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Hajji Putin: Popularity of 'Putin the Shiite' sky high in Iraq

Jean-Marc Mojon & Raji Nasser
Yahoo! News
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
Putin painting
© AFP Photo/Sabah Arar
Iraqi artist Mohammed Karim Nihaya touches up a painting of Russian President Vladimir Putin in his studio in the Karada district of Baghdad on October 7, 2015
Russian President Vladimir Putin's bullish entry into the Syrian conflict has worked wonders for his popularity in neighbouring Iraq, where some await "Hajji Putin" like a saviour.

Sitting at his easel in his central Baghdad workshop, painter Mohammed Karim Nihaya touches up a portrait of Putin he copied from the Internet.

"I have been waiting for Russia to get involved in the fight against Daesh," he says, referring to the Islamic State group that last year declared a "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria.

"They get results. The United States and its allies on the other hand have been bombing for a year and achieved nothing," the bespectacled artist says.
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Fire

One dead, seven injured in massive explosion at Singapore warehouse


RT
Mon, 12 Oct 2015 05:22 UTC
Image
© Blue Global/YouTube
At least one person died and seven were injured in a large factory blaze at Tanjong Kling Road in Singapore. Witnesses filmed the site erupting in explosions and thick billowing smoke.

The Singapore Civil Defense Force (SCDF) released a statement saying that it received a call at approximately 9:30 am local time (0130 GMT) and four fire engines and four ambulances were immediately dispatched to the scene.

"Prior to SCDF's arrival, there was a fire and a few explosions were heard in the premises. The in-house Company Emergency Response Team (CERT) immediately located the fire, and conducted evacuation and firefighting operations," said SCDF, as cited by the Straits Times.

"Upon our arrival, the fire had engulfed a laboratory measuring about 7 meters by 5 meters, in close proximity to a production and storage area," the SCDF added.

The SCDF said one person was pronounced dead at the scene, while seven people were taken to hospitals within the city. They are suffering from various injuries ranging from lacerations and burns to smoke inhalation.

Thick smoke could be seen coming from the factory, though it is not immediately clear what caused the explosions to take place.


Comment: There have been a lot of explosions all over the world recently.

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Cell Phone

Three Florida cops beat, tackle unarmed black woman for filming arrest of her husband

Tom Boggioni
Raw Story
Sat, 10 Oct 2015 09:12 UTC
Image
© Screenshot
A black woman who was punched and tackled to the ground by two white Jacksonville policemen for filming the arrest of her husband claims the cops stole her phone with a recording on the incident, reports NewsJax4.

According to Kelli Wilson, she went down to a local convenience store to record the arrest of her husband and retrieve their car when she was assaulted by the two cops who demanded her name and told her to put her phone away and stop recording.

"I was beaten, and then falsely arrested, my phone was stolen, my car was taken. It was a traumatic experience. It was definitely an experience you never think you would be going through," said Wilson.

Although police confiscated her phone, video of her arrest was captured by surveillance cameras that showed the unarmed woman talking to the police before they charged, attempting to grab her phone with one officer seen punching her while the other one held her arms.

According to Wilson, one of the policemen demanded she stop filming and she asked him "why?"

"He asked for it, he demanded it again, and I gave him the same, 'Why do you want my phone? What do you need my phone for?' He told me he would punch me in my face," Wilson explained. "I eventually got punched and beaten and the sergeant that was on the scene joined in the beating."

According to the police report, officers at the scene said Wilson repeatedly refused to identify herself and she was arrested for interfering with the arrest, although in the video she can be seen backing away from the officers. The officers admitted that they kneed and punched her as they made the arrest. The report also states the arresting officers believed she was reaching for a weapon after they had her face down on the ground. No weapon was discovered.

Comment: Even in cases like this where the unnecessary force is overt, these officers are usually acquitted by the system. There is an official unwillingness to deal with the problem of police brutality.

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Sheriff

Cop filmed choking, slamming 14-year-old boy at Texas high school; staff does nothing

Arturo Garcia
Raw Story
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 18:21 UTC
Image
© KXAN-TV
14-year-old being choked by police.
A Round Rock, Texas man plans to press charges against local authorities for choking his 14-year-old son on Thursday and slamming him to the ground at his high school, KXAN-TV reported.

Footage posted online shows two officers questioning the teen, Gyasi Hughes, inside Round Rock High School. One of them can be seen holding Hughes back as he attempts to walk away. That officer then grabs Hughes by the throat and and spins him around before taking him down.

The other officer then joins his colleague in subduing the teen as other unidentified adults — presumably school staff members — can be seen positioning themselves between the officers and other students. Hughes was not arrested, but was suspended from class for a day.

According to KEYE-TV, police said in a statement that the officers had broken up a fight between Hughes and another student, yet Hughes "refused to calm down" and was attempting to resume the altercation, prompting the officer to "detain him for his safety."

Hughes confirmed that he got into a fight with the other student, accusing him of taking the prescription goggles he uses to play football. He also admitted to taking the other boy's book bag — which can be seen in the video — in order to look for them.

But he denied authorities' allegation that he was trying to go after the other student, saying that he was actually upset with the officers for "getting in his face." The teen's father, Kashka Hughes, said that he has filed a police report concerning the incident and plans to press charges.

Watch footage of the incident, as posted by KXAN, below.


Comment: Someone needs to remind this officer that he is an adult and not a pit bull. It's clear from the video that the teenager was agitated. He had plenty of reasons: possibly having his goggles stolen, made worse by being yelled at and man-handled by the police officer. Notice that the cop is the first one to get physical, after which the teen becomes understandably more agitated. That's when he is choked and taken down by the officer. How's that for communication skills?

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Safe

German interior minister reports 'massive rise in xenophobic attacks against asylum seekers'


Press TV
Sun, 11 Oct 2015 21:12 UTC
Image
© AP
German police check the identity of a person after an assembly ban near an accommodation for asylum seekers in the town of Heidenau, eastern Germany, August 28, 2015, following an attack on the shelter by anti-refugee protesters.
The German interior minister says his department has registered 493 attacks on refugee shelters so far this year, three times more than the assaults recorded in 2014.

Thomas de Maiziere released the figure in an interview on Friday with the Funke media group, Germany's third largest newspaper and magazine publisher.

De Maiziere said that the "massive rise in xenophobic attacks against asylum seekers," ranging from arson to racist graffiti, is a "disgrace for Germany."

"I find this growth in the number of people who are using violence, alarming," he added.

Last year, 162 attacks on asylum seeker homes were recorded, compared to 58 and 24 in 2013 and 2012, respectively.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the German minister also said that two-thirds of the offenders had no previous criminal record, while the rest were already known to the police for far-right extremist crimes or for other reasons.

He further called for tough action against the culprits behind the anti-refugee violence, saying, those responsible "must be made to understand that they are committing unacceptable offences: assault, attempted murder, arson."
Image
© Reuters
People wait for registration at LaGeSo, the Central Registration Office for Asylum Seekers of the State Office for Health and Social Services, in Berlin, Germany, October 7, 2015.

Comment: The Refugee Crisis: Separating the Conspiracies from The Conspiracy™

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Black Magic

Metropolitan Police: Exorcism, witchcraft on the rise in the UK


RT
Sun, 11 Oct 2015 19:56 UTC
Image
© Metropolitan police
The UK is experiencing an alarming rise in children suffering from accusations of witchcraft and exorcism, which are being reported to the police. A watchdog says there has been "a significant increase" with 60 cases reported so far in 2015.

One incident saw a young boy's parents throwing him out of their home because they believed he was a "devil child," while another child had his face bitten by his mother, who believed he was a "witch possessed by evil spirits."

The claims were made by Project Violet, which is trying to stop faith-based abuse. The operation is being run by London's Metropolitan Police. They say that 60 cases have already been recorded so far this year and is part of a worrying trend, which has seen a rapid rise in the number of cases that have been reported.

Last year, 46 crimes were recorded, double the number for 2013. A member of the Project Violet task force said there has been "a significant increase."

"You'll get the actual physical abuse and injuries taking place, and in the worst-case scenario we've had some homicides as well," said Detective Sergeant Terry Sharpe, from Project Violet.

"We've had a case within the last year where a nine-year-old boy had been called a devil child and thrown out of his address by his parents and was found by social services standing in his bare feet," he added, the Press Association reported.

Other cases reported to the Metropolitan Police included children who were swung around and "smacked" to "drive out the devil," while others were said to have raw chillies rubbed into their eyes during exorcism rituals.

Comment: Something else to blame on refugees and migrants?

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Family

Forced adoption: UK parents cleared of abuse 'unlikely to see their child again' three years later


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 16:16 UTC
A couple whose baby was taken into care after they were wrongly accused of abuse are unlikely to get their child back, according to their lawyer.

Image
© Mirror, UK
Karrissa Cox and Richard Carter with their baby.
Karrissa Cox and Richard Carter, both aged 25, were found not guilty of causing injury to their baby at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday. Three years ago, the couple took their six-week-old baby to hospital after noticing bleeding in the child's mouth.

Doctors, who feared child abuse after finding bruising on the infant's body and "healing fractures" on an X-ray, called for social services to intervene. The couple saw their child taken into care and later adopted following a ruling of abuse by the family courts, in which they were accused of causing injury to the infant.

Cox and Carter were charged with child cruelty, but the criminal case against them collapsed at Guildford Crown Court after new medical evidence showed there were no signs of abuse. "We took our child to the hospital seeking help and they stole our baby from us," the Surrey couple said in a statement.


Comment: Child 'protection' services are notorious worldwide for stealing babies and children.

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2 + 2 = 4

Why ending homelessness is political poison

Bill Boyarsky
Truthdig
Sat, 03 Oct 2015 19:22 UTC
Image
© Bill Boyarsky
On a hot, sultry day in July, I walked through Los Angeles' Skid Row, the largest and most infamous of the city's numerous homeless encampments. It is a little-visited part of a city better known for its celebrities and showy materialism—a city where the very rich build mansions with a dozen or more bedrooms while the poorest of the poor live on sidewalks, under freeways or in parks.

Buildings trapped the street's heat. Some residents sat in tents or under tarps in stifling conditions. Others were standing or sitting on the sidewalk, with their backs against the buildings. So packed were the sidewalks with people, tents and possessions that sometimes I had to walk in the street. I was so intent on observing the scene that at one point I stumbled and almost fell. A homeless man asked if I was OK. I assured him I was. He patted me on the back and told me to be careful.

Comment: The reason people are homeless is because of greed by pathologicals in power. Those who aren't viable producers/earners/consumers are seen as deserving of their fate, demonized for it and cast out.

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Nuke

St. Louis: Threat of nuclear fallout looms due to landfill fire near nuclear waste dump

John Vibes
Activist Post
Sun, 11 Oct 2015 17:33 UTC
nuclear landfill
According to an emergency plan recently distributed by St. Louis County officials, a fire at the Bridgeton Landfill is now within 1,000 feet of a nuclear waste dump. The landfill fire has actually been burning for over 5 years, and they have been unable to contain it thus far.

There are clouds of smoke that have been billowing from the site, making the air in parts of St. Louis heavily polluted. In 2013, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster sued Republic Services, the company responsible for the landfill, charging the company with neglecting the site and harming the local environment.

Last year, city officials became concerned that the fire may reach the nearby West Lake Landfill, which is littered with decades worth of nuclear waste from government projects and weapons manufacturing. Remnants from the Manhattan Project and the Cold War have been stuffed there for generations. The site has been under the control of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1990, but they have not made any significant effort to clean up the waste.

Comment: No plans to clean up the landfill? Wishful thinking will get you every time.

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Hearts

Hats off to Medicine Hat: The first Canadian city to eradicate homelessness

Amanda Froelich
Activist Post
Sun, 11 Oct 2015 17:15 UTC
homeless man
When there are more foreclosed homes than individuals living on the street, you know there's something wrong with 'the system'. Cities like Dallas, Texas and Honolulu, Hawaii have implemented creative concepts to help remedy the homelessness crisis in the States, but until recently, no major Canadian city had successfully alleviated its homelessness issue.

But that has changed in the city of Medicine Hat, Alberta, where all 60,000 residents now sleep soundly in a safe environment with a roof. Thanks to a new policy in the Canadian city, housing is mandated for everyone who has spent 10 days in a shelter or on the streets.

Now, when officials of the city learn of an individual living in these circumstances, they move him or her (or the family) into a house or apartment. Mayor of the town, Ted Clugston, says 10 days is the absolute limit an individual may live on the streets - even though the city is normally quick to find housing for homeless individuals.

Comment: Imagine if all cities in the world behaved with such compassion towards people in need. Homelessness is not an insoluble problem. All it takes is empathy and dedication and the exclusion of psychopaths who try to thwart the process.

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