The Raw Story

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

Thursday, 19 February 2015

Hungary criticizes EU's anti-Russian crusade

© Reuters/Laszlo BaloghHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has criticized EU's attempts to isolate Moscow, in particular blaming former Polish PM and President of the European Council Donald Tusk for spearheading the European anti-Russia crusade."This rift in the EU is very deep, of a strategic nature," Orban said regarding the division in the EU and on how to build the bloc's relationship with Russia. The...

DARPA creates device that plugs directly into the visual cortex and alters DNA

© unknown For now, the technology is in "crude" form undergoing R&D through animal testing, specifically with the neural connections of a zebrafish.In the longer term, DARPA researchers (the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) believes the gene modifying optical technology will be able to restore vision to the blind and impaired, and replaced current conceptions of virtual reality, with an internal display that will provide...

Pathetic: Half-million of Wal-Mart's US workers to get average 50 cent pay raises

© Gareth Patterson/APWal-Mart President and Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, in Bentonville, Ark. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is hoping its decision to boost workers' paychecks will help it boost its bottom line.The nation's largest private employer announced on Thursday that it's giving a raise to about half-million U.S. workers as part of a $1 billion investment that...

SOTT FOCUS: Euromaidan: Anatomy of a Washington-backed coup d'etat

In late November 2013, the 'Euromaidan' in Kiev began as a popular protest against a generalized state of corruption and cronyism in Ukraine. The spark that ostensibly ignited the protests was the inability of then President Yanukovych to sign an EU Association Agreement that would cut Ukraine's economic and military ties to Russia in favor of a closer relationship with the EU and NATO.The EU had made the release of former Ukrainian prime minister...

Syria: Special Forces From Turkey Attack The Syrian Arab Army

Yesterday the Syrian Arab Army triedto relief the insurgent-besieged villages of Nubl and al-Zahraa and to close the corridor between the city of Aleppo and the Turkish border to the north. The troops captured three villages and nearly closed the gap in their ring around Aleppo but were pushed out again in an onslaught by hundreds of enemies coming from the direction of the Turkish border.The map shows the areas gained and lost again by the SAA in...

A portrait of Iran's supreme leader where Saddam Hussein's statue once stood in Baghdad

© Liz Sly/ The Washington PostA billboard depicting the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was erected recently on the edge of Baghdad’s Firdaus Square. Perhaps nothing illuminates more starkly the transformation underway in Iraq than the billboard depicting the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini erected recently on the edge of Baghdad's Firdaus Square. The portrait obscures the view of the plinth where a giant statue of...

Some 200 exposed to deadly superbug in UCLA campus hospital

© AFP/Mark RalstonExterior view of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center At least two people have died and a further seven exposed to a deadly strain of drug-resistant superbug bacteria at a hospital on the UCLA campus. Authorities are notifying 179 more people that have potentially been exposed.The enterobacteriaceae (CRE) can be fatal in as many as half of all cases if the bacteria reach the bloodstream.The university discovered the outbreak last...

Hacker from Anonymous claims he was charged after refusing to help FBI

© Reuters/Dado Ruvic A 28-year-old hacker currently serving a six-month prison sentence for computer crimes now says that authorities asked him to help the United States gather information on Mexican drug cartels, then charged him with dozens of counts after he refused.Fidel Salinas of Texas started his half-year prison sentence last Friday, according to court documents obtained by , three months after he accepted a plea deal that saw him owning...

BEST OF THE WEB: General Wesley Clark: Our friends and allies created ISIS

Not that it was really a conspiracy 'theory' but with General Wesley Clark (ret.) now openly admitting "ISIS got started through funding from our friends and allies... to fight to the death against Hezbollah" it appears the 'angel investors' cat is out of the bag. Adding that "they recruited the zealots and religious fundamentalists" Clark says 'we' create "Frankenstein." He is careful not to name names, but we ask (rhetorically of course), which...

Machine guns, drones, and permanent war in the American Police State

I never fail to be amazed -- and that's undoubtedly my failing. I mean, if you retain a capacity for wonder you can still be awed by a sunset, but should you really be shocked that the sun is once again sinking in the west? Maybe not.The occasion for such reflections: machine guns in my hometown. To be specific, several weeks ago, New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton announced the formation of a new 350-officer Special Response Group...

Scientists unveil map of 'epigenome'

© cosmin4000/iStockphotoThe epigenome can turn genes in DNA on or off. For the first time, scientists have mapped out the molecular "switches" that can turn on - or off - individual genes in the DNA in more than 100 types of human cells.Researchers unveiled the map of the 'epigenome' in the journal Nature today, along with nearly two dozen related papers.The human genome is the blueprint for building an individual person. The epigenome can be thought...

America struck by 'Siberian Express' high-pressure system

© Kiichiro Sato/APIce and snow lead to record freeze in the USA A bitterly cold chill known as the "Siberian Express" has enveloped much of eastern America, sending temperatures plummeting up to 40 degrees below their normal February levels to record lows in at least 100 places. Southern states such as Tennessee and Kentucky suffered some of the most extreme drops on the thermometer as bone-chilling air from Siberia settled on the region after...

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis: No more games in Greece

© REUTERS/MATT DUNHAM/POOLGreek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis I am writing this piece on the margins of a crucial negotiation with my country's creditors — a negotiation the result of which may mark a generation, and even prove a turning point for Europe's unfolding experiment with monetary union.Game theorists analyze negotiations as if they were split-a-pie games involving selfish players. Because I spent many years during my previous life...
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)