Puppet MastersS


Bomb

NATO airstrike kills a woman and two children in eastern Afghanistan; one wounded

Azam Ahmed
The New York Times
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 10:09 UTC
US airstrike in Afghanistan
© Unknown
Afghan officials said that a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan killed a woman and two children on Tuesday, again raising the issue of civilian casualties at a time when both the presidential election and the future of the Western troop presence are unresolved.

Local officials said that a NATO aircraft had fired a rocket into a village in the Nadir Shah Kot district of Khost Province, striking an area where a family was gathered. In addition to killing the woman and children, the attack wounded a man, officials said. They said the victims may have been camping in tents in a mountainous part of the district.

A spokesman for the governor of Khost Province, Mubrez Zadran, said a delegation had been sent to the area to investigate.

Comment:
06 Mar 2014: NATO airstrike 'accidentally' kills 5 Afghan soldiers
01 Apr 2014: U.S. drone strike kills two in eastern Afghanistan; 10 severely injured

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Radar

Technologies of Maidan were already applied in Moldova in 2009


Voice of Russia
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 16:03 UTC
Image
© Flickr.com/Guttorm Flatabø/сс-by Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_16/Technologies-of-Maidan-were-already-applied-in-Moldova-in-2009-expert-6537/
Western strategists can use in Moldova the experience of Maidan in Kiev. They are pursuing quite an obvious goal - to pull the traditionally friendly partner away from Russia. The activity of the foreign funds, the information and political support and a number of issued preferences show how serious Brussels and Washington are as far as the young Moldavian state goes.

Two weeks ago EU representatives signed a law on lifting the entry visa regime with Moldova with some limitations. The citizens of Moldova will now be able to stay in Europe for three months without obtaining an entry visa. That however would be possible if a person has sufficient funds and a believable from the European point of view explanation of the purpose of such a visit. That is yet another step towards Moldova's signing the Association Agreement with the EU. The ceremony is scheduled for the upcoming summer. Joining the "big and friendly" European family could in reality lead to a collapse of the already weak Moldavian economy and a loss of its political independence.
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Red Flag

Propaganda Alert! Ukrainian troops fly Russian flags to deceive protesters in order to penetrate Kramatorsk


Voice Of Russia
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 14:54 UTC
Image
© 6264.com.ua

Ukrainian troops rode into the town of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region on Wednesday in armored personnel carriers flying Russian flags in order to penetrate the town, acting leader of the Batkivshchyna party faction in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Sergei Sobolev told reporters in Kiev, a Russian Business Channel-Ukraine correspondent reports.

Earlier, Ukraine's acting Defense Minister Mikhail Koval acknowledged the incident.

"Our troops used a guerrilla-style method to penetrate areas controlled by armed units of the Russian Federation and the separatists financed by Russia. I think that this will be reported within three hours or so and you will realize that it was a breakthrough that enabled our units to advance. That's the official information from the defense minister," Sobolev said.

At around 11:30 am on Wednesday, three APCs flying Russian flags reportedly entered Kramatorsk. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry initially denied those reports.

Comment: Is this true?

Or has the Kiev government made this story up to hide its embarrassment over more of its troops defecting to the Pro-Russian East?

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Pills

Scotland: How Big Pharma funds trials for the drugs you are prescribed

Paul Hutceon
Herald Scotland
Sun, 13 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
Over 1 billion of the NHS budget in Scotland is spent on drugs every year, to which Nalmefene has now been added in a bid to treat alcoholism
The Scottish NHS body that approves new drugs is under pressure after it emerged it gave a green light to a new pill for heavy drinkers on the basis of clinical trials funded by the drug's own manufacturer.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved Nalmefene, licensed by Lundbeck, after assessing the studies and a positive submission by a charity also funded by the pharmaceutical company.

The revelations have raised questions about whether the health body is scrutinising conflicts of interest.

The SMC has the responsibility of considering whether new medicines should be recommended for use in the health service.

Over £1 billion of the NHS budget in Scotland is spent on drugs every year: a hugely lucrative pot for the pharma industry.
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Wall Street

U.S.-Ukraine loan 'final rape and plunder by the West'

William Engdahl
RT
Wed, 02 Apr 2014 19:25 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Gary Cameron)Woman is surrounded by Ukraine and US flags during protest in Lafayette Square in Washington
The law approved by Congress to grant a one billion dollar loan to Ukraine is only a loan guarantee and will not even dent Ukraine's huge debts, 25 billion of which must be paid this year, William Engdahl, a geopolitical analyst, told RT.

The bill will also give more power to American NGO's to promote democracy in Ukraine, many of the same NGOs that helped create the current instability in Kiev. This is the last thing Ukraine needs at the moment, says Engdahl.
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Coffee

Best of the Web: Occupation of Government building was a sign of democracy in January but a sign of terrorism in April! I'm confused, can anyone help me?

Neil Clark
RT
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 07:05 UTC
Anti-government protester in Luhansk
© Reuters / Shamil ZhumatovAn anti-government protester waves a flag in front of the seized office of the SBU state security service in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine April 14, 2014.
I'm confused. A few weeks ago we were told in the West that people occupying government buildings in Ukraine was a very good thing. These people, we were told by our political leaders and elite media commentators, were 'pro-democracy protestors'.

The US government warned the Ukrainian authorities against using force against these 'pro-democracy protestors' even if, according to the pictures we saw, some of them were neo-Nazis who were throwing Molotov cocktails and other things at the police and smashing up statues and setting fire to buildings.

Now, just a few weeks later, we're told that people occupying government buildings in Ukraine are not 'pro-democracy protestors' but 'terrorists' or 'militants'.

Why was the occupation of government buildings in Ukraine a very good thing in January, but it is a very bad thing in April? Why was the use of force by the authorities against protestors completely unacceptable in January, but acceptable now? I repeat: I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

The anti-government protestors in Ukraine during the winter received visits from several prominent Western politicians, including US Senator John McCain, and Victoria Nuland, from the US State Department, who handed out cookies. But there have been very large anti-government protests in many Western European countries in recent weeks, which have received no such support, either from such figures or from elite Western media commentators. Nor have protestors received free cookies from officials at the US State Department.

Surely if they were so keen on anti-government street protests in Europe, and regarded them as the truest form of 'democracy', McCain and Nuland would also be showing solidarity with street protestors in Madrid, Rome, Athens and Paris? I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

Comment: I am confused, can anyone help me? Part II: West's double standards and hypocrisy

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Stock Down

Ukraine backlash could result in 0% Russia GDP


RT
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 11:46 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Sergey GuneevRussian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov
Escalating violence in Eastern Ukraine could be a blow to Russia's economy, with 0 percent growth a possibility according to the Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

In a worst case scenario, the country could see 0 percent growth, the Finance Minister said. At the beginning of the year, the Russian government forecast the economy would grow 2.5 percent in 2014.

"GDP growth is estimated as rather low, 0.5%. Perhaps it will be around zero," the minister said at a government meeting on Tuesday.

Russia's exposure to Ukraine's faltering economy is both direct and indirect. Ukraine's sinking economy is bringing down many Russian companies that have heavily invested in the neighboring market, and geopolitical instability is causing investors to think twice about keeping money in Russia.
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Bizarro Earth

The self-engineered downfall of the West

James Corbett
Activist Post
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 06:48 UTC
world map
Reports out of Moscow indicate that Russia is on the verge of signing the "holy grail" of gas deals with China. The deal between Russian state-owned gas firm Gazprom and Beijing would see as much as 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year flowing through the first proposed Russia-China pipeline by 2018. The agreement has apparently been in the works for years, but recent events on Moscow's western flank (read: the Ukrainian situation) has moved the timetable on the plan up dramatically, with the last sticking point being the price. If the deal is signed next month during Putin's state visit to China, as many analysts are speculating will happen, it will be a significant event not only economically, but geopolitically.

Given the fact that Russia, the world's largest gas producer, and China, the world's largest gas consumer, are neighbors it would be logical to assume that a gas pipeline between the two countries already exists. But logic and geopolitics seldom mix, and tensions between the two formerly communist countries (however one characterizes China's current political and economic system) have remained ever since border disputes brought Moscow and Beijing to the brink of war in the 1960s. Establishing a gas link would thus be a very powerful signal of the growing understanding between the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon that their future lies more with each other than it does with a NATO-backed alliance that is increasingly encircling and isolating them.
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Dollars

The Supreme Court rules to legalize bribery

Prof. Lawrence Davidson
RINF
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 15:22 UTC
Supreme Court building
© Daderot/Wikimedia Creative Commons
U.S. pundits decry countries like Iran as undemocratic for having a screening process for candidates to high office. But U.S. politicians must pass muster with wealthy donors to be considered serious candidates, a system that the Supreme Court just made worse.

On April 2, the U.S. Supreme took another step toward the destruction of campaign finance reform with a five-to-four decision known as McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission.

One gets the feeling that this is part of a general campaign, waged by class-biased, ideologically committed conservatives, against government regulation, which they see as somehow a violation of their constitutional rights. As if to suggest that this is so, the Court majority rationalized its decision in the name of "free speech."

What does this ruling do? First, the ruling removes limitations on overall campaign donations given in an election cycle. The wealthy can now sit down and write checks to unlimited numbers of candidates and political organizations and thereby make themselves indispensable in an electoral process dependent on the raising of large sums, particularly for television advertising.
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Arrow Down

How the CEO of high frequency trading firm Virtu Financial is demanding a taxpayer bailout in Florida

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 03:35 UTC
Virtu Financial Logo
© Wikimedia Commons

What the financial crisis, subsequent taxpayer bailouts, zero prosecutions of financial industry participants and further consolidation of the economy by oligarchs has taught us more than anything else is that the super rich and politically connected are not allowed to fail.

Apparently, this may also apply to the head of one of the largest firms in what is quickly becoming the most despised "industry" in the nation.

By now, pretty much everyone in America knows about Michael Lewis' book Flash Boys, which exposes the high frequency trading (HFT) industry for the money-sucking parasite it is.

However, what will really get your blood boiling, particularly if you live in Florida, is how the CEO of one of the biggest players in the HFT space, Virtu Financial, is looking for taxpayers to bail-out his poorly performing investment in the Florida Panther NFL hockey franchise.

This takes having "some nerve" to a whole new level of absurdity.
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