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Saturday 23 May 2015

Aleksey Mozgovoi, leader of Lugansk "Ghost" militia assassinated

Image

© Sputnik/ Yuriy Lashov

    
Prominent militia leader Mozgovoi was assassinated on Saturday evening after the vehicle he was traveling in ran into an ambush.

Lugansk militia leader Aleksey Mozgovoi was assassinated by unknown gunmen on Saturday after the vehicle he was traveling in ran into an ambush.

Mozgovoi was the head of Lugansk's Prizrak ("Ghost") Brigade militia, one of the most prominent militias in the region.

"This happened at around the same place as where an assassination attempt against Mozgovoi was made on March 7. The ambush took place on the highway between Lugansk and Alchevsk, unknown persons shot at the jeep Mozgovoi and his guards were traveling in. Mozgovoi was seriously injured and died on the spot," a representative of the militia told RIA Novosti.

According to the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic's Deputy General Prosecutor, Mozgovoi was killed alongside six other people. Mozgovoi's entourage included his press secretary and three members of his security detail, according to Russian news site LifeNews.

Mozgovoi was killed when the car he was traveling in ran into an ambush outside the village of Mikhailovka, east of his group's headquarters in Alchevsk, in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic.

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Unites States' spying affair with Germany is turning sour

Image

© Reuters / Thomas Peter
Security officers stand outside the U.S. Embassy in Berlin

    
The US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has ordered a review of cooperation between the National Security Agency (NSA) and the German intelligence agency BND, newspaper reports.

Citing an unnamed source in US intelligence, says Clapper is unhappy with Berlin's "inability to contain secret data". According to the report, the Bundestag committee on investigating the recent secret service scandals handed some secret documents to the media.

For the US it is "more dangerous than what Snowden did," Bild quoted the source as saying, referring to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's revelations of worldwide surveillance.

Now, the US secret services are reviewing the areas in which cooperation with the BND can be reduced or ended altogether, the paper reports. Several joint projects have already been canceled, it says.

Both the German government and the US embassy in Berlin refused to comment on the report.

In April, German media reported that over the past decade, the BND helped NSA in spying all over Europe. The US agency sent its German colleagues so-called "selectors", which included IP addresses, emails, and phone numbers guiding what targets must be spied on.

One report suggested that the BND sends about 1.3 billion pieces of phone and text data to NSA per month.

The public outrage over those allegations and the subsequent investigation cost Chancellor Angela Merkel about a third of her approval rating. In late April, her government was accused of lying to parliament saying it had no knowledge of Washington's surveillance activities in Germany.

Ohio cop who shot unarmed civilians cleared from charges, sparks Cleveland protests

Image

© Reuters / Tony Dejak
Michael Brelo

    
An Ohio police officer has been found not guilty of the voluntary manslaughter of two unarmed black motorists. The verdict has prompted protests in Cleveland, with authorities bracing for the possibility of additional demonstrations.

Cleveland officer Michael Brelo, 31, faced two counts of voluntary manslaughter after mounting the hood of the suspects' car and firing shots into their windshield in 2012. He faced up to 22 years in prison if found guilty.

But Cuyahoga County Judge John P. O'Donnell ruled on Saturday that Brelo's "entire use of deadly force was a constitutionally reasonable response to an objectively reasonably perceived threat of great bodily harm."

The verdict was met with protests from those who say the shooting was racially motivated, as Brelo is white and the motorists were black. Standing at the doors of the Justice Department where Brelo was found not guilty, the demonstrators shouted "No justice, no peace."

A line of police officers in riot gear was initially shown at the doors, though officers later retreated inside.

Brelo was one of 13 officers who fired 137 shots at a car with Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams inside, following a high-speed chase on November 29, 2012.

The officer was charged criminally because prosecutors said he waited until the car had stopped and the pair were no longer a threat to mount the hood of the car and fire 15 shots into its windshield.

The grand jury also charged five police supervisors - none of whom fired shots - with misdemeanor "dereliction of duty" for failing to control the chase. All five have pleaded not guilty. No trial dates have been set.

Russell, 43, and Williams, 30, were each shot more than 20 times. Although prosecuting attorneys argued they were alive until Brelo's shots, medical examiners for both sides testified that they could not determined the order in which the fatal shots were delivered.

The chase and subsequent shooting began when an officer attempted to pull over Russell for a turn-signal violation. Russell initially stopped the car, but drove off as the officer got out of his car.

About five minutes later, Russell's car backfired as he sped past the Cleveland police headquarters. More than 100 officers in 62 marked and unmarked cars were involved in the 22-mile chase.

The Cleveland shooting helped prompt an investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which concluded in December that the department had engaged in a pattern of using excessive force and violating people's civil rights.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the year-and-a-half-long investigation uncovered evidence of"systematic deficiencies," "inadequate training" and "ineffective policies" by local law enforcement between 2010 and 2013. It also found that officers too often used deadly force when it was not called for.

The city and DoJ are currently negotiating a reform-minded consent decree which will be approved by a federal judge and overseen by independent monitors.

France passes legislation barring supermarkets from spoiling, throwing away food; 1.3bn tons wasted worldwide

Image

© The Independent

    
French supermarkets will be banned from throwing away or destroying unsold food and must instead donate it to charities or for animal feed, under a law set to crack down on food waste.

The French national assembly voted unanimously to pass the legislation as France battles an epidemic of wasted food that has highlighted the divide between giant food firms and people who are struggling to eat.

As MPs united in a rare cross-party consensus, the centre-right deputy Yves Jégo told parliament: "There's an absolute urgency - charities are desperate for food. The most moving part of this law is that it opens us up to others who are suffering."

Supermarkets will be barred from deliberately spoiling unsold food so it cannot be eaten. Those with a footprint of 4,305 sq ft (400 sq m) or more will have to sign contracts with charities by July next year or face penalties including fines of up to €75,000 (£53,000) or two years in jail.

"It's scandalous to see bleach being poured into supermarket dustbins along with edible foods," said the Socialist deputy Guillaume Garot, a former food minister who proposed the bill.

In recent years, French media have highlighted how poor families, students, unemployed or homeless people often stealthily forage in supermarket bins at night to feed themselves, able to survive on edible products which had been thrown out just as their best-before dates approached.

But some supermarkets doused binned food in bleach to prevent potential food-poisoning by eating food from bins. Other supermarkets deliberately binned food in locked warehouses for collection by refuse trucks to stop scavengers.

The practice of foraging in supermarket bins is not without risk - some people picking through rotten fruit and rubbish to reach yoghurts, cheese platters or readymade pizzas have been stopped by police and faced criminal action for theft. In 2011, a 59-year-old father of six working for the minimum wage at a Monoprix supermarket in Marseille almost lost his job after a colleague called security when they saw him pick six melons and two lettuces out of a bin. Pressure groups, recycling commandos and direct action foraging movements have been highlighting the issue of waste in France. Members of the Gars'pilleurs, an action group founded in Lyon, don gardening gloves to remove food from supermarket bins at night and redistribute it on the streets the next morning to raise awareness about waste, poverty and food distribution.

The group and four others issued a statement earlier this year warning that simply obliging supermarket giants to pass unsold food to charities could give a "false and dangerous idea of a magic solution" to food waste. They said it would create an illusion that supermarkets had done their bit, while failing to address the wider issue of overproduction in the food industry as well as the wastage in food distribution chains.


The law will also introduce an education programme about food waste in schools and businesses. It follows a measure in February to remove the best-before dates on fresh foods.

The measures are part of wider drive to halve the amount of food waste in France by 2025. According to official estimates, the average French person throws out 20kg-30kg of food a year - 7kg of which is still in its wrapping. The combined national cost of this is up to €20bn.

Of the 7.1m tonnes of food wasted in France each year, 67% is binned by consumers, 15% by restaurants and 11% by shops. Each year 1.3bn tonnes of food are wasted worldwide.

The Fédération du Commerce et de la Distribution, which represents big supermarkets, criticised the plan. "The law is wrong in both target and intent, given the big stores represent only 5% of food waste but have these new obligations," said Jacques Creyssel, head of the organisation. "They are already the pre-eminent food donors, with more than 4,500 stores having signed agreements with aid groups."

The logistics of the law must also not put an unfair burden on charities, with the unsold food given to them in a way that is ready to use, a parliamentary report has stipulated. It must not be up to charities to have to sift through the waste to set aside squashed fruit or food that had gone off. Supermarkets have said that charities must now also be properly equipped with fridges and trucks to be able to handle the food donations.

The French law goes further than the UK, where the government has a voluntary agreement with the grocery and retail sector to cut both food and packaging waste in the supply chain, but does not believe in mandatory targets.

A report earlier this year showed that in the UK, households threw away 7m tonnes of food in 2012, enough to fill London's Wembley stadium nine times over. Avoidable household food waste in the UK is associated with 17m tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

Russia will call in Ukraine's $3 Billion in debt obligations should Kiev go into default

© RIA Novosti / Yury Kochetkov
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Prime Minister Medvedev charged with enforcing repayment of $3 billion in Eurobonds

    

Vladimir Putin is one of those rare world leaders that talks straight, and call it like it is. The man is pure realpolitik to the max, and as red pill as you can get.

While the western financial oligarchs fiddle around, trying to find creative wording for what is happening to Ukraine's recent announcement (call it something, but don't use the word default)...Russia's President breaks it down for all to digest...

"This de facto announcement of a looming default demonstrates that the level of responsibility and professionalism [of the country's leadership] appears to be low, despite the fact that the country is being ran from the outside."

Default...hell yes, let's not kid ourselves.

The icing on the cake..."country is being ran from the outside." Yeah that means you President Pyatt, Queen Nuland and all the CIA analysts currently working out of the Kiev SBU government offices.

Who is to blame for Ukraine's utter and complete meltdown?

All the fools and turncoats who gathered at Maidan (paid by Soros and unpaid as well), who sold out their country for their individual greedy desires. They let the vultures take over and have now destroyed their entire history, present and future.

You all got played...big time!

RT reports...

Ukraine's statement regarding a possible default is a consequence of Kiev's low level of professionalism, said Russian President Vladimir Putin, ordering the Finance Ministry to sort out the issue of Ukraine's debt to Russia.

"The announcement of the upcoming default shows a level of responsibility and professionalism which is apparently not high," Putin said at a meeting with members of the government.


"As far as I understand, the IMF [International Monetary Fund] doesn't provide any loans to countries that are in a situation of default or bankruptcy," he added addressing Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, requesting that he hold consultations on Ukraine's debt to the Russian Federation.

According to the conditions of the loan, Russia is already within its rights to demand early repayment of Ukraine's debt, but has not done so at the request of Kiev and the IMF, Putin said, adding that Russian banks have issued around $25 billion in loans to Ukrainian creditors.

"We have long had the right to request an early repayment of these funds, bearing in mind that under the terms of our agreement signed according to European law, there is a right to demand early repayment if the total public debt of Ukraine exceeds 60 percent," he said. "However, at the request of our Ukrainian partners and the IMF, we do not exercise this right. We do not want to aggravate the economic situation of our partners and neighbors, which is already complicated," he concluded.

The Finance Ministry hasn't yet noted any violations of the terms of the loan agreement with Ukraine, but if they appear, Russia is ready to resolve the issue in court, Siluanov said.

"Until now, Ukraine has fulfilled all its obligations on debt service. The last payment was made in February this year; the next payment in the amount of $75 million is due on June 20. There have been no violations of the agreement, except for covenants," he said.

"If we see a violation of the commitments that Ukraine took upon itself when we invested our resources in the bonds of its government, we will request a judicial procedure in order to protect our interests," he concluded.

On May 19, the Ukrainian government adopted a law, valid until 1 July 2016, which gives it the power to declare a moratorium on some loan repayments. The country's prime minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk, said that suspension of payments will only be applicable to private loans. However, Ukraine continues to consider its $3 billion debt to Russia private, a position that Moscow completely refutes.

Surprised? US has launched a new assault against Russia

Image

© Unknown

    
If someone had the impression that the visit of Secretary of State John Kerry to the town of Sochi, followed by negotiations with Victoria Nuland, his deputy in Moscow, could be regarded as first steps in the direction of normalization of US-Russian relations, they would be deeply mistaken. In short, Washington, particularly the Obama administration, is trying to solve its problems at the expense or rather with the help of Russia, to ensure the victory of Hillary Clinton in the upcoming elections. However, the United States continues to apply pressure on Russia, using a variety of different strategies.

Special attention is now paid to Syria and the weakened regime of Bashar al-Assad in the face of a new armed assault against Damascus. The attempts to trade the support of Syria for a number of concessions on Ukraine and Crimea allegedly made by John Kerry failed. Then Americans attempted blackmail, which is the strategy of choice for Washington in the countries that resist its dictate. On May 19 the Russian embassy in Syria was shelled by militants, presumably Jaysh al-Islam, which resulted in one of the shells exploding in the main building of the diplomatic mission. Fortunately, there was nobody there in the room destroyed by the explosion. Immediately after the attack the State Department swiftly condemned this act of terrorism. But we all are well aware of the fact that the "southern front" operating in the suburbs of the Syrian capital is controlled by Jordan with a certain amount of US assistance, unlike the "northern front" guided by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The shelling of the Russian embassy - is clearly a signal to Russia that it should abandon its support of the Syrian regime.

The White House continues to exploit the Iranian theme to dissuade Moscow supplying the Islamic Republic with S-300 air defense systems. But America didn't even try to propose a fair exchange. Yet, Washington think tanks are well of aware of the fact that Moscow will no longer buy any of America's fraudulent tricks, as happened a few years ago with the introduction of sanctions against Iran and the freezing of the contract to supply the S-300s. The US goal is clear and simple - to sow doubts in Tehran about the principal position of Russia on Iran, thus pushing Iranians to unnecessary concessions in discussions on the Iranian nuclear program.

Another old trick has been the alleged desire of the GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia, to launch a full-scale cooperation with Russia, particularly in the coordination of global oil prices. The emissaries of the Arabian monarchies one by one have been visiting the Russian capital with handfuls of promises. Naturally, none of those were planned to be implemented, as they are designed to lure Russia's leadership into a trap. But this lesson has already been learned as well, especially in the times when the former Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Saudi Prince Bandar were eager to promise billions of dollars of investment in the Russian economy, the purchase of Russian weapons, and lucrative contracts, yet no concrete steps followed.

Now a new player is being used - Turkey, which seems to be seriously offended by Russia's position on the Armenian Genocide. Turkey, for which the question of recognition or non-recognition of the genocide is the most painful of all, instantly responded to the fact that on 24 April, Vladimir Putin visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, built in memory of the genocide victims of 1915. Turkish officials said that there could be no justification for this visit, three days later, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "remembered" events regarding the Crimea. The Turkish leader said that Russia should account for their actions in Crimea and Ukraine before condemning the massacre of Armenians by the Ottomans in 1915.

Washington was eager to request even more anti-Russian statements from Turkey, including those relating to the Crimea, that followed one after the other. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, said that the recent unofficial Turkish delegation that was visiting the Crimea, found signs of human rights violations. Such an assessment on the situation on the ground from Cavusoglu looks rather strange, since they contradict statements made by members of the delegation themselves. On April 29 the head of the unofficial delegation Mehmet Uskyul said that he is satisfied with the treatment of Crimean Tatars on the peninsula. Even more dramatic statements were made by Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on May 14 at a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers. According to this Turkish official "The illegal annexation of the Crimea can not be tolerated". The Turkish prime minister also urged NATO states to support Ukraine so it could better ensure the security of its own people. Ahmet Davutoğlu went as far as stressing that NATO states should not forget about the suffering of the people of the Crimea...

Ankara canceled a regular meeting of the Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council and the arrival of Sergey Lavrov to Antalya that was scheduled on May 16. Formally - under the pretext of difficulties caused by the forthcoming parliamentary elections, after which a new government will be formed. But all that buzz can negatively affect a project of fundamental importance for Russia - the "Turkish Stream", which couldn't make the United States any more happier.

Another front of this anti-Russian campaign was opened in Macedonia. The United States is actively advancing a possible regime change in Skopje to counter Russian influence. It's also important to note that the "Turkish Stream" would stretch across Macedonian soil. That's what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week about those events: "Objectively speaking, the events in Macedonia are unfolding against the background of the government's refusal to join the policy of sanctions against Russia and the vigorous support Skopje gave to the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, to which many people oppose, both in Brussels and across the ocean. So we can't help but feeling that there is some sort of connection here."

In fact, Washington has tried to stage a "color revolution" by organizing mass demonstrations launched by the local opposition. Even the country's Albanian minority, which has nothing in common with Macedonian opposition came out to the streets to support rallies in the capital, Skopje. For Moscow this looks all too familiar. Events are moving in the same direction as they were in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014, when the corrupt regime of Viktor Yanukovych was ousted during mass demonstrations organized by the United States and Poland.

So the latest maneuvers of American diplomacy - is nothing but a smokescreen designed to hide the true intentions of the Obama administration. Washington's strategic goal remains the same - to weaken Russia by all means necessary and break it apart from those countries which are engaged in cooperation with Moscow. Therefore there's no trusting US promises or even reaching deals with them. All this smooth-talking is a mere trap in the hope that Russian pro-Western liberals might convince President Putin that the White House is sincere. But US think tanks have missed one thing - "Ukrainian lessons" have not been lost on the Kremlin.

Peter Lvov, Ph.D in political science, exclusively for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook"

Israel follows through with fascist declaration to jail Palestinians who make 'anti-Israel' comments on social media

Image

© Al Jazeera
Palestinians mark Prisoners Day in the occupied West Bank.

    

[Israel]
~Iyab Shalabi, Son of jailed Palestinian activist

Iyab Shalabi has only been allowed to visit his father, Omar, in prison once since December, when he and eight other Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem were arrested by Israel for posts they wrote on Facebook and other social media outlets.

"Several months went by before they actually gave me a permit to visit my dad," Iyab, 22, told Al Jazeera. "My mother has been completely banned from visiting him till now."

Earlier this month, Omar, 44, was sentenced to nine months in an Israeli prison for charges related to incitement and "supporting terror" against Israelis. He is the former secretary-general of Jerusalem's branch of Fatah, the Palestinian political party that dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

"It was very clear from the beginning that my father was targeted because he is still an influential activist and has a lot of support and respect in the community," Iyab continued.

The court cited several of Shalabi's Facebook postings about Muhammad Abu Khudair, a 17-year-old Palestinian kidnapped and burned alive by Israeli settlers in Jerusalem last July, as well as "statuses" he wrote supporting Palestinian attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the city.

Iyab rejects the assertion that his father's Facebook postings posed any threat to Israel's security. "They don't have any real evidence that he presented any danger to anyone's safety," he argued. "Of course, this is oppression and discrimination. Everyone writes their opinion on Facebook."

Explaining that conditions are difficult for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, Iyab and his family are worried about his father's well-being.

On May 19, just a week and a half after Shalabi was sentenced, an Israeli magistrate's court in Jerusalem ruled that Sami Deis will spend eight months in jail. The court deemed a number of his Facebook postings as "incitement".

A Facebook page Deis created and administered - titled "Death to Israel" - included a number of postings calling for violence against Israelis, including soldiers and Jewish settlers. The page had few followers and the violent postings rarely received "likes", according to Israeli media reports.

Deis, a 27-year-old resident of the Shuafat neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, pled guilty as part of a plea bargain. Yet, the ruling judge handed down a harsh nine-month sentence. "The defendant calls for murder and killing, and praises those who would carry out such acts," said Judge Shmuel Herbst in his ruling. "There is no doubt as to his intentions, and among his statements are none that can be interpreted in other ways."


Tensions have soared in recent months in Jerusalem, home to more than 815,000 Jewish Israelis and upwards of 300,000 Palestinians. From the 5,820 Palestinians in lockup, at least 460 are residents of East Jerusalem, according to the Ramallah-based prisoner rights group Addameer.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld defended the crackdown on Palestinian social media users, claiming that online anti-Israeli incitement has been on the steady rise in recent months. "We've seen a lot of incitement, not just on the street level but on the government level by the Palestinian Authority," Rosenfeld told Al Jazeera.

"Unfortunately, as police, when we see that on social networks, and when we see all types of extremist comments and anti-Israeli calls for violence, we have to get involved."

Rosenfeld added that the Facebook postings have also coincided with an uptick in Palestinian attacks on Israelis in Jerusalem, pointing to an incident on Wednesday when a Palestinian motorist's car struck two Israeli Border Police officers the al-Tur neighbourhood of Jerusalem. "The man who was shot and killed this week had ties to Hamas, which we were only able to find out from his Facebook account," Rosenfeld remarked.

Mousa Rimawi, director of the Palestinian Centre for Media Freedoms and Development (MADA), says that the arrests come at a time "when Israeli authorities are watching social media closely and targeting Palestinians" for their online postings.

"We've noticed that in the last several months, more people are being arrested for expressing their views on social media," Rimawi told Al Jazeera, adding that in many cases Palestinians are detained for "legitimate political expression and not incitement".

Rimawi claimed that Israel's implementation of laws against incitement is discriminatory "because there are many racist and violent Israeli Facebook pages that didn't result in such sentencing or even arrests".

In June 2014, as the Israeli army searched for three Israeli teens who had been kidnapped in the southern West Bank, a Facebook page calling for the execution of a Palestinian "terrorist" every hour until the boys were located received more than 16,000 "likes". No arrests have been reported for that page or similar Facebook groups, Rimawi commented.

The "double standard", he added, also extends to "protests and other events". Last Sunday, Israelis marched through Jerusalem's Old City, home to many Palestinians, to mark "Jerusalem Day", a holiday celebrating Israel's 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem.

The week before that march, the Israeli High Court ruled against two non-governmental organisations' appeal to prevent the Israelis from marching through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. Although the court deemed it permissible for them to march through the area, it also demanded that police have a "zero tolerance" policy for anti-Arab chants and incitement, adding that anyone who chanted "Death to Arabs!" should be arrested.

During the march, hundreds of Israeli protesters nonetheless chanted such slogans. "Death to Arabs!" many were filmed chanting without police intervention. "Muhammad is a homo," others sang, referring to the Islamic prophet. Several Palestinians were arrested during the Jerusalem Day march during clashes with police.

Back in Jerusalem, Iyab Shalabi echoes Rimawi's comments. "There are so many Israeli groups on Facebook calling for Arabs to be killed, but nothing ever happens," he said. "[Israel] wants Palestinians to shut up and be quiet, to accept the occupation. Israel is trying to deliver a message that any Palestinians - whether from Hamas, Fatah or the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine] - can be arrested."

Decrying the social media arrests as an "attempt to intimidate Palestinians", Iyab concluded: "When my father gets out of jail, I am certain he will continue his activism and to struggle."

Cop resigns after body cam shows him pepper-spray & taser a man for having a medical emergency

Fredericksburg, Virginia — One of Fredericksburg's finest will no longer be part of their police department after resigning this month. The resignation took place after the officer violated department policy by tasering and pepper-spraying a man during a medical emergency.

On May 4th, David Washington was driving his car down Route 1 near the University of Mary Washington when he experienced a medical emergency. The emergency caused him to black out, hit a jeep, and cross over the median striking a road sign.

The driver of the jeep called 9-1-1 to report the crash and officer Shaun Jergens arrived on the scene. Body cam footage shows that Jergens cared not about the man in obvious medical distress.

As Jergens approached the car, the distressed and barely responsive Washington was blasted pepper-sprayed and tasered.

"Get out the car or I'm going to fucking smoke you," says Jergens after assaulting Washington.

Jergens then dragged the sick man out of his car and continued his assault by laying him on the hot asphalt. As if being pepper-sprayed, tasered, thrown on the ground and handcuffed wasn't enough, police allowed the car to roll on top of Washington's foot.

Washington was then taken to the hospital to be treated for his assault and doctors discovered that he had in fact been experiencing a medical emergency.

After reviewing the incident in accordance with department policy, Command Staff determined that the force used by the officers involved in the incidence was "not appropriate," according to WJLA.

"The use of force demonstrated in the incident involving Mr. Washington was not in compliance with department policy or training," said Captain Rick Pennock in a news release. "We take matters such as these very seriously and require that officers at all times exercise appropriate restraint and good judgment in their dealings with citizens."

Jurgens resigned from the department on May 14.

No charges have been filed against Jergens for his abuse. None of the officers involved face charges for failing to stop this assault either. However, Washington was charged with hit-and-run, hit-and-run (property damage), reckless driving, and driving on a revoked or suspended license. Is this justice?

Below are the three different body cam videos from the officers on the scene.

[embedded content]

[embedded content]

[embedded content]

Israel follows through with fascist declaration to jail 'anti-Israel' comments made on social media by Palestinians

Image

© Al Jazeera
Palestinians mark Prisoners Day in the occupied West Bank.

    

[Israel]
~Iyab Shalabi, Son of jailed Palestinian activist

Iyab Shalabi has only been allowed to visit his father, Omar, in prison once since December, when he and eight other Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem were arrested by Israel for posts they wrote on Facebook and other social media outlets.

"Several months went by before they actually gave me a permit to visit my dad," Iyab, 22, told Al Jazeera. "My mother has been completely banned from visiting him till now."

Earlier this month, Omar, 44, was sentenced to nine months in an Israeli prison for charges related to incitement and "supporting terror" against Israelis. He is the former secretary-general of Jerusalem's branch of Fatah, the Palestinian political party that dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

"It was very clear from the beginning that my father was targeted because he is still an influential activist and has a lot of support and respect in the community," Iyab continued.

The court cited several of Shalabi's Facebook postings about Muhammad Abu Khudair, a 17-year-old Palestinian kidnapped and burned alive by Israeli settlers in Jerusalem last July, as well as "statuses" he wrote supporting Palestinian attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the city.

Iyab rejects the assertion that his father's Facebook postings posed any threat to Israel's security. "They don't have any real evidence that he presented any danger to anyone's safety," he argued. "Of course, this is oppression and discrimination. Everyone writes their opinion on Facebook."

Explaining that conditions are difficult for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, Iyab and his family are worried about his father's well-being.

On May 19, just a week and a half after Shalabi was sentenced, an Israeli magistrate's court in Jerusalem ruled that Sami Deis will spend eight months in jail. The court deemed a number of his Facebook postings as "incitement".

A Facebook page Deis created and administered - titled "Death to Israel" - included a number of postings calling for violence against Israelis, including soldiers and Jewish settlers. The page had few followers and the violent postings rarely received "likes", according to Israeli media reports.

Deis, a 27-year-old resident of the Shuafat neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, pled guilty as part of a plea bargain. Yet, the ruling judge handed down a harsh nine-month sentence. "The defendant calls for murder and killing, and praises those who would carry out such acts," said Judge Shmuel Herbst in his ruling. "There is no doubt as to his intentions, and among his statements are none that can be interpreted in other ways."


Tensions have soared in recent months in Jerusalem, home to more than 815,000 Jewish Israelis and upwards of 300,000 Palestinians. From the 5,820 Palestinians in lockup, at least 460 are residents of East Jerusalem, according to the Ramallah-based prisoner rights group Addameer.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld defended the crackdown on Palestinian social media users, claiming that online anti-Israeli incitement has been on the steady rise in recent months. "We've seen a lot of incitement, not just on the street level but on the government level by the Palestinian Authority," Rosenfeld told Al Jazeera.

"Unfortunately, as police, when we see that on social networks, and when we see all types of extremist comments and anti-Israeli calls for violence, we have to get involved."

Rosenfeld added that the Facebook postings have also coincided with an uptick in Palestinian attacks on Israelis in Jerusalem, pointing to an incident on Wednesday when a Palestinian motorist's car struck two Israeli Border Police officers the al-Tur neighbourhood of Jerusalem. "The man who was shot and killed this week had ties to Hamas, which we were only able to find out from his Facebook account," Rosenfeld remarked.

Mousa Rimawi, director of the Palestinian Centre for Media Freedoms and Development (MADA), says that the arrests come at a time "when Israeli authorities are watching social media closely and targeting Palestinians" for their online postings.

"We've noticed that in the last several months, more people are being arrested for expressing their views on social media," Rimawi told Al Jazeera, adding that in many cases Palestinians are detained for "legitimate political expression and not incitement".

Rimawi claimed that Israel's implementation of laws against incitement is discriminatory "because there are many racist and violent Israeli Facebook pages that didn't result in such sentencing or even arrests".

In June 2014, as the Israeli army searched for three Israeli teens who had been kidnapped in the southern West Bank, a Facebook page calling for the execution of a Palestinian "terrorist" every hour until the boys were located received more than 16,000 "likes". No arrests have been reported for that page or similar Facebook groups, Rimawi commented.

The "double standard", he added, also extends to "protests and other events". Last Sunday, Israelis marched through Jerusalem's Old City, home to many Palestinians, to mark "Jerusalem Day", a holiday celebrating Israel's 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem.

The week before that march, the Israeli High Court ruled against two non-governmental organisations' appeal to prevent the Israelis from marching through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. Although the court deemed it permissible for them to march through the area, it also demanded that police have a "zero tolerance" policy for anti-Arab chants and incitement, adding that anyone who chanted "Death to Arabs!" should be arrested.

During the march, hundreds of Israeli protesters nonetheless chanted such slogans. "Death to Arabs!" many were filmed chanting without police intervention. "Muhammad is a homo," others sang, referring to the Islamic prophet. Several Palestinians were arrested during the Jerusalem Day march during clashes with police.

Back in Jerusalem, Iyab Shalabi echoes Rimawi's comments. "There are so many Israeli groups on Facebook calling for Arabs to be killed, but nothing ever happens," he said. "[Israel] wants Palestinians to shut up and be quiet, to accept the occupation. Israel is trying to deliver a message that any Palestinians - whether from Hamas, Fatah or the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine] - can be arrested."

Decrying the social media arrests as an "attempt to intimidate Palestinians", Iyab concluded: "When my father gets out of jail, I am certain he will continue his activism and to struggle."

Rand Paul blocks extension of Patriot Act, future of illegal NSA spying on Americans in limbo

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© NSA.gov
Utah Data Center.

    
While an extension of the Patriot Act, that landmark bill which ushered in the America's , "turnkey totalitarian state" (previewed here long before Edward Snowden's shocking revelations), is just a matter of time, supporters of the Fourth Amendment scored a brief victory last night when following yet another marathon 10 hour filibuster...
... and refusal to play by the script by Rand Paul, the Senate failed to extend the Patriot Act, leaving the future of America's "war against terrorists" but really against "enemies domestic", i.e., anyone who uses email, has a cell phone or in any other electronic way communicates with others, in limbo.

As the recalls Friday night's events, Senators first rejected a House bill overhauling the NSA, a two-month Patriot Act extension and then increasingly short extensions of the law.

Beginning shortly after midnight, the Senate narrowly blocked a House bill ending the NSA's collection of bulk phone information, requiring the government instead to obtain court approval to request phone records from companies on a case-by-case basis. The vote to move forward with the House bill was 57-42, short of the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate's procedural threshold. The bill had easily cleared the House with bipartisan support last week and was backed by the White House.

Which is ironic because less than a month ago a Federal Appeals court found that NSA spying on US citizens is not only authorized by the Patriot Act, but is outright illegal. So how and why Congress can even consider an extension to an illegal program is a bit of a mystery.

Following the defeat of the House bill, the Senate then blocked a two-month extension of the Patriot Act, the 2001 law that expanded the government's authority to search for terror suspects. The two-month patch was defeated in a 45-54 procedural vote.

Ironically, the showdown was between two Kentucky Republicans: the senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and presidential candidate Rand Paul:

Known for his meticulous, long-range political strategizing, Mr. McConnell had surprised many in the Capitol by taking on a fight with the House over the nitty-gritty policy details of the bill. In particular, Mr. McConnell worried that the House bill wouldn't require phone companies to retain the phone records information that could help authorities spot terrorist activity.

"This is beyond troubling," Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor Friday. "We should not establish an alternate system that contains a glaring hole in its ability to function, namely the complete absence of any requirement for data retention."

Which of course is a total lie: recall that just last November, the "Surveillance State Wins - Senate Votes To Allow NSA Bulk Data Collection To Continue." As a further reminder, the only reason for the existence of the NSA's massive Bluffdale, UT storage facility is simple: to store every electronic communication everywhere, and for ever.

In the end it was almost entirely due to the objections of Rand Paul that the Senate couldn't agree to pass even a 24-hour extension of the Patriot Act, the 2001 law that followed the September 11 events.

"This is a debate that should be had," Paul said on the Senate floor early Saturday. He said he would have agreed to a short-term Patriot Act extension had Senate leaders guaranteed two of his amendments would see future votes and would be able to pass with 50 votes.

With the chamber's two primary options exhausted, Mr. McConnell sought to get an agreement to extend the Patriot Act for a week, and then periods of four and two days and finally, one day. But Mr. Paul and some Democratic senators, including Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, objected. Mr. Paul has made the NSA program a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, saying it violates Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Since in Congress every day is opposite day, some promptly spun the brief restoration of the 4th Amendment as "jeopardizing to Americans' civil liberties and national security."

"The Senate has failed to make the important reforms necessary, jeopardizing Americans' civil liberties and our national security," the House Judiciary Committee's chairman, Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) and top Democrat, John Conyers of Michigan, said in a statement with two other lawmakers after the House bill was defeated in the Senate.

Amusingly, as the Senate left for this week's Memorial Day recess, nobody had any idea how to proceed. Quote :

Leaving the Capitol, Republicans seemed confused on what their leader's next steps would be.

"That's a really good question," Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said, when asked what would change between Saturday and when senators return to Washington for a rare Sunday session on May 31.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) seemed equally unsure if Paul would accept a deal before returning to Washington.

"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. They march to a different drum," the Armed Services Committee chairman said, adding that he was sure Paul's tactics were "a great revenue raiser."

McCain knows all about raising revenue: let's compare revenue raising dear war hawk neocon Armed Services Committee John McCain, shall we:

John McCain (source):

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and Rand Paul (source):
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We show this just in case there is any confusion who is just a little bit more detached from the interests of America's "main street" and middle class, assuming one is still left.

Be very afraid: Islamic State says could obtain nuclear bomb in less than 12 months

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© Sputnik/ Mihail Mokrushin

    
The Islamic State jihadist group (ISIL) could obtain a nuclear weapon within 12 month, according to the latest issue of the ISIL's propaganda magazine .

"The Islamic State has billions of dollars in the bank, so they call on their wilayah in Pakistan to purchase a nuclear device through weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials in the region," the article, attributed to British photojournalist John Cantlie held hostage by the ISIL for over two years, said.

Once the ISIL buys the bomb in Pakistan, according to the article, it would transport it through Lybia and Nigeria to the West.

"Drug shipments from Columbia bound for Europe pass through West Africa, so moving other types of contraband from East to West is just as possible," the article pointed out.

Cantlie stressed that the ISIL is looking to do "something big" on the US soil and it will be more real "a year from today."

"The more groups that pledge allegiance [to the ISIL] the more possible it becomes to pull off something truly epic," he added.

The Islamic State has been rallying militants from across the region under its banners since it rose to prominence in Iraq and Syria in summer 2014. It now runs cells in North Africa, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan

In November 2014, an affiliate of the Pakistani militant organization Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jundallah, claimed allegiance to the ISIL.

In April 2015, Nigeria's notorious Boko Haram terrorist group also pledged allegiance to the Sunni ISIL movement and changed its name to Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Last week, the jihadist fighters from the Mali-based militant group Mourabitoun pledged allegiance to the ISIL movement.

South Front Ukraine Crisis News 22-5-2015: Kiev STILL shelling civilians in E. Ukraine

    
Last night, maintenance party 28 of Kiev's forces started advancement in settlement Mariinka around the city Donetsk. Also, pro-Kiev militant attacked in the sector of Donetsk airport. City Donetsk, settlement Shirokino and town Gorlovka were hard shelled by artillery of Ukraine's forces. Witnesses report about causalities among civilians there. Furthermore, Kiev's military hit passenger-train around town Yasinovataya yesterday. 22 train carriages were burned. Meanwhile, according to Novorossian warriors' reports Kiev are concentrating military equipment including battle tanks, armored vehicles and artillery around town Dzerjinsk and settlement Shirokino.

Ukraine's parliament on Thursday backed a decree allowing the country to rescind its commitments outlined in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Social Charter. The decree was passed at second reading by 249 votes in the Verkhovna Rada, 23 more than the minimum required. Thus, now Kiev government forces and pro-Kiev militants won't violate Ukrainian law when they torture civilians and prisoners of war. Though, when is it stopped them?

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Kiev's decision to renege on its international commitments by refusing to guarantee protection of human rights in the zone of military operations in the east indicates "a criminal character" of the state, the top foreign policy parliamentarian in Russia's State Duma assembly said on Thursday, adding that Ukraine therefore undermined its positions in Europe's political bodies. "When a country weasels out of its obligations, this is simply an indication of a criminal character of this state," Alexey Pushkov, head of the International Affairs Committee at the Russian parliament's lower chamber, said in an interview with Vesti FM radio station.

The term "annexation of Crimea" will remain in the declaration of the EU Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, but a special position of Armenia and Belarus will be mentioned in it, a source in the Western delegation told TASS on Thursday. "The situation looks as follows now: the wording will remain, but a reference will be introduced to the position of countries that disagree with it during voting in the UN," the source said. The summit's participants in clause 4 of the document urge all sides to observe the Minsk agreements, express full support to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the Contact Group, and pledge to keep backing all diplomatic efforts of the Normandy format (Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine).

What a surprise: US blocks nuclear disarmament document over Israel

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© Reuters / Desmond Boylan
A deactivated Soviet-era SS-4 medium range nuclear capable ballistic missile is displayed at La Cabana fortress in Havana.

    
Washington has blocked the final document of a UN conference that reviewed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, accusing Egypt of manipulating the gathering to target Israel. Moscow has slammed the US for rendering the four-week meeting futile.

The 9th international conference was held in New York from April 27 until May 22. A total of 162 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) participant states were in attendance. These conferences are held every five years to assess the worldwide disarmament process.

The blocked document included a plan to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. To do this, Egypt, who first proposed such a zone in 1980, suggested a regional UN conference on banning weapons of mass destruction. The gathering would have no pre-determined agenda and would go ahead with or without the presence of Israel.

This was stonewalled by the US, with Washington representative Rose Gottemoeller saying the final document reviewed on Friday was "incompatible with our longstanding policies."

She accused Egypt and other Arab supporters of the nuclear-free zone of being "not willing to let go of these unrealistic and unworkable conditions," AP reports.

Israel, which is an observer, but not a participant of the NPT, is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, which it has neither confirmed nor denied. It is also a close ally of the US.

Egypt expressed its disappointment and said: "This will have consequences in front of the Arab world and public opinion."

Washington's position was backed by the UK and Canada, ultimately sinking the proposal which had to be approved by all countries.

Russia, for its part, said it was committed to nuclear non-proliferation and saw similar commitment from most other participants.

"The vast majority of the delegations have noted that the treaty remains a 'cornerstone' of international security and stability, and serves their interests," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. "Participant countries have confirmed their readiness to comply with their obligations under the NPT."

"We regretfully acknowledge that because of the positions of the US, Britain and Canada, we could not adopt the final document which included provisions on fulfilling the 1995 resolution on creating a Middle East zone free of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction." the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

It added, however, that Russia still has faith in the Treaty: "Despite such an outcome of the conference, the Russian Federation is ready to continue cooperating with other countries to help strengthen the NPT, provide its wholesomeness and viability."

The failure of this conference means the next one can only be held in 2020.

California parents explain why they oppose mandatory vaccines

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© vaccineimpact.com
Mass demonstrations in California against SB277. Photo by California Coalition for Vaccine Choice.

    
In this video, well-informed and educated parents object to and oppose CA SB277, which would eliminate personal belief exemptions for the vaccination of their children. In its current state, if SB 277 became law it would require parents to have their children fully vaccinated in order to attend public or private school, even though there is no public health crisis and the diseases for which children are vaccinated against are not deadly when children have strong, healthy immune function. Vaccination is an invasive medical procedure that carries substantial risk, yet the manufacturers of vaccines are not liable when their products seriously maim or kill people.

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Comment: As the comment in the following linked article points out very clearly;

Petition against mandatory vaccination reaches over 100,000 signatures. Will the White House respond?

The petition is short, sweet, and to the point:

No human being should be FORCED to be vaccinated against their will and/or personal/religious beliefs. I petition against making vaccinations of any kind mandatory. This includes forcing children to be vaccinated to attend public schools, activities, and daycare centers. This also includes adults working in the public or private sector.

The fact that this even has to be petitioned in the first place, however — that the people so fear their government would take away their basic sense of medical freedom — is a sure sign of tyranny.

'Flying rocks from a quarry' damage homes, businesses in Virginia

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Bob Ryan was driving to get a cup of coffee in Sterling, Va., on Thursday morning when he saw rocks the size of baseballs shower out of the sky.

"They hit, and then smaller ones hit in succession like, 'boom, boom, boom,'" Ryan said.

At first, Ryan thought maybe kids hiding in a treeline were pelting cars. But he noticed that the rocks appeared to have rained down from the clouds, as if they were meteors.

Laura Rinhart, a Loudoun County firefighter, said that the rocks likely were not from outer space and had instead come flying from a nearby rock quarry. Rinehart said that some rocks struck a home on Old Ox road and debris also hit the pavement near Oakgrove Rd.

A person who answered the phone at Loudoun Quarries on Thursday said he was not sure if the rocks came from their quarry, the only quarry in the area.

Some residents in the area heard a boom at around 10:30 a.m. that they thought sounded like thunder. Ryan said that stones then blasted car windows and damaged vehicles in a shopping center parking lot. He said he picked up some of the rocks and noticed that they had a burnt smell.

"One rock double the size of a softball was sitting on the sidewalk in front of a beauty salon," Ryan said. "If it had gone through there would have been lots of casualties."


Rinehart said that Loudoun fire and rescue units along with officials from the quarry are investigating the incident.
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Comment: This story is a bit farfetched and reads like damage control. Here's another piece from USA Today with video of a rock coming from the sky. Would a controlled blast also create a burnt smell on the rocks?

The smell that is being given off by this meteorite is hard to describe. When I first smelt it, I tried to think of the proper words to describe the odor. I tried to think of things that had a similar smell:

"like hot metal, or like a cast-iron skillet that has over-heated, or like the metal filaments when you first turn on an electric heater.
Also, a lot like when you make sparks by striking two flint-rocks against each other.
Maybe a little like ozone, but with a more smoky, sulfurous aroma."

That's when the phrase "burnt gunpowder" came into my mind.

Source: Meteorite Times

And...

Chelyabinsk. Meteor Smells

A group of four observers of the Leonid meteor shower of 1833 reported a peculiar odour, "like sulphur or onions."

It was thought that "This apparent transmission of smells at the speed of light could be explained if they were due to nitrous oxide or ozone produced by an electric discharge." (Ozone [O3] a gas. From the Greek, ozein, for smell). Observers of the Texas fireball of 1 October 1917 also reported the odour of sulphur and burning powder as it passed.

A possible explanation is suggested by the following Chelyabinsk observer reports.

Field survey reports of smells were concentrated in the area surrounding the fireball trajectory. After an initial strong burst, the smells continued for a few hours. The eastern edge of this area coincides with the eastern edge of the glass damaged area. Arkhangel'skoe is the most western village where smells were reported. It is situated near the western edge of the glass damaged area. Fourteen villages reported similar smells, with nearly all described as a sulphur smell, a burning smell, or a smell similar to that of gunpowder.

These smells may have originated from the decomposition of Troilite (FeS), an iron sulphide mineral named after Domenico Troili, who first noted it in a meteorite that fell at Albareto, Modena, Italy in 1766. Troilite is one of the main components of the Chelyabinsk meteorite. Some burning smells may also have been caused locally when the shockwave dispersed soot from flues and stoves.

Respondents in Emanzhelinka, immediately under the fireball trajectory, also reported an ozone smell, similar to the smell after a thunderstorm. Ozone, with nitrogen oxides as by products, may have been produced in the immediate surroundings of the fireball by Ultra-Violet (UV-B λ= 290-320 nm wavelength) radiation from the meteor. This reinforces reports about sunburn caused by UV radiation from the fireball.

Source: Engineering and Technology Wiki

It's more likely space rocks coming into our atmosphere and the government owned media does not want the people to know they are about to be bombarded back to the Stone Age. What slimeballs.

Read Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction! and read our Comets and Catastrophe Series for more details.

Ukrainian terrorists execute NAF militia man and his pregnant wife


These psychopaths are supported by the United States.

    
Information agency NewsFront posted a video discovered on the cell phone of one of the fighters of the Ukrainian battalion, liquidated by people's militia of Lugansk Republic.

His name and the date of liquidation were not disclosed.

On the video men in masks and camouflage with Ukrainian markings performed a cold-blooded execution of two people by hanging on a specially constructed gallows in the woods. A vehicle "Niva" was used as a scaffold. The event was recorded by the executioners on a cell phone camera.

One of the victims - a pregnant woman. The executioners put bags on the heads of the victims. The video had no sound.

NewsFront commented that it does not guarantee the authenticity of this video. The only sure thing is that the video was found on the phone of a murdered punisher, noted the agency. Judging by the twitches of the executed man, it is not likely to be staged.

[embedded content]


Meanwhile, the General Prosecutor's office of LPR made a statement which confirmed that the video of the execution was really found on the phone of one of Ukrainian saboteurs from a subversive-intelligence group, which was liquidated by LPR people's militia forces.

"The group was engaged in subversive activities. In this case, this group (DRG) consisted of three people. A militia man was killed. His name and callsign are not disclosed in the interests of the investigation. He was killed by hanging. And his wife in the last stage of pregnancy was hanged. In a course of a law enforcement operation one of the members of this DRG was killed. Currently we are trying to establish his identity, his unit and connections. The rest, unfortunately, managed to escape. The video you're about to see, I think, needs no comment. Other than bastards you cannot call the persons who did it", - said the head of the investigative department of the Prosecutor General of LPR, Leonid Tkachenko.

"It is not a montage and it's not staged, - said the investigator.- This is an authentic footage. Identification of the other participants is a matter of time".

Huge sinkhole swallows pond and bunkers after appearing on US golf course

© The Independent, UK
The hole appeared on the Top of the Rock course in Missouri, where a PGA Tour event was played last month.

    
A huge sinkhole has opened up on a US golf course where the world's top golfers competed just last month.

The crater, which is 80ft wide and 35ft deep, swallowed part of a pond, turf and bunkers on the Top of the Rock complex in Branson, Missouri.

Managers told the Associated Press that it would not affect play at the main course, where it costs $135 (£90) to play nine holes.

© The Independent, UK
A sinkhole at the Top of the Rock Golf Course in Branson.

    
The phenomenon started as two sinkholes near the golf course entrance before they merged into one on Friday, local media reported.

Top of the Rock lies in the Ozark Mountains, which frequently see the appearance of sinkholes thanks to the water wearing away bedrock below the ground.

The chasm has been fenced off for safety but before it is filled in, geologists will carry out research to discover more about the local topography.

In 2013, a golfer was swallowed by another sinkhole at the Annbriar Golf Course in Illinois but survived the fall.

Lokon-Empung volcano in Indonesia shaken by violent eruption

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An explosion occurred Wednesday (20 May) at 15:22 local time and produced an ash plume of approx 1.5 km height. The eruption was accompanied by strong explosion sounds, which caused concern in nearby villages and the town of Tomohon. After the initial explosion, mild ash venting continued for a while. The eruption came from two vents, both the Tompaluan crater and the new crater west of it that had formed in October last year.

Lokon-Empung volcano shaken by violent eruption

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An explosion occurred Wednesday (20 May) at 15:22 local time and produced an ash plume of approx 1.5 km height. The eruption was accompanied by strong explosion sounds, which caused concern in nearby villages and the town of Tomohon. After the initial explosion, mild ash venting continued for a while. The eruption came from two vents, both the Tompaluan crater and the new crater west of it that had formed in October last year.

Senator Explodes When Questioned About His Vaccine Bill

By now, vaccine skeptics are generally familiar with the faces of Congressmen who are attempting to take away their natural rights to determine whether or not they and their children are vaccinated. Congressional parasites like Dianne Feinstein, as well as Presidential hopefuls like Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson, are now regular appearances in the “remove parents’ rights” theatre.

But how many people are familiar with the faces of the state level sycophants that are attempting to eliminate basic human rights? After all, there have been a number of state level attacks against parents and children in recent months. What about the State Senators and Representatives who have accepted money from Big Pharma at the expense of their constituents or are simply trendy fanatics by nature?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you NC State Senator Jeff Tarte:

As if his last name did not accurately describe his disposition, Senator Tarte was one of the main sponsors of the NC bill SB 346, a bill that would have eliminated the “religious exemption” clause in the recommended vaccine schedule for children entering NC public schools. He was also a main contender for the title of worst public relations interaction with a constituent in the state of North Carolina in the last several years.

This interaction took place after activists Nicole Revels and Pattie Curran arrived in Raleigh to hand petitions containing nearly 3000 signatures of NC residents who did not want their rights removed to NC congressmen and congresswomen who were attempting to do just that.

After handing in a copy of the petition to Senator Tamara Barringer and receiving a very pleasant, albeit patronizing and completely phony response that she was “listening” to them, all parties shook hands and the activists moved on to Tarte’s office.

Upon arriving at Tarte’s office, the Senator became irate at the sight of the two activists and Revels in particular. Already engaged in a discussion of the bill, Tarte immediately began whining about the presence of cameras and, in particular, the presence of Nicole Revels, stating that he was going to “get the Sgt. In Arms” to remove them.


Visibly irritated at being confronted by anyone other than a fawning worshiper or someone taking his order, Tarte could scarcely cover up the look of disgust at being asked a legitimate question about a bill he was sponsoring. When asked if he was going to remove the religious exemption from accessibility to NC parents, Tarte simply responded “Yes.”

Shortly thereafter, Tarte indeed found the Sgt. In Arms and had Revels and Curran removed.

The confrontation can be seen in the video below. Tarte’s appearance is around the 6:53 mark:



While the bill was ultimately defeated due to the work of activists like Curran and Revels and large numbers of NC parents who valued the natural human rights, the issue very much remains alive. Vaccine pushers, fanatics, along with those Congressional money vessels who have been purchased by Big Pharma dollars will no doubt return with another version of the bill or insert it as a rider or last minute amendment to a larger bill that will be politically difficult to vote against.

Woman rescues 3-year-old girl from coyote attack in Irvine, California

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Coyote

    
A 3-year-old girl was attacked by a coyote Friday while playing with a friend in an Orange County park.

It happened around 5:50 p.m. at the corner of Equinox and Silverado, according to Irvine police.

The coyote charged at the girl "out of nowhere" and lunged at her neck.

It could have ended much differently had it not been for a nearby resident who acted quickly.

Ginna McKenna was sitting on her patio when she spotted the attack, as told to CBS2's Stacey Butler.

"A little girl was screaming and the mother was screaming, so I came running out and there was a coyote in the park. I chased [the coyote] off," McKenna said. "They were scared."


The girl was taken to a hospital with what was described as a superficial wound to her neck.

Fish and Game and Animal Control officers with the Irvine P.D. are looking for the coyote.

Police say coyotes frequent the area, but it's extremely rare for one to attack a person.

South Front: 21-5-2015 Ukraine Crisis News

    
The Ukrainian forces have shelled the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic 33 times over the last 24 hours, DPR defense ministry said on Wednesday. According to the DPR defense ministry, the Kiev forces shelled Donetsk (Kievsky district and the airport), Gorlovka, Zhabichevo, Nizhnee Lozovoye, Shirokino, Kalinovka, Ozeryanovka and Belaya Kamenka.

The Donetsk People's Republic has returned to Kiev 550 prisoners since the commission on prisoners of war was launched in August 2014, Liliya Rodionova from the commission told the Donetsk news agency on Wednesday. "The Ukrainian side, for its part, has returned to us 564 prisoners, less than 200 of them being militias," she said. She also said those returned to Kiev had been seized in combat, while most of those released and returned to the republic were civilians. The "all for all" prisoner swap is one of the key points in the Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk agreements, signed in Minsk on February 12.

A protest against the construction of a new shopping mall in Kiev turned into a violent confrontation when a melee broke out among two camps of protesters and police. Fifteen police officers were reported injured in the incident. Activist campaigning against construction of a new mall, 'Le Boulevard,' near Kiev's "Osokorky" metro station tried to demolish a fence surrounding the construction site late on Tuesday, succeeding in inflicting much damage to the property. They were confronted by an unknown group of men wearing camouflage and masked in balaclavas. Local media outlets branded these as 'titushki' - Ukrainian slang for hired thugs. However, for independent observers 'titushki' look similar to 'democratic activists of Euromaidan'. Thus, one pro-maidan group clashed with another pro-maidan group in order to defend economic interests of their owners.

Russia will take retaliatory measures to protect itself if Ukraine decides to station US anti-missile defense systems in its territory. "In case there are missile defense systems stationed in Ukraine, Russia will have to take retaliatory measures to ensure its own safety," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. He was commenting on a recent statement by Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Aleksandr Turchinov, which claimed that Ukraine want to station components of an anti-missile defense system in Ukraine. The statement also calls for additional international sanctions against Russia, including blocking the Bosphorus strait from Russian navy vessels and shutting Russia off from the international SWIFT financial transfer system.

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