WASHINGTON, July 1:  As much as 88 per cent of the open ocean’s surface contains plastic debris, raising concern about the effect on marine life and the food chain, scientists have said.
Mass-produced plastics from toys, bags, food containers and utensils make their way into the oceans through storm water runoff, a problem that is only expected to get worse in the coming decades.
The findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are based on more than 3,000 ocean samples collected around the world by a Spanish science expedition in 2010.
“Ocean currents carry plastic objects which split into smaller and smaller fragments due to solar radiation,” said lead researcher Andres Cozar from the University of Cadiz, yesterday.
“Those little pieces of plastic, known as microplastics, can last hundreds of years and were detected in 88 per cent of the ocean surface sampled during the Malaspina Expedition 2010.”
The study projected that the total amount of plastics in the world’s oceans — between 10,000 and 40,000 tons — is actually lower than prior estimates.
However, it raised new concerns about the fate of so much plastic, particularly the smallest pieces.
The study found that plastic fragments “between a few microns and a few millimetres in size are underrepresented in the ocean surface samples.”
More research is needed to find out where these are going and what effects they are having on the world’s marine life.
“These micro plastics have an influence on the behaviour and the food chain of marine organisms,” said Cozar.
“But probably, most of the impacts taking place due to plastic pollution in the oceans are not yet known.” (AGENCIES)

KIEV, July 1:  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he is halting a unilateral cease-fire in the conflict with pro-Russian separatists and says Ukrainian forces will go on the offensive against the rebels.
A statement from Poroshenko on his website says the cease-fire is being halted and that “we will attack and we will free our country.”
The fragile cease-fire expired yesterday night. The idea was to give rebels a chance to disarm and to start a broader peace process including an amnesty and new elections.
But rebels did not disarm, and the ceasefire was continually violated. Rebels did not comply with Poroshenko’s latest push to get them to turn over key border crossings with Russia and permit international monitoring of the cease-fire.
“The unique chance to put the peace plan into practice was not realised,” Poroshenko said in a speech prepared for delivery to the nation. “This happened because of the criminal actions of the fighters.”
Poroshenko had already extended the cease-fire from seven days as part of a plan to end the fighting that has killed more than 400 people since April.
Poroshenko’s decision followed four-way talks in search of a solution with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande yesterday as the deadline approached. He issued a statement after the talks ended saying the key conditions needed to continue the ceasefire had not been met.
European leaders and the US have urged Russia to use its influence with the rebels to ease the bloodshed and have threatened to impose another round of economic sanctions against Moscow.
While Putin has expressed support for the cease-fire, the West has accused Russia of allowing weapons and fighters to flow across the border into Ukraine.
Poroshenko said he meant for a cease-fire to be followed by an amnesty for fighters who had not considered serious crimes, and political concessions such as early local and regional elections, protections for speakers of Russian and, in the longer term, changes to the constitution to decentralise power to the regions. (AGENCIES)

UNITED NATIONS, July 1: Russia is asking the UN Security Council to condemn the illegal sale of Syrian oil by terrorist groups and encourage all countries to take “necessary measures” to prevent it.
A draft presidential statement circulated to council members and obtained yesterday by The Associated Press expresses “grave concern” at the seizure of oilfields in Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra and stresses that any export or import of crude oil without authorisation of a sovereign state is illegal.
Presidential statements are a step below resolutions and must be approved by all 15 council members. Diplomats said council experts would likely meet today to discuss the draft. If approved, it would not require countries to take action, and there would be no enforcement, but it would reflect the view of the UN’s most powerful body.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Thursday that as ISIL advances there is a real prospect of a terrorist state springing up from Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo to Iraq’s capital Baghdad. He said there are many reports that ISIL is selling oil from captured fields and indicated this was taking place in both Syria and Iraq but the draft does not mention Iraq.
Some diplomats said they want to see what evidence Russia has of ISIL and other terrorist groups selling oil, and whether this has spread into Iraq as well.
ISIL made significant headway recently in Syria’s eastern oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour, seizing towns and villages in heavy fighting against the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and other Islamic rebel groups. In the past weeks, it has also captured huge tracts of neighbouring Iraq.
The draft statement recalls the resolution adopted by the Security Council in March condemning the illicit export of crude oil from Libya and authorising UN member states to board suspect vessels and return illegally seized oil to the Libyan government.
The council acted three days after US Navy SEAL commandos seized a tanker off Cyprus containing Libyan oil that a militia controlling the country’s oil terminals was trying to export in defiance of the central government.
The draft statement notes that oilfields in control of terrorists generate one of their main sources of income “which supports their recruitment efforts and strengthens their operational capability to organise and carry out terrorist attacks.” (AGENCIES)
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JERUSALEM, July 1:  Israel has found the bodies of the three missing teenagers buried in a grave in southern West Bank, just over two weeks after their kidnapping allegedly by Hamas, and vowed to make the Islamist movement pay for their deaths.
The bodies of the abducted teenagers — Gilad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrah — were found by an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) team yesterday in a village northwest of Hebron, 17 days after they disappeared.
Five Palestinians were killed and more than 450 arrested during the huge manhunt launched to track down the teenagers.
Security forces believe the boys were shot shortly after their kidnapping in a premeditated plan by their abductors.
Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, is continuing with intelligence efforts to track down two Hamas militants, Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha, whom Israel has accused of involvement in the kidnapping.
One of the civilian volunteers involved in the search said the bodies had been found under a pile of branches and stones in a remote area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make Hamas pay for the murders as he convened an emergency meeting of his Security Cabinet.
“Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay,” Netanyahu said.
“All signs indicate that they are the bodies of our three abducted youths who were abducted and murdered in cold blood by human animals,” he said.
Right-wing Bait HaYehudi party leader and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett called for retribution.
“There will be no absolution for murderers of children,” Bennett said.
The three teenagers disappeared while hitch-hiking home from their yeshivas in the West Bank.
Opposition leader and Labour Chairman Isaac Herzog called the murders “despicable.”
“The kidnapping and murder of innocent boys under cover of night is a despicable and unforgivable crime,” he said adding “there is no justification or excuse, and I am convinced that the long arm of the security forces will reach the killers.”
Outgoing President Shimon Peres expressed sorrow to the bereaved parents and demanded a crackdown on the “criminal” terrorists.
“Our war against terror will only grow and not weaken so that the murderous terrorists will not dare to raise their heads”, Peres said. (PTI)

BAGHDAD, July 1:  Nearly 2,000 people were killed in Iraq this month, the highest figure since May 2007, according to government figures.
Figures compiled by the ministries of health, interior and defence yesterday showed that a total of 1,922 people died in June – 1,393 civilians, 380 soldiers and 149 policemen.
A further 2,610 people were wounded, the figures showed, including 1,745 civilians, 644 soldiers and 221 policemen.
The surge in violence comes with militants led by the Islamic State jihadist group having overrun stretches of territory across five provinces north and west of Baghdad in an offensive that has alarmed world leaders.
Iraqi forces wilted in the face of the initial assault, which saw major cities such as Mosul and Tikrit fall out of government control, but soldiers, police and allied fighters have since performed more capably.
The latest toll comes on the eve of the opening of Iraq’s parliament after elections on April 30, with world leaders and religious clerics urging the country’s fractious politicians to unite to see off the insurgent threat. (AGENCIES)