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India urges USA to drop case against its female diplomat

Christian Otton
Yahoo! News
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
Student Protests
© AFP Photo
Members of The All India Students Federation (AISF) protest in front of the US consulate in Hyderabad on December 19, 2013, following the arrest of New York-based Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade
India Thursday urged the United States to drop the case against a female diplomat who was arrested and strip-searched and apologise for her "terrible" treatment, ratcheting up pressure in the blistering diplomatic row.

US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed "regret" over the episode in New York, and India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said he hoped the "valuable relationship" with Washington would soon return to an even keel.

But in a sign of the bruised pride and humiliation felt in India, Khurshid reiterated calls for the visa fraud case against the diplomat to be withdrawn and branded her treatment as "terrible".

"We have asked for the case to be dropped and withdrawn ... we are not convinced that there are legitimate grounds for pursuing it," Khurshid told foreign journalists.

"I cannot believe if a US senator was arrested he would be put through this behaviour....I would rather not prejudge. Let us allow the American government to respond."

Kerry tried to end the row in a phone call to India's national security adviser on Wednesday, expressing regret and stressing concern that the issue not be allowed to hurt a "vital relationship."

Comment: American empire's treatment of arrested people are barbaric. Interestingly, every body is protesting about the treatment of one indian diplomat but not about countless other victims. It's all because of coming general election and no indian political party wants to lose woman vote bank. After elections, neither ruling party nor the opposition party cares for it. US knows about it and trying to pacify Indians with comments of regret for now. It is politics as usual folks!.

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Eye 1

U.S. Border Patrol: Degrading people, one body cavity at a time.

Jacob Sullum
Reason.com
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 12:40 UTC
drug-sniffing dog
© CBP
In a case eerily similar to David Eckert's humiliating ordeal at the hands of cops in Deming, New Mexico, a federal lawsuit charges U.S. Border Patrol agents with subjecting a U.S. citizen to six hours of degrading and fruitless body cavity searches based on an alleged alert by a drug-sniffing dog.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday by the ACLU chapters in Texas and New Mexico, says the plaintiff, a 54-year-old New Mexico resident identified in the complaint as Jane Doe, was crossing the bridge between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso after visiting a family friend last December when she was chosen at random for "additional screening."

This "secondary inspection" involved a pat-down during which an agent "inserted her finger in the crevice of Ms. Doe's buttocks" - a rather startling incursion inasmuch as the agents at this point had no basis to suspect that the woman was carrying contraband. But they were just getting started.

Comment: As long as society allows such dehumanizing practices to continue, perhaps it should cease describing itself as 'civilized'. Once you know, your silence becomes complicity.

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Binoculars

Seattle gunman wrestled to ground by bus passengers


The Guardian
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC




CCTV captures the moment a gun-wielding man is disarmed by fellow passengers on a bus in Seattle. The hooded figure points the firearms in the face of a man before he is brought to the ground by the man and two others on the bus. A 19-year-old has pleaded not guilty to charges of robbery and attempted robbery

Source: Youtube

Comment: Power to the People!

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Dollar

Psychopath? One of U.S. government's highest-paid officials commits massive fraud, says lying to people gave him 'a rush'

Michael Isikoff
MSNBC
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 09:47 UTC
Image
© U.S. DoJ
Human or... something else? John Beale is set to be sentenced by a federal judge on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
The EPA's highest-paid employee and a leading expert on climate change was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison Wednesday for lying to his bosses and saying he was a CIA spy working in Pakistan so he could avoid doing his real job.

John C. Beale's crimes were "inexplicable" and "unbelievably egregious," said Judge Ellen Huvelle in imposing the sentence in a Washington. D.C. federal court. Beale has also agreed to pay $1.3 million in restitution and forfeiture to the government.

Beale said he was ashamed of his lies about working for the CIA, a ruse that, according to court records, began in 2000 and continued until early this year.

"Why did I do this? Greed - simple greed - and I'm ashamed of that greed," Beale told the court. He also said it was possible that he got a "rush" and a "sense of excitement" by telling people he was worked for the CIA. "It was something like an addiction," he said.

Beale pled guilty in September to bilking the government out of nearly $1 million in salary and other benefits over a decade. He perpetrated his fraud largely by failing to show up at the EPA for months at a time, including one 18-month stretch starting in June 2011 when he did "absolutely no work," as his lawyer acknowledged in a sentencing memo filed last week.

Comment: Pretending to work for the cult of intelligence is a classic con-game that many U.S.-based psychopaths have been pulling for decades now.

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Handcuffs

How a criminal record keeps Americans jobless for life

Kai Wright
The Nation
Sun, 15 Dec 2013 09:36 UTC
Image
Luis Rivera had some peace of mind for about five months, from late fall of 2010 through early spring of the following year. That's the closest thing he's seen to financial stability in more than twenty years.

"I got hired for a wonderful job. It was a clerk/porter/doorman position at a high-rise classical building in the East Village," he recalls wistfully. Rivera, 44, has a wife of twenty-five years and three teenage daughters. They live up in East Harlem, where the Puerto Rican - born New Yorker grew up and has spent much of his life. He's ferociously proud of his marriage and children; his back straightens and his tone turns serious when he talks about his family, like a man who's managed to achieve something he's been told he can't accomplish. Yet looking back on those five months as a jack-of-all-services for wealthy downtown hipsters, Rivera still gets excited about an opportunity that tore him away from home at all hours.

"When they needed somebody, they would call me in the middle of the night and I would say, 'Yes!' Because I needed a job. And the pay was excellent," he brags, pointing to his $17 hourly wage for part-time work. "I was next to be hired in a position there permanently."

The new position held promise that Rivera could finally work just one legit job - on the books, with steady hours and a steady paycheck - rather than hustling to piece together part-time informal work, as he's done his entire adult life. But that promise hadn't yet been realized. He was still at the mercy of his employer's whims. If they called, he worked; if not, he didn't. So when the superintendent of a building across the street mentioned that his crew was looking for part-time help as well, Rivera put in his name. While applying, he was honest to a fault.
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Candle

The people of Gaza suffer genocide under the Israeli-Egyptian siege

Dylan Murphy
Activist Post
Tue, 17 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
Image
"The world has forgotten Gaza, its women and children. The blockade is as bad as the war; it's like a slow death for everyone in Gaza. We are paying the price for disputes between different powers. Isn't that shameful? The world has lost its humanity," - Attiyeh Abu Khousa resident of Gaza.

At this time of year the mainstream media abounds with stories of how ordinary people across the world are preparing for the upcoming Christmas holiday. One story people will not hear about is the desperate plight of the 2 million people trapped within the Gaza Strip where malnutrition, darkness, cold and suffering abound.

The people of Gaza are being crushed under the Israeli blockade which severely restricts essential supplies coming into the strip. Israel refuses to allow building materials into Gaza, meaning that people left homeless by successive Israeli military attacks cannot rebuild their homes. The number of food insecure people has risen dramatically from 44 % in 2011 to 57% in 2012.
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Gold Coins

Helsinki unveils Europe's first Bitcoin ATM

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 07:36 UTC
While Canada has had Bitcoin ATMs for over a month, bringing the virtual currency closer to mainstream acceptance; Bittiraha.fi reports that at one of the busiest spots in Helsinki, the Finns have opened the first permanent Bitcoin ATM installation in Europe. With the Chinese shunning the crypto-currency for now but the Swiss inching towards a broader acceptance, the appearance of ATMs (like this one at a well-known Finnish record store in the Helsinki railway station) will only serve to stoke the public interest.

Via Bittirahi.fi,

We've launched THE FIRST permanent installation of a Bitcoin ATM in Europe. It's right there, ready for use, at one of the busiest spots in Helsinki. Proof is in the pics.
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TV

Rare video: Mandela speaking on Palestine

BDS South Africa
Youtube
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 06:23 UTC
The video consists of extracts from a 1990 town hall meeting, held in New York and chaired by Ted Koppel of ABC Networks. The meeting formed part Nelson Mandela's first visit to the USA immediately following his release after 27 years in prison.

Much of the meeting focused on Nelson Mandela's advocating of sanctions against Apartheid South Africa, his support for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as well as his close friendship with Yasser Arafat (of Palestine) and Fidel Castro (of Cuba).

This meeting took place in 1990, long before the world had embraced Nelson Mandela or the ANC. However, even then, Mandela stood firm and resolute on his principles and organisation's policies even though it could have "hurt" his and the ANC's "image", for example his support for the Palestinian and Cuban people.

Nelson Mandela supported the Palestinian struggle when it was unfashionable and unpopular, he was a true leader. Hamba Khale Tata...

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Che Guevara

A man in debt demolishes his house and drops it in front of the bank

Yela Cado
EndoRiot.com
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 06:20 UTC
Image
© Unknown.
A man from Lovech-Bulgaria who could not afford to pay the mortgage for his house gave his last penny to demolish it right before the banksters take it away.

The land that the house was built on was not included in the mortgage so the family decided to destroy the house and give it to its new owner. The remains of the building were loaded on a big truck and moved to the central district office of the bank in the city of Teteven, where the contract for the mortgage was signed.

The man who was in debt to the bank and his whole family entered the office and started crying and begging for mercy, but the director said that they can't make exceptions and the family had a week to vacant the house.

Imagine the director's face after the family got out of the office and his precious new house was unloaded in front of the bank's main entrance...
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Bad Guys

Ian Watkins gets 35-year sentence for child sex crimes

Steven Morris and agency
The Guardian
Wed, 18 Dec 2013 11:31 UTC
Detectives believe there are more victims and will continue to investigate activities of former Lostprophets singer




The rock singer Ian Watkins has received a 35-year sentence after admitting a string of sex offences involving children including the attempted rape of a baby.

Two women, known only as Woman A and Woman B - who are the mothers of children he abused - were sentenced to 14 and 17 years respectively.

Watkins was jailed by Mr Justice Royce for 29 years. He will serve at least two thirds of that before the parole board can decide if he should be released. If he is released early, he will serve the rest of the jail term on licence. But the judge stipulated he will serve an extra six years on licence on top of that, bringing the total sentence to 35 years.

Royce told Watkins: "Those who have appeared in these courts over many years see a large number of horrific cases. This case, however, breaks new ground.

"You, Watkins, achieved fame and success as the lead singer of Lostprophets. You had many fawning fans. That gave you power. You knew you could use that power to induce young female fans to help satisfy your insatiable lust and take part in the sexual abuse of their own children.

"Away from the highlights of your public performances lay a dark and sinister side."

Comment: So, his defense in court was that he was all stressed out from being famous, successful and popular, with both drugs and groupies at his fingertips? He couldn't handle all the attention, so he resorted to crack, meth and sexually abusing children? Are these people serious, or what?

Maybe the answer is much simpler and a lot less BS.
Ian Watkins is a predator of children, a convicted pedophile.
Should they lock him up for 35 years? "Hell yeah, baby."

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