Society's ChildS


Attention

Stephen Colbert Reports Norway's Butter Shortage

Davis MacMillan
Minyanville
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:14 UTC
Last night on the Colbert Report, Stephen reminded us that if you "pick up any object in the US, there's a good chance it's butter." Apparently, this is not true in Norway, where butter prices have climbed as high as $740 a box thanks to a severe shortage.

The butter shortfall was caused by a surge in popularity for a high fat, low carb diet. Things have gotten so bad that one man was caught trying to smuggle 90 kilos of the spread over the border. The segment prompts Americans to count themselves lucky to live in a country with enough butter to support a product called I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.

Stephen's full report is below. Here's some more info on the Norwegian butter shortage.

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Gear

Media Firestorm Over Korean Towers Resembling WTC On 9/11


redOrbit
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:22 UTC
Korean 2Towers
© redOrbit
The Dutch architecture firm MVRDV has come under heavy fire this week for its proposed design of two high-rise luxury apartments in Seoul, South Korea.

According to critics, the two roughly 850-feet towers bear a striking resemblance to New York's ill-fated twin towers shortly after they were attacked by terrorists flying two high-jacked jetliners.

Designers say that the buildings' design - which they call 'The Cloud' - was intended to resemble a "pixilated cloud" connecting the mid-section of the towers. A number of mostly American critics, however, say that the similarity is just too uncanny to be coincidental.

"I think it's a total lie and they have no respect for the people who died that day," vented Jim Riches, a former NY firefighter whose son died in on 9/11, to the New York Daily News.

"They're crossing a line. It looks just like the towers imploding," he added. "I think they're trying to sensationalize it. It's a cheap way to get publicity."
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Info

Another School Bus Crash Sparks Fury in China


Reuters
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© ReutersAlthough the water in the ditch was not deep, it still claimed 15 young lives
Fifteen children were killed when a school bus crashed in China's eastern province of Jiangsu, state media said on Tuesday, the latest in a string of accidents fanning public fury across the country.

The bus rolled into a ditch as it veered off the road to avoid a pedicab, the Xinhua news agency said. At least eight children were injured in the accident, which happened after school on Monday.

"Students became trapped at the bottom of the overturned bus and drowned as water gushed into the wreck," Xinhua reported, citing Zhang Bin, a deputy head of the Fengxian county, where the accident happened.

The driver, he said, had been detained.

Xinhua gave conflicting accounts on the number of children on board the bus, but all the reports suggested it was not overloaded. Xinhua last reported that 29 were on board.
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Ambulance

Pakistan President Had 'Mini-Stroke': Associate

Chris Brummitt
The Associated Press
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Asif Ali Zardari
© EPAPakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari suffered a "mini-stroke" that led to his extended hospitalization in Dubai, but he is improving quickly and will return to his country within two weeks, a close associate and a government spokesman said Tuesday.

Zardari's health has been the subject of speculation and contradictory statements by government officials since he was rushed to Dubai last week. His trip triggered rumors he could be on the verge of resigning. Officials deny that.

The president's absence coincided with domestic political attacks against him over a memo delivered to U.S. officials asking Washington's help in reining in Pakistan's powerful military. It came also during a spike in tensions between Washington and Islamabad after NATO airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border.

The associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, said that Zardari's diagnosis of a "mini-stroke" was made by the president's two physicians.

A "mini-stroke" is medically known as a transient ischemic attack, or TIA. It occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is briefly interrupted, causing symptoms similar to a stroke but not as long-lasting, because with a TIA, the blood supply is restored.
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Attention

US: 2 students shot, wounded at Texas middle school

Christopher Sherman
The Associated Press
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC

Authorities suspect hunters may have shot two South Texas middle school students who were wounded by gunfire Monday afternoon while trying out for a basketball team.

Two boys - ages 13 and 14 - were shot, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino. Classes were not in session at Harwell Middle School when the shooting happened around 4:45 p.m., but the school complex was immediately placed on lockdown. Edinburg school district spokesman Gilbert Tagle said a number of after-school activities were going on besides the basketball tryouts, including a concert and a faculty meeting. He estimated as many as 200 children could have been on campus.

One of the wounded boys was in critical condition Monday night with a bullet embedded in an organ. The other was stable and awaiting X-rays, Trevino said.

At the time of the shooting, one of the boys was going for a layup. The other was waiting his turn to try out, Trevino said.
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Pistol

Attack in Belgian city leaves 4 dead, 75 wounded

Raf Casert
Associated Press
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:10 UTC
Image
© Associated Press/Ermindo ArminoEmergency vehicles are parked in front of the court of justice following a grenade attack in the city center of Liege, Belgium, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011.
Liege - A man armed with grenades and an assault rifle attacked holiday shoppers Tuesday at a central square in the Belgian city of Liege, leaving four people dead and wounding 75 others, officials said.

It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack in the busy Place Saint-Lambert, the central entry point to downtown shopping streets in the industrial city in eastern Belgium. The attack ignited a stampede of hundreds, as shoppers fled the explosions and bullets.

Interior Ministry official Peter Mertens said the attack did not involve terrorism but did not explain why he thought that.

Belgian officials identified the attacker as Norodine Amrani, 33, a Liege resident who they said had done jail time for offenses involving guns, drugs and sexual abuse. He was among the dead, but Liege Prosecutor Danielle Reynders told reporters it was unclear if he committed suicide or died by accident. He did not die at the hands of police, she said.

The dead also included two teenage boys, 15 and 17, and a 75-year-old woman, she said. The La Libre newspaper reported that a 2-year-old girl was clinging to life.

Comment: In the above article a single man with a gun and grenades commits the attack.

Here: Men armed with grenades attack Belgian city "Several men armed with hand grenades and guns attacked a busy bus stop in eastern Belgium today, killing at least two people and wounding about a dozen, officials and media reports said."

Further: 3 men launch deadly attack in Belgium "Three men armed with hand grenades and guns attacked a bus stop in eastern Belgium on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding at least 10, Belgian media reported." (Found, titled and linked Dec. 13 2011 11:10AM PST)

Footage of the aftermath from The Guardian:



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Airplane

Iran rejects U.S. request to return spy drone

Laura Rozen
Yahoo News
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:53 UTC
Iran has--unsurprisingly--rejected an American request to return its downed spy drone.

President Obama, speaking at a news conference with the visiting Iraqi prime minister Monday, said the United States had asked Iran to give the downed American reconnaissance plane back.

"We've asked for it back," President Obama said of the drone Monday. "We'll see how the Iranians respond."

Iranian news agencies ridiculed the request on Tuesday as Iranian officials made clear they had no intention of giving back the American drone.

"Obama begs Iran to give him back his toy plane," proclaimed a headline from Iran's Fars News Agency Tuesday.

Comment: So Jennifer, they don't have 10 of your agents? Hezbollah controls a news agency, wouldn't that be cause they are a political body vs. American claims of being a terrorist organization? The Government of tiny Lebanon allows Hezbollah to operate and is not out trying to prosecute them. Why is that? Why is no one consistently sounding the alarm bells? Because they are a threat to no one but those who threaten it. Stop the threats, make peace and you have the recipe for something good to last. Continue to threaten, attack and you have a recipe for more of the same. And more of the same is all the Western nations want, in the hope that it keeps us from realizing what is going on at home (Empiricism, Police State(s), Militarism and Pathocracy).

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Pistol

US: Gun from passenger's bag in Atlanta airport accidentally fired


Reuters
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknownRichard Popkin forgot that he had a loaded pistol in his bag while at the airport
A pistol discovered in a passenger's carry-on bag was accidentally fired inside the Atlanta airport, grazing a police officer, authorities said on Monday.

Security screeners at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport spotted the .22-caliber pistol Sunday via an X-ray machine and notified Atlanta police, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Jonathan Allen said.

Authorities said the gun was loaded with five rounds of ammunition known as "snake shot," which typically is used to kill small animals. As a police officer tried to remove the rounds while pointing the weapon at a screening table, the gun was unintentionally fired, according to an incident report.

"I was grazed by a pellet fragment on the left side of my face," the officer wrote in the report.

The passenger, a 43-year-old Georgia man, was arrested on weapons charges and remained in jail early on Monday. He told police that he "travels to Florida often on business and keeps the weapon on him for protection, not to kill anyone but in an attempt to scare people off," the report said.

So far this year, TSA has discovered more than 1,100 firearms at airport security checkpoints, the agency said.
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Sheriff

More Than 900 Police Make Early Morning Raids Across Canada in Huge Criminal Probe


The Canadian Press
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Brett Gundlock / Globe and Mail
Toronto police say they'll release details this afternoon of a massive investigation that resulted in raids this morning in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

Early today, more than 900 officers executed 67 search warrants simultaneously across Ontario and in Western Canada.

Police say nearly 400 tactical officers were involved in the raids in Toronto, across Ontario in London, Hamilton, Durham Region, York Region, Peel Region, Windsor and Ottawa, and in Calgary and Surrey, B.C.

Investigators say Project Marvel involved criminal organization offences, attempted murder, firearms trafficking and importation, drug trafficking, robbery, shootings, prostitution and other crimes.

Police say the probe initially involved investigators from Toronto, London, Ont., Ontario's Waterloo Region and Ontario Provincial Police.
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Airplane

Please Can We Have Our Ball Back? Barack Obama demands Iran return downed US drone


The Telegraph
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:36 UTC
drone
© unknown
President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged a US drone was in Iranian hands for the first time and said the United States has asked Tehran to return the sophisticated spy aircraft.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

It was the first open confirmation by the Obama administration that Iran was in possession of the drone, which Tehran says it brought down as the plane was flying over the country's territory.

Obama, however, shed no further light on the plane's mission or why it failed to return to a base in Afghanistan.

"With respect to the drone inside of Iran, I'm not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified," he said.

The bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, designed to evade radar for surveillance flights, was on a CIA mission when it went missing, US officials, speaking anonymously, have said previously.

Comment: Quite laughable behaviour that sounds like a childhood playground request to ask for their ball back from a neighbour or a murderer asking for his knife back left at the crime scene.

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