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A million children in Africa suffering severe acute malnutrition after years of drought linked to El Niño


RT
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 12:03 UTC
african children famine
© Mike Hutchings / Reuters
Up to 1 million children across eastern and southern Africa are being exposed to "severe acute malnutrition" after two years of rain and drought, aggravated by the strongest El Niño in 50 years, UNICEF said. El Niño can also affect the spread of Zika virus.

"The El Niño weather phenomenon will wane, but the cost to children - many who were already living hand-to-mouth - will be felt for years to come," UNICEF Regional Director Leila Gharagozloo-Pakkala said in a press-release.

"Governments are responding with available resources, but this is an unprecedented situation. Children's survival is dependent on action taken today," she added.

"El Niño will have a devastating effect on southern Africa's harvests and food security in 2016. The current rainfall season has so far been the driest in the last 35 year," the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network said in a joint statement.

Comment: The genetically modified crops that were forced on African nations and which were supposed to withstand drought and increase yields, have obviously done nothing of the sort.

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Info

Pope Francis loses temper after crowd pulls him onto man in wheelchair


RT
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 18:11 UTC
Angry Pope
Pope Francis has proven he is "only human" after losing his cool with some eager worshippers in Mexico, who pushed him on to a man in a wheelchair.

The pontiff was visiting a stadium in the western city of Morelia as part of his six-day trip to Mexico when people in the crowd tugged at the pope, pulling him closer and ultimately onto a man in a wheelchair.

Even after the pope fell on the disabled man's head the crowd persisted tugging, causing him to lose his cool. Francis tells the crowd in Spanish: "Don't be selfish, don't be selfish."
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Stormtrooper

Federal monitor says NYPD cops still conducting unjustified stop and frisk


RT
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:15 UTC
New York Police Department’s stop, question and frisk program
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
A federal monitor overseeing changes to the New York Police Department's stop, question and frisk program said that out of 600 stops analyzed over the course of three months in 2015, nearly a quarter could be viewed as unconstitutional.

The findings come in a 72-page report released on Tuesday. It is the second progress report issued by court-appointed federal monitor Peter Zimroth.

"In almost every case in which [the NYPD's] Quality Assurance Division found insufficient basis for the stop, frisk or search, the supervisor in that command nonetheless had signed off on the report and noted there was sufficient basis for the stop, frisk or search," stated the report, which was conducted by the monitor.

Comment: While the numbers of NYPD stop, question and frisk program has dropped way down. One in four stops is still viewed as unconstitutional. Plus the daily reports of criminal police abuse that never get prosecuted. No wonder the public confidence in law enforcement is at an all time low.

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Chart Bar

Stating the obvious: 94% of British Muslim professionals reject ISIS


RT
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 17:38 UTC
muslims
© Paul Hackett / Reuters
Nearly all British Muslims with a professional background agree that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) does not represent mainstream Muslim views and is not a "legitimate Islamic State," a new landmark report has found.

The report, released by Islamic forum 5Pillars on Wednesday, found that more than 90 percent of high-profile British Muslims agreed that killing civilians is unlawful, and that Islam promotes "compassion and justice for all people regardless of religion, social status, race or any other context."

The aim of the report was to establish the tenets of normative Islam, as agreed by a number of professional and influential Muslims, including Imams, scholars, doctors, lawyers, journalists and bloggers.

Results from the survey, carried out by Peter Pickersgill on behalf of 5Pillars, showed there was a high level of agreement between British Muslims on the basic principles of Islam and the way it should be followed.

Comment: Readers of Political Ponerology would've been able to guess these results. Only around 6% of any given population (on average) supports a psychopathic ideology like that of ISIS. Ironically, the existence of ISIS has forced Muslims to polarize so that the vast majority of psychopaths are making their humanity clear. Tragically, non-Muslim populations are buying the propaganda and increasingly seeing all (or the majority of) Muslims as evil terrorists. Things can only go downhill from there.

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Bomb

Breaking news: Car bomb explodes near parliament and mil dorm in Ankara


RT
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:20 UTC
ankara
© Twitter
At least 5 people have been killed and 10 more injured in a car explosion in Ankara, local authorities said. The blast happened in close proximity to the Turkish parliament building, reportedly hitting a military dormitory.

Social media users in Ankara say they heard a loud noise all across the city, and posted photos of a huge plume of smoke rising over downtown Eskisehir Avenue.

Omer Celik, a spokesperson for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on his Twitter account that the explosion was the result of a "cowardly terrorist attack."

CNN Türk said that military lodging facilities were targeted and there were a large number of casualties.

Twenty ambulances were sent to the scene of the blast, media reported, citing medical officials.

Witnesses reported helicopters circling the area above the blast.

Comment: Who benefits? Turkey is making enemies left, right and center: Turkish and Syrian Kurds, Turkish-backed terrorists in Syria (who likely would appreciate a little more job security than they have at present), not to mention those who support the Syrian/Russian campaign in Syria, which Turkey is doing everything they can to subvert. Then again, the Turkish regime itself can benefit by claiming an attack by any of these enemies. We'll have more details on this latest attack as they come.

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Eye 2

Sick: Richard Dawkins defends pedophilia, saying it doesn't cause lasting harm

Katie McDonough
Salon
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 13:56 UTC
Richard Dawkins
© Reuters/Andrew Winning
Richard Dawkins
In a recent interview with the Times magazine, Richard Dawkins attempted to defend what he called "mild pedophilia," which, he says, he personally experienced as a young child and does not believe causes "lasting harm."

Dawkins went on to say that one of his former school masters "pulled me on his knee and put his hand inside my shorts," and that to condemn this "mild touching up" as sexual abuse today would somehow be unfair.

"I am very conscious that you can't condemn people of an earlier era by the standards of ours. Just as we don't look back at the 18th and 19th centuries and condemn people for racism in the same way as we would condemn a modern person for racism, I look back a few decades to my childhood and see things like caning, like mild pedophilia, and can't find it in me to condemn it by the same standards as I or anyone would today," he said.
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Red Flag

Arabic flag proclaiming 'love for all' causes hysterics in Lubbock, Texas; FBI, DHS notified


RT
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 16:14 UTC
homeland security police
© Mike Blake / Reuters
A black flag with a red heart and "love for all" in Arabic text was first seen hanging from an abandoned government building the morning after Valentine's Day in Lubbock, Texas. The city then stopped traffic, called the feds, and opened an investigation.

Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson had City Manager James Loomis and Police Chief Greg Stevens notify the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Sheriff's Office about the banner hanging, and the matter is now part of a local investigation into trespassing.

"It is premature to come to conclusions before we can gather more facts but I believe that we must take this situation seriously in light of current national and international events," Robertson said in a public release.
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Airplane

Two planes clip wings on the tarmac at Detroit airport


RT
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 16:07 UTC
detroit airport
© Wikipedia
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Air Control Tower.
An American Airlines plane and a Southwest Airlines jet collided while heading for deicing on a frigid Detroit morning.

At around 6am local time on Wednesday, the wing of an American Airlines Boeing 737 hit the tail of a Southwest Airlines jet at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Michigan. The American Airlines flight, bound for Dallas, was taxiing from the gate for takeoff, but struck a Southwest Airlines plane that was being deiced. The American flight had to return to the gate for inspection. No injuries were reported.

However, passengers were stuck on their planes for almost three hours, and were finally allowed to disembark at about 9am. Several passengers tweeted about the fiasco of being stranded on the tarmac.
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Quenelle

Nosy, busybody neighbors call cops on family watching the Walking Dead at high volume

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 15:52 UTC
walking dead
Sunday night, a family sat down to watch the mid-season premiere of the show "The Walking Dead," and nearly ended up getting raided by dozens of police officers because their neighbors thought that they heard something suspicious. What they actually heard was the nearby family listening to the show at a high volume, but the neighbors alleged that they heard screaming, and talks of someone "having a gun."

Without checking out the situation for themselves to see if anything truly suspicious was going on, the nosy neighbors instantly called the police, who showed up quickly and in large numbers.

Sgt. Brian McGraw told WFAA that, "We had a whole bunch of guys on that one."

As police began to surround the house, they looked through the window and noticed a family sitting peacefully in their living room and watching The Walking Dead.

Comment: Can society get any dumber?

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Heart - Black

Cops kill suicidal man as he lay crying in his bed

Piper McGowin
The Daily Sheeple
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:42 UTC
danger police sign
We've reported before on how calling the police for help these days in the modern American police state usually ends in less help and more death, pets included.

This time the woman was actually calling for an ambulance and not the cops, but since all first response tech is now integrated, the cops were sent anyway.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports:
Donna Spry called her husband's doctor, crying. Curly Spry was refusing to go to his appointment. He was suicidal, off his medication and had a gun, his wife said.

Call 911, the doctor's staff instructed her.

Comment: Do not call the cops for any reason. They are fully incapable of responding appropriately to the nuances of human suffering.

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