Society's ChildS


Che Guevara

Egypt: Mass March by Cairo Women in Protest Over Soldiers' Abuse

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© Asmaa Waguih/ReutersWomen protested against the military council violations against female demonstrators in Cairo, on Tuesday.
Thousands of women massed in Tahrir Square here on Tuesday afternoon and marched to a journalists' syndicate and back in a demonstration that grew by the minute into an extraordinary expression of anger at the treatment of women by the military police as they protested against continued military rule.

Many held posters of the most sensational image of violence over the last weekend: a group of soldiers pulling the abaya off a prone woman to reveal her blue bra as one raises a boot to kick her. The picture, circulated around the world, has become a rallying point for activists opposed to military rule, though cameras also captured soldiers pulling the clothes off other women.

The march, guarded by a cordon of male protesters, was a surprising turn. In Egypt, as in other countries swept by the revolts of the Arab Spring, women played important roles, raising hopes that broader social and political rights would emerge along with more accountable governments. But with the main popular focus on preparing for elections and protesting the military's continued hold on power, women here had grown less politically visible.

Airplane

US: 5 Killed in Small Plane Crash on New Jersey Highway


A small plane headed for Georgia crashed Tuesday on one of the New York City area's busiest highways, spiraling out of control, losing a wing, hitting the wooded median strip and exploding. Five people on board were killed.

There were no casualties on the ground from the crash on Interstate 287, State Police Lt. Stephen Jones said.

Wreckage was scattered over at least a half-mile-wide area, with a wing found lodged in a tree of a home about a quarter-mile away, near a highway entrance ramp.

Helicopter footage from CBS2 showed charred wreckage stretching across the median and the highway, a heavily used route that wraps around the northern and western edges of the New York City area. Both sides of the highway were shut down.

Handcuffs

30 Anti-Israel Youths Arrested in Turkey

Turkish police have arrested 30 youths after they began an anti-Israeli protest during a basketball match between Turkey and Israel in the central Turkish city of Kayseri.


Police entered the basketball stadium in Kayseri city on Monday after a crowd of Turkish spectators, waving Palestinian flags, began the protest.

As the protest continued, Israeli players left the playing ground.

"They have been accused of insulting Israel," the police said, referring to the Turkish protesters.

This is not the first time the Israeli players have been forced off the court. In 2009, Israeli players left the court when some 3000 Turkish fans disrupted a basketball game in the capital city of Ankara.

V

Occupy London Wins UBS Court Appeal, Fights St. Paul's Eviction

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© Graeme RobertsonThe Occupy London camp outside St Paul's cathedral
Occupy London protesters who took over a vacant UBS AG office building in the city's financial district won court permission to appeal their eviction after a judge ruled they weren't given proper notice of a trial.

The bank's notice to the protesters, in the form of a document posted on the building and a text message sent to a leader 45 minutes before a 10 p.m. hearing, was insufficient to give the group time to prepare or determine how to participate in the case, Court of Appeal Judge Timothy Lloyd ruled today.

There was "really no effective notice of the hearing at all -- especially in circumstances like this, where a hearing took place late at night," Lloyd said. "There is at least a compelling reason why permission to appeal should be granted."

The court victory against Zurich-based UBS comes as the protesters, who seek global economic-equality and claim the bank behaves unethically, are in a separate trial to avoid being evicted from their primary encampment outside St. Paul's Cathedral. More than 200 tents have clustered around the building since the middle of October, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protest that has since been broken up by police.

"This ruling is a vindication of the right of everyone in this country to due process," Naomi Colvin, a spokeswoman for Occupy London, said after the ruling. "These people labor under the misconception that they can throw money at a problem; it's emblematic of what the Occupy movement is trying to combat."

UBS's press office in London didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Arrow Up

US: Homeless In New York Highlighted In Aftermath Of Occupy Wall Street Zuccotti Eviction

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© Getty Images
When Occupy Wall Street protesters took over a park in Lower Manhattan this fall, they drew attention, perhaps inadvertently, to a problem playing out on the very lowest end of the economic spectrum: Homelessness.

Their cardboard signs demanded all sorts of political and economic reforms -- increased financial regulation, taxes on the rich -- but perhaps the starkest and most complicated indication of the economic problems they drew attention to was a scene unfolding in the park itself, where many people had come to avail themselves of shelter, food and clothing that they could not find or preferred not to seek elsewhere.

Reports spread that some homeless people gathering at the Zuccotti camp were causing problems, both for the protesters and for the surrounding area. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had to clear out the encampment over "safety concerns," such as reports of EMTs responding to homeless people with mental illness.

But some people saw these issues as indicative of a failure on Bloomberg's part to provide the city's homeless population with the resources it need.

Info

US: House Votes To Ease Airport Screening For Troops

TSA Scanners
© Nautral Society
This past summer I reported on how the TSA gave returning troops a difficult time as they arrived in Indiana. Granted, they were falling protocol, but it seemed a bit "over-the-top." It seems our representatives thought the same.

On Tuesday, 29 November, the House voted unanimously to allow military travelers on official duty to receive special preference in moving through airport security checks faster.

The bill would give the Homeland Security Department six months to devise a preference system for the Armed Forces. The legislation has now gone o the Senate. If the bill becomes law, the earliest beneficiaries would likely be troops returning from Afghanistan next year and would also apply to their family members.

Although it's a policy, not law, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) already makes some accommodations to Servicemembers in uniform with a proper identification card and also expedites screening for wounded troops. (Unless you happen to fly into Indiana.)

So, if you or your loved one is planning on an airport visit here in the next six months, the greeting may be a bit more welcoming!

Bizarro Earth

US: TSA Screenings Aren't Just for Airports Anymore

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© Brian Bennett/Los Angeles TimesA Transportation Security Administration behavior-detection officer patrols a train station in Charlotte, N.C.
Roving security teams increasingly visit train stations, subways and other mass transit sites to deter terrorism. Critics say it's largely political theater.

Rick Vetter was rushing to board the Amtrak train in Charlotte, N.C., on a recent Sunday afternoon when a canine officer suddenly blocked the way.

Three federal air marshals in bulletproof vests and two officers trained to spot suspicious behavior watched closely as Seiko, a German shepherd, nosed Vetter's trousers for chemical traces of a bomb. Radiation detectors carried by the marshals scanned the 57-year-old lawyer for concealed nuclear materials.

When Seiko indicated a scent, his handler, Julian Swaringen, asked Vetter whether he had pets at home in Garner, N.C. Two mutts, Vetter replied. "You can go ahead," Swaringen said.

The Transportation Security Administration isn't just in airports anymore. TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations around the country.

Comment: Apparently the TSA have gone beyond transit security checks and road checkpoints and are now bringing the Gestapo checkpoints to a Wal-Mart in the middle of nowhere in Illinois. We hope that you don't shop at Wal-Mart, but if you do.. don't be surprised if you see the TSA Gestapo there wanting to search you for bombs.


Stormtrooper

US: New Claims of Police Brutality in North Chicago


A videotape of an alleged incident of police brutality in North Chicago was played during a packed City Council meeting in the north suburb Monday night.

The video -- in which an officer is seen striking a man and sending his face into a wall -- was shown to aldermen by Ralph Peterson, a cousin of Darrin Hanna, who died last month after being arrested by North Chicago police. State police are investigating his death.

Aldermen confirm that the place where the officer was caught on camera hitting a man in custody is in fact the North Chicago Police Department's booking room. While ABC7 cannot independently confirm when the alleged incident happened or what led up to it, the videotape is fueling further mistrust of the North Chicago Police Department and its chief.

Handcuffs

US: Episcopal Clergy Arrested at Occupy Wall Street Protest

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© The Associated PressArrested: Packard was taken to a bus waiting by the demo in Duarte Park, near the city's SoHo neighbourhood
A retired Episcopal Church bishop and at least two other Episcopal priests were arrested on 17 December after they entered a fenced property owned by historic Trinity Episcopal Church in Lower Manhattan as part of an event to mark the three-month anniversary of the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street movement.

Livestream video showed George Packard, former Episcopal bishop for the armed forces and federal ministries, dressed in a purple robe and wearing a cross, climbing a ladder that protesters erected against the fence and dropping to the ground inside the property, called Duarte Park. Other protesters followed, including the Rev. John Merz and the Rev. Michael Sniffen, Episcopal priests in the Diocese of Long Island (New York), Episcopal News Service (ENS) reports.

Police entered the area and arrested at least 50 people. Merz reportedly was arrested with Packard. Sniffen later confirmed that he had been arrested. The clergy were later released.

V

US: Occupy Wall Street Fights Trinity Church For 'Occupation 2.0′

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© OccupyWallSt.orgA poster for Saturday's planned Occupy Wall Street rally.
After a series of evictions at their encampments around the country, Occupy Wall Street protesters want the next phase of their movement to begin in a vacant lot on Canal Street and Sixth Avenue that's owned by Trinity Church, but the church won't let them use the space. On Saturday, the demonstrators plan to mark the three month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street with a rally. According to a press release sent out by the Occupy Wall Street media team, Saturday's event is designed as "part of a call to re-occupy in the wake of the coordinated attacks and subsequent evictions of occupations" and an effort to "urge Trinity Church to do the right thing."

Occupy Wall Street has struggled to evolve since NYPD officers evicted the protesters from their original home in Zuccotti Park on November 15. Two days later, the occupiers protested the raid with a massive march across the Brooklyn Bridge, but since then, the movement has seemingly lost steam in New York as the number of large scale protest actions here dwindled and Occupy encampments in other cities were raided including Boston, Los Angeles and Portland.

Protesters have had their eyes on Trinity's lot ever since their eviction from Zuccotti Park. Occupiers asked Trinity to let them use the space the morning after the police raid and, earlier this month, attempted to convince the church to let them use the space with a hunger strike. Trinity Wall Street has allowed the protesters to use another space they own near Ground Zero for meeting space, wi fi and power outlets, but the church has opposed allowing the occupiers in the Canal Street lot. When the hunger strike began, Trinity Wall Street sent a statement to the Observer affirming their support for "the vigorous engagement of the issues which Occupy Wall Street has raised" and explaining their objections to letting protesters Occupy the lot.