4 December 2012. A Photo Spread. Humungous Traffic Snarl on the M10 Motorway between Moscow and Piter

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For four days, from 30 November to 3 December, the MUTHA of all traffic jams took place on the M10 motorway, the main limited-access road connecting Moscow and St Petersburg, jamming hundreds of cars in traffic, stretching for 200 kilometres (124 miles). Volunteers from Tver brought food and water to stranded drivers. A Facebook post stated, “Where’s the fucking government!?? Regular ol’ Tver people brought us food, water, and cigarettes, bought with their own money to hand out to us! It’s been four days; can’t they clear up the snow? Do we live in Africa, or what?!” Reports are contradictory. What we do know is that a bowl of soup costs 120 Roubles (3.80 USD. 3 Euros. 2.40 UK Pounds), a pack of cigarettes costs 200 Roubles (6.50 USD. 5 Euros. 4 UK Pounds), and that the locals take people to shop for food… and chisellers in the motorway cafés are price-gouging, prices have gone up 3 to 4 times the normal rate.

BMD

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Patriarch Ignatius Hazim in “Stable Condition” at St George Hospital University Medical Centre, Geagea and Lebanese State Ministers Pay Him Visit

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On Tuesday, St George Hospital University Medical Centre announced that Patriarch Ignatius Hazim of Antioch and all the East is in stable condition and currently undergoing treatment in its Intensive Care Unit after suffering a stroke. The hospital administration said, “A team of medical experts at St George are taking care of the Patriarch’s condition”, adding that the Lebanese Forces leader Samir Farid Geagea, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Elias Audi of Beirut , as well as Public Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Future Movement MP Atef Majdalani visited the hospital to check up on the Patriarch’s health. Also among the visitors were former ministers Michel Eddé, Ibrahim Najjar, Elie Adib Salem, and Bechara Merhej. Ignatius was admitted to St George HUMC Tuesday morning after suffering a stroke, which affects “his movement ability and consciousness”. The Greek Orthodox patriarch entered hospital on 5 November, for what St George HUMC called routine medical checkups. Last month, in a terse statement released after media reports stated that the Patriarch was transferred from Damascus to the hospital in Beirut’s Achrafieh district after falling ill, hospital spokesmen said, “He’s in good health”.

4 December 2012

Naharnet

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/63282-patriarch-ignatius-iv-hazim-in-icu-after-stroke

Iran Claims it Captured US Drone

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On Tuesday, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said that they’d captured an American drone, the third reported incident involving Iranian forces and American unmanned aircraft in the past 12 months. The Revolutionary Guard naval commander, General Ali Fadavi, told Iranian state media that the ScanEagle drone was gathering data over the Persian Gulf. However, he gave no indication of when his forces captured the drone, saying, “The American drone, which was on a reconnaissance flight gathering data over the Persian Gulf in the past few days, was captured by the Guard’s naval air defence unit as soon as it entered Iranian airspace. Such drones usually take off from large warships”. US Navy officials claimed that all their drones are accounted for.

Last month, the Pentagon said that Iranian forces fired at one of its Predator drones in international airspace. Iran said that the drone violated its airspace. The incident highlighted continuing tensions between the USA and Iran over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at creating atomic weapons. Iran says the program is civilian, aimed at energy production. In December 2011, Iran said that it’d captured a CIA spy drone that entered its airspace. Iran claimed to have extracted top-secret data from the stealth-technology equipped RQ-170 Sentinel drone.

4 December 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20121204/177907904.html

Editor’s Note:

To be clear, Iran has support from Russia and China… and these countries are monitoring the spent fuel from the Iranian reactors. The charges against Iran are lunatic rightwing moonshine from the USA and Israel, ginned up by the likes of Fox News, Bibi Netanyahu, and Rush Limboob. The American obsession with this is purely political, to assuage the ego of the Israel Lobby (such does exist… it’s one of the ugliest facets of American Jewry… and I speak as a determined foe of anti-Semitism). Besides that, the Americans have a mania with the notion that they’re invincible, and the fact that the Iranians can defeat their “advanced” technology annoys them to no end. That’s why the Iranians have such glee in making such announcements.

In short, nothing much is going to happen. It’s the same ol’ same ol’… do pass me the jug.

BMD