- BRICS Economic Agenda: Participants to Discuss Greek Debt Crisis
- US spies on almost all Latin America
- Mainstream Media Devotes 5 Times More Time To Confederate Flag Flap Than To ISIS Threat
- 69 killed in Saudi attacks on Yemen
- Thousands of birds leave ‘dead zone’ after abandoning Florida Gulf Coast
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Posted: 08 Jul 2015 01:56 AM PDT
 The Greek debt crisis, the expected lifting of sanctions on Iran and oil and stock market volatility will dominate the agenda of the BRICS summit which is opening today in Russia. During their two-day meeting in Ufa, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will discuss closer industrial, technological and financial integration of their countries within the five-nation bloc. The participants will also discuss measures to set in motion the new Development BRICS Bank and a $200 billion pool of currency reserves to finance joint projects, including those proposed by Russia’s Rosneft Company. The summit comes against the backdrop of the deepening debt crisis in Greece, the stock market crash in China and the expected lifting of international sanctions on Iran which has sent oil prices tumbling down. Leaders of Iran, Belarus, Afghanistan, Pakistan and some other non-BRICS countries will also take part in the summit held in the capital of Russia’s southern Urals republic of Bashkortostan. A one-on-one meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani will be the high point of the two-day summit. With the international sanctions against Tehran now on the way out, many experts believe that the return of the oil-rich Islamic nation to the world markets may push the oil prices down. So far their expectations have proved right with crude already dipping by more than 10 percent over the past few days. Source           |
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Posted: 08 Jul 2015 01:50 AM PDT
 “Ninety-eight percent of Latin American communications are intercepted by the NSA while passing through the United States to the world,” Assange told the Chilean media on Tuesday. He highlighted the role of Google and Facebook in the agency’s data collection program. “They are physically in the United States and therefore under their legal jurisdiction, with punitive laws used to force them to hand over the information they are collecting,” Assange said. Over the weekend, WikiLeaks disclosed documents that indicate the NSA spied on several key Brazilian government officials, including President Dilma Rousseff, her secretary and her chief of staff. The NSA eavesdropped on 29 Brazilian government phone numbers, listening to conversations taking place on the president’s office line and her presidential jet phone, as well as on phones of Brazil’s foreign minister, ambassadors and military chiefs, according to the documents. “Our publication today shows the US has a long way to go to prove its dragnet surveillance on ‘friendly’ governments is over,” Assange wrote in a statement. “The US has not just [been] targeting Rousseff but the key figures she talks to everyday,” he said. The NSA also spied on Brazil’s ambassadors to the US, Germany, France, Switzerland and the European Union. Source      |
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Posted: 08 Jul 2015 01:47 AM PDT
 Analysis by the Media Research Center shows that the three big US news networks devoted at least twice as much air time during their main evening shows to outrage over the Confederate Flag than they did to the news that several American citizens have recently been recruited by the Islamic State terror group. The stats for June show that ABC was the biggest offender, devoting FOUR TIMES more air time to some Americans taking offense to the Confederate flag, in the wake of the Charleston shooting. In total, in the month of June, the evening news shows of ABC, CBS and NBC covered the ISIS threat for only 17 minutes, 35 seconds, while a whopping 37 minutes and 18 seconds was scheduled for the ‘racist’ flag issue. The Media Research Center also notes that because the Confederate flag debate didn’t begin until June 19, yet ISIS recruitment has been ongoing for the whole month, the flag ‘debate’ actually received FIVE TIMES more coverage (186 seconds per day vs 35 seconds per day). The flag issue was dragged on and on and hyped by the networks, as companies like Walmart, Amazon, Apple, EBay and Google all vowed to pull products with any links to Confederate flags, because they were deemed to be threatening and offensive. Meanwhile, throughout June, there were at least six reported cases of American citizens joining ISIS, and several intelligence agency alerts and warnings regarding the growing influence of ISIS inside America. It is believed that the FBI have made at least 30 arrests on US soil this year of ISIS linked or influenced individuals. Despite the elevated threat, The Obama administration last week blocked attempts by its Middle East allies to assist Kurds fighting Islamic State jihadists in Iraq. High level officials from Gulf and other states have charged that Obama will not listen to pleas to arm Kurds, which is ironic given that so called “moderate rebels” were openly armed in Libya and Syria, leading directly to the rise of ISIS and it’s stockpiles of weaponry. But wait… what about how frightening and offensive THIS is:  Source      |
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Posted: 08 Jul 2015 01:40 AM PDT
 At least 69 people have been killed and dozens of others sustained injuries in attacks by Saudi Arabia on Yemen. According to local media outlets, at least 40 Yemeni soldiers were killed in Saudi air strikes on the Yemeni military headquarters of al-Aber in the Yemeni central province of Hadramout early on Wednesday. Saudi Arabia also targeted a market in the district of Kitaf wa Al Boqe’e in the northeastern province of Sa’ada, injuring at least three people. Elsewhere, in the district of al-Mansuriyah in the western Yemeni province of al-Hudaydah, at least 12 personnel members of a shop selling construction materials were killed and a number of them were injured. Saudi vessels positioned in the Gulf of Aden also targeted a mosque in the district of al-Hawtah in the southern Yemeni province of Lahij, killing nine worshipers and injuring many others. The mosque was completely destroyed; a number of nearby houses were also damaged. Saudi fighter jets also pounded the area of Jabal al-Aswad in the district of Harf Sufyan in the northern Yemeni province of Amran several times, killing eight people and injuring dozens of others. Saudi warplanes also fired 10 rockets at the headquarters of the Yemeni forces in the region of al-Shaban in the central Yemeni province of Ma’rib, injuring 5 soldiers. Some of the injured are reportedly in critical condition. Bomb blasts in Yemen At least 10 people were killed and two others, including 2 children, sustained injuries after the explosive devices planted in a building went off in the city of Beidha in the southern part of Sana’a Province. A number of people were killed and at least eight others were injured in a car bomb attack on a mosque in the area of al-Roudh in Sana’a. Yemen’s retaliatory attacks In retaliation for the deadly Saudi attacks, the Yemeni army with the support of Popular Committees, targeted the Saudi military base of al-Mosem in the southwestern Saudi province of Jazan. The Yemeni forces also fired a number of rockets at the Saudi military base of Alab in the Asir region in the southwestern Saudi province of Dhahran al-Janub. There has been no report on the casualties from the Yemeni strikes. Saudi Arabia launched a deadly campaign against the impoverished country on March 26. The main objective behind the Saudi aggression against Yemen was to weaken the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh. Local Yemeni sources say more than 4,500 people have been killed in the Saudi strikes. Source      |
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Posted: 08 Jul 2015 01:23 AM PDT
 A 150-acre portion of the Florida Gulf Coast is being described as a “dead zone” by scientists after thousands of birds mysteriously abandoned their typical nesting grounds on the federally protected landscape. The most surprising is that there isn’t just one species of bird that has disappeared – it is virtually all of them, including blue herons, roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, pelicans and more, according to a report by the Associated Press. And while some bird families have taken up residence on another island close by, the vast majority is nowhere to be found. “It’s a dead zone now,” said biologist Vic Doig of the US Fish and Wildlife Service to the news outlet. “This is where the largest bird colony on the Gulf Coast of Florida used to be.” Scientists are baffled about the development, particularly because the area in question – part of the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge called the Seahorse Keys – isn’t even accessible to people without a boat. Biologist Peter Frederick of the University of Florida told AP that birds do abandon their nests, but that doesn’t mean every species on the island should do so at the same time. So with that in mind, scientists performed a number of tests to see if they could pinpoint the cause of the mystery migration. Yet tests showed no diseases or contamination, no influx of predators, such as raccoons, infiltrating the habitat, and no other convincing reasons for the birds to flee. Still, researchers remain wary of the event, since the disappearance of the birds could cause a chain reaction of events, since some animals need the birds to survive. “Any rookery that’s persisted for decades as one of the largest colonies is incredibly important,” said Janell Brush, an avian researcher with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, to the AP. “It’s quite a large colony. There had to be some intense event that would drive all these birds away.” Source     |
