Society's Child
© Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev
RUSADA chief Yury Ganus
RUSADA chief Yury Ganus
The future of Russian sport is on a cliff edge, after the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) officials were not allowed to extract the lab's data as their equipment was not certified under Russian law.
A failure to retrieve doping data from the laboratory might result in RUSADA's repeat suspension as, according to the agreement with WADA, the deadline for the doping data extraction is December 31.
In an official letter, addressed to Putin on Thursday, the RUSADA chief expressed concern and asked the president to "save the future of Russian sport."
© Effingham County Sheriff’s Office
Elwyn Crocker Sr.
Elwyn Crocker Sr.
Elwyn Crocker Sr., 50, was arrested after sheriff's deputies went to his house in Guyton, Georgia, a suburb of Savannah, to conduct a welfare check on his 14-year-old daughter, Mary Crocker, authorities said.
Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie said that after questioning Crocker, he allegedly directed deputies to an area of his backyard, where they uncovered the bodies of Mary and her brother, Elwyn Crocker.
McDuffie said his office received a 911 tip from a caller that Mary Crocker hadn't been seen since October and that the tipster feared she was dead.
© REUTERS/Ricardo Rojas
A notice posted by the Supreme People's Court of China said Robert Lloyd Schellenberg will appear in court in the northeastern province of Liaoning on Dec. 29.
In their reporting of the arrest, some Chinese media referenced the detentions of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig - both being held in China and accused of engaging in "activities undermining China's national security."
Noah Carl
Rarely has the power asymmetry between the academic mob and its victim been so stark. Dr Carl is a young researcher, just starting out in his career, who is being mobbed for being awarded a prestigious research scholarship on the basis of his peer-reviewed research.
While getting a position like this is normally a time for celebration for junior academics, Dr Carl has gone to ground, unable to defend his reputation from libellous attacks, as he has been instructed not to talk to the media.
Three hundred academics from around the world, many of them professors, have signed an open letter denouncing Dr Carl and demanding that the University of Cambridge "immediately conduct an investigation into the appointment process" on the grounds that his work is "ethically suspect" and "methodologically flawed." The letter states: "we are shocked that a body of work that includes vital errors in data analysis and interpretation appears to have been taken seriously." Yet the letter contains no evidence of any academic misconduct. It does not include a single reference to any of Dr Carl's papers, let alone any papers that are "ethically suspect" or "methodologically flawed."
Hundreds of people each day pass through the church, using the pews to sleep on, and getting blankets from the staff.
"No questions are asked when our guests walk into the churches; in an effort to remove all barriers to entry, there are no sign-in sheets or intake forms. No one is ever turned away; all are welcomed, respected and treated with dignity," according to the Gubbio Project's website.
The facility is still open for local churchgoers who want to visit throughout the day, but 2/3 of the church is reserved for the Gubbio project.
"This sends a powerful message to our unhoused neighbors - they are in essence part of the community, not to be kicked out when those with homes come in to worship. It also sends a message to those attending mass - the community includes the tired, the poor, those with mental health issues and those who are wet, cold and dirty," a representative with Gubbio said.
© Evgeniya Porechenskaya
Since news broke in early October about multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, the floodgates have been kicked open in a way no one could have predicted. There's no foreseeable end in sight to the number of public figures accused of misconduct; at latest count, the list totals more than 100 names, including Gene Simmons, Geraldo Rivera and Bruce Weber.
This truly is a watershed moment and a long overdue reckoning. I don't doubt that every woman on this planet has experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact at some point in her life. Women are fed up with suffering silently, feeling powerless and watching the guilty parties carry on unaffected.
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)For the fourth time in the space of 30 minutes, the sound of a cell-phone text alert interrupted my college class. The professor, a gifted educator with an infectious passion for his subject, had made his no-phones policy clear on many occasions. These repeated infractions were too much for him, and he lost his temper.
He shouted at us about maturity, respect and the convenient proximity of our classroom's two doors, through which anyone more interested in their phone than his lecture was welcome to depart. One of my classmates said later that the professor had activated his "angry-dad mode."
Back at home, this professor is raising a house full of boys. He'll talk professional sports with anyone willing to listen. He regularly shows up with a splint, bandage, or brace-always some injury gained by roughhousing with his sons, in whom he takes obvious pride. I've enrolled in every class he teaches. I've been alone with him a dozen times. I am not afraid of him, because there's nothing to fear.
© Reuters / Hani Amara
Burned cars near Libya's Foreign Ministry after suicide attacks on December 25, 2018
Burned cars near Libya's Foreign Ministry after suicide attacks on December 25, 2018
Three armed gunmen stormed the foreign ministry of Libya's internationally recognized government in Tripoli on Tuesday morning, killing three employees and injuring at least ten others. Later in the day, the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, through its propaganda outlet.
The assault on the diplomatic compound began at around 9:30am with the detonation of a car bomb in front of the building. Immediately afterwards the gunmen opened fire and two of them managed to get inside and blow themselves up. The third attacker was killed in the gunfire exchange with the ministry guards.
© AP Photo / 2M
Police detained five more suspects believed to be responsible for the horrific killing of two women, Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, bringing the total number of people in custody to 19, media reported on Wednesday.
According to the head of Morocco's central office for judicial investigation, Abdelhak Khiam, the gang members went to a popular tourist hiking area to hunt victims for two days before the murder.
Comment: So Trump recently declared the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, shortly after repeated US airstrikes in the region, and yet visits troops in Iraq on 26th December saying that they'll be staying in Iraq because "we could use this as the base if we wanted to do something in Syria". Meanwhile, their partner in crime, Israel, ramps up their belligerence towards Lebanon; Afghanistan suffers a surge of incursions by the Taliban, Libya from attacks by ISIS; the US & UK backed Saudi's continue their war on Yemen, and the Western-backed neo-Nazi's in Ukraine threaten to provoke Russia, again, in the Kerch strait.
With this relentless Western-linked chaos creation, is it any wonder Russia is celebrating the successful launch of their Avangard weapon system??
See also: Russia has a roadmap for Libya - Another noble Gaddafi