Syria peace talks hit trouble after Damascus blast kills 60 - from TRUNEWS

Syria’s main opposition group met U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura for the first time on Sunday, but the talks ran straight into trouble after Islamic State bombers killed over 60 people near the country’s holiest Shi’ite shrine.

Representatives of the Saudi-backed Higher Negotiation Committee (HNC), which includes political and militant opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, warned they may yet walk away from the Geneva talks unless the suffering of civilians in the five-year conflict is eased.

The Syrian government’s chief delegate retorted that the blasts in Damascus, which the Interior Ministry blamed on a car bomb and two suicide bombers, merely confirmed the link between the opposition and terrorism – even though Islamic State has been excluded from the talks.

The United Nations is aiming for six months of talks, first on a ceasefire, then working toward a political settlement to the civil war that has killed over 250,000 people, driven more than 10 million from their homes and drawn in global powers.

The HNC has insisted air strikes and sieges of Syrian towns must end before it joins the “proximity talks”, in which de Mistura would meet each side in separate rooms.

“In view of the (Syrian) regime and its allies’ insistence in violating the rights of the Syrian people, the presence of the HNC delegation in Geneva would not have any justification and the HNC could pull its negotiating team out,” the group’s coordinator Riad Hijab said in an online statement.

However, an opposition spokesman described discussions on Sunday with de Mistura as very positive, adding there would be further meetings on Monday. “Things are encouraging and positive concerning humanitarian issues,” he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the talks – the first in two years – as long overdue. “I urge all parties to put the people of Syria at the heart of their discussions, and above partisan interests,” he said during a visit to Ethiopia.

“TOTAL” SIEGES

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged both sides to seize the opportunity to make progress. “In the end there is no military solution to the conflict,” he said in a televised statement.

The Syrian government’s delegation head in Geneva, Bashar al-Jaafari, said Damascus was considering options such as ceasefires, humanitarian corridors and prisoner releases, but suggested they might come about as a result of the talks, not before them.

“Absolutely, this is part of the agenda that we agreed upon and that will be one of the very important topics we will discuss among ourselves as Syrian citizens,” Jaafari said.

Russian air strikes have killed nearly 1,400 civilians since Moscow started its aerial campaign in support of Assad nearly four months ago, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Saturday.

Opposition delegate Bassma Kodmani said the bombings had increased in the last week. “In preparations for the negotiations, everything has intensified. The sieges have become total,” she said, adding later that her delegation was likely to stay at least three to four days in Geneva.

On Sunday, the United Nations said that Mouadamiya, a rebel-held town of 45,000 on the southwestern edge of Damascus, faced a new siege by government forces.

Moscow has objected to two Islamist rebel groups, Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, taking any part in the talks. However, a negotiator from Jaish al-Islam, Mohamed Alloush, told Reuters he was going to Geneva to show that the Syrian government was not serious about seeking a political solution.

ISLAMIC STATE CLAIM

Islamic State claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks in the Sayeda Zeinab district of Damascus, according to Amaq, a news agency that supports the militant group.

It said two operations “hit the most important stronghold of Shi’ite militias in Damascus”.

The Britain-based Observatory put the death toll at over 60, including 25 Shi’ite fighters.

Earlier, the Interior Ministry had reported at least 45 dead and 110 people wounded, while state television showed footage of burning buildings and wrecked cars in the neighborhood.

Children stand near damaged vehicles as residents and soldiers loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad inspect damage after a suicide attack in Sayeda Zeinab, a district of southern Damascus, Syria January 31, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer

The heavily populated area of southern Damascus is a site of pilgrimage for Shi’ites from Iran, Lebanon and other parts of the Muslim world.

The shrine houses the grave of the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Taleb, whom Shi’ites consider the rightful successor to Prophet Mohammad. The dispute over the succession led to the major Sunni-Shi’ite schism in Islam.

Islamic State has been excluded from the talks as the U.N. has classified it a terrorist group. Nevertheless Jaafari said the blasts confirmed the link between the opposition and terrorism, pointing to the attacks and comments from a leader of the Southern Front, another rebel coalition.

“This confirms what the Syrian government has said over and over again – that there is a link between terrorism and those who sponsor terrorism from one side and some political groups that pretend to be against terrorism,” he said.

Jaafari added that Damascus favored “an enlarged national government” as one phase of the process, but made no mention of creating a transitional administration without Assad, as the opposition demands.

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U.S. warship sails near island claimed by China in South China Sea - from TRUNEWS

A U.S. Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of an island claimed by China and two other states in the South China Sea on Saturday to counter efforts to limit freedom of navigation, the Pentagon said, prompting an angry reaction from Beijing.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of world trade is shipped every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said no ships from China’s military were in the vicinity of the guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur when it passed near Triton Island in the Paracel Islands.

The U.S. Navy conducted a similar exercise in October in which the guided-missile destroyer Lassen sailed close to one of China’s man-made islands, also drawing a rebuke from Beijing.

“This operation challenged attempts by the three claimants – China, Taiwan and Vietnam – to restrict navigation rights and freedoms,” Davis said, reflecting the U.S. position that the crucial sea lane should be treated as international waters.

Davis said the latest operation sought to challenge policies that require prior permission or notification of transit within territorial seas. He said the United States took no position on competing sovereignty claims to naturally formed land features in the South China Sea.

“No claimants were notified prior to the transit, which is consistent with our normal process and international law,” Davis said.

The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur patrols in the Philippine Sea in this August 15, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Declan Barnes/Handout via Reuters/Files

China condemned the U.S. action as provocative.

“The American warship has violated relevant Chinese laws by entering Chinese territorial waters without prior permission, and the Chinese side has taken relevant measures including monitoring and admonishments,” China’s foreign ministry said.

China’s defense ministry calling the American action “intentionally provocative and “irresponsible and extremely dangerous”.

The ministry also said that Chinese navy vessels had taken responsive action, conducted identification checks and promptly gave warnings for the ship to keep its distance.

“Regardless of whatever provocative steps the American side takes, China’s military will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and security,” the ministry statement concluded.

The operation followed calls in Congress for the Obama administration to follow up on the October operation.

This month, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee criticized Obama for delaying further freedom of navigation patrols.

Senator John McCain said that allowed China to continue to pursue its territorial ambitions in the region, including by landing a plane on a man-made island in the Spratly Islands archipelago.

In a statement on Saturday, McCain said he was “encouraged” by the news.

“I continue to hope these operations will become so routine that China and other claimants will come to accept them as normal occurrences and releasing press statements to praise them will no longer be necessary,” he said.

McCain added that the operation challenged the “excessive maritime claims that restrict the rights and freedoms of the United States”.

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Last pleas from Trump and Cruz before Iowa - from TRUNEWS

AMES, Iowa – Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, locked in a tight race in Iowa just two days before the state’s crucial U.S. presidential nominating contest, urged their supporters on Saturday to give them the first victory of the 2016 campaign.

Trump, the billionaire New York developer, and Cruz, the Texas senator, were among 10 Republicans and three Democrats campaigning in Iowa for their parties’ nominations ahead of Monday’s caucus sessions but much of the focus was on the fight between Cruz and Trump.

The influential Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa poll released on Saturday showed a tight race, with Trump receiving 28 percent of the support of likely Iowa caucus-goers and Cruz 23 percent. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was overwhelmingly the third choice, at 15 percent.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz listens to his introduction at a campaign event in Hubbard, Iowa, United States, January 30, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young . SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

In the Democratic competition, Hillary Clinton held a slight edge over Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, 45 percent to 42 percent.

The margin of error for the poll was plus/minus 4 percent.

On Monday, Iowans will gather in homes, gymnasiums, libraries, taverns and even grain elevators for caucuses to select their favorite for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations. When they are finished, the race will take on a new dynamic and several candidates are expected to drop out altogether.

“This is your time,” Cruz told a crowd of about 1,000 at a hotel ballroom. “This is the time for the men and women of Iowa to make a decision. We are inches away.”

Across the state, Trump used stagecraft and blasted Cruz to enliven the crowd as he barnstormed through eastern Iowa. At the Dubuque airport, Trump’s plane, with his name emblazoned on the side, did a fly-by before he spoke to a crowd of about 400, small by Trump standards.

“You’ve got to go out and caucus,” Trump told them. “You’ve got to get out there. I don’t care what happens. If your wife leaves you for another man, if you leave your wife because you don’t like her, I don’t care what it is. If you’re sick, you’ve got to get out.”

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, December 29, 2015. REUTERS/Lane Hickenbottom

While Trump made his remarks before the release of the Iowa poll, he noted that other polls have shown his lead in Iowa more tenuous than in other states.

“I’m not used to 5 points,” he said.

While at his event in Ames, Cruz refrained from attacking Trump but the New York developer was not so circumspect. He continued to suggest that Cruz may not be legally qualified to be president because he was born in Canada.

“How the hell can you run for president?” Trump said. “Ted has a big problem.”

On the Democratic side, Clinton and Sanders, along with former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, agreed in principle to add four debates to their calendars, Clinton’s campaign said, although the Sanders campaign said there remained disagreements over where they should be held. If the campaigns can find agreement, the first will be next week in New Hampshire, contingent on approval by the Democratic National Committee.

CLINTON ON GUN CONTROL

Clinton made a stop as well in Ames, where she spoke to a crowd of more than 1,100 at Iowa State University. She was introduced by former astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife, former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, who in 2011, was critically wounded in an assassination attempt in Arizona. In her remarks, Clinton praised gun-control measures recently taken by President Barack Obama.

“None of it will stick if it’s not a voting issue, and as you go to caucus Monday night, please think about this,” Clinton said.

Sanders, speaking at a college in Waverly, stuck to his familiar theme of reducing economic inequality and cited his fund-raising operation.

“I am proud to tell you that we have received almost 3 million individual contributions, more than any other candidate in history,” he said, while criticizing Clinton, without naming her, for relying more heavily on wealthier donors.

The New York Times editorial board Saturday weighed on the campaign, endorsing Clinton for the Democratic nomination and Republican John Kasich for the Republicans. The Times called Clinton one of the most “deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history.”

The newspaper said Kasich, the governor of Ohio who is trailing badly in national polls, was “the only plausible choice for Republicans tired of the extremism and inexperience on display in this race.”

The moderate Kasich will not be a factor in Iowa, where social and religious conservatives hold sway at the caucuses. Those voters seem to have largely cohered around the fiery Cruz, whose stump speech carries a distinct anti-establishment tone. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck introduced Cruz at the Ames rally.

Cruz is trying to bounce back from what many observers considered a rocky performance in Thursday’s debate. With Trump boycotting the event over a disagreement with sponsor Fox News Channel, much of scrutiny fell on Cruz, who tussled with moderators and sniped repeatedly at Rubio.

Rubio also has much to gain from Monday’s caucuses. A finish in the top tier could give him needed momentum going into the next nominating contest, the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 10.

He also was on the Iowa State campus, telling about 500 people that his campaign would be working to ensure they follow through with their support.

“We need your help. We want to stay in touch with you for the next 48 hours,” Rubio said. “We want to make sure you go caucus.”

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Speech to the troops: Obama to visit Mosque with deep ties to Muslim Brotherhood - from TRUNEWS

The Baltimore mosque President Obama has chosen as the first U.S.-based mosque to visit during his presidency has deep ties to extremist elements, including to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The White House announced on Saturday that Obama will visit the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB) on Wednesday. He has visited several mosques overseas as president but has resisted visiting one in the homeland. The purpose of the trip, according to the White House, is to “celebrate the contributions Muslim Americans make to our nation and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life.”

But ISB is a curious choice for Obama’s first domestic visit.

The mosque is a member of a network of mosques controlled by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a Muslim civil rights group named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror case. Several executives with that organization were convicted of sending money to aid the terrorist group Hamas.

An imam who served at ISB for a total of 15 years has also been a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood network and has worked for an Islamic relief group that was designated as a terrorist organization by the Treasury Department in 2004.

Mohammad Adam el-Sheikh, who served two stints as ISB’s imam, from 1983 to 1989 and from 1994 to 2003, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan in the 1970s. He also co-founded the Muslim American Society, a Falls Church, Va.-based group that is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.

While in Baltimore, el-Sheikh served as a regional director for the Islamic American Relief Agency. That group’s parent organization is the Islamic African Relief Agency, which the Treasury Department says provided funds to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

After leaving Baltimore, el-Sheikh served as imam at the infamous Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church. That mosque has a lengthy roster of known terrorists and terrorist sympathizers. Its imam during much of the 1990s was Mohammed al-Hanooti. He was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six people.

Dar al-Hijrah came under the control of Anwar al-Awlaki in 2001. He’s the American al-Qaeda recruiter who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Nidal Hasan, the U.S. Army major who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Nov. 2009, is said to have attended the Virginia mosque when al-Awlaki served there. The pair also reportedly exchanged emails. Two of the 9/11 hijackers also attended Dar al-Hijrah during al-Awlaki’s tenure.

El-Sheikh took over at Dar al-Hijrah in Aug. 2003, a little over a year after al-Awlaki left. While there he defended Palestianian suicide bombings against Israel.

“If certain Muslims are to be cornered where they cannot defend themselves, except through these kinds of means, and their local religious leaders issued fatwas to permit that, then it becomes acceptable as an exceptional rule, but should not be taken as a principle,” he said in 2004, according to a Washington Post article at the time.

As The Post reported Saturday, ISB’s website states that it seeks “to be the anchor of a growing Muslim community with diverse backgrounds, democratically governed, relating to one another with inclusiveness and tolerance, and interacting with neighbors in an Islamic exemplary manner.”

But that desire for tolerance — which President Obama frequently touts as well — does not appear to be a virtue shared by ISB’s resident scholar, Yaseen Shaikh.

A 2013 Youtube video shows Shaikh, who previously served as imam at a mosque in Plano, Tex., speaking out forcefully against homosexuality in Islam.

During an hour long diatribe, Shaikh called homosexuality a psychological disorder that has no place in Islam or society. He also lamented that gay rights groups have “hijacked” political discourse.

“This whole subject of homosexuality in the public sphere…is no longer a religious issue, unfortunately, as much as we want to use the religious card and try to defeat this, now it’s become a politicized issue,” Shaikh says in the video.

“Politicians are highly influenced by people who back them, and we find that these politicians who are calling for gay rights and marriage and supporting gay rights are lobbied and campaigned by gay activists, by gay groups. And they are throwing money at it left and right to gain some acceptance in society, to be considered normal people, to be treated normally.”

Obama is one such politician who has supported gay rights.

“We have to counter the efforts that are taking place elsewhere,” Sheikh says in the video, advising that “if our children are taught that [homosexuality is] okay, we have to teach them it’s not okay.”

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EU says Cologne sex attacks ‘a matter of public order not related to the refugee crisis’ - from TRUNEWS

Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the European Commission, doesn`t see any link between mass sex assaults on New Year’s Eve in Cologne and the ongoing refugee crisis, internal minutes has revealed. He also lamented the reintroduction of internal border checks within the Schengen zone.

The Commission’s members call for “unconditional rejection of false association between certain criminal acts such as the attacks on women in Cologne on New Year`s Eve, and the mass influx of refugees”, as the minutes of the body`s meeting from January 13, suggest.

Mass sex assaults that saw groups of people, presumably of North African and Middle East origin, harass and rob roughly 1000 women in the German city of Cologne on New Year`s Eve drew special attention to the issue of integration of migrants from war-torn countries into the European community.

More than 800 complaints were filed with the police in the aftermath of the events, with about 500 of them related to offences of sexual nature.

Ralf Jager, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, confirmed the majority of the 52 suspects identified were not German citizens. Twenty-five were from Morocco and Algeria, 15 arrived in Germany as asylum-seekers and 11 perpetrators were staying in the country illegally.

Timmermans also denounced the reinstatement of border controls between several European countries, members of the Schengen agreement, stressing that “checks at EU internal borders must not be reintroduced, otherwise the achievements of Schengen would be placed in jeopardy”.

Earlier, several European countries such as Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Hungary took a stricter approach to the security of their borders by reintroducing internal checks in a bid to divert the overwhelming flow of migrants sneaking into the countries .

On Monday, following the EU ministerial meeting it was announced the EU would consider prolonging temporary border measures for a period of two years instead of the currently permitted six months limit amid the growing pressure from countries with a huge refugee intake.

EU warns Greece could be sealed off from Schengen zone over its handling of refugee crisis https://t.co/XAk2TaqWXc http://pic.twitter.com/m1zUrcXFcm

— RT (@RT_com) January 27, 2016

However, he called the accusations of some European states, challenging the EU Commission on its inability to tackle the crisis as “unworthy” and reiterated that it remains “the guarantor of European integration and Schengen area”.

Speaking about what can be done to alleviate the crisis, the commissioners listed two key areas where urgent measures should be taken.

They stressed the importance of creating so-called ‘hotspots’, processing centers where migrants are registered upon crossing the EU border and then relocated to one of the EU member states, as well as stepping up the EU external border security.

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Merkel says refugees must return home when war ends - from TRUNEWS

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday tried to placate the increasingly vocal critics of her open-door policy for refugees, insisting that asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq would go home once the conflicts there had ended.

Merkel, despite appearing increasingly isolated over her policy, has resisted pressure from some conservatives to cap the influx of refugees, or to close Germany’s borders. A record 1.1 million migrants arrived in Germany last year.

But growing concern about the country’s ability to cope and worries about crime and security after assaults on women are weighing on support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Merkel said that despite efforts to integrate refugees and help them, it was important to stress that they had only been given permission to stay for a limited period of time.

“We need … to say to people that this is a temporary residential status and we expect that once there is peace in Syria again, once IS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained,” she said at a meeting of CDU members in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

She said 70 percent of refugees that fled to Germany from the war in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s had returned to their home countries.

Her remarks come after Horst Seehofer, leader of the CSU, threatened to take her government to court if his demand to stem the flow of asylum seekers was not met.

Support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) has edged up into double digits. Its leader said in an interview published on Saturday that border guards should shoot at refugees to prevent them from illegally entering the country if need be.

Merkel has tried to convince other European countries to take in quotas of refugees, pushed for reception centers to be built on Europe’s external borders, and led an EU campaign to try to convince Turkey to keep refugees from entering the bloc.

But progress has been slow.

Germany wants to limit migration from North Africa by declaring Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia “safe countries”, which would end their citizens’ chance of being granted asylum.

Merkel said she had spoken to Morocco’s king and that Morocco had said it was prepared to take back people from that country.

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Did Brazil, WHO fumble Zika response? - from TRUNEWS

Last January, long lines formed outside health clinics in Recife, a city in Brazil’s northeast hit hard in recent years by outbreaks of dengue, a painful tropical disease.

Doctors were on guard because federal health officials and the World Health Organization (WHO) had warned 2015 would be a bad year for dengue and possibly another viral disease, chikungunya, both spread by the same type of mosquito.

But the symptoms of the hundreds of people seeking treatment did not fit dengue. Instead of high fevers and intense muscular aches that dengue is known to cause, patients were running only slight temperatures and complaining of joint pain. Many had rashes sooner than with dengue and chikungunya.

“We knew this was something else,” says Carlos Brito, a doctor from Recife who told state and federal health authorities in January-February last year that they were wrong to classify all the cases as dengue. “But the authorities were slow to believe,” he said.

Kleber Luz, a physician in Natal, a city 300 km up the Atlantic coast, says he gave similar feedback but got the same response. The two – who were part of a group of doctors discussing the odd symptoms in text messages – grew frustrated with the authorities’ narrow focus. They asked the federal health ministry to broaden its search beyond viruses known in the area.

It took until early May for the health ministry to recognize that the Zika virus had arrived in Brazil and to alert the WHO’s regional arm, the Washington-based Pan American Health Organization. And it wasn’t until November that a Rio de Janeiro laboratory made a link between the virus and microcephaly, which can lead to abnormally small brains in developing babies.

    The WHO has been lambasted in the past couple of years by scientists, aid organizations, and public health experts for the slow way in which it initially reacted to the Ebola epidemic as it spread across West Africa in 2014. And so far, the hesitant response to the Zika outbreak, which has created the worst global health scare since Ebola, says much about the difficulties that the WHO and other health authorities face in combating unexpected public health threats.

EXPLODING ACROSS THE REGION

On Dec. 1, the WHO cited the lab evidence linking Zika to microcephaly in an advisory to its member countries. It will consider on Monday whether to declare an international emergency.

    The WHO said in Geneva on Thursday that Zika in the last few months has spread “explosively” to more than 20 other countries in the Americas and could infect as many as 4 million people.

Whether the health authorities in Brazil and the leadership at the WHO have taken too long to get to this point is a subject of debate within the international health community.

The Brazilian government says its response when it was first alerted by the doctors about the unusual symptoms they were seeing was driven by the evidence.

“It was too early,” said Claudio Maierovitch, director of the health ministry’s Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance. “There are so many other viral possibilities and Zika had never been seen in this hemisphere.”

    And he said that when Zika was identified, the authorities’ response was based on knowledge of the disease. Previous outbreaks  of Zika, a virus first identified in 1947 in Uganda, had occurred in small and scattered rural populations in Africa and Southeast Asia and the symptoms were relatively benign.

“We based our response on the scientific knowledge available, that Zika caused a mild illness without major complications,” said Maierovitch. “But as soon as we saw that there was an association with microcephaly, we reacted in record time.”

Critics say that the WHO has been slow to act after the link between Zika and microcephaly was made, and should have declared an emergency as soon as that was determined. “My chief criticism is of WHO in Geneva. After being widely condemned for acting late on Ebola, it is now sitting back with Zika,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of public health law at Georgetown University, who has worked with the WHO and written extensively about pandemics and policy.

WHO officials say the agency’s response to Zika is driven by science, and they point out that much remains unclear, including the precise nature of any link between Zika and microcephaly.

    “In any unfolding crisis you’re dealing with a lot of uncertainty,” Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s assistant director-general, told reporters on Thursday.

Since October, 4,180 cases of microcephaly have been reported in Brazil but only 270 have so far been confirmed, with just six so far linked by the government to Zika. Of the rest, 3,448 are still being investigated through a long process involving clinical research, laboratory testing and monitoring of the infants’ development, and 462 were dismissed as not being microcephaly.

Following the spread of the disease is difficult. Many of those who get Zika can recover quickly from only mild symptoms, and across the Americas, hospitals do not have the clinical testing materials to quickly and definitively determine whether a patient is infected.

     “I THINK IT’S ZIKA”

     Luz, the Natal doctor, may have been the first person to make a link between the symptoms his patients had shown and Zika.

    After poring over scientific literature about a 2013 outbreak in French Polynesia, Luz in early March sent a text to a WhatsApp group for doctors, declaring: “I think it’s Zika.” He compared the symptoms he had seen with those reported in that outbreak.

Soon, several doctors in the same region began collecting blood samples from patients and sent them to various laboratories for analysis. On April 30, a laboratory at the Federal University of Bahia, also in Brazil’s northeast, said it had identified the presence of Zika in samples from one patient.

    The health ministry alerted state governments.

    On May 2, it notified PAHO. The notification put a Zika outbreak on record at the WHO.

    On May 7, PAHO issued an “epidemiological alert” saying “public health authorities of Brazil are investigating a possible transmission of the Zika virus.”

    But concern remained limited mostly to the contagiousness of Zika, rather than whether it could be a serious threat. In its alert, PAHO wrote: “Complications (neurological, autoimmune) are rare.”

    ‘REAL ANGUISH’

    In late May, Brito received a call from a Recife neurologist who noticed a surge of new patients with symptoms of Guillain-Barré, a little-understood autoimmune syndrome that can weaken the muscles and cause paralysis.

Brito interviewed the patients, many of whom said they had previously suffered a light fever, joint pain and rashes. He collected blood samples and by June a laboratory had used genetic testing to find traces of the Zika virus.

“It was real anguish,” Brito said of the patient’s suffering and the wait for official confirmation of Zika’s presence.

But despite the results, there was no proof to show that it was Zika causing the syndrome. Neither the Brazilian health ministry nor PAHO heightened warnings.

    By September, the chat groups among doctors were abuzz over a spike in the number of babies born with microcephaly.

    Many mothers of affected babies recalled having Zika-type symptoms.

    In October, Adriana Melo, an obstetrician in the nearby state of Paraiba, noticed troubling signs in sonograms of a 34-year-old expectant mother.

    There were calcium deposits in the developing baby’s brain, a possible sign of viral infection. The cerebellum, the part of the brain crucial for motor control, was shrinking.

    Melo phoned the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a public health institute in Rio de Janeiro, and got a lab there to test the patient’s amniotic fluid.

    By then, the number of babies born with microcephaly was surging. The health ministry, now more alarmed, declared a national emergency on Nov. 11 and in public comments mentioned that there were possible ties between the condition and Zika.

    The WHO was not yet ready to draw the same parallels.

    On November 17, the Rio lab said it had found the virus in the amniotic fluid. On Nov. 28, after lab tests from another baby, Brazil’s government confirmed the link between the virus and microcephaly.

    Starting Nov. 30, WHO deployed a small team of researchers from PAHO’s Washington headquarters to Brazil.

    On December 1, PAHO issued a new advisory,  warning countries in the region of the link between the virus and microcephaly. Two months later, the WHO is considering whether to declare an international emergency.

    “You have to gather the data,” says Marcos Espinal, director of the department of communicable diseases at PAHO, dismissing criticism that the regional body or headquarters could have moved any sooner.

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Kentucky Gov. joins war on Planned Parenthood - from TRUNEWS

Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has announced big plans to take on Planned Parenthood in his state.

Bevin said Thursday that he had learned Planned Parenthood was knowingly doing abortions without a license, and that he intended to make them pay.

“It’s that brazen disregard for the law that is going to be hammered down,” Bevin told a group of reporters. “There is no tolerance whatsoever for people in the commonwealth of Kentucky disregarding the law. They are unlicensed, they are doing it knowingly, and they are going to be brought to justice on this front.”

Today we learned that Planned Parenthood of Louisville is providing abortions without a license.

— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 29, 2016

According to KRS 216B.990, it is against Kentucky law for any unlicensed abortion facility to perform these horrific procedures.

— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 29, 2016

We will use the full force of the law to end this and hold them accountable.

— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 29, 2016

Planned Parenthood opened a clinic in Louisville and began performing abortions Jan. 21.

“Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky applied for an abortion facility license and commenced services under the guidance of the Office of the Inspector General, the state office that is responsible for licensing health facilities,” Maureen Manier, spokeswoman of Planned Parenthood Indiana and Kentucky, told WDRB in response to the accusations. They’ve largely been silent on the Bevin’s comments.

The new Planned Parenthood clinic is reportedly the third in the state.

“They are following exactly what they were told to do by the state and for him to say that I have no doubt that he is opposed to abortion or anti-choice,” Kentucky State Representative Mary Lou Marzian told WHAS11.

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US taunts Beijing with new South China Sea sail-by - from TRUNEWS

The US Navy has sent a guided missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of an island in the South China Sea which Beijing considers its sovereign territory. The move is meant as a challenge to the Chinese claim.

The USS Curtis Wilbur sailed unopposed near the Triton Island in the Paracel Islands archipelago, Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told the media. The island is administrated by China, but is also contested by Taiwan and Vietnam.

“This operation challenged attempts by the three claimants – China, Taiwan and Vietnam – to restrict navigation rights and freedoms,” Davis said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the sail-by illegal, saying permission from the Chinese authorities was necessary.

The mission was part of the so-called freedom of navigation campaign, in which the US is seeking to assert its right to freely sail in the South China Sea. The region is one of the busiest maritime traffic routes, accounting for more than $5 trillion of world trade shipping annually. The US does not want to be required to seek prior permission to sail past the many islands in the sea.

“No claimants were notified prior to the transit, which is consistent with our normal process and international law,”Davis said.

The US Navy conducted a similar operation in October, when it sent the guided missile destroyer Lassen to sail pass a man-made Island in the South China Sea. Beijing insists its sovereignty over the island gives it territorial rights over a 12-nautical mile zone around it.

China rebuked the move at the time, saying the US was acting recklessly and risked provoking an armed confrontation.

Several Pacific nations have conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea. China has ramped up the pursuit of its claims in the past few years amid a military build-up.

Most of the traffic sailing through the sea is bound to or from China, which would make it the biggest loser should it be disrupted somehow.

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Daughter of slain Oregon protester refutes FBI account - from TRUNEWS

As four armed anti-government protesters held their ground at a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon on Friday, the family of a protester killed by police said he seemed to have been shot in the back with his hands up, although authorities said he was reaching for a gun.

Relatives of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, 54, a spokesman for the group that seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, said he posed no threat and they were not accepting the authorities’ assertion that he was armed.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released video on Thursday of state police fatally shooting Finicum, and contended it showed him making a move for a gun in his coat pocket.

“LaVoy was not ‘charging’ anyone. He appears to have been shot in the back, with his hands in the air,” the family of the Arizona rancher said in a statement through their attorney.

“At this point we will await the outcome of any investigation, but based on the information currently available to us, we do not believe that LaVoy’s shooting death was justified.”

Four armed protesters were still holed up on Friday at the remote refuge, 30 miles (48 km) from Burns, a small ranching community in the state’s rural southeast. The FBI says it is working “around the clock” to negotiate with the holdouts.

Ammon Bundy, who led the occupation that began on Jan. 2, was arrested on Tuesday along with other protesters including his brother, Ryan.

Bundy has issued messages through his attorney urging those who remain at the refuge to stand down, and saying they would continue to fight federal land policy through the courts.

Bundy and his brother Ryan were ordered held without bail pending trial on felony conspiracy charges, a U.S. District Court judge ruled on Friday.

“There are no conditions I could impose that would ensure the safety of the community. I’m worried about him occupying another government building,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman told the hearing in Portland.

Beckerman ordered most of the Bundys’ co-defendants held without bail as well, at least until another next week.

Following the hearing Ammon Bundy’s attorney said that he had reached out to the final four holdouts in a bid to convince them to stand down, but that those men were skeptical without hearing directly from Bundy.

The occupation began when Bundy and at least a dozen followers seized buildings at the refuge in the latest flare-up of the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres of land in the West.

Authorities said Finicum was armed when he was killed, and on Thursday night they released aerial video that showed him fleeing in a white truck, nearly striking an officer while trying to evade a police barricade, then barreling into a deep snowbank and exiting the car.

The grainy footage shows Finicum raising his hands and then turning and flailing his arms. He then lowers his arms to his body and is shot by Oregon State Police troopers, the FBI said.

Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland office, told reporters Finicum can be seen reaching for his jacket pocket, where officers found a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun. But the lack of focus in the video makes it difficult to discern Finicum’s precise movements.

The dead rancher’s relatives said the video seems to show him gesturing, or trying to keep his balance in the snow.

“Although he may have been animated, he does not appear to have been threatening or posing any real threat or danger to anyone,” Finicum’s family said in their statement.

That view was echoed by some the two dozen people who held a rally outside the Harney County courthouse on Friday.

“It’s kind of like murder, it looks like to me. They had every chance to take them peacefully,” said 54-year-old local resident Cam Ray.

A 79-year-old rancher, Monte Siegner, held a sign that read: “Ambushed and assassinated.”

“He got out with his hands up in the deep snow,” Siegner said. “I didn’t see any gun.”

The FBI video was released hours after Todd Macfarlane, a lawyer for Finicum’s relatives, said other evidence may exist that shows Finicum was not threatening authorities.

Macfarlane said one potential source of information about the shooting was Victoria Sharp, a woman who says she was friends with some of the armed protesters and claims she was at the scene and watched Finicum die.

Sharp said in an interview with Reuters that Finicum was shot with his gun in his holster and his hands in the air, shouting and walking toward police.

Neither state nor federal law enforcement would comment on whether Sharp was at the scene or on her description. Reuters was not able to independently confirm her version of the events.

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Facebook to ban private firearm transactions - from TRUNEWS

Facebook Inc (FB.O) prohibited global users from coordinating person-to-person private sales of firearms on its online social network and its Instagram photo-sharing service on Friday, countering concerns that it was increasingly being used to circumvent background checks on gun purchases.

The move comes as the United States debates the issue of access to guns after a string of mass shootings. U.S. President Barack Obama has urged social media companies to clamp down on gun sales organized on their platforms.

It updates Facebook’s regulated goods policy, introduced in March 2014, that banned people from selling marijuana, pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs.

Facebook already prohibited private firearms sellers from advertising “no background check required,” or offering transactions across U.S. state lines without a licensed dealer because the company said such posts indicated a willingness to evade the law.

Licensed retailers will still be able to advertise firearms on Facebook that lead to transactions outside of Facebook’s service, the spokeswoman said.

“Over the last two years, more and more people have been using Facebook to discover products and to buy and sell things to one another,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of product policy, said in a statement.

“We are continuing to develop, test, and launch new products to make this experience even better for people and are updating our regulated goods policies to reflect this evolution,” Bickert said.

Facebook is the world’s most popular online social network, with 1.59 billion users across the globe, 219 million of them in the United States and Canada.

The National Rifle Association, a lobbying group opposed to limits on U.S. gun ownership rights, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Groups advocating increased gun control applauded the new policy.

“Moms are grateful for the leadership shown by Facebook today,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of the Everytown for Gun Safety campaign group. “Our continued relationship with Facebook resulted in today’s even stronger stance, which will prevent dangerous people from getting guns and save American lives.”

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Porter Ranch gas leak could contaminate LA water supply - from TRUNEWS

(TRUNEWS) Ms. Patricia Oliver of R. Rex Parris Law Firm said geological data suggests that the Porter Ranch gas leak could contaminate the Los Angeles water table.

Ms. Oliver’s statements were made during a roundtable discussion with Dr. Richard Kang and Rick Wiles of TRUNEWS, as they explained the latest legal and medical updates events surrounding the methane gas leak in Porter Ranch, California.

The gas leak was first announced by the well owners, the Southern California Gas Company (SCGC), in late October 2015, and on January 6th was escalated to a state of emergency by Governor Jerry Brown after numerous residents reported experiencing side effects from inhalation. Ms. Oliver confirmed an estimate, that roughly 83,000 metric tons of methane gas has been released so far into the atmosphere.

The Southern California Gas Company has since stuck by their statement that the leak is ignitable, but was not capable of exploding on its own accord.

The leaking injection well facility, based in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, is located in the mountains 1 mile from the residential areas of Porter Ranch where the injuries have been reported. The injection well was also previously responsible for serving 20 million people in the Los Angeles area, as well accounting for the storage and delivery of 25% of the methane gas in the region.

Ms. Oliver estimated that approximately 30,000 people are directly at rick of experiencing injuries from the leak, which range from nose bleeds, nausea, committing, light headedness, brain fog, Asthmatic symptoms. Dr. Richard Kang concurred with Ms. Oliver’s summary.

Ms. Oliver also said that the SCGC did make attempts to initially fix the leak, but failed, causing the situation to become uncontrollable.

Ms. Oliver stated that over 60 lawsuits are currently active, with her firm, R. Rex Parris Law, heading class action, individual, and mass action cases against the SCGC and the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR).

Ms. Oliver stated that the SCGC and the DOGGR are directly responsible for neglect, trespass, and inverse condemnation, using the analogy that “if you own a dangerous pet, you must take safeguards to protect the community,” to emphasis their guilt.

“You don’t just let your vicious dog run around without a fence, well you also don’t just operate wells that could blow out and have no safety valve,” Ms. Oliver said, reiterating the point that “ they [SCGC] don’t have a subsurface safety valve on this [Porter Ranch] injection well or most the other wells [which the SCGC operates].”

For the full episode check out the Monday, February 1st edition of TRUNEWS.

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Patricia Oliver co-leads the special litigation team at R. Rex Parris where she oversees cases involving wage theft, antitrust violations, and water contamination from oil production and waste injection wells.  She recently received nationwide media attention for her ground-breaking work in helping Palla Farms and other California farmers in investigating the source of salt water contamination in surrounding aquifers.

Patricia Oliver’s website

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Israel slams France for Palestinian State comments - from TRUNEWS

(TRUNEWS) Israeli officials slammed a plan by France to recognize a Palestinian state, if a deadlock continues in the peace talks.

On Friday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said France will organize talks, according to The Jerusalem Post.

“France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference bringing together the parties and their main partners, American, European, Arab, notably to preserve and make happen the solution of two states,” he said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speaks to members of the Security Council at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, New York, December 18, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Fabius justified France’s idea because of the country’s status as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council requires France to keep up efforts for a two-state solution.

Israel claims those statement encourage the Palestinians not to negotiate.

The moves come as more countries speak out against Israel, as reported by TRUNEWS

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Obama Admin confirms Clinton emails ‘too damaging’, halts release indefinitely - from TRUNEWS

(TRUNEWS) The Obama Administration has admitted there is a delay on agencies reviewing Hillary Clinton’s emails, because the State Department is behind on releasing them.

The department filed a request in court Thursday, asking for a deadline extension, which will push back the date to Feb. 29, well after the Iowa caucus, and the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

The Washington Times has reported officials realized three weeks ago they had forgotten to send out thousands of emails marked for review.

They also blamed the recent snowstorm.

When asked to provide details for the delay, the administration refused, claiming the court should trust the department’s good intentions.

Twenty-two emails will never get released because they are “too damaging” to national security, which was just confirmed by the Obama Administration, according to AP.

Under the Freedom of Information Act there is an exemption for highly sensitive material to be withheld.

The delay comes as current and former members of Congress speak out about the investigation.  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told the Washington Examiner an indictment could come soon against Clinton and her aide, Huma Abedin.

“I think the FBI director would like to indict both Huma and Hillary as we speak,” he said. “I think he’s in a position where he’s being forced to triple-time make a case of what would otherwise be, what they call, a slam dunk.”

Issa also said he doesn’t believe any actions will come until after the election.

Recently, TRUNEWS reported former Texas Congressman Tom Delay claimed an indictment was coming soon.

 

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Japan on alert for anticipated North Korea missile test - from TRUNEWS

Japan has put its military on alert for a possible North Korean ballistic missile launch after indications it is preparing for a test firing, two people with direct knowledge of the order told Reuters on Friday.

“Increased activity at North Korea’s missile site suggests that there may be a launch in the next few weeks,” said one of the sources, both of whom declined to be identified because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

Tension rose in East Asia this month after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, this time of what it said was a hydrogen bomb.

A missile test coming so soon after the nuclear test would raise concern that North Korea plans to fit nuclear warheads on its missiles, giving it the capability to launch a strike against rival South Korea, Japan and possibly targets as far away as the U.S. West Coast.

Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North satellite imagery dated January 25, 2016 shows three objects at the base of the gantry tower that are either vehicles or equipment at Sohae Satellite Launching Station in North Korea in this image released on January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North/Handout via Reuters

Japan’s Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani has ordered Aegis destroyers that operate in the Sea of Japan to be ready to target any North Korean projectiles heading for Japan, the sources said.

A Defense Ministry spokesman declined to say whether PAC-3 batteries and the Aegis destroyers had been deployed to respond to any threat from North Korea

Nakatani, asked in a press briefing whether Japan would shoot down any North Korean missile, said: “We will take steps to respond, but I will refrain from revealing specific measures given the nature of the situation.”

The advanced Aegis vessels are able to track multiple targets and are armed with SM-3 missiles designed to destroy incoming warheads in space before they re-enter the atmosphere and fall to there targets.

Japan also has Patriot PAC-3 missile batteries around Tokyo and other sites to provide a last line of defense as warheads near the ground.

Rather than a direct attack, however, Japan is more concerned that debris from a missile test could fall on its territory.

 

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Merkel sinks in polls as more Germans call for her resignation - from TRUNEWS

(TRUNEWS) A new poll shows rapidly declining support for Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel, among Germans.

The Insa survey for Focus magazine polled more than 2,000 people last week and found 40 percent are not satisfied with her job performance, and want her to step down. But, 45.2 percent of Germans said her refugee policy shouldn’t cause her to leave her job.

Another poll released Friday by the Elector Research Group showed support for Merkel’s Christian Democrat party was at 37 percent, down from 42 percent from September.

More than 1.1 million migrants have been welcomed into Germany in the last year, which has caused an uproar.   Thousands of people hit the streets to protest recent crimes committed by gangs of refugees. On New Year’s Eve, there were more than 1200 reports of rape and mass sexual harassment in Cologne, Berlin and Frankfurt. Police were accused of a cover up.

Other politicians sent Merkel a letter Tuesday, threatening court action for failure to secure the country’s borders. Some called for her resignation, as reported by TRUNEWS.

 

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Christian doctor says hospitals are a ’battlefield for souls’ - from TRUNEWS

(TRUNEWS) Florida cardiologist, Dr. Chauncey W. Crandall IV, said hospitals are a ‘battlefield for souls’, highlighting how he and other Christians evangelize everyday on the front line of battle to win souls entering and leaving the world.

Dr. Crandall’s statements were made during an interview with Rick Wiles of TRUNEWS on Friday, as they discussed the revivals and miracles he has witnessed from his three decades of care for dying patients in the emergency ward.

Dr. Crandall first shared his stories of the Lord bringing patients back from the dead on TRUNEWS in 2006, and has since written the book, “Touching Heaven: A Cardiologist’s Encounters with Death and Living Proof of an Afterlife”, chronicling the near-death experiences of countless patients claiming to have seen heaven and hell.

In the interview Dr. Crandall spoke of the first near death experience he encountered in the ER.

He had just declared one of his patients deceased, and was talking away from the operating room when God spoke to him and told him to pray for the man that had just died. Dr. Crandall at first ignored the call, not knowing what to think of the powerful voice of our heavenly father which he had just heard in his mind, but God relentlessly prompted him a second time, this time leading him immediately back to the room and to his knees in prayer next to the mans bed.

The nurse attending to the mans body looked at Dr. Crandall in dismay, not knowing what to make of his actions, as Dr. Crandall said to the Lord, “Father God I cry out for this mans soul, if he does not know Jesus Christ, raise this man up in the name of Jesus.”

From his prayer he felt the holy spirit directing him to summon the attending physician and convince him to shock the dead mans heart with defibrillator paddles, which upon application caused the man who was dead to rise and scream “JESUS, I believe!”

Dr. Crandall shared the testimonies told to him by the patients who have been brought back from the dead. One women who went to heaven described a serene paradise, rich with intensely colored flowers, walkways paved in gold so brilliant that they were blinding to her eyes, and the presence of Jesus, who ended the visit by saying to her, “now you must go back and tell them what you have seen.”

Dr. Crandall also spoke about a man who had visited hell. He described a place where he did not want to be, ripe with the intense feeling of torment, agony and unbelievable heat. Dr. Crandall and Rick both said they had seen many who have died not knowing Christ experiencing the pre-torture of hell, in the form of an unbearable fire across their body.

Dr. Crandall also spoke of the persecution he and other Christian practitioners have endured for their prayers to the dying. Dr. Crandall said some of his peers who are non-believers are deeply interested, noting Jewish doctors who have inquired on his stories, but he also said that some doctors now refuse to send patients to him because they don’t believe in God.

To this point, Dr. Crandall also referenced how under Obamacare government hospitals have become increasingly hostile to the practice of praying for patients. He noted the Veterans Affairs hospital is a prime example of this secularized tyranny, saying that under the new politically correct hospital guidelines, “people will be terminated for praying for the sick.”

When asked by Rick what he plans to do if they come after him and his practice, Dr. Crandall powerfully said, “we believe in Jesus, we will not stop marching, we will not stop praying.”

 

For the full episode listen to the Friday January 29th edition of TRUNEWS.

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Dr. Chauncey W. Crandall IV is chief of the Cardiovascular Transplant Program at the Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens and on staff at three medical centers. He has lectured nationally on topics including heart transplantation, preventive cardiology, healing, and cardiology health care of the elderly. He speaks regularly to professional groups and with the speaking team of international evangelist Reinhard Bonnke.

Dr. Crandall’s website

 

 

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Drug shortages forcing doctors to make life or death decisions - from TRUNEWS

Incidents of doctors, hospitals, and emergency rooms being forced to make life threatening decisions regarding their patients is on the rise, due to a shortage in drugs.

Medication shortfalls have gone up more than 400 percent between 2001-2014, according to a study published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine.

Frequently physicians have found there aren’t enough anesthetics, painkillers, antibiotics and cancer medications for everyone who needs them, so they have to make choices, as reported by The New York Times.

“We’ve got that tragic choice: two kids in front of you, (and) you only have enough for one. How do you choose,” said Dr. Yoram Unguru, an oncologist at the Children’s Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore.

A group of pediatric cancer specialists has just released rationing guidelines in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Some hospitals have committees who decide which patients receive the drugs, and how much they get.

Overweight patients are at a disadvantage, because if a medication is in short supply, they may only get the standard dose, instead of the extra amount needed to accommodate for their size.

The other downfall is when a patient has to wait for life saving surgery, because the drug they need is on back order, or is forced to take a less suitable medication.

The American Society of Heath-System Pharmacists claims there are more than 150 drugs that are in short supply. Pharmaceutical companies consider profits when deciding to manufacturer certain drugs, which has led to rationing. Sometimes there is a delay in producing the drug, but in almost half the cases, the manufacturer does not explain the delay.

 

 

 

 

 

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BoJ endorses QE outsourced by US Fed - from TRUNEWS

(TRUNEWS) The Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) announcement Friday to endorse negative interest rates is really the U.S. Federal Reserve outsourcing their program of quantitative easing (QE) to world.

Rick Wiles, Host of TRUNEWS, said that the BOJ’s announcement is clearly an example of the global “out sourcing of quantitative easing by the Fed [U.S. Federal Reserve],” and that this was simply a move to “sucker retail investors back into U.S. markets, to drive Wall Street above the 17,000 mark again before the doors close.” Rick added that this move in conjunction with the announcement in late November by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to ban stop orders on February 18^th, did not bode well for American investors.

The BoJ’s governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s announcement comes on the heels of a similar move by the European Central Bank’s (ECB) head, Mario Draghi, who said this week that he will be increasing the $1.63 trillion stimulus program to the EU in March.

Rick Wiles has said previously on TRUNEWS that because of the central banks decisions back in October of 2015, to double down on global currency devaluation and QE stimulus programs worldwide, the collapse of the global banking structure is well on its way. This latest move could act as another significant accelerator to those ends.

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Iranian drone takes pictures over US aircraft carrier - from TRUNEWS

An Iranian drone flew over a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to take pictures.

The Jerusalem Post has reported The Fars New Agency, which is the state run news for Iran, claimed the recent incident was part of a naval exercise.  The report did not name the US carrier.

Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5^th Fleet in Bahrain said an unarmed drone flew over the French Charles de Gaulle and the USS Harry S. Truman while the ships were in international waters on Jan 12., but it is not known if the incidents were the same or related to each other.

Earlier this week Iran’s navy conducted drills in the Gulf of Oman and demanded a US warship leave the area – and it did.

Several incidents have occurred lately that have concerned U.S. officials, including the short detainment of U.S. sailors aboard two navy boats and test rocket fire near warships in the strait of Hormuz.

Economic sanctions on Iran have just been lifted by world powers, in exchange for a promise by Iran to curb their nuclear program.

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NATO head threatens Russia with new border deployments - from TRUNEWS

(TRUNEWS) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said late Thursday that NATO will be increasing its presence in Eastern Europe due to the security threat posed by Russia.

“We have already increased our presence in the East (of Europe), with the assurance measures; with more planes in the air; with more boots on the ground; with more ships in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea… we’ve been also establishing this small headquarters and we have more exercises taking place in the East,” Stoltenberg said during his annual report in Brussels.

The measures Stoltenberg referenced have already been implemented in Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic states.

Stoltenberg stressed that he did not believe this signified a move by NATO back to ‘Cold War posturing’, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers were stationed along the border with Russia to protect Europe from invasion. He did note however that the troop escalation was necessary to “increase in the ability of our [NATO] forces to deploy.”

In response, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma International Affairs Committee Alexey Pushkov said, that “flirting with anti-Russian governments like that of [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko and [Prime Minister Arseniy] Yatsenyuk neutralizes any positive message that NATO can send to the Russian people,” ending by saying that the “Russian people don’t trust NATO.”

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Two people arrested on weapons charges near Disneyland Paris - from TRUNEWS

(TRUNEWS) Two people have been arrested for an incident near Disneyland Paris.

A man tried to enter Hotel New York with two guns and ammunition in his suitcase. He also had a book about the Koran. Hotel security found the items after his baggage triggered metal detectors, according to the BBC.

He surrendered without incident and told law enforcement he was carrying the weapons out of fears for his safety.

French police officers and security staff secure the area next to the New York hotel located next to the main entrance of the Disneyland Paris Resort run by EuroDisney S.C.A in Marne-la-Vallee, near Paris, France, January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen

A room had been booked for two people. Police found his female companion at her home,  and took her into custody. It is believed she fled the scene when the man was detained.

The man has not been named, but police claim he is a French national.  They also towed his car.

ISIS and al-Qaeda have threatened the theme park in the past. Earlier this week, Europol warned of possible attacks on France, and specifically cautioned about possible hits on soft targets.

Officials in the U.S. also have concerns about possible terrorist plans to ambush Disney parks in the U.S., as reported by TRUNEWS.

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300 Scientists Want NOAA To Follow Data Quality Act - from TRUNEWS

Hundreds of scientists sent a letter to lawmakers Thursday warning National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists may have violated federal laws when they published a 2015 study purporting to eliminate the 15-year “hiatus” in global warming from the temperature record.

“We, the undersigned, scientists, engineers, economists and others, who have looked carefully into the effects of carbon dioxide released by human activities, wish to record our support for the efforts of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology to ensure that federal agencies complied with federal guidelines that implemented the Data Quality Act,” some 300 scientists, engineers and other experts wrote to Chairman of the House Science Committee, Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith.

“In our opinion… NOAA has failed to observe the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] (and its own) guidelines, established in relation to the Data Quality Act.”

The Data Quality Act requires federal agencies like NOAA to “ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information, including statistical information.”

Smith launched an investigation into NOAA’s study last summer over concerns it was pushed out to bolster President Barack Obama’s political agenda. Democrats and the media have largely opposed the probe into NOAA scientists and political appointees, but Smith is determined to continue investigating. NOAA officials surrendered emails to congressional investigators in December.

“It is this Committee’s oversight role to ensure that federal science agencies are transparent and accountable to the taxpayers who fund their research,” Smith told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Americans are tired of research conducted behind closed doors where they only see cherry-picked conclusions, not the facts. This letter shows that hundreds of respected scientists and experts agree that NOAA’s efforts to alter historical temperature data deserve serious scrutiny.”

Of the 300 letter signers, 150 had doctorates in a related field. Signers also included: 25 climate or atmospheric scientists, 23 geologists, 18 meteorologists, 51 engineers, 74 physicists, 20 chemists and 12 economists. Additionally, one signer was a Nobel Prize winning physicist and two were astronauts.

NOAA scientists upwardly adjusted temperature readings taken from the engine intakes of ships to eliminate the “hiatus” in global warming from the temperature record.

The NOAA study in dispute claims the scientists found a solution to the 15-year “pause” in global warming. They “adjusted” the hiatus in warming the temperature record from 1998 to 2012, the “new analysis exhibits more than twice as much warming as the old analysis at the global scale.”

“As has been acknowledged by numerous scientists, the engine intake data are clearly contaminated by heat conduction from the structure, and as such, never intended for scientific use,” wrote climate scientists Dr. Patrick J. Michaels and Dr. Richard S. Lindzen of the libertarian Cato Institute on the in the science blog Watts Up With That. “Adjusting good data upward to match bad data seems questionable.”

“If we subtract the [old] data from the [new] data… we can see that that is exactly what NOAA did,” climate expert Bob Tisdale and meteorologist Anthony Watts wrote on the same science blog. “It’s the same story all over again; the adjustments go towards cooling the past and thus increasing the slope of temperature rise. Their intent and methods are so obvious they’re laughable.”

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Trump overshadows Republican debate even as he sits it out - from TRUNEWS

Even in boycotting a debate with his Republican rivals, front-runner Donald Trump managed to upstage the event on Thursday with a typical dramatic flourish.

Instead of attending a seventh debate, the former reality TV star held a competing event across town that he said raised $6 million for U.S. military veterans. In doing so, he cast a shadow over his rivals, who frequently tossed barbs his way.

Trump’s gamble that he could leave the battlefield to his rivals for one night appeared to pay off, with just days to go before Iowa holds the first nominating contest of the 2016 election season. No one appeared to emerge as a central challenger to him during the two-hour face-off in Des Moines.

Trump’s refusal to participate in the debate out of anger that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was a moderator prompted a flurry of last-minute phone calls with Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes that failed to resolve their dispute.

Republican U.S. presidential candidates (L-R) U.S. Senator Rand Paul, Governor Chris Christie, Dr. Ben Carson, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Marco Rubio, former Governor Jeb Bush and Governor John Kasich pose together onstage at the start of the debate held by Fox News for the top 2016 U.S. Republican presidential candidates in Des Moines, Iowa January 28, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young

A Fox News (FOXA.O) statement said Trump requested that Fox contribute $5 million to his charities in exchange for his attendance, which the network turned down.

The debate was the type of event Republicans would routinely have without the flamboyant Trump on stage, and it lacked the electricity that he brings to the party’s search for a nominee for the Nov. 8 election.

Without Trump on stage, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie found themselves with more room to make their case to voters seeking a more mainstream candidate.

Both men have an eye on the Feb. 9 first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, which comes on the heels of the Iowa caucuses on Monday and where an establishment Republican like them might have a better chance of standing out.

Senator Ted Cruz from Texas and Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, the two top challengers to Trump in Iowa, engaged in squabbles over immigration and national security and did not appear to threaten Trump’s lead. He holds the edge over Cruz in polls of Iowa Republicans.

Trump’s rivals mocked his decision to sit out the debate and found ways to criticize him.

“I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly, and Ben, you’re a terrible surgeon,” Cruz told his rivals, including Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, as the debate opened. His next sentence began: “Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way.”

Bush, who has been a frequent target of Trump’s attacks, turned a question about religious tolerance into an attack on Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

“Donald Trump, for example — I mentioned his name again if anybody was missing him — Mr. Trump believed in reaction to people’s fears that we should ban all Muslims. Well, that creates an environment that’s toxic in our own country,” Bush said.

Cruz, after a series of questions, said: “If you ask me one more mean question, I may have to leave the stage.”

In a swipe at both Trump and Cruz, Rubio chimed in: “Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave the stage no matter what you ask me.”

SOCIAL MEDIA FAVORITE

With his veterans’ event drawing live TV news coverage on Fox News competitors CNN and MSNBC, Trump absorbed plenty of media attention.

He clung to his insistence that Fox News had treated him badly. He has complained that Kelly insulted him at a debate in August and that a statement from the network earlier this week had belittled him.

Two other Republican candidates, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, joined Trump on stage after participating in a debate of low-polling candidates.

Not so former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore.

“I’m not about to go across town tonight to carry the coat for some billionaire,” he said at the “undercard” debate.

There was some mystery as to which veterans’ groups would receive the money raised at the event, which included $1 million from Trump himself. His campaign did not say which group was getting the funds.

Trump, with just one day’s notice on a weeknight, was able to fill to capacity a hall at Drake University that holds 700.

“I didn’t want to be here, to be honest, I wanted to be about five minutes away” at the debate, Trump told the crowd. “When you’re treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights – whether we like it or not.”

Trump dominated social media during the debate, leading the entire Republican pack in Twitter mentions throughout the first half of the debate, according to data from social media analytics firm Zoomph.

Trump was by far the most-searched-for candidate on Google during the first half of the debate, at one point outpacing the second-most-searched-for candidate, Rubio, by nearly four-to-one, according to Google Trends data.

Trump’s support in opinion polls, much of it from blue-collar men, has not wavered for months despite him insulting Mexican immigrants and Muslims and clashing with Republican establishment figures like Senator John McCain.

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EgyptAir mechanic suspected in Russian plane crash - from TRUNEWS

 

So far Egypt has publicly said it has found no evidence that the MetroJet flight, which crashed in the Sinai Peninsula after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh airport, killing all 224 people on board, was brought down by terrorism.

A senior security official at the airline denied that any of its employees had been arrested or were under suspicion, and an Interior Ministry official also said there had been no arrests.

But the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation, said the mechanic had been detained, along with two airport policemen and a baggage handler suspected of helping him put the bomb on board.

“After learning that one of its members had a relative that worked at the airport, Islamic State delivered a bomb in a handbag to that person,” said one of the sources, adding the suspect’s cousin joined Islamic State in Syria a year and a half ago.

“He was told to not ask any questions and get the bomb on the plane.”

Another source said of the other suspects: “Two policemen are suspected of playing a role by turning a blind eye to the operation at a security checkpoint. But there is a possibility that they were just not doing their jobs properly.”

None of the four have been prosecuted so far, the sources told Reuters.

The crash has called into question Egypt’s drive to eradicate Islamist militancy and hurt its tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy. Islamic State’s Egypt affiliate is waging an insurgency in parts of the Sinai, although mostly far from the tourist resorts along its Red Sea coast.

Russia and Western countries have long said that they believe the flight was brought down by a bomb smuggled on board. Egypt however has so far publicly said it has not found any evidence of foul play.

A child’s shoe is seen in front of debris from a Russian airliner which crashed at the Hassana area in Arish city, north Egypt, November 1, 2015. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Any formal charges or official Egyptian confirmation that a bomb brought down the Airbus A321 could potentially expose Egypt to compensation payments to the families of the victims.

The EgyptAir senior security official said state security police had investigated all workers at Sharm el-Sheikh airport without finding any evidence implicating any of them.

The official said state security traced the family connections of all the employees and they were cleared.

“Any employee who shows sympathy to militants is prevented from going to work in any airport,” he told Reuters.

An Interior Ministry source also said no one had been arrested in connection with the crash.

“We are awaiting results of the investigation.”

Islamic State’s online magazine carried a photo of a Schweppes soft drink can it said was used to make an improvised bomb that brought down the Russian airliner.

The photo showed a can of Schweppes Gold soft drink and what appeared to be a detonator and switch on a blue background, three simple components that if genuine are likely to cause concern for airline safety officials worldwide.

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