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Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook 2014-10-21 17:46:00
China is facing increasing pressure along two fronts. In its western province of Xinjiang, terrorists have been stepping up destabilization and separatist activities. In China's southeast Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, protests have disrupted normality in the dense urban streets, with protest leaders seeking to directly confront Beijing while dividing and destabilizing both Hong Kong society and attempting to "infect" the mainland. What is more troubling is the greater geopolitical agenda driving both of these seemingly "internal" conflicts - and that they both lead back to a single source beyond China's borders. With the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS) now implicated in receiving, training, and employing terrorists from China's Xinjiang province, and considering the fact that ISIS is the result of an intentional, engineered proxy war the US and its allies are waging in the Middle East, along with the fact that the unrest in Hong Kong is also traced back to Washington and London, presents a narrative of an ongoing confrontation between East and West being fought on the battlefield of fourth generation warfare. | |
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RT
2014-10-22 20:34:00
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough is deeply involved in negotiating how much to redact from a classified US Senate probe into the CIA's post-9/11 detention and interrogation program, according to a new report McDonough is playing a top role in hashing out what will be available to the public upon release of an abbreviated executive summary for the 6,000-page report, Huffington Post reported citing sources close to the negotiations. The Senate Intelligence Committee's $40 million investigation into the Central Intelligence Agency's Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation Program - which was active from September 11, 2001 to 2006 - has found that the spy agency purposely deceived the US Justice Department to attain legal justification for the use of torture techniques, among other findings that resulted in the report, completed from March 2009 to December 2012. Of that investigative report, the public will only see a 500-page, partially-redacted executive summary that is in the process of declassification. McDonough's involvement may indicate how monumental the tug-of-war between the Senate committee and the CIA has become during the investigation. The committee has alleged that the CIA has spied on its staff, while the intelligence agency has accused the committee of leaking classified information amid its "inquisition" of the CIA, as one intelligence source described the probe. The White House did confirm that McDonough was involved in the negotiations, but questions over the nature of his participation were left unanswered. "We're not going to get into the details of our discussions, but White House officials, including Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, are in regular touch with [Intelligence Committee] leadership on a variety of matters, including to discuss the committee's review of the Bush Administration's rendition, detention and interrogation program, in an effort to help ensure the executive summary is completed and declassified consistent with national security interests," Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, told Huffington Post. | |
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Eric Kraus
Russia Insider 2014-10-22 23:00:00
As the military situation in Ukraine grinds to a stalemate, the still more desperate economic plight comes to the fore, laying bare the culpable folly of European diplomacy. In an earlier posting we had suggested that the unification of Germany could serve as a benchmark for the potential cost of any attempt to keep the implicit promise to Ukraine of EU accession, tossing out a guesstimate of one-half trillion Euros - an obviously impossible sum in the context of a European continent sliding into renewed recession. In a recent paper, Carnegie's always incisive Dmitri Trenin has suggested that the actual cost of the reunification of Germany was closer to E1.5 trillion, albeit over a period of 23 years. While this latter number is almost certainly closer to the mark, given the realities it is no more than a substantial rounding error; Mr Poroshenko's trip to Washington - from which he returned with a generous $52 million - suggests that the likelihood of Ukraine receiving anything like either number is identical - precisely nil. | |
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RT
2014-10-20 18:39:00
Israel is suffering from an epidemic of violence that must be treated, the country's President Reuven Rivlin said. After the latest bloody conflict in Gaza, Jews and Arabs seem to have lost the capacity for dialogue, as relations have reached a new low. "It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is sick - and it is our duty to treat this disease," Rivlin told the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities at a xenophobia conference on Sunday in Jerusalem. "The tension between Jews and Arabs within the State of Israel has risen to record heights, and the relationship between all parties has reached a new low," he said, as cited by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "We have all witnessed the shocking sequence of incidents and violence taking place by both sides.The epidemic of violence is not limited to one sector or another, it permeates every area and doesn't skip any arena. There is violence in soccer stadiums as well as in academia. There is violence in social media and in everyday discourse, in hospitals and in schools." He added that he personally endured verbal abuse, including on his Facebook page. Israeli society has taken a right-wing swing amid the latest escalation in Gaza this summer. The violence erupted after the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Jewish teenagers, which triggered a major crackdown by the Israeli security forces in Gaza strip. Comment: Violence taking place by both sides? Not quite. Genocide in Gaza: Viable Palestinian strategic options in the face of Israeli tactics | |
Comment: We would like to remind Mr. Rivlin of the following: "Ignota nulla curatio morbid', do not attempt to cure what you do not understand.
(Israeli) society is thoroughly ponerised, including academia: Thought crime: Academics fight for freedom as critical thinkers eliminated from Israeli universities | |
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The Saker
This short post is just to inform you of the latest developments in the war in the Ukraine.Vineyard of the Saker 2014-10-22 18:34:00
Following the use of a tactical ballistic missile against Donetsk by the Ukies, Zakharchenko has declared that the ceasefire was basically over. Strelkov has made an official appeal warning that according to this information the Ukies were massing troops in preparation for an attack. According to Strelkov, the Ukie plan is for a very short and very rapid "push" towards Donestk and the Russian border to make any Novorussian state non-viable and thus to negotiate from a position of force. True, Strelkov does have a record of exaggerating threats in order to minimize them, but this time there are some strong signs that his analysis is shared by the Russian military, and these signs are the most ominous signs of all. Russian sources - including the excellent Colonel Cassad blog - report that the voentorg aid-spigot has been fully re-opened including for some major deliveries. While, of course, I am very happy that the Novorussian resistance is getting much needed equipment (and specialists), this kind of full reopening of the voentorg also indicates to me that the Russian intelligence services have concluded that an attack is very likely, possibly very soon. | |
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Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook 2014-10-21 16:33:00
China is facing increasing pressure along two fronts. In its western province of Xinjiang, terrorists have been stepping up destabilization and separatist activities. In China's southeast Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, protests have disrupted normality in the dense urban streets, with protest leaders seeking to directly confront Beijing while dividing and destabilizing both Hong Kong society and attempting to "infect" the mainland. What is more troubling is the greater geopolitical agenda driving both of these seemingly "internal" conflicts - and that they both lead back to a single source beyond China's borders. With the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS) now implicated in receiving, training, and employing terrorists from China's Xinjiang province, and considering the fact that ISIS is the result of an intentional, engineered proxy war the US and its allies are waging in the Middle East, along with the fact that the unrest in Hong Kong is also traced back to Washington and London, presents a narrative of an ongoing confrontation between East and West being fought on the battlefield of fourth generation warfare. ISIS: Washington's Global Expeditionary Force If one was asked to name a global-spanning military and intelligence operation opposed to Syria, Iran, Russia, and China, they might say the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US Government - and they would be right. But they could also easily answer by saying the "Islamic State" or ISIS/ISIL as it is also known. This is especially true after revelations surfaced that US-backed Uyghur separatists in China's western-most province of Xinjiang have joined ISIS for training with intentions of leading an armed rebellion against Beijing upon their return. | |
Comment: China, and Russia, pose a serious threat to American hegemony. As such, they must be neutralized, whatever the means. Paul Craig Roberts offers some additional insight into the strategy against China, and what kind of power China really has, in his article Will Russia and China hold their fire until War is the only alternative?:
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RT
2014-10-22 16:49:00
In the latest attack against Twitter in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf state's leading cleric criticized Twitter as "the source of all evil and devastation," triggering a social media firestorm. Saudi Arabia finds itself in a rather complicated relationship with Twitter, the popular social media platform. With the highest percentage of active Twitter users in the world among internet subscribers, Saudi Arabia, with its ultraconservative, authoritarian Islamic regime, also ranks as one of its most ardent critics. "If it were used correctly, it could be of real benefit, but unfortunately it's exploited for trivial matters," Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh remarked on his Fatwa television program on Monday, as quoted by AFP. | |
Comment: People networking together will always be a 'threat' to psychopaths and the elites' agendas.
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Eric W. Dolan
Raw Story 2014-10-22 16:20:00
The Republican National Committee is still hawking "I miss W" t-shirts, but now they have a new message.
In a fundraising email sent out Tuesday, RNC chief operating officer Sara Armstrong promised Republicans would bring the leadership qualities of President George W. Bush to the Senate if they prevailed in the upcoming Nov. 4 midterm elections. "President George W. Bush once said, 'I will live and lead by these principles: to advance my convictions with civility, to pursue the public interest with courage, to speak for greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility and try to live it as well,'" the email starts. "That's what America needs right now: a big dose of leadership. The kind of principled conservative leadership President Bush provided our great nation. And the kind of leadership Republicans will deliver when we win a Senate majority." Republicans need to gain six seats to win back the Senate, and recent polling suggests control of the upper body of Congress is within their grasp. | ||
Comment: This is the surreal reality that authoritarian followers and psychopaths live in despitepolls showing Bush as being the worst president since WWII.
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Pepe Escobar
RT 2014-10-22 15:42:00
Pay close attention to the women of Kobani, where Syrian Kurds are desperately fighting ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. They are also fighting the treacherous agendas of the US, Turkey, and the government of Iraqi Kurdistan. Who will prevail? Let's start by talking about Rojava. The full meaning of Rojava - the three mostly Kurdish provinces of northern Syria - is conveyed in this editorial (in Turkish) published by jailed activist Kenan Kirkaya. He argues that Rojava is the home of a "revolutionary model" that challenges"the hegemony of the capitalist, nation-state system" - way beyond its regional "meaning for Kurds, or for Syrians or Kurdistan." Kobani - an agricultural region - happens to be at the epicenter of this non-violent experiment in democracy, made possible by an arrangement between Damascus and Rojava (you don't go for regime change against us, we leave you alone). Here, for instance, it's argued that "even if only a single aspect of true socialism were able to survive there, millions of discontented people would be drawn to Kobani." In Rojava, decision making is via popular assemblies - multicultural and multi-religious. The top three officers in each municipality are a Kurd, an Arab and an Assyrian or Armenian Christian; and at least one of these three must be a woman. Non-Kurd minorities have their own institutions and speak their own languages. Among a myriad of women's and youth councils, there is also an increasingly famous feminist army, the YJA Star militia ("Union of Free Women", with the "star" symbolizing Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar). | |
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David Alexander
Reuters 2014-10-21 13:59:00
Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan hit an all-time high in 2013 despite years of counter-narcotics efforts that have cost the United States $7.6 billion, the U.S. government watchdog for Afghanistan reconstruction spending said on Tuesday. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported that Afghan farmers grew an "unprecedented" 209,000 hectares (516,000 acres) of opium poppy in 2013, surpassing the previous high of 193,000 hectares (477,000 acres) in 2007, said John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. "In past years, surges in opium poppy cultivation have been met by a coordinated response from the U.S. government and coalition partners, which has led to a temporary decline in levels of opium production," Sopko said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other top U.S. officials. "The recent record-high level of poppy cultivation calls into question the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of those prior efforts," he said. Afghanistan produces more than 80 percent of the world's illicit opium, and profits from the illegal trade help fund the Taliban insurgency. U.S. government officials blame poppy production for fueling corruption and instability, undermining good government and subverting the legal economy. | |
Comment: The CIA must be happy with the increase in opium poppy cultivation.
An example of CIA involvement in the drug trade (Source: Benazir Bhutto - A Warning To Us All): See also: War On Drugs Is A Hoax - US military Admits to Guarding, Assisting Lucrative Opium Trade in Afghanistan Opium and the CIA: Can the U.S. triumph in the drug-addicted Afghanistan War? | |
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Patrick Scott Hogg
Bella Caledonia 2014-10-22 13:48:00
I heard of a possible unilateral declaration of Scottish Independence from the late Robin Cook MP in 1983 at the Labour Party Conference in Perth City Hall. I asked Robin about Labour's prospects at the election. We will win Scotland, we agreed but it looked like another Thatcher victory due to English dominance of seat numbers. He then said 'How can we let the Scottish people suffer another Tory government hell-bent on union destruction and driving down living standards? I am seriously considering leading all Scottish Labour MP's over the burning bridge to join with the SNP and declare UDI'. Robin Cook contemplated UDI but clearly forces within the Scottish party stopped him. Labour has tended to make the mistake of equating their own jobs-worth interests in Scotland as the national interest of the Scottish people and by 1983 Gordon Brown had forgotten his statement of principle in the Red Book for Scotland that if the Union of 1707 stopped serving the interests of the working people of Scotland it should end. Labour do not serve the interests of the people of Scotland otherwise they would acknowledge that there has never been equality between England and Scotland since the Union of 1707. As the McCrone reports of 1974 and 1975 show all the cream of profit from North Sea Oil has been taken from Scotland and spent on England, with projects such as upgrading the north and south circular road in London, the M25 and the Channel Tunnel also paid for from the 'bonanza' of NSO. Economically, Scotland has been robbed and impoverished by subsequent Westminster governments. | |
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PressTV
2014-10-21 13:16:00
Media reports suggest the British military is set to deploy its armed unmanned aircraft to Syria, despite opposition by members of the parliament. The British daily The Independent said on Tuesday that the military, which has moved its armed Reaper drones from Afghanistan, is ready use them in operations against ISIL terrorist group in Syria. The report came days after London announced the redeployment of Reapers for operations in Iraq. "We are in the process of re-deploying some of our Reaper remotely-piloted aircraft from Afghanistan to the Middle East," UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told British MPs on Thursday. The Independent also quoted senior Whitehall sources as revealing that the armed drones "would be operating in Syria as well, initially for surveillance, but also in an attack capacity with Hellfire missiles if authorization is given." | |
Comment: If Britain would go ahead, it would undoubtedly violate international law, similar to its brother in arms, the U.S.:
U.S. Puppet Masters ask new Iraqi PM to ask the U.S. to bomb Iraq so the U.S. can bomb Syria
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Damir Marinovic
Russia Insider 2014-10-22 08:30:00
Frequent reports in the media of civilian shelling can be desensitizing. After the 20th headline, one just isn't shocked the way one was the first time one hears of it. The mind involuntarily, callously murmurs, "so what else is new?" Well here is a video to remind one what this shelling actually entails. | |
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Viktor Titov
New Eastern Outlook 2014-10-20 09:04:00
While going through numerous articles and analytical commentaries by Russian, Arabic and Western political experts on the success of ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), one may start to believe that something inexplicable or even inconceivable is happening, and that the entire world is looking helplessly on at the events in the Middle East. For some reason it has only crossed the minds of a few that any phenomenon can be explained not only by facts but also by elementary logic. There's no secret as to why ISIS has gained a firmer foothold in the region and is gradually expanding the borders of its influence and control. In order to better understand these, we need to go back in time to trace the moment when this group was formed in order to remind ourselves who stands to gain from it's unbelievably rapid rise to power.
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Wayne Madsen
Strategic Culture Foundation 2014-10-20 00:00:00
After the corporate media and the CIA and George Soros manipulators tried to engineer Green Party-turned-Brazilian Socialist presidential candidate Marina Silva into the Brazilian presidency following the classic CIA textbook aerial assassination of Socialist Party presidential standard-bearer Eduardo Campos, these same forces are at it again on behalf of Social Democratic Party candidate Aecio Neves. Although Neves was polling in second place to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff before the first-round presidential election on October, the death of Campos and his senior aides in a highly suspicious plane crash on August 13, forced Neves into third place in polls. Silva, a favorite of Soros and his international network of cash-flush non-governmental organizations, was propelled into second place. However, thanks to an aware Brazilian investigative journalism press corps, Silva's connections to Soros and his team of interventionists and hedge fund tycoons was exposed. With Brazilian voters wise to Silva's puppet strings to Soros and other global bankers, she managed to only come in third on October 5. Silva subsequently endorsed Neves, Soros's second selection to take over the reins of presidential power in Brazil from Rousseff. Neves's chief economic adviser and the man who would become Finance Minister in a Neves presidency is Arminio Fraga Neto. A former close friend and associate of Soros and his Quantum hedge fund, Fraga is hoping that a Neves presidency will open up Brazil to "market forces," the very same forces that have declared economic war on Venezuela and are attempting to swindle Argentina through vulture funds run by Soros's Wall Street friends. Fraga, a habitué of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is also a former executive with Salomon Brothers and a former president of the Brazilian Central Bank. Fraga has also been linked to Goldman Sachs through a Manhattan real estate deal involving the purchase of a $7.5 million condominium from a former Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers executive. Fraga's membership of the elitist Council on Foreign Relations and Group of 30 puts Fraga in the same camp as such Wall Street villains as Alan Greenspan, David Rockefeller, former Bank of Israel chairman Jacob Frenkel, and Wall Street apologist/columnist Paul Krugman, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. | |
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Press TV
2014-10-22 00:07:00
A newly-released report has shed further light on the Turkish government's links to the ISIL militants, showing that Ankara is helping the Takfiri terrorist recruits cross the border into Syria. A reporter working for Britain's Sky News has obtained documents showing that the Turkish government has stamped passports of foreign militants seeking to cross the Turkey border into Syria to join the ISIL terrorists. Passports from different countries were recovered in a village near Syria's strategic town of Kobani across the Turkish border. Turkey has time and time again been accused of backing ISIL terrorists in Syria. | |
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Anna Liesowska
The Siberian Times 2014-10-22 21:02:00
Rescuers vow to find helicopter that vanished in strong winds on 10 October. There is still no trace of the missing Mi-8 helicopter that went missing Tyva Republic on 10 October with 12 people on board. Emergency teams have scoured 36,562 kilometres in a huge operation that has involved aerial searches and interviews with more than 600 potential witnesses, including local hunters and fishermen in one of the remotest areas of Siberia. 'There is no set time limit on such search. It depends on weather conditions and other factors,' said the regional centre of the Emergencies Ministry, which has used thermal images from space in a bid to locate the missing helicopter and crew, to no avail. 'We are looking until we find. If an emergency happens in winter, high in the mountains, in several meters of snow, the search becomes incredibly complex.' The statement acknowledged it maybe necessary to 'wait until spring'. | |
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Eric Blair
Global Research 2014-10-22 00:00:00
When most of us think of a State of Emergency, we think of isolated natural disasters like hurricanes, winter storms or a flood that passes through. In those cases it's quite obvious when the emergency is over. But what if an emergency is declared for something that hasn't happened yet? How will we know when it's over? Both Pennsylvania and Connecticut governors recently declared a State of Emergency, not because a disaster is taking place at this moment, but because bad things may happen in the future. This is an incredible development that citizens should be concerned about. You should know that during a state of emergency your rights are suspended along with Constitutional restraints on government. According to Wiki , a state of emergency "means that the government can suspend and/or change some functions of the executive, the legislative and or the judiciary during this period of time," and it "can also be used as a rationale for suspending rights and freedoms, even if those rights and freedoms are guaranteed under the Constitution." It short, a state of emergency is martial law. | |
Comment: It is likely that the pathocrats in charge will use the threat of an Ebola pandemic to continue herding the masses under their control. They have been attempting to covertly disenfranchise and oppress U.S. citizens in almost every sphere so it will be no surprise to see that Ebola is used to further this agenda.
Expect to lose all your rights when the Ebola pandemic hits the U.S. Forced quarantine and isolation: This is what is going to happen if Ebola hits the U.S. Ebola panic: Connecticut governor declares preemptive health emergency, allows quarantine | |
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Soldier and one gunman shot and killed near Ottawa parliament as 3 separate shooting incidents occur
John Williams, Jack Date, and Lee Ferran
ABC News 2014-10-22 20:07:00
Heavily-armed police cleared Canada's Parliament building today and are searching for three suspects after a trio of shooting incidents near the Parliament left a soldier wounded. Gunfire was heard inside Parliament. One of the three suspects was "dealt with," according to a spokesman for the Ottawa Police. The gunfire prompted security force to hustle Prime Minister Stephen Harper to a "safe" place not at Parliament Hill, his spokesperson said. Harper's usual office is in a building near the shooting site. "The prime minister is safe and not on Parliament Hill and being briefed by security officials," his spokesman Jason MacDonald said. Ottawa Police said via Twitter the initial shooting took place at 9:52 a.m. at the National War Memorial of Canada, but that was just the beginning of the violent episode, which has now stretched into investigations in two other locations: Parliament Hill and the nearby Rideau Centre, a large shopping mall that was subsequently evacuated. Ottawa Police Constable Marc Soucy told Canada's CTV police were searching for more than one suspect and no one has been arrested. Civic Hospital in Ottawa, the country's capital, has received three patients, two of whom are in stable condition. Earlier today witnesses told CTV they saw a man with long hair carrying a rifle and heard four shots fired at the soldier, who was guarding Canada's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
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Comment: For those of you who pay attention to these kinds of false-flag shootings, take note of the fact they're currently reporting THREE shooters.
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Dan Roberts
The Guardian 2014-10-22 19:55:00
Security guards for private US contractor guilty of manslaughter for notorious 2007 incident that left 17 dead in Baghdad Three security guards working for the private US contractor Blackwater have been found guilty of the manslaughter of a group of unarmed civilians at a crowded Baghdad traffic junction in one of the darkest incidents of the Iraq war. A fourth, Nicholas Slatten, was found guilty of one charge of first-degree murder. All face the likelihood of lengthy prison sentences after unanimous verdicts on separate weapons charges related to the incident. The Nisour Square massacre in 2007 left 17 people dead and 20 seriously injured after the guards working for the US State Department fired heavy machine guns and grenade launchers from their armoured convoy in the mistaken belief they were under attack by insurgents. But attempts to prosecute the guards have previously foundered because of a series of legal mistakes by US officials, and the case had attracted widespread attention in Iraq as a symbol of apparent American immunity. Now, after a 10-week trial and 28 days of deliberation, a jury in Washington has found three of the men - Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard - guilty of a total of 13 charges of voluntary manslaughter and a total of 17 charges of attempted manslaughter. The fourth defendant, Slatten, who was alleged to have been first to open fire, was found guilty of a separate charge of first-degree murder. Slough, Liberty and Heard were found guilty of using firearms in relation to a crime of violence, a charge which can alone carry up to a 30-year mandatory sentence. | |
Comment: While it's good to see a little justice being handed out over the slaughter of innocent civilians, it pales in comparison to the thousands of Iraqi civilians killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003. The federal government likes to use small incidents like this to pretend as though they care about human life. They don't, and putting away a few killers pales in comparison to the hundreds and probably thousands of others who have illegally killed innocent civilians and who never face any repercussions.
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David Edwards
Raw Story 2014-10-21 19:47:00
A former Kentucky prison guard who was charged with sexually abusing women inmates was sentenced to probation without any jail time on Monday. In 2011, the Kentucky State Police arrested Officer Sergeant James B. Johnson, and charged him with 25 counts of sexual abuse, trafficking controlled substances, and 50 counts of official misconduct. An investigation by the State Police determined that Johnson had been supplying drugs and sexually abusing inmates at Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Peewee Valley. On Monday, the 54-year-old former prison guard accepted a plea deal that required him to attend a diversion program. He also was sentenced to seven years of probation. "He's really eager to put this behind him," Johnson's attorney, Mary Rives, told WLKY. | |
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telesur
2014-10-15 00:00:00
The president of Venezuela called for the elimination of terrorist groups operating in the country. Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, revealed on Wednesday details of the investigation into themurder of legislator Robert Serra. The young legislator and his partner were murdered in their apartment two weeks ago. Maduro spoke from the presidential palace, in Caracas and live on public television, calling for the elimination of both local and foreign terrorist groups active in Venezuela, "plotting" to destablize the country. "Be absolutely certain that we will get to the masterminds of Serra's murder inside and outside the country," he said.
President Maduro asserted that Serra's assassination was planned by a paramilitary leader in Colombia. He did not identify the leader but explained that he hired a Venezuelan gang to kill Serra. Maduro alleged that Serra's body guard Torres Camacho, was also directly involved. Maduro said the assassination was another attempt to destabilize Venezuela. | ||
Comment: The assassination of United Socialist Lawmaker Robert Serra reportedly cost around $250,000, paid by a source in Colombia and transferred to the Venezuela gang. Former Colombian president and now Senator Alvaro Uribe (a bought paramilitary stooge) has been linked to the assassination while Serra's bodyguard, Torres, and Lorent Saleh (right-wing Venezuela youth leader and terrorist suspect) have been arrested. Saleh made a statement that 20 mid-level leaders will be killed to avenge his recent arrest, hence the killing of Serra. According to incriminating videos released by the Venezuelan government, Saleh was working alongside former military agents and paramilitaries in Colombia in order to carry out terror attacks on the Venezuelan border.
New information reveals the Colombian paramilitaries were also planning the deaths of National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello and Minister Hector Rodriguez as part of the plot to destabilize the country. Uribe is under investigation in the psychological torture of journalist Claudia Julieta Duque and implicated in wiretapping scandals from his administration in 2008 and another this year. Links in the Serra murder to U.S. government protected activists in Miami allege a co-conspiracy as "intellectual authors" of the Serra assassination. Paramilitarism, not a typical part of Venezuela's history, has been introduced through civil servants on the border by giving identity cards to gangsters who then infiltrate the general populace to carry out their attacks. Not surprising that the U.S. has its hand in this game. | ||
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phys.org
2014-10-22 18:38:00
A review of sentencing following the 2011 English riots has shown that sentences were much harsher than realised at first. And just as people got caught up in the riots and acted out of character the study, carried out by The University of Manchester and Liverpool John Moores University, found that the courts themselvesgot caught up in a similar kind of collective hysteria. Dr Hannah Quirk, a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law and Justice from The University of Manchester, was the co-author of the research which has just been published in The British Journal of Criminology. She said: "Whilst the offending may have been impulsive, sentencing should not be." The summer riots of 2011 were commonly described as the worst in living memory due to the speed with which they spread over such a wide geographical area. The disorder began after Mark Duggan, was shot dead by the police in Tottenham, north London. Over three thousand prosecutions were brought in connection with the unrest, which saw streets in parts of the country awash with violence, looting and arson. By 31 August 2012, of the 2,158 convicted, all but 20 had been sentenced with the vast majority of offending having taken place in London, followed by the West Midlands and Greater Manchester. | |
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South China Morning Post
2014-10-22 15:24:00
The body of a British man was found tied up in a ditch with his throat slashed on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, in what police said was a killing ordered by his own wife. Local residents found the man, identified by police as 60-year-old Robert Kelvin Ellis, on Tuesday after noticing a suspicious looking object next to a paddy field, which was far from any houses. The body was starting to decompose when it was discovered in a village between the tourist areas of Ubud and Kuta, a detective said, leading police to believe the victim died more than 24 hours previously. Ellis, who was also an Australian passport holder, had been living at a villa in the tourist area of Sanur for some years. | |
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teleSUR
2014-10-21 11:34:00
The European Union has awarded a top human rights prize to a Congolese doctor renowned for treating victims of sexual violence in a country with the dubious title of rape capital of the world. Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege won the European Union's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, E.U. Parliament president Martin Schulz announced on Tuesday. According to Schulz, Mukwege was "unanimously" selected by judges for his "fight for the protection especially of women." Mukwege is widely regarded as the world's leading expert on treating internal injuries caused by gang rape. He is also the founder of the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Since the outbreak of the Second Congo War, Mukwege and his team have treated more than 30,000 rape victims. During the war, Mukwege became known for working up to 18 hours a day, and performing as many as 10 surgeries in a single shift. Since the war he has been credited with revolutionizing treatment of rape injuries, and has become one of the most well-known African doctors on the world stage. | |
Comment: Mr. Denis Mukwege is to be applauded for his selfless efforts.
Yet, the EU pulls a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde stunt on us again, handing out prizes to people that clearly have the interests of humanity at heart. At the same time they themselves together with the U.S. are involved in imperial wars all over the planet. The DRC has immense economic resources. Enough said. Rape as part of a strategy: Monstrous: Peacekeepers in Somalia rape women who seek aid and medicine Syrian women raped in Turkish refugee camps by Obama backed terrorists | |
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Michael Allen
Opposing Views 2014-10-21 05:33:00
The City of Norcross, Georgia, recently auctioned off Xui Lui's home because she had an overdue tax bill of $94.85, which she never received. Lui, the mother of a 4-year-old, bought her two bedroom condo in 2011 and has always paid her local taxes, except for the first year. The city sent her certified letters about the tax bill, but to the wrong address, notes CBS Atlanta. Lui was recently told by the city that she must move out by Nov. 25 because her condo has been legally sold to another person via city auction. "Where are we going to go? I have nowhere. This is my house. Why do I need to move out?" Lui toldWSB-TV (video below). Norcross City Manager Rudolph Smith said in a statement on Monday: "We are going back and doing our due diligence. [The city contractor who handled the sale] will try to work something out." Lui, who is trying to find a lawyer to stop her eviction, stated, "Someone can rob your house? Rob your property? This is not American style, right?" | |
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Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg 2014-10-22 00:44:00
The trend of average U.S. citizens being incarcerated by overzealous judges and prosecutors within the police state formerly known as America continues with reckless abandon. In fact, these sorts of cases are becoming so commonplace I simply cannot keep up with all of them. The following story is a perfect followup to my piece earlier today, which shows how American public school students are being arrested or harassed by police for the most minor of infractions, such as wearing too much perfume, sharing a classmates' chicken nuggets, throwing an eraser or chewing gum. If you are an adult American slave, you can add not mowing your lawn to the list of prison-worthy crimes in the police state. | |
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Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project 2014-10-21 23:14:00
Citizens in Chicago are costing the city tens of millions by obeying the law, giving credence to the notion that crime really does pay, and is not only profitable but necessary for the state to survive. Over the last year Rahm Emanuel and company have flooded the city with speed cameras in an attempt to create a windfall of revenue generation. Original estimates of revenue to be collected were upwards of $100 million but good drivers set back this greedy political goal $50 million. This shortage is in spite of the city's best efforts to trick drivers into getting the tickets by placing the cameras in the proximity to schools and parks. The tickets come with a $100 sticker price and the residents of Chicago got wise to this scam real quick. Good behavior is bad for the budget. Now the city will have to rob the citizens of Chicago in other ways to make up for their $50 million dollar budget shortfall. This is a perfect example of how the system never sets out to prevent crime, they only wish to control it for profit. | |
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| Secret History |
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Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News 2014-10-22 15:50:00
Greek archaeologists made another amazing find on Tuesday as they unearthed the missing head of one of the two wingless sphinxes guarding the large and mysterious burial site in Amphipolis, in Greece's northeastern Macedonia region. According to a statement by the Culture Ministry, the finely carved head was found inside the tomb's third chamber. Fragments of the wings were also unearthed. About 24 inches high, the marble head depicts a beautiful woman who appears to smile slightly. Apart from some minor damage to the nose and lips, the sculpture is largely intact. The life-like work features curls falling on the left shoulder and tied around the head with a thin band. There are traces of a reddish color in the hair. | |
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Melik Kaylan
Forbes 2014-10-22 14:24:00
The claim that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born into a Jewish family appeared in the Daily Telegraph last week. His identity card, which he had proudly displayed to press cameras during the last election, when closely examined revealed his original family name as "Sabourjian" - meaning someone in the schmatte trade and usually denoting Jewish roots, because it refers specifically to the weaving of Jewish religious garments. A number of commentators felt that Ahmadinejad's fierce anti-Israeli sentiments now made sense. His father had converted to Islam in order to marry his Muslim mother and the son grew up with the zeal of a convert. Will anyone in Iran believe the allegations, and will they care? And even then, can they do anything anyway? Ahmadinejad's unpopularity matters little at his point in a system founded on interlocking power blocs rather than popular consent. If the regime has any pretence to legitimacy left, it derives from the residual authority inherited from the cult of Ayatollah Khomeini. What of Khomeini's legitimacy? Three years ago some astonishing documents came into my possession regarding that point. I have not been able to verify the allegations contained in them. The Internet bubbles and boils on the subject and fades into conspiracy with no concrete verdict. Quite simply, it needs further hard investigation in Iranian or Middle Eastern archives by qualified impartial researchers. No doubt they wouldn't survive long if they tried. So I offer the information raw, in the hope that others more qualified than myself will look further. | |
Comment: Even if the 'Khomeini-as-Brit' angle is baseless, we're still left with some unanswered questions regarding the 'Islamic revolution'. We know that Britain and the US supported Islamic extremists into power, before and since, so why would what happened in Iran in 1979 have been an exception?
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| Science & Technology |
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RT
2014-10-22 21:35:00
Much of North America will experience a solar eclipse on Thursday, with the moon covering up to 70 percent of the sun in the late afternoon. Along most of the East Coast and Midwest, the event will occur during sunset, allowing for dramatic photography. "Sunsets are always pretty. One sunset this month could be out of this world. On Thursday, Oct. 23rd, the setting sun across eastern parts of the USA will be red, beautiful and... crescent-shaped," NASA Science wrote. The alignment of the two orbs on the East Coast at the end of the day "will be especially beautiful... transforming the usual sunset into something weird and wonderful." The farther north viewers are, the deeper the eclipse they'll see, and the farther west they are, the higher the sun and moon will be in the sky. Thus the comparatively later dusk of the Midwest may provide the most spectacular views of sunset-enhanced phenomenon. "Observers in the Central Time zone have the best view because the eclipse is in its maximum phase at sunset," longtime NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak said. "They will see a fiery crescent sinking below the horizon, dimmed to human visibility by low-hanging clouds and mist." | |
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David Freeman
Huffington Post 2014-10-22 15:58:00
Hospital workers and public health officials in the U.S. have come under fire for a series of missteps in their response to the Ebola crisis, from initially misdiagnosing Thomas Eric Duncan to allowing a nurse who cared for him at a Dallas hospital to fly on a commercial airliner shortly before she too was diagnosed with the deadly illness. Now an engineering professor with expertise in assessing the risks posed by pathogens claims he's identified another big problem with authorities' response to the crisis. In a paper published Oct. 14 in the journal PLOS Currents: Outbreaks, Drexel University's Dr. Charles N. Haas argues that there's not enough evidence to support the recommended 21-day quarantine period for people suspected of harboring the virus. | |
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phys.org
2014-10-22 14:38:00
Like fossils buried beneath a modern landscape, the human genome is littered with sequences that originated from ancient viral DNA insertion events. Scientists have long assumed that these 'transposable elements' are, like fossils, biologically inactive and primarily interesting as a window into evolutionary history. However, researchers at the A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore have now uncovered evidence that some of these sequences play a prominent role in early embryonic development. Huck-Hui Ng and colleagues embarked on this project in collaboration with Guillaume Bourque at Canada's McGill University. Bourque's group had discovered that one particular class of sequences of transposable elements - known as human endogenous retrovirus subfamily H (HERV-H) - appears to be specifically expressed in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Indeed, these HERV-H sequences are actively transcribed in hESCs, producing enigmatic RNA strands that do not encode a protein but nevertheless appear to serve some function. Ng and Bourque set out to clarify the role of this RNA by performing experiments in which they selectively depleted it from stem cells. hESCs are actively maintained in a so-called 'pluripotent' state, from which they are capable of developing into any cell type in the human body (see image). In the absence of HERV-H RNA, hESCs rapidly lost their pluripotency; the researchers noted that the loss of HERV-H expression considerably altered the activity of many genes associated with cell development and proliferation. | |
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Niall Bradley
Sott.net 2014-10-21 13:54:00
New space weather observations continue to stun scientists reared on the Aristotelian 'uniformitarian' model, where nothing dynamic ever (or exceedingly rarely) happens in space. This is from phys.org: While the study notes that "human beings face a variety of consequences ranging from acute effects (radiation sickness) to long-term effects including cancer induction and damage to organs including the heart and brain," the funding angle for this study was to assess the impact of increased radiation on astronauts travelling to Mars (ha! like that will ever happen in today's global economic depression). That's not what interests us here at SOTT.net. What we're interested in are the trend of reducing solar output and the high radiation levels seen during the sun's last minimum cycle... in terms of the immediate, present effects of increased cosmic rays reaching the planet's surface. | |
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Kristy Hamilton
IFL Science 2014-10-21 03:06:00
Naomi Kizhner, an industrial designer and graduate student from Hadassah College in Jerusalem, has designed jewelry that theoretically extracts energy from the wearers own body. The 'speculative' jewelry is embedded into the person's veins and uses their blood to turn small wheels inside the device. | |
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Michael Safi
The Guardian 2014-10-20 10:17:00
The Earth has been left with a huge blind spot for potentially devastating comet strikes after the only dedicated comet-spotting program in the southern hemisphere lost its funding, leading astronomers have warned. The program, which discovered the Siding Spring comet that narrowly missed Mars on Sunday, was shut down last year after losing funding. "It's a real worry," Bradley Tucker, an astronomer at the Australian National University (ANU) and University of California Berkeley, told Guardian Australia. "There could be something hurtling towards us right now and we wouldn't know about it." The Siding Spring survey - named after the observatory near Coonabarabran in central New South Wales, where the Mars comet was first spotted - was the only program in the southern hemisphere actively searching for potentially hazardous comets, asteroids and meteors. | |
Comment: Don't say we didn't warn you. As was mentioned above, SOTT has been talking about the cosmic threat for years now, and how this knowledge is being purposefully concealed and distorted by the Powers that Be. Considering the recent anti-Putin charade and continuous bloodshed in the Middle East, Victor Clube, author of The Cosmic Serpent and The Cosmic Winterwas right when he said in the report commissioned by the U.S. Air Force:
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| Earth Changes |
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Priyangi Agarwal
The Times of India 2014-10-22 22:51:00
Devotees sleeping inside the dargah Shehdana Wali got the scare of their life when a jackal entered the premises late on Wednesday and attacked three youths, injuring them severely. The animal seemed to have gone berserk as it first bit into a youth's legs and clawed at him. As the devotees tried to save him and themselves, the jackal attacked two other youths - 19-year-old Faiz and Arif (24). The duo, along with 25-year-old Farman Ali, was admitted to the district hospital by locals. After more than an hour of struggle, a few devotees managed to put a blanket on the animal and capture it after which they beat it up. They then took it to the Baradari police station, where cops also allegedly beat up the animal and asked locals to take it back. The poor animal would have most likely died had it not been for the timely intervention of a team of People for Animals, which got him admitted to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute. | |
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BBC
2013-05-29 15:32:00
Wild bears have killed eight villagers within a week in the eastern Indian state of Orissa causing panic among local people, forestry officials say. A dozen others have been injured in attacks by bears from forestry in the area around Kotpad village. Angry villagers last week chased the bears and beat one of them to death, the officials said. They say that the bears could have turned violent following excessive consumption of intoxicating flowers. | |
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Aaron Akinyemi
International Business Times 2014-05-11 20:56:00
Swedish hunters authorised to destroy female bear and its three cubs after attack on 80-year-old man. A bear and its cubs were put down after nearly killing an 80-year-old pensioner in northern Sweden. Hunters were authorised to slaughter the female bear after it pounced on the elderly man while he was fishing by a lake in Homnabo. The man, who has not been named, attempted to escape when he spotted the bear, but it quickly caught up with him and threw him to the ground. The victim wrestled with the bear but managed to escape after being bitten on his shoulder and ear. He was later taken to a local hospital in Gävle. | |
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Record levels of rain have once again inundated areas of south east Florida. Parts of Palm Beach county were badly affected, in particular the city of West Palm Beach where roads were blocked and several cars stranded in the flood water. National Weather Service recorded the following rainfall levels: Port of Palm Beach - 9.13 inches (230 mm) Palm Beach - 8.21 inches (208 mm) Riviera Beach - 5.49 (140 mm) Lake Worth - 3.32 (84 mm) Palm Beach Airport - 2.64 (67 mm)
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jschina.com.cn
2014-10-21 15:50:00
A cold front has brought dramatic temperature drops to the northern regions of China. North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin are seeing falls of up to 20 degrees Celsius. In Harbin, the highest temperature is just 5 degrees Celsius. And the lowest in many cities is below zero. Heilongjiang's Mohe has seen some heavy snowfall this season already. The cold front is however a bringer of good news as it's driving away the smog that's been lingering in the north for several days. Air pollution has been easing gradually since Monday afternoon. The cold will also creep down into the southern and eastern regions, with temperature falls of up to 10 degrees Celsius, along with bouts of rain.
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phys.org
2014-10-21 13:15:00
The last ten years have been a remarkable time for great earthquakes. Since December 2004 there have been no less than 18 quakes of Mw8.0 or greater - a rate of more than twice that seen from1900 to mid-2004. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost and massive damage has resulted from these great earthquakes. But as devastating as such events can be, these recent great quakes have come with a silver lining: They coincide with unprecedented advances in technological and scientific capacity for learning from them. "We previously had very limited information about how ruptures grow into great earthquakes and interact with regions around them," said seismologist Thorne Lay of the University of California at Santa Cruz. "So we are using the recorded data for these recent events to guide our understanding of future earthquakes. We've gained a new level of appreciation for how one earthquake can influence events in other zones." High on the list of areas ripe for a great quake is Cascadia, the Pacific Northwest, where the risk for great quakes had long been under appreciated. Evidence began surfacing about 20 years ago that there had been a great quake in the region in the year 1700. Since then the view of the great quake risk in Cascadia has shifted dramatically. | |
Comment: See also: Earthquake frequency increasing rate of strong quakes doubles in 2014
To understand why this is happening, read Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection. Here's a relevant excerpt: | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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Sott.net
2014-10-22 11:29:00
Translation: SOTT.net A bright flash in the sky caused by a meteor drew the attention of residents in the State of Ceará on Monday night (October 20th). The Civil Police of Ceará received reports of the meteor's passage through several cities in the state. "Some residents reported the fall of an object in neighboring cities, but there is no record of anything," says officer Francisco Couto. "A lot of people claimed it was a plane crash, some said that they heard the noise of the crash," said the policeman. Sergeant Lins, from Recife Air Base, which controls air traffic from high altitudes throughout the Northeast, said that there is no record of any missing aircraft in the region late on Monday. For the astronomer Pedro Antunes, meteors are commonly confused with burning planes or with unidentified flying objects (UFO). "People see that flash in the sky, which is not very common, and are impressed, just imagining things, but lately we're registering many meteors in the sky of Ceará," he says. According to the Civil Police, the meteor has seen by people in the town of Iguatu in the interior of Ceará, and on the coast of the state. "It's possible for a meteor to travel a great distance in the sky. While it suffers friction with the atmosphere, it combusts and turns into pieces. A burning plane would never go so far before hitting the ground," argues the astronomer. Source | |
Comment: It's not so much friction with the atmosphere that causes meteor fireballs and comet fragments to 'slow down' - it's their electrical interaction with different charge layers of the atmosphere.
Note that this happened over the same region just five days prior to the above event: Meteor fireball sets the sky on fire over Recife, Brazil | |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Jeffery Jaxen
Activist Post 2014-10-22 00:00:00
We are witnessing a stunning reversal of events in the face of the present Ebola scare consuming North America. The drum beatings of fear played all to often by the mainstream media have given way to a symphony of personal empowerment, education, and a mass social movement to take back our health freedom. The threat of Ebola initially grabbed headlines and paralyzed millions who lacked understanding. Answers were sought amidst the fear peddling and confusion yet few were being found. A disheartened population is now storming the 'alternative' media and independent health networks, websites, and radio shows for direction. What they are finding is currently propelling us all into a new, decentralized health paradigm. To the disbelief of pharmaceutical companies, people across North America are taking the time to understand what their immune system is. They are then shocked to find out that it's weak, damaged, and under attack daily. Like true warriors, most are activated into action and begin researching. | |
Comment: One of the best ways to improve the immune system is to begin to de-toxify the body, eliminating inflammatory foods, GMO ingredients, gluten and casein. Following a ketogenic diet improves immune system functioning while also ameliorating and even preventing a host of diseases. Here are some suggestions to begin implementing now:
The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview Vitamin C - A cure for Ebola Natural allopathic treatment modalities for Ebola Scientists stumble across the obvious treatment for Ebola: tobacco | |
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Laura Donnelly
The Telegraph, UK 2014-10-22 03:20:00
Family doctors will be paid £55 for every patient they diagnose with dementia under a new NHS England scheme which has been condemned as an "ethical travesty". Leading GPs said the national project amounted to "cash for diagnoses" - allowing doctors to make a direct profit if they classify patients as suffering from dementia. In some parts of the country, NHS authorities have gone still further - offering family doctors £200 for each new diagnosis made, The Telegraph can reveal. Patients groups and doctors have condemned the schemes, saying they amounted to a "bounty on the head" of the most vulnerable, which could cloud the judgements of those making diagnoses. Under the national scheme, doctors can receive the £55 payment for every extra patient given a diagnosis of dementia in the six months ending in March. GPs qualify for payment if they diagnose the patients themselves - with no checks on whether their assessment is correct - or if they update their records when their patients receive a diagnosis in hospital. Family doctors are already financially rewarded for carrying a host of medical checks, with a portion of their pay related to tasks such as taking blood pressure, measuring cholesterol and carrying out tests for conditions such as diabetes. But the scheme is understood to be the first national initiative to offer doctors financial rewards for diagnosing patients with any condition. It follows pledges by ministers to dramatically improve rates of dementia diagnosis. | |
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Fox News
2014-10-21 23:54:00
Nigeria was declared free of the deadly Ebola virus on Monday after a determined doctor and thousands of officials and volunteers helped end an outbreak still ravaging other parts of West Africa and threatening the United States and Spain. Caught unawares when a diplomat arrived with the disease from Liberia, authorities were alerted by Doctor Ameyo Adadevoh, who diagnosed it, kept him in hospital despite protests from him and his government and later died from Ebola herself. They then set about trying to contain it in an overcrowded city of 21 million where it could easily have turned a doomsday scenario if about 300 people who had been in direct or indirect contact with him not been traced and isolated. "This is a spectacular success story," Rui Gama Vaz from the World Health Organization (WHO) told a news conference in the capital Abuja, where officials broke into applause when he announced that Nigeria had shaken off the disease. "It shows that Ebola can be contained, but we must be clear that we have only won a battle, the war will only end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola." This year's outbreak of the highly infectious hemorrhagic fever thought to have originated in forest bats is the worst on record. | |
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Higher Perspective
2014-10-15 23:26:00
According to Dr. Frank Shallenberger, when it comes to fighting cancer, he's always looking for natural substances that interrupt the odd metabolism of cancer cells. Some of his discoveries include resveratrol, green tea, Seanol, and others. Most recently, he found a fruit that was effective in killing pancreatic cancer cells. The fruit is called "bitter melon" and is popular in Okinawa, Japan. When bitter melon juice is diluted to 5% in water, it proved itself to be incredibly damaging to pancreatic cancer cell lines. According to researchers, bitter melon juice reduced the viability of two cancer cell lines by 90% and killed the remaining two lines at a rate of 98%. So, great, these studies work in cancer cells in a dish. But do they work in animals? Will they work in people? Apparently yes. University of Colorado researchers administered bitter melon doses to mice and found a 64% reduction in pancreatic tumor size without any kind of side effect. | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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| High Strangeness |
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| Don't Panic! Lighten Up! |
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