Society's ChildS


Red Flag

Hysteria in schools: North Carolina teachers flock to free concealed carry class

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© Shutterstock
Educators in North Carolina gathered at a gun range on Saturday to attend a free concealed carry class.

So many teachers arrived for the class that the gun range was forced to turn many of them away, according to local news station WSOCTV. The Rowan County Wildlife Association hosted the event because of the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last year. They said teachers should be armed to protect their students from mass shootings.

Ambulance

6 teens killed, 2 injured when SUV crashes into pond

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Six teenagers were killed and two other people were injured when the SUV they were in struck a guardrail, turned over, and crashed into a pond, officials say.

The single-vehicle accident took place near Warren, Ohio, on Sunday morning, Lt. Ann Ralston of the Ohio Department of Public Safety said.

The teens, ages 14 to 19, were traveling in a Honda Passport at about 7 a.m., Ralston said.

Attention

Over half of Austrians think the Nazis would be elected if the party was readmitted to politics

Nazi Party
© The Independent, UK75 years after Hitler annexed country, poll reveals worrying views about banned party.
As Austria prepares to mark the anniversary of its annexation by Nazi Germany, an opinion poll has shown that more than half of the population think it highly likely that the Nazis would be elected if they were readmitted as a party.

A further 42 per cent agreed with the view that life "wasn't all bad under the Nazis", and 39 per cent said they thought a recurrence of anti-Semitic persecution was likely in Austria.

The disturbing findings were contained in a poll conducted for the Vienna newspaper, Der Standard in advance of Tuesday's 75th anniversary of Austria's Nazi annexation - a date which still counts as one of the most shameful and controversial in the country's history.

Tens of thousands of Austrians gave Adolf Hitler and his troops a rapturous welcome when they invaded the country unopposed in March 1938. Austria fought World War II as part of Nazi Germany and many Austrians helped run Nazi death camps. Yet for decades, post-war Austria frequently perpetuated the myth that it was a victim of Nazi oppression. Der Standard said its poll was designed to show how today's Austrians judged Nazi rule.

Alarm Clock

Too much ado about daylight-saving time

Daylight Saving
© J. Kelly BeattyDaylight-saving time is an annoyance for backyard astronomers.
In the wee hours of March 10th, we in the U.S. dutifully reset our clocks forward by an hour, signaling the switch to daylight saving time. Oh, joy! Now I can look forward to having the midsummer Sun set after 8 p.m., and it won't get fully dark for at least another hour after that.

I don't know about you, but our annual switch to daylight time (called "summer time" most everywhere outside the U.S.) does amateur astronomy no favors. Most nights, by the time Sagittarius is up high enough to be seen well, I'm ready to put my head down for sleep.

Things were bad enough - "springing ahead" in April and "falling back" in October - but a few years ago Congress meddled further with Mother Nature when it passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and decreed that daylight-saving time would be extended, beginning in 2007.

Now we make the switch from the second Sunday of March until the first Sunday in November, which is about two-thirds of the year. Canada followed our lead, but European countries wait another three weeks to make the switch and Mexico another four.

In fact, although about 75 countries observe some form of summer time, it's mostly a high-latitude phenomenon. Most of the world's population (150+ countries) avoids it altogether, and of course when northern countries are using it, our friends Down Under are not.

So how did all this come about in the first place?

Arrow Down

Over 900 dead pigs found floating in Shanghai river

Dead Pigs
© BBC UKThe pigs have washed ashore along the river.
Shanghai - More than 900 dead pigs have been retrieved from Shanghai's Huangpu River as of Saturday afternoon after a large number of bodies were found floating in the water, local authorities said.

The dead pigs were spotted in the Songjiang section, the upstream of the Huangpu River and a drinking water source for Shanghai residents, according to the city's water supplies bureau.

The bureau said the water quality has not been affected. However, to ensure tap water safety, local environmental protection and water supplies authorities have beefed up quality examination at the water intakes as well as the whole water disinfection process.

The Shanghai Agriculture Committee have carried out bio-safety treatment on the retrieved dead pigs. It is investigating where the dead pigs may have come from.

The committee said so far it has not received reports of animal epidemic outbreaks in the city.

Local authorities are still retrieving dead pigs to avoid water contamination.

Ambulance

Coroner: 2 adults, 5 children killed in Kentucky fire

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© AP PHOTO/THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, BILL ESTEPThis photo shows the charred remains of a home after a fire erupted, Saturday, March 9, 2013 in Gray, Ky. Fire erupted Saturday at a rural Kentucky home, killing two adults and five children inside, a coroner said.
Fire erupted Saturday at a rural Kentucky home, killing two adults and five children inside, a coroner said.

Knox County Coroner Mike Blevins said Saturday afternoon that the adult victims found inside the ranch-style home were a woman and her boyfriend. The woman was the mother of three of the children who died, while two other children were from another family, he said.

Further details about their identities were being withheld until relatives were notified.

The remains were sent to Frankfort for autopsies, which were likely to take place on Tuesday, Blevins said.

Health

Three suffocate spending night in snowed-in car in Siberia

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© RIA Novosti / Sergey KrasnouhovSakhalin on March 3, 2013
Three people have died in a snowed-in car in Siberia, suffocating with exhaust fumes. The tragedy happened after the car was stuck in the road near a small village amid a severe snowstorm.

Apparently, the passengers were trying to warm up in the vehicle by leaving the engine running and closing windows, which led to asphyxiation.

There were four people in the car on their way back from a fishing trip, RIA Novosti reports citing police.

Bizarro Earth

Mail-order bridle: Swedish minister backs controversial 2-year 'wife import' rule

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© AFP Photo / Jean Pierre Muller
Sweden's equality minister has backed a 'two-year rule' for international marriages designed against those who come merely to obtain residency. Critics say the law will force many women to choose between deportation and enduring an abusive marriage.

The problems stem from a nationwide marriage practice called 'fruimport', when a Swedish man starts a relationship with a foreign woman - often from nations such as Thailand, Russia, Iraq, the Philippines, Brazil, and China - frequently locking her later into a marriage of violence and sexual exploitation.

Despite investigations into how widespread the problem is by her predecessor, Sweden's new Equality Minister Mary Arnholm has stated that she wants the country to retain the right to deport foreign women who separate from their Swedish husbands within two years of marriage.

"I support the two-year rule. I think it serves its purpose," Arnholm said in a statement to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet on Friday

Bizarro Earth

Authoritarian mindset: 'Hitler wasn't all bad', 42% of Austrians say

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© AFP Photo / France Presse VoirA Nazi high rank official giving a speech during a nazi parade
Over 40 per cent of Austrians believe the Hitler era wasn't 'all bad', according to the latest poll conducted by the Linz Market Institute.

The survey was carried out ahead of the 75th anniversary of the country's annexation by the Nazi Germany, the Anschluss, and included 502 people.

Fifty-seven per cent of respondents believed that "there was nothing positive about the Hitler era".

However, 61 per cent of respondents indicated that they wanted a "strong leader" at the head of Austria.

That was in fact more than in previous polls, the newspaper Der Standard reported. A similar survey in 2008 found just a fifth of Austrians could imagine having "a strong leader who does not have to worry about a parliament or elections."

Handcuffs

Man arrested at Newark Airport with $300,000 of cocaine hidden in bags

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© Shutterstock
A 33-year-old man was arrested earlier this month at Newark Liberty International Airport after customs and border patrol officers found $300,000 worth of cocaine hidden in his luggage, authorities said today.

Antonio Miguel Camara Jimenez, was arrested March 1 after police found the drugs hidden in false walls of his suitcase, in purses and bags marked "Santa Catalina Oatmeal," authorities said. The contraband was found during a routine baggage exam after a K-9 alerted officers about his bag, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement today.