Saturday, April 29, 2017

In the news, Monday, April 10, 2017


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APR 09      INDEX      APR 11
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from Anglican Journal

Church leaders condemn Palm Sunday bombings in Egypt
At least 44 people have been killed after terrorists linked to Daesh detonated bombs at two Coptic churches in Egypt. The blasts took place Sunday, April 9 – a day when both eastern and western Christian traditions celebrated Palm Sunday. Pope Tawadros II says the "sinful acts will not undermine the unity and coherence of the Egyptian people in the face of terrorism."

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from Asia Times Online

French election risk grows
The race of the dark horse candidates has suddenly become closer
As Bloomberg reports today, the risk of an unexpected outcome continues to grow, with polls for the first round of voting now showing four candidates within the margin of error.

Vietnam seeks preferential Trump treatment
While the Southeast Asian nation seems a likely target for new US trade sanctions, recent revelations indicate a special deal could be on the cards

St Petersburg metro bombing traced to Kyrgyz extremism
The tragedy that occurred on April 3 in a metro station in St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, has profoundly shocked the public, with the toll from the terror attack rising to 14 dead and more then 60 wounded. Also, it has revealed a whole new challenge to Russia, which has faced deadly attacks connected to militants from its North Caucasus region in the past but has never before seen such violent extremism perpetrated by Central Asians.

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from Bloomberg

French Election Becomes a Four-Way Race as Melenchon Surges
France’s presidential election is becoming a four-way contest as far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon surges to catch Republican Francois Fillon, stoking uncertainty over the outcome less than two weeks before voting begins. Melenchon’s surprise groundswell of support coupled with Fillon’s resilience adds another layer of risk to France’s most unpredictable election in a generation. The latest Kantar Sofres poll published late Sunday had independent Emmanuel Macron and National Front leader Marine Le Pen tied in first place with 24 percent support apiece, followed by Melenchon with 18 percent then Fillon 1 point behind.

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from CNSNews.com (& MRC & NewsBusters)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Charlie Daniels: DC’s Party Before People Mindset Is Tearing the Country Apart
This intransigence and disregard for We the People, this party before country, this insane obsession with discrediting and even destroying the other party is not only tearing the country apart, deepening differences and fanning the ever-present flames of race and class envy, it is bringing the business of the nation to a standstill. Recent events have only served to deepen the animosity.

BREAKING: Four Down After Shots Fired At a CA Elementary School
An active shooter situation has been reported out of a San Berdardino, California elementary school, where at least four victims were shot, including two children, in what police have called a murder-suicide.

Swedish PM: 'Sweden Will Never Go Back' to Mass Migration
After two years of saying nothing about the floodgates being opened for mass immigration into Sweden, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven was essentially forced to speak up after last week’s terror attack, in which four people were killed and 15 others were injured. “Sweden will never go back to the [mass migration] we had in autumn 2015, never,” Lofven said Saturday.

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from Competitive Enterprise Institute

The White House announced on March 30th that it would decide whether and how the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty before the G-7 begins to meet on May 26th. Support for staying in Paris has emerged in recent days from unlikely places. Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a prominent Trump supporter during the campaign, has circulated a draft letter to President Trump for signature by his House colleagues that begins, “As you contemplate your actions related to the Paris Agreement, we would like to share with you the following conditions we believe should be met if the United States of America is to remain a party to the Agreement.” 

Yet Another Study Confirms Ecological Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
What climate activists call “carbon pollution” is conferring a boon of mind-boggling proportions on the green things they profess to love. So-called carbon pollution has done much more to expand and invigorate the planet’s greenery than all the climate policies of all the world’s governments combined.
Vapes on a plane! Why did the Department of Transportation feel the need to step in and—without authority— force all airlines to ban vaping on planes when many airlines were doing so already? The battle over electronic cigarettes heats up even more this week as the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s general counsel Sam Kazman argued in court today against a federal regulation banning use of electronic cigarettes on planes.

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from Crosscut (Seattle)

Poor gargoyles. We’re smashing Seattle’s history as we build
A very bad thing just happened in terms of historic preservation in Seattle. The long-expected demolition of the old Seattle Center Arena started across Speight Jenkins Way, right outside Crosscut’s front door. The Seattle Opera is putting up a new building on the site. But as the wrecking equipment scraped away the 1960s exterior — put up to make a 1920s era ice arena look modern for the Seattle World’s Fair — what was underneath was revealed: the preserved exterior Romanesque façade of the original building with all its ornaments, including gargoyles.

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from Daily Mail (UK)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

China 'deploys 150,000 troops to deal with possible North Korean refugees over fears Trump may strike Kim Jong-un following missile attack on Syria'
Trump's Syria strike Friday was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea. China, which was left shocked by the air strikes, has deployed medical and backup units from the People's Liberation Army forces to the Yalu River. The troops have been dispatched to prepare for pre-emptive attacks by the US. The US Navy has moved the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group from Singapore to North Korea after the country conducted more missile testing.

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from EUobserver

Armenia ready to open new chapter in EU cooperation
The first parliamentary elections in Armenia (2 April) since the constitutional reform referendum of 2015 went quite unnoticed abroad, despite the vote being decisive for the small Christian country on Europe's eastern fringe, landlocked between Georgia and Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan. The result was a victory for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia. Following the elections, Armenia is taking a balanced approach to its dilemma between relations with the EU and with Russia.

EU commissioner tells Hungarians to resist Orban
The Hungarian government's efforts to shut down a university in Budapest drew a sharp rebuke from the EU's commissioner for justice. EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova says Hungarians should continue to protest government plans to shut down a university in Budapest. A reported 70,000 people had gathered in the capital city over the weekend to protest a new Hungarian law that would see the closure of a university funded by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros.

EU funds for Sudan may worsen fate of refugees
The EU and a handful of member states are shoring up huge funds to help Sudan better manage migration and its borders. The European Union, in the last couple of years, has been forging increasingly close ties with Sudan, a country once globally ostracised for sponsoring terrorist activities and human rights abuses. But human rights have taken a back seat, as the EU moves to stem the influx of refugees and migrants to its collective shores. The budding partnership between the EU and Sudan is in part a financial one: the EU so far has given just under €215 million to Sudan to curb migration. Sudan, meanwhile, has made no secret of the fact that it is using an infamous government-aligned militia to arrest more migrants on its borders.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Why Rome Declined and Modern Europe Grew
Compare and contrast with early modern Europe. The most advanced economies of early modern Europe, say England in 1700, were on the surface not too dissimilar to that of ancient Rome. But beneath the surface, they contained the “coiled spring”, or at least the possibility, of sustained economic growth — growth driven by the emergence of innovation (a culture of improvement) and a commercial or even capitalist culture. The Roman economy at least by 100 CE contained no such coiled spring.

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from First Things

FIVE LESSONS FROM FRANCIS DE SALES
A signature of Francis’s theology was his belief, unusual for his time, that holiness was meant for everyone—not just a privileged few.

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from The Guardian (UK)
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

It's not just Syria. Trump is ratcheting up wars across the world
From the expansion of official US war zones in Yemen and Somalia to a spike in drone strikes, conflicts are heating up on several fronts

Lawyers race to save seven Arkansas inmates from ‘execution by assembly line’
Death-row prisoners set to die within 11 days of each other in April unless attorneys can convince judge that rushed injections will lead to undue suffering

The new age of Ayn Rand: how she won over Trump and Silicon Valley
Her novel The Fountainhead is one of the few works of fiction that Donald Trump likes and she has long been the darling of the US right. But only now do her devotees hold sway around the world

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from The Heritage Foundation
[Information from this site may be unreliable.]

How Free Trade and Economic Freedom Help the Poor
Think trade hurts poor Americans? Research shows that the popular narrative is wrong: Free trade and economic freedom actually help the poor. While global trade increased nearly 10% from 2001-2011, the number of people in poverty decreased by 14%.

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from HumanProgress.org  Education Website

Give Women the Freedom to Fix Poverty
A bizarre column in Australia’s Daily Telegraph last month argued that it should be illegal to be a stay-at-home mom. The piece was met with ridicule, and rightly so. Women should be free to make their own choices about family and career. Fortunately, no country actually bans a woman’s choice to be a homemaker. Unfortunately, in much of the world, a woman’s options to work outside the home are severely limited by government meddling. Even today, there remain 18 countries where husbands can deny their wife the right to work.

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from Indian Country Today Media Network
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Genocide by Other Means: U.S. Army Slaughtered Buffalo in Plains Indian Wars
The Buffalo and the Indians have always had a symbiotic relationship with honor and blessings

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from Intellihub
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

Shock report as high-level source reveals Syrian chemical weapons attack was a false flag
"Intelligence community has information showing no chemical weapon was launched"

Russia had advanced knowledge of last’s week’s chemical weapons attack in Syria: Sr. U.S. officials
Russia may have had a hand in the recent Syrian chemical attack on civilians, officials warn
In an attempt to further grease the gears of war mainstream press outlets are reporting that Russia was “complicit” in last Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack in Syria.

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from LifeZette (& PoliZette)

White House, GOP Lawmakers Struggle to Define Syrian End Game
Republicans in Congress divided on regime change, administration slow to clarify mission
Four days after President Donald Trump ordered a missile strike on the Syrian air base that reportedly launched a chemical attack on civilians, it remains unclear if the White House is committed to toppling President Bashar al-Assad or is seeking an alternate end game.

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from Military Times
and Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, and Navy Times

140 miles: 75 years after the Bataan Death March and what you need to know
On April 9, 1942, U.S. forces in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese, and so began what we call the Bataan Death March today. After the surrender, 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers were taken captive by Japanese soldiers and forced to march throughout the Philippines to confinement camps. 

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from Mises Institute
[Information from this site may not be reliable.]

United Airlines Violence Illustrates the Problem with Government Monopolies
United Airlines managed to provoke a firestorm of opposition over the weekend when the airline overbooked one of its flights and resorted to removing at least one passenger by smashing his face and physically dragging him off the plane. 

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from The Seattle Times

Taller buildings coming: Seattle council approves upzone in downtown, South Lake Union
The Seattle City Council voted Monday to approve an upzone of downtown, South Lake Union and part of the Chinatown International District. The upzone is the second of more than two dozen that Mayor Ed Murray wants the council to approve this year and next. He says the upzones and MHA program can create 6,000 rent-restricted units over 10 years. Seattle has never before required all development to contribute to the creation of affordable housing.


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from Space.com (& CollectSpace)

Violent Star Collision Triggers Cosmic Fireworks Display
The collision of two young stars triggered a spectacular stellar explosion like a fireworks show on the Fourth of July, a new study shows. This cataclysmic event took place roughly 500 years ago in a region known as the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC-1), located about 1,500 light-years from Earth. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, astronomers captured a stunning view of the remains of the brilliant burst.

See the First Full Moon of Northern Spring Overnight Tonight
The first full moon of spring for observers in the Northern Hemisphere will peak early Tuesday (or late tonight), depending on your time zone. The April full moon, known as a "Pink Moon," will shine overnight tonight (April 10 to 11), and skywatchers will be able to see the bright, beautiful moon all night long.

Auroras on Uranus Dazzle in New Hubble Telescope Views
Uranus is not just a featureless ball of bluish-green gas. Bright auroras light up the planet's atmosphere in two newly released photos, which combine observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the agency's Voyager 2 probe. (Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986 as part of a "grand tour" of the solar system's outer planets that the spacecraft performed with its twin, Voyager 1.)

Cosmonaut Georgy Grechko, Launched to Salyut Space Stations, Dies at 85
Soviet-era cosmonaut Georgy Grechko, who in 1977 made the first spacewalk wearing a spacesuit design still in use on the International Space Station today, died on Saturday (April 8). He was 85.

Big, Shiny Asteroid to Fly (Safely) Past Earth on April 19
A whopper of an asteroid will make a close approach to Earth on April 19. There's no need to panic, though; NASA says it won't collide with our planet. But it will get extremely close for an asteroid of that size. Named 2014 JO25, this giant space rock measures approximately 2,000 feet (650 meters) across — about the height of the Shanghai Tower, China's tallest building and the second-tallest building in the world. It will pass by Earth at a safe distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), or nearly five times the distance between the Earth and the moon.

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from The Spokesman-Review

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from Sputnik
(Russian government-supported propaganda channel)

Trumps Orders ‘Full Range of Options’ on N.Korea Amid Sending US Navy to Region
US President Donald Trump has ordered preparation of all possible options in order to protect the United States and its partners in the light of sending US Navy strike group to the region, US National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Herbert McMaster said in an interview with the Fox News broadcaster.

German Military Investigating Far-Right, Nazi Sympathies in its Ranks
German military counterintelligence is looking into 275 reported cases of far-right extremism within the country’s military ranks, including soldiers saying “Heil Hitler,” performing Nazi salutes and calling for violence against migrants.

Indian News Anchor Learns of Husband’s Death as She Reports it Live
A television newsreader realized on-air that she was reporting the death of her husband, but carried on to finish her broadcast. After completing the final ten minutes of her broadcast, she quickly left the studio to travel to the scene of the tragedy.

Study Reveals Sick Americans Could Be Misdiagnosed at Alarming Rate
To those who’ve been hit with a frightening medical diagnosis, there may be a way out: according to a new study, getting a second opinion will more often than not result in an entirely different opinion.

Rat Lungworm: Brain-Damaging Parasite Terrorizes Hawaii Locals, Vacationers
You read that right: six cases of infection with the brain-damaging parasite, with what has to be the most horrible name ever, have been registered in Hawaii, and state authorities are sounding the alarm.

Take it Outside: US State May Bring Back Duels for Feuding Politicians
Oregon lawmakers seek to remove the state’s constitutional ban on duels between people holding public office.

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from Tribal Tribune (Nespelem, WA)

CBC to vote on $500,000 grant for Diabetes Prevention
The Colville Business Council will vote on a $519,000 grant for the Colville Confederated Tribes’ Diabetes Prevention Program that program leadership states will continue screening and diabetes prevention education program started last year.

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