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US, New York: Occupy Wall Street tested by the cold after city takes heating gear


AM New York
Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
A supporter braves the elements in Zuccotti Park Saturday
Saturday's snowstorm tested the mettle of Occupy Wall Street protesters just a day after the FDNY confiscated the group's main heat sources, which the protesters are demanding be returned.

The protesters, represented by attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild, said that the confiscation of six generators and fuel on Friday was a pretext by the city to begin dismantling their lower Manhattan encampment, which has been in place since Sept. 17. The FDNY said cited r safety reasons.

"Contrary to the Mayor's public justifications, the seizures were not motivated by health or safety concerns," the group said in a letter Saturday addressed to FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano.

"Without articulating any identifiable hazard posed by the generators, the city removed a source of heat for hundreds of people one day before the correctly predicted onset of freezing temperatures and snow," the letter said.
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Bizarro Earth

Americans increasingly comparing Afghan war to Vietnam

Paul Harris
The Guardian
Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:06 UTC
Nato helicopter in Afghanistan
© Omar Sobhani/Reuters
A Nato helicopter flies above the site of the bomb blast in Kabul.
Latest deaths of US troops in an apparent Kabul suicide attack come as support back home for the war reaches a new low

The latest deaths of 13 Americans in Afghanistan in an apparent suicide bomb attack in Kabul comes at a moment when the US public's attitude to the long war is at an all-time low.

A poll late last week, by CNN and ORC International, revealed that only 34% of Americans now support the war, one percentage point down on the previous all-time low. It found that 63% of Americans are now opposed to the war. The deaths of yet more Americans in a conflict that has already cost the lives of more than 1,700 American soldiers is only likely to see support fall further. Indeed the poll showed that some 58% of Americans say that the conflict is now similar to the Vietnam war.

The war is now a serious problem in Obama's strategy for the 2012 election. For a president who already faces discontent over accusations from the left of the Democratic party that he is too close to the Republicans, the Afghan war represents another area where he is out of step with many on his own side. The same poll showed that some six in ten Republicans still supporting the war, compared to just a quarter of Democrats.
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Heart

Criminalise War: Tun Mahathir

criminalisewar
YouTube
Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:22 UTC
Keynote address of HE Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia at the War Crimes Conference & Exhibition that took place at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on 28th October 2009.

Part 1
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Cult

Catholic Church Makes A Fortune In The German Porn Business


Die Welt/Worldcrunch
Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:30 UTC
German bishops porno publishing
© picture-alliance/ dpa/ANSA
The bishops gladly look the other way when it comes to the portfolio of the Weltbild Publishing House
Weltbild, one of Germany's largest publishing companies, happens to be owned and operated by the Catholic Church. But that has not stopped it from publishing books that many of the faithful find offensive.

"Weltbild," Germany's largest media company, sells books, DVDs, music and more -- and also happens to belong 100% to the Catholic Church. Few people knew about this connection until this month when Buchreport, a German industry newsletter, reported that the Catholic company also sells porn.

A Church spokesman responded: "Weltbild tries to prevent the distribution of possibly pornographic content."

Well, it's prevention efforts have apparently not been so successful. For more than 10 years, a group of committed Catholics has been trying to point out what is going on to Church authorities, and they are outraged at the hypocrisy of the spokesman's statement. In 2008, the group sent a 70-page document to all the bishops whose dioceses have shared ownership of Weltbild for 30 years, detailing evidence of the sale of questionable material.

Comment: The hypocrisy and corruption riddling the Catholic Church apparently knows no bounds. Money and power are their true gods.

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Arrow Up

Earthquake: Turkey Ends Search for Survivors, Toll Nears 600

Ibon Villabeitia and Evrim Ergin
Reuters
Sun, 30 Oct 2011 08:05 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl
Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin (C) gestures while visiting a campsite for earthquake victims, set up at a stadium, in Ercis .
The death toll from last week's earthquake in southeast Turkey rose to 596 Sunday, the day after authorities stopped searching for survivors and focused on helping thousands of homeless families in crisis.

In Ercis, the town hit hardest by the 7.2 magnitude quake that devastated Van province on October 23, some shops reopened on Sunday, electricity was switched back on in parts of town and one bank's ATM started working.

But with barely any of Ercis's nearly 100,000 residents ready to return to their damaged homes with strong aftershocks still rattling the area, life is anything but normal. One aftershock Sunday morning registered at magnitude 5.3.

Winter is fast approaching, temperatures plunge at night, and young and old in particular are falling sick in tent encampments set up by relief agencies on the outskirts of town.

The government's disaster management website said more than 43,000 tents had been handed out in Van. Officials say that is more than needed because people whose homes are not so badly damaged are demanding tents as they feel safer under canvas.
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People

"Legal Immunity for Elite": Glenn Greenwald on Occupy Wall Street, Banks Too Big to Jail and the Attack on WikiLeaks

Alexander Higgins
Democracy Now
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:37 UTC
Glenn Greenwald nails the purpose of Occupy Wall Street Saying "It is not a Democratic Party organ... or demanding a single bill.... it is because the system itself is radically corrupted, and we no longer are willing to tolerate it"


The prominent political and legal blogger Glenn Greenwald comments on the growing Occupy Wall Street movement. "What this movement is about is more important than specific legislative demands. It...is expressing dissent to the system itself," says Greenwald. "It is not a Democratic Party organ. It is not about demanding that President Obama's single [jobs] bill pass or anything along those lines. It is saying that we believe the system itself is radically corrupted, and we no longer are willing to tolerate it. And that's infinitely more important than specific legislative or political demands."
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People

US: New Veterans Hit Hard by Economic Crisis

Lizette Alvarez
The New York Times
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00 UTC
Image
© Chip Litherland / The New York Times
Andrew Spurlock, cleaning his daughter Aaliyah’s hand in their kitchen in Longwood, Fla., has had trouble finding a job after he returned from duty in Iraq.
After a mortar sent Andrew Spurlock hurtling off a roof in Iraq, ending his Army career in 2006, the seasoned infantryman set aside bitterness over his back injury and began to chart his life in storybook fashion: a new house, a job as a police officer and more children.

"We had a budget and a plan," said Mr. Spurlock, 29, a father of three, who with his wife, Michelle, hoped to avoid the pitfalls of his transition from Ramadi, Iraq, to Apopka, Fla.

But the move proved treacherous, as it often does for veterans. The job with the Orange County Sheriff's Office fell through after officials there told Mr. Spurlock that he needed to "decompress" after two combat tours, a judgment that took him by surprise. Scrambling, he settled for a job delivering pizzas.

Mr. Spurlock's disability claim for his back injury took 18 months to process, a year longer than expected. With little choice, the couple began putting mortgage payments on credit cards. The family debt climbed to $60,000, a chunk of it for medical bills, including for his wife and child. Foreclosure seemed certain.
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War Whore

US missiles kill 6 suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal region, say officials

Rasool Dawar
The Associated Press
Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
US Drone
© unknown
Pakistani intelligence officials say suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft fired six missiles at a vehicle near the Afghan border, killing six alleged militants.

The officials say Sunday's attack occurred in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan tribal region. A house was also partly destroyed.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The identities of the suspected militants killed in the strike were unknown.

The U.S. has carried out many drone strikes in the past in Datta Khel, killing both Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters.

The U.S. refuses to acknowledge the CIA-run drone program in Pakistan publicly, but officials often laud the strikes in private.

Source: The Canadian Press
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Phoenix

Gas explosion in central China coal mine kills 29 workers; 6 survive


The Associated Press
Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse
China's mining industry has a poor safety record with its mines considered among the most deadly in the world
A gas explosion at a coal mine in central China has killed 29 workers, Chinese authorities said Sunday.

Six other miners survived Saturday evening's blast at a state-owned coal mine in Hengyang city in Hunan province, China's State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on its website.

Five of the workers were rescued, while one climbed out of an air shaft of the Xialiuchong Coal Mine, the statement said.

The work safety administration said rescue work was complete as no other miners were working at the time of the explosion.

Song Yuanming, the chief of the provincial coal mine safety bureau, told state broadcaster CCTV that there was a large outburst of gas in the mine 250 metres (820 feet) underground that was ignited by sparks produced by machines.
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Bandaid

US: Family of Sacramento girl who needed amputations after ER delay is awarded $10 million

Cynthia Hubert
The Sacramento Bee
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
The family of a Sacramento girl who waited for hours for treatment of an infection that resulted in the amputation of parts of all four of her limbs has agreed to a $10 million settlement with Methodist Hospital and various emergency room workers.

The settlement on behalf of Malyia Jeffers is believed to be one of the largest of its kind in California history.

Malyia was 2 years old when her parents, Ryan Jeffers and Leah Yang, took her in November to Methodist's emergency room with a persistent fever, skin discoloration and weakness. According to their lawsuit, the parents begged for attention by doctors and nurses as Malyia's condition deteriorated.

After about five hours, the lawsuit maintains, Malyia finally was seen by a doctor and was flown to Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital for lifesaving care. Physicians there found that Streptococcus A had invaded her blood and organs, and as a result she suffered amputations of both feet, her left hand and part of her right hand.

Stanford doctors said Malyia's sickness may have been the result of a quirk of genetics. They said they are uncertain whether a quicker response would have saved her limbs.
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