Society's ChildS


Ambulance

Rio Olympics 2016: Athletes warned to keep mouths closed when swimming in faeces-infested water

Feliks Garcia
The Independent
Sat, 30 Jul 2016 01:51 UTC
water pollution Rio Olympic games
© Matthew Stockman/GettyPollution floating in Guanabara Bay
All efforts by the government to clean the Rio waters seem to have failed

Athletes competing in the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil have been warned by doctors, engineers, and scientists to keep their mouths shut while participating in activities in the water.

Researchers found that many of the beaches in Rio de Janeiro have been long contaminated with raw sewage, household garbage, and even dead bodies, creating hazardous swimming conditions for the 500,000 people expected to descend on the city in August.

"Foreign athletes will literally be swimming in human crap, and they risk getting sick from all those microorganisms," Rio paediatrician Dr Daniel Becker told the New York Times. "It's sad but also worrisome."

The Brazilian government had promised to clean the pathogen-infested Guanabara Bay in 2014, but those efforts failed.
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Bomb

Kabul rocked by massive truck bomb, Taliban claims responsibility, gunfight ongoing with militants


RT
Mon, 01 Aug 2016 01:24 UTC
kabul
© Omar Sobhani / ReutersAfghan policemen keep watch near the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan August 1, 2016.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a truck bomb attack on a foreign hotel in the Afghan capital of Kabul early on Monday. Several gunmen attacked the compound following a powerful explosion and engaged in a shootout with security forces.

The blast occurred in the middle of the night, at around 1:30 am local time. The blast has been described on Twitter as being so loud that it woke up people "all over the city."

A "truck bomb" struck "a foreign guesthouse," reported Lotfullah Najafizada, head of Kabul-based TOLOnews TV broadcaster, citing security sources. He added that "four attackers" were trying to enter the building.

"A truck full of explosives exploded near the entrance of Northgate [hotel]," reported Bilal Sarwary, another local journalist, citing police, adding that there were reportedly four attackers involved.

"Fighting is heard" in the proximity of the site, he added.

Comment: The Camp North Gate hotel reportedly caters primarily to US and other Western defense contractors. Still no word on casualties, but dozens are feared to be dead. Afghan security forces have begun storming the hotel. Recently, the Taliban sent a delegation to China to discuss the situation and their battle against foreign occupation. See:

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Attention

Death toll of Baghdad July 3rd bombing attack climbs to 324


Sputnik
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 22:46 UTC
Baghdad suicide car bomb
© REUTERS/ Khalid al Mousily
The death toll from a suicide bombing in central Baghdad on July 3 has reached 324 and might climb further, according to Health Minister of Iraq.

The attack, claimed by the Daesh militant group, was the deadliest suicide bombing attack since the US-led toppling of Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.

In the initial days after attack, the reported death toll was more than 100 people. In a month after the attack, the number of casualties tripled.

According to Iraqi Minister of Health Adela Hmoud, the death toll can rise even further, as forensic teams are still working to identify bodies.
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Nuke

Cairo and Moscow agree on Egypt's first nuclear power plant construction terms


Sputnik
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 22:40 UTC
model of nuclear plant
© Flickr/ Maxence
Egypt and Russia have agreed on all the clauses of the commercial contract on construction of the first nuclear power plant in the country, the Egyptian presidential office said in a statement Sunday.

"The minister [of Energy] during the meeting briefed the president on the final version of the contract on Dabaa [nuclear power plant], informing him on the agreement with the Russian side on all terms in question," the statement read.

The date of contract signing is expected to be announced right after its approval by the country's supreme administrative court, the Council of State.
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Cross

Muslim community refuses to bury killer of French priest, attends Catholic Mass across France and abroad


RT
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 08:50 UTC
Flowers pic of priest
© Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
The Muslim community in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northern France, where two jihadists slit Father Jacques Hamel's throat, is refusing to bury one of the attackers, saying that he put a stain on Islam, the French media reported.

Algerian-born 19-year-old Adel Kermiche was one of the two attackers who killed the 85-year-old priest and seriously injured an elderly parishioner. A French citizen, he was living in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and attempted to join Islamic jihadists in Syria back in 2015.

"We're not going to taint Islam with this person," Mohammed Karabila, a leader at a local mosque, told Le Parisien newspaper, "We won't participate in preparing the body [for the burial] or the burial." A Muslim worshiper, Khalid El Amrani, supported the move, saying that the refusal to bury the terrorist is "normal." "What this young man did is sinful," the 25-year-old engineer said, "He is no longer part of our community."

Now it is up to the local authorities to decide how to issue the burial permit for Kermiche.

Comment: Actions speak volumes when we come together for the right reasons and go beyond our petty self-definitions to do what is honorable.

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Newspaper

Young girl hit by car after running across road, walks away uninjured


RT
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 22:11 UTC
girl in china gets hit by car
© CCTV News / YouTube
A dramatic moment when a young girl dashed across the street, only to be hit by an oncoming car, has been captured on video. Miraculously, she simply got up and walked away uninjured.

While many parents fear just such an incident, for the mother of this four-year-old girl in the Chinese city of Chuzhou in Anhui Province, the nightmare became a reality.
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Sheriff

Almost tragic irony: Innocent cousin of slain Baton Rouge cop detained under suspicion of Lousiana cop killings, nearly killed by police

Claire Bernish
Free Thought Project
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Damarcus Alexander
Damarcus Alexander
The cousin of one of the police officers gunned down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, faced arrest after being falsely linked to the murders — and nearly slipped into a coma when callous police refused to obtain vital medicine to treat his diabetes.

Damarcus Alexander and a friend stopped to change in a Walmart on their way to church for the friend's special singing engagement — but were arrested shortly afterward in a startling case of mistaken identity that nearly cost Alexander his life.

On Sunday, July 17, the two friends left Dallas at about 4 a.m. for the small Louisiana town of Belle Rose, about an hour south of Baton Rouge. Just a few hours later, Baton Rouge police came under fire, and three officers — including Alexander's cousin, Montrell Jackson — were killed.

After Alexander and his friend, who purchased a white shirt for the singing engagement at the church, changed their clothes at Walmart, they got back on the road — not knowing someone suspicious of the two black men, following the shooting in Baton Rouge by Gavin Long moments before, had dialed 911 to report them.

As the Daily Beast reports, during their pit stop at the department store, Alexander and his companion didn't hear about the shooting just across the river — much less that one of the fatally wounded was the man's cousin.
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V

Hundreds protest in Canadian capital demanding justice for black man killed by Canadian police - no violence, no arrests


RT
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 21:58 UTC
Abdirahman Abdi
© Patrick Doyle / ReutersDebbie Owusu-Akyeeah leads a protest march in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada July 30, 2016 for Abdirahman Abdi, a mentally ill black man who died following his arrest by police.
Over 500 people marched through Canada's capital on Saturday to protest the death of a mentally ill Somali-Canadian black man, who died during a confrontation with police.

Demonstrators marched through downtown Ottawa, making their way to police headquarters on Elgin Street in memory of Abdirahman Abda, 37, who died at the hands of police near his house following a disturbance call almost a week ago.

Protesters chanted: "Justice for Abdirahman" and "Black lives matter." Others were heard saying: "They murdered him! Enough is enough!"

Activists demanded more transparency in the investigation into Abdi's death and also called for a separate analysis of how police treat minorities.

"We want to know what's going on, and we want the officers to have some form of cameras on their person at all times so we know exactly how they're dealing with situations like this," CTV Ottawa quoted march organizer Chi-chi Ayalogu-Okonkwo as saying.
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Cow

Bull Shot: Cops summon rancher to put down bull then murder him - no charges, paid vaca

William N. Grigg
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 30 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Scene of bull shooting
© www.idahostatesman.comBull shooting leads to murder of crippled rancher.
The killers of Council, Idaho rancher Jack Yantis will soon return to work after being cleared of criminal charges by Idaho Attorney General Larry Wasden. Nearly ten months have elapsed since Yantis, 62, was cut down by a twelve-shot fusillade alongside Highway 95 after he had been summoned by the Adams County Sheriff's Office to put down a bull that had been struck by a car. The deputies who responded to the accident, Brian Wood and Cody Roland, shot the bull, but neither was able to kill it. Roland called the sheriff's dispatch to have Yantis kill the animal.

The collision with the bull occurred early on the evening of November 1. Yantis, his wife Donna, and their friend Rowdy Paradis, arrived on the scene at 7:22 PM. Yantis was armed with a .204 bolt action rifle; Paradis was driving a skid-loader that would be used to haul away the dead bull. Yantis approached the stricken animal, passing Deputy Wood, who was armed with a .223 rifle that had been ineffective in dealing with the bull.

"Get that piece of sh*t away from my animal," Yantis instructed the deputy, as he approached the bull and lined up a kill-shot near its head. Mrs. Yantis and Mr. Paradis testified that he had chosen an angle that was safe; Wood and Roland - who had been impotently flinging lead at the beast - later claimed that they were worried that the angle Yantis selected potentially endangered people to the south of the accident scene.

Comment: There doesn't have to be a crime. There doesn't have to be a reason. There only has to be a trigger-happy cop and a corrupt justice system.

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Bizarro Earth

Mainstream "thinking" weighs in: Can 2016 be considered one of the worst years in history?

Harry Mount
The Telegraph
Sun, 31 Jul 2016 06:00 UTC
Bastille Day terror
© PASCAL ROSSIGNOL/REUTERS
Will 2016 go down as one of the worst years in history? A glance at the news might make you think so.

Last week's grotesque murder of the 85-year-old Normandy priest, Father Jacques Hamel, came hard on the heels of the Nice massacre a fortnight ago. In France alone, nearly 250 people have been killed by terrorists over the last year and a half - more than the total number of French civilians killed by terrorists over the entire 20th century.

The fear after the terror is great, too. In Cannes, that byword for free and easy French Riviera living, authorities last week banned any beach bags big enough to conceal a weapon.

And that's just France. Add in Germany - which has seen an axe attack, a teenager on a mad shooting spree, a vicious knifing and a suicide bombing, which left 13 dead, including three attackers, and dozens wounded.

Then there's Turkey, where the failed coup a fortnight ago left more than 300 people dead and more than 2,100 injured. And that was less than three weeks after three suicide bombers hit Istanbul Ataturk Airport, killing 41 and injuring more than 230.

The list goes on: police killing civilians in America, civilians killing police; the mass bloodbaths of Syria and Iraq; the Zika virus devastating Brazil, just before the Rio Olympics.

Comment: What passes for journalism and social commentary these days!!!

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