Society's ChildS


Cow

Mom forced to give up gallons of breast milk at Heathrow

Ever sighed at having to toss out a bottle of water at airport security? Then consider Jessica Coakley Martinez, who was forced to throw away almost four gallons of breast milk at London's Heathrow Airport, the Washington Post reports.


"This wasn't some rare bottle of wine or luxury perfume I was trying to negotiate as a carry on," Martinez writes in a 1,588-word Facebook post to Heathrow security. "This was deeply personal. This was my son's health and nourishment." In her post, Martinez says she balances motherhood with a job that involves travel by pumping whenever she can—in public bathrooms, conference rooms, closets, you name it. Here the Californian had amassed a big block of frozen breast milk while traveling without her infant on an eight-city, 15-day business trip through Europe, where four countries had already allowed the milk to pass, the Sunreports.

Comment: Heartless creatures do this.


Jet3

Symbolic? Norwegian F-16 jet mistakenly fires at its own control tower

F-16
© AP, File
The Norwegian Air Force says an F-16 fighter jet accidentally fired at a lookout tower near three military personnel during target practice earlier this month, but that no one was hurt.

Air Force spokesman Maj. Stian Roen said the incident occurred shortly after midnight on April 13 on the island of Tarva, off Norway's western coast.

Roen said Sunday that the aircraft was supposed to fire at a simulated target on the airfield some 500 meters (550 yards) away but that "something went wrong." The lookout tower was slightly damaged by the gunfire, he said.

Roen said he couldn't give further details pending the outcome of an investigation by a special commission.

Source: Associated Press

Handcuffs

NYPD targeting businesses owned by minorities for warrantless searches, police stings - report

El Pueblo Mexican grocery in NYC
© Eduardo Munoz / Reuters
Businesses owned by minorities in New York City are being targeted by police stings and essentially forced to pay large fines, allow warrantless searches, and establish security systems that grant authorities unlimited access, according to a new report.

The law allowing the New York Police Department to take such significant action against businesses is known as "nuisance abatement," which permits police to take aim at the locations where illegal activity has taken place. It was originally meant to be deployed against prostitution in Times Square, but a joint report from ProPublica and the New York Daily News found officers are now using it against small shops.

In one case, an undercover officer entered a laundromat and convinced a customer to purchase stolen Apple products. The individual was arrested and had no connection to store owner Sung Cho, but seven months later police returned to the business and threatened to shut it down if Cho did not agree to pay a $2,000 fine, set up cameras that the NYPD could have unfettered access to, and permit officers to conduct warrantless searches.

The core of the NYPD's argument against Cho was that people were using his store to "facilitate criminal possession of stolen property." However, Cho said he was never told about the sale of stolen Apple products, nor about other allegations that people were buying stolen goods in his store. "They say that I facilitate these activities, prove me so. How did I facilitate these things?" Cho told the Daily News. "In my view it was total entrapment."

Arrow Down

Culture of impunity: United Nations needs to accept responsibility for Haiti's cholera epidemic

medical ten cholera victims haiti
© EPA/Orlando BarriaA medical centre for cholera victims in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
What happens when a humanitarian organisation meant to protect people instead causes them grave harm? That has long been the question where it comes to the UN's peacekeeping operations. From sexual violence to looting, from deaths caused by drink-driving to property damage, a great many individuals have been harmed by peacekeepers, and the structures to provide protection and remedy range from threadbare to non-existent.

But it's another thing altogether when the harm done is attributable not to individual peacekeepers, but to UN operations in general. Two of the gravest examples of this have occurred in recent years: the Haiti cholera epidemic, and the poisoning of Roma in displaced persons camps in Kosovo.

For years, there have been fights to secure justice for both sets of victims. But while Haiti's struggle goes on, in the Kosovan case, it looks like a major breakthrough has been made.

It's now being reported that the UN will apologise and provide remedies for displaced Roma people forced to live in camps built on toxic wasteland in Kosovo. The poison in the earth under those camps caused significant damage to the health of those individuals and to children born within the camps. Although the camps were demolished in 2010, individuals had been forced to live there for a decade despite repeated warnings about lead poisoning from the World Health Organisation and from various human rights groups.

Comment: The United Nations has been completely ponerized because of its alliance with the West and the horrendous and despicable crimes they commit around the globe. For more on what the UN could have been, and the direction it was heading under the leadership of Dag Hammarskjold, listen to The Truth Perspective: Interview with Henning Melber: Dag Hammarskjold, why he died and why it matters.

Further reading:


Bad Guys

Outspoken Turkish writer who discovered Erdogan lied about university degree found dead

Ergun Poyraz
Turkish writer Ergun Poyraz pictured at left being taken to court by counterterrorism police
Turkish writer Ergun Poyraz, who had earlier said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has no actual higher education and as president he recived this education illegally, is found dead.

Poyraz organized an investigation that proved that Erdogan's diploma is a fake and he did not study at the university. Poyraz published the original version of Erdogan's diploma, which he allegedly wrote while studying at Marmara University. It turned out that the diploma is dated when the University of Marmara was not existent.

It should be noted that the 4-year college education is mandatory for the election of the President of Turkey.

Turkish party "Salvation of the people" on the basis of the investigation lead by Poyraz appealed to the court, stating that Erdogan presented a fake diploma to participate in the elections.

Poyraz soon began to face various difficulties in Turkey. Now, he was found dead.

Handcuffs

Irish prisoner released from Iraq prison, fought IS with Kurdish YPG

Joshua Molloy
© www.irishtimes.comJoshua Molloy, former prisoner of the Kurdistan government.
An Irishman who fought against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria has been released from an Iraqi prison after being detained there for 10 days for allegedly crossing into the country illegally. Joshua Molloy, 24, from County Laois, was detained in a prison in Erbil along with two British citizens, Jac Holmes, a former IT worker from Bournemouth, and Joe Ackerman, a former British soldier from Halifax. The men were crossing the border from Syria into Iraq, when they were arrested by the Kurdistan regional government.

British diplomats based in Iraq had been working to secure the release of all three men, according to The Irish Times. The Irish foreign minister confirmed Molloy's release Sunday morning. The Irish foreign ministry confirmed to RT that they are continuing to provide consular assistance to the Irishman, but had not determined when he would return to Ireland as "flight options are limited."

Molloy, a former British soldier, traveled to Syria in April 2015 and fought against ISIS alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). He was trying to make his way home to Ireland at the time of his arrest. He told The Irish Mail on Sunday, who interviewed him before confirmation of his release, that he went to Syria to protect innocent people in the face of ISIS: "All those terrible things were happening to Yazidis and we weren't doing anything about it so I decided to come and help them."

He said he was aware of the risk entering Iraq, and had a message for other fighters considering going to Syria: "Tell them don't go. Just don't go."

The young man appeared frail and exhausted, according to the Irish Mail article, and was sharing a cell with many other people. Meanwhile his father, Declan Molloy, said he and his family were "jumping for joy" when news of his son's release was broken to him Saturday night.

He said he spoke to his son Sunday morning via Facebook and that he was "fine", but would need some time alone after his ordeal.His father previously insisted on Irish radio that his son was "not a mercenary", but a "volunteer" who"sees this as a humanitarian crisis more than anything".

Pistol

Wisconsin school shooter killed by police after injuring two students at prom

antigo high school
© Jacob Byk/USA TodayPolice tape cordons off an area outside Antigo High School, the site of a shooting that left the perpetrator dead and two others injured, April 24, 2016.
The man who shot two students at Antigo High School's prom late Saturday had been bullied since at least middle school and had expressed an interest in guns, according to a former classmate.

Jakob Wagner, 18, fired a rifle at the two students outside the school around 11 p.m. Saturday before police shot him. He later died at a hospital, while the victims survived with non-life-threatening injuries, according to authorities.

While investigators on Sunday were trying to piece together what prompted the shootings, a former classmate of Wagner's said that the man seemed like a nice, but socially awkward and troubled student when in school.

Bullseye

How young women are helping to rebuild Nepal: This community will not crumble

Dil Kumari.
© PHOTO/Global Action NepalDil Kumari, 12, ran away and worked as a cleaner in a restaurant in town, but is now back in her village of Lamjung and attending school, thanks to a mentoring programme.
The story in Lamjung, a district in Nepal's middle hills, where the landscape begins to yield to the high Himalayas, is an all too familiar one.

Rather than go to school, girls are often expected to help with the household chores or look after younger siblings, and even if they are able to attend, face more challenges in completing a full cycle and thence gaining meaningful employment.

These challenges were hard enough prior to April 25, 2015 - the day the first major earthquake hit Lamjung and many other districts - and since then, the situation has only got harder.

Comment: See also: Nepal quake survivors face threat from human traffickers supplying sex trade


Handcuffs

Connecticut man arrested for Trump rally bomb tweet

Sean Taylor Morkys
© Connecticut State Police / FacebookSean Taylor Morkys
A 20-year-old man was arrested by Connecticut cops after allegedly tweeting that, if no one else was up to the task, he would have to bomb a Donald Trump campaign rally on Saturday. A follow up tweet warned his family to leave the Waterbury event.

Connecticut State Police were acting on information from the US Secret Service, who spotted the tweets and contacted the counter-terrorism office.

According to police, the first tweet, read: "Is someone going to bomb the Trump rally or am I going to have to?"

The tweet, later deleted from the account, was followed by a second that apparently warned the suspect's family to leave the campaign event in Waterbury to avoid harm.

Hiliter

Deputy police chief and his family beaten to death in Southern Russia, 7yo girl in coma

Andrey Gosht
© RTAndrey Gosht
A deputy chief of the Samara Region police in southern Russia has been found murdered alongside with five of his relatives in their village house. They were reportedly beaten to death. The only survivor of the attack, a 7-year-old girl, is in a coma.

The incident took place in the Ivashovka village in Samara Region on Sunday. Forty-nine year-old Andrey Gosht and members of his family died of multiple injuries.

According to the local media, the victims were beaten to deaths by clubs. The killed family members were identified as Gosht's parents, his brother, the brother's wife and their daughter.

The only survivor of the attack is a 7-year-old girl. She was taken to hospital with injuries to her head and other parts of the body. She is now in a coma, officials said.

Gosht was deputy head of police of Samara region. Before that he had served as police chief of Syzran, the third largest city in Samara region.

Russia's Investigative Committee has started investigating the murder.