Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Monday, 23 February 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 22 Feb 2015 04:44 AM PST


At least three people have been killed in an explosion in the center of Kharkov, Ukraine, during a peace march, local media report. Around 500 people had gathered in the center of the Kiev-controlled city for a rally.
Those marching in the front were hurt, with Tass reporting from the scene that at least 10 people sustained injuries and three others were killed. Other outlets speak of four and eight casualties.
“The blast went off when the march participants started moving from the Sports Palace to Svobody (Liberty) Square,” a witness told Gromadske TV. “An explosive device was planted around 100 meters from the palace. Two people have died.”
At the moment, Ukraine Interior Ministry confirms two fatalities and 10 casualties.








A police officer is among the injured, law enforcers told TASS.
“The Kharkov police chief, Anatoly Dmitriev, says a terrorist act is suspected. He has the investigation at the scene under his personal control,” says a Ukrainian Interior Ministry statement.
It is not yet clear what caused the explosion. Emergency services are working at the scene.
The march in Kharkov was organized in commemoration of the 2014 Maidan events, which brought about regime change in Ukraine.
Kharkov, in northeastern Ukraine, is the country’s second largest city in terms of population. The Kharkov region is under Kiev control and is close to the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Source
        
Posted: 22 Feb 2015 04:33 AM PST


Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says his country needs to reconsider its immigration laws in reaction to the deadly siege in Sydney last December.
He made the remarks on Sunday in the city as he released the first report conducted by officials from the federal government and the government of New South Wales into the incident.
“Plainly, the system has let us down,” he said, adding, “This monster should not have been in our community,” referring to the hostage taker identified as Man Haron Monis who held 18 people at gunpoint during a 17-hour siege in Australia’s largest city’s Lindt café on December 15.
The siege ended after Monis was shot and killed. Two of the hostages were also killed.
Authorities say Monis, also known as Mohammad Hassan Manteqi, was an Iranian-born who had escaped to Australia in 1996.
Iran’s police chief Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi Moqaddam said Tehran had in 2000 asked Australia to extradite Monis on fraud charges, but Canberra failed to do so as there was no extradition treaty between the two countries.
At the time of the siege, the hostage taker was on bail on a charge over the murder of his ex-wife. He had also been charged with dozens of sexual assaults.
“He shouldn’t have been allowed into the country. He shouldn’t have been out on bail. He shouldn’t have been with a gun and he shouldn’t have become radicalized,” Abbott said.
The 90-page report, meanwhile, said that the Australian national security hotline received 18 calls about the hostage taker’s offensive Facebook posts between 9 and 12 December.
Security service and police considered that Monis’ Facebook posts “contained no indications of an imminent threat,” the document added.
The Australian premier is set to announce immigration and welfare curbs in a national security report on Monday.
Source
        
Posted: 22 Feb 2015 04:28 AM PST


Earlier this week John Williams warned that hyperinflation will begin to appear in America sometime in 2015. He noted that, though the dollar is currently strong compared to other fiat money, signs that a currency collapse is coming will begin with the sell-off of the U.S. dollar.
It’s a known fact that the Russians and Chinese have already begun divesting themselves of dollar dependency by implementing trade agreements that completely sidestep the world’s reserve currency, but there has been no overt sign of a sell-off that might be indicative of a coming attack on our currency.
Until now, that is.
According to a report from Zero Hedge the Russians have already started unloading their dollar reserves. In the month of December alone they sold a record $22 billion in U.S. Treasurys. While this may not seem like a big number, it is over 20% of their total US dollar holdings.
But here’s the kicker: They’re not the only ones getting rid of their dollars in what appears to be a fairly uncommon sell-off over the course of the last 60 days.
Back in December, Socgen spread a rumor that Russia has begun selling its gold. Subsequent IMF data showed that not only was this not correct, Russia in fact added to its gold holdings. But there was one thing it was selling: some $22 billion in US Treasurys, a record 20% of its total holdings, bringing its US paper inventory to just $86 billion in December – the lowest since June 2008.
…
It wasn’t just Russia: the country that has ever more frequently been said to be in the same camp as Russia – and against the US – namely China, also sold another $6 billion in Treasurys in the last month of 2014, which would have made its US treasury holdings equal with those of Japan, if only Tokyo hadn’t also sold over $10 billion in the same month.
…
And while we know that Russia used at least some of the proceeds to buy gold, the bigger question is: just what is China buying with all these stealthy USD-denominated liquidations, and how much gold does the PBOC really have as of this moment.
Is Russia, after being under economic attack for the better part of a year, now starting to make its own moves? And are they working in unison with the Chinese in an effort to debase the dollar?
World affairs analyst Joel Skousen recently made a compelling case against an imminent economic collapse, while others argue that the end is nigh for the U.S. economic, financial and monetary systems.
Whatever the case, remain vigilant and prepare for the worst, because the hammer is going to drop sooner or later.
Source
        
Posted: 22 Feb 2015 03:35 AM PST


The operator of the Japanese tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant says sensors have detected a new leak of highly radioactive water into the sea.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Sunday that the sensors had detected contamination levels of 50 to 70 times more than the already high radioactive rate at the plant, in water pouring into a nearby bay.
The sensors, which detected the fresh leak earlier in the day, were reportedly rigged to a gutter that poured rain and ground water at the plant into the bay.
“We have shut the gutter (from pouring water to the bay). We are currently monitoring the sensors at the gutter and seeing the trend,” an unnamed TEPCO spokesman said.
The levels fell later in the day to about 10 to 20 times more than normal levels.
TEPCO said the cause of the rise in the contamination levels is not yet known.
The reactor unit 5 was offline but loaded with fuel rods when the plant was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami back in March 2011. A nine-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that inflicted heavy damage on the six-reactor Fukushima plant. The cooling systems of the plant’s reactors were knocked out, leading to meltdowns and the release of radioactive material.
More than 18,000 people were left dead or missing in the disaster.
Source
        
Posted: 22 Feb 2015 03:27 AM PST


A Catholic priest in Northern Ireland cautioned against practicing yoga and receiving Indian head massages, saying that those who take such risks with their “spiritual health” are opening themselves up to “Satan and the Fallen Angels.”
Father Roland Colhoun warned that those partaking in the ancient practice may be led into the “Kingdom of Darkness.”
“Pope Francis said ‘do not seek spiritual answers in yoga classes’. Yoga is certainly a risk. There’s the spiritual health risk,” he told the Derry Journal.
“When you take up those practices from other cultures, which are outside our Christian domain, you don’t know what you are opening yourself up to,” he added.
“The bad spirit can be communicated in a variety of ways. I’m not saying everyone gets it, or that it happens every time, and people may well be doing yoga harmlessly. But there‘s always a risk and that’s why the Pope mentioned it and that’s why we talk about that in terms of the danger of the new age movement and the danger of the occult today. That’s the fear.”
Prominent officials in the Catholic Church have expressed wariness about yoga in the past.
In 2011, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, Gabriele Amorth, said that yoga leads to a belief in Hinduism, and that “all eastern religions are based on a false belief in reincarnation”.
“Practicing yoga is Satanic, it leads to evil just like reading Harry Potter,” he told the Telegraph.
Even the late former Pope Benedict XVI cautioned Christians in 1989 against partaking in yoga, Zen and other forms of meditation, suggesting that they could “degenerate into a cult of the body.”
One Derry yoga instructor, however, defended the practice, telling the Belfast Telegraph that teaching yoga for 15 years has not stopped her from being a “good, practicing Catholic.” Evelyn Donnelly said that her yoga students come to classes to “learn good posture and breathing to help them with tension in their bodies and to help calm a busy mind.”
“In all the time I have been teaching, not one person has ever expressed an interest going deeper into the spiritual elements of yoga,” she added.
Source
        
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 16:53