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Lavrov denies claims of Russia seeking to derail Geneva meeting on Ukraine


Russia Beyond The Headlines
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 15:37 UTC
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Sergei Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has advised against trusting claims made by the current authorities in Kyiv that Russia allegedly seeks to disrupt a planned key four-party meeting on the Ukrainian crisis in Geneva.

"When you hear those who today head the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry say that Russia is wary of the Geneva meeting and that Russia wants to derail it, do not believe them because this is not true," he said at a press conference after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

"Furthermore, you should not believe statements made by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry alleging that this meeting is not expected to address the internal Ukrainian crisis, but, instead, will allegedly center on steps that the Russian Federation should take. It is a blatant lie. We will gather there in order to discuss the Ukrainian crisis," Lavrov said.
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Gold Coins

Moving towards a multipolar world: BRICS countries to set up their own IMF

Olga Samofalova
Russia Beyond the Headlines
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC
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© ShutterstockThe BRICS countries have already agreed on the amount of authorized capital for the new institutions: $100 billion each
Very soon, the IMF will cease to be the world's only organization capable of rendering international financial assistance. The BRICS countries are setting up alternative institutions, including a currency reserve pool and a development bank.

The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have made significant progress in setting up structures that would serve as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which are dominated by the U.S. and the EU. A currency reserve pool, as a replacement for the IMF, and a BRICS development bank, as a replacement for the World Bank, will begin operating as soon as in 2015, Russian Ambassador at Large Vadim Lukov has said.

Brazil has already drafted a charter for the BRICS Development Bank, while Russia is drawing up intergovernmental agreements on setting the bank up, he added.
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Cell Phone

Ukraine: Psychopath Obama warns Putin as armed separatists seize more buildings in eastern Ukraine


Guardian
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 06:29 UTC
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© Kommersant via Getty ImagesUkrainian troops ride tanks on the way toward Slovyanks on Monday where pro-Russian activists are occupying buildings
Barack Obama has told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a tense phone call that Moscow would face further costs for its actions in Ukraine and should use its influence to get separatists in the country to stand down.

Armed pro-Russian separatists seized more buildings in eastern Ukraine earlier in the day, expanding their control after the government failed to follow through on a threatened military crackdown.

In a call on Monday night that the White House said Moscow requested, the US president told Putin that those forces were threatening to undermine and destabilise the government in Kiev.

"The president emphasised that all irregular forces in the country need to lay down their arms, and he urged president Putin to use his influence with these armed, pro-Russian groups to convince them to depart the buildings they have seized," the White House said in a statement.
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Cut

Is austerity already killing people?


Left Futures
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
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In early 1953 something happened which is uncannily similar to what is happening today. In the 4 months December 1952 to March 1953 when Greater London was shrouded in thick smog, some 12,000 people died. In 1 week alone 4,703 died, more than 2.5 times the number who died in the same week the previous year. When this impact of air pollution was raised in Parliament, Macmillan, the housing minister, averse to spending more on smokeless fuel for the poor at a time of austerity, dodged the question by setting up an official government inquiry. This duly, and very conveniently for the government, reported that influenza had caused all the excess winter deaths.

Fast forward to 2012. Public Health England reported that death rates, already unusually high during 2012, continues to rise in 2013. The report states that the number of excess deaths in England in 2012-3 had been 23,400 (5%) above ONS expectations. When this was leaked, the Public Health England official with the Orwellian title of 'chief knowledge officer' put out a public statement that "the temporal coincidence with influenza across the UK and Europe suggests that influenza has contributed significantly", and he added that it was "a major explanatory factor".
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Snakes in Suits

Don't be nostalgic about Tony Blair; his effect on Britain and beyond was toxic


The Guardian
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 06:20 UTC
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© Mark Thomas/Rex FeaturesTony Blair and his bloodstained paws
Zoe Williams wants us to get nostalgic about Blairism. But in her attempt to defend Tony Blair's record she badly misjudges the significance of the Iraq war. By any standards, Iraq was a catastrophe. The most recent study suggests nearly half a million people were killed as a result of a western military operation that tore up the fabric of a modern society and divided its people. By rights, no politician intimately responsible for such a cataclysm should survive with any kind of reputation intact. A criminal process is entirely appropriate.

But the Iraq war was more than a disaster in itself. It was a signifier of new and disturbing times. It wasn't an isolated blunder; it marked the moment when the wider population became fully aware of a new foreign policy posture, developed in Washington, enabled and encouraged by Blair himself. The parody of Blair as US poodle diminishes his role in history. He chafed at Bill Clinton's hesitancy to bomb Serbia in 1999 and secretly reassured the Bush administration that it would not be alone in the illegal pursuit of regime change in Iraq as early as May 2002. The attack on Libya in 2011, government enthusiasm for a new bombing campaign against Syria last year, and the current sabre rattling against Russia show that the spirit of the ethics-led aggression Blair championed lives on. Thankfully, it is a deeply unpopular impulse, with substantial majorities calling for an end to foreign military adventures and massive defence spending.
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Syringe

Scientists say UK wasted £560m on flu drugs that are not proven

Sarah Bosely
Guardian
Thu, 10 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC
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© Bloomberg/GettyRoche HQ: the company disputes a report by independent scientists questioning the effectiveness of Tamiflu
The government has wasted half a billion pounds stockpiling two anti-flu drugs that have not been proved to stop the spread of infection or to prevent people becoming seriously ill, according to a team of scientists who have analysed the full clinical trials data, obtained after a four-year fight.

The government has spent £424m buying stocks of Tamiflu and £136m on Relenza in case of a flu pandemic. During the swine flu outbreak of 2009, the World Health Organisation recommended that all countries should stock up on supplies.

But the Cochrane Collaboration, a group of independent scientists who investigate the effectiveness of medicines, says that the best Tamiflu can do is shorten a bout of flu by approximately half a day - from around seven to 6.3 days.

Comment: Tamiflu Anti-Viral Drug Revealed as Hoax: Roche Studies Based on Scientific Fraud
Tamiflu Vaccine Linked With Convulsions, Delirium and Bizarre Deaths
Side effects from Tamiflu are worse than the flu

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USA

Oligarchy, not democracy: Americans have 'near-zero' input on policy, concludes extensive Princeton study


RT
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 04:13 UTC
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© Reuters / Amr Abdallah Dalsh
The first-ever scientific study that analyzes whether the US is a democracy, rather than an oligarchy, found the majority of the American public has a "minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy" compared to the wealthy.

The study, due out in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, sets out to answer elusive questions about who really rules in the United States. The researchers measured key variables for 1,779 policy issues within a single statistical model in an unprecedented attempt "to test these contrasting theoretical predictions" - i.e. whether the US sets policy democratically or the process is dominated by economic elites, or some combination of both.

"Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts," the researchers from Princeton University and Northwestern University wrote.
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USA

US is an oligarchy not a democracy, says scientific study

Eric Zuesse
Common Dreams
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 01:35 UTC
Money Talks
© ShutterstockIn America, money talks... and democracy dies under its crushing weight.
A study, to appear in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, finds that the U.S. is no democracy, but instead an oligarchy, meaning profoundly corrupt, so that the answer to the study's opening question, "Who governs? Who really rules?" in this country, is:
"Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise.

But, ..." and then they go on to say, it's not true, and that, "America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened" by the findings in this, the first-ever comprehensive scientific study of the subject, which shows that there is instead "the nearly total failure of 'median voter' and other Majoritarian Electoral Democracy theories [of America].

When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."
To put it short: The United States is no democracy, but actually an oligarchy.
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Crusader

John Hagee: Tuesday's 'blood moon' eclipse signals the end of the world

David Edwards
The Raw Story
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 12:43 UTC
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© RawStory
Pastor John Hagee is warning members of his megachurch to prepare for the end of the world because a "blood moon" eclipse on Tuesday is signaling that the End Times could be beginning.

On Tuesday, most of the United States will be treated to the first of four complete lunar eclipses - which scientists call a tetrad - occurring in six month intervals. The eclipses are often referred to as "blood moons" because as sunlight shines on the moon through the Earth's atmosphere, it gives the moon a red color.

Hagee, pastor of Texas' Cornerstone Church, has written a book on the phenomenon titled Blood Moons: Something is About to Change. And he is airing a live television event on Tuesday to reveal "direct connections between four upcoming blood-moon eclipses and what they portend for Israel and all of humankind."
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Magnify

Seven killed in coal mine explosion in Donetsk, Ukraine


Itar-Tass
Fri, 11 Apr 2014 11:44 UTC
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© Reuters/Maks LevinMen carry the body of a victim of an explosion on a stretcher at the Skochinsky mine outside Donetsk April 11, 2014. Seven people were killed on Friday when an explosion caused by leaking gas tore through a coal mine near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, local authorities said. Altogether 52 miners were working at a depth of 1,300 metres when the accident occurred at the Skochinsky mine. Apart from the seven killed, an eighth miner was taken to hospital with injuries.
According to preliminary reports, the explosion occurred because of methane outburst during drilling operations

Seven people were killed as a result of an explosion that occurred at the Skochinsky coal mine in Ukraine's Donetsk. The press service of Donetsk Oblast department of the state emergencies service reported this on Friday.

"Seven people have died today. The explosion happened early in the morning," the service's spokesperson said.

According to preliminary reports, the explosion occurred because of methane outburst during drilling operations.

The Skochinsky coal mine is located straight in Donetsk and forms part of Donetsk Coal Power Company.
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