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Syringe

Taiwan: Hundreds monitored after H7N9 bird flu case


Yahoo! News
Wed, 01 Jan 2014 09:00 UTC
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© AFP/Sam Yeh
A monitor shows the temperature of passengers at Sungshan Airport in Taipei, on April 4, 2013
Taiwanese authorities are monitoring hundreds of people who may have had contact with a mainland Chinese tourist infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu, officials said Wednesday.

The 86-year-old man from the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu is in stable condition in hospital in Taiwan, where he was on an eight-day tour, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in a statement.

As many as 500 people may have had contact with him, all of whom are being asked to report to doctors should they develop possible symptoms, the statement added.

The 149 people who may have had close contact include two family members accompanying him on the tour, the tour guide, bus driver, medical personnel and patients sharing the same hospital ward, it said.
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Pirates

A tale of two families: Bush-Bin Laden connections since 1970s


CBC News
Tue, 19 Aug 2003 13:02 UTC
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Dubya got into the oil business thanks to two Bin Laden brothers.

Daddy Bush was meeting one of these brothers on the morning of 9/11.

When does conspiracy theory become conspiracy fact?

The following snippet from a 2003 CBC News investigation into the Bin Laden-Bush connections reveals the close business relationships the two clans had going back three decades.

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Question

Palestinian ambassador to Czech Republic Jamel al-Jamal killed by exploding office safe

Karel Janicek
National Post
Wed, 01 Jan 2014 12:32 UTC
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© AP Photo/CTK, Krumphanzl Michal
Prague, Czech Republic - The Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic died Wednesday in a blast that occurred when he opened an old safe that had been left untouched for more than 20 years, officials said.

Ambassador Jamel al-Jamal, 56, was at home with his family at the time of the explosion, according to Palestinian Embassy spokesman Nabil El-Fahel. Al-Jamal was seriously injured and rushed to a hospital where he died, according to police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulova.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said no foul play was suspected, noting that the safe had been left untouched for more than 20 years.

The safe was recently moved from the old embassy building, but it had come from a building that used to house the Palestinian Liberation Organization's offices in the 1980s.

"The ambassador decided to open it. After he opened it, apparently something happened inside (the safe) and went off," Malki told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear how Malki knew the safe had been untouched for more than 20 years or why the safe would have contained something explosive.
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Dollars

Best of the Web: Wall Street sings while Americans sob: Happy New Year one and all

Lauren McCauley
Common Dreams
Wed, 01 Jan 2014 12:03 UTC
Wall Street
© Zoonabar/cc via Flickr

Bankers on Wall Street rang in the final hours of 2013 with gains unseen in almost twenty years. However, for roughly half of America, these stock market highs mean nothing as they face a new year with little work and even less of a safety net.

"Never, I don't think, in recent history have you had unemployment this chronically high for so long with the market having done this well," Roben Farzad, an economics writer and contributor to Bloomberg's Businessweek, said on PBS Newshour Tuesday.

"There's a stat that Obama's bull market just beat Ronald Reagan's. I dare say, if you canvass the man on the street, no one would guess that we beat the decade of decadence already. You're certainly not feeling it out there," he continued.

At the end of the day Tuesday, the Standard & Poor index closed with a nearly 30 percent gain, its best since 1997. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed at a record high, reaching 16,576.73, up 26.5 percent on the year - marking the largest annual jump since 1996.

And, according to the Wall Street Journal, when dividends are taken into account, stocks posted their best returns since 1995.

However, for the half of Americans who avoid or cannot afford to dally in the stock market, these gains are inconsequential. With the unemployment rate currently near 7 percent, it's clear that many of these corporate gains have not had any positive impact on working people.
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Newspaper

Arkansas Dem Gov. Mike Beebe asks GOP Lt. Gov. Mark Darr to resign for ethics violation


Arkansas Business
Tue, 31 Dec 2013 10:54 UTC
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© Rick McFarlandLt. Gov. Mark Darr
Gov. Mike Beebe on Tuesday called on Lt. Gov. Mark Darr to resign over ethics commission findings that Darr likely violated Arkansas campaign spending rules 11 times since 2010.

The Democratic governor's request for his Republican second-in-command to step down came a day after Darr agreed to pay $11,000 in fines to settle complaints that he misspent campaign cash and failed to keep adequate records.

"I think it's in everyone's best interest, including Mr. Darr, if he resign," Beebe said.

That may not happen anytime soon, though, as the governor also said he had spoken to Darr and Darr told him he intends to remain in office.

Darr couldn't be reached for comment immediately after Beebe spoke to reporters, but the lieutenant governor's spokeswoman, Amber Pool, confirmed he plans to stay on the job.

"Lt. Gov. Darr has no plans to resign," she said.

The ethics case is similar to one earlier this year against former Democratic state Sen. Paul Bookout. In August, Beebe was prepared to ask Bookout to quit over similar allegations. Instead, Bookout resigned, accepted the commission's findings and to pay $8,000 in fines and to repay campaign contributors.
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Arrow Down

​Latvia joins eurozone, but half of population opposed


RT
Wed, 01 Jan 2014 11:06 UTC
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© Reuters/Ints KalninsLatvia's central bank governor Ilmars Rimsevics (L-R), Estonia's Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, Latvia's Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis and Latvia's Minister of Finance Andris Vilks, pose with euro banknotes during an official event in Riga January 1, 2014.
Latvia has celebrated the New Year by joining the eurozone, becoming the 18th member of the Europe-wide currency bloc. However, recent opinion polls show that a majority of Latvians oppose the move, with just one-fifth strongly in favor.

The euro switchover ceremony took place Jan. 1 at the HQ of the state-owned Citatele Bank - the lender reconstituted from the collapsed Parex Bank, where Latvia's worst 2008-10 economic crisis began.

"It's a big opportunity for Latvia's economic development," said the country's acting prime minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, withdrawing the first 10-euro banknote from an ATM in Riga, Latvia's capital.

But Dombrovskis, who led Latvia through its economic crisis, warned that joining the euro was an opportunity, but not a guarantee of wealth. "It's not an excuse not to pursue a responsible fiscal and macroeconomic policy," he said.

EU policymakers congratulated Latvia's on its accession to the eurozone.

"For Latvia, it is the result of impressive efforts and the unwavering determination of the authorities and the Latvian people," European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said. "Latvia will enter the euro area stronger than ever, sending an encouraging message to other countries undergoing a difficult economic adjustment."
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Padlock

Chinese Muslims freed from Guantanamo 10 years after being found innocent

Zack Beauchamp
Think Progress
Tue, 31 Dec 2013 10:13 UTC
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The last of 22 Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group concentrated in Western China, were freed from Guantanamo Bay, according to an announcement from the Pentagon on Tuesday. Their freedom comes ten years after the U.S. military determined that the men posed no threat to American national security.

Slovakia agreed to repatriate Yusef Abbas, Hajiakbar Abdulghupur, and Saidullah Khalik, who could not be transferred to the U.S. mainland because of Congressional restrictions. The decision is consistent with the Guantanamo approach codified in the newly signed 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, which maintains the ban on transferring detainees to the United States while increasing the president's power to transfer detainees to other nations.

The deal with Slovakia is a comparatively happy ending to a terribly sad saga. The 22 Uighurs rounded up by the United States in 2001 were fleeing brutal persecution in China, which represses the mere expression of Uighur religion and culture as a matter of policy. "At its most extreme," Human Rights Watch documented in 2005, "peaceful [Uighur] activists practicing their religion in ways that the Party and government deem unacceptable are arrested, tortured, and at times executed."

Comment: We don't for a minute believe the U.S. only just discovered that these men were 'innocent'.

Besides its propaganda function of showing Americans 'what would happen to them' if they didn't get behind the 'War on Terror', Guantanamo also served as a terrorist processing center. This is why many of them turned up in Yemen, Libya, China and elsewhere.

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Chess

WikiLeaks Party delegates meet with Syrian President Assad 'without knowledge or approval of Assange'

Oliver Milman
The Guardian
Tue, 31 Dec 2013 23:15 UTC
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© TwitterBashar al-Assad's meeting with the WikiLeaks party delegation.
WikiLeaks has revealed it did not "know or approve" of its Australian political party's visit to Syria to meet Bashar al-Assad, amid criticism from both the government and Labor over the trip.

A WikiLeaks party delegation, reportedly including its founder Julian Assange's father, John Shipton, held talks with a number of high-ranking Syrian officials, with a picture released by the Syrian government of a meeting with the president himself.

Before the visit, the party stated it was going as part of its "peace and reconciliation" efforts, as well as warning over the dangers of western intervention into the bloody three-year Syrian civil war. Shipton said he wanted to show "solidarity" with the Syrian people and told a local TV station that WikiLeaks would be opening an office in Damascus this year.

But WikiLeaks has distanced itself from the trip, saying via Twitter that while peace brokering is a "good idea", it "did not know or approve" of the delegation's visit to Syria.

Julie Bishop, the Australian foreign affairs minister, said Syria was not a place for "political parties to pursue their political ends".

"I find it extraordinarily reckless that an organisation registered as a political party in Australia would seek to insert itself into the conflict in Syria and engage with a leader accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using chemical weapons against his own people," Bishop told The Australian newspaper.

Comment: For more on the propaganda against Syria and Assad's fabricated brutality, see:
President Assad of Syria: 'We're fighting a new style of war - terrorism through proxies'
U.S. 'planned to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad'
U.S. 'planned to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame Assad'
Syria's President al-Assad sets the record straight on chemical weapons, UN inspections and Western terrorism
Syria's Assad warns West over Qaeda, says defeat of his regime 'not an option'
Coup d' Etat in Syria almost complete: Obama says Assad must resign

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Snakes in Suits

Sen. Coburn: Rule of law gave way to rule of rulers in 2013


Press TV
Wed, 01 Jan 2014 03:13 UTC
senator coburn
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn
US Senator Tom Coburn says the year 2013 may go down as "the worst" for America when "the rule of law gave way to the rule of rulers."

"In both the executive branch and Congress, Americans witnessed an unwinding of the country's founding principles and of their government's most basic responsibilities," Coburn wrote in an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal.

"The rule of law gave way to the rule of rulers. And the rule of reality . . . gave way to some politicians' belief that they were entitled to both their own opinions and their own facts," the Oklahoma Republican added.

The senator urged American voters to clean house in the midterm elections, saying "the institutions of government barely function."

"In 2014, here's a message worth considering: If you don't like the rulers you have, you don't have to keep them."

Comment: Yep, 2013 was indeed a very bad year for the world overall. However, this seems to be just some more posturing in the vein of promoting a false right-left political paradigm, as if there would be some significant difference in how the U.S. government operates, both within and beyond its borders, if the names and faces in Washington were to be substituted/replaced.

We could call it political theater for the benefit of public consumption, the same 'ole song and dance, and the kool-aid continues to pour, red or blue, take your pick.

It would be wise to keep in mind that no matter which side of the aisle they're on, these politicians all work for the same 'people' - and those 'people' are not everyday, rank-and-file Americans.

Psychopaths ruled the U.S. government and the world in 2013 and that song remains on the playlist for 2014 as well.

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Book

Al Qaeda, Inc. - The meticulous bookkeeping of a CIA-run corporation

Rukmini Callimachi
Huffington Post
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 13:13 UTC
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The convoy of cars bearing the black al-Qaida flag came at high speed, and the manager of the modest grocery store thought he was about to get robbed.

Mohamed Djitteye rushed to lock his till and cowered behind the counter. He was dumbfounded when instead, the al-Qaida commander gently opened the grocery's glass door and asked for a pot of mustard. Then he asked for a receipt.

Confused and scared, Djitteye didn't understand. So the jihadist repeated his request. Could he please have a receipt for the $1.60 purchase?

This transaction in northern Mali shows what might seem an unusual preoccupation for a terror group: Al-Qaida is obsessed with documenting the most minute expenses.

In more than 100 receipts left in a building occupied by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in Timbuktu earlier this year, the extremists assiduously tracked their cash flow, recording purchases as small as a single light bulb. The often tiny amounts are carefully written out in pencil and colored pen on scraps of paper and Post-it notes: The equivalent of $1.80 for a bar of soap; $8 for a packet of macaroni; $14 for a tube of super glue.

The accounting system on display in the documents found by The Associated Press is a mirror image of what researchers have discovered in other parts of the world where al-Qaida operates, including Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq. The terror group's documents around the world also include corporate workshop schedules, salary spreadsheets, philanthropy budgets, job applications, public relations advice and letters from the equivalent of a human resources division.

Comment: Al Qaeda is run like a corporate body... because it IS a corporate body!

Al Qaeda, Inc. - brought to you by the CIA and friends.

Bear in mind that, while there were smaller clusters of Mujahideen in various countries in 2001, most of them had long since been disbanded after the Soviet incursions into Afghanistan. Al Qaeda on 9/11, and for many years afterwards, existed only as a 'database' of Western intelligence assets; and even then, the entity going under that name first arose in a 2000 court case seeking to try a suspect under existing US anti-racketeering laws. In order to meet the minimum legal requirements for prosecuting the suspect on the basis of his being affiliated with an organization, 'Al Qaeda' was invented.

With each new imperial venture into Muslim countries post-9/11, however, the CIA has found thousands of recruits to fill the corporate entity it created, and has further expanded its operations, branching off into various franchises - Al Qaeda-in-the-Islamic-Maghreb, Al Qaeda-in-the-Arabian-Peninsula, Al-Qaeda-in-Palestine, Al Qaeda-in-Syria, etc - one or more of which can be passed off as 'rebels', depending on geostrategic needs.

Even more cost-effective than that is the fact that these groomed patsies from Al Qaeda, Inc., when they return to their home countries from all-expenses-paid jihad in Syria, can be redeployed as "home-grown, Syria-radicalized terrorists", enabling the Carlyle Group and 'defense-security' contractors to order more armored police tanks, plan large drills, train security personnel to be heartless bastards, etc.

Terrorism is great business for the elites!

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