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Archive for August 14, 2012

Many North American freshwater fish may be extinct by the year 2050.

Filed under: Climate Change, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Environmental, Research, Wildlife — Leave a comment

August 14, 2012

Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It

North American Fish Extinctions May Double by 2050

Contact Information: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Office of Communications and Publishing 12201 Sunrise Valley Dr, MS 119 Reston, VA 20192

Noel Burkhead Phone: 352-264-3499Rachel Pawlitz Phone: 352-264-3554

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – From 1900-2010, freshwater fish species in North America went extinct at a rate 877 times faster than the rate found in the fossil record, while estimates indicate the rate may double between now and 2050.  This new information comes from a U.S. Geological Survey study to be published in the September issue of the journal BioScience.In the fossil record, one freshwater fish species goes extinct every 3 million years, but North America lost 39 species and 18 subspecies between 1898 and 2006.  Based on current trends in threatened and endangered fish species, researchers estimate that an additional 53-86 species of freshwater fish may be extinct by the year 2050.  Since the first assessment of extinct North American freshwater fishes in 1989, the number of extinct fishes increased by 25 percent. “This study illustrates the value of placing current events into the context of deep geologic time, as rocks preserve an unbiased record of natural rates of processes before human activities began to alter the landscape, the atmosphere, the rivers, and oceans,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “Freshwater fish are a good choice for analysis as their bones make clear fossil impressions, and their lake and river environments produce excellent stratigraphic sequences.” The study’s author, Noel Burkhead, used an established method to compare the rate of extinction found in the fossil record with modern rates. “Estimates of freshwater fish extinctions during the twentieth century are conservative, because it can take 20-50 years to confirm extinction,” said Burkhead, a research fish biologist for the USGS. Extinction is a natural process, Burkhead explained, so examining its rate over a long geological timescale provides biologists with a benchmark for comparing current extinctions to background rate. The accelerated pace of extinction observed since the beginning of the twentieth century suggests human causes. In North America, assessments of extinctions are conducted by the American Fisheries Society’s Endangered Species Committee, using categories to factor in a lag time since the last observation of the species. The study used the categories “extinct” (species not seen for 50 years or more), “possibly extinct” (not been seen for 20 years or more), and “extinct in nature.” All these categories require that searches for the missing fishes must have been made by knowledgeable biologists. “It is extremely rare that the death of the last individual is documented by biologists,” said Burkhead, “although it can happen when a fish only is found in a specific spring or caldera, and it dries up. That’s what happened with five species of desert pupfishes and the Alberca silverside—the last known fish to go extinct in North America.” The Alberca silverside was found only in the Alberca Caldera, Guanajuato, Mexico; it went extinct when the caldera temporarily dried up in August 2006. Surprisingly, Burkhead reported that 90-96 percent of fish extinctions in the fossil record were not linked to the five well-known mass extinctions.  Natural causes of fish extinction are linked to transitions in landforms and continental watercourses over time, but many twentieth century extinctions were caused by dams, channelization of rivers, water pollution, and other human-induced factors. The background rate of extinction is based on the fossil record, which includes information on when ancient fishes lived and how long species survived in the geological past.  Burkhead used data on fish extinctions from well-known paleontologist Steven M. Stanley at the University of Hawaii. “Another cause of extinction can be a change in a fish’s food chain, which is what may have happened to the harelip sucker, a really cool fish that used to live in seven states throughout the Ohio River basin,” said Burkhead. “It was a snail-eating specialist with cleft lips that used to pluck snails off river bottoms and manipulate the snail in its mouth in order to suck out the snail’s soft parts, perhaps making little popping sounds. Sadly, snails are highly sensitive to excessive sedimentation and in the late nineteenth century, large amounts of topsoil were washing into rivers along with sewage and industrial effluents from cities.  This likely caused snails to decline, which may have been what drove the fish to extinction.” Declines in freshwater fishes are only the “tip of the iceberg” for freshwater ecosystems, with mussels and snails experiencing declines greater than that of freshwater fishes. The study, “Extinction Rates in North American Freshwater Fishes, 1900-2010,” will be published in the September issue of the journal BioScience. A summary of data on extinct North American freshwater fishes is available online on the Extinct North American Fishes website, which is updated by USGS and the AFS. Putting the numbers into perspective: 39 — Number of North American freshwater fish species confirmed as extinct from 1898 to present 1213 — Number of freshwater fish species found in North America up until 2010 3,000,000 — Average number of years between each fish extinction documented in the fossil record 2006 — Year that the most recent fish extinction was confirmed 31,769 — Total number of valid fish species described worldwide up until 2010 43 — Percent of the world’s fish species that depend on freshwater habitats

Related articles

• Fish Extinctions to Double in North America Over Next 40 Years (treehugger.com)
• Biodiversity: North America’s freshwater fish disappearing (summitcountyvoice.com)
• North American freshwater fishes race to extinction (scienceblog.com)
• North American freshwater fishes race to extinction (eurekalert.org)
• Extinction rate for U.S. fish to rise (upi.com)
• North American freshwater fishes race to extinction (esciencenews.com)
• North American freshwater fishes race to extinction (junkscience.com)
• North American freshwater fishes race to extinction (sott.net)
• North American freshwater fishes race to extinction (terradaily.com)
• North American freshwater fishes race to extinction (yubanet.com)

Tags: BioScience, Burkhead, Extinction, Fresh Water Fish Extinctions, Marcia McNutt, North American Fish, September, Steven M. Stanley, United States, United States Geological Survey

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A drought-induced shortage of food could make this a tough winter for young bears and reduce the number of cubs born to hungry hibernators.

Filed under: Adaptation, Climate Change, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Environmental, Food Shortage, Research, Wildlife — Leave a comment

August 14, 2012

 

Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It

 

 

Drought Bad News for Baby Bears

It’s not just the human food supply that’s being affected by severe drought.

By Tim Wall

THE GIST

• The drought has reduced food supplies for bears and will make it rough for young bear births.
• Nursing bear mothers require high nutrition to nurse young bears.
• The food shortage may lead to more runts.

enlarge

A grizzly bear with her cubs. Drought conditions are likely to make cub-raising more challenging this coming year. Click to enlarge this image.
Corbis

A drought-induced shortage of food could make this a tough winter for young bears and reduce the number of cubs born to hungry hibernators.

As desperate bears try to fatten up for winter, they may have more conflicts with humans, but experts note that the starving bruins are in more danger from humans than vice versa.

Adult black bears are in little danger of starving during their long winter nap, according to Dave Garshelis of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and co-chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Bear Specialist Group (IUCN BSG). Bears are opportunistic survivors and can eke a living out of a parched landscape, but future generations of bears may be set back by a drought.

“The main thing affected during winter is reproduction,” Garshelis said. “Bears mate in May-July, and blastocysts [an early stage in reproductive development] normally implant (in the uterus) in October-November, with births in January. However, if body condition is very poor, the blastocysts will not implant, or will later be naturally aborted, and reproduction will not occur.”

PHOTOS: The Fate of the Polar Bear

Even if a cub is born, a hungry mother grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park may end up raising a runt this year, due to a reduction in the quality and quantity of her milk.

“Lactation is energetically very demanding and is directly related to nutritional conditions that depend on the availability of foods,” said Frank van Manen, team leader of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. “Female grizzly bears in lower nutritional condition produce less milk and milk of lower quality. As a result, cubs of such females grow slower and have less body mass when they emerge from the den.”

WATCH VIDEO: As sea ice decreases in both coverage, thickness and age, polar bears could have fewer cubs.

Mother bears and their new cubs are in greater danger of starvation in early spring, after the animals’ metabolisms speed back up, but food sources are still scarce. Cubs over 18 months old that have been kicked out of the den will have to fend for themselves in the lean spring months. These youngsters are in the greatest danger of starvation.

“Yearlings are putting a lot of energy into growth as well as fat accumulation,” said John Beecham, co-author of “A Shadow in the Forest — Idaho’s Black Bear” and chair of the Human-Bear Conflicts Expert Team of the IUCN BSG. “Although they may not starve during hibernation, in spring they could suffer because the first plants to sprout are grasses. Grass provides protein, but few carbohydrates. The yearlings may not get enough energy to survive until berries and other richer food sources are available.”

NEWS: Did Ancient Warming Reunite Polar and Brown Bears?

The drought will probably not be much of a danger to adult bears, and experts agree that adult black bears are not likely to be a serious threat to humans. However, desperate bruins raiding trash cans and campsites may come into conflict with humans.

“Bears are very focused on food at this time of year,” Beecham said. “The bears will be especially stressed this year. Humans need to help the bears avoid conflict by making efforts to make food difficult for bears to access. When bears become food conditioned, or accustomed to eating human food, it can be very difficult to break them of the habit. They then get bolder as they become more habituated to being in proximity to humans.”

Grizzly bears can be a greater physical danger to humans, but the number of grizzlies captured in Yellowstone for being in conflict with humans has been within the normal range this year, according to van Manen. Hence, he doubts that campers are in any greater danger this year.

“Of course, campers and any other recreationists should always be very vigilant when in grizzly habitat and observe storage orders, carry bear spray, travel in larger groups and know how to respond in case of grizzly bear encounter,” van Manen said.

 

Read Full Article Here

Related articles

• 16 grizzly bears die in Yellowstone Park region this summer (missoulian.com)
• Hybrid polar/grizzly bears seem to be on the increase (wildnews.cleanwebdesign.com)
• Unusual Number of Grizzly and Hybrid Bears Spotted in High Arctic (e360.yale.edu)
• Does Climate Change Mean More Polar-Grizzly Bear Hybrids ? (motherjones.com)

Tags: American black bear, Brown bear, Grizzly bear, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Manen, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Polar bear, Yellowstone National Park

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According to a new study by the University of Southampton, reintroduced European beavers could have an overall positive impact on Scottish wild salmon populations.

Filed under: Adaptation, Beauty Of Nature, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Environmental, Wildlife — Leave a comment

August 14, 2012

 

 

Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It

 

From: Allison Winter, ENN

Beavers Benefit Salmon Populations

One would expect that beaver dams create more harm than good for fish populations, as they block certain species from swimming upstream and therefore reduce the availability of suitable spawning habitat. However, according to a new study by the University of Southampton, reintroduced European beavers could have an overall positive impact on Scottish wild salmon populations.

 

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Funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, a study was conducted to analyze the relationship between beavers and salmon populations due to underlying economical concerns that beavers can harm fish stocks by obstructing migration. But after surveying 49 fisheries managers, scientists, and beaver ecology experts from Europe and North America, more than half of those who responded believe that the overall impact of beavers on fish populations is beneficial.

According to Dr. Paul Kemp, a researcher in freshwater fish ecology and fisheries management from the University’s International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research who led the study, “the positive findings were more frequently based on quantitative evidence, while discussion of negative impacts was often speculative.” Dr. Kemp also claims, “most participants were from a fisheries background and whom you might expect would tend to side with the fish, but based on their experience of beaver and fish interactions tended to be positive towards beaver.”

Researchers studied over 100 sources of peer-reviewed information in which benefits were cited 184 times compared to 119 for the negative effects. Many of the negative effects are associated with dams construction as it not only impedes the movement of migrating fish, but leads to siltation which can cause loss of spawning habitat. The study finds that while the activities of beavers can result in short-term negative impacts on fish, these can be off-set by the benefits of increased habitat diversity resulting in the abundance and productivity of fish. Other benefits include the increase in area of stream habitat and ponds, an increased abundance of invertebrates (which is part of the stream-dwelling fish diet), and an increase in protection during varying water flows.

The complete study is published in the international fisheries journal Fish and Fisheries.

 

 

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• Beleaguered beavers are fishermen’s friend, claim scientists (scotsman.com)

Tags: Beaver, England, Eurasian Beaver, Paul Kemp, Poughkeepsie Journal, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scout, University of Southampton

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Although nearly 40 years have passed since Brazil banned slash-and-burn practices in its Atlantic Forest, the destruction lingers.

Filed under: Beauty Of Nature, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Deforestation, Environmental, Preservation, Research, Slash And Burn, Wildlife, World News — Leave a comment

August 14, 2012

 

Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It

 

Years After Slash and Burn, Brazil Haunted by ‘Black Carbon’

 

News Science Mag.org

by Rachel Nuwer

Before and after. An 1843 oil painting of Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest, and a recent burning event in the same forest.

Credit: G. L. Peixoto/ ICMBio, Brazil; (painting, inset) Photographer: J. Acioli; Félix Émile Taunay/Museu Nacional de Belas Artes/IBRAM/MinC

Although nearly 40 years have passed since Brazil banned slash-and-burn practices in its Atlantic Forest, the destruction lingers. New research reveals that charred plant material is leaching out of the soil and into rivers, eventually making its way to the ocean. So much of this “black carbon” is entering the marine ecosystem that it could be hurting ocean life, although further tests will be needed to confirm this possibility.

People have used fire to shape Earth’s vegetation for millennia. In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, Europeans began burning trees to make way for settlements and agriculture in the 16th century. What once blanketed 1.3 million square kilometers and ranked as one of the world’s largest tropical forests had shrunk to 8% of its former size by 1973, when protective laws were put in place.

But that’s not the end of the story, according to researchers led by Carlos Eduardo de Rezende, an aquatic biogeochemist at the State University of Norte Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro, and Thorsten Dittmar, a marine geochemist at the Max-Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. The team discovered high levels of black carbon in the region’s soil and in the Paraiba do Sul River, the largest river that exclusively drains the area once occupied by the Atlantic Forest. Locals still burn sugarcane each year as a preharvest way of prepping the soil, but the researchers found that this could not account for the amount of black carbon they were seeing.

To figure out how much black carbon the burned forest originally released, Rezende and colleagues looked to the neighboring Amazon forest for clues. Other studies reported black carbon rates for burning tracts of virgin Amazon rainforest, so they extrapolated those figures to match the historical range of the slashed-and-burned Atlantic Forest, which once had similar woody tree species to the Amazon. They calculated that torching the Atlantic Forest released about 200 to 500 million tonnes of black carbon. Given the material’s half-life, they estimate that it will take between 630 and 2200 years for just half of the black carbon to leach out of the region’s soils.

Black carbon typically leaves the soil when rain water carries the material into nearby rivers. From there, the rivers deposit it in the ocean. To calculate just how much carbon this process may be adding to the sea, the researchers collected river samples once every 2 weeks from 1997 to 2008. They found that the dissolved black carbon continues to be exported from the soil at approximately the same levels each year during the rainy season. More than 2700 tonnes of the former forest’s dissolved black carbon enters the ocean each year from the Pariaba do Sul River alone, the team reports online today in Nature Geoscience. Scaling their findings up, Rezende and his colleagues estimate that former forest’s total cleared area sends between 50,000 to 70,000 tonnes of dissolved black carbon to the marine environment.

“This kind of long-term time series is really essential to understanding global environmental change,” says Carrie Masiello, an Earth systems scientist at Rice University in Houston, Texas, who was not involved in the study.

What becomes of this black carbon upon entering the ocean, however, is still unknown. One of the researchers’ previous studies found black carbon in the remote depths of the oceans surrounding Antarctica, and Dittmar suspects that much of the black carbon eventually winds up in deep ocean deposits around the globe. Only further investigation will reveal how much of it makes its way from the river transport to the deep ocean, however, and how it might affect marine life, especially microbial communities that live in and feed on small organic particles.

“What’s exciting about this paper is it shows that tropical deforestation is not a small scale process,” Masiello says. Because slash-and-burn is still rampant in tropical locales around the planet, she explains, deforestation may very well be changing the way carbon cycles through the world’s oceans.

Related articles

• Years After Slash and Burn, Brazil Haunted by ‘Black Carbon’ (junkscience.com)
• Extinctions Rife in Tropical Forest Remnants (theepochtimes.com)
• Green Blog: In Fragmented Brazilian Forest, Few Species Survive (green.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Widespread local extinctions in tropical forest ‘remnants’ (eurekalert.org)

Tags: Amazon rainforest, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Bremen, Max-Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Paraíba do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, State University of Norte Fluminense

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Similarities between the DNA of modern people and Neanderthals are more likely to have arisen from shared ancestry than interbreeding, a study reports.

Filed under: Adaptation, Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Environmental, Evolution — Leave a comment

August 14, 2012

 

Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It

 

 

Neanderthal breeding idea doubted

By Jonathan Ball BBC News

Neanderthals were close evolutionary cousins of our own species – Homo sapiens

Similarities between the DNA of modern people and Neanderthals are more likely to have arisen from shared ancestry than interbreeding, a study reports.

That is according to research carried out at the University of Cambridge and published this week in PNAS journal.

Previously, it had been suggested that shared parts of the genomes of these two populations were the result of interbreeding.

However, the newly published research proposes a different explanation.

The origin of modern humans is a hotly debated topic; four main theories have arisen to describe the evolution of Homo sapiens.

All argue for an African origin, but an important distinction in these competing theories is whether or not interbreeding – or “hybridisation” – occurred between Homo sapiens and other members of the genus Homo.

In the current study, Cambridge evolutionary biologists Dr Anders Eriksson and Dr Andrea Manica used computer simulations to reassess the strength of evidence supporting hybridisation events.

They argue that the amount of DNA shared between modern Eurasian humans and Neanderthals – estimated at between 1-4% – can be explained if both arose from a geographically isolated population, most likely in North Africa, which shared a common ancestor around 300-350 thousand years ago.

When modern humans expanded out of Africa, around 60-70,000 years ago, they took that genetic similarity with them.

By contrast, previous ancient DNA studies of Neanderthal remains have shown that their genomes harbour genetic signatures – polymorphisms – that are also seen in the genomes of modern Europeans, East Asians and Oceanians (from Papua New Guinea) but not in modern African populations.

The findings challenged previously held views – based on several lines of evidence – that modern humans had replaced the Neanderthals with little or no gene flow occurring between the two groups.

Professor Julian Parkhill visits the Wellcome Collection to unravel the science behind the genome

The observations from the Neanderthal genome led some evolutionary biologists to argue that this genetic similarity had arisen through hybridisation between Neanderthals – already resident in Europe and western Asia – and the ancestors of present-day non-Africans.

Prof David Reich, from Harvard University in Cambridge, US – an exponent of the hybridisation theory – is not convinced that the data represents a powerful argument against interbreeding.

By using methods that are able to differentiate between genetic similarity caused by gene flow via hybridisation vs shared ancestry, he argues that “the patterns observed [in our analyses] are exactly what one would expect from recent gene flow” – a view shared by his collaborator Professor Svante Paabo from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Prof Reich went on to say that their data shows that Neanderthals and non-Africans last exchanged genetic material 47-65,000 years ago.

 

 

 

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• New clue to Neanderthal wipe-out
• Neanderthal sex boost to immunity
• Ancient humans interbred with us

Tags: Africa, Cambridge University, DNA, Homo, Human, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Neanderthal, Svante Pääbo

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More bodies recovered as Iran says willing to accept foreign aid for quake victims

Filed under: Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It, Earthquakes, Global Community, Global Disaster Watch, Humanitarian Aid — 1 Comment

August 14, 2012

 

Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It

 

 

More bodies recovered as Iran says willing to accept foreign aid for quake victims

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

The quakes, with magnitudes of 6.4 and 6.3, struck East Azerbaijan province on Saturday afternoon, flattening villages and injuring thousands of people. (Reuters)

By Al Arabiya with Agencies

Rescue workers recovered more bodies three days after two powerful earthquakes struck northwest Iran, leaving more than 300 dead, but officials played down reports the number of casualties could still sharply increase.

The quakes, with magnitudes of 6.4 and 6.3, struck East Azerbaijan province on Saturday afternoon, flattening villages and injuring thousands of people around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan, and Harees, near the provincial capital Tabriz.

A search team using sniffer dogs pulled out the body of a young woman in the village of Sorkhgav and were close to finding others, Fars new agency reported.

Another report, by Iran’s Labor news agency, spoke of hundreds of villages having suffered severe damage, raising fears the number of dead could mount sharply as rescuers arrive in previously inaccessible areas.

But officials dismissed the estimates of a significant rise in fatalities, saying the eventual figure may be lower than already given.

“Many figures are based on speculation and have not been documented,” provincial coroner Behram Samadi Rad said. “We cannot give a precise figure of the number of dead but we believe it will be under 300.”

In Tehran, Karaj and Qom, thousands visited centers late into the night to donate blood, Press TV reported, including Iran’s Olympic gold medal-winning weightlifter, Behdad Salimi.

“I truly feel terrible for the people of East Azerbaijan. I want to do what I can to help them. The most important thing is to donate blood because of the shortage,” he said.

State television has showed extensive footage of air drops and an officials handing out food rations and tents, following severe criticism the media ignored the national disaster and continued to broadcast normal schedules.

Meanwhile, in an apparent change of heart, state IRNA news agency quoted Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi as saying that foreign aid is now welcome for those affected by the earthquakes,

The remarks indicate authorities are struggling to deal with the quakes’ aftermath.

Iran’s Red Crescent said Monday the country doesn’t need foreign assistance and sent back a rescue team from Turkey that arrived without advance coordination.

After visiting the afflicted area on Monday, Rahimi announced emergency funds for the relief effort and appeared to indicate the government had not reacted quickly enough.

“In these conditions, any criticism the people have of us is acceptable and we must all work as hard as possible for their sake,” Mehr news reported him as saying.

Iran’s government faced criticism over its response to two earthquakes. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s trip to Saudi Arabia exposed him to barbs that he was not showing empathy with the disaster victims.

More than 20 minor aftershocks added to torment of many who had lost their homes – some their loved ones – and were living in makeshift camps.

Related articles

• Reuters: More bodies recovered as Iran quakes relief effort continues: DUBAI (Reuters) – Rescue workers recovere… (reuters.com)
• DTN Iran: More bodies recovered as Iran quakes relief effort continues: DUBAI (Reuters) – Rescue workers recover… (news.yahoo.com)
• Rescuers stop searches after Iran quakes kill 250 (sacbee.com)
• Death toll in Iran quake raised to at least 250 (sacbee.com)
• Death toll in Iran quake raised to at least 250 (sfgate.com)
• Iran’s government criticized over earthquake response (csmonitor.com)
• Iran earthquake death toll raised to 306 dead and over 3,000 injured (news.nationalpost.com)
• More bodies recovered as Iran quakes relief effort continues (news.terra.com)
• More bodies recovered as Iran quakes relief effort continues (uk.reuters.com)

Tags: Ahar, Behdad Salimi, East Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Varzaqan

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Switzerland widens sanctions on Syrian regime

Filed under: Banking, Financial, Government, Legislation, Politics, Politics, Legislation and Economy News, Sanctions, Security, Wars and Rumors of War — Leave a comment

August 14, 2012

 

Politics, Legislation and Economy News

 

 

Switzerland widens sanctions on Syrian regime

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Syrian companies subject to Swiss asset freezes now include Syrian Arab Airlines, the Aleppo-based Cotton Marketing Organization and Drex Technologies. (Photo courtesy of planes.cz)

By STEPHANIE NEBEHAY
REUTERS / GENEVA

Switzerland has banned a further three Syrian firms, including the national airline, from doing business in the country and imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 25 more Syrians, mainly military officials.

The move aligns neutral Switzerland with one by the European Union (EU) announced in late July, State Secretariat for Economics (SECO) spokeswoman Antje Baertschi told Reuters from Berne on Tuesday.

Switzerland has worked hard in recent years to improve its image as a haven for ill-gotten gains, seizing the assets of numerous deposed dictators and agreeing in 2009 to soften strict bank secrecy to help other countries catch tax cheats.

Syrian companies subject to Swiss asset freezes now include Syrian Arab Airlines, the Aleppo-based Cotton Marketing Organization and Drex Technologies, SECO said in a statement.

The decision will stop the flag carrier from landing at Swiss airports because Swiss financial and airport services would not be provided, Baertschi said.

Drex Technologies is owned by Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf, already subject to Swiss sanctions due to his “financial support to the Syrian regime”, SECO said.

Makhlouf, a cousin to President Bashar al-Assad, is on SECO’s list issued in June of 128 Syrians banned from travel and subject to freezes on any accounts or property in Switzerland. Assad and his younger brother Maher, who commands the Republican Guard, top the list.

Makhlouf has run a vast business empire – from telecoms to banks to real estate and taxis – since Assad took the reins of power on the death of his father in 2000.

In June, Switzerland said that it had frozen another 20 million Swiss francs ($20.52 million) of funds belonging to top Syrian officials, bringing the total at the time to 70 million francs.

Switzerland launched sanctions on Syria last year to try to pressure the Damascus government to end its military crackdown on opponents, saying in December it had frozen 50 million francs of assets belonging to Bashar al-Assad and other officials. ($1 = 0.9747 Swiss francs)

Related articles

• Swiss broaden sanctions against Syria (news.yahoo.com)
• UPDATE 1-Swiss broaden sanctions against Syria (uk.reuters.com)
• Swiss broaden sanctions against Syria (uk.reuters.com)
• Syrian army advances into another insurgent-held district in Aleppo (familysurvivalprotocol.com)
• Switzerland increases sanctions on Syria (itv.com)
• Bashar al-Assad has amassed fortune of up to £950m, analysts estimate (guardian.co.uk)
• Understanding Syria’s civil war: From Aleppo to… (shortformblog.com)
• President siphons a fortune for family (smh.com.au)
• Syrian rebels call for no-fly zone (news.yahoo.com)

Tags: Aleppo, Bashar Al- Assad, European Union, Rami Makhlouf, Reuters, Switzerland, Syria, Syrian Air

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