It's time to defy health-care mandates issued by bureaucrats not in the healing profession.
In my 23 years as a practicing physician, I've learned that the only thing that matters is the doctor-patient relationship. How we interact and treat our patients is the practice of medicine. I acknowledge that there is a problem with the rising cost of health care, but there is also a problem when the individual physician in the trenches does not have a voice in the debate and is being told what to do and how to do it.

As a group, the nearly 880,000 licensed physicians in the U.S. are, for the most part, well-intentioned. We strive to do our best even while we sometimes contend with unrealistic expectations. The demands are great, and many of our families pay a huge price for our not being around. We do the things we do because it is right and our patients expect us to.

So when do we say damn the mandates and requirements from bureaucrats who are not in the healing profession? When do we stand up and say we are not going to take it any more?

"No-bama, no bases, no war," chanted an angry crowd of protesters in Manila Monday, infuriated by a ten-year defense deal in which the United States promised support for the Filipino army in the event of any dispute with the country's neighbors growing violent.

According to NBC News, the crowd paraded through the streets with several figurines that appeared constructed with the full detail of a parade float. The centerpiece of the protest, however, was a large dog with the face of the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III. The dog pulled a chariot controlled by a figurine of President Barack Obama, which was burned in effigy while floating through the streets.

The activists, many members of the Philippines' left wing political party, also threw rotten tomatoes and eggs at the effigies before they were burned, according to the Philippine Star. Opponents believe, the report continues, that significant US military presence in the country violates provisions of the Filipino Constitution.

Flames and thick black smoke rose into the air after a train derailed Wednesday afternoon along a river in downtown Lynchburg, Va., toppling more than a dozen oil tanker cars and plunging several into the water.

At least three of the oil tankers were punctured, spilling crude oil, city spokeswoman Heather Childress told the Los Angeles Times. No injuries were reported. The train is operated by CSX, city officials said, but the rail company did not immediately respond for comment.

Authorities said the fire had been contained, though they were not using any extinguishing agents to tamp it down. Instead, they were letting it burn out because of concerns about what other materials the train might be carrying.

Lynchburg police advised motorists to keep away from the area and for nearby businesses to evacuate. Photos from the scene showed several black tanker cars on their side alongside the railroad tracks, but authorities did not immediately say what was inside the containers.

The derailment was along the James River near the Depot Grille restaurant, according to witness accounts on social media.

According to shocking new numbers that were just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of American families do not have a single person that is working. So when someone tries to tell you that the unemployment rate in the United States is about 7 percent, you should just laugh. One-fifth of the families in the entire country do not have a single member with a job. That is absolutely astonishing. How can a family survive if nobody is making any money? Well, the answer to that question is actually quite easy. There is a reason why government dependence has reached epidemic levels in the United States. Without enough jobs, tens of millions of additional Americans have been forced to reach out to the government for help. At this point, if you can believe it, the number of Americans getting money or benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million.

A young man was riddled with bullets while delivering a small food order. When 2 strange men demanded that he stop for them while walking on a dark street, he bolted for his car. The men turned out to be police officers dressed in plainclothes, and they responded to his flight attempt with a hail of gunfire.

Philippe Holland had been working two jobs in Philadelphia, one as a pizza delivery driver for Slices & More, the other at an airport restaurant. For his last delivery on Tuesday night, a cheeseburger deluxe, the delivery was so small that he didn't carry his pizza delivery bag. Had he known that he would be shot by police three times a few moments later, the hoodie-wearing 20-year-old most likely would have carried the bag.

Holland delivered the cheeseburger late on April 22nd, and walked back to his gold Ford Taurus, his hoodie was up and his hands were in his pockets. Two plainclothes officers who were responding to a gunshot call a few blocks away approached him. The officers asked Holland to stop, but Holland didn't stop. In fact, he rushed to his car and started hurriedly driving. It is believed Holland thought he was being robbed.

The officers, who were not wearing uniforms at the time and had been in an unmarked car, claim that they identified themselves as police when they asked Holland to stop. They also claim that Holland "drove at a high rate of speed towards the officers." It is questionable of whether the officers identified themselves, or if Holland heard them or believed them.

The two officers then shot at Holland, in his car, as he was driving away. Holland was shot at least three times, in the neck, leg, and head. Doctors believe Holland could be permanently blind after one of the shots damaged his eyesight. Holland's vehicle was shot 14 times.

Anti-government protesters have taken control of the regional administration building and prosecutor's office in the city of Lugansk, eastern Ukraine. Protests continue as the deadline for the protesters' ultimatum to the government expired.

For more videos and photos from the scene, follow RT's stringer Graham Phillips on Twitter

"The building is ours. That's it," local protest leader Oleg Dereko told RIA Novosti.

"A regional administration building has been taken by storm," an activist who asked not to be named has told RT. "A coordination committee and militia are now inside and are getting ready for an emergency meeting."

The Ukrainian flag on the building has been replaced with Russia's tricolor.

Earlier this month, the New Hampshire State Senate deadlocked on a vote to repeal the state's death penalty, tying 12 to 12 and leaving the law in place. The vote, though a disappointment to opponents of capital punishment, was hardly a serious blow to the abolitionist cause. There is just one person on New Hampshire's death row, and it has no execution chamber. No one has been put to death there since Howard Long was hanged in 1939.

But in keeping its death penalty, New Hampshire did preserve a strange distinction: It is one of three states where hanging still is a legal method of execution.

If it seems surprising, even brutal, that hanging would still be technically legal in 2014, that's because the evolution of the death penalty in America has been so closely entwined with our belief in technological progress. As executions have evolved from one method to the next - from hanging to electrocution, from electrocution to lethal gas, from electrocution and gas to lethal injection - supporters have proclaimed the dawning of an era of more humane executions while denouncing previous methods as barbaric and unreliable. The story of execution in the United States is partly a story of technology making a final punishment less painful and cruel.

At least 11 people were killed and 13 others seriously injured in a series of explosions at a munitions depot in Russia's East Siberia, authorities in Zabaykalsky Krai stated.

It was earlier reported that ten people were feared dead.

Those who were injured have sustained burns and four remain in critical condition. Another 12 people sought medical assistance, but did not require treatment in hospital.

Russia's defense ministry stated that authorities were able to localize the fire around the arsenal and local village.

About 400 people have been evacuated from nearby towns and villages in Zabaykalsky Krai.

Authorities raided a popular veterinary clinic Tuesday morning after a woman said that a dog she took in to be euthanized was being kept alive and used for blood transfusions.
Fort Worth police and officers from the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners spent several hours at the Camp Bowie Animal Clinic at 5709 Lovell Ave., in west Fort Worth. Two dogs were seized by animal control officers, authorities said.

Lou Tierce, a long-time Fort Worth veterinarian, is accused of deceiving Jamie and Marian Harris of Aledo into believing that their 5-year-old Leonberger named Sid was euthanized last fall because of a degenerative spinal condition.

In fact, Sid was being "bled" for plasma and other experimental treatments, Marian Harris said.

"The biggest hurt in all of this is the deception and what it means with something that means so much to you," she said. "Our pets are family members."

The family filed a complaint with the state last week.

A massive fight broke out on Kiev's landmark Independence Square (Maidan) on Tuesday night, with shots and explosives being heard, according to Ukrainian media. There are reports of injuries.

Eye witnesses described over 100 people, reportedly members of the far-right Social-National Assembly, marching with burning torches towards Maidan - the epicenter of the massive uprising that removed former President Yanukovich from power. The marchers came to commemorate those killed during anti-government protests in December-February.

Maidan self-defense units blocked the rally at the barricades across from the main post office, prompting a massive fight.