Author: Paul

GPS Daily

The Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass) will provide Brazilians with an alternative to the American Global Positioning System (GPS), giving them more localized data and stability, the Glonass project coordinator in Brazil told Sputnik.

“Brazil will have an alternative to GPS as a civil-use localization system. So all Brazilians will be able to access this system, and this will mean an increase in the number of satellites as people will be able to connect to both GPS and Glonass. Also [this means] having more localized data and more stability,” Geovany Borges said.   Continue reading “Russia’s Glonass to Provide Brazil With Alternative to GPS”

Bloomberg

China will allow trading in forwards and swaps between the yuan and three more currencies in a bid to reduce foreign-exchange risks amid increased volatility in emerging markets.

The China Foreign Exchange Trade System will begin such contracts with Malaysia’s ringgit, Russia’s ruble, and the New Zealand dollar from Dec. 29, it said in a statement on its website today. That will extend the yuan’s swaps trading to 11 currencies on the interbank foreign-exchange market.  Continue reading “China Extends Forwards, Swaps Trading to Three More Currencies”

Green Med Info – by Sayer Ji

Unbeknownst to most, a Copernican revolution has already taken place in cancer theory. Today, the weight of evidence indicates that plants and not chemicals are the solution for reversing the global cancer epidemic.

Our understanding of what causes cancer has undergone something akin to a Copernican revolution in the past decade. Biological fatalism has been the predominant force in medicine over the past half century, where most conditions including cancer were believed predestined ‘in the genes,’ and therefore impossible to reverse. Continue reading “Research: Plants Cure Cancer, Not Chemicals”

Reuters

Japanese prosecutors will likely decide again not to indict three former Tokyo Electric Power Co executives over their handling of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, media reported on Friday, but a rarely used citizen’s panel could still force an indictment.

The Tokyo District Prosecutors Office has been reinvestigating the case after a citizens’ panel ruled in July that three former Tepco executives, including then-chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, should be indicted over their handling of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.   Continue reading “Prosecutors won’t indict former Tepco executives over Fukushima disaster: media”

ABC News

Former President George H.W. Bush remained at a Houston hospital for a fourth day in a row after experiencing shortness of breath earlier this week.

The former president, age 90, “remains in high spirits and continues to make progress, but he will remain at the Houston Methodist Hospital this evening,” said his spokesman, Jim McGrath.

Bush was admitted Tuesday as a precaution.   Continue reading “George HW Bush Remains Hospitalized For Fourth Straight Day”

Mint Press News – by Nicole Flatow

Iman Hadieh was standing outside a bar smoking with some new friends on the evening of October 6 when the police cars came. It was about eight young black men, and her, a woman of Palestinian origin who describes herself as white.

“I can’t tell you how many vehicles descended upon us because it all happened so fast,” she said. The cars were unmarked. But she knew it was the cops when they jumped out in black vests and hats, some with their guns drawn, she said. Some she didn’t see jump from their cars, but they appeared instead to come out of nowhere. She estimates there were 10 or 12 officers in all. Two witnesses who live on the block confirmed seeing a group of about 8 people lined up against a wall and frisked. They did not see the initial jump-out and could not confirm whether officers had their guns drawn.   Continue reading “If You Thought Stop-And-Frisk Was Bad, You Should Know About Jump-Outs”

Opposing Views – by Edward Arnold

Earlier this week, a teenager was killed by a policeman at a gas station. That policeman was issued a body camera to wear that night. He wasn’t wearing it when the incident occurred. The officer remains unnamed.

The police were responding to reports of a theft when they saw 18-year-old Antonio Martin and another person. The officer saw Martin “produced a pistol with his arm straight out, pointing it at the officer.” The officer responded by firing three shots at Martin, killing him. The person with martin fled.   Continue reading “Police Officer Kills Teen, Body Camera Was Off”

RT

Russia’s newest RS-26 missile system, dubbed the ‘anti-missile defense killer’, will join the ranks of the country’s defenses in less than two years, Russia’s Strategic Missile Force commander said.

“We are continuing the test program for RS-26 and plan to finish it next year, with the missile to be put on combat duty in 2016,” Lt. Gen. Sergey Karakayev is cited as saying by RIA Novosti.   Continue reading “Russian ‘ABM killer’ intercontinental missile to enter service in 2016”

RINF – by Eric Zuesse

Amnesty International has found that “the already desperate situation in eastern Ukraine is being made even worse by” so-called ‘volunteer’ or mercenary forces for the Ukrainian Government, which are blocking the supply of food to residents in that region, and trying to starve them to death.

Thus, “The region is facing a humanitarian disaster with many already at risk of starvation,” said Denis Krivosheev, acting Director of Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International, on Wed., December 24th.   Continue reading “Ukraine’s Government Is Starving Residents of the Breakaway Region”

Daily Mail

Malaysia’s worst flooding in decades forced some 118,000 people to flee as premier Najib Razak came under fire after photos showed him golfing with US President Barack Obama during the storms.

At least five people have been killed by the rising waters and there appeared little respite on the way on Friday, with forecasters predicting further heavy rainfall across previously unaffected southern parts of the country.   Continue reading “Malaysia PM under fire as 100,000 flee worst floods in decades”