The deal would in theory mean an end to fighting between the Syrian regime and all major opposition groups except for al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate and the Islamic State (Isil). The truce, which would begin at the stroke of midnight on Saturday, should also mean an end to Russian airstrikes against rebel forces.

However, news of the agreement was met with deep scepticism by observers of a conflict that has raged for five years and claimed around 300,000 lives. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, announced plans for a similar ceasefire two weeks ago but its start date came and went without an end to the fighting.

The deal would allow Russia to continue bombing Isil and the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda group in Syria. News of the peace deal could lead to an escalation of fighting as all sides scramble to take ground before the ceasefire takes hold. "Expect a major intensification in fighting this week," said Charles Lister, resident fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank.

As you read this article, there are thousands of military vehicles and hundreds of thousands of troops massed along the southern border of Turkey and the northern border of Saudi Arabia. If the command is given and those forces start streaming toward Damascus, it is inevitable that the Syrians, the Iranians, Hezbollah and the Russians would fight back.

It would literally be the start of World War 3, and the Saudis and the Turks are trying very hard to convince the United States to be involved. But the truth is that we don’t want any part of this conflict, because it could very easily become the very first nuclear war in the history of the Middle East.

The Saudis, the Turks and their allies have poured enormous amounts of money and resources into this war over the past five years, and now they are faced with the choice of either accepting defeat or directly intervening in this conflict themselves. But in order to conduct a full-fledged ground invasion, they are going to need justification for doing so. There are some that are suggesting that we could soon see a false flag attack that would provide that justification, so that is something to watch out for. I can’t remember a time when our planet has been so close to World War 3 potentially beginning.

The Democratic governor announced Sunday that he approved a bill requiring day care centers and day care homes to maintain immunization records proving their workers and volunteers have been vaccinated for the flu, pertussis and the measles.

This is a first in the nation bill that gives power to the state to mandate vaccines for adults. This is just the beginning of compulsory adult vaccinations as well as a precedent-setting law for forced medical treatments such as psych drug implants for the supposed mentally ill; forced chemotherapy for children against the parents’ will and whatever the medical mafia decides is profitable.

Scientists are telling us that they are not certain exactly how close this giant space rock will come, and that is rather unsettling. They say that it could come within roughly 1/20th the distance from the Earth to the moon, or that it could pass by millions of miles away. Because the orbit of this huge asteroid is unpredictable, they tell us that they don’t really know what will happen, but they insist that it will not hit us.

If it does pass us at 1/20th the distance from the Earth to the moon, that would be about half as far up as many of our communications satellites. That would be incredibly close, and many are wondering what may happen if our scientists are just slightly off in their calculations. This asteroid will be steamrolling along at 34,000 miles per hour, and it is quite alarming that our best scientists cannot tell us accurately exactly how close this asteroid will come.

Though it might be reasonable and comforting to assume labels declaring a product 100% Parmesan mean exactly that, what the FDA found in some food products bearing that label is far from reasonable — and, in some cases, far from food.

A tip to the US Food and Drug Administration in 2012 led to the alarming findings at Castle Cheese, as Bloomberg reported. Officials found the company “was doctoring its 100 percent real parmesan with cut-rate substitutes and such filler as wood pulp and distributing it to some of the country’s biggest grocery chains.”

That’s right: wood pulp.

Though cellulose is ostensibly harmless — and apparently, considered an acceptable additive that acts as an anti-clumping agent — several parmesan suppliers have been adding it in unacceptable quantities. In fact, Castle’s deviation from its Parmesan labeling was so grievous, company president, Michelle Myrter, will reportedly plead guilty this month. She faces a $100,000 fine, as well as up to a year in prison.

The fundamental issue, as you know, is that tens of millions of us wish to regain the right to govern ourselves – notably in the matter of immigration controls – and Mr Cameron never even asked for it: which is why his “renegotiation” was not a renegotiation at all, but a fraud on the public. The performance may obscure this for a moment, as bluster often does: but the truth will out, and has indeed been out for months.

When the Prime Minister mouths (as is his habit) the bromide “let me be clear” – he did it in his statement from Brussels on Friday – he betrays a defensiveness born of the fragility of his claims. What is “clear” is that nothing fundamental has changed. Britain does not govern itself, and will not govern itself should it choose, at the referendum, to stay in the European Union. As with any colony, its political life will be conducted at the pleasure of a foreign power. If we wish to change that, and be independent, we must vote to leave. Nothing has changed.

We now have the chance to care and think again: and to resume the history of a strong, independent, free country that participates in the world, unbound from an increasingly alien superstate that has proved, beyond doubt, that its political culture and aspirations can never be ours.

The owner of Saudi Arabia, King Salman al-Saud, speaking through his spokesperson and chosen Foreign Minister, in an interview that was published on February 19th in Germany’s magazine Spiegel, says that he demands the resignation or else the overthrow of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, who is allied with both Iran and Russia.

Polls of the Syrian public, by Western polling firms, consistently show Assad to be overwhelmingly approved by the Syrian people to be the leader of Syria, and show that Syrians blame the United States for causing ISIS, which is disapproved of by 76% of Syrians. The other named jihadist groups, such as al-Nusra which is Al Qaeda in Syria, received similarly low approval-ratings from the Syrian public.

In stark contrast, a poll of Saudi Arabians shows that 92% of them approve of ISIS. But the United States is allied with the fundamentalist-Islamic dictatorship Saudi Arabia, against the separation-of-church-and-state democracy of Russia. So too is America’s fellow-NATO-member Turkey allied with the fundamentalist Muslims, and they’re publicly threatening to invade Syria with ground troops. They’re backed by planes that were supplied to the Sauds by the United States.

Robert Parry reported on February 18th, “A source close to Russian President Vladimir Putin told me that the Russians have warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow is prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons if necessary to save their troops in the face of a Turkish-Saudi onslaught. Since Turkey is a member of NATO, any such conflict could quickly escalate into a full-scale nuclear confrontation.”

The Saudi Foreign Minister also says that his country is waiting for US President Barack Obama to take the lead in forcing Assad to resign, because, he says, otherwise Assad will necessarily be overthrown in a war, and there is a possibility that World War III could result…

The confusion is playing out on the battlefield — with the US effectively engaged in a proxy war with itself. “It’s very strange, and I cannot understand it,” said Ahmed Othman, the commander of the US-backed rebel battalion Furqa al-Sultan Murad, who said he had come under attack from US-backed Kurdish militants in Aleppo this week.

Furqa al-Sultan Murad receives weapons from the US and its allies as part of a covert program, overseen by the CIA, that aids rebel groups struggling to overthrow the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, according to rebel officials and analysts tracking the conflict.

The Kurdish militants, on the other hand, receive weapons and support from the Pentagon as part of US efforts to fight ISIS. Known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, they are the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s strategy against the extremists in Syria and coordinate regularly with US airstrikes.

Soros writes in "The Case for Surge Funding": 'Important progress was made at the donors’ conference for Syrian refugees convened in London on February 4. But much more remains to be done. The international community is still vastly underestimating what is needed to support refugees, both inside and outside the borders of the European Union. To deal with the refugee crisis, while putting the EU's largely unused AAA borrowing capacity to better use, requires a paradigm shift.'

'Rather than scraping together insufficient funds year after year, it is time to engage in "surge funding." Spending a large amount of money up front would be far more effective than spending the same amount over several years. Front-loading the spending would allow us to address the most dangerous consequences of the crisis - including anti-immigrant sentiment in receiving countries and despondency and marginalization among refugees - more effectively.'

'Making large initial investments would help tip the economic, political, and social dynamics away from xenophobia and disaffection, and toward constructive outcomes that benefit refugees and the recipient countries alike.'

Translation: you must bankrupt your countries even further or else we'll call you racist "xenophobes" for not wanting to be overrun by foreigners going on raping sprees.

The three scientists who filed the lawsuit said that they attempted to correct some of the errors that were taking place in the crime lab, and they were silenced and retaliated against because the errors were working out in the department’s favor, and ensuring them more prosecutions.

Scientists Shannon Morris, Melissa Lee and Kevin Rafferty are seeking monetary damages in the lawsuit, but it has not been revealed how much. The group says that they wanted to implement the computerized DNA analysis system called TrueAllele in their crime lab, to ensure that the results of their tests were correct.

The crime lab was working with the program for a short period of time before it was ultimately canceled by the department. However, the state police rejected the suggestion and they began to put more pressure on the scientists to secure convictions.

The malware, which was specially developed by the German Federal Criminal Police Office, functions similarly to a typical virus used by hackers, according to Deutsche Welle. It allows officers to infiltrate a targeted device and access its files and also makes it possible for them to spy on a suspect’s communications, including emails or conversations conducted via phone or programs like Skype.

The Trojan opens “a back-door” to the targeted computer, allowing the operator to not only copy files from the computer’s hard drive, but also retrieve all of the user’s passwords, providing almost unlimited access to a person’s digital data. It even can even facilitate on-line video and audio surveillance, as smartphones and laptops are often equipped with integrated microphones and cameras.