TV News LIES

- Belgium raised its terror alert in Brussels to the highest level Saturday after a "serious and imminent threat," closing the city's metro until Sunday and encouraging people to avoid concerts, shopping centers and other crowded areas.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said the threat of attacks against the Belgian capital are similar to those that happened in Paris last week. Football games have been canceled and armed soldiers and police were deployed outside many hotels.

It is perhaps not surprising that an event like last Friday’s Paris attack would raise questions about why government surveillance didn’t spot such a sweeping and apparently coordinated assault in advance. But the speed with which intelligence and law enforcement professionals worked to play down their own possible shortcomings — and in some cases invoke the attacks in a play for broader powers — has caught the attention of security experts, privacy rights advocates and editorial boards.

Editors at The New York Times called this turn of events “a wretched yet predictable ritual,” singling out statements made Monday by CIA Director John Brennan as “a new and disgraceful low.” Brennan went to the press with complaints that recent “policy and legal” moves have made it harder to spot and disrupt potential terror plots.

More than 20 people have reportedly been killed as armed gunman stormed a luxury hotel in Bamako, Mali on Friday morning. The attackers held 170 people hostage in Radisson Blu hotel, while it is reported that there are no more civilians in the hotel.

The CEO of Rezidor, the company that owns the Radisson, has released a statement.

"I want to express my deep personal concern for all of the guests and employees affected by the terrible events which are happening today at the Radisson Blu Bamako Hotel in Mali," Wolfgang M. Neumann said.

At least 10 people died and dozens were injured in the high-speed train derailment in Eckwersheim, France, that occurred during a test run on Saturday.

The Train à Grande Vitesse, France's high-speed train service, locomotive derailed, caught fire and partly plunged into a canal due to "excessive speed," according to officials. Eckwersheim is near the eastern French city of Strasbourg, bordering Germany.

More...

France outlaws most gun ownership and it’s almost impossible to legally acquire a high-powered rifle such as an AK-47, so where did the weapons in the Nov. 13 terror attack—not to mention the bloody January assault by Islamic terrorists on the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo magazine and the 2012 shootings by a militant in Toulouse—come from?

The answer: Eastern Europe, most likely, where the trafficking of deadly small arms is big, shady business. And where local authorities find it difficult to intervene.

Vatican financial investigators suspect a department of the Holy See which oversees real estate and investments was used in the past for possible money laundering, insider trading and market manipulation, according to a report seen by Reuters.

The information in the confidential document, which covers the period from 2000 to 2011, has been passed on to Italian and Swiss investigators for their checks because some activity tied to the accounts allegedly took place in these countries, a senior Vatican source said.