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Network

What is behind the internet service outage that affected millions in the US? Care to speculate?

A problem during routine maintenance has knocked millions of Time Warner Cable subscribers off Internet.
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A Time Warner Cable truck is viewed in Brooklyn on August 27, 2014 in New York City.
On Wednesday morning, an estimated 11 million subscribers were hit by the early morning outage, which lasted more than hour.

The company has said the problem affected all of its markets and started at 4:30 a.m. and was largely restored by 6 a.m.

Time Warner Cable has about 11.4 million high-speed data subscribers in 29 states nationwide.

"During an overnight network maintenance activity in which we were managing IP addresses, an erroneous configuration was propagated throughout our national backbone, resulting in a network outage," the company has said in a statement.

Comment: Could it be due to earth changes, hacker attacks, severed underwater cables, or something else? Share your opinion in the comments.


Snakes in Suits

Mexico: Buenavista del Cobre mine firm lied about chemical spill

mexico oil spill
© Reuters/Daniel BecerrilA bird covered in oil stretches its wings on the shores of the river San Juan in Cadereyta August 21, 2014
Mexico's top environmental official said Tuesday that a mining company lied about a spill of millions of gallons of acids and heavy metals that contaminated two rivers and a dam downstream.

Environment Secretary Juan Jose Guerra Abud said the mine falsely claimed the spill earlier this month was caused by unusually heavy rain. Officials say a construction defect at a holding pond allowed mining waste to flow out.

"At the start, they told us it was excessive rain" that caused the containment pond to overflow, Guerra Abud said. "That was totally false," he said, saying there were no rains on that scale.

Airplane

Plane escorted by jets back to Toronto because of in-flight smoking!

inflight smoking
Ah! The good old days!

Comment: Two fighter jets were deployed and an entire flight returned because two 20-year old females drunk and smoked in the plane's lavatory, which latter caused the smoke alarm to go off. What a hystericized society we live in! And what a waste of resources, time and grey matter.


Charges are pending against two women after a flight bound for Cuba was forced back to Toronto under fighter jet escort Wednesday night.

Peel police said that the 4:30 p.m. Sunwing Airlines flight bound for Varadero was forced to return to Toronto Pearson International Airport after a mid-flight disruption involving two women.

Two Canadian CF-18 fighter jets based out of Bagotville, Que., escorted the plane, which was forced to turn back over North Carolina.

"This is Norad's regular procedure," Maj. Julie Roberge, with Norad, said of the response. "Under an abundance of caution, the jets were launched to monitor the situation from the air."

Extinguisher

BP refinery explosion in Indiana shakes surrounding area

bp refinery
An explosion occurred at the BP Whiting, Ind., refinery Wednesday night.

A Whiting Fire Department spokesman said the explosion, at about 9:05 p.m., could be heard clearly several blocks from the plant. But the spokesman said that when Whiting Fire commanders called the plant to ask if their assistance was needed, they were told only to stand by and that BP was handling it internally with its own fire department and ambulances.

People as far as two miles away reported feeling the explosion.

The Whiting Fire spokesman could not provide details of what exploded or if anyone was hurt. WBBM has attempted to contact a spokesman for the plant.

Crusader

Kiev forces suffer heavy losses in Donetsk

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© PA/Ivan BoberskyyAn injured fighter of Ukrainian national guard
Ukrainian troops have suffered heavy losses in southeastern Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army headquarters said on Thursday.

From August 24 militias changed their tactic to large-scale operations by fully capable units and encircled three Ukrainian groupings, the army headquarters said.

"During the counteroffensive, militias inflicted heavy losses on the Ukrainian troops. A total of 750 Ukrainian punitive troops were either killed or wounded. Over 150 Ukrainian troops have voluntarily surrendered to militias overnight," the militia headquarters said.

Donetsk fighters said Ukrainian troops were forced to leave several settlements in the region. The fighters seized four armored carriers, three infantry fighting vehicles, three anti-tank guns, a self-propelled artillery gun, trucks and an ammunition depot.

In the Luhansk region militias took control of checkpoints and strong points on the outskirts of the city, and a bridge, the DPR army headquarters said.

So far, ITAR-TASS has no confirmation of these reports from other sources.

V

Hundreds protest in Kiev demanding resignation of Ukrainian president Poroshenko

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© ITAR-TASS/Alexei DruzhininUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko
The protesters who gathered near the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's headquarters are also seeking the resignation of Minister Valery Geletei and commanders of the military operation in the southeast.

Hundreds of protesters blocked one of Kiev's thoroughfares on Thursday demanding the resignation of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and urgent deployment of military hardware in the combat area in eastern Ukraine.

The protesters who gathered near the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's headquarters are also seeking the resignation of Minister Valery Geletei and commanders of the military operation in the southeast.

Several unarmed servicemen are guarding the headquarters.

A group of activists was rallying with similar demands near the presidential administration on Wednesday.

Sheriff

Poll: Most New Yorkers want to see criminal charges in the death of Eric Garner

eric garner
© STAN HONDA via Getty ImagesDemonstrators rally against police brutality in memory of Eric Garner on Staten Island. A new poll shows most New Yorkers think criminal charges should be brought against the police officer who put Garner in the chokehold that led to his death.
A majority of New Yorkers think criminal charges should be brought against police officer Daniel Pantaleo, the cop most directly involved in last month's death of Eric Garner on Staten Island, a new poll shows.

According to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday, 64 percent of New York City voters would support brining charges against Pantaleo, while only 19 percent would oppose charges. When the numbers are broken down by race, 83 percent of black voters approve of charges being brought against Pantaleo, along with 50 percent of white voters.

Similarly, 90 percent of black voters polled think there is "no excuse" for the way officers acted when arresting Garner, while 50 percent of white voters feel the same.

Garner, a black 43-year-old father of six and grandfather of two, died on July 17 after Pantaleo put him into a banned chokehold during an arrest for selling untaxed cigarettes in the Tompkinsville section of Staten Island. A viral video of the incident shows Garner, who suffered from asthma, screaming "I can't breathe" numerous times before his body goes limp. A medical examiner later ruled his death a homicide.

Garner's death has once again brought the relationship between the NYPD and the city's minority communities into focus. Wednesday's poll shows that 63 percent of voters think cops treat black New Yorkers tougher than they do white New Yorkers. When the numbers are broken down by race, 83 percent of black voters said cops were tougher on blacks, while 50 percent of white voters agreed.

Light Saber

Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic: 'Only Russian volunteers are fighting with Novorossiyan battalions, no regular Russian forces'

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© RIA Novosti / Mikhail VoskresenskiyPrime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Zakharchenko.
About 3-4,000 Russian citizens joined anti-government fighters during Kiev crackdown in Ukraine's east, says the leader of Donetsk independent republic, noting that self-defense fighters have never concealed this fact.

"They [Russian volunteers] are among us, people of Donbass [Region, eastern Ukraine] because we are blood brothers," said the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk People's Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, in an interview to Russian media.

"There is no secret that among the volunteers from Russia there are many military men. They are fighting together with us because they understand that it's their duty," he added.

According to the Donetsk PM, some of the volunteers returned home to Russia, others stayed in eastern Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, some of [the Russian volunteers] were killed," said Zakharchenko.

He explained why he thinks Russian volunteers are joining self-defense forces in eastern Ukraine.

"I think that only among Russians is there a heightened feeling of sorrow and human misfortune, only they are able to travel to any part of the world, die, fight for the independence and freedom of people."

Comment: Zakharchenko's statements are fully supported by the OSCE.

Those UN figures on casulaties in Kiev's 'Anti-Terror Operation' (really, a war of independence) are probably inaccurate.

Novorossiyan sources have provided these figures to SOTT.net:
Dead civilians: 7,000

Novorossiyan forces: 2,500 - 3,000

Ukrainian regular army and private battalions set up by oligarchs: 16,000
Check out Prime Minister Zakharchenko's illuminating press conference earlier this week:

Donetsk People's Republic press conference: "Every 30-50 years, the West invades us"


Bomb

Just like Israel: Kiev shells city of Donetsk yet again, targets schools and apartment buildings

donetsk car
© @PaulaSlier_RT
Kiev forces have shelled residential areas in the center of the rebel-held town of Donetsk, killing at least three people and damaging several apartment blocks, a kindergarten and a cultural center.

On Wednesday, Kalininsky District in the center of the city came under artillery fire from the government forces.

RT's Paula Slier arrived on the scene less than half an hour after the shelling when the local residents were "still in shock".

One of the missiles directly hit a passenger car on Shevchenko Boulevard, turning the vehicle into a torch.

"There's a car where three people have died and the bodies are badly burned inside," Slier said.

Another missile hit the roof of the Youth Culture Center as several fire brigades were working to put out the fire caused by the explosion, she added.

According to the City Council, a kindergarten and two apartment blocks were also shelled in the area.


Comment: Scenes such as these are a daily occurrence in Novorossiya. See the following documentary for more images of what is really happening to the people in "east Ukraine":


Luckily, the DPR's armed forces have organized and are going on the offensive. Plus, Russia is planning more aid convoys, after their first success.


Airplane

Analysts conclude MH17 downed by aircraft, evidence for very strong machine-gun fire

mh17 bullet hole hull cockpit
© unknownThe holes in the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 are believed to have come from 30mm cannon fire.
Intelligence analysts in the United States had already concluded that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by an air-to-air missile, and that the Ukrainian government had had something to do with it.

This corroborates an emerging theory postulated by local investigators that the Boeing 777-200 was crippled by an air-to-air missile and finished off with cannon fire from a fighter that had been shadowing it as it plummeted to earth.

In a damning report dated Aug 3, headlined "Flight 17 Shoot-Down Scenario Shifts", Associated Press reporter Robert Parry said "some US intelligence sources had concluded that the rebels and Russia were likely not at fault and that it appears Ukrainian government forces were to blame".

Comment: As Joe Quinn wrote in his mid-July 2014 article Who shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17? New Cold War, same old propaganda:
Expect any 'investigation' into this disaster to be a drawn-out affair, thwarted at every turn by the culprits. Other events in the fast-changing geopolitical landscape will soon eclipse it...
This especially has come true. No real investigation has happened. The aircraft has not been assembled like a jigsaw puzzle as is usual for such incidents. After just a few days, this catastrophe evaporated entirely from the mainstream media and public awareness. But we all will have to pay for this 'forgetting' due to the long-term political repercussions arising from this incident.

One disagreement we have with this analysis is that there is insufficient evidence to say one way or another whether the explosion was caused externally or internally. The most sure-fire (please excuse the pun) way to down an aircraft is to plant a bomb on-board. With the Su-25 being sent up beforehand to take out the pilots, absolutely no chances were taken with MH17 - the perpetrators were determined that that plane was coming down.

See also: Did Kiev fighter jet shoot down Malaysian MH17 after mistaking it for Putin's plane?

and

Asymmetric Warfare: MH17 False-Flag Terror and the 'War' on Gaza