Society's ChildS


Bullseye

National Guard troops in Ferguson will only serve to escalate tensions, not bring peace

Kyle Sullender
1-800-Politics
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 13:19 UTC
Ferguson protests
© unknown
After eight straight days of unrest in Ferguson, MO, following the shooting of 18 year-old Michael Brown, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has called the National Guard to attempt a restoration of peace in the city. However, the action will likely result in the opposite.

While protests have grown more violent since they started the night after Brown was shot, the number of injuries resulting from them is still relatively low. Protesters have been escalating their attacks though and the police's use of tear gas has become a daily headline. So far it appears only one to two people have been seriously injured from protest related incidents but it would seem that that number could be increasing very soon.

The state's first attempt to calm protesters was to remove the Ferguson Police Department's responsibility of containing the protests. Instead, the responsibility was given to the Missouri Highway Patrol and Capt. Ron Johnson. Because the police were the target of their protests and because Capt. Johnson is an African American; like 70% of Ferguson, many hoped only peaceful protests would continue.
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Pistol

The police have become a militarized murder machine

Paul Craig Robers
RINF
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:03 UTC
Ferguson police
© Reuters / Mario AnzuonA police officer holds his riot gun while demonstrators protest the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri August 13, 2014
I wasn't surprised at some of the crude comments and hatred expressed toward blacks that came from a few white male anti-immigration Republicans in response to my article Cops Gone Wild. A few were so choked with rage over a "f*** pinko-liberal-commie" who would take the side of a "black bully thief" over the police that they never read beyond the introductory comment about Ferguson. Criticizing police can ignite the same kind of hysterical hatred as criticizing the Israeli governments murders of Palestinians.

As readers know, I often emphasize that a significant percentage of the population is incapable of thought and rational response. They want to hear what they want to hear and go into a rage when they don't. They read not to learn but to have their ignorant biases substantiated.
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Pineapple

European food producers trying to get around Russian food embargo by going through Switzerland


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:32 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti / Aleksandr Kondratuk
Some European food producers have reportedly asked Switzerland to provide an alternative supply corridor for goods embargoed by Russia.

The agriculture import ban imposed by Russia does not apply to Switzerland as it is not an EU member.

During the past week various European food and agriculture organizations have asked the Swiss authorities if there is an opportunity to export their products to Russia via Switzerland, Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) spokeswoman, Anne Rizzoli told Izvestia.

She did not specify the companies "for security reasons."

The European Milk Board (EMB), a body that brings together different national associations of dairy product manufacturers, confirmed it was looking at transit countries.
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Calendar

Doctors without Borders: Ebola spreading faster, out of control for next 6 months


RT
Sat, 16 Aug 2014 10:54 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Luc GnagoA woman stands at a pharmacy next to a poster displaying a government message against Ebola, at a maternity hospital in Abidjan August 14, 2014.
The spread of Ebola is outrunning efforts to stop it, according to international aid group Doctors Without Borders, which estimates it might take six months to get the situation under control.

The chief of the French-founded group, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Joanne Liu, spent 10 days in the disease-hit regions of West Africa, before voicing her conclusions at a Friday press conference in Geneva.

"[Ebola] is deteriorating faster, and moving faster, than we can respond to," she told reporters.

The deadliest ever outbreak of Ebola has already claimed 1,145 lives, according to official figures, which could in fact "vastly underestimate" the real magnitude of the disaster, the World Health Organization warned a day earlier.
#Ebola: international response to #Ebolaoutbreak dangerously inadequate http://t.co/4Qqd9FaccZ
- MSF UK (@MSF_uk) August 15, 2014
"It is like wartime," Liu said. "It's moving, and advancing, but we have no clue how it's going. Like in wartime, we have a total collapse of infrastructure."

She gave as an example a 40-bed treatment center in Liberia, where 137 people are being cared for. Overcrowded facilities there are "absolutely dangerous," Liu said.
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Red Flag

Wedding between Arab man and Jewish women in Tel Aviv incites media frenzy and picketing from far-right group Lehava


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:56 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Ammar AwadGroom Mahmoud Mansour, 26, (C) and his bride Maral Malka, 23, celebrate with friends and family before their wedding in Mahmoud's family house in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv August 17, 2014.
Several dozen Israeli police formed human chains to keep 200 screaming far-right Israelis at bay as they picketed the wedding of a Jewish woman and a Muslim man in this latest sign of escalating fallout from the Gaza situation.

"Death to the Arabs," they shouted, as several dozen officers, including Israel's elite units, prevented them from storming the wedding hall in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. No one was injured, but four protesters were arrested. They violated a court order not to approach the wedding hall by closer than 200 meters, the Times of Israel reports.

Among those gathered outside were also supporters of the couple, but the atmosphere was tense, as police thoroughly checked more than 600 guests.

The mere possibility of this wedding had local media in frenzy in the current climate of anti-assimilation activism. Plans to picket the occasion were announced by the ultra-conservative Lehava group in advance.

The Hebrew initials in the group's name stand for 'Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land'. It had published the couple's wedding invitation on its Facebook page, encouraging people to come with banners and bullhorns to protest.

The couple, Maral Malka, 23 and Mahmoud Mansour, 26, had unsuccessfully sought protection from the state by trying to ban the protest, but according to their lawyer, could only secure police protection. They had been receiving death threats in the run-up to the wedding.
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Newspaper

U.S. District Court Judge OKs retaliation suit by ex-police chief demoted after reporting cop's sex abuse photos

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
Male Judge
© Shutterstock
A former police chief who reported another officer for photographing the sexual abuse an unconscious woman has a case for retaliation, a federal judge ruled.

Chief Jeff Tayoun of Pittstown, Pennsylvania, police found 46 photos taken by Officer Robert Semyon on a department computer in October 2009 that showed a passed-out nude woman, reported Courthouse News.

In four of the images, the unconscious woman's anus and vagina were penetrated.

Tayoun immediately asked then-Mayor Donna Connors to suspend the officer, and the police chief met with City Council members and had the computer analyzed by the State Police Crime Lab.

The Pennsylvania attorney general's office opened a criminal investigation, and Samyon ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent assault and other charges.

He was sentenced to a year in prison.
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Health

Despite serious heart condition, Julian Assange denies he will be leaving Ecuadorian embassy in London


RT
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:41 UTC
Image
© Polly Boiko, RT
Julian Assange's lawyer Kristinn Hrafnsson has denied widespread rumors that the Wikileaks creator is planning to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for the past two years, despite a serious heart condition.

The initial information was circulated by Sky News, which suggested the fugitive leaker was to spell out his next move following a public exit, while being in dire need of hospital treatment for a number of medical reasons.

Hrafnsson has told RT that it's no secret Assange would love a chance to see the outside world again, but strongly denied Sky's reports, saying that despite his wishes, the leaker has not made plans for an official announcement of a departure from the embassy in the immediate future.

RT's Polly Boiko spoke to a Wikileaks spokesperson, who also denied the rumors as entirely false, although much commotion could be seen happening around the embassy earlier.
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño enters the embassy. Says nothing. #assange @lbc

- Tom Swarbrick (@TomsonSwarb) 18 августа 2014
Police are stationed around the clock at the London compound, ready to arrest the Wikileaks founder if he sets foot outside.
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Dollar

£20,000 cash is withdrawn from accounts of passengers who went down with flight MH370

Mia De Graff
Dailymail.co.uk
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:23 UTC
Image
  • Bank detected mysterious transactions 5 months after flight disappeared
  • Money moved from accounts of 3 passengers into 4th passenger's accounts
  • Police have launched investigation into the claims
  • Team is preparing deep-water search at a spot in 60,000 sq km search area
More than £20,000 has been stolen from four passengers aboard the doomed MH370 flight.

Five months after the Malaysia Airlines flight went missing, mysterious withdrawals totaling 111,000 RM (£20,916) have been recorded, reports claim. A bank in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, reported the apparent discrepancies in their accounts on July 18, before lodging a police complaint, Assistant Commissioner to the crime investigation department Izany Abdul Ghany revealed.

£20,916 cash has been reported missing from the accounts of four MH370 passengers. It comes as the search team prepares to conduct a deep-water search across 60,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean. According to reports, the transactions were made on July 18 when money from the accounts of three passengers was transferred to the account of a fourth passenger before it was removed. 'We are investigating the case as unauthorised access with intent to commit an offence,' Izany said, according to the Mirror. 'We are getting CCTV footage from the bank to identify the suspects involved.'

A source told the New Straits Times: 'We believe the suspect withdrew the money through the fourth victim's account via several automated teller machines (ATMs) in the Klang Valley.'
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Pistol

US gone mad: Maryland man dies in police shootout after stabbing, shooting 3-year-old daughter

John Clarke
Raw Story
Sun, 17 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
US police
© Unknown
A Maryland man shot and stabbed his 3-year-old daughter to death before dying himself in a gunfight with police, authorities in Prince George's County near Washington, D.C., said on Sunday.

Frederick Roy Miller, 38, allegedly shot and wounded the girl's maternal grandfather and great-grandmother on Saturday while attempting to kidnap his daughter.

Police responded and spotted Miller grabbing his daughter and getting into his Nissan Altima, according to police. Officers chased Miller in his car, and he stopped several times to exchange gunfire with police.

Five Prince George's county police officers and one Maryland state trooper fired shots at Miller, who was killed at the scene.
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Stormtrooper

US Marine prosecuted for urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban soldiers found dead


RT.com
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:43 UTC
US Marines urinating
© (Reuters / YouTube)A still image taken January 11, 2012 from an undated YouTube video shows what is believed to be U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan.
A Marine who was prosecuted for a 2011 video that depicted he and other Marines urinating on corpses of Taliban members was found dead on Wednesday. His death did not appear to be a suicide, his lawyer told Marine Corps Times.

Retired Cpl. Robert Richards, 28, died at his home in Jacksonville, North Carolina, according to Guy Womack, Richards' attorney. Richards was deployed to Afghanistan three times. He was badly wounded in one of those tours, as an improvised explosive device injured his legs and throat.

In July 2011, Richards and members of his scout sniper platoon team filmed themselves urinating on the dead bodies of who they believed to be Taliban members responsible for the gruesome death of a fellow Marine. In 2012, the video was anonymously posted on YouTube, leading to outrage across the globe.

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