Society's ChildS


Cloud Lightning

Petition aims to relocate abused polar bear to Canada

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© AFPArturo, the only polar bear in Argentina, living in captivity at a zoo in Mendoza
More than 450,000 people have signed an online petition calling for a heart-broken polar bear living in squalid conditions in Argentina to be transferred to Canada.

Supporters of the change.org online appeal are well on their way to hitting the 500,000 benchmark, having nearly doubled the number of signatures in the last 24 hours.

Often dubbed 'the world's saddest animal,' Arturo lives in a cramped cage with little room to walk in Argentina's Mendoza Zoo. Temperatures sometimes hit 104F (40C), and the 29-year-old polar bear, clearly not designed for such a climate, only has a 20-inch-deep pool to keep him cool.

To make matters worse, Arturo's long-time friend Pelusa died two years ago. Animal rights campaigners say Arturo has exhibited signs of depression since the death, fearing the abnormal behavior mirrors that of 'Pelusa the Purple Polar Bear' before she passed away.

Comment: Related...

Zoos drive animals crazy

Barbarians! Shameful! Marius the giraffe killed and dissected at Copenhagen zoo despite worldwide protests


Rainbow

AIDS researchers among victims of Malaysia flight crash

AIDS conference sign
© www.dailymail.co.ukPassengers of the downed Malaysia Airlines jet were heading to the AIDS 2014 conference in Melbourne, including world-prominent activist Joep Lange.
MELBOURNE - It was supposed to be a star-studded event filled with scientific discussion and a little socializing on the side.

Instead, after the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, one of the world's biggest AIDS conferences was turned upside down as researchers absorbed news that some of their field's top experts were killed.

The flight that went down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday was carrying a number of the world's prominent HIV/AIDS activists, led by Joep Lange, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam who had worked in the field since 1983, nearly the beginning of the epidemic.

Reports circulated that as many as 100 or more conference attendees were on board on the ill-fated flight, though only a handful were confirmed by Friday night. Some activists believed to be missing later appeared, having caught other flights to Australia.(Follow the latest updates on the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine.)

"We are bracing ourselves to hear of the deaths of others who worked in the AIDS response as their names are officially released," said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. "The UNAIDS family is in deep shock. Our hearts go out to the families of all the victims of this tragic crash. The deaths of so many committed people working against HIV will be a great loss for the AIDS response."


Comment: A tragic loss of dedicated and inspiring people serving humanity.


V

Death toll in Gaza passes 350; the world protests; leaders do nothing to stop the carnage

demonstration in Marseille
© AFP Photo / Frank PennantPeople take part in a demonstration in Marseille, southern France, on July 19, 2014, to protest against Israel's military campaign in Gaza and show their support to the Palestinian people.
Over 350 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's ongoing operation to root out Hamas fighters it says are hiding in Gaza tunnels. Meanwhile, tens of thousands came out to protest the victims of the invasion, almost 80 percent of whom are civilians.

The United Nations mission in Gaza says that more than 60,000 people have been displaced as a result of the escalating conflict. Israel has warned Palestinians living in over half of the country that they may come under fire either from the ground, air or sea.

Together with the mounting death toll, the Palestinian health authorities say that over 2,000 people have been injured. Around a quarter of the reported victims have been children.

Israeli ground operations, which began on Thursday night, have focused on uncovering a network of underground tunnels - some reportedly as deep as 30 meters - that Hamas had dug near the border, as well as concealed launchpads, from which the Israeli Defense Forces say Hamas militants have launched more than 1,600 rockets since the start of the month.

Thirteen of the 34 tunnel shafts reportedly discovered so far go underneath the overland barrier, and into Israeli territory. Several Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel early on Saturday before engaging in a gunfight with IDF soldiers. Two Israelis were shot dead.

A Hamas rocket barrage allegedly aimed at the nuclear plant in Dimona instead resulted in the death of a Bedouin man, bringing the Israeli death toll in the conflict to 5 - with three soldiers, and two civilians among the victims.

The IDF says that up to 4,000 Hamas rockets have been destroyed so far, about half of the estimated arsenal of the militant wing of the group. IDF officials have previously set the dismantling of Hamas rocket-launching capability as its stated goal for the incursion.


Quenelle

French protesters rally against Israeli genocide of Palestinians, defying ban

French protest
© AFPMan with Palestinian flag placard, as protesters gather in Paris, France, July 19, 2014.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched in French cities on Saturday to condemn violence in Gaza, defying a ban imposed after demonstrators marched on two synagogues in Paris last weekend and clashed with riot police.

A Reuters photographer said demonstrators in northern Paris launched projectiles at riot police, who responded by firing teargas canisters and stun grenades.

Demonstrators also climbed on top of a building and burned an Israeli flag. At least one car was set on fire.

A police spokesman said that 38 demonstrators had been arrested by early evening and that the clashes were dying down.

French President Francois Hollande said he understood emotional responses to the killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in a flare-up of hostilities with Israel but would not allow violence to spill over into France.

"That's why I asked the interior minister, after an investigation, to ensure that such protests would not take place," he told journalists during a visit to Chad.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve justified bans in Paris, the Sarcelles suburb and the Mediterranean city of Nice by saying the security risk was too great, prompting outrage from left-wing and pro-Palestinian groups.

Comment: "Security risk too great"? Yeah, Israel's global propaganda campaign gets a little more insecure every time the murder another Palestinian child. An informed populace is Israel's greatest danger. Shame on the French government for this spineless ban.


Bizarro Earth

'Death and horror' in Gaza as thousands flee Israeli bombardment

Fiercest fighting yet as Israel widens ground offensive and faces accusations of war crimes over rising number of civilian deaths

Gaza
© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty ImagesPalestinians flee their homes in Gaza's eastern Shejaiya district on Sunday after heavy Israeli shelling.
The fiercest fighting of the 13-day war in Gaza erupted on Sunday as Israel dramatically widened its ground offensive, sending tanks and troops into urban areas and causing thousands of panicked civilians to flee.

Images of the corpses of women and children lying in streets were posted on Facebook as hospitals were overwhelmed with the dead, injured and those seeking sanctuary from the onslaught.

Palestinian human rights organisations warned that the disproportionate number of civilian deaths could constitute a war crime committed by Israel.


Comment: "Could"??


Despite Israel saying it had agreed to a two-hour ceasefire in the middle of the day, requested by the Red Cross, to allow for the injured and dead to be evacuated, shelling and gunfire continued. Israel blamed continued Hamas rocket fire for the breakdown of the humanitarian truce.

All morning, terrified people ran from their homes, some barefoot and nearly all empty-handed. Others crowded on the backs of trucks or rode on the bonnets of cars in a desperate attempt to flee. Sky News reported that some had described a "massacre" in Shujai'iya. Witnesses reported hearing small arms fire inside Gaza, suggesting gun battles on the streets. Heavy shelling continued from the air and sea.

Dollar Gold

Environmental concerns and risk to sea life from sonic canons ignored as Obama opens Atlantic Coast to oil exploration

coastal oil exploration
© Reuters / Enrique Marcarian AFP Photo / Frederic J. Brown
The Obama administration has announced it is reopening the US Eastern Seaboard to offshore oil and gas exploration, clearing the way for the use of sonic cannons to locate energy deposits - despite the threat to sea life.

The White House is attempting to sell its controversial energy plan on the back of desperately needed jobs in a stagnant economy, as well as reducing its energy dependency. However, those arguments have done little to persuade environmentalists and folks who depend upon fishing and tourism for their livelihoods.

Environmental groups attempted to extend a decades-old ban against drilling off the Atlantic Coast by pointing out the dangers that the use of sonic cannons, which emit powerful pulses of sound into the ocean every 10 seconds, presents to a multitude of sea creatures, including dolphins, turtles and whales. The argument, however, seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Comment: In the psychopathically controlled USA, profits trump any concerns for the environment, humans or sea life.


Quenelle - Golden

100,000 march in London in solidarity with Gaza

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About 100,000 protestors from across Britain have rallied in London to protest against Israel's onslaught on Gaza, according to demonstration organizers Stop the War coalition.

Demonstrators of mixed ethnicities, race and color from across Britain including grandmothers and children, Jews and Muslims, began their march from Downing Street on Saturday amid bright sunshine.

Protestors chanted: "David Cameron shame on you!" and "Free Palestine!" as they marched under the watch of police officers lining the streets and hovering in helicopters in the skies above the British capital.

As the march started, about 10 members of London's Hasidic Jewish community posed beneath a banner emblazoned with anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela's words: "South Africans cannot feel free until the Palestinians are free."

Stop the War rally organizer Lindsey German told the crowds: "We will demonstrate until Gaza is free," as she stood on a stage outside the Israeli embassy.


V

Worldwide protests as Gaza offensive intensifies

Anti-Israel demonstration
© www.theblaze.comAnti-Israel demonstration in Paris over Gaza aggression.
In Turkey, rioters attempt to storm Israeli consulate; Polish pro-Palestinian demonstrators assault Jewish tourists.

Thousands of protesters in numerous cities worldwide took to the streets Thursday and Friday, from Cairo to Istanbul to Washington, to demand an immediate halt of Israel's ground incursion in the Gaza Strip and call on the international community to intervene on behalf of Gazans.

In Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, rallies were held in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, some of them turning violent as demonstrators clashed with police forces and vandalized public property. There were also protests in cities including London, Madrid, New York, and Cape Town.

In Istanbul, police warded off hundreds of rioters who attempted on Thursday to storm the Israeli embassy building. Demonstrators in Ankara and Istanbul also hurled stones at several compounds where Israeli officials reside. Calls for the destruction of the Jewish state were heard in both Turkish cities. Police responded by firing tear gas canisters and water cannons at the crowds.

In Cairo, supporters of overthrown Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, as well as members of his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, marched in protest of "Israeli aggression," and criticized Arab governments for failing to assist the Palestinian people.

In Jordan, protesters called on the Egyptian government to open the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and the Sinai peninsula, as Hamas has demanded, in order to allow the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Strip.

Comment: The children on the Gaza beach were systematically mowed down by deliberate Israeli gunfire. There was nothing "errant" about it. They were only a few of thousands of children and civilians that have been starved, tortured, maimed and eliminated over the past few weeks, months, years, decades...

It is some comfort that protesters around the world are expressing deep indignation for the heinous conduct of the Israeli government and military. At least the message is coming through in more enlightened parts of the world. It is appalling that the United States, that rusted beacon of "human dignity and freedom," continues to blindly support Palestinian genocide and financially underwrite the Israeli military to do so. How long will it take for the U.S. to wake up and at what price?


Ambulance

Killing continues in E. Ukraine despite calls for cease-fire

ukraine civilians
Two relatives hold their hands up to their faces in the aftermath of the shelling attack. At least 20 residents are said to have died
At least 20 civilians have been killed during fighting in eastern Ukraine today despite calls from the international community for a ceasefire.

Just hours after flight MH17 was shot down, the eastern city of Lugansk was hit by shelling leaving hundreds of residents wounded.

Pictures show bodies lining the streets covered in blankets in the wake of the attack which was reportedly carried out by Ukrainian forces.

Vladimir Putin has called for both sides to lay down their weapons after the Malaysian Airlines plane carrying 298 passengers was hit by a surface-to-air missile yesterday, but the request seemed to fall on deaf ears.

The UN and their international leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for an end to the fighting so an investigation into yesterday's events can take place.

Fighting is also said to have carried on to the north of the city, in the village of Metallist, 10km from Lugansk, and in the west, in Yubileynoye settlement.

It also emerged that the The Lisichansk Oil Refinery has also been attacked and set on fire.


Apple Green

Sick! New Jersey teacher and former councilman asks boy students to bring semen-stained tissues to school for art projects

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© Courierpostonline.com
A teacher and former councilman in Camden County faces prison after admitting he engaged in inappropriate sexual communications with 17 male students.

Charles Reilly is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after he pleaded guilty to official misconduct, child endangerment and attempted child endangerment.

The boys ranged in age from 12 to 16 years old and were students at Pine Hill Middle School. Reilly was an art teacher, boys' soccer coach and a Pine Hill councilman.

Prosecutors say Reilly asked the boys to bring semen-stained tissues to school so he could make art projects with them.

Prosecutors will seek a 15-year prison sentence and he would have to serve at least five years before he'd become eligible for parole.