Major European “Allies” Desert Obama, Join China-led Infrastructure Bank (Source Zero Hedge)

It appears the sea of de-dollarization has reached the shores of Europe. With Australia and UK having already moved in the direction of joining the China-led AIIB. France, Germany and Italy have all agreed to follow Britain’s lead and join a China-led international development bank, according to European officials, delivering a blow to US efforts to keep leading western countries out of the new institution. The decision by the three European governments comes after Britain announced last week that it would join the $50bn Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a potential rival to the Washington-based World Bank. The European decisions represent a significant setback for the Obama administration, which has argued that western countries could have more influence over the workings of the new bank if they stayed together on the outside and pushed for higher lending standards. The AIIB, which was formally launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping last year, is one element of a broader Chinese push to create new financial and economic institutions that will increase its international influence. Australia, a key US ally in the Asia-Pacific region which had come under pressure from Washington to stay out of the new bank, has also said that it will now rethink that position. Britain tried to gain “first mover advantage” last week by signing up to the fledgling Chinese-led bank before other G7 members. Britain hopes to establish itself as the number one destination for Chinese investment and UK officials were unrepentant.

Ukraine crisis: Rebel ‘status’ row threatens truce deal (Source bbc.com) A dispute about the proposed “special status” of rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine is threatening the fragile ceasefire deal agreed last month. Russia has accused Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko of introducing new conditions that were not agreed in Minsk, where the deal was signed. The deal says a special status will be granted to parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, linked to wider autonomy. Ukrainian MPs are discussing the status issue, so far without agreement. The ceasefire took effect on 15 February and has held despite sporadic clashes. Some heavy weapons have been withdrawn from the combat zone. Self-government for the pro-Russian rebel areas was a key part of the Minsk deal. Mr Poroshenko’s new legislative proposals are aimed at furthering that agreement. But a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said the proposals on special status put before Ukrainian MPs included “additional terms never previously discussed”. The ministry said President Poroshenko had “totally ignored” Minsk provisions calling for dialogue with the pro-Russian rebels on arrangements for local elections and the regions’ future status. A statement from a Donetsk rebel leader, Denis Pushilin, also castigated Mr Poroshenko over the “non-agreed amendments”, which he said “breach the spirit and letter of the Minsk accords”. Mr Pushilin said “the Minsk process is in fact interrupted” because Mr Poroshenko “does not respect the Donbas [Donetsk and Luhansk] people, he does not want peace”. Mr Poroshenko’s bill says special status would have to follow local elections held in accordance with Ukrainian law and under international observation.

Ex-US General Defends His “Sanctions Don’t Work, Start Killing Russians” Comment (Source globalresearch.ca)Just a few short days after former US Army General Robert Scales explained to FOX News that Ukraine is lost, and acknowledged that an ongoing deployment of American troops to Eastern Europe is unlikely to change the situation, and “the only way [The US] can turn the tide is start killing Russians… killing so many Russians that even Putin’s media can’t hide the fact that Russians are returning to their motherland in body bags,” he has come out defending his statement as the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal probe into his statements. “I’m not concerned at all, I just kind of wish I could take a vacation in Russia but I can guarantee, that’s not going to happen,” Scales said, shrugging off Russian ‘propaganda’ as “a Russian form of war.”

Ready For War? Russian Armed Forces Conducts War Games Across the Country. Thirty Exercises and Drills in 2015 (Source ITAR-TASS) Manoeuvers of the Signal Corps were launched on Monday in all forces and formations of the Eastern Military District, involving about 3,000 troops and more than 500 units of automobile and special equipment, spokesman for the district Colonel Alexander Gordeyev said on Monday. “Signals troops of the Eastern Military District have started practical drills within the framework of a large-scale command-staff field exercise that was launched today in all forces and formations of the district stationed in Buryatia, Trans-Baikal, Khabarovsk, Primorsky, Kamchatka Territories, in the Sakhalin, Amur and Jewish Autonomous Region and Chukotka Autonomous Area,” said Gordeyev. During the manoeuvers the troops will use the latest communication technologies — the military in the east of Russia received this equipment within the framework of the 2014-2015 state defense order. Specialists will check the communication system stability in the electronic jamming conditions, attacks of viruses and malicious software on computer networks, its ability to counteract the imaginary enemy saboteurs. “In addition, the troops will drill measures to ensure covertness, security, and mobility of the district’s communications system,” the spokesman said. According to earlier Monday reports, nearly 40,000 troops, 41 warships and 15 submarines, 110 planes and helicopters are involved in a snap check of combat readiness of the Northern Fleet, as well as separate formations of the Airborne Forces and the Western Military District. Also on Monday, more than 500 troops of the motorized infantry brigade stationed in Chechnya, started exercises outside Stavropol, and the Dagestan missile ship engaged in gun practice in the Caspian Sea. Since the beginning of 2015, Russia’s armed forces have held more than 30 exercises and drills across the country — from Kaliningrad to the Far East, from the Barents Sea to the Caspian and Black Seas. The exercises range from tactical drills of separate units to command-staff, strategic and international manoeuvers. Some of them continue now. The military training involves all service arms — strategic, fighter, attack, bomber and transport aviation, warships and groupings of all fleets and flotillas of the Navy, conventional and rocket-launching artillery, tank and motorized infantry troops.

Sugar Industry Collusion Since 1950s to Hide Dangers of Their Product (Source Natural Society)

Internal documents exchanged between a sugar industry trade association, representing 30 international sugar manufacturers and our government, prove that sugar companies knew from the 1950’s that sugar is the principal cause of tooth decay, yet they immediately set about deflecting the blame onto other bogus factors, not to mention, left the door open for fluoridation of our water. The sugar industry found an ally in America’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), supposedly responsible for looking after the public health. This means that minimally, the NIH, and likely the FDA have known that sugar is the main cause of tooth decay for years, (forget that it also alters the brain’s reward system and causes obesity, and cancer, among other things). These agencies decided to side with the sugar industry to cover up the lie they would tell us all, and created the National Caries Program, completely ignoring the fact that sugar causes dental decay and cavities. The sugar industry also colluded with the food industry to find out which enzymes could break up dental decay and even financed a vaccine to prevent tooth decay. Just as long as they could still sell us – SUGAR.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Energy agency sees more oil declines, potential for conflict (Source AP) Oil prices have further to drop with no signs of slowing production in the U.S., according to a global energy agency. The International Energy Agency, a watchdog group based in Paris that represents the world’s main oil-importing nations, said in its monthly report Friday that the recent stabilization in oil prices is “precarious.” “Behind the facade of stability, the rebalancing triggered by the price collapse has yet to run its course,” it said. The IEA cautioned that risks of oil supply disruptions are growing. Low prices could raise the risk of social disruption in some countries dependent on oil, the agency said, and the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Libya hasn’t slowed down. U.S. oil production and stockpiles of oil are at a record high, the agency said. The growth in stored oil might be slowed this spring as refineries idled for maintenance start production again, but it won’t stop the growth, the report said. The stockpiles of oil have gotten so high that the U.S. is running out of places to put it. That could be setting oil and gasoline prices up for another steep fall. The price of oil fell another 3 percent Friday with a barrel of U.S. crude going for $45.48. Prices were more than double that at this time last year. Prices appeared to stabilize around $50 per barrel recently but they’ve started to slide again, falling more than 8 percent this week.

“US-NATO Military Operations Aimed at Russia”: This Is a Declaration of War (Source globalresearch.ca) US-NATO are all over Russia’s border. The current Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves grew up in New Jersey and went to Columbia University.  It’s funny how the US is able to continually put their agents into office in key nations around the world. Recall the many fascist dictators that the US repeatedly put in place in Vietnam, Iran, Indonesia and throughout Latin America and the African continent.  It’s called good corporate planning. More recently in 2008 we saw Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (also trained in the US at George Washington University) launch an attack on Russian speaking republics South Ossetia and Abkhazia along Russia’s border.  Russia responded to the Georgian military strike against the  people there by counter-attacking Georgia.  The fighting took place in the strategically important Transcaucasia region which borders the Middle East. The US-NATO expansion of the conflict in Ukraine is indeed a declaration of war against Russia.  And from what I can make out the Russian people see the writing on the wall – they can hear the train coming.  Sadly the American people have no clue what is going on nor do most of those in Europe.

Putin to meet Kyrgyz leader Monday after absence from view (source AP)Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been out of public view for more than a week, will meet Monday with the president of Kyrgyzstan, the Kremlin announced Friday. Putin earlier this week postponed a planned summit with the leaders of Kazakhstan and Belarus, drawing attention to his unusual long hiatus of public appearances and raising speculation that he was ill. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Putin’s “health is really perfect.” On Friday, state television showed footage of Putin meeting with the head of the Russian Supreme Court at Putin’s residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, outside Moscow. In the footage, the Russian leader showed no obvious sign of disability.

EU unlikely to extend Russia sanctions next week: official (Source AFP) EU leaders are unlikely to decide at a summit next week to extend economic sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine, which expire in July, a European official said Friday. The European Union imposed tough sanctions targeting sectors including Russia’s banks and its oil industry after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over rebel-held eastern Ukraine in July 2014. But the bloc’s 28 member states are divided about extending them or imposing new sanctions, especially as many want to give a further chance to a shaky ceasefire in Ukraine that started last month. “I don’t think there is unanimity for the rollover of economic sanctions,” the European official said on condition of anonymity ahead of the summit on Thursday and Friday next week. The leaders have until July to make a final decision on extending the sanctions. EU states signed off on Friday on the extension for six months until September of individual sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes on 150 people and 37 entities.

Pope declares jubilee in powerful reform signal (Source AFP) Pope Francis on Friday marked the second anniversary of his election by declaring a jubilee year that will be interpreted as a powerful signal of his commitment to reforming the Church. The extraordinary holy year, dedicated to the theme of mercy, has been called to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a groundbreaking Vatican council that transformed how the Church related to the modern world, most notably ending the obligation for religious services to be conducted in Latin. The jubilee year will begin on December 8 and run until November 20, 2016. December 8 is one of the holiest dates in the Catholic calender as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and is also the date on which the Vatican II council closed in 1965. Speaking in St Peter’s cathedral, the 78-year-old pontiff described the year’s start date as being “of great significance, for it impels the Church to continue the work begun at Vatican II.” Vatican II is considered to be one of the defining moments in the history of the Catholic church — the point at which the clerical hierarchy accepted that some centuries-old ways of thinking and acting had to be jettisoned if the institution was to remain relevant as the sixties began to swing. Fifty years later, the Church is facing a similar set of dilemmas and is beset by divisions over how to respond to them and close the gap between what it officially preaches and how many of its followers actually live their lives in the early 21st Century. Deep divisions over how the Church should relate to homosexual, divorced and co-habiting believers were aired at an inconclusive, sometimes rancorous, synod of bishops in October-November 2014. They will be revisited when senior clerics re-assemble in Vatican City this October.