FBI Chief: Lone-Wolf Attacks by IS Recruits a Key Concern
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FBI Chief: Lone-Wolf Attacks by IS Recruits a Key Concernby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
The radicalization of Americans by Islamic State and other groups, particularly through sophisticated use of social media, is a top concern for the FBI as it grapples with evolving terrorism threats, Director James Comey said Thursday. Like other militant groups, Islamic State, also known as ISIL, IS, and ISIS, has called for lone-wolf attacks in Western countries and has specifically encouraged attacks on soldiers, law enforcement officers and the intelligence community, Comey said at a Senate appropriations subcommittee budget hearing. Comey referred to the group's efforts to recruit Americans to join Islamic State fighting in Syria and Iraq, then have them return to the United States to commit acts of terrorism. "ISIL's widespread reach through the Internet and social media is most concerning as the group has proven dangerously competent at employing such tools for its nefarious strategy," Comey told the panel as he presented his $8.48 billion budget request for fiscal 2016. "This poses an enormous challenge to us: to find the people who are responding to that siren song." National Intelligence Director James Clapper said this month that about 180 Americans had traveled to Syria to join Islamist militants and about 40 had returned to the United States. Comey called the threats posed by such foreign fighters and from homegrown violent extremists "extremely dynamic." He did not cite updated figures on American foreign fighters before the panel recessed to go into classified session. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, asked Comey about a more tangible piece of that threat: that known or suspected terrorists are not banned from buying guns in the United States. She cited a Government Accountability Office report saying that from 2004 to 2014, 91 percent of the 2,233 known or suspected terrorists on the federal terrorism watchlist who tried to buy a firearm were successful in passing a background check. "We can have people come into this country meaning to do us harm and they can go in and buy a weapon to carry it out. That's simply unacceptable," said Feinstein. "Your biggest concern is the lone wolf. The lone wolf can come in unarmed, he can buy the explosives, he can buy the gun. This must be stopped." She asked where the Obama administration stood on legislation to prevent the sale of firearms and explosives to people on the watchlist. Comey replied that he did not know.
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Putin's Russia expands Latin American role, Kelly says
Chicago Tribune - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — Russia has expanded its presence in Latin America in ways that signal "a clear return to Cold War tactics," the general commanding U.S. southern forces said Thursday. "Russia is using power projection in an attempt to erode U.S. ...
US admiral raises alarm over Russian military threat
CNN - 2 hours ago
Washington (CNN) The ability of the U.S. and Canadian military to defend North America could be jeopardized by stepped up Russian military activity, according to the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Adm. William Gortney ...
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(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman brushed off speculation about the Russian leader’s health after domestic meetings and a foreign trip were scrapped or delayed.
“He has meetings constantly because of the very tense situation economically and internationally,” Dmitry Peskov said by phone on Thursday. Putin is in good health, the Kremlin spokesman said.
Putin, 62, who hasn’t made a public appearance since talks with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on March 5, canceled several public meetings at home this week and delayed a planned summit in Kazakhstan, according to two officials. The president maintains constant contact with the government, banks and state companies, Peskov said.
The Russian markets have remained unperturbed even as Putin’s disappearance sparks the most speculation about his health in more than two years. He scrapped or postponed five foreign trips during more than a month in late 2012 as officials including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev repeatedly denied that he was ill or undergoing treatment for back pain. Putin, a black-belt in judo celebrated at home for his physical prowess, has cultivated an image of toughness with photo shoots of him riding bare-chested on a horse, fishing, and posing with wild animals including a tiger and polar bear.
‘Bad Mood’
Government bonds gained, pushing yields to the lowest in almost three weeks, and the ruble appreciated 1.6 percent against the dollar to 60.640 as of 3:15 p.m. in Moscow. The Micex Index retreated 0.32 percent to 1,666.05, while the MosPrime overnight rate dropped to 15.2 percent, the lowest since Feb. 9.
The president’s sudden disappearance from the public eye is unusual, said Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin political adviser to Putin. It may be linked to health problems or a desire to “hide in a hole and look from there who is doing what in a moment of crisis,” he said.
“It’s clear that he has been in a very bad mood since the murder of Boris Nemtsov,” Pavlovsky said, referring to the opposition leader who was shot dead close to the Kremlin on Feb. 27. “And his mood has been getting worse while the investigation goes on. Maybe he learnt something that he doesn’t like at all.”
Soviet Memories
Putin had no plan to take part Thursday in the annual meeting with top officers at the FSB, the successor to the KGB that Putin once ran, according to Peskov. During his presidency Putin didn’t miss an FSB annual gathering. The president spoke at a similar Interior Ministry meeting last week, days after Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, was killed.
Russians grew used to guessing about the health of their leaders in the Soviet era, especially in the 1980s when three Communist Party chiefs died in quick succession, and during President Boris Yeltsin’s increasing feeble grip on power in the 1990s.
Putin spoke by phone on Thursday to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website. The two leaders discussed integration issues and planned meetings, according to the statement.
Peskov said that Putin’s meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko was postponed from this week by mutual agreement. The RIA Novosti news service cited Peskov on Thursday as saying the meeting may be held next week.
No reason was given for Putin’s recent cancellations, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified as discussing the president’s schedule. Putin is “absolutely” in good health, Peskov told Bloomberg on Wednesday, declining to comment further.
Peskov told reporters to “bite your tongue” in October last year as he denied a New York Post report that the president may have cancer, according to RIA Novosti.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net Tony Halpin, Torrey Clark
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 CNN |
US admiral raises alarm over Russian military threat
CNN Washington (CNN) The ability of the U.S. and Canadian military to defend North America could be jeopardized by stepped up Russian military activity, according to the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Adm. William Gortney ... Putin's Russia Expands Latin American Role, U.S. General SaysBloomberg Putin's Russia expands Latin American role, Kelly saysChicago Tribune all 5 news articles » |
Сотрудничество разведок by Голос Америки
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Майкл Хэйден: «Успешные шпионские операции публике неизвестны» Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/spy-operatio...
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From: Голос Америки
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A year after the annexation of Crimea and the start of hostilities in Eastern Ukraine, the sequence of events leading up to the crisis are well established. Yet these events find their origins in Russia's recent and distant past, as well as the EU's image of a modern, post-WWII Europe. Join us for a panel discussion of the origins of war in Ukraine.
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Staunton, March 12 — Andrey Illarionov, an economist who earlier served as an advisor to Vladimir Putin, says that future historians may describe what is happening in Moscow now as “a conspiracy of the generals” — or more precisely as a behind-the-scenes battle between a former lieutenant colonel (Putin) and three senior generals.
As the Russian commentator points out, Putin’s absence from the scene and his cancellation of meetings and a visit to Kazakhstan has forced many to ask “where he is and in what state.”
For almost two weeks, there has been a serious struggle behind the scenes over the Nemtsov murder, something for which there is ever more evidence in the public domain, Illarionov suggests. Indeed, he argues, it is clear that the battle lines have been drawn between “the party of ‘blood and dough’” and “the party of ‘big blood.’”
Sergey Ivanov, the secretary of the Presidential administration, who had been out of public view since February 27, has re-emerged and having “strengthened his union with the Russian Orthodox church or, at a minimum, guaranteed its neutrality.”
Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council has “accepted the capitulation of Ramzan Kadyrov.” Konstantin Remchukov has spoken about the approaching retirement of Igor Sechin. And the retirement of Vladimir Kolokoltsev, despite all the denials, also appears to be settled, Illarionov says.
“In other words,” he continues, “the security and financial supports of ‘the national leader’ have been paralyzed.”
And if this analysis is correct, Illarionov says, then the following things are likely to happen next: the replacement of Dimitry Medvedev by Sergey Ivanov as prime minister, and after a decent interval, an announcement that “the national leader” — that is Vladimir Putin — “needs a well-deserved rest.”
As far as he is concerned, Illarionov continues, such changes are not necessarily an improvement, and his response to suggestions that he is on one side of the other is that he wishes “a plague on both” given what Putin has already done and what this new/old crew may do if they take power.
Moreover, there are some historical analogies which are anything but encouraging. Illarionov cites just two: the replacement of the shah’s regime which was allied with the Iranian security services by the ayatollahs without the security services but with Islamist militants, and the replacement of the corrupt regime of Chang Kai-Shek by the communist Mao.
That Russia needs a change from Putin is beyond question, Illarionov suggests, but it is unlikely that the change this particular conspiracy of generals offers is what in fact Russia needs.
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 International Business Times UK |
About 25 people may be under rubble of fire in Russia's Kazan: Ifax
Reuters MOSCOW (Reuters) - Around 25 people may have been killed and are still under the rubble of a shopping center that caught fire in the Russian city of Kazan, Interfax news agency cited the head of the regional emergencies ministry as saying on Thursday. Russia mall fire kills at least five, 25 remain missingAl Jazeera America Russia: Five dead and up to 25 missing in shopping centre blazeeuronews Russia: 30 feared dead in Kazan shopping centre fireInternational Business Times UK RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty all 174 news articles » |
Nemtsov Killing May Have Exposed Cracks in Kremlin Unityby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
The killing of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov within sight of the Kremlin has exposed rarely seen tensions between different camps inside President Vladimir Putin's system of rule. No outsiders can know with any certainty what is happening behind the red-brick walls of the Kremlin, but some of Nemtsov's associates say his shooting is being used by one faction to send Putin a message that they are unhappy and need to be reckoned with. That would represent a challenge to the foundations of Putin's 15-year-old rule, built on a rigid pyramid of power and the assumption of unshakeable loyalty. “I think that perhaps Putin, even completely sincerely, was bewildered and even afraid,” Vadim Prokhorov, Nemtsov's lawyer, said of the hours after the February 27 shooting. “Because if you can do that next to the Kremlin, then is it not possible to do it along the route of the (presidential) motorcade?” he told Reuters. Growing speculation Feeding a mood of frenzied speculation in Moscow, Putin this week canceled a planned trip to Kazakhstan without explanation. A Kazakh official said Putin was ill, while the Kremlin said he was fine and working as usual. Who is on which side in this rivalry, or even that such a rivalry exists, is impossible to establish with complete confidence because no one has publicly acknowledged any serious differences between camps. Yet analysts point to signs of tensions between, on one side, the powerful head of Russia's Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, and on the other, the Russian state security agencies that are Putin's closest associates. Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister who had become a vocal critic of Putin, was shot dead as he walked home with his girlfriend after dining next to Red Square. He was the most prominent of a string of Kremlin critics to be killed since Putin came to power; in many cases the gunmen have been jailed but the masterminds remain unidentified. Many of Nemtsov's supporters said the president stood to gain by removing a relentless critic. Russian officials denied involvement and Putin called the killing a shameful tragedy. A timeline of events in the 13 days since Nemtsov was shot points to a tangle of conflicting accounts, confused messages and rival narratives from usually deferential media. That messy picture jars with the meticulous stage management normally associated with the Kremlin. A theory Kadyrov put forward the theory that Nemtsov was killed by a group of Islamists because he had publicly defended Charlie Hebdo, the French magazine attacked by militants in January for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. That version has been contradicted by evidence, possibly obtained from surveillance, published in Russian media. One paper said Dadayev was tailing Nemtsov months before the January 7 attack on Charlie Hebdo. Nor has Kadyrov's version of events been backed up by state investigators. They have refused to comment on the alleged motives of the two men they charged over the killing, or the three people they are holding but have not charged. The suspects in detention are from Muslim Chechnya, but that does not make them Islamists. There have been numerous cases where police have accused Chechens of acting as hired gunmen in high-profile killings. Usually, when an issue is important to the Kremlin, officials are meticulous in making sure mainstream media outlets follow broadly the same script, according to Russian journalists who have been exposed to this treatment. Sergei Sharov-Delaunay, an aide to Nemtsov in the opposition movement, said he had a number of theories about the motive for the killing, but one is that it was part of an internal power struggle. “It might have been some group within the authorities trying to put pressure on Putin, to boost their position, to force even more radical scenarios,” he told Reuters. Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, professes loyalty to Putin but also represents a risk for him. Kadyrov put down an anti-Moscow insurgency in Chechnya, helping Putin cement his rule. In exchange, Putin gave him a large degree of autonomy to run his region as he chooses. The arrangement has so far been successful for both men, but some observers say Kadyrov is overstepping the mark. Russian media have reported incidents of police in Moscow having run-ins with Chechens, then coming under pressure not to prosecute them because of their ties to Kadyrov. “If Putin is able to put Kadyrov in his place, then that will sharply improve his standing in his immediate entourage, something he is in great need of,” said Georgy Satarov, who was a senior aide to the previous president, Boris Yeltsin. There are signs, too, that Putin's nationalist allies, who include some senior people inside the government, are getting fractious. While Putin's intervention in Ukraine has angered the West, for some at home he has not gone far enough. Separatist rebels Many wanted Russia to help expand further the territory held by separatist rebels in southeast Ukraine, to include all of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Large swaths of those mainly Russian-speaking regions are still controlled by Kyiv. The best-known Russian commander among the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, a former special forces officer called Igor Girkin, has accused Putin's entourage of betrayal. “The team that the president is now working with is absolutely pro-Western,” he said in January on Neuromir TV, a Russian Internet TV channel. “It is the same people that the West is counting on as the fifth column.” In December last year, at a news conference in Moscow, a Reuters reporter asked Putin if, given the pressures from the crisis in Ukraine and the sputtering Russian economy, he felt at risk from a palace coup. Putin replied: “I can assure you that we don't have palaces, so a palace coup isn't really possible. The official presidential residence is the Kremlin. It is well protected.”
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Staunton, March 12 – When Vladimir Putin decided a year ago to annex Crimea, he and his supporters expected that this would be “the first event in a chain of unending victories which would show the world the dangerousness of ‘ignoring’ Moscow’s appetites and instead convert the Russian Federation into the Soviet Union of the 21 century, Vitaly Portnikov says.
But things have not worked out that way, the Kyiv commentator says. Moscow did not get the new Soviet Union it hoped for; instead, it set in train a series of developments “along the path of state suicide,” a path that, despite its dangers Putin, seems incapable of recognizing or getting off.
Putin did not understand that all the non-Russian countries or even the Russian speakers in them were uninterested in his project. He did not understand what the reaction of the international community to his invasion. He didn’t understand what losses economic and military he would face. And he didn’t understand that there is no way back from him crimes.
The readiness of some Russians to welcome the largely bloodless annexation of Crimea was like some teenager in a narcotic stupor powered by drugs that he had bought with money he had stolen from his mother’s handbag, Portnikov says. But that youth doesn’t want to suffer or even pay up – and now a year later, he sees that he might have to. He did not understand.
According to Portnikov, Russia is “celebrating” the first anniversary of the Anschluss so broadly — not just on one day but for a whole week — is because Russians “are not certain” whether they will be in a position to mark a second anniversary next year.
It is possible, he continues, that even a year from now, Crimea may remain under Russian occupation. “But the economic situation of Russia, its chances for survival, and the ability of its population to be gladdened by anything besides the solution of their own everyday problems” — which are likely to be “more important topics for discussion than any political events.”
In March 2016, “somewhere in Moscow, Tula or Yaroslavl,” Russians will view Crimea the way they have viewed Chechnya, as a place populated by people who only make demands for their tax money and who are anything but pleased by their “’liberators.’”
Putin’s promotion of himself as “the unifier of Russian lands” will then look even worse than it does today to Russians and everyone else, given “the bloody war in Ukraine’s east, the collapse of the Russian economy, and the final marginalization even without this of its still uncompleted state building.”
Consequently, Portnikov concludes, for Russians this March and perhaps next, “this is not a week of joy; this is a week of despair.”
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Три десятилетия перемен by Радио Свобода
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30 лет назад к власти в Советском Союзе пришел Михаил Горбачев, о личности и политике которого спорят полито...
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From: Радио Свобода
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From 'Red October' Village, New Evidence on MH17 Downing Over Ukraine by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Villagers in eastern Ukraine have told Reuters they saw a missile flying directly overhead just before a Malaysian airliner was shot out of the sky on July 17 last year, providing the most detailed accounts to date that suggest it was fired from territory held by pro-Russian rebels. The accounts from four villagers of Chervonyi Zhovten, which was then, and is now, controlled by the rebels, are significant because they indicate the rocket was in the early stages of its flight path. That would mean it must have been launched from rebel ground nearby, challenging the suggestion of Moscow and the separatists that the plane was brought down by the Ukrainian military. At the time, the nearest Ukrainian-held area was about 6 km (3.7 miles) away. Ukraine and its Western allies have said it was the rebels who shot down the airliner, using a Russian-made BUK anti-aircraft missile system. All 298 people on board were killed. Until now, videos, photographs and accounts from residents have pointed to a BUK battery being delivered to the rebel-held town of Snizhne, 7 km north of Chervonyi Zhovten, on July 17, and then driven away from the area some time later. Its precise location at the time the plane was shot down has never been confirmed. Now one of the villagers has told Reuters that a missile battery was positioned in a field near Chervonyi Zhovten on the day the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed to earth. A former rebel fighter corroborated this. Ukraine's defense ministry declined to comment for this story. A top rebel commander, Andrei Purgin, said the separatists did not have any weapon capable of downing a plane at cruise altitude. “You can come up with whatever you want. The most that we, the rebels, were operating is the PZRK (shoulder-launched missile system). The ceiling for the PZRK is up to 4 km,” he said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was up to a Dutch-led international investigation to determine what happened. “The Russian side awaits that information impatiently,” he said. The downing of the plane was a turning point in the conflict in Ukraine, in which around 6,000 people have been killed since last April. It persuaded many Western governments that the Russian-backed rebels were a dangerous threat and stiffened their resolve to impose new sanctions on separatist leaders and on Moscow. Digging potatoes On the afternoon of July 17, Valentina Kovalenko was digging up potatoes in her garden in Chervonyi Zhovten, a village whose name translates as Red October in honor of Russia's Communist revolution of 1917. “It took off, at first we thought that a plane was crashing. But it was a rocket,” said Kovalenko, 45, who then saw what she thought was smoke coming from the 'Progress' mine in Torez, a town 9.5 km away to the north-west. Her daughter Anastasia Kovalenko, 14, said she saw a rocket flying over the village, and then a plane in the distance blowing up. Olga Krasilnikova, 30, also said she saw a rocket, some time between 4 and 5 p.m. “I saw it was flying, flew right over me. From that side,” she said, pointing to the outskirts of the village . “I saw smoke in the sky, then I heard an explosion and I saw a huge blue [cloud of] smoke.” MH17, flying over eastern Ukraine towards the Russian border, came down around 4:20 p.m. local time. The biggest concentration of debris was found near Hrabove, about 20 km from Chervonyi Zhovten. Older BUK rockets have a range of around 25 to 35 km; the most modern can reach up to 45 km. Since last July, gaining access to the village has been difficult because of fighting in surrounding areas, but a Reuters reporter was able to reach Chervonyi Zhovten in February. “My mother and I were in the yard when it happened,” said Pyotr Fedotov, a 58-year-old resident. “There was such a bang that we involuntarily sat down, in the yard, our legs gave way underneath us. Then we got curious and immediately went to the other side of the house to take a look.” “The rocket was here, it wiggled around, then some kind of rocket stage separated, and then, somewhere toward Lutuhyne, Torez, I saw the plane fall apart in the air. It was only later that we found out it was a Boeing,” Fedotov said. Missiles from a BUK battery can often zig-zag through the air for a few seconds after launch before their onboard radar locks on and steers the missile towards the target, according to video footage of test launches posted on the Internet. Taken together, the accounts do not conclusively prove the missile launched from near Chervonyi Zhovten was the one that brought down the airliner, because none of the villagers saw it actually being launched. Nor could they shed light on a contention of officials in Kyiv and in Western states, that the BUK missile battery was brought in from Russia and was operated by a Russian crew. Moscow has denied its military is active in eastern Ukraine. Village outskirts When interviewed by Reuters, Fedotov, the witness who described the 'wiggling' rocket, at first said on camera that it was fired from territory held by the Ukrainian army. Later, off camera, he said it was launched from a nearby rebel area. Asked why he had originally said the opposite, he said it was because he was afraid of the rebels. He gave a Reuters reporter directions to a field 1.5 km from the village, which he said had been identified to him by local farm workers as the point from which the missile battery had launched the rocket. When Reuters visited the site in February, there were no signs of any missile launch. Russian and separatist officials have said that Ukrainian military aircraft were overhead at the time the Malaysian airliner came down. They have said that if an anti-aircraft missile was launched in the vicinity, it was to bring down a Ukrainian warplane. They have also suggested a Ukrainian fighter aircraft may have shot down the Malaysian airliner. Washington believes that pro-Russian separatists most likely shot down the airliner “by mistake,” not realizing it was a civilian passenger flight, U.S. intelligence officials have said. An official of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told Reuters: “Our previous assessment still holds.” The investigation into the cause of the disaster is being led by authorities in the Netherlands, as two-thirds of those on board were Dutch. An interim report published in September which was based on data from the aircraft's black box recorders, photographic and radar evidence, and satellite imagery, said the Boeing was brought down by “high energy objects” in its vicinity - consistent with attack from the air or the ground. “The investigation is ongoing and for as long as it is ongoing we cannot give any conclusions,” Sara Vernooij, a spokeswoman for the Dutch Safety Board which is handling the case, told Reuters when approached for comment on this story. A former rebel from the separatist Vostok battalion, who for security reasons asked to be identified only by his first name, Igor, told Reuters that a BUK battery was in Chervonyi Zhovten on July 17, and he himself was not far from the village. Igor said the battery's mission was to discourage Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack jets from attacking separatist targets in the area. A BUK missile had been launched against the Ukrainian jets half an hour before the Malaysia Airlines Boeing came down, forcing the Ukrainian pilots to pull out, he said.
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 Forbes |
Why Russia Is Better Than Europe
Forbes First a disclaimer for the hurried: this is not an opinion piece about how Russian society is better than Europe's. It is not about how Europe is colluding with the U.S. to destroy innocent Russia, making them angelic by comparison. If that is a belief ... Most Great Investments Begin in Discomfort: Is Russia Turning a Corner?ValueWalk all 3 news articles » |
The recent visit of a Russian shaman to St. Petersburg has triggered an outcry among local parliamentarians.
LONDON — A British intelligence watchdog defended U.K. security agencies’ bulk online data collection on Thursday but called for a new law to clarify the agencies’ “intrusive powers” to help improve public trust.Read full article >>
Epilepsy Drug Found to Boost Memory in Early Alzheimer's Stages by webdesk@voanews.com (Jessica Berman)
Alzheimer’s disease begins with mild memory impairment. There are currently no effective treatments for the neurodegenerative disease, which causes severe dementia. But researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. state of Maryland are hopeful that a generic drug now used to treat seizures can improve memory in the early stages of Alzheimer's, even reversing the condition. Levetiracetam, which goes by the brand name Keppra, is part of the drug arsenal used to treat epilepsy. The anti-seizure medicine seems to quiet the part of the brain called the hippocampus, that is over-activated in those with Alzheimer’s. The hippocampus is involved in memory. Arnold Bakker, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, says a recent study has helped doscover the drug’s newfound benefits. “And what the medication does is it normalizes this increased activation, this dysfunctional activation," he said. "And when you do that, it turns out that you improve their memory function. People who take the medication, [their] memory improved compared to when they are not on the medication.” The study, which Bakker conducted with colleagues, involved 84 participants, 17 of whom were normal, healthy older adults. The others had symptoms of pre-dementia. The average age of the subjects was 70. Researchers found there was a significant improvement on memory tests in those given a very low dose of the drug - between 1/10th and 1/15th of the dose used to treat epilepsy - compared to participants who got placebo. Bakker hopes that levetiracetam might be able to stop the mental decline seen in patients suspected of having Alzheimer’s. “The idea is to treat [Alzheimer's] as early as possible, to prevent the onset of brain damage that results from the disease process,” he said. Bakker says the long-term benefit of the drug still needs to be established, but he is excited that a treatment for Alzheimer’s may have been found. “You know, I am a research scientist so I am always very careful," he said. "We need to do some more studies but so far, this is extremely promising as far as I am concerned and we are very excited about it.” The medication dose needed to treat Alzheimer’s is very small, but Bakker says it is currently only available in the higher dose used for epilepsy treatment. A study of the drug was published in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical.
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 Forbes Ukraine |
Петр Порошенко подтвердили участие специалистов НАТО в обучении украинских военнослужащих
Коммерсантъ Президент Украины Петр Порошенко заявил, что Украина выполняет условия новых Минских договоренностей, наращивая обороноспособность. «Мы ведем два параллельных процесса: процесс первый — мы неуклонно выполняем требования Минского меморандума. Процесс второй ... Порошенко утвердил план строительства укреплений на линии соприкосновенияИнтерфакс Порошенко утвердил строительство фортификационных сооружений в ДонбассеРБК Порошенко: возобновлены тренировки силовиков с привлечением стран НАТОРИА Новости РБК Украина -Взгляд -НТВ.ru Все похожие статьи: 91 » |
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 Wall Street Journal |
Russia's Budget Deficit More Than Doubles in a Month
Wall Street Journal MOSCOW—Russia's budget deficit more than doubled in February, the finance ministry said, amid a drop in oil prices and Western sanctions that are sending its economy toward recession. The country's budget deficit rose to 10.5% of gross domestic ... Russia's Budget Deficit Widens in Feb as Tax Returns FallNasdaq all 3 news articles » |
Nasser summoned up the courage to tell his parents he was gay when he was 15. His father responded by calling him a “pansy” and said he would ram a knife into his throat. The uncle of the Lebanese teenager, who was born in Berlin, doused him in petrol and threatened to set him ablaze.
Russian president has not been seen in public since 5 March and details of alleged meetings have been disproved but spokesman says ‘There’s no need to worry’
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has been forced to deny that the 62-year-old president is in poor health after a string of meetings were canceled and the Kremlin published old photographs to claim work was proceeding as usual.
Concerns over Putin’s well-being were first raised earlier this week when he postponed a trip to Kazakhstan for talks with the country’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. A source in the Kazakh government told Reuters that the visit was canceled because Putin had fallen ill.
Related: Putin the action man – in pictures
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Russia setting 'dangerous' precedent over Ukraine conflict, experts say
Fox News As Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels try to hold together a shaky cease-fire, there are growing concerns Moscow is looking to further test Kiev's capabilities. Regional analysts Dr. Stephen Blank and Job Henning told Fox News' Jonathan Hunt the ... and more » |
Эпоха «развитого путинизма» by Голос Америки
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Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/putin-term/2677683.html.
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From: Голос Америки
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Analysis: Senators’ Letter to Tehran Could Impact Nuclear Talks by webdesk@voanews.com (Al Pessin)
An open letter sent by 47 U.S. Republican senators to Tehran about the ongoing negotiations on Iran's nuclear program could impact the talks, experts say. “It very much muddies the waters,” said James Boys of King’s College London, author of a new book on the Clinton administration’s foreign policy. “It makes it much more difficult, I think, for Iran to know that they’re dealing with an honest broker here. In any negotiations you want to make sure that any deal that you strike will be honored by the opposite party.” In comments quoted Thursday by Iran’s Mehr news agency, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he is “worried” about the letter “because the other side is known for opacity, deceit and backstabbing.” Khamenei is quoted as accusing the United States of “tricks and deceptions,” and saying that every time an agreement is close “the tone of the other side, specifically the Americans, becomes harsher, coarser and tougher.” But the letter’s addressee, Iranian Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Mohammed Javad Zarif, made a point of indicating he is not concerned. In remarks published by the Iranian government, he said the letter “has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy.” Zarif also chided the senators for what he sees as their lack of understanding of both international and U.S. laws. Most importantly, he said international law requires that any future U.S. president will be bound by any agreement President Barack Obama makes. Zarif also expressed the concern mentioned by Boys and reflected in Khamenei’s comments. “It is imperative for our counterparts to prove… good faith and political will in order to make an agreement possible,” he said. Zarif’s response indicates that, as politicians, he and other Iranian leaders understand the current bitter political divide in the United States between Democrats, including Obama, and Republicans, including all of the senators who signed the letter. “At the leadership level at which the talks are taking place, this does not appear to have a big effect,” said Dana Stuster of the National Security Network think tank in Washington, which closely follows the Iran talks. “Where it might have an effect is encouraging hardliners in Iran to more actively oppose the deal.” In the U.S., Republicans in the House of Representatives invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak against an Iran deal last week at a joint meeting of Congress. Analyst Boys said the letter could “undermine” moderate elements in Iran, like Zarif and his boss President Hassan Rouhani, who are fighting hardliners for influence with the Supreme Leader, who will make the final decision on a nuclear agreement. "This letter, I think, will be used very much as ammunition by more conservative elements who are very much opposed to any deal at all going forward,” Boys said. Specter of divisions The U.N. Security Council’s designated negotiating team for the Iran talks brings together nations with diverse interests. It has the United States and some of its key European allies, Britain, France and Germany. But the team also includes Russia, which is under Western economic sanctions for its involvement in Ukraine, and China, which is far away and has its own foreign policy priorities. The group is known as the P5+1, for the Security Council’s permanent five members, plus Germany. So far, the team has remained united in the talks, what Boys calls “one of the most remarkable elements of this whole process.” And while he does not expect a rapid disintegration of the team, Boys warns the letter “may well make the P5+1 sit up and take notice, and perhaps wonder whether an agreement can be struck and kept, this side of a [U.S.] presidential election.” Experts are concerned that without a general agreement by the end-of-March deadline, and a full agreement by the end of June, nations around the world will lose faith in the process. Sanctions could begin to unravel, and in a worst case, Iran could cancel the interim agreement reached more than a year ago, kick out international inspectors and move toward building a nuclear bomb - something its leaders say they do not want to do, analysts say. That would turn the clock back two years, to a time when there was no diplomatic pathway to convincing Iran to open its nuclear program in a way that would prove to the world it is purely peaceful, as Iran claims, they say. Political calculus In that scenario, the choices for the international community would revert to either accepting a nuclear-armed Iran or trying to prevent that through military action, what is known as the ‘Iranian Bomb or Bomb Iran’ scenario. So while the senators’ letter is causing some concern, the negotiators from the six nations and Iran have plenty of incentives to forge ahead. In practical terms, the U.S. Congress does not have any near term role to play regarding an agreement with Iran. Experts do not expect the accord to be a formal treaty, so it won’t require approval by the Senate. And the president has the power to take the expected initial steps of any agreement, including the lifting of some U.S. economic sanctions against Iran. A key calculation by people involved in the talks is that by the time congressional action is needed to remove remaining sanctions, likely several years from now, there will be no reason to oppose the move if international inspectors verify Iran is in full compliance and is not moving toward building a nuclear weapon. That is a gamble, particularly with political vitriol in Washington at its current level. “I worry that Iranian leaders will see this as evidence that Congress will not adhere to this political calculus,” said analyst Stuster. “But the political calculus is so strong, I hope that they can see through it.” Stuster said the international economic sanctions that helped bring Iran to the negotiating table were successful precisely because they are nearly global. If other nations begin to dismantle their sanctions under an agreement “that would mitigate the effect that Congress could have in acting as a spoiler to a nuclear deal,” he said. Analysts are not surprised the Iran talks are facing heightened criticism as the deadline approaches. And they acknowledge there are no guarantees an agreement will be reached, or be successful. Still, most experts see the talks as a better alternative than renewed confrontation. “There is a chance that we get an agreement and it doesn’t work,” Stuster said. “But it certainly beats the alternative.”
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Agency’s economic forecasts depend on ceasefire with Russia holding
Vladimir Putin may or may not be sick. But the Russian political system certainly is -- and is showing increased signs of distress.
Жив, здоров, болен, умер? by Радио Свобода
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Как долго машина российских медиа способна скрывать то, что народу, с их точки зрения, знать либо рано либо...
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 РБК |
На Украине застрелился бывший глава Запорожской области
РБК Покончил жизнь самоубийством бывший председатель Запорожской областной государственной администрации Александр Пеклушенко. По информации ГУ МВД Украины по Запорожской области, он выстрелил себе в шею из пистолета. Информация о гибели Пеклушенко поступила в ... На Украине еще один член Партии регионов найден застреленным в своем домеРосбалт.RU МВД Украины подтверждает гибель экс-главы ЗапорожьяРИА Новости Экс-губернатор Запорожской области найден мертвымУНИАН РБК Украина -Интерфакс - Украина -Z-city Все похожие статьи: 184 » |
A former governor of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region has been found dead with a gunshot wound to his throat, the latest in a string of violent deaths of officials with ties to ousted leader Viktor Yanukovych.
Russia's Demography Just Took A Significant Turn For The Worse
Forbes The uptick in mortality is particularly disconcerting as it was the result of increases in the cardiovascular diseases that have traditionally been most problematic for Russia. The death rate from external causes actually decreased by a full 5%, likely ... |
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Kremlin Says Putin Held Phone Talks With Armenian Counterpart by noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Armenian Service)
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken by phone with his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarkisian.
When Pro-Moscow Militants Return from Ukraine to Russia ...by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, March 12 – Yesterday, Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Putin’s Security Council, warned that Russia will face a serious terrorist threat if and when militants from Russia who have been fighting with various Islamist groups in the Middle East return home (interfax-religion.ru/islam/?act=news&div=58119).
But he said nothing about what may be a more immediate and serious threat: the return to the Russian Federation of pro-Moscow “volunteers” who have been fighting in Ukraine, a group that is far more numerous than the relative handful of those in the Middle East and that consists largely but not exclusively of ethnic Russians.
Patrushev’s concentration on Islamist groups, of course, reflects Moscow’s desire to position itself with European countries and the West more generally as a potential victim of Islamist violence and thus to suggest to its own population and to the West that any measures it takes against such people are justified.
Russia’s record of dealing with the return of large numbers of people who have fought abroad either under orders from the government or freelance is not encouraging. In 1825, the Russian government brutally suppressed the Decembrist uprising against stardom that was led by Russian officers who had seen Europe in the Napoleonic wars and hoped for better at home.
After World War II, Stalin secured Western help in the forced repatriation of five million Soviet citizens who had found themselves abroad as a result of that conflict, executing many and sending many more to the GULAG lest they challenge his order. And even after his death, these people suffered the stigma of having that experience abroad recorded in their documents.
More recently, the veterans of the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan – the so-called “Afgantsy” – sparked a crime wave at the end of Soviet times and formed a significant portion of the criminal underworld in the 1990s, where their ranks were swelled by Russians demobilized after fighting in the two post-Soviet Chechen wars.
Now, with thousands of Russian citizens who have been sent to fight in Ukraine by Moscow or who have volunteered to do so at the point of a possible return, Moscow faces at least three challenges about which Patrushev and his colleagues in the Kremlin are likely concerned even if they do not speak about it yet in public.
First, most of these groups have been radicalized by the experience of fighting in the Donbas and support radical groups, some allied with Putin like the Anti-Maidan but others very much not. They are thus likely to become involved in street politics, and because of their experience with weaponry, they are likely to become increasingly violent.
The experience of the Freikorps movements in Germany in the 1920s whose members helped power the rise of Hitler may be instructive in this regard. The Nazis were delighted to have their backing, until Hitler took power. Then, recognizing the threat such people posed because of their radicalism, they were suppressed in the Rohm purge and other actions.
Second, some of those “veterans” of the Ukrainian fighting who do not become politically active are likely to move into the Russian criminal world, leading to possibly dramatic rises in violent crime. That prospect is all the more likely given the dire economic straits many of them will face on returning home.
And third, those non-Russians who have gone to fight for Moscow in Ukraine are likely to create problems as well. While they are not terribly numerous except for the Chechens, some of their number are likely to be radicalized as well, and on returning home, they may turn their anger either at their own non-Russian governments or at the Moscow authorities who back them.
In either case, they too will present a problem for Putin, yet another unfortunate result for Russia and Russians of his criminal policies in Ukraine.
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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Human remains have washed ashore along the Florida coastline after a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter vanished during a routine training mission Tuesday night with seven Marines and four Army soldiers on board, the military said.
Local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and military members from Eglin Air Force base outside Pensacola, where the helicopter’s flight originated, have been searching for debris since the helicopter was reported missing, said Sara Vidoni, an Air Force spokeswoman at the base.
“Fog impeded the search mission this morning, but it is beginning to dissipate,” she said, adding that the search efforts had been limited to boats and teams walking the shore because of the fog.
The Marines were from the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, known as MARSOC, said Capt. Barry Morris, a MARSOC spokesman at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The soldiers were from a Hammond, La.-based National Guard unit, The Associated Press reported.
The helicopter, an Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk, went missing over the Gulf of Mexico about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, officials said. Search and rescue crews found debris around 2 a.m. Wednesday, said Andy Bourland, spokesman for the Air Force base.
If the Marines are confirmed dead, the Marine Corps will not release their names until 24 hours after their next of kin are notified, Morris said.
“Our focus now is on the search,” Morris said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with their families.”
Bourland said the helicopter took off from a nearby airport in Destin and joined other military aircraft in the training exercise.
Much of the area was enveloped in fog from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, Katie Moore with the National Weather Service in Tallahassee told the AP. Much of that time, visibility was at two miles or less, she said.
Vehicles from local law enforcement agencies were gathered Wednesday morning at the crash scene near a remote swath of beach between Pensacola and Destin. The beach is owned by the military and is used for test missions.
Word of the helicopter crash had already reached the Tight Cuts barber shop on the busy highway next to Camp Lejeune’s main gate, where owner Napoleon Kinsey was at work early Wednesday afternoon.
“Every time young Marines get killed, it really touches me,’’ said Kinsey, 48, who served four years in the Marine Corps before opening his shop 15 years ago. “I feel so bad. I always do.”
Some of Kinsey’s regular customers are MARSOC Marines, and he said he hoped none of them had been on the doomed helicopter. He cut a MARSOC gunnery sergeant’s hair just the day before, he said.
Kinsey’s customer, Roy Dickenson, said news of the accident touched him deeply. Dickenson said his son is a Marine master sergeant stationed at Camp Lejeune — and a steady Tight Cuts customer the last 15 years.
Dickenson said he identified with the missing Marines, who were on a training mission, because his son was on a training exercise near Camp Lejeune on Wednesday morning.
“It’s really so sad,’’ said Dickenson, 67, a retired electrician. “But these guys have to train — they have to practice what they live.”
Dexter Freeman, another Tight Cuts barber, said he has come to know many of his Marine customers quite well, including two who were later killed on overseas deployments.
“The risk they take is part of being in the military, but it still makes me so sad,” Freeman said. “When they tell me they’re going to be deployed, I always tell them I’m praying for them. I mean, so many of these guys are just kids — 19, 20 years old.”
As Dickenson stood to leave after his haircut, he said he held out hope that the missing MARSOC Marines, with their special survival training, might somehow emerge alive. If not, he said, “there’ll be a lot of sorrowful people around here.”
Jacksonsville is home to many Marine families who live off the base, and Camp Lejeune dominates this sprawling town of 70,000. Banners welcoming Marines home from deployments are often hung from fences around the base. For more than a decade, people here have endured regular announcements of combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It never gets easier, Dickenson said. “We’re hoping for the best,” he said. “All we can do now is hope.”
Zucchino reported from North Carolina and Hennigan from Washington.
©2015 Los Angeles Times
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NAVARRE, Fla. — Divers have found the military helicopter that crashed in dense fog during a Florida training mission, killing seven elite Marines and four experienced soldiers. More bad weather Thursday delayed the recovery of bodies and the flight recorder from wreckage 25 feet deep.
The military's response officially changed from rescue to recovery after divers inspected the shattered core of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, said Col. Monte Cannon, vice-commander of the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base.
"It was certainly a high-impact crash," said Eglin Fire Chief Mark Giuliano, and "very, very, very dense fog" was complicating the response. There's almost no visibility at the crash site, forcing search crews to move slowly in rough surf to avoid running into each other or wreckage, he said.
Dozens of airmen still walked the shores of Santa Rosa Sound, recovering pieces of clothing and bits of wreckage. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended it search Thursday afternoon, but will stay to advise the Army "as salvage operations focus on recovering the remaining fuselage and debris," its statement said.
Two of the soldiers' were recovered, but two others were believed to remain inside the wreckage, said Maj. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis, adjutant general of the Louisiana Army National Guard, which flew the helicopter carrying the Marines Special Operations Command forces from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
One of the Marines killed was Kerry Kemp, whose wife, Jenna, was notified overnight that her husband's remains had been found. Kemp was a "proud Marine, a loving husband and most wonderful father," with a child about to turn 1, said his sister-in-law, Lora Waraksa of Port Washington, Wisconsin.
Another victim was Marcus Bawol, 27, from Warren, Michigan, north of Detroit. His sister, Brandy Peek, said military officials told the family they had identified his remains. Bawol "loved everything about the military," Peek said.
The military was not releasing any details Thursday about those killed, nor has it described the cause of the crash.
The helicopter went down Tuesday night in fog so thick that another helicopter turned back. A woman at campground nearby, Kim Urr, said she heard a metallic sound and then two muffled explosions as it disappeared into the narrow waterway separating Santa Rosa Island from the Florida panhandle mainland.
The cause is being probed by the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center out of Fort Rucker, Alabama. President Barack Obama has promised a thorough investigation.
The same fog enveloped a pier where a large gathering held vigil Wednesday night. Crashing Gulf waves created a somber backdrop to the songs, tears and prayers of the people, who have strong ties to the military and the sprawling Eglin Air Force Base.
"My heart is really hurt right now knowing these people were here just on training - knowing they went and left their family members and did not give that goodbye, you know, because they weren't going off to war," a tearful Dolly Edwards, herself the wife of a Marine, said at the vigil.
Thursday's dense sea fog could persist through Friday, which is common when warm southern air meets cold water this time of year, said Jack Cullen, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Mobile, Alabama.
The National Guard soldiers, from Hammond, Louisiana, each did two tours in Iraq, and joined in humanitarian missions after Gulf Coast hurricanes and the BP oil spill.
Their passengers were "seasoned combat veterans" who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, said Capt. Barry Morris, spokesman for the Marine Corps Special Operations Command at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
These "unconventional warriors" train constantly to endure grueling conditions and sensitive assignments on land and at sea, from seizing ships to special reconnaissance missions and direct action inside hostile territory. Their practice Tuesday involved "insertion and extraction missions," using small boats and helicopters to move in and out of a target site.
Associated Press contributors include Lolita C. Baldor in Washington; Jason Dearen in Gainesville, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Kevin McGill and Stacey Plaisance in Hammond, Louisiana; and Emery P. Dalesio at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina
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WASHINGTON — The United States accused Russia of sending new weapons to separatists in eastern Ukraine, as Germany warned that the conflict is still far from a peaceful resolution despite a cease-fire agreement.
The U.S. confirmed the arms delivery and can tell when Russia sends weapons to the rebels, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. The "continued resupply over the border is not compatible with the spirit or the letter" of the peace agreement negotiated in Minsk, Belarus, she said.
The Obama administration is "actively" considering additional security assistance to Ukraine, "including the possibility of lethal defensive weapons," Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Brian McKeon told the same hearing in Washington.
The truce negotiated in Minsk on Feb. 12 by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France is gradually taking hold after 11 months of fighting that has killed at least 6,000 people, according to the United Nations. Sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union have helped push Russia's economy toward recession after they accused the authorities in Moscow of sending troops and weapons to back the rebels fighting government forces in Ukraine. Russia denies the allegation.
The Minsk agreements are "only the first steps in calming down the situation," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Sofia after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Daniel Mitov on Tuesday. "We all know we are far from solving it."
Pro-Russian separatists are preventing monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe from verifying their withdrawals of heavy weaponry under the Minsk accord, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told reporters in Kiev on Tuesday. Ukraine is committed to the terms of the peace deal, he said.
Rebels are amassing troops in several places in eastern Ukraine and only "imitating" a withdrawal of heavy weapons, while redeploying arms during the truce, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters in Kiev on Tuesday. Nine Ukrainian troops were wounded as separatists fired 31 times on government forces in the past 24 hours, he said.
Ukraine has met its obligations under the Minsk agreement to pull back heavy weapons, Lysenko said, though it retains some artillery on the front line in case of possible attack.
The situation on the ground has "sharply deteriorated" in recent days from between four and six attacks to 22 on Monday, Andrei Purgin, who heads the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic's parliament, said on Tuesday, according to the Interfax news service.
Rebel forces are seeking the release of almost 2,000 people held prisoner by Ukraine, in line with the peace deal, the separatist-run DAN news service reported on Tuesday, citing Darya Morozova, human-rights ombudsman of the Donetsk republic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will have a phone conversation soon with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to discuss the situation in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Poroshenko spoke by phone with Hollande about the need for a complete cease-fire and they agreed on the importance of enhancing the OSCE's mission, according to a statement on the Ukrainian presidential website on Tuesday.
The strife has cost Ukraine a quarter of its industrial capacity, with 10 percent "physically destroyed," Poroshenko said in a television interview on Monday. The economy may shrink as much as 11.9 percent this year and inflation may accelerate to 42.8 percent, the government said last week.
The International Monetary Fund's board may approve $17.5 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine on Wednesday. The government, which needs to repay $5.4 billion in foreign debt this year, plans to enter into consultations with bondholders once the IMF has signed off on the program.
Ukraine may avoid writedowns on the value of its securities in restructuring talks with bondholders, said Paul Rawkins, a senior director at Fitch Ratings. "What's most likely is, as the authorities have implied, some form of a rescheduling, no haircuts, just a straightforward extension of maturities," London-based Rawkins said in a phone interview.
Ukraine's $2.6 billion of benchmark debt due July 2017, which plunged to a record-low 41.35 cents last month, has since rebounded and traded at 46.92 cents, up nearly 1.9 cents, at 5:40 p.m. in Kiev. The hryvnia strengthened 5.8 percent to 21.5 per dollar.
— Krasnolutska reported from Kiev, Lovasz from London. Slav Okov contributed from Sofia.
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