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Breaking: Knife attack at RT Tel Aviv office building - one dead, three Injured


Sputnik
Thu, 19 Nov 2015 13:07 UTC
stabbing rt office tel aviv
© RT
A man armed with a knife attacked the RT office in Tel Aviv on Thursday. The channel's staff is safe, but at least one person has been killed and three more are injured.

The channel's correspondent, Paula Slier, posted pictures of the attack's aftermath on her Twitter account.

Police are currently on the scene, and medics were seen tending to the wounded

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Alarm Clock

My white neighbor thought I was breaking into my own apartment. Nineteen cops showed up. The place I call home no longer feels safe.

Fay Wells
The Washington Post
Wed, 18 Nov 2015 06:00 UTC
Fay Wells
© Kyle Monk / The Washington Post
Fay Wells is vice president of strategy at a company in California.

On Sept. 6, I locked myself out of my apartment in Santa Monica, Calif. I was in a rush to get to my weekly soccer game, so I decided to go enjoy the game and deal with the lock afterward.

A few hours and a visit from a locksmith later, I was inside my apartment and slipping off my shoes when I heard a man's voice and what sounded like a small dog whimpering outside, near my front window. I imagined a loiterer and opened the door to move him along. I was surprised to see a large dog halfway up the staircase to my door. I stepped back inside, closed the door and locked it.

I heard barking. I approached my front window and loudly asked what was going on. Peering through my blinds, I saw a gun. A man stood at the bottom of the stairs, pointing it at me. I stepped back and heard: "Come outside with your hands up." I thought: This man has a gun and will kill me if I don't come outside. At the same time, I thought: I've heard this line from policemen in movies. Although he didn't identify himself, perhaps he's an officer.

I left my apartment in my socks, shorts and a light jacket, my hands in the air. "What's going on?" I asked again. Two police officers had guns trained on me. They shouted: "Who's in there with you? How many of you are there?"

Comment: Thankfully, Fay Wells kept a level head to de-escalate the situation. One wrongly perceived move, and this incident could have ended tragically. Although her well-being has ended tragically.

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Handcuffs

Denver housekeeper sentenced to 208 years for brutal assault of 88-year-old client

Keith Coffman
Raw Story
Wed, 18 Nov 2015 18:57 UTC
Image
© Denver Post
Jana Janette Bergman
A Colorado woman who shoved an 88-year-old man she worked for as a housekeeper down a flight of stairs, tore skin off his arms and stole his car has been sentenced to 208 years in prison, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Jana Janette Bergman was found guilty last month of attempted manslaughter, assault, robbery, theft and other charges in the attack on Jack Woods, the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office said in a statement. Bergman, 33, received the lengthy prison term because she is classed as an habitual offender with four prior felony convictions who committed heinous crimes against an at-risk individual, District Attorney Pete Weir said. "This is an extraordinary sentence, but the brutal assault on Mr. Woods is almost beyond belief," Weir said.

Prosecutors said Bergman was in the Denver County jail in January 2014 when she answered a newspaper ad posted by Woods, who was seeking a housekeeper. They began corresponding by telephone and mail, and after Bergman told Woods she loved him, the octogenarian bailed her out and she moved into his home in the city of Arvada.

Over the next 10 months, prosecutors said, Bergman would get angry, take Woods' car and disappear for days at a time.

She was also arrested on several occasions, and Woods would bail her out of jail, forfeiting some $12,000 in bond fees and once even putting up his house as collateral, prosecutors said. The abuse escalated in November 2014 when Bergman shoved Woods down a stairway during an argument, "viciously" tearing the fragile skin off the man's forearms as he tried to hold on to a railing, prosecutors said. "Once he was on the floor, at the bottom of the stairs, she continued her assault. She then held him down with her knee and took his wallet and keys ... stole his car and fled," the district attorney's office said in its statement.

Comment: Yet another appalling example of a human-looking being who is a complete monster.

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Books

15% of female college freshman are raped while incapacitated - study

Michele Gorman
Newsweek
Wed, 18 Nov 2015 06:56 UTC
Image
© Buzzfeed
As sexual assault continues to become a more visible health and social issue on U.S. college campuses, new research helps identify which first-year students are at risk for so-called "incapacitated rape," or IR.

IR refers to completed or attempted penetration that occurs while a victim is incapacitated after drinking alcohol or taking some other drug. A new study published in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found thatabout 15 percent of first-year female students in college are raped while incapacitated in this way.

The researchers working on the study also found that first-year female students who had been victims of such assaults before entering college were at substantial risk of future victimization. Nearly 18 percent of young women reported IR before entering college; about 41 percent of those women were raped again while incapacitated during their first year. Women who said they thought alcohol could enhance a person's sexual experience also were at increased risk for IR during their first year of college.

Heavy drinking is extremely common in college. About half of college students who report drinking also report binging on alcohol, according to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism."The motivation for the study was to try to identify what might be factors that we could address very early on in the freshman year that might be worked into prevention programs," lead researcher Kate Carey, a professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University School of Public Health, tells Newsweek.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

The bitter, crushing poverty of Appalachia is a preview if what is coming to the entire USA

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Thu, 12 Nov 2015 21:48 UTC
Image
What do you say to people that have completely lost all hope that things will ever get any better? The mountains of Appalachia stretch all the way from southern New York to northern Mississippi, and nestled within those mountains are dozens upon dozens of little towns that are so impoverished that they look like they have been through a war. Thanks to Barack Obama's relentless assault on the coal industry and the ongoing collapse of our industrial infrastructure, Appalachia has lost millions of good paying jobs over the past several decades.

Today, more than 40 percent of the population is living in poverty in some areas of eastern Kentucky, and addiction to "hillbilly heroin" (Oxycontin) is absolutely out of control throughout the region. Yes, poverty is on the rise all over America, but it has especially been cruel to those that make the mountains of Appalachia their home.
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Hourglass

Overwhelmed by growing homelessness, Los Angeles passes measure to create temporary housing


RT
Wed, 18 Nov 2015 05:37 UTC
Image
© Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Overwhelmed by the city's growing homeless population, which has increased by 12 percent in just two years, and facing an increase in complaints from neighborhoods about encampments, the Los Angeles City Council has declared a "shelter crisis." The measure was adopted by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday in a 14-0 vote. It creates a legal framework for the city to provide temporary housing to homeless men and women in public buildings and parking lots.

"While we're building the infrastructure, we're finding ways to address homelessness. We have a long way to go," said Councilman Jose Huizar, co-chair of the Homelessness and Poverty Committee, according to the Los Angeles Times. "It's going to be a long road ahead of us." The rise in homelessness over the last two years is forcing officials to seek housing solutions for the city's estimated 26,000 people dwelling on streets, in shelters, and living in cars, reported LA Daily News.

The city's Municipal Code currently permits a shelter crisis to be in effect during the cold winter months - from November 1 to March 31. The vote on Tuesday extended the crisis to the spring and allows council members to designate additional buildings in their districts as temporary housing for the homeless, the LA Times reported.

Before the vote, city council members heard testimony from residents and activists from the San Fernando Valley and San Pedro who said that homeless encampments have cropped up near their homes, sometimes populated by people committing illegal acts, such as drug use and prostitution. "It's not something that we haven't been dealing with for 40 or 50 or 60 years, except that it's worse," Judith Hirschberg told the council, according to newspaper. "In my nice neighborhood, we have people who have no place to sleep, come into vacant homes and set fires. It's not a good idea."


Comment: It wasn't a good idea to ignore the homeless in the first place!


Comment: The homeless problem has been going on for decades now. It has been allowed to happen. It's easy to form plans, especially if they never make it off the paper they are written on. Hopefully, this is not just a symbolic gesture. Los Angeles could take a lesson from others:

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Bomb

50 killed as two female suicide bombers target market in Nigeria's Kano


International Business Times
Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:12 UTC
Image
© Muhammed Giginyu/AP
Security officers stand guard at the scene of an explosion at a mobile phone market in Kano, Nigeria. Wednesday.
Two female suicide bombers detonated their improvised explosive devices at a phone market in Nigeria's northwestern Kano state on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people, said witnesses and security sources.

The twin blasts occurred less than a day after 34 people were killed and 80 others injured in a similar attack at a market in Yola, capital of the northeastern state of Adamawa, on Tuesday.

Kano state police chief Musa Katsina, who was at the scene of the incident, confirmed the incident to Xinhua but declined to give the official figures of casualty. He said investigation has been launched into the attacks.

The bombs went off as people gathered for evening prayer at the market, said Saleem Ahmed Saleem, a witness, who counted more than 50 lifeless bodies littering the market.
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Arrow Down

Merica! Some idiots vandalized a bookstore named ISIS after Paris attacks

Kent Erdahl
Fox 31 Denver
Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:49 UTC
ISIS bookstore
Anger over the recent terrorist attacks in France appears again to have been misdirected at a Denver book store. Isis Books & Gifts on South Broadway has been in business for 35 years, but lately it has been threatened and targeted by vandals associating it with the terrorist group commonly referred to as ISIS.

This weekend, someone threw a brick through an "Isis Book & Gifts" sign outside the business. The incident took place just days after the ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris. Karen Charboneau-Harrison, owner of Isis Books & Gifts, said she named her store after the Egyptian goddess Isis. Charboneau-Harrison said the goddess represents women, healing and magic, and she says it's a fitting name for a store that features books and gifts from all types of world traditions and spiritual sources. The shelves include Christian, Hindu, Native American and Pagan texts, to name a few.
"We believe that everybody is right when it comes to the way that they express their spirituality as long as it's a positive path," Charboneau-Harrison said.

Comment: Welcome to 'Merica! A land where you can proudly express your violent tendencies with blatant stupidity!

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Attention

Unexplained explosion, fire reported at electrical substation in Steelpoort, South Africa


Steelburger News
Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:00 UTC
Image
© Screenshot via Lowveld Media/YouTube
The Eskom employees at scene were unable to specify the reason for the transmitter exploding

At 19:00 on Sunday night one of the Eskom Merensky Substation transmitters exploded causing a part of the station to erupt into flames.

The Eskom employees at scene were unable to specify the reason for the transmitter exploding. The Tubatse Fire Department and mine rescue team were at the scene to control the fire.

Entry to the substation was denied due to safety precautions. No injuries were reported. At 21:00 the fire was still ongoing and another fire truck arrived at the scene. During the fire the town was still fully supplied with electricity. The blaze was only extinguished at 02:30 the next morning.

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Bizarro Earth

Brazil tailings pond dam collapse unleashes slow-motion environmental catastrophe

Bruce Douglas
The Guardian
Fri, 13 Nov 2015 18:35 UTC
Brazil toxic mudslide
© Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
A general view of Bento Rodigues district, which was covered with mud after a dam owned by Vale and BHP Billiton burst. Photograph:
Toxic mudslide from collapse of dams spreads as BHP Billiton fined $66m

Nine people are now confirmed dead, and a further 19 remain unaccounted for as a slow-motion environmental catastrophe continues to unfold following the collapse of two mining dams in Brazil's mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais.

Eight days after the town of Bento Rodrigues was swept away by 50m cubic metres of toxic mud, a slow-moving tide of toxic iron-ore residue is oozing downriver, polluting the water supply of hundreds of thousands of residents as it makes its way to the ocean.

Brazil's national water agency, ANA, has warned that the presence of arsenic, zinc, copper and mercury now present in the Rio Doce make the water untreatable for human consumption. Already the lack of oxygen and high temperatures caused by the pollutants has killed off much of the aquatic life along a 500km stretch of the river.

"It is a tragedy of enormous proportions," Marilene Ramos, president of Ibama, the federal environmental agency, said. "We have thousands of hectares of protected areas destroyed and the total extinction of all the biodiversity along this stretch of the river."

Comment: A corporation's sole reason for existence is to maximize profit. Cutting corners on safety standards is one common way to do that. It's not a stretch to say that the nature of a corporation is essentially psychopathic. It has one goal only, and generally doesn't care about how it's achieved.

The Psychopathic Corporation -- A Clinical Diagnosis (PCLR), by Dr. Robert Hare

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