Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer made the talk show rounds today saying that the “law is irrelevant” … Read More
Teargas and shots in air as Tunisian police clash with hundreds of Salafi protesters (VIDEO, PHOTOS)
Violence broke out in the central city of Kairouan and in the capital, Tunis. Clashes in the Tunis suburb of Ettadhamen erupted between nearly 500 supporters of Ansar al-Sharia and law enforcements as protesters started throwing stones. Teargas was also reportedly used in Kairouan, as Salafis threw stones at the police from behind the wall of a mosque.Group’s spokesman Seifeddine Rais, the group’s spokesman, was arrested at dawn on Sunday as he went jogging in front of police, according to a police source, who described his behavior as a “provocation,” Al Jazeera reported. The recent rally that turned violent comes two days after the government banned the Islamist group from holding its annual congress in the central city of Kairouan. On Friday the government ruled the group had “shown disdain for state institutions” and was “a threat to public security”.“The congress is postponed to another date undecided yet,” Habib Al-Lawz, a leader from the ruling Ennahda party, told a local Radio station on Saturday.Despite the ban, the group vowed the meeting would take place, but said they would gather at a different location, in an impoverished suburb of Tunis instead of Kairouan, where security forces were deployed in strength on Saturday. On its Facebook page, Ansar al-Sharia notified its supporters the congress has been moved to Ettadhamen. Earlier, the movement told to stay away from Kairouan.”To the attention of our brothers who are coming to Kairouan from other regions… the head of Ansar al-Sharia informs you of the need to cancel all these trips given the seriousness of the security situation,” the group said on its website. … Read More
Plane with over 130 aboard catches fire on landing at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport (VIDEO)
The UTair airline plane had arrived in Moscow from the southern Russian city of Stavropol. Boing 737-400 is a medium-range, narrow-body jet airliner. Approximate range: 5,000 km. Overall length: 36.5 meters. Wingspan: 28.9 meters. First flight took place on 19 February 1988, entering service on September 15, 1988. Capable of carrying up to 168 passengers. Cockpit crew: two members. “The plane’s left landing gear leg caught fire upon landing. Preliminary reports suggest the brake wheels were destroyed,” Ria Novosti news agency has quoted a police source, adding that the airport was closed at 7:48 am Moscow time (0308 GMT) and reopened at about 10:00 am after the aircraft had been removed from the runway.An unnamed fireman at the scene confirmed to the Russian news channel Russia 24, that the incident had been “dangerous.”The plane was carrying 136 people but none of the 129 passengers or 7 crew members were injured in the incident.Despite the plane being nearly full, everyone was evacuated promptly, according to one of the passengers.”The plane banked on landing. However, it landed quite successfully. Then the flight attendant announced the evacuation. Passengers were hurried down escape chutes. Passengers saw the burst wheel and fire. “Within three minutes there were no passengers left onboard,” according to Evgeny Popov, a reporter for Russia 2, who coincidentally happened to be on the flight. The airport had to divert 23 flights to neighboring airports, as the emergency unfolded.The last emergency situation took place at Vnukovo airport on December 29, 2012, when a Tu-204 aircraft belonging to Russian budget airline Red Wings performed a hard-landing and skidded off the runway, crashing into a highway. The plane, flying from the Czech Republic, was practically empty, with only crew of eight on board. Five of them were killed. … Read More
‘Iraqi scenario repeating in Libya’
A car bomb has exploded in a crowded area outside a hospital in Libya’s second largest city, Benghazi, with the blast claiming at least 15 lives. Henningsen, from the 21st Century Wire website, believes that US strategy for the Middle East region is the main reason behind the disintegration of the countries there. When asked about Syria, he says one only has to look at Libya and Iraq to picture what would happen in the event of Bashar Assad’s fall.RT: There have been a string of attacks in Libya over the past month – Is there anything the government there can do to improve the security situation?Patrick Henningsen: It looks very similar to the situation we’ve grown used to seeing in Iraq what we’re seeing now in Libya. Just by the nature of this car bombing where there’s a crowded hospital area designed to create the most casualties and also attacks on police stations. There’s a sort of strategy of instability that we’ve seen in Iraq over the years. So, looking at Iraq how long the stability took to achieve there and it’s not safe there a decade onwards. I think we’re looking at the same situation here in Libya. RT: Armed mobs recently surrounded government ministries in Tripoli. Is there a danger that radical groups could seize power by force?PH: Yes, this is always a danger in Libya. And one of the reasons this is the case is because there’s been a heavy amount of activity by Western intelligence agencies during the battle for Libya and after. And, of course, that culminated with what we saw in Benghazi last fall. The US had tried to eliminate some of the potential leaderships in the anti-temporary Libyan government, which are pro-Gaddafi militias, basically. And that radicalized some of those groups over the last two years. It’s a recipe for chaos in Libya. It’s really sad because Libya has got a huge challenge in order to have some semblance of law, order and government in that country right now. RT: The attack on the French embassy in Tripoli last month was seen as a reprisal for the French intervention in Mali. Do you think that operation has contributed to instability in Libya?PH: Yes, that’s also possible. The whole North African region is awash with various Islamist radical groups. And I’m sorry to say that this is a US administration that has allied itself with the Islamists and now they’re having trouble taming the monster that they’ve created. They used the Islamist groups in order to archive victory in Libya. And also they’re doing the exact same strategy in Syria. So, looking into Syria, if you want to have any indication what it might look like if NATO and Washington and London and Paris are successful in toppling the [Bashar] Assad regime – we’ll get what’s happening in Lydia now. Look at the destabilization, Islamist groups splintering, running amok, basically, it’s a terrorist playground right now in Libya. And you’ll see the exact same thing if they topple the Assad government in Syria. … Read More
Detroit is ‘insolvent,’ according to emergency manager
Kevyn Orr was hired by Michigan back in March to meet with leaders in Detroit to try and figure a way to save the once-thriving city from total bankruptcy. On Sunday he released the first report to show his findings over the past month and a half, and his assessment painted a picture of a city in far worse shape than many thought.According to Orr’s report, the one-time headquarters of the automobile industry is one month away from running out of cash yet owes billions.”The City of Detroit continues to incur expenditures in excess of revenues despite cost reductions and proceeds from long-term debt issuances,” Orr wrote. “In other words, Detroit spends more than it takes in – it is clearly insolvent on a cash flow basis.”“Without a significant restructuring of its debt, the city will be unable to break the cycle of damaging cutbacks in essential municipal services and investments,” the study found.Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said in March of Detroit that “There’s probably no city that’s more financially challenged in the entire United States.” He declared a state of fiscal emergency at the time and told Detroit Mayor David Bing that he’d be appointing an emergency manager — Orr — to assist with operations.Initially, the Detroit City Council rejected the governor’s decision.“We feel like we have the tools necessary to do it, that somebody else does not have to come in and do it for us,” Council President Charles Pugh told the Associated Press at the time.Ultimately, Snyder sent Orr to assess the situation, a decision Bing endorsed because, according to him, “we have to learn to make the best out of a bad situation.” Now with the completion of Orr’s first report, the details of that dilemma are being fully revealed.Orr wrote that a number of issues are keeping Detroit from staying afloat much longer, including an ever-growing deficit, loads of liabilities and rampant mismanagement in terms of city services. At the end of fiscal year 2012, Detroit had “negative cash flows of $115.5 million” and things have only worsened. By the end of April the city was holding onto $64 million cash, but was obligated to the tune of roughly $226 million.Orr found additionally that the city has liabilities including pension obligations, bonds and loans totaling $9.4 billion — including $5.7 billion in unfunded retiree benefit obligations — and expects the total deficit to top $380 million by June 30. At that point, the city will have to either defer pension payments and other obligations or pray for a miracle.“If we don’t change and restructure, we are going to run out of cash,” Bill Nowling, a spokesman for Orr, told Bloomberg News. “That shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody.”According to Nowling, all of the city’s revenue couldn’t pay off its debt in 20 years’ time.“This is exactly the situation the city is in, and our creditors need to know that,” Nowling said. “Some do. A lot don’t.”But as the city of Detroit is stuck figuring out who to pay and how exactly they’ll do that, Orr wrote that other issues need to be examined in order to cut down on costs. He noted that recently he signed off on a contract with the Michigan Department of Corrections that will consolidate all Detroit Police Department pre-arraignment jail operations into one centralized jail, and that the regular closings of roughly a dozen fire stations in the city at any given time has saved costs — albeit at a price that could mean the difference between life and death.Elsewhere, Orr said that the city’s safety concerns are only made worse by blight, “one of the city’s most pervasive and pressing problems” he calls both a public safety and a public health issue.“In its 139 square miles, the city includes at least 60,000 parcels of vacant land (constituting approximately 15 percent of all parcels in the city) and approximately 78,000 vacant structures, of which 38,000 are estimated to be in potentially dangerous condition,” Orr wrote.“All city services are less efficient, and under-resourced, because these services must be provided over a large geographic area with low population density,” he continued. Indeed, population has dropped by 60 percent since the 1950s, but meanwhile Orr said the city still provides services to a geographic area larger than Boston, Manhattan and San Francisco combined. “Falling levels of economy activity,” he wrote, “also feed into a smaller ratepayer base to support city services, including water, sewer and electricity.”In a statement he issued with the release of his report, Orr wrote, “No one should underestimate the severity of the financial crisis,” calling his assessment “a sobering wake-up call about the dire financial straits the city of Detroit faces.” … Read More
Inside Story Americas – The consequences of the sequester
http://www.youtube.com/v/IylnHIs1wU4?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Source article: Inside Story Americas – The consequences of the sequester
‘Worse than AIDS’ – sex ‘superbug’ discovered in Japan called disaster in waiting
“This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly,” Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, told CNBC.The new strain of gonorrhea, H041, was first discovered in 2009 after a sex worker fell victim to the superbug in Japan. Medical officials reported that the medication-resilient ‘sex superbug’ was discovered in Hawaii in May 2011, and has since spread to California and Norway, the International Business Times reports.Nearly 30 million people die from AIDS-related causes each year, and the H041 superbug could have similar consequences, according to Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine.”Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days,” Christianson said. “This is very dangerous.”The gonorrhea strain has not yet claimed any lives, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have asked Congress for $54 million to find an antibiotic to treat the strain.In a Capitol Hill briefing last week, health officials said an education and public awareness campaign is crucial in minimizing the effective of HO41. William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition for STD Directors, said that if the ‘sex superbug’ spreads, it could quickly kill many people before a treatment is discovered. And that risk becomes increasingly more likely if Congress does not provide the funds to find a cure, he said.”It’s an emergency situation. As time moves on, it’s getting more hazardous,” he told members of Congress.”We have to keep beating the drum on this,” he added. “The potential for disaster is great.”In the United States, there are 20 million new STD infections each year, which results in about $16 billion in medical costs, the CDC reports. More than 800,000 of these cases gonorrhea infections, most of which occur in young people ages 15 to 24. Gonorrhea is sometimes difficult to detect, since it shows no symptoms in about half of all women. Those who fall ill to the deadly strain may not notice it until it’s too late.“That’s what’s kind of scary about this,” Smith said.Although health officials have widely reported that cases of H041 were discovered in California, Hawaii and Norway, the CDC has disputed those claims and told CNBC on Monday that the infection has not been confirmed anywhere outside of Japan. The CDC did, however, make an announcement in 2011 that it was noticing greater gonorrhea bacterial resistance to certain types of antibiotics in Hawaii and California. CDC officials said that the US and Norwegian cases were treated effectively with antibiotics not routinely recommended and that these cases were mistakenly identified as H041. But the agency continues to urge Congress for research funding, indicating that the risk of infection is high regardless of where the cases occurred.Christianson is urging people to practice safe sex and get STD tests if they are in a new relationship, since a superbug infection could be around the corner.”This is a disaster just waiting to happen,” he told CNBC. “It’s time to do something about it before it explodes. These superbugs, including the gonorrhea strain, are a health threat. We need to move now before it gets out of hand.” … Read More
