US had advance knowledge of Ebola

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More information is available that suggests the government had advance information that Ebola was coming to the US and that the government expects a much larger outbreak of the disease in the US than it admits.

Keep in mind that Washington is evil and has been killing people in seven countries for thirteen years based entirely on lies. Keep in mind that Washington has a long list of countries that it has destabilized. Most recently, Washington overthrew the elected government in Ukraine and is currently working on the remaining independent governments in the Middle East, Russia, and China as Tony Cartalucci’s article documents. For six case studies of how Washington overthrows governments read The Brothers.

Here is a report from Natural News.

The US government knew about the outbreak in advance, but didn’t warn the public.

It’s now clear that the US government has long known this outbreak was coming but did nothing to warn the public.

In early September, the government sought to purchase 160,000 Ebola hazmat suits from a US supplier.

Furthermore, according to this report on SHTFplan.com, “Disaster Assistance Response Teams were told to prepare to be activated in the month of October.”

Don’t you find it strange that while the government itself was gearing up for an October disaster, the public wasn’t told a thing about any of this?

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.

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Press TV reporter body back home

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The body of Press TV’s correspondent in Turkey, Serena Shim, who was killed in a suspicious car accident near the Turkey-Syria border, has been returned to her home country of Lebanon.

Shim was killed last Sunday as she was on a working mission in Turkey to cover the ongoing war in the strategic Syrian town of Kobani.

She was going back to her hotel from a report scene in the city of Suruç in Turkey’s Urfa province when her car collided with a heavy vehicle.

A Press TV correspondent in Beirut, Lamees Karout, said that “her body has arrived just as we speak to Beirut International Airport… her body is going directly from the airport to a hospital in Beirut near her hometown.”

Her funeral is scheduled to be held on Wednesday afternoon.

Serena, a mother of two, has been lauded as a very brave journalist, who covered reports for Press TV in Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, and Ukraine.

She had told Press TV that the Turkish intelligence agency had accused her of spying probably due to some of the stories she had covered about Turkey’s stance on the ISIL terrorists in Kobani and its surroundings, adding that she feared being arrested.

Shim flatly rejected accusations against her, saying she was “surprised” at this accusation “because I have nothing to hide and I have never done anything aside from my job.”

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US: ISIL war costing $7.6mn per day

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The United States Department of Defense says the war against the ISIL terrorist group is costing the US an average of $7.6 million per day.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that the military offensive, recently dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve, has cost the US government more than $424 million in 10 weeks.

The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control large parts of Syria’s northern territory. ISIL sent its fighters into Iraq in June, quickly seizing large swaths of land straddling the border between the two countries.

According to the Pentagon, US warplanes have conducted more than 260 airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since mid-August. Some Western states have also participated in some of the strikes in Iraq.

Since late September, the US and some of its Arab allies — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates — have been carrying out airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

Earlier this month, US Central Command said the Pentagon had spent $62 million on Navy airstrikes and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The Pentagon also plans to train and arm 5,000 militants in Syria as part of the Obama administration’s long-term strategy to confront ISIL.

Some analysts have long maintained that the United States and its allies have seized on the ISIL threat to target the Syrian government. The US and its allies have been accused of funding and arming the insurgency in Syria.

More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in the war-ravaged country, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling the figure a probable “underestimate of the real total number of people killed.

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Israel to export natural gas to Egypt

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An Israeli firm has announced its decision to supply Egypt with natural gas, Press TV reports.

The Israeli owner of the Tamar offshore gas field has signed a deal with the Egyptian firm, Delphinus Holdings, to annually export more than 2.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to Egypt over a seven-year period.

The newly-inked deal is turning the tables on gas supplies in the region as it was Cairo which used to provide Tel Aviv with gas in the near past.

Egypt has been grappling with a growing energy crisis over the past years, causing anger among the Egyptians who have blamed successive governments for failing to solve the problem. However, despite the paralyzing energy crisis, most Egyptians denounce the idea of trade with Israel as unacceptable and highly controversial.

“It is a shame that Egypt now is importing gas from Israel,” political commentator Abdullah al-Ashaal said, adding that choosing Israel as the only source of gas supplies “makes a big question mark on the behavior of the Egyptian government.”

The new agreement comes despite the fact that Israel was dependent for years on Egypt for covering around 40 percent of its needed gas.

In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel and was also compelled to agree to supply gas to Israel as one of the main economic conditions of the US-sponsored accord.

However, Cairo annulled the agreement in 2012, saying Tel Aviv had failed to meet its financial obligations.

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Oil prices plunge as Saudi output rises

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Crude oil prices are facing a downward trend and global demand forecasts are being revised as the world’s biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, pumps more crude oil into already saturated markets.

On Monday, North Sea Brent crude oil prices dropped below USD 86 a barrel, pushing the global oil benchmark back toward last week’s four-year low, which was below USD 83.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate also dipped to levels last seen in 2012, and hovered below USD 83 a barrel.

Oil prices have been down more than 25 percent since June amid concerns over booming supply, sluggish demand, and a gloomy economic outlook from Europe to China.

“There’s still a sense that right now things are not really great in the global economy and there are no signs that oil producers are looking to cut back on production any time soon,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Chicago-based Price Futures Group.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to meet in November 27.

Experts say Saudi Arabia is happy with the current trend, and can tolerate prices even at around USD 80.

“The Saudis seem willing to tolerate prices around $80 so I would not be surprised if it continues to go lower,” said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics in the United States.

Saudi Arabia has signaled that it will keep production high in spite of the drop in global crude oil prices.

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Portugal subway workers go on strike

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Portuguese subway workers have staged a fresh strike, crippling transportation in the capital, Lisbon.

The 24-hour walk-out by Lisbon’s metropolitan subway staff on Tuesday caused long queues of passengers who had to wait to take buses. It was the twelfth time this year that the workers went on strike.

The workers’ decision to strike came in protest at the government’s plan to privatize public transport companies. Some labor groups and unions fear the move will result in worse pay deals and working conditions.

The protesting workers called on the Portuguese government to keep the Metropolitano de Lisboa in public hands.

The Portuguese government grants concessions to run the Lisbon bus company, Carris, and parts of the national rail company, Comboios de Portugal, and plans to sell flag-carrier, TAP Portugal.

The companies are around 20 billion dollars in debt making them unable to spend on improving services and infrastructure.

Many protests have been held in Portugal over the impact of government austerity measures on people’s lives.

Protesters demanded the government’s immediate action to improve work conditions for employees, including putting an end to austerity measures as well as wage and benefit cuts.

Battered by the global financial downturn, the Portuguese economy fell into a recession, which compelled the country to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union for a bailout in 2011.

In return for the bailout, the Portuguese government had to impose a number of austerity measures, including more public spending cuts and tax rises, as required by the terms of the international bailout loan.

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Missouri state senator arrested

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A Missouri state senator has been arrested during latest demonstrations against the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

Democratic State Senator Jamilah Nasheed, who is also an African-American, was taken into custody Monday night in front of the Ferguson police department, said St. Louis County Police spokesman Brian Schellman.

The protests continue three months after the murder of Michael Brown by a white police officer called Darren Wilson.

Footage broadcast by television station KSDK showed the senator shouting “No Justice,” with replies of “No peace,” from several protesters, as she was handcuffed along with another man.

Nasheed was reportedly arrested for blocking traffic and failing to move despite warnings from police.

Ever since August 9, when the 18-year-old Brown was killed, protests have been held almost daily in the city of Ferguson.

Brown’s death sparked weeks of protests across the United States. Protesters have called for an end to police brutality and discrimination against minorities. 

“There was speculation probably about a week ago, that Wilson will not be indicted, and that he is going to get off. People are more angry now. There’s more anger now than when the incident happened,” Angela Whitman, a Ferguson resident and activist, said recently.

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Exercise may lower depression risk

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Researchers suggest that those people who do regular physical activity can benefit fewer depressive symptoms.

Doing exercise three times a week decreases the odds of being depressed by approximately 16%, says the study conducted by the researchers of University College London.

They illustrated a two-way relationship between depression and physical activity, indicating lower depression risk for people with higher activity and more depressive symptoms for those who are less active.

The team achieved the results after analyzing 11,135 people born in 1958 up until the age of 50.

Study researchers monitored the participants’ depressive symptoms and levels of physical activity at regular intervals in adulthood.

They found that each additional activity session per week reduced odds of depression by 6%, according to the paper published in JAMA Psychiatry.

To assess depressive symptoms, the researchers looked at participants’ responses to the Malaise Inventory, a questionnaire designed to assess psychological distress at ages 23, 33, 42, and 50

“Assuming the association is causal, leisure time physical activity has a protective effect against depression,” said the study leader Dr Snehal Pinto Pereira of the UCL Institute of Child Health.

“If an adult between their twenties and forties who isn’t physically active became active 3 times per week, they would reduce their risk of depression by approximately 16%,” Pinto Pereira reiterated.

“This large longitudinal study suggests that exercise has an important role to play for mental health.”

Scientists had earlier found that various forms of exercise training in twenties could preserve brain and protect memory skill in middle age.

An earlier study carried out at  the researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden had achieved similar results.

The study had indicated that physical activity could induce alteration in skeletal muscle that led to remove the blood of a substance which would accumulate during stress, and through this way harm the brain.

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Nigeria, Boko Haram may reach deal

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The Nigerian government and the Boko Haram Takfiri militants are likely to reach a deal over the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls in the near future, the country’s foreign minister says.

“I can say with some optimism, cautious optimism, that we are moving towards a situation where we’d be able to in the very near future to be able to get back our girls,” Aminu Wali said in a joint press conference with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin on Tuesday.

“There is a tremendous amount of improvement in terms of the discussions that are going on now and also the possibility of having total cessation of hostilities and at the same time bringing back the girls and also normalcy in that part of northern Nigeria,” Wali added.

Wali’s statement came after sources close to the Nigerian government announced on Friday that the two sides have agreed to a truce to end hostilities and facilitate the release of abducted schoolgirls.

Boko Haram has not confirmed the ceasefire, and at least five raids have been mounted since the announcement of the truce.

On April 14, Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 students from their secondary school in the northeastern town of Chibok. Reports say 57 of the girls managed to escape but 219 are still missing.

The abduction case has drawn national and international condemnation. The Nigerian administration has been heavily criticized for what is called failure to curb the rising violence in the African country.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government.

It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its operations in 2009, which have left more than 10,000 people dead so far.

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Iran holds cultural festival in Indonesia

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A festival of Iranian culture and arts has been launched in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta with presenting various programs.

The festival was planned in a bid to introduce Iran’s cultural and artistic capacity to the Indonesian visitors. 

Organized by Iranian cultural office in Jakarta, the festival hosted a number of Indonesian tourist officials, Jakarta’s handicrafts masters, and several ambassadors of Islamic countries in Indonesia.

The festival includes various programs such as exhibitions of traditional costumes and art pieces, calligraphy, and Persian paintings.

The two-day event also displayed Iranian New Year, Nowruz, celebration and its customs.

Indonesia and Iran have expanded their cultural exchanges during recent years.

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