Early Sunday morning, French police stood helpless as sixty people, locked inside an open-air field of genetically modified grapevines, uprooted all the plants. In Spain last month, dozens of people destroyed two GMO fields. On the millennial cusp, Indian farmers burned Bt cotton in their Cremate Monsanto campaign. Ignored by multinational corporations and corrupt public policy makers, citizens act to protect the food supply and the planet.

A monster tornado packing winds as strong as 200 mph roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, pulverizing block after block of homes, wrecking an elementary school and leaving fires burning out of control. Crews were frantically searching an estimated 30 square miles of wreckage, and only beginning to get a sense of the destruction as night fell. Initial reports from NBC affiliate KFOR said at least four people were killed in the suburb of Moore, including a mother and child, and hospitals reported several dozen injured. “The whole city looks like a debris field,” Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis said. At Plaza Towers Elementary School, the tornado demolished the walls and blew the roof off. It was not clear how many children were inside. A teacher told KFOR that she draped herself on top of six children in a bathroom to shelter them. Authorities kept hysterical parents away from the worst damage because it was too loud to hear screams for help. More than two hours after the tornado struck, several children were pulled out alive. A reporter for KFOR said the twister kicked up a cloud of debris perhaps two miles wide. The National Weather Service initially classified the storm as an EF4, the second-strongest type, with winds of 166 to 200 mph. “It seems that our worst fears have happened today,” said Bill Bunting, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Norman, Okla. The tornado struck at mid-afternoon and tore a 20-mile path, said Rick Smith, another weather service meteorologist. He said it was on the ground for 40 minutes. Much of the storm’s rampage was captured on live television, perhaps alerting people in its path to seek shelter. A shirtless man walked in a daze through the ruins of a horse farm that was obliterated. “I lost everything,” he said. “We might have one horse left out of all of them.” Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokeswoman Betsy Randolph said 200 people with minor injuries were being treated at a triage center. “Some are more grotesque,” she said of the injuries. “We do have hope,” she added. Randolph told KFOR she did not know about deaths but said: “Just being down here and seeing the rubble and the devastation, I can’t imagine that we won’t have any, but I pray God that we won’t.” The Red Cross said it was opening a shelter, and the University of Oklahoma opened some of its housing for displaced families. An aerial view of some of the destruction caused by Monday's tornado. In addition to Plaza Towers, Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma was heavily damaged, KFOR reported. Search and rescue teams converged on a staging area at the Warren Theater, which was also damaged, as the tornado churned toward other Oklahoma towns. The storms were expected to continue through the evening. The tornado’s ferocity was reminiscent of a 1999 outbreak in Oklahoma and Kansas that registered wind speeds of more than 300 mph, left 46 dead and more than 8,000 homes damaged or destroyed. It also came one day after another cluster of storms in Oklahoma that killed two elderly men in the town of Shawnee. Tens of millions of people from Texas to the Great Lakes — an area covering 55 million people — had been warned to brace for more severe weather Monday. The Sunday storms destroyed mobile homes, flipped trucks and sent people across 100 miles running for cover. In Kansas, a weather forecaster was forced off the air as a tornado bore down on his station. “You can see where there’s absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up,” Mike Booth, the sheriff of Pottawatomie County, Okla., told The Associated Press. “It looks like there’s been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour.” Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for 16 counties. In Edmond, Randy Grau said he looked out a window and saw what he thought was a flock of birds heading down the street.

In some of the more than 2,000 tweets he sent from his Twitter account, dating back to 2009, Tyler displayed a yearning to kill. And check out our redesigned mobile site by visiting NJ.com from any mobile browser. “Is it normal to want to kill ALL of your coworkers? Maybe I’m actually in a position where I can,” he tweeted June 1, 2009. LoBrutto’s family has said in interviews that those posts were red flags that could have been caught. The family started a petition for a law that would require screening public social media posts as part of job applications. The petition has 2,715 supporters on change.org.

http://bilderberg2013.co.uk/ Press Office and Reception Zone By admin | Published: May 18, 2013 At this year’s Bilderberg conference, for the first time, there will be a Press Office – hosted by the Bilderberg Welcoming Committee – located on the hotel grounds. The aim of the Press Office will be to facilitate the mainstream and alternative media in their coverage of the meeting. The Press Office will be located in a larger Reception Zone, within the grounds of The Grove Hotel (near the hotel gates). It will provide journalists, photographers, bloggers and researchers with information on this year’s conference, and details about the delegates: including an ID service for delegate photographs. Besides the Press Office, the Reception Zone will feature a place for speakers, lavatories, and a view of the hotel drive for photographers. Electricity will be available at the Press Office for recharging cameras and phones. There will be liaison officers from the Hertfordshire Constabulary present in the Reception Zone for the duration of the conference. The Bilderberg Welcoming Committee is a loose association of pro-transparency campaigners, journalists and organizations, who will be hosting the Press Office. Press relations This is the first officially sanctioned Press Office for the Bilderberg conference, and is a considerable step forward in the relations between the conference and the press. The Bilderberg Group is famously shy of press attention. An article in the Daily Express, February 12, 1957 (a few years after the first official conference) shows how a veil of “secrecy and security” was drawn over the event: expresscutting But this attitude is finally changing, as the Chancellor George Osborne (Bilderberg attendee 2005-9, 2011) said, shortly after taking office: “We have already begun to implement the most radical transparency agenda the country has ever seen” (speech, June 8, 2010). This sentiment was echoed, a year later, by David Cameron himself, in Prime Minister’s Questions (July 13, 2011): “the relationship between politicians and the media must change and we must be more transparent, too, about meetings, particularly with executives, editors, proprietors and the rest of it.” The Press Office and Reception Zone at the 2013 Bilderberg conference is a welcome part of this shift towards transparency.

North Korea fired its fourth short-range missile in the past two days into waters off its east coast on Sunday, despite calls for restraint from South Korea and other countries in the region, as well as the United Nations. The latest launch into the Sea of Japan, confirmed by South Korean Defense Ministry officials, follows three coastal launches on Saturday that rattled the region. North Korea routinely tests short-range missiles into coastal waters. But the latest launches, which analysts say may have included rockets from a new multiple launcher, come at a time of heightened North-South tensions. Since March, Pyongyang has repeatedly threatened to attack South Korea and threatened the United States with nuclear strikes. A South Korean defense official said Saturday the North's intentions with the launches were not clear. He said South Korea's military was watching for any additional launches or other provocations. The United States, Russia and the United Nations have all issued renewed calls for restraint from North Korea. A spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry called the latest weapons tests a "deplorable" provocation.

Minister of Defense of Canada: 2 living ETs_working with US government - YouTube

MARITIME GUARDIANS:The nation’s Coast Guard Administration has 184 vessels responsible for the protection of fishing boats in waters around Taiwan Staff writer, with CNA The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said that three additional large vessels have been dispatched to waters south of Taiwan since May 10 to increase protection for Taiwanese boats in the wake of the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman in the area. A CGA official said that in view of the changes in the region, the CGA has stepped up its protection of Taiwanese fishermen in line with the government’s standard operating procedure. The ships can pinpoint the locations of Taiwanese fishing boats every four hours through a vessel monitoring system and can then adjust the areas they cover to deal with any contingencies. “In addition to sending large vessels to the Pratas Islands [Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島] and the Spratly Islands [Nansha Islands, 南沙群島] on a regular basis, the CGA has adjusted the intensity and coverage areas of its patrols in accordance with fishing seasons, priority fishing areas or contingencies,” the official said. He said that the CGA currently has 184 vessels responsible for the protection of fishing boats in waters around Taiwan, of which 164 range in size from 20 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes, with the rest being smaller craft. The vessels and their crews are equipped with a variety of weapons, including 20mm guns, T75 light machine guns, Uzi submachine guns, T65 rifles and 9mm pistols. They are also to be fitted with more powerful 40mm guns at a later date, the official said. The CGA said that Taiwan’s economic zones overlap to a considerable degree with those of China, Japan and the Philippines, and the country follows the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to demarcate the boundary lines according to the practice of international law. Meanwhile, fishermen from Pingtung County who have been fishing for bluefin tuna have made bigger catches than last year. The Donggang Fishermen’s Association said the haul as of Friday morning was 94, 21 more than the 73 caught during the same period of last year. An association official attributed the increased haul to the stepped-up protection by the CGA vessels, which has given many fishermen a better sense of security. This story has been viewed 657 times.

WASHINGTON--China launched a large missile on Monday that reached 6,200 miles (10,000 km) above the earth, its highest suborbital launch since 1976, according to a U.S. scientist at Harvard University. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the rocket was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in western China, and China said the rocket carried a science payload which studied the earth's magnetosphere. He said the rocket could possibly be used in the future to carry an anti-satellite payload on a similar trajectory, but there was no evidence to indicate the launch was intended to test such a capability. The United States remains concerned about China's development of anti-satellite capabilities after it shot a missile at one of its own defunct satellites in orbit in 2007, creating an enormous amount of debris in space. Monday's rocket launch was similar to launches using the Blue Scout Junior rocket that were conducted by the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s for research on the Earth's magnetosphere, McDowell said in an emailed response to questions. The launch came less than a week after U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter unveiled what he called a “long overdue” effort to safeguard U.S. national security satellites and develop ways to counter the space capabilities of potential adversaries. The Pentagon also released an 83-page report on Chinese military developments that highlighted China's increasing space capabilities and said Beijing was pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.

Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S4 has been chosen as the best smartphone by a U.S. magazine in its latest handset survey, according the magazine's Web site Sunday. Consumer Reports recommended the latest version of Samsung's Galaxy lineup as the best smartphone pick for subscribers of three major mobile carriers in the United States. The Galaxy S4 received the top scores in the categories of voice calls, usability, messaging and four others. The Galaxy S4 rolled out by AT&T Inc. received the highest score among smartphones available at the No. 2 mobile operator in the U.S., outpacing LG Electronics Inc.'s Optimus G. The Galaxy S4 models released by T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel Corp. also received the highest scores among the operators' smartphones. In late April, Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, released the Galaxy S4, in the United States, Germany, France, Britain and 56 other countries. According to the U.S. magazine, Samsung's latest tablet Galaxy Note 8.0 garnered the highest score of 84 in its survey, beating Apple Inc.'s iPad mini. Samsung started selling the Galaxy Note 8.0 on its home turf in late April. The Galaxy Note 8.0, which was first showcased at the Mobile World Congress early this year, has a smaller screen and is the fourth version of the 10.1-inch Galaxy Note, a hybrid of a smartphone and a tablet PC. SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap)

An independent U.N. body's investigation into North Korea's human rights abuses will provide the first look into problems in a country during peacetime, rather than during conflict, a senior South Korean diplomat said Sunday. Choi Seok-young, South Korean ambassador to Geneva, said the Commission of Inquiry (COI) by the U.N. Human Rights Council will investigate "grave, organized and systematic human rights violations" and will hold the leadership in the violating country accountable for such abuses. The U.N. established the COI on North Korea in March. The independent body is scheduled to submit its report, containing findings and recommendations, to the U.N. Human Rights Council in March next year. "So far, the COIs on Cote d'Ivoire, Libya and Syria have investigated human rights violations during times of conflict," Choi said. "North Korea is in a different situation than these countries, but it's widely believed that human rights violations are quite systematic in North Korea." The COI on North Korea was formed under a resolution that condemns human rights abuses in the communist state. Choi said the word "accountability" used in the resolution should be highlighted. The resolution states that the commission will "intensively investigate for a period of one year the human rights violations perpetrated by North Korea's government with a view to ensuring full accountability, in particular where these violations may amount to crimes against humanity." "In human rights, we use that term to describe political and legal responsibility for the violating government," Choi said. "This resolution is quite strong in that regard." Choi said after the COI's report is compiled next year, further discussions will be held on the follow-up measures. He noted that the U.N. dispatched peacekeepers to Cote d'Ivoire to monitor the human rights situation there after the COI's investigation, but said it's not yet certain whether the U.N. will follow the same course of action for North Korea. The ambassador said the COI's report on the North will provide the first comprehensive look into human rights violations in the country, since the U.N. Human Rights Council had previously dealt with individual allegations, such as torture and abuse in labor camps, separately. "Since it will be difficult to visit North Korea in person, (the commission's investigators) will conduct interviews with North Korean defectors," Choi said. "The COI will also receive major assistance from documents in South Korea, Japan, the U.S., China and Russia. We must provide investigators with accurate translation of our data that can corroborate human rights violations in the North." North Korea has long denied accusations of human rights abuses and considers them an attempt to topple its regime

SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap) -- Nam Duck-woo, a former prime minister and finance minister who led the country's rapid economic development in the 1970s, died of complications from testicular cancer at a Seoul hospital late Saturday, his family said. He was 89. Nam had been battling testicular cancer for the past few years and his condition had worsened with age, his family added. Nam, who earned a doctorate in economics at Oklahoma State University, was appointed finance minister by President Park Chung-hee in 1969 and served in the role until 1974. From 1974 to 1978, Nam was deputy prime minister in charge of economic policies during South Korea's industrial development. Before entering public service, Nam had been an economics professor at Sogang University in Seoul. Park is said to have recruited Nam after reading the scholar's criticism of the government's economic policies. Under President Chun Doo-hwan, Nam was the prime minister from 1980 to 1982. Then from 1983 to 1991, Nam served as the head of the Korea International Trade Association. After leaving the government, Nam continued to lend his expertise to politicians. Before the presidential election in 2007, Nam worked alongside current President Park Geun-hye, daughter of Park Chung-hee who was then vying for the ruling party's candidacy, as a senior economic adviser. Nam is survived by his wife and three children.

Florida Teen Expelled, Charged With Felony For Lesbian Relationship A Florida family says their 18-year-old daughter was charged with a felony and expelled from high school as a result of a consensual, same-sex relationship with another student. Kaitlyn Hunt started dating a female classmate at the beginning of the school year when she was 17 and the girl she was dating was 15. According to an account posted to Facebook by Kaitlyn’s mother, in February, just after Kaitlyn turned 18, she was arrested on felony charges at the behest of her girlfriend’s parents. The specific crime was “sexual battery on a person 12-16 years old.” Kaitlyn’s mother believes the charges were motivated by anti-gay animus: They were out to destroy my daughter, they feel like my daughter “made” their daughter gay. They are bigoted, religious zeolites [sic] that see being gay as a sin and wrong, and they blame my daughter. But Kaitlyn’s problems did not end there. Her girlfriends’s parents appealed to the school board and had her expelled from Sebastian River High School. Kaitlyn’s mom reports that the State Attorney, Brian Workman, has offered Kaitlyn a plea deal of “of two years house arrest and one year probation.” Kaitlyn has until next Friday to accept the plea deal or face a trial. The family has started a petition calling on the state attorney to drop the charges against Kaitlyn.