Obama met with the Turkish sultan Erdogan. There seems to be no agreement between them on how to continue their onslaught on Syria. The only point they agree on is a meaningless “Assad has to go” which would then be a starting point for “something”. Zionist lobby “experts” urge the U.S. to further intervene with a no fly zone to save Erdogan’s endangered political position and U.S. “credibility”. In the run up to World War I it was Germany’s “credibility” towards a misbehaving ally that had to be saved. That did not end well.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2013/05/syria-news-roundup.html

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Lonely year for French president at time of crisis
By SYLVIE CORBET | Associated Press – 31 mins ago…
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PARIS (AP) — The sounds of raucous protest echo in the Presidential Palace, unemployment is rising to levels not seen in over a decade, and his country’s economy has been called a potential time bomb at the heart of Europe.

Francois Hollande, among the most unpopular French leaders in modern history, remains calm.

Lacking the early-career charisma of President Barack Obama or the hard-nosed reputation of Germany’s Angela Merkel, Hollande rose to power in the Socialist Party as a consensus-builder — someone who went out of his way to avoid confrontation. But the amiability that propelled him to the presidency a year ago is turning against Hollande, as poll after poll finds deep disappointment among many who believe he is incapable of the swift, determined choices needed to yank France out of a malaise he himself says threatens generations to come.

“I remain solid and serene,” Holland told a handful of journalists in his office at the Presidential Palace, above the shouts of a crowd demonstrating against his plan to legalize gay marriage. Without camouflaging the difficulties, he admitted it’s been a trying year. “I grasp the seriousness — it’s the task of the president to remain steady and to see further than the storms of a moment. It’s called perseverance.”

Judgment, he said in the interview earlier this month, will come only at the end of his five-year term.

But, seated comfortably in his office armchair, Hollande insisted he was anything but indecisive.

“My will is to pull the country together and restore its confidence. This will take time, but I have no other goal,” he said. “You can criticize my decisions, think that I’m on the wrong path, say I’m foundering, but if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that I’ve made major choices for France in the past year.”

He cited the accord reached in January between unions and business leaders to relax some of France’s famously strict labor protections. Hollande had championed the agreement, saying the costs and difficulties of hiring in France were hurting its ability to compete globally. But unemployment has only risen since then, and the brief optimism generated by the agreement — which is expected to become law by next month — has since faded. This week, it reached 10.6 percent, the highest level since 1999.

Hollande talks a lot about the French intervention in Mali, by far his most popular act in office. But, despite Hollande’s best efforts, France was alone among European countries in sending soldiers, and French forces outnumbered any Africans sent to win Mali back from the militants who threatened to seize the entire country.

“I became president at an exceptional time,” said Hollande, who tends to speak deliberately and formally even in relaxed settings. “Exceptional on the economic front: a long crisis, a recession in Europe, unemployment at historic levels. Exceptional because I was forced to engage France in Mali. Exceptional because populism is taking hold, not just in France, but throughout Europe.”

Bernard Poignant, a Socialist who is Hollande’s friend of 30 years and also one of his advisors, said the president started his term at a hugely difficult moment for his leftist base.

“Traditionally the left, when it comes to power, is generous, redistributive of wealth,” he said. “Today, it’s the reverse. The right emptied the coffers and now the left must fill them.”

Economists say that France’s predicament stems neither from the country’s right or left, but from generations of benefits that few politicians are willing to take away. Hollande’s predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, only half-heartedly tried to raise the work week from 35 hours, then pulled back even before strong opposition emerged.

Hollande cautiously broached the idea of pulling back some of the subsidies that now go to all parents of young children, exempting families who earn high incomes. But the 35-hour work week remains in place, as does the retirement age of 62. Health care remains universal and nearly all treatments are reimbursed at least partially. Hollande has said he will not thin the ranks of government employees. France will remain among the countries with the highest percentage of public workers in the world — about 20 percent of the workforce gets a government paycheck and a government pension.

Hollande was elected as “president normal,” an unassuming contrast to Sarkozy’s flashy, aggressive style, and his dramatic divorce and marriage to the model and singer Carla Bruni. But a year into his term, his amiability has managed to turn most of the country against him, even within his own camp. Numerous Socialist lawmakers are openly speaking against him, for example, for demanding they publish their assets.

The president appears to relish simple, easy contact with the French. He can spend hours happily shaking hands, telling stories, joking. But those moments are becoming increasingly rare.

“He is consumed by his responsibilities, too consumed, in my opinion,” said Poignant. “The political climate is such that the president is becoming the target of protests. We have to protect him for security reasons: It is very difficult for him to be close to the French.”

Only about one in four French approve of the job Hollande is doing, lower than either of his conservative predecessors.

He says he is willing to wait for that to change, describing his five-year term in two phases: things will be very difficult in the first phase, then a return to growth and the Socialist preference toward more government spending. His advisors — and most economists — say privately they don’t expect much good news for France before 2015.

“The French have always turned to the president. He is accountable to them, and that’s as it should be. My actions are measured at this particular moment in our country’s history,” he said. “I remain in control of myself, confident in what I think.”

http://news.yahoo.com/lonely-french-president-time-crisis-062542859.html

Breaking: Israel strikes Gaza for the first time since truce. Obama says …nothing!
http://rt.com/news/israel-strikes-gaza-truce-245/
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Israel strikes Gaza for the first time since truce

Published time: April 02, 2013 21:40
Edited time: April 02, 2013 22:47

Israeli F-16 (AFP Photo / GPO)

The Israeli Air Force has launched an airstrike on Gaza, the first such attack since a ceasefire ended the bloody conflict in November. No injuries were reported.
“Occupation planes bombarded an open area in northern Gaza, there were no wounded,” a statement from the Hamas Interior Ministry said.

According to Haaretz, the strike hit near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, after two mortar shells were fired from Gaza towards western Negev earlier on Tuesday. No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for that projectile and no injuries were reported after the explosion.

Israel Defense Forces confirmed they had launched an airstrike on a Gaza target Tuesday night, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Israeli military initially claimed that only one projectile had landed in Israel, but later issued a statement saying nothing had landed. “It turns out that nothing fell on Israeli territories,” a spokeswoman told AFP.

Tuesday’s flare up was not the first since the November truce, which was mediated by Egypt after eight days of violence killed 170 Palestinians and six Israelis. In December of last year Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians who they described as rioters, despite Hamas’ claim that the four men were simple farmers near the border. Both sides maintained the peace in the weeks afterward.

Israelis flock to Berlin for better life. Is this the time to fire up those old ovens?
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/02/201322711114892470.html

Young immigrants find the German capital to be hip and cheap – and still contains traces of its Jewish past.
Victoria Schneider Last Modified: 09 Mar 2013 12:03

Avisar Lev and Noa Golan describe their new home city of Berlin as ‘cheap and cool’ David Oliveira/Al Jazeera
Their new life began four hours by plane away from Tel Aviv. Everything they owned fit into 23 boxes and two animal cages. Altogether, these weighed roughly 300kg – but the load felt incredibly light.
“It’s strange,” says Avisar Lev, 35, nestling into the snug armchair near the window. “I immediately felt at home in Berlin, for the first time in my life.” When he and his wife, Noa Golan, moved to the German capital three months ago, they only took their most important belongings: their cat Buja and their dog Lucy.
All the restrictions and constraints of their Israeli life were left behind.

When they arrived in Germany in early December, their flat was waiting for them. Noa Golan, a slim 29-year-old with dark hair, had found the ground floor flat in an old building in one of Berlin’s hippest quarters, Neukölln, which is known for its tatty and multicultural vibe. It looks like home: The wooden floors, the stove in the corner of the living room. The firewood stacked between dozens of books they brought from Tel Aviv.

They left Israel for many reasons. “Living became very much impossible in Israel,” says Lev. The couple had saved money in order to buy a flat and start a life together. “But you can’t start a life in Israel,” explains his wife. “If they want, landlords in Tel Aviv can increase the prices for their properties by 200 percent.”
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, property prices in Israel’s business hub have risen by 71 percent between 2000 and 2011. In 2012, the price of homes in Tel Aviv rose by an additional 3.7 percent. The rising living costs led to mass demonstrations in Tel Aviv, “but while the whole world was watching it in the news, our government didn’t do anything”, Lev says.
He started looking into flats elsewhere. “There was this buzz about Berlin,” he says. His wife adds: “Everyone who is like us moves to Berlin. It’s cheap and it’s cool.” Over the past decade, the once-divided city of Berlin has become a hub for young liberals and intellectuals from around the globe.
Golan and Lev are just two of thousands of young Israelis who have moved to Berlin. The trend has been going on for some time now, and their numbers are increasing. The Israeli embassy in Berlin puts the estimate at around 15-20,000, but some say they are closer to 30,000.
Exactly how many Israelis there are is hard to pinpoint, however, because many are of European descent and hold European passports – and so they don’t count as “Israeli immigrants”.

Maayan Iungman moved from Tel Aviv to Berlin just before her 30th birthday David Oliveira/Al Jazeera
“You can compare Berlin to New York City in the ’80s”, says Emmanuel Nahshon, the Israeli embassy’s envoy in Berlin. “The city stands for freedom and tolerance. There are a lot of young people from around the world here, not just Israelis. It is cheap to live and study here and there are many cultural and intellectual activities.”
These are not the only reasons the immigrants have for moving. Lev, who worked as a human rights lawyer for Yesh Din, an Israeli NGO that files petitions against illegal construction by settlers on privately owned Palestinian land, says: “It came to a point where I just felt I had to leave. It’s the way people in Israel treat you; some called me a traitor.” The 35-year-old says he was worried he might be followed or photographed. “If you oppose, the society pushes you aside.”
Berlin has the space to breathe. “I felt Israel was very narrow,” says Maayan Iungman. The actress, model and director moved from Tel Aviv just before her 30th birthday, less than a year ago.
Being abroad made her realise many things: “People here don’t have this stress like we do. Israel is not bad – that’s not what I am saying. But the reality is hard, in a quiet way. It’s hard to make a living. There’s the occupation, the army, the religion. The society teaches you that this is the only place for you and you’re not welcome in other places. It’s a country that is occupying another country and it makes its own people crazy. And I am not even talking about the Palestinian people.”
Iungman fell in love with a German and decided to move to Berlin where her sister was already living. The day she arrived in Berlin was Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. It was then she realised that where she was going was a place of the past. “I was picked up at the airport by a German guy who I had spent a night with in Israel, but actually didn’t know – and, yes, it did feel strange. We went to his house and were so close to each other. Then I thought: What would be better to give to this day than love?”
A poll by the Center for Academic Studies conducted in 2011 revealed that 70 percent of Israelis don’t forgive Germany for the past. Many young Israelis have grandparents who either fled or survived the Holocaust. Yet now, some of them are returning to the scene where the atrocities of the Nazis were forged, where Joseph Goebbels declared total war and where the “final solution” to annihilate the Jewish people was determined.
Today, Jewish history is still perceptible in Berlin, a city whose streets are sprinkled with Stolpersteine, small memorials the size of cobblestones embedded in the pavement. The memorials quietly remind you where you are and what happened.
Golan remembers. Her grandmother was born in Berlin, and her silhouette hangs neatly above the couple’s bookshelves. Although Golan’s grandmother left Germany before Hitler came to power, she is fascinated by the history. “I notice everything. When I go for a walk along the canal, I wonder: ‘what have these waters seen?”” And yet, as much as Golan is aware of the history, she thinks it is time to strip off the complex that she finds both Israelis and Germans have. “Come on, it’s behind us,” she says, speaking for many of her compatriots who live in Berlin.

Adopted Russia children in US families become guinea pigs for drug companies.. some are fed five potent psychotropic drugs at a time!
http://english.pravda.ru/society/family/01-03-2013/123937-adopted_children_psychotropic_drugs-0/
01.03.2013

Adopted children in American families sometimes become “guinea pigs” for pharmaceutical companies to test new drugs. Such children are prescribed five potent psychotropic medications at a time. This is beneficial both for the adoptive parents and health care professionals.

Russian diplomats found that the adoptive mother of Maxim Kuzmin who died in late January in the U.S. gave him a drug called Risperdal. It is a powerful anti-psychotic and anti-hallucination drug prescribed for acute manic attacks in patients with schizophrenia. Why a three-year-old boy not diagnosed with mental illness at the time of adoption would take such a strong drug? American TV journalists of KMID channel while preparing a story about the death of the Russian child talked to a child psychologist and found that Risperdal is also often prescribed for common disorders of psychological development and ASD.

Adepts of the so-called Attachment Therapy recommend wrapping children in a carpet, and then sitting on them. Children are also kept under a cold shower for a long time, locked in a toilet and left without food for several days. Many “advanced” parents on the advice of psychologists come up with even more sophisticated methods, making, for example, children dig their own graves. All these savage practices are implemented by proponents of the attachment therapy as the best way to get children to be obedient and break their will.

Also read: Sadistic methods of raising children all the rage in USA

Sometimes this is not enough. For example, when the goal is to get the desired result, absolute submission, as quickly as possible, powerful psychotropic drugs can help. Last year, the U.S. General Accountability Office issued a report stating that adopted children are given strong psychotropic drugs in doses exceeding those recommended by the Department of Food and Drug Administration.
Commenting on the report, Medical News Today cited data of the charity organization Maryhurst that helps children who fell victims of violence and cruelty. Three quarters of the children who are going through the program of the fund are taking psychotropic drugs. However, most did not have any medical evidence for this. The most shocking information, according to the publication, was revealed as a result of the inspection conducted in six states, including Texas.
The findings are discouraging. Adopted children were given five or more powerful psychotropic drugs at a time in doses higher than the maximum recommended by the Health Department. Finally, children as young as one year old were subject to this therapy. As noted by GAO experts, this can have very serious negative effects. No one seems to care because these methods of “educating” bring money.

One of the authors of Squidoo website calls the abuse of psychotropic drugs “national shame of America.” Giving high doses of potent drugs to kids is beneficial for both doctors and the adoptive parents. All the money spent on the “treatment” is compensated by the Federal Social Fund. That is, psychiatrists are interested in giving out prescriptions. To encourage families to buy drugs in large doses, psychiatrists tell that adopted children have developmental issues.
Squidoo author wrote that while children were in their own families they were considered normal. Once they were in foster care, their “special needs” were immediately discovered. It has to do with money as special needs are better compensated. In families raising several children with disabilities, including those with psychiatric diagnoses, the amount of social grants may reach 10,000 dollars a month. Another interested player is the pharmaceutical industry.

Squidoo posted a video where a young girl talks about taking pills that have not been approved by FDA while living in foster care. It is no accident the author’s article is called The Tragic Drugging of Foster Children – Are They Being Used as Medical Guinea Pigs?
Foster children are not the only ones who suffer from excessive amounts of psychotropic drugs. American parents stuff their own children with drugs. A joint study was conducted by scientists from the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands, and an article on this subject was published in Medical News Today. It was found that American children are three times more likely to receive psychotropic drugs than children in Europe.

The study authors attributed the love of American parents to antidepressants and strong sedatives by consumer advertising and social system of compensatory payments. The society encourages its citizens to resort to psychotropic drugs.
Svetlana Smetanina
Pravda.Ru

3 year old Russian boy killed by American adoptive mother in Texas
http://rt.com/news/russian-child-killed-texas-496/

Brutally beaten by his American adoptive parents, who earlier gave him psychotropic medication for an extended period of time, a 3-year-old Russian boy Died!

Published: 18 February, 2013, 17:57
Edited: 18 February, 2013, 22:24
TAGS:
Children, Crime, Russia, Politics, Human rights, Law, USA, Violence

(AFP Photo / Mark Ralston)
After being brutally beaten by his American adoptive mother, who gave him psychotropic medication for an extended period of time, a 3-year-old Russian boy named Maksim has died in Texas, Russian diplomats have said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a probe into the death of Maksim Kuzmin at the hands of his adoptive American family.
The boy died before medics, called by his adoptive mother, arrived at the scene. An autopsy showed that he suffered multiple injuries to his head, limb, abdomen and internal organs prior to death.
The investigation revealed that Maksim was beaten by his adoptive mother, who had also fed him strong psychotropic medication. The boy was given Risperdal, an anti-psychotic drug mainly used for short-term treatment of schizophrenia and bilateral disorders and approved for prescription in the US with the starting age of 10.
The US State Department did not comment on the boy’s death, which reportedly happened on January 21. Nevertheless, the incident became known to the Russian Embassy in the US.
Russian Children’s Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov has asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to conduct an impartial investigation, and to keep Russia informed of all details concerning Maksim’s death.
Russian MFA Representative for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov said the US State Department failed to provide help to the Russian diplomats investigating Kuzmin’s death. In a Twitter post, Dolgov called the incident “yet another inhuman abuse of a Russian child adopted by an American family,” and said he was expecting “severe punishment for those found guilty in his death.”
Maksim’s death comes amid heightened Russia-US tensions, which center on children and human rights abuses. The boy’s death was less than a month after the ‘Dima Yakovlev Law’ banning US citizens from adopting Russian foster children came into force.
Although the two countries agreed in 2012 to form a joint task force to investigate crimes against adopted Russian children, Russian politicians and law enforcement have repeatedly said the US is reluctant to cooperate on the matter. They also noted that convicted American parents were given soft sentences for their cruel treatment, or even manslaughter, of Russian kids, which was said to be one of the grounds for the adoption ban bill.

3 year old Russian boy killed by American adoptive mother in Texas
http://rt.com/news/russian-child-killed-texas-496/

Brutally beaten by his American adoptive parents, who earlier gave him psychotropic medication for an extended period of time, a 3-year-old Russian boy Died!

Published: 18 February, 2013, 17:57
Edited: 18 February, 2013, 22:24
TAGS:
Children, Crime, Russia, Politics, Human rights, Law, USA, Violence

(AFP Photo / Mark Ralston)
After being brutally beaten by his American adoptive mother, who gave him psychotropic medication for an extended period of time, a 3-year-old Russian boy named Maksim has died in Texas, Russian diplomats have said.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a probe into the death of Maksim Kuzmin at the hands of his adoptive American family.
The boy died before medics, called by his adoptive mother, arrived at the scene. An autopsy showed that he suffered multiple injuries to his head, limb, abdomen and internal organs prior to death.
The investigation revealed that Maksim was beaten by his adoptive mother, who had also fed him strong psychotropic medication. The boy was given Risperdal, an anti-psychotic drug mainly used for short-term treatment of schizophrenia and bilateral disorders and approved for prescription in the US with the starting age of 10.
The US State Department did not comment on the boy’s death, which reportedly happened on January 21. Nevertheless, the incident became known to the Russian Embassy in the US.
Russian Children’s Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov has asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to conduct an impartial investigation, and to keep Russia informed of all details concerning Maksim’s death.
Russian MFA Representative for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov said the US State Department failed to provide help to the Russian diplomats investigating Kuzmin’s death. In a Twitter post, Dolgov called the incident “yet another inhuman abuse of a Russian child adopted by an American family,” and said he was expecting “severe punishment for those found guilty in his death.”
Maksim’s death comes amid heightened Russia-US tensions, which center on children and human rights abuses. The boy’s death was less than a month after the ‘Dima Yakovlev Law’ banning US citizens from adopting Russian foster children came into force.
Although the two countries agreed in 2012 to form a joint task force to investigate crimes against adopted Russian children, Russian politicians and law enforcement have repeatedly said the US is reluctant to cooperate on the matter. They also noted that convicted American parents were given soft sentences for their cruel treatment, or even manslaughter, of Russian kids, which was said to be one of the grounds for the adoption ban bill.