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Baby born to surrogate mother in China four years after parents died in car crash

Lily Kuo
The Guardian
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 17:32 UTC
Grandparents of Tiantian win long legal battle for custody of frozen embryos left by his mother and father

Baby Tiantian granted custody grandparents
The son of a Chinese couple who died more than four years ago has been born to a surrogate mother, according to Chinese media.

Shen Jie and Liu Xi had been married for two years when they decided to try in vitro fertilization. Five days before they were scheduled to transplant one of the fertilized embryos into Liu, the couple died in a car accident in March 2013 in the Chinese coastal province of Jiangsu.

For the next three years, the parents of Shen and Liu fought for the rights to four frozen embryos left by their late children in a complicated and unprecedented legal case in China, according to the Beijing News.

After several court battles, both sets of parents finally won custody of the embryos, and in January of 2017, with the help of an underground surrogacy agency, they drove to Laos to find a mother. Surrogacy is illegal in China.

Comment: See also: 26yo Tennessee woman gives birth to daughter frozen as embryo for 24 years

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Attention

Russian MoD: 'Thousands of rotting corpses' under ruins of Raqqa a public health crisis


RT
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 19:23 UTC
Raqqa, after being retaken from Islamic State, last year
© Reuters
Raqqa, after being retaken from Islamic State, last year
The Russian Defense Ministry has criticized the Western-led coalition for creating a sanitation emergency in Raqqa after it took the Syrian city from Islamic State, but failed to organize a clean-up or rebuild.

"The epidemiological situation in Raqqa remains very grave. There are still thousands of corpses rotting underneath the debris," said Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov, during a press briefing in Moscow.

The official outlined the difference between the reconstruction efforts in cities taken back by government forces, such as Aleppo, where "schools, hospitals and markets have reopened" and those like Raqqa, which have largely been left to their own devices.

Comment: See also:

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Quenelle

Paul Joseph Watson lays it out: ANOTHER STUPID F**KING WAR

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 16:34 UTC
war is a racket
What could possibly go wrong? (Strong language)

Fuck Democracy...

Fuck Parliament...

Fuck Congressional approval...

Let's just declare war by tweets.

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Radar

Seven US spy planes spotted near Russian facilities in Syria - Russian jets cover Syria's airspace after reports of US spy planes - UPDATE


Sputnik
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 10:21 UTC
US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft
© AFP 2018 / Greg WOOD
US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft
Neither Moscow nor Washington has commented on reports about US anti-submarine aircraft flying over Syria's eastern coast, where Russia's Hmeymim Airbase is located. The alleged flyover comes amid Washington's threats to launch a missile strike on Syria.

A Twitter account of the Mil Radar, which tracks military aviation flights, has reported that seven US patrol planes have allegedly conducted reconnaissance missions in the Eastern Mediterranean over Syria's coast.

The six P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine patrol aircraft and the EP-3E Aries II electronic warfare and reconnaissance aircraft reportedly flew over the area where Russia's Hmeymin Airbase and the logistics base of the Russian Navy in Tartus are located.


Comment: Update: Russian jets are highly active above Syria today, following reports of U.S. spy planes near the coastal provinces of Tartous and Latakia.
According to earlier reports, seven U.S. spy planes were flying along the Syrian coast, with some of the aircraft approaching the Hmaymim Military Airport in the southwestern part of Latakia.

While Russian jets have been routinely flying along the coast since the U.S. President Donald Trump's threats, they have recently increased the number of flights over the last 12 hours.

Russian jets have also been cited in several places across Syria, including the Homs, Deir Ezzor, Hama, and Idlib governorates.
See also: US spy planes continue flights over Russian base on Syria's Mediterranean coasts

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X

Not a 'neutral public forum': Ted Cruz says Facebook actively censors, suppresses conservative speech

Senator Ted Cruz
Fox News
Thu, 12 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
Zuckerberg
© AP/Andrew Harnik
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee and Commerce Committee joint hearing Tuesday, I asked a relatively simple question: does Facebook consider itself a neutral public forum?

Zuckerberg said that Facebook is a "platform for all ideas," but declined to give a "yes" or "no" answer. The problem is, this is not merely an academic distinction between words. Facebook's answer to the question could affect millions of users, and attract (or prevent) a lot of attention from federal regulators.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) states: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

This is a good provision. It means that, for example, if you run a blogging platform and someone posts a terrorist threat in the comments section, you're not treated as the person making the threat. Without Section 230, many social media networks could be functionally unable to operate.

In order to be protected by Section 230, companies like Facebook should be "neutral public forums." On the flip side, they should be considered to be a "publisher or speaker" of user content if they pick and choose what gets published or spoken.


Comment: More on Zuckerberg's Congressional hearing:

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Star of David

Israeli government's pathetic effort to smear murdered journalist Yaser Murtaja as a terrorist is failing

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss
Wed, 11 Apr 2018 16:06 UTC
Yaser Murtajajournalst Gaza
© AIN Media
Yaser Murtaja, founder of Ain Media.
Last Friday, an Israeli sniper killed Yaser Murtaja, 30, one of six Palestinian journalists shot that day. Yesterday the Israeli Prime Minister's office and Defense Minister sought to smear Murtaja as a terrorist.
Defense Minister @AvigdorLiberman: The photographer () was a terrorist with a prior association w/ the military wing of Hamas. He held the rank of captain & was paid regularly by Hamas since 2011. He used to fly drones to collect intel on IDF forces at the front.
The claim featured a photograph of Murtaja with a drone, taken from his own Facebook page. Murtaja proudly worked as a photographer with drones. His famous recent Facebook entry, in which he said he dreamed of leaving Gaza, featured a drone image.

Comment:

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Arrow Up

Russian six-time Paralympian champion wins court case against German newspaper over doping claims


RT
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 11:53 UTC
Athlete Mikhalina Lysova
© Ramil Sitdikov / Sputnik
Athlete Mikhalina Lysova.
Russian six-time Paralympic champion Mikhalina Lysova has won a court case against German newspaper Bild, which called her "the Russian who takes doping" on the eve of the 2018 PyeongChang Games.

In the article published several days before the start of the Paralympic Games, the German paper groundlessly accused the athlete of doping, insisting that Lysova takes prohibited performance-enhancing drugs.

"Paralympic scandal! Russian athlete who takes doping may travel to PyeongChang," the outlet wrote.

Lysova was not initially included in the list of approved Russians competing under the name of 'Neutral Paralympic Athletes' (NPA) in South Korea. But several days before the opening ceremony, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) granted Lysova Paralympic entry, declaring her eligible to compete in PyeongChang.
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War Whore

French police removed protesting students from iconic Sorbonne University


RT
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 15:44 UTC
Police
© AFP
French police stand in front of students from the Tolbiac campus, part of the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris on April 12, 2018.
Police removed some 200 students who occupied the famous Sorbonne University in Paris. Several universities across France remain blocked by protesters raging against a new educational reform.

The demonstrators in the University of Paris, commonly known as the Sorbonne, occupied the spaces inside the building on Thursday afternoon. The university authorities attempted to negotiate with the protesters but when three-hour talks failed, they called for police intervention. The evacuation of the students which took place in the early hours of Friday was "calm" and "without incidents," according to the police statement.

The students were protesting against the government plans to grant universities the power to set up admission criteria in order to avoid overcrowding. The opponents of the reform insist that the law would violate the basic French principle of education for everyone.

On Friday, the Sorbonne announced on Twitter that it would shut for at least two days for "security reasons."
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Eye 2

India: Horror turns to outrage at gang rape and murder of 8-year-old Kathua girl


The Times of India
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 15:24 UTC
Asifa India murdered girl
New Delhi - The groundswell of horror against the alleged bid to communalise the gory gang rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua grew across the country on Thursday as outrage reminiscent of the Nirbhaya protests erupted on social media.

On a day when junior foreign minister and former Army chief Gen V K Singh spoke forcefully for the hapless victim, J&K deputy CM Nirmal Singh said he had called for an explanation from two BJP colleagues - Lal Singh and Chandar Prakash Ganga - but said they had denied inciting communal passions. The duo have defended those charged, portraying them as victims of an alleged frame-up.

Comment: Horrific indeed, and reminiscent of the case of Pakistani girl Zainab Ansari:

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Bulb

While homelessness rockets in the UK, Finland has found a simple solution

Harry Quilter-Pinner
The Guardian
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 15:10 UTC
homeless man
© Barry Lewis / Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Stock Photo
‘The tragedy is that it’s entirely within our power to do something about it: homelessness is not a choice.’ A homeless man in London.

The number of rough sleepers in Britain is soaring, with deaths now a weekly occurrence. It's time we got over our prejudices
"I was born in Liverpool and grew up on a council estate. I had a clean home, toys and nice meals as a kid. When I was nine years old, the sexual abuse started. My abusers made me feel special. They gave me gifts, moneys, cigarettes and sweets. When I was 13 I ran away from home and soon found myself in the murky world of prostitution on the streets. My life was out of control."
This is how it all started for Simon. I met him 23 years later at SCT, a local charity I help to run in east London that offers support to people who are homeless and face alcohol and drug addiction. He used to make me coffee every morning at the social enterprise cafe we run. In the intervening period he had spent years in and out of hostels and institutions, as well as long spells on the streets.

When I met him, Simon was sober and working for the first time in years. He said at the time that SCT "offered me the opportunity to get my life back on track. Life is worth living now. I'm looking forward to my future." Tragically, this future wasn't to be: soon afterwards he decided to return to the streets and died as a result.

I would like to be able to say that Simon's story is an exception. But in reality it is all too familiar, as new statistics published by the Guardian showed on Wednesday. The number of homeless people dying on the streets or in temporary accommodation in the UK has more than doubled over the past five years to more than one per week. The average age of a rough sleeper when they die is 43, about half the UK life expectancy.
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