Society's Child
Ukrainian military aviator Nadia Savchenko said she would take a lie-detector test to silence critics that have suggested she might be a double agent for Russia. Savchenko spent nearly two years in Russian captivity before she was released in May. After receiving a hero's welcome and being sworn in as a lawmaker, recent polls show a dip in her popularity. Speaking to Oleksandr Lashchenko, host of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service program Saturday Interview, Savchenko accused some Ukrainian media of misrepresenting her.
© Ryan Hutton / Eagle Tribune
Keyvin Gil covers his face during his arraignment on rape and kidnapping charges
Keyvin Gil covers his face during his arraignment on rape and kidnapping charges
The Eagle-Tribune reports the woman ran naked into the street, with her hands still bound behind her and screaming that someone was trying to kill her as people seeing her looked and did nothing.
© first focus
Sylmar Juvenile Hall
Sylmar Juvenile Hall
Celeste Fremon, editor of WitnessLA, said she obtained the four-minute video from sources inside the probation department. The disturbing video captures the beating of a teenage inmate by multiple prison guards — while the supervisor stands by and watches.
According to Fremon, the video is taken from what appears to be a ceiling-mounted camera. In the beginning of the recording, only the supervising officer and the boy are present. He and the tall probationer are several feet apart and the supervisor appears to be instructing the kid. (The video is a bootleg of the original, thus has no sound.) The probationer does not appear to be behaving in any way that is aggressive, threatening or combative. But, presumably, there is some verbal conflict between the two. As the supervisor talks, the man conspicuously rolls up the sleeves of his shirt in what several of our probation sources who have seen the video labeled a threatening gesture.
© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
Wife goes to war, husband to Germany
It is said that the self-proclaimed Caliph of Daesh, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was forced to issue a special fatwa "allowing" jihadists to be killed by women. Prior to that, Daesh militants believed that if they die at the hands of "the weaker sex" they will not go to heaven.
Female volunteer fighters in Iraq and Syria fight really well, so the Daesh leader had no choice but to adjust his own ideology, to bring back the enthusiasm to the militants.
"But still the militants are afraid of us by instinct, it is undignified for a brave warrior to be killed by a woman's bullet, as they consider women as second-class citizens," 24-year-old Hasiba Nouzad, a Turkish Kurdish woman by birth, told RIA Novosti.
© Eduardo Munoz / Reuters
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Recruitment begins with one.
Recruitment begins with one.
"GKNB, in the course of an operation to detect and prevent the smuggling of recruits of international terrorist organizations participating in the war in Syria, identified and arrested Zh. F., born in 1992, and A. B., born in 1966, in Bishkek," the press-service said in a statement.
According to the statement, an investigation revealed that the detainees are officially wanted in one of the neighboring countries, and in February of this year, illegally crossed the state border of Kyrgyzstan. A criminal case has been opened against the detainees.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with a number of opposition factions and extremist Islamic groups fighting the Syrian Army in an attempt to topple the government.
Last year, Kyrgyzstan's Interior Ministry identified over 200 instances of recruitment into foreign militant groups. Over 20 people were arrested on charges of recruiting new militants.
Comment: The recruited may find they have bought a one-way ticket out of Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry announced plans to implement a law that would revoke citizenship for those joining terrorist groups. The primary concern is that of terrorists and extremists gaining a foothold within its borders.
© Jason Henry for The New York Times
Secil Watson, the head of wholesale internet solutions at Wells Fargo, using an eye scanner to gain access to her Wells Fargo account
Secil Watson, the head of wholesale internet solutions at Wells Fargo, using an eye scanner to gain access to her Wells Fargo account
Some of the nation's largest banks, acknowledging that traditional passwords are either too cumbersome or no longer secure, are increasingly using fingerprints, facial scans and other types of biometrics to safeguard accounts.
Millions of customers at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo routinely use fingerprints to log into their bank accounts through their mobile phones. This feature, which some of the largest banks have introduced in the last few months, is enabling a huge swath of the American banking public to verify their identity with biometrics. And millions of additional customers are expected to opt in as more phones incorporate fingerprint scans.
© Sue Edwards/Facebook
David Milne, who has land surrounded by the controversial golf course in Menie, said the flags were in support of those who have been "intimidated and insulted" by Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric, according to the Herald Scotland.
The business tycoon turned presidential candidate sparked a global outcry during his campaign when he announced he would build a 1600km-long (1,000-mile) wall along the border with Mexico, a country he accused of sending rapists to the US.
Trump has previously attempted to purchase Milne's home during the building of a luxury golf resort and then built a fence around the property, sending the local resident half of the bill after he refused to sell.
Milne told the Herald he raised the flag in solidarity with Mexican people and "anyone else Trump has decried, insulted, intimidated and lied about primarily during his campaign." "And it's also to show solidarity with all the people he has tried to harass and point out we are still here and not going anywhere," he added.
© Shutterstock
Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you. ~ George Orwell, 1984In George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, thoughtcrime is the criminal act of holding unspoken beliefs or doubts that oppose or question the ruling party of Oceania. In the book, the government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects.
Entertaining those unacceptable thoughts is referred to as crimethink,and facecrime was an indication that a person is guilty of thoughtcrime based on facial expression.
Orwell's Thought Police are charged with uncovering and punishing thoughtcrime and thought-criminals. They use psychological methods and omnipresent surveillance to search, find, monitor, and arrest members of society who could challenge authority and the status quo - even if only by thought.
© AP/Lefteris Pitarakis
Syrian Refugees: Forced to live in Turkey; forced to live in a detention camp.
Syrian Refugees: Forced to live in Turkey; forced to live in a detention camp.
However, the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and Red Cross — have said the EU-Turkey deal is either immoral or illegal as the 'hotspots' where migrants are processed have become detention centers. They also say Turkey is not a 'safe country' for migrants to be returned to, under the Geneva Convention.
In a damning report, Human Rights Watch says the laws and policies governing Syrian refugees' lives in Turkey, however, do not grant them full refugee rights, and the protections these laws and policies do extend have yet to be fully realized. As a result, many Syrians in Turkey still cannot access education, health care, and lawful employment. Furthermore, delays of up to six months in registration for temporary protection mean that some refugees are unable to get basic services and live in fear of being forced to live in a camp or deported.
"As Turkey is host to over two million Syrian refugees it is hardly surprising that many are not getting the support they desperately need to maintain livelihoods. The EU is morally, and indeed legally, obliged to share some of the refugee burden by not sending Syrian refugees back to Turkey without assessing their asylum claims," said Stephanie Gee, fellow in the refugee rights program at Human Rights Watch.
Comment: Erdogan made a deal for money and EU favors, not for solutions to a pressing international problem. EU made a deal for a solution to ITS pressing international problem, for money. Syrians: bought or sold, accepted or rejected, it's about 'the deal.' To that end, safety is just a word and protection is just an idea. As Mahmoud, a 29-year-old former journalist from Hama said, "We fled death, but we have come to a place where we have no life."
Comment: It's a fairly laughable accusation for someone to claim that Savchenko is a Russian spy considering how boisterous she is about the supposed evils of Putin and Russia.