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'Terrorist threat' causes over 80,000 to evacuate from German 'Rock am Ring' festival


RT
Fri, 02 Jun 2017 20:59 UTC
Policemen at Rock am Ring Festival June 2, 2017
© Global Look Press
Up to 87,000 festivalgoers have evacuated from Rock am Ring music festival held near Nürburg, Germany, after police received information of a "concrete" terrorist threat.

Together with a police officer, festival organizer Marek Lieberberg took to the main stage at around 9pm to ask fans to make their way towards the exit. In a statement on Facebook, the festival's organizers urged all those attending to leave the site in a "calm and controlled manner" after being warned of a "terrorist threat."

"We hope that the festival will continue tomorrow. Thank you for your cooperation," the statement added.
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Attention

Homeless teachers thanks to unaffordable housing and crippling welfare cuts by Tories

Donna Ferguson
The Guardian
Tue, 23 May 2017 07:15 UTC
homeless teacher
© Adrian Sherratt for the Guardian
Tara Diamond, a secondary school English teacher, lost her home when her rent rose to 80% of her take-home pay.
Secondary English teacher Tara Diamond discovered she was going to be made homeless a week before Christmas. Without warning, her landlord decided to sell the three-bed house in Bath she'd been renting for £1,000 a month for the past three years. Diamond, a single mother of a teenage daughter and son, quickly found that on her salary of £28,000, she could not afford to rent another home locally.

"My pay has been frozen while rents have rocketed in Bath. I was already spending all my spare time working as a tutor and marking exams just to pay for groceries and avoid getting into debt. Another three-bed place would have cost me £1,300 a month - 80% of my take home pay - leaving my children and me with just £320 a month to live on. Even landlords of two-bed properties were turning me down because I didn't earn enough." She needed £4,000 to move home, including the deposit. "I just didn't have the money."

However, she was desperate to stay in Bath. "All my support network is here, which is so important when you're a single mum, and my daughter is doing her GCSEs. Plus, the children I teach at the local comp mean a lot to me."

Comment: Tories make the rich richer and the poor poorer, their new manifesto does nothing to hide this and attacks the most vulnerable in society. See what Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has to say about homelessness:



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Arrow Down

New poll shows Theresa May's popularity ratings crash under election pressure


RT
Fri, 02 Jun 2017 20:12 UTC
Prime Minister Theresa May
© Dylan Martinez / Reuters
Prime Minister Theresa May
Dodging local radio interviews, skipping a televised leaders' debate, dwindling popularity in the polls: there's growing speculation that Prime Minister Theresa May is buckling under the pressure in the run-up to next week's general election.

The Tory leader has continued to lose ground in the latest polls. Her party's lead over Labour has shrunk from 15 points two weeks ago to just five, according to an opinion poll that came out on Friday conducted by Ipsos MORI for the Evening Standard.

Moreover, the prime minister's personal ratings have fallen to their lowest level yet. The poll shows more voters are now dissatisfied with May as prime minister (50 percent) than those who say they are satisfied (43 percent.)

Her personal ratings are down 11 points. Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has gained 23 points on May in the last month.

The findings come at the end of a tough week for May, who has been criticized for refusing to take part in a series of local radio interviews in the lead up to the election. She is also said to have canceled interviews with regional political editors at the BBC.
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Attention

Reports of gunfire and explosions outside Resorts World Manila leisure complex in Philippines - UPDATED


RT
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 18:02 UTC
Thick smoke coming off from the top floor or Resorts World Manila
© Dexter Cabalza‏ / Twitter
Thick smoke coming off from the top floor or Resorts World Manila. Gunshots were allegedly heard by people inside the casino area.
SWAT teams and fire brigades have surrounded the large Resorts World Manila complex, located next to the Philippine capital's international airport, after reports of gunfire and explosions inside.

Eyewitnesses posted videos on Twitter in which apparent gunshots could be heard emanating from the country's biggest leisure center, which includes a mall, cinema and casino, while photos were uploaded of a panicky crowd gathered outside.

One picture featured white smoke billowing from the top of the complex.

Casualties were seen being carried out on stretchers and loaded up onto ambulances, or helped to make their own way out of the center in the aftermath of the incident, which occurred at about 1:30am local time on Friday morning.

Comment: Update (June 2): At least 36 bodies were found in the Resort World Manila leisure complex after gunman started a fire there, causing mass suffocation, Metropolitan Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde said. Philippines police are treating the attack as a botched robbery.
Most of the victims are believed to have suffocated in the smoke, which filled the building after the unidentified gunman used a canister of gasoline to start fire at the casino earlier on Thursday night. The gunman, armed with an assault rifle, was probably trying to steal casino chips, Philippines police chief Ronald dela Rosa told media.


The attacker has reportedly been described as a tall, English-speaking man with a pale complexion.

The police chief said that the suspected gunman was later found dead in a hotel room after apparently committing suicide.

"He burned himself inside the hotel room 510 ... He lay down on the bed, covered himself in a thick blanket and apparently doused himself in gasoline," dela Rosa said.


Meanwhile, the resort's owner, Travellers International Hotel Group, Inc. said in a statement that "we have been informed of several casualties, the number and identities of whom have yet to be determined."

Panic quickly spread when the man, armed with a rifle, entered the casino, with reports describing a stampede and people jumping out of windows. More than 50 people were reportedly treated in hospitals for various injuries and smoke inhalation.
Update #2: Police In Philippines Say Casino Attacker Was Indebted Former Government Worker
Police in the Philippines say the man behind the fire attack on a casino that killed 37 people was a heavily indebted gambler who had been fired from his government finance-department job.

The police in their statement on June 4 stressed that the incident was not terror-related. The Islamic State (IS) militant group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

"This is not an act of terrorism, but this incident is confined to the act of one man alone as we have always said," Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Manila police force, said.

He identified the suspect as Jessie Carlos, 42, a father of three who had been fired from the Department of Finance for nondisclosure of assets and liabilities.


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Megaphone

Kabul: Several protesters reportedly killed, dozens injured in clashes with riot police


RT
Fri, 02 Jun 2017 19:17 UTC
Protesters clash with riot police in Kabul
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters
Protesters clash with riot police in Kabul
Several protesters were reportedly killed and dozens of police injured when a rally in Kabul turned violent. The protesters had gathered to commemorate the victims of Wednesday's devastating truck bombing and demand that top Afghan authorities step down.

More than 1,000 people gathered in downtown Kabul on Friday to mourn the victims of a massive truck bomb that killed 90 and injured more than 450 on Wednesday. The protesters accused President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah of failing to adequately deal with terrorism and demanded that they resign.

"The international community has to put pressure on them and force them to resign," Reuters quoted one woman going to the Friday rally as saying. "They're not capable of leading the country."

The protest promptly turned violent, as a group of demonstrators tried to cross a cordon and began to throw projectiles at riot police, who responded by firing warning shots into the air. To prevent the protesters from reaching the Presidential Palace, police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowds.
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Info

U.S. ranked the 114th most peaceful nation on earth says 11th annual "Global Peace Index"

Jennifer Harper
The Washington Times
Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
Ferguson riot
© AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
A protester squirts lighter fluid on a police car as the car windows are shuttered near the Ferguson Police Department after the announcement of the grand jury decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo.
Land of the free, home of the brave - but America may not be the most peaceful spot on earth according to the 11th annual "Global Peace Index," which bases judgement calls on a complex gauge of social, economic and political factors, including rates of homicide and terrorism activities.

The U.S. is now at No. 114, falling 11 places in the last year, the analysis says. Armenia and Rwanda are just in front of America on the list, El Salvador and China follow.

"Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008. It is joined at the top of the index by New Zealand, Portugal, Austria, and Denmark. There was also very little change at the bottom of the index. Syria remains the least peaceful country in the world, followed by Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, and Yemen," the report said.
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Arrow Down

'Total lack of sensitivity:' German student's deportation to Nepal leaves classmates 'traumatized'


RT
Fri, 02 Jun 2017 01:17 UTC
German pupil
© Ingo Wagner / Global Look Press
German authorities came to a school and took a teenage pupil away right from her classes to deport her to Nepal later the same day, provoking an angry reaction from her classmates and teachers, who said they were "traumatized" by the incident.

The ninth-grade pupil, identified as Bivsi Rana, 14, was deported from Germany to Nepal together with her parents on Monday. The migration service officials arrived at her school almost without prior notice and took the girl away to put her on a plane later the same day in a move that "shocked" her classmates and left even the school teachers at a loss, local media report.

Bivsi was born in 2002 in the German city of Duisburg. Her parents came to Germany from Nepal in 1998, and she has never even seen the small Asian country she has now been deported to. Her parents had a residence permit in Germany for years but it expired four years ago, Germany's Duisburg Radio reports, citing local officials.

Since that time, her parents have repeatedly applied for asylum from German authorities, but their requests were repeatedly rejected. Their latest attempt to gain asylum in Germany failed in 2016 and they were subjected to deportation scheduled for May 29, 2017, Germany's Focus magazine reports.
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Document

Reported rise in Japanese men buying insurance policy that protects against false groping claims


Channel News Asia
Fri, 02 Jun 2017 15:06 UTC
Groper insurance poster in Japan
© AFP/Kazuhiro Nogi
A poster informing commuters of the location of a women's-only carriage on trains is displayed at a subway station platform in Tokyo on Jun 2, 2017.
In Japan, where train travel can often be a perilous ordeal for women, an insurance company is reporting a sudden run on a policy that protects men falsely accused of groping.

The spike in takers for the 6,400 yen (US$57) "false groping accusation benefit" plan was triggered by a spate of incidents where men suspected of molesting female commuters fled the scene along the railway tracks, the Tokyo-based firm told AFP.

Japan has made efforts to tackle the problem of rush-hour sex pests with posters on trains and television campaigns, while railway operators provide women-only carriages for the busiest times of day.

But the plan, devised by the Small Amount and Short Term Insurance company in 2015, covers legal costs for policy-holders who find themselves on the wrong end of such a charge.

It was initially set up as a fringe benefit under which fees for any legal consultation, including domestic or traffic accidents, were covered, Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported.
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Dollar

Nearly half of Americans die all but broke

Maurie Backman
The Motley Fool
Tue, 30 May 2017 12:09 UTC
Half of Americans die broke
© Andrew Bret Wallis/Getty Images
Americans aren't known for being great savers. In a recent GoBankingRates study, 69% of adults admitted to having less than $1,000 in the bank, while 34% said they actually don't have any savings at all. But apparently, this collective lack of savings doesn't get all that much better with age. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found not so long ago that almost half of Americans die nearly broke. Of the general population, 46% of retirees die with savings of $10,000 or less. But that number climbs to 57% among retirees who are single.

Now when we take other assets, like homes, into account, the picture gets a bit less bleak. Still, 57% of single-adult households and 50% of widowed households had no housing equity to show for when they died.

The problem is that dying nearly broke isn't just a matter of denying one's beneficiaries an inheritance. Rather, it points to a frightening degree of financial vulnerability during retirement. If seniors are passing without much in the way of assets, it means that in the years leading up to their death, they're ill equipped to handle a major unexpected expense, such as a significant medical bill. In fact, in that same GoBankingRates survey, only 37% of seniors 65 and older claimed to have $1,000 or more in the bank.
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Attention

Migration agency reports up to 5,000 asylum seekers in Germany not fingerprinted or photographed


RT
Fri, 02 Jun 2017 14:55 UTC
person being fingerprinted
© Marko Djurica / Reuters
Around 5,000 known asylum seekers in Germany still haven't been photographed or fingerprinted, according to local media, citing the head of the country's migration agency.

There are some 5,000 refugees seeking asylum in Germany that haven't been fingerprinted or photographed, the head of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Jutta Cordt, said on Wednesday, Die Welt reports.

The number of unregistered asylum seekers is still being estimated, a BAMF spokeswoman said on Thursday, adding that it's within the range of four-digit figures.
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