Society's ChildS


Nuke

Who will develop uranium deposits of Tajikistan? No one yet

Yellow Hill in Tajikistan
The sharp drop in the popularity of nuclear power after the disaster at the Japanese power station, Fukushima-1, turned out to be temporary. Limiting energy consumption is not feasible not least because hydrocarbon energy resources are non-renewable natural resources. The World Nuclear Association has already made predictions that see the number of nuclear reactors in the world go up to 650 by 2032 (over 20 reactors are currently under construction in China alone and 192 nuclear power stations are in operation in 31 countries worldwide). Accordingly, as the need for nuclear fuel rises, so too does the cost. This means that the countries that have large uranium deposits may soon well find themselves turning a profit.

This, however, is only provided that these countries are able to manage them properly. There are huge uranium deposits in the Central Asian region. Up to 21% of the world's uranium reserves can be found in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which ranked first in the world for its extraction in 2009. In other Central Asian countries, there are also large deposits, but the extraction and processing of the natural resource are poorly developed.

Bad Guys

Explosion rocks apartment complex in Malmö, Sweden

malmo, sweden
© WikipediaAerial view of central Malmo
There has been an explosion in an apartment in a residential area in central Malmo, Sweden, local media report, citing police. Emergency services and police are at the scene and the area has been cordoned off.

"There has been an explosion in one of the apartments," police spokesperson Anna Goransson confirmed to reporters, adding that the cause of the blast is being investigated.

According to the initial report received by police around 10 pm local time, the explosion occurred indoors in an area around Trelleborg Road. According to the preliminary information, no one has been injured as result of the explosion.

"What we know, no one has been injured. But we choose to cordon off the area because an explosion was observed in an apartment and we have called the bomb technicians to the scene," said Paul Juhlin, a police officer at the scene, as cited by Expressen.

Windows were reportedly shattered by the blast. The building has not been evacuated, police say.

Bomb technicians have been ordered to the scene, Sweden's Expressen reported. Police have also asked the public in the area to stay indoors.

Roses

Schoolgirl dies after an elephant hurls rock at her head in Moroccan zoo

A girl has died after an elephant (pictured) hurled a rock (bottom right) at her head from its enclosure at a zoo in Morocco
A girl has died after an elephant (pictured) hurled a rock (bottom right) at her head from its enclosure at a zoo in Morocco
This is the heartbreaking moment a schoolgirl lies dying at a zoo after being struck on the head in a freak accident by a rock hurled at her by an elephant.

The seven-year-old was having a picture outside its enclosure with her family when the tragedy happened at the zoo in the Moroccan capital Rabat.

The female elephant, named Assia, picked up the large stone in its trunk and threw it into the air, hitting her on the back of the head.

The youngster was knocked unconscious and died in a nearby hospital after failing to overcome her injuries.


Footage taken by a bystander on a mobile phone and posted on social media showed the girl lying on the ground being tended to by staff as her anguished family gathered round her.


Airplane

Cost to fly President Obama to Paris for COP21: $2,840,896.80

Green pass card
© wattsupwiththat.comUp, Up and Away ($)
According to Judicial Watch, analysis of government documents obtained via a FOIA lawsuit against Homeland Security show that flying President Obama's party to attend Paris COP21 ran up $2,840,896.80 in air transport bills - bring President Obama's total travel costs to date to $83 million.
Obama Travel Cost Taxpayers over $83 million to Date

(Washington DC)—Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of the Air Force detailing the costs of Obama's trip to attend the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference. Secret Service charges for Obama and his staff to attend the Conference cost taxpayers $1,324,171.60. Flight expenses cost $2,840,896.80, bringing the total expenditure for the conference to at least $4,165,068.40. To date, Obama's known travel expenses total $83,795,502.33.

Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for these documents on January 6, 2016. The records were released in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed on May 6, 2016, (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:16-cv-00863)).
...
"Obama's Paris junket is another example of wasteful and unnecessary presidential travel that abuses the taxpayers, the military, and the U.S. Secret Service," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
All this for a Presidential signature on a ridiculous document, which has been carefully defined as not being a treaty, to try to avoid the need for ratification by the US Congress or Senate, and therefore has no legal impact whatsoever on the conduct of US affairs.

Comment: No worries. Cashing in his presidential frequent flyer miles...could get Obama through the rest of his term on the cheap.


Sherlock

French police received tip about planned attack in the days before killing of priest in Normandy

france priest attack
© Steve Bonet / ReutersPolice and rescue workers stand at the scene after two assailants had taken five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du -Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016
French police received a tip-off about a planned attack in the days before the killing of a priest in Normandy, sources close to the investigation have said. The warning was about the second attacker in the murder, who has just been identified.

"Following DNA tests, it emerged that the terrorist has been identified as Abdel Malik Nabil Petitjean," a source in the Paris prosecutor's office said, as quoted by AFP.

Petitjean - who was shot dead by police outside the church following the attack - was 19 years old and was from eastern France.

He had been on the security forces' watch list - the co-called 'Fiche S', indicating he could present a risk - since June.

Before the attack, police had been searching for Petitjean for several days, and allegedly had information that he was preparing an attack, French media reported, citing sources close to the investigation.

Megaphone

Pope Francis speaks up after murder of French priest: "World is in a state of war"

Pope Francis
© David W Cerny / ReutersPope Francis addresses faithfuls from the "John Paul II" Papal window of the Bishops Palace in Krakow, Poland July 27, 2016
The spate of recent terror attacks in Western Europe - the latest of which saw an elderly French priest murdered by Islamist militants - serves as proof that the world is now in a state of war, Pope Francis said during his visit to Poland.

The pontiff made his strongest statement in a long time on Thursday while flying to Krakow with a group of journalists, when he was asked about the murder of Father Jacques Hamel - the French priest who was brought to his knees at the altar of his own church before having his throat slit by Islamists of Algerian origin.

"The word that is being repeated often is insecurity, but the real word is war," Pope Francis said, as quoted by Reuters.

"Let's recognize it. The world is in a state of war in bits and pieces," he said.

Nuke

Unknown hazardous material at US Air Force Base sends 14 to hospital

Fairchild Airforce Base
© Fairchild.af.mil
An unknown hazardous material at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Washington has sickened 24 people, 14 of whom were treated by base personnel and sent to a local hospital. The affected building has been evacuated.

The incident took place around 8:30 a.m. local time at the base's Logistics Readiness Squadron in Building 2045, Air Force officials told KXLY.

Fairchild Air Force Base is located approximately 12 miles (20 km) southwest of Spokane. It's host unit is the 92nd Air Refueling Wing, which is assigned to the Air Mobility Command's 18th Air Force. It opened in March 1942.


Treasure Chest

Reports of explosion denied by Bavarian police, confirm incident near migrant center

Zirndorf, Germany
© Daniel Karmann / AFP
German police have denied reports of an explosion near a migrant center in northern Bavaria. They said that smoke came from a suitcase filled with aerosols, but there was no blast and no one was injured. The incident took place in the small town of Zirndorf, which is to the west of Nuremberg. Police have confirmed that there were no explosives in the suitcase and it only contained aerosol cans. "No explosion, no injuries," police said on an official Twitter account.

Police said in a statement that they are currently searching for the owners of the suitcase, who are believed to be a man of Mediterranean appearance, who is in his early 30s, and a woman in her mid-20s.

Nuremberg is located in the state of Bavaria, which has been rocked recently by a spate of terrorist attacks, two of which were carried out by migrants. On Sunday, a 27-year-old Syrian refugee who was facing deportation to Bulgaria blew himself up after being refused access to a music festival. The explosion injured 15 passersby, but did not cause any deaths.

A 17-year-old who had sought asylum in Germany was shot dead by police last week after wounding five people with an ax near Wurzburg. Meanwhile on Friday, an 18-year-old German-Iranian gunman killed nine people in Munich after going on a shooting spree in an attack he had planned for a year.

The rest of Germany has also been affected by an increase in terrorist activity. On Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a pregnant woman and wounding two people with a machete in the city of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart. On Tuesday, a man killed a doctor at a university clinic in Berlin, however the police said the incident was not related to terrorism.

Comment: Tagger? Salesman? 20% off bargain bulk purchase? But what's with the suitcase and why did people think something smoking was an explosion? More likely it was a cheap, fear-mongering plant aimed to get the migrant center in a headline, or the property of some absent-minded wall muralist. But, at the end of the day, it was really no more than 'canned rumor.'


Red Flag

Police mistake Krispy Kreme donut icing for crystal meth and arrest man

donuts
© krispykreme / Instagram
Police in Florida appear to have made 'dopes' of themselves after they arrested a man for possessing what they thought was crystal meth, when it was actually icing sugar from a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Orlando resident Daniel Rushing is now planning to sue over the case of mistaken amphetamine, and according to the Orlando Sentinel has been put off munching the sugary snack in his car for good.

The 64-year-old was stopped by police in December last year due to an apparent traffic violation while leaving a store parking lot.

During an inspection of his vehicle, officer Shelby Riggs-Hopkins discovered what she identified as "some sort of narcotic,"according to a police report published by the Sun Sentinel.

Sheriff

Report finds almost 7,000 detainees died in Texas from 2005-2015

handcuffs
© Eric Gaillard / Reuters
Almost 7,000 individuals in Texas died while in prison or police custody from 2005 to 2015, nearly 2,000 of whom had not been convicted of a crime, according to a new report. Latinos died of justifiable homicides at higher rates.

According to the Wednesday report from the Texas Justice Initiative, there were 6,913 total incidents of people dying in custody in the state over the course of the decade.

Seventy percent of those individuals died of natural causes, 11 percent committed suicide, and 8 percent died in a "justifiable homicide." Another eight percent died from either drugs and alcohol, accidental injury, or other reasons.

The Texas Justice Initiative was created by University of Texas at Austin postdoctoral fellow Amanda Woog.

"We can't have an informed conversation about who's dying at the hands of police or who's dying in jails, if we don't literally know who's dying and how they're dying," said Woog, according to ABC affiliate WFAA.

"I think this information can help us get to the bottom causes of mortality in the criminal justice system and with that lead us to solutions," Woog added.