Society's ChildS


Blackbox

Dutch journalists question official MH17 story after collecting evidence at crash site


RT
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 18:02 UTC
MH17 probe
Two Dutch journalists proved it is not "too dangerous" to collect evidence at the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine when one visited the area, but Dutch police confiscated everything the reporters collected there, along with their cellphones and laptops.

Just days ago, Michel Spekkers and Stefan Beck returned to Holland from eastern Ukraine where the two journalists had been gathering first-hand knowledge of the locals' attitudes towards Moscow and Kiev, as well as preparing a report on the political situation in the troubled region.

"Our main objective was there to talk with people and to find out what people really thought about the area and about their lives," Beck told RT.
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Fire

Unexplained explosions, fire damage several Ohio homes

Mike Sigov
Toledo Blade
Sun, 08 Jan 2017 14:11 UTC
Toledo house fire
© WTOL
Explosions reported at structures on Norwood and Woodland avenues

About a half-dozen central Toledo homes were affected by two residential fires reported within about 30 minutes and 1½ miles of each other late Saturday and early today, leaving one family homeless, authorities said.

There were no reported injuries, according to the Toledo Fire Department.

Fire crews responded to a fire at a vacant duplex at the 1240 Norwood Ave. about 11:56 p.m. Saturday, a fire dispatcher said. Neighbors reported hearing an explosion. Reports indicated that three homes had caught fire.

About 12:23 a.m. there was another explosion and a house fire reported, this time at 381 Woodland Ave., according to the fire department. Toledo fire Lt. Matthew Hertzfeld said the American Red Cross was called to the address to assist residents with accommodations.

The dispatcher said fire crews had extinguished the flames at both locations but not before the two houses where the fires originated were a total loss and six neighboring houses damaged by the fires that had spread.

Comment: Given the information provided, it's hard to say what would cause two separate homes, 2 miles from each other, to explode within 1/2 an hour. Interestingly enough, the American Meteorological Society received 127 reports of a fireball over OH, IL, WI, MI, IN, IA, PA and Ontario on Sunday, January 8th 2017 around 11:15 UT, this includes 21 reports of the meteor seen over Ohio.

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Hearts

Russia delivers 11 tons of humanitarian aid to Aleppo residents


Sputnik
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 18:11 UTC
aleppo destruction
© Sputnik/ Mohamad Maruf
Russian military has delivered more than 11 metric tons of humanitarian aid to the residents of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

Facilities, where the civilians could receive essentials, including hot meals, continue to operate across Aleppo.

"Within last 24 hours, eight humanitarian events have been held, in course of which citizens have received humanitarian aid: in the Sheikh Maqsood area of the Aleppo city - 1.5 tons; in the Suleiman Hitira School area of the Aleppo city - 1.3 tons; in the Hamdaniya 4 area in the Aleppo city - 2 tons; in the al-Ismailiya area in the Aleppo city - 500 kg; in the Salah al-Din area in the Aleppo city - 1.8 tons; in the Han al-Zaitun area (Suleimaniya) of the Aleppo city - 2 tons; in the Hai al-Fardus area in the Aleppo city - 900 kg; in the temporary accommodation facility in the Suleiman Hitira School in the Aleppo city - 1.3 tons," the ministry said in a daily bulletin.

On December 16, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Syrian army's operation to liberate militants-controlled eastern Aleppo ended, however, several hotbeds of militants' resistance remained.

On December 22, last militants left eastern Aleppo, thus the Syrian army gained full control over the city. Syrian President Bashar Assad called the liberation of Aleppo a "watershed moment."
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Chart Pie

Republican voters like Trump more than Congress


Rasmussen Reports
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:55 UTC
Donald Trump
Most voters share the views of the president and the party coming to power, but Republicans identify a lot more with Donald Trump than with the GOP Congress.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 53% of all Likely U.S. Voters identify with the GOP team: 37% feel Trump's views are closest to their own when it comes to the major issues facing the country, while another 16% feel most closely in sync with the average Republican member of Congress. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say the views of the average Democratic member of Congress are closest to their own. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Among Republicans, however, 63% say that Trump's views are closest to their own when it comes to the major issues, while only 27% say that of the views of the average Republican member of Congress. Among Democrats, 72% identify with the average Congress member from their party, while just 16% think Trump's views are closest to theirs.

Just a month before Election Day, 51% of GOP voters still felt that their party's leaders didn't want Trump to be president, although that was down from 66% four months earlier.

Comment: If Trump doesn't want to become the next Obama, he'll have to keep it this way. Even better would be to mould Congress into a body that is actually respectable. That's a long shot, of course. Positioning himself as the people's president is the next best thing. But that requires actions worthy of their support. The question is, will he? Can he?

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Heart

Reunited families in Syria share stories of captivity and heartbreak at hands of Western-supported terrorists


RT
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:49 UTC
syria families reunited
© AP Photo/Bilal HusseinFamilies of soldiers and policemen who were kidnapped by militants from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, cheer after following news that their sons were being released
With the ceasefire in Syria mostly holding and more and more areas joining the truce, families long separated by war are finally being reunited. RT's Lizzie Phelan talked with two families whose stories are alike, yet at the same time are very different.

Areej was taken from the city of Adra in Damascus province. Militants pointed a Kalashnikov at her in front of her two young daughters and abducted her. After three years of captivity, she is now safely back at home with her husband and children.

"That moment when I saw my daughters, I started screaming like crazy - I could not believe it - I felt like I wasn't really seeing them... I hugged them and cried, but I didn't feel as though I was hugging them - I felt like I was hallucinating," Areej told the RT crew.

She described how, after being kidnapped, prisoners were unscrupulously divided between the various rebel groups fighting in the area and were moved around.

"At first we were in the custody of Jaish al-Islam, then they separated us between different factions. Every militia fighting in Adra was rewarded with more captives according to how effective they were on the battlefield. The biggest group of captives was awarded to Jaish al-Islam."


Comment: These are heartwarming and harrowing stories. Keep in mind none of these stories of reunion would be possible without the efforts of Putin and Russia to fight against the Western-supported terrorists who were allowed to commit such barbaric acts against innocent people all because the US government wanted to get rid of Assad. Hear it from Kerry's own lips:

"I mean, the reason Russia came in is because ISIL was getting stronger. Daesh was threatening the possibility of going to Damascus and so forth. And that's why Russia came in. Because they didn't want a Daesh government. And they supported Assad. And, and, uh, and we we know that this was growing. We were watching. We saw that, that Daesh was growing in strength. And we thought Assad was threatened. Uhh, we thought our, we could probably manage, uh, you know, that Assad might then negotiate. Instead of negotiating, you've got Assad and you've got Putin to support him."


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Red Flag

Army vets: British Army's brutal training of teenagers causes life-long traumas


RT
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:44 UTC
soldiers
© Ints Kalnins / Reuters
Military training may do more psychological damage than war itself, particularly to the British Army's child recruits, a veterans' group claims.

A group of former military personnel will hand a letter to the Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Monday, calling for an end to what it sees as the brutalizing recruitment and training of 16 and 17-year-olds. The delivery of the letter coincides with the release of a video testimony by soldiers themselves.

The group claims in its letter that as "veterans of every conflict in which this country has been involved since the Second World War" they have seen that "16 and 17-year-olds are too young to be recruited and trained for war."

"We have been through military training; it is a brutal form of psychological conditioning designed to fundamentally alter the way your mind works, leaving the army in control of what you value and how you react," the group said.

"These values and reactions are very difficult to switch off and cause all sorts of problems later on in civilian life. No other country in Europe subjects 16-year-olds to this process, it's time this country caught up."
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Arrow Down

Getting away with cold-blooded murder: The Elor Azarya 'manslaughter' case

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Sat, 07 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Israeli soldier
Three days ago, the Israeli soldier-medic who shot and killed a wounded, immobilized Palestinian in Al-Khalil (Hebron) on 24th March 2016, was found guilty - of manslaughter.

This case has caused waves of emotion throughout Israeli society. In the aftermath of the verdict (still without sentence), which Defense Minister Lieberman called 'harsh', politicians from right and left have already called for pardon (notably including not only Netanyahu, less surprising, but also Zionist Union Shelly Yechimovitch, slightly more surprising). Hundreds of Azarya's supporters clashed with police outside the courthouse, threatened to 'turn the country upside down' and called for the murder of Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and judge Maya Heller.

With all this hysteria and hyperbole, it can become difficult to see what the case actually is.

When a video came out the day after the shooting, showing Azarya shooting the unarmed, already shot and immobile Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif in the head at point blank, Azarya was first charged with murder, but only a few days later the charge was changed to manslaughter. Netanyahu, who initially went with the 'responsible' line of calling for moderation, could not resist the pull of his own mantra that "IDF soldiers are not murderers", and almost immediately called the family to show sympathy.

Comment: See also: Israel's psychopathic society: "Death to the Arabs" rally draws thousands in support of soldier who murdered wounded Palestinian

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Rose

Former Iranian president Rafsanjani, dead of heart attack at age 82


France 24
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:34 UTC
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
© AFP/FileFormer Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was a key figure in the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979
Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died in hospital on Sunday after suffering a heart attack, the ISNA and Fars news agencies reported.

Rafsanjani, who was 82, was a pivotal figure in the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979.

He had been admitted to the Shohadaa Hospital in northern Tehran, one of his relatives, Hossein Marashi, was quoted as saying by the agencies.

Rafsanjani served as president twice between 1989 and 1997.

He was badly beaten in the 2005 presidential election by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a conservative backlash.

But rather than retreating from public view because of that humiliation, he remained in the limelight, emerging as a moderate counter-figure to the ultra-hardliners clustered around Ahmadinejad, under whom Iran's relations with the West plummeted.
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Pistol

Orlando: Suspect at large after killing officer; 15 area schools put on lockdown


RT
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:15 UTC
police tape
© Thomas Cristofoletti / Getty Images
As many as 15 schools in Orlando, Florida have been placed on lockdown as authorities pursue a suspect who shot and killed an off-duty police officer at a Walmart in Pine Hills. A sheriff's deputy was killed in a car crash during the manhunt.

The Orlando Police department confirmed one of their officers was shot on Monday morning.

The off-duty officer tried to stop a shoplifter at a Pine Hills Walmart, when the man opened fire, according to witnesses quoted by local media.
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Laptop

Tip of the iceberg: Interpol says ICSE database helped identify 10,000 child sex abuse victims over past 5 years


Sputnik
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 15:30 UTC
Interpol
© AFP 2016/ ROSLAN RAHMAN
Interpol's International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database has identified 10,000 victims of child sex abuse around the world since 2011, the press service of the organization said Monday.

The ICSE database was created in 2011 and 49 countries are maintaining access to it.

"Whilst we are pleased to have assisted law enforcement around the world identify and rescue 10,000 victims of child abuse, this is just the tip of the iceberg," Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock said as quoted in a statement by the press service.

According to the statement, the ICSE database enables Interpol's experts to use sophisticated image and video comparison software to find connections between locations, abusers and victims.

"In one case, officers in the UK were able to identify and arrest a suspected abuser and rescue the victim just 10 hours after images were shared via the ISCE database," the press service said.
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