Serbia Prepares Grand Military Parade for Putin

After Vladimir Putin of Russia confirmed his forthcoming visit to Serbia, marking the liberation of Belgrade in 1944, Serbia’s leader said the country would welcome him with a military parade ‘such as the country has not seen in years’.

Russia confirmed on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin will visit Belgrade on October 16 at the invitation of Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic.

“The President of Russia will take part in celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade from Nazi occupation.

“Talks with Tomislav Nikolic and conversations with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic are to focus on key issues of bilateral cooperation, primarily in trade and the economy,” Putin’s office said.

Vucic and the Russian Ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Chepurin, previously met to discuss the programme of the visit.

Following the meeting, Vucic announced that Serbia will prepare a grand military parade to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade at the end of World War II.

“President Putin will also attend a military parade such we haven’t prepared in 40 years, as I believe this date and the occasion deserve it,” Vucic said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The Serbian Prime Minister stated that during Putin’s visit, the two sides will discuss future relations between the two historic allies.

“I am convinced that in future we can do many things together which would be in the interest of both countries,” Vucic said.

Police investigate withdrawal of $18 billion from Russia via Moldova to Latvia

MOSCOW, September 22 (RAPSI) – Russia’s law enforcement agencies are investigating the withdrawal of nearly 700 billion rubles (over $18 billion) from Russia via 21 banks, Vedomosti newspaper writes on Monday.

The newspaper sites letters that Moldova’s financial monitoring service and the anti-money laundering service of Moldova’s National Anticorruption Center to Russia’s Interior Ministry, according to which false injunctions were issued by Moldovan district courts to withdraw massive funds from Russia.

“Foreign companies have signed loan contracts under which Russian firms allegedly took out loans worth between $100 million and $875 million or acted as loan guarantors. When obligations under these fictitious debts were not satisfied, creditors filed suits with Moldovan courts, because certain Moldovan citizens also acted as loan guarantors.These guarantors came from socially disadvantaged families who claimed to have known nothing about these loan contracts and insist that their signatures were falsified,”

 

Vedomosti writes, citing a letter to Sergei Solopov, deputy head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Department for Economic Security and Corruption Prevention.

From March 2011 to April 2014, the fraudsters have withdrawn nearly 700 billion rubles (over $18 billion), the Moldovan financial intelligence service writes in its letter.

 

The funds were removed from the accounts of about a hundred Russian companies with 21 Russian banks that have correspondent accounts with Moldova’s BC Moldindconbank S.A.

The money was then transferred to 19 firms that were registered in the UK, New Zealand and Belize and had accounts with Moldindconbank and Latvia’s Trasta Komercbanka, the newspaper writes.

Iraq Crisis: Kurdish Troops Launch Attack on Isis on Three Fronts

Kurdish troops have launched three separate offensives on Isis (now known as the Islamic State) positions in Northern Iraq, according to senior military officers.

The attacks took place before dawn north of Iraq’s second city Mosul, south of oil town Kirkuk and on a town situated on the Syrian border.

A Kurdish source confirmed that troops had entered the town of Rabia after capturing the villages of As-Saudiyah and Mahmudiyah.

“Ground troops are now fighting in the centre of Rabia,” the senior source in the Kurdish Peshmerga, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

He revealed that Peshmerga forces, with artillery and air support, had launched an attack on Zumar, a city 40 miles northwest of Mosul and near Iraq’s largest reservoir, which IS captured in June following a large-scale offensive.

To the south of Kirkuk, Kurdish forces recaptured villages in close proximity to the town of Daquq, which has also been under the control of IS since June, and were now attempting to reclaim the village of Al-Wahda.

“They have liberated the villages of Saad and Khaled. The Peshmerga have taken full control of the area, following fierce fighting,” Kurdish General Westa Rasul said.

The Kurdish attacks come after reports that IS militants are now less than 10km (6.3 miles) from Baghdad as clashes with the Iraqi army continue.

Fighting with the terror group is taking place on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital with Iraqi forces attempting to halt their advance on the city.

Spain blocks Catalonia referendum on independence

Constitutional Court suspends Catalonia’s Scottish-style referendum planned for November 7 following appeal by Spanish prime minister

Spain’s Constitutional Court on Monday blocked a Scottish-style referendum called by Catalonia, after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vowed to defend the “sovereignty” of his country.

The court said it would suspend the region’s planned independence vote while it considered a request from Mr Rajoy’s conservative government that the vote be declared unconstitutional.

That process is likely to take up to five months, meaning the referendum, due to take place on November 7, seems certain to be declared illegal if it goes ahead.

Rather than follow the lead of David Cameron and allow a vote on independence, Mariano Rajoy said on Monday that legal action would be taken by his government to block the regional plebiscite.

“It’s false that the right to vote can be assigned unilaterally to one region about a matter that affects all Spaniards,” Mr Rajoy said in a statement following an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday morning. “It’s profoundly anti-democratic.”

The decision puts Madrid on a collision course with Catalonia following the signing on Saturday by Artur Mas, the president of the Catalan government, of a decree to allow the “consultation” on breaking away from Spain.

Mr Mas had said the vote was legal because the result was non-binding.

“Catalonia wants to express itself, it wants to be heard and it wants to vote,” he said after approving the law passed by Catalan’s parliament in Barcelona on Saturday.

But Mr Rajoy insisted the vote would not take place.

^{President of Catalonia’s regional government Artur Mas (AFP/Getty)}

“There is nothing and no one, no power nor institution, that can break this principle of sole sovereignty,” he told reporters at the palace in Moncloa.

Catalonia’s nationalists have urged the Spanish government to take inspiration from David Cameron’s decision to recognise the Scottish referendum.

With the Catalan referendum now suspended by the Constitutional Court, an action that gives no recourse to appeal, Mr Mas will come under pressure from nationalists to defy Madrid and go ahead with the vote anyway.

Or he may decide to call early elections in the region and make them a plebiscite on independence.

Recent polls show an overwhelming majority in the northeastern region of 7.5 million want the right to vote on sovereignty but that support for an independent state wavers around 50 per cent.

7 Ukrainian soldiers killed in attack by pro-russian insurgents on Donetsk airport; at least 12 people killed in last day

The cease-fire looked ever more tenuous on Sept. 29, as Kremlin-backed insurgents tried to take over Donetsk airport on the night of Sept. 28. Seven Ukrainian servicemen were killed in the attack.

Overall, the Ukrainian army lost nine soldiers in the last 24 hours, according to government spokesman Andriy Lysenko, while 27 soldiers have been wounded.

Nine of the injured came when the separatists attacked a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier, according to Yuri Biriukov, one of President Petro Poroshenko’s advisers.

Meanwhile, at least three civilians were killed in Donetsk overnight, bringing the death toll to at least 12 in the last day.

Despite the casualities, the ruined and closed Donetsk airport remains under control of the Ukrainian army, who repelled the attack and destroyed three tanks and killed 50 insurgents, Lysenko, the spokesman for National Defence and Security Council said.

After Ukraine’s military forces blew up the runway of Luhansk airport and left it in September, making its use impossible, they have been defending the Donetsk airport, which is located just 9.4 kilometers from the city center.

Unlike the airport in Luhansk, the Ukrainian army has is better positioned to retain control over Donetsk — the provincial capital with a pre-war population of more than 1 million people — because it controls many nearby neighborhoods, Vyacheslav Tseluiko, an expert of the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarment Studies told the Kyiv Post.

Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, the Dnipropertrovsk Oblast governor, thinks that the Ukrainian army might give up the aiport soon and settle for territory south of Donetsk in return.

According to his Sept. 28 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kolomoisky said: “The airport is more important to them than it is to us,” he said.

But if the Ukrainian army pulls back and leaves the airport, it remains unusable, Tseluiko said. “It will take a lot of time and resources to rebuild the airport.

But the main thing is that there is no point of restoring the airport, which is located on the front line. It will be under fire anyway, so using it for its intended purpose will be problematic,” Tseluiko said.

The once-new and fancy airport cost $750 million, most of which came from the state budget as part of the preparations for the Euro 2012 football tournament. It was severely damaged on May 26, when it was seized by illegal armed insurgents.

Ukrainian authorities regained control, but it has remained under the constant threat of takeover. There were several attempts to attack Ukrainian soldiers and retake the airport in July, August and September, but Ukrainian servicemen fended off the attacks.

Overall, Ukraine is seeking more than $100 billion from Russia in various international courts for compensation to losses suffered in the Kremlin-backed war in eastern Ukraine and the theft of the Crimean peninsula.

Isis ‘Less Than 10km from the Gates of Baghdad’ Despite Coalition Air Strikes

Isis (now known as the Islamic State) are now less than 10km (6.3 miles) from Baghdad as clashes with the Iraqi army continue, according to the vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq.

Fighting with the terror group is taking place on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital with Iraqi forces attempting to halt their advance on the city.

Conflicting reports have emerged of the proximity of the radical Islamist group to Iraq’s economic and political centre. 

Fighting has taken place in the key strategic town of Amariya al-Falluja, 40km (25 miles) west of Baghdad but Canon Andrew White, the vicar of Iraq’s only Anglican church, has claimed that the militants are now less than 10km (6.3 miles) from the capital.

“The Islamic State are on the verge of entering Baghdad. The Islamic State are now within 10km of entering Baghdad. Over a 1,000 Iraqi troops were killed by them yesterday, things are so bad.

“As I said all the military air strikes are doing nothing. If we ever needed your prayer it is now,” he said.

“President Obama is saying that he overestimated the ability of the Iraqi Army. It is so clear they have no ability. A hard thing to say but it’s true.”

An organisation supporting the work of White, the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, has claimed that the group are even closer to Baghdad – less than 2km away.

“The Islamic State are now less than 2km away from entering Baghdad. They said it could never happen and now it almost has. Obama says he overestimated what the Iraqi Army could do. Well you only need to be hear [sic] a very short while to know they can do very very little,” the statement read.

The IS advance on the city comes despite the US-led coalition’s air strike campaign on the group’s positions across Iraq, most recently in Anbar province 80km from Baghdad. 

US President Barack Obama has conceded that American intelligence did not take the growing threat from the group seriously enough.

“Well I think, our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” he said in a televised interview.

The United States has conducted over 200 air strikes on the group’s positions in Iraq since August 2014, while Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar have joined or supported the strikes in Syria.

Iran warns ‘Islamic State’: If you advance, we will attack!

TEHRAN – Iran will attack Islamic State group jihadists inside Iraq if they advance near the border, ground forces commander General Ahmad Reza Pourdestana said in comments published on Saturday.

“If the terrorist group (IS) come near our borders, we will attack deep into Iraqi territory and we will not allow it to approach our border,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Pourdestana as saying.

The Sunni extremists of IS control a swathe of territory north of Baghdad, including in Diyala province, which borders Shiite Iran.

The United States launched air strikes on IS targets in Iraq in August and has since widened them to Syria, where the jihadist group has its headquarters, as part of an international coalition to crush the group.

Iran is a close ally of the Shiite-led government in Iraq and has been unusually accepting of US military action in Iraq against the jihadists.

It has provided support to both the Iraqi government and Iraqi Kurdish forces fighting the jihadists and has dispatched weapons and military advisers.

But Tehran, a close ally of the Damascus government, has criticised air strikes on Syria, saying they would not help restore stability in the region.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said he rejected a US offer to join the international coalition it has been building against the jihadists.

300 Russian troops die in Ukraine, 4,000 missing

A photograph posted in “Cargo 200 from Ukraine to Russia” Facebook group shows a plate with personal data of five Russian soldiers buried in a common grave in an identified place in eastern Ukraine.

One of them has no name, but they all have the same date of death, Aug. 27. This was the day when Russian troops were advancing deep into Ukraine’s territory.

“Killed for (President Vladimir) Putin’s lies,” the plate says.

This photo, taken by a Ukrainian soldier, is one of many pieces of evidence of Russian soldiers dying massively in Ukraine.

The Facebook group’s name is a code word for sealed coffins that are used to carry bodies back home, which was set up in August by Russian volunteers to help relatives find men who could be fighting and dying in Ukraine.

Eleva Vasilieva, a human rights activist and the group’s founder, says that the total number of deaths of Russian soldiers and mercenaries in Ukraine warfare could be about 4,000.

“We don’t know the number of wounded and those who could be killed of wounds as this figure is hidden,” she said at a press briefing in Kyiv.

“Under Ilovaisk on Aug. 25-27, when the Russian troops were deployed, we recorded the first thousand of Russian officers (killed) just in two days,” she added.

She said the dead bodies were shipped back, partly using the so-called humanitarian convoys organized by the Russians, allegedly to bring aid to areas that suffered the most.

By now, the Cargo 200 group has more than 23,000 members. But more importantly, it has helped to track and identify about 200 killed Russian soldiers and help build up social pressure to stop the Russian war in Ukraine.

On Sept. 5 Ukraine and Russia agreed about seize fire in eastern Ukraine, but despite the truce almost 100 soldiers have been killed on both sides, according to Vasilieva’s estimates.

Russian authorities have denied any involvement of regular troops in Ukraine, despite numerous photos of killed Russian soldiers, and media testimonies of their relatives at home.

Russian troops are still present on Ukraine’s territory, according to the nation’s officials.

Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council, said that 76 Russian military officers met on Sept. 26 near Donets city with Ukrainian side and monitors of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to discuss seize-fire and creation of artillery-free buffer zone in Donetsk, following an agreement in Minsk on Sept, 19.

Michael Bociurkiw, spokesperson of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, confirmed that monitors of this organization participated in talk with “Ukrainian and Russian military officers in Soledar (Donetsk Oblast).”

Vasilieva said she didn’t have information about the number of Russian soldiers present in Ukraine at the moment. B

ut she said that in late Augusts, when the Russian troops started massively crossing into Ukraine, there were up to 30,000 troops, including representatives of Transnistria, the self-proclaimed republic on the territory of Moldova.

“This figure was supported by various sources, including military ones,” she said.

Vasilieva also said that the number of Ukrainian fighters killed in this war is up to 10 times higher than the official figures show. “We estimate the losses of Ukrainian side at up to 8,000,” she said.

Civilian losses are “impossible to count,” she said.

Chaos in Hong Kong as Protesters Aren’t Going Anywhere Despite Massive Police Crackdown

Tens of thousands of protesters block the main street to the financial Central district (at background) outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong September 28, 2014.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Riot police advanced on Hong Kong democracy protesters in the early hours of Monday, firing volleys of tear gas that sent some fleeing as others erected barricades to block the security forces in the heart of the former British colony.

Thousands of protesters have settled in for the night and early morning after riot police retreated from various areas.

Earlier, police baton-charged a crowd blocking a key road in the government district in defiance of official warnings that the demonstrations were illegal.

Several scuffles broke out between police in helmets, gas masks and riot gear, and demonstrators angered by the tear gas, last used in Hong Kong in 2005.

REUTERS/Bobby YipThings get ugly in Hong Kong.

The unrest is the worst since China took back control of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997. It poses a serious challenge to Communist Party leaders in Beijing, concerned that calls for democracy could spread to cities on the mainland and threaten their grip on power.

Thousands of protesters were still milling around the main Hong Kong government building, ignoring messages from student and pro-democracy leaders to retreat for fear that the police might fire rubber bullets.

Police, in lines five deep in places, earlier used pepper spray against activists and shot tear gas into the air. The crowds fled several hundred yards (meters), scattering their umbrellas and hurling abuse at police they called “cowards”.

“If today I don’t stand out, I will hate myself in future,” said taxi driver Edward Yeung, 55, as he swore at police on the frontline. “Even if I get a criminal record it will be a glorious one.”

REUTERS/Tyrone SiuRiot police fire teargas to disperse protesters after thousands of demonstrators blocked the main street to the financial Central district outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong September 29, 2014.

Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule under a formula known as “one country, two systems” that guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. Universal suffrage was set as an eventual goal.

But Beijing last month rejected demands for people to freely choose the city’s next leader, prompting threats from activists to shut down the Central business district. China wants to limit elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.

The protests later spread to the busy shopping district of Causeway Bay and across the harbor to Mong Kok, posing a greater challenge for authorities to contain, local media reported.

In a move certain to unnerve authorities in Beijing, media in Taiwan reported that student movement leaders had occupied the lobby of Hong Kong’s representative office on the island in a show of support for the democracy protesters.

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying had earlier pledged “resolute” action against the protest movement, known as Occupy Central with Love and Peace.

“The police are determined to handle the situation appropriately in accordance with the law,” Leung said, less than two hours before the police charge began.

REUTERS/Tyrone SiuProtesters push a traffic barrier to block the main street to the financial Central in Hong Kong September 28, 2014.

“NEVER GIVE UP”

Police had not used tear gas in Hong Kong since breaking up protests by South Korean farmers against the World Trade Organization in 2005.

“We will fight until the end … we will never give up,” said Peter Poon, a protester in his 20s, adding that they may have to make a temporary retreat through the night.

Police denied rumors that they had used rubber bullets.

A spokesperson for China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said the central government fully supported Hong Kong’s handling of the situation “in accordance with the law”.

Such dissent would never be tolerated on the mainland, where student protests in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square calling for democracy were crushed with heavy loss of life on June 4, 1989.

REUTERS/Tyrone SiuA protester throws an umbrella at riot police as fellow demonstrators blocked the main street to the financial Central district outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong September 29, 2014.

In mainland China, the phrase “Occupy Central” was blocked on Sunday afternoon on Weibo, the country’s version of Twitter. It had been allowed earlier in the day.

Later, a Hong Kong government statement urged the Occupy organizers to bring an end to the “chaos”, for the overall good of the city. The government said some public transport may be disrupted on Monday due to the protests, while some schools in affected areas would be closed.

A tearful Occupy organizer, Benny Tai, said he was proud of people’s determination to fight for “genuine” universal suffrage, but that the situation was getting out of control, local broadcaster RTHK reported. He said he believed he would face heavy punishment for initiating the movement.

Inside the cordon, thousands had huddled in plastic capes, masks and goggles as they braced for a fresh police attempt to clear the area before Hong Kong re-opens for business in the morning. The city’s financial markets are expected to open as usual on Monday. 

REUTERS/Tyrone SiuA protester reacts in front of riot police during as fellow demonstrators blocked the main street to the financial Central district at Central in Hong Kong September 28, 2014.

“WE WILL WIN WITH LOVE AND PEACE”

Publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, a key backer of the democracy movement, said he wanted as big a crowd of protesters as possible, after a week of student demonstrations, to thwart any crackdown.

“The more Hong Kong citizens come, the more unlikely the police can clear up the place,” said Lai, also wearing a plastic cape and workmen’s protective glasses. “Even if we get beaten up, we cannot fight back. We will win this war with love and peace.”

Pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said three fellow legislators were among a small group of activists detained by police, including democratic leaders Albert Ho and Emily Lau.

Organizers said as many as 80,000 people thronged the streets in Admiralty district, galvanized by the arrests of student activists on Friday. No independent estimate of the crowd numbers was available.

Bobby Yip / ReutersTens of thousands of protesters shut down traffic on Sunday.

A week of protests escalated into violence when student-led demonstrators broke through a cordon late on Friday and scaled a fence to invade the city’s main government compound. Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. The Hong Kong Federation of Students extended class boycotts indefinitely.

Police have so far arrested 78 people, including Joshua Wong, the 17-year-old leader of student group Scholarism, who was dragged away after he called on the protesters to charge the government premises.

Wong was released from police detention without charge on Sunday evening. He told reporters that he planned to return to the protest site after resting.

REUTERS/Carlos BarriaProtesters sit as they block the main street to the financial Central district outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, September 29, 2014.

Iraqi Soldiers Kill Top ISIL Commander in Anbar

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi troops scored major advances in the province of Anbar against the ISIL terrorist group, killing a large number of them including a top commander. 

A military source told National Iraqi news agency that the army soldiers carried out a series of operations in the western city of Haditha, al-Anbar province, and claimed the lives of too many terrorists, including a senior commander called Muhammad Bakr al-Dulaimi.

The Takfiri terrorists currently control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have threatened all communities, including Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Ezadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.

Senior Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.

The ISIL has links with Saudi intelligence and is believed to be indirectly supported by the Israeli regime.

Serbia turns to Hungary for gas as its inflows from Russia down

* Flows to Serbia down 20 pct since Wednesday

* Serbia hopes to reserve 200 mcm of gas in Hungary

* Energy sector already under strain following floods

NOVI SAD, Serbia, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Serbia’s chief gas distributor said it hoped to reserve 200 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas in neighbouring Hungary for the coming winter, while its own inflows of Russian gas were down by 20 percent for a third day on Friday.

Serbia, heading for the beginning of its winter heating season next month, risks finding itself on the front line as Russia reduces the supply of gas to Europe.

The Balkan country’s energy sector is already under strain since major flooding in May inundated a coal mine supplying its biggest power plant.

Russia’s Gazprom said last Wednesday it was unable to meet rising gas demand from Europe while it built up stockpiles ahead of winter.

The move undermines the ability of Europe to supply gas to Ukraine, where the West and Russia have taken opposing sides of a separatist rebellion in the east.

Hungary said on Friday it had secured increased gas imports from Gazprom after its pipeline operator halted shipments of gas to Ukraine.

Dusan Bajatovic, chief executive of Serbia’s main gas distributor Srbijagas, said flows to Serbia were again down by 20 percent on Friday and that it was looking to secure supplies from Hungary.

“Serbia has enough gas to meet local demand for the time being, though the inflows were 20 percent lower,” he told reporters in the northern city of Novi Sad.

“We are looking to secure enough gas for main industries and households,” Bajatovic said. He said the cost of reserving additional capacity was unlikely to prompt a major hike in retail prices for natural gas.

CLOSING THE GAP

Officials say Serbia, which produces 70 percent of its power from coal and the rest from hydropower stations, will have to import a third of its power needs to offset the shortfall in output in winter months.

Serbia consumes about 2.5 bcm of gas per year.

Its Banatski Dvor underground gas depot has already been filled to its maximum capacity of 450 mcm, which is enough to cover household consumption for about three months. The additional 200 mcm could help supply industries and public institutions in the short term.

The country also plans to issue an international tender to import up to 2-3 million tonnes of coal..

But Bajatovic said Serbia may also have to import mazut fuel oil to keep up the district heating operation in winter months as its oil company NIS, majority-owned by Russia’s Gazpromneft, has the capacity to meet only 50 percent of local demand.

The need to secure more energy sources may put an additional burden on the cash-strapped nation, which has cut its 2014 economic forecast to a contraction of -0.5 percent from an earlier estimate of 1 percent growth.

Bajatovic said that Serbia would begin building its stretch of Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline in late October or early November. “We are close to getting the construction permit,” he said.

The pipeline plan has become a focus of tension between Russia and the European Union. Serbian neighbour Bulgaria suspended the construction in June at the behest of Brussels, pending a ruling on whether the project complies with EU law.

The US Government Is Warning You To Stay Away From These Countries

Let’s also not forget that the United States can be a very dangerous place itself, and that US foreign policy has helped turn some of these countries into the dangerous places they are now.

Click on any of the countries below to see the detailed warning issued by the US State Department:

Security Warning for Some Regions: Colombia and Mexico.

Security Warning for Entire Country: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Honduras, Djibouti,Venezuela, Iran, El Salvador, Burundi, Niger, Mozambique and Haiti.

Defer Non-Essential Travel to Some Regions: Philippines, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Israel, West Bank, and Gaza.

Defer Non-Essential Travel: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Pakistan.

Avoid All Travel to Some Regions: Ukraine, Nigeria, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Chad.

Avoid All Travel to This Country: Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, South Sudan, Somalia, Lesotho, and North Korea.

Citizens Remaining Here Depart Immediately: Central African Republic, Libya,Syria, Eritrea, and Yemen.

Instagram Has Been Blocked in China — At Least 26 Injured in Hong Kong protests

We’re seeing reports from users on Twitter that Instagram has been blocked in mainland China. It’s likely due to the protests happening in Hong Kong.

Citizens in Hong Kong are protesting the government in Beijing to allow them to practice “full democracy.”

If Instagram is blocked in China as the Twitter reports indicate, it’s likely to keep images of the protest, which include police firing tear gas at demonstrators, from spreading.

Here are some Instagram photos and videos we found geo-tagged in Hong Kong:

9.28 佔中啟動直播 – Watch Live ‘Occupy Central’ protests in Hong Kong

Watch as Hong Kong police fire tear gas to try to disperse pro-democracy activists as tensions escalate. Protestors are calling for greater political freedoms in the former British colony.

Streaming Video of the Occupy Central Protests in Hong Kong

Police in Hong Kong have fired tear gas to try to clear a road that was blocked by thousands of pro-democracy protesters.

Activists fled several hundred metres down Harcourt Road in the government district amid chaotic scenes, with protesters screaming “shame” at officers.

Several scuffles broke out between riot police and demonstrators who were angered by the use of tear gas, which is rare in Hong Kong.

An elderly woman was seen being carried away by protesters.

Police had earlier used hand-held pepper spray aimed at dispersing the demonstrators – but without success – and they warned greater force could be carried out.

The movement to occupy central Hong Kong, in protest at China’s interference in the former British colony, had begun three days ahead of schedule with many protesters gathering overnight.

The leader of ‘Occupy Central’, Benny Tai, made the surprise announcement shortly before 2am on Sunday.

Addressing a crowd of thousands gathered in the Admiralty area of Hong Kong Island, Mr Tai said: “I’ve got a long-awaited message; Occupy Central will start now.

“Students and people who support democracy have begun a new era of civil disobedience,” he added, pledging to first occupy government HQ.

Mr Tai had planned to bring the heart of Hong Kong to a standstill this coming Wednesday – National Day.

But he has taken advantage of a separate student protest which has been gathering pace through the week.

Although ‘Occupy Central’ and the student protests are separate movements, their motivation is the same.

They are calling for the Chinese central government to stop interfering with Hong Kong politics.

They want China to allow the people of Hong Kong to choose their own leaders: one person, one vote.

On Saturday, more than 60 of the student protesters were arrested after they entered a government area.

Police used pepper spray to disperse crowds. Overnight, the new protesters gathered wearing masks and ponchos in an effort to counter the pepper spray.

 

The ruling said that while Hong Kongers could choose their next leader, or Chief Executive, in 2017, they must select from candidates picked by Beijing.

The chosen candidates must declare their “love” for China and its Communist system.

“We reiterate we will stand firm in our belief in peace and non-violence,” Occupy Central’s organisers said.

“We urge Hong Kong people to respond to the call of history, to stand up and have the courage to be a real Hong Kong citizen.”

Political protests are banned across mainland China but under the agreement of the 1997 handover from Britain to China, Hong Kong was given autonomy.

That autonomy allows Hong Kong an independent legal and political framework: ‘one country, two systems’.

Under this agreement, protests can take place in Hong Kong.

However, in the 17 years since the handover, there has never been such a large and vocal call for the central government in Beijing to back off.

Hong Kong is Asia’s financial hub. It is not yet clear how the joint protest will impact on disruption, whether the protest tempo will increase or what the reaction of the authorities will be.

There are reports that some of the student leaders are unhappy with the Occupy Central movement appearing to “hijack” their own protest.

Reports suggest that 30 people have sustained minor injuries over the past few days in clashes with the authorities.

The Chinese military does have barracks on the island but soldiers have not been deployed.

News of the protests has been censored on the Chinese mainland with little or no mention of it on mainstream newspapers and TV stations across China.

Web attacks build on Shellshock bug

A series of attacks on websites and servers using the serious Shellshock bug has been spotted.

Millions of servers use software vulnerable to the bug, which lets attackers run commands on that system.

So far, thousands of servers have been compromised via Shellshock and some have been used to bombard web firms with data, said experts.

The number of attacks and compromises was likely to grow as the code used to exploit the bug was shared.

The Shellshock bug was discovered in a tool known as Bash that is widely used by the Unix operating system and many of its variants, including Linux open source software and Apple’s OSX.

Apple said it was working on a fix for its operating system and added that most users would not be at risk from Shellshock.

Attackers have been spotted creating networks of compromised machines, known as botnets, that were then put to other uses.

Honeypots

One group used their Shellshock botnet to bombard machines run by Akamai with huge amounts of junk data to try to knock them offline. Another group used its botnet to scan for more machines that are vulnerable.

Evidence of the scanning and attacks came from honeypots run by security companies. These are computers that have been set up to look vulnerable but which catch information about attackers.

Jaime Blasco, a researcher at security firm AlienVault, said its honeypot had seen scans and attacks that used Shellshock. The scans simply informed attackers that a server was vulnerable, he wrote, but others attempted to install malware to put that machine under an attacker’s control.

The control that Shellshock gave to attackers made it potentially more of a problem than the serious Heartbleed bug discovered in April this year, said security researcher Kasper Lindegaard from Secunia.

“This is going to unfold over the coming weeks and months” – Marc MaiffretBeyondTrust

“Heartbleed only enabled hackers to extract information,” he told tech news site The Register. “Bash enables hackers to execute commands to take over your servers and systems.”

The seriousness of the bug has also led governments to act quickly. The UK government said its cybersecurity response team had issued an alertto its agencies and departments giving Shellshock the “highest possible threat ratings”.

It had this rating, said the alert, because vulnerable systems would “inevitably” include machines that formed part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.

The US and Canada are believed to have issued similar alerts and told technology staff to patch systems as quickly as possible. Amazon, Google, Akamai and many other tech firms have also issued advisories to customers about the bug.

As well as software patches for vulnerable systems, security firms and researchers are also producing signatures and filter lists to help spot attacks based around it.

Early reports suggest up to 500 million machines could be vulnerable to Shellshock but, wrote Jen Ellis from security firm Rapid7, this figure was now being revised downwards because of the “number of factors that need to be in play for a target to be susceptible”.

“This bug is going to affect an unknowable number of products and systems, but the conditions to exploit it are fairly uncommon for remote exploitation,” said Ms Ellis.

Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer at security firm BeyondTrust, expressed a similar view.

“There is a lot of speculation out there as to what is vulnerable, but we just don’t have the answers,” he said. “This is going to unfold over the coming weeks and months.”

The Mysteries and Tragedy of Russia’s Bottomless Karst Lake (PHOTOS)

The water is serene but deathly cold – and danger lurks beneath its surface. Yet, in the aquatic depths the promise of discovering hidden underwater caves and relics of our past awaits. Here, beauty and allure belie risks – but risks that some are prepared to take.

“A sapphire in a ring of green trees.” That’s how this stunning lake has been described. Even on overcast days, the water has a deep, crystal blue color like the gemstone to which it has been compared.

But there is much more than splendor to this lake. Beneath its smooth surface lie mysteries as yet unsolved. And some of these are secrets that the lake will not easily give up; at least, not if the recent tragic death of one diving explorer and the hospitalization of another are read as telltale signs.

9 Magical Zen Gardens

Zen garden is an interesting and deeply spiritual aspect of Japanese gardening traditions. The typical Zen garden consists of an enclosed and shallow sand box of sorts which features predominantly sand or gravel with rocks of various shapes and sizes.

The rocks and sand (or gravel) are the chief elements of the garden, which generally creates the scene of islands in the sea. The sand or gravel in a Zen garden represents the sea or ocean and is used instead of water. It will be carefully raked by tending monks to create the impression of waves on the surface of a body of water.

The rocks themselves represent islands or rock formations jutting out from the water. The overall goal is to create a small-scale recreation of an aerial or cliff-top view of an intricate coastal scene. One of the primary differences between a Zen garden and most other varieties is the lack of living elements. Although grass may sometimes be included, no other plant or flower species will be found in a classic Zen garden.

This can be both unusual and exotically appealing to people with no past experience with the history and meaning of a Zen garden.

The world’s most extraordinary hotels in pictures

Mihir Garh, Rajasthan 
“The fort sits in splendid isolation amid the Thar Desert near Jodhpur. It looks like an enormous sandcastle, a mirage, and is not just a unique place to stay; it’s a shrine to the artistic and architectural traditions of Rajasthan in general and Jodhpur in particular.”

Planet Baobab, Botswana
“Botswana’s Makgadigadi Pan comprises the world’s largest network of salt pans – a thirsty, mirage-inducing landscape of flat, shimmering expanses under hard blue skies. Halfway along the sole tarred road through this arid moonscape, a statue of an anteater towers at the dusty verge. It is a surreal sight, and an appropriate signpost for the distinctive Planet Baobab.”

Prendiparte B&B, Bologna, Italy
“A medieval high-rise turned romantic hideaway, the Torre Prendiparte is unlike anywhere else you’ll ever stay. The living area is on the first two floors and comprises a snug, classically-furnished living room, mezzanine bedroom, and kitchen. Above this is the former jail where you can still see graffiti left by prisoners on the 2m-thick walls.”

Qasr al Sarab, UAE
“Rising from the shifting sands, Qasr Al Sarab appears like a mirage on the edge of the vast Empty Quarter desert. Outside high crenellated walls echo fortresses of old. Inside rooms continue the dream of Arabian Nights with sumptuous fabrics, carved Islamic designs, woven rugs, wooden doors and metalwork lanterns.”

Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, Tasmania, Australia
“A stay at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge plunges you into the heart of Tasmania’s wilderness, with luxury that feels as organic as your surrounds. The cabins are nestled privately in the bushland, with wallabies bounding past the windows and wombats shuffling amid the trees.”

Free Spirit Spheres, British Columbia, Canada
“Suspended in the trees on sturdy guide ropes, Vancouver Island’s Free Spirit Spheres look like giant eyeballs peering deep into the British Columbia woodlands. Step inside and the handmade orbs – accessed via spiral rope staircases or slender steel bridges – are lined like comfy boat cabins with built-in beds and cabinets.”

Taskonak Hotel, Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey
“Göreme has dozens of beautiful cave-hotels but Taşkonak manages to dish up the cave-suites and stupendous views Cappadocia is famous for without breaking your budget.”

Thonga Beach Lodge, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa
“One of few such lodges within the extraordinary 328,000 hectare iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a Unesco world heritage site.”

Saugerties Lighthouse, New York state, USA
“Saugerties Lighthouse is a historic 1869 landmark that makes a wonderful base for exploring the scenic Hudson valley. It is 100 miles north of New York City, and the red brick building has played a pivotal role in safely guiding steamboats, barges and other vessels safely along the Hudson river over the years. More recently (in the mid 1990s), the lighthouse was transformed into a two-room B&B, providing safe haven of a different sort.”

The Gibbon Experience Treehouse, Bokeo Reserve, Laos
“The tree houses erected by conservation group Animo are a thing of architectural wonder, straddling the giant trunks of strangler fig trees. But more extraordinary still is that to reach these vertiginous eyries you’ll have to trek through the fecund realm of the tiger, then catch a series of exhilarating zip lines strung across the forest canopy, before flying into your night’s accommodation.”

Amazing color pictures from 1960s Budapest

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National Geographic Photo Contest

 

 

 

 

100 years old pictures in colours before World War I

Türkei, Bursa, Ladengeschaeft einer Confiserie, Auguste Leon, 1. Juni 1913

Vietnam. Tonkin, Leon Busy, 1914

Indien, Statue des Heiligen Stiers, Stephane Passet, 29. Januar 1914

Österreich, Wien, Judengasse, Fotograf unbekannt, 23. April 1913

Mongolei, nahe Ulaanbaatar Urga, Stéphane Passet, 23. Juli 1913

Irland, Galway, Marguerite Mespoulet, 26. Mai 1913

Indien, Uttar Pradesh, Agra. Mausoleum Taj Mahal von Shah Jahan für Mumtaz Mahal, Stéphane Passet, 19.-21. Januar 1914

Indien, Amritsar. Marmorne Strasse zum Goldenden Tempel, neben den rituellen Reinigungsbecken, dem Darbar Sahib und dem Hari Mandir, Stéphane Passet, 15. Januar 1914

China, nach Kalgan. Nomadenlager, drei Männer und ein Junge vor einer Jurte, Stéphane Passet, 18.-21. Juli 1912

Water pipe smoking. Samarkand

Mongolei, Ulaanbaatar. Der Finanzminister des unabhängigen Staats Mongolei auf dem Marktplatz, Stéphane Passet, 22. Juli 1913

Major Lazer & DJ Snake – Lean On (feat. MØ)

Listen To A Rare 1965 Recording Of Stanley Kubrick’s Most Profound Interview

When physicist and renowned author Jeremy Bernstein (born December 31, 1929) penned a terrific piece on 37-year-old burgeoning director Stanley Kubrick for The New Yorker, the story gained so much attention that Bernstein was commissioned to write an even more elaborate profile of the legendary filmmaker. Normally Kubrick would have flat-out refused, however, he agreed due to the fact that he shared a common passion with Bernstein — chess. When Bernstein travelled to Oxford, England for the conversation on November 27, 1965 it was also captured on tape. The interview remains to this day one of the most profound conversations with Kubrick ever recorded, and you can listen to it in full below.

Helios – Hope Valley Hill (Arms and Sleepers Remix)

Keith Kenniff – Helios

Mac DeMarco // “Brother” (OFFICIAL SINGLE)

 

Alan Watts: Sense of Nonsense

November 27, 1965: A Rare Recording of Stanley Kubrick’s Most Revealing Interview

“People react primarily to direct experience and not to abstractions; it is very rare to find anyone who can become emotionally involved with an abstraction.”

George Orwell on how to make the perfect cup of tea

Excerpt from Orwell’s fantastic 1946 essay outlining his 11 “golden” rules of tea /

Harald Grosskopf’s 1979 Masterpiece “Synthesist” Is 7 Minutes Of Pure Amazingness

Yesterday TEEN DAZE released a new mixtape which you can stream and download by visiting ThePlayground.co.uk.  The 8-track collection provides a perfect ambient backdrop for pretty much any situation, but the crown jewel of the mixtape is unquestionably Harald Grosskopf’s brilliant track “Synthesist”.

Shanghai Tower (650 meters)

Raskalov and Russian photographer Vadim Mahora broke into and climbed the Gensler-designed Shanghai Tower, soon to be China’s tallest and the world’s second tallest skyscraper at 632 meters (2,074 feet) high. Although the tower will eventually boast the world’s fastest elevators (reaching 40mph), the pair had to climb the 120 flights of stairs by foot (taking them about two hours); they then spent another 18 hours sleeping and waiting for the weather to clear. The staggering resulting images show not just the dizzying heights, but also fantastic views of the adjacent Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center (together, the trio of buildings that are re-defining the Shanghai skyline).

Adam Magyar – Stainless, 42 Street (excerpt)

High speed video recording in NYC at Grand Central station.

Tolkien & Sendak On The Psychology Of Fantasy & The Powerful Effect Of Fairy Tales On The Adult Mind

In March 1939, renowned fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien penned an essay enitled “On Fairy-Stories” which explores the nature of fantasy and the cultural role of fairy tales. His argument is the same — that there is no such thing as “writing for children.” Tolkien writes: “A ‘fairy-story’ is one which touches on or uses Faerie, whatever its own main purpose may be: satire, adventure, morality, fantasy. Faerie itself may perhaps most nearly be translated by Magic — but it is magic of a peculiar mood and power, at the furthest pole from the vulgar devices of the laborious, scientific, magician. There is one proviso : if there is any satire present in the tale, one thing must not be made fun of, the magic itself. That must in that story be taken seriously, neither laughed at nor explained away.”

Tolkien adds: “Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else … may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds.” You can read more excerpts from Tolkien’s essay by visiting BrainPickings.org.

The Aqualibrium Garden – The Future of Food

The Aqualibrium Garden – The Future of Food by “Aqualibrium”

The fish in the self-cleaning aquarium in the bottom chamber of the Aqualibrium Garden provide the nutrients that feed the plants in the self-watering grow space in the upper chamber. This cycle… like nature herself… is automatic, providing the potential to grow an abundance of fresh vegetables, herbs and flowering plants all year.

The Real Walter White (VIDEO)

When AMC’s Breaking Bad premiered in 2008, one of Alabama’s most successful meth cooks was already knee deep in building a massive meth empire. His name? Walter White. In this documentary, Walter tells us the secret behind his product, how he stacked up thousands of dollars per day, and why his partner is now serving two life sentences.

A new industry born from the disaster — LED indoor farm

A new industry born from the disaster — LED indoor farm

Awesome pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope

 

 

 

 

Great Gardens: “Prospect Cottage” by Howard Sooley – NOWNESS

http://vimeo.com/103807651

Great Gardens: “Prospect Cottage” by Howard Sooley – NOWNESS

Speeding Around The World in Under 5 minutes Time Lapse

17 Countries. 343 Days. 6237 Photographs. One incredible journey.

GoPro: Wild Downhill Ride with Claudio Caluori

Claudio Calouri and Will Longden takes us on a wild run through the UCI Downhill Course at Leogang in Austria.

World’s smallest cat – Big Cats

森の木琴

TOUCHWOOD SH-08C http://answer.nttdocomo.co.jp/touchwood/

“TRUMP ANTHEM” — A Bad Lip Reading of Donald Trump

Snow falls in the Sahara desert

The town of Ain Sefra, on the edge of the Sahara desert, was hit by icy weather last week – and even snow.

Snowfall is very rare in the Sahara, despite the fact that it can be cold at night – because there’s rarely enough water around for any kind of precipitation.

Unbelievable Unlikely Animal Friendships Compilation 2017

Winds on this mountain in the US will make it feel like -67C

Temperatures on a mountain peak in the US state of New Hampshire could fall so low you risk getting frostbite in just a couple of minutes.

Micro Wind Turbine

Oxmo Puccino – 365 Jours

The Future Of Transportation

The World in 2050