Newly released US government data shows suicide rate among military veterans as considerably higher in western and rural parts of the country, further indicating that female and older veterans are at higher risk and that social isolation, gun ownership and limited access to health care are likely factors.

The new figures are the first-ever Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) data on suicide that show wide state-by-state disparities, demonstrating that states such as Montana, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico have had the highest rates of veteran suicide as of 2014 — the most current VA data available, the AP reported Saturday.

According to the official report, the suicide rates among US war veterans in the four states stood at 60 per 100,000 individuals, which is much higher than the average veteran suicide rate of 38.4.

Veterans in large parts of those states must drive 70 miles (112 kilometers) or more to reach the nearest VA medical center for treatment.

The overall suicide rate in Western states, the latest data shows, stood at 45.5 while all other regions of the US had rates below the national average rate.

The new VA data also reconfirmed drastic demographic differences: Female veterans are at much greater risk, with their suicide rate 2.5 times higher than for civilian women. This is while the suicide risk among male veterans was 19 percent higher than civilian men.

As a whole, however, older veterans make up most military suicides, according to the government report, which pointed out that nearly 65 percent of the victims were age 50 or older.

Other states with high veteran suicide rates, including mostly rural West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky, had greater levels of prescription drug use, including opioids.

This is while a 2016 VA study found that veterans who received the highest doses of opioid painkillers were more than twice as likely to die by suicide compared to those receiving the lowest doses.

“This report is huge,” said epidemiologist Rajeev Ramchand, who studies suicide for the government-sponsored RAND Corporation. He further noted that the suicide rate is higher for veterans than non-veterans in every single US state by at least 1.5 times. “No state is immune.”

According to Ramchand, pinpointing specific causes of veteran suicide was difficult but they likely involved factors more rampant in rural areas, such as social isolation, limited health care access, gun ownership and opioid addiction.

“This requires closer investigation into why suicide rates by veteran status are higher, including the role that opiates play,” Ramchand emphasized.

“These findings are deeply concerning, which is why I made suicide prevention my top clinical priority,” VA Secretary David Shulkin said recently. “This is a national public health issue.”

The VA has reported a major hike in the number of veterans seeking medical care after returning from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the US military has intervened in purported bids to root out terrorism and bring stability to the troubled regions.

Terrorism, however, expanded drastically in both countries since the US-led military meddling as Washington seeks another upsurge of troops in the war-torn nations following major withdrawals.

The latest data provides more detailed breakdowns on national figures released in 2016, which saw 20 veterans committing suicide per day. The statistics come from the largest study of veterans’ records by the VA in a bid to uncover new information on where to direct resources and identify veterans most at risk.

Source: Presstv

Several hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters have taken St. Louis’ streets to voice their anger after a Missouri judge acquitted a white former St. Louis police in the 2011 killing of an African-American man. Some protesters clashed with police and a few scuffles broke out on Friday in the state of Missouri where racially charged clashes in the nearby city of Ferguson created the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014.

Police said some demonstrators hurled rocks and water bottles, while witnesses and video footage showed police used pepper spray on at protesters about a block from the courthouse. A court in Missouri freed Jason Stockley, 36, who was charged with first-degree murder for killing Anthony Lamar Smith, 24. He was arrested in May 2016.

The former policeman was accused of planting a gun in Smith’s car but claimed in his testimony that he did this in self-defense. More than 500 protesters held a demonstration following the verdict in downtown St. Louis, chanting, “No justice, no peace” and “Shut it down.” Some held “Black Lives Matter” signs.

“I’m sad, I’m hurt, I’m mad,” said the Reverend Clinton Stancil of the Wayman AME Church in St. Louis. “We haven’t made any progress since Ferguson, that’s clear. Cops can still kill us with impunity.” The deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police over the past years have sparked nationwide protests under the banner of Black Lives Matter movement.

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice will not bring civil rights charges against six Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, the young African-American man whose killing sparked mass protests in 2015.

The department said that “the evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the officers who arrested Gray “willfully violated” his civil rights.

Source: Presstv

British police are investigating a reported explosion at a subway station in southwest London, which left several people injured and hundreds of commuters running from the platform in panic.  

The Metropolitan Police said Friday that officers have arrived at the Parsons Green station and are investigating and will give more information as soon as possible.

According to news agencies, the blast left some passengers with facial burns and that paramedics were present at the scene.

Transport for London confirmed that Parsons Green station has been closed and there was no service between Earls Court and Wimbledon on the District Line which runs through Parsons Green.

One witness reported seeing “a flash and a bang” in a bag holding the container, which is said to have had wires coming from it, on the packed rush-hour carriage.

Russia is set to launch major joint military drills with Belarus on Thursday, amid continuing tensions between Moscow and NATO. The large-scale drills, called Zapad (West) 2017, are scheduled to be held from September 14 to 20 around the Baltic Sea, in western Russia, Belarus, and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

The maneuvers, described by Moscow as “purely defensive,” will involve 12,700 troops, 70 aircraft, 250 tanks, and 10 warships.

NATO claims that Russia is under-reporting the number of troops participating in the drills and that the military exercises could provide cover for a possible permanent relocation of offensive equipment near the Baltic countries. Some of the alliance’s eastern members allege that Moscow has committed more than 100,000 servicemen to the war games, a claim that has been rejected by Russia as flat-out wrong.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the “artificial hype” about the maneuvers is aimed at “justifying the spending on NATO’s military buildup on Poland and the Baltic states in the eyes of the western audience.”

Russia and NATO have had strained ties since conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine some three years ago. More than 10,000 have been killed in the war in Ukraine’s industrial east, where the Kiev government is fighting pro-Russia forces.

Russia has long been wary of NATO’s expansion eastward — toward Russia’s western borders. NATO has deployed around 4,000 troops, consisting of four battle groups, to Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland in recent years.

The US military took part in a training exercise with Baltic allies in June that included B-1 and B-52 bombers and 50 naval ships. Also in July, 25,000 servicemen from 17 countries participated in a NATO training exercise in the Black Sea, which were monitored by members of the Russian military.

Sweden holds biggest war games in 20 years

Meanwhile, the Swedish military has started its “first and largest” drills, dubbed Aurora 17, in more than two decades on Wednesday, involving 19,000 troops with support from NATO countries.

Sweden, which is not a member of NATO, plans to conduct the war games in the air, on land and at sea, with the participation of a US Patriot missile battery, helicopters, and a unit of National Guard tanks.

Around 1,500 troops from the United States, France, Norway, and other NATO allies are taking part in the exercises over a three-week period.

Brandishing the ‘Russian threat’

Micael Byden, the commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, seemed to suggest that the drills were being launched in response to a perceived security threat from Russia.

“The security situation has taken a turn for the worse,” Byden said. “Russia is the country that affects security in Europe right now with its actions… so it is clear that we are watching very closely what Russia is doing.”

Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern over Sweden’s growing military activities and its closer cooperation with NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in early June that Moscow would need to take additional security measures if the Scandinavian country decided to join NATO.

“If Sweden joins NATO, that will affect our [bilateral] relations in a negative way,” Putin said back then, adding that Moscow would regard the move as “an additional threat.”