The Raw Story

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

Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Despite western propaganda, Russia is not in economic crisis

78% of 2014 capital outflow was debt repayment Following the prophecies of doom that were going the rounds in December the rouble appears to have stabilised, the Central Bank's reserves are intact and the government looks calm and in control.This appearance of calm appears to have annoyed some of the government's Western critics.The economist Anders Aslund sees it as evidence that "Putin is in denial".Most remarkably, the Economist sees the government's...

First round-the-world solar flight to begin in February

© REUTERS/Denis BalibouseThe dismantled Solar Impulse 2 aircraft is pictured before being loaded into a Cargolux Boeing 747 cargo aircraft at Payerne airport January 5, 2015. A plane powered by the sun will attempt an unprecedented flight around the world next month, the project's founders said, seeking to prove that flying is possible without using fossil fuel.Solar Impulse 2 is set to take off from Abu Dhabi with stopovers in India, Myanmar and...

The danger of an MH-17 'cold case'

© Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland Now more than six months after the shoot-down of a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine, the refusal of the Obama administration to make public what intelligence evidence it has about who was responsible has created fertile ground for conspiracy theories to take root while reducing hopes for holding the guilty parties accountable.Given the U.S. government's surveillance capabilities - from satellite and aerial...

Israeli mafia lobbying member-states to cut funding to ICC

Israel is lobbying member-states of the International Criminal Court to cut funding for the tribunal in response to its launch of an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, the country's foreign minister said on Sunday.The ICC did not immediately respond to the news, but experts thought it unlikely that the lobbying effort was likely to persuade the countries that contribute most to the court to reduce their funding. Israel,...

Netanyahu and Europe's far right find common ground

Israel has been having its own internal debate about the significance of the Paris killings this month, with concerns quite separate from those being expressed in Europe.While Europeans are mired in debates about free speech and the role of Islam in secular societies, Israelis generally - and their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in particular - view the attacks as confirming Israel's place as the only safe haven for Jews around the world.The...

Supernova mystery found at the bottom of the sea

© Discovery News One of the least likely places you might think astronomers would learn about ancient supernovae is at the bottom of the ocean, but in new research scientists have done just that.Through the careful analysis of ocean sediment, tiny particles that originated from deep space have settled on the seabed, locking the chemical secrets to supernova processes that would have otherwise remained a mystery."Small amounts of debris from these...

Speculation rages about dead in Greek mystery tomb

© Greek Ministry of CultureStabbed to death: A bone with cut marks belonging to the 35-year-old male. The surprise announcement on Monday that at least five corpses lay buried in the Alexander the Great era tomb in Amphipolis, in northern Greece, has deepened the mystery around the massive and lavishly decorated burial.As expected, speculation is running wild about who the five people buried there are.So far, forensic investigation has determined...

Western politics of high-octane emotion

French President François Hollande welcomes US Secretary of State Kerry before their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, January 16, 2015. So America's top diplomat John Kerry wants to give France "a big hug" to condole over the recent spate of alleged terror attacks in that country. Speaking in Paris while laying a wreath for the 17 victims of violence, Kerry said that "America feels the pain of our oldest ally."Kerry's words, accompanied by...

Another face of the tyrannical police state: Your home is your prison

© http://bit.ly/156mQMG If they were moved all at once, they could almost replace the population of Jamaica (2.7 million) and they would leave Qatar, Namibia, Macedonia, or Latvia swimming in extra people. I'm talking about the incarcerated in America -- an estimated 2.4 million people at any moment in "1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,259 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,283 local jails, and 79 Indian Country jails as well as in military...

Once again latest FBI claim of disrupted terror plot deserves much scrutiny and skepticism

© AP The Justice Department on Wednesday issued a press release trumpeting its latest success in disrupting a domestic terrorism plot, announcing that "the Joint Terrorism Task Force has arrested a Cincinnati-area man for a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol and kill government officials." The alleged would-be terrorist is 20-year-old Christopher Cornell (above), who is unemployed, lives at home, spends most of his time playing video games in his bedroom,...

Trojan hearse: Greek elections and the euro leper colony

Europe is stunned, and bankers aghast, that polls show the new party of the Left, Syriza, will win Greece's parliamentary elections to be held this coming Sunday, January 25.Syriza promises that, if elected, it will cure Greece of leprosy.Oddly, Syriza also promises that it will remain in the leper colony. That is, Syriza wants to rid Greece of the cruelty of austerity imposed by the European Central Bank but insists on staying in the euro zone.The...
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