UK weather set to get colder as 'Beast from the East' blows in from Siberia

Even London woke up to a dusting of snow this morning as temperatures plummeted to -11C in parts of the UK.

Snow warnings have been issued for most of the country as the freezing weather continues and there is no sign of respite as the “Beast from the East” blows in from Siberia.

The 4,000-mile wide plume of cold air is due to arrive tomorrow night, sending the mercury way below freezing to make the south of England and Midlands feel colder than Greenland.

 

More travel disruption was expected today as temperatures struggle to reach 5C in much of Britain, leaving snow that has already fallen slow to melt.

The fountains in Trafalgar Square froze as snow fell in London overnight but the coldest weather was reserved for areas under clear skies.

Credit to independent.co.uk

TSA to Require 'Real ID' with Background Checks for Domestic Flights

Real ID: gold star for good behavior; no report on the scarlet
letter they'll use to ID troublemakers.


The TSA recently announced they will require a special driver's license to board domestic flights by 2016.

These 'Real IDs' will have already performed extensive background checks on everyone who receives them and will feature stars and other markings to indicate good behavior. No word on markings for troublemakers.

It seems similar to how a scarlet letter was used to indicate adulterers in Puritan societies, or how the Jews in Nazi Germany were forced to wear yellow badges in public so they could be immediately recognized by authorities.

Real IDs are referred to as enhanced IDs and they also reportedly contain biometric security features and RFID chips. Since its inception, civil liberties advocates have had concerns that those without these intrusive new IDs will be excluded from basic human rights like working or traveling.

The news report below appears to confirm this agenda.

"It's a choice," says a Nevada DMV official in the video below, "you don't have to get a Real ID card, but if you want to get on an airplane after 2016, you're going to have to have a Real ID card."

KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video -


Video Source: KTVN
Credit to Activist Post

100,000 pro-Russia forces to join fight in east Ukraine

The leader of the pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine has announced that their side is to be reinforced by 100,000 more fighters by spring.

“In 10 days, we will begin a general mobilization,” Alexander Zakharchenko said, according to the semi-official Donetsk News Agency, adding, “We plan to mobilize up to 100,000 people.”

On January 20, Ukraine conducted the fourth wave of mobilization of its armed forces since the conflict in eastern regions started. Another two waves are planned for April and June.

According to Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak, a total of 104,000 Ukrainians will be mobilized throughout 2015.

Forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have, meanwhile, said they have seized two large ammunition depots and prevented army columns from delivering food and fuel to troops in the town of Debaltseve.

Eduard Basurin, the deputy commander of the self-proclaimed republic’s forces, said on Sunday that nearly 60 Ukrainian troops had been killed during recent clashes with pro-Russia forces in the region.

The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev’s military operation started in April 2014, in a bid to crush the protests.

Violence intensified in May 2014, after the two flashpoint regions held local referendums in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation.

The fighting has left more than 5,100 people killed and over 1.5 million displaced, the United Nations says.

Credit to Presstv

Militants bomb 2,700-year-old Nineveh Wall in Iraq

Militants of the Islamic State have destroyed a large portion of the ancient Nineveh wall in Mosul, which dates back some 2,700 years. The tragic loss adds to a series of archaeological, historical, and religious sites of great historical value that have been reduced to ruins. 

The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) reported last week that the militants used explosives to blow apart the wall located in the al-Tahrir region on the left coast of Mosul. “ISIS militants blew up today large parts and expanses of the archaeological wall of Nineveh,” media official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Mosul, Saed Mimousine, told IraqiNews.com last Tuesday. “The Wall of Nineveh is one of the most distinctive archaeological monuments in Iraq and the Middle East,” he added. 

View of Adad Gate at Nineveh from the North. (Wikimedia Commons) Nineveh (modern-day Mosul, Iraq) was one of the oldest cities in antiquity, having been settled as early as 6000 BC. By 3000 BC, it had become an important religious center for worship of the goddess Ishtar. Under the reign of King Sennacherib (704 – 681 BC), the city grew dramatically in size and grandeur, who made Nineveh capital of his Assyrian Empire. Sennacherib ordered the construction of a massive protective wall around the city, measuring around 7.5 mile (25 km). Inside, he built aqueducts, irrigation canals, public gardens, and spectacular monuments. Simplified plan of ancient Nineveh showing city wall and location of gateways. Image created by Fredarch. (Wikimedia Commons) 

The wall consisted of a 6 meter (20ft) high stone retaining wall surmounted by a 10 meter (33ft) high and 15 meter (49ft) thick mudbrick wall. The wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every 18 meters (59ft), and fifteen monumental gateways, which served as checkpoints, barracks, and armories. 

The bases of the walls of the vaulted passages and interior chambers of the gateway were lined with finely cut stone orthostats about 1 meter (3ft) high. To date, only five of the fifteen gateways have been excavated by archaeologists. Assyrian wall carving of horses and grooms. From Nineveh, South West Palace, 790BC - 592BC. In the British Museum. (Wikimedia Commons) Nineveh was the largest city in the world for some fifty years, until a period of civil war in Assyria, in which a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians and Cimmerians sacked the city in 612 BC, leaving much of it in ruins. 

The remains of the wall and city have laid there ever since, standing as a lasting reminder of the once great city of Assyria. However, when militants captured Mosul in June last year, they proceeded to destroy shrines and tombs important to Christians and Muslims because they allegedly “distort Islam.” The destruction of part of the Nineveh wall is the culmination of many such attacks on historic monuments in the city.

Credit to Ancient origins.net

- See more at: http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/tragedy-militants-bomb-2700-year-old-nineveh-wall-iraq-002632#sthash.OBNBaC4d.dpuf

"Vampire Shark" Emerge From The Deep...The Darkness Manifested

China's 2nd aircraft carrier nears construction phase

The construction of China's second aircraft carrier appears to be imminent, reports the Global Times, a tabloid under the auspices of the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

On Saturday, the official microblog of the Changzhou city government in east China's Jiangsu province posted that a local company, Jiangsu Shangshang Cable Group, has won a tender to supply cabling for "China's second aircraft carrier."

The post was backed up by a report by the Changzhou Evening News on the same day, though both the microblog post and the article were deleted shortly after publication.

According to the Global Times, Jiangsu Shangshang Cable Group was a supplier of China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, a refitted former Soviet carrier which was commissioned in September 2012.

In the international arena, most countries usually require three aircraft carriers — one on duty, one for training, and one in maintenance, the Global Times said. In April 2013, Song Xue, the chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army Navy, said that China will eventually have more than just one aircraft carrier, but denied reports that a shipbuilder had already commenced work in Shanghai. In August later that year, Chinese defense ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun concurred that while the Liaoning is China's first aircraft carrier, it certainly won't be the last.

Modern aircraft carriers require a major long-term investment that involves complex analyses, design, construction and testing, the Global Times said. Chinese military commentary Li Xiaojian told the tabloid that the tender process for a new aircraft carrier will only begin after the overall planning and design process has been completed, suggesting that the recent reports mean China's second aircraft carrier could soon be entering the construction phase.

It remains unclear whether the new aircraft carrier will be conventionally or nuclear powered, though according to the Voice of Russia, China intends to have two conventionally-powered aircraft carriers to accumulate the necessary experience to boost the PLA Navy's offshore attack capabilities.
Credit to China Times

Pope Francis Openly Communist