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German Lawmaker: Syria has safe areas for return of citizens from Europe

Syrian Refusees in Europe
© REUTERS/ Fabrizio Bensch
As the situation in Syria is gradually improving, there are safe havens for the Syrian refugees in Europe to return to the country of their origin, Dr. Christian Blex, who has recently visited Syria as part of a delegation made up of Alternative for Germany (AfD) members, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"The main results we achieved during our trip to Syria were on the one hand, that the civil war is coming to an end and the reconstruction process has already begun ... We could see that there are areas in Syria, to which the Syrian refugees that are now in Europe, could return," Blex said.

During their fact-finding trip to Syria, the German delegates met with the representatives of religious and humanitarian organizations, present in the Middle Eastern country, that have also supported the return of refugees, according to the lawmaker.

Comment: Christian Syrian refugee returns to Syria because Damascus safer, German refugee camps full of al-Qaeda and ISIS supporters (VIDEO)


Network

Danish Study: Quitting Facebook makes you happier

facebook
© Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images
Quitting Facebook may contribute to your happiness, according to a new study from Denmark
This International Day of Happiness, consider giving up Facebook once and for all.

According to a new study from the Happiness Research Institute, giving up the popular social networking site may actually contribute to one's personal joy.

Gadgets 360 reported that researchers in Denmark took a group of 1095 volunteers, 94 per cent of whom said they visit Facebook daily, and divided them into two groups.

Quitting Facebook may contribute to your happiness, according to a new study from Denmark

One group carried on using Facebook as normal, while the other gave up checking the site for the duration of the week-long experiment.

By the end, 88 per cent of the group that quit using Facebook said they felt 'happy'. They also described feeling more enthusiastic, less lonely, less worried and more decisive, according to the study.

Comment: See also:


Binoculars

Your privacy up for sale: Facebook is a surveillance company rebranded as 'social media'

Edward Snowden
© Jack Plunkett
Edward Snowden blames Facebook and other social media companies for data harvesting gone awry.
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden ripped Facebook in a tweet Saturday after the social media giant suspended Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm which worked worked for President Trump's campaign.

Facebook accused the firm on Friday of not deleting data it had improperly harvested from Facebook users, which number in the tens of millions, but Snowden pinned the blame squarely on Facebook and lumped in other social media companies for being just as reckless.

"Businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives were once plainly described as 'surveillance companies,'" Snowden said. "Their rebranding as 'social media' is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense."

Comment: See also: Facebook doing what it does best: Handing over your info to US government


Blackbox

Geyser erupts under road sending water and debris into the sky on San Diego interstate

geyser san diego
A towering geyser sent water and debris into the sky near Torrey Pines Tuesday, prompting traffic issues near busy construction.

The geyser erupted around 11 a.m. on Genesee Avenue just west of Interstate 5. All lanes of traffic on Genesee Ave. were shut down in both directions.

Public Utilities Department crews were able to shut off the water at about 12 p.m.

Comment: This is one of many strange events occurring nearby road works:


Arrow Down

Morgan Stanley predicts bitcoin collapse, compares it to the dot-com bubble

building collapse
© Jamal Saidi / Reuters
American banking giant Morgan Stanley has predicted a dire end to the bitcoin phenomenon, comparing it to the tech bubble of 2000. But this time, according to the bank, events will escalate much faster.

Some 18 years ago, the Nasdaq rallied 250 to 280 percent in its most "exuberant" periods ahead of bear markets, just like cryptocurrency market does, Morgan Stanley said in a note to its clients.

"Just that the bitcoin rally was around 15 times the speed," said Sheena Shah, strategist at Morgan Stanley, as quoted by CNBC.

Since emerging in 2009, bitcoin has seen five bear markets with price drops of between 28 and 92 percent. In the most recent fall, bitcoin lost nearly 70 percent in value since the December peak of $20,000.

Attention

Freak accident: Man dies after getting his head stuck in a luxury theater seat

theater
© Caro / Eckelt/ Global Look Press
A man has died after his head got horrifically trapped in an electric chair at the Vue cinema in Birmingham. It is understood the man's head was crushed as he attempted to rescue his phone from the ground.

The cinemagoer got trapped on March 9 after an electric footrest clamped down on his head. The victim was sitting in the cinema's "luxury" Gold Class seats.

After his partner and staff at the cinema struggled to release him he was eventually freed and taken to hospital. Vue Cinema confirmed on Tuesday that the man passed away last Friday. Birmingham City Council has begun a health and safety investigation.

Binoculars

Finally, some good news: The demise of the corrupt Western media may be nigh

laptop newspapers
Washington's gratuitous raising of tensions with Russia that we have been witnessing for many years is so reckless and irresponsible that we need some relief from the depression of it all. Perhaps I am grasping at straws, but here are some hopeful developments.

An establishment journalist, Michael Goodwin, the chief political columnist for the New York Post and a former bureau chief for the New York Times, has blamed the New York Times and Washington Post for the destruction of journalistic standards in the United States.

James Kallstrom, an Assistant Director of the FBI, told Fox News that high-ranking people throughout the US government coordinated a plot to help Hillary Clinton avoid indictment:
"I think we have ample facts revealed to us during this last year and a half that high-ranking people throughout government, not just the FBI, high-ranking people had a plot to not have Hillary Clinton, you know, indicted. "I think it goes right to the top. And it involves that whole [Russiagate] strategy-they were gonna win, nobody would have known any of this stuff, and they just unleashed the intelligence community. Look at the unmaskings. We haven't heard anything about that yet. Look at the way they violated the rights of all those American citizens."
Kallstrom goes on to name names.

Jet1

Royal Air Force engineer dies in plane crash at base in North Wales

RAF plane
© Ulrich Stute / CHROMORANGE / Global Look Press
The UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed the death of an RAF engineer in a Red Arrows accident at RAF Valley in North Wales. The pilot survived the crash and is receiving medical treatment, according to a ministry statement.

Earlier reports suggested the pilot ejected from the aircraft before the plane crashed. Emergency services raced to the scene of the crash.

The Welsh Ambulance Service said: "We were called shortly before 1.30pm this afternoon to reports an aircraft had crashed at RAF Valley in Holyhead.

"There is an emergency ambulance and a Wales Air Ambulance at the scene."

Evil Rays

DIA publishes report on 'Global Nuclear Landscape', completely forgets to mention 6 of 9 countries with nuclear powers

boeing b 52 bombers
© U.S. Air Force
A report on the 'Global Nuclear Landscape' published by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has focused entirely on Russia, China and North Korea, leaving out six of the world's nine nuclear-armed states.

The 36-page report is divided into three sections; one focusing on Russia, one on China and the third on North Korea. The first page of the strangely selective report features a photograph of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Throughout the report, there are no significant mentions of the other six nuclear powers: Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, France and Pakistan. The glaring omission was noticed by Hans Kristensen, Federation of American Scientists (FAS) researcher and director of the Nuclear Information Project.

Star of David

D.C. councilman apologizes for 'anti-Semitic' remarks that the Rothschilds control the weather

Trayon White

Trayon White
A D.C. councilmember apologized Sunday night for posting a video on Facebook Friday that seemed to embrace an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that a wealthy Jewish family is controlling the weather.

"I really do apologize," said Councilmember Trayon White, D-Ward 8, on various social media platforms. "I work very closely with the Jewish community and never want to offend anyone, especially with anti-Semitic remarks."