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North and South Korean Gymnasts warm hearts with Olympic selfie


Telesur
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 18:15 UTC
North and South Korean gymnasts competing at the Rio Olympics posed for a selfie together
© Reuters
A divided nation now has a selfie to add to its hopes of reunification.
In the late 1990s, warmer relations between the divided north and south led to reunions between families and raised hopes for reunification.

North and South Korean gymnasts competing at the Rio Olympics posed for a selfie together Sunday night, in a poignant moment bringing to mind the 2000 Sydney Olympics when the divided nation marched together under one flag symbolizing the desire for reunification.

North Korea's Hong Un-jong and South Korea's Lee Eun-ju posed for the photo together on Eun-ju´s phone during their training sessions.

Un-jong won gold for North Korea at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while Eun-ju is attending her first Olympic games for South Korea.

The photos went viral and overjoyed both North and South Koreans, who have centuries of traditional and familial ties that were broken more than 60 years ago when a geographic division was imposed by the U.S. war of 1950-1953 against the communist aspirations of the Korean people.
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Eye 1

Survey reveals more than half of British women have been sexually harassed at work


teleSUR
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 17:21 UTC
work sexual harassment
© Officer's Choice Blue
A survey of more than 1,500 British women Wednesday has revealed that more more than half of the respondents said that they had been sexually harassed in their workplace, with the majority of women not disclosing sexual harassment incidents to their employers. The survey undertaken by the Trades Union Congress and the Everyday Sexism Project indicated that 52 percent of adult women had been victims of unwanted touching, advances, and unwelcome jokes and comments.

For the youngest group of respondents, between the ages of 16 and 24, 63 percent reported incidences of sexual harassment. This cohort is more likely to work in either subordinate or temporary positions leaving them more vulnerable to harassment, according to the TUC. Nearly 80 percent said that they would not report the incidents to employers because they feared either embarrassment or retribution - which could impact their work relationships and career opportunities - or that they would not be believed.

Comment: England is quick to denounce refugees as womanizing miscreants, but it really needs to look no further than its own Western culture for such prevalent attitudes.

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Bomb

Car bombs hit Kurdish areas in Turkey, hospital and police targeted


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 17:25 UTC
Turkey bomb blast at hospital
© Bölge Gerçekleri ‏/ Twitter
A car bomb blast has hit a hospital in the Turkish province of Mardin, injuring up to 50 people, according to local reports. Another bomb went off in the city of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey, injuring a number of policemen, Turkish officials say.

The blast occurred at a hospital in the city of Kiziltepe, located in southeast Turkey, close to the border with Syria.

According to HaberTurk, the explosion hit a police vehicle passing by the hospital. Gunfire was also heard from the site of the incident, the outlet adds.
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Heart - Black

Georgia bus driver fired for Facebook post criticizing school's refusal to feed a hungry child because he was 40-cents short

Amanda Freolich
TrueActivist
Sun, 07 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
Johnny Cook, busdriver fired facebook post
© CBS Atlanta
When a student complained of being hungry, this driver learned that he was refused lunch because he was 40 cents short. Speaking out about it, however, resulted in his termination.

Approximately 22% of all children in the United States live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level - $23,550 a year, those that do qualify for free or reduced lunches in most states.

Unfortunately, in today's economy, living above the poverty line according to federal guidelines isn't always enough to ensure everyone in the household goes to bed with a full stomach. In fact, research shows that on average, families need an income of almost $50,000 to cover basic expenses in the United States.

This is a lesser-known problem that has yet to be remedied, but when a bus driver tried raising awareness about the issue, he was fired for speaking out.

TIME reports that Johnny Cook was driving kids home during the last week of school when a middle school boy approached him and complained that he was hungry. When Cook asked if he had eaten, the student relayed that cafeteria staff refused to serve him food, as his lunch card was 40 cents short.
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Arrow Up

Russian silver medalist responds to anti-Russian hostility: 'All athletes should be above politics'


RT
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 14:20 UTC
Yulia Efimova
Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, a silver medalist in Rio, has said "athletes should be above politics" after facing hostility from fellow competitors and the mainstream media over her participation at the Olympics following a doping scandal.

Efimova was suspended in 2014 until February 2015 after testing positive for a growth hormone, but was cleared for participation at the Rio Olympics by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) just hours before the start of the Games.

However, not all athletes agreed that the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist should be competing alongside them. As Efimova raised her index finger in salute after winning her 100m breaststroke semi-final at the Rio Aquatics Centre on Sunday, the move seemed to anger her 19-year-old American rival Lilly King.

Comment: The fact that Russia's athletes have been singled out when athletes from many countries, including the U.S. have been caught cheating, proves that the Olympic doping scandal is simply part of the ongoing Western political campaign against President Putin and Russia.

Can the Olympics survive? Analyzing the truth behind the Russian Olympic 'scandal'

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Heart - Black

Genetic experiments on animals in Germany have tripled since 2004


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:01 UTC
animal testing
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
Genetic testing on animals in Germany has increased nearly threefold since 2004, with nearly one million animals, mostly mice and rats, used in genetic tests in one recent year alone, a new study says. Activists have slammed the spike as "unacceptable."

"The massive increase in animal testing for genetic engineering is unacceptable," Nicole Maisch, a Green Party animal protection spokeswoman, told the Funke Mediengruppe's newspaper.

"Especially if the medical benefits are highly questionable or tests have already proved to be unsuccessful, animals should not be tortured further," she added, noting that alternative methods for testing must be developed.

At least 947,019 animals were used in genetic tests in 2013, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung daily reported, citing a study by research group Testbiotech.

Comment: See also: The Health & Wellness Show: The Quackery and Cruelty of Animal Medical Research

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Pistol

Video incriminates false police report, shows cops execute unarmed, mentally-ill man terrified of officers

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 15:35 UTC
Joseph Mann shooting

Robert Mann Sr., right, addresses community members and reporters Friday, Aug. 5th
Joseph Mann, 50, used to work for the Department of Corrections until he had a mental breakdown in 2011 following the death of his mother. Since then, this mentally ill man has peacefully lived on the streets of Sacramento — until last month when he was shot 18 times and killed as he fled from police. Mann's family has since filed a wrongful death suit against the Sacramento police department for the killing of their family member on July 11.

According to Mann's brother Robert, he was a harmless 110-pound homeless man. However, police, who were clearly not trained in dealing with the mentally ill said he was acting erratically and refused to obey their commands as they yelled them from the loudspeaker. Screaming over a loud speaker at a person with a mental illness is not only futile, it only serves to further confuse, frighten, and provoke said person — especially if that person is schizophrenic.

So, instead of calming down and talking with officers, Mann tried to get away. "You do not shout at them, you do not give them commands because they are obviously mentally impaired," said civil rights attorney John Burris, who is representing the family and who released the video. "One could easily say this is an execution because they were not being attacked," said Burris.
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Attention

Italy proposing laws to send parents to jail for forcing children to adhere to vegan diets


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 07:45 UTC
vegan diet

An Italian baby raised on a vegan diet was hospitalized for 'malnutrition' in July 2016
An Italian official is calling for new laws that would punish parents who put their children on vegan diets, or force "reckless and dangerous eating behavour" on them with a sentence of up to six years in prison, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.

The legislation would "stigmatize the reckless and dangerous eating behaviours imposed by parents... to the detriment of minors," the outlet quoted Elvira Savino, a deputy of the center-right Forza Italia party, as saying.

Although the law would primarily target vegan diets in situations when parents force children under the age of 16 to forgo meat, eggs, dairy, and animal products, any diet "lacking in essential elements for growth" would also be subject to it.

In the introduction to the bill, Savino warned that the view of a vegan diet "resulting in significant health benefits" was becoming more widely accepted in Italy.

Comment: Why you should think twice about vegetarian and vegan diets:

Vegetarian and vegan diets are particularly dangerous for children. Vegan diets, in particular, are almost completely devoid of certain nutrients that are crucial for physiological function. Several studies have shown that both vegetarians and vegans are prone to deficiencies in B12, calcium, iron, zinc, the long-chain fatty acids EPA & DHA, and fat-soluble vitamins like A & D. The effects of B12 deficiency on kids are especially alarming as it can lead to long-term neurological disorders in infants and toddlers fed vegetarian diets, as well as impaired cognitive performance, spatial ability and short-term memory.

That said, allowing the state to determine how parents raise their children could set a dangerous precedent having unintended consequences.

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Eagle

LA sheriff: Mentally challenged Compton man murdered by police because they thought he may be someone else


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 15:15 UTC
la sheriff
© Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's office has admitted that a man who was fatally shot by police, in pursuit of a carjacker, was not connected to the carjacking. Donnell Thompson had no criminal record, and his family said he never posed a threat to anyone.

The concession came after the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department previously said Thompson matched the description of one of the carjacking suspects.


Comment: In other words, he was black.


"We have determined that there is no evidence that Mr. Thompson was in the carjacked vehicle, nor that he was involved in the assault on the deputies," the department said in a Tuesday statement, according to the Los Angeles Times.

During the July 28 incident, a carjacking suspect crashed a stolen car, fired at deputies and fled into a Compton neighborhood. A search ensued, and that suspect was taken into custody.
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Handcuffs

Danish police arrest 22yo threatening to blow himself up at asylum center


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 15:07 UTC
danish police
© Emil Hougaard / Scanpix / AFP
A man has been arrested after threatening to blow himself up at an asylum center on the Danish island of Funen, according to police. The arrest took place following negotiations with officers.

"The person is on the asylum centre's roof. Police and emergency workers are on location and the residents of the centre are being evacuated," police wrote in a press release.

According to Fyens.dk, the 22-year-old Iranian national was holding something in his hand and seemed to be talking to another man, who was wearing a helmet and standing on a flat roof a few meters away.

Police have confirmed the man's identity, but have not released his name. Authorities say he lived at a different asylum center in Faaborg.
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