The Raw Story

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Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Good luck! Ukrainian MP "will burn down Crimea, with all its residents"

© Sputnik/ Evgeny Kotenko"Just look at the photos! Russian tanks are only THIS big. We can take them easy!" The militantly pro-Ukrainian Dnipro Battalion leader- turned-MP Yuri Bereza has promised to "burn down Crimea, with all of its residents if needed," vociferously refusing to "liberate the peninsula in a somewhat cultural manner." The saber-rattling politician, did not specify who might need the people to be burnt and why.The threat was voiced...

Anti-Muslim hate speech scrawled on Rhode Island Muslim school

© courtesy Islamic School of Rhode Island Federal authorities in the United States being asked to investigate an incident in Rhode Island over the weekend in which a Muslim school was vandalized with anti-Islamic graffiti."Now this is a hate crime" was among the slogans that were spray-painted on the back and front entrances of the nonprofit Islamic School of Rhode Island in the town of West Warwick late Saturday. The Council on American-Islamic...

Another snowstorm to pound Turkey - 5-12 inches expected

Barely a week after the last snowstorm pounded Turkey, another is bringing snow across much of the country as a trough of low pressure digs southward.Moisture being pulled to the north from the Mediterranean Sea will combine with cold air from Russia to produce a widespread and long-lived snowstorm.While western Turkey was hit hard by the previous storm, the worst of this snowstorm is expected to occur across central and east-central Turkey.The higher...

Fifth-largest death row in U.S. places surprise moratorium on executions due to disturbing history of abuses, errors and expense

© Thiscantbehappening.netPennsylvania's at least temporarily stilled death chamber, and Gov. Tom Wolf, who issued a moratorium on all executions. Although Pennsylvania's new Governor Tom Wolf, who last November unseated Republican incumbent Tom Corbett, cited more than 315 million solid reasons to back his surprise order putting an immediate moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania, law enforcement organizations in the state still castigated his...

Who would have believed it? The SNAP program capital of the U.S. is white and Republican

Owsley County, Kentucky In spite of the prevailing stereotypes and assumptions about who uses SNAP Food Stamp benefits the most in the United States, the highest usage is not in Compton, Queens, nor the South Side of Chicago. Instead, a city that is 99.22% white and 95% Republican comes in the lead. Owsley County, Kentucky is a community of about 5,000, residents earning the lowest median household income in the country outside of Puerto Rico, according...

Who would have believed it? The SNAP program capital of the U.S. is WHITE and REPUBLICAN

Owsley County, Kentucky In spite of the prevailing stereotypes and assumptions about who uses SNAP Food Stamp benefits the most in the United States, the highest usage is not in Compton, Queens, nor the South Side of Chicago. Instead, a city that is 99.22% white and 95% Republican comes in the lead. Owsley County, Kentucky is a community of about 5,000, residents earning the lowest median household income in the country outside of Puerto Rico, according...

Robots are replacing chefs at restaurants in Asia

© APA robotic chef from Japan's Motoman prepares a dish. Robots have become increasingly popular replacements for human workers across Asia. U.S. chain restaurants make it their business to create a homey, familiar environment. Places like Applebee's, Cracker Barrel, and T.G.I. Friday's are dedicated to making customers feel like they're eating at a neighborhood institution rather than a replica of a place that can be found in the next town over...and...

Deadly ice and snow bring havoc to U.S. South and East

© H. Darr Beiser, A wide swath of the nation was digging out Tuesday from a deadly storm that pummeled some areas with heavy snow while others were blasted with treacherous ice.More than a foot of snow fell in parts of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and West Virginia. Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina were among states where sleet and freezing rain made roads hazardous.Near-record low temperatures swept through the South, and...

Staying on the same page: CNN executive hosts Obamas for dinner

During a CNN internal town hall Tuesday, network chief Jeff Zucker said it's not a conflict of interest for an executive of the network to host the president and First Lady in their home, an insider familiar with the event told TheWrap.Responding to an anonymous email question from a CNN staffer regarding an unnamed D.C. executive who hosted the Obamas — along with other parents — in their home for dinner, Zucker said there's no issue."Zucker said...

Serial creep Biden emerges again to grope the wife of new Defense Secretary at press conference

© REUTERS/Gary Cameron Vice President Joe Biden clearly takes a approach when it comes to his day job.Tuesday, at Defense Sec. Ash Carter's swearing-in ceremony, Biden got all touchy feely with Carter's wife, Stephanie. From the pictures, it looks like he's whispering sweet nothings into her right ear. He's also getting a good whiff of her shampoo.Let's give him the benefit of the doubt: Perhaps he was trying to be comforting after her spill on...

Separate Valentine's Day vacations for Obamas cost taxpayers $2.5 million

The Obamas have spent an estimated $2.5 million after Barack and the rest of his family took separate weekend breaks.President Obama spent Valentine's weekend in California, where he managed to squeeze in three rounds of golf at a California course owned by Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison.Meanwhile, his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia flew to Aspen in Colorado for a skiing trip on board a separate presidential aircraft.According...

SOTT Exclusive: Debaltsevo almost controlled by NAF, Zakharchenko wounded

The road to Debaltsevo The situation in Debaltsevo, Donetsk, arguably prompted the Minsk talks. The UAF were getting absolutely hammered by the NAF during their January offensive and eventually ended up getting a huge number of their troops encircled in the city: at least 5000 men (with estimates up to 8000). While the Minsk talks were proceeding, Kiev launched a large but ultimately failed attempt to break into the area to free up a corridor for...

Neediest Americans left out of federal aid despite 74 percent increase over two decades

© Reuters/Tim Shaffer Over a period of two decades, 2.5 million single parent families experienced a 35 percent decline in federal assistance while those earning slightly more saw aid rise 74 percent, the reported.The findings come from research that covers the 15 largest social safety net programs of the period between 1983 and 2004. They demonstrated that aid spending had dramatically increased. Despite this news, those earning as little as 50...

Why did Russian cosmonauts carry shotguns and machetes in space?

© Wikipedia Russian cosmonauts carried a convertible shotgun which doubled as an axe and machete into space.The 'myth' about Soviet spacemen being armed with shotguns was a topic of great interest on Russian forums for the past few years. Recently it has been revealed that the myth is actually, true.Russian cosmonauts weren't gearing up for a fight with aliens or NASA astronauts, though.Despite numerous assumptions as to why the Russians took such...

New Brunswick resident shares viral video of insane snowfall

© Reuters/Nathan RochfordA man walks near a snow plow after a winter storm hit Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island February 16, 2015. Canadian media reported that 80 cm (2.6 feet) of snow hit the province, breaking a single storm record. One New Brunswick man made it his mission to prove the East Coast has it worst than the rest of the country by uploading a YouTube video documenting just how much snow they've received.It worked. You win, East Coast....

The closest known (so far) flyby of a star to the Solar System

© Michael Osadciw/University of RochesterThis is an artist's conception of Scholz's star and its brown dwarf companion (foreground) during its flyby of the solar system 70,000 years ago. The Sun (left, background) would have appeared as a brilliant star. The pair is now about 20 light years away. Astronomers from the US, Europe, Chile and South Africa have determined that 70,000 years ago a recently discovered dim star is likely to have passed through...

Fish with 2 mouths caught in Australian lake

The South Australian fisherman uncovered the double mouthed bream on Monday A string of rare and freakish fish have been emerging from Australian seas of late.In the wake of the discovery of Goblin shark in New South Wales and prehistoric frill shark in Victoria, another rare and unusual fish has been uncovered in South Australia.On Monday afternoon, a Riverland fisherman was taken aback when he netted a bony bream with two mouths.Garry Warrick,...

Chemical contaminants suspect in mystery of Alaska chickadee and other bird beak deformities

© John SchoenA black-capped chickadee with a deformed beak in the Hillside area of Anchorage, 2010. About 7 percent of Alaska black-capped chickadees have the beak deformity, which is spreading to other birds such as ravens and crows, and to other parts of the world, including Great Britain. When black-capped chickadees and some other birds in the Anchorage area began turning up in the late 1990s with elongated, weirdly curved or twisted beaks,...

BEST OF THE WEB: Putin: West already supplying Kiev with weapons - still "optimistic" Minsk agreement will hold

© RIA Novosti / Aleksey Nikolskyi) Vladimir Putin said that Kiev is being armed by Western allies, according to Moscow's information, but insisted he was "optimistic" about implementing the Minsk agreement, noting that the intensity of fighting has declined."According to our data, weapons are already being supplied [to Kiev]," the Russian leader said at a press conference following his meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. "This is...

Truth teller? Sudan's President says CIA and Mossad 'stand behind' Isis and Boko Haram

Omar al-Bashir says 'there is no Muslim who would carry out such acts' Sudan's President has claimed the CIA, America's intelligence agency, and Israel's Mossad are behind the Islamist militant groups Boko Haram and Isis.Omar al-Bashir used an interview with Euronews to claim there was a connection between the American and Israeli intelligence organisations and both extremist groups.He spoke after Isis released a video purporting to show the beheading...

4 teens face life in prison after terrorizing grocery store

Four juveniles who allegedly rampaged through a Marysville supermarket face up to life in prison after they were charged as adults in Yuba County Superior Court.Yuba County prosecutors charged the teens on Friday with seven felonies and one misdemeanor.Superior Court Judge Julia Scrogin set bail at $1 million each for Shateemah Harrison, Alexandria Petrondla Evans and Elias Esquivel, all 15, and Sarah Murphy, 14. The teens, who pleaded not guilty,...

Both sides accusing each other of violating Ukraine ceasefire agreed to in Minsk

© Reuters / Gleb Garanich Ukrainian troops and rebels in the country's east have been blaming each other for sporadic ceasefire violations. Both sides say they only respond to attacks launched by adversary forces and question the possibility of heavy artillery withdrawal.The ceasefire is largely holding in eastern Ukraine, the head of the OSCE mission there, Ertugrul Apakan, said Monday. He added that the one exception was Debaltsevo, a town where...

What scientists see as the most likely causes of the Apocalypse

© Reuters Filmmakers, authors, and media have widely speculated about how human life on Earth will end. Now scientists have come up with the first serious assessment, presenting 12 possible causes of the Apocalypse.Scientists from Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute and the Global Challenges Foundation have compiled the first research on the topic, drawing a list of 12 possible ways that human civilization might end.The idea of the...

Weird animal behaviour: Residents claim hippo killed and 'ate' 3 goats in Kenya

Hippo charging Residents have called on the Kenya Wildlife Service to remove a hippo that has been terrorizing them. They said it killed and ate three goats on Sunday (Hippos are herbivourous and can not eat meat). Francis Ndwiga, who works at a firm in Gachuriri village, said the hippo ate the goats and dragged one to River Thiba. He said he woke up when he heard the goats bleating. Assistant chief David Njagi said residents are living in fear.Chomsky:...

Close passage of Scholz's star through Solar System 70,000 years ago

A group of astronomers from the US, Europe, Chile and South Africa have determined that 70,000 years ago a recently discovered dim star is likely to have passed through the solar system's distant cloud of comets, the Oort Cloud. No other star is known to have ever approached our solar system this close - five times closer than the current closest star, Proxima Centauri.In a paper published in , lead author Eric Mamajek from the University of Rochester...
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