Posted: 10 Jun 2014 03:59 PM PDT

The Baltic Sea and skies are getting crowded as Russia launches military training of its assault forces in the exclave of Kaliningrad in answer to the double war-games being conducted by joint NATO forces on the territory of the three Baltic States.
NATO’s decision to conduct dual war games next to Russian borders in the Baltic has not been left unaddressed by Russia’s Defense Ministry, which prepared a surprise training of first strike forces marines, paratroopers and long-range bombers, right in the backyard of the NATO military maneuvers.
“We conduct military training simultaneously with the international war games that have started in Europe, Saber Strike-2014 and BALTOPS-2014,” said the ministry’s press service.
Defense Ministry noted that the military might engaged in training in the Kaliningrad Region is by all means comparable with the NATO’s forces concentrated on the nearby territory of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where Saber Strike-2014 is conducted on June 9-20 and sea-based BALTOPS-2014 training held in the Baltic on June 6-21.
The Russian maneuvers involve the use of naval groups, marines, landing operations of airborne forces, air defense training and firing exercise of front-line aviation.
“All-arms naval groups will maintain border and sea communication defense, and will perform training to search and destroy hypothetical aggressor’s submarines and combat ships,” the ministry commented to RBC news outlet.
The paratrooper division from Pskov will be training operational deployment to Kaliningrad, whereas marines will be training defending the coastal line from possible sea-borne landing and will also perform isolation and elimination of illegal armed groups.
The Air Force is to provide fire support with Su-34 fighter-bombers and Mi-24 assault helicopters.
Deployment of supersonic Tu-22M3 long-range strategic maritime strike bombers, some of which have just the day before finished training in the Black Sea, has also been announced. Together with the air defense forces they will patrol the area to make sure the airspace of the training is securely sealed off.
NATO’s training in the Baltic is an annual event yet this time the number of troops taking part has been augmented considerably. In 2013 there were 1,800 troops involved, while Saber Strike 2014 has become the largest-ever, with 4,700 troops and over 800 military vehicles, such as M2 Bradley, M1126 Stryker, and various APCs: XA-180, XA-202 and M113 taking part in the training.
Besides the two NATO war-games, the Baltic States are holding Baltic Host 2014 military cooperation training of their own near Riga.
Saber Strike 2014 has hosted troops from Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and the US.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already dubbed even the rotational military build-up near the Russian borders as an act of hostility directly violating the NATO-Russia Founding Act of 1997, Lavrov’s First Deputy Vladimir Titov told Interfax.
With the background of developments in Ukraine, the beef-up of NATO’s military presence near Russian borders, “just like during the 08.08.08 war in the North Caucasus, it rather creates additional problems instead of helping to solve them, Titov said.
On Monday Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after meeting his Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja that, “The artificial attempt to continue NATO’s eastward expansion, progression of the military infrastructure to the east, closer to Russia’s borders, is counterproductive.”
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Posted: 10 Jun 2014 03:46 PM PDT

At least six people have been killed and 30 others seriously wounded during storms that ravaged Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine Westphalia.
According to German media reports, three people died when a tree landed on a garden shed in which they were seeking shelter in the state capital of Dusseldorf on Monday.
Firefighters were able to rescue three more injured people, two severely hurt, from the shed.
In Cologne, a cyclist died after police said lightning struck a tree that fell on him.
Another cyclist died in the German city of Krefeld when a falling tree brought down an overhead electricity cable that electrocuted him.
A sixth man was killed in the town of Essen while trying to clean up a littered street caused by the storm.
The extreme weather also caused major transportation problems, forcing Germany’s third-largest airport in Dusseldorf to close for about an hour and grounding other flights.
Fallen trees stopped trains, blocked roads and left commuters waiting in long traffic jams, reports said.
A combination of wind, lightning and hail were responsible for damage to houses and cars.
The storm died down overnight in North Rhine Westphalia.
Meanwhile, the German Meteorological Service issued weather warnings for regions including Hanover and Bremen for late Tuesday.
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Posted: 10 Jun 2014 03:42 PM PDT

Mikhail Sebastian is the most famous stateless person in the US. Born in the former Soviet Union, Sebastian sought asylum in the US in the early 1990s, but was denied. The US could not deport him because Armenia-the successor state in whose territory Sebastian was born-did not recognize his citizenship, leaving him stateless. After a four-day New Year’s vacation to American Samoa in 2012, Sebastian was barred from reentering the mainland United States by immigration officials, who claimed he had self-deported. It took nearly 14 months for Sebastian to gain permission to return to his home in Los Angeles, and this occurred only after extensive interventions by lawyers, government officials, human rights advocates, and university groups, as well as a social media campaign via Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and CNN iReport. My goal is opposite. I want to leave the US forever. What happened? I became victim of neo-Marxist radical feminist domestic violence industry.
Eric Holder states that the US has the best justice systems. Based on what? Incarceration rates are the highest in the world. I have been everywhere in the US except Alaska. I cannot say Americans are the most evil people, but a huge part of the US population deserve a PhD in stupidity (a few facts to prove it: the reelection of Obama, google congressman Hank Jonson (D-Georgia) who says that Guam could tip and capsize, Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on a visit to JPL, asked if Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted there in 1969 by Neil Armstrong, she believes North and South Vietnam still exist, Charles Schumer (D-New York) he thinks the three branches of government are the US president, the US Congress, and the Senate. How many more pinheads running US and what is the IQ of the people who vote for them)? People get away with lying in court daily. A widely known example is the Duke La Cross case where accuser the women has not received one bit of punishment. Dire injustice is occurring across the US. Laws enacted to protect the victims of the vile crime of domestic violence are being abused by citizens as well as law enforcement, in this process innocent men’s lives are destroyed.
Burden of proof is being thrown out and the simple word of the accuser is being taken without question, many times without the accused even being allowed to speak. I’ve been victimized in the State of Washington. Not enough I spent 11 months in solitary confinement and 22 months in immigration detention, now I cannot even leave the US. I’m formerly a citizen of the USSR; I understand that life is some time not fair and I’ve given up pursuing justice. Millions of people try to get into America, and millions more try to avoid deportation, I am just trying to get out. I have a 4-year old son in Russia who needs his father not just a human wallet overseas. In December of 2013, I talked face to face with the Russian Consul in Seattle. I had been told that if I could obtain official paperwork from ICE containing my name, immigration status and picture, the Russian Consulate would grant me a visa to go to Russia and in time would be able to get Russian citizenship.
Here is quote from an email between a USA representative (District 7) and US immigration authorities, “USCIS electronic records indicate that Mr. Decyatnik was ordered removed from the United States on February 26, 2002. It appears that Mr. Decyatnik has no immigration status in the United States. USCIS cannot issue official proof of non-status.” How stupid is this, if INS can’t remove me, just give me travel documents and I will leave on my own. In my opinion, common sense was dead in the United States a long time ago in domestic affairs or international relations it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.
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Posted: 10 Jun 2014 03:29 PM PDT

A man in Tennessee has been arrested after local police discovered a woman’s partially-eaten corpse in his rural home.
37-year-old Gregory Scott Hale is charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in connection with the death of Lisa Marie Hyder.
“We are very early in the investigation,” Assistant District Attorney Marla Holloway told local reporters. “The officers were out late last night (Monday night) into the early hours of the morning gathering information.”
According to the arrest affidavit, Hale admitted killing Hyder before beheading her remains and chopping off her hands and feet. Hale then put his victim’s remains in plastic buckets, buried Hyder’s torso and ate a portion of the corpse. Hale claims he never met the victim prior to the day of her death.
Local NBC affiliate WSMV reports that neighbors say Dale described himself as a devil worshiper, and he was fired from his job at a slaughterhouse when the owner caught him using animal parts to perform a satanic ritual.
His is being held on $1.5 million bond and will next appear in court June 23.
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Posted: 10 Jun 2014 02:53 PM PDT

As one of the preconditions to authorizing close to $300 million in aid, the United States is pressuring El Salvador to purchase genetically modified seeds from Monsanto instead of non-GM seeds from local farmers.
According to Sustainable Pulse, a website covering developments related to genetically modified organisms and sustainable agriculture, the US will reportedly withhold $277 million in aid through the Millennium Challenge Compact if El Salvador refuses to purchase GM seeds from the biotech company Monsanto.
The website states that the stalled aid package was originally put on hold in late 2013, when it was revealed that Millennium Challenge Corporation would not deliver funds to the country unless “specific” economic and environmental reforms were made. Apparently, one of those is related to the purchase of GMO seeds.
Speaking with Verdad Digital, however, the president of the El Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technologies (CESTA) criticized the US negotiating position and said the country should back away from its demand.
“I would like to tell the U.S. Ambassador to stop pressuring the Government (of El Salvador) to buy ‘improved’ GM seeds,” CESTA president Ricardo Navarro said, adding that the move would hurt the local economy and only benefit US companies.
Navarro specifically singled out Monsanto for criticism as well, saying, “There is a harmful corporation on the planet called Monsanto … it is truly disturbing that the U.S. is trying to promote them.”
In Europe, too, Monsanto’s GM seeds have garnered criticism. In March, France banned the growth and sale of the company’s insect-repelling maize seed MON 810, just a few days before it was revealed that insects in the US were developing resistance to the crop.
The comments from Navarro also arrive as Monsanto is under fire in several South American countries, including El Salvador and Brazil. As RT reported previously, El Salvador passed legislation in September 2013 banning glyphosate, used in Monsanto’s Roundup pesticides, as well as dozens of other agricultural chemicals.
Similar proposals are being considered in Brazil, where the country’s prosecutor general recently urged the National Health Surveillance Agency to “reevaluate the toxicity of eight active ingredients suspected of causing damage to human health and the environment,” including glyphosate and seven other chemicals.
As for why glyphosate is coming under such heavy scrutiny, new research has indicated that while the chemical is not as dangerous on its own, it becomes extremely toxic to humans once it mixes with natural metals found in soil.
Meanwhile, other reports have linked glyphosate to the outburst of a fatal kidney disease that has killed thousands of people in El Salvador and Sri Lanka, and could also help explain similar situations in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and India.
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Posted: 09 Jun 2014 03:34 PM PDT

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman has uploaded a mesmerizing six second Vine clip showing a time-lapse of the never-setting sun as it can be seen from the International Space Station.
“1st Vine from space! Single Earth orbit. Sun never sets flying parallel w/terminator line #ISS #Exp40,” Wiseman wrote as he posted the video.
The brief snapshot compresses a 92-minute ISS circle of the earth into a six second clip, showing the swiftly spinning earth and a sun which does not set.
This happens, as Wiseman explains, because the station is currently moving through space parallel with the day and night terminator line, the barrier where light and dark meet on the earth’s surface. The two collide in the weeks surrounding the summer solstice.
The #EXP40 hashtag refers to the current expedition of the ISS, which is due to end in September.
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Posted: 09 Jun 2014 03:04 PM PDT

Qatar’s prime minister has called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to intervene and impose a ceasefire in Syria.
The premier made the comments at the 11th annual US-Islamic World Forum in Doha on Monday.
“It is incumbent on the international community, especially the Security Council, to act urgently and decisively to adopt a resolution…to ensure the security and safety of the Syrian people as well as stability in the whole region,” media outlets quoted Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani as saying.
He said the Syrian crisis poses a real threat to the unity of Syria, adding, “The situation requires joint efforts by the international community to end bloodshed [in Syria] and…fulfill the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.”
The remarks come as Syrian troops are going ahead with their operations to push out the foreign-backed militants from residential areas across the country.
Qatar has spent billions of dollars to support militants fighting against the Syrian government.
The West and its regional allies including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are giving financial and military support to the Syria militants.
Hundreds of French nationals and a number of Britons together with several thousand of non-Syrians are operating against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Analysts believe that the Syria crisis will backfire on the West and its allies as militants are now returning to their homelands, including those in Europe.
Former UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has recently said in a interview that the whole region may “blow up” if a political solution is not found to end the violence in Syria.
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Posted: 09 Jun 2014 02:29 PM PDT

Exploiting Isla Vista shooting in new bid to confiscate firearms from American citizens.
California Democrat Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are exploiting the Isla Vista shooting in a new bid to confiscate firearms from American citizens.
The Pause for Safety Act will allow “families and others” to seek a “gun violence prevention order” in court. The order will allow police to confiscate firearms from people who have not committed a crime and may not necessarily pose a threat.
“It is haunting to me that the family of the gunman was desperate to prevent an act of violence and alerted police, but they were still unable to stop this tragedy,” Senator Boxer said in a press release posted on her Senate web page. “When the people who know someone best fear there is a threat of violence, they should be able to go to court – with due process for everyone involved – to help prevent a tragedy.”
“We must do everything in our power to keep firearms out of the hands of those who pose a serious risk of harm to themselves or to others,” Senator Feinstein added. “I’m pleased to work with Senator Boxer on this bill, which creates a new grant program to encourage states to allow family members and others to seek court orders to temporarily prohibit dangerous individuals from possessing a firearm. The bill would allow those who know the most about the condition of someone who poses a risk of committing violence to take steps to remove firearms from that individual’s possession.”
Prior to his shooting rampage, Elliot Rodger had convinced police he was not a threat to himself or others.
“He apparently had never been either institutionalized or committed for an involuntary hold of any kind, and those are the two triggers that actually would have made him a prohibited person in terms of a firearms purchase,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told CBS News on May 26.
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Posted: 09 Jun 2014 01:39 PM PDT

A computer program has made Artificial Intelligence history by unrecognizably impersonating a human with a 30-plus percent accuracy.
The program, named Eugene, was made to engage in conversation with judges at the Royal Society in London on Saturday, pretending to be supposed teenager Eugene Goostman.
It persuaded the judges 33 percent of the time that it was a human, thus for the first time nailing Turing Test, introduced by English mathematician, code-breaker, and pioneer of computer science Alan Turing, which is a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior.
The Russian creator of “Eugene”, US-based scientist Vladimir Veselov, said the result was a “remarkable achievement.” “We spent a lot of time developing a character with a believable personality,” he said.
“In the field of artificial intelligence there is no more iconic and controversial milestone than the Turing Test, when a computer convinces a sufficient number of interrogators into believing that it is not a machine but rather is a human,” said Professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, west of London, who organized the competition.
“We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing’s Test was passed for the first time on Saturday,” Warwick said.
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Posted: 09 Jun 2014 12:57 PM PDT

One week after a federal appeals court ruled that citizens possess First Amendment rights to film cops, a police department in New Hampshire agreed to settle with a woman who was arrested on wiretapping charges.
In 2010, Carla Gericke was arrested on wiretapping charges for filming her friend being pulled over by the Weare Police during a traffic stop. When ordered by police to turn over her camera, she refused, and was duly charged for disobeying a police officer, obstructing a government official, and “unlawful interception of oral communications.”
According to Massachusetts law, citizens are permitted to record police officers, but only if the cops have been informed that a recording is taking place.
Although she was never brought to trial, Gericke sued, alleging that her arrest amounted to “retaliatory prosecution in breach of her constitutional rights.”
The Weare police department settled the lawsuit, agreeing to pay Gericke $57,000. Meanwhile, her attorney expressed confidence that the landmark case would make police retaliation against videographers “a thing of the past.”
“Unfortunately, sometimes, the only thing that changes entrenched behaviors is if it becomes too costly to continue those behaviors,” attorney Seth Hipple said. “This settlement helps to make it clear that government agencies that choose to retaliate against videographers will pay for their retaliation in dollars and cents. We are confident that this settlement will help to make arrests of videographers a thing of the past.”
Gericke’s case was permitted to proceed after the First US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled she was “exercising a clearly established First Amendment right when she attempted to film the traffic stop in the absence of a police order to stop filming or leave the area.”
“It is clearly established in this circuit that police officers cannot, consistently with the Constitution, prosecute citizens for violating wiretapping laws when they peacefully record a police officer performing his or her official duties in a public area,” the appeals court said.
In an ironic footnote to the case, Gericke never actually succeeded in videoing her friend’s run-in with the police as her camera failed to work. Nevertheless, the court still ruled the video malfunction “irrelevant” as it ruled in her favor.
“We agree that Gericke’s First Amendment right does not depend on whether her attempt to videotape was frustrated by a technical malfunction. There is no dispute that she took out the camera in order to record the traffic stop.”
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