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Alabama plane crash kills 3 couples, total of 11 children left behind

Carol Robinson
AL.com
Sun, 14 Aug 2016 12:16 UTC
Tuscaloosa plane crash
© WBRC/Supplied
A plane crash in Tuscaloosa County has killed six people, three married couples who had attended a dental conference in Florida, and left a total of 11 children behind.

"It's tragic to lose these wonderful Mississippians. Deborah and I pray for the loved and lost, their families and friends,'' said Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. "Life can be so uncertain, so we depend on the blessing of eternal life and reuniting. May God assauage the families' sorrow and hold them all in the palm of his hand."

The crash happened about 11:20 a.m. just east of the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport in Northport. The crash site is in a wooded field of Van de Graaff Park near an area known as Gate 1.


Tuscaloosa police Lt. Teena Richardson confirmed the six deaths. Northport police officials on the scene said the plane is not intact. Richardson said the plane was traveling from Kissimmee, Florida en route to Oxford, Miss. when the pilot reported engine problems. The pilot sent out distress call, and the plane went down behind the farmers market in Northport. According to Flightaware.com, an Oxford University Aircraft Charters departed the Florida airport at 9:55 a.m. but was diverted.
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Wolf

'Koran for Dummies': Most Daesh recruits ignorant about Islam, AP survey shows


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 12:54 UTC
Islamic State recruits
© Reuters
Most Islamic State recruits know little about Islam or hardly care about religion at all, an AP investigation shows. Another study found that the few with the most religious knowledge among the ranks of the terrorist group do not rush to become martyrs.

As many as 70 percent of the recruits were said to have had only "basic" knowledge of Islam - one of the three possible choices on an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) recruitment form, according to a study conducted by Associated Press. The agency looked at thousands of leaked IS documents collected by a Syrian site, Zaman al-Wasl, and conducted numerous interviews with former IS fighters.

The probe found that some 24 percent of IS recruits could boast "intermediate" knowledge of Islam and only about 5 percent considered themselves to be "advanced" learners. Only five recruits claimed to have memorized the Koran.
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Pocket Knife

Man with knife goes on rampage inside Austrian train, stabs 2 passengers


RT
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 12:42 UTC
Austria train knife attack
© Kronen Zeitung / Twitter
A 60-year-old man "with mental health problems" armed with a knife has attacked passengers on a regional train in Austria, injuring two people, police said. The attack is the latest in a string of knife assaults in Europe.

The knife attack took place on a regional train traveling between the Austrian towns of Bludenz and Feldkirch at around 6.30am local time on Thursday, according to local media.

Police said that a German man aged 60 had stabbed a 19-year-old passenger in his stomach, also injuring his back, and afterwards attacked another passenger's neck. The second victim was 17, according to police.
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Arrow Down

Distinguished hospitals in India complicit in organ harvesting


Sputnik News
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 05:39 UTC
Surgery
© RIA Novosti/Grigoriy Sisoev
Five doctors from one of India's most distinguished hospitals were charged this week with performing illegal kidney transplants connected to an organ harvesting ring.

The doctors, including a medical director and a chief executive, worked out of the prestigious L.H. Hiranandani Hospital in Mumbai. The trafficking racket was discovered in July after police were tipped off by poor villagers from Gujarat state who were sold their kidneys.

The trade for illegal organs is booming in India, where it is lawful for people to donate organs to blood relatives in need. The practice of buying and selling organs, however, is banned and punishable by fines and prison sentences.

Unrelated donors can donate organs if the government confirms that no money has changed hands in the transaction. People can also source organs from cadavers or brain-dead patients, with the family's permission, but these options are not common.
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People

Volunteers cleared more than 4 million pounds of trash in the world's largest beach cleanup

Chelsea Harvey
The Washington Post
Mon, 15 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
Mumbai’s Versova Beach
© United Nations Environment Programme
The Versova Resident Volunteers are leading the world’s largest beach clean-up at Mumbai’s Versova Beach.
What began as a small group of concerned citizens taking action has spiraled into the largest beach clean-up effort in the world — and in less than a year, it's cleared millions of pounds of debris from the shoreline bordering India's most populous city.

The clean-up effort focuses on Versova beach, a one-and-a-half-mile strip of coastline in western Mumbai facing the Arabian Sea. Historically noted for its prevalent fishing culture, the area has more recently become known for the vast amounts of garbage littering its sandy shore. But now, an ongoing initiative spearheaded by residents of Versova is making steady progress at cleaning up the shoreline.

The effort kicked off last October when 33-year-old lawyer and Versova resident Afroz Shah first took it upon himself to start clearing the beach
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Bulb

What will you do when the lights go out? The inevitable failure of the US power grid

Julianne Geiger
Oil Price
Fri, 12 Aug 2016 22:18 UTC
LNG Terminal
Delta Airlines recently experienced what it called a power outage in its home base of Atlanta, Georgia, causing all the company's computers to go offline—all of them. This seemingly minor hiccup managed to singlehandedly ground all Delta planes for six hours, stranding passengers for even longer, as Delta scrambled to reshuffle passengers after the Monday debacle.

Where Delta blamed its catastrophic systems-wide computer failure vaguely on a loss of power, Georgia Power, their power provider, placed the ball squarely in Delta's court, saying that "other Georgia Power customers were not affected", and that they had staff on site to assist Delta.

Whether it was a true power outage, or an outage unique to Delta is fairly insignificant. The incident was a single company without power for six measly hours, yet it wreaked much havoc. Which brings to mind (or at least it should) what happens when the lights really go out—everywhere? And just how dependent is the U.S. on single-source power?
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Fire

Fire, explosion rocks refinery in St. James Parish, Louisiana


Fox10
Thu, 11 Aug 2016 13:56 UTC
Explosion at the Motiva refinery
© WAFB
An explosion and fire rocked the Motiva refinery Thursday morning.

The St. James Sheriff's office says the fire and explosion occurred at 10:54 a.m. and is still burning at the facility located on Highway 44 in Convent.

The St. James Parish and Convent Fire departments have responded to the scene. La. Hwy. 70 is closed between La. Hwy. 3125 and La. Hwy. 22 until further notice. A spokesman for the sheriff's office said all employees have been accounted for.

Motiva has activated their emergency response plan monitor air quality in and around the plant. More than 700 people work at the refinery. "The safety of our employees and our community is our first priority," said Hugues Bourgogne, General Manager of the Convent Refinery. "Please bear with us as we focus our attention on accounting for all employees and securing the incident."

According to the Motiva website, including the Convent facility, Motiva owns and operates three refineries - located within a 120-mile radius of each other - in Convent and Norco and Port Arthur, Texas.
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House

Soylent CEO faces charges for "unpermitted" off-grid tiny home

Justin Gardner
Free Thought Project
Sun, 14 Aug 2016 19:28 UTC
Flat Top Hill, Los Angeles
© Martha Benedict
Flat Top Hill, Los Angeles
Rob Rhinehart, developer of the "magical milkshake" known as Soylent, has been criminally charged for attempting to build an off-grid "experiment in sustainable living" without obtaining city permits. He could face up to two years in prison and a $4,000 fine.

Rhinehart bought an 8,422-square foot plot of land on Flat Top Hill overlooking the city and placed a shipping container on it, planning to create a minimalist dwelling with solar panels, septic tank and graywater recycling.

However, any time someone wants to live detached from the government-regulated grid and associated extortion fees, it draws the attention of authorities.

Part of the problem may be that he didn't move quickly enough for nearby residents who complained about the large red structure sitting up on the hill. They didn't like that some trash was left behind after Rhinehart hosted a party there, and how the shipping container became the target of graffiti and misbehaving youngsters.

Rhinehart said he would move the structure to a new location, but the city was already working to bring him up on charges. Rhinehart maintains that he spent thousands to improve the land, remove trash and mow the grass on his land and the entire hilltop.
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Heart - Black

New York teen hangs himself after Catholic school staff ignore 'constant' bullying

David Ferguson
Raw Story
Sat, 13 Aug 2016 19:19 UTC
Daniel Fitzpatrick

Daniel Fitzpatrick
A 13-year-old boy in Staten Island, NY committed suicide this week after school officials did nothing to stop the incessant bullying he was subject to every day.

The New York Daily News said that Daniel Fitzpatrick left behind a heartbreaking letter in which he said he "gave up" on life and getting help after classmates at Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn ruthlessly bullied him about his weight, grades and social awkwardness.

Fitzpatrick's family said that their son tried to get help from teacher after teacher, but they — and the school principal — turned a blind eye and allowed other students to torment the boy. "I gave up," he wrote in a suicide note. "The teachers...they didn't do anything."

Daniel was found by his sister on Thursday night, hanged by the neck in the family's attic. The family shared the letter with the Daily News on Friday in hopes that someone will be "held accountable" for their son's death.

"My son shouldn't have to die to be heard," said Daniel's mother Maureen Fitzpatrick. "There's something wrong with the adults in authority positions when kids can't go to them for help. No parent is supposed to bury their child," she said.


Comment: See also: Study: Bullying as a child has a worse effect on mental health than parental abuse

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V

South Koreans protest US missile defense system placement by shaving their heads


RT
Mon, 15 Aug 2016 19:16 UTC
Seoungju residents protesting
© Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
Seoungju residents chant slogans during a protest against the government's decision on deploying a U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense unit in Seongju, in Seoul, South Korea, July 21, 2016. The banner reads "Desperately oppose deploying THAAD"
About 900 South Koreans shaved their heads in protest against the decision to place a US THAAD missile defense system on their land with the purpose of countering threats from North Korea. This is the latest in a series of rallies against the missiles.

The protest was held on Monday in the county of Seongju - the site of the placement.

The government approved the deployment of the THAAD system based on the North's repeated threats to both the South and the US of "merciless" and "annihilating" nuclear strikes. However, protesters continued their show of defiance to the decision, voicing concerns over the perceived cancer risk - owing to the system's powerful radar - and the THAAD system becoming a wartime target should an enemy choose to strike.

Regional neighbors have also expressed sharp disagreement, with China considering the missiles a threat. North Korea has even promised to strike in retaliation.
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