VIROLOGIST: ‘IT’S TOO LATE, EBOLA WILL KILL 5 MILLION’

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A top German virologist has caused shockwaves by asserting that it’s too late to halt the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia and that five million people will die, noting that efforts should now be focused on stopping the transmission of the virus to other countries.
Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told Germany’s Deutsche Welle that hope is all but lost for the inhabitants of Sierra Leone and Liberia and that the virus will only ‘burn itself out’ when it has infected the entire population and killed five million people.
‘The right time to get this epidemic under control in these countries has been missed,’ said Schmidt-Chanasit. ‘That time was May and June. ‘Now it is too late.’
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed over 2200 people, with Liberia and Sierra Leone accounting for over 1700 of those fatalities.

This post was published at Info Wars by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON | SEPTEMBER 12, 2014.

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Latest Scotland Poll Closes Gap Further: 49% Would Vote For Independence, 51% Against; Cable Wobbles

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Yesterday’s YouGov poll, which saw the “No” camp regain the lead with 52% of the vote, was said by some to be the end of the “Yes” momentum observed last weekend when the Yes posted its first majority since polling began, Then moments ago, the momentum in the momentum changed once again, with the Guardian releasing the latest Scottish referendum poll by ICM which took place between September 9-11 polling a “a representative sample of 1,000 people”, and where the vote was said to be “too close to call“, as the margin collapsed once again, this time shifting the momentum in favor of the Yes vote, which received 49% of the vote, and No getting 51%, however 17% of the voters are “yet to make up their minds.”
From the Guardian:
Despite a week of intense political campaigning by pro-union politicians and repeated warnings from business about the dangers of independence, the poll finds support for no on 51% and yes on 49% once don’t knows were excluded.
The Guardian/ICM poll is based on telephone interviews conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, the first such survey ICM has conducted during the campaign. Previous polls suggesting that the race for Scotland could go to a photo-finish have been based on internet-based surveys.
The period of the survey not only witnessed the three UK party leaders absenting themselves from prime minister’s questions to campaign in Scotland, but also a growing rumble of news stories about the economic risks of independence: Mark Carney of the Bank of England gave new warnings over the currency, some financial institutions such as RBS signalled readiness to move their headquarters out of Edinburgh, and there have been warnings about a mortgage drought.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/12/2014.

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As Turkey Refuses To Join “Anti-ISIS” Coalition, John Kerry Comes Begging

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It appears the ‘broad coalition’ that President Obama so confidently described just two days ago is crumbling faster than the Iraqi army. First UK and Germany deny support for airstrikes in Syria and now Turkey refuses to allow a U. S.-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighboring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants, a government official. US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Ankara this morning to ‘build the coalition’ but, as AFP reports, Turkish officials have already made their position clear, “Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations.” Their ‘excuse’: “our hands and arms are tied because of the hostages,” but follows PM Erdogan’s recent shunning of Obama.
As AFP reports,
US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Ankara Friday for talks aimed at building a coalition against Islamic State jihadists, a visit that comes after Turkey said it would not allow its air bases to be used for strikes on the extremists. The top US diplomat, touring the Middle East to establish a coalition of more than 40 countries, is to meet with Turkey’s leaders including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on measures to defeat the militants in Iraq and Syria.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/12/2014.

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Iran Doubts Emerging Coalition Members Ready to Fight IS Militants

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Tehran expressed doubts that the members of an emerging international coalition truly intend to fight radical Islamists in Syria and Iraq, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Thursday, citing Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham.
“There are serious ambiguities in the real intention of an emerging so-called international coalition against the terrorist group of Daesh (also known as ISIS),” Afkham was quoted as saying by the agency.
She added that certain coalition members provided financial and technical support to the terrorists in Iraq and Syria. At the same time, other members proved unable to carry the responsibility put on them by the international community when it came to Iraq and Syria.

This post was published at RAI Novosti

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Turkey Refuses to Take Part in U.S.-led Attacks in Iraq, Syria: Reports

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Turkey will not allow a U.S.-led coalition to launch attacks in Iraq and Syria from its air bases and will not take part in combat operations against militant groups, a government official told Agence France Presse Thursday.
"Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The announcement comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is holding talks in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to encourage Middle Eastern countries to create an international coalition to fight terrorism, particularly the Islamic State (IS) group.

This post was published at RAI Novosti

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Russia warns U.S. against strikes on Islamic State in Syria

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Russia has warned that U.S. air strikes against militants in Syria would be a "gross violation" of international law.
A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said any such action, without the backing of the UN, would be "an act of aggression".
It comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia to try to build a coalition against Islamic State (IS) militants.
President Obama has threatened action against IS in Syria as well as Iraq.

This post was published at BBC

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Struggling to Gauge ISIS Threat, Even as U.S. Prepares to Act

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The violent ambitions of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been condemned across the world: in Europe and the Middle East, by Sunni nations and Shiite ones, and by sworn enemies like Israel and Iran. Pope Francis joined the call for ISIS to be stopped.
But as President Obama prepares to send the United States on what could be a years-long military campaign against the militant group, American intelligence agencies have concluded that it poses no immediate threat to the United States. Some officials and terrorism experts believe that the actual danger posed by ISIS has been distorted in hours of television punditry and alarmist statements by politicians, and that there has been little substantive public debate about the unintended consequences of expanding American military action in the Middle East.
Daniel Benjamin, who served as the State Department’s top counter-terrorism adviser during Mr. Obama’s first term, said the public discussion about the ISIS threat has been a “farce,” with “members of the cabinet and top military officers all over the place describing the threat in lurid terms that are not justified.”
“It’s hard to imagine a better indication of the ability of elected officials and TV talking heads to spin the public into a panic, with claims that the nation is honeycombed with sleeper cells, that operatives are streaming across the border into Texas or that the group will soon be spraying Ebola virus on mass transit systems — all on the basis of no corroborated information,” said Mr. Benjamin, who is now a scholar at Dartmouth College.

This post was published at NY Times

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The Attack on ISIS Expands to Syria: New York Times Editorial Board

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By the time President Obama announced the authorization of airstrikes in Syria Wednesday night, he clearly felt that he had little choice militarily or politically. For three years he resisted American military involvement in Syria, where the Assad government and rebel forces are engaged in a bloody civil war.
But with the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — the vicious Sunni extremist group also known as ISIS and ISIL, which has seized territory in Iraq and Syria and beheaded two Americans — Mr. Obama explained that he had to expand the fight into a perilous new horizon. “ISIL poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle East — including American citizens, personnel and facilities,” he said. “If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including to the United States. While we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, ISIL leaders have threatened America and our allies.”
In broadening the operation beyond airstrikes in Iraq, Mr. Obama says the aim now is to retake ISIS-controlled territory in Iraq and to degrade and ultimately destroy it wherever it operates, including in its strongholds in Syria. But even if discrete military goals are achieved in the short term, the expansion of the American role in that regional conflict carries substantial and unpredictable risks that Americans may not be willing to bear.
That’s why this open-ended operation, which Mr. Obama says will take time, demands congressional approval, despite his claim of authority to expand the campaign in Iraq and take the fight to Syria under the Iraq war resolution and the War Powers Resolution.

This post was published at NY Times

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Russia’s New Package of Retaliatory Measures to Western Sanctions Ready: Kremlin

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Moscow has prepared a new package of retaliatory measures to Western sanctions, that include restrictions on imports of cars and textile products, but hopes that common sense will prevail, a senior Kremlin official told RIA Novosti Thursday.
"There is a whole range of non-agricultural products that make our, first of all European, partners dependent on us," he said. "For example, imports of cars, primarily second-hand cars, as well as certain types of textile products that we are quite capable of producing on our own. Not all of them, but certain kinds," presidential aide Andrei Belousov told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the Samara economic forum.
Moscow has already imposed a year-long ban on the import of meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables, as well as milk products from the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway as a response to Western sanctions.

This post was published at RAI Novosti

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Moscow Views New E.U. Sanctions as Illegitimate: Kremlin

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Moscow regrets E.U. decision to impose new sanctions against Russia over Ukraine and views them as illegitimate, the Kremlin spokesman said Thursday.
“We regret the decision by E.U. countries to introduce a new round of sanctions [against Russia],” Dmitry Peskov told reporters in the capital of Tajikistan.
“We have said on numerous occasions that we do not understand and reject the idea of sanctions imposed earlier, while considering them as illegitimate,” Peskov said.
The spokesman added that the new sanctions did not make sense in view of efforts made recently by Russia to stop the bloodshed and to assist in a peaceful resolution of the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

This post was published at RAI Novosti

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Despite economic fears, the E.U. sanctions Russia again

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The European Union on Thursday slapped more sanctions on Russia for helping separatists destabilize Ukraine, limiting Russia’s access to its financial market, hitting the country’s vital oil industry, curbing high-tech exports and targeting more officials with travel bans and asset freezes.
Many E.U. members had been loath to increase the sanctions against Russia for fear of jeopardizing their close trade relationships with Moscow. But a compromise struck in a video conference call with top EU leaders broke a deadlock that had paralyzed the 28-nation bloc from taking tougher action over the past ten days.
Under the compromise hashed out by leaders including Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Francois Hollande, the sanctions could be reversed within weeks if the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine holds.

This post was published at Washington Post

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German Business Calls Russia Key Partner Despite Sanctions

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Despite the sanctions, Russia is still key partner for German businesses, Michael Harms, Chairman of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce in Moscow, said Thursday.
"Unfortunately, the paradigm of our cooperation has changed significantly. At the beginning of the year I was working on the framework of a new Germany- Russia Partnership for Modernization, and today we have to speak about the impact of sanctions. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasize that from the perspective of the German business, Russia remains its strategic economic partner," Harms noted at the news conference presenting the results of the poll on the impact of sanctions.
According to the survey conducted by the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce revealed Tuesday, most German companies operating in Russia believe that economic sanctions against Moscow are not proving effective. Almost 80 percent of the polled enterprises believe that economic sanctions are counterproductive and not conducive for political objectives. One third of the respondents agree that sanctions still need to be introduced. Two thirds, on the contrary, think that the sanctions are not necessary. The respondents said the sanctions will lead to further deterioration of the economic environment. Some 71 percent of enterprises expect economic slowdown by the end of the year.

This post was published at RAI Novosti

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Half of Europeans against U.S. Interference in European Policies: Survey

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Half of Europeans are against US interference in their international policies, the 13th Transatlantic Trends survey by The German Marshall Fund reveals.
"Fifty percent of Europeans said they would prefer to see their country take a more independent approach from the United States, up 8 percentage points from last year," reads the statement published on the fund's website on Wednesday.
The survey, which also showed that the majority of Americans (53%) disapprove of President Barack Obama's international policies, had the most notable response registered in Germany, where 57 percent of the population expressed a strong preference for such an approach in security and diplomatic affairs that would as independent from the United States as possible.

This post was published at RAI Novosti

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Most of France Wants Early Resignation of President Hollande: Poll

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Over 60 percent of French voters want President Francois Hollande to leave office before his term runs out in in 2017, according to a new poll conducted by Ifop for Le Figaro Magazine, the media outlet reported Thursday.
"According to Ifop, 62 percent of Frenchmen would like to see Francois Hollande leave the Elysee Palace [the official residence of the President of the French Republic] before the end of his mandate. This would be preferable to the dissolution of the National Assembly [the lower house of the Parliament] of France or the replacement of the country's prime-minister," Le Figaro said.
Earlier in September, Hollande announced that he will not step down before the end of his term.

This post was published at RAI Novosti

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US at War with ISIS in Middle East, Ukraine Crisis and More Sanctions Against Russia

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The following video was published by Greg Hunter on Sep 11, 2014
America is at war in the Middle East. President Obama came on national media this week and said ISIS terrorists in eastern Syria and western Iraq ‘will find no safe haven,’ and he wants to ‘ultimately destroy ISIL.’ Of course, Secretary of State John Kerry said it really was not a war but a ‘significant counter-terror operation.’ To that I say horse hooey! This is war any way you cut it, even if it is supposedly only an air campaign with military ‘advisors.’ Just think, President Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize at the beginning of his first term. Will he have to give it back? The Russians also charge this is more about getting a pipeline through Syria than it is about fighting terrorism. The pipeline is natural gas, and Qatar wants to start supplying Europe. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, is worried that a bombing campaign could lead to a ‘huge escalation in the conflict in the Middle East and North Africa.’
Speaking of natural gas, Europe is about to have theirs cut off. There are new sanctions coming from the U. S. and the EU over the Ukraine crisis. It’s going to involve Russia’s biggest energy companies, among other sanctions, but the oil companies are the biggies here. Russia will respond, and what do you bet it will involve higher gas prices and less of it this winter in Europe? The European economy is already in a tail spin, and this will surely drive it into a depression. News flash–even the new President of Ukraine says most, if not all, Russian fighters have left the country. Russia says they were never there to begin with, but Ukraine says they are ‘mostly gone.’ So, what gives with the new sanctions?

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Casting Russia as Expansionist to Advance EU Solidarity

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Fragmentation fashion across Europe means German hegemony, if we’re lucky … The German people so far remain a bastion of rationalism, holding together as others tear themselves apart. Europe is disintegrating. Two large and ancient kingdoms are near the point of rupture as Spain follows Britain into constitutional crisis, joined like Siamese twins. – Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Devolution and secession are dangerous conceptually and in action.
Free-Market Analysis: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard provides us with a trenchant analysis of what’s taking place in Europe, and then makes a wrong turn toward the end of the article. He does that a lot these days.
Nonetheless, it’s an interesting report, explaining that Europe is increasingly verging on entropy.
For a mainstream media guy, he can be pretty provocative.
Here’s more:
The post-Habsburg order further east is suddenly prey to a corrosive notion that settled borders are up for grabs. “Problems frozen for decades are warming up again,” said Giles Merritt, from Friends of Europe in Brussels.
The best we can hope for – should tribalism prevail – is German political hegemony in Europe. The German people so far remain a bastion of rationalism, holding together as others tear themselves apart. The French are too paralysed by economic depression and the collapse of the Hollande presidency to play any serious role.

This post was published at The Daily Bell on September 12, 2014.

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Vote YES On Scottish Independence – Scotland Finally Has A Chance To Get Free From The British

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Scottish voters finally have the opportunity to fulfill William Wallace’s dream of a Scotland that is free and independent of England forever. All they have to do is vote yes next week. Without a doubt, a divorce from the British would be quite messy, and life would probably be more comfortable in the short-term if Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom. But hopefully the people of Scotland are looking beyond short-term concerns. Today, the United Kingdom is a horribly repressive Big Brother police state that is dominated by bureaucratic control freaks. You can hardly even sneeze without violating some kind of law, rule or regulation. And the London banking establishment is at the very heart of the debt-based global financial system which is enslaving so much of the planet. Scotland finally has a chance to get free from all of this. All it is going to take is a yes vote on Scottish independence.
It looks like it is going to be an incredibly close vote. Recent polls show that the result could go either way. Needless to say, this is causing the British establishment to freak out quite a bit.
For example, a couple of large banks have attempted to sway the vote during this past week by publicly declaring that they will have to move to England if the vote for Scottish independence is successful.
The Royal Bank of Scotland announcedThursday that it is making contingency plans to move its legal incorporation to England in the event of a ‘yes’ vote. In addition, Lloyds Banking Group said it had made arrangements to establish ‘new legal entities’ in England should voters in Scotland decide to sever ties with Britain.

This post was published at The Economic Collapse Blog on September 11th, 2014.

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Fishing for Trout With Rope and Mashed Potatoes; Mentality of Jackasses; Gas Pains

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The EU stepped up its sanctions today after forcing all the ducks in line with the position of president Obama. Russia immediately responded in kind with actions on cars, clothes, and energy.
The Financial Times reports Russia Threatens to Cap Western Car and Clothing Imports.
Russia threatened to escalate a growing trade dispute between the Kremlin and the EU, saying it could cap western car and clothing imports.
The fresh warning came as EU diplomats ended a week-long deadlock on Thursday over a new round of sanctions against the Kremlin, and agreed to trigger measures to block Russia’s largest state-owned oil companies from raising money on European capital markets.
Forcing Ducks In Line
The measures were due to go into effect at the start of the week, but several EU countries balked, arguing they needed more time to assess whether the Kiev-brokered ceasefire would take hold.
Diplomats said the decision by EU ambassadors to press ahead came after Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, held a conference call on Thursday with the leaders of the four European countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations – Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Franois Hollande, Britain’s David Cameron and Italy’s Matteo Renzi – to finalise the measures.

This post was published at Global Economic Analysis on September 11, 2014.

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