Satellites Glimpse Ultra-powerful “Black Hole” Whirlpools in Atlantic

August 22, 2013, 11:58 am

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Rex Features - Two mysterious 'black hole' whirlpools have been spotted in the South Atlantic ocean (Rex Features)

The whirpools - never witnessed before - would suck down ships, debris and even living creatures
Satellites have shown two mysterious 'black hole' whirlpools in the South Atlantic ocean - ultra powerful “vortexes” which suck water down into the depths.

The whirpools - never witnessed before - would suck down ships, debris and even living creatures, moving 1.3 million cubic metres of water per second.

Two of the black holes - or “maelstroms” - have been sighted in three months by physicists from Zurich and Miami.

he powerful vortices of current have been described as ‘maelstroms’ and are ‘mathematical analogues’ for black holes – which is to say they do exactly the same with water that black holes do with light.

A whirlpool pictured by NASA.

The discovery could give new insights into how oceanic currents transport debris and may even have implications for climate change studies.

Astronomical black holes bend space and time into a perpetually collapsing vortex. Light itself bends around them, which enables astronomers to recognise their existence.

Similarly, these oceanic maelstroms funnel current into an almost permanent spiral, trapping debris, oil and potentially living creatures in a body of water. Hardly anything leaks out.

The scientists used Edgar Allen Poe’s 1841 story ‘A descent into a Maelstrom’ to describe their discovery:
“The edge of the whirl was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray; but no particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific funnel…”

The ability to apply the same mathematical principles to water currents on earth as black holes in space is an unexpected side-effect of the theory of general relativity.

This phenomenon has been observed in the South Atlantic and South-western Indian Ocean, using satellite imagery designed to spot the aquatic equivalent of black hole currents. According to scientists, the maelstroms are prevalent in this area thanks to the southbound Agulhas current in the Indian Ocean.

In a three-month period, two perfect matches were found to mimic black hole behaviour, “We have found exceptionally coherent material belts in the South Atlantic, filled with analogues of photon spheres around black holes,” said George Haller, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich and Francisco Beron-Vera at the University of Miami in Florida, who worked on the study.

Top panel: Evolution of black-hole eddies (extracted from 3 months of data) in the South Atlantic over a period …

The phrase ‘photon spheres’ refers to the light that is trapped around astronomical black holes, and in this instance is comparable to the rings of debris that are forming around these ocean maelstroms. As Haller and Beron-Vera’s findings note, ‘these vortices will capture and swallow nearby passively floating debris.’

In their research findings, Haller and Beron-Vora express their surprise at finding real-world examples that hold so closely to the theoretical equations. ‘Vortices in turbulence are often envisaged as rotating bodies of fluid, traveling as coherent islands in an otherwise incoherent ambient flow. This… …view is appealingly simple, yet challenging to apply in actual vortex detection.’

The maelstroms are detected by their rotating edges, which the scientists found were reliable indicators of the vortex within, based on pioneering research carried out by Stephen Hawking on black holes: ‘Intuitively, one expects that any…vortex in the fluid must contain such a singularity in its interior, just as all black holes are expected to contain Penrose-Hawking singularities. This expectation turns out to be correct’.

The singularities, as they have been termed, last for months at a time, moving across the ocean without interference from other currents.

Thus they can transport water of different temperatures and salinity to other areas of the ocean, potentially influencing the regional climate.

Haller and Beron-Vera found that the vortices transported water in a north-western direction 30% faster than had previously been reckoned – at a rate equating to 1.3 million cubic metres of water per second.

In addition, the maelstroms were found to occur four times deeper in the ocean than previously estimated; the study found examples as deep as 2000m below the surface.

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Bizarre ‘Zombie Pigeons’ Plague Moscow

August 22, 2013, 12:10 pm

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This sounds like one of those 'this is how it all started' movements from a horror movie, but the situation is all too real, and residents of Moscow are concerned about what's behind a recent plague of what are being called 'zombie pigeons' in their city.

Starting last week, dead and dying pigeons have been found littering the streets of Moscow. Reports of the behaviour of those walking around has been very strange, as well, with the birds: "twisting their necks, walking backward in circles or standing completely still with their heads on the ground," according to The Wall Street Journal.

A Moscow resident who said their name was 'Umid' called in to Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty(RFERL), saying: "When I walk to work, I usually see pigeons running and jumping around. But recently, they haven't been reacting to anything at all. When a person walks past them, they used to fly away. But now they just sit there in a kind of funk and don't even pay attention to you. They're just not normal. I've seen some pigeons behaving very strangely, turning around in circles."

According to RFERL, someone on Twitter said: "I saw a pigeon sitting right in the street, its bill resting on the ground. It's like a bird apocalypse."

The Moscow Times reported that the original cause of the strange behaviour and deaths was thought to be the Newcastle disease virus. Newcastle disease can be deadly to birds, and whereas it can easily transmitted to humans, it's not considered to be deadly to humans, apparently causing conjunctivitis (pink eye) and flu-like symptoms.

However, according to RT.com, autopsies performed on the birds found that they were suffering from salmonella poisoning, and a committee of veterinarians said: "The disease poses no risk for humans, provided standard precautions of personal hygiene are observed and direct contact with sick birds is avoided. Activators of avian influenza and psittacosis (an infection that can be transmitted to humans) have not been identified."

Interestingly, this 'epidemic' — which apparently happens every year, and not limited to just in Moscow — started roughly the same time that a series of strange bird deaths that happened in the north end of Winnipeg (on August 7th). Authorities investigating the deaths of around 60 grackles are still baffled by what caused it. West Nile disease and avian flu have been ruled out, and nothing unusual was found in their stomachs that could have poisoned them. Testing on the birds hasn't been completed yet, but hopefully they can find the reason for it soon, before more birds start dropping dead.

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First Human Who Can See In The Dark Stuns Medics

August 22, 2013, 12:53 pm

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First Human Who Can See In The Dark Stuns Medics

A young Chinese boy who was born with beaming blue eyes has stunned medics with his ability to see in pitch black darkness.

Nong Yousui from Dahua, China has eyes that reflect neon green when light is shined on them. Doctors have studied Nong's amazing eyesight since his dad took him to hospital concerned over his bright blue eyes.

"They told me he would grow out of it and that his eyes would stop glowing and turn black like most Chinese people but they never did", his Dad said.

Nong enjoys playing outside with his schoolmates but experiences discomfort when in bright sunlight, however can see completely clearly in pure darkness.

To test his abilities, a Chinese journalist prepared a set of questionnaires which he was able to finish while sitting in a pitch black room. The tests show Nong can read and write perfectly without any light and can see as clearly as most people do during the day.

According to the World Record Academy (the leading international organization which certify world records), Nong has even set the world record for the first human who can see in the dark.

In animals, night vision is made possible by the existence of a thin layer of cells, called the tapetum lucidum. And like a Siamese cat, Nong's sky-blue eyes flash neon green when illuminated by a flashlight.

Nong's night vision has sparked interest around the world by vision scientists, evolutionary biologists, and genetic engineers. And this is good news for science as we may eventually be able to use genetic technologies to deliberately create such a condition ourselves.

A new and growing generation of extraordinary and gifted children are springing up across our planet.

VIDEO:

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Unidentified 13ft-long Sea Monster With Horns Washes Up On Beach In Spain

August 23, 2013, 12:56 pm

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Unidentified 13ft-long Sea Monster With Horns Washes Up On Beach In Spain

The four-metres long creature, seen with its head detached from its body, is in an advanced state of decomposition

With its horns, long white body and slithery form, it looks like a mythical beast

But this four-metre long horned creature is only too real - as the stench from its decomposing flesh proved.

The mysterious sea creature was washed ashore in Villaricos, Spain - and tests are being done on the carcass to determine what it is.

A swimmer stumbled across the horn head and decayed body on a Spanish beach

An unfortunate swimmer stumbled across the head before coming across the rest of the body, the Huffington Post reported.

Civil Protection Coordinator Maria Sanchez said: 'We have no idea what it can be, but it smelled bad, because it was so badly decomposed', Digital Spy reported.

She added: 'A lady found one part, and we helped her retrieve the rest… We have no idea what it was. It really stank, as it was in the advanced stages of decomposition,' Inquisitr reported.

The extent of the deterioration of the creature meant most of the remains had to be buried for safety reasons.

Several theories have been suggested about what the creature is - ranging from it being a type of shark to it being an oar fish, but researchers are still examining it.

Programa en Defensa de la Fauna Marina (PROMAR) spokesman Paco Toledano was also puzzled, Yahoo reported.

Several theories have been suggested about what the creature is - ranging from it being a type of shark to it being an oar fish

He said: 'It's hard to know what we’re dealing with,' Mr Toldano told ideal.es.

'It is broken up and we can not identify what ii is. Maybe it's a bull fish', he joked.

'Perhaps if we were able to analyse the bones we might know more, but for this specific genetic analysis it is very expensive and who would pay?

'We've certainly never before seen anything like this.'

A spokesman for the Marine Biological Association said: 'A few people have said it could be the backbone of a shark with the rest of it decaying away.

'Really we would need a vertebrae to properly identify it. If it was a shark it would have cartilage skeleton as opposed to bone.

'As for the horns - it's pretty inconclusive. No one knows of anything with horns in the sea. From the picture you wonder if it is even part of the creature.'

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40% of Catholic Nuns Have Been Sexually Abused

August 23, 2013, 1:34 pm

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Sexual Abuse in the Roman Catholic Church: 40% of Catholic Nuns have been sexually abused too. Those who got pregnant, their babies were murdered

By Darryl Eberhart, Editor of ETI & TTT

Over the past several decades some major newspapers have been exposing the problem of priestly sexual abuse of boys, girls, women – and even nuns – within the Roman Catholic Church here in the United States of America. Please carefully consider the following quotations:

“A large part of the history of [Ed.: mandatory] celibacy is the story of the degradation of women and – an invariable consequence – frequent abortions and infanticide.

In the ninth century, many monasteries were the haunts of homosexuals; many convents were brothels in which babies were killed and buried…Promiscuity was rife in monasteries and convents. The great Ivo of Chartres (1040-1115) tells of whole convents with inmates who were nunsonly in name. They had often been abandoned by their families and were really prostitutes.” – Peter de Rosa (“Vicars of Christ”; 1988; Pages 404 and 408)

“According to the 1996 survey of nuns in the United States (which was intentionally never published by the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church but was leaked by some Vatican insider), it is reported that a minimum of 34,000 Catholic nuns (about 40% of all American nuns) claim to have been sexually abused. Three of every four of these nuns claimed they were sexually victimized by a priest, nun, or other religious person. Two out of five nuns who stated they were sexually abused claimed that their exploitation included some form of genital contact. All nuns who claimed repeated sexual exploitation reported that they were pressured by religious superiors for sexual favors.” – “Boston Globe” (1-8-2002) [Ed.: This quote is on p. 179 of the book, “Lucifer’s Lodge”, by William H. Kennedy.]

“Then sometimes the priests come [Ed.: to the convent] and they get angry with us [Ed.: i.e., the young nuns] because we refuse to have sexual relations with them voluntarily…and many, many the times to have him [Ed.: i.e., the priest] to strike you in the mouth – is a terrible thing! I’ve had my front teeth knocked out [Ed.: by a lecherous priest who was trying to force himself on Sister Charlotte]…and then get you down on the floor [Ed.: in order to molest her]. …

Here we are – a body [Ed.: i.e., a group] of little [Ed.: i.e., young] nuns. …[Ed.: One] morning the mother superior might say this: ‘We’re all going to be lined up here…’ …Then you know, there might be ten of us – there might be 15 of us. She [Ed.: i.e., the mother superior] will tell us all to strip. And we have to take every stitch of our clothing off. …Here we are lined up [Ed.: without any clothes], and here come two or three Roman Catholic priests with liquor under their belts [Ed.: i.e., the priests are intoxicated], and there they march in front of those nude girls [Ed.: i.e., the nuns], and choose the girl they want to take to the cell with them.

These are convents – cloistered convents – not open orders. The priest can do anything he wants to and hide behind the cloak of religion! Then that same Roman Catholic priest [Ed.: after sexually molesting a nun] will go back into the Roman Catholic Churches and there he will say Mass – and there he will go into the confessional box and make those poor people believe that [Ed.: he has the alleged power to grant] absolution from their sins – when he [Ed.: the priest who has recently sexually molested a nun] is full of sin, full of corruption [Ed.: and] vice. Still he [Ed.: the priest] acts as their ‘god’.

And then [Ed.: sometimes the priest, while attempting to molest a nun, will] kick you in the stomach. Many of the precious little girls [Ed.: i.e., young nuns] have babies under their hearts, and it doesn’t bother a priest to kick you in the stomach with a baby under your heart – he doesn’t mind – the baby is going to be killed anyway – because those babies are born in the convent. Why wouldn’t those babies be born, when you run places like these [Ed.: i.e., cloistered convents] under the cloak of ‘religion’ – the world thinks [Ed.: they are] religious orders. And there are babies born in there! …I’ve delivered those babies with these hands; and what I’ve seen with my eyes and done with my hands – I just challenge the whole world to say it isn’t true.

And oh I wish you could see that little [Ed.: pregnant] nun. She is not looking forward to that [Ed.: i.e., having a baby]. There won’t ever be a blanket around his body. They’ll never even bathe that baby’s body. But he can only [Ed.: live] 4 or 5 hours [Ed.: minutes?], and then the mother superior will take that baby and put her fingers in his nostrils and start [Ed.: to] cover its mouth – and snuff its little life out. And why do they build the lime pits in the [Ed.: cloistered] convent? What is the reason for building it [Ed.: i.e., the lime pit] if it isn’t to kill the babies? And that baby will be taken into the lime pit and chemical and lime is put over its body – and that is the end of baby!” – Sister Charlotte (Ex-Carmelite nun; a.k.a. Charlotte Wells; above excerpts are from a taped presentation by Sister Charlotte)

“Pope John Paul II [Ed.: pope: 1978-2005] presided over the second ‘pornography of the Papacy’. He presided over the greatest, most widespread, immoral scandal of sexual perversion in church history. Never in the annals of recorded history has such a scandal been displayed for the entire world to see. Documented case after documented case in the courts of the world, joined by thousands of other cases which never came to light as the BAG-MAN, as he was called, bought the silence of thousands of young men whose cases never came to the courts. Combined with other ‘faithful’ souls who, although sodomized as children, in their loyalty to mother church never even complained.” – Ronald Cooke (“The Death of the Pope of Rome”; 2005; Page 14)

“The late pope [Ed.: i.e., John Paul II; pope: 1978-2005] was the voice of a religious institution which became the reservoir of the most egregious sexual perversion known to man: MEN CALLED PRIESTS PREYING ON THEIR HELPLESS LITTLE ALTAR BOYS [Ed.: Emphasis in original]to satisfy their lust which arose in part from their enforced celibacy, which the Scriptures call a doctrine of demons. So as the chief voice of this reservoir of unnatural perversion, the late pope of Rome [Ed.: John Paul II] was surely the spokesman of a ‘Church’ which was filled with immoral priests under his authority; the spokesman for all the false doctrines of Romanism; and a man who himself claimed to be the Vicar of Christ on earth, making him then without doubt the MOST INFLUENCIAL IMMORAL VOICE OF OUR TIME [Ed.: Emphasis in original]. To have a REAL MORAL VOICE [Ed.: Emphasis in original] one must proclaim true Bible doctrine and repudiate falsehood, false claims [Ed.: e.g., such as alleged papal infallibility], and false practices.” – Ronald Cooke (“The Death of the Pope of Rome”; 2005; Page 15)

“David Rice (a Roman Catholic writer) in [Ed.: his book “Shattered Vows”] states the figure 100,000 several times to describe the number of [Ed.: Roman Catholic] priests resigning from the priesthood usually over questions of their own morality.” – Ronald Cooke (“The Death of the Pope of Rome”; 2005; Page 15)

“The policy of silence and cover-up [Ed.: concerning sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church] promoted by the Vatican is mind-boggling. The vast amount of data which the Vatican collected concerning the sexual activity of [Ed.: the Roman Catholic] clergy makes it clear that the Pope and [Ed.: the Roman] Curia were well aware of how wide-spread and common the sexual abuse problem was in the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church. It did nothing to redress the situation but continued with a policy of cover-up and silence. It seems that the only reason the Vatican ordered these secret sex studies was to get a global picture of where they stood and to develop informed strategies for hiding the problem in the future. Never was the welfare of the victims of sexual abuse taken into consideration, nor was the question of broken chastity vows [Ed.: by the celibate priests]apparently of any real concern.” – William H. Kennedy (“Lucifer’s Lodge: Satanic Ritual Abuse in the Catholic Church”; 2009; Page 178)

“The media black-out of the sexual abuse of women by clerics in both ritual and non-ritual cases is a great disgrace. The plight of male children who suffer under abusive priests is, of course, horrifying and should receive wide media coverage. However, the sexual abuse of nuns and women by clerics is a far larger problem.” – William H. Kennedy (“Lucifer’s Lodge: Satanic Ritual Abuse in the Catholic Church”; 2004; Page 180)

“It’s tough to stay a Catholic when you’ve been sexually abused by a [Ed.: Roman Catholic] priest, then raped again by the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Hierarchy.” – Miguel Chincilla (a Roman Catholic sexually abused by a priest)

Ed. Comment to the preceding quote: For decades in the USA the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy tried “to keep a lid” (as much as they possibly could) on the extensive abuse of children – almost exclusively boys – by Roman Catholic priests. Many of these pedophile priests were moved from diocese to diocese as their patterns of sexual abuse became known. As much as they were able, the past pope (John Paul II) and the current pope (Benedict XVI) protected these priests accused of sexual abuse from prosecution, even bringing some of them to Rome and putting them up in apartments in order to prevent them from being brought to trial. In many cases, Roman Catholic prelates and other clergy brought tremendous pressure on Roman Catholic victims and their families in order to get them to drop charges against the abusive priests. In other words, the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy was much more concerned about protecting the Church’s already tarnished reputation (and protecting its finances against lawsuits) than it was in removing pedophile priests from the priesthood or helping the victims of the priestly abuse!

For Further Research on this topic: Please do a “google-style” search on the Internet for the book, “Lucifer’s Lodge: Satanic Ritual Abuse in the Catholic Church”, by William H. Kennedy, and for the name “Sister Charlotte”.

SOURCE

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Scientists Confirm: Ancient Egyptians Wore Jewelry Made Of Materials From Outer Space

August 24, 2013, 12:06 pm

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(NaturalNews) The University College London (UCL) Petrie Museum in London is home to ancient Egyptian iron beads that were once thought to be hammered out of traditional iron ore. Researchers from UCL have dispelled this notion, revealing that the earliest jewelry artifacts were actually made from materials from outer space.

UCL Archaeologist and Professor Thilo Rehren is uncovering fascinating new evidence on the ancient Egyptian beads. He says, “The shape of the beads was obtained by smithing and rolling, most likely involving multiple cycles of hammering, and not by the traditional stone-working techniques such as carving or drilling which were used for the other beads found in the same tomb.”

Finding out where the beads came from

“Even 100 years ago, [the beads] attracted attention as being something strange,” Rehren said.
Rehren and a team of researchers are proving that the beads are actually cosmic jewelry, hammered from pieces of meteorites. Their evidence suggests that the ore used to make the beads originates from an era existing two millenniums before communities learned how to smelt and tamper traditional iron ore into iron.

The beads from the UCL Petrie Museum were discovered in 1911 near the village of el-Gerzeh in Lower Egypt. Dug up in a cemetery that dates back to approximately 3200 B.C., the beads were found to be corroded to their core. Using x-rays, the researchers have determined the continuity of the beads. They’ve concluded that the beads do not come from magnetite, which typically resembles meteoric iron, but actually come from meteoric iron from outer space origins. Scanning the beads further with neutron beams and gamma-rays, the researchers determined that the unique textures of nickel, phosphorous, cobalt, and germanium were indeed reminiscent of meteoric iron. The neutron beams and gamma-rays also helped them bypass more invasive testing that could have damaged the rare objects.

“The really exciting outcome of this research is that we were for the first time able to demonstrate conclusively that there are typical trace elements such as cobalt and germanium present in these beads, at levels that only occur in meteoritic iron,” Professor Rehren said.

How the beads were made

Rehren continues, “We are also excited to be able to see the internal structure of the beads, revealing how they were rolled and hammered into form. This is very different technology from the usual stone bead drilling, and shows quite an advanced understanding of how the metal smiths worked this rather difficult material.”

Their study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, further explains how the rock from outer space was meticulously hammered into thin sheets and then rolled into tubes that were woven around wooden sticks to create 0.8-inch-long, tube-shaped beads.

The nine beads from the museum are thought to be at least 5000 years old. They make up a necklace that was very valuable for its time and included gold and other precious gems.

Their results suggest that during the fourth millennium BC, meteoritic iron work had already been mastered.

This meteoritic iron-nickel alloy is a much harder and more brittle rock that predated copper and traditional iron ore work. This meteoritic iron work was the first basic training ground for blacksmiths, helping to pave the way for future learning of copper work and traditional iron work.

SOURCE

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'Witch' Falls From 'Flying Saucer'

August 24, 2013, 5:42 pm

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A woman claiming to be a witch recently caused a stir in Dzivarasekwa, Zimbabwe, when she was found naked.

Sabina Rokuzhe confessed that she was a witch and said that she fell from a flying saucer coming from an overnight trip in Masvingo.

She was found at a neighbour's house and pleaded with the crowd not to beat her up saying she had also visited several houses.

One of the people who saw her early in the morning is Mrs Alice Hundi (37) who said she was woken up around 2a.m when she heard a woman's screams.

"When I saw her in her birthday suit I threw salt on her face and she fell down and started writhing on the ground. We called the police and she was taken away."

Police confirmed that the woman was taken away and would get psychiatric help.

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'Ghostbuster' Huang Jianjun Allegedly Tried To Perform Exorcism With His Penis

August 24, 2013, 6:07 pm

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'Ghostbuster' Huang Jianjun Allegedly Tried To Perform Exorcism With His Penis

Who you gonna call? NOT this guy.

Huang Jianjun was arrested this month in China's Guangdong Province for allegedly convincing a woman that his penis could get rid of evil spirits in her vagina, according to a translation of the Southern Metropolis Daily by the Global Times.

The victim allegedly came to the self-described "Ghostbuster" because she needed help seducing her boss who she had a crush on. That's when Jianjun allegedly pitched the unorthodox exorcism idea.

From the Global Times:

Huang then convinced [the victim] to have intercourse after explaining that ghosts in her vagina are preventing her boss from falling in love with her - ghosts he could only catch with his penis

Jianjun allegedly told authorities he couldn't have had sex with the victim because diabetes prevents him from achieving an erection. As TNT Down Under surmises, "So it turns out he wouldn’t have been able to help with the ghost problem after all."

The story has also caused the Frisky's Ami Angelowicz to breakup with the so-called buster of ghosts.

"Huang, you have crossed the line. You are a sick f--k," Angelowicz writes in an angry letter announcing the severing of her romantic ties with Jianjun.

SOURCE

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India: the Story You Never Wanted to Hear

August 24, 2013, 7:12 pm

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By RoseChasm

When people ask me about my experience studying abroad in India, I always face the same dilemma. How does one convey the contradiction that over the past few months has torn my life apart, and convey it in a single succinct sentence?

“India was wonderful," I go with, "but extremely dangerous for women.” Part of me dreads the follow-up questions, and part of me hopes for more. I'm torn between believing in the efficacy of truth, and being wary of how much truth people want.

Because, how do I describe my three months in the University of Chicago Indian civilizations program when it was half dream, half nightmare? Which half do I give

Do I tell them about our first night in the city of Pune, when we danced in the Ganesha festival, and leave it at that? Or do I go on and tell them how the festival actually stopped when the American women started dancing, so that we looked around to see a circle of men filming our every move?

Do I tell them about bargaining at the bazaar for beautiful saris costing a few dollars a piece, and not mention the men who stood watching us, who would push by us, clawing at our breasts and groins?

When people compliment me on my Indian sandals, do I talk about the man who stalked me for forty-five minutes after I purchased them, until I yelled in his face in a busy crowd?

Do I describe the lovely hotel in Goa when my strongest memory of it was lying hunched in a fetal position, holding a pair of scissors with the door bolted shut, while the staff member of the hotel who had tried to rape my roommate called me over and over, and breathing into the phone?

How, I ask, was I supposed to tell these stories at a Christmas party? But how could I talk about anything else when the image of the smiling man who masturbated at me on a bus was more real to me than my friends, my family, or our Christmas tree? All those nice people were asking the questions that demanded answers for which they just weren't prepared.

When I went to India, nearly a year ago, I thought I was prepared. I had been to India before; I was a South Asian Studies major; I spoke some Hindi. I knew that as a white woman I would be seen as a promiscuous being and a sexual prize. I was prepared to follow the University of Chicago’s advice to women, to dress conservatively, to not smile in the streets. And I was prepared for the curiosity my red hair, fair skin and blue eyes would arouse.

But I wasn't prepared.

There was no way to prepare for the eyes, the eyes that every day stared with such entitlement at my body, with no change of expression whether I met their gaze or not. Walking to the fruit seller's or the tailer's I got stares so sharp that they sliced away bits of me piece by piece. I was prepared for my actions to be taken as sex signals; I was not prepared to understand that there were no sex signals, only women's bodies to be taken, or hidden away.

I covered up, but I did not hide. And so I was taken, by eye after eye, picture after picture. Who knows how many photos there are of me in India, or on the internet: photos of me walking, cursing, flipping people off. Who knows how many strangers have used my image as pornography, and those of my friends. I deleted my fair share, but it was a drop in the ocean-- I had no chance of taking back everything they took

For three months I lived this way, in a traveler's heaven and a woman's hell. I was stalked, groped, masturbated at; and yet I had adventures beyond my imagination. I hoped that my nightmare would end at the tarmac, but that was just the beginning. Back home Christmas red seemed faded after vermillion, and food tasted spiceless and bland. Friends, and family, and classes, and therapy, and everything at all was so much less real than the pain, the rage that was coursing through my blood, screaming so loud it deafened me to all other sounds. And after months of elation at living in freedom, months of running from the memories breathing down my neck, I woke up on April Fool's Day and found I wanted to be dead.

The student counselors diagnosed me with a personality disorder and prescribed me pills I wouldn't take. After a public breakdown I ended up in a psych ward for two days held against my will, and was released on the condition that I took a "mental leave of absence" from school and went to live with my mother. I thought I had lost my mind; I didn't connect any of it to India-- I had moved on. But then a therapist diagnosed me with PTSD and I realized I hadn't moved a single inch. I had frozen in time. And I’d fallen. And I’d shattered.

But I wasn't the only one, the only woman from my trip to be diagnosed with PTSD, to be forced into a psych ward, to wake up wanting to be dead. And I am not the only woman who is on a mental leave of absence from the University of Chicago for reasons of sexual assault and is unable to take classes.

Understanding my pain has helped me own it, if not relieve it. PTSD strikes me as a euphemism, because a syndrome implies a cure. What, may I ask, is the cure for seeing reality, of feeling for three months what its like for one's humanity to be taken away? But I thank God for my experiences in India, and for my disillusionment. Truth is a gift, a burden, and a responsibility. And I mean to share it.

This is the story you don't want to hear when you ask me about India. But this is the story you need.

SOURCE

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Man Is Born With His Heart In His Abdomen

August 25, 2013, 5:56 pm

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Huang Rongming, from Henan province in China, was born with congenital heart displacement. It only occurs in between five and eight people out of one million. Most patients die soon after birth.

A man, who has lived his entire life with a heart protruding from his abdomen, is finally able to walk upright without getting out of breath or turning blue.

Huang Rongming, from Henan province in China, underwent life-changing surgery to correct heart a defect and move the organ away from his abdomen and into his ribcage.

He had lived with the rare condition for 24 years until a doctor told him his condition was rapidly deteriorating and that he required urgent surgery.

Congenital heart displacement is incredibly rare and occurs in just five babies out of every million born. Most patients die soon after birth.

Mr Rongming could not afford the procedure, that would place his heart in his chest, as it should be, but media coverage of his condition enabled him to undergo to life-changing operation.

The condition often left the factory worker blue and breathless so he spent much of his 24 years lying down to make sure blood flowed around his body.

'It's a dream come true. I'm going to lead a normal life like everyone else,' he told ChinaDaily.

Before surgery, Mr Rongming's heart could clearly be seen pumping underneath a thin layer of skin and bulging out from his upper belly.

Mr Rongming's parents admitted they were anxious when he was a little boy and said that he was not allowed to play with other children for fear that he would have an accident and die. As farmers they could not afford for him to have surgery.

When Mr Rongming was born, doctors did not think he would survive, as his protruding heart had defects and was vulnerable to injury.

His parents admitted they were anxious when he was a boy and said that he was not allowed to play with other children for fear that he would die.

The condition made the young Mr Rongming vulnerable to breathlessness and turning blue if he stood up as well as sudden death if his heart was knocked.

As farmers they could not afford for him to have surgery, however.

Earlier this year he sought treatment at Wuhan Union Hospital. His doctor, Dong Nianguo, a cardiac surgeon at the hospital, was astonished that he was still alive.

Tests showed Huang's condition was deteriorating rapidly, and he needed immediate surgery, which could cost about 200,000 yuan.

Huang's story attracted considerable media coverage and within six days of his story being reported, he received all the money he needed from kind readers.

The surgery lasted more than 10 hours and was entirely successful. His abdomen is now flat and his heart defect fixed.

Mr Rongming said: 'I am now normal, thanks to the many kind souls'

SOURCE

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HAARP Geo-physical Weaponry Theory

August 26, 2013, 2:36 pm

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The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project(HAARP), known for it’s Ionospheric Research Instrument(IRI), is a High Frequency(HF) antenna array using radio transmission as a manner of heating atmospheric layers. With it’s 18 different instruments HAARP performs ionospheric research by means of transmitting and receiving HF radio waves, using the IRI to transmit and the rest for either radar detection or receiving atmospheric data. The projects construction began in 1993, was completed in 2007, and is located in Gakona, Alaska. HAARP is one of many scientifically open source IRIs which grabs the attention of researchers, universities, students, militaries, defense programs and conspiracy theorists alike. Perhaps many people may become confused when reading the terms ‘open source’ and ‘HAARP’ within the same sentence, after reading this article, with hope, that confusion should end.

Conspiracy Theory Origins

The origination of the HAARP conspiracy theories all began in 1993 when a man named Nick Begich had read a notice about HAARP in a conspiracy magazine named Nexus. He went on to write a popular book published in 1995 titled Angels Don’t Play This HAARP. This book seems to intentionally convince the public that all theoretical uses for HAARP were already possible and/or in action during the time of it’s writing. Unfortunately, for the book, the theories described in it’s text are just that, untested assumptions of just what a device of this nature may be able to do. It was, after all, self published in 1995 a mere two years after the initial prototype IRI had been established.

The military document titled Owning The Weather was a conceptual theoretical layout for what IRI devices may one day be capable of, little did the military know that this unclassified document would spark conspiracy theories across the globe. It seems that even the government of Russia had become concerned of the capabilities of this device. In the year 2002 aRussian news media site revealed that even the Russian Federation believed the conspiracy theory that HAARP can affect the weather! In September of 2002 the Russian parliament addressed the United Nations with their concerns as to the possibility of geo-physical weapons, they were suggesting the global ban of HAARP.

The largest propagators of HAARP conspiracy theories were, of course, none other than public mass media propaganda and entertainment. HAARP conspiracy theories have been propagated by local newspapers, CBC, by other leaders such as Hugo Chavez, the very first episode of Jesse Ventura’s show Conspiracy Theory, countless made for television documentaries and hundreds of other sources. Conspiracy theorists all over the internet also spread the mainstream media HAARP propaganda, which seems contradictory to the normal work of a conspiracy theorist. It’s highly unfortunate that most sources spreading this propaganda have no idea that HAARP has never had any classified experiments take place there, university students studying radio were able to attend workshops at HAARP every summer and learn about the equipment.

Explaining HAARP and Common Myths

“Currently the site is abandoned,” he said. “It comes down to money. We don’t have any.” Keeney said no one is on site, access roads are blocked, buildings are chained and the power turned off. HAARP’s website through the University of Alaska no longer is available; Keeney said the program can’t afford to pay for the service. “Everything is in secure mode,” he said, adding that it will stay that way at least for another 4 to 6 weeks. In the meantime a new prime contractor will be coming on board to run the government owned-contractor operated (GOCO) facility.

HAARP put the world on notice two years ago that it would be shutting down and did not submit a budget request for FY 15, Keeney said, “but no one paid any attention.” Now, he says, they’re complaining. “People came unglued,” Keeney said, noting that he’s already had inquiries from Congress. Universities that depended upon HAARP research grants also are upset, he said.
- ARRL.org

The world seems to be a lot more transparent seeing as you can download the Fiscal Year 2014 DARPA Justification Book from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s website. The public are actually encouraged by DARPA to file a Freedom of Information Act request. This HAARP Live Webcast takes you inside the once active facility. HAARP was never a classified program, it is a government owned facility which contractors were able to rent for research. This is a large reason why people become very confused as to what the facility is capable of or who exactly is doing what there, it seems as long as a team had the money then it didn’t quite matter what type of research was performed.

During a few weeks in October 2008, for example, the site hosted 31 investigators conducting 42 different sets of experiments—imaging ionospheric irregularities, examining the “ion outflow from high-frequency heating,” creating artificial northern lights. Physics students flock to Haarp in the summer. Ionospheric papers are back in the scientific literature. Even the space-based nuclear clean-up experiments are teaching us lessons about the Van Allen radiation belts… after decades of pushing, radio scientists finally have the experimental facility of their dreams.
- Wired

With so much transparency surrounding HAARP what have people been so afraid of? Has it merely been a lack of understanding in the science or have people been propagating conspiracies for a reason? The only way to figure all of this out is to begin by understanding what all of this even is.

The goal of the research to be conducted at the HAARP facility is to improve the general knowledge of ionospheric effects on military and civilian communication and navigation systems. The type of research to be conducted falls into two categories: (1) Active or interactive research requiring the use of a high power, HF transmitter system (Ionospheric Research Instrument-IRI) and (2) Passive research involving monitoring instruments only.
- FAA: HAARP Flight Advisories

The passive monitoring instruments mentioned above, at one point available to be read by the public on HAARP’s Website, have nothing to do with the HF transmitter system. One of the popular devices available during that time are known as magnetometer readings which record incoming data from magnetic fields. These devices did not often read the high frequency transmitter and were mainly used as a manner of studying our atmosphere, many people have been very misled on this subject.

Majority of the patents and research journals which describe the ability to use HAARP are entirely theoretical, unproven sciences that may be designed by any researcher who feels a device of this nature may be capable of serving a certain purpose. A lot of conspiracy theorists point to the Eastlund Patent in attempt to prove that HAARP is a weapon, the patent speaks of heating an area 250Km above Earth to create plasma particles but HAARP is not powerful enough to produce such an effect. Another popular rumour says this is a 110 Megawatt facility but fails to mention that the unit of power being referred to is effective radiated power(ERP) and not the power of the facility, a concept that the average person has likely never heard of.

[5] The HAARP heating facility in Gakona, Alaska (62.39 N, 145.15 W) injects ELF/VLF waves Earth-ionosphere wave-guide as far as 4400 km [Moore et al., 2007] and also into space [Inan et al., 2004]. HAARP has recently been upgraded to a total radiated power of 3.6 MW, and an ERP capability of 400 MW at 3.25 MHz.
- GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35

At full power the IRI device at HAARP is capable of transmitting an ERP of 400 MW at 3.25 MHz using it’s 180 dipole antennae driven by 360 10kW transmitters. The range of altitude the IRI may effect is 100km to 300km, it does so over an area 18km in diameter at 200km with an ionospheric heating intensity of 3 microwatts per cm2 at max power, or 0.03 watts per m2. This device is comparatively thousands of times weaker compared to the forces of nature, it’s effect on the ionosphere is similar to dropping a grain of sand in an ocean.

On average, each square metre of the upper regions of the atmosphere receives 342 watts of solar radiation [W/m2]. The atmosphere absorbs on average 67 W/m2 and reflects 77 W/m2. About 198 W/m2 reaches the Earth’s surface, of which 168 W/m2 is absorbed and 30 W/m2 is reflected back to space. The total of the reflected radiation is 107 W/m2, or 31% of the incoming radiation.
- Nielsen, R. 2005, ‘Solar Radiation’

The average lightning bolt carries about 30,000 amps of charge, has 100 million volts of electric potential, and is hot, hot, hot at about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
- environment.about.com

Using the above figures we see that the intensity of the sun has an approximate intensity of 11,400 times more than the HAARP IRI and that the average wattage of a lightning bolt is 75,000,000 times more powerful than the intensity of HAARP’s IRI. The forces of nature are not controllable by humans at this time, to suggest that the HAARP IRI can influence the weather in any fashion is completely absurd. If a fully developed hurricane may potentially release 50 or more terawatts of heat energy at any time, how is a device that is 3.3^14 times weaker going to ‘steer’ it?

As for the many plans that have been drawn up for HAARP, the Eastlund Patent calls for an IRI device that has an intensity 33.3 times more powerful than the HAARP facility at maximum power. Since the patent was written in 1985, 8 years before construction started and 22 years before HAARP’s completion, it was entirely theoretical and not possible for Eastlund to know the capabilities of a device are that does not yet exist. According to a popular conspiracy theory website there has only been a single patent relating to IRI devices authored after HAARP’s completion. How many of those theoretical patents could have possibilities for a device that was either not real at the time or, from 1993 to 2007, an incomplete prototype?

Frequencies of a Growing Society

Radio frequencies are naturally occurring, humanity has been experimenting with them since the late 1800s. These man made radio frequencies are constantly growing, becoming more and more numerous as well as doubling in strength. Cell phone towers with multiple channels are implanted everywhere, the average channel having an ERP of 100 watts. If one of the most powerful FM radio stations has the capability of transmitting an ERP of 105kW then what is the amount of frequencies surrounding us from all of the radio stations in the areas in which we live?

The interrogating transmitter radiates on a frequency of 1030 MHz with a pulse pattern as shown below
- Aviation Radar Systems

19.9 GW ERP Weather Radar

“2. Is MegaDoppler 13 really the strongest radar in the Houston area?
Yes. Operating a million watts with effective radiated power of 19.9 Gigawatts, MegaDoppler 13 is the most powerful radar available in the U.S. today. And due to the technical specifications to which Mega Doppler 13 was built, it is the most powerful radar in Houston. It’s 20 times stronger than the first generation of TV radars. It’s 4 times stronger than the second generation of TV radars, like our old Super Doppler 13. It’s even stronger than the National Weather Service NEXRAD which operates at 750,000 watts.”

“4. How fast is MegaDoppler 13?
ABC13 meteorologists can adjust the sweep rate depending on the weather conditions. On most days, MegaDoppler13 will scan at 1-3 revolutions per minute. But during severe weather the radar can scan up to 6 rpm’s. That means MegaDoppler13 will be checking for rain above your house once every 10 seconds!”
- MegaDoppler13 FAQ

By using the information above, and doing your own research on IRI testing using scientific key terms, one should be able to further comprehend that at the current time radio high frequency geophysical weapons have yet to exist. In a sea of frequencies it seems that a mass public are pointing their fingers at the grains of sand that seem unfamiliar as a scapegoat for the world’s problems. There may still be the possibility that IRIs will one day, far from now, be able to affect the weather. Until that time a society reliant on cell phone towers, WiFi, radio towers, airport instruments and weather radar stations release hundreds of thousands of times more numerous effective radiated power frequencies than all Ionospheric Research Instruments on Earth combined.

SOURCE

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Red Sprite Photos: Dancing Faeries of the Clouds

August 26, 2013, 3:24 pm

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Red Sprite Photos: Dancing Faeries of the Clouds

Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a UFO? Strange lights in the sky are being closely watched by atmospheric scientists.

Dubbed red sprites by researchers, these dancing fairies-of-the-clouds are sometimes glimpsed as blood-red bursts of light in the shape of jellyfish.

Red sprites, these strange lights in the sky are called; they form above thunderstorms.

At other times, they appear as trumpet-shaped blue emissions, called blue jets. Like the most elusive of nymphs, however, red sprites and blue jets come out on only one occasion: during severe thunderstorms.

Although sporadically reported for years by airline pilots, only in the past decade or two has there been enough evidence to convince atmospheric scientists to investigate the phenomenon.

What’s that in the skies?

Now baffled researchers asking “What in the world is this?” may have found answers.

One-one thousandth of a second: How long red sprites last, faster than our blinking time.

Above a thunderstorm’s black clouds, sprites appear as bursts of red light flashing far into Earth’s atmosphere, according to scientist Hans Nielsen of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

The brief flashes look like glowing jellyfish, with red bells and purple tentacles. In a single night, a large thunderstorm system can emit up to one hundred sprites.

Into the wild blue–or red–yonder

Nielsen, Jason Ahrns, also of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, Matthew McHarg of the U.S. Air Force Academy and researchers from Fort Lewis College teamed up this summer to study sprites.

Above a thunderstorm’s black clouds, red sprites (upper right corner) mimic lightning.

They used the National Science Foundation (NSF)/National Center for Atmospheric Research Gulfstream-V aircraft, a high-flying plane capable of reaching altitudes of 50,000 feet, to conduct their research. Their project is funded by NSF.

Sprites are similar to lightning, say Nielsen and McHarg, in that they are electrical discharges from the atmosphere.

But while sprites mimic lightning “in some ways,” says McHarg, “they’re different in others. Lightning happens below and within clouds, at altitudes of two to five miles. Sprites occur far above the clouds, at about 50 miles up–10 times higher than lightning.”

Other NSF-funded research has tracked blue jets, close relatives of red sprites.

They’re also huge, he says, reaching 30 miles high.

“Red sprites don’t last very long, though, about one-one thousandth of a second. That’s 300 times quicker than the time it takes us to blink!”

Blue jets, which weren’t directly part of the scientists’ study, stick around longer than red sprites, originate at the tops of storm clouds, and shoot up to an altitude less than half that of red sprites. Blue jets are narrower than red sprites, and fan out like trumpet-shaped flowers in blue or purple hues.

“This field of research is fast evolving, and is important for understanding the global electric circuit,” says Anne-Marie Schmoltner, program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which supports the research. “The red sprite airborne field campaign this summer provided observations at unprecedented time resolutions.”

What makes thunderstorms’ celestial lights

Atmospheric researchers have developed theories to try to explain these celestial lights.

Red sprites may happen at the time of positively charged cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, which make up about ten percent of all lightning and are many times more powerful than more common, negatively charged lightning.

The flashes may be akin to giant electric sparks.

After a powerful ground strike, the electric field above a thunderstorm may become strengthened to the point that it causes an “electrical breakdown,” an overload that weakens the atmosphere’s resistance to electric current flow. The result is an immense red spark, or sprite, in the atmosphere.

Although still something of a mystery, red sprites have helped solve other long-standing questions.

Scientists have found that red sprites create some of the low-frequency radio bursts picked up for years by instruments around the world, but whose source was unknown.

Large bursts of gamma rays, emanating from Earth rather than space, originate during thunderstorms, although their exact relationship to red sprites remains unclear.

Researchers now wonder whether red sprites (and blue jets) might affect the atmosphere in important ways.

For example, sprites and jets might alter the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere. Though brief, they could set off lasting charges.

Sprites’ deep red color is caused by the light emitted from nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere, says McHarg. Red sprites may turn out to be important to atmospheric chemistry and global climate by changing concentrations of nitric oxides high in the atmosphere.

The researchers are using a technique called high-speed spectroscopy to study sprites’ different colors to determine the amount of energy the sprites carry, and to find out more about their chemical composition.

How to see a sprite

Can thunderstorm-watchers on the ground glimpse red sprites and blue jets with the naked eye? Yes, if they know where to look.

Viewers must be able to see a distant thunderstorm with no clouds in the way, in an area without city lights. Then they must look above the storm, not at the lightning within the clouds.

It’s likely, say the scientists, that if watchers wait long enough, they’ll see a red sprite. Blue jets are more elusive. The best viewing would probably come from a plane flying very high, and located miles and miles away from a thunderstorm.

With its rubber tires, a car may be the safest vehicle from which to hunt for ephemeral sprites of the thunderclouds.

Contacts and sources;
Cheryl Dybas, NSF

Hans Nielsen
University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus

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The Boy With The Body of a 110-year-old: Ali Hussain, 14, Suffers From Rare Genetic Disorder

August 26, 2013, 6:27 pm

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The Boy With The Body of a 110-year-old: Ali Hussain, 14, Suffers From Rare Genetic Disorder

Sufferer: Ali Hussain, 14, of Bihar, India, has Progeria which makes his body age eight times faster than normal. The rare condition is known to affect only 80 people in the world, but has killed five of his siblings

A 14-year-old boy has been left with the body of a 110-year-old in India because he has a rare disease which makes him age eight times faster than normal.

Ali Hussain has seen five of his siblings die from the same condition called Progeria which is known to affect just 80 people worldwide.

Two of his brothers and three of his sisters have died from the disease in Bihar, the poorest state in India.

Progeria causes rapid ageing and sufferers of the genetic disease are prone to arthritis, eye problems, heart disease and baldness.

Sufferers are not expected to live much beyond the age of 14 - but despite the grim prognosis Ali has refused to give up hope.

‘I very much want to live and I hope there is medicine for my condition out there. I’m not scared of death but my parents have suffered a lot,' he said.

'I’d love to live much longer for them. I don’t want to burden them with any more pain.’

Ali’s parents Nabi Hussain Khan, 50, and Razia, 46, are first cousins and were the product of an arranged marriage 32 years ago.

Illness: Ali's genetic condition effectively has the body of a 110-year-old because of the rare condition

Child victim: Ali Hussain is held by his mother Razia, 46. She has had eight children and six of them have suffered from Progeria

Their children Rehana, Iqramul, Gudiya and Rubina have all died from Progeria between the ages of 12 and 24.

A fifth child, a boy who died within 24 hours of being born, is also thought to have had the rare condition.

Nabia and Razia, who have had eight children in total, do have two healthy daughters - Sanjeeda, 20, who is married with two children of her own. Their youngest daughter Chanda, 10, also does not have Progeria.

When their first daughter, Rehana, was born in 1983 they had no idea anything was wrong at first. It was only after her second birthday when she couldn’t eat or walk properly did they visit a doctor.

But the doctor was baffled and he sent them home with some medicines. Progeria was so rare and poorly documented that most doctors had never heard of it.

Family victims: Nabi Hussain Khan, 50, (left) with his wife Razia, 46, (right) and their children. Sanjeeda, now aged 20, (back, centre) does not have Progeria

Two years later when their son Iqramul was born,and showed the same symptoms, the family went back to the doctor.

But again, they were not offered any tests or possible diagnosis.

Nabi, who works as a gatekeeper at a factory earning 2,000 rupees - or £20 - a month said: ‘We never heard of the word Progeria, the doctors never mentioned it. They were stabbing in the dark; they were as clueless as us.

'If a doctor had perhaps told us that our children were suffering with some kind of genetic problem and we were connected we would’ve stopped having children. But nothing was said.’

Nabi and Razia carried on having children hoping they would conceive a healthy boy or girl eventually. Their wish was granted when they had Sanjeeda.

In 1995, after years visiting different doctors, a consultant in Kolkata finally diagnosed four of their children with Progeria and broke the devastating news that there was no cure for ay of them.

‘The diagnosis didn’t help,’ Nabi added. ‘People were sure there was a cure. No one in our community believed there was nothing that could be done.

'Neighbours and extended family tormented us for not getting them help, they couldn’t understand a disease with no cure.’

Life was made unbearable for the five children growing up with Progeria and they were mocked in school and called names like ‘big-eyed boy’ and ‘Patlu’ meaning skinny.

Eventually they all stopped going to school.

Ali, who weighs just 1st 8lbs, said: ‘None of us have had a childhood, we were confined to our homes.

'We had each other but that was it. We had no life. When we did go to school we were pushed and shoved, called names, kids tried to harm us. We can’t do much physically either; our lungs are so small we get breathless easily.

Illness: Ali is fed by his mother. Progeria causes rapid ageing and sufferers of the genetic disease are prone to arthritis, eye problems, heart disease and baldness

‘I would love to be a normal person who can play, go to school, do some sports, take some risks. Sometimes I get depressed but most of the time I make the most of the life I have.’

Ali is now the family’s only surviving Progeria sufferer. When his brother Ikramul died four years ago he was devastated.

‘Iqramul was my best friend,’ he said. ‘I was very young when my other siblings died, so it were just Ikramul and I for a long time.

'He was very strong and didn't pay any attention to the bullies. When he died I cried for weeks and couldn't eat but then I realised I’d be doing him a huge injustice if I crumbled. I have no one now, no friends, but I have to stay strong.’

Victim: Ali, 14, who weighs just 1st 8lbs, is not expected to live more than a few years longer

Ali and his parents are now supported by a Kolkata-based charity called SB Devi Charity.

Pediatrician Dr Chandan Chattopadhyay, from Kolkata, introduced the family to the organisation and now they help Ali pay for his medical needs.

Ali spends all of his time with his mother and sisters, Sanjeeda, 20 and Chanda, ten, and he believes there’s no one else like him in the world.

But when told about the famous annual Progeria Reunion, run by the Sunshine Foundation, he would love to attend.

‘It’s very lonely living this life, especially since my siblings have gone,' he added.

'I don’t know if there’s anyone else like me. I’d like to be in the company of other people like me again. And I know my brother would be proud of me for doing so.’

SOURCE

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Syria Crisis: Russia And China Step Up Warning Over Strike

August 27, 2013, 1:02 pm

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Syria Crisis: Russia And China Step Up Warning Over Strike

Russia and China have stepped up their warnings against military intervention in Syria, with Moscow saying any such action would have "catastrophic consequences" for the region.

The US and its allies are considering launching strikes on Syria in response to deadly attacks last week.

The US said there was "undeniable" proof of a chemical attack, on Monday.

UN chemical weapons inspectors are due to start a second day of investigations in the suburbs of Damascus.

The UN team came under sniper fire as they tried to visit an area west of the city on Monday.

A spokesman for UK Prime Minister David Cameron says the UK is making contingency plans for military action in Syria.

Mr Cameron has cut short his holiday and returned to London to deal with the Syrian crisis.

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich has called on the international community to show "prudence" over the crisis and observe international law.

"Attempts to bypass the Security Council, once again to create artificial groundless excuses for a military intervention in the region are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries of the Middle East and North Africa," he said in a statement.

Late on Monday, the US said it was postponing a meeting on Syria with Russian diplomats, citing "ongoing consultations" about alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Hours later, Russia expressed regret about the decision. The two sides had been due to meet in The Hague on Wednesday to discuss setting up an international conference on finding a political solution to the crisis.

The Russian deputy defence minister, Gennady Gatilov said working out the political parameters for a resolution on Syria would be especially useful, with the threat of force hanging over the country.

On Monday, Mr Cameron spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin who said there was no evidence yet that Syria had used chemical weapons against rebels, Mr Cameron's office said.

The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, said Western powers were rushing to conclusions about who may have used chemical weapons in Syria before UN inspectors had completed their investigation.

UN visit

Both the Syrian government and rebels have blamed each other for last Wednesday's attacks.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said three hospitals it supported in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms", of whom 355 had died.

US officials said there was "little doubt" that President Bashar al-Assad's government was to blame.

UN inspectors spent nearly three hours in the western district of Muadhamiya on Monday where they visited two hospitals and interviewed survivors, eyewitnesses and doctors.

A UN spokesman said they had collected some samples.

Earlier in the day, the UN convoy came under fire from unidentified snipers and was forced to turn back before resuming its journey.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the shooting and asked the UN team in Syria to register a complaint.

'Accountability'

In the most forceful US reaction yet, US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday described the recent attacks in the Damascus area as a "moral obscenity".

He said the delay in allowing UN inspectors to the sites was a sign the Syrian government had something to hide.

He said Washington had additional information about the attacks that it would make public in the days ahead.

"What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality," Mr Kerry said at a news conference on Monday.

"Make no mistake, President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people."

Washington has recently bolstered its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean and military leaders from the US, UK and their allies have convened a meeting in Jordan.

Analysts believe the most likely US action would be sea-launched cruise missiles targeting Syrian military installations.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Monday the West had not produced any proof that President Assad's forces had used chemical weapons.

He was responding to suggestions from some Western countries that military action against the Syrian government could be taken without a UN mandate.

Mr Lavrov said the use of force without Security Council backing would be "a crude violation of international law".

Earlier, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC an international military response to the suspected use of chemical weapons would be possible without the backing of the UN.

The UN Security Council is divided, with Russia and China opposing military intervention and the UK and France warning that the UN could be bypassed if there was "great humanitarian need".

In a column in The Times newspaper, former UK PM Tony Blair has written that if the West does not intervene to support freedom and democracy in Egypt and Syria, the Middle East will face catastrophe

The UN says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began more than two years ago. The conflict has produced more than 1.7 million registered refugees.

SOURCE

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Putin Orders Massive Strike Against Saudi Arabia If West Attacks Syria

August 27, 2013, 9:44 pm

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Putin Orders Massive Strike Against Saudi Arabia If West Attacks Syria

A grim “urgent action memorandum” issued today from the office of President Putin to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is ordering a “massive military strike” against Saudi Arabia in the event that the West attacks Syria.

According to Kremlin sources familiar with this extraordinary “war order,” Putin became “enraged” after his early August meeting with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan who warned that if Russia did not accept the defeat of Syria, Saudi Arabia would unleash Chechen terrorists under their control to cause mass death and chaos during the Winter Olympicsscheduled to be held 7-23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

Lebanese newspaper As-Safir confirmed this amazing threat against Russia saying that Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord by stating: “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off.“These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

London’s The Telegraph News Service further reported today that Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria, an offer Putin replied to by saying “Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters” [Putin said referring to footage showing a Jihadist rebel eating the heart and liver of a Syrian soldier HERE], and which Prince Bandar in turn warned that there can be “no escape from the military option” if Russia declines the olive branch.

Critical to note, and as we had previously reported on in our 28 January 2013 report “Obama Plan For World War III Stuns Russia,” the Federal Security Services (FSB) confirmed the validity of the released hacked emails of the British based defence company, Britam Defence that stunningly warned the Obama regime was preparing to unleash a series of attacks against both Syria and Iran in a move Russian intelligence experts warned could very well cause World War III.

According to this FSB report, Britam Defence, one of the largest private mercenary forces in the world, was the target of a “massive hack” of its computer files by an “unknown state sponsored entity” this past January who then released a number of critical emails between its top two executives, founder Philip Doughty and his Business Development Director David Goulding.

The two most concerning emails between Doughty and Goulding, this report says, states that the Obama regime has approved a “false flag” attack in Syria using chemical weapons, and that Britam has been approved to participate in the West’s warn on Iran, and as we can read:

Email 1: Phil, We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington. We’ll have to deliver a CW (chemical weapon) to Homs (Syria), a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have. They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record. Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion? Kind regards David

Email 2: Phil, Please see attached details of preparatory measures concerning the Iranian issue. Participation of Britam in the operation is confirmed by the Saudis.

With the events now spiraling out of control in Syria, and London’s Independent News Service now reporting that Prince Bandar is “pushing for war,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich further warned the West today by stating, “Attempts to bypass the Security Council, once again to create artificial groundless excuses for a military intervention in the region are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries of the Middle East and North Africa.”

Heedless of Russian warnings which have fallen on deaf ears, however, British Prime Minister David Cameron this morning recalled the British Parliament to vote on attacking Syria as the Obama regime abruptly cancelledtheir meeting with Russia scheduled for tomorrow on finding a path to peace for Syria, and the West begins its plans to attack the Syrian nation “within days.”

As Syria itself has warned that should it be attacked by the West there will be “global chaos,” the Western peoples themselves have not been told of the fact that on 17 May 2013, Putin ordered Russian military forces to “immediately move” from Local War to Regional War operational status and to be “fully prepared” to expand to Large-Scale War should either the US or EU enter into the Syrian Civil War, a situation they are still in at this very hour.

With Putin’s previous order, and as we had reported on in our 17 May report “Russia Issues “All-Out War” Alert Over Syria,” and now combined with his new ordering of massive retaliatory strikes against Saudi Arabia, any attack on Syria is viewed by Russia as being an attack on itself.

And as we had previously explained in great detail, the fight over Syria, being led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and their lap-dog Western allies, has but one single objective: To break Russia’s hold on the European Union natural gas market which a pipeline through Syria would accomplish, and as reported by London’s Financial Times News Service this past June:

“The tiny gas-rich state of Qatar has spent as much as $3bn over the past two years supporting the rebellion in Syria, far exceeding any other government, but is now being nudged aside by Saudi Arabia as the prime source of arms to rebels.

The cost of Qatar’s intervention, its latest push to back an Arab revolt, amounts to a fraction of its international investment portfolio. But its financial support for the revolution that has turned into a vicious civil war dramatically overshadows western backing for the opposition.

Qatar [also] has proposed a gas pipeline from the Gulf to Turkey in a sign the emirate is considering a further expansion of exports from the world’s biggest gasfield after it finishes an ambitious programme to more than double its capacity to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG).”

And in what is, perhaps, the most unimaginable cause to start World War III over Syria was noted by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich who said this past week: “We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature,” he stressed. “In particular, there are reports circulating on the Internet, in particular that the materials of the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it was a pre-planned action.”

For the West to have so sloppily engineered yet another “false flag” attack to justify a war where they posted the videos of this so-called chemical weapons attack a full day before it was said to occur is the height of arrogance and disdain, but which their sleep-walking citizens, yet again, will fall for as they have done so many times in the past.

SOURCE

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At the Very Least, Your Days of Eating Pacific Ocean Fish Are Over

August 28, 2013, 4:45 pm

≫ Next: Boy's Eyes GOUGED OUT After Being 'Kidnapped by Organ Trafficker'

≪ Previous: Putin Orders Massive Strike Against Saudi Arabia If West Attacks Syria

At the Very Least, Your Days of Eating Pacific Ocean Fish Are Over

It now appears that anywhere from 300 to possibly over 450 tons of contaminated water that contains radioactive iodone, cesium, and strontium-89 and 90, is flooding into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima Daichi site everyday. To give you an idea of how bad that actually is, Japanese experts estimate Fukushima’s fallout at 20-30 times as high as as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings in 1945

There’s a lot you’re not being told. Oh, the information is out there, but you have to dig pretty deep to find it, and you won’t find it on the corporate-owned evening news.

An MSNBC article in April of 2012 reported that seals and polar bears were found to have “external maladies” that consisted of fur loss and open sores, obvious signs of radiation burns from the Fukushima meltdown, despite the conclusions of the article.

Fukushima radiation appears to be causing an epidemic of dead and starving Sea Lions in California and the FDA has refused to test for radiation

Update: Huffington Post reports that the reactors used “dirty fuel,” a combination of plutonium and uranium (MOX), which means we can never return to this place again. This comes from a Russian nuclear physicist who is an expert on the kinds of gasses being released at Fukushima.

.Almost a third more US West Coast newborns may face thyroid problems after Fukushima nuclear disaster
Contaminated water from Fukushima reactors could double radioactivity levels of US coastal waters in 5 years— “We were surprised at how quickly the tracer spread”

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE PACIFIC OCEAN FOOD CHAIN?

– May 2013 –Researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology reported in early 2012 that they have detected radioactive cesium from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in plankton collected from all 10 points in the Pacific they checked, with the highest levels at around 25 degrees north latitude and 150 degrees west longitude. Plankton, and the radiation they contain, moves right up the food chain through fish, whales, seals, etc., and when larger fish eat smaller fish. Kyodo: Highest levels of Fukushima contamination in plankton already east of Hawaii?

A WARNING TO SEAFOOD LOVERS EVERYWHERE

– Scientists previously reported higher-than-expected concentrations of radiation in fish off Japan. Now there are calls for testing of seafood sold in the U.S. Although contaminated air, rainfall and even radioactive debris from Japan have drifted toward the U.S. West Coast since the disaster occurred 2 1/2 years ago, scientists are unclear about how the contaminated waters could impact the health of Americans, and while scientists say that 300 tons of contaminate water is diluted in the Pacific, no one knows how long that’s been going during those 2 1/2 years as we also now know TEPCO has been lying all along. Nuclear experts are calling on the U.S. government to test West Coast waters and Pacific seafood sold in the U.S. in the wake of Japan’s alarming admission about an ongoing radiation leak, something the EPA and the FDA have so far refused to do, as they are only testing imported fish, not wild-caught. WHY? The only way to protect your children and grandchildren is by NOT EATING SEAFOOD from the Pacific Ocean until we have better information. Source.Information posted at the website of heThe Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California recommends not buying any fish from the Pacific Ocean or western states, including Baja.

WHAT YOU HAVEN’T BEEN TOLD ABOUT FISH CONTAMINATION

Tissue samples taken from 15 bluefin caught in August, five months after the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi, all 15 contained reactor byproducts cesium-134 and cesium-137.
The 15 fish tested were only exposed to radiation for a short time. But bluefin arriving in California now will have been exposed to the Fukushima radiation for much longer.
Unlike some other compounds, radioactive cesium does not quickly sink to the sea bottom but remains dispersed in the water column, from the surface to the ocean floor. Fish can swim right through it, ingesting it through their gills, by taking in seawater or by eating organisms that have already taken it in.
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that there is no safe level of radiation … and radiation consumed and taken into the body is much more dangerous than background radiation.
The Telegraph notes that scientists tagged a bluefin tuna and found that it crossed between Japan and the West Coast three times in 600 days: All Pacific migratory fish are likely Fukushima contaminated.
Why have Contaminated Alaskan Halibut been found even though halibut don’t migrate? The cesium-134 contamination from radioactive plumes doesn’t just fall on land.
Study shows Fukushima nuclear pollution becoming more concentrated as it approaches U.S. West Coast — Plume crosses ocean in a nearly straight line toward N. America — Appears to stay together with little dispersion (MODEL)
Pacific herring in Canada bleeding from eyeballs, faces, fins, tails — I’ve never seen fish looking this bad — All 100 examined were bloody — Officials informed of hemorrhaging soon after 3/11 — Gov’t ignoring problem.
Unprecedented: Sockeye salmon at dire historic low on Canada’s Pacific coast — “We think something happened in the ocean” — “The elders have never seen anything like this at all” — Alaska and Russia also affected.
Japan Times: Fukushima Daiichi radioactive water problems seem ‘uncontainable’ — Believed to be wreaking environmental havoc upon Pacific Ocean.
Reuters: Crisis deepening at Fukushima nuclear plant; Upgraded to ‘Level 3 Serious Incident’ — Represents a 100-fold increase in “severity of a radiological release” — Tepco says highly radioactive leakage continues, but unknown where from.
It’s more than obvious that TEPCO officials have no idea what they’re doing, and the big question is why aren’t world governments jumping in to contain what’s going on? Meanwhile, the Pacific Ocean may very well be dying.

SOURCE

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Boy's Eyes GOUGED OUT After Being 'Kidnapped by Organ Trafficker'

August 28, 2013, 9:57 pm

≫ Next: Russia Sends Warships to Mediterranean

≪ Previous: At the Very Least, Your Days of Eating Pacific Ocean Fish Are Over

Parents' horror as Chinese boy, 6, has his eyes GOUGED OUT after being 'kidnapped by organ trafficker who stole both his corneas'

Organ traffickers gouged out the eyes of a six-year-old boy to sell on China’s transplant black market, it was claimed yesterday.

Police said the child, Binbin, was drugged after being kidnapped while playing outside his home.

His family found him covered in blood and crying in pain three to four hours later. His eyes were found nearby with the corneas missing, police say, implying that an organ trafficker was behind the attack.

Horrific: A Chinese boy lies in hospital after he had his eyes gouged out reportedly by an organ trafficker

Recovering: The youngster was playing alone outside his home in Linfen, Shanxi Province, when he was allegedly snatched on Monday evening

An entire eye cannot be transplanted, but a cornea could be vital for a patient with faltering vision.

Police are seeking a woman suspect and have offered £10,500 for information leading to an arrest.

Binbin’s devastated father said: ‘We didn’t notice his eyes were gone when we discovered him – he had blood all over his face. We thought he had fallen down and smashed his face.’

The boy was rushed to hospital where doctors were shocked to find his eyes had been removed. His father said: ‘His eyelids were turned inside out, and his eyeballs were not there.’

Illegal organ harvesting is booming in China, where there is a shortage of donors, and last night, amid domestic and international outrage, Beijing was urged to crack down on the country’s multi-million-pound transplant industry.

Binbin was shown on state TV being taken in bandages from an operating theatre to a hospital bed, writhing in agony as his shocked family wept.

China Central Television said he had been drugged and ‘lost consciousness’ before the attacker removed his eyes.

His parents discovered he was missing when they called for him to come in around 8pm on Monday but received no response.

Mortified: Relatives of the youngster talk to a nurse. His parents realised he was missing when they tried to call hm inside the house but received response

'Extraordinarily vicious': The child's eyes were found nearby but the corneas were missing, reports said, implying that an organ trafficker was behind the harrowing attack

After a frantic search with relatives, they found him screaming in a field near their home in Fenxi, north China. The kidnapper had reportedly told Binbin: ‘Don’t cry and I won’t gouge out your eyes.’

China does not have a donor culture, but about 300,000 patients need transplants each year. Only about 10,000 receive organs, mainly taken from death-row prisoners.

Though the sale and transplant of organs for money is prohibited, lax laws and widespread corruption have fuelled a booming industry.

China is also a leading destination for ‘transplant tourists’ who travel there to obtain organs.

Last night international doctors appalled by Binbin’s suffering called on leading medical journals to ban publication of Chinese research papers on organ transplants, to shame the country into tackling the problem.

Professor Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at New York University and spokesman for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, said: ‘As unimaginable and untrue as this boy’s torment sounds, it shocks but does not surprise.

‘Whereas hearts, livers and kidneys must be sourced from donors who match the same blood and body type of recipient patients, in-demand corneas for corrective eyesight operations can be taken from any age and body type.

‘Anyone who knows where the corneas are located in the eye can extract them, and I fear for the unsterile conditions and the barbaric methods used, and that infection may add to the boy’s suffering.

‘He will suffer unthinkable physical and psychological pain.’

Professor Caplan urged international governments to ‘stand up to China’ and take action to make it clean up its transplant industry.

‘Transplant tourists who travel to China with the right amount of money can order the organ needed,’ he said. ‘A prisoner is found to match the recipient and is taken out and shot.’

Last weekend, Chinese police detained members of a kidney- trafficking ring, including a team of four doctors and nurses.

WHY DID THEY TAKE THE CORNEAS?

The organ trafficker may have been motivated by money.

But they could also have been driven to such a horrific crime by the hope of saving someone's sight - or even their own.

Problems with the cornea - the clear front part of the eye - can cause the eye to mist up and, if left untreated, lead to blindness.

But the most serious conditions such as Fuchs' dystrophy, a degenerative condition that affects older people, can be cured with a transplant, above (file picture).

Until recent years, the only operation was a full cornea transplant, an operation that involved 24 stitches in each eye and an 18-month recovery period.

But advances in technology have meant surgeons can now carry out a partial replacement under local anaesthetic with a recovery time of just four weeks.

SOURCE

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Russia Sends Warships to Mediterranean

August 29, 2013, 3:24 pm

≫ Next: Possible naval showdown: U.S. 6th Fleet vs. Russian Mediterranean Task Force

≪ Previous: Boy's Eyes GOUGED OUT After Being 'Kidnapped by Organ Trafficker'

The Russian Navy has denied that the dispatch of two warships to the eastern Mediterranean is linked to western military action against Syria, despite Interfax quoting a source in the armed forces’ general staff who said the deployment was in response to the “well-known situation”.

As part of plans to have five or six vessels stationed in the region, initial reports stated that Russia had sent an anti-submarine ship and a missile cruiser to waters near Syria because the crisis “required us to make some adjustments” in the naval force, according to Interfax.

However, within hours a Russian Naval spokesperson told RIA Novosti that the maneuvers were part of planned rotation and not linked to the worsening situation in Syria.

“The vessels in the Mediterranean, like those in other parts of the world, act under plans by the Russian Naval Command and General Staff, and fulfil tasks set,” the Naval spokesperson said.

“On completion of these tasks, the vessels then either return to their bases, or are replaced by other vessels to complete the tasks set,” the spokesperson said, adding “This does not amount to a renewal of any grouping or groupings, it is a planned rotation.”

According to Ariel Cohen, a senior research fellow at the US think tank the Heritage Foundation, a western attack on Syria would prompt Russia to “deploy a permanent naval squadron in the Mediterranean and accelerate the search for naval bases and anchorages, such as Tartus and Latakiyeh in Syria.”

Russia has consistently supported the Syrian government and repeatedly vetoed efforts by Britain and the US to secure the green light for military intervention via the UN Security Council. Efforts by Downing Street to propose a new draft resolution that would have greased the skids for cruise missile attacks were rebuffed by Russia and China yesterday.

Both Russia and China have warned that a military attack on Syria would have “catastrophic consequences” for the region.

SOURCE

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Possible naval showdown: U.S. 6th Fleet vs. Russian Mediterranean Task Force

August 29, 2013, 5:11 pm

≫ Next: US-Syria Situation Could Start 'World War 3' Next Month

≪ Previous: Russia Sends Warships to Mediterranean

Possible naval showdown: U.S. 6th Fleet vs. Russian Mediterranean Task Force

With the possibility of chemical weapons being used in the ongoing Syrian Civil War, the Obama Administration has upped the ante by ordering a fourth cruise missile-armed warship into the Eastern Mediterranean area, as reported by both the news portal IsraelHayom.com and the Associated Press via ABC News on Aug. 25, 2013.

The USS Mahan has joined her sister ships, the USS Gravely, the USS Barry and the USS Rampage in the waters off Syria if Barack Obama orders a cruise missile strike against presumably the forces of Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad due to accusations by Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda-allied rebels against Assad of allegedly using chemical weapons against 1,000 Syrian civilians.

For his part, Assad denies the accusations and blames the rebel forces of fabricating the claim in hopes of garnering Western military support.

To date, there has been no independent or objective verification if any chemical attack by either side has been launched and/or civilians have been killed or wounded.

U.S. 6th Fleet

The End Of U.S. Sovereignty?

Obama hedged his bets on direct deadly force against Assad when he stated last Friday that the United States of America can only act if given permission by the United Nations:

If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it — do we have the coalition to make it work?

Those are considerations that we have to take into account.

Russian Mediterranean Task Force

Relationship Between Barack Obama And Vladimir Putin…

The diplomatic workings between the two world leaders have been tenuous at best.

It's widely believed in diplomatic circles that it couldn't have been lost on the American leader that Assad's greatest ally on the world stage and greatest supplier of military equipment has been Putin's Russia.

Russian Mediterranean Task Force

Russian Build Up Greatest In Decades…

On May 16, 2013, the news portal Russia Today reported that Moscow is establishing a permanent and powerful naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean for the first time since the days of the Soviet Union.

The group includes destroyer the RFS (Russian Federation Ship) Admiral Panteleyev, two amphibious warfare ships the RFS Peresvet and the RFS Admiral Nevelskoi, complete with approximately 2,000 Russian Marines, as well as a oil tanker and an ocean going tug.

Slated to join the Russian Mediterranean Squadron include an anti-submarine destroyer, a frigate and a yet a third amphibious assault ship.

The Russians have also made it clear they "possibly" may add both diesel and nuclear submarines to it's growing naval presence in the area.

For decades the sole Russian naval installation was the maintenance facility in the Syrian city of Tartus, which has since been quickly evacuated and all but shut-down.

But there has been increasing movement with the Russian Navy opening up shop in the Cyprus port city of Limassol as well as possibly headquartering a forward deployed air power component at the Cypriot Air Force base at the Andreas Papandreou Air Base at Paphos.

SOURCE

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US-Syria Situation Could Start 'World War 3' Next Month

August 29, 2013, 6:25 pm

≫ Next: Man Fined £300 For Swallowing Human Toe In Whisky Cocktail

≪ Previous: Possible naval showdown: U.S. 6th Fleet vs. Russian Mediterranean Task Force

US-Syria Situation Could Start 'World War 3' Next Month

A major confrontation is in the works for this week, as President Obama and European leaders insist on launching attacks on Syria, despite warnings from Russiaand China. The action is over alleged gas attacks in Syria that has killed 355 people. There does seem to be a difference of opinion in who was responsible.

Opponents to the action point out that at the time of the attack, the Syrian army was pushing the Al Qaeda fighters backwards with ease. It is also curious that Assad would launch a gas attack three days after UN investigators arrived to look into another previous attack. It is also curious that the attack occurred in a resicential neighborhood, near where the UN inspectors were staying and not in the nearby rebel camp. Opponents say that makes no sense.

Proponents say that Assad was just out to display his power, but they have not explained why the attack took place where it did. Both the United States government and that of the UK both claim it's irrefutable that Assad launched the attack and cited intelligence that could not be made public due to security concerns.

Secretary of State, John Kerry, has stated that it is almost irrefutable that Assad's forces were responsible for the attacks and that we are in the final stages of firming up the evidence to support it. UK and Israeli intelligence both point to Assad, also.

China and Russia are warning the US and the European nations, that they believe such actions would be catastrophic for the region. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich stated, "Attempts to bypass the Security Council, once again to create artificial groundless excuses for a military intervention in the region are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries of the Middle East and North Africa."

Lukashevich's comments is a reference to Libya, where the US and European allies made it possible for Al Qaeda to seize power in Libya and make inroads because of the weak Libyan government. Al Qaeda seized arms from Ghadaffi's bunkers and sent them to be used in uprisings in Mali and Algiers, where Americans have been killed.

The White House cancelled a meeting with Russians to discuss the Syrian crises but Putin did speak to David Cameron. Putin said there is no evidence that Assad was to blame for the attack. China issued a statement, through the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, that western powers were rushing to place the blame before the UN investigators even get a chance to do their job.

Neither country made any specific announcements about what they might do if ignored. But in the past, Russia has used it's navy to patrol the Syrian waters. Iran has issued warnings about a possible attack also. An attack against Syria could send the entire Middle east into turmoil.

Concerns remain about a severe power vacuum that would exist with the ouster of Assad, that could put Al Qaeda in a position of power, like they've done in Libya. After President Obama laid out the :Red Line" against Syria, there was a gas attack, and the US used that as an excuse to arm the rebels.

This attack would aid Al Qaeda who was losing ground over the previous week and that fuels the speculation, they may have been involved. In previous attacks, Al Qaeda has used the strategy to kill as many as possible to fuel the outrage. It must be pointed out that there is not any evidence that Al Qaeda was behind the attack.

SOURCE

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