The secrecy surrounding TISA is being described as worse than the bastion of non-transparency that is the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). There is warranted fear that TISA would be the most dangerous piece in this axis of evil.
The U.N. on Wednesday called its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes and tens of thousands have been trapped in a desert mountain by the advance of Islamic militants across the north of the country. The declaration of a "Level 3 Emergency" will trigger additional goods, funds and assets to respond to the needs of those displaced, said U.N. special representative Nickolay Mladenov, who pointed to the "scale and complexity of the current humanitarian catastrophe."
A leading physician in Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola has died from the disease, an official said Wednesday, as it emerged that another top doctor last month was considered for an experimental treatment. There was very little of the experimental treatment available, which has stoked debate about ethics on who should get it even though it hasn't been tested in humans. There is no way of knowing if the drug, known as ZMapp, made a difference in the few people who have gotten the now-exhausted supply of the drug.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday described a photograph of a Sydney-born 7-year-old boy clutching the severed head of a Syrian soldier as "disturbing" and "grotesque," and called for international cooperation against the terrorist threat posed by foreign fighters returning home from Iraq and Syria.
Argentina fell in default on Wednesday following the collapse of negotiations between the country and "vulture funds" that are demanding full payment for the $1.3 billion in debt the funds bought up at bargain rates.
The Pentagon on Wednesday announced its recent approval for unlocking a massive stockpile of ammunition for use by the Israeli Defense Forces who continue to pummel the civilian population living inside the Gaza Strip where the death toll now nears 1,400 people—a majority of whom are civilians, including close to 300 children.
In a sign that the U.S. Pentagon is preparing further military backing of the government of Nouri al-Maliki, the State Department on Monday granted its approval of the largest shipment to date of Hellfire missiles to Iraq.
Citing Russia's stalled growth rate and a flow of foreign capital out of Moscow, U.S. and European officials hope a new round of sanctions targeting energy and defense entities, as well as major banks, will deepen Russia's economic pain even further and force President Vladimir Putin to end provocations in Ukraine. Roughly 30 percent of Russia's banking sector assets are now constrained by U.S. sanctions, Obama administration officials said, shortly after announcing new penalties.
