Category Archives: planetkillers

Bank of America to pay $9.3B to settle Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac claims – San Francisco Business Times

If you stole $900 from a corner store, you could do 5 or more years in prison. If you steal more than $9 billion, no jail just a negotiated fine…

What a day for BofA.

Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. Wednesday afternoon announced it will pay $9.3 billion in cash penalties plus mortgage bond repurchases to settle all outstanding mortgage-backed-securities claims brought by federal housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

via Bank of America to pay $9.3B to settle Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac claims – San Francisco Business Times.

H5N1: Guinea says Ebola outbreak contained; death toll rises

The outbreak of mysterious haemorrhagic fever was first detected in Guinea in February. Scientists have since identified it as the most virulent Zaire strain of the Ebola virus.

The virus is believed to reside primarily in bats between rare outbreaks in humans. Some experts believe it may have been carried by bats from central Africa, where it is more common.

BAN ON BATS AND BUSHMEAT

In an effort to contain the disease, Guinea has banned the sale and consumption of bats and other types of bush meat, and banned public funerals for those killed. Volunteers from the Guinean Red Cross were disinfecting the homes of victims and dealing with infected bodies.

via H5N1: Guinea says Ebola outbreak contained; death toll rises.

Zhu Zhu Cries For Animals To Ban China’s Cruel Cosmetics Animal Testing – Look to the Stars

The animal-loving film star, announced this week as a Be Cruelty-Free China Ambassador, joins international celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney and Leona Lewis, in speaking up for cosmetics with compassion on behalf of the global Be Cruelty-Free campaign.

Zhu Zhu’s Be Cruelty-Free photo campaign launched in Beijing, features the actress crying whilst cradling a rabbit, one of the most commonly used animals in cosmetics testing. An estimated 300,000 rabbits, mice and other animals are used in cosmetics testing each year in China. They have chemicals dripped in their eyes, spread on their shaved skin or force fed to them in massive, lethal doses. No pain relief is given.

via Zhu Zhu Cries For Animals To Ban China’s Cruel Cosmetics Animal Testing – Look to the Stars.

H5N1: Eyewitness testimony from the heart of Guinea’s Ebola outbreak

“At the start, neither the patients nor the doctors understood what was happening. There was talk of a mysterious illness that was similar to cholera and typhoid fever. Some patients snuck out of hospitals to get the opinion of traditional practitioners, which only helped spread the virus.

When a family member is sick, all of his relatives stay by his bedside

“In this city, like in surrounding towns, people don’t know what to do. When a family member is sick, all of his relatives stay by his bedside. Then, once they die, since it’s unthinkable to abandon a body, the body is buried. At any one of these moments, loved ones risk being infected.

“It is essential to do real work on the risks and means of transmission. Up until now, the authorities have broadcast advice over local radio, but that isn’t enough. I think that we don’t have an exact idea of the number of infected people because we only count people that are admitted for treatment. But there’s probably a lot more if we include surrounding towns and villages.”

via H5N1: Eyewitness testimony from the heart of Guinea’s Ebola outbreak.

Erdogan’s great patriotic war – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Erdogan’s great patriotic war – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Dead give away that someone has not more ideas to make government work for people – become super patriotic: The film begins dramatically: A Turkish flag flies beautifully, high above Istanbul from atop a colossal pole. A scary-looking man in a black suit and black gloves walks menacingly toward the pole, takes out a metal bar and breaks the mechanism for raising and lowering the flag. The flag begins to fall in slow motion as citizens watch in shock and horror. At that moment, Erdogan’s voice is heard reciting a passage from the Turkish national anthem:

Friend! Don’t let scoundrels into my country!
Shield with your body, let this shameless invasion stop.
Days which God has promised to give you will dawn;
Who knows, maybe tomorrow, maybe sooner than tomorrow.

H5N1: More on the hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Guinea

“Symptoms appear as diarrhea and vomiting, with a very high fever. Some cases showed relatively heavy bleeding,” Keita said.

“We thought it was Lassa fever or another form of cholera but this disease seems to strike like lightning. We are looking at all possibilities, including Ebola, because bushmeat is consumed in that region and Guinea is in the Ebola belt,” he said. No cases of the highly contagious Ebola fever have ever been recorded in the country.

Keita said most of the victims had been in contact with the deceased or had handled the bodies. He said those infected had been isolated and samples had been sent to Senegal and France for further tests.

via H5N1: More on the hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Guinea.

Study fingers chickens, quail, in spread of H7N9 influenza virus

“This work supports the field epidemiology studies that had identified live poultry markets as the likely source of the outbreak,” says Suarez. “The Chinese correctly closed the live bird markets where they had human infections, and that reduced the number of cases for a while. However, their efforts did not eradicate the virus and it has returned for a second wave.”

via Study fingers chickens, quail, in spread of H7N9 influenza virus.

www.german-foreign-policy.com – Ultra-Nationalists – Bane of Peace and Freedom

The Annihilation of Jewish Latvians

Many members of the Waffen-SS being again honored on Sunday, had participated in the annihilation of Jewish Latvians. Right after Kārlis Ulmanis’ putsch May 15, 1934, Jewish Latvians employed by the government were fired. Jewish businesses were obliged to close. Immediately following their invasion in June 1941, the Germans carried out their first massacres, with Latvians’ practical assistance. Soon Latvian auxiliary police units were created, for imprisoning and guarding Jews, as well as to carry out assassinations.[3] Only 15,000 of the 90,000 Jewish Latvians were able to flee with Soviet troops in the summer of 1941 ahead of the Nazis’ invasion. Less than a thousand of the remaining 75,000 Jews survived German barbarism. Many of the Latvians, who had participated in the murders, joined the Latvian Waffen-SS, which in 1944 were engaged in the effort to defend the German killing fields from the Red Army. Around 140,000 Latvians had collaborated with the German occupiers.

via www.german-foreign-policy.com.

VDU’s blog: H7N9: the dotted lines that make sense of things…

The latest H7N9 case-per-day chart shows that the trickle of human cases of confirmed avian influenza A(H7N9) virus infection is becoming a drip. The tap? My money is still mostly with the market closures. What precisely in the markets? Dunno, but the consensus seems to be poultry; songbirds loo pretty god to though. It doesn’t have to be, and is unlikely to be, just 1 thing of course. We know that this virus, as with other avian influenza viruses, can be shared around among bird species. It can even go into a human and that isolate be used to infect a bird again.

via VDU’s blog: H7N9: the dotted lines that make sense of things….

Me: Live markets are incubators and major transmission points for all old flu and new ones as well – ties to Lunar New Year preparations is also clear. Next year? H7N9 exported to Vietnam, Korea, India, Cambodia, Thailand?

Salmonella in Costco fruit sparks recall by Oregon food freeze dryer | OregonLive.com

Oregon Freeze Dry, Inc. in Albany sold the Kirkland Signature Real Sliced Fruit to Costco, which distributed the product to its stores in 36 states and Puerto Rico. None of the contaminated fruit was sold in Oregon or Washington even though it was produced in Albany.

The distribution list includes Costco stores in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The fruit was sold in a red-and-white case containing 20 pouches of freeze-dried snacks. Consumers who purchased Kirkland Signature Real Sliced Fruit with best before dates of Feb. 14, 2015 and March 11, 2015 should return the item for a full refund. The best before date is listed on the upper left corner of the front panel of the case.

via Salmonella in Costco fruit sparks recall by Oregon food freeze dryer | OregonLive.com.