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Despite sanctions, Russia's GDP increased in second quarter of 2014


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:23 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti / Vladimir Astapkovich
Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.8 percent between April and June, compared to the same period last year, according to a preliminary estimate by Russian statistics bureau Rosstat.

The announcement was made by Rosstat on Monday, and is only a preliminary reading. A final, revised calculation will follow.

The growth is enough to escape falling into a technical recession (two consecutive quarters of contracted growth) but still disappoints the Ministry of Economic Development's baseline estimate that the Russian economy would grow by 1.1 percent in the second quarter.

In the first quarter of 2014, between January and March, Russia's seasonally adjusted GDP fell by 0.5 percent.
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Stop

California teen dies after smoking synthetic marijuana sprayed with chemicals

KLTA Staff and Lu Parker
KTLA5
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 08:29 UTC
Connor Eckhardt
© FacebookConnor on life support at the hospital. Connor Eckhardt's family wants the story of his tragedy shared, so others will know about the dangers of synthetic pot. Facebook photo
Parents of a 19-year-old California teen who recently died after smoking synthetic marijuana spoke to KTLA about trying to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future.

On July 11, Connor Eckhardt inhaled one hit of dried herbs that had been sprayed with chemicals to cause a pot-like high, his parents said.

"In a moment of peer pressure, he gave into that, thinking that was OK, it was somehow safe, and one hit later, he goes to sleep and never wakes up," Connor's father, Devin Eckhardt, said.

Connor Eckhardt quickly slipped into a coma and experienced brain swelling, his parents said.
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Light Saber

Open letter: Jewish survivors and descendents of survivors of Nazi genocide unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza

Celine Hagbard
International Middle East Media Center
Sun, 10 Aug 2014 20:20 UTC
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© Socioecohistory.wordpress.comHedy Epstein, one of the signers of the letter.
A group of Holocaust survivors and their descendants from the U.S. and Europe have signed onto a letter challenging a letter published in the New York Times by fellow Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who they contend promoted "blatant falsehoods to justify the unjustifiable". They argue that their experience of surviving the Nazi genocide has led them to believe that "Never Again" should apply to everyone, including Palestinians.

Their letter reads as follows:

Comment: The letter has been updated with even MORE signatures.

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Birthday Cake

The outrage is growing: Georgia officials oppose federal restrictions on school bake sales, fundraisers

Kyle Olson
Eagnews.org
Sat, 09 Aug 2014 12:36 UTC
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© Eagnews.com
Outrage is growing against federal restrictions on school bake sales and fundraisers.

"We don't have enough teachers in our classrooms and now we are expected to hire some type of food police to monitor whether we are having bake sales or not. That is just asinine," John Barge, Georgia state school superintendent tells WSB-TV.

Barge and the state Board of Education are attempting to get an exemption from the snack rules, which would allow only 30 sales per year per school.

Tennessee recently received such a restriction and even still, they were mad. State Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said it was "quite remarkable" there would even be a cap at all. Other states have not plead for leniency from their federal overlords, so even 30 would be against the law.

"We need this money for competition, for outfits, for buses, without those sales we can't go," Harmony Hart tells the news station. She adds her dance team in Rockdale County is reliant on bake sales.
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Clipboard

Petition of 60K: Send Royal Navy hospital ship to Gaza


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 10:41 UTC
Brit crowd petitioners
© news168.co.uk20K gather for a Hyde Park rally to send hospital ship to Gaza.
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition demanding the British government send hospital ship RFA Argus to Gaza to help treat the escalating number of causalities. Downing Street has so far committed a small team of NHS medics.

Currently moored in Falmouth, Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Argus is a 100-bed nautical hospital, which has a "four-bay operating theater with a 10-bed Critical Care Unit, a 20-bed High Dependency Unit and a CT Scanner," according to the Ministry of Defence website.

RFA Argus
© navy-matters.beedall.comThe RFA Argus - Joint Casualty Treatment Ship
Campaigners are pushing the UK government to increase its humanitarian aid to the region as the death toll in Gaza broaches 2,000. Their goal is 75,000 signatures. Israel launched operation Protective Edge on July 8. While the international community works toward a ceasefire, protesters have marched worldwide against the Israeli military operation.
A team of NHS medics will soon be deployed to Gaza to help treat the wounded. Downing Street announced it is sending doctors, paramedics, surgeons and anesthetists, who will initially be stationed with Medical Aid for Palestinians at Al Mokassed hospital in East Jerusalem until they are able to enter Gaza itself.
Petitioners, however, argue the prime minister's commitment doesn't go far enough, as they continue to call for the ship's deployment.

Comment: As a UK campaign organizer states: "The scenes coming out of Gaza are truly horrific and we need to act. A health crisis is looming for trapped civilians with dire conditions in the main Gaza City El Shifa hospital. Doctors operate on the floor and in corridors. People die untreated. Only one X-ray machine is working with a lack of doctors, nurses, paramedics and the most basic equipment. We should be at the forefront of the humanitarian response..."

And what from the United States?

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Bell

Gideon Levy to Israelis: Go to Gaza, see for yourself

Gideon Levy
Haaretz
Sun, 10 Aug 2014 06:28 UTC
In the absence of hatred, one can understand the Palestinians. Without it, even some of Hamas' demands might sound reasonable and justified.
gaza hell
Can we possibly conduct a discussion, however brief, that is not saturated with venomous hatred? Can we let go for a moment of the dehumanization and demonization of the Palestinians and speak dispassionately of justice, leaving racism aside? It's crucial that we give it a try.

In the absence of hatred, one can understand the Palestinians. Without it, even some of Hamas' demands might sound reasonable and justified. Such a rational discourse would lead any decent person to clear-cut conclusions. Such a revolutionary dialogue might even advance the cause of peace, if one may still dare say such things. What are we facing? A people without rights that in 1948 was dispossessed of its land and its territory, in part by its own fault. In 1967 it was again stripped of its rights and lands. Ever since it has lived under conditions experienced by few nations. The West Bank is occupied and the Gaza Strip is besieged. This nation tries to resist, with its meager powers and with methods that are sometimes murderous, as every conquered nation throughout history, including Israel, has done. It has a right to resist, it must be said.
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Black Magic

Past is prologue: Diary from victim of Khmer Rouge Survives

Todd Pitman
Japan Times
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 01:11 UTC
Phnom Penh - It was an extraordinary act of defiance, and it was extraordinarily risky. But all he did was take out a pen and write.

Nearly 40 years ago, hunched on the floor of the wood-and-leaf hut he was forced to live in away from his children, Cambodian school inspector Poch Younly kept a secret diary vividly recounting the horrors of life under the Khmer Rouge, the radical communist regime whose extreme experiment in social engineering took the lives of 1.7 million Cambodians from overwork, medical neglect, starvation and execution.

Acutely aware that he could be killed if discovered, Younly hid the diary inside a clay vase. In those dark days, when religion and schools were banned and anyone deemed educated was a threat, he had no right to own so much as a pen and paper.

"Why is it that I have to die here like a cat or a dog . . . without any reason, without any meaning?" he wrote in the spiral-bound notebook's last pages.

Comment: One wonders what will survive our time. You can prevent the reporting of history in two ways. The Khmer Rouge picked the easy way, ban books, ban education. The other way is to ban nothing, but promote ignorance. To proliferate pointless education. Guess which way we chose?

Of course while you're in it, you are so busy surviving that you don't have time to think about the judgement of history.

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Attention

Kiev shells fall near Donetsk largest chemical plant, risking chemical disaster over a large region


RT
Sun, 10 Aug 2014 23:24 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Valery BelokrylStirol chemical plant in the town of Gorlovka in the Donetsk region
Ukraine is at risk of an environmental disaster as Kiev's army continues to bomb the Donestk region, nearly hitting its largest chemical plant that stores lethal agents, the plant's spokesperson warned. The minimum impact zone would be at least 300 km.

For the past three weeks, the Ukrainian army has been intensely shelling Gorlovka, located in Ukraine's Donetsk region - home to the nation's largest chemical plant, Stirol.

"Due to the irresponsible actions of the Ukrainian army, citizens of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus are exposed to a deadly threat from an ecological disaster on a daily basis, the size of which cannot be predicted," Pavel Brykov, a spokesman for the plant, said in a YouTube message on Sunday.

According to Brykov, an accident at the plant could cause a toxic leak of nitrochlorobenzene - a lethal substance which, if it enters the human body, affects the liver, heart, and bone marrow, causing death.
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Cult

A 300-year-old Mexican Jesus statue has real human teeth, X-rays show

Andrea Noel
Vice
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 22:02 UTC
Jesus Statue
© INAH
The restoration of a venerated 18th century statue of Christ in Mexico has revealed a somewhat creepy detail - the figure contains real human teeth, and the chompers appear to be in pristine condition.

Researchers at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said this week they made the discovery after performing X-rays on the Lord of Patience, as the figure is known, during a restoration operation.

The fangs are only slightly visible through Christ's open lips, but anthropologists said X-rays showed the eight teeth are complete and intact, all the way to the root.

The 3'8" tall icon - depicting a patient, pained Christ resting momentarily during the Passion - is usually seated in a church in San Bartolo Cuautlalpan, a town of 10,000 in the municipality of Zumpango, about 30 miles north of Mexico City.
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Star of David

British pro-Israel lackeys show their hypocrisy on cue


Press TV
Thu, 07 Aug 2014 11:38 UTC
palestinian flag parliament
An image of the Palestinian flag has been projected onto the Houses of Parliament in London, on August 2, 2014.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has projected an image of the Palestinian flag onto the Houses of Parliament in London. The image includes calls for sanctions against Israel and an end to the massacre in Gaza.

Hugh Lanning, Chair of PSC, criticized the British government for standing by while Israel slaughters Palestinians.

"The prime minister, David Cameron, has failed to listen to the voices of hundreds and thousands of British people who have taken to the streets. He has failed to stand up for an occupied people being ruthlessly murdered by an occupying power. The prime minister has weakly accepted the US's political position, which is totally out-of-step with the mood of this country. It is time for firm action consistent with international law."

He said Cameron must demand an end to the massacre in Gaza, implement an immediate and total arms embargo on Israel and impose sanctions until Israel ends its illegal occupation."
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