The Final Hour: January 2016

Swarm of Aftershocks in Kamchatka after a Strong Earthquake

Moscow, Jan 30 (Prensa Latina) A swarm of more than 10 aftershocks followed an earthquake today in the Kamchatka peninsula of seven degrees intensity in the Richter scale, the strongest recorded at the end of the Russian Far East.

Read More: http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4564661&Itemid=1

Big Food now highly dependent on aborted fetal tissue for product development

The controversial practice came under fire after the Pro-Life group Children of God for Life exposed the food giant’s partnership with Senomyx, a biotech firm that conducts research using aborted fetal cells to develop artificial flavors incorporated into a number of products sold by Kraft Foods, Nestlé and other large food companies.(1)

http://newstarget.com/2016-01-29-big-food-now-highly-dependent-on-aborted-fetal-tissue-for-product-development.html

Turkey says Russia violated its airspace near Syria border

The foreign ministry said a Russian jet flew into its airspace on the border with Syria on Friday. Moscow described the claim as "baseless propaganda".

Tensions between the two countries have been high since November, when Turkey shot down a Russian jet.

Zika: Colombia cases in pregnant women double in a week

Almost 2,000 pregnant women now have the virus, Colombia's National Health Institute said, out of the more than 20,000 people infected across Colombia.

The mosquito-borne virus has been linked to babies being born with abnormally small brains.

Thousands march in Paris rain to protest state of emergency

Thousands of people marched in the Paris rain on Saturday to denounce plans to renew France's state of emergency and revoke the French citizenship of dual nationals convicted of terrorism.

Human rights groups, politicians and unions joined the march in the French capital, and in other demonstrations around France. The protests came just days before the Cabinet plans to review a measure on Wednesday to prolong the state of emergency, first imposed after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.

The US Mosque Obama Has Chosen For His First Presidential Visit Has Deep Extremist Ties

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

Read More: http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/30/the-us-mosque-obama-has-chosen-for-his-first-presidential-visit-has-deep-extremist-ties/

Satanic group set to lead Phoenix City Council in prayer

A Satanic group is set to deliver an opening prayer at an upcoming meeting of the Phoenix City Council, sparking controversy.

The local Satanic Temple will deliver the invocation at the Council’s Feb. 17 meeting after winning approval -- and at least one Councilman is calling that a joke, Fox 10 reported Thursday.

Saudi Arabia mosque attack: 2 reported killed

A suicide bomber blew himself up and another attacker opened fire outside a Shiite mosque in the predominantly Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Friday, killing two people and injuring at least seven others, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

Read More: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/29/middleeast/saudi-arabia-violence/

As Russian food prices spike higher, some winners emerge

For Olga Druganina, Russia’s economic turmoil has been a great business opportunity.

Four years ago, the former employee at an industrial machines company began to develop her modest farm near Moscow as a business. She started out simply wanting to feed family and friends, but Russian bans on foreign foods and the plunging value of the currency encouraged her to expand and tap the growing national demand for local produce.

BREAKING: Dutch declare war on ISIS with vow to send fighter jets to bomb Syria

The Netherlands already has a squadron of six F-16 planes in the region, which have been striking ISIS positions in Iraq.

Meeting in the Hague, the Dutch Cabinet said it would now extend airstrikes against the fanatical regime - also known as Daesh - to eastern Syria.

Bank of Japan adopts negative interest rate policy

The Bank of Japan blindsided global financial markets Friday by adopting negative interest rates for the first time ever, buckling under pressure to revive growth in the world's third-largest economy.

In a move that was signaled by the Nikkei business daily minutes ahead of the decision, the BOJ said it will apply a rate of negative 0.1 percent to excess reserves that financial institutional place at the bank, effective February 16.

HIV becoming resistant to key drug, study finds

HIV was resistant to the drug Tenofovir in 60% of cases in several African countries, according to the study, covering the period from 1998 to 2015.

The research, led by University College London, looked at around 2,000 HIV patients worldwide.

Magnitude 3.5 earthquake strikes San Andreas Fault off Calif. coast

An earthquake with a 3.5 preliminary magnitude struck an undersea portion of the San Andreas Fault off the California coast on Thursday afternoon.

The United States Geological Survey recorded the tremor at 156 miles west of Ferndale.

Gigantic Gas Cloud on Collision Course With Our Galaxy

In case you didn’t know, a huge — like, on a galactic scale — cloud of gas is currently speeding toward our galaxy at 700,000 mph. It’s full of sulfur, over 11,000 light-years long and 2,500 light-years wide, contains as much mass as a million suns… and was very likely spat out of the Milky Way while T. rex was walking the Earth.

Read More: http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/gigantic-gas-cloud-on-collision-course-with-our-galaxy-160129.htm

Rand Paul Returns to the Spotlight at GOP Debate

After being bumped from the main debates in early January due to low polling numbers, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took full advantage of his primetime slot at Thursday night’s Republican debate.

Read More: http://time.com/4199443/republican-debate-rand-paul-spotlight/

World stocks heat up as Bank of Japan goes sub-zero

World shares jumped and the yen slumped on Friday after the Bank of Japan took one of its main interest rates into negative territory, its boldest step yet to re-inflate the economy.

The yield on Japanese benchmark government bonds plunged to record lows JP10YTN=JBTC after the Bank of Japan said it would charge 0.1 percent for excess reserves and may cut rates further if necessary, an aggressive policy pioneered by the European Central Bank.

Zika Virus Spreading Rapidly

The explosion of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the Americas comes as tens of thousands of people are poised to descend on Brazil later this year for the Olympics, possibly making the international games a springboard to transmit the virus around the world when visitors return home.

Read More: http://www.voanews.com/content/zika-virus-spreading-rapidly/3167910.html

The U.S. Has Been Spying On Israel For Over A Decade: Report

The United States and Britain have monitored secret sorties and communications by Israel's air force in a hacking operation dating back to 1998, according to documents attributed to leaks by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-israel-hacking-spying_us_56ab2cdee4b00b033aaea731

WHO: Zika virus ‘spreading explosively,’ ‘level of alarm extremely high’

The World Health Organization announced Thursday that it will convene an emergency meeting to try to find ways to stop the transmission of the Zika virus — which officials said is "spreading explosively" across the Americas.

"The level of alarm is extremely high, as is the level of uncertainty. Questions abound. We need to get some answers quickly, " Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, said in Geneva in a briefing for member countries.

Global Stocks Pressured After Fed Statement

Global stocks were under pressure Thursday as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s latest stance on interest rates.

In its policy statement Wednesday, the U.S. central bank signaled concerns about global turbulence but kept a March interest-rate increase on the table.

The Latest: Dutch Working on Plan to Accept 250000 Refugees

The Dutch EU presidency is working on a plan to ease the migrant crisis by which a core group of member states would accept up to 250,000 refugees coming from Turkey in return for sending back the migrants that now arrive by the hundreds of thousands in Greece.

The leader of the Socialist PvdA party, a key partner in the government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, told De Volkskrant paper Thursday that current EU plans were not working because of intransigence of many member states refusing to take refugees. Instead, Diederik Samson said a core group of nations should be willing to accept a set number of refugees coming from Turkey, if the other migrants can be sent back.

Germany is stockpiling gold

Germany is accelerating a programme to bring its gold back to the country, after decades of storing the majority of its reserves overseas.

According to a statement, in the past year, the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, has moved 210 tonnes of gold into its vaults in Frankfurt, bringing 110 tonnes back from Paris, and just short of 100 tonnes from the Federal Reserve building in New York.

Trump Says “Bye-bye” to FOX

Trump pounded another stake into the heart of today’s so-called Mainstream Media.

Trump’s decision to withdraw from the coming Republican debate will be financially devastating for Fox News. And, Trump’s decision to withdraw will almost certainly harm Fox more than Trump.

The privileged world of Thailand's supernatural dolls

Their name, "luk thep", literally translates as "child angels" and people believe they bring good fortune and they are pampered by their owners as if they were children.

But the privileges lavished upon them have also drawn a backlash and warnings from Thai authorities.

Iran says warns U.S. warship to leave waters near Strait of Hormuz

Iran's navy warned a U.S. warship on Wednesday to leave waters near the Strait of Hormuz where the Iranians were testing submarines, destroyers and missile launchers, news agencies reported.

Read More: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-warned-u-warship-leave-area-iranian-naval-104423646.html

Pope Francis Welcomes Iranian President to Vatican

On the first official Iranian diplomatic visit to Europe in 20 years, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani is greeted and welcomed by Pope Francis to the Vatican in the interest of friendly Iran-Rome relations.

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/59979/pope-francis-welcomes-iranian-president-to-vatican-news-videos/#OZxkf46kpyjWRc0k.99

Israel’s electrical grid attacked in massive cyber attack’

As Israelis cranked up their heaters during the current cold snap, the Public Utility Authority was attacked by one of the largest cyber assaults that the country has experienced, Minister of Infrastructure, Energy and Water Yuval Steinitz said on Tuesday.

Read More: http://canadafreepress.com/article-news/78474

1,700-year-old inscriptions linked to ‘rabbis’ unearthed in Galilee

The finding was made following a joint effort carried out by residents of the moshav, researchers from the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology of the Kinneret Academic College, and the IAA.

According to the IAA, two Aramaic inscriptions mention individuals referred to as “rabbis,” who were buried in the western cemetery of Zippori, although their names have yet to be deciphered.

Read More: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/1700-year-old-inscriptions-linked-to-rabbis-unearthed-in-Galilee-442924

World stocks, dollar struggle ahead of Fed as oil falters

European stocks succumbed to another slide in oil prices on Wednesday as markets waited cautiously to see what the Federal Reserve's reaction will be to what has been a brutal start to the year for world markets.

Asian and particularly Chinese bourses .CSI300 ended stronger than they started but that could not prevent the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 falling just over 0.5 percent in early trading. [EU.]

Virginia resident who traveled abroad tests positive for Zika virus

A Virginia resident who traveled outside the United States has tested positive for the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, state health officials said on Tuesday.

The adult resident had recently traveled to a country where Zika virus transmission was ongoing and the infection was confirmed through testing by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Virginia Department of Health said in a statement.

Netanuahu: Where's Europe when Iran, ISIS, Hamas call for another Holocaust?

Netanyahu, in a taped message marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, said that anti-Semitism – “the oldest and most enduring hatred” – has not died.

“Unfortunately in Europe and elsewhere Jews are once again being target once again just for being Jews,” he said. “Around the world Jewish communities are increasingly living in fear as we see anti-Semitism directed against individual Jews, and we also see this hatred directed against the collective Jew, against the Jewish state,” he said.

Read More: http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Netanuahu-Wheres-Europe-when-Iran-ISIS-Hamas-call-for-another-Holocaust-442931

Why the United States is so vulnerable to the alarming spread of Zika virus

What is far less certain, say public health and infectious disease experts, is Zika’s potential reach and impact here. The South is seen as especially vulnerable because of its warm, humid climate and pockets of poverty where more people live without air-conditioning or proper window screens. Plus, the region is already home to mosquitoes that can transmit the virus.

Read More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/why-the-united-states-is-vulnerable-to-spread-of-zika-virus/2016/01/26/a8c6a9b4-c440-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html

Murder in ‘The Jungle': Deadly mass shooting at Seattle homeless camp deepens crisis

It was the speech of a lifetime: an impassioned pitch for Seattle to rally together to solve the spiraling crisis of homelessness.

“I hear your frustrations and I share them,” said Seattle mayor Ed Murray in a special television address on Tuesday night. “People are dying on our streets. We are working on a complex problem in real time.”

Holocaust victims honored 71 years after Auschwitz liberated

Dozens of elderly Holocaust survivors lit candles at Auschwitz exactly 71 years after theSoviet army liberated the death camp which has become the most powerful symbol of the human suffering inflicted by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Read More: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/world/article/Holocaust-victims-honored-71-years-after-6786989.php

Authorities seal off Oregon refuge after leaders of occupation arrested. 1 killed in gunfire.

After an exchange of gunfire Tuesday that left one man dead and another injured, the two brothers who orchestrated the armed occupation of a remote central Oregon wildlife refuge were taken into custody while traveling outside the area, along with six of their followers.

Read More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/01/26/five-oregon-occupiers-arrested-one-person-killed-in-confrontation-with-police/

Disney sued for 'replacing theme park workers with cheap migrant labour'

Leo Perrero and Dena Moore, who used to work at Walt Disney World in Florida, have launched lawsuits against the entertainment giant and two consulting companies.

They have alleged that Disney is colluding with firms HCL Inc and Cognizant to abuse temporary visas meant to fill specialty occupations.