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China: Terror attack on Communist Party office in Xinjiang kills 1

Reuters
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 17:40 UTC
xinjiang uighur china
Attackers drove a car into a government building in China's restive far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday and set off explosives, killing one person while all four of the assailants were shot dead, the regional government said.

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years in resource-rich Xinjiang, on the borders of central Asia, in violence between the Muslim Uighur people who call the region home and Han Chinese who are China's ethnic majority.

The government has blamed the unrest on Islamist militants, though rights groups and exiles say anger at Chinese controls on the religion and culture of Uighurs is more to blame for the unrest. China denies any repression in Xinjiang.

The Xinjiang government said in a short statement on its main news website that the incident occurred just before 5pm in Karakax county, deep in southern Xinjiang's Uighur heartland.

Comment: Katehon adds:
The Uighur factor

The Uighur factor is one of the strongest centers of destabilization in China. Beijing is working hard to assimilate Muslim Uighurs. For example, some time ago, the resettlement of the Uighurs in different regions and provinces of the country was carried out. But it has brought only partial results, because it is beneficial to destabilize by certain forces outside China that support and fund terrorist groups, and who advocates for the creation of Turkestan.

The failure of the Hong Kong project

In recent years, anti-Chinese activity has been significantly enhanced. The situation in Hong Kong was quite serious after the scandals with the opposition. However, it was transferred to the Chinese intelligence agencies in a fairly quiet channel, after which the activation of Taiwan started. Nevertheless, without outside support Taiwan is not a serious destabilizing factor. Perhaps that is why the Uighurs were involved in the current situation.
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Eye 1

Facebook confesses it has given British government personal details of thousands of users


RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:20 UTC
facebook surveillance
© Global Look Press
Social media giant Facebook has confessed to giving the personal details of thousands of its users to the British government this year.

Facebook says that officials requested access to 7,199 profiles between January and June of 2016 - a 30 percent increase on last year.

The social media giant says it was asked to provide data from 6,039 accounts related to criminal proceedings, and another 1,160 were requested under an emergency clause that mandates the release of data in cases when there is an "imminent risk of serious injury or death."

Facebook admitted that it handed over data in 87 percent of cases, but says it turned down hundreds of requests from UK officials for being"overly broad or vague."

Comment: How Facebook gives the US government access to your private data

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Sheriff

Police bust drug smuggling ring in Australia, seize $260mn worth of cocaine


RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:57 UTC
cocaine Australian Federal Police
© Handout via Reuters / Reuters
Officers with some of the seized shipment of around 1.1 tonnes of cocaine by the AFP, which they say has an estimated street value of around A$360 million (US$300 million). Australian Federal Police
Australian police have cracked a trafficking ring, arresting 15 people in Christmas sting operations during which they seized some 500kg of cocaine, in addition to some 600kgs confiscated earlier, making it the largest drug seizure in Australian history.

The Australian police, assisted by a multitude of Australian agencies, carried out a large-scale operation preceded by two and a half years of thorough investigation jointly conducted by the New South Wales [NSW] Police and Australian Federal Police. Within the course of the investigation in March 2016, the French Navy discovered and seized some 606 kilograms of cocaine worth A$197 million (US $142 million) bound to Australia off the coast of Tahiti, the Daily Telegraph reported. The gang members allegedly used fishing boats to import cocaine from South America.
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Sheriff

NYPD changes rule allowing officers to wear turbans while on duty


Sputnik
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:59 UTC
ny police officers
© AFP 2016/ KENA BETANCUR
The New York Police Department has revised its rules on uniform to allow Sikh officers to wear a turban in place of a cap, in a bid to accommodate religious beliefs, local media reported Thursday.

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill announced the policy change on Wednesday, flanked by officers in full turbans held together by police clasps, the CNN television channel reported.

"It's a major change in our uniform policy," O'Neill admitted. "Now I have the opportunity to make the change, and I thought it was about time that we did that."

Until now, officers from the Sikh religious minority were allowed to wear a smaller kind of turban under their regular caps. They will also be able to grow an inch-long beard, although this will require a special permit.
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Cross

Mafia boss requiem mass in Italy scrapped


RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:47 UTC
Catholic Church
© Giuseppe Ciccia / Global Look Press
A holy mass in memory of a suspected Mafia boss was canceled in southern Italy after a public outcry. The priest who had been arranging the ceremony says he's planning to appeal the decision to Pope Francis on the basis that "sinners deserve God's mercy."

Rocco Sollecito, 67, was shot dead north of Montreal, Canada, in May 2016. He was suspected of being a close associate and right-hand man of Vito Rizzuto, an alleged leading boss of the Rizzuto crime family in Canada. The Rizzutos are related to the Ndrangheta of Calabria, one of five main known mafia-style organizations in Italy which has groups abroad.
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Bad Guys

UK sex slave 'held captive & raped by taxi driver for 13 years'


RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:36 UTC
women hands on face
© 002 Gabriel Szabo / Global Look Press
A woman who says she was kidnapped and abused as a sex slave for 13 years by a taxi driver in the Midlands, who also pimped her out and 'sold' her four children, has spoken out for the first time.

Anna Ruston, who changed her name after the ordeal, says she was a vulnerable 15-year-old in 1987 when a taxi driver called Malik took an interest in her and invited her to his home to meet his mother, brothers, and their wives.

Writing in her new book 'Secret Slave' Ruston said Malik called her a "white s**t" and raped her, before locking her in a bedroom and relentlessly beating her for 13 years.
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Snakes in Suits

Fascist professor thinks Trump should be denied free speech because of his climate skepticism

Eric Worrall
Watts Up With That
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 16:38 UTC
trump
© Getty
Professor Joseph A. Palermo, writing for the Huffington Post, thinks anyone who doesn't agree with climate alarmism shouldn't be allowed to use any of the products of science.
Republicans, Climate Change, And The New Reality

Joseph A. Palermo
Professor, historian, author

First off, let me be clear: The Republican Party bears responsibility for Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the United States. The Republican Party nominated him. The party leaders enabled him. There were many complex social, political, and economic forces that produced the Trump catastrophe, but no amount of disassembling and deflecting will change the fact that the Republican Party made this happen.
...

Through his public statements and personnel choices Trump has made it clear that he rejects the science of climate change. I've always believed that people who dismiss science in one area shouldn't be able to benefit from science in others. If Trump and his cohort believe the science of global warming is bogus then they shouldn't be allowed to use the science of the Internet for their Twitter accounts, the science of global positioning for their drones, or the science of nuclear power for their weaponry.

The oil, coal, and gas companies use the same scientific methodology to extract resources that climate scientists use to confirm the planetary disaster that awaits us. It's pretty crazy to see the U.S. government abandon science when it conflicts with corporate profits, while Trump's donors from Big Ag, Big Banks, and Big Pharma deploy science to patent new life forms, engage in "high frequency" trading, and invent new drugs.
...
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Hearts

Major Russian bank wipes out Tu-154 plane crash victims' debt


RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:14 UTC
Flowers on a pier near the crash site of a Russian military Tu-154 planeFlowers on a pier near the crash site of a Russian military Tu-154 plane
© Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
Flowers on a pier near the crash site of a Russian military Tu-154 plane, which crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria on Sunday, in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russia, December 26, 2016.
State-run Sberbank has written off loans taken out by the victims of the Russia's Tu-154 airplane crash last Sunday, according to Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov.

The minister confirmed victims' relatives will have to apply either through Sberbank or offices assigned by the Defense and Labor Ministries.

Sokolov said that he will negotiate with other Russian banks to do likewise.

Sberbank will provide compensation payments to the victim's families during the New Year holidays, said the minister.

"Some branches will work during the holidays to implement the payments, the work won't stop even after January 1," said Sokolov.
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War Whore

Mother calls police after alleged assault on 7-yr-old son, Texas cop violently arrests her instead (VIDEO)


RT
Thu, 22 Dec 2016 22:55 UTC
Jacqueline Craig
© Porsha Craver / Facebook
A Texas police officer has been placed on restricted duty after an encounter, captured on film, in which the white officer wrestled and arrested a black woman who had called police claiming her seven-year-old son was assaulted by a neighbor for littering.

Jacqueline Craig, 46, called the Fort Worth Police Department to report that, according to her daughter, a man had grabbed her young son by the neck after the boy littered. The officer, only identified as "Martin" in the video, arrived at the scene. A relative of Craig recorded the encounter with police on Facebook Live.

In the Facebook video, which has been viewed more than one million times, the officer stands stone-faced as Craig explains, with the neighbor present, what allegedly occurred in their southwest Fort Worth neighborhood.

Comment: Update: Full cell phone video that sparked protests:


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People 2

Transgender boy barred from Cub Scouts

Abbott Koloff
North Jersey.com
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 15:33 UTC
Joe Maldonado, 8 transgender
© Danielle Parhizkaran/Northjersey.com
Joe Maldonado, 8, in his room that is filled with Star Wars. Maldonado was kicked out of Secaucus Cub Scout Pack 87 because he was born a girl.
From the moment he joined, 8-year-old Joe Maldonado eagerly looked forward to camping trips and science projects as a member of the Cub Scouts. But his expectations were dashed after his mother said she received a phone call from a Scouting official who told her that Joe would no longer be allowed to participate because he was born a girl.

Kristie Maldonado said she was stunned because her son had been a member of Cub Scout Pack 87 in Secaucus for about a month and his transgender status had not been a secret. But some parents complained, an official from the Northern New Jersey Council of Boy Scouts told her — even though her son had been living as a boy for more than a year and was accepted as a boy at school, she said
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