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Attack on tourists at ancient fortress in Russia's Dagestan leaves 1 dead and 10 wounded


RT
Wed, 30 Dec 2015 14:38 UTC
Naryn-Kala fortress
© dagestan_inst / Instagram
A group of tourists on a visit to the Naryn-Kala fortress in Derbent, a city in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, were shot Tuesday night by unknown gunmen. The attack left one person dead and 10 injured.

The attack occurred when 20 tourists were on a panoramic terrace of the ancient fortress.

Media cited local police as saying that the gunmen aimed at the tourists' flashing cameras to make sure they hit people. Eleven people were wounded and taken to the hospital, where one of them died.

The person killed was a warrant officer with the FSB (Federal Security Service). His body has been sent to the city of Samara, a source within the agency, told TASS. One of those injured in the attack was a member of the Russian border service from the city of Bryansk.

The security agencies have uncovered the identity of those wanted in connection with the shooting. They say a local group was responsible, headed by Abutdin Khanmagomedov, RIA reports, citing a local security officer.

"According to initial reports, three gunmen from a Derbent group were responsible, including its leader Abutdin Khanmagomedov. This is the same group that in the middle of December shot at fire trucks, when three members of the emergency services were shot at," the source added.

Comment: Update: ISIS claims responsibility for attack on tourists at ancient fortress in Russia's Dagestan
According to the message, attributed to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group and made public by SITE, a group monitoring jihadist threat and propaganda, the militants boasted about being able to attack Russian security service employees.

A spokesman for Dagestan's Investigative Committee, Rasul Temirbekov, declined to confirm an ISIS connection in the attack when asked to comment by RT, but said that according to one of the most likely theories, the violence was committed by "militants, some of whom had been allegedly fighting in Syria."


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Piggy Bank

Nothing to see here: Alabama Gov. fixing mansion with BP fund money

Greg Palast
GregPalast.com
Wed, 30 Dec 2015 00:00 UTC
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - Alabama Toxic Wave

Crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill washes ashore in Alabama in 2010 Photo: AP
The Governor of Alabama has decided that instead of using BP's cleanup money for restoring the lives of those affected by one of the worst man-made disasters in history, he's using it to rebuild a mansion.

Owned by the State of Alabama the million dollar beach residence of the Governor has been closed for 18 years since Hurricane Danny damaged it. The fix-up is "estimated at $1.5 million to $1.8 million" and will be done by May according to the Associated Press.
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Nuke

Radioactive materials from St. Louis landfill contaminating surrounding neighborhoods


RT
Thu, 31 Dec 2015 22:11 UTC
St. Louis radioactive landfill contamination
© West Lake Landfill / Facebook
Dangerous radioactive materials from a nuclear waste dump near St. Louis, Missouri have spread to neighboring areas, a new study shows. Storm water runoff from the site has also raised concerns and is being tested for radioactive pollution.

According to a peer-reviewed study just published in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, there is "strong evidence" that radon gas and water emanating from the West Lake Landfill are responsible for the anomalous levels of a lead isotope (210Pb), created by radioactive decay, in the surrounding area.

Just northwest of the St. Louis International Airport, the West Lake Landfill is a repository of nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project, the WW2 effort to create the atomic bomb. The area was declared an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site in 1990, but the federal government is still deciding how to clean up the waste.


Comment: Twenty-five years later and they are still 'deciding' how to clean it up??


After analyzing nearly 300 soil samples from a 200-square-kilometer zone surrounding West Lake, the report's authors concluded that "offsite migration of radiological contaminants from Manhattan Project-era uranium processing wastes has occurred in this populated area."

"The stuff we're talking about at West Lake is hotter than what you would find in a typical uranium mill tailings operation," said Bob Alvarez, one of the authors, in an interview on Tuesday.

The study compared the levels of Lead-210 from 287 sample sites in the area to the baseline established by the US Department of Energy at the Fernald, Ohio uranium plant, which handled and stored the same concentrated nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project.

Comment: Protect Yourself from Radiation: Take Vitamin C Daily, Take Responsibility For Yourselves

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Attention

The bizarre story of Ian Murdock's death

Virgil Vaduva
TruthVoice
Thu, 31 Dec 2015 21:32 UTC
murdock
© Twitter screenshot
Ian Murdock was an icon in the Linux world. As a founder of Debian, a popular Linux distro, creator of apt-get, a Linux tool used daily by millions of users, and a speaker and developer, Ian Murdock's life was cut short by a bizarre series of events which unfolded on Twitter just a few days ago, in the last week of 2015.

The entire ordeal started on or around December 28, 2015 when Ian posted several tweets alleging that he was sexually abused and beaten by police after being falsely arrested and accused of assault. Immediately after the revelations police denied that Murdock was ever under arrest, however I was able to dig up arrest records for him in California.

It appears that Murdock's arrest was not a made-up incident or an illusion as others have previously claimed and that he was indeed recently arrested and then bonded out out the San Francisco County Jail for $25,000. Earlier on December 26, someone called the police alleging that Murdock was attempting to break into a house on the same block where he lives. Police claim that he was drinking and he was fined and released for treatment for abrasions sustained after a struggle with the police.
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Stormtrooper

Entire Florida police dept busted laundering tens of millions for international drug cartels

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 31 Dec 2015 20:45 UTC
florida cops caught laundering drug cartel money
© Filming Cops
Mafia organization or police department? Hard to tell.

The village of Bal Harbour, population 2,513, may have a tiny footprint on the northern tip of Miami Beach, but its police department had grand aspirations of going after international drug traffickers, and making a few million dollars while they were at it.

The Bal Harbour PD and the Glades County Sheriff's Office set up a giant money laundering scheme with the purported goal of busting drug cartels and stemming the surge of drug dealing going on in the area. But it all fell apart when federal investigators and the Miami-Herald found strange things going on.

The two-year operation, which took in more than $55 million from criminal groups, resulted in zero arrests but netted $2.4 million for the police posing as money launderers. Members of the 12-person task force traveled far and wide to carry out their deals, from Los Angeles to New York to Puerto Rico.

Along the way, the small-town cops got a taste of luxury as they used the money for first-class flights, luxury hotels, Mac computers and submachine guns. Meanwhile, the Bal Harbour PD and Glades County Sheriffs were buying all sorts of fancy new equipment.

Besides these "official" uses of the money, confidential records obtained by the Miami-Herald show that officers withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars with no record of where the money went.
"They were like bank robbers with badges," said Dennis Fitzgerald, an attorney and former Drug Enforcement Administration agent who taught undercover tactics for the U.S. State Department. "It had no law enforcement objective. The objective was to make money."
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Snakes in Suits

Disposable people: Temp workers are the new working poor

Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
Tue, 29 Dec 2015 00:00 UTC
temp work
In this day and age it seems like almost everything is disposable, and many employers have found that they can make a lot more money if they have a workforce that can be turned on and off like a faucet. In America today, there are more than 17 million "independent workers", and they represent a bigger share of the workforce than ever before. Federal laws give a lot of protection to "full-time workers", but for temporary and contract employees it is a much different story. Temp workers don't get health insurance, vacation time or retirement benefits. They are simply paid for the limited amount of time that they are needed and then they are disposed of immediately. There has always been a role for such workers in our economy, but these days some of the biggest corporations in the entire country are getting rid of "full-time workers" and replacing them with temp workers just so that they can make a few extra bucks. As a result, the ranks of the "working poor" continue to expand, and the decline of the middle class is accelerating.

Steven Hill, a senior fellow with the New America Foundation and the author of "Raw Deal: How the Uber Economy and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers", says that the rise of the "1099 economy" is fundamentally shifting the balance of power between employers and employees...
This practice has given rise to the term "1099 economy," since these employees don't file W-2 income tax forms like any regular, permanent employee; instead, they receive the 1099-MISC form for an IRS classification known as "independent contractor." The advantage for a business of using 1099 workers over W-2 wage-earners is obvious: an employer usually can lower its labor costs dramatically, often by 30 percent or more, since it is not responsible for a 1099 worker's health benefits, retirement, unemployment or injured workers compensation, lunch breaks, overtime, disability, paid sick, holiday or vacation leave and more. In addition, contract workers are paid only for the specific number of hours they spend providing labor, or completing a specific job, which increasingly are being reduced to shorter and shorter "micro-gigs."

Comment:

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Fire

Inferno at luxury hotel in Dubai near New Year's Eve fireworks display


RT
Thu, 31 Dec 2015 20:29 UTC
Dubai hotel fire
© Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters
A fire engulfs The Address Hotel in downtown Dubai in the United Arab Emirates December 31, 2015.
Parts of a 5-star Dubai hotel became engulfed in flames as the city was preparing for New Year's Eve celebrations, with 16 people receiving injuries. Firefighters are currently battling the fire at the 302-meter tall Address Downtown Dubai.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, which covered at least 20 stories of the building near the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper. Burning debris rained down from the building as firetrucks raced to the scene.

Comment: Hmm, will this hotel have a freefall collapse into its own footprint?

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Control Panel

Washington D.C. sees 54% increase in homicides

Ryan M. McDermott
The Washington Times
Wed, 30 Dec 2015 20:10 UTC
Police fault jump on a pattern of repeat offenders, more guns on the streets
DC Homicides
© CNN
The District's homicide rate spiked dramatically this year, and officials say there's no single reason for the increase.

As of Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police Department reported 162 homicides in 2015 — a 54 percent increase over last year, despite overall crime being down 4 percent. There were 105 murders last year, 104 in 2013 and 88 in 2012.

The last time the District saw a homicide rate as high as this year's was 2008, when police recorded 186 homicides. Most of this year's homicides — 119 — occurred in the 5th, 6th and 7th Police Districts, which correspond to Wards 5, 7 and 8. Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham says several factors account for the jump in homicides, including a pattern of repeat offenders and more guns on the streets.


Comment: The problem is more than repeat offenders and people having more guns. The U.S. has a culture of violence. It is displayed in all forms of media and it is not accidental.

Liars, Gun Control and Money in a Culture of Violence


"A greater percent of those arrested for homicide have prior convictions for felony violent crimes," ChiefNewsham told The Washington Times. "And a lot of times more than one gun was represented at the crime scene. The means either there were two shooters and one victim, or those involved were shooting at each other."

Chief Newsham said officers have found more shell casings at crime scenes, which means that shooters could be using guns with modified magazines that turn a standard pistol into a firearm with up to 40 rounds. When more shots are taken, there is a higher likelihood of someone dying, he said, adding that cases that could have been deemed assault with a deadly weapon quickly turn into homicides.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has been aware of the increase in homicides since May, and has been getting detailed weekly reports since then, according to Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kevin Donahue. "We've been following it closely and asking ourselves why it happened," Mr. Donahue said. "Something has changed in 2015."


Comment: People in the U.S. are more fearful, angry and divided.

Mass shootings and gun control in the U.S.: The problem is not gun laws, but a society dripping in fear, insecurity, anger and violence


Other cities have seen similar increases in murder this year. Baltimore has seen a 63 percent increase, with homicides rising from 208 in 2014 to 338 this year.

Comment: See also: The number one driver of gun sales in America

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Cross

Will the Russian Orthodox Church replace Rome as the center of Christianity?

Iben Thranholm
Russia Insider
Mon, 28 Dec 2015 20:09 UTC
Christian ceremony

The US is indifferent to the extermination of Christians in the Middle East, caused by it's own neocon agenda. Enter Russia.
At no time in history has the persecution of Christians been as intense and widespread as it is now.

Christians in the Middle East are in dire need of a champion, which, in today's world can only be a great power, and it is Russia that has taken on that responsibility.

With its secular ideology, the West can no longer protect Christian interests in the world as it did for centuries. Although the USA has a higher percentage of church goers than other Western countries, it underestimates the importance of religion in the countries it targets for regime change. Turning a blind eye to beheadings, child rape and other atrocities, it has created a hell on earth for Christians all over the Middle East. And with the Arab Spring, things went from bad to worse, as ISIS' success in Iraq inspired similar groups. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Shabaab in Somalia are all committing atrocities against Christians.
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Life Preserver

Russia sends over 40 tons of humanitarian aid to Kyrgyzstan


ITAR-TASS
Thu, 31 Dec 2015 19:45 UTC
Kyrgyzstan jet
© Marina Lystseva/TASS Archive
The Russian Emergencies Ministry has sent more than 40 tons of humanitarian aid to Kyrgyzstan.
"Today, under instructions from the Russian government, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft has departed from Ramenskoye airport in the Moscow region to the Kyrgyz city of Osh to provide humanitarian assistance to the population of Kyrgyzstan affected by a devastating earthquake."
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