The Raw Story

A non-profit news blog, focused on providing independent journalism.

Thursday, 25 December 2014

The bear squeezes back: Ruble rises against dollar

© Christopher Haughery/flickr The latest of a series of official Canadian verbal darts aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin was published December 15 on .The content was propaganda or as would have it, advertorial. It was part of a Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) campaign surrounding Stephen Harper's announcement of new sanctions against Russia, which, no surprise, coincided with updated sanctions from Washington.On...

SOTT Exclusive: How Western-backed death squads are celebrating Christmas

Ukraine: Fascist mobs running wild in the streets, while government officials obey their masters' dictates © RIA Novosti / Alexandr Maksimenko Not surprisingly, a recent poll revealed that more and more people in Ukraine are unhappy with their quality of life. The government is preparing more austerity measures, dictated to it by the IMF, while Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk is warning citizens of more power cuts if the mild weather fades. NATO...

Moscow stuck in worst ever Christmas traffic after unexpected severe snowfall

© AFP Photo/Yuri KadobonovCars are pictured on a road in Moscow as it snows on December 25, 2014. Moscow was gripped by the worst gridlock ever seen as unexpectedly severe snowfall hit the Russian capital on Christmas day, literally paralyzing the city. Police registered up to 500 road accidents an hour and 200 flights were delayed.The longest traffic jam stretched 60 kilometers, or over 37 miles, Russia's online road traffic monitoring service...

France unemployment total at new record high

© ReutersFrench economy minister Emmanuel Macron has sparked anger with his deregulation plans. The jobless total rose by 27,400 in November to 3,488,300 - the highest level yet seen.That means the number looking for a job has risen by 5.8% in the past year.The claimant count rose in November for the third month in a row, and official government estimates suggest the economy will have grown by just 0.4% this past year.The jobless figures count the...

Wild elephant kills yet another individual in Sri Lanka

An individual has been killed yesterday (21st) in a wild elephant attack in Uhana area.The remains of the victim are lying at Ampara Hospital. The post-mortem is yet to be conducted.Uhana Police are conducting further investigations in to the incide...

The strange and unexplained phenomenon of raining stones

© ShutterstockWhile high winds or tornadoes may explain how some objects (such as fish or frogs) have been swept up and rained down on the Earth, it seems unlikely that days-long rains of large stones can be explained this way Throughout history, there have been numerous recorded instances of strange objects falling from the sky - fish, frogs, candy, jellyfish, beans, nuts, seeds, and all manner of bizarre and unlikely objects. A popular theory...

Walmart forced to raise minimum wage at one-third of stores due to state mandates

Walmart, America's largest private employer, is being forced to raise its minimum wage payments for workers. The move could improve the lives of roughly one-third of its 1.3 million employees and reduce the burden on the government.Since 21 states have adopted minimum wage increases either via legislative pressure or ballot initiatives, Walmart must now adjust base salaries at a third of its locations, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters....

Circus elephant kills 12-year-old boy in Vietnam

The elephant that killed the boy. A 12-year-old boy was killed by an elephant from a travelling circus troupe on Tuesday in Dak Mil district's Duc Manh commune.Nguyen Van Luat was feeding the elephant while it was chained up in preparation for that evening's show when the 40-year-old animal grabbed him with its trunk and crushed it under its foot, according to chairman of the communal people's committee Du Van The.The elephant keeper rushed out...

Five injured in Christmas Day arson attack on Swedish mosque

© Reuters / Pontus StenbergFiremen work as smoke billows from the windows of a mosque in Eskilstuna December 25, 2014. An arsonist has set a mosque ablaze in the southeastern Swedish town of Eskilstuna. The Christmas Day attack comes amidst heightened anti-immigration sentiment in the country.Up to 20 people, including children, were in the mosque at the time of the attack, which occurred in a residential area of the medium-sized town on Thursday.The...

Christmas in America: Growing poverty, unemployment and homelessness in the world's richest country

© Margaret Bourke-White Washington is the grinch that stole Christmas. Bah Humbug defines its agenda.Unprecedented in modern times. Privileged Americans never had it better. Ordinary ones face lump of coal harshness. Hard times keep getting harder. Reflected in institutionalized inequality. Growing poverty. High unemployment. Multiples higher than phony Labor Department numbers. An epidemic of underemployment persists.Jobs paying poverty or sub-poverty...

Dead minke whale found near Dam Neck Naval base, Virginia

© Virginia AquariumFemale Minke whale. Virginia Aquarium responders found a stranded whale in Virginia Beach Wednesday morning.The female Minke whale was dead when the aquarium's stranding response team arrived near Dam Neck Naval base. It was about 14 feet long. Heavy equipment on the base is assisting moving the animal above the high tide line and the stranding team will conduct a necropsy Friday morning.The program is supported by the Virginia...

How an old swimming pool feeds a family and is changing food production science

© Garden Pool.orgThe Garden Pool produces fresh veggies and tilapia and uses waste from backyard chickens. Five years ago, a busted old swimming pool sat out of commission on the property of a foreclosed home in Mesa, Arizona, and from that damaged amenity, the Garden Pool movement was cultivated.In 2009, Dennis and Danielle McClung bought that foreclosed home and empty swimming pool in need of expensive repairs. Instead of fixing up the swimming...

Rescued scientists bring back a warning from the Antarctic

© Andrew Peacock /Rex FeaturesAlok Jha and Laurence Topham look on at the Akademik Shokalskiy beset in ice in East Antarctica. The voyage was meant to retrace the steps of Douglas Mawson, the great polar explorer and scientist who led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911. What happened instead captured the world's attention, something none of the scientists, journalists and paying public aboard could have foreseen.The got stuck in ice on...

Did Secret Service help kill JFK?

A transcript of the Lew Rockwell Show episode 385 with Mark Lane.ROCKWELL: Well, good morning. This is the Lew Rockwell Show. And what an honor it is to have as our guest this morning, Mr. Mark Lane. Mark has been the champion of peace and of justice his entire legal career. I could spend the entire show talking about his achievements. I remember his beating CIA agent, E. Howard Hunt, and the CIA in a legal victory. I remember him defeating CIA...

Scientists discover oldest recorded stone tool ever found in Turkey

© University of Royal Holloway LondonStone tool approximately 1.2 million years old. Scientists have discovered the oldest recorded stone tool ever to be found in Turkey, revealing that humans passed through the gateway from Asia to Europe much earlier than previously thought, approximately 1.2 million years ago.According to research published in the journal , the chance find of a humanly-worked quartzite flake, in ancient deposits of the river...

Top 10 Russian viral videos of 2014

© artemjew.ru Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines - http://ift.tt/1HHus4S) No matter the stormy geopolitics that this year brought, Russia still remained one of the key exporters of viral, unusual, weird, and simply funny videos. Cats, gophers, police officers, bikers, and cosmonauts - here RBTH presents a selection of 10 of the most interesting Russian video hits of 2014.1. Cartoon characters attack a driver [embedded content]231,292 viewsVideos...

Yatsenyuk: Kiev trying 'win the hearts' of Novorussians

Over the weekend interviewed Ukraine's prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk or "Yats" as Victoria Nuland nicknamed him during her infamous "Eff-the-EU" phone call to the US Ambassador in Kiev.It is important to keep that phone call in mind because it proves,1) that the US did plot the February coup in Kiev, all the way to choosing "Yats" as the next prime minister, and2) that by carrying on the Maidan coup, the USA tore up the Budapest Memorandum ...
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