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Bullseye

German man sues town for discrimination over 'Only for Women' parking spaces

Parking sign
© Facebook / Dejan Balantič
A similar 'Reserved for Woman' parking sign pictured in Austria.
A German town's effort to prevent sexual violence has seen it hauled to court by a man who claims its 'woman-only' parking spaces are discriminatory. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as the old saying goes.

Dominik Bayer, 25, from North Rhine-Westphalia, appeared at a hearing at the Administrative Court in Munich, Bavaria, on Wednesday saying: "I feel discriminated against as a man."

Bayer argued that he is fighting for "equal rights for men and women" because the signs were not only discriminatory against men, they were also offensive to women by implying they "are weaker," reports Spiegel Online.

Bayer noticed the signs reading 'Only for Women' while visiting a friend in the Bavarian town of Eichstätt in early 2018.

Handcuffs

Suspect in 4 Nevada murders accused of selling victims' jewelry

Suspect in slaying
A suspect in four fatal shootings in Nevada was accused in court Thursday of being in the U.S. illegally and possessing weapons and selling jewelry stolen from some of the dead.

Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, a 19-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, appeared before a judge in Carson City in shackles with a Spanish-language interpreter and a public defender at his side.

The judge spent more than 25 minutes reading aloud a 36-count criminal complaint that suggested property theft as a motive for the slayings. He set bail at $500,000.

Martinez-Guzman was not charged with murder and did not enter a plea to burglary, stolen property and weapon charges that are punishable by decades in prison. Authorities in nearby Douglas and Washoe counties, where the four victims lived, have said they plan to file murder charges against him soon, perhaps as early as Friday.

Star of David

Jewish stones are better than Palestinian ones, apparently

Aisha al-Rabi
© Ma'an News Agency
Aisha al-Rabi, 48, and her husband of 31 years, Yaqoub al-Rabi, 51
Following the killing-by-stones of Palestinian Aisha al-Rabi, 48, on October 12th, allegedly by Jewish settler youths, Israel is facing an ideological question of how to regard stones, and whether stones have a nationality.

"A stone thrower is a terrorist," Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said in 2015, when Israel was amending a law that establishes stiff prison terms for stone-throwers (up to 20 years if harmful intent is proven, 10 years even if the stone-thrower does not intend harm).

In the al-Rabi case, there has now reportedly been found forensic evidence - that is DNA on the very stone that killed her as she, her husband, and daughter were traveling in a car on the occupied West Bank - tying it to one of the five Jewish suspects (as Nir Hasson reported yesterday in Haaretz).

This is a pretty clear case. Israel's security agency Shin Bet also reported that before the arrest of the five teens from the Rheleim settlement Yeshiva (religious school), extremist settler activists rode in cars to the youths' homes (violating the religious prohibition against driving on Shabbat) to advise the youths on how to conduct themselves under interrogation. One of these activists was Meir Ettinger, the grandson of Meir Kahane and a veteran of arrests and interrogations. Until recently, Ettinger was also the prime focus of the Shin Bet's Jewish division.

Gold Coins

Deal of a lifetime: Charlatan Israeli sex convict rabbi says he can revive the dead, for only $5k

Eliezer Berland
© REUTERS / Sebastian Scheiner
Sex convict rabbi Eliezer Berland promises he can revive people who were officially declared brain dead, if family members pony up some NIS 20,000 ($5,400), according to a television report on Thursday that exposed the working of the miracles-for-cash services offered by the shadowy leader of the Shuvu Bonim community.

Berland has long been known to offer "pidyonim," or kabbalistic benedictions, to the ill, whereby they receive a blessing after donating money. In late-night visits, and surrounded by dozens of followers, Berland frequently shows up at Israeli hospitals across the country, unattended by staff, to bless the sick, according to footage uploaded by his followers.

Israeli journalists from Channel 12 news, seeking to unearth how it works and after encountering victims of Berland's scheme, invented the case of a 35-year-old woman, "Yael," who was declared brain dead.

They contacted Berland's aide Natan, who was initially circumspect, saying he would have to check as it was a case of brain death. "If it wasn't brain death, I would promise you that he would revive her," he tells them, tacitly acknowledging the irreversible loss of all cognitive functioning.

People 2

Common sense: Council of Europe calls for Muslims to legally register their Sharia marriages

sharia council
© AFP/Getty
A measure adopted by the 47-nation international organisation raised concerns about the role of sharia councils in family, inheritance and commercial law
Muslim couples getting married in the UK should be legally required to civilly register their union before or during the Islamic ceremony, the Council of Europe has said.

Raising concerns about the role of sharia councils in family, inheritance and commercial law, the human rights organisation made up of 47 member states, called for obstacles stopping Muslim women from accessing justice to be removed.

A resolution called on British authorities step up measures to provide protection and assistance to those who are in a vulnerable position and run awareness campaigns which teach Muslim women about their rights.

"Although they are not considered part of the British legal system, Sharia councils attempt to provide a form of alternative dispute resolution," it says.

It adds: "Whereby members of the Muslim community, sometimes voluntarily, often under considerable social pressure, accept their religious jurisdiction mainly in marital and Islamic divorce issues, but also in matters relating to inheritance and Islamic commercial contracts.

"The assembly is concerned that the rulings of the Sharia councils clearly discriminate against women in divorce and inheritance cases."

Attention

Bomb threat leads to evacuation of Frankfurt train station

train
Some 500 passengers were evacuated from a high-speed train at the Frankfurt South train station after German police received a bomb threat. After searching the ICE train, authorities later gave the all-clear.

A bomb threat against a Deutsche Bahn Intercity-Express (ICE) train prompted an evacuation and the temporary closure of a train station in the German financial capital of Frankfurt on Friday.

Federal police in the city of Koblenz reported the threat on Twitter, writing that 500 passengers on the high-speed train had been removed safely at the Frankfurt Süd (Frankfurt South) train station and that they were uninjured.

After searching the train, German police gave the all-clear and the passengers were able to re-board the train and continue their journey.

Comment: Incidents at transport hubs are all over the news these days. Although it is interesting that the threat was made to a particular company, so one wonders whether it was a disgruntled worker?


Airplane

Jewish family removed from American Airlines flight for 'body odor' accuse carrier of religious discrimination

Jewish family
A family who were thrown off an American Airlines flight for alleged "body odor" have accused the carrier of singling them out for being Jewish.

Returning home from holiday, Yossi and Jennie Adler and their 19-month-old daughter were due to fly from Miami to Detroit on 23 January, but after boarding the flight they were asked to leave the plane by crew and were not allowed back on.

Staff told them other passengers had been complaining about their odor.

"I said: 'Excuse me? I need to get home. There is no body odor on me,'" Yossi told NBC News.

"There's no body odor that we have, there's nothing wrong with us."

HRC Red

Toxic femininity: 'Badass' US women demand right to torture and kill for Empire... just like men

Brie Larson Captain Marvel
© Global Look Press / Marvel Studios
Thanks to a new wave of feminism and its call for equality, it isn't just toxic men who can kill, torture and surveil in the name of US militarism and empire, women can now do it too!

This past weekend was the third annual Women's March, which is a protest originally triggered by Donald Trump's defeat of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election that encourages women across America to rise up against misogyny and patriarchy.

As sincere as these women are in their outrage, in their quest for power they are inadvertently reinforcing the immoral and unethical system that they claim to detest. This is most glaringly apparent when this new feminism boldly embraces the worst traits of the patriarchy in the form of militarism and empire.

The rise of #MeToo, Time's Up and the anti-Trump Women's Movement, has brought forth a new wave of politically and culturally active neo-feminists. This modern women's movement and its adherents demand that "boys not be boys", and in fact claim that the statement "boys will be boys" is in and of itself an act of patriarchal privilege and male aggression. The irony is that these neo-feminists don't want boys to be boys, but they do want girls to be like boys.

Jet5

16 family members killed in airstrike on Afghan home

Afghan security officials
© Watan Yar / EPA-EFE
Afghan security officials patrol in Helmand earlier this month.
Sixteen civilians from the same extended family have been killed in an air strike on a home in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official says.

The air strike was carried out in the Sangin district during heavy fighting between Afghan forces and Taliban militants, Attaullah Afghan, head of the Helmand provincial council, said on January 24.

He said all of the victims belonged to the same family and eight children and three women were among the dead.

Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said an investigation had been launched.

It was not immediately clear whether the military strike was launched by Afghan forces or NATO, which often provides air support to Afghan ground troops.

Comment: Mission accomplished? See also:


Bomb

Terrorism? Explosions rock residential high-rise in Changchun, China

china explosion
© Ruptly
At least one person has been confirmed dead after two explosions rocked a high-rise residential complex in the city of Changchun in northeastern China. The police are investigating the incident as a "criminal case."

A car exploded at an underground garage at the Wanda Plaza Apartment Building on Hongqi Street on Friday, local authorities said. Several minutes later another blast happened on the 30th floor of the same building.

At least one person was found dead inside the building, officials confirmed. Several people were taken to a local hospital where they are being treated for injuries.

First responders, including firefighters and medics, are working at the scene. The building contains shops and offices, as well as apartments.

Videos shared on social media show people fleeing down a smoke-filled street near the building. One clip, filmed at the site, shows an explosion on one of the upper floors of the residential complex. Several people can be heard screaming.