Bernard Storch: Holocaust Survivor, Soldier, and Camp Liberator Part II

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Soviet infantry crossing a river in Poland, 1944: WASHINGTON (VR)-- Andrew Hiller resumes his conversation with Bernard Storch, picking up the story when Storch goes into action on the Eastern Front in WWII. Bernard's first combat mission was a qualifed success, 2,000 soldiers were wounded, but the hill was taken. Shortly thereafter, the Germans forced a retreat. Storch says it is the only time his unit ever retreated. 

Bad water, did however, remove him from the field. Dysentery nearly cost him his life. When he recovered, he re-enlisted and was assigned to an infantry unit where he served for the rest of the war. In 1944, he began the push into Poland before reaching Germany. He helped liberate a number of termination camps, wading through ash that he didn't realize was human remains. He says duty kept him going, but what he saw prevented sleep in those days. "They kept a people overnight in a church believe it or not. They got undressed in that church and we found out later after the fact that they had buses there from the christians that they had German buses, they put the people in the bus naked. I was told seventy people... they put seventy people in the bus and would transport them into an area, I don't know how far, but fifteen minutes away they said and by the time they reached that place everybody in the bus was killed." Source: http://sputniknews.com/

Read More........ → December 11, 2015

UK failing children on poverty, education

British children are faring worse than those in many other rich countries in terms of child poverty and alcohol abuse, despite the UK rising to the 16th best country for a child to grow up in, according to a new report from UNICEF. VoR's Nima Green reports on the findings.

Sixteenth place is a considerable improvement on UNICEF’s previous report in 2007 when Britain limped in last, but there are several areas in which Britain is still lagging behind. Study areas: UNICEF looked into five areas, including child poverty, health and safety, education, behaviour and housing conditions. The Netherlands is labelled the best place for a child or teenager to grow up in, along with Finland, Sweden and Germany. Countries at the bottom of this year’s league table include the United States, Romania and Lithuania. However, for Britain, the report shows that children here have worse prospects in life in several areas, including a higher percentage of children living in poverty than other European countries like Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Anita Tiessan, the deputy executive director of UNICEF UK, warns that any further progress is under threat, as the Coalition Government’s welfare cuts begin to bite. Failing children: The UK also has the lowest number of 15-19 year olds in further education of any developed nation - a figure of particular concern to many children’s charities. Chris Wellings, who is the head of policy for Save the Children, said that the UK is failing children and young people in a number of crucial ways. Current figures show that there are 2.3 million children in the UK living in poverty. However, UNICEF’s report uses figures up until 2010, and bases their comparisons on each individual country’s relative median poverty line, which varies considerably across the world. James Browne, a senior economist at the Institute of Fiscal Studies, suggests that the picture might not be so bleak for British children in comparison to other countries in the league table. Improving lifestyle choices: Areas that have seen marked improvement include a falling number of under-15’s using drugs, such as cannabis. Martin Barnes, the CE of Drugscope, said that although 17 per cent of young people report using drugs at least once, the number of young addicts is expected to continue to decline. The UK has also seen a fall in young people who are overweight, from more than 15 per cent to a little over 10 per cent, and more children reported an increase in how satisfied they are in life. But despite the drop in drinking levels, the UK also still had one the highest alcohol abuse rates by young people between the age of 11 and 15, which is said to affect about 20 per cent. Chris Wellings from save the children said that many problems facing young people in the UK stem from a perception of a lack of opportunities particularly in poorer communities. Putting children first: UNICEF’s report argues that the UK needs to prioritise youth services, even in a period of austerity, to try and close the gap on nations that are far out-performing this country, like the Netherlands. It’s not yet clear what the impact of the coalition government’s austerity agenda will be on children’s well-being in the UK, though many economists predict that by 2015 there will be an extra 400,000 children living below the poverty line. Nima Green, Source: Article

Read More........ → January 19, 2015

Mobile phones turn 40

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Forty years ago Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first mobile phone call by calling a competitor at another telecoms company, telling them he was speaking from "a real cellular telephone". VoR’s Daniel Cinna reports on the legacy of Cooper's first call.

The early days: The first mobile phone was around nine inches long, weighed more than a kilogram and the battery lasted for just 20 minutes, but took 10 hours to charge - quite different from what we are used to today. But 40 years ago today, using the first mobile phone, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first mobile phone call. The recipient? His rivals at AT&T in America, to say that he’d beaten them to the discovery, which paved the way to an £800bn mobile telecoms industry. Unheard-of: Dr Mike Short is from the Institute of Engineering and Technology: “It was absolutely amazing because until then there had been police car to police car type communication. But the idea of calling someone on a landline from a radio device was unheard of. It was a major technical breakthrough in the sense that it was portable, even though it was very heavy, and it was able to allow Martin Cooper to ring his rivals and say ‘how does the call quality sound on this call?’” As the first mobile phones went to market, they were aimed mainly at businessmen; costing over £4,500 just for the handset. Mobile revolution: It wasn’t until the 1990s that mobile phones became smaller and more affordable enough for virtually everyone to own. Matt Warman is Consumer Technology Editor at the Daily Telegraph: “What happened since the first phone call in 1973 has been an even bigger revolution than Martin Cooper envisaged. We have seen mobile phones turn into computers, which in 1973 filled entire rooms. We can also do things with a mobile phone that used to require separate devices. The world that the mobile phone has ushered in was almost unimaginable when it was first invented,” he says. Today most mobiles can access the internet and with the rollout of 4G technology, they can access the World Wide Web at speeds previously reserved for computers. Lifestyle companions: However, mobiles are not just being used for sending text messages and voice calls, but to watch television, read books and magazines – and even to monitor blood pressure. Matt Warman, Consumer Technology Editor at the Daily Telegraph says technology in mobile phones is becoming more integrated into our lives: “GoogleNow is the obvious example. It’s an app which looks at what you’re doing and tries to guess what you want to do next. So if you are standing at a bus stop it will sense where you are, that you are at a bus stop and then show you when the next bus is due. What it will start doing increasingly is things like automically checking in for you when you have booked a flight. It will increasingly be able to guess more accurately what it is you want to do.” Google Glass: Many technology experts also predict the rise of wearable technology like Google Glass. It’s a tiny computer mounted onto a glasses frame which connects to the internet. Google Glass reacts to voice commands from the user and projects displays onto a lens. 'Dick Tracy' watch: But such technology is not just reserved for eyewear. Reports in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, say that Apple is working on a “wristwatch-like device that may perform some of the tasks handled by the iPhone”.Exciting news for technology enthusiasts like Dr Mike Short: “I find that very exciting. I can’t predict what the next 40 years will look like, but we will get more choice in terms of services and devices. The devices will take many forms; whether they are small screen or large screen; wearable or inside a machine. The Dick Tracey watch phone is certainly in reach this year.” Too much choice? Experts say the real revolution will not just be wearable technology, but what services like Google Now, as part of a mobile phone, can do for us. But it’s a controversial move. Many are concerned that such so-called services will result in an invasion of privacy and could, in the long term, stop people thinking for themselves.Daniel Cinna, Source: Voice of Russia - UK Edition

Read More........ → December 07, 2014

Gazprom enters world's fastest-growing gas market

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The much-awaited signing of the biggest contract in the history of the former USSR's gas sector, as Russia's President named it, better known as the gas deal between Russia and China, has been welcomed by most analysts and market watchers.

It allows Gazprom to enter the world's fastest-growing gas market, providing a major growth opportunity for the company. Not only could it not have come at a better time for Gazprom, as its relations with European partners are going through a bad stretch, but also the company's challenge historically has been to find ways to monetize its 23 trillion cubic meters gas reserves. Alex Griffiths, Managing Director and Head of Natural Resources and Commodities at Fitch Ratings in London, says the best scenario for Gazprom is to increase its production.

• “Gazprom's problem as we see it has always been – it has got massive resources, it needs to find places to sell them to. It sells a lot to Western Europe at the moment, China is an obvious area of growth, but for Gazprom it means essentially a new stream of cash flow and other ways to monetize its gas reserves,” 

Alex Griffiths said. Griffiths' colleague at another rating agency, Julia Pribytkova, Moody's Vice President and Senior Analyst in the Corporate Finance Group, points out to the recently inked deal being a launch pad for Gazprom’s full-scale diversification into the Asia-Pacific region.

• “Definitely, for the next 5-6 years there'll be increased investment into the construction of the pipelines, exploration and production, construction of the processing plants. However, starting from according to different estimates 2018 or 2020, Gazprom will have a new diversified sales channel for 38 bcm per annum, and potentially this could be increased to 68 bcm per annum over the next decade,” Julia Pribytkova said. 

No doubt, quite a few pivotal details weren't made public last week when the headline-making deal was inked by heads of Russian Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation, among them are financing and construction of the brand new gas trunkline. But the fact alone that after those ten years the deal is finally here, and there's a commitment from China to buy this much for this long is viewed by many as a major success. Oksana Teplinskaya, Source: The Voice of Russia

Read More........ → July 04, 2014

Smart technology ventures into firearms market

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A lot of wonders of the modern technology came from military research, whether we like it or not. And even technology which generally seems peaceful enough is often adapted for combat needs. Listen on air and read more on our daily Runet review '.RU' at the voiceofrussia.com.

It seems that one of the primary motivators behind technological progress is the thought “I want to kill more people faster and from a greater distance and, preferably, not die myself.” The Internet as we know it grew from a US military research project – DARPA net. And even technology which generally seems peaceful enough is often adapted for combat needs. For example, take the 3D printer. There exists an “open source firearms” company, which specializes in creation and sharing of 3D-printable firearms. Not really sure if that’s a good idea, but here we are. Lawmakers across the world may soon have to deal with this issue – especially as cheaper metal printers hit the market. Plastic guns, while having poor longevity, are still capable of firing lethal shots – or exploding, which can kill or maim either the target, the shooter or bystanders. If people start using high quality metal 3D printers – well, that would be an unpredictable situation. Thankfully, every coin has a flipside. In the world of smart-everything, firearms are not an exception to being improved with modern tech. And no, smartguns won’t be able to take selfies at the firing range; they will be able to prevent anyone but the owner from pulling the trigger. There are different ways smart firearms try to accomplish this, but the general idea is common – the weapon cannot be triggered unless some kind of authentication is provided. One of the most popular smartguns to date is the Armatix iP1. The safety trigger of this .22 handgun is linked to a special watch which communicates with the weapon through a wireless signal utilizing RFID standards. Once paid, the smart gun will only fire if it’s located within 10 inches from the watch. There are similar designs out there as well. For example, arms manufacturer Mossberg has a shotgun with an RFID transmitter and a battery within the rifle. It pairs with passive rings; once they’re close enough to the gun they turn on and send the signal to the weapon, allowing it to be fired. There are other methods as well, which work not only for newly designed weapons, but can be retrofitted to older models with some modification. For example, Kodiak Industries has created a Intelligun model of the M1911 pistol, a very popular firearm in the United States. The handgun has a built-in fingerprint scanner located at the grip where the operator’s middle finger would be. The only way the gun can fire is if there is a correct finger resting at the scanner at the moment the trigger is pulled. Some of the solutions are more futuristic and high-tech. There’s the so-called Dynamic Grip Recognition system, proposed by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The system essentially learns how the operator holds a gun on, and refuses to respond to anyone else. Supposedly, just like a lot of things about us humans, the pressure patterns from our hands are unique. Of course, there’s a number of questions raised by this system, like whether the pattern can be copied or what happens if someone changes their pattern. Same goes for other authentication methods – just how reliable are they? After all, people not only want to render weapons useless by unauthorized operators, they also want them to fire when they’re supposed to. Peter Lekarev, Read more:  Source: Voice Of Russia

Read More........ → May 28, 2014

Germany: even the closest friends don’t like to be fooled

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As the saga sparked by Edward Snowden continues to rage, more countries around the globe join the chorus of those outraged by the US spying programs. Even America’s closest allies seemed to be surprised by the “elastic conscience” of its long-standing partner. 

One of the most offended by the NSA eavesdropping was German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Considering that as a child of the former East Germany, Merkel grew up with her phone being tapped, no wonder that Der Spiegel’s report on the American surveillance agency listening to her phone calls, had a special resonance for Merkel. "This contradicts the interest of German people. There are no grounds for spying. Every German citizen is disappointed. The level of trust between the two countries needs to be restored,"Angela Merkel said. But sentiments aside, there are serious political consequences for this credibility gap. On October 24, the US ambassador was asked to come to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany because of the reports of phone tapping of the German Chancellor. Soon after that Merkel herself called the US President, Barack Obama asking for an explanation, Obama replied that the surveillance was carried out without his knowledge and was stopped in 2010. On October 28th, Hans-Peter Friedrich, head of the German Ministry of Interior Affairs announced that Germany should send US diplomats out of the country because of the possible wiretapping on Merkel. Jens Stomber, a coordinator for the NSA scandal with the Pirate Party in Germany, predicts it’s not the end of the story, as not only German politicians, but ordinary people have come to realize that the US is not trustworthy anymore. “I think in the past, maybe our government blindly trusted the US and I think from the Snowden leaks we can, of course, learn that you cannot trust the US in an unlimited way. And what is happening now, of course, in Europe if you look at what happened with the Swift agreement, which was suspended yesterday, or at least there was a decision to question it. So, there will be a vote in the European Council as many steps will follow. We are already in a discussion for a new date of protection reform all over Europe, so Europe is clearly taking steps to stand united against US surveillance and protect their citizens, I think so,”Jens Stomber said. Despite the strong words, experts says it's not likely that Germany and other targeted countries would sever relations with the US, but we are likely to witness an impact on the way they do business. Just a couple of weeks ago, the European Parliament suspended the service used to help the US track terrorist bank accounts known as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program in direct response to the news the NSA monitored the international data-sharing system known as "SWIFT," which is used to transfer money electronically in Europe. Seems like the message that the world sends to the US is clear – even the closest friends don’t like to be fooled. Source: Article,

Read More........ → May 22, 2014

Golda Meir: 'We don’t like to make war, even when we win'

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Born in Russia and raised in the US, Golda Meir was a leading figure in the movement called Zionism, aiming to create a Jewish state in Palestine. In 1948, she was part of the People's Council signing the vital proclamation establishing the State of Israel. 

Meir served as Israel's foreign minister from 1956 to 1966 and became its fourth prime minister in 1969. Country's first and the world's third woman to hold such an office, she was described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet became associated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion used to call Meir "the best man in the government". Her biggest dream was to bring peace to the Middle East but it came to a downfall during the Yom Kippur War, when Syrian and Egyptian forces waged a surprise attack on Israel in October 1973. Israeli casualties were high, leading to Meir's resignation. She never forgave herself for not preventing that war. For us, every single death is a tragedy. We don’t like to make war, even when we win. After the last one, there was no joy in our streets. No dancing, no songs, no festivities. And you should have seen our soldiers coming back victorious. Each one was a picture of sadness. Not only because they had seen their brothers die, but because they had had to kill their enemies. Many locked themselves in their rooms and wouldn’t speak. Or when they opened their mouths, it was to repeat a refrain: “I had to shoot, I killed”. It’s no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either. Anna Mikhailova, Source: Article, 

Read More........ → March 16, 2014

Facebook: place for friend or foe?

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By Anna Mikhailova, Social networks granted us easy access to people and information but they also made us vulnerable. You would think online behavior differs from how we usually act in real life but the phenomenon of 'trolling' or cyber-bullying that has become widely recognized over the last years proves it wrong. Regardless of who you talk to - 'real' people or those only known to you by their online identities, you can get emotionally hurt. Surely bullying in itself is nothing but cyberbullying takes it to a whole new level - it does not require a face-to-face confrontation, so it's easier both psychologically and physically to harass someone through telecommunications. And as more and more young people are becoming the victims of cyberbullies, which even leads to suicides, the issue needs regulation on a legislative level, - says Mac Watson, a radio talkshow host in Arizona, where a bipartisan bill designed to fight cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking, was recently adopted. 'It’s interesting that if there is a parent that has a child that has been bullied, the parents are usually for this because they know what it’s like, obviously in their own experience of having their child bullied. You aren’t just bullied at school anymore. You are bullied 24/7. There are so many different ways and devices that you can use to bully somebody, to bully a kid especially, that usually parents are for it.' http://voiceofrussia.com/2012_04_11/71340608/, Currently there is US federal legislation in bill form for cyberbullying with 14 states already having such legislation adopted or pending. The United Kingdom is also closely watching the situation. The new regulations added to the Defamation Bill argue that victims have a right to know who is behind a cyberbullying attack. This way bullies can now have their identities revealed without a court order. Rose McNeill, a Head of Education and Equality at the National Union of Teachers, says girls are particularly liable to online bullying as there a sexist aspect involved. 'Some of the attitudes that we think we fixed, the general sexist attitudes, are still there, that we now have kind of new issues really – sometimes linked to the internet, sometimes linked to how boys and girls use mobile phones and Facebook pages. There are new areas of sexual bullying and we have new issues around things like anorexia and self-harm for girls.' http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_04_03/Teens-exposed-to-Raunch-Culture-of-sex/ The social networks realize the scale of the problem too. Back in 2011, Facebook introduced a number of tools used to protect users from cyberbullying. These tools were an improved safety center with more multimedia resources, as well as convenient functionality for reporting offensive content or instances of cyber-bullying. You can also choose instead of contacting administration to privately message the user who posted offensive content. But even if you are lucky enough to never come across online “trolls”, it’s good to know social networks care for the etiquette.  Source: Article

Read More........ → February 10, 2014