Author: Sunfire

RT News

A unique space cannon developed for Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has successfully test-fired on Earth in preparation for a 2014 mission. During its upcoming journey into space, the cannon will blast an asteroid and mine samples of its soil.

The test took place in the Japanese prefecture of Gifu, paving the way for the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to extract soil samples from the asteroid, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on Monday.    Continue reading “Space cannon ready: Japan to shoot asteroid for samples in 2014 mission”

RT News

Radioactivity levels in a well near a storage tank at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have risen immensely on Thursday, the plant’s operator has reported.

Officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said on Friday they detected 400,000 becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances – including strontium – at the site, a level 6,500 times higher than readings taken on Wednesday, NHK World reported.    Continue reading “Radioactivity level spikes 6,500 times at Fukushima well”

Can somebody please explain to me why this country isn’t up in arms right now?  Now that Obamacare (aka The Affordable Healthcare Act) has been shown to be one of the biggest scams in United States history, why isn’t there any action being taken?

The International Banking Mafia pulled off one of its greatest scams in 1913 with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, defrauding this country with usury from worthless fiat currency.  They have done it once again with the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act.  If you have not had the chance to look at these worthless healthcare plans, you will no doubt find that the premiums are anything but affordable, and the deductibles are ludicrously high.    Continue reading “What is it going to take?”

RT News

A lobbying group for major US manufacturers has violated Washington state campaign finance law while opposing a ballot initiative that would require labeling genetically-modified foods, according to a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general Wednesday.

The Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) ran afoul of state law in collecting and spending $7.2 million against ballot initiative 522 – which voters will consider in November – while not disclosing the individual donors funneling contributions to the organization, alleged State Attorney General Bob Ferguson.   Continue reading “Washington state sues lobbying group opposed to GMO food labeling effort”

RT News

Residents near Chicago are complaining about growing piles of petroleum coke – an ugly result of tar sands oil refining – that are building up along the banks of Calumet River. The carbon byproduct was reported and removed from nearby Detroit this summer.

While similar forms of coke byproduct have derived from coal production, petroleum coke – also known as pet-coke – results when tar sands are refined.    Continue reading “Koch-owned tar sands waste piles up in Chicago after Detroit cloud”

RT News

The Pentagon’s inspector general has found that Boeing repeatedly charged the United States military for “new” helicopter parts even as it installed used parts instead.

Since 2008, Chicago-based Boeing, the military’s second-largest contractor, has overcharged the United States on four separate occasions, to the tune of $16.6 billion.   Continue reading “Boeing caught selling used parts as new to Pentagon”

RT News

Almost half a million deaths in Iraq between 2003 and 2011 were caused by war and occupation, according to new research. The figure is around four times bigger than most previous estimates.

An estimated 460,000 deaths in Iraq from March 2003 to mid-2011 were caused by violence during the war with the US and the subsequent occupation by coalition forces, according to a statistical research published in PLOS (Public Library of Science) Medicine journal, an open access source.    Continue reading “2003-2011: Half million Iraqis died in war, occupation”

Mail.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A baggage handler has been arrested following a police investigation into two dry ice explosions at Los Angeles International Airport.

Dicarlo Bennett, a 28-year-old employee for the ground handling company Servisair, was booked Tuesday for possession of a destructive device near an aircraft. He is being held on $1 million bail. Police had stepped up patrols and increased its checks on employees after the blasts took place Sunday night and then again Monday night.   Continue reading “Ground employee arrested in LA airport ice blasts”

Mail.com

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner was subdued from the moment he strode into the courtroom alone to answer charges that he put a woman in a headlock, kissed another against her will and grabbed the buttocks of a third.

“Guilty,” he told a judge three times during a brief hearing before making a quiet exit and avoiding a throng of reporters. It was a sharp contrast to a fiery resignation speech less than two months ago in which the city’s first Democratic mayor in 20 years said he was the victim of a lynch mob and denied that his actions amounted to harassment.   Continue reading “Ex-San Diego mayor pleads guilty to felony”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hold the champagne.

Even if Congress reaches a last-minute or deadline-busting deal to avert a federal default and fully reopen the government, elected officials are likely to return to their grinding brand of brinkmanship — perhaps repeatedly.   Continue reading “Short-term debt deal won’t mask big barriers ahead”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time growing desperately short, Senate leaders took command of efforts to avert a Treasury default and end the partial government shutdown Tuesday night after a last big attempt by House Republicans abruptly collapsed.

Aides to both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, expressed revived optimism about chances for a swift agreement — by Wednesday at the latest — that could pass both houses. Their efforts toward a bipartisan resolution had seemed likely to bear fruit a day earlier before House conservative were given a last-minute chance for their version.   Continue reading “On the edge: House shutdown plan fails; now Senate”

RT News

A powerful typhoon is bearing down on Japan – and its path is set to go through the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. It’s less than 24 hours until the storm is due to hit. The storm has been branded a “once in a decade event”.

The country’s weather agency has issued warnings of torrential rain and strong winds ahead of the coming typhoon, Wipha.    Continue reading “Strong typhoon heads for Japan and crippled Fukushima nuclear plant”

RT News

If the US debt-ceiling debate goes past the eleventh hour, and the default of the world’s largest economy becomes a reality, leading central banks around the world are gearing up to minimize losses and keep the world economy functioning.

If US lawmakers don’t reach a budget consensus and raise the debt ceiling by Thursday October 17, the US will become the first Western power to default since Nazi Germany in 1933, and will send markets into uncharted territory.    Continue reading “Plan B: Central banks getting ready for financial Armageddon”

Key things to note here: 

Giachini announced the death and released a final interview conducted with Priebke in July during which the German denied that Nazis gassed Jews during the Holocaust and accused the West of having fabricated the crimes to minimize the Allies’ own abuses during the war.
Continue reading “Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke dies in Italy”

RT News

Facing a shortage of supplies for lethal injections, US law enforcement officials have begun executing prisoners with an animal anesthetic that has not been approved at the federal level, with the first such execution coming this week.

European pharmacies, citing a moral issue with capital punishment, have stopped sending certain drugs to regions of the US that still carry out the death penalty, areas that include Ohio, Missouri, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Arizona.   Continue reading “Death row inmates now executed with drug cocktail used to euthanize animals”

Mail.com

NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported a rare quarterly loss after setting up a big reserve for legal expenses.

The bank had to absorb a reserve for litigation expenses of $9.2 billion in the July-to-September period, pushing the lender to a loss of $380 million compared with a profit of $5.7 billion a year earlier.   Continue reading “Rising legal costs push JPMorgan to rare loss”

Mail.com

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota farmer who discovered an oil spill the size of seven football fields while out harvesting wheat says that when he found it, crude was bubbling up out of the ground.

Farmer Steve Jensen says he smelled the crude for days before the tires on his combines were coated in it. At the apparent break in the Tesoro Corp.’s underground pipeline, the oil was “spewing and bubbling 6 inches high,” he said in a telephone interview Thursday.   Continue reading “ND farmer finds oil spill while harvesting wheat”

MSN

In one of the more bizarre testaments to government bureaucracy this side of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil,” Middle Township, N.J., is requiring that beggars obtain a permit in order to solicit donations from passers-by.

The permit comes at no cost and will excuse people who ask for spare change in a nonthreatening manner.   Continue reading “New Jersey town is A-OK with beggars, as long as they get a permit”

Mail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The deputy commander of U.S. nuclear forces, Vice Adm. Tim Giardina, was notified Wednesday that he has been relieved of duty amid a military investigation of allegations that he used counterfeit chips at an Iowa casino, the Navy said.

The move is exceedingly rare and perhaps unprecedented in the history of U.S. Strategic Command, which is responsible for all American nuclear warfighting forces, including nuclear-armed submarines, bombers and land-based missiles.   Continue reading “3-star admiral fired as No. 2 nuclear commander”