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Germany's fertility rate hits 33-year high due to migrant inpouring


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 16:57 UTC
Germany's fertility rate
© Stefanie Loos / Reuters
The EU's most populous country has reversed demographic trends going back decades, with statistics showing that the rise in fertility is almost exclusively down to immigrant women, while the lifetime birthrates among the German population remain static.

On Monday, the German Federal Statistical Office released its official report, stating that German women currently aged between 15 and 49 have given birth to an average of 1.5 live babies during their lifetimes, up from 1.43 last year.

The numbers have been rising since 2012, and the latest lifetime fertility rate is the highest since 1982.
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Attention

Bloody man wielding a knife and chasing cars tased by Coral Gables police


CBS Miami
Fri, 14 Oct 2016 07:43 UTC
police crime scene
© CBS4Police look over a scene after a man was tased by officers in Coral Gables.
Coral Gables residents were put on edge after a bloodied man was carrying a weapon and reportedly chasing after cars.

It happened Thursday afternoon near the Publix at 2551 South LeJeune Road.

"I saw a man walking around with his tongue hanging out, throat cut, sliced arms," said Chris Fennel, who was working in the area. "He had a knife in his hand, blood dripping from the knife and from his hands."

Officers responded within a minute and confronted the man, believed to be in his 40's or 50's, covered in blood and a carrying a "six-inch blade."
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Bell

Serial child abductor eludes FBI as they seek public's help


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 06:19 UTC
serial child abductor cleveland.com/YouTube
© cleveland.com/YouTube
A man suspected of kidnapping a 6-year-old in Cleveland in May and attempting to snatch a 10-year-old in Elyria, Ohio, in February continues to baffle the FBI. After receiving hundreds of tips, the agency has no leads and will expand its search.

The FBI has received 325 tips about a man suspected of abducting a 6-year-old girl in Cleveland, but they've come up empty-handed, despite splashing the suspect's picture across social media and advertising billboards.

Last Thursday, the FBI gave out more information about the kidnapping of the Cleveland 6-year-old girl for the first time by acknowledging that she had been harmed by her kidnapper.

"He didn't take her to have a tea party," FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said. "He did things to her that we're not going to go into. But she was harmed. We're happy she's alive but they didn't play Barbies."


Comment: In the history of unhelpful statements, this goes down for special recognition as suggestive but conspicuously lacking the normal amount of detail. If he were a pedophile, they would have said so. Also, they would have rallied untold of support. So why dodge the question?


The Cleveland girl was held for roughly 17 hours with her attacker. She described the room she was held in as having a picture of a deer on the wall and told authorities that she heard a female voice asking her abductor if he wanted anything to eat.

Comment: This one goes up on the wall of weird.

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Bell

Poor data fuels idea 'biased US police are killing black men at epidemic rates' - FBI chief


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 05:44 UTC
Keith Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina
© Mike Blake/ReutersDemonstrators march to protest the police shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., September 26, 2016.
Lack of data fuels idea that 'biased US police are killing black men at epidemic rates' - FBI chief

The FBI director said the absence of reliable data about how often police use force contributed to a regrettable narrative that "biased police are killing black men at epidemic rates."

"It is a narrative driven by video images of real and gut-wrenching misconduct, by images of possible misconduct, by images of perceived misconduct," Comey said at a conference of international chiefs of police on Sunday, according to AP. "It's a narrative given force by the awesome power of human empathy."

Comey said those videos of fatal police encounters that capture the public's attention and are shared broadly across the internet can fuel the perception that "something terrible is being done by the police," even if the data aren't there to back it up.

Americans "actually have no idea if the number of black or brown or white people being shot by police is up, down or sideways over the last three years, five years, 10 years," or if black people are more likely than white people to be shot during police encounters, Comey said.

Comment: Alas coming from Comey, after the Hilary debacle, this will hardly be believed. Somehow we imagine that's the point. The best way to get people to believe a lie is to only allow unpopular people to speak the truth.

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Fire

Update: 2 dead, at least 6 injured in massive blast at BASF chemical plant in Germany


Daily Mail (UK)
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:59 UTC
BASF fire
© Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa via APSmoke and fire rise from a facility belonging to chemical firm BASF in Ludwigshafen, southwestern Germany, Monday Oct. 17, 2016. The company said that several people were injured in a late-morning explosion.
An explosion at a facility belonging to chemical firm BASF in southwestern Germany killed two people and injured at least six others on Monday, authorities said. Another two still were missing hours after the blast.

The explosion occurred in the late morning at a river harbor in Ludwigshafen that is used to unload flammable liquids and liquefied gas.

Plant manager Uwe Liebelt said it was preceded by a fire in a pipeline between the area where the liquids are unloaded and storage tanks. The explosion happened after the company's fire service arrived at the scene.

"How the explosion happened is not clear at the moment," Liebelt told reporters. He added that it wasn't yet known what substances were involved and didn't elaborate on the identities of the victims.

Earlier in the day, the company had reported that one person had died in the explosion.

BASF confirmed on Monday evening that the death toll had risen to two, spokeswoman Silvie-Kristin Wemper said.

A large column of black smoke rose over the site. Residents in parts of Ludwigshafen, where BASF is based and has a sprawling plant, and Mannheim, on the other side of the Rhine river, were advised to stay indoors and keep their doors and windows closed.

Comment: Four injured, several missing as fire engulfs factory of German chemical manufacturer BASF

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Arrow Down

Structurally unsound, mold and vermin infested: Over 40% of British live in squalid, substandard homes


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:14 UTC
UK substandard housing
© Neil Hall / Reuters
More than four in 10 homes in Britain are falling short of an acceptable standard to live in, with many not having hot or cold water and being infested with mold or pests, according to an alarming new report.

The housing charity Shelter asked Britons if their homes met a series of conditions which together make up what it calls the "Living Home Standard," and 43 percent of homes apparently failed the test.

The criteria came up with 39 tests to meet the standard which it divided into five areas - affordability, decent conditions, space, stability and neighborhood.

Comment: In addition to deplorable living conditions, the housing crisis which has caused rents to skyrocket is also forcing many people out of homes they have occupied for decades and has also caused a surge in homelessness.

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Books

Beard hysteria! French high school student threatened with expulsion for his 'sign of radicalization'


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 20:15 UTC
Bearded
© AFP
A student of a French high school was threatened with expulsion after he refused to comply with the headmaster's demand to shave his beard, which the headmaster considered a "sign of radicalization."

"You cut it or you leave," the headmaster reportedly told the student, as reported by newspaper Le Parisien. The head teacher also reportedly claimed that the student's beard is an apparent "sign of radicalization."

When the headmaster first asked the student to shave or shorten his facial hair, the young man, 21, explained that he had been cultivating his beard for two years for religious reasons.

"The Prophet [Muhammed] was wearing one. It is something important to me," the student, who wanted to remain unidentified out of fear of "being stigmatized even more," told Le Parisien, recalling his conversation with the head teacher.

He also added that the head teacher's "threats put pressure" on him and he "ended up" writing a letter to inform him that he was leaving the school. According to Le Parisien, the student has not attended school since October 13.
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Sheriff

Fool me twice? Top police organization apologizes for 'historical mistreatment' of minorities


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
speech
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
A formal apology from the International Association of Chiefs of Police to "communities of color" for "darker periods" in law enforcement is garnering a mixed reaction. Some are calling it appeasement, while others see it as paying phony lip service.

Clearly, this is a challenging time for policing," Chief Terrence M. Cunningham of the Wellesley Police Department in Massachusetts told a massive convention audience in San Diego on Monday.

Cunningham is the top police chief of the IACP, which represents some 18,000 police chiefs worldwide, many of whom attended the conference where all attendees reportedly rose to their feet in applause for Cunningham's address, an apology on behalf of the organization to minorities "for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society's historical mistreatment of communities of color."

Reactions on social media and from civil rights organizations as well as from other police organizations were not as unanimous as the reception in San Diego.
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Attention

Red Cross expects 1 million Iraqis displaced due to siege of Mosul, can only help 300,000


RT
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:58 UTC
Mosul, Iraq
© AFP 2016/ MARWAN IBRAHIM
The International Committee of the Red Cross expects up to 1 million to join the number of internally-displaced people in Iraq due to the ongoing siege of Mosul, but is prepared to provide only 300,000 of them, a representative told RT.

"We at the International Red Cross have offices in the north. Our teams are there, and we will be ready to provide emergency relief - food, hygiene kits, cutlery, stoves, blankets, anything these people are going to need. Today we can provide up to 300,000. We are increasing our stocks because we expect it to be huge," told RT Sarah Alzawqari, ICRC spokesperson for Iraq.

There are currently 3 million internally-displaced people in Iraq. The ICRC is concerned that the number may increase by a third, as people flee Mosul, the Iraqi stronghold of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

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People

Support floods in for RT following NatWest accounts closure notice


RT
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 19:57 UTC
RT logo
© RT
The news that NatWest is closing RT UK's bank accounts without any explanation has ignited a social media storm from outraged readers and members of the public who have questioned Britain's "freedom of the press" and declared their support for RT.
Offering help & support

Countless RT readers sent messages of support and solidarity to the RT UK team, with quite a few offering services to RT to help fight the indignation.
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