Syrian Islamist group Jaysh al-Islam admits using banned weapons against Kurds in Aleppo

The Jaysh al-Islam militant group fighting government forces in Syria has admitted to using “forbidden” weapons against Kurdish militia in Aleppo. The group’s statement comes after reports of chemical gas being used in shelling Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsood district.

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Shocking images show victims of chemical attack on Aleppo neighborhood in Syria (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

The hardline Islamist group did not not specify what substances were used, but claimed that it will punish those responsible.

The group’s statement reads: “During the clashes one of the Jaysh al-Islam brigade leaders used [weapons] forbidden in this kind of confrontations.”

The group claims that the brigade commander in question was summoned to a military court, where it was decided he is to be held accountable. “This situation is contrary to the charter of Jaysh al-Islam,” says the group.

Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood was shelled with mortars containing chemical agents earlier on Thursday.

READ MORE: Aleppo district shelled with chemical gas – local journalist to RT

The Kurdish Red Crescent confirmed reports that chemicals had been used in the attack. “The symptoms of those affected by the attack such as choking made it possible to affirm that they were poisoned as a result of the use of banned toxic gases such as chlorine or other agents. All our patients have similar symptoms,” Doctor Wallat Mamu told RT.

YPG also confirmed that toxic agents had been used by the Islamists, according to RIA Novosti.

“We confirm the information concerning usage by Islamists, acting under patronage of Turkey, of the poisonous agent in the Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo. Its poisonous effect have experienced dozens of civilians,” the head of the YPG central headquarters was cited as saying.

READ MORE: ISIS launches chemical weapons attack on Syria’s airbase in Deir Ez-zor – report

YPG intends to report the incident to the Jordan-based US coordination center and the Russian Center for reconciliation of the opposing sides in Syria, which oversee the cessation of hostilities.

“We will report this fact to the ceasefire centers, to the Russian center in Latakia and to the American one in Jordan,” YPG said in a statement.

The hardline Islamist group Jaysh al-Islam is formally a member of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) that is representing the Syrian opposition at the Geneva talks.

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Western states block Kurdish participation in Syria peace talks proposed by Russia

Both Russia and Syria have repeatedly demanded the exclusion of Mohammed Alloush, previously known as Jaysh al-Islam’s political leader, from the negotiations process.

Alloush was picked as the chief negotiator for the Syrian opposition in Geneva, which has drawn ire from Damascus and criticism from Moscow.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference in January that Russia would not change its view of the “terrorist essence of Jaysh al-Islam,” which is “known to have shelled residential districts in Damascus, including the Russian Embassy.”

In March, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov reiterated Russia’s stance that Jaysh al-Islam is a terrorist organization.

“From the very beginning, Russia opposed inclusion of the representatives [of Jaysh al-Islam] in the opposition delegation… They take part in the delegation only in a purely personal capacity… We will only welcome their exclusion from participation in the negotiations,” he told RIA Novosti.

Read more

Syria ‘carnage’: Report shows 161 poison gas attacks since outbreak of conflict

44 civilians killed, 74 injured in Aleppo attacks in 2 weeks – Russian MOD

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry has reported observing a rise in terrorist attacks in the Aleppo area over the past two weeks, which it said had killed and injured dozens of people.

“In [the] past two weeks, the number and the scale of terrorist provocations in Aleppo have grown significantly – 44 civilians have been killed and 74, including children, have been wounded as a result of these attacks,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Igor Konashenkov.

Official YPG spokesman Redur Xelil told RT that Turkey has contributed greatly to the disruption of the ceasefire in Aleppo by backing militant groups fighting against the Kurds in Syria.

“Here in Sheikh Maqsood, and in Aleppo, there is no cessation of hostilities. The ceasefire has not brought any peace for the YPG and the Kurdish people. In fact it’s the opposite – the attacks on us have intensified. We are absolutely sure that it’s the Turkish government and the rebel groups they support that are responsible for these assaults,” said Xelil.

The ceasefire in Syria came into effect on February 27. The cessation of hostilities agreement, drawn up with the active involvement of US and Russian diplomats, includes some 97 militant opposition groups operating in Syria. Terrorist organizations, such as Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL) and Al Nusra Front, were excluded from the deal.

Numerous violations of the ceasefire have been reported since its implementation. Last month, Sergey Kuralenko, head of the Russian Center for reconciliation of the opposing sides in Syria, confirmed 250 cases of the ceasefire being breached.

(RT)

BREAKING NEWS: IT WAS DELIBERATE! Yellowstone Public Seismographs Taken OFF-line – Wait ’til you see why!

The seismographs monitoring earthquakes around the Yellowstone super-volcano have been deliberately taken OFFLINE from public view. This is a confirmed deliberate act and will stay this way so the public is not able to see seismic activity there. (This story has been UPDATED as of 10:14 AM EDT on April 6, 2016)

Being able to see what is taking place in and around Yellowstone is of great interest to many people because if there is a sudden flurry of earthquake activity, it COULD — but not necessarily — signal a pending eruption.

Since Yellowstone is the only “super volcano” on the North American continent, and is VERY geologically active, if an eruption were to actually take place, the western two-thirds of the United States would POTENTIALLY be hit with volcanic ash and a severe disruption of life.

So why were the public taken OFFLINE for the public? No one is providing any answers. Even more peculiar, the privately-funded seismographs from the University of Utah . . . are also OFFLINE to the public. WE NOW HAVE AN ANSWER:

The images of seismograms that appeared on SuperStation95 have always come from from the University of Utah, a.k.a. the UUSS. Sometime on the evening of April 4th, 2016, they suddenly got rid of those images. No one is able to archive them anymore or present them to you in the efficient fashion you’ve come to know and love.

READ-The Last News About Supervolcano Yellowstone : Scientists warning over SUPERVOLCANO that could kill MILLIONS.Yellowstone about to blow?

From what we can tell so far about their changes, seismographic images have now become just “seismographic image.” Every seismogram now shows only and exactly the past 24 hours of its life, as if they don’t want anyone having the ability to look at its history even two days later.

The filenames don’t even have anything in them anymore but the station’s ID. The only way for anyone to compensate for this is to manually download each station’s image once a day and then stick it in the archives. That means they’d never be live again. You’d have to go use their site to get live images. They couldn’t have invented a better way to break third-party sites if they tried.

After poking around to various folks involved in the University of Utah Seismic Center, one person at that facility “quietly” e-mailed us a single graphic image which gave us pause:

Courtesy: University of Utah Seismic Center

We are not seismologists, but it looks (to us) as though something is happening at Yellowstone. We’re seeking out professionals to interpret what we’re seeing and will update this story when that info becomes available.

In the meantime, as untrained laymen, the red dots in the image above tell ussomething “not good” seems to be taking place at Yellowstone

THE BASIC FACTS OF YELLOWSTONE

Established on March 1, 1872, Yellowstone National Park is America’s first national park. The park was dedicated by President Ulysses S. Grant.

Yellowstone National Park was established 20 years before Montana, Idaho and Wyoming were granted statehood.

Yellowstone National Park is 63 miles long and 54 miles wide.

READ-‘Ark Of Gabriel’ THE MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON – The Ark of Gabriel, Antarctica, Russia,WW III and the Apocalypse

Yellowstone National Park is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

The Super-Volcano

Far beneath the ground in Yellowstone National Park, is something called a “Hot Spot.” It is a place where the molten core of the earth is closer to the surface than at other places.

As the vast North American Continental Plate shifts over the years, different parts of the surface end-up being above the “hot spot.”

READ-BREAKING:Yellowstone Super-Volcano “Growls”

The image below shows the location of the “hot spot” over millions-of-years:

Location of Hot Spot expressed in MILLIONS-OF-YEARS

Geologists were able to pinpoint these locations by analyzing soil, where they found volcanic-related materials and melted rock buried under various layers of dirt.

ERUPTIONS

From time to time, the “hot-spot” bursts through the surface with an eruption. These are extremely RARE occurrences, which take place – on average – every 600,000 years or so. As of today, Geologists claim it has been about 640,000 years since the last big eruption, so by some standards, we may be a bit overdue.

Volcanoes erupting is nothing new, but Yellowstone is not a typical volcano; it is a super-volcano. There are only thirty (30) super-volcanoes on earth and Yellowstone is the ONLY one on land. All the rest are beneath the oceans of the world.

The image below explains the utterly terrifying difference between a “typical” volcano and Yellowstone.

At the top left of the USA map, the gold-colored area over Oregon, Washington and Idaho shows the famous “Mount St. Helens eruption” of 1980 and how far ash was ejected from that (typical) volcano.

Lower and to the right, shows the horrifying power of Yellowstone eruptions dating back as far as two+ million years (or so) ago. The ash covered two-thirds of the USA!

The ash is only a small part of the story. When Yellowstone erupts, there will be an enormous “kill zone.” Inside this “kill zone” nothing . . . . absolutely NOTHING . . . .will survive. The ash in this area is known as a pyroclastic flow. It will be so hot that anything it touches will be incinerated on contact. Humans, animals, trees, grass, cars, trucks, buildings. All destroyed immediately.

The next, even larger area, is called the “hot ash” zone. Most things in this area will be ignited by the hot ash and will burn. People, animals, cars, buildings. There will be so much fire and so much horror, that very little will survive.

Beyond the Kill Zone and the Hot Ash Zone is the “raining ash zone.” In this area, volcanic ash with rain down for weeks! But what is commonly called “ash” is not really “ash” at all; it is pulverized ROCK. If a human inhales it, the rock turns into a mud-like substance in the lungs, suffocating the person to death.

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The ash also clogs vehicle air filters, stalling vehicles because they cannot get air into the fuel injection systems. When stranded motorists exit their vehicles to see what’s wrong, they breath the ash, and that’s usually the end of them, too.

Anyone in the raining ash zone without a NIOSH filter mask rated at N-95 or N-100 will be dead in minutes; for lack of an $8 mask!

The image below shows how deep the ash is expected to be in various locations. Bear in mind that one inch equals 25.4 millimeters.

“Scare” in June, 2015

Yellowstone National Park was hastily evacuated in June, 2015 due to concerns that the super volcano could erupt sooner than expected. Researchers on-site claimed that the 640,000 year-old Yellowstone Caldera had exhibited a sudden spike in activity which indicated the volcano could erupt in as little as two weeks. They pointed out that an eruption of the volcano could very well throw all of United States into a 200-year-long volcanic winter, with ash blotting out the sun, and pyroclastic flow irreparably damaging the surrounding ecosystem.

DO NOT PANIC; Just Be Aware

IT IS VITAL THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THERE IS NO OFFICIAL WARNING WHATSOEVER ABOUT ANY ERUPTION OR EVEN ANY PROBLEM AT YELLOWSTONE AND YOU SHOULD NOT TREAT THIS ARTICLE AS ANY TYPE OF WARNING.

Please don’t go off, half-cocked, and start calling authorities about this report because there is absolutely no need to do that; if they feel there is anything the public needs to know, they will tell us.

We are simply reporting the OFFLINE status of the public seismographs and now (april 6) confirming the change was DELIBERATE.

Of course, there is that very first graphic image above with all the red dots showing the HUGE amount of earthquakes taking place at Yellowstone, but even though it was quietly sent to us, we do not know how to properly INTERPRET that graphic; it might be nothing out of the ordinary at all.

The purpose of this article and the intent of the authors is merely to report news of an unusual outage of important public information. It seems wise to us to explain what’s at stake if, Heaven forbid, something were to go wrong at Yellowstone. We cannot emphasize enough, we have no word whatsoever of anything wrong right now and you should NOT panic or change your life in any way at all on account of this report. Just be aware. Someone decided they didn’t want the public to be able to see the seismic activity anymore; at least in the manner we had all become accustomed.

We have a feeling this is not good.

Who Will Live, Who Will Die in the 1st 72 Hours-SHTF! The first 3 things to do during a disaster.You must read this book!

Powerful forces threaten Houston film festival to pull VAXXED documentary... 'heavy handed censorship' by government officials who resort to financial extortion to shut down public screening

(NaturalNews) As the war on the truth about vaccines continues to heighten, organizers of film festivals are starting to speak out about the incredible censorship and intimidation tactics being used against them to try to silence this independent film. VAXXED: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe unveils the true story of CDC scientist and whistleblower Dr. William Thompson, who publicly confessed to taking part in organized scientific fraud at the CDC to conceal the link between vaccines and autism.

Now, in what is being described as "criminal conduct and extortion," the Chairman of TEAM WORLDFEST in Houston describes how his film festival was aggressively threatened in a criminal manner by government officials to pull the film:

[A]fter very threatening calls late yesterday (Monday) from high Houston Government officials (the first and only time they have ever called in 49 years) – we had no choice but to drop the film. Heavy handed censorship, to say the least… they both threatened severe action against the festival if we showed it, so it is out. Their actions would have cost us more than $100,000 in grants.

Natural News has learned that Team Worldfest may have reversed this decision and decided to show the film anyway. We are still working on confirming this (check back for updates).

"Very powerful forces against this project..."

In an email sent to Philippe Diaz, Chairman of Cinema Libre, Distributor of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe, Hunter Todd, the chairman of the festival, went on to say that "[W]e have been censored... There are some very powerful forces against this project."

Celia Farber, editor of The Truth Barrier which originally broke this story, characterizes the censorship assault on filmmakers as criminal behavior. "The situation has now apparently escalated to criminal conduct and extortion," she says in this Truth Barrier post.

This action takes place following the coordinated mainstream media censorship of the same film from Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival, which pulled the film after it was condemned by pro-vaccine media journalists who had never even seen the film. VAXXED: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe is now the No. 1 most censored film of 2016 and has been dubbed, "The movie they don't want you to see."

Watch the trailer for the film at:
VAXXEDthemovie.com

It is now confirmed that powerful forces are threatening any film festival that dares show this explosive documentary

On March 27, 2016, I wrote that Robert De Niro had clearly been threatened by the vaccine establishment to pull the film from Tribeca. We now know that a pattern of threatening, criminal extortion behavior is being pursued by government officials to silence the film. De Niro has not yet gone public with details of how he was threatened, but a Natural News investigation has revealed that Tribeca has long been infiltrated by the Sloan Foundation, a science propaganda front group founded by Nazi collaborator Alfred P. Sloan. That same foundation also influences movie scripts at Sundance and popular film schools, including Carnegia Mellon (see infographic below).

What's now becoming apparent in all this is that the vaccine industry will stop at nothing to silence this film and prevent the public from seeing it. Extremely powerful forces at the highest levels of global influence now dictate all mainstream media coverage on this topic while pressuring national and local government officials to engage in criminal threats against film festivals that even consider screening the film. It begs the question: What does VAXXED reveal that's so dangerous to the vaccine establishment?

As part of the coordinated censorship campaign against this film, ABC World News Tonight also censored 99% of the following interview with VAXXED producer Del Bigtree. This video has gone viral with over 200,000 views on YouTube alone. (It's almost astonishing that YouTube hasn't banned the video yet...)

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/053585_VAXXED_documentary_criminal_extortion_heavy_handed_censorship.html#ixzz45FFKkiN8

20,000 lesbians in the desert: welcome to the Dinah, a world without men
For five days in Palm Springs, Arwa Mahdawi entered an alternate reality where gay women celebrate each other with pool parties, dancing and debauchery

The Dinah Shore 2016 in Palm Springs Photograph: Steven T Photography for the Guardian
Arwa Mahdawi in Palm Springs
Thursday 7 April 201615.01 BST

Every year at the end of March, 20,000 lesbians from around the world fly into the Californian desert for five days of debauchery, and I’m one of them. It’s my second time at the Dinah, also known as the largest girl festival in the world. I’m staying at the Hilton in Palm Springs, which is hosting the famous Dinah pool parties, and the hotel feels like a homosexual harem.

It’s a surreal experience: for a few days the world is turned upside down, the minority is suddenly the majority. Everywhere you look, lesbians are smiling, drinking, dancing, kissing. There are a few men around – staff working the event and guys who have been dragged along by lesbian friends – but they are hard to spot. It’s basically entirely queer women in attendance.

The party is named after the Dinah Shore golf tournament, started in 1972 by the eponymous entertainer. Dinah Shore wasn’t a lesbian (she’d be doing somersaults in her grave if she knew what her moniker was attached to now), but golf seems to attract a lot of lesbians. A sapphic scene sprouted up around the golf tournament, and the Dinah was born. It’s now in its 26th year.

A promotional video shows highlights from last year’s Dinah festival

Today, nobody is here for the golf. No one is here for the DJs, comedians or YouTube stars performing either. They’re here for the girls. Butch, femme, old, young, gold stars, bi, black, white, hardcore, normcore – the Dinah attracts a diverse group. There’s a sense of liberation and a tacit understanding that what happens in Dinah stays in Dinah (unless it ends up on Facebook).

“Flashing is normal,” Charlotte, 24, told me. “I get flashed at a lot.” Random girls pulling you into their hotel rooms are also pretty standard. One year, there was a minor earthquake in Palm Springs. Debbie, a Dinah veteran who has attended every event since 1991, recalls that half the water splashed out of the pool. Most of the girls were too drunk to realize or care.

The feeling of permissiveness is compounded by the desert scenery: it looks like there has been some sort of gaypocalypse, and all the straight men and women have died out.

I can’t lie, it’s nice being in a predominantly female space for a few days. There’s a feeling of comfortable camaraderie; a sense of suddenly being a first-class citizen. But I feel like that comes more from the queerness rather than the femaleness. No one at the Dinah wishes a plague on all men. Despite the stereotype of the man-hating dyke, most lesbians really like men (we need them around to ensure we don’t get too distracted). The Dinah isn’t about separatism; it’s about celebration.

It’s also about scantily clad celebration. Maybe all the clothes got destroyed during the gaypocalypse, because nobody’s wearing much. Several opt for stickers or tape over their nipples instead of bikini tops, and I can’t help but think they will later regret the decision (think: ripping off a Band-aid). Then again, so might getting in the pool. There are fake eyelashes floating in the water, and I don’t want to imagine what sort of bodily fluids. You can’t get syphilis from a swimming pool but, for a moment, I wonder.

Syphilis, by the way, isn’t something most lesbians think about much as they rack up Dinah conquests (“Never settle for a girl from day one,” one girl advised me, “the day two girls are always better”). Nor are STDs in general. It’s my untested hypothesis that one of the reasons the Dinah is so debauched is that it is quite difficult to get pregnant when sleeping with other women, and there’s also a misperception among many lesbians that you’re not at risk of STDs. Certainly it’s not something you’re told about much; a lot of medical professionals aren’t trained to talk to gay women about sexual health.

Another factor feeding into the debauchery, of course, is that lesbians rarely have such a large dating pool on hand. And as any economist will tell you, you’re more likely to be an outrageous flirt when faced with a thick market.

Speaking of economics: corporations have finally woken up to the profit margins of the margins, and the Dinah has become a lot more attractive to brands. Bacardi, Bud Lite, Smirnoff and Barefoot Wines are all big sponsors this year. Bacardi and Bud have sent teams of scantily clad promo girls (most of whom are straight) who hand out swag, pose for photos and generally act a little gay for pay. While it’s normally irritating to get relentlessly advertised to, in this case it’s a sign of progress. You’re not a real human until you’re recognized by corporate America.

The Dinah has also started to attract more big-name talent. Katy Perry and the Pussycat Dolls have all performed at the festival. And this year, Lady Gaga popped in briefly as a guest to watch pal Katherine Moennig (known to lesbians everywhere as Shane from the L word) play a DJ set. The celebrities have raised the Dinah’s profile and brought it more mainstream attention.

Vice are here this year, for example, shooting a documentary. The producer is gay, but it’s also her first Dinah and she looks a little overwhelmed.

“What’s your angle?” I ask her. “Well, you know, we’re going to show all the tits and ass,” she says, as her cameraperson zooms in on just that, “and then we’re going to show why it’s actually really meaningful.” She pauses for a moment. “So far though, all we’ve got is the tits and ass.”

Let’s not downplay the tits and ass – they’re meaningful in their own way. As CeeCee, a 26-year-old Dinah newbie, told me, a lot of people don’t think lesbians (that is, real human lesbians, not the male porn fantasies) have any fun. “People think we just sit at home in sensible shoes reading feminist theory to our cats,” she said. Being able to strip off at the Dinah, then, is an empowering experience for a lot of women; a chance to embrace and celebrate their sexuality in a safe space.

Palm Springs: ‘Embracing gay can pay’

While a lot of big brands have only started wooing dyke dollars recently, the city of Palm Springs has long been cognizant of the economic benefits of embracing diversity. It grew to prominence in the 1930s when closeted Hollywood movie stars would head to the desert to escape the studios’ scrutiny. The likes of Rock Hudson, Liberace, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich all spent time there.

Today it’s estimated that almost half the population of Palm Springs are gay, and it has the highest per capita gay population in the US, if not the world. It’s also seeing a surge of interest among straight Hollywood. Leonardo DiCaprio recently bought a vacation home there: the Dinah Shore Palm Springs Estate.

Rob Moon, the openly gay mayor of Palm Springs, told me that “now more than ever, the city is experiencing a tremendous renaissance and Dinah Shore Weekend has been a huge economic driver. We owe a debt of gratitude to the LGBT community for helping Palm Springs evolve into the ultra-cool, stylish and sophisticated city it is today.”

As for the future of lesbian-centric events, there has been a trend of lesbian bars closing recently. This has been partly been blamed on apps like Tinder, which make meeting other gay people less reliant on gay bars. It’s also been put down to more liberal attitudes; there’s no longer a need for gay space if all space is more inclusive.

Will the next generation of gay women feel the same need for an extended women’s party? Mariah Hanson, founder of the Dinah, certainly seems to think so. “There’ll always be need for gay people to come together and congregate,” she said. “Our culture is unique … we’re not part of straight culture. The Dinah is and always has been five days of incredibly magical celebration of our lives. If the UN would pay attention to what’s going on at the Dinah it could change the world in a big way. People put aside their differences and go home feeling changed.”

I don’t know that Ban Ki-moon should necessarily get the security council to strip into swimwear and grope each other. However, there’s certainly something affirmative and cathartic about the experience. As Leah, a DJ in Boston, told me: “It’s the experience that college should have been.”

It’s also a reminder of how much today’s gay people owe to previous generations. There was a long fight for our right to party, and it’s not over yet. I got back from the Dinah on Tuesday morning; the same day Mississippi’s governor signed legislation making discrimination against gay couples legal. There’s still a while to go before we can all really celebrate.

(theguardian.com)