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Canada: Scotiabank Loses CDs with Customer Bank Accounts, Social Insurance Numbers

Mary Gazze
The Canadian Press
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:53 UTC
Image
© The Canadian Press / Kevin Frayer
A logo is seen outside Scotiabank headquarters in the financial disitrict in Toronto Tuesday, December 3, 2002.
Scotiabank says it will use digital locks on data discs after three CDs containing unencrypted information, such as customer social insurance and account numbers, were lost in its internal mail system.

The bank said a "small percentage" of customers are affected, but it is warning clients as a precaution so they can monitor accounts for any fraudulent activity.

The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) says the loss is a rare incident and believes its clients are not at risk because the CDs are lost internally. It said it has changed its processes so future CDs will be encrypted, which means data will be scrambled unless a user has the correct computer key to open it.

"Scotiabank has very strict processes and procedures in place to protect customer privacy and confidentiality. This is a responsibility we take very seriously," the bank said in a statement.

The information on the discs was not encrypted, and was set to be transferred to the Canada Revenue Agency as part of the bank's requirements to report the information.
      Read More...
Ambulance

US: Girl, 7, is Beaten Unconscious by a Man Who Tried to Steal Her Bike


The Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:41 UTC
Image
© My Space
Byron Edward Syvinski, 32, was arrested for beating a seven-year-old girl unconscious
A 7-year-old girl was beaten unconscious by a man after she refused to give him her bicycle.

Byron Edward Syvinski, 32,from Anchorage, Alaska, tried to steal the little girl's bicycle in broad daylight and then punched her so hard on the head she was knocked unconscious, according to police.

Witnesses then claim that he punched her several more times when she was lying on the ground and went through her pockets.

The girl, who was not named, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition at Providence Alaska Medical Center with head trauma, said Marlene Lammers, a police spokeswoman.
      Read More...
People

California, US Circumcision Ban: Proposal Gains Support


Huffington Post
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:40 UTC
circumcision ban
© Unknown

San Francisco voters won't be able to vote on a proposed ban on circumcision until November. But anticircumcision activists hail the fact that the bill even exists on the ballot as a sign the so-called "intactivist" movement is picking up steam.

The MGM Bill, which stands for "male genital mutilation," calls for the circumcision of boys under the age of 18 to be deemed a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. It was drafted by the MGM Bill group, an advocacy organization that has written similar legislation for 46 states.

In order to get the bill on the ballot in San Francisco, supporters had to gather more than 7,000 signatures -- and The New York Times reported a similar effort underway in Santa Monica.

"We believe that it is an utterly justifiable position to ask for a legal ban on the genital cutting of boys," said Georgeanne Chapin, executive director of Intact America, one of the largest intactivist groups in the U.S. The non-profit did not have a hand in pushing for the legislation, but Chapin said she applauds the measure, calling circumcision both medically unnecessary and cruel, regardless of religious customs.
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Handcuffs

US: 3 New Jersey Women Arrested For Stealing 380 Grave Markers, Flower Urns From Local Cemetery


CBS News
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:54 UTC

Image
Three New Jersey women are behind bars for a crime, that is becoming more and more common according to police. Authorities say they stole brass markers from the graves of veterans at local cemeteries, and sold the stolen markers to a scrap yard. Authorities tell Eyewitness News the suspects needed drug money.

"You need money that bad, you have to start desecrating a grave?" said Sgt. Bill Covert with the Cinnaminson Police Department. Covert, who's a veteran himself, said the we was floored to learn that someone would sink that low.

Inside an old shed at Lakeview Memorial Cemetery in Cinnaminson is where officials are keeping the stolen markers. Authorities say the women they arrested are responsible for stealing 380 grave markers and flower urns from local cemeteries including St. Mary's in Bellmawr and Lakeview.
      Read More...
Heart - Black

US: Voodoo Mom Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison for Burning Daughter

Christina Carrega
New York Post
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:32 UTC
Image
© Ellis Kaplan
Marie Lauradin
A monster mom tried to soften her tale of setting a six-year-old daughter on fire in a voodoo ritual even as she pleaded guilty to the "barbaric" crime today - but a Queens judge would have none of it as he coaxed the truth from her and then sentenced the woman to 17 years behind bars.

Marie Lauradin, 29, pleaded guilty to assault last month for setting little Frantzcia Saintil on fire in a ritual called "Loa." But in a pre-sentencing report she changed her story, saying she was merely "rubbing [Frantzcia] down with alcohol because she was sick with fever when a nearby candle fell and set her on fire."

"I'm giving you another opportunity to tell the truth," Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter quickly scolded as Lauradin began to tell another lie.

"Did you douse your child with accelerant and light her on fire?" the judge said as he began to quiz Lauradin about what happened to the little girl.

"Yes," she said through an interpreter.
      Read More...
Ambulance

"Foreskin Man" Takes On Genital Mutilation

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:00 UTC
Image
© MGMBill
'Foreskin man' in action
Even though they'd be a great medium for it, comic books aren't known for tackling sensitive social, religious or cultural topics in an overt way. People who read comic books are looking for fantasy and escapism rather than intellectual stimulation - just like people who read men's magazines. Maybe that's why a new comic produced by Matthew Hess, the president of MGMBill, an organisation that has authored a bill that has been submitted to the US congress to ban Male Genital Mutilation (hence MGMBill), has made the headlines recently.

Unashamedly titled Foreskin man, the comic book series features a blonde superhero doing battle with the evil 'Mohel' (Mohel being the Hebrew word for a Jewish person trained in the practice of Brit milah or Bris (circumcision).

I have to admit that my first reaction on hearing about the comic was 'what a good idea!', but when I saw the comic and the reaction it had received from certain quarters, my reaction was more along the lines of 'this the best idea since anti-Vegetarian man!'

It seems a little weird to me that I would actually have to write this but, I'm not exactly a fan of genital mutilation, regardless of the justification, hence my appreciation of Foreskin Man.

So circumcision, what's it all about?
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Alarm Clock

Decline and Fall of the American Empire

Larry Elliott
The Guardian
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:43 UTC
Great Depression
© Bettmann/Corbis
Dust-bowl refugees walk towards Los Angeles during the Great Depression. House prices have now fallen further than in the 1930s.
The economic powerhouse of the 20th century emerged stronger from the Depression. But faced with cultural decay, structural weaknesses and reliance on finance, can the US do it again?

America clocked up a record last week. The latest drop in house prices meant that the cost of real estate has fallen by 33% since the peak - even bigger than the 31% slide seen when John Steinbeck was writing The Grapes of Wrath.
      Read More...
Question

Indonesia: One Hundred Mysterious Coffins Sent to Media Offices

Aqida Swamurti
TEMPO Interactive
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:07 UTC
One hundred mysterious coffins, each one-meter long, have been sent to media offices and companies.

Most of the coffins were sent to media and communication companies as well as bloggers, including radio and TV presenter Farhan, blogger and author Raditya Dika, the CEO of Fastcomm Ipang Wahid, the CEO of Bubu Shinta Dhanuwardoyo, Indopacific Edelmen senior consultant Vida Parady, and PT Saling Silang managing director Enda Nasution.
      Read More...
Fish

Japan: Fishermen tells us - I'm finished

Miranda Leitsinger
World Blog
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 02:33 UTC
Image
© Jim Seida/msnbc.com
Tadashi Onodera in Kesennuma on Monday, June 6, 2011.
I saw Tadashi Onodera from a distance. He was sitting in a field of debris as far as the eye could see in Kesennuma. Hulks of homes, cars, remnants of everyday life jammed the landscape.

Onodera, a 63-year-old fisherman, returned from one year's work at sea on May 26 to a new 'normal.' He comes down here often now, saying he wants to see what's happening. His house is fine, but he pointed to the skeleton of his in-laws blue-colored home in the distance.

"It's extremely frightening," he said of the landscape.

"It's impossible to know what's going to happen with this whole area," he added, noting it was a question of whether the government would buy it from people or if they would be able to build on it.

Onodera, who stood alongside a rice paddy that couldn't be used since it had been swamped by the tsunami and the debris it carried, said he thought the rebuilding would take at least ten years. He said the government had to revive the fishing industry there.

"That's what this whole town lives on ... without that, if they can't bring that back, then there's nothing," he said.

But Onodera said he would not be joining his fellow fishermen.

"I'm finished. I'm 63. ... I've had enough," he said. "If I had the chance, if it was still here, I'd be out there. I'd love to work."
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Bizarro Earth

Syrian Internet Restored, Dramatic Footage Emerges

Charlie White
Mashable
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:45 UTC
Internet intelligence firm Renesys reports that Syrian Internet services are now operational again. But these dramatic clips of Syrians rising up against their government, shot on June 2, were allegedly sent out of the country via satellite phone.

      Read More...
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