Society's Child

Woman beheaded in Afghanistan for shopping 'without husband'

RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:45 UTC

A 30-year-old woman has been beheaded in a remote Afghan village for visiting a local market alone, without her husband, local media report citing officials. The people behind the beheading may have links to the Taliban.

The incident took place in a village of Latti, Sar-e Pol Province, in northern Afghanistan on Monday evening, TOLO news reported, citing the provincial governor's spokesman Zabiullah Amani.

According to Amani, the woman was beheaded because she went to the market to do some shopping alone. The victim's spouse is currently in Iran and the couple has no children, he added.

The incident was also confirmed by Sar-e-Pul women's affairs head Nasima Arezo.

"The woman was beheaded with a bayonet attached to an AK-47 after an argument with the Taliban in her remote village, which is part of the provincial capital," Arezo said, as cited in the media.

Comment: Afghan woman beheaded after refusing prostitution

U.S. Federal court rules dogs can be shot if they bark, move when officer enters home

Brian Lisi
New York Daily News
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:16 UTC

Three Michigan police officers, who shot two dogs for lunging and barking at them during a drug raid, were once again justified in their actions — this time by a federal appeals court. Mark and Cheryl Brown of Battle Creek, Mich., filed suits over unreasonable seizure of their property and a violation of their constitutional rights for the deaths of their pets.

According to the Battle Creek Enquirer, officers shot and killed the Browns' pit bull terriers during an April 2013 operation, with Emergency Response Team members claiming one lunged at them and that the other barked as they executed a search warrant for drugs.

"The standard we set out today is that a police officer's use of deadly force against a dog while executing a search warrant to search a home for illegal drug activity is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment when ... the dog poses an imminent threat to the officer's safety," wrote Judge Eric Clay in the decision that saw the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati side with the U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids' dismissal.

President of Japan's top ad firm to resign over employee's suicide linked to overwork

Justin McCurry
The Guardian
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:02 UTC

The head of Japan's biggest advertising agency is to resign, as prosecutors launch an investigation into his firm for enforcing excessive overtime after an overworked employee took her own life.

Tadashi Ishii, the president of Dentsu, said he would step down next month, just over a year after Matsuri Takahashi killed herself at a company dormitory in a case Japanese authorities classified as karoshi, or death from overwork.

"Excessive amounts of work is something that should never be allowed to happen," Ishii told reporters. "I deeply regret and feel responsible for this. I will take full responsibility and resign as president at January's board meeting."

Ishii said he regretted his failure to tackle the company work practices that led to Takahashi's death, eight months after joining Dentsu in April 2015. "We deeply regret failing to prevent the overwork of our new recruit. I offer my sincere apologies," he said.

Takahashi, 24, had worked more than 100 hours of overtime a month leading up to her death. In September, a labour standards inspection office in Tokyo said she had been driven to kill herself due to stress brought on by long working hours.

Nearly 450 drug charges overturned in Philadelpia after crooked cops were caught framing innocent people

John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC

drug money laundering, police corruption

Leroy Gonzalez says that he spent over two years in jail after he was framed by crooked cops and wrongfully convicted of a drug charge. While Gonzalez sat in jail, the officers that arrested him continued their spree of corruption until it eventually caught up with them, resulting in a corruption investigation.

Unsurprisingly, after being investigated by their own agency, the officers were acquitted and allowed to return to their jobs in July of 2015. However, their luck ran out when one of the officers in question, Officer Jeffrey Walker ended up getting caught in a drug-related robbery. In court, Walker quickly turned on his partners, and admitted that officers Thomas Liciardello, Michael Spicer and Perry Betts regularly planted evidence and framed innocent people.

When Gonzalez learned that the officers who framed him were under suspicion of corruption, he filed his own lawsuit in relation to his two years spent behind bars.

Flashpoint: At least 4 soldiers killed in Armenia-Azerbaijan fighting

RFE/RL
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 17:48 UTC

Officials say at least four soldiers were killed and several others wounded in a border clash between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces early on December 29.

Armenia's Defense Ministry said three of its servicemen were killed and several wounded in a shoot-out prompted by what it described as an infiltration attempt by Azerbaijani troops at the northeastern section of the border between the two South Caucasus countries.

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said one of its troops was killed in fighting.

Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovannisian wrote on Facebook that sniper rifles and grenade launchers were used in fighting near the Armenian village of Chinari.

Comment: Further reading:

China: Terror attack on Communist Party office in Xinjiang kills 1

Reuters
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 17:40 UTC

Attackers drove a car into a government building in China's restive far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday and set off explosives, killing one person while all four of the assailants were shot dead, the regional government said.

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years in resource-rich Xinjiang, on the borders of central Asia, in violence between the Muslim Uighur people who call the region home and Han Chinese who are China's ethnic majority.

The government has blamed the unrest on Islamist militants, though rights groups and exiles say anger at Chinese controls on the religion and culture of Uighurs is more to blame for the unrest. China denies any repression in Xinjiang.

The Xinjiang government said in a short statement on its main news website that the incident occurred just before 5pm in Karakax county, deep in southern Xinjiang's Uighur heartland.

Comment: Katehon adds:

The Uighur factor

The Uighur factor is one of the strongest centers of destabilization in China. Beijing is working hard to assimilate Muslim Uighurs. For example, some time ago, the resettlement of the Uighurs in different regions and provinces of the country was carried out. But it has brought only partial results, because it is beneficial to destabilize by certain forces outside China that support and fund terrorist groups, and who advocates for the creation of Turkestan.

The failure of the Hong Kong project

In recent years, anti-Chinese activity has been significantly enhanced. The situation in Hong Kong was quite serious after the scandals with the opposition. However, it was transferred to the Chinese intelligence agencies in a fairly quiet channel, after which the activation of Taiwan started. Nevertheless, without outside support Taiwan is not a serious destabilizing factor. Perhaps that is why the Uighurs were involved in the current situation.

Facebook confesses it has given British government personal details of thousands of users

RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 11:20 UTC

Social media giant Facebook has confessed to giving the personal details of thousands of its users to the British government this year.

Facebook says that officials requested access to 7,199 profiles between January and June of 2016 - a 30 percent increase on last year.

The social media giant says it was asked to provide data from 6,039 accounts related to criminal proceedings, and another 1,160 were requested under an emergency clause that mandates the release of data in cases when there is an "imminent risk of serious injury or death."

Facebook admitted that it handed over data in 87 percent of cases, but says it turned down hundreds of requests from UK officials for being"overly broad or vague."

Comment: How Facebook gives the US government access to your private data

Police bust drug smuggling ring in Australia, seize $260mn worth of cocaine

RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:57 UTC

© Handout via Reuters / Reuters
Officers with some of the seized shipment of around 1.1 tonnes of cocaine by the AFP, which they say has an estimated street value of around A$360 million (US$300 million). Australian Federal Police

Australian police have cracked a trafficking ring, arresting 15 people in Christmas sting operations during which they seized some 500kg of cocaine, in addition to some 600kgs confiscated earlier, making it the largest drug seizure in Australian history.

The Australian police, assisted by a multitude of Australian agencies, carried out a large-scale operation preceded by two and a half years of thorough investigation jointly conducted by the New South Wales [NSW] Police and Australian Federal Police. Within the course of the investigation in March 2016, the French Navy discovered and seized some 606 kilograms of cocaine worth A$197 million (US $142 million) bound to Australia off the coast of Tahiti, the Daily Telegraph reported. The gang members allegedly used fishing boats to import cocaine from South America.

NYPD changes rule allowing officers to wear turbans while on duty

Sputnik
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:59 UTC

The New York Police Department has revised its rules on uniform to allow Sikh officers to wear a turban in place of a cap, in a bid to accommodate religious beliefs, local media reported Thursday.

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill announced the policy change on Wednesday, flanked by officers in full turbans held together by police clasps, the CNN television channel reported.

"It's a major change in our uniform policy," O'Neill admitted. "Now I have the opportunity to make the change, and I thought it was about time that we did that."

Until now, officers from the Sikh religious minority were allowed to wear a smaller kind of turban under their regular caps. They will also be able to grow an inch-long beard, although this will require a special permit.

Mafia boss requiem mass in Italy scrapped

RT
Thu, 29 Dec 2016 16:47 UTC

A holy mass in memory of a suspected Mafia boss was canceled in southern Italy after a public outcry. The priest who had been arranging the ceremony says he's planning to appeal the decision to Pope Francis on the basis that "sinners deserve God's mercy."

Rocco Sollecito, 67, was shot dead north of Montreal, Canada, in May 2016. He was suspected of being a close associate and right-hand man of Vito Rizzuto, an alleged leading boss of the Rizzuto crime family in Canada. The Rizzutos are related to the Ndrangheta of Calabria, one of five main known mafia-style organizations in Italy which has groups abroad.

Seriously, lets break down these words, and I am fully equipped for this task that I give to myself NOW. gives OSHA the authority to act quickly...

Buffalo_Ken

Forensic pathologists performed a postmortem and concluded that the man had probably died mid-flight Let me see ... he walked onto the plane,...

HashAttack2

This ain't no fucking real emergency. It is an effing emergency in the mind of a few....who thought they were gonna put the rest of us into...

Buffalo_Ken

The administration defended OSHA's legal right to issue these requirements, saying that the Occupational Safety and Health Act "gives OSHA the...

HashAttack2

Thanks, SOTT. Good read.

ReRan

Society's Child

Woman beheaded in Afghanistan for shopping 'without husband'

U.S. Federal court rules dogs can be shot if they bark, move when officer enters home

President of Japan's top ad firm to resign over employee's suicide linked to overwork

Nearly 450 drug charges overturned in Philadelpia after crooked cops were caught framing innocent people

Flashpoint: At least 4 soldiers killed in Armenia-Azerbaijan fighting

China: Terror attack on Communist Party office in Xinjiang kills 1

Facebook confesses it has given British government personal details of thousands of users

Police bust drug smuggling ring in Australia, seize $260mn worth of cocaine

NYPD changes rule allowing officers to wear turbans while on duty

Mafia boss requiem mass in Italy scrapped

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