Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Still fighting: Iceland sentences 26 bankers to a combined 74 years in prison

Olafur Ragnar Grimmson
Unlike the Obama administration, Iceland is focusing on prosecuting the CEOs rather than the low-level traders.

In a move that would make many capitalists' head explode if it ever happened here, Iceland just sentenced their 26th banker to prison for their part in the 2008 financial collapse.

In two separate Icelandic Supreme Court and Reykjavik District Court rulings, five top bankers from Landsbankinn and Kaupping — the two largest banks in the country — were found guilty of market manipulation, embezzlement, and breach of fiduciary duties. Most of those convicted have been sentenced to prison for two to five years. The maximum penalty for financial crimes in Iceland is six years, although their Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments to consider expanding sentences beyond the six year maximum.

Comment: Way to go Iceland in showing the way on how to handle the banksters.


Family

Goodbye middle class: Over half of all American workers make less than 30K a year

burned out house
We just got more evidence that the middle class in America is dying.

According to brand new numbers that were just released by the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all workers in the United States make less than $30,000 a year. Let that number sink in for a moment. You can't support a middle class family in America today on just $2,500 a month - especially after taxes are taken out. And yet more than half of all workers in this country make less than that each month. In order to have a thriving middle class, you have got to have an economy that produces lots of middle class jobs, and that simply is not happening in America today.

You can find the report that the Social Security Administration just released right here. The following are some of the numbers that really stood out for me...

Cardboard Box

To Russia with love: Dealers accidentally send 5kg of drugs to Moscow police

Crate full of drugs
© Flickr/ Henry Faber
Police officers at a station in southern Moscow got quite a shock this week, after receiving a package containing five kilograms worth of the synthetic drug known as 'spice'.

In a press conference Thursday, Ministry of Internal Affairs press service head Andrei Galiakberov told journalists that "when the package was checked, it was found to contain about five kilograms of a white powder with a peculiar odor." Expert analysis soon determined that the mysterious powder was actually the synthetic drug known as spice.

Police say that the box of drugs was sent from abroad to a person whose identity is presently being determined. Naturally, police have also opened a criminal investigation into the package's origins.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has now turned to Russian Post, the country's national postal operator, demanding that they take all appropriate measures to help determine where the package may have come from.

Red Flag

Update: Two killed, three injured by masked man 'with sword or knife' at Swedish school

Image
© Stig Henstrom/TT News Agency/ReutersPolice cordon an area after a masked man attacked people with a sword at a school in Trollhattan, western Sweden October 22, 2015.
Two people were killed by a masked attacker with a sword or knife at a school in the city of Trollhättan in southwest Sweden, local media reported. Three others were injured.

An adult male teacher died at the scene. The second person died while undergoing surgery at 2:30 p.m. local time, DN newspaper cited police as saying.

"A single man went into the school building...and he injured four persons - two male adults and two boys," police media officer Stefan Gustafsson told RT. He confirmed that an adult male had been killed. Sweden's Channel 4 said the killed man was a teacher who died at the scene.

The press secretary of NAL hospital, Niklas Claesson, told RT by phone that "two kids (11 and 16 years of age), one teacher and the suspect" were brought in. Claesson said the attacker was shot and is in serious, yet stable, condition.
He initially said the suspect was shot dead by police but later recalled his statement, saying the man is still alive and that he "regrets" his previous comment.

Gustafsson said a suspect armed with a "sword of some kind or a large knife" entered the Kronan School at about 10:10 a.m., and that police drew their weapons at the scene. "We know nothing at all [about the attacker]," he said, adding that the suspect was taken to hospital after being shot.


Comment: The Daily Mail is reporting the man was wearing a Darth Vader type mask and took photos with students during his killing spree. They also report the man was a Nazi sympathizer.
The 21-year-old man who launched a sword attack on a school in Sweden and stabbed two teachers and two pupils stopped to pose for pictures with students before continuing his horrific spree.

Wearing a mask and holding a sword already covered in blood, the attacker stands next to two young students at the school, seconds before stabbing a teacher, who died at the scene.

Another teacher was rushed to hospital in in Trollhättan, north of Gothenburg, alongside the injured students, two boys aged 11 and 15.

The 11-year-old later died from his wounds, local media reports.

The anonymous girl who took the photograph told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that they thought it was a Halloween prank when they saw the masked man.
In the weeks before the attack, the 21-year-old, who was described by witnesses as wearing a 'Darth Vader mask and helmet' had expressed sympathies with Nazi Germany and extreme right-wing organisations.

An investigation by magazine Expo into the murderer's social media activities found that he had 'liked' several YouTube videos glorifying Nazi Germany and showed support for anti-immigration and right-wing politicians on Facebook.
Image



Vader

'Jailhouse shakedown:' ACLU sues Mississippi town that jails poor in debtor's prison

Image
© Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters
A lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union accuses Biloxi, Mississippi of illegally arresting and jailing poor people without a hearing or representation by legal counsel. The three plaintiffs in the suit were arrested and jailed for failing to pay fines.

"It's essentially a jailhouse shakedown. Cities across the country, like Biloxi, are scrambling to generate revenue, and they're doing it off the backs of poor people," said Nusrat Choudhury, an attorney with the the ACLU's Racial Justice Program, in a press release.

Comment: Preying on the poor to fund budgets is outrageous. Biloxi was even so blantant to plan for it in their budgets in advance!


Roses

4-year-old New Mexico girl shot and killed in road rage incident

Image
© ABCLilly Garcia
A 4-year-old girl died Tuesday night after being shot in the head in what police called a road rage incident on I-40 near Unser. The highway was shut down all evening and reopened just before 9 p.m. after being closed for almost six hours.

Police say they are searching for a maroon or dark red Toyota sedan and describe the shooter as a white male, possibly Hispanic, who has short, dark hair and a goatee. Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information and asks people to call (505)-843-7867.

"This should have never happened. This is a complete disrespect of human life, Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden said in an evening news conference. "We're starting to see this throughout our nation, and this is something that should not be happening in Albuquerque, New Mexico - let alone anywhere else in the United States."

"It's 100 percent preventable. It did not have to happen, and we need to rise up as a community and say enough is enough," Eden continued. He urged witnesses to come forward, saying witnesses had thus far given conflicting information. "We are in desperate need of help to find this suspect," he said.

"It's a terrible, tragic loss, and it shouldn't have ever happened," Eden continued. "This is one of those crimes which is unexplainable. There is no way to explain your way out of this." The girl died after being transported to UNM Hospital after the shooting. Sources told KOB the family is from Albuquerque.


Comment: What kind of world do we live in where 4-year-old girls get killed for no reason? Death and gun culture, it's all the rage.

Liars, Gun Control and Money in a Culture of Violence


Syringe

Sierra Leone - mystery deaths spread fear of Ebola relapses

ebola survivors research
© Reuters/Stringer The blood of a survivor of the Ebola virus is extracted as part of a study launched at Liberia's John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, June 17, 2015.
A poster in Sierra Leone's crumbling coastal capital Freetown proclaims a message from an Ebola survivor called Sulliaman: "I feel 100 percent healthy!" Another beaming survivor Juliana says: "I am one of the safest people to be around!"

Throughout the two-year Ebola epidemic, thousands of West African survivors have been shunned by their communities, prompting governments to sponsor messages stressing their complete recovery in a bid to counter fear and paranoia. But the case of Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey - the first known Ebola survivor to have an apparently life-threatening relapse - has revived concerns about the health of some 17,000 survivors in Sierra Leone, neighboring Guinea and Liberia.

Doctors and health officials in Sierra Leone told Reuters that a handful of mystery deaths among discharged patients may also be types of Ebola relapses, stirring fear that the deadly virus may last far longer than previously thought in the body, causing other potentially lethal complications. Diagnoses have not been made, partly because of a lack of relevant medical training and insufficient equipment for detecting a virus that can hide in inaccessible corners of the body - such as the spinal fluid or eyeball. In Cafferkey's case, the virus in her brain caused meningitis.

Camera

'My life is ruined': Hungarian camerawoman fired for kicking refugees is going to sue Facebook

Image
© Marko Djurica / ReutersA migrant runs with a child before tripping on TV camerawoman Petra Laszlo (L) and falling as he tries to escape from a collection point in Roszke village, Hungary, September 8, 2015.
A Hungarian camerawoman fired for kicking refugees is going to sue Facebook for bias and helping to fuel hatred against her, a Moscow-based daily reported. She is also considering moving to Russia.

In September, reporters covering the EU refugee and migrant crisis on the Hungarian-Serbian border caught Petra Laszlo tripping a refugee with a child in his hands on camera. The incident blew up into a major international scandal in the days following.

The accused camerawoman, Petra Laszlo, who worked for Hungary's N1TV at the time, has apologized, saying it was a mistake. She explained in earlier statements that she had panicked and wanted to protect herself when hundreds of asylum seekers broke through a police cordon in a field and ran in her direction.

Comment: Read also: Refugee kicked and tripped by Hungarian camerawoman alleged to be member of Al-Nusra Front


Pistol

Two China diplomats fatally shot, third hospitalized in Philippines

chinese diplomats shot
© Associated PressPolice mark the crime scene with a yellow tape where two Chinese diplomats were killed in Cebu, central Philippines, October 21, 2015.
Two Chinese diplomats have been killed and another injured in a shooting attack at a restaurant in Cebu, the second largest city of the Philippines.

According to police, the deadly attack was carried out at about 1:30 p.m. local time (0530 GMT) Wednesday at a popular restaurant in the trading capital of central Philippines.

The restaurant workers said nine people were in a private room to celebrate the birthday of China's consul general to Cebu, Song Ronghua, who was shot in the neck and taken to a hospital. He is said to be in stable conditions.

"The bullet went clear through (his neck)," said regional police chief, Tom Banas, adding, "We're still trying to determine the motive for the shooting."

The dead staff members are identified as Sun Shan, the deputy consul general, and Hui Li, a finance officer.

Following the shooting attack, police arrested two other Chinese who had been present at the lunch, as well as a consular officer and her husband, on suspicion of involvement in the assault, Banas said, adding that the couple has not cooperated with police, claiming that they are not able to speak English.

A semi-automatic 45 Colt pistol and three bullet shells have been found at the scene of the crime.

China's embassy in the capital, Manila, has refrained from commenting on the incident with a spokeswoman saying that the mission "is still verifying the facts."

Clipboard

New report finds: TTIP already 'Rewriting the rule book' for European Union food standards

Image
© greensefa/flickr/ccMore than 3 million people across Europe have signed a petition calling on the European Commission to scrap the agreement.
The pending Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will likely spark a "race to the bottom" for national policies that regulate everything from the air we breath to the food we eat and, according to a new report, the controversial pact is already pushing European governments to loosen key food safety standards.

Put forth by the UK-based social justice organization Global Justice now, the report (pdf), published Sunday, highlights a component of the pact known as "regulatory cooperation" or "regulatory coherence," which seeks to establish common standards between the United States and the European Union.

Under the provision, notes the group, multinational corporations are granted the opportunity to influence any new regulation—amounting to a "blueprint for corporate domination."

Comment: People Power! Europeans protest secret US-EU trade deal - TTIP