and climate impacts of Alberta tar sands development through meetings with tribal nations.
“I’ve always been irritated by the eminent domain laws that favour the oil companies and don’t protect landowners,” he said. “But as I’ve learned about what the tar sands is all about, I know it’s very destructive. I would as soon as they leave it in the ground.”
Having delayed TransCanada’s pipeline already for three years, the North American-wide movement has been responsible for costing oil companies $17bn in investment in Alberta’s tar sands, according to a recent report by Oil Change International. The report anticipates that increasing protests and escalating costs for oil companies will stall the construction of pipelines, slowing the expansion of Alberta’s tar sands and reducing carbon emissions.
“Many of us have taken a personal pledge: they will physically have to go through us,” said Lone Eagle. “Whenever Indian people take action, no matter how non-violent, we know whose blood gets shed. They proved that to us at Wounded Knee. But we have to draw the line somewhere. Our horses are ready –people think that’s figurative, but it’s not.”
theguardian.com
Killing spam for Charles...
https://www.facebook.com/TruthfromUkraine/photos/np.46757788.100003224535664/1573508296205850/?type=1&ref=notif¬if_t=notify_me
Porosenko's peaceful plan about eastern ukraine:
"We will have our jobs. They will not. We will have our pensions. They will not. We will have care for children, for people, and retirees. They will not. Our children will go to schools and kindergartens. Theirs will hole up in basements [from our bombs]. Because they are not able to do anything. This is exactly how we will win this war! [I.e., we will starve and terrorize them into submission.]"
who do think too that this is really disgusting ??
https://www.facebook.com/TruthfromUkraine/photos/np.46757788.100003224535664/1573508296205850/?type=1&ref=notif¬if_t=notify_me
Porosenko's peaceful plan about eastern ukraine:
"We will have our jobs. They will not. We will have our pensions. They will not. We will have care for children, for people, and retirees. They will not. Our children will go to schools and kindergartens. Theirs will hole up in basements [from our bombs]. Because they are not able to do anything. This is exactly how we will win this war! [I.e., we will starve and terrorize them into submission.]"
who do think too that this is really disgusting ??
Reminder!!
rumpil to jasiom22
I dont want to spam NATW topic
You don't want to, but ............... here you are again! :S
rumpil to jasiom22
I dont want to spam NATW topic
You don't want to, but ............... here you are again! :S
Poor rumpil has watched too much Russia Today again? :D
http://www.stopfake.org/en/lies-petro-poroshenko-promised-that-children-from-donbas-would-be-sitting-in-cellars/
http://www.stopfake.org/en/lies-petro-poroshenko-promised-that-children-from-donbas-would-be-sitting-in-cellars/
@ Charles:
1) as always: stop to tell other people what to post or not to post.
2) please, link your articles, don't copy/paste all them, I want to be free to skip them faster.
1) as always: stop to tell other people what to post or not to post.
2) please, link your articles, don't copy/paste all them, I want to be free to skip them faster.
I'm sorry, what did you just say about not telling others what to do??
And here we go again, one troll drags in the rest ..... great! Grow up
And here we go again, one troll drags in the rest ..... great! Grow up
Anyway, as I'm no news .....
British embassy in Ukraine tweets guide to Russian tanks
UK officials in Kiev post a graphic of a T-72BM tank and photographs of apparent sightings of them in eastern Ukraine
A military attache examines a Russian T-64BV tank seized in August during fighting in eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images
Britain’s embassy in Kiev risked provoking fresh Russian anger on Wednesday by posting a diagram on Twitter “to help the Kremlin spot its tanks” in Ukraine.
“Putin still denying Russia’s troops and hardware are in Ukraine. Here’s a guide to help the Kremlin spot its tanks,” said a post on the @UKinUkraine Twitter feed.
Attached was a graphic featuring the logo of the UK Foreign Office showing how to identify a T-72BM Russian tank and photographs showing sightings of the same tanks “not used by Ukrainian military” in Ukraine.
Russia denies military involvement in eastern Ukraine, but the west has been fiercely critical of its role and is putting pressure on the Kremlin to resolve the crisis.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, left last weekend’s G20 summit in Australia early after criticisms from leaders including Barack Obama and David Cameron.
On Tuesday, Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke of a buildup of troops, artillery and air defence systems inside Ukraine and on the Russian side of the border.
The unrest involving pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 4,100 people in the past seven months, according to the UN.
A further two Ukrainian soldiers and five civilians had been killed in fighting in the east during the previous 24 hours, Ukrainian security officials in Kiev said on Wednesday.
theguardian.com
British embassy in Ukraine tweets guide to Russian tanks
UK officials in Kiev post a graphic of a T-72BM tank and photographs of apparent sightings of them in eastern Ukraine
A military attache examines a Russian T-64BV tank seized in August during fighting in eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images
Britain’s embassy in Kiev risked provoking fresh Russian anger on Wednesday by posting a diagram on Twitter “to help the Kremlin spot its tanks” in Ukraine.
“Putin still denying Russia’s troops and hardware are in Ukraine. Here’s a guide to help the Kremlin spot its tanks,” said a post on the @UKinUkraine Twitter feed.
Attached was a graphic featuring the logo of the UK Foreign Office showing how to identify a T-72BM Russian tank and photographs showing sightings of the same tanks “not used by Ukrainian military” in Ukraine.
Russia denies military involvement in eastern Ukraine, but the west has been fiercely critical of its role and is putting pressure on the Kremlin to resolve the crisis.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, left last weekend’s G20 summit in Australia early after criticisms from leaders including Barack Obama and David Cameron.
On Tuesday, Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke of a buildup of troops, artillery and air defence systems inside Ukraine and on the Russian side of the border.
The unrest involving pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 4,100 people in the past seven months, according to the UN.
A further two Ukrainian soldiers and five civilians had been killed in fighting in the east during the previous 24 hours, Ukrainian security officials in Kiev said on Wednesday.
theguardian.com
UK takes part in coalition air strike against Isis bunker complex
RAF fighter bombers part of seven-nation attack on target in northern Iraq around 20 miles north-west of Kirkuk
An RAF Tornado GR4. Photograph: Cpl Neil Bryden/RAF/Mod/Crown Co/PA
RAF fighter bombers have taken part in a coalition air strike against an Islamic State (Isis) bunker complex in northern Iraq, the Ministry of Defence has said.
Warplanes from seven nations took part in a “comprehensive and closely co-ordinated” attack on the target around 20 miles north-west of the city of Kirkuk.
The site, described as a “well concealed network of fighting positions and underground facilities”, had been under surveillance after Isis fighters withdrew to the area in the face of advances by Kurdish peshmerga forces.
RAF Tornado GR4 aircraft, carrying Paveway IV precision guided bombs, formed the UK element of the strike force.
The involvement of aircraft from so many coalition countries was said to be a reflection of the significance of the target as well as the obstacle it posed to further peshmerga advances.
Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, said: “RAF missions continue to play a crucial role in support of Iraqi ground operations. This morning’s strike will have dealt a blow to the Isil network in a key location, thus limiting their ability to pursue their brutality against the civilian population of Iraq.
“This is further evidence of the UK’s significant role within the coalition, and is one strand of a measured approach to degrading Isil by an air campaign while also supporting the Iraqi forces through training and development.”
theguardian.com
Miss Honduras winner and sister found dead
Police say bodies of María José Alvarado and her sister Sofía, who went missing last week, found near river
Two arrested in Honduras beauty queen murders
Police in Honduras have found the bodies of a beauty queen and her sister, six days after the two young women disappeared from a party.
María José Alvarado, 19, had been due to travel to London in preparation for the Miss World pageant in December. Her body was found buried near a river near the northern city of Santa Bárbara, alongside that of her 23-year-old sister Sofía, police said on Wednesday.
“I can confirm that the Alvarado sisters have been found,” Leandro Osorio, head of the criminal investigation unit told Honduran TV.
María José and Sofía went missing on Thursday night after attending Sofía’s boyfriend’s birthday party in a spa on the outskirts of Santa Bárbara, where the family home is also located.
Police said the boyfriend, Plutarco Ruíz, is the prime suspect in the murder and has been arrested along with another man identified as Valentín Maldonado.
“We have the author of this abominable act, Mr Plutarco Ruíz,” Osorio said. “We also have the murder weapon and the vehicle used to transport the victims.”
Local media reported that police had confiscated two pistols from the detainees. There were also reports that they had led police to the graves.
The disappearance and subsequent murder of the Alvarado sisters has shocked Honduras, a country already struggling with a deep security crisis and the worst murder rates in the world for several years.
The national homicide rate in Honduras 2013 stood at 83 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, about double the rates in Venezuela, Belize and El Salvador – Latin America’s other most violent countries.
The murder of the Alvarado sisters stands out both because of María José’s position as a representative of the country, as well as because of the absence of any suggestion that the two women were in any way linked to the turf battles between street gangs that is usually blamed for the majority of the country’s violence.
theguardian.com
Police say bodies of María José Alvarado and her sister Sofía, who went missing last week, found near river
Two arrested in Honduras beauty queen murders
Police in Honduras have found the bodies of a beauty queen and her sister, six days after the two young women disappeared from a party.
María José Alvarado, 19, had been due to travel to London in preparation for the Miss World pageant in December. Her body was found buried near a river near the northern city of Santa Bárbara, alongside that of her 23-year-old sister Sofía, police said on Wednesday.
“I can confirm that the Alvarado sisters have been found,” Leandro Osorio, head of the criminal investigation unit told Honduran TV.
María José and Sofía went missing on Thursday night after attending Sofía’s boyfriend’s birthday party in a spa on the outskirts of Santa Bárbara, where the family home is also located.
Police said the boyfriend, Plutarco Ruíz, is the prime suspect in the murder and has been arrested along with another man identified as Valentín Maldonado.
“We have the author of this abominable act, Mr Plutarco Ruíz,” Osorio said. “We also have the murder weapon and the vehicle used to transport the victims.”
Local media reported that police had confiscated two pistols from the detainees. There were also reports that they had led police to the graves.
The disappearance and subsequent murder of the Alvarado sisters has shocked Honduras, a country already struggling with a deep security crisis and the worst murder rates in the world for several years.
The national homicide rate in Honduras 2013 stood at 83 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, about double the rates in Venezuela, Belize and El Salvador – Latin America’s other most violent countries.
The murder of the Alvarado sisters stands out both because of María José’s position as a representative of the country, as well as because of the absence of any suggestion that the two women were in any way linked to the turf battles between street gangs that is usually blamed for the majority of the country’s violence.
theguardian.com
Five-year-old passes Microsoft exam
Ayan Qureshi is the youngest computer specialist in the world Ayan Qureshi has a network of computers at his home in Coventry, UK.
Ayan Qureshi has a network of computers at his home in Coventry, UK.
A boy from Coventry has become the youngest computer specialist in the world.
Ayan Qureshi is now a Microsoft Certified Professional after passing the tech giant's exam when he was just five years old.
Ayan, now six, whose father is an IT consultant, has set up his own computer network at home.
He told the BBC he found the exam difficult but enjoyable, and hopes to set up a UK-based tech hub one day.
"There were multiple choice questions, drag and drop questions, hotspot questions and scenario-based questions," he told the BBC Asian Network.
"The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old. But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory," explained Ayan's father Asim.
Mr Qureshi introduced his son to computers when he was three years old. He let him play with his old computers, so he could understand hard drives and motherboards.
"I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," he explained.
"Too much computing at this age can cause a negative effect, but in Ayan's case he has cached this opportunity."
Ayan has his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built.
He spends around two hours a day learning about the operating system and how to install programmes.
When the boy arrived to take the Microsoft exam, the invigilators were concerned that he was too young to be a candidate.
His father reassured them that Ayan would be all right on his own.
The test is usually taken by people who want to become IT technicians.
The exam invigilators thought Ayan Qureshi was too young to be a candidate
Ayan's mother Mamoona is training to be a GP.
The family moved to England from Pakistan in 2009.
"I'm very happy and very proud, I don't want to see him set a world record every day. But I want him to do his best whatever he does in his life," she said.
Ayan says he hopes to launch a UK-based IT hub similar to America's Silicon Valley one day, which he intends to call E-Valley.
He also wants to start his own company.
bbc.com
Ayan Qureshi is the youngest computer specialist in the world Ayan Qureshi has a network of computers at his home in Coventry, UK.
Ayan Qureshi has a network of computers at his home in Coventry, UK.
A boy from Coventry has become the youngest computer specialist in the world.
Ayan Qureshi is now a Microsoft Certified Professional after passing the tech giant's exam when he was just five years old.
Ayan, now six, whose father is an IT consultant, has set up his own computer network at home.
He told the BBC he found the exam difficult but enjoyable, and hopes to set up a UK-based tech hub one day.
"There were multiple choice questions, drag and drop questions, hotspot questions and scenario-based questions," he told the BBC Asian Network.
"The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old. But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory," explained Ayan's father Asim.
Mr Qureshi introduced his son to computers when he was three years old. He let him play with his old computers, so he could understand hard drives and motherboards.
"I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," he explained.
"Too much computing at this age can cause a negative effect, but in Ayan's case he has cached this opportunity."
Ayan has his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built.
He spends around two hours a day learning about the operating system and how to install programmes.
When the boy arrived to take the Microsoft exam, the invigilators were concerned that he was too young to be a candidate.
His father reassured them that Ayan would be all right on his own.
The test is usually taken by people who want to become IT technicians.
The exam invigilators thought Ayan Qureshi was too young to be a candidate
Ayan's mother Mamoona is training to be a GP.
The family moved to England from Pakistan in 2009.
"I'm very happy and very proud, I don't want to see him set a world record every day. But I want him to do his best whatever he does in his life," she said.
Ayan says he hopes to launch a UK-based IT hub similar to America's Silicon Valley one day, which he intends to call E-Valley.
He also wants to start his own company.
bbc.com
I'm sorry, what did you just say about not telling others what to do??
Again?
I said you can't shut up other users.
You can say whatever you want IT.
And here we go again, one troll drags in the rest ..... great! Grow up
again?
But just to accept other users ideas and post isn't easier than fight at every post?
Again?
I said you can't shut up other users.
You can say whatever you want IT.
And here we go again, one troll drags in the rest ..... great! Grow up
again?
But just to accept other users ideas and post isn't easier than fight at every post?
and please make links, do not copy-paste all that useless "news" you find out.
Fifa whistleblower Phaedra Al-Majid fears for her safety
By Richard Conway BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent
Fifa whistleblower Phaedra Al-Majid says she will "look over my shoulder for the rest of my life" after making allegations of corruption against Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid.
A two-year investigation has cleared the Gulf state of wrongdoing.
Now Al-Majid, whose testimony was not regarded as reliable, says she is paying the price for speaking out.
"I've been introduced to a whole new culture of paranoia, fear and threats," Al-Majid told BBC Sport.
"I will always look over my shoulder for the rest of my life."
Qatar's World Cup organising body has always "vehemently" denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Al-Majid's allegations that Qatari bid officials offered to pay for the votes of Fifa members first came to light in 2011. Later the same year she retracted her accusations and signed an affidavit saying they were false.
However, she says she was coerced into changing her statement and repeated her allegations to lawyer Michael Garcia while he was compiling his 430-page report on allegations of wrongdoing in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
She also claims the FBI visited her in September 2011 after they became aware of threats against her.
She said: "They questioned me about the Qatari bidding process and they questioned me about all the threats I had received from the Qataris. It was decided at that point that I would help them with their investigation and it was planned that I would talk to a senior official at the Qatar bid.
"So when I talked to the official, and the FBI are recording this, he did admit that there was a deal for the affidavit that I would basically say that they had done no wrongdoing."
Garcia's report has prompted Adidas - one of Fifa's six official partners - to request a meeting with the governing body to discuss allegations of corruption.
Garcia moved to criticise Fifa's summary 42-page publication of his findings hours after its release, prompting FA chairman Greg Dyke to write to world football's governing body requesting the full publication of the investigator's findings.
But in a letter responding to Dyke, Fifa president Sepp Blatter says full publication would break Swiss law and Fifa's own rules.
He says the consent of all parties mentioned in the report would be needed for it to be made fully public and asks Dyke if his own letter may be interpreted as "providing consent" on behalf of everyone connected with England's 2018 bid team.
World Cup vote corruption allegations timeline
13 November, 08:30 GMT: Fifa publishes a 42-page summary of its long-awaited report into the 2018 and 2022 bidding processes. The English Football Association is accused of flouting bidding rules in its attempt to stage the 2018 World Cup - but 2022 hosts Qatar are cleared of corruption allegations.
13 November, 12:30 GMT: Michael Garcia, the man who conducted the two-year inquiry into alleged corruption, says the summary published hours earlier "contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations".
13 November, 16:30 GMT: English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke calls Fifa's report "pointless" and "a joke".
14 November, 12:00 GMT: Fifa ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert says he is "surprised" by public criticism of the report in to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process from Fifa colleague Garcia.
17 November, 06:00 GMT: Former English Football Association chairman David Bernstein tells the BBC the FA should lobby Uefa for a European boycott of the next World Cup - unless Fifa implements meaningful reform.
17 November, 17:00 GMT: Dyke writes to Fifa's top executives to demand Garcia's report into the 2018 and 2022 bidding processes be published in full.
18 November, 16:00 GMT: Fifa submits a criminal complaint to Switzerland's attorney general concerning individuals linked to awarding the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
19 November, 1715 GMT: Fifa whistleblower Phaedra Al-Majid repeats previous allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar bid and says she will "always look over my shoulder for the rest of my life".
bbc.com
By Richard Conway BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent
Fifa whistleblower Phaedra Al-Majid says she will "look over my shoulder for the rest of my life" after making allegations of corruption against Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid.
A two-year investigation has cleared the Gulf state of wrongdoing.
Now Al-Majid, whose testimony was not regarded as reliable, says she is paying the price for speaking out.
"I've been introduced to a whole new culture of paranoia, fear and threats," Al-Majid told BBC Sport.
"I will always look over my shoulder for the rest of my life."
Qatar's World Cup organising body has always "vehemently" denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Al-Majid's allegations that Qatari bid officials offered to pay for the votes of Fifa members first came to light in 2011. Later the same year she retracted her accusations and signed an affidavit saying they were false.
However, she says she was coerced into changing her statement and repeated her allegations to lawyer Michael Garcia while he was compiling his 430-page report on allegations of wrongdoing in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
She also claims the FBI visited her in September 2011 after they became aware of threats against her.
She said: "They questioned me about the Qatari bidding process and they questioned me about all the threats I had received from the Qataris. It was decided at that point that I would help them with their investigation and it was planned that I would talk to a senior official at the Qatar bid.
"So when I talked to the official, and the FBI are recording this, he did admit that there was a deal for the affidavit that I would basically say that they had done no wrongdoing."
Garcia's report has prompted Adidas - one of Fifa's six official partners - to request a meeting with the governing body to discuss allegations of corruption.
Garcia moved to criticise Fifa's summary 42-page publication of his findings hours after its release, prompting FA chairman Greg Dyke to write to world football's governing body requesting the full publication of the investigator's findings.
But in a letter responding to Dyke, Fifa president Sepp Blatter says full publication would break Swiss law and Fifa's own rules.
He says the consent of all parties mentioned in the report would be needed for it to be made fully public and asks Dyke if his own letter may be interpreted as "providing consent" on behalf of everyone connected with England's 2018 bid team.
World Cup vote corruption allegations timeline
13 November, 08:30 GMT: Fifa publishes a 42-page summary of its long-awaited report into the 2018 and 2022 bidding processes. The English Football Association is accused of flouting bidding rules in its attempt to stage the 2018 World Cup - but 2022 hosts Qatar are cleared of corruption allegations.
13 November, 12:30 GMT: Michael Garcia, the man who conducted the two-year inquiry into alleged corruption, says the summary published hours earlier "contains numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations".
13 November, 16:30 GMT: English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke calls Fifa's report "pointless" and "a joke".
14 November, 12:00 GMT: Fifa ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert says he is "surprised" by public criticism of the report in to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process from Fifa colleague Garcia.
17 November, 06:00 GMT: Former English Football Association chairman David Bernstein tells the BBC the FA should lobby Uefa for a European boycott of the next World Cup - unless Fifa implements meaningful reform.
17 November, 17:00 GMT: Dyke writes to Fifa's top executives to demand Garcia's report into the 2018 and 2022 bidding processes be published in full.
18 November, 16:00 GMT: Fifa submits a criminal complaint to Switzerland's attorney general concerning individuals linked to awarding the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
19 November, 1715 GMT: Fifa whistleblower Phaedra Al-Majid repeats previous allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar bid and says she will "always look over my shoulder for the rest of my life".
bbc.com