Society's Child

Only gullible Americans believe Bin Laden killing, says UK journalist

IRNA
Wed, 04 May 2011 22:15 UTC

London, May 3, IRNA - British broadcaster and journalist Yvonne Ridley is sceptical about reports of the US assassination of Osama bin Laden, which comes at a time when President Barack Obama is plagued over questions about his birth certificate and rated so lowly in the polls.

"Only a gullible section of Americans are falling for this nonsense while the rest of the world is maintaining a healthy disbelief over the news that the al Qaida leader was killed in a compound in Abbottabad," Ridley said.

"What I would like to know is why did they dump the body at sea, thereby eliminating every bit of vital evidence?" she asked.

"This has only served to feed the many conspiracy theorists out there and those who no longer believe anything coming out of The White House since we were all lied to over the whereabouts of WMD in Iraq," she said.

The British journalist, who has extensive experience travelling around the Middle East, was expressing her doubts about the reports in an exclusive interview with IRNA.

US: Attackers tattooed "RAPEST" on forehead of Oklahoma man

Tim Talley
Associated Press
Wed, 04 May 2011 20:38 UTC

© AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
Stetson Johnson, 18, holds back his hair to show a tattoo on his forehead in his home in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, May 4, 2011. The bar code on his forehead hides the word "rapest" which Johnson said Wednesday that attackers forcibly tattooed on his forehead, and he had the bar code tattooed over it in an attempt to hide it. The numbers are three 7s for lucky 7 and 10 for 2010.

Del City - Two men and two women are accused of pinning down a man who has learning disabilities, tattooing the word "RAPEST" on his forehead and shocking his genitals with a stun gun before beating him unconscious with a baseball bat, police said Wednesday.

The accused told police they attacked Stetson Johnson, 18, because he tried to have sex with one of them, according to a police spokesman. Detectives found no evidence to support their claims, he said.

Johnson, of Oklahoma City, said he is acquainted with all four but has never tried to hurt any of them. He said the April 17 attack began when he was thrown to the ground and kicked in the face "dozens of times" by two men while two women took turns using a stun gun on his genitals. He said the attackers yelled obscenities at him.

Global poverty at mercy of corn harvest

Bill Gunyon
OneWorld Guides
Mon, 02 May 2011 19:23 UTC

"If we have any kind of weather problem in the northern hemisphere, we don't have enough corn."

This was the alarming verdict of Alberto Weisser, chief executive of Bunge, during last Thursday's presentation of first quarter results for the US agribusiness and food multinational.

Whilst the motive of questions posed by financial analysts on the Bunge conference call was related to profit forecasts, low corn stocks have also been a concern amongst agencies monitoring global food security.

"We do need good weather," repeated Weisser, without mentioning that the northern hemisphere already has a weather problem.

Parts of Europe are experiencing unusually high temperatures and shortage of rain. The UK Met Office has warned that both March and April could be the driest for 50 years. This may be too early to affect the corn crop cycle but does not augur well for a stable summer season.

More commonly known as maize in the southern hemisphere, corn influences the price of other grains and food commodities traded on world markets. Its cost and availability impact the volume of food aid that major humanitarian donors are able to source from the US and elsewhere.

Other developments shortly before and after the Bunge press conference illustrate the stark contrast between the ability of rich and poor regions of the world to cope with rising food prices.

You are NOT allowed to commit suicide: Workers in Chinese iPad factories forced to sign pledges

Mail Online
Sun, 01 May 2011 13:50 UTC

Factories making sought-after Apple iPads and iPhones in China are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide, an investigation has revealed.

At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories in China have killed themselves in the last 16 months as a result of horrendous working conditions.

Many more are believed to have either survived attempts or been stopped before trying at the Apple supplier's plants in Chengdu or Shenzen.

© Bloomberg via Getty Images
Appalling conditions: An investigation by two NGOs has found new workers at Foxconn factories in China are made to sign a 'no suicide' pledge

After a spate of suicides last year, managers at the factories ordered new staff to sign pledges that they would not attempt to kill themselves, according to researchers.

And they were made to promise that if they did, their families would only seek the legal minimum in damages.

An investigation of the 500,000 workers by the Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) found appalling conditions in the factories.

Fukushima sees only incremental improvement: NRC

Roberta Rampton & Ayesha Rascoe
Reuters
Wed, 04 May 2011 08:55 UTC

Washington

© Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant is seen in Fukushima Prefecture in this undated handout photo.

- Japanese authorities continue to struggle to control the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the chairman of the U.S. nuclear regulator told lawmakers on Wednesday.

"The NRC continues to characterize the status of the Fukushima site as static -- meaning that while we have not seen or predicted any new significant challenges to safety at the site, we have only seen incremental improvements toward stabilizing the reactors and spent fuel pools," said Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in prepared testimony.

America has turned into a moral swamp

Mike Whitney
Information Clearning House
Wed, 04 May 2011 10:51 UTC

America: "The beautiful" or "The mother-in-law with the booming voice"?

What does the assassination of Osama Bin Laden have in common with Guantanamo Bay?

They're both intended to send a message that the United States has sunk deeper into savagery and abandoned any commitment to conventional norms of behavior. That's the message, and we hear it "loud and clear".

Trump to China: "Listen You Motherf***ers...."

Information Clearing House
Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00 UTC

Donald Trump delivers an F-bomb laden speech in Las Vegas where he covers everything from Obama's misgivings to the middle east and China. The most shocking moment was undoubtedly his views on how to deal with China's global manufacturing monopoly.

US: Texas executes man with animal drug

Press TV
Tue, 03 May 2011 10:14 UTC

US officials in the state of Texas have carried out the state's first execution with a new drug used to kill animals, putting to death a man convicted of killing a woman.

The state officials said pento-barbital replaced sodium thiopental, which is no longer manufactured in the US, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Sodium thiopental is the standard drug for carrying out death sentences and has been used in the nation's most active capital punishment state since 1982.

Cary Kerr, 46, was sentenced to death for the 2001 sexual assault and strangling of a 34-year-old woman.

Syria arrests more than 1,000: activist

CBC News
Tue, 03 May 2011 04:39 UTC

© Bilal Hussein/Associated Press
A Syrian Kurdish protester shows his palms as he shouts anti-Syrian President Bashar Assad slogans during a sit-in in front of the UN house in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday.

Syrian authorities have arrested more than 1,000 people and many more have been reported missing in the latest sweep aimed at crushing the uprising against President Bashar Assad, a human rights group said Tuesday.

Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said the 1,000 detentions were made since Saturday in house-to-house raids across the country.

"They are picking up people in an arbitrary manner," Qurabi told The Associated Press. In the southern city of Daraa, the epicenter of the protest movement, agents have been arresting men under 40, he said.

Assad is determined to crush the six-week-old revolt, which is the gravest challenge to his family's 40-year-old ruling dynasty.

Assad inherited power from his father in 2000, and has maintained close ties with Iran and Islamic militant groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

US: California dog killed by swarm of bees in home's backyard when family at Sunday church

The Associated Press
Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00 UTC

A Southern California family returning home after church found their 6-year-old dog covered with bee stings and convulsing in the backyard.

The 40-pound (18-kilogram) Jindo named Inu died minutes later near the hive under an eave of the family's Torrance home.

Joe Park tells the Torrance Daily Breeze that he and his family left for church on Sunday and the dog was happily playing in the backyard. When they returned hours later, she was lying in the yard, covered with hundreds of bee stingers.

A family friend frantically tried to remove the stingers, but the dog died minutes later.

Hive removal expert Don Sorensen says there may have been 25,000 bees in the hive. It's not known if they were aggressive Africanized killer bees.

Source: The Canadian Press