Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson had affair, phone-hacking trial hears

Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson were having an affair for at least six years from the late 1990s, the phone-hacking trial has heard. Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC said he was disclosing the affair because it showed how much the pair trusted each other. "What Mr Coulson knew, Mrs Brooks knew too. What Mrs Brooks knew, Mr Coulson knew too," he said. "That's the point." Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson deny charges including conspiracy to phone hack. Jurors heard their affair, which began around 1998, was discovered by police through a letter saved on a computer belonging to Mrs Brooks. 'I love you' The letter was written by Mrs Brooks in February 2004, when Mr Coulson was trying to end the affair, Mr Edis said. Continue reading the main story Who are the defendants? Defendants in the hacking trial Read profiles of the eight defendants She wrote: "The fact is you are my very best friend, I tell you everything, I confide in you, I seek your advice, I love you, care about you, worry about you, we laugh and cry together. "In fact without our relationship in my life, I am not sure I will cope." It is not clear whether Mr Coulson ever received the letter, which was found on a Word document on a computer hidden in a cupboard. Mr Edis told jurors he was not revealing the affair to deliberately intrude into the pair's privacy or to make a "moral judgment". "But Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson are charged with conspiracy and, when people are charged with conspiracy, the first question a jury has to answer is how well did they know each other? How much did they trust each other?," he said. "And the fact that they were in this relationship, which was a secret, means that they trusted each other quite a lot with at least that secret, and that's why we are telling you about it." Blunkett story In other evidence, the court heard that Mr Coulson confronted former Home Secretary David Blunkett over his three-year relationship with Kimberly Quinn, a married woman. Mr Coulson, then editor of the News of the World, told Mr Blunkett, who was not married at the time, that the story had come from "extremely reliable sources", which was in fact phone hacking, Mr Edis said. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote I'm frightened to be without you... but bearing in mind 'the rules' you will not know how I am doing and visa versa [sic]” Rebekah Brooks Extracts from love letter In a recording played in court of a meeting in August 2004 between the two men, Mr Coulson told Mr Blunkett: "My job is to sort out the nonsense from the accurate. "I believe if I don't do this story at least one of my sources will take this information to another newspaper. People talk." The court heard a story about the affair was published later that same month. Recordings of voicemails left on the married woman's phone included a message about a pregnancy scan, the court heard. Mr Edis told jurors: "We say it is absolutely inconceivable that a newspaper would publish a story of that kind about a serving cabinet minister without knowing it was true. "Mr Coulson did know it was true... because of the voicemails which had been obtained as a result of tasking Glenn Mulcaire, [a private investigator] who by August 2004 had been working regularly for the News of the World for four years." The court also heard that the News of the World's then managing editor, Stuart Kuttner, had told police the paper had a tape of a voicemail left on the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who went missing in Surrey in 2002. Surrey Police took no action at the time, jurors heard. Mr Edis said: "It is common ground that Surrey Police could and should have investigated. Perhaps at that time they may have thought that it was really more important to find Milly Dowler." The court also heard that in the same week that the paper tried to get an interview with Mr and Mrs Dowler, Mulcaire was being asked to hack their daughter's phone. Court sketch of prosecutor Andrew Edis, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson The prosecutor said revealing the affair could draw unkind comments Mr Edis said the paper's editors had extensive contact with each other and the police over the case, and Mrs Brooks was even making calls about Milly Dowler while on holiday in Dubai. This, he said, proved she must have known what was going on. The discovery that the schoolgirl's phone had been hacked by someone at the News of the World ultimately led to the closure of the Sunday tabloid in 2011. 'McCartney row' The jury was told Mrs Brooks did know about the practice of phone hacking. Mr Edis said she told golfer Colin Montgomerie's then wife, Eimear, in 2005, that all you needed to listen in to people's voicemails was a mobile number and a factory pin. Mrs Brooks gave her an example of an exclusive story that she said had come from hacking, about Sir Paul McCartney arguing with his then wife Heather over an engagement ring, jurors heard. Mrs Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire, and Mr Coulson, also 45, from Charing in Kent - among eight people on trial - are both accused of conspiring with others to hack phones and two counts of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office. Mrs Brooks also faces two allegations of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. They deny all charges. Mrs Brooks married her first husband, actor Ross Kemp, in 2002, after a six-year engagement. She married her second, the former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, in 2009. They have a young daughter. Mrs Brooks took the helm at the News of the World in 2000, becoming the youngest editor of a British national newspaper, and went on to edit the Sun three years later. In 2009, she became chief executive of News International. 'Quick worker' Mr Coulson married his wife Eloise in 2000. They have two children. He was Mrs Brooks' deputy for three years during her editorship at the News of the World, then took over as her successor in 2003. He quit in January 2007 and went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's communications director until 2011. Mr Kuttner, 73, of Woodford Green, Essex, also denies conspiring with others to hack phones between 3 October, 2000 and 9 August, 2006. On Wednesday, the court was told Mulcaire, and three former News of the World journalists who are not on trial, had pleaded guilty to phone-hacking charges. Earlier on Thursday, the court heard Mulcaire was given a written contract in 2001 and received 221 payments between 2000 and 2007, totalling £413,527, that were authorised by Mr Kuttner. Mr Edis also told jurors how emails sent by Mulcaire about hacking phones belonging to MP Tessa Jowell and her husband, David Mills, Lord Frederick Windsor and an adviser to John Prescott led the police to launch their investigation in 2011. Mulcaire was, said Mr Edis, a "quick worker" who knew how to get mobile phone operators to reset voicemail passwords - a method allegedly used to access people's voicemails.

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Thai amnesty bill passes lower house

Thailand's lower house of parliament has passed a political amnesty bill that critics say could allow the return of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. The amnesty applies to offences committed during the political turmoil after Mr Thaksin was ousted in a coup. The lower house passed the controversial bill in the early hours of Friday. It now goes to the Senate. The opposition Democrat Party has warned that the passage of the bill will trigger street protests. It did not take part in the vote, but the bill passed by 310 votes to 0. Advocates of the bill say it will draw a line under the political turmoil that resulted from the military coup in 2006 that removed Mr Thaksin from power, leaving Thailand bitterly divided. Continue reading the main story Thailand's troubles Sept 2006: Army overthrows government of Thaksin Shinawatra, rewrites constitution Dec 2007: Pro-Thaksin People Power Party wins most votes in election Aug 2008: Mr Thaksin flees into exile before end of corruption trial Dec 2008: Mass yellow-shirt protests paralyse Bangkok; Constitutional Court bans People Power Party; Abhisit Vejjajiva comes to power Mar-May 2010: Thousands of pro-Thaksin red shirts occupy parts of Bangkok; eventually cleared by army; dozens killed July 2011: Yingluck Shinawatra leads Pheu Thai party to general election win This turmoil included the occupation of Bangkok's main airport in 2008 and then two months of street protests in Bangkok in 2010 that left about 90 people - mostly civilian protesters - dead. But critics say the amnesty would allow human rights abuses to go unpunished. "The proposed amnesty would allow officials and protest leaders who have blood on their hands to go unpunished," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, on 21 October. "By whitewashing past abuses, the government denies justice to victims and tells future abusers they have little to fear." The opposition believes the bill is aimed at facilitating Mr Thaksin's return, without having to serve a jail sentence. Thaksin Shinawatra has lived in self-imposed overseas exile since being convicted of corruption in 2008 - charges he says are politically motivated. In the wake of the coup he remained popular with rural voters and both general elections since the polls have seen parties allied to him elected. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra is currently the prime minister. The opposition says it plans to challenge the legislation. "We will continue our fighting in the street until the bill is aborted. There are other avenues such as by petitioning the Constitutional Court," said Democrat Party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut. On Thursday, as the bill was being debated, thousands of people rallied against it outside a railway station.

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Australia ambassador summoned amid Asia US spying reports

Indonesia has summoned Australia's ambassador amid reports that Australian embassies have been used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia. The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reported on Thursday that diplomatic posts in Asia were being used to intercept phone calls and data. China has also demanded an explanation from the US over the allegations. The reports were based on a US National Security Agency document leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The document, which was originally published by German newspaper Der Spiegel, describes a signals intelligence programme called Stateroom which involves the interception of radio, telecommunications and internet traffic using equipment in US, British, Australian and Canadian diplomatic missions. Diplomatic posts involved included those in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur, amongst others, SMH said. A former Australian intelligence officer, who was not named, told SMH that the Australian embassies in Jakarta and Bali were used to collect signals. In a statement, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said: "[The government] cannot accept and strongly protests the news of the existence of wiretapping facilities at the US embassy in Jakarta." "If confirmed, such action is not only a breach of security, but also a serious breach of diplomatic norms and ethics." Australian ambassador Greg Moriarty was summoned to the Indonesian foreign ministry on Monday. He described the meeting, which reportedly took less than half an hour, as "a good meeting". Australia and Indonesia are key allies and trading partners. Australia requires Indonesia's co-operation on the asylum issue, as many asylum seekers travel via Indonesia to Australia by boat. 'Clarification' Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing was "extremely concerned" about the report. "[China] demands that the US offer a clarification and explanation," she said. "We demand that foreign embassies in China and their staff respect the Vienna Convention." Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on the reports. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: "Every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official... operates in accordance with the law." The reports are the latest in a series of documents leaked by ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorised disclosures. The US is facing growing anger over reports it spied on its allies abroad. However, correspondents say that in reality most governments conduct surveillance or espionage operations against other countries whose activities matter to them.

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Row over Marine Le Pen comments on Niger hostages

French National Front leader Marine Le Pen has sparked criticism with comments on the appearance of four French hostages freed in Niger. Mrs Le Pen said she had felt "uneasy" on seeing footage of the return, calling their behaviour and clothing - including their beards - "surprising". A government minister called her comments an "unbelievable indecency". The four arrived in Paris on Wednesday. They had been seized by al-Qaeda-linked gunmen in northern Niger in 2010. They had been kidnapped in raids targeting French firms operating a uranium mine in September 2010 and held in the northern desert of neighbouring Mali. Mrs Le Pen said the images of the hostages' return to Paris had left her "sceptical". "I found their extreme reserve surprising, I found their dress surprising. I don't think I was the only one," Mrs Le Pen told the Europe 1 radio station. "Two of them had beards cut in a surprising way... I think perhaps they need to explain all of that, it gives an odd impression to French people," she continued. She also alluded to images in which one of the hostages had worn a scarf covering his face. During the scenes broadcast on TV of the men's emotional re-union with their families, all their faces were visible. Asked whether she thought the men had converted to Islam during their captivity, she replied: "No, listen, I'm not a psychiatrist, I'm not hinting at anything. I wouldn't go so far as to put forward theories, that's not my role." The hostages were greeted on Wednesday by their families and President Francois Hollande Comments 'shameful' The comments provoked a torrent of criticism from other politicians. Harlem Desir, the first secretary of President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party, called Mrs Le Pen's comments "shameful and unpatriotic" and called on her to apologise to the hostages and their families. Socialist Party spokesman and MP Eduardo Rihan Cypel, tweeted: "Le Pen is so blinded by her 'hatred of others' that she's unable to share the joy of the nation after the freeing of our hostages". Roger Karoutchi, senator from the centre-right UMP party, said: "Thirty-seven months held in the desert and Marine Le Pen says the hostages should have come back clean-shaven and in three-piece suits. What to say?" Asked about the row, the mother of one of the ex-hostages, Pierre Legrand, told the French I-tele TV station that their clothing had been a gesture of solidarity with other hostages who had not yet been freed. Mrs Le Pen later said she had been "clumsy" in her choice of words. "I never meant to criticise the hostages in any way, and obviously I'm overjoyed that they've been freed," she told reporters. However, she did not apologise for her earlier comments, and repeated her unease at seeing the hostages in clothing that was "a symbol of their detention".

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Germany to allow 'indeterminate' gender at birth

Germany is to become Europe's first country to allow babies with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female. Parents will be allowed to leave the gender blank on birth certificates, in effect creating a new categories of "indeterminate sex". The move is aimed at removing pressure on parents to make quick decisions on sex assignment surgery for newborns. As many as one 2,000 people have characteristics of both sexes. 'Bruised and scarred' They are known as "intersex" people because they have a mixture of male and female chromosomes or even genitalia which have characteristics of both genders. The intense difficulty for parents is often that a gender has to be chosen very quickly so that the new child can be registered with the authorities, the BBC's Steve Evans in Berlin reports. Sometimes surgery is done on the baby to turn its physical characteristics as far as possible in one direction or the other, our correspondent says. The law in Germany has been following a review of cases which revealed great unhappiness. In one case, a person with no clear gender-defining genitalia was subjected to surgery. The person said many years later: "I am neither a man nor a woman. I will remain the patchwork created by doctors, bruised and scarred." German passports, which currently list the holder's sex as M for male or F for female, will soon have a third designation, X, for intersex holders, according to the interior ministry. It remains unclear what impact the change will have on marriage and partnership laws in Germany. Current laws define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and civil partnerships are reserved for same-sex couples.

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Italy busts 'international child kidnapping ring'

Police in Italy say they have dismantled an international ring that conspired to kidnap children involved in custody battles. A police statement said those involved were special forces veterans whose commando-style tactics "put the child's life at risk". They charged tens of thousands of dollars for the abductions from North Africa to Europe using high-speed boats, police said. Several people have been arrested. They have been named as Luigi Cannistraro, Antonio Barazza, Sebastiano Calabrese and a former Ukrainian sailing champion, Larysa Moskalenko. It is alleged that Ms Moskalenko provided the boats for the crossings. The group carried out its first operation in October last year when a child was abducted in Tunisia, and taken to Norway via Sicily. A second operation in November was foiled by police who intercepted the phone calls of Ms Moskalenko's sailing venture in Palermo. Further operations were planned in Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt. Two Norwegians and a Swede are also being held in Tunisia. They have been named as Elisabeth Wenche Adresen, Martin Vage and Per Ake Helgesson.

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Tunnel linking US and Mexico found

More than 75 tunnels under the US-Mexico border have been found since 2008 A drug-smuggling tunnel equipped with electricity, ventilation and a rail system has been found connecting San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. Authorities seized more than eight tons of marijuana and 325lb (147kg) of cocaine in the discovery. Officials have not revealed the exact length or location of the recently finished tunnel, but Mexican media report it is near Tijuana's airport. More than 75 such secret tunnels have been discovered since 2008. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the find on Thursday. 'Just completed' It was described as "a just completed, highly sophisticated underground passageway", according to an ICE statement. The tunnel is the eighth discovered just in San Diego since 2006, according to media reports. In 2010, officials confiscated 22 tons of drugs from a 640m (2,100ft) tunnel equipped with rail tracks stretching from a Tijuana home to two San Diego warehouses.

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John Galliano: the puppet show

Love Magazine's 10th issue may feature cover stars Cara Delevingne, Edie Campbell and Georgia May Jagger and Minnie herself all wearing mouse ears but Parisian fashion annual, Vestoj has set a new benchmark in the publicity stunt department. To accompany its fourth issue, it has created a 20-minute puppet show adaptation of John Galliano's Charlie Rose interview of earlier this year. SEE: Apologetic John Galliano on the Charlie Rose chat show Star of the show, Little John Talks is Little John himself, a marionette version of former Dior designer John Galliano, as created by puppet-maker Etienne Bideau-Rey. His outfit is based on the Napoleon-style garb Galliano wore to take his bow after his Madame Butterfly haute couture show for Dior in 2007. The play is next due to be performed on December 10 at David Lynch's Silencio nightclub in the French capital but don't worry, it's going on tour and coming to the London College of Fashion on February 4 next year as a precursor to London Fashion Week. READ: John Galliano speaks: "It's the worst thing I have said in my life, but I didn't mean it" The theme of Vestoj's fourth issue is Fashion and Power and the publication features interviews with fashion power players including H&M's Margareta van den Bosch and A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou. As editor-in-chief Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, a senior research fellow at The London College of Fashion (with which the magazine is produced in collaboration) told us, the play itself is a commentary on fashion and power. "What to us was remarkable about the interview Galliano gave on TV (and in Vanity Fair)," she said, "was the level to which it seemed manipulated, controlled, spin-doctored. The whole affair seemed shrouded in smoke and mirrors. Both Galliano and Rose appeared to be acting out some very clearly defined roles, with very little scope for improvisation. Not too dissimilar from a puppet show in fact." READ: John Galliano headed for permanent post at Oscar de la Renta? The set by David Myron is a juxtaposition of a life size puppet theatre and a classical Greek temple. "The play is a metaphor," continued Aronowsky Cronberg, "dreamy, melancholic, slightly surreal but also tongue-in-cheek." "'Those who tell the story, also hold the power,'" she said, citing Plato, who students of the classics may remember faced something of a trial himself with rather worse repercussions than that of Galliano.

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie auction barrel of their estate wine for 10,000 euros

A barrel of organic wine produced by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s estate in the south of France has been sold for more than €10,000 (£8,500) at auction, with the money going to support an agricultural project in Africa. Winegrowers in the village of Correns, where Pitt and Jolie have their chateau, 50 miles inland from Saint-Tropez, organised the sale on Wednesday evening as part of an annual auction to raise funds for the Democratic Republic of Congo, and donated to an agricultural cooperative which aims to teach young people about sustainable farming. “We’ve organised this sale in solidarity with the people of the Kivu region,” said Michael Latz, mayor of Correns. “It’s in an area on bordering Rwanda which has been left impoverished by war. Young people and agriculture have been the principal victims of conflict – and yet they are the key to future stability in the region.” The Pitt-Jolie barrel was by far the top seller, and was bought by local wine merchant Vins Breban. A 60-gallon cask, signed by the couple; it holds approximately 300 bottles – each bottle therefore worth around £28. This year’s sale made almost €25,000 for the charity, which operates in an area that Jolie visited in March this year alongside William Hague, the Foreign Secretary. The couple bought a 17th Century castle, the Chateau Miraval, in the community in 2008 and since then have cultivated vines on their 988 acres of land. Both he and his fiancée are said to take a keen interest in the process; speaking to local producers and discussing how to achieve the best blends. The 35-room estate – where the Hollywood couple spend their summers – is tucked away in its own private valley, with vines sprawling up the hillsides in stonewalled terraces that have been restored to their traditional form. “It’s a magical place,” said winemaker Marc Perrin. “The valley, property of the chateau, offers an unmatched ecosystem and gives the wines a unique style in terms of freshness and elegance.” Pitt and Jolie enlisted the Perrin family, who run a winery in California and also own the Chateau de Beaucastel near Avignon – one of the most celebrated producers of Chateauneuf-du-Pape – to help produce their wine. The Perrin family began making Miraval’s wines with the 2012 harvest, and their first 6,000 bottles of rose sold out within five hours earlier this year. Mr Perrin told The Telegraph that they produced 30,000 bottles last year, but were not sure yet how many would be made this season. A white and red followed the initial rose production, and British firm Berry Bros. & Rudd currently sell the bottles in Britain for £18.95. Simon Field, a buyer for Berry Bros. & Rudd, said: “They have picked up an impressive property and have maintained or even elevated its reputation with their first vintage. Anecdotally they show genuine interest in the winemaking process. “Their first vintage was a well-judged and finely made wine.”

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Marine Le Pen suggests French hostages had Homeland-style radicalisation

Far-Right leader Marine Le Pen has sparked outrage by hinting that four French hostages who were kidnapped by Islamic militants may have radicalised because they returned home with “strange” beards. Thierry Dol, Daniel Larribe, Pierre Legrand and Marc Féret were given a heroes’ welcome when they returned to France on Wednesday after a three year ordeal at the hands of al Qaeda-linked militants in Africa’s desert Sahel region. President François Hollande personally greeted the four men, kidnapped in Niger in 2010, as they arrived at Villacoublay military airfield near Paris. Visibly uneasy with the intense media attention, none of the four men wanted to speak after Mr Hollande addressed journalists on the tarmac. Given this, Miss Le Pen struck a different tone by appearing to imply that she feared the men may have become radicalised by their captors while in Africa. The Front National leader, known for her virulent campaigns against immigration and the “Islamisation” of France said their appearance was “troubling”. When asked to elaborate, she added: “They seemed to be images of men who were very reserved, two with beards cut in an astonishing manner, the clothing was strange. And the hostage with the scarf on his face ... All this requires some explanation on their part.” The theory is reminiscent of the plot of the US TV series Homeland, the hit US series starring Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA officer, and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper. The first series hinges on Mathison’s suspicions that Brody, who was held captive by al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war, was “turned” by the enemy. Miss Le Pen was asked if the men might have been Islamicised during their three-year hostage ordeal. “I’m not a psychiatrist,” she replied. “I am expressing the feelings I had, which I think were shared by a lot of the French public. I wouldn’t go so far as to offer a theory, it wouldn’t be my place.” “However it is not forbidden to think that they might be victims of the Stockholm syndrome,” Miss Le Pen later told Le Figaro newspaper. Her comments quickly sparked criticism and mockery on social media. “Marine le Pen had just finished a marathon of £Homeland,” tweeted @n-manth. “Marine le Pen thought the hostages were going to step off the plane with a three piece suit and a bow tie,” wrote @Cheikouuu. “Coming soon in the £FN programme: a political hairiness police”. The governing Socialist party accused her of exploiting the hostages’ return to make a “shameful and unpatriotic” slur. “Miss Le Pen is so blinded by her hatred of Muslims that she can’t even join the rest of the nation in rejoicing at the release of our hostages,” party spokesman Eduardo Rihan Cypel told iTele. Jean-François Copé, head of the conservative UMP opposition party, said the remarks were “deeply shocking”. “This is the real face of the Front National and Marine Le Pen,” he said. In a front page article, Le Monde said Miss Le Pen's "spectacular slip-up" risked "scrambling (her) message and strategy as she goes out of her way to appear a credible and responsible politician". The mother of one of the former captives, Pierre Legrand, said the four men had simply agreed to keep their beards and scarves in a gesture of solidarity with other French hostages still held in the region. With controversy mounting, Miss Le Pen later said she regretted her “clumsy” remarks, and that she had only meant to criticise their “exploitation” by the French and Niger governments. “I expressed myself extremely clumsily,” she told RTL radio. “I have no criticism of the hostages and of course I am extremely happy that they have been freed.” The four Frenchmen were abducted by al-Qaida’s northern African branch, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, in 2010, while they were working in Arlit, Niger, where the French nuclear giant Areva operates a uranium mine. They were rescued in northern Mali, where French troops have been fighting off an Islamist insurgency led by several rebel groups including AQIM. They were reportedly retrieved in a desert area near the border with Mauritania and Algeria by a team of 18 Frenchmen and Tuaregs. The French government said their release was brokered by Niger’s president Mahamadou Issoufou. They deny any ranson was paid, but sources close to the operation claimed France paid up to 25 million euros (£21.5 million) for their release.

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L'arrestation de Redoine Faïd possible grâce au portable d'un "indic"

C'est un "indic" qui a "plombé" Redoine Faïd. Le braqueur, évadé mi-avril de la prison de Sequedin (Nord), a été repris grâce à un "indic" et à un portable qui a permis de le géolocaliser, affirme le journal Libération (article pour abonnés) dans son édition à paraître vendredi 1er novembre. Redoine Faïd est soupçonné notamment de participation à une tentative d'attaque à main armée qui avait coûté la vie à la policière municipale Aurélie Fouquet, 26 ans, en mai 2010 à Villiers-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne). "Durant sa cavale, il a essayé d'acheter un faux passeport israélien. Lors de la tractation, à bord d'une voiture, le vendeur du faux passeport a balancé un portable ouvert sous le siège, ce qui a permis de les géolocaliser", précise une source proche de l'enquête à Libération. Le quotidien consacre vendredi sa une et deux doubles-pages à l'évasion et la cavale du braqueur arrêté le 29 mai à Pontault-Combaut, et publie "l'intégralité de l'enquête, photos exclusives à l'appui". Le récit de son évasion "hors du commun" et de sa cavale Le journal, qui a visiblement eu accès à des procès-verbaux, raconte en détail l'évasion de Redoine Faïd le 13 avril, durant laquelle il a pris quatre surveillants en otage. Ce matin-là le braqueur est "très très calme, pas comme d'habitude", note un détenu cité par le quotidien. Libération affirme qu'il "ne s'agit pas ici de faire de la surenchère, mais de comprendre les coulisses et les ressorts d'une évasion hors du commun". La diffusion d'images de l'évasion tirées des vidéosurveillances de la prison de Sequedin par TF1 et M6 avait provoqué un fort émoi parmi les surveillants. Libération revient ensuite sur six semaines de cavale en région parisienne. Le quotidien explique notamment que pour se reposer, Redoine Faïd aimait se rendre au cinéma, de préférence à la séance de 13h30. Après sa dernière arrestation, le braqueur s'est vu signifier neuf chefs de mise en examen. Il encourt la réclusion criminelle à perpétuité.

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Mothers of Other Trayvons Express Anguish

The acquittal verdict in Florida has led to a maternal outpouring. "Black mothers around this country are once again potential Mamie Tills," said one woman in a Frisky story, referring to the mother of Emmett Till, who was lynched in 1955. NEW YORK --In the aftermath of the July 13 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin, black mothers have been expressing anguish at the vulnerability of their male children. "All Black mothers in Florida, and Black mothers around this country are now, once again, potential Mamie Tills," said Jamila Bey, a radio host, in an article by Avital Norman Nathman for The Frisky. "When her son, Emmett Till was lynched in 1955, the all-white Mississippi jury agreed that his murderers did indeed take Till's life, but that it's senseless to punish white men for killing the boy." As part of the outraged reactions around the country, Trayvon Martin's own mother, Sybrina Fulton, led a protest of more than 1,000 people in New York, along with veteran civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton, Al Jazeera reported July 21. While leading protests, Fulton has also been a magnet for black women's expressions of sympathy and support. "You stepped onto the national stage alongside the women who came before you, carrying our collective sorrow on their shoulders," writes MSNBC host Melissa Harris Perry. Carol Jenkins, the founding president of the Women's Media Center and a Women's eNews 21 Leader in 2012, wrote in her blog on July 21 of her own fears as the mother of a black son and of the fears that so many women have of losing their sons "to thugs, to drugs, prison or to the police. Immeasurable sadness. Unbearable grief." Beverly Bond, a Women's eNews 21 Leader in 2011 and founder of the mentoring group Black Girls Rock told Al Jazeera that the black community wanted people to know that this was not an isolated incident. "This is an injustice we have seen in our community over and over and over again. It is amazing to me that people don't know why we're upset," she said. "The trial added insult to injury because it was like he was being put on trial for his own murder." On July 16, Essence Magazine launched a social media campaign called #HeIsNotASuspect to challenge the negative images of young black men in the media. The magazine won an award last year from the Newswomen's Club of New York for its interviews of mothers of murdered young black men. The campaign, which aims to end racial profiling, invites women "to post a photo of themselves with a young Black man they care about --a son, brother, nephew, cousin, neighbor or grandson--with a few words explaining why he's so much more than a stereotype, using the hashtag #HeIsNotASuspect." Other women with children expressed anger and frustration after the verdict in blog posts. "Black and brown men and women are criminalized at higher rates than whites," Rae Gomes writes on Fem2pt0. "There is a belief that runs through the country's DNA of the inherent violence of especially black men. Why could Stand Your Ground or whatever self defense clause be invoked by Zimmerman, but not by Martin who was the actual victim?" To underscore the injustice of the judicial system, Gomes points to case of a black woman Marissa Alexander. Alexander was sentenced last week to 20 years in prison in Jacksonville, Fla., for firing a bullet at a wall one day in 2010 to scare off her husband when she felt he was threatening her. That day, nobody got hurt, The Huffington Post reported. Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of a toddler and 11-year-old twins, unsuccessfully invoked Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law and rejected plea deals that could have gotten her a much shorter sentence. A jury found her guilty as charged: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Denene Millner, a New York Times-bestselling author and founder of MyBrownBaby.com, says she was sad and angry that "a Black child's life has been taken without repercussion, thanks to a justice system and laws and a culture of racism that allows the stalking, harassment, accosting and killing of our children." She goes on "It's hard to breathe when I am trying to explain to my children . . . how it is possible that someone can shoot a human being and go unpunished." Shortly after his death, the parents of the victim started the Trayvon Martin Foundation to give black communities educational and legal support while spreading awareness about racial profiling. "Even though nothing we can say or do will get Trayvon back, maybe we can help someone else not lose their child," wrote Tracy Martin, the victim's father, Think Progress reported July 18. President Barack Obama cautioned against violence on July 19, as he urged all Americans to try to understand the Martin case from the perspective of African-Americans, Al Jazzera reported. "There is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws," he said. "A lot of African American boys are painted with a broad brush . . . If a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario . . . both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different." Hajer Naili is a New York-based reporter for Women's eNews. She has worked for several radio stations and publications in France and North Africa and specializes in Middle East and North Africa.

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Healthy gut bacteria help body regrow intestinal cells, surprised researchers discover

It is becoming common knowledge that the human intestinal system is dependent upon a diverse and populous mix of beneficial bacteria in order to maintain strong immunity and to function as designed. But new research out of Georgia has shown, perhaps for the first time, that natural gut bacteria is also necessary to repair and maintain a healthy intestinal cellular system and that gut microbes are fully capable of regrowing damaged or compromised tissue. This shocking finding was uncovered by researchers from the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta who tested the effects of certain strains of bacteria, including those from the Lactobacillus genus, on both Drosophila fruit flies and mice. They learned that some of these bacterial strains trigger the production of host epithelial cells, which line the various cavities of the body, which in turn activates and proliferates the spread of intestinal stem cells. Specifically, Lactobacillus bacteria was observed to stimulate the production and cellular proliferation of NADPH oxidase 1 (Nox1)-dependent ROS (reactive oxygen species), which serve as signaling messengers for the various systems of the body that regulate normal and healthy biology. Without these important messengers, the digestive system in particular can go awry, resulting in metabolic and infectious disorders, allergies and gut conditions like inflammatory bowel disease. "It is well-known that mammals live in a homeostatic symbiosis with their gut microbiota and that they influence a wide range of physiological processes. However, the molecular mechanisms of the symbiotic cross-talk in the gut are largely unrecognized," stated Andrew S. Neish, a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine who led the research. "In our study, we have discovered that Lactobacilli can stimulate reactive oxygen species that have regulatory effects on intestinal stem cells, including the activation of proliferation of these cells." Many chronic ailments could be the result of lacking gut microbes, suggests research Conversely, a lack of these important bacteria could be a major driving factor in the rise of chronic disease. Since the advent of antibiotic drugs, which kill off both harmful and beneficial bacteria throughout the body, the prevalence of gut conditions and related immune disorders has skyrocketed. Supplementing with the right probiotics, in other words, could be the cure many people are looking for. "When animal guts were colonized by Lactobacillus, ROS production caused cell growth in intestinal stem cells," explains an announcement about the study published by AlphaGalileo.org. "In contrast, in germ-free animals ROS production was absent and resulted in suppressed growth of epithelial cells." These incredible findings speaks for themselves and finally offer some logistical insight into how the human gut communicates with bacteria, and vice versa. It also helps reinforce the fact that bacterial balance is crucial for optimal health. A lack of healthy gut bacteria, or a serious imbalance, has been linked to all sorts of health problems, including stress, anxiety, behavioral disorders, obesity and autism. "A healthy gut absorbs nutrients and disperses them throughout the body, and also helps us filter out dangerous bacteria, chemicals and toxins," writes Dr. Carolyn C. Ross, M.D., M.P.H., for Psychology Today about the importance of probiotics. "Over time, the balance of bacteria in the gut can shift, often as a result of antibiotic overuse, chronic stress, insomnia, diseases, the environment and inflammatory diets, leading to a number of health problems."

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Edward Snowden de nouveau consultant

Depuis le retentissement déclenché par ses déclarations, Edward Snowden n’exerçait plus aucune profession. Les choses ont changé depuis que l’ancien consultant de la NSA a obtenu l’asile en Russie. En effet, Il jouit depuis août dernier d’un visa de séjour temporaire d’un an. L’homme qui a passé pratiquement deux mois dans la zone de transit de l’aéroport Cheremtievo, à Moscou, vient de décrocher son premier emploi en Russie. L’information a été révélée par son avocat Anatoly Kucherena. Ce dernier a indiqué qu’ « Edward va commencer à travailler au début du mois de novembre, il va apporter son aide et son expertise à un grand site web russe ». Mais pour des raisons de « sécurité », le nom du site en question n’a pas été communiqué. Les spéculations vont bon train.

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L’ex-chef de la Gestapo aurait été enterré dans un cimetière juif

Le mystère de la disparition d’Heinrich Müller, l’ex-chef de la Gestapo, a peut-être été élucidé. Celui qui fut l’un des responsables de la Shoah aurait été enterré dans un cimetière juif de Berlin. C’est le journal Bild qui l’affirme, en s’appuyant sur des documents d’archives, fournis par le dirigeant du Mémorial de la résistance allemande, Johannes Tuchel. “Heinrich Müller fut responsable avec Himmler, Hitler et Heydrich, d’un certain nombre de crimes de masse’‘ rappelle-t-il. ‘‘Il a été profondément impliqué dans l’Holocaust, il a participé à la conférence de Wannsee qui décida de la solution finale. Il est également responsable des meurtres de masse de prisonniers de guerre soviétiques.’‘ La disparition d’Heinrich Müller, en 1945, est l’une des grandes énigmes de l’après-guerre, qui a fait l’objet de nombreuses théories. Les services secrets allemands avaient assuré qu’il se trouvait en Tchécoslovaquie quelques années après la fin du conflit. Le représentant de la communauté juive d’Allemagne s’est dit choqué par ces dernières révélations.

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Mille tonnes d’agents et d’armes chimiques syriens désormais sous scellés

Mille tonnes d’agents chimiques et 290 tonnes d’armes chimiques ont été placés sous scellés par les inspecteurs de l’organisation chargée de la destruction de l’arsenal chimique syrien. Les sites de production et d’assemblage ont également été déclarés inutilisables. Il s’agit d’une première étape dans un programme encore chargé. “La Syrie a déjà donné à notre conseil exécutif, ce qu’on appelle un plan général de destruction, d‘élimination de la totalité de ses réserves. Le 15 Novembre, notre conseil exécutif devra approuver un plan qui assure que tous les programmes d’armement ainsi que tous les éléments qui s’y rapportent seront détruits de façon irréversible d’ici le 30 Juin 2014”, explique Michael Luhan, le porte-parole de l’OIAC. Si la Syrie s’est pliée aux exigences de l’OIAC, elle n’entend pas pour autant reculer d’un pouce sur certains points. Ainsi lors de sa rencontre avec l‘émissaire international pour la Syrie, Bachar el-Assad a réitéré à Lakhdar Brahimi son refus de toute ingérence en faveur de l’opposition lors de la conférence de Genève-2 destinée à trouver une solution au conflit qui ravage le pays.

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A broken ocean: The aftermath of Fukushima

While mainstream media appears to have almost forgotten that the Fukushima disaster ever happened and the aftermath of the damaged nuclear power plant continues to be downplayed by government officials, reports of spreading radiation, sick and dying marine life and contaminated food are rife. A report in the Newcastle Herald recently shared the story of an Australian sailor expressing concern about the state of the ocean after recently sailing from Melbourne in Australia to Osaka, Japan, and then from Osaka to San Francisco. The sailor reports that, during the journey from Melbourne to Osaka, the lack of sea birds and fish made the journey eerie and a very different experience from the same journey ten years prior. He tells how, a decade ago, seabirds followed and roosted on his boat, their constant noise being heard as they soared overhead, swooping and diving for fish; he explains that the more recent journey was quiet, the only noises being the wind, the water and the sails. He expresses concern over the lack of fish on the first leg of his recent voyage, comparing the easy catch of a large fish every day for the 28 days of the first journey with the fact that he was only able to catch two fish during the whole of the second and blaming over-fishing for the difference. He then goes on to explain how the second leg of the trip between Osaka and San Francisco got worse, describing the ocean as "broken." He tells a terrifying tale of an ocean in which there is almost no life and explains that he is used to seeing turtles, dolphins and sharks. He was disturbed by the fact that for 3000 nautical miles he saw almost no life and describes the sickening sight of a whale rolling around on the surface with what appeared to be some kind of tumor on its head. An ocean full of garbage Almost as disturbing as the lack of marine life is the sailor's description of the garbage floating in the ocean, much of which had obviously been washed into the sea during the tsunami in Japan. His brother, who traveled with him during the second leg of his journey, was stunned by the many thousands of yellow plastic buoys floating on the sea, and along with the buoys were great tangles of synthetic ropes, nets and fishing line and many hundreds of snapped power poles with lines still attached. There was so much garbage floating in the ocean that in many places they could not use the engine on their boat for fear of the propeller getting tangled in the mess. They also feared the boat being damaged by continual collisions with large objects floating in and under the water, describing the experience as being like "sailing through a garbage tip". Radiation levels continue to grow in the USA Meanwhile, reports of increasing radiation levels on the west coast of the United States and concerns about the dangers to human health and wildlife are growing. Radiation levels on land and in the ocean are being monitored, and reports of sick and dying wildlife are not going unnoticed. Recent reports of polar bears, walruses and seals suffering open sores and fur loss near Alaska, as well as the deaths of 45% of sea lion pups on the coastline of California this year, are only the tip of the iceberg, as hundreds of liters of toxic, radioactive water continues to flow from Fukushima into the ocean every single day.

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BETRAYED: Democrats now admit they knew all along that millions would lose their existing health plans

The degree of betrayal found in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is finally coming to the surface... and it's intense. As a top Democrat admitted today, the Democrats knew all along that Obamacare would cause millions to lose health care coverage. Yet they continued to promote it with premeditated lies such as, "You can keep your current health plan if you like it" and "your health insurance costs will be lower than a phone bill." "We knew that there would be some policies that would not qualify and therefore people would [lose their existing coverage]," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer in a NationalReview.com article. National Review goes on to report this astonishing exchange: Asked by another reporter how repeated statements by Obama to the contrary weren't "misleading," Hoyer said "I don't think the message was wrong. I think the message was accurate. It was not precise enough…[it] should have been caveated with -- 'assuming you have a policy that in fact does do what the bill is designed to do.'" In other words, lying to the public is not "wrong." It's accurate but not precise! This is how Democrats think, of course: lie to the public to gain their contrived support, and then when things go wrong, shove a gun in everyone's face to force them to comply with their Big Government mandates. That's the entire plan of Obamacare and most socialists: obedience at gunpoint. Mao would have been proud to call Obamacare his own. Obama administration also knew that "millions could not keep their health insurance The lies of the Obama administration are now so blatant and undeniable that even the mainstream media is starting to expose them. NBC News reported today that "millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years." NBC News goes on to report: ...50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a "cancellation" letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don't meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience "sticker shock." ...the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them. Yet President Obama, who had promised in 2009, "if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan," was still saying in 2012, "If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance." Like everything else spouted by Obama, all these claims were of course outrageous lies. Lies within lies wrapped in lies and packaged in the language of "benefits" Obama is not merely a liar but a sociopathic liar who feels no remorse for the massive social cost of his actions. He deliberately misleads Americans into supporting a plan that was designed from the start to destroy the American economy and leave tens of millions of people medical bankrupt with no insurance whatsoever. This isn't simply a debate about who wins or loses, it's an issue that impacts the lives of tens of millions of Americans. It now appears that 16 million Americans will lose their health insurance thanks to Obamacare, and employers are slashing job hours, employment positions and more. Obamacare is devastating the U.S. economy and culture like an economic apocalypse. Here are just a few of the lies we've all been told by Obama and his criminal cohorts: LIE #1) "The average family insurance plan will cost $2500 less per year." LIE #2) "You can keep your plan, period." (Total lie!) LIE #3) "You can keep your doctor." (Vicious lie!) LIE #4) "The ACA will only add $900 billion to the deficit over the next ten years." (Mathematical lie.) LIE #5) "This is all about providing affordable health insurance to nearly all Americans." (In truth, it's all about the utter destruction of the U.S. economy, workers and employers.) Rate increases of 400% - 500% or more now common As we're all now discovering, Obamacare isn't "affordable" health care; it's health care mandated at price-gouging monopoly rates. For example, as NBC News reports: George Schwab, 62, of North Carolina, said he was "perfectly happy" with his plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield, which also insured his wife for a $228 monthly premium. But this past September, he was surprised to receive a letter saying his policy was no longer available. The "comparable" plan the insurance company offered him carried a $1,208 monthly premium and a $5,500 deductible. Natural News reported on a case where one couple was being told they would have to pay 539% more for health care coverage, thanks to Obamacare. Their rates were going up from $212 per month to $1,356.60 per month. For Obama to call these health care plans "affordable" is an outrageous lie, and it's going to financially devastate millions of families across America who simply cannot afford these outlandish rate increases. Yes, even those who voted for Obamacare and optimistically supported Obamacare are going to be hit with higher rates, too. Americans outraged at depth of multi-layered betrayal, lies, deceit by Obama and the Democrats Here are just a few of the user comments on the revelation that Obama and the Democrats KNEW all this would happen but lied about it anyway: What a low life piece of garbage steny hoyer is. The dems LIED to ALL Americans and don't give a damn that they did. If this doesn't outrage the people who bought into obamacare then this country is finished. Socialism has won. What a sad day for this once great country, America, land of the used to be free. They knew and still they went along with the lie. The republicans tried and tried to warn everybody and were demonized for it by the media and the rest of the libs. I bet this still doesn't wake the drones up from their stupor. I guess people aren't laughing at Ted Cruz anymore. Did they also know that their agenda would be toxic to the business community, and that in the first year of the socialist's second term, 90 million people would be unemployed? Did they know more people would require food stamps and disability payments? Did they know that millions of young people would be without jobs or hope? How much did they know? And WHY do they hate America? Even back in 2009 when they were hiding behind locked doors, keeping the Republicans from finding out this stuff they had already decided to screw the population. You must be an idiot to support Democrats when they do stuff like that. Now the Republicans are demonized for trying to protect the citizens from this sleazy, mean spirited BS. So on how many other occasions such as COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM are you also lying. At this point we will assume 100% of the time. They KNEW and they LIED. It's time to light up the Congressional switchboard. To a liberal a lie is completely truthful as long as it suckers you. "...I think the message was accurate." - Thank you Steny, I'm sure it was our fault, we must have listened wrong. Liars. And it's none of their damned business what coverage is appropriate for anyone. Who made Obama a health care expert? As a 59 year old woman that is not having more children, I don't need maternity coverage. With this regime, who knows what will happen tho? King Obama for sure. He needs to go, along with all of them. I have no insurance, before obamacare I was responsible for 100% of my health care costs. After obamacare I'm still responsible for 100% of my health care costs, but I have to pay the government a fine out of the money I was going to pay for my health care with. Is this a great plan or what?

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Michigan State University sells deadly toxic waste to the public on its surplus website

An exclusive News investigation reveals that Michigan State University (MSU) is eliminating toxic waste / deadly environmental toxins by selling them to the public as "surplus" materials. At least one of these materials can be weaponized by terrorists and used to poison municipal water supplies and cause widespread neurological damage to the population. Using nothing more than a credit card on the MSU surplus website (MSUsurplusStore.com), I was able to accidentally purchase an enormous quantity of liquid mercury inside a "surplus" polarographic analyzer that MSU sold me for a mere $100. The unit was packaged in bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts, then placed in a cardboard box. It contained absolutely no warnings about hazardous materials as is required by carriers such as UPS and the USPS. There was no MSDS in the box and no indication whatsoever that the equipment should be kept in an upward orientation to prevent mercury from spilling out. No doubt the people who also packaged this laboratory equipment at MSU were also exposed to mercury during the packaging process (is that what undergrads are for?). When I received the unit, it was upside down and the bubble wrap was inundated with mercury. No doubt mercury also escaped the cardboard box during shipment, possibly causing neurological damage to the UPS workers who handled the box. Furthermore, MSU failed to warn me that the shipment contained a highly toxic hazardous substance. There was no indication whatsoever that the device contained a very large quantity of mercury. Elemental mercury can be weaponized into an aerosol, a vapor, or a deadly nerve agent What's especially shocking in all this is that a terrorist using just a little bit of chemistry knowledge could "weaponize" this elemental mercury and turn it into far more deadly mercury compounds which could then be deployed against a population through the water supply, a building HVAC intake system or other methods that I need not describe. For example, terrorists could turn elemental mercury into dimethylmercury, a deadly neurotoxin that just happens to be a colorless liquid with a slightly sweet (deadly) smell. Dimethylmercury is toxic to humans at just 0.1mL (one-tenth of one milliliter). It also passes right through PVC, latex, neoprene and other protective gear, going right into the skin and causing widespread neurological damage. Yes, it's true that people can acquire very small amounts of mercury in old thermometers and HVAC controllers, but those are tiny fractions of the amount of mercury that MSU shipped to me in just one laboratory instrument. Anyone who wanted to accumulate vast quantities of mercury would be enabled by MSU's surplus store practices which apparently have no safety controls or hazardous materials guidelines whatsoever.

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Historical data shows vaccines are not what saved us

Do vaccines actually protect against the viruses and illnesses that they claim to? If you only get your news and information from mainstream news and educational sources, then the question about whether vaccines are effective is never even raised. However, if you look at the historical data on vaccination efficacy, you'll see that they are not responsible for the decline in disease in the last hundred years at all. Historical evidence Take a look at some of the historical data below showing various vaccination programs and the outbreak of that very disease either immediately or several years later. -In 1871-2 England, with 98% of the population aged between 2 and 50 vaccinated against smallpox, it experienced its worst ever smallpox outbreak with 45,000 deaths. During the same period in Germany, with a vaccination rate of 96%, there were over 125,000 deaths from smallpox. (The Hadwen Documents) - In Germany, compulsory mass vaccination against diphtheria commenced in 1940, and by 1945, diphtheria cases were up from 40,000 to 250,000. (Don't Get Stuck, Hannah Allen) - In 1967, Ghana was declared measles-free by the World Health Organization after 96% of its population was vaccinated. In 1972, Ghana experienced one of its worst measles outbreaks with its highest ever mortality rate. (Dr. H. Albonico, MMR Vaccine Campaign in Switzerland, March 1990) - In the UK between 1970 and 1990, over 200,000 cases of whooping cough occurred in fully vaccinated children. (Community Disease Surveillance Centre, UK) - In the 1970s, a tuberculosis vaccine trial in India involving 260,000 people revealed that more cases of TB occurred in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. (The Lancet 12/1/80 p73) - In 1977, Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine, testified along with other scientists that mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases throughout the USA since 1961. (Science 4/4/77 "Abstracts") - In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696-697, 1981) -The February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine. - In Oman between 1988 and 1989, a polio outbreak occurred amongst thousands of fully vaccinated children. The region with the highest infection rate had the highest vaccine coverage. The region with the lowest infection rate had the lowest vaccine coverage. (The Lancet, 21/9/91) - In the New England Journal of Medicine July 1994 issue, a study found that over 80% of children under 5 years of age who had contracted whooping cough had been fully vaccinated. - In 1990, the Journal of the American Medical Association had an article on measles which stated, "Although more than 95% of school-aged children in the US are vaccinated against measles, large measles outbreaks continue to occur in schools and most cases in this setting occur among previously vaccinated children." (JAMA, 21/11/90) Medical deception So what are some of the true reasons for the decrease in disease in the last century? From his book Health and Healing, Dr. Andrew Weil said it best with the following statement: "Scientific medicine has taken credit it does not deserve for some advances in health. Most people believe that victory over the infectious diseases of the last century came with the invention of immunizations. In fact, cholera, typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough, etc, were in decline before vaccines for them became available - the result of better methods of sanitation, sewage disposal, and distribution of food and water."

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Confirmed: Girl smuggled into UK to have her organs harvested for wealthy recipients

There's a new kind of human trafficking taking place, and it has nothing to do with the Triangle Trade and slavery during the Colonial Era of American History. But it is every bit as sinister. Authorities in Great Britain have confirmed for the first time that a young girl was smuggled into the country specifically so her organs could be harvested and sold to wealthy recipients. As reported by The Telegraph: The unnamed girl was brought to the UK from Somalia with the intention of removing her organs and selling them on to those desperate for a transplant. Child protection charities warned that the case was unlikely to be an isolated incident as traffickers were likely to have smuggled a group of children into the country. Trafficking is increasing The horrific case came to light via a government report that showed the number of human trafficking victims in the United Kingdom has risen more than 50 percent from last year, and has now reached record levels. In all, 371 children were exploited in various ways, with the majority being used as slaves - for sex and otherwise. The government's report said 95 children came from Vietnam, 67 from Nigeria and 25 from China. More children were smuggled in from Romania and Bangladesh, among other countries. "The figures also detail how 20 British girls have been victims of human trafficking," the paper said. "It comes after a series of court cases in which British girls were raped and exploited by gangs of Asian men." British child protection charities have warned that criminal gangs are trying to exploit the demand for organ transplants in the country. "Traffickers are exploiting the demand for organs and the vulnerability of children. It's unlikely that a trafficker is going to take this risk and bring just one child into the UK. It is likely there was a group," said Bharti Patel, chief executive of ECPAT UK, a child protection charity. The World Health Organization says up to 7,000 kidneys are obtained illicitly every year all around the world by traffickers. And while a black market exists for other organs - hearts, lungs, livers - kidneys are the most sought-after, because one can be removed from a patient without them suffering many ill effects (unless, of course, later in life their one remaining kidney should become injured or fail). Here's how it works, as reported by The Telegraph: The process involves a number of people including the recruiter who identifies the victim, the person who arranges their transport, the medical professionals who perform the operation and the salesman who trades the organ. All of which would require infrastructure - and lots of money. Britain to stiffen penalties for slave traders and organ traffickers The government's report also notes a rise in the number of adults trafficked to the UK; the number of women rose by 12 percent to 786 and the number of men by almost one-third to around 400. The latter figure includes growing numbers of British men who are being exploited for "paving or ground works" in the UK or abroad. Details about the scope of the human trafficking phenomenon in Britain were published as the government in London announced plans to maximize prison sentences for modern-day slave traders. "Under the proposals, offenders who already have a conviction for a serious sexual or violent offence will receive an automatic life sentence. The current maximum custodial sentence for trafficking is 14 years," the Telegraph reported. Says James Brokenshire, crime and security minister: "Modern slavery is an appalling evil in our midst." He added: "All this is a good start, but we need everyone to play a part - government, law enforcement, business, charities - if we are to consign slavery to the history books where it belongs."

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For the first time, FDA announces safety rules for pet food manufacturers (and they actually make sense)

In the wake of yet another wave of animals deaths caused by tainted pet treats, the FDA has just announced new "Preventive Controls for Food for Animals" rules that would, for the first time, establish basis manufacturing standards for pet food. Click here to read the proposed regulations. Natural News readers know that I am usually an outspoken critic of the FDA on issues like drug safety and the agency's attacks on nutritional supplements and raw milk. But on this issue of dog food manufacturing, I honestly have to agree with the FDA in this context. Today's pet food manufacturing practices are abhorrent. They are beyond sickening; they're downright toxic. There are virtually no rules governing pet food manufacturing, meaning almost anyone can set up a dog food plant in a garage or warehouse, and they can pack and sell commercial dog food products even without following basic rules of hygiene and food contamination prevention. Even worse, consider what ingredients are allowed in pet food products: there are currently no laws or regulations whatsoever that limit the amount of toxic heavy metals, toxic chemicals, artificial substances, fillers or anything else in pet food. Manufacturers of pet food have, for decades, gotten away with selling the most contaminated, polluted, toxic and sickening "food" imaginable (all promoted with happy, healthy-looking dogs and lovey-dovey images, of course). In America, it is currently legal to manufacture a pet food product that kills pets, and there's nothing the public can do about it. Contaminated pet food is killing our pets Because of these practices, America is currently experiencing an epidemic of pet cancer and diabetes. Pet diseases are at an all-time high, and just as with humans, much of that is caused by low-quality foods and high levels of food contaminants. It really is time to require pet food manufacturers to meet, at minimum, some basic standards of food quality and manufacturing practices. And even though you know me as a person who prefers small government, there are a limited number of situations where centralized government regulation is actually needed -- and one of those is in establishing and enforcing basic food manufacturing standards. I also happen to think that another proper role of government is to establish honest food labeling laws such as forcing food manufacturers to disclose GMOs on food labels. Labeling and food safety issues can only be enforced by a central authority of some sort, because the corporations that make food (for humans and pets) would try almost anything if they could get away with it! For the record, I am strongly opposed to government regulations that impair individual liberty, such as the Obamacare mandate which ridiculously requires people to buy health insurance they often don't want or need. But I am in favor of government regulation of large corporations which almost always tend to be in the business of lying, stealing, cheating or harming the public. In my view, we need the FDA to lay off small farmers and spend more resources clamping down on big business. This should include pet food manufacturers. FDA wants pet food manufacturers to have a food safety plan On the FDA Voice blog, Daniel McChesney, Ph.D. explains that the proposed new regulations would "require facility owners to have a food safety plan and to have controls in place to minimize any potential hazards." This makes sense to me. Remember, our own store engages in food packaging, and we have already undergone USDA organic certification, FDA inspections and county-level health department inspections. I am not opposed to any of these because if we are going to have a relatively safe supply of foods in this country, we do need some fundamental standards to be enforced among those who manufacture and package foods. However, the FDA has a huge problem in that it really doesn't understand what "safe" food is. In the FDA's view, the only safe food is a dead food which is why the agency supports so much fumigation and irradiation of food products. What the FDA doesn't understand is that there are certain types of food -- such as raw milk -- where living bacteria actually benefit consumers by providing diverse probiotics. The FDA doesn't understand this. According to the FDA, all microbiology is assumed to be bad by default. On the issue of heavy metals, I agree with the FDA's position that metals should be minimized in foods. Lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic and even tin, aluminum and copper can be toxic at levels frequently found in foods. The FDA actively spot checks imported foods for these metals and will quarantine products showing levels that are "too high." Yet, at the same time, the FDA refuses to publicly release these threshold numbers. What does the agency actually consider to be "too high?" It's a secret, and they're not telling. The FDA's authority must be kept in check by reasonable oversight Whatever the FDA decides to do with pet food safety, it needs to be kept in check with both congressional oversight and public whistleblowing in case the agency gets out of line. Yes, these proposed pet food regulations seems to make good sense, but the FDA could go too far and get tyrannical with it. For example, I don't think the FDA should be raiding pet food plants at gunpoint like they helped initiate with James Stewart, the raw milk farmer from California. That's clearly an abuse of power. But if the FDA enforces basic standards at pet food manufactures using reasonable application of authority (i.e. warning letters followed by fines and only then followed by more aggressive action if needed), then I honestly think nearly all pet owners in America would be okay with that. If you don't agree with me on the need for stronger pet food regulations, I dare you to get a job in a pet food factory and see how long you can keep from puking your guts out. Once you see this firsthand, you will BEG for the FDA to nail down some basic guidelines. The stuff that goes on in pet food manufacturing plants should never have to be seen by human eyes. It is beyond nasty. It's inhumane. So I'm going to keep an eye on the FDA with all this. If they roll out reasonable pet food safety regulations and enforce them in a reasonable, professional manner that prioritizes the public interest, I will support it. If they go "militant" on us and start raiding pet food plants at gunpoint, I will obviously speak out against it.

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FDA finally admits conventional chicken contains toxic arsenic

Late to the game as always, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has finally admitted that cancer-causing drug compounds intentionally added to conventional chicken feed for the last 60 years, indeed, persist in chicken meat. According to a somewhat recent FDA-commissioned study, arsenical drugs like Pfizer's roxarsone produce inorganic arsenic (iAs) in chicken meat that ends up being consumed by millions of people. The study contradicts claims long made by the FDA and the industrial food industry that arsenical drugs are safe because they are excreted in chicken feces. Such claims were never backed by science, of course, and were mere speculative excuses meant to quell public concern about the drugs. But now that the cat is out of the bag, the FDA has no choice but to capitulate to the truth, even though the agency still insists that the drugs are somehow safe. Meanwhile, many people are now demanding an explanation as to how and why the FDA was able to get away with making these arbitrary and false claims about iAs for more than half a century without consequence. In case you missed it, the FDA report, which was first released back in 2011, revealed elevated levels of iAs in the meat of chickens treated with roxarsone, an arsenical drug that was later voluntarily pulled off the market by its manufacturer. Several years later, the FDA responded to petitions from Pfizer subsidiary Alpharma LLC and other drug manufacturers to withdraw approval for roxarsone and a handful of other arsenical poultry drugs. But now that the issue has taken center stage nationally, the FDA is also being exposed for failing to protect public health all these years by investigating the matter a long time ago. And even now, the agency is only responding to what others have been saying for a long time about these drugs: they are dangerous and have no place in the food supply. A lawsuit filed by the Center for Food Safety and others last year also helped move things along at the agency. Your chicken contains arsenic, but it is still safe to eat, says FDA However, despite its admittance that iAs persists in chicken meat, the FDA still insists that chicken meat is safe to eat. Altering its previous claim that iAs is expelled via chicken excrement, the FDA now claims that iAs is present in chicken meat but at levels that are so low as to not cause harm. In other words, it is just another case of the FDA sweeping the truth under the rug. "[E]ven as its arsenic-containing product is pulled off the shelves, the FDA continues its campaign of denial, claiming arsenic in chickens is at such a low level that it's still safe to eat," explains Global Research about the FDA's ongoing campaign of lies and propaganda. "This is even as the FDA says arsenic is a carcinogen, meaning it increases the risk of cancer." The National Chicken Council, a trade association that represents the conventional chicken industry, has expressed delight about the FDA's stance on the issue. Not surprisingly, this lobbying organization has put its own spin on the study, also claiming that chicken meat is "safe to eat" despite containing measurably concerning levels of iAs. Meanwhile, the FDA continues to target producers of safe and healthy foods like raw milk, elderberry juice and hormone-balancing supplements, insisting that these products are "unapproved drugs" when they are really just foods. It just goes to show you which side the FDA is on in this persistent food freedom war between the people and large food corporations.

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Unraveling food industry lies - Many honey and spice products are counterfeit

It might be a hard pill for many people to swallow, but a significant segment of the food industry is built on a foundation of lies and deception. Grocery store and supermarket shelves everywhere are literally filled to the brim with products that claim to be one thing, but are really something else, including many unsuspecting food ingredients like cinnamon, honey, and saffron, for instance. Many commercially available herbs and spices are, in fact, imitations or flat-out fakes, despite what they might say on the label. And yet, because the chicanery has been masked so carefully and precisely, even the most savvy among food connoisseurs are getting duped by this phony spice and sweetener racket that is taking advantage of widespread ignorance about how to accurately identify genuine foods. Last year, for instance, the Food Safety Network (FSN) conducted a full-scale investigation into the legitimacy of honey, and found that more than 75 percent of all the so-called honey sold in stores is not actually honey On the contrary, many products labeled as honey contain no actual pollen, which means they cannot be honey, by definition. Unbeknownst to most people, many of these same honey products have also been "cut" with corn syrup and artificial sweeteners, both of which typically go undetected. Real honey is unfiltered, which means it still contains pollen, antioxidants, and various other nutrients and materials that identify it as genuine. When these elements are filtered out, which is typically the case for most commercial honey products sold in stores, the end product is nothing more than a refined sweetener akin to granulated sugar or heavily-refined corn syrup, and that is sold at a premium price. Are the spices you buy the real thing? Many herbs and spices are also fake, including certain varieties of saffron and cinnamon. Because real saffron can only be grown in limited areas of the world, and is harvested just once a year at a very specific time, it is a very rare spice that can fetch as much as $10,000 a pound for the real deal. Consequently, the vast majority of the "saffron" sold in stores is nothing more than color-dyed corn stalks. Real saffron, an ounce of which requires about 150 flowers and a reasonably intensive amount of labor to produce, is not going to cost just a few dollars for an ounce, which is how it is often priced and sold. You can learn more about fake saffron versus real saffron at the following link. (http://www.seriouseats.com) Cinnamon is another spice that is often substituted with similar, but not quite the same, varieties of the Cinnamomum plant. Authentic cinnamon, which goes by the name of either Cinnamomum verum or Cinnamomum zeylanicum, has a much milder flavor than the cinnamon commonly sold in stores. It also happens to be the variety that contains the most potent medicinal compounds, which has earned it a reputation as a viable treatment for high blood pressure and cholesterol. Cinnamomum verum, which often goes by the name of Ceylon cinnamon, is native to Sri Lanka, and does not grow well in most other regions of the world. As a result, it is much rarer, and consequently much more expensive than the many other varieties of Cinnamomum sold in stores as real cinnamon. These other varieties include Cinnamomum aromaticum, Cinnamomum burmannii, Cinnamomum loureirii, and Cinnamomum cassia, all of which are related to the same family of plants as authentic Ceylon cinnamon, but are not actually real cinnamon. While these imposters might be more flavorful and acceptable to the modern palate, these cinnamon substitutes are much cheaper to produce, and are not as medicinally potent as the real thing.

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10 reasons to take spirulina every day

We talk a lot about "superfoods" here at NaturalNews because there are literally thousands of nutrient-dense superfood options from which to choose, all of which contain a unique array of disease-fighting vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other healing components. But the one superfood that stands out among the rest -- and the one that you should be taking every single day for your health -- is spirulina, a special type of blue-green algae that is loaded with chlorophyll and a host of other life-giving nutrients. Spirulina is particularly rich in 1) infection-fighting proteins that have been scientifically shown to increase the production of disease-combating antibodies within the body. Since spirulina is composed of nearly 70 percent protein, the highest among all other foods, it is particularly effective at boosting the production of macrophages, a type of white blood cell that fights and prevents infection. A 2005 study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food found that spirulina helps 2) inhibit allergic reactions as well, particularly among those suffering from allergic rhinitis. It turns out that regularly taking high doses of spirulina can help allergy sufferers experience dramatic improvements in their allergy symptoms. As far as blood health is concerned, spirulina has been shown to be an effective 3) treatment for anemia. In his book Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, author Paul Pitchford explains how spirulina and numerous other forms of micro-algae effectively boost production of red blood cells, particularly when taken in combination with vitamin B12. Rich in both phycocyanin and chlorophyll, spirulina is also a powerful 4) blood purifier. Not only do these two important nutrients promote blood cell growth, but they also rejuvenate the existing blood supply. Chlorophyll in particular is nearly identical to hemoglobin, the molecule responsible for cleansing the blood and transporting oxygen to cells. (http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/N246.html) Because it contains all eight essential amino acids and 10 other non-essential amino acids, the antioxidants beta carotene and zeaxanthin, B complex vitamins; dozens of trace minerals, the essential fatty acid gamma linolenic acid, pathogen-targeting proteins, and beneficial probiotic bacteria, spirulina is also unmatched in its ability to 5) boost the immune system. (http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/spirulina-000327.htm) These same nutrients also help to 6) detoxify the cells and body of heavy metals and other toxins. A powerful chelating agent, spirulina tends to reach deep into bodily tissues and root out toxins like mercury, radiation, arsenic, cadmium, pesticides, synthetic food chemicals, and environmental carcinogens. Spirulina also assists in the transport of essential nutrients across the blood-brain barrier to replace the voids left by these toxins. (http://www.supremeorganicdetox.com/formula7.html) A 1988 study out of Japan and several others have found that spirulina helps to 7) lower cholesterol levels and mitigate the underlying inflammation problems that cause cholesterol to accumulate in the bloodstream. Supplementing with spirulina daily effectively reduces blood serum levels of cholesterol, which means cholesterol is being deposited throughout the body where it needs to be rather than in arterial walls where it can cause cardiovascular problems. Overweight or obese individuals trying to lose weight may also derive benefit from spirulina's ability to 8) promote weight loss. Not only can supplementing with spirulina help you shed the extra pounds, but it may also assist in the growth and development of lean muscle mass, particularly because of its extremely high ratio of bioavailable protein. Many people who supplement with spirulina tend to notice dramatic improvements in mental health and cognitive acuity. Because it contains exceptionally high levels of the L-tryptophan, an amino acid that produces the brain neurotransmitters melatonin and serotonin, spirulina is an unprecedented 9) brain chemistry balancer that can help improve mood, boost memory, and promote feelings of calm and happiness. (http://bodyecology.com/articles/boost-mood.php#.UEZDakRpyKw) Spirulina's diverse array of antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and cleansing nutrients also helps to 10) nurture healthy skin and hair. By targeting the detrimental factors that contribute to hair loss, saggy skin, and other side-effects of aging, spirulina can help rejuvenate your body's largest organ from the inside out. Topical spirulina creams can also help tone and improve skin health. To experience the maximum benefits of spirulina, it may be necessary for some people to consume as many as several grams or more per day of this nutrient-dense superfood. Just be sure to purchase only reputable brands of spirulina such as Cyanotech's Nutrex-Hawaii Spirulina Pacifica, which is cultivated and harvested in such a way as to avoid contamination with toxic microcystins.

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The evidence is clear: Fukushima radiation is still tearing up West Coast of USA

As cleanup crews gear themselves up to begin the treacherous task of removing 400 tons of spent fuel from the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor No. 4 in the coming weeks, reports continue to flood in showing that radiation from the stricken plant is still causing major environmental damage all over the world. Particularly on the West Coast of the U.S., a multitude of strange animal deaths, high radiation readings and other recent anomalies suggest that the Fukushima disaster is far from over. It is simply ludicrous, in other words, for anyone to suggest at this point that these Fukushima woes are dwindling, as fresh evidence suggests that quite the opposite is true. A recent report by Michael Snyder over at TheTruthWins.com highlights 28 signs that the U.S. West Coast is still being torn up by nuclear radiation from Fukushima. Many of these signs include strange illnesses and mass deaths among sea creatures and other animals, as well as high radiation readings from dozens of monitoring stations. "Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean," writes Snyder about this one major sign. "That means that the total amount of radioactive material released from Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in our food chain." Radioactive debris mass the size of California still impacting West Coast Another obvious sign is the recent mass migration of radioactive debris the size of California across the Pacific Ocean. BBC News in the U.K. reported last year that literally millions of tons of radioactive debris had begun traveling across the Pacific Ocean, and that some of it had already impacted Hawaii and even the West Coast. There has also been a series of strange animal deaths recently, including masses of sea lions, sockeye salmon and other sea creatures washing up on the shore. Many of the polar bears, seals and walruses observed along the Alaska coastline have also been found to have major fur loss and open sores, both of which are indicative of radiation poisoning. Then we have the scientific reports that claim radioactive water will continue to impact the U.S. West Coast for many years to come, potentially doubling in strength over the next five or six years. Plankton, bluefin tuna and other sea life collected between Hawaii and California are already testing high for radiation, and these levels are expected to continue increasing. "Look at what's going on now: They're dumping huge amounts of radioactivity into the ocean -- no one expected that in 2011," stated Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California-Santa Cruz recently to Global Security Newswire. "We could have large numbers of cancer from ingestion of fish." Initial Fukushima radiation release more than 100 times larger than Chernobyl, confirms study There will most certainly be a major uptick in cancer rates due to the Fukushima incident, as the Japan Meteorological Agency's Meteorological Research Institute estimates that some 60 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium and strontium are being dumped into the Pacific Ocean every single day. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) also admits that as much as 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have been released into the Pacific since the disaster began. Those who still say that the Chernobyl disaster was worse than Fukushima may also want to consider that a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution study conducted in October 2011 concluded that Fukushima had already released up to 100 times more radiation into the environment than Chernobyl at that time. Today, this amount is likely astronomically higher, especially when you take into account all the airborne radioactive plumes that have been detected billowing across the ocean and over U.S. soil.

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Obamacare will cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance

Much of the attention lately concerning Obamacare has been focused on the complete failure of the government website to operate as promised, a failure that has prevented virtually everyone who has thus far tried from actually signing up through it. But according to House Speaker John Boehner, a much bigger and more serious problem is Obamacare itself, which he predicts will eventually result in more Americans losing their existing healthcare coverage than the number that will eventually sign up for the program, assuming the website ever actually becomes operational. During a recent press conference, Boehner tried to refocus the national conversation on Obamacare to the legislation itself, rather than the broken website, reminding the public that the legislation's full enactment will be disastrous for the millions of Americans who currently have healthcare coverage that does not qualify under Obamacare's terms. For these folks, Obamacare will result in them losing their existing coverage, which means they will be forced to either sign up on their state's healthcare exchange for more expensive coverage or else pay the so-called "tax" for non-compliance. A recent Kaiser Health News report confirms Boehner's predictions, explaining that hundreds of thousands of working Americans have already received notices from their employers that their insurers are canceling their policies. According to the report, some 300,000 previously insured individuals under Florida Blue and 160,000 under Kaiser Permanente in California have lost their coverage -- and millions more people are set to lose their coverage in the coming months. "When you begin to look at these hundreds of thousands of people, I think what you're going to see at the end of October are more Americans are going to lose their health insurance than are going to sign up at these exchanges," explained Boehner to reporters. "This is a very serious problem, it's affecting our economy, and it's affecting the ability of the American people to find the jobs that will help them take care of themselves and their families." Obamacare will eliminate freedom of choice in healthcare, including within the natural health community Though a Republican, Boehner's statements are actually non-partisan in terms of how they are playing out in reality. Hundreds of thousands of people are, indeed, losing their existing healthcare coverage as a result of Obamacare, and many of these people will be forced to purchase more expensive coverage. And many uninsured individuals, including those in the natural health community who may not even use conventional medicine because they adhere to natural, nutrition-based preventive medicine instead, will be forced to sign up for an expensive healthcare plan that will directly contradict their core beliefs about health. These are important points to remember, as Obamacare is not simply a "political" issue to be debated from opposing sides like one would root for his favorite football team at a sporting event. Obamacare's enactment will affect every person's ability to make personal healthcare choices, including those who choose to live by non-standard, alternative methods, which will most assuredly not be covered under Obamacare. Additionally, anyone who does not have conventional coverage will be forced to purchase it under duress as part of Obamacare's individual mandate, which for many people will mean shelling out scarce cash to the government that would otherwise be used to purchase "superfoods" and nutritional supplements. "Because the Obama administration's regulations on grandfathering existing plans were so stringent, about 85 percent of those, 16 million, are not grandfathered and must comply with Obamacare at their next renewal," adds health policy expert Bob Laszewski, as quoted by WND.com. "Most of these will be seeing some pretty big rate increases."

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Federal government planning black box vehicle mandate to track, tax and even remotely control all personal vehicles

The federal government is working on a plan that would mandate black box tracking devices be installed in every vehicle, with real-time uploading of vehicle location, speed and mileage to government authorities. This Orwellian technology is already technically feasible and will be promoted as a way to increase "highway safety" while boosting government revenues from mileage taxation. "The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads," reports the LA Times. "[Congress is] exploring how, over the next decade, they can move to a system in which drivers pay per mile of road they roll over. Thousands of motorists have already taken the black boxes, some of which have GPS monitoring, for a test drive." There are three hugely important realizations to glean from all this: Realization #1) The government wants to track your every move The USA is already an admitted surveillance state. As leaked documents from Edward Snowden have revealed, the NSA openly spies on all your phone calls, text chats, web surfing behavior, bank account activity and more. Now, the government wants to add real-time tracking of your vehicle location to that long list of surveillance targets. This would of course allow the government to: • Track and map all your driving trips. • Know when you are home or away from home. • Know where you work. • Establish patterns of your activity such as when you pick up kids from school or go grocery shopping. • Know if you attend political rallies, activist meetings, gun ranges or other destinations the government characterizes as being linked to "domestic terrorism." The government could then use this information to target you for punitive tax audits, surprise armed raids, government shakedowns or other nefarious schemes that are have now been revealed as routine extortion activities carried out by a criminal government. (See video, below.) Realization #2) Government can turn EVERY road into a toll road Both state and federal governments absolutely love the idea of taxing you for every mile you drive. This fits into the "government utopia" of taxing you for breathing (carbon dioxide taxes), taxing you for working (payroll taxes) and even taxing you for dying (estate taxes). Of course, governments already indirectly tax driving by taxing fuel. If you wanted to tax driving, taxing fuel is actually a very efficient way to do it. But the rise of electric vehicles is starting to freak out governments because they don't have a way to tax the actual road mileage of vehicles that don't burn gasoline or diesel. Because governments inherently believe that all your money already belongs to them, they perceive electric vehicles as a source of "lost revenues." These lost revenues diminish the power and wealth of government while also limiting the amount of money that can be awarded to wealthy donors via no-bid contracts (such as the $600 million no-bid contract to build the failed Healthcare.gov website). As a result, governments are drooling over the idea of using vehicle black boxes to tax you for every mile you drive, effectively turning every road into a toll road. Watch for this to start out as a very small tax to be more easily embraced by the public (maybe a penny per mile) and then get ratcheted up to $1, $2, or even $5 per mile in some areas. Realization #3) Two-way communication allows government to control your vehicle Black boxes don't have to be only one-way communication devices. They can also receive commands from government authorities such as commands to: • Shut down your vehicle and disengage the starter, effectively stranding you with no way to drive. • Lock you inside your own vehicle, trapping you until "authorities" arrive. • Cause your car to drive off a cliff as a method of assassinating political enemies, then blaming it on their "bad driving." • Cause your vehicle to run over pedestrians, thereby earning you a prison sentence for "vehicular manslaughter." (Yet another way to dispatch political enemies.) • Through two-way black boxes, the government can even use coordinated vehicle control to do things like build a highway roadblock from 10 cars, cause a massive 50-car accident, or even drive a stream of heavy trucks through the walls of a family residence in an effort to kill a journalist. It's no joke that two-way black boxes allow the government to turn your vehicle into a weapon while simultaneously compromising your freedom of movement. Through black boxes, governments can transform your car -- once a symbol of freedom -- into a rolling prison cage which may be used to imprison you, harm you or harm others. Imagine, too, what happens when hackers seize control of the government's vehicle control system. They could then turn cars against each other and, with all the drivers trapped inside, turn America's roadways into a deadly demolition derby... (although, it's worth noting that most hackers actually have a greater sense of ethics than government, and the only hackers who might engage in such behavior would probably be Chinese hackers engaged in acts of war against America.) The U.S. government is now a criminal mafia extorting money from the citizenry We already know the U.S. government has become a criminal enterprise that uses extortion, intimidation, threats and even acts of violence against the American people to command their compliance. This has just been made frighteningly clear by a new book called Political Extortion by Peter Schweizer. This is a must-read book that reveals the true criminal nature of the federal government and how governments use mafia-style tactics to extort money from the public in order to fund the lavish lifestyles of bureaucrats and politicians.

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Help stop former Monsanto VP from attaining top position at the FDA - sign the petition

The one man who may be responsible for more food related illnesses and deaths than anyone in history, Michael R. Taylor, has just been promoted from US Food Safety Czar to Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the FDA, a position which would enable the giant biotech company Monsanto to silently and legally feed cancer causing vegetables to every living person who is not 100% strictly organic. President Obama has appointed the former Monsanto Vice President and lobbyist Michael R. Taylor to the throne. This is the same man who was Food Safety Czar for the FDA when Genetically Modified Organisms were allowed into the US food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is like putting a terrorist in charge of the world's food supply. What will the cancer numbers look like in 2016? (http://www.counterpunch.org) The GMO nightmare all started with the Dan Quayle led FDA/GMO marriage. Under George Bush Senior's Administration from 1989 to 1993, Dan Quayle single-handedly catapulted GMO's into existence through FDA's anti-consumer right-to-know policy, which stated that GMO foods did not have to be labeled or safety tested. Yes, you read that correctly: There is no safety testing required whatsoever to take some Agent Orange pesticide and genetically mutate the seeds of vegetables in a chemical laboratory so that nothing on planet earth will eat the plant that grows from the ground except for all the humans who have no idea what happened. Michael Taylor is part of a revolving door at the FDA, where Monsanto Execs just come and go as they please. First, Michael R. Taylor was an assistant to the FDA commissioner. Then he left to work for a law firm in the 1980's to help gain FDA approval of Monsanto's artificial growth hormone (rGBH), which is directly linked to cancer. Then he became deputy commissioner of the FDA in 1991, and was later re-appointed to the FDA in 2009 by Obama. He is the food villain who tried his best to keep this "malignant milk of the turn of the century" from being labeled. Michael Taylor is the epitome of everything Monsanto represents. Taylor is like a vehicle for Monsanto's patenting of seeds and global domination of farming. He implements the government's "favorable" agricultural biotech policies because it's much more of a financially sure shot to use RoundUp in food than to farm organically and ethically. If the investments aren't paying enough at the corporation, Execs just switch over to Federal Regulations and write some new Legislation based on "tainted research", which allows them to pile more toxins on the American public and bankroll off it when they flip back to the corporate side. The 4-headed Administration of thieves This marks the pinnacle so far of a long ascent of evil profiteering and corporate executives making it to the top. It's like one big 4-headed company of thieves: The FDA, EPA, Supreme Court, and Monsanto's Board of Executives, and these organization hoppers include Clarence Thomas, Michael R. Taylor, Ann Veneman, and Linda Fisher, who conveniently bounce back and forth between positions at Monsanto and the EPA. Here are just a few examples in case you didn't know: Prior to being the Supreme Court Judge who put G.W. Bush in office, Clarence Thomas was Monsanto's lawyer. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Anne Veneman, was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Calgene Corporation. The U.S. Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, received $50,000 in donations from Monsanto during his winning campaign for Wisconsin's governor. The two congressmen receiving the most donations from Monsanto during the last election were Larry Combest, Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee, and Attorney General John Ashcroft. The prior Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Searle Pharmaceuticals. Monsanto has the money to win in court and/or settle with anyone who opposes them. Monsanto has been sued and has settled multiple times for damaging the health of its employees and residents near its Superfund sites through pollution and poisoning. A report released in June 2011 linked glyphosate (RoundUp) to birth defects in frog and chicken embryos at dilutions much lower than those used in typical agricultural spraying (including home gardens). (http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22625.cfm) Silent Anti-Nutritional Terrorism FDA scientists once contended that genetic modification of the food supply is the "single most radical and potentially dangerous threat to public health." In addition to producing GMO foods, Monsanto pushes dozens of other toxic products such as aspartame, bovine growth hormone, Agent Orange, Dioxin, DDT, and Roundup - all of which cause birth defects and deformities. Constitutional checks and balances are gone for the most part in the United States, especially when it comes to writing ethical policies regarding the environment, food, medicine and drinking water. The FDA and Corporations should not bleed over into one another, and the whole concept of lobbying is just a glorified form of "legal bribery." Monsanto conveniently tramples on antitrust violations, which the Justice Department has supposedly been investigating for years. The Supreme Court of France found Monsanto guilty of falsely advertising Roundup as "biodegradable" and "environmentally friendly." The New York State Attorney General sued Monsanto and won in 1997 for claiming RoundUp was, "safer than table salt and "practically non-toxic" to mammals, birds, and fish. More than enough scientific research reveals glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is "acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance." On two other occasions, the EPA has caught scientists deliberately falsifying test results at research laboratories hired by Monsanto to study glyphosate. This is not just another case of a ruthless tyrant trying to become the CEO of some big company, this could be end of organic food as we know it. If Taylor takes the position of Head of the FDA, have no doubts that keeping your own seeds to any eatable plant will soon be illegal. This will endanger all of humanity by "putting all of our eggs in one basket," because GMO seeds die after one year of growth; therefore, if a Nuclear bomb wipes out their facilities and seed storages, we would have zero growth of food from that point on. That's mass genocide. Plus, illnesses from GMO foods include changes in major organs, hormonal, immune, digestive, and reproductive systems. Does FDA stand for "Food as Drugs for America?" Monsanto and GMO toxic bioengineering dominates the production of food through the DNA manipulation and mutation of seeds, and the unethical growing and breeding of animals, fish, and crops in the USA right now at 80% or higher: Cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys, "farm raised fish" (which means they're all juiced up with hormones and antibiotics in an overcrowded lake), milk, corn, soybeans, alfalfa (as chem-feed for cows), canola, tobacco and cotton (to infect the skin since the skin is your largest organ). GMO should be called GDDO - "genetically diseased and dying" organisms. (http://www.seedsofdeception.com) What will America and the rest of the world be like when food is 95 - 98% GMO? It's not that far away if Taylor solidifies his FDA position. How high will that drive the price of organic food? This is more powerful than bombs. This is population control. Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company now basically owns Monsanto ... another big surprise, right? Combine that with FDA control over legislation and talk about the "evil tri-fecta!" Consumers are winning some battles, however. In the wake of mass consumer pressure, major retailers such as Safeway, Publix, Wal-Mart, and Kroger and even Starbucks banned products containing Monsanto's rBGH milk. Vegetarians and vegans are on an accelerated upward population trend. The ratios have changed drastically since the anti-GMO movement began to snowball in the early 2000's, but this corporate co-op by the powers that be in Washington D.C. is a most dispiccable example of foxes guarding the chickens. Help prevent the food Czar from becoming FDA's Senior Advisor. This petition already has over 60,000 signatures. We need 75,000 signatures. Sign the petition now.It's not too late to prevent this latest atrocity to the future of food!

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