Researchers have just recently been able to identify some significant factors regarding the deadly Ebola virus. In fact, a new study shows that a disabling protein in Ebola can actually stop the virus from replicating and infecting the host.
The Ebola virus causes severe disease in humans as it deactivates the innate immune system. According to Christopher Basler, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology at Mount Sinai, he and his colleagues studied how Ebola evades the immune system and discovered that a viral protein known as VP35 is critical for deactivation of the immune system.
They also found that when VP35 interacts with an important cellular protein called PACT, it blocks PACT from activating the immune system which allows the virus to spread.
"Ebola viruses are extremely lethal, and are a great threat to human health as a bioweapon," said Dr. Basler, via a press release. "Currently, there is no approved vaccine or treatment. Our findings will hopefully pave the way for future antiviral treatments."
Researchers at the University of Texas provided access to special high containment facilities, according to Dr. Basler, that allowed his team to study infected healthy cells with the Ebola virus that had mutated versions of VP35. These mutations disabled VP35's ability to interact with PACT, and allowed the activation of the immune system to prevent the virus from replicating it.
Researchers also overexpressed PACT in healthy cells and infected them with the Ebola virus cells. They found that overexpression of PACT also inhibited viral replication.
More information regarding this study can be found in the journal Cell Host and Microbe.
Anti-corruption protests that have been peacefully going on for 40 days reached a climax in Bulgaria when demonstrators trapped a hundred ministers, lawmakers and journalists inside the parliament for over eight hours, urging the government to resign.
Police with shields formed a pathway through hundreds of Bulgarians to finally get all those trapped out of the building, pushing away the anti-government demonstrators. High-ranking officials were escorted outside in the capital, Sofia, at around 3am in police vans.
Twenty people, including 3 policemen, were injured, hospital sources said.
Anti-government protests escalated on Tuesday evening when several hundred demonstrators trapped the deputies and ministers inside Parliament hoping to oust the left-leaning government.
A total of 109 people - including three ministers, some 30 MPs, journalists and parliamentary staff were trapped inside the building, according to national television.
When a bus arrived at the site to escort the officials out, the demonstrators formed a human chain and threw bottles and stones at the bus, refusing to let the vehicle leave.
They shouted "Murderers!", "Mafia!", "Resign!" as dozens of police in riot gear pushed and clubbed them to clear a path for the bus. The people hurt included some with head injuries.
"Police reacted very adequately, policemen did their job perfectly although protesters behaved extremely aggressively," Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev told reporters.
"We will try to find those who threw stones at police and deputies," he added.
President Rosen Plevneliev earlier issued a statement calling upon the protesters to keep the rally "peaceful and civilized."
"For the first time since the start of the protests we have now witnessed tension and attempts for provocation," Plevneliev said, urging for "calm and order."
Parliamentary Speaker Mihail Mikov suggested canceling Wednesday's planned parliamentary session, saying the deputies should not turn up for work until order was restored.
A member of the European parliament and former foreign minister, Ivailo Kalfin, wrote on Facebook: "With apologies to the millions who voted two months ago, we need new elections."
The Socialist-backed government took office after snap election in May, following the resignation of the previous cabinet provoked by anti-austerity protests.
The appointment of controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski as head of the national security agency initially sparked public outrage, with daily protests going on since June 14. Although the appointment was instantly revoked, demonstrators argued that the government is corrupt and must resign.
Recent public-opinion polls show they are supported by about two-thirds of Bulgaria's 7.3 million people, who have the lowest incomes in the European Union.
New research by marine biologists at the University of St Andrews has revealed that dolphins name themselves using unique 'signature' whistles.
The study, by Dr Vincent Janik of the University's Sea Mammal Research Unit and his colleagues in the USA, suggests that dolphins share the human characteristic of recognising themselves as individuals with separate identities.
The researchers studied a group of bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida and found that not only do they appear to convey information about themselves by their whistle, but they seem to recognise each other's unique whistle. Recognition of the signature whistle can be compared to humans recognising a name.
Dr Janik, a research fellow at the School's Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), said: "As infants, bottlenose dolphins develop their own signature whistles to use throughout their lifetimes. Group members repeat these whistles back during vocal interactions, and we believe that the whistles form a system similar to that of human names."
The researchers played synthetic whistles to dolphins through an underwater speaker. In 9 out of 14 cases, the dolphin would turn more often toward the speaker if it heard a whistle resembling that of a close relative, demonstrating that the synthetic signature whistle contains information that is used by the listeners to identify the caller.
Since dolphins reacted less to synthetic whistles of unrelated dolphins, the research suggests that dolphins use unique signature whistles to keep track of friends and family and maintain group cohesion.
Dr Janik concluded: "Since voice features are affected by changing water pressure, voice-independent names might be a reliable way to convey identity."
Greed, fraud, and corruption within Big Pharma and the FDA are the constructs of deception, with the mantle of authority leading to over 100,000 Americans deaths each year from correctly prescribed FDA approved pharmaceutical drugs.
That’s an earlier conservative figure based on Dr. Barbara Starfield’s study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association July 26, 2000, “Is US health really the best in the world?”
And that doesn’t include those who are sickened, needing more medications from side effects, hospitalization, or years of rehab for crippling adverse “side effects.” Nor does it include the effects from over-the-counter (OTC) drugs that lead to an almost equivalent number of casualties as their prescribed counterparts.
How the Medical Mafia Maintains its Monopoly
The FDA-Big Pharma partnership scheme calls for long trials involving cruel animal testing and testing on humans with their placebo control groups. The real problem is that the pharmaceutical companies pay for all this and conduct the trials themselves. This expense keeps effective, safe natural medicines from private individuals and small providers out of the FDA approval loop.
The big boys make their own reports for FDA approval, often paying ghost writers to create favorable medical journal reports that medical professionals sign off for a significant fee. Then Big Pharma pays the FDA a fee for approval. And to top it all off, many FDA “consultants” are Big Pharma insiders with financial ties whose careers depend on that big corporate/government revolving door. All of these situations are corrupt signals.
Even former New England Journal of Medicine editor and author of The Truth about Drug Companies, Dr. Marcia Angell, threw up her arms in disgust and declared “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.”
Related Read: 500 Page Report: FDA is Failing to Protect Consumers
Other Pharmaceutical Testing Flaws
An FDA approved substance is a deception that leads most everyone to think the drug they’re taking is safe. But even if taken according to instructions, that’s probably not true. ”Evidence based medicine” is the arrogant assertion while accusing alternative healers of fraud or lacking science. But what do they consider scientific?
Large scale studies reduce people to improbable statistics. Here’s an example: A shoe company in NYC surveys the foot sizes of 10,000 men, women, and children. Then they take the average size, make all their shoes that size and market them throughout the country. One size does not fit all.
Also, the magnitude and expense of these large studies preclude repeating any tests. But scientific methodology requires the ability to repeat an experiment with the same results.
Another aspect of Big Pharma’s reportage includes good editing. Adverse effects, non-efficacy situations, can and are often left out. Long term studies on humans are shunned.
The FDA doesn’t bother investigating until well after marketing and large real-life casualties and lawsuits pile up. By then, the pharmaceutical companies have made their money.
Actor-comedian George Burns once said, “The secret of acting is sincerity. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Faked sincerity from pompous authoritative positions is what the Medical Mafia uses to promote their lies to a naive public or attack alternative systems of healing.
Keeping the Real Medicines Out of the Loop
Researchers and research universities are financial beneficiaries from large scale studies. Alternative methods for treating cancer have more living proof, which is documented, of efficacy and safety than anything Big Pharma has created for its lost war on cancer.
Natural healing modalities were first based on scientific investigative analysis, which was then repeated consistently with greater success among actual patients with virtually no adverse effects.
It’s common for many alternative healers’ documents proving efficacy to be stolen or burned. Large vested medical institutions routinely test their protocols incorrectly to “prove” they don’t work or simply lie outright.
Independent studies from smaller, alternative sources are consistently refused from medical journal publications. Medical journals don’t make nearly as much money from underfunded resources as they do from Big Pharma’s glossy ads.
These are the rotten fruits of a profit motivated medical system and media that deceptively rules modern medicine with both cunning and an iron fist, and the mainstream media complies to maintain its pharmaceutical advertising revenue.
Worshiping authority blindly is one of mankind’s greatest weaknesses that is leading to self-destruction.
Renowned German code-breaker Karsten Nohl, who uncovered a design flaw in around 750 million SIM cards around the world leaving them vulnerable to hack attacks, told RT that phone users are helpless against hackers.
“SIM cards were the last widely-used [piece of] technology left that no one had broken yet,” said Nohl, who made headlines on Sunday saying that his team found a flaw that would allow hackers to remotely access personal data and authorize illegal transactions within minutes.
The 31-year-old 'ethical hacker' breaks into secure systems, exploiting their vulnerabilities, and then presents his findings to companies, hoping they fix any issues before they are identified by criminals.
The UN’s International Telecommunications Union called the evidence “significant” and is to send an alert to all mobile phone operators warning of what was revealed.
The bug affects the SIM card, the plastic circuit board that contains key phone user data, which is considered to be the most-secure part of the phone, and has not been hacked in a similar fashion in a decade. By finding out the unique encryption key of each SIM card with just one hidden text message, Nohl is able to get complete remote control of an individual’s phone.
Nohl and the programming flaw can be exploited both for financial fraud and surveillance.
'Ethical hacker' Karsten Nohl
“The worst case scenario that I could foresee is criminals acquiring enough information to hack a few million cards in the country,” Nohl added. “The main short term threat after criminals finally acquire this attack method is fraud. They will abuse the cards to send premium SMS, for instance. They can also steal banking tokens from them in countries where that is used.”
The other thing to worry about Nohl warns is surveillance, “because the SIM cards do encrypt all the voice communications originating from a phone as well as data communication. All of this can be intercepted and decoded by a well-equipped surveillance team.”
The phone users are left in the dark in all of this as there is no way to tell when a SIM card is being hacked. “The best bet currently is to wait for the network to implement countermeasures before the abuse starts and should abuse happen in your network, ask for a new SIM card,” explains Nohl.
Nohl said his team had been unsuccessfully attempting to breach SIM cards since 2011, using over-the-air-programming (OTA) – unseen text messages that are sent by the mobile phone operator to change settings on the phone of a user within their network.
In the end, the flaw was found by accident after Nohl noticed that when he attempted to send certain incorrect OTA commands, he would receive an error message that also contained the unique encryption code belonging to that phone – its virtual key. The code was easily decrypted – Nohl says the process takes him one minute. With the phone now at his disposal, he could command it to do anything from his own computer, without the user ever suspecting anything was amiss.
The bug was not found in every SIM card tested and Nohl estimates that it is present in about a quarter of SIM cards using Data Encryption Standard (DES), putting about 750 million users worldwide at risk.
While leading companies have released statements acknowledging the flaw, and claiming they are working to eradicate it, authorities have urged calm among ordinary users, noting that no criminal damage appears to have been done so far.
A woman walks past a placard featuring a black-and-white photograph of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and the tagline: "Late but not too late" as a campaign of Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center seeking information on the last perpetrators of the Holocaust still at large nearly 70 years on, is pictured on July 23, 2013 in Berlin. (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)
“Operation Last Chance” was launched on Tuesday and offers the German public a grand total of 25,000 euro ($33,000) for any information pertaining to surviving suspects complicit in World War II hate crimes.
Two thousand placards have been plastered across German cities, including Berlin, with the intention of trapping the dregs of Germany’s Nazi war criminals. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is seeking information on Holocaust perpetrators still at large.
The posters depict an ominous photograph of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi-run death camp, with a tagline that reads: “Late, but not too late.”
“Millions of innocents were murdered by Nazi war criminals. Some of the perpetrators are free and alive,” the posters continue. “Help us to bring them before a court.”
One former war criminal, Ivan Demjanjuk, was convicted as late as 2011. Demjanjuk was a concentration camp survivor found guilty of complicity in some 30,000 Jewish deaths in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He is being cited as an example by the center as a reason for people not to rest on their laurels when it comes to catching remaining war criminals.
“This conviction paves the way for additional prosecutions of individuals who served in death camps, as well as the members of the Einsatzgruppen [mobile killing units],” stated the center’s chief Nazi-hunter and Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is dismissive of anyone who questions the value of bringing elderly war criminals “to justice,” listing five points for the apprehensive observer to take into consideration, two of which are: “The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers,” and “old age should not afford immunity to murderers.”
Zuroff is adamant that remaining Nazi war criminals should be made to face up to their actions regardless of the passage of decades since the close of World War II.
“In my 33 years of hunting Nazis I never once had a case of a Nazi who ever said he was sorry,” Zuroff told AFP. “These are the last people on Earth deserving any sympathy because they had absolutely no sympathy for their victims.”
Two cases earlier this year saw two men in their 90s charged with their role in enabling mass atrocities to take place. In June, Laszlo Lajos Csatari, 98, was charged in Hungary with organizing the deportation of some 12,000 Jews to death camps while a former Auschwitz guard named Hans Lipschis, 93, was arrested in Germany under suspicion of complicity in mass murder. Lipschis, who was a cook, contends that the only role he played was in the kitchen.
The campaign has left some experts unimpressed. German-Israeli historian Michael Wolffson told German station Deutschlandradio Kultur that “on the contrary, the effect will rather be to trigger pity towards people who deserve no pity,” adding that “it's downright disrespectful and shameless” to offer so much for dangerous criminals.
A fellow Nazi hunter named Serge Klarsfeld also disagreed, saying that the 11th-hour bid for justice “left a bitter aftertaste.”
“At the time when it was possible to try the criminals, when there was evidence, Germany failed to do its work,” he said.
Veterans! Here’s your Top 10 News stories of the day compiled from the latest sources
We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need
1. Good Morning! The VA Turns 83 Today. KWTX On July 21, 1930—83 years ago today–President Herbert Hoover signed an executive order establishing the Veterans Administration, now the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Waco VA Medical Center opened less than two years later on May
2. Cyclist travels cross country to combat ‘epidemic’ of veterans committing suicide. Belleville News Democrat An estimated 22 veterans committed suicide each day in the United States in 2010, according to a recently released reported from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. L’Italien’s journey from Flagstaff, Ariz., to Massachusetts began on June 21. L …
3. Region vets want people to remember ‘forgotten war’. nwitimes.com Of the roughly 499,000 veterans living in Indiana as of September 2012, 49,960 served in the Korean War, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veteran services offices in Lake and Porter counties did not have a breakdown of Korean …
4. Could Medicare Find Savings Through Generic Drugs? Pharmacy Times Within the Medicare system, patients with diabetes are more likely to use brand-name drugs than similar patients in the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system, according to the results of a retrospective cohort study appearing online June 11 …
5. Mood shifting, Congress may move to limit NSA spying. Congress is growing increasingly wary of controversial National Security Agency domestic surveillance programs, a concern likely to erupt during legislative debate — and perhaps prod legislative action — as early as next week.
6. Federal government struggles to unload surplus property. Two years after the Obama administration relaunched an effort to get rid of surplus federal buildings, almost all of the excess property identified in Maryland remains in government hands, a review by The Baltimore Sun has found.
7.Vets reeling from military sexual assault describe gaps in accessing VA health care. Hyperlink to Story The Washington Post (AP): More than 85,000 veterans were treated through the VA last year for injuries or illness linked to sexual abuse. The chief complaints Friday focused on a lack of access to care and a general lack of sensitivity toward their suffering, which they viewed as another betrayal by the government they had tried to serve.
8. Former Troops Say U.S. Veterans Agency Failing Sex-Abuse Victims. Hyperlink to Story Bloomberg News: Medical staff at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs aren’t recognizing signs of sexual abuse in former troops and haven’t been properly treating victims, veterans said at a congressional hearing.
9. DoD, VA failing to treat military sexual trauma, veterans testify. Hyperlink to Story Army Times: The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are failing to provide adequate mental health services to troops and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual assault — a deficiency that contributes to lifelong struggles, military rape survivors told Congress on Friday.
10. Parkland, Dallas VA get perfect scores. Hyperlink to Story Dallas Voice: Parkland Health and Hospital System and the VA North Texas Health Care System received perfect scores on this year’s Healthcare Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign and were recognized as leaders in LGBT healthcare equality.
Have You Heard?
Were you exposed to Agent Orange during your military service and have a chronic B-cell leukemia? You may qualify for VA health care and disability compensation.
Have all 50 US ‘states’ tendered their resignation from the United States ‘corporation’ as this video below from BackToConstitution suggests?
According to the Declaration of Independence, it is not only our RIGHT, but it is our DUTY, to ‘throw off’ a government of despots who are committing a long train of abuses as this government clearly has been. A government of criminals is clearly no government at all and will be held accountable.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
The Egyptian army fired tear gas and clashed with supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo as thousands of pro-Morsi demonstrators marched towards the presidential palace.
Military forces fired tear gas in Cairo Friday evening, as a group of pro-Morsi protesters aimed to break through the army line. According to state news agency MENA, the soldiers attempted to hold back the crowds from a nearby street, where rival anti-Morsi demonstrators are rallying.
Earlier, scuffles were reported near Al-Azhar University in Cairo after unknown men threw rocks at pro-Morsi demonstrators marching from Al-Azhar mosque, according to Al Jazeera.
Tens of thousands of Morsi supporters have been stopped en route from Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque to Abbassiya, where Egypt’s Ministry of Defence is located, Ahram Online reports.
The Egyptian media reported that the demonstrators were marching to the Republican Guard House in Cairo.
Some of the pro-Morsi protesters have stormed Abbasiya Hospital for Mental illnesses, climbing through fences and setting up camp in the hospital’s garden.
Traffic was grounded on nearby Salah Salem Road, as some 5,000 demonstrators gathered around the hospital.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian army has reportedly blocked streets leading to the Republican Guard House. The military blockaded the roads in order to prevent Morsi supporters from reaching the building, according to Al Arabiya.
There were also scuffles with security forces near Al-Azhar mosque, after Morsi’s supporters began shouting chants against Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, Commander-in-chief of the Egyptian armed forces.
“Tonight, tonight, tonight, Sisi is going down tonight,” some of the protesters shouted.
Police fired shots in the air to disperse Muslim Brotherhood supporters after they attacked opponents with rocks and fists. No casualties were reported.
Morsi’s supporters also began a round-the-clock vigil outside a mosque in the Cairo suburb of Sadr City, with thousands flocking there after noon prayers on Friday.
At least 400 protesters marched through the Sinai Peninsula’s main city of el-Arish on Friday. Pro-Morsi supporters also took to the streets of Alexandria and other Nile delta cities.
The Muslim Brotherhood – from which Morsi hails – has called for demonstrations across Egypt, accusing Sisi of deliberately staging a coup to remove Egypt’s first freely elected president from power.
Morsi’s supporters said they came from across the country to join Friday’s rallies, underlining the deep level of support for the Muslim Brotherhood in provincial areas of Egypt.
“We are coming out today to restore legitimacy. We consider what happened secular thuggery. It would never happen in any democratic country,” protester Tarek Yessin, from the southern city of Sohag, told Reuters.
Anti-Morsi protests are also planned for Friday, with Tamarod planning a demonstration close to the Brotherhood’s Nasr City vigil. Tamarod is the youth movement responsible for organizing huge anti-Morsi protests which started on June 30.
They have called their protest “the people against terrorism” and have blamed Morsi’s supporters for the deaths of at least 99 people who have died in violence since Morsi’s removal. More than half of them were killed when troops fired on Islamist protesters outside Cairo barracks on July 8.
On Friday, ten armored personnel carriers were parked on the Nile Bridge - a route Islamist protestors must cross in order to reach the anti-Morsi camp on Tahrir Square.
Earlier in the day, two formations of fighter jets and nine military helicopters circled over Cairo.
The army has fiercely defended its actions to remove Morsi and the Brotherhood from power, saying its decision reflected the popular will of Egyptians, and that Morsi had become incompetent and partisan.
The military has installed an interim cabinet, led by acting president Adly Mansour, which does not include any Brotherhood members or people from other Islamist parties.
Acting president speaks of ‘protecting lives and human rights’
President Mansour gave his first address to Egypt on Friday, saying the country is going through a “decisive period.” He also accused some elements of society of trying to drag the country toward chaos.
“They want this period to be an introduction to violence and blood, and we want it to establish for the concept of protecting lives and human rights,” Mansour said in the eight minute pre-recorded broadcast.
He didn’t name those people he said were “pushing the nation towards an abyss,” although the statement was presumed to be directed at Morsi supporters.
Mansour did, however, appear to offer an olive branch to the Muslim Brotherhood, saying that justice and reconciliation will be for all “without exclusion or exception.”
Morsi and many members of his former government have been in detention since the army removed him from office on July 3. There have been no clear indications regarding how many people are being held, or where they are located. Hundreds of Brotherhood followers have been rounded up, and arrest warrants issued for most of its leaders.
Meanwhile, the UN is pushing for the interim government to explain why the army detained the ousted president and his aides, and whether it plans to put them on trial. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, recently asked Egypt’s ambassador to clarify the legal basis for their detention. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for Pillay, said that the Egyptians have so far given no reply.
Pillay also said that the UN hopes to send a team to Egypt to further investigate a July 8 shooting which left more than 50 people dead.
Russian riot police detained dozens of protesters during unauthorized but peaceful rallies held in several Russian cities after anti-corruption blogger Aleksey Navalny was sentenced to five years for embezzlement on Thursday morning.
Around 2,500 supporters of the anti-corruption blogger Aleksey Navalny took to the streets in the heart of Russia’s capital for an unauthorized rally, according to Moscow police. The organizers of the protest however put the number of participants at over 10,000.
Police sources said that in total some 160 people were detained across Moscow, but protesters claim well over 200 were apprehended. Reports added that the riot police were mainly detaining the most strident protesters who were trying to disrupt the traffic and block the streets and those standing with banners. The detained were put into buses and taken to police stations. Some of the protesters were soon released due to lack of space in prison vans.
The people who were attempting to gather at Manezhnaya Square in the center of Moscow were clapping hands and shouting slogans like “Freedom to Navalny!” and “Shame!”
After the protesters were pushed back from Manezhnaya Square, a part of the crowd organized decentralized protest “promenades” in central Moscow streets with groups of several hundred people gathering in different places in central Moscow.
The most devoted Navalny’s supporters continued to demonstrate in Kitai-Gorod for several hours after the main crowd dispersed.
Riot police cordoned off the area of Manezhnaya Square and the adjacent Tverskaya and Mohovaya streets, forming columns to prevent the people from blocking the traffic. Crowds of people surrounded the State Duma building, as well as Hotel National and Moscow Hotel opposite Red Square.
Meanwhile, Navalny’s electoral team has urged activists to bring water and food to the protesters and called for the protest to continue overnight.
Another unauthorized rally was held in the northern city of St. Petersburg where more than 800 people gathered on Malaya Sadovaya Street. At least 30 people have been detained, Itar-Tass news agency reported adding that the police were only taking away those chanting slogans.
Following the court’s verdict to the anti-corruption blogger, the first spontaneous demonstrations took place in the city of Kirov, where Navalny’s trial was held and where the opposition activist is currently being held at a detention facility. About a hundred people gathered outside the court, holding banners criticizing the verdict. Several have been taken into custody including one of the leaders of Navalny’s support team, Nikolay Lyaskin.
Smaller protests have been taking place in several other Russian cities including Samara, Kazan and Voronezh.
On Thursday morning a Kirov court sentenced Aleksey Navalny to 5 years in prison for embezzlement. The court ruled that Aleksey Navalny and his accomplice, Pyotr Ofitserov, caused 16 million rubles ($500,000) in damages to the state-owned Kirovles timber company.
“Any attempts to hold unauthorized actions will be thwarted in accordance with the current law,” Moscow police had warned prior to the gathering. They further said those calling for such protests could be persecuted.
Dozens of people were reportedly injured in Bahrain early Friday, after police fired birdshot to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters in several Shiite villages.
A policeman was also wounded after being shot by a homemade gun.
The protests, which erupted late Thursday and lasted until the early hours of Friday, were called by the opposition February 14 Coalition youth group, according to witnesses cited by AFP.
“We will remove you [King] Hamad,” was reportedly the banner slogan issued by the group to rally protesters against the Sunni monarch.
Activists said that dozens were injured in clashes as police responded to protests by firing birdshot. Meanwhile, the Bahraini Ministry of Interior posted on Twitter that “security forces confronted a terror group” near Manama, and that a policeman was wounded after being shot with a homemade gun. AFP quoted witnesses confirming both the police fire and the shooting, but said that an official list of casualties was not immediately available.
Demonstrators have repeatedly clashed with security forces since the start of protests against the Sunni dynasty. The demonstrations have not ceased, despite a 2011 crackdown backed by Saudi-led Gulf troops.
The Bahraini government has often referred to protesters – mostly Shiite Muslims - as “terrorists,” and recently used a car bomb explosion outside a Sunni mosque as a pretext to ban the opposition protests in several Shiite villages.
At least 80 people have been killed in Bahrain since the uprising began, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.
In 30 cities across Spain thousands of people protested government corruption and called for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s resignation. In solidarity with the demonstrations, hacktivist group Anonymous knocked out the ruling People’s Party website.
More than 1,000 people gathered outside the headquarters of the People’s Party (PP) in Madrid. They brandished banners and chanted “Hands up, this is a stick up!” “The treasurer has our money!” and “They do not represent us!”
One person has been arrested, while seven police and five protesters were injured in the massive demonstrations.
Furthermore, in Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Malaga y La Coruna on Thursday masses of activists protested outside party headquarters. Outside PP offices in Valencia demonstrators wrote “Democracy has died here” on the tarmac.
A few hours before the protests began on Thursday, hacktivist group Anonymous infiltrated the People’s Party website. They emblazoned their logo on the homepage of the website under the banner “Government Resignation.” The hacker group published the news on its Twitter feed under the hastags #OpDimisión (Resignation) #FueraLaMafia (Out with the Mafia).
A wave of public indignation was triggered following the latest revelations in a government corruption case that has scandalized Spain. It concerns the PP’s former treasurer Luis Barcenas, who stands accused of a creating a slush fund containing millions of euro which was used to pay out “gifts” to party officials and illegally finance the party.
Spanish newspaper elMundo reported this week that senior party officials had shared 8.3 million euro ($10.9 million) between them from 1990 to 2008, citing court documents.
The PP has disowned Barcenas, who is currently awaiting trial, but the former treasurer has threatened to reveal the full extent of the legal payments and name names. He has already alleged that Prime Minister Rajoy received illegal payments before he became prime minister.
Rajoy has denied the allegations and claims they are blackmail and an attempt by Barcenas to obligate the government to intervene in his trial.
Barcenas maintains his innocence and says that the funds came from lucrative private ventures, including art dealing. Swiss authorities have frozen the former treasurer’s bank accounts which currently hold 17.5 million euro.
The political scandal has enraged the Spanish public who are already disillusioned at the government’s failure to drag the country out of the current economic crisis.
I know how you feel. Under attack & busy trying to control the ´peace´ in Turkye.
The US imprinted you -and others- to be afraid of the Russian Army. Well, they are no thread at all to you. I know from experience that Russian people are caring, loving and thriving people the same you'll find anywhere on the planet.
The Kurdish people just want a piece of peace for their own. Let them be and they let you thrive too.
In your other backyard on the Syrian border, Turkish & Syrian people need serious help. Give them what they need on a daily bases and they'll support you all the way.
Instead of helping these hundreds of thousands of people what do you do now?
Neglecting these people and attacking your own population with your teargas-policeforce and not even listening to them?
You can try to fight an invisible enemy on these multiple battlefields.
You saw what happened earlier in Egypt. And you know how thàt ended.
Anyone in your position will be scared sometimes too. But you can turn these things around. In the favour of your people & yourself.
The people protesting on your streets are not terrorists but civilians with a voice. Can you hear that voice? Listen to them, please...
If this is so much of importance to só many people, can you please make an effort to just listen to them? Your ultimate solution is then already at 50%
The other 50% must really go from your heart to the people. What do you think what happeness if you really help the people? c'mon, it's your job.
How would you feel if everyone in and around Turkye loves what you are doing for them? If you really take good care of everyone in your region then trust me...
they will take care of you.
If you fail to do so, you know where this ends...
Now...what do you want?
It's in your hands.
You can turn it around.
Make a difference and be a hero!
or a zero..
The awakening process has its deeply cathartic moments. That is inevitable. It’s a bumpy road.
As we gain insight into the grand deceptions of the matrix, so the direction of our own lives is thrown into greater relief. The choices become more stark. There’s no longer any compromising middle ground left to stand on.
The harder we’re hit, the deeper we have to go to find an answer to the seemingly overpowering state of affairs that manifests itself all around us.
On some days, it seems there’s nowhere left to turn. No light can be found to relieve the pain. No thought succeeds in lifting the weight of darkness. These are times of trial for those human beings who pit themselves against the torpor of mass serfdom to demand the manifestation of something so much better. Something called Life.
I have felt the force of this madness – more than once. Many have. Our sun seems trapped in the underworld of a long parched night. Our soul transfixed to the dark side of the moon. Nothing appears to be moving to free us from this cavernous eclipse.
‘Crisis’ must eventually stand at the door of all those driven by the desire to manifest a greater destiny, yet are still caught in the web of the deceiving matrix. One foot in truth and one in illusion. If neither is lifted the soul is rent in two. Yet, in many ways, this destruction can be our salvation; our last chance saloon.
During human crisis the dice is rolled according to another hand; our old familiar control mechanisms are paralysed and gone – barring the ancient survival instincts. Yet even then – this crisis remains our greatest hope. Perhaps the only tool left to wrench us out of ‘the great normal’ and put us on a track that leads to the other side of the abyss – to our real selves – the real world – the extraordinary.
So it is with society today, where the rules of the game are tightly fixed on the criminal code of a deadly status quo and the players thoroughly infected with sterile normality syndrome. Only a crisis can break the chains. Yet, oh how the confrontation is resisted! Oh how the voice and fire of cleansing love is so readily repressed and hidden behind a barrage of petty indulgences.
The forces of darkness behind the matrix master plan have laid their plans well. There is always Prozac to help resist when the unsettling demands of truth get too insistent. It’s a Prozac World today. The ‘great normal’ is easy to maintain with the help of Big Pharma .. and the bottle. So while they remain the greatest sellers the crisis can’t even get a look-in. It’s beta-blocked out of existence.
The matrix masters know this only too well. It’s their work. They act against the cleansing fire of crisis. They work against allowing even a chink of light to manifest itself. It’s for this reason that forces are marshalled against Countries like Greece, Cyprus, Ireland and Portugal dumping the Euro and quitting the Eurozone. The paymasters don’t want to lose control over the payers. Insiders are put in place to douse any impending fire. Mind control is employed to slip the dumbing down message into the unwary neocortex.
Then, as we know, the big banks ‘aren’t allowed to fail’ – at least not as long as we the taxpayers remain so willing to bail them out and keep the bosses’ bonuses in permanent uplift.
Wars are not allowed to end. Their perpetuity is in the interests of keeping the fear button pressed firmly down and thereby ‘the great normal’ held in place. You see, we are supposed to accept all these dark debased acts as ‘normal’. Most do. That is the great secret weapon of the control system.
Certain ‘deviations’ are allowed of course. We can get our kicks from a thousand tricks – and our energy sapped by a thousand acts. But that, as Orwell and Huxley knew so well, is all part of the medicine prescribed to ensure that rebellion remains tethered to the spot and ends up devouring its own tail.
We need to break this mould – now. That is the job of light workers. We are the one’s whose task is to pierce the veil – and announce beauty and abundance beyond. It is we who are to beat the path to that place. Not just ‘our’ path – but a path that opens the way for other travellers to journey with us. And we need not cower at the road blocks set to halt our march. Each one is a test of our courage and determination. Each one overcome adds a greater depth of strength to our quest. That strength is needed now – more than ever. For it is our lot to stand in defense of the innocent who are caught up in the chaos, not just in defense of our own needs. Spiritual maturity dictates that we participate in this service to humanity.
And if it takes a crisis in our lives to get started – then so be it – there is no avoiding a rite of passage if one is fully determined to tread the road of truth. I have good reason to believe that dark nights of the soul bring forth shining knights of the heart!
So jump to it! Now is the time to mount our steeds! Let our horses galloping hooves scatter the criminal cowards of the great normal! Don’t delay for fear of your life. The only death we truly should fear is the sterilization of the God in the Human – for that is the goal of the purveyors of darkness. Let us pass through the darkness and emerge out on the other side – transformed and ready to take-on whatever the death purveyors can throw at us.
The human race knows very little of itself, almost like a race with amnesia. As we continue to move forward through time, new discoveries are made that make old theories obsolete and false.
It’s a good lesson that shows us how we can attach ourselves to “truths” and believe them whole-heartedly, often forgetting that truth is constantly changing and new paradigms of perception always lurk around the corner.
Decades after scientists described our “chemical code” of life using the double helix DNA, researchers have discovered four-stranded DNA within human cells. The structures are called G-quadruplexes, because they form in regions of DNA that are full of guanine, one of the DNA molecule’s four building blocks. The others are adenine, cytosine and thymine. A hydrogen bond is responsible for holding the four guanines together. The four stranded DNA usually presents itself right before cell division.
The discovery was published online in Nature Chemistry, and you can take a look at it here. The study was led by Shankar Balasubramanian at the University of cambridge, UK.
"For us, it strongly supports a new paradigm to be investigated – using these four-stranded structures as targets for personalized treatments in the future.We have found that by trapping the quadruplex DNA with synthetic molecules we can sequester and stabilise them, providing important insights into how we might grind cell division to a halt"— Shankar Balasubramanian
The study went on to show certain links between concentrations of four-stranded G-quandruplexes and the process of DNA replication, which is crucial to cell division and cell production. G-quadruplexes, (when targeted with synthetic molecules responsible for trapping and holding these DNA structures) prevent cells from replicating their DNA, thus blocking cell division. Scientists believe that this discovery could possibly lead to a stop in cell proliferation at the root of cancer
"We are seeing links between trapping the G-quadruplexes with molecules and the ability to stop cells dividing, which is hugely exciting. The research indicates that G-quadruplexes are more likely to occur in genes of cells that are rapidly dividing such as cancer cells. It’s been sixty years since its structure was solved but work like this shows us that the story of DNA continues to twist and turn” – Shankar Balasubramanian
We now know that G-quandruplexes form in the DNA of human cells. If anybody had mentioned this earlier, they would probably be labelled as crazy. Maybe we could take this as a lesson and accept the fact that there are always new discoveries to be made about our biology, as well as the nature of our reality. For all we know, our DNA could be multidimensional in nature? It could be 12 stranded DNA? Maybe we have yet to discover it? Maybe a majority of our DNA, and the biological functions it serves are largely undiscovered. Maybe some portions of our DNA have yet to be activated? The more we discover about our own biology, the better, as we are witnessing with the discovery of the G-quandruplex.
It's bad enough that Americans are being constitutionally squeezed at just about every level of government, now scientists want to get into the act.
In the name of conducting "research," bioethicists are now arguing that blood samples left over from newborns are a wealth of potential information and as such should just be made available to scientists for study purposes, and not necessarily with the consent of the child's parents.
"Retention and use, without explicit parental permission, of residual dried blood samples from newborn screening has generated public controversy over concerns about violations of family privacy rights and loss of parental autonomy," write Michelle Huckaby Lewis, Michael E. Scheurer, Robert C. Green and Amy L. McGuire, in an op-ed for the journal Science Translational Medicine.
"The public debate about this issue has included little discussion about the destruction of a potentially valuable public resource that can be used for research that may yield improvements in public health," the team wrote. "The research community must advocate for policies and infrastructure that promote retention of residual dried blood samples and their use in biomedical research."
So, rather than have that debate, it sounds as though this particular group of "bioethicists" is arguing to have the rules changed to simply allow the scientific community access to what analysts say amounts to about four million infant blood samples annually.
Already the concept is proving controversial.
Parents in Texas, Minnesota said 'no'
The use of residual dried blood samples, or DBS, has led parents in Minnesota and Texas to sue their respective states over retention of the samples without their consent.
The Texas case resulted in the destruction of 5.3 million archived blood samples. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that informed consent will have to be required for the blood samples to then be retained and eventually used for research purposes. In addition, Minnesota health officials say leftover newborn blood samples will be destroyed when medical screening is complete.
Bioethicists are complaining that this viewpoint is narrow-minded and is hampering needed research.
"The potential value to biomedical research for improving both public health and individual health must be part of the public discussion about what should happen to residual dried blood samples from newborn screening," Huckaby Lewis, of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, argues in the op-ed.
"The research community must advocate for policies that support the retention of these samples and their use in biomedical research," she continued. "We should be the generation that recognizes the potential value of these samples and commits to developing them as a resource to promote public and individual health."
"The scientific community has a responsibility to the nation and its citizens to use these resources ethically, but also to the fullest extent possible to improve the health of our citizenry," she said.
"There are few other ways to get a reasonable snapshot genetic change," Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University School of Medicine's Division of Medical Ethics, referring to the genetic information that would come from examining years' worth of samples, told Fox News. "To throw it away, or not use it, I think is shortsighted and doesn't serve anybody's interest."
Always, the statist argument is the same: Allow me to violate your constitutional rights for your own good and the good of Mankind.
Not everyone believes in a willy-nilly, privacy-busting approach to utilizing newborn blood samples for research purposes. For one, there should be nothing wrong with asking permission to use it.
Why not just ask?
The problem, say experts, is that too few states have established rules and regulations governing the use of such samples. And there is always the privacy issue.
Caplan and others say policies should be developed at the state and federal level that would allow scientists and researchers access to the samples but in a way that washes the identity of the child.
Therein lies the rub, privacy advocates point out. How many times has this been the goal - to protect a patient's privacy - only to have it revealed at some point down the road "accidentally" or via hacking?
There is a simple fix here. States should just ask parents what they want to do. Even then, parents should take into consideration that their child will someday grow into an adult who may have to deal with the privacy consequences of their decision.
Twenty-two children are dead so far in the village of Dharmasati Gandaman, in India’s Bihar state. The cause is not some communicable disease or strange virus, but their school lunch.
According to the BBC, the children all ate from the school’s free mid-day meal. Forty-seven fell ill and 28 had been taken to area hospitals.
The free-lunch program is designed to both combat hunger and increase school attendance in the poverty-stricken village. It’s referred to as the Mid-Day Meal and was started in 1925. But, critics say, it’s plagued by poor hygiene.
Following the deaths, protests broke out. Parents joined with protestors and at least four police vehicles were set on fire.
“The doctors who have attended are of the tentative opinion that the smell coming out of the bodies of the children suggests that the food contained organo-phosphorus, which is a poisonous substance,” said PK Shahi, the state education minister in a statement. “Now the investigators have to find out whether the organo-phosphorus was accidental or there was some kind of deliberate mischief.”
Organophosphorus is a type of insecticide. According to MedIndia, they are also used in chemical warfare and commonly associated with suicide in the area. Versions, like sarin, have been developed into nerve gases and are used in chemical attacks.
Interestingly, nearly all people are exposed to organophosphorus (OP) pesticides in their daily diet. Although one study published in Environmental Health Perspectives indicated organic produce could reduce exposure, it is one of those toxins that the EPA has set “acceptable limits” on. Obviously, the schoolchildren were delivered a far higher dosage than what would be deemed “acceptable” in a normal diet.
A senior education official surmises the contamination may have come from vegetables or rice in the lunch. A doctor treating some of the children says it could have been vegetable oil. In other words, no one quite knows.
Bihar is one of the poorest and simultaneously most-populated states in the country. The Mid-Day Meal program is the largest of its kind, serving about 120 million children.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first case of illness or food-poisoning to come from the program.
“The food is not being checked before it is being served,” said Shahi. The scale at which the operation is carried out, serving food to 20 million children every day and that too in the remotest village schools, checking food before it is served—that itself is a challenge.
After the earlier report with statements of Amnesty International & Anonymous on the outrageous behavior of the Turkish police against peacefull & unarmed civilians -and both throwing 'lifelines' to Turkish people- now Human Rights Watch (HRW) joins in and condemned Turkish' police unlawfull & incorrect use of teargas against the population.
Journalists' offices have been raided by police, taking photograph archives, press cards, recorders, and even the kitchen equipment. Also dozens arrested in Turkey over protest tweets, accused of 'inciting hatred'. Erdogan's police force even attacking people in hospitals:
Turkish police fired teargas canisters at close range and directly at people during the Gezi Park protests causing serious injuries, says a report by the Human Rights Watch. Those hit by canisters lost eyes and received life threatening skull fractures.
The Turkish authorities “should immediately issue improved guidelines on when and how teargas may be used that included a prohibition on firing teargas canisters in confined areas or directly at people,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
The report titled “Turkey: End Incorrect, Unlawful Use of Teargas,” which has been published on the group’s website, also calls to “strictly enforce” such policies, and hold non-compliant police officers accountable.
“Teargas canisters can inflict serious ‒ even life threatening ‒ wounds when fired directly at demonstrators, and that happened over and over again at Gezi Park,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The police and their commanders who used these canisters in such an irresponsible way should be held to account for inflicting unnecessary harm and endangering lives.”
At least 11 people lost an eye after being hit by a teargas canister or a plastic bullet in Turkey up to June 27, says the statement by the Medical Association quoted in the report. Dozens of others received serious head or upper body injuries.
Interviews of victims, witnesses, lawyers, and medical personnel cited in the report suggest that such injuries were caused by police firing tear gas from launchers directly at people, often at close range. The “scale and consistency” of such accounts point to “a clear pattern of misuse of teargas by Turkey’s police force,” HRW states.
Ten accounts of victims who were seriously injured in police tear gas attacks have been documented in the report. Those include a university lecturer who lost his eye as he was walking down the street in Istanbul’s rioting Besiktas district; a long time Taksim square protester who got an 8 centimeter skull fracture and a psychological trauma; a woman taking part in a peaceful sit-in protest who was shot unconscious, had her skull fractured, and was held in an induced coma for 24 days after; as well as a 14-year-old boy apparently caught in close-range police fire near his family home, who suffered from intracranial bleeding and has remained in critical condition for over four weeks.
Shooting directly at people ‘a systematic policy’
Burak Unveren, 31, who lost his eye in Besiktas on June 1 after being fired at by a police officer some 40 meters away, told HRW he was “almost sure that this act of violence was deliberate.” The police fired tear gas canisters horizontally, rather than trying to launch them at a 45 degree angle, he said. While in hospital, he also met several people “shot in their faces in the same way.”
“Shooting in this way directly at people is a systematic policy of the Turkish police,” Unveren believes.
Okan Gocer, 23, who was taking part in a peaceful June 1 protest several hundred meters from Taksim Square, said he was telling people to stay and not to be intimidated by a heavy police presence, when a tear gas attack was launched without warning.
“They just popped out. There were no warnings. They just attacked right away. There were many shots ‒ they just opened fire. One of them hit me in the head. I think the police might have targeted me because I encouraged people to stay,” Gocer said.
The teargas canister that struck the protester rendered him unconscious and caused a 7-8 centimeter fracture to his skull. Gocer had to undergo emergency surgery and was kept in an induced coma for more than two weeks. Nearly a month after the incident he said he still struggled with the pain, and that he was no longer a “cheerful” person “full of hope and optimism” that he used to be.
‘There was no place to hide’
Secil Sucu, 21, a female protester who witnessed an earthmover used against the police vehicle in Istanbul’s Besiktas district, was trying to leave the area of violent protests, but was blocked by the tear gas firing police in one of the side streets.
“We were blocked in. When I turned to see how far away the police were, one policeman rushed toward me, aiming at me with his teargas launcher. He was perhaps 10 meters away. There was no place for me to hide so the only thing I could do was to try to protect my head. I had started to turn away when the teargas canister hit my goggles, breaking them. My head was ringing and then all went quiet and white. I thought that this is how people die,” Sucu said.
Later in the hospital, Sucu was told she had a six-centimeter skull fracture and that it would take her months to recover. She now admits to having “panic attacks” and being afraid to stay at home alone.
For Lobna Allamii, 34, the life changed forever after the brutal crackdown on peaceful sit-in protest in Taksim square on May 31. Following the sudden police attack the woman was found lying on the ground unconscious and having seizures.
Allamii was operated on twice after the doctors found a fracture in her skull, a severe injury on the left side of her head, and intracranial bleeding on the right side. The woman was kept in an induced coma for 24 days, had her right arm partially paralyzed, and her speech and eyesight damaged.
According to the HRW report, the circumstances and the nature of Allamii’s injuries “point to a teargas canister fired from close range as the cause.”
A 14-year-old boy, Berkin Elvan, who sustained serious head injuries and has remained in critical condition for more than four weeks, was not taking part in protests, but got caught in a police attack in Istanbul’s Okmeydani neighborhood on June 16.
According to accounts by family members and friends, the boy went out to buy bread from a nearby bakery when the police started firing rounds of tear gas at the protesters that had gathered in the area.
Berkin’s lawyer has quoted a witness saying the police hit the boy with a teargas canister from a distance of 10 to 15 meters. Doctors of the hospital where Berkin was taken for surgery also noted the boy smelled of gunpowder – another possible indication of a close-range fire.
The boy’s case went viral in Turkey, and several actions in his name have been organized, with a protest march for Berkin Elvan taking place on Wednesday. He is still in intensive care.
‘Police aim was to punish’
Having seen a large number of injuries resulting from teargas canisters hitting people in the head and upper body, Dr. Hüseyin Demirdiken of the Turkish Medical Association concluded that for the Turkish police “the aim was not only to disperse the crowds, but also to punish.”
Turkish journalist Ahmet Shik, who has been covering the Istanbul protests, is said to have been “deliberately” hit by a tear gas canister in the head, as noted by his friends on Twitter. He said that although some policemen fired tear gas canisters “in a correct way,” most others “fired them directly at the protesters, often from close range.”
Reports said that the Turkish police used 130,000 teargas canisters over three weeks in June. In total, Turkey imported 628 tons of tear gas and pepper spray between 2000 and 2012, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported, quoting Customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazici.
On July 16, 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Abdullah Yaşa and Others v. Turkey that “improper firing of tear gas by Turkish police directly at protestors, injuring a 13 year old, had violated human rights,” and called for stronger safeguards to minimize the risk of death and injury resulting from its use.
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