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Handcuffs

Six suspected ISIS & Al-Nusra Front recruiters detained after St. Petersburg attack


RT
Wed, 05 Apr 2017 19:44 UTC
Detaining nationals of Central Asian republics suspected of assisting terrorists. St. Petersburg April 5, 2017
© UFSB of the Russian Federation Press service / SputnikDetaining nationals of Central Asian republics suspected of assisting terrorists. St. Petersburg April 5, 2017
Six suspected ISIS and Al-Nusra Front recruiters, said to come from Central Asian countries, were detained in St. Petersburg days after the blast in the city's Metro. President Putin says any post-Soviet country could be the target of a terrorist attack.

Six nationals of Central Asian countries were detained following a series of anti-terrorism raid by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) the Interior Ministry and National Guard in St. Petersburg, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The suspects, who came to Russia to seek employment, "have been recruiting people of Central Asian descent since 2015 in St. Petersburg to become followers of Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] and Al Nusra Front, and to carry out terrorist attacks," the committee said.

Having searched the suspected recruiters' flat, the security services also retrieved Islamist propaganda literature and documents, which may be a piece of intelligence worthy of further investigation.

While investigators will specifically try to uncover the men's connections, it is not yet clear if they were in contact with the prime suspect believed to have set off a suicide bomb inside the St. Petersburg Metro earlier this week, the committee said.

Comment: The federal Investigative Committee said that there was no evidence "at this time" of any connection between the people detained on April 5 and the Kyrgyz-born suspect in the April 3 subway bombing that killed 14 people in St. Petersburg.
In a statement, the investigators said the detainees had come to Russia to work.
...
The statement said the authorities had not yet decided whether to press charges against the detainees.
See also: UPDATE: Terror attack in Russia: Two explosions on St Petersburg Metro - 10 people reported dead, 50 injured

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Info

How I learned to stop worrying and love Russia

Paul Goncharoff Moscow Expat Life
Russia Insider
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 10:02 UTC
Vladamir Putin
Putin's Russia is conservative and pragmatic. If that doesn't sound scary to you — it means you're a normal person.

Editor's Note: This is a truly insightful and entertaining firsthand account of Russia through the eyes of someone who, like so many of us, was brought up to loathe the "Russkies". Find a comfortable chair, pour yourself a drink, and enjoy!

As a native New Yorker, brought up in the 1950s and 60s, I damn well knew what those Russkies were; pinkos, spies, commissars and worse! At public school I regularly had to squat under my desk while the nuclear attack alarms went off, all the while our homeroom teacher barked at us to make sure our eyes were closed and our faces turned away from the windows. All that bother because the communists were especially intent on turning our school into a thermonuclear barbecue.

Comment: Russia transformed under President Putin from a broken and bankrupted state to one that is able to grow even under significant Western sanctions. Putin's popularity among Russians, amid all the global mudslinging and economic warfare is a testament to the genuine developments Russia has achieved. Its people know hardship, and because of it they also understand their success is genuine versus mere political talk.

The West is engaging in a foaming-at-the mouth propaganda war against Putin and against the Russian people. In days when the world should rightfully be joining with Russia and morning their loss from the Saint Petersburg metro attacks, the West launches new campaigns to stave off any type of sympathy. They try to tarnish the image of Russia when it is one of the few nations actually doing good in the world. One can only hope that those with some decency will begin to see the US' appalling behavior for what it is.

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Arrow Down

Despicable: Malaysian MP condones child marriage, rape victims marrying their rapists


RT
Wed, 05 Apr 2017 12:00 UTC
child marriage
© Global Look Press
Girls as young as nine are "physically and spiritually" ready for marriage, a Malaysian MP says, also claiming there's "nothing wrong" with females marrying their rapists. It comes after Malaysia failed to criminalize child marriage in a recent law.

"They reach puberty at the age of nine or 12. And at that time, their body is already akin to them being 18 years old. So physically and spiritually, it is not a barrier for the girl to marry," Shabudin Yahaya, a member of the Barisan Nasional Coalition, told Parliament on Tuesday, as quoted by Reuters.

He went on to say there is "nothing wrong" with a rape victim marrying the man who raped her, as doing so would allow her to avoid a "bleak future."

Comment: Children who are forced into marriage are being robbed of their future. They rarely continue their education, denying them any hope of independence or the ability to earn a livelihood. They are also exposed to the risks of too-early pregnancy, child bearing, and motherhood before they are physically and psychologically ready. Girls under 15, their bodies still developing and their pelvises narrow, are five times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than women over 20, the U.S. Agency for International Development estimates.

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Jet3

F-16 jet crashes outside Washington, DC


RT
Wed, 05 Apr 2017 15:26 UTC
U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighter jet
© U.S. Air Force / Reuters
A F-16 fighter jet has crashed two miles south of Joint Base Andrews, just outside Washington, DC. At least one person ejected from the plane and has been located by rescue crews.

The pilot ejected safely and was recovered by a military rescue helicopter, Air Force officials told AP.

The F-16 from the 113th Wing was on a training mission, and crashed in a wooded area of Clinton, Maryland. The plane reportedly belonged to the Maryland Air National Guard.
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Star of David

#AlKhalil4: Israel arrests four Palestinian leaders for planting olive trees during Land Day commemoration

Sheren Khalel
Mondoweiss
Tue, 04 Apr 2017 15:04 UTC
Land Day protest in Hebron
© Human Rights DefendersLand Day protest in Hebron where four human rights activists were arrested for planting olive trees.
Four Palestinian leaders and activists from Hebron were held in Israeli prison for five days over the weekend, their crime — planting olive trees on private Palestinian land at risk of being confiscated by the Israeli government.

Around 50 activists gathered for the commemoration of Land Day last Thursday to plant olive trees on Palestinian land near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron. The tree planting was a symbolic form of non-violent resistance to commemorate Land Day, a day in 1976, when the Israeli government annexed 20,000 dunams (5,000 acres) of land, killed 6 Palestinians and wounded around 100 protesters.
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Stock Down

World's best economist spills the beans!

Paul Craig Roberts
CounterPunch
Wed, 05 Apr 2017 14:47 UTC
Junk economics
If you want to learn real economics instead of neoliberal junk economics, read Michael Hudson's books.

What you will learn is that neoliberal economics is an apology for the rentier class and the large banks that have succeeded in financializing the economy, shifting consumer spending power from the purchase of goods and services that drive the real economy to the payment of interest and fees to banks.

His latest book is J is for Junk Economics. It is written in the form of a dictionary, but the definitions give you the precise meaning of economic terms, the history of economic concepts, and describe the transformation of economics from classical economics, where the emphasis was on taxing incomes that are not the product of the production of goods and services, to neoliberal economics, which rests on the taxation of labor and production.

This is an important difference that is not easy to understand. Classical economists defined "unearned income" as "economic rent." This is not the rent that you pay for your apartment. Economic rent is an income stream that has no counterpart in cost incurred by the receipient of the income stream.
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Smoking

Anti-Smoking Fascism: 71% of people in Kentucky support statewide smoking ban


WVAH
Tue, 04 Apr 2017 14:00 UTC
Smoking is healthier than fascism
Smoking: it's healthier than Fascism!
A new poll from an anti-smoking group in Kentucky, one of the nation's largest tobacco producing states, says 71 percent support a statewide smoking ban for most public places.


Comment: As we all should be aware by now, remembering the polls telling the world that Killary was going to win the election by a huge margin, pollsters can produce almost any result they want in their polls. It depends on who you ask, how many people you ask, what questions you ask, what questions you don't ask and how you ask the questions. With these variables, decide what answer you want and then craft your poll accordingly. This poll was commissioned by an anti-smoking group so no surprise with the end result.


Anti-smoking advocates hope the poll will fuel a push for a public smoking ban in a state that leads the country in the number of tobacco-related cancer cases per 100,000 people.

But working against them is the state's population of smokers and the state's long history of tobacco farming that has sustained generations of voters.

Click here to see the Kentucky Health Issues Poll.

Source: Associated Press
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Book

Update: Texas attorneys expected to file lawsuit over mysterious illness plaguing junior high school

Alice Barr
NBC News - Dallas/Ft Worth
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 19:54 UTC
Nichols Junior High school
© 5 NBCDFW
Attorneys are expecting to file a lawsuit by the end of the evening Wednesday, over a mysterious illness plaguing a junior high school in Arlington.

Dozens of Nichols Junior High School staff members have reported symptoms including dizziness, headaches and nausea, only while they're in the school building. It's been happening since September.

The district has had outside experts run a battery of air quality and mold tests, but nothing serious has come out to explain the illnesses.

Now the NAACP is working with local attorneys to file the suit, pushing to move students to another building until a cause is found.

Some parents agree. "If something is going on and they haven't found the answer to, I think they shouldn't allow the kids to go to school," said parent Dominique Bailey. "Send them home with their work, or something like that. That way they won't fall back, or at least let us know. That way we have a choice."

Comment: Update: NBC News reports over 500 complaints have been made since September 2016 and a dozen parents have joined the current lawsuit.

Several teachers have left their positions due to sickness. Those employees that remain are still getting sick and don't think their concerns are being taken seriously. The school district has brought in experts to try and identify the issue to little avail:
Arlington ISD has brought in outside experts, including Tarrant County Public Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, to run a constant series of tests over the past six months.

They've fixed some minor mold and air quality issues, but nothing has revealed a serious problem. And until that changes, they're not planning to move.[...]

The district says it is continuing to run tests and doing everything they can. They say reports of illnesses have dropped off over the past several weeks.


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Hearts

Heartening humanity: How St. Petersburg united in face of terrorism


RT
Tue, 04 Apr 2017 18:11 UTC
St Petersburg memorial
© Igor Russak/Global Look Press
The fatal explosion in the St. Petersburg Metro became a test of residents' resolve and solidarity, which they apparently passed with flying colors. From a warming cup of coffee to a free ride home, locals have truly shown their human touch.

The Monday's assault, which left 14 people dead and dozens injured, plunged the central part of Russia's 'Northern Capital' into turmoil. Ambulances and firefighter trucks, police cruisers and light helicopters rushed to respond to the emergency.

In the other direction came tens of thousands of commuters evacuated from the subway system, which had been shut down in the wake of the explosion. The old city center was never designed for this massive influx and stood still.

City authorities did what they could to address the logistical nightmare, rolling out some 150 additional municipal-owned buses to compensate for the Metro's shutdown. No fares were taken from passengers on buses or suburban trains passing through the city.
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Heart - Black

'My call could've saved her': Heart-broken husband on wife's tragic death in St. Petersburg blast


RT
Wed, 05 Apr 2017 11:11 UTC

The grieving husband of a St. Petersburg doll maker who was killed in Monday's metro bombing while possibly shielding her daughter from the blast told RT that he blames himself for not calling his wife moments before the two got on the doomed train.

Fifty-year-old Irina Medyantseva, a locally-known doll maker, was one of the 14 people that lost their lives in the April 3 blast. Some 50 others were injured. Irina entered the ill-fated metro train car with her daughter Elena, who was later admitted to intensive care, but survived.
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