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Elephant slaughter continues in Democratic Republic of Congo

Elephant Slaughter
© Stringer/AFPUgandan soldiers patrol through the central African jungle during an operation to fish out notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony.
Rabat - One of Africa's oldest national parks is under attack "from all fronts," said its director on Friday after 68 elephants were slaughtered over the past two months by poachers wielding chain saws and grenades and shooting them from helicopters.

Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo is under constant assault by renegade Congolese soldiers, gunmen from South Sudan and others. And this is just a slice of the carnage: international wildlife regulators say 20 000 elephants were killed just in Africa in 2013.

The Johannesburg-based African Parks group, which manages the park, said that since mid-May, the 5000km² Garamba National Park in Congo, which was established in 1938, has faced an onslaught from several bands of poachers who have already killed 4% of its elephant population.

"The situation is extremely serious," Garamba park manger Jean-Marc Froment said in the statement. "The park is under attack on all fronts." A 2012 census found just 2 000 elephants in Garamba Park, down from 20 000 in the 1960s.

One group is shooting the elephants with rifles from a helicopter and then taking off their tusks with a chain saw. They are removing the elephants' brains and genitals as well.

Conservationists say a thriving ivory market in Asia is helping fuel the worst poaching epidemic of African elephants in decades.

In some cases the attacks in Garamba seem to be indiscriminate, killing baby elephants that do not yet possess the valuable ivory tusks.

African Parks, which runs seven parks in six countries in cooperation with local authorities, said the poachers include renegade elements of the Congolese army, gunmen from South Sudan, and members of the Lord's Resistance Army, a militant rebel group whose fugitive leader Joseph Kony is an alleged war criminal.

In one skirmish with poachers, park guards had to try to protect themselves from hand grenades thrown by Southern Sudanese poachers, some wearing military uniforms.

Attention

Iraq crisis: Executions and rape reported as Islamist ISIS militants close in on Baghdad

iraq refugees
Islamist militants are closing in on Baghdad after capturing two towns north of Iraq's capital.

Officials said Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts with no resistance when fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) pushed into Diyala province.

Militants driving machine gun-mounted pickups entered the towns of Jalula and Sadiyah on Thursday night, police said. Jalula is 80 miles from Baghdad and Sadiyah is 60 miles away.

Sunni fundamentalist fighters have vowed to capture Baghdad and Shia holy cities further south after overrunning Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and driving the army out of northern provinces.

The UN said hundreds have been killed - with militants carrying out summary executions of civilians in Mosul, including 17 civilians in one street.

A dozen Iraqi security personnel were also killed and four women committed suicide after being raped.

UNAMI, the UN's mission to Iraq, estimates that almost 1,000 people may have been injured in recent days and half a million residents have fled Mosul.

Snowflake Cold

Progressive professor's fellowship 'terminated' after WSJ OpEd calling global warming 'unproved science': the climate police still have clout

Climate Depot Exclusive

IPPC logo
Dr. Caleb Rossiter was "terminated" via email as an "Associate Fellow" from the progressive group Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), following his May 4th, 2014 Wall Street Journal OpEd titled "Sacrificing Africa for Climate Change," in which he called man-made global warming an "unproved science." Rossiter also championed the expansion of carbon based energy in Africa. Dr. Rossiter is an adjunct professor at American University. Rossiter, who has taught courses in climate statistics, holds a PhD in policy analysis and a masters degree in mathematics.

In an exclusive interview with Climate Depot, Dr. Rossiter explained: "If people ever say that fears of censorship for 'climate change' views are overblown, have them take a look at this: Just two days after I published a piece in the Wall Street Journal calling for Africa to be allowed the 'all of the above' energy strategy we have in the U.S., the Institute for Policy Studies terminated my 23-year relationship with them...because my analysis and theirs 'diverge.'"

"I have tried to get [IPS] to discuss and explain their rejection of my analysis,' Rossiter told Climate Depot. "When I countered a claim of 'rapidly accelerating' temperature change with the [UN] IPCC's own data', showing the nearly 20-year temperature pause - the best response I ever got was 'Caleb, I don't have time for this.'"

[Climate Depot Note: Intimidation of skeptical scientists has been well documented.Climate scientist Dr. Lennart Bengtsson - who converted from warmist to skeptic - resigns from skeptical group after 'enormous group pressure' from warmists - Now 'worried about my health and safety' - 'Colleagues are withdrawing from joint authorship'

Many politically left of center scientists are also converting to skeptics: Scientist Dr. Daniel Botkin Tells Congress why he reversed his belief in global warming to become a skeptic: 'There are several lines of evidence suggesting that it (AGW) is a weaker case today, not a stronger case'

Flashback: Left-wing Env. Scientist Bails Out Of Global Warming Movement: Declares it a 'corrupt social phenomenon...strictly an imaginary problem of the 1st World middleclass'] 
Climate Depot has obtained a copy of a May 7, 2014 email that John Cavanagh, the director of IPS since 1998, sent to Rossiter with the subject "Ending IPS Associate Fellowship."

"Dear Caleb, We would like to inform you that we are terminating your position as an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies," Cavanagh wrote in the opening sentence of the email.

"Unfortunately, we now feel that your views on key issues, including climate science, climate justice, and many aspects of U.S. policy to Africa, diverge so significantly from ours that a productive working relationship is untenable. The other project directors of IPS feel the same," Cavanagh explained.

"We thank you for that work and wish you the best in your future endeavors," Cavanagh and his IPS associate Emira Woods added. [Full text of IPS email is reproduced further below.]

Alarm Clock

12 Devastating testimonials from Americans who did everything "right" and still fell into economic ruin

Their struggles are not far removed from those of millions of Americans.

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What does it feel like to be sliding down the economic ladder in America and falling through non-existent safety nets? Beyond the recent headlines suggesting that the worst of America is now being displayed in an explosion of gun violence, there's a quieter, widespread and equally stark epidemic of downwardly spiraling lives in America.

That epidemic is the slow-motion descent into shame, despair, depression, financial ruin, assaults by predatory lenders, fruitless job retraining and homelessness caused by long-term joblessness. The House Republicans' refusal to extend unemployment benefits has pushed legions of desperate people even closer to the edge - or over it, into the streets.

Comment: Unfortunately it seems this will become a reality for more and more people as they are forced to realize that the American Dream was just that - a dream. A couple of people in the article seem to think that being Republican can somehow save them from poverty. What will it take for people to let go of their various ideologies that keep us fighting each other and see that the issue isn't Republican vs Democrat, white vs black, gay vs straight, women vs men, middle class vs the poor, America vs the rest of the world, but rather psychopaths (especially those in power) vs human beings?

Poverty has always been a reality for some people and, too often, those people have found themselves demonized by the more fortunate who have managed to avoid it, but now, as things get progressively worse and pathologicals tighten their grip, many in the upper and middle classes are being schooled in the uncomfortable and inconvenient truth that many in the US and around the world have known for centuries: that most governments are corrupt and anyone can suddenly find themselves on the bottom rung at any time.

For more insight on how the American Dream has been a nightmare for many, see these Sott links:

The facade of the American dream

The American Dream: How the Banksters captured and subverted the United States

American Eulogy


Airplane Paper

Ukrainian Su-24 fighter jet shot down in Donetsk region by local militia

The self-defense forces of Gorlovka, Donetsk region, have reported that the Ukrainian Su-24 plane that bombed the building of a local police station at 4:30 a.m. Kiev time has been shot down.

SU-24 military aircraft
© RIA Novosti/Igor ZaremboSU-24 military aircraft
"We have managed to shoot down a Su-24 plane. The pilot ejected. He is now being questioned in the self-defense forces' headquarters," the Gorlovka self-defense forces' representative told Interfax. He also added that the Ukrainian army had bombed the city of Druzhkovka last night.

According to earlier reports, one person was killed and six were wounded in an air strike by the Ukrainian Air Force in the city of Gorlovka. "One person was killed and six were wounded in an air strike by the Ukrainian Air Force in Gorlovka. The police station and the nearby residential buildings were badly damaged," the report says.

Family

The real cost of pathocractic austerity measures: Recession 'led to 10,000 suicides'

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People queuing for jobs in the US as youth unemployment soared
The economic crisis in Europe and North America led to more than 10,000 extra suicides, according to figures from UK researchers.

A study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, showed "suicides have risen markedly".

The research group said some deaths may have been avoidable as some countries showed no increase in suicide rate.

Campaign groups said the findings showed how important good mental health services were.

The study by the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine analysed data from 24 EU countries, the US and Canada.

Cowboy Hat

49 Ukrainian troops killed as transport plane shot down in Lugansk

Ukrainian transport plane shot down
© YoutubeA fire that allegedly started at the crash site of the downed Ukrainian military transport.
Forty-nine Ukrainian troops were killed when their military Il-76 transport jet was taken down by local militia forces just before landing at Lugansk Airport. Some military hardware and supplies were lost as well.

The death toll was confirmed by the Ukrainian General Prosecutor's office on Saturday morning in a statement, which said nine crew members and 40 troops were killed.

Earlier the Defense Ministry said the troops were being transported to the Lugansk Airport for rotation along with military equipment and supplies.


Eye 1

Brazilian police fire tear gas at World Cup protesters as journalist 'injured' amid rubber bullets and stun grenades

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© Nelson Antoine/APA protester is detained by police during the demonstration in Sao Paulo
Within 10 minutes of the demonstration, officers had reportedly fired tear gas and sound bombs, and arrested one, according to local press.

Local people angry at the amount of public money being spent on the tournament have begun to carry out their threat of taking to the streets around the stadium where the opening ceremony will take place ahead of the first match.

The protest started in the east of São Paulo, which will host the opening ceremony of the World Cup from around 3pm local time (9pm UK time).

Comment: Again, we see that psychopathic leaders continue with their agendas with no consideration for civilians. It is clear that the majority of the Brazilian people are against the World Cup being held in Brazil, on which the government is wasting billions of money that could have been used to improve life in Brazil, not to mention offering help to the children living there: as of right now, poor Brazilian children are being forced into prostitution to meet the demand of fans of the World Cup. It is sad to see that protests are met with violence from the police force. There is nobody to listen, and the government ministers have the nerve to say that they will be hoping for a win in the match "to bring a feel-good factor to the country''?!


Bizarro Earth

Jealous lover eats rival's heart with a knife and fork in South Africa

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A jealous lover in South Africa stabbed a rival, cut out his heart and ate it with a knife and fork, police and media reported Thursday.

Police were called to the gruesome scene at a house in Cape Town's Gugulethu township by frantic neighbours, spokesman Frederick van Wyk told the Cape Times.

"On the scene they found a suspect, a Zimbabwean national, busy eating the heart of a human with a knife and fork," he said.

The woman at the centre of the love triangle told police that her former lover had visited the house where she was living with her current partner and they had chatted together before he gave her money to buy liquor and she left.

When she returned she found her partner, 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona, had been stabbed, Van Wyk said.

Neighbours alerted by the commotion said they had peered through the house windows to see the man cutting out Manona's heart and eating it.

Comment: This is happening more and more often, and there are probably several explanations. For more info see:
Cannibals rising - Zombie Apocalypse 2012
Is Solar and Cosmic Radiation Playing Havoc With Life on Planet Earth?
Zombie Nation: 70 MILLION Americans are on mind-altering drugs


Heart - Black

Rise of debtor's prisons: Truancy ticketing enriches schools by targeting those already impoverished

Eileen DiNino
Eileen DiNino
There's no doubt that Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of the most iconic films from the 1980s. Ferris skips school, goes to a Cubs game, drives a Ferrari, gets the gorgeous girl, and outwits Principal Rooney. But would we have been laughing if Ferris' mother had been thrown in jail because of her son's truancy and ended up dying there?

That's exactly what happened to 55-year-old Pennsylvania mom Eileen DiNino. The unemployed mother of seven didn't have the wealth of the fictional Bueller family, so she was unable to pony up $2,000 for truancy fines that her kids racked up for missing school. Although the federal government outlawed debtor's prisons in the 1830s, last Friday DiNino, who lived in Berks County, an hour northwest of Philadelphia, was tossed in a jail cell to serve out a two-day sentence. A cause of death is still to be determined, but law enforcement officials didn't give DiNino the high blood pressure medication she needed. She was found dead in her cell on Saturday, reported The Associated Press.

While the trend of jailing impoverished people is chilling enough, what's also concerning is that being locked up for truancy fines is more common than most Americans realize. In Berks County alone, over 1,600 parents and guardians have been locked up since 2000 due to nonpayment of truancy fines, and two-thirds of those incarcerated are women. Like DiNino, the majority come from low income backgrounds and have no Bueller-style cash, savings, or credit card to offer up as payment.

Comment: Related:
Ponerized judge: Woman sentenced to prison for son's school absence dies in jail cell