Download the PDF of the study here: http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416

How glyphosate destroys human cells

Glyphosate, most commonly found in conventional sugar, corn, soy and wheat products, throws off the cytochrome P450 gene pathway, inhibiting enzyme production in the body. CYP enzymes play a crucial role in detoxifying xenobiotics, which include drugs, carcinogens, and pesticides. By inhibiting this natural detoxification process, glyphosate systematically enhances the damaging effects of other environmental toxins that get in the body. This, in turn, disrupts homeostasis, increases inflammation, and leads to a slow deconstruction of the cellular system. Toxins build up in the gut over time and break down through the intestinal walls, infiltrating blood, and ultimately passing through the brain/blood barrier, damaging neurological function.

Important CYP enzymes that are affected include aromatase, the enzyme that converts androgen into estrogen, 21-Hydroxylase, which creates stress hormone cortisol, and aldosterone, which regulates blood pressure.

Getting to the gut

Even as evidence mounts, Monsanto asserts that glyphosate is not harmful to humans, citing that its mechanism of action in plants (the disruption of the shikimate pathway), is not present in humans. This is not true.

The shikimate pathway, which is involved in the synthesis of the essential aromatic amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, is present in human gut bacteria, which has a direct relationship with the human body, aiding in digestion, synthesizing vitamins, detoxifying carcinogens, and participating in immune system function.

By inhibiting the body’s gut flora from performing its essential function in the human body, glyphosate heightens many health issues facing the Western world today.

These conditions include inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn’s disease, obesity, and even dementia and depression. Also, by restricting gut bacteria from absorbing nutrients, glyphosate voids the body of essential life-giving vitamins.

Depletion of serum tryptophan and its link to obesity

Glysophate’s damaging effects on gut bacteria lead to depleted sulfate supplies in the gut, resulting in inflammatory bowel disease. As more chemicals are absorbed from the environment, alterations in body chemistry actively promote weight gain by blocking nutrient absorption. By effecting CYP enzymes in the liver, obesity incidence is compounded, impairing the body’s ability to detoxify synthetics chemicals. Since serotonin is derived from tryptophan and acts an appetite suppressant, the depletion of tryptophan encourages overeating in the brain, leading to obesity.

In need of urgent, massive awakening

Authors of the new review point out that “glyphosate is likely to be pervasive in our food supply and may be the most biologically disruptive chemical in our environment.” Monsanto is already lashing back at these claims, calling this peer reviewed study, “bad science” and “another bogus study.” What Monsanto fails to is mention that most of the studies on glyphosate’s “safety” are conducted by Monsanto themselves, which is bias to the core.

The authors of this new study instead call out for more independent research to be done to validate their findings. They are concerned with glyphosate’s inhibition of the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes in the body, which are hindering the body’s natural detoxification ability.

There is certainly a need for more empowering education on chemicals like glyphosate. There needs to be a kind of public mass awakening that correlates Monsanto’s Roundup with skull and crossbones. If anything, Americans have the right to know how their food was produced, engineered, and poisoned, and everyone should pitch in and stop using toxic glyphosate-laced Roundup at all costs.

DON’T MISS: Top 10 reasons to join the worldwide march against Monsanto tomorrow! (Saturday, May 25, 2013)

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/040482_glyphosate_Monsanto_detoxification.html

As reported by Principia Scientific International (PSI), Martin Mlynczak and his colleagues over at NASA tracked infrared emissions from the earth’s upper atmosphere during and following a recent solar storm that took place between March 8-10. What they found was that the vast majority of energy released from the sun during this immense coronal mass ejection (CME) was reflected back up into space rather than deposited into earth’s lower atmosphere.

The result was an overall cooling effect that completely contradicts claims made by NASA’s own climatology division that greenhouse gases are a cause of global warming. As illustrated by data collected using Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER), both carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO), which are abundant in the earth’s upper atmosphere, greenhouse gases reflect heating energy rather than absorb it.

“Carbon dioxide and nitric oxide are natural thermostats,” says James Russell from Hampton University, who was one of the lead investigators for the groundbreaking SABER study. “When the upper atmosphere (or ‘thermosphere’) heats up, these molecules try as hard as they can to shed that heat back into space.”

Almost all ‘heating’ radiation generated by sun is blocked from entering lower atmosphere by CO2

According to the data, up to 95 percent of solar radiation is literally bounced back into space by both CO2 and NO in the upper atmosphere. Without these necessary elements, in other words, the earth would be capable of absorbing potentially devastating amounts of solar energy that would truly melt the polar ice caps and destroy the planet.

“The shock revelation starkly contradicts the core proposition of the so-called greenhouse gas theory which claims that more CO2 means more warming for our planet,” write H. Schreuder and J. O’Sullivan for PSI. “[T]his compelling new NASA data disproves that notion and is a huge embarrassment for NASA’s chief climatologist, Dr. James Hansen and his team over at NASA’s GISS.”

Dr. Hansen, of course, is an outspoken global warming activist who helped spark man-made climate change hysteria in the U.S. back in 1988. Just after the release of the new SABER study, however, Dr. Hansen conveniently retired from his career as a climatologist at NASA, and reportedly now plans to spend his time “on science,” and on “drawing attention to [its] implications for young people.”

You can read more details of the new NASA SABER study by visiting:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/22mar_saber/

You can also check out a informative, four-minute video report on the solar storm here:

SEE ALSO:
- IPCC climate fraud evidence leaked 9 months in advance
- United Nations global warming propaganda exposed
- Overpopulation is a myth
- Global warming stopped 16 years ago
- Scientists warn geo-engineering could kill billions of people

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/040448_solar_radiation_global_warming_debunked.html

The result is a huge victory for www.CleanWaterPortland.org and all the men, women and children of Portland who can now rest easier, knowing their tap water is not intentionally poisoned with cancer-causing chemicals derived from industrial waste and mislabeled “fluoride.”

The defeat of the measure absolutely infuriated fluoride-pushing doctors and dentists, many of whom resorted to using outrageous lies and dirty tricks during the entire campaign. These lies include whoppers like, “Drinking fluoride has never harmed anyone” and “this is naturally-occurring fluoride, therefore it’s safe.”

Fluoride advocates reject real science

Nowhere is there a more obscene departure from real science than in the “scientific” community of fluoride pushers. These people very well know that all sorts of “naturally-occurring” elements in the table of elements are extremely toxic to the human body. Mercury is toxic, yet it occurs naturally. Arsenic is highly toxic, yet it occurs naturally as well. I dare any of these fluoride pushers to chug a glass containing lead or cadmium.

To claim that fluoride is healthful merely because it is found in water wells and the Earth’s crust is an outrageously evil deception. Fluoride POISONS water wells around the world, and populations go to great lengths to try to remove it from their water! Fluoride pushers know this, but they seem to be determined to make sure as many people as possible are harmed through fluoridation, possibly as a way to make sure there’s more medical business in the future due to toxic fluoride side effects.

“Fluoride” is actually a toxic combination of chemicals and heavy metals

Most of the fluoride dumped into U.S. water supplies, by the way, is imported from China. And it just happens to be heavily contaminated with lead, arsenic, cadmium and other toxic metals. No city in the United States tests its fluoride for these contaminants and openly publicizes the results. It’s all one big toxic secret, and the doctors and dentists who support fluoridation want to make sure it stays that way.

Shhh! Science isn’t allowed when we discuss fluoride! You’re supposed to just buy into the “cult” of it, without asking any scientific questions.

But even environmental groups understand this stuff is highly toxic. “…there is no safe exposure level for arsenic and lead,” said Antonia Giedwoyn, a Sierra Club spokeswoman in Portland. “Why would we want to add any level of heavy metals to our water, that our kids and our parents and we ourselves drink?” (SOURCE).

Fluoridation proponents are some of the most dangerous, life-hating people you’ll ever meet

By the way, in my more than ten years of being an investigative reporter, activist and pioneer in online health news and information, I have never met a more arrogant, insidious and life-hating group of people than those who push for water fluoridation. Across the board, these people behave like psychopathic criminals who want to unleash death and destruction across every city in the world. They are very much like the “mad scientists” that Batman defeats in major motion pictures. They’ve abandoned any desire to listen to reason or logic, and they don’t even recognize real science anymore.

They remind me of Dr. Gosnell, the abortionist doctor in Philadelphia who would murder babies after they were born alive by severing their spinal columns with scissors. He called it “post-birth abortion” with the same level of evil arrogance that doctors in Portland used to call mass poisoning “water fluoridation.” I am absolutely convinced that if you gave some of these fluoride-pushing doctors a couple of pairs of scissors, they would run around Portland stabbing infants in the neck if they thought they could get away with it. They might even call it something like, “Pre-emptive brain cancer prevention.”

“Fluoride” is often imported from China and laced with heavy metals

By the way, Natural News has already documented that much of the “fluoride” used in U.S. cities is actually an insecticide imported from China.

Here’s some of the text used by Chinese chemical manufacturers to promote their “fluoride” to U.S. cities that buy this stuff and dump it into the water supply:

From the Shanghai Polymet Commodities Ltd. company in China:

Fluosilicic Acid / hydrofluosilicic acid:

Property: Colorless, transparent and smoky liquid with penetrating odor; highly acidic; soluble in water and volatile; with disinfecting action; corrosive to glass, ceramics, lead and other metals; highly corrosive to human skin and harmful to people’s respiratory organs; keep it in a container made of plastics.

Another industrial fluoride supplier from China describes its sodium fluoride as:

…used as anti-corrosion agent in wood, medical corrosion, fusing in welding… manufacture of rimmed steel, treatment of hides and skins for leather industry, adhesive preservative, purification and coloring flux in the melting of light metals.

Oh yeah, and your idiot doctor wants you to drink it, too… right before he stabs you in the arm with a vaccine that also contains heavy metals.

Learn more:
www.cleanwaterportland.org

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/040465_water_fluoridation_Portland_ballot_measure.html

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has predicted that the company will be capable of developing artificial intelligence for its programs that will be indistinguishable from a human being within 5-10 years.

During a question and answer session at Google’s Big Tent event, which took place this week at the luxury Grove Hotel in Watford, UK, Schmidt responded to the question, “How soon before Google Now passes the Turing test?”

The Turing test is a concept first introduced in 1950 by British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing which measures a machine’s ability to exhibit behavior equivalent to a real human being.

After mentioning how IBM’s Watson computer won Jeopardy, Schmidt responded that Google, “could do it in five to 10 years.”

The Big Tent event is the more public version of Google Zeitgeist, a private function that features a raft of influential speakers from the world of technology, business, academia and politics.

As we recently reported, Google’s primary vehicle for its artificial intelligence technology will likely be Google Now, the voice-recognizing search product which is being hyped as a tool that will eventually be able to manage almost every aspect of your life.

Eric Schmidt has never shied away from his vision, dystopic to some, of a future transhumanist world where robots will play a central role in managing human affairs.

The Google CEO has previously discussed his desire to swallow nano-bots every morning that would regulate the functioning of his body, as well as sending his robotic clone to social functions.

Top futurists like Ray Kurzweil have embraced Schmidt’s vision and took it even further - writing that within decades man will merge with machine and that by 2099 the entire planet will be run by artificially intelligent computer systems which are smarter than the entire human race combined – similar to the Skynet system fictionalized in the Terminator franchise.

Such predictions, allied with Schmidt’s drive to see them come to fruition, make it all the more ominous that Kurzweil was hired by Google last year to oversee the company’s project to “produce an artificial brain.”

In an interview with Wired, Kurzweil noted that, “A lot of (sci-fi) movies about artificial intelligence envision that AI’s will be very intelligent but missing some key emotional qualities of humans and therefore turn out to be very dangerous.”

Source: http://www.infowars.com/eric-schmidt-google-ai-indistinguishable-from-humans-within-a-decade/

Julian Assange (above) and a coalition of activists and journalists filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the military judge overseeing Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s trial in a bid to open access to the secretive proceedings.

During the trial both access to transcripts and prosecution and defense motions have been virtually inaccessible.

Bradley, who faces a life sentence over the leaking of more than 700,000 sensitive military documents published by Wikileaks, is currently being tried by a military tribunal. The trial is expected to begin on June 3, 2013.

The judge overseeing Manning’s court-martial announced this week that she will close portions of the trial to the public in order to protect classified material. Prosecutors are expected to call 150 witnesses to testify against Manning, while two dozen witnesses may be able to provide their testimony in closed sessions.

Shayana Kadidal, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights which is part of the legal challenge, described the effort as a last ditch attempt.

“If this lawsuit fails, Manning’s trial will take place under conditions where journalists and the public will be unable as a practical matter to follow what is going on in the courtroom,” says Kadidal.

“The federal civilian courts are now our last option,” she added.

Assange’s co-plaintiffs in the legal injunction include Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, and The Nation magazine. The coalition seeks to force the release of files currently being kept out of the public’s access.

The same group previously filed a similar lawsuit in military courts that was shot down in a 3-2 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces last month. Now, they are hoping that the same legal request will fare better in a civilian court.

The group’s preliminary injunction is expected to be presented in front of a Maryland US District Court shortly after Manning’s trial begins in June.

Though the pretrial process has been opaque, prosecutors did say this week that they had agreed not to pursue a charge that Manning had violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which could potentially reduce any prison sentence by eight years. According to the Washington Post, prosecutors did not provide a reason for the recent shift.

Regardless, convictions for the more serious charges faced by Manning could still carry a sentence of life in prison.

Manning’s defense team attempted to block testimony from witnesses linked to alleged damage caused by the release of the leaked documents. Army Col. Denise Lind, overseeing the trial, disagreed, and ruled that the prosecution will have the option to call witnesses to provide both evidence and context of any collateral damage caused by the document leaks.

Lind did say, however, that the testimony would be limited so as to not have the trial “devolve into many trials regarding international politics in many regions of the world.”

Both activists and journalists that have been following Manning’s pretrial proceedings have accused the US military of undermining the legal process by preventing access.

“The culture of extreme secrecy that has defined both the Bush and Obama presidencies does a disservice to our democratic society. By unnecessarily cloaking these proceedings from public view or scrutiny, the government is undermining the most basic principles of transparency and freedom of the press, both of which are vital components of the democratic and judicial process,” said journalist Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for The Nation.

SEE ALSO:
- Assange’s WikiLeaks Party opens for membership in Australia
- Bradley Manning: a window into the American soul
- Manning: US Army like ‘child torturing ants with a magnifying glass’ (FULL LEAKED TESTIMONY)

Source: http://rt.com/usa/assange-sues-military-manning-secrecy-661/

YOU can join in the activities, too! Check this site to see if there’s a march planned near you:
http://occupy-monsanto.com/march-against-monsanto-may-25-2013/

And learn more about the event at this FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/MarchAgainstMonstanto

Here are my top 10 reasons to attend the March Against Monsanto!

#1) There will be tons of press coverage, so your voice will be heard

It’s hard to get your voice heard these days. But now’s your chance! Bring your protest sign, wear a shirt with a message, speak to news crews or even give a speech to the audience. This is your chance to have your voice heard on an issue of crucial importance to the future of life on our planet.

#2) Send a powerful message to Monsanto that their corporate evil will not be tolerated by the people of the world

Beyond the media watching this event, Monsanto will also be very closely monitoring what happens. (Look out for “Monsanto spies” at every event!)

When you show up and march with determination and passion, you help send a message to Monsanto that they will never stop the resistance against GMOs. We want to tell them they should find a way to transition out of the market while they still have time. Let Monsanto know that We the People won’t tolerate their genetic poisoning of the planet and the food supply!

#3) Learn more about GMOs and why they’re so dangerous for life on our planet

By attending these rallies, you’ll also learn a huge amount of valuable information about GMOs and why they’re so dangerous to us all. You might even learn something so powerful you feel compelled to share it with others.

And that’s how this works: Gathering knowledge and sharing it with the people around you so that they, too, can learn to avoid GMOs. Let knowledge be open-source!

#4) Listen to great speakers who share a message of inspiration and solidarity

At every city, speakers will be sharing their wisdom and rallying the crowd with inspiring, informative live speeches. Listen to these speakers and you’ll learn a lot!

#5) Meet and interact with like-minded people

Want to meet informed, intelligent, health-conscious people who aren’t dumbed-down like everyone else? Meet them at the March Against Monsanto!

Think about it: What kind of people come to these marches? The top 1% of the most informed, “awake” and environmentally-aware individuals on the planet. That’s my kind of crowd!

#6) Send a global message to food retailers that they should drop GMOs

Food retailers will also be watching this event, and as more and more people protest GMOs, more pressure will be placed on retailers to either label GMOs or drop them altogether.

And that’s what we want! At minimum, we want mandatory GMO labeling across the board. That way, shoppers can make an informed choice of what they’re buying at the grocery store.

#7) Get some outdoor exercise while joining a noble cause

Joining the march will give you a fantastic opportunity to get some healthy exercise while marching for a worthy cause. It’s not every day that you get to march with a group of fun, intelligent, informed people who truly represent the future of humankind (because they care about genetic integrity).

If for no other reason than this, join the March Against Monsanto and enjoy the stroll!

#8) Raise your spiritual karma score by standing up for universal justice

Need a little help in the karma realm? Marching against evil is always a good thing; especially when you’re taking a stand for universal justice: food freedom, farm freedom and the integrity of seeds on our planet.

The time to do something good is now!

#9) Show off your cool protest sign!

Bring an awesome protest sign and show it off to the crowd! I’ll be marching with my own sign, and I can’t wait to see what everybody else comes up with, too.

Make your sign large enough to be easily read in photos and news cameras. If your sign is awesome enough, it will get major play on the ‘net!

#10) Be part of a truly grassroots, non-hierarchical, non-centralized global protest

This entire event has come into existence organically, with no central planning or coordination. I don’t even know who put this together in the first place. And it doesn’t matter, you see, because as long as we each continue to do our part on this, we can feel hugely rewarded in knowing that millions of other people are also doing their part for the same common goal: the global outlawing or labeling of GMOs.

Join us in this march for the sole reason that it is the right thing to do. Become part of a peer-to-peer, decentralized movement of justice against a terrible evil that threatens our planet. Feel the power of the People as you join in this meaningful, grassroots effort to banish corporate evil from our food and farms.

Learn more:

http://occupy-monsanto.com/march-against-monsanto-may-25-2013/

https://www.facebook.com/MarchAgainstMonstanto

http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/040467_March_Against_Monsanto_GMO_rally.html

The YouTube video of the arrest shows Adam Kokesh clearly NOT resisting, holding his hands up in a surrender posture and trying to maintain his balance while a gang of police drag him away from the event.

According to Adam Kokesh supporter “Brother Lucas,” Kokesh never even smoked pot during the protest, so his arrest is sending shockwaves across the liberty movement because it appears to be illegal and unjustified. The video seems to depict a lawless gang of badge-wearing thugs committing an act of kidnapping against someone merely exercising their free speech rights in a public forum. Details are still early and somewhat sketchy at this point, so we may learn more details that will provide additional clarity on why this happened and what excuse the police will come up with this time.

(Will the IRS investigate Kokesh next? Are there any limits to criminal government?)

A request on Kokesh’s Facebook page calls for supporters to “phone bomb” the Philadelphia Police Department Public Affairs office:

Phone bomb 215 686 3388 and demand Adam get a phone call and that he be released… we have yet to be in contact with him about 2 hours into it… I will keep everyone posted as I get more details! One love – Brotha Lucas

Adam Kokesh is, of course, the activist who has pre-announced an armed civil disobedience march on Washington D.C. on July 4th. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered Washington D.C. lawmakers to legalize the concealed carry of firearms by non-felon citizens, but D.C. has so far refused to enact such a law. There is already widespread speculation that Adam Kokesh’s arrest may be intended to imprison him until July 4th passes in order to pre-empt the protest march.

If that’s true, the authorities have grossly miscalculated: such a move of obvious intimidation, oppression and civil rights violations will only further enrage a national public that’s already fed up with IRS criminality, Obama administration criminality, Department of Justice criminality and an ever-expanding atmosphere of police state intimidation, oppression and censorship.

If Adam Kokesh is not released in very short order, all hell is going to break loose in Philadelphia. Watch the video of the arrest and see for yourself just how close the crowd seems to attacking the criminal cops on the spot:

For the record, I am a strong supporter of local law enforcement… until they reach the point where they become a police state regime that violates civil rights and due process. At that point I am a vocal critic of the “criminal” police and support protesters and activists who help expose the corruption of power in law enforcement.

For police to have the support of the citizens, they must operate within the bounds of the law and respect due process. They do not have the authority to simply arrest and silence anyone they wish merely because they disagree with that person’s political views.

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/040399_Adam_Kokesh_resisting_arrest_Philadelphia_protest.html

The 30 PackBot 510 units, which usually cost between $100,000 and $200,000 apiece, will arrive in Brazil as part of the $7.2 million deal the country signed with American iRobot advanced technology company. The contracts include services, spare parts and associated equipment.

“IRobot continues its international expansion, and Brazil represents an important market for the company’s unmanned ground vehicles,” Frank Wilson, iRobot’s senior vice president, said in a statement. “IRobot is excited to be providing the company’s state-of-the-art robotic technologies to Brazil as the country prepares for several high profile international events, including the 2014 FIFA World Cup.”

The first real test for the PackBots will be the visit of Pope Franics to Brazil this July, with the country also looking to use the robots during the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The PackBots are equipped with cameras and are operated remotely in order to detect and examine suspicious objects or explore dangerous environments, while keeping their operators safe from harm.

The devices weigh about 27 kilogram and rely on caterpillar treads to move around, using videogame-style hand controllers to make it more familiar to the users.

More than 2000 of those military robots are currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, with PackBots being the first to enter the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Brazil is spending $900 million to bolster its security forces, including high-tech surveillance equipment and helicopters, as the country is hoping to make the 2014 World Cup “one of the most protected sports events in history.”

The country’s police will be equipped with facial-recognition camera glasses that can capture 400 facial images per second to store them in a central database of up to 13 million faces.

Brazil is also reported to have spent $25 million on four Israeli-made drones, which are expected to make their debut at the FIFA Confederations Cup in June.

There’ll also be plenty of manpower involved in the security operation as the World Cup organizers plan have 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers from the Brazilian Armed Forces at each of the 12 host cities during the event.

SEE ALSO: Post Games UK: full-blown police state

A series of blasts have rocked the Iraqi capital and its neighborhood killing at least 76 people and wounding dozens – the deadliest wave of violence in eight months.

In Baquba, a town 50 miles outside Baghdad, 43 people were killed and 56 were wounded after Friday prayers. The blast was followed by a second explosion tearing into the crowds of people who rushed to the scene to help the victims, police told Reuters.

“I was about 30 meters from the first explosion. When the first exploded, I ran to help them, and the second one went off. I saw bodies flying and I had shrapnel in my neck,” Hashim Munjiz, a college student, told Reuters.

The second bombing, at a funeral south of the capital, killed eight and wounded 11, AP said quoting medical sources.

A third attack consisting of two bombs exploded in a commercial area in a mainly Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing at least 21 people and wounding 32.

Another explosion struck a cafe in Fallujah, which killed two people and wounded nine.

The series of attacks targeting Sunnis follow two days of attacks against Shiites, in which dozens also died. The string of bombing are now following a pattern of tit-for-tat killings that have already killed ten of thousands of people.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombings.

The news comes after eleven people were killed in series of bomb attacks in Baghdad and Kirkuk – Iraq’s two major cities – on Thursday.

In the Kirkuk attack, five people were killed after a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest at the entrance to a Shiite mosque.

While in the suburb of Sadr city in Baghdad three people and killed and 17 injured. A further blast in Baghdad a car bomb blew up outside a market in the Chukook neighborhood, which killed one bystander.

Militant attacks on Sunni and Shiite mosques as well as against security forces and tribal leaders have mushroomed since security forces aided a Sunni protest camp in Kirkuk a month ago, fueling fear that Iraq may slide back into all out-sectarian war.

The combined death toll from the Friday attacks makes it the deadliest day since the mid-April killings, which had claimed nearly 60 lives and injured 300 – itself the deadliest day since attacks in 2008.

Overall violence in Iraq has dropped since its peak in 2005-2007, but tensions between Sunnis and Shiites have remained high since the US led invasion of the country in 2003.

Since the end of 2011 when US combat troops finally left Iraq, the Iraqi army and police force have been unable to prevent an increase in insurgency and sectarian violence.

Al-Qaeda has been highly active in Iraq since the US led invasion of 2003 and now is acknowledged as being behind much of the Sunni insurgency and sectarian violence that is gripping most of the country.

Their targets have mostly been the Shia dominated security forces and government.

The fragile government coalition between Sunnis, Shia and secularists is now in danger of collapse as violence grips Iraq and many fear a return to the terrible violence of 2006-2007.

As well as spiraling sectarian violence, Iraqis have to deal with a daily grind of power cuts, water shortages, and a lack of jobs and schools.

Crumbling infrastructure is matched by rampant corruption. Transparency International recently ranked Iraq as the eighth most corrupt country in the world. In one of the latest scandals, the Electricity Ministry was involved in a 1.7 billion fraud.

Source: http://rt.com/news/iraq-blasts-sectarian-violence-424/